THE ORIGIN AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE BANCROFT PACIFIC STATES PUBLICATIONS:
A HISTORY OF A HISTORY.--I.
By WILLIAM ALFRED MORRIS.
The true student of history, when confronted for the first time with a
statement of what purports to be an historical fact, weighs at the
outset, as all-important, the evidence of its accuracy. If there be at
hand no means of verifying the statement, the only ground of assurance
is a knowledge of who is speaking, how likely he is to know the truth,
and how well fitted he is to tell it; for to be a writer of accurate
history one must not only know facts, but must also be truthful, and
so far above bias upon his subject as to be able to treat it fairly,
openly, and without false coloring of any part. It is therefore the
first canon of historical criticism to accept as authority no
statement unless it be known who is making that statement.
The greater our interest in a given subject, the more important to us
becomes the question of the authority for all statements concerning
that subject. As the field of history is narrowed down to a single
state or to a single locality, where every man may to a certain
extent be an historian, an anonymous written account, though excellent
in itself, will still be viewed with suspicion. The fact that there is
a good local knowledge of the subject by no means removes the
necessity of determining authorship.
Fortunate it is for the Pacific States and Territories of the United
States that data concerning their history from its beginning were
collected during the lifetime of men who laid the foundations of these
commonwealths. It is then a matter of the highest importance to the
people of this vast empire to know who wove this material together,
and wrote the only attempt at a full and connected history of the
Pacific Coast which has ever been published.
The completion of the Bancroft series of Pacific Slope histories, to
which reference is here made, marks an event unique in the annals of
history writing. At no other time and in no other land has there been
carried to completion a work of like character and magnitude. There
had previously been written a few histories of Oregon and California
covering a certain period, and designed chiefly to give a treatment of
a certain institution or political subject, but so far as the thorough
working up of the whole ground was concerned, a virgin field presented
itself.
Moreover, the undertaking was an unusually inspiring one. It was none
other than that of tracing from the days when Europeans first trod the
Pacific shores of America the sequence of events by which these lands
were acquired and occupied by their present holders, political
governments organized, and the development of resources entered upon;
in short, it was the following up of the successive steps by which the
institutions and industries of a nineteenth century civilization were
established in a western wilderness. When we remember that the greater
part of this record could at the time of writing be made from
information furnished directly by the men who made this history, and
that the lack of material which so often embarrasses the writer could
not here be a cause of complaint, we may well conclude that such an
opportunity had never before fallen to the lot of the historian.
Again, in the vast collection of historical sources into one place, as
well as in the newness of the field and inspiring nature of the work,
the undertaking presents a most remarkable feature. The projector of
this enterprise was the first on the coast to undertake such a
collection on a large scale. This fact, together with the recency of
many of the events, which both rendered an unending number of
eye-witnesses easily accessible for procuring personal narratives, and
likewise caused those who possessed papers and books throwing light
upon history, to set slight value upon them, enabled Mr. Bancroft to
collect a library of material such as on the beginning and early
chapters of Pacific Coast history in all probability can never again
be equalled.
Finally, in the amount of material which it presents, and in the
extent of ground which it covers, the Bancroft series has attained
epoch-making proportions. So closely related is the history of the
Pacific states and territories of the United States to that of the
regions north and south, that to insure a complete understanding of it
required the writing also of the History of Mexico, Texas, and Central
America, as well as that of British Columbia and Alaska. When we learn
that two thousand different authorities were consulted in writing the
History of Central America, and ten thousand in arranging the material
for the History of Mexico; that in taking out material for the History
of California eight men were employed for six years; and that in
merely indexing the material for the History of Mexico five men worked
ten years, we are inclined to quote approvingly these words of Mr.
Bancroft:
"I say, then, without unpardonable boasting, that in my opinion there
never in the history of literature was performed so consummate a feat
as the gathering, abstracting, and arranging of the material for this
History of the Pacific States": (Bancroft's Literary Industries, 581).
The history of no American locality would be considered without some
account of its aborigines. The result, then, of this Bancroft plan has
been the writing of the History of the Pacific slope of the continent
from Bering Sea to Darien, with a History of the Native Races in five
volumes as an introduction, and a half dozen volumes of sketches and
essays by way of conclusion, in all thirty-nine octavo volumes.
But this work, the greatest of the kind, few if any of whose separate
divisions have been superseded by later works has suffered greatly in
the estimation of historians because they do not know who is authority
for the statements contained in them. Justice to the people of any
state or territory whose history appears in this series demands that
they should know in whose words it is related. A compliance with the
reasonable expectations of the pioneers who contributed books,
narrations, and documents to aid in the preparation of a standard
history of their respective states calls for a public knowledge of the
identity of the writer to the end that the volume in which their chief
interest centers be not stigmatized as anonymous. And above all, a
conformity with usage, not to mention an observance of the principles
of right, requires that the author of finished work published in this
series, or any other, should receive public acknowledgment of his
labors and whatever of praise or blame is his due.
Ten years ago it was shown in the California press that the Bancroft
histories are not the works of the man who claims to be their author.
But to say that "The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft" were written by
any person other than Hubert Howe Bancroft is such a contradiction as
to startle today the great majority both East and West whose attention
have never been directed to the question. To determine the authorship
of a work we are wont to consult its title page, and the title pages
of these volumes all declare that they are "By Hubert Howe Bancroft."
The advertising matter sent out by the Bancroft publishing
establishment refers to them as "the writings of Mr. Bancroft," with
never a suggestion that any other person wrote a line. The same course
was followed in the reviews of these volumes, which at the time of
their publication were scattered by the press throughout the length
and breadth of the leading countries of Europe, as well as in our
land, although here we must remember that book reviews may be but
another name for advertising matter prepared by the publisher and
inserted at advertising rates. In his Literary Industries, the volume
giving an account of his literary activities, Mr. Bancroft refers to
himself as the author (Lit. Ind., 361, 661), and speaks of his own
writing without a clear reference to that of others (Lit. Ind., 288,
568, 571, 653) in such terms as to give the impression that he was the
only writer who prepared the manuscript as it went to the printer.
True, he mentions assistants, and we can easily see, as he tells us,
that he must have had fifteen or twenty note takers, cataloguers, and
other library aids (Lit. Ind., 582) in order to arrange so vast an
amount of material. When assistants are mentioned it is usually in
words which justify the reader in the inference that these aids are
meant (see Central America I, preface, viii; Literary Industries,
584), and that, therefore, the assistants are in no sense authors.
By a careful reading of the Literary Industries, however, we find that
there was a class of assistants who are differentiated from ordinary
library aids, by the statement that they were "more experienced and
able," and whose work Mr. Bancroft describes as "the study and
reduction of certain minor sections of the history which I employed in
my writing after more or less condensation and change": (Lit. Ind.,
568). But even this passage seems to indicate that the material
prepared by these writers was rewritten by Mr. Bancroft.
