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Volume 069-2 - April 2015 (6 pages)
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Page: of 6
High in the Mountains with
Nathan H. Davis Part I
by Linda K. Jack
Ox MARCH 31, 1852, CALIFORNIA IMMIGRANT
Nathan Hervey Davis wrote to his sister Mary
that he had decided to abandon his law practice in San
Francisco to seek his fortune in Nevada County: “I
have been high in the mountains of late in the snow, in
vigorous health and cheerful enough and am going back
to try for gold again.”!
The cheerfulness expressed in Nathan’s letter may
have been a bit forced. His decision to try his luck at mining followed a series of financial losses in Sacramento;
losses that had wiped out the funds provided by friends
and family and left him with debt that would take many
years to clear. He was definitely in need of a fresh start.
By June 1852 Nathan had arrived in Centreville—
soon to be renamed Grass Valley. For his first two years
in California Nathan had lived a transient life, moving
from one locale to another as perceived opportunities
presented themselves. Therefore, it’s not surprising that
he was tentative as to how long he planned to stay in
Grass Valley. “I will remain in the mountains this summer,” he wrote on July 8th, “but you will continue to
direct your letters to me at Sacramento City.” It wasn’t
until September 12th that Nathan directed Mary to send
her letters to Grass Valley.
In the summer of 1852 Grass Valley had already begun transforming itself from a rough and tumble mining camp into a town with many of the attributes of the
communities its residents had left behind in the East: law
courts, churches, fraternal and cultural organizations,
and the “civilizing” influence of white women. However
tentative Nathan’s commitment to his new community,
his timing was good. He was a young man of thirty-two
with ambition, education and the right social credentials.
The newcomer would soon find Grass Valley to be a
town in which he was able to move directly into important roles within the community.
Nathan was a dedicated letter writer. Thirty-seven of
his California letters have survived, of which eleven were
written from Nevada County. He was a highly educated
and well-traveled man, and his letters reflect his wideranging cultural interests. They also reveal a dry, and
often acerbic sense of humor. Most of the letters were
written to his youngest sister, Mary Glenn Davis. She
was four years his junior, and would be Nathan’s devoted
correspondent throughout his time in California. Nathan
‘Nevada County Historical society .
NUMBER 2 VOLUME 69 APRIL 2015 /)
and Mary’s deep affection for one another survived what
became a nearly decade-long separation.
In his letters Nathan often focused on political matters,
especially the issue of slavery. International affairs, religion and philosophy and, of course, family and friends
were other favorite topics that dominated his letters. On
occasion, however, Nathan provided details about his life
in Grass Valley, which coupled with information from
other sources, offer us a window into a community in
transition, and an opportunity to meet some of Grass
Valley’s early residents.
Nathan had arrived in San Francisco on June 23, 1850,
on the steamer California, three weeks before California
became a state.’ By that time the likelihood of getting
rich quickly in California was not a realistic expectation
for the vast majority of immigrants, if indeed it ever had
been. This Nathan learned first hand from an older brother, Jonathan “Jona” R. Davis, who had arrived before
him, and had been prospecting in the southern mines.
Jona had yet to strike it rich, and by the time Nathan
arrived in California had exhausted all of his money.
Nathan seems to have adopted a balanced view of his
own chances when he wrote on July 30:
No man can stay still here. . . He must keep kicking
or he will sink surely. If he gets sick he must perish or
beg unless he has partners in his business to work for
him. Success in business here as well as in mining is
very much a matter of accident. . . . Industry and perseverance, however, will decide ultimately. And if one-can
economize in this most extravagant country will succeed eminently.
The California frontier was a world apart from
Nathan’s South Carolina home of Monticello, in the
Fairfield District of Richland County. He was the eighth
of eleven children born to Jonathan Davis and Rebecca
Kincaid, both second generation South Carolinians.
Jonathan Davis was a planter and Baptist minister. In
1830 he owned 108 slaves, but by the time Nathan left for
California the family had fallen onto hard times, and remained financially distressed during Nathan’s absence.?