The California Gold Rush

We have a note in George Herbert’s handwriting saying how he ‘often heard from my mother (Sarah Herbert) how she used to leave after putting me to bed and go round to look up the men who were making the various parts - beams, pans, boxes, and the strings that she used to make herself.’  This was ‘at the time of the Great Gold Hurry about 1842 to 1844.’ ‘….they were sold at £1-1-0 per pair and upwards and people were mad to buy them’.  Although the 1848 California Gold Rush is the most well known, there were earlier Gold Rushes in California and Alabama in 1842.