Spurred by stories of the fabulous riches that can be had by the adventurous, Seth Lesser left New York for California in 1850, following the California Gold Rush. The New York Herald’s August 19, 1848 edition broke the story on the East Coast, and soon the whole country was all agog. Though he knew nothing of prospecting, soon, he was packing his pick and shovel and heading for the West aboard a steamship.
For Seth Lesser and for many other prospectors like him, reaching San Francisco was, in itself, a feat. Many were not so lucky and died along the way. He sailed for eight months to the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama, surviving famine, typhoid fever and cholera. he Isthmus of Panama connects North America to South America. Traveling through the jungle by mule, he reached the Pacific side of the isthmus , waiting for a ship that would then sail to San Francisco, California.
The San Francisco that Seth Lesser set foot on was a boomtown. Businesses were being established everywhere and there are always demands for goods and services that need to be met. On the way to San Francisco, he became friends with fellow-prospectors with whom he would room in while they were searching for gold. Unlike his friends, he was not cut out for prospecting. Forced to abandon his original plan of being a gold prospector, he built his new haberdashery store in San Francisco as the demand for his business rose. his business thrived, making him a rich man, though he may not have struck gold in the California Gold Rush.
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