The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty that Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation

by Miriam Pawel Narrated by Christina Delaine

Overview

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist's panoramic history of California and its impact on the nation, from the Gold Rush to Silicon Valley-told through the lens of the family dynasty that led the state for nearly a quarter century.



In The Browns of California, journalist and scholar Miriam Pawel weaves a narrative history that spans four generations, from August Schuckman, the Prussian immigrant who crossed the Plains in 1852 and settled on a northern California ranch, to his great-grandson Jerry Brown, who reclaimed the family homestead one hundred forty years later. Through the prism of their lives, we gain an essential understanding of California and an appreciation of its importance.



This book gives new insights to those steeped in California history, offers a corrective for those who confuse stereotypes and legend for fact, and opens new vistas for listeners familiar with only the sketchiest outlines of a place habitually viewed from afar with a mix of envy and awe, disdain, and fascination.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

★ 08/06/2018
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Pawel (The Crusades of Cesar Chavez) continues to explore the California political landscape with this well-written and deeply researched dual biography of the late Pat Brown, the state’s governor from 1959 to 1967, and his son Jerry Brown, who was governor from 1975 to 1983 and reelected in 2011. The senior Brown is fairly described as a traditional politician whose career had a traditional trajectory, while son Jerry—called “Governor Moonbeam” by a Chicago newspaper columnist—is anything but: in addition to a peripatetic political career that included three runs at the Democratic presidential nomination, a term as California’s attorney general, and time as the mayor of Oakland, Calif., Jerry’s personal history involved formative years as a novice in a Jesuit seminary and a serious investigation of Buddhism. Pawel returns again and again to the connection between Pat and Jerry, who were respectful and tender toward one another despite their differences. She also underscores the powerful influence of women—specifically Bernice Brown, Pat’s wife of 66 years and Jerry’s mother; Anne Gust Brown, whom Jerry married late in life; and Jerry’s sister Kathleen, who made her own run at California’s governorship in 1994—in the two men’s lives. The backdrop for all of this is the rich history of California, illuminated with small historical details that are a testament to Pawel’s research. In her capable hands, readers will find the Browns and California captivating subjects. Agent: Gloria Loomis, Watkins Loomis. (Sept.)

From the Publisher

[A] wonderful and essential book.” —The Los Angeles Times

“A vivid history of a political dynasty that has governed the Golden State for nearly a quarter century . . . The Pulitzer Prize-winning Ms. Pawel elucidates with sparkling prose and telling details . . . Ms. Pawel, with her extensive interviews, deep archival research and brilliant synthesis, has made an enormous contribution to the historical record.” —Wall Street Journal

“Pawel's narrative is unflaggingly direct, but it also functions as deep art, for the book is actually a history of California posing as a family portrait. Whether it's the Gold Rush, Japanese internment, Free Speech Movement, Watts riots, Proposition 13 or climate change, the Brown story reflects large portions of California's past and much of its present…. A skillful portrait.” —San Francisco Chronicle, "Best Books of the Year"

“Miriam Pawel's fascinating book charts four generations of the Brown family . . . Pawel bills her family saga as a 'lens through which to tell a unique history of the 31st state' but it does much more. Her engaging narrative of the politics, ideas and policies of the two Edmund Browns illuminates the sea change in the nation's politics in the last half of the 20th century.”” —New York Times Book Review

“Well-written and deeply researched . . . [A] rich history of California, illuminated with small historical details that are a testament to Pawel's research. In her capable hands, readers will find the Browns and California captivating subjects.” —Starred Review, Publishers Weekly

“Pawel expertly mines family archives, oral histories, and interviews with contemporary sources to full and for the first time chronicle the origins and accomplishments of this remarkable clan…This fine and engaging political saga tracks both the Brown family and the growth of the state they have served.” —Starred Review, Booklist

“A vivid portrait of California's land and people emerges from a sympathetic family biography . . . A well-informed history of a powerful dynasty.” —Kirkus

“Pawel's illuminating history focuses on the father and son who served nearly a quarter century as California governors.” —Books to Read This Month, BBC

“Pawel's narrative is unflaggingly direct, but it also functions as deep art, for the book is actually a history of California posing as a family portrait. . . . By reminding us that a single family has produced so much of the state's leadership, Pawel's skillful portrait also raises an imminent question: What's next?” —National Book Review

