Not to be confused with Bonanza Kings.
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 | Image | Birth, death | Birthplace | Profession | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John "Grizzly" Adams | 
|
1812–1860 | Medway, Massachusetts, U.S. | mountain man, trainer of grizzly bears | |
| Elihu Anthony | 
|
1818–1905 | Greenfield, New York, U.S. | alcalde, blacksmith, industrialist, abolitionist, postmaster, Methodist minister | one of the founding fathers of the city of Santa Cruz, California |
| Philip Danforth Armour | 
|
1832–1901 | Stockbridge, New York, U.S. | meatpacking industrialist | started his meat packing business with funds from success in the Gold Fields |
| Josiah Belden | 
|
1815–1892 | Connecticut, U.S. | politician, rancho grantee | first mayor of San Jose, California |
| Charles H. Bennett (soldier) | 1811–1855 | Walla Walla, Washington, U.S. | soldier, hotelier | present at the first discovery of gold | |
| John Bidwell | .jpg)
|
1819–1900 | Chautauqua County, New York, U.S. | politician, soldier | founder of the city of Chico, California |
| Samuel Brannan | 
|
1819–1889 | Saco, Massachusetts (now Maine), U.S. | politician, businessman, journalist | first to publicize the California Gold Rush, and California's first millionaire |
| Juana Briones de Miranda | _(cropped).jpg)
|
c. 1802 – 1889 | Villa de Branciforte (modern day Santa Cruz), California | Californio ranchera, medical practitioner, merchant | founding mother of San Francisco, California, and Mayfield, California (now Palo Alto, California) |
| R. C. Chambers | ,_5th_District_Utah_Senator,_and_miner.png)
|
1832–1901 | Lexington, Ohio, U.S. | businessman, politician, minerals miner, banker | |
| Jean Baptiste Charbonneau | 1805–1866 | Fort Mandan, North Dakota, U.S. | Shoshone–French explorer, guide, fur trapper, and military scout | ||
| Belle Cora | c. 1827–1862 | Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. | madam of the Barbary Coast of San Francisco | ||
| Lotta Crabtree | 
|
1847–1924 | New York City, New York, U.S. | actress, entertainer, comedian, philanthropist | |
| William D. Bradshaw | 1826–1864 | Buncombe County, North Carolina, U.S | prospector, explorer | ||
| Charles Crocker | 
|
1822–1888 | Troy, New York, U.S. | railroad executive, businessman | |
| Alonzo Delano | 
|
1806–1874 | Aurora, Erie County, New York, U.S. | writer, forty-niner | |
| George Washington Dennis | c. 1825–1916 | Mobile County, Alabama, U.S. | African American businessperson, real estate developer, abolitionist | one of San Francisco's wealthiest Black men in the late 19th-century | |
| Charles S. Fairfax | 
|
1829–1869 | Vaucluse Plantation, Virginia, U.S. | politician | from nobility |
| Thomas Fallon | 
|
1825–1885 | Ireland | Irish-born politician | 10th Mayor of San Jose, California |
| Joseph Libbey Folsom | 
|
1817–1855 | Meredith, New Hampshire, U.S. | real estate investor, military personnel | founder of Folsom, California |
| John C. Frémont | .jpg)
|
1813–1890 | Savannah, Georgia, U.S. | explorer, military officer, politician | namesake of Fremont, California |
| John White Geary | 
|
1819–1873 | Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, U.S. | lawyer, politician, military leader | |
| Domingo Ghirardelli | 
|
1817–1894 | Rapallo, Kingdom of Sardinia (now Italy) | Italian-born chocolatier | founder of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company in San Francisco, California. |
| Mifflin Wistar Gibbs | 
|
1823–1915 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | African American 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 (miner) | 
|
1830–1911 | Tennessee, U.S. | African American freedman, miner, farmer | was an enslaved African American who self–purchase freedom during the mid-19th-century |
| Daniel Govan | 
|
1829–1911 | Northampton County, North Carolina, U.S. | miner, planter, soldier | served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War |
| Ulysses S. Grant | 
|
1822–1885 | Point Pleasant, Ohio, U.S. | 18th president, soldier | served in the Mexican–American War; led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War |
| Alvinza Hayward | 
|
1821–1904 | Vermont, U.S. | mine-owner, capitalist, businessman, financier | made his fortune during the California Gold Rush, as a gold miner |
