Mormon contributions to California history are generally well known. Most school children have heard of the march of the Mormon Battalion. The name of Samuel Brannan is known to almost any student interested in this area. The more inquisitive scholar is familiar with the voyage of the BROOKLYN and subsequent relations of the Mormons to the history of San Francisco. The mention of New Hope, however, brings puzzled looks to the faces of most people, including Mormons today living within twenty miles of the area. The Mormon movement to California was part of a general exodus by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from the East and Mid-west. Persecuted for many reasons, the Mormons had been forced to leave their homes in Illinois for some place "beyond the Rocky Mountains". At the same time, those members of' the Church in the eastern states were directed to proceed by ship to a spot on the Pacific Coast. It is the latter group about whom Part I is written. Much of the history of the Mormons in California, and of New Hope in particular, is sketchy, misleading and at times in actual error. Although it must be admitted that almost all the material contained in Part I had been used before by other writers, this study, as far as it is known, offers a contribution in that every reference available on Mormons in central California, in New Hope in particular, is gathered together within one volume.