PBA Galleries

xii, 56, [2] pp.; errata slip. Gravure frontispiece from daguerreotype; 3 additional gravure plates from photographs; facsimile of leaf from the diary; woodcut title-page vignette. 20x13 cm. (7¾x5"), cloth-backed marbled boards, pictorial cover label. Printed by Taylor & Taylor. First Edition.

Sterling Clark left Holliday, Pennsylvania, on March 11, 1849, making his way to St. Joseph and Salt Lake City, entering California via the Humboldt-Carson Route, arriving in Sacramento on August 2. He mined briefly for gold at the Mormon Island and Sandwich Islands diggings, invested in land in Sacramento and San Jose, and became alcalde of Natoma, or Mormon Island. He returned to the States to marry, but became ill crossing Nicaragua on his journey back to California, and died in San Francisco. His posthumous daughter was the writer Ella Sterling Mighels. With compliments slip from Phelan tipped to front endpaper. Cowan p.127; Graff 742; Kurutz 137; Mattes 404; Mintz 95; Rocq 15756; Wheat Gold Rush 40.