January 2025

 In this stock image, ‘business’ is represented by a guy in a white shirt and tie while ‘creativity’ is represented by a lightbulb bursting with color, which is some pretty lazy creative.About ten years ago, I wrote about what happened when a very…

Marie Suize was a French immigrant who made her way in the highly masculine world of the California Gold Rush by cutting her hair short and wearing men’s clothing, including trousers, becoming known as “Marie Pantalon.”  Among her successful enterprises were operating wine and liquor stores in Virginia City, Nevada, and San Francisco where she flaunted her male attire and happily paid the price.

This pioneer Western woman was born in July 1824 in the Savoy region of France.  Her father Claude Suize was a hotel owner in Thones,   whose wife, Adelaide Machet, gave him 17 children of whom Marie was the seventh child and the second daughter.  Finding it hard to make a living in Savoy, Marie moved to Paris at the age of 22.  There she fell into dire poverty until rescued by a kindly Parisian woman who gave her shelter and, recognizing her intelligence, helped find her a job on a local newspaper.  There she read about the discovery of gold in California and like thousands of Europeans determined to migrate there.

Marie left for California in 1850 on a ship from LeHavre to San Francisco.  It took five months to make the trip.  That gave her sufficient time to think about carving out a future in a strange masculine-dominated environment.  She cut her hair short and adopted men’s clothing, traveling as “male.”  It was a fateful decision.  Arriving in California she caught a steamboat up the Sacramento River and then traveled by stagecoach to Jackson Creek, a newly created Gold Rush town in the Sierra hills.

The few women in the mining camp were cooks, laundresses, or “fallen angels.” Marie would have none of that.  She struck a deal with another French immigrant, Andre’ Douet, who was impressed by her driving personality, to loan her the money to buy a mining concession in return for sharing the assets.  She proved to be a successful boss, employing a cadre of men to extract gold from her claim.  Marie worked beside them with pick-ax and shovel while vigorously defending her land. This story is told:

In 1860, Suize was working a mine at Humbug Hill near Jackson, on land adjoining a claim owned by a group of Canadians. The Canadians began excavating on Suize’s land, and her French compatriots took her side, ready to invade the shaft where the Canadians were working. “Leave it to me,” Suize said, “I’ll take care of it”. Suize handled the incident by blocking an opening in the shaft that let air in for the Canadian miners.

The Canadians, in danger of being asphyxiated, came out on their own. So she reopened the hole, and, armed with two revolvers and a soup tureen full of pepper, sat down at the entrance to the tunnel, where she had had her bed carried. She warned the Canadians that if they tried to enter, it would be pepper first, full in the face, then, at full force, the revolvers. For eight days and eight nights, the mine remained blocked by a company of 14 men, who did not dare to come close enough to force her to use her weapons. During this time, her workers were rapidly exploiting the land in dispute, without the Canadians being able to oppose it. When the task was finished, they admitted to being defeated and peace was concluded.

The Only Known Likeness of Marie

This confrontation made Marie, shown in the drawing right, a local celebrity.,Because  she wore wearing men’s pants, she became known as “Marie Pantalon.”  Her fame spread.  The notoriety, however, brought her into direct conflict with California law that outlawed cross-dressing.  Arrested and tried three times, Marie was, in turn, ordered out of town, fined five dollars, and finally awarded a jury trial, found non-guilty.  Jurors decided there was nothing wrong with her attire.  She promptly applied to authorities for the right to wear pants.  It was granted and Marie never looked back.

One newspaper had this comment: “It is said that she looks much better in male than female habiliments; we should suppose so. She had not the face or figure to set off a Grecian bend.  She was sailor built.  She will be apt to get out of San Francisco and into Amador County and her breeches as speedily as possible.”

By now, Marie was wealthy from the gold discovered in her mining operations.   She branched out, becoming an investor in other area mines and mining stocks. Some claims bore colorful names like Gopher Flat, New York Gulch and Wildcat Tunnel.   Her newfound wealth also allowed her to afford a return trip to France.  There she attempted to convince other Suize family members to join her in the gold fields.  When none responded she went back to California, never to return.

 As “moiling for gold” became more and more difficult when new strikes became increasingly scarce, Maria turn her attention to agriculture.  In association with Douet, Marie expanded her business activities. She began buying land not just for mining but also for agriculture. She built a ranch near Jackson, California,  that she named “French Garden”. There, she produced mulberry bushes and fruit trees, and started breeding silkworms.Subsequently with Douet she purchased a large tract in Amidor County, California, and began to grow grapes to make wine and brandy,  two libations with which the French woman was very familiar.  Marie advertised vigorously.

Jackson, California Downtown

The Pacific Daily Press reported: “Mme. Marie Suize is the proprietress of a 300-acre tract of land situated six miles east of Jackson, and is cultivating some 30,000 vines and manufacturing about 12,000 gallons of wine and 600 gallons of brandy annually. With a view to silk raising she is cultivating 3,000 mulberry trees. At this writing there are on hand at this ranch some 18,000 gallons of wine, from one to five years old. It is kept in twenty-four 800 gallon casks, manufactured from a species of black, live oak, cut, sawn, manufactured upon the farm. Two large 3,000 gallon casks are used for making the red wine. Five men are regularly employed.”

In an 1872 ad, as “Madame Pantaloon,” she advertised wine barrels for sale as seen here.  She also became a liquor dealer, opening a store in San Francisco and a wholesale and retail liquor house near the California border in Virginia City, Nevada, the town shown below.  The stores offered the opportunity to sell her wine and brandy directly to the public.  For the next 20 years Marie would be reported active in the liquor trade.

In time bad investments in mining and other stocks required Marie to sell off many of her assets.  Among them were her Amador County farm and the liquor outlets in  San Francisco and Virginia City.  Once again she was rescued by a Douet, his nephew, Frank.  Shown here is Frank’s ad announcing “A New Partnership” after he and a partner had bought out Madame Suize’s San Francisco wine and liquor store, announcing “Customers of the house are respectfully solicited to continue their patronage, as the new owners will continue to keep up the reputation of the house for good Wines and Liquors.”

Even as her assets dwindled, Marie continued to gamble on the stock market, perhaps hoping to recoup some of her former wealth. She is said to have lost $150,000 in one day on stocks as the markets fluctuated wildly.  Among her losses were a stake in the Comstock Lode.  She told an interviewer that she had accrued a cubic meter of gold in her lifetime but lost it all in speculative investments.

She was able to keep her ranch, however, and died there, impoverished, in January 1892.   She was 68 years old.  A newspaper obituary described her last days: “Her body worn out by work, her mind tired from worrying about business, she gradually felt her strength declining, and a year ago, she decided to retire to her ranch, in the hope of restoring her health. It seemed that she was completely recovered, when she relapsed, and died in less than a week”. 

Marie was buried in St. Patrick’s Catholic Cemetery, Amador.  Because she died insolvent, she was not given a headstone and interred in an anonymous grave. On July 14, 2004, 112 years after her death a memorial plaque was erected in there as her life and accomplishments became better appreciated.  Fostered in part by the local historical society, Marie also was declared “Woman of the Year” in Amador County.  The plaque, shown below, includes a reproduction of her signature as “Marie Suize Pantalon.”  The pioneer lady with the pants is gone, but not easily forgotten.

Note:  This post was derived from several Suize biographies, chiefly an article available on the Internet by Eric J. Costa and a chapter of a book by Susan G. Butruille called “Women’s Voices from the Mother Lode,”Tamarack Books, Boise ID, 1998.