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Northern
California OLD SETTLERS' PAPERS.
Part of what I am now about to relate will, perhaps, be received with
incredulity by the younger portion of Trinity's people, yet I shall
state only actual facts which I am cognizant of myself. Some things
become matters of general history, are taught in our schools and the
facts generally circulated through the medium of printed books. Other
facts connected therewith are as much history as the main circumstance
detailed, but in relation to it become only side issues, and soon drop
out of the minds of all except the actors and witnesses. It has passed
into history that when California sought admission into the Union of
States that a fierce sectional debate arose in the halls of the
National Legislature; that for many months our state knocked at the
doors of the Union for admission to its blessings in vain. It is also
history that the reason for this was that California had adopted a free
state constitution; that there were at the time fifteen free, and
fifteen slave, states and the admission of California would destroy the
balance of power in the Senate of the United States by giving the free
states thirty-two, while the slave states would have but thirty
Senators. Again, those versed in politics of forty-one years ago know
that California was finally admitted as the result of the compromise
measures of 1850. These are the historical facts, familiar to every
student of history. It is my purpose before closing this paper to
relate an incident of early days, which brings in one of the "side
issues."NUMBER 1. BY ALEXANDER CUMMINGS GEORGE. I first saw Weaver Basin in the month of December, 1850. In company with others (led off by the Gold Bluff excitement), I crossed the Trinity at what afterwards became known as Strader's Ferry, made my way up West Weaver to the Forks; thence up West Weaver and over the mountain westward. We soon got enough of Gold Bluff. The sands were rich in gold, but it was so fine we could not save it with the appliances at our command, and we turned back into the mountains again. About the middle of March we were caught in the most severe snow storm of the season. We came pretty near starving, and what made matters worse was that Bill Mitchell, my partner, got the chills and fever. However, we kept budging along the best we could, and in the latter part of March, 1851, brought up at Weaverville. Our joint stock of cash amounted to $13.50, and we laid it all out in provisions, mostly bacon and flour. We went up to Sidney Hill and camped with J. C. Post, who had a pack train. We left our flour and bacon under the shed and that night a jackass got to it and devoured every particle, ending up his meal by chewing the flour sack. We found ourselves worse off than ever in the morning, having neither provisions nor money. Post gave us our breakfast, and hearing that Dr. Ware wanted to hire I went and found him. I worked for him three days at seven dollars a day, paid out about half the money for quinine for Mitchell; the rest I put in grub, which we secured better against the jackass tribe than we had the other. No one wanted to work for wages in those days, and as Bill was not fit to work and could not be for some time, I hunted other partners. There was a Missourian there, a middle-aged man named Congreve Jackson--he had a nephew, James, or as we called him for short, "Jim." Jackson had brought some fine pack animals from the East with him when he came in '49 and some Negro slaves. Congreve Jackson and I went into partnership with Jim McGinnis. Tim was something of a tough customer, but he was from Pittsburgh, in my own state, and that was a bond of sympathy between us in this far-away country. Partnerships were easily formed among the miners in those times--two men would sink a hole together, and that would make them partners. We sank holes in the gulch about opposite where the O'Neil family now resides. We would sink a hole about ten feet square, wash the gravel and bedrock, then sink another alongside of it, leaving a bar of solid earth between the cuts to keep us from being flooded with water from the worked ground. But the work didn't pay us; and one day McGinnis cursed the bad luck, and said he knew the reason. Opening his carpet sack he pulled out a scalp, and the scalp of a white man, or boy, at that. It seemed from McGinnis' story that himself and partners had some mules stolen, and taking the trail found the animals on the head of Cottonwood, in Shasta County, in care of a young fellow. Summary justice, or injustice (I don't know which), was at once meted out. The young fellow was killed and scalped, and it was his scalp McGinnis had and which he superstitiously thought brought him bad luck. I had no desire for further partnership with a man with such brutal instincts and told Jackson so. Jackson was of my way of thinking and our partnership was at once dissolved, as easily and quickly as it was formed. By this time Mitchell began to have some strength to work with me, but Congreve Jackson, having determined to return that summer to Missouri, did not look for another claim. Jackson, as I have observed before, was a Missourian, and owned some fine pack mules. He also brought over the plains with him a Negro slave--perhaps there were more than one, but if so they were in some other locality. His Negro boy's name was Ned, and when Jackson told Ned that he should take him back to Missouri with him Ned did not like it a great deal. The only hotel then in Weaverville was a log one, about the present site of the Union Hotel, and it was kept by Frank Payne and John Ross, who had a free Negro cooking for them. Ned used to visit this free Negro, and when Ned objected to being taken back to Missouri and lifelong slavery, Jackson at once laid all the blame of Ned's obduracy upon the "d----d abolitionists" who kept the hotel. Whether they did encourage Ned or not I do not know--probably not, for Ross was himself from Missouri. But Congreve Jackson, though a true-bred Southern gentleman, had no patience with anyone who differed with him on the question of slavery--they were all "d----d abolitionists." I have thought often in later years what moral cowards many of us were; while condemning the institution of slavery, the dread of having the opprobrious epithet of "abolitionist" hurled at us kept us silent when we should have spoken. But we were not singular in this respect--both Democrats and Whigs in Congress from the northern states sanctioned a policy of "expediency,'' and what wonder is it that the rank and file followed the example set by their political leaders. When Ned found that Jackson was resolved to take him back East, he made an appeal to the white men to buy him. "Three hundred dollars, gemmen, only give me three hundred dollars and Marse Jackson will set me free." Somehow, Ned's appeal fell upon unsympathetic ears. Perhaps it was because Ned was rather a worthless, idle darkey, perhaps because the men he spoke to were like the great majority of men in those days--willing to let slavery alone, so long as it did not interfere with their own pursuits. Ned then left Weaverville and went down Weaver Creek to a point near where Personette, Montgomery and Ben Smith were working, near the mouth of Democrat Gulch. A fourth partner of Personette and company was Jim Anderson, a free colored man. He worked with the other members of the company but cooked, ate and slept by himself. Ned stopped with Jim Anderson. Jackson was not long in finding out Ned's whereabouts. Himself and nephew with others went down the creek to Anderson's camp and captured the fugitive. With his hands tied behind him, Congreve Jackson marching by his side armed with a double-barreled gun while his nephew followed behind with a long rifle over his shoulder, poor Ned was marched through the streets of Weaverville. I was on the sidewalk, about where Junkans now has his storehouse, and as they passed by Jackson called out to me that he would show the "d----d abolitionists" that he could and would take his "nigger" back. Whether Ned was actually taken back to Missouri and slavery I do not know, but presume that he was. Jackson was justified in his procedure. Perhaps not within the strict letter of the law, which would have relegated him to judicial proceedings in the courts to assert his "rights" as owner of Ned, but still, he was within its spirit and only asserting rights which the courts would have sanctioned. The constitution of California as adopted in 1849 contained this clause in the bill of rights: "Neither slavery, or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, shall be tolerated." This section of the constitution was adopted unanimously, although the constitutional convention had as members Chas. T. Botts, O. M. Wozencraft, J. M. Jones, M. M. Carver, and William M. Gwin, who with others were sons of slaveholding states. But with true patriotism they saw that to admit slave labor in California would enrich the slave owner at the expense of free labor and, discarding prejudices of birth places and education, voted for a free state. But while California was thus taking her steps to statehood, people were flocking over her borders from every direction. Men who came from the South and southwestern states in many instances brought Negro slaves with them. Generally these slaves were favorites of their masters, and in many cases there was a bargain that after working for a certain period of time the slave should be given his freedom. The legislature of California at its first session passed an act authorizing persons who had brought slaves here prior to the adoption of the state constitution a limited time in which to remove the "property" out of California's jurisdiction. As I have said, I don't know whether Jackson actually took Ned back to Missouri with him, or not. If he did Ned had to wait until Old Abe's proclamation gave him the freedom he sought, but the incident of June, 1851--that a man was held in bondage, handcuffed, driven through the streets of Weaverville to be carried back to a place where slavery was sanctioned by law--remains. Trinity Journal, Weaverville, California, December 12, 1891, page 1 OLD SETTLERS' PAPERS.
As my first letter to you on the early history of Trinity County, I
will give a short sketch of one of our most honored first settlers, Tom
Palmer. He was, in 1850, when I first knew him, about 45 years of age,
a rather short, heavy-set man with a large, intelligent head and face
covered with thick hair and a long beard. Tom was one of those old
Rocky Mountain trappers who came to California in 1849, and after
arriving in California kept on through other mining sections until he
arrived in Trinity County, in the month of September of that year. Tom
first mined on Point Bar, then moved up the river to Salt Flat, in both
places making from one ounce and upwards per day.NUMBER 2. BY W. S. LOWDEN. In October, 1850, Tom cut down a large pine tree near the place where Newt. Sutton's house now stands, and made a canoe in which he went down Trinity River to give the river a thorough prospecting. He went as far down as Big Bar, prospecting all unprospected bars, and returning to "Old" Tucker's place (Lewiston) late in the following November. Tom made up a company composed of Dick Christian, Jillett, Sherman, John Christy and two Germans, whose names I have forgotten, and went down the river to Palmer's Bar (now called lngram's Bar). This bar Tom reported as giving the best prospects of any bar found on his prospecting trip down the river. I had myself been prospecting for mines for the winter and had settled on a bar about one-fourth of a mile above Palmer's Bar in company with Oliver Welker, Ben Alexander, Otey, Jack Bennett and Henry Parker. (Welker, Alexander, Otey and Bennett built the first cabin at the Tower House in Shasta County in 1849.) We built four cabins on the two bars and mined there until spring. In the spring of 1851 Tom Palmer went to Lewiston and bought out "Old" Tucker and "Cephus" Wood, established a ferry at that place and named it after a boy that he had picked up in some of the border towns (have forgotten the place) when he went into the "white settlements" to sell his furs. This boy was Frank Lewis. Tom found Frank a ragged orphan boy, running around the streets, and took him and clothed him nicely, paid his board and sent him to school until he was of age, and then sent for him to come to California, putting him in charge of his Lewiston property. Tom Palmer, a man by the name of Vary and myself, in the year 1851, made a prospecting trip up Trinity River and found the mines at Trinity Center. We made our first discovery of gold in Hatchet Creek, just above where the wagon road now crosses that creek. Palmer and myself returned to our old place of business, and Vary and Mose Chadbourne moved to Trinity Center. In the year 1853, Palmer established another ferry on Trinity River, on the Yreka trail below Trinity Center, in company with John Christy. It was at this place that Tom Palmer died. Tom had accumulated a large sum of money while mining and kept the gold dust buried in porter bottles and cans. The number of those bottles and cans were five when I last saw them, but I think he raised two of them; one when he bought "Old" Tucker out, and one when he established his upper ferry. He wanted to leave one-half of this money to Frank Lewis, and the other half to Mrs. Gibbs (a woman who was keeping house for him when he died). When Tom found that he was going to die, he called John Christy and told him to go as soon as possible and bring Frank Lewis or myself to him, as he had business of importance to communicate to one of us before he died. John Christy, knowing that his object was to tell us where to find the money that he had buried and probably thinking that if neither Frank or myself came Palmer would tell him where the money was buried, he went down the river a mile or two and remained a few hours. When he returned he told Palmer that Frank Lewis and I started for the valley that morning and could not be found. Palmer looked at Christy a few minutes and said: "Christy, you have not been to Lewiston at all. You think I will tell you where my money is buried, but you are mistaken; I could not do so if I wanted to. That money is forever lost." (Palmer had told Frank Lewis and myself enough so that if necessary he could tell us where to find the money.) Palmer then died in a few minutes and the money has never been found. A truer man to his friends, or a braver pioneer, than Tom Palmer never came to California. Trinity Journal, Weaverville, California, December 19, 1891, page 1 OLD SETTLERS' PAPERS.
Once more I will attempt to write something of the early history of the
pioneers of Trinity County and the northern part of our great state.
Though Americans cannot claim the honor of discovering California, for
way back in the year 1776, when Washington was fighting on the Atlantic
for our liberty, we find Father Pedro Font exploring the Bay of San
Francisco in the interest of his Catholic Majesty. These expeditions
continued until the 18th day of January, 1848, when John W. Marshall
discovered gold in the mill-race of Captain Sutter's sawmill at Coloma,
which event revolutionized the world, and Americans took possession of
the country. History does not give a case where such wonderful strides
have been made toward civilization and settlement of a new country as
was made here in five years. Though a large portion of this state had
been explored before the discovery of gold, this part--Trinity,
Humboldt, Del Norte and Siskiyou counties--was unexplored, except,
perhaps, along a trail leading from the Sacramento Valley to Oregon,
over which a few persons had traveled, and it is of this part of
California that I now intend to speak.NUMBER 3. BY W. S. LOWDEN. In the year 1849, Major Reading and a few others crossed the Trinity Mountains and worked the mines along Trinity River. During the winter of '49 and '50 the mines were discovered in Weaver Basin, and it was to these mines that I came in the spring of 1850. I started from Sacramento City on the 14th day of May, in company with Hiram Spencer, Henry Parker and Dr. Ankeny. Dr. Ankeny came up to collect "Foreign Miners' License," but I think he did not collect much money. We arrived at Shasta Springs on the night of the 17th and here I bought a rocker for $50 from Dave Casont, who was the first sheriff of Shasta County; I also bought some provisions of Bull, Baker & Co., and paid a Mexican 50 cents per pound to pack them to Trinity. On the next day I crossed Trinity Mountain in company with Spencer and Parker (Ankeny stopped at Oak Bottom) and camped at Mud Valley, near the place now occupied by Frick & Davis' barn. We had not been in camp more than half an hour when the Indians stampeded our horses, and would have got away with them had not one, a mare and leader of the band, mired down in one of the swampy places; the other horses would not leave the mare and we soon got around them, brought them back to camp, picketed them and stood guard all night. Mooney had just completed a canoe and was ferrying people over the river here for one dollar per man. We had to swim the horses. We crossed over on the morning of the 19th of May, and about 11 o'clock of that day we camped on Weaver Creek, on the opposite side from where Joe Caton's house now stands, and prospected in the bed of the creek where we found gold. In the afternoon of the same day we turned Weaver Creek through a dry channel and sank a hole to prospect the ground. About three o'clock in the afternoon I discovered that the water was riley in the creek and knew that someone was mining above. So Henry Parker and I started up the creek to try and find the miners. We crossed the creek and followed up on the south side of West Weaver Creek to the mouth of what is now known as Grub Gulch. Here we went down to the creek and seeing that the water was clear and the creek not so large as it had been below, concluded that there must be another fork. So we crossed and went over the ridge, coming down Blue Gulch, where we found an old sailor mining. The water was getting short in the gulch, and the old sailor said he had all the money he wanted and was going to leave for home the next morning. I bought his rocker (an old log dugout) for four ounces. I took the rocker and went to work while Henry Parker went back to camp and moved up to this place where we mined for three weeks. There were about twenty miners in the camp at this time, and others came in every day but could not do much, as the water in the gulches was about gone. Soon after I settled here a party was made up to go north and see if another river could not be found. This party was gone about three weeks, when they returned and reported the discovery of Salmon River. I and my partners joined the company. We went to Shasta and bought provisions enough to last three months and mules to pack them on. I met Henry Wilson, now of Tehama County, on the summit of Trinity Mountain and bought "Old Donkey," an old Mexican mule, for $150. This old mule became famous afterward as the guard for our camp. No Indian could get near the camp without "Old Donkey" knowing it and giving the alarm. Many were the times that "Old Donkey" saved us from attacks by Indians as we went up the Klamath River. On the 2nd day of July we started from Shasta for Salmon River and reached that river on the 9th day of July. We went to all the places where our prospecting party had found good prospects, but found someone at work. While we were in Shasta getting our supplies about two or three hundred miners had taken the trail of the prospectors and arrived on Salmon River before we got there. We went on down the river to the forks and, after prospecting for four days, one evening a party of boys, myself being one of them, got together and after consulting a while we concluded that there must be still another river farther north and that, too, might have gold in its bars, richer than any yet found. This all of them admitted, but the boys generally thought that we were already far enough away from our base of supplies, and if we crossed another range of mountains and should get into war with the Indians, our chances of returning would be very bad. I, with a few others, was willing to take the chances, and on the morning of the 15th day of July, 1850, we packed our mules and started up the mountain just below the forks of Salmon to go north. (Henry Parker and Hiram Spencer, my old partners, turned back to Trinity.) We traveled all day without finding water for ourselves or animals, and when darkness came on we threw off our packs and let the animals loose. We then took our canteens and coffee pots and started down the mountain after water, which we found late in the night, reaching camp again a little before midnight. Our mules and horses had gone on about a mile or two further and had found plenty of water and grass. We had hardly got out of sight of Salmon River when stories began to be circulated that we had discovered wonderful diggings and were on our way to them. The next day about one hundred miners overtook us while we were camped at the place where our animals had gone the night before for water and grass. Here we had a general talk and convinced the newcomers that we knew nothing of the country ahead of us, but hoped to find another river equally as good as Trinity or Salmon. The whole party, except nineteen, turned back to Salmon River. Our little party of nineteen pushed on for two days longer when we came to a high tableland covered with grass, and where deer and bear were in great abundance. We concluded to stop here for a few days, "jerk venison" and recruit our animals before descending the mountain to the new river that we could see must be only a few miles away. While camped here another party of probably one hundred overtook us, and when they found that we really knew nothing of the country before us the larger portion turned back, leaving us, however, enough to make our company consist of 56 men and 152 head of animals. We here elected a man by the name of Hart captain, so that in case of war with the Indians we might have a head. Hart, however, was a failure when trouble came on, as it did in a short time after we reached the Klamath River. We now started to descend the mountain, and night came on when we were about half a mile from the river. The mountain was very steep, and we had reached a place too steep to get down in front of us and too steep behind for the mule to climb back with their loads. So we camped for the night on a small bench, just large enough for ourselves and animals to lie down upon. The next morning we took our ropes and made a cable long enough to reach the slide below and a part of us went down on the rope; then those above took the mules and horses and fastened the rope to their tails and pushed them over the slide. In that way we let all of our animals, men and provisions down, and by ten o'clock all were at the foot of the slide, and by twelve o'clock we had packed and reached the bank of the Klamath River, where we camped and commenced prospecting--finding gold on all of the bars, but not as rich as we had hoped to find it. A little before night a party of Indians came into our camp, all large, fine-looking men. One of their number was the chief of the tribe; he had brought with him a man who could talk the "jargon" language; we had four or five Oregonians who understood that language, so we had but little trouble in understanding one another. The chief, who we named Jack (not being able to pronounce his Indian name), made a very pretty speech, telling us that he had heard of the great number of white men and wanted to be their friends. The only request that he made of us in his speech was to let his women alone. We selected Major Cook, the oldest man of our party, to answer the chief's speech. The Major made a very pretty speech, telling of the great power of the white men and that we were anxious to maintain friendship with the Indians, and that it would be of great advantage to his people if they were honest in their professions of friendship. Jack and his tribe were a fine race of men and women; they had good houses, built of logs, and everything looked comfortable around them; in fact, they were the finest tribe that I have ever seen on the Pacific Coast. About the 28th day of July we started up the Klamath River from a point about fifteen miles from the mouth of Salmon River, prospecting the bars as we went along and finding many good prospects. Jack, the chief, kept us company for about one week, until we reached a large creek coming in from the north side of Klamath River, where Jack asked us to stop. Here Jack made another speech, telling us that we were at the limits of his territory and that when we crossed that creek we would be among another tribe of Indians, who would come to us and pretend to be to us as he and his tribe had been, but that they were bad Indians and would at the first opportunity kill us and steal our animals. He warned us to be on our guard and not be deceived by their profession of friendship. We bid Jack goodbye and went on our journey. The next day quite a number of Indians came to us and pretended to be very friendly. They were different-looking Indians from those we met, being smaller in size and darker in color. We went along all right for two days. On the morning of the third day Fred Stacy, his partner George and myself saw a deer on a low ridge and concluded to try and kill it. After going about a quarter of a mile Fred and I concluded to give it up, but George said he would go around a small knoll and see if he could see the deer again. This was the last we saw of George. We traveled about 22 miles that day, probably the largest day's travel on our whole journey up the Klamath, and George was not missed until we camped that night. The next morning, just at daybreak, "Old Donkey" gave the alarm of Indians and we all sprang out of bed in time to see our whole herd of animals, except "Donkey" and eight others who ran into camp, running across the valley toward the mountains with about twenty-five Indians after them and the camp guard shooting at long range. We started in pursuit, some without clothing themselves, and we soon came within shot of the Indians, who left our animals after killing one mule. We recovered the balance of them and reached camp about 8 o'clock, when Fred Stacy called for volunteers to go in search of his partner George. Six volunteered out of the 55 men now left in our company; I was one of the six. We concluded to go on foot, for in case of a fight with the Indians we thought that would be the safest way. We immediately started and found the place where we left George; we tracked him about three hundred yards to a spring where we could see his hand marks in the mud where he had stooped down to drink. A little blood was found on the weeds, but we could not find George nor any further tracks of his, though we found Indian tracks all around. We knew that he had been killed and believed that the Indians had carried the body away when they learned that we were coming back to look for him. Search was continued until late in the afternoon when we returned to camp, burning three rancherias on our way back but could not get a shot at an Indian. Upon our arrival in camp we all knew that war had commenced in earnest. "City" men, who numbered about twenty, were determined to make it interesting for the Indians, which we did. The next morning when our train moved out of camp, Frank Tracy and another of our company slipped under some bushes and waited for the Indians to come into our camp. The train was hardly out of sight when two of them, from opposite sides of the river, jumped into the stream to swim across, and when they were about in the middle the boys opened fire, twenty-seven shots being fired before they succeeded in killing the two Indians. The boys then made a run for the train, a quarter of a mile away, under a shower of arrows from the bushes. Nearly every day we had a brush with the Indians, until one day in a large valley above the mouth of Scott River we were met and surrounded by about one thousand; a large portion were from Rogue River, who had come over to join the Klamath Indians. Breastworks were thrown up in the middle of the valley. The enemy closed in until their lines were within two or three hundred yards from our camp, when five Rogue River chiefs came in with a white flag and wanted to know our intentions. They were told that we were prospectors, but as yet had found no mines; that we wanted work and was then on our way to the Sacramento Valley; that we had plenty of ammunition and provisions and were willing to fight if that was what they wanted. Their answer was that they had been told by the Klamath Indians that we were on our way to Rogue River and they had come over to assist their race at Klamath in turning us back, but if we would agree not to go into their country they would go home. This we agreed to and then went back. The next day we started on our journey and nothing serious happened until we reached the mouth of Shasta River where, in the middle of the afternoon, we camped, with the red men all around us. On the mountain, on the opposite side of the river, we saw some Indians about a spring where there was a thick bunch of willows growing. Little Jones (as we called him), Enoch Velangie, Dutch Joe, Been and myself put our prospecting tools on some dry logs to deceive them and then crossed the river. We were in the habit of doing this every day and caused no alarm. We worked around until we were above the Indians in the willows when we made a run and surrounded them. After some skirmishing Enoch Velangie shot one who fell just outside the willows. This Indian wore a soldier cap, which Enoch thought he would get. He approached the Indian, who he supposed was dead, and was in the act of reaching for the cap when the Indian shot him, the arrow penetrating the lungs and very seriously wounding him. After considerable firing into the willows without accomplishing anything, Dutch Joe called to me from the other side to run in and he would run in on his side, closing out the business with our revolvers. A run was made for the willows and reached in safety, where I found two bucks to dispute my rights to enter, who soon "gave up the ghost," but I heard a terrible fight going on in Joe's part of the thicket. I ran to his rescue, and not too soon, for there were three reds fighting Joe with long knives, which had handles in the middle and were used by them about as an Irishman uses a "shillelagh." One of them, seeing me coming to Joe's assistance, ran out and down the mountain toward our camp. Jones ran around the side of the mountain and got ahead of the Indian and, as he came along, Jones shot him and cut his head nearly off. Joe and I soon finished the other two. Enoch Velangie, who we expected would die very soon, was taken to camp; we took him across the river on a raft, swimming along its sides. Soon after reaching camp we came near having a war among ourselves. Dutch Joe owned no gun, and when we crossed the river to fight the Indians, Joe took a gun belonging to one of our "city" men by the name of Lyons. Upon our return Lyons was very angry, saying that he would not allow any Dutch ------ ------- to take his gun to shoot Indians! At this nearly every man in camp sprang for his gun, and serious trouble no doubt would have occurred had it not been for Enoch Velangie begging us for God's sake not to fight, as he had been to blame for Joe taking the gun. Enoch was liked by both parties, and they put up their weapons. The next morning our "city" men proposed to go on and leave Enoch to the tender mercies of the savages, but although we did not have provisions to last more than one week, and we could not expect to reach the Sacramento Valley in less than two weeks, the majority of our party refused to move until we took Enoch with us or gave him a decent burial. The morning of the fourth day after Enoch had been shot, we made a litter and crossed the Klamath River in an Indian canoe that we had found tied up in the willows, and carried him up on the east side of Shasta River. At a point opposite the mouth of Yreka Creek we found a place where Gen. Joe Lane and party had mined a little in the fall before. (We had a nephew of Joe Lane's with us, who had been with his uncle when they mined there.) Crossing Shasta River we went up Yreka Creek to find open ground on which to pitch camp, until Enoch recovered so he could travel. At a point where Yreka now stands we found cached a large lot of salmon, which we at once took possession of as we were much in need of it for food; we camped here for two weeks, when Enoch was so far recovered that we started for the Sacramento Valley. A few days after we arrived the Yreka camp, nineteen of us on the best horses and mules that we had started out on an exploring expedition and camped the first night on the edge of Scott Valley near Fort Jones. The next morning, upon riding out into the valley where the grass came up very high, we saw two horsemen way down the valley. At first we supposed them to be white men; they were riding fast and coming toward us, so we didn't hurry. Later on we saw that the horsemen were two Indians, and that they were headed toward a bend in the river where the willows came well out into the valley. We started to head them off and, as I was riding the fastest horse in the party, took the lead with Fred Stacey a close second. Coming close to them they darted into an opening in the willows. I dropped the reins and raised my gun to shoot, when my mare shot like an arrow through the same opening and I found myself in the midst of about four hundred Indians, who were eating their breakfast. I shot at the largest group I saw, and I do not believe that my mare ever flew faster than she did crossing Scott River. On reaching the opposite side I looked over my shoulder, and the arrows I saw coming towards me has always reminded me of a swarm of bees leaving their hives, but none reached me. I at once gave directions for cutting these Indians off from the hills by heading them off up the river, but could not induce my companions to do so, and we did not get a redskin. Upon entering the Indian camp the boys had the laugh on me, for I had shot a dog instead of an Indian as I rode through their camp. We had a good breakfast that morning, of fresh salmon, which the Indians had left. After eating all we wanted we concluded to return to camp. Had we gone down Scott River we would have found Johnson and his party, who had discovered and were working the mines on Scott Bar at that time. On reaching camp that night we found everything about as we left it. The next morning our "city" chaps packed up and started for the Sacramento Valley, saying that they would not stay any longer with Enoch and eat dried salmon that was full of maggots. This was now our principal food. However, they returned and camped with us the same night, believing their party too small to pass though the Pit River Indian country in safety. A few days later, about the 15th day of September, 1850, five of our party who were guarding our animals discovered the first gold just back of where Yreka was afterward built. While sitting on a pine root on the banks of a small gulch one of the party picked several dollars' worth out of the gravel with a sheath knife. Considerable prospecting was done by us, and the gulches were found rich in gold. On the 20th day of September, 1850, Enoch, having recovered so that he could ride, we put him on one of my saddle horses, a gentle and easy traveler, and started for Shasta Springs at the head of the Sacramento Valley, making but four miles the first day but increasing the distance a little each day. The third day after leaving Yreka Creek we camped at the foot of Mt. Shasta, and that night two of our party, by name Jack and Pete, told me that they wanted me and one or two others to go with them the next day to bury the bones of one of their party, who had died the winter before while on the way from Oregon to California. I and several others volunteered to go with him. On reaching the spot we found the remains of a man who had been shot through the head, the bullet entering from the back and coming out just above the eyes, as the broken hones plainly showed the course the bullet had taken. Jack and Pete, after a private talk, came back and told their story, which was as follows: In the early part of the winter or fall of 1849, Jack, Pete and about sixty others, mostly deserters from the army, left Oregon for California on foot, packing their provisions--that is, salt and crackers--and killing their meat on the way. They got along well until reaching the Klamath River, when they built rafts on which they put their guns and provisions and started over. The weather was cold, there being a little snow. When they went into the river many of the men were badly chilled and bore heavily upon the rafts. The guns and ammunition were wet and to add to their trouble, in going over a riffle, they lost their little supply of provisions. The Indians, who were watching an opportunity, attacked them in the river and killed the most of the party. Two parties, however, got away from them--three men in one party and nine in the other. They all started for the Sacramento Valley--neither party knowing of the existence of the other until the large party, among whom Jack and Pete belonged, camped upon the same spot where our train camped the night before. A little after daylight in the morning, hearing the report of a gun and believing there must be white men where it was fired, the large party answered by shooting one of their guns. They immediately started in the direction of the shot, about a mile away. Upon reaching the spot they found two of their comrades and one dead. The dead man had been shot, and the two who were with him said he had shot himself. His feet were frozen, and being unable to go further he had shot himself to end his misery. The two living men said that they had not had a mouth full of food for four days and admitted that their intention was to eat their dead companion. The large party had killed two or three deer and were not suffering for food, so they took the two men who were alive to their camp and after feeding them went on; eleven of the party of sixty reached Shasta Springs alive. We buried the bones of the man who had been shot, and returned to camp fully satisfied that instead of shooting himself he had been shot by one of his comrades to be eaten. We continued our journey and, at the crossing of the divide between Shasta and Sacramento rivers, a party of five of our young men (myself among the number) left the train with the view of going to the summit of Mt. Shasta. We traveled up and camped on the side of the mountain that night. The next morning we concluded we would go no further. Our dried salmon straight was not food calculated to give us strength for such a journey as that of ascending the rugged peak before us. At the Soda Springs we met a large company of prospectors and told them of our find at Yreka; they went to that camp and made the first permanent settlement there. Opposite the mouth of Pit River we had a little brush with the Indians, but no one was hurt. We reached Shasta Springs on the first day of October, 1850, where Enoch and I got a square meal at Mrs. Johnson's boarding house upon the hill, where we had dried apple pie and many other good things. Here our company disbanded, a large number of them going back and settling at Yreka. The names of many of the men of this company I never knew, except Bill, Jack, Joe, etc., and many of their names I then knew I have now forgotten. I came back to Trinity with Enoch Velangie, Fred Stacy, Hunt and two or three others. I found what is now known as China Bar, just above the mouth of Deadwood. The next day after my return to Trinity I went to work and made from $80 to $100 per day for about two or three weeks. The Indians got into our camp one day while we were at work and stole everything we had--grub, blankets, cooking utensils, everything except one buffalo robe. My three partners refused to go with me and punish the miscreants, so I started alone. About one mile up the river, where "Buck" Collopy's ditch is now taking water from the river, I found Ingals, an Oregonian, who had three Indians with him. Ingals said he would go with me, and we went on up the river to a valley now known as "Clayton's Ranch"; here we saw a company of white men with quite a train of mules camped across the valley. While going toward them we saw a white man come away from the mules with a wild Indian. My companion said he would take that Indian and make him take us to the rancheria. When near the camp Ingals said in rather a rough way to the white man who had the Indian, "Here, stop! we want that Indian!" The white man, who by the way, was Atterbury, wanted to know what we wanted with him. Ingals answered, "That is none of your business, we want the Indian." Atterbury by this time had reached camp and also his gun, which, quicker than I can tell it, he cocked and had a bead drawn on Ingals, saying, "Let me see you take him!" I interfered, telling Ingals to be quiet, as we had no show with this crowd of about twelve Missourians. Many of them I afterwards knew. John Davis, Alexander Robinson, Davenport and others were of this party. Leaving Atterbury with his pet [Indian] we went on up the river, where we found a fresh trail going up the mountain towards Bolt's Hill and followed it. Upon reaching the top of the ridge overlooking the little valley (where Frank Stofer afterwards had his mining claim), the Indians raised a yell all around us. About fifty of them were in front of us. My first act was to spring behind a log for protection and raise my gun to shoot when Ingals called to me to stop. "Don't shoot," he said, "By ----, you weakened on the d----d Missourians and I want to talk out of this scrape.'' Ingals talked the Indian language well and at once commenced talking to them, telling them that the Shasta tribe had been over and stole all our provisions and that we had nothing to eat. In a short time the Indians were quiet and we got four of them to go with us to hunt for deer. This I would not have agreed to, but Ingals told me that he had found some very rich ground, and thought that we could get the Indians to work for us. We hunted for a short time, and then went to Ingals' camp, inviting the four Indians to go with us, which they did, and got them to work a little that evening. I have omitted an account of Atterbury and his Indian, which was related to me afterwards by Atterbury. He told me that he thought the Indian would make a good bell-boy for the train, and to be sure of him he took the Indian to bed with him. But along towards morning he found himself lying out in the glass very cold and his Indian and blankets gone. Atterbury said that was the last Indian he ever made a pet of. The evening we arrived with our Indians at Ingals' camp, Ingals hung an old calico shirt out on a bush for them to steal. They stole it and came back the next morning. We went to my old claim and got two rockers and our other tools, my old partners having left, and took them to Ingals' camp. In a few days we had from thirty to forty Indians at work, and all we gave them was a flashy calico shirt each day and sometimes a pair of striped cotton socks, which we bought at a little trading post kept by a man named Ray, and on the ground where John Taylor's house now stands. These Indians made each of us about $2000. After they had been at work about ten days one evening about sundown, one of Ingals' Oregon Indians heard two bucks talking about killing us all that night. He immediately reported to Ingals, who said it would be dark before we could get away, and that he would pretend to be very sick so that we could stay up all night to be on guard. This we did, and in the morning when I told Ingals to tell the Indians that he was too sick to work that day and would go down the river and prospect for a better claim; that he and his Oregon Indian could take our dust with them--about $12000 in all--and that I would follow them later on. After Ingals had been gone about half an hour I told the Indians that I saw a deer on the hill back of our camp, and immediately started up the hill through the brush, motioning them to keep back. As soon as I reached the summit of the ridge I broke into a run, and there was not an Indian in the mountains that could have caught me, until I reached "Old Tucker's" place, where the town of Lewiston now stands. Ingals had reached "Old Tucker's" but a few minutes ahead of me. We got Tucker, Bill Holland, Henry Parker and I believe one or two others to go back to our camp to get our tools, but found our camp burned--our tools, blankets and everything gone. Ingals and his Indians went back to Oregon with about $10,000, and I went down the river and built a cabin for winter quarters, opposite the "Old Rees Mill Flat," in company with Henry Parker, Oliver Welker, Ben. Alexander, Jack Bennett and Otey. We built two cabins; Parker and I occupied one and the other four the other cabin. Trinity Journal, Weaverville, California, April 16, 1892, page 1 OLD SETTLERS' PAPERS.
