Lost in the California Gold Rush: Where is Uncle Richard?

I was surprised when I learned that I was not the only member of my family who lived in California. My great granduncle Richard Corbett was a ship's carpenter who had preceded the Corbett family, my great-grandfather Dominick, his widowed mother Anastasia and big brother Patrick to the US. They were settled in Taunton, Massachusetts by 1855 where Patrick and  Dominick followed the trade of carpenter. They appear in the 1855 state census. However brother Richard is not with them in either the 1855 or 1865 state census or the 1860 US census when they were joined by three other siblings, Johanna, Ellen and William.

Two ads posted in the Boston Pilot http://infowanted.bc.edu/ gave me information allowing me to trace the family back to their place of origin in both Ireland and the US and recover baptism records for my great grandfather and some of his siblings. Richard was baptized March 21, 1830 in the parish of Oning and Templelorm, Fiddown, Kilkenny. His family was living nearby in Turkstown, Kilkenny when he was a young man. That town had a ship building business run by the Dwan brothers who lived on the same property as the Corbetts. Perhaps Richard and his brothers gained their carpentry skills working in it. He also may have experienced the lure of the sea since vessels could come up the Suire river from the seaport of Waterford as far as this small town.  The ads note that he “followed the sea for some years” . He had arrived in the US “some years before”. 

I believe that based on that information Richard appears on a passenger list, a carpenter coming into NYC  on the Siddons Jan 6, 1851. Did he jump ship there and decide to travel to the gold fields influenced by the many ads for travel there and stories of quick riches?

If so It is possible he is the R. Corbett listed on one of the ships heading for the Isthmus of Panama (where passengers crossed on foot or riding donkeys to meet a ship on the other side to head to California.) 1849 gold had been discovered and a "gold fever" seized many miners seeking to hit it rich. Ads like this one  in newspapers promised a swift journey instead of the long one round the tip of South America or the long and arduous one across the US by wagon. All the family knew was that he had arrived and was working in San Francisco when they wrote the ad looking for him in June 1855.

San Francisco early 1850's

If Richard signed on as a ship’s carpenter (on the Siddons or another) to get free passage,  he might have taken the much longer and more dangerous passage via Cape Horn. Whichever way he traveled Richard apparently reached San Francisco between 1852 and 53 and wrote to his family. He is not listed in the California State census of 1852. By the time he arrived in San Francisco the nearby fields were overcrowded and not producing the prodigious amounts of gold that they had in the early days. He  lost no time heading north – perhaps by stage coach or coastal boat for northern California writing from Shasta Co to his family that he was heading from Shasta to Yreka in Siskyou co. In June of 1855 the family was trying to get in touch with Richard and referred to his letter of May 1854. This much the family knew when his brother Patrick tried again to find him in another ad in 1857 searching for him in Yreka.They had evidently had at least two letters from him - the original from San Francisco and a later one from Shasta.

Stage Yreka California

Gold was discovered in Yreka in 1851 at a spot called "Thompson's Dry Diggins". Miners poured into the town which was called Shasta Butte City. Residents found this confusing with the town of Shasta, in Shasta County, so the name was changed.  Joaquin Miller described Yreka during 1853-54 as a bustling place with "...a tide of people up and down and across other streets, as strong as if in New York". More stage lines used the town for a stage stop than any other community in the state. The Deadwood district of Siskiyou included the towns of Liberty, Sawyers Bar. The miners produced a steady stream of gold until late in the 19^th century.

The rugged area on the California Oregon border

Chinese andCaucasian miners in No California

In the 1860 census for the Deadwood district in the town of Liberty there is a Richard Corbett of about the right age living with three other miners. All are Irish ranging in age from 33-22 and each has a total of $250 in property.  In that census the miners are mostly living in groups of less than 10 grouped perhaps by language. There are men from all over the US and from Europe. The town is predominately male and young. Large groups of Chinese miners are also listed, sometimes only listed by one name or only "Chinaman" and one age for all in the group. They were perhaps 1/3 of the population. Only 3 Chinese women appear none of them married.

