George Francis Dawson

Born in 1834 on Jersey, George Francis Dawson spent part of his childhood in New Zealand, studied at the Royal Naval School at Greenwich, and then went to sea in the merchant service. As a teenager he reached San Francisco in 1852, where he tried a range of pursuits during the Gold Rush era before turning toward law and journalism.

By the later 1850s and 1860s, he was working with newspapers in San Francisco and Sacramento and later with the Virginia City Enterprise in Nevada during the struggle over statehood. He also spent time managing mining operations in Mexico before returning to journalism and public life in the eastern United States.

Dawson later worked in New York and Washington, D.C., including service connected with the House of Representatives, and was known as an editor and journalist. He died in Washington in 1893. His writing reflects the broad experience of a man who had traveled widely, worked close to politics, and seen the fast-changing United States of the 19th century from several different frontiers.