By Margaret Foote
Collection Overview
Title: Amos Bargdoll Papers, 1850-1889
Predominant Dates:1850-1851
Creator: Bargdoll, Amos
Extent: 1.0 Folders
Arrangement: 5 items in chronological order.
Date Acquired: 03/25/1981
Languages: English [eng]
Scope and Contents of the Materials
The bulk of the papers is a diary by Amos Bargdoll. Written in 1850, Bargdoll chronicles his journey from Nebraska to Ringgold, CA where he planned to dig for gold. The diary includes a list of letters he sent during his journey as well as a daily list of the miles he traveled. Several sketches are found in the final pages of the diary. The papers also include a transcript of a letter written by Bargdoll from California to his father-in-law. A letter and other personal writings by Anna Bargdoll, Amos Bargdoll's daughter, complete the collection.
Biographical Note
Amos Bargdoll was born around 1817 in Virginia. He eventually moved to Chillicothe, Livingston County, Missouri, and it was from Missouri that he traveled to California in 1851 to seek gold. A year later he returned to Chillicothe, where, for several years, he ran a steam saw mill. His children included a daughter, Anna Bargdoll, born around 1868 in Chillicothe, Missouri. In 1893 she wed George M. Hutchsion, also of Chillicothe.
Administrative Information
Acquisition Source:
Betty McKinney
Acquisition Method:
purchase
Box and Folder Listing
- Folder 1
- Barcode: 31234013797699
- Item 1: Amos Bargdoll Goldrush Diary, 1850, 1865
- This diary documents Bargdoll's trip from Fort Kearney to Ringgold, CA between May 30 and September 6, 1850. In 1865 someone used a blank page to document the death of two individuals.
- Item 2: TS Amos Bargdoll to Father-in-law, 5 Jan 1851
- This letter describes mining, deaths from cholera, a skirmish between the Digger and Coloma Indian tribes, and other men from Livingston County, MO. (The original letter is located at the Western Historical Manuscript Collection, Columbia, MO)
- Item 3: Model Love Letter No. 1 by A. Bargdoll, n.d.
- Item 4: The Woodland Herald, 18 Feb 1889
- A handwritten transcription of the paper.