24 autographed letters written by Abner H. Barker to his brother and sister in Cornishville, Maine. 18 of the letters were written from San Francisco, 5 from New York while he was traveling on business, and one from Boston; plus one manuscript map on glazed linen & 14 original mailing envelopes (postage removed). All housed in plastic sleeve in 3-ring binding..

Significant collection of original autographed letters from a Gold Rush pioneer who was successful in California, achieving financial success through business rather than toiling in the mines. In the earliest letter, February 12, 1852, he writes his brother of mutual friends who have recently arrived, and are anxious to head to the gold fields to make their fortunes, the Ramdells "both appear in good spirits and are quite sanguine of taking out their pile in the mines. I hope they will for they are good boys and deserve it. But gold digging is attended by a great many difficulties and privation as well as all other branches of business. But if one has a constitution strong enough to stand the fatigue and exposure of a miner's life and his share of good luck he will in time if he is prudent scrape enough together to pay him for his trouble..." By 1854 he is evidently doing quite well financially, for upon news of his father's death, he asks that his share of the inheritence be given to his sister Almira. Later that year he complains about the business climate, "Business has been and is very dull we have to to many good for our money we want more men to dig gold and note so many that to not like to work so hard," miners with gold in their pockets making better customers. Other letters refer to horse racing, trips out of town, a visit to "Lake House," etc. By 1866 he is involved in the mining of the Washoe District in Nevada, evidently as a businessman not a miner, and he tells of the deep snow in the Sierra Nevada. He regularly sends money back east to his siblings, as he is evidently without a family himself. Seven of the letters are from 1852-1854, there is then a gap until a letter for 1861 and one for 1862, then a gap until 1866, with two or three letters per year after that.