Elusive Eden: A New History of California, fourth edition

1. Elusive Eden: A New History of California, fourth edition CHAPTER TEN: DAME SHIRLEY, A YANKEE LADY IN THE CALIFORNIA MINES

2. GOLD RUSH DEMOGRAPHICS • 1852 Cal non-Native population 90% male • Many early female newcomers prostitutes • Many came with family members • Culturally important despite low numbers • Gender ratio imbalanced until late 1860s

3. DAME SHIRLEY • Louisa Amelia Knapp Smith born New Jersey 1819 --Descendant of prominent New England family --12 years old when father died --18 when mother died --Local family sent Louisa, sister Molly to academy --Taught school until 1849 marriage to medical student, Fayette Clapp

4. 1849 Clapp decided to relocate to California --Dr., bride sailed around Horn to San Francisco --Later relocated to Marysville

5. June 1851 Dr. Clapp moved to Rich Bar --mining camp on east branch of North Fork of Feather River --September 1851 returned for Louisa --100-mile trip to diggings by stage, horseback --Two week trip, got lost twice

6. Louisa wrote letters home to Molly in Massachusetts --shared observations of trip, camp life --friends, family fascinated, terrified --not unwarranted: plenty of deaths by accident, Indian attack

7. Louisa interested in Indians --Described Native women collecting seeds along stage coach route --Description generally negative --Enchanted by one 16-year-old "wild-wood Cleopatra"

8. Rich Bar depopulated in winter 1851 --Discovery one year old --First miners already gone to other diggings --Population fell from 500 to 200 by time Louisa arrived --miners living in log cabins, tents

9. Clapps lived at Empire Hotel --Built of rough lumber, canvas roof --Interior walls canvas --Boasted several glass windows --Originally a brothel --By 1851 hotel and dry goods store --Owner Curtis A. Bancroft, historian Hubert Howe Bancroft's brother

10. WOMEN IN THE MINES • Four other women in Rich Bar • Louisa critical of Mrs. Bancroft --Left 8-month-old infant, two other children at home to cross Plains with husband --1851 cooking at husband’s hotel --Kept 2-week old infant in "champagne basket cradle"

11. Critical of Mary Stanfield --Popularly known as "Indiana Girl" --Helped father with his Indiana Hotel --Brought 50-lb-sack of flour through snow to Rich Bar --Heard her without meeting her --called a "gigantic piece of humanity" with a "booming" voice, miners' boots

12. Liked "Mrs. R---" --Tended bar, assisted husband at "Miners' Home" --canvas house of three rooms: bar-room, dining room, kitchen and small bedroom --kept hotel "surprisingly neat" --netted Mr. R. estimated $100/week ($2,588.04 in 2010 dollars) --Louisa commended Mrs. R's good breeding and hard work

13. Nancy Ann Bailey died winter 1851 --Left husband, 2 small children • Louisa described funeral --Body on board, supported by butter tubs --Coffin crude pine box lined with white cloth --20 men, all 3 women attended funeral --Procession followed up hill to grave yard --Covered coffin with best cloth in camp

14. fall 1851 Clapps moved to Indian Bar --new gold discovery --Clapps lived in rough log cabin • Louisa tried panning for gold --got wet, cold --earned $3.25 in gold dust

15. MINING FOR GOLD • Earliest miners panned for gold • Later miners used rockers, cradle --Same principle as pan --Processed more sand, more quickly • Long Tom larger version still --Wooden trough 20 ft long --Perforated sheet metal at end • Men formed companies, pooled labor, shared proceeds

16. Companies bored holes into rocks near streams • Built wooden flumes to carry water to mining sites • Dug channels, redirected rivers to search for gold in riverbeds • Discoveries soon led to new mining camps • New camps attracted gamblers, prostitutes, other entrepreneurs

17. SOCIAL LIFE IN THE DIGGINGS • Many mining camp residents talented --Indian Bar's Paganini Ned skilled chef, violinist --Prepared welcome dinner for Louisa --Serenaded afterwards

