GOLD FEVER
Jane Fielder recently donated the transcribed letters of Dr. John Baker, who attended KUA for two years, then taught school locally before graduating from Dartmouth Medical School in 1842. He practiced in Meriden from 1844 until 1853, when he decided to go to the gold fields of California, hoping to make enough money there to be able to buy a home for his family when he returned. His brother Oliver had left for CA a couple of years earlier. The Baker family had settled in Meriden village (land now Garfield/Taylor) in 1781, and John’s father and grandfather were physicians. John left his wife Julia and their three small children in Meriden. He wrote long, detailed letters home describing life in the mining town of Mokelumne Hill “Moke Hill” eighty miles NE of SF. A classic mining boom town, it had grown in four years from a few hundred people to over 10,000.
Baker sailed from New York, stopped in Jamaica, crossed the Isthmus at Panama in two days by mule, then took a steamer that made stops at Acapulco, San Diego, San Francisco, Monterey, and Stockton, where he disembarked and was met by his brother, Oliver.
His first impression of SF was that “it should be considered a wonder of the world. It is truly astonishing what a city has grown up in the space of so few years. I saw enough to know that men are making fortunes, sometimes in a day, while others are losing them in as short a time…people are engaged in eating, drinking, gaming.”
He writes of “Moke Hill” that he was “well pleased with it for a place of business. Everyone lives here in a tent, cloth house or wooden houses. But a wooden house when well finished is not so good as my barn in Meriden. The population of the place consists of Chileans, Mexicans, Americans, Peruvians, Dutchmen, Italians and Indians, and they present to me such a mixed mass. The principal language is Spanish … I will try to acquire a sufficiency to enable me to converse with the residents."
See attached print of "Moke Hill" c. 1853.
Baker's practice included compounding and selling medicines, and dentistry. “I have done one days’ work dentistry which gave me $48 at a cost to me of only $3. I get $5 per cavity, $5 for cleaning. We are obliged to do most of our business on Sunday as that is the day the miners come for prescriptions and medicines so we must do our business on that day.”
“I think I can make $1,500-$2,000 in two years, more if I am prospered, and in N.H. that would be very big.
In one of his first letters home he writes ”I suppose you entertain the idea that you would like to live in CA…but residence in this town of one or two days would quite satisfy you that you would prefer to live in old Meriden rather than endure the noise and confusion of drunken men and women and the unseemly sights of all kinds which occur in our streets regularly.”
“I feel my wife and children are much better situated in the quiet of Old Meriden than they could be in the midst of immorality and wickedness existing in the larger camps and towns of CA. I would much fear for the character of my children should they be thrown into the mass now populating this State.”
In another letter Baker writes ”there were four of us wanderers from Meriden together last night in my office.” I then realized that the various men he mentions in his letters home were all men his wife Julia knew. Clearly there was quite a large group of local men who'd gone to CA to seek their fortunes. The partial list includes:
1)Oliver Baker, his brother, who operated a trading post in another mining town nearby and “was doing a good business and making money pretty fast.” Oliver returned to Plainfield in June 1854 after his wife Sophia refused to join him in California, and sadly died a few months later. John was devastated when he learned of his brother’s death.
2) “Cousin” John Storrs of Lebanon “is carrying on considerable mining operations and I think doing pretty well.” His brother George Storrs was also in Moke Hill. “John Storrs is now mining on the north fork of the Calaveras. He hired Edward Fifield (see below) this morning and took him with him. Gives him $70 a month and boards him. I think he will do better with Storrs than he has done about town.”
3) Edward Fifield of Bean Road. He had four children when he left for CA and returned to Meriden before the 1860 census. “Fifield is working most of the time, usually obtains $4-$5 a day. But when a man does not obtain work steadily, even at that much wage he is not gaining money very fast, having to pay $10 per week for board.” Another letter “I believe Fifield thinks about going into some mining operations. He is quite well and fat as a buck.”
4) Daniel Kimball Bryant born 1831 in the MCC parish house, graduated from KUA in 1848. His father was the leading businessman in Meriden, owning a large store and hotel. Daniel “was in Santa Clara and doing pretty well.” Daniel left CA in 1855.
5) William Shattuck and his son Dustin. William was back in NH by 1860, but Dustin, who attended KUA 1846/7 became a successful “pioneer commercial merchant” in SF.
6) Carlos Dyer 1821-1903 from Plainfield village was a miner in Horse Shoe Bar, CA in 1850. He returned to NH and lived in Lebanon.
7) Hosea Couch of Cornish b. 1834, d. 1892 Sonoma, CA. Baker writes” Hosea is a teamster and doing a good business. Oliver is trying to hire him to draw about 17,000 lbs. of merchandise from here to Jesus Maria.” Couch later became a shoemaker/shoe seller in San Francisco.
By the spring of 1855 Dr. Baker was anticipating his return to NH and considering the pros and cons of resuming his practice in Meriden, or searching for a “better situation”. The population of "Moke Hill" was already declining, and “horse stealing, gold stealing and life stealing abounds. Petty thievery and crime go hand in hand.” His last letter home was dated April 23, 1855. After a brief visit home, he went West to explore other practice options, settling in Davenport, Iowa in November 1855. He had a successful practice there for 50 years until his death in 1905. He became President of the Iowa Medical Society and his two sons both became physicians.
Although Baker didn’t mention them in his letters because they had settled 100+ miles south of Moke Hill, the four grandsons of Micaiah Porter, one of Plainfield’s early ministers, also left New England to seek fortunes in California and became spectacularly wealthy. They started as “pioneer lumbermen” according to their obituaries, opened a tannery in Soquol, CA, and then began purchasing land. Benjamin F. Porter (who attended KUA 1848/9) and his cousin George purchased 52,000 acres—the entire San Fernando Valley for $30,000 and were farmers and ranchers. George started a shoe factory in S.F. Ben’s brother John was a prominent banker. The Porters became one of the wealthiest families in southern California. Porter College at UC Santa Cruz is named for Benjamin F. Porter.
Most of the men who left Plainfield to seek their fortunes returned home after the gold rush ended in 1855, and the ones who stayed migrated to the S.F. Bay area and appear to have done well.
Note: In 1850 there were fewer than 250 adult men in Plainfield between the ages of 18-50, so 5-10% of them were lured West by the hope for quick riches. We can assume that other towns in the Upper Valley had the same phenomena
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Our next program on Sunday, October 24th at 2pm, at the Plainfield Town Hall will look back at the lives of long-time Plainfield residents Sara and Ira Townsend and their many contributions to the town. On display will be some of the sculptures Ira made from recycled metal, a few of his Plainfield road signs, aerial photographs he took of the town from his home made plane, and other memorabilia. Their children, James and Patricia, will be on hand to share memories of their parents' accomplishments and many interests.
Please join us in sharing stories about this remarkable couple.
Chairs will be set up for social distancing and masks are required.
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The speaker at our meeting tomorrow 9/19 at 2pm at the Plainfield Town Hall is Thomas Hubka, author of the iconic book about NE barn architecture, "Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn."
At the meeting we will have a wonderful display featuring the scale model of Freeman Farm (on the southern end of 12A in Plainfield village--now Cassedy's). The model was made by Maxfield Parrish c. 1940 in preparation for his two paintings of the farm, and perfectly illustrates the connected farm buildings Hubka describes in his book.
Masks are required, and chairs will be set up to allow social distancing. Hope to see you there.
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