over and stand with the
altos and sing with them." When the time came she gave me the music
and I sang my first service when I was ten years old, in a double
quartette and in that capacity I sang for five years, each service,
until 1850, the latter part of the year, when father had arrived in
California and sent the gold for us to follow him to the golden land,
as he called it.

[Illustration:

Mrs. Emma Jane Kroh-Knight
Mrs. Sarah Rebecca Kroh-Harrold
Mrs. Ann Lauretta Kroh-Zimmerman
Sir Geo. Henry Blake
Mrs. Margaret R. Kroh-Blake-Alverson
Mrs. Mary Matilda Kroh-Trembly
Wm. H. Knight
James Holmes
Wm. W. Trembly

THE FIRST CHURCH CHOIR IN CALIFORNIA

Stockton, 1852]

At the time of our arrival in California there were no choirs or
singers in San Joaquin county. There was one Catholic church in
Stockton but it was only a mission and the worshippers were Spanish
and Mexicans, priest, Father Mauritz. Our family was the first white
family in the city of Stockton, there being only one white woman in
the place and she was the wife of Rev. James Woods. Gladly she
received us and we were made welcome at her home for two weeks before
we were able to see father, who had been sick in Scorpion Gulch for
some time and we were obliged to await his coming. After the arrival
of our father it was planned that a choir should be established in the
First Presbyterian Church of which Rev. Mr. Woods was pastor. We had
all the female voices needed. We had made the acquaintance of several
of the prominent men in Stockton who were fortunately also singers,
and they readily consented to sing as members of the choir. What was
to be done for music? There was nothing to be had in Stockton. There
were two music stores in San Francisco and the first task was to
supply an instrument, if possible. Fortune favored us and between the
joint efforts of these musical people we obtained a good sized Mason
and Hamlin melodeon, which was duly installed into the choir of the
church. The choir members were as follows: Sopranos: Miss Emma Jane
Kroh, Miss Sarah Rebecca Kroh; Altos: Miss Mary M. Kroh, Miss Margaret
R. Kroh; Tenors: Wm. W. Trembly, Henry Noel, George H. Blake; Bass:
Wm. H. Knight, James Holmes, Wm. Belding; Organist, Miss Mary M. Kroh.

These men and women were the original members of the first choir that
had its beginning in Stockton, in 1851. During the years of 1853 and
later, the men who had families in the Eastern cities arranged