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Gold rush reminiscences : "An overland trip to the California gold fields".
MANUSCRIPT SMCII Box 17 Folder 13
Collection Overview
Title:
Gold rush reminiscences: "An overland trip to the California gold fields"Overland trip to the California gold fields
Mark D. Manlove gold rush reminiscences: "An overland trip to the California gold fields"
Creator/Contributor:
Manlove, Mark D., 1826-1908, creatorAbstract:
Typescript copy of Mark D. Manlove's reminiscences "An overland trip to the California gold fields". Seventeen pages, some
handwritten annotations. The manuscript is undated so it is not known when Manlove wrote his reminiscences but certainly some
passages have the flow of often-told anecdotes; it is also not known who added the annotations that augment this document.
This copy differs somewhat from the version published in the "Ash tree echo" in 1972 (v. 7, issue 1, p. 6-12) which came from
a different source. Also two pages discussing the Manlove coat of arms with illustration.
The account begins in the spring of 1849 when the three brothers -- Mark, John and Jonathan -- left Attica, Indiana, traveling
by steamboat to St. Louis. There they met with a friend, Rufus Leet, and joined his company with Jack Pellum and a Mr. Umalvany.
They went again by steamboat to St. Joseph where they set off across the plains. Their first stop was at the Rubedeaux trading
post. "The first settlement we came to was Rubadeau trading post, two hundred miles up the Platte. A Frenchman had married
an Indian squaw and had a lot of little half-breed Indians. The blacksmith shop constituted the town. Traders would come in
and get horses shod and Indians would get arrows sharpened."
There they left their wagon and made the rest of the journey packing on mules, following the established route through Fort
Laramie to Salt Lake City. Of note is this description of a meeting with Indians: "We saw Indian tracks and came upon a bunch
of Indians camped in a bunch of willows. One had a buffalo robe over his head like a woman wears a shawl, and he raised out
of the bushes with his bow and arrow ready to shoot. We clapped our chests to show we were good and we walked straight along.
He then, with another, came out and talked and motioned. We motioned and held up our fingers to show there were lots of us
in the company and that the others had gone on around. John gave them some fish hooks and they motioned that they knew what
they were for. As soon as we could decently, we left, but kept a watch out that they did not shoot at us for they shoot as
one is leaving."
The brothers were reunited in Sacramento and went off to the gold fields at Deer Creek, near Nevada City. They were successful
-- " ... we struck diggings where we could make sixteen dollars a day each. An ounce a day, we called it" -- but shortly left
for Placerville where they built a cabin. In February of 1851, Mark was diagnosed with "lung fever" and advised to return
home. He left his brothers and sailed from San Francisco to Panama and from there to New Orleans. "At New Orleans we put up
at the Veranda, the best hotel in New Orleans at that time. We took a steamboat up the Mississippi to Evansville, on the Ohio
river and from there we went by boat to Attica, Ind., on the Wabash river, having been gone two years."
The other brothers followed Mark back to the mid-West where they all farmed. In 1877, John Manlove returned to California
and settled in Selma, Fresno County. There he established a muscat vineyard. Some years later, his brother Jonathan joined
him but Mark Manlove remained in Muscatine, Iowa.
Subject:
n-us-caManlove, Mark D -- 1826-1908 -- Anecdotes
Gold miners -- California -- Anecdotes
Gold mines and mining -- California
Overland journeys to the Pacific
Frontier and pioneer life -- California
Note:
Mark D. Manlove was born on a farm in Highland County, Ohio, on March 21, 1826. The Manlove family soon moved to Attica, Indiana,
where Mark grew up and went to school. In the spring of 1849, Mark and his brothers, John and Jonathan, left Attica to join
the California gold rush. In California, Mark prospected for gold near Nevada City and Placerville with some success until
illness forced him to return home in 1851.
In 1869, Mark married Charlotte Eliza Farnsworth; they had two daughters, Emma Esther and Flora Jane. The Manloves lived in
Muscatine, Iowa, where Mark was a successful farmer growing produce on Muscatine Island. He died on November 26, 1908.
Mark D. Manlove gold rush reminiscences : "An overland trip to the California gold fields
Unrestricted. Please credit California State Library.
Library has also: Daguerreotype of Mark Manlove "taken just before his overland trip in '49 to Calif. -- about twenty years
of age".
Physical Description:
print
3 items : coat of arms
Language:
English
Identifier:
MANUSCRIPT SMCII Box 17 Folder 13
Origin:
CaliforniaCopyright Note:
Unrestricted. Please credit California State Library.