Discovering Wealth
Spiritualists believed,in retrospect, that the discovery of gold in California at the beginning of 1848 was not mere serendipity, but the material counterpart of the opening of the heavenly sluices from above when the Fox Sisters began communicating with the spirits.
The Discovery of Gold in California, by John A. Sutter
A Spiritualist Begins the California Gold Rush:
[The party working at Sutter’s Mill was] a cheerful set, working with a will, yet with a touch of insouciance, imparted to some extent by the picturesque Mexican sombrero and sashes, and sustained by an interchange of banter at the simplicity or awkwardness of the savages. In [James Wilson] Marshall they had a passable master, though sometimes called queer. He was a man fitted by physique and temperament for the backwoods life, which had lured and held him. Of medium size, strong rather than well developed, his features were coarse, with a thin beard round the chin and mouth, cut short like the brown hair; broad forehead and penetrating eyes, by no means unintelligent, yet lacking intellectuality, at times gloomily bent on vacancy, at times flashing with impatience. He was essentially a man of moods; his mind was of dual complexion. In the plain and proximate, he was sensible and skilful; in the obscure and remote, he was utterly lost. In temper it was so; with his companions and subordinates he was free and friendly; with his superiors and the world at large he was morbidly ill-tempered and surly. He was taciturn, with visionary ideas, linked to spiritualism, that repelled confidence, and made him appear eccentric and morbid; he was restless, yet capable of self-denying perseverance that was frequently stamped as obstinacy.
[Note: He was not always actuated by natural causes. Once in a restaurant in San Francisco, in company with Sutter, he broke out: ‘Are we alone?’ ‘Yes,’ Sutter said. ‘No, we are not,’ Marshall replied, ‘there is a body there which you cannot see, but which I can. I have been inspired by heaven to act as a medium, and I am to tell Major-General Sutter what to do.’]
Early in the afternoon of Monday, the 24th of January, 1848, while sauntering along the tail-race inspecting the work, Marshall noticed yellow particles mingled with the excavated earth while had been washed by the late rains. He gave it little heed at first; but presently seeing more, and some in scales, the thought occurred to him that possibly it might be gold. Sending an Indian to his cabin for a tin plate, he washed out some of the dirt, separating thereby as much of the dust as a ten-cent piece would hold; then he went about his business, stopping a while to ponder on the matter. During the evening he remarked once or twice quietly, somewhat doubtingly, “Boys, I believe I have found a gold mine.” “I reckon not,” was the response; “no such luck.”
Up betimes next morning, according to his custom, he walked down by the race to see the effect of the night’s sluicing, the head-gate being closed at daybreak as usual. Other motives prompted his investigation, as may be supposed, and led to a closer examination of the debris. On reaching the end of the race a glitter from beneath the water caught his eye, and bending down he picked from its lodgement against a projection of soft granite, some six inches below the surface, a larger piece of the yellow substance than any he had seen. If gold, it was in value equal to about half a dollar. As he examined it his heart began to throb. Could it indeed be gold! Or was it only mica, or sulphuret of copper, or other ignis fattus! Marshall was no metallurgist, yet he had practical sense enough to know that gold is heavy and malleable; so he turned it over, and weighed it in his hand; then he bit it; and then he hammered it between two stones. It must be gold! And the mighty secret of the Sierra stood revealed!
—The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, vol. 23: History of California: The Discovery of Gold, pp. 31-32.
California, which, for some years after the discovery of gold, became the theatre of all those lawless passions and scenes of violence which ever run riot under such circumstances, might reasonably be expected to manifest the presence of those weird and earth-bound spirits, who, in the first few years of its fevered existence as a gold country, were sent in vast numbers into the spirit-world, through the gate of unnatural death, crime, and strife. The wonderful transparency of the atmosphere, and the heavy charges of mineral magnetism which permeates California, seem to be amongst other causes which peculiarly favor the vision of the seer and the production of powerful supra-mundane phenomena.
—Emma Hardinge, Modern American Spiritualism, 439.
Spiritualists also believed that uncovering gold from below was not only a sign of the treasure of knowledge and comfort and joy pouring out upon the earth from heaven, but also an effect of that spiritual opening: Spirits could lead people to earthly treasure (such as buried gold or misplaced deeds or wills), or people could find their own way to it with their newly developed power of clairvoyance—which allowed them to see through the impervious earth or through walls—or with their newly developed power of looking into the future—which allowed them to see through the impervious present, and calculate how and where to invest. Evidence of material wealth, therefore, could be evidence of the truth of spiritualism: If spirit directions were followed, and wealth was found, it proved belief in spirits “by its fruits.”
