Indiana Magazine of History The California Gold Rush

The Gold Rush

Complete Content List

- Full Citation: Joseph Waring Berrien, "Overland to California Gold Fields in 1849: The Diary of Joseph Waring Berrien," ed. Ted Hinckley and Caryl Hinckley, Indiana Magazine of History 56, no. 4 (December 1960): 273-352.
- Home: Belleville, Illinois
- Year: 1849
- Abstract: Berrien traveled on the Overland and Oregon Trail. He left St. Louis on March 31 and arrived in Sacramento on August 15, 1849. There is little known about Berrien's background or his traveling companions, or how successful he was in his gold mining. He has interesting experiences with Kickapoo and Sauk Indians and wildlife. He made the trip with a dozen of his own mules and constantly observed the landscape and environment.
- Sample Text:
  1. "I do not think our own Mothers would know their sons were they to see us after our days drive with our clothes ragged, and coverd with dust, our faces coverd with exhuberant whiskers which are all of one color, namely that of the Soil on which we travel, and guttered down with stripes of dirt of a darker color which indicates the spot where the perspiration had rolld off our brows." (p. 334, July 18, 1849)
  2. "I feel gratefull to the power which had sustained me and suffered me to bring my long journey to a sucessfull conclusion." (p. 352, Aug. 15, 1849)
- LC Subject Headings:
  1. Gold mines and mining California History 19th century.

- Full Citation: Elijah Bryan Farnham, "From Ohio to California in 1849: The Gold Rush Journal of Elijah Bryan Farnham," ed. Merrill J. Mattes and Esley J. Kirk, Indiana Magazine of History 46, no. 3 (September 1950): 297-318.
- Home: Cumberland, Ohio
- Year: 1849
- Abstract: Farnham (1825-1898) was born in New York and grew up in Solsberry, Indiana and Cumberland, Ohio. He fought in the Mexican War before traveling to California. After the gold rush, Farnham returned to Ohio, married, raised seven children, and served in the Civil War (2nd Ohio Regiment, Co. H). He eventually moved his family to a farm in Greene County, Indiana. Farnham's journal, which covers the period April 19-September 23, was owned by Esley Kirk, Farnham's grandson. The first part of the journal covers the period April 19-July 9, during which Farnham traveled from Independence, Missouri, to La Barge, Wyoming.
- Sample Text:
  1. "There was also two waggons going back to the States belonging to an old man and his two sons. The old man had broken one of his legs. This accident compelled them to turn back much against thier will. One of the boys was so disappointed that he could not surpress his tears even when he went past us." (p. 305, May 29, 1849)
  2. "The [Sioux] Indians old and young stood outside of thier tents watching the long line of emigrant waggons that were a passing through thier village They evidently are much wonder struck at the crowds agoing past on these plains that never was until late years ever disturbed by the rumbling of a waggon wheel"(p. 308, June 6, 1849)
- LC Subject Headings:
  1. Gold mines and mining California History 19th century.

- Full Citation: Elijah Bryan Farnham, "From Ohio to California in 1849: The Gold Rush Journal of Elijah Bryan Farnham," ed. Merrill J. Mattes and Esley J. Kirk, Indiana Magazine of History 46, no. 4 (December 1950): 403-420.
- Home: Cumberland, Ohio
- Year: 1849
- Abstract: This second portion of Farnham's journal covers July 11-September 23, 1849, from La Barge, Wyoming, to an unnamed location in California 120 miles from Sacramento, 300 miles from San Francisco. He continues his descriptions of landscapes, foliage, the various Indians he encounters, including Shoshones and Utes. Farnham's trail leader led his wagon train on an unnecessary and difficult detour in far northern California, and Farnham curses him in his journal but concludes that he'll forget about it soon enough.
- Sample Text:
  1. "Everything near and around these springs & the springs [Idaho Springs] themselves excite in those that see them an intense interest because very one that looks at them cannot be asshured that there is powerful and mysterious agency here at work..." (p. 408, July 20, 1849)
  2. "Meires [Myers] was the subject of many a curse and bitter raviling his situation as leader was an unenviable one It seems as if to be the leader of an emigrant [group] through a wilderness is one of the most unenviable distinctions It is now and always was [Some] may think the children of Iserel in the Wilderness were a clammersome set but they were nothing more than what folks now are" (p. 419, Sept. 12, 1849)
- LC Subject Headings:
  1. Gold mines and mining California History 19th century.

- Full Citation: Taylor N. Snow, "Diary of Taylor N. Snow, Hoosier Fifty-Niner," ed. Arthur Homer Hays, Indiana Magazine of History 28, no. 3 (September 1932): 193-208.
- Home: Warren County (Steuben Township)
- Year: 1859
- Abstract: Snow's journal (May 5-August 15, 1859) was discovered in an abandoned cabin in Idaho. His journal contains addresses and copies of poetry that give some clues to his identity, which is otherwise unknown. He was a teacher for a while in Warren County. His diary begins in Des Moines and ends 350 miles east of Placerville, California. He travels with a group that follows the Platte River, arrives in Fort Laramie on June 21, and in Soda Springs on July 24. An Indian attack on another wagon train towards the end of the trip, leaves 5 men dead.
- Sample Text:
  1. "Stayed at the station where we camped on the third to selebrate the fourth some two hundred persons were there Had two spekers Mr Button of Wisconson and Mr Jourdan of Illinois Two toasts drinkers Had the Bras[s] Band to Play and a man to read the Decliration of Indipendence" (July 4, 1859, p. 202)
  2. "This [learning of the murders] brought sorrow to our ears and caused our blud to boil with revenge But the sun went down below the hurison and night had drawn her mantled roabe od darknes over us and we to protect our selves we drove our Cattle all to gether put out eighteen Gards for the night. But the night pased away without one bring hurt." (July 28, 1859, p. 205)
- LC Subject Headings:
  1. Gold mines and mining California History 19th century.

- Full Citation: Ephraim Thompson, "The California Gold Fields in the 1850s: Letters from Ephraim Thompson, Daviess County, Indiana," ed. Philip L. Cantelon, Indiana Magazine of History 65, no. 3 (September 1969): 157-172.
- Home: Daviess County (Washington)
- Year: 1853-1854
- Abstract: Thompson traveled from Evansville to Marysville, California over the isthmus of Panama in 1853-1854, and wrote sporadic letters to his family describing his experiences. He liked San Francisco, but it was difficult to find employment in the mining camps, and he was often bored. He returned to Indiana in 1855.
- Sample Text:
  1. "There is one thing that spoils all the beauty of the South that is Slavery they look like they were well fed but the grown ones do not look any more intelligent than Brutes the young Ones look more intelligent I mean on the plantations those one Steam Boats and in the cities appear More intelligent" (New Orleans, Dec. 4, 1853, p. 161-162)
  2. "the ground is low and Marshy and full of Alligators the vegetation all along the River is so thick that you cant Se through it at all I dont think it is beaitiful by any means" (on the isthmus of Panama crossing, Marysville, California, Jan. 5, 1854, p. 163)
- LC Subject Headings:
  1. Gold mines and mining California History 19th century.