Volume 90, Number 1 - California Historical Society

neW england to gold
rush california: the
Journal of alfred
and chastina W. rix
1849–1854
Edited with commentary by
Lynn A. Bonfield (Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 2011,
356 pp., $45.00 cloth)
REVIEWED BY GLORIA R . LOTHROP, EMERITUS
PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, CALIFORNIA STATE
UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE, AND COAUTHOR
OF CAlIfOrnIA WOmEn: A HISTOry
In 1849, a pair of Vermont schoolteachers
made a matrimonial pledge,
promising that each would contribute
to a diary. The result is a unique commentary
on mid-century America,
a nation energized by its pursuit of
manifest destiny, invigorated by an
emerging industrial age, stimulated
by a religious awakening, and, above
all, enriched by the Croesus of California
gold.
Throughout the exercise, the two
remained independent thinkers
focused on the issues of the day.
Along with daily events, the couple
noted heated political discussions
about issues such as the Fugitive Slave
Act, the Maine Temperance Initiative,
and the emerging Free Soilers’
agenda. Still, gold fever was their foremost
subject, and it indelibly shaped
the hopeful newlyweds’ future.
The events of Alfred and Chastina
Rix’s marriage and venture to El
Dorado from their Peacham, Vermont,
home were penned in a blue-lined
copybook that passed through generations,
surviving both earthquake and
fire before reaching the safety of the
California Historical Society’s archives.
Lynn Bonfield devoted more than three
decades to research on the Rix journal.
Exhaustive investigation is evident in
the notes, appendix, and comprehensive
bibliography containing several
of Bonfield’s monographs and journal
articles derived from her exhaustive
examination of public records, newspapers,
private archives, and family
holdings.
The editor has preserved the original
document from editorial intrusion,
reserving her clarifications and
amplifications for the annotations.
As a result, readers may arrive at their
personal conclusions concerning the
denouement to this family drama.
Bonfield resists temptation to be the
omniscient editor, never drawing a
connection between Alfred’s tinkering
with such inventions as his armored
watercraft, the Dumbfudgeon, and his
later contributions to San Francisco’s
urban development.
Bonfield’s thorough understanding of
the diary is especially demonstrated by
chapter introductions that prepare the
reader for major events that often affect
the spouses differently. For example,
worn by the grinding demands of
daily life—making candles and soap,
harvesting, preserving, canning and
brewing, churning, baking, cooking,
spinning and knitting, sewing and
maintaining the clothing, even ironing
sixty-five shirts belonging to her family
and her eight boarders—the usually
benign Chastina observes ironically:
“In the land of gold you must work or
starve.”
Alfred, in clueless counterpoint to
Chastina’s domestic and childcare
workload, rains eloquent praise upon
“the cult of true womanhood,” protect-
ing women within home and hearth.
The inherent fallacy of the observation
is keenly apparent to Chastina following
Alfred’s departure for California
with a company of hopeful would-be
miners. Once in the gold fields, he
discovers that placer gold has played
out, requiring more costly quartz
mining techniques. Returning to San
Francisco, employed as a teacher with
a stable income, he plans for a family
reunion and embarks on a respected
law career, serves as justice of the
peace, and finds future successes.
As always, the Arthur H. Clark Company
has produced a bookman’s book
consistent with its respected reputation.
It is not only well crafted, but also
accessible. The index includes separate
entries for the more than three dozen
period photos. The appendix provides
genealogies as well as information on
Alfred’s party of Argonauts. Finally,
the bibliography is comprehensive,
including not only the canon of California
gold rush scholarship, but also
recent studies in related fields.
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