Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
“ We [Mary and her two-year-old daughter] were twenty-eight days making the trip. We arrived at San Francisco July 21, 1851. I found the town in ashes. My husband's furniture store was burned to the ground.
The liveliest day of the week was Sunday. On that day the men did their washing, Telegraph Hill being the dressing room. The sports were gambling and bull fighting. Steamer day was never forgotten. It came twice a month on the fourteenth and twenty-ninth. Everyone who could spare the time went to the wharf to see the steamers off. Many ... going east with their pockets full of gold. People came from all parts of the state to see their friends depart and to see the thousands of letters taken on board. ”
Mary Barlow Burke
arrived in 1851 from Connecticut