1865 Dear Auntie

San Francisco, Jan. 22th, 1865

Dear Auntie,

I have got your letter,

you told me to tell you what I got on

Christmas, I got a doll, it was dressed like

redriding hood, a little wash tub and board,

a pair of gloves, a basket, and a pair of

gold sleeve buttons.  Mama has had a fire

ever since she has been here.  Mama has

a blue silk, with tails way down to the

bottom of her dress.  Mrs. Chase sent us

some pictures of our house.  On Saturday

I went to the circus.  We go to ride almost

every day.  I go to school.  I love some

friends boarding here.  Give my love

to Lydia, Jhon, Tom and Willie.

            Good bye from Annie B. Aldrich

This letter is especially poignant because it is January and nine year old Annie writes that her mother, who has recently removed from Hawaii to San Francisco “has had a fire ever since she has been here.”  This isn’t just because her mother was chilly after the move from warm Hawaii.  Her mother must have been ill, because she was dead by October of the same year.

Annie's letter is to her Aunt Mary (Jones) Dominis, sister to my 3rd great grandmother Catherine Plummer (Jones) Younger, and sister to Annie's mother, Ann Marie (Jones) Holt.  She states that Mary wanted to know about her Christmas presents.  This is a lovely detail, because Mary is famous for bringing Christmas traditions to Honolulu from Boston.  She was known as the first person to have a Christmas tree in Hawaii.  You can read about that story at this link: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/12/advent-calendar-christmas-in-hawaii.html 

Little Annie spells her cousin John’s name incorrectly “Jhon” just like in the last letter I transcribed.  You can read Annie’s other letter at this link: http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/05/amanuensis-monday-nine-year-old-girl.html     John’s wife, Lydia, is the future Queen Lili’uokalani.

Annie’s lineage:

Generation 1: Owen Jones, born about 1735 in Wales, died 28 February 1798 in Aberstwyth, Wales, married Anne Unknown.  Two children, Owen and Anne Jones, born 17 Feb 1769 in Boston, Massachusetts  and died 18 February 1791 in Aberstwyth.   My 6x great grandparents.

Generation 2: Owen Jones, born about 1768 in Wales, died 22 Apri 1850 in Dorchester, Massachusetts; married on 11 May 1793 at the 2^nd Baptist Church, Boston to Elizabeth Lambert.  She was born about 1775 in Boston, died 6 February 1834 in Boston.  My 5x great grandparents.  Eight children.

Generation 3.  Ann Marie Jones, born about 1811, died on 15 August 1832 in Boston; married on 7 October 1829 in Boston to Robert William Holt.  He was born about 1792 in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England and died 6 July 1862 in  Honolulu, Hawaii.   My 4x great uncle and aunt.  They had two daughters.

Generation 4:  Elizabeth M. Holt, born about 1830 in Boston, died 27 October 1865 in Piedmont, California; married on 25 December 1854 at Washington Place, in Honolulu to William Arnold Aldrich, born 27 March 1824 at Westmoreland, New Hampshire, died 3 March 1892.  Elizabeth is my first cousin 5 generations removed. Four children.

Generation 5:  Anne B. Aldrich, born about 1856 in Hawaii; married Willard T. Barton. Two children born in San Francisco.  Annie is the author of the letter, and my 2^nd cousin 4 generations removed.

Hawaii State Archives, Queen Lili'uokalani Collections,
M-93, Box 11, Folder 93
Letter from Annie Aldrich to Mary Dominis, 22 January 1865

----------------------------------

Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "1865 Dear Auntie", Nutfield Genealogy, posted June 4, 2012, (  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/06/1865-dear-auntie.html: accessed [access date]). 

Amanuensis Monday - A Nine Year Old Girl writes to Hawaii in 1865

San Francisco Feb. 20^th 1865

My dear Auntie,

I was disappointed

that you did not write to me.

I think that the pictures of Lydia and

the Queen were good, I would not have

known Lydia if Helen had not

told me. I have got a good

many friends here, I will tell you

the names of some of them, Flora and

Ada Smith, Mary and Kitty

Osborn, Lillibell Rosa Blankman

How is Jennie Annie and Bernie

Parke.  Helen wants to know how

Mary Hopper is.  Give my love

to Lydia, Jhon, Willie, Sam.

Goodbye from

Annie B. Aldrich

This letter was written to Mary (Jones) Dominis in Honolulu, Hawaii from her grandniece, Annie Aldrich, who was about nine years old.  Annie was born in Hawaii, but removed with her family to San Francisco.   Annie’s mother was Elizabeth (Holt) Aldrich, the only surviving child of Mary’s sister, Ann Marie (Jones) Holt.

Annie mentions Mary’s daughter–in-law, Lydia, who's brother was King Kalakua.  I’m assuming that the Queen mentioned in the photograph must have been his wife, Queen Kapiolani.   

I love the lack of punctuation marks such as commas and question marks, and the lined stationary.  Her only misspelling is the name “Jhon”.  However, I’m very impressed with the beautiful penmanship.  I cannot use a fountain pen as well as this little girl! 

Hawaii State Archives, Queen Lili'uokalani Collections,
M-93, Box 11, Folder 93
Letter from Annie Aldrich to Mary Dominis, 20 February 1865

------------------------

Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

George Emerson, Forty Niner

Carrie (Batchelder) Allen wearing the gold nugget

surrounded by her descendants, early 1950s

George Emerson’s parents were from New Hampshire, raised in Milford and removing to South Boston, Massachusetts sometime soon after their marriage in 1810. George was born on 11 July 1817, and married Mary Esther Younger in 1845. He was listed as a “boot and shoe worker.” This young family had two babies by the time gold was found in California in 1848.  George is my 3rd great grandfather. 

