Dubuque During the California Gold Rush:: When the Midwest Went West

by Robert F. Klein

Overview

In 1849, news from California produced a strange alchemy in the region around Dubuque. Men used to the daily grind of the local lead mines felt a sudden fever for gold half a continent away. It was like a call to war, pulling the young men of the Midwest away to far-distant climes for an adventure and nightmare they would struggle to explain to those who remained on the home front. After meticulously combing through the correspondence between the Dubuque Forty-Niners and a home radically altered by their departure, Robert F. Klein examines one of the most fascinating periods of the American story from a fresh perspective.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609494919
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	10/01/2011
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Robert Klein is a lifelong resident of Dubuque who was educated in the local schools and graduated with a BA degree from Loras College. After tours in the U.S. Army, he received the MSLS degree from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
He then became assistant librarian at Loras College from 1964 to 1969 and library director from 1969 to 2004. He served for ten years on the Board of Directors and is a past president of the Dubuque County Historical Society. He is one of the co-founders of the Center for Dubuque History at Loras College. He is the editor of two previous publications: Chandler Childs's Dubuque: Frontier River City (1984) and Foundations: The Letters of Mathias Loras, Bishop of Dubuque (2004).

Table of Contents

Preface 9

Introduction 13

1 Dubuque: The Early Years 15

2 "Zounds! Ezra, There Be Gold in California" 29

3 Scratch Where It Itches 34

4 Goin' to Git My Gold 43

5 Except for the Gold, Not as Good as Iowa 53

6 By Sea to the Gold Fields 58

7 Overland to the Land of Gold: George Asbury Madeira and Family Cross the Plains 81

8 A Woman's Perspective: The Experience of Mary Elmira Morrison 93

9 After the Dust Had Settled 103

10 "Sorry, Elmira…Not So Much" 109

11 The Dubuque Forty-Niners 112

Notes 131

Bibliography 141

Index 151

About the Author 157