Marshall James



James W. Marshall, First Discover and Catalyst of CA Gold Rush  

Nineteenth-century souvenir autograph card signed by James W. Marshall (1810-1885), the first man to discover gold in California in January 1848, as "Ja's. W. Marshall" at center. The card is printed "The Discoverer of Gold in California, January 19th, 1848" underneath Marshall's signature; an oval vignette in the upper left corner depicts Old Sutter Mill, near where Marshall unearthed the gold. Overall light toning, and a small closed tear near top, else near fine. Minor mounting traces verso, possibly from a scrapbook. 5.25" x 3.75".  

James W. Marshall, a participant of the large-scale Western migration of the 1830s and 1840s, eventually settled near Sutter's Fort in the then Spanish-held California Territory. Marshall tried his hand at farming, carpentry, and millwork. He agreed to construct and manage a mill for town founder and namesake John Sutter, who later became his partner. Marshall was expanding the mill's drainage area near Coloma, located upstream from Sutter's Mill, approximately 40 miles northeast of Sacramento. Routine nocturnal sluicing revealed tell-tale gold flakes on the morning of January 19, 1848.  

Marshall's discovery precipitated the 1849 Gold Rush and the subsequent population boom leading to California statehood in 1850. The immediate effects of Marshall's discovery were personally disastrous, as prospectors forced him off the land. To compensate him for this financial loss, and also to acknowledge his accidental but significant contribution to the state, California awarded Marshall an honorary pension in the 1870s. It eventually lapsed and Marshall died in poverty.  

Provenance: From the Collection of Floyd E. Risvold  

Floyd E. Risvold (1912-2009) was a retail clothing business owner with a penchant for American history. Each of the items of his 1,300-piece collection was carefully selected, and most represented pivotal events and trends of American history. Risvold's purview was the California Gold Rush, Mormonism, Western Expansion, and the Civil War. In January 2010, Spink Shreves Gallery of Dallas and New York liquidated Risvold's collection in a 3-day sale grossing $8.2 million.  


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