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Page: of 436
OCTOBER 1848—FEBRUARY 1849
national attention, for it confirmed rumors which had appeared in newspapers for several months:
It was known that mines of the precious metals existed to a considerable extent in California at the time of its acquisition. Recent discoveries
render it probable that these mines are more extensive and valuable
than was anticipated. The accounts of the abundance of gold in that
territory are of such an extraordinary character as would scarcely command belief were they not corroborated by the authentic reports of officers in the public service, who have visited the mineral district, and
derived the facts which they detail from personal observation.
The people of Rensselaerville read about the great gold fever which
had seized the country and wondered if their countrymen all had gone
mad. Two months elapsed before it showed signs of breaking out of the
larger cities and into the New York countryside. On February 5S, 1849,
Addison said in a letter to Cornelia:
A company is about organizing here to start about the first of March.
It is no humbug, either, for the leaders are men who won’t flinch from
anything they undertake. The company is limited to twenty and they go
for two years. They have regular officers and a constitution and by-laws.
They have held one meeting, and meet again Tuesday to sign their
names to the Constitution. Drinking, gambling and swearing are prohibited. If I were a little older, I should give up my school to come, and talk
with our folks to get leave to go for a fortune. But I am too young, and /
can’t help it.
“Thank goodness for that,” sighed Cornelia. “But Niles is not too
young, and I worry that he may already have gone to California.”
After a few days, Mary answered Addison, saying:
The gold fever does not rage here at all; they laughed at me when .
tell how it rages in Cairo. They know nothing about it, for there are none
of the sort of folks here that would go.
We hear nothing from Niles yet. Cornelia wrote to Alice [Searls] last
week, and Pa has written to Mr. Lauderdale, the man he was with when
he wrote last. . have made up my mind he is sick or gone to California. /
think it is the latter, but either one is bad. I hardly know which to hope it
is not, but I try to hope it is neither.
In reply to Cornelia’s inquiry, twenty-year-old Alice Searls wrote a
letter from the school she was attending at Picton, twelve miles from her
home in Wellington, Ontario:
165