The Hand That Rocks…

150-Year-Old Cradle Arrives At Grass Valley Museum

By James Chester

Rough hewn boards, square nails, large and heavy.  Once the first bed for nine children only to end up underneath a Grass Valley home. This 150-year-old pioneer cradle made in North San Juan  around 1875 for the family of Elizabeth Jane Hurd Burrows has been donated to the Grass Valley Museum by the family of her great-granddaughter Margaret (Hansen) Boothby.  Ms. Boothby  has had the cradle since 1985 when she found it in the crawl space under the home of her grandfather, Jack Hansen, at 418 West Main Street, in Grass Valley, CA.  

If the cradle could talk it would tell the story of Elizabeth Hurd who came to California as a baby in 1856.  Her mother and father carried her and her brother from Pennsylvania to San Francisco via the Isthmus of Panama where many of their party died from scurvy.  Once in California, the Hurd family braved flood season to go directly  to Nevada City where they were one of the first white families with young children living in what was then a very rugged gold rush boomtown. 

As a young adult, Elizabeth Hurd married Alexander Burrows, a certified teacher who probably taught school “on the ridge” (North San Juan) where the cradle was made.    Alexander later became a lawyer and ended up serving as City Attorney for Grass Valley.  His office at the time was inside the Holbrooke Hotel.

In 1876 Elizabeth became the second woman admitted to practice law in the Superior Court at Nevada City. She and Alexander had 12 children, at least nine of whom once slept in the cradle now on exhibit at the Grass Valley Museum. 

In 1876 Elizabeth became the second woman admitted to practice law in the Superior Court at Nevada City. She and Alexander had 12 children, at least nine of whom once slept in the cradle now on exhibit at the Grass Valley Museum. 

Of those children several died before adulthood.  The others include Don Francis who became a lawyer in San Francisco; Roy Alexander who became a prominent builder in Reno; and Clara Vere, grandmother of Margaret Boothby, who married John Hartwig Hansen (Jack Hansen) originally from Norway. Mr. Hansen served as Mayor of Grass Valley in 1941-1942.  He  built the house at 418 West Main where the cradle was found.

The cradle, along with 1000’s of other artifacts detailing the lives and history of Grass Valley can be seen in the Grass Valley Museum.

Read more about this on Patti A’s blog.