Guide to the Bancroft's California Gold Rush Digital Collections

A large combined collection of assorted letters written between 1848-1864.

Fifty original manuscript letters from persons living throughout the United States containing comments and observations on the effect the California Gold Rush is having in their lives. Also includes typescript transcriptions of each letter.

Includes thirty-two letters written by Wilson chiefly to his mother, Rachel Wilson, in Maryland and brother (Bill?) concerning his travels and mining ventures. One of these letters concerns his experiences in Panama and, after sailing on the bark Equator, another while in San Francisco, Calif. The remaining letters largely detail Wilson's mostly unsuccessful experiences with mining and speculation, general views of mining life and its hardships, and the towns and camps where he lived, chiefly in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties. These include Columbia and other places along the Tuolumne River, as well as lesser-known camps, such as Don Pedro's Bar, Paine's Bar, and Curtisville. Some of the letters contain racist comments towards the Mexican, Chinese, and Native American people (including Mercedes) who live and work in these places. Also, in one letter, June 8, 1852, Wilson describes a bull and bear fight which had occurred in Columbia, and another letter from June 22, 1854, he writes of the rise and fall of the town of Algerine Camp. In addition, he includes a sketch map of the area, June 1, 1850.
Also includes four letters of introduction written on Wilson's behalf (one of which is addressed to Gen. Persifor F. Smith) prior to his arrival in Calif., as well as a Mar. 9, 1851, letter from Wm. H. Gilpin concerning a ticket for passage from San Francisco to New York which awaits Wilson.

Contains 28 handwritten letters addressed to James Masterson from various persons located in gold mining camps in Northern California. Twenty-one of the letters are from a friend, Denis Hanly. Also includes handwitten dictation notes of Masterson written by his daughter [before 1898] containing recollections about his journey on the Overland Trails and early California life. James Masterson was a civil engineer from Ireland. He was elected County Surveyor of Amador County, California in 1856.

27 letters of correspondence between family members and friends with specific references to the California Gold Rush and Dr. Harry H. Sexton's trip (husband of Octavia) to the gold fields.

Thirteen letters, plus corrresponding photocopies of typed transcripts, from a California gold miner to his wife, brother, and sister; addressed from various digging venues including Sarahsville, Hunts Hill, Volcano Hill and Eaton Rapids.

Three diaries (1851,1854,1854: some dated entries) and personal correspondence of Gold Rush miner, Charles van Houten, describing his travels from Sunbury, Ohio to Marysville, Calif. via Panama and experiences in California. Diaries provide details of travel, costs, dates of departure and arrival at various stops, money and gold nuggets sent home, and gold miner life such as conflicts with Native Americans, a smallpox epidemic spreading through the region, the discovery of a murdered miner's body, and the execution of an Indigenous person by hanging.

13 letters written from the gold fields in California to his wife and children, in Spring Prairie, Walworth Co., Wisconsin, and including one letter written to his brother, in Unadilla, Otsego Co., New York.

Contains 12 letters written on McDiarmid's overland journey from Wisconsin to California, May-October 1850 and while in the gold fields. Also includes a 105-page letter written as journal to his wife while traveling to California.

Thirteen letters, primarily to his wife Maria, written from California, detailing his work mining. Also includes a few letters written by other family members.

Nine handwritten letters of a gold miner from Mercer, Pennsylvania, working the gold areas in Amador County, California, to family members. A self-described "Copperhead" concerning the Civil War, Pearson paints a vivid picture of a miner's experience seeking his fortune in the gold fields. Details include financial struggles, staking and working claims, operating active mines, being cheated, murder and vigilante justice, and contact with Native Americans who he describes thusly, "I was last evening at an Indian Fandango. You have perhaps read of the Indians dancing and singing. There were songs. It was truly one of the grandest sights you or I have ever witnessed." In a postscript, Pearson asks his sister to "Please burn this and let no one know it out of the family." Also includes two letter from Ezra Pearson to his sister. One is addressed from Shreveport, Louisiana after the Civil War and a pre-Civil War letter addressed from "Brunswick."

Contains eight handwritten letters concerning Varley Bedford, a surveyor from Pennsylvania, who eventually relocated to California to search for gold. They include correspondence with his brother, Rev. R. [Richard] Bedford in Vermont, and to his mother. The letters are addressed from Pennsylvania, Vermont, and California. Two of the letters are from John Condo in El Dorado, California, a friend of Varley Bedford, addressed to Richard Bedford concerning the sickness and death of Varley and the disposition of his remaining goods and wealth.

Letters from George F. Chamberlain (in Callao, San Francisco, Dry Town, Sacramento, Dry Creek, and Mokelumne Hill) to his father Isaac Chamberlain in Roxbury, Mass. describe life in California during the Gold Rush. Chamberlain describes the voyage around the horn as a crew member and includes a detailed account of entertainments and indoctrination rites for those first crossing the equator. Once in San Francisco he describes the town, its demographics of ethnic groups and bachelors, houses and tents, departure of the ship's crew for the mines, operations and rates aboard Henry Leland's schooner Lone Star, gold availability, high prices and wages, and the fate of certain overland parties. Other subjects include rains and flooding, the Sacramento river, Collins Cushman & Co., Kit Carson's visit to San Francisco, mining, hanging and other frontier "justice," California politics, and the weather. One letter is written on an illustrated lettersheet showing San Francisco in 1851.