Like many young men of the time, the call to go west and find his fortune hit George Emerson. He joined the New England and California Trading and Mining Company, which was headed by Herman H. Greene and Samuel Whitmarsh. There were 100 young fortune seekers who paid $300 for a share in the corporation. $300 must have been quite a grand sum in those days. It seemed that every available New England ship was recruited to bring young miners to San Francisco that year. The New England and California Trading and Mining Company purchased the ship “Leonore”, which had been built in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Before leaving Boston on February 3, 1849 the miners attended a special religious service at the Tremont Temple, and the Reverend Edward Beecher (brother to the authoress Harriet Beecher Stowe of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” fame) preached to them about morality. He admonished them to bring their good New England values with them as they traveled into the wilderness. After an uneventful voyage the "Leonore" reached San Francisco on July 5th. History books record the adventure as a bust, with no gold found and the ship "Leonore" was abandoned in San Francisco harbor.

Somehow George Emerson found his way home, because by 1851 he was back in Boston, and had fathered a third child. He eventually had eight children, and named the youngest, a daughter, Leonore. George became a Boston police officer, stationed at Field’s Corner. He died in 1890 at Dorchester, Massachusetts.

And what was his legacy? Well, at least one gold nugget was passed along in the family. His second child was Mary Katharine Emerson, who married George E. Batchelder in Chichester, New Hampshire in 1869. Their second daughter, Carrie Maude, born in 1872, wore the gold nugget on a chain around her neck, until she was quite elderly. According to a family story, it was going to be sold to finance her last years in a retirement home in Rowley, Massachusetts, but another son secretly sold it and took an extended vacation.

And what happened to the ship “Leonore”? Hundreds of ships were abandoned in San Francisco in the wake of the 1849 Gold Rush. Many became “ghost ships.” Many were scuttled for landfill. The “Leonore” became a whaler and eventually hauled timber.

The ‘49er George Emerson named his youngest daughter after her, and granddaughter Carrie named her eldest daughter Leonore, too. My great aunt Leonore (we called her Lena) was told that she was named after the covered wagon that took her ancestor west. It was only when George’s name was found on the passenger list of the New England and California Trading and Mining Company that we all found out the truth behind the gold rush myth!

Emerson Family Tree showing the girls named Leonore:

Gen. 1. Romanus Emerson, my 4th great grandfather, son of John Emerson and Katherine Eaton, b. 1 Sep. 1782 in Townsend, Massachusetts, raised in Hancock, New Hampshire, d. 10 Oct 1852 in South Boston, married on 22 Nov. 1810 in Boston to Jemima Burnham b. 9 May 1783 in Milford, New Hampshire, and died 5 Aug. 1868

Gen. 2. Son, George Emerson, my 3rd great grandfather,  b. 11 Jul. 1817 in South Boston, and d. 11 Jan 1890 in Dorchester, married on 11 Aug. 1845 to Mary Esther Younger, daughter of Levi Younger and Catherine Plummer Jones, b. 17 Feb. 1826 d. after 1910. Children of George and Esther (Eight born in Dorchester and South Boston)

Gen. 3. Child #2. Mary Katherine Emerson, my 2nd great grandmother, b. 25 Dec. 1847 in South Boston, d. 23 Apr. 1932 in Roxbury, m. on 28 Oct. 1869 in Chichester, New Hampshire to George E. Batchelder, b. 8 Oct. 1848, d. 28 Jul 1914 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was the son of George E. Batchelder and Abigail M. Locke of Chichester, New Hampshire. (Nine children born in Chichester and Boston)

Gen. 4. Child # 2. Carrie Maude Batchelder, my great grandmother,  b. 22 Sep. 1872 in Chichester, d. 21 Jan 1963 in Rowley, Massachusetts, m. on 1 Nov. 1892 in Essex, Massachusetts to Joseph Elmer Allen. He was the son of Joseph Gilman Allen and Sarah Burnham Mears, b. 24 Sep 1870 in Essex, d. 12 Mar 1932 at the Masonic Home in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. (Five children born in Boston, Cambridge and Dorchester)

Gen. 5. Child #1. LEONORE Carrie Allen, my grand aunt, b. 20 Mar. 1894 in Boston, d. Jan 1973 in Stamford, Connecticut, m. 1. on 29 Dec 1912 in Essex, Massachusetts to Waldo Emerson Cooper, m. 2. after 1920 to Thomas J. McCormack.

Also in Gen. 4. Child #8. LEONORE Emerson, my second great aunt b. 28 Jan 1865 in Boston, d. 3 Mar 1944 in Los Angeles, California, m. on 17 Jun. 1903 at Boston to John Milton Earl Morrill. He was the son of John Langley Morrill and Elmina L. Mansfield, b. 8 Aug. 1857 in Middleton, Connecticut. And so it appears that "Leonore" went to California twice!  She had a daughter named LEONORE Ester Elmina Morrill, and a grand daughter named LEONORA High.

--------------

To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "George Emerson, Forty Niner", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 28, 2009, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/08/george-emerson-forty-niner.html: accessed [access date]).