Gold Mine at Mathenias CreekGold Mine at Mathenias CreekBrother Thomas Smith, O.F.M., Carol Voss, Richard Drueke, and Betty and Gerhard Becker contributed to this story.
Index Family History Home Page
To the right is an excerpt from the page in John and Mary Schickell Schmitt's family bible referring to California and the year 1849. Gerhard and Betty Becker have deciphered the German script: "Im Jahre 1849 den 2ten Februar, reiste Johann Schmitt nach California von wo er im Jahr 1851 am 7ten April zurück kam,"and translated from German to English: "In the year 1849 on February 2nd Johann Schmitt traveled to California from where he returned in the year 1851 on April 7th."It looks like John was a "49er." Tiffin, Ohio. John Schmitt was born in Bavaria in 1820 and immigrated to Tiffin, Ohio, in 1838. He married Mary Augusta Schickell, also a Bavarian immigrant, in September 1847. They continued to live in Tiffin following their marriage. Their first child was born in Tiffin after John went to California for the Gold Rush in February 1849. The July 1850 U.S. Census for Tiffin, shows Mary A. Smith, 20, born in Germany, and a Mary A, Smith, 1, born in Ohio. They are living with Catherine Smith, 60, born in Germany. There is no John Smith listed, presumably because he was in California. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The United States acquired California and other southwest territories from Mexico on February 2, 1848, in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which followed the Mexican-American War of 1846-48, also known as the War of North American Invasion. See: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. John Smith left for California on February 2, 1849 the first anniversary of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. California was still a terrritory. It did not become aState until September 9, 1850.
Mathenias Creek Gold Mine. The October 1850 Census for Mathenias Creek shows a John Smith, 28, born in Germany, working as a miner. He is living on Mathenias Creek in El Dorado County, California. There were 16 pages for Mathenias Creek in the 1850 census, each with 42 persons. It is not certain that the John Smith on Mathenias Creek was our John Smith. Our John Smith would have been 29 or 30 instead of 28, but census ages are not very reliable. There also was a John Smith from Germany in the census for Township No. 5 in Tuolumne County, but he was a year younger than the one on Mathenias Creek. And, there were eight other John Smiths of a similar age born in Germany. Four had middle initials, which our John did not use. Some were not miners. Next to John on Mathenias Creek were two brothers, John and William Cordes. Because of future relationships between their families, as outlined below, their presence next to John in the census lends credence to the John of Mathenias Creek being our John. Their ages were 28 and 18. They were likely the sons of Anton Cordes (1790-1846) and Elizabeth Platte Cordes (1792-1876), who were immigrants from Prussia living in Alpine Michigan and had sons that age who were not living with them in the 1850 census. In the Mathenias Creek census, they are shown as from "Pa." Perhaps they said they were born in "Prussia," but the census taker thought they said "Pennsylvania." Perhaps the census taker abbriviated Prussia as "Pa." The Mathenias Creek gold mine is in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, west of the The El Dorado National Forest, 13 miles south southeast of Sutter's Mill. It is just south of Diamond Springs. Diamond Springs is 46 miles east of Sacramento, in the central Valley of California. Mathenias Creek is also called Mathenas or Matheneys Creek. None of these names can be found on present-day maps. But, as indicated below, the name appears to be a variation of Martinez Creek, which can be found on maps. A 2002 booklet by Doug Noble, Mines of El Dorado County, says the Mathenas Creek (Schneider) mine was one mile south of Diamond Springs. An 1883 History of El Dorado County by Paolo Sioli states that in 1855, the town of El Dorado, which is two miles south of Diamond Springs, was incorporated and included what was then known as Empire Ravine, Dead Man's Hollow, Loafer's Hollow, Logtown creek, Matheney's creek, Slate and Dry creeks. With help from the California State Library and the Map Room of the New York Public Library, I was able to locate the mine on a 1909 map of El Dorado County issued by the California State Mining Bureau and Lewis E. Aubrey, State Minerologist. It shows mines with dots and numbers. A Register issued with the map shows that the Mathenas mine is No. 70 on the map, putting it on a tributary of Martinez Creek. Using the 1909 map, it is possible to plot the mine on a present-day map. The Register has separate tables for different kinds of gold mines. The table for Quartz Mines, by far the largest, contains information about the Mathenas mine.
Mathenias Crteek Gold Mine on Martinez Creek. Using the 1909 map, it is possible to approximate the position of the mine on a present-day map. The white circle on the map on the left shows the Mathenias Creek gold mine, No. 70 on the 1909 map of El Dorado County. The black circle on the Google map on the right shows a corresponding location of the Mathenias Creek gold mine, on Martinez Creek, 0.2 miles east of the end of Tullis Mine Road, at latitude 38.668983 and longitude -120.817091.
Directions from Sacramento to the end of Tullis Mine Road, Diamond Springs are:
Return to Ohio. John and Mary Augusta's first child, Mary Appolonia Schmitt, was born in Tiffin on August 10, 1849, six months after her father left for California. She eventually went by the name Abbie Smith. On April 7, 1851, John Smith returned to Tiffin, Ohio, from the California. His gold mining days were over. He was away for over two years. There is no indication that he made a fortune there. Move to Michigan. Less than a year after John returned to Ohio, the Schmitts moved from Tiffin to Grand Rapids, Michigan, close to where the Cordes family lived in Alpine, Michigan. He had lived next to their two sons on Mathenias Creek. John and Mary Augusta's second child, Crescenz Joseph Schmitt, was born in Grand Rapids on March 21, 1852. He eventually went by the name Cris J. Smith. John and Mary Augusta's third child, Rosa Wilhelmina Schmitt, was born in Grand Rapids on October 6, 1854. In 1858, Mary Augusta's sister, Mary Appolonia Schickell, 21, married Francis Boxheimer, 29, at St. Mary's Church. In 1865, Francis became the owner of the Bridge Street House, a hotel on the east side of the Grand River. In the 1856 and 1859 business directories, John Smith was listed as a saloonkeeper. In 1856 the address of the saloon was given as Front Street. In the 1860 census, the family was living in the 4th Ward of Grand Rapids, and John was listed as a saloonkeeper. John Schmitt died in Grand Rapids on March 17, 1861. He was buried in St. Andrew's Cemetery. He was 40 years old. He left his wife Mary Augusta and three young children. John and William Cordes. As mentioned above, also mining gold on Mathenias Creek in El Dorado County were John and William Cordes. The 1850 U.S. Census for Mathenias Creek lists them right above John Smith. Their ages were 28 and 18. They were likely the sons of Anton Cordes (1790-1846) and Elizabeth Platte Cordes (1792-1876), who lived in Michigan and had sons that age named John and William. The Cordes family had immigrated from Helden, Germany, and settled in Westphalia, Michigan, in 1836. In 1844, they moved to Alpine, a farming commmunity just north of Grand Rapids. Alpine was in Saint Mary's, a German parish created in 1857 on the west side of the Grand River. John and Mary Augusta Smith moved here in 1851 from Tiffin. There are a number of connections between six Cordes brothers, the Smith family, the Schickell family, and the Berles family. My grandmother descends from the Smith and Schickell families. My grandfather descends from the Berles family. His father immigrated from Helden in 1871.
There were three other siblings:
| |||||||||||
