Post by lowriderbill on Sept 26, 2005 22:44:18 GMT -6
Hello All,
I just thought I'd let you know that Tramp dragged me by my hair (while I was kicking and screaming) all the way to this board, LOL! I sincerely appreciate the kind PM's and the invitations from many of you. I look forward to many conversations with you fine folks.
That said, I will leave you for the evening with a little bit of history on others who faced even tougher circumstances than us. I know remaining patient completely stinks, but that's all we have to do! Think of these others while you wait for your fortune to arrive. Not all who attempted got rich, but the ones who stuck it out through thick and thin sure did. What will your biography read over 100 years later?
Lowriderbill
**********
Famous People of the Gold Rush
Juana Briones
Healer, midwife, cattle rancher, merchant, and landowner, Juana Briones (1803-1889) refused to live within the limits set for women in her time. She bore eight children before legally separating from her husband, and adopted five more. Known for her compassion and skill as a medical woman, she was also a successful businesswoman. As one of the first settlers of San Francisco (then called Yerba Buena), Briones acquired 4,400 acres of land near San Francisco, and, unlike many, managed to hold onto her property as California changed hands from Spain to Mexico to the United States.
James Beckwourth
A true mountain man, James Beckwourth (1798-1867?) blazed a trail through the Sierra Mountains for fortune seekers heading to California. Although Beckwourth was born a slave, his white father eventually declared his son a "free Negro" and brought him out West. As a young man, Beckwourth lived among the Crow Indians, marrying (and abandoning) a number of Crow women. Later, he guided gold hunters through the mountains to California. Beckwourth also served as guide and interpreter for U.S. troops during the Cheyenne War of 1864. Some believe that he was poisoned by one of his former wives.
John Sutter
John Sutter on whose land gold was discovered should have become a rich man yet he became a classic victim of the California gold rush. In addition to establishing a fort on the American River in 1840, Sutter started numerous commercial ventures such as the sawmill with James Marshall. Although the enterprising Sutter owned thousands of acres in Northern California, the greedy prospectors soon filed claims on much of it and he lost everything due to the delay in acting on his case by the United States' Land Commission.
Levi Strauss
It is probably a little-know fact that hardly any of the prospectors got rich from their gold mines, however, many enterprising people profited from both real estate and mercantile businesses providing the much needed supplies to the large number of miners. Levi Strauss, the inventor of the now famous Levi pants, recognized the miner's need for durable pants and began making them out of tent canvas then reinforcing the key stress points with copper rivets.
May Woolsey
May Woolsey was a 12 year old girl who lived in Sacramento during the 1870's in the district known as Alkali Flat. Found in 1979 when a new owner was remodeling the house and came across a hatch cut into the second floor stair landing. The trunk had been placed in a cavity from a false ceiling in a closet below. When opened the trunk contained a fascinating chronicle of life in early Sacramento as seen through the childhood mementos of May Woolsey. Packed in the trunk were trinkets and playthings typical of most 12-year-old girls of the late 1870's.
John Sutter, Jr.
John Sutter Jr. arrived in the fall of 1848 to manage his father's holdings. In company of Mormon elder Sam Brannan and attorney Peter Burnett - later California's first governor- he laid out the City of Sacramento as we know it today, much to his father's chagrin. The senior Sutter had plans for a city two miles to the South. This occasioned the break-up of father and son, and the junior Sutter's departure to Mexico.
Pony Express Riders
Between April 1860 and October 1861 the Pony Express galloped in and out of Sacramento history, carrying the mail to St. Joseph, Missouri in only ten days! The transcontinental telegraph brought on the demise of the Pony Express. But the pony mail demonstrated that a trail over the Sierra was passable in winter, an astonishment to all who remembered the Donner Party tragedy. Learn more about the Pony Express.
Rufus J. Butterfield
Rufus J. Butterfield sailed into San Francisco Bay on July 5, 1849, entitling him to the status of California Pioneer. Butterfield is an example of the majority of men who came to California during the Gold Rush. Most gold seekers did not find a fortune or even a living through mining. Butterfield, like many others, found other ways to survive.
Eleanor McClatchy
For 42 years Eleanor McClatchy was president of the McClatchy Newspapers, which include dailies: The Sacramento Bee, The Fresno Bee, and The Modesto Bee, and several others throughout the United States. She was, and may still be, the best known female citizen of Sacramento. Her grandfather James McClatchy arrived in California in the summer of 1849. In 1884 his son's Valentine Stuart and Charles Kenny (C.K., Eleanor's father) brought out their father's partner and the family became the sole owners of The Bee.