As a result, therefore, of the indication of the title page of these
works, of the recognition of the public press, of the statements of
the Literary Industries, and of Mr. Bancroft's connection with the
work widely known through personal means, it happens that today he is
called the "Historian of the Pacific Coast." Furthermore, he is the
only person to whom such a title is given, being so recognized by
newspapers, encyclopedias, and the people at large. In the minds of
the great number, Hubert Howe Bancroft is the historian of the Pacific
states for just the same reason that George Bancroft is the historian
of the United States. Speaking in accord with this popular estimate of
Mr. Bancroft's work, Wendell Phillips once called him "The Macaulay of
the West."
Nowhere, however, can there be found a statement by this historian in
which he lays an unequivocal claim to the authorship of the works
which have been published under his name. By his own words quoted
above he admits that the work was, at least in part, coöperative, and
that he was a compiler of the work of his assistants. And for any one
man to assert authorship of the Bancroft series of histories would be
preposterous. According to actual computation, the mere work of
arranging the material and writing the History of the Pacific States,
after a small army of note-takers had concluded their operations,
represents an equivalent to the labors of one man for a hundred
years: (Frances Fuller Victor in _Salt Lake Tribune_, April 14, 1893.)
Moreover, the use of quotations from foreign languages, of which Mr.
Bancroft had no knowledge, proves that parts of the work are not from
his pen, while the different literary styles (see for example, the
review of Oregon I in the _New York Tribune_, Nov. 26, 1886; in the
_S. F. Argonaut_, Oct. 23, 1886; in the _Sacramento D. Record-Union_,
Oct. 27, 1886; and in the _Portland Oregonian_, Oct. 28, 1886), and
varying degrees of historical workmanship (Compare reviews of Oregon
II in _N. Y. Tribune_, January, 1887; and in _S. F. Chronicle_, Jan.
13, 1887, with reviews of other Bancroft works) clearly reveal the
work of a number of writers.
A little knowledge on this point has proved a dangerous thing for the
reputation of the histories. Some of the newspapers of the coast have
learned that Mr. Bancroft did not do all the writing and have even
published the names of other authors of the series with statements
more or less conjectural as to the writing done by them. In some
cases, wild speculations as to the authorship of the works have been
published. Many are under the impression that those who went about
taking statements of pioneers and in other ways collecting material
were themselves writing the manuscript which was published, and that
consequently much of the history is no more critically written than an
ordinary newspaper article, and as little known about its authorship.
Furthermore, it is believed in some quarters that those who prepared
narrations for Mr. Bancroft were writing history for him to publish,
and that persons not connected with the Bancroft library were authors
of parts of the work. In accordance with this idea, it has been
claimed that a certain tone favorable to the Mormons which runs
through the History of Utah is to be accounted for by the theory that
the volume was written by some one connected with the Mormon church,
whereas the truth is that, although the historian of that church
prepared some data for Mr. Bancroft's use, the work was prepared in
the library by Mr. Bancroft and one of his assistants from the annals
in his possession (Frances Fuller Victor in _Salt Lake Tribune_, April
14, 1893).
In some instances, the histories have lost standing because of the
assumption that Mr. Bancroft was their author. Thus statements in the
History of California supposed to be, but now known not to be from his
pen, have been singled out as reckless, and argument has been made
upon the principle "false in one thing, false in all," that the seven
whole volumes of California history are unworthy of credence (pamphlet
proceedings of the Society of California Pioneers in reference to the
histories of Hubert Howe Bancroft, page 10). Following this lead an
attempt has been made to discredit Bancroft's Oregon on the ground
that his California is said to be unreliable.
Had Mr. Bancroft made public the fact that three persons besides
himself wrote the History of California, that he was in reality the
author of but sixty pages in the entire seven volumes of that set,
that he had not the least claim to the authorship of the History of
Oregon, and that the histories of the two states were in the main
written by different persons, the fallacy of this argument would have
been clear, estimates of the collections of matter in these volumes
would have been made on their own intrinsic merit, and their value
would not have been impaired by false assumptions concerning their
authorship.
A third result of this neglect of Mr. Bancroft to make public
acknowledgment of the extent of the writings of his assistants has
been the accusation "that he is a purloiner of other peoples' brains,"
(_Salt Lake Tribune_, Feb. 16, 1893) and that he has made a
reputation as an author at the expense of his assistants. Concerning
this charge, the most remarkable ever made in the annals of American
historical writing, the reader must be the judge after weighing all
the facts.
The writer's apology for this article is his desire to give such facts
as he has in the hope that they will do something to clear up mistaken
ideas concerning the authorship of these histories, that they may aid
somewhat in forming a correct estimate of the series, and that they
may secure for the other authors as well as for Mr. Bancroft whatever
credit is rightfully theirs. To these ends it is to be hoped that
those who have any additional facts will make them public. The late
Frances Fuller Victor, one of the Bancroft corps of writers, had long
collected material on the authorship of the histories. In preparing
this paper, the writer has depended largely upon information furnished
by her correspondence and papers, and by explanations given by her in
conversation.
The statement of Mr. Bancroft in the Literary Industries to the effect
that his "assistants" merely wrote up minor topics which he then used
in his own writing, must be taken as applying to the work as projected
rather than as actually carried out. In a letter written in 1878
before the final division of labor was made, Mr. Bancroft said, "When
all the material I have is gone over and notes taken according to the
general plan, I shall give one person one thing or one part to write,
and another person another part": (Letter to Mrs. Victor of August 1,
1878.) Here, it will be observed, the plan is for the "assistants" to
do the actual work of writing history and not to prepare material for
their chief to use in his writing. And it will shortly appear that it
was the "assistants" who wrote the work and Mr. Bancroft who wrote the
minor parts. To understand why the intended order was thus reversed,
it is necessary to study the growth of the history project and to
enter into the steps through which it was evolved.
Hubert Howe Bancroft, with whose name these works are linked, and who
has been widely credited as their author, is a native of Granville,
Ohio, where he was born May 5, 1832, a descendent of old New England
families through both the paternal and maternal lines. In his own
account of his life (Literary Industries, 47-244), he tells us that
when but three years old he could read the New Testament without
having to spell many of the words. At the school age, however, he
found it difficult to learn, and after a winter at the brick
schoolhouse under the tutelage of a brother of his mother, the latter
became satisfied that he was not treated judiciously and fairly took
him out of school.
A sister had married George H. Derby, a bookseller of Geneva, New
York, subsequently of Buffalo, and at about the age of fifteen, the
boy was offered the choice of preparing for college or entering the
Buffalo bookstore. He at first chose the former course and spent a
year in the academy of his town, but becoming discouraged in his
study, entered the employ of Derby in August, 1848. Discharged from
the store in six months, he returned to Ohio and acted as a sales
agent for his brother-in-law's goods with such success that he was
invited back to the store and became a clerk with the beginning of the
year 1850. His father, influenced by the gold excitement, decided to
go to California in February of that year, and with George L. Kenny,
his closest friend, he was sent by Derby to handle books in the land
of gold, setting out in December, 1851.