There are only 13 families in the town 7 of whom have about 24 children between them in the 14 page census. Women and children are a definite minority. For the most part the census taker didn't bother to total them correctly in the tally at the end of the page. A recent widow runs a hotel with her California born children, the youngest of which is only a year. There must have been enough of school age children for a schoolhouse since one of the women is listed as a schoolteacher. All of the other white women are married most of them to miners.

Rare woman at a mining site

Those who run a business such as a hotel, a stable or a blacksmith shop, are considerably better off than the average miner like Richard with real estate and personal property worth $1000 to $10,000. The wealthiest persons in town are the lone lawyer, merchants and hotel owners. The presence of many Irish like Richard led to the  location of Catholic places of worship at Liberty and Sawyers dating from the mid 1850’s. There are two other Corbet(t) in town: a Mike also from Ireland and a William born in Massachusetts. If they were related to Richard they are not living with him. 

Since there were no other ads by his family one wonders if they were hearing from him by this time or had given up hope of finding him? Unfortunately the correspondence did not survive the death of his older brother Patrick around 1870 or his mother in 1873. His younger brother Dominick, my great grandfather was in New London, Connecticut in 1860, later moving to Vermont and fighting in the Civil War as a ship's carpenter in the Union Navy. He married in Vermont in 1867. My grandmother had little memory of her father who died in 1877 and never mentioned an uncle or her grandmother Anastasia. Dominick had named her older sister Anastasia “Annie” but evidently she didn’t know the connection.  Dominick named his his only son, John Richard,  after his father and Richard after the long lost brother.

John R. Corbett nephew

Richard does not appear on any of the Voter Rolls for California but then again he may not have become a citizen. Richard’s who appear in 1870 and 1880 in US census in California are not likely matches because age is too far off and most live far south of where he was in 1860. There is a Roger Corbett who settled in the Liberty area and is buried in the Catholic cemetary of Sawyer's Bar but he is younger and born in 1844 in Massachusetts. There are Army enlistment records for several Richard Corbetts, from Kilkenny who served in the 1860-1875 period. Is one of them Richard? In the 1870 census for Boise, Idaho there is listed a Richard Corbett,  born in Ireland, about the right age, now a US citizen, working as a miner. It makes sense that Richard would follow the mining lure still hoping to “strike it rich”.

So where is Richard? Even what I have discovered shows me that he was a person who liked adventure and was a risk taker.

 It is possible that Richard died before he was 50 as did his father and three of his four brothers. There appears that some congenital defect – perhaps heart trouble plagued these men. No record of death has been found in Idaho but their death records start in 1890.A search of California death records also came up a blank.record.

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/californiagoldrush.htm

How to find a great grandfather

wife Mary and children

My great grandfather, Dominick Corbett,  lived less than 50 years. My grandmother, Kathryn (standing in photo) my main source of my maternal family history, did not remember her father who died when she was very young. All she knew was that he was from Kilkenny and a carpenter who worked at a local scale factory in St. Johnsbury, Vermont where he was married in 1867 to Mary Shea (far right). She thought her mother had gotten a military pension and hence that he had served in the Civil War. She knew that his death was considered suspicious, even a suicide,  by some of his contemporaries and was sudden, as a result of taking medicine. That was all I had to start with and my assumption was that he had come, as did many of the Irish, as a young adult without any family. My further research proved me wrong.

I started with his marriage record which gave me little information and the 1870 census – the only one in which, at first, I could locate the family. Birth records for his children, including my grandmother, mangled his first name and gave widely different records of his birth place. A local newspaper had an account of his death (fortunately a local historian had indexed stories in the town newspaper saving me a long laborious page by page search) The death was attributed to an overdose of landunum (an opiate) which probably was the source of the gossip about a possible suicide. The article only indicated he had been ill and had taken the medicine and did not awake. His father was listed as John Corbett and his mother as Ana S. Grace.

