Records of a California Family - Pages 208-237



Page 208

March 20, 1853 

DEAR MOTHER AND HANNAH AND MARY: 

In my last letter I told you of the arrival of the box. Now I have begun 
to make up some of the ginghams. I have cut out jackets of the brown for 
Douglas, and a frock of the green for Lizzie. And I have made new 
capebonnets for each of the girls and they are as proud as "old Limbo." I 
opened the box sent from David Stickney, from India, last Sunday, and the 
children have enjoyed looking over all of the things. At the same time I 
gave them the Mother Goose in Hieroglyphics, and such fun as they and 
Washburn have had with it. They enjoy all the books you sent them and read 
in them every day, and Sarah says that "Sugar Dolly" is the most beautiful 
of beautiful books. 

The other day a little girl named Frankie came to play with them, and they 
consulted together and decided to put away the best dolls because they 
knew she was not careful of her own toys. Lizzie came to me (I was baking 
in the kitchen), holding the dolls so that Frankie could not see them, and 
said in a whisper, with a nod of her head, "I am going to put them in your 
drawer, mother, to keep them safe till she goes home. We will get out the 
old dolls to play with--just as well, you know." They have two boxes set 
against the wall, one above the other, and have made a very pretty doll-
house. All the little things are on the bureau and the little pictures on 
the walls. Yesterday I had a lot of sewing to do, but they were so anxious 
to have some pink silk bonnets made for their dolls that I had to do it. 
So we found enough among the pieces of silk that you sent, and I put a 
shawl on one and a green mantle on the other. The girls went out, and came 
back to visit and to tell me 

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that they had been shopping for their children. They said they gave twenty-
five dollars for the bonnets and fifty dollars for the shawl and mantle. 
"And we have real cradles, too, with real rockers. See, Mrs. Gunn," said 
Lizzie. "They cost two hundred dollars, and they have real sheets and 
pillows and quilts!" "And a bureau that cost three hundred dollars!" said 
Sarah. California prices, you perceive! 

I must tell you Lizzie's remark about the fruit cake. Chester said 
something about my making cake like it and she exclaimed, Why she can't 
make cake like Mamma Wright's, she is too young!" He was so amused, he had 
to run in and tell me. 

Of all the things, the dear little blue Canton plates seem most like home. 
How many times we have all eaten out of them. I think of it every time I 
use and wash them. Nothing brings you right here as they do. Did we not 
have them in West Newbury? I would rather have them than all the cups in 
creation. 

Last Sunday the girls took their parasols to meeting. They hardly knew 
whether they were on their heads or their heels, and every few minutes I 
had to say, "Shut your mouth, Sally," for she was so delighted, she had a 
broad grin. In the evening Washburn came to see me, and Lizzie asked him, 
"Did you see me go to meeting?." "Yes," he said, "and your parasol too!" 
Hannah would laugh till the tears rolled down her cheeks to hear all these 
children say. 

I had a letter from Lewis today; he is waiting to get a railroad bill 
through the legislature, and thinks he will be home very soon. * 

Benicia was then the State capital. 

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Sunday forenoon. Lewis arrived on Monday, quite unexpectedly. He had been 
gone so long, he thought he must come home to see how we were getting on. 
He was much pleased with his presents, and the children had a great time 
showing him all of theirs. He has just taken the children to meeting, and 
I thought I would write now, for some one may come in this evening. One of 
the Presbyterian ministers I wrote you about has come with his wife and 
three children. Lewis and I called on them last Friday evening at the City 
Hotel. Their name is Harmon, and they are from New York State. I liked her 
very much. She is the most intelligent woman I have seen yet. They have 
taken a little cottage near us. 

You would laugh to see and hear the children, all bent on finding and 
earning gold to send to you. Chester gave Lizzie a "bit" for helping him 
pick up chips, and she came to me, "Here, take care of it, Mother, it is 
to be changed into gold to send to Philadelphia. I earned it myself!" The 
boys have collected between them about six dollars. 

Lewis says his business takes him to Benicia so often that he thinks we 
may move there. He thinks it would not cost us more than half as much to 
live there and I could have some one to help me with the work. He is 
determined I shan't work so hard any longer than he can help. But I shall 
not move until after I am confined. I find I cannot have Mrs. Yaney's 
woman at that time, but I am to have a very nice colored woman named 
Maria, a smart, tidy body, who lives near and says I may send for her any 
time, day or night, so I feel quite easy on that head. 

When Lewis was in San Francisco, he tried to find Charlotte and her 
husband, but he could not. She could more 

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easily find us, for Lewis is well known to many people all over the State. 
There is not an editor of any of the large papers in San Francisco who 
does not know him, and Lewis has assisted Mr. Kimball, editor of the San 
Francisco Alta, and written for it often. I should like much to see her, 
but If we are ever to meet, she will have to look me up, I think. 

Lewis went back to Benicia last Thursday. 

There is a colored man here named John Smith, who is mining at Murphy's 
Camp. He happened to be in Sonora at the time of the great fire and came 
up to help us, and while he and I were dipping water from a large tub, he 
told me that he had that day bought a draft for a hundred dollars and put 
it in a letter for his wife, and he supposed it would be burned. He helped 
us all that night, and the next day he went away and I had not seen him 
again till he came to see me yesterday. He told me that his draft was not 
burnt, but went to Philadelphia, but he has never heard from home since he 
sent it, indeed, not for nine months. Before that he used to hear every 
month. He is very anxious. I offered to write to you, Mollie, and ask you 
if you could find his wife. Her name is Nancy Smith, and she belongs to 
the Antislavery Society, and knows Emma Parker well. So I thought it would 
not be much trouble for you to find out through E. P. where she is and if 
she got the draft. He says she moved into School Avenue after he left 
home, and hers was the only colored family living there. She has four 
children and goes out for days' work, and is known to many abolitionists. 
He tells me he is doing well and expects to go home next fall. While he 
was here, something was said about Newburyport, and he said, "I have been 
there and know a good many people there. I sailed with a Captain 

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John H. Titcomb for four years." I felt the more interested in him after 
he told me that. 

