# List of people associated with the California Gold Rush

The California gold rush occurred in Northern California, during the period from 1848 to 1855.
List of people associated with the California Gold Rush :
| Name | Birth, death | Birthplace | Profession | Notes |
| John "Grizzly" Adams | 1812–1860 | Medway, Massachusetts, U.S. | mountain man, trainer of grizzly bears | |
| Elihu Anthony | 1818–1905 | Greenfield, New York, U.S. | alcalde, blacksmith, industrialist, abolitionist, postmaster, Methodist minister | one of the founding fathers of the city of Santa Cruz, California |
| Philip Danforth Armour | 1832–1901 | Stockbridge, New York, U.S. | meatpacking industrialist | started his meat packing business with funds from success in the Gold Fields |
| Josiah Belden | 1815–1892 | Connecticut, U.S. | politician, rancho grantee | first mayor of San Jose, California |
| Charles H. Bennett (soldier) | 1811–1855 | Walla Walla, Washington, U.S. | soldier, hotelier | present at the first discovery of gold |
| John Bidwell | 1819–1900 | Chautauqua County, New York, U.S. | politician, soldier | founder of the city of Chico, California |
| Samuel Brannan | 1819–1889 | Saco, Massachusetts (now Maine), U.S. | politician, businessman, journalist | first to publicize the California Gold Rush, and California's first millionaire |
| Juana Briones de Miranda | c. 1802 – 1889 | Villa de Branciforte (modern day Santa Cruz), California | Californio ranchera, medical practitioner, merchant | founding mother of San Francisco, California, and Mayfield, California (now Palo Alto, California) |
| R. C. Chambers | 1832–1901 | Lexington, Ohio, U.S. | businessman, politician, minerals miner, banker | |
| Jean Baptiste Charbonneau | 1805–1866 | Fort Mandan, North Dakota, U.S. | Shoshone–French explorer, guide, fur trapper, and military scout | |
| Belle Cora | c. 1827–1862 | Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. | madam of the Barbary Coast of San Francisco | |
| Lotta Crabtree | 1847–1924 | New York City, New York, U.S. | actress, entertainer, comedian, philanthropist | |
| William D. Bradshaw | 1826–1864 | Buncombe County, North Carolina, U.S | prospector, explorer | |
| Charles Crocker | 1822–1888 | Troy, New York, U.S. | railroad executive, businessman | |
| Alonzo Delano | 1806–1874 | Aurora, Erie County, New York, U.S. | writer, forty-niner | |
| George Washington Dennis | c. 1825–1916 | Mobile County, Alabama, U.S. | African American businessperson, real estate developer, abolitionist | one of San Francisco's wealthiest Black men in the late 19th-century |
| Charles S. Fairfax | 1829–1869 | Vaucluse Plantation, Virginia, U.S. | politician | from nobility |
| Thomas Fallon | 1825–1885 | Ireland | Irish-born politician | 10th Mayor of San Jose, California |
| Joseph Libbey Folsom | 1817–1855 | Meredith, New Hampshire, U.S. | real estate investor, military personnel | founder of Folsom, California |
| John C. Frémont | 1813–1890 | Savannah, Georgia, U.S. | explorer, military officer, politician | namesake of Fremont, California |
| John White Geary | 1819–1873 | Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, U.S. | lawyer, politician, military leader | |
| Domingo Ghirardelli | 1817–1894 | Rapallo, Kingdom of Sardinia (now Italy) | Italian-born chocolatier | founder of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company in San Francisco, California. |
| Mifflin Wistar Gibbs | 1823–1915 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | African American politician, businessman, publisher, abolitionist | During the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, he led a migration of African Americans from San Francisco to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada |
| Thomas Gilman (miner) | 1830–1911 | Tennessee, U.S. | African American freedman, miner, farmer | was an enslaved African American who self–purchase freedom during the mid-19th-century |
| Daniel Govan | 1829–1911 | Northampton County, North Carolina, U.S. | miner, planter, soldier | served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War |
| Ulysses S. Grant | 1822–1885 | Point Pleasant, Ohio, U.S. | 18th president, soldier | served in the Mexican–American War; led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War |
| Alvinza Hayward | 1821–1904 | Vermont, U.S. | mine-owner, capitalist, businessman, financier | made his fortune during the California Gold Rush, as a gold miner |
| George Hearst | 1820–1891 | Sullivan, Missouri Territory (now Missouri), U.S. | businessperson, politician | used slight mining knowledge from Missouri to succeed in 1850s gold rush investment |
| Albert W. Hicks | c. 1820–1860 | Foster, Rhode Island, U.S. | thief, murderer, mutineer, pirate | |
| Frederick A. Hihn | 1829–1913 | Duchy of Brunswick (now Germany) | politician, industrialist, real estate investor | leading land developer in Santa Cruz County, California |
| John Wesley Hillman | 1832–1915 | Albany, New York, U.S. | prospector, explorer | |
| Sherman Otis Houghton | 1828–1914 | New York City, New York, U.S. | politician, miner | |
| William B. Ide | 1796–1852 | Rutland, Massachusetts, U.S. | politician | commander of the California Republic |
| Frank James | 1843–1915 | Kearney, Missouri, U.S. | soldier, thief | part of the James–Younger Gang, former Confederate soldier |
