Charles Penniman Daniell Papers, 1844-1853,, 1861

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Summary

Creators:
Daniell, Charles Penniman, 1828-1861.
Abstract:
The collection consists of family letters and a few photographs related to Charles Penniman Daniell's experiences and life in San Francisco, California (1850-53).
Extent:
59 items
Language:
The records are in English .

Background

Scope and content:

The collection consists of letters and a few photographs related to Daniell's experiences and life in San Francisco (1850-53). Charles is the author of all the letters and the only addressees are his sister Lucetta, his mother Sarah, and his father Josiah. The letters, generally one to four pages in length, are arranged chronologically. Several of the letters are duplicated in typewritten format. Charles wrote the bulk of the letters from the city of San Francisco, but there are also letters from Boston, where he helped with his father's dry goods business and from the ship “Marcia Cleaves" as he sailed around the Horn to California.

A seemingly amiable and optimistic young man, Charles appears to wrestle with the challenges of making his own way in the world and the longing for the familiar. The letters rarely go into great detail, but they allude to a great variety of topics such as home-sickness for his family and New England, the importance of “Steamer Day" when mail arrives, the weather, his health and well-being and that of his compatriots, the importance of social relationships to business success, the difficulty of business success without sufficient capital, the diversity of nationalities/ethnicities on ship and in town, party politics, the Vigilance Committee, church attendance, anecdotes about music, his food and lodging conditions, the outbreak of fires and cholera in town, and the occurrence of marriages at home in Massachusetts and in California.

Photographic material includes a photograph of the Daniell family, four copy prints of daguerreotypes and four negatives of copy prints of Daniell family members, the family's house in Roxbury, and William standing next to his brother's grave in California.

Subjects include: the ship Marcia Cleaves, Voyages “around the Horn", ocean travel, Valparaiso, (Chile), San Jose (California), life in San Francisco, and business enterprises there, the city’s U.S. Custom House, city politics—especially the Vigilance committee, church attendance, the building of a Unitarian church, relationships between men and women, ethnic relations, anecdotes about music, and descriptions of fruit purchases.

Biographical / historical:

Born in South Milford, Massachusetts, in September 1828, Charles Daniell (1828-1861) was the eldest son of Josiah Daniell, a drygoods retailer in Boston, and Sarah Hutchinson Penniman Daniell. Charles P. Daniell sailed from Boston to San Francisco around the Horn in 1849-50. While in San Francisco he took part in a sequence of business arrangements to retail hardware, including operating other proprietors’ stores and managing his own. For a brief period of time, he worked at the U.S. Customs House. He also made at least one excursion into mining territory to “see the Elephant." Daniell returned to Boston in 1854 and again in the late 1850s, where he married Henrietta Spring, a close friend of his sister Lucetta, in 1860. They returned to California, but he died May 1861 at the age of 33. Subsequently, his brother William traveled to California to take care of his affairs. Charles’ only daughter, born posthumously, died as an infant.

Acquisition information:
The collection was given to the Huntington Library by Mrs. Austin Jenison (nee Margaret Daniell) on October 13, 1967.
Rules or conventions:
Finding Aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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