Colorful Pioneers Grayson and Westly - Westly, CA. - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

"Southeast of this safety roadside rest area are two pioneer Stanislaus County communities. Grayson and Westley. By coincidence, both were named for veterans of military campaigns led by John C. Fremont during the Mexican War. The small community of Grayson, founded in 1850 by Andrew Grayson, was once a flourishing shipping point and ferry crossing on the San Joaquin River. Grayson, an ornithologist and artist, was known as the "Audubon of the West." He was commissioned by the Mexican Academy of Arts and Sciences to produce and illustrate studies of Mexican bird life, an agreement which ended after the execution of Mexico's Emperor Maximillian in 1867. Grayson died two years later in Mazatlan, with his work unpublished. His valuable collection of notes and watercolors of Mexican birds is now at the University of California, Berkeley. John Westley Van Benschoten was an associate of Andrew Grayson and once served briefly as a Tuolomne County Assemblyman in 1850. In 1868. Van Benschoten bought Grayson's ferry franchise and established a new town site two miles southwest of Grayson. In 1888, the citizens named the town after him, but found "Westley" easier to pronounce than "Van Benschoten"!"

Group that erected the marker: Cal Trans Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: Hway 5 Westly, CA USA URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: Not listed

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