Glancing backward over a period of more than thirty years to which each
paper prepared for the Old Settlers' Association should necessarily
refer, we come to one phase of the early days which to every pioneer is
fraught with mingled feelings of sorrow, and joy. Sorrow, as we think
of the faults and frailties of human nature, as depicted in the
character of the men with whom we, from time to time became associated
as partners, or, if free as mortals can be from those faults and
frailties, their subsequent fate, and joy, as we remember the good
actions of our associates of former years, and thank Heaven, that
either here or in other lands they are reaping, in the declining years
of life, the well-earned fruits of their toilsome labor under the
summer sun, or amid the winter's snows. But the pioneers are not of
those who hug malice to their hearts and, unless the shortcomings of
their old partners were too great to be overlooked they have long since
been forgotten, or at least forgiven.NUMBER 4. BY THEODORE E. JONES. The mining partnerships of the early days were somewhat anomalous in their character. Men who had never heard of much less seen each other would come together as partners in some unlooked-for way, and the relation thus established would perhaps last for years. Often, indeed, have I known of instances where men, coming together from perhaps the antipodes, would form such partnership relations which would continue until severed perhaps by the inexorable fiat of Death, or until one or the other would conclude to change from the everlasting dig, dig, dig, to another avocation; yet even then, the friendships formed in the old log cabin remained unbroken. It did not require much to constitute a mining partnership. Two, three or more men, having the same ideas of the paying qualities of some flat, bar or bench, would agree to go in and prospect it. Perhaps, before the prospecting was done, thousands of dollars in labor, cash or materials would be needed, but it made no apparent difference. The men who had means would advance all necessary expenses on the part of those who would give their labor only, trusting to the future of the mine, or the honor of their new partners to be repaid. And to the honor of the old miners be it said that these debts were generally paid to the last cent, unless forgiven. It is of some of my own partners of the "fifties" I desire to speak; of those with whom I was associated in other places than Trinity I know comparatively nothing, and therefore confine my observations to the old boys with whom I labored from the time I landed on Trinity River in October, 1853, up to the time I dropped the pick and shovel for the time being, to resume the composing stick and take a semi-weekly pull on the "lever which moves the world" in the shape of editor, proprietor, printer and devil, of the Douglas City Gazette. I think it was about half past four P.M., of the 27th of October, that I stopped to take my first rest within the jurisdiction of Trinity, at the house afterward (and perhaps then) occupied by J. F. Hoadley, Esq., a short distance above Lewiston. While debating in my own mind whether to ask lodging there for the night, or press on to Lewiston, a man rode up to the porch on which I was sitting and dismounted. With the freedom characteristic of those days we soon got into conversation, in which I ascertained that his name was Strader, that he was from my own part of Illinois, and owned a ranch and trading post on "the river," seven miles below. I asked him how the mines in his vicinity were paying and received information they were good, and as illustrative of this claim he asked me if I didn't think an "ounce" to the pan pretty good. Having been in the southern mines a couple of years, and knowing something of the ways of traders in that locality, I put the "ounce to the pan" in my pipe and smoked it, knowing full well that probably only one pan had yielded that much. But as he was located in the mines, and offered to take my bundle on his mules if I cared to go to his place, I joyfully accepted his proposal and, once more shouldering the pack, made my way over to the Mud Valley ranch house, where his train was. Strader soon followed and, loading the mules with sacks of potatoes, we started. The seven miles stretched out that night enormously, but about 9 that evening we reached his place, then known as Strader's Ferry. A buxom, good-looking woman had a hot supper prepared for her liege lord, of which I partook, and then for lack of better lodgings went and crawled into my blankets in the hay barn. Next morning, at breakfast, I met Strader's only regular boarder, a man named Wm. H. Beatty (not our present Chief Justice) and when he was set across the river, I went with him to spy out the nature of the land. Beatty took a lunch with him, but I returned to the house for dinner, and borrowing some tools from Strader crossed the river again that afternoon and went to prospecting. I got plenty of colors, there seemed to be gold everywhere, but no working prospect. Talking with Beatty I soon found that he was making only two dollars a day, and as board was costing him $12 per week at Strader's he was going to emigrate. I returned to Strader's rather chopfallen, but on the way fell in with Andrew Asmussen, who had charge of a water wheel for its owners, a German company which had turned the river five miles below and were yet at work there. (I may here remark, en passant that in that claim was got the "ounce to the pan'' Strader had spoken of.) Andrew told me of another bar up the river which he thought would have better rocker diggings than the one I was prospecting on, as a number of miners had been working there with rockers but had quit to get settled in the "dry diggings" before winter set in. I determined to try that bar next day and told Beatty so, whereupon he immediately proposed to go with me, to which I readily assented. We went betimes next morning, carrying dinner with us. A heavy, cold fog lay over the river valley until nearly noon, a thing I had never before observed in the more genial climate of the southern mines. All day we prospected along the upper part of Union Bar, finding nothing, and at sundown started home, thoroughly disgruntled. About midway of the bar a wide race had been dug the summer previous by a company who tried, unsuccessfully, to turn the river at that point. Passing down this race I saw what I thought a favorable-looking place in the upper bank, and proposed we should try a pan from there. It was getting dark, and he was hungry and cross but finally, unwillingly, agreed. In the twilight we saw that we had the best prospect yet, so dug and washed two or three more pans as well as we could in the darkness. When we got to Strader's we dried and cleaned our prospect and found we had obtained about 20 cents from three or four pans. This was a very favorable showing considering the darkness. Next morning we went up again, prepared to work as well as prospect. We washed a pan or two more, then started in to strip off the top gravel from a space of about 12 feet long and four feet deep. We spent that day and the next stripping and washing the space we had marked out, and realized about 12 dollars. As this was only a dollar a day more than our board cost, we felt that we would not get rich very fast. However, the bedrock at the back of our cut prospected better than did the ground we had washed. There was an unoccupied cabin on the bar, so we decided to buy some grub and cooking tools of Strader and go to keeping house near the diggings. I remember the first item on the bill of goods purchased of Strader by "W. H. Beatty Co." was 50 pounds of flour at 23 cents a pound, and other things were in proportion. Thus was founded my first partnership in Trinity. It did not continue very long. Beatty was a strong, healthy man, young like myself, and I was just from a summer's work in the Sacramento Valley, where I had contracted fever and ague, which, broken up by liberal doses of blue mass and quinine one week, would come on again the next. I was not able to do as much work by half as Beatty, and after a couple of weeks proposed to him that we should divide the claim, which we accordingly did. He took in John O. French as a partner and they soon worked out their part of the claim, which was only a spot, and left Union Bar. I did not get free entirely from the "fever 'n' ager" for more than a year, during which time I kept clear of partnerships. Beatty came to Weaverville and got a claim on the "Fullwider lead" and went home with a good stake in 1854. In the spring of 1855 I was on Union Bar again, and with a wheelbarrow, pick and shovel ran a wide cut to see if the "spot" I had worked on in '53 extended down and into the bar. I put in two months' good labor without doing any rocking and at the end of that time quit stripping and prospected the gravel under my feet which I had left. The pan told me that my work was lost, so far as the good blue gravel of 18 months before was concerned, but that by rocking up my cut I would probably make fifty or sixty dollars, so I got my rocker and set it and washed one run that night. It was raining at the time I quit work, and had been raining and snowing alternately for several days. When I went to bed that night the river was running over the low bar about seventy feet in front of the cabin. When I opened the door in the morning I could have jumped from it into the water of the stream. The warm rain, falling upon the soft, sodden snow, raised the river fifteen feet in as many hours. The rising water flowed into my cut, washed down the bank, and when the flood subsided, which it soon did, where I had put in two months steady work there was only a depression in the surface to mark where the cut had been. It would not pay to uncover the gravel again, and after two or three days hesitation I picked up my belongings and moved down to Kanaka Bar, to work in the gulch leading out of Union Hill. While working there I met John O. French, who had assisted Beatty to work out the spot on Union Bar the year before. French told me he wanted to go back to New Hampshire soon, and offered to sell me his one-third interest in the claim he was then working for $150. As the water was nearly gone in my gulch, I went down to look at French's claim and was pleased with its appearance. But I only had $50 of the $150 required, so asked French to give me a couple of days to go up the river and see if I could get the balance from some old friends. French agreed, but, alas, my friends were as hard up as myself. I went back and proposed to him to pay him what I had, the rest as I took it from the claim, but he would not agree to that as he wanted to go east right away. I told him then the trade was off. "I'll tell you where you can get the money," said French. "Where?" I asked. "From Scott." (Scott was one of French's partners.) "But I don't know Scott." "That makes no difference, he knows you, and knows the claim. He's got the money and will let you have it." I was so anxious to get the claim, which had a share in a ditch from Weaver Creek attached to it, that I determined to muster up cheek enough to ask a man I had never seen for $100. French described Scott to me as a man "dark as an Indian, long, black hair, gaudy clothes and one who could readily be taken for an Indian but for his long, black beard." Armed with this description I went in search of my man, and soon found him. The description was correct, for had I not been posted in advance, I should have thought him a bearded Indian. Quite to my surprise, Scott readily agreed to let me have the money some time during the week. I told French what I could do and he accepted the proposition at once. There were three shares in the claim, my own, Scott's, and one owned by Charley Brusch, a Hollander, who had forgotten his own language and never learned any other so as to be able to talk intelligibly. He would take his share of the week's earnings on Saturday night, pay such bills as he had contracted during the week, then start on a spree, and would never be known to have a cent on Monday morning. Personally he was one of the very few partners in a mining experience extending over twenty years of whom I do not entertain kindly recollections. He was on one of his sprees one Sunday evening when I came into the store; he was bothering someone who told Charley his partner had come, and he had better quit drinking. Whereupon Charley boasted that we would drink together and asked me to do so, but as I rarely touched liquor in those days I declined. Charley, however, had his Dutch pride up and when I kept steadfast in my refusal, wanted to fight with me. I declined the fight, as I had the drink and told Charley he'd be sorry for making such a fool of himself next day. That only made him worse than ever and he started in to have the fight, whether or no. I did not strike him but simply whirled him around and pushed him away, when some of his friends took him out of doors. I thought that next day he would be ashamed of himself, but he had not sense enough for that. This was after water had failed and the claim was not working. We then went in with George Moore and a Pennsylvania Dutchman named Boyer to wing dam the river opposite our claims. When we had worked out one side of the wing dam I quit and soon after sold out my interest in the bar claim. Brusch was taken sick soon after and came near dying. The expenses of his sickness compelled him to sell the claim; Scott had sold before I did. Brusch having no money, the miners made a purse of about $300 and gave him, with which he went to North Fork, then a lively camp. There he got on a spree, spent every cent which had been given him and left for the Feather River, since which time I never heard of him. Scott, after selling the claim, bought a train of pack mules, but he was uneducated and began to lose money from the first, finally lost everything and was drowned in Klamath River some years later. Scott was of a queer nature, but had many good qualities. He was the son of an Englishman and native Australian woman, which accounted for his dark complexion. I then had a short experience at Point Bar with Charley Stoddard and Joe Graves, but it only lasted a short time, when I returned to Kanaka. Scott had got rid of his pack train, (except one animal) by this time and was living on the opposite side of the river from Kanaka. I cabined with him until I could build myself a house. I did some work for Moss, Mabie & Co., digging potatoes, and as part pay took the lumber of an old hothouse they had no further use for, they agreeing to haul the lumber across the river for me if I would pay the toll. There were five big loads of the lumber, and when Scott saw I had so much he offered to give me a claim for enough lumber to build a stable for his mule. I did not think much of the claim, but told him to take what lumber he needed, which he did. Soon after Frank Abbot proposed to go in with me to work the claim. This led me to inquire more about it, when I learned that though the unworked ground was very narrow, the part worked had paid fairly. We afterwards took in Ed. Perrin, but Perrin sold out about the middle of spring. Abbot was a North Carolinian, a man of small frame but with a heart big as a bullock. Although entirely uneducated he was possessed of a certain native shrewdness which stood him in good place. The partnership then formed was renewed from time to time for many years, but as he was of a somewhat speculative turn, never continued long at any one time. Abbot also sold out in the spring and I had for my partners, in place of Abbot and Perrin, Jim Lynch and another jolly little Irishman, Matty McMahon. The claim quit paying about the time they came into it, so neither of them stayed long. It was a winter claim, and in the following summer I went up to Ferry Bar and bought into a wheel claim then owned wholly by Tom Young. Young was one of the brightest men with whom I was ever brought into immediate contact. Tom was a politician in his way, and with Bill Stillwell, the "Little Fisherman," took turns in representing Point Bar precinct in the Democratic county conventions. I recollect, but not the year, once when a state senator was to be nominated, and Tom was in attendance. Trinity was then joined with Klamath, Del Norte and Siskiyou, and its convention could only "recommend," which it did, one of the sticks who get in and control conventions. Young was a strict party man and would do nothing calculated to disturb the harmony of his party, but after the convention adjourned was giving his ideas of the kind of a man Trinity needed. There was an Irish delegate present (this was at the St. Charles Hotel) who, when Tom got through and walked out, turned to me and said "Jasus, but that's the man we should have recommended instead of the fool we did." I felt quite inclined to agree with him, though it being a Democratic matter was no concern of mine. We sold a third interest in the wheel and claims to Jim Newton, and a very pleasant, agreeable partner he proved to be. They were also interested with me in the claim at the mouth of Reading's Creek, which I had persisted in working alter McMahon and Lynch gave it up. The firm of Young, Jones and Newton continued in existence about two years. As money-makers the firm was not a success, the wheel being a source of continued expense. Twice we rebuilt it almost anew and twice had to quit mining weeks at a time to make repairs. In the fall of 1858, the Trinity River Canal Company extended its ditch down to Ferry Bar and Young, who had a brother in business in San Francisco, conceived the idea of establishing a store at our claim, which he did, in company with Elvirus Soule. That practically ended his career as a miner, though he was still our partner in the claim. Our wheel broke down very soon after Young had decided upon the store, but as the Trinity River Canal had been given a right of way across our claims, we decided not to rebuild but took contracts for digging part of the ditch instead. We had two Chinamen hired when the wheel broke down. We paid them the wages due, and after we had concluded to take a contract for digging so much of the ditch as crossed our six claims, we spoke to one of the Chinamen to know if he and the company he came from would work for us on the ditch and wait until we got to work in the claim once more, as by having our contract payable in "water," we could get a better price. Mr. Louey Ah Chung agreed to this, but it seems his "cousins" did not. We commenced our work, but Mr. Ah Chung failed to put in an appearance until noon, when he came around and told us that his "cousins" wanted Garland (the ditch superintendent) to go our "sku," that term being pidgin English for "security." Newton was a passionate fellow, and the only reply he made to Mr. Ah Chung's desire for "sku" was to kick him outdoors. We went to work on our contract minus our Chinese help. Ah Chung and his cousins then took a contract themselves payable in money. But there was no money forthcoming; the result was that Ah Chung came to us to go as "sku" for Garland, which we did, by buying their ditch scrip at 25 percent discount--the only time I ever recollect of getting ahead of the heathen Chinee. When the water was put on Ferry Bar we were charged 12½ cents an inch, per day. We soon used up our ditch scrip and then decided to rebuild our wheel, which we did at a cost of over $1000, for everything had to be got anew. By the time the wheel was again in working order, I got a visit from Spiegelberg, one of the former owners of the wheel, who had not yet got his pay from Young, and the debt was outlawed. I explained to Spiegelberg that I had bought in with Young and he must look to Young for the sixty dollars he had sold his share for. I don't know how the two made it. I do know the debt was outlawed and Young could not have been compelled to pay it, but Young was a man of principle, and I don't think he would plead the statute of limitations on any honest debt. Next week Spiegelberg came up again, and after questioning me as to how I had made it while on Ferry Bar proposed to me that I should jump a claim he owned on Texas Bar, which he thought to be good. I told him I would like to get out of Ferry Bar if I could do so and quit even, and if he would sell me half of the claim I would go in with him. But he would not do that, said the claim had been jumpable for years and he expected to see a notice on it every day. The fact was the claim had been taken up on speculation by Big Smith and Spiegelberg, but buyers did not want to bite. I went to Texas Bar a few days after and found the claim as I heard; in fact, there had never been any work done on it at all except where the front had been worked off many years before. Stanford Bailey was the Recorder for Texas Bar, and I took up the claim for myself and Frank Abbot, then sent word to Frank to come and start in to work it, as I had to keep up my end at Ferry Bar. The wheel when rebuilt failed to develop any new pay ground; it was a piece of folly rebuilding it, anyhow. One day I was lamenting our luck when Newton proposed to take my share in the wheel and claims and pay all company debts. I was glad to accept his offer and, making arrangements to that effect, I went to join Abbot at Texas Bar. I found we would have to go to several hundred dollars expense and put in three or four months at cutting bedrock before we could hope to make the claim pay. Neither of us had much funds, and were quite surprised when Spiegelberg proposed to go in partners with us, which proposal we finally accepted. We afterwards found the old sinner had planned the whole thing to get rid of his partner, Smith, who could not be got to work on any terms. We three worked together until about the last of April, when finding that only two could work to advantage I left, leaving Abbot to represent our share. I went down to Kanaka and found Fernando Fuller out of a job, so he and I went to work in my old claim. Spiegelberg and Abbot got the Texas Bar claim in running condition and then sold it to a Portuguese company from Deadwood. This was the year in which the big ditch was put on the Smith's Flat. I hardly know how I got into the claim I had there, think I took my share of the money derived from the sale of the Texas Bar claim and after Abbot had sold a half interest in the claim to John Sterling I bought half of Abbot's remaining interest, with the understanding that I was to work our share of the claim. It was the shortest season for water I had yet seen in the county. I remember we had a "Washington Supper" at Sudworth's Hotel on the 22nd of February, 1860, and at that time although we had been ready some time, we had run no water through our flume except to run out bedrock. When water did come we worked to a great disadvantage in consequence of having run into a deep "pothole" in the bedrock. This brings in my old-time partners up to the first day of Jan. 1860, the "Old Settlers'' period of this Association. Abbot and I sold out our claim on Smith's Flat and went up Reading's Creek, where we mined with old Bronson. In the fall Sam Zook proposed to me to buy a claim with him and winter on the Pan Wocket. We bought the claim, but I was taken sick before the winter was half gone. Coming to Kanaka Bar to stay until better, the Douglas City people proposed to me to start a newspaper for that then-lively burg, which I did. In recalling the times, and the men who were with me in the times embraced in the years after my arrival here, until I quit the mines, as I then hoped, for goo, I have in all but one instance the kindliest remembrances of my associates. Some of them I was with only a short time, not long enough, certainly, to learn their faults of character, if they possessed faults. In general my partners were men of more than average intellect, and sometimes men of superior education; with the exception of the Holland Dutchman they were men I could, and would, have gone in with again, for our relations were at all times agreeable. But, when I think over what became of these different men, it seems strange to me that I am yet spared to earth. Of all my partners of the early day George Moore and Sam Zook are the only ones I know to be living. Some may be, in other lands, but I am not advised of it. Scott, who loaned me the $100 at first sight, was drowned in Klamath River. Frank Abbot killed old Jimmy Lawler and then, overcome by remorse, committed suicide here in town. Ed Perrin perished miserably. Tom Young was accidentally shot near Lewiston a few months after our partnership ceased, by Soule, his partner in the Ferry Bar store. Spiegelberg went crazy, and it was a sorrowful day, indeed, when I was compelled to send him to the Stockton Asylum, where he soon died. What an intellect and education that man had, yet it was thrown away in the mines. John Sterling, poor fellow. His fate always seemed to me a proof that we are not our own masters at times but are driven on to our fate by an unseen power from which we cannot free ourselves. Sterling was apparently more afraid of a gravel bank than any other man I ever knew. In ground sluicing the front of our claim he would pick the bank down from the top even when only three or four feet in height; he was afraid to "gouge" in the lowest kind of a bank. He appeared to have a dread of any kind of a gravel bank that to others looked foolish. After I sold out of the claim Sterling offered his interest for sale and soon found a purchaser, who paid the cash, and he came to where I was boarding and told me that he was now going home to his wife, "Nancy Jane," as he called her. I laughed, and told him but there was no use going home, but "Nancy Jane" had got tired of waiting his return and had got a divorce. Two or three days afterward he came to where I was at work, greatly excited, and asked me how I had found out that his wife had got a divorce. I told I had found out nothing of the kind and was joking, to which he responded that it was proof of the saying that many true things were said in joke, for his wife had, in fact, procured a divorce, married a man named Priest, and the first news he had of it was when he got a letter from her telling him what she had done, and her reasons for it, and signed her name "Nancy Jane Priest." Sterling told me that now he should not go East as soon as he had intended, and a few days after I was surprised to hear but he had bought back his former interest in the claim, paying considerable more for it than he was paid. In less than two months afterwards he was killed by a caving bank, and under circumstances which seemed to show conclusively, to my mind at least, but he was driven to his fate. Many an hour do I pass, recalling in my mind the scenes of former days and the men who were with me, joint actors therein. And always with pleasurable recollections. The mining claim, and the miner's cabin, were places in which the qualities of men were shown at their best and at their worst. Either the partners of my early mining life in Trinity were men cast in Nature's best mold, or, the length of years has been such that their faults and frailties have been forgotten. Trinity Journal, Weaverville, California, May 7, 1892, page 1 OLD SETTLERS' PAPERS.
When in Weaverville on my last "country saving" expedition, I met with
many old timers, more than one of whom requested me to join the Old
Settlers' Association of Trinity. I am qualified for membership, if my
coming here in the early part of 1850 and being still a resident of the
county are qualifications, and nothing would please me better were I in
a place where I could attend the meetings of the Association. But the
distance at which I live from the county seat precludes the idea of
membership on my part, and while I am heart and soul with the Old
Fellows (many of whom I knew in the best days of Trinity), I shall have
to ask them to accept only my best wishes for the prosperity and long
life of the Association and each of its members.NUMBER 5. BY JOHN DUNCAN. There is one feature of the objects sought to be attained by the Association which commends itself to me highly. That feature is the one which makes it the duty of a member to contribute each year a paper descriptive of the scenes of early days. I have read these papers, as they appear from time to time in the Journal, and my only regret is that the pencils of the members are not oftener employed. Those articles are interesting to the Old Settlers' themselves, to their children and to those who come among us in later years. They are in the nature of bits of local history which but for the Association would perish with those who witnessed the scenes whereof they write. And although not one of the members, I have long felt a desire to contribute something which I myself saw or heard of in pioneer days. I therefore send over the accompanying paper which, while it details nothing which occurred after the white people invaded the valleys of the Trinity, serves to show something of the superstitions and traditions of the people they dispossessed, and which I hope will be acceptable to the membership. Too little is known of the history, religious belief, manners, customs, traditions and superstitions of the once-powerful tribe of the "Wintoons." A few of them are yet living in the land their ancestors ruled, but at the present rate of decrease it looks as though less than a generation more will see the last one of full Indian blood pass away from the country they once peopled by thousands. But I have already said more by way of introductory than I intended, and give you the legend of Pockemseda, THE
SPIRIT BEAR,
in as near the manner it was told me as I
can now recollect.Many, many, many winters ago, generations before the white people came to our country, there dwelt upon the headwaters of the South Fork of the Trinity a ghost bear. But this bear differed from the other bears in this, that he ate nothing whatever except Indians. He was known by the name of the lolsit or Spirit Bear to all the tribes around, and often indeed did he give them occasion to speak of him. How long he had been dwelling in his den none could tell. Old men could only tell their children that the Spirit Bear had come forth when he hungered, to prey upon some unfortunate Indian, when the oldest men they could remember were little boys. His skin was rough and shaggy and lay in great folds lengthway along his side and was so hard that no arrow could penetrate it. When the Indians, desperate at the loss of one of their number, would send the best marksmen of the tribes to try and shoot him, the arrows would strike his hide and glance off as harmless as if they had been shot at one of the great iron stones of the Sun-choo-loo-loo. And he was of immense size; his track measured seventeen inches long and eleven inches wide, and he was five feet high. When the lolsit grew hungry he would leave his den and smell along the ground until he found the track of an Indian. Then he would follow it patiently, no matter where the Indian went, for he knew he could tire his prey out after a while. Sometimes he would go in search of an Indian and find one strong and young who would run a week before he could catch him. Even if he tried to escape him by climbing a tree, it did not avail. Old Lolsit would follow along till he came to the tree, sit down and watch until he got tired, then walk up to the tree where he would scratch away the rocks and earth until he made a level place for a bed, and wait patiently for his prey to be starved into coming down, where he would pounce upon him and eat him. Sometimes the tribes would gather when they knew the Spirit Bear was on an Indian's track; four or five tribes would attack him at once, but their arrows would glance in every direction, more dangerous to themselves than to the enemy they were trying to destroy, while the Spirit Bear would sit unconcernedly until he finished his meal, when the tribes would seek safety in flight. While he dwelt upon the South Fork headwaters he ate up hundreds of Indians, and few indeed were the families that did not have to sing the death wail over the loss of one or more of their members who became his victim. About the time the white men came he disappeared and was seen no more. Whether he left to find a new place where he would not be watched and dreaded so much, or was slain by the leaden bullets of the white man, is not known, but he was never seen again. Trinity Journal, Weaverville, California, October 8, 1892, page 1 On the first page of the Journal this week will be found another contribution to the "Old Settlers' Papers," from the pen of Judge T. E. Jones. It deals with the wet winters of early days and will be found interesting to both old and young. "Town and Country News," Trinity Journal, Weaverville, California, December 10, 1892, page 3 OLD SETTLERS' PAPERS.
Much has been said and much written concerning the "wet winters" in the
early history of the state. The Argonauts of 1849, coming fresh from
the comforts of home life, certainly, if we can believe all which has
been told of them, entered at once upon an experience well calculated
to test their powers of endurance. In the period to which our
historical reminiscences must necessarily be confined there were three
"wet winters," those of '49-50, '52-53 and '56-57. There were other
winters notable in some respects, as for extreme cold, or a great flood
for instance, but the seasons of which I have spoken, while they
furnished, in the main, that much desired article of water, so
necessary then to work the small ravines and shallow flats near a
stream, which constituted the general run of mining claims in early
days, were not without serious drawback and bad consequences to the
delvers of the Sierras and Coast Range.NUMBER 6. BY T. E. JONES. While the stories of pioneer life in 1849 come to us from almost every part of the Sierra Nevadas, there is but little known, and that in Shasta County alone, in reference to the happenings in the mining counties of the Coast Range. There is no question that mining in Trinity County was carried on to some extent in 1849, that men came over the mountains from Shasta and up Trinity River from Humboldt Bay to the Trinity mines during that year; that the fame of Big Bar and Weaverville Basin were heralded abroad before the spring of '50, yet neither history nor tradition has preserved to us the name of a single Argonaut who passed the winter of '49-50 in the mines here. Doubtless there were some who did, as was the case in nearly all of the early discovered placers, but if so, their name and fame is alike lost in oblivion. It is obvious, however, that if any miners wintered in the mountain of Trinity that season, their trials and sufferings must have been fully as great, if not greater, than those of their brother miners of the Sierras. We are not without knowledge of the situation of those. The population of the state went almost in a body to the mines when their discovery was well authenticated in 1848. Few, however, comparatively, passed the winter there--foreseeing the future of the cities as a basis of supplies for the influx of immigration heralded, they returned to their homes to prepare to supply the needs of the miners to come. A great majority of those who wintered in the mining camps in 1849-50 were the newly arrived immigrants, who had taken long trips "around the Horn" or "across the plains" or, perhaps worse yet, came by the shorter route by way of the Isthmus, and reached California with the seeds of malarial disease sown in their systems. Nearly all were young men; in many instances it was their first experience away from the old hearthstone and, when the storms of winter burst upon them early in November, they were illy prepared to face the ordeal to which they were to be subjected. Roads and trails from Sacramento, Stockton and Marysville to the mines were in a most primitive condition; bridges and ferries only to be found in a few places; the storms had set in at an unexpected season, and only the staple articles of food yet laid in store. This was before the era of canned meats, fruits and vegetables, and long before spring the steady diet of bread and salted meats, which was about all that was obtainable in many places, began to tell seriously upon the health of the pioneers. An apple from Oregon, or an onion from the gardens of Santa Clara, sold readily for a dollar, and if the honest miner wanted to make a rocker, or bake a loaf of bread which would not lay like a rock in his stomach, he could do so only by buying nails at fabulous prices, or getting enough saleratus for baking by putting the gold dust in one scale, and having it balanced with saleratus in the other. If the miners so near the valley cities of the future were reduced to such straits, what must it have been to the forty-niners of Trinity who attempted to winter within her borders, if such there were. Their base of supplies was distant hundreds of miles, unless it were those who were on the river in the vicinity of Cox's Bar. Pioneers of Trinity who came here in the spring of 1850 do not remember of meeting anyone who claimed to have remained here during that winter, and if there were such, it is probable their numbers were few. The following season was exactly the reverse of what the winter of '49 had been, indeed it was so long before a good storm came, that it was only in the larger gulches and ravines that the miners could get water to work with. 1851 showed a better chance for work, but yet the storms were nothing as compared with two years before. This variety of winters had a bad effect in one respect, that is it did not cause either the miner or storekeeper to lay in as ample a stock as they had done the fall after the floods of '49. Our supplies of flour were then brought mainly from Chile in one-hundred-pound sacks. California farmers then found more profit in raising fruit and vegetables and peddling their produce through the mines, but as the years rolled on many of the miners had little gardens of their own, and the farmers began to turn their potato patches into grain fields. It was not many years before the ranchers grew grain enough to feed the state, and the imports of Chile flour became of nominal value. There was no talk then about making the act of running debris into a navigable stream a felony; the home farmers were only too glad to find a home market for the products of their farms. But that is nothing to the purpose of this paper, only I can't help remarking en passant that it is a pleasant thought to us that the author of the infamous bill, introduced into the legislature four years ago for that purpose, has, at the last election, been relegated to the delights of private life. In the fall of 1852, a ring of speculators made a "corner" on all the Chile flour then in the state, and the price of that article of food was raised considerably, though to what extent I have forgotten. The advance in price was, however, so great that country merchants hesitated about laying in fall supplies for the coming winter until it was too late. This feeling of hesitation prevailed through all parts of the mines, and when the rains began to fall early in November, the mining camps from one end of the state to the other were badly supplied to meet the wants of even an ordinary winter. I was in Calaveras at the time but came to Trinity the following autumn, and in exchanging experiences with the miners who had wintered here I learned that worse times had prevailed here than I ever saw in Calaveras. Even in the fall of '53 my first half sack of flour in Trinity cost $11.50, while flour in Calaveras, just before the pressure put on it by the "corner" of which I have spoken, sold as low in the fall of 1852 as eleven cents. But where I was in that county was only fifty miles from Stockton, while Trinity was 200 miles or more distant from Sacramento, its nearest source of wholesale supply. We, in Calaveras, ate barley when the flour gave out, but it was only for a short time that teams could not get to us. The highest price of flour at any time was $1.50, but it remained at that figure only two or three days, when a peddling wagon brought in a small load which was sold at a dollar per pound. Here I heard stories which even to me looked unreasonable at the time, though in the light of the experience I have since had in the snows of Trinity Mountain, do not now. I was told of places where flour went to $2 per pound, nails ten cents each and other things in like proportion, for as flour kept climbing up it carried everything else along with it. Old Trinity could only be supplied by pack trains then, and the journey of light-laden, but still overpacked, mules was slow indeed. The trails over Trinity and Brown's mountains, if cleared today, would be filled with the drifting snow again tomorrow. In some cases, men would go out for miles to meet an expected train, partly to break a road to expedite its coming; partly to make sure of a sack of flour when it did get in. Sometimes, however, the expected train did not materialize, and then the hungry crowd had no resource but to tackle Comstock & Martin's barley supply again. Barley, whether roasted or boiled, is not a very appetizing dish, but as it is said that "hunger seasons the humblest viands," so it was eaten with as good relish as could be got up for the occasion and, after travel and trade were once restored, Comstock & Martin's barley pile was given the credit of saving the town. '53-54 was cold and dry, and for a long time mining was carried on in most of the claims only a limited part of the day. I was mining with a rocker that year, and had to study tactics to get to wash the gravel of Union Bar. Randolph Sanburn, a younger brother of our friend J. G., of Hay Fork, supplied us with beef, and for quite a while it was a common thing for him to cross and recross Trinity on the ice, a feat which could not be performed at the present day. '54-55 was only an ordinary winter, the only notable event occurring being the flood on March 1st when the Trinity rose fifteen feet in twenty-four hours, sweeping away nearly all the water wheels and doing much other damage. Two weeks before Jimmy Donnelly had been drowned in the river opposite Union Bar. After the flood subsided we found the body of poor Jimmy, lodged against a bunch of chaparral on Ferry Bar, one mile below, and on a high part of the bar. The following winter was only an ordinary one, cold, like its predecessor. But the season of '56-57 made up for the lack of snow in the three previous years. With several others I was engaged one November afternoon digging potatoes for Moss, Mabie & Co., who then owned a large delta of rich land at the mouth of Weaver Creek. As night came on Johnny White, one of the firm, cautioned us to leave our shovels sticking upright, or they might be crusted [over] with snow in the morning. That was the last of my digging potatoes. I don't know when the digging of the potatoes was finished, but think it was late the following March. Five or six inches of snow covered the potato patch next morning, and it was steadily added to until it lay three feet in depth upon the flats around Douglas City. It was snow and snow only; I do not remember of a rain storm during the whole winter. When at length the snow quit falling, the weather turned cold enough to form a crust on the snow just about strong enough to bear a man's weight. We were fitting up a claim at the mouth of Reading's Creek, and had a very pleasant experience (?) packing green lumber sluice boxes across the frozen snow. After breaking through the snow a few score times, breaking one box the lumber of which had cost us about ten cents a foot and nearly breaking my neck, our Yankee partner promised a bobsled to haul our boxes on and we were happy. There was no lack of provision that year; the traders had lain in good supplies, and the only thing we lacked was fresh meat. Our company hit upon the expedient of furnishing a young Indian with a rifle and ammunition and agreeing to pay him $5 for each deer he brought in. It was a good bargain--for the Indian. For some time he brought in a deer each day, and we ate, sold, and gave away venison at a great rate. But venison, albeit a dainty dish when only eaten occasionally, soon palls the appetite and we broke off the bargain. I got such a surfeit of deer meat that winter that I have scarcely touched it since. The snow in Weaverville was deeper even than at Douglas City. Fehley and Wise, two condemned murderers, were sentenced to be executed some time in January. Executions were public in those days, and people came from many of the outside precincts to see this one. The condemned men were taken to the place of execution (on the hill south of the public cemetery) in a sleigh. Wise submitted calmly to his fate, but Fehley, who was a powerful man, made a desperate resistance when the sheriff went to take him from the jail, and was only overcome when "the Infant" clasped him. On the road to the gallows Wise appeared to realize his position and be penitent, but Fehley put on an air of bravado, and wanted a pipe to smoke as they drove along. From what I gathered of the facts of each case, I came to the conclusion that Fehley richly deserved his fate, but Wise was a good man who was goaded into the commission of a bad act, and was far more deserving of executive clemency than many who have received it. After such a depth of snow falling early in the season, it may be supposed that the water held out well in the spring and summer, but such was not the case. The snow went off with the sun, and the water stored in the ice of the mountains was not helped out by copious spring rains. Other seasons of far less promise in the early months of winter proved much more beneficial to the miners' wants. Of the winters following to Jan. 1, 1860 nothing can be said except that they gave fair mining seasons. An exception might perhaps be made of '59-60, in which the miners of Smith's Flat had no water to do more than run out bedrock until the very last days of February. River miners, who owned good claims in the bed of the stream, wanted dry winters, as such would enable them to get to work in the river bed early enough to get a good long season, but the "rest of mankind" wanted the season the other way. ----
Since the above was written and read to the Association, the discussion
it provoked gave me several facts of which I was either ignorant, or
had forgotten. The storms of '52-53 did more damage to travel by
keeping the streams between Red Bluff and Shasta at flood height, the
snows on the mountains having little to do with the blockade. The
downriver camps suffered most for the want of supplies, and men would
come in from them and remain in town a week or more to get a sack of
flour. The highest price of flour in the fall of '52 at San Francisco
was thirty cents, McMurry tells me.'55-56 was probably the coldest winter Trinity has seen since settled by the whites. At Ridgeville, at Chilli's place, the thermometer was down to 8 deg. below zero one day at mid-day, while at North Fork it ran down as low as 10 deg. and Lee & Weed cut thick cakes of ice at the mouth of the North Fork; Reas & Hatch also put up an ice house and filled it at Garden Bar. In those days the river was divided between rapids and still places, and the freezing took place where the water was comparatively still, while the rapids showed only a thick ribbon of ice on either shore. A survey of the river shows there is an average fall of about 11 feet to the mile between Lowden's Ranch and Junction City. The stream is now so filled up that the grade is now nearly uniform, the eleven-foot fall being nearly equally distributed all the way, giving such an even current that only extreme cold could freeze it from shore to shore. Trinity Journal, Weaverville, California, December 10, 1892, page 1 OLD SETTLERS' PAPERS.
