California-Bound Maine Gold Rusher Seeks Support "would save me from destitution when I arrive in California"

Maine teacher Asa W. Cole seeks the assistance of prominent businessman Daniel W. Lord of Kennebunkport and Boston for his journey to California during the Gold Rush. Cole is effusive with praise of Lord's reputation for helping the unfortunate. Cole does go to California, but it is unclear whether he tried his hand at panning or mining for gold. By 1852, he was a teacher in San Francisco and remained there for a decade.

[CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH]. Asa W. Cole, Autograph Letter Signed, to Daniel W. Lord, February 16, 1850, Alfred, [Maine]. 3 pp., 7.75" x 10". Horizontal and vertical folds; light soiling on exterior; clear postmark of "Alfred, Maine"; very good.

Complete Transcript
Alfred February 16 1850
My dear Sir
I am about to sail for California having after a very severe struggle succeeded in raising 150. Dollars, which I have paid for my passage. The vessel, California Packet, will sail from Boston the last of next week and I am very anxious to raise 50 dollars for an outfit. Now, my friend, I have tried to raise this small sum but all my exertions have thus far been in vain and I am constrained by the necessity of the case for the first time in my life to appear in the character of a beggar. For I am in debt and have no means to pay those just debts; the trustee of this estate refuses to pay my wife her allowance, provided in the will of her late husband, and consequently my wife must contest the case in court, while I must leave family, home, friends and all that is dear in life, to seek in the far west, for the means of discharging my bills and possessing something to render us comfortable hereafter. If therefore you under these circumstances could see fit to assist me in ever so small a way it would be gratefully received and would save me from destitution when I arrive in California. Be assured, your known liberality and kind sympathy so often extended to those in distress, are well understood, and on this fixed fact, my present request is wholly founded. Did I not know from authentic information that you have been the good Samaritan to many a suffering youth and aged people; that your presence has cheered the sorrowing heart within the lowly cottage; that the rigors of our inclement winters have been in a measure softened by the seasonable releif afforded by you; that the poor and unfortunate, who were willing to work, have never approached you soliciting aid, without finding you ready and willing to afford it, when you knew they were really deserving; I say did I not know all this, my hand would never have written this simple letter to you. Many of my friends think the present opportunity one not to be slighted by me; but some are utterly unable to assist me while the great majority say go by all means but are unwilling to help me, because I have the misfortune to be poor. Now to be poor I consider no disgrace; but I must say from actual experience that it is extreemly disagreeable. One thing at least it does, friends are then fully known. Can you, from your liberal store, with which Providence has been pleased to bless you, present me with a trifle to aid me in acquiring more? I hope God will bless you and yours with long life and prosperity whether you should decide to accede to my request or not and may you never be so unfortunate as to be compelled, like me, to leave your home to go on an unknown expedition without money or friends.
With these imperfect remarks I submit my hard case to you hoping that you will be guided aright in your decision and that decision, I trust, will be such as you can hereafter look upon with pleasure.
Yours truly,
Asa W. Cole
P.S. Please to write me so that I can get the letter by Monday noon as I shall go to Boston on Wednesday morn, whether I have any funds to carry with me or not.
A W. Cole

Asa W. Cole (1814-1863) was born in Maine, attended the Thornton Academy in Saco, and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1841. In February 1847, he married Susan B. Littlefield. In 1850, they lived in Alfred, Maine, where he was a teacher. His household included his wife, her four children from a previous marriage, and their two children. By 1852, he was a teacher in the Spring Valley District school in San Francisco. After teaching in California for ten years, he returned to Maine in ill health and within two weeks died at his brother's home in Kennebunkport in August 1863.

Daniel W. Lord (1800-1880) was born in Kennebunkport, Maine, to a marine businessman and his wife. After receiving an education at the Limerick Academy in Maine and the Gorham Academy in Massachusetts, Daniel Lord followed his father's profession and in 1817 began a partnership with his uncle in trade with the West Indies. He soon moved to Boston, where he had many vessels built and owned a portion of many others. His varied business interests in Maine and Massachusetts also included a tannery, a granite quarry, an early railroad to transport the granite, and a Boston bookstore. He was elected to the Maine state legislature in 1825 and served for several years in the legislature (1826-1829) and as a member of the governor's council (1838-1839). In 1824, he married Lydia Abbot (1798-1851), and in 1853, he married Lydia Patterson (1823-1884), with whom he had at least two children. In the 1850s, he was one of the overseers of Bowdoin College. In the early 1860s, he moved to the suburbs of Boston but suffered a mild stroke in 1874.

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