Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
History Quarterly Digital Archives

Source: Fall 1978 Volume 16 Number 3, Pages 47–52

To Californ-i-ay and Gold

Franklin L. Burns papers

• To California
• The Gold Fields
• Back Home
• Source

Page 47

In the fall of 1849 Henry Clay Burn, of Reeseville, decided to join the "Gold Rush" and to seek his fortune in the gold fields of Sacramento. Fortunately, his cousin, Reuben E. Lewis, of Newtown, had a quantity of merchandise destined for San Francisco and appointed Burn his agent or supercargo for the shipment.

Raising the not inconsiderable means for an outfit and passage, Burn left his Tredyffrin home on December 9, 1849, for New York City to begin the long trip.

Among the Franklin L. Burns papers in the possession of the Tredyffrin-Easttown History Club are summaries of, and excerpts from, letters he wrote to his parents and younger brother Isaac. This account of his voyage around Cape Horn to California, and of his experiences in the gold fields when he got there, is taken from this material.

To California

His first letter, dated December 12, 1849, was from New York on the eve of his departure. In it he informed his parents that he had engaged passage on the English steamer Sarah Sands, one of the finest sea-going vessels in port, in his opinion.

Page 48

He described the crew as "about the right sort", with the passengers very nearly all young men. The delay in his departure, he explained, was occasioned by the fact that when the captain had arrived from Boston on December 2d he was not satisfied with the stowing of the cargo.

The next letter was from Rio de Janeiro. Dated January 12, 1850, it was to his brother Isaac, who had gone to Rose Valley in Indiana. In it he stated that the ship had finally departed from New York on December 13th.

His initiation to the sea was apparently not without difficulties. "You can imagine how much I slept that night," he wrote, "with the rocking of the boat and the thoughts of the friends and happy home I left behind, all for the sake of gold. The next morning I was pretty sick and continued so for about five days, during which time I did not eat as much as a man should eat at a single meal." In fact, it was ten or twelve days before he became entirely well and ready for his meals, but by the time of his letter he reported that the Captain had assured him that if he retained his present appetite he would gain forty pounds by the time they reached San Francisco.

After recovering from his initial sickness, he found the board to be first class -- as good as at any hotel — with turkey, goose, duck, venison, chicken, beef, pork, mutton, veal, shad, mackerel, rice, oatmeal, pies, and melons. He also found the weather very pleasant, except for the first two days out when it was pretty cold. Head winds, though, had retarded the engines to about eight knots for parts of the trip.

In many ways his thoughts were still of home, however. At the end of the letter he asked his brother to return home as soon as he could find it convenient if he did not find business in the West a great deal better than at home in the East "because both Father and Mother have taken it pretty hard on account of both leaving home so nearly the same time".

It was two and a half months before his next letter, dated March 30th, from Panama Bay on the Pacific side of the Isthmus. The Captain's prediction about his appetite, incidentally, was apparently well founded, for in this letter he reported that he had gained twenty-one and a half pounds and that his clothes were all too small.

Resuming his account, he commented that his opinion of Rio de Janeiro was poor, largely because the inhabitants were so dilatory, with much of the work being done by slaves. He also disapproved of the fact that the stores and theaters were open on the Sabbath, the same as any other day. The scenery around the city and bay, however, he found beautiful, with oranges, lemons, coconuts, and coffee growing wild on the mountains.

Page 49

The ship had left Rio on January 22d. About four days out from Rio rough weather was encountered. One day, he reported, the ship rolled on her side just as everyone was comfortably seated for dinner, breaking about $30 worth of china, with the same thing happening again at supper.

The passage continued rough to the Straits of Magellan, where a strong wind, tide and current made it impossible to run more than eight hours out of the twenty-four. Sometimes the vessel drifted back at a rate of three knots, even with all steam on. It took eight days to get through to the Pacific, only to run into the worst storm they experi"`enced, blowing the ship about sixty miles south of the Straits.

On February 26th they finally reached Valparaiso, Chile. Taking ad"`vantage of the seven days in port, Burn and several of his companions hired horses and rode ninety miles out into the barren country. In contrast to his feelings about Rio de Janeiro, he expressed a good opinion of Valparaiso.

Leaving Valparaiso on March 5th, they then headed for Callao, Peru, a distance of fourteen hundred miles, which they reached in eight days. This town he described as a pretty hard place. About half the town, he reported, was built of cane plastered with mud. He did find the ruins of the old town, sunk by an earthquake about one hundred and fifty years before, quite interesting, though.

After three days in Callao, the ship left on the 16th for Panama, arri"`ving on March 26th after battling head winds. Here a delay of twelve or fourteen days was expected to unload all the cargo and then reload it so that the Captain could swear that he had taken his cargo on at Panama, a foreign port. This was necessary because the United States government did not permit a foreign vessel to take goods from one American port to another.

The last leg of the voyage was described in a letter to his parents from San Francisco, written on June 6th.

After leaving Panama, the ship stopped at San Simeo, where it lay by for fourteen days for coal. San Simeo he described as "the finest looking place I have seen since leaving home", though there was no settlement there, only a single uninhabited log hut. But he found the plain covered with wild oats ready for cutting, and while there he lived well, shooting wild cattle — "the best beef I ever ate" -- as well as deer and smaller game.

He also spoke well of his choice of ship. Another captain, he reported, upon learning at a South American port of the high price of provisions at San Francisco, had issued nothing but moldy sea biscuits and spoiled meat to his passengers, causing illness and one death. The passengers finally rushed the officers, but fearing the fate of mutineers beached the vessel in Southern California and left it, traveling overland to the mines.

Page 50

In contrast, he reported, that after the long and tedious voyage of almost six months from New York around the Horn to San Francisco, "We are all here, thank God, except one who died of Panama fever and another who dropped dead as we were about to leave the ship."

He also reported that he expected to leave San Francisco to start for the mines in a few days.

The Gold Fields

His next letter was three days later, dated June 9th, to his brother and from Sacramento City, where he had arrived the previous day well and happy. He reported that he had bought an outfit for the mines, and expected to start for Coloma on the following morning.

In the meantime, he was camping with some men who had also come out on the "Sallie Sand", as he now more familiarly referred to the ship, "boarding ourselves for about $1.50 per day, where it would cost $3.00 at the hotel". Pork, he reported, cost 20c per pound, while it cost 30c for ham, 38c to 40c for coffee, and 25c to 30c for sugar. "Tell the girls (his sisters)," he added, "that it would do them good to see me baking and cooking."

While he said he was pleased with the country in this neighborhood, the land being good and smooth, he was not overly optimistic about his mining prospects. "Some say," he wrote, "that a person cannot make more than his board now, others say that one can make $8 or $10 per day and sometimes more. For my part, I cannot say what can be done until I have tried it. There is a great rush to the mines now, and from what I can understand, the claims are going to be pretty well taken up, as some of the streams are now."

But he was better off than some of his fellow passengers who had left the ship at San Simeo to take the overland route to the gold area, and who became lost, traveling eleven days without anything to eat except wild grapes and gooseberries, until five or six gave out and were left behind, almost dead, while the others went for assistance.

He also asked his parents to deliver several messages for him: to John E. Webster, who operated the woolen mill at Howelville, that he was "going to sleep under one of his blankets this night and the only objection I have is that it is too good"; to his cousin Reuben Lewis the information that he had sold "at a pretty good profit" the little venture he sent, and that he had also seen William Gheen, who had made him "a present of his lucky pick"; and to his cousin William Nuzum that he wished him and Lizzie "all the happiness in the world". "I have some notion of hunting up one of the little Spanish senoritas," he added, "for I begin to see the advantage of a wife since I have begun to keep bachelor's hall."

Page 51

His letter also contained an observation on the new U.S. postal system, noting that none of the letters on which the postage had been prepaid had arrived and that all on hand had been sent "collect".

The following day he was to get up early to start with the wagon which took the baggage to the diggings.

It was about six weeks before his next letter, dated July 30th and again from Sacramento, to which he had returned to buy provisions. In it he reported that he was in good health and had made a little money, of which he had sent $250 to R. E. Lewis. He noted that he had also sent some small specimens of gold.

At the same time, he wrote that he "would not advise" anyone to come to California and that he had heard too many curse the day they came. He also described a miner's life: "He gets up early in the morning, cooks breakfast, works until noon, gets dinner, works until night, gets supper, and then wraps himself in his blanket and sleeps under the nearest tree... It is a hard life to lead; all comfort is at end." Actually, he had got an invitation to lodge with some fellows in a log cabin, which he accepted "without any persuasion", and he still felt that in the course of a year or so he would be able to raise at least enough to get home, if nothing more.

"It is now 1 o'clock p.m. and I must bring this to a close," he concluded the letter, "for I am going to start back to the mines as soon as I can buy a few provisions and get on the road as far as I can against night. Time is valuable here, and I have fifty miles to travel to Weaver Creek, and I would like to do it by tomorrow evening."

The last letter from California was sent from Weaver Creek on August 24th, with the report that he had finally received the "very acceptable" letter from his parents, dated May 12th, on the 8th of August, as well as several other letters from the East.

The picture of prospecting he presented was not much more favorable than that of his previous letter. "When we are out on a prospect," he wrote, "we never think of a softer bed than the ground that is baked as hard as a rock! ... Our beds are not half as good as you give your hogs, and then we are awakened every few hours by the lizards running over us. We think nothing of finding one or two in our vest pockets after the garments have been lying on the ground. Tell the boys at home that if they want to see hard times to come to California."

Supper, incidentally, he reported consisted of "a few old slapjacks and fat pork -- and about half the time without the pork". He also commented on the high costs of provisions.

Page 52

At the same time, he had by hard work made enough to live on, though it was only $3 or $4 a day along the creek by that time. "I have had very good luck since I came back from Sacramento City," he was able to say, "but it is only a streak, now run out, and it may be some time before I make such a strike again. Here is my account by the day:

Aug. 5th	$27.20	Aug. 12th	$8.50	Aug. 19th	prospecting
Aug. 6th	27.20	Aug. 13th	5.50	Aug. 20th	10.00
Aug. 7th	8.00	Aug. 14th	2.00	Aug. 21st	22.90
Aug. 8th	39.46	Aug. 15th	16.75	Aug. 22nd	1.72"
Aug. 9th	2.33	Aug. 16th	10.50
Aug. 10th	prospecting	Aug. 17th	$18.50

(It is interesting to note that even in the gold fields the Sabbath was observed.)

"If there is anything in perserverance," he continued, "I will make grub anyway, and perhaps a score. A brother Odd Fellow discovered some dry diggings yesterday which he thinks is very rich and he gave me an invitation to spend the winter with him." But at the same time, he also reported that the "country is all dug up where there is any chance of digging". His goal was to find enough to put up a house and start a store.

Back Home

How much success he had in reaching this goal the letters do not tell, for this was the last letter available from California.

In any event, Henry Clay Burn apparently left the Golden State for home sometime in 1851. The return trip was made by the overland route across Nicaragua and then, after reaching the Gulf of Mexico, by ship by way of Cuba.

Finally he met his younger brother Isaac, who had earlier returned from Indiana, at the old cherry tree in the Reese's field. To celebrate the reunion, he unpacked a box of Havanas he had bought with him from Cuba, and the two brothers had a smoke together as they made their way up to the old homestead.

Source:

Franklin L. Burns papers