The Rock

In addition to his daily entries in his diaries, Alf Doten also wrote a regular column in the form of letters to his home town newspaper, The Plymouth Rock, summarizing his Western experiences for Massachusetts readers. He began this practice in 1854 when he was mining in Calaveras County, California and ended it in 1867 when he was working long hours as a reporter for local papers in Virginia City and journalism had become his profession. He published a total of 93 letters that began “Dear Rock.” Eighty of the letters originated in California, with 13 from Nevada. After his first 50 letters, Doten began numbering a “new series,” beginning with NS1 and ending with NS43.0. He saved the clippings for 81 of the letters, and for the rest, he saved his handwritten drafts. Two photostat copies of missing clippings were added to the collection later. The letters were transcribed during the process of editing Doten’s journals for publication in the 1960s, and Walter Van Tilburg Clark included 42 of them in their entirety within the three-volume publication. For most of the rest, Clark included summaries or partial transcriptions. We now present a complete and searchable archive of the entire collection of transcripts of Doten’s letters to The Plymouth Rock, alongside the clippings or handwritten originals. Our assistant Challen Wright digitized the clippings and prepared the transcripts for the project. We hope this online collection will be useful to researchers of the West as the region unfolded during a pivotal time.

Rock30 No. XXXSan Francisco Aug 3rd 1856 Friend Rock, And yet again has the pistol of the assassin done its murderous work, and once more has a bloody tragedy been publicly enacted in our very midst, and in the broad light of day. Again has justice through the instrumentality of the Committee of the People been meted out to the murderer, and two more blood thirsty assassins have gone to swell the list of the victims of the hangman. About 4 o'clock PM of the 24th ult. at the bar room of the St Nicholas Hotel on Sansom street, as Dr. Andrew Randall, an esteemed fellow citizen was registering his name...
Rock31 From our California Correspondent.No. XXXI.Mountain View, Santa Clara Co.,Cal. Aug. 17th, 1855. FRIEND ROCK: -- Like "Poor Joe" in Dickens' "Bleak House," your old correspondent has again been "moving on," and is at present domesticated and settled for a time upon the ranche of a friend at this point, in a rural district far removed from the dust, din, assassinations, executions, proclamations, and exciting scenes, alas! so incidental to San Francisco life during the past three or four months; and as in that stirring city, our correspondence partook of the topics and spirit of the times, so...
Rock32 From our California Correspondent.No. XXXII.Mountain View, Santa Clara Co.,Cal. Sept 2d, 1855. FRIEND ROCK: -- Throughout the State, the tocsin is sounding, and all parties are marshaling their forces for the coming Presidential contest. Clubs are formed, and fast forming, conventions and caucuses are held, and great speakers have commenced stumping the state. The ball is opened and the campaign has begun in earnest. Fremont, Buchanan, and Fillmore are in the field as the only recognized candidates, and as a matter of course, their various merits, and demerits are freely discussed, and their...
Rock33 From our California Correspondent.No. XXXIII.Mountain View, Santa Clara Co.,Cal. Sept 18, 1856. FRIEND ROCK: -- You will see in the California papers by this mail, the full particulars of the trial and acquittal of Durkee charged with piracy, in boarding a schooner in the bay, on the 22d of June last, by order of the Vigilance Committee, and taking by force from her, sundry cases of muskets and other arms belonging to government. The far-famed Vigilance Committee, the terror of assassins and those whose ways are evil, although apparently disbanded, nevertheless still exist in full force and...
Rock34 From our California Correspondent.No. XXXIV.Mountain View, Santa Clara Co.,Cal. Oct 3rd, 1856. FRIEND ROCK: -- Among the many resources of this state, the raising of sheep and the exportation of wool promises ere long to become one of the main sources of wealth, and it may not be many years before wool is a principal staple of California trade. This state being admirably adapted to wool-growing, a fine article of wool is raised here, and speculators are engaged in buying it up for shipment to the New York market, where it will command a high price. Hides and tallow, before the gold discovery...
Rock36 From our California Correspondent.No. XXXVI. Mountain View, Santa Clara Co., Cal., Nov. 3d, 1856. DEAR ROCK: - The equanimity of this golden State, is at present, principally disturbed only by the Presidential election, which serves happily to divert people's minds from the sad and thrilling scenes of the last few months. The newspapers no longer teem with flowing paragraphs, and startling news of the doings of the far-famed Vigilance Committee, but all are deeply interested in the present grand Presidential contest, and even the latest news from Kansas, which has occupied a prominent...
Rock37 From our California Correspondent.No. XXXVII. Mountain View, Santa Clara Co., Cal., Nov. 23d, 1856. DEAR ROCK:-- The grand Presidential campaign is ended, the forces have retired from the field, and as everybody certainly didn't expect, California has gone for "Old Buck" by a handsome majority. The mining counties all went the democratic ticket strong, owing probably to the large number of sympathizing bachelors in the mines. The foreigners too, mostly voted the democratic ticket. The election throughout the state passed off very quietly, and no riot or disturbance was anywhere created. Now...
Rock38 From our California Correspondent.No. XXXVII.Mountain View, Santa Clara Co.,Cal., Dec. 23d, 1856. DEAR ROCK:-- In my last letter, I related some stories of the grizzly bear, the animal so familiarly spoken of in connection with California and the Sierra Nevada mountains, and as anecdotes of the habits and peculiarities of the beast form a theme which may not be uninteresting to some of your readers. I will touch up the grizzly subject again. In the early days of the gold discovery, "prospecting" parties and hunters often fell in with the grizzly bear in their wanderings, and many was the...
Rock39 From our California Correspondent.No. XXXIX.Mountain View, Santa Clara Co.,Cal., Dec. 18th, 1856. DEAR ROCK:-- Among the many vices peculiar to California, that of Gambling stands first and foremost. From the very first commencement of the rush and excitement, consequent upon the discovery of the gold, gambling, both publicly and privately, had been carried on to a wholesale extent, throughout the entire length and breadth of this State. In the early times of the gold excitement, merchants, miners, and the public generally, all seemed inclined to try their luck, and hundreds of thousands of...
Rock40 From our California Correspondent.No. XL.Mountain View, Santa Clara Co.,Cal., Jan. 3d, 1857. DEAR ROCK: -- A "happy new year" to you. The old year has passed away, with its cares and vexations, to keep company with the many that have gone before it to the realms of the past. Let us look forward with hopeful hearts to brighter, happier days; hoping on, and hoping ever, that the trials and storms of the future may pass over us lightly. Adieu to the old year. Adieu to the events and troubles of the past, and trust in Providence for a happy future. Thus far the winter has been mild. We have seen...

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