Ben Helphinstine was a brother of Rebecca McIntosh. He and his wife Emily were living in Washington, Daviess County, Indiana at the time that many of his relatives traveled by wagon train to California in 1852. Emily Helphinstine was 5 months pregnant with their first child, Florence, when his relatives began the perilous journey. It would have been unwise to attempt the three and a half month trip in her condition. Florence was born in Indiana, as was her brother William in 1858. I don't know the details of when, why or how but Florence's family traveled to California by 1870.

The 1870 census listed Florence as a resident of "Monroe", Colusa County, California. The nearest post office was St. Johns, located 2 miles below present-day Hamilton City in Glenn County. Monroeville was the county seat of Colusi County (1851-53) before it was changed to Colusa. The location of the townsite was about 5 miles south of Hamilton City at the mouth of Stony Creek.

When Florence was 22 she married John Jackson Waste on Nov. 29, 1874 in Chico, Butte County, Calif. Her husband had been married twice before, first to Florence's cousin Margaret Helphenstine and then to another cousin, Mary Catherine McIntosh. Mary's mother was named Rebecca McIntosh but her maiden name was Helphenstine. Rebecca's brother J. P. J. Helphinstine was the father of Margaret, John's first wive.

According to the Butte County Great Register, in 1878, Florence's father Benjamin was a farmer at Nelson, near Chico in Butte County.