Miss Lola and Miss Belana sang in the Catholic
churches there. Another addition to the musical family was Miss Louisa
Falkenberg, a most excellent pianist. She afterwards became Mrs. B.
Walker Bours. Her son is also a fine pianist. He is director of the
choir of the Church of the Advent, East Oakland, at the present time.
In the month of March, 1853, we moved into our own home on San Joaquin
street, and most of our large family went with us. Cupid had been
playing pranks in the meantime and, June 18th, my sister Jane became
Mrs. Wm. H. Knight and the first break came in our family circle.
During the year of 1853 it was decided that I should have an
opportunity to finish my education, having left school at fifteen. The
Young Ladies' Seminary at Benicia was chosen, it being the only school
in California where I could complete my studies. I was one of
thirty-five pupils of the second term of the school's existence. Mary
Atkins was the principal, one of the best educators in California.
There was also a Catholic school in Benicia at the time, St.
Catherine's Convent for Young Ladies, and an Episcopal school for
boys. The public school of Stockton was for the lower grades, and I
had had these grades in the Cincinnati schools and had had one term
with my sister, Sarah, at Walnut Hill Seminary. Henry Ward Beecher's
father, Rev. Lyman Beecher, was at the head of the seminary and
Harriet Beecher was one of the teachers.
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