Samuel Brannan
Coloma, California

July 21, 1848

Ahhhh ….. It’s been another successful day in the gold industry. I like to keep a journal on these things, you know, to look back on in my older years. This entry starts as I arrive to the first general store in the Coloma region of California, to buy my first load of pickaxes, shovels and pans.

I’ve been studying the ways of supply and demand way before the gold rush started on January 24, 1848 (Biographical Notes Samuel Brannan). And now that I’ve heard about it, my plan is this: to buy every gold mining tool in the region cheap, and sell ‘em expensive when everyone hears about this here gold rush.

I hopped off the wagon, now parked in between the saloon and the general store, to talk the shopkeeper. I had some money on me to pay for all the tools I bought, and I figured he’d give them to me, happy to have so much sales.

“Hello,” I said as I walked in. “I’d like to buy every pan, pickax and shovel you have,” I continue.

“Ummm…okay, I suppose that’s alright,” he says. “My name’s Jeremy. Yours?”

“Samuel Brannan, it is.”

“May I ask why you want to buy my entire stock of these tools?” he said.

“It doesn’t matter. Just making some investments,” I reply. “You know you’re going to get a lot of business now around here right, with the 300,000 some people traveling over out West (California Gold Rush)

“Really? That’s great. By the way, that would be 30 US dollars please.” I slapped down the money on the counter, and then started loading all tools into my wagon to take to the next store.

(Edit put in by biographer)

Once this journey was over, Brannan would set up supply stores all over the country, including one in Sacramento, California (California Gold Rush)He also set up one in Coloma (California Gold Rush)and various other places in gold fields. Before he moved to San Francisco to make a fortune, he lived in New York, where he began printing The Prophet, a LDS newspaper (California Gold Rush). Samuel Brannan was born on March 2, 1819, in Saco and died May 14, 1889, in Escondido (Biographical Notes Samuel Brannan).