Who Lived in This House?: The Story of the Byer. Nail House and the History of California Farming in the East Contra Costa Count

The children of today think of museums as "old places with old things inside." This book is directed to those children. It tells the story of Martha Alice Byer and her family. She was 8 years old when she came to her new home with her family in 1880. This home now is the museum in Brentwood, California. Alice tells her story about her family and their daily tasks which occurred during the great wheat and grain farming years of the East Contra Costa County, Sacramento River Delta and San Joaquin Valley of California. She awakens to the day and does her chores, goes to school, helps her Papa and Mama. She also tells about the chores that her brother and sisters have to do each day to help maintain the family's 160 acre ranch. Also included are articles concerning Dr. John Marsh, the first Harvard trained frontier doctor in Northern California and his ranch, the mission Native Americans who had returned to their home lands at the base of Mt. Diablo and went to work for Dr. Marsh, on farming techniques of the era, the Byron Hot Springs and of the Southern Pacific railroad and its effect on the lives of her family.