This story was taken from a book titled "A History Of San Joaquin County California" when I visited the Library
in Lodi, CA. in October of 2000.

Vesta Mason, the great grand-daughter of pioneers Benjamin and Rebecca Pope grew up listening to gripping stories of her
families adventurous wagon train journey to sparsely settle Lodi in 1861. Every Sunday and on holidays the entire Pope clan would converge on the farmhouse just east of Lodi where Mason's
grandparents Henry and Saloma Pope lived. Having the family together was an important tradition, one which allowed for
stories of the past to be told and remembered.

Henry Pope was a three year old boy when his parents, Benjamin and Rebecca, loaded up their children, a crate of chickens,
two horses, tho cows, six oxen, and as many possessions as they could in their covered wagon and a smaller wagon. One of
those possessions was a cherished curio stand that Mason now has in her home. The wagon train left Missouri in the spring of 1861. Rebecca Pope was pregnant and more comfortable walking and leading the
six oxen pulling the big wagon. Benjamin Pope rode the small wagon pulled by the frisky horses. Their baby was born on the
trip, but died at birth. Rebecca became ill, and the train stopped for three weeks while she recovered. They traveled the Oregon
Trail through the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, then they took the southern fork through the desert to Carson City,
Sacramento, and Lodi.

When they first reached the Lodi area they set up camp just southeast of Smith's Lake (now known as Lodi Lake). But in 1862
they were driven out of their temporary settlement by a flood. They found high ground around Cherokee Lane and Lockeford
Street, and they began buying land for $1.50 an acre. They raised grain and watermelons.

Henry Pope married Saloma Avery in the early 1880's and they settled where Victor Road and Guild Avenue now intersect and
began their own farm. At first he grew grain and watermelons, but later switched to grapes and fruit. Their daughter, Alma, one
of five children, married James W. Pinkerton in 1916, and they lived on 10 acres at the corner of Pine Street and Cluff Avenue.
Vesta Pinkerton (Mason) was born two years later. By that time her extended family converging on the Henry Pope farmhouse
numbered between 20 and 30.

As a little girl in 1920's Lodi, Mason said it was unusual to see horse and buggies anymore, cars were established as the mode
of transportation. Roller skating was a favorite recreation. "We roller skated down Pine Street. It was paved, but gooey when it
got hot so we only skated in the morning and evening." Mason said.
Mason remembered running down the street to meet her father, a machinery pattern maker, when he got off the Central
California Traction Company car after his work day in Stockton. It was later in the 1940's when her father started the Pinkerton
Foundry in Lodi.

Mason attended Garfield School, Lincoln School, and Salem School where she graduated from the eighth grade. She also
remembered the girls wore formal gowns at the Lodi High School auditorium ceremony and she got her first pair of new silk
stockings as a present.

The great depression of the 30's was felt by everyone then. Mason's grandparents gave each family in the Pope clan got pig
when it got cold. They ate every part of the pig they could. They ate scrabbled grains, "cracklin's" made from boiling the fat
and skin, and what meat could not be preserved by smoking they ate fresh. They had only an ice box then. Mason's parents had
a cow, so they served hot cocoa in the winter and ice cream in the summer to the Methodist Church youth group that Mason
frequently had over.

Hale park was the place to be as a youngster in the summer. There they would play checkers, jacks, cards, ball games, and once
a week they would swim. On Tuesday nights families sat on the lawn to hear the hour-long band concert. Another year-round
recreational treat was going to the movies. Mason remembered their regular Saturday night outing with the Pope clan. They
would eat dinner at the "Tokay Theater" on School Street to watch the news clips, serials, and featured movie.

Mason graduated from high school in 1937. Several months later she married "Bud" Herschel Mason, Jr. They had known each
other since they were babies and their mothers met regularly in a neighborhood sewing circle group. They built a home on a
small farm on Guild Avenue and raised grapes, fruit, and a son and daughter.
Mason became a San Joaquin County Historical Museum docent in 1982. She is the voice narrating a museum slid show
entitled, "Grandma's History Of Lodi". Like all grandparents who told stories of pioneering. Mason keeps Lodi history alive
through her presentations to schools and service clubs.
By Christi Kennedy