Wagons Westward!

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/28/2005

Autograph Letter Signed “Gus”, 4 pages, quarto, September 17, 1865, Empire City, Colorado Territory to Capt. N.A. Frye, Salem, Massachusetts. Written on the pre-printed stationery of the Bay State Gold Mining Company. A journey from Missouri to Denver is described in part: “...The party consisted of a Mr. & Mrs. Scott...a Mr. Brown - a Mormon of Gt. Salt Lake City, a Major & a Captain bound out to join their Regiments, an Irish woman with a little baby only eighteen months old & myself inside, and Mr. Scotts colored boy outside....we were pretty well cramped for room...About fifteen miles out we met a long train. About 100 wagons drawn by six or eight yoke of cattle each, part of them delayed at a very bad mud hole. As we drove up to it the wagon master told the driver that he did not dare drive any more wagons through it without repairing it but our driver thought he could get the coach through...the four wheels went down with a tremendous crash, the coach hng swaying to and fro for a minute and then away it went over on its side...We passed an immense number of wagons, some of the trains being several miles long.At night we could see them camped out by the side of the road, the wagons drawn up in a circle & the men sitting around their camp fires...”. With stamped cover bearing a Mountain City, Co postmark. Light stains, else Fine condition.

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