When I read about James Moriarty being the first
mayor of Idaho City in Father Edward's letter, I wrote to the Idaho Historical Society asking if they had
any information about him.
On December 19, 1980 they sent me a copy of page 205 of the History of Idaho Territory published by Wallace W. Elliott & Co. in 1884.
"James Moriarty is the gentlemanly and efficient agent of Wells, Fargo, & Co., in this place, as well as agent of the Utah, Idaho, and Oregon Stage Company. In addition to this business he carries on a thriving trade in clothing, hats, caps, etc. Mr. Moriarty is an upright, esteemed citizen of Idaho, and one of its pioneers.
He was born in Ireland, and in his younger days went to Australia, where he engaged in mining. From there he went to New Zealand, and thence to British Columbia, where he mined with various success. He left British Columbia for this Territory in 1863, arriving in Placerville July 14th. He engaged in mining for a few years, and then moved to Idaho City, where he has since resided. A view of his business place appears in this work."
So James Moriarty started off in Australia!! That was a surprise.
Australia was known to most of the Irish as a British penal colony - where Irish citizens could be transported for petty crimes as well as for political activity. But in 1851 gold was found in Australia - this was close on the heels of the 1849 gold rush in California. The British penal colony saw an influx of immigrants from Britain and Ireland and then the United States, Germany, and China.
According to http://www.patricktaylor.com/australian-gold-rush,
"Word spread quickly and within a few days 100 diggers were frantically tunnelling for instant wealth. The road over the Blue Mountains from Sydney became choked with men from all walks of life, carrying tents, blankets, and rudimentary mining equipment hastily bought at inflated prices. By June there were over 2000 people digging at Bathurst, and thousands more were on their way."
How did young James Moriarty in remote Caherdaniel hear about this gold rush? Newspaper? Word of mouth from travelers passing through town? Was there a relative in Australia? What made him head for this distant land? And how did he get there?
The website http://www.goldrushcolony.com.au/australian-gold-history-culture-info/immigrant-influences-australian-gold-fields/irish-gold-fields tells us a little bit about the Irish coming to Australia.
The following website gives us a taste of what life was like in the Australian gold fields much better than I could.
http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/australian-gold-rush-begins:
"Arriving at Melbourne or Geelong, the prospectors walked to the fields, each loaded down like a human mule with a tent, blankets, tools, cooking pots and a supply of flour, tea and sugar. Some of them pushed their belongings in wheelbarrows. The fields were honeycombed with diggings, each with a mound of spoil, and dotted with the diggers’ tents or lean-to huts of poles and bark. Along a rough main track would be shops, grog shanties selling spirits, and amusement halls, built of canvas or calico on a wooden frame. Prices of food and necessaries rose to astonishing heights. At the richest fields there were houses, hotels and dance halls, built of wood. The main recreations were drinking, gambling and dancing. Dance girls were in short supply and hairy diggers in pea jackets and boots, their pipes in their mouths, would dance solemnly together on a floor thick with mud. Stage shows were popular and Lola Montez’s sensuous ‘spider dance’ was a sensation in the goldfields in 1853. Diggers who struck it rich might whoop it up in the bars and theatres of Melbourne, lighting their pipes with five-pound notes and treating everyone to drinks. One man filled a horse-trough with champagne and offered every passer-by a free swig.
Within ten years the population of Australia doubled. The first arrivals were mainly young men in search of a quick fortune, and the diggings were wild and lawless, but the prospectors were followed by business and professional men, traders and skilled craftsmen, who changed the nature of immigration to Australia. They brought with them middle-class standards, and often wives and children. Yet courage, resourcefulness, friendliness, helpfulness and good humour were qualities admired in the goldfields, while Old World social distinctions meant nothing. There was a democracy to the quest for gold which helped to form the Australian spirit."
Sounds pretty exciting to me! The Irish used circular pans, a cradle or rocker, or sluice box or trough to wash or separate sand and silt away from the heavier gold deposited nearby the rivers. Once this surface gold was depleted, mines were opened to obtain gold from quartz - this took financial resources that the Irish did not have. Maybe this was when James Moriarty headed to New Zealand where gold was also found in the early 1850s. But the same thing occurred - the surface gold was depleted quickly by hundreds of prospectors and then mines were opened by mining companies.
So what was next? Stay and settle down in Australia or New Zealand? This was not for our boy! He headed to British Columbia in Canada!!
On December 19, 1980 they sent me a copy of page 205 of the History of Idaho Territory published by Wallace W. Elliott & Co. in 1884.
"James Moriarty is the gentlemanly and efficient agent of Wells, Fargo, & Co., in this place, as well as agent of the Utah, Idaho, and Oregon Stage Company. In addition to this business he carries on a thriving trade in clothing, hats, caps, etc. Mr. Moriarty is an upright, esteemed citizen of Idaho, and one of its pioneers.
