How Many Miles from St. Jo? The Log of Sterling B.F. Clark, a Forty Niner. With Comments by Ella Sterling Mighels. Together with a Brief Autobiography of James Phelan, 1819-1892, Pioneer Merchant

San Francisco: Privately Printed, 1929 Book. Fine. Hardcover. 1st Edition. First edition. Presentation inscription, signed by James D. Phelan, son of James Phelan. 12mo. 56pp. Illustrations. Cloth backed marbled boards, gilt-lettered spine, pictorial pastedown on front cover. A fine copy. Sterling Clark left Holliday, Pennsylvania in 1849 for Saint Joseph. After a short stay, he resumed his journey, stopped in Salt Lake City, and followed the Humboldt-Carson Route into California. He arrived in Sacramento on August 2. He sold his mule for $50, purchased mining equipment, and washed gold at Mormon Island and Sandwich Island diggings. Supplementing the diary are extracts of letters from Sterling to Rachel Mitchell, his future bride, describing life in California and urging her to come. Clark invested in land in Sacramento and San Jose and became the Alcalde of Natoma, or Mormon Island. He went back home to marry but on the return trip became ill crossing Nicaragua and died in San Francisco at the age of twenty-eight. His daughter was born posthumously. Includes comments by the author's daughter, Ella Sterling Mighels, together with a brief autobiography of James Phelan, 1819-1892, pioneer merchant. Phelan donated the original diary to the Society of California Pioneers in 1930. This copy with the tipped-in slip, "With the compliments of James D. Phelan." [Kurutz: 137]..