Argonauts

1851 · ref. BK0070 — Owsley's Bar Yuba River California 1851. 2 pp. 7 ½ x 9 ½ inches. Folded for mailing and postmarked San Francisco February 1 with red-orange circular datestamp and matching "40" rate handstamp. Minor wear with small pale spot to address panel. A Gold Rush letter from Thomas J. Dabline at Owsley's Bar on the Yuba River giving a detailed report on a dispersed community of Maine emigrants in the California diggings. Dabline names roughly a dozen acquaintances recording their locations occupations and in several cases their financial success while also describing the effects of an exceptionally dry winter on mining along the Yuba. Dabline begins by noting that he has continued mining "with about the same results" and then describes the winter season which had brought remarkably little rain. The shortage of water had begun to interfere directly with mining in the dry ravines: "The very small quantity of rain which has fallen has operated unfavorably for those who are engaged in mining in the dry ravines and hundreds who have been throwing out dirt for washing have been obliged to leave it for want of water. But should it continue as it has it will be very favorable for an early season up the mountains." He compares the weather to a pleasant October in Maine with occasional frost and thin ice and remarks on the relative health of the surrounding mining population estimating only six or eight deaths during the season among roughly 1500 to 2000 miners living within several miles. The strongest portion of the letter is Dabline's account of what he calls "the other Maine boys" who were dispersed across the northern California diggings: "I cannot tell you much about the other Maine boys. They are scattered about the country in the various diggings. I have learned that F. McLeod has gone home with about 3000 dollars and Mr. Sholl with 5000 or 6000 dollars. Fitch Demey is over on the American River in the Express business. Mr. Vinton & Upton are down on the McCormic or dry Creek. Mr. Carpenter with the two Johnsons of Waterville are over on the Feather River. Mr. G. is I believe at Sacramento City. The Trumbulls are up about Nevada City and Dr. Anderson was sometime back down at the little village of Nicholas which is about 55 miles above Sacramento." The passage offers a compact picture of a Maine migration network after its arrival in California with members spread among the Yuba American and Feather River regions Nevada City Sacramento and other settlements. Dabline records both the mobility of the group and their varying outcomes including men who had already returned home with several thousand dollars and another who had entered the express business rather than mining. He closes by mentioning current excitement over reports of a rich new discovery at Gold Bluff though adding that "very little credit is given to the tale here." A useful firsthand account of the social geography of the Gold Rush documenting a community of Maine emigrants across the mining regions while remaining connected through news of one another's whereabouts and fortunes. . unknown books