All the children have gone to meeting except Lizzie, and she is sitting, 
talking to her dolly. I mean to have a real little playhouse made for them 
when we move, if I can, like a cupboard, with doors that they can shut, to 
keep everything nice and clean. I shall not tell them, but have it for 
Christmas. Mrs. Yaney wants me to let Lizzie come and stay with her when I 
am confined, and Mrs. Lane wants Sarah. They are both so kind, and say so 
much about it, I expect I shall let them go for a few days at least. They 
will be well taken care of, I know. 

Mrs. Harmon called to see me last week; she is quite a pleasant woman, 
antislavery. When Chester first saw her, he said to me, "She is a great 
deal bigger than you, mother, but not half so pretty!" She was a Wadsworth 
of New York, and has a brother and sister with their families in 
California. They came in a clipper ship. She finds it all very different 
here, in a little house of two rooms and a little box of a kitchen. She 
says she means to do her own washing. She is a well educated woman, the 
only one in the place. Her little girl of Sarah's age came to spend the 
afternoon, a very quiet, well-behaved child. 

April 10, Sunday. We have delightful weather now and plenty of flowers and 
green grass all over the hills. I am expecting Lewis every day. Mr. 
Sullivan sleeps here, and brings me more papers than I can read, and 
Murray calls now and then for a chat. Washburn has gone to Benicia, and 
later is to go to San Francisco and be one of the editors of the )Alta. A 
gentleman has just called to tell me that Lewis will be here tomorrow. 

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If I were able, I suppose Lewis would move to Benicia at once. As it is, 
we shall wait. I do very little washing now, and have put my few duds in 
soak, and shall get up early tomorrow and get through quickly. I want to 
move if only to get my new stove mended and in use. I bake very nice bread 
now, always early in the morning before it grows warm. Douglas is now 
nearly as tall as I and a good deal stronger, and he does all the buying, 
food and everything, and brings all the water, and cuts and brings up all 
the wood with Chester's help. A great deal for a child of twelve! 

Tuesday. Lewis came yesterday and will stay until we move, unless he 
should conclude to remain here. He is strongly urged to go, by members of 
the Legislature, who think he can do much toward keeping slavery out of 
the state. Over and over this winter they have got him to draw bills for 
them to introduce into the House and Senate. The Slavites got a bill 
before the House to alter the Constitution, but it was defeated in the 
Senate. Lewis says one of the members was so pleased he came to him and 
said, "Come, Doctor, let's go over the hills and praise God!" And I 
believe this was a Southern man, too. Many of the Southern men are with 
our party and helped to kill the bill. 

I have some nice stewed dried apples that came from you and we think they 
are delightful, and never was anything so good as the currants. Sarah has 
lost her two front teeth and lisps more than ever. 

The next complete letter is dated July 31st. There is an earlier fragment 
in mother's handwriting, which must have followed a letter from my father 
telling of my birth on May 20th. His letter is missing. 

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I have often heard mother tell of the very excellent care which she 
received from my father, and the good help which "Aunt Maria" gave, in her 
morning and evening visits. This capable person was paid one hundred 
dollars for the week, and managed her boarding house at the same time. 

She was a fine-looking colored woman who had been given her freedom in 
California. An excellent cook, she was always well paid for her services, 
especially at weddings and banquets. I remember that she lived in a pretty 
white cottage with a gay garden. She was a great favorite with the 
children, as she gave them wonderful dainties when they came to see her. A 
very large Bible lay on her sittingroom table, and I remember reading a 
chapter to her, for which I received much praise and a remarkable cake. At 
sixty, having accumulated a fine property, she married a smart young 
colored man who had charmed her by his wit and ability to play the fiddle. 
I do not know the sequel. 

FRAGMENT OF MOTHER'S LETTER 

Our baby grows. She is not like the other children-her eyes are very dark 
and she has so much hair. I think she looks as I did when I was a baby. 
The children are very impatient to know her name. When Mr. Washburn was 
here last week he came to see us and the children were crazy to show him 
"our little baby." He admired its hands and feet and talked about it to 
their entire satisfaction. They told him that father said to call it 
Benicia or California, and they had such a laugh over it. They did not 
believe he really intended to do so, and beside we have sent to 
Philadelphia for a name and shall know soon. When Murray came, he said she 
had a very sensible look, more so than most babies. "Oh, she is a tunning 
little thing," Lizzie says. 

It is quite cool today. Lewis says at Benicia it is always cool, it is so 
near the water. When he was there last week, 

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they could sit by a fire in the evenings, while here it was very warm. 
There they have plenty of strawberries and blackberries, while here we 
have no fruit, and the grass is fast drying up. 

July 31, 1852, Sunday. I went to meeting today, leaving Douglas to take 
care of the baby, and she is a very good baby indeed if she is little. 

