[Wyoming]: [Mining]: Law, Benedict W.:

[Archive of Fifteen Letters from Benedict W. Law and His Family and Associates, Related to Placer Mining in Wyoming and Colorado, Life in the American West, Various Family Matters, and More].

[Various locations, mostly Colorado and Wyoming]: 1897-1902. Fifteen manuscript letters, totaling [43] pages, and approximately 7,500 words, most retaining original transmittal envelopes. Minor overall wear, occasional fading, but mostly a highly readable group. Item #4732

A small but interesting collection of letters documenting the western mining exploits and family life of Benedict W. Law, his wife, Rhodocia "Docia" Emma Willett Law (1852-1921), and some of their children and associates. Benedict and Docia married in 1879, and the couple raised two children, one of whom, Harry C. Law, is involved in the present letters. The Law family seems to have split their time between Wyoming, New York, and Havana, Cuba, with Benedict stationed at various locations in the west while pursuing business opportunities. At the time of the 1900 census, amidst the time period involving the present letters, Benedict W. Law (1851-1924) was working in Dixon and Baggs, Wyoming and Fourmile, Colorado, where he is listed in the census as "Proprietor of Placer Mine."

Benedict's letters emanate from his time in Dixon and Baggs, Wyoming, where various members of the Law and Willett families lived and worked at times. Almost half of the letters were written by Benedict to his wife ranging over the course of five years. In these letters, Law reports on business and mining matters, discusses local events, and reports on various family matters, among other issues. In some of the more interesting passages, he details how the river rushes past Dixon in Wyoming, describes a woman returning "as the head of her own establishment again" in Dixon after apparently being abused by her husband, reports plans to better manage his dredgers in Colorado, and more. Benedict's most informative letter to Docia comes from March 1902 in which he details the workings of his dredge and a "water-tight sluice" while at his mining camp in Baggs. He describes "caulking today around the edge of the sluice...and afterwards in a second feed water tank we are building up on the hurricane deck. The sluice is this shape:" Benedict then draws a diagram of the sluice, and thereafter further describes how it works. Benedict also discusses the dredge in his next two letters to Docia, reporting on the repairs and alterations needed to make the dredge operate properly.

The earliest letter from Benedict is a familial correspondence to his son, Harry Law, in which Benedict playfully discusses "snow fleas" in some detail. He also writes another letter to Harry in which he extolls Harry to experience the West, encouraging him to "see all the curious little things that are so different here from what they are in our country back there." He also describes a river flood in Baggs that drowned all the foot-high ant hills in the area. There are also four letters from Grace Willett, Docia's sister and Benedict's sister-in-law, written from either Dixon or Fourmile, and sent to their mother Sylvia Willett back in Erie County, New York. Highlights of Grace's letters include her relating an incident in Dixon when "the town was shot up by two drunken cowboys [who] fired several shots as they ran their ponies through the streets," getting sick from canned tomatoes, opening a new store in Colorado, and other various activities of her and her family in the West. The collection also includes a few letters from Benedict's associates in Wyoming and California.

Altogether, the letters in the present grouping provide an interesting view of life in the American West at the turn of the 20th century, with good details on the difficulties of mining in Wyoming.

Price: $1,500