Joseph Banfield memoirs

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  Recollections of a Quartermaster

  Manuscripts

  Memoirs of William G. LeDuc finished in February 1911. The narrative covers the childhood and youth in Ohio and Northern Mississippi, Kenyon College, travels in Kentucky, Tennessee, Boston (where he attended the trial of John W. Webster); his life in Minnesota, Civil War experience, and post-war career up through end of 1910, including his business interests in California and Mexico and connections with the Banning Company. The memoir ends with an account of LeDuc's spiritualist experiences.

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  Joseph Cleary journal

  Manuscripts

  This journal consists of lines composed by Joseph Cleary on board the Barque Sarmiento during her voyage from Panama to San Francisco, California. Cleary's voyage is told in twenty-seven eight line stanzas, rhymed A B A B, with a four line chorus after each stanza. While more or less honoring the formal requirements of the poem, he manages to report on the ship, the weather, food, sanitation, officers, crew, lack of water, and his fellow passengers. "The rats which in them got / The rankiest odor up did send / As they did slowly rot...With worms our bread was all alive / Our beef & pork did stink / Though it to eat we still did not starve." Death is a also grim reality, "And most of us are yet alive / Though eight are with the dead." In verse twenty, the crew reaches Honolulu, Hawaii, and remains there until verse twenty-five. "But since the Sandwich Isles we've seen / The time does not seem long / For we much better fed have been...Whilst daily we expect to land / And leave this hateful ship." After the twenty-seven line stanzas, there is a bawdy poem about lice feeding in a mining camp, which is written in mirror image cursive. The next poems are titled, "The Miners Prayer," "Epitaph on a Chinese Grave," and "A description of the view from the western summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains." "Those mighty Nevadas with steep and rugged fronts lifted high their lofty brows: peering the ethereal Regions of snows eternal...Overlooking the western world: which from here Presents to the beholder a scene in All its bearings truly wonderful and Sublime." His description of the mountains is followed by a note about Penn Valley, California, on April 27, 1854, "A Miner's Surprise," "A trip to the summit of a mountain near Coloma, Eldorado [El Dorado] County, California," and a long poem to "My Dear Sister." He addresses his sister, "I look upon Ohio now / As a poor place to be hoe and plow / And poorer still to gather wealth / And worse by far respecting health / I almost dread to venture back / Least some disease my frame should rack." There are also acrostics spelling, "Elisabeth Dickson," "Maptha Dickson," "Mary Meguire," and "Catherine Mulholland." The final poem in this volume is titled, "Woman." "They're always trying to employ / Their time in vanity and prate / Their leisure hours in social joy / To spend is what all women hate."

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  Joseph Hooker letter to Ogden Hoffman

  Manuscripts

  Hooker encloses a copy of "the report of my first battle," which he says will be withheld from publication for a few days but it will "be the cause of no little excitement." He also writes that "I have a glorious division."

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  Diaries of Joseph Coulson Rich [microform] : 1860-1869

  Manuscripts

  Microfilm of five diary volumes kept by Joseph C. Rich between 1860 and 1869. The first diary, dated 1860-1861, begins in Utah and follows Rich's overland travels to New York, his voyage to England, and his experiences during his British mission, primarily in the area around Nottingham. The second diary, dated 1861-1862, was also kept at Nottingham. Between the second and third diaries is a typed essay entitled "Joseph C. Rich in Memoriam" by S.A. Kenner. The third and fourth diaries were also kept in England in 1862, and the third volume also includes miscellaneous notes and poems primarily related to American Indians, as well as some receipts. The final diary volume was begun in 1869 when Rich was departing Uintah with an emigrant train to "perform a mission to our relatives and friends in the United States." It follows his rail travels through Omaha, Chicago, and Nauvoo, and ends while he was at Louisville.

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  William Lawrence Austin letter to Joseph Burn Austin

  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."

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  Joseph W. Revere album

  Manuscripts

  The album, probably written about 1870, is a collection of memories and stories from Revere's life. The majority of the album focuses on two points in Revere's life, his time in California before and during the gold rush, and his experience in the Civil War. The album specifically covers the following subjects: Revere's experiences on the USS Constitution in 1834; Revere's life as a rancho owner in Mexican California before the gold rush; the California Indians; Revere's travels throughout California and Mexico; his time in the Mexican army; his voyage to California through Panama in 1848; Revere's experiences in the gold mines; and Revere's service in the Civil War including his experience in Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. The album also includes eighteen illustrations, watercolors and sketches, done by Revere to illustrate the text. These sketches include California landscapes, and scenes of life in San Francisco, Panama, and the gold mining camps. There are also a few sketches of scenes from Revere's experience in the Civil War. The last few pages of the album are draft pages for the beginning of Revere's book, Keel and saddle. Also included in the album is a carte-de-visite of Revere

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