Rare Books
Pilgrim's way : an essay in recollection
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Glimpses of four score years
Rare Books
Author reminiscences about life in northern Ohio on a farm, the Civil War, Afro-Americans and slavery, experiences building a college, prominent people he met (Henry Ward Beecher, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, etc.) and country schools
49913
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Recollections of a Quartermaster
Manuscripts
Memoirs of William G. LeDuc finished in February 1911. The narrative covers the childhood and youth in Ohio and Northern Mississippi, Kenyon College, travels in Kentucky, Tennessee, Boston (where he attended the trial of John W. Webster); his life in Minnesota, Civil War experience, and post-war career up through end of 1910, including his business interests in California and Mexico and connections with the Banning Company. The memoir ends with an account of LeDuc's spiritualist experiences.
mssHM 20723
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Fifty-Nine Years After, Or Recollections of My Adventures by Sea and Land While in Search of Gold in California [typescript]
Manuscripts
Cheney's reminiscence covers his voyage to California on the ship Pacific, his arrival in San Francisco August 6, 1849, and his time living in California until he left for Australia in February 1853. Cheney discusses the weather conditions during his voyage and some of the events that took place on board, including the removal of the ship's captain while in Rio de Janeiro; he also discusses his visit to Callao, Peru. Of his time in California, Cheney remembers his attempts at mining and at some other ventures such as selling lumber. He gives detailed descriptions of his time in San Francisco, Coloma, and Sacramento, California, and in the mining towns Bidwell Bar and Antoine Canyon
mssHM 63644
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Joseph E. Ray recollections on friends and Fillmore
Manuscripts
Reminiscences, written in prose form, of Joseph E. Ray's life in Fillmore, Utah, covering the years from approximately 1852 to the 1880s. Ray writes of his childhood rapport with local Pahvant Ute Indians due to his father's work as an Indian agent, but also of his essential distrust of Indians following the John W. Gunnison massacre. He writes of childhood experiences with family and in school, of the kidnapping of James Ivie by Pahvant Indians (what Ray calls "the last of the Black Hawk raids"), his assistance to Reuben McBride in rescuing women kidnapped from a wagon train by Snake Indians (one of these women was Marguerite Taylor, of whom Ray writes "here was my destiny, heaven or hell!"), and his search for a silver mine in the Snake Valley in 1868. Ray also writes of his experiences tracking outlaws, including Ben Trasker at Deseret Springs and the capture of the Ney Gang. He writes extensively of an 1871 trip to Texas with Gilbert Webb to buy cattle. During this trip, Ray saw Brigham Young in Salt Lake City; met Wild Bill Hickock in Abelene, Kansas; participated in a three-day poker game; observed a buffalo herd (by which he was "absorbed, enraptured, amazed"); and drove cattle across the Platte River. Ray also includes a brief history of the families of Thomas King (the first settler of Fillmore), Orange Warner (Ray's father-in-law), Chandler Holbrook, Reuben McBride, John Kelly, Joseph Robison, Daniel Olson, Gabriel Huntsman, Christian Anderson, Amasa Lyman, Alexander Melville, and Alma and Sam Greenwood. Includes a brief account called "Coming to Fillmore by Reuben's Cave," in which Ray gives a condensed version of his autobiography in dialog form (it also mentions his work on the Studio Ranch). Also included are typescripts of 4 letters written between Ray and Marguerite Taylor during his trip to Texas and Miscellaneous Notes on Ray's life by one of his grandsons.
mssHM 72837
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Memoirs and reminiscences
Manuscripts
Crosby writes of events in his life, beginning with his birth in New York on July 18, 1818. After spending his early days on his parents' farm, he studied law and became an attorney in 1841. In 1843, he became "Attorney of the Supreme Court of the State of New York." In this capacity, Crosby began to become aware of the tension between California and Mexico, and upon learning of the opportunities for lawyers in California, he decided to relocate there in 1849. The discovery of gold in California urged his decision. He traveled by steamship, and writes of his journey, including a stop in Cuba. He landed in Panama and traveled up the Chagres River, then across to the Pacific Ocean, where he took another steamship to San Francisco, arriving in late February, 1849. Many of the passengers had traveled to search for gold; as Crosby writes, "There was a general disposition to get away from the city, to the gold mines." Crosby prospects himself at several locations. He describes the events leading up to the California constitutional convention in Monterey, as well as details of the convention itself. He describes the convention as "a very harmonious body and I think the members only had the interest of the people at heart." Crosby also relates his experiences as part of the "Land Commission," the function of which was "to Settle Private Land Claims in California," as well as his experiences serving as an ambassador to Guatemala. Crosby claims to have been given "secret instructions" by the President to see if Guatemala might be suitable for the relocation of the recently freed American slaves, but is skeptical that this plan would work. He describes the country and its inhabitants at length, for he feels "there is a great misapprehension among our people with regard to those tropical countries." Crosby relates of the social order of San Francisco, especially events connected to "a very noted cortezan" known as "the Countess." This manuscript appears to be a copy, for it is written in several different hands, and appears to be incomplete, as it ends abruptly.
mssHM 284