A Grandfather in the Gold Rush
Isaac Annis 1787-1858
Part Three

"If you head no children I wish you ware here. Wee could make money fast. Due the work ourselves. You could git six dollars per day for washing. I bought a washer day before yesterday and I have now sold it while I am writing I am riting for 2 ounces and I gave 4 dollars for it. So you see that I can make money without diggin gold....Here is six men digging within 2 rods of my door that tuck out yesterday 5 hundred and 16 dollars and I presume tha will take as much today. You have no idea what a rush thare is for gold. All this region is full of people. It appears to me thar is more man here then thar is the State of N. York. The cuntory is full. I understand that there is thousand and thousand of people coming over the lains this summer but thare is more gold here then I head and idea when I rote to you before. You may dig aney whare and you will find som gold but sum places is richer than others but if tha hold on ten years tha will dig up all upper Calafornia.
Nancy I wont to have you right me if Jerome (Reverend Jerome Bonaparte Annis, Isaac's younger half brother) is in Calafornia and if you know what part he is in. This is a grate contory. The gold diggins exstends 5 hundred miles E.W.S. and South. Nancy sum times I think I will come home for tha die every day. 1 man was buried yesterday, another today. The coffin jus gone by my door and one man cut his throught (throat) not 2 hours ago and thare is a grate many sick. Thare was one company come here of 9 and 5 out of nine is dead.

Isaac's inquiry about his younger brother Jerome was answered almost at once and directly from San Francisco::

Dear Brother Isaac,
"You no doubt have forgotten your little brother Jerome or Bonaparte as I an sometimes caled but I have not forgotten you. In my wifes last letter she wrote that you had started for this country so I though I would call at the office in this place and inquire for a letter directed to you and so I did and seeing your name I took it out and read it and found out it was from your son in law Mr. Russell. I hope you will pardon me in so doing and attribute the motive and act to my ardent desire to hear from or see you once more in the flesh, especially in this land so far away from our friends.
I left Fort Smith in Arkansas on the 11th of April 1849 and cam over the plains by the southern route. Was about 7 months getting to Fremonts diggins on the Maraposa (Mariposa) at which place I remained but a few days and left Stockton where I remained doing business untill a few days since. I am in company with a man by the name of Latimer. We are here and have purchest us a large house to put up in Stockton where we expect to remain and do business untill we leave for the States. So far we have done a fair business.
Now Brother I want you to write me. I will give you my address. Rev. J. B. Annis, Stockton, California. I learn from Mr. Russells letter that Henry Corser is somewhere in this country. If you know anything of him mention it in your letter to me and his address and yours.
Perhaps you would like to know something of the southern mines and what the miners are doing. 1st the mines are rich and easy of access, 2nd the miners average from 5 to 16 dollars per day. They are quite healthy which makes it quite an inducement to imigrants. Stockton is above high water mark and not subject to overflow.
(Note: The transcription of Jerome's letter ends here, but I am sure it was much longer.)

Isaac's brother,
Reverend Jerome Bonaparte Annis

Nancy wrote affectionately June 13, 1850, answering her father's letters from Auburn:

"We are all well here at home. Business is rather dull here. The plank road has fell through. The canall has been out of repair all summer. There is not much going on. I wish that we were safely landed in California and had the same propperty there. We might get rich, but I will not complain for we get a good living here by working hard....We have had some bad luck since you went away. Leander had nine hundred and 68 dollars stolen out of the stage.... We keep up the old business of baking bread. I have baked 30 loaves today. I am glad to hear that you are doing well. I hope you will get rich. We all want to see you verry much. Take care of your health for you are getting to old and sickness will go hard with you. I want to see your face once more. I can see your likeness every day but that is not the original. Father, I wish I was there to cook and wash for you. Woman as I am I could make a fortune in a little while but I am here and it is no use talking. If you live to come home be carefull and not get robbed on the way. I want you to bring me some curiosities from California, some rare plants and sees. You can put the roots in a box of dirt and keep it wet. They will live if you get them across the Isthmus. The children are well. They talk a great deal about you. Alice is the smartest we have got. [Gravestones in the Port Gibson cemetery records record Nancy Russell's dates as 1811-1898, Leander's as 1806-1876, and Alice's as 1838-1904]
They all send there love to you."

Her next letter, in September, acknowledged receipt of a draft of $500 and urged her father to return. Leander Russell added a postscript about one of Isaac's companions who had left California for the States:

"There was a gentleman here yesterday that brought me the sad news of Jacob Saulpaugh is no more. He died on the steamer Falcon from Chagres to New York, about 3 days sail from Chagres. He lived owmly 4 hours after he was taken with cholera. When he was first taken sick he enquired for a freemason. This gentleman went to see him. Jake made him promise to deliver his pocketbooks and money to his wife in Port Gibson and he kept his promise. He gave her about $550 dollars in money and there was a draft on N Y for $500 more payable to me. The draft remains a mystery as I have not had any advices about one. There is nothing in the draft to show who bought it in San Francisco. The draft is jest like the one you sent me except the date and No." California express and banking companies of the time issued Firsts, Seconds, and Thirds of Exchange to transfer money East. Bearing an identical serial number and date, and drawn on the same part, each document was forwarded to the payee by a different route. When the first to be presented was paid, the others became worthless.

The grandfathers thoughts turned definitely homeward during the next winter. From Auburn he wrote February 25, 1851:

"My health is good at this time but I have been sick this winter. I took a bad cold and I was sick about a week but I got over it. I will tell you that wee have head no winter here, no rain of any account and no snow. The rodes has bin good all winter and prouduse has com down to the last pint. I shall loose one thousand dollars in flour and pork. I went to Sacramento Citty last fall and I paid out three thousand dollars in flour and pork and it cost me when I got up here 20 dollars per hundred. Now I cant sell it at 10 dollars per hundred and you see I shall loose 15 hundred dollars and it is all owing to the winter. I could com home last fall and brought three thousand and now if I git home with half that money I shall think I shall due well.... Tell Alice that I shall bring the gold to make her a ring when I come. As respect that draft that Mr. Russell has got I suposed that it was a draft of that money that I sent but it is not the date nor the number it will draw the money when the draft is presented."

In a final letter of June 30th, containing the draft for $1200 on Adam & Co. illustrated above, Isaac Annis announced his imminent departure from San Francisco:

"Nancy I am now on my way home to the States. I will tell you that my health is not verry good and I have got a hard jerney before me at this time of the year as it is the rainey season. But I hope I shall indur it as i have gone through a good many hard trial. Thare is three boats for Panama - the Pananma and the Isthmus and the Union. I don't [k]now witch I shall take but I shant right but a few lines to you now.
I now inclose a draft of twelve hundred dollars. If I never git home this may reach you so you will dispose of it as you see fit. Give some of it to the children more pertickerly to Alice but I hope providens may smile on me so that I may return.

Advertisements of Steamships
"Union, "Panama" and "Isthmus"
California Courier, June 28, 1851

If Annis chose the steamer Union for his return, he met with unexpected adventure when she ran aground on the coast of Lower California. There had been so hearty and prolonged a celebration of the 4th of July aboard that the following night no deck watch was kept and the helmsman fell asleep at the wheel. The vessel became a total loss but all the passengers and much of the cargo were safely landed. Whichever ship Annis took, the uncashed Second of Exchange on Adams & Co. is indicative that he survived the perils of the homeward journey to present a First on his arrival at New York. More positive evidence still of the traveler's return return is a marble gravestone yet standing in the tree-shaded cemetery at Port Gibson:

Isaac Annis
Died
Jan. 27, 1858
In the 72 Year
of his age