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The Hutchinson Family?   No!   Brother Jesse wrote this about the Alleghanians,  prior to their concert at the Broadway Tabernacle,  on Monday evening, January 26, 1852.

The Alleghanians at this time were  James M. Boulard,  Richard Dunning,  Miriam G. Goodenow,  and  William H. Oakley.  On February 4, they closed their concert series and returned to their homes to prepare for a long trip.  "The Alleghanians,"  said the New York Tribune,  "deserve great credit for all they have done in the cause of Music, and for the high-toned character they have uniformly sustained through the land."

"It is known to most of my friends,  [ wrote Jesse ]  that I am connected with the Alleghanians, and that we are to embark for California in March.  We go there to sing the songs of Home and Hope and Promise  -  of the 'Good Time coming.'"  He added that the group would  "traverse over much of the country, visiting all the principal mines and great points of interest. . . . "

The Alleghanians gave their final New York concerts in grand style at Metropolitan Hall on March 1 and 3, with a concert in between at the Brooklyn Female Academy.  Originally they intended to leave on March 5.  But by the middle of February, their plans had changed.  So now they made a swift farewell tour through the principal cities of the East.  Jesse booked them on a tight schedule, as he had once done for the Hutchinson Family.  The Alleghanians returned to New York from Boston on the 18th.

"The Alleghanians,"  said the Tribune,  "accompanied by our friend Jesse Hutchinson, leave for California, in the steamship Daniel Webster, this afternoon at 3 o'clock.   We wish them a prosperous voyage and a speedy return."  They were to sail to Nicaragua, cross the Isthmus overland, then sail up the coast to San Francisco.  Meanwhile, their steamship, the North America, ran aground on a sunken reef.

In Nicaragua,  Jesse and his party were among the first to go ashore.  "At this dry season of the year,"  he said,  "it is almost impossible to get the boat[s] up the rivers with any freight,  and in some instances hundreds of passengers have been obliged to foot it for miles,  carrying their own baggage along the rough and dangerous banks of the rivers,  under the excessive heat of an equatorial sun."

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The Daniel Webster folk crossed the Isthmus in ten days or more,  some traveling faster than others.  "A steam propeller, the Monumental City,"  said Jesse,  "has been chartered to take as many as possible of the North America's passengers,  and we are momentarily expecting her here,  she having gone down the coast some three days ago for coal."

Jesse's writings about the trip to San Francisco are full of stories of sickness, suffering, and death.  "Our young men especially, who know not the ordinary dangers of traveling, are ill-fitted to embark for California.  None but the hardy and enduring men, who have been accustomed to hardships, should think of coming hither."  But to those who decided to venture to California in spite of these warnings, Jesse added some practical advice.  "Bring . . . plenty of dimes  -  eight pass for a dollar."

On April 22, the Monumental City arrived.  Once on board, Jesse estimated that there were about 600 passengers and crew members crowded on the ship; and he reported that nearly 100 of them were sick, including twenty women and children.  "Our afflictions,"  he said,  "have indeed been very great, and up to the present time, eleven of our companions have died.  Most of these were steerage passengers, and contracted their diseases on the Isthmus, being obliged to leave their stranded boat in the river, and work their way on foot through the woods for more than three miles, carrying their own baggage along with them."

Only a few hundred gallons of fresh water were taken on board.  On the 27th, the last cask of this water was opened.  Passengers expected to hear at any time that they would have no more until they reached Acapulco.

Jesse said that Captain W. R. Cressy was negligent of duty,  "for he sits in his own nice cabin all the day long, reading novels, while his passengers are suffering and sickening and dying in every part of the ship."   "Nothing now but the great forbearance and humanity of a majority of the passengers, prevents others from throwing the Captain overboard."

Brother John, many years later,  retold a story  about one gallant Monumental City  passenger.

This  "man of spirit, soul and determination, full of strength and magnetism,"  blessed by all on board the Monumental City,  was Jesse Hutchinson, Jr.

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The  Monumental City  arrived at San Francisco  on Monday evening, May 17, 1852.   Jesse wrote:

On May 24,  the Alleghanians gave their first concert in San Francisco at the Adelphi.  According to one newspaper, the  "highly respectable"  audience included many of  "our most lovely and intelligent ladies."  Later, another paper said the next few entertainments  "were very brilliantly attended."

