Journal Notes

They came to California with great hope for the future-they left a legacy.

Enter to win a copy of

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.

The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, California, in 1848 set off a siren call that many Americans couldn’t resist. Enthusiastic pioneers headed west intent on picking up a fortune in the nearest stream. Though only a few actually used a pickax in the search for a fortune, women played a major role in the California Gold Rush. They discovered wealth working as cooks, writers, photographers, performers, or lobbyists. Some even realized dreams greater than gold in the western land of opportunity and others experienced unspeakable tragedy.

 

 

Petite Nellie Pooler Chapman stood on the red velvet covered riser and gazed inside the mouth of a burly, distressed miner and shook her head. She would have to remove the tooth that was causing the prospector so much pain. Nellie selected a corkscrew type instrument to begin the process. She wrapped the tool around the tooth and with considerable effort wrenched it out of the man’s mouth. The relief he felt was almost instantaneous.

Nellie Pooler Chapman was the first licensed dentist in the Old West and over her 30 year career would care for numerous residence in Nevada County, California. She was born in Norridgewock, Maine in 1847 and at the age of 13 relocated with her parents to the Gold Country. There she met and married Dr. Allen Chapman, a prominent dentist in the area. The parlor in the home he built for his new bride included a dental office.

Nellie did not enter the field of dentistry eagerly. She assisted her husband in his work, but was not initially interested in the job as a career. It wasn’t until she had spent years learning about the profession from Allen that she decided to apply for a license of her own. Nellie became a full-fledged dentist in 1879. She was the first woman to be registered in the field in the western territories. When her husband decided to open an office in Virginia City, Nevada, Nellie was the sole dentist between Sacramento and Donner Lake.

Dr. Chapman outfitted her thriving practice with a porcelain bowl, crystal water glasses and the most modern drills and aspirators. The chair her patients sat in was covered in red velvet and labeled “Imperial Columbia” in gold script.

In 1897, Nellie’s husband passed away. She continued on with the practice for another 9 years, providing care for Northern California residence.

 

 

To learn more about Nellie Pooler Chapman and her life and career in the West or about any of the other women who made their mark on the

Gold Rush read:

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.

 

They came to California with great hope for the future-they left a legacy.

Enter to win a copy of

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.

 

 

The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, California, in 1848 set off a siren call that many Americans couldn’t resist. Enthusiastic pioneers headed west intent on picking up a fortune in the nearest stream. Though only a few actually used a pickax in the search for a fortune, women played a major role in the California Gold Rush. They discovered wealth working as cooks, writers, photographers, performers, or lobbyists. Some even realized dreams greater than gold in the western land of opportunity and others experienced unspeakable tragedy.

There before her was a panoramic view of the snow-capped Sierra peaks-jagged an folded, thrusting upward from steep, forested hills-taller than what they called mountains in the East. The California sky was a blue vault overhead. The sun, she noted, was at the perfect angle to highlight the features of the rugged landscape for her camera.

Eliza Withinton pulled away the skirt-tent wrapped around her bulky camera and tripod, reversed the lenses she’s turned into the camera box, reset the screws, and anchored the contraption in the rocky soil of the Amador County foothills. Propping her black linen parasol against the tripod, she carefully unwrapped a sensitized glass plate from the damp towel in which it had been carried to the distant foothills, slipped it into place and exposed the plate.

The camera, covered with one of her heavy, black dress skirts, then became her darkroom. Eliza slipped beneath the negative, then washed and replaced the glass in the plateholder for a more convenient time to fix and varnish the picture.

Packing her precious equipment, she scrambled back down the steep, rocky trail to the dusty road, using her cane-headed parasol for a walking stick. There she waiting for a fruit wagon to return and carry her back to Ione City and the appointments for portraits at her studio.

Eliza Withington described how she photographed the Sierras in an article for the Philadelphia Photographer in 1876. “How a Woman Makes Landscape Photographs” detailed her methods of working in the field. The article provided a complete description of her equipment, how she packed it to survive torturous overland skirts, shawls, and parasol to process her five-by-eight-inch glass plates in the field.

 

 

To learn more about Eliza Withington and her life and career in the West or about any of the other women who made their mark on the

Gold Rush read:

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.

 

They came to California with great hope for the future-they left a legacy.

Enter to win a copy of

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.

 

The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, California, in 1848 set off a siren call that many Americans couldn’t resist. Enthusiastic pioneers headed west intent on picking up a fortune in the nearest stream. Though only a few actually used a pickax in the search for a fortune, women played a major role in the California Gold Rush. They discovered wealth working as cooks, writers, photographers, performers, or lobbyists. Some even realized dreams greater than gold in the western land of opportunity and others experienced unspeakable tragedy.

