ID: Emily (Fairfield) Duncan autobiography, page 12

The Duncan family had by this time, 1885, moved to Campbell and when Gilmore wrote that he was coming to claim his bride, I think it was somewhat of a relief to Mamma to give her consent to the marriage. Although she was but seventeen, too young to be married, the surroundings were not suitable for a young girl. So they were married and left immediately for the Duncan family home in Campbell.

I missed my "big sister" very much. Although I had often rebelled at sitting still until my curls were dry, they seemed much more desirable than the plain braid I must now endure. Mamma was always interested in dressing me becomingly but drew the line at curling my hair.

Albert and I went to a public school not far from home for a while, but the teacher, Miss Pratt, was very severe and after we had been several times punished by having the backs, not the palms, of our hands beaten with a ruler, we were moved to a private school kept by a widow with two children. I have forgotten her name. She was absolutely without discipline and her little boy was a "holy terror." I don't remember learning anything in that school but crocheting. I made myself a crocheted petticoat of red and blue wool and at Christmas time made a pair of mats for Kay and "wristors" for Gilmore. The latter were reversible, red on one end for every day, and white on the other for Sundays.

Our elders were having a hard time I now realize. Papa with finances and Mamma with uncongenial surroundings, but Albert and I were having lots of fun. He roamed over the place, which was now pretty well run down and gone to seed, enjoying the quiet days when we had everything to ourselves, as well as the gala days, when there was a crowd. Sometimes we were allowed to stay up in the evenings when there was a dance in the rink and even have some of the "oyster supper." Days when there were horse races or baseball games were exciting, especially if the band played. But other days we enjoyed fishing for perch in the various sloughs that ran up nearly to the back of the house, or going to the wharf with a homemade crab net to try our luck at crabbing. Once we got into a peck of trouble by going out on the slough in an abandoned watering trough with two little girls by the name of Smith who lived near. Fortunately, we were discovered before our boat capsized and no damage was done, but as it was nearly Christmas, we were kept pretty miserable for several days. We were assured that such bad children never got Christmas presents, but subsequent events proved that they did.

We had a succession of cooks, at least two being Chinese. One was Charlie, who was distinguished by having two thumbs on each hand. The other was Ah Hoy. I think he was with us at the time the Chinese were driven out of Eureka. The Chinese were having one of their tong wars and by mistake had shot and killed a prominent citizen. This aroused the townspeople and they decided they had had enough of the Chinese people. So they issued a warning that any Chinamen found in Eureka after a certain time would be hung. They erected a scaffold in the center of town to show their