Our Humboldt Bay pioneers were probably not fashion conscious, but they were undoubtedly clothes conscious. They were conscious of the fact that their clothes were often wet, dirty, and about to fall apart —- wet from the rain and the rivers, dirty from outdoor living, and about to fall apart from hard usage.

How do we know this? Because the La Motte brothers have told us about it.

The gold miner’s ideal ensemble, upon setting out: knee-high boots and a hardy jacket. Lithograph by Currier & Ives, between 1849 and 1856.

Robert and Harry La Motte, ages twenty-five and nineteen, came to Humboldt Bay in April 1850 on the Laura Virginia, the first ship of white settlers to enter the bay. They were faithful correspondents with their family back in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The family seems to have been bankrolling the young men’s California adventure by shipping them potential sales goods — items such as clothing, denim, ticking, eggs, preserves, gingerbread, and paper, not to mention a transit so that Robert, a surveyor, could practice his profession. In fact, it is Robert La Motte who produced the survey for the Laura Virginia Company’s land speculation scheme, Humboldt City. This survey, which is an unusual colored specimen, can be found in the Humboldt County Recorder’s Office map collection.

The original La Motte letters are now at the Bancroft Library, and they are a prime source for descriptions of daily life and activities here on Humboldt Bay.1 The brothers write home about the daily particulars of food, clothing, and shelter on the frontier, and some of their liveliest writing is on the subject of clothing. The two brothers had high hopes of turning a profit by making needed articles of clothing available to their fellow pioneers. As Robert writes to his mother on June 23, 1850:

Tell Dan that heavy clothing will always pay a moderate profit, sometimes a large one, heavy boots, of large sizes say not less than No. 8’s & mostly 10’s & 12’s pay well.

Robert to Dan, July 28, 1850:

I think of opening a store here with Hob. Smith & if I do that will give Harry a chance to do something than to shoot Elk & tear his breeks [trousers]. By the way, talking of breeks — have those coats & breeks been sent us… am much obliged for your prompt attention as our present garments are rather seedy.

Robert to Dan, November 23, 1850:

You speak in your letter about shipping heavy clothing & want me to particularize as to the kinds wanted — any heavy clothing has paid well so far but the best are pilot cloth monkey jackets & course pants. Those long boots are beautiful. If I had had some of them last winter I could have got from $75 to 100 pr pair for them. I think that setting Haws at work is a good idea—let them be large sizes from 9s to 11s and reaching to the knee which is the most saleable kind. They are worth from $9 to $16 a pair now.

In the first of several reports on the state of their own clothing, Harry tells his mother on July 28, 1850:

This place is death on pants — on account of the bushes that we have to go into to kill game, but I guess I will foot shine before shortly; for I am tanning an Elk skin, Indian fashion, to make a pair.

The success of everybody on the Laura Virginia expedition, no matter their vocation or social standing, depended on Humboldt Bay becoming a gateway to the Trinity mines. Here is Harry to his mother, telling about a road-building expedition to Trinity River, August 12, 1850:

It was determined that each member should go and work ten days on the road or pay a fine of $100 & so nearly every member up here shouldered his axe or pick and started to work out his road tax. There were eighteen of us … . It was a queer party to go on such an expedition. Lawyers, MDs, Merchants and gentlemen all dressed in their strongest clothes.

We were at work 11 days… . Our garments in the mean time had become a little the worse of the wear for tramping among the bushes & logs makes the wear and tare considerable, particularly the latter. Fortunately we came across a few Indians and in consideration of a few strings of beads got several deerskins tanned with the hair on. Oh, what a cutting and patching there was in camp that night—next day you’d see a man who had on a pair of black pants with a patch on his seat of honor about a foot square, say nothing of the difference in material and color, but having the hair on was odd.

Harry to his mother, September 11, 1850:

Father writes me that George called his second youngster after me. Well, health & Happiness to him, but as to the “satinet pantaloons” — if he were to see my old leather pants, his little heart would melt with pity.

The most interesting description of clothing is in this same letter, Harry’s report on some overland pioneers:

Numbers of Emigrants are arriving on the Bay from different parts of California, bringing stock of all kinds, as well as their families. A few days ago I saw an old Mountaineer & Hunter (who by the way was formerly a guide to Jack Hays) bringing his “women & children” to Humboldt. The old man rode ahead dressed in a full suit of buckskin with a long rifle across his knees; next came his cattle & horses driven by his elder son dressed in the same manner then came his wife on horseback in company with her daughter and little son; the little chap took my eye; he was about nine years old, dressed also in leather and on a splendid wild looking California horse. Well, in that manner they came from Sonoma, a distance of about three hundred miles.

The La Mottes spent about a year and a half on Humboldt Bay, sailing back and forth to San Francisco and looking after their various financial enterprises. But they always seemed to be a day late and a dollar short — buying high, selling low, missing the peak of the market and the flush times, having difficulty collecting for their sales, services and insurance losses. In one of his letters to his father at the end of 1852, Robert says, “I have learned that after I left Humboldt some persons ‘jumped my claim’ there, and sold it to other parties for $10,000 and they afterwards refused $30,000 for it. My luck — but I don’t worry myself about it for I had to leave or starve.”

And he might have added: At least I got out with the clothes on my back — my blue pilot cloth monkey jacket and my beautiful knee high boots.

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The story above was originally printed in the Summer 2011 issue of The Humboldt Historian, a journal of the Humboldt County Historical Society, and is reprinted here with permission. The Humboldt County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization devoted to archiving, preserving and sharing Humboldt County’s rich history. You can become a member and receive a year’s worth of new issues of The Humboldt Historian at this link.