| George Hearst | .jpg)
|
1820–1891 | Sullivan, Missouri Territory (now Missouri), U.S. | businessperson, politician | used slight mining knowledge from Missouri to succeed in 1850s gold rush investment |
| Albert W. Hicks | .jpg)
|
c. 1820–1860 | Foster, Rhode Island, U.S. | thief, murderer, mutineer, pirate | |
| Frederick A. Hihn | 
|
1829–1913 | Duchy of Brunswick (now Germany) | politician, industrialist, real estate investor | leading land developer in Santa Cruz County, California |
| John Wesley Hillman | 1832–1915 | Albany, New York, U.S. | prospector, explorer | ||
| Sherman Otis Houghton | 
|
1828–1914 | New York City, New York, U.S. | politician, miner | |
| William B. Ide | 
|
1796–1852 | Rutland, Massachusetts, U.S. | politician | commander of the California Republic |
| Frank James | 
|
1843–1915 | Kearney, Missouri, U.S. | soldier, thief | part of the James–Younger Gang, former Confederate soilder |
| Seth Kinman | 
|
1815–1888 | Union County, Pennsylvania, U.S. | mountain man, hunter, chair maker, entertainer | early settler of Humboldt County, California |
| William Leidesdorff | 
|
1810–1848 | St. Croix, Danish West Indies (now United States Virgin Islands) | Afro-Caribbean businessman, politician | founder of the city of San Francisco, thought to have been the first black millionaire in the United States |
| Peter Lester (abolitionist) | 
|
c. 1814–c. 1897 | South Carolina, U.S. | African American businessman, abolitionist | early Black settler in San Francisco |
| James Lick | 
|
1796–1876 | Stumpstown (now Fredericksburg), Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, U.S. | businessman, piano builder | |
| Heinrich Lienhard | 
|
1822–1903 | Bilten, Canton of Glarus, Switzerland | Swiss–born memoirist | |
| James W. Marshall | 
|
1810–1885 | Hopewell Township, New Jersey, U.S. | carpenter, sawmill operator | discoverer of the first gold |
| Richard Barnes Mason | 
|
1797–1850 | Lexington Plantation, Fairfax County, Virginia, U.S. | military officer | |
| Lola Montez | 
|
1821–1861 | Grange, County Sligo, Connacht, Ireland | Irish-born dancer and courtesan | famous as a "Spanish" dancer, and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria |
| James McClatchy | 1824–1883 | Ireland | Irish-born newspaper editor | ||
| Benjamin McCulloch | 
|
1811–1862 | Rutherford County, Tennessee, U.S. | politician | |
| Joaquin Miller | 
|
1837–1913 | Union County, Indiana, U.S. | poet, frontiersman | |
| Joaquin Murrieta | 
|
1829–1853 | Álamos, Sonora, Mexico | Mexican outlaw, gold miner, vaquero | "Robin Hood of the West" |
| Isaac Murphy | 
|
c. 1799–1882 | Pennsylvania, U.S. | teacher, lawyer, politician, failed miner | 8th Governor of Arkansas |
| Joshua Norton | 
|
1818–1880 | Deptford, England | English-born commodities trader and real estate investor | also known as Emperor Norton |
| Lester Allan Pelton | -Portrait-Portr_01503.tif_(cropped).jpg)
|
1829–1908 | Vermilion, Ohio, U.S. | inventor, mechanical engineer | inventor of the "Pelton Runner," considered to be the "Father of Hydroelectric Power" |
| Pío Pico | 
|
1801–1894 | Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, San Gabriel, Alta California, New Spain | Californio politician, ranchero, entrepreneur | last governor of Alta California under Mexican rule from 1845 to 1846. |
| Mary Ellen Pleasant | 
|
c. 1814–1904 | U.S. | African American entrepreneur, real estate investor, abolitionist, financier | first self-made millionaire of African-American heritage |
| Addison Pratt | 
|
1802–1872 | Winchester, New Hampshire, U.S. | missionary, farmer, whaler | |
| Benjamin B. Redding | 
|
1824–1882 | Yarmouth, Colony of Nova Scotia (now Nova Scotia, Canada) | British North America-born politician | Mayor of Sacramento, secretary of the State of California |
| Moses Rodgers | c. 1835–1900 | Missouri, U.S. | African American mining engineer, metallurgist | ||
| John Howell Sears | 1823–1907 | Sullivan County, New York, U.S. | prospector | early pioneer of Searsville and La Honda | |
| William Tecumseh Sherman | _(cropped).jpg)
|
1820–1891 | Lancaster, Ohio, U.S. | soldier, businessman, educator, author | |
| Claus Spreckels | 
|
