Inspired by stories of gold mines in California, Seth Lesser, a gold rusher, abandoned his legal practice in Maine to seek his fortune in the Golden State of California.
Lesser was born in Fairfield, Maine in 1803 to store keeper and merchant Gibbes Lesser and Sophie Nathanson. Home schooled, Seth Lesser began orienting himself with legal studies alongside mining and stock raising using the books he borrowed from a private library owned by a certain Jonathan Davis. When Seth turned 18, his parents sent him to North Anson Academy to acquire formal instruction in law.
In 1848, news of gold mines in California reached Maine. Attracted by the promise of fortune and gold, Seth Lesser began planning on setting out for California. His plans, however, were postponed for two years because of the death of his father in 1848 and his mother the following year. By the end of 1849, Mr Lesser finally headed out of Maine with 18 companions and reached the American River in Placerville in the winter of 1850. They began mining a few weeks after their arrival and initially found small quantities of gold near the Sutter’s Mill.
Seth Lesser later moved to Nevada County and began establishing his own mill, a decent-sized farm and a general store that sold mining tools to gold rushers like himself.
[...] his parents were not musically trained themselves, they nevertheless, recognized that young Seth Lesser had musical talent. They bought him his first pump organ when he was 7 years old and sent him to [...]