Sarah Eleanor Bayliss Royce (March 2, 1819 – November 23, 1891) was an American writer, teacher and pioneer. She and her family set out for California in 1848 as part of the

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, ...

. Her autobiographical account of the journey was published as ''A Frontier Lady: Recollections of the Gold Rush and Early California''. Her son was the philosopher

Josiah Royce Josiah Royce (; November 20, 1855 – September 14, 1916) was an American Pragmatism, pragmatist and objective idealism, objective idealist philosopher and the founder of American idealism. His philosophical ideas included his joining of pragmatis ...

Biography

Sarah Eleanor Bayliss was born on March 2, 1819, in

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon ( ), commonly known as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon (district), Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of Engl ...

, England to Mary T. and Benjamin Bayliss. Her family moved to America when she was six weeks old, settling in

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

. She attended the Phipps Union Female Seminary in Albion. Sarah married fellow English immigrant Josiah Royce in 1847. They had a daughter, Mary, and set out towards California in 1848. They reached Iowa in April 1849 and were among many others travelling west as part of the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

. They started their journey as part of a

wagon train ''Wagon Train'' is an American Western television series that aired for eight seasons, first on the NBC television network (1957–1962) and then on ABC (1962–1965). ''Wagon Train'' debuted on September 18, 1957, and reached the top of the ...

, but lagged behind as they stopped on Sundays to observe the Sabbath. Royce was a member of the

Disciples of Christ The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. The denomination started with the Restoration Movement during the Second Great Awakening, first existing during the 19th ...

, a group committed to restoring primitive Christianity. By October 1849 they were in the desert west of the

Great Salt Lake The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, partic ...

. They reached the

Carson River The Carson River is a northwestern Nevada river that empties into the Carson Sink, an endorheic basin. The main stem of the river is long although the addition of the East Fork makes the total length , traversing five counties: Alpine Count ...

and embarked for the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

mountain range. They were discovered by a relief expedition organized by the government that assisted them in traversing the mountain passes before the snows closed them off. Upon their arrival in California, Josiah Royce attempted to make a living by mining. They had three more children, Hattie, Ruth, and Josiah Jr. The family lived in Grass Valley for twelve years where Sarah taught school out of their home. They then moved to San Francisco. Josiah Sr. died in 1889. Sarah returned east for one year before returning to California and living with her daughter Ruth in San Jose. Based on diary entries she had kept from the journey west, Royce wrote the book ''Pilgrimage Diary'' 30 years later, intending it for her son

, who became a philosopher and taught at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. The autobiographical work chronicled her family's journey to California during the gold rush. It was republished in 1932 as ''A Frontier Lady: Recollections of the Gold Rush and Early California''. On November 23, 1891, Royce died of "nervous shock" after being knocked against the wall of a post office. She was 72.

Biography

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Further reading