LOT #47007 |
Sold on Oct 25, 2018 for: Sign-in
or Join (free & quick)
[California Gold Rush]. John S. Evans Letters (8) and Handbill....
Click the image to load the highest resolution version.
Sold on Oct 25, 2018 for:
$5,750.00
Bid Source: HA.com/Live bidder
Get one of these:
Explore Available Items
Description
[California Gold Rush]. John S. Evans Letters (8) and Handbill. A small archive of letters and a handbill relating to Evans' travels to California, his illness, and time spent in Hawaii. The archive dates from June 18, 1850 to June 20, 1860. John S. Evans (1821-1854) travelled to California to participate in the gold rush, and served for a short time as the postmaster of Stockton. However, he was taken ill during the winter of 1853, which greatly weakened him. In an attempt to regain his health, he travelled to Hawaii but shortly passed away after reaching the island.The first four letters in the archive are addressed to Evans' parents and record his travels upon numerous steamers to reach California and his eventual settlement in Stockton. On June 18, 1850, he wrote from aboard the Georgia, and amid the widespread seasickness, it is evident that Evans was eager to embark on this new journey. It reads, in part: "...the first two or three days a flock of little birds, known by the sailors as Mother Carey's chickens, followed in our wake, closely skimming the water and picking whatever of food may have been thrown overboard from the ship. They have now entirely disappeared. Whole schools of porpoises are every now and then seen apparently racing with all their might. They dart along only a few inches below the surface of the water for eight or ten feet, and then with abound, tumble tail overhead entirely clear of the war, some 8 or 10 feet more, oftentimes four or five abreast, sometimes only a solitary once. They appear to be exerting all their power to get a head of one another and the sport is truly exciting. Yesterday a shark made his appearance by our side, darting under the ship...We have on board Mr. Daniel Sill, who has been in California for 14 years and is reputed to be worth two millions of dollars, not in gold lands at any imaginary value but actual coin & farming lands, which would at any time bring the money...I have no reason so far to regret my trip. I has been pleasanter even than I anticipated..."
Evans arrived in San Francisco in mid-June 1850 and was immediately taken with California. He wrote on August 8, 1850, in part: "I am so far much pleased with California. I like the climate, the weather is now about like the latter part of September at home. San Francisco, although three times destroyed by fire, is all life and activity. The burned districts are being rapidly rebuilt, and there are hundreds of large three and four story brick houses in procession of erection where before stood only frame tenements, and hundreds more of frame houses where before were only canvas tents. The streets are thronged with drays, carts, wagons, and pedestrians. I see in the streets here finer ox teams than I ever before saw, and the horses and mules are as good as any that can be found in the States...Panama just at this time is a tolerably stirring place owing to the number of Americans now there. It however contains nothing of interest save its ruins, tremendous stone churches, tumbling to decay and completely overrun with bushes and vines. Its climate is insupportable almost to us, and the inhabitants are a detestable mongrel race, Indian, negro & Spaniard...We have of course made no money yet, but I am satisfied there is no danger of starving to death in California."
By the summer of 1854, Evans was living in Stockton, California but had fallen ill the previous winter and had not been able to shake the cold. He wrote to his parents on June 14, 1854, in part: "I have been quite unwell all winter...Unexpectedly to everyone, the weather has been such here this spring as has not been experienced since 1849, very unfavorable for my situation. I caught somehow or other last fall a cold. It did not trouble me much until 1st Feby about which time I caught fresh cold and it had troubled me much...I have made up my mind to take a trip to Sandwich Islands, my friends here advise it, and I am inclined to think it will do me good. I shall leave San Francisco probably on Saturday next in the packet Restless. The trip is made in from ten to twenty days, usually twelve or fifteen. A friend of mine who has just returned on the Restless from the Islands says the climate is delightful and speaks in high terms of the accommodations aboard this vessel."