James McClatchy
James McClatchy, founder of The Sacramento Bee newspaper, was one of our most well-known sherrifs. McClatchy was arrested in 1850 by then Sheriff McKinney, for siding with the squatters in a dispute over land rights. McClatchy was incarcerated in the prison brig La Grange, charged with rebellion. McClatchy's re-election attempt was foiled by opponents: ballots were hidden and not counted during the election. When the Masonic Lodge was being torn down uncounted ballots were discovered, stuffed in a chimney. James Lansing beat McClatchy in the 1866 election by 489 votes - a lot of chimney stuffing.
Isaiah Dunlap
Isaiah Dunlap, a native of Virginia, worked as a barber according to the 1857 Sacramento City Directory. Isaiah was one of the earliest African Americans to arrive in Sacramento. He took advantage of his talents by providing a service that was in great demand. In 1874, he and partner William Jackson opened a hairdressing salon in the Golden Eagle Hotel at 7th and K Streets.
George Dunlap
George Dunlap, a descendant of Isaiah, was well know in Sacramento for his popular restaurant, Dunlap's Dining Room. Dunlap's served the people of Sacramento from 1930 to 1968.
Bret Harte
Gold miners were a colorful lot, and they provided writer Bret Harte (originally Francis Brette Harte, 1836-1902) with plenty to write about. Harte created the "local-color" style of American fiction writing, which captures a particular region's way of speaking, manners, folklore, and landscape. Harte was an enormously successful writer. His most popular story was "The Luck of the Roaring Camp," a story set in the gold fields. Later in his life, Harte became a diplomat to Germany and Scotland, and he eventually settled in London.
Phillip Armour
Not everyone who made fortunes from the Gold Rush did so by mining. Phillip Armour (1832-1901) supplied miners with meat from his butcher shop. With the money he earned, he built a huge meat packing company, Armour & Company, in Chicago. His innovative techniques and enormous success helped make Chicago the meat packing capital of the world. In his later years, the fabulously wealthy Armour became quite charitable. He founded both the Armour Mission and the Armour Institute of Technology, which later became the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Lotta Crabtree
Miners showered little Lotta Crabtree (1847-1924) with gold nuggets and coins as she danced at the mining camps. The Crabtrees moved to San Francisco when Lotta was nine, after her father came from New York seeking (though not finding) gold. They lived near dancer Lola Montez, who may have inspired Lotta to sing and dance. By age 12, Lotta had gained fame as "Miss Lotta, the San Francisco Favorite." In 1864, she returned to the East and had a hugely successful performing career. Real estate investments helped her build a $4 million fortune by the time she died.
I just thought I'd let you know that Tramp dragged me by my hair (while I was kicking and screaming) all the way to this board, LOL! I sincerely appreciate the kind PM's and the invitations from many of you. I look forward to many conversations with you fine folks.
That said, I will leave you for the evening with a little bit of history on others who faced even tougher circumstances than us. I know remaining patient completely stinks, but that's all we have to do! Think of these others while you wait for your fortune to arrive. Not all who attempted got rich, but the ones who stuck it out through thick and thin sure did. What will your biography read over 100 years later?
Lowriderbill
**********
Famous People of the Gold Rush
Juana Briones
Healer, midwife, cattle rancher, merchant, and landowner, Juana Briones (1803-1889) refused to live within the limits set for women in her time. She bore eight children before legally separating from her husband, and adopted five more. Known for her compassion and skill as a medical woman, she was also a successful businesswoman. As one of the first settlers of San Francisco (then called Yerba Buena), Briones acquired 4,400 acres of land near San Francisco, and, unlike many, managed to hold onto her property as California changed hands from Spain to Mexico to the United States.
James Beckwourth
A true mountain man, James Beckwourth (1798-1867?) blazed a trail through the Sierra Mountains for fortune seekers heading to California. Although Beckwourth was born a slave, his white father eventually declared his son a "free Negro" and brought him out West. As a young man, Beckwourth lived among the Crow Indians, marrying (and abandoning) a number of Crow women. Later, he guided gold hunters through the mountains to California. Beckwourth also served as guide and interpreter for U.S. troops during the Cheyenne War of 1864. Some believe that he was poisoned by one of his former wives.
John Sutter
John Sutter on whose land gold was discovered should have become a rich man yet he became a classic victim of the California gold rush. In addition to establishing a fort on the American River in 1840, Sutter started numerous commercial ventures such as the sawmill with James Marshall. Although the enterprising Sutter owned thousands of acres in Northern California, the greedy prospectors soon filed claims on much of it and he lost everything due to the delay in acting on his case by the United States' Land Commission.
Levi Strauss
It is probably a little-know fact that hardly any of the prospectors got rich from their gold mines, however, many enterprising people profited from both real estate and mercantile businesses providing the much needed supplies to the large number of miners. Levi Strauss, the inventor of the now famous Levi pants, recognized the miner's need for durable pants and began making them out of tent canvas then reinforcing the key stress points with copper rivets.
