James W. Marshall

Submitted by: William Disbro

Deceased was 82 years of age, and was born in Hope township, Huntingdon county, New Jersey, and served an apprenticeship as a coach builder in his native town. At the age of 21 years he became dissatisfied with the limited prospect of advancement offered by the home of his youth and determined to extend his field of operations. He went to Indiana and Illinois, and then to Kansas, where he was in a fair way to achieve prosperity, when he was attacked by a lingering sickness, which necessitated his seeking a change of climate. The course of his migrations tended always westward, and in June, 1845, he set foot in California.

He first engaged to work for General Sutter at Sutter's Fort, in Sacramento county, and afterwards went into partnership with him in the lumber business, at Coloma. On the 8th of January, 1848, while engaged in superintending the building of a millrace, in connection with their lumber enterprise, Marshall's eye first detected the particles of gleaming metal which excited not only the people of America, but the whole civilized world, and set in motion towards the Pacific Coast a host of adventurers eager to reach a land that promised actual riches in return for labor. Nearly all the earliest seekers after wealth made directly for Coloma and, without any preliminaries, settled themselves upon Marshall's land and helped themselves to his cattle and other possessions to supply their necessities.

Marshall was never successful as a prospector and his discovery, which brought fortunes to many and made California what it is today, proved his financial ruin. He became involved in litigation and eventually lost all the land he once possessed, and he died at last a poor man, near the spot where thirty-seven years ago he had picked up the first bright nugget from the sand. He received of late years a pension of $150 per month from the State, which supplied his moderate wants, but which was scarcely a sufficient reward for all his discovery had done for the State.