The migration from New England and the middle states to California
in 1849 and 1850, was one of the remarkable events in the history
of the American Union. It was one of those events, of which the
history of the world furnishes many examples, accomplishing in the
end results far removed from the purposes sought in their conception,
and apparently carrying out the designs of an overruling providence,
in which man has only served as its instrument. It is a question
worthy of consideration, whether the destiny of the American republic
would have reached its present measure of accomplishment, without the
inspiration which a mere thirst for gold served to excite. It was
another of those incidents, of which the Pilgrim colonization was a
striking example, which reached its consummation through the aid of
the merchants of London, who were looking merely for discoveries of
ores of gold and silver to reward their enterprise.
On the 9th of February, 1848, while three Americans were at
work repairing the race way of Sutter’s Mill, on the American
fork of Sacramento river, a little daughter of Mr. Marshal, the
superintendent of the mill, picked up a lump of gold, and showed it
to her father as a pretty plaything. The discovery was too important
to be kept secret, and a letter written by Rev. C. S. Lyman appeared
in the March number of the _American Journal of Science_ announcing
it to the world. No news ever spread more rapidly. In the New England
states, and in Massachusetts, especially, a wave of migration set in,
which was as strong in Plymouth as elsewhere. The time was favorable;
the supply of labor was just then greater than the demand, and the
temptation to seek wealth in California became almost irresistible.
Those who at once made preparations to go were the bone and sinew of
the town, carpenters, masons, painters and clerks, and for a time
after their departure our streets seemed almost deserted.
Among the first to leave were those who sailed in the Brig Isabelle
of Plymouth, Chandler Burgess, Jr. of Plymouth, master, which sailed
from New York, January 14, 1849. Her passengers were: Ephraim Paty,
Jr., James Burgess, Jr., Freeman Morton, Jr., Stephen Pember, Winslow
Morton, George Morton of Plymouth, and twenty-one others.
The schooner Roanoke sailed from Boston, January 19, 1849, carrying
Russell Bourne, John E. Sever and Frederick Morton of Plymouth.
The Capitol from Boston sailed in January, 1849, with Rufus Ball,
Thomas Atwood, Thomas Wood, James A. Young, Jacob Hersey, James M.
Thomas, Daniel Bickford, George E. Lugerder, Adam E. Stetson, George
E. Burns, Tolman French and one hundred and eighty-four others.
The Rochelle sailed from Boston, February 7, 1849, with Daniel P.
Bates, Wm. Churchill, Josiah Byram, David Gurney and John T. Pratt.
The bark Diman sailed from New Bedford, February 8, 1849, with Hiram
Churchill and Samuel D. Barnes.
The bark Yeoman of Plymouth, James S. Clark of Rochester, master,
sailed from Plymouth, March 18, 1849, with Geo. Collingwood of
Plymouth, mate, and the following members of the Pilgrim Mining
Company: Nathaniel C. Covington, president; Francis H. Robbins,
secretary; and Robert Swinburne, Nathan G. Cushing, John E.
Churchill, Henry Chase, Wm. Collingwood, Wm. M. Gifford, A. O.
Nelson, Franklin B. Holmes, Nathan Churchill, James T. Collins,
Nathaniel S. Barrows, Jr., Henry M. Hubbard, Henry B. Holmes, Alfred
R. Doten, Ellis Rogers, Ellis B. Barnes, George P. Fowler, Wm.
Saunders, Richard B. Dunham, Henry M. Morton, Caleb C. Bradford,
Silas M. Churchill, Elisha W. Kingman, Ozen Bates, Chandler Dunham,
James T. Wadsworth, Winslow B. Barnes, Thomas Rogers, Edward Morton,
Wm. J. Dunham, Augustus Robbins, Sylvanus Everson, George A.
Bradford, Seth Blankenship, John Clark, Thomas Brown and John Ward.
The Yeoman was built as a brig in Plymouth, in 1833, and afterwards
changed to a bark.
