A Counterfeiter's Paradise (47 page)

181, Samuel was a seventh-generation

The population of Montpelier in 1820 was 2,308, according to the federal census. State House: Abby Maria Hemenway and Eliakim Persons Walton,
The History of the Town of Montpelier
(Montpelier: A. M. Hemenway, 1882), p. 285. Early settlement of Montpelier: Daniel Pierce Thompson,
History of the Town of Montpelier
(Montpelier: E. P. Walton, 1860), pp. 38–58, 74–83.

181–182, Montpelier’s unhurried pace

Montpelier’s early manufacturing and founding of bank: Hemenway and Walton,
The History of the Town of Montpelier
, pp. 274–277, 281. History of town jail: Thompson,
History of the Town of Montpelier
, p. 108. Counterfeiting trade between Canada and the northern United States: Stephen Mihm,
A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), pp. 66–102.

182, At the age

Upham’s early life: F. K. Upham,
Upham Genealogy
, pp. 349–351. Heady era of Wall Street: Charles R. Geisst,
Wall Street: A History: From Its Beginnings to the Fall of Enron
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004 [1997]), pp. 35–47. Slum life in New York: Luc Sante,
Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003 [1991]), pp. 23–30.

182–183, It wasn’t until

Upham’s marriage: F. K. Upham,
Upham Genealogy
, p. 349. His wife’s name is given as Ann Eliza Bancroft in Raymond Finley Hughes,
Hughes Family of Cape May County, New Jersey, 1650–1950
(Salem, MA: published by the author, 1950), p. 80, and in Paul Sturtevant Howe,
Mayflower Pilgrim Descendants in Cape May County, New Jersey
(Cape May, NJ: Albert R. Hand, 1921), p. 171. The Paul Sturtevant Howe genealogy says she was born in Fishing Creek, New Jersey, on April 22, 1829. Upham’s daughter Marion was born on April 8, 1848, according to F. K. Upham,
Upham Genealogy
, p. 351.

183, On February 2, 1849

All descriptions of life aboard the
Osceola
are drawn from S. C. Upham,
Notes of a Voyage to California via Cape Horn
, pp. 23–217; a sketch of the
Osceola
in a gale appears on p. 113. The ship sailed 19,308 miles from Philadelphia to San Francisco, according to Upham’s final tally on p. 217. See also Charles R. Schultz,
Forty-niners’Round the Horn
(Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina, 1999).

183, The richer travelers

“Have been a rolling-stone…”:
S. C. Upham,
Notes of a Voyage to California via Cape Horn
, pp. 33–34.

183–184, The romance had been

Marshall’s discovery and origins of the gold rush: H. W. Brands,
The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream
(New York: Doubleday, 2002), pp. 1–24, 69–72.
“whose banks and bottoms…”: New York Herald
, September 17, 1848.
“abundance of gold”:
from President Polk’s 1848 State of the Union address, quoted in Brands,
The Age of Gold
, p. 70.

184, Polk’s announcement officially

Gold rush: Brands,
The Age of Gold
, pp. 43–71.
“infection”:
quoted ibid., p. 44.
“fever”:
quoted ibid., p. 43.

184–185, While global in scale

“industry, productive labor…”:
Boston Courier
, quoted ibid., p. 71.

185, When gold fever

Packing for the trip and boarding the
Osceola
: S. C. Upham,
Notes of a Voyage to California via Cape Horn
, pp. ix–xi, 23.

186, In the book’s

“a narration of
facts
…”:
ibid., p. x.

186, Life on the
Osceola

Four months after departing, Upham had already gained fifteen pounds.
“[W]ith the roaring…”:
ibid., p. 115.

186–187, Although he faithfully

I’m grateful to Elizabeth Sinclair, a genealogist in Texas, for providing me with a photograph of a painting of Captain James Fairfowl.

187–188, They learned that

“idle, indolent…”:
S. C. Upham,
Notes of a Voyage to California via Cape Horn
, p. 157.

