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(CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH): Good content A.L.S. 2pp. 4to., Maxwells Creek, Mariposa County, [Calif.],...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:300.00 - 500.00 USD
(CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH): Good content A.L.S. 2pp. 4to., Maxwells Creek, Mariposa County, [Calif.],...
(CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH): Good content A.L.S. 2pp. 4to., Maxwells Creek, Mariposa County, [Calif.], June 19, 1862 in which an R.R. Mooney writes an associate in Morgantown, N.C., providing a detailed lists of all expenses incurred in reaching California from there. In a ledger like form, Moony has meticulously listed all his expenses to the nickel, even listing minor expenses like the 38 cents he spent on:" Cheese and Crackers at Chester". Moody took passage by steamer from North Carolina to Panama, crossed the Isthmus, and then took a second steamer to San Francisco before going to the mines. There was a one-dollar "Hospital Fee" charged upon entering San Francisco, indicating that the health of prospective miners was checked before they were allowed off the boat. It is also interesting to note that the Pacific part of the passage from Panama to San Francisco, while the same relative distance as the passage from North Carolina to Panama, was three times the price. This can be attributed to the simple fact that once the miners had arrived in Panama, they either had to pay the going rate for passage to San Francisco, stay in the jungle, or return home. Commenting on the cost of his journey Mooney writes:"...I wish I had money enough to come on a steamer. I would have been at least been two hundred dollars better off today... I was four months to a day coming from home to the mines. It is a good deal of time to lose when a man wants to go to California. I was out of money when I arrived and was forced to go to work the next day. I haven't lost a day since ... I am fully satisfied and like the country well, but my advice to my friends is to stay at home ... James Kincaid boy George got killed day before yesterday. He was tunneling & the dirt caved...". With more good content. Usual folds, otherwise very good. $300-500