Beschreibung:

Title: Archive of letters and photographs relating to Joseph S. Roberson, Wells, Fargo & Co. official, and his family Author: Roberson, Joseph S., and family Place: Various places Publisher: Date: c.1850-1884 Description: Archive comprising approximately 75 autographed letters, signed, from Joseph S. Roberson, his father-in-law W.O. Lofland, and a few others, most to Mrs. Emily Lofland Roberson. The great majority of the letters are in their original stamped envelopes. Also included are 11 early photographs, including 4 daguerreotypes & 7 tintypes. Important archive of material relating to a pioneer expressman and early officer at Wells, Fargo & Co. Joseph S. Roberson, born in Missouri about 1840, is known to have been employed by Ben Holladay's Overland Stage Line as early as 1864, and there are some indications that he was with the Pony Express in 1861. Most of the letters in the archive are from a later period, c.1878-1884, when he was working from Wells, Fargo, at times criss-crossing the country. Perhaps most notable are the early daguerreotypes and tintypes of his parents and himself as a boy and young man. His father was Albion Richardson, a Southern sympathizer in Missouri. A more detailed listing and a few excerpts follow. Daguerreotype of a clean-shaven Albion Richardson. 3¼x2¾, no case. * Tintype of a bearded man wearing a Confederate Army uniform, with cap. This was identified as Albion Roberson, but it might not be. 2¼x2, in leather case split along spine. * Tintype of the same man in suit, 1¾x1¼, in leather case split along spine. * Daguerreotype of Albion Richarson (clean-shaven), wife Francis Fristoe Roberson, and son Joseph S. Roberson (at about 10 years old). 3¾x3¼, in leather-covered case (tarnished around margins; case split along spine). * Daguerreotype of Joseph S. Roberson at about 15 years old. 3¼x2¾, in leather-covered case (wear along spine). * Daguerreotype of Joseph S. Roberson at age 21. 3¼x2¾, in leather-covered case. * Tintype of two African-American children, a boy about 10 a girl about 8, standing, the boy with a gold-tinted watch chain. 3½x2¾. The relationship to the Robersons is not known, but on the inside of the case, underneath the tintype, is a faint inscription by Joseph S. Roberson. * Tintype of a clapboard house, framed between snow-covered trees, seated on the front porch are a bearded man in top-hat, a woman, and two children – a cat sits on a nearby fence. 3¼x2½, in leather-covered case. * Tintype of a middle-aged couple seated, the woman wearing a bonnet, the man a beard. 3¼x2¾, in leather-covered case. A typed card identifies this as "Daguerreotype. Jacob Primer Leese and his wife Rosalia Vallejo Leese. Taken in Monterey, probably in the 1850's." However, comparison to known portraits of the merchant who settled in California in the early 1830's and built the first house in Yerba Buena (now San Francisco), casts doubt on that assertion. * Plus 2 tintypes in paper sleeves of unidentified men. * 35 A.L.s. (32 in envelopes) from Joseph Roberson to his wife Emily Lofland Roberson (“Sissy”) , written in 1883-4 while Roberson was on a trip to the East Coast, and later when he was in Arizona. There are at times multiple letters in an envelope, as he doubled up, so the total number of letters is greater. A few samples: June 16, 1883 – “Mr. Valentine met us at Ogden and invited me come down here on the Rio Grande R.R., the new line just completed… Mr. Dooly had invited about a dozen of us…to go to the last concert tonight at the Tabernacle, that large turtle back concern with the big organ...”; June 25th, 1883, on letterhead of Wells, Fargo & Co., Exchange, Banking and Express, New York – “…Mr. Tevis and Mr. Valentine are here. Mrs. V. stood the trip well, so Mr. V. says…” And the next day, on letterhead of the Grand Union Hotel, with an engraving of the edifice: “…I spent last evening with Mr. & Mrs. Valentine at the Everett and offering my services for today they wer