Berenice J. Scoville letters to Anne Kerckhoff

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  Mary Ann Standlee's reminiscences of life in Southern California

  Manuscripts

  The author's recalls life in Southern California where she first lived on the Ballona or Malaga Ranch where her father was a sheep and cattle rancher. When she was four years old, they moved to San Gabriel and lived on the estate of De Barth Shorb when her father was appointed overseer of the Benjamin D. Wilson Ranch. She describes the ranch, its inhabitants and the San Gabriel Valley. In 1868 her parents bought land from John G. Downey in Los Nietos Valley near what is now Pico Rivera. Their ranch home was on the banks of the Rio Hondo River across the river from one of the Able Sterns ranchos. Standlee describes pioneer life; agriculture including orange, lemon and walnut orchards; dairy farming; stock ranching, schools and the coming of the railroads. Mrs. Standlee documents her marriage to Joel W. Standlee and the birth of her children. Some place names mentioned are: Los Angeles, Wilmington, San Gabriel, [Pico] Rivera, El Monte, Pasadena, Montebello and Downey.

  mssHM 27978

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  Hannah Penney Green letters to John Witham Penney

  Manuscripts

  In her letters to her brother, Green talks about her difficult life: she does a variety of jobs to earn money, she often worries about money and obtaining her husband's pension (she hired a lawyer), family problems, moving often for work, etc. She also talks about vising a tin mine near Perris and, in her last letter, she describes her experience with the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

  mssGreen letters

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  Mary Ann Hafen reminiscences

  Manuscripts

  This small group consists of three letters Mary wrote to her children and relatives as well as two versions of reminiscences of her family's voyage from Switzerland to New York City and then on to Utah in a handcart company. In these accounts she describes the harsh conditions of their journey to Utah and the struggles of frontier and pioneer life. With the help of her son, Le Roy Reuben Hafen (1893-), his wife Ann W. (Ann Woodbury) Hafen (1893-1970), and granddaughter, Juanita Brooks (1898-), Mary was able to publish her life story, "Recollections of a handcart pioneer of 1860: with some account of frontier life in Utah and Nevada" in 1938.

  mssHM 66379-66383

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  Mollie J. Jones journal

  Manuscripts

  The journal opens on Jan. 1861, when Mollie, a vivacious and well read young woman who thoroughly enjoyed her life as a local society belle, set out to "endeavor to keep a record of passing events, and jot down thoughts as they occur." She vividly describes her friends and beaux, in particular an exciting month she spent in New Orleans in February and March of 1861, going on "shopping excursions," and attending dances, theaters, (she was smitten with a Varieties Theater production of Jeannie Deans, starring Charlotte Thompson (1843-1898) and Fanny Brown (1837- after 1870) and opera performances with Adeline Patti (1843-1919), parties, parades, and other diversions, including a visit to the studio of Alenson G. Powers (ca. 1817 - ca. 1867), the renown New Orleans portraitist. The diary follows Mollie's tortuous romance with Richard J. Hancock, 3rd Lieutenant of Co. D of the 9th Louisiana Infantry, her feelings about the war and growing anxiety in the wake of the taking of New Orleans, and devastating family news. The diary breaks off in October 1863, on the last night Mollie Jones spent in Sunny Dell. An entry, in another hand, records her death, along with deaths of friends and family members.

  mssHM 62472

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  Leonora J. Wendell letters

  Manuscripts

  Two letters, one dated 1857 January 28, from Crescent City to "Dear Sarah," the other undated and written from "Thursday School Roome [sic]." In the letters, Wendell talks about the differences between the coast of Maine and California. She also mentions the recent death of the local lighthouse keeper who got swept away to sea. Much of her letters talk about the local California Indians, their customs and superstitions and the supposed dangers that they represent to white settlers. The letters are accompanied by typescripts.

  mssHM 83841-83842

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  Melcena White Knauer letters to Authee Ann White Spilman

  Manuscripts

  Set of five letters written by Melcena White Knauer to her sister Authee Ann White Spilman while Melcena was living in Texas and California from the 1850s until 1881. The first letter, sent from Brownsville, Texas, in the late 1850s, describes the Knauers' decision to move to California, where Elias planned to drive cattle. Melcena writes of being reluctant to go, but that she agreed to follow her husband rather than be separated from him. She also believes the climate might improve the health of her sons, as a doctor had advised that "he would [as] soon risk his life on the plains than in Brownsville." Three subsequent letters, one dated 1861 and the other two before 1865, describe Melcena's life in Woodland Township, California, and include her views on the Civil War. In the 1862 letter Melcena recalls hearing news of the First Battle of Bull Run, and while she wishes for peace, she fears that "it seems to be that the longer they fight the worse they are on both sides, still I suppose there is no other way of settling the difficulty but to fight it out." The same letter also describes harvest time and notes that "every thing that can be done with machinery is done with it which shortens the labor." Other letters describe Melcena's happiness that Kentucky was for the Union, how she has often heard "persons say how easy it would be for [foreign] power to take California so far is she from help," and her fears over her family's safety in Kentucky, of which she writes that "I often feel very uneasy about you all...I so much dread the idea of the war trouble getting among you that I am some times as nervous as an old tobacco smoker." She also writes of many local illnesses, noting that "I never lived any place where there was so many deaths among grown people." Many of the letters focus on family news, and Melcena lamented in the mid-1860s that "I have many thoughts about my native home every day I live, I sometimes wish I was there, but oftener wish you all were here." In the final letter, sent from Woodland in 1881, Melcena writes that her son Harvey is "running an Engine" and that he "has his Father's love for Machinery." She also writes that since the death of her husband "I live a great deal of my time in the past."

  mssHM 78097-78101