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Shelter for the Sick
In the early 19th century, exploration ofNorth America to the Pacific Ocean was comingto its conclusion. California was inhabited by native American Indian tribes and a few Spanish settlements. However, after gold was discovered in Coloma, California, in January 1848, tens of thousands of fortune seekers rushed west, not only across the continent, but also by sea around Cape Horn and over the narrow strip ofPanama. Overlandtreksandsailingvoyages werelongand complicated by scurvy and outbreaks ofcontagious diseases with little medical care. When the pioneers arrived, there
Sketch of Sutter's Fort, 1859, by Joseph Warren Revere. Lithograph courtesy ofthe California Room, California State Library.
wereliterallynohospitals,orevenshelters,andfewmedically trained doctors.
Much of what we know locally about this early period comes from The First History of Sacramento City, 1850, written by Dr. John Frederick Morse. Like many, he had traveled the combination route by sea andland - south along the Atlantic coast, across Panama, north along the Pacific coast to San Francisco, then up the Sacramento River to the new townthatprovidedamainentrancetotheSierraNevada foothills and the gold fields.1
Although travelers arriving in San Francisco frequently sufferedfrom scurvy anditsseverestcomplications, aswellascontagiousdiseases,typicallytheymadeimmediate arrangements for the five-to-ten-day tripup the Sacramento River to SacramentoCityandits acres ofswampy, mosquitoinfested riverside. In early letters the city was called Valley City and Levee City, but, finally, Sacramento City for the river itlay beside.
John Sutterhad establishedhis fort here in 1839, on a sand hill near the American River, about two miles from whereitentered theSacramentoRiver. Builtatthe crossing oftwo earlyroutes, onefrom theeastby way oftheGreatSalt Lake and the other leading down from Oregon, the Fort attracted many fortune seekers who needed to stop and resupply. The first hospital was set up by Sutter inside the fort for his Indian employees and dependents, but it soon accommodated the adventurers and new settlers as well.2
In his diary Sutter reported, in July 1847: "Great sickness and diseases among the Indian tribes and a great numberofthem dyingnotwithstandingofhavingemployed a Doctor to my hospital.” On March 7, 1848, he complained of the fort’s desertionby those seeking gold. They "leftme only the sick and the lame behind.”3
He later added, "I need not mention again that all the visitors have always been hospitably received and treated. That all the sick and wounded found always Medical Assistance Gratis as I had nearly all the time a Physician in my employ. The Assistance to the Emigrants, that is all well known. I don’t need to write anything about this.”4

In April, 1849, there were some 150 residents bunched alongtheSacramentoRiverbelowthemouthoftheAmerican River. Two months laterthere were thousandsmore,mostof them in poor health from the debilitation ofhard travel and poordiet Outsidethefort,notfaraway, there waslittlemore than trees for shelter. Lumber was scarce and canvas was substitutedtoprovidenotonlyroofs,butalsowallsandinside partitions. James Eaton’s Memoirs, dictated in 1911, describes the construction ofearly hospitals by private enterprise: 'These weremadeby settingthree rows ofposts in the ground — the outside rows the frame for the sides of the hospital was fastened to and the middle was used to support the roof, the sides and roofwere made ofcloth.”5
