Dame Shirley Schoolteacher Louise Clappe, affectionately known as "Dame Shirley," left her native New Jersey with her physician husband in 1849 for the promise of a better life in California. The couple initially settled in San Francisco, but Dr. Clappe found the overcast, damp weather there intolerable. In 1851 they moved to the mining country around the North Fork of the Feather River, where Dr. Clappe found the atmosphere more to his liking.

During the couple's thirteen-month stay in the mining region, Dame Shirley sent twenty-three letters home to her sister Molly. The letters, later collected and published in the California monthly magazineThe Pioneer, captured the unique perspective of a cultured woman who suddenly found herself living in a log cabin in a rugged environment. In the following letter, penned on November 25, 1851, Dame Shirley somewhat comically describes how her illusions...