The finding aid of the Robert Marshall Diary C058760
John Davis
Society of California Pioneers
05/02/2018
101 Montgomery Street, Suite 150
Presidio of San Francisco
San Francisco, CA 94129
pkeats@californiapioneers.org
Note
BV-8f / B001632
Contributing Institution:
Society of California Pioneers
Title: Robert Marshall Diary
Creator:
Marshall, Robert, 1827-1866
Identifier/Call Number: C058760
Physical Description:
1 folder
Bound lined notebook.
Diary on first 66 pages, the rest blank. Handwritten in ink, very legible.
Date (inclusive): 1849-1850
Abstract: This file includes a hand written, in ink diary, which was written by Robert Marshall in 1850. The journal extensively and
vividly details his time at sea traveling from Boston, Massachusetts to San Francisco, California. He left Boston on November
12, 1849 with 58 men on board the "Schooner Civilian" and arrived in San Francisco on April 5, 1850. The hand writing is extremely
clear and legible and the paper is in good condition except of some tape which has been placed around the edges of some of
the pages. The diary does appear to have been bound and covered at a later date, perhaps by the donor, the "daughter of Robert
Marshall, Laura M. Dill" sometime in the 1940's.
Language of Material:
English
.
This file includes a hand written, in ink diary, which was written by Robert Marshall in 1850. The journal extensively and
vividly details his time at sea traveling from Boston, Massachusetts to San Francisco, California. He left Boston on November
12, 1849 with 58 men on board the "Schooner Civilian" and arrived in San Francisco on April 5, 1850. The hand writing is extremely
clear and legible and the paper is in good condition except of some tape which has been placed around the edges of some of
the pages. The diary does appear to have been bound and covered at a later date, perhaps by the donor, the "daughter of Robert
Marshall, Laura M. Dill" sometime in the 1940's.Robert Marshall Diary was written with daily entries during the voyage around
the Horn from Boston to San Francisco. They left Boston on November 6, 1849 and arrived in San Francisco on April 5, 1850,
143 days later. He was part of a company of 58 men who had engaged the schooner "Civilian" under Captain Dodge for the trip.
They reached St Catherine on December 27; had a uneventful passage around the Horn during the month of January; and arrived
at Valpariaso on February 15.
Robert Marshall was born to "English parents in Nova Scotia" in the year 1827 and he died in the year 1866. In his short journal
he vividly describes his voyage to California, around Cape Horn, with a stop in Valparaiso, Chile for supplies. He even goes
as far as to detail the "bill of fair" where he describes the meals served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on board the ship
for an entire week. The wildly unappetizing meals included things such as "boiled beef, Indian bread, cranberry puddling,
and salted mackerel" to name a few. Mr. Marshall was 23 years old at the time of his voyage to California and upon his arrival
he describes the city of San Francisco, stating "he didn't care for it much" and later traveled to the "Northern mines" in
search of gold. He and his partner worked for "about six weeks, making about $300 each" until he left his claim in search
of others.
Collection open for research
There are no restrictions on access
Robert Marshall Diary, The Society of California Pioneers
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Laura Marshall Dill (daughter), July 3, 1940
Existence and Location of Originals
The Society of California Pioneers, 101 Montgomery St., Suite 150 The Presidio of San Francisoco, San Francisco CA, 94129
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Voyages to the Pacific coast
California Gold Rush, 1848-1852
Navigation -- Chile -- Horn, Cape
Valparaiso (Chile)
Gold mines and mining -- California -- History.
Civilian (Schooner)
Frontier and pioneer life – California
Pioneers -- California
Boston (Mass.)
San Francisco (Calif.) - 1850
Hayward, Captain
Dodge, Captain
Jackson, Marcus L