L.J. Hall

Responding to the gold fever that was spreading along the East Coast in late 1848, a band of adventure-seeking citizens of Hartford, Connecticut formed the Hartford Union Mining and Trading Company. The joint venture actually purchased and outfitted its own ship, theHenry Lee, for the journey to California. The idea was to bring supplies to the mining country for trading purposes and to prospect for gold along the way.

Company member L.J. Hall, who was a printer by trade, documented his and his associates' forays into the gold fields after the party arrived in September of 1849. Hall eventually settled in San Francisco, where he found full-time work as a printer for the Courier. In the following excerpt from his selfpublished bookAround the Horn in '49: Journal of the Hartford Union Mining and Trading Company...