Sep 28, 2023 - Sale 2646

Sale 2646 - Lot 284

Price Realized: $ 875
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(WEST--COLORADO.) Celeste Rucker. The diary of a wealthy mining investor's wife in early Denver. [183] manuscript diary pages plus [3] pages of memoranda. 12mo, original decorative limp gilt cloth, minor wear and uneven toning; minimal wear to contents; not signed, but her wedding anniversary is noted on 5 March. Various places, 1 January to 31 December 1885
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Additional Details

Celeste Electa Caruth Rucker (1854-1906) was raised in Illinois and Kansas, and married Atterson W. "Aad" Rucker (1847-1924) in 1873. They soon settled in Colorado, where he became a prominent attorney, rancher, and mining investor in Leadville and Denver. He later served in the United States House of Representatives from 1909 to 1913.

Celeste wrote most of this 1885 diary in Denver and at the family's ranch just south of the city in Littleton. She attends numerous theatrical performances and records the frequent travels of her husband all over the state. Her health and energy were often troublesome and she relied heavily upon servants: "A stupid headache all day & finally compelled to go to bed & take morphia. Engaged a new girl" (1 May). She describes a family outing in the countryside: "Started for Canell's on the S.P. Road. Found the place full & had to go to Grant. Disposed of part of the party there but the rest had to break open a house. . . . It is a lovely spot & fishing good" (7-8 August). Another trip to Manitou, CO is described from 22-27 August.

Atterson invested in a silver mine in the boom town of Aspen; the town is mentioned at least 5 times in the final months of the diary: "We seem to have really found mineral . . . at Aspen" (1 October). "Aad left for Aspen" (10 October). "Aad came home from Aspen this morning" (23 October). "Mr. Bowels [Bowles] of Aspen dined with us" (4 November). "Mr. Cooley of Aspen came out & we took him to the ranch" (13 December).

On a completely different note, Celeste made an extended visit to New Orleans from 1 February to 23 March to attend the World Cotton Centennial. There she experienced a Catholic confession: "Went to the Carmelite convent & talked to a voice through a grated window & black drapery" (4 February). On 17 February she saw Mardi Gras: "Viewed the processions of Rex . . . such a writhing moving mass of humanity in the streets."

With--11 photographs, most cabinet cards or larger, all captioned on verso and depicting Celeste and/or her daughter Ethel Rucker Dorr (1874-1959), 1884-1892 and undated. 3 of Ethel are on mounts of Beebe of Denver; most of the others were taken while traveling in the East.