My name is Percy Whitesville. I was born on October 12, 1830 to my parents Jean and Joe Whitesville. I grew up on a poor family farm my daddy owned in West Texas. My mom schooled my sisters and I since we had no way getting to the nearest school, because my daddy used the horses for work.
There was talk about gold being found in Colorado and California so my friend Jack Piles and I headed west. We stopped in Colorado and panhandled in the Colorado River. We did not find much so we decided to head to California. It was 1848 and we bumped in many Indian tribes but tried to stay near the cities and main road so we didn’t get killed. When we got to California there were several foreigners. There were many different colors of people and languages. I’ve only seen one black man in my life and that was the only other foreigner I have ever seen. When we got to San Francisco there were so many people and haven’t seen so many people in my life. We started mining, and man did we find a lot.
I saved up my gold wealth so I could find a pretty girl a settle down somewhere in the country. My partner Jack spent his on anything you could name. Gambling, prostitutes, alcohol, and he just not doing as great. Whenever I found my gold, I traded it in for a banknote at the San Francisco mint.
I had so much money so I didn’t know what to do with it. I saved almost every penny of it. I found some land to settle on and built the house I have always wanted. I found a woman to marry and we had