Asa Hartshorn, a 49er, an adventurer, a risk taker, an entrepreneur. Gold is discovered in Coloma, California in January, 1848. Asa, a young man age 23, joined the Forty-Niner Gold Rush stampede.
Goals of this website:
1. To retain this biographical data about the adventures of Asa, my great-grandfather – for my siblings, children, grandchildren, cousins, the descendants of Asa, and those of his siblings.
2. To encourage descendants of Asa or his siblings to add new information to the Feedback page on any correspondence or memorabilia that exists.
3. To be as accurate as possible with events that occurred from the present back to 200 or more years. So, sources are cited in-text using these brackets [author page] if listed in this website’s menu under the page “Sources”. If not listed on the Sources page, then the full information is included [author, page, publisher, date].
Asa Hartshorn (no middle initial) is born January 14, 1829, the 6th of 10 children of Ryal Hartshorn (no m.i.) b.1789 d. September 28, 1857 and Joanna Marie Kingsley (the daughter of Rev. Amos Kingsley who is one of the founders of Colgate University). Ryal is a storekeeper until marriage when he switches to a dairy farmer in the township of Lebanon, Madison County, NY. [Hartshorn, D 233].
To avoid confusion, there was another Asa Hartshorn (no m.i.), his uncle, born October 23, 1796, a druggist in Hamilton NY who married Mary Catlin, the sister of the noted painter of Plains Indians, George Catlin. [Hartshorn, D 154]
Our Asa is raised on a dairy farm in Lebanon NY. Dairy farm life is 7 days a week tending to cows, horses, chickens, and fields. Since he is not the first-born son so not likely to inherit the farm, you can imagine he is searching for a way to earn a living.
Asa is born at the perfect time. He turns age 21 in 1850 and saves or borrows funds to take his younger brother Amos and travel to the vicinity of Dubuque Iowa and purchase 160 acres by trading a team of oxen. However, his first enterprise ends in failure when Amos contracted an illness and there was a threat of Indian attacks. [Roe, Ruth Hartshorn, granddaughter note].
Then, a wonderful event happens in California. On January 24, 1848 James Marshall finds gold nuggets in the American River adjacent to the sawmill he owns with John Sutter (near the current city of Sacramento and between Auburn and Placerville). When President Polk observes a shipment of 220 ounces of gold, he confirms it to Congress , in December 1848. That is the push needed to publicize the Gold Rush around the world. [Roe, R, trips to Coloma CA while living in Placerville area for 25 years]
GOLD FEVER 49’er GOLD BUG GOLD RUSH ARGONAUTS GOLD PANNERS GOLD MINERS
It is estimated that 300,000 people from around the world rushes for riches toward San Francisco or Sacramento.[Wikipedia California Gold Rush]. A travel industry jumps at the money to be made.
Asa Hartshorn (no middle initial) is born January 14, 1829, the 6th of 10 children of Ryal Hartshorn (no mi) b. 1789 d. September 28, 1857 and Joanna Marie Kingsley (the daughter of Rev. Amos Kingsley who is one of the founders of Colgate University). Ryal is a storekeeper until marriage when he switches to a dairy farmer in the township of Lebanon, Madison County, NY. [Hartshorn, D 233]
To avoid confusion, there was another Asa (also no middle initial) Hartshorn, who was our Asa’s Uncle, born October 23, 1796, died November 20, 1865, a druggist and watchmaker in Hamilton NY. The Uncle married Mary Catlin, the sister of the noted painter of Plains Indians, George Catlin. [Hartshorn, D 154]. A druggist is the term used in those times to reflect an owner or manager of a drugstore. In this website, he will be referred to as Uncle Asa. There will be more mention of Uncle Asa regarding our Asa’s pocket watch under the “Returns Home” menu selection.
Our Asa is raised on a dairy farm in Lebanon NY. Dairy farm life is 7 days a week tending to cows, horses, chickens, and fields. Since he is not the first-born son, he is unlikely to inherit the farm, and you can imagine he is searching for a way to earn a good living
Asa is born at the perfect time. He turns age 21 in 1850 and saves or borrows funds to take his younger brother, Amos, and travel to the vicinity of Dubuque Iowa and purchase 160 acres by trading a team of oxen. However, his first enterprise ended in failure when Amos contracted an illness, along with a threat of Indian attacks. [granddaughter Hartshorn-Roe, Ruth notes].
Then, a wonderful event happens in California. On January 24, 1848 James Marshall finds gold nuggets in the American River adjacent to the sawmill he owns with John Sutter (Coloma is near the current city of Sacramento and is between Auburn and Placerville). When President Polk was shown a shipment of 220 oz of gold, he confirmed the discovery rumors were true in a message to Congress in December 1848. That was all the push needed to publicize the Gold Rush around the world. [author-webmaster Roe visits to Coloma CA while living nearby in Placerville CA area for 25 years]
GOLD FEVER
It is estimated by multiple sources that as many as 300,000 people from all around the world headed toward the California gold,
The Ship
Asa chooses the clipper ship “North America” and books passage. He travels to New York City likely by train. Images of the advertising poster, nor photos of the clipper ship “North America” are available, so above and below are pictured similar ones from the same period of time.
The North America was built in September 1851 at East Boston, Massachusetts under the design and building by Donald McKay – apparently considered one of the most skillful and prolific designers: “No builder of any period turned out an equal tonnage of clipper ships, and no clippers were more uniformly successful than McKay’s.” [CUTLER, Carl C. Greyhounds of the Sea. The Story of the American Clipper Ship. New York: Halcyon House (1930).]
