A voice from the past

Louise Kirk referred us to review pages 61 & 61 from Joanne Levy's They Saw the Elephant. The quotes are relevant to Diggins construction, so it seemed like a good time to post them:



Louisa Clapp believed, as did Mrs. Berry and thousands of other wives, that accompanying her husband to the mines was preferable to being left behind, whatever the discomfort. Like most emigrant women, Mrs. Clapp readily adapted to her rustic log cabin. As Harriet Ward, a fifty-year-old grandmother, observed of her log home: "Living in such a house does not make half the difference with one's happiness you would imagine."



Even so, Louisa Clapp's home at Indian Bar, near Rich Bar, was a far departure from her New England, or Even San Francisco, experience. Dame Shirley's cabin still enchants those who tour it with her:



"Enter my dear; you are perfectly welcome; besides, we could not keep you out if we would, as there is not even a latch on the canvas door. . .



The room into which we have just entered is about twenty feet square. It is lined over the top with white cotton cloth, the breadths of which being sewed together only in spots, stretch apart in many places, giving one a birds-eye view of the shingles above. The sides are hung with a gaudy chintz, which I consider a perfect marvel of calico printing. The artist seems to have exhausted himself on roses; from the largest cabbage, down to the tiniest Burgundy, he has arranged them in every possible variety of wreath, garland, bouquet, and single flower. . . .



A curtain of the above-described chintz, (I shall hem it at the first opportunity), divides off a portion of the room. . .



The fireplace is built of stones and mud. . . The mantle-piece---remember that on this portion of a great building, some artists, by their exquisite workmanship, have become world-renowned-- is formed of beam and wood, covered with strips of tin procured from cans, upon which still remain in black hieroglyphics, the names of the different eatables which they formerly contained. Two smooth stones---how delightfully primative--do duty as fire dogs. I suppose that it would be no more than civil to call a hole two feet square in one side of the room, a window, although it is as yet guiltless of glass.

We'll continue this later. If you are on the edge of your seat, our library has two copies of this book for your use, as well as many other research options! Library hours are Tuesday 12-2, Archive Thursday 10-12. The Library/Archive is located behind the Main Street Firehouse.

We promised to post the map of the Diggins site, and we will soon, along with the registration forms and schedule sign-ups.