70 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



the sea nor roadways on the land and was thousands 

 of miles distant by either route from populous states 

 or countries. It was,, therefore, several months after 

 Californians were digging gold before distant areas 

 heard of it and not until December 1848 did the 

 President of the United States make announcement 

 to Congress and exhibit in the war office at Wash- 

 ington gold received from government representa- 

 tives in the newly acquired country. Then followed 

 the rush to California from all parts of the world, 

 by sea and land, of adventurous persons whose bravery 

 in perils, heroism in hardship and suffering, persis- 

 tence in face of baffling obstacles, life losses by ship- 

 wreck, by disease and by murderous savages of the 

 interior plains and humorous experiences under all 

 the conditions of tragedy, are abundantly recorded in 

 the writings of the time and reviewed by all historians 

 of the westward course of development in the United 

 States. It is, however, only features of this move- 

 ment and the character of the participants therein, 

 in relation to the present rural life in California, that 

 are pertinent to this sketch. 



The white population of California at the end of 

 1848 has been estimated at 14,000 : 7500 native Cali- 

 fornians, Mexicans and Spaniards and the remainder 

 Americans with a few foreigners. California was 

 admitted a State of the Union in September 1850 and 

 the United States Census of July 1850 placed the 

 population at 92,597. This included the access of 

 the gold-seekers "of 1849 and the spring of '50" 

 which was the definition constituting a "real first 



