List of people associated with the California Gold Rush

Last updated October 15, 2024

This is a list of people associated with the California Gold Rush in Northern California, during the period from 1848 to 1855.

List of people associated with the California Gold Rush
Name	Birth, death	Birthplace	Profession	Notes
John "Grizzly" Adams	1812–1860	Medway, Massachusetts, U.S.	mountain man, trainer of grizzly bears	^[1]
Elihu Anthony	1818–1905	Greenfield, New York, U.S.	alcalde , blacksmith, industrialist, abolitionist, postmaster, Methodist minister	one of the founding fathers of the city of Santa Cruz, California ^[2]
Philip Danforth Armour	1832–1901	Stockbridge, New York, U.S.	meatpacking industrialist	started his meat packing business with funds from success in the Gold Fields^[3]
Josiah Belden	1815–1892	Connecticut, U.S.	politician, rancho grantee	first mayor of San Jose, California
Charles H. Bennett (soldier)	1811–1855	Walla Walla, Washington, U.S.	soldier, hotelier	present at the first discovery of gold
John Bidwell	1819–1900	Chautauqua County, New York, U.S.	politician, soldier	founder of the city of Chico, California
Samuel Brannan	1819–1889	Saco, Massachusetts (now Maine), U.S.	politician, businessman, journalist	first to publicize the California Gold Rush, and California's first millionaire
Juana Briones de Miranda	c. 1802 – 1889	Villa de Branciforte (modern day Santa Cruz), California	Californio ranchera, medical practitioner, merchant	founding mother of San Francisco, California, and Mayfield, California (now Palo Alto, California)^[4]^[5]
R. C. Chambers	1832–1901	Lexington, Ohio, U.S.	businessman, politician, minerals miner, banker
Jean Baptiste Charbonneau	1805–1866	Fort Mandan, North Dakota, U.S.	Shoshone–French explorer, guide, fur trapper, and military scout
Belle Cora	c. 1827–1862	Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.	madam of the Barbary Coast of San Francisco	^[6]
Lotta Crabtree	1847–1924	New York City, New York, U.S.	actress, entertainer, comedian, philanthropist	^[7]
William D. Bradshaw	1826–1864	Buncombe County, North Carolina, U.S	prospector, explorer
Charles Crocker	1822–1888	Troy, New York, U.S.	railroad executive, businessman
Alonzo Delano	1806–1874	Aurora, Erie County, New York, U.S.	writer, forty-niner
George Washington Dennis	c. 1825–1916	Mobile County, Alabama, U.S.	African American businessperson, real estate developer, abolitionist	one of San Francisco's wealthiest Black men in the late 19th-century
Charles S. Fairfax	1829–1869	Vaucluse Plantation, Virginia, U.S.	politician	from nobility
Thomas Fallon	1825–1885	Ireland	Irish-born politician	10th Mayor of San Jose, California
Joseph Libbey Folsom	1817–1855	Meredith, New Hampshire, U.S.	real estate investor, military personnel	founder of Folsom, California
John C. Frémont	1813–1890	Savannah, Georgia, U.S.	explorer, military officer, politician	namesake of Fremont, California
John White Geary	1819–1873	Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, U.S.	lawyer, politician, military leader
Domingo Ghirardelli	1817–1894	Rapallo, Kingdom of Sardinia (now Italy)	Italian-born chocolatier	founder of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company in San Francisco, California.
Mifflin Wistar Gibbs	1823–1915	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.	African American politician, businessman, publisher, abolitionist	During the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, he led a migration of African Americans from San Francisco to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Thomas Gilman (miner)	1830–1911	Tennessee, U.S.	African American freedman, miner, farmer	was an enslaved African American who self–purchase freedom during the mid-19th-century
Daniel Govan	1829–1911	Northampton County, North Carolina, U.S.	miner, planter, soldier	served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War
Ulysses S. Grant	1822–1885	Point Pleasant, Ohio, U.S.	18th president, soldier	served in the Mexican–American War; led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War
Alvinza Hayward	1821–1904	Vermont, U.S.	mine-owner, capitalist, businessman, financier	made his fortune during the California Gold Rush, as a gold miner
George Hearst	1820–1891	Sullivan, Missouri Territory (now Missouri), U.S.	businessperson, politician	used slight mining knowledge from Missouri to succeed in 1850s gold rush investment
Albert W. Hicks	c. 1820–1860	Foster, Rhode Island, U.S.	thief, murderer, mutineer, pirate
Frederick A. Hihn	1829–1913	Duchy of Brunswick (now Germany)	politician, industrialist, real estate investor	leading land developer in Santa Cruz County, California
John Wesley Hillman	1832–1915	Albany, New York, U.S.	prospector, explorer
Sherman Otis Houghton	1828–1914	New York City, New York, U.S.	politician, miner
William B. Ide	1796–1852	Rutland, Massachusetts, U.S.	politician	commander of the California Republic
Frank James	1843–1915	Kearney, Missouri, U.S.	soldier, thief	part of the James–Younger Gang, former Confederate soilder
