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Tilden Family Correspondence
MC367
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Contributing Institution:
University of California, Davis Library, Dept. of Special Collections
Title: Tilden Family Correspondence
Creator:
Tilden, William Peregrine, Dr., 1819-1873
Identifier/Call Number: MC367
Physical Description:
14 letters
58 pp (unpaginated). Sized from 12mo. 4.75 x 7.5 in., on pink & blue tinted ruled paper, ivory-ruled paper.
Date (inclusive): 1858 October 8-1868 June 5.
Abstract:
California, Civil War Politics and Medicine Manuscript Letters
Fourteen original "My Dear Darling Wife" manuscript letters penned by a pioneering California physician to his young wife,
Catherine Maria Hecox, tracing 10 years of political campaigning during the 1860 Douglas Democrats vs. Republican general
election, Civil War, appointment to the Stockton Insane Asylum,
inclement weather, children's illnesses, and finally return to
private practice.
Chico, Sacramento, Oroville, Mooretown
Rancheria, Forbestown, San Francisco, and Stockton, CA; Salt
Lake City, UT, and New York
Text provided by Zephyr Books.
Physical Location: Researchers should contact Archives and Special Collections to request collections, as many are stored offsite.
Language of Material:
English
.
Collection is open for research.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Zephyr Books using Harrison Collection funds.
Dr. William Peregrine Tilden
Tilden (1819-1873) was private physician to General
John Bidwell, former manager of John Sutter, and founder of Chico,
CA, as well as the local doctor.
Dr. Tilden appears to have been trained in
Pennsylvania, By 1850, he was married to Mary MacDonald Tilden (1820-1854) with three children, Ridgley Tilden (1845-1911),
Isabella Lukens Tilden Crosette (1848-1916) and Mary MacDonald Tilden Faulkner (1851-1920).
Tilden headed West to the California gold rush after
Mary's death in Philadelphia. He married Catherine Maria Hecox (1841-1934) prior to Oct. 8, 1858. They had three children
with Tilden, Charlie (1858-1932), Douglas (1859-1935) and Helen (1863-1956).
Tilden was a candidate in the Douglas, [Democratic Party] ticket for the California Assembly in 1860. He was elected to the
California Assembly in Nov. 1860. At the end of 1861 he would resign from the California Assembly, and take up position as
the director of the Stockton Insane Asylum in Stockton, California. He ran for the California Assembly again in 1865 under
the Union Party.
In 1868 Tilden returned to private practice.
Catherine Maria Hecox Tilden Brown
Catherine Maria Hecox (1841-1934) married William Peregrine Tilden prior to Oct. 8, 1858. She had three children with Tilden,
Charlie (1858-1932), Douglas (1859-1935) and Helen (1863-1956).
Catherine Maria Hecox was a surviving member of the Donner-Greenwood Party, whose father Adna Hecox had split off with Dr.
Greenwood to travel the Oregon Trail into the Willamette Valley, and then by
ship down to Santa Cruz, California at the age of 6,
avoiding the remaining Donner party's disastrous Winter
trapped in the mountains.
Catherine Maria Hecox was a noted painter and artist, as
well as active suffrage supporter in California. She
and Tilden's sons Charles and Douglas Tilden
both pursued artistic careers.
Text provided by Zephyr Books.
[Identification of item], California, Civil War Politics and Medicine Manuscript Letters. MC367, Archives and Special Collections,
UC Davis Library, University of California, Davis.
Elizabeth Wood created this finding aid with information supplied by the seller.
Fourteen original "My Dear Darling Wife" manuscript letters penned by a pioneering California physician to his young wife,
Catherine Maria Hecox, tracing 10 years of political campaigning during the 1860 Douglas Democrats vs. Republican general
election, Civil
War, appointment to the Stockton Insane Asylum, inclement weather, children's illnesses, and finally return to private practice.
These letters open with a quick missive sent off Oct. 8th, 1858 by Dr. Tilden to his 18-year old pregnant bride Catherine
Maria (1841-1934), who was now navigating a Western household with three young step-children, and had gone to see her parents
in
Santa Cruz. Tilden (1819-1873) was private physician to General John Bidwell, former manager of John Sutter, and founder of
Chico, CA, as well as the local doctor. The letter closes with "A messenger has just come in and says I must hasten to Mud-Creek
-- consequently I must close."
By January 5th, 1860, he writes to her from Sacramento about their two young infant boys Charlie (1858-1932), and Douglas
(1859-1935) sick at home. He apologizes to her about not explaining the effect of the turpentine treatment upon Charlie, and
that he intended to telegraph "Major Bidwell, who told me when I left that he would probably come down next week, and request
to bring you along with him... however... if the rains extend to Chico the sloughs and creeks must be too high to
enable you to reach the steamer."
Nine months later, there is the first mention in his Sept. 30, 1860 letter of the consequential 1860 general election, where
he writes "Well what do you think? Dr. Tilden is a candidate in the Douglas [Democratic Party] ticket for the [California]
assembly. He could not get out of it this year as he did last year. The Committee said he must serve and forced the nomination
on him by acclamation."
