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California's Olden Golden Days
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Mar 16, 20222 min read
Her Fight for Education
Elizabeth Thorn Scott Flood was the capable, determined 19th century woman who paved the way for desegregated education for children of...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Mar 9, 20223 min read
An Ordinary Woman
Teenaged Eliza Marshall emigrated with her family from England to the United States in 1839. They settled in Pawtucket, in the section of...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jan 19, 20222 min read
The Luckless Gold Discoverer
On a chilly winter day 174 years ago this month, a construction site foreman named James Marshall picked up a few small flakes of gold...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Dec 22, 20213 min read
Naughty or Nice? Santa's Legend
The Americans who trekked to California in covered wagons made that arduous journey because they wanted to find a better life for...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Oct 20, 20212 min read
Quilting: A Frontier Social Event
Quilt making in the nineteenth century was more than just the home-crafted production of usable warm bedding: it was more often than not...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Aug 25, 20212 min read
Dining at an Outback Outpost
In August 1839, after several days of sailing upstream on the Sacramento River, a Swiss citizen named John Sutter arrived in the...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Aug 18, 20212 min read
Golden State Cheese
There is no doubt that Americans have a passion for cheese: in snacks, sandwiches and main dishes. Why, Crayola even named one of its...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Aug 11, 20212 min read
The Sloughhouse Graveyard
Jared Sheldon, a carpenter by trade, officially received a Mexican land grant of 22,130 acres along the Cosumnes River in 1844—in payment...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jun 9, 20211 min read
Historical Destinations
Might you be planning a summer road trip, now that California’s Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted? If so, don’t miss stopping in at...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
May 26, 20213 min read
Bayley's Grand Dream
The palatial hotel that A. J. Bayley built long ago in California’s gold country still stands, though it’s empty now, and encircled by a...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Apr 14, 20212 min read
Bad Odds for Bachelors
Nineteenth century singles had limited ways in which to meet someone to marry, especially those singles who lived in rural areas. This...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Mar 31, 20213 min read
Virginia Reed Murphy
Virginia Reed was twelve when her parents and younger siblings set out for California from their Illinois home in April 1846, traveling...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Mar 24, 20213 min read
Dame Shirley's Gold Mine
Praised as the most delightful first-person account of California’s gold mines, The Shirley Letters is a collection of 23 letters written...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Mar 17, 20213 min read
Margaret Frink, Pioneer Housewife
In the spring of 1850—bedazzled by sensational reports coming back from the California gold fields—Margaret and Ledyard Frink excitedly...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Mar 10, 20213 min read
Rachel Larkin, Diplomat's Wife
Twenty-four–year-old Rachel Hobson Holmes boarded the trading vessel Newcastle out of Boston in September 1831. She was sailing for...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Mar 3, 20213 min read
Reformer Eliza Farnham
In her own lifetime Eliza Farnham was nationally known as an author, and as an exceptional woman on the leading edge of several social...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Feb 24, 20213 min read
About Johnson's Ranch
As hurried plans to rescue the snow-bound Donner Party took shape in early 1847, Johnson’s Ranch was designated as the base of...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Feb 17, 20213 min read
Timeline of a Winter Deliverance
The Donner Party was an emigrant company composed of several families who decided to leave the main caravan of westward-bound wagons in...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Feb 3, 20213 min read
Riches to Rags
Theodor Cordua was the first European to establish a permanent settlement on the site of present-day Marysville, California. Ambitious,...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jan 27, 20213 min read
The Hastings Cutoff - Risky Business
The Donner Party became trapped in the snow-bound Sierra Nevada in part because they opted to take the new Hastings Cutoff, instead of...
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