1849 Gold Rush family saga – from rags to riches

The author’s daughter presents:

TWO BROTHERS - Paths West and East: 1800’s America

by Mary Shuler Heimburger

This unique book can be purchased through, Patti Heimburger. All books are new and only $10.00, plus shipping. Please send your request to: patti_art@alamedanet.net or phone

(510) 523-5613.

ISBN: 0961390131; Author: Mary Shuler Heimburger; Publisher by: Falcon Books; Pages: 186; Binding: paperback

DESCRIPTION:
“Let’s take a look at a box of Gold Rush letters in Grandma’s attic...your great-grandfather was a Forty Niner.” With these words, Mary Shuler Heimburger’s father Frank Shuler introduced her to a legacy of family history, which was to lead to the book Two Brothers--Paths West and East. The author’s historical research and the letters, notebooks, and documents, which she collected, create a fascinating story of an odyssey from the Pennsylvania Dutch Village of Powder Valley, Pennsylvania, to the Gold Rush mines of Old California. Her book gives an unforgettable glimpse into the daily lives, struggles for survival, and dreams of American pioneers.

This is more than just family history, for the author has filled her book with many details of life in early California and the history of the times. She adds interesting facts such as: Grizzly bear steak was the miners’ favorite meal and the most expensive. Personal services often were unobtainable and rich miners sent their laundry to Honolulu or Canton. Meals and lodgings for a day cost about one ounce of gold.

This book is found in: Oakland History Room; Gold Discovery Park Association – Coloma, CA; Butler County Historical Society and Museum – Hamilton, OH; American Antiquarian Society; California State Library – Sacramento; Lehigh County Historical Society – Allentown, PA. Also, sold at The Oakland Museum of California Foundation – bookstore, ‘Gold Rush Show’ in 1998.

BOOK REVIEW:

Barbro Donithan, (East Wenatchee, WA United States) October 28, 2000

“Mary Schuler Heimburger has taken old letters, pictures, notes and her families memories of 1800 America and written out the most interesting account of her family history.”

“Her descriptive material in this book lends to visual reality of the events these pioneers undertook in their adventures. Her research was in-depth on her subjects. This is a wonderful example of how people could put a book together on their family. Genealogists would be thrilled to read the way Mary Heimburger has made this family history a story that you will not want to put down. I felt I had a wonderful insight to the events that happened during that time in our country. The letters that were saved over the years were remarkable and are reproduced therein. The letters gave a first hand insight into history in the era. A 5 Star I give it, wonderful research work made into an amazing story.”

. . .

Michael Kelly of the California History Association, December 14, 1993

“This is an excellent personal history of a family and a time.”

“One thought I had is that if you don’t have a similar record of your family history, this will make you wish you did.”

“The cover of the book is a pen and ink sketch found in “Asa Shuler’s” notebook. There are many pictures and pictures of documents from their journeys that are interesting to consider.”

“I lived in Sacramento for almost 30 years and have some familiarity with the gold country. Reading about these early adventures in Coloma, Volcano, and Georgetown made those areas more alive to me.”

“Though this isn’t one of the most consequential points of the book, I was struck by the letter written in 1854 which was urging a friend to buy this Ohio farmland for $12.50 per acre. He posed that in 5 years it will easily be worth double the price.”

“All in all, I can say that Mary Heimburger was scrupulous researcher who must have thoroughly enjoyed her work on this history book.”

. . .

The Howland Quarterly, Published by The Pilgrim John Howland Society, September 1, 1993

“The book gives a glimpse into the daily lives of the Shuler’s, their struggles for survival, their dreams and eventual prosperity.”

EXCERPT:

In 1851 Georgetown’s streets were lined with miners’ shacks and tents and canvas meeting halls. On October 7 of that year, the first post office opened for official business. William T. Gibbs, the first postmaster, listed the population at 600, with only six families.

There were probably 5,000 to 6,000 Americans in the mines during the first past of the season in ’49. Due to their superior mining experience, foreigners took away one half of the mining earnings. To protect the Americans, the Foreign Miners Tax went into effect May 1850, requiring all miners who were not American citizens to pay $20 a month for the privilege of mining in California. Permits had to be renewed monthly. The Chinese and Spanish-speaking miners were the most affected by this tax. Consequently, between May and August of that year, 15,000 Mexican, Peruvians, and Chinese miners left, seriously affecting the economy of many Anglo-American merchants.

The Chinese began coming to California in the summer of 1848, five months after the discovery of gold. No one knows where they came from. They may have been employed by English prospectors or were part of ships’ crews deserting ship at San Francisco. Most rushed to the mines as soon as they came to California, but in 1851 large groups settled in San Francisco because they had scant success in mining. Chinese miners worked under conditions similar to slavery, and, except for the previously mentioned Mexicans, were the only foreigners paying the Foreign Miners Tax. Between 1851 and 1852, when their increasing number had reached 25,000, resentment against the Chinese resulted.

