Letter of a Gold Rusher of 1850

Utah Historical Quarterly

Vol. 22, 1954, Nos. 1-4

LETTER OF A GOLD RUSHER OF 1850

EDITED BY A. R. MORTENSEN

MANY BOOKS, journals and letters of overland travel have been published in the century since the Gold Rush. In many cases they represent the ideas and experiences of the professional journalist, traveler or observer. At the very least, they represent the observations and thoughts of the better educated, the more articulate members of society, the people who, at home or abroad, write letters, keep diaries and in one way or another record their thoughts and describe their experiences for the benefit of others. Occasionally a member of that great mass of unnamed and unknown leaves a fragment which in its simplicity and artlessness gives insight into the thoughts and experiences of those who rarely express themselves. Such a person was Andrew McFarlane, who was swept west in the flood tide of 1850. Named, but still unknown, McFarlane hardly left a ripple on the stream of history. The physical existence of this one letter offers the best proof of the flesh and blood reality of the man. His letter reveals very little about himself and really offers nothing new or unique in the way of information about the country through which he traveled. Only from the address do we gather that he was probably from Sabula, Jackson County, Iowa, a little town on the Mississippi River.

The lure of gold was enough to take him west, but whether he reached his destination we do not know. After two trips from Independence to Fort Laramie earlier in the summer he finally continued on to the valley of the Great Salt Lake where, because of the lateness of the season, he decided to remain for the winter along with hundreds of other gold rushers. Caught in the backwash of westward moving humanity, McFarlane paused a season to recruit his meager resources in the only significant oasis between the Missouri and the Pacific.

It was from here in the Mormon capital that he penned his letter to "Deare Sister." His brief statements of crossing the plains tell hardly more than I left, I arrived, and I had a "midling pleasant jorney." Of more interest are the few untypical remarks about his hosts for the winter and the country wherein they lived. The Mormons had been accused of being inhospitable to the stranger in their midst, using price-gouging tactics against the overland traveler in need, and withholding necessary food and supplies from the alien wayfarer. McFarlane says not so. He speaks of the Saints in the warmest of words. Furthermore he tends to spike the legend of sterility that has attached itself to Mormon country. Surely this son of Iowa should be listened to when he writes in such glowing terms of the wheat, potatoes, and fattest beef grown in Utah.

The year 1850 was one of great importance to Utah and the Far West. It marked statehood for California and territorial status for Utah and Arizona. In Salt Lake City the Deseret News was born, and Parley P. Pratt opened up his famed but short-lived "Golden Pass Road." For our purposes it also is significant, for the year witnessed even a greater migration to California than did the year of the Forty-Niners. Nearly twice as many used the central route the second year and the suffering on the long trek was more severe, which contributed to the reasons for the winter sojourn of McFarlane and others in the City of the Saints.

Which direction our friend took when spring came we, of course, know nothing. He could have returned home, as many did. He could have continued on west via the Salt Lake Cutoff, the City of Rocks and the valley of the Humboldt. He could have chosen to travel to the gold fields via the Old Spanish Trail, through southern Utah, the Vegas, the Mojave River and San Bernardino. Or he could have chosen to remain among the Mormons, marry a wife, build a home and in other ways identify himself with the growing community in the Great Basin. Of one thing we are quite sure, he did not continue west via the Hastings Cutoff across the Salt Desert. The previous year had seen both the peak and end of travel on that much maligned (and justly so) trail of suffering and death.

It is pointless, of course, but nonetheless interesting, to speculate on what became of our young gold rusher of 1850. Did he reach his El Dorado in the Golden West, did he finally return to the bosom of his family as he hoped, or, as in countless other cases, did he find rest in an unmarked grave in the lonesome stretches of the great West.

Deare Sister

I Take my pen in hand as it is the first oppertunity I have had to write to you since I left the states to let you know that I am in the land of the living and in good health and hope to find you all enjoying the same. I arived here 23 day of September I had intended to go further this this fall but it being to late to go any further this fall on acount of cold went by the north rout. I concluded to stay here this winter I could go on to the mines this winter by taking the south rout but it so [one word illegible] far and some danger of not geting through.

I have had a midling pleasant jorney across the planes this somer I expect I know as mutch about this Jorney as any that has crossed these planes this season becawse I have croused these planes twice this sommer I started about the 10th of april from independence with the express to Ft laramy and intended going to calafornia from that point with pack animals but mules and poneys cost so mtch here that I concluded to come back to independence and take a fresh start when I got back to independence again about the first of June when I got a chance to drive a mule teem back again to Ft laramy for 25 dols a month arived at Ft. laramy again about the tenth of august when I got a chance to go throw to the great salt lake valey [two words illegible] the mormons, whare I arived on the 23 day of September ad 1850 and calculate to stay here to about the first of april when I intend to go to calafornia by the way of the cut off with pack anamils. I am living among the mormons about as a hospitable a set of people as I hve been among since I left home they have been talked so mutch about that I have thot before I got here that it would be a hard place to winter it is not so there is plenty of wheate and potatoes her and the fattest beef that ever I saw in aney place in my traviles wheat is worth $3 a bushel and potatoes $ 1 a bushel they raise as mutch wheat here to the acre as the do any whare I saw 60 bushels thrashed of one acre and pleanty more just as good was it not that they hve to water their land it is as good a farming country as ever Iowa was but timber is hard to get here on acount that they have to go in to the mountains for it fifteen miles. I am now geting at the rate of 45 dol a month for all winter in the mountains on making a road to a saw mill Nothing more at preasant

I want you to write to me as soon as this comes to hand for fear that it wont get here before i go a way I want to know iff father went to California this sommer for the last aco[unt] I had from home I understood that [2 words illegible] a fixing to go iff he has gon to California i would like to know [deleted'. and iff he aint gon give]

To Father and Mother Brothers and sisters I Send my best respects Hoping again to Return to their embrces Their afectionate Son Andrew McFarlane The great salt Lake City 1850

The above letter is postmarked "Salt Lake Deseret Nov 19 1850," and is addressed to "Margaret L McFarlane Sabula Jackson Co Iowa."

For full citations please view this article on a desktop.