Adobe Days

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Adobe Days (1926)
by Sarah Bixby Smith

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Adobe Days uses details of Smith's childhood on the family sheep ranches to tell the intertwined stories of the pioneering Bixby family as it rose to prominence in California and the development of Los Angeles from its frontier-town days to the end of the 19th century. It has been called "deservedly a classic of California autobiography ... [capturing] perfectly that intersection of civilization and frontier, New Englandism and Spanish Southwest, which turn-of-the-century California defined as its own special heritage."

4676580Adobe Days1926Sarah Bixby Smith

Adobe Days

A book of California memories

by

Sarah Bixby-Smith

Llewellyn Bixby

Act. 33

Adobe Days

Being the truthful narrative of the events in the life of a California girl on a sheep ranch and in El Pueblo de Nuestra Sen̄ora de los Angeles while it was yet a small and humble town; together with an account of how three young men from maine in eighteen hundred and fifty-three drove sheep and cattle across the plains, mountains, and deserts from Illinois to the Pacific coast; and the strange prophecy of Admiral Thatcher about San Pedro harbor

by

Sarah Bixby-Smith

Revised Edition

The Torch Press
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
1926

Second Edition, 1926

The Torch Times

Cedar Rapids

Iowa

To My Father

Llewellyn Bixby

Born in Norridgework, Maine October 4, 1825
Arrived in San Francisco, July 7, 1851
Died in Los Angeles, December 5, 1896

Contents
Chapter
I	Background	11
II	The Very Little Girl	18
III	Down in Maine	32
IV	Father's Story	45
V	Driving Sheep Across the Plains	55
VI	Rancho San Justo	69
VII	Los Alamitos and Los Cerritos	76
VIII	The Ranch Story Continued	109
IX	Flocks and Herds	125
X	El Pueblo De Nuestra Sen̄ora La Reina De Los Angeles	133
XI	More About Los Angeles	151
XII	The Back Country and the Admiral	164
XIII	School Days	185
XIV	Pioneering at Pomona College	194
XV	Conclusion	208

Foreword

Several years ago I wrote a short account of my childhood, calling it A Little Girl of Old California. At the suggestion of friends, I have expanded the material to make this book.

The recent discovery of diaries kept by Dr. Thomas Flint during two pioneer trips to this coast which he made in company with my father, and the generous permission to make use of them granted me by his sons, Mr. Thomas Flint and Mr. Richard Flint, have added much to the interest of the subject. I at first contemplated including them in this volume, but it has seemed wiser to publish them separately and they are now available through the publications of the Southern California Historical Society.

My information regarding the earlier history of the Cerritos Ranch was supplemented by data given me by my cousin, the late George H. Bixby.

The interesting letter predicting the development of the harbor at San Pedro, written by Admiral Henry Knox Thatcher to my grandfather, Rev. George W. Hathaway, is the gift of my aunt, Miss Martha Hathaway.

I wish here to express my gratitude to my husband, Paul Jordan Smith, and to my friend, Mrs. Hannah A. Davidson, for their constant encouragement to me during the preparation of Adobe Days.

Sara Bixby-Smith

Claremont, California
October, 1925

Note to second edition

For certain suggestions and information which have been incorporated in this revised edition I wish to thank Mrs. Mary S. Gibson, Mrs. D. G. Stephens, Prof. Jose Pijoan and Mr. Charles Francis Saunders.

S. B. S.

Sept. 1926.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1935, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 88 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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