Grand trip across the plains : diary, 1859 May 19-Aug. 23.

Newberry Library

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The Newberry was founded on July 1, 1887 and opened for business on September 6 of that year. The Newberry’s establishment came about because of a contingent provision in the will of Chicago businessman Walter L. Newberry (1804-68), which left what later amounted to approximately $2.2 million for the foundation of a “free, public” library on the north side of the Chicago River, if his two children died without issue. After the deaths of Mr. Newberry’s daughters and then, in 1885, of his widow, t...

Edward E. Ayer Manuscript Collection (Newberry Library)

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Ayer, Edward Everett, 1841-1927

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Edward Everett Ayer (Nov. 16, 1841 -- May 3, 1927), businessman, bibiliophile and collector. In 1860 he joined an overland expedition to California. He stopped in Nevada, where he worked at a quarz mill in Silver City, but soon moved on to San Francisco. He remained there, working at a planing mill, until the outbread of the Civil War. He enlisted in the 1st Regiment of California Cavalry Volunteers, and was later transferred to the 1st Regiment of New Mexico Infantry. Ayer served in many posts ...

Brooks, Alden Finney, 1840-1932

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Artist, overland traveller, and Civil War veteran. Born in Ashtabula, Ohio, in 1840, Brooks moved with his family to Platteville, Wisc., in 1856. He taught school briefly in Elk Grove before joining a neighbor's prairie schooner for the trip to California. Brooks left his party at the Truckee River and travelled by stage to California, where he prospected and painted in Eureka, Orleans Flat, Nevada, and Grass Valley. Returning to Ohio to enlist in the 105th Ohio Voluntee...