Gharky, S. David
Samuel David Gharky (1806-1877) came originally either from Ohio as a "forty-niner" (according to Santa Cruz County Place Names), or by sea in the winter of 1852-53 (according to a news clipping on the Find-a-Grave page). He led the effort in 1856-57 to build a second wharf. His wharf began from about the intersection of today’s Main and 1st streets on Beach Hill, and was sold to the California Powder Co. in 1865. He’s remembered on the signs of Gharkey [sic] Street (parallel to the lower end of Bay Street), in the middle of land he owned and subdivided. [Note: There were several different spellings of the name in local sources. I did a little genealogy research on the Ohio family, and found that the original spelling may have been the German Gherke.]
In 1876, Gharky subdivided his large tract, laying out streets from Lighthouse Street to Columbia Street (and beyond to the section of Continental Street that runs parallel to Columbia); and from Bay Street to Nevada Street. West of Nevada Street, the edge of the Gharky tract can be drawn through the direction changes of Liberty, Centennial, National, and Columbia streets, adjoining the land of Almus Rountree [see also Pelton, Julius].
