Tuesday, April 9, 2013
The Tale of a Forty-Niner
The Gold
Rush changed the course of American history. As people flooded West, they had
high hopes of striking a gold mine; their spirits were high during the lengthy,
treacherous journey across the nation, or by sea. When they reached California California California
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Everyone always wants more money and this is what the Gold Rush was about, to strike rich. Instead of traveling by land, Shufelt made his way to Sacramento, California by ship. While on board, one of the men traveling with him fell of the boat, but he was able to be rescued. On the boat they were going about 11 mph (10 knots per hour). Their boat crashed, filling with water, but the captain got another boat and everyone was able to make it to California in the next few weeks. They went to the gold fields and started finding the valuable pieces of rock. Shufelt describes what it was like to live in the camps involving gambling, stealing, drinking, killing, and other things. I think Sheldon didn't stay in California because he didn't appreciate the common "evil" lifestyle of the people. And obviously, I'm sure he missed his wife and family at home and wanted to be with her. I think Shufelt kept his spirits high by thinking about his family and hoping that he would be able to come home with lots of money to share with them. This major economic era ended up being the cause of California's statehood.
ReplyDelete202 words
ReplyDeleteMr. Shufelt was just one of the very many people that gave up everything to go and search for gold. He got to Sacramento, California by boat. He said he had a pretty enjoyable trip, but there were a few problems along the way. At one point a man from his boat that could not swim fell out, but was rescued. The boat that he was in crashed and filled with water. His captain was able to get a new boat, and Shufelt continued on his journey. He finally got to Sacramento, and he went to a place called Hangtown to search for gold. Here he lived with six other men in a cabin. Shufelt did find some gold, but did not stay in California. In his letter he talks a lot about all of the wickedness and sin that was going on in the town. I think this is the main reason why he left, plus the fact that he did not get a lot of gold and that he had a family back home. I think that he kept his spirits high by remembering his family and from the hopes that he had of finding gold. (198)
ReplyDeleteMr. Shufelt seems like a very nice man who cares about his family and himself. Mr. shufelt had a pretty good trip to California and was a pretty happy camper. He seemed to survive the trip to California but couldnt handle the environment of the sin and greed. Which really puzzles me. The people there only cared about money money money or gold. He only cared about his family and he didnt find very much gold, so he decided to turn around and go back. He kept his spirits up by thinking of his family. He also thought about being able to go home again. (112)
ReplyDeleteSheldon Shufelt left his home across the water to San Francisco. He left his entire life behind, and he gave up many things to travel to California. He wasn't going to CA to stay, but to get enough money to bring home and love a comfortable life. Overall, his travel over the seas was enjoyable. There was one shipwreck, but he safely arrived after weeks of sailing. Once he got there, it wasn't what he thought it was. It was full of sin and greed. Many people were hung. He had to do hard labor in the blistering sun to find barely any gold. I think this is why he didn't stay in CA. He missed his home. This was all new for him and he didn't necessarily like it. It wasn't what he expected. I think he was homesick. Seeing all the evil probably made him miss the happiness and family back at home. He probably kept his spirits high by dwelling on memories of being at home. Thinking of all the good times. Knowing it wasn't much longer until he would be home. He knew the work was worth it. He realized the pain he suffered now would not even compare to what he thought would come.
ReplyDelete(209)
The word got out about gold in California and tons of people came for it. Sheldon Shufelt was one of the hundreds of thousands men that were looking for gold. When he left for California he left his family. He loved his family more than anything. When he got to California he missed his family a lot. He did not get that lucky with finding gold so he left. That wasn’t the only reason that he left. He didn’t like all of the greed for gold that was there. He was a huge family man which is something I like about him. He put his family in front of him. (110)
ReplyDeleteWhen the gold fever swept across America and many other surrounding countries, tons of people went to California in search of the treasured rock called gold. The prospectors consisted mostly of men, but some women and children went. Some people were greedy and wanted the riches all for themselves, but some wanted to share the riches with their families in hope of a better life. Sheldon Shufelt was one of the people who wanted a better life for him and his family. Shufelt traveled to California by means of water, and his journey was pretty smooth. When he arrived in Sacramento, he was surprised by the atmosphere. Many men gambled, drank, murdered etc. Shufelt mentioned the Sabbath earlier in his letter, and by the way he talked about the horrible actions of the men, I would guess he was a religious man. As far as the gold goes he found some, but I think that it was a considerable amount less than what he expected. I think his inspiration in California was his family. I also think his family was the reason he decided to go home. On his way home, he was captured by Spanish bandits, but he escaped making his way home. He later died when he was 34 from a tropical disease. {215}
ReplyDelete~Mo~