188, It took the
Osceola

The
Osceola
left Talcahuano harbor on May 27, 1849, and passed through the Golden Gate on August 5, 1849.
“queer place”:
ibid., p. 221. Population of San Francisco in summer of 1849: Frank Soulé, John H. Gihon, and James Nisbet,
The Annals of San Francisco
(New York: D. Appleton, 1854), p. 226. San Francisco in 1849: ibid., pp. 243–263; Brands,
The Age of Gold
, pp. 247–256; and S. C. Upham,
Notes of a Voyage to California via Cape Horn
, pp. 218–226, 265–268.
“rivers of mud”:
ibid., p. 268.

188–189, Upham pitched his tent

“A graduate of Yale…”:
S. C. Upham,
Notes of a Voyage to California via Cape Horn
, p. 226.

189, The successful prospectors

“Those who had expected…”:
ibid., p. 250. Upham’s short-lived mining career: ibid., pp. 229–253.

189, When Upham returned

“The saw and hammer…”:
ibid., p. 257. Population growth: Soulé, Gihon, and Nisbet,
The Annals of San Francisco
, p. 244.
“I had a vision…”:
S. C. Upham,
Notes of a Voyage to California via Cape Horn
, p. 259.

190, While he clearly had

The
Pacific
News
: S. C. Upham,
Notes of a Voyage to California via Cape Horn
, pp. 259–261, 385–390. Copies of the
Pacific News
are available on microfilm in the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room at the Library of Congress.

190, Living and working

The Plaza: Soulé, Gihon, and Nisbet,
The Annals of San Francisco
, pp. 259, 271–272, 279–280; Zoeth Skinner Eldredge,
The Beginnings of San Francisco, from the
Expedition of Anza, 1774, to the City Charter of April 15, 1850
, vol. 2 (San Francisco: Published by the author, 1912), p. 598; and S. C. Upham,
Notes of a Voyage to California via Cape Horn
, p. 257. On p. 271, Upham notes that the first theatrical performance in San Francisco took place in January 1850, in Washington Hall opposite the Plaza.

190–191, Upham loved newspapers

The
Sacramento Transcript
: S. C. Upham,
Notes of a Voyage to California via Cape
Horn
, pp. 275–278, 390–391. The newspaper was located on Second Street, between J and K streets. Copies of the
Transcript
are available on microfilm in the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room at the Library of Congress. Squatter war: ibid., pp. 333–351.

191, Upham had come

“almost magical”:
ibid., p. 307.
“We sincerely wish…”:
from the farewell to Upham printed in the
Transcript
, reproduced ibid., pp. 352–353.

191, William Lewis Herndon

Herndon’s life: Normand E. Klare,
The Final Voyage of the
Central America,
1857: The Saga of a Gold Rush Steamship, the Tragedy of Her Loss in a Hurricane, and the Treasure Which Is Now Recovered
(Spokane, WA: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1992), pp. 29–36. The storm: ibid., pp. 63–119.

191–192, Herndon, a slim man

“human beings…”:
quoted ibid. p. 114. See also Gary Kinder,
Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea
(New York: Grove, 1998).

192, Four hundred and thirty-five

Body count: Klare,
The Final Voyage of the
Central America, p. 247. The image in
Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper
appeared on the front page of the October 3, 1857, issue. Public response to disaster: Klare,
The Final Voyage of the
Central America, pp. 146–147; financial fallout from the loss of gold discussed on pp. 195–202. According to the
New York Herald
, September 19, 1857, the news of the shipwreck caused alarm on Wall Street on the morning of September 18, 1857, but the panic had mostly abated by the afternoon.

192–193, To get from California

Gold’s route: Klare,
The Final Voyage of the
Central America, pp. 39–62. Upham’s return to Philadelphia: S. C. Upham,
Notes of a Voyage to California via Cape Horn
, pp. 354–380.
“manly, vigorous…”:
ibid., p. 308. America in 1857: George Washington Van Vleck,
The Panic of 1857: An Analytical Study
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1943), pp. 1–21, and Kenneth M. Stampp,
America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 [1990]), pp. 15–45.

193, On August 24, 1857

Origins of the Panic: Bray Hammond,
Banks and Politics in America: From the Revolution to the Civil War
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991 [1957]), pp. 707–712; Van Vleck,
The Panic of 1857
, pp. 60–73; and James L. Huston,
The Panic of 1857 and the Coming of the Civil War
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987), pp. 14–18.

