The life of Calvin Gault is that of a typical pioneer; and the vicissitudes of frontier life are aptly illustrated by the ups and downs he has experienced. Coming to California with but $3.50 as the sum total of his wealth, he soon accumulated a fortune. One unlucky investment cut down his capital to a few hundred dollars. Beginning work as a day laborer, he saved his earnings until an opportunity for good investment was presented, the way to a competency being made clear, and his name once more stood opposite five figures on the assessment roll.
Mr. Gaul lived until 1836 on his father's farm in Rutland County, Vermont, where he was born in 1814. In 1836 he was married to Miss Elizabeth Resseguire, and immigrated to Wisconsin. He was the first white man in the township where he settled. In 1849 he turned his steps still further west, and came to California. As mentioned above, he arrived here with the sum of $3.50 in his pockets. Wages were high and he soon earned enough to engage in trading. He remained in Sacramento a few months, living in a tent on the site of the present State capitol. From Sacramento Mr. Gault proceeded to Sonora, Tuolumne County, and embarked in the merchandise trade. His capital had now increased to considerable proportions, and his business was a very active one. For five years his trade reached an annual average of $50,000. Mr. Gault quoted to the writer a few of the prices current in those days: Eggs, $1.00 each; chickens, $16 each; potatoes $2.50 a pound; flour $1.00 a pound; boots, from $12 to $40 a pair; salt, $1.00 a pound; saleratus, $6.00 a pound. These values were customary in winter, when bad roads advanced freight rates to fifty cents a pound, between Stockton and Sonora. In summer, prices were correspondingly lower.
Mr. Gault went East in 1851, traveling via Panama, but immediately returned, at the head of a company of seventy-five men, who elected him their captain and who acted under strict military discipline. On the way he resigned his command to one of his lieutenants, and stayed in Utah two weeks to buy and sell a herd of cattle, clearing $1,200 by the transaction.
In 1866 Mr. Gault left Sonora for Santa Cruz. He had ceased trading in merchandise and invested nearly all his money in lives stock. A severe winter ensued, and when spring came his cattle were nearly all dead. About thirty poor, half-starved beasts were still alive, and the proceeds of their sale was all that remained of the money he had accumulated. Arriving at Santa Cruz he began sawing wood for George T. Bromley, the proprietor of the Pacific Ocean House, and continued at that sort of work for twelve years, saving his earnings and investing them in real estate. Santa Cruz grew from a village to a city, the property doubled, trebled and quadrupled in value, and still kept on rising, and now Mr. Gault is one of the well-to-do, solid citizens of the town. He is still engaged in active business as a broker in real estate.
In 1874 he was the second time married, this time to Mrs. Lucy A. Phelps, of Santa Cruz. His first wife bore him five children, of whom but one survived. This is a daughter, Mrs. Benjamin Brown, a resident of Santa Cruz.
History of Santa Cruz County, California
by E.S. Harrison
Published by Pacific Press Publishing Company
San Francisco, Cal., 1892
Transcribed by Yvonne Valentine 1/9/09, Page 231
Santa Cruz County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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