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MEMOIRS OF MY GREAT-GREAT GRANDMOTHER,
ELEANOR HOWARD (THOMAS) BRITTAIN KNOWLTON
November 1834 – August 1908

They start for Southern California after visiting the Big Trees. They meet a first cousin of Eleanor’s husband, Mr. Brittain, and celebrate her birthday on November 8, then start out for Visalia. They enjoy biscuits made with bear oil. They stay in the Sierra mountains with a family that has cattle, and enjoy plenty of milk, butter, and eggs for a while. As 1866 begins, they trek back to Lake County, where they spend the summer. People are generous and friendly along the way. A Mason was a man who could be trusted.

October 1st (1865). We have now reached the Big Trees and will spend a day or two seeing them. The largest tree in the grove was discovered by the first emigrants who crossed the mountains by this route. It was such a curiosity that they bored holes in it to cut it down without damaging it. Now the stump is enclosed with lattice work, and the trunk is hewn smooth and used for a ballroom. The log is utilized as a ball alley. I was in the ballroom with my little girls. I climbed a ladder with 21 rungs to get on top of the log. It was so high above the ground that when I looked down, I felt lightheaded and had to ask my cousin Tom Graves to help me down because I was afraid I would fall. I had my name carved on the tree along with the other emigrants. The next tree was one that a six-horse stage would often drive through, and there are many others. This grove is in Calaveras County. There is another one in Mariposa County.

We are now headed for Southern California to spend the winter. We will have traveled quite a distance before reaching our winter quarters, and we are not in a hurry, so we will continue on, camping whenever night catches up with us.

We plan to camp at what is called the Union Post Office, but before we could set up camp, a young boy rode up on horseback. He was quite a talker and suggested we should go on to the creek to camp. His father lived over there (this is in Mariposa County) with a man named Brittain, who had many cattle, so we could get fresh beef and plenty of milk. We drove over and camped near their place.

His father’s name was Lane and was called Colonel. I think he was a Colonel in the Rebel (sic) war. They treated us well. That evening after supper was over I said “Now, I know this man Brittain is a relative of yours.” Mr. Brittain my husband said he did not want me hunting up his kin, but that boy brought Brittain and his father to our camp to spend a little while around the campfire. I thought, “Now’s the time to find the kinsman, so I did find him to be a first cousin of my husband’s so we staid there until the 8th of November 1865 which was my birthday. Our new cousin had a fine beef killed for my birthday and everything nice. The young man who [had] taken us there shot the beef. His name was Adolph Lane.

Well, in two or three days we started for Visalia. Had several days travel over some of the driest and unimproved country you ever traveled over. But after you crossed the San Joaquin County and got to the Kings River country there seemed to be more settlements, and the Visalia country was still better. We did not expect to stay in Visalia or in the Four Creek country. We were going into some of the foothills. We started from Visalia thinking we would go to the Yocut mountains.

We had a nice trip up to the Yokuts and game was plentyful. We camped the first night at a man’s by the name of Jesse Fine. He and his wife were very kind to us. He had just killed a few days before we got there a large grizzly bear [and] gave us some of it. His wife made some very nice biscuits which were shortened with bear oil. Well, we staid there several days. The weather was nice but as it was now the first of December 1865 we began to think about going back to Visalia where we could get a house for the winter. There was no house we could get in the mountains.

But I must tell you about the Fines. Mr. Fine was from Tennessee and his father and my father were old friends. He had a sister who was an old maid. I remembered her well. We children always called her Aunt Polly Fine. The Fines were nice people in Tennessee and I found this family to be equally as nice.

Now we are started for the Valley and I fear we have staid too long as it looks as how it will take us two days. We will have to camp out one night. There is no house on the way. Well, we have been on the road one day and a nice day, but this morning it looks like rain. Well, it is night again and we are going to camp, get supper as quick as we can and get Mr. Brittain and the little girls to the spring hack as it is raining some now. Although it bids fair to be a rain, I cannot help admitting our camp there is lovely, evergreen oaks and sycamores. There was a large log which had a fire built in it when we got there. There were two men there by the name of Street. They were brothers in the cattle business. They did all they could to keep the log burning but it just poured down rain most of the night. Well, I was glad when day came. My cousin Tom Graves, the two Mr Streets, and the rest got started and was also glad to have the Streets with us as they were acquainted with the country.

It is night and we arrive safe at last at a man’s place by the name of Ruben Turner. We had camped here before we went to Fine’s place. He received us welcomely into his house. We staid several days there, and then we went into a house for the winter.
Well, it is now after Christmas and the weather is fine and we are thinking some of taking a drive up in the foothills. There is an old man who lived up there by the name of Collier, said he would board us for a while and we were getting afraid we would get the chills, as most of the old settlers were chilling. Well, we are now at Collier’s. The old man has cattle. We have plenty of milk, butter and eggs and once in a while his son-in-law would kill a mutton. His name was Blain, he owned lots of sheep. I do not know what these mountains were but think they were the Sierras.

We are now going back to the valley. It is after the time we expected to be up here. It is now 1866. We will now begin to get ready to leave the Visalia County because when the Four Creeks begin to rise in the spring it will make us too late in getting north, and it is bad getting over the King’s River.

It is now the first of April and we are started on our trip north. I think Lake County will be where we will spend most of the summer. If it gets to warm we will go on to Mendocino and Humbolt counties. We are now making good time on our trip. We are almost to Stockton and will go from there to Sacramento, stay there a few days and see some good doctors and get some medical advice on whether it will be beneficial to Mr. Brittain to stop in Lake County at some of those springs.

Now we leave Sacramento and go through Yolo County, stopping where we find a nice place, and in the mountains, taking time to see our old friends and relatives and a good scope of country after leaving Sacramento Valley. We went up Cache Creek and found a rough road, the only place where any one lived was the Knoxville quicksilver mines. The next place was a small town which was called Lower Lake, which was near Clear Lake. The next was Kelseyville in what was called Big Valley. It was a nice rich valley lying on Clear Lake. We camped there a few days then we moved on to Lakeport. Found it a pretty little town on the lake shore. Really the county was beautiful but was poorly improved. The people were very generous. We staid there a while, rested our horses and ourselves, then we went on towards the mountains. Going through a very nice country, there was a little town called Upper Lake. The reason they named it that was it was the head of the lake. This lake is about 30 miles long and 12 miles wide and a beautiful body of clean water. There is lots of fish in it. Ducks are plenty on the lake. The Indians catch the fish and dry them for food for the winter.

There is in Big Valley a creek called Kelsey Creek which abounds with fish which come out of Clear Lake in the spring. I have seen them so think you could not drive over the creek without driving over them. Really it ought to have been named Fish Creek. The fish were quite large. We are camped now at Upper Lake, will stay here a few days before going into the mountains. I have a bad cold but the children and their father are well. They are all anxious to go on to the mountains where they can kill bear and lions.

It is now the first of June. Mr. Vernal Thompson will go with us to where we have to leave our wagons and take our carriage horses and wagons back to his place and pasture the horses and take care of wagons. He is a Mason and will do right. We now have our pack horses and saddle horses and everything ready to start. We leave the two oldest girls at Upper Lake at school with an old gentleman and his wife by the name of Willson. They have children and married in Missouri. They are nice people and the girls are tired traveling and want to stay put. I don’t think we will stay long up there. We are going to a place which is called Gravely Vally on the Eal River. They say there is fine mineral water there.

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