After their arrival in San Francisco, Sacramento was determined upon
as a place of business, and young Bancroft worked in the mines until
arrangements could be made with his brother-in-law. But Derby's death
in the meantime ended the plan, and in 1853, he set out to try his
fortune at the newly-boomed mining town of Crescent City. Here he was
employed as bookkeeper and bookseller, and made six or eight thousand
dollars, most of which he subsequently lost through investing in
Crescent City property. In 1855, Mr. Bancroft made a visit to his old
home in the East, and his sister, in return for his assistance in
recovering the amount of Derby's California investment, let him have
the sum, amounting to $5,500, with which to begin business. Obtaining
credit in New York he shipped a ten thousand dollar stock of goods for
San Francisco, and with Kenny organized the firm of H. H. Bancroft and
Company about December 1, 1856.
From the first, Mr. Bancroft tells us, he had a taste for publishing,
and it was but three years until the inception of what grew into the
historical project. In 1859, Wm. H. Knight, manager of the Bancroft
publishing department, while employed in preparing the Hand Book
Almanac for the next year, asked for the books necessary to carry on
the work. It occurred to the head of the firm that he would again have
occasion to refer to books on the coast states, and he accordingly
transferred to Mr. Knight a copy of each of the fifty or seventy-five
books in stock that had reference to the country. Later he added to
the number by purchases in second-hand stores, and when in the East
secured from the bookstores of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia,
volumes which fell under his observation. By 1862, he had a thousand
volumes, and upon a visit to London and Paris in that year, learned
that much more remained to be done. In 1866, he started on a search
throughout Europe, which resulted in increasing his collection to ten
thousand volumes. As to the field covered by these works, he says:
"Gradually and almost imperceptibly had the area of my efforts
enlarged. From Oregon it was but a step to British Columbia and
Alaska; and as I was obliged from California to go to Mexico and
Spain, it finally became settled in my mind to make the western half
of North America my field": (Lit. Ind. 180). He now began the
collection of Mexican works and the purchase of private libraries in
the United States. In 1869, after ten years' collecting, the library
numbered sixteen thousand volumes, about half of which were pamphlets.
In May of the next year, these were placed on one floor of the
Bancroft building on Market Street, and a young New Englander named
Henry L. Oak, lately editor of a religious journal published by the
firm, was installed as librarian.
(The main facts of Oak's life, as learned by Mrs. Victor, are as
follows: Henry Labbeus Oak was born at Garland, Maine, in 1844. His
ancestry--including the family names of Oak, Merriam, Hastings, Hill,
and Smith--was entirely American from a period preceding the
Revolutionary War, being originally English and Welsh. He was educated
at the public and private schools of his native town until, in 1861,
he entered Bowdoin College, and was graduated at Dartmouth in the
class of 1865. During his college course, he taught in the public and
high schools of different towns in Maine; and after graduation, for a
year in an academy at Morristown, New Jersey.
Mr. Oak came to California by steamer in 1866, and, after some
attempts at commercial life, broken by a long illness, again became a
teacher. A year was spent as principal of the public school at
Haywards, and as instructor in the collegiate institute at Napa, and
in the spring of 1868, he became office editor of the _Occident_, a
Presbyterian paper which the Bancroft house was then publishing for an
association. According to Mr. Bancroft (Lit. Ind. 219), "the whole
burden of the journal gradually fell on him." But when, owing to a
disagreement with the religious association, the firm declined to
publish the paper any longer, the young editor was left without
employment. In the meantime a somewhat erratic Englishman named
Bosquetti had succeeded Knight as custodian of the Bancroft library,
and Oak was appointed to assist him. Upon his decamping a few months
later, at the end of 1868, Mr. Oak was appointed to the position.)
The beginning of a classification of the material in the library had
been made by Mr. Knight, who saved clippings and arranged them in
scrap-books and boxes. It now became Oak's duty to superintend the
extraction of material from the volumes in his custody and to
catalogue new books as they came in. In May, 1871, he prepared for
publication by the firm, two guide-books for tourists. It was at the
same time that Mr. Bancroft took another step toward the history plan.
The plan of publishing a Pacific Coast encyclopedia had been under
consideration for a year or two, and was now adopted. Mr. Bancroft
began to look for contributors. John S. Hittell, publisher of the
Commerce and Industries of the Pacific Coast, prepared a list of the
principal subjects to be treated, and Oak began to gather statements
from pioneers and contributors of every sort by issuing circulars and
writing letters. For about a year the preparations continued. During
the first half of 1872 Ora Oak, a younger brother of the librarian,
together with others, extracted material on Pacific Coast voyages and
travels. Walter M. Fisher, an educated young Englishman who came to
the library early in the year, wrote out such travels as those of
Bryant, Bayard Taylor, and Humboldt. The librarian, finding inadequate
the system of indexing the library then in use, set to work to devise
a more practical one, and spent three months in bringing it to
perfection. This was apparently the only part of the year's work which
proved abiding.
That the material in the Bancroft library was better adapted to the
preparation of a history than of an encyclopedia gradually appeared to
those who came in contact with it. (Walter M. Fisher was born in
Ulster in 1849, and was the son of a Presbyterian clergyman, a member
of an English and Scotch colony. He was educated at Queen's College,
Belfast. Nemos remembered him as "a handsome fellow, a great eater,
and a hard worker." Together with Harcourt, he left Bancroft's employ
in 1874 to accept the editorship of the _Overland Monthly_. Returning
to London in 1875, he published a clever work entitled the
_Californians_. Subsequently he became a physician). After several
years of suggestion, discussion, and change, Mr. Bancroft decided to
reshape the entire plan of work accordingly. The history of the
Pacific slope of the continent was to be written, beginning at the
Isthmus of Panama with the first appearance of the Spaniards, and then
taking up the successive regions to the north as their history had its
beginning. This work, embracing an account of all the various
republics, provinces, states, and territories along the Pacific, it
was decided to designate as The History of the Pacific States.
Heretofore, Mr. Bancroft had been known only as bookseller and
publisher, and manager of one of San Francisco's large business
houses. His experience in writing had been limited to the preparation
of some material for the proposed encyclopedia. But now, when he had
reached the age of forty years, practically all of them except the
first sixteen, spent in the world of business, the head of the firm of
H. H. Bancroft and Company made his first venture as a literary man,
writing himself and rewriting the work of others. He began by
preparing what he considered a suitable introduction to the history.
The task was not easy, especially for one unaccustomed to write. In
fourteen weeks he had taken out material from which he wrote three
hundred pages of introduction to the History of Central America which
he subsequently reduced to seventy-five pages. This seems to have been
the only part of the work that he considered as exclusively his own
theme: (Lit. Ind., 291). But this matter subsequently had to be
rewritten.
While writing on this volume, Mr. Bancroft became convinced that the
history could not be complete without an account of the original
inhabitants of the coast. To quote his own words, "I did not fancy
them, I would gladly have avoided them. I was no archæologist,
ethnologist, or antiquary, and I had no desire to become such. My
tastes in the matter, however, did not dispose of the subject. The
savages were there, and there was no help for me; I must write them up
to get rid of them." To compile information concerning the manners and
customs, the mythology, the language, and the antiquities of these
aborigines, Mr. Bancroft estimated that two volumes would be required:
(Lit. Ind., 301). The Native Races as completed is a work of five
volumes. So much of an expansion in all of the early historical plan
was necessary.