Collection of 18 letters written to his brother in Kenosha, Wisconsin, these letters begin with his leaving Springfield, Massachusetts, tell of his mining activities at French Corral, California in 1858, of his wife and daughter joining him in June 1859, and of his losing his claim in 1861 and subsequently moving to Downieville where he took up surveying. There is much discussion of his financial straits, but also mining details, some mentions of events such as the coming of the Pony Express and his part in the campaign for California to go Union, and descriptions of the family's everyday life in Downieville. Included are two letters written by his wife, Jennie.

Six handwritten letters (18 total pages) from a gold miner living in California addressed to his parents, siblings, and friends in Newton, Massachusetts. One of the letters is addressed from Panama where he crossed the Isthmus on foot. Two of the letters are addressed from Weaverville, California, and three letters are addressed from Eureka, California. He describes his life as a gold miner, his attempts at cattle ranching and logging, the temperance movement and the Maine Law, and life in California generally. In his last letter dated August 20, 1853 he writes eloquently about the importance of family ties and home, "This place is growing very fast. I suppose that the Cristal [sic] Palace is in full operation now. I would like to see all its wonder, though I would pass them all, to see my home ..." Also includes typescript transcriptions of each letter.

Cyril traveled to California in 1851 and worked as a gold miner, sign painter, grocery clerk and civil servant, including as a clerk for the California Secretary of State.

Contains the letters of a gold miner in Rough & Ready (Nevada County), then Iowa Hill (Placer County) and Lost Camp (Placer County), California to his wife back East.

Collection of eleven letters spanning three years in the travels of William O. Armsted, as he makes his way from Ohio to California, and then to various mining locations, including Gold Creek, Rough & Ready, and Nevada City. There are many details of his life in the West. Many letters accompanied by original envelopes. One (March 23, 1851) is written on pictorial lettersheet illustrated with vignettes of a miner's life.

Contains 28 letters to his mother, Juliana Gardiner, his brother Alexander Gardiner and two to his brother-in-law, former President John Tyler. The letters describe his journey from New York across Mexico to the gold fields of California in 1849; life in early San Francisco, Sacramento and San Diego; the California Constitutional Convention and politics; slavery; the people he encounters including Native Californians, Chinese, and African-Americans; the economy, including being a merchant, agriculture and whale hunting; and health conditions.

Written from the California gold mining towns of Columbia (February 12 and May 7, 1854), Sandy Bar (July 8, 1855) and Horsetown (March 30, 1856).

Describes his experiences mining and life in French Gulch, Shasta county, California.

Several letters to his mother, Jane Ferguson McClure, which discuss prices in California and its unsettled conditions regarding horse thieves and gamblers.

Collection of three letters (11 pages; dated June 27, July 28, and August 25, 1855) from prospector William T.J. Harris to Miss Margaret W. Sheets in Libertyville, Jefferson County, Iowa, describing his life in Nevada County (Yuba and Montezuma), California. Includes details of the mining life in addition to an amusing story of how Harris shot a pig who kept him from his sleep one night.

Four autograph letters from Robert Payne to his brother Thomas J. Payne in Fayette, Missouri. The letters (26 pages; dated June 1, October 15, October 16, and December 12, 1849) detail particulars of the trail and early California gold mining, including descriptions (with costs) of provisions, equipment, requirements for emigration, and discussion of hand-mining techniques with only a minimum of the text digressing into personal issues. Among this company of 34 Missouri adventurers included a number notable men who were just "kids" headed West to seek their fortunes. Included in this fast-moving wagon train were John Boggs, age 20, eventual entrepreneur, wealthy rancher, and California State Senator; Drury Woodson James, age 22, uncle to Frank and Jesse James (though not actually mentioned in these letters); and teen-aged John Bullock Clark, Jr., future Confederate general and afterwards five-term United States Congressman from Missouri. The earliest letter in this collection was apparently hand-carried eastward by Mormon pioneer Lorenzo Dow Young (1807-1895), brother to Brigham Young.

Concern mining experiences, teaming, and life in Sacramento.

Three diaries (1851,1854,1854: some dated entries) and personal correspondence of Gold Rush miner, Charles van Houten, describing his travels from Sunbury, Ohio to Marysville, Calif. via Panama and experiences in California. Diaries provide details of travel, costs, dates of departure and arrival at various stops, money and gold nuggets sent home, and gold miner life such conflicts with Native Americans, a smallpox epidemic spreading through the region, the discovery of a murdered miner's body, and the execution of an Indigenous person by hanging.

Cyril traveled to California in 1851 and worked as a gold miner, sign painter, grocery clerk and civil servant, including as a clerk for the California Secretary of State.

