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A Miner's Letters To His Wife SAMUEL MCCLEAVE

A Miner's Letters To His Wife

SAMUEL MCCLEAVE

Other works by SAMUEL MCCLEAVE

Publication: Privately printed, 1893, 1894, Virginia City & Hot Springs, 1893-94

Two manuscript letters; 8 x 5; 2 pp. and 4 pp., respectively; blank ink on lined paper; horizontal fold lines; thin splits to edges of creases; scattered spots of foxing; good to very good condition. The letters, dated Oct. 14, 1893 in Virginia City and May 4, 1894 in Hot Springs, present a sad picture of a miner, wandering the West in search of work and trying to stay in touch with his wife who had, apparently, left to stay with relatives in La Porte, CA for her poor health. Once a booming mining town called "the richest city in America" after the discovery of the Comstock Lode and considered the "birthplace" of Samuel Clemens' famous pen name, by the 1890s Virginia City's appeal was drawing to a close as the mines were running out of ore and, as Samuel McCleave wrote: "...this place is getting worse every day, there are only five of us working altogether...I have not been so well since you left and I may go to Hot Springs, Arkansas for a while when the mine shuts down...there is more sickness here than ever before..." He, apparently, did go to Hot Springs as his second letter was written in that city in the Spring of 1894 and contained a desperate plea for Emma (his wife) to answer his letters. "I could not eat nor sleep, sometimes I would think you were dead...Emma you have not gone back on me...if I thought you had I would lose all faith in women and I would never want to see one again as long as I lived...hope to be able to leave this place soon. I don't know where I shall go yet, I will try and get work the first place I can. The Pacific Coast is dull, but down here is a great deal worse....." Interestingly Samuel McCleave was 39 years of age at the time of his first letter and his wife, Emma, was 22 years of age. They were married in 1893, and he set off to Nevada to find work sometime after their marriage and she apparently stayed with relatives in California.

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