Mr. Bancroft, wrote but two hundred and seventy out of the four
thousand pages of the Native Races, devoting his time while that
series was in preparation largely to a rewriting of the first volume
of Central America, to a continuation of a summary of early voyages
for other volumes, and to a perfection of the plan and a collecting of
material for the histories. His relation to this work may be likened
to that of a managing editor. He decided upon the division of labor as
suggested by Oak or others, and required changes in the manuscript as
completed if he considered them necessary, either for the sake of
treatment or style, but the extent of his writing as printed in this
work certainly falls far short of that necessary to substantiate the
claim which he has made to its authorship. The chapter which he wrote
was that on the Hyperboreans. As to this work, he tells us in the
Literary Industries that during the first half of the year 1873 he
"was writing on northern Indian matter, giving out the notes on the
southern division to go over the field again and take out additional
notes": (Lit. Ind. 571). As to his further connection with the work,
he says that in December of the same year he became convinced that the
plan of treating Indian languages adopted by Goldschmidt was not the
proper one, and that the latter was "obliged to go over the entire
field again and re-arrange and add to the subject matter before I
would attempt the writing of it." (Lit. Ind., 573.) This passage
ascribes the actual preparation of the volume to Goldschmidt, and the
writing referred to here must have been largely in the nature of
editorial work. It is hardly to be presumed that a man of Mr.
Bancroft's education and slight literary experience would have
attempted at this time anything so ambitious as the complete
preparation of a treatise on Indian languages.
We see, then, that although the influence of Mr. Bancroft was felt in
arrangement and even in style, the Native Races was written almost
entirely by other persons. But one would hardly suppose that such was
the case from reading the words: "During the progress of this work I
succeeded in utilizing the labors of my assistants to the full extent
of my anticipations": (Lit. Ind., 304).
When speaking in the Literary Industries of work done for him by
others, Mr. Bancroft shows a habit which is derived from his long
experience as manager of a business concern. His constant tendency is
to speak of work done by those in his employ as his work, neglecting
a distinction between a publisher and an author, which is a vital one.
The reputation of a publishing house depends upon the workmanship of
its employés, but that of an author depends solely upon his own
talents and the work of his own hands. While a publisher may with all
propriety speak of work done by agents as his printing, for him to say
that writing done for him by others is his writing is a positive
misstatement. When Mr. Bancroft paid his writers for their manuscript,
he became its owner with full rights of publication, but no one will
say for a moment that he thereby became the author. In speaking of the
Native Races, as well as the History of the Pacific States, Mr.
Bancroft often does so in such terms as to indicate that writing was
done by him when it was his only by purchase. (Compare statements in
Literary Industries, 303, 568, 571, and in Native Races I, preface
xiii, with the facts as shown by the statements of different members
of Bancroft's literary corps as to the work actually done by each
writer and as given later in this article.)
The division of responsibility for collating and arranging facts for
the various divisions of the Native Races was made apparently toward
the latter part of the year 1872. We are told that routine work was
laid aside for three or four weeks in the middle of the summer, and
this time devoted to placing the library in order and cataloguing the
new books which had been added. This was obviously done preparatory to
entering upon the new work. To a young Englishman who called himself
T. Arundel-Harcourt, and who entered the library in November, was
assigned the preparation of that portion of the work devoted to the
manners and customs of the civilized nations. (This man's true name he
did not reveal. His collaborator Nemos says that he attended a
boarding school, and then continued his studies in Germany, at
Heidelberg, according to his own account. He claimed to have come to
America with $5,000 in pocket money, and found his way first to
Montana. On his arrival at San Francisco he entered the library.
Leaving in 1874 to assume editorship of the _Overland Monthly_ with
Fisher, he was soon back in Bancroft's employ. Naturally he was the
most able of the library corps. But while he was brilliant, handsome,
and witty, he was at the same time erratic and unreliable. He died in
1884.)
Mr. Fisher's part was mythology, while the division of the work
relating to language was given to Albert Goldschmidt, a German, who
had been employed in the library since the end of 1871. (According to
Nemos, Goldschmidt was said to have been the son of a Jewish clothing
dealer at Hamburg. In early life he ran off to sea, and claimed to
have become master of a vessel. He had acquired much general
knowledge, and was musically inclined, often singing in church choirs.
Before coming to the library Nemos says that he led a "vagarious life"
in Nevada. As a linguist he had great ability, and was able to
translate almost any language which he encountered, but was inclined
to fritter away his time. Nemos declared him "the most systematic
idler in the library." This failing brought about his discharge. Later
he became a mining superintendent in Chihuahua.) Mr. Oak took the
subject of Antiquities and Aboriginal History (preface to Native Races
I, p. 13).
The undertaking was an enormous one, because of the vast quantities of
material to be handled, as well as the inexperience of the workers,
which made it necessary for them to devise their own system as they
proceeded. It is said that by an actual calculation the sum total of
all the labor expended upon each of the five volumes of the series
represents an equivalent to the work of one man for ten years.
(Literary Industries, 305). Indeed, Mr. Bancroft's own reason for
entrusting this work to others is that it would have taken him a half
century, leaving his main work untouched. Mr. Oak's indexing system
proved a great labor saver, as by it the indexers went through all the
material, classifying and making references. They were followed
immediately by note-takers, who copied the facts indicated in these
references. The writers then had the data placed before them for
arrangement. When Mr. Bancroft's chapter on the Hyperboreans was
completed he went over it with them, all making criticisms and
suggestions to be adopted in the arrangement of the other divisions as
well as that one. By this means was the library system perfected, a
common method developed, and a corps of library workers trained: (Lit.
Ind., 304).
The Native Races was very much in the nature of a compilation, and our
knowledge concerning the authorship of its various parts is
necessarily less exact than is true of any of the other Bancroft
works. Such facts as are at hand come from two schedules--one of his
own works, the other of that of the corps generally--prepared by
William Nemos, a gifted Swedish writer who entered the library in
1873, subsequently becoming Oak's chief assistant, and ultimately his
successor in the librarian's office; from separate information gained
by Frances Fuller Victor as to the part of the work done by Oak. (This
consists of three different statements, one in a letter to a friend,
another in an autobiographical sketch, and a third in a statement
copied by Mrs. Victor. Mr. Oak himself refuses to give testimony,
doubtless on account of his former intimate personal connection with
Mr. Bancroft and his acquiescence in the plan followed, as well as his
poor health, which renders him unwilling to enter into a discussion
of the question, and from statements in an autobiography of Thomas
Savage, chief Spanish interpreter in the library after August, 1873.)
The facts as deduced from these sources show that Oak wrote more of
the Native Races than any one else, two fifths of the entire work, or
to be exact, fifteen hundred and ninety-seven pages out of four
thousand. While engaged in this writing, it must be remembered that he
also acted as "chief assistant to Mr. Bancroft, manager of all details
of this work, as well as that on the History, overseer of the corps of
workers, and chief proof reader," duties which so engrossed his time
that he wrote principally between eight o'clock in the evening and
midnight. The fourth volume on Antiquities is his work entire, as is
also the fifth on Primitive History, except the introductory chapter
on the Origin of the Americans, in the preparation of which it would
appear that Bancroft had a hand (Lit. Ind., 570), and the last three
chapters dealing with the tribes of Central America, the authorship of
which the writer has no means of determining. Nemos says, however,
that he prepared "a good deal of clean manuscript" for this volume as
well as for some others.
