dge in America. It was received by my uncle when he was twenty-five
years old and has been in my possession since 1869, forty-two years
ago, when we received his trunks after his death. I alone am able to
give these facts of our family history, which should be known to all
the members of our family. This is a family book as well as an
intimate history of my life. I have been received during my life in
California with so much affection and appreciation by the public I
have served, that when I write I consider those who read are my
friends, that we are of one common family, and I cannot look upon the
people of California in any other way, for the very fact that
everybody I meet or have any dealings with greet me with such courtesy
and warmth.

The death of sister Mary Matilda Kroh-Trembly occurred November 8,
1856, in the thirty-first year of her life at the old home on San
Joaquin street, Stockton. In 1855 she was married to Mr. David W.
Trembly of New York. They settled in San Francisco, but after living
there for several months the climate was found to be too severe and
she contracted bronchitis, for weeks being unable to leave her room.
At last she became so feeble that she was brought home to Stockton and
lingered for weeks. I was at Benicia Seminary still and in my last
half year when I received a letter to hurry home. Uncle William
Trembly came from San Francisco to Benicia to meet me, and together we
came up the San Joaquin slough, but unfortunately for us we had many
things to keep us from arriving in time to see her alive. At last the
steamer was fast on the hog's back, the tide was out and we could not
proceed. The sailors worked with a will, but it was not until three
o'clock in the morning that we were on our way once more. What a night
of suspense! I loved my sister to devotion, and not to see her alive
was more than I dared to contemplate, but so it was to be. She passed
into eternity at the time we were trying to get off the sand bar and
when uncle and I arrived in the morning, she was dead.

This was the first death that had taken place in our family. All of us
had grown to manhood and womanhood and had been mercifully spared all
these years until now the dearest one of all had to pass away and
leave us to mourn her loss. She was the embodiment of all that was
good in life, a pattern for all to follow. She was our second mother.
When mother was attending to the church work or visiting the sick,
accompan