Anna's actual birthdate, when a search of the church records on the island of Flores, Azores, was done, was found to be August 1,1870. She was baptized the next day in the church of Sao Pedro. Her baptism record stated that she was the daughter of Antonio Caetano Lourenco, a native of N. S. Milagres of Lagedo and Anna Ursula of the same parish. She was the granddaughter paternal of Caetano Lourenco and Anna de Trinidade and maternal of Manuel Furtado and Anna Ursula. Godparents were Caetano Gomes, widower and Our Lady of the Rosary.

Anna's siblings were Manuel, Caetano (1867-1867), Caetano, and Maria. Anna's family was very poor and life for the little girl was made even more difficult because her mother was chronically ill. Anna's mother was sick for at least seven years and, for some reason, could not sleep on a hay mattress, as this made her condition worse. She made her mattress out of old cornhusks. Her mother's illness, which plagued her with a bad cough, kept her bedridden the last year of her life. The family had chickens but the eggs were given to Anna's sick mother while Anna could only lick the remnants of the egg from the inside of the shells. It was Anna's job to take the family milking cow out to government land to graze each day and bringing it back in the evening. She would take her lunch which consisted of a heavy cornbread. Other village girls would also be there with their cows and sometimes the girls traded lunches. Those who were wealthier had wheat bread. Anna was able at times, to trade her peasant cornbread for the wheat bread, and later told her children that the wheat bread seemed like "cake" to her, since her family could never afford wheat. Anna took the family laundry along to wash in the river and would lay the wet clothes on rocks. By the time it was time to come home at night to milk the cow, the laundry would be dry. Anna also told her children of happier times when, at Easter, she decorated the cow with flowers and wreaths, which was the custom of the village. Neighborhood girls tried to outdo each other with their decorations. The happy recollections were few for the young Anna. The harshness of her life can be characterized by one particular recollection which she recounted to her children. One day, in fear that her mother was dying, Anna ran down the street to call a neighbor. On the way home she fell down and another neighbor helped her up saying, "Don't run anymore, your mother is already dead." Anna was only 11 years old. Her father remarried Marianna de Jesus da Purificacao and went on to have five more children Manuel, Jose, Antonio, Caton, Marianna, and Maria. All of Anna's siblings and half siblings came to California with the exception of half-brothers Antonio who was a whaler and died at sea and Caton, who fell off a cliff as a young boy.

Anna dreamed of a better life in America and wrote to her older brother, Manuel Caetano Lourenco who was married and living in Alvarado, California. She asked for his help and made plans to leave Flores. She booked passage on the S.S. Vega but had to take a small boat from the island to board the big ship. The sea was very rough that day and she got seasick. Some young girls from the island of Sao Miguel watched her from aboard the Vega and laughed at her and imitated her sickness as she boarded the ship. Anna later told of the dirty conditions on board ship and observed that some of the passengers had head lice and were reprimanded by a Mr. Rose, (possibly the captain), who called them "porcas" (pigs) for combing their infested hair over the common benches. Anna had one bag and traveled in steerage compartment number two. On this ship there were three steerage compartments, number one held 100 passengers, number two had 109 passengers and number three, had 176 passengers. With 74 people in the cabin of the boat, the ship carried a total of 459 passengers when it arrived in New York harbor on March 24, 1891.

Anna settled at her brother Manuel's house in Alvarado and found work as a seamstress. Anna's brother Caton also lived in the area and came visiting his sister one day with his friend, Joe F. Vargas, thinking that his friend might be a good match for his sister. After Joe's second visit, Anna's sister-in-law, Minnie, said "I guess he is coming here because he wants to marry you." Anna had no intention of losing her newfound freedom and told Minnie that she was not interested! Her sister-in-law replied, "Well, we can't have you here all the time!" Anna, feeling unwelcome, thought that she had no other choice. Anna cried herself to sleep that night and decided to accept Joe's attentions.