The Attila, Wm. W. Baker of Plymouth, master, sailed from Boston in
March, 1849, with the following passengers: Timothy Allen, Charles
H. Weston, Calvin Ripley, Samuel Lanman, Ellis H. Morton, William
Randall, Manter, Allen Holmes, Joseph L. Weston, Ephraim Finney,
Abner Sylvester, Samuel Doten, Thomas C. Smith, Winslow Bradford, Job
Churchill, Samuel C. Chamberlain, Lewis Finney, George W. Virgin,
Jr., Abram C. Small, Frederick Salter, Alfred N. Primes, Isaac R.
Atwood, W. Bradford, Josiah Nichols, Charles W. Swift, John Leighton,
Wm. Smith, Rufus Holmes, James Joyce, Lucien Winsor, Henry Holmes,
Henry Lee, Samuel Alden, Benjamin F. Winslow, Frederick Bush, James
Carey, John L. Nash and Ambrose Harmon. The Attila was one hundred
and seventy days on her passage to San Francisco.
The ship Mallory sailed from New York, February 28, 1849, with the
following passengers, Thomas Rider, Richard T. Pope and Frederick W.
Lucas.
The ship Frances Ann sailed from Boston in April, 1849, having as a
passenger, John Haggerty.
The ship York sailed from Boston April 1, 1849, having as a
passenger, John A. Spooner.
The ship New Jersey sailed from Boston in May, 1849, having Josiah
Williams as a passenger.
The ship Iconium of Plymouth, Eleazer Stephens Turner, master, sailed
from Boston, June 1, 1849, with Horace Jackson as a passenger.
The bark Helen Augusta sailed from Boston, August 15th, with James
Gorham Hedge as a passenger.
The steamship Chesapeake sailed from New York, August 9th, 1849, for
the Isthmus with Gideon Holbrook.
The ship Harriet Rockwell sailed from Boston, September 18, 1849,
with Stephen P. Sears.
The ship Cordova sailed from Boston, September 26, 1849, having as
passengers, Seth Morton, Jr., and wife; Mrs. Anna Bartlett and child,
John B. Simmons, Daniel Williams, Wm. R. Lanman, Ichabod Harlow and
George White. The ship Persian of Plymouth, Robbins, master, sailed
from Baltimore in May, 1849, with Charles Jackson as passenger.
The brig Sarah Abigail of Plymouth sailed from Plymouth, November 13,
1849, with the following passengers, Capt. Josiah Bartlett and wife,
William Bartlett, Andrew Blanchard, Josiah Drew, Josiah C. Fuller,
Ephraim Holmes, John B. Collingwood, Daniel F. Goodard, Charles T.
Goodard, Isaac N. Harlow, Calvin Raymond, Eleazer H. Barnes, Joseph
B. Hobart, Caleb Battles, Nathaniel Bradford, Thomas Diman, Wm.
Bowen, Melzar Pierce, Clark Ellis, George Benson, Curtis Davie, Hira
Bates, John P. Perry and Elisha Holbrook.
Steamer Ohio sailed from New York for the Isthmus, November 17, 1849,
with George O. Barnes.
Steamer name unknown, sailed from New York for the Isthmus in
December, 1849, with Joseph Cushman.
The ship Samuel Appleton sailed from New York at an unknown date in
1849, with the following passengers, Richard Pope, Wm. W. Pope, and
John Lawrence.
The ship Regulus sailed from Boston in 1849, with Daniel Bradford,
Thomas B. Bradford and Charles E. Bryant, and one hundred and twenty
others.
The ship Cheshire sailed from Boston in 1849, with Joseph I. Holmes
and Adoniram Bates.
The ship Sweden sailed from Boston in 1849, with Elisha Whiting as
passenger.
The brig Reindeer of Plymouth sailed from New York in 1849, with Dr.
Samuel Merritt, James M. Bradford, Wm. C. Bradford, Charles Randall,
Henry Raymond, Mr. Warren and Laurence Cleales.
Steamer name unknown, sailed from New York for the Isthmus in 1849,
with A. O. Whitmore, Samuel O. Whitmore, Cyrus Bartlett, Freeman
Bartlett and Lewis Bartlett. By a route unknown, Frank Sherman sailed.
