DIGITAL EXHIBIT:
LETTERS FROM THE GOLD FIELDS TO WILMETTE

Three letters in the Wilmette Public Library's Local History Collection were written by a Wilmette resident, Alexander McDaniel, to his wife, Emeline Huntoon McDaniel, during the California Gold Rush (1848–1855).

According to a 1912 book by J. Seymour Currey, Chicago: Its History and Its Builders (pp 323-25; .pdf format), a party of thirty men under the leadership of Orzo Crain set out from Wilmette in 1850 to make their fortunes.

Among them was Alexander McDaniel, who kept a diary during the two years he worked at his mine. The Wilmette Historical Museum owns a transcript of the diary in which he recorded his experiences.

Georgetown was a mining village in the Sierra Nevada, 12 miles north of Placerville and a thriving gold camp in the 1850s. McDaniel tells of the journey from Salt Lake across the Sierra Nevada to the gold fields. The letter describes cutting grass to make hay for the horses before crossing the desert, and the extensive loss of property and sometimes of life for those unprepared for the hazards.

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McDaniel describes how much money he made mining and his plans for sending it home. He also describes the beauty of the California mountain country telling Emeline he would be happy to spend the rest of his days there if it weren't for the crude and dangerous society of the other miners.

McDaniel outlines his plans to come home and buy a piece of property in Ridgeville [probably Ridge Road in Wilmette]. He found it hard to finalize his plans since the diggings were paying very well at 12 dollars per day, with the possibility of more.