Lot 149
[Early Oregon Letter About Gold, Whaling, and Business]. Great content autograph letter signed by Frank C. Lewis, 24 pp, 5 x 8 in., Salem, Oregon, May 11, 1891. To S.A. Hayward in Easton, Mass., describing life since leaving "Old Plymouth" and considering getting "a crew of old whalemen to come here and settle down…." He draws a whale he saw washed up on shore ten miles north of where he was mining and describes how the swordfish and the thrasher attack a whale: "…the sword fish will come up underneath the whale…and give him a awful stab…that makes the whale scoot high up out of the…water. Then the thrasher…comes down on his back…that sounds like a crack of thunder…you…ought to see how the whale makes the water fly and foam in his desperate efforts to ward off the enemy…there is no better people…than the Cape Cod people to stock any place…the state of Oregon has no natural harbors…" He describes the steamers carrying coal and lumber to San Francisco, a railroad connecting San Francisco with Portland, and states that he is sending "the samples of gold." Also, "we have opened a shop and are getting quite a run in business, buggies, signs, decorating, & kalsomining…." With transmittal envelope. Fine. Estimated Value $300 - 500
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| Realized $240 |
