The California and Australia Gold Rushes
As Seen by Amos S. Pittman
with Introduction and Notes
By Theressa Gay
THE number of letters from miners in California during the gold rush is almost overwhelming, yet in each letter there is a possibility that some detail, not known or perhaps ill understood before, may be found. Just as interesting in this respect as the Forty-niners' finds were their failures; and when these men, while they were combing the placers, developed resourcefulness— even to the extent of making up their minds to shift from one continent to another in search of wealth— the interest in their history is so much the greater. Thus it was with Amos S. Pittman. Instead of becoming cynical or losing his self-respect by going home without any "pile," he welcomed the news of Edward H. Hargraves' discovery of gold in New South Wales in 1851 (see his letter of May 27, 1852) and forthwith set out for the mines of "John Bull's colonies in the Indian ocean."
Amos Salisbury Pittman (b. New York City, 1825) was one of thirteen children of George Washington and Mary (Spies) Pittman, staunch Methodists, whose religious upbringing of their son is reflected in his letters. From New York the Pittmans at some unrecorded date moved to Williamsburgh, Long Island, where Amos was living when President Polk's confirmation of Marshall's discovery at Coloma took the east by storm. Like many another young man, Pittman joined an association of gold seekers. As a unit they purchased a vessel to take them to California and stocked it with supplies and equipment; but the group split up after arriving in California, the members preferring to be free of corporate trappings and to display their talents with pans and picks as independent individuals.
Pittman's efforts gave only slim returns and in 1852 he sailed for the South Pacific. To finance the trip he accepted employment on the Orpheus, which was engaged in trading for hogs, cocoanut oil and arrowroot (letter of Feb. 28, 1853). He married a native woman on Navigator's Island, Samoa, but by January 1, 1853, he was again on the move, bound for Australia. In Sydney, he fell in with some of his California acquaintances who had been operating successfully in the Victoria goldfields— in fact, they had, as he said, "made their piles." As for himself, he failed to find any great fortune. Nevertheless, he had at least satisfied a wish "to see the world and I might as well see it while I am young for the sooner I sow my wild oats the better [letter of May 27, 1852]." Amos Pittman died in Australia in circumstances that are not known.
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