The resulting 1860 political campaign is fleshed out in his Oct. 22, 1860 letter that "Since I last wrote I have traveled
100 miles, and made 5 speeches. I
have to travel 17 miles today and speak tonight at Bangor, and then every night until the 1st of November. Great as the labor
of traveling is my health improves under it every day... you want to know doubtless what will be the final result... I can
say that if no combinations against me shall be successfully made I shall be elected by a handsome majority." Further into
his campaigning in the Mooretown Rancheria "high up in the mountains of Feather River" Oct. 25th, 1860, he writes "my speeches
and intercourse with the Miners seem to take well, and if calculations can be made upon the foremost indications we shall
go to Sacramento." The campaign proved to be a slog with significant opposition by "prominent Republicans... believing, I
have truth on my side I shall enter the discussion with feelings of confidence... but the opposition are moving heaven and
earth to defeat me."
After his successful election in Nov., 1860 to the California Assembly, he makes the first mention Dec. 31, 1860 in a letter
from Sacramento detailing issues with trying to find a suitable home for the family ongoing forced stay in Mrs. Tilden's (unrelated)
boarding house, and also his possible job prospects in Stockton detailing that "it was too late to go and return in time to
answer my interests in the matter of the Asylum... Prospects for Stockton [Insane Asylum] are encouraging still, in fact my
chances are at present better than all the other candidates put together."
At the end of 1861 he would resign from the California Assembly, and take up position as the director of the Stockton Insane
Asylum in Stockton, California.
By Oct. 1st, 1862 from the Insane Asylum, he writes to Catherine that their son Charlie "is very well and seems quite happy
spending his time with Hattie Clark, between home and the Dr's. house. You may rest assured that nothing will go wrong with
him. . . Charlie says 'Tell Mama to come home and bring Duggy. I want to see them so much.'"
In early 1863, as director of the Stockton Asylum, and in order to initiate reforms in its' operations, he was sent by the
State of California East to tour and assess other Insane Asylum medical and reform practices across the country during the
Civil War. He writes June 11th, 1863 from Salt Lake City that "the trip was a hard one -- that is, constant staging, day and
night, and an almost constant cloud of alkaline dust, with more or
less apprehension of danger from hostile Indians along about 150 miles of the route. We were but 24 hours behind a stage which
was attacked and the driver and another employee of the company was killed. Thank God there are no more such dangers to pass
through -- all Indians East of this being of the friendly tribes."
As an aside, it should be mentioned here that this complaint about hard travel must have somewhat bemused his young wife,
as she was a surviving member of the Donner-Greenwood Party, whose father Adna Hecox had split off with Dr. Greenwood to travel
the Oregon Trail into the Willamette Valley, and then by ship down to Santa Cruz, California at the age of 6, avoiding the
remaining Donner party's disastrous Winter trapped in the mountains.
Unfortunately for Catherine, who was at the time not only pregnant with Helen Tilden (1863-1956), but also managing a domestic
crises around an affair between a young woman Martha in their household, and Asylum assistant John to Dr. Clark who was managing
the hospital in Tilden's absence. Dr. Tilden writes
July 20th, 1863 in support of her decision that "sent Martha away and that Dr. Clark discharged John."
His extended letter details that after a stop in Cincinnati he had traveled onto Lexington, KY to
inspect the Asylum overseen by Dr. Chipley. "The Lexington Asylum was founded 30 years ago, and although well conducted, and
being a very home-like place for the insane, it is too old-fashioned to have forwarded me long in the object of my visit...
I returned to Cincinnati and found the city under Martial Law. I was,
of course, with my body also, not allowed to leave the city without a pass, from Gen. Burnside... fortunately I happened to
meet with Dr. Langdon of the Longview Asylum, who through his assistance of the mayor of the City obtains a permit for me
to leave." He "skedaddled" out of the city to the Dayton Asylum, then onto the
Columbus, OH Asylum, and afterwards a trip to the Mt. Pleasant, IA Asylum which along with the Longview he felt to be the
best of the North Western States.
Traveling through the Northern tier of the Union during the Civil War, Catherine apparently asked him about the conditions
of the War, and what he had seen. Sept. 3rd, 1863 from the Metropolitan Hotel in New York, he wrote "You ask me to tell you
about the War. Why, my darling, excepting a few encampments -- which I have seen in my route, and any number of soldiers,
with stripes on their
shoulders, hanging around the hotels and bar-rooms, all over the country, I have seen no more of the War than you have...
My business has not had me at any times nearer to the Theater of War than Washington City... To have visited the Potomac Army
would have occupied time I could not spare from duty... What I would not do to witness all the "Pomp and Circumstance of War"
displayed since the Rebellion began... So much of my life has been spent in trying to save life I have lost all taste, if
I ever had any, for military display. Now and then one meets with a poor cripple who has lost a leg, an arm, or mutilated
on some occasion of ghastly
strife, but they seem cheerful and happy."
Just seven weeks after Gettysburg he further pens that "latest success of the Union Army and the apparently collapsed condition
of the Confederacy -- promising an early end of the contest..." He also informs Catherine in the series of 1863 letters that
he had made arrangements to take steamer on Sept. 3rd, 1863 to Panama, across the isthmus, and sail on the Pacific side to
San Francisco via the steamer St. Louis.
The last pair of letters mailed June 5, and June 8, 1868 to "My Darling Wife" detail his return to private practice, and that
he had to delay his visit to see her in Santa Cruz in order to manage the pregnancy and delivery of George Eaton's wife who
had requested
his presence.
Text provided by Zephyr Books.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
California -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
California -- Politics and government
Medicine -- California -- Sacramento County -- History.
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
Tilden Family
Tilden Brown, Catherine Maria Hecox, 1841-1934