How Many Miles From St. Jo?; The Log of Sterling B. F. Clark | With Comments by Ella Sterling Mighels | Together with a Brief Autobiography of James Phelan, 1819-1892 Pioneer Merchant
San Francisco: Privately Printed, 1929. Near Fine. First Edition. San Francisco: Taylor & Taylor. , limited [5.25x8”]; Light brown, blue, green marbled covers with maroon cloth back strip, gilt lettering on spine, insert color illustration of pioneer settlers viewing landscape and sunset [”The Promised Land!” from the cover of The Pioneer / California Monthly magazines], top edge trimmed all others untrimmed; [2], xii, 56 pp., [1] colophon of San Francisco printer Taylor & Taylor, frontispiece image of Clark and wife, five illustrations with tissue guards, appendix, tipped in errata slip ain rear; Some shelf wear to covers, edges and corners. [Kurutz 137, Howell 1308, Graff 742]. Item #13258
From Kurutz, “Sterling Clark left Holliday, Pennsylvania, on March 11, 1849 for St. Joseph. After a short stay, he resumed his journey, stopped in Salt Lake City, and followed the Humboldt-Carson Route to California. On August 2 - ‘2092 miles later’ - he arrived in Sacramento.” Clark worked the Mormon Island and Sandwich Islands diggings. The diary is supplemented with letters home. Clark invested his money in land and became a merchant. On the way home through the Nicaragua crossing, to marry, he became ill and returned to San Francisco and died at 28 years old. His daughter, Ella, introduces the Diary which was published by Senator James Phelan, Pioneer Merchant and former Mayor of San Francisco. The original Diary was donated to the Society of California Pioneers in 1930.
Price: $60.00