VOL. II.] Andrew Fackson Grayson. 39 
and completed the last of the way over the mountains by them- 
selves.’”’ 
After six months constant traveling, the Grayson family reached 
the Sierra Nevada. Every step of the journey had been pleasant 
to Mr. Grayson, who had often wandered miles from the train on 
hunting excursions, observing birds. 
That October time in 1846, when they first stood upon the 
heights of the Sierra Nevada at a point overlooking the magnifi- 
cent Sacramento Valley, has been perpetuated upon canvas by 
William S. Jewett (1850). The painting is about 5x6 feet and 
cost Mr. Grayson two thousand dollars in addition to the artist’s 
expenses in visiting the scene. ; 
Immediately upon his arrival in California Mr. Grayson, leaving 
his family at Sonoma, volunteered his services in defense of the 
State. Every American was needed then, and Grayson, raising a 
company of mounted riflemen, joined the regular forces and re- 
- mained on duty until peace was restored. | 
At the beginning of the gold excitement, he went, like almost 
every one else, to the “ diggings,’’ and was so far successful as to be 
considered one of the wealthy men of San Francisco. 
Making one more attempt at a mercantile pursuit, he became a 
member of the firm of Grayson, Guildo & Lightner, on Sansome 
street; disappointment, reverses and fire came and came again, till 
he renounced the business and adopted the life of a trapper, which 
afforded him opportunities for the study of ornithology. 
_ In January, 1850, Grayson surveyed and laid out the town ot 
Grayson (afterwards named for him), on the west bank of the San 
Joaquin River, in Stanislaus county. 
In 1852 he made a visit East and to his native home on the 
Ouachita, but he found everything so gloomy there in that out-of- 
the-way place that his greatest desire was to return to California. 
Once more in San Francisco (1853), he met an old acquaintance 
and accepted an invitation to go to the plains of Tulare County on 
‘a surveying expedition. 
_ While he was absent Mrs. Grayson and some friends visited the 
Mercantile Library to examine for the first time the magnificent» 
work of Audubon, the “ Birds of America.’’ Her first thought was 
of her husband, and as soon as he returned they went together and 
spent nearly an entire day over one copy. Mr. Grayson was en- 