On the 31st, Jesse convinced a  "brother Printer"  at the San Francisco Herald to let him use a press to hurriedly compose a circular to family and friends at home.  In his circular, Jesse spoke of the hazards of the trip.  "Yet my hope and my heart is above all our difficulties and dangers, and so are we all, happy, hopeful and harmonious, winning the good and golden opinions of the Californians."  By this time the Alleghanians had given four concerts  "to crowded and delighted audiences,"  and their success seemed all but certain.   "I am delighted with the country,"  he added,  "and this city is yet to be the Jerusalem of our land.  Here, already, do we see perambulating the streets, men from every k[i]ngdom and tongue under heaven."

Though Jesse enthused about California, he found, and would continue to find, much in its moral climate to criticize.  "This is decidedly a dangerous and uninviting country to many thousands who come hither without fixed principles.  Every nook and corner of the land is lined with bar-rooms and gambling saloons. . . . "

The Alleghanians gave a series of four concerts at the Jenny Lind Theatre.  Then they went to Stockton for an engagement on June 18.  Next they visited Sacramento.  It had been Jesse's plan from the beginning to concentrate on the mining regions, where the group sang during the month of July.

While Jesse marveled at the splendor of California and its great potential,  he found himself surrounded by gambling houses and bars and mixing with people who seldom if ever bathed or laundered their clothes.  Healthy food was scarce.

And Jesse was attracted to scenes of lawlessness, decadence, and death.  He attended the funeral of a man named Tanner, who was hanged at Marysville for theft.  That night two men were arrested while attempting to steal Tanner's body from its shallow grave.

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Jesse, though, had not forgotten his business.  He visited the office of the Marysville Express to report that the Alleghanians had been singing to excellent houses in Nevada City.  At Downieville he was greeted by the scene of a young man named Taylor who, in a fit of passion, murdered his own brother.

On July 28, Jesse traveled along the banks of the Yuba for more than six miles and observed that  "almost every foot is in process of fluming and nearly complete."   "Should the dry season continue as usual, the amount of gold taken out from the bed of the rivers will probably amount to more than has ever been taken out in any one season from all sources whatever."

By early August, Andrew Jackson Davis came to stay at Stone Cottage in Lynn.  On the 7th, he received an intimation that a vision would soon be shown him.  "An impression comes to my mind, tells me to get paper and pencil, retire to a quiet room, and write down every thing I may see and hear.   I forthwith obey."  He retreated to Jesse's observatory on the summit of High Rock.

Thirty miles above earth, Davis saw a company of men from the Spirit Land.  Then a larger party of spirits and angels, both male and female, moved toward the first, on a shining river.  Four approached him.  Claudius Galen, representative of Natural Wisdom, said that in the evening he and others would impress Davis with a discourse that he was to deliver when asked.

That evening, alone in a bedroom at Stone Cottage, Davis witnessed a great Congress of spirits.  "The sky is overshadowed by heavy clouds, and the rain steadily falls to earth. . . .   The winds sob and sigh with a shrill voice over the adjoining promontories; and the distant ocean moans heavily, as if anticipating a stormy visitation."

Davis wrote that he fell into a state akin to sleep.  "[N]ow my spiritual senses are unlocked.  My eyes are uplifted, and again I behold the vision.  Again I see the vast Congress of spirits and angels. . . . "   "The night is dark, the rain descends, the winds shriek among the rocks and cliffs, yet they  -  that beautiful company  -  stand unharmed above the lower sphere of storm-clouds and tempestuous rain, which hover over the earth.  From where they stand, all below is dark and misty, while all above is bright, starlit, and beautifully serene.  The earth is beneath their feet.  They have triumphed over the wreck of matter visible at the hour of death. . . . "

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According to Claudius Galen, the Spiritual Congress was seeking  "from out of all the races of men, Twelve Teachers of Philosophy, and enough media to awaken the advocates of sacred superstitions from the delusive sleep which has befallen them."

On Monday morning,  August 9, 1852,  Claudius Galen met with Davis a third time.  "[S]omething for the general welfare of our common race,"  he wrote,  "will grow out of this Spiritual Congress;  for those beautiful and gifted minds, the noblest of our kind, have not come together for an insignificant purpose.  Beneficent, as the sun in the heavens, was the object of that Convention  -  so inexpressibly beautiful, and so impressive."

Back in San Francisco, Jesse announced,  "The Spiritual Rappings and Writings have commenced in California. . . . "   "Many a bereaved heart has already found comfort here, which the world can neither give nor take away."   "Something of Love,"  though fanciful at first, is a personal statement written about the loneliness he felt over the death of his wife and children.

