EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: The Story of the Ship the LaGrange and the Osborn, Southwick and Symonds Families

Sunday, April 19, 2026

The Story of the Ship the LaGrange and the Osborn, Southwick and Symonds Families

This post is a preview of my forthcoming two-volume, 1,800+ page, tenth book, titled, An Early Industry of Household Wares: The Red Earthenware of Salem Village, Danvers, Peabody, Beverly and Salem, Massachusetts: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2026/01/update-on-new-book-book-sent-to.html.

While doing research for this book, I came across a fascinating account of how three prominent families from Danvers and Salem—the Osborns, Southwicks, and Symonds—formed a joint business venture. This 61-man partnership boarded one of the first ships in America to leave the eastern seaboard for the 1849 California Gold Rush. Here is part of that story --

"...Salem, Massachusetts is famous for the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 and the eighteenth and nineteenth century maritime trade; however, the city’s true 'Golden Age' may have been a group of outbound ships, one of which that carried relatives and descendants of local potters, who left Salem in 1849, in search of an uncertain promise of striking it rich with California Gold.

Many residents from Danvers and Salem joined the 1848 California Gold Rush, seeking a fresh entrepreneurial start, as Salem's maritime economy began to fade, as a result of technological advances and larger American ports. During the 1849-1852 peak of the California Gold Rush, several notable ships departed Salem, carrying adventurous residents and essential supplies to the frontier.

These essential supplies included several months' worth of food, mining tools, and industrial machinery that helped the transition from hand-mining to commercial operations. The California Gold Rush had basically redefined the American Dream for the mid-nineteenth century; for instance, miners pulled roughly $81 million worth of gold from the ground in 1852.

Outfitted by Captain John Bertram (1796-1882), the bark Eliza was the first Massachusetts vessel to leave for the Gold Rush, departing Salem on December 2, 1848. It was soon followed by New York City's S.S. California, which set sail in October 1848, reaching Gold Rush status in January 1849, and Philadelphia’s Brig Sutton in early 1849.

The Eliza carried a diverse cargo ranging from flour and pork to building materials and a small steam engine. While the Eliza reached San Francisco, it never returned home, as most Salem ships were sold or dismantled upon arrival.

One of the most dramatic stories involves the LaGrange, a three-masted bark that departed Salem on March 17, 1849, with sixty-one men from the Salem and California Mining and Trading Expedition. The ship became one of the most famous symbols of the Salem-to-California migration.

Other Salem ships, like the Rome, became actual foundations for what is known as modern California today. After arriving in San Francisco in early 1850, the Rome was abandoned and eventually scuttled (or deliberately sunk) in 1852 to help claim land in what is now a waterfront area in San Francisco, known as the Embarcadero. The Rome was forgotten for over a century until 1994, when construction crews for the Muni Metro tunnel rediscovered the massive hull thirty-five feet below the city streets.

Interestingly, though, the names Osborn, Southwick, Symonds, and Goldthwaite are among the local families tied to the Gold Rush migration from the Danvers and Salem area. These names are typically documented through the "joint-stock" companies formed to fund the voyages that they were a part of. These names are also associated with local red earthenware production in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

For example, William A. Osborne and John Osborne from Danvers/Salem, who were both related to the Osborn family of Quaker potters, are recorded as members of the Salem and California Mining and Trading Expedition that sailed on the bark LaGrange in 1849. James M. Southwick (1822-1892) of Danvers, who was related to the Southwick family of Quaker potters, was also a member of the LaGrange expedition.

Other prominent local names, such as Benjamin (1810-1896) and Charles Symonds (1819-1906) of Salem were also aboard the LaGrange in 1849, where Charles was a leading officer on the ship, serving as Secretary. This is the same Symonds family that descended from the seventeenth century cabinetmaker John Symonds (1594-1671), with later generations working as red earthenware potters in Salem and Charlestown, Massachusetts after 1740..."

Nevertheless, there is more to the story of these families and the LaGrange, though you will have to wait for the book to be published to read the rest of it!

Additionally, the late eighteenth or nineteenth century red earthenware jar with incised lines shown below is similar to three existing objects believed to have been made in Salem; one privately owned that descended in the Brown family of Marblehead, Massachusetts, another that retains a nineteenth century history of family ownership in Salem, owned by the Peabody Essex Museum, and a third found in Salem before 1950 by Lura Woodside Watkins (1897-1982), now owned by the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Note: In the meantime - for more information about the Southwick family - see a feature story I wrote for the December 12, 2025 issue of Antiques And The Arts Weekly, titled, The Southwick Family Of Potters Of Salem & South Danvers, Mass.: http://www.earlyamericanceramics.com/2025/12/new-published-feature-story-in-antiques.html.