Chronological notes from Williams letters to his wife Katie

William Chalmers ((1817-1891) traveled to the US in search of farmland. The trip took about 4 months from late May to September of 1870. William wrote many letters to his wife, Catherine, who he called "my dearest Katie".

Here is a list of highlights. The complete letters are published as Letters on a Journey to the West and is included in the "blackbook" of Chalmers History that was published by John Chalmers in the mid 1970's

Date	Location	Location	notes
26-May
31-May	Liverpool	Diggies Hotel
3-Jun		Onboard City of Washington	On our way to Queenstown Island
4-Jun
7-Jun
14-Jun	arrived in NY Harbor	City Washington	Grand views of the Bay of New York
16-Jun	New York	European Hotel	Writing before boarding the train
			Left Thursday night on the New York & Hudson River Central Railway
18-Jun	Niagara		arrived at Niagara for layover between trains
19-Jun	Detroit	Burlington Quincy Railway	Burlington Quincy Railway
21-Jun	Omaha		Saw Red Cloud
27-Jun			4 weeks since leaving home. Heat of emigrant cars made travel unpleasant.
29-Jun	California		Noted Truckee river to Lake Tahoe (misspelled Lake as Tattoe)
4-Jul	San Francisco	Folsome St 16th Corner	Set out for Mr. Scott's farm to see son Alek. Alek have been working for Mr Scott as a farm hand.
			Alek & William went up the Napa Valley
			Stage coach to Calistoga
			Stage coach to Heralsburgh, the Senona Valley, through Santa Rosa & Retaluna
	Sail to Portland	Ship, Moses Tailor	Rough passage. Lost a paddle shaft and waited six hours for repairs.
13-Jul	Portland	American Exchange Hotel	From newspaper article - On his arrival here, Mr Chalmers made the acquaintance of Mr Jacob Stitzel, of the firm of Stitzel & Upton, Real Estate Agents
16-Jul	Portland to Salem	hired carriage	looking at farms for sale in the Willamette valley
17-Jul	Salem	Attended Methodist Church
18-Jul		hired a new team for the carriage	Linn Co, dined in Lebanon, returned to Albany
19-Jul			Crossed the Willamette (by ferry), saw farms, supped in McMinnville, then on toe Washington County
20-Jul	Washington County		Met with Benjamin Cornelius, bought farm of roughly 975 acres for $14,268
21-Jul	Portland	American Exchange Hotel	Arrived after 200 mile journey in a light carriage.
3-Aug			Planned to depart to return to Scotland. Alek will stay and work as farmhand for Mr Cornelius until October 1st with it is "time to enter the land"
	Farm included the following
		3 span (teams) of work horses
		4 yearling colts
		2 yr old colts
		3 cows
		3 calves
		2 yearling calves
		100 sheep
		40 hogs
		20 acres of June sown wheat
		Barn full of hay
		wagon
		ploughs and harrows

 

Part 2 - Summary of the trip from Scottish newspaper, Banffshire Journal, September 6th, 1870

After William returned to Scotland, the following article was published in the local newspaper - 

THE PRESS ON MR CHALMERS' LAND PURCHASE.

AN EXAMPLE FOR SCOTCH FARMERS. Our readers will learn with interest, and in some respects with regret, that Mr Chalmers, Oldwhat (his hometown), well known as a successful breeder of short-horns, and a most enterprising farmer, has made a purchase of land in the State of Oregon, and intends removing thither with his family. 

The Daily Bulletin of Portland, Oregon, of the 22d July last, thus refers to the purchase :-"Mr Chalmers left the old country on May 29th; crossed the continent by the Overland Railway, and came here by steamer from San Francisco, on the 15th of the current month. He is accompanied by one of his sons, a young man of about twenty years. On his arrival here, Mr Chalmers made the acquaintance of Mr Jacob Stitzel, of the firm of Stitzel & Upton, Real Estate Agents, and that gentleman provided a team suitable for the extended tour, and took Mr Chalmers and his son from this city, through Clackamas and Marion counties, on the east side of the Willamette river, to Albany, and from there to Lebanon, Brownsville, and other points in Linn county.