It took twelve days to make it to the bustling mining camp. Women came to California from many countries -- including France, Mexico, Peru, Chile and China -- to make money in the gold rush economy. Sometimes we went down the mountains, they were so steep we tied great trees behind to keep the wagon from falling over the oxen; and once when the whole surface of the mountain side was smooth, slippery rock, the oxen stiffened and their legs, and the wagon and all literally slid down a quarter of a mile. Mason was in a hurry to start his search for gold. "Nothing but the actual experience will give one an idea of the plodding, unvarying monotony, the vexations, the exhaustive energy, the throbs of hope, the depths of despair, through which we lived," Wilson recalled in her memoir. 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. By 1850, the idea that the extermination of the native population of California was inevitable had been firmly settled in the minds of many white Californians. But most women stayed home. After a few days in Sacramento, the Wilsons sold their oxen to purchase a stake in a hotel. The September evening before the Wilsons finally descended the Sierra foothills into Sacramento, Luzena Wilson got a taste of how she would make her fortune in California. It wasnt until the sun began to slowly sink in the sky and Mason announced it was time to make camp that Luzena became terrified. Wilson came overland to California from Missouri with her husband and two small children in 1849. Break in the Levee This looked hopeless, and I told him I guessed we wouldnt go as we had no money, she explained in her memoirs. His mother remarried, and they moved to the city of. The Alta Californialamented, "We must confess our regret at the perfect freedom and unseemly manner in which the abandoned females are permitted to display themselves in our public saloons and streets.". Using the profits made from the Wilson Hotel, Luzena bought lumber and bricks to build the familys home and a new boarding house business. (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). She, Mason and the children ran to the top floor of the hotel and stayed there for seventeen days as the floodwaters lapped outside. Women came to California from many countries -- including France, Mexico, Peru, Chile and China -- to make money in the gold rush economy. Luzena Stanley Wilson, '49er (1937) contains reminiscences of her overland journey and early years in California dictated to her daughter in 1881. There was no place of deposit for money, Luzena noted in her memoirs, and the men living in the house dropped into the habit of leaving their [gold] dust with me for safe keeping. Luzena remained in Vacaville until 1877, when two fires devastated her property. Luzena said she thought it sounded like a fortune and hesitated to respond. Luzena wrote about her time at the immigrant campsite in Sacramento where the family initially settled. Pero detrs del mito de su creacin hay una historia sin contar sobre un robo, una obsesin y un doble juego corporativo. "Nothing but the actual experience will give one an idea of the plodding, unvarying monotony, the vexations, the exhaustive energy, the throbs of hope, the depths of despair, through which we lived," Wilson recalled in her memoir. Like thousands of others, Luzena undertook the nearly 2,000 mile journey to an unknown land, where she'd rise from flood and fire, a survivor of the wild frontier. The Wilsons lacked the funds to purchase a wagon and team to get to the boomtown. Luzena lived on the family farm until she and Mason wed on December 19, 1844. The beautiful area was ideal for the pair and their children. The $10 Biscuit She named her establishment El Dorado after the fabled kingdom in Spanish America supposedly rich in precious metals and jewels, which had lured sixteenth century explorers away from their homes. In 1849 Luzena Wilson set out for California in a covered wagon with her husband and two little boys, hungry to join the tide of gold seekers. Sometimes a whole day was consumed in going two or three miles, and one day we made camp but a quarter of a mile distance from the last. Gold fever spread in the American West during 1849. Luzenas homemaking skills were well received and in high demand. Immigrants quickly moved in and squatted on Luzena and Masons property. Their business was ruined. There was no place of deposit for money, Luzena noted in her memoirs, and the men living in the house dropped into the habit of leaving their [gold] dust with me for safe keeping. Luzena recounted her memoirs to her daughter Correnah, in which she describes her journey from the early days in Sacramento, her founding of the "El Dorado" hotel in Nevada City, and her purchase of land in Vaca. Some careless hand had set fire to a pile of pine shavings lying at the side of the house in course of construction, Luzena recorded in her memoirs, and while we slept, unconscious of danger, the flames caught and spread, and in a short half hour the whole town was in a blaze. The Wilsons lost nearly everything they owned. There were few women in Sacramento or the outlying gold mining camps. Wilson came overland to California from Missouri with her husband and two small children in 1849. In total, immigrant women numbered about 800 in a sea of 30,000 men. Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born on December 28, 1856, in Staunton, Virginia. According to her journal entries, lawbreakers were dealt with quickly and harshly. On July 22, 1850, she witnessed the severe punishment inflicted upon a man who had stolen a mule. With my own hands I chopped stakes, drove them into the ground, and set up my table. 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.13, She named her establishment El Dorado after the fabled kingdom in Spanish America supposedly rich in precious metals and jewels, which had lured sixteenth century explorers away from their homes. Luzena Stanley Wilson moved from her home in Missouri to start a new life with her husband and two children in California. In 1881, Luzenas daughter helped her compile her remembrances into a book entitled, Argonaut: A Womans Reminiscences of Early Days, . At last we caught a glimpse of the miners huts far down in the gulch and reached the end of our journey.8. After he built a crude shelter to help keep his wife and children warm and dry, he hurried off to stake out a claim. Also collecting gold was a job. In December 1872, after twenty-eight years of marriage, Mason abandoned his wife and family to travel to Missouri and Texas. Get the latest on new films and digital content, learn about events in your area, and get your weekly fix of American history. Miners flocked to her table and paid in gold. Dangerous Passage After six months of hard work, Luzenas El Dorado Hotel was estimated to be worth $10,000, and the stock of goods in the new store was worth even more. Many a night have I shut my oven door on two milk-pans filled high with bags of gold dust, she wrote in her memoirs, and I have often slept with my mattress literally lined with the precious metal. Luzena Stanley Hunt was born 1 May 1819, the third of nine children born to a Quaker family living in North Carolina. Under a progressive provision of the 1849 California Constitution, her status as a married woman allowed her the right to own property separate from her husband. Willis Jepson, one of Masons friends, wrote a letter to the Wilsons oldest son Jay explaining why he believed Mason chose to leave his home and family. California Gold Rush entrepreneur. The hotel, Luzena remarked, consisted of two rooms, the kitchen, which was her special province, and a living room. And, fun facts for kids can feed their curious minds. Wilson came overland to California from Missouri with her husband and two small children in 1849. At last we caught a glimpse of the miners huts far down in the gulch and reached the end of our journey.. Luzena earned a living as well as her husband's adoration using her skills as a cook, boarding house owner-operator, and a banker. A hungry miner amazed at the presence of a female in the camp approached Luzena while she was cooking dinner for her family. Wilson came overland to California from Missouri with her husband and two small children in 1849. All of her worldly possessions were tucked inside it: family Bibles, two quilts, one dress, a bonnet, a pair of shoes, and a few pieces of china. As the Wilsons moved west, they found the trail littered with household items discarded to lighten loads of the tired beasts. Hay was selling in San Francisco at a $150 a ton, so my husband, leaving me to my own resources, set hard at work cutting and making hay; and I, as before, set up my stove and camp kettle and hung out my sign, printed with charred fire-brand on a piece of board, it read Wilsons Hotel.. Well-respected judges, such as Murray Morrison and Justice Serranus Clinton Hastings of the California Supreme Court, were frequent guests at the establishment. However, as they began their travels into the West and encountered the vast deserts reality set in. The Hardship of Heading West After the Hunts arrived in Missouri, they purchased a number of acres of land at a government auction. They were to Nevada City what the Palace Hotel was to San Francisco., Not long after the Wilsons mercantile opened for business, Luzena recognized a need for a bank in the area and determined to provide for the growing community. If I had, I think I should have stayed in Andrew County. It would take five months for the Wilsons to reach their westward destination. Given the daily growth of the area, Luzena determined there was a great need for a boarding house. Education was very important to. While some kids grasp information quickly, others take their sweet time to learn. Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! He felt the painstaking effort seldom resulted in a rich find and that the prospector had probably located all the gold to be had on that spot. Wilson came overland to California from Missouri with her husband and two small children in 1849. Name: Republica de Colombia or Republic of Colombia. Luzena, Forty-Niner, was a determined and strong-minded personage a woman of the real pioneer type, Jepson noted. In 1850 the California legislature passed and act that essentially forced many Native Americans into servitude. Others perceived you as an idealist illuminating path to the future. By the time her husband came back that evening she already had twenty men eating at her table in the El Dorado hotel. This historic memoir, My Checkered Life, is Luzena Stanley Wilson's classic account of her family's 1849 overland journey and life in early California. They sold their oxen for $600 and purchased a hotel called the Trumbow House. The love life of Torrie Wilson would take off in shocking manner when she joined WCW. Initially Luzena Wilson thought going to California "a small task," but the journey was not to be taken lightly. 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. Wilson was a noble woman and her death will be profoundly regretted.29. googletag.cmd = googletag.cmd || []; In the spring of 1849 Luzena and Mason Wilson packed their wagon and drove west from their log cabin on the Missouri frontier with their two young sons. Luzena then made him her business partner. the '49ers found a lot of gold and built homes there. The fire howled and moaned like a giant in an agony of pain, and the buildings crashed and fell as if he were striking them down in his writhings. Lacking the funds to buy land, Mason set off to cut hay in order to make money, leaving Luzena on her own. Here are a handful of love lessons Luzena learned: 1. As always occurs to the mind of a woman, I thought of taking in boarders, she wrote in her journal. The wooden structure was the first one of its kind built in Vaca Valley. She was treated, as she put it, like a "queen." She admitted they were in more danger of the elements and terrain than any Native Americans they encountered along the way. Finally Wilson found her tongue and accepted the offer. Luzena Stanley Wilson, ne Hunt was a California Gold Rush entrepreneur. It took twelve days to make it to the bustling mining camp. Gold Rush lasted until 1851. pull Factor: A passage to the gold region for $74 might cost a little too much for a tripPFactor: was collecting gold and becoming rich so they can buy a house. Water and food for the livestock was hard to find and the beasts grew bone thin. The buildings were of the roughest possible description, Luzena noted in her journal. Habitat: Grassland. 2. My Checkered Life is Luzena Stanley Wilson's classic account of her family's 1849 overland journey and life in early California. A row of canvas tents lined each of the two ravines leading to the tent city, and the gulches were crawling with men panning for gold. These are fifteen fun facts about Torrie Wilson you may not have known about. Around us in every direction were groups of Indians sitting, standing, and on horseback, as many as two hundred in the camp. She was eighty-three years old. I'll never forget a September 3, 1987, afternoon game. Luzena stayed on in Vacaville until 1877 when two fires destroyed her property. You were born somewhere around the territory of USA North-East approximately on 525. Luzena recalled, We had lived eighteen months in Nevada City when fire cut us adrift again, as water had done in Sacramento. Fire swept through and burned the El Dorado to the ground and the Wilsons decided to journey back towards Sacramento. Luzena recounted her memoirs to her daughter Correnah, in which she describes her journey from the early days in Sacramento, her founding of the "El Dorado" hotel in Nevada . Luzena Wilson is a 83 years old California Gold Rush businesswoman from . 