The gold country lay beyond the settled portion of California. It was subject to the civil law of Mexico, but the law was never enforced there. Instead miners took the law into their own hands. Their codes were made at open meetings, based on Mexican and Spanish mining laws in addition to American frontier customs. Miners’ Courts attempted to protect the legal rights of the miners, however, mob violence was not always prevented, and there were many abuses.

The popular story of the day was that if a miner could not pan gold worth $40 or more a day, he would abandon his claim to the Chinese and hunt for richer ground. Today, historians, after studying letters and diaries, disagree. Many miners labored with poor results barely making ends meet. Rich claims were few and far between. The ones who really struck it rich were the many who sought their living by the less exhausting route. They supplied miners with food, clothing, tools, transportation, other services, and amusement. Hunters sent deer, elk, wild geese and duck to San Francisco by the wagon load to supply the numerous eating establishments. Grizzly bear steak was the most popular dish and the most expensive. Dinner for 15 cost $225. Another money maker in San Francisco was the owner of a London dray-horse. When mud in the streets made hauling too difficult for the mules, the horse earned $100 a day for the owner. In Sacramento City, Henry Schliemann traded gold dust for currency at his banking house. He made $450,000, a large fortune in the 1850s.

On August 18, 1951, Asa in Georgetown, California, wrote to his brother Reading in Ohio. The ranch mentioned in this letter probably refers to Work’s Ranch. According to a brochure published in 1949 celebrating Georgetown’s one hundredth birthday, two sailors took out potato sacks full of high-grade ore near Quartz Canyon, launching a rush. For sometime this camp was known as Work’s Ranch. Later it was known as Vocanoville. Vocanoville is mentioned four years latter in one of Mandes’ letters to Asa. In this 1851 letter, the handwriting, the grammar, and the spelling are far superior than in Asa’s notebook jottings. Therefore, we can assume that it was written under the supervision and guidance of Newton B. Love, his educated friend.

. . .

Georgetown, Cala

Aug. 18/51

Dear Brother

I take my pen to write to you As there is a letter due. Yours I received two months back And was glad to hear you got my sack and also that Neimeyer * got home Safely with my little Sum And that you are alive and well. And that the family is increasing still. And that you drive ahead with business as you said Making cradles (grain cradles) and Shop building. Out fishing and game killing. I have left Rick Bar on the 11^th of June for Ourion valley & got there on the 15^th. Bought in a claim on Hopkins Creek for 35 Dollars. Mandes Staded there to work it and I and Newton B. Love come on to this place on the 3d day of July and have averaged 7 Dollars a day and intend to Stay here until I Start for home, which will be in 2 monns (months) and a hope.

We have left here for Rich bar on the 9^th of March and commenced working on Smith Bar. Made about 8 Dollars a day. Work about three weeks & then we bought a claim on Rich Bar for four honndard (hundred) dollars and worked there 6 weeks and got a little over 6 hundred Dollars out of it. Five of us and we had to pay two dollars for pound of flour & other things in proportion, we were pertly hard run for a …. And toward the last we could not git any flour for no price & I Shouldered my gun & went hunting. Found one deer track & that was all. I had to live on that day, and we lost two mules, one Mandes left in the Snow, & the other one got lost on the Ranch.

Gold digging is pretty near all day with five dollars is about all average. A good many People are working here for 2 and 3 dollars a day & we have too many foreigners here from all part of the universe. We have one third fully I think. If the United States would do Something to keep them out & would give us miners a better chance to make a little it would jack the money all to the United States. I think we have plenty.

The Chinese can live on a spoon full of Rice & a hare track a day, so they can travel over those mountains & get into the best mines and claim it up which will keep us out (of) the best diggings.

Francis Desconbes & Charles Bobenmeyer & Edward Weder are mining on the Canyon Creek about 150 miles north of this. How they are doing I don’t know. The law is here now Anyone Steels over fifty dollars has to be lassoed and drawn upon the first tree they come to. Two fellers are agoing to be hung in Sac. City (Sacramento) on the 22^nd for Stealing.

Now I have written all I know. I am well at present.

Asa Shuler

* This probably refers to Jacob D. Neimeyer, brother of John, who was killed in 1850.

. . .

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY:
Mary Shuler Heimburger was born in Hamilton, Ohio, and moved to Long Beach, California, with her husband, Ray A. Heimburger, an attorney. They have three children, Patricia (Patti) Heimburger, Carolyn Gannon, and Hans Heimburger. The author’s articles appeared in a number of publications, including Pennsylvania Folk Life, and she gave many talks on genealogy to historical and civic groups. Patti, one of her daughter’s is currently editing a book which Mary Heimburger started before her death about her life in Ohio, entitled Memories.