The following series of letters were all written by Willis Parker Chamberlin to his
friend William James Griffing, son of James and Augusta Griffing. Apparently
sometime in 1876, Will Chamberlin's parents moved the family from Manhattan,
Kansas to the Sierra Nevada Mountains of western California. The first letter
was written from Alameda, California. It is followed by several
letters written from Truckee, then Grass Valley, and finally Oakland,
California. By 1880, Will Chamberlin had moved down the coast to San Luis Obispo
County where he took employment teaching school. Not much is known about Par
and Mary Parker Chamberlin and their three children Vincent, Willis, and Nathan.
As Nathan is not mentioned in any of these letters, it suggests that he may have
died prior to this western relocation. In a couple of the letters, Will's mother
Mary has added "a few lines" to her friend Augusta Griffing. For
information on the Chamberlin family, see the link at left.
Alameda
[California]
May 6, 1876
Dear Friend
Will [Griffing],
We arrived
here all right one week ago today. We have had enough of [railroad] car riding
to last us for several days, for three days and two nights we were without a
seat. During the days, Vint and I rode on the platform and at night we slept on
the floor and on the coal box. Mother got a seat with another woman.
The scenery
was very nice. There was but one thing I was sorry for [and that was] that I
could not look on both sides of the car at once. We saw lots of antelope and
prairie dogs; also lots of Shoshonee, or Piute, Indians and plenty of Chinese.
At one of the stations we saw a lot of Chinaman cooking their “licey”
(rice). They had their chop-sticks lying around and we saw their queer hats and
their pigtails but we have got used to such things now. The passengers gathered
around talking to them but they would not eat while we were there. There was
“too muchey fooley.”
Thursday night
(the 27th) we went to sleep in a snowbank. Friday morning we woke in bed of
roses, but we have found that roses have thorns and that a snowbank may be soft.
I would like
to see you. I could tell you lots of interesting things that it is too tiresome
to write.
Yesterday I
was over to the city (San Francisco) all day. I went through a small corner of
China Town and I tell you they are thick. I went down to North Beach and saw the
ships. They had one big one in the dry dock cleaning her sheathing and mending
her. Two men were rolling up oakum into ropes to saturate with tar and drive
into the cracks and crevices. There was a small steamship in another dry dock.
They were mending her also.
In the
afternoon, I went down to the Atlantic Garden that is down on North Beach also.
I saw a monstrous Cinnamon bear, two good-sized black bears, a small grizzly,
and another that I do not know the name of, but he was brown. I saw also a
wildcat, lots of monkeys, birds of all kinds (parrots by the bushel) guinea
pigs, and squirrels.
We are all
very well at present. It is a lovely climate but as I said before, roses have
thorns.
Write
soon and I will answer. Address to W. P. Chamberlin, Alameda, California
Truckee,
California
Martis Creek
September 9, 1876
Friend Will
[Griffing],
I have delayed
answering your letter so long that I am almost ashamed to do so now. I have been
out on a hay ranch to work for some time and have not had a chance to write. We
are within about eight miles of Lake Tahoe and four from Truckee. We are in
Placer County.
It is very
cold here nights and very warm in the middle of the day. It freezes almost every
night. There are deer and bears not but a few miles from us; a deer was seen a
few weeks ago only about three miles from here.
There is an
old grizzly lives a few miles from here on the mountain sides. He is called
“Old Clubfoot.” He had a foot taken off in a trap. He has killed two or
three men and ate one entirely up or dragged him off so that nothing was ever
found of the man but his rifle and revolver.
We are all
well at present. There is nothing more to write at present. Yours, -- Will
Chamberlin
Truckee,
Nevada County, California
Sunday, October 8, 1876
Friend Will
[Griffing],
I expect you
are having your Indian summer out there now. It is getting cool here now and we
are expecting a snowstorm soon.
Last Sunday we
went up on top of a mountain near here. We could see Truckee, Lake Tahoe, and
Lake Donner. It made us short-winded to climb so high.