I tried to “jump the pond” too soon – a mistake of beginning genealogists but fortunately Corbett in Kilkenny is not a common surname. Using the Griffiths Land Valuation (a tax record giving land occupiers and owners in mid 19^th century, I located 14 Corbett families among them a couple of John’s. The parish records of these towns were only available then in Ireland and I was fortunate to be able to visit Dublin’s National library and search the microfilms for the Corbett families I had. I struck out on the John’s – no connection but decided to try the one woman listed Anastasia Corbett in Turkstown, Fiddown. Because she is listed I can assume that she is a widow with John deceased in Ireland before 1850.  Bingo! The early parish records (of Owning and Templeorum) were extremely hard to decipher so the first hit I had was a Richard Corbett born to John Corbett and Anty (a nickname for Anastasia ) and then my great-grandfather Dominick. Another child with the same parents was listed but without a first name or sex given. Later when parish records went on line I searched for all the Corbetts in that parish with those parents and came up with others: Patrick and Johannah. 

When the 1860 census records were indexed by Ancestry.com I was able to find him in that census (Dominick is a fairly uncommon first name for the Irish) living in New London, Ct. a carpenter of about the right age.  That opened another mystery – since I had no idea he had lived outside of Vermont. I then tried the city directories which were on line for Vermont and other New England states. I came up with an entry in Taunton, MA for both a Patrick Corbit, carpenter and a Dominick Corbet living in the same town. A search of the census did not come up with any hits for 1850 but the state of Massachusetts took a state census in 1855 and there was my Dominick with Patrick and his mother Anastasia living in Taunton.

Using the “Missing Friends” database I was able to find two entries where Patrick Corbett from Taunton MA was searching for his brother Richard from the parish of Templeorum in Kilkenny. Richard, who had “followed the sea for some years” had evidently come first and headed out to the Gold Rush in California. They had heard from him in 1855 and he was in San Francisco on his way north to the Shasta area. A passenger list in 1851 into NYC had a Richard (carpenter) and an R.Corbett is on a ship to SF after having crossed the Isthmus of Panama in both 1852 and 55. This might be Richard. There were two postings on Missing Friends but no indication he had been found. Two R.L. Corbetts were found on lists going to California via the Isthmus of Panama or Nicargua one in Oct 1851 and one in 1855. In a "Missing Friends ad of 1855 it notes that he "left some years ago, followed the sea for some time and was in San Francisco in May1854"  Yreka, Sisyou Co is noted in the 1857 ad saying he had been in Shasta Co in 1856 and had about to leave for Yreka.  

          

The 1860 census had some Corbetts in the Shasta area including Richard Corbet 25, a miner in Liberty, Klamath, postoffice Sawyers Mill in northern California. An M. Corbet also lived in the same area.  Our Richard was born in 1830 but the age is close enough to be him. After that he doesn’t appear in either census records or death records for the area.  No one that fits appears in subsequent census except for an Idaho miner in Idaho city, Boise named Richard Corbott in the 1870 census.  A Roger Corbett appears in the Shasta area of No. California in local records origin Massachusetts. So what happened to Richard remains a mystery. A 1914 "Missing Friends" ad is looking for the heirs of a Richard Corbett about the right age but birthplace is listed as near Carrick on Suir, says he was in California in 1854 and from 1871-1896 in Montana, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Said to have relatives in Pittsburg, Vernon Co Missouri and NY. (age fits, Fiddown is near Carrick but cannot find in any census for 1900, 1910 for the states listed.)

I could not find Anastasia Corbett and her family in 1860 census in Taunton even though she is listed as living there in the city directory. On the census index for Taunton the census taker put ID as the abbreviation for Ireland and consequently the index listed them from Idaho when I finally found her by using her first name and birth date and place. The last name is hard to read but was indexed as Comfur rather than Corbett. He son Patrick by now married is also listed in Taunton. Now there are more children with Anastasia, two girls Johannah and Ellen and a boy William b. about 1842. In the Templelorum records I was able to find Johannah’s baptism as well as Richard and Patrick’s. Ellen’s birth date corresponds to the unnamed child in the same register but William’s baptism is nowhere to be found.

