Frank Griffin Desmond (1888- 1963) and Lucile Heiskell Desmond (1891-1967)

Frank Griffin Desmond was the son of Thomas Francis Desmond and Mary A. Desmond (née Griffin).

Frank was born in Merced, California on 22 April 1888, and died at the age of 75 on 9 May 1963 in Madera.

Frank's World War I draft registration card (1917-1918)

Frank was a grain farmer, and the following scenes, taken around 1915, show his mule-drawn harvester. The company, founded by his father around 1915, was called Thomas F. Desmond & Sons. The business was centered on "Home Ranch", which straddled the intersection of Avenue 19 and the Santa Fe Railroad tracks, near the present-day Country Club Golf Course on Road 26. Some of the land was leased from Miller & Lux.

Frank Desmond

Over several summers in the 1920s, Frank would take the mule teams into the foothills of the Sierras Nevadas, where they would be hitched to Fresno Scrapers. These devices were used in the construction of railroad cuts. From 1899 to 1931, the Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company operated miles of narrow gauge railroad track in the foothills. During these trips Frank would be accompanied by his family. Jack, Jane and James were photographed during one of their sojourns at Sugar Pine. The mule teams also worked for Madera County on its roads.

The census for 1910 shows Lucile and her three older sisters (Isabel, Mary, and Naomi) living at 2337 Haste St, Berkeley, California. It was during the same year that Lucile entered the California State Normal School, where she qualified to become an elementary school teacher. She graduated in December 1911. Her first teaching position was in San Mateo, after which she returned to teach in Madera1. In 1913, she was responsible for overseeing a branch of Madera County Free Library, which was housed in the schoolhouse of Easton School.2

On 12 September 1914, Frank married Lucile Heiskell, the daughter of William King Heiskell and Agnes Daulton. Frank and Lucile were married for nearly 50 years. The Polk Directory (1962) shows them living at 123 North J Street in Madera. In 1938 Frank and Lucile signed the Old Timers Register, a list of persons who arrived in Madera County before 1900. Lucile was a member of the Order of Amaranth, a fraternal organization composed of Master Masons and their properly qualified female relatives.

Lucile throwing her wedding bouquet from the balcony of the house built
by her uncle, John Franicis Daulton.
The recipe of Lucile's wedding cake has been preserved.

Taken at Shepherd's Home
Back row: Lucile Heiskell Desmond, Bell Heiskell Morgan, Raynor Daulton
Middle row: Hazel Daulton Downey, Vicki, Mary Heiskell
Front: Mary Jane Hildreth Daulton

1The story of an inspiring past; historical sketch of the San Jose´ State teachers college from 1862 to 1928, with an alphabetical list of matriculates and record of graduates by classes, by Sarah Estelle Hammond Greathead. San Jose, 1928, pp. 224 & 407.
2News Notes of California Libraries (vol. 8, no. 3) 1913, p. 351.

Photographs courtesy of Gregory Heiskell Desmond