| Seth Kinman | 1815–1888 | Union County, Pennsylvania, U.S. | mountain man, hunter, chair maker, entertainer | early settler of Humboldt County, California |
| William Leidesdorff | 1810–1848 | St. Croix, Danish West Indies (now United States Virgin Islands) | Afro-Caribbean businessman, politician | founder of the city of San Francisco, thought to have been the first black millionaire in the United States |
| Peter Lester (abolitionist) | c. 1814–c. 1897 | South Carolina, U.S. | African American businessman, abolitionist | early Black settler in San Francisco |
| James Lick | 1796–1876 | Stumpstown (now Fredericksburg), Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, U.S. | businessman, piano builder | |
| Heinrich Lienhard | 1822–1903 | Bilten, Canton of Glarus, Switzerland | Swiss–born memoirist | |
| James W. Marshall | 1810–1885 | Hopewell Township, New Jersey, U.S. | carpenter, sawmill operator | discoverer of the first gold |
| Richard Barnes Mason | 1797–1850 | Lexington Plantation, Fairfax County, Virginia, U.S. | military officer | |
| Lola Montez | 1821–1861 | Grange, County Sligo, Connacht, Ireland | Irish-born dancer and courtesan | famous as a "Spanish" dancer, and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria |
| James McClatchy | 1824–1883 | Ireland | Irish-born newspaper editor | |
| Benjamin McCulloch | 1811–1862 | Rutherford County, Tennessee, U.S. | politician | |
| Joaquin Miller | 1837–1913 | Union County, Indiana, U.S. | poet, frontiersman | |
| Joaquin Murrieta | 1829–1853 | Álamos, Sonora, Mexico | Mexican outlaw, gold miner, vaquero | "Robin Hood of the West" |
| Isaac Murphy | c. 1799–1882 | Pennsylvania, U.S. | teacher, lawyer, politician, failed miner | 8th Governor of Arkansas |
| Joshua Norton | 1818–1880 | Deptford, England | English-born commodities trader and real estate investor | also known as Emperor Norton |
| Lester Allan Pelton | 1829–1908 | Vermilion, Ohio, U.S. | inventor, mechanical engineer | inventor of the "Pelton Runner," considered to be the "Father of Hydroelectric Power" |
| Pío Pico | 1801–1894 | Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, San Gabriel, Alta California, New Spain | Californio politician, ranchero, entrepreneur | last governor of Alta California under Mexican rule from 1845 to 1846. |
| Mary Ellen Pleasant | c. 1814–1904 | U.S. | African American entrepreneur, real estate investor, abolitionist, financier | first self-made millionaire of African-American heritage |
| Addison Pratt | 1802–1872 | Winchester, New Hampshire, U.S. | missionary, farmer, whaler | |
| Benjamin B. Redding | 1824–1882 | Yarmouth, Colony of Nova Scotia (now Nova Scotia, Canada) | British North America-born politician | Mayor of Sacramento, secretary of the State of California |
| Moses Rodgers | c. 1835–1900 | Missouri, U.S. | African American mining engineer, metallurgist | |
| John Howell Sears | 1823–1907 | Sullivan County, New York, U.S. | prospector | early pioneer of Searsville and La Honda |
| William Tecumseh Sherman | 1820–1891 | Lancaster, Ohio, U.S. | soldier, businessman, educator, author | |
| Claus Spreckels | 1828–1908 | Lamstedt, Lower Saxony, Prussian Saxony (now Germany) | Prussian Saxony-born sugar industrialist | involved himself in several California and Hawai'i enterprises |
| Leland Stanford | 1824–1893 | Watervliet, New York, U.S. | politician, railroad tycoon | |
| Elijah Steele | 1817–1883 | New York, U.S. | politician, attorney, jurist | |
| Levi Strauss | 1829–1902 | Buttenheim, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Confederation (now Germany) | German Confederation-born entrepreneur | founder of Levi Strauss & Co. of San Francisco, California |
| John Studebaker | 1833–1917 | Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. | businessman | built wheelbarrows in Placerville in the early 1850s and contributed his earnings to the family Studebaker Wagon Corporation |
| Marie Suize | 1824–1892 | Savoy, France | French-born gold miner and businesswoman | known for wearing pants, and arrested several times for it. |
| John Sutter | 1803–1880 | Kandern, Margraviate of Baden, Holy Roman Empire (now Germany) | German-born Swiss businessman, explorer | established Sutter's Fort |
| A. A. Townsend | 1810–1888 | Sussex County, New Jersey, U.S. | miner, prospector, politician | |
| Ah Toy | 1829–1928 | Canton, Guangdong, Qing China | sex worker, madam | the first Chinese sex worker in San Francisco |
| George Treat | 1819–1907 | Frankfort, Maine, U.S. | businessman, abolitionist | pioneer in the Mission District, San Francisco |
| Matthew Turner (shipbuilder) | 1825–1909 | Geneva, Ohio, U.S. | shipbuilder | considered "the 'grandaddy' of big time wooden shipbuilding on the Pacific Coast" |
| Mark Twain | 1835–1910 | Florida, Missouri, U.S. | writer, humorist, and essayist | |
| Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo | 1807–1890 | Monterey, Alta California, Viceroyalty of New Spain (now California, U.S.) | Californio politician, military leader | |
| William Waldo (California politician) | 1812–1881 | | politician | |
| Bela Wellman | 1819–1887 | | entrepreneur | founder of Wellman, Peck and Company |
| Luzena Wilson | c. 1820–1902 | | entrepreneur | founder of the El Dorado hotel in Nevada City |
| Edwin B. Winans (politician) | 1826–1894 | | politician | |