Lot
457 
(Overland Mail) Per Overland Mail, Via Los Angeles. Illustrated Four-House Stagecoach design with J.E. Damon imprint below, on cover to Sharpsburg, Md., franked with 1857, 10¢ green, type III tied by "Sonoma, Cal., Aug 4" cds, 1859 docketing at left; light cover edge wear, Very Fine; with 2010 P.F. certificate. Scott No. 33 Estimate $1,500 - 2,000.
Realized: $1,450
Lot
458
(Trail Letters) To Fort Kearny, Indian Territory, 1852. Folded cover postmarked "St. Louis, Mo., Apr 22", with integral "3" and matching "Paid", addressed to "Dr. George Hammond, U.S.A., Fort Kearney [sic], Indian Terr., via Independence, Mo.", Dr. Hammond was the post surgeon at Fort Kearny until September, 1852; as the 3¢ rate did not go into effect until July 1, 1851 this has to be an 1852 usage, the cover is lightly soiled, still F.-V.F. Estimate $400 - 600.
Realized: $1,100
Lot
459
(Trail Letters) Fort Kearny, May 23 [1854], Paid 3. All in manuscript, on a very late pre-territorial cover to Maine; the Territory of Nebraska came into existence just one week later, on May 30, 1854, so this would have been the last pre-territorial mail dispatch from Fort Kearny, F.-V.F. and scarce. Estimate $400 - 600.
Realized: $230
Lot
460
(Trail Letters) (Missouri Country, now Kansas) Fort Leavenworth, Mo., June 14. Cds and "X" handstamped rate marking on stampless cover to East Lyman, New Hampshire, with original letter from a man on his way to California to a woman relation headed "Sunday Eve May 27 1849", letter reads in part "I have been trying a long time to get time to write but have not been able, for being cook I am busy every minute when we are not traveling and now I am writing this after eleven o'clock [at night]…. We left St. Joseph's on the morning of the 11th + have traveled 13 days and are now 250 miles on our journey… 27 miles from Platt River which we strike at Grand Island…. The country so far is the most beautiful I have seen + the only thing lacking is wood + water which are very necessary articles, what water we find is rather poor + we don't pretend to drink it without first boiling to purify it…. Our company consists of 22 wagons in all + 88 yoke of oxen accompanied by 80 men…. There are but few companies who have escaped the cholera + we among the rest have lost one man…. We have a good physician in our company…. When we stop at night we drive our wagons in a ring + chain the tongue of each to the hind wheel of the one forward of it which makes a yard or corral [for our cattle]… by being cook I am not obliged to [stand] watch…. It is past 12 + I have to get up at 4 to get breakfast so I must close…." with postscript "new Fort Kearney May 29 arrived here this morning + the mail starts early in the morning….", light stain at top, minor edge wear, Very Fine, lot includes another stampless cover mailed at Saint Joseph from the same correspondence but with no letter. Estimate $500 - 750.
Realized: $1,300
Lot
461
(Trail Letters) San Diego, Cal./Jan'y 1, 1850. Dateline on folded letter to New York City, letter with interesting content of traveler on the Gila Overland Route heading for the gold fields…Ten months since I left New York & am still seven hundred miles this side of "El Dorado". The overland journey has proved a "smasher". It has not only smashed all our wagons & more than half our mules but has annihilated nearly a whole year of my life. I wrote to you from Pecos, near Santa Fe, saying that I should probably work through to the Pacific & return by sea to New York & reach there next spring or summer…But what has kept me so long on the route?…You will probably see in the newspapers many details of the route down the Gila & across the desert. Read the worst and think of me.…traveling through an uninhabited territory is nonsense of the most tedious kind. Natural scenery, boundless praires, towering mountains, trailess forests, rush torrents; all that I have seen of this would not repay a man for one days suffocation footing it through the sands of the Gila…For weeks & months we would have been glad of an encounter with the Comanches or Apaches as a relief to the solitude of our journey., cover carried privately to New York and placed in mails with red "New-York/Feb. 7/2cts" cds for local delivery, Very Fine. Estimate $750 - 1,000.
Trail letters carried on this route are substantially rarer than covers carried on the Northern or Southern Routes.
Realized: $1,450
Lot
462
(Trail Letters) (Santa Fe) From U.S.A./Santa Fe. Sender's notation on army occupation period stampless folded letter headed "Santa Fe New Mexico Jan. 16th 1848", the notation evidently anticipating the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, from Mexican-American War soldier Charles W. Abbott to a reverend in Lebanon, Illinois, carried up the Santa Fe Trail by military express to the unorganized territory assigned to Missouri and mailed with Fort Leavenworth, Mo. (now Kansas) large cds with "Mar 14" manuscript date and "10" manuscript rate marking, lightly silked at the folds, Very Fine. Estimate $300 - 400.
Letter mentions "our Reg. is still cooped up here in this place having nothing to do but drill! drill!… we have no prospect of any fighting, for all the enemy that could be mustered in N.M. has lately been attacked and beaten." and "New Years and Christmas passed of quite dull except that some of the soldiers took themselves a little furlough and got drunk. On New Years Day we buried one of the lieutenants of the Reg… We always bury the dead with much parade and with military honors." and "The Mexican congress that has convened here… have passed some good laws, one is that the Mexicans may bury their dead free from the charges of Catholic priest… Many others were passed and put into effect which will benefit this ignorant and superstitious people.".
