Your letter at hand - and I hardly know where to start when one talks of happenings "In the olden days."

   I can think of many things - bits & parts of olden times and most of it passed down from friends and relatives - the relatives now long since gone to their Heavenly Reward.

   As I sit here thinking, I wonder just what our lives would have been like without our sturdy Pioneer Families. For instance tho I don t know a great deal of my grandfather's early life, he was born in Indiana, July 6, 1857 Archibald Wilson. He was among the oldest of a large family and when about 12 yes. old, was working and helping other farmers for a few dollars a day (it was by the month) when not in school, and I once heard him remark if he could make a dollar or two here & there for his folks to help them out plus his board and room, he could do it for himself and he said he was past 13 yrs. when he struck out on his own. Going from Ind. to Ill. to Ohio and to Missouri - while in Missouri he met my grandmother Alta Anne Prouse. She was from a family of several sisters and I think two brothers. I think she lived in or near Stockton Missouri. I do know her folks had homesteaded there and built at first a two room log cabin and around this cabin were planted white & purple lilacs plus a beautiful thorny yellow rose ( it looked a lot like a wild rose). Well the grandparents were both 20 yes. old at the time they were married and farmed for themselves and started to raise a family. By the time they had four children, Grandpa had heard of beautiful Calif. Leonise Valley - now called Leona Valley - so in the year of 1882 or maybe 1883, in the spring, he came by train to Los Angeles and as he used to say "was caught by a land shark" and came to what we call Leona Valley. He bought a small house and 160 acres of land south of the now deserted Leona Valley School, just on the curve and beyond where Juan and Arrache ranch is now. At that time, he told of the vast herds of antelope deer, rabbits- and lions etc. he thus went back to Missouri and told of buying this farm and how green and lush everything grew. In a year, he made the trip by train again to get things ready and the family could come a bit later by trainto Los Angeles- and that's just what happened.

   So Grandma Wilson- her son James S. Wilson, Dillie L. Wilson a daughter and Etha E. Wilson (my mother, who was then 7 yrs. old) and Archie E. Wilson came to Los Angeles and then to Leona Valley. Grandma carried in her suitcase a well wrapped cherished parcel part of Missouri - yes, you guessed it, a part of the wild yellow rose, which she planted and it flourished and in later years where ever she moved she transplanted this yellow rose and gave my mother some of it and we (Martin and I) have it growing at our house. Well they farmed, hand dug a well etc. and did very well. A little girl, Alta was born but lived only a few hours and was buried on this property and later a girl, Lois Elizabeth (Bessie) Wilson was born and married Lou Burns of Lake Hughes and had one son which was the extent of having a family. Clifford was their vent name. Their married life was cut short due to the St. Francis Dam Disaster where Uncle Lou worked and lived.

   Eventually the children married. James married a school teacher by the name of Elizabeth, her maiden name escapes my memory just now and Dillie married a Clarence Rogers a Los Angeles Fireman (in those days horses used to put out the fires) and they had three children three girls - Martha, Helen and Elizabeth - who all married and had families. Elizabeth passed away very young in her hurried life and had two boys, David and Roger. Oh yes, as usualy I am a bit ahead of my story. James and Elizabeth had four boys of which three are living and have families. My mother, Etha Wilson, married at age 16 to Fred H. Page of Bangor Maine. They moved about a bit before and after I was born, but did settle down in Palmdale and bought and built a home. The property has been in the family over 52 years though Mama and Papa have passed away. To go back to the story-Archie E. Wilson went to W.W. I and home and later married a Louise Heffner of Lake Hughes. There were several children in the Heffner family and their home was the old Stage Coach stopping off Place and Butterfield Stage. I believe just before you got to Lake Hughes its near the Country Club. Archie and Louise moved to the San Joaquin Valley, they had no children. James Wilson moved near Porterville and Strathmore and farmed. At one time, the Farm Journal listed Archie as the Potato King in the San Joaquin Valley.

   It takes pioneers to build a valley, the Wilsons, the Millers, the Roofs, the Eichenhofers, the Ritters the Godde and the Munz and Heffner families to name a few. All wonderful hard working, honest proud people. Also the Wiskerson family and the Young family. Yes, I am glad to be a part of this valley. I watched Palmdale grow from one store (variety) the old Palmdale Inn now tore down to make way for progress, the Palmdale Hotel-now the Pearland Hotel, and the drug store used to be run by Doc Jones and then Fred Fehrensen, the Post Office and yes even in the older years, we had a newspaper. Yes, Palmdale is now a city to be proud of.

   When I met my husband, Marty he worked for the water and power dept. at North Hollywood, my, that's nearly 40 yrs. ago. Time flies, it seems like just yesterday. We have two wonderful children. Ellen married and gave us three wonderful grandchildren to love and spoil, our granddaughter married and is the mother of a one year old boy, Greg Rudy. So now we have a great grandson to spoil and love. Our son Richard, is single and lives at home with us. Martin has worked for the Palmdale school dist. for over 27 years in transportation, driving busses, keeping them in repair, and being transportation supervisor. He is also a W.W. II Veteran. This August 8, will see us looking back on 40 years of a wonderful marriage, and God willing, I hope for 40 more years -- I guess, as usual, I ask for a lot'

   By now your eyes must be weary, but when I sit down to write letters, I just seem to ramble on and on. But, I am thankful for our Pioneer families,the stories they told and this land they made a good place for all to live in and to enjoy. Marty's people pioneered in and around Guide Rock Nebraska and his sisters and brother still farm near by. I always enjoy going there, though its been five years since the last trip. Well, we will go again some day, I think -- in the meantime, we will take our yearly vacation in August to Gold Beach Oregon and Marty and the youngest grandson Bob will try to skunk each other fishing for Salmon, and I will read and write letters, tame a wild river cat or tame a lizzard like last year or just sit quiet and watch the water of the Rogue River. Sometimes, I look out over the ocean and wait for the fishing boats to come in. Yes, I'll even watch the weeds grow on our 1/2 acre, eat the wild blackberries, might can a few and I will dream a bit about the cabin we will build in the 1/2 acre when we retire to Oregods green forests and cool waters, however, Palmdale,its memories and my dear friends here will always be my first love, but maybe I too, can pioneer in Oregon. Time will tell.


Adios now dear ones - your friend, Edythe Page Monia