“In vibrant detail, Pawel introduces us to the parts of California that mattered most to the Browns, revealing how the state forged its leading political dynasty. To bring this four-generation story together, Pawel consulted archives across the state and conducted extensive interviews with Governor Brown, his family members, and longtime associates. As a result, the Brown family story is enlivened with densely textured settings and carefully selected vignettes . . . This is not a comprehensive California history disguised as political biography. This is something new: a California panorama and an intimate family portrait captured in a single frame.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

“The book manages to capture the spirit and tenor of the 1960s and '70s and also explains how California developed its famous, iconoclastic culture, which sometimes makes it feel more like another nation than a state in the union.” —Boston Public Radio, Best Books of the Year

“Miriam Pawel's masterly, multigenerational history, The Browns of California, takes as its subject the political dimensions of the California Dream as embodied by arguably its most prominent political family . . . One of the many strengths of The Browns of California is the way Pawel projects the history of California onto the Brown family (including the political careers of Pat and Jerry Brown), lending intimacy and detail to what might have been a sweeping, superficial narrative in less capable hands . . . The Browns of California will stand as an authoritative guide to a political family and their fascinating, if confounding, home state.” —America Magazine

“Deeply researched and engagingly written.” —Commonweal Magazine

“A fascinating story of California and the family that shaped its history for over a century. It provides new insights and perspectives on the history of California. Miriam Pawel's career as a journalist/reporter and difficult-to-match scholarly credentials as a historian give her a definite assurance of style that enables her to present historical details in an enjoyable and easy-to-read prose. The major achievement of Miriam Pawel in this book is that she makes history enjoyable. It is a must-read for those interested in the history of California and its celebrated family.” —Washington Book Review

“Miriam Pawel has written a remarkable book—a generational biography of a political dynasty, ranging from the California Gold Rush to the presidency of Donald Trump. She recounts the pivotal governorship of Pat Brown and the even more significant career of his son Jerry with assured prose and a keen sense of historical context. This is the engrossing saga of complicated family at the center of American political life for the last sixty years.” —T.J. Stiles, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for CUSTER'S TRIALS and THE FIRST TYCOON

“The Browns of California is a beautifully written, exquisitely researched, and magnificent example of how history can be written as biography—and biography as history.” —David Nasaw, author of THE PATRIARCHY: THE REMARKABLE LIFE AND TURBULENT TIMES OF JOSEPH P. KENNEDY

“The Browns of California is a compelling, crucial read for anyone who wants to understand the state's importance on the world stage, at a time that matters more than ever. It's a fascinating history that also humanizes the enigmatic Jerry Brown, a morally courageous politician who got his start in the anti-Vietnam War movement and has become a major voice on the urgency of the nuclear threat and a leader—governing a state that is the world's sixth largest economy—in curbing the other existential threat to civilization, climate change.” —Daniel Ellsberg, author of THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE

“Miriam Pawel's multigenerational portrait of the quirky, contentious, and complicated Brown family captures the sprawling history of California as well as its often self-deluding mythology. As fascinating as the state, this book is essential for anyone who wants to understand modern California.” —Richard White, Margaret Byrne Professor of American History, Stanford University

“Miriam Pawel did it again. After her wonderful biography of Cesar Chávez, she masterfully writes about the influence of the Brown family in the transformation of California for more than a century. Pat and Jerry Brown, both, became governors. But theirs is not your typical political family. The letters and exchanges between Jerry, the seminarian, and Pat, the governor, are fascinating, insightful and provocative. This book wisely demonstrates that in California you can shape your own future and that second chances are real . . . if your family is behind you. The Browns of California is an essential book to understand how the United States is a country in perpetual creation.” —Jorge Ramos, Univision news anchor

“The Crusades of Cesar Chavez is a biography for readers who find real human beings more compelling than icons.” —Los Angeles Times

“Engrossing . . . There is so much brilliant political theater in this book that it's easy to see why Chavez is still the most celebrated Latino leader in American history.” —The New York Times on THE CRUSADES OF CESAR CHAVEZ

“A zestful, dramatic, and redefining biography of the innovative, daring, and persevering activist . . . Chavez's epic story, told so astutely and passionately by Pawel, is essential to understanding today's struggles for justice and equality.” —Starred review, Booklist on THE CRUSADES OF CESAR CHAVEZ

