(Note: Because of the details of life among the first Americans and in crossing the Plains, it has seemed best to omit practically nothing from Mr. Campbell's articles. To understand the route across the Plains, the places named might be put into the present states of their location: Independence was not far from Kansas City of today on the Missouri River at the western boundary of Missouri; farther northwest is the Platte River crossing the state of Nebraska; Ft. Laramie is in the eastern edge of Wyoming, about a third of the way from the southeast corner; continuing fairly westward across Wyoming up the Sweetwater River leads through the pass of the Rockies known as South Pass. (Ft. Bridger is farther south in the very southwest corner of Wyoming; it would seem that the main body of the immigrant train did not bend south to Ft. Bridger, but that the Donner Party left the others and passing through Ft. Bridger went on southwestward through Utah and then westward through Nevada to the Truckee River where Reno now is.) The main part of the train continued westward across the Bear River in southeastern Idaho to Ft. Hall where they first touch the Snake River, followed the Snake halfway across the southern edge of Idaho (the route they were following to this point was the Oregon Trail) but at the Goose Creek which flowed from the south they turned south into Nevada and on the Humboldt and Truckee followed approximately the present Lincoln Highway.) William G. Campbell not only surveyed the streets of San Jose (Bancroft says the survey was in charge of William and Thomas Campbell) but also the streets of San Francisco in 1847 (his sons being of the party). There his wife Agnes Hancock Campbell died and was buried in an old burying ground over which Market Street was surveyed; her dust still rests under the street. David Campbell also surveyed Spanish grants in the San Joaquin Valley, according to Miss Owen's account. According to T. A. Cutting, author of the Historical Sketch of Campbell (the town in Santa Clara Valley) during the Mexican War trouble Benjamin Campbell was enlisted with the company guarding the Mission, and William and David were in the Salinas fight and the Santa Clara battle at which Sanchez was defeated (January 2, 1847); also "William Campbell, who early set up as a merchant in San Jose, manufactured a curious threshing machine for the ripened grain . . . .The idea of adobe houses did not appeal to the newcomers" - hence the sawmill. Benjamin Campbell piloted in 1852 to California (his third trip) the Lovells, the Ruckers, the Finleys, and the Robert Campbells. -- Steve Williams [email protected] California Pioneer Project http://www.compuology.com/cpl/ Tulare County GenWeb Page http://www.compuology.com/cagenweb/tularcty.htm