ID: Emily (Fairfield) Duncan autobiography, page 6
business. At this time, he became interested in oil painting and, considering his age and lack of training, did some rather remarkable work [over a dozen major works recorded in his diary], mostly copies [of masters’ works], in this medium. I have always regarded my grandfather Tate as a man of unusual, natural ability and talents. In his diary, which he kept religiously all his life, he shows a remarkable interest in, and understanding of a great variety of subjects. Not only was he a thoroughly competent machinist, having a knowledge of physics, mathematics, etc. necessary to his trade, but he was equally interested in art, poetry, history, astronomy; in fact, every branch of learning. His complete diary [actually, about a dozen volumes spanning decades], copied by him in 1879 from the original books, is now in the possession of the John Deere Company [Deere Archives in East Moline, Ill.] and I have been assured by them that it is not only an interesting but also a "valuable historical" volume.
My Childhood
For a short time after my parents were married they made their home at the Napa Hotel where my father was employed. This soon proved unsatisfactory and they looked about for a more suitable home. My father's brother, Charles, had in the meantime arrived in California [since at least 1860, probably closer to 1851] and located in Eureka, where he urged them to join him. This they did and there, in 1863, my oldest brother was born. In those days it was not necessary to employ a doctor at childbirth and several of the neighbor women were in attendance. To their horror the birth proved to be a "breach presentation" and the beautiful healthy baby was strangled at birth while my poor mother suffered untold agony and the helpless women stood wringing their hands in despair. The boy was named Charles after the uncle with whom they were living.
Uncle Charley kept a rooming house for men, with a saloon attached. My mother, always a "teetotaler" and a strict Methodist, hated the place and after the birth and loss of her baby, insisted upon leaving it.
Eureka was then and for many years after quite an isolated spot. It could be reached from the outside world only by boat; and across the mouth of the harbor, Humbol[d]t Bay, was a treacherous sand bar. At times the waves rolled so high across this bar that no ship could pass it and often vessels waited outside the harbour for as much as four or five days waiting a chance to cross. On one occasion, when my mother was on board a ship crossing the bar in a comparatively quiet sea, a sudden wave, tossing high above the deck, lifted the chair in which she was sitting, and carried her, chair and all, to the opposite side of the deck, depositing her safe, but terrified, just inside the railing. Mother was impatient, insisting that they return to Napa, so my father found employment on the railroad, running from Vallejo to Napa, a post which he kept for several years. Here their second child, Robert, was born. Of him it was said that he was so beautiful that strangers came from miles around just to see him; but alas, soon after the birth of the third child, Mary Alice, when he was about two years old, he died, I think, of diphtheria. Mary was a very delicate child having some trouble of the