We (park staff) are feeling like many things are going pretty smoothly for Diggins this year. However, we all know how time slips away with all of the extra details in the final months. So, as a reminder:
Next (and last!) planning meeting is APRIL 12th at 6PM.
On that day at 10 am, we tentatively have planned a really exciting interpretive training with Mary Helmich, which will cover 19th century merchant practices. (How goods were sold, packaged, ledgered, how merchants and customers interacted, how payment was made and taken). This is still pending, but save the date.
Our interpretive workshop dates this year are:
April 26th (Sacramento)
May 10th (4PM)
May 28th (5PM)
May 30th (6PM)
These workshops will be different than in the past, and will be part of how we develop better interactions thoughout the event. We hope to see more news and rumors spreading through town, more common events (trials, worship, story threads, etc), and we want everyone to know how things come and go from the town, how the water company works, and how mail service is conducted. These workshops will be times for us to be able to develop and share some of these very important interpretive elements. Obviously, the 28th & 30th workshops will be more convenient, but probably less in-depth. We'll be happy to see you whichever workshops you can attend.
Other important dates:
May 11th- Canvas up
May 17th- School program leaders/trailers meeting
May 27th 7am, move-in
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Mid-19th Century Merchandise- Before the Gold Rush
Prior to the Gold Rush, the following merchandise was available in Mexican California, from Boston, the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiian Islands), Mexico and overland, as well as some locally produced goods and food. The primary currency was hides, tallow and animals in trade for goods:
Hats, printed calico, sugar, panocha, hatchets, colored cloth, paper, loose pita, tobacco, handkerchiefs, thread, needles, stockings, silk, rebozos, ribbon, red pepper, salt pork, rice, panocha, saddlery, silk and cotton rebozos, cotton and woolen serapes, shoes, English, American and German goods, flannels, gloves, tin boxes, madras, cologne water, reams of cigar paper, cork, guitars, razors, padlocks, needles, daggers, patterns for gowns, nails, lace, jewelry, hinges, screws, matches, silk shoes, coffee, brandy, whiskey, ornamental shell combs, chocolate, wine, glassware & pottery, salt, onions, pears, beans, watermelon, soap, saddles, boots, figs, peaches, quinces, pomegranates, grapes, olives, potatoes, lumber, cheese, jerked beef, bullocks, candles, tallow flour, goose fat, various skins and hides, American furniture, scarfs, aprons, farming utensils, wagons, wheels, powder, chinese fireworks, rifles, plates, spoons, knives, forks, kettles, iron and hardware, axes, sickles, hammers, hatchets, screwdrivers, shovels, paint, wire, nails and lumber, tinware, thimbles, hoes, window glass (8 x 10), tea trays, carpeting, oilcloth, artificial flowers, false pearls, beads, gold and silver lace, silver hunting-watches, palm leaf prints, pit saws, files, sweet potatoes, teas, porcelains, fans, peacock feathers, games, buttons, chinese lanterns, straw mats, koa wood furniture from Hawaii, Goods were moved accross land by the use of pack trains or carreta (ox-cart).
With the Gold Rush commerce mushroomed
-- From The Old Town San Diego Retailer's Reference (and sources contained within)
The Role of Merchants in the Gold Rush
Merchants provided not only provisions and necessities, but also news for miners. Many kept current by reading from their stock of newspapers, books and periodicals. Daily transactions familiarized them with neighborhood and domestic affairs, while travels or contacts with wholesalers made most proprieters aware of more distant events. California merchants were well informed and respected, although not always agreed with.
Going to the store to purchase groceries, supplies and other merchandise was not the quick procedure of today. It was commonly a social occasion. Individuals came to argue politics, exchange gossip, gamble and share each other's company. Leisure hours were spent in stores as a form of recreation and most proprietors accommodated them although at times loafers could be a problem.
Some storekeepers served the community as postmasters or express agents. Alonzo Delano described the letter keepers importance to those individuals away from their families during the Gold Rush: "The trader is the general receptacle of news, either as an express agent, or from his position in seeing more of the wandering Esaus from the valley, and the miner sends through him to th epost office, his hopes, his fears, his love, the whole outpouring of his very soul, written in burning words, to those who are dearer to him than all the world, and for whose sake he exiles himself, or receives through the same channel, with a glistenting eye, the long, long, expected letter from HOME."
