Although James Marshall found gold on the north fork of the American River in late January 1848, and the news reached San Francisco by mid-March, the gold fever didn’t really start in San Francisco until mid-May. Samuel Brannan was largely responsible for the delay in spreading the word of the […]
Continue readingTag Archives: history
Musings on a Prussian Coffee Service
Many family heirlooms—or future heirlooms—have sentimental value because of the stories behind them. But the stories of others are lost to time. I have a porcelain coffee pot and six matching demitasse cups and saucers that are in the latter category. My mother sent the set to me not too […]
Continue readingHow Close Are We To the Civil War?
An article in The Wall Street Journal on May 10, 2014, by Michael M. Phillips, titled “Still Paying for the Civil War: Veterans’ Benefits Live On Long After Bullets Stop,” fascinated both my husband and me. My husband, because he has read many volumes of military history about the Civil […]
Continue readingFact and Fiction: A “First Hand” Description of San Francisco in April 1848
Henry Vizetelly, an English publisher who was in San Francisco at the time of the 1848 gold discovery, wrote a novel entitled Four Months Among the Gold-Finders in Alta California: Being the Diary of an Expedition from San Francisco to the Gold Districts. He used the pseudonym J. Tyrwhitt Brooks. […]
Continue readingA Northern Digression: The Seattle Museum of History and Industry
On my recent trip to Seattle, I went to the Museum of History and Industry (called MOHAI by locals). And I realized how little I knew about the history of my native state. I took the requisite Washington State history class in the ninth grade—it was a quarter or a […]
Continue readingSan Francisco Newspapers Report on Gold Discovery, and More Lodes Are Found
The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in California was first reported on March 15, 1848, in the Californian, a San Francisco newspaper. The article was buried on page 2 of the four page edition, and consisted of a single paragraph: Gold Mine Found In the newly made raceway of […]
Continue readingWriting Creative Nonfiction: Objective Facts v. Personal Truth
Readers who are not writers may wonder what “creative nonfiction” is. Many writers wonder also. How can nonfiction be creative? I recently attended a program at The Writer’s Place in Kansas City on Creative Nonfiction. Our presenter was Kate Meadows, a freelance writer and editor. The definition Kate used for […]
Continue readingAuthor’s Blog Chain
I’ve been asked to participate in an Author’s Blog Chain this week, which gives me the opportunity to tell you more about my writing. Juliet Kincaid, a Kansas author and member of the local Sisters in Crime chapter, tagged me on her blog, Juliet Kincaid, Writer. Juliet has recently written a series […]
Continue readingThe Secret Is Out! News of Gold Spreads in California
As I wrote last month, the California Gold Rush began in late January 1848 when James Marshall found gold on Johann Sutter’s land near what is now Sacramento, California. At the time, California was still owned by Mexico, though the U.S. Army controlled it, and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo […]
Continue readingMy Grandfather’s Quest for Sulfa
I didn’t know my grandfathers as well as my grandmothers. Maybe it’s natural for a girl to spend more time with her grandmothers. Maybe it’s because both my grandmothers had more forceful personalities than their husbands, my grandfathers. My maternal grandfather died when I was not quite ten, but I […]
Continue reading