CAMPBELL COUSINS CORRESPONDENCE
#200
Fifth Avenue,
New York City
October 15th, 1923.
Dear Cousins:-
Cousin Will Selph has
requested me to give an account of my western trip which
extended along the Pacific Coast practically from Old
Mexico to Canada. I have hundreds of friends in that part
of the country and my visit was one continuous round of
joyful re‑unions. Many of these friends I had known
forty-five years ago. Some of them have attained high
places in business and the various professions.
A. W. Frater, formerly of
Brainerd, Minn., is now Judge of the Superior Court at
Seattle; Frank Hartley runs the largest shingle mill in
the world. The capacity‑of this mill is one million two
hundred fifty thousand shingles per day. The recent
enormous orders for lumber from Japan will undoubtedly
fall into his hands.
David Clough, an old friend of
mine and formerly Governor of Minnesota, is associated
with the Hartleys in the lumber industry. They operate
several large mills.
Roland Hartley, son‑in‑law of
Governor Clough and brother of Frank, is a candidate for
Governor of Washington.
I took brother Ed with me on this
trip and he stuck to me even closer than a brother. We
visited the Hartleys and many other old Brainerd friends.
We stayed all night with Frank and took lunch with Mrs.
Roland Hartley. Roland himself was away campaigning. Mrs.
Westfall, another Brainerdite, was present at this
luncheon.
On my way from Santa Barbara to
San Francisco, I stopped off at San Jose to visit W.W.
Hartley. I found him at Mountain View and, of course,
spent the night at his home. He used to be editor of the
Brainerd Tribune, and was also postmaster there.
Ed and I never had such a splendid
visit together before. In a letter I received from him
yesterday he says: "You certainly had a wonderful trip. We
all enjoyed your visit,‑ I can't tell you how much. It has
been many years since we had such a good visit together.
We live it over and over in our memory." This was true of
Em and Lee
and Georgia.
The grandest trip we took was up
Mt. Tacoma or "Rainier" as it is called in the geography.
It is the "Mountain that is God". While I saw Mount Shasta
for nearly a whole day as I took the Shasta Route from San
Francisco to Portland, and also several
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(Sarah Campbell
Family)
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other peaks and
mountain ranges, nothing approaches the grandeur and
sublimity of this marvellous [sic] mountain whose foothills cover
several counties and whose snow‑capped peak rises fourteen
thousand five hundred feet above the sea. It stands like a
sentinel to the pearly gates. One is lifted far above the
lowly plains of earth almost into the presence of the
Creator. Nothing moves me to worship like this wonderful
mountain. I came away feeling that my soul had been
refreshed for I had drunk from the living streams that
flow from "The Mountain that is God".
I will not impose on you by going
into unnecessary detail, but I feel that I could write all
day on this most inspiring theme.
As you have all heard from Ed and
Em and their children from time to time, I will not
attempt to relate all the pleasant things that occurred
while I was there. Em is a good scout and entered into our
pleasures with zest and keen appreciation.
Georgia lives across the sound
from Seattle. They have a nice home at a little place
called Harper. Oscar has a good position with the Alaska
Steamship Company. This connection has afforded them
frequent trips to Alaska. Georgia is very capable and
enterprising. She makes big money raising flowers and
marketing them in Seattle. Lee is in the real estate
business at Tacoma. and is doing well. Most of you saw
Helen, his wife, at the last Cousins' Dinner. They have
two unusually bright children, Edgar and Elizabeth. Edgar
is a prodigy on the violin. He will make a national
reputation if permitted to pursue his studies. He is only
fifteen years old and plays like a virtuoso.
The National Educational
Association met in San Francisco and Oakland, across the
bay. There I met the leading educators of the country. Anna
was with me during these meetings and enjoyed them
immensely. I was honored by having my songs sung at one of
the important meetings and was invited to lead the
singing.
Among the cities I visited on
this trip were Long Beach, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San
Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Sacramento,
Placerville, Portland (Ore.), Tacoma, Seattle and Everett
(Wash.), and other smaller places.
Anna and the girls are at Santa
Barbara, Calif., and now that Louise is on the road to
recovery they will no doubt enjoy another winter there. [Charle lived in a hotel
in NYC and had a summer home near Stroudsburg, PA.
Because of his daughter Louise' health problems,
Louise and her sister, and most of the time their
mother, lived in the SW. Louise recovered and lived to
age 99.5.] While I was with
them, Bernice drove me several hundred miles in her car
along the coast through fertile irrigated valleys, through
mountain passes and along the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
Anna was with us most of the time. We met thousands of
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Family)
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automobiles and
often, as night came on, the headlights approached us in
droves while herds of cars were chasing us from the rear.
Let me here quote a few lines
from a letter I wrote to sister Em. It was written while I
was on the spot and inspired by the beautiful scenes that
were constantly moving before my wondering eyes:
“We pursued the setting sun and,
later, the new moon until they both sank into the 'dark
and deep blue ocean';‑ but the next morning the sun peeped
apologetically over the Coast Range, apparently none the
worse for his nocturnal escapade."
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(Sarah Campbell
Family)
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Before leaving California for the
north, I took a side trip from Sacramento to the top of
the Sierra Nevada Range. It was so interesting that I
would not consider this letter complete without giving a
brief account of it.
As in every other city I visited,
I found a number of old friends in Sacramento. I called on
the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and then
took the train eastward to Placerville. This is a famous
gold mining town that has a very interesting history.
Some of the older Cousins will
remember "Zade and Georgia” Congdon, who left Nelson with
their parents in 1860 to cast their lot in California.