18. Mining camps key to need for sociability --Most banded together rather than living alone --Tried to replicate prior communities --Sundays unofficial day of "rest" --Miners spent washing, mending clothes, socializing --Camps full of different languages: Spanish, French, Italian, German, English, Hawaiian, East Indian

19. Holidays excuse for celebration --4th of July most important --Heavy drinking required --Often devolved into fist-fights • Christmas, New Years also observed --rain, mud hampered celebration

20. LAW AND ORDER IN THE MINES • No civil legal system in early mining districts • Miners policed themselves • Held weekly miners' meetings to maintain order • Established rules for staking, protecting mining claims

21. General meetings in some camps settled disputes • Some camps elected officials to handle conflicts, hold trials • Dealt with thefts, stabbings, murders • Tribunals often picked on Spanish-, French-speakers

22. April 1852, Rich Bar banned "foreigners" from mines --Spanish-speakers left --relocated to Indian Bar --didn't stop anti-foreign feeling • July 4, 1852 group of Rich Bar Anglos attacked "Spaniards" --Louisa blamed liquor --Acknowledged racial, ethnic hostility growing

23. July 1852 drunken violence produced vigilance committee --Same thing happened year before in SF --Vigilance Committee sent posse after instigators (all Mexicans) --Found guilty, sentenced to banishment, whipping --Convicted black cook of murder --Committed suicide --Committee shot corpse --Louisa sure crime worse after committee than before

24. Clapps left diggings November 1852 --Louisa sorry to go • Marriage ended soon after --Dr. Clapp left Louisa in San Francisco --Sailed to Hawaii, 1854 returned to New England, then Illinois, then Missouri --1857 Louisa divorced him in absentia

25. Louisa returned to the classroom --Taught in local public schools until 1878 --Returned to New Jersey --Died 1906 • Contemporaries acknowledged hers most interesting of 49er observations • 1854, 1855 Louisa's letters published in literary magazine, The Pioneer

26. Hydraulic Gold Mining While Alfred A. Hart was documenting the construc-tion of the Central Pacific Railway during the 1860s, he also recorded hydraulic gold miners at work. Twen-ty years later, their activi-ties would precipitate the “debris wars” between the miners and valley farmers. Even when Hart made the photograph, however, envi-ronmental damage from hydraulic mining was evi-dent. Henry E. Huntington Library.

27. A Complete Map of the Feather and Yuba Rivers . . . Produced in 1851, the map shows both Dame Shirley’s route and her destination. She and her husband departed from relatively civilized Marysville on a two-week journey over barely marked trails. After traveling for 100 miles, they reached Rich Bar, on the very edge of California’s “Unexplored Re-gions” and not far from an area identified only as “Perpetual Snow.” California State Library.

28. Miners at Work Dame Shirley’s descriptions, as well as daguerreotypes from the early years of the gold rush, document rapid changes in mining methods. At first, a few basic tools and hard work sufficed. By 1850 and 1851, elaborate flumes and water wheels to drive machinery were essentials. The physical labor required of miners, however, rarely diminished. Bancroft Library.

29. Miners at Work Dame Shirley’s descriptions, as well as daguerreotypes from the early years of the gold rush, document rapid changes in mining methods. At first, a few basic tools and hard work sufficed. By 1850 and 1851, elaborate flumes and water wheels to drive machinery were essentials. The physical labor required of miners, however, rarely diminished. Bancroft Library.

30. Miners at Work Dame Shirley’s descriptions, as well as daguerreotypes from the early years of the gold rush, document rapid changes in mining methods. At first, a few basic tools and hard work sufficed. By 1850 and 1851, elaborate flumes and water wheels to drive machinery were essentials. The physical labor required of miners, however, rarely diminished. Bancroft Library.

31. Miners at Work Dame Shirley’s descriptions, as well as daguerreotypes from the early years of the gold rush, document rapid changes in mining methods. At first, a few basic tools and hard work sufficed. By 1850 and 1851, elaborate flumes and water wheels to drive machinery were essentials. The physical labor required of miners, however, rarely diminished. Bancroft Library.