This file contains various papers of Elisha O. Crosby, he was trained as a lawyer and came to California in search of gold in the year 1849. The file includeds some letters of correspondence to the Society of California Pioneers, a handwritten autobiography and reminiscence requested by the Society, a handwritten account of the discovery of gold by James Marshall and a typed transcript of an original, in the Bancroft Library, account of the first California election.

Mr. Crosby was born in Groton, Tompkins Co., New York on July 18, 1818. He studied law, and ay age 23, in 1841, was licensed to practice law, and in 1844 went to practice in New York City at 27 Wall Street. He left for California on Christmas Day, 1848, arriving by the Steamer California on February 28, 1849. He was elected a delegate from the Sacramento districk to the first Constituional Convention in Monterey. He was also in the first and second legislatures of the state as a Senator. In 1855 he was commissioned into the Committee of Vigilance in San Francisco. In 1861, he was appointed U.S.Minister to Guatemala by President Lincoln, and in 1867 was admitted and licensed to practice as an attorney and counselor to the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1874, he married Frances Alma Crandall in Lincoln, Nebraska, and settled afterwards in Alameda. They had one son, Edward Oscar Crosby. Elisha Crosby continued to be active in public service in Alameda but was not a wealthy man. He died at the age of 76 after falling down a flight of stairs, on June 20, 1892, and was cremated and interred at Cypress Lawn Cemetery. Crosby was the man "who single handedly collected all the returns for the first California Election" and he personally carried the votes on horseback form Sacramento to Monterrey which would lead to California being admitted to the Union. During his time in California Crosby was also the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the State Senate during the first and second sessions of the California legislator. The original copy of Crosby's account of the early history of the California election is housed at the Bancroft Library in Berkley, CA. He became a member of the Society in 1853, and the Society has institutional records for him, from which some of the above information was taken.

1 folder 1 Folder (2 handwritten memoirs, 1 typed transcript, and 3 handwritten letters)