Editing California gold rush (section)

==Forty-niners==
The first people to rush to the goldfields, beginning in the spring of 1848, were the residents of California themselves—primarily agriculturally oriented Americans and Europeans living in [[Northern California]], along with [[Indigenous peoples of California|Native Californians]] and some ''[[Californios]]'' (Spanish-speaking Californians; at the time, commonly referred to in English as simply 'Californians').<ref name=BrandsFirst>{{harvb|Brands|2002|pp=[https://archive.org/details/ageofgoldcalifor00bran/page/43 43–46]}}</ref> These first miners tended to be families in which everyone helped in the effort. Women and children of all ethnicities were often found panning next to the men. Some enterprising families set up boarding houses to accommodate the influx of men; in such cases, the women often brought in steady income while their husbands searched for gold.<ref name="Moynihan">Moynihan, Ruth B., Armitage, Susan, and Dichamp, Christiane Fischer (1990). [[iarchive:somuchtobedonewo00moyn/page/n25|p. 3]].</ref>

Word of the gold rush spread slowly at first. The earliest gold-seekers were people who lived near California or people who heard the news from ships on the fastest sailing routes from California. The first large group of Americans to arrive were several thousand [[Oregon Territory|Oregonians]] who came down the Siskiyou Trail.<ref name="Starr48">{{harvb|Starr|Orsi|2000|pp=50–54}}</ref> Next came people from the [[Hawaiian Islands|Sandwich Islands]], and several thousand Latin Americans, including people from Mexico, from [[Peru]] and from as far away as Chile,<ref name=BrandsChile>{{harvb|Brands|2002|pp=[https://archive.org/details/ageofgoldcalifor00bran/page/48 48–53]}}</ref> both by ship and overland.<ref name="Starr48"/> By the end of 1848, some 6,000 Argonauts had come to California.<ref name=Starr48 />

Only a small number (probably fewer than 500) traveled overland from the United States that year.<ref name=Starr48 /> Some of these "forty-eighters",<ref name="Caughey">{{harvb|Caughey|1975|p=[https://archive.org/details/californiagoldru00caugrich/page/17 17]}}</ref> as the earliest gold-seekers were sometimes called, were able to collect large amounts of easily accessible gold—in some cases, thousands of dollars worth each day.<ref name=BrandsGold>{{harvb|Brands|2002|pp=[https://archive.org/details/ageofgoldcalifor00bran/page/197 197–202]}}</ref><ref name=HollDollars>{{harvb|Holliday|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/rushforrichesgol00holl/page/63 63]}} Holliday notes these luckiest prospectors were recovering, in short amounts of time, gold worth in excess of $1 million when valued at the dollars of today.</ref> Even ordinary prospectors averaged daily gold finds worth 10 to 15 times the daily wage of a laborer on the East Coast. A person could work for six months in the goldfields and find the equivalent of six years' wages back home.<ref name=StarrAvg>{{harvb|Starr|Orsi|2000|p=28}}</ref> Some hoped to get rich quick and return home, and others wished to start businesses in California.

[[File:Independent Gold Hunter on His Way to California.jpg|thumb|left|"Independent Gold Hunter on His Way to California", c. 1850{{efn|The gold hunter is loaded down with every conceivable appliance, much of which would be useless in California. The prospector says (in a caption on some versions): "I am sorry I did not follow the advice of Granny and go around the [[Cape Horn|Horn]], through the [[Strait of Magellan|Straights]], or by [[Chagres]] [Panama]."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gildenstein |first1=Melanie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DIphDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA36 |title=A Primary Source Investigation of the Gold Rush |last2=O'Donnell |first2=Kerri |publisher=[[Rosen Publishing]] |year=2015 |isbn=978-1499435115 |location=New York |pages=36 |language=en |access-date=June 25, 2021 |archive-date=July 31, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240731035728/https://books.google.com/books?id=DIphDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA36#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>}}]]

