Title:

Francis Hamlin correspondence, diaries, and family papers, 1833-1950

Creator/Contributor:

Hamlin, Francis, 1817-1902, creator, creator.

Creator/Contributor:

Hamlin, Eliza Ann, 1836-1882, creator.

Creator/Contributor:

Ashley, Augusta Thrasher, 1878-1961, creator.

Creator/Contributor:

Ashley, Lloyd C., 1877-1957, creator.

Creator/Contributor:

Ashley, Robert, 1918-, creator.

Creator/Contributor:

Ashley, Palmer, 1907-1991, creator.

Creator/Contributor:

Ashley, Lloyd Hamlin, 1904-1926, creator.

Creator/Contributor:

Dugan, Augusta Thrasher, 1845-1924, creator.

Collection includes Francis Hamlin's diaries dating from 1849 to 1902 documenting his life as a rancher and businessman around Yuba City, California. Two diaries document Hamlin's overland journey. This first of these, from 1849, details his journal to California in search of gold. The second, from 1853, details his overland journey to drive cattle to California. The other diaries (24 in total) and two cashbooks document the operations of Hamlin's ranch between 1854 and 1893. The collection also includes three overland letters written by Hamlin to his father in Maine on March 24, 1849 (from Independence, Missouri), April 26, 1849 (from camp on the line between Missouri and Missouri Territory in Jackson County), and December 16, 1849 (from Deer Creek Dry Diggins, California) as well as letters written by Hamlin to his father between 1839 and 1857 from Readfield, Maine; Buckfield, Maine; Moscow, Ohio; and Sacramento, California. In the collection are also letters written by Hamlin in 1880 to his wife, Eliza Ann, and their two-year old daughter, Augusta, in Covington, Kentucky. The collection includes other letters written by Eliza Ann Thrasher Hamlin and Annie Hamlin (Francis' second wife); correspondence of Augusta Thrasher Dugan (sister of Eliza Ann); correspondence of Augusta Hamlin (who married Lloyd C. Ashley in 1903); materials relating to the history of the Thrasher, Penn, Hamlin, and Ashley families; and some materials relating to Robert, Hamlin, and Palmer Ashley, the children of Augusta (Thrasher Hamlin) Ashley and Lloyd C. Ashley.

Date:

1833 (issued)

Subject:

n-us-ca

Hamlin, Francis -- 1817-1902 -- Archives

Hamlin, Eliza Ann -- 1836-1882

Ashley, Augusta Thrasher -- 1878-1961

Ashley, Lloyd C -- 1877-1957

Ashley, Robert -- 1918-

Ashley, Palmer -- 1907-1991

Ashley, Lloyd Hamlin -- 1904-1926

Dugan, Augusta Thrasher -- 1845-1924

Hamlin family -- Archives

Overland journeys to the Pacific -- Personal narratives

Ranching -- California

Yuba County (Calif.) -- History

Sutter County (Calif.) -- History

COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.

Francis Hamlin correspondence, diaries, and family papers, BANC MSS 2021/128, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Purchase from Michael Vinson; November 2020.

Photographs transferred to the Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library (BANC PIC 2021.044).

In English.

Francis Hamlin was born in Maine in 1817. He lived and worked as a teacher in Readfield, Maine during the late 1830s and early 1840s. By 1844, Hamlin resided in Moscow, Ohio. He came to California during the Gold Rush in 1849 and settled in the area of Yuba City and Marysville, where he mined for gold. Hamlin moved back east to Ohio around 1851 and returned to California in 1853 with 150 head of cattle to establish himself as a rancher and a businessman in West Butte. By 1879, he reportedly owned around 1600 acres of land. Hamlin was active in public affairs, serving in the state legislature in 1862. He was also appointed an Associate Justice of the Superior Court of Sutter County in 1859 and signed a petition to the state legislature for women's suffrage in 1870. Hamlin married Eliza Ann Thrasher in 1870 and was father to Augusta, born in 1878. After the death of Eliza, Francis Hamlin married Annis Stevens in 1887. Francis Hamlin died in 1902. Augusta Thrasher Hamlin, daughter of Francis and Eliza Ann, married Lloyd C. Ashley in 1903. They had three sons: Robert, Hamlin, and Palmer.

Type:

Diaries.

Overland journals-1849

Overland journals-1853

Family papers.

print

4 (3 1

English

Origin:

California

COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.