Featured Ancestor

Charles Brown Lockwood’s

Gold Rush Adventure

3rd Great Uncle

Our Connection

Charles Brown Lockwood  was the brother Kelly’s 2x Great Grandfather  C.B. Lockwood was a successful business man who had quite an adventure to get to California from Cleveland.  He encountered the original “Con Man”, a Kentucky promoter by the name of Parker H French

Later in life Lockwood would write a small book that details the story.  You can read his short book at bottom of this page.  The original copy is in the Gold Rush library of the San Diego Campus of the University of California.  When I read his story, I think that there no way he will ever make it to California, but he does.

Background

The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. All told, the news of gold brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad.  Of the 300,000, approximately half arrived by sea, and half came overland from the east, on the California Trail and the Gila River trail.

The gold-seekers, called “forty-niners” (as a reference to 1849), traveled by sailing ship and covered wagon and often faced substantial hardships on the trip. While most of the newly arrived were Americans, the Gold Rush attracted tens of thousands from Latin America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. At first, loose gold and gold nuggets could be picked up off the ground. Later, gold was recovered from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, such as panning. More sophisticated methods were developed and later adopted elsewhere. At its peak, technological advances reached a point where significant financing was required, and mining companies became important. Gold worth tens of billions of today’s dollars was recovered, which led to great wealth for a few. However, many returned home with only a little more than what they had originally started with.

The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial. San Francisco grew from a small settlement of about 200 residents in 1846 to a boom town of about 36,000 by 1852. Roads and other towns were built throughout California. In 1849 a state constitution was written, and a governor and legislature were chosen. California became a state as part of the Compromise of 1850.

Read his book below