Brides of the Gold Rush, 1851-1859 (Hardcover)

Brides of the Gold Rush, 1851-1859 (Hardcover)

This is a true account of life in the 1850s, when California’s three largest cities were San Francisco, Sacramento and Nevada City. The last name was a prosperous gold mining community in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Five miles to the southwest lay the equally prosperous but less densely populated town of Grass Valley. North, south, east and west of these towns were dozens of smaller communities with such exotic names as Rough and Ready, Humbug, French Corral, Blue Tent, Gouge Eye, Red Dog and Orleans Flat.

Gold Diggers and Camp Followers, the first title in this series, described the people who occupied the land between the Yuba and Bear Rivers from 1845 to 1851. By means of letters, journals, newspaper accounts, and memoirs the author depicted the westward emigration of adventurous men and women to the Sierra Nevada foothills and the violent clash of their culture with that of the Nisenan Indians who inhabited the area.

Brides of the Gold Rush continues the true story of Tallman Rolfe, a young printer and apostate Mormon who worked for newspapers in Nauvoo, Oregon City, San Francisco, and Sacramento before arriving at Nevada City in 1851. It recounts the further adventures of attorney Niles Searls and merchant Charles Mulford, who crossed the plains to California in 1849, prospected rivers and streams and opened a bookstore at Nevada City. In this volume, Niles and Charley marry hometown sweethearts and bring them to Nevada City, where they are joined by other classmates and friends from rural New York state.

Simmon Storms and David Bovyer, novice Indian traders from New England, befriend the Nisenan tribes and try with mixed success to shield them from invading whites and their diseases. Chief Wema soon realizes that his people have been offered a choice between extinction and relocation.

William M. Stewart and Aaron Sargent arrive at Nevada City and begin long and outstanding careers in journalism, law and national politics. The notorious dancer Lola Montez, once the intimate friend of Franz List and the King of Bavaria, settles in Grass Valley and involves the Searls and Mulford families in one of her many Nevada County escapades. Comstock says, “When I first peered into the archives and saw the rich array of characters whose notable careers began in this most cosmopolitan of mining camps, I realized I had rediscovered a forgotten world. The 1850s were exciting and formative years for an amazing parade of ambitious young men and women, and many became important figures in American history.”

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