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The Amos Bradbury papers contain letters largely from Amos Bradbury to his mother Miranda Stanhope and brother Samuel Bradbury, Jr., which provide a valuable account of life in central California during the Gold Rush era.

The Amos Bradbury papers contain 67 letters largely from Amos Bradbury to his mother Miranda Stanhope and brother Samuel Bradbury, Jr., written between 1848 and 1863. His letters provide a valuable account of life in central California during the Gold Rush era. The collection holds 51 letters from Bradbury, 2 early letters from his brother Samuel, 9 letters from his mother, and 4 letters from Bradbury's friend Joseph B. Leonard. The letters track Bradbury’s movements between San Francisco (1850), Stanislaus (1851), Mountain Ranch (1852), Indian Gulch (1853-1857), Stanislaus River (1856-1860), and Mokelumne City, California (1862).

Bradbury’s earliest letters were addressed from Boston, where he worked in the shipping trade as a first mate. He first mentioned the idea of going to California in a letter to his mother from July 11, 1849. By September 28 of that year, he was at sea on his way to California and, by the next letter, dated January 3, 1850, was in Valparaiso, Chile, after traveling around Cape Horn. In his letter of April 28, 1850, written from San Francisco, he stated his intention not to pan for gold, but to start a store near the mines.

Along with Bradbury’s letters from 1850 and 1851 are 4 items from Joseph B. Leonard, Captain of the Boston ship Grotius, who was in San Francisco at the same time as Bradbury. These letters a were addressed to Miranda Stanhope and, for the most part, reported the safety and well being of her son Amos, and described some of the dangers of California life. Leonard's son, and a man named George Moore, accompanied Bradbury to the mines.

Amos settled in Stanislaus, California, in early 1851. In his letter of March 13, 1851, he described women near the mines: "Excepting indian squaws they are very numerous, although not any handsome." By 1852, Amos was running a successful public house in Mountain Branch, California, with George Moore, though by the end of the year, their business partner had abandoned the establishment. By early 1853, Amos owned three claims around Indian Gulch, California, and expressed renewed confidence to his family that he would discover gold. In his letter to his brother Samuel, of February 10, 1853, he explained the work involved in prospecting. On February 22, 1853, however, he mentioned to his mother that he was finding little gold. He continued prospecting this plot for a number of years and in the November 5, 1854, letter wrote "the height of my ambition is to get gold enough to make us all comfortable."

Bradbury scraped by on meager findings over the next five years. As early as July 13, 1860, in a letter to his brother, he mentioned the idea of running a ferry on the Stanislaus River, and by April 22, 1862, Bradbury reported to his mother that he had, in fact, pursued this line of work in Mokelumne City, California. By then he had made two trips up to Lockeford, California, which was 60 miles further up stream than any steamer had gone before. In his next letter, he mentioned that he had been made master of the Pert and intended to travel to San Francisco on a weekly basis. Bradbury was also master of the steamer the Fanny Ann (August 14, 1863). By February 25, 1863, he discussed buying a store, and that he had chopped off his "little toe."

This collection also includes 9 letters from Miranda Stanhope, Amos's mother, who expressed relief at hearing of her son’s good health, and shared news from Old Town, Maine. Her letters are emotional and demonstrate deeply-held religious beliefs. These letters may be unsent drafts, since they rarely contain signatures or addresses, and some of them are unfinished and two are undated. Of note is her letter to Amos of June 15, 1863, in which she discussed "the beautiful war" and the effect it has had on "the poor Negroes…[who] tear with their teeth, when deprived of their arms. Their very instinct, prompts to liberty or death." She went on at length about the desire of the Southerners to "perpetuate slavery...the worst system the world ever knew" and described slavery as an eternal sin: "Yes greatly have they injured us; but theirs is infinite, not ours."

The lone item in the Miscellaneous series is a two-page document written by Bradbury, which is possibly a fragment or draft of a letter, which is dated but not directed to a specific person.

The Charles Collins diary consists of accounts, both credit and debit, between Collins, a carpenter, and his customers and suppliers in frontier California during and after the gold rush. The volume also contains twelve pages of a fragmented diary describing travel from Iowa to California, and life as a prospector, farmer, and carpenter.

The Charles Collins diary and account table is a leather-bound notebook that was purchased in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1844. The bulk of the book is made up of accounts, both credit and debit, between Collins, a carpenter, and his customers and suppliers. The last twelve pages, written back-to-front, constitute a diary covering the dates June 11, [1852]-July 4, 1853. Several pages have been ripped from the volume and the diary resumes in July 1867.

The first eight pages of the account book contain accounts from 1846 to 1849, when Collins was a carpenter in the East. After a number of cut-out pages, the accounts pick up again in 1855, when Collins was in California after an unsuccessful attempt to profit from the gold rush. Starting in Fort "Desmoin" (Des Moines, Iowa) on June 11, [1852], he makes entries in the diary through July 23, as his group headed west in wagons. After leaving Des Moines, they traveled 12 to 18 miles a day, arriving at Council Bluffs on the Missouri River on June 24, where they joined 11 other wagons. Twenty wagons in all crossed the Elkhorn River on June 29th and headed for the Platte. They celebrated the 4th of July by raising a flag and firing 13 guns. Since they were in Indian country, they circled the wagons and posted guards at night. Approaching Grand Island, they found two graves of individuals who died of cholera. They sighted Buffalo on July 22, and the next day they lost their cattle, which halted their travels for nearly three weeks.

