James W. Marshall
James W. Marshall was born on October 8, 1810 in New Jersey. He wasn’t a well educated man, but was very handy with tools and had much knowledge of many different kinds of things. His main trade was as carpenter and building mills. He eventually made his way to California.
In 1847, Marshall became a partner of John Sutter’s in a saw mill to be built on the American River in the foothills west of Sutter’s Fort (now the Sacramento area). On January 24, 1848, as James Marshall was near the water inspecting the mill, he noticed a shiny object smaller than a pea in the water. He found a few more of these shiny objects and after performing some tests realized he had discovered gold. Marshall traveled to Sutter’s Fort to inform John Sutter of the find. Even though the news was supposed to be kept secret between them, it leaked out and word spread rapidly. It wasn’t long before the entire area was overrun with miners and James Marshall’s luck ran out. He was eventually forced out of town because he tried to prevent a local Indian massacre. He became a farmer growing apples and grapes. James Marshall lived the rest of his life in poverty, a bitter and lonely man and died in 1885.
Read about other people associated with the Gold Rush:
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Chinese
Indians
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