Gold was discovered at Coloma, California in January of 1848. Word reached Morgan County, Ohio later that year. By the spring of 1949, Joel Eveland was packing for California.
By 1849, 23 year old Joel Eveland was a lawyer in practice in Windsor, Morgan County with his partner, 32 year old Peter Van Clief. In addition to being law partners, Joel and Peter were cousins through Joel’s mother’s sister, Sarah Sallie Newton. Peter’s brother, Daniel, had traveled to the Southwest during the Mexican War and so had some experience traveling to the west. When word of the discovery of gold in California reached them, Daniel, Peter, and Joel were all, like so many others in 1849, struck with “gold fever.” When they heard groups were forming from Marietta and Southern Ohio, and planning to head west in search of gold, they decided to join them (The Descendants of Peter Van Clief and Mary Ann Dorsey).
About half the “argonauts” as gold seekers were known, traveled by ship to San Francisco. This group came mostly from the East coast. Gold seekers from the mid-west came overland, following the course of the big rivers and then the various trails that led to California (The California Trail).
The average cost of food and supplies for 4-6 people for a six month overland trip was about $200-300. Groups needed wagons, livestock, food, guns, and ammunition. Click here to learn more about what they needed (National Oregon/California Trail Center).
The Van Clief/Eveland party set out as follows:
“Sometime after April, 1849, Peter, Daniel and Joel Eveland began their final preparation for their trek west. They loaded a vessel on the Muskingum River and proceeded down the river to Marietta. There they joined a company and headed west for California.” (The Descendants of Peter Van clief and Mary Ann Dorsey).
The typical route from Marietta was to load supplies and wagons on a steamboat and travel down the Ohio River and then up the Mississippi River to St. Louis. In St. Louis the group transferred to another boat for the trip up the Missouri River to St. Joseph. St. Joseph was one of the main “jumping off” spots. From here on, the journey was via wagon, horseback or on foot.
With an estimated 40,000 emigrants crossing to California overland in 1849, it’s not surprising that the first big cholera epidemic along the trail happened that spring. Somehow Joel’s group avoided cholera, although other Marietta groups were not so lucky (Gold Fever).
From St. Joseph, travelers headed to Nebraska:
“From what’s now central Nebraska to South Pass in west-central Wyoming, travelers to California, Oregon and Utah all took more or less one route. Most came up the south side of the Platte from Fort Kearney, crossed the South Platte where the river forks in western Nebraska and continued west up the south side of the north fork. This meant fording the Laramie River where it joined the North Platte at Fort Laramie, and finally crossing the North Platte itself 150 miles later where the river bent to the south near present Casper. After that, the travelers could continue on to the west.” (Crossing the Platte River).
The Van Clief/Eveland party ran into trouble at the Platte crossing:
“When the party reached the Upper Platte River, it was swollen by rains and thawing snow. It was decided that it was impossible or too dangerous to cross so they would camp there until the water receded.” (The Descendants of Peter Van Clief and Mary Ann Dorsey).
At this point, Peter Van Clief was too impatient to wait. He broke away from the group and struck out on his own. Taking a knapsack and his rifle, he swam his horse across the river and went on alone. He continued into the mountains, became snow blind in the high Sierras, was rescued by friendly Indians, and finally got to California in the fall of 1849 (The Descendants of Peter Van Clief and Mary Ann Dorsey).
According to family legend and his obituary, Joel arrived in California in the spring of 1850 – almost a year after he left Ohio. He was on foot and in the company of a Jewish peddler (Lloyd Eveland Interview and Old Pioneer Called Hence). Those tantalizing details hint at a long trek, a hard winter, and a great story, but sadly that’s all we know. Sometime after that, Joel and Peter apparently ran into each other in San Francisco and both ended up seeking their fortunes in the same area of Sierra County, California.
There were other groups of young men from the Marietta area that banded together to form companies to head west in search of gold. The descriptions of their adventures give a good idea of the kind of preparations these groups made, the way they travelled west, and the challenges and catastrophes they faced. In fact, The Van Clief/Eveland party could even have been in company of one or more of these groups for at least part of the journey west.
To learn more, read Gold Fever from the Marietta History Blog.
Although Joel visited Ohio (and his two wives were from his hometown in Ohio – see Joel Eveland Marries Two Sisters), he lived in California for the rest of his life. He turned out to be somewhat of an entrepreneur and dabbled in many different professions. But one thing is for sure, he never struck it rich prospecting for gold! More on Joel’s gold mining career in Part 2.
Joel Eveland – #6 on Curtis Family Tree
Sources:
Canfield, Clifford R.; The Descendants of Peter Van Clief and Mary Ann Dorsey; 1981; Kaiserslautern, Germany
Crossing the Platte River; WyomingHIstory.org; retrieved 6/4/21
Eveland, Lloyd; Personal Interview with LeeAnne McDermott
Gold Fever; Early Marietta; May 20, 2016; retrieved 6/1/21
Historical Trails; National Oregon/California Trail Center; Montepelier, Idaho; retrieved 6/4/21
Old Pioneer Called Hence; Ukiah Republican Press; Ukiah, California; 30 Dec. 1904
The California Trail; Wikipedia; retrieved 6/4/21