The
presence here lately of a gentleman from Mansfield, Ohio, who was
charged to make some inquiries by Judge
Dirlam of that place in regard to the after fate of an Indian
girl whom the Judge claimed to have saved from the massacre
at the Bridge
in 1852, has caused considerable recalling of Indian reminiscences of
that day in the minds of the pioneers. I was not present in the county
at the time, but met with several who participated in the event, and
have had the details from several who claimed to know of what they were
talking.NUMBER 7. BY T. E. JONES. The first miners of Trinity of whom we have well established proof were Major P. B. Reading and his party. The Major owned a Spanish grant in the Sacramento Valley, where he lived, surrounded mostly by Indians of the Wintoon tribe or nation, the same as peopled the valley of the Trinity. When he came over in 1848 on his famous prospecting expedition he was accompanied by quite a number of the Sacramento Valley Wintoons, who spoke nearly the same tongue as their Trinity brethren, and were on friendly terms with them. This fact, together with the one that the Major's party brought with them sundry good beef cattle, which when killed were divided among all comers impartially, caused the Trinity Wintoons to receive the prospectors with open arms. So long as Reading remained in the county these pleasant relations between the whites and Indians continued, but the men who succeeded him were from Oregon--had been waging perpetual war with the Oregon tribes, and had no regard for Indian life. The cowardly murder of one of the Wintoons by one of these men caused the others of the tribe to retreat to their mountain fastnesses, where, for nearly three years, they waged a predatory war on the whites. Generally their operations were confined to stealing cattle and horses, or robbing cabins, though from what was told by them after peace had been restored and they felt they could speak with safety, many a lone prospector fell beneath their arrows, and the columns of the papers of the day, which at times contained advertisements by the hundred under the head of "Information Wanted," were unanswered, so far as the lone prospectors of Trinity were concerned. In March, 1852, Captain John Anderson, who was engaged in butchering in Weaverville, went out alone to bring in some cattle. As he did not return when anticipated but his mule came in riderless, a party was at once organized to search for him, and the result of the search showed that Anderson had been killed by the Indians and his cattle driven away. Such an act, committed within a few miles of the principal town of the county, was well calculated to arouse the people to action both for their own security and for vengeance. Sheriff Dixon hurriedly organized a company and, going out to the scene of the murder, they took the Indian trail. The Indians had two or three days the start of them, although their progress while driving the stolen cattle was necessarily slow. But all accounts agree that the band passed around Weaverville to the divide between the Basin and Oregon Gulch, thence to Trinity River, which they crossed at or near Evans Bar, thence to the top of the Hay Fork divide and thence along up toward the Sun-choo-loo-loo. At this point there is a disagreement between the only two printed versions of the affair we have (Cox's "Annals," and Carr's "Pioneer Days"). They also disagree with the unwritten history as related to me by a participant therein three years later. According to Carr, the Indian pursuit was the cause of the discovery of Hay Fork Valley, yet it is well known that there were paying mines at what was at one time known as the "Carrier Diggings" as early as 1851, though they were not extensively worked. And, considering the energy, enterprise, youth and ambition of those who peopled the mines of California in those days it seems strange that a valley of such size and value for farming and grazing purposes should remain undiscovered for so long a time. But that is neither here nor there. The version given me by my informants, one white and the other an Indian, was that when the pursuers reached the dividing ridge between the waters of the main river and its Hay Fork tributary, and saw whence the pursuit would probably lead them, some became discouraged and desired to return. The company were nearly out of provisions, footsore with traveling over the rough mountains, for your Indian was an adept in woodcraft, and his trail generally led right along the summit of a ridge, and they only descended to the valley when going from one ridge to another. There was a twofold object in this--they were not easily ambushed, and their scouts could have a good view of the ground over which they passed. Whether the pursuers would have turned back or not, if a fresh incident had not occurred is one of the things which will never be known. But it so happened that one Morgan and a companion were prospecting on the Upper Hay Fork that day and came to Bridge Gulch. They went along up the Gulch until they came to the bridge, of which they were the discoverers. While climbing over the bridge they saw the smoke of the Indian camp fires a short distance above, and could even see the children playing. It may well be imagined that they lost no time in getting out of such a dangerous place and somehow fell in with the pursuing party, who, upon gaining this information, left the Indian trail at once and marched directly upon the Indian camp. How they surrounded it in the night and surprised its inmates in the morning (for the scouts had come in and reported the pursuit abandoned) are matters too well known to be repeated here. It was a belief for a long time that but one person, a little girl, was left alive of the Indians, but such was not the case. I saw one Indian at Point Bar in 1855, whom Bennett Cook employed as a hunter, who showed me the scar of a wound where he had been shot and left for dead, but after the whites left recovered and was taken away by friends from other camps. Carr says that three girls were saved;, Cox says two girls and three Indians escaped. It was the general belief for years that one of the girls was saved by Capt. I. G. Messec, but a letter from the captain shows that was not the case. The letter of Captain Messec is quite interesting; we quote from it as follows: "* * * I believe that I can give you the information desired. There were two little girls brought in from the Bridge fight; one about 13 or 14 years old and one about 5 years old. The little one was discovered under some pine bark and dead Indians, quite bloody, by a big, raw-boned, homely-looking fellow. It was soon discovered that she was not wounded. An effort was made by some to kill her, but a few vigorous words checked it. A few minutes after the little one was discovered, someone reported that there was another girl not wounded, and as one had been spared it was decided that both should be brought in. The man referred to as having discovered the little girl brought her to Weaverville on his back and gave her to Mrs. John H. Harper, whose husband ran for District Judge in 1852 and was defeated by Judge Peters. After Harper's defeat Mrs. Harper left for Sacramento and carried the little girl off with her and never returned to Weaver. Many oldtimers will remember what became of Harper. He robbed old Mrs. Evoy]--Zack Montgomery's mother-in-law--and was sent to the state prison for ten years from Oroville. Mrs. Harper started to go to her people in Maine with the little girl but died in New York. That is the last I ever heard of the child. "Now as to Dirlam sending money to support the child I know nothing, but you can see that it is an improbable story, as Mrs. Harper left in the fall of 1852. Now a word about the 13-year-old girl. Mrs. Reuley took charge of her and raised her. She took the girl to Canon Creek and then on the river below Big Bar and, as well as I remember, about three years after she was captured a man by the name of Woodward married her and they went to New River where she died. I met Woodward in San Francisco, the husband of a Mrs. Canty who once lived in Weaver. That disposes of the two little girls brought in from the Indian killing at the Bridge on Hay Fork. "In 1854 B. M. George and I and one or two others had a brush with some Indians, and I brought a little girl in and gave her to Mrs. Neblett to raise. I had her dressed well, and she remained over two years and finally ran off, and the man Paul you mention was living with her the last I heard of her. After I married, B. M. George found a little girl on Hay Fork and sent her over to Mrs. Messec, but she died within a year. I believe that it was in 1855 or '56 that the girl ran away from Mrs. Neblett. "Referring to the girls brought in from the Bridge, I would like to know which one Dirlam says he gave away and sent money to support. He might have sent money to support the largest girl, but I don't believe it. If there is any more correspondence on the subject with Dirlam, ask him which one of the girls he brought in. I am satisfied he refers to the small one." Cox says the child left with Mrs. Harper was taken by her as far as Shasta, then sold her to a teamster for $45. The Paul referred to by Captain Messec was Paul Trumbach, and Billy Trumbach, well-known here, is their son. I have no doubt Judge Dirlam's claim is a correct one, but the fate of the little girl whose life he saved 42 years ago is something of which we cannot inform him. Trinity Journal, Weaverville, California, December 8, 1894, page 1 OLD SETTLERS' PAPERS.
The reading of the paper prepared by me and read at our last meeting
brought up in the minds of those present a flood of recollection of the
events of the Indian troubles of the early fifties. Its publication in
the Journal
has brought three
communications from pioneers which, though their authors are not
members of our society, contain reference to such historical facts as
will make them valuable for publication.NUMBERS 8, 9 and 10. Judge Dirlam doesn't relish the idea of being the "big, raw-boned fellow" described by Messec. However, Messec and Duncan seem to agree, and as the Judge is an interested witness we shall have to conclude that the Judge in his younger days must have been much larger in frame than of late years. Duncan speaks of Dirlam having brought the child to Weaverville in a blanket. This accords with the recollection of our fellow member Jacob Huss, who was a townsman of Dirlam, and who assured us that Dirlam showed him the blanket in which the child was wrapped and who assured Huss that he intended keeping that blanket as long as he lived. T.
E. JONES.
----
I received a newspaper clipping containing "Old Settlers' Papers,
Number 7," by you. As the cutting does not show from what paper it was
taken, I address this communication to you, not that anything I can say
will particularly interest you or my old associates at Weaverville, if
any there are left, but to correct some statements contained in the
article.NUMBER 8. BY DARIUS DIRLAM. I was of the party which went with Sheriff Dixon in March, 1852, to hunt down the murderers of Anderson. Mr. Messec, I believe, was also of the party. The barroom talk and the published accounts of that transaction must be taken with a grain of allowance. I never have seen an account that tallies very closely with what I thought I saw and knew. We did not give the Indians two or three days the start. They crossed the Trinity River above Sturdivant's ranch twenty to thirty hours ahead of us. Having a small herd of cattle to drive, they were compelled to select easy ground and make a plain trail, but it went in almost all directions. We were nearly a week in arriving at the valley of the South Fork of the Trinity, as it was then called. Every night they killed a bullock and feasted on its carcass, so that when we reached the South Fork there was but a single animal left and the trail became difficult to follow. If there was a lack of provisions I never knew it nor did I know that there was any talk of turning back. Indeed we had mules and could replenish our stock almost at will. The valley where we reached it from the divide was grown up to brush three to five feet high. In this brush our mules were stampeded, and we lost a portion of our blankets. After catching our mules we went into camp and discussed a change of plan. It was pretty certain that the Indians had something to do with stampeding our mules and the missing blankets. We were confident that the raid on Anderson originated in that valley or some adjacent one. It was conceded that we never would overtake the Indians by a stern chase. Prospectors had followed through on our trail, searching the streams and ravines for gold, and were constantly coming into camp. During the day efforts were made to find Indian signs; they were not sending up smoke to betray themselves. All kinds of stories came into camp--depending largely upon the makeup of the narrator--but the conclusion was reached that nothing of value had been discovered, except that the Indians were probably across the stream. We were unanimous that the success of our expedition depended upon our getting beyond them and striking them on our return. Thereupon the following plan was adopted: Large fires were to be built and much noise indulged in by the prospectors; men were to stay around the camp next day and our mules were to be kept in sight so as to present the appearance of a resting expedition; at midnight we were to steal out, cross the stream and by a night's march if possible get in rear of the enemy. We did leave camp at midnight, crossed the stream, broke over a divide and at daylight found ourselves on the bank of a ravine which was screened by a thicket of young spruce. We entered the ravine and sent out two scouts, who had joined us in camp, to examine the sheltered spots on that side of the stream for Indians. One of the scouts was well along in years, wore neither hat nor shoes and had long, black hair. About 3 o'clock P.M. those on watch saw the old scout coming down the divide, leaping over the manzanita brush, and when he arrived he reported that he had discovered a camp of Indians in the narrow valley of a sheltered stream; that he had approached sufficiently near to see them plainly and hear them talk. We remained in the ravine until midnight and then followed the scout to the camp and surrounded the Indians. It is a misnomer to call what followed a battle. It was a massacre. I never felt proud of the share I had in it. When all had become quiet and the bark tepees were in full blaze and the air was filled with the odor of burning flesh, I walked alone along the outer edge of the little valley where I had seen some of the Indians try to escape. I heard a gurgling and soon discovered a live infant under the body and in the arms of a dead squaw. I took out the child, which was covered with blood, bathed it in the stream, wrapped it in a warm blanket and set it against the root of a pine tree near a fire. Soon a lot of the boys came up to inspect it and while I was endeavoring to satisfy their curiosity, a lot of other boys came who had been drinking too freely and insisted on killing the baby. Weapons were drawn in its defense and the assailants were soon convinced that it was not best to harm the child. The incident is referred to by Bret Harte in his "Princess." Two other children were found alive. A girl of about thirteen years, who was wounded in the abdomen with a buckshot, and a boy of nine uninjured. The little girl that I found I should judge was between eleven and fifteen months old. She had two teeth in front on each jaw and others coming and weighed from twenty to thirty pounds. I carried her on my back to Weaverville, putting her in the hands of Mrs. Ewing, whose husband kept the hotel, and she promised to adopt and raise her. I stayed in Weaverville until the following August, during which time the child was kept by Mrs. Ewing. I then went to the East Fork of the North Fork of the Trinity. I frequently came down, and that fall or the next spring I learned the child was in the possession of Mrs. Harper, and Mrs. Ewing requested me to take it from Mrs. Harper and return it to her. I refused to interfere. I remained on the East Fork of the North Fork until November, 1853, at which time I left the county. I never sent money to support the child nor ever claimed that I did. That is one of the interpolations that some vivid imagination has injected into the story. Various reports reached me--one that she had grown up and married, another that she was dead. I never could get anything authentic. A Mr. Jackson of Oakland, California, having known me and having heard the story of the girl (but not from me) being in Weaverville a few months ago, made some inquiries about the child, and knowing that I had tried to find what had become of her wrote me the result of his inquiries. Forty-two years is a long time to remember, and it is not [im]possible that you are mistaken in some of your dates. As I remember, Mr. Denver and Mr. Harper were rivals for an election to the California Senate in 1852. It may be that the rivalry was only as to the nomination, but Denver was finally elected. Was it not that year that they had a fight at a political meeting at Weaverville, in which they drew their guns, and Harper was about to shoot Denver when a gentleman, whose name I have forgotten, caught Harper's pistol, got his thumb under the hammer and in the struggle was quite seriously hurt? Was it not later that the contest between Harper and Judge Peters took place? It was after I had left the state, November, 1853, that Harper robbed Mrs. Evoy. I knew both Harper and Denver quite well and Mrs. Harper slightly, having called on her twice while she had the child, and if you had not stated that she left the state in 1852, I should have been quite certain that the last time was late in the summer of 1853. How Capt. Messec gets the idea that the child was five years old is a mystery, for as "big, raw-boned and homely-looking" as I was, I do not believe I could have carried a five-year-old child on my back over the route we returned, which, with its crooks and turns, measured not less than sixty-five miles. I admit that I was homely (and if I remember right Capt. Messec was not an Apollo), but that I was large I deny. I was five feet, eight and one-half inches, weighed one hundred and fifty-five pounds, never wore a shoe to exceed number eight and one-half and mostly wore eights. It is equally wonderful how the Captain got the idea that the little one was discovered under some pine bark and dead Indians. It is a pure fiction. I should not have troubled yon with this matter had it not been for the fact of the charge that I was claiming to have sent money for the support of the girl. If you see Capt. Messec give him my best regards and tell him I bear no malice for his very flattering description of my personal appearance in my youth. ----
NUMBER 9. BY
R. B. WELLS.
I was in Weaverville when Sheriff Dixon made up his company to follow
up the Bridge Gulch Indians, and was acquainted with Darius Dirlam,
whom you call Judge Dirlam. When the company was made up I could not
go. Dirlam had no gun, so I let him have my rifle. I got the most of my
information about the fight from Dirlam himself.As I remember his statement, after the fight he was looking over the dead Indians and heard the child crying and went and took it out from under its mother who had fallen upon it. He would not hear to the child being killed nor left there to starve, so he took it on his back and carried it to Weaver. As to the disposal of the girl after they left Weaver I know nothing different from the statement in Messec's letter. As to Judge Dirlam sending money to support the child, I know nothing. My recollection is that the two girls were the only prisoners taken. "Pioneer Days" says 150 Indians were killed on actual count, but this is not correct. The statement was 80 or about 80 on actual count. The men stated, if I recollect right, that there were two or three Indians that got away during the fight and ran toward the Bridge, and there is an Indian now living up the river from Douglas City whom they call Bob, that says he was there and hid under a log so they didn't find him. Bob thinks he was 9 or 10 years old at the time. John Carr is mistaken about the Dixon company being the discoverers of Hay Fork Valley. There was a company from Steiner's Flat; I think Ben Steiner was one of them. In '51 the Indians got after them and they built a fort around a pine tree about one hundred yards below where Charley Maynard's barn stands. The Indians kept the men in the fort for some time. One of the men got out after night and went to Steiner's Flat for help, but whether the men got away before help came I don't remember. The fort remained for several years after I was a citizen of Hay Fork. I don't know as this will be of any interest to you, more than to put you right as to which one of the children Judge Dirlam saved. ----
NUMBER 10. BY
JOHN DUNCAN.
I have
been reading the Old Settlers' Paper, No. 7 [above], and it put
me to thinking. I do not know Judge Dirlam but I can recall most of the
men who were at the Bridge.
Myself and seven other men went up Brown's Creek the day of the Bridge
fight; we had a running fight with a small band of Indians and killed
seven. We saw the Bridge party going back to Weaverville; there was a
big Dutchman packing the child on his back wrapped up in a blanket. I
don't think the child was more than three years old. A short time after
that I went to Weaverville and boarded with Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Ewing
near where the Union Hotel now stands. They had the child there all the
time while I was there. A short time after I quit boarding there there
was some complaint that it was not well treated. Mrs. Harper then took
the child and when Harper got into that scrape she left with it, and I
lost all trace of them.I know the Harpers well--her maiden name was Owens and they came here from Independence, Missouri. Harper killed a man there about her. Now about the other child--l think they are all mistaken. I don't know who had her for the first month, but a short time after she was taken in [by] the family of a man named Dwyer, an old sea captain. He and his wife took the girl next summer to Humboldt County; they lived about a half a mile from Uniontown (now called Arcata). I inquired about her in 1858 and again in 1881 but she was dead. The Dwyers were dead also. Now in regard to the DISCOVERY
OF HAY FORK.
In the fall of 1850 myself and brother, Bill Terry, Smith Turner, Paul
Trumbach, Frank Colson, and others whose names I cannot now recall
followed a band of Indians who had stolen three mules from us at Mud
Bar. They ate one mule where the Nethery ranch on Brown's Creek was
(now belonging to the Gibson brothers), killed the other two and packed
them off. We took the trail over the mountain, then down the north side
to Big Creek, and down Big Creek to its junction with Hay Fork, where
we had a little spat with them. I don't recall the very day but it was
about the 1st of November 1850. So you see we were there long before
the Bridge fight. We found a small band of Indians and killed three.
Bill Terry brought home a young squaw, he said for a cook. He wanted to
dress her up. You know in those days calico shirts were starched so
stiff you had to wet them in the branch before you could get into one
of them. So Bill bought one of them and pulled it on over her head--you
bet she was pretty. Bill says, "Who can make a dress?" "I can, sir," I
said. "You are my man," said he.The trader there had a bolt of cotton pocket handkerchiefs with big, red blossoms and a stripe to cut off when a man wanted one, you know. Well, he bought the whole piece and I made the dress the next day. The boys came from up and down the river to see Bill's cook, but in about ten days the cook and dress were both gone. So went the first woman's dress, I think, that was ever made in Trinity. Trinity Journal, Weaverville, California, January 12, 1895, page 1 OLD SETTLERS' PAPERS.
The first gold discoveries on Trinity, if we are to accept the common
understanding, were at Reading's Bar--the nucleus of a center of
good-paying mines. From Reading's Bar down the river good pay was
universal. Up the river good pay soon quit. Texas Bar paid good wages
in spots, and the hills back of it are believed to be good, but from
Texas Bar up to Ohio Flat there was an occasional good "claim," and
that was all.NUMBER 11. BY T. E. JONES. Commencing at Ferry Bar there was one fair claim at its head. This claim was so located that it was most favorably situated to become a sort of ripple for all the gold which came down in the river floods from any quarter. A point of high and hard, yet shelly, bedrock ran down at the head of the bar. On the lower side of this point there were several strata of gold-bearing earth, and while the point itself paid from its cone down. Below the point, the balance of the long wide bar, it is safe to say, did not pay fifty cents a day for the work done on it. At the foot of the point next the river the bedrock presented a perpendicular bluff and here Fred Mohrmann, Jacob Jepson and some other German boys had built a 28-foot wheel as early as 1852. At the time I first came on Ferry Bar it was the fall of the year and the wheel owners were all away working a river claim they owned opposite Missouri Bar. Andrew Asmussen was in charge of the wheel at the time and was living in the big cabin alone. Commencing at the head of Ferry Bar on the opposite side of the river was what is now Vitzhum's ranch, a nice-looking flat nearly half a mile long, covered by a rich alluvium soil, many feet in depth. We used to look with envious eyes upon this flat and wish that we could get water to work it. But when the Trinity River Canal Company put its ditch down in 1858, a branch flume was run across the river and a cut run through the flat to the rise of bedrock. Scarcely a color was got out of the cut. Union Bar came next on the north bank. There was one small, good claim on Union Bar which I had the pleasure of finding. But it was limited in size and soon worked out. Above Union Bar came a bar on the south side, then called Gillingham's Bar, but now known as Ingram's Bar. Gillingham worked on the bar first, working on the low bar next the river. He went down to the trading post one Sunday with others and while they were making their way up the river homeward, the talk turned about swimming. Gillingham, to show his ability in that line, plunged into Trinity River then at flood. He got out on the opposite side, but on returning was drowned. Trinity River in those days gave up its dead, and Gillingham's body was found and buried near what is now known as the McIntyre Gulch. There were no good claims on the bar, though the top red dirt paid his wages in one place and the gold was of a high quality. There was no branch mint at San Francisco at the time the bar was worked, and the best of gold dust brought only $17 an ounce. Hugh McWhorter, dissatisfied with the price paid him, sent thirty ounces to his brother who lived at Philadelphia. It was coined at the mint there and netted $19.52½ an ounce. Vickery and Poverty bars above were only wage paying, and not that for their entire extent. Then came Garden Bar on the north side. Lathrop built a sawmill at the head of a nice piece of black loamy land and put his dam in the river at the head of Garden Bar. The mill ditch was so near the front of the Bar that not much mining could be done. Tom Young and Steve Lane had a claim which they worked with indifferent success. Lane had a squaw called Dorcas, whom he was living with in the expectation that she would pilot him to some fabulously rich diggings the Indians were supposed to know of in the Hay Fork country. One day Dorcas when panning found a good prospect, which she showed Lane. The only drawback about the prospect was that it was in a part of the Bar where the mill ditch came close to the front and work could not be done without mining the ditch away. The prospect was so good, however, that Young put the water in a large flume for about 100 feet about 8 feet by 6, and worked the ground underneath. Young cleared about $600 by the venture when the pay gave out. The rest of the bar was worthless. Then came a stretch of a mile where riverbed and bar were alike barren of gold until Point Bar is reached. There is one particular, however, which I shall mention as showing the different formations in which placer gold is found. In the middle of this barren stretch was a small narrow bar which paid nothing. The bedrock in the river was shelving and seamy, with the seams full of grass roots. Jim Newton and Pat Hefferman potdammed the river and gathering these grass-roots washed them in a tank, making as high as thirty dollars in a day while so doing, but it did not last long. Point Bar was the only one of real merit between the mouth of Indian Creek and Ohio Flat. When I came over the mountain in October, 1853, I met (at what was afterwards the Hoadley place) one of the keepers of the trading post at Point Bar. He was honest enough to tell me the miners there were making only about three dollars per day, so I concluded to go further down. I exemplified the old adage that I might "go farther and fare worse." The Point Bar claims when developed were a surprise to the mining fraternity. In all other places which have come under my observation any depression in the bedrock which was not a crevice was barren of gold. It seemed as if the rush of water flooded everything out of such places when they would become filled with light wash and cobblestones, and the only pay to be found in such a place was on a level with the surrounding bedrock. But at Point Bar were several deep, canoe-shaped depressions, sometimes more than a hundred feet in length and of varying depth, each of which was filled with large boulders and rich pay gravel. They were found on the high bar, the low bar and there was one about twenty feet deep half in and half out of the river. From Point Bar to Ohio Flat no pay is found, though it is thought there is a rich streak of blue gravel in Poker Bar, which owing to the lack of dump could only be worked by means of an elevator. The question has often been asked, "With the river rich at Lewiston, both in bed and bars, rich again at Kanaka Bar and thence downward, why is there a stretch of eight or ten miles comparatively worthless?" Has the river in former days taken a shoot from Grass Valley and hugging the mountains on the south come into its present channel somewhere on Texas Bar? It may be so; it is probable that some tests of the question will be made in the near future. I have written a brief sketch of that part of the Trinity which was my "stamping-ground" for many years, and I hope that, like the article last fall about the captive Indian girl, it may stir up some of the others to exercise their powers of remembrance and description. Trinity Journal, Weaverville, California, August 10, 1895, page 1 OLD SETTLERS' PAPERS.
Sometimes we love to indulge in the "melancholy madness of the poet,
without the inspiration of the music." But in the present instance, the
stubborn facts to be related in this paper require no poetic fervor, or
picture of the imagination, to rekindle the slumbering embers of the
once joyous past. Therefore, we propose in a little niche in an obscure
corner among the cherished memories of early days, to call the
attention of the readers to Isaac Dixon, more familiarly and
affectionately known as Ike Dixon, the barber. The compiler of historic
fame would be recreant
to duty should he pass forgetful over his name.NUMBER 13. BY C. E. WILLIAMS. In the halcyon days of Weaverville, Isaac was a tonsorial professor of no mean repute. He handled the scissors and razors, the clippers and shears with artistic skill, in primeval times, and could hold his own with the best in the land in this department of science. His skill was fearfully reckless at times. A little incident will suffice. On one memorable occasion while I was seated in chair of state, undergoing his soothing manipulations, Ike, in a moment of abstraction, scissored off a slice from the lobe of my left ear. In trying to restore the fragment to its normal position with arnica and adhesive plaster, a prong of his right hand unceremoniously intruded itself into my right eye, greatly to my annoyance and discomfiture. "But
these and ills severer we sustain,
In
the kindness of my heart (which was tender in those days) I forgave
him, for the assault was unpremeditated and without malice
aforethought. Under the circumstances, he would have been forgiven
anyhow, for in position and prowess he had a great advantage over me.
As we have been told that "discretion is the better part of valor," so
common sense, of the commonest kind, should teach anyone not to
embitter a barber, when he has you in his clutches.As gold the fire and as unhurt remains." The subject of our sketch was of African descent, and in complexion so ebony, that charcoal appeared white by the side of his face. It matters little what immediate spot may have been his birthplace. He boasted not of ancestral pedigree. It was enough for him to know that he was born, without his knowledge, connivance or consent, "Away down South in Dixie," of poor, but honest parents. "May
no fiction of fame emblazon his name,
Notwithstanding
his color, in his own estimation he held himself high above the level
of his tribe. Though proud and polite among white gentlemen, he would
tolerate no impudence or insolence on the part of a Negro. He towered
above them all like Hector above his Trojan compeers. On one occasion
W. M. Lowe, then Sheriff of Trinity County, took him to Sacramento as
his valet de chambre,
during
a session of the legislature. While there Ike, attired in purple and
fine linen and Lowe's best broadcloth, with et ceteras attended a fancy
colored ball. It was high-toned, or, as the French would say, recherche.
There was too much style about it for a country barber, and Dixon
showed his displeasure in unmeasured terms. During the festivities of
the night, in a sequestered nook, he tickled another Negro under the
ribs with a Bowie knife, contrary to the statute in such cases made and
provided, and against the peace and dignity of the people of the state
of California. A charge of assault to commit murder was lodged against
him. But, with his luck and Lowe's assistance, the matter was dropped,
though the atmosphere of the capital became unhealthy for his
constitution. Ever after he avoided Sacramento as he would a
pestilence. He left in the dark of the moon, before expiration of term
as valet, for more congenial friends in Trinity. On his return the town
was pregnant with surmises and conjecture. The concurrence of public
opinion was to the effect that a woman was at the bottom of the late
escapade. On this point we entertain grave doubts, for if he ever
nursed the tender passion, it is certain he "never told his love, but
let concealment like a worm in the bud, feed on his 'Ethiopian cheek.' "All we wish, all we ask is a tear." Ike Dixon was a talker. The cacoethes loquendi--rage for talking--was abnormally developed. For a man who talked so much, he was remarkably truthful. Having seen a great deal of the world, he remembered all he had seen, and was loquacious in rehearsing the minutest details of his not uneventful life. Give him all the scope and verge he wanted, and he could literally talk a customer to death, before the shaving process was complete. This he would do, regardless of the weather, pecuniary gain or the conscience of his patrons. He was not penurious. There was nothing miserly about him. He freely gave alms to the poor. He was not an orator, but always found and used the right word to express his meaning. His early education had been neglected, yet he was a pattern of sobriety. He looked "not upon the wine when it was red--when it giveth color in the cup, for it stingeth like a serpent, it biteth like an adder." To add additional luster to his fame, his language was never vulgar or profane. Ike was not au fait in reading and writing, but good at arithmetic. He never forgot the number of shaves due him, nor the number of times he failed to collect. So mild-mannered and generous was his disposition, that he offered, publicly, to give receipts in full to all his patrons, if they would pay him half they owed him. They failed to respond. In those good old days, which we will never forget, Dixon gave the writer of this memoir six months shaving, shampooing, haircutting and a weekly bath, free of charge, for writing a few words to be posted conspicuously in his shop. He importuned me one day to write something attractive and catching, to draw custom from a rival Dutch barber, who he thought was encroaching on his barbarous domain. The following extract, from a poem I used to repeat to my sweetheart, before I came to California, was selected for the occasion: Let Me Tangle
He liked them and the more he thought the more he liked them. A bonanza
of imposing magnitude loomed up before his gladdened eyes. If Roman
knight ever wore spurs before he wore them, Ike Dixon had won a wreath
that would adorn his dusky brow. He stood not on the order of his
going, but went at once to O. H. P. Norcross, a local artist. A
suitable sign, with golden inscription, was soon made, and a good,
round sum paid for the work of art when finished. It was a beauty to
behold--it was, altogether, lovely in the owner's eyes. What curves of
grace--how it glistened! It would knock the spangles entirely off the
Dutch barber! And so it did, far awhile. He hadMy Hand in Your Hair, My Pet. "Found
the thing he long had sought,
When
this chef d'oeuvre--this masterpiece of art--had been assigned to its
appropriate place, crowds were drawn, impulsively, day by day and night
by night, to the shop. Many heads, unkempt for years, were restored, as
if by magic, from chaos to symmetry and respectability, and shekels
poured into his coffer. But, "there's a divinity that shapes our ends,
rough."And mourned because he found it not." An accident occurred to Dixon, which, well nigh put au estoppel to his earthly career. A condensed account will be sufficient for our purpose. One ------ Denny of Humboldt County, who was trafficking in horses at this place, and at the time referred to, offered to bring on his next trip and make present of a horse to J. M. Jarnagin, his old friend and attorney at law. Like most attorneys at that time, we were both impecunious. Our total assets combined if turned into sound money--coin of the realm--would have shown a deficit of several dollars in the payment of a week's board. The present of a horse, under the circumstances, was a calamity to be deplored. An elephant would have been just as appropriate. Jarnagin proposed to give me a half interest, provided I would feed and stable the animal. The proposition was accepted with fear and trembling, for I had never owned a horse or an interest in one before in California. We were in a dilemma, and how to make the best of it was the question. It would not be the proper thing to refuse the present of a horse, for he might be a valuable racer or pacer of noble lineage. We concluded to keep the animal--when he came. Although our finances were at a low ebb, my credit was better then, than now. It was at par--16 to 1--at the livery stable, and above par at all the saloons in town. In fact, everybody's credit was good-- "In
the days of old,
We named our horse Chester before we saw him, though at one time
Stanley was thought to be a better name. In due course the horse came,
and formal presentation was made. Many and profuse were our
congratulations, and numerous were the intermediate drinks, all of
which were duly charged to account. Jarnagin and I drank our share, for
in those days both were given to bibulous delights of the bar room. We
had plenty of genial company when we wished to imbibe, for how numerous
were the refreshing old humbugs, looking like standing statuary about
the saloon, when we entered, all eager to shake hands and partake of
the general joy.In the days of gold, In the days of '49." In the beginning, Denny of Humboldt told Jarnagin that the donated horse had no vicious faults, but was playfully wild, and needed a little "breaking in," taming or training. (The wild horse of Tartary was no wilder than he.) The head hostler at Comstock & Martin's livery stable, where Chester was domiciled, was the first to try to tame him. The attempt was a dismal failure, for instead of breaking Chester's playful habits, Chester broke the hostler's head--though someone said it was cracked before. Now, Ike Dixon in his youth was a racehorse rider. He pointed with pride to the fact that he was a horseman, "native and to the manor born," and could tame and ride any horse in the world. He said the broken-headed hostler did not know how to get on or off a horse--that he knew, practically, nothing about a horse at all, but that he (Dixon) could make that horse gentle as a lamb in two hours, and would like to undertake the job early the next morning, before his customers came and he opened shop. Permission was readily granted, and next morning at sunrise Jarnagin and I were on hand to witness the equestrian feat. It was the proper time and place, for no better could have been chosen. All nature appeared in lovely repose. The sun had risen bright and clear, and not a zephyr fanned the air. Outside the stable the dust was a foot deep, but none astir. The horse was brought out to the middle of the street. Dixon mounted the fiery steed. The order, "Charge Chester, charge! On, Stanley, on!" was given in stentorian tones. The rest is more easily imagined than described. In a few seconds, there was more dust afloat in the atmosphere than was ever witnessed before in Weaverville. Chester understood the situation and knew exactly what he was going to do. At the word of command, he pranced around gaily for a moment, blew his nostrils, looked at the ground below, and pawed it, then at the canopy above, and scorned it. Suddenly he put both feet together, within the circumference of a dinner plate, collected all of his energies, for a coup de grace, and bounded upward with the velocity of a catapult. The surcingle broke, and saddle and rider went skyward, describing parabolas through boundless fields of air. The ascent was rapid and enthusiastic, beautiful and sublime, "but great was the fall, my countrymen." Ike, reclaimed from the din and dust of the conflict, more dead than alive, or not a word did or could he speak, was taken to his couch and home. Dr. Edward Trask, an eminent physician and surgeon, was immediately summoned to attend to the case. He made a careful diagnosis and, about noon, reported to anxious friends. The report was so full of technical terms that the writer remembers very little of it. He said, however, "collarbone broken, hip joint dislocated, proboscis smashed out of recognition, spine paralyzed, third cervical vertebrae missing, pumped out from the stomach four pounds of mud and gravel and three tri-fanged molar teeth, one leg stove up, the other too long, abdominal region deranged, respiration slow, articulation inaudible, pulse low, eyes closed by concussion, mouth ditto; present condition comatose; future condition moribund; cause, horse de combat, regime, aperient medicine, soporifics and repose." He said Ike was in a precarious condition, for the "clockworks of his diaphragm would not work." This was good--the clockworks of Ike's diaphragm. In this condition the patient lingered for months, without material change for the better, though his physician and surgeon was in constant attendance. About this time the doctor had to go to San Francisco on business. Things looked gloomy for our rider and barber at this particular junction of affairs. But, by a remarkable, if not miraculous coincidence, when the doctor left, the patient begun to convalesce and eventually recovered. Dixon had regained his health, but the Dutch barber, in the mean time, had made fearful inroads upon his business. His old customers were shy. The days of his prosperity were at an end; his money had gone in payment of medical bills and attention. He became disgusted, generally, and determined to seek green fields and pastures new. He sold all he had left, and went away. The parting scenes, on the morning of his departure, were truly pathetic. With a smile on his lip and lachrymal moisture about the eye, he bade farewell to friends and foes. "God be with you till we meet again," were the words of his last refrain. He wended his way northward, where "rolls the Oregon, that hears no sound save its own dashing," and "jocund morn stands tiptoe on the mountaintop." He took his sign with him--would sooner have left his coat than that--and is, no doubt, if alive, today, tangling his hand in somebody's hair. "May
no marble bestow, the splendor of woe.
WEAVERVILLE,
Oct. 3rd, 1896. Which the children of vanity rear. May no fiction of fame, emblazon his name, All we wish, all we ask is a tear." Trinity Journal, Weaverville, California, October 10, 1896, page 1 OLD SETTLERS' PAPERS.
If the "tenderfeet" of the present day think that we spent all our
leisure time in dissipation, gossip, gambling or dancing with the hurdy
gurdys forty years ago, they are a long way off their base. As a matter
of fact I think that while the rather expensive amusements I have
alluded to found followers to an extent which some of us may now
regret, yet many hours and leisure days were spent in a more laudable
if not more profitable manner. Reading was one great source of
pleasure. The Sacramento
Union and Golden
Era
were the favorite papers printed within this state, while of Eastern
papers, which came then only by steamer, enough were taken to indicate
from what part of the Union the subscriber hailed. Eastern men were
lost unless the Boston
Journal came on time, while Southerners were equally
anxious to see the New
Orleans Delta. The New
York Herald, Times and Tribune suited the
men from the Middle States and the Louisville
Journal or St.
