Cavers Gold

Cavers Gold is a book that tracks the life of a young man from Scotland, who with modest financial and educational means migrated to NE Iowa when he was not yet 20 years of age. After a brief job with a surveying crew in the territory of Minnesota, he obtained a position working on the trans-Panamanian railroad. Adam Cavers (1830-1901), a young man of about twenty-one years of age, joined the effort to construct this railroad. But soon as workers saw their fellow workers die of illness or accident, slow desertion among the workers began, which was ultimately resisted by the management. Adam planned his escape from this hellhole and made his exit in the middle of the night and made his way to the Pacific side of the Isthmus. He arranged for passage to San Francisco on a rickety coastal vessel, which became caught up in the doldrums of the Pacific for one hundred and sixty days. Finally arriving in San Francisco, he spent the last of his money on a good meal.

Next Adam found his way to the gold fields of California where over the next year or so had minor success in finding gold. By February 1853 Adam's net worth had increased to $450 obtained from his prospecting in the California gold fields. By 1853 golf fever spread throughout the world and in southern Australia; gold was discovered north of Melbourne in the state of Victoria. On the 16th of June 1853, Adam booked passage on the ship "Sarah Hooper" from San Francisco to Melbourne. Upon arrival in Melbourne, he found his way to the McIvor gold field near Heathcote a short distance north of Melbourne with only $20 in his pocket. Bush robbers relieved him of his five revolvers here at McIvor. Hard labor and perseverance paid off for Adam as in December of 1854, he left Australia with 200 oz (12.5 lbs.) of gold that he valued at about $4,000. He was just 24 years of age.

Adam left the Australian colonies and after a long, several-month voyage returned to Scotland. He immediately booked passage to America for his two sisters, Margaret and Janet, who were each working near their parents' home as domestic servants.

They boarded the clipper ship "Driver", mastered by Nicholas Holberton, in Liverpool, England; it was a ship of St. George Line. The Driver was a fine clipper, a rigging ship of two years of age displacing 1,594 tons. The passenger manifest listed Janet Cavers, age 18, as passenger number five, and Margaret Cavers, age 22, as passenger number six. Adam Cavers, age 24, was listed as passenger number eleven. The Driver arrived in New York on 20 July 1855.

He delivered his sisters to North Dumfries Township in Ontario where their uncle Thomas Clark and aunt Isabella Wells lived. He then returned to NE Iowa where he built his home and farm from the wilds of the area and time. Over the next 17 years, he continued in his farming endeavors and kept a daily journal of his activities. He eventually purchased 6,300 acres of raw Iowa land, known as Swamp Indemnity Land.

When Adam terminated his farming activities he sold his land holdings for a substantial profit and began a world tour with his wife Caroline Ingmundson. They toured all the major cities in Canada and settled for a time in Washington, D.C. After a while they began again their world tour and visited all the capital cities of the major countries in Europe, booked passage to New Zealand and Australia, and returned to the US via San Francisco. This tour lasted four years.

He passed away in Bournemouth, England in 1901.