Seth Kinman	1815–1888	Union County, Pennsylvania, U.S.	mountain man, hunter, chair maker, entertainer	early settler of Humboldt County, California
William Leidesdorff	1810–1848	St. Croix, Danish West Indies (now United States Virgin Islands)	Afro-Caribbean businessman, politician	founder of the city of San Francisco, thought to have been the first black millionaire in the United States^[8]^[9]
Peter Lester (abolitionist)	c. 1814–c. 1897	South Carolina, U.S.	African American businessman, abolitionist	early Black settler in San Francisco
James Lick	1796–1876	Stumpstown (now Fredericksburg), Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, U.S.	businessman, piano builder
Heinrich Lienhard	1822–1903	Bilten, Canton of Glarus, Switzerland	Swiss–born memoirist
James W. Marshall	1810–1885	Hopewell Township, New Jersey, U.S.	carpenter, sawmill operator	discoverer of the first gold
Richard Barnes Mason	1797–1850	Lexington Plantation, Fairfax County, Virginia, U.S.	military officer
Lola Montez	1821–1861	Grange, County Sligo, Connacht, Ireland	Irish-born dancer and courtesan	famous as a "Spanish" dancer, and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria ^[10]
James McClatchy	1824–1883	Ireland	Irish-born newspaper editor
Benjamin McCulloch	1811–1862	Rutherford County, Tennessee, U.S.	politician
Joaquin Miller	1837–1913	Union County, Indiana, U.S.	poet, frontiersman
Joaquin Murrieta	1829–1853	Álamos, Sonora, Mexico	Mexican outlaw, gold miner, vaquero	"Robin Hood of the West"
Isaac Murphy	c. 1799–1882	Pennsylvania, U.S.	teacher, lawyer, politician, failed miner	8th Governor of Arkansas
Joshua Norton	1818–1880	Deptford, England	English-born commodities trader and real estate investor	also known as Emperor Norton
Lester Allan Pelton	1829–1908	Vermilion, Ohio, U.S.	inventor, mechanical engineer	inventor of the "Pelton Runner," considered to be the "Father of Hydroelectric Power"
Pío Pico	1801–1894	Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, San Gabriel, Alta California, New Spain	Californio politician, ranchero, entrepreneur	last governor of Alta California under Mexican rule from 1845 to 1846.^[11]^[12]
Mary Ellen Pleasant	c. 1814–1904	U.S.	African American entrepreneur, real estate investor, abolitionist, financier	first self-made millionaire of African-American heritage
Addison Pratt	1802–1872	Winchester, New Hampshire, U.S.	missionary, farmer, whaler
Benjamin B. Redding	1824–1882	Yarmouth, Colony of Nova Scotia (now Nova Scotia, Canada)	British North America-born politician	Mayor of Sacramento, secretary of the State of California
Moses Rodgers	c. 1835–1900	Missouri, U.S.	African American mining engineer, metallurgist
John Howell Sears	1823–1907	Sullivan County, New York, U.S.	prospector	early pioneer of Searsville and La Honda ^[13]
William Tecumseh Sherman	1820–1891	Lancaster, Ohio, U.S.	soldier, businessman, educator, author
Claus Spreckels	1828–1908	Lamstedt, Lower Saxony, Prussian Saxony (now Germany)	Prussian Saxony-born sugar industrialist	involved himself in several California and Hawai'i enterprises
Leland Stanford	1824–1893	Watervliet, New York, U.S.	politician, railroad tycoon
Elijah Steele	1817–1883	New York, U.S.	politician, attorney, jurist
Levi Strauss	1829–1902	Buttenheim, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Confederation (now Germany)	German Confederation-born entrepreneur	founder of Levi Strauss & Co. of San Francisco, California
John Studebaker	1833–1917	Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.	businessman	built wheelbarrows in Placerville in the early 1850s and contributed his earnings to the family Studebaker Wagon Corporation
Marie Suize	1824–1892	Savoy, France	French-born gold miner and businesswoman	known for wearing pants, and arrested several times for it.
John Sutter	1803–1880	Kandern, Margraviate of Baden, Holy Roman Empire (now Germany)	German-born Swiss businessman, explorer	established Sutter's Fort
A. A. Townsend	1810–1888	Sussex County, New Jersey, U.S.	miner, prospector, politician
Ah Toy	1829–1928	Canton, Guangdong, Qing China	sex worker, madam	the first Chinese sex worker in San Francisco
George Treat	1819–1907	Frankfort, Maine, U.S.	businessman, abolitionist	pioneer in the Mission District, San Francisco
Matthew Turner (shipbuilder)	1825–1909	Geneva, Ohio, U.S.	shipbuilder	considered "the 'grandaddy' of big time wooden shipbuilding on the Pacific Coast"
Mark Twain	1835–1910	Florida, Missouri, U.S.	writer, humorist, and essayist
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo	1807–1890	Monterey, Alta California, Viceroyalty of New Spain (now California, U.S.)	Californio politician, military leader
William Waldo (California politician)	1812–1881		politician
Bela Wellman	1819–1887		entrepreneur	founder of Wellman, Peck and Company
Luzena Wilson	c. 1820–1902		entrepreneur	founder of the El Dorado hotel in Nevada City
Edwin B. Winans (politician)	1826–1894		politician