To Harcourt the division of the field as already given points as the
author of the second volume. Oak wrote the introductory chapter
entitled General View of the Civilized Nations, and also the chapter
on the Aztec Picture Writing and Maya Arts Calendar and Hieroglyphics.
Bancroft is the author of the chapter on Savagism and Civilization,
and Nemos is to be credited with the writing of some parts. As
Harcourt wrote six hundred and thirty-six pages of the Native Races,
and there appears but one reference to his writing in connection with
another volume, and that a chapter of a hundred and fifty pages, we
may conclude that the remainder of Volume II is from his pen.
With Fisher rests the credit for the authorship in the main of the
Mythology portion of the third volume. Nemos relates that Fisher
sought his aid for this work soon after he came to the library,
believing that his previous training in philosophy fitted him for
mythology, and that Fisher obtained for him the continuation of the
volume, when in October, 1874, he left it "half finished" to accept
the editorship of the _Overland Monthly_. Nemos then being new to the
work, Harcourt revised his manuscript.
To Goldschmidt had been assigned the task of writing the treatise on
Indian languages for the third volume. The evidence of Nemos shows
that Goldschmidt prepared this part of the work, although the
quotation from the Literary Industries already given seems to show
that it was revised throughout once, and afterward rewritten, in part,
at least, by Bancroft. Goldschmidt also prepared the ethnographical
map of the coast.
Of the first volume, Oak wrote about half of the preface, and the
chapter on the Columbians, Harcourt the chapter on the Californians,
and Nemos and Savage the remainder, with the exception of a few slight
parts prepared by others.
In a compilation like the Native Races, there was of necessity much
matter printed in such a form that those who prepared it could not
claim the authorship. Of this character were the contributions of Mr.
Savage, the Spanish expert. Nemos also claimed to be the author of
parts of every volume except the fourth, but from his own statements
we learn that much of his work, like Savage's, consisted in making
translations.
The public acknowledgment made in the introduction of this work
concerning the part done by the several writers would be fair, if we
overlook the fact that its wording tends to give an exaggerated idea
of Mr. Bancroft's part in it--were the name of the latter but printed
on the title page as editor or compiler. But by omitting either word
he has announced himself to the world as author. His own explanation
for this seems to be that he considers himself responsible for the
work in treatment and style (Native Races I, Preface XIII), but the
real reason is no doubt to be found in a desire to give the work
standing in the literary world by ascribing it to one name already
quite widely known among book dealers and publishers.
As regards scientific merit these volumes can not make great claims.
No serious attempt was made to collect facts concerning the American
Indians of the West at first hand. Mr. Bancroft made no pretensions as
an antiquarian or ethnologist, content with compiling what others had
written and thus discharging his duty toward the introductory part of
his work that he might the sooner take up the more serious task of
writing the histories. Different parts of the Native Races differ
greatly in value. Oak was habitually scholarly and always made an
effort at honest research. Nemos was likewise thoroughly reliable.
Goldschmidt was noted for his shiftlessness, and Fisher and Harcourt
are charged with such uncritical methods as the incorporation in their
writings of statements found in magazine articles which were nowhere
verified. (Mrs. Victor had learned of this.) The last three must,
therefore, be considered clever and brilliant writers rather than
critical historians.
The chief value of the Native Races consisted in the fact that it
presented in accessible form a classified collection of all the facts
known concerning the Indians of the Pacific slope. Philosophers who
made use of these facts in their generalizations, while prizing the
work highly, were not, however, especially concerned as to how it was
written. In the East and in Europe the discovery was not made that it
is merely a compilation. The Native Races was regarded as a work of
great learning (see Literary Industries, 335, 356) and its authorship
ascribed to Hubert Howe Bancroft in accordance with a literal reading
of its title page. The five volumes were published at three-month
intervals between October 1, 1874, and Christmas, 1875. Just before
the first volume appeared, Mr. Bancroft made what he called a literary
pilgrimage to the Eastern States to bring himself and the work to the
notice of the great literary men there. He also made arrangements for
publication in France and Germany simultaneously with the issuing of
the volumes in New York. This was the result as told in his own words:
"Never probably was a book so generally and so favorably reviewed by
the best journals in Europe and America. Never was an author more
suddenly or more thoroughly brought to the attention of literary men
everywhere": (Lit. Ind., 361.)
As director and manager of the Native Races, Mr. Bancroft performed a
literary service of great importance and in such a capacity richly
deserved the unsparing praise which was showered upon him. But the
commendation and honor bestowed upon him as author of the work we must
in all fairness regard as quite a different matter. According to his
own statement (Lit. Ind., 361), this must be considered as the status
generally assigned him and the basis upon which he was presented with
a number of complimentary certificates and honorary diplomas, among
them being honorary membership in the Massachusetts Historical
Society, the American Antiquarian Society, and the Buffalo Historical
Society, and the honorary degree of Master of Arts at Yale.
So far as the question of authorship was concerned, all reviews and
general press mention of subsequent Bancroft publications followed
along the same line as the reviews of the Native Races, recognizing
Mr. Bancroft alone as the author. We may, therefore, conclude as does
he himself (Lit. Ind., 361, 661) that it was his being accredited with
the authorship of the Native Races which made for him his literary
reputation. It has been shown that this credit depended in turn upon
the fact that his own name was on the title page as author instead of
managing editor. The facts show, therefore, that Mr. Bancroft was
assisted largely by his corps of writers even in the revision of
manuscripts, that due credit has never been given Oak, Fisher,
Harcourt, Goldschmidt, and Nemos, who, aided by a number of compilers
and writers of fragmentary bits, are the true authors of the work, and
that the rise of the fame of Hubert Howe Bancroft as an historical
writer was founded upon a popular misconception, both as to the nature
of his first work and his connection with that work.
Just as fast as the members of the library force ended their
respective labors on the Native Races, they were set to work taking
notes for the history, Mr. Oak continuing to act as manager of detail
as heretofore. The system of note-taking was perfected by Mr. Nemos
and now included a boiling down process by which new members could so
prepare rough material as to permit writers to turn out manuscript
more quickly.
Laying aside for the time being the work on Central America and
Mexico, Bancroft and Oak decided to direct the activities of a library
force now thoroughly trained to the material on California, since
California history is the starting point for that of a number of other
states, including Northern Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, and more
especially because the mass of original material collected for this
state was greater than for any other, a fact necessitating the
reduction to a minimum of the possibility of its accidental
destruction while yet unused: (Lit. Ind., 583.) The actual
organization of the material on the Southwest, including the writing
of the history of the Northern Mexican states and Texas down to 1800,
together with the Spanish and Mexican annals of Arizona, New Mexico,
California, and the Northwest Coast, was entrusted to Oak as his
special field.
The story of the collection of this California material as told by Mr.
Bancroft (Lit. Ind., 365 and sq.) is one of the most interesting
connected with the history enterprise. In October, 1873, there had
entered his service one Enrique Cerruti, an erratic individual, born
in Italy, but intimately acquainted with the ways of Spanish-Americans
through a long residence in Bolivia, under the government of which
state he had served in a diplomatic capacity. Cerruti's diplomacy was
turned toward the securing of historical facts in the possession of
the old Spanish residents of California, and the first task set for
his craft was to gain the coöperation of General Vallejo, a native
Californian, early alcalde at San Francisco, and colonizer of Sonoma.
