James William

James William — marelibri

1860réf. 68352Shasta CA. June 28 1860. Louise Catherine Denver Writes Home from Northern California A charming and detailed letter of California travel from Louise Catherine Rombach Denver wife of the politician Union officer and Colorado capital namesake James William Denver. Denver moved to California after serving in the Mexican-American War and remained in the state through the height of the Gold Rush serving as a U.S. Representative for the territory as well as California's second Secretary of State. He returned east after his term ended married Louise Catherine Rombach of Ohio and was soon appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs and then Governor of Kansas Territory by President Buchanan. This letter written from his wife to her parents was penned during a return trip to California shortly after he left office describing the pair's travels around Shasta and the Sacramento River in the far northern reaches of the state. Mrs. Denver describes the scenery and fine company they enjoyed on their western trip: "My Dear Parents I am on my way to Weaverville….I can not say that Shasta is a very pretty place but there are great many very pleasant people living here. We dined at Mr. Stillmans and had a most excellent dinner oyster soup chicken strawberries and other things too tedious to mention. Tomorrow we are invited to take tea at Judge Dangerfields.We left Sacramento last Saturday and have taken the trip very leisurely came all the way in a steamboat to Red Bluffs from there we took a stage here distance about forty miles started from Red Bluff at four o'clock in the morning and arrived here at twelve o'clock A.M. the same day….I was perfectly delighted with the scenery. I wished often that you were with me so you might enjoy the same sights. The Sacramento River is beautiful on either side was growing willows oaks and twined around them were the wild grape vines now and then there was a small island in the river covered with all kinds of shrubs and then as far as the eye could reach you could see Mt. Shasta towering above all the other mountains and covered with snow. Just think you could see it a hundred miles off…." Denver goes on to describe her health and that of her husband both good his prospects for future work and to discuss other particulars of their acquaintances and travels. After a very successful career as a Union general during the Civil War James returned to Wilmington Ohio with Louise to practice law where they lived in the Rombach family home. A lengthy northern California letter from the wife of a major figure whose career and impact spanned the United States and Mexico from coast to coast. Old folds scattered light stains. Very good. unknown

Denver, James William:ABAA

AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED FROM JAMES WILLIAM DENVER TO HIS TWO SISTERS IN OHIO CONCERNING ADVICE AND CRITICISM OF POETRY RELATING A LOCAL "TRAGI-COMIC" INCIDENT OF SPURNED LOVE PLUS OTHER LOCAL NEWS FROM HIS EARLY CAREER IN MISSOURI.

1518réf. 56819Plattsburg Mo. March 15 1846. The Young James Denver on Poetry Romance and Law and Order in Missouri An early James W. Denver letter written by him to his two sisters in Ohio Mary Caroline and Jane Campbell Denver while he was working as a lawyer and actor in Missouri in 1846. This was a year before James Denver 1817-92 raised a unit to fight during the Mexican-American War and before he had served in any of the varied and famous roles during his long and distinguished career. After the Mexican-American War Denver served in the California state government the United States House of Representatives as a Congressman from California as the Commissioner of Indian Affairs the Territorial Governor of "Bleeding Kansas" and as an officer in the Union Army during the Civil War among other positions. Denver first moved to Missouri in 1841 to teach school and returned there in 1845 to practice law. In the present letter Denver discusses the merits and faults of recently-published literature particularly his "severe criticism" of a poem entitled "The Hunter on the Hills." He also relates the news that he gave a collection of his own poems to the "Platte Argus" for publication. Almost two pages of the letter are taken up with an incident of spurned love that Denver describes in detail in which a jilted husband experiences "running off with his ladies love - of getting married - of losing his wife - of having a fight - of seeing a man murdered and of going home very much frightened and in a bad humor all in the same night. He has since stuck up notices warning all persons not to trust his wife on his account." Denver then spends most of the last page writing about the local unmarried women in neighboring Clay County. He claims to "not care a straw about any of them" but writes a paragraph detailing a few of the women. In the penultimate paragraph Denver touches upon his legal career in Missouri reporting that no murder charges were filed for the "Estill affair." As Denver writes of Missouri law: "In this country we have by law five degrees of murder and it was necessary that at least twelve of the Grand jurors should agree on some one of the degrees which they could not do. He was therefore discharged but may be indicted at any future time." Denver concludes his letter with a quote from his friend and Missouri legal colleague Bela Metcalf Hughes who would in the coming decades himself become a prominent resident of Denver Colorado. An early and informative letter from Denver to his sisters while he was working as a lawyer in frontier Missouri. Noticeable wear and staining with considerable fold separations especially along the center horizontal fold. Good. unknown books