SAN JOAQUIN PRIMEVAL UNCLE JEFF'S STORY A TALE OF A SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY PIONEER AND HIS LIFE WITH THE YOKUTS INDIANS arranged by F. F. Latta. Tulare, California: Press of Tulare Times, 1929. Octavo, pp. [i-iv] [1] 2-88, double columns, gray wrappers printed in red and black. First edition. An excellent copy of Latta's scarcest title with an interesting provenance, this copy inscribed by California author George W. Stewart to Francis P. Farquhar, conservationist, Sierra Nevada historian and bibliographer and a former president of the Sierra Club. "Thomas Jefferson Mayfield (1843-1928) led a remarkable double life in the early decades of California statehood, living his boyhood as an adopted member of the Choinumni (Choinumne) branch of the Yokuts tribe in the San Joaquin valley, then rejoining the dominant Anglo-American community throughout his long adulthood. Mayfield was born in Brazos County, Texas, the youngest of the three sons of William Mayfield and Maria Curd Mayfield. When he was six, his family came to California by voyage round Cape Horn because violence between Texas settlers and Apaches made the Santa Fe Trail land route too dangerous. From San Francisco, they made their way by horse and mule pack south through San Jose and over the Pacheco Pass into the Central Valley. Maria Curd Mayfield died shortly thereafter. William Mayfield went south to herd cattle with Jeff's two older brothers and left young Jeff, as he was known, with local Indians who had befriended the family. For the decade following, Jeff had almost no contact with whites and fully assimilated to native language and culture. Around the age of eighteen, Mayfield rejoined his family and after 1862 surrendered any sustained ties to the Choinumni" (Central Sierra Historical Society). "Interesting narrative" (Cowan [1933], p. 385). Only two copies at auction, the most recent being in 1970, the other being the Streeter copy in 1968. Rocq 15249. Touch of wear to lower spine end, a nearly fine copy. (#168472).
Price: $495.00
No statement of printing.