The next diary entry starts on November 13, 1852, when Collins and his companions agreed to rent 15 acres of land from the local priest in exchange for giving him 1/5 of any productions. He reported almost daily rain. They killed deer every few days, encountered many drunken Indians, and tried, unsuccessfully, to prospect for gold. On January 10, John Richardson killed two bears and wounded two others.

On February 5, 1853, Collins stated that their search for gold had been unsuccessful. That day, John Richardson took off secretly with the white horse, complete with saddle and bridle, a blanket, a dog, a gun, and shot. Collins made a coffin for an old lady who died; he and the remaining “John” planted wheat and barley, and on February 24, the priest gave them the vineyard in exchange for half of all fruit it produced. They grew potatoes, cucumbers, melons, and buckwheat and supplemented this work by repairing various appliances for the priest and other people in the area, such as wheels and buggies, doubletrees, and cheese presses. A doctor named Page lived with them for two or three days, taking notes on the Mission for publication. The last diary entry is dated July 4, 1853.

This volume is an account of thirteen '49ers traveling from New England to California during the gold rush. Comstock describes their journey from New York, on the brig Empire, to Vera Cruz, Mexico, and from there overland through Mexico City to San Blas on the Pacific; for the last leg, they sailed to San Francisco. When they arrived in California, they went up the San Joaquin River to Stockton and Merced.

This volume records the daily experiences of Comstock's group as they travelled to California, styling themselves the G. M. Speculating Club. The group went by stage to Troy, then by railroad to New York. There they elected officers and purchased equipment (at inflated prices), which they shipped on a schooner headed around the Cape. On February 18, 1849, they left on the Brig Empire, along with 53 others, 30 men to a cabin, to sail for 22 days to Vera Cruz. Along the way they experienced storms and sea-sickness. On February 27, he wrote, “No tongue can express, no language can portray the awful sublimity of a Thunder storm at sea[;] none but those who have witnessed can realize or even imagine its grandeur.”

Upon arrival in Mexico on March 12, they purchased a wagon, horses, and mules for their trek. Parties of as many as 47 men were departing almost daily. Along the route they encountered cemeteries and battlefields of the Mexican War, which had ended the previous year. They encountered resentful, larcenous people and endured sand fleas and hunger on their 46-day trek. Comstock estimates their distance at 469 miles.

After selling their few remaining horses and mules for a quarter of the purchase price, they embarked for San Francisco on April 29, on the schooner Jacklin, along with 30 or 40 others. Once at sea, they discovered that the Captain had overloaded his ship, and that the food and sleeping accommodations were not sufficient; Comstock remarked that the cooks were terrible. Beset by headwinds and calms, the brig took 32 days to reach San Francisco, by which time the passengers were limited to a pint of water per day and nothing to eat but bread, beans, and rice. At one point the captain so feared mutiny that he tried, unsuccessfully, to sequester all of the passengers’ arms.

San Francisco was teeming with men from all over the world, who arrived daily by the hundreds. The group changed their original plans to sail up the Sacramento River, and instead went up the San Joaquin on a schooner of the same name. On board were several deserters from the Navy. "Deserters are frequent, the Gold Mania having spread among the sailors & causing many of them to leave their $16 per month on Gov vessels and seek their fortunes at mines among scores of other adventurers” (June 11, 1849). The ship had to be “warped,” by placing the anchor forward in a small boat and pulling the ship up to it for miles, but on June 14 they arrived at Stockton, a town of several hundred people, most of whom slept in tents. From there they proceeded in three groups by stage and on horseback for 80 miles to get to the “diggings,” where they worked in two shifts, but only placer-mined a disappointing $10 a day in gold flakes.

They soon dissolved the organization, when one member decided to return to San Francisco. Comstock and a few others were exploring the Merced River when Sherman took an early-morning bath in the stream, slipped on moss-covered rocks into deeper water, and drowned. They buried him near the camp.

The John Mathiot papers primarily contain letters from Mathiot, a California gold miner, describing his journey by ship to California, the rapid expansion of the mining industry, his disillusionment with his chances of getting rich, and a subsequent restaurant venture.

The John Mathiot papers contain 19 letters written between February 3, 1849, and April 15, 1851. Mathiot wrote 16 of the letters, his sister Kate Mathiot wrote one to him, and friends in San Francisco wrote two letters to Pennsylvania with news of his death.

John Mathiot wrote the first six letters during his sea travels; he give descriptions of life on the ship, scenery, other passengers, and natives of Panama. On March 6, 1849, he wrote a letter describing a Panamanian religious ritual involving a procession of women in white robes and an image of the Virgin Mary, “a most beautiful & most solemn ceremony.” After his arrival in California, he wrote 10 richly detailed letters on such topics as the growth of Sutter’s Mill, California (July 12, 1849: “This place is growing fast into a town. There are some 40 buildings...”), the hardships and disappointments of mining (March 2, 1850), and journeying through the California wilderness. His letter of June 23, 1850, notes that the “mines are fast filling up with people from all parts of the world…every part of the present gold country will soon be used up.” His letters of the fall of 1850 describe his brief restaurant venture, which he abandoned in November. Correspondence from friends in California to Mathiot’s family in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, April 1851, concerns the circumstances of his death.