LIVING MEMORIES
A MEMOIR BY NELLIE GAIL MOULTON
EDITED BY SCOTT T. BARNES
In 1879, John and Prudence Gail and their baby daughter Nellie set off across Kansas in a covered wagon seeking a new life. They lived through drought and storms, cruel twists of fate, illness and failure. They never gave up.
True to the family spirit, as a young woman Nellie hopped on a train alone in 1902 and headed to the Pacific Northwest to become a schoolteacher. She didn’t know what lay ahead, didn’t know she would meet Lewis Fenno Moulton, an “ambitious, adventurous” Southern California rancher who would fall in love with her and change her life forever.
Together they changed Southern California forever, too. Lewis established a ranch in what is now Laguna Hills that eventually reached 22,000 acres. Nellie, herself an artist, helped establish the Laguna College of Art and Design, as well as the Laguna Playhouse, in the early 20th century.
With a foreword by her great-grandson Scott T. Barnes, and more than 100 photographs, with Living Memories Nellie Gail Moulton tells her own riveting story of adversity, old-fashioned grit, adventure, and finding love on the American frontier.
Much Ado Over a Duke
ABOUT LIVING MEMORIES
Dear friends and readers,
I have spent the past year and a half getting to know my great-grandmother. Having only met her once that I can remember, she was just an image to me—a few beautiful landscape paintings on the wall of our home, and a few stories told with that reverent voice usually reserved for the Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln, and similar figures from legend.
When we discovered Nellie’s memoir buried in a closet, I cracked open the mimeographed pages and started to get to know Nellie the woman. I learned about the triumph of getting her elementary school artwork accepted into the Chicago World’s Fair, and of her passing a year-long business class to get a job in bookkeeping. I also learned of her heartbreak when first her mother, and then older sister passed in quick succession.
I discovered how and why the family esteems honesty, a man’s word, and perseverance above all—largely taught through the example of Nellie’s father, who never gave up despite failure after failure, betrayal of business partners, and natural disasters that drove the family to flee its homestead across the plains. They survived the crossing only by thwarting horse-thieving bandits.
If you have any interest in western history, the migration west, and the settling of Southern California, I think you will enjoy Living Memories. It is available now on Amazon and all other platforms.
All the best,
Scott T. Barnes
LISTEN TO SCOTT DISCUSS LIVING MEMORIES WITH JOHN TYNAN ON KXFM
PRAISE FOR LIVING MEMORIES
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“This enthralling historical timepiece by Moulton—rescued from obscurity and edited by her great-grandson, Scott T. Barnes—preserves the legacy of a “true pioneer,” a woman whose adventures included trundling across the plains in a covered wagon and spanned decades of revolution, daring ventures, and lasting human connection.”
– Booklife by Publisher’s Weekly
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“I have never been so present with an historical figure as when I read Living Memories, by Nellie Gail Moulton.”
– Jean Stern, Director Emeritus, The Irvine Museum
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“Nellie Gail Moulton’s writing reminds me of the finest examples of saga literature, a brisk command of language that moves the reader along, touching on major events and memorable people as she weaves an account of how her fate unfolded.”
–Dr. Elisabeth Ida Lange, Executive Director of Moulton Museum
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“Moulton's historical insights make for a valuable social history, opening a window onto a California that's still finding its shape today.”
–Blueink Review