California Gold

THREAD TRANSPORTER
1. '49ers Gold Rush
2. Pre-California
3. Building California From the West
4. Building California From the South
5. Building California From the East - Nevada Donations
6. California's Historic Gold Mines


Building California

It's likely the entire community looked after the free range kids.

My guess is that in these camps, vigilante justice was swift and severe. That hopefully discouraged some types behavior. Of course the child labor law folks were in the far distant future.

always wondered about those desert varnish gold nuggets
Pegleg Smith stumbled on ?

wish some geological force
would deposit some gold in my account
it shouldn't be hard
due to gold high specific gravity
& rock bottom is lowest elevation

Thanks for the like !
I mean..... not a greedy man
jus a little gold
metaphorically speaking
for the
end of days

Mark K, perhaps it did?

Thank you for posting this. Three of my ancestors were "49'ers". One stayed and became a prominent citizen of Sacramento. Last I heard, his mansion is still standing. I have some interior/exterior photos of the mansion, the person and his last wife. Below is an excerpt from a 1900's book containing info and biographies of Sacramento Citizens.

1851: Established a trading post and herding ranch in American Valley, where now is located Quincy,the county seat of Plumas County. In this enterprise a partner from Missouri named Thomas Thing took what money Mr. Clark had and a horse, and went down the Sacramento to purchase supplies,—which was the last ever known of him or the horse. Mr. Clark had paid $200 for the horse. He conducted the business alone, and in two or three months cleared about $1,000. He was the first and only resident of that valley in 1850. Returning to Long's Bar on the Feather River, he entered mercantile business with one J. T. Elliott for that winter. The next spring he formed a copartnership with a cousin, Lewis Clark, from Beloit, Wisconsin, (my G-G Grandfather) and established a store at Gray Eagle, on the middle fork of the American River, in El Dorado County, and later at Battle Hill, near Georgetown, same county. They purchased considerable real estate in and near Sacramento, and in 1856 they closed business and returned
East by the Isthmus of Panama to New York. A year- and a half afterward Mr. Clark came again to California, and has made his home here ever since.

End Excerpt.

The subject, Howell Clark, was very experienced in the Mercantile business, having been trained by his father. After learning the family business, he took over ownership/management of the 8 Mercantiles owned by him in Indiana and Illinois. He was also a great survivalist and negotiator, which was needed in those times. The biography also states that Howell was a US Marshal, and a member of the commission to secure lands for the building of the railroad shops. On his father's side his genealogy can
be traced six generations back, to one Edmund Clark, who came from London in 1635, in the ship Speedwell (mate of the Mayflower, Joe Chapell, master), and settled in Lynn, Massachusetts.

Not just the miners and their families who were important, but also those who provided the needed survival supplies and equipment. Howell also did his share of mining as well. Fabricating and experimenting with new equipment to streamline the process and make the equipment better suited for travel. His Mercantile/Trading Posts were outfitted for everything needed for mining and travelers. He was also an assayer, blacksmith, horse wrangler and many other things. That was what it took to survive then.

Just sharing some inside knowledge of the times. I started my genealogy research with names written on the back of a book. No mention as to who they were. This led me to Howell, so I started researching him and his travels. I made the connection with Lewis and the rest is history. Lewis was actually the foster son of Howell's brother Jeremiah, who traveled west with him on the first trip. The parents of Lewis, both suddenly died and his Uncle took him on.