Sarah Bixby Smith

Sarah Bixby Smith (1871–1935) was a California writer and an advocate of women's education. Adobe Days, her memoir of growing up in southern California, is considered a classic of the genre.

Early life and education Sarah Hathaway Bixby was born at Rancho San Justo near San Juan Bautista, California, in 1871. Her parents were Llewellyn and Mary Hathaway Bixby. Llewellyn Bixby was a sheepman, and with other members of the Bixby family had come to California in 1852, driving sheep and cattle from the East. Llewellyn, with his brother Jotham and three cousins (John William Bixby, Thomas Flint, and Benjamin Flint), formed the Flint-Bixby Company in 1855 to buy land to run their livestock. By the mid-1880s, they had amassed large landholdings. In addition to Rancho San Justo were Rancho Los Cerritos and Rancho Los Alamitos in Long Beach, California, Rancho San Juan Cajón de Santa Ana, and part of Rancho de los Palos Verdes.