Perhaps, Mary, you will feel like coming with the Martins when they return 
in the spring. I shall hope to send you some money to buy some things for 
me. We shall get moved downstairs before then. There is a great deal to be 
done to the house, and I want to have all the land fenced in so that we 
can have a garden. Lumber is cheaper now, but it will cost considerable. I 
will say ribbons are very dear here and I want some. I am wearing the same 
bonnet I brought, with the light ribbon. I put the dark red on Lizzie's 
hat, and made over my colored straw with red ribbon for Sarah and it looks 
very well. You might, if you could, get me a bonnet that would do for any 
weather, hot or cold! Mrs. Lane has a beautiful new bonnet made of white 
drawn silk, and her sister a blue one. They cost ten dollars apiece, and 
Mrs. Yaney's new white one cost more, I guess. They were all bought in San 
Francisco. I want some brown French calico, with a small figure; blue and 
pink will not keep clean on the baby. I do want a pair of kid gloves. The 
only pair I have left are too small--my hands have grown. We have had two 
fires the past year and they have hurt business, especially in the 
bookstore. But if I am able to send a draft before you come, I want you to 
get me silk for a dress. I wear my black one afternoons now, to save 
washing. Silk 

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three fourths of a yard wide is two dollars and seventy-five cents a yard 
here. 

Mr. Harmon has moved into his new house of five rooms. I think she gets on 
very well, does all her own work and all the washing, and she has three 
children. She said she thought it was a pity for educated women to come to 
this country and "spend their lives over a washtub and around a stove," 
and so she is going to teach. I don't see how she can, unless she has 
found some one to do her work. 

I suppose it is warm in Philadelphia now. Here we have a longer continued 
warm season, but we have always some breeze and cool nights. I want summer 
showers to make me contented. Then we could have more vegetables, and 
grass all the year. We have canned corn from Boston that is very nice, and 
canned lobster which we often have instead of meat, and clams too. 

Douglas has begun to work in the printing office, and Lewis told him he 
would pay him just as he did the others, and he could buy his own clothes, 
and send some to pay Aunt MaNs passage here. And Douglas is full of it, 
and has no doubt that he can soon earn enough to pay it all. But Chester 
wants to help and is in the bottle business, that being his only way of 
raising money. 

Chester has begun to attend Mrs. Harmon's school. I really cannot spare 
Sarah; she is so much help with the baby, and I can teach her and Lizzie. 
Mrs. Harmon has four pupils, beside two of her own children. I think 
coming to California to preach does not come up to their expectations. 
California is a "land of gold," but even here gold can only be had by 
working for it; the day when it could be "picked up" is over. I think our 
parson is disappointed in 

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the people not being as ready to give as he expected. And besides, the 
minister is not regarded with the reverence that was given him at home. 
They respect his learning as they would that of any educated citizen and 
think he is a good man, and that is all. 

August 7, 1853, Sunday. Before breakfast this morning our Mexican friend 
came and brought me a large panful of summer squashes, corn, and tomatoes, 
and said his melons would be "plenty ripe, one week!" Chester insisted I 
should give him his piece of a cranberry pie which Maria sent me when she 
sent our washing home. He ate it with great gusto, and I also gave him 
gingerbread to take home. We had corn and squash for dinner and they were 
delicious. Sullivan brought me a very large melon last Sunday; it must 
have cost him a dollar. A steamer has just arrived and lots of papers from 
everywhere. I long to get at them. 

Monday. John Smith has been here and was delighted that Mary had seen his 
wife. He says he has sent her another check of one hundred and fifty 
dollars. He is earning one hundred dollars a week now with his claim, and 
thinks he had better not go home yet. 

[Between this letter and the next which has been saved, Sonora had had 
another serious fire.] 

October, 1853. I sent you my last two or three days after the fire, and 
told you that I had received yours with the needles and the lace. And 
Lewis has just brought me another from you. You wrote you had nothing to 
say, but I like such nothings very much. We have had very hot weather, but 
in this adobe we do not feel it as much as our neighbors do. It is just 
like going into an oven to go into some of the frame houses here. Douglas 
is not very well, so 

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he stayed at home from meeting today, and Sarah stayed to take care of him 
and the baby. Services are held in the Court House now, and the Lyceum 
meets there too. I am almost always the only woman present at the latter. 
Mrs. Harmon told me she had counted "sixty virtuous females" in Sonora--I 
do not see why some of them do not attend the Lyceum! Mrs. Harmon now has 
fifteen in her school, two of them young ladies, one of whom is going to 
be married next month. Chester is in all her classes, and he says, "When 
she reads she has to spell some of the words, and she can't learn 
geography." 

A great many immigrants are arriving now, and such dusty, forlorn looking 
people! Some come in covered wagons, and some on horseback, and some walk-
women with little children clinging to them. I saw one with a tiny baby, 
born on the way, no doubt. And many die on the way; and many, women 
especially, who get here will wish they had stayed at home. No house, 
rents high, and the rainy season coming on, men looking for work, and 
children to feed! They bring their goods with them. I saw hung on back of 
one wagon two flag-bottomed chairs, with straight backs and slats, painted 
red; I remember just such in old farmhouses in "West Newbury. It really 
made the tears come to look at the old things. Most of them have only pots 
and pans and a stove and bedding, and with these they camp out till better 
times. And they soon come, to the industrious. 

The Tribune as you say grows better and better, the best paper in the 
country. 

Douglas has been sick all the week with dysentery. Lewis has sat up with 
him every night, and we feared at one time he would not get over it. But 
now he is better. 

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I almost forgot to tell you that my kitchen is being built, and my stove 
is mended, and I hope soon to be able to bake bread again. Since the baby 
was born we have been buying baker's bread. A barrel of flour will cost 
twenty-five dollars, but that is cheap, for we buy a dollar's worth of 
bread everyday! 

October 30, 1853. I went with Lewis and Chester and Lizzie to church 
today, and left Sarah to take care of the baby, as Douglas, though much 
better, is not yet strong enough to do it. It was communion day, and three 
men joined by letter. Lewis joined when the church was organized three 
months ago, and I today, because I could not go then. Mr. Harmon is a 
Presbyterian, but as some of the members are Congregational and do not 
agree with the creed of the Presbyterian Church, Lewis wrote one that all 
joined in, and it was adopted. 

