Finding aid of the Finley McDairmid Reminiscence C058758

John Davis
Society of California Pioneers
05/04/2018
101 Montgomery Street, Suite 150
Presidio of San Francisco
San Francisco, CA 94129
pkeats@californiapioneers.org

Note

B-V-8f / B001632


Contributing Institution: Society of California Pioneers
Title: Finley McDairmid Reminiscence
Creator: McDiarmid, Finely, 1807-1851
Identifier/Call Number: C058758
Physical Description: 1 folder Typed manuscript, copied from handwritten original, 138 pages
Date (inclusive): 1851-1851
Abstract: Finley McDiarmid's "Letters to My Wife" was transcribed from the original letters written by the author to his wife Constantia as he travelled to California from Wyota, Wisconsin. The journey took 5 months from May to October, 1850. The original letters are at the Bancroft Library and the Society of California Pioneers has a typed transcript of 138 pages. The Letters have been published as "Letters to my Wife" by Ye Galleon Press in 1997. The "Letters" provide vivid descriptions of the trials and hardships of the overland journey to California in 1850. Throughout he provides a count of the graves and dead livestock seen along the trail during the day. At Salt Lake City they decide to take the Hastings Cutoff around the south side of Salt Lake and across what they were told was 40 miles of desert. It turned out to be closer to 100 miles. They crossed the Sierras through Carson Valley and finally arrived in Placerville on October 9, 1850. McDiarmid spent from then until October 1851 trying to make a go of mining, barely "making groceries in all the country that has been mined. Finally in October he moves to Eel River in Trinity County, makes a claim on a homestead 12 miles from the ocean. He starts raising stock, building farm buildings and planting crops, planning to bring his family to join him. In December McDiarmid and his brother in law, Horatio A. Merrill, were building a boat at their cabin on McDiarmid Prairie when they were attacked and killed by local Indians.
Language of Material: English .

Scope and Contents

Finley McDiarmid's "Letters to My Wife" was transcribed from the original letters written by the author to his wife Constantia as he travelled to California from Wyota, Wisconsin. The journey took 5 months from May to October, 1850. The original letters are at the Bancroft Library and the Society of California Pioneers has a typed transcript of 138 pages. The Letters have been published as "Letters to my Wife" by Ye Galleon Press in 1997.
The "Letters" provide vivid descriptions of the trials and hardships of the overland journey to California in 1850. Throughout he provides a count of the graves and dead livestock seen along the trail during the day. McDiarmid sums it up as follows: "When I left home I anticipated all the unpleasant, painful sights that I have seen, but then I little expected to come in for so large a share of suffering as been our lot to bear." At Salt Lake City they decide to take the Hastings Cutoff around the south side of Salt Lake and across what they were told was 40 miles of desert. It turned out to be closer to 100 miles. They crossed the Sierras through Carson Valley and finally arrived in Placerville on October 9, 1850. McDiarmid spent from then until October 1851 trying to make a go of mining, barely "making groceries in all the country that has been mined. Finally in October he moves to Eel River in Trinity County, makes a claim on a homestead 12 miles from the ocean. He starts raising stock, building farm buildings and planting crops, planning to bring his family to join him. In December McDiarmid and his brother in law, Horatio A. Merrill, were building a boat at their cabin on McDiarmid Prairie when they were attacked and killed by local Indians.

Conditions Governing Access

Collection open for research

Conditions Governing Use

There are no restrictions on access

Preferred Citation

Finley McDiarmid Reminiscence, The Society of California Pioneers

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donor and Date of Acquisition unknown, however the transcript has the following name and address on the title page; Sarah Reynolds, 1316 Jirseno Lane, Woodland, California"

Related Materials

The original "Letters to my Wife" are held by the Bancroft Library. The Letters were published by Ye Galleon Press, Fairfield, Washington in 1997.

Bibliography

The Letters provide the most extensive biographical information on McDiarmid. June 15, 1977 The Times Standard from Eureka, California reports that he was born in Gates, New York in 1807 and provides the story of his death on McDiarmid Prairie in December of 1851.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Overland journeys to the Pacific
California Gold Rush, 1848-1852
Frontier and pioneer life – California
Pioneers -- California
Indians of North America
Gold mines and mining -- California -- Shasta County
Merrill, Horatio A.
McDairmid, Constantia
Helms, Henry
Helms, Adam
Underhill, Fred
Underhill, William
Bigalow, George
Lathrop, I T
Turner, Nick
Turner, Tilley Alex
Bailey, Josh
Bailey, Joe
Crellen, Charles
Hammond, Alexander
Hamilton, William S.
Chilton, Matt