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Register of the Thomas Spalding Wylly Gold Rush Narrative,
1849-1853
Mss124
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Title: Thomas Spalding Wylly Gold Rush Narrative,
Date (inclusive): 1849-1853
Collection number: Mss124
Creator:
Thomas S. Wylly III
Extent: 0.5 linear ft.
Repository:
University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Department of
Special Collections
Stockton, CA 95211
Shelf location: For current information on the location of
these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Language: English.
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item], Thomas Spalding Wylly Gold Rush Narrative,
Mss124, Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections, University of the
Pacific Library
Thomas Spalding Wylly (1831-1922) was born and raised in coastal
Georgia. As an adolescent he read Fremont's accounts of his exploits in the
West and resolved to go there himself. His grandfather, Thomas Spalding, was a
rich and powerful man who knew Fremont's father-in-law, Thomas Hart Benton.
Spalding arranged for Wylly to meet Fremont at Benton's home in Indepen-dence,
Missouri. When, in the spring of 1849, Wylly arrived at Independence, he found
a cholera epidemic raging and both Ben-ton and Fremont gone. Undaunted, he
joined a wagon train and came to California by way of Utah and the Mojave
Desert, arriving in April 1850.
For two years he mined on Weber Creek near Placerville. Wylly's account
of these years is at once vivid, detailed and open-minded.
In 1853 he returned home by way of Nicaragua and resumed the life of a
well-to-do cotton planter. Wylly lost his home and slaves during the Civil War
and was, for a time, obliged to sell the timber on his lands to make ends meet.
Slowly he recouped his fortunes and ultimately lived a long, productive life,
fathering six children and celebrating his sixtieth wedding anniversary in
1914.
Wylly's 205 page narrative begins with his eighteenth year and ends with
his return from Central America to Georgia (1853). His grandson, Thomas
Spalding Wylly III, has provided another hundred pages or so of supplementary
notes based partly on family oral tradition and partly on reading and on-site
research. There are two typescript copies of the narrative. An unbound copy is
con-tained in five numbered folders, while a second version, together with
eight photographs, a map and Mr. Wylly III's notes, is bound in navy blue cloth
with the title "'Westward Ho --in '49': Memoirs of Captain Thomas S. Wylly"
embossed in gold on the cover.