“Pawel paints a complex portrait of Chavez with all his strengths and weaknesses . . . The author's insightful, painstakingly researched, and thoughtful work makes Chavez all the more dimensional and nuanced by recognizing his failings as well as his successes. This fully rounded portrait could well be the definitive biography of this all too human figure.” —Starred review, Library Journal on THE CRUSADES OF CESAR CHAVEZ

“Miriam Pawel's magnificent biography of Cesar Chavez has the force and scope of a great American novel. Here is the story of a man, from the humblest beginnings, who became a labor organizer as famous as any; here is a deeply flawed man who yearned to be a saint.” —Richard Rodriguez, author of DARLING: A Spiritual Autobiography and HUNGER OF MEMORY: The Education of Richard Rodriguez, on THE CRUSADES OF CESAR CHAVEZ

“Guau! Miriam Pawel has finally given us the Cesar Chavez we deserve: neither a saint nor a bully but a complex American activist who rose to the occasion with courage, astuteness, and intuition, but was also clumsy, misinformed, and nearsighted. Written in a beautifully nuanced style and displaying enviable depth of knowledge, The Crusades of Cesar Chavez is a masterpiece. Future biographies will be measured against it.” —Ilan Stavans, Amherst College, author of The United States of Mestizo

“This is a remarkable account of the life of Cesar Chavez and of his iconic struggle for justice for America's migrant farmworkers. Miriam Pawel provides a vivid narrative that is unmatched for the authenticity of its behind-the-scenes detail. That rarest of beasts, The Crusades of Cesar Chavez is at once an important historical document, and a compelling read.” —Jon Lee Anderson, author of The Fall of Baghdad and Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life

“One of the most important recent books on California history.” —The Atlantic on THE UNION OF THEIR DREAMS

“An engrossing narrative that is both tragic and inspiring.” —San Francisco Chronicle on THE UNION OF THEIR DREAMS

Library Journal

09/01/2018
With previous works under her belt about Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Pawel (The Crusades of Cesar Chavez) now turns her attention to California's prominent Brown family. While many other family members are discussed, the book focuses heavily on the father-son duo who would both become the state's governor—Pat and Jerry Brown. Starting from when the different branches of the Irish-German Catholic clan immigrated to the United States—and, subsequently, California—this book follows the rise and fall (and second rise, with Jerry) of the Browns' political fortunes. While clearly sympathetic to the Browns, Pawel is not an apologist for some of their less-popular actions or less-effective policies. She notes both the good and the bad, which makes for a refreshing read. VERDICT Well researched, with an extensive bibliography of primary sources, this work will appeal to both scholarly and armchair historians, as well as readers with an interest in contemporary politics, California history, modern history, family history, and biography.—Crystal Goldman, Univ. of California, San Diego Lib.

Kirkus Reviews

2018-06-18
A vivid portrait of California's land and people emerges from a sympathetic family biography.Drawing on interviews, oral histories, and extensive archival sources, journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning editor Pawel (The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography, 2014, etc.) examines California's colorful, dramatic, and turbulent history through her biography of the ambitious and influential Browns, a family indelibly involved in the state's fortunes since 1951, when Edmund G. "Pat" Brown (1905-1996) was sworn in as California's attorney general. A few years later, as he considered running for governor, he extolled his great state: "To think that I will have some part, good or bad, in shaping its destiny is sobering." A gregarious politician whose style of campaigning, his wife said, was "low comedy," in 1959 Brown succeeded in becoming California's 32nd governor, overseeing a period of exuberant economic and population expansion. His son, Jerry, however, seemed uninterested in following in his father's footsteps; instead, he entered a Jesuit seminary to study for the priesthood, which he saw as "a path to public service—and an alternative to the commercial politics of his father's world." Yet after a few years, bristling against the mandate of "obedience to dogma" that quashed "his inquiring mind and spirit," he renounced his calling. Politics inevitably drew him: After law school, he won a seat on the Los Angeles school board; a year and a half later, he won election as secretary of state. In 1975 he became the 34th—and youngest—governor of California. Although Pawel chronicles the political career of Pat Brown's daughter Kathleen, who served as California State Treasurer, Jerry takes center stage for much of the book, as the author recounts his "refreshing" candor and unconventional leadership during his first two terms as governor, earning him the epithet of "Governor Moonbeam"; his years of soul-searching and recalibration after he was defeated in tries for the presidency; his return as defiant and spirited mayor of Oakland and, in 2010, to statewide power as California's 39th—and oldest—governor.A well-informed history of a powerful dynasty.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173066312
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	09/18/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

The Pioneer

Long before the discovery of gold conferred upon the state its universal, enduring epithet, the land imbued California with its seductive, lyrical promise.

