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Finding aid of the James H Gager Diary
C058476
C058476
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Table of contents
Title: Gager, James H, Diary
Identifier/Call Number: C058476
Contributing Institution:
Society of California Pioneers
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
1.0 folder
1 diary, handwritten, 130 pages
Date: 1849
Abstract: ""Six Months on Shipboard" being a Journal of a Voyage to California from New York commencing January 22, 1849 and ending
on August 5, 1849, by James H Gager, Passenger on board ship "Pacific". Left with a view to future reference and as a rememberence
log" is the hand lettered title page of this 130 page daily dairy of the journey aboard a sailing ship around Cape Horn to
San Francisco. Brief daily entries record life on the ship, and the tedium of being at the mercy of the wind and waves on
the 14,000 mile voyage. The ship stops at Rio de Janero, Callou and Lima and Gager write extensively about those places.
creator:
Gager, James H., b. 1812
""Six Months on Shipboard" being a Journal of a Voyage to California from New York commencing January 22, 1849 and ending
on August 5, 1849, by James H Gager, Passenger on board ship "Pacific". Left with a view to future reference and as a rememberence
log" is the hand lettered title page of this 130 page daily dairy of the journey aboard a sailing ship around Cape Horn to
San Francisco. Brief daily entries record life on the ship, and the tedium of being at the mercy of the wind and waves on
the 14,000 mile voyage. The ship stops at Rio de Janero, Callou and Lima and Gager write extensively about those places.
The journal contains a listing of the names, ages, and origins of all of the passengers on the "Pacific"
Conditions Governing Access note
Collection open for research
There are no restrictions on access.
James H. Gager Diary, The Society of California Pioneers.
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Donor and date of acquistion unknown
Little is known of James H. Gager's life before his trip to California on the ship "Pacific". The "Pacific" was scheduled
to leave New York on January 5, 1849, and it was the ship's first voyage to the gold fields. Advertised as $300 per passenger.
The ship was quickly booked by at least four companies, two of which were: the New England Trading & Minig Company, and the
CMT Company (the Connecticut Mining & Trading Company), with other individual passengers booking as well. It was captained
by H.I. Tibbetts. A quite detailed account of the journey, referencing James H. Gager, can be found in From New York to San
Francisco via Cape Horn in 1849: The Gold Rush Voyage of the ship "Pacific" - an Eyyewitness Account. by Salvador A. Ramirez
(Carlsbad, CA:Tentacled Press, 1985). Ramirez blends the accounts of four well-known passengers: Charles H. Williams, Mark
Hopkins, Jacob D. B. Stillman and J. Ross Browne. The book lists the roster of passengers at the end, which is derived in
part from James H. Gager's passeneger list ( published in Stillman's account of the voyage). The information on each passenger,
which Ramirez gleaned from various sources, was the only information able to be found on Gager. It is as follows: James H.
Gager, from New York, aged 37 at the time of his sailing (putting his date of birth at 1812. Ramirez's book notes the following:
"(Gager) Stranded in the mountains around Lassen's Ranch during the winter of 1849, Gager had by 1861 established residence
in San Francisco where he was employed as a bookkeeper, secretary of the Sacramento Valley Railroad in 1865, and stockbroker
in 1870. Between 1873 and 1880, he was connected with James Flood and William O'Brien, Kings of the Comstock Lode and owners
of the Nevada Bank in San Francisco, as a bookkeeper." This diary is therefore, the fifth account of the voyage of the "Pacific".
Existence and Location of Originals note
The Society of California Pioneers, 101 Montgomery Street, Suite 150, Presidio of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 94129.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
California--History--1846-1850
Voyages to the Pacific coast