Charles In America

Books by Charles Nordhoff Man of War Life - A Boy's Experience in the U.S. Navy - 1855 The Merchant Vessel - 1855 Whaling And Fishing - 1856 Stories From the Island World - 1857 Secession in Rebellion -1860 Freedmen of the South Carolinas - 1863 America for Free Working Men - 1865 Slavery Injuries to Free Labor - 1865 Cape Cod Stories - 1868 California for Health, Pleasure & Residence - 1872 Northern California, Oregon & the Sandwich Islands - 1874 Politics for Young Americans - 1875 Communistic Societies of the U.S. - 1875 The Cotton States in the Spring & Summer of 1875 - 1876

From Jan Nordhoff's family archives:

"Charles was carefully trained by his father with much knowledge implanted in those early years, and a beautiful accent in his native tongue acquired When nine or ten his father died suddenly of peritonitis."

"Karl left Charles and property to the care of Tom Ewing, who was a Senator, Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of the Interior. He gave no thought to either boy or property. Ewing was also a hard drinker, and the boy was sent to Dr. William Nast (later Bishop Nast) in Cincinnati. The family silver was put in an unnamed bank, and the Chicago property was allowed to go for taxes."

"Charles finally ran away, and so as a boy worked in a Philadelphia newspaper office, until the threat of tuberculosis sent him to sea on a Man-of-War bound for California. Later on he worked for the Evening Post, in New York, under Bryant, and ending with an honored position as Washington correspondent of the New York Herald. At his highest point of efficiency he built Overlook on the Hudson for a summer house; and a charming house in Washington, DC, 1731 "K" Street. He wrote thirteen books, several of which were best sellers."

In 1857 he married Eliza Fallon Letford of Cincinnati and they soon had a family- Walter (1858), Amy (1862), Lawrence Letford (1863), Evelyn Hunter (1865) and Elsie (1869).

Our story continues with the life of Walter.

Walter Nordhoff: The Road To Mexico