Storke, C. A. (Charles Albert), 1847-1936.

Biography

Charles Albert Storke was born on November 19, 1847 at Branchport, Yates County, New York. At the age of sixteen he enlisted in the Wilderness Campaign of the Civil War and spent six months in seven prison camps following his capture by Confederate forces. In June 1870, Storke graduated summa cum laude from Cornell University and two years later he moved to California as a teacher of mathematics and Latin at the new Santa Barbara College. He established the Los Angeles Herald newspaper on October 7, 1873 and later was admitted to the California Bar where he actively practiced until 1913. During this period he became recognized as a leading authority on early California land grants.

Storke served in the California Legislature during 1883-1884 and 1889-1890 where he vigorously fought the Southern Pacific Railroad and its political machine. He became District Attorney of Santa Barbara in 1898, the town's first Mayor in 1900, and was editorial manager of the Santa Barbara Daily News, 1913-1925. In 1923 he was appointed to the California State Board of Education by Governor Friend W. Richardson.

On September 10, 1873, Storke married Martha More, the daughter of Thomas Wallace More and Susanna Hill; their marriage ended in divorce. On July 26, 1917 he subsequently married Mary Emeline (Gregory) Webb, the eldest daughter of Reverend John M. Gregory, the first President of the University of Illinois. Storke compiled a family genealogy in 1925, The Genealogy of the Descendants of Moses Stork Scarborough, Yorkshire, Old England and a revised and larger work appeared in 1935 as The English Storkes in America.

C. A. Storke died on December 6, 1936 at the age of 89.

From the guide to the Charles Albert Storke Papers, 1856-1936, (The Bancroft Library)