California Rancher?

1848 was a busy years in California.  The Treaty of Guadalupe giving the territory of California to the United States along with gold being discovered at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento were both major magnets attracting people to the Pacific Ocean.

By the end of 1849 over 100,000 settlers had found their way to California.  Joel Walker (Captain Joe's older brother) worked as a freight hauler, delivering beef, kidney and draft animals to the gold miners.   Captain Walker himself purchased a ranch to use as a holding place for horses and cattle he was buying and selling.

The Walkers actually did better in the gold rush than most miners.  By their findings, they built the first hotel in Sacramento - the Mo House, a canvas and plank place that they sold in the summer of 1849.

Captain Joe Walker, who was seldom near the mines, was quite a prosperous rancher.  Trailing herds seemed to have been only part of what interested him, but he was rarely at the ranch either, hardly long enough to be involved in routine feeding, branding or round ups.  He used the business as a way of funding his adventures in the wilderness - now in his 50s, he wasn't down yet!  Ranching was sort of Captain Joe's IRA for retirement...he'll be back,  but meantime...

Next Time...2 Routes, 2 Ways

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Today in History:  On December 7, 1802 having spied the Pacific Ocean for the first time a few weeks earlier, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark cross to the south shore of the Columbia River (near modern-day Portland) and begin building the small fort, Fort Clatsop, that would be their winter home.

Restless But Successful Joel

Joel Walker and family selected land, sowed in wheat and made a living that first winter. 

In January 1841, the 5th Walker child was born - the first American baby to be born in Oregon.  Louisa Walker was just 7 months old when her father took her and her family to California. 

The Walkers traveled by ship, arriving in San Francisco in September of 1841, becoming the first American family to reach California. How many "firsts" does that makes for the family of Walkers originally from the Appalachian Valley now...


They continued to Sacramento where Joel became the manager of Sutter's farm.  After a year they returned to Oregon way before the famous Gold Rush and found English speaking schools for their children.

Joel claimed 640 acres of land in Yamhill County and lad good success and farming for the next four years, at which time he sold out in the fall of 1848 and moved back to California where he served on the California Constitutional Convention in 1849.  He finally settled for good in Napa Valled on a prosperous ranch for the rest of his days.

Next time...The Year of Indian Violence

Brother Joel joins Captain Walker

In the fall of 1840, Joe's older brother, Joel, went west in a covered wagon to the Pacific coast.  He was the first group of 300,000 pioneers who would make this trip in the next 20 years.  Joel has been with his brother on the first Santa Fe trip back in 1823 after which Joel had settled down as a farmer in the Fort Osage settlement.  By 1839 though, he had had enough of being a Missouri farmer and sold off his land and everything he couldn't carry with him on his journey west.

Overland trips of this length were new, so Joel got 40 of his neighbors together to go west with him. 
By now the Mississippi River Valley's population and pressures from increase in that population, along with reports of the wealth and wonder of the Wild West made the trip pretty darn desirous!

Few families like the Walkers were as strong in the west and Joel was as restless as his brother - even more confident that the risks and hardships were worth all that trouble.

Next time - Father DeSmet...