166 Years Ago
This story comes from the December 28, 1859 Western Mountaineer. In it, George West describes his melancholy Christmas Eve.
He was thinking of the kind of dinner that he hadn’t seen since leaving Boston, nine months earlier–turkey and all the trimmings. He was trying to persuade himself that his recurring dinner of bacon and beans would be just as good, and while considering the matter, he fell asleep.
George said he dreamt of his kind neighbor, holding a snowy white cloth full of all the foods he was longing to have. A little angel appeared beside the lady of his dreams and invited him to partake.
The invitation was so exciting that he woke up. Standing beside his bed was “the little angel of our dream, who had taken the form of a little bright-eyed daughter of our friend T.P. Boyd of the Golden City House.” And lo, the angel said, “Pa and ma want to see you.”
George was staying in the Boston Company building, in today’s Parfet Park. The Boyds lived in the Golden City House, where the Golden Hotel stands today.
He hurried over the bridge to the Boyd’s house, “and upon the table of our kind neighbor we found the fulfillment of our dream, and we heartily thank friend Boyd and his estimable lady for their thoughtfulness.”
A few years later, Mr. West married Eliza, the “little bright-eyed daughter” of the Boyd family. Perhaps he associated her with relief from starvation.
