#MD11
1862
Octavo (ca. 24 x 19 cm or 9 ½ x 7 ½ in). Brown ink on bluish lined wove paper, with papermaker’s blindstamp in upper left corner. 1 pp. Fold marks, paper slightly age-toned, minor tears on top edge, otherwise a very good letter.
An interesting letter providing insight on the popularity of new “rushes” around California. The letter is written by one Conrad Beckmann, who is listed as a grocer in an 1862 San Francisco city directory. The letter is addressed to likely his business partners Hardy and Kennedy (possibly William S. Hardy and Samuel S. Kennedy, who owned a store dealing in general goods, mining equipment, and gold trading in Foresthill, Placer County, California between 1856 and 1863). Beckmann opens the letter with business, having enclosed a bill for meat products he recently shipped to them. He talks about a steamer that recently arrived in San Francisco that was carrying 1300 passengers, though it was not allowed to carry more than 400, and connects that to a “rush to the new diggings,” likely gold. Beckmann closes the letter by stating his intentions to move away from San Francisco.
Overall, an interesting early example of a letter from San Francisco with references to regional gold rushes.
Excerpts from the letter (spelling original):
“Enclosed I sent you Bill for the Bacon and Hams, shipped today per J. Coghill & Co at your account. Hope both will prove satisfactory as well in regard to prices as Quality, and that you will soon send an Ordre [sic] for more to the Butchers who made them.
“The rush to the new diggings is very large the last steamer arrived 1300 in place of 400 as Newspaper reports said, the steamer not being allowed by Law to carry more than that number, which made that they only stated the number of 400.
“The writer of this thinks to leave here about the 27 instant, having made arrangements to get goods and put up a [shanty?] of some kind and some place, which place don’t know at present; if thinks [sic] go favorable there than [sic] I intend to write my Friend Sam Kennedy a few lines.”
