Near Sonora, Calif., in 1850, Farmington Falls native Andrew Croswell struck gold. In four days, Croswell and his partners mined $500 worth from a site no one had found before.
As stories like these filtered back East, more and more fortune seekers left home to join the California gold rush. Most of them didn’t strike it rich, and neither did Croswell. Years later, when he recounted his adventures for the Franklin Journal, it’s easy to see that his lucky find was an isolated incident.
Lured by stories of riches, 22-year-old Croswell set out from Farmington Falls in the summer of 1849. Six months later, after a trip around Cape Horn, he landed in the boomtown of San Francisco where he quickly found work as a carpenter.
“Wages were high at the time,” he recalled, “and we got all the way from $10 to $15 per day.”
But there was a catch. While Croswell was making good money by 19th century standards, he was paying 21st century prices. “Commodity prices were high so that savings were not great,” he continued. “A hard-boiled egg in a restaurant brought $1 and a pair of coarse boots cost $40.”
Restless after a winter of carpentering, Croswell made up his mind in April to head into “the gold diggings.”
///Loading the ox cart///
He took passage on a sloop going up the San Joaquin River to Stockton. From there he loaded his tools and clothes on an ox cart and walked 60 miles to the Sonora area where he and his partners set up camp and proceeded prospecting. Success did not follow immediately. Several weeks’ work resulted in only 25 cents worth of gold.
Then Croswell and his partners cut a new trail, made their great discovery and for four days mined a large quantity of gold. Even split four ways, the find yielded a huge reward for a few days’ work. But the vein ran out, and he spent two more weeks prospecting with no luck.
All in all, Croswell spent his summer mining for gold and made only about $125, and, deducting the cost of his tools and travel, it was even less. Like many miners before him, he decided he could capitalize on the gold rush in better ways than by prospecting. He returned to Stockton where he once again took up carpentry. Within a couple of weeks, he made more than he had mining for gold.
Few miners made a fortune in the gold rush, but Croswell knew one who did. Croswell had met D.G. Greaton, his wife and daughter, in the mining camps around Sonora, when they were poor and hopeful just like everyone else.
///The hypnotized wife///
Years later, Croswell ran into Greaton in Stockton. He was then independently wealthy, spending his time breeding horses on his palatial ranch. Greaton claimed to have made over $100,000 mining for gold, and he credited his deceased wife for his good fortune. She was clairvoyant, he said.
“He could put her in a trance by the waving of his hand,” Croswell related. “In this condition, he took her from claim to claim, which she declared No good,’ until finally they struck one that she insisted was the best ever seen. So he went to work there and struck it rich.”
No doubt a sixth sense would have been a good thing to have during the California gold rush. Without one, most prospectors, like Croswell, worked hard, made a living and eventually returned home without tons of riches, but with tales of adventure.
Luann Yetter has researched and written a history column for the Sun Journal for the past 10 years. She teaches writing at the University of Maine at Farmington, [email protected].
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