Frontier pioneer Eliza Inman wrote in her journal in 1843, “If Hell laid to the west Americans would cross Heaven to reach it.” Luzena Stanley Wilson, mother of three and wife of aspiring gold miner, Mason Wilson, wholeheartedly agreed with the sentiment. In 1849, news of the Gold Rush captivated Mason’s imagination and he moved his family from their home in Missouri to a mining town west of the Rockies.

Shortly after arriving in Nevada City, California, Mason left Luzena alone with the children to make her while he staked out a gold claim. Luzena quickly went to work unpacking, making beds, and firing up her stove. As she worked she contemplated how she was going to help make good on the cost it took to transport her family to the area. “As always occurs to the mind of a woman, I thought of taking in boarders,” she wrote in her journal. “So I bought two boards from a precious pile belonging to a man who was building the second wooden house in town. With my own hands I chopped stakes, drove them into the ground, and set up my table. I bought provisions from a neighboring store, and when my husband came back at night he found, mid the weird light of the pine torches, twenty miners eating at my table. Each man as he rose put a $1 in my hand and said I might count him as a permanent customer.”

Within six weeks of opening her business, Luzena had earned enough to pay back the money Mason had borrowed to move his family to the Gold Country. She also expanded and renovated the make-shift hotel and purchased a new stove. By the end of the summer in 1850, Luzena had an average seventy five to two hundred boarders living at the establishment, each paying $25 a week.

Mason never did find the mother lode, but Luzena became one of the most prosperous women in the territory. Mason struggled with Luzena’s success for a long while before he left her and the children.

 

To learn more about Luzena Stanley Wilson and her life in the West or about any of the other women who made their mark on the

Gold Rush read:

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.

 

They came to California with great hope for the future-they left a legacy.

Enter to win a copy of

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.

 

 

The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, California, in 1848 set off a siren call that many Americans couldn’t resist. Enthusiastic pioneers headed west intent on picking up a fortune in the nearest stream. Though only a few actually used a pickax in the search for a fortune, women played a major role in the California Gold Rush. They discovered wealth working as cooks, writers, photographers, performers, or lobbyists. Some even realized dreams greater than gold in the western land of opportunity and others experienced unspeakable tragedy.

Doc Wixom lifted his three-year-old daughter and stood her carefully in the middle of a table. Wrapped in an American flag, golden brown ringlets framing her sweet face, Emma Wixom smiled at her audience. The church on the banks of Deer Creek was crowded with miners and merchants, teamsters and saloonkeepers. They were there to benefit a local charity, and the sight of a child symbolized the hopes of the future.

Unafraid of the eager faces crowed around the table, little Emma Wixom knew what was expected of her. She was happy to sing on this lovely morning. She did it all the time, unaccompanied, singing for the pure love of the sound.

That summer day in 1862, in the thriving California Gold Rush town named Nevada, she gave a performance to remember. Inside the Baptist church on the banks of Deer Creek, Emma took a deep breath and released a pure soprano voice that held the audience spellbound. By the time the last note sounded, there was not a dry eye in the house. Brawny, wet-cheeked miners showered her with nuggets of pure gold.
Emma Wixom, the daughter of a country doctor, began a long and illustrious career that day in the church. She would go on to sing opera in Europe and America. She would draw standing-room-only crowds to her performances, but her biggest fans remained the reckless, rugged gold miners who first took a little child into their hearts.

 

To learn more about Emma Nevada and her journey through the West or about any of the other women who made their mark on the

Gold Rush read:

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.

 

They came to California with great hope for the future-they left a legacy.

Enter to win a copy of

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.

 

 

The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, California, in 1848 set off a siren call that many Americans couldn’t resist. Enthusiastic pioneers headed west intent on picking up a fortune in the nearest stream. Though only a few actually used a pickax in the search for a fortune, women played a major role in the California Gold Rush. They discovered wealth working as cooks, writers, photographers, performers, or lobbyists. Some even realized dreams greater than gold in the western land of opportunity and others experienced unspeakable tragedy.

Dutch Carver, a half-drunk gold miner, burst into Eleanora Dumont’s gambling house and demanded to see the famous proprietor. “I’m here for a fling at the cards tonight with your lady boss, Madame Mustache,” Carver told one of the scantily-attired women draped across his arm. He handed the young lady a silver dollar and smiled confidently. “Now you take this and buy yourself a drink. Come around after I clean out the Madame and maybe we’ll do a little celebrating.” The woman laughed in Dutch’s face. “I won’t hold my breath,” she said.