I suppose you
are going to college now. When you write, tell me what you study and how you are
getting along. I suppose you go hunting very little while. I haven’t had much
time to hunt or anything else but work since I came to Truckee.
Has Julian
[Meeker] come back to school? I haven’t heard from him for a long while. I
send you a page from a China book. I hope it will prove as interesting to you as
it is to me. We are all well at present. Yours, -- W. P. Chamberlin
Truckee
[California]
December 17, 1876
Friend Will
[Griffing],
I owe you a
letter and although I haven’t much to write, I must answer it. I am not doing
much of anything just now so I am rather dull. We are having beautiful weather
– the nicest I ever saw this time of year – but it is unhealthy. There has
been no snow of any consequence yet, but we expect it soon. I suppose you are
going to school all the time. I wish I was.
There are no
walnuts or anything else of that kind out here. In fact, there are but few trees
besides pine, fir, and tamarack. We don’t even have any popcorn this winter.
I should think
you could make your fortune gathering grasshopper eggs. If you could gather a
bushel a day, you could make better wages than they pay in California. They are
having quite a time hunting hogs here now. About thirty got away from the
Chinamen and about a dozen Chinese, four or five White men, and a few Indians
are after them as fast as found. I expect it is fine sport although I think it
entirely too much labor thrown away. They give three dollars apiece for the
hogs, but as the chances for killing one are slim, I do not care to go.
You say your
mother saw some Chinese at the Centennial [Celebration]. Perhaps when she has seen as many as
we have, their appearance will cease to interest her. I would like to know how
many I ever saw. It seems to me as though I had seen a million. There are more
Chinamen than white men in Truckee.
Did you ever
hear from Julian Meeker? I haven’t heard from him in a long time. I suppose
you are in the second year at the College now. What do you study? Nothing more.
Yours, -- W. P. Chamberlin
Truckee,
[California]
January 19, 1877
Friend Will
[Griffing],
It has been
snowing a hurricane for the last three days so we have at present between 4 and
5 feet of snow and still it comes. I never saw it snow so fast in my life. It is
about all any body can do to get around. We received the walnuts all right and
enjoyed them they tasted like old times.
Mother sent
you a pair of Chinese chopsticks and some Chinese tapers. They burn a taper
every night and morning in place of saying their prayers. I have not been
feeling very well for a few days.
The emigrants
are snowed in here at present. They will probably get out in a few hours. This
is all at present. Yours, -- W. P. Chamberlin
Truckee,
California
February 18, 1877
Friend Will
[Griffing],
I received
your letter the other day all right. Nothing much to write. Rather dull out here
just now.
The Chinese
have been having a big time – Chinese New Year’s. – and firecrackers by
the thousands. They had their shops fixed up nice I tell you, and every Chinaman
that came in (and some white men too) was treated to candy, cigars, tea, &c.
Their shops were fixed up pretty nice, tapers burning and so forth. I also saw
some of them at their worship. They have a kind of a band up there, a big thing
like a keg which they drum on and a brass thing like a frying pan that they also
pound and a pair of cymbals. They hammer away as hard as they can without any
time or anything else. The one that makes the loudest and most horrible noise is
the best player. They have made night and day hideous ever since a week ago
today.
You ask how
the Chinaman eats with his chopsticks. It is hard to tell you. He holds them in
forefinger and thumb slightly separating them with his second finger. They hold
the bowl of “licey” (rice) in the other hand as close to the mouth as
possible and shovel it down, never stopping to chew their victuals. Their food
is mostly of a soupy character. They eat what they can with the chopsticks and
drink the rest. I have seen them eat a number of times. I think they are rather
hoggish about it. The chopsticks which you have have been used often and are
“seasoned” so don’t put them in your mouth. The Chinese put the round ends
in their mouths.
Those tapers
are not made to blaze but only smolder. They will sometimes be almost half an
hour burning. There is not much more to write. The snow is going fast. The five
feet is reduced to about one now. It is splendid weather here.
