Edward W. McIlhany

Early in 1849, twenty-year-old Edward W. McIlhany was struck by the gold fever spreading across the United States and the world. He left his native West Virginia that spring with nothing but a chance that he might be allowed to join a mining company already formed in Charleston, Virginia. Fortunately for McIlhany, his luck began before he ever departed for California: He was the last of five newcomers added to the group after the members decided at the last minute to expand their ranks.

Unlike many other forty-niners who departed from the East Coast by ship, McIlhany made the long, arduous journey across the nation's interior by wagon train with his company. He eventually reached California, where he prospected for gold at Grass Valley and on the Feather River. He later opened a general store and hotel in Onion...