Eleanora Dumont soon appeared at the gambling table. She was dressed in a stylish garibaldi blouse and skirt. Her features were coarse and there was a growth of dark hair on her upper lip. At one time she had been considered a beautiful woman, but years of hard frontier living had robbed her of her good looks. It had not, however, taken away her ability to play poker. She was the first and best lady card sharp in California. Her skills had only enhanced with age.

Eleanora sat down at the table across from Dutch and began shuffling the deck of cards. “What’s your preference?” she asked him. Dutch laid a wad of money out on the table in front of him. “I don’t care,” he said. “I’ve got more than two hundred dollars. Let’s get going now, and I don’t want to quit until you’ve got all my money, or until I’ve got a considerable amount of yours.”

Eleanora told him that she preferred the game vingt-et-un (twenty-one or blackjack). The cards were dealth and the game began. In a short hour and a half Dutch Carver had lost his entire bankroll to Eleanora.

When the game ended the gambler stood up and started to leave the saloon. Eleanora ordered him to sit down and have a drink on the house. He took a place at the bar and the bartender served him a glass of milk. This was the customary course of action at the Twenty-One Club. All losers had to partake. Eleanora believed that “any man silly enough to lose his last cent to a woman deserved a milk diet.”

 

 

　

To learn more about Eleanora Dumont and her journey west or about any of the other women who made their mark on the Gold Rush read:

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.

 

They came to California with great hope for the future-they left a legacy.

Enter to win a copy of

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.

 

 

The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, California, in 1848 set off a siren call that many Americans couldn’t resist. Enthusiastic pioneers headed west intent on picking up a fortune in the nearest stream. Though only a few actually used a pickax in the search for a fortune, women played a major role in the California Gold Rush. They discovered wealth working as cooks, writers, photographers, performers, or lobbyists. Some even realized dreams greater than gold in the western land of opportunity and others experienced unspeakable tragedy.

 

Juanita slowly walked to the gallows, took the noose in her hands, and adjusted it around her neck. She pulled her long, black hair out from beneath the rope so it could flow freely. A blanket of silence fell over the crowd watching the hanging in Downieville, California, that sunny July afternoon in 1851.

Less than twenty-four hours before, the people in this California Gold Rush town had been celebrating the country’s independence. The streets were still lined with bunting and flags. A platform still stood in the center of the town where prominent speakers had given patriotic lectures. There had been bands and parades. Drunken miners had brawled in the streets and bartenders had rolled giant whiskey barrels into tent saloons for everyone to have a drink. It had been a momentous occasion – the first Fourth of July celebration since California had become a state.

Juanita was one of a couple of thousand people who had taken up residence in this pine-covered mountainside burgh, three thousand feet across the upper Yuba River. Downieville was the richest region in the Gold Country. Ninety-two thousand dollars worth of gold had been found in the area in the first half of 1850.

To learn more about Juanita and the events that to her hanging or about any of the other women who made their mark on the Gold Rush read:

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.

 

They came to California with great hope for the future-they left a legacy.

Enter to win a copy of

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.

 

 

The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, California, in 1848 set off a siren call that many Americans couldn’t resist. Enthusiastic pioneers headed west intent on picking up a fortune in the nearest stream. Though only a few actually used a pickax in the search for a fortune, women played a major role in the California Gold Rush. They discovered wealth working as cooks, writers, photographers, performers, or lobbyists. Some even realized dreams greater than gold in the western land of opportunity and others experienced unspeakable tragedy.

Rain dripped steadily from the bare trees outside the dark parlor. The bride stood at the top of the stairs, a red rose sent from her best friend pinned inside her dress. Unveiled, she started down the steps to the man who waited to marry her.

She had resisted his courtship and insisted that marriage did not fit her plans. The young engineer standing at the foot of the staircase had made his own plans. He arrived out of the wild West with a “now or never” declaration. He had taken off his large, hooded overcoat, placed his pipe and pistol on the bureau in the room that had belonged to the bride’s grandmother, and the quiet force of his intent carried the day.
The bride well knew that the Quaker marriage ceremony puts the responsibility for making the vows directly on those who must keep them. She descended the stairs, catching sight of her parents, a handful of other family members, her best friend’s husband, and the man she had finally agreed to marry.