Does J. Todd
go to College now? Write soon. Yours truly, -- W. P. Chamberlin
Truckee,
California
March 15, 1877
Friend Will
[Griffing],
I received
your letter today all right and will proceed to answer it. The Chamberlin family
are all well at present except myself. I am not very well.
Ed. J. Waring
was up here Tuesday night and did not go back until Wednesday noon. We had a
real nice time. He came up to have a tooth pulled. We are having splendid
weather now. Snow still lingers on the north side of the hills. I think you
would soon have your fill of snow if you spent one winter in the mountains. We
do not have to go very far to find plenty of pine and fir trees although there
are none in our immediate vicinity – that is, none close to the house. Those
cones are young ones. We got them from a good-sized tree, which had blown down.
I am not troubled with company.
It was too bad
Mrs. Meeker’s breaking her arm. I am sorry for her but think they were very
careless in going out with that spirited team without a man to drive.
I have got
Gaskell’s Compendium and practice everyday. Can’t write much better but ever
so much easier and faster. I had it since December. Awful dull around here –
nothing to interest you. I should think [your brother] John had become a big one. He will be in
the faculty yet. I never care to go to the College again.
Am very much
obliged for the card. Wish I could return the compliment but can’t at present.
It is very handsome. Lewellyn Bowen passed through here one week ago today
(Thursday) and we met him on the train and he came over and stayed from 8 p.m.
until 3 a.m. We had a good time and he told us all the Manhattan news. This is
all today. Write soon. Yours &c., -- W. P. Chamberlin
Truckee,
California
April 29, 1877
Friend Will
[Griffing],
Received your
letter in due time. We are all well at present. Hope this will find you the
same. Father has been feeling unwell for some time but now is as well, or nearly
so, as usual.
We went up to
Donner Lake last Friday and had a nice time rambling around in the woods and
gathering moss, cones and flowers. Donner Lake is a very pretty place and there
is some very pretty scenery there.
Ed Waring is
staying with us for a short time. He is out of a place and don’t know what to
do. Father received a letter from Lewellyn Bowen today. He is out of a job and
don’t know what to do. He says he has not made enough to pay his board in
Suisun. It is terrible dull all over the state.
From 75 to 300
emigrants pass Truckee every night; 55 stopped here in one night not long ago.
Some stop here most every night.
We expect T.
B. Lewis, one of our old Norwich [New York] friends, out here shortly. He intends to settle
in California. Poor fellow. I don’t know what he will do. We told him better
than to come but he wouldn’t hear to us any more than we would hear to others
when we were back there.
You asked me
if I had hunted any since I came here. I have not even fired the gun off. [My
brother] Vint went hunting 3 or 4 days last Christmas and bro’t home lots of
rabbits. There are grizzly bears not far from here.
Mother is over
to a neighbors who has a very sick child. She thinks it will die. Ed and Father
have both gone to church. I wrote a letter to Irving Todd the other day. I have
not heard from Julian Meeker in a long time. This is all at present. Yours
truly, -- W. P. Chamberlin
Truckee,
[California]
September 21, 1877
Friend Will
[Griffing],
I received a
letter from you a long time ago and have delayed answering because I have not
felt able. I have been sick now for nearly two months and it has become slightly
monotonous.
I suppose you
go to College as usual. My folks are usually well. We are having fine weather
now, with the exception that it is as cold as Greenland every night. It has been
blowing like Kansas today, all day.
I have not
been hunting for a long time now. There are lots of deer being killed around
here now and once in awhile a bear. A cinnamon bear was seen the other day about
three miles from Truckee, just where father and I cut wood last summer. Quails
are also very thick.
Are you
getting to have many walnuts this year? We don’t have any nuts in this part of
the country. This is all at present, I think. Yours &c., -- W[illis]. P.
Chamberlin
Dear Mrs.
Griffing. Willis has written some to [your son] Will so I will pen a few lines
in haste. I am happy to say Willis seems some better. He has had the dysentery
since the first of August and now we have made out to stop it. You can never
tell what I have passed through in that time. Every night as he would get up it
would go through me like a shock. My heart has been full. [My husband] Par is
gone and [son] Vint [too]. So it
seems at times as if my life was a lonely one. I try to look on the best side of
life. Don’t know just where Vint is – only in Nevada State.