Realized: $900
Lot
463
(Trail Letters) (Santa Fe) Galisteo, August 16th, 49. Heading on provisional government period stampless folded letter from a drifter to his sister in Uniontown, Alabama, carried up the Santa Fe Trail by military courier to Missouri and mailed with green "Independence, Mo., Nov. 6" cds and matching green "X" rate marking, some minor splitting and toning at the folds, Very Fine. Estimate $400 - 600.
Especially derogatory letter reads in part "You will be surprised to hear from me at this place, and particularly at this time. You must now believe me in or near California. I must acknowledge that I expected being there again this time when I left you… This is a small town twenty-five miles south of Santa Fe. It contains about eighty houses. The streets are dirty, crooked and without pavements as all the little towns in this part of the world. These Mexicans are the most contemptible wretches that you can possibly conceive of. I have not seen a good looking woman among them yet. I do not believe they ever comb their heads or wash themselves." and, omitting a digression into the subject of sucking on goats for milk, "I visited Santa Fe, the Capital of New Mexico… The place contains about six thousand inhabitants (such as they are). The houses are all one story high and built in the Mexican style of adobe or mud, with flat roofs and narrow doors… As for the morality of the place… Vice is a business. I might add, almost the only one. Persons coming here seem to think that they have a right to do the worst things that they ever imagined. All go armed with bowie knives and revolving pistols. There are more Americans than Mexicans. The most desperate characters that can be found. Starting to California they have come here and lost all of their money by gambling… The gambling tables are never unoccupied day or night and the rooms are so full that it is almost suffocating. Taking Santa Fe altogether it degrades human nature.".
Realized: $1,450
Lot
464
(Trail Letters) (Unorganized Territory West of Missouri, now Kansas) Camp on the Little Blue River… May 28th 1849. Heading on stampless folded letter from a man to his father in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, hand carried back on the emigrant trail and mailed with "St Joseph, Mo, Jun 26" cds and "X" handstamped rate marking, some splitting at the folds, stains on the address panel, F.-V.F. Estimate $400 - 600.
Letter reports about an ill companion "…he expired, and we buried him on the road side four hours after his death, deeming it rather dangerous to keep his body any longer. I put a head stone to his grave and inscribed his name and age on it. We also put a cross on his grave." and "…our wagon (unless we can get our tires cut) will not get to California. We had to get some of the emigrants to haul 500lbs of our provisions until we reach Fort Laramie… where we can have our wagon fixed…." and about the location "The encampments along this river for 60 miles are not more than from a half to a mile apart. The road through the day looks more like a turn pike leading to a large city than a road leading to the west." and finally "We have already met about 10 wagons returning to the states. The owners had already become sick of their trip. They sold out everything but what was necessary to carry them back home… I must conclude as the man who takes this is about to start.".
Realized: $800
Lot
465
(Trail Letters) (Unorganized Territory West of Missouri, Now Wyoming) Fort Laramie May 26th 1852. Heading on stampless folded letter from a man to his sister in Dartford, Wisconsin, with indistinct "Ft. Laramie, O.R." Oregon Route postmark with "June 15" manuscript date and "Paid" and "3" handstamped rate markings, some splitting at the folds, address panel soiled, Fine. Estimate $300 - 400.
Letter gives first and second hand accounts of encounters with Indians on the emigrant trail including "…there was as many as 2 hundred of them, all of them had either guns or bows & arrows with steel points on and the Old Chief had a long pole in his hand with a red war flag on it and a long sharp spear on the end of it, they blocked up the road and would not let us pass on till we had give them something to eat… some give them corn & some give them biscuits & some meat [and] then the Old Chief waved his hand for us to pass on…." and, after three companies combined, "…there was about 75 teams & wagons of horses & oxen together [and] we were well prepared to meet the Indians that morning, about 11 o clock in the morning, we [saw] the Indians running to meet us but when they saw so large a company coming they did not attempt to molest us, I should [say] it was as much as 2 miles from the first team to the last….".
Realized: $650
Lot
466
(Trail Letters) William Stackpole Correspondence 1849-50. Group of three letters from Wm Stackpole to his mother in South Thompson, Maine on his overland journey to the gold field in California, first is a 4-page letter datelined "Near St. Joseph, Mo., May 6th/49" with vivid details of his trip to the frontier of Missouri…We are now encamped five miles west of the town on the opposite side the Missouri in the territory of the friendly Indians who have been removed from the U.S., mentions the mass westward emigration…There are hundreds and hundreds of wagons on the road en route for California and it is estimated that there will be 5,000 emigrants leaving St. Joseph for California this season., second is a 2-page folded letter datelined "Fort Hall, July 20th, 1849" and sent almost a year later with manuscript "G.S.L.C. Cal., July 11/50" postmark (Utah Territory) and matching "40" rate, letter mentions the sending of the letter and the wonders encountered on the journey…We have just arrived here and as an opportunity is now offered to send letters to the States by the Government Express I hasten to inform you of my whereabouts…I should like to give you some account of many parts of this trip as well as a description of many great natural curiosities such as the Court House Rock, Chimney Rock, The Devils Gate (where the Sweetwater passes through a perpendicular chasm in the Rock 400 feet in height) of Ice Spring, Bear Spring, Steamboat Spring, etc., third is a 3-page fold letter in care of friend back to the east coast with red "New York, 10cts, Sept 5" cds, datelined "San Francisco, June 12th, 1850" regarding his mining on Bear River and sending gold back…Accompanying this you will receive from Mess. Adams & Co.s express seventy five ounces (75oz) gold dust which I hope will neat you something over thirteen hundred dollars.; some light cover staining, F.-V.F., a fascinating overland correspondence to the gold fields in California. Estimate $3,000 - 4,000.
Realized: $6,250