Hi everyone, I've been watching episodes on DVD from the Ken Burns' documentary "The West". Don't know if any of you saw any of this series when it originally aired on PBS, but it's well done, IMO. I recently decided to "start at the beginning" - and watch it all the way through. I've just finished episode 3 and found I had to write to YOU FOLKS. :) ----------- This episode picks up just as gold is being "discovered" in California. Many of the Indians are now living in what would be "Oklahoma" - from the eastern "push west" mandates, the Trail of Tears, etc. San Francisco is known as Yerba Buena at this point. ----------- Now - in this documentary series - there are multiple narrators - multiple "viewpoints" - video - photos - graphics - letters and diaries read aloud - all coming together to "tell the stories". So too - each episode selects a few "individuals" so we can take that segment of history "with them". Make the whole thing much more personal - and for me - "real". ---------- Ok - so now I get to why I'm writing you! (Yes, just as longwinded as ever ...) LOL One of the individuals they selected for this episode was a fellow named William SWAIN. He was an average fellow who decided to leave his wife and brother in the east to make his fortune in CA. He ultimately becomes one of the MANY who traveled as one of the "49'ers" to CA. They showed a map of his trip by boat from LEWISTON, NY through the Great Lakes - up and down - then meeting up with a wagon train group in Independence, MO. We learn of their trip - in grueling detail. We hear many other stories as the scenes and stories shift about - as they do in life. ---------- Through all this - we hear his letters written home to his wife - and her letters written to him. Ooooooh, they were wonderful! And of course, by the time the 49'ers got out there - let alone all the Chinese who came from the opposite direction - he found it a CROWDED PLACE near Sutter's Mill. We learn of the mining camps - the life he lived - the letters that changed in tone to his wife til finally his brother writes him urging him to "come home - with no disgrace - if he didn't strike it rich!" ---------- Cholera was an ever present danger to those on the wagon trains - and to each Indian tribe they passed by (and brought the disease to). ---------- Many stories of the gold mining. To be honest, I learned several things in this particular episode that made me truly ashamed of "that part" of our history. It was so crowded in the mining camps - and all the "surface gold" gone by the early comers - that later on - greed and fighting took over. The attrocities began. The Indians were forced into "labor" for the Americans - and later, slaughtered altogether. Taxes were levied on "foreigners" (anyone "not an American") - that was aimed primarily at the Chinese immigrants. One historian said that btw 1852 and 1870 a law stayed on the books that collected those same taxes - that ultimately led to 50% of the new "California" state monies coming from the Chinese alone! Mamma mia! ---------- Meanwhile, it was no life of luxury for the likes of the average person there - mostly male - mostly 20s, some 30s. Hard, backbreaking - and with a dream that wasn't "there". Men like William SWAIN wrote home of what they saw - and told others NOT TO BELIEVE the newspapers and to STAY HOME. ---------- Ultimately, William SWAIN boarded a ship in San Francisco - and made his way home - the "long way around" this time - and returned to home and family in NIAGARA COUNTY, NY. He spent the rest of his days doing fine - growing PEACHES. ---------- Just thought you all might be interested to see a "local" highlighted in a national documentary - AND - the use of personal letters & photographs to help tell that story. ---------- Deb

Deb, Thanks for sharing this Ken Burns documentary with us. He does a great job with the various presentations he's made. Will have to watch for it. I agree with you, in that I too am ashamed of some of America's history. Evelyn

Deb said, > I've been watching episodes on DVD from the Ken Burns' documentary "The > West". Don't know if any of you saw any of this series when it > originally aired on PBS, but it's well done, IMO. I recently decided to > "start at the beginning" - and watch it all the way through. I've just > finished episode 3 and found I had to write to YOU FOLKS. :) Then she said, > > This episode picks up just as gold is being "discovered" in California. . > . . > >One of the individuals they selected for this episode was a fellow named >William SWAIN. He was an average fellow who decided to leave his wife and >brother in the east to make his fortune in CA. He ultimately becomes one >of the MANY who traveled as one of the "49'ers" to CA. They showed a map >of his trip by boat from LEWISTON, NY through the Great Lakes - up and >down - then meeting up with a wagon train group in Independence, MO. We >learn of their trip - in grueling detail. Dear Deb, When I read your message I wanted to jump up and down with excitement. Oh yes indeedy I know what an important part the William Swain diaries and letters played in the entire epic. In fact I'm certain that all of his story came from the book "The World Rushed In" by JS Holliday about the gold rush. It was published back in 1981. Of course everyone here in Youngstown rejoiced in its publication. Now I'm gonna be just as long-winded as Deb (like surprise, surprise!). I had already done serious research on the Swain family who settled on River Road, Youngstown, before there was a village of that name. Isaac Swain, his wife and children lived in a log cabin that they had built back in the very early 1800s. During the War of 1812 when the British and Indians came of the Niagara River and burned the Niagara Frontier all the way from Lake Ontario and south all the way to Lake Erie, the Swain's log cabin was destroyed by fire in 1814 but the family managed to flee eastward into Niagara County. Oh wow, I don't know how to keep this story short but trust me I'm trying. After the embers had cooled the Swains came back and rebuilt their burned out cabin. In later years their children grew up, got married and moved away. But there was one daughter, Rebecca, who turned her back on her Baptist upbringing. Rebecca, married Frederick Granger Williams, who was a counselor to Joseph Smith who was the founder of the Mormon religion and they followed Joseph Smith all the way to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Isaac was so furious with his daughter for her choice of such a strange new religion that he all but disowned her. By that time Isaac and his two young sons George and William (from a later marriage) finally completed building a sturdy cobblestone house that still stands today on River Road. It was while they were living there (after Isaac had died) that George and William set out a vast young orchard of peach trees. They were both experienced farmers. William married Sabrina and then when their daughter Lila was only one year old, William caught the gold fever, left his wife, his baby and left his older brother George to take care of the orchards plus taking care of Sabrina, Lila and his/their mother Patience. When William returned back home to the cobblestone house at the end of his "Gold Rush Adventure," he went back to what he knew best. Growing peaches. When I wrote my book on the history of the Town of Porter I included a long chapter about "William Swain's Gold Rush Adventure." I skimmed over what JS Holliday wrote in his book and picked out the general story of his long agonizing journey from New York to California and back again and condensed it considerably to tell all of his story. Note: if anyone wants to read the story I'm certain that I can find it on one of my disks and I'll send it to anyone who is interested. Although there is soooo much more I'd like to say about the Swain family, I know when I've said quite enough for one email. To learn a bit more about the family and the book, check out http://webtext.library.yale.edu/xml2html/beinecke.SWAIN.con.html#a3 vee