This road trip's ultimate destination is the historic town of Weaverville for a gathering/goodbying of friends.
According to the plaque, "This town was created in 1850 by the early miners, merchants, craftsmen and worshippers as the gold mining and commercial center of the area. Here they built of brick, earth and wood the examples of white and Chinese culture that you now see. It survived numerous conflagrations and depressions to be honored in the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 as a community of unusual historic significance relating to the gold rush period."
We plan to explore the historic district tomorrow, so for this afternoon, we just meandered in the environs and found this interesting marker, "Near this site in April, 1850, William S. Hamilton, the son of Alexander Hamilton (yes the Founding Father), established the first store in the basin. During a business trip to Sacramento he died from cholera, August 7, 1850."
We love exploring Pioneer Cemeteries and Weaverville's is amazing.
This gravestone of Farrar Edwards is one of the oldest we discovered. In the California Archives there are five letters describing Mrs. Edwards' trip across the Isthmus of Panama enroute to join her husband and the life of a 49er's wife in Weaverville, during the early 1850s. With his death in 1858, it was probably a difficult life for her.
History was found as we explored. To quote Christopher Wren, "My walk through the cemetery was an acquaintance with local history."
We will learn more about the Whitmore family tomorrow, as their 1895 home is the Inn our friends are staying in.
You have to love a town with such a darling Little Free Library. Oh what treasures tomorrow will hold.
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2 comments:
Do you actually walk into that LFL? Wow.
A.N. Love, you have to love that name! Same with Flowers, another good name! :) I actually knew someone named Amanda Flowers, but I am fairly certain she didn't have a baby in the 1800s. Let me do that math, 1985-1864... NOPE!
The Weaverville Cemetery looks like a great place to explore! I can't imagine you looked up every gravestone for the additional history. You know what would be nice? Little placards with additional history at historic cemeteries. Right?
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