1865 Dayton, CA - Civil War Letter, LINCOLN ASSASSINATION Guerrillas in Missouri

Description

CIVIL WAR LETTER
Historic, Incredible California Civil War Letter - Writes of Californians in Hiding, Accused of Being Accessories to Abraham Lincoln Assassination!
This remarkable Civil War letter was written by Dr. John Kingree France (1825-1887), the son of John Henry France (1789-1835) and Mary Kingree McCulley (1799-1881). John was born on a farm in Roanoke county, Virginia, but moved with his parents to Dayton, Ohio, as a young boy for a time before returning with them to Virginia. Like most of his siblings, John entered the medical profession and seems to have lived near Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, before taking his wife, Margaret (“Maggie”) Eliza Ashley Ray (1824-1884) and three children to California with him in the fall of 1864, his son Ashley dying on the journey.
From the letter and from census records we know that Dr. France settled in Dayton, Butte county, California. In the late 1870’s he was enumerated in Gridley but in 1880 he had relocated to Oakland. He died there in 1887.
Dr. France wrote the letter to his younger brother, Charles Beeson France (1835-1895) who was at the time (May 1865) in Denver with his Mother. Charles died in Saint Joseph, Buchanan county, Missouri in 1895; their mother died in Lansing, Leavenworth county, Kansas.
France’s letter refers to the guerrilla warfare still going on in Missouri in May 1865 and, surprisingly, the “excitement” caused by the assassination of President Lincoln in San Francisco, in Butte and the surrounding counties of California. Remarkably he wrote that “in Colusa County just below here, some 6 or 8 of the most prominent men have been arrested for being ‘
accessories after the fact
‘ to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and some 20 men have taken refuge in the foothills to prevent being arrested.”
Dr. John Kingree France’s Grave in Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, California
Transcription
Dayton, Butte county, California
May 1st 1865
Dear Brother,
Your note informing me that you would remain in Denver until fall was received in due course of mail, coming to hand in 21 days after it was post-marked in your city. I was much pleased at your idea of staying in Denver for the present, for I apprehend there will be more or less trouble—that is, guerrilla warfare with all its attendant evils in Missouri this summer—and I feared it would be a worse place for you and Mother now than where you are.
I was much pained to hear of the deaths in Abshire’s family. I can sympathize very much with Eliza in losing her two children. The loss of my little boy Ashley last fall was very distressing to me indeed. It made an impression upon me that I can hardly shake off at all—the more so from the fact that he was stricken down and I had to leave him in the only wilderness.
My family are well. Louis and Mary Frances are both the very pictures of health and are growing finely. Fanny is running around and has been since she was 9 months old. Maggie is quite well. My health is much better than it was last spring. The weather is getting quite warm. The summers in this part of the Sacramento Valley are said to be excessively hot—the thermometer running up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit frequently—and this whole valley is said to be sickly. The idea back East that California is exceedingly healthy is a great mistake. In the mountains here, it is healthy. But in the valley—which is the only valley of much extent in this country—the people are more subject to disease than in Kansas or Missouri. Geographers sometimes divide this country into 3 regions—the Hot & Dry, the Sierra, and the Coast or Foggy Region, and this Hot & Dry Region has the name here of being one of the sickliest parts of the United States. Since I have been here, the health has been good but I think business in my line will very soon now become more brisk.
Political prejudice runs very high here just now, but in this neighborhood the citizens happen to be two-thirds democratic and my competitor for practice here happens to be a Republican. Since the assassination of Lincoln, excitement runs high in this country; in San Francisco resulting in riots and mobs. Several arrests have been made through the state. In Colusa County just below here, some 6 or 8 of the most prominent men have been arrested for being “accessories after the fact” to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and some 20 men have taken refuge in the foothills to prevent being arrested. Excitement here is dying down now, I think.
Last year you are aware there was a great drought on this country. This spring it has also been quite dry but we have had a few good rains and the heavy rains last year wetting the earth very deep, have made the prospect for good crops very good. It is generally though now that times will be lively after harvest and money less scarce than at present.
One of the greatest drawbacks here is the uncertainty of land titles and the large tracts of land claimed by Grantholders. People do not make much improvement in the way of fences and good houses &c. unless they can have good titles to their land. Many, if not the majority here are dissatisfied and talk of going back to the Atlantic States. Some went to Mexico early in the spring but the guerrilla warfare there and the Order of General McDowell stopped that. I am settled here for the present and want to try and make some money.
My sheet is nearly full and I must close. Give my love to your wife and Mother. Tell Mother to write to me. I have not got a line from Kansas since I have been in California. Write as soon as you get this and give me all the items of news. For the present, farewell.
Yours brother affectionately, — J. K. France
[to] C. B. France, Esq.
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