After several months' negotiations, his efforts were rewarded by a
personal narrative from Vallejo, by the gift of his papers, and by his
enthusiastic support in gaining the aid of other Californians of his
own race. Among those who furnished dictations at his instance were
two of his brothers, and his nephew Alvarado, Governor of California
under Mexican rule. For two years Cerruti and Vallejo worked together
collecting, their time being divided between Sonoma, San Francisco,
and Monterey, from which centers they made divers excursions. It seems
that the wily Italian, together with other representatives of Mr.
Bancroft, sometimes gained possession of valuable manuscripts by such
indirection as to cause much dissatisfaction on the part of the
original owners.
The official Spanish records of the country which had been turned over
to the United States Surveyor General at San Francisco consisted of
four or five hundred volumes. To copy these, twelve Spaniards worked
for a year under the direction of Mr. Savage,[40] "the greatest single
effort" ever made in connection with the Bancroft enterprise. The
mission records in possession of the archbishop of San Francisco were
copied by Mr. Savage and three assistants in a month. In quest of data
on Southern California, Bancroft and Oak took a trip to San Diego
early in 1874, returning overland and visiting depositories of
records. On this tour, Judge Benjamin Hays of San Diego turned over to
Mr. Bancroft his historical collections, and subsequently directed the
collecting in the south. The most efficient of the assistants employed
by him was Edward F. Murray who, among other services, copied the
records of the Santa Barbara missions. In March, 1877, Mr. Savage
began work on the civil and ecclesiastical archives at Salinas,
continuing the work at San José, Santa Cruz, and Sacramento. With
others, he obtained dictations of the highest importance from native
Californians and others, and in 1877 and 1878 spent eight months in
that work, visiting all the missions from San Diego to San Juan
Bautista with the exception of San Fernando and Purisima.
While his aids were thus gathering the material upon which the History
of California is founded, Mr. Bancroft, as he tells us (Lit. Ind.,
657-663), was devoting his attention more especially to the gaining of
information concerning the proceedings of the two vigilance committees
that held sway in San Francisco in the "fifties," by no means an easy
task, since the acts of both of these organizations were illegal and
their surviving members could not be expected to talk very freely,
even after a lapse of twenty years. After considerable urging,
however, those who had custody of the records were induced in the
interest of history to turn them over for Mr. Bancroft's inspection.
This material was made use of in the supplemental volumes on Popular
Tribunals; in the first writing of which Mr. Bancroft was himself
engaged from 1875 to 1877. Like his manuscript for Central America,
however, this work had to be revised before its publication ten years
later.
At an early date, Mr. Bancroft tells us (Lit. Ind., 623-628), he had
corresponded with the heads of governments lying within his territory.
The presidents of the Mexican and Central American republics and the
governors of all the states had accorded him every facility. In 1874,
especially favorable letters were received from the presidents of
Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, the latter appointing a special
commissioner to secure and ship documents.
The great mass of California matter, at first so voluminous as to be
appalling, was now in hand, and in 1878 Mr. Bancroft turned his
attention to the Northwest. Upon a visit to British Columbia in that
year, he obtained access to the official records of the province, took
the reminiscences of many old fur traders, secured the papers of
others, and had help from several who had undertaken to write a
history of the country: (Lit. Ind., 534; Hist. N. W. Coast, preface,
viii). It was from this data that Mr. Bancroft in the years
immediately following wrote, with the aid of some other writers, the
History of the Northwest Coast, and the History of British Columbia,
volumes constituting the great part of the work of which he can claim
the actual authorship: (See Lit. Ind., 549.)
The history seeker had already secured the writings of Gov. Elwood
Evans of Washington Territory. Crossing the straits from Victoria, he
made some collections about Puget Sound, and then went to Portland and
Salem, accompanied by Amos Bowman, a stenographer who subsequently
became one of the writers in the library and prepared some manuscript
for the History of British Columbia. (Bowman was a Canadian with some
experience in government surveys and mining explorations. Before
joining Mr. Bancroft on this expedition, he was located at Anacortes,
Washington.) The Oregon Pioneer Association was then in session at
Salem, and a number of its members furnished dictations. The
secretary, J. Henry Brown, was engaged to copy documents in the state
archives (Lit. Ind., 540-546). He subsequently made this matter the
basis of a book which he himself published on Oregon history.
After dictations had been secured in passing through Southern Oregon,
the Oregon material at Mr. Bancroft's disposal was further increased
on his return to San Francisco by the employment of Frances Fuller
Victor, a writer of experience and author of several books on Oregon,
who, during a residence of more than ten years in the state, had
collected data with the intention of herself writing and publishing
its history. As by her researches she had become familiar with the
history of the entire northwestern part of the United States, the
working up of this field was assigned her just as the southwest had
been assigned to Oak.
(Frances Fuller was born in the township of Rome, New York, May 23,
1826. She was a near relation of Judge Reuben H. Walworth, Chancellor
of the State of New York, and through her ancestor, Lucy Walworth,
wife of Veach Williams, who lived at Lebanon, Connecticut, in the
early part of the eighteenth century, claimed descent from Egbert,
the first king of England. Veach Williams himself was descended from
Robert Williams, who came over from England in 1637, and settled at
Roxbury, Massachusetts.
When Mrs. Victor was thirteen years of age, her parents moved to
Wooster, Ohio, and her education was received at a young ladies'
seminary at that place. From an early age she took an interest in
literature, and when but fourteen years old, wrote both prose and
verse for the county papers. A little later the _Cleveland Herald_
paid for her poems, some of which were copied in English journals.
Mrs. Victor's younger sister, Metta, who subsequently married a
Victor, a brother of Frances' husband, was also a writer of marked
ability. Between the two a devoted attachment existed, and in those
days they were ranked with Alice and Phoebe Carey, the four being
referred to as Ohio's boasted quartet of sister poets. The Fuller
sisters contributed verse to the _Home Journal_ of New York City, of
which N. P. Willis and George P. Morris were then the editors. Metta
was known as the "Singing Sybil." Both sisters were highly eulogized
by Willis, who regarded them as destined for a great future as
writers.
In her young womanhood Frances spent a year in New York City, amid
helpful literary associations. Being urged by their friends, the two
sisters published together a volume of their girlhood poems in 1851.
In the more rigorous self-criticism of later years, Mrs. Victor often
called it a mistaken kindness which induced her friends to advise the
publication of these youthful productions. But in these verses is to
be seen the true poetic principle, and their earnestness is especially
conspicuous.
Metta Fuller Victor, after her marriage, took up her residence in New
York City, and continued her literary work both in prose and in
verse. Frances' husband, Henry C. Victor, a naval engineer, was
ordered to California in 1863. She accompanied him, and for nearly two
years wrote for the San Francisco papers, her principal contributions
consisting of city editorials to the _Bulletin_, and a series of
society articles under the _nom de plume_ of Florence Fane, which, we
are told, by their humorous hits, elicited much favorable comment.
