This group consists of letters from the Brier family to Grace Leadingham pertaining to her research for the article "Juliet Wells Brier : Heroine of Death Valley" (Pacific Historian, VII, November 1963). Julia (Juliet, Juliette) Wells Brier was the wife of the Reverend James Welch Brier, a Methodist minister involved with the Kansas Jayhawkers who traveled with his family from Galesburg, Illinois, through Death Valley to California in 1849. The majority of the letters are written by Hilda Brier, the daughter-in-law of James and Julia Brier's son. The main focus of the letters is on family anecdotes and physical descriptions of members of the Brier family, including James and Julia Brier and their children J.W. (John) Brier, Jr., Helen Brier, Mary Brier, and Alice Brier. Disparaging references are also made to William Lewis Manley's autobiography "Death Valley in '49," which detailed the Manley and Brier journey to California. Also included are letters from James and Julia Brier's granddaughters Alice L. Ulsh and Maude Lichtenstein. Some notes and lists of questions and answers probably written by Grace Leadingham are also included.
