You Got Mail!

 Unclaimed Letters at the Bidwell’s Bar Post Office

The clamor for mail service was started in the 1840’s by individuals and merchants, who had emigrated to Alta California. The federal government’s interest in providing service was to benefit from the new business opportunities and the discovery of gold. If the settlers mail service requests were not met, the central government was concerned the western settlers might form an independent nation. In 1848, the federal government signed a contract with the Pacific Steamship Company to provide mail service connecting New York to San Francisco. The Pacific Steamship Company was to provide four ships. Two would operate on a continuous loop between New York and Chagres on the east side of Panama. A second set of ships would provide the same service on the west from Panama City to San Francisco. The estimated time for mail to travel the 6,000 miles between New York and San Francisco was 30-35 days, if everything went on schedule, which it seldom did! Weather conditions often hampered the ships progress. However, the weakest link in this system was transporting the mail and passengers across Panama. Not only were the seaside ports inadequate but the travel across forty miles of jungle on primitive river dugouts, rafts, and on foot trails across Panama was slow and dangerous. The capacity of the system was inadequate and overwhelmed in 1849, when the eastern miners started west. Even if a letter successfully reached San Francisco, there was no assurance the mail would ever reach the intended location or individual. 

There was no official mail distribution system beyond the San Francisco delivery point. Private express Companies were quick to recognize the business opportunity, and formed companies to meet this mail delivery need. Agents for the express companies went to San Francisco and other established delivery points, collecting letters addressed to locations where they were delivering supplies to the miners. A base delivery charge of $1.50 to $2.00 for each letter was average, increasing for more distant location or during adverse weather conditions. If several letters had accumulated the total cost to retrieve or send letters could become significant. The process was reversed for the miner wishing to send a letter home, paying a fee to have the letter taken to a post office. Despite the best of intentions this mail delivery system also had problems. The Evert's & Company provided service to Bidwell’s Bar and the surrounding areas. They had a headquarters at Central Point, California, located twelve miles north of Marysville, California. In September 1851, the building caught on fire destroying 1,300 letters. However, a much greater loss was the company’s entire list of clients names. The inventory contained individual names and the mining camp locations of all the clients they served in the Feather River region. This private express mail delivery system filled a void until the government established a system of contracts with private companies to deliver mail direct to the network of post offices established in California.

The establishment of a post office at a mining community was a major accomplishment, signifying the location had become a point of importance. Bidwell’s Bar reached that point on July 10, 1851, when the Bidwell’s Bar Post Office was officially opened with the appointment of Edmund Shepherd as Postmaster.

 A January 13, 1855, article published in the Weekly Butte Record newspaper, by Postmaster P. W. Wirstrom, indicates another issue in delivering the mail. The article contained a list of 198 names associated with unclaimed letters which had remained at the post office since November of 1854. Some individuals had more than one letter waiting, indicated by a number after their name. It is hard to understand why six letters addressed to the local lodge had not been claimed.  Previous and later issues of the newspaper contained similar lists of undelivered letters. Why did these letters remain unclaimed? Virtually every diary, by individuals involved in the gold rush, bemoaned the fact they had not received letters during the three to six months since they left home. During this time, they had written numerous letters home and were desperate to receive a response.

The unclaimed letters reveal the realities of the gold rush --- The near invisibility of many individuals who were involved.

 The many logistical and physical challenges to move a letter from the east to the west were minor compared to the brutal realities of personal travel by land and sea. By 1849, the number of individuals involved in this migration numbered in the thousands. Initially the destination focus was toward the Coloma area on the American River, in Eldorado County or Bidwell’s Bar on the Feather River in Butte County. Those destination points were the best reference locations available to leave with family as the intended destination to send mail.  Arriving at these locations the miners often found the areas overrun by earlier arrivals. Miner’s journals frequently record their impulsive movement toward the most recent rumor of a rich strike. Therefore, the first reason for unclaimed letters was after the miners arrived at Bidwell’s Bar, they found it necessary to move to a more suitable area to mine. This dispersal created literally hundreds of mining locations with no mail service. Some of the named individuals may have moved to new areas, became successful and returned home without leaving additional records of their presence.  Conversely, there are numerous cemeteries associated with the mining camps in the Feather-Yuba River mining communities. Each cemetery includes named and unnamed graves which was the final destination for many. These cemeteries typically have a limited number of headstones in varying states of disrepair, lacking any formal record of the individuals buried at that location.

 Bidwell’s Bar was located below the snowline and many miners returned there for the winter. Perhaps some of the letters were picked up during the November to January newspaper posting of the list of unclaimed letters. In other cases, individuals on each end of the attempted communication were left emotionally distraught by the lack of response and uncertainty of what happened to people important to them.

The record of unclaimed letters undoubtedly contains the names of some individuals who were the victims of the reality of traveling to the west by land or sea. Perhaps the names of a few on the unclaimed letter list might be found on the manifest of a ship lost at sea, recording the end of their adventure. Records from the treacherous port cities of Chagres or Panama City and the jungles between these Panama ports contain information recording many deaths of travelers attempting to pass through these locations.

The gold seekers were typically young men in good health at the start of the journey. By midpoint the impact of walking twelve to fifteen miles per day and the other physical demands of the driving wagons or managing pack stock started to take its toll. Poor sanitary conditions resulted in diseases like Cholera, Typhoid Fever, Mountain Fever and Scurvy taking many lives. Accidents were also a major cause of death. A major caused was simply falling off a wagon and getting run over. Firearm accidents resulted in many serious injuries and facilities. Statistically, along the westward trail there were graves every mile.  It has been estimated, one in ten died on the journey and an additional ten percent died within six months after arriving in California. The harshness of the journey impacted both the family migrations and the gold seekers. The staggering twenty to thirty thousand people who died on the journey is sobering. One example of the severity of the death toll, during the crossing of the country, is represented by the Pleasant Wagon Train group who arrived at Bidwell’s Bar on October 15, 1849.  Tom Fristo came down with cholera after reaching Bidwell’s Bar and died within a few hours. His was the fourth death in a family of five. The only survivor in that family’s journey west was John Kearns.

The arrival of this group contains one of the few records of John Bidwell’s presence at Bidwell’s Bar. In an effort to communicate with family back east, James and William Pleasant wrote letters to their family, and John Bidwell, personally took the letter to the nearest post office for mailing.

 A ship journey west included the emotional trauma of seemingly endless days of boring ocean travel. The terror of enduring a violent storm at sea was an experience never to be forgotten. During the several month long journey by ship, disease outbreaks killed many, accidents and murders were common in the port cities and numerous ships sank before reaching San Francisco.

Is there anything significant about the names on the unclaimed letter list?

The post office unclaimed letter list does not include return addresses, adding further mystery to the personal history of the individuals. Does that negate the significance of the list of names contained in the newspaper posting? No, the list of names may be the only record of the named individuals being a part of the gold rush.  The significance is the individuals left their home with the intent of arriving at Bidwell’s Bar. Their names would have been lost, with the thousands of others who embarked on the same journey… Except, relatives and friends back home, attempted to maintain contact and provide encouragement. The senders of the letters and the postmaster both honored these individuals by providing a record of their names on the unclaimed letter list, documenting they were involved in the California gold rush!

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Shown below are the names on the unclaimed letter list of November 25,1854

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