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Manuscripts

Medorem Crawford letter to "Dear Grandfather,"

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Description
In this letter to his otherwise unnamed grandfather, Medorem Crawford writes about his experience aboard the military barque "Torrent" en route from Fort Vancouver "on which our Battery was embarked." The ship wrecked, and Crawford endeavored to "save as many of the one hundred and sixty people aboard as possible." Once gaining shore in Alaska at Fort Kodiak, Crawford writes that "we are about as poor as poverty can make us" and that "this is a miserably poor country fit for nothing but the furs which abound here." In addition, he writes that "one of the greatest objections I have to the country is that there are from ten to a dozen earthquakes here every year. Caused by two active volcanoes which are within a hundred & fifty miles of here."
Type
Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date
1868, September 12.
Call number
mssHM 31268
Creator
Crawford, Medorem (1819-1891)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance
Purchased from Fred Lockley, 1945, May 8.
Dimensions
25 cm :
Find out more
View in the Library catalog(Opens in new tab)

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