How Katy Perry’s Irish Ancestress Cashed in on California’s Gold Rush
By: Megan Smolenyak
Tags: Genealogy, Ireland, California, Katy Perry, History

She came from a gold-obsessed family, so perhaps it wasn’t so surprising when the treasure bag was found in Hannah’s water closet, but what was this Galway girl even doing in San Francisco?

Anyone who’s ever dabbled in genealogy knows that certain forebears call louder than others — even when they’re not your own. While researching Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson — better known as musical megastar, philanthropist, and activist Katy Perry — I climbed all the branches of her family tree, but became enchanted with Hannah Mulhare, one of her Irish immigrant ancestors.

Meandering Mulhares

Born in Eyrecourt, Ireland in the 1830s to Patrick Mulhare and Sarah Stanton, Anna “Hannah” Maria Mulhare was one of at least ten children. Her mother’s brother had married her father’s sister, producing a tight family cluster that was shattered when her uncle, a Ribbonman who defended the rights of tenants against absentee landlords, was convicted of sedition and transported to Australia in the 1820s. Around the time Hannah was born, her uncle was pardoned and assorted family members — including four of her oldest siblings — began drifting to Australia to join him.

The 1840s ushered in the Great Famine as well as the early days of both the Californian and Australian gold rushes, and it soon became a last-one-to-leave-Galway-turn-out-the-lights situation. While the older contingent of her siblings had opted for Australia and New Zealand, her parents and the younger ones set their sights on America.

Hannah (Anne) and two of her brothers arrived in New Orleans on February 10, 1852 (Ancestry.com)

14 year-old Hannah (perhaps understated to save on fare) and her brothers John and Pat were among the 268 passengers on the Forest State when it arrived in New Orleans on February 10, 1852, but this was just a staging ground. Another brother named James had been there for some time, and made arrangements for the family to push on to California, which had only become part of America in 1848 and a state in 1850.

Hannah’s brief time in New Orleans left a trace when she was listed among those with letters waiting at the post office (March 7, 1852, The Daily Delta, Newspapers.com)

The following May, James demonstrated remarkable efficiency when he applied for a marriage license on the 2nd, became an American citizen on the 4th, and set sail on the 7th. He, his bride Catherine, Hannah, Patrick, and mother Sarah departed on the United States and headed for California via Aspinwall. Since the Panama Canal did not yet exist, this meant that they had to disembark and take a train from the Atlantic to the Pacific seaports.

The Mulhare family left New Orleans for California (May 8, 1853, The Daily Delta, Newspapers.com)

Gradually, the Mulhares, including some who had been living in Australia, reassembled in California. San Francisco became something of a hub with a rotating cast of family members based there, but other pockets settled in nearby Marin, Contra Costa, Sacramento, and Yuba counties. Those in Yuba County resided in gold mining towns whose names reflected possible outcomes of their ambitions — Smartsville and Sucker Flat.

The Mulhare patriarch, Patrick, died in San Francisco in 1858, and James — who took to using his mother’s surname of Stanton as a middle name — assumed his place at the head of the family.

James S. Mulhare recognized for his stellar work (April 3, 1857, The Daily Alta California, California Digital Newspaper Collection)

James S. Mulhare was a prominent member of San Francisco’s Irish American community (September 22, 1858, The Daily Alta California, California Digital Newspaper Collection)

James soon made his mark with a local paper lauding his character for his work with the Pacific Express Company and recording his election as Secretary of the Sons of the Emerald Isle, established just a few years earlier. But then things took an unexpected turn.

The Old Switcheroo

On the evening of August 1, 1859, Freeman & Co. Express Company (which would become part of Wells Fargo the next year) discovered a theft. During a delivery from Sacramento to San Francisco, a bag of gold dust worth $10,000 was swapped out with one full of shot, iron and other heavy objects. It didn’t take long to determine that the switch occurred when the consignment was transferred from the wharf to a waiting wagon, and the porter responsible was none other than James S. Mulhare.

Police failed to find the money, but a bit of clever detective work revealed that the counterfeit bag was made by a local saddler, who identified John Connor as the man who had ordered it. Connor, it turned out, was in business with another Mulhare brother and engaged to Hannah, so this was both an inside job and a family affair.

Express company robbery discovered (2 August 1859, San Francisco Bulletin, GenealogyBank)

James S. Mulhare (August 27, 1859, California Police Gazette)

Mulhare and Connor were swiftly arrested, and because the attempted ruse captured the attention of the public, the story was covered not just in local newspapers, but across the country and as far away as Australia. The accused requested separate trials, and within six weeks, both were found guilty of grand larceny.