The Experiences of a Forty-niner During a Third of a Century in the Gold Fields

The Experiences of a Forty-niner During a Third of a Century in the Gold Fields PDF Author: Charles D. Ferguson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Australia
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
Ferguson, from Aurora, Ohio, described his travel overland to California in 1850 and mining in the Chico area. In 1852 moved to Australia for more gold mining. In 1883 he returned to Chico.

The Experiences of a Forty-niner During a Third of a Century in the Gold Fields

The Experiences of a Forty-niner During a Third of a Century in the Gold Fields PDF Author: Charles D. Ferguson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Australia
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
Ferguson, from Aurora, Ohio, described his travel overland to California in 1850 and mining in the Chico area. In 1852 moved to Australia for more gold mining. In 1883 he returned to Chico.

The Experiences of a Forty-niner During a Third of a Century in the Gold Fields

The Experiences of a Forty-niner During a Third of a Century in the Gold Fields PDF Author: Charles D. Ferguson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Australia
Languages : en
Pages : 154

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Book Description


The Diary of a Forty-Niner

The Diary of a Forty-Niner PDF Author: Chauncey Canfield
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781507570623
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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Book Description
One of the most important and memorable events of the United States' westward push across the frontier came with the discovery of gold in the lands that became California in January 1848. Located thousands of miles away from the country's power centers on the east coast at the time, the announcement came a month before the Mexican-American War had ended, and among the very few Americans that were near the region at the time, many of them were Army soldiers who were participating in the war and garrisoned there. San Francisco was still best known for being a Spanish military and missionary outpost during the colonial era, and only a few hundred called it home. Mexico's independence, and its possession of those lands, had come only a generation earlier. Everything changed almost literally overnight. While the Mexican-American War technically concluded with a treaty in February 1948, the announcement brought an influx of an estimated 90,000 "Forty-Niners" to the region in 1849, hailing from other parts of America and even as far away as Asia. All told, an estimated 300,000 people would come to California over the next few years, as men dangerously trekked thousands of miles in hopes of making a fortune, and in a span of months, San Francisco's population exploded, making it one of the first mining boomtowns to truly spring up in the West. This was a pattern that would repeat itself across the West anytime a mineral discovery was made, from the Southwest and Tombstone to the Dakotas and Deadwood. Of course, that was made possible by the collective memory of the original California gold rush. Despite the mythology and the romantic portrayals that helped make the California Gold Rush, most of the individuals who came to make a fortune struck out instead. The gold rush was a boon to business interests, which ensured important infrastructure developments like the railroad and the construction of westward paths, but ultimately, it also meant that big business reaped most of the profits associated with mining the gold. While the Forty-Niners are often remembered for panning gold out of mountain streams, it required advanced mining technology for most to make a fortune. Nevertheless, the California Gold Rush became an emblem of the American Dream, and the notion that Americans could obtain untold fortunes regardless of their previous social status. As historian H.W. Brands said of the impact the gold rush had on Americans at the time, "The old American Dream ... was the dream of the Puritans, of Benjamin Franklin's 'Poor Richard'... of men and women content to accumulate their modest fortunes a little at a time, year by year by year. The new dream was the dream of instant wealth, won in a twinkling by audacity and good luck... [it] became a prominent part of the American psyche only after Sutter's Mill." While the gold rush may not have every Forty-Niner rich, the events still continue to influence the country's collective mentality.

Recollections of a '49er

Recollections of a '49er PDF Author: Edward Washington McIlhany
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Edward Washington McIlhany (b. 1828) left West Virginia for the California gold fields in 1849. Recollections of a 49er (1908) describes his overland journey west, gold prospecting on Feather River and Grass Valley, hunting and trapping, proprietorship of a general store and hotel in Onion Valley, the Colorado gold rush, and Missouri railroading after the Civil War.

Riches for All

Riches for All PDF Author: Kenneth N. Owens
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803235700
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
An event of international significance, the California gold rush created a more diverse, metropolitan society than the world had ever known. In Riches for All, leading scholars reexamine the gold rush, evaluating its trajectory and legacy within a global context of religion and race, economics, technology, law, and culture. The opportunity for instant wealth directly influenced a dynamic range of peoples, including Mormon military veterans, California Indian workers, both slave and free African Americans, Chinese village farmers, skilled Mexican miners, and Chilean merchants. Riches for All gives attention to the varying motivations and experiences of these groups and to their struggles with both racial and religious bigotry. Emphasizing gold rush social history, some contributors examine the roles and influence of women, workers, law-breakers, and law-enforcers. Others consider the long-term impact of this episode on California and the American West and on subsequent gold rushes in Pacific Rim countries and the Klondike. With lively and incisive strokes, these historians sketch the most broadly contextualized and nuanced portrait of the California gold rush to date.

Eureka Stockade

Eureka Stockade PDF Author: Gregory Blake
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1922132055
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Eureka Stockade: A ferocious and bloody battle, is the epic account of the battle for the Eureka Stockade, an iconic moment in Australian history. On the chilly dawn morning of 3 December 1854 British soldiers and police of the Victorian colonial government attacked and stormed a crudely-built fortification erected by insurgent gold miners at the Eureka lead on the Ballarat Gold Diggings. The fighting was intense, the carnage appalling and the political consequences of the affair profound. This book, for the first time, examines in great detail the actual military events that unfolded during the twenty minutes of deadly fighting at Eureka.

The National Magazine

The National Magazine PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages : 788

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Book Description


Mexican Gold Trail

Mexican Gold Trail PDF Author: Glenn S. Dumke
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780873282222
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
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The Idea of America

The Idea of America PDF Author: William Bonner
Publisher: Laissez Faire Books
ISBN: 098354140X
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description


Never Caught Twice

Never Caught Twice PDF Author: Matthew S. Luckett
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 149622325X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
2021 Nebraska Book Award Never Caught Twice presents the untold history of horse raiding and stealing on the Great Plains of western Nebraska. By investigating horse stealing by and from four Plains groups—American Indians, the U.S. Army, ranchers and cowboys, and farmers—Matthew S. Luckett clarifies a widely misunderstood crime in Western mythology and shows that horse stealing transformed plains culture and settlement in fundamental and surprising ways. From Lakota and Cheyenne horse raids to rustling gangs in the Sandhills, horse theft was widespread and devastating across the region. The horse’s critical importance in both Native and white societies meant that horse stealing destabilized communities and jeopardized the peace throughout the plains, instigating massacres and murders and causing people to act furiously in defense of their most expensive, most important, and most beloved property. But as it became increasingly clear that no one legal or military institution could fully control it, would-be victims desperately sought a solution that would spare their farms and families from the calamitous loss of a horse. For some, that solution was violence. Never Caught Twice shows how the story of horse stealing across western Nebraska and the Great Plains was in many ways the story of the old West itself.