By the beginning of 1849, word of the gold rush had spread around the world, and an overwhelming number of gold-seekers and merchants began to arrive from virtually every continent. The largest group of forty-niners in 1849 were Americans, arriving by the tens of thousands overland across the continent and along various sailing routes<ref name="Starr49">{{harvb|Starr|Orsi|2000|pp=57–61}}</ref> (the name "forty-niner" was derived from the year 1849). Many from the [[East Coast of the United States|East Coast]] negotiated a crossing of the [[Appalachian Mountains]], taking to [[riverboats]] in [[Pennsylvania]], poling the [[keelboats]] to [[Missouri River]] [[wagon train]] assembly ports, and then traveling in a wagon train along the [[California Trail]]. Many others came by way of the [[Isthmus of Panama]] and the steamships of the [[Pacific Mail Steamship Company]]. Australians<ref name="BrandsAus">{{harvb|Brands|2002|pp=[https://archive.org/details/ageofgoldcalifor00bran/page/53 53–61]}}</ref> and New Zealanders picked up the news from ships carrying Hawaiian newspapers, and thousands, infected with "gold fever", boarded ships for California.<ref name="Starr1849">{{harvb|Starr|Orsi|2000|pp=53–56}}</ref>

Forty-niners came from Latin America, particularly from the Mexican mining districts near [[Sonora, Mexico|Sonora]] and Chile.<ref name=Starr1849 />{{sfnb|Johnson|2001|p=[https://archive.org/details/roaringcamp00susa/page/59 p. 59]}} Gold-seekers and merchants from Asia, primarily from China,<ref name=BrandsChina>{{harvb|Brands|2002|pp=[https://archive.org/details/ageofgoldcalifor00bran/page/62 61–64]}}</ref> began arriving in 1849, at first in modest numbers to ''Gum San'' ("[[Gold Mountain (Chinese name for part of North America)|Gold Mountain]]"), the name given to California in Chinese.<ref name = goldmountain>Magagnini, Stephen (January 18, 1998)"[http://www.calgoldrush.com/part3/03asians.html Chinese transformed 'Gold Mountain'] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230005706/http://www.calgoldrush.com/part3/03asians.html |date=December 30, 2010 }}", ''The Sacramento Bee''. Retrieved October 22, 2009.</ref> The first immigrants from Europe, reeling from the effects of the [[Revolutions of 1848]] and with a longer distance to travel, began arriving in late 1849, mostly from France,<ref name=BrandsFrance>{{harvb|Brands|2002|pp=[https://archive.org/details/ageofgoldcalifor00bran/page/93 93–103]}}</ref> with some [[Germans]], [[Italy|Italians]], and [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britons]].<ref name=Starr49 />

It is estimated that approximately 90,000 people arrived in California in 1849—about half by land and half by sea.<ref name=Starr49note>{{harvb|Starr|Orsi|2000|pp=57–61}} Other estimates range from 70,000 to 90,000 arrivals during 1849 (''ibid.'' p. 57).</ref> Of these, perhaps 50,000 to 60,000 were Americans, and the rest were from other countries.<ref name=Starr49 /> By 1855, it is estimated at least 300,000 gold-seekers, merchants, and other immigrants had arrived in California from around the world.<ref name=Starr300>{{harvb|Starr|Orsi|2000|p=25}}</ref> The largest group continued to be Americans, but there were tens of thousands each of Mexicans, Chinese, Britons, Australians,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/british/brit-1.html |title=Exploration and Settlement – John Bull and Uncle Sam: Four Centuries of British-American Relations – Exhibitions (Library of Congress) |work=loc.gov |date=July 22, 2010 |access-date=December 29, 2017 |archive-date=January 9, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110109173456/http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/british/brit-1.html |url-status=live }}</ref> French, and Latin Americans,<ref name=BrandsPop>{{harvb|Brands|2002|pp=[https://archive.org/details/ageofgoldcalifor00bran/page/193 193–194]}}</ref> together with many smaller groups of miners, such as African Americans, [[Filipino people|Filipinos]], [[Basque people|Basques]]<ref name=StarrBasq>{{harvb|Starr|Orsi|2000|p=62}}</ref> and people from the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/prback.html |title=The Oregon Trail |work=isu.edu |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513205758/http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/prback.html |archive-date=May 13, 2008 }}</ref><ref name="neary">{{harvb|Neary|Robbins|2015|pp=226–248}}</ref>

