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Margaret A. McCarty Hotaling
Birth Place: Missouri
Pioneer Father: Henry McCarty
Birth Place: North Carolina
Date of Arrival in California: Sept 1849
Pioneer Mother: Nancy Lerina Adams
Birth Place: Kentucky
Date of Arrival in California: Sept. 1853
Death: Father: 1895; Mother: 1881
Remarks: Henry McCarty with a company of 12 started from Booneville Ky. April 15, ‘49. They had pack mules and carried tents. They were about five months on the road without accident. He returned and brought his overland in 1853. There were seven children four girls and three boys. The eldest boy was married. His wife gave birth to a girl on the Humboldt. We stopped there two weeks. In crossing the desert men were sent ahead to cool the water for the stock as it was boiling hot. I walked a good part of the way to relieve the oxen. We met a man who came out with water. He offered us to come but I felt I could do without and others might need it. When I reached Truckee it seemed like Heaven. There were beautiful trees and a clear river. We bought some potatoes which were the best I ever ate. We arrived at Cache Creek Yolo County Sept. 22, 1853. We had no trouble with Indians. There was a very large immigration that year, miles and miles of wagons. They called one place The Land of Nod. One could not keep awake. Every one was asleep including the oxen. My sister and I rode on horseback and when we wanted I used to go with the men and select camping places. We were once surrounded by a large band of Indians. One of them offered offered my mother several ponies if she would sell me. I was frightened for fear she would take them. We passed the Donner camp on our way and saw the trees above the snow line that they had cut down.
Emily A. Higgs Weston
Birth Place: —
Pioneer Father: —
Birth Place: —
Date of Arrival in California: —
Pioneer Mother: —
Birth Place: —
Date of Arrival in California: —
Remarks: —
Emma E. Williams Chapin
Birth Place: Exeter, N.Y.
Pioneer Father: Franklin Williams
Birth Place: Littleton, N.H.
Date of Arrival in California: 1850
Pioneer Mother: Elizabeth F. Nudd
Birth Place: Hampton, N.H.
Date of Arrival in California: Nov. 30, 1851
Remarks: Arrived with my mother on the Steamer Central America landing at Long Wharf. Attended the Public School in Happy Valley of which Mr. Denman was principal. Also the school at the cor. of Broadway and Montgomery Sts. of which Mr. Alvin Holmes was the principal. Attended the first May Day Festival held at the Spring Valley School in 1853. Was married the 11th of June to Geo W. Chapin in the year 1863. I then had five children of which two sons and one daughter are living. I joined the Society of Pioneer Women Sept. 10th 1900.
Graduated from the S.F. High School in 1863. Ellis H. Holmes Principal.
Sarah Smith Gorham
Birth Place: Boston, Mass
Pioneer Father: David W. Smith
Birth Place: Kingston, Mass
Date of Arrival in California: Oct 15, 1850
Pioneer Mother: Sarah A. Milton
Birth Place: Boston, Mass
Date of Arrival in California: Aug. 17 1852
Remarks: My mother, two sisters, a brother, and myself left Boston on Clipper Ship Shooting Star, Capt. Judah Baker, May 1, 1852 – we pulled out in the stream and on May 3, 1852, started for California – round the Horn. After a voyage of 105 days landed in San Francisco Aug 17, 1852. An uncle and aunt (Mr. and Mrs. Chas. C. Bowman) had come before and to their house we went until our furniture was unloaded from the ship. Their house was built on the hulk of a ship which was still in the water and was, as near as I can recollect, on Pacific St. near Sansome. In a few days our father took us to our own home, on John St, a house whose frame was made in the East shipped in pieces and put together here. It still stands and in fairly good condition. Father came earlier – in 1850 – the wife and family of Robt. A. Packer, one of California’s first pioneers (the famous Packer House stood on the sight of our Hall of Justice) – coming under his care. One of my first teachers, in fact the first, was Mrs. Packer, afterwards Mrs. Wills who wrote the Ode to Cal. on its admission to the Union. The Steamer Oregon, on which father came, brought the news of the admission of California into the Union.
I joined the Society of Pioneer Women, Sept. 10 – 1900.
Mabel Higgins Brown
Birth Place: Boston
Pioneer Father: George Higgins
Birth Place: England
Date of Arrival in California: 1849
Pioneer Mother: Veronica Downing
Birth Place: England
Date of Arrival in California: did not come
Death: Father: In Mass.
Remarks: My father George Higgins came here in 1849 and went immediately to the mines. After mining for some time he came back to San Francisco and started one of the first plumbing establishments in the city. I have often heard him speak of rowing across the bay in a row boat as there were no ferry boats at that time. Mrs. Brown arrived in Cal. In 1869.
Ellen Antoinette Bagley
Birth Place: Bristol, New Hampshire
Pioneer Father: John Cook Downing
Birth Place: Meredith, New Hampshire
Date of Arrival in California: Dec. 1, 1857
Pioneer Mother: Mary Jane Boynton Dow
Birth Place: New Hampton, N.H.
Date of Arrival in California: Dec. 1, 1857
Remarks: Came to California from Lowell Mass – via Panama – On steamer Northern Light from New York to Aspinwall – Steamer Sonora from Panama to S.F. Born Dec. 22nd, 1838 – Married John W. Bagley, Healdsburg Cal Nov. 14th 1858 Arrived in California Dec. 1st , 1857.
Ellen A. Bagley
I was the first lady school teacher in Healdsburg in a private school built and opened by Prof. E.A. Scotts in January 1858. I have spent all my years in Calif in Sonoma County. First in Healdsburg and later in Guerneville. Was married in 1858 Had Six Children, Four alive now.
Buglie Bush Law
Birth Place: California
Pioneer Father: David Bush
Birth Place: Ohio
Date of Arrival in California: 1852
Pioneer Mother: Ellen Morgan
Birth Place: Connecticut
Date of Arrival in California: 1854
Death: Father: July 1912; Mother: May 1901
Remarks: My grandfather Henry Bush arrived in California in 1849 one of the original pioneers and Bush St. was named for him. My father David Bush came three years later, 1852. He belonged to the exempt firemen and was one of the Vigilence [sic] Committee. He resided in San Francisco up to the time of his death in 1912. He was Tax Collector at that time.