[Illustration: KIMBALL WEBSTER IN ’49.] The Gold Seekers of ’49 A PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF THE OVERLAND TRAIL AND ADVENTURES IN CALIFORNIA AND OREGON FROM 1849 TO 1854. BY KIMBALL WEBSTER A NEW ENGLAND FORTY-NINER _With an Introduction and Biographical Sketch_ BY GEORGE WALDO BROWNE _Illustrated_ BY FRANK HOLLAND AND OTHERS MANCHESTER, N. H. STANDARD BOOK COMPANY 1917 Copyrighted 1917 GEORGE W. BROWNE DEDICATION. TO MY FIVE DAUGHTERS, MRS. LIZZIE JANE MARTIN, MRS. ELIZA BALL LESLIE, MRS. JULIA ANNA ROBINSON, MRS. MARY NEWTON ABBOTT, ALL OF HUDSON, N. H., AND MRS. ELLA FRANCES WALCH, OF NASHUA; AND TO THE SWEET MEMORY OF THAT LOVED DECEASED DAUGHTER, LATINA RAY WEBSTER, WHO QUIETLY PASSED TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE “GREAT DIVIDE,” NOVEMBER 12, 1887, THIS NARRATIVE IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR KIMBALL WEBSTER [Illustration: KIMBALL WEBSTER AT EIGHTY-FIVE.] HON. KIMBALL WEBSTER. It is with keen regret and sorrow that we are called upon to record the going out of the life of the author of the following pages, who has died since work was begun upon the book. Mr. Webster was born in Pelham, N. H., November 2, 1828, the seventh child and third son of John and Hannah (Cummings) Webster. His education was acquired in the schools of his native town and Hudson, N. H. He grew up inured to the hard work upon a New England farm, besides working in granite quarries in his 19th and 20th years. In April, 1849, a little over six months before he was twenty-one, with others scattered all over the country, he caught the gold fever. Characteristic of his methodical ways, he kept a journal of his journey across the country and of his experiences as a miner in California and land surveyor in Oregon. His experiences in the Land of Gold are told in his own vivid language in the following pages, and form one of the most interesting narratives of the days of the gold-seekers of the Pacific Slope.