Par is now at Grass Valley. Will send a paper to you. We shall make a
move this fall. Willis has not set up all day in two month. He is very pale in
flesh. How I long to see some dear face that I can tell all my heart’s sorrow
to. My mind is so divided on Vint and Par and Willis. I am poor in flesh and
grown old this summer. I hear what good times you all are having. Enjoy it when
you can. I am with you in mind if not body. Tell all those that enquire after me
I will write some, but I have had no heart to write since Willis was so sick. He
has to be kept on bread and meat for a time. It comes hard for him. He is very
patient in all things. Such a comfort to me in my lonely hours. Remember me to
your family with love to yourself.
Our minister
made Ed Waring a local preacher so he can enter school at Santa Clais this fall
on the ______ list. We don’t take the Manhattan paper… I just would walk 100
miles to see your dear face and tell you all I wish to but I fear that time will
never come. Goodbye for Willis is waiting for supper. From Mate Chamberlin
Grass
Valley, California
October 28, 1877
Friend Will
[Griffing],
As you can see
by the date of my letter, we have taken another move and have reached California
once more. Everything is green and lovely down here – plenty of fruit,
flowers, and other such rubbish. We have had all the apples, pears and grapes we
could eat. I suppose you have had plenty of grapes, peaches, and apples this
year.
Do you do any
shooting now? I have not for some time. There is no game of any consequence down
here. It is too thickly settled. Grass Valley is a place of about 4000
inhabitants and is 18 miles from Colfax by rail and 21 from Nevada City on the
Nevada City Narrow Gauge Railroad, which road is he prettiest you ever saw. I
would like to have one like it to play with.
It is rather
cool even here now. We have a frost every night almost. Grapes here are only 8
and a half cents per pound and we are feasting on them. We are in what is called
the foothills, which are not quite as steep as the Kansas bluffs. This is all at
present. Yours &c., -- W. P. Chamberlin
Dear Sister
Griffing,
We received
your kind and welcome letter this week and as Willis is writing to you, I must
add a few lines. I am glad for once you had plenty of fruit. It must seem good.
How much rather I would of gone east than down here. Still I shall never be
homesick after living in Truckee one year. It seems so good to see green things
and have flowers and fruit. I did dislike to leave 6 dear friends in Truckee.
That was the minister and wife. She was just a jewel of a woman and he so good.
She gave me a nice necktie… and Mrs. Riches and husband were so good. She gave
me a nice pair of woolen stockings. And Mrs. Reed was from Kansas. She is just
so good. She gave me a nice pair of gauntlet gloves and did hate for me to come
away. My near neighbors were such ignorant set from Missouri. I was glad to get
rid of them and still I pitied them so much. I feel thankful that I had a good
hanging up and can tell what is good manners. Well here I am and I am now bound
not to like a person in this place unless I make it our home, but can’t tell
one thing sure. I am not going to keep house till [my husband] Par is ready to
settle down. I am staying with a nice family by the name of Scott – good
Christian people and keep the Sabbath. They have been here 20 years. She is a
neat woman. Willis and I remain here till spring…
Willis says
this town is 4000 [inhabitants] but it is 8000, has 8 schoolhouses, 14 teachers,
and 5 churches. The M. E. Church is the largest. The town has a good many Cornish
people if you know what that class is. Mr. Griffing can tell you they are good,
but not like us in everything. I attended church today. It seemed so good to go
in a good house much nicer than in Manhattan. Mr. Gober, the minister, is a good
man. [but] rather loud spoke, never looks at a note. [There is] good singing and
a very devoted people. I am sure I could spend my days here.
We could buy a
ranch or farm for just what we paid for our land in Kansas. Good orchard of all
kinds of fruit, five acres of choice grapes and enough land to have a good herd
of cattle. I wish he could get it – good house and only one mile from town on
the main road. The man that owns it has a mine he is to work in. This town is a
mining town. In sight of my window is what is called Gold Hill where so much
gold has been taken out.
