County history (no publication information provided), mentioned that he settled in the County in 1839, with Arthur Burris (also spelled as Burrows and Burras) and Mrs. Rice, all from Indiana. They settled at Pleasant Grove in 1839 and 1840. Hitchcock and Burris were the second settlers in the region, with their principal trade in whiskey. In 1840, one of the local settlers reported that Mrs. Burris and her daughters were the only white women in the County. Domestic discord caused a split in the Burris marriage; and they split up in the fall of 1840. Mrs. Burris reportedly obtained a divorce and married Hitchcock. The couple traveled westward in 1847 or 1848. Hitchcock reportedly rented the old armory building at Sutter's Fort in 1848, with a boarding house upstairs and a bar room with a monte table on the first floor. The family then was supposed to include Rufus, his wife, two daughters, and a son. Rufus Hitchcock died April 8, 1851 (Sacramento Daily Union newspaper April 15, 1851), with family lore suggesting the death was caused by smallpox. A husband of the daughter of Mrs. Hitchcock puts his cause of death as "apoplexy." Hitchcock was reported to have been buried at the cemetery at Sutter's Fort . His stepdaughter, Susan, who died in 1849, and was placed at the cemetery, was disinterred and moved to lie next to Hitchcock's grave about 300 feet away (Sacramento Daily Union newspaper January 2, 1860). Nancy Hitchcock remained at the ranch with her one of her daughters from her first marriage, Mrs. Helen Trombly. Mrs. Nancy Burrows Hitchcock formally purchased the land from the Hobart brothers on November 3, 1851 for $500. Mrs. Trombly filed a pre-emption claim on the property in late 1851. The 1852 California State census is difficult to read, but Nancy Hitchcock is listed with son Rufus, age 15, daughter Ellen or Helen Trombly, and a two year named Eliza Trombly, likely Helen's daughter. The story for the Hitchcock family remains a tragedy. A report published in February 1853 states: "The small-pox has not disappeared from Coloma, California and its neighborhood. Seventeen cases were reported at Green Springs, of which three had died" (Sacramento Daily Union newspaper, February 28, 1853). One of the victims of the disease was reportedly Nancy Hitchcock, with her nieces also reportedly dying from the disease. It is possible that the nieces mentioned are actually