On whose behalf, then, did one seek to make a fortune? Did one seek treasure to demonstrate to others the truth of spiritualism, or only to acquire personal wealth? Spirits could be unkind to those who sought to turn them to their own advantage. They might be kinder if any wealth found were pledged to philanthropic causes, such as the promotion of spiritualism itself.
There was another class that thought they would make their fortunes out of the new philosophy. They would, by its means, discover some secret treasure—a gold mine—and become rich. The spirits knew, of course, all about their selfish matters, and would be willing to hunt up buried pots and kettles filled with eagles and dollars, and ransack mountains for placer. What excellent and knowing slaves they would make! What a glorious thing this spiritualism was! It made men rich! Without a stroke of labor they could procure gold, the instrument with which they could crush and fetter their unfortunate brothers. Yes, it would make them rich, and was really a glorious affair. They were excited about it. Who would not be excited when dollars could be made? They were sensitive, quite impressible—in the pocket, their most impressible part. The bubble burst. Lo! vain expectation! disappointed ambition! They found at last that the spirits did not come into the world to be lackeys for the amassing of wealth. They come not for the aggrandizement of the few, who in the beginning showed how unworthy they were by such selfish and egotistical questions. “If you would have wealth,” they exclaim, in the sweet harmony of the spheres, “if you would have wealth, labor honestly at some useful toil. Do not ask us to help you, or to give you an instrument to enslave your neighbors. Then to the field, the workshop; get you thither, and become useful, and not a drone in this laborious hive.” What a question to ask an immortal being—How make dollars fastest? There are men now who can make them fast enough, quite to the satisfaction of every body. There are men now who can pinch it out of suffering and agony—pinch it until the eagle on it screams.
—Hudson Tuttle, Arcana of Nature, volume 2 (Boston: William White, 1864): 56.
Clairvoyance could help the seeker search within the earth—made transparent to his or her vision—or make sense of the geological signs on the surface of the earth which pointed “as above, so below,” like hieroglyphics, to subterranean features.
The Pictorial Language of Rocks
Roll Away the Stone
Associating spirits with hidden treasure was not new with spiritualists, but continued a long tradition of American folk divination and scrying that included reckoning with the guardian spirits—often Indian or pirate spirits—that protected treasures from unworthy seekers. Such stories of spirits guarding treasure are ancient and worldwide.
Joseph Smith’s Visionary Treasure Hunts
Universalist minister and newspaper editor Hosea Ballou, long before the advent of “Modern Spiritualism,” wrote that atheist and ex-Universalist minister Abner Kneeland impoverished himself in psychic schemes to find hidden treasure:
Mr. K. was persuaded to believe that two little girls in New York could see, by looking into tumblers of water, any hidden treasure, or stolen property, whether buried in the earth, sunk in the sea, or above ground, wherever it might be. By their direction, therefore, he spent all the money he could obtain, to find hidden and lost property, with the strongest confidence that he should obtain immense treasures by these means. All proved abortive, and when he left New York, it is said, he owed for his board. [. . .] It really seems remarkable that one who could not believe in the revelations of the Scriptures, nor even in the existence of God, could believe that those little girls could see the money which Capt. Kidd buried on the North River, and the gold which was sunk in the Huzzah in hurl-gate, in the time of the Revolutionary War.Spiritualist quests for uncovering treasure simply continued the search for spirits to guide humans to treasure, but intensified it, based on the conviction that heaven was hovering close nearby, ready to help those who were prepared to accept their help, and that the earth itself was beginning to give up its treasures—as, perhaps, it was about to give up its dead, in a general resurrection at the imminent Millennium. But who shall know the day of His coming? There were many disappointments.—Trumpet and Universalist Messenger, June 15, 1839.
A circle of spiritualists in the interior of Ohio, a few years ago, were directed by spirits to proceed to a certain place, and there to dig to a certain depth in the ground; if our memory is right, it was just ten feet, where they were assured they would find a very valuable treasure. They accordingly proceeded, stealthily, it is true, under the cover of night; and after laboring until day began to break upon them, found themselves at the depth required; but no treasure was there to reward their labors. Something they now, of course, knew was wrong; and, accordingly, returned to their rapping table, which had by that time, discovered that it had made a slight mistake; that the treasure was twenty feet instead of ten from the surface of the earth. This, of course, was satisfactory to the faithful believers; and, accordingly, the party proceeded on the following night, and dug the additional ten feet; but through some misfortune, no treasure was still found. Another sitting was of course resorted to, when, as before, another little mistake was discovered; the treasure was thirty instead of ten feet from the surface; but there was an absolute certainty of its being there, accordingly, they were about to proceed to a third effort, when a rebellious member of the circle, without the fear of military orders before his eyes, broke silence and said, “Are not the spirits fooling us?” “Why, to be sure we are,” was the reply. “If you are fools enough to dig for treasure, we will keep you at it.”