With American currency scarce in California, merchants had to be well informed on financial matters. They had to understand the exchange value of: gold, foreign coins, bank notes from other communities, and different commodities. This was especially true in the years before banks became well established.
Undoubtedly, a merchant's attire reflected his personal background and traditions, whether a Californio, from the Eastern Seaboard, France, Chile, or elsewhere. During the Gold Rush, Englishman J.D. Borthwick noted how different nationalities could be determined by their clothing: "The Mexicans were very numerous, and wore their national costume--the bright coloured serape thrown gracefully over the left shoulder, with rows of silver buttons down the outside of their trousers, which were generally left open, so as to show the loose white drawers underneath, and the silver-handled bowie-knife in the stamped leather leggins. Englishmen seemed to adhere to the shooting-coat style of dress, and the down-east Yankees to their eternal black dress-coat, black pantaloons, and black satin waistcoat; while New Yorkers, Southerners, and Frenchmen, cam eout in the latest Paris fashions."
-- From The Old Town San Diego Retailer's reference and Historic Account Book or, Advice for Merchants Re-creating a c.1835-1872 Store
Mary Helmich will be offering a presentation on April 12th at 10am at the Wilson Store
Going to the store to purchase groceries, supplies and other merchandise was not the quick procedure of today. It was commonly a social occasion. Individuals came to argue politics, exchange gossip, gamble and share each other's company. Leisure hours were spent in stores as a form of recreation and most proprietors accommodated them although at times loafers could be a problem.
Some storekeepers served the community as postmasters or express agents. Alonzo Delano described the letter keepers importance to those individuals away from their families during the Gold Rush: "The trader is the general receptacle of news, either as an express agent, or from his position in seeing more of the wandering Esaus from the valley, and the miner sends through him to th epost office, his hopes, his fears, his love, the whole outpouring of his very soul, written in burning words, to those who are dearer to him than all the world, and for whose sake he exiles himself, or receives through the same channel, with a glistenting eye, the long, long, expected letter from HOME."
With American currency scarce in California, merchants had to be well informed on financial matters. They had to understand the exchange value of: gold, foreign coins, bank notes from other communities, and different commodities. This was especially true in the years before banks became well established.
Undoubtedly, a merchant's attire reflected his personal background and traditions, whether a Californio, from the Eastern Seaboard, France, Chile, or elsewhere. During the Gold Rush, Englishman J.D. Borthwick noted how different nationalities could be determined by their clothing: "The Mexicans were very numerous, and wore their national costume--the bright coloured serape thrown gracefully over the left shoulder, with rows of silver buttons down the outside of their trousers, which were generally left open, so as to show the loose white drawers underneath, and the silver-handled bowie-knife in the stamped leather leggins. Englishmen seemed to adhere to the shooting-coat style of dress, and the down-east Yankees to their eternal black dress-coat, black pantaloons, and black satin waistcoat; while New Yorkers, Southerners, and Frenchmen, cam eout in the latest Paris fashions."
-- From The Old Town San Diego Retailer's reference and Historic Account Book or, Advice for Merchants Re-creating a c.1835-1872 Store
Mary Helmich will be offering a presentation on April 12th at 10am at the Wilson Store
More Gold Rush Mail
Mail delivery- In one month—October 1949 13,362 letters and 15,571 newspapers arrived from New York State alone. Long lines formed at the post office in San Francisco with the arrival of each steamer. Some men would stand in line all night when a delivery was scheduled; late comers would offer a packet of gold dust in return for a place near the beginning of the line. The mere word that a mail steamer had entered the Golden Gate could provoke pandemonium.
The hunger for mail was so insatiable that it led to the establishment of an institution unique to gold rush San Francisco: letter bag operators. For a small fee these entrepreneurs would deliver a letter to the next outgoing steamer (contract or noncontract), thus bypassing the bottleneck (and monopoly) of the United States Post Office. Some letter bag operators required senders to bring the letter to their offices; others set up mail boxes around town and picked up outgoing mail on a regular schedule. Their fees were added to the legally established postage (forty cents per half ounce), but they did a brisk business with San Franciscans who wanted their letters to go out as soon as possible.
