VIEWSrnReal Diversityrnby Roger D. McGrathrnBy Tre, Pol, or Pen ye may know most Cornishmen.”rnThis simple rhyme was known to nearly everyone inrnthe mining camps of the Old West and probably to much of therngeneral population in America during the 19th century. ‘I’reloar,rnTrevelyan, and Tremaine were especially common namesrnon the mining frontier, as were Penrose, Penhall, and Pender.rnLess common but not unusual were Polglase, Polkinghorne,rnand Polmear. Cornishmen, one and all. hi America, they becamernknown as “Cousin Jacks.” They all seemed to have arncousin Jack back home who would be just right for the latestrnjob-opening in the mine. They were such skilled hard-rockrnminers that they demanded to work for a percentage of the profitsrnrather than daily wages. Needing the expertise of the Cornishmen,rnthe mine owners readily complied. Once the placerrndeposits had been exhausted and hard-rock mining commenced,rnit was time to bring in the Cornishmen. Camp afterrncamp filled with Cousin Jacks until they represented more thanrnten percent of the population in most mining districts. In CrassrnValley, in the heart of the California Mother Lode, they madernup nearly 20 percent of the town’s population.rnSince prehistoric times, the Cornish —a Celtic p e o p l e -rnhave inhabited Cornwall, an 80-mile-long peninsula in southwesternrnBritain. A beautiful but rocky and rugged land wherernfarming was difficult, Cornwall was blessed with a wealth ofrnmineral resources. The Cornish have been mining that wealthrnfor more than 2,000 years. They traded tin to the Phoeniciansrnand later to the Romans, and conducted trade in hn and copperrnwith foreign peoples for hundreds of years. Wlien England beganrnacquiring an empire, Cornishmen, with their great miningrnexpertise, were sent to the far reaches of the empire—to America,rnCanada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. “WliereverrnRoger D. McGrath is the author of Cunfighters, Highwaymen,rnand Vigilantes.rnthere is a hole in the earth,” according to an old saw, “you willrnfind a Cornishman at the bottom of it.”rnBy the turn of the 19th century, Cornishmen were alreadyrnprominent in the iron mines of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.rnDuring the 1840’s, thousands of them settled in the lead-miningrnregion of the upper Mississippi Valley. Centered on MineralrnPoint, Wisconsin, Cornish settlement soon spilled into thernneighboring states of Iowa and Illinois. Cornishmen, like nearlyrneveryone else, rushed to the California goldfields after newsrnof James Marshall’s discovery spread.rnHowever, it was not until the placers were exhausted and itrnbecame necessary to tunnel into the granite core of the SierrarnNevada that the Cornish rose to prominence. The business ofrnsinking shafts, tunneling, excavating, timbering, using explosives,rnand operating power tools called for Cornishmen. Theyrnhad a virtual monopoly on several specialized tasks, includingrnoperating the engines that pumped water from the mines.rnTheir skills were vital to the development of nrining not only inrnCalifornia but throughout the West. In the I850’s, Crass Valleyrnbecame a kind of outdoor laboratory for inventing and testingrnequipment and mining processes, including rotary stampsrnfor crushing ore, hydraulic operations, and chlorination duringrnmilling to increase the amount of gold recovered.rnCornishmen made wrestling matches a feature of miningcamprnlife. In their own national tradihon, wresding played anrnimportant role. Legend has it that a Cornish champion, Coemor,rnwrestled and defeated a Trojan hero, Corineus, in an epicrncontest in 1000 B.C”. Cornish wrestlers, serving as soldiers in anrnF.nglish army, fought at Agincourt in 1415 under a banner thatrnis still the symbol of the Cornish Wrestling Association.rnCornishmen also brought Methodism to the camps. Backrnhome, the Cornish, especially the miners, had embracedrnMethodism from the first. The Cornish were not only passionaternMethodists but passionate singers of Charles Wesley’s manyrn14/CHRONICLESrnrnrn