You ask, Mollie, if you can earn three hundred dollars, beside your room 
and board, and Lewis says, "Yes, she shall have that for teaching our 
children." I hope soon to send you a draft and a list of the things I want 
you to buy for me. 

Mr. Sullivan went to San Francisco two weeks ago, and when he returned he 
brought each of the children a book and candies. He found a cousin in San 
Francisco to whom I think he will soon be married, and I expect he will 
take the bookstore off Lewis' hands. Then Lewis will be at home more. Now 
he is gone from morning till night. Governor Bigelow has appointed him 
notary public and that will add some to his business. 

Mr. and Mrs. Myrick are going to have a room in our house this winter. 
They sold their house because she was going East, but she has decided to 
stay here. They will 

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bring their stove, etc., and keep house for themselves, but she will help 
me with my work in any way I wish. She has a nice disposition and is very 
quick; she is the only woman I know of here that I would want to have in 
the house. 

After baking for two years with my old stove, you may be sure I am in 
rapture over the new one. I must tell you about my first baking. I mixed 
my bread and some raised cake about noon, thinking to bake next morning, 
as the weather is cool. Mrs. M. and I decided to sit up that evening till 
the men came from the printing office, as it was the night they get out 
the paper. When they came about eleven, she took a look at my bread, and 
it was running over the pan. She said, "It must be baked tonight, and if 
you will sit up, I will, but it will take till morning!" So to work we 
went, and the men went to bed. I had made a large batch and she moulded it 
every bit while I mustered the pans. It took all I had and one of hers. At 
first I put in too much wood (I never could get my old oven hot enough) 
and I burnt the outside of a large loaf, but we soon got used to it and 
managed nicely. About one o'clock we made some tea, and she brought down 
some butter and applesauce, and we broke our burnt loaf and ate the best 
part, and had a nice little supper all to ourselves. She watched the oven, 
and I the fire. We had to put on extra clothes as it grew very cold. She 
cleaned a fish her husband had brought her, and we jogged along till about 
three, when the baby cried and I had to go up and get her to sleep. She 
went to bed at about four, and I baked the cake and washed up the pans and 
dishes and went to bed and slept an hour. Our bread was light as a feather 
and so was the cake. Of course I gave her some, and she gave us for 
breakfast a large piece of her fish 

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and it was elegant. The children were astonished, as they had planned to 
help at the first baking. 

I must tell you about my new kitchen. It is built on at the back of the 
house and it is quite primitive. It has a roof and sides of rough boards, 
and two half windows; the sun shines in nearly all day. It is large enough 
to have a lot of wood piled at one end and a long table at one side. We 
have laid in two barrels of flour and a half barrel of sugar. We have 
splendid potatoes; you never saw or ate better. 

Thanksgiving Day, 1853. Lewis and the older children have gone to church, 
and I will begin my letter while I get baby to sleep on one arm, and then 
I must get dinner. We are to have two wild geese. They are small and said 
to be very nice. Mrs. Myrick picked and cleaned her own and ours, and I 
gave her my feathers and baked a small plum pudding for her. We are not to 
have dinner till two o'clock and I am boiling our pudding. On Tuesday we 
made a batch of squash pies together, she made the crust and I baked them. 
And we are going to make mince meat before Christmas. It is a great help 
to me to have her. She always takes care of the baby when I go to the 
Lyceum. 

December 4, 1853, Sunday. Our baby is in my lap, and she is so lively I 
shall not be able to write very well. She is six months old. I went to 
church this morning with Lewis and the children. There were quite a number 
of men and all of eight ladies, besides four little girls and as many 
boys. The Methodist churches have about the same number, and yet there are 
a great many families in the place. Mr. Harmon is a good man but not an 
interesting preacher, not at all original. 

December 9, Friday. Yesterday Mrs. Deal asked me to 

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meet with some other ladies to talk over a festival for raising money to 
pay off the debt on the Methodist Church North. All denominations will 
help. They concluded to make food to sell, and I am to bake bread and 
cakes. Mrs. Deal said she would make a hundred pies, and "Sister Grove" 
will bake a bushel of cookies. It is to be held in the church on the 16th. 
There will be singing of course. 

December 17 

Our festival went off nicely and the house was full. I went one day with a 
Mrs. Alderman to ask the grocers for donations, and they gave between 
fifty and sixty dollars' worth. I had to do all the talking as she is a 
"silent sister." Then I went to the church in the afternoon to help 
arrange the tables. I had to take the girls and the baby along. The men 
trimmed the church with evergreens and red berries and it looked 
beautiful, and the tables were splendid. In the evening Mrs. Myrick did 
not feel able to go, so she took care of the baby and we all went and had 
quite a social time. All the food that was not eaten was auctioned with 
much merriment. Two of my cakes, baked in your oval pans, sold one for 
three dollars and one for two dollars and fifty cents. I heard today that 
the festival brought In. between three hundred and four hundred dollars. 

I begin to think that Mollie will not come, and I feel as though I ought 
not to wish it. Maybe I am the more ready to give up the idea because 
there is a very slight prospect that we may come to Philadelphia in the 
course of a year. It is not settled yet by any means, and I won't say more 
about it nor give the reasons, as it may "slump through," but I hope and 
guess it won't. 

A man who keeps a ranch sent Lewis a lot of vegetables of the largest 
size, to notice in the paper. There was a parsnip 

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three-quarters of a yard long and as large as your fist, and monstrous 
beets and carrots, and a drumhead cabbage, hard as a rock and large enough 
to fill a big chair seat. 

