Scharmann, Hermann B.:

$900 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

SCHARMANN'S OVERLAND JOURNEY TO CALIFORNIA FROM THE PAGES OF A PIONEER'S DIARY. First English language edition, translated from the German edition issued in 1905, by Margaret and Erich Zimmerman. Privately printed in an edition limited to fifty copies. This copy is signed on the frontispiece by Scharmann's son, also named Hermann B. Scharmann, who was age eleven when he accompanied his family on their overland journey to California."Scharmann started his overland odyssey on March 20, 1849, from New York as the president of a German company. By November 1, the company arrived at Lassen's Ranch, where Scharmann encountered Peter Lassen, who imparted little aid to Scharmann's sick wife and infant daughter. Shortly thereafter, both died. The next portion of the book consists of his experiences looking for gold and the difficulties of trying to survive high prices, hard work, illness, and little success. The German narrates a detailed description of Marysville, Sacramento City, Negro Bar, and various mining methods" - Kurutz. Scharmann describes their arduous overland journey in detail, including stops at forts Kearny and Laramie and encounters with Indians. Their journey turned into a nightmare when they took the Lassen cutoff, "a grisly detour of exhaustion and despair. Many others took this same false cutoff and suffered misfortune. None equal Scharmann's tale of woe, which he concludes by saying 'California is a land of vice and gruesomeness'" (Mattes). Dissatisfied with his e

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