From time to time I’ve followed up on members of the Bidwell-Bartleson Party and what they did after they arrived in California, men like John Bartleson, Josiah Belden, Joseph Chiles, and Nicolas Dawson (many posts for him).

Another member of that 1841 group of emigrants was Henry L. Brolaski. Other than the list of members, John Bidwell only mentions him once in his journal, when Brolaski is one of the men who goes to Fort Hall in hopes of finding a guide or at least some information about the trail across the Great Basin.

Twenty-two years after that momentous journey, Henry L. Brolaski wrote to John Bidwell from St. Louis Missouri. He knew Bidwell was still in California, but he wasn’t sure where. He had heard that Bidwell had written an account of their journey and he wanted to get a copy.

St. Louis Dec 11^th 1863

Mr. Bidwell

            Dr Sir  My name will probably call to your recollection that we were companions in a journey across the plains in 1840. I have heard that you published an account of the trip and I should like very much to have a copy of your work. Will you be kind enough to send me one per express or advise me where it can be had. I will cheerfully pay all charges.

            I fully expected to have settled in California but local interest and business here has caused me to abandon the idea. I am getting old now and deem it hardly worth while to think of further change. I really hope it may be in your power to comply with my request.

            Not knowing how to address you properly or where you are located I have doubts of this reaching you otherwise I should write you a longer letter. Should it do so I should be pleased to learn from you the whereabouts of Mr. Hopper, Barnett, Beldin, Chandler or others of our companions.

            Very respectfully yours, H. L. Brolaski

Bidwell’s journal had been printed in Missouri in 1843 or 1844 without his consent (so he said, but he revised the journal and sent it back to a friend in Missouri). He probably didn’t have a copy to send to Brolaski. He would tell the story again later, but this letter is before the narratives he dictated for Bancroft and for The Century Magazine. I don’t know if Mr. Brolaski ever got his wish.

Henry L. Brolaski was born in Pennsylvania in 1814, the son of a Polish immigrant and his New England wife. In 1835 he married Eliza Higginbotham and that same year a daughter was born to the couple in Callao, Peru, where Henry’s older brother Joseph was in business. The next year he was back in Philadelphia, and by 1837 he was in Missouri. (This is all based on the birthplaces of his children.)

By the time Henry set out for California in 1841, he had a wife and three children in Missouri. What dreams or schemes drew him to the West? Did he sense opportunity in California or did he just long for adventure? One thing we know, he didn’t take his wife and children, like Ben and Samuel Kelsey did.

He worked for a short time in Monterey for Thomas O. Larkin, but less than a year after arrival he sailed for Peru and by the end of the year he was back in the States. On November 14, 1842 he applied for a passport in Boston, and asked to have it sent to his Philadelphia address. They didn’t have passport photos back then, so instead they gave a physical description.

Henry rejoined his family in Missouri and added another son to the children. Then in 1849 the Gold Rush exerted its irresistible pull, drawing him back to California, and once again he left his wife and children behind. According to this newspaper notice he tried his hand at mining. It looks like he was the leader of a group of sixteen men prospecting on the American River.

He didn’t stay long at Brolaski’s Bar. He left those men to work on their canal and reef while he went into business in Sacramento City that summer of 1850. The firm of Brolaski, Goodall & Co. sold provisions of all kinds to miners at their store at 3rd and J Streets.The census, taken in October, lists him as a merchant.

No sooner had he started in business then he was out again. He sold his interest in the store in the fall of 1850 and left California to return to Missouri. His second California sojourn was over. Perhaps he had made enough money to revitalize his business ventures in St. Louis.

Three more children, twin boys and a girl, were born to Henry and Eliza between 1852 and 1855. An 1875 city directory lists him as the president of the Brolaski Shoe Manufacturing Company.

Then at the age of 65 he set out on another business venture, this time in Colorado. In 1876 he went to Silverton with his son Harry M. Brolaski and located a site for a reduction mill to process silver ore. The project ended when Henry died in 1877 of pneumonia.

Henry L. Brolaski led a long and far-flung life of business mixed with adventure. He could claim the distinction of being a member of the first wagon train to California and the first Polish-American in California.

A note on sources: I couldn’t write this post without the wonderful online resources that are now available. All the information about Henry Brolaski’s family and his whereabouts come from either FamilySearch.org, a free genealogical resource from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or the California Digital Newspaper Collection. The definitive book on the Bidwell-Barleson Party is The Bidwell-Barleson Party: 1841 California Emigrant Adventure, by Doyce B. Nunis, Jr.