[Undated clipping--possibly from the Grape Belt newspaper]
January 24, 1848. Gold was found in the millrace in the American River and started the famous gold rush to California. 50,000 immigrants started out in the spring of 1849 eager to cross the Sierras before snow blocked the passes. Thousands were killed by Indians or died from cholera and scurvy, thirst and hunger while crossing the parched deserts and climbing the long winding trails. Shallow graves and the bleaching bones of cattle marked the way. In San Francisco, most of the people lived in tents and shacks, the population jumping from 800 in 1848 to 25,000 in 1850. Good boots cost $100, eggs $6 a dozen. Gambling dens sprung up with frequent murders resulting.
The Vigilance Committee of prominent citizens now and then drove the thieves and gamblers out of town and quickly ended the careers of murderers by hanging.
Miners gathered $65 million in gold every year from 1850-1855. Ten years later most of the miners had either left for the silver mines discovered in Nevada or became homesteaders or squatters. The Central Pacific Railroad was completed in 1869 opening California to settlement on a large scale.
Reuben WRIGHT, born July 1, 1824 in a little house above Rorig's bridge, hearing of the gold in California, decided to go there and organized a party of ten namely, Seth HOLMES and Joseph STOCKWELL from Mayville, David BEMUS, Jamestown; Spencer DOUGLAS, Fredonia; Frank STEVENS, Norman RUMSEY, Wm. KYNES, Joseph DIXON and O. MORSE to go with him. Each put in $500 and in April started by stage and Ohio River boats to St. Louis. There was no railroad beyond Buffalo. In St. Louis, they procured mule teams and outfit which they transported by steamer to Omaha where they started across the plains. He described the trip "as only farm bred boys and mules could have stood it." They were 120 days going from Omaha to Sacramento River. Theirs was the only party that never lost a man or an animal.
In placer mining on Sutter Creek, WRIGHT saw his share of hardship and incidents to the life of a miner. He had to make his fortune twice as the Bank in Sacramento where he had his savings failed and he lost everything except the mule he had ridden down from the diggings. When he went for it, it had been stolen. He went back and made more money than he had the first time. He showed his capacity for managing large enterprises by furnishing the city of Sacramento its water supply for four years. He returned here Jan. 1, 1855 and six months later went to Clarion, Pa., bought a large tract of pine and operated several saw mills selling out in 1866. Later he bought timber tracts in Michigan, Wisconsin and Louisiana. He was interested in gold mines at Goldfield, Nev., at the time of his death, January 12, 1906 and for years had operated the paper mill here.
We found no account of what became of the other '49ers in his party.