"I hesitated ... he repeated his offer to purchase, and said he would give ten dollars [about $240 in 2005 dollars] for bread made by a woman," wrote Wilson. The account of Luzena Stanley Wilson is one of the most vivid and charming of all the Gold Rush stories that have come down to us. The continents population almost tripled in ten years. By the time her husband came back that evening she already had twenty men eating at her table in the El Dorado hotel. ONE AMERICAN'S STORY Luzena Wilson said of the year 1849, "The gold excitement spread like wildfire." Luzena Stanley Wilson's classic account of her family's 1849 overland journey and life in early Calfornia is a compelling story enriched with narratives of gold-seekers and settlers, and is illustrated with hundreds of rare photographs, documents, and engravings. As a woman, Luzena Wilson would find herself a rarity in the adventure that lay ahead. On her last known visit to Vacaville in November 1901, the newspaper noted her presence, calling her "one of the earliest settlers, coming here in 1851.". Luzena, while her husband was busy fixing the wagon, decided to clean the apron and render the fat out of the bacon to refill her lard can and leave the rest as he requested. googletag.cmd = googletag.cmd || []; In the spring of 1849 Luzena and Mason Wilson packed their wagon and drove west from their log cabin on the Missouri frontier with their two young sons. Once in Sacramento, Luzena quickly learned the value of being a female minority in a male-dominated group. ' Under a progressive provision of the 1849 California Constitution, her status as a married woman allowed her the right to own property separate from her husband. Gold Rush lured family to California Sabine Goerke-Shrode [email protected] Couple’s ancestors had Quaker roots Luzena Stanley Wilson and her husband, Mason Wilson, are two names that resonate through Vacaville’s early history. At the time of the California Gold Rush, the West was unsettled territory that seemed unsafe for women. The Alta California lamented, "We must confess our regret at the perfect freedom and unseemly manner in which the abandoned females ... are permitted to display themselves in our public saloons and streets.". Luzena stayed on in Vacaville until 1877 when two fires destroyed her property. Eventually, the gold rush would make him the richest person in California–but Sam Brannan never mined for gold. James W. Marshall, who discovered the first gold bits, eventually became a blacksmith in … an entrepreneur who ran hotels and restaurants during the California Gold Rush. people who went to California during the gold rush of 1849. Australia experienced the Victorian Gold Rush in 1851. Wilson's Hotel was the only hotel on the road between Sacramento and Benicia for several years. Luzena Stanley Wilson, ‘49er (1937) contains reminiscences of her overland journey and early years in California dictated to her daughter … “We never gave a thought to selling our section [of land], but … After four or five days of easy traveling, the Wilsons pitched their tent along the first outlying range of low foothills. Luzena Wilson opened another hotel and called it El Dorado. Luzena wrote of their desire to settle in th… The September evening before the Wilsons finally descended the Sierra foothills into Sacramento, Luzena Wilson got a taste of how she would make her fortune in California. Lacking the funds to buy land, Mason set off to cut hay in order to make money, leaving Luzena on her own. The women left behind took on responsibilities they … Sometimes we found the bones of men bleaching beside their broken-down and abandoned wagons. She was treated, as she put it, like a "queen." Gold fever spread in the American West during 1849. Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clapp, who wrote about the mining camps under the name Dame Shirley, observed a woman making $100 a week washing clothes at Rich Bar. She, Mason and the children ran to the top floor of the hotel and stayed there for seventeen days as the floodwaters lapped outside. The hotel, Luzena remarked, consisted of two rooms, the kitchen, which was her special province, and a living room. Their business was ruined. A Live Woman in the Mines. In six weeks Luzena had made the money to pay back the teamster. she built a hotel called the El Dorado in Nevada City. Around Christmas time 1850, the levees broke in Sacramento and the floodwater damaged the Wilson's property and their small fortune of barley. Luzena Stanley Wilson, née Hunt (c. 1820–1902[1]) was a California Gold Rush entrepreneur. C: Both were entrepreneurs who started a successful business that supplied the needs of California's Gold miners. Her meager beginnings with the “Wilson’s Hotel” grew once again into a money-making business. Luzena Stanley Wilson (c. 1820–1902), Luzena Stanley Wilson '49er: Her Memoirs as Taken Down by her Daughter in 1881, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Luzena_Wilson&oldid=1021055265, Articles needing additional references from January 2012, All articles needing additional references, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Wilson, Luzena Stanley. The apron would not have made a significant difference in the weight of the wagon but it symbolized the need to prioritize in order to survive the passage over the vast terrains. In the spring of 1849 Luzena and Mason Wilson packed their wagon and drove west from their log cabin on the Missouri frontier with their two young sons. In the event the Wilsons were able to stake out a claim for themselves in the Gold Country, they would sell their Missouri home and use the proceeds to aide in their new life. Luzena recalled, “We had lived eighteen months in Nevada City when fire cut us adrift again, as water had done in Sacramento.” Fire swept through and burned the “El Dorado” to the ground and the Wilsons decided to journey back towards Sacramento. Luzena Wilson opened another hotel and called it El Dorado. Water and food for the livestock was hard to find and the beasts grew bone thin. Upon arrival in Nevada City Luzena saw a sign for the Wamac Hotel and remarked, that her being a woman made her decide to take in boarders as a source of income. ... Luzena Stanley Wilson. Eventually, she built a bare wooden building, and charging twenty-five dollars a week, served between seventy-five and two hundred boarders a week. Luzena went to California with her husband. var googletag = googletag || {}; Luzena stated if she survived the journey and made money he would be paid. Guests slept behind a hay bale. The gold rush needed a booster, and Sam Brannan was the man. The family moved toward the coast and settled beneath an oak tree in a little valley called Vaca, named after the property's Californio owner. In 1872 Mason Wilson abruptly abandoned his family and moved to Texas. 5.0 out of 5 stars Luzena Stanley Wilson in Early California by Fern Henry. Who was Luzena Stanley Wilson? , List 3 ways that people traveled to California during this time. Shocked, she just stared at him. Women in a Sea of Men Cholera spread and the dead were hastily buried along the trail. 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