Finding aid for the California manuscripts teaching collection 7108
Bo Doub
USC Libraries Special Collections
2020 May
Doheny Memorial Library 206
3550 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles, California 90089-0189
specol@usc.edu
Contributing Institution:
USC Libraries Special Collections
Title: California manuscripts teaching collection
Creator:
Billings, T. R.
Creator:
Remington, Lee Stephen, 1869-1952
Identifier/Call Number: 7108
Identifier/Call Number: /repositories/3/resources/3027
Physical Description:
0.44 Linear Feet
1 box
Date (inclusive): 1850-1927
Language of Material:
English
.
This collection contains correspondence, a property indenture, and a store ledger relating to California history from various
sources, assembled under one collection for ease of access and use in USC Libraries Special Collections instruction. The earliest
item in the collection is an 1850 letter written by T. R. Billings, a California gold seeker, to his wife, Elizabeth Billings,
back home in New York. Billings' letter describes the hardships and financial troubles experienced by many who moved west
during the California gold rush (1848-1855). The collection also holds an 1854 Los Angeles property indenture documenting
the sale of land in downtown Los Angeles and an 1873 account ledger for goods purchased from La Esperanza Store, a grocery
and liquor business in downtown Los Angeles owned by Italian Americans Domenico Rivara and Giovanni Sanguineti. Lastly, the
collection holds a 1927 illustrated letter authored by Lee Stephen Remington (1869-1952), a factory manager from St. Paul,
Minnesota, to a friend named Mr. Dow during a visit to Los Angeles.
Description of the items in the California manuscripts teaching collection is arranged chronologically.
Advance notice required for access.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special
Collections at specol@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical
items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Rights Statement for Archival Description
Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The materials in this collection were acquired from a number of sources at different times. See item- or file-level description
for more detailed provenancial information.
[Box/folder no. or item name], California manuscripts teaching collection, Collection no. 7108, Regional History Collection,
Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California
Subjects and Indexing Terms
California -- Gold discoveries -- 19th century -- Archival resources
California, Southern -- History -- Archival resources
California, Southern -- History, Local -- Archival resources
Gold mines and mining -- California -- Archival resources
Grocery trade -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archival resources
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Description and travel -- Archival resources
Marriage -- United States -- 19th century -- Archival resources
Real property, Exchange of -- California -- Los Angeles -- 19th century -- Archival resources
Tourism -- California -- Los Angeles -- 20th century -- Archival resources
Correspondence
Illustrated works (documents)
Indentures
Ledgers (account books)
Personal correspondence
Property records
Alexander, Ramon (1824-1868) -- Archives
Billings, Elizabeth -- Correspondence
Billings, T. R. -- Correspondence
La Esperanza (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Archives
Remington, Lee Stephen, 1869-1952 -- Correspondence
Temple, Francisco P. (1822-1880) -- Archives
Box 1, Folder 2
Billings, T. R. to Elizabeth Billings, letter /repositories/3/archival_objects/680270 1850 December 26
Physical Description: Autograph letter, signed. Addressed from San Francisco, California to Williamsburgh, New York. 3pp. on a folded folio sheet.
Old folds, minor wear and soiling.
This note was adapted from the description written by the immediate source of this acquisition, McBride Rare Books.
A somber and revealing letter from T. R. Billings, a California gold seeker, to his wife, Elizabeth Billings, back home in
Williamsburgh, New York. Billings, a mason by trade, writes that he is sorry that he cannot send money and advises his wife
to sell the furniture if necessary. Although he had nothing to show for the past season, he states his intentions to attempt
another season looking for gold, and promises to return home to "work out the rest of my days at mason work," if his luck
fails to turn. His letter speaks for so many who went out with gold fever and high hopes and subsequently failed to make good
on their gold dust dreams. He writes, in part:
"Dear wife, I left hear [sic] on the 22nd of last February for the mines with the rest of the company, I was six weeks ageting
[sic] there. I did not stay with Mr. May but about six weeks, we had a falling out he was drunk at the time although he was
a temperance man and a minister when we left N York ... I then had scurvy and as soon as I was able to ride a horse over the
mountains I left for San Francisco, it cost me all the money I had made ... and left me without one cent on arriving at this
place ... I should have done well this season had l not taken sick. I had five hundred dollars in gold dust I should have
sent you part of it had there been any way to have sent it from the mines..."
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from McBride Rare Books, March 2024.
Box 1, Folder 3-4
Los Angeles property indenture /repositories/3/archival_objects/681633 1854 August 16
Physical Description: Bifolum with a combination of printed and handwritten text on 16" x 12.5" blue paper, folded in half, containing two official
seals, including a seal and signature for G. T. Burrill, notary public in the city of Los Angeles and the city's first sheriff.
Some creasing from prior folds and light wear.
