Overland journeys to the Pacific -- 1849

Abstract:

Letters written to friends and family by people in California. Most of the letters are written from mining camps, but some are from San Francisco. The letters describe mining, business enterprises, sea voyages, and trips across the plains.

Abstract:

George M. Davidson's diary and correspondence describe an 1849 overland trip to California. This material records the hardships of the journey, encounters with Indians, life in the California gold mines, and his establishment of a general store in Pine Grove. There are business records such as store inventories, bills from suppliers, a mining work ledger, bullion receipts, and informal certificates for mining shares in Butte County and Sierra counties, California.

Abstract:

Research files for the publication of William R. Goulding's journal documenting his 1849 journey to California, California Odyssey. Includes subject files pertaining to Goulding and his work as a physician, Etter's correspondence with coeditor Howard Lamar and Warwick Goulding, maps pertaining to and photographs of Goulding, and a computer disk of notes on and photographs of Goulding.

Abstract: A collection of 58 journals recording 72 years of Moses Little's life. He spent 1844-1848 aboard the whaler Arnolda, commanded by Captain D. U. Coffin out of New Bedford, Massachusetts. In 1849, Little joined the Sagamore Mining and Trading Company of Lynn, Massachusetts, and traveled to California, returning in 1851. Making a second trip to California in 1852 via the Isthmus to Panama City, he sailed on the Tennessee. He...

Abstract: J.S. Holliday's collection relating to the Swain family acquired while doing research for his book The World Rushed In. The collection includes 27 letters from Sabrina and George to William, dated April 15, 1849 to September 8, 1850. Also included are "A Forty Niner," William's dictated recollections, and his will, made out before leaving for California. Other family papers include William's father Isaac's account books, letters of family members and neighbors, and a daguerreotype and cased...

Abstract: The papers consist of Thomas J. Van Dorn's letters to his wife, Henrietta Frances Wilbur Van Dorn, and his diary of an 1849 journey of a Jerseyville company from St. Joseph to California. This material describes the landscape, rigors of travel, encounters with Indians, communities on route, and life in mining camps at Bear Creek, Sacramento, and Weaverville Dry Diggings. Letters to his wife dating from 1865-1869 describe his business in Yazoo City, Mississippi. There are business contracts...