Collection of CALIFORNIA Letters from the GOLD MINER James H. Crossman in SAN FRANCISCO and GEORGETOWN CA Summer of 1871

Item Details

Collection of manuscript letters from the California gold miner James H. Crossman to Ephraim N. Winslow of Massachusetts, from the summer of 1871. The collection includes approximately seventeen letters, including some with poetry and drawings, and one note. Most of the letters are addressed to his aunt’s husband, Ephraim N. Winslow, and their family. Winslow seems to be involved in a company that had hired his nephew to survey a water source for mining. The letters often report on the matter. Some of them, however, Crossman specifically to his nine year old niece, Mamie, and those tend to include the humorous drawings and poetry. The first three letters are written from San Francisco at the end of May and first day of June, on Occidental Hotel stationary. The next three letters, from June of 1871, are written from camps in the field. By July of 1871, Crossman had settled briefly at the mining town Georgetown, California, a hub of the gold rich area in El Dorado County. One brief letter is written from there on Western Union telegraph stationary, and another note is written on the back of a prescription from the Georgetown Drug Store. On August 3^rd Crossman sent Winslow a six page letter and report of his findings about taking water from a lake and constructing a ditch to direct that water to a different location, presumably for a gold mine. That is the last dated letter from this small collection, but there are three more letters with no dates.  

James Haskell Crossman (1821-1894) was born in Rochester, Massachusetts. At the age of 15, his parents sent him to New York City to work in a large oil manufactory. He then worked as a bookkeeper, before setting out on his own. Crossman worked briefly as an agent for an importer before being convinced by a customer from Peru to buy a silver mine in that country. He traveled there in 1842 and enjoyed some success in mining. When he heard about the discovery of gold in California. On June 4, 1849, he stepped off a steamship in San Francisco. He spent the rest of his life in California, alternately working as a merchant and a miner. Crossman was back at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco when he took his own life in 1894. For a fairly complete biography, see Larry Vredenburg’s account at: www.vredenburgh.org/mining_history/pages/crossman_bio.htm

This collection of letters is fresh to the market. They are generally in good to very good condition. There may be missing pages or incomplete letters. Like his career, Crossman’s correspondence seems to be a bit carefree and unorganized. His writings are informative and interesting and sometimes quite humorous. A very important collection of California gold mining letters!