About Daily national Democrat. [volume] (Marysville, Calif.) 1858-1861
Marysville, Calif. (1858-1861)

Daily National Democrat

The California Gold Rush was short lived, but its impact was profound and enduring. Between 1848 and the mid-1850s hundreds of thousands of people moved into the state in search of easily accessible gold deposits. Most of these "49ers" initially settled in the Sierra Nevada region of California, from Butte County in the north to Mariposa County in the south, establishing both mining camps and new towns in the area. Within a decade the majority of workable gold deposits were emptied and prospectors were replaced by mechanization and capital. Most of the "Argonauts" moved either out of the region or into nearby growing towns and cities.

California "mining newspapers," as they were called by one of their first chroniclers, Helen Giffen, sprang up in these newly settled towns as the initial Gold Rush waned. Not only were they some of the earliest papers printed in the state, collectively they chronicled a region as it transitioned from often lawless and violent mining camps to permanent settlements with organized governments and law enforcement. They also recorded the changing nature of mining and, as Giffen notes, "advocated mining and land reforms that were later written into California law."

Perhaps no city played a more prominent role in the early history of the Gold Rush than Marysville. The seat of Yuba County at the northern end of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Marysville was not necessarily centrally located in the region. It sat, however, at the convergence of the Yuba and Feather Rivers, the latter of which provided access to Sacramento and ultimately San Francisco. By 1857 Marysville was one of the largest cities in California, a strategic supply and distribution point for the mining industry. The introduction of hydraulic mining late in the decade, though, choked the rivers above and below Marysville during the 1860s, dramatically slowing its growth and eventually leading to state laws to curb the extraction process.

Considering Marysville's size and strategic importance, it is not surprising that newspaper publishing flourished there. The early California newspaper chronicler, Edward Kemble, counted no fewer than seven separate titles in the 1850s and deemed Marysville second only to San Francisco "in the respectability of her press." The Marysville Herald appeared first, on August 6, 1850. That title, and its successors through January of 1858, are all freely available at http://cdnc.ucr.edu. Seven months after the Marysville Herald ceased publication, the Daily National Democrat appeared. It was the last title to start publication during the 1850s, with John Rollin Ridge as its editor. In 1861 it merged with the Daily Appeal to become the Marysville Daily Appeal. The title continued under various names well into the 20th century.

Provided by: University of California, Riverside; Riverside, CA