About the close of the war, Mr. Victor resigned his position and came
to Oregon, where his wife followed him in 1865. She has often told
how, upon her first arrival in this state, she recognized in the type
both of the sturdy pioneers and of their institutions something
entirely new to her experience, and at once determined to make a close
study of Oregon. As she became acquainted with many of the leading men
of the state, and learned more and more about it, she determined to
write its history, and began to collect material for that purpose.
Her first book on the history of Oregon was The River of the West, a
biography of Joseph L. Meek, which was published in 1870. Many
middle-aged Oregonians tell what a delight came to them when in
boyhood and girlhood days they read the stories of Rocky Mountain
adventures of the old trapper Meek as recited by this woman of culture
and literary training, who herself had taken so great an interest in
them. The book was thumbed and passed from hand to hand as long as it
would hold together, and today scarcely a copy is to be obtained in
the Northwest. Intensely interesting as The River of the West is, the
chief value of the work does not lie in this fact, but rather in its
value to the historian. Meek belonged to the age before the pioneers.
It was the trapper and trader who explored the wilds of the West and
opened up the way for the immigrant. Later writers freely confess
their indebtedness to Mrs. Victor's River of the West for much of
their material. The stories of the Rocky Mountain bear killer, Meek,
romantic though many of them are, check with the stories given by
other trappers and traders, and furnish data for an important period
in the history of the Northwest.
In 1872 was published Mrs. Victor's second book touching the
Northwest, All Over Oregon and Washington. This work, she tells us in
the preface, was written to supply a need existing because of the
dearth of printed information concerning these countries. It contained
observations on the scenery, soil, climate and resources of the
Northwestern part of the Union, together with an outline of its early
history, remarks on its geology, botany, and mineralogy, and hints to
immigrants and travelers. Her interest in the subject led her at a
later date to revise this book and to publish it again, this time
under the title Atlantis Arisen.
In 1874 was published Woman's War With Whiskey, a pamphlet which she
wrote in aid of the temperance movement in Portland. Her husband was
lost at sea in November, 1875, and from this time, she devoted herself
exclusively to literary pursuits. During her residence in Oregon she
had frequently written letters for the San Francisco _Bulletin_ and
sketches for the _Overland Monthly_. These stories, together with some
poems, were published in 1877 in a volume entitled The New Penelope.
This last volume was printed by the Bancroft publishing establishment
in San Francisco. The Bancrofts were an Ohio family of Mrs. Victor's
early acquaintance. Hubert Howe Bancroft now laid before her his plan
for writing the history of the Pacific slope, and asked her to work on
the part concerning Oregon. In 1878 she entered the Bancroft library.
Leaving the library at the completion of the work, in 1890 she
returned to Oregon and was employed by the state in 1893 to compile
her History of the Early Indian Wars of Oregon, a volume which was
published by the State Printer the following year. She continued to
write for the Oregon Historical Quarterly up to the time of her death.
Her last published work was a small volume of poems printed in 1900,
and selected from the many metrical compositions which she had written
for newspapers and magazines through a period of sixty years. She was
an able writer of essay, and possessed an insight into the evolution
of civilization and government rare, not only for an author of her
sex, but for any author. Combining the qualities of poet, essayist and
historian, she occupied a position without a peer in the annals of
Western literature. She died at Portland, Oregon, November 14, 1902).
Data on Alaska and the Russian Colony at Fort Ross, California, were
being collected and translated during these years by Ivan Petroff, a
highly educated Russian some time resident at Cook's Inlet. Material
from Russia was furnished by the savant M. Pinart who had made a
special study of Alaska, and Petroff prepared translations. In 1878 he
visited Alaska in search of more material, and spent the year 1879 and
part of 1880 in Washington extracting matter from papers, the
existence of which he had discovered on the northern trip; (Lit. Ind.,
551-561.) Petroff had begun the writing of this material and had done
part of the Alaska volume when he left the library to become
supervisor of the census of 1880 in the Northern Territory, leaving
Mr. Bancroft and others to bring this part of the work to completion.
(The main facts of Petroff's life which had been a very eventful one
are here taken from Bancroft's Literary Industries, 270-272. He was
born at St. Petersburg in 1842, his father being a soldier. His mother
died in his infancy, and at the age of five, he was placed in the
military academy of the first corps of cadets at St. Petersburg. Left
an orphan when but a boy by the death of his father at the battle of
Inkerman, a remarkable talent for languages secured his transfer to
the imperial academy of sciences for training as military interpreter.
A serious illness caused an impediment in his speech which ended such
prospects, but he was nevertheless permitted to continue his studies
and became amanuensis for Professor Bohttink while engaged in the
preparation of a Sanscrit dictionary. Attached subsequently to M.
Brosset, who was making a study of Armenian antiquities and
literature, he became so proficient in the language that he was chosen
to accompany his superior on a two-year scientific expedition through
Georgia and Armenia. He was then sent to Paris to St. Hilaire with
part of the material obtained, thence sailing for New York in 1861.
After working a short time on the _Courier des Etats Unis_, he
enlisted in the seventh New Hampshire regiment. By hard study he
mastered the language, after writing letters for the soldiers as a
means of practice, and acquired a proficiency in the use of English
such as one seldom meets with in a foreigner. From private he became
corporal, then sergeant and color bearer, a rank which he held in
1864, when his company was sent to Florida. He took part in all the
battles fought by Butler's army and was twice wounded. After the
battle of Fort Fisher, he was promoted to a lieutenancy. Mustered out
in July, 1865, he returned to New York, and accepted a position for
five years with the Russian American Company at Sitka, believing that
this region was sooner or later to pass to the United States. On the
way to Alaska he was delayed and improved the time by making a
horseback tour of Northern California, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.
Finding his position filled when he arrived at Sitka, he was given
charge of a trading post on Cook's Inlet until the transfer of the
territory to the United States in 1867. Subsequently Petroff was
appointed acting custom officer on Kodiak Island and was put in charge
of the seized barkentine Constitution, with which he arrived in San
Francisco in October, 1870. Mr. Bancroft at once sought his services
as Russian interpreter for the library. After his return to the
government service in the north, he distinguished himself both in 1880
and 1890 by his zeal in securing information concerning Alaska desired
by the census bureau, and several times risked his life in this
service. Returning to Washington he was subsequently employed both by
the census bureau and the state department. With one exception, the
Utah volume, this was the last of the series of history proper to the
actual authorship of any considerable part of which Mr. Bancroft can
lay claim.)
So great was the opposition created among Gentiles in Utah by a turn
in the Bancroft history more favorable to the Mormons than they
considered fair, and so many and so fierce the charges against Mr.
