Six Letters Sent by Charles B. Manning Regarding the Voyage of the Cape Ann Pioneers from Cape Ann Massachusetts to San Francisco, and Work in the Mines at Horseshoe Bend, California. February 1849 June 1850.
(Gold Rush) Manuscript.
Price: $4750
This is a series of six letters written by Charles B. Manning to his father in Rockport, Massachusetts between February 21, 1849 and June 19, 1850. The first two letters were written during Mannings voyage aboard the schooner “Boston,” the first one headed at sea and the second headed St. Catharines S.A. – probably Santa Catarina off the Brazilian coast. The third letter was written from the Sacramento River, and the fourth from San Francisco. Letters five and six were written from Hallowell, Maine, where Charles worked for a time after his return from California. Charles Manning and at least nine companions traveled from Cape Ann to Boston, where the schooner “Boston” waited to carry them to San Francisco. Marshall Swans history of Rockport, “Town on Sandy Bay,” tells us, In January 1849, according to Pools recollections, ten left for California by ship around Cape Horn… Dr. Manning received from his son a specimen nugget. In his fourth letter home, to his father in November 28, 1849, Charles writes, I shall enclose a scale of gold as a curiosity. one of the largest we have found 4 ounces (?). It is all the same value as that I enclose. This, no doubt, is the nugget mentioned by the Rockport historian. William Pool, mentioned above, was town clerk of Rockport from 1840 to 1868. His son William, Jr. was one of the Cape Ann Pioneers. Contrary to what many of his fellow Argonauts experienced, Charles Manning had success at the mines. He writes to his father, “I did very well while I was in the mines. A little better than anyone of the whole party…. When I left Horseshoe Bar I had about 1150.00 in the pure metal. but come to pay passages boards and etcetera out of it reduces it some. I have a bag with the $1000 in it which I do not intend to break if I can help it for every ounce will bring me from 20 to 24 dollars at home. and I get but 15.50 & $16 at the most here.” $1000 in 1849 would be about $40,000 today. He refers to his experience as a handsome summers work. Many of his contemporaries were not as lucky, and Charles describes in detail scenes of suffering and misery. Constant rain and foul weather, claim jumpers, lack of supplies, disease, and suicides were significant parts of the Gold Rush experience, and Charles counted himself fortunate to have avoided most of them. Despite the hype, the work was terribly hard, and reality of life in the mines was quite discouraging. In his letter from Sacramento, Charles tells his father “…now that I know what mining is, I should not advise anyone to come to California. Everyone that I have heard express their opinions on it calls it the hardest work that ever was done. Perhaps a little information on the subject would not come amiss…” He then goes on to write about how the mining process worked: “In the first place it requires but 2 to work a machine. the machine I will give you an idea of when I get home as it cannot be done on paper. each machine is allowed 20 feet front on the river, and back as far as you have a mind to go, but if your lead (is) rich some one will set in behind you unless you want to fight, and are ready to back your opinion… I have not heard of a single murder. and but one theft committed since I have been in the mines. After you have secured your lead, so named, there is always more or less clearing off to do. sometimes we have to dig 7 feet before we come to dirt that will pay. and then it has to be carried to the machine by the pan or bucket full… After we got here and found out what we wanted every thing was so dear it wanted a small fortune to get fitted out however Mr. Dunzack and myself bought an old dry goods box for $7… and continued to make a very good machine of it which passed us after it was completed $12 and although it is not quite so handsome as some of the others that cost 40.00 it has turned out a little more gold. perhaps you will say that I am a little inclined to brag and I am not ashamed to own it. We have got along very peacefully together much more so than any company we have seen or we have seen a number of members of companies that have broken up. But it is impossible for my company any company to hang together long. they cannot all get good digging on the same bar.” Later, toward the end of his letter from San Francisco, he reiterates: “You would not believe it I suppose if I should tell you that about one half that come here expecting to make a fortune in a short time, turn about and go back again or as soon as they can make enough to get back with. I heard that the best business that was done in San Francisco was speculating on steamer tickets bound down. One man that came up with Mr. Norwood… staid with us two days and looked around and went off for Francisco before he had stuck a shovel into the ground, with the intention of taking the next steamer for home… For my part I don’t think I shall try the mines again very soon. and I find fifteen or twenty of the same opinion.” At the end of his San Francisco letter Charles speaks of leaving California and refers to an acquaintance who takes passage in this steamer (Dec 1st) for home. His mode of travel back east is unknown a typical sea voyage might have taken three or four months. In any event he was back east by May 1850 and had already secured a job in Hallowell, Maine, where the family had connections. His last two letters, totaling about 700 words on four pages, talk mostly about visiting relatives in Maine and his eventual return to Rockport. The Bancroft Library has a document it identifies as Kimball, Charles Proctor. California Company agreement, [1849] on Schooner Boston. This is an agreement executed in 1849 aboard the schooner Boston and signed by 27 members of the Cape Ann Pioneers mining company to meet at a Popular House in 1852 to partake of a supper at which, presumably, theyd share their memories of the California adventure. Charles Kimball was one of the signers, as were Benjamin Shurtleff, W.C. Beard, H.J. Noyes, Wm. H. Wallace, William W. Pool, and Oliver Craig, all of whom are mentioned by Charles in his letters home. A photocopy of this agreement accompanies the letters. Six letters on 8 x 10 inch sheets, 22 pages of manuscript, about 7000 words. All the letters are in very good condition, clean and legible.
