Gold and north Carolina Essay

Submitted By AntoniaVesey
Words: 2316
Pages: 10
Open Document
American History

I chose to discuss Christopher Bechtler for the topic of my paper because he was a person of many talents and I can show the different aspects of Christopher Bechtler and his family, Christopher sailed to the United States in 1829 from Le Havre, France, he soon after arrived in New York City with his two son’s Augustus, Charles and brought along his nephew Carl Bechtler. Christopher Sr. soon opened up a small Jewelry shop in Philadelphia, Bechtler intended to stay and make Philadelphia a final place to call home being that his nephew was newly married to his German-American wife Sophia Fleck with whom he had four son’s and three daughters with, Bechtler decided to move him and his entire family to Rutherfordton, North Carolina in hopes of becoming a gold prospector I see that Mr. Bechtler was a man of many talents and ambitions nothing was impossible for him if he could gain some finical wealth from it.
On April 25, 1830 Bechtler decided to purchase a tract of land in Rutherford County from a gentleman named John Bradley, being Bechtler was not yet a citizen of the United States yet ,he in trusted a German-American man named Martin Kibler to hold the title to his land, three months later Bechtler officially became a citizen of the United States of America.
Bechtler consistently needed assistance with translators as well as witnesses for legal transactions; Bechtler never took advantage of learning the English language he knew bites and pieces of the English language to get through tolerable conversations, I believe Bechtler made the move from Philadelphia to West North Carolina in 1830 because there was a finical gain for him and his family and the opportunity for his business to flourish as a clock and watch maker, so Bechtler posted an advertisement in the North Carolina Spectator and the western Advertiser that he was open for business, I also believe that Bechtler was in the midst of a gold rush, this was one and certainly wouldn’t be the last place that gold was discovered in the United States.
Being that North Carolina was the first place in the United States to have founded gold in this state by John Reed in 1799, there weren’t any kind of major mining operations that begun until 1825, that’s when gold bearing vein quartz was found in the hillside in North Carolina, by 1830 the gold rush was plentiful and very profitable at this time North Carolina gold production was valued at more than half a million a year, to be more pacific there was a worth alone in 2011 of 12.6 million dollars made in 2011, this gold was shipped overseas or sent to the Federal mint in Philadelphia, most of the gold stayed in the region, I do believe that this what was tempting to Bechtler to make the decision to move to North Carolina gold can be used for a number of things; like art work being used in a dust form, Bechtler has an obvious need to create jewelry out of the raw material called gold.
Bechtler finally had sir-combed to gold fever himself in hopes of getting rich, in 1837 Bechtler decided to dig a tunnel 80 feet deep on this tract of land he had purchased in 1830, Bechtler sought out information from a British geologist George Featherstonhaugh, Featherstonhaugh told Bechtler that his land wasn’t very promising for gold and to have such an extensive dig, but Bechtler wouldn’t give up that easily on his dream to strike it rich, you know when a person has dedication to something like this when they put this as their last will and testament that “ our ore will be found good”, just reading about Bechtler and his many ventures into profitable businesses made me think if the gold digging didn’t pan out he could always fall back to what he knew; which was fine custom made jewelry, which ultimately became his first business in North Carolina, he opened a watch and jewelry store in Rutherfordton, he wasn’t just a” one trick pony” as it were put he sold rings, earrings, necklaces, collar buttons,
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