Doble, John ___ 1828-1866 ___ American ___ soldier

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
There is very little biographical information about Doble readily available on the internet other than that in his journal (available to read on Google books, see links below). He was born in Indiana, the fifth child of eight, and trained as a blacksmith before serving in the war with Mexico in 1846. After returning to Indiana, he journeyed to California in 1851 via New York City and a steamer to Panama. On leaving the Sierra foothills he joined his brother at his iron works in San Francisco. Doble wrote a diary of his trip to California and of his daily life as a prospector during the gold rush, which is considered one of the best contemporary accounts of the time.
A biography link
No Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1851-1854 ___ social travel commerce geology Nicaragua

WEB TEXT LINKS
etext
a couple of quotes

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
Amador County Archives - possibly

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
John Doble's Journal and Letters from the Mines: Volcano, Mokelumne Hill, Jackson and San Francisco 1851-1865
 

May 2005, June 2008
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.