Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Manuscripts
Horace Austin letter to William David Lewis
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Image not available
Manuscripts
Mr. Austin informs Mr. Lewis of his business, in which he trades groceries for cotton, and details thereof. He also tells of his family, and how his son has been named Lewis in Mr. Lewis' honor. Through these successes, Austin hopes he has fulfilled the promise made to Mr. Lewis.
mssHM 23164
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Manuscripts
In this letter, Hungerford writes of the annexation of Texas to the United States, and the issues of slavery that might be affected as a result.
mssHM 26629
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Manuscripts
William Lawrence Austin wrote this letter to his father, Joseph Burn Austin, in the midst of the Leadville silver boom. Leadville had been founded only two years earlier, but not all is well. Lawrie writes to his father in South America from a smelting works in Leadville, Colorado, seeking financial help. "My dear Papa, Can't you borrow the money to keep Cecil at Yale under a guarantee from me to pay it back with interest? It is really too bad for me to be taking all these chances...I am overworked, under paid, & tied up in such a way, than a human being can't be expected to stand it." One of his co-workers, Abarci, left some time ago and two more are going to leave the smelting works soon. He suggests, "Now I'll give you the boys' plan & you can see what a temptation it is to me. They intend to start an assay office up town, then add on a store, to consist of simply miner supplies, then do a general professional business besides. We will be working for ourselves..." He is confident that "...we will make the strongest team in the country." Lawrie is in despair because he must endure the dangers of the smelting works and shortchange his own future by attending to his brother's needs first, a brother who spends his time reading novels and his money on "pleasure seeking." He states, "You don't know how interesting life has been becoming for me, & I must stay in the poisonous fumes of furnaces, & give up every thing...I have to look far enough into the future, anyhow, in order to see a blue sky, but to think that I must give up my Leadville, & start again at some future day, possibly in some camp, & certainly without one cent to back me is very hard Papa." He concludes, "You must pay some attention to my case, as well at Cecil's. You could not keep one man in a hundred as you are keeping me, & there will be a final blow up, if you keep on, & that I want to avoid if possible." The letter is simply signed "Lawrie."
mssHM 80808
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Manuscripts
Five letters written by William Lawrence Austin to his father dealing with the Leadville Colorado silver rush of 1878-1879. One of the letters contains a sketch. Some are on J. B. Grant & Co's Smelting Works letterhead. Four of the letters were written from Leadville (one from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.)
mssHM 81295-81299
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Manuscripts
Six letters sent by Horace Bell in Los Angeles to Lewis C. Granger and his sister Belle Granger Ekman between 1870 and 1893. In the first letter to Granger, dated 1870, Bell writes of his family life since 1862, of a lack of heirs and titles in the Gray estate and of his plans to "let the matter go to the state." In 1872 he writes of deciding not to sell his house for his wife's sake and of his son's education; in 1882 he notes "I am grieved at your silence;" in 1885 he writes of being busy in the Superior Court and of a land matter relating to Granger; and in 1887 writes that the "world of rascality here has combined under the leadership of G. Wiley Wells employed by E.J. Baldwin, to brake [sic] down my paper...and disgrace me." He further notes that "this arrant [sic] scoundrel" Wells had gone to Oroville, where Granger lived, and asks Granger to watch him and to send Bell his own recollection's of Bell's time in Oroville between 1852 and 1858. Included is a newspaper clipping with a derogatory story about Bell, which calls him a "drunken debauchee, [who] frequently found his way into the chain-gang," among other things. The final letter was sent to Belle Granger Ekman in 1893, and in it Bell thanks her for sending him a book on the Granger family, and advises her to "take the original biographical sketch and have it published in a neat centerable book."
mssHM 30938-30943
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Manuscripts
Series of letters written from Horace F. Page to C.C. Williams between January 1881 and July 1882 in response to the latter's seeking of a presidential appointment for a consulship. Page writes repeatedly to Williams that he is doing all he can to secure Williams such a position, and urges him to come to Washington or continue to wait patiently for a position to become available. Page also offers Williams a place in the pension office, which Williams declined.
mssHM 73673-73681