McNear: A Mendocino pioneer whose life didn’t fade with time

In many cases, finding historical documentation of a person’s everyday life is difficult, if not impossible. People may not have kept diaries, if they could read or write at all, or first-hand accounts have been lost to time. Etta (Stevens) Pullen, however, kept diaries meticulously. As a result, a good portion of her life is well-documented.

Etta was born in 1849 in Maine. Etta’s diaries begin in 1864, the year her family left Maine for California. On February 6^th, she writes about going to “see the soldiers go out,” as the 30^th Maine Regiment was heading off to war. By June the Stevens family was preparing to head west. Etta and her sister Rachel were “vaxinated” and they were packing and selling their belongings. The Stevens travelled west on a ship via the Isthmus canal, and Etta details her homesickness while on the ship.