[California Gold Rush]: [Havens, Langdon H.]: Judd, J.W.:

$600 · Offered by William Reese Company

[AUTOGRAPH NOTE, SIGNED BY J.W. JUDD, TO GUY R. PHELPS, REGARDING A LIFE INSURANCE POLICY FOR LANGDON H. HAVENS, A FORTY-NINER AND MEMBER OF JOHN WOODHOUSE AUDUBON'S ILL-FATED OVERLAND EXPEDITION TO ... An intriguing note regarding life insurance for a forty-niner traveling to California in 1849 with Henry Webb and John Woodhouse Audubon. The note reads: "Langdon H. Havens wants a [life insurance] permit for California to go over the Overland Route in company with persons bearing dispatches from our Government, in a Company of 100 or more. He wants to leave for Washington immediately...." Perhaps the twenty-six-year-old Haven (sometimes spelled Havens) originally intended to join a safe government-sponsored expedition from Washington, but he was in fact among the 100 Forty-Niners who embarked on a famously ill-fated overland expedition, led by Army Colonel Henry Webb, with John Woodhouse Audubon, son of the famous ornithologist, as his second in command, which left New York on February 8.The company proceeded by ship, train, stagecoach and riverboat to New Orleans and from there by steamer across the Gulf of Mexico to the mouth of the Rio Grande, where they arrived on March 13 - an odd overland route dictated by Webb, a veteran of the Mexican-American War. There disaster struck. A dozen men died of cholera, the company's money was stolen, and leadership conflict led Webb to leave the company with a dozen followers. Some of the remaining stalwarts, including Haven followed Aud

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