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Cholera Kills Half the Sans Family on Overland Trail
Fourteen-year-old Charles Sans watched cholera take half his family on the wagon road to California.
Stories
True stories of the Plasketts and their neighbors — bears and gold, shipwrecks and weddings — drawn from letters, newspapers, and family memory.
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Six-Year-Old Sarah Finds Indian Baby on Trail
On the 1859 wagon train, six-year-old Sarah Ray found a baby abandoned by the river — and refused to leave it.
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Henry Rich Marries Jolon Indian Woman
Mabel's uncle Henry Rich married a Jolon Indian woman — one of the frontier's quiet unions of two worlds.
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James Frank Sans - World War I Rainbow Division
James Frank Sans went to France with the Rainbow Division and a trench mortar battalion.
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World War II Deaths - Corregidor and English Channel
One died at Corregidor. Another went down over the English Channel. The war reached even Pacific Valley's children.
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Sherman Plaskett Killed in World War I
Sherman Plaskett, son of Peter, fell in the Great War.
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The Postman Incident - Mabel Accused of Affair
Mabel loved chatting with the postman — and the valley's gossips made her pay for it.
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Quilting Bees, Barn Raisings, and Pioneer Cooperation
Quilting bees, threshing bees, barn raisings: on the coast, no one was paid and nothing was left undone.
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A Deer Hunt - 56-Page Narrative of Pioneer Life
The best record of pioneer life is a 56-page comedy Mabel helped live: the great deer hunt of 1910.
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Harrison Rich - Pipe Smoking Caused His Death
Harrison Rich survived the frontier but not his pipe.
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Jeanetta McCoy Rich - The Over-Dressed Grandmother
Short, stout, red-haired and dark-skinned, Jeanetta Rich dressed like a duchess and charmed like one too.
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Uncle Charley Sans - The Goatee Man
Uncle Charley Sans: French goatee, iron sinews, and a thirst that was its own legend.