Title:

John McLallen Thompson gold rush diary and other materials, 1857-1858

Creator/Contributor:

Thompson, John McLallen, 1832-1900, creator, creator.

Creator/Contributor:

Thompson, Sarah V., correspondent.

The collection consists of a diary, a letter to John McLallen Thompson from his wife, Sarah, two cartes-de-visite of Thompson (taken in Trumansburg, New York) and a printed 1877 wedding invitation for Thompson's daughter. The diary entries start in April 1857 as Thompson leaves Trumansburg for New York City to take a steamer to Panama. Thompson ended up not being able to book passage until May, when he sailed in steerage for the Isthmus of Panama. In his diary, Thompson reports on rumors of small pox on board the ship. Upon arrival in Panama, he travels by rail across the isthmus and then up the coast to California on board the steamer Golden Age. His diary provides details about the weather during his voyage as well as his fear of shipwreck. After arrival in San Francisco, Thompson travels to Sacramento and then via stagecoach to Forrest City. At Forrest City, Thompson hires mules to trek overland to Eureka and then onto Canyon Creek, where he intends to inspect an old claim he had worked on an earlier trip to California in 1852. During the next months, Thompson details in his diary the daily routines of working on his claim, his experience of being injured by a falling rock, and his financial difficulties and need to work for wages. Thompson also discusses violence among the miners, including a knife fight that ended in murder. At the back of the volume are Thompson's transcribed copies of twelve letters he sent home to his wife, Sarah, between May 13, 1857 and February 14, 1858. These letters detail Thompson's life as a miner as well as his moods and expectations. He copied each letter into his diary because he feared she would not receive them by post.

Date:

1857 (issued)

Subject:

n-us-ca

Voyages to the Pacific coast -- Personal narratives

Gold miners -- California

Gold mines and mining -- California

Gold miners

Gold mines and mining

Voyages to the Pacific coast

California -- Gold discoveries

Calaveras County (Calif.) -- Gold discoveries

California

California -- Calaveras County

Thompson, John McLallen -- 1832-1900 -- Archives

Thompson, Sarah V

Purchase from Michael D. Heaston; 2020.

John McLallen Thompson (1832-1900) was born in 1832 to Philemon H. Thompson (1799-1869) and Nancy McLallen (b. 1805) in Tompkins County, New York. John McLallen Thompson married Sarah V. (surname unknown) and had four children. WhenThompson left for the gold fields of California in 1857, he and his family were living in Trumansburg in the Finger Lakes District of Central New York.

John McLallen Thompson gold rush diary and other materials, BANC MSS 2022/116, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

In English.

Type:

Archives.

Diaries.

Personal narratives.

Photographs.

Diaries.

Photographs.

print

0.2 (1

English

Origin:

California