Early Mining Women

Twenty years after the gold rush, only 25% of the miners had married.  Some returned home for their families and brides, then returned to begin a more lucrative career on the mining frontier, but most were single, transient men.

The arrival of women was believed to be the beginning of civilization.  Augusta Kemp said "do not imagine that I want to come, for all the gold in the mines, but if you do stay I am coming or else I will get  a divorce" Divorce in the mining communities was higher than in the entire United States at the time.  So most men went in search of precious metals, not thinking of long term separation, but to get rich quick and go home.

Then too, women were enticed by the thought of wealth as well.  Sophia Eastman responded for the sheer adventure of it all "I shall be obligated to go into the mill unless I get passage by fall.  I can not submit to it, and I am willing to go with a small fitting out, or none at all, in the capacity of a servant or any way, rather than be disappointed."  For her anyway, to go west was preferable to working in the mill in Lowell, MA.  She read all she could of California, borrowed money to pay for her trip and set off for the West.

Once women arrived in these mining communities, some found jobs by doing respectable work such as cooking, sewing, domestic work.  Luzena Wilson was an early frontier mining women, who said that men were willing to pay her $10 for a homemade biscuit made by a women.

Next time..not all women were respectable.