Jonas Bardsley and Hannah Bardsley letter to family

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  Jonas Bigelow letter to Otis Arnold

  Manuscripts

  This letter contains extensive detail from Jonas Bigelow to Otis Arnold, of Troy, New York, about his many recent activities as a merchant in Albany, New York; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Cincinnati, Ohio; and New Orleans, Louisiana, leading eventually to his venture into Arkansas Territory to trade for beaver pelts and bear skins. The letter also describes his relocation to Fort Smith, an army post located on one of the routes along which Native Americans traveled as they were forcibly removed from the southeastern United States to Indian Territory. Bigelow writes at length about the region surrounding Fort Smith, its many opportunities for profit, and his hope to make a considerable fortune by obtaining government contracts to supply parties of Native Americans.

  mssHM 84001

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  Jonas Salk correspondence

  Manuscripts

  Twenty items, the majority of which are letters exchanged between various parties regarding Jonas Salk's work developing and testing the polio vaccine; correspondents include Jonas Salk, Basil O'Connor, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Averell Harriman.

  mssHM 83201 (a-t)

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  Property agreement of Jonas Sanders

  Manuscripts

  The collection includes some 17th and 18th century items regarding Norton's ancestors in Massachusetts; correspondence by Norton regarding his voyage to California and his time in the gold mines; several items pertaining to Norton's membership in the Society of California Pioneers of New England; a painting and sketch of the ship "Argonaut," both by Clark Oliver; and military records of Charles Walton of the 6th New Hampshire Infantry Regiment and Simon M. Nudd of the 24th Maine Infantry Regiment. Also included is a pocket compass and lock that belonged to William Norton.

  HM 63624

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  Ella P. Starkweather letter to "Mrs. Dwight and Family,"

  Manuscripts

  This letter was written by Ella P. Starkweather, a school teacher, living in the town of Bridgewater, now part of South Dakota. Starkweather describes her experiences in Dakota Territory to her friends back home. To her surprise, she likes the school where she is teaching. There are new series of books, a school room that is large and pleasantly furnished. She writes that some of her students could benefit from a lesson on cleanliness: "...a few would be rendered much more attractive by a vigorous application of soap suds..." Regarding life on the frontier, she writes: "You may imagine the people here are sick of the country, and I can hardly give you an idea how happy and contented they all seem to be. They say the most scant time for provisions they have known is since I came and I know of no one suffering." She also touches upon the weather and the farmers. "The country looks lovely, farmers who had seed here and sown find everything encouraging." Near the end of the letter, she describes her layover in Sheldon, Iowa for five days and her amusement regarding a car half-filled with Bohemian immigrants.

  mssHM 80839

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  Stephen Woodlin letters to family

  Manuscripts

  Set of 14 letters sent by Stephen Woodin to his family in Genoa, New York, from 1849-1853, while he was traveling to or living in California. The majority of the letters were written to his wife and children, and one to his brother George Woodin (HM 19382). In the first letter, Woodin describes his lodgings in Panama City, including the food available with prices and his observation of religious ceremonies. After arriving in California, Woodin mined for gold near the North Fork of the American river, and in the next four letters (HM 19370-19372, and HM 19382) he describes his travels from Sacramento to the gold fields, working at gold mining (he wrote to his brother that he averaging making $5 a day), his provisions and the costs of goods, and his surroundings and impressions of California. The remaining 9 letters (HM 19373-19381) were written from 1852-1853, beginning when Woodin was on his return journey to California. He writes of traveling from Aspinwall (Colon) to Panama City, where an American flag was displayed for the Fourth of July. He also notes that he encountered "Mr. Booth, a theatrical performer [and his] two sons," probably referring to Junius Brutus Booth and his sons Edwin Booth and Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. (HM 19374). From San Francisco he writes of keeping his hotel, which he liked "very well, all but the selling rum" (HM 19476), of his expenditures, of various steamers that arrived in the city, of duels and executions, including that of "three gamblers...what a pity it...won't be three hundred, for they are the greatest pests there is in this country" (HM 19378), of a Dr. E. White, who was lecturing on spiritual rapping and "making a perfect fool of himself in this business while his wife supports the family by working" (HM 19375), of widespread flooding in January 1853 (HM 19378), and of his favorable impressions of the Chinese in the city, noting that "the Chinese all go by the name of John here, they are a harmless, industrious set of people possessing a great deal of ingenuity and many of them are good businessmen and far more advanced in some of the arts and sciences than our own Americans" (HM 19380). He also writes of his wishes that his family could join him in California, and in April 1853 worries that his partner had left the business and Woodin did not know how to get out of it himself (HM 19379). The final letter was written in June 1853, when Woodin was recovering from a bout of typhoid fever (HM 19381).

  mssHM 19369-19382

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  Dwight Bartlett letters to family

  Manuscripts

  Series of seventeen letters sent by Dwight Bartlett from Nevada and Utah to his family in Connecticut between 1870 and 1873. The letters are addressed to his mother Christine Fisher Bartlett and sister Christina Bartlett Carpenter (later Brainerd). Bartlett's letters provide vivid accounts, many of them disparaging, of his experiences with and observations of life in the West. He writes throughout of his homesickness, illnesses, monetary losses, and the advent of the railroad. He also specifically writes about the Shoshone and Ute Indians in Utah and of the Mormons, who he derides as having "very few men of intelligence and wealth...so they lack the elements that give strength and dignity to a community" (1870, Jan.5); of traveling to San Francisco to organize a company to work the mines in the Cope District (he later wrote that the trip "accomplished nothing"), of the contrast in opportunities for those with a "little style" and poor workingmen, and of his belief that unemployment, especially on the Pacific Railroad, was caused by Chinese laborers (1870, March 5); of the lack of opportunities in the mines near Pine Grove, Nevada, of passing up an opportunity to accompany an expedition to Big Horn because "it is almost certain death for white men to go there unless they go in large numbers and well armed," of his lack of respect for political figures such as U.S. Grant and Ben Butler, of his low opinion of Nevada Indians ("certain...writers have thrown a false and foolish glamour around the character of the Indian"), and of the "frog pond lawyers" in mountain camps (1870, July 27); of the danger of the mines near Virginia City, of which he writes "a larger proportion of men who work in these mines have been killed than of those who were in the war," particularly at the Yellow Jacket Mine (1870, Sep.15); of attending the legislature at Carson, where "it is said votes were sold dog cheap," of the frequent activities of vigilante committees, who stormed a jail and hung a prisoner, and of the jails being so full that "old bums can get drunk with impunity for there is no place to put them" (1871, March 29); of a traveling bull and bear fight and of the haunting of a cabin near Dayton, Nevada, by a spirit named Anne (1871, Aug.2); of fires in Virginia City and Pioche and the subsequent escape of prisoners (1871, Oct.2); and of an earthquake centered near Inyo, California (1872, Apr.13).

  mssHM 26633-26649