Mary Jane Megquier (1813–1899) was an American businesswoman. She participated in the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

. She is mentioned alongside

Luzena Wilson Luzena Stanley Wilson, ''née'' Hunt (–1902) was a California Gold Rush entrepreneur. Wilson came overland to California from Missouri with her husband and two small children in 1849. Luzena recounted her memoirs to her daughter Correnah, in wh ...

and

Mary Ellen Pleasant Mary Ellen Pleasant (August 19, 1815 – January 11, 1904) was a 19th-century entrepreneur, financier, real estate magnate and abolitionist. She was arguably the first self-made millionaire of African-American heritage, preceding Madam C. J. Wal ...

among the women who managed to profit among the miners of the Gold Rush by selling 'female gendered" domestic services to the miners. In 1849, she travelled with her husband from

Turner, Maine Turner is a town in Androscoggin County, Maine, United States. The population was 5,817 at the 2020 census. The town includes the villages of Turner, Turner Center and North Turner. The town is part of the Lewiston- Auburn, Maine Metropolita ...

to San Francisco via

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

. In San Francisco, she ran a boarding house and enjoyed the freer society. In Gold Rush California of the 1850s, women were few, and as domestic tasks were gendered female and considered shameful for men to perform, it was possible for women to make a fortune by selling household- and domestic services such as cooking, cleaning, boarding and washing to men.Edith Sparks,
Capital Intentions: Female Proprietors in San Francisco, 1850-1920
' Her writings are published in ''Apron of Gold: The Letters of Mary Jane Megquier from San Francisco, 1849-1856'', edited by Polly Welts Kaufman, University of New Mexico Press, 1994 .

References

* Edith Sparks,
Capital Intentions: Female Proprietors in San Francisco, 1850-1920
' 1813 births 1899 deaths People of the California Gold Rush People from Turner, Maine 19th-century American businesspeople 19th-century American businesswomen {{OldWest-bio-stub