Amanda Jane Johnson

I was born Amanda Jane Sprague in 1801 in a small town in Michigan. I obtained my formal education in a one-room schoolhouse and learned household skills from my mother. I married my childhood sweetheart, John Johnson, when I was 18 years of age and he was 20.

John’s father was the owner of the general store where he worked. After ill health forced his father to retire, John expanded the business and became very prosperous. We raised two fine sons who are now making their own way in the world, one studying law and the other a sailor.

When a bank robbery took all our capitol and savings, we decided to sell the store and house and head west to the gold fields to start anew.

Five and a half months later we arrived and set up camp where John could pan for gold. I quickly became the cook for all the miners in the area. Between the two of us, we earned enough for John to go back into the mercantile business.

In 1850, when California became a state, we were among the many with bright dreams of the future based on hard work and visions of the future. We are on our way to a whole new life, perhaps even better than the one we had in Michigan.