Books like Death Valley in '49 by William Lewis Manly
William Lewis Manly (1820‑1903) left Vermont in 1828 and grew up in Michigan and Wisconsin. In 1849, spurred by California gold reports, he joined an emigrant party from Missouri. Choosing the southern route to avoid a northern passage through the Sierra Nevada, Manly’s group was forced to take a new shortcut through the mountains, which led them through the harsh environment of Death Valley. The memoir describes the party’s arduous desert crossing and provides anecdotes about the Illinois "Jayhawkers" and other travelers who took the same route. After reaching California, Manly continued his adventures, prospecting near the Mariposa mines, traveling east via the Isthmus, and later attempting work at the North Fork of the Yuba at Downieville in 1851. He also recounts life in mining camps and visits to Stockton, Sacramento, and San Francisco.
First publish date: 1894
Genre: Biography & Autobiography/Autobiography
Authors: William Lewis Manly
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Books similar to Death Valley in '49 (7 similar books)
A young woman defends her faith and freedom in a polygamous Mormon community while hunting her captors in the rugged American West.
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Born in Aurora, New York, Alonzo Delano (1806-1874) moved on to the Midwest as a teenager. July 1848 found him a consumptive Ottawa, Illinois, storekeeper, and he joined a local California Company. He remained in the West after the Gold Rush, winning fame as an early California humorist. Life on the plains and among the diggings (1857) is based largely on letters from Delano published in Ottawa and New Orleans newspapers of the day (see Alonzo Delano's California correspondence [1952]). Covering the period April 1849-August 1852, he discusses his voyage to St. Joseph and an overland journey to California; sojourns in Sacramento, Marysville, and San Francisco; and experiences as a storekeeper at Mud Hill, Stingtown, Gold Lake, and Grass Valley. Other topics include quartz mining, crime and vigilantism, and real estate investment.
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A first‑hand memoir of Isabella L. Bird’s travels through the Rocky Mountains, conveyed in personal letters to her sister.
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Chauncey de Leon Canfield (1843-1909) first published "The diary of a forty-niner" in 1906, and 1,200 of the 2,000 copies in that edition were burned. Joseph Gaer's Bibliography of California literature, 20 describes this book as written in the form of a diary, but fictional.' The diary of a forty-niner (1920) reprints Canfield's 1906 publication. It purports to be the diary of Alfred T. Jackson, of Litchfield County, Connecticut, during his days as a gold prospector, 1850-1852. Jackson offers firsthand accounts of Nevada City and neighboring Rock Creek; descriptions of Grass Valley, North and South Yuba Valleys, and the Sierra Mountains; details of gold mining with accounts of pioneer overland crossings, and foreign mineworkers (including Chinese). Entries concerning Jackson's personal life include details of his courtship of a French woman in the camps.
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