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Hale, Augustin W., 1814-1902. Augustin W. Hale papers, 1775-1909 bulk (1830-1859).

Title: Augustin W. Hale papers, 1775-1909 bulk (1830-1859).

The manuscripts consist of 1,112 items including business documents, legal documents, memoranda of letters written, stock certificates, receipts, and miscellaneous documents. The manuscripts document, in detail, the various business ventures of Augustin and his various business partners including Mark Hopkins. The manuscripts include business and financial records of the following companies: Magnetic Mining Company, New England Mining and Trading Company, San Joaquin Diving Bell Company, San Joaquin Railroad Company, Saucelito Water Company, Sierra Nevada Flour Mills, Stanislaus Central Bridge Company, and the Tuolumne Hydraulic Association. This group also contains material related to Trinity Church in San Francisco and Hale's voyage to California. The manuscripts also document Elisha Hale's business ventures, his inventions and patents. This material includes agreements, bills of lading, deeds, indentures, licenses, petitions, and powers of attorney. The manuscripts also deal with several lawsuits involving the Hale family and land ownership in New Jersey and New York. The collection contains 15 diaries, 11 of which are written by Augustin. His diaries illustrate his life and work from departure from New York in January 1849 to his mining and life in California in February 1851. Subjects in his diaries include his voyage to California, gold mining, gold discoveries, his encounters with Indians and his health conditions as well as Colonel Jonathan Stevenson, San Francisco, Sacramento, the New England Mining Trading Company, the Chinese in California, and the mining camps Shasta, Clear Creek and Mormon Island. The most significant of these diaries is the 217-page diary covering Augustin's departure from New York, his entire voyage, his experiences in Rio de Janeiro, and Callao and Lima, Peru, and his arrival in San Francisco. There are also two diaries by an unknown author who came overland to California in 1849 from Ohio. The author discusses the overland route to California, Hudspeth's Cutoff, William H. Warner, Peter Lassen and gold mining. The correspondence includes 3,102 items. About two-thirds of the correspondence relates to Elisha Hale and his business, inventions and patents. The remainder of the correspondence relates to Augustin and his life in California and Nevada from 1849 to 1894 (there are some letters from Augustin's life before his move to California). Subjects covered in the correspondence are: gold mining, including techniques and equipment; gold discoveries; conditions in the gold camps; fellow gold miners; the Episcopal Church and Trinity Church in San Francisco; Augustin's business ventures and financial problems; the Chinese in California; the San Francisco fire in May 1851; Vigilance Committees; the Comstock Lode; the American Civil War; and Abraham Lincoln. The correspondence also includes detailed descriptions of Big Bar, Chinese Camp, Clear Creek, Coloma, Grass Valley, Los Angeles, Michigan Bluff, Mormon Island, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Yankee Jim's, California as well as Gold Hill and Silver City, Nevada. There are also several pieces of correspondence from women living in California that discuss their experience living in mining towns. Notable participants include: John Carpenter Angell; August Belmont; Orville Hickman Browning; Nehemiah Bushnell; George Mifflin Dallas; Charles Goodyear; Lewis C. Gunn; Joseph Holt; John Henry Hopkins; Mark Hopkins; Douglass Houghton; D. Minor K. Johnson; James King; Bishop William Kip; John Marshall Krum; J. Pierpont Morgan; Antoine Perpigna; Isaac L. Requa; Lorenzo Sawyer; Origen S. Seymour; Reuben Sherwood; William Neely Thompson; Enos Thompson Throop; Robert Boyd Van Kleeck; Fernando Wood. The ephemera is made up of 1,011 items and includes business cards, miscellaneous printed items, broadsides, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, two albumen prints, receipts, an autograph album and recipes. Some of the ephemera relates to Augustin's voyage to California, his business and gold mining. There are 6 artifacts and 8 oversize items. These include maps, sketches, diagrams, a stamp of Augustin's name, a postal cancellation stamp invented by Augustin, a pictorial letter sheet depicting San Francisco, and Augustin's balance scale for weighing gold.

ArchivalResource: 5,256 items.29 boxes.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/228769855 View

Thompson, William Neely, b. 1819. Autobiography and Reminiscence of William Neely Thompson, New York, 1901.

Title: Autobiography and Reminiscence of William Neely Thompson, New York, 1901.

Autobiographies and Reminiscences of California Pioneers, p. 188-204, Vol. 2. This is a typed transcript of the member's autobiographical reminiscence created as an institutional record for the Society of California Pioneers. Included in this reminiscence is a transcription of a contract, dated May 1, 1850, made between Thompson's firm "Blackburn & Thompson" and the city of San Francisco, through its engineer E.D. Keyes, for the first lumber that went into the first wharf building built by the city. Following this contract is a letter of submission written by Thompson introducing his paper, "The Early History of Trinity Church", which is reprinted in this reminiscence. "The Early History of Trinity Church" is ten pages in length. It is a personal account of the beginnings of the church, which was the first Episcopal Church established in California, and includes historical information pertaining to Reverend Flavel S. Mines, the church's Rector. In his paper Thompson mentions the Vigilance Committee of 1851 and writes about their first subject, a man named Jenkins who was condemned to hang for larceny and theft. The Reverend Flavel S. Mines consoled Jenkins before his death and was appointed Chaplain of the Vigilance Committee. The majority of the paper is dedicated to describing Rev. Miles' service to the church and his involvement in rebuilding the church after it was burnt down.

ArchivalResource: [17] p. ; 35 x 21 cm.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/55979197 View