Nancy Kelsey, the sole woman to join the Bidwell - Barttleston Party, the earliest organized overland immigrant party into California, became the first American woman to cross the plains and traverse the rugged Sierra Nevada. She arrived on foot in 1841 carrying her infant daughter, Ann. Nancy followed her husband from Missouri to California, up to Oregon and back, on to Mexico and Texas, then back again to various locations in California, where in Los Angeles she was widowed in 1888. After this loss, she returned to Cuyama and homesteaded an area up an oak-studded canyon. She raised chickens and vegetables to support herself until her death in 1896. The local community called her the "Angel Of Cuyama" because of her generosity toward the infirmed. As was her wish, Nancy was buried in a store-bought coffin purchased by her friends and brought in from Santa Maria by horse.