num_pages: 136
description: What did it actually mean to be a Forty-niner in the California gold fields? The sometimes hard realities of this question are answered with forthright candor and fresh insight by Charles William Churchill, a man who experienced them. A resident of Lawrence County, Ohio, Churchill, like many thousands of other Americans, made his way to California filled with high hopes. The life he found for himself there plus a subsequent prospecting venture to northwestern Mexico in 1851 were related in a series of letters to family members back East and particularly to his younger brother Mendal. Almost forgotten, and never before published, the Churchill letters offer a fresh view of the traditional saga of the Forty-niner. For, as the book's two skillful editors point out, it has been more often the case to characterize the period with stories of great wealth and rousing adventuresome time. Churchill described instead the day to day practical problems faced by the vast majority of Forty-niners. How he worked to try and overcome these difficulties makes for a volume filled with both touching emotion and informative history.
language: English
title: Fortunes are for the Few: Letters of a Forty-niner
titlecomplete: Fortunes are for the Few: Letters of a Forty-niner
publisher: San Diego Historical Society