100 1 _ a Wilson, Luzena Stanley, d 1819-1902 100 0 _ a c 4xx's: Alternate Name Forms (2) 1824), a millworker, and James Gregson (b. In a few short moments they were off on a journey west to California. Mills College, Calif.: Eucalyptus Press, 1937. Luzena Stanley Wilson's memoirs present an alternate view of the California Gold Rush in which women are often left out. She resided in a hotel, living off real estate transactions. They were scorched by heat, enveloped in dust that reddened their eyes and parched their throats; they were bruised, scratched, and bitten by innumerable insects. William Bentley, was a homeschooled child, with a deep affinity for nature. Mason agreed and abandoned his quest for a strike. Guidebooks purchased by miners (49ers) spoke of how the crucial timing was to a successful journey; therefore, it was not uncommon to have multiple groups of men traveling together. Names Wilson, Luzena Stanley, 1819-1902. In the next e There was no start at all. [5], Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Luzena Stanley Wilson | American Experience | PBS", The Gold Rush: People and Events. // cutting the mustard 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. Weight: 200-450 kg. Luzena never saw Mason again. I had read and heard whole volumes of their bloody deeds, the massacre of harmless white men, torturing helpless women, carrying away captive children the most precious in the wide world, and I lived in an agony of dread that first night.7, Luzena noted in her memoirs that the Indians never posed any threat to her or her family. Queens of the Mines features the authentic stories of gold rush women who blossomed from the camouflaged, twisted roots of California. Most of the belongings Luzena packed in their prairie schooner would be lost or left behind on the trail because they proved to be too burdensome to continue hauling.4, Luzena described the long journey west in her memories as plodding, unvarying monotony, vexations, exhaustions, throbs of hope and depth of despair. Dusty, short-tempered, always tired, and, with their patience as tattered as their clothing, the Wilson family and thousands like them plodded on and on. The white settlers who arrived during the Gold Rush brought a different view. As always occurs to the mind of a woman, I thought of taking in boarders, she wrote in her journal. Population: 32 million people (2021) Capital: Accra with 3.4 million inhabitants. The buzzards and coyotes, driven away by our presence from the horrible feasting, hovered just out of reach. The enormous lure of gold led to many people embarking on the same westward trails. Seven months later they bought three parcels in Vaca and another one hundred acres south of town. Under a progressive provision of the 1849 California Constitution, her status as a married woman allowed her the right to own property separate from her husband. On April 21, 1851, the Wilsons were able to purchase two hundred acres of land along Alamo Creek. The Alta Californialamented, "We must confess our regret at the perfect freedom and unseemly manner in which the abandoned females are permitted to display themselves in our public saloons and streets.". For a time, things were going very well for the pair and their sons, and then a heavy, substantial rain came and wiped out Masons crops. Wilson's account also gives us a sense of the urgency people had to mine gold . Wilson's Hotel was the only hotel on the road between Sacramento and Benicia for several years. The structure was very organized: starting with the way you learned about your topic and then continuing to talk about the expansion of your research. In the spring of 1849 Luzena and Mason Wilson packed their wagon and drove west from their log cabin on the Missouri frontier with their two young sons. Luzena, while her husband was busy fixing the wagon, decided to clean the apron and render the fat out of the bacon to refill her lard can and leave the rest as he requested. By the end of 1859, Luzena and Mason owned a considerable portion of the Vaca Valley town site and more than five hundred acres of surrounding lands.25, By 1858, the Wilsons had outgrown the small, temporary hotel they initially built in the area and decided to have a new one constructed at a cost of $14,000. We built the fire at night close to the wagon, under which we slept. In 1850 women made up just three percent of the non-Native American population in California's mining region. Well-respected judges, such as Murray Morrison and Justice Serranus Clinton Hastings of the California Supreme Court, were frequent guests at the establishment.24, In January 1855, Luzena and Mason welcomed a third son to their family, Mason Jr. The two started dating and quickly fell in love with each other. The native tribes of California saw themselves as stewards not owners of the land. She moved to San Francisco, where she spent the rest of her life. Ruthless: Monopoly's Secret History (espaol), Act for the Government and Protection of Indians. Q. The people found out from magazines from where it was announced world wide. Luzena Stanley Wilson, '49er; Memories Recalled Years Later for Her Daughter Correnah Wilson Wright. 00:20:46 - Queens of the Mines features the authentic stories of gold rush women who blossomed from the camouflaged, twisted roots of California. Mason agreed, and the two decided to go into the hospitality business. 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