Name/Title
LetterEntry/Object ID
2020.005.0002Scope and Content
This is a letter from Emma at the Young Ladies Seminary in Benicia to her cousin at the California Military Academy in Oakland. Her cousin is Mr. William H. Sharp of The Dalles Oregon. Emma mentions her sister Sophy is improving. She talks of the rain and that the San Joaquin farmers will be happy. In returning to school she came with Laura Gross and slipped on the wet sidewalk.
She mentions several people in the letter; Josie Martin (has Diptheria), Nellie Ewing, Old Captain Moss (died), Mrs. Attwood, and Tillie and the Bussel girls, and Georgie Shurt.
I Believe this to be a letter from Emma Rhoda Sharp Wood (1867 - 1943) from Castoria, San Joaquin, CA. in the 1880 census. Her parents are Peter George Sharp and Elizabeth A. Wood from Ohio. She is writing to her cousin William Henry Sharp (1863 - 1943) who was at school at the California Military Academy in Oakland but living in The Dalles, Oregon at the time. His father was Phillip Thomas Sharp. Peter and Phillip plus another brother came to California in 04/1849 as part of a mining company for the Gold Rush. Emma's older sister Sophia Wood Sharp (1865 - 1903) was also a student at the YLS. Note that she died in 1903 and is buried at the Stockton Rural Cemetery. Can't find her death certificate so not sure what the cause of death was.Collection
Benicia School Collection