People from small villages in the hills near [[Genoa]], Italy were among the first to settle permanently in the [[Sierra Nevada foothills]]; they brought with them traditional agricultural skills, developed to survive cold winters.<ref name=Freguli49note>Freguli, Carolyn (2008), pp. 8–9.</ref> A modest number of miners of African ancestry (probably less than 4,000)<ref name=RawlsAf>{{harvb|Rawls|Orsi|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/goldenstateminin0000unse/page/5 5]}} Another estimate is 2,500 forty-niners of African ancestry.</ref> had come from the [[Southern United States|Southern States]],<ref name=Wysinger>African Americans who were slaves and came to California during the Gold Rush could gain [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/27/BAG8ANQ1OG1.DTL their freedom] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324122538/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2007%2F01%2F27%2FBAG8ANQ1OG1.DTL|date=March 24, 2012}}. One of the miners was African American [[Edmond Edward Wysinger]] (1816–1891), see also [[Moses Rodgers]] (1835–1900)</ref> the [[Caribbean]] and Brazil.<ref name=StarrAf>{{harvb|Starr|Orsi|2000|pp=67–69}}</ref>

A number of immigrants were from China. Several hundred Chinese arrived in California in 1849 and 1850, and in 1852 more than 20,000 landed in San Francisco.<ref name="Out of">{{harvb|Faragher|2006|p=411}}</ref> Their distinctive dress and appearance was highly recognizable in the goldfields. Chinese miners suffered enormously, enduring violent racism from white miners who aimed their frustrations at foreigners. Further animosity toward the Chinese led to legislation such as the Chinese Exclusion Act and Foreign Miners Tax.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/goldrush/ |title=The Gold Rush |work=[[The American Experience]] |date=2006 |access-date=October 4, 2019 |archive-date=July 31, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240731035851/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/goldrush/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Out of" />

There were also [[Women in the California gold rush|women in the gold rush]]. However, their numbers were small. Of the 40,000 people who arrived by ship to the [[San Francisco Bay]] in 1849, only 700 were women (including those who were poor, wealthy, entrepreneurs, prostitutes, single, and married).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Men_:_Women_in_Early_San_Francisco |title=Men : Women in Early San Francisco |publisher=FoundSF |date=August 26, 2016 |access-date=March 7, 2017 |archive-date=April 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170410184718/http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Men_:_Women_in_Early_San_Francisco |url-status=live }}</ref> They were of various ethnicities including Anglo-American, African-American,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/hs/im/didyouknow1.asp |title=Key Points in Black History and the Gold Rush – Instructional Materials (CA Dept of Education) |website=Cde.ca.gov |access-date=March 7, 2017 }}</ref> [[Hispanic]], [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native]], European, Chinese, and Jewish. The reasons they came varied: some came with their husbands, refusing to be left behind to fend for themselves, some came because their husbands sent for them, and others came (singles and widows) for the adventure and economic opportunities.<ref name="Moynihan2">Moynihan, Ruth B., Armitage, Susan, and Dichamp, Christiane Fischer (1990). [[iarchive:somuchtobedonewo00moyn/page/n25|pp. 3–8]].</ref> On the trail many people died from accidents, [[cholera]], fever, and myriad other causes, and many women became widows before even setting eyes on California. While in California, women became widows quite frequently due to [[mining accidents]], disease, or mining disputes of their husbands. Life in the goldfields offered opportunities for women to break from their traditional work.{{sfnb|Levy|1990|pp=[https://archive.org/details/theysawelephantw00levy/page/n25 xxii], [https://archive.org/details/theysawelephantw00levy/page/92 92]}}<ref>By one account, in late 1850, the population of California was over 110,000, not including the [[Californios]] or the California Indians. The surviving US census counts in California add up to 92,600, not including the lost censuses of [[History of San Francisco|San Francisco]] (the largest city in California at that time), [[Contra Costa county]] and [[Santa Clara County]]. The [[Women in the California Gold Rush|women]] who came to California in the early years were a distinct minority, consisting of less than 10% of the population.</ref>

Because of many thousands of people flooding into California at [[Sacramento]] and San Francisco and surrounding areas, the Methodist church deemed it necessary to send missionaries there to preach the gospel, as churches in that part of the state were not to be found. The first missionary to arrive was [[William Taylor (bishop)|William Taylor]] who arrived in San Francisco in September 1849. For many months he preached in the streets to hundreds of people without salary, and ultimately after saving often generous donations from successful miners, he built and established the first Methodist church in California, and California's first professional hospital.<ref name=taylor103>{{harvb|Taylor|1895|pp=103, 131–132}}</ref><ref>[[#dictionary2024|Dictionary of African Christian Biography]], Essay</ref>