This folder consists of four separate documents. The first is a typed reproduction (1992 keepsake for Roxburghe and Zamorano clubs) of a letter by Henry H. Clifford explaining his acquisition and investigation of the Joseph Goldsborough Bruff rebus letter, as well as a photocopy of the letter and an accompanying transcription of it, and lastly a photocopy of a handwritten letter by Bruff addressed to the Pioneer Association of California to use as handwriting comparison with the rebus letter. The second document is the original handwritten letter (six pages) by Bruff addressed to the Pioneer Association of California, dated December 14, 1869. The third document is a one paragraph letter to Helen S. Giffen at the Society of California Pioneers from Charles Eberstadt of Edward Eberstadt & Sons, Specialists in Rare Americana in New York City, dated November 22, 1954. The fourth document is a photomount pamphlet binder containing the prospectus (printed title pages and table of contents) of the memoir of Joseph Goldsborough Bruff, dated 1856, seven pages long. It is titled “Overland Travel to California, in 1849”.

Joseph Goldsborough Bruff was born in Washington, D.C. on October 2, 1804, one of 18 children. He entered West Point in 1820 but resigned in 1822. After his application to the Naval Academy was rejected, he spent time sailing to Europe, South America, and Africa and was an officer in the Venezuelan Service. He returned to Gosport (now Portsmouth) Virginia around 1827. He became a draftsman on April 3, 1836. On April 2, 1849, having founded the Washington City and California Mining Association, he left for California. He was a charter member of the Mason’s Federal Lodge in Washington, D.C., and assisted in founding California Masonic Lodge #1. He died on April 14, 1889.

1.0 folder (4 items)

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