Return to the El Dorado County Page Return to El Dorado County TalesWritten by Joanne Burkett from research taken from Paolo Sioli's History of El Dorado County California, from El Dorado Co. birth, marriage, death and land records and often from interviews.
Oscar W. Osborn was an adventurous soul and not much more than a boy when he left his parents' farm in New York for the golden potential of a new life in California.
The only child of Oscar and Eliza (Waterman) Osborn, young Oscar was born in Arcadia, Wayne County, N.Y. on July 18, 1834. Eliza was a Massachusetts native, who had also lived in Connecticut before her parents finally settled in New York. It was here she met Oscar's father and was married. The family farmed and Oscar attended school there before gold fever and the wandering bug gave him a serious bite.
The year was 1852. Many gold seekers had come and gone from the hills and mountains, the streams and ravines.
Some of the lucky ones had found their fortunes while others were forced to return home empty handed. Many stayed on, turning to other lines of work to fuel their fortunes or, at least, a living.
On April 2, three months before Oscar would turn 18, he and four associates booked passage on a ship out of New York, sailing around Cape Horn for California. During the six-month voyage, which Oscar reported as pleasant, the ship put in at the beautiful ports of Valparaiso, Chili and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. When Oscar and his little party of adventurers arrived in California that October, they found it hot and dry.
Mining had taken a downward spiral, leaving Oscar little choice but to occupy himself with whatever paying job he could find in between his mostly unsuccessful gold seeking ventures and his repeated confrontations with bad luck. Setting about his very first attempt at mining, which was in Secret Ravine (later known as Newcastle), Oscar had to come up with $6 a day for the water he needed for "washing" the gravel and rock for gold. However, he never found out if he could be a successful miner -- poison oak drove him out and he relocated to Yankee Hill, in Butte County. While in Yankee Hill, Oscar worked as a ditch digger, but eventually he built a large hotel in the town and then bought into a working mine in Magalia.
Then, in 1860, Oscar was stricken with some sort of chronic illness and he once again uprooted. Over the next 10 years, Oscar would not crawl into bed at night in any one place for long. Instead, he traveled throughout Northern California and what would become the state of Nevada, going as far as "Old Virginny Town," later officially named Virginia City, where he spent some time in 1862. What he did there is a mystery, but he may have been working for the Comstock Mining Company, which had discovered a bonanza of gold and silver in 1859.
In fact, by 1863, the town's population was topping 20,000. Eventually, though, Oscar packed up again and headed for Dayton, Nevada, before venturing into California's Yuba County, where he settled for a time in Brown's Valley, though it would not be his final destination. Instead, he headed for El Dorado County, where he found success as a miner for a time at Uniontown. But, Oscar must have been growing weary of his nomadic life, because he decided to leave mining and settle down.
By now, it was 1880. Striking a partnership with hard-drinking Joseph T. Blundell, Oscar purchased E.M. Smith's beautiful Pioneer Garden nursery in Coloma. The nursery, originally established by tall, dark-eyed Peter Weimer,
was the oldest place in Coloma. Weimer had settled there while he was employed by James Marshall at his mill race, which would become the site of the discovery of gold. In fact, a little story goes that Marshall didn't believe the gold
pieces he found were the real thing until Weimer's wife boiled the nugget in her wash. Soon, Oscar and Joe Blundell were harvesting peaches from 800 trees, plums from 200, grapes from 1,000 vines and, for a time, cherries, figs
and persimmons. Their peaches were of championship quality, which was proven when they repeatedly took premiums at Mechanic's Institute in San Francisco.
Over the next years, Oscar, a Republican, would serve as the justice of the peace in Coloma and also held membership in the International Order of Odd Fellows, Coloma Lodge No. 27. He was a charter member, with his partner, of the Champion of the Red Cross, which was called the Occidental Encampment. An ambitious and fair man, he was considered a good candidate for the legislature. No records show that he did so, nor could I find any records of a
marriage or family. However, he lived a good life and he was still listed as a resident of El Dorado County in the 1892 Great Register.
Permission is granted by the author to use or republish this article, but proper attribution to the author -- Joanne Burkett -- is requested.
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Last Updated on: 3 January 2005