First letter to “Lottie”: Octavo bifolium ca. 21x16,5 cm (10 ¾ x 8 ¼ in). 3 pp. Brown ink on yellowish wove paper. Small piece missing at center bottom edge (with text affected). Second letter to “Sam”: Octavo ca. 21x16,8 cm (10 ¾ x 8 ½ in). Brown ink on yellowish wove paper. Small piece missing at the upper right corner (date affected), but overall a very good collection of two interesting letters.

Historically important collection of two content-rich original manuscript letters, documenting San Francisco’s improving conditions after the first wave of the gold rush.

The author, George Edwin Jayne (ca. 1845-1870), a native of New York, apparently relocated to San Francisco in the late 1860s. He addressed the letters to “Lottie” and “Sam,” who were likely his relatives from back home. A search for Lottie E. Jayne revealed a small collection of letters at UC Berkeley, exchanged between Lottie and George in August 1868 (predating the letters in our possession). The author passed away in August 1870, two years after writing these letters.

In the letters to “Lottie” and “Sam,” the author shares recent news from San Francisco, including the construction of new buildings, the replacement of old cobblestone pavements, the installation of asphalt sidewalks, and the widening of Kearny Street (which he notes is “the width of Broadway”). He highlights the popularity & affordability of boarding in restaurants, vividly describing his room at a restaurant on Kearny Street. Jayne also addresses the shortage of clerking jobs, fares for three-course meals, and the local currency system using “bits.” In the rest of the text, the author compares the climate of Santa Cruz to that of San Jose, discusses his improving health, and mentions the nearby Mercantile Library & Oriental Hotel, both of which were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.

Overall, historically interesting collection of two original letters, documenting San Francisco’s development two decades after the first wave of gold mining.

Excerpts from the first letter:

Santa Cruz is on the northern part of Monterey Bay or on Santa Cruz Bay as that portion is sometimes called. It is 80 miles from San F and 32 from San Jose... It bears the general reputation of being a healthy place & is somewhat resorted to in Summer for sea bathing. I know the climate is equable as this Summer it has rarely exceeded 75 dg averaging 70 to 75 dg.

I have a very pleasant front room, 3r' floor, looking East. Kearny St is below me. Beyond over the tops of the houses which opposite are the story I see the top of the Occidental Hotel & the Mercantile Lib while 1 geo glimpse of the masts of the shipping beyond. I am only one block from Montgomery St, Kearny being the first street West. My room is about as long as the hall bedroom home but 2/3 wider at least so that / have ample room for bed, wash stand table, trunk, chair, without crowding. Restaurants in the city are very reasonable in their charge but little more than half New York prices and a large majority of persons in the city without families live at them, finding it cheaper than boarding. I find some change in the city since I left it, buildings completed that were then only commenced. They are actively engaged in replacing the old cobblestone pavement with Nicholson payment. There is a great deal of it already laid in the city. They are always at work on some street. At present they are working on Kearny St a couple of blocks north of here. The street has just been widened some 15 feet. I think the last block of the old buildings were replaced while I was away & they are relaying the streets. The sidewalks keeping place being laid in Asphalt. The street is, I think, the width of Broadway, there being two RR tracks with a good wagon track on either side & the sidewalks are, I judge, 12 to 15 feet in width.

Excerpts from the second letter:

I think that my expenses have been about as small in San Jose as they would have been elsewhere as I only paid $25 per month board. Here in the city it will be about $30. I have taken a furnished room & board at a restaurant. It is the cheapest way to live here. Restaurant prices are very cheap - I can get a hearty dinner of three courses, all I want to eat, and well served, for 3 bits that is 35 or 40 cents as I give or receive the short bit (here prices are worded in bits - 12 ½ [cents] but paid in long or short bits 10 or 15 [cents] - if you give 10 [cents] all right, if you give 25 [cents] you get 10 [cents] change).

As to magazines or papers while I am in the city, I have access to a complete file at the Mercantile Library where they have all the magazines & many newspapers from the East.