by Paul R. Spitzzeri
The dramatic rise of the middle class accompanied by remarkable growth in literacy through education, especially in the public sphere, meant a corollary increase in reading materials published in droves, whether these be books, newspapers, magazines or others. There were those that functioned as magazines, but looked like newspapers because of the paper on which they were printed, as well as the typesetting and other features, but these generally included an ample use of woodcut printed illustrations.
So, Harper’s Weekly, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper and Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing Room Companion were among the most widely-read and successful examples of this type during the mid-19th century and afterward, providing features on current affairs on the national and international scenes, serialized fiction, poetry and other content reaching large numbers of Americans eager to read more about the ever expanding world coming to them through the pages of such periodicals.
Gold Rush California proved to be of much interest to publishers and readers, whether through newspapers or magazines, and the featured artifact from the Homestead’s collection for this post, the 30 October 1852 edition of Gleason’s Pictorial, the shorthand name for the publication, has a particularly noteworthy feature titled “A Series of Interesting Sketches and Scenes in California,” that may be more remarkable for the illustrations than the content.
Frederick Gleason (1816-1896) was born in what became a unified Germany in 1870, and migrated to America as a young man, establishing a small bookbinding business in Boston. After publishing novellas, including by Maturin M. Ballou, he established, in 1846, The Flag of our Union, a weekly promoted as a “family journal” and edited by Ballou, this becoming a marked success.
The publisher established Gleason’s Publishing Hall in the former Boston Museum building and he and Ballou then launched the pictorial publication in 1851. After just three years, however, Gleason sold out to his partner, who changed the name to his surname, though Gleason later returned to publishing with three periodicals between 1860 and 1890 before retiring.
The two-page California piece features eight drawings, of which a couple are of a bridge at Leslie’s Ferry, this actually being Lisle’s Bridge, which was a little east of the future state capital among the American River, along which in the Sierra Nevada Mountains at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, James Marshall found the gold that ignited the great rush, and the cemetery south of town.
Of more general interest, however, are the depictions of miners, indigenous persons, Spanish-speaking Californios and the Chinese—these being reflective not just of the ethnic diversity that the Gold Rush brought to the recently admitted 31st state in the Union, but also of the exoticism and novelty that often animated the pages of publications as most readers had no direct connection to such an environment in their eastern homes.
The article, which does have a byline for the author, began by announcing that it was providing readers, “a series of interesting views illustrative of the characteristics and belongings of El Dorado,” as Gold Rush California was often known, and then mused that,
The tide of emigration seems to be but little stayed; death, privation and the numerous casualties that stare the adventurous gold-seeker in the fact, do not seem to prevent thousands upon thousands from wending their way to the golden shores of the Pacific. We have become so entirely used to the stories of suddenly-acquired fortunes, that the items which at first seemed to us to be fabulous are now too-well authenticated to be challenged.
While Australia was deemed a rival, even though it remained Britain’s penal colony for about another fifteen years, it was acknowledged that “the stream of emigration still sets to the westward. Passing over the bridge and the cemetery, the article came to the image of “A Native Indian Chief, of whom it was asserted that “since the whites have so completely overrun the country, his occupation may be said to be gone indeed.”
The piece continued that “he still bears himself bravely, however, still feels actuated by the native fire of his race,” though “the white man is too powerful, too cunning for him, and he must submit to the force of circumstances.” This was putting the situation far too blandly and benignly as, especially in the northern portions of California, the “overrunning” of most of these regions was nothing less than a genocide.
The image of an “Indian Squaw and Children” purports to have shown how native women “are accustomed to carry their children until they are old enough to walk.” Notably, it was stated that “the women are bright and intelligent, and are finely formed in every limb,” while “the children are entirely nude, and naturally merry and healthy.”
More ink was devoted to the Californios, starting with the portrait of “A California Senorita,” of whom the Pictorial observed that her “contact or intercourse with the whites has taught her to dress somewhat better than the less civilized of her people,” though no distinction was made between the elite ranchero class and those of artisans, laborers and other working class persons. It was also noted that “she is smoking her cigar with unmistakeable [sic] satisfaction and perfect complacency,” though this was deemed to be because contact with Anglos “has taught her as well, many of the vices of the whites.”
With “A Californian Vaquero,” said to be a “hunter,” though the term was really related to a driver of cattle or a cowboy, it was remarked that “he is more fond of the lasso than gold-digging, and is half Indian, half Spaniard,” these being remarkable generalizations. But, the piece commented that,
As a horseman, he has no superiors, and it is mounted that he operates with such sure effect against the wild animals. The sport of “lassoing” wild bulls and other cattle is highly exciting, and one of which all Spanish Americans are passionately fond.