Good or ill, the news that letters contained linked the recipient with the daily life he or she had left behind. A letter was an intimate talk with an absent friend or a longed-for spouse. A letter was like holding in one’s hands a piece of home. Very quickly mail became more precious than gold.
From A Year of Mud and Gold—San Francisco in Letters and Diaries 1849-1850 Edited by William Benemann
Quotes from various Gold Rush Letters, pertaining to mail:
"P.S. Your package of three letters and envelopes cost me $1.65. Put on a thin envelope. You will get them at the bookstore." Jonathan F. Locke 1849
"Dear Brother. . .I heard all about your love scrape long before I received your letter containing the news. Charles Mintum came into the store and told all he knew about the affair-- and he with the help of Arthur Ebbits have continued to spread it among all of our aquaintances. In fact, Arthur appears to know more about it than I do." Henry DeWitt 1850
"We are looking daily for the arrival of the Steamer Unicorn, which is expected to bring the mails up from Panama. . . When this mail shall have arrived, I shall begin to prepare letters for home. Sometimes I feel disposed to sit down and write to each and all of my dear friends, and it is only the fact of there being such enormous postage on letters between here and the United States is that deters me from this." Anne Willson Booth 1849
"I received [a letter] under the date of October 16. These letters announce to me the afflicting and mournful news, in the loss of two dear children. . . Oh, how bitterly have I wept and with what poignancy of grief have I lamented their loss, to feel and know that on the twelfth of March last I bade an eternal adieu to them, that they have gone without resting their eyes on their Father. . . Tis this, My Brother, that has grieved me, and caused me to regret that I left my humble but happy, happy Home." Josiah Griswold 1849
"I was up this morning at five o'clock. The morning was bright and but little wind. I with others took my stand at the [post] office to get my letters, but after standing there till 8 1/2 o'clock, I was informed there were no letters for me and I left really disappointed. I had occasion to go to the post office about noon, when to m y delight I was delivered two letters from home, of the 7th and 12th of February." John McCracken April 1850
"The mail which arrived on the 8th inst. brought but a few bags, and I little thought when I presented myself at the "Bone Office" I should receive letters, and how my heart thumped with joy as I searched my pocket for a small gold piece. How insignificant seems the postage, if it were ten dollars an ounce for every letter, how readily would I pay it to hear from the dear ones in my own distant home." John McCrackan May 1850
"I cannot help telling you the offer made me for my chance at the [post] Office. I was within one of the delivery [window] when a person presents himself and offers me sixteen dollars for my place, but I noticed his remark only by saying as many hundred [ie: sixteen hundred dollars] could not keep me from my letters ten minutes, and he turned back to make an attack upon some one behind me. There must have been six hundred persons in my line from K to Z, and about the same number in the A to K line. So, as you may imagine, my breakfast this morning was a very sweet one." John McCrackan June 1850
The hunger for mail was so insatiable that it led to the establishment of an institution unique to gold rush San Francisco: letter bag operators. For a small fee these entrepreneurs would deliver a letter to the next outgoing steamer (contract or noncontract), thus bypassing the bottleneck (and monopoly) of the United States Post Office. Some letter bag operators required senders to bring the letter to their offices; others set up mail boxes around town and picked up outgoing mail on a regular schedule. Their fees were added to the legally established postage (forty cents per half ounce), but they did a brisk business with San Franciscans who wanted their letters to go out as soon as possible.
Good or ill, the news that letters contained linked the recipient with the daily life he or she had left behind. A letter was an intimate talk with an absent friend or a longed-for spouse. A letter was like holding in one’s hands a piece of home. Very quickly mail became more precious than gold.