Jesse thought the Isthmus route from the East to California was unnecessarily risky.  Now that he was on the Pacific shore, he met many people who had tales to tell about suffering on the overland passage.  He heard stories of death by cholera, mass graves, and children who were orphaned along the way.  While needing to work through his own grief, Jesse seemed unable or unwilling to escape the heartbreak and misery of others.  He reported acts of suicide by people who lost their jobs, suffered business failures, or experienced other trials.  "All these things must needs be in a country so overcrowded with unnatural excitements of profits and losses, fortunes and failures."  Neither did Jesse's encounters with lawlessness and decadence stop.  "Crime in California still rules and reigns in many localities.  Yesterday I saw a street-fight in the neighborhood of our hotel."  This brought Jesse to one of his main themes.

"True and noble and self-sacrificing,   humane and wise reformers are needed in California."

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All the while,  Jesse was traveling about the mining country,  scheduling and advertising engagements for the Alleghanians.   "Since I last wrote you, I have twice visited this city, [ San Francisco ] and also 'been the rounds' on a mule's back. . . . "

Miriam Goodenow was the Alleghanians' chief attraction and the key to the group's success.   "'What everybody says must be true',"  said Jesse,  "and everybody here says Miss Goodenow will never return to the States, except to the State of Matrimony, towards which, to say the least, there is a strong tendency."

The Alleghanians worked the northern mines, planning to tour through the southern ones starting about the middle of September.  But now the future of their California enterprise was put into question by the success of competing entertainments.   "Booth and the Bakers,"  said Jesse,  "and Starks, and Mrs. Woodward and hosts of theatricals, are all doing well here and in Sacramento.  There is no unoccupied room fit for a concert in this city.  A Hall or Theater will soon be built, and the Alleghanians will then return."  But Miriam Goodenow became ill at Columba.

In the first half of September,  Jesse left San Francisco and returned to the mining country by way of Sacramento.  During this trip, he came in contact with 100 people who were sick with chills and fever.  While he was visiting Rose's Bar, fifteen or more sufferers died within a mile of his lodgings.

Jesse thought that keeping physically active, getting plenty of fresh air, drinking cold water, and eating lots of fruits and vegetables were some of the keys to healthful living.  By now, he had decided that one way he could work toward the betterment of California would be to promote dietary and health reform.  He was distributing whole-grain foods.

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Apparently there was indecision,  or a difference of opinion,  among the Alleghanians about when they should return to the East.  The singers may have tired of touring through the mines, and it is quite possible that Boulard, Dunning, and Oakley wanted to go home.  This, along with the recent oppressive weather and the onset of the season of sickness, argued strongly in favor of an early return.  Yet the voice and presence of Miriam Goodenow was key to the group's success, and it looked certain that she would remain in California.  Jesse seemed game either way.  Then he managed to find a hall for a concert in San Francisco  -  finally.

September 13, 1852,  was a big day for Jesse and company.   "I arose this morning,"  he said,  "with a light and buoyant heart under the hope that in a few weeks more I may again set sail for home."  That night at Armory Hall, the Alleghanians gave one of their most successful concerts.  This triumph must have turned a few heads among group members.  But Miriam Goodenow took sick again; and it was then that the others positively decided to leave for the East  -  as an all-male trio  -  as soon as they could.   "I am now en route,"  wrote Jesse,  "to the Northern mines for the last time.  While the Alleghanians will go on their way rejoicing into the Southern mines, and probably closing their concerts in California within a very few weeks."  Though Jesse planned to go home, he was talking about returning later to promote reform.

Jesse's writings about California reflect a shaky balance between the wonders of nature and the vast potential he saw, on the one hand, and the unhealthy living conditions and moral climate, on the other.  There seemed to be an interplay between this situation and his own emotional state.  He was experiencing the Gold Rush at its peak, while at the very same time he was grieving over the loss of his beloved wife and children.  The Lowell Vox Populi observed that  "during the last few months he spent in California it was apparent to his friends that he was laboring under a kind of monomania which rendered him quite as miserable as he believed that society to be, for whose reformation he professed a willingness to devote the labors of his life."

Jesse's letter of  September 15  is the last commonly known correspondence  from this trip.  After this  details of events and circumstances come from scattered sources.  The Alleghanians continued giving concerts through November.