Newberry Library - Diary of the Overland Trail 1849 and letters 1849-1850 of Captain David Dewolf : typescript, 1924

Diary of the Overland Trail 1849 and letters 1849-1850 of Captain David Dewolf : typescript, 1924

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Open book Diary of the Overland Trail 1849 and letters 1849-1850 of Captain David Dewolf : typescript, 1924

Title Diary of the Overland Trail 1849 and letters 1849-1850 of Captain David Dewolf : typescript, 1924

Creator Dewolf, David, 1822-1862

Date 1924

Place California, West United States

Language English

Subjects Gold mines and mining, Indians of North America, Overland journeys to the Pacific, Prospecting, Voyages and travels

Description Includes a brief biography and photograph of Dewolf, compiled by his grandson, Edwin E. Cox; and a photostatic copy of a portion of Dewolf's letter to Matilda of Jan. 20, 1850, leaves [2]-[3]
For additional information, cf. William R. Sandham's "Captain David Dewolf: a California gold seeker in 1849, and an officer from Illinois in the Civil War," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society XVII, no. 4 (Jan. 1925): 724-727.
Published in: Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society for the year 1925: 183-222.

Summary Typescript copy from 1924 by Edwin E. Cox, of Ukiah, Calif., of portions of the diary account by his grandfather, David Dewolf, of a journey across the Plains to the gold mines of California, and letters Dewolf wrote to his wife, Matilda Allen Greenwood Dewolf, between April 12 1849 and Nov. 5, 1850. The typescript begins with the entry for May 2, 1849, where the travellers have stopped in Lexington, Mo. to bury Andrew Moodie who has died of cholera. By mid-June, they have started up the Platte River Valley in Nebraska, and by July 7, have reached Fort Laramie and Fort John in Wyoming. Their ascent up the ridges of the Sierra Nevada on Oct. 13-14, 1849 is icy and difficult, but from the top they have a fine view of the Sacramento Valley. Typescript of diary entries ends on Oct. 16, due to illegibility of remaining pages. Interspersed with diary entries are typescripts of ten letters written by Dewolf between April 12, 1849 and Nov. 5, 1850 to his wife Matilda, who remained at home in Springfield, Ill. with their three year-old daughter "Little Sis." In both diary entries and letters, Dewolf describes the hardships of travel; bouts of sickness, especially the ongoing cholera epidemics; encounters with Shawnee, Pawnee, and Shoshone Indians; the Western landscape in its desolation and its beauty; and the gold-mining towns of Weaverville and Sacramento.

Extent [3], 63 leaves : ill., port. ; 33 cm

Format Correspondence, Diaries, Travel literature

Archival Collection Title Edward E. Ayer Collection

Link to Catalog View record

Call Number Ayer MS 237

BibID 180440

Rights Status No Copyright - United States

Contributing Institution Newberry Library

Newberry Open Access Policy The Newberry makes its collections available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to these terms and conditions.

IIIF Resource Type Canvas

Size 2556px × 3923px 28.72 MB

Filename 991804408805867_Ayer_MS_237_00037.tif

Unique Identifier NL11ICFC