The Taunton MA census and city directories help to trace the family in that town. Patrick and wife Anne Curry’s marriage record is on a MA database of marriages as well as their children. No records of marriage for the two girls have been located. There are several possibilities for William in census. Patrick’s marriage and the baptisms of most of his children are in St. Mary’s parish in Taunton, MA. A search of that register shows Dominick as the godparent of his first daughter Catherine in 1858. That child died young and perhaps Dominick named his daughter Kathryn, my grandmother, for his little niece, 

By going through the St. Johnsbury, Vt parish register page by page I located Dominick there as a wedding witness twice in 1861 long before he married his wife Mary Shea in 1867. He appears in military and pension records validating a family oral tradition that his wife Mary received a military pension. The following information comes from that listing: Dominick Corbett , Occupation: Carpenter Enlistment Date: 11 Feb 1864 Enlistment Place: Boston, Massachusetts Side Served: Union State Served: U.S. Navy Service Record: Promoted to Full Carpenter's Mate.Enlisted as a Landsman on 11 February 1864 at the age of 25. Enlisted in Navy Regiment U.S. Navy  on 11 Feb 1864. Discharged from Navy Regiment U.S. Navy  on 1 Mar 1865. Dominick Corbett Publication: M1279 Pension Approval: Approved File Number: 15835 Certification Number: 5297 Fiche Number: 4555 Archive: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Collection: U.S. Navy Pensions Index (1890 wife Mary listed as widow of veteran in Veterans schedule) 

According to other records  He served on the Tristam Shandy from August 12, 1864 to June 17, 1865 (doesn't correspond with above) as well as the Marrasoit and the Ohio widow Mary - pension applied for 1885 - This ship was a captured Confederate blockade runner that was converted at the Boston Navy yard for service in the US Navy - was it possible that he worked on the ship which was put to sea in August of 1864 and decommisioned in June of 1865.Dominick Corbett Publication: M1279 Pension Approval: Approved File Number: 15835 Certification Number: 5297 Fiche Number: 4555 Archive: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Collection: U.S. Navy Pensions Index

The full pension application (available on Footnote) and accessed at the National Archives in Waltham,, MA gave me the entire digital copy of his wife’s pension application. From that I learned the exact dates he served on each ship from his enlistment in Feb 1864. He was a landsman, lowest Navy rank, denoting a person with less than a year of sea experience. Until March 7 he was on the Ohio, an obsolete “ship of the line” of the same vintage as “Old Ironsides”. It was used as a training vessel. On March 8 he was assigned to the Massasoit  (commissioned on that date) as Carpenter’s Mate until July 27 1864 when that ship was decommissioned (later recommissioned in August) This ship did not leave the Navy Yard during that time. Then he found himself back as a Landsman very briefly July 29 until August 12 on the Ohio. Because the Tristram Shandy his next ship was being refurbrished in Charleston Navy Yard near Boston, Dominick might have worked on the refitting of that ship. On August 13 when he was assigned to the Tristram Shandy first as a Landsman and then as Carpenter’s Mate which was his rank on discharge. It was on this ship (later called the Boxer) that he served until March 1 1865.

Looking at the Navy records using Google books to find correspondence and histories, Dominck’s movements during his Navy career can be followed. His pension record includes a record of wounds received around Dec 5 and of his treatment on Dec 7-10 on board the Tristram Shandy. His wife noted he was wounded in left thigh and side and she attributed his later heart disease to this war experience. (since his father and at least two of his brothers appear to have died before the age of 50 probably from heart disease it seems the cause was probably genetic) The medical record from the log of the Tristram Shandy quoted in the pension record says that the cause of the illness was not noted. His wife indicated that they were wounds not just an illness, The treatment appears to have been only a cathartic pill and another medication which is hard to read and may be “doveri or Dovers grx with the notation “at nightly rush”.  After three days the notation is “much improved, Whiskey duty”. 

