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Charles Penniman Daniell Papers
mssHM 70463-70510
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Title: Charles Penniman Daniell
Papers
Dates: 1844-1853,
Date: 1861
Collection Number: mssHM 70463-70510
Creator:
Daniell, Charles Penniman,
1828-1861.
Extent:
59 items
Repository: The Huntington Library,
Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Manuscripts
Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: The collection consists of family letters
and a few photographs related to Charles Penniman Daniell's experiences and life in San Francisco, California
(1850-53).
Language of Material: The records are in English.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader
Services.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to
quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such
activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is
one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item], Charles Penniman Daniell Papers, The Huntington
Library, San Marino, California.
The collection was given to the Huntington Library by Mrs. Austin Jenison (nee
Margaret Daniell) on October 13, 1967.
Born in South Milford, Massachusetts, in September 1828, Charles Daniell (1828-1861) was the eldest son of
Josiah Daniell, a drygoods retailer in Boston, and Sarah Hutchinson Penniman
Daniell. Charles P. Daniell sailed from Boston to San Francisco around the Horn in
1849-50. While in San Francisco he took part in a sequence of business arrangements
to retail hardware, including operating other proprietors’ stores and managing his
own. For a brief period of time, he worked at the U.S. Customs House. He also made
at least one excursion into mining territory to “see the Elephant." Daniell returned
to Boston in 1854 and again in the late 1850s, where he married Henrietta Spring, a
close friend of his sister Lucetta, in 1860. They returned to California, but he
died May 1861 at the age of 33. Subsequently, his brother William traveled to
California to take care of his affairs. Charles’ only daughter, born posthumously,
died as an infant.
The collection consists of letters and a few photographs related to Daniell's
experiences and life in San Francisco (1850-53). Charles is the author of all the
letters and the only addressees are his sister Lucetta, his mother Sarah, and his
father Josiah. The letters, generally one to four pages in length, are arranged
chronologically. Several of the letters are duplicated in typewritten format.
Charles wrote the bulk of the letters from the city of San Francisco, but there are
also letters from Boston, where he helped with his father's dry goods business and
from the ship “Marcia Cleaves" as he sailed around the Horn to California.
A seemingly amiable and optimistic young man, Charles appears to wrestle with the
challenges of making his own way in the world and the longing for the familiar. The
letters rarely go into great detail, but they allude to a great variety of topics
such as home-sickness for his family and New England, the importance of “Steamer
Day" when mail arrives, the weather, his health and well-being and that of his
compatriots, the importance of social relationships to business success, the
difficulty of business success without sufficient capital, the diversity of
nationalities/ethnicities on ship and in town, party politics, the Vigilance
Committee, church attendance, anecdotes about music, his food and lodging
conditions, the outbreak of fires and cholera in town, and the occurrence of
marriages at home in Massachusetts and in California.
Photographic material includes a photograph of the Daniell family, four copy prints
of daguerreotypes and four negatives of copy prints of Daniell family members, the
family's house in Roxbury, and William standing next to his brother's grave in
California.
Subjects include: the ship Marcia Cleaves, Voyages “around the Horn", ocean travel,
Valparaiso, (Chile), San Jose (California), life in San Francisco, and business
enterprises there, the city’s U.S. Custom House, city politics—especially the
Vigilance committee, church attendance, the building of a Unitarian church,
relationships between men and women, ethnic relations, anecdotes about music, and
descriptions of fruit purchases.
Daniell, Charles
Penniman, 1828-1861.
Marcia Cleaves (Ship)
Business enterprises -- California --
San Francisco.
Businessmen -- California -- San
Francisco -- Correspondence.
Church attendance.
Ethnic relations.
Family-owned business enterprises --
United States.
Fires -- California -- San
Francisco.
Fires -- California -- San
Francisco.
Man-woman relationships.
Music -- Anecdotes.
Ocean travel.
Unitarian church buildings.
Vigilance committees -- California --
San Francisco.
Voyages around the Horn.
California -- Gold
discoveries -- Personal narratives.
San Francisco (Calif.)
-- Description and travel.
San Francisco (Calif.)
-- Politics and government.
San Francisco (Calif.)
-- Social life and customs -- 19th century.
San Jose (Calif.) --
Description and travel.
Valparaíso (Chile) --
Description and travel.
Letters (correspondence) California
19th century.
Photographs California 19th
century.