One of the earliest American families to come to San Fernando Valley was the N.C. Johnsons. In 1871 they came through Fremont Pass, the two little daughters, riding hardy mustang ponies, assisting Mt. Johnson in driving the cattle, while mother drove the team hauling household stuff and little ones. After proceeding a mile they passed through a tollgate and soon reached the stage house at Lopez Station, which furnished the hungry travelers with a good dinner. Camping for the night on San Fernando creek they looked across at the lights of the little settlement known as Lopez Station. After going a dozen miles farther southwest they came to oat Hills, beyond the present site of Chatsworth. Here their long journey ended. They secured a homestead tract of one hundred and sixty acres and this property is still held in the Johnson family.

The privations and hardships of their pioneer life give us a vivid picture of the primitive conditions of those times. Mr. Johnson was usually hauling wood from the canyons or wool from the sheep ranches to Los Angeles, so the care of the cattle and the ranch devolved upon the family. Mrs. An Johnson, practical, efficient housekeeper, mother and rancher all through the busy day, added yet another vocation about the evening lamp when the dining room changed to a school room and she taught her little flock. For the nearest school was at Lopez Station, a dozen miles away. No school was established at either Chatsworth or Calabasas until 1880.

The little Johnson girls, prematurely developed by stern necessity, performed many a wild and dangerous task. Little twelve-year-old Hannah rode fearlessly a dozen miles through wild sheep and cattle ranges with saddlebags filled with butter to exchange for groceries at Lopez Station. She was a source of unfailing delight to the little Lopez girls as she dismounted, booted a spurred like a trooper, and while the pony rested there was time for childish play. Mary and Hannah often wandered for miles on foot, through canyons and up rugged hills watching and counting the cattle, for thieves were active driving the cattle across the order into Mexico.

These wanderings were often filled with odd adventures. They sometimes stopped to play in the old brick kiln where less than a century before Mission Indians had made the bricks for the mission floors. They used to gaze with childish wonder at the Indian Hieroglyphics painted on the rocks by a long vanished race. Though often overtaken by darkness they were guided safely home by the light placed in the window by their anxious mother.

An orchard was planted of apples, peaches, apricots and later oranges, and in time fruit was sold at the sheep ranches. This was the first orchard in the western part of the Valley for many years.

Early pioneers leave their impress for good or evil upon a town. San Fernando Valley has been fortunate in the fine character of her pioneers, and especially of three women, all women of faith in prayer, strong mentality and Christian character, each a power in her individual sphere. I mention them in the order of their coming to the Valley: Mrs. Geronimo Lopez, Mrs. Ann Johnson and Mrs. Kate Maclay, wife of Senator Maclay.