Elder Samuel Brannan

Samuel Brannan in 1846.(4)
• Samuel Brannan was born in Saco, Maine in 1819 and sailed to California aboard the Brooklyn, arriving on July 31, 1846. He was the leader of a Mormon colony comprised of 238 followers that was attempting to escape religious persecution in the east.(5) The group landed in Yerba Buena, significantly increasing the population there. The Mormon population had a large role in the gold rush country, as both laborers for John Sutter and as miners.

• In the east, Brannan operated the religious publication The Prophet, and arrived in California with enough equipment to start another secular publication, The California Star. The Californian and Brannan's publication joined and became known later as The Alta California.

• Brannan was instrumental in the leaking of the news of the gold rush. He owned a store in New Helvetica, the area now known as Sacramento, near Sutter's Fort. Upon a visit to that store, he found that a few miners had begun paying for supplies with gold particles. So excited by the notion of the discovery, upon his return to Yerba Buena, he ran down the street like a crazed man. Holding the gold in one hand, and waving his hat with the other, he shouted, "Gold, gold, gold, from the American River." After his excited display, the gold rush from San Francisco to the gold country began, nearly depleting the population of the town.

• Brannan became one of the most prosperous and wealthy men in California. In fact, Brannan Street in San Francisco today is named after him.(6)