Fool's Gold

“For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil” (1Timothy 6:10)
“The lust for gold is a root of a whole lot more evil.” (Unknown miner, California, 1849)

Seventeen year old Thomas Schmidt loves his beer. But too much of it one night and a tragic fight at the local Gasthaus sends him fleeing from his tiny village in 1830s Germany. He is so desperate to outrun the avenger (Rudolph Stein) pursuing him that Thomas becomes an indentured servant to buy passage to America. Eventually, their misadventure leads Thomas and Rudolph to the 1849 California Gold Rush.
There they join one from China, an ex-slave, and a veteran of other gold strikes and find the lust for gold can result in more pain and death than happiness.
Their lost treasure of family left behind eats away at Thomas's and Rudolph's souls until they at last send for them.

Fool’s Gold is Book One of the Turning Point Series. The series covers three events that shaped America to make it what it is today: the 1849 California Gold Rush, which brought emigrants from around the world to California and began an exodus from the eastern United States westward; the decline and fall of the British Empire and Ottoman Empire, which had ruled much of the world for centuries; and America’s entry into wars in Cuba and the Philippines, which began over a century of foreign intervention.
Book Two is The Prince of Alexandria.
Book Three is The Wolf Is Crying to Be Heard.