Mary Hallock gripped the arm of Arthur De Wint Foote and stepped up in front of the assembly of Friends, as the Quakers called themselves, to speak those irrevocable vow. She was twenty-nine, with an established career as an illustrator for the best magazines of the day. She had carefully considered what she would give up by taking this step. Arthur was a mining engineer, and his work was in the West. She was an artist, and all her contacts were in Boston and New York. She faced forward with a mixture of anxiety and joy.

　To learn more about Mary Hallock Foote and her journey west or about any of the other women who made their mark on the Gold Rush read:

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.

 

They came to California with great hope for the future-they left a legacy.

Enter to win a copy of

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.

 

 

The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, California, in 1848 set off a siren call that many Americans couldn’t resist. Enthusiastic pioneers headed west intent on picking up a fortune in the nearest stream. Though only a few actually used a pickax in the search for a fortune, women played a major role in the California Gold Rush. They discovered wealth working as cooks, writers, photographers, performers, or lobbyists. Some even realized dreams greater than gold in the western land of opportunity and others experienced unspeakable tragedy.

Nancy Kelsey stood on the porch of her rustic home in Jackson County, Missouri, watching her husband load their belongings onto a covered wagon. Soon, the young couple and their one-year-old daughter would be on the way to California. She hated leaving her family behind and she knew the trip west would be difficult, but she believed she could “better endure the hardships of the journey than the anxieties for an absent husband.”

Nancy was born in Barren County, Kentucky, in 1823. She married Benjamin L. Kelsey when she was fifteen. She had fallen in love with his restless, adventurous spirit, and from the day the two exchanged vows she could not imagine her life without him. At the age of seventeen, Nancy agreed to follow Benjamin to a strange new land rumored to be a place where a “poor man could prosper.”

Nancy, Benjamin, and their daughter, Ann, arrived in Spalding Grove, Kansas just in time to join the first organized group of American settlers traveling to California by land. The train was organized and led by John Bidwell, a New York schoolteacher, and John Bartleson, a land speculator and wagon master.

Nancy’s recollections of some of the other members of the Bidwell-Bartleson party and the apprehension she felt about the trip were recorded in the San Francisco Examiner in 1893. She described what it was like when the wagon train first set out on its way on May 12, 1841: “A man by the name of Fitzpatrick was our pilot, and we had a priest with us who was bound for the northwest coast to teach the Flathead Indians. We numbered thirty-three all told and I was the only woman. I had a baby to take care of, too.”

 

To learn more about Nancy Kelsey and her journey west or about any of the other women who made their mark on the Gold Rush read:

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.

 

They came to California with great hope for the future-they left a legacy.

Enter to win a copy of

With Great Hope: Women of the California Gold Rush.

 

 

The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, California, in 1848 set off a siren call that many Americans couldn’t resist. Enthusiastic pioneers headed west intent on picking up a fortune in the nearest stream. Though only a few actually used a pickax in the search for a fortune, women played a major role in the California Gold Rush. They discovered wealth working as cooks, writers, photographers, performers, or lobbyists. Some even realized dreams greater than gold in the western land of opportunity and others experienced unspeakable tragedy.

If Mary Graves had stayed in Indiana where she was born on November 1, 1826, she might have married the boy next door, taught students to read and write at a school house in her hometown, and lived out her days watching her children and grandchildren grow up on the family farm. Her life, however, took a different course when her family joined the Donner Party in 1846 and headed west.

Mary was nineteen when her father, Franklin, made the decision to move his family to California. The wagon train the Graves joined was organized by George and Jacob Donner and James Reed and their families. The initial group set out from Springfield, Illinois in April and was joined by additional members when it reached Independence, Missouri. Franklin and Elizabeth Graves and their nine children joined the Donner Party in August at Fort Bridger, Wyoming, with their belongings piled in three large wagons.

Mary was excited about the journey. She had no doubt heard stories of the golden land of opportunity and couldn’t wait to see its riches for herself. She knew her family might experience difficulties getting there but that had not put a damper on her gleeful spirit. She didn’t care that the trail was treacherous, and she wasn’t afraid of the Indians that guarded the way. She placed all her faith in God and her father to get her and her family to their new home safely.

Historical records note that Mary was a beautiful young lady with dark eyes and long, wavy black hair. She carried her slender, five-foot, seven-inch frame with grace. Her complexion was creamy olive. She captured the attention of many of the twenty-two single men in the party, but she was engaged to John Synder, the driver of one of her father’s teams.

