Archives West Finding Aid

Letters, legal documents, photographs, ephemera, 1863, 1891-1910. Personal correspondence of Margharete Ross Shotwell, her fiancee (later her husband), and other family members. Her husband's letters describe panning for gold in Oregon and his experiences during the Klondike Gold Rush.

The letters have been subgrouped by family member, determined by the recipient of the letter. Ida, John, Rexie, Katherine, Sarah, and William Ross are all siblings of Margharete Ross Shotwell. Mrs. J. M. Ross is her mother, Jona her niece, and Mary Shotwell her sister-in-law. Thirty-seven of the eighty letters in this collection were written in 1891 and concern the courtship between the former Margharete Ross and her future husband James Hunter Shotwell. These letters lend insight into relations between the sexes at the turn of the 20th century. Shotwell's letters to his wife (in Seattle) are essentially of a personal nature, but of particular interest are his miner's descriptions of panning for gold in 1894, at Foots Creek Oregon, an endeavor which also took him to Alaska in 1898 during the Klondike Gold rush. A description of his 3000 mile journey by schooner from Seattle to Alaska is included. The remaining letters in this collection are from members of the Ross family to Margharete Ross Shotwell, and they concern births, the condition of crops, and the daily activities of rural and city life. Of particular note is a letter of M. R. Shotwell to a fellow graduate of Olympia Collegiate Institute, describing her up-bringing as a “pioneer” child.