Of the above named persons, one hundred and seventy-seven in all,
the following thirty-five were from other towns. Abington, James
A. Young; South Abington, John L. Nash; Boston, Abram C. Small,
Frederick Salter, Alfred N. Primes, Joseph Nichols, Charles W.
Smith and John Leighton; Bridgewater, Benjamin F. Winslow; East
Bridgewater, Josiah Byram, Frederick Bush, David Gurney, John T.
Pratt, James Carey, James M. Thomas, Daniel Beckford, George E.
Lugender, Adam E. Stetson, George E. Burns and Tolman French;
Brooklyn, N. Y., John Ward; Duxbury, Daniel Bradford, Rufus Holmes,
Samuel Joyce, Lucien Winsor, Henry Lee and Samuel Alden; Kingston,
Thomas B. Bradford, Sylvanus Everson and George A. Bradford;
Plympton, Charles E. Bryant; Pulaski, N. Y., Ambrose Harmon;
Rochester, Mass., Seth Blankenship, John Clark and Thomas Brown.
Thus the number going from Plymouth was one hundred and forty-two,
which number would doubtless be increased by those of whom I have no
record. How many of those in the list of Plymouth men are now living
I have no means of ascertaining, but of those who sailed in the
Yeoman only two, George Collingwood and Wm. J. Dunham now survive.
The last of the Yeoman’s passengers to die was Alfred R. Doten, a
brother of our townsmen, the late Major Samuel H. and Captain Charles
C. Doten, who married in Nevada, and never returned to his native
town.
Of Dr. Samuel Merritt, whose name is in the list of passengers on
board the brig Reindeer, I have something to say. An account of
the chief incidents in his career I had from his own lips. He was
a native of Maine, and came to Plymouth in 1845, and established
himself in the practice of medicine. He was a man six feet in height
and large in proportion, frank and honest in speech, hearty, but
rough in manner, possessing great will and energy, and calculated in
every way to win the confidence of the people. He was a bachelor,
and at first had an office on Main street, in the Bartlett building,
where Loring’s watchmaker’s shop now is. After Union building was
built on the corner of Middle street, he occupied two rooms on the
lower floor at the corner, one for an office, and the other for a
sleeping room.
When the California fever struck Plymouth it seized the Doctor with
great virulence. Aside from the temptations of gold and sudden
wealth, the idea of an expedition to the Pacific shores appealed to
his adventurous spirit, and he at once determined to follow the wave
of migration. Without a family to consult, he began his preparations.
Collecting his professional bills, he invested his capital in the
purchase of a snug and handy hermaphrodite brig of about one hundred
and sixty tons, owned, I think, by Joseph Holmes of Kingston, which
was then lying in New York. Having nearly finished loading her with
such merchandise as according to the latest advices was bringing high
prices, he found that he had about five hundred dollars unexpended.
This amount, or a considerable portion of it, he determined to expend
in tacks, so one afternoon he started to go to Duxbury and make the
purchase at the tack factory carried on by Samuel Loring in that
town. Before he reached Kingston, he was overtaken by a messenger on
horse back, summoning him to return at once, and attend a man, who,
while engaged in painting the house of Capt. Nathaniel Russell at the
corner of Court Square, had fallen from a ladder, and was thought to
be seriously injured. As he had no time to spare to go to Duxbury
after that day, he lost the opportunity of making a fortune in tacks,
which he found on his arrival in San Francisco were selling at five
dollars a paper.
