Helen Farrar Drew

Helen was born in Lexington County, South Carolina on 6 May 1851 and lived there for about four years. Her parents then moved north to New Hampshire searching for new employment opportunities. Shortly thereafter, they again moved in search of employment. The quest took them westward to Wisconsin. Five years later, Helen's mother, brother and grandmother died within a few months of each other.

After burying most of his family, Helen's father, Thomas, took his two surviving young daughters west to California by wagon train. When they arrived in Fort Bridger, Wyoming, he gave each of them 10 cents to buy candy. Instead of buying candy, they both bought green onions. They had only eaten dried beef and other trail rations for weeks and dearly wanted 'fresh' vegetables. Helen said that nothing had ever tasted as good as 'those green onions'.

Helen married David Lewis Drew in Calaveras County, California. David had moved to 'the Calaveras' from Plymouth, Massachusetts during the famous California Gold Rush era.

David and Helen spent the remainder of their lives in Calaveras County, never returning east to see any surviving family members. They raised a family of 8 children in Copperopolis struggling through the hard economic times that afflicted the area when the copper mines closed after the end of the Civil War. Helen died in Copperopolis, Calaveras County, California on 12 Sep 1912 and is buried beside her husband in the cemetery in Copperopolis.California.