List of people associated with the California Gold Rush
See also Category:People of the California Gold Rush
This is a list of people associated with the California Gold Rush in Northern California, during the period from 1848 to 1855.
| Name | Birth + death | Profession | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Philip Danforth Armour | 1832–1901 | meatpacking industrialist | started his meat packing business with funds from success in the Gold Fields |
| Charles H. Bennett | 1811–1855 | soldier, hotelier | present at the first discovery of gold |
| Samuel Brannan | 1819–1889 | politician, businessman, journalist | first to publicize the California Gold Rush, and California's first millionaire |
| R. C. Chambers | 1832–1901 | businessman, politician, minerals miner, banker | |
| Jean Baptiste Charbonneau | 1805–1866 | explorer, guide, fur trapper, and military scout | |
| William D. Bradshaw | 1826–1864 | prospector, explorer | |
| Charles Crocker | 1822–1888 | railroad executive, businessman | |
| Alonzo Delano | 1806–1874 | writer, forty-niner | |
| George Washington Dennis | c. 1825–1916 | businessperson, real estate developer, abolitionist | one of San Francisco's wealthiest Black men in the late 19th-century |
| Charles S. Fairfax | 1829–1869 | politician | from nobility |
| Thomas Fallon | 1825–1885 | Irish-born politician | 10th Mayor of San Jose, California |
| Joseph Libbey Folsom | 1817–1855 | real estate investor, military personnel | |
| John C. Frémont | 1813–1890 | explorer, military officer, politician | |
| John White Geary | 1819–1873 | lawyer, politician, military leader | |
| Domingo Ghirardelli | 1817–1894 | Italian-born chocolatier | founder of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company in San Francisco, California. |
| Mifflin Wistar Gibbs | 1823–1915 | politician, businessman, publisher, abolitionist | During the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, he led a migration of African Americans from San Francisco to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada |
| Thomas Gilman | 1830–1911 | freedman, miner, farmer | was an enslaved African American who self–purchase freedom during the mid-19th-century |
| Daniel Govan | 1829–1911 | miner, planter, soldier | served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War |
| Ulysses S. Grant | 1822–1885 | 18th president, soldier | served in the Mexican–American War; led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War |
| Alvinza Hayward | 1821–1904 | mine-owner, capitalist, businessman, financier | made his fortune during the California Gold Rush, as a gold miner |
| George Hearst | 1820–1891 | businessperson, politician | used slight mining knowledge from Missouri to succeed in 1850s gold rush investment |
| Albert W. Hicks | c. 1820–1860 | thief, murderer, mutineer, pirate | |
| John Wesley Hillman | 1832–1915 | prospector, explorer | |
| Sherman Otis Houghton | 1828–1914 | politician, miner | |
| William B. Ide | 1796–1852 | politician | commander of the California Republic |
| Frank James | 1843–1915 | soldier, thief | part of the James–Younger Gang |
| Seth Kinman | 1815–1888 | hunter, famous chair maker, entertainer | early settler of Humboldt County, California |
| Peter Lester | c. 1814–c. 1897 | businessman, abolitionist | early Black settler in San Francisco |
| James Lick | 1796–1876 | businessman, piano builder | |
| Heinrich Lienhard | 1822–1903 | Swiss–born memoirist | |
| James Marshall | 1810–1885 | carpenter, sawmill operator | discoverer of the first gold |
| Richard Barnes Mason | 1797–1850 | military officer | |
| John Templeton McCarty | one of the Phi Gamma Delta founders | ||
| James McClatchy | 1824–1883 | newspaper editor | |
| Benjamin McCulloch | 1811–1862 | politician | |
| Joaquin Miller | 1837–1913 | poet, frontiersman | |
| Joaquin Murrieta | 1829–1853 | Mexican outlaw | "Robin Hood of the West" |
| Isaac Murphy | c. 1799–1882 | teacher, lawyer, politician, failed miner | 8th Governor of Arkansas |
| Joshua Norton | 1818–1880 | English-born | also known as Emperor Norton |
| Lester Allan Pelton | 1829–1908 | inventor, mechanical engineer | inventor of the "Pelton Runner," considered to be the "Father of Hydroelectric Power" |
| Addison Pratt | 1802–1872 | missionary, farmer, whaler | |
| Benjamin B. Redding | 1824–1882 | British North America-born politician | Mayor of Sacramento, secretary of the State of California |
| John Howell Sears | 1823–1907 | prospector | early pioneer of Searsville and La Honda[1] |
| William Tecumseh Sherman | 1820–1891 | soldier, businessman, educator, author | |
| Claus Spreckels | 1828–1908 | Prussian Saxony-born sugar industrialist | involved himself in several California and Hawai'i enterprises |
| Leland Stanford | 1824–1893 | politician, railroad tycoon | |
| Elijah Steele | 1817–1883 | politician, attorney, jurist | |
| Levi Strauss | 1829–1902 | German Confederation-born entrepreneur | founder of of Levi Strauss & Co. of San Francisco, California |
| John Studebaker | 1833–1917 | businessman | built wheelbarrows in Placerville in the early 1850s and contributed his earnings to the family Studebaker Wagon Corporation |
| John Sutter | 1803–1880 | Swiss-born businessman, explorer | established Sutter's Fort |
| A. A. Townsend | 1810–1888 | miner, prospector, politician | |
| George Treat | 1819–1907 | businessman, abolitionist | pioneer in the Mission District, San Francisco |
| Matthew Turner | 1825–1909 | shipbuilder | |
| Mark Twain | 1835–1910 | author | |
| Maríano Guadalupe Vallejo | 1807–1890 | politician | |
| William Waldo | 1812–1881 | politician | |
| Bela Wellman | 1819–1887 | entrepreneur | founder of Wellman, Peck and Company |
| Luzena Wilson | c. 1820–1902 | entrepreneur | founder of the El Dorado hotel in Nevada City |
| Edwin B. Winans | 1826–1894 | politician |
References
[edit]- ^ History of San Mateo County, California. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. San Francisco, Cal.: B.F. Alley Publishers. 1883.
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