Christmas Day, Sunday. Yesterday the boys got a nice little pine tree and 
set it up, and last evening Lewis and Douglas filled all the stockings and 
hung them on it (except Douglas' own, which we filled). A new doll, given 
Lizzie last week, is perched at the top, and books wrapped in paper and 
many notions hang around. There are stockings on the tree for the Myricks, 
too. Everything is to be kept till tomorrow, which we think is the best 
day to celebrate. Lizzie wanted to know "if Sunday could not be put off 
till Wednesday, this week." We shall have chicken and plum pudding for 
dinner. 

How interesting the Tribune is! And Harper's is publishing a story by 
Thackeray. I have lots of reading, could I only read. It is a great worry 
of mind to me to be obliged to leave such lots of papers and magazines 
unlooked at. I shall lay them away for a leisure day, should I ever be so 
happy as to have one. I have put Anna Lee in short clothes, and I have so 
much sewing to do for her and the others. Sarah and Lizzie have read the 
story of the doll in the papers that you sent, till they know it by heart, 
and Sarah often sings it to the baby. 

As Sarah went to Sunday School this morning, she met the gentleman who 
gave Lizzie her new doll and he gave her a little gold pencil. I put a 
ribbon through the ring and proposed to hang it on the tree, but she 
thought she would rather wear it around her neck. She said, "I think this 
will be my most expensive present this Christmas." 

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March 20, 1854. I could not find time to write earlier this week because 
Lewis has been quite ill; he has rheumatism in his shoulder, a cough, and 
general debility. But he has now gone to Sacramento, and before he returns 
must go to San Francisco; will be gone ten days. 

I have begun to use my washing machine and get along very well. The 
children can turn it. I send out my sheets and the shirts and we do all 
the rest. I am making the children some dresses which Mrs. Yaney gave 
them, and she and Miss Johnson are coming to help me tomorrow. It will not 
be just like having Mary and Hannah come, but very helpful indeed. 

People are beginning to dislike our minister, Mr. H., because of a sermon 
he preached on capital punishment, and because he courts the Southern 
party, although he said he was an abolitionist when he first came. He is 
not outspoken like Mr. Deal, because he wants to get them all to come to 
his church. A man here who reads the Tribune said to Lewis, "When Mr. 
Harmon and his sermons are in oblivion, Greeley and his writings will be 
known and admired." I told Mr. H. once that I thought the Tribune was the 
best paper in the United States.

It must have been very soon after this that the family withdrew from the 
Presbyterian Church and began to attend the Methodist, where we went as 
long as we lived in Sonora. Chester remembers that one Sunday, at the 
close of the sermon, father rose and the family followed him out of 
church. He thinks it was a protest because of some sentiment that had been 
expressed. and I am sure that I have heard that the preacher excused 
slavery on the ground that Paul had sent Onesimus back to Philemon. One 
benefit which we gained from attending the Methodist Sunday School was the 
learning of long passages of the Bible, which took the place of the 
present day lesson. 

Mrs. Lane and her sister came to tea, and they would have some sewing and 
helped me a great deal. Mrs. Lane is 

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a Catholic. I like her as well as anyone I know here; she is the prettiest 
woman in town. 

Business is very dull just now; this week they have not paid expenses in 
the newspaper office. Lewis will sell the paper if he goes East. Do not 
send anything till you hear from us. If I can, I shall get some silk in 
San Francisco for a gown. The general price is high for good silk, but 
sometimes they have a consignment of goods they want to get off their 
hands and then things are very cheap indeed. When Mrs. Myrick went down, 
she bought me a new straw bonnet. It cost nine dollars, and is a very 
common straw at that, and feels awfully on my head and keeps falling back. 
I lined it with some double silk net I had, and got straw colored ribbon 
for strings, and made the cape of some ribbon I got in Philadelphia, and 
it looks quite well, they say. 

Sarah is making herself some nightcaps and she has had to pick Out her 
work four times. She can hem very well but says she hates sewing. The baby 
is as good as ever; she sits on the floor and plays with a paper, and when 
she sees Lizzie read, she takes a book and reads too. Even when she is 
alone you hear her say, "a, a, a, b, b, b," etc. When I feed her bread and 
milk, she will take the spoon and feed herself, and then hand it back to 
me to fill again. Lewis says she has the best shaped head of all of them. 
Her eyes grow blacker and blacker, they are darker than mine, and her hair 
is brown and begins to curl softly about her face. She is very pretty, 
only she has a pug nose. Lewis is better; working in the garden seems to 
be good for him, and he is trying to get the soil ready for seeds before 
the dry season begins. 

I do not think Mrs. Myrick will go East, and I hope Mr. 

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Myrick will buy the paper. I saw a leghorn bonnet today that was a beauty. 
I wish you could get me one like it; I do want a pretty one. Do send me a 
pattern for a mantilla--I must make me a new one. I saw a French girl wear 
one trimmed with two narrow ruffles, and as her family are rich, I suppose 
it must be the style. 

Mr. B., a nice young man who is interested in the Panorama Company and 
thinks everything of Lewis, was married this morning, and they sent me a 
loaf of pound cake. I often have pieces of cake when marriage notices are 
sent to the paper, but this was a deep, round loaf and very nice indeed.(*)

(* The Panorama was another of father's interests. It represented scenes 
in California, and I presume he was the lecturer who described them. It 
was being prepared in San Francisco.)

Several letters which followed are missing and one of them must have told 
of Chester's serious accident. He had received a present of a shotgun from 
a man whom father had befriended. It had two triggers; when the first was 
pulled and the gun fired, it set the second which needed only a touch to 
discharge the gun. Chester had been firing at a mark and had just fired 
once when another came to the door and asked him to get a pail of water. 
He laid down the gun and went to the well, and as he came back, a boy who 
did not understand the gun. picked it up and pointed it at him. It was 
discharged and his face and neck were filled with birdshot. A man, who was 
working near, ran and picked him up and carried him into the house, 
turning him so that the blood, which was fast filling his throat, was 
thrown out and did not choke him. Fortunately his eyes escaped injury and 
he was not disfigured in any way, although he was ill for a time. This 
must have been a great shock to mother, especially as it happened in 
father's absence. 

