Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
“ [My husband, who was already in California] sent for myself and our child to join him as he had a prosperous business. My friends tried to persuade me from going as they knew the journey would be very severe for a woman and a little girl two and half years old. However, in the month of May 1851, I left New York [on board] the Empire City. The steamer was crowded with passengers, all young and going to California.
The worst part of the journey was on the Chagres River, Isthmus of Panama. The passengers of the boat before us had nearly all been murdered. Their bodies were floating in the river there. There was one man tied to a tree who was alive. One of our party released him, took him in our boat and saved his life. We took mules at Gorgona for Panama. I was obliged to trust my little daughter to a native. He carried her on his back. When I got to Panama she was not there and, lame as I was from riding, I walked halfway back. I found them but the native had stolen my shawl. ”
Mary Barlow Burke
arrived in 1851 from Connecticut