Transcripts of letters from John Smithram to his wife, 1852-1853

Transcripts of letters from John Smithram to his wife, 1852-1853

Author: John Smithram (1816-1853)

Year: 1852

Typed transcripts of letters from Cornish immigrant John Smithram [or Smitheram, Smitherum] to his wife as he travelled from New York to the gold mining camps near Sonora, Tuolumne County (California) in 1852. A cover letter to Clyde Arbuckle from the donor, Edgar Smitherum, dated April 20, 1966, reads: "Enclosed you will find letters from my grandfather, John Smitherum to my grandmother. She was left in Hazel Green with six small boys. My grandfather was killed in an accident near Murphy's after his last letter. We do not know any more than that and as I came into this real late, all sources of information have passed away. The letters are copied just the way they were written. I have all the originals except two. I have added a little note on the history of the Smitherums." The Smitherum family history reads: "John Smitheram born 1787, Crowan, Cornwall. Father of John (Smithram) Smitherum who wrote these letters, born St. Breage, Cornwall, 1816. When he and wife came to this country I do not know, but they settled in Hazel Green, Wisconsin. He had two sisters and one brother; May and Amelia, and James. Six sons, John, Thomas, James, William Henry, Samuel, and Joseph. William Henr