Copy of letter from John Wm. Hall [1] to W.W. Hall [2]

		Carson City, Nevada.,
			May 25th, 1886

W. W. Hall, Esq.,
Meridian, Miss.

Dear Uncle,

	In the long ago I used to write you long descriptive letters of scenes and places, and especially so during the late war, and often during that dark period when I traced cause and effect to their legitimate results. You may have thought those scenes overdrawn but could you have been present and witnessed the incompetency, not to say imbecility, of men in high places, often caused by dissipation, you could have then realized that the half had not been told. Then again I often wrote of our battles, such as the battle of Oakalona or Prairie Mounds and Fort Pillow, etc. I think you "awarded me the palm" for the most vivid description of that affair.

	Well, I related these incidents as I saw and understood them, and this morning I purpose telling you of scenes and places I have witnessed on the Pacific Coast and if any of the scenes and places seem marvelous or overdrawn, just remember that no other country in the wide world does things on such a broad scale.  No money was ever so lavishly expended or so easily gained as here in the days gone by when the then stupendous undertaking was suggested of building the Pacific Railroad across an almost limitless desert and over the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains. California Capitalists and California coin did It. The men of 49 & 50, and the first men to this coast, have been the architects of all the great and stupendous undertakings that have accomplished so much for the West and the advancement of the American Nation.

	I well remember when the Southern Pacific Railroad was first agitated in Texas, when Col, John W, Dancy, a State Senator, urged upon Texas the necessity of making donations commen-surate with such an enterprise; he then depicted In glowing colors what is now a reality. He was laughed to scorn and the scheme regarded as chimerical and utopian.  Col. Dancy lived 40 years before his time, but with prophetic eye he then declared the result. of coming events. These railroads have made this desert bloom and have peopled the waste places of the earth.  Few, If any, of the adventurous spirits who crossed the plains from ‘48 to ‘56 ever dreamed what the future had in store for those to come after them; and strange too, is it not, that the persecution of the poor despised Mormons caused a way station for the first emigrants to the gold coast.  How inscrutable are the ways of him who holds the Universe in the hollow of His hand; even the wrath of man is made to praise Him. Out of these troubles at Nauvoo, Ill. rose events yet unfathomed.   What often appears at first as accidents finally culminate in the issues of nations yet to come.

	I believe you read the latter I wrote to cousin J.J, In which I outlined my travels from Texas to this place so I shall not rehearse it now.  Carson City is 30 miles from the Pacific Railroad at Reno in Washoe County, Nevada, and north of us at that point the Truckey & Virginia Railroad connects with the Pacific RR from Reno to Virginia City, Storey County, Nevada, 53 miles from Carson. . This road from Reno to Virginia City is just in the shape of a fishhook.  From Reno to Carson is the stem or shank, Carson at the bowl, and Virginia City at the point or beard of the hook. This railroad cost more to the mile and is the greatest piece of civil engineering In the world, a description of which would not interest you greatly. The road was a necessity to, and the outgrowth of, the Comstock mines. It was built by subscription of the citizens of Washoe, Ormsby and Storey Counties, presented to the Railroad Company, and It has proven to be the most heartless of monopolies.

