Seven Names: A Story of the Bale Family in Alta California, 1818-1849

HISTORICAL FICTIONSeven Names: Life in California before Statehood: 1818-1849A body appeared on the beach in Monterey Bay, in 1837, with nary a vessel in sight nor debris from a wreck. The near-drowned man was Dr. Edward Turner Bale, an Englishman. Despite a mysterious and hidden past, Dr. Bale was hired by General Mariano G. Vallejo as the Medical Examiner for the Mexican Army. General Vallejo's much-loved niece, Maria Ignacia, wished for a new and different life than what a woman could expect in Monterey.
She attained her wish by falling in love with the Englishman and becoming Mrs. Bale. Though her new and different life was often ugly and painful, she persisted with never-faltering strength. Her story unfolds within the early history of California before it became a state. Amidst the Bales' struggles, this story introduces the reader to the powerful Vallejo family in Alta-California, a landscape of grizzlies, pirates, members from many native tribes among the Californios, the secularization of the Spanish Missions, the building of the Bale Grist Mill, and the comings of such Americans as George Yount, Thomas Larkin, John A.
Sutter, and John C. Frémont.