Stories of the early pioneers in the San Lorenzo Valley from the mid 1800s to 1870s. Mentioned are the Bennetts, the Grahams, Harry Love, and the lawless days of bandits like Joaquin Murrietta. The story starts with Davis and Jackson Bennett who traveled with their mother Mother Bennet and alcoholic father across the Oregon Trail to California. The Bennetts settled on land at the confluence of the San Lorenzo River and what is now Love Creek. At the time of this writing some of the original buildings were still standing. Denis was shot and killed by Jesse Graham of the Graham family pioneers over a dispute about Captain Grahams gold. Jesse was tried in 1888 thirty years later and was acquited. David Jackson Bennett served with a military unit in Nicaruagua and died of yellow fever. Catherine Bennett married Isaac Graham another local San Lorenzo pioneer. Mary Bennet eventually married her second husband Harry Love and he took up the mortagage on the sawmill awith money given to him by the government for his capture of Joaquin and managed it until it was destroyed in winter storms of 1862. Mary Bennett lived mostly in Santa Clara on her ranch. The article ends with a reference to modern day connections to our past.