Manuscripts

Account of a trip from Missouri to California

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Description: Written to his father and mother by T.J. Ables, this manuscript is an account of Ables' overland journey from Boonville, Missouri to California by way of the Oregon Trail. He arrived with friends after a journey of five months and two days, having departed Boonville on May 7. He writes of his slavery discussions with locals while in Kansas, his travels through Nebraska, and how he inscribed his name on Independence Rock. In Utah, his party's cattle were driven off by hostile Indians, and Ables and his companions pursued the Indians, eventually recovering thirty-six head. This was the only direct encounter Ables had with the Indians, but he heard of many others, including one woman who survived a scalping. Typescript copy.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 1857, October 12.
Call number: mssHM 16763
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Journey of an overland trip from Missouri to California

Manuscripts

This volume is Gorgas' diary of his journey from St. Joseph, Missouri to Placerville, CA, and his return trip to New York via the Panama Canal as part of the California Gold Rush of the mid-19th century. Much of the early entries are concerned with weather conditions and landscape and route details. Gorgas and his party finally reach Placerville on July 26, the ninetieth day of their journey, and begin digging for gold outside Sacramento in August. On February 1, 1851, Gorgas boarded a ship, the Olive Branch, bound for New York by way of the Panama Canal, intending to return home to his much-missed family. He lands at Jamaica on April 1, and arrives at New York on April 8. Dated 1850, April 28 through 1851, April 8. Notes include price charts and signatures of people Gorgas may have met during his travels. Includes newspaper clipping with picture of Placerville, CA, circa 1850, and a four-page handwritten timeline of Gorgas' journey (not in his hand).

mssHM 651

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Overland to California in 1847 : letters written en route to California, west from Independence, Missouri, to the editor of the Joliet signal

Manuscripts

These letters, which Chester Ingersoll sent to the Joliet Signal, cover Ingersoll's overland trip to California. He includes many details about the journey including miles traveled each day, road and weather conditions, difficulties with the animals, the interaction with other travelers, the various historic sites along the trail, the equipment needed for the journey, and the Sioux Indians which he met at Fort Laramie. These typescripts are the copies edited by Douglas C. McMurtrie for publication in 1937.

mssHM 66492

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Account of a voyage from New York to California in 1852

Manuscripts

This manuscript is Samuel Goodman's 1861 recollection of his 1852 journey to California. In his opening lines, he writes that he "with hundreds of others blindly went forth to unknown regions impelled and urged onward by the Strange Excitement caused by the discovery of Gold in that Country." He departed from New York in January 1852 with his oldest son, aboard the ship Prometheus, bound for Nicaragua. Once arrived, it was discovered that the ship they were to take for the next part of their journey, the Central America, had been run aground, so they traveled by foot to Mexico. They went by ship the rest of the way, on board a charter ship from San Francisco by the name of Northern Light, arriving in California at the end of May. Goodman and his son take to the country and begin searching for gold. He ponders the mentality and circumstances of the California gold miner. He eventually gives up mining and spends two years "acting as Magistrate and Post Master" in Sierra County, and obtained shares in quartz and granite mining operations. He writes in detail of the various mining processes, and also relates the "Story of Logan," whom he calls "the Prince of the Mines."

mssHM 50578

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This is my trip from Texas to California

Manuscripts

This typescript of Edward Hawkins Rogers' diary details his overland trip to California from Denton County, Texas. His group, which includes his wife and son, as well as several other emigrants, takes the Butterfield Overland Trail through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Rogers mentions the Butterfield Overland Stage Line stations as his group passes them. He talks about the hardships of the trail including the birth and death of his infant daughter, lack of food and water, and fear of attacks by Indians.

mssHM 66498

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Account of a trip on horseback from San Francisco to Santa Barbara

Manuscripts

Joseph Booth writes of his experiences traveling through California during 1869. He became determined to ride his mare, named "Pet," from San Francisco to Los Angeles, in an attempt to ease his mind of an unidentified physical ailment that cause him to lose weight "to scant 120." His diary describes the weather, his accomodations at the various towns and public houses, and people he met along the way. He is automatically suspicious and afraid when meeting Indians, or, as he writes, "or what they call by that name here (a native)." There is a partial list of his expenses on the final page. The last two pages are damaged and incomplete. Original pages rebound and repaired with backing sheets. With two typewritten letters, dated 1946, July 31 and August 12, from George E. Beers to Josephine W. Beers explaining some details of the Booth family history, and an undated fragment of a third letter with similar geneaological information.

mssHM 26657

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Joseph Allan Nevins diary of a trip from Illinois to California

Manuscripts

This manuscript is Nevins' account of his journey from Illinois to California via the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads, and then by steamboat through the Panama Canal to New York. Much of it is description of the countryside, towns, and inhabitants he visits en route. He arrived in San Diego, CA, on February 21, 1874, and prospected for three weeks without success, then boarded the boat. Upon reaching Panama, there was a delay, as the ship Nevins was to take was being repaired; he writes "The waiting here is very irksome. I fear the folks at home will be anxious about us." Dated January 10 through April 1. Also included is 15-page typescript of the original.

mssHM 26339

Account of a trip from Missouri to California

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