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Kingman (Alden H.) Gold Rush
Letters
MC315
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Davis Library,
Dept. of Special Collections
Title: Alden H. Kingman Gold Rush Letters
Creator:
Kingman, Alden H.
Identifier/Call Number: MC315
Physical Description:
6 items
Date (inclusive): circa
1852-1866
Abstract: Manuscript letters
by prospector and gold miner Alden H. Kingman, detailing his
experiences in Tuolumne County, California, and later in San
Francisco.
Physical Location: Researchers should
contact Archives and Special Collections to request collections,
as many are stored offsite.
Alden H. Kingman was born in Maine and came to California from
Waltham, Massachusetts, 1854. He was a prospector and gold miner
in Tuolumne County, California and later a watchmaker and jeweler
in San Francisco.
Manuscript letters by prospector and gold miner Alden Kingman,
detailing his experiences in Tuolumne County, California, and
later in San Francisco during the mid- to late 1850s and early
1860s. Kingman, who was born in Maine and came to California from
Waltham, Massachusetts, arrived in Springfield, California, in
1854, and his first letter from there, dated June 4 and addressed
to his brother, discusses his arrival, initial work, and the
fortunes of mutual acquaintances:
"I am not so fat as in the winter, but I still feel well as
any body and I have to work vary hard now, but I get paid vary
well for it, so I don't care much. I have the best week's work
last week that I ever done in my life. I arnt [i.e., earned] half
as much as I could at home in a summer, [or] very near, but don't
let this flatter you, for I may not do so well the next, but we
have a pretty good show for a summer's work I think. Yes, for two
or three, if it pays as well as it has, but perhaps it won't. The
boys are all well and doing pretty well, I believe. Elliot &
Salomon lost thair last week's work $140 that came hard. It was
stole from them thay say out of thair cabbin...."
In February 1858, Kingman was still working the "tunnels" in
Springfield, but employment was only intermittent, likely due to
the Panic of 1857, and "it is the hardest times here for money
that I have ever seen." By August 1859, writing to his father,
Kingman was working steadily, but still demoralized over his
returns on his years in California:
"You wished to know how the Virginia tunnel was paying. We get
vary good prospects in it, but they are so far apart that it
hasn't paid us any thing to speak of yet, but thare has ben heaps
of the shining ore passed through it. Some day & if we can
get whare they bed rock ain't so steep, we shall be likely to get
good pay. I think the Boston tunnel is paying first rate now. I
have an interest in that yet, so I am in hopes that I shall come
out better than I expected a while ago, for it looked very dark;
come to prospect over four years & and pay out over four
thousand Dollars & not be likely to receive one cent.... I
would like to go home & see my folks & friends, but I am
situated so I can't at present. I suppose you think I have got
plenty of the shining Ore by this time, but you are mistaken. I
have had some of it since I came here, but you see whare some of
it is gone & I have not spent but nary little foolishly, but
money will go here if a man is lucky enough to have any."
Kingman saw another difficult period in late 1860, which led
him to lament to his father that, "The time has past when every
man can make a pile here in a few days. I have done vary well
since I ben here, but have paid the most of it for prospecting
far more, so I have to wait until I can make another raise.... I
still continue to work in the Boston tunnel & expect to as
long as I mine for a living & that won't be a great while, I
hope, if I have my health." Nevertheless, he is still at it in
May 1864, when he endured days of seasickness to join a silver
rush on Catalina Island:
"Thare has been great excitement about lead & silver are
being found on the island, so of course, I had to go -- not,
however, til I let one of my old friends from Ellsworth have two
hundred dollars to return with, for he had been thare & was
very much excited about the mines & wanted to go back, but
couldn't for want of money. So I let him have it. I started also.
Well, I got there. You ask did you find your pile. I did &
was very glad to come back. A pile of hills was all I found.
There is some lead & silver in the island, but not enough to
pay -- that is, as far as prospected & I don't think ever
will. I have gone to work in the old tunnel again quite
contented. This is the first excitement that I have chased after
& I think the last for a while that is since I came to
Cal...."
Perhaps this was one of the final straws for Kingman's mining
career, for in his last letter, to his brother and dated March
1866, he reported that he had been working for some time as a
watchmaker in San Francisco:
"I am repairing clocks & watches. I have been at it about
a year & a half & can do most any work thare is to be
done. I like it first rate. It is nice pritty work & pays
vary well, the best of any thing that I know of at present. If I
had plenty to do all the time, I could make a fortune in a little
while. I put pivots in watches & put teeth in wheels, put
main springs in & have springs & all the fine work. It is
a natural gift, I know, for I love it.... Well, I must say that I
enjoy meyself the best I ever did in my life since I left
school."
He must have indeed had found his calling, since the San
Francisco directories list Kingman as a "watchmaker and jeweler"
at various addresses in the city for more than a decade after
this final letter, until 1877. One additional letter present
here, discussing family business and news, dates to 1852, when
Kingman was still in Massachusetts.
[Description provided by McBride Rare Books]
Collection is open for research.
Liz Phillips created this finding aid with information
supplied by McBride Rare Books.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from McBride Rare Books, 2021.
[Identification of item], Alden H. Kingman Gold Rush Letters,
MC319, Archives and Special Collections, UC Davis Library,
University of California, Davis.
All applicable copyrights for the collection are protected
under chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code. Requests for
permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted
in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for
publication is given on behalf of the Regents of the University
of California as the owner of the physical items. It is not
intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder,
which must also be obtained by the researcher.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Gold mines and mining --
California
Pioneers -- California -- History -- 19th
century.
Michael and Margaret B. Harrison
Western Research Center
Kingman, Alden H. -- Archives