Contains four pocket diaries covering his experiences after arrival in San Francisco from September 8, 1849 to September 26, 1850. Events described include: a trip up the Sacramento River on the Pantuxit to Sacramento; digging for gold as a member of a mining association in the vicinity of Horse Shoe Bar; return to San Francisco; work as supercargo on the schooner John B. Whiting in the Pacific Coast trade, stopping at Santa Cruz, Monterey, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles; work in the American Exchange Hotel in Los Angeles; return to mining. Some notes and accounts are included in each volume and loose pages of accounts are at the end of volume 4. According to one diary entry, the volume covering April 1 to August 18, 1850 was lost. Also includes typescript carbon transcripts.

One of two bound journals of Charles Henry Bennett of Pennsylvania who journeyed to California via ship, worked in the gold fields of California, and then sailed as a passenger on a freighter to Hawaii before his eventual voyage back home around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope. Volume two begins August 5, 1849 with the brig Osceola dropping anchor in San Francisco Bay. The mostly undated entries continue for 41 pages describing work in the gold fields and ending on a "Saturday morning" [no month or year].

The Robert B. Honeyman Jr. Collection of Early Californian and Western American Pictorial Material is comprised of over 2300 items, with formats and media ranging from original oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, lithographs, engravings, etchings, lettersheets, clipper cards, and ephemera, to plates and spoons featuring western themes, and a fore-edge painting. The collection focuses on pictorial interpretations of the old West, with emphasis on the early California and Gold Rush periods. Views depict the changing landscape of the West under the impact of westward migration, the development of towns and cities, early settlements, California missions, railroads, gold mining scenes, pioneer and frontier life, native populations, social history, and many other topics.

Relief shown by hachures. Covers portions of Nevada. Inset: Map shewing the position of New California. Reference: C.I. Wheat's Maps of the California gold region no. 125; C.I. Wheat's Mapping the Transmississippi West v. 3, no. 644.

Includes: a gold miner, California quail, flying fish, a Mexican vaquero, a woman on horseback, a portrait of an unidentified woman (in Spanish style dress?), and a seemingly unrelated portrait of Ninon de L'Enclos. One copy photograph of a portrait of Eccleston is also included. Calligraphic ms. title page: "Journal, with views of California by Richard Eccleston. 1855. California."

Relief shown by hachures. Covers area of Northern California from San Francisco Bay east to the Sierra Nevada, from Stockton in the south to "Horn" [i.e. Horn Peak?] in the north. "Supplement to the Launceston Examiner, Wednesday, January 30th, 1850." Oriented with north to left.

Gold Rush era sketch of San Francisco from the California Street Hill, later known as Nob Hill. Telegraph Hill is at left, and the view encompasses the waterfront to the east (and many ships in the harbor), downtown, and the South of Market area. The vantage point is in the vicinity of Mason and Sacramento Streets.

Relief shown by hachures. Shows routes, drainage, settlements, and in California, mines (gold, silver, etc.) and limit of gold region. Alternate title: Carte de la nouvelle Californie.

Two tear sheets with prints illustrating article on lifestyle of gold miners in California, from Harper's Weekly, October 3, 1857 (p. 631-634). Sheets include text from article: Mining Life in California. Subjects of illustrations include Chinese miners, miners cooking over campfire in mountains, miners dancing, and miners playing gambling card games Monte and Faro.

Caricature image depicting brawl of several gold miners fighting over a 1000 oz. bag of gold. Decorative border design printed in gold, vaguely resembling gold nuggets or flakes. Printed beneath image is a (valentine?) love poem by an anonymous author.

Shows drainage, mines, etc. Covers Sacramento Valley from Pit River to San Francisco Bay. Text has titles: Explanation sheet of California gold diggins map by "Willfong;" Explanation of locations on map. Pen-and-ink and pencil. On verso: [Map of Sacramento, Calif.].

8 prints (wood engravings and 1 lithograph) : black and white ; approximately 14 x 11 cm. Uncaptioned prints, possibly proofs, of California landscapes, mostly featuring towns and mining camps. 1: Pine Log Crossing mining camp -- 2: cave on river -- 3: "California" lithograph of mining scene at base of hill, trimmed from a pictorial lettersheet -- 4-7: proofs for Hutching's [sic, i.e. Hutchings'] panoramic scenes, Northern California (Including Shasta (formerly misidentified as Placerville); Jacksonville, O.T.; river mining scene at Scott's Bar; and Weaverville) -- 8: Gibsonville.

Portrait of Etienne Derbec, a french journalist and miner at the time of the California Gold Rush.

Depicts mining scene of two tents and men carrying picks and shovels. Drawn on a folded sheet of paper which also includes mss. a poem/letter (?) and note: "This was drawn at Beals Bar, town of Jacksonville, California, 1850, by John W. Martin."

19 pen-and-ink drawings of Californians, depicting the well-to-do, the poor, women, African Americans, and mining activity.