Its name was bestowed by early Spaniards, in homage to a popular sixteenth-century romance novel about an island paradise ruled by Queen Califia. In the centuries that followed, explorers discovered the wonders of Yosemite, the fertile valleys, natural ports, blooming deserts, and breathtaking coastline.

Then came the Gold Rush, catapulting California forward with the warp speed that would become one of the state's defining characteristics.

In the spring of 1848, the population of San Francisco was 575 men, 177 women, and 60 children. Within a year, the city had close to twenty-five thousand inhabitants. Doctors and lawyers abandoned practices; tradesmen, laborers, and professionals from around the world arrived in California by boat and stagecoach. In the early days, the mines yielded as much as $50,000 a day in gold (more than $1.5 million in 2016 dollars), money that fueled the region's explosive growth. First the pioneers sought fortunes in gold, then they created the infrastructure and provided the services demanded by this brave new world. An American frontier that had been gradually inching westward suddenly leapfrogged across the country. Californians improvised, unburdened by tradition, open to experimentation. They devised routines, invented machines, and established lifestyles that suited their needs. They could not wait for supplies and knowledge to migrate from the East. They had neither time nor inclination to adopt the staid wisdom or customs of the Eastern establishment.

California was a land "now engrossing the attention of the civilized world with its future importance," Polish immigrant Felix Wierzbicki wrote in California As It Is, and As It May Be, the first book published in English in California. The 1849 guidebook foresaw transcontinental railroads, millions of residents, trade with China, and a booming agricultural economy. "It is not necessary to be gifted with an extraordinary foresight to predict that as soon as the industry and enterprise of the Americans take a fair footing on this soil, the commerce of the country will grow daily."

The carpenter John Marshall had first spotted gold in early 1848, just as officials were signing the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War and ceded California to the United States. When the Gold Rush began, California had only a makeshift government. Suddenly, the need for laws became urgent. Congress proposed that California skip territorial status and move directly to statehood. But lawmakers deadlocked for months over whether to allow slavery, a decision that could upset the fragile compromise that had been crafted to hold the Union together. In a pattern destined to be repeated, Californians took matters into their own hands. They called a convention and adopted a constitution that banned slavery, on pragmatic rather than moral grounds. Delegates argued that the nature of work in California was unsuitable for slavery; left unsaid was the fear that large slaveholders could have posed unwelcome competition. The free state of California joined the union on September 9, 1850, which would become an official holiday, Admission Day.

The story of those early years, wrote California's first great philosopher, Josiah Royce, was the story of how "a new and great community first came to a true consciousness of itself." Writers like Royce witnessed that evolution and penned words that shaped lasting visions of California: A land of immigrants. A place of reinvention. A spirit of openness. An incubator of innovation.

That was the world that drew a young German named Simon August Schuckman.

The boy known as August was the second son of Friedrich Kixmöller Schuckman and his wife, Caroline Wilhelmine Luise. Because the Schuckmans had property but no male heirs, Friedrich's father had taken his bride's surname, Schuckman, when they married. Friedrich and Caroline had eight children; five boys and one girl lived into adulthood.

Born July 10, 1827, August grew up in Wüsten, a tiny town in the principality of Lippe-Detmold, in the middle of what was then Prussia. His father operated an inn. August's older brother stood to inherit the family business, leaving the younger son an uncertain future. As revolution spread across Europe in 1848, August, believing he would soon be drafted, made his way north to Hamburg and used savings to book passage to a new life. Two months shy of his twenty-second birthday, August Schuckman arrived in New York on May 8, 1849, on the ship the Perseverance.

He was among almost one million Germans who emigrated to the United States in the decade that followed, driven by political and economic upheaval. By 1855, German immigrants were outnumbered only by those from Great Britain. Many had read about California, both at home and once they arrived in the new land. They had heard about the exploits of John Sutter, a Swiss German (né Johan August Suter) who founded, with his son, the city that became Sacramento; gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill. The Emigrants' Guide to California, published in St. Louis in 1849, was quickly translated into German, the first of numerous guidebooks that outlined ways to reach the new frontier. Travel "around the Horn" could take nine months and cost $600; cutting across Panama saved time but entailed a dangerous, disease-ridden land crossing; the overland route from Missouri cost as little as $55, the most popular option.

