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PREFACE 



When the late Frank Lecouvreur left his native land in 

 1851 for California, leaving behind him his parents and 

 the dear friends of his youth, following the promptings of 

 his large heart he kept a careful journal of the sights and 

 the unusual experiences that were his in travel, and in 

 the new land he had chosen as a field for his activities. 

 After his death, which occurred January 17, 1901, in Los 

 Angeles, California, it was found that this journal and 

 the letters covering the period of absence from, his native 

 home had been carefully preserved by members of his 

 family to whom they were addressed and it seemed to his 

 wife and friends, that while these letters were often of a 

 nature such as would be written only to one's intimates, 

 and were frequently expressions of the innermost feel- 

 ings of the man, yet because the record of such a life 

 could not but be helpful to others, and especially to young 

 men in whose training and development Mr. Lecouv- 

 reur was ever deeply interested, his widow has consented 

 to the publication of these letters and the journal in a 

 form that could be distributed among his friends. Iden- 

 tified from the beginning with the public life of Los An- 

 geles, it is fitting that a brief sketch of his activities and 

 accomplishments should preface these letters. 



Frank Lecouvreur was born in Ortelsburg, Prussia, 

 June 7, 1829, and was christened Theodor Maximilian 

 Ferdinand Franz Lecouvreur, his father being of French 

 nativity, while his mother was the accomplished daugh- 

 ter of Mayor Minuth of Bartenstein, East Prussia. 



Happily born, and of an ancestry that combined na- 

 tional as well as personal characteristics, young Lecouv- 

 reur's childhood was spent in an environment that could 



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