HISTORY NEBRASKA MANUSCRIPT FINDING AID
RG1646.AM: Robert Binns Ellis, 1812-1873
Diary: 1850
Sacramento, California: Physician, overland traveler
Size: Two items
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Dr. Robert Binns Ellis was born in 1812 in Virginia and for a time was the personal physician of President Andrew Jackson. He married twice. His first wife, Elizabeth Bayse Collier (b. 1817) died in 1843. Rosa Goodridge, his second wife, died in 1849, the year before he began his journey. He left behind four (possibly five) children in the care of relatives as he headed west to follow the expanding migration. He settled in Sacramento and later became President of the California State Medical University. He also served two terms in the California legislature before moving to Nevada in 1861. He died in Nevada in 1873.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE
This collection consists of a photocopy of the hand written diary [21 p.] kept by Dr. Robert Binns Ellis during his 1850 overland journey to Sacramento, California. The diary, which describes incidents and travel conditions in what is now the state of Nebraska, is incomplete for unknown reasons, and ends 130 miles west of Fort Kearney. Also included is a photocopy of a typed, briefly annotated transcript of the diary, compiled by the donors.
INVENTORY
1850 Diary and transcript (photocopies) of Dr. Robert Binns Ellis
Subject headings:
Ellis, Robert Binns, 1812-1873
Frontier and pioneer life — West (U.S.)
Overland journeys to the Pacific — 1850
Overland journeys to the Pacific — Personal narratives
United States — Description and travel — 1848-1865
KFK 04-12-1995
Revised TMM 05-17-2007