July 28. I have written twice since Chester's accident, I think. He is 
well of his wounds, but has had another. He 

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went with Douglas to have a swim, and on his way home he stopped at our 
milkman's to get a drink of water. The man was cutting straw with a hay-
cutting machine and Chester says asked him to feed the straw. He put his 
hand too near and had one of his fingers cut off at the first joint! It is 
the first finger on his right hand. The man ran with him to one doctor and 
then to another, but they were not at home. It was near Mr. Lane's office, 
and he took him up town to another doctor and stayed with him till it was 
dressed. When Chester came home, he came upstairs and told me, and it made 
me sick; I could not get over it for a week. I could not write about it at 
first, and the children did not want me to; they thought it would make you 
feel bad. We have had to be very careful of him, and not let him out in 
the hot sun, and give him a very light diet. It is almost well now, but 
think of losing a joint of his most important finger! The doctor says it 
will grow some. 

I had a letter from Lewis, and he says he will begin to exhibit the 
Panorama in San Francisco next week and may go to the States next spring. 
In that case we shall all go too. I shall sell some of my things and store 
some, as Lewis says he will want to come back to California. Besides this 
house and land, he owns the Herald office and a store, and some unoccupied 
lots, and his interest in a Road and Mining Company. I expect it will be 
hard to sell the house, though it is the best house here--so cool and 
comfortable and the only two-story house in town. 

It is dreadfully hot just now, and our back kitchen is so hot I cannot 
describe it. At noon, when the sun shines on the roof, the heat goes up 
into your nose and takes your breath away. But there is no dampness and 
nothing moulds. 

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But we have dust like unto ashes, and so dirty as it makes the children! 

Lewis has sent for Douglas to come down to him; he can do little jobs and 
assist them in the evenings, and he will study with his father during the 
day. It is better that he should go. He has been trying to collect some of 
his father's bills, but Chester can do that. 

Since Chester hurt his finger, Lizzie and Sarah worry about him if he is 
gone a minute longer than they think he should be, "I feel all the time 
about that Chessy," Lizzie will say, and Sarah will call to him when he 
starts out, "Now don't go to the milkman, Chess, and get all your fingers 
cut off. I never did see such a boy, all the time doing something to 
himself." I rise almost every morning at half past four; and one morning 
Lizzie got up at about five, and when Sarah woke, she told her how early 
she was up; "I am almost the mother of the house now," she said. She and 
the baby love each other dearly and have such good times together. The 
baby is trying to walk and gets on pretty well. She is very fond of a 
little dog which the doctor gave Chester, and she calls it 'Goggle, 
Goggle." 

August 5, 1854, Sunday. I will tell you about our visit to our Mexican 
friend, who, by the way, came from Chili and wishes to be called a South 
American: One day when the boys were at his ranch, he told them that he 
wanted their mother and the girls to come and see him, and because they 
have to work very hard all the week, he wished we would come on Sunday. I 
would rather have gone on another day, but as he wished so much to have us 
come, and the children were so anxious to go, I consented. The Saturday 
before, I baked apple and rhubarb pies and some bread; 

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and Sunday morning I was up at five and packed my basket with two pies and 
a loaf of bread, and some tea, and our milk for the day. Then I got the 
children up and dressed, and combed their hair, no small job when Sarah's 
turn comes, and gave them some bread and butter to eat in their hands, and 
we were off before sunrise! It was so cool, and the sky so splendid, and 
after we got Out of town, so pleasant among the hills. It was the first 
long walk I had had since before the baby was born, nearly a year and a 
half, and I enjoyed it. The old man was glad to see us. He lives in a 
stone house surrounded by spreading trees and monstrous rocks. He built it 
himself. In the one large room, which had a dirt floor, there were two 
long narrow benches, a table, one rough bedstead, and some bunks for beds. 
Some shelves held plates and a few odd cups and bowls and tumblers, and 
there was a swinging shelf close to the door, on which they put their 
bread, just where it would catch all the dust. The chickens and pigs ran 
in and out at pleasure. There was a nice yard before the door, swept as 
clean as a floor, and a low bench at one side under the shade of a tree. 
It was much pleasanter to sit there than in the house, which was quite 
dark, being lighted only by the door. 

As we were so early, the old man was still sweeping up, and a man who 
boards with him was cooking, baking bread and roasting green corn. He 
asked me if I liked roast corn, and I told him "very much," and he went 
and told the man to roast some more for Seora Gunn. He brought me some 
right away and I ate it, sitting on the bench. Some of it was roasted with 
all the husks off and browned elegantly, and some with the inner husks on; 
it was as sweet as a nut. He also brought me some cheese to eat with it, 
and I liked it 

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better than I thought I should when he asked me to eat them together. The 
children had some too and ate it running about. We had to go all through 
the garden and see how everything was growing, especially the plants from 
seeds I had given him. Then we had to go in and have some "breakfast," 
tea, new bread of his own making, and more roasted corn. The tea was made 
in a coffee pot and served to me in a bowl and tasted very good. The 
others had all sorts of plates and Cups, both tin and china, white and 
blue. We ate first and they afterward. 

