By Robert Ryal Miller and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society
When the gold rush began, it was a bonanza for Captain Richardson who transported gold seekers up the Sacramento River and supplied them with victuals. Robert Ryal Miller tells the story in his biography of William Richardson, part of the Historical Society collection. Here are some lightly edited excerpts:
Stephen Richardson remembered how it all began early in 1848 when “strange stories began to float into San Francisco about a great discovery of gold in the mountains, not far from Sutter’s Fort.”
At this time a few men were quietly leaving San Francisco for the American River. Some prospectors went by land; others chartered watercraft, including Richardson’s launch, to take them to the mining district.
Richardson’s son recalled that he had heard many rumors about gold when, in the latter part of May he visited San Francisco. “It was seething with excitement, but the population was intact. I visited it a week later. It seemed like a city of the dead—barred doors and windows everywhere; here and there an ancient custodian of the otherwise vacant stores, with an occasional old crone to care for the children too young to walk.”
Captain Richardson employed his launch Guadalupe to take many would-be miners from San Francisco to the future site of the town of Sacramento. Working sails, oars and tiler, the captain and a few crew members made the trip upriver in two and a half or three days, depending on winds, currents, and weather. Passenger fares and freight charges brought earnings up to $2,600 per trip.
Like most members of the important California ranch families, the Richardsons scoffed at mining for gold. Captain Richardson was occupied with his own maritime activities, especially after his posts as collector and captain of the port reverted to the military about the time the Mexican Ward ended. And family affairs always occupied a lot of the family’s time.
The Richardsons attended happy social events in the gold rush years. Some of these were religious festivals such as the Carnival before Lent, Easter, All Souls day, and Christmas, all of them occasions for some merrymaking. Family members also celebrated baptisms and marriages, as well as their name-saint day which, like birthdays, featured special dinners and a fiesta.
Mariana Richardson, twenty-two years old when the gold rush began, was a key attraction at many of these gatherings. An American who met her in July 1848 described the “Belle of California.”
“Miss Richardsoin is of rather more than medium size & height, with a fine figure, a dignified lady-like carriage & a full fine face & expressive dark eyes. She is certainly very handsome…Notwithstanding the suitors which she is described as then having, she is not yet married, tho’ I understand it is from no lack of candidates for her hand. She does not speak English but understands it well. She is lively in conversation & the evening passed very agreeably…“
One of Mariana’s suitors was army Lieutenant William Tecumseh Sherman, who later torched Atlanta during the Civil War. But señorita Richardson chose a Peruvian, Manuel Torres y Garcia. As a wedding present, the Richardsons gave their daughter and son-in-law their old frame residence on Whaler’s Cove and a plot of land including the gulch where the springs were located. After the wedding the bride’s parents hosted a fiesta at the Richardson hacienda, which was vividly recalled by one attendee:
“I was a guest at the wedding feast—if you can call anything a feast that lasted ten solid days. Never had such a good time in my life, and never saw any people as well dressed as those Californiansgorgeous you might call it, but in perfect taste… Of course I didn’t hold out for the ten days…
“The best dancers in California were in attendance. By that I mean dancers who were especially trained in the most beautiful and difficult creations pf the terpsichorean art. Of course, they were purely of the amateur order, but they far surpassed anything I’d seen in the way of professional performance.”
Late in 1848 news of the gold discovery reached the East Coast where the dazzling stories were officially confirmed by officials of the United States government.
At least 90,000 Americans became the legendary “Forty Niners,” some argonauts going by sea, while others crossed the continent by covered wagon or pack trains. The port of San Francisco was swamped in 1849 by the arrival of more than 700 ships carrying 41,000 passengers.
Captain Richardson had visited the gold regions in the spring of 1849, but he had no desire to dig for gold. His son Stephen, felt the same way, later recalled his visit to the mines:
“Purely to satisfy my curiosity, I paid a visit to the ‘diggings’ myself, just a looker-on. I visited several camps on the branches of the American River. The activity was amazing along the riverbeds where were strung long lines of struggling men, working ceaselessly from sun-up to sun-down, and carousing more or less, through the night. Wherever there was a camp, gambling joints and saloons sprang up like mushrooms…
“But looking it over from every fascinating angle, I easily discovered that gold mining was not for Steve. I much preferred my less exciting life at Sausalito, herding cattle, my own master and carefree. As it turned out later, it would have been much wiser in the end had I tried my luck.”
ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF BANCROFT LIBRARY
The Fandango was a popular dance at the Richardson Hacienda