Some detail was provided concerning the skill to seize an animal by the horns or neck, but “to seize him with certainty by the leg, when at the top of his speed, requires greater practice and dexterity. A reata, or a rope made from green (untanned) hide braided into thongs, was tied around a saddle knob and, as the image shows, “swung repeatedly round the head, to give it the greatest force and precision of aim.” It was added that “the horses are taught to lean back when checked, so as to resist the shock, and keep the ‘reata’ tightly drawn after the animal is overthrown.”
For “A Chinaman En Route For The Mines,” it was reported that “the pioneer Celestial miners made their appearance in the mountain gorges and on the river bars of California early in 1849” with the population increasing so that it was claimed that “they have now overrun the whole mining country.” Some sources suggest that there were around 50 Chinese in California when 1849 began and a foreign miners tax was introduced in 1850, ostensibly applied to all non-American citizens (in a place only recently seized during the Mexican-American War), but the targets were the Chinese and Latinos.
The $20 per month levy was repealed in 1851, along with much of the laws passed before statehood was achieved the prior September, but a new tax, of $4 monthly, was established the next year. By then, the estimated number of Chinese miners was somewhere in the vicinity of 25,000-30,000 and hatred against them mounted as their population grew. Despite this important piece of history left out of the article and contrary to the racism rampant in the gold fields, it was remarked of the Chinese that,
They are industrious, frugal, peaceable and temperate; and are willing to take up abandoned claims. They are generally quite inoffensive, and as they molest no one are not looked upon as intruders.
The rest of the article went into a significant amount of detail, often very technical, about “the wonderful incentive that has peopled California in an incredibly short period of time with so dense a population—gold, gold.” The character of the precious metal was discussed in terms of its soft and flexible malleability but its strength, as well as other aspects, specifically its relation to chemical elements.
Observing that “the principal use of gold, ass is well known, is in coinage,” the piece remarked that its use as currency involved it being “alloyed with copper, or with silver, to increase its hardness, while these also did so naturally and there was commentary on testing to determine which was involved as well as means for separating copper by using lead to attract the latter, while that for silver involved a complicated process ending in using nitric acid to dissolve the silver. Mercury was also utilized after the ores “have been crushed and rendered fine by washing.” Heating at high temperatures then allowed the mercury to be “condensed, and recovered for successive operations.” With iron, the ores were also heated “in order to pulverize it sufficiently to set it [the gold] at liberty.”
It was added that “native gold exists in veins in primitive mountains, but not in the greatest quantity in those which are esteemed to be of the oldest formation.” Moreover, gold “is more often found in the sand of rivers, in valleys and plains . . . in the shape of larger or smaller, generally flat pebbles [nuggets], mingled with quartz,” while also tied in with ores of cooper, iron, lead and nickel. Often, gold was located “by pounding and washing the rocks in which it exists.” There was also the note that “within a few years, the rivers of California have been found to yield abundantly of the precious metal.”
The article ended with the remark that “much more might be given while on this subject, but our readers will find abundant information in almost every work that treats of the precious metals.” Still, the amount of detail was significant for the type of general reader likely to peruse the piece. Other contents include the New Hampshire State Fair; scenes from the central region of New York state; a profile of the late British Duke of Wellington; brief news items; stories and poems; international accounts; humor; signatures of well-known persons like Charles Dickens, presidents Adams, Polk and Tyler, among others; and more.
The feature about Gold Rush California, however, especially the sections relating to the indigenous people, Californios, and the Chinese, is especially interesting and instructive and gives us a window into what some perception were from far afield and in the burgeoning American media of the somewhat new Golden State and its polyglot population, even if it left out some important aspects.
Within a few years, the rush would be all but over, though gold mining turned more corporate and involved such intensive and intrusive techniques as hydraulic operations that caused enormous ecological and environmental damage, while also unearthing a huge amount and valuation of gold.
For the Workman and Temple family, their benefit was not from plying the mines, but from selling cattle for fresh beef, especially in the southern mine regions in Tuolumne County, with F.P.F. Temple (who sold gold dust from California’s first gold discovery, which took place in March 1842 at Placerita Canyon north of Los Angeles) owning, for about a quarter century, grazing lands, slaughterhouses and butcher shops in and around the town of Columbia and Sonora that appears to have yielded a significant income related to the gold mining industry, largely during the years before and after the issuance of this number of the Pictorial.
Being a native of Reading, Massachusetts, not far north of Boston, where Gleason published his periodical, it would not be at all surprising if Temple had issues of the Pictorial sent to him by family members. So, who knows? He might well have read this edition at his newly constructed adobe residence on the Rancho La Merced in the Whittier Narrows, several miles west of the Homestead on the Rancho La Puente, and shared it with his father-in-law Workman, who could have sat in the adobe portion of his surviving home and perused its pages as we now have done for this post 172 years later!