After breakfast we went to see the corn and tomatoes planted in hills; he 
runs the water between these hills in ditches from the main ditch which 
the miners use. He can only have the water at night, and so his children 
are often up nearly all night working. It has been so very hot that things 
are drying up. He has two girls, seventeen and thirteen, and a boy of 
fifteen. They all wear boys' clothes, but the girls have long hair which 
they tuck up under their hats when they are working in the field with him. 
He dresses them so in order not to attract the notice of the miners near. 
They have such small hands and feet, all of them, no longer than Sarah's, 
I think. 

Then he brought out one of the benches from the house and put it against a 
high rock in the shade, and I sat there with the baby and read some papers 
I had brought, while he cooked the dinner. The children played in a swing 
and on the big rocks. He made a soup of dried fresh beef, corn, squash, 
and potatoes, and brought me some to taste while it was cooking, to see if 
it was salt enough. The fire was in a shady place between some rocks. When 
the soup was done he took the kettle into the house and set it down near 
the 

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table; then he poured part of it out into a tin pan in the middle of the 
table and served us in very shallow plates. As the table was very narrow, 
and the soup very thin, I expected every moment that the children would 
tip it over into their laps, but they did not, although they did get 
pretty greasy. He also had the meat served in a dish by itself, and some 
corn, and a dish of squash cooked with cheese, which the children admired. 
They never ate such a nice dinner in their lives, and Sarah told the old 
man, "We should not have had such a nice dinner at home!" We ate by 
ourselves, as in the morning. The boarder was from New Hampshire, near 
Concord, and he told us about his farm at home. He borrowed one of my 
papers to read and said he had not talked so much to a woman since he left 
home a year ago. We started back about four o'clock, and Douglas carried 
my basket filled with com and squash. Chester and I carried the baby, and, 
as it was very dusty coming back, we were glad to get home. I bathed the 
girls and the baby and myself, and we all went to bed early. 

On Friday Douglas went to San Francisco with Mr. Bennet in his buggy. We 
miss him very much. That same day a box of oranges came from Osgood for 
the children, and they were so sorry Douglas could not have some. 

Sullivan has sent me this description of the Panorama exhibit in a San 
Francisco paper, so I send it on to you. Lewis may sell Out his share, and 
go to Europe; if so we should not stay long in Philadelphia; but we cannot 
tell now. I hope to hear about the success of the exhibition from Lewis 
very soon. 

Our baby has been quite ill with hives but is well again. She begins to 
talk and call the children by names she has 

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for them. I have been baking for a little company which Sarah and Lizzie 
are to have tomorrow, their first party. They are to have some little 
cakes, and melon, and nuts, and some jelly tarts. They are putting their 
doll house in order and feel very important and happy. 

December 24, 1854, Sunday. Christmas time again, but it does not seem like 
winter. We need rain very much--we have had almost none as yet, and the 
grass has hardly started. Both farmers and miners are discouraged. 
Yesterday Chester and Sarah brought home a beautiful pine tree, which is 
to be put in the parlor tonight, and the stockings are all ready to put on 
it, and I shall add your letters the last thing. The children think more 
of Anna Lee's stocking than their own. As she has always worn socks, Sarah 
was allowed to buy her a pair of stockings, and they have all helped fill 
them. I have been making some dresses for the girls from the de-laine you 
sent. I washed yesterday, so as to have Monday to celebrate. 

Monday noon. The children are enjoying their gifts. The tree was very 
pretty. Sarah had made new dresses for the China dolls and they had to be 
put a with the stockings and books. Douglas had Taylor's Manual of Ancient 
History ; Chester, Buckeye Abroad by Sam Cox, full of beautiful pictures; 
Sarah, Sir John Franklin and the Arctic Regions ; and Lizzie, Mary 
Howitt's My Juvenile Days --all books which Lewis saved for them when he 
sold out the bookstore. I forgot to say how delighted the children were to 
see Anna Lee take the things out of her stocking and her joy over a little 
book. Sarah kept saying, "I am so glad I put it in." They were all so 
pleased with their letters; each thought his own was the best. In my 
stocking was a potato 

[image caption: Hannah Lee Stickney Elizabeth Le Breton Wright Mary 
Thurston Stickney Philadelphia, 1861]

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in which Douglas had put one dollar and a half for me to buy myself a 
present with. 

The girls have been up the hill to take some of their nuts and candy to 
some nice men, miners, who live in a tent. They were invited to come agaIn 
and have a taste of the goose the men were cooking. Lewis and the boys 
have gone hunting and will be back in time for dinner. They have been 
looking forward to hunting together for some weeks. 

Evening. We did not get through dinner till dark. It was very good, a fine 
roast of beef and plum pudding. Chester has taken the girls to see a 
little girl in the neighborhood and Douglas is to go for them at eight. 

Mrs. Lane asked the children to come to her house with some others one 
evening, and they played games and told stories. Douglas said that while 
Lizzie was sitting by Mrs. Lane, she remarked, "Now all be quiet and I 
will tell a story," and she folded her hands and said, "Enter thou into 
the joy of thy Lord," and also some other Bible verses about the "wise 
people." When Lizzie came home she said to me she told them some poetry, 
and they did not laugh either. 

You ought to see the baby sew. I tie the thread into the needle and give 
her a rag, and the way she goes at it is a caution. She sticks in the 
needle and pulls it Out, not slowly, but with vigor. You would laugh to 
see how earnest she is. She is a Stickney, I think, and rightly named 
after her Aunt Hannah. 

