Jennings, Samuel C.

Physician, overland traveler, and California gold miner.

In 1849, Samuel C. Jennings, a married resident of Moravia, N.Y., joined the Ithaca Company, a company of overlanders formed in Ithaca, N.Y. Departing Ithaca on Mar. 21, 1849, the company traveled via Wilkes Barre, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and St. Louis to Independence, Mo., where they set out equipped with pack mules, horses and two wagons for the Santa Fe Trail. From Bent's Fort, the party, guided by a Mr. Kinney (Charles Kinney?), journeyed over the mountains to Salt Lake City. Led by a Mr. Craig (William Craig?), fifteen members continued across the desert and over the Sierra Nevada via the Truckee River route to Sacramento. Unlucky in his mining efforts, Jennings practiced medicine for provisions, and eventually must have returned to New York.

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