May Woolsey
May Woolsey was a 12 year old girl who lived in Sacramento during the 1870's in the district known as Alkali Flat. Found in 1979 when a new owner was remodeling the house and came across a hatch cut into the second floor stair landing. The trunk had been placed in a cavity from a false ceiling in a closet below. When opened the trunk contained a fascinating chronicle of life in early Sacramento as seen through the childhood mementos of May Woolsey. Packed in the trunk were trinkets and playthings typical of most 12-year-old girls of the late 1870's.
John Sutter, Jr.
John Sutter Jr. arrived in the fall of 1848 to manage his father's holdings. In company of Mormon elder Sam Brannan and attorney Peter Burnett - later California's first governor- he laid out the City of Sacramento as we know it today, much to his father's chagrin. The senior Sutter had plans for a city two miles to the South. This occasioned the break-up of father and son, and the junior Sutter's departure to Mexico.
Pony Express Riders
Between April 1860 and October 1861 the Pony Express galloped in and out of Sacramento history, carrying the mail to St. Joseph, Missouri in only ten days! The transcontinental telegraph brought on the demise of the Pony Express. But the pony mail demonstrated that a trail over the Sierra was passable in winter, an astonishment to all who remembered the Donner Party tragedy. Learn more about the Pony Express.
Rufus J. Butterfield
Rufus J. Butterfield sailed into San Francisco Bay on July 5, 1849, entitling him to the status of California Pioneer. Butterfield is an example of the majority of men who came to California during the Gold Rush. Most gold seekers did not find a fortune or even a living through mining. Butterfield, like many others, found other ways to survive.
Eleanor McClatchy
For 42 years Eleanor McClatchy was president of the McClatchy Newspapers, which include dailies: The Sacramento Bee, The Fresno Bee, and The Modesto Bee, and several others throughout the United States. She was, and may still be, the best known female citizen of Sacramento. Her grandfather James McClatchy arrived in California in the summer of 1849. In 1884 his son's Valentine Stuart and Charles Kenny (C.K., Eleanor's father) brought out their father's partner and the family became the sole owners of The Bee.
James McClatchy
James McClatchy, founder of The Sacramento Bee newspaper, was one of our most well-known sherrifs. McClatchy was arrested in 1850 by then Sheriff McKinney, for siding with the squatters in a dispute over land rights. McClatchy was incarcerated in the prison brig La Grange, charged with rebellion. McClatchy's re-election attempt was foiled by opponents: ballots were hidden and not counted during the election. When the Masonic Lodge was being torn down uncounted ballots were discovered, stuffed in a chimney. James Lansing beat McClatchy in the 1866 election by 489 votes - a lot of chimney stuffing.
Isaiah Dunlap
Isaiah Dunlap, a native of Virginia, worked as a barber according to the 1857 Sacramento City Directory. Isaiah was one of the earliest African Americans to arrive in Sacramento. He took advantage of his talents by providing a service that was in great demand. In 1874, he and partner William Jackson opened a hairdressing salon in the Golden Eagle Hotel at 7th and K Streets.
George Dunlap
George Dunlap, a descendant of Isaiah, was well know in Sacramento for his popular restaurant, Dunlap's Dining Room. Dunlap's served the people of Sacramento from 1930 to 1968.
Bret Harte
Gold miners were a colorful lot, and they provided writer Bret Harte (originally Francis Brette Harte, 1836-1902) with plenty to write about. Harte created the "local-color" style of American fiction writing, which captures a particular region's way of speaking, manners, folklore, and landscape. Harte was an enormously successful writer. His most popular story was "The Luck of the Roaring Camp," a story set in the gold fields. Later in his life, Harte became a diplomat to Germany and Scotland, and he eventually settled in London.
Phillip Armour
Not everyone who made fortunes from the Gold Rush did so by mining. Phillip Armour (1832-1901) supplied miners with meat from his butcher shop. With the money he earned, he built a huge meat packing company, Armour & Company, in Chicago. His innovative techniques and enormous success helped make Chicago the meat packing capital of the world. In his later years, the fabulously wealthy Armour became quite charitable. He founded both the Armour Mission and the Armour Institute of Technology, which later became the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Lotta Crabtree
Miners showered little Lotta Crabtree (1847-1924) with gold nuggets and coins as she danced at the mining camps. The Crabtrees moved to San Francisco when Lotta was nine, after her father came from New York seeking (though not finding) gold. They lived near dancer Lola Montez, who may have inspired Lotta to sing and dance. By age 12, Lotta had gained fame as "Miss Lotta, the San Francisco Favorite." In 1864, she returned to the East and had a hugely successful performing career. Real estate investments helped her build a $4 million fortune by the time she died.