With such a number of passengers as he could easily accommodate in
the cabin, he sailed from New York in the summer of 1849, and reached
his destination in the autumn. On the way up the Pacific coast a stop
was made at Valparaiso, and while there it occurred to the Doctor
that it would be a good plan to buy a lot of potatoes to fill up the
hole which the passengers and crew had eaten in the cargo. Starting
one day for the shore to make the purchase, a favorable wind sprung
up, and the Captain signalled to him to return. Thus another good
speculation was lost, for on his arrival at San Francisco there was
not a potato in the market. To his dismay the bottom had tumbled out
of the prices of nearly every other article in his vessel, following
for instance the price of lumber, which had fallen from three hundred
dollars a thousand to a price lower than it could be bought for in
Bangor. After disposing of his vessel and cargo, and finding himself
without capital, he opened an office and began a practice, which he
hoped to have permanently abandoned. Doctors were fortunately as rare
as tacks and potatoes, and within a year his medical and surgical
receipts amounted to forty thousand dollars, a sum equivalent,
perhaps, to five thousand dollars in the East.
One day a Maine Captain called at his office, who was acquainted
with his family at home, and in the course of conversation, told him
that he had a power of attorney to sell the brig which he commanded,
and wished the Doctor would buy it. “No, I thank you,” replied the
Doctor, “I have had all the brigs I have any use for, and I think
I will keep out of navigation.” The captain called in occasionally
afterwards, and the Doctor in the meantime thought, as the people of
San Francisco suffered during the previous summer from the want of
ice, that it might be a good speculation to go into the ice business
in anticipation of the wants of the next summer. The next time the
Captain called he asked him if he had sold his brig, and finding that
he had not, he told him that he would buy her if he would go in her
to Puget Sound and get a load of ice. The Captain agreed, and with a
gang of men well supplied with axes and saws, the vessel sailed. In
due time the Captain reported himself to the Doctor, who said, “Well,
Cap., have you got a good load of ice?” “Ice, no” said the Captain,
“not a pound; water don’t freeze in Puget Sound; but I wasn’t coming
home with an empty hold, so I put my gang ashore and cut a load of
piles.” It so happened that piles were much needed on the harbor
front, and the cargo sold at once at a big price, and the brig
started off for a second load. By the time the second load arrived,
which proved as profitable as the first, other vessel owners had got
wind of the business, and the Doctor said, “now, Captain, we have had
the cream of this business, I guess we will let these other fellows
have the skim milk. You go up and get another load and carry it over
to Australia and buy a load of coal.” In due time again the Captain
returned, but without a pound of coal, saying, that finding he would
have to wait a long time for his turn to load, he thought it better
to take his money for the piles and go down to the Society Islands
for a load of oranges, six hundred thousand of which fruit he had on
board. The orange market at that time was completely bare, and the
profits of the voyage were heavy.
“Now, Captain, go up and get one more load, and carry it down to
Callao, and sell out everything, brig and all, and we will close up
our business, and you can go home.” Thus by good luck, aided largely
by the shrewdness of his captain, Dr. Merritt laid the foundations of
a multi-millionaire’s fortune. It is needless to say that he closed
his office and sought favorable investments for his money. He bought
land in Oakland across the bay, laid out streets, built houses, and
in time became mayor of the city, whose foundation he had laid.
I saw the Doctor on his last visit East about six years ago, and he
then boasted of nothing so much as of his yacht, which he said was
the finest on the Pacific. I have recently read a journal of Mrs.
Stevenson, the mother of Robert Louis Stevenson, of a six months’
excursion in the Pacific for the benefit of her son’s health in the
yacht Casco, belonging to Dr. Merritt. Her account of an interview
with the Doctor illustrates his personalty and deportment which had
more of the _fortiter in re_ than the _suaviter in modo_. She says,
“Dr. M. has just been here to settle the final business arrangements.
He had heard that Louis had a mother, and was not at all sure of
allowing an old woman to sail on his beloved yacht, so he insisted
on seeing me before he left. When I came in I found a very stout man
with a strong and humorous face, who sat still in his chair and took
a good look at me. Then he held out his hand with the remark, ‘You
are a healthy looking woman.’ He built the yacht, he told me, for his
health, as he was getting so stout that some means of reduction were
necessary, and going to sea had pulled him down sixty pounds. ‘The
yacht is the apple of my eye—you may think (to Fanny) your husband
loves you, but I can assure you that I love my yacht a great deal
better.’”
Dr. Merritt died three or four years ago, and the last I heard of his
affairs was that his will was in litigation.