1828–1908 | Lamstedt, Lower Saxony, Prussian Saxony (now Germany) | Prussian Saxony-born sugar industrialist | involved himself in several California and Hawai'i enterprises |
| Leland Stanford | _a.jpg)
|
1824–1893 | Watervliet, New York, U.S. | politician, railroad tycoon | |
| Elijah Steele | 
|
1817–1883 | New York, U.S. | politician, attorney, jurist | |
| Levi Strauss | 
|
1829–1902 | Buttenheim, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Confederation (now Germany) | German Confederation-born entrepreneur | founder of Levi Strauss & Co. of San Francisco, California |
| John Studebaker | 
|
1833–1917 | Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. | businessman | built wheelbarrows in Placerville in the early 1850s and contributed his earnings to the family Studebaker Wagon Corporation |
| Marie Suize | 1824–1892 | Savoy, France | French-born gold miner and businesswoman | known for wearing pants, and arrested several times for it. | |
| John Sutter | 
|
1803–1880 | Kandern, Margraviate of Baden, Holy Roman Empire (now Germany) | German-born Swiss businessman, explorer | established Sutter's Fort |
| A. A. Townsend | 
|
1810–1888 | Sussex County, New Jersey, U.S. | miner, prospector, politician | |
| Ah Toy | 1829–1928 | Canton, Guangdong, Qing China | sex worker, madam | the first Chinese sex worker in San Francisco | |
| George Treat | 1819–1907 | Frankfort, Maine, U.S. | businessman, abolitionist | pioneer in the Mission District, San Francisco | |
| Matthew Turner (shipbuilder) | .jpg)
|
1825–1909 | Geneva, Ohio, U.S. | shipbuilder | considered "the 'grandaddy' of big time wooden shipbuilding on the Pacific Coast" |
| Mark Twain | .jpg)
|
1835–1910 | Florida, Missouri, U.S. | writer, humorist, and essayist | |
| Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo | 
|
1807–1890 | Monterey, Alta California, Viceroyalty of New Spain (now California, U.S.) | Californio politician, military leader | |
| William Waldo (California politician) | 
|
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 (politician) | 
|
1826–1894 | politician |
See also
- Chinese Americans in the California gold rush
- Women in the California gold rush
- Five Joaquins Gang, Mexican outlaw gang in California (1850–1853)
- Society of California Pioneers
- List of Californios people
References
- Dillon, Richard H. "Adams, Grizzly". American National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.2001658.
- "Elihu Anthony, Pioneer of 1847 Was God Fearing Man and Santa Cruz' First Progressive Business Leader". Santa Cruz Evening News. 1937-01-02. p. 9 – via Newspapers.com.
- "P. D. Armour Dead. Chicago Millionaire Yielded to Long Illness. Fever Rallied After Son's Death". The Republican (Laport, PA.). January 7, 1901. p. 8 – via Chronicling America.
- "Briones, María Juana (1802?–1889)". Latinas in History, Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, Brooklyn College, The City University of New York (CUNY). 2009.
- Kamiya, Gary (August 24, 2013). "Juana Briones - San Francisco's founding mother". SFGate.
- Jensen, Vickie (2012). Women Criminals: An Encyclopedia of People and Issues. ABC-CLIO. p. 360. ISBN 978-0-313-33713-0.
- "Rebel Girls From Bay Area History: The Bay Area Child Actress Who Donated Millions to Veterans and Animals". KQED. 2019-03-25.
- Savage, W.S. (July 1953). "The Influence of William Alexander Leidesdorff on the History of California". The Journal of Negro History. 38 (3): 322–332. doi:10.2307/2715738. JSTOR 2715738. S2CID 150288502.
- Sue Bailey Thurman, 1952, Pioneers of Negro Origin in California, San Francisco: Acme Pub. Co.
- Seymour, Bruce (1996-01-01). Lola Montez: A Life. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-07439-0 – via Google Books.
- "1836 Ley sobre la division del territorio mexicano en Departamentos" (in Spanish). Government of Mexico, archived at Memoria Política de México. December 30, 1836.
- de Valdes y Cocom, Mario (2014). "The blurred racial lines of famous families: Pico". PBS.
- History of San Mateo County, California. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. San Francisco, Cal.: B.F. Alley Publishers. 1883.
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| California Gold Rush | |
|---|---|
| Geology | |
| People | |
| Culture | |
| Key California Gold sites | |
| Early US mining | |
| Part of a series on Gold mining | |