Bancroft in consequence, that he has apparently been very careful to
give, in the Literary Industries (pp. 631-640), an extended account of
the manner of collecting the material for the History of Utah. Here he
tells us that, at an early date in the development of the history
project, he realized the difficulty of gaining data on Mormon history,
an obstacle apparently so great as to be insuperable. For though the
Mormon church have a regular historian, whose duty it is to preserve
their archives, the director of the Bancroft project at once perceived
the objections which would be made to the turning of this material
over to be written up by one not in sympathy with their faith. But he
must have seen very clearly that a Gentile history of Utah not
unfavorable to the Mormons was the one thing they desired above all
else. Accordingly, in 1880, he tells us that he succeeded in showing
to their satisfaction that he was not prejudiced against them, and
asked Orson B. Pratt, official historian of the Mormon church, for the
desired information. John Taylor, president of the church, called a
council of its twelve apostles, with the result that it was agreed to
comply with the request, and Franklin D. Richards was sent to San
Francisco as Professor Pratt's representative, to furnish the Bancroft
library with such material as was desired from the official church
records.
The year 1880 is an important one for the history project in another
and more important respect also. The end of that year found definite
plans made for the publication of the History of the Pacific States.
Mr. Bancroft had long since decided that, unlike the Native Races,
this work should be handled exclusively by his own house, and Mr.
Nathan J. Stone was placed in charge of the publication department of
the firm, now A. L. Bancroft and Company, to attend especially to this
matter. The date of commencement of work by the printers Oak sought to
have deferred that there might be no haste in searching out and
digesting facts, but against his advice Bancroft determined to begin
the publication of the series in 1882, impatient doubtless at the
prospect of a deferred return from his large financial investment in
the work, and somewhat fearful, as he tells us, lest through some
calamity it might never come to publication.
This decision for an early beginning of publication with the general
change in plan which it brought, rendered Mr. Oak's complicated tasks
too severe, as he was now in failing health. The work of taking notes
on the vast amount of material on California and the Spanish Southwest
generally had been finished some time before, and, as Oak had now
completed his preliminary researches, he determined to give up part of
his duties that he might have time to write the volume covering his
field. To Mr. Nemos, who up to this time had been employed chiefly on
the Mexican volumes, was accordingly turned over the general direction
of the half-dozen younger writers, together with the plans of writing,
and the management of the note-takers, a change which gave him all
interior supervision except over special departments attended to by
Mr. Bancroft--such as the work of Oak and Mrs. Victor. Nemos had
wonderful ability for drilling men into a common method and served as
director of library detail "with remarkable ability and success."
(This was Oak's expression. All who speak of Nemos have much
commendation for his ability. He was born in Finland, February 23,
1848, the son of a nobleman. German and piano lessons were first given
him by his mother, who belonged to a wealthy family of good stock.
After a year's study in a private school at St. Petersburg, he
returned home to attend school, and later took a course at the
gymnasium, or classic high school, at Stockholm preparatory to
entering Upsala university, where a brother was at the time in
attendance.
This ambition was not to be attained, however, for in his seventeenth
year, family matters compelled him to give up his studies, and a place
for him was found in a London commission and ship-broker's office by a
family friend who believed that the acquisition of English and a
business experience would be of the greatest advantage to the young
man. Rather than drag the family title into the by-ways of trade, he
laid it aside and assumed the name of Nemos.
Evening and leisure hours were now devoted to the study of philosophy
and kindred higher branches under an Upsala graduate. After a business
training of eighteen months, he was transferred to a responsible
position in a house trading with India. When five years had been
spent in this capacity, the fear of consumption induced him to take a
long sea voyage, and in the spring of 1870 he left Liverpool by
sailing vessel for Australia, arriving at Melbourne in the third month
out. A venture at mining resulted disastrously through the dishonesty
of his partners, and after a stop at Sydney, he came to San Francisco,
where he landed in the summer of 1871. He had completed an engagement
as assistant civil engineer on a proposed railroad in Oregon when he
returned to California and accepted a position in the library. Nemos
is described as retiring in all his tastes and enthusiastic as a
student. He was especially fond of philosophy and languages, and had a
knowledge of all the principal tongues of Europe.)
Oak, although he now considered himself chief only in name, still
acted as librarian, business agent for most of the intercourse with
the printing house, and reviser of the final proofs of all the
volumes.
For protection against fire, the library was in October, 1881, moved
to a building constructed for its reception on Valencia Street. At the
same time, the printers began work on the first volume to be
published, Central America I, which was immediately followed by Mexico
I. After that time Mr. Bancroft (Lit. Ind., 585,) gave out for the
press whatever was most convenient, so that frequently parts of
several volumes were in type at one time. When the printing began,
material aggregating fifteen volumes was ready. These included
manuscript for Mexico and Central America, the field assigned Savage
and Nemos, matter prepared by Oak for California, by Mrs. Victor for
Oregon, by Bancroft for Popular Tribunals, Literary Industries, and
The Northwest Coast, and by Petroff for Alaska. Bancroft estimated at
this time that the notes were also taken for three fourths of the
works which were yet to be written.
Material upon which to base the remaining fourth was collected in the
same way as previously, Mr. Bancroft visiting the country to be
written up, ascertaining the nature and location of the materials,
collecting what could be had conveniently, and then leaving the
further ingathering in the hands of agents. A visit to Mexico in 1883
furnished him with some material on social conditions in that country
which he tells us was utilized in the last volume of the Mexican
history: (Lit. Ind., 701). More extensive collections remained to be
made in the regions farther north.
After the completion of the two volumes on Oregon, Mrs. Victor's
attention was next directed to the volume on Nevada, Colorado, and
Wyoming. In the carrying on of this work, a greater number of
suggestions as to manner of treatment were made by Mr. Bancroft, we
may believe, than was usual in the preparation of a volume, for the
reasons that it was hurried more for publication than earlier works,
that it was written under his immediate direction, and that he himself
collected and forwarded material from the field as required. The
record of the progress of the work, as it occurs in Mr. Bancroft's
letters to the writer of the volume, is of unusual interest in that
the methods followed, though in some ways exceptional, may perhaps be
taken as fairly typical of those employed by Mr. Bancroft in the
preparation of the later volumes of the series which he immediately
supervised.
In August, 1884, shortly before the completion of the second volume of
the History of Oregon, Mr. Bancroft went to Salt Lake City, where he
left with Franklin D. Richards a memorandum to guide him in extracting
material on the Mormons in Nevada which, he said, would be about the
first material needed. Pending the arrival of this, on September 11th,
he advised Mrs. Victor to familiarize herself with the history of
Wyoming and Colorado, he himself having done the same for Nevada.
A letter written a few days later presents the idea of making a plan
of the volume "as the men do on Mexico, etc.," and says, "By so doing
you can give each section its due proportion and by working to the
plan save unnecessary labor." As to the method of treating early
expeditions to Colorado and Wyoming, he says to consult the History of
Utah, and the two opening chapters which he himself had already
written on Nevada. When these chapters were prepared, it was the
intention to devote an entire volume to this state. In planning the
work as recommended in this letter, Mrs. Victor ascertained that these
chapters were out of proportion for the volume as now planned, and
wrote to Mr. Bancroft to this effect. On September 21st, however, he
advised her that he recognized the fact, but that they would "have to
do." On the same date he forwarded the dictations of three of the
first Mormons in Nevada, requesting that when the material had been
used for this volume, they be turned over to Mr. Bates, then at work
on the History of Utah. He also suggested a perusal of Benton's City
Saints and other Utah books for light on Nevada, and directed that Mr.
Newkirk search the library thoroughly for Nevada material.