From A Year of Mud and Gold—San Francisco in Letters and Diaries 1849-1850 Edited by William Benemann
Quotes from various Gold Rush Letters, pertaining to mail:
"P.S. Your package of three letters and envelopes cost me $1.65. Put on a thin envelope. You will get them at the bookstore." Jonathan F. Locke 1849
"Dear Brother. . .I heard all about your love scrape long before I received your letter containing the news. Charles Mintum came into the store and told all he knew about the affair-- and he with the help of Arthur Ebbits have continued to spread it among all of our aquaintances. In fact, Arthur appears to know more about it than I do." Henry DeWitt 1850
"We are looking daily for the arrival of the Steamer Unicorn, which is expected to bring the mails up from Panama. . . When this mail shall have arrived, I shall begin to prepare letters for home. Sometimes I feel disposed to sit down and write to each and all of my dear friends, and it is only the fact of there being such enormous postage on letters between here and the United States is that deters me from this." Anne Willson Booth 1849
"I received [a letter] under the date of October 16. These letters announce to me the afflicting and mournful news, in the loss of two dear children. . . Oh, how bitterly have I wept and with what poignancy of grief have I lamented their loss, to feel and know that on the twelfth of March last I bade an eternal adieu to them, that they have gone without resting their eyes on their Father. . . Tis this, My Brother, that has grieved me, and caused me to regret that I left my humble but happy, happy Home." Josiah Griswold 1849
"I was up this morning at five o'clock. The morning was bright and but little wind. I with others took my stand at the [post] office to get my letters, but after standing there till 8 1/2 o'clock, I was informed there were no letters for me and I left really disappointed. I had occasion to go to the post office about noon, when to m y delight I was delivered two letters from home, of the 7th and 12th of February." John McCracken April 1850
"The mail which arrived on the 8th inst. brought but a few bags, and I little thought when I presented myself at the "Bone Office" I should receive letters, and how my heart thumped with joy as I searched my pocket for a small gold piece. How insignificant seems the postage, if it were ten dollars an ounce for every letter, how readily would I pay it to hear from the dear ones in my own distant home." John McCrackan May 1850
"I cannot help telling you the offer made me for my chance at the [post] Office. I was within one of the delivery [window] when a person presents himself and offers me sixteen dollars for my place, but I noticed his remark only by saying as many hundred [ie: sixteen hundred dollars] could not keep me from my letters ten minutes, and he turned back to make an attack upon some one behind me. There must have been six hundred persons in my line from K to Z, and about the same number in the A to K line. So, as you may imagine, my breakfast this morning was a very sweet one." John McCrackan June 1850
Gold Rush Mail Delivery
"The above illustration will be recognized as a correct Post-Office scene upon the arrival of mails from the Atlantic. An interval of two weeks elapsing from the arrival of one mail to another, creates an anxiety to hear from home that can scarcely be comprehended by other than residents of California. At an early hour of the morning on which it is announced the mails will be ready for delivery, anxious faces commence forming in the lines leading to the different deliveries, and by 8 o'clock the whole interior of the spacious building is completely jammed with persons, as well as the streets adjoining. The letters are generally delivered with all possible dispatch, yet evening will often find the different lines but little shortened; and the RUSH sometimes continues for three days.
Persons in the Atlantic States will readily understand the disappointment a friend here experiences at being told at the window, after undergoing for three or four hours the persecution of being jammed and jostled by an anxious crowd, exposed to a burning sun or the freezing and disagreeable winds which at seasons sweep round the corners of our streets carrying with them clouds of dust--yes, at being told by the clerk that there is nothing for him. The announcement falls harshly upon his ear, and with the speed of thought settles upon his countenance a shade of gloom and disappointment. On the other hand, should a letter be handed him, it is refreshing to note the gleam of joy that sparkles in his eyes, and the smile of thankfulness that beams upon his face, as he places the sacred epistle in his pocket, and walks hurredly away. Friends in the Atlantic States, could they but for a moment witness the scene so perfectly represented by the artist in the sketch above, and watch the anxiety depicted in the features of each figure slowly working his way to the delivery, we think they would be more punctual in their correspondence, for it would be no pleasing sight to notice the disappointment of a husband, a father, a brother or a friend, caused perhaps, by their negligence. "
Published by LELAND & McCOMBE. Post Office, Building, San Francisco Engraved expressly for the Publishers by Anthony & Baker. [1854]
From the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist10/postoffice.html
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Excellent Costume Link
Sent to us by Judith Peebles, via Louise Kirk (thanks!)
Lots of photos of extant garments.
http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~ulrich/19cdress/50s-60s.htm
Lots of photos of extant garments.
http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~ulrich/19cdress/50s-60s.htm
Friday, March 14, 2008
Places to stay in Columbia
My sister and I stayed at Marble Quarry RV Park last Diggins. Just a heads up, there was a large group of students and their adult supervisiors camping there. You might request a spot away from them if they are coming again this year.We are staying there again this year!
They can be reached at 209-532-9539
They can be reached at 209-532-9539
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)