McNear: Her name was America — and she did not suffer fools

Born on July 16, 1839 in Missouri, America Jane Moore was five when her family headed west in a covered wagon train, five years before the California Gold Rush began in earnest. The family settled in Sonoma County, and America’s mother died in 1851. Her father remarried soon after.

In December 1852, America and her stepsister Henrietta Parker had a double wedding, marrying two Elliot brothers. Commodore Cornelius Fulton Elliot was eight years America’s senior, and the couple settled on a ranch in Red Bluff, California. They had five children, the first-born Florence (Flora) Eleanor, born in 1862.