Daughters of History


Book Description

Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Daughters of California Pioneers, Daughters of History is the unsung history of California's earliest settlers and their families. This book offers a glimpse into the exciting first chapters of California history. Beginning with the period of Mexican rule in the early 1800s, continuing through the migration from the East Coast in the early 1840s, and forging on into the gold rush days, it contains perspectives rarely encountered in conventional historical accounts. The narratives are drawn from oral histories and family and local history books.




Pioneers of California


Book Description




California Pioneer Register and Index, 1542-1848


Book Description

This compilation of genealogical and biographical sketches is extracted from the first five volumes of Bancroft's seven-volume History of California. Consists of a complete register of pioneers, alphabetically arranged, listing all known information of importance about them.




Records of a California Family


Book Description

Lewis Carstairs Gunn (1813-1892) and Elizabeth LeBreton Stickney (1811-1906) made their home in Philadelphia after their marriage in 1839, and Lewis left for California in 1849, with his wife and four children joining him two years later. Records of a California family (1928) begins with Lewis Gunn's journal describing his journey from New Orleans to Mexico and then to San Francisco and his life as a miner on the San Joaqun̕, 1849-1850. Mrs. Gunn's letters chronicle her voyage round the Horn with four children in 1851 and their life in Sonora (1851-1861), where her husband published the Sonora Herald and owned a drugstore. She records the affairs of a family (housework, schools, medical care), newspaper publishing, and politics. The Gunns were longtime abolitionists, and Lewis's role in keeping California a free state is detailed. In 1861 the family moved to San Francisco, and the book closes with chapters by Anna Marston summarizing their life there in the 1860s and their later experiences in San Diego.