Sep 30, 2010 - Sale 2223

Sale 2223 - Lot 108

Price Realized: $ 1,560
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(IDAHO.) Archive regarding Nez Perce War scout Stanton Gilbert Fisher, including his frontier memoirs and 1888 diary. 30 items, various sizes and conditions, sleeved in a ring binder. Diary: 18 pages, 5 x 3 inches, some loose; worn, other pages apparently missing. Vp, 1888-1923
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

Stanton Gilbert Fisher (1840-1915) was best known as a civilian scout for the United States Army during the 1877 Nez Perce War. He was later a miner in Idaho. The most notable item in this collection is an original manuscript diary kept by Fisher from 14 April 1888 onward. Written for his young daughter Nellie May back at their home in Malad City, ID, he describes a journey across Idaho from Blackfoot through towns of Arco and Houston to a mining camp somewhere near Custer County. Fisher apparently did not believe his daughter to be squeamish: "Camped at a little pond of stagnant water. After drinking two or three cups of it, found it was full of wigglers. Strained a coffee pot full through a piece of flour sack and got a table spoon full of the little varmints." Describing his campsite: "Wild Cat Point was named by a man by the name of Wm. Doran about twelve years ago. He was entirely out of provisions and shot and ate a wild cat." Describing the routine at the mining camp: "I get up at half past five every morning and get breakfast so we can go to work on the mine at seven. I have the alarm set and jump out of bed when it goes off. I cook pancakes every morning. We have been out of fresh meat for over two weeks. Pete Weaver and Frank have gone hunting. . . . I hope they will get some fresh meat for all the bacon we have now is very strong." He concludes with a promise to his daughters: "I will be home earlier this fall than I was last year and will not come back in here any more, but don't know for certain where we will live yet." The diary was mailed home shortly after this final entry dated 9 June 1888.
The collection also includes a wealth of secondary material about Capt. Fisher, the Nez Perce War, and the Idaho frontier, including: 4 draft essays written by Capt. Fisher later in life: "Incidents Connected with the Early Settlement of Fort Hall, Idaho" (39 pages), "A Race that Wasn't Thrown" (22 pages), and two versions of his untitled memoir of the Ross Fork trading post from the late 1860s onwards Later transcript of a letter from Lt. Robert H. Fletcher to Fisher about troop movements in Nez Perce War, 3 September [1877] 2 19th-century clippings on scout John Redington Postcard from J.W.R. [Redington?] to S.G. Fisher, 1912 5 essays by Luther Wilmot about the war, including "Misery Hill," "The Raines Massacre," and "Battle of the Clearwater 1877" Small early reproduction of a cabinet photo of Maj. Edward S. Farrow and related correspondence and research materials compiled by Fisher's youngest son Don Custer Fisher.