	Some years since I visited San Francisco and the Pacific coast, crossing the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and it was my good fortune to make the trip in daytime. I have no words adequate to express the beauty, grandeur and sublimity of the scenes from Reno up the Truckey River to Truckey City Cal., thence on to Donner's Lake where the unfortunate Donner's Party were caught in the winter and so miserably perished long years since and where cannibalism was resorted to.  The railroad passed around Donner's Lake curving just In the shape of a horse shoe.  Here the Yellow Pine,  Sugar, Spruce, Hemlock, and Tamarock grow,-- all of the resins family.   From there on some of the grandest sights present themselves. Twenty-two miles of snow sheds obstruct many grand views.  At Cape Horn, as the train slowly rounds the curve you look down a shear of more than a thousand feet and feel as If you would go over in spite of yourself and you involuntarily lean back.  I have seen ladies shudder and men grow pale realizing the result of being hurled down from this height.  There one has an unobstructed view of the foothills and the valleys of the Sacramento, too far off for the natural vision.  Further down we pass the renowned American and Dutch Flats where the mountains have boon washed down to bed rock by hydraulic power. Here we pass the great water ditch, 50 miles in length, bearing water from the American River and following the curves and sides of the mountains, crossing chasms in flumes or in huge Iron pipes.  From this source the mountains were washed down filling the rivers and overflowing the valleys, destroying fine farms and clogging the channels of the rivers until legislation was an actual necessity.  From these water flumes have grown up orchards and vineyards and farms along the foothills of California, unsurpassed In all the world, Sacramento, the capital or the state, has been affected by the overflows from the above causes. The river is a slow sluggish stream and It is very unhealthy along Its banks.  The railroad crosses the river at Benicia running right into an immense ferryboat on a track.   There are four tracks on the boat. Then we cross to the opposite side and off again down the river and thence on down the bay through several towns to Oakland. Then there is a ferryboat across to San Francisco, These boats make the trips In 30 minutes and their travel is such that you can cross every hour from 8 AM to 9 PM.  OakIand, is to San Francisco what Brooklyn is to New 'York. Well, San Francisco is a most wonderful city, everything is done on such a large scale. Here Is found the finest and largest hotel in the world, the Palace Hotel, erected at a cost of three million dollars.     It covers a whole block and is eight stories high. Five stories have four elevators running all the time. To got an Idea of this hotel one must get on the top and view the whole city, Which I did.   From there, horses In tine street look like little ponies and men like little buys. IN the basement are the restaurants, dining; room, and business offices,  In the center Is the carriage drive,  circular in form, surrounded with the finest tropical plants, flowers, and palmettos from the everglades. This hotel in connected with another from the third floor and  has all the modern appliances for ingress and egress.

	Now, dear Uncle and Aunt, all this may not interest you especially as I am writing from memory of two years past. Two years ago I was in the city late in the afternoon of July 4th. I started out to view the city from Knob Hill where the millionaires reside and where one has the finest view of the Pacific Ocean, the city, the bay, Oakland and several other Inland cities and towns. To one In a great city comes a feeling of lowliness, so I left my hotel and went out in the direction named striking Washington Street and going up a steep grade, each cross street being graded so as to be passable. As I ascended this hill I thought how much like human life It was, first childhood, then youth, manhood,, middle age, and these crossings furnished me the resting places of each station of life's journey, and when old age had come I reached Taylor Street, crossing here a natural mound which afforded me an elevated view. I looked back over the way I had come, it was so steep, with so few resting-places, and yet I was repaid for all the all of all the years.   Never to my dying day shall I forget that hour and its beauty and the emotions of my heart and soul. No pen, no language can explain It to you.  I seemed to have gained Elysium. Away out to the west stretched the limitless ocean filling one half of the horizon; North of me was Fort AIcatraz standing as a sentinel In the Golden Gate, while further north was the mainland with Its cities; and back of me lay the coast range of mountains. The Pacific was one golden flood of quivering light while out upon its placid bosom were innumerable vessels, their white sails all set; so thought I, this city lying at my feet is at fit emblem of the New Jerusalem, all lit up in the sunset glow with It’s countless lights and shadows and sky-rockets going up; these sails coming in are the spirits, released from earth's clay, coming home; the breeze seemed to catch up the refrain, “Are you Coming Home Tonight?”  To the East and the South was the bay with it’s shipping, and beyond was the city of Berkley with the towering spites its colleges and churches, and Oakland and Alameda with their beautiful harvest fields In the background, all golden in harvest splendor, dotted with orchards and groves, and as the sun sank to rest in the Golden Waves, this panorama was so grand and beautiful, I seemed lost to earth, and standing at the very Gates of Heaven; these sails were to me typical of the spirits winging their flight heavenward, each flashing through space, converging to the one goal; the echoes in the city at my feet a4somad to be the shouts of the redeemed who had washed their robes in the Blood of the Lamb; the rockets flashing as meteors were to me the swift messengers speeding on missions to do His will, travelling to succor tempted, or needy, or feeble. This has had a new beauty and force to me.    If earth can be so beautiful, what will Heaven be to the Redeemed?  I fail to express on paper what my heart and soul felt. I seemed caught up from earth and had such a glorious vision of the beyond.

	The visit to Woodworth’s Garden, its wonderful exhibition of flowers and plants, fishes, fowls and animals, from every clime are all of interest; the drives to the cliff' house on the Pacific beach, Its rock-covered sea lions from the tiniest cub to those weighing 1200 pounds; the visit to the old mission, all these are worthy of separate chapters but I find no time or space to describe them.

