One of the stories I have heard for many years is that we have an ancestor who went West during the California Gold Rush in the late 1840’s.  He struck it rich and on the way home to Georgia, he was killed for the money he made in the gold fields. 

Similar to this story are many others – “I have a Native American princess in my lineage”, or “My ggg grandfather was General in the Confederacy” or “My ancestors came over on The Mayflower”. Of course, some of these stories are true. And the great thing about research now that so much is available – you can often take the clues from the stories and track down the truth – whatever that is.  I am always amazed at what I can find – whether it is online or in an archives or library.  I love the hunt.

So, with our family, the ancestor that struck it rich in the Gold Rush was Robert Nathan Wheeler, son of William Wheeler and Mary Light.  Robert Nathan Wheeler is a brother of Lucy Wheeler, our direct ancestor.  In court and census records, he is always referred to as Nathan. But one of his descendants, Judge Alonzo Wheeler shared a story about him stating his name to be Robert Wheeler.  In a pension application, his daughter stated his name to be R. N. Wheeler.

Nathan Wheeler was born about 1823 in Hall Co., GA. He married Elizabeth Beard in 1843.  They had 3 children – Mary Evaline, Johnathan H. & William A. Wheeler. In 1850, he is living in Hog Mountain, Gwinnett County, Georgia and is listed as a farmer in the Johnson household. He might have been working there and the census taker listed him in the household.  I don’t know where his wife and children are living at this time.  I suspect that his wife Elizabeth had died by 1850. I cannot find her in any records and their children were living with Nathan’s parents in the 1850 census.

The California Gold rush started in the late 1840’s.  The following excerpt appears in The Standard History of Georgia and Georgians by Lucian Lamar Knight available on Google EBook tells the story of Robert Wheeler’s gold mining experience in the Gold Rush.    With his 3 children being less than 6 years old, Nathan went to California.                                                                                                      

“Robert Wheeler, who was born in Georgia, during the excitement following the discovery of gold in California, went west by way of the Isthmus of Panama, arriving in Placer County, California, after four months of hardship and danger. The voyage from Panama to San Francisco alone took sixty-five days, and many of those who had been his companions at the beginning of the trip on the overcrowded vessel succumbed to disease and exposure and were buried at sea. He developed a paying claim, and spent five years in the gold camp. He then set out to return to his family, and had reached a little village in Mississippi, when he was stricken down by some parties who murdered him for his money, since he carried all the savings of those five years of hardship on his person. The family subsequently recovered about forty-five hundred dollars of the sum which he carried.”

I discovered that California conducted a state-wide census in 1852.  I located the index of this census, which listed Nathan Whaller in Placer County.  Upon inspection of the census, I found this Nathan Whaller who was 28 years old, in the mining industry, was born in Georgia and his last residence was Georgia.  

It is quite common for names to be misspelled at this time in documents. The Nathan listed in the 1852 Placer County, CA 1852 census is the right age, in the right county, right occupation and from Georgia. I feel certain this is our Nathan Wheeler living in the mine fields in California. How Amazing is that!!??

Who would have thought, I could prove we had a successful gold miner in the family?

To further collaborate the story in the book, I found a Civil War Pension application submitted by his daughter, Mary E. Wheeler Cain stating that her father, R. N. Wheeler died in 1858.   He was 35 years old and left 3 children.

 In 1859 in Gwinnett County, Georgia – Nathan’s father, William Wheeler, was appointed guardian of the orphans – Mary E. Wheeler, Jonathan H. Wheeler and William A. Wheeler. The following year in 1860, Mary, Johnathan and William Wheeler are living with their grandparents, William and Mary Wheeler in Gwinnett County, GA.