Fine Americana Travel & Exploration With Ephemera & Manuscript ...

54. (California) Jones, William H. Autograph Letter, signed, predicting the death of San Franciscopioneer Gabriel Post. Autograph letter, signed. 2 pages.San Francisco: February 7, 1861To Miss Martha Jane Post, Lansing, Michigan. With original mailing envelope. “…It is mypainful duty to say to you that there is but little hope for your brother Gabriel… he is fastsinking. The next mail will in all probability bring you the sad intelligence that he is no more…Kind friends will watch over his dear wife and sweet little one, for I can truly say that no one inCalifornia has more friends than he, whose death will be sincerely regret and long rememberedamong the Early Pioneers!...” The Forty-Niner for whom Post Street is named, Gabriel B. Post,came to San Francisco in February 1849. He was soon elected to the first non-Mexican citycouncil of the Gold Rush era, and was later one of the city’s first two State Senators under thenew state Constitution. An influential merchant, Post held other public offices, including Keeperof the County Jail. Like his friend William H. Jones, who wrote this letter, he was a leader of theoriginal Vigilance Committee of 1851. Creased, light wear; near fine.(150/250)55. (California) Lyons, Caleb. Autograph Letter Signed by Caleb Lyons, who would later be a prominentfigure in the California Gold Rush, relating to his lectures on woman’s rights. 1+ pp., on 1st 2 pages of4-page lettersheet, addressed on p.4. 25.5x20 cm. (10x8”).Collinsville, New York: December 6, 1842Early letter by the man who took credit for designing the California state seal in 1849. Just 20years of age, and freshly graduated from college in Vermont, Caleb Lyons launched himself onthe New England lecture circuit, with his subject being woman’s rights and temperance. Thisletter, to Rev. W.W. Ninde, Pastor of the M.E. Church, Rome, Oneida County, New York,attempts to arrange one of these lectures: “I have not forgot your kind invite to give you aTemperance Lecture in Rome at your Church and I now can tell when I would like to do so...Iwould of course like to have due notice both in the churches and by the Press well circulated.Even I, with my humble abilities would not like to Lecture to empty halls. The subject of theLecture will be of ‘Woman’s Rights and Influence, a Temperance Lecture’ by Caleb Lyon ofLyonsdale...” A few years later, with help from his politically-connected father, young Calebgot an appointment as the first U.S. Consul at Shanghai, though he may never have set footin China, instead appearing in California in 1849 to win a job as a secretary of the new State’sConstitutional Convention - and a $1,000 gold prize from the Legislature for the state seal(actually designed by a self-effacing Virginia friend who later became a Confederate General).Lyon then returned to New York to be elected to Congress, where he cultivated friends amonganti-slavery “radicals”. In 1864 he was appointed by Abraham Lincoln as the second governorof Idaho Territory, where he came very close to being indicted for embezzlement. Horizontaland vertical folds; large part of the address leaf was torn away and replaced, probably by therecipient, with a piece of paper taken from another letter, not in Lyon’s hand, and using nonarchivaltape. The Lyon letter itself is complete and in very good condition.(150/250)56. (California) The “City Guard”: A History of Company “B”, First Regiment, N.G.C. During theSacramento Campaign, July 2 to 26, 1894. Including a Brief History of the Company Since its Organization.263 pp. Illustrations from photographs. (8vo), original blue cloth. First Edition.San Francisco: Filmer-Rollins, [1895]Uncommon history of the San Francisco National Guard’s participation in the AmericanRailway Union strike of 1894, which threatened to shut down the entire Santa Fe railway systemin California. Cowan (II), p. 125; Rocq 8692 Light wear and soiling to cloth, front hingestarting; very good.(200/300)Page 18