January 6, 1855, Sunday. Happy New Year to you! We had a powerful rain 
last night, and the children are all looking for gold which may be washed 
down from the hills. They have been quite successful finding small bits, 
and 

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Douglas found one worth three dollars and fifty cents. Chester has been 
saving money to buy a goat, and with his findings has enough. Lewis buys 
it from a man we know, who will keep it till it has its kids, and then 
Chester will have them all. He is going to make a New Year's present of it 
to the family. Chester is as pretty a boy as you will find in fifty, when 
he is washed and dressed, but when he is dirty I tell him you can't find a 
worse-looking young one. As for Douglas, he is as tall as his mother. That 
is not much, you will say, but he is a great deal larger, broader across 
the shoulders, and wears stockings and shirts as large as his father's. He 
has changed more than the others, looks much as Peter did at fourteen or 
fifteen, though he was only thirteen last August. 

Our neighbors who live in the tent had the top blown off in the storm and 
were deluged with the rain. They told the children they never had such a 
New Year's greeting. 

Friday evening. We were to have a New Year festival at the church last 
Monday evening. I thought I should not go because it was so dreadfully 
muddy, but soon the moon came out and some young men took a carriage and 
went all over for the ladies. So I went and took my cake. The church was 
full and we had a pleasant tune and all the food that was not eaten was 
sold. 

[The letters must have been sent just as regularly during the next years 
but only a few have been preserved. There is no explanation of the failure 
of the Panorama and of the plans for returning to the East.] 

November 1, 1855. It is right cold tonight, and I wish all our warm winter 
clothes were made--my new merino gown and Sarah's petticoats and the boys' 
shirts--and that 

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Lewis' shirts had the new bosoms, and that lots of other things, too 
numerous to mention, were all done and put away ready for instant or 
future use! There, I have delivered myself secundum artem, as our Hannah 
says, no matter whether the phrase is appropriate or not. 

I am not sewing tonight because I have a crack on my thumb and it hurts 
too badly. Anna is in bed and her dolly beside her; she pats it to sleep. 
When I gave her a drink, she held it to dolly's mouth for a second and 
they lay down together, equally satisfied. You would laugh to hear her 
say, "Now I lay." I say it a line at a time, and she repeats it just as 
fast as she can. She is very earnest and sincere, but it is her way, 
everything must be done in short order. You would laugh to hear her set 
Rollo on the pigs. She will clap her hands and say, "There's a good dog, 
there's a good Rollo." She loves him and he loves her. We have the 
handsomest rooster I ever saw, he has all the colors of the rainbow. 

November 11, 1855. It has grown cold enough to have a fire in the parlor. 
Thanksgiving is to be November 29th in our State. I do not see any 
prospect of spending this Thanksgiving or next in Philadelphia. Chester 
had a present of two apples. They cost twenty-five cents apiece. I have 
planted the seeds. Not long ago Anna had her first apple, and she played 
with it all morning and did not think of eating it, until the children 
told her to. 

I sent you the children's daguerreotypes by a colored man who was going to 
Philadelphia. He will return here, and I wish you would send me by him 
some cotton thread and some needles; what I buy here are very poor. And, 
as 

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you say, the girls must learn to knit; and you had better send me some 
unbleached cotton yarn. I have worn the six pair of stockings which I 
brought with me ever since I came and they are better than any others I 
ever knitted. I cannot find time to knit now, and I have bought stockings 
for the children, but they wear them through in a few weeks. The fact is, 
nothing here is equal to what you get, and our things cost more too. 

I am glad now that we did not move to San Francisco, for business there 
just now is nothing like as good as it is here. Lewis is doing very well 
with the drugstore; he does the principal business in that line. I am sure 
we ought to say, as you used to, Mother, "How thankful we ought to be!" 
Douglas has lately had his wages raised to fifteen dollars a week. 

I have, so far as it goes, some good news about the bridge. From the time 
they first set out to build it till now, it has not brought in any income. 
It broke down, and none of the stockholders would assist in rebuilding it, 
or pay their assessments. So Lewis and Mr. Heslep have it now all to 
themselves. They have had many offers to sell, but none they would accept; 
now they are considering an offer from some English people to rebuild it. 
It would be a great thing for this whole region if it could be done. 
Sonora is the nearest town to Table Mountain and the miners come here for 
their goods. The mountain is forty miles long, and through the whole 
length and breadth of it mining claims have been staked out. The 
Stanislaus River runs through this mountain, and the bridge is over this 
river. Instead of giving out as people feared, the mines seem to be 
yielding more; they are finding out better ways of working them. Another 
good 

Page 237

business here will be the raising of fruit. Many people are planting apple 
and other trees, and they bear sooner than in the east. 

I have finished my green merino dress and wore it yesterday, and it fits 
better than any dress I ever made for myself. I made a plain waist, and 
real old-fashioned sleeves, tight all the way down and hooked at the 
wrist. 

May 14, 1857, Wednesday. I must tell you about some company I had and my 
preparations. I invited Mrs. Holden and her father, Captain Cazneau, and 
Fanny Markham, Mrs. Lane's sister. I made bread the night before and baked 
it while we were eating breakfast. As Captain likes soup better than 
anything, I started stewing my meat for that very early and put cabbage, 
turnips, carrots, and green parsley, and potatoes in it. The children 
shelled a lot of green peas, while I cleaned the kitchen and parlor all 
over, and as the flies are very bad just now, Sarah and I cleaned some of 
the windows. I set the table in the parlor, and of course I had out my new 
knives and forks; and, for fear I forget it, the Captain admired the 
peculiar shape of the carving knife. "Do you see this, Eliza, how very 
convenient!" and they all admired the knives. "Balance handles," she said. 
And also my new handsome tea pots. I told them they came from 
Philadelphia. 

Well, after Douglas had had his lunch at noon and had gone back to his 
work, I dressed, and about three o'clock put on my vegetables, and when 
they were done, set them on the upper part and was ready for my beefsteak. 
It was tender as a chicken, and I got it nicely done, just as my company 
came. Soup, meat and vegetables, tea and bread and nice fresh butter and 
stewed apples, and that was all.