—David Quinn, Interior Causes of the War: 104-105.
Hidden Currents, Springs, and Fountains
Sources of water—springs and fountains—were valuable in themselves, but also held an important place in the religious imagery of the 18th and 19th century, in describing the spiritual landscape. The experience of grace entering the soul was often compared to the welling up of an endless, living fountain. Contact, while still in this world, with the life beyond death was felt to be an overwhelming, unmediated experience. It opened up a stream of life and joy that, until then, had been hidden under the interior landscape of the soul. It was another sanctified life, a blessed world, pouring itself out into this one. Finding the way to that source of life and grace depended on developing clairvoyance or on developing an open channel of communication with those beings—spirits—who had clairvoyant powers to see into the earth as easily as they could see into heaven.
It is now claimed that the discovery of gold near Eau Claire [Wisconsin] was made through a spiritualist medium to whom the spirit of the Indian Chief Big Heart revealed the spot where gold was subsequently discovered.
—Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, December 19, 1884
A problem arose in trying to locate specific material features on and under the earth that were supposed to correspond to the spiritual features one perceived. Imagine one’s entire body and mind turned into a witching wand, a divining rod, pointing toward something no one else had seen. When others excavated at that spot, would they uncover that particular something? What would it mean if they did, or if they did not? The spiritual and material—could they mix, or were they like oil and water?
Abraham Jameswas born in Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1827. He moved often around the country as a young man, and took a variety of jobs—he taught school for a while, and then worked on the railroad as a conductor. During the California Gold Rush, he visited his brother in the gold fields.
Abraham James [. . .] was away to the gold diggings in Sierra county, under the shadow of the Nevadas. In this rough region he found his brother tunneling for gold. He had already reached the distance of 1400 feet. The shaft was deep and the mountain above crowned in perpetual whiteness. Here was a wild region ripe for exploration and geological pursuits, and all leading under the guidance of exalted spiritual beings, to the future mediumistic work of Mr. James, in tracing subterranean water courses, and discovering oil veins and minerals. These hydraulic and extensive quartz mining operations presented new fields for observation and investigation. Mountains pierced like polished shafts the storm-clouds above. Measureless caves were beneath. Those vast amphitheatres, roofed with stalactites and decorated with spar and crystalizations, thrones and altars, spoke to his appreciative soul of the might and majesty of the Infinite. [. . .] While in this portion of California, he was thrown into the society of Mr. James K. Chandler, a young man of Quaker descent, possessed of considerable medium powers, who, introducing the subject of Spiritualism, handed him Andrew Jackson Davis’ first work, “Nature’s Divine Revelations.” This, a feast of reason, lifted him into new cosmic realms of thought, and opened the portal-doors of the universe. Diligently perusing, he clearly saw that nature’s outward processes, the mineral, vegetable, animal, human, all, in orderly method, demonstrated the existence of inward forces—divine formative potencies residing in all matter. Also perceiving that molecular deposits, chemical changes, geological formations, and all structures depended upon inherent forces, he clearly grasped the theory that this visible world was but the phenomenal exhibition of that superior spirit-realm which comprehends the energizing forces, the primal forms and the eternal laws of the Universe—the DIVINE LIFE in and over all things.Moving to Chicago, James developed himself as a medium, and soon began to advise businessmen clients on investment opportunities, receiving instructions in trance and causing him to draw pictures of what often seemed to be geological strata. The spirits directed him to a spot on the West Side of Chicago, and told him that under the earth at that spot, a fabulously rich deposit of oil lay. He found a group of investors willing to rely on advice from spirits. They bored a well and many hundreds of feet below the surface struck—water. They had discovered the underground water table that still continues to supply pure water, gushing under pressure, to Chicago. The drilling company’s investors made the most of it, publishing a prospectus for other possible investors in various industrial facilities that would use the water—ice-making, paper-making, wool processing, and beer-making, among them. The spirits had directed them to this wonderful source of water, they wrote, as a demonstration of their existence and ability to communicate with humans.—James Martin Peebles, The Practical of Spiritualism: Biographical Sketch of Abraham James, Historic Description of His Oil-Well Discoveries in Pleasantville, Pa., through Spirit Direction. Chicago: Horton & Leonard, 1868: 18-19.