However, I ask you to mount the train of the coast road and as we leave the city, you can got some idea of San Francisco and Its suburbs, and what it is to be 50 years hence with its then Mlllions of inhabitants as the metropolis of the West.      What New York now is to the East, San Francisco will then be to the West.  This road I started on passes through the richest and best Improved country I ever looked upon.   I have not space to describe San Jose, called San Ho-say, but speed on through beautiful towns and the finest grain-growing country in the world, and finally reach the old historic city of Monterey of entered with it’s old primeval Mexican population, It’s adobe houses, it’s wide spreading live oaks and stately pines, interspersed with its millions of wild rose bushes. The city is built upon an arm of the ocean with numberless drives and watering  places.  Most prominent of those is Pacific Grove, with its hotels and cottages, mineral waters and baths.  A great resort at the terminus of the railroad Is a glass bathing house with all modern appliances, unexcelled by Long Beach or elsewhere.   Last, but not least comes the Railroad Company hotel and grounds the Del Monte, three stories in height, 350 feet in width and 250 feet in depth. I walked through this hotel upon a carpet 100 yards long.  The grounds are laid out in equally as grand and artistic style.  The beautiful pines and spreading oaks with walks and drives all enhanced by beautiful flowers and shrubbery make it a place of Arcadian beauty.  

Well, you will ask why I recall all this and will say that you are just from new Orleans, where you have seen the worlds exhibition of all that's beautiful, useful and upon so grand a scale.     I know you witnessed all this and more down there. You no doubt saw some of the wonderful resources of California and this coast.  I tell you, the south is a hundred years behind these people so far as energy and enterprise aire concerned.  The Southern Pacific Railroad and the N. 0. Exposition are waking up the South from her Rip Van Winkle sleep to a realization that she is being left in the age of progress.
Sometime I’ll try to tell you and aunt [3], or cousin JJ [4] about Lake Tahoe or Bogler upon the Sierra Nevada Mountains and describe my trip up and around it on my return from California.  To me it simply wonderful when I trace its former dimensions and how In the past It has cut Its channel through the granite rock where the Truckey River now drains it, and before this way was cut the waste water found egress through various channels that yet show the evidence of this washing.         Two thousand feet above the present channel of theTruckey River are great boulders of water- washed granite.  This lake is 72 miles In circumference, with a number of islets and bays, and in former ages it was three times Its present size.  No bottom has been found In some places, and it is 3000 feet deep in other places, and yet those mountains show their heads were lifted up by some mighty upheaval far beyond the glacial period of the world's history.  Here, over 5000 feet above the sea, with no outlet, are steamboats, some used for pleasure and some for the lumber trade and the limber company’s mills.  This lumber in sawed and loaded on cars and run upon a railroad to the summit of the mountain on the East Side. There it is loaded and placed in a flume and run down the.   mountain by water, where it is dumped and piled, and when needed It is shipped on the railroad to Virginia City and other points to market. This flume is several miles in length. The water is taken from Lake Mortlett,  1500 or 2000 feet higher than Tahoe.  The lumber is brought down with great velocity, and the water is than utilized to irrigate the fields and meadows. All this has been made possible by the mines.  The extracting of the ore has employed thousands of men, and they in turn have built homes and cities, and in so doing, they have denuded than mountains of their forests for miles; the end to not yet, and in coming years other mines will be found and worked, and new issues and Interests will follow, and when artesian wells are opened then this barren arid desert will bloom as the rose, or more correctly speaking, like Salt Lake City, Ogden and other cases in this great Sahara.
	Now, if I have not made you sick, I will say good bye.  I have written three hours without rest except for lunch.  I have written without notes or revision.  Accept It with love and beat wishes from you as ever, or burn it.

								John Wm. Hall

Notes:

1.	Col. John William Hall (1827-1901) was the son of Joshua Hall (b.1806), who was a brother of the Addressee.
2.	The addressee is Wesley White Hall Sr. (1819-1886).
3.	Aunt was Maggie E. Hill, 3rd Wife of Wesley White Hall Sr.
4.	“Cousin JJ” is Wesley’s son Joseph J. Hall. (1846-1926)

This copy is scanned from an earlier transcript which was in the possession of Judge Lee Davis Hall (1893-1963) a grandson of Wesley White Hall Sr.  The original handwritten letter may no longer exist.  The transcript was obtained from Lee’s wife, the former Verus Boone in 1984.  This letter was written two months and 27 days before the death of Wesley White Hall.

Toxey A. Hall