Scope and Contents:
In 1849, A. V. Kinnear of Hanoverton, Ohio, went to California to search for gold. In two diaries, he described the territories that he crossed, his encounters with Indians, and his return trip through Panama and up the Mississippi River. Kinnear's great-granddaughter, Mrs. Thomas E. Berger, of Champaign, Ill., loaned the originals to the Illinois Historical Survey for photocopying in 1977.