Title: Autograph Letter Signed - 1897 Los Angeles Gold-Seeker en route to the Klondike
Author: [Goodwin, Charles]
Description: 5 pp. With original mailing envelope.To his wife Jennie Goodwin, in Los Angeles: “…I am still at the Port…for a small place, I never seen so many vessels of all kinds, both long, short, slim and tall…bound for every place in the world…" and small steamers plying between small points along the coast"…I expect to take the Alki this eve or in the morning…there is some talk of not enough room on the boat but there will be trouble if they don’t let this Chicken Roost on that Boat…You haven’t the slitest idea of the big talk of the miners at this place, there has been a great many from here made fortunes and a great many have gone from here…" 200 or three hundred men went up to Juneau, had just enough to carry them through and no provisions"…a man is a fool to undertake to go to the Interior without a grub stake…I am going to have such a good outfit to go in to the Interior that I feel sorry for the poor fellows. I purchased in S.F. coats and overalls…they cost me $9.75 all told. They had been in a fire, a tailor fixed them…" Today I sold 2 of the coats for $10 leaving me 1 overcoat, 1 coat and 3 pairs of overalls"…all wool lined. They are worth at least $12. I hope all of transactions will be as successful as that. It is very lonesome in this place and I hope we will be off soon…I hope things will be as bright as the sunshine seems to be at present. Am so hopeful that I can do well and will not leave a stone unturned in the place I go to…But Dearest, with these hopes I might not succeed…" tell me will my little Bird be waiting for me with open arms in case of my not being successful. That at least we can go hand in hand and keep the wolf from the door and be happy with our little kidlets"…"the men I am with say I can make $20 per day as easy as falling off a log. Two of them have been there before and they say that I can "…" make more than this and perhaps a fortune, one of their Bros. has 9 Mines which he is going to open up at once.” 28 year-old Charles A. Goodwin, a hotel keeper, had left his wife and two small children in Los Angeles, joining his brother and a few other Californians to seek his fortune in the Klondike “stampede”, which began shortly before his departure. According to his later letters, preserved by the National Archives of Canada, Goodwin would spend the next three years in Dawson City, Alaska, barely sending home enough money – with a few gold nuggets as trinkets – for his wife to pay the rent. He would continue to express optimism about his chances of making a fortune – but his hopes were never realized."
Heading: (Alaska Gold Rush)Place Published: Port Townsend, Washington
Publisher:
Date Published: May 5, 1897

Very good.