Oh how I miss
[my son] Vinton. He is in Nevada State on a ranch now. [He] expects to be
working for a mine. Poor boy – he misses us as we do him. I hope we shall be
settled where we can live together by spring…
If you see
Mrs. [Joseph] Dennison give her my love and tell her I shall write to her this fall…
When you see Mrs. Wake, tell her that I am as bad as a M. E. Minister’s wife
– move once a year. And do you believe that this time I never got angry in
packing up. Generally I have to get on my high heel shoes and dust. I told our
minister in Truckee and he said I must be growing in grace. I don’t get mad as
I used to in Kansas driving cattle. The wind does not blow much here. I must say
goodbye. I have others to write. Goodbye. Love to all. A kiss to Mr. Griffing.
– Mate Chamberlin
Grass
Valley, California
February 24, 1878
Friend Will
[Griffing],
I received
your letter the other day and was glad to hear from you. We are all well. I was
never so well in California as I am now. I am getting acquainted with
everybody…
I am still
going to school. I have finished four books and Robinson’s Geometry and most
through Algebra again. I went through it once in Kansas. I am also studying
Robinson’s Higher Arithmetic and am just entering the subject of Percentage.
I got a letter
from Irving Todd yesterday. Do you see him very often? I suppose [your brother]
John is a regular old Pedagogue by this time. How does he like school teaching?
Where is Will
Whitney now? And what is Jake Campbell doing? I suppose things are pretty dull
there now. Everything is here so I will close. Yours &c., Willis P.
Chamberlin
Oakland,
California
April 21, 1878
Friend Will
[Griffing],
I received
your letter sometime ago. Was glad to hear from you. I am not very glad to get
back in Oakland again; not that I like Oakland the less but that I like Grass
Valley more. I don’t think I could content myself in Kansas now. People have
different ways of thinking here in California and I am becoming a regular “old
Californian.”
I am pretty
busy now at my studies for I have about concluded to make school teaching my
profession. I am about lazy enough and just about mean enough for a pedagogue.
Still I don’t think I could stand thirty dollars per month and you say that is
all [your brother] John gets? The least paid here is sixty dollars [per month].
I hear from
Irving Todd once in awhile. He says he is studying Latin and Greek. Well so note
it. But as for me, give me a good solid knowledge of English and I’ll never
complain.
I am not
acquainted at all in Oakland and it makes me feel rather lonesome. You will
never know until you try it how a fellow feels in a town where he does not know
a soul outside of old people.
How does
everything progress at the old College? Is there any probability of a new
administration?
Enclosed you
will find some Finland (Suomi) stamps and Hawaii.
Give my
respects to Will Whitney or any other of the “old boys” you may see. Write
soon and I will be yours truly, -- W. P. Chamberlin, Box 971
Oakland,
California
November 19, 1878
Friend Will
[Griffing],
I received you
welcome letter last week and was pleased to find you had not forgotten me. We
are all well at present. Father is still at work for Estey & Fleming and I
am doing a little book keeping for them. I am not putting in full time for I am
studying for the examination, which takes place next week.
I suppose you
will have good times out there hunting and skating this winter. The most that I
hunt for now is bread and butter. [My brother] Vint took the gun when he went
into the mountains. I don’t know whether he has it now or not.
The weather is
quite mild here yet. No need of a fire most of the time. Grapes are in their
prime but somehow they don’t taste as good as they did. They can be had for 3
cents per pound.
I have not
been to the city since we came to Oakland. Have not been anywhere except to work
and back. Don’t know anybody here and don’t care too much. I shall get out
of this as soon as possible.
What would you
think of paying $13 per cord for oak wood? That’s what they do in California.