Mr. Sheldon Shufelt, like thousands of other people decided to make his way to California in 1849. Why did he go? Gold. He left his friends and family and made the trip, on a boat unlike how most people made it on land. He traveled to Sacramento, California. The trip mostly went well except on man fell off the boat but he was still rescued. The boat also crashed at one point but the captain received another boat and they made it safely to California. Once he made it there, and he began to mine for gold, he noticed that most of the things that happened in the boom towns were extremely sinful and corrupt. He obviously didn’t appreciate all the ungodly and immoral things that were going on in California which probably made him miss his family even more. I think what helped him while he was in CA was thinking about his wife and children. (157)
ReplyDeleteMr. Shufelt was one out of the many men who left their families and jobs behind to go to California in search for gold. He traveled to California on a boat and faced many challenges including a man falling over board and the ship crashing and filling up with water. Other than these few things they all made it safe and sound, and got to work finding gold. He did find some gold, and then I believe he returned home. For one he had a family that he left at home and I’m sure that the only thing that kept his spirits high was wanting to bring his family a better life with the gold that he found. Another reason he probably didn’t want to stay was all the wickedness that was going on. He talked about how he couldn’t believe the sin that was taking place such as: gambling, swearing, lying, murdering, and many more things that were taking place there. In the end of all this he knew going to all that struggle to find the little gold that he did find was worth it, because it helped his family financially.(193)
ReplyDeleteWhen the California Gold Rush came up, people hurriedly ran over to California to strike it rich. When the first account of gold was released in a newspaper, most people didn't believe it. As soon as a store owner found some and paraded it around town, that's when people became excited and greedy. The people closest to the gold got first dibs and those stuck farther East either took a boat around South America or trekked east to reach California. Mr. Shufelt chose to take a boat and his letter talked about the hardships of going around South America. These events included several men dying of disease and a sailor that almost drowned because he couldn't swim when he fell overboard. After months of travel, Shufelt finally reached Sacramento in California. Shufelt traveled to a nearby town called Hangtown. This town was named after the fact that three men were hanged there for charges against them. While we don't know if Shufelt struck it rich, we know he was a panner. He said out of everyone, the panners made the most money the fastest. The gold ran out though eventually and people had to look elsewhere for the shiny metal. Shufelt saw many evil deeds in California such as stealing, lying, swearing, drinking, murdering, and gambling. Shufelt said gambling was the worst. Some boys would spend $115-$225 in modern money and when they lost, they would go out to find more gold. I believe that despite bad times in California, Mr. Shufelt sounded like a godly man who may or may not have been a saved Christian. His faith in God (and possibly Jesus) kept him going through such hard times. He also missed his family very much and most likely appreciated them more after the gold rush.(298)
ReplyDelete*PS: I read the last bid of Mo's post. That is so sad! Why did he have to die after all he went through?! NO!!!*
Mr. Sheldon Shufelt lived a hard life as a forty-niner. He had to take a long boat ride from New York City to Sacramento. He chose to leave his wife and home and went into a complete wilderness that he had no idea what was contained in it. He had to travel for four days just to get to his dig sight. Once he started digging he had to shovel gravel and clay into a trough, and someone would pour water through the trough and sift it to make the gold fall to the bottom. Sheldon said that many will face bad success and that millions will die. Half of the forty-niners didn’t find enough gold to carry them home and there was also a lot of wickedness that happened in the camps with people stealing, lying, swearing, drinking, gambling, and murdering. (142)
ReplyDeleteMr. S. left on his home in the east to go find gold. He left on a boat. He did not describe the journey as hard and difficult as I might have thought it would have been. When he got to California he shared a cabin with a few other miners, and went out in search for gold. In his letter he did not say how hard and difficult it was to find gold, but he sure does talk about the people and sickness in California. I think he would have left after the gold rush, because he mentions how everyone is stealing, gambling, murdering, and getting into fights. All in all I don't think he enjoyed his journey at all.(122)
ReplyDeleteLike a lot of people at this time was trying to get gold, so was Mr. Shufelt. He traveled to California by boat, and his trip was pretty easy. Unlike some of the people who went to California, Shufelt went there for a better life for him and his family, and just not being greedy. When he arrived in Sacramento, California, the camps involved people who gambled, stole, drunk, killed people and other things. I think he did not stay because he missed his family and how the people’s lifestyles could affect him. I also think that what motivated him to stay was so that he could get some gold that would support his family. I think he went home because of his family and how much he missed them. (131)
ReplyDeleteMr.S was like any other 49ner he went to the west on the false promise that there was gold laying on the streets. He journey to California was easy compared to many of others peoples. When he arrived he immediately noticed the ungodliness taking place. The mining camp seems like any other slum in the 1800s to be honest California has not changed that much. Anyway he stayed the same reason anyone else did. The chance of a better life. This is the American way, the search for a better opportunities. That is why I think he did not leave. (100)
