Voyage to California (12) – John Jackson Lewis – January to March, 1851

(1) John Jackson Lewis, (2) Edith May (Lewis) Rider, (3) Marian Faith (Rider) Irwin, (4) Marian Dunlop (Irwin) Guion, (5) Judith Anne Guion.

The following are transcriptions of John Jackson Lewis’s diary and journal of his voyage to California in 1851. He was travelling  from New York to visit his older brother William in San Jose.

Diary:

Spend the day chiefly in writing. Took a walk out to some springs from which the natives were carrying away the water in jars, upon their heads, as fast as it issued from the aperture. On my return, stopped at a grove where some Americans were erecting a hotel. The grove is a beautiful place and contains a considerable variety of trees, both useful and ornamental.

Journal:

Spent a good deal of the day writing up my journal, which had got sadly in arrears. Walked out in the morning to one of the…