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Papers of Augustin W. Hale
1775-1909 (bulk 1830-1859)
FINDING AID
The Huntington Library
Brooke M. Black
June 23, 2006
©The Huntington Library
Object Description
| Title | Finding aid for Papers of Augustin W. Hale, 1775-1909 bulk (1830-1859). |
| Creator | Hale, Augustin W., 1814-1902. |
| Extent | 5,256 items. 29 boxes. |
| Biographical Note | Augustin Ward Hale, born January 13, 1814, grew up in New Jersey and New York. In his early life Augustin worked with his father Elisha Hale, a businessman and inventor. In January 1849 Augustin left his wife Jennette, and daughter Agness, to sail for California on the brig Pacific. He was a member of a joint venture called the New England Mining and Trading Company (Mark Hopkins was also a member of the company, which was disbanded shortly after its arrival in California). The ship reached San Francisco in August and Augustin immediately traveled to Sacramento City and then to the mining camp Mormon Island. Along with mining, Augustin spent the 1850s in various business ventures, most of which failed. In 1851, Augustin created the Saucelito Water Company, which was one of his more successful businesses. After a profitable year he sold the company and invested in other businesses including the San Joaquin Railroad Company, Magnetic Mining Company, San Joaquin Diving Bell Company, Sierra Nevada Flour Mills, and the Tuolumne Hydraulic Association. Most notable of these companies is the Stanislaus Central Bridge Company, which was established in 1852 to build an iron suspension bridge above the Stanislaus River. The company directors had not yet approved the completion of the bridge and insisted that additional cables were needed, when, on November 19, 1853, the bridge collapsed as a wagon and team of horses were crossing it. Augustin and his partners paid the company's debts with their own money. Augustin had long been involved with the Episcopal church in California and more specifically Trinity Church in San Francisco, and in 1854, he helped convince Dr. William Ingraham Kip, of Albany, New York, to come out west. Kip took over Trinity Church and became the first Episcopal bishop of California. By 1855, Augustin was back in the mines, including Michigan Bluff and Big Bar, but this time he also worked as an engineer constructing flumes, waterwheels and pumps. Between 1860 and 1862, Augustin was in Silver City and Gold Hill, Nevada where he was working as an engineer and participating in the opening of the Comstock Lode. Not much is known about Hale's life after 1862. In 1874 he married a woman named Laura Pamelia (1823-1903) and in 1883 they were living in Pomona, California. They moved to Los Angeles in 1887. In 1894, he was hoping to patent an improved nozzle for fire engines. Augustin and Laura were living in Long Beach, California in 1900. He died in Long Beach in 1902; his wife died next year. |
| Scope and Content | The manuscripts consist of 1,112 items including business documents, legal documents, memoranda of letters written, stock certificates, receipts, and miscellaneous documents. The manuscripts document, in detail, the various business ventures of Augustin and his various business partners including Mark Hopkins. 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. The manuscripts also document Elisha Hale's business ventures, his inventions and patents. This material includes agreements, bills of lading, deeds, indentures, licenses, petitions, and powers of attorney. The manuscripts also deal with several lawsuits involving the Hale family and land ownership in New Jersey and New York. The collection contains 15 diaries, 11 of which are written by Augustin. His diaries illustrate his life and work from 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 conditions as well as Colonel Jonathan Stevenson, San Francisco, Sacramento, the New England Mining Trading Company, the Chinese in California, and the mining camps 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, his experiences in Rio de Janeiro, and Callao and Lima, Peru, and his arrival in San Francisco. There are also two diaries by an unknown author who came overland to California in 1849 from Ohio. The author discusses the overland route to California, Hudspeth's Cutoff, William H. Warner, Peter Lassen and gold mining. The correspondence includes 3,102 items. About two-thirds of the correspondence relates to Elisha Hale and his business, inventions and patents. 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, 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; 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, 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 experience living in mining towns. 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. The ephemera is made up of 1,011 items and includes business cards, miscellaneous printed items, broadsides, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, two albumen prints, receipts, an autograph album and recipes. Some of the ephemera relates to Augustin's voyage to California, his business and gold mining. There are 6 artifacts and 8 oversize items. These include maps, sketches, diagrams, a stamp of Augustin's name, a postal cancellation stamp invented by Augustin, a pictorial letter sheet depicting San Francisco, and Augustin's balance scale for weighing gold. |
