Calista (Richardson) Flynn (1823 - 1872)

Born 1 Nov 1823 in Londonderry, Windham County, Vermont

Ancestors

Wife of Karin Flynn — married about 1850 in Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 10 Sep 1872 at age 48 in Cacheville, Yolo County, California [uncertain]

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Diane Flynn [send private message]

Biography

Calista Richardson was born November 1, 1823 in Londonderry, Windham, Vermont, the ninth child of Levi Richardson and Eunice Wesson.

Her father, a millwright and inventor, moved his family to Cattaraugus County in western New York around 1834.

Around 1850, she joined her brother John and his family and went West to California. Family oral tradition says that Calista met her husband-to-be, the Irish emigrant Karin Flynn, on the wagon train trip and married him in Santa Fe, New Mexico, but this event has not been verified; the Archdiocese of Santa Fe has no record of their marriage in 1850 or 1851.

We have copies of three letters which Calista began writing from California to her brother Lyman Richardson and his wife Lurena in Freedom, New York 18 years after she had "left home."

The letters detail the hardships, privation and illness endured by her family during those eighteen years "so I got discouraged and would not write but thank god we are out of it now" and tell of her longing to see her brother and his family again some day. She gives the dates of birth for her six children, five of whom survived infancy, and how proud she is of their accomplishments.

The Flynn family traveled all over California -- from the gold mines near Stockton (San Joaquin Co.) to Columbia (Tuolumne Co.), Hornitos (Mariposa Co.) and Folsom (Sacramento Co.) in northern California but could not make their efforts pay "the mines was good, but there was no watter to work them."

In 1861 the growing family was convinced by Calista's brother John to join him and his family in Sierra Madre (Los Angeles Co.) in southern California where he promised to show them public land they could buy. They stayed five months and discovered that not only was there no available public land, but also that John wanted them to work for him on shares.

Karin returned to Sacramento to earn $260 for the ship fare to bring his family back home to northern California. After a short stay in Colfax (Placer County) he found work as a section foreman working on the Central Pacific railroad in Wadsworth (Washoe co.) Nevada. Because he now had charge of two sections, he brought his family to Wadsworth to help cook the food for the section hands but ran into debt because that job did not pay enough either.

In 1871, Karin became a naturalized citizen, his good character vouched for by the proprietors of the Empire Saloon in Woodland, Yolo County, California. He made homestead entry on 160 acres of land near Cache Creek, built a house and began raising wheat.

Calista Richardson Flynn died on September 10, 1872 at 48 years, 10 months and 9 days and was buried under the tree next to their homestead cabin.

Sources

• Birth: date-calculated from age at death; place-Alvy Karin Flynn [grandson]
• Death: Flynn, Alvy K., "Bloss Family, History of, from about 1780," typescript, and notebook containing family history research notes.
• Flynn, Karin, photocopy, Karin Flynn's letter to Lyman and Lurena Richardson dated September 12, 1872:

"I had doctors from Woodland and Sacramento the last one from Sacramento said it was beyond the power of man to save her they were a going to operate on her with a lance but they came to the conclusion that she would die before they could get done. . . ."