Samuel C. Upham

Samuel Curtis Upham (February 2, 1819 – June 29, 1885) was an American journalist, lyricist, merchant, bookkeeper, clerk, navy officer, prospector, and counterfeiter, during the later part of the 19th century, sometimes, known as "Honest Sam Upham".

Early life

Samuel Curtis Upham was born in Montpelier, Vermont to Samuel Upham and Sally Hatch, a zealous Methodist farm couple. Upham left home at the age of 20, abandoning his family's hopes he would go into farming or blacksmithing, instead finding work in New York City as a clerk. In 1842 he joined the navy, achieving the rating of master's mate before his discharge three years later. After the navy, he worked as a bookkeeper in Philadelphia, where he met and married Anne Bancroft.

California

In January 1849, Upham sailed on the brig Osceola, to San Francisco, via Rio de Janeiro and Talcahuano, Chile, arriving in California on August 5, 1849, and participating in the California Gold Rush. Proving unsuccessful as a gold miner, Upham moved to Sacramento and founded the Sacramento Transcript, California's first daily newspaper published outside San Francisco. Becoming homesick in 1850, he sold his shares in the newspaper and travelled back to Philadelphia.

Upham later wrote about his adventures in Notes of a Voyage to California via Cape Horn, published in 1878. In the book he writes, "Descriptions of a life on the ocean wave read vary prettily on shore, but the reality of a sea voyage speedily dispels the romance." The book also pays close attention to the bawdy history of Sacramento, and includes lengthy appendices on California journalism and the California exhibition at the 1876 Centennial. In 1878 Upham also published Scenes in El Dorado in the Years 1849-50.