201.     FRINK, Margaret A. Journal of the Adventures of a Party of California Gold-Seekers Under the Guidance of Mr. Ledyard Frink during a Journey across the Plains from Martinsville, Indiana, to Sacramento, California, from March 30, 1850, to September 7, 1850. From the Original Diary of the Trip Kept by Mrs. Margaret A. Frink. [Oakland: Privately printed, 1897]. [1-5] 6-131 pp., 2 frontispiece half-tone sepia-tinted portraits of Ledyard Frink and Mrs. Margaret A. Frink. 12mo (18.8 x 13 cm), original brown pebble cloth, upper cover lettered in gilt “Overland to California in 1850 By Mr. & Mrs. Frink,” tan floral-patterned endpapers. Other than light shelf wear, fine. Rare, privately printed account.

     First edition, limited edition (50 copies printed, per Kurutz). Cowan II, p. 225. Eberstadt 106:114: “One of the fullest and most interesting of source accounts of the great overland migration.” Eberstadt, Modern Narratives of the Plains & Rockies 172. Graff 1445. Holliday Sale 407. Howell 50, California 479: “An engrossing account in diary form…. Mrs. Frink, an intrepid, acute, and sensitive observer, comments in detail on the routes followed, scenery, fellow travelers, and Sacramento.” Howes F388. Mattes, Platte River Road Narratives 795. Mintz, The Trail 166. Streeter Sale 3201.

     Kurutz, California Gold Rush 258a:

Along with her husband, Ledyard, and three other men, Margaret Frink began her great journey on March 30, 1850. On September 4, they reached Pleasant Valley and on the 5th Ringgold, the first regular mining camp…. In Sacramento the couple established Frink’s Hotel, experienced a cholera epidemic, sold the hotel, and bought twenty-five cows. Frink concludes the journal with a summary of their life in Sacramento and an account of what became of their traveling companions. Written for family and friends, only fifty copies of this important and detailed narrative were printed.

($1,000-2,000)

Auction 22 Abstracts