On October 5, 1846, John Synder and Milton Elliott, another driver exchanged heated words over whose team of oxen could pull a load raced each other to the top of the hill. John’s and Milton’s teams got tangled up as they raced each other to the top of the hill. John was furious and started cussing at Milton and beating his livestock with a whip-stock. James Reed stepped in and tried to calm him down. John thought James was threatening him, and he jumped off his wagon and beat James over the head with the butt end of his heavy whip-stock while Mary looked on. When James Reed managed to stand up and wipe the blood from his eyes, his wife ran over to help him, and John hit her over the head too. James quickly pulled out a knife and stabbed John. Mary’s intended died fifteen minutes later. The stunned onlookers were outraged. They wanted to hang James. Mary was asked to sit in judgment of him, but she refused. James was banished from the group.

The gleam in Mary’s eyes had started to fade. The journey west was grueling. In addition to having battled the heat and rough terrain, the party had taken a “shortcut” to California that actually took them several hundred miles out of their way. Lack of water and a variety of petty arguments, like the one between John, Milton, and James, created strife among the party members. Their food was running low and many of their oxen and horses had been stolen by Indians.

Mary and the others finally reached the Sierra Nevada mountains on October 28^th, 1856.

 

To learn more about Mary Graves and the other women who came to the Gold Country with great hope read

With Great Hope:  Women of the California Gold Rush.

 

Ma Barker’s last day. Last chance to enter to win a copy of

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother.

　

In a time when notorious Depression-era criminals were terrorizing the country, the Barker-Karpis Gang stole more money than mobsters John Dillinger, Vern Miller, and Bonnie and Clyde combined. Five of the most wanted thieves, murderers, and kidnappers by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the 1930s were from the same family. Authorities believed the woman behind the band of violent hoodlums that ravaged the Midwest was their mother, Kate “Ma” Barker.

 

Federal agents shouted to Ma Barker to surrender. The answer came in renewed flashes of fire, shooting from first one window, then another. Occasionally law enforcement officials could see Ma’s gray head or Fred’s dark, red hair as they darted like phantoms across the corner of a window. Hours passed and the fight continued with intermittent bursts of shooting. News of the battle had spread throughout the surrounding country; crowds were arriving, but they kept well back from the line of fire.

It was just before noon when the fusillade died out. Agents carefully inched their way out of their hiding spots and rushed toward the house. They lobbed tear-gas shells into the upstairs windows and waited for it to take effect. Federal authorities sent Willie Woodbury into the house to find out if anyone inside was alive. Agents reasoned the Barkers wouldn’t shoot the loyal servant. Willie entered through the back door moving slowly and cautiously. A minute later, he stuck his head out the upstairs window, coughing and wiping his eyes. The tear-gas fumes were overwhelming. “They are all dead,” he called out to the investigators below. An armed agent hurried into the building to confirm Willie’s findings. It was true. The Barkers were dead.

Ma Barker and Fred were found lying side by side. Her arm was around her youngest boy, his blood staining her breast. Eleven machine-gun slugs were taken from Fred’s corpse, but one shot in the head had killed Ma. Her pudgy hands clasped an empty machine gun. According to the FBI report, a .45 caliber automatic pistol was found near Fred’s body. The report also said:

A search of the house after the battle had disclosed $14,000 in $1,000 bills, and an investigation revealed that these $1,000 bills were a part of those that had been obtained by Cassius McDonald in Havana, Cuba, in exchange for the Bremer ransom money. There was also found other currency of smaller denominations totaling approximately $293.00.A small arsenal was located in the house which consisted of: two Thompson submachine guns, one Browning .12 gauge automatic shotgun, one Remington .12 gauge pump shotgun, two .45 caliber automatic pistols, one .33 caliber Winchester rifle, and one .380 Colt automatic pistol, together with machine gun drums, automatic pistol clips, and a quantity of ammunition.

There was also found in the house a letter signed by B. L. Barnes which was a letter to Fred Barker from his brother Arthur. The letter read as follows: “Hello ever [sic] one how is that old sunshine down there fine I hope. Boy it is not so hot up here, for we are having some winter. I Bet you and Buff are not catching no fish now for I think I caught them all when I was down there. I took care of that Business for you Boys it was done. Just as good as if you had did it yourself. I am Just like the standard oil always at your service ha ha. Tell, Bo, you know the Boy with the rosey [sic] cheek that Moxey is up here looking for him and if it is alright to send him down. I have not seen c_ _ _k yet I have Been Busy on that other he was perrty [sic] hard to locate. But will see him right away, and see if he wants come down there. Tell mother that deer was mighty fine and I said hello and her and the squaw had better not let you Bums Beat them in a catching fish ha ha well I will close for this time as ever you [sic] Big Bud. B. L. Barnes.”

 

 

To learn more about Ma Barker and he Barker Gang read

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother.