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Cornerstone to feature gold rush speaker

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WAYNESBURG – Lynne Gough of Sacramento, Calif., whose ancestors were among a group of Greene County pioneers who left the area in 1850 to work in the California gold fields, will speak of the group’s adventures at the Sept. 10 meeting of the Cornerstone Genealogical Society.

The society will meet at 7 p.m. in the log courthouse on Greene Street in Waynesburg. The public is invited.

In March 1850, 29 pioneers left Greene County for the California gold fields, according to Gough’s research.

Their trip across America, by boat and wagon train, took 150 days. Members of what was called the Jefferson California Co. arrived in Placerville, Calif., in mid-August and continued their adventures in the “diggings” of El Dorado and in Yuba and Nevada counties in the rough and rowdy mining camps of the day.

Most failed to fulfill their dreams of wealth and returned to Greene County; but some stayed, planted roots and made their homes in California.

The story of these pioneers will be recounted by Gough, who was born in Woodland, Yolo County, Calif., in 1955 and is among the fourth generation of the Morris family to call California their home.

Gough is a descendant of the Morris/Roseberry/Call families of Rogersville and her second great-grand uncle, Asa Warren Morris (1826-1891), was a member of the Jefferson California Co.

In 1852, after an unsuccessful two-year stint in the California gold mines, Morris settled in Yolo County, just west of Sacramento. He became a successful farmer and paved the way for other family members to follow, including Gough’s great-grandfather, also named Asa Warren Morris (1857-1921) and her great-grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Call.

Gough has been interested in history and is pleased to bring part of her California heritage back to its origins in Greene County.

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