[Portions of the following information was found in one or another of the six volumes comprising William Armstrong Fairburn’s Merchant Sail, arranged and edited for the Fairburn Marine Educational Foundation by Ethel M. Ritchie. Fairburn Marine Educational Foundation, Inc. Center Lovell, Maine. (likely issued 1945~55).]
Donald McKay was also credited with giving his ships very appealing names, some of which were attributed to suggestions from his wife. We don’t know whether or not the Champion of the Seas was a name she suggested, but it made Fairburn’s list of appealing names. McKay also gave several vessels “patriotic” names and the North America was one of those.
> Owners: Nickerson & Co., Boston, Massachusetts
> Tonnage: 1,464
> Length: 195 feet, per Wikipedia, stated elsewhere as 194 feet 7 inches
The Sailing
We do know that the NY Times reported that authorities cleared the ship April 1, 1852 with Capt. Austin, in the NY Port, and on Saturday, April 3, 1852 the Times reported it sailed with 471 passengers and a goodly amount of cargo, including comestibles & potables. [Rasmussen. L for enumeration] bound for San Francisco, CA via Cape Horn, a distance referred to variously as 15,000 to 17,000 statute miles.
Ports of call & other events: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (sailed 28 May 1852); Valparaiso, Chile (arrived 5 July, detained for repairs, sailed 10 July 1852); “becalmed for 4 days within 80 miles of San Francisco” [Rasmussen. D]; supplied provisions to two other vessels along the way [Rasmussen. D]; arrived San Francisco (1 September 1852), 151 days en route. [Morgan, Joanie W. research].
The G. W. Blunt Library at Mystic Seaport Museum in CT states the “North America” was built by Donald McKay at E. Boston in 1851. According to Lloyd’s register the tonnage was 1388 (tonnage is calculated several ways with different results), dimensions 194 ft 7 in long by 25 ft 8 in wide.
Note: Ship reported “sold to South America in 1865” [per Wikipedia listing and Morgan, J correspondence 9-1-25]
The Syracuse NY Post Standard of May 8, 1852 was not optimistic, estimating that of 100 going to California, 1 gold bug would return with a fortune, 9 with something, 40 break even, and 50 ruined. Does that not sound like the endgame of startup high-tech businesses in the dot-com rout around 2000?
Below is an actual photo taken of a similar, but somewhat larger, clipper ship to offer you a sense of scale and complexity.
AN ACTUAL IMAGE EXISTS (BELOW) OF THE CLIPPER SHIP “NORTH AMERICA”
First, there must be a clarification to avoid misinterpretation. There was a second clipper ship confusingly named the “North American” with the letter “n” added. According to this source [Wikipedia/Clipper Ships/List of Clipper Ships] this ship was launched in the same year, but in Maine. It was used as an immigration ship during the Gold Rush and the Civil War.
We can discard this second ship as not relevant to Asa. Data from multiple sources starting with departure at the Port of New York, to the stops in South America enroute, and the arrival at the Port of San Francisco, confirms that Asa definitely was on the original North America clipper ship.
Even more confusion was caused by a report uncovered in the 1990’s by [Hartshorn, R] that a USS North American sank off the California coast around the time of Asa’s arrival. However, a search of old newspapers done at the California State Library in Sacramento in the 2000’s proved it was a steamship (hence the USS designation) that only traversed the shoreline along the Pacific Ocean north and south of Mexico.
Thanks to yet another source, a cousin [Ellison, D], who was curious and made a routine search about the North America, notified the author that a famous painter of ships in the 19th century, Montague Dawson, created a painting of the ship North America.
Further investigation on this lead revealed that multiple sources show Montague Dawson was very famous for highly accurate ship paintings, especially clipper ships. He had ocean experience with the Royal Navy, referred to original drawings of the shipbuilders, and was known to be meticulous in his accuracy, as well as creating realistic depictions of clipper ships under sail. Dawson completed two oil paintings of the clipper ship North America. Based on a search using [AI, ChatGPT], one is named Strong Winds and sold at Christies in 2007. The second is Land Ho! and sold at Sothebys New York in November 2011 roughly in the $80,000 range. The author favors the depiction on the latter and it is presented below [Courtesy of Sotheby’s]. This painting is duplicated on many websites where it is sold as a print or on canvas by a number of sources, including Etsy, and the author is planning to purchase one.
The above image is a copy of the painting by Montague Dawson of the clipper ship North America which is the ship that Asa boarded in New York City for California in 1852. He was noted for highly accurate paintings of Clipper ships.
There is an excellent book of letters written by a Franklin Buck who, somewhat earlier than Asa, speculated by taking items with him on a ship to California to sell for a (hopefully) big profit to fund his trip. That did not go well, as numerous others had the same get-rich idea. After a while he ended up in Weaverville for a few years during the same time as Asa, and stayed somewhat longer. Then he moved on to a number of other ventures in California and remained there the rest of his life. Go to the menu for Sources. [Buck, Franklin A.]
How to pronounce the last name “Hartshorn” ? The derivation is from England, and refers to a “hart”. a small male red deer [Merriam Webster dictionary] and to its “horn” which is the antler. So the correct pronunciation is Hart’s-horn, for the horn of a hart. I have heard, once, on the radio, a pronunciation of Hart-shorn which makes no sense as that would refer to shearing the horn off a deer, as if it were a sheep being shorn of wool, the past participle of shear [Merriam Webster dictionary]. There are a lot of common last names from England which refer to an everyday item, such as Meadow, Hill, Shoemaker, Smith (shortened of blacksmith), Archer, and Sawyer. or Roe (fish eggs).