Louis Republican
indicated to an almost absolute certainty that the fellow who took
either did not come from any great distance in an air line from the
land of Pike, or Suckerdom. Each of the papers I have named used to
have special editions for California, generally comprising a record of
all the notable events which had transpired since the last special in a
half-dozen contiguous states. A profitable business it should have
been, too, for the expressmen who brought the papers around. Not less
than two bits was charged for each, and the wight who aspired for a
higher class of reading and ordered Harper's Magazine
was taxed to the tune of six bits or a dollar.NUMBER 15. "THE LYCEUM AT FILIBUSTER." BY JUDGE T. E. JONES. Novel reading was another favorite way of passing the time. G. W. M. Reynolds, J. F. Smith and Alexandre Dumas were then at the height of their literary renown, well seconded by Herman Melville, George Lippard and a half score of lesser literary lights. The woes of the heroes and heroines of these works of fiction possessed a powerful attraction to the miners of the fifties. After a book was once read by its owner it would become "common property," and it was about one chance out of twenty that the original owner would ever see it again. Go into almost any cabin and a dozen or more of these works could be found, and then it was another one chance out of twenty that not one of them would be owned in that cabin. "Hello, got this I see. I want to read it," "Take it along. I got it of ------ and he got it from ------." This would be the substance of any talk that would precede the carrying off of the coveted book. When one once got fairly started on its travels it generally wound up by disappearing from the neighborhood altogether. Publishers' prices in those days were four or five times as great for unbound works as at the present, and the bill of the expressman to a "reading cuss" was generally from one to three or four dollars at each weekly trip. I had a fancy to keep on hand certain novels which I looked upon as the chief work of their respective authors. "David Copperfield," "Ivanhoe," "Monte Cristo" and "Uncle Tom's Cabin" were of these, and I guess that first and last I have bought a dozen copies of each. There was one book by a German author, Rellstab, called the "Romance of War," which I lost and have never been able to duplicate. The winter of 1857-8 was a cold, dry one. Not much snow fell in the early months, and the sources of water supply were so frozen up that ditch owners refused to run what little was in the streams and we could only snap our fingers and wait for the breaking-up time. I was then at Smith's Lower Flat, opposite Kanaka Bar. I had two partners in the claim, Jim Newton and Tom Young, but they remained at the wheel on Ferry Bar, while I was to attend to the interests of the partnership at the lower claim. "Grass" was pretty short with us all that winter (as it generally was), and after two or three weeks of enforced idleness Young and Newton lowered the wheel to get out a little spending money. They had better have left the job alone, as the wheel got so coated with ice that it toppled into the river, got three or four paddles knocked off and was damaged so badly before they got it hoisted up again that it cost them about three times as much for repairs as they washed out. I think it was "Poker Jim" who first proposed that we should meet somewhere and have a Lyceum. Reading matter was scarce, coin was equally so, and the idea at once met with popular favor. The chief objection to the Lyceum was that there was no suitable room to meet in unless it were the John Smith ranch house, or the Wilcox cabin, and as the Wilcoxes and Smiths were at war in the courts over water rights and trespass claims, that at once put an end to the thought of those two places. But as Poker Jim had been so thoroughly wiped out at his last trial at poker (not draw, for that seductive game had not yet reached Trinity), that he had neither a good coat nor a pair of short-legged gum boots to weather the storms of winter in when they came, he had ample time on his hands. Someone had built a saloon (Bill Schnabel, I think) just over the hill from where Douglas City now is, but the place was occupied by a big German, named George Landvogt, who had married a Madame Simon, and being a man of aesthetic tastes himself, he promptly offered the use of the saloon for Lyceum purposes one night in each week. So one Saturday night we met at Filibuster and organized. Landvogt was the first president and I was secretary and treasurer, or else Ed. Bullen was secretary and I was treasurer, I forget which. I know I carried the Lyceum funds, and while I had lung fever (they call it pneumonia now) the boys in charge sent nearly all in the Lyceum purse to Weaverville, to pay for some of the prescriptions Dr. Trask had written, and the proceeds of the first cleanup at the wheel claim (my share), were nearly all absorbed to replenish. A great old Lyceum (or as Frank Trask called it, Lie some) it was, but it flourished. Our German host made an excellent president, and knew parliamentary law as well as if he had made it the special study of his life. It is fun now, to look back and see how he disposed of the "chippers," i.e., the chaps who would get through with their talk and sit down, only to chip in every minute or two when a fellow on the other side was talking. We had a committee to select questions for discussion, also to name the leaders in debate upon the opposing sides. Nathan Thomas is the only member of that committee whose name I remember. For quite a while we wrestled with the old chestnuts regarding the respective merits of "Pursuit or Possession," "Columbus or Washington" and "Nature or Art," questions debated by the schoolboys, as far back as I could remember. Then the committee took a new departure and plunged us into the horrifying question of "Whether war was necessary to civilization?" and followed it up by asking us to show whether "Mankind enjoyed most happiness in the uncivilized, or enlightened state." Oliver Steward was on the side of the uncivilized. His gum boots leaked and the cold water got to his feet and set every tooth in his head to aching. So Oliver argued that happiness, as defined by Locke, consisted in "the absence of pain," and inasmuch as the Wintoons of Kanaka Bar never complained of tooth ache, that fact of itself was proof of the superior happiness of our red brethren. It was a sort of an argumentum ad hominem, but it didn't win. We agreed, in advance, never to discuss the tariff or any other of the subjects which divided political parties. But at last a question proposed by Henry Wells was selected and Henry himself appointed leader of the affirmative. It was "Resolved, that the signs of the times indicated the downfall of this Republic." Henry was one of the original "Blacks" who had voted for Fremont the year before, and he selected on his side all the debaters of his own political faith. At the time Kansas was having a little Civil War on its own hook, as to whether it should form a slave or free state constitution, and the affirmative had pretty good ground to go on. It did not then know the latent fire of patriotism which burned in the American breast, destined in less than four years more to leap into flame. The night of the debate found the little saloon so crowded that standing room was at a premium. People came from up and down the river for a long distance to hear, or take part in the discussion, for it was a rule of the Lyceum that after all who had been chosen to speak were through, an invitation should be extended to any person present to speak on whichever side he chose, the leaders, of course, being privileged to close the debate. When the invitation was given this time a stranger present, Stanford Bailey, of Canon Creek, spoke on the negative side and made the speech of the evening. Bailey was a Kentuckian, and when the time came for proving the sincerity of his opinions he was not found wanting. The last time I heard of Mr. Bailey he was in command of a company of cavalry, fighting on the Union side. This was about the last meeting of the Filibuster Lyceum for that season. Days were getting longer, water plentiful, and the debaters and audience alike did not feel like doing a long day's work in the claim, cooking supper and tramping over the hill to Filibuster. It kept up its organization through the winter of 1858, but as I was then up at Ferry Bar, building a new wheel, I was present only on one or two occasions. Landvogt moved away, and a meeting or two was held in 1859 in the old Douglas City school house, but by this time the town of Douglas City was beginning to flourish and like every new place presented attractions which were sufficient to draw the crowd away. The last forensic efforts of the members were at the "Washington Supper,'' Feb. 22, 1860. On that occasion Sudworth set us a "spread" at $5 each, the band came down from Weaverville, Jere Bennett acted us toastmaster, and the members of the Lyceum responded, myself among the rest. I shall always think that my connection with the Filibuster Lyceum was an important factor in endowing me with the "cheek'' I have found so necessary in after life. The old house where the Lyceum held its meetings was torn down nearly thirty years ago, and the red bank on which it was built swept into the river. Filibuster has been worked back to the raise of rock, till in places the red earth of the mountain shows a precipitous bank a hundred feet in height, and the last ounce of gold of its once-rich bedrock was gathered a quarter of a century ago. And the debaters and audience of the Filibuster Lyceum, where are they? So far as I know Judge Goewey, Nathan Thomas and myself were the only ones left in the land of the living. Ed Bullen was drowned in Fraser River. Fernando Fuller died in Santa Cruz and Johnny Hough in San Francisco. Henry Wells mined by day and studied law by night. When he sold his claim on Smith's Flat he bought the library of John M. Jarnagin, who died shortly before in Weaverville. He left for Oregon to find a suitable locution, leaving the library with A. R. Earl, to be forwarded to him when settled. In due time word to send it came, but this was before the day of railroads, and when it reached its destination Wells had passed to a higher Court, and the Jarnagin library was sent back to Douglas City. Oliver Stuart moved to Ferry Bar, from whence (being a gentleman of political aspirations) he indited a letter to the Trinity Appeal, in which he wrote to Pyle that "the Democracy of Ferry Bar were firm and united," at which Pyle exulted until I told him that the Ferry Bar voters were all Know Nothings except Stewart and Tom Young. Oliver afterwards married a sister of Nathan Thomas. Soon after he got two good drifting claims, one on the flat where Douglas City is built and one on Filibuster. He then went to Nevada, went into the merchandise business and lost heavily. "Singing Master White" enlisted in a volunteer company, expecting to be elected its captain, but got no higher rank than that of private that I ever heard of. There was more conceit and bombast to the square inch wrapped up in his hide than in that of any man I ever saw. Tracy Schofield worked out his Reading's Bar claim and with its proceeds bought a saw mill East Weaver. He married here, and in the fullness of time moved back to his native state, New York, where I hope he yet lives to enjoy the fruit of his labor in Old Trinity. His mining partner, Hickey, was too religious (?) to laugh at a joke no matter how good. It don't matter what became of him, for such a man will never be happy either "on Earth or in Heaven." Poker Jim lingered with us for a couple of years, but the boys got to playing "draw poker" instead of the old game, and Jim was heartbroken. It was not because be lost more money at the new game than at the old one, for both draw and straight kept him in a state of chronic impecuniosity. But Jim was no longer an authority, second only to Hoyle himself, upon the game, and he finally left Kanaka Bar in disgust. Let us hope that Jim, after crossing the divide, found a field for his talent, where the "draw fiend" ceased from troubling, and the good old game played by his fathers, and his father's fathers before him, held undisputed sway. Trinity Journal, Weaverville, California, August 7, 1897, page 1 OLD SETTLERS' PAPERS.
BROTHER
OLD SETTLERS:--I
have seen an article published in the Yreka Daily Reporter
on the 2nd day of December, 1898, headed, "Bold Robbery in the Palmy
Days," which has so many errors and omissions that I think it a duty
that I owe to our organization to give a correct account of the affair
as I remember it after nearly forty-three years have elapsed.NUMBER 16. BY W. S. LOWDEN. Early in the spring of A.D. 1856, the news came to Weaverville that S. D. Brastow and five others had been robbed on the Yreka trail, in this county, and that the amount of money taken was $30,000. The general impression here was that the robbery had been committed by one Jerry Thurman and others, who had a temporary residence at the Keno cabin near the head of Eastman's Gulch, and Sheriff Neblett applied to some of the young fellows around town to go and bring Jerry Thurman to Weaverville. Captain Messec knew Jerry Thurman in Texas and said that he was one of the worst men in that country, and a highwayman by profession. I volunteered to hunt Jerry up and bring him in, and started early in the morning. I had gone but a few minutes when Messec told Neblett that if I found Jerry that Jerry would kill me. So they sent Billy Wells after me to assist in the capture. Billy Wells overtook me at Mooney's ferry and we went together from there to the Keno cabin, where we found that Jerry was gone. We soon found his trail and followed it to French Gulch. Just as we approached the town I sighted my man heading for the hotel. I told Billy to follow the road around into the street and up to the hotel, and I would jump the fence and enter from the rear, which I did, going into the wash room. I there took off my hat as though preparing for dinner and when Jerry stepped into the front door I entered the barroom from the rear, saying "Hello, Jerry! Come take a drink!" Jerry and I walked toward the bar and when near enough I reached out my hand to shake hands; he took my hand and I closed on it and at the same time grasped his other hand that was reaching for his bowie knife. I held him until Billy entered from the front door and disarmed him and tied his hands. We took him to Weaverville that night. Jerry had no trouble to prove that he was at Minersville when the robbery was done and was liberated. Jerry said when he was turned out that I was the only man that ever attempted to arrest him that had not been hurt. Now for the right parties and the particulars of the killing and arrest. The night that we brought Thurman to Weaverville, I received a letter from Brastow or Jack Horsley, I am not sure which, saying that he thought the robbers had gone down the valley. I immediately mounted my horse and rode over to the ranch and went to bed and slept until 12 o'clock M., when I got up and saddled my horse and rode into Shasta at daylight the next morning. I soon learned that W. T. Carter was suspected of being one of the robbers. I had often seen Carter around John Harrington's "Hole in the Wall." I also learned that Carter had been seen at Red Bluff, where there had been an attempt to arrest him. He got away, but lost his hat in doing so. I at once determined to go for Carter. I mounted a fresh horse, and arrived at Tehama at dinner time. I there met a deputy sheriff from Butte County by the name of Peelsticker, who went with me from that place, and on fresh horses we were soon at R. J. Walch's, where we found Walch in a great deal of trouble. He had lost a very fine mare, stolen the night before, that had cost him $400, and we all concluded that the robbers that we were after had taken Walch's mare. Walch volunteered to give us fresh horses, which we gladly took. Upon our arrival at Monroeville about four miles further down, we found that a man had come in there that morning bareheaded and said that a farmer's dog had got after him, and that he lost his hat and was afraid to go back after it, and he wanted to buy a hat. No one had a hat to sell, but someone gave him a soldier's cap. This man answered the description of Carter, so we hurried on, occasionally inquiring for our man and hearing of him. At last we lost his trail and turned back to find it. At the last point where we had seen his tracks we turned down to the river and on the opposite bank saw a small boat hauled up in the willows. We concluded that Carter had crossed in that boat, and we went down the river again about three miles and crossed over to the east side on a little ferry boat that we found there. Upon reaching the open country about one-half of one mile from the river, we came upon four Irishmen making rails. We made inquiry of them about our man with a soldier's cap but they had not seen him, and we were just starting away when one of them asked us to stop. He came up and said that there was a rendezvous in the bend of the river (Missouri Bend) of the worst-looking set of men that he ever saw; that he had been up that way a little before and saw some horses in the glade about their cabin that looked like they had been ridden very hard. He directed us how to get to it. (This man now lives at San Jose.) We were not long in reaching the spot. When came to the edge of the glade, there were four horses lying on the grass looking very tired. (Walch's mare was also there.) There was smoke coming from the chimney in the cabin, so we thought we had our men before us. Peelsticker proposed that we would make a rush for opposite corners of the cabin where we would both have command of the door, with the cabin for shelter. The suggestion was no sooner made than we were on our way to the cabin. We found no sign of life in the cabin, and I dismounted and entered the cabin. There was no one there but arms enough for twenty men. Just as I entered the house, Peelsticker said that he heard someone in the woods chopping but a short distance from the house. I told him to see who was there and I would hold the cabin. When he started I commenced examining the inside of the cabin. One of the first things that I saw was a large carpenter's chest locked with a padlock, I took a pick that I saw in the corner and broke off the lock. Upon opening the chest the first thing that I saw was some letters of late date. I took three of them and put them into my pocket. The chest was filled with burglar tools, pistols and ammunition. Peelsticker soon returned with a little old man so deaf that it was with difficulty that we made him hear, though he used a horn. We at last learned from him that he was there taking care of a recruiting station for a mining company that was operating up in the mountains and that four of the company had left that morning going towards Marysville. It was now dark and our horses were tired so we concluded to go up to Neal's Ranch and try to get fresh horses. Upon reaching the ranch we entered the house and inquired for fresh horses. Neal said that he had no horses up except a very fine horse that he kept for his own use. Squire Bradley, who was sitting at the table with Neal and two other gentlemen playing cards, said to Neal, "Now is your chance; you have been bluffing me about the speed and bottom of that old white horse of yours; now we have two horsemen before us that want horses to ride after robbers. Let one of them have your horse, the other one take my Pinto and see which can go to Marysville, 20 miles, the fastest, and I will bet if old Whitey keeps up with Pinto that he will be dead in the morning." Neal replied, "All right, squire. Your horse will be miles behind when my horse enters Marysville. I will let Peelsticker ride my horse." Bradley replied, "All right, Bill can ride Pinto." We were in the saddle in a very few minutes mounted on two of the best road horses that I ever saw and riding on a very brisk gallop. After fifteen miles of this fast gait I noticed that Neal's horse was suffering and, not wanting to hurt the horse, I pulled up and told Peelsticker that we must ride slower or Neal's horse would throw up pretty soon. Peelsticker, however, urged the horse along. When we were about two miles from Marysville, Peelsticker reeled to one side and fell from his horse; he had fainted. I proposed to take him to a farmhouse near by when he came to, but he said, "I will go to Marysville or die on the road." I helped him on his horse again and we rode to Marysville, where Peelsticker took to his bed. I had the horses well cared for, but Neal's horse was dead in the morning. I had ridden ninety miles farther in the last twenty-four hours than Peelsticker but I did not think of going to bed. I soon found Captain King, who was on the police force, and told him my business. He told me that I was too late; that Carter had been captured that day on the Marysville bridge and already sent up the road to Shasta. We went into his office and King told me that there was another man with Carter who had not been taken, claiming to be a farmer who was taking Carter to Marysville for hire and made a great deal of fuss because Carter had not paid him the $10 agreed upon for taking him to Marysville. I then told King about the rendezvous that we had found, and that this old farmer was one of the gang. King said the horses were in the stable but that Sloan (the name the old farmer gave) had not been seen since dark. King called Magnolia Brown, who afterwards kept a saloon in Weaverville, and sent him to search every hotel and lodging house in Marysville. I then pulled out the letters that I had taken from the chest and read them for the first time. One of these letters was from a man in the Auburn jail written on brown paper to his brother asking that the two brothers' gang meet at Folsom upon a day about one week later than the time we read the letter and try to break the jail, as he had been caught stealing horses, and unless they could get him out he would have to go to the penitentiary. This was something that looked like it might lead to the capture of the balance of the robbers, the names of whom we afterward learned to be Walker, the captain, whose right name was Skinner, Newton, Romero, a Spanish boy about twenty years of age, W. T. Carter and a Chilean--the name I have forgotten. Captain King and I thought we had better keep this letter from the public until the day of meeting at Folsom, when with a strong force of officers we might capture the whole gang. A little after daylight in the morning, Brown said that he believed that Sloan was hid in the hay in the barn where his horses were kept, so we went up in the hay loft and Brown took a pitchfork and commenced jabbing it down in the hay, saying that if he, Sloan, was covered up in the hay that he would soon find him. He had not stuck the fork into the hay many times before we saw our man raise up out of the hay. We arrested him and took him to jail. I decided to take him to Weaverville, and for fear that I would not get back in time I left the letter with Captain King, requesting him to send the letter to the sheriff of Sacramento County if I was not back two days before the proposed meeting at Folsom. I did not get back, and the letter was sent to Sacramento. I now ate breakfast and went to bed and slept until noon, when I saddled up, took my prisoner and started for Weaverville. Peelsticker, having recovered, came with me. Upon our arrival at Shasta I was told that Carter had agreed to turn state's evidence and to accompany a party to the place where the money was buried that he, Walker and Romero had taken with them after the robbery; that they would start the next day and wanted me to go with them. I hurried on to Weaverville with Sloan and returned to the Tower House next morning before the party got along with Carter. The party consisted of ex-Sheriff Nunnely, in charge of the prisoner, ex-Sheriff Lowe, Jack Horsley, John Tomlinson and ten others. I joined the party. At French Gulch, young Day, son of the "Old Washington Quartz Mine" Day, and one other man joined our party. At the Mountain House Parker joined us, making nineteen in the party. It was snowing, with about one foot of snow on the ground. Soon after starting up the mountain Parker proposed that we take a cutoff that he knew and save several miles of travel. Carter protested against this, saying that he could only find the money by following his landmarks. The weather was very disagreeable, and the most of the party favored Parker's cutoff and we took it. At dark we brought up in Clear Creek from ten to fifteen miles above the Mountain House completely lost, so far as the place that the money had been buried was concerned. We had nothing to eat for ourselves or for our horses. Lowe proposed that we camp here and that he and Parker return to the Mountain House and get some grub. This we agreed to, so we collected some dry wood, started a fire and sat around it all night in the snow. Carter insisted that we were too far down Clear Creek and wanted to go up along the stream, saying that he had a landmark that he would recognize, and we could take the back track and soon find the money. This we agreed to do at daylight in the morning, At daylight we started, Carter in the lead breaking snow. I followed, and about ten after me. After traveling about two hours we found ourselves upon a steep, rocky hillside. Carter and I were on top of the bluff, when Nunnely called to us to stop. We waited until Nunnely, Horsley, Tomlinson, Day and two others came up. Nunnely pulled a rope out of his pocket, saying, "Boys, this thing has gone far enough. This d---- s-- of a b---- will wear us all out and get away. Let us hang him here and go back." Carter then stepped up on a rock, making a [fraternal] sign that the most of us recognized, and made a plea in his behalf in fine language, telling us of his warning the day before when we took Parker's cutoff. He said that he was sure if we would have a little patience he would find the money. Nunnely then replied, "Oh, hell! Let us hang him and go back." He said he was given out and could go no further. I then said, "Nunnely, I lack a great deal of being given out and if you will let me have Carter, I will be responsible for his return." Tomlinson and Day said they would take a rest and follow. The rest turned back, Nunnely saying to me, "Bill, don't you return without Carter, or by G-d you will have to take his place." I always supposed this was intended for Carter's ears more than my own. Carter and I started on our journey, all that was left of the brave nineteen that took the mountain the day before. We had not gone more than one-half of one mile when Carter stopped a moment, then turned square off to the left and traveled very fast for a little more than one-fourth of one mile, when he dropped down in the snow, saying, "Lowden, I am tired and must rest." I looked across a small ravine and saw the place that Carter had described as the place where his money was hid. I went over and cleaned the snow off and found his money, about $6000 or $7000, all right except the mice had cut one purse and some of the dust had fallen out. I took my handkerchief and tied it up as well as I could, but when we got into Shasta we found that the money was about $200 short. By the time I had secured the money Tomlinson and Day came up. Carter then took us into a narrow canon in the ravine about one hundred feet above and told us that Walker and Romero had hid their money in there, but in just what particular place he could not tell us. We were now very hungry, not having eaten anything for about twenty-eight hours, and we concluded to return to camp and get something to eat, then return and make further search for the balance of the money. Upon our arrival at the camp we found Lowe and Parker had just returned with two gunny bags filled with bread and bacon, they having worked all night baking the bread. We sat down and made a hearty meal of bread and raw bacon. As soon as we were through, about one-half of our party returned with me to look for the balance of the money. Upon arriving at the spot, I, having had the hardest tramp, concluded to take a little rest while the others rolled out the snow from the canon. I got upon one of the ledges of rock where I could look through the canon and sat down to rest. The boys soon had the snow removed and commenced to turn over rocks to search for the treasure. My eyes fell upon a dogwood limb that extended over the narrow canon having on it a small branch cut off with a knife and trimmed up like a riding switch. This switch pointed down to a large moss-covered rock. I called attention to this switch and asked the boys to turn over that rock, which they did, and under it we found Walker and Romero's cache all in good condition. We were soon on our return and reached Shasta late that night with all of the money that Carter had agreed to find. This is all of this affair that I had a part in. It was now too late to go to Folsom. The meeting had been asked for the following night and I required rest, so after supper I went to bed and slept until late the next morning. The balance of this affair I will relate as it was told to me by those that participated in the capture of the balance of the gang. King took the letter to Sacramento the same day that we found the money, and the sheriff of Sacramento sent four officers to try and make the capture. The day before the meeting was to be held, they had suspected Newton of being one of the gang, he answering the description that Carter had given of one of the gang. So upon seeing him bucking at monte, the officers concluded to make an arrest of him secretly and try to find out just where the place of rendezvous was situated. One of the officers in disguise leaned over Newton's shoulder and whispered to Newton to follow him. The officer walked out and Newton followed. Outside Newton found a couple of guns stuck in his face and was told to go with them and not to speak to anyone. The officers when about one-half mile out of town pulled out a rope and told Newton that they knew that he was one of the men who robbed Brastow, and that if he would tell them where they could find the others of the gang they would not harm him; otherwise that they would hang him. They proceeded to put the rope about his neck, when Newton told them that Walker and Romero were in a cabin on the bank of the American River one mile above Folsom; that the Chilean had shot himself in the willows on Cottonwood Creek about two miles above Lane's. In fact he told the truth about everything except where he and the Chilean had buried their money and that the Chilean had shot himself. There is no doubt that Newton shot and killed the Chilean, as he was shot in the back. Newton was sent to Sacramento that night and put on board of the prison brig. The cabin occupied by the robbers was a canvas house about 12x20 feet with a fireplace in it built with sticks and mud. To this cabin the officers hastened after disposing of Newton. They were armed with two shotguns, and all had revolvers. Lawson was to hold the dark lantern and furnish the light and Anderson and Harrison to use the shotguns. The officers lay around the cabin until near midnight waiting for the occupants to go to bed, but one, Walker, still sat at a little table reading a book with his gun on the table pointing towards the door. The officers approached the door, Lawson threw it open with one hand and flashed the light into the cabin, Harrison's gun and Walker's gun went off at the same instant. Walker fell dead. Harrison had his cravat and shirt collar shot off, but he was not hurt. Anderson gave the contents of his gun to a fellow that raised up in a bunk shooting. This man after being shot several times took a bowie knife and cut himself out, and from the trail of blood jumped into the river and probably drowned. While all this was going on there were shots coming from behind the chimney. When Lawson flashed his light in that direction, they discovered Romero firing a revolver at them as fast as he could. One of the officers shot him, breaking his right arm; his pistol dropped and he was captured. Twenty-seven shots had been fired in the fight and Romero, the Mexican boy, was the only robber left in the cabin alive, and he with his arm broken. The officers took Romero to Sacramento and sent him and Newton to Shasta for trial. Carter, Newton and Romero were all sent to the penitentiary for ten years each. All three, I believe, lived to the end of their term. Carter I have never heard of; Newton I have heard of two or three times; Romero died two years ago at Salt Lake. Walker, as he was called, was one of three brothers whose correct name was Skinner. Two of them were robbers; the third was a merchant in Sacramento. Now with a few words about the robbery itself I will close this already too long paper. Brastow was Wells, Fargo & Co.'s messenger with about $30,000, mostly in gold dust, packed upon a mule. The old man Hickman was a Yreka merchant that had sold out his business and was returning home to his family. He was a prominent Mason. Harry Delap was a packer who was going down with the messenger ahead of his train. I have forgotten the names of the other three. When about one-half of one mile from the summit on the Trinity side, they were held up by the Walker gang of robbers. They were taken off the trail and down into a deep ravine and there tied with their backs to trees, by tying their hands behind the trees. Carter recognized a sign made by Hickman and took him to tie, whispering to him how to untie himself but warning him not to do so until the robbers had got over the mountain. Hickman, being very much excited, untied himself and the others as soon as the robbers had got up in the trail and out of sight. They all gathered their mules, mounted and rode out on the trail. The robbers had not yet crossed the mountain and looking back and seeing these people in the trail behind them supposed it to be another party and, as soon as they crossed the summit, they separated, Walker, Carter and Romero turning up Clear Creek and Newton and the Chilean turning downstream. This action of the robbers Carter told me about. Hickman recovered all of his money, but was buncoed out of the most of it in New York. It seems that Judge C. C. Bush gave the items mentioned in the beginning of this article to the Free Press. He was right about "Bill" Lowden [the writer] being with the party that recovered the money, but in many other things he erred. In this statement I have endeavored to give a truthful account so far as I know, and as to those things told to me by the officers that killed Walker and captured Newton and Romero I am satisfied that they are also true. I will say further that Carter thought that I saved him from being hanged on Clear Creek and through friendship he told me many things that I have not related here. Carter was not at heart a bad man, and I was sorry to hear that he had been sent to the penitentiary. I went East soon after these captures and was not in California when they were tried for the robbery. Trinity Journal, Weaverville, California, February 11, 1899, page 3 OLD SETTLERS' PAPERS.
In the month of September last, at his residence on Brown's Creek,
Archibald McIntyre, one of the pioneers of Trinity, passed to his
eternal rest. Mr. McIntyre was not a member of our society--living as
he did many miles distant from the county seat, his business rarely
calling him to town, he made no application to join us, and although we
would gladly have enrolled him upon our lists, knowing that he like
many others could not attend the meetings to take part in their
business without great loss of time and expense, we never urged
membership upon him. Yet I think one who possessed the characteristics
possessed by him should be remembered by his fellows of the early days.NUMBER 17. BY T. E. JONES. Mr. McIntyre was born in Scotland in 1831, which would make him somewhat younger than he appears upon the Great Register of voters. His parents came to Canada with their family when he was a child. Before he reached the age of manhood he emigrated to the United States and enlisted as a soldier for the war with Mexico. He remained in service nearly two years, and was finally mustered out in California. Being somewhat reticent as to his past life, we are not able to say where he spent the first years of his California life, but we gathered from him that he was over on the Sacramento River in the Dog and Slate Creek mines, coming over the divide from Shasta County to this in the later fifties. Several of his first years of mining here were spent on the Trinity, between Ferry Bar and the Point Bar store, but that always was a poor section of the river, and the longer a man worked there the worse off he was. In 1862 he moved to Indian Creek, about two miles above its mouth, where he stayed until he bought the little ranch of Paul Trumbach, about 1869, and that became his home thence forward. It was while he was on Indian Creek that Mc (as we always called him) began to send the writer of this verses and other writings which afforded the little community at Douglas City a great deal of amusement. They were not signed, and as I was not familiar with his handwriting I was puzzled how to "talk back" in a way that would be effective. Captain Kelton, the postmaster at Douglas, was the only one in the secret, and Kelton kept quiet except as he shook his fat sides with laughter when he heard my various guesses as to who my unknown correspondent was. The verses were evidently read to Kelton first, as he seemed to anticipate a good laugh whenever I was handed one of the missives, of which I was generally the subject; every time I got one I would make renewed efforts to find out where they came from, and the result was that I made several gross blunders by sending poetical (?) screeds to wrong parties, which only added to the fun. One thing marked nearly all I received until after I found out who the writer was, which was that the writer couldn't indite a "pome" without I was one or the only one who figured in it; they were, however, written in such a good-natured vein that there was nothing to take any offense at. It was years before I "dropped" on to the author, when I did I sent him a screed, and after that Mc would hand the communications directly to me. I had thought that after Mc's death there would be found among his papers many choice pieces of his writings, but to my surprise hardly anything was found. Only the originals of a few, and of but a few, of the ones sent me were found. He had written mostly in a book in which his accounts were also kept, and in most cases had cut the leaves out of the book to send me. The book was brought in to me at my request, and I at once recognized it as of the same character of leaves on which was written a drama entitled "The Commodore's Cruise" which was sent me in the winter of 1862. The drama had for its characters several of the good people of Douglas City, among others Dr. I. White and wife, between whom this colloquy ensues:
"Doctor, who is this Commodore
Who people talk so much about? How comes it that he's now on shore When all our fleets at sea are out? Perhaps, like brave 'Old Ironsides' His fighting days are gone and past; Old age the stoutest heart o'er rides And lays it on the shelf at last.'' DOCTOR.
"Nay,
nay my dear, he is not old,
That is, at least, in years I mean; But still, if half the truth be told, An aged cuss he is--in sin. That phrase "play at soldiering" led me to catch my incog correspondent. We had a military company in the village, and Mc, who had been in government service for two years, no doubt often looked with disgust on our awkward movements. One day, when the company were assembling for a parade, I happened to come with my fife in hand to where Mc was sitting, when he said: "Well, Commodore, I see you are going to play soldier today." Then I had him. Just before this happened, Mc had sent me a piece in which I did not figure. Point Bar was a precinct of fifteen votes, all Republicans except old man Spiegelberg, a man of splendid intellect who lived on Poker Bar. The Democrats held a convention in Weaverville in 1863, and Spiegelberg either by accident or design came to Weaverville and had a seat in the convention as a delegate from Point Bar. The next week a Point Bar man inquired through the Journal how Spiegelberg, being alone there, could be elected a delegate. Mc sent me the solution, which I append. SPIEGELBERG'S
STRATEGY.
Alas,
and am I left alone?
Am I the only stay Of the once-proud Democracy Of Poker Bar, today? Where is the gallant patriot band Which once so proudly trod, With eager steps up to the bar At Bennet Cook's B------ B------. Where are the Stillwell brothers now? Where Charley Quigler's crowd? Patrick and Schaffer answer not. Another fills a shroud. The Walter boys are missing, too; And absent staunch old Joe; And Archy Murphy, traitor-like Says he will vote for Lowe. But though I thus do stand alone, I will contrive a plan; Point Bar MUST have a Delegate And I shall be the man. There's me, myself and Spiegelberg And that of course, makes three; A Chairman, Clerk and Candidate Long live Democracy. And
now, I understand of late
His worship has a great desire To raise himself a little higher, The better for to serve the State. In short, if rumor be no liar His Honor is a candidate; The office which he hopes to get Has twice been filled by Personette. I therefore feel in duty bound By all the means at my command To give the "Com" a helping hand; And trust all right he will be found Upon the tally list to stand When next election day comes 'round And that he'll vanquish helter skelter, That self-conceited granny Felter. Mc was very fond of children and took great pleasure with the few little ones who were then around Douglas City. When the little fellows had a picnic, or gathering of any kind, if he knew of it in time, or even on the day, a plentiful supply of fruits, nuts and sweets was given them to gladden their little hearts. There was one family of four little girls who were our especial favorites. The mother was a good woman but the father very idle and dissipated. A friend of the mother, who had known her when a girl, was going East, whence he had come a year or two before, and offered to take the mother and children back to her father, who was well to do, and this kindly offer was accepted. On the excursion Mc sent us the following: THE
LAMENTATIONS OF THE COMMODORE.
Written when the Family (with others) left Douglas City. I
knew the diggings were worked out,
And that no money could be made; But while the children ran about I did not feel the least dismayed. But going, going, going, gone, The children all do go away; I think I'd better go along, There's no inducement now to stay. My comrades of the early day, A sturdy, hardy, fearless race; Have grown decrepit, limp and gray And who, alas, shall fill their place? For going, going, going, gone; The children all do go away; No more with joy I'll gaze upon The little innocents at play. All sporting rolling on the sand, Mine eyes have seen in days gone by; Children whose sires possessed this land. Here their dead generations lie. But going, going, going, gone; Their fated race fast disappears, Oh, Isaac Cox--Historian, Preserve their memory--and these tears. Thus shall the White supplant the Red, And now, transplanted, is the White; Shall Sambo (with the woolly head), Be introduced to set things right? For going, going, going, gone; The children all do go away, But I, Old Mc, and China John, Despite our will will have to stay. T.T.
In the old ledger of which I have spoken were two or three short pieces I never saw, or, if I saw them have forgotten. I append two or three of them. Lines written after finishing the reading of "Ivanhoe." After
the manner of the Pharisee,
I lift mine eyes to Heaven in thankfulness And do rejoice in all sincerity That God hath granted my unworthiness To run my race upon this mundane sphere, In later times than are recorded here. TOM
TAILINGS.
Seeking
for hidden treasure I did trip
My Mother Earth, who crushed me in her fall. Here, in her bosom, quietly I rest Awaiting the last trumpet's final call. The breath of Life which God breathed in my clay, Again to God hath sped its flight away. TOM
TAILINGS.
THE
COMMODORE'S SERENADE.
And
all in all, since Adam's fall
Thy peer was never seen; Quite ordinary compared to thee Was Egypt's famous Queen. So Love, go sleep; while Angels keep Guard o'er you while you snore; Thus ends, fair maid, the serenade, Of loyal Commodore. T.
T.
O,
GRASPING WORLD.
He
who will not skin a louse--
Skin a louse for its hide and tallow; Will die in a cold and empty house For want of a bit of bread to swallow. TOM
TAILINGS.
McIntyre was one of those men who, while preserving their own traits of character unchangeable, pass through life and possess the friendship of all with whom they are brought into contact. It is said that men who have no enemies have no friends either, but there are exceptions to all rules which go to prove the truth of the rule itself. In the many years he was with us and of us, those with whom he was brought into contact learned to know and appreciate his many good qualities, and now that he has passed from among us we can truly feel that a good man has gone to his reward. Trinity Journal, Weaverville, California, June 10, 1899, page 3 MILLIONS IN GOLD.
