by 4th graders Maya R. and Caroline T.

On Friday during class, the door opened and a woman in a Gold Rush costume walked in. We were surprised and wondered who she was. She wore a long dress, apron and a bonnet on her head. Right away she asked Omar, Andi and Samir to put their desks together to hold her trunk and told Michelle and Max to get her things from the hall.

She introduced herself as Oh Susannah, but said we could call her Miss Susannah. She told all the girls that we shouldn’t be showing our ankles in public. Then the phone rang and we had to explain to her what a phone was. She thought the principal was on the roof talking into a cord that came into our classroom!

She told us a story about her travels across the country from Missouri. When she was 9, she traveled with her Pa, her Ma, her brother Thomas and her baby sister Mary. They left Missouri for California because they were poor and hoped to get more money in California. Miss Susannah told us that during their trip, one of their bulls got sick so they had to kill it because it would be cruel to let it suffer. When the bull was lying in the sun, his stomach swelled up and the boys came up with a game to run and jump off of the bull’s stomach. Then Thomas jumped so hard, he fell in to the bull’s stomach and his legs were sticking up and wiggling!

She told us that the wagon was 10′ x 4′ and held their house stuff and food for the trip. She had to walk next to the wagon and carried her baby sister because they all didn’t fit in the wagon. They traveled with two other families and the wagon holding her friend sank to the bottom of a river and another family was trampled by a herd of bulls.

We learned that they couldn’t stop along the way because it was just a long dusty trail.  They had to pull to the side of the trail at night to prepare their meals and to sleep. When they didn’t have wood they used bull chips to build a fire.

After they came to California, they were amazed by how big it was. She showed us real gold and fool’s gold and how her father would pan for gold. They would flatten the gold and put it in a bottle to carry. Her dad kept trying to find gold to get rich, but only found little pieces. He thought he was a fool for getting down on his knees looking for gold and breaking his back. Her mother didn’t want to leave their house and didn’t want Miss Susannah to leave either. Some of the women dressed like men to get more money from men’s work, but Miss Susannah’s mother started a laundry business to help pay for the family. She made $12 a day which helped a lot.

Miss Susannah told us that the Chinese men were treated badly. The tradition was for Chinese men to wear a long braid and people would cut it off.  Miss Susannah felt bad that the Chinese men were being bullied.

We liked having her in our classroom and we learned a lot about the Gold Rush!