ReplyDeleteJames Marshall found gold in California, but people weren’t sure that the story was true until a man named Sam Brannan waved around a bottle that had gold dust in 1848. This made people from all over want to come to California in search for gold. Sheldon Shufelt was one of these people that went to California. The people who traveled had the choice of coming from land or sea. Shufelt decided to travel by sea to California. He had many troubles on the journey by sea, and finally arrived at California only to be disappointed. He had a plan of how much gold he would find each week. The only problem was that he had no experience with mining, but he later learned how to mine much better. The people would sometimes gamble the gold that they had found. Some would gain a lot others would lose it all and go back to mining the next day. I think Mr. Shufelt didn’t stay in California because of the hard times and the little money he got from working all day. In my mind the only thing that would keep him in California would be that if he stayed he could make enough money for his family to survive and live on, and also the idea that he could become wealthy from the amount of gold he could find. (229)
ReplyDeleteLife for Mr. Sheldon Shufelt during the gold rush was obviously not too easy. It was the same deal for almost all of the people who left their homes behind and traveled to California in hopes of striking gold and becoming rich: the chances were slim to none. But it’s not their fault so many of them were fooled into going! Newspapers everywhere only told of the mass amount of gold sprawled across the river banks, just waiting to be taken. If only they had known sooner, it was quite a different story. True, there was gold, but not a lot. And even to find a small prize of it, you had to work long hours of shoveling, digging, panning, and disappointment. Mr. Shufelt is just one account of the many people who left all they had and cared about, for a chance at a better life. Sad thing is, as hard as they worked, for most, their lives only got worse. (162)
ReplyDeleteI had already known that James Marshall found gold first. I had just thought that people believed it was gold and went right away. I had no idea it took the other guy to run around town with it for people to believe it.
ReplyDeleteFor people to get to California they either went across the land or sailed to Panama and then to California. Mr. Shufelt chose to take the water journey. There was much sickness in the boat. The water was rough most of the way so it would be hard for women and children to go. Once he got there he stayed in a cabin with 6 other men. Life in California was hard. There were a lot of bad things like gambling, stealing, and murdering. The gold people found probably changed them to want more. There was always hope of finding a lot of gold so people kept going. When all of the gold was found some people stayed to run shops or keep looking for gold. Mr. Shufelt left because he must not have liked all the bad things there. He accomplished his mission of getting enough gold to make life easier. (196)
Mr. Shufelt left on May, 11 1849 for California from New York. He left his wife and children in search of the riches he had heard about. This was also the first time I had heard about the man spreading the word around town. I thought it was just growing in popularity little by little until the newspaper ads. He had heard that there was gold just laying on the streets, but after a long boat trip to California he realized he was strongly mistaken. There was so much sin in some of the boomtowns and cabins that he knew it was time for his journey to be over. He went home with some gold but not the heaping amount he had heard about. (125)
ReplyDeleteI think that what made this entry interesting to me was the route he took. A lot of the entries we have read (if not all of them) have involved the 49ers going by land on the Oregon Trail. This entry showed that people sometimes went by sea instead of land. I think the way that Shufelt told it made it more interesting that it probably was. I thought it was cool about how it was just an entry where it was basically like this: "Rain fell in afternoon, wind blew W", it actually told the interesting stuff like when they reached Panama and how the man who couldn't swim was knocked overboard. When they reached Sacramento, I was surprised to hear their ship basically sank just off the coast. Their first night there was pretty rough, some of the men and blankets were soaked because of the rising tide. Overall, Shufelt was able to make about $400.00, which wasn't the "extreme riches" mentioned in the news. Shufelt took a ship back to New York, knowing the trip was a waste, after only being in California for 4 weeks. I was quite sad to learn he died from a disease he caught while in the tropics. I guess that is just one more point added to the death toll of the Gold Rush.(223)
ReplyDeleteThis account was just one of the many different lives in the Gold Rush. Shufelt went by sea instead of land. He told of a time where one man fell out, and everyone was scared for him because he couldn’t swim. However, they did in fact rescue the man. Once he got to California he realized how bad conditions were. He was surrounded by drinking, gambling, swearing, stealing, and even murdering. He kept his hope up through it all though, by thinking of his family. I think his reasoning for finally going back home was missing his wife and children.
ReplyDelete[100]
Shufelt was just another man trying to make a living in the new land. He started his journey in New York and made his way over to california. When he got there he had to walk a few days to get to the mining fields. When he gets there he spends about a month there and makes a few hundred dollars. After this he begins to notice how bad the boomtowns are. He talks about how gambling has ruined many lives there and that younger boys have lost money there. I think he kept his spirits up by thinking of how rich he could become and also how he could help his family.(113)
ReplyDelete