By the time August Schuckman headed for California, the perilous trip had become increasingly routine. Maps laid out detailed routes; books offered guidance on where to find water and grass for cattle; and additional ferries expedited the river crossings. A journey first made almost exclusively by men now included women and children. By 1852, an overland trip that had taken an average of 136 days could be completed in fewer than 90, though many took longer.

August was part of a record number of pioneers who crossed the Plains in 1852, following the Oregon Trail to one of the branches that headed southwest into California. More than fifty thousand people and a hundred thousand cattle and sheep crossed that summer, according to estimates, most in ordinary farm wagons drawn by oxen. They left behind ruts that lasted into the twenty-first century. Dysentery and cholera were common, and letter writers told of graves dug before travelers were even dead. They also wrote of the camaraderie. Women took care of other women's children; men warned other travelers of hostile Indians and dangerous river crossings; families cared for one another's sick and shared food and water when supplies dwindled.

August was vague in his accounts of his first few years in the United States, during which he worked as a hired hand on boats on various rivers and the Great Lakes. But he kept a diary when he joined a party that set out from St. Louis on March 10, 1852.

Six foot one, blue-eyed, sandy-haired, and strong, he hired on with a captain shepherding a group of fifty-three pioneers. They traveled up the Missouri River to Jefferson, where the captain stopped to buy seventy-two oxen and cows he planned to sell in California. Then they headed to St. Joseph, Missouri, their progress slowed as men on horseback chased after oxen that strayed into nearby forests. A month into the journey, on Easter Monday, they reached St. Joseph, minus three cows and two oxen.

The captain bought nine more oxen and eight horses and collected provisions that had been shipped up the river by steamer, and they set off. After six miles they reached the first mountains, where they stopped for six days to rest the cattle, which had walked more than two hundred miles. They set out again on April 24: nine wagons, eighty-one oxen, and eighteen horses. They traveled between eight and twelve miles a day, and by the fifth day, water and wood ran short and tempers flared. They stopped cooking with water and rationed it out to drink.

Two months and three hundred miles into the trip, they reached Fort Kearney in Nebraska, low on provisions and in revolt against their captain, who had been skimping on food. The officer in charge of Fort Kearney listened to their grievances — and their threats to shoot the captain — and told the travelers all he could offer was return passage to St. Joseph. Eager to reach California, the emigrants made peace and pushed on along the well-worn trail.

On May 13, they reached the Platte River, which August described as three times wider than the Weser, the river that bordered his Prussian hometown. He marveled at the herds of pronghorn antelope, which he thought at first were a type of deer. They saw occasional herds of buffalo. But the most common animals were wolves, which circled the camp at night and howled.

A week later they crossed the Platte by ferry, taking two hours to get everyone across. Out of wood to cook by fire, they ate zwieback and ham. On May 26, they passed what August described as "a clot of earth straight up about 300 feet," later known as Chimney Rock.

Five days later, they reached Fort Laramie in the Wyoming Territory, a major trading post in the land of the Sioux. August was intrigued by their customs. "These Indians do not bury their dead," he wrote. "They weave baskets and put their dead into them and stand them in the tops of trees."

The travelers forged ahead on the dusty, crowded trail and on June 8 reached the head of the Platte River in Casper, Wyoming. More than a hundred wagons waited to cross, a boon for ferry operators who charged $3 per wagon and $1 per animal. By noon the next day, August's party had safely made it to the other side, swimming the animals to the far shore to save money.

Within a week, the party confronted their captain again and threatened to leave him behind. They demanded he provide two and a half pounds of food per day, which would last forty days, and promise to buy any food needed after. He counteroffered: If they would stretch the food for six more days, he promised milk for coffee. Fourteen men accepted that deal, while the rest insisted on their original terms.

On June 18, they saw snow-covered mountains of the Wind River Range in the distance as they approached a juncture known as "the parting of the ways." They took the more difficult Sublette Cutoff, which shaved four days off the trip, and began a forty-one-mile trek across a desert described in guidebooks as "the dry Sandy." They traveled mainly at night to avoid the extreme heat.

On July 26, they reached "the big Sandy," also known as the Forty-Mile Desert, a tough stretch in Nevada. They traveled again at night. "Here the measure of water cost 1 dollar," August wrote. "Here we lost 7 oxen who died of thirst. We also had to leave a wagon here. Here thousands of cows, horses, mules were lying about dead ... the discarded wagons by the hundreds were driven together and burned. Here we saw wagons standing that would never be taken out again, and more than 1,000 guns that had been broken up. Here on this 40 miles are treasures that can never be taken out again."

