E. Gould Buffum

In the summer of 1846, New England Quaker E. Gould Buffum volunteered to serve as a lieutenant for the U.S. Army in the war with Mexico. He and the other members of his unit, the First New York Regiment, were sent by ship around the Horn of South America to serve as garrisons in the U.S. province of California.

As luck would have it, Buffum was already in California when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill. When his tour of duty expired in September of 1848, Buffum set off immediately for the mines. He would spend the next six months prospecting primarily in the environs of the South Fork of the American River, where he sometimes extracted as much as $500 of gold per day.

Before his enlistment in the army, Buffum had acquired some journalism experience working for...