August and Elisabeth Scharf family letters from California, 1853-1863.

9 items.

German

In German.

Purchased from Charles Apfelbaum on the Arthur Corbitt Hoskins Memorial Fund, 2000.

August Scharf, his wife Elisabeth, and her three brothers made an overland journey to California in 1853 from Hermann (possibly Hermann, Missouri, a German settlement). The Scharfs lived in Grizzly Flat, where they had a farm and had shares in a gold mill. Elisabeth died in August 1856, two months after having a third child, their first girl.

Six autograph letters (1853-1856) from August Scharf and his wife to her parents in Hermann [Missouri?] written after their arrival in California. The letters discuss their ranch, August's work in the mines, trouble with Elisabeth's brothers, financial difficulties, and Elisabeth's death. One letter contains an addendum by August's friend Jakob Schneider and wife. The Scharf letters are accompanied by three autograph letters dated 1860-1863, one from Alwine Scharf Weber to her brother from Naumburg, Germany containing family news, another from Gottlob Sachse Shuhmacher to his friend August Scharf from Nebra, near Naumburg, asking for news of his brother-in-law, and a third from Charles Robert Kleine to [August?] Scharf from San Francisco mentioning that he had visited Scharf's little son.

June 01, 2002

August and Elisabeth Scharf Family Letters from California. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

August and Elisabeth Scharf Family Letters from California. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.