PBA Galleries

Hoit, Edward Moore. Autograph Letter Signed (“Ed:). Santa Barbara, Sept. 30, 1874. 4pp. 

To his sister in New York, trying to dissuade her from moving to California from the East, where “the fruits are finer, the advantages of social intercourse greatly in its favor, the hearts of Eastern people warmer … here the universally warm weather finally becomes monotonous and dispiriting. There is no life among the people, the Californian becomes as tame and insipid as his beef vegetables and fruit… long continued residence here will change one’s whole nature and in two or three generations, an Eastern strain of blood will become so degenerate that it cannot be distinguished from the lowdown Digger or Spanish American. But still they come, the State is rapidly filling…with emigrants…A person with average good health and with means enough to make a fair living is a fool to sell out at the East and take the risks of establishing himself in California today. When Gold could be had for the digging – and whole leagues of land could be purchased at a bit an acre”, there was attraction for “adventurous Spirits, but the placer diggings are all cleaned out and the choice lands are worth hundreds of dollars an acre – and the new comer finds it hard scratching for a living where everything must be paid for in hard gold” with prices twice as high as in the East. “…We were lucky in getting a foothold in Santa Barbara when we did. I could sell out tomorrow for several thousand more than I paid for the property…if we can retain our health here this winter…then, no more California for me and mine…an exile in Cal…would die eventually from the sameness manifested in…all the natural sights in California from Yreka to San Diego…” Despite this critique, Hoit did remain in Santa Barbara and made great profit by raising a hundred thousand plumes of invasive Pampas Grass which crowded out California’s native plants.