Correspondence, family history, California Battalion accounts and correspondence, and grant and ranch materials.

Pearson Barton Reading was born in New Jersey, November 26, 1816. He came to California as a member of the Chiles-Walker party in 1843. He worked for John A. Sutter as a clerk, explorer, and chief of trappers and commanded at Sutter's Fort in Sutter's absence during the Micheltorena Campaign (1845). In 1844, Reading was granted his Buena Ventura Rancho. Reading served in the California Battalion in 1846 as paymaster with the rank of major. 1849 found Reading in Sacramento where he had a store in company with Hensley and Snyder. He ran for governor 1851, missing election by only a few votes. In 1856, he married Fannie Washington and retired to his rancho where he deoted himself to agriculture. He died on May 29, 1868.

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