He was born in Ireland, and in his younger days went to Australia, where he engaged in mining. From there he went to New Zealand, and thence to British Columbia, where he mined with various success. He left British Columbia for this Territory in 1863, arriving in Placerville July 14th. He engaged in mining for a few years, and then moved to Idaho City, where he has since resided. A view of his business place appears in this work."
So James Moriarty started off in Australia!! That was a surprise.
Australia was known to most of the Irish as a British penal colony - where Irish citizens could be transported for petty crimes as well as for political activity. But in 1851 gold was found in Australia - this was close on the heels of the 1849 gold rush in California. The British penal colony saw an influx of immigrants from Britain and Ireland and then the United States, Germany, and China.
According to http://www.patricktaylor.com/australian-gold-rush,
"Word spread quickly and within a few days 100 diggers were frantically tunnelling for instant wealth. The road over the Blue Mountains from Sydney became choked with men from all walks of life, carrying tents, blankets, and rudimentary mining equipment hastily bought at inflated prices. By June there were over 2000 people digging at Bathurst, and thousands more were on their way."
The website http://www.goldrushcolony.com.au/australian-gold-history-culture-info/immigrant-influences-australian-gold-fields/irish-gold-fields tells us a little bit about the Irish coming to Australia.
"Between 1851 and 1860 roughly 101,540 Irish came to Australia, mainly struck with gold fever. Most of the early gold found was alluvial, so the fact that the Irish had little to no mining skills, was not a problem. Once the alluvial gold ran out, many of the Irish worked as unskilled labour for the reef mining operators, or went into other professions available in colonial life. The diggers' needs meant there was a lot of available and often very profitable work, either working for or becoming brewers, cartage operators, grocers, publicans or even policemen, with many women becoming domestic workers, and general labourers. Many of the Irish enjoyed a much higher standard of living than they had left behind in Ireland.
 |
| Pan of gold after water washed the sand and other matter away - from www.alaskainpictures.com. |
The following website gives us a taste of what life was like in the Australian gold fields much better than I could.
http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/australian-gold-rush-begins:
"Arriving at Melbourne or Geelong, the prospectors walked to the fields, each loaded down like a human mule with a tent, blankets, tools, cooking pots and a supply of flour, tea and sugar. Some of them pushed their belongings in wheelbarrows. The fields were honeycombed with diggings, each with a mound of spoil, and dotted with the diggers’ tents or lean-to huts of poles and bark. Along a rough main track would be shops, grog shanties selling spirits, and amusement halls, built of canvas or calico on a wooden frame. Prices of food and necessaries rose to astonishing heights. At the richest fields there were houses, hotels and dance halls, built of wood. The main recreations were drinking, gambling and dancing. Dance girls were in short supply and hairy diggers in pea jackets and boots, their pipes in their mouths, would dance solemnly together on a floor thick with mud. Stage shows were popular and Lola Montez’s sensuous ‘spider dance’ was a sensation in the goldfields in 1853. Diggers who struck it rich might whoop it up in the bars and theatres of Melbourne, lighting their pipes with five-pound notes and treating everyone to drinks. One man filled a horse-trough with champagne and offered every passer-by a free swig.
Within ten years the population of Australia doubled. The first arrivals were mainly young men in search of a quick fortune, and the diggings were wild and lawless, but the prospectors were followed by business and professional men, traders and skilled craftsmen, who changed the nature of immigration to Australia. They brought with them middle-class standards, and often wives and children. Yet courage, resourcefulness, friendliness, helpfulness and good humour were qualities admired in the goldfields, while Old World social distinctions meant nothing. There was a democracy to the quest for gold which helped to form the Australian spirit."
 |
| Edwin Stockqueler, An Australian Gold Diggings, oil on canvas, ca. 1855, National Gallery of Australia |
Sounds pretty exciting to me! The Irish used circular pans, a cradle or rocker, or sluice box or trough to wash or separate sand and silt away from the heavier gold deposited nearby the rivers. Once this surface gold was depleted, mines were opened to obtain gold from quartz - this took financial resources that the Irish did not have. Maybe this was when James Moriarty headed to New Zealand where gold was also found in the early 1850s. But the same thing occurred - the surface gold was depleted quickly by hundreds of prospectors and then mines were opened by mining companies.
The above picture is of a placer miner using a rocker box which separates material from the stream bed - water washes out the sand and silt while leaving the heavier gold in the box. Picture is from wilkipedia.
So what was next? Stay and settle down in Australia or New Zealand? This was not for our boy! He headed to British Columbia in Canada!!
No comments:
Post a Comment