y experienced in the West. Mary Jane Megquier is a good example of this. Her early letters home express a great dislike for California. It was typical for her to write things such as, ...it is the most God forsaken county in the world, not one redeeming trait excepting gold,...31 Contrastingly, in her later letters Megquier refers to San Francisco, writing, I am at last in the good city of San Francisco.32 In her next letter she writes, ...the very air I breath seems so very free that I have not the least desire to return.33 She was so changed by San Francisco, that even her idea of what makes a place desirable changes dramatically. She learns to appreciate San Franciscos looser social constructs for the freedom they afforded her. Similarly, Ms. Mansur wrote, ...if my friends were were out here I would never leave this country.34 And Eliza Farnham wrote,You cannot know the perfect freedom and independence that characterizes all our relations. Society if it exists at all is freed from the multitude of prejudices and embarrassments and exactions that control Eastern cities. 35 Unlike Sara Royce, these women were happy with their liberty. Instead of fighting it, they embraced it. It is plain what a tumultuous time this must have been considering the clash of those who upheld Victorian morals and those who enjoyed their freedom.As it did with so many people, California changed these women. Often skeptical at first, many of them learned to love the latitude that living in an unusual and diverse society brings.Nevertheless, I doubt if any woman was able to completely dispose of the Victorian ideas which must have been drilled into them since she birth. The writings of gold rush women expose how chaotic life must have been in California during the Gold Rush. A new society was being formed, and this brought with it a lot of conflict and confusion. These womens accounts of foreigners, changing work ethics, and an evolving mora...
