1850 Letter from Sacramento Describing the Cholera Epidemic, Failed Mining Ventures, Violent Crime, and Emigrants Too Sick and Impoverished to Return Home: “O How I long to get out of this place”.
Sacramento City, California: October 29-30, 1850. Autograph letter signed “Sam’l L[ocke?]” to his wife in Belfast, Maine. 6 pp. Stampless folded letter with clear circular “SACRAMENTO CITY / CAL.” postmark and “40” rate handstamp; manuscript notation recording receipt in Maine on December 19, 1850. Light soiling; very good. Item #BK0017 A bleak California Gold Rush letter written during the 1850 Sacramento cholera epidemic by Samuel Locke, a Maine emigrant suffering from prolonged fever and unable to regain his strength. Surrounded by sickness, failed mining ventures, violent crime, and men too poor or ill to return home, Locke plans to seek recovery in the Sandwich Islands while relying upon his religious faith for consolation. Locke had been ill since August and was now so weak that ordinary work exhausted him: “My limbs or legs are very weak, short breath and no appetite at all. I have no desire to eat anything, not one thing I can think of. I have no strength to go into any business or to do any. I do a few little chores round or about the store occasionally, but to sweep the store it beats me all out […]. O how I long to get out of this place. Can’t get any strength, don’t know as I can anywhere, but I long to try.” Friends advised him to spend the winter in the Sandwich Islands. He expected to travel first to San Francisco and then make the fifteen- to twenty-day passage to Hawaii, though he feared that continued illness might leave him unable either to support himself there or return to Maine. He states that he will “trust in providence, yes trust in God who I feel is my only refuge”. Locke gives a grim account of California’s climate and the spread of cholera through Sacramento, claiming that the climate in California prevented the sick from recovering their strength, as the “air is very light & bad, middle of the day very hot, and nights very cool.” The previous week’s report had stated forty dead, but “nothing near all the cases were reported,” with Locke himself knowing of several unreported cases personally. A local blacksmith died overnight after his companions borrowed Locke’s syringe, and “We can hardly see a healthy looking individual in the streets.” The letter also records the uncertain fortunes of men from Locke’s home region scattered through the mines. William Beckett and his partners had spent the summer constructing a mining dam, had struck gold on the first day, and then immediately “the dam was washed away, so they lost all their summer’s labor.” Other acquaintances had moved to Kelsey’s Bar, the southern mines, or Oregon, or were preparing to return east by way of Panama. Some remained convinced that California would reward perseverance, while others had “seen enough” after accomplishing nothing. Locke regarded success as largely accidental: “Thousands are here and in the mines who want to get home and cannot—not able to do seamen’s duty and no money to pay, but they have got to stay in the mines and do the best they can. Some it is true have been lucky. It is all luck. If they happen to hit a good place, they do well.” News that cholera had entered the mining districts increased his alarm. Locke feared especially for men living in tents as the rainy season approached, with poor food and little protection from exposure. Sacramento itself was marked by nightly violence: “There are murders or robberies about every night. One man killed in front of our house a few nights ago. We heard him holler and heard the blows. Next morning he died. His head was dreadfully mangled.” Locke closes with an emotional message to his wife and children. His health, finances, and prospects all appeared uncertain, and he repeatedly asked his family and church to pray for him: “Tell the dear Children to be good and if they never see me again when I am gone they will have the satisfaction […] of knowing they [acted] as thy Father requested […]. Pray for me, ask the Church to pray for me, indeed I know I have your prayers and you have mine often.” A particularly bleak account of the human cost of the California Gold Rush, documenting epidemic disease, physical collapse, failed mining schemes, violent crime, religious faith, and the predicament of emigrants unable to escape California after their health and resources were exhausted.
Price: $1,250.00