On September 1, they reached the eastern foothills of the Sierra Nevada and camped for several days before starting the ascent. "After 15 days of crossing these mountains, letting our wagons down by rope and tying trees behind the wagon, we came to a little mining town called Hangtown," August wrote. "Very bad town. Close to where gold was discovered. Here I will go work for a while."

Six months after leaving St. Louis, the twenty-five-year-old immigrant had reached his new home in California — Hangtown, later renamed Placerville.

Practical and frugal, August stayed away from the frenetic, speculative life of the mines. Instead, he found steady work making money off those who came to get rich quick. Hangtown, about eight miles south of Coloma, where gold had first been discovered, was a hub for the mining community. Within a few weeks, August had a job driving a freight wagon from Coloma to Sutter's Fort, on the outskirts of Sacramento, about forty miles south.

August became friendly with John Sutter and began to venture farther afield. He took supplies by boat from Sacramento up the Feather River to Marysville, a German settlement where Sutter owned a cattle and hog farm. By the spring of 1853, August was still driving a stagecoach and scouting options to settle down and farm. "I will go up in this fruitful valley and get myself a large tract of land," he wrote. "I have gone up this river which has been named the Sacramento river to a little settlement named Colusa."

Colusa was a small town in a county of the same name, roughly sixty miles long and fifty miles wide, bordered on the east by the Sacramento River and on the west by the Coast Range. The name came from the local Indian tribe. The mines were on the other side of the river, so Colusa developed slowly; in 1850 there were only 115 residents. But as gold grew scarcer and pioneers became discouraged, they fanned out, settled land, and started businesses. At first the land was used mainly to graze livestock. Then Colusa farmers found they could make more money growing barley and wheat, which they sold as feed for horses that drew the wagons that resupplied the mining camps. By spring 1852, three steamboats — the Jenny Lind, Captain Sutter, and Orient — offered regular service up the river from Sacramento, a ninety-mile trip that took eighteen hours. The river traffic turned Colusa into a boomtown, with two hotels, a bakery, three blacksmith and wagon-making shops, a soda fountain, a vegetable depot, and a doctor. The 1852 census reported a population of 620& — 400 white men, 63 white women, 5 "negroes," 3 "mulattoes," 66 Indians, and 21 foreign residents. Soon hotels opened along the main routes, providing rest and food for travelers and their horses. There were hotels every few miles, their names reflecting the distance from Colusa: Five Mile House, Seven Mile House, Nine Mile House, Ten Mile House, Eleven Mile House, Sixteen Mile House, Seventeen Mile House, Nineteen Mile House, and Twenty Mile House.

Wary of the river, which often overflowed and swept away livestock on low-lying ground, August chose his first ranch land carefully and staked his claim. "I have taken up land 15 miles west of Colusa, on high land and very fine land near to a large range of mountains called the Coast Range," he wrote in 1854. "They are a great range which lies between the Pacific Ocean and the Sacramento Valley — that is what this valley is called now."

A remote county with cool winters, blazing hot summers, and lots of rattlesnakes, Colusa was not for everyone. But pioneers drawn to the sparsely settled farmland embraced the quiet, provincial lifestyle and put down roots that lasted generations. With little fanfare or effort to lure settlers, the low-key town grew to about forty-five hundred residents by 1862. "Those who came here came to stay," wrote local historian Justus Rogers a few decades later. "They remained, and the generation that succeeded them, inspired with the same love for their environments, knew no other and sought no other region to be dedicated with that sweet, endearing, soul-satisfying word, 'home.' "

Home for August by 1860 was a house next door to two of Colusa's leading citizens, fifth-generation American Will Green and his uncle Charles Semple. Charles's brother Robert Semple had been an early pioneer, cofounded the first newspaper, the Monterey Californian, presided over the constitutional convention in 1849, and then founded the city of Benicia. Inspired by his success, Charles and Will left their Kentucky home and headed for California. Charles scouted land where he, too, might found a city, and settled on Colusa. His nephew became editor of the Colusa Sun and author of the first history of Colusa County, one of about 150 history books about California counties published in the nineteenth century.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Browns of California"
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Copyright © 2018 Miriam Pawel.
Excerpted by permission of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
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