Charles B. Gillespie (ND-ND)

Sabbath

From A Miner's Sunday in Coloma, 1891

In 1848 James Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, and we all know what happened after that.

Gold seemed to bring just about everybody to Coloma, including Charles Gillespie, who was fascinated by the diversity of people, their singleness of purpose, and their amiable regard for a Sabbath, but a Sabbath loosely observed.

Passing up the street, I came to a large unfinished frame-house, the sashless windows and doorway crowded with a motley crew, apparently intent upon something solemn happening within. After a little crowding and pushing I looked over numberless heads in front, and saw--could I believe my eyes?--a preacher, as ragged and hairy as myself, holding forth to an attentive audience. Though the careless and noisy crowd was surging immediately without, all was quiet within. He spoke well and to the purpose and warmed every one with his fine and impassioned delivery. He closed with a benediction but prefaced it by saying: "There will be divine service in this house next Sabbath--if, in the meantime, I hear of no new diggin's!"

"A Miner's Sunday in Coloma," from Charles Gillespie's gold rush journal, appeared in Century Magazine in 1891.