Notices

Jersey Gold: The Newark Overland Company’s Trek to California, 1849.

By Margaret Casterline Bowen and Gwendolyn Joslin Hills.

Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2017. xv + 368 pp.Cloth, $34.95.

Margaret Casterline Bowen and Gwendolyn Joslin Hills chronicle the journey of New Jersey immigrants hoping to strike it rich in the 1849 California gold mines. Focusing on a company led by John S. Darcy—leader of the New Jersey Railroad and prominent member of the travelers’ home community—the authors trace the various routes members took west. Bowen and Hills use a plethora of sources generated by the immigrants themselves, a strategy that they supplement with visual aids like charts and hand-drawn images. These sources reinforce the authors’ aim of detailing the multiple routes settlers could take to the Pacific.

Rather than simply describing the move westward, Bowen and Hills also focus on the array of options facing settlers in California. Some members of Darcy’s company opted for temporary gold mining work, but others became more permanent players in California’s pre-statehood history. The authors particularly use individual immigrant stories to tie into larger issues facing the region—including slavery and racial tension. Overall, Jersey Gold offers a snapshot of a community experiencing the day-to-day trials of the westward trail and the California gold mines.

On the Way to Somewhere Else: European Sojourners in the Mormon West, 1834–1930.

By Michael W. Homer.

2006; repr., Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2017.420 pp. Paper, $24.95.

Michael W. Homer’s On the Way to Somewhere Else provides a fresh perspective on Mormon settlers through the eyes of people unlike themselves. Homer collects a series of primary documents that report on European travelers’ observations of Mormons in the new religion’s first hundred years. Originally published in 2006, this document collection gets a reprint and an updated cover with the new 2017 edition.

Although the collected documents cover a wide range of topics, Homer emphasizes the near-constant presence of Brigham Young and his overshadowing influence over the Mormon people. According to Homer, Young’s autocratic rule fascinated Europeans. Similarly, Homer curates documents that trace Utah’s early history as a whole, showing how the territory physically and culturally developed with Mormon settlement. Ultimately, On the Way to Somewhere Else provides a first-hand glimpse into the lives of early Mormons through the perspectives of European visitors.