Madera County, California GenWeb - Madera Biographies: GREELEY

GREELEY FAMILY - Mr. and Mrs. Frank Greeley were descendants of two pioneer California families. Mrs. Greeley, the former Carrie Stark was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred L. Stark. Her mother came to California from Virginia, across the
plains and over the mountains in a covered wagon when she was 11 years old.

Her father emigrated from Hamburg, Germany where he was a schoolmate of Henry Miller, of the Miller and Lux Ranch. Stark later was prominent wheat farmer in the valley, raising 1,800 acres of wheat on the old Miller and Lux Ranch five miles from Madera.

Greeley's uncle, a cousin of Horace Greeley, was the first of his family to settle at Greeley Hills, above Coulterville in Mariposa County, where he developed a prosperous sawmill.

His family was prominent in the development of that community, and Greely was employed at the local ranches in building the Yosemite Railroad and was the last man out of the shaft at the famous Mary Harrison Mine close to Coulterville.

Frank Greeley and Carrie Stark met at a dance in Madera. After two years of courtship, they were married in the home of J.R. Barnett by the Rev. Jonathan Nichols, an Episcopal clergyman in Madera.

Frank worked as a contractor and had some interesting experiences, one of which was doing the finish carpentry in the Fresno Bee building in 1920. He helped build the El Portal Hotel and also the courthouse at Alturas, Modoc County.

In 1933 the couple moved back to Mariposa County where he was employed as a building inspector for Mariposa County.

This biography was found in a box with pictures from the Greeley-Stark Estate