193–194, This contraction of credit

The Panic taking Americans by surprise: Huston,
The Panic of 1857
, pp. 14–19. Widespread suffering: Van Vleck,
The Panic of 1857
, pp. 74–77, and Stampp,
America in 1857
, pp. 224–228. Protests in New York: Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace,
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 849–850.

194, Decades of laissez-faire

Country’s transformation in the years before 1857: Hammond,
Banks and Politics in America
, pp. 671–673, 698–709. Period of growth before the Panic: Van Vleck,
The Panic of 1857
, pp. 29–37, and Stampp,
America in 1857
, pp. 214–215.

195, Underwriting these ventures

Rapid growth of the banking sector: Stampp,
America in 1857
, p. 217.
Thompson’s Bank Note Reporter
was quite popular: by 1855, it had a circulation of 100,000, according to Mihm, in
A Nation of Counterfeiters
, p. 239; on p. 3, Mihm estimates that by the 1850s, more than ten thousand different kinds of paper were circulating.

195, Counterfeiters had always

Transformation of banknote printing: Mihm,
A Nation of Counterfeiters
, pp. 262–304.

195–196, This made banknote

Impact of the new technology on counterfeiting: Mihm,
A Nation of Counterfeiters
, pp. 277–304, and David R. Johnson,
Illegal Tender: Counterfeiting and the Secret
Service in Nineteenth-Century America
(Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1995), pp. 9–13, 43–44.

196, Since New York City

Moneymaking underworld of lower Manhattan: Johnson,
Illegal Tender
, pp. 7–17, 43–45, 60–64, and Mihm,
A Nation of Counterfeiters
, pp. 209–235. Population of New York in 1857: Stampp,
America in 1857
, p. 40.

196–197, While the 1850s

Westward movement of slaveholders: Van Vleck,
The Panic of 1857
, pp. 30–33. Sectional tensions of the 1850s: Stampp,
America in 1857
, pp. 110–143.

197–198, When Upham returned

Upham’s first son, Samuel Zenas, was born on August 9, 1851, followed by Charles Henry on January 15, 1856, according to F. K. Upham,
Upham Genealogy
, p. 351. The
Sunday Mercury
: Scharf and Westcott,
History of Philadelphia, 1609–1884
, vol. 3, p. 2022. Copies of the
Mercury
are available in bound volumes at the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room at the Library of Congress. “A Night in the Life of a Physician” appeared in the March 12, 1854, edition; “Interior of a Persian Harem,” on February 26, 1854.

198, Upham’s newspaper catered

Advertisements from the
Mercury
’s back page are taken from the February 5, 1854, edition. Transformation of Philadelphia: Russell F. Weigley, “The Border City in Civil War, 1854–1865,”
Philadelphia: A 300-Year History
, ed. Russell F. Weigley, Nicholas B. Wainwright, and Edwin Wolf, 2nd (New York: W. W. Norton, 1982), pp. 366–381.
“[N]ever plead guilty…”:
Sunday Mercury
, March 19, 1854.

198, Philadelphians had strong

Mood in Philadelphia prior to Fort Sumter: Weigley, “The Border City in Civil War, 1854–1865,” pp. 383–394.

198–199, Fort Sumter sparked

Impact of Fort Sumter on Philadelphia: ibid., pp. 394–396.
“appear to be well treated”:
S. C. Upham,
Notes of a Voyage to California via Cape Horn
, p. 89.

199, The North faced

Stunted state of the federal government: Hammond,
Banks and Politics in America
, pp. 718–720; Bray Hammond,
Sovereignty and an Empty Purse: Banks and Politics in the Civil War
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), pp. 18–26; Mihm,
A Nation of Counterfeiters
, p. 309; and Frederick J. Blue,
Salmon P. Chase: A Life in Politics
(Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1987), p. 143.

199, Chase had no

Chase’s early life and career as a lawyer and politician: Blue,
Salmon P. Chase
, pp. 1–40, 61–133, and Hammond,
Sovereignty and an Empty Purse
, p. 33.