L. M. Clement journal

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  William L. Jackson journal

  Manuscripts

  Journal kept by William L. Jackson during his voyage up the Missouri River on board the Steamer Gallatin from April to June 1866. Jackson, who was traveling with his friend and fellow Civil War veteran John P. Eddy, kept nearly daily journal entries from the time he boarded the Gallatin at Fort Leavenworth on April 22 until June 14, three days before the accident that would cause his death. These entries describe life on board the steamer and its progress as well as Jackson's observations on various stops along the way, including St. Joseph, Nebraska City, Sioux City, Omaha, Fort Thompson, Fort Sully, Fort Rice, and Fort Berthold. Jackson, who was able to utilize his medical training when a passenger accidentally shot himself in the leg with his shot gun, was particularly observant of the conditions of local drug stores ("I never saw three dirtier drug stores," he remarked of Omaha). He also noted that Nebraska City was "full of men waiting to cross the plains, many of them...dead broke;" that Omaha was the starting point of the "great" Union Pacific Railroad and that he saw Teamsters, "Yahooes and Muleskiners," "swarthy" Mexicans, Indians "dressed in buckskin and blankets," boatmen, farmers, soldiers, and clerks in the streets together; and that Sioux City was "quite dull" but the people there had "high hopes" for a "big city" when the railroad came through. Jackson also records notes on Indians he saw or encountered, including "300 Indians...engaged in the massacre in Minnesota" who had been pardoned and were to be "turned adrift up the river;" members of the Winnebago tribe near the Little Sioux River, who were "very fair looking;" a "large encampment of Sioux" at Fort Thompson waiting to be moved to Yankton; and "3000 Siouxs" near Fort Rice who were "waiting to make a treaty with the government." Although not much interested in hunting, he reports that members of the crew shot at buffalo, antelope, and a gray wolf, as well as killing rattlesnakes. Despite his occasional bouts of homesickness, Jackson seems to have enjoyed the trip, which was however not without its technical difficulties, as the crew dealt with damaged pumps, a broken rudder, and a leaking boiler "apt to blow," and were "frightened out of our wits" by a ruptured steam pipe. A note at the end of the journal copied from the family Bible records Jackson's death after an accident caused by a burst flue on June 17 (he died from his injuries on June 19).

  mssHM 75878

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  Journal of the advanced party of the Mexican Boundary Commission

  Manuscripts

  This journal relates the experiences of John Russell Bartlett as he traveled through Texas surveying the border separating the United States and Mexico. Dated 1850, October 10 through November 13. Included is a roster of Commission members.

  mssHM 23160

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  Samuel Benedict Reed letters

  Manuscripts

  This typescript of letters written by Samuel B. Reed to his wife covers six years of Reed's work for the Union Pacific Railroad Company. In the letters, he details his group's work surveying parts of Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Idaho, and Wyoming while searching for a practical route for the railroad, as well as the construction of the railroad tracks. He discusses the people involved including Frank Case, James A. Evans, Grenville Dodge, Oliver Ames, Thomas Clark Durant, and Sidney Dillon. Reed spent much time in Salt Lake City and became friends with Brigham Young and in his letters, he talks a lot about his many conversations with Young. Reed also discusses his group's interactions and experiences with the Ute and Shoshoni Indians. The typescript also includes copies of reports written by Reed.

  mssHM 66497

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  D. A. Pimpell letter to his mother

  Manuscripts

  This letter home, written from Donner Lake in Placer County, California, contains an account of the progress on construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States. He states that they are now "100 miles from Sacramento and two miles from the summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains...there is about five or six thousand Chinemen [sic] at work here at the present time."

  mssHM 83401

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  Diaries and letters of Frank M. Fokelman

  Manuscripts

  Two diaries by and nine letters written to and about Frank M. Fokelman, a railroad dispatcher who worked for the St. Louis, Kansas City, and Northern Railway Company, the Wabash, St. Louis, and Pacific Railway, and the Denver and Rio Grande Railway Company in the 1870s and 1880s. The first of the two diaries was kept by Fokelman from 1880 to 1881 and describes his travels mainly from Stanberry to Brunswick, Missouri, while working as a railroad employee. The second diary, kept from 1885-1888, includes a personal account of a tour of Colorado and Utah Fokelman made in the summer of 1885, with descriptions of Pueblo and Leadville, Colorado, as well as Salt Lake City. It also describes his later return to Colorado to improve his health and find employment, and his work as a clerk with the Denver and Rio Grande Railway Company, including his hours, wages, and living expenses. The letters were written by Fokelman's various railroad employers from 1879 to 1888, and include letters of recommendation for Fokelman as well as letters written to him authorizing his leaves of absence for health reasons.

  mssHM 74578-74588

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  Homer E. Jenne journal

  Manuscripts

  Homer E. Jenne started his journal January 1, 1880. The Jenne family lived in Soquel, California. Although Homer helps out on the family ranch, he is a certified teacher and taught at several rural schools in Santa Cruz County. Jenne discusses his search for employment; studying for and taking teachers' exams; his hardships as a teacher; his courtship of and marriage to his neighbor Millie Cahoon; a trip to Portland and Dalles, Oregon and Washington State; visits to Santa Cruz; and his purchase of a ranch in Ben Lomond, California. Homer sold books to earn extra income as well as invented a calculating machine, for which he was pursuing a patent when the journal ends. The last 26 pages of the journal are Jenne's financial accounts for the years 1880-1882.

  mssHM 66660