They settled in Placerville., where Aunt "Emmie's" father
lived. Uncle George, the girl's father, was not a success
in business but he could fiddle almost as well as Ole Bull.
He made lots of money playing for dances, receiving
usually twenty‑five dollars a night.
The girls grew up with two other
children, all of whom were married in due time. But
Georgia developed into a beautiful singer. This put her
into the best society and she married a man worth half a
million dollars. He was a brother of William C. Ralston of
San Francisco, who was at one time worth many millions. He
built the celebrated Palace Hotel of San Francisco which
was destroyed by fire at the time of the earthquake there.
The Ralston brothers lost the bulk of their fortunes and
William drowned himself on the beach near San Francisco.
Thomas, Georgia's husband, saved a large tract of land in
Iowa which is now quite valuable and will keep Georgia in
good circumstances the rest of her life. Of course, "Zade"
will be well provided for.
I dropped off at Placerville which
is the end of that line of railroad and after some inquiry
found these two old dames sitting on the front porch of
one of a row of cottages which Georgia owns. You can
imagine their surprise.
Georgia's daughter, Stella,
married a shoe merchant of that place and as this was
Saturday he drove us all up the gulch about forty miles
where they have a summer cottage. We stayed over Sunday
among trees that measure from six to eight feet in
diameter and tower to a height of over one hundred feet.
These are not the celebrated big trees of California which
have a diameter of thirty feet. Their cottage is
surrounded with sleeping porches so that when an occasion
requires they can entertain a dozen guests or more. Sunday
we drove on to the top of the Sierra Nevada range where we
could look over into the state of Nevada and also get a
good view of Lake Tahoe, which is a very beautiful lake
situated in California near its eastern border.
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Family)
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This view was not
surpassed by any of the wonderful scenes I beheld except
of course, Mt. Ranier, which I have already described.
The road from Placerville to the
top of this range was the old pioneer trail over which
thousands of pioneers travelled to the golden state as far
back as 1849. This trail is now a part of the Lincoln
Highway which is being pushed rapidly to completion.
There was a stage driver in the
early days by the name of Hank Monk.
He was a fearless driver of marvellous skill. With one
"jerk line" he would guide a team of six horses at
break‑neck speed, often running within a foot of
precipices a thousand feet to the bottom. Horace
Greeley rode with Monk many years ago and I remember
a cartoon in one of the New York papers representing
Greeley frightened almost to death and stinking his head
out of the stage window trying frantically to get out.
Georgia said she had ridden with Monk several times.
Zade and Georgia have a brother Ed
who lives in Oakland. He has a position with the Southern
Pacific Railroad in their offices at San Francisco. When I
called on him there, of course, he did not know me. I
said: "It is strange you do not recognize me,‑ I used to
knew you sixty‑three years ago back in Pennsylvania;
furthermore, you are my cousin."
Zade and Georgia are now old
women. It was interesting to hear them relate their
experiences when Georgia was the prima donna of the
Pacific Coast. Alzada was a good singer and both moved in
the wealthiest circles of California. Now they are
serenely waiting for the summons to join that endless
caravan that is moving slowly and silently along the final
trail, toward the setting sun.
I stopped at Portland, Oregon, and
visited several old friends. I went out to Gresham only a
few miles from Portland and stayed all night with Will
Congdon, Tom's brother. We visited the County Fair, bought
lemonade and had a most enjoyable time. Will is a
prominent citizen of Gresham.
I must now leave this interesting
country. I do so very reluctantly for as I have said, this
has been the most wonderful tour of my life.
Ed and family took me to the
station at Tacoma and after a tearful parting, I was soon
rolling eastward in a modern sleeper attached to a
Northern Pacific train.
I stopped first at Spokane and saw
several old friends I used to know in Brainerd, Minnesota.
I received the same cordial warm‑hearted greeting that had
characterized my entire trip
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(Sarah Campbell
Family)
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At Helena, Montana, I stopped off
on purpose to see Governor Dixon, who was Chairman of the
National Committee of the Progressive Party during the
Campaign of 1912. He was then United States Senator from
Montana. He invited me into the Executive Chamber of the
Capitol and we chatted for more than an hour recalling the
experiences of that wonderful campaign. He spoke of the
tidal wave of song that poured forth from fifteen thousand
throats at the Progressive Convention in Chicago and the
manner in which I led them, using the Chicago Tribune
rolled up to serve as a baton.
My next stop was Valley City,
N.D., where I stayed all night in order to take a local
train for Mapleton where Mate Congdon Shaver, sister of
Tom Congdon, lives. She and her husband, Henry Shaver,
drove me to Fargo where I met other relatives and friends.
I had the extreme pleasure of spending the evening with
Rev. R. A. Beard, my pastor at Brainerd, Minn. forty years
ago. It was a most delightful re‑union. I also met Charlie
Saran, who married Sarah Congdon, Uncle Alfred Congdon's
daughter. Sate is dead and Charlie is a retired locomotive
engineer. He used to pull those great overland trains on
the Northern Pacific Railroad between Brainerd and Fargo.
I could not stop at Brainerd to
see Hannah Hughey and
her children because I was overdue in New York, but I
stopped off a day in St. Paul where I had spent twelve
fruitful years and where our children were born. My next
stop was Chicago, then Watkins., N. Y. [to see his sister, Emma Buck]
and Mansfield, Pa. [to
attend the "Cousins Dinner" at Mabel Shaw's]
I am now back in the whirl of
business, but the memory of this eventful trip will abide
with me to the end of my life.
With love to you all, I remain
Very sincerely,
COUSIN C. H. CONGDON
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(Sarah Campbell
Family)