Title: "Won't Be Home Again": A Lynn Grocer's Letters Home from the California Gold Rush
Abstract: Abstract: This article examines travels of John Bachelder Peirce, a 46-year-old grocer from Lynn, Massachusetts, who left New England for San Francisco, with dreams of striking it rich during California Gold Rush. In a series of letters he wrote to his wife, Peirce details his fears, political beliefs, and adventures, while chronicling his daily life in boomtown. He also examines conflicts between Southerners and abolitionists that helped define early San Francisco politics. Michael Gutierrez is a lecturer in English composition at University of Miami. I look forward to meeting all my friends again with great pleasure, but I fear I shall not be satisfied to remain at home after tasting for two years great comforts of such a climate as we have here, and living in such a whirl of business excitement as I do here. I fear I shall be very homesick to get back even before my three months visit is out. - John B. Peirce from San Francisco, letter home to his wife Hittie in Lynn, Massachusetts, October 19, 1851.1 On December 5, 1848, ten months after end of Mexican War, President James K. Polk confirmed to Congress what newspapers had rumored for weeks: gold in California. The skeptics disappeared, and rush was on. California had been seen as just another spoil of that controversial war but now seemed to vindicate it. Polk proclaimed that the accounts of abundance of gold in that territory are of such extraordinary character as would scarcely command belief were they not corroborated by authentic reports of officers in public service.2 Seemingly reasonable men - farmers, merchants, artisans -abandoned their homes and families in search of fortune and glory. They embarked on a journey that took them thousands of miles from home and would cost them at least a year away from their families. To get there, they would trek across continent by wagon, venture by ship around Cape Horn, or cross Isthmus of Panama. Hard saved money might be lost. More importantly, they might die. But why were dreams of gold enough to brave obvious risks? Historian Malcolm J. Rohrbough argues that America at midcentury may have been a land of opportunity, but among those faced with prospect of working hard jobs for long hours and low pay, as well as for those confronting debt and failure amid prosperity of others, it also generated much dissatisfaction.3 This deep discontent with present, along with poor hopes for future, persuaded many to venture west. Everyone knew risks. Even newspapers that had drummed up so much curiosity with hyperbole and rumor hid neither danger involved nor poor prospects for success. A year after Polk's announcement, stories trickled back from first rush of gold seekers. Not all news was good. The Boston Daily Evening Transcript wrote: Although gold exists in such quantities in California, there are many serious, unanswerable objections to undertaking arduous and hazardous enterprise of procuring it in first place, of those who survive exposures, dangers and diseases of country, certainly not more than one in five will be able to leave it with more than a fair remuneration for his labor... This is supposed by good judges to be most reasonable estimate that can be made. At any rate it renders expethency of a journey to California in pursuit of gold sufficiently doubtful.4 Gold's allure eventually persuaded many to ignore well-described risks. Men left for California en masse. Prior to Gold Rush, there were no more than 8,000 in California. By 1850, population had swelled to 93,000. Even after initial rush, many followed 49ers. By 1852, population had nearly tripled to 264,000.5 One such man who departed after first rush of gold seekers was John Bachelder Peirce, a 46-year-old grocery owner from Lynn, Massachusetts. On February 16, 1850, over a year after President Polk's confirmation of California gold, Peirce sailed from New York harbor on a steamer bound for Panama. …
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
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