Manuscripts
Set of letters written to David Coverstone in Shenandoah County, Virginia, by acquaintances in California. The first 8 letters were sent by Andrew Cullers between 1874 and 1887, when he was living in Colusa, Leesville, and Little Stony, California. Cullers writes throughout of life in California, including his first impressions, land he has purchased, agricultural prospects, and the price of produce and livestock. He also comments frequently on Southern politics, including his refusal to take an oath of allegiance in Missouri ("I refused to swallow the damnable teste [sic] oath," he wrote on May 10, 1874), his firm stance as a Democrat and hatred of Republican politics and Ulysses S. Grant in particular, and a poem he composed on the death of Robert E. Lee. There are also 9 letters sent by Milton M. Ritenouer to David and Harvey Coverstone from 1853-1856. Ritenouer writes from Virginia of securing passage to California, from the Isthmus of Panama about his journey, and from Columbia, California, about working in the gold mines, lacking enough water to run his claims, and how much profit his fellow miners have made. One of the letters is also signed by Joseph Keyser. Also included is a letter from Morgan, Charles and Sons in New York, written on New York Steamship Line via Nicaragua letterhead and regarding a sea voyage (1857).
mssHM 16840-16857
