Augustin W. Hale Papers

This collection contains the papers of Augustin Ward Hale (1814-1902), as well as family members in New York, New Jersey, California, and Nevada, with the bulk dating from 1830 to 1859.

The papers consist of the following sections:

Manuscripts

The manuscripts consist of 1,112 items including business documents, legal documents, memoranda of letters written, stock certificates, receipts, and miscellaneous documents. Most categories are divided by person of origin and then business name and document/manuscript type. The manuscripts document, in detail, the various business ventures of Augustin and his business partners including Mark Hopkins and Warren S. Smith. The manuscripts include business and financial records of the following companies: Magnetic Mining Company, New England Mining and Trading Company, San Joaquin Diving Bell Company, San Joaquin Railroad Company, Saucelito Water Company, Sierra Nevada Flour Mills, Stanislaus Central Bridge Company, and the Tuolumne Hydraulic Association. This group also contains material related to Trinity Church in San Francisco and Hale's voyage to California including lists of items Hale purchased for the trip; a daily log of the longitude and latitude of the Pacific; and labels for items collected by Hale on his voyage and while mining in California (the items no longer accompany the labels and their location is unknown). Augustin's Memoranda of Letters Written contains summaries of the letters he wrote, including letters that are not in the collection. The manuscripts also document Elisha Hale's business ventures, his inventions and patents. This material includes agreements, bills of lading, deeds, indentures, licenses, patent documents, petitions, sketches, diagrams, and powers of attorney. The manuscripts also deal with several lawsuits involving the Hale family and land ownership in New York; one of the lawyers working with the family's lawsuit in Illinois was Abraham Lincoln.

Diaries

The collection contains 15 diaries, 11 of which are written by Augustin (almost all have complete typescripts). His diaries illustrate his life and work from his departure from New York in January 1849 to his mining and life in California in February 1851. Subjects in his diaries include his voyage to California, gold mining, gold discoveries, his encounters with Indians and his health problems as well as Colonel Jonathan Stevenson, San Francisco, Sacramento, the New England Mining Trading Company, the Chinese in California, and the mining camps Happy Valley, Shasta, Clear Creek and Mormon Island. The most significant of these diaries is the 217-page diary covering Augustin's departure from New York, his entire voyage on the Pacific and his arrival in San Francisco. This diary, which has a complete 164-page typescript, includes details about the voyage, conditions on the ship, conflicts between the passengers and Captain H. J. Tibbitts (who was replaced with Captain George T. Estabrook in Rio de Janeiro), as well as Augustin's experiences in Rio de Janeiro, and Callao and Lima, Peru. There are two diaries by an unidentified author who came overland to California in 1849 from Ohio. The author discusses the overland route to California, Benoni Hudspeth, John J. Myers, Hudspeth's Cutoff, William H. Warner, Peter Lassen and gold mining.

Correspondence

The correspondence includes 3,107 items and is arranged alphabetically by author then addressee. About two-thirds of the correspondence relates to Elisha Hale and his business, inventions and patents. Several pieces of correspondence are in French and German, some of which have English translations. The remainder of the correspondence relates to Augustin and his life in California and Nevada from 1849 to 1894 (there are some letters from Augustin's life before his move to California). Subjects covered in the correspondence are: gold mining in California and Nevada, including techniques and equipment; gold discoveries; conditions in the gold camps; fellow gold miners; the Episcopal Church and Trinity Church in San Francisco; Augustin's business ventures and financial problems; Isaac Lawrence Requa; the Mexican War and Zachary Taylor; the Chinese in California; the San Francisco fire in May 1851; Vigilance Committees; the Comstock Lode; the American Civil War and Abraham Lincoln. The correspondence also includes detailed descriptions of Big Bar, Chinese Camp, Clear Creek, Coloma, Grass Valley, Happy Valley, Los Angeles, Michigan Bluff, Mormon Island, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Yankee Jim's, California as well as Gold Hill and Silver City, Nevada. There are also several pieces of correspondence from women living in California that discuss their experiences in mining towns; these authors are Louise Colburn, Emily Mather, Cathe Sleeper, Mary Thompson, Elizabeth Van Winkle, and Margaret Voorhees. Most of Augustin's correspondence is accompanied by complete typescripts. Notable participants include: John Carpenter Angell; August Belmont; Orville Hickman Browning; Nehemiah Bushnell; George Mifflin Dallas; Charles Goodyear; Lewis C. Gunn; Joseph Holt; John Henry Hopkins; Mark Hopkins; Douglass Houghton; D. Minor K. Johnson; James King; Bishop William Kip; John Marshall Krum; J. Pierpont Morgan; Antoine Perpigna; Isaac L. Requa; Lorenzo Sawyer; Origen S. Seymour; Reuben Sherwood; William Neely Thompson; Enos Thompson Throop; Robert Boyd Van Kleeck; Fernando Wood.

Ephemera

The ephemera is made up of 1,006 items and includes business cards, broadsides, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, two albumen prints, receipts, an autograph album, recipes and miscellaneous printed items. Subjects covered in the ephemera are: Augustin's voyage to California, his businesses, gold mining, Colonel Jonathan Stevenson and Abraham Lincoln. There are also complete copies of three periodicals in the newspaper clippings including The Mohawk Courier (Little Falls, New York), St. George's Chronicle (Grenada), and the Daily Evening Transcript (Boston). There is also a front page from The Golden Era (San Francisco). Also included in the ephemera is the foot from the albatross Augustin killed and attempted to stuff during his voyage to California.

Artifacts and Oversize Items

There are 6 artifacts and 8 oversize items. These include a stamp of Augustin's name, the stamp for the Stanislaus Central Bridge Company stock certificates, postal cancellation stamps invented by Augustin, and Augustin's balance scale and weights for weighing gold as well as a pictorial lettersheet depicting San Francisco, maps, and sketches and diagrams of Elisha Hale's inventions.