In a letter sent to Evans, his doctor Charles A. Ward offered medical advice for the journey to Hawaii. The letter is undated, circa 1854, and reads, in part: "It will be well for you to remember what I have said to you in regard to exercise, bathing and diet. From a proper attention to these three, you will derive more benefit than from any remedies you could possibly take...It is unnecessary to caution you to avoid all kinds of expose to weather or changes of apparel...Use the same precautions during the voyage you would were you on terra firma...From bathing using proper precautions, I am disposed to believe you will derive the greatest good, more especially if you use the sea bath. Tis nature's own medicated bath and far better is it than all the artificial ones man ever conceived of...In conclusion I have only to add that if you can only arouse yourself from the inertia that sickness has sunk you into and pursue the course I have in a few words pointed out, to you, that I shall look within as much certainly to see you return an improved if not an entirely well man as I shall look for the sun to rise on tomorrow, and that, at the expiration of two or three months."
Evans reached Honolulu on July 21, 1854, but his health took a turn for the worse. Evans' parents received the news of their son's death in a letter from Maria P. Chamberlain, who Evans had stayed with, in a letter dated September 6, 1854. It reads in part, "At my very first interview with Mr. Evans I saw and felt convinced that the Destroyer had marked him as his certain victim. His cough was very troublesome, would allow him to talk but little in that in a whisper...When told that he could not recover, he said to one of his fellow passengers (Rev. Mr. Turner), that he would give all his mind and all his remaining strength to prepare for eternity...Your son died the same day at 2 oclock P.M. the lady of the house Mrs. Parkham was alone with him when he died. His death was easy..."
Rachel S. Evans wrote back to Reverend Samuel C. Damon of the Seaman's Chapel, who had taken charge of the burial of Evans' body. In the undated, retained copy of the letter, Mrs. Evans thanks Reverend Damon for looking after her dying son, in part: "We have great cause for thankfulness that our dear son was not called suddenly away, and that his reason & other faculties were unobscured, and that he did not die on ship board and find his grave in the mighty Pacific. It will be a great satisfaction to receive the sketch of his grace which you have most kindly promised...You said in your letter that our dear son sincerely desire our forgiveness for all that he had ever done wrong. With great joy we exclaim there was naught to be forgiven for form his earliest years he rendered us the most respectful & loving obedience almost without a single departure."
Accompanying these letters is a handbill, 7.5" x 9.75", entitled "Notice to Seamen and Strangers Visiting Honolulu" regarding services offered by the Seaman's Chapel. The Seamen's Bethel Church was built circa 1835 and funded by the American Seamen's Friend Society of New York. The church was not only a place of worship for sailors and sea captains, but also to merchants and locals. Reverend Samuel Damon, a graduate of Amherst College and Princeton Theological Seminary, had been set to be a missionary in India but instead accepted the position in Honolulu. Rev. Damon was pastor of the Seamen Bethel Church for 42 years, beginning in 1842, and became a strong advocate for the Chinese Christians living in Honolulu. Damon also met and befriended author Herman Melville during his stay in Honolulu. Damn passed away on February 7, 1885, and tragically the Seamen's Bethel Church burned down the following year.
Condition: Usual mail folds, with light toning and foxing in places. One letter has some separations along the folds where weaknesses occurred. The handbill has flattened folds and very light foxing.
Auction Info
2018 October 25 Historical Manuscripts Grand Format Auction - Dallas #6204 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
October, 2018
25th
Thursday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 4
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
Page Views: 1,027
Buyer's Premium per Lot:
25% on the first $250,000 (minimum $49), plus 20% of any amount between $250,000 and $2,500,000, plus 12% of any amount over $2,500,000 per lot.
Shipping, Taxes, Terms and Bidding
Terms and Conditions | Bidding Guidelines and Bid Increments | Glossary of Terms
Important information concerning Sales Tax and Resale Certificates. Learn More
Terms and Conditions | Bidding Guidelines and Bid Increments | Glossary of Terms