Cheryl Anne Stapp
Taylor's Pioneer Paper Mill
He turned out to be one of the lucky gold rushers . . . though it can certainly be said that he made his own luck. Three-plus years after...
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California's Olden Golden Days
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Aug 30
- 3 min
James Lick's Legacy
When he died October 1, 1876, James Lick was the wealthiest man in California. From his deathbed in Lick House—the sumptuous San...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jul 12
- 2 min
Rise & Decline of Sutterville
It was supposed to be the realization of a dream: a dynamic new town laid out on a low bluff overlooking the Sacramento River, where a...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jun 14
- 3 min
His Excellency Norton I
The self-proclaimed Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, was a colorful citizen of San Francisco from the...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jun 7
- 2 min
The Works of H. H. Bancroft
Hubert Howe Bancroft is one of the most famous names in western America, as the man who became one of the first important and respected...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- May 31
- 3 min
Outposts on the California Trail
The intrepid individuals who traveled 2,000 miles overland from the Missouri frontier to California in the 1840s had very few waystations...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- May 3
- 2 min
Civilizing Influences
In 1849, California’s Gold Rush population, statewide, was 92% male. As reported in the Eastern press, the state of affairs in that...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Apr 26
- 1 min
The Blacksmiths
The mighty smith of folklore was the blacksmith, who worked with iron and steel and whose hammer wielded more force than his fellow...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Feb 1
- 4 min
The First Wagon Party
They are known as the Bartleson-Bidwell Party, or alternatively the Bidwell-Bartleson Party, the first organized group of emigrants to...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Nov 9, 2022
- 3 min
Questionable Circumstances
In the early years of the Gold Rush, the mining camps were terrorized by the bloody exploits of a ferocious bandit named Joaquin...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Oct 26, 2022
- 4 min
History Lessons in Cemeteries
All Hallows Eve is next Sunday, when centuries-old pagan beliefs insist that ghosts and goblins haunt old graveyards at the Midnight...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Oct 19, 2022
- 3 min
An Ordinary Pioneer
Does a life filled with adventure and diverse occupations beget a physically vigorous, mentally alert old age? That was certainly true of...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Oct 12, 2022
- 3 min
Antiquated Hicksville Cemetery
In October we start thinking about trick-or-treaters, and making plans to deck our porches with jack-o-lanterns and other Halloween...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Sep 28, 2022
- 3 min
Hucksters and Scalawags
Families who trundled overland in covered wagons during the 1840s, hoping to build a better life in the West, didn’t always know to be...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Sep 14, 2022
- 2 min
Overland in Covered Wagons
What made some pioneer wagon trains successful, and others not? Partly luck, of course. But more than that, good fortune turned on the...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Mar 30, 2022
- 4 min
A Remarkable Life
She was a woman of remarkable qualities; a woman who rose from being an uneducated young bride going west in a covered wagon in 1844, to...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Mar 23, 2022
- 3 min
Haunted by Tragedy
Her real name was Meriam but everyone called her Mary. She was a Donner Party survivor, fifteen when she was rescued from a...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Mar 16, 2022
- 2 min
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, 2022
- 3 min
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, 2022
- 2 min
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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