A study of the movements of the ship Tristram Shandy show that it is part of the North Atlantic Squadron which blockaded the North Carolina coast and was situated off Wilmington, NC. The diagram of ships for the 2^nd assault on Ft. Fisher shows the ship as part of the “reserves” behind the main warships. In a book from google.com I discovered the correspondence of the Navy during this time including some from the Tristram Shandy captain and from other ships mentioning the ship. In the pension records it is noted that he received “prize money” and the incident that led to this, capture of the blockade runner Bleinheim coming from Nassau to Wilmington, is described in the Navy reports.. The Blenheim was active Oct. 1864 to Jan. 1865, 4 for 5 in successful trips; and captured by the U.S.S. Tristram Shandy at Wilmington on Jan. 25, 1865 Although it does not say how much Dominick received a sailor (John Dunlap alias Isaac Babb a former Confederate soldier) who also served on the Tristram Shandy as a Landsman received $18.26. This sailor also enlisted in Boston and served on many of the same ships as Dominick Corbett.[1]

From the Navy correspondence there is no mention of the Tristram Shandy participating in any military action on the dates when Dominick was wounded. Some sailors participated in the battle of Pickets Landing early in December but the ship Tristram Shandy is not named as participating. 

In 2005 his great great granddaughter Kathryn Parocai was married on the beach in North Carolina almost exactly opposite the position Dominick Corbett's ship had in 1865. Coincidence but a bit spooky. 

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[1]  http://jebabb.us/images/Vignettes/Babb/BabbImages/01-INBabb.htm “Prior to the parole and exchange, (of his captured Confederate unit) Isaac enrolled from the Confederate Prisoners at Camp Morton, Indiana on June 11, 1863 in the 23rd Battery of the Indiana 8th Artillery Volunteers in the rank of Private and was mustered on June 18, 1863. Fearing possible capture and execution as a traitor by the Confederacy, Isaac quit his post on September 17, 1863. He then enlisted under the alias "John Dunlap" in the U.S. Navy at Boston on February 17, 1864. He served as a Landsman on the USS Ohio from 02/17/1864 to 03/09/1864, on the USS Massasoit, a 1173-ton Sassacus class "double-ender" steam gunboat, from 03/10/1864 to 07/28/1864, again on the USS Ohio from 07/29/1864 to 08/12/1864 and finally on the Tristam Shandy, a schooner-rigged, iron-hulled sidewheel steamer,  from 08/13/1864 until discharged on 03/01/1865.

Until the last few months of the Civil War, Fort Fisher kept North Carolina's port of Wilmington open to blockade-runners supplying necessary goods to Confederate armies inland. By 1865, the supply line through Wilmington was the last remaining supply route open to General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The Union army and navy planned several attacks on Fort Fisher and the port of Wilmington, but made no attempt until December 24, 1864. After two days of fighting with little headway, Union commanders concluded that the fort was too strong to assault and withdrew their forces. However, they returned for a second attempt on January 12, 1865. For two and one-half days, Federal ships bombarded the fort on both land and sea face.

On January fifteenth, Union sailors and more than 3,300 infantry, including the 27th U.S. Colored Troops, assaulted the land face. After several hours of fierce hand-to-hand combat, Union troops captured the fort that night. The fall of Fort Fisher, after the massive assault, helped seal the fate of the Confederacy. Isaac was one of 18 (possibly 22) from the Tristram Shandy that took part in the amphibious phase of the assault.  The Tristram Shandy, although classified as a reserve, participated in two assaults on the fort; the first under the command of Acting Ensign Ben Wood and the second under the command of Acting V. Lieut. F. M. Green.

As was the practice at the time, a bounty was paid for the capture of ships belonging to the opposing forces. On January 25, 1865, after the fall of Fort Fisher, the Tristram Shandy and her crew captured the blockade runner Blenheim. Isaac’s share of the bounty was $18.26 (See Tristam Shandy for more about the capture of the Blenheim). ‘