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Luzena Stanley Wilson (1821-ND) http://tinyurl.com/LWilson

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Vaca Valley Stage

From Luzena Stanley Wilson, '49er, 1937. Read Online

Reader: Jessica Teeter

Whether we like it not, these days urban sprawl has practically overwhelmed many of California's rural regions. A few Californians watched it begin more than 150 years ago.

Luzena Stanley Wilson came to California with her family in 1849 and eventually settled in Vaca Valley, an unpretentious rural area which even then was slowly changing character.

The stages which ran every day from Sacramento to Napa and Benicia brought with them a stream of travelers and many new settlers to the valley. The arrival of the rattling, thundering old six-horse coach, with its load of grumbling, dusty passengers, and their accompanying poodle-dogs, canary birds, pet cats, parrots, Saratoga trunks and band-boxes, and the swaggering, self-important driver who handled the reins with consummate skill, and could only be bribed into amiability by frequent drinks, was the event of the day. All the dogs of the village welcomed its advent and saluted its departure with a chorus of howls; the ragged urchins along the dusty roads waved their battered hats and shouted at the stolid passengers; the old farmer rode up on his slow cob to wait its coming; the inquisitive girls peeped around the corner to see if perchance a new masculine attraction might be left in the town. With the stages went the rollicking, unassuming fun of the country, and with the railroads came in the aping of city airs and the following of city fashions.

Luzena Stanely Wilson's memories of her life in California were dictated to her daughter in 1881 and published in 1937 as Luzena Stanley Wilson, '49er.