Visalia: The Mother Parish of the San Joaquin Valley and its First Pastor; The Reverend Daniel Francis Dade
Comparatively little has been written about the central valley of California. In the large standard histories of the state, the journeys of a few early explorers through the San Joaquin Valley are recounted, and sometimes a few excerpts from their diaries are quoted; but thereafter, California means only the Indian missions and the Spanish settlements along the coast. In order to understand the work of the Reverend Daniel Francis Dade in the establishment of the Catholic Church in the Valley, it has been deemed necessary to supply in some measure for this omission. Therefore, in the first two chapters of this narrative a local background has been added, gleaned from the available county histories, and from personal reminiscences of pioneers.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations