Palmyra, Missouri Letter Found from 1850 of California Gold Rush

If you've ever wondered what it was like in the mid-1800's to adventure to California in search of gold, you need to see this. It's what remains of a Palmyra, Missouri letter telling the tale of what happened when they left the area to be a part of the most famous gold rush in history and found unexpected challenges.

I came across this amazing letter on a Marion County Genealogy site.  The letter was from Sprat Ellis from Palmyra, Missouri dated February 14, 1850. Here's a snippet of how it began:

"Dear Brother –I now take my pen to inform you of our arrival in the gold regions of California, the great place which we have been toiling for the last ten months. We left home on the 18th day of April, and arrived here on the 10th day of February. I assure you that a journey of ten months is not a very pleasant one, although we enjoyed good health the whole route."

He said that for nearly 400 miles of their trip, their cattle had no grass to feed on only "willows and cotton wood". Two of their cattle died along the way. Once they reached California, they learned that the promise of gold was not what it many thought it to be. He said "There is plenty of gold here, but it takes hard work to get it."

After arriving in Santa Barbara, California, he and his father said that they had to use some of the cattle they took with them to get established in California before they could go seeking gold.

"We sold our horse for $50, but he gave out on the desert. We traded one of our cows for a mule on the Rio Grande, and the other died. We reached the town of Santa Barbara, on the coast of the Pacific, with three yoke of our cattle, and wagon, and there bartered them away for horses."

Finally, as they were about to begin their own diggings, they noted this incredible story of another that had come to California for gold.

"A few days ago a man dug out a chunk of gold which weighed 22 pounds, and gambled it away at a monte bank during the night. The next day he went to digging again in his hole."

You can read this entire remarkable Palmyra, Missouri gold rush tale for yourself on the Marion County Genealogy site.