Sumner Family Fonds, 1849-1850
Cyrus Sumner kept a journal of his trip to California during the gold rush in 1849 and 1850. He comments on the death of a man due to cholera on his boat, his impressions of the Indigenous people he encounters, a buffalo hunt, and the process of looking for gold.
The entry dated May 26 [1849] contains his impressions of the Indigenous people he has encountered. Sumner writes that “the bugbear stories about Indians is all nonsense all we have seen of them since we left Independence were very friendly and many of them intelligent and more comfortable than half the Missourians."
Cyrus Sumner (1808-1850) was the son of Dr. Cyrus Sumner (1772-1834) and Mary Bell. Dr. Cyrus Sumner began a medical practice in Grimsby Township in 1806 and built a home on King Street in Beamsville. During the War of 1812, he accompanied Isaac Brock to Detroit as a surgeon and continued to serve in that capacity until the end of the war. Cyrus Sumner and Mary Bell had 10 children, including Cyrus Sumner Jr. In 1849, Cyrus Jr. travelled to California seeking gold. He contracted a fever and died in Sacramento City, California, in November 1850.
