The Gregson memoirs

Eliza Marshall Gregson (b. 1824), a millworker, and James Gregson (b. 1822), a blacksmith, were natives of England who married in Rhode Island in 1843 and almost immediately schemed to escape to the West. In 1845 they set out for Oregon, eventually joining a California party. Johann Sutter aided them, and the Gregsons lived at his fort until 1847. James Gregson enlisted in the U.S. Army under Frémont in 1846 and prospected for gold in 1848 and 1849 while his wife bore and raised their children and took in washing and sewed to support the family. In 1850, the family settled down on a ranch in Sonoma County. The Gregson memoirs (1940) prints James Gregson's brief "Statement" of the facts of his life and his wife's longer "Memory" of her experiences as a wife, mother, and businesswoman in pioneer California.