| Notes | All inquiries about this collection should be directed to the H. Russell Smith Foundation Curator, Western American Manuscripts. |
| Date | 1775-1909. |
| Provenance | Purchased from Dorothy Sloan Rare Books Auction 2, Part 2, lot 133, October 25, 1994. |
| Subject |
Hale, Augustin W. 1814-1902 -- Archives. King, James, 1822-1856. Lassen, Peter, 1800-1859. Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865. Stevenson, J. D. (Jonathan Drake), 1800-1894. Warner, William Horace. Pacific (Brig) Trinity Church (San Francisco, Calif.) Businessmen -- California -- Archives. Chinese -- California. Fires -- California -- San Francisco. Gold miners -- California -- Archives. Gold mines and mining -- California -- History -- 19th century -- Sources. Gold mines and mining -- Nevada -- History -- 19th century -- Sources. Indians of North America -- California. Inventors -- New York (State) -- Archives. Mines and mineral resources -- California -- History -- 19th century. Mines and mineral resources -- Nevada -- History -- 19th century. Mining camps -- California. Overland journeys to the Pacific. Silver mines and mining -- Nevada -- History -- 19th century -- Sources. Vigilance committees -- California. Voyages to the Pacific coast. Women -- California -- Correspondence. Big Bar (Calif.) -- Description and travel. California -- Gold discoveries -- Personal narratives. California -- History -- 19th century -- Sources. Callao (Callao, Peru) -- Description and travel. Chinese Camp (Calif.) -- Description and travel. Coloma (Calif.) -- Description and travel. Comstock Lode (Nev.) Grass Valley (Calif.) -- Description and travel. Hudspeth's Cutoff. Lima (Peru) -- Description and travel. Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Description and travel. New Jersey -- History -- 19th century -- Sources. New York (State) -- History -- 19th century -- Sources. Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) -- Description and travel. Shasta (Calif.) -- Description and travel. Silver City (Calif.) -- Description and travel. Sacramento (Calif.) -- Description and travel. San Francisco (Calif.) -- Description and travel. United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865. Yankee Jim's (Calif.) -- Description and travel. |
| Form/Genre |
Albumen prints California 19th century. (aat) Business cards 19th century. (aat) Business records United States 19th century. (aat) Deeds United States 19th century. (aat) Diaries California 19th century. (aat) Financial records United States 19th century. (aat) Legal instruments United States 19th century. (aat) Letters (correspondence) California 19th century. (aat) Letters (correspondence) Nevada 19th century. (aat) Letters (correspondence) New York 19th century. (aat) Maps California 19th century. (aat) Pictorial lettersheets California 19th century. (aat) Stock certificates California 19th century. (aat) Trade cards 19th century. (aat) |
| Contributors |
Angell, John Carpenter, 1818-1904. Belmont, August, 1813-1890. Browning, Orville Hickman, 1806-1881. Bushnell, Nehemiah, 1813-1873. Dallas, George Mifflin, 1792-1864, correspondent. Goodyear, Charles, 1800-1860. Gunn, Lewis C. (Lewis Carstairs), 1813-1892. Hale, Elisha. Holt, Joseph, 1807-1894. Hopkins, John Henry, 1792-1868. Hopkins, Mark, 1813-1878. Houghton, Douglass, 1809-1849. Johnson, D. Minor K. King, James, 1822-1856, correspondent. Kip, William Ingraham, 1811-1893. Krum, John Marshall, 1810-1883. Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913. Perpigna, A. (Antoine) Requa, Isaac Lawrence, 1825-1905. Sawyer, Lorenzo, 1820-1891. Seymour, Origen Storrs, 1804-1881. Sherwood, R. (Reuben), 1789-1856. Thompson, William Neely, b. 1819. Throop, Enos Thompson, 1784-1874. Van Kleeck, R. B. (Robert Boyd), 1810-1880. Wood, Fernando, 1812-1881. New England Mining and Trading Company. Stanislaus Central Bridge Company. Tuolumne Hydraulic Association. |
| Department | Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. Manuscripts Department. |
| Call Number | mssHale papers. |
| Accession Number | mss 01723. |
| Physical Collection | Augustin W. Hale Papers. |
| Digital Collection | Finding Aids, Huntington Digital Library |
| Physical Description | 56 p. |
| Digitization Specifications | Original finding aid converted into PDF document by B. Black, 2011-10-10. |
| Date Digital | 2011-10-10. |
| DCMI Type | text |
| Digital Format | |
| Original Finding Aid | Finding aid prepared by Brooke M. Black, June 23, 2006. |
| Citation Information | Finding aid for Augustin W.Hale Papers, Huntington Digital Library, San Marino, California. |
| Restrictions | Images in this collection are for scholarly research; please review the Huntington Library's copyright information: http://cdm16003.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/about. For purchasing images for publication please review our permission to publish policy: http://www.huntington.org/huntingtonlibrary.aspx?id=590. |
| Cataloging Notes | The collection is organized in the following order: Manuscripts (Boxes 1-5); Diaries (Box 6); Correspondence (Boxes 7-25); Ephemera (Boxes 26-28); Artifacts (Box) 29 and Oversize Items (housed in separate folders). |