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The California gold rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. The sudden influx of gold into the money supply reinvigorated the American economy; the sudden population increase allowed California to go rapidly to statehood in the Compromise of 1850. The gold rush had severe effects on Native Californians and accelerated the Native American population's decline from disease, starvation, and the California genocide.

Human history in California began when indigenous Americans first arrived some 13,000 years ago. Coastal exploration by the Spanish began in the 16th century, with further European settlement along the coast and in the inland valleys following in the 18th century. California was part of New Spain until that kingdom dissolved in 1821, becoming part of Mexico until the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), when it was ceded to the United States under the terms of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The same year, the California Gold Rush began, triggering intensified U.S. westward expansion. California joined the Union as a free state via the Compromise of 1850. By the end of the 19th century, California was still largely rural and agricultural, with a population of about 1.4 million.

Northern California is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's 58 counties. Northern California in its largest definition is determined by dividing the state into two regions, the other being Southern California. The main northern population centers include the San Francisco Bay Area, the Greater Sacramento area, the Redding, California, area south of the Cascade Range, and the Metropolitan Fresno area. Northern California also contains redwood forests, along with most of the Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite Valley and part of Lake Tahoe, Mount Shasta, and most of the Central Valley, one of the world's most productive agricultural regions. Northern California is also home to Silicon Valley, the global headquarters for some of the most powerful tech and Internet-related companies in the world, including Meta, Apple, Google, and Nvidia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Coast (California)</span> Region of California in the United States

The Central Coast is an area of California, roughly spanning the coastal region between Point Mugu and Monterey Bay. It lies northwest of Los Angeles and south of the San Francisco Bay Area, and includes the rugged, rural, and sparsely populated stretch of coastline known as Big Sur.

Californios are Hispanic Californians, especially those descended from Spanish and Mexican settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries before California was annexed by the United States. California's Spanish-speaking community has resided there since 1683 and is made up of varying Spanish and Mexican origins, including criollos, Mestizos, Indigenous Californian peoples, and small numbers of Mulatos. Alongside the Tejanos of Texas and Neomexicanos of New Mexico and Colorado, Californios are part of the larger Spanish-American/Mexican-American/Hispano community of the United States, which has inhabited the American Southwest and the West Coast since the 16th century. Some may also identify as Chicanos, a term that came about in the 1960s.

William Alexander Leidesdorff Jr. was an Afro-Caribbean settler in California and one of the founders of the city that became San Francisco. A highly successful, enterprising businessman, he is thought to have been the first black millionaire in the United States.

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Judith "Judy" Yung was a librarian, community activist, historian and professor emerita in American Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She specialized in oral history, women's history, and Asian American history. She died on December 14, 2020, in San Francisco, where she had returned in 2018.

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Salomón María Simeon Pico was a Californio, a cousin of former governor Pío Pico, who led a bandit band in the early years following the Mexican–American War in the counties of the central coast of California. Pico was considered by some Californios to be a patriot who opposed the American conquest of Alta California and its subsequent incorporation into the United States. He was hated for his banditry by the newly arrived Americans but protected by some Californios as a defender of his people.

