An exceptional lot of correspondence sent by two sisters to their mother with a detailed first-hand account of the San Francisco Earthquake and follow-on relief efforts de Ora "Ett" Higgins Hudspeth and Jessie Higgins to Mrs. C. A. Higgin - 1906

Oakland to Adin, California, 1906. Unbound. Very good. This lot consists of two letters and one relief-work picture postcard. A six-page letter (without an accompanying envelope) from "E.H.," Ett Hudspeth, is dated "April 30 '06." A two-page letter dated May 26, 1906 from "Oakland Relief Camp No. 2.) is enclosed in an "Oakland Relief Committee" envelope postmarked in Oakland on the same day. A picture postcard with a photogravure of women and children in a food line is franked with a blue-green 1-cent Franklin stamp (Scott #300) and postmarked in Oakland on June 10, 1906. The postcard illustration bears the printed caption, "The Great San Francisco Fire. April, 18, 1906 / No. 1 Relief Station Distributing Fresh Meat." All are in nice shape; a stamp has been torn from the envelope and the postcard has a light, pressed-out crease. Transcripts included. The letters provide details of the earthquake, fire, subsequent looting, and relief camps. They read in part: "The first big shock came about five oclock when I woke the house was just going every which way, and the most awful rumbling noise I ever heard it was just simply awful. Ernest got out of bed some way but could only hold on to the bed as tight as he could and then could hardly stand up. I could not get Baby out of her bed so I was in bed and so was baby until it was all over. The top of the chimney all fell down, and it seemed that every thing in the house was breaking. We went in the pantry after it was over and took a shovel and got up nearly two dish pans full of broken dishes and jars. The medicine chest door came open and about half the bottles fell out and broke. We were nearly scared to death. I thought we would be killed every second and my only thought was to get Baby in my arms. Oh it was a terrible thing. Some people cried some prayed and some screamed just simply paralyzed with fright. . . . It broke our cupid and moved the piano away out from the wall. And just think we have had about forty shocks since some of the pretty hard ones too. . . . "And just think they are going to work right now building the city up again. I wouldn't want to live there because I would be afraid of a tidal wave. . . . "Oakland would have burned just the same as S.F. if the earthquake had have shaken the water pipes out of order as it did in that city, but as it happened the water pipes were all right here we had a great many fires here as it was. It was awful to see the city burning, and to know thousands of people were left homeless and hungry and for about two days they could not get a drop of water some places. And places like that, and there on top of it all the rain just poured down after the worst of the fire was over. So many people went insane. Women went insane and carried the little dead bodies of their babies around in their arms for two days and then would fight and refuse to give them up to be buried. And the worst of all were the people who looted the dead bodies stole their rings cut off their fingers to get them. The soldiers just shot them like dogs. They shot 20 in one hour. The also shot a great many innocent people also. . . . "Santa Rosa was all destroyed, shook down and burned a great many people were killed there. Palo Alto was all destroyed but the Berkley University was not hurt. San Jose was all shook down, but not many were killed there. I don't know where that St Agnews asylum is but I believe a great many were killed there and the rest escaped. . . . "It was awful sad to go uptown here and see thousands of people hurrying along carrying a little bundle all they had left some came over here with no clothes on at all only a blanket around them. . . . "There are about 400 people in this Camp, another camp joins this, containing a thousand or more. This is the old Hearst Camp but he turned it over to the military. So now we are now under military control. The soldiers here are regulars and know their business. I guess the national guard have all gone home where they belong. The other morning the whole camp had to line up and be vaccinated. I was vaccinated again and presume I'll have another such time as I had before. There is small pox, mumps and scarlet fever in the Camps. But every precaution is used so I don't think it will scatter. . . . "One of the Drs. and a nurse (both from this Camp) married and a big wedding supper was given in their honor. It was grand. It was served in courses, but we ate it from tinware. We have a negro waiter here." The Santa Clara Valley's St. Agnews Asylum referenced in the letter, known at the time as "The Great Asylum for the Insane," was completely destroyed by the earthquake. 117 staff members and patients were killed there, and the Daily Palo Alto reported: "The position of the people in Agnews is critical; a number of insane persons having escaped from the demolished asylum, are running at random about the country." Ora "Ett" Higgins Huldspeth and her husband Charles "Ernest" Hudspeth, both schoolteachers in Oakland, survived the earthquake and fire along with their daughter Baby Ernestine. Jessie Higgins, Ett's younger sister, worked as a volunteer in one of the twenty relief camps sponsored by the Oakland Chamber of Commerce (Relief Camp No. 2 at Adam's Point) that housed over 60,000 refugees. Both of the women were daughters of Curtis A. Higgins one of the founders of Adin, California. He settled in Modoc County in 1874 and immediately established a passenger and mail stagecoach service between Susanville and Big Valley. Newspapers in later years described Higgins as a wealthy "stockman and orchardist." Very scarce first-hand accounts of the earthquake and relief effort from a decidedly female perspective. As of 2018, there is one boy's diary for sale in the trade that includes a short first-hand account of the disaster, but not to the same level of detail as in these letters and without any mention of the relief effort. There are no auction records listed at ABPC or the Rare Book Hub for any similar materials, and there is no record of a similar "Relief Station" postcard having ever been sold on . OCLC shows six institutions that have first-hand letter accounts of the earthquake in their collections; all but one are written by men, and none reference the relief efforts.