OBTAINED FROM COOPER COUNTY, MISSOURI WEBSITE : http://www.rootsweb.com/~mocooper/index.html
History of Cooper County Missouri by W. F. Johnson
Pages 150 - 199
Chapter VIII
From 1819 to 1821

Cooper County sent forth to the gold fields of California many of her sons, some of whom were past the middle age with silvered locks, others were bays still in their teens, all animated with the hope and strong desire that their labors, their sacrifices, their dangers, and their bravery would be rewarded with an abundance of the glittering and precious ore. The desert plains over which they traveled to reach the gold fields were littered with broken wagons and carcasses of beasts of burden and here and there the mouldering remains of men. Joaquin Miller, the poet of the Sierras, has said, "The coward never started and the weak did not arrive:" We are unable to give the names of all those hardy seekers after gold who left our county at this tune, however, we here give the names of a portion of the companies of Capt. Robert McCulloch and Solomon Houck:

Robert McCulloch's company: Spotswook McCulloch, Joseph McCulloch, John McCulloch, Robert Douglass, Charles Lewis, Merriweather Lewis, Nicholas Lewis, Abraham Weight, John Simmons, Joseph Potter, Nelson Potter, John Hornbeck, Perry Taylor, Alfred Hornbeck, C. W. Sombart, Julius Sombart, Robert Allison, Love Warily, Erhart, Sr., August Erhart, Albert Erhart, William Hardcastle, Reuben Stevens and James Humes, of Moniteau County; Ewing Kelly, Joseph Hess, John Kelly, Peter Kelly, Bear, Sr., Frank Bear, John Corey, William Son, George Kelly, Oldhausen and son and Richard Bidel, of St. Louis County; Louis Brant, Dr. Antrim, and Abraham Reidmeyer, William Reidmeyer and John Hahn, from Ohio; Joseph Byler, Calvin Wilson, Simon Boyd.

NOTE: It is not known which WILLIAM HARDCASTLE this is referring to, however the fact that Simon Boyd is also mentioned indicates that these may be relatives of the Boyds and Hardcastles on this web site.  Merriwether Lewis could also be related to the famous Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis & Clark Expedition.  If anyone has further information about this, please send me an e-mail.