Handwritten letters (5 letters, 15 p.) from a gold miner seeking his fortune in California to his parents in Maine. Three of the letters are written from Michigan Bar, California. Two letters are addressed from Yankee Hill, California. He writes of his trip to California via Nicaragua, the status of his mining claims, and operations. In the last letter (March 13, 1856) he writes of his efforts to make his fortune, "doubtless you would like to know what has been the overall result so far? I will answer you in one short sentence...a succession of bitter disappointments." Also includes a handwritten list (1 p.) of "Prices of provisions at Michigan Bar, Calif." and one envelope addressed to his father, Stephen Pullen, in Kingsfield [i.e. Kingfield] Maine. Handwritten letter (2 p. ; circa 1863), signed by A. Mason, of a man writing to his children of events and circumstances in northwestern Minnesota. He writes that he plays the flute often and some clarinet too, has a boarder who plays the violin, and can hear steamboat whistles from the Mississippi River seven miles away like they were a railroad station. He also writes of "depridations [sic] " by Sioux Indians and notes the presence army troops and "Picketts Skirmishers" who "are getting ready for a kind of annhilation or exterpating [sic] the whole race of the troublesome parts of the tribe...." He expresses hope for news of a Union victory soon at Vicksburg, [Mississippi] and disdain for the "damned rebels."
