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James Wilson Marshall Biography

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My dog died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know. I never notice when he stopped going outside to play. As I was outside bury him I ran into James Wilson Marshall, a carpenter from New Jersey, who has invited me to his ranch. The ranch was near Coloma, California. Coloma was a really beautiful place, but even so, Indians were a pain in the ass here. I mean were basically were splitting the land fifty/fifty, there is no reason to get mad. Anyhow, James came to me to tell me about his new project he was working. He was planning to build a water-powered sawmill. He was contracted by John Sutter, a German-born Swiss citizen and founder of a colony of Nueva Helvetia (New Switzerland). I never cared want James built as long as I could help since he did let me stay at his colony, its only right if I did give a helping hand. …show more content…

James was the oldest of four children, and the only male. He always liked to tell me stories about his family and his adventures from New Jersey to California. At age eighteen he decided to head west, settling as a farmer near Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, after briefly residing in Indiana and Illinois. After several unhealthy and unsuccessful years of famine, Marshall decided in 1844 to join a wagon train headed to California. James arrived in July of 1845 near a river settlement run by John Sutter, who quickly gave him employment as a carpenter.
James economic prospects brightened considerably, and he soon owned livestock and several hundred acres of land. He was also among the up-and-coming settlers who joined forces with John C. Fremont early in 1846 to stage the Bear Flag Revolt, a premature bid to seize control of California that was snuffed out when American troops arrived to occupy the territory at the start of the Mexican-American war. When he returned, he came to find that his cattle had been stolen. Forced by financial necessity to sell majority of his

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