A good many buy a little barley sack of wood for which they pay 20 cents and get
kindling wood 20 cents and 10 cents worth at a time. I’m sick of it. Potatoes
are 1 and a half cents per pound – the cheapest they have been for a long
time. We paid 4 cents this summer. Lots of men are willing to work for $1.25 per
day. I should be very glad to get a job for $40 per month. Come to California if
you want to get rich!
How are all
the boys? Most of them are boys no longer, I suppose. I can scarcely realize
that it is two years and a half – yes, almost three years since we bade
goodbye to Kansas.
My drill in
book keeping under Professor [M. L.] Ward is just coming into play. Give my
regards to all who inquire. Write soon. Yours &c., -- Willis P. Chamberlin,
1409 Franklin Street
Oakland,
California
December 22, 1878
Friend Will
[Griffing],
Everything is
quiet and still as usual with us. We are all well and at work as usual. We will
have a festival and magic lantern exhibition Christmas Eve. Do you remember that
magic lantern show down to the little white schoolhouse? I hardly thought then
that the next one I saw would be in California.
We are having
rather cool weather just now and the ground is white with frost every morning.
The oldest inhabitants say this is the coldest winter California ever saw, but
whoever saw a winter or summer that wasn’t the coldest or warmest ever known
within the memory of the “oldest” inhabitants?
You seem
rather surprised at the idea of paying $13 per cord for wood but that isn’t
quite so steep as paying 3 & 4 cents per pound for potatoes as we have to
sometimes. However, coal is the fuel most in use and that can be had for $9 to
$17 per ton so you see we can manage to get along with good wages.
What old boys
you and I are getting to be – you 18 and I 19 and pretty well along toward 20.
I remember when I started in to College. I was 14 and [your brother] John was
16. When I went to the little white school first, I was about 11 and you were a
little bit of a tad about 2 feet long.
Where are the
Platt boys now? Do you ever see Irving Todd? He owes me a letter.
I don’t
think I shall ever come back to Manhattan to stay. I may to visit though
sometime when I get my pockets full of dust. What will Will Whitney do for a
living when he gets married and who is the girl? Success to him.
I wouldn’t
mind it if I was back there long enough to have a good time skating. None of
that in California. Give my regards to your folks. Write soon. Yours truly, --
W. P. Chamberlin, 1409 Franklin Street
Ascension
School District
Josephine, San Luis County, California
Wednesday, July 2, 1879
Friend Will
[Griffing],
I am under the
impression that I owe you a letter. Is it so? Anyhow I will write you one.
I am having a
short vacation now of two weeks in my school. I have recently returned from
visiting the County Institute and examination. My certificate was good for
Alameda County, but not for San Luis Obispo County so I had to get another one,
which I did. I had a very pleasant time while attending the Institute.
I try to kill
a rabbit once in a while but I have been so long out of practice that I don’t
believe I could hit the broad side of a barn. Are you attending College yet?
Where is [your
brother] John teaching now? Write and tell me all the news and excuse my long
delay for my eyes have been so sore that I could not write more or read scarcely
at all. Yours
truly, -- W. P. Chamberlin
Cambria,
California
November 3, 1880
Friend Will
[Griffing],
Your letter
came to hand some time ago. I have been so busy (doing nothing!) however, that I
can’t put off answering it any longer. Do you understand that? I don’t.
School closed
October 22nd and since then I have been running all over the county and have
been at home very little. I pick up a little job now and then and make a few
dollars in that way, but do not expect to pay my expenses this winter. My mother
has been quite sick for some time but I hope to hear that she is better soon.
Probably you
would like to be our here now. There is any amount of game quail and rabbits,
and a few miles over the mountains deer are plenty. Several parties from the
neighborhood have been out lately and brought in from three to a dozen.
We are having
beautiful weather here now. Not too warm, not too cool, but just right.
What
ever became of Byron Pound? The last I heard of him he was in Colorado. Is he
there yet? Where is Jube Campbell? You must have had a good time on your trip.
My trips are all short ones but I go rather frequently. I saw Mrs. Davis’s
folks last week. They are doing very well, I think, this year. Well, I think I
must close. Yours &c., -- Willis P. Chamberlin