On a bleak November day in 1851 a company of brave pioneers, plowing
their way through a drenching rain, disheartened by their many
hardships, unnerved by their long journey over rugged mountains and
through muddy valleys, set their camp on the edge of a small basin
hemmed in by wooded hills. On that dreary November night this little
group of pilgrims, whose thoughts wandered back to their homes in the
far East, ate their evening meal in silence and made their beds as best
they could with their disagreeable surroundings. After weeks of weary
toil and exposure, weeks that had tried the patience and manhood of
every member of their party, they went to rest without one ray of hope
for the morrow. The hand of fate had beckoned them on and on, until now
they had reached a period when the future seemed to hold for them only
failure and further hardships. All night long the sky was strewn with
filmy clouds, through which a wet moon shone, and as the dismal wind
howled through the little valley below them, with its weird,
comfortless moaning, these sturdy men drew their blankets closer about
them and tried to dream of the loved ones they had left to seek a
fortune on the shores of the Pacific. SISKIYOU AND ITS WEALTH. I.--HISTORICAL. As the cloud which is darkest is the first to show a silver lining, so with the coming of the morn of the 5th of November in 1851 the snowy sides of old Mount Shasta gleamed in the bright sunshine for the first time in two weeks, and our ten prospectors rubbed their eyes upon awakening, fearing that the dazzling scene spread before their gaze might still be a portion of their dreams. For miles around, the lofty mountains with their evergreen trees freshened by the heavy rains stood out in bold relief, while towering high above them all with its imperial head rearing itself in majesty, the splendor of Shasta was seen in all its magnificent grandeur. What soul so dead to the beauties of nature as not to feel new life surrounded by such noble works of God? And so the withering hopes of our pioneers took in new life, their drooping spirits were revived, and they set about the preparation of their breakfast with lighter hearts. The rainbow of promise had again crossed the western horizon. The youngest member of the party was a man perhaps thirty years of age who had left a newly wedded wife in one of the Eastern states, and the long journey which had as yet resulted in nothing weighed upon him heavier than on his companions. At all times restless, he appeared more so on this bright morning and in his nervousness he pulled a couple of bunches of grass, which surrounded the camp in abundance, scattering the earth from about the roots upon the blankets of his neighbor, who, much disgusted, proceeded to shake them clear of the mud. A gleam caught the eye of the owner of the blanket, and, kneeling, he took a handful of the earth and carefully examined it. An exclamation of joy, and he stood before his startled companions like a man in some terrible dream. There, mixed in the handful of earth, were the glittering grains of gold which told this weary band of pilgrims that their days of search were over. The bacon grew cold in the pan, the "sinkers" were left untouched, and all day long these men, intoxicated with success, toiled until the shadows creeping down the side of Humbug Mountain reminded them that the day had gone. It was a merrier crowd that gathered around the campfire that night, and the shouts of laughter and joy as tales of bygone days were told testified to the light hearts of the men who had discovered the first gold in Siskiyou. Siskiyou County is over sixty miles wide and about one hundred and fifty miles long, covering about 4,000,000 acres, nearly as large as Massachusetts. Nearly one million acres are covered with valuable timber, and there are some 200,000 acres of fertile agricultural land in this large county. There are also fine mountain and valley ranges for stock raising, most of them in the eastern part of the county, bordering on Modoc County and Southeastern Oregon. A large portion of Siskiyou is interspersed with high, rugged mountains, deep cañons, and barren tablelands. Mount Shasta, one of the highest mountains, and perhaps the most beautiful, in the United States, is situated in the southwestern part of the county, towering 14,444 feet above the level of the sea. All the upper branches of the Sacramento River, known as the main Sacramento, Fall, Pit, and McCloud rivers, with their tributaries rise in Siskiyou east of Mount Shasta, while from the west runs Shasta River, emptying into the Klamath. Siskiyou at first comprised what is now Modoc County, extending to the Nevada line, and it was then the largest county in the state. Siskiyou is well adapted for successful mining operations, thousands of acres of good mineral land being still vacant and open to location. For years mining was conducted on a small scale, and it has been only in the past few years that capital has been gradually invested, and the result is shown in the largely increased production of gold, the output of Siskiyou last year having been about one million dollars. During the present year, 1896, about three hundred thousand dollars have been invested in the gold mines of Siskiyou, and some of the most extensive plants in California are now in operation. Since the railroad entered the county the growth in population and wealth has been phenomenal, the population having increased from eight thousand to nearly fifteen thousand, while the assessed valuation of property has more than doubled; the last assessment was over nine million dollars. The future of this country is certainly as bright as any in the state, for it has varied resources, many of which are almost wholly undeveloped. As the story of the discovery of gold by the prospectors on what are now known as the famous Yreka Flats, where many a man found a fortune, spread over the state, enlarged as it passed from lip to lip, a rush was made for Siskiyou, and in the little valley on the edge of which the pioneer camp was pitched a town sprung up, which was first known as Shasta Butte City. The name of this little town was later changed to Ieka, an Indian name meaning Mount Shasta. The name of the place, through the forgetfulness of an assemblyman from this district, was inserted in an act before the Legislature as "Yreka," that being as near as the legislator could come to the Indian name, and so the town has since been known. It is the largest town in Siskiyou, and during its more than forty years has been the scene of many wild and exciting experiences. The new mining camp grew in population until in a few years it contained more than five thousand inhabitants. The buildings, as in the greater number of mining camps, were irregularly constructed, with narrow streets, the main street, leading to the Yreka Flats and familiarly known as Miner Street, still bearing traces of this irregularity. With many characteristics of a mining camp, this little town nestling among the hills of Siskiyou possesses a natural beauty that endears it to its inhabitants until they feel that there is no place like Yreka. The flats where the the gold was first discovered have now been worked out and are covered with shafts, tunnels, and prospect holes. The town itself has settled down to a place of some two thousand inhabitants, with numerous substantial business houses and beautiful residences, becoming the principal town of a county larger than some States. Once only, in 1871, was the place visited by a disastrous fire, and at that time was all but destroyed. It was soon rebuilt in a more substantial manner. When the Southern Pacific railroad extended its line northward from Redding, Yreka was left to one side about six miles. With commendable pluck the citizens set about forming a joint stock company for the purpose of building a railroad of their own to connect with the main line, and the little engine can now be seen making its daily trips over the hill east of town to connect with the Southern Pacific line at Montague. Nearly every property owner in the town owns stock in this little road and takes a pride in the fact that each year since it has been built it has more than paid running expenses. Yreka has three churches, Episcopal, Catholic, and Methodist, a free public library, a cozy theater, three hotels, and other attractions that testify to the soundness of the place. The court house in course of construction is acknowledged by all who have seen it to be unsurpassed in its architectural beauty by any public building in the state. For years this town was the home station of the California and Oregon and Idaho stage line. The majority of the residents yet remember the long rough rides over the mountains, when the railway terminus was at Red Bluff on the south and Roseburg on the north. Those were the days when the road agents often reaped a harvest, and the dust of many an honest miner went to fill the coffers of Black Bart or some highwayman equally bold. Hawkinsville, two miles from Yreka, once a busy town around which were many rich claims, has relapsed into a quiet little village. There is a mine of some importance located near here, however, and with the improvement in methods of mining, the town may one day awake from its slumbers and again be the bustling camp of the fifties. It soon became evident to the numerous miners who had been led to Yreka by the exaggerated stories about the wealth of the flats that they would soon work out, and so prospectors began to start out in every direction, and as story after story came back regarding their rich strikes, it was not long before every little stream in the western part of the county was teeming with miners carrying a pick, shovel, and pan, seeking their fortune. Down the treacherous Klamath, which rushes in its mad course through great gorges and over immense boulders, they found their way, and at first began mining on a small scale, gradually enlarging their methods until now along this turbulent stream more than a dozen river claims can be found in operation, with immense wheels at work hoisting the gravel from the bed of the river, which has been turned from its course by expensive wing-damming. The latest method for mining this stream is with an immense dredger that scoops the gravel from the bed of the river and deposits it in the sluices. This stream has without a doubt the richest deposits of gold of any in the state. During the past year two large companies have purchased claims on this river, and are now operating with expensive plants. All along the river small mining camps are found, all of which have reminiscences both interesting and exciting. Among the principal camps are Oak Bar, Hamburg Bar, Thompson Creek, and Happy Camp, the latter being the home of the jolly Martin Cuddihy, who is known throughout the state. Happy Camp is the terminus of the wagon road from Fort Jones, and is a supply point for miners located on the Klamath River. Some fourteen miles below is the Bunker Hill mine, which promises again to become one of the greatest producers of the country. On Scott River the little town of Scott Bar is situated only a short distance from where the Scott and the Klamath join. it is one of the most prosperous mining towns in the county. The greatest drawback to the country along the Klamath and Scott rivers is the miserable condition of the roads, and the citizens of this county will welcome a law that will compel the keeping of the county highways fit for travel with some comfort, at least the greater part of the year. Quartz Valley and Oro Fino adjoin Scott Valley, and are among the most notable mining sections of the county. At Oro Fino a number of large hydraulic mines are in operation whenever there is sufficient water to run the giants, which is usually from January to July of each year. At the head of the rich and fertile Scott Valley, where the farming and dairying industry has been enlarging from year to year, the picturesque little town of Fort Jones is situated. It was formerly an Indian fort, but was abandoned years ago and is now a prosperous little town of five or six hundred inhabitants. A bank, several stores, and numerous other business enterprises speak for the condition of the town, which is surrounded by a large number of industrious and successful farmers. Twelve miles south of Fort Jones the old town of Rough and Ready, now known as Etna Mills, is situated in the shadow of the Salmon Mountain. This town to a great extent is fed by the rich mining section in the Salmon River country. It has made rapid strides during the past few years and is destined to be one of the most prosperous cities in the northern part of California. About a year ago a disastrous fire visited the town, and a large portion of the business section was destroyed, but it has since been rebuilt with modern and substantial brick buildings. Under the direction of the Etna Development Company numerous improvements are under consideration, among them being the introduction of an electric light plant and a city water works. Six miles from Etna is the flourishing little town of Callahans, where much is being done in developing mines. It is an important supply point for a portion of Scott Valley. Over the Salmon Mountain the little town of Sawyers Bar is perhaps more like the old mining camps of '49 than any place in Siskiyou. It has only been within the past few years that a wagon road has been built into that country, all the provisions and supplies having been carried by pack trains, and even now the same trains are making their regular trips over the mountains to points south of Sawyers Bar. Fourteen miles below this mining camp, and reached only by the "county trail," is the little town called Forks of Salmon, the home of that sturdy old pioneer, William P. Bennett. His placer mining interests are probably the largest of any single owner in Siskiyou. It is in this district also that the famous Black Bear, Gold Run, Salmon River, Gold Ball, and other producing mines are located. These will be described in a later article on the mining operations in Siskiyou. All eyes are turned towards the Salmon River country, as that is where the rich strikes in the future are looked for. The business interests of this country are widening every year, and not a village in the county can complain that it does not receive its share of the profit. Merchants are extending their business to all sections of the county, and great teams drawn by six and eight horses are daily encountered on the mountains, loaded with freight for the miners and farmers. Reminiscences of the famous Modoc War, which occurred in Siskiyou County in the fall and winter of 1872 and spring of 1873, are still recalled around the hearthstone of many a family in Northern California, and a marble slab in the little cemetery on the hillside surrounded by the waving pines marks the resting place of the brave hearts that perished through the perfidy of Indians even more treacherous than the bloodthirsty Apaches. The story of this tribe, which in 1872 roamed over the eastern valleys of Siskiyou, plundering the farms and murdering the settlers and their families, will go down in history as the most ungrateful and treacherous warfare ever waged upon the whites on the Pacific Coast. The first treaty with the Modoc tribe was made by the people of Yreka in 1856, through Judge A. M. Rosborough, and with the old chief of the Modocs, "Schonchin," and it is to the credit of the old Indian that until his death he did all in his power to compel his people to live up to the provisions of that treaty. On the 14th of October, 1864, a treaty was made at Klamath Lake, Oregon, between commissioners on the part of the United States and the chiefs and the head men of the Modoc and Klamath Indians, by the terms of which those tribes ceded to the United States all their title to certain lands, and agreed to move upon what was known as the Klamath Reservation. After a few amendments the treaty was finally proclaimed by the President of the United States on February 17th, 1870. The old chief Schonchin and more than half of his tribe immediately moved upon the reservation, but a band of about two hundred, under the leadership of Captain Jack, Black Jim, and Scarfaced Charley, three reckless and lawless leaders, persistently refused to go upon the reservation in accordance with the treaty, but roamed about the country levying blackmail upon the settlers, demanding whatever they wanted, for the use of what they termed their lands. These acts finally became unbearable, and it was determined by the government that their insubordination and defiance should no longer be tolerated. Accordingly upon the recommendation of the Indian commissioners an order was issued to have Captain Jack's band moved upon the Klamath Reservation, peaceably if possible, but forcibly if necessary. On the 25th of November in 1872, a messenger was dispatched to Captain Jack to make an appointment to meet the commissioners, but the lawless chief returned word that his friends were white men in Yreka city and that "No white man tell me what I do. I no go upon reservation. I done with talking.”' Knowing that the Indians meant what they said, the commissioners turned the matter over to the military with the instructions that no blood be shed if it were possible to avoid it, and that not a gun should be fired unless the Indians fired first. Captain Jackson, in command of the troops, left Fort Klamath at noon on the 28th day of November and marched until he reached the Modoc camp at seven o'clock the following morning. He at once called upon the head men to come out of the tents and talk with him. Scarfaced Charley was the only one to make his appearance, whom Captain Jackson assured that he did not come to fight but to ask the Indians to go upon the reservation. He told them further that ample provisions would be furnished them at Camp Yainax, and that they should be fully protected in all their rights. After talking for about an hour, Scarfaced Charley finally said that they would not go upon the reservation, and at the same time remarked that he would "kill an officer anyway"--and he shot several holes through the coat sleeve of Lieutenant Boutelle, whereupon Captain Jackson shot at Charley, and a general fight ensued. This was the opening of one of the most heartless wars on the part of an Indian tribe ever recorded. In conversation with Judge Rosborough Scarfaced Charley afterwards said that he did not fire the shot at the officer, but another Indian discharged his gun accidentally. Immediately after this first battle messengers were dispatched to notify the settlers, but the work was poorly done; a large number met with a horrible fate at the hands of the treacherous Modocs. The leaders of the Modoc War were ten in number and were the most heartless and brutal of their tribe. The famous Captain Jack was chief of the band and was second in the nation, old Schonchin then being on the Yainax Reservation. The old chief was very aged and Jack was the real head of the nation. He was described as having a sharp, aquiline nose, high, broad forehead, and was in every respect a typical Indian warrior and likewise a man of remarkable mental power. He said he would never surrender, as the Modocs had never been vanquished by either their white or red foes. "Schonchin John," a brother of the old chief, was a sharp, wily man, said to be great in council, and was renowned as a warrior, having always been a determined foe to the whites. "Black Jim," "Curly-Headed Doctor," "Shacknasty Jim," "Bogus Charley," "Young Schonchin," "Scarfaced Charley," "Ellen's Man," and "Hooker Jim" completed the list, all as treacherous as any red men that ever roamed the hills of America. Hooker Jim was perhaps the most brutal of the lot, and had more butcheries laid at his door than any other. Even the Indians themselves looked upon him as a bad man. Captain Jack and his two hundred braves retreated to the Lava Beds, and here for several weeks the wily Indians parleyed with the commissioners until it became too evident that some deviltry was on foot. Rosborough, who had been appointed as one of the commissioners, had several consultations with Captain Jack and his men, but they all resulted in nothing and an ultimatum was sent that the Indians must fight or surrender. The Lava Beds were an ideal natural fortress, and it was a perilous undertaking to conquer this handful of rebellious Indians. A few small battles had been fought with the Modocs up to this time, but few of the soldiers or Indians had been killed, the majority of the sufferers having been the defenseless settlers. "Tobe," a Modoc squaw who had married a white man named Riddle, was friendly to the whites and told them how she had heard Captain Jack and his followers planning to assassinate the peace commissioners, then composed of Meacham, General Canby, Dyar, Thomas, and Rosborough. Most of the commissioners placed no faith in what Tobe told them. The Indians had for a long time been trying to get the commissioners to meet them for consultation when all the commissioners were present. On the 11th day of April, 1873, an appointment was made with the Modocs for the commissioners to meet them, General Canby, Doctor Thomas, Meacham, and Dyar attending the meeting. Rosborough was in Shasta County holding court. Riddle and his wife Tobe went along as interpreters. The commission found in the Lava Beds, where the place of meeting was agreed upon, about eight Indians to talk the matter over. The Indians asked the commissioners to go a mile further, and in the face of warnings from Riddle and his wife, who told them that treachery was in the air, they complied and followed Boston and Bogus Charley. They found on the ground near Captain Jack's cave, sitting carelessly about, Captain Jack and seven of his followers. After talking for perhaps fifteen minutes, Jack stepped up to General Canby, saying, "Hetuck"--meaning "Already'--and snapped his pistol at his head. The cap missed fire, but the treacherous red devil quickly snapped it again, and brave General Canby, loved by all his soldiers, fell dead with a bullet through his brain. Schonchin John shot Meacham, who was badly but not fatally wounded. Another killed Doctor Thomas, while Commissioner Dyar when the first shot was fired jumped and ran, and escaped. The dread cry went through the military camp, a short distance away, that the commissioners had been attacked, and immediately the soldiers formed to sweep the Lava Beds, anxious to be led against the treacherous devils. A sad sight greeted their eyes when they reached the place. First, they found Meacham, able to speak but a horrible-looking sight. Next they came to the body of Thomas, shot and stripped to the waist, but not disfigured. A little further on they came to the body of the brave General Canby, shot through the head and stripped naked. The Modocs from that moment were hunted down like beasts. The Modocs managed to reach the famous Captain Jack's cave, and here they defied the soldiers. The troops were finally compelled to shell the caves and deep crevices in the lava beds, and finally drove the Indians out, but not until many soldiers had lost their lives. Finally, on June 2nd, 1873, after months of desperate fighting, Captain Jack, Schonchin John, and the other Modocs surrendered. The services which the band of Warm Springs Indians from Oregon rendered the soldiers did more than anything else to effect the capture of the redskins. Captain Jack, Black Jim, Boston Charley, and Schonchin John were tried by a military court at Fort Klamath and were hanged, while the remainder of the Modocs taking part in the war were sent to the Indian Territory. This northern county with its rugged mountains and fertile valleys has passed through many exciting scenes, recorded only in the hearts of her aged inhabitants. It will not be long until the pioneers who took an active part in this early history will have passed away, and the stories of pioneer life will then lose one-half their charm. But future generations will reap the benefit of the years of weary toil and hardships passed in shaping this vast section of the Golden State, an empire within itself. Robert J. Nixon.
(CONTINUED
IN NEXT NUMBER.)
All the photographs reproduced in this article and in its continuation
in next month's issue, which will be specially devoted to the mines of
Siskiyou, are by C. A. Lare of Etna. Overland Monthly, January 1897, pages 77-102 Illustrated with sixty-one photographs of Yreka, Fort Jones, Scotts Valley and Etna. MILLIONS IN GOLD.
The name
California will ever suggest one thing--gold--even in the far distant
day when the gold mines of Siskiyou and the last mining camp shall be
but a tradition. California's fruit and flowers, her vast reaches of
grain, her miles of foothills covered with greater herds of cattle and
droves of horses than ever ranged over them before the coming of the
Gringo, her perfect climate, and romantic history, will never
obliterate the memory of her gold. SISKIYOU AND ITS WEALTH. II.--DESCRIPTIVE. Today mining counties like Siskiyou are doing more for the state and the nation, in their quiet, unostentatious way, than agricultural districts of twice their area and renown. It is the gold of Siskiyou and her sister mining counties yearly poured into the markets of the world that causes all classes and all nationalities to turn toward California for relief. Professor Charles A. Ogden, Ph.D., a well-known authority on mining matters, has prepared the following sketch for this article: Going north from Redding, into Siskiyou County, the topography of the country changes, growing more rugged and increasing in elevation, till the center of Siskiyou County is reached. In the northern portion of the state of California the Sierra Nevada and Coast ranges intermingle, forming a mass of rugged mountains and peaks, with precipitous cañons emptying into narrow valleys. That portion of the county situated to the east and north of Mount Shasta is known as the Lava Bed district; here, the underlying metamorphic and granitic rocks are overlaid with immense beds of plutonic formations; these lavas were not only exuded from Mount Shasta and other peaks, but also from great fissures in the underlying formations. The erosions and denudations that have been taking place for ages since the cessation of the flow of lava has not yet exposed these vast fissures. That portion of the county from a little east of Mount Shasta to its western and northwestern boundaries is composed of a series of high precipitous mountains and intervening valleys. The mountain chains have not a general course but trend in all directions, inclining more particularly to the north and east. The watercourses, flowing westerly through the intervening valleys, have their main outlet to the ocean through the Klamath River. The cañons and mesas along the watersheds are filled with the detritus from the denudations of the mountains, and the gravels resulting from the vast erosions contain immense values of the precious metals. The central core of most of the mountain chains in the western portion of the county is composed of granitic rocks, flanked by what were at one time sedimentary deposits of clays, muds, and sands, but through the upheaval of the granites, the sedimentary deposits are now metamorphosed into slates, schists, sandstones, quartzites and the like. These rocks, by shrinkage, contraction, and alteration, are now pierced by dikes of diabase, diorite, and serpentine. At a later epoch, the mountains have again been intruded from below, through fissures, by porphyritic dikes. It is along these lines of fracture that the veins have been developed, from below, and have a more or less general trend along the mountain chain in which they are situated. As proven, the mineralized section embraces more than one-half of the western half of the county. Isolated as the county was before the railroad entered, the amount of gold it had added to the world's wealth is astonishing. This gold came from the extensive beds of auriferous sands and gravel and was extracted by hydraulic and shallow placer mining, and also by bench and river washing. The yield of the placers shows no increase, but rather a decline, but since the railroad has passed through the county the total yearly output has increased continuously because of the development of quartz mines. The prospecting, locating, and development of the Siskiyou mines are due mostly to home perseverance and industry, and very little to outside capital. It has been demonstrated and proven that the formations are favorable for mines, and that the values in the ores continue to be equally remunerative as depth is attained. As before said, this development has been done without the assistance of pumping and hoisting machinery, but with the aid of a few small, light arrastras and mills. It was for a time asserted that the minerals in the veins gave out at and below the water level, and gold could not exist below that point. But the deepest and most successful of the mines, such as Black Bear, Schroeder, Gold Run, and others, which are from three hundred to eight hundred feet below water, continue to be as rich as they were at the surface; the values now being in the larger percentage of concentrates, sulphurets obtained. Most of the mines in which capital has invested, and which are economically and systematically worked in depth, are very remunerative. The country in which the mines are situated has been cut up by faults, fissures, and eruptive dikes. In a number of mines and locations which 1 have particularly examined, where the fissure was filled by the vein there was a dike in close proximity, and one or both of the wall rocks was highly silicified from the arising mineral solutions. In many cases the vein followed the dike, the dike being one of the walls. The wall rocks of the veins are similar in most cases to those of remunerative mines in other districts. The Black Bear and Gum Boot mines have slate walls; the Brown Bear and Sheffield are between slate and porphyry; the Schroder is between slate and diabase; the Klamath is in talcose slate; the Commodore is in porphyry; the Boyle and Nelson are in serpentine. Those that differ are the Jordan and Low Hill, which are in trap dikes with granite walls. The Black Bear, Schroder, and Gold Run have been continuously worked for a number of years, they have the greatest developments, and have produced the largest amounts of bullion, which aggregates millions. They also employ the greatest number of men. There are thirty-odd other properties that have mills and arrastras, but most of them are small, old-fashioned, expensive to run, and do not save all the free gold and the sulphurets. It would be a great advantage to the county to have two or three good custom mills that would work the ores economically to a high percentage. In addition to the gold mines scattered through the western half of the county, there have been discovered veins holding both copper and silver in a quartz matrix, about three miles from Callahans. Cinnabar mines have also been found and partially developed in the north central part of the county. At one mine a ten-ton furnace has been erected for its reduction, and several hundred feet of ground have been opened and stoped. On Horse Creek, ten miles northwest of Oak Bar, cinnabar is found in the sluice boxes of the placer mines. The only drawback in relation to vein-mining is the cost of transportation of heavy supplies from the railroad to the mines. Up to within a year or two the construction and improvement in roads has been slow; but now energy is displayed, and money is being spent to make all sections easily accessible by conveyance. The expense of carrying groceries and small packages is not excessive. Mining and other requisite labor is as cheap here as in any portion of the state, and morally and intellectually the laborers are of a better class. Surrounding the mines are large and small farms, which as a rule are kept under as high a state of cultivation as circumstances permit. The effect is that the necessaries of life are as cheap as in any other portion of the state having only a home market. The high mountains of Siskiyou, having rugged outlines, are cut with deep and precipitous cañons, in nearly all of which are streams of water. The veins of mineral course nearly parallel with the trend of the mountains, and have a general pitch from nearly perpendicular to not below forty-five degrees. Thus most of the mines can be worked through tunnels for an elevation of from two hundred in many places, up to six hundred feet before a deep working shaft is necessary. The supply of water is ample, whether used directly or for generating electric power. This is of great economic advantage. It allows a saving in the first cost of heavy driving machinery and in its transportation and erection; and also a saving in the continuous expense of fuel to generate power. The sides of the mountains are covered with grand forests of pine and other woods. Timber for mining and other purposes can be delivered at the mine at a nominal sum. It seems to be the opinion of many that the country is inaccessible, a barren mass of rock without cultivation. Any part of the county is easy of access, much more so than many of the southern counties. Most of the mountain chains are crossed by grades and roads, which are being constantly improved. There are any number of mineral springs such as the Klamath, the Carbonated at Shovel Creek, Prey's Soda, Shasta, and others. The Klamath hot springs have been a boon to thousands. The climate has life-giving powers, and the mud baths have the power of eradicating all kind of humors from the blood and skin. The Shasta mineral springs are well known, situated as they are along the line of the railroad. Thousands of bottles of the various carbonated waters are shipped each week to distant points. The minerals and mines of the county as yet continue to be an unknown quantity; as time advances new sections are discovered and the continuity of the veins proven. Until four years ago, it might be said there were not over a dozen districts which were worth consideration of the honest miner. At this time the districts can be enumerated by the hundreds. The miners were, at first, loath to hunt for mines, because they were not on the Mother Lode, but the veins were staring them in the face, and even then they had to stumble upon the discovery. Their cupidity was excited, and one discovery led to another, and is continuing to lead them on, with almost a certainty of finding their haven, a competency. The men employed in and about the mines in the years 1893 and 1894 were 1,550, of which 460 were Chinese. In the years 1895 and 1896, there were 1,953, of which 484 were Chinese. The Chinese are engaged only in gravel mining, for themselves and not as employees. There were other men engaged, such as prospectors working on their own claims; how many it is impossible to find out as they were too scattered. The number of white men working in the placers has been decreasing year by year, yet the amount of labor going into vein mining is more than double that which leaves the placer and gravel mines. The amount of bullion produced in the year 1894 was $740,000; in 1895 it was $950,000; in 1896 it ran far over the $1,000,000 mark. Of the gold taken out by the Chinese it is impossible to obtain any sort of data, if the amount could be known, it would greatly augment the county's output. The resources of the county are almost unlimited, and it is coming to the front with rapid strides. Its gold production will soon reach $2,000,000 a year. This grand county from the first has been one of constant turmoil and energy. It was the bulwark which held the Sierra back from its encroachment, leaving to man these charming valleys of which the state is proud. So it will continue to advance, reaching for perfection. The time is not distant when it will be the banner county for gold production. R. L. Dunn, E.M., writes in the 11th annual report of the State Mineralogist: "The actual auriferous area of Siskiyou County is small; practically it is scattered over the western three-fifths of the county. There are only six quartz mining districts, three of which are generally termed the Salmon River district, but placers are widely scattered and cannot be so closely grouped. For convenience, however, the mining districts of the county may be named as follows: Salmon River district, including the quartz and placers of the entire Salmon River drainage system; Callahan's Ranch, being the placers of the South Fork of Scott River; Quartz Valley, the quartz and placers of the valley of that name in the northwestern corner of Scott Valley; Scott Bar, placers and quartz of the Scott River from where Mill Creek joins it to its junction with the Klamath River; Klamath River, being the placers in the cañon of the river from Cottonwood Creek to where the Salmon River comes in, including many old districts, unimportant now; Humbug Creek, the quartz mines on the several branches of Humbug Creek east of Old Baldy summit; Deadwood, the quartz mines on the opposite slope of Old Baldy, and the placers of Indian and McAdams creeks, tributaries of Scott River heading in Old Baldy; Hungry Creek, quartz mines on that stream and on the headwaters of Cottonwood Creek; Yreka, the quartz mines and placers near the city of Hawkinsville; and Henley, which might more properly be termed Blue Gravel." The largest of these districts, it will be noted, is that extremely rough region drained by the Salmon River. It has to be a mining district if anything, for there is hardly level space in it for a potato patch, and its supplies come from outside. Only within a few years has a wagon road been built from Etna in Scott Valley to Sawyer's Bar, its largest town. Mr. Dunn says that before that time it had "been a district so isolated that many children have grown up in it to manhood who have never seen a wagon or carriage." But this district contains a large population because of its wealth in placer and quartz mines. The streams, both forks of the Salmon, Eddy's Creek, and others, are all rich in placers, and this kind of mining is on the increase there, unlike almost any other part of California, with many good claims still untouched. The Black Bear, Gold Run, Gold Ball, Know-nothing, Ampback, Uncle Sam, Fagundes, Golden & Eveleth, and other quartz mines already developed, some of them the richest in the county, show the possibilities of the Salmon River district in that kind of mining when capital and labor have been properly applied to its development. Of the ancient Blue Lead of Northern California, Mr. C. B. Jillson writes as follows: "Having had many years of experience in hydraulic and drift mining in Sierra and Nevada counties, I was in 1888 called to examine a hydraulic property situated on Beaver Creek in Siskiyou County. The evidence of early rich placers, at Hornbrook, on the line of the California and Oregon railroad, also the auriferous deposits of Henley and vicinity, confirmed my opinion, that they had been made by erosion from an ancient river or glacial system. From the topography of the country I traced its crossing of Cottonwood Creek, Rancheria Creek, Rocky Gulch, Kanaka Gulch, Rancheria Gulch, Klamath River, Yreka, and at points between the latter place and Big Butte Creek, Butte County, where it emerges into the Sacramento Valley. At Henley, I learned that the Klamath River, at the intersection of the crossing of this ancient system, was very rich, having paid as much as two thousand dollars to a single pan. Rancheria Gulch, Kanaka Gulch, Rocky Gulch, Rancheria Creek and Cottonwood Creek were all rich. Rocky Gulch alone had paid more than a million of dollars. The other gulches were proportionately rich, according to the depth they had cut into the ancient system. Once away from the influence of this ancient deposit, either in the river, or elsewhere, no prospect could be obtained. I therefore made my locations in accordance with this idea as to where the lead should be, named one of them the Blue Gravel Mine, and began exploiting by a series of tunnels, from which I obtained very satisfactory results. The gold is coarse, and in character and fineness very similar to the gold of the ancient river channels of Sierra, Nevada, and other counties. The Black Jack Mining Company, to the north and adjoining the Blue Gravel, have demonstrated that they have a large amount of gravel that will pay from three dollars to five dollars per ton, mill process. From the explorations and developments made in the vicinity of Henley and Yreka, it is evident that there are untold millions of hidden treasure in this ancient deposit, which must in the near future add greatly to the wealth of Siskiyou County and the world." Oro Fino, in the Scott Valley, was among the earliest of Siskiyou's placer mining camps. In the early fifties when ten dollars a day to the man was the lowest limit for good diggings, there were upwards of five hundred men in these mines. This early working was confined to the shallow ground. Lower in the valley, it was found later, the auriferous ancient channels coursed. Where drifting was possible in these channels, twenty-five dollars to a set of timbers was the average pay, while a great deal of the valuable deposits was missed. About ten years ago the system of hydraulic elevators was introduced, with gratifying results to the projectors. The Wright & Fletcher claim and the Eastlick Brothers claim, which are at present the leading mines in the camp, are worked by this process. Some idea of the richness of these claims can be formed from the fact that the records of dust purchased from them by one man alone shows a realization of $387,000 to the owners, and this too where the water supply limits the working period to about ninety days of each year. The mountains from whence Oro Fino Valley descends abound in gold-bearing quartz ledges; the gulches from them are without exception rich in placer deposits, and there is every indication that these deposits and the auriferous channels extend through the valley below. Water and other facilities readily available to energy and capital are all that seem required to uncover unlimited wealth. Here is not to be encountered the anti-debris incubus. There are no navigable streams in Siskiyou County. Descriptions of a few representative mines will follow this article, which can deal only in a general way with this greatest industry of Siskiyou. There are some two thousand miners in the county, and nearly all of them, about four-fifths, own the mines they work. There has been no mining boom in the county--no effort to induce outside capital to enter its borders. The people have come to a firm belief that it is better to take the time necessary to develop the mines with their own capital and thus to retain the whole result in the community than to take it out much faster at the expense of sending most of it away as dividends to outside owners; for that reason the prosperity of the county is solid and the four hundred or more stamps that are always employed in crushing out Siskiyou gold are working almost solely for the benefit of Siskiyou people. The mines range from the big ones already mentioned, which have paid their millions apiece, down to the little claims owned by sturdy relics of '49, each of which brings its owner a hundred or two hundred dollars for his summer's work, enough to enable him to hibernate in comfort through the rest of the year. The portion of Siskiyou County seen by the passing traveler on the line between California and Oregon is likely to make a permanent impression on him. The varied beauty and surpassing grandeur of its scenery is to be equaled by few sections of the continent. Beyond the beautiful Castle Crag, on the extreme northern border of Shasta County, the first stopping place of note in Siskiyou is Dunsmuir, a pretty town of 600 inhabitants, nestled among the Coast Range of mountains at an elevation of 2300 feet. It is really the keystone of the arch of summer resorts of the Upper Sacramento Cañon. No other town in the state has so many pleasure resorts nearby. To show how conveniently placed it is for the tourist we give the table of distances to resorts, some of them world famous:
What is now known as Dunsmuir was first called Pusher--this from the fact that the railway grade begins here, and a pusher is put on to help the trains over the 116 feet to the mile. The side track one mile south was called Dunsmuir. The round house and machine shops were located at Pusher, and that brought all the people from Dunsmuir and also the name of the town--which was for Robert Dunsmuir of Victoria, B.C., who presented the town with a handsome fountain situated in the railroad reservation. The first hotel and store was erected in 1886 by M. M. Brown, who did quite a business and took gold dust in exchange for goods. The railway division headquarters are the main support of Dunsmuir. More than one hundred thousand dollars yearly is paid out by the company. The town has a six-thousand-dollar school house, three teachers, a Chautauqua circle, three churches, electric light works, and good water and sewer systems. The Sacramento by the time Dunsmuir is reached has ceased to be the placid tule-bordered stream of its lower course, and travels and hurries over its rocky bed in beautiful cascades and ever-changing rapids. The hills on either side are covered with sugar pines above and beautiful shrubbery and ferns down by the stream. The Mossbrae Falls are in full view from the car windows in all their unique beauty. The train pauses at the noted Soda Springs long enough for each passenger to take a deep draught of the sparkling water, gushing up in the midst of most delightful surroundings. No wonder this region has become the resort to which hundreds of campers go every year, and having gone once, return again and again, spoiled by its charms for the enjoyment of any other camping ground. Soon the train reaches Sisson, famous with more than a national reputation for being the starting place for parties attempting the ascent of Mount Shasta, and for its hospitable tavern. The view of Shasta here is one of unspeakable grandeur. The snow-clad peak rises fourteen thousand feet into upper air, unobscured by neighboring peaks or high foothills--lonely, splendid, awful. The pink flush of dawn halos it or the crimson of the afterglow at sunset shines full on its face with a glory never to be forgotten. The town is, next to Yreka, the largest in the county and is becoming the center of an important lumbering industry. The great sugar pines that make the hills around shaggy bow to the service of man. Sisson is also the supply point for the important agricultural region of Shasta Valley. This valley and Scott Valley, over the range to the westward, are the two largest bodies of arable land in the county, though many a little flat on the Klamath and other rivers is used for local agriculture. The representative paper of the Mount Shasta section is the Mirror, published weekly at Sisson. The local enterprises of the region, notably the lumbering interests and the life of the popular summer resorts, find creditable reflection in its columns. The publishers, George W. Rogers and Charles E. Wolcott, are both young men, but have several years of newspaper experience and impart a distinguishing quality to their publication. The principal farming interest of Siskiyou is coming to be its stock-raising, which has largely increased in the last few years. Hogs, too, are a growing product, and Siskiyou hams are preferred in the markets of California and Oregon, especially in Portland. Alfalfa is very productive. Three and often four crops in a year are obtained and that without irrigation. Indeed irrigation seems to be rather a detriment than an advantage, as the low, wet places do not yield so well as some of the unpromising-looking uplands. As Major Myers put it, "Tracts that you would not think a killdeer could live on will raise alfalfa without irrigation." The deciduous fruits of Siskiyou are noted all over the United States. The firm, full-flavored apples, the pears, especially Bartletts, the plums, peaches, and similar fruits attain their greatest perfection in the high-lying valleys of this mountain county. The miners furnish a large and growing home market for the products of the farms, and the hand of hard times has never touched the ranches of Siskiyou. To resume the journey interrupted by this digression on agriculture: after leaving Sisson the train goes on in full sight of the great dome of Shasta for several hours, amid a country gradually growing more rugged. At Montague we find a flourishing little town, the outlet of the little Shasta Valley, the northerly extension of the farming region before mentioned, and the junction of the branch road to Yreka, spoken of in the January article [above]. Montague also possesses a fine flouring mill. Continuing over the line of the railroad, the train soon passes over the divide into the valley of the Klamath, where again lumbering interests are prominent. There are ten billions of feet of timber tributary to the Klamath River. While it is perfectly practicable to drive logs down the Klamath to the sea, at present the most feasible outlet for this timber is over the Southern Pacific railroad. At the point where this railroad crosses the Klamath River the Klamath River Lumber Company have located their lumber mills, and around them has grown the town of Pokegama. The Klamath River Lumber Company was organized by Portland and Milwaukee capitalists in 1889, but soon passed into the hands of J. R. Cook, a veteran lumberman of Michigan. Mr. Cook's first care was to secure timber lands, and he now controls about one billion feet of timber, including the Jenny Creek tract, than which there is no finer timber on the Coast. Extensive improvements were immediately started. A railroad was constructed from the timber to the river; a log chute, half a mile long, was built to carry the logs from the plateau, on which the timber stands, to the river, five hundred feet below. The river itself was extensively improved to facilitate driving, and finally a saw mill and planing mill, both modern in every detail, were built at Pokegama. The land on which the timber stands being level, the company uses big wheels for hauling the logs to their railroad, by their use making it possible, to haul seventy thousand with four horses in one day. The logs are carried over a railroad seven miles to the chute; over the chute they travel to the river half a mile in from fifteen to thirty seconds. From the foot of the chute the logs are floated twenty-one miles to the sawmill. The river is available at all stages of water. The scale sheets of the company have exploded the popular local fallacy that logs will not float: during the four years that yellow and sugar pine have been handled the percentage of loss has been no greater than with the white pine of the East. The mill has a capacity of sixty thousand feet per day, running one band mill; and plans are making to double this during the next season. While manufacturing mountain pine, this company's mills are so situated in the valley that they can saw twelve months out of the year. The town of Pokegama now depends upon the lumbering interests connected with the company mentioned and the Pioneer Box Company, but it has a flattering outlook for the future. It is the natural distributing point from the railroad both up and down the river, as by following the river roads all heavy grades are avoided. As a manufacturing center, it has the advantage of the untold power of the Klamath, only waiting to be converted into electricity. Beyond Pokegama is the thriving little town of Hornbrook, a center of the stock-raising region on the southern slopes of the Siskiyou Mountains. Steep grades now and some remarkable engineering; for the mountains are to be climbed, and the summit is not reached until the road has run into the state of Oregon. The ride through Siskiyou is one that is memorable in any journey, no matter what wonders may afterward be seen. Besides the towns spoken of in the rapid trip across the county several more must each have its paragraph in a description of Siskiyou. Fort Jones is a thriving town of about five hundred inhabitants located at the northeast end of Scott Valley. It is eighteen miles by stage from Yreka and is the main supply point for Scott Valley farmers. The town is prettily built along its main street, and the buildings are in many cases of brick. The development of the mines of Oro Fino, Quartz Valley, and neighboring districts promises to make Fort Jones a more important point of supply in the near future. A railroad has been talked of from Yreka. The most important industry in the town itself is a large flour mill. Fort Jones is lighted by electricity, and is notable for its beautiful homes, and its schools and churches. Etna, formerly Etna Mills, is the supply point for the Salmon River mines. The town has about five hundred inhabitants. Freighting is carried on from Gazelle on the railroad to Etna by way of Callahan's Ranch. The pack trains for Forks of Salmon and the quartz mines in that district leave from Etna, as do also freight teams for Sawyer's Bar, which is the end of the wagon road. Should this wagon road be continued down the Salmon to the Forks of Salmon, a thing much to be hoped for, it would be of great benefit not only to Etna but to Sawyer's Bar, and would open up a great country for both quartz and placer mining, which is now practically undeveloped because of the cost of getting in machinery and supplies. The town of Sawyer's Bar, as may be seen from the illustration, is prettily located on Salmon River and is the terminus of the wagon road from Etna. The placer mines about here have produced much gold in the past, and with the investment of capital to bring water on the high bars will produce much more. It is the supply point for all of the small placer miners scattered all down the river, and the prospectors and quartz miners in the hills. From Sawyer's Bar a wagon road has been built by Hon. John Daggett up Eddy's Gulch and on to Black Bear, about nine miles. It has done much toward the development of small quartz properties in that district. The acceptance of this road by the county is now before the supervisors, and it is earnestly hoped it will be accepted. The question of building a wagon road from Sawyer's Bar to Forks of Salmon is also under discussion. This road would open many mines that are not worked, owing to excessive charges for packing. It would mean much also to Sawyer's Bar, as it is the natural station between Etna and the Forks. The building of the road would help the county generally, as much merchandise is now brought in from Humboldt County during certain seasons. Sawyer's Bar has two hotels, several general merchandise stores, and other creditable buildings. The thriving little town of Scott Bar has been in existence since 1850. Here the miner of the Klamath and Scott rivers, Mill Creek, and the surrounding country transacts his business. Every day the visitor may see a line of teams and saddle horses hitched along the main street. Night comes and Scott Bar settles down to a sleepy little place. A great deal of gold has been taken from the bars hereabouts and yet the half has not been found. Adjoining the town are many gravel claims which are worked today, and with improved mining facilities, Scott Bar may again become the lively mining camp of the fifties. In addition to the placer mining some very good quartz ledges have recently been discovered, among these the rich Gum Boot and the Columbia, which has a ten-stamp mill. Thus the county has been traversed and described in broad lines and in a few details. It would take a series of volumes rather than a short article or two to tell all the interesting things about this Northern California county. That part of the state comes more slowly into prominence than the patent glories of the south, because it requires more labor to bring its rugged forces to the use of civilization. But all the more surely the prominence will come and will come to stay. The people of Siskiyou realize this, and in firm belief in the resources of their chosen home, they seek to bring to their borders no throng of Eastern tourists, no flow of foreign capital. They can take care of themselves, and welcome among them only such as they, people who will make homes, develop the country, and become, more even than its millions in gold, the wealth of Siskiyou. S. G. Wilson.