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References

↑ Dillon, Richard H. "Adams, Grizzly" . American National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.2001658.
↑ "Elihu Anthony, Pioneer of 1847 Was God Fearing Man and Santa Cruz' First Progressive Business Leader". Santa Cruz Evening News. 1937-01-02. p. 9 – via Newspapers.com.
↑ "P. D. Armour Dead. Chicago Millionaire Yielded to Long Illness. Fever Rallied After Son's Death". The Republican (Laport, PA.). January 7, 1901. p. 8 – via Chronicling America.
↑ "Briones, María Juana (1802?–1889)". Latinas in History, Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, Brooklyn College, The City University of New York (CUNY). 2009.
↑ Kamiya, Gary (August 24, 2013). "Juana Briones - San Francisco's founding mother". SFGate .
↑ Jensen, Vickie (2012). Women Criminals: An Encyclopedia of People and Issues. ABC-CLIO. p. 360. ISBN 978-0-313-33713-0.
↑ "Rebel Girls From Bay Area History: The Bay Area Child Actress Who Donated Millions to Veterans and Animals". KQED. 2019-03-25.
↑ Savage, W.S. (July 1953). "The Influence of William Alexander Leidesdorff on the History of California". The Journal of Negro History. 38 (3): 322–332. doi:10.2307/2715738. JSTOR 2715738. S2CID 150288502.
↑ Sue Bailey Thurman, 1952, Pioneers of Negro Origin in California, San Francisco: Acme Pub. Co.
↑ Seymour, Bruce (1996-01-01). Lola Montez: A Life. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-07439-0 – via Google Books.
↑ "1836 Ley sobre la division del territorio mexicano en Departamentos" (in Spanish). Government of Mexico, archived at Memoria Política de México. December 30, 1836.
↑ de Valdes y Cocom, Mario (2014). "The blurred racial lines of famous families: Pico". PBS.
↑ History of San Mateo County, California. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. San Francisco, Cal.: B.F. Alley Publishers. 1883.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

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[1] Dillon, Richard H. "Adams, Grizzly" . American National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.2001658.

[:8-2] "Elihu Anthony, Pioneer of 1847 Was God Fearing Man and Santa Cruz' First Progressive Business Leader". Santa Cruz Evening News. 1937-01-02. p. 9 – via Newspapers.com.

[obit2-3] "P. D. Armour Dead. Chicago Millionaire Yielded to Long Illness. Fever Rallied After Son's Death". The Republican (Laport, PA.). January 7, 1901. p. 8 – via Chronicling America.

[4] "Briones, María Juana (1802?–1889)". Latinas in History, Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, Brooklyn College, The City University of New York (CUNY). 2009.

[5] Kamiya, Gary (August 24, 2013). "Juana Briones - San Francisco's founding mother". SFGate .

[6] Jensen, Vickie (2012). Women Criminals: An Encyclopedia of People and Issues. ABC-CLIO. p. 360. ISBN 978-0-313-33713-0.

[7] "Rebel Girls From Bay Area History: The Bay Area Child Actress Who Donated Millions to Veterans and Animals". KQED. 2019-03-25.

[:0-8] Savage, W.S. (July 1953). "The Influence of William Alexander Leidesdorff on the History of California". The Journal of Negro History. 38 (3): 322–332. doi:10.2307/2715738. JSTOR 2715738. S2CID 150288502.

[9] Sue Bailey Thurman, 1952, Pioneers of Negro Origin in California, San Francisco: Acme Pub. Co.

[10] Seymour, Bruce (1996-01-01). Lola Montez: A Life. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-07439-0 – via Google Books.

[11] "1836 Ley sobre la division del territorio mexicano en Departamentos" (in Spanish). Government of Mexico, archived at Memoria Política de México. December 30, 1836.

[blurred-12] Valdes y Cocom, Mario (2014). "The blurred racial lines of famous families: Pico". PBS.

[13] History of San Mateo County, California. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. San Francisco, Cal.: B.F. Alley Publishers. 1883.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

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v t e California Gold Rush
Geology	Gold in California
People	List of people associated with the California Gold Rush Californios Chinese Americans Five Joaquins Gang Women
Culture	Oh My Darling, Clementine Mursheen Durkin
Key California Gold sites	Sutter's Mill Reading's Bar Empire Mine
Early US mining	Comstock Lode Copper mining in Michigan
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List of people associated with the California Gold Rush

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