Ramon Alexander, whose purchase of the land is documented by this indenture, spent tens of thousands of dollars building a
cylindrical house similar to those he had seen during his travels in Africa. His house was constructed of adobe bricks with
a shingled roof that made a skirt about 10 feet wide around the house to protect the bricks from the elements. Soon after
its construction, Alexander sold the house and property to George Lehman, a German baker who reconfigured the adobe into "The
Garden of Paradise," a popular biergarten where he sold beer and pretzels and hosted Sunday evening concerts. He clad the
building with wood siding, planted an elaborate garden, and erected statues. The Garden flourished for 20 years before falling
on hard times. In the fall of 1877, Lehman rented the house to Caroline Severance, abolitionist, suffragist, and feminist,
who opened Los Angeles' first kindergarten and a teacher training school. The California Model Kindergarten and the Pacific
Model Training School for Kindergartners closed by 1880, graduating only three teachers. One was Kate Douglas Smith, better
known as Kate Douglas Wiggin, the author of
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. The round house was later used for lodging until it was torn down in 1889. The property is now the site of the California
courts, in what is known as the Ronald Reagan State Building.
A property indenture steeped in the early history of Los Angeles, dated August 16, 1854, concerning the sale of land in what
is now downtown Los Angeles where a historic round house was built, which turned into a popular German beer garden and later
the city's first kindergarten.
This real estate document includes a description of the property and is signed on the verso by Ramon Alexander, a French sailor
who married Maria Valdez, the daughter of Basilio Valdez, a well-connected Californio. Alexander paid $2,500 for the land,
bounded by what is now Main, Spring, Third, and Fourth streets. J. S. Mallard had owned the land prior to Alexander. The property
indenture is witnessed and signed by John G. Nichols. The Mallard and Nichols families were among the first three families
to permanently settle in Los Angeles after it was given official city status and incorporated.
Accompanying the property indenture is a newspaper clipping with an article titled "A Garden Spot in Dusty Old L.A." by Cecilia
Rasmussen, published in the
Los Angeles Times on May 12, 1997. The article features a photograph of the round house on the property -- taken before the house was torn
down in the 1880s.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Johnson Rare Books & Archives, May 8, 2024.
The descriptive notes for this material were adapted from the seller, Johnson Rare Books & Archives, along with the article
included with the indenture: "A Garden Spot in Dusty Old L.A." by Cecilia Rasmussen, published in the
Los Angeles Times on May 12, 1997.
Box 1, Folder 5
Account ledger for goods purchased from La Esperanza grocery store /repositories/3/archival_objects/681634 1873
Physical Description: Two pages of manuscript accounts, 14.5 x 9", on the letterhead of Rivara & Sanguineti, Wholesale and Retail Dealers in Groceries,
Provisions, Liquors and Wines. Yarnell & Caystile, Printers. In very good condition with toning and bit of foxing, separations
to upper fold of one document along edges.
Other merchants of the time were the "gringo" firm, Jordan Brothers, opposite the old Aliso Mill; G. Ginnochio, on Macy Street near the river; and on Main Street near Commercial, was Dominico Rivara, who was succeeded by Vignolo and Sanguinetti's "La Esperanza." Hard by, too, was the equally picturesquely named "La Mariposa," conducted by John Lazzarevitch. He sold out, in time, to Castruccio Brothers, (Ben and Alexander, to be joined later by another brother, James). Located at 30-30 1/2 North Main Street, they moved later to 134 - 136 North Main Street and in 1903 to 225 North Spring Street, where they did a large business, catering especially to the Italian trade. In 1912, they disposed of their business to Vignolo-Jiacomino Company, who liquidated in 1925.
Marco R. Newmark, "Pioneer Merchants of Los Angeles,"
The Quarterly, Historical Society of Southern California (March 1942): 76-97. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016.
A two-page manuscript account for goods purchased by Francisco P. Temple (1822-1880), a pioneering Angeleno who arrived in
the area in 1841 and married into a prominent California family before serving on the first Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
The goods were purchased from La Esperanza Store, a grocery located just north of City Hall operated by Domenico Rivara and
Giovanni Sanguineti. Temple was purchasing foodstuffs and other goods, including Italian sausage, butter, chickens, turkey,
tobacco, clams, crackers, cigars, soda crackers, onions, lobster, and more.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Caroliniana Rare Books, March 14, 2024.
Box 1, Folder 1
Remington, Lee Stephen to Mr. Dow, illustrated letter /repositories/3/archival_objects/597753 1927 December 15
Physical Description: 8 ½ x 11" three page letter written in ink.
A three-page letter dated December 15, 1927, written by Lee Stephen Remington (1869-1952), a factory manager from St. Paul,
Minnesota, to a friend named Mr. Dow. Remington wrote this letter while visiting his sister in Los Angeles with his wife Ida
(1868-1960). The letter describes life in Los Angeles and compares California to their home state of Minnesota. Remington's
letter includes vivid descriptions accompanied by hand-drawn illustrations depicting flower arrangements, shoppers on benches
in Pershing Square, a California family warming themselves around a gas heater, Californians walking in the rain due to a
lack of umbrellas or proper rain gear, people sitting on park benches feeding birds, and comparisons between trees in California
and Minnesota.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Buckingham Books, May 1, 2018.