Guide to the Charles Lindfers letters
1914, 1926
Collection number: HMC-0842.
Creator: Lindfers, Charles.
Title: Charles Lindfers letters.
Dates: 1914, 1946.
Volume of collection: 0.01 cubic feet.
Language of materials: Materials in the collection are in English.
Collection summary: Letters sent to a miner who worked in Susitna and Flat, Alaska.
Biographical note:
Charles Lindfers was a miner in Alaska. He worked in the village of Susitna in 1914, and the town of Flat in 1926, where he partnered with a man by the name of Kirk. Lindfers and Kirk had a cinnabar property producing quicksilver, also known as mercury.
Collection description:
The collection contains two two-page letters written to Alaskan miner Charles Lindfers. The first letter, from miner J.P. McLean in Takotna, is dated November 14, 1914, and is addressed to Lindfers at the village of Susitna. In the letter, McLean answers a previous letter from Lindfers, and provides news of miners in the Takotna area. McLean mentions the following items: the failure of Mr. Joaquin’s option; the failure of the riverboat Quickstep to get up river this fall and provide new supplies of foodstuffs; the recent presence in town of Hill and Kirk; the poor result of Ed Whelan’s work on Spaulding Creek and his partnership with Bomaster at No. 5 mine this winter; Bob Evans and Dave’s loss of $8,000 by only cleaning up $3,000 at their mine; the Kirby brothers having left town; the necessity of having to pack provisions to the creeks from Takotna on horses next summer; Mr. Glass’s presence in the area; Burt Green having traveled outside this fall, and being expected back by January 1st; McLean’s being in the roadhouse business again; and a postscript stating that the village of Takotna has a new post office. The second letter, from C.H. Pearse, a purchasing department buyer for the General Electric Company in Schenectady, New York, is dated April 9, 1926, and addressed to Lindfers and Kirk in Flat City. In the letter, Pearse acknowledges their letter of February 10th, in which the partners discussed developments at their cinnabar property and their intent to send a lot of quicksilver to the company. Pearse also addresses the issues of shipment, purity, payment, and price for the quicksilver.
Arrangement: The collection is arranged in chronological order.
Digitized copies: The letter dated April 9, 1926 has been digitized and is available on Alaska’s Digital Archives. For information about obtaining copies please contact Archives and Special Collections.
Rights note: Archives does not have copyright to materials in this collection.
Preferred citation: Charles Lindfers letters, Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage.
Acquisition note: The collection was purchased via Internet auction in 2005.
Processing information: This collection was described by Jeffrey Sinnott in 2006. The guide to the collection was converted to current standard by Veronica Denison in 2015.