After a century of omission, how were the Groslouis brothers finally identified as the discoverers of gold at Whiskey Run?
Although hints existed in the historical record (Part 2), the identity of the brothers remained enigmatic. That changed, though, with the publication of two stories that mentioned the brothers. One described the brothers but surprisingly obscured their surname. The other saved them from oblivion.
Lost
The Coquille Sentinel reported that Lillie Tully had systematically searched the “old Randolph trail” (in 1922) for a cache of gold left behind by her grandfather and granduncle: “Peter and Charles Grouleaux.”
Tully did not find the gold, nor did others who continued the search in her place. The story is repeated in Hult’s (1957) book describing lost treasure in Oregon. One hundred years later, the story persists, recently repeated in a 2022 blog post (John).
I can only imagine how the spelling of the brothers’ surname in the Tully story occurred—even though Lillie was Peter’s granddaughter! The records I found with the above spelling seem to point back to the 1922 article or its retelling.
Forty years later …
Found
Not knowing what to do with the five handwritten ledgers of her deceased father’s recollections of his life during the gold rush in the West, Herman Reinhart’s elderly daughter, Rena, considered burning them. Fortunately, her neighbor, Nora Cunningham, agreed to take them, and then she passed them onto a historical society.
The ledgers reveal that Reinhart (1833-1889) had lived near the Groslouis brothers in Southern Oregon in the late-1850s. He identified John and Peter “Grosluis” as the discoverers of gold at Whiskey Run.
Historian Doyce Nunis edited and published Reinhart’s recollections in the 1962 book, The Golden Frontier. Since then, the brothers have been named in local histories (Beckham; Douthit; Jensen).
Increased accessibility to written records in both French and English revealed that brothers’ surname is actually “Groslouis,” which Beckham adopted for his 1997 history.
Significance
Why does it matter that the Groslouis brothers were finally credited with the discovery of gold at Whiskey Run?
It matters for the sake of historical accuracy. Through the efforts of researchers and the use of modern technologies, the historical record can be corrected and expanded; likewise, misinformation can be removed or, at least, contextualized.
In upcoming posts I will connect the Groslouis family to historical events, both before and after the gold rush, as I explore another mystery: the first names of the brothers at Whiskey Run in 1852/53.
Works Cited
Beckham, Stephen Dow. Coos Bay, The Pioneer Period, 1851-1890. Coos Bay, Oregon: Arago Books, 1973.
Beckham, Stephen Dow. “Inventory of Historic Randolph, Oregon.” Searchable Index. Oregon Historic Sites Database, 1974. https://heritagedata.prd.state.or.us/historic/. [Note search terms: County: Coos, Street Name: Whiskey Run]
Beckham, Stephen Dow. Bandon By-the-Sea: Hope and Perseverance in a Southwestern Oregon Town. Coos Bay, OR: Arago Books, 1997. Available online at
https://archive.org/details/hoffmanconstruct0000beck/page/230/mode/2up.
The Coquille Valley Sentinel. (Coquille, Or.) “A $40,000 Cache of Gold.” Historic Oregon Newspapers, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, OR, August 18, 1922, page 8, col. 3. Online Library Archive at https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn96088222/1922-08-18/ed-1/seq-8/.
Douthit, Nathan. A Guide to Oregon South Coast History: Traveling the Jedediah Smith Trail. New ed. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, 2007.
Hult, R. E. Lost Mines and Treasures of the Pacific Northwest. Hillsboro, Oregon: Binford & Mort Pub, 1973 [1957].
Jensen, Andie E. No Place like Home: The Unincorporated Towns and Communities of Coos County, Oregon. Edited by Bert Dunn and Yvonne-Cher Skye. Coos Bay, Oregon: Lawman Publishing, 2017. Note: Jensen identified the brothers as John and Peter “Groslins.” The surname spelling suggests a transcription or typographical error.
John, Finn J.D. “Is Treasure of Lucky Beach Gold Miners Still out There?” Public history. Offbeat Oregon History, May 1, 2022. https://offbeatoregon.com/22-05.gold-on-the-beach-609.html.
The Kansas City Star. (Kansas City, Mo.) “From a Kansas Bureau, Story of Common Man in the Gold Rushes.” December 01, 1962, page 14. Image Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/648293438/): accessed 20 February 2025).
Reinhart, Herman Francis, Doyce B. Nunis, and Nora B. Cunningham. The Golden Frontier: The Recollections of Herman Francis Reinhart, 1851-1869. First paperback printing. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1962. Reinhart’s narrative about his life in Southern Oregon is published online at https://truwe.sohs.org/files/reinhart.html.