The discovery of gold in California in 1849 sent a thrill of ambition and longing through the country that reached even the far east and many of the sturdy Scotsmen of Northern New York State resolved to have a share of the yellow metal. My grandfather John was one of the number. The 4 children then born; namely Jane, Joanna, John and Agnes, were all young. Agnes was but a babe in arms, but the desire to better their financial condition and sooner make the farm their own, prevailed and he was one of the party of 45 that left Madrid for New York on January 15, 1852.
A week was spent in New York completing arrangements for what was then the long and perilous ,journey. They left New York by steamboat about January 21st. After an uneventful journey down the Atlantic coast and up the Shagaris River to the end of the steamboat navigation, they were taken by canoe to the town of Gorgona, from where they walked across country to Panama, where they had been promised that a steamship would await them to transport them to San Francisco.
Arriving at Panama, they learned they had been defrauded by the man who had undertaken to arrange for their transportation to San Francisco and for which they had each paid him $140.00 for their tickets. He had made no arrangements with any steamship company but had left them stranded, returning himself to New York none too soon to save his life' The party, thrown upon their own resources, then cast about for some means of reaching their destination, and finally the American Consul and his brother fitted up an old vessel that had been condemned as unseaworthy and took on 350 passengers with provisions for 60 days and they set sail the latter part of February.
They had been in Panama 15 days. upon reaching Acapulco, they replenished their stores of provisions and water, remaining there 5 days. They then sailed up the Pacific coast, seldom out of sight of land, often becalmed, at one time lying for 3 weeksdriftingback and forth with the tide. Provisions ran low, water became scarce, many fell ill and eleven died and found watery graves. Weeks lengthened into months. They were put on half rations with the prospects of still further reductions. Then one day a speck appeared on the horizon and this proved to be a vessel from Valparaiso loaded with provisions for San Francisco. From them they procured the needed provisions, and on June 2nd they arrived in San Francisco. From there they went to Sacramento and from there to Spanish Flats. Finally, my grandfather filed on a claim at Eureka which he worked most of the time for the next four years that he spent in California.
The proceeds of this were sent home and paid off the mortgage on the farm which my grandmother, with the help of her brother and neighbours, had managed while he was away.
Fifty-five years later in1907 here are the four children now with families that John left behind to search for gold
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