Chapter 1

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To my children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, nearly all of whom have expressed a desire that I would put into some form of writing a few of the events which have occurred within my recollections or have been related in my hearing.

In compliance with their wishes I will try to do so to the best of my ability. But before commencing this historical record, I want to say that if at any time you should happen to see a small object slithering across the pages that in your opinion has the appearance of a grammatical error, or a faulty diction, please ignore it, as it is just my peculiar style of writing, which I admit may have its faults.

As I know very little of the family history previous to their arrival in California, and as I have no authentic data to go by, I’ll leave all of that to the new England and Missouri branches of the family. They can easily be located as they all stayed at home instead of wandering to parts unknown, as California seemed to be in those days.

A true New Englander dates his history to the landing of the Pilgrim fathers on Plymouth Rock, and a few other little incidents like John Smith, Pocahontas, etc., while we native Californians just figure out when the first wagon train left Independence, Missouri, bound for the great West or the first sailing vessel came "Round the Horn," with the same destination in view.

The first member of our family to land upon California soil was my grandfather, on my mother’s side, Capt. Nathaniel Parsons. He was born on Cape Ann, in the little village of Lanesville, Massachusetts, in November, 1801. As he grew old enough he followed the usual precedent of the New England people and became a seafaring man.

On January 7, 1828, he was married to Miss Mary Ann Badger, who was born on Badger’s Island, one of the small islands in the Piscataqua River, between Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Kittery, Maine. It was the ancestral home of her family. Badger’s Island was later sold to the U. S. Government, and is now the part of Portsmouth Naval Yard. Nathaniel and Mary Ann had four children, one boy, and three girls. They lived to celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary in Lower Rancheria, in 1878.

At the time of the discovery of gold in California, Nathaniel Parsons was Captain of a Packet vessel off the New England coast. At the end of the voyage, he resigned his position and took passage on a ship to California, around the "Horn." He arrived in San Francisco in 1849 where he left the ship and came on to the mining districts. But as a miner I imagine he was not much of a success, so after a few years of trying to do something which he did not know anything about, he gave it up and bought a sort of hotel. A Tavern, he called it, known as the Rancheria House. In 1859 he sent back to Boston for my grandmother to come out and help him run it. So she and her eldest daughter Ann Mary, who later married my father, also came to California.