Details
[GOLD RUSH]. ORD, Edward Otho Cresap (1818-1883). Civil War General. Autograph letter signed ("E.O.C. Ord") to James L. Ord, San Francisco, CA., 25 July 1848. 1 page, 4to, light blue stationery, integral address leaf.
"REAPING THE GOLDEN HARVEST": THE EARLIEST DAYS OF THE GOLD RUSH. An intriguing letter written only six months after the discovery of Gold at Sutter's Mills by James Marshall and at least a month before official news of the strike had reached Washington, D.C. Ord, who would later emerge as a prominent Union general, had been sent to California at the end of the Mexican War with Henry Halleck and William T. Sherman in part to conduct a geographical survey of the soon to be acquired territory. On July 25, the day he wrote this letter, Ord completed his survey map, entitled "Topographical Sketch of the Gold & Quicksilver District of California" which would later be published by the government and accompanied President Polk's message to Congress in December of that year (Wheat, Maps of the California Gold Region, no. 54, p. 32).
Ord's advice to his brother is right on the money: "don't get into a fever about the gold the country is hot as a furnace and sickly. The diggers 'tis said pay the most enormous prices for provisions, clothing & such necessaries, the merchants and speculators here and there are reaping the golden harvest. Just fancy now paying 50 cts per lb for pork from 20 to 50 cts per lb for flour, 8, 10 & 20 Dols for a box of sardines. And a merchant told me last night...that he sent some 30 or 40 prs Blankets...& his clerk sold them for $36 the pair at once & might just as well have got $60." Noting an upcoming trip to the site of the initial strike, Ord counters his advice and speaks of great opportunity for the prompt investor: "[I] start tomorrow for Sutters...I am told here by Felsome who is full of speculations that money is worth two per cent a month & that he can get three on good security. The merchants are buying gold at $10 the oz. 'Tis worth some $17 at mints & jewelers. If you want to invest now is the time. This place is going to be a town & in fact every one here is going to be rich."
"REAPING THE GOLDEN HARVEST": THE EARLIEST DAYS OF THE GOLD RUSH. An intriguing letter written only six months after the discovery of Gold at Sutter's Mills by James Marshall and at least a month before official news of the strike had reached Washington, D.C. Ord, who would later emerge as a prominent Union general, had been sent to California at the end of the Mexican War with Henry Halleck and William T. Sherman in part to conduct a geographical survey of the soon to be acquired territory. On July 25, the day he wrote this letter, Ord completed his survey map, entitled "Topographical Sketch of the Gold & Quicksilver District of California" which would later be published by the government and accompanied President Polk's message to Congress in December of that year (Wheat, Maps of the California Gold Region, no. 54, p. 32).
Ord's advice to his brother is right on the money: "don't get into a fever about the gold the country is hot as a furnace and sickly. The diggers 'tis said pay the most enormous prices for provisions, clothing & such necessaries, the merchants and speculators here and there are reaping the golden harvest. Just fancy now paying 50 cts per lb for pork from 20 to 50 cts per lb for flour, 8, 10 & 20 Dols for a box of sardines. And a merchant told me last night...that he sent some 30 or 40 prs Blankets...& his clerk sold them for $36 the pair at once & might just as well have got $60." Noting an upcoming trip to the site of the initial strike, Ord counters his advice and speaks of great opportunity for the prompt investor: "[I] start tomorrow for Sutters...I am told here by Felsome who is full of speculations that money is worth two per cent a month & that he can get three on good security. The merchants are buying gold at $10 the oz. 'Tis worth some $17 at mints & jewelers. If you want to invest now is the time. This place is going to be a town & in fact every one here is going to be rich."