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closeA boy named Daniel Blackburn Frost once lived in Altadena. He was 6 when he visited Paso Robles in 1955 for Pioneer Day and shook hands with that year’s Pioneer Day Marshal, Fred Blackburn.
You see, Daniel’s great-grandmother and Fred Blackburn were brother and sister. Their father was Daniel D. Blackburn, one of the founders of Paso Robles. He was also young Daniel’s great-great-grandfather.
Daniel D. Blackburn was 33 when he left Illinois in 1849, bound for California and its recently discovered gold. He was a carpenter by trade and a successful businessman.
Accompanying him were two of his brothers and three friends. After a three-month trek in a wagon train, they reached the gold fields. After three more months of prospecting, they sold their wagons and supplies and left with $3,000 each.
Daniel Blackburn then farmed near Santa Cruz until 1857 when he, his younger brother, James, and Lazarus Godchaux bought Rancho El Paso de Robles. It covered 26,000 acres from the south end of Templeton to the north end of Paso Robles. They bought it from Petronilo Rios for $8,000.
It contained the same hot sulfur spring that now plagues the Paso Robles City Hall parking lot, but the Blackburns capitalized on it. They built a bathhouse, a hotel and a store. People came by stagecoach to seek cures in the hot mineral water.
Rancher Drury James became a partner in the hotel and in the city lots they sold when the railroad arrived.
Daniel Blackburn built a three-story mansion for his large family. For years it ornamented Spring Street between Eighth and Ninth streets. He also built the original clock-tower building at 12th and Park streets, which became Paso Robles’ trademark.
As the annual Pioneer Days kept rolling by, little Daniel grew into Dr. Daniel Blackburn Frost. He practiced medicine at an Indian reservation and a naval hospital. He then completed advanced education and fellowships in his specialty — surgical oncology — and he was recognized for his original research.
But about age 40 he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. His surgical career ended. And now his 20-year struggle with Parkinson’s has also ended. He died July 10 at age 60 in Morro Bay, his home for the past year.
He is survived by his wife, Karin Frost; daughter, Melissa Frost; step-daughter, Elisa Daus; mother, Margie Chelini; sister, Polly Sawhill; and father, F. Daniel Frost, who supplied much of this information.
Arrangements will be announced later. Donations may be made to the Parkinson’s Research Institute at the University of Southern California.
Contact Phil Dirkx at phild2008@sbcglobal.net or 238-2372.
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