A One-Name Study for the BARNUM/BARNHAM Surname
In the 1880 US Census for District 14, Cassia County, Idaho Guy C. Barnum was enumerated as follows:
Dwelling #67; Family #67
Barnum, Guy C.; W; M; 33; Boarder; Single; Miner; b. Iowa; Both parents b. Vermont
In the Fall of 1860, a party of ten prospectors led by Captain E.D. Pierce had entered the Nez Perce Indian Reservation in search of mineral wealth. After a month of frustration one of the men, Wilbur Bassett, found what he'd been looking for. Gold!
Bassett's discovery along Canal Gulch was far more significant than the Pierce party could have ever imagined. It was destined to set off one of the largest migrations in American history, and it would change forever the part of the country that would become known as Idaho.
Mining became Idaho's first industry. Even today, nearly 150 years after the discovery of gold, mining remains a keystone of the Idaho economy.
Within six months after Wilbur Bassett's discovery of gold, 1,600 claims had been staked along Canal Gulch, and Pierce City was growing by hundreds of fortune seekers each day. They came from Sacramento, San Francisco, and Vancouver. Their migration up the Columbia and Snake Rivers caused Idaho to be one of only two states to be settled from west to east.
The Idaho gold rush also attracted merchants, who set up a supply center at Lewiston. In 1863, the Idaho Territory was created and the tent city of Lewiston became its capital.
As the gold along Canal Creek panned out, prospectors worked their way south and east to find rich gravel beds in the Salmon River country. Ten thousand miners poured into the Florence Basin in the summer of 1862 and, for a time, the district was producing over $600,000 worth of gold a day based on modern prices.
1862 also marked the discovery of the most significant gold mining district in Idaho, the Boise Basin. In the Boise Basin, it soon became obvious that a single miner, working his claim alone with a pan or sluice box, was not profitable. Partnerships were formed, ditches were dug and water from higher elevations was brought thundering into the basin with enough force to literally move mountains.
By 1863, Idaho City had a population of 6,200 and surpassed Portland, Oregon as the largest city in the Northwest. The Boise Basin was soon overcrowded. Latecomers, finding all the good ground taken, fanned out in all directions. One party found gold along Jordan Creek in the Owyhee Mountains. There, Silver City became a boom town. Unlike many placer mining districts, the millions of dollars invested in Owyhee underground mines and mills would assure Silver City a long, if sometimes turbulent, future.
In 1863, Boise City was founded along the old Oregon Trail as a supply center for the Boise and Owyhee mining districts. Two years later Boise became the territorial capital.
New mining and processing technology was rapidly turning migrant prospecting camps into stable mining towns. Old water-powered crushing machines were replaced with steam-driven stamp mills. The air-powered drill replaced chisel and hammer. Mules began doing men's work underground. Large smelters were built near lead-silver lode discoveries at Bayhorse and Clayton, along the Salmon River. In 1882, 180,000 bushels of charcoal were produced in primitive kilns to operate the smelters.
A reverse migration northward began in 1881 when Andrew Prichard struck gold along the North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River. The rush was further fueled by the Northern Pacific Railroad, which plastered the country with handbills promising free gold in North Idaho for the price of a ticket on the railroad. But there was very little gold, free or otherwise, to be found.
Like the Owyhee district, the true wealth of the Coeur d'Alene was silver, hidden deep in the ground. The most notable discovery of this mineral was made in 1885 when Noah Kellogg—or his donkey as he would often tell people—located the Bunker Hill Mine.
It appears obvious, from the simple word "miner" following the name of Guy C. Barnum in the 1880 census, that he became part of this great Idaho gold rush.
In the 1910 US Census for District 67, South Marshfield, Coos County, Oregon Guy C. Barnum was enumerated as follows:
Dwelling #445; Family #482
Barnum, Guy C.; Roomer; M; W; 62; Single; b. Iowa; Father b. Vermont; Mother b. New York; Speaks English; Agent; real Estate; Works for own account; Can read and write [N.B., he was a roomer in the rooming house of John H. Bridges, together with the Bridges family of five and nine other roomers].
A Research Guide to the Genealogy of the Barnum/Barnam/Barnham Family Worldwide
AncientFaces - Family History Photos
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