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| Format | Book Whole |
|---|---|
| Author, Monographic | Wyss, Jakob Otto |
| Title, Monographic | Postmaster in Klau: Letters from California, 1846-1927 |
| Translation/Title | Postmaster in Klau: Rauchzeichen aus dem Wilden Westen |
| Edition or Version | Edited by Pit Wyss in collaboration with Paul Hugger. Translation from the German by H. Dwight Page. |
| Place of Publication | Rockland, Me. |
| Publisher | Picton Press |
| Date of Publication | 2007 |
| Extent of Work | xix, 315 |
| Abstract | Jakob Otto Wyss, born in 1846 and brought up in Otelfingen in the canton of Zurich, finally reaches Paris as a machinery mechanic on the road. When in 1870 war breaks out between France and Prussia and the rebellion of the Commune shakes the French capital, he travels farther west, to Manchester, New York and on to California. There he finds work in a quicksilver mine, but it closes, so Wyss establishes himself as a farmer on the mine's property. He earns the respect of his American neighbors, becomes a judge and a postmaster and 'Dealer in General Merchandise.' His is a hard existence in the mountainous California hinterland, on the edge of civilization. About all this report Wyss and his wife (and after her death, his second wife) in colorful and often moving letters. These read like newspaper reports about the daily life of the tough pioneers. They report about the good and the difficult times in both marriages and, taken together, create an extraordinary family saga. Not least of all they constitute a document of American's journey into the modern world. |
| Notes | Correspondence of Wyss family in Switzerland and America. Donated by the Swiss American Historical Society, 2007. In MadCat |
| Call Number | MKI/SHS F870 S9 W9713 2007 |
| MKI Terms | Wyss, Jakob Otto, 1846-1927/ Swiss Americans -- California/ Letters/ 19th century/ Farm life/ Swiss Americans -- Correspondence/Klau (Calif.) -- History |