Anna and Joe were married on August 15, 1891, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in San Francisco, less than five months after Anna's arrival in America. Joe, who had been living in one of the little shacks on the Curtner property, was given lumber by his landlord to build a house for his new bride high in the Warm Springs hills. Their wedding portrait captured a handsome Joe, who had hazel eyes, a neatly trimmed mustache and his thumb slipped casually through a gold watch chain. Anna stood beside him, brown eyed, short in stature, her head barely reaching her husband's shoulder. Brown curly hair framed her round face which wore a serene but serious expression as she slipped her arm through her husband's on her wedding day. Their wedding reception was at her brother Manuel's house and Joe took his new little wife to their home in a horse and buggy that Mr. Curtner had given them. The house had wooden floors, no running water and was warmed with a wood stove. Water was hauled up the hills by hand from a spring below. A homemade table was the center of their kitchen. Anna wallpapered her house with newspaper which, when soiled, would be covered up with the latest "edition" thus giving the house insulation as well as fresh paper over the years. A bench was built outside of the house for Anna to put her laundry tubs that were in constant use with the large family that they raised. Anna and Joe had ten children, seven of them were born in this little house. They were Alvino (1892), Joe (1894), Mary (1895), Minnie (1897), Annie (1900), Tony (1901), Rosie (1904), Adeline (1906), Manuel (1909), and Florence (1912). Manuel was born in another house on the Curtner property which, by that time, was being managed by his son, Arthur Curtner. This house was in the flat lands and was closer to the landlord's house. Anna's meals for her growing family usually consisted of pancakes or cooked cereal for breakfast, beans and kale soup for lunch with fish and potatoes served every night for supper. The Vargas children entertained themselves in simple country amusements growing up. Daughter Annie and son, Tony, told of "voyages" they would take in their mother's laundry tub, which they would launch on any inviting accumulation of water that they found in their hillside play area. Rosie, Adeline and Manuel recounted tales of holding funeral's for bugs that they put to rest in empty cigar boxes. Manuel would carry these makeshift coffins in his little wagon and Rosie and Adeline would follow behind their brother's hearse, appropriately crying and sobbing. The girls also loved to make and eat mud pies. They sometimes built little cities using eucalyptus leaves and seeds for roadways. The children attended Warm Springs Grammar School and all were faced, for the first time, with an English speaking world, when they attended school.

Joe and Anna saved up and bought, in 1910, 33 acres of land which had belonged to James Leitch. James Leitch was an early resident of Warm Springs who emigrated in 1862 from Scotland and bought 105 acres of fairly flat land in Warm Springs. Joe and Anna paid approximately $8,000 for this orchard land where their crops were prunes, apricots, walnuts and some grapes which they used for making their own wine. The family moved into the old Leitch home which was located at the end of what is now Hackamore Lane. In later years, they were able to build a newer house on the property. The original house had a hedge of ivy and roses on one side in which birds made their nests. Every morning the family was serenaded by these little feathered neighbors. The Vargas sons, now teens, worked along with their father to pay off the ranch. Florence, the last of their children, was born here along with many of their grandchildren as Anna acted as a midwife for her daughters. Often the local doctor, Elmo Grimmer, was called to assist in the births. Dr. Grimmer was a graduate of Hanneman Medical School in San Francisco who began practicing in Irvington in 1908. He attended generations of the Vargas family through the years for births, illnesses and deaths. Besides her midwifery duties, Anna was also known as a "healer". She used to bless the sick for erysipelas and "cobrante", which was the name of an affliction caused by the "evil-eye". For example, if someone was jealous of another's baby, that baby might become sickly. Anna would make a cross of rosemary and recite a blessing over the sick. Many people brought their sick to Anna for the blessing and claimed that she cured them. One such story about Anna's cures involved a neighbor child by the name of Dutre who would not talk. He was blessed by Anna and then, in a complete sentence, said out loud, "Grandpa, you have one eye bigger than the other." in observation of his grandfather who was there for the blessing. Another time, Anna was said to have cured a cow who would not eat before it was blessed for "cobrant". Anna taught these prayer blessings to her youngest daughter, Florence, who also was believed to have the gift of healing.

Anna and Joe helped to raise two of their grandchildren, Beatrice and Molly Vargas, son Alvino's children, after their mother died in childbirth in 1927. Besides Beatrice and Molly, various grandchildren could always be found at Joe and Anna's house. Many of the grandchildren who called the Vargas farm their second home remember that their grandmother kept a tortoise as a house pet. The tortoise would eat the crumbs that would fall from the family dining table.

Anna suffered from diabetes and had circulatory problems in her legs. Always a hard worker, her health problems forced her to stay off her feet as much as possible in her last years. She used this time to pray her rosary, which had already been a lifelong daily practice. Her diet required that she not eat regular bread but bread made out of gluten flour. She would pray rosaries for various deceased members of her family. Anna died on March 31, 1937 following the amputation of a leg by Dr. Grimmer. Joe remained in the home that he had worked so hard to earn in Warm Springs until his death of a heart attack on November 12, 1944.
Copyright Susan Vargas Murphy. All rights reserved.