This is an original journal, handwritten in ink on 59 pages, providing a daily record of the round the Horn voyage of Capt. Augustine D. Carpenter from Boston to San Francisco. The voyage took 210 days (7 months) and commenced on February 14, 1849 and ended on September 12, 1849 on arrival in San Francisco Bay. The last journal entry, after a 3 month pause, was on Dec 15, 1849 written at Upper Springs, Redding Diggings where Carpenter was engaged in trade and mining. After 2 months he was able to send $500 in gold dust to his wife in Boston, where he planned to return.

Very little could be found on Captain Augustine D. Carpenter. Since the donor of this journal is unknown, we cannot use the donor's family to search Carpenter's ancestry. His name appears in the Rhode Island Historical Society's papers of T.K. Carpenter, as Augustine D. Carpenter. The ship, or brig, he sailed on, the Colonel Taylor, left from Boston, and in the diary he sends gold dust back to his wife in Boston, linking Carpenter to that city and confirming that he was married when he left for San Francisco. Carpenter arrived in San Francisco on September 12, 1849, and according to his journal (a section written after a 3 month gap from his arrival date in San Francisco), Carpenter was at Upper Springs, Redding Diggins - where he engaged in trade and mining. This may be the Reddings Diggings between Marysville and Sacramento. At the end of his journal, he notes this complete's his "thirtieth year", writing in Dec. 15, 1849, so that makes his date of birth 1819. The only other published record found on Carpenter, was in The Argonauts of California, by Haskins - where he is cited as: Carpenter, Augustine D., on page 365, as an Ex-member of the S.F. Pioneer Association. This reference may be to the Society of California Pioneers - they were sometimes referred to as the SF Pioneer Association, since Carpenter appears in our early member records as Augustine D. Carpenter, being elected to membership on October 7, 1867.

1.0 folder 1 bound lined journal 59 pages of daily entries handwritten in ink. legible

There are no restrictions on access

Collection open for research