Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Manuscripts
Fifty-Nine Years After, Or Recollections of My Adventures by Sea and Land While in Search of Gold in California [typescript]
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Manuscripts
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Manuscripts
Chamberlain's reminiscences covers his voyage to California onboard the ship Capitol and his first year of living in California. He talks in detail about life in San Jose, Stockton, and various mining camps, gold mining, looking for work, doing carpentry for $12 a day, witnessing a hanging near Stockton, and John Amos Chaffee.
mssHM 68167
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Rare Books
Dr. William S. McCollum (1807/1808-1882) was born in Pennsylvania and grew up in Niagara County, New York. He went to California in 1849, returned to New York the following year and then paid a second visit to California as a physician for the Panama Railroad Company. California as I saw it (1960) reprints McCollum's 1850 book describing his first visit to the West: San Francisco in 1849, a journey to Stockton and the Southern Mines and to Sacramento and the Northern Mines, prospecting near Jacksonville, and medical practice in Stockton and San Francisco. After describing his return voyage east via Panama, McCollum closes with advice and reflections on the law of the mines, Native Americans, the life of women in California, etc. The book's Appendix include letters written from Panama by H.W. Hecox, McCollum's fellow passenger on the voyage to the Isthmus, February-March 1849. Hecox was so disheartened by his wait for passage to California that he returned to the United States without ever seeing the Pacific Ocean.
643624
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Manuscripts
The journal covers Hayden's voyage from Maine to California onboard the Brig Siroc, as well as his time living in California. Hayden recorded the voyage to California in detail. Because he had some previous knowledge of nautical science, he was asked by the captain to assist in keeping the ship's official log and records; his own table of longitude and latitude are recorded at the end of the journal. Hayden recorded in detail the everyday activities of everyone on board including his duties to care for the pigs and chickens on board, and the passengers' attempts to catch various sea animals such as porpoises, dolphins, and sharks. After he arrived in San Francisco, Hayden briefly tried his hand at mining, but his main pursuit is to sell the lumber he had brought along with him on the ship. Hayden also talked about the activities of the Vigilance Committee of San Francisco, and provided details about mining methods, tools and equipment. Hayden also gave descriptions of the places he visits including Rio de Janeiro, and Coloma, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Stockton, California.
mssHM 65753
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Manuscripts
Fisk starts his reminiscences in 1850 when he left Illinois for California. He describes his overland journey in a party of 20 wagons. He mentions the Native Americans they passed (specifically the Utes and Otos), Fort Laramie, and how the group had to leave items behind to speed their pace. He also talks about Salt Lake City, buffalo herds, and the group's constant search for water. Fisk then describes arriving in Hangtown (Placerville), his experience mining on the American River and leaving California to mine in Colorado. He writes briefly about his time with the 2nd Iowa Regiment. He also discusses his decision to travel to Alaska to try his hand at gold mining one more time. Following the reminiscences are typescripts of several letters from Fisk to his sister written while on his journey to Alaska.
mssHM 68417
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Manuscripts
This typewritten memoir by Los Angeles engineer, John Henry Quinton, begins with his childhood in Enniskillen, Ireland. He continues with his decision to find work in America as an engineer after seeing an advertisement in a book for the Central Pacific Railroad Company. After a rough voyage at sea on board the steamship Circassian, he landed in San Francisco, California with $40 in his pockets in 1873. In California, Quinton writes about various ventures, from ill-conceived irrigation projects to the inception of a colony called the "California Colony," which was the foundation for the city of Fresno. At one point in the memoir, Quinton interjects with a note about his temperament. "I have already stated in these pages that I was endowed with a hasty temper as a boy, and showed it so frequently that my mother, who was a very wise woman, warned me that it would sometimes get me into serious trouble. Fortunately as I grew older I learned to retrain my temper, and although it came near getting me into serious trouble several times it never really got me into serious trouble" (p. 202). He concludes the memoir with a few kind words about Frederick Haynes Newell, the First Director of the United States Reclamation Project, and taking up work since he did in 1908.
mssHM 83618
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Manuscripts
The collection contains two documents and 38 pieces of correspondence, 23 of which are letters by Jesse Smart to his sons. These letters mostly discuss Smart's experience in California mining for gold and running his nursery. He often asks his sons to send him seeds of plants that are not available in California. He also comments on the prices of produce in California and the effects of the weather and insects on his crops. The rest of the correspondence is written by other Smart family members and often discusses life in California, and more specifically, Sacramento. One letter, which is written by Jesse's daughter Charlotte, discusses her voyage to California from Maine.
HM 63845