ID: Emily (Fairfield) Duncan autobiography, page 7

sciatic nerve which prevented the use of her legs and caused a weakness in her back. She was two years old before she could stand and had already learned to talk. One day when my rather returned from his "run" (he spent only every other night at home) he found her standing by a chair. She patted her little legs and cried, "See, Papa, see."

About this time Mattie was born, then two years later, Katie, neither of whom lived beyond their second year. Little Katie died of a combination of measles and whooping cough. I can not say what caused Mattie's death. Perhaps I never heard mother say. These were hard, trying times for my mother. Bearing and losing her babies so rapidly, the only remaining one being delicate and requiring extra care, made a heavy burden for her. Unused as she had been to hard labor, she undertook all the housework and care of the children, keeping them immaculate in white clothes. My father, being away so much at night, left her with the care and responsibility of tne family the greater part of the time. During this time, too, my father met with quite a serious accident. While coupling cars, he stepped between two cars to drop in the coupling pin and was caught and crushed quite severely. It was sometime before he recovered from this injury. In fact, my mother felt that he was never quite so strong afterward.

About 1870 my father decided to try farming. Accordingly, he gave up his position and, going a few miles up the creek from the McDonnell ranch, took up a homestead and moved mother and little Mary up there. Here, in [July] 1872, my brother Will was born. That year [and very week], too, grandpa Tate, having rented his home in Illinois, came out and took up land adjoining. In grandpa's diary, he tells of meeting "Ann and her nine days old boy at the home of Mrs. Hall, who was the mother of Sarah, Hamilton Keyes’ wife, where she had been confined; so evidently Will was not, strictly speaking, born on the ranch. Grandpa's wife, whom he refers to in the diary as "M," stayed in San Francisco while he proceeded to make a home in the wilderness. He stayed with Aunt Barbara and Uncle Will each for a time until my mother was again able to take charge of the household, then took up his abode with her while building his own house. At the time of grandpa's arrival, Uncle Keyes was just beginning a new house to replace the original cabin, or "hovel", as grandpa calls it, which had served them until now. Grandpa gives us a very contemptuous description of the "hovel"; rough boards, slats, whitewash, etc., not being his idea of the way to build a house. The new house, built by Uncle Keyes, which is the one I remember - the plain - was large and roomy and very homelike. It was burned years after I had left the ranch. Grandpa's own home, which I remember well as the later home of Hamilton Keyes and family, was a neat cottage type well built and very attractive. He always had a lovely garden.

I was born November 27, 1875, in Calistoga. It was a long drive to the ranch with several streams to ford and at that season sometimes, the water too deep to cross. My mother's confinements were apt to be hard, so it was considered best to rent a house in Calistoga and be prepared to stay there as long as necessary. Once, when I was quite a small child, I could not understand why the company found it so amusing when I explained to a caller that I was born in Calistoga while my mother was there "on a