Property of Anorra Jane Brampton

Anorra Jane Brampton was twenty-five years of age. She was a small woman with a delicate frame, standing at five feet and four inches. She had catlike features and sharp jade eyes like her mother, a danish woman, and skin the color of cream. She kept her tousled, chamomile colored hair in braid down her back, but stray wisps hung by her elven cheekbones. Her warm smile matched the rosy color of her cheeks, and her hands were always outstretched to those in need. She grew up in the hustle and bustle of early New York City, where her parents settled in a quaint cottage before she was born. "Good Catholics" her mother called them, for they lived by the bible, but Anorra had a hidden interest in science ever since her father, a teacher, came home with a stack of textbooks on evolution when she was a child. She married Nathaniel Brampton when she was twenty-one, and gave birth to twins James and Judith soon after. Nathaniel, a real estate agent in the city, would work all day, leaving Anorra with the kids all day. In early June, 1849, Nathaniel lost his job. Stories of gold out West caught his attention, and they decided to venture to Sacramento, California by steam ship. Anorra was not too fond of the idea, but kept quiet about her disapproval. Moving out West changed her life in more ways than one, for the good and the bad.