‘Recollections of a 49er’
Dublin Core
Title
‘Recollections of a 49er’
Subject
Gold Rush
California
Mining
Memoir
California
Mining
Memoir
Description
In 1849 Edward McIlhany, aged 20, left West Virginia for the California gold fields. ‘Recollections of a 49er’ is the memoir of the 80 year old Edward. He describes his overland journey to California where he prospected for gold on Feather River and in Grass Valley, his life in the gold fields and – at age 27 - his journey home to Missouri via Panama, a voyage so fearful that travelers were begging to be thrown overboard or shot dead. It is a significant piece of oral history that sheds light on, among other things, the rough justice by which order was maintained and the different types of relationships that prospectors had with the indigenous population.
Creator
Edward W. McIlhany’s oral history published in written format by Hailman Printing Co., Kanss City, Missouri
Publisher
Library of Congress
https://cdn.loc.gov/service/gdc/calbk/014.pdf
https://cdn.loc.gov/service/gdc/calbk/014.pdf
Date
1908
Contributor
Margaret Minchin
Rights
No restrictions on use
Language
English
Type
Text – record of an oral history
Identifier
19th century California
Files
Collection
Citation
Edward W. McIlhany’s oral history published in written format by Hailman Printing Co., Kanss City, Missouri, “‘Recollections of a 49er’,” The American Pacific Rim: Colonisation, Conflict and Connections, 1800-Present, accessed April 29, 2024, https://theamericanpacificrim.omeka.net/items/show/4.