----
NOTES ON THE PROMINENT MEN AND
MINES OF SISKIYOU.
We
supplement Mr. Wilson's article by giving definite examples of the
energetic men, and flourishing mines, of Siskiyou.--ED.
OVERLAND. JOHN DAGGETT was born in Newark, Wayne County, New York, May 9th, 1833. At the age of nineteen he came to California with his older brother, who established the Marysville Foundry. He mined first on the South Fork of the American River, then at San Andreas, Calaveras County, and subsequently on the Mokelumne River. Reports of rich diggings on the Salmon River in what was then Klamath County, in the spring of 1854, sent him to Sawyer's Bar, where he engaged in mining and blacksmithing by turns. He spent the winter and summer of 1857 in Cottonwood, Siskiyou County, but returned to Salmon River in the fall and made that place his home. In the fall of 1858 he was elected to the Assembly from Klamath and Del Norte. He was returned again for the session of 1860, but the discovery of gold quartz in the spring of that year lured him from the field of politics and he was at the head of a company that constructed the first quartz mill operated in the Salmon River region. In 1862 he became an owner in the Black Bear mine, but not content with its unbusinesslike management, sold out and went to Nevada in 1864, engaging in the superintendence of silver mines and mills at Aurora. His faith in the value of the Black Bear induced him to return to his former haunts, and in 1865 he joined with J. D. Coughlin and John S. Reed in the purchase of that property, which justified his judgment and became one of the historic mines of the state. After the sale of the mine Mr. Daggett expended a large sum in the construction of a ditch in El Dorado, but later returned to the mines of Salmon. In the meantime Klamath County had been divided, a portion being given to Humboldt and the Salmon River region attached to Siskiyou, and Mr. Daggett was elected to the Assembly from that county and Modoc in 1880, serving a regular and extra session with great credit. His defeat of the gerrymandering apportionment bill, with an opposition majority to overcome, led to his nomination and election as Lieutenant Governor in 1882, and he presided over the Senate during two regular and two extra sessions which were turbulent and exciting because of a mass of important legislation and the fact that the body was evenly divided. This required many casting votes, which were given with a courage and dignity that always attended his actions. During this period from 1882 to 1885 he was largely interested in silver mining in Calico, San Bernardino County, and personally superintended the properties while not engaged in legislative duties. In the spring of 1885 he obtained a controlling interest in the Black Bear mine, of which his son is at present superintendent. Upon the establishment of the California World's Fair Commission in 1891 Governor Markham appointed Governor Daggett a member of that body from the 1st Congressional district, and he served with his usual ability and has as an evidence of his zeal the beautiful display of California woods now in the Golden Gate Park museum. On the 18th of May, 1893, President Cleveland appointed him Superintendent of the United States Mint in San Francisco, which position he now occupies. To that institution he brought a ripe business knowledge and a fearless sense of duty, and his record shows the most economical administration in the history of the mint. Governor Daggett is the sole owner of the Evening Star and Central mines with four-stamp mill upon the head of Eddy's Gulch, arid has expended quite a large sum of money in the development work. He has great faith in the future of that property and proposes to equip it with a larger plant. He is also the promoter and one of the largest owners of the Santa Rosalia gold mine in Sonora, Mexico, a dividend-paying property. ----
The BLACK
BEAR gold quartz mine, situated at the head
of Black Bear Creek, a tributary of the South Fork of Salmon River, was
discovered in 1860. Some ore crushed in an arrastra showed its value,
and during the subsequent year considerable progress was made in
development by a company composed of a large number of men, who
constructed two water-power arrastras. That reducing process was found
to be too slow and unprofitable, and in 1862 a twelve-stamp mill was
erected, and work continued with variable results until 1863. Then the
property passed into the hands of Messrs. John Daggett, John D.
Coughlin, and John S. Reed, who by personal supervision and economical
business and mining methods succeeded in placing the property upon a
profitable footing. From 1865 to 1872 a considerable sum in dividends was paid, and a large amount of improvements and development work effected. In 1872 a company of San Francisco capitalists purchased the property, increased the capacity of the mill to thirty-two stamps, and made other extensive improvements, including a shaft six hundred feet deep. In a few years nearly one million dollars in dividends were paid besides a large sum of money for labor and supplies. In 1884, through several changes in the superintendents and the resulting want of information, the ore chutes were lost and the property shrank in value. At this time Hon. John Daggett, who had been familiar with the mine since it first came to light, purchased a large controlling interest in it, and proceeded to develop ore in such quantities that the mine is certain to take its place among the noted mines of the state. Self-feeders and Triumph concentrators have been placed in the mill, which is run by a Dodd water wheel with 260 feet of pressure. A tramway of two miles with gravitation inclines has been so constructed that the ore is transported from mine to mill at a minimum cost. All of this work has been accomplished by ore developed above the adit level, and arrangements are being perfected to open up the mine below, where there are known to be large bodies of ore that by the present improved and cheapened process of working can be profitably worked. A good wagon road has lately been constructed connecting Black Bear with Scott Valley at Etna, thus affording lessened freight rates. ----
The
extensive gold mountain known as the QUARTZ HILL
property at Scott Bar has just been examined by a party of mining
experts, who have carefully investigated its value and merit and
pronounced it one of the most extensive, if not the largest, mountain
of gold-bearing quartz in California. It is favorably located for
working on a large scale, as the water power in connection with it
makes the reduction very cheap. At least eighty stamps should be
erected to begin crushing, and the mountain will supply two hundred
stamps for fifty years and longer. M. F. Campbell, who was one of the
party of experts that last season examined this mountain, has
accompanied this last party as one of the experts. He finds the
crosscut being run into the mountain shows new reserves and he feels
highly pleased with the results. The Quartz Hill property has produced
from the surface since 1851 several millions of dollars in gold.
Siskiyou County can claim in Quartz Hill one of the most valuable
properties in California. Mr. M. F. Campbell will be in charge as
manager and superintendent. ----
DOCTOR
ASBURY C. HELM,
of Sawyer's Bar, one of the most prominent of Siskiyou's physicians and
surgeons, was born in St. Louis, March 3rd, 1845, but at an early age
he removed to New York. In 1863 he went to Salem, Oregon, where he
studied medicine until 1869, and then returned to New York City and
graduated from Bellevue Hospital in 1871. He returned to Oregon and
practiced in Salem and The Dalles. In 1892 Doctor Helm came to Siskiyou
and settled at Sawyer's Bar. He enjoys the confidence of the people of
the entire western section of the county, and is retained by all of the
large mining companies. Doctor Helm is interested in mines and the
development of the county; in fact, it is probable that he settled in
Sawyer's Bar because of large interests acquired in that section before
he removed from Oregon. ----
JAS.
F. FARRAHER, a leading lawyer of Siskiyou,
was born April 7th, 1863, on a farm in the county, where he remained
until fifteen years of age. Then he took a clerkship in a store in
Yreka. At eighteen he went to St. Mary's College in San Francisco for a
fifteen months' course, after which he studied law and was admitted to
the bar in May, 1886. Since that time he has been engaged in the
practice of law at Yreka, and has built up a very large business. ----
HON.
A. B. CARLOCK, of Fort Jones, arrived in
California in 1852, and at the age of nineteen he engaged in mining on
the Trinity River. In 1853 he started a fast train, and soon saved
enough money to open a store at Deadwood, Siskiyou, in 1856. In 1860 he
sold this business and removed to Fort Jones, where he remained and
engaged in mercantile pursuits until 1876, when once more he disposed
of his interest and gave his exclusive attention to the banking and
express business. Mr. Carlock was elected to the State Senate on the
Republican ticket, and served his constituents faithfully as chairman
of the Committee on Fish and Game, member of the Claims, Contingent
Expenses and Mileage, Engrossed Bills, Finance, Labor and Capital, and
Roads and Highways committees. He was postmaster over twenty years,
manager of the Western Union Telegraph Company's office for twenty
years, and agent of Wells, Fargo and Company's Express for over thirty
years. Mr. Carlock still continues in the banking business, and enjoys
the respect and good will of the people of the county. ----
One of the
best known in the county is MARTIN CUDDIHY,
of Happy Camp. He was born in Tipperary, Ireland, November 9, 1832,
arrived in New Orleans during 1848, and for four years was employed on
the Mississippi River steamers. In 1852 he crossed the plains to
Oregon, where he engaged in the hotel business, and two years later
went to Happy Camp, in Siskiyou. Here he engaged in mining, and was
successful. In 1860 he bought the hotel and merchandise business of
Henry Doolittle, and continued these until 1877, when he sold the
merchandise business to Horace Gasquet. Mr. Cuddihy acquired a great deal of property in Happy Camp in 1888, which he still retains. He is the friend of the miners, and many of them owe their successes to him. Always an open-handed and genial host, his hostelry, the "Young American," at Happy Camp, is celebrated all over the county for its excellence. ----
ANDREW
G. MYERS, of Fort Jones, was born in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1838. He came to California in 1859, but
rumors of war caused his return to Washington City. In 1881 he enlisted
as a private in the United States Cavalry, and shortly after was
appointed paymaster by President Lincoln, with the rank of Major. At
the close of the Rebellion he resigned. In 1890, Major Myers returned
to California and engaged in mining. He is interested in several mining
properties in Siskiyou County, one of which, the Myers Mine, is quite a
large producer. The last mill run of fifty tons netted $2,460. The mine
is developed by several hundred feet of tunnels. It employs about
twenty-five men and has a ten-stamp mill. Major Myers is also
interested in timber tracts and stone quarries. He is an enthusiastic
believer in the future of Siskiyou and is an energetic advertiser of
its many resources and advantages. ----
The BUNKER
HILL placer mine is located on the Klamath
River seventeen miles below Happy Camp, and contains about three
hundred acres of mining ground. It is what is known as old high
channel, and varies in altitude from one hundred to five hundred feet
above the present bed of the stream. The property has been worked for a
number of years, and has produced a large amount of gold. Under the
former owner, a Mr. Temple, the output was regularly 150 ounces per
month, and the largest month's run ever made was 299 ounces. Somewhat
over a year ago the property passed into the hands of San Francisco
parties, who by the legitimate expenditure of money put the property
into better shape than it had ever been. The building of some six miles
of flume and ditch, carrying two thousand inches of water, has
furnished an ample supply and pressure of water. The pressure is 350
feet. The gravel is fine, with but few large boulders, hence no derrick
is necessary. The dumping ground is excellent, because of the height of
the old channel from the present river bed, and the absence of any
arable lands in the vicinity. The height of the gravel bank is from 50
to 150 feet. The water right is one of the best in the county. In
addition to the supply obtained from side gulch streams, the main ditch
connects with a natural lake in the mountains at an elevation of six
thousand feet with an area of over one square mile and a depth of
ninety feet. The general character of the gold from this mine is what
is known as "cucumber seed," but at times it changes to very coarse
gold. The hydraulicking at present is being done with a number
three giant, four-and-one-half-inch nozzle, and as soon as the bank is
opened up enough others will be added. The property has been recently
incorporated, and the stock in the company is all held by San Francisco
parties. The active management is entrusted to Mr. A. J. Hughes, the
competent and conservative superintendent, and it is safe to predict
that the old Bunker Hill will not only equal its production of some
years ago, but so far exceed it that it may come to rank as first in
the great placer producers of the country. ----
A man
prominently identified for years with mercantile and mining interests
in Siskiyou is JAMES CAMP,
who carries on a large general merchandise business at Fort Jones. Mr.
Camp was born in the province of New Brunswick in 1832. When of age he
emigrated to Alexandria, Virginia, and learned printing in the
government printing house during President Fillmore's administration.
In 1854 he came to Klamath County (part of which is now Siskiyou) and
acquired and mined Classic Hill mine on Indian Creek. Mr. Camp mined
along the Klamath at Cottage Grove and Milligan's Bar and was the
pioneer of Bunker Hill. He later established a trading post at Ferry
Point, fifteen miles below Happy Camp, and remained there for five
years. He removed to Happy Camp and there built a large brick store,
still the only brick building on Klamath River. He continued in
business until 1890, when he sold to Horace Gasquet and removed to Fort
Jones, where he had interests. Mr. Camp is also largely interested in
mining properties on the Klamath at Fort Gough and Portuguese Flat. He
stands commercially and financially in the front rank of Siskiyou's
citizens. ----
The GUM
BOOT mine is located on Mill Creek about
eight miles east of Scott Bar. The mine is developed by two tunnels,
one of 180 and the other one hundred feet, and a shaft about ninety
feet deep. The ore is of a free-milling character and is found in slate
formation. The ledge varies in width, but averages about four feet
wide. The ore contains, besides the native gold, galena, sulphurets,
tellurium, and silver. It has been the purpose of the owners, Messrs.
A. & C. Simon, to develop ore in sight rather than to
extract it. There has been no sloping done, and the only ore that has
been taken out has been that necessary to develop the vein. The
development work has paid for itself, and soon the Gum Boot will help
to swell the output of gold in Siskiyou. ----
SCOTT
BAR has the leading merchandise house of the
lower Scott and Klamath River mining district, Messrs. A. & C.
Simon. This business was established first in Simonville, two miles
below the present town, in 1853, by Sigmund Simon, who came from
Hamburg, Germany. Mr. Simon arrived at Scott River in 1851, and engaged
in mining, but soon turned to merchandising. In 1853 Mr. Simon opened a
business and named the town now known as Hamburg. In 1864 he formed a
partnership with Mr. Wentzel and commenced business in Scott Bar under
the firm name of Wentzel & Simon. This was successfully
continued until Mr. Simon's death in 1881, when the name of the firm
was changed to L. M. Simon & Son, his widow and his son Arthur.
In 1892 the present firm of A. & C. Simon took the business.
These brothers are young and energetic. Their interests are the
interests of the section. They are conservative, yet always willing to
assist in the development of the county. By close attention to business
they have built up for themselves a general merchandise business which
is second to none in the county, and the leading one in their section.
They are both native sons. Arthur Simon, the senior member of the firm,
was born at Simonville on Scott River, September 7, 1863, and his
brother, Charles Simon, at Scott Bar, April 7, 1869. Mr. Arthur Simon was nominated for county supervisor on the Republican ticket in 1896, but was defeated by the fusion Democrat and Populist candidate. He accepted the nomination much against his will, as his business interests demanded his closest attention, but his friends urged him, and he accepted in the hope that if elected he might be able to do something towards improving the cañon road from Fort Jones to Scott Bar, over which the people of this entire section must freight their supplies. The road in question was built some years ago, but has been neglected until it is a disgrace to the county. It is to be hoped that the present board of supervisors will give this very important highway their attention, as the Scott Bar country promises much addition to the wealth of the county. ----
YREKA
has an industry that she may well take pride in as indeed may all the
county. It is the packing establishment of James H. Wadsworth. In 1891
Mr. Wadsworth purchased the butchering business of Miller &
Hughes and at that time commenced the improvement of the property. In
1893 fire destroyed the building, but he immediately rebuilt and
started the only packing establishment in Northern California. The
plant is complete, the ice machine, refrigerator, smoke house, pickling
vats, and all the other appliances are of the most improved pattern.
One mile from the packing house and just outside the city limits of
Yreka is the abattoir. Here again everything is modern and unexcelled
from a sanitary standpoint. He kills daily ten beeves and the same
number of sheep and hogs. On his ranch of seven thousand acres, a few
miles further from town, he annually raises two thousand tons of
timothy, alfalfa, and meadow hay, which affords the best of feed and
grazing for the large number of cattle which are yearly consumed by the
people of Siskiyou. Mr. James H. Wadsworth, the enterprising
proprietor, was born in Yreka, June, 1864. He graduated from the
Oakland High School in 1886, after which he managed the ranch of his
father, Elijah Wadsworth, until he engaged in his present undertaking
Mr. Wadsworth personally oversees every detail of his large interests
and is classed among the leading men of Siskiyou. ----
AUGUST
DANNENBRINK, manager of the Gold Run Mining
Company, was born on Cannon Creek in Trinity County, January, 1868. He
received his education in the public schools of Weaverville, and
graduated at the age of seventeen. He entered the employ of D. Hanson,
general merchandiser at Weaverville, and remained there three years. In
1888 he went to Salmon River and bought, together with his brother
Henry, D. Hanson, and F. Radelfinger,an interest in the Gold Run mine.
In 1893 Mr. Dannenbrink incorporated the company now known as the Gold
Run Mining company, and was elected manager. He has a thorough
knowledge of the mine, having worked in the property as a miner, and it
is due to that knowledge that the fourteen-hundred-foot tunnel recently
run to tap the ledge was so successful. He is at the mine at all hours
of the day and night, and to his energy may be attributed the great
success of this company. ----
The
property of the GOLD RUN
MINING COMPANY is
located in the Salmon River mining district about sixteen miles
southwest of Sawyers Bar, and about nine miles from the Forks of
Salmon. It consists of five full patented claims, known as the Gold
Run, Gilta, McCauley, Emma, and Jeannette. Development has been
confined principally to the Gold Run and Gilta, and consists of some
seven tunnels run on the ledge, in all about two thousand feet with
raises and stopes
necessary to extract the ore bodies so developed. The last work of
importance was the driving of a five-by-eight tunnel to tap the ledge
at a depth of 350 feet below the former workings and about six hundred
feet from the surface. This was successful, and the ledge proved even
better than the company had hoped. This tunnel is about fourteen
hundred feet in length, and proves conclusively the theory advanced by
Mr. Dannenbrink, the manager, that the deeper the ore is found below
the surface the greater the width of the ledge and the richer the ore.
The pitch of the ledge is into the mountain and at an angle of about
forty-five degrees. The vein is a true fissure, the formation cherry limestone on the foot with a quartzite hanging wall. It is full and regular, with a pay streak about twenty in width and about 250 feet in length, which comes in at about regular intervals of two hundred feet. The Gilta, Gold Run, and Hunter ledges are parallel and about 250 feet apart. The ore from these ledges is of a free-milling character and yields from fifty to seventy-five dollars per ton. The ten-stamp mill on the property is run by water power, and was built expressly for this company by the Union Iron Works of San Francisco. It was transported on mules to its present site. The concentrates are valued at three hundred and fifty dollars per ton. The company uses the Ingersoll-Sargent compressed air drill and employs about twenty-five men. It is estimated that this mine has produced since 1890 about $300,000, and is in better shape today than ever. There are millions of feet of the finest sugar pine and fir timber on the claims, and a saw mill plant with a capacity of three thousand feet a day. The capital stock of the company is one hundred thousand shares at one hundred dollars per share, full paid and non-assessable. It is owned by August Dannenbrink, Henry Dannenbrink, D. Hanson, and C. Junkins, and is a close corporation. ----
Placer
mining at the Forks of Salmon is almost entirely controlled by W. P. BENNETT.
Mr. Bennett was born in Sangamon County, Illinois, October 15th, 1832,
and came to Shasta County, California, in 1853. From there he went in
the same year to Trinity County and engaged in mining. In 1856 he went
to Salmon River, then in Klamath County, and continued mining and
merchandising. During 1873 Mr. Bennett purchased for fifteen thousand
dollars what is now known as Forks of Salmon or Bennett's. Since then
he has supplied almost the entire section with merchandise of all
kinds, and his pack train of fifty mules is constantly on the road.
This train carries about 250,000 pounds of freight annually, during
part of the year from Gazelle and Etna, and early in the spring from
Korbel in Humboldt County. Mr. Bennett has brought water in from the
South Fork of Salmon on the north side by carrying it across both the
North and South Forks by high trestles and trusses, to ground that was
left practically untouched by the early miners owing to lack of water.
He has built many miles of ditch and flume, and has in use today over
six thousand feet of pipe, which in sheets has been packed in on mules
and made up here. The present season will find eight giants (five
Number 3; two Number 2; one Number 1) in use, running five thousand
inches of water. Mr. Bennett's property consists of the following claims: Bloomer, Crapo Number One, Crapo Number Two, McNeal, Horn, Forks, Missouri Bar, and Nigger Hill. They have a working area of about five hundred acres. In eleven years washing it is estimated that the ground worked has produced about half a million dollars, and that about one-tenth of the ground has been worked out. It must be remembered that the working season here is only about seven months, owing to lack of water. This could be remedied by the construction of a high line ditch taking water out of the North Fork about fourteen miles above the Forks, which would develop a pressure of about 350 feet and cover much ground that at present cannot be worked. Mr. Bennett is the only trader on the river who fits men out to mine and who is willing to trust them until the earth gives up the gold. He employs twenty men the year round and pays about $15,000 per annum in wages. His improvements in the last ten years would aggregate about $150,000. Mr. Bennett carries his sixty-seven years lightly, and may be seen every day among his men, personally supervising the details of his great interests. Were it not for an affliction which prevents him from riding on horseback, the only means of ingress to this district except walking, Mr. Bennett would undoubtedly end his days at the Forks of Salmon. He has by the closest attention to business and an enormous amount of personal labor brought his properties from nothing to the greatest group of placer mines in Siskiyou County. ----
Siskiyou
has only one incorporated banking institution, but that is one of which
it may justly be proud, as may be seen from the following statement of
its condition made December, 1896: Resources.
Liabilities.
----
The YREKA
ELECTRIC LIGHT WORKS
are situated on the bank of the Shasta River about nine miles from
Yreka. When some years ago Mr. James Quinne proposed developing the
water power of Shasta River he was ridiculed. Today he develops 350
horsepower on three wheels, and could readily increase it to one
thousand horsepower even at the driest time of the year. The Brush
system is used with a 750-light dynamo. The plant is owned, managed,
and run by Mr. Quinne and his sons.----
JOHN
W. HARRIS, superintendent of the Siskiyou
Hydraulic Mining Company, and senior of the firm of Harris Brothers,
mail contractors and owners of the Etna and Salmon River Stage Company,
was born in Cook County, Illinois, in 1857. He was brought across the
plains in an ox team to Yuba County in 1859. Mr. Harris first engaged
in the cattle business in Butte County in 1870, and later on moved to
Lake County, where he drove stage under the noted whip, Clark Foss. In
1875 he went to the cinnabar mines in Trinity County, and during 1876
came to the Black Bear mine in Siskiyou, where he was employed for
about a year. He then went to Sawyer's Bar and engaged in placer
mining. In 1879 he formed a partnership with his brother, Edwd. F.
Harris, and located the Harris Brothers mine on Salmon River five miles
from Sawyer's Bar, which they sold in 1894, to what is now known as the
Salmon River Hydraulic Gold Mining and Ditch Company for $15,500. Mr.
Harris's varied and practical mining experience throughout the county
makes him a valuable man for the company, which engaged him to
reorganize their properties in 1896. ----
The CLASSIC
HILL placer mine is one of the oldest
discoveries in the county, but for a long time has remained idle. It is
located on Indian Creek about six miles from Happy Camp, and is now
owned and worked by Mathews Brothers and Vogan. It covers about 350
acres, of which only about fifteen have been worked. It has produced
about $300,000, and will again become a large producer. It yielded in
one sixty days' run $60,000, a part of which were two large nuggets,
one weighing $537.50 and another $2,439.60. The gold is coarse, and the
formation decomposed quartz and not gravel. The development consists of
three ditches about seven miles in length and some three thousand feet
of 11x15-inch pipe, carrying ample water at high pressure to run three
No. 2 giants. The property can be worked successfully for nine months
of the year. ----
The
following are representative firms of Yreka: Walbridge-Carr Company,
general merchandise; J. Churchill & Son, drugs; Franco-American
Hotel, Charles Herzog, manager; R. H. DeWitt, general merchandise;
Walker-Avery Drug Company, drugs and fancy goods; Clarendon Hotel; John
Pashburg, fine groceries; lunker Brothers, hardware; F. N. Clift, café;
Nehrbass & Harmon, wagons and blacksmiths; Fred A. Autenrieth,
Hardware; Charles Iunker, brewery; Oliver Orr, café;
A. Wetzel, general merchandise; Herman Brinzer, general merchandise;
Dr. O'Connell, druggist; Martin & Irwin, livery; Henry Koester,
hotel and restaurant At Etna are the following:-- F. A. Herzog. hotel; Denny Bar Parker Company, general merchandise, also branches at Callahans and Gazelle; Joseph Stephens, general merchandise; Otis Wilsey, café; Mrs. A. Mani, café. At Fort Jones:-- J. R. Courts, Western Hotel; E. F. Reichman & Company, general merchandise and flour mill; A. A. Beem, livery; A. A. Milliken, physician; John Florendo, blacksmith; Kunz & Dudley, agricultural implements; John Henderson, café; Charles S. Cowan, physician; William Baptist, manager telephone company; J. W. Young; I. S. Matthews. At Sawyer's Bar:-- H. J. Eldredge, general merchandise; T. Luddy, butcher; Roger Corbett, café; H. P. Robinson, Pioneer Hotel; S. H. Birdsall, general merchandise; Hickey Brothers, Sawyer's Bar Hotel; John Doscher & W. E. Klein, mines; H. Finley, freighting and livery. Overland Monthly, February 1897, pages 193-227 Illustrated with seventy-eight photographs of Siskiyou County mines, mills and miners. A ROMANCE OF A GOLD RUSH.
Away back in the mining days a party of fourteen gold-seekers--I was
one of the number--left El Dorado County to "hunt better diggin's"
(says a writer in the Quincy Whig).
We took the Indian trail leading up the Sacramento to Oregon, and the
noble river soon narrowed down to a rivulet. We passed along the base
of grand old Mount Shasta, following on the Oregon trail. Here about
thirty miners were camped, digging and washing dirt that paid them from
three dollars a day. Most of them were from the Scott River, and
declared this better than anything they could find in that camp. This
was a poser for us, so we determined to go to Rogue River to prospect.
The start was to be made on the morrow, while the party of miners and
campers decided to start on a prospecting tour down the Sacramento
River to Shasta City at the same time. This was March 20, 1851. The
horses and mules of the camp were grazing together, and the
exhilaration of warm sun caused them to start out for a run just as we
were starting to drive them to camp to pack up. We tried hard to
capture them, but the whole band disappeared over the low hills, and we
were compelled to follow them by their fresh tracks in the snow and
mud. At last we sighted them several miles from camp in a large flat or
basin grazing on "bunchgrass" up to their knees. When we were scattered
out to herd them together to go to camp one of the men, Ballou by name,
saw in the fresh dirt turned up by the foot of a horse a nugget of
gold. He hastily picked it up and pocketed it without being observed.
The horses were driven to camp and we were soon on the road to Oregon
that afternoon in search of mines they did not find. The nugget found
was worth about four dollars fifty cents. It was soon planned by the
finder's party to postpone starting south, ostensibly on account of the
detention, and to take pans and start from camp in different directions
to prospect, and to come together out of sight of those not yet in the
secret. When together they were guided by Ballou to the spot where he
found the nugget on the surface. Pan after pan was tried, and from
fifty cents to five dollars to the pan was obtained, the best being in
this dirt among the grass roots. Claims were staked, and when they
returned to camp all those remaining were told of the discovery. Only a
few hours passed before the entire camp was transferred to the new
find. This was "Yreka Flat" in 1851. The town of Yreka now marks the
locality from which much gold has been taken.The Western Champion, Barcaldine, Australia, August 15, 1893, page 10 The difficulties between the Indians and whites about Yreka have been amicably settled. The stipulations of the treaty, as we understand from Esquire Steele, one of the commissioners appointed for the purpose of making a treaty with the Indians, are as follows: The Indians are to give up all their firearms and ammunition; return the stock stolen from Mr. Price's farm, and to pay for the mule killed at the above place. They are to have the privilege of remaining in this, or of removing to Scott Valley during the excitement in the Rogue River country, and when those of the tribe who are fighting against the whites in Rogue River Valley shall return, they are to be given up to the whites, who shall treat them as the merits of the case may seem to deserve. When the Indians shall have complied with the above stipulations, the horses taken from them during the skirmish on Shasta River are to be returned, or an equivalent of the same. "Siskiyou," Sacramento Daily Union, September 10, 1853, page 2 A WESTERN HERO.
San Francisco Call.HOW HE EARNED A FORTUNE AND THE HAND OF HER HE LOVED. The History of a California Millionaire--Going to the Pacific Poor and Unknown, He Returns Famous and Claims His Bride-- A Mob Cowed by One Man. There is another tenant gone from one of the palaces on the hill, and another vacant seat on the directorate of our great railroad companies. David Douty Colton died at six minutes after 10 last evening. David Colton's name is identified with the city. He was the son of Isaac W. Colton and Abigail Douty, of Monson, Me., and was born at that hamlet in July 17, 1831. About the time he was five years old his family moved to Galesburg, Ill. This place then consisted of only half a dozen cabins. The region was then an almost unbroken wilderness, and swarmed with hostile Indians. Schools were scarce and poor at best, of course, teaching merely the rudiments of an ordinary common school education; but the boy's parents were New Englanders, and consequently devoted to education, and David was kept pretty closely in the schools--such as they were. Finally, an academy was established at Galesburg, and David was at once enrolled as a student. It was called Knox College, and is still in existence. But the boy was too restless for a steady pupil. He soon tired of the restraint of the school room, and the humdrum course of maps, elocution and figures, and, leaving the academy, went to the neighboring village of Berlin, where he taught a country school. He was only seventeen years old, and many of his pupils were still older. The old story was repeated. The unruly boys agreed to throw the new teacher out of the window the first day, as they had served every one of his predecessors. The feat was attempted, and a fierce fight ensued, lasting half an hour. Tables, desks and benches were broken, the stove was overturned and windows were smashed. Armed with a heavy ferrule, the boy teacher laid about him lustily, and after a thirty minutes' battle was master of the field, after having broken half a dozen heads and laid as many rebels low. The Berlin school after that was a model. About this time he became attached to Ellen M. White, daughter of Dr. Chauncey White, physician and old resident of Chicago. He paid court to the young lady, but the parent objected, wishing a richer man than Colton for his daughter. Ellen, however, reciprocated the young man's attachment, and the pair were betrothed. Colton seemed to think he could gain the necessary fortune in California, where the gold fever had just broken out, and asked the Doctor if he would consent to the marriage, providing he did well in California. The Doctor agreed, although it is said that he gave his consent in the hope that Colton would fall a victim to a bullet or a fever in the gold regions. This was in 1850, and in July of that year Colton arrived in Sacramento, after a monotonous journey across the plains. He immediately went to work mining at $10 per day, but soon after his arrival was seized with typhoid fever of a malignant type. For six long weeks he tossed in the delirium of the fever under a tree without even a tent to shelter him. His iron constitution withstood the fever, however, and when he became convalescent came to San Francisco, as all invalid miners are wont to do. Although penniless on his arrival, he managed to raise sufficient money for a steerage passage to Portland in a schooner, and arrived there in the winter of 1850. He taught school in Portland some months, and tried to practice law, but did not succeed. In the spring Gen. Joe Lane, afterward United States Senator from Oregon, arrived in Portland from the Siskiyou Mountains, bringing news of a rich gold discovery at Shasta Butte. He organized a party and Colton joined it, and the expedition started at once for the Siskiyou country. While mining on the banks of the Klamath River the camp had a battle with Indians, which well nigh proved the death of Colton. The chief of all the bands of the Klamath Indians, called "Chinook Chief" by the whites, one day enticed two miners, named Converse and Haynes, from Illinois, across the river, under the pretense that he would show them a rich deposit of gold. The unsuspecting miners crossed the river and were murdered by the savages. A day or two afterward Colton and a companion, happening to be across the river, saw the chief decked out in the miners' clothes, and found they had been massacred. The savages attempted to capture Colton and his fellow miner, but they escaped, organized a band of miners, recrossed the river, and drove the Klamaths away after a battle in which many Indians were killed. Chinook Chief escaped for the time being, but Colton vowed vengeance. With two other daring fellows he penetrated into the wilderness, captured Chinook Chief alive, and conveyed him back to the settlements. Chinook Chief was hanged with no more ceremony than was usually accorded to desperadoes in early days. This feat made Colton a great favorite among the miners of the Siskiyou country. They swore they would establish "Siskiyou County" and make Colton sheriff of it. The county was accordingly created, and Colton was elected sheriff. After the election, however, it was discovered that he was ineligible to the office, not being twenty-one years old. The miners were deeply chagrined, but there was no help for the matter, and so it was compromised by the election of Charles McDermott as sheriff and the appointment of Colton as undersheriff. At the expiration of his office McDermott retired, and Colton immediately succeeded him. Shortly after his accession to the sheriffalty Mr. Colton returned to Galesburg in quest of his betrothed. His fame had preceded him, and the Doctor no longer objected to the marriage, and David married Ellen and carried her back to California in triumph. From the California Mail Bag. Colton held the office of Sheriff of Siskiyou County four years, and this during the wildest period of border life upon the Pacific. At one time, in the year 1853, while riding in the mountains, he learned from a friendly Indian that the family of a mountaineer named Johnson was to be attacked and murdered. He at once rode toward the settlement in quest of aid, but found a narrow pass upon which his road lay guarded by Indians expressly to prevent assistance reaching the family. He dashed through the gorge, however, taking their fire as he passed, one ball going through his hat within an inch of his head, and another forward the horn of his saddle. In two hours he was back among them at the head of twenty-five mounted settlers, and in time to save the Johnson family from massacre. The miners were restless fellows. Among other peculiarities they could never be content to await the action of the regular courts for the punishment of crime. If a criminal was lodged in jail, it would often occur that the first Sunday after his arrest the collected crowd of miners would open the doors, hold lynch court, and either release or hang him, as they believed to be just and in accordance with rude frontier law. A case of this kind occurred while Colton was undersheriff. A Frenchman had committed a homicide in a brawl over cards. The poor fellow was unknown and friendless, and, besides, could not speak a word of English. The crowd collected, as usual, and his destruction was resolved upon. They proceeded to the jail in a body, and demanded that the doors be opened. The demand was speedily complied with--indeed, we believe at that time the sovereign authority of a mob in such matters had never in California been questioned. The Frenchman was taken out and hanged. Colton, the undersheriff, was absent at San Francisco at the time, and learned only upon his return what had happened. He took strong ground against Judge Lynch, and then and there promised the orderly portion of the community, for such there were, and who had seen most reluctantly the late execution, that should he be elected sheriff the jail doors should not be opened except by lawful authority. He soon afterward had an opportunity of showing how sincerely the pledge was made. A ditch company had commenced operations near Yreka, and was selling water to the miners. There was a dispute in some way about the right, followed by injunctions and restraining orders. The miners--and it happened they were the same crowd who hanged the Frenchman--were arrayed against the water company. The ditch was cut, and a miner imprisoned for contempt of court in cutting it contrary to a restraining order. The miners felt that their authority was superior to that of the courts. Their friend was incarcerated, and must be released. They had always been in the habit of breaking into the jail to execute popular justice, and now they would do the same to relieve their friend. They assembled in the evening, two hundred in number, and marched up to the jail. They demanded that the doors be opened. The jail keeper referred them to the Sheriff, and asked for time. It was granted, no one dreaming of resistance. The Sheriff was sent for. He came, but to the surprise of all declined to surrender the prisoner. He was sheriff, so he said, "and sworn to serve the law." The mob laughed derisively at first. It was a joke. He must yield, so they declared, and, if wise, would yield gracefully. But the Sheriff was in dead earnest. He said: "You can't come in unless you kill me first." This speech put an end to the laughter, at least, for the matter looked serious. The miners had not come to kill a sheriff, nor with the expectation of being obliged to do it. But they had come to get their man, and him they would not go away without. So a parley ensued, and in the meantime his undersheriff, Major White, slipped a pistol into the Sheriff's hand. Up to that moment he had been unarmed. There was more talk and more threats. The crowd said: "Go about your business and don't make a d----d fool of yourself," and the Sheriff reiterated the statement that he "stood upon the law and his duty, and that the door should not be entered save across his dead body." Here was a deadlock; neither would yield. At last it was brought to an end by an angry miner who could stand it no longer, saying, "Then die, you d----d fool, if you insist on it," cocking and presenting a revolver. Colton did not wait for him to fire, but banged away at the speaker, knocking him over, and kept it up till his pistol was empty, the crowd scampering off the grounds as fast as they could run, leaving the Sheriff for the moment in possession of the building. But they did not run far. They had been taken by surprise, and now, for the first time, were angry. They rallied when out of range of the pistol, and soon formed to march back, vowing vengeance. This time they would do more than release a prisoner--they would hang a sheriff. And so they would have done, but for the fact that the law-abiding citizens of Yreka had now come to the defense of the jail, and the Sheriff was in force sufficient to beat off the attack. The mob was driven away, leaving several dead, and carrying with them still more wounded. The front of the jail where Colton stood when he first opened fire was marked with nearly a hundred balls, yet he received only two, and these only trifling wounds. It is almost needless to add that no prisoners were ever afterward taken out of Siskiyou County jail, either to be hanged or liberated, and the mob spirit throughout the whole coast received a most decided check from the prompt and determined action of Sheriff Colton, backed up by his fellow citizens of Yreka. Upon the reception of the news Governor John Bigler at once appointed Colton to be Brigadier General of Militia for the northern portion of the state. Several years ago he became a large stockholder in the Pacific system of railways, and was prominent in the directory thereof. He was vice president of the Southern Pacific Road, financial director of the Central Pacific, and president of the Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company. But neither the increase of his wealth nor his devotion to business seems to have imparted sordidity to his character. The gifts of fortune he regarded as a means of social and intellectual culture in the family and state. He took great pride in his home, and his mansion, known as the Colton House, is one of the features of California Street Hill [in San Francisco], famous for its magnificent residences. It is filled with works of art from all parts of the world, selected with good judgment and care. His library is the delight of every scholar who enters it and contains many rare works. In all respects the home of the deceased millionaire was one of beauty, luxury, and best of all--happiness. The affection between himself and family is too well known to be enlarged upon here. Evansville Daily Journal, Evansville, Indiana, October 27, 1879, page 2 A REMINISCENCE OF EARLY DAYS IN
THE MOUNTAINS.
In the month of May, 1852, a man named Hinckley, who carried an express
between Shasta City and Yreka, via the Sacramento River trail (the one
then mostly traveled by those who passed between those points), brought
a message to me from a party of miners, or rather prospectors, who were
then encamped on the Sacramento River a mile beyond the "Sugar Loaf," a
high and conical peak, as its name would indicate, which was separated
from the "Devil's Backbone" by a creek that flowed into the river. This
"Devil's Backbone" was a ridge which ran parallel with the river for
several miles, and was vertebrated--that is, had a succession of high
points and depressions, alternately.BY DR. T. T. CABANISS. Along this Backbone the trail passed, and over it all of the goods for Yreka were carried on mules. On this trail Indians would lie in ambush and attack the trains. Men and mules were often killed, and nothing but the indomitable pluck of the early Californians saved anything which was in their care. It was a common occurrence for a few men armed with pistols to conduct a large train along this route, and defend it against kinds of Indians, who at that time were armed with bows and arrows--the wounds of which were always fatal if a vital part was reached, as the head of the arrow came off when the sinew with which it was fastened would become softened by the warm blood. The messenger stated that a man named James Faulds (from Louisville, Kentucky ) had been shot by an Indian thirty miles from Shasta, and that he wished me to go to him. He had been wounded three or four days, but the danger of traveling this trail was so great that no one of his party would venture to leave, and waited until the expressman came along. Between the place and Shasta there was not a habitation at that time. Having bought a horse I made my arrangements to leave the next morning. James Coates, brother of Thomas Coates, who was a Representative in the State Legislature from Siskiyou, in 1852, also hired a mule for a man named Bill Hooper, who mined and dealt monte, accordingly as one or the other "panned out." At any rate, he was at this time mining on Dog Creek, fifty miles above Shasta, and wanted to go to his claim, as some of the sharp ones--"Keno Sam" perhaps one of the number--had drawn "waxed cards" on him and "cleaned him out to the bedrock." Bill Hooper was an honest man, according to the estimate then put upon people. He would gamble--and win, if he could. If he lost he would pay, and like nearly all then in California, would go to the mines to recuperate. When fortune favored him again he would return, pay his hotel, gambling and other bills like an honest man, and perhaps lose the balance. He was as brave as Julius Caesar, and if you got into a "tight place" you could depend on his staying with you. None but the old settlers in this country can appreciate the difference which existed in all the elements of honesty and true nobility of soul in favor of the pioneers against the subsequent immigration to California. Propriety would forbid comparisons being drawn, and therefore I will not do so. They came to a wild and unknown country, exposed to all dangers incident thereto, and with pick, shovel, ax and rifle opened an empire for others to follow and reap all the profits from their labor and hardship. All honor to the pioneers of California! and may the day come when their services and sacrifices will be appreciated. Bill Hooper and myself left Shasta City in the morning and took the trail for the upper Sacramento. Nothing transpired to attract attention until we had gone about half the distance from one end to the other of the "Devil's Backbone." As we turned a point in the trail we saw two Indians coming towards us, apparently unconscious of our being near, and as it was then considered fair to shoot any or all Indians who might be found in that part of the country, preparations were made for that purpose. Concealing ourselves behind some bushes at a turn in the trail, we drew our pistols and awaited the approach of the Indians. On they came, each one with a short pole on his shoulder. When within a few yards of us we saw that they were dressed in the clothing of white men, and we knew in a moment that they were not hostile, as the Indians at that time were in a nude state, except having a deer skin thrown over their shoulders. These men had been up the river with a pack train, and were now on their way to Cottonwood, in Shasta County. The poles were the representatives of guns, and were to deceive the wild Indians, as General Magruder did General McClellan at Yorktown with cannon made of logs. Continuing on our route we at last came to the end of the Backbone, and descended it to a creek. There we ascended the "Sugar Loaf," and crossing it halted at the foot. Here we fed our animals some barley, and then as the sun was down, and we had not found the party of miners, discussed their whereabouts. Hooper thought that they must be about ten miles away, and that we would have to travel on. We resumed our journey, and going a few hundred yards saw a fire on a large flat to the right of the trail. To this we rode, and there were the men whom we sought. I found Faulds shot in the stomach, and suffering intensely with hiccough. Having administered something to relieve him, we then listened to the recital of the affair. The party had encamped on this fiat, and had when night came tied their animals to trees nearby. Two fires were made, one at either end of the camp, and Faulds and Bill Fox stood guard. Just before day Faulds heard the horses at his end of the camp make a noise, and went to them. He stood within the light of the fires, and was visible to anyone on the outside. He thought he saw an object moving along the flat towards a large tree nearby, and he brought his gun to his shoulder. The object was stationary, and he might be deceived. The gun was dropped across his arm, and again the object moved. The second time he failed to shoot, and the gun was dropped as before. At that moment he felt a stinging pain, and heard the rebound of the bow. An arrow had pierced his body. As quick as thought he drew it from his body, but the barb remained buried within his stomach. No surgical aid could relieve him, and he was destined to fill a grave near the banks of the Sacramento, one of the hundreds of victims to Indian arrows, many of whose bones lie scattered in the gulches and on the mountains of California. The day following Faulds died, and we dug a grave for him. Wrapping the body in his blankets, we lowered him into his resting place, and then partly filled the grave with stones and logs, that the coyotes and Indians might not disturb his remains. The task being done, it was necessary for me to return to Shasta. To go alone was not very pleasant, and filled with much danger. While thinking of the best thing to be done, three sailors came along, en route for Shasta, and they would act as an escort. We started, and proceeded on the way without anything of note to disturb us until we reached the "Backbone." At the foot of this we had dismounted and prepared to walk to the top. Being in advance of the party, I had reached the ridge, and there to my surprise and apprehension found a fence, made of poles and brush, across the trail. The tracks of Indians were fresh and numerous, and it was evident they were nearby. In a moment I took shelter in a cluster of manzanita bushes, and stood on the defensive, awaiting the attack. None was made, and my companions coming up we wended our way along the trail. Having gone a few miles we met a party of men, Major Lane and Grant Aury, now in Arizona, among them, who were on their way to Oregon to purchase cattle. Two of my companions remained with this party, and with the other I continued the trip. We came to Squaw Creek, and left the trail to give our animals a little grass. Here we remained for a few minutes, but as if some guardian angel had whispered to me, the thought occurred that we were in a dangerous situation. We left the place and made our way back to the trail. In a moment afterwards we heard a voice, and looking up to the side of the mountain, and within a few hundred yards, sat an Indian watching, with the intention of ambushing us as soon others would join him, had we remained near the river. We reached Shasta safely that night. Before we did so, however, we met a large pack train on the way up, and knew then why the Indians had made the fence, and why they had not attacked us. They were expecting the pack train, and when the mules came to this fence they would huddle together, and in the confusion some would be killed or stampeded, and the Indians would get the goods. A few days after the events here narrated, Dr. Horsley was going up to Yreka, and having camped on the flat upon which Faulds was buried, found his body above ground, and his blankets taken away. The Indians had done this, and there he remained until the doctor and his party reinterred him. A few days after the Indians again went to the grave, and with sharp sticks dug to his body, and finding no blankets left him to rest. Of the eighteen men who composed the party with Faulds, Olmstead, of Yreka, is the only one living. The West Shore, Portland, February 1, 1880, pages 26-27 DOWN THE KLAMATH.
The Early History of Some Famous Mining Camps. How Happy Camp Received its Name--The Tragedy of Buckeye Bar-- Sailor Diggings and "Sidney Ducks" Reminiscences. (Written for the Sunday Oregonian.)
When the Siskiyou Mountains shall have been pierced, and the last spike
driven at the Cottonwood Junction of the Oregon & California
and
the California & Oregon railroads, then will there be opened up
a
new country of varied promise along the southern base of the mountains,
which has hitherto yielded to the world of commerce aught but its
little mite of gold. The adjacent mountains and hills on either side of
the Klamath River are rich in minerals; the valleys and the river and
creek bottoms are fertile, while the extensive timber resources of pine
and oak will, ere long, invite capital to their development. The
tourist will find ample and majestic scenery down the rapid river to
satisfy his mind, be it ever so craving for that which is majestic and
weird. But a short distance below Cottonwood Junction the river enters
something like a canyon, through which it continues till past its
confluence with Shasta River, when the hills on the south become lower
and rolling, of a conspicuous granite formation, and covered with pine
and white oak. This general aspect continues for a little over twenty
miles when the hills on the south rise higher and granite gives place,
in a great degree, to slate, which is thickly seamed with quartz. Below
Scott River and to its mouth the river is in a canyon, through numerous
and extensive bottoms are found along its course. Its channel is from
eighty to 100 yards wide. Fifty miles from its source it strikes the
southern base of the Siskiyou Mountains and sweeps often in angry
turbulent rapids, as often in calm, deep volume, or smiling ripples,
close under the shadows of their rugged summit and forest-clad sides,
in nearly a westerly course till, piercing the rocky range of the
coast, it winds grandly among timbered heights and grass-clothed hills
till lost in the foaming sea. The timber around Cottonwood Junction is
of fine growth, and grows better as the miles decrease toward the
ocean. Much of the pine is of the large cone-bearing species (Pinus
lambertiana of Douglas), though the cones are
not so large as they are on the Klamath marsh, or in Josephine County,
Oregon. The white oak (Quercus densiflora)
[actually Quercus garryana]
is found in profusion; it is tough, and equal in all respects to that
imported from the East. The black or red oak is not met with till below
the mouth of Scott River, thence it continues on to near the coast. The
madrone (Arbutus menziesii),
or, as Bret Harte terms it, "the harlequin of the woods," is met with.
It has a fine grain, but is not susceptible of high polish, nor is it
noted for its lasting qualities, so it has not yet been introduced into
any kind of work with marked satisfaction. The country south of the
junction, for about eight miles, ought properly to be termed the
Klamath Valley, but beyond that the long, fertile valley of Shasta
River takes control. During our rambles down the Klamath's tortuous
course we will glance at its past history, as rich in materials for
romance as in stubborn facts for sober recitation. From Cottonwood
Junction to the sea its channel, bars and beaches have yielded
bountifully in gold to the patient miner; to the farmer its rich
alluvial bottoms have not withheld their bounties, while its hillsides
and bars yield immense
CROPS OF LUSCIOUS
FRUITS
which
will, ere long, find its way into the Portland market and the East. For
near 100 miles from Cottonwood Junction it flows close to the Oregon
line, and has been in the past, as it will continue to be in the
future, closely allied in history and interests to our state of Oregon.
Early in 1850 miners from the south came upon its waters near
Cottonwood and prospected down the river for gold. Oregonians en route
to the lower mines followed the first explorers, but no gold was found
in paying quantities, and the first prospectors left it to its solitude
as a nonproductive stream. Several creeks coming into it from the north
and south were also prospected and with like results. One of these
small streams, of considerable length, coming into the river from the
south, attracted sufficient attention to be christened, in the bluff
parlance of the day, "Humbug" Creek. This creek eventually proved
immensely rich and drew to the Klamath another rush of sturdy miners in
1852. Down the river, over a hundred miles away, prospectors came over
the Siskiyou Mountains from the Shasta mines late in 1849, and built
their cabins on the yet pure stream. In 1850 the miners below were
fully content with their prospects, and but few of them ventured to go
above. From the advent of the miners upon the stream below the natives
became morose; the first half-year passed by and many had been killed
and two villages burned. With the white man came death to the tribes,
and today you can ride a hundred miles on the middle river and an
Indian cannot be seen. Instead of the miner's tent and Indian's camp of
sticks and mats today the painted houseAND FLOWERS AND
FRUITS
have
softened the early harshness, and relieve the eyes and gladdens the
heart of the thrifty owner--perhaps of some old and bent and shattered
miner, who remembers the sufferings of the past and rejoices that
comfort and plenty now rule the hour.Buckeye Bar, twenty miles below Cottonwood, was located in 1852, and was worked with indifferent success until, two years later, it became of importance as a mining camp, and worked up a little history of its own in August, 1855. Prior to the above date, many of the bars and upper benches of the river had been brought into cultivation, upon which all of the necessary vegetables of garden culture were produced in abundance, and the miners' habitual meal of beef, bread and tea or coffee was supplemented by potatoes, turnips and cabbage; the luxury of tomatoes and melons were enjoyed at the same time, and a few garden flowers added to the homelike beauty of budding civilization. Keeping pace--but slowly--with the march of progress on the banks of the beautiful mountain stream, the church and the school house rose up in bold relief on the river flat, on the elevated bench, on the lovely hillside. Back of all this mountain beauty and wealth and enlightenment, in the years when the Indian roamed at will through the oak openings and pine-clad hills, and the bear and the deer had first learned to fear the thunder of the white man's gun, and the limpid streams were changing to red by the wash from the mines, the flaming torch, and treachery and murder were at work to bring about the changes that we see today. At Buckeye Bar, on the south side of the river, twenty men were living and mining on the flats. Opposite their cabins, on the other side of the stream, was a farm house, with a few acres of cultivated ground around it. Three miles below, another small farm and a few mining claims. About the same distance below this was another farm of larger size, at which was a ferry across the river. At several places in the vicinity were Indian camps. Thus matters stood early in the month of August, 1855. It was but a few miles from this vicinity to the Oregon line up on the Siskiyou Mountain. Over the mountain, in the close neighborhood of Buckeye Bar, passed a trail which entered Rogue River Valley near the middle Applegate. Six miles below another trail crossed the mountains to the bend of a creek, which entered Applegate lower down. For several months prior to this time a number of strange Indians, presumably from Rogue River, had resided up the Klamath in the vicinity of these farms and mines, and a change as soon noted in the deportment of the Klamaths, and the apparent institution among them of a new order of officers; or, which would probably be better to say, an order of supervisors, whose duty it was to particularly note and hedge the intercourse of the other Indians with the whites. A suspicion of this was aroused in the minds of the settlers by the fact that after the departure of the strange Indians from the vicinity there were four of the native and well-known Indians who seemed to be invested with a delegated authority to supervise the others of the tribe. Often and in the hearing of white men did these supervisors repeat a few words at a time of something, which the Indian to whom it was applied repeated after them, something like the administration of A LONG IRON-CLAD
OATH,
in
which the expression "Boston cad-e-quitay"--which means bad white
men--was frequent and prominent. Whenever an Indian was found in the
company of the whites by one of these supervisors he was sure to be
immediately required to repeat this oath of allegiance to the great
combination of the tribes of the North Pacific Coast, which broke out
into an open war a little later known as the Indian war of 1855-6.
Sometime in the preceding month of July a few of the river Indians went
over the ridge a distance of six miles to a little mining town on
Humbug Creek, where they obtained a sufficient amount of whiskey to get
them up to a raving spree. One of them, who had for a number of years
previous been a "bell boy" (rider of the bell horse which led a pack
train) for "Coyote" Evans--who was at that time a noted packer--and
rejoiced in the not euphonious name of "Saltpeter," and considered
himself fully up in knowledge and importance to any white man who would
enter into conversation with him, became so inflamed that he declared
that he must whip some white man on general principles. This resulted,
later in the day, in the death of the Indian, and the throwing of his
dead body into a deep "shaft" or prospect hole. The other Indians
returned to their homes on the Klamath. The next day they repaired to
the house of a miner who had, a few months previously, entered into an
agreement with the tribe that, for a certain consideration which he had
received, he would at all future times act as their attorney in any and
all difficulties or disputes which they might in the future have with
the whites. This was the first time that they had called upon him to
act, and were much disappointed and angered when he stubbornly refused
to fulfill his engagements. So they went away and plotted death to this
man, and to all other whites on the river. The man left his house in
the evening and was shot while on his way to a neighbor's cabin. At the
moment of his death, a canoe containing five white men was crossing the
river several hundred yards above. In front of their landing a number
of Indians were concealed in the bushes. As the canoe reached the shore
the Indians fired and killed three of the five, and wounded fatally the
other two. Swimming out to the canoe, they towed it to the shore and
dispatched the wounded men. All this had occurred before the people on
Buckeye Bar were aware of what was being done, though the murders were
committed only a few hundred yards from their homes, but on the
opposite side of the river. The canoe which was captured by the Indians
was the only one belonging to the little settlement, and the miners
could not cross the river and attack the Indians, who danced a greater
part of the night over their victims, in plain view of the people on
the bar. These murders were committed after sunset and the miners on
the bar did not care to traverse the lonely and rocky trail to the
settlements below until the next morning. Then it was too late. The
Indians divided their forces into three squads. One small force
remained to threaten the miners on the bar; another party went down the
river six miles to Pickens' place, another still remained concealed at
the place midway between Buckeye Bar and Pickens'. At the latter place
a man went out at daylight to feed the stock. As he entered the yards a
rifle ball putAN END TO HIS LIFE
and
he did not return to the house. All men went armed in those days, and
the report of the shot did not arouse suspicion, and another man went
out to help him in his morning work. Anther shot and he did not return.
Again another man went out to call them to the morning meal, but he
quickly returned severely wounded. Some horses and mules were taken
from the stables and the Indians decamped and went along an
unfrequented trail to aid in the attack on the place above, where a
small company of Frenchmen were camped near the house, and who were
just over from Illinois Valley on a prospecting tour. It was only
fairly light when three Indians went to their camp in a friendly
manner. Soon four more came from below, and the Frenchmen, with their
usual considerations, offered the savages food as they sat down to
enjoy their morning meal. The offered food was accepted by the savages,
but eaten in a hurried manner. While the kindhearted men were yet
seated around their humble board upon the ground the savages fell upon
them suddenly, killing seven and wounding severely the remaining four.
The wounded men escaped, but left all their stores and the arms of
eight of their number to the Indians. From this place the savages
started up the mountains, firing the dry grass as they fled, and by
noon of that day the whole side of the mountain for six miles of its
length was enveloped in smoke. They were pursued the next day, but to
no purpose. They went over the mountains, down to the Applegate, and
applied the torch to the long-smoldering Indian hostility to the
whites, the flames of which were not subdued till the summer months of
the following year. Fifteen miles below Buckeye Bar, Scott River comes
in from the southeast. Rich in gold, it was long theULTIMA THULE
of
the Oregon drover and packer. With three trails from the Oregon side
over the Siskiyous, the interests of the two sections were so linked
together that they were as one people, so long as prejudices inimical
to one another were not allowed to rule, for at that time there was a
strong line of demarcation between the Webfeet [Willamette Valley residents]
and the Tarheads
[Southern Oregonians].
Three miles below Scott River we come to Hamburg Bar, which yielded
much gold in early days and is now a thriving place in new industries,
and may yet contribute to the Oregon markets quantities of fine fruit
and nuts, for the raising of which no place in the two states is better
adapted. There is a bit of early history attached to the place that
might properly attract our attention. A month after the perpetration,
by the upper Indians, of the murders just mentioned, the citizens of
this bar collected all the friendly Indians in the vicinity, and many
from up Scott River, with the avowed purpose of taking them below and
there placing them in a safe place during the war on the Oregon border,
for the Oregonians were liable at any time to step across the line and
destroy all Indians coming under their observation. All the
males,
eleven in number, were collected at the bar and started down the river
under the lead of a white man in whom they had implicit confidence. A
mile below this bar, as they were passing a narrow defile, a volley of
rifles was fired into the moving line, and before the smoke rose up
from the awful scene all lay dead in the dust and rocks save two, who
were severely wounded, but made their escape and were subsequently
found dead in the willows on the bank of the river several miles below.As we descend the river, the country bordering the stream maintains its general aspect until we reach Happy Camp, thirty miles below Scott River. Here a creek of considerable size comes down from the Siskiyou and empties into the Klamath through a wide bottom, on which, even in those early days, large crops of vegetables were grown to feed the thousand miners who rambled from camp to camp or sought new diggings in the neighboring hills. In the summer of 1850, miners from the lower river slowly made their way up along the stream, prospecting every creek and bar on their route with fair results. On reaching the spot where now stands the mining town of Happy Camp, their efforts were rewarded with more than usual success, and a stop was made for further search. Little by little, their numbers increased, till a hundred or more were camped on the picturesque bar. At first, their supplies came from Shasta City, by the way of Salmon River, then down that stream to the Klamath, then up to the miners above. The goods were packed on horses and mules, and the prices of all things were high. The advent of a train into these mountains was like the coming of a ship from a foreign sea. The winter months came slowly on; the mountaintops began to whiten with snow. Many of the miners returned to the source of the food supply below, intending to return the following year. Trains had met with much difficulty in getting up the river, for the mountainsides were rough and passable trails there were none. Many large creeks came down the mountains, which were difficult and dangerous to cross, and often the Indians barred their way. When winter came on, the tall, rugged mountains all around them were DEEPLY COVERED WITH
SNOW.
They were constrained to be content, though against their will, to
remain in their beautiful mountain home, until the snows should melt on
the mountaintops. They built a large house of rough pine logs; their
bunks were placed in there along the sides. In one end was their fire,
in the other their door, while the roof was covered with bark and
boards. By the middle of winter their food supply was exhausted, but
the snow on the mountains was deep and frozen hard and the deer came
down to the flats and were easily caught for food. A jolly set were
these miners of early days; they took hard times as they came, with the
good, without complaint. For three long, dreary months, while the
ground was hard so that they could not mine, and the mountains were
covered with snow so that they could not get away, they sang and danced
and told their yarns and began to think that they were really the
happiest lot of men on earth. And thus it was that the name of "Happy
Camp" came into vogue, but it has held it own from that day to this.
The Indians were numerous when the whites came among them, but they
quickly began to decrease, and before five years had passed by, but few
remained to mourn for those who were gone. Their houses were burned and
their trails along the river were dug away. Today but a score of men
are left of all those numerous bands who dwelt near that--to
them--unhappy camp. The men who founded the camp were English sailors,
and convicts, and all of their quality were known in those days as "Sydney
ducks,"
who had found their way to the mines among the first of the pilgrims to
the land of gold. The creek upon which the present town now stands was
known then, as now, as Indian Creek. Along this creek from Happy Camp a
trail runs up to the summit of the low divide, then down another of
equal size into Illinois Valley. This was then an old Indian trail, but
has now been developed into something like a road. Up this trail in the
following spring some of the sailors went in search of
gold. They
prospected the flats and gulches and streams, but found no prospects
worthy of note until in a wide, flat gulch on the Oregon side they
found enough pay to make them stop and go to work in earnest. In a few
months the fame of their camp as "Sailor Diggings" became widely
spread. The camp is yet a place of note. It is frequently called Waldo,
and is the depot of supplies for the miners and farmers for miles
around. It is in Josephine County, Oregon, and on the most direct and
only line of travel from Crescent City to Happy Camp.The winter passed away, and the spring of 1851 was open and bright. The miners from below came up to the camp, and miners from above came down in droves, and in the space of a month the benches and bars resounded with the din of a mining camp of unusual size. Stores and saloons and miners' cabins went rapidly up, and its fame as a camp of note spread quickly abroad. As years went by its fame declined as a rich mining camp, yet business went on, but at a slower gait. When Crescent City was built up in 1859 Happy Camp again came up as a favorite place, for it was on the road from the city to the mines above and below. The rich ALLUVIAL BOTTOMS
were
brought into cultivation, and today what was once a silent wilderness
is smiling in plenty. The pine and the oak have given place to
fruit-bearing trees, and where the Indian roamed without control and
chanted his uncanny song the feet of enlightened youth now press the
green, and their joyous shouts echo in the surrounding hills. The
ancient haunts of the bear and the deer in the valleys and timbered
hills are now occupied by lowing herds, while the nightly howls of the
growling wolves are stilled by the watchful dogs.But a few days after the murder of the miners at Buckeye Bar, as before stated, a pack train from Sailor Diggings, on the Oregon side, was crossing the mountains to Happy Camp. The train had reached the summit, twelve miles from the camp, and was quietly winding along the level trail on the top. The large pine trees stand close together on the ridge, and patches of brush are woven between. The train was conducted by three men; one was riding the bell horse, two were driving behind. All was still, and the gentle and regular tinkle of the little bell sounded sweetly, and much like home, through the open woods. Suddenly a crash of rifle shots from flanks and rear disturbed the silent scene. One of the drivers fell dead in the trail; the other one turned and fled to the woods. The rider of the bell horse, severely hurt, made his way to the miners on the head of Indian Creek, a few miles below, and spread the alarm; from thence he went to Happy Camp. That afternoon a small company of men was raised at the camp, and went up to the miners on the creek. Before daylight they began the ascent of the mountains, and in two hours [they] had reached the top. Some mules were found dead on the side of the trail, while others were wounded, but still in sight. They searched for the wounded man till noon, and found him dead by the side of a tree to which he had crawled a short distance from the spot where he fell from his horse. The greater number of the mules were gone, and all the goods that the Indians liked. The sacks of salt and some picks and shovels which comprised a part of the load were left on the ground. The company was increased that day, and then set out on the Indians' trail along the "backbone" of the mountain. The Siskiyou Mountains are usually quite destitute of brush, so much so that to travel their sides or summit is not a work of great difficulty, except in some particular localities, and the Indians made good time in getting away with their prize. From the point where the trail from Buckeye Bar crosses the mountains to Applegate, to the summit where the train was attacked, is about twenty miles by way of the mountain ridge. As soon as the Indians reached the summit on their retreat from Buckeye Bar, they sent their women and goods ahead to the valley beyond, while the men went down to the Happy Camp trail and watched for the coming train. When they had secured their prize they turned back on their trail half way, then descended to Applegate Creek. The company from Buckeye Bar followed them to the summit, then down south in the direction of the Happy Camp trail. They obtained a distant view of the Indians on their way back from the scene of the murder below, but from some cause did not attack them and recover the train. The Happy Camp company followed the trail of the Indians till it descended the mountain to the west, when from lack of supplies they returned, and the search was over. Sailor Diggings are at the upper or southern end of Illinois Valley, and looking south from the town the Siskiyou Mountains are seen to circle around to the right like a horseshoe, and gradually merge INTO THE COAST
RANGE,
which
is but a few miles west of the village. The trail from this place over
the mountain is the last line of travel in the south that connects
Oregon and California by land. Below Happy Camp the timber gradually
increases in volume and variety. The crabapple and dogwood appear, and
with more vigorous growth as we descend the stream; the hills are
covered with larger oaks, and the bottoms with taller trees. The
bottoms are wide and the creeks are large, and seldom the mountains
approach the stream too closely to admit of free passage between them.
On all these bottoms in pioneer days the native villages were many and
large, and today the marks of the past are seen in blackened posts or
rounded holes where once the houses stood. Many miles below, a large
river comes in from the south, at the mouth of which the Indians
formerly resided in great numbers and annually fished for salmon, which
left the Klamath and went up this river in great quantities. It
received the name of Salmon River from that fact. Still lower down we
come to Orleans Bar, once a noted mining camp and formerly the county
seat of the late Klamath County. From this place to the coast other
varieties of timber are to be seen, besides all that grow on the stream
above. The natives are more worthy of study, and the climate is the
most equable that we yet have found. The rain falls here in the summer
months much as it does on the neighboring coast. The natives on the
lower river have never used or understood the Chinook jargon, but
instead taught their own language to the whites, which served all
purposes very well. Below the mouth of Trinity River, which comes into
Klamath from the south, about fifty miles above the coast, but little
mining has been done, and for many years after the settlement of the
upper river this long stretch remained a terra incognita, and was
shunned by all miners as a too-dangerous locality in which to prospect.
All along this stretch of river grows an assortment of the finest
timber in great profusion, which will, ere long, be utilized. The most
notable and valuable variety, and which here grows to its greatest
size, is the laurel, (Oreodaphne californica),
or as it is more commonly called, "myrtle." The writer has seen groves
of it on the Klamath, five miles above the coast, and nearer, growing
so thickly and to such large size that not the slightest ray of
sunshine could penetrate the dark shade of the groves. The groves of
this peculiar and valuable tree on the Coquille are next in value to
those of the Klamath, but far inferior in size and length of trunk. It
was customary in early days for miners to travel on foot over the
mountains and along the rivers in small companies of four or five.
Wishing to cross the river, usually at or near a village, a bargain
would be made with some Indian to ferry them across in his canoe.
Sitting in the canoe on their packs and guns, one savage in the bow,
another in the stern, they would start for the opposite side. When out
in the stream where the water was deep the Indians would rock the canoe
from side to side till it went clear over, and the miners went out. The
Indians, being good swimmers, would soon right the canoe and gather the
packs that were floating off. The white men in the water would soon be
filled with arrows, and in twenty minutes the job would be done. This
mode of disposing of travelers was soon understood by the whites, andRETALIATORY
MEASURES WERE ADOPTED,
which,
though not wholly successful at first, eventually put a stop to it, but
not until the Indians had been reduced in numbers and their villages
reduced to ashes. But still they continued to carry it on whenever a
stranger should pass along and ask to be ferried over the stream. A man
without friends they knew would never be missed, and the chances of
detection were very few. They generally succeeded in escaping detection
,but when found out an Indian or two would be killed, and that would be
the end for a time.The mania for mining was then strong with the many, but that for making new counties was equally strong with the few, and as soon as the mines on the Klamath and its tributaries had been established the county of Klamath was carved out, and extended north to the Oregon line. The contest between the seaport town of Crescent City in the north, and Orleans Bar, up the Klamath, waxed warm, for the conformation of the country was such that the people of one section of the country must necessarily suffer much inconvenience in getting to the seat of justice and the county records. A compromise was at last effected, and the new county of Del Norte was born; so each section at last had a court of its own. Years rolled on, and the golden harvest on that lower Klamath and its tributary streams was gathered in, and the busy miners left for other fields. And the county was left without support. The officials held on to the cherished cribs, but the county credit was gone, and so was the cash. The county of Klamath was then quietly disrupted and added to Siskiyou and Del Norte. And now the county of Del Norte is a near neighbor to the county of Curry, in Oregon. Their interests are not inimical, and all the business of trade of the lower part of Curry is done in Crescent City. Curry County, neglected, almost unknown, will yet came to the front with her inherent resources of gold, coal, timber and extensive grazing fields. Her coastline is rich in ancient deposits for extensive and successful ethnological research. In succeeding articles, in connection with local history, the lower Klamath tribes and those of the coast from Gold Bluff to Rogue River, together with a sketch of the aboriginal Kjokken-moddings, or ancient shell heaps, will be dwelt upon. Nor will it be forgotten to notice the different species of valuable timber along the coastline, the edible native fruits and the deposits of gold in the sand on the beach. O. W. OLNEY.
Sunday
Oregonian, Portland, November 29, 1885, page 3THE DEBATABLE LAND.
The Border of Oregon and California--Indian Wars There. The Massacre Upon the Klamath--Two Hundred Californians Propose to Take Fort Lane--Goodall's Account of a War for Glory.
The
Humbug War is an episode of the Indian hostilities which extended from
the year 1850 to 1856. It took place in July and August, in the latter
year [actually, it was
1855], and originated in a drunken quarrel, as described
by the author of the History
of Siskiyou County, California, an accurate and
valuable book.
Two Indians, Shastas probably, were drunk at Lower Humbug Creek, near Yreka, and got into a fight with a white man named Peterson, who tried to find out the individual who sold them liquor. [Contemporary accounts call him "Peters."] Peterson was shot at by one of them, but as he fell he, too, fired, wounding his adversary in the abdomen. The report of the affray was immediately circulated and the miners turned out in large numbers to revenge the "outrage" upon the natives. Two companies of volunteers were formed, who found an encampment of them upon the Klamath, and through the aid of John Alban, who swam the river and procured canoes in which to cross, a parley was had and the Indians surrendered three of their number, with whom the whites started back to Humbug. When a considerable distance had been passed over, the three Indians broke from their captors and two of them made good their escape. The other was recaptured, and, being taken to Humbug, was examined before Justice McGownd [Josiah L. McGowan?] for complicity in the killing of Peterson, but was discharged for want of evidence and sent back to the Klamath, escorted by whites. Meanwhile, the two escaped Indians returned to their friends, and that night--July 28 [1855]--a band of the disaffected natives passed down the river and murdered all but three of the miners working between the mouths of Little Humbug and Horse creeks. The victims numbered eleven, and the others only owed their lives to the barking of a dog. The killed were Wm. Hennessey, Austin Gay, Peter Hignight, John Pollock, four Frenchmen and two Mexicans. When the man in charge of the Indian sent back from Humbug arrived at the Klamath and learned what had taken place the night before, they promptly shot their prisoner and tumbled his body into the river. "Long John" Elliott captured an Indian who was returning from Yreka, where he had been to get his gun repaired, and the poor savage was taken to Cody's store and shot and thrown into a prospect hole. When the news reached Yreka, the inhabitants became much excited. They found two Indians in town, whom they immediately arrested. The two were released next morning, but were again taken up by the citizens, who decided to hang them. Ropes were procured, and the savages were suspended to the limb of a pine tree opposite H. B. Warren's residence. The mob, now about two hundred strong, next made a raid upon some negro shanties belonging to George W. Tyler, the now-notorious Judge Tyler, of San Francisco, of unsavory connection with the celebrated Sharon-Hill divorce case. Tyler was ever an extremely determined man, and on the occasion of the attack by the mob he stood in front of the door, pistol in hand, and dared the leaders to advance. This cowed the mob, and they withdrew, leaving Tyler's property and his tenants intact. Some miners on Deadwood Creek arrested an Indian who was working peacefully on a claim and took him to Yreka. A long rope was fastened to his waist and men led him as far as Lime Gulch, a mile from town, where someone fired a shot from an old cabin, which wounded the prisoner. He was galvanized into sudden action by this, and bounding forward snatched a pistol from the belt of a man in front of him, but before he could use it he was disarmed and thrown into a prospect hole and then shot to death. Several other savages were killed in a similar way, none of whom were known to have been concerned in the murders on the Klamath. Preparations for a regular campaign against the Indians were made generally, and about the 1st of August five companies of volunteers, chiefly from Yreka and Humbug, were organized, commanded by Captain John X. Hale, William Martin, R. M. Kelly, Dr. Daniel Ream, and Lynch. Seventeen of the men were mounted, the rest, numbering about 180, went afoot. Traveling north, they followed the trail of a band of Indians, men, women and children, who started from the north side of the Klamath and went toward the Fort Lane reservation. They went on, upon the natives' heels, crossing the Siskiyou Range and traveling down Applegate Creek. They halted first above the mouth of Sterling Creek, where Capt. Ankeny's great hydraulic mine now is, and held a meeting to resolve on a plan of future action. It was clear to them that the suspected Indians had got to the reservation at Table Rock and taken refuge behind the guns of the regular army, whose practice was in such cases to shelter and protect the natives against white men, regardless of what outrages were laid to their charge. It accordingly seemed well to the volunteers to hold a meeting and pass resolutions by which their feelings and grievances would become known to Capt. A. J. Smith, commander at Fort Lane. E. S. Mowry was chairman of this meeting, and Dr. Ream secretary. The resolutions were as follows [full text here]:
WHEREAS,
Certain Indians * * * ruthlessly and without provocation murdered
eleven or more of our fellow citizens, a portion of whom have escaped
to the Fort Lane Reservation * * *
We respectfully request Capt. Smith and Mr. Palmer, the Indian agent, that they would if in their power deliver up to us the fugitive Indians * * * in three days from date, and if at the end of that time they are not delivered up, we would most respectfully beg of Capt. Smith and the Indian agent free permission to go and apprehend the Indians and take them wherever found. Resolved, if at the end of three days the Indians are not delivered to us, and the permission to seek for them is not granted, then we will on our own responsibility go and take them wherever they can be found, at any and all hazards. E.
S. MOWRY,
These
resolutions being presented
to Capt. Smith, he said that the Indians would not be surrendered. It
was then announced to him that they would be taken by force if not
surrendered peaceably. Smith, a very eccentric and choleric man, fell
into a rage and ordered the committee from his presence, defying them
to proceed in their intention. The Siskiyou soldiery then removed their
camp from Sterling Creek to a point on Jackson Creek, two miles below
Jacksonville, and set about maturing plans to take the fort, or at
least the fugitive Indians, two of whom were known to be in the
guardhouse.J. N. HALE, A. D. LAKE, WM. PARISH, A. HAWKINS, Committee. The first plan devised was to entice most of the regulars out of the fort and make them drunk upon whiskey, whereby the defenses would be much weakened and the fort's capture result. Smith mounted two howitzers at the entrance to the fortification, made preparations for a siege, and waited. Owing to the strict regulations in force at all military posts, the regulars could not obtain leave to visit the "besiegers," and consequently could not be made drunk in the wholesale way necessary to the success of the plan. By the time its failure became manifest, dissensions broke out in the camp of the volunteers, and some of them seceded and left for home. The remainder followed within a few hours, convinced that a war against the government was not a sensible project. So closed the Humbug War. It is a surprising fact, but nevertheless a fact, that the men engaged in this insane attempt received pay from the government for the time they were out! Appropriations made by Congress for this purpose were distributed to the survivors and heirs some fifteen years since. WAR
AGAINST THE MODOCS.
It had
become the fashion in
Northern California and Southern Oregon to carry on a military campaign
each recurring summer against the Indians. At first these "wars" were
not of much consequence in a pecuniary point of view, but
after
Congress, in 1855, set the fashion of paying the bills incurred on
account of these expeditions, war was popularized in all ranks of
society. Individuals of political tendencies embraced it as a ready and
efficient means of attaining popularity. Thrifty speculators loved it
because there was money in it. Farmers favored it because it raised the
price of farm produce. The riffraff, the ragtag and bobtail of towns,
cities and mining camps favored it because it afforded them ready means
of at once getting a living at public expense, and of gratifying their
tastes for bloodletting, particularly Indian blood. In 1856, John D.
Cosby and David D. Colton, respectively major general and brigadier
general of the California militia, put their heads together at Yreka
and concocted a scheme for a campaign which, for the acquisition of
political influence, glory and renown, should throw all other and
previous Indian campaigns into the shade, from the time of Mad
Anthony Wayne
down to the Humbug War, which men were not yet done laughing about down
in Siskiyou. This campaign was to be thorough; it was to be expensive;
it was to leave no form or occupation for succeeding campaigners. What
was done was never so well told as is set forth below by Capt. Goodall,
who like Ulysses, might have said, "All of which I saw and part of
which I was." The captain held a position upon the staff of Cosby, who
was well surrounded by generals, colonels, majors, captains, adjutants
and quartermasters, to such an extent that it has often been said in
joke that all grades were well represented in this campaign excepting
privates. Capt. Goodall's account, while doing more than justice to the
conduct and results of the expedition, has the merit of being a most
concise relation, unsurpassable for vigor and point:MODOC
INDIAN DISTURBANCES OF 1856.
Early in
the summer of 1856, Maj.
Gen. John D. Cosby and Brig. Gen. Colton, at the mining camp of Yreka,
held a conference about repressing Modoc hostilities, which had been
going on more or less since the close of the Ben Wright
campaign against these Indians in the summer and fall of 1852. These
Indians had evinced implacable hostility to the whites from the
earliest influx of the latter--to dig gold and develop the rich valleys
of the mountain and lake region lying on the watershed of Klamath and
Pit rivers. In alliance with the Klamath River and lake Indians to the
north and west of them, and of the Pit River Indians to their south and
southeast, who were equally hostile and implacable, and occupying the
tules of Tule Lake for themselves, with Lost River and its rich valley
for hunting and fishing, as well as Tule Lake itself, into which they
could retreat in canoes to islands constructed of masses of tule, with
the lava
beds
immediately adjacent to the lake on the south to fall back into, their
position and surroundings were rather formidable in a military point of
view, or to use a frontier phrase the "Injuns was hard to get at, and
when you kotch him he wuzzent thar." Under these well-known
circumstances and difficulties of the situation, the general
commanding, who was determined to protect the settlements at all
hazards, determined to call for volunteers and picked men, and to
appoint an able and efficient staff, all of which was immediately done,
and with three companies under Captains Martin, Williams and Ballard,
and a fair equipment of arms, ammunition and horses, the troops being
all mounted for scouting service, and a good supply of subsistence and
boats, taken in wagons, the command headed by the general in person
marched promptly to the Lost River country, distant seventy miles, and
took post at Willow Springs, on Clear Lake, in close juxtaposition to
the Modoc stronghold and in the heart of their country. During this
march, which lay along the line of Little Klamath Lake, and thence
across Lost River at the natural bridge, and thence across the desert
to the north and in front of Tule Lake, the general sent out strong
scouting parties to feel of the Indians, in which Lieut. Warmouth and
John Alban were killed. Alban, an intrepid scout and frontiersman, was
deeply regretted, and was buried with the honors of war. He had served
under Jo Lane in the disturbances in Rogue River Valley in 1853, and
had been in that war one of the picked scouts whenever Lane wanted
important information.Gen. Cosby's plan of operations were carried on by sending out detachments in the direction of Pit River in the southeast, to the east and northeast towards Goose Lake--and to the north and west to the country of Lalakes, a chief of the Klamaths, living on Wocus Lake. In one of these expeditions the wigwam of Lalakes was burnt and an Indian camp nearby was surprised and destroyed, and a day or two after on the march to Big Klamath Lake, through a country magnificent and grand in mountain scenery, lakes, portages, valleys, mammoth springs of sparkling water, fish and Indian roots used as food, an almost perfect paradise for Indians or anybody else--we succeeded in destroying another Indian fishing and hunting camp and in killing one buck Indian, on the river that debouches into Big Klamath Lake, and just above the lake. Camping for the night on the left bank of this river in front, just before dark a mounted Indian, evidently a chief, approached the camp, having the river in his front for protection, and in classic Chinook jargon told us that we had invaded his country and had that day killed one of his braves and destroyed a camp. That his heart was good to the whites, and his hands and the hands of his tribe were unstained by the blood of any white man. In reply to this the general informed the chief that he was at war with the Modocs and their allies, and if the chief's heart was as good as he said it was he would send a mounted detachment, early in the morning, to inspect his camp in the tules of the lake, and, if the chief's heart was good, a favorable and friendly reception of the detachment would prove it. At daylight a detachment under Bob Williams were in the saddle, crossed the river above at a shoal, and proceeded to the Indian camp at the tules, proceeding to the latter part of the way on foot, the muck and mire being impracticable for horses. Their reception in the Indian camp was friendly. They proffered hospitalities and protested friendly feelings for the whites, and the result was that Tu-tup-carks, a chief, promised to come to our camp speedily for a peace talk and treaty of amity, and that he would confer with the Modoc chiefs on his way, as there were relations between his tribe and the Modocs, and friendly relations with all the tribes might in this way be brought about. In one of the expeditions to Pit River a camp was destroyed and some prisoners brought in, and in a scout one day along the line of Tule Lake a strong south wind forced some Indian canoes within range of our rifles, and we captured two canoes with squaws and papooses, the squaws telling us afterwards that the bucks, to escape our rifles, had got into the water and clung to the tule with only their heads out. This was very near the scene of the Bloody Point massacre of immigrants in 1852, which called out the campaign of Ben Wright. As we all got wet in this skirmish and were nearly chilled to death by the cold, stiff breeze, the bucks concealed in the tule must have had a merry old time, and as we remained some time on the ground the bucks must have thought the Bostons wake klose ["Americans not good"]. The boat operations were carried on by a special detachment, the boats, working with both oars and paddles, being made to hold six men with arms and subsistence, and every dry tule-bed island that could be found was burned to the water's edge. The greatest loss, however, to the Modocs was the burning of their winter houses, built in the surrounding hills, with cellars for warmth in winter and deep snow, and with considerable pretensions to architecture and especially to comfort. It seemed a pity to burn these winter houses and leave the poor Modocs out in the cold, but Gen. Cosby decided to do it and detailed Capt. Goodall to perform the duty with a special detachment, and it was effectually done by drumming around in the hills and in concealed places and setting them on fire. The most arduous and fatiguing of these scouts was the one to Little Klamath Lake. Connected to this lake is a vast bed of tule, interspersed with lagoons and patches of water, and in the midst a mountain, a very Indian stronghold. The general headed the expedition to this point in person, and quite a lot of the mats, baskets and fishing tackle was taken and destroyed, but halo siwash ["no Indians"]--that is, the Indians had flown, expired or evaporated--that is, taken to the lake in their canoes and hid in the tule, and, fortunately for the Indians, but unfortunately for us, our boats were all over in Tule Lake. So the Indians, who have eyes, got away this time also. When this campaign was over Gen. Cosby, as a state senator, from his place in the senate, modestly and properly asked an appropriation to pay the troops for their gallant and arduous services. The discussion on this subject was short and sweet. One senator asked Gen. Cosby how many Indians he had killed, and the general answered: "Sir, more than you have--and more than you ever saw, perhaps!" and with this the house came down, and an appropriation of $200,000 was readily had from the great Gold State. It is true this was paid in scrip, and the faith and credit of the state pledged, but at the instance of Governor Low the United States assumed it and it was paid in greenbacks from the office of the proper state officer at the capitol at Sacramento in 1866, or ten years after. Before closing this true account of the "Modoc disturbances of 1856," it is correct to say that old Tu-tup-carks, the chief, true to his word, went over to Tule Lake, stirred up the Modocs, had a long talk and some big powwows with the Modoc chief and braves, and then put in an appearance in our camp. Cosby being absent on a scout, the preliminaries of a treaty were drawn up, written out and signed, and on Gen. Cosby's return, approved and confirmed, and Tu-tup-carks himself accompanied us to Yreka, and with all due formality placed the treaty of peace with the Modocs on record. Shortly after the main body of Modocs--old men, squaws and papooses--came into Yreka to receive presents from Gen. Cosby, and from that time to the opening of hostilities again in 1872, or for more than fifteen years, peace was had with the Modocs under the Cosby treaty. At this time disturbances in Oregon were going on, and Capt. A. J. Smith of the dragoons, a gallant officer commanding at Fort Lane, was powerless to suppress them with his small force. At Fort Jones in Scotts Valley, Capt. Judah, another brave and gallant officer, was in a like fix, with a small infantry force, totally inadequate to keep order and suppress disturbances on the frontier. Under this state of things, Gen. Cosby (since dead) was deserving of this country and of the esteem of his compatriots in gallantly taking the field in person and gathering around him an able and efficient corps of picked men and officers, to aid him in protecting the frontier. Morning Oregonian, Portland, December 8, 1885, page 2 -
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- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For
the Watchman
and Journal.
Letter from California. YREKA,
CALIFORNIA, April 1, 1855.
Friend Walton:--For
the last two or three months upon the arrival of the Atlantic mails, I
have found a couple of numbers of your invaluable paper placed, by some
kind hand, in my box, the contents of which I have eagerly devoured,
even down to the advertisements of plasters, pills, and other "patent
medicines." Ever since my earliest infancy--or since I first learned to
glean the thoughts of others from the impressions of type--I have been
almost a constant peruser of the sheet with which you have been
connected, published at the capital of my dearly loved native state.
----I well remember with what impatience we used to wait for the arrival of the "newspaper men" on Saturdays; and with what childish eagerness we sprang to meet him as he returned from his weekly visits to the capital, astride of his old sorrel pony. No wonder then that I should eagerly peruse its contents, as it served to bring back so forcibly to my mind the home of nativity, and those halcyon days of childhood, the happiest--and in fact, the only days of unalloyed happiness--man sees this side [of] the tomb. At that age one knows not what trials and troubles he is doomed to pass through in that cold and heartless world he is so impatient to enter, and towards which he looks with such impatient longing. Once entered upon life's busy scenes, and he learns full soon to place a just estimate upon the solemn farce which is being enacted around him; and in which he is called to take a more or less conspicuous part, as one of the actors. He sooner or later reaps the bitter fruits of disappointment, and his thoughts involuntarily wander back to his days of childish innocence, never to be forgotten nor recalled. We are now in the midst of a great financial crisis, as great, or greater, than that of 1836-7. Several of our largest houses--in some of which the people of California had unbounded confidence--have suspended payment; and whether they will ever resume or not is very doubtful. Californians, during the past winter, have had a fair sight at "The Elephant," which they have traveled such a distance to see, and I believe as a general thing they are not well pleased with the looks of the animal, and do not care about witnessing another exhibition very soon, nor do I think anyone will be anxious hereafter to hunt him up. This northern region is justly considered at the present time to be one of the richest and most extensive mineral regions in California, or any other country. There was a nugget weighing 187 oz. taken out on Scott Bar (about 30 miles from here), a few days ago, of solid pure gold, and we daily hear of large specimens being found in all of the different mining localities of this country. The Yreka Water Co. have now about forty miles of their ditch cut, large enough to carry two hundred "tom head" of water, and they expect to have the other twenty miles cut, so as to turn Shasta River into it by the 1st day of June next, when, I think, we can safely anticipate a little livelier times. We are so isolated from the rest of the "white settlements of America" away up here in the mountains--so far from the field of faction, and the political wire-pulling of party demagogues, that we are comparatively free from the excitement of politics. I see by your paper and others that the "Know Nothings and the Know Somethings" are the rage in the Atlantic States. We have neither organization here, but in their stead we have a party called the "Do Nothings," quite numerous and popular, from the fact that it is generally supposed its members will live forever, as they are too lazy to draw their last breath; and a party known as the "Have Nothings" which last comprises a very large and respectable portion of this community, and (from necessity) is growing more numerous every day. If the present present state of affairs continue, it is likely to outstrip either of the old party organizations. The password is "Nary Red" and it is becoming a household word here, familiar (painfully so) to the ears of all Californians. One of your old townsmen, H.H.R., is here in Yreka, and doing well I believe. How would you hike a few scenes of California life (in the mountains) portrayed by a participator and an eyewitness? If it would be agreeable I will send you a sketch now and then.
Much obliged. Give us more.--Editor Watchman.
Vermont Watchman, Montpelier, Vermont, May 25, 1855, page 1 Correspondence
of the Watchman
and Journal.
Letters from California. No. 2 Drought--Mining--Other Business Overdone--The Crops-- Grasshoppers--Indian Food--Train from Salt Lake-- Mormonism--Shasta Butte Mountain. YREKA,
CAL., July 20, '55.
Friend Walton:--By
the time you receive this, you will probably begin to think I have
forgotten my promise altogether; but this will show that I have not;
and in future I wilt try and keep you a little better posted in regard
to events as they transpire in this far-off region. The present is the
driest and most disagreeable summer I have ever spent in
California. There was not more than one-third as much rain
fell during
the winter months as usually falls during the same length of time; and
in consequence, the streams have dried up much earlier than usual,
causing an almost total cessation of work in the "dry diggings"--which
comprises by far the largest portion of the mines of California--and a
great amount of suffering among the miners.Were there an abundance of water all through the mines, there would be no trouble in the miners making, upon an average, from three to ten dollars per day for years to come; but as it is there are thousands who are not paying expenses, while a few who have river claims, and good bank claims, are making fortunes. Fortune-making in the mines of California is a good deal like buying tickets in a lottery; you may draw a prize, but it is a hundred to one that your number is a ------. The greenest Pike County Missourian, or Josey County Indianian that ever navigated a "who haw craft" across the plains may come here--get a good claim, and in a very short time make an independent fortune, while another who can bring all the light of science to his assistance may toil for years with nought but rags upon his back, and beef, bread, and coffee (the common fare of miners) for his subsistence, and be worse off, pecuniarily--and in every other respect---than when he commenced. Mining is such a precarious business, that few engage in it who can turn their hand to anything else; and therefore every branch of business, except mining, is overdone in California. There are more lawyers, doctors, merchants, whiskey shopkeepers, loafers, and gamblers, in this state, than in any other country on the globe, containing the same amount of inhabitants, and consequently, there is more quarreling--more dying--more smashing, more drinking and more stealing, swindling and murdering here, than almost anywhere else in the civilized world. The crops in California will be very light this year, owing partly to the drought, but more to the countless millions of grasshoppers which have made their appearance everywhere on the Pacific Slope. Wheat has been comparatively uninjured, as it was nearly ripe before they made their appearance, but everything else has been almost entirely destroyed. They have eaten up every spear of green grass, so that stock of all kinds can hardly obtain subsistence. They make their appearance in perfect swarms, and fields which yesterday bid fair to richly repay the toil of the husbandman today are divested of every green thing. The Indians are capturing tons and tons of grasshoppers, curing them, and stacking them away for their winter's consumption. They first roast them, and then take a large excavation in the earth and empty them into it, covering them with brush and dirt to the depth of six or eight inches, with the exception of a small hole at the top, left open to allow the effluvia which they engender, during the curing process, to pass off. After two or three months they are ready for use, when they boil them, making a kind of soup, which they eat with great gusto, calling it "scoya mucka muck" (good food). A large train has just arrived from Salt Lake, with about one hundred and fifty men, 5000 head of cattle and horses, and 4000 sheep. They left there the first of May, and bring the intelligence that nearly all the crops had been destroyed by the grasshoppers. Great fears were entertained by the inhabitants, that there would by a famine there the coming winter. Should such be the case, what will the immortal Brigham Young do with his forty wives? It will require a large income to support them, if provisions are as high there as they were during the starvation of 1852, when flour sold readily for two and three dollars per lb. Many of the Mormons, and especially the women, have come to the conclusion that it is "a hard road to travel over Jordan," and they are leaving by hundreds and moving to Oregon and California, where they can appropriate the affection of one of the "lords of creation" exclusively to themselves. I am credibly informed that nearly all the women in Utah would leave there, if they had an opportunity; but the most of them are, as it were, tied hand and foot, and obliged to remain. They are entitled to our sympathy, rather than reproach; but the men cannot be too thoroughly detested. Mormonism is sapping the very foundation of our social system; we feel its influence, even in California, and I think it high time that a stop was put to such outrages upon all decency as are practiced there, year after year, with impunity. I intended to refer to political matters, somewhat, in this communication; but California politics require more than a passing notice, and at some future time I may give you a chapter upon that subject. There are some twenty of us about to attempt the ascension of old Shasta Butte, which you will find laid down in the Atlas as Mount Tchastel, and should we succeed, I will send you a description of the surrounding country. Shasta Butte lies upon the opposite side of Shasta Valley, S.E. of Yreka about thirty miles. It is about sixty miles in circumference at its base, and shoots aloft until its snow-capped peak pierces the blue ether to the height of over eighteen thousand feet above the level of the sea, and serves as a beacon to guide the weary traveler for hundreds of miles around. G.W.T.
----
No. 3. Murder by the Indians on the Klamath--Pursuit-- Murders by the Indians on the Sacramento--Indian War Threatened-- Two Indians Hung--Number Killed---A Miner Buried--The Miners-- Emigration to the Atlantic States--Vermonters Advised to Stay at Home. YREKA,
CAL., Aug. 9th, '55.
Friend Walton:--I
partly promised you a scene from the top of "Shasta Butte" in my next;
but events have transpired since then which have obliged us to postpone
our intended journey, and perhaps to abandon it altogether.On Saturday, the 28th of July, the startling intelligence reached our ears that seventeen men had been murdered in cold blood by the Indians on the Klamath River, about twelve miles from this place. In a short time an express arrived from there confirming the report and calling upon us for assistance, A courier was immediately dispatched to "Fort Jones," to inform the commander, Capt. Judah, who, with the usual promptness of that able officer, immediately started with a small body of troops and a good supply of arms and ammunition for the scene of action, together with about two hundred volunteers, all armed with good rifles, one of "Colt's persuaders," and one of "Bowie's best." About the same time the news reached us that the Indians had attacked a party of Americans on the head of the Sacramento (about sixty miles from here), killing twelve men--and knowing that the Indians had long threatened a general insurrection--and had been preparing for the contest--everyone supposed we were in the midst of a general Indian war, and all acted accordingly. The next day two houses were burned in this valley, by the Indians, and a quantity of stock driven off, which caused the families from all quarters to flee to this town for security and protection. You who live in that quiet old state of Vermont, where peace and plenty reign, can perhaps scarcely conceive the horrors of a general Indian war, but all those who are familiar with the history of the early settlement of our country, and understand the savages' only rule of warfare--by a very slight stretch of the imagination, bringing that day down to the present--can fully appreciate the peculiar beauties of our situation, with the idea strongly impressed upon the minds of all that the outbreak was a preconcerted plan, and that the various tribes in this region--comprising many thousand warriors--had combined for the purpose of exterminating the whites. That same evening, while the excitement was at its height, I was sitting in my office, and looking over onto "Grizzly Hill"--about half a mile from town--when I saw two Indians ride into the bushes, and after hitching their horses, started for some negro huts not far off. The negroes had been strongly suspected of furnishing the Indians with ammunition, and determining to know the truth, a party of us immediately repaired to the spot, and captured the two Indians and their horses. They were delivered to the sheriff, who confined them until the next day; when a large crowd collected, and one of them being recognized as of the party who committed the murders on the Klamath, the sheriff gave them up, when they were taught to dance the "HIGH-land fling" with a rope around their neck, and their feet a short distance from terra firma--the one for being guilty, the other, like poor Tray, for being found in bad company--affording a practical illustration of the old adage, "a man is known by the company he keeps." There has been no more depredations committed since then, proving that the fears of a general Indian war were groundless. The families have returned to their homes, and everything is comparatively quiet. The news has just reached here that the murderers have been tracked at the "Indian Reserve" in Rogue River Valley; and there seems to be a fixed determination in the minds of all to give them severe chastisement, before making peace with them. Up to this date there has been seventeen white men killed, and about half that number of Indians. Including those killed on the Sacramento, we have a sum total of twenty-nine white men killed, and the number of Indians not correctly ascertained, but supposed to be about forty. Yesterday we were called to witness the exhuming of a miner, who had been buried some five feet underground by the caving in of a bank. He was working in a ditch about 11 feet deep, when one side gave way and filled the ditch completely full. His head was underground about 20 minutes, and when they got to him, he opened his eyes--drew a long breath and remarked that "he was not dead yet by a d----d sight." When taken out he walked off and appeared to be entirely uninjured. Similar accidents frequently occur here during the summer season, and several men have lost their lives in this county during the last year, by the earth caving in upon them. A few of the miners are doing well, but the great mass of them are not paying expenses. Thousands of them are "lying by" their claims, and impatiently waiting for the rains of next winter. There will be a larger emigration to the States next spring from California, by one-half, than there has been any previous year. I advise all who are there to stay at home, and not think of coming to California to make a fortune--it might have done in '49 & '50, but it is too late in '55. All those of the "Young America" school, who cannot find full scope for their energies in Old Vermont, and are determined to "go and seek their fortins" somewhere, had better take a trip to Kansas, Nebraska, or Minnesota, than to come to California at this late day; at least, that is the candid opinion of one who is tolerably well acquainted with California life. G.W.T.
Vermont Watchman, Montpelier,
Vermont, September 21, 1855, page 1Correspondence
of the Watchman
& State Journal.
Letters from California. No. 4 YREKA,
CAL., Aug. 23, '55.
Friend Walton:--At
the date of my last this whole section of country was in the greatest
alarm, caused by the cold-blooded murder of a large number of white men
by the Indians; since that time no further hostile demonstrations have
been made on their part, and everything is comparatively quiet. The
Rangers have all returned--having tracked the murderers to the Indian
Reservation in Rogue River Valley--which reservation is under the
immediate supervision of the troops at Fort Lane--where negotiations
are now pending for their delivery to the hands of justice.The greatest excitement prevails here, and in fact all over the country, with regard to the new mines lately discovered on the Pend d'Oreille River in Washington Territory. Thousands of miners are leaving California for that region, and all through Oregon the accounts from there have produced a perfect mania among the inhabitants. Hundreds are leaving their farms in the Willamette and Umpqua valleys with all their crops ungathered in the fields, and taking what stock and provisions they have on hand, are making for the mines with all possible speed. Accounts are rife that the mines extend for one hundred and fifty miles, and are richer, by far, than any yet discovered upon the Pacific Slope. The most extravagant stories are in circulation, and I sincerely hope and trust that it will not prove a second edition of the "Gold Lake" and "Kern River" excitements. That there is gold there, and that to a considerable extent, there is no doubt, but with regard to their richness I am not prepared to speak positively at present, but my impression is, from information received direct from there, that they are very rich. The mines are situated high up on the Columbia and Pend d'Oreille rivers, about three hundred and sixty miles from Oregon City, and appear to be a different lead from that which runs through California. It lies about three or four hundred miles to the eastward of the California lead, between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada range, and the general opinion of those who have traveled through that country is that the lead extends from New Mexico to the British possessions, and perhaps still farther on. There has not a drop of rain fell here to do any good for three months, and with the thermometer ranging for the last six weeks from 90° to 105°, you can easily imagine our situation. Everything is as dry as it well can be, and the fires are raging over the prairies and through the mountains, filling the atmosphere with smoke, and preventing us from seeing objects at any distance, which is very disagreeable, to say the least. I can assure you we are all praying for that something from above, which we so much need, and which descends alike "upon the just and the unjust." The political ball has been put in motion in this state, and the people everywhere are thoroughly aroused. The old party lines have been entirely destroyed here--as well as all through the Union--and the contest will be between the American Party and all others combined, or as some say, "the Americans against the Irish." The Whig Party of California has not been of sufficient numerical strength hitherto to place the least check upon the actions of the Democratic Party. They have had it all their own way, and are therefore responsible for the conduction of her affairs, since she became a member of the federal Union; and I will venture the assertion that there never was a state--with all the elements of wealth within herself--with such vast resources at her command--ever admitted as a member of this great Republican family, whose affairs have been so grossly mismanaged as have been those of California in the last four years. The citizens of California pay more than three times the amount of taxes paid by the citizens of either of the New England states--raising a revenue for the support of government of over one million of dollars per annum, and besides the squandering of this vast amount, the state is now in debt over $2,500,000, with not one hundred thousand dollars worth of public property to show for all this vast expenditure. Her securities are now selling for sixty cents on the dollar, and have to be hawked through the streets to find purchasers at that. John Bigler (familiarly known as old "Lager Beer") has been the ostensible Governor of California for the last four years; but it is a fact well known here that David C. Broderick, the N.Y. shoulder-striking politician--a man who would stoop to anything, however base, for the purpose of accomplishing his ends--(which the Senatorial contest of 1853 abundantly proves) has been the real Governor during that time. By this beautiful Democratic administration of affairs the state has been brought to the very verge of bankruptcy, and now by the greatest chicanery and fraud, and against the wishes of a great majority of the Democratic Party--John Bigler has been chosen as their standard bearer for 1855, but the pill is too bitter for them to swallow, and the consequence will be an overwhelming majority for J. Neely Johnson, the K.N. candidate for Governor. Do not take it for granted, however, if such should be the case, that it is on account of any love which the people of this state have for K.N. principles, as some of the planks of their platform are a little too rotten to stand on with safety; but because the great mass are determined to have a change in the administration of affairs, as the change cannot well be for the worse, and might be for the better. But as California politics require more than a passing notice, I may give you a further history in some future communication, which, if not very interesting, may be somewhat instructive to the political reader. G.W.T.
Vermont Watchman, Montpelier,
Vermont, October 12, 1855, page 1Correspondence
of the Watchman
& State Journal.
Letters from California. No. 5 YREKA,
CAL., Sept. 12, 1855.
Friend Walton:--The
election in this state has passed, and the result shows that this great
political (humbug) party called Know Nothings has triumphed. J. Neely
Johnson, the K.N. candidate for governor, is elected over Bigler by
more than 6,000 majority, as well as the whole state K.N. ticket. There
will be a large majority of the legislature who are members of this
very formidable secret
society,
and the consequence will be an election of two U.S. Senators of the
K.N. school and, I hope, a thorough revision of the administration of
affairs in this state. To one unacquainted with the political aspect of
California, it would seem that the K.N.s had an overwhelming majority
in this state; but such is not the case. John Bigler has sat in the
gubernatorial chair for the last four years, with both branches of the
legislature largely Democratic, and almost every judicial officer in
the state belonging to the same school of politics, and therefore it is
but fair to assume that the Democrats, as a party, are responsible to
the people for the gross abuse of power of which they have been guilty.
This being the case and their choosing him as their standard bearer for
another two years, was a little too bitter a pill for the
people of
California to swallow; consequently, almost everyone who had never
identified himself with the Democratic Party voted for Johnson as the
least of two evils. I will venture to say that at least 6,000 men who
do not belong to the K.N. party voted that ticket--not that they
believe in the tenets of the order, but because the present incumbents
had so grossly abused their trust, that the people were determined to
have a change--knowing it could not be for the worse, and might be for
the better.I will venture the assertion that there never has been a state admitted into this Union whose affairs have been so grossly mismanaged as have been those of California, in the last six years. Our taxes are three times, at least, higher than they are in any of the New England states--raising a revenue of nearly a million and a half of dollars per annum; and besides all this vast amount, which has been uselessly squandered, the state is now in debt over two million five hundred thousand dollars, and we have no more than one hundred thousand dollars worth of public property to show for it all; while state securities are now selling in Sacramento and San Francisco for sixty cents on the dollar. With all these facts staring the people in the face, it is no wonder that the K.N. ticket was elected; but as they are altogether indebted to outsiders for their success, I do not think they ought to claim the election as a K.N. triumph, but rather as a victory of the people over the abominable clique of Broderick, Bigler & Co. Since my last there has been a wagon road opened from this place to the Sacramento Valley, which has caused quite a change in the business prospects of this place. There is only about two miles of ditch yet to dig, in order to supply us with an abundance of water, and then we expect to obtain an abundant supply of "the root of all evil," which induced us to come to this country, and for which the most of Californians have undergone so many hardships and privations. The Indians have murdered two white men in this vicinity since my last, one of which was shockingly mutilated. His nose and ears were cut off--his body gashed all over, and his heart taken out and the cavity filled with rocks. The U.S. troops are now in pursuit of the murderers, but whether or no they have or will accomplish anything is a case of quien sabe. At the date of my last, we thought we had the most reliable information in regard to the richness of the Colville mines in Oregon; but we have learned the melancholy truth, that the Oregonians are such abominable liars as not to be worthy of the least credit--therefore it is not surprising that the whole affair turned out to be a hoax, got up by them for the purpose of inducing Californians to come into their country. As we have a party already made up--if they should not be again frightened by tales of Indian murders, I may give you a scene from the proud summit of Old Shasta Butte in my next, and until then "adios." G.W.T.
Vermont Watchman, Montpelier,
Vermont, October 26, 1855, page 2Correspondence
of the Watchman
& State Journal.
Letters from California. No. 6 YREKA,
CALA., Nov. 10, '55.
Friend Walton:--Since
my last I have ascended to the summit of Mount Shasta, and
taken a view
of the surrounding country, and I can assure you it was one of the most
gorgeous sights I ever beheld; however, as I do not intend to give you
a description at present of that expedition, I will simply say that I
took some notes by the wayside, which I will send you shortly, if I can
get them into a readable shape. After I returned, urgent business
called me to San Francisco, where I have spent the last few weeks, and
have but just returned.It is no small job for us here in this country, and especially in the mountain regions, to make a trip to the New York of the Pacific. From the Mexican boundary to the Oregon line is a distance of nearly twelve hundred miles, and to travel to all portions of this one state requires more time, more money and more labor than to visit all of the states and territories of this Union east of the Rocky Mountains. It is over four hundred miles from here to San Francisco, and it takes five whole days' and two nights' hard traveling to get there, and three days of that time are spent upon the back of a poor old mule, over the roughest and most disagreeable road, perhaps, that ever any man traveled. I would like very much, had I time and space, to give you a description of my journey through the mountains between here and the Sacramento Valley, a distance of one hundred and twenty-five miles, over two very high ranges of mountains, and part of the way through a perfect wilderness; but as I might not be able to make you fully appreciate the peculiar beauties of muleback traveling in California, I leave it to your imagination and hasten on. Shasta City is a town of about one thousand inhabitants, and is situated at the extreme head of the Sacramento Valley, or rather in the hills above the valley. It is surrounded by a rich mining region, and is likely to be a town of some importance for years to come. There is a daily line of stages running from Shasta to Sacramento city, a distance of one hundred and eighty miles, running down the Sacramento River, but during the summer months it is very dusty and disagreeable traveling. During the winter months, or rainy season, the roads are almost impassable on account of the mud, and then the steamers run up the Sacramento to within forty-five miles of Shasta City, making it much more agreeable and pleasant to the traveling public than it can possibly be during the summer. The waters of the Sacramento, which in '49 were as clear as crystal, are now thick with mud, owing to the mining on the head of its numerous branches, and to the many beautiful steamers which now daily plow its once-peaceful waters, lashing its shores with foam, and tearing up its long-quiet bed. We could have wished that its beautiful vine-clad banks, in all their native loveliness, could have remained as of yore, but the hand of the husbandman has been busy, and they have given way to fields of waving grain on either side the river; and where, in the days of '49, roamed, in all their wild freedom, the grizzly bear, the elk, the deer and the antelope, now stand the mansions of civilization and wealth. From Sacramento to San Francisco is a distance of some one hundred and forty or fifty miles, and steamers leave daily at 2 p.m., arriving the same evening at from 10 to 11 p.m., and as one glides swiftly down the Sacramento, and through the bays of Suisun, San Pablo and San Francisco to his port of destination, forming such a strong contrast to muleback traveling and dusty stage coach traveling in other portions of the state, one cannot help fancying himself far away from California and its scenes, and he imagines himself upon a pleasure excursions upon the queen of all rivers, from Albany to New York. San Francisco is now a large city, where can be obtained all the comforts and even the luxuries of life at as reasonable rates as they can be obtained in any of the older cities of the Union. There are many buildings in San Francisco as beautiful and as costly as there are in Boston or New York, and as one gazes upon the present grandeur and wealth of this rapidly growing city, one can hardly realize that a little over six years ago it contained but three or four adobe houses, a few frame buildings, and a few tents. If her future is as brilliant as her past--and I can see no good reason why it should not be--what a destiny awaits her. Business is just beginning to regain its former activity in San Francisco, and in fact all through California; but the failure of the many banks and merchants during the past summer will long be remembered and felt by the monetary and commercial circles of this country. The rainy season has already set in here, and everything bids fair for a golden harvest the coming year; and I think we can safely predict that a larger amount of gold, by far, will be taken from the mines of California the next than during any previous year. There is a fearful Indian war raging all through Oregon. You will probably read accounts in the papers, before you receive this, of the defeat of Maj. Haller, at the Dalles, with the loss of 40 or 50 men, and of other equally sanguinary battles. It is now ascertained beyond a doubt that the Calapooyas, the Walla Wallas, the Klickitats, the Cayuses, the Rogue Rivers, as well as many other tribes of less importance, have combined to exterminate the whites. There have been two very sanguinary battles fought in Rogue River Valley, about sixty miles from here, within the last two weeks, in which about 400