In 1862, when he was 75 years old, my ancestor Calvin Brewster left his home in Mt. Sterling, Iowa with his wife, Harriet (Cramer) Brewster, his younger children, Laura, Nancy, Isabel, [Silas] Ralph, and [John] Calvin, and his step-son Abe Daily, for California. His daughter, Laura, later wrote a short book about their journey, which took five months and covered more than a thousand miles. Here is a map of their approximate route. The blue markers represent places which were mentioned in the book or which I was able to determine from the description given. The book is Crossing the Plains with Ox Teams by Laura Brewster Boquist, copyright 1930 by Laura L. Tritt.
