Manuscripts

Lucy Stoddard Wakefield letter to "Lucius & Rebecca"

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Description: Lucy Wakefield writes to her friends Lucius and Rebecca, describing her environment in the mining town of Placerville, California. Like many others who arrived for the Gold Rush, she would like to stay in California permanently. Her shop has been doing well, and she has been making twenty dozen pies per week, all on her own. Of living in California, where she has been for two and a half years, she writes "there is no way for a woman to make money except by hard work of some sort." Lucy hopes to see her friends in California soon. Dated 1851, September 18-25.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 1851.
Call number: mssHM 16386
Creator: Wakefield, Lucy Stoddard(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Purchased from William Todd, 1945, October 29.
Dimensions

Leslie Bryson letter to "Friend Stoddard"

Manuscripts

Bryson is bound for China via the Sandwich Islands, and hopes to return in five or six months with three hundred Chinese workers under contract to serve five years in California. Bryson has visited Lucy, and speaks at length of her.

mssHM 16387

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Thomas F. Seward letter to Lucy F. Seward

Manuscripts

In this letter to his wife, Thomas F. Seward writes that wages have fallen in California, calling twenty-five to fifty dollars a month "extraordinary." His job, however, is safe, as he is good at it. He writes of a recent event where a man killed another for not allowing him to marry his daughter. The murderer has been hanged. A second murder soon followed. Seward also writes of a fire in the city, and reports of similar recent blazes in Marysville and Sacramento. A ship from China brought cholera with it, and many in the city have gotten sick. He has received the daguerrotype sent from home, and writes, "I have got the Home Fever to night - the worse kind." Small booklet, bound in red paper.

mssHM 20721

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Mary Jane Brooks letter to Fanny Davis

Manuscripts

In this letter to her sister Fanny Davis, Mary Jane Brooks writes that as she is now sixty years of age, she is unable to work as in her youth. She asks for back payment on rent for Fanny's house, where she lived for twenty-five years without payment, or suggests Fanny buy the property outright. She also writes of details of mutual friends in San Francisco.

mssHM 19795

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Palomita letters to "Dear Mom" and "Deer Grandmudder"

Manuscripts

HM 83620 (a): Letter written from Palomita to "Dearest Mom" from Santa Monica, California. In this letter, Palomita writes about situation where she may move back to Pomona, California, "if things get bad." She writes, "We were ready to evacuate San Pedro once & now Bob has the trailer ready to pile things into - It may all be silly but still one can't be too careful at a time like this." She also questions "suppose they will close the border like in the last war?" She finishes the letter in Spanish.

mssHM 83620 (a-b)

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Cora A. Juel letter to Augusta Bjeldanes

Manuscripts

Writing from Los Angeles, California, Juel describes the weather conditions, social activities, work and home life. She mentions a "novel experience," which was a flood along the base of the mountains as a result of heavy rainfall during the month of January. She also writes about her Spanish lessons and leisurely drives in the afternoon with a friend. In one passage about the popularity of the cañons, she describes, "Among the Mts. are so many pretty cañons and retreats that the roads are lined up with autos like a funeral procession every Sunday." Although she misses her friends and family, she would not change living in Southern California "for the middle west again unless necessity demanded it." Referred to in the letter are her brothers Melvin (born 1890) and Edwin (born 1892), and sister Polly (Palma) (born 1899), all in Canton, South Dakota.

mssHM 80837

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Andrew Jackson, Washington D.C., letter to Rachel Jackson, Hermitage, near Nashville, Tennessee :

Manuscripts

Regrets to hear she has been indisposed, expresses concern for her welfare while he is away; mentions his political enemies, reports on wellbeing of various friends.

mssHM 23073

Lucy Stoddard Wakefield letter to "Lucius & Rebecca"

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Leslie Bryson letter to "Friend Stoddard"

Thomas F. Seward letter to Lucy F. Seward

Mary Jane Brooks letter to Fanny Davis

Palomita letters to "Dear Mom" and "Deer Grandmudder"

Cora A. Juel letter to Augusta Bjeldanes

Andrew Jackson, Washington D.C., letter to Rachel Jackson, Hermitage, near Nashville, Tennessee :