Grandpa Knowlton was a gentleman farmer in Sterling, Kansas.

His hired man was my father, Charles Abner Monson. The Knowlton's oldest daughter was my mother Olive (NMI). In the spring of 1906 my father 25 and my mother 17 decided to get married. They did. On the way to California they stopped in Elk City, Oklahoma with an uncle where my oldest sister was born in 1907.

1200 miles west of Elk City was Long Beach California. My second oldest sister was born there in 1909,

I have thought about these events since I became interest in genealogy six years ago. It was 1907 and and this young couple with a newborn baby faced a 1200 mile trip to Long Beach. Route 66 was not established until 20 years later.  How did they get to Long Beach? The automobile was not really invented yet.

Stagecoach, railroad train, or ?  What do you think?

This is the Knowlton family. My mother is the lovely girl on the left.