The Gold Rush Store: Everything in General

The Gagliardo General Store building still stands in the old mining town of Hornitos, but most of the original fixtures, shelves, counters and display cases -- along with much old merchandise --has gone into the store exhibit at the Mariposa Museum and History Center in nearby Mariposa, California.

As one of the first places of business in a gold rush town, the General Store was the old fashioned version of Walmart. It sold just about everything IN GENERAL and almost everything imaginable

They were not just clothing stores, though you might buy shirts and hats and corsets there.

They were not just grocery stores, though you could get, beans, cheese and coffee ... and oysters in a tin.

They weren't just hardware stores, but you would find garden seeds, garden tools, carpentry tools and kitchen tools.

They also sold eyeglasses, looking glasses, magnifying glasses, bear traps, barrel taps, hats and caps, hair restorers, apple corers, doorknobs, watch fobs, soap, rope, blue jeans, jelly beans, chair cushions, sewing notions, skin lotions, curative potions, shirt collars, horse collars and hair curlers.

 With  often only one  real store in town, people knew where to shop.

In fact if the store didn't have what you were looking for,-- and you could wait a few weeks -- the storekeeper could probably order it for you.

When you purchased items, perhaps with a pinch of gold, no one asked if you wanted paper or plastic.

People brought their own shopping baskets, or else had their purchase wrapped in brown paper and tied up with string, even if it wasn't one of their favorite things.

Early in the California Gold Rush some figured out that selling supplies, provisions and tools to the argonauts could be extremely profitable.   Shipping charges on most wares was high, but merchants often marked up prices for a very good profit.

Miss Jenny Gagliardo, who took over running of the family business in Hornitos  in 1920, seemed to have a different philosophy. She kept meticulous records, but was likely to forgive an overdue payment when people really needed a little help in paying for  groceries.

Running a general store was hard work, but at least it didn't require freezing your extremities in a rushing creek fed by frigid snow melt. Chipping away rocks in a dark damp tunnel was also fatiguing and dangerous work where a man could get crushed by a cave-in or blown up by dynamite. All things considered, shop keeping was a smart way to make a living and stay alive.

Miss Jenny, who was in her 90's when she passed on in 1960, was behind the counters Gagliardo Store in Hornitos for about 75 of it's 100 years in business. She preserved some of the the past, probably inadvertently, by shoving unsold merchandise to the back shelves of the store and refusing to sell the old stuff -- even to collectors who inquired.

Honest and reasonable merchants could make a good living by providing necessities. They were able to acquire their gold dust in a way which didn't involve squatting in an ice cold creek for hours, while moving hundreds of pounds of wet gravel and sand and hoping for a tiny flake of gold.

Candle mold.. Some say that Irish miners figured out how to tune it in such a way that it was possible to play a melancholy rendition of Danny Boy by blowing in the pipes. (Okay, that's a lie, even though it looks almost plausible.) Most people used it for candle making, six at a time.

Candle holder.. When is a candle holder more than a candle holder? Underground in tunnels, the miner's candlestick could be jammed between timbers, wedged into rocky crevices, hung on a ledge, or set on a flat surface.

The candles gave light... but hey were also a time telling device. Miners would not take an expensive pocket watch into the tunnels where it might get dirty or damaged, but since the candle burned at a relatively even rate it indicated the passage of time.

When the candle burned down to a certain level it was time to stop for lunch... and time to replace the candle. It also was in an indicator or air quality, since candle flames (and miners) tend to fade with a lack of oxygen.

Rat and mouse traps.. People did not want mice or rats in their houses and barns, but there were were no rat traps in the mines. Would you want to spend your work day with a bunch of rats?... Maybe you already do?. The Miners did, and even brought extra bits of bread cheese or sausage to share with the sneaky rodents at lunch break.

The sensitive tiny toes and whiskers of rats could detect the slightest tremor, of impending earthquake or cave-in. When the rats made a bee-line for the exit, miners were close behind.

The four customer mouse trap ... This model has room for a mouse family of four and though it might trap the tiny rodents, it does not look particularly lethal. Perhaps it was a "catch and release" model. In any case it's sort of hard to imagine that a fourth mouse, after seeing all the tails and mouse behinds protruding from three sides of the device,  would decide to stick his head in the fourth hole.

Chamber pot, too lovely to hide under the bed... Our elegant porcelain chamber pot is apparently not terribly rare.

Several people have mentioned seeing one like it before. Our museum guides are usually too polite to inquire about the extent of anyone's familiarity with the item.

Children find this pot particularly fascinating when the real meaning of "no indoor plumbing" dawns on them. Bathroom humor has great appeal for ten year olds.

It is a good chance to remind the kids that taking out the trash is not such a terrible chore. A hundred years ago they would have been taking out the chamber pot.

 The fruit and leaf motif on the top has not been unequivocally identified. The leaves look like grape leaves, but the fruit??? A fig? an under ripe gourd? An exotic or extinct pear? A prune? We are still waiting to  hear.

Travel bloomers ... Convenient ladies undergarment with a central opening designed for necessary comfort stops on the trail, were devised with modestly in mind and to circumvent the need for undressing. If there were no convenient trees and bushes, voluminous long skirts and petticoats provided a tent of privacy.

Casket liner with a full warranty ... This is something we have never quite figured out. Is it a "lifetime" guarantee"? And if it is, does it expire immediately? Did anyone ever check on how the liner was holding up? Did they get any endorsements from satisfied customers?

Silk stockings... Brightly colored silk hose were probably not worn by respectable ladies. However, with the long skirts and petticoats, who would know? Was this the original " Victorian's Secret"?

Carbide lamps-- Add a little water to the carbide powder ina lamp attached to a miner's cap, and it produces acetylene gas.

A very small flame, backed by a polished reflector gave a brighter light than the candles provided, though candles continued to be used for their other aforementioned advantages.  Early automobiles used similar lamps, slightly larger, for headlights.

Prince Albert is in the can- Many brands and several forms of tobacco were stocked by the store. Most of it was in dried "plugs" or twists that could be chewed -- though it could also be chopped finely and smoked in a pipe.



Our impressive red coffee grinder with the curved spokes on the wheel, and its elegant decals has a great deal more charm than those found in today's supermarket which are operated by the touch of a button.  Turning the crank to operate the grinding mechanism provides the operator with a much more interactive and elemental experience with the aromatic beans.

Cheese cutter-- and fingernail trimmer. Before cheese was packaged in impossible to open, yet resealable plastic bags it was possible to buy a wedge of edam or gouda or colby sliced off on enormous round and wrapped in plain brown paper wrapped with string.

No one worried that it had been breathed upon by other customers, but this was before most germs were invented. Or perhaps before people lost their immunity to cheese germs.

Slate Book-- made of stiff sheets of cardboard covered with a mineralized surface. The pages could be marked with letters, math lessons, and other schoolwork to be checked by the teacher. It was then erased and used many times, saving tons of paper.

Straight -Last Shoes-- Right and left foot shoes were identical in shape in the U.S. before 1860. They needed to be "broken in" by by marking one shoe and making sure that it was always placed on the same foot. Continually wearing them, perhaps walking through the creek now and then, helped them to gradually become more comfortable and conform to actual foot shapes.

During the war between the states, the military was unable to provide enough U.S. made footwear for the troops. Boots were imported from places like England and France where they were doing an interesting thing-- making designated right and left shoes. No one wanted to go back to the old style after trying the comfy foreign footwear.

Much of the unsold merchandise saved by Miss Jenny, and donated to the museum, dates back to the early 1900's and earlier. Some of it seems to show that the people of Hornitos suddenly came to their senses and stopped buying corsets and stiff shirt collars. Lots of these items were left unsold.

( Silly Person's Guide to a Gold Rush Museum will tell you more about the museum.)