Were there any Russians in the 1849 Gold Rush?
score:13
Yes, there were. The Russian-American Company sent a party of prospectors comprised of four Russians and six Tlingit indians led by a Lt P.P. Doroshin:
Doroshin and 10 RAC employees sailed to California aboard the Prince Menshikov, which arrived in the overnight boom town of San Francisco on December 21, 1848. In January, 1849, Doroshin set out with his crew of six European prospectors and four Tlingits up the Sacramento River basin to gold diggings along the Yuba River.
Details with dates and amounts (about 43 pounds of gold) mined can also be found in the book The Tlingit Indians in Russian America, 1741-1867 By A. V. Grinev.
You can also do wildcard searches in the 1850 US census and the 1852 California census and find examples of other individuals with the place of birth listed as Russia.
According to this article on the California Gold Rush:
Fully one-third of the “forty-niners” were immigrants... The immigrant groups were equally diverse, coming from Mexico, China, France, Germany, Russia, Ireland, Italy, the West Indies, and even as far away as Australia.
Upvote:-1
This is quite likely, since the Russian post of Fort Ross was located just a couple hundred miles north of California. Since Fort Ross specialized in fur trade, a gold rush would have attracted many (relatively poor) Russians from that trading post.
Unfortunately, however, few records were kept of the early days of the California Gold Rush (when most of the Russians would have come to California), so it wouldn't be easy to find physical evidence of the presence off Russians there.
Upvote:3
While I don't have any documentation, my family has a story of my grandfather's great (or great-great) uncle Isaac Sommer who was the first mate/accountant on a Russian trading ship. He was Jewish (which is why he did the "dirty work" of handling the finances). As the story goes, Isaac was on the trading ship as it was coming down the California coast, loaded with furs and other goods. When the ship docked in San Francisco, the crew heard about gold in the hills, and they jumped ship to find their fortune. This left the Isaac and the captain with the ship and no way to get it back. They sold the ship and the goods on it, and set up one of the first pawn shops on the Embarcadero. Bit by bit, Isaac sent for the rest of his family to come to San Francisco, where my grandfather was born in 1903.
I have no way to verify this story, but I would love to be able to.
More post
- 📝 Why was the FSSF (Devil's Brigade) multinational?
- 📝 Are there any books on the recruitment of scientists from the Third Reich (Operation "Paperclip" and others)?
- 📝 What is the object moving across the ceiling in this stock footage?
- 📝 Did the Portuguese Crown sponsor Brazilian gold-seeking expeditions (bandeiras) in the 17th century?
- 📝 Who introduced coins in India?
- 📝 Why didn't the Germans fully exploit the first gas attack near Ypres
- 📝 What was the evidence against Peter Pond who was accused of ordering John Ross’s murder?
- 📝 What percent of the Roman Republic's population were citizens in various centuries?
- 📝 Was Carausius the grandfather of Magnus Maximus?
- 📝 Did foreign language phrase books exist in the ancient world?
- 📝 When was flat glass invented?
- 📝 Are there any examples of civilians competing with, or hindering, a military?
- 📝 Was there any separation between hunting bow technology and weapon bows?
- 📝 A zoo during the rule of Omayyad or Abbasid dynasty?
- 📝 After America achieved independence, did George Washington continue to wear a military uniform?
- 📝 What was the first fossil fuel pipeline in the Soviet Union?
- 📝 Did the Golden Horde shoe their horses?
- 📝 Why did Allied invasion of France occur only in 1944 and not earlier?
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- 📝 Why isn't there a single trace of Germanic influence in Iberian Languages?
- 📝 Why didn't the steppe bow spread further?
- 📝 What was the planned line of succession for the Nazi Party in the event that Hitler died?
- 📝 What was the technology in pre-war traffic recorders?
- 📝 Have the current polar ice caps receded further than those that existed before the beginning of the last Ice Age?
- 📝 Did Naulakha cost more than Burj Khalifa?
- 📝 What was the earliest knitted sweater?
- 📝 Did specific countries have special influence in the founding of the UN?
- 📝 What were the Government Press Prosecutions of 1858 and why did they occur?
- 📝 Were there any Jewish members of the Roman Senate?
- 📝 How did societies adapt to using alcohol to make water safer?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Were there any Russians in the 1849 Gold Rush?
- 📝 In the "Christmas truce" of 1914 were there any football (soccer) matches between British and German troops?
- 📝 Were there any drunk driving laws before the automobile?
- 📝 Were there any travel restrictions during the Black Death pandemic?
- 📝 Were there any Germans in Japan after the surrender of Germany in May, 1945 and if so, what happened to them?
- 📝 Were there any high-ranking female soldiers during the Middle ages?
- 📝 Were there ethnic Russians in Alaska when the US purchased it 1867? Did they stay?
- 📝 Are there any documented examples of wooden ships which were in active service for 100 years or more? If not, what is the longest?
- 📝 Is there any documentation that indicates the Aztecs were as violent as they are made out?
- 📝 Were there any crops and livestock common to both the Old and New Worlds prior to the Columbian exchange?
- 📝 Are there any historians who believe that the crusades were not motivated as a distraction from internal conflicts?
- 📝 Were there any successful attempts by the Allies to "turn" groups of Axis soldiers?
- 📝 Were there any pilots that declined to carry out the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
- 📝 Were there any Roman villas in Britain which were used rather than destroyed after the Romans left?
- 📝 Were there any westerners who entered the soviet bloc to escape capitalism?
- 📝 Were there any German operations to destroy supply routes in the Persian corridor in WWII?
- 📝 Were there any Chinese expeditions to explore the world? If not, why not?
- 📝 Were there any Jewish members of the Roman Senate?
- 📝 Were there any political checks on the U.S. executive during their covert support of the military junta of Pinochet?
- 📝 Have there been any nuclear accidents in the US at nuclear facilities which were not "commercial"?
- 📝 Were there any elections under the Vichy regime?
- 📝 Were there any naval engagements during the Mongol invasions of Japan?
- 📝 Are there any examples of California gold rush prospectors becoming exceedingly wealthy due to their claim(s)?
- 📝 Were there any other systems which resemble the complex election procedure for the doge of Venice
- 📝 Were there any well-established land trade routes in the US colonies around 1700? What did they look like?
- 📝 Were there any elections in the First French Empire?
- 📝 Were there any plans to install a Western Roman Emperor after Belisarius reconquered the west?
- 📝 Were there any abolitionists imprisoned for being critical of the Congress or the President during the American Civil War?
- 📝 Were there any pharaohs who believed in any of the Abrahamic religions?
- 📝 Were there any specific laws/treaties enshrining the Principle of Distinction in the 18th century?