Author Archives: nancyleek

I came across this fun book titled Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and other states that never made it, by Michael J. Trinklein (Quirk Books, 2010). This is a light-hearted and well-illustrated look at dozens of proposed states … Continue reading →

Just a snippet from a book I was looking at yesterday. I always enjoy reading about women pioneers and the reaction they engendered when they arrived at a mining camp. The book is The Pierce Chronicle: Personal Reminiscences of E. … Continue reading →

Isadore Meyerowitz and Peter Lassen moved from Indian Valley to Honey Lake Valley in the summer of 1855. It was a place they had visited as early as 1850, and they became permanent residents when they wintered over in 1855-56. … Continue reading →

[I was trying to fix a missing picture in this post, but I can’t find the picture, and I can’t put the post back to 2018. So I’ll just post it again so as not to lose it.] When I … Continue reading →

My big project this summer is remodeling our kitchen, which was vintage 1974. Harvest gold everywhere! Even a range hood in harvest gold. Now it is almost done — just a few bits of trimming to put on and getting … Continue reading →

Only a few months after the Likins family arrived in San Francisco they experienced a violent earthquake. The earthquake had a magnitude between 6.3 and 6.7, and took place on the Hayward Fault on October 21, 1868. It was called … Continue reading →

And here she is! Or should I say, “Here I Come,” since that’s what Mrs. J. W. Likins says herself on the picture. Six years of selling books had given Amy Likins plenty of confidence. This is the title page … Continue reading →

Mrs. Likins, the Bancroft book agent, took pride and comfort in her membership in the Rebekah order of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and she mentions this several times in her memoir. The Odd Fellows were founded in the … Continue reading →

Amy Likins (or as she preferred, Mrs. J. W. Likins) was soon selling books as well as engravings. She usually took two or three new titles in her basket. Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad came out in 1869 and was … Continue reading →