Friends and family of the Keelers would have reacted with shock and sadness as they opened their morning paper one autumn day in 1850 and read the following grim announcement: “James Keeler, formerly of Newtown, CT, and son of Roswell Keeler, formerly of Utica, NY, died June 14, 1850 on his passage from San Francisco to Honolulu, Sandwich Islands. He with his two brothers, had left home for California about a year since, and of the three, only one survives.” [1]
But to tell that sad story we must first go back to where we left them at the end of Part 1.
In late November 1849 William Keeler, his two brothers and their fellow Forty-Niners had just arrived in San Francisco after a long and tedious sea voyage from New Haven and were preparing to head to the gold fields. Eager to get down to business they remained in San Francisco for only a few days before heading up the Sacramento River.
They sailed, kedged and warped their bark up the river to the Steamboat Slough about 40 miles downstream of Sacramento City. Having decided to go into the wood and lumber business before heading to the gold fields in the spring, they set up their winter camp next to the river. Tents were pitched on top of wood floors that were raised 18 inches off the ground, and fireplaces and chimneys were installed for warmth.
The winter of 1849-50, however, proved to be a very rainy one. The Sacramento River rose above its banks and flooded their camp. By mid-January 1850 Kingsley reported that the water was a foot deep in their tents and had “completely covered every dry spot and [we] cannot get about without the boat.” By then many of the men had fallen sick with dysentery, typhoid and other diseases.
On January 17 Kingsley reported that Edward Keeler was “quite unwell, but hope nothing but a cold.” When his condition worsened he was placed in the hospital tent along with the other sick men. He died on January 28, with his two brothers, no doubt, at his side. On that day Kingsley wrote:
“This morning about 8 oclock Mr Edward Keeler died after about 10 days illness of a sort of brain fever. At first he was entirely deranged and was not at times all through his sickness in his right mind. His loss will be deeply felt by his two brothers William & James, and not a little among many of the company. He was of steddy good habits, and on the voyage displayed considerable ingenuity in the way of tinkering. He the youngest of the brothers was the first to be taken away from dear parents whome he had left at home to come to this country.” [2]
Kingsley built a coffin for Edward, took him a mile downstream and buried him in an old Indian mound, which was the only piece of dry ground. Edward Keeler was only 18 years old.
By the end of January the men had realized that the lumber business was too competitive, so decided to get to the gold fields sooner than they had planned. In early March they loaded up the bark and headed upriver to Sacramento City. They set up camp at Negro Bar about 25 miles up the American River and started to mine for gold using rocker boxes they had built. Kingsley mentions finding some gold but by then the river must have been picked quite clean.
In late March they learned that their prospecting company had folded and the men were to go their separate ways. Kingsley mentioned meeting up with William on the Yuba River in early June, but gave no particulars.
Kingsley also made the stunning assertion that William was suspected of having stolen $4,000 from the company safe. The evidence he provided was purely circumstantial, namely that William had “remitted money home and appeared to have plenty of money by him of late.” Since William was on his way home when the money was reported stolen, he had no way to defend himself against these allegations.
By mid-June 1850 William and James had had enough and booked tickets for home on the Samuel Russell, which had arrived in San Francisco the month before after a record-breaking 109-day trip from New York. Used in the China trade, the clipper ship was making its maiden voyage around the world. [3]
Tragedy struck a second time when James died on June 14, the day after leaving San Francisco for Honolulu. The cause of death is unknown. His body was buried at sea. James Plant Keeler was 26 years old.
Although newspaper death notices do not name the ship James was travelling on, it would surely have been the same one as William, for how else could his journal have made it back home (and eventually passed down to William's niece). [4]
Placed loose in James Keeler's journal is a poem entitled Lines: On the death of J. P. Keeler, who died at sea, on his passage from San Francisco to the Sandwich Islands. It was published in a Connecticut newspaper (possibly the Bridgeport Standard) sometime in 1851. Written by a person identified only as “E” (a sweetheart back home perhaps), the poem speaks of the grief felt by his loss.
William’s long trip home on the Samuel Russell took him by way of Singapore and Hong Kong where they stopped for three months taking on teas and silks, According to the ship's captain, with whom William and the other passengers passed their evenings in conversation, William had made “quite a little ‘pile’” and “was going home by the way of China on business.” [5]
On January 28, 1851 William arrived in New York City and from there home to Anna and their 3-year old son Henry in Bridgeport after an absence of nearly two years.
Although he returned richer than when he set out, the fortune he had sought eluded him. But no fortune could have compensated for his great personal loss. Six years later his second son was born. William named him James Edward after his two dead brothers.
Notes:
[1] Deaths and Marriages in 1850 from the Utica Daily Gazette (Family History Library film # 1435189).
[2] Diary of Nelson Kingsley, A California Argonaut of 1849, Publications of the Academy of Pacific Coast History, ed. Frederick J. Teggart, Vol. 3, 1914, University of California, Berkeley, CA.
[3] The Clipper Ship Era – An epitome of famous American and British clipper ships, their owners, builders, commanders and crew, 1843-1869, Arthur H. Clark, 1910, New York, NY.
[4] Daily Alta California, 1 September 1850, San Francisco, CA; New York Daily Tribune, 7 October 1850, New York, NY.
[5] Some Recollections by Captain Charles P. Low, Commanding the Clipper Ships Houqua, Jacob Bell, Samuel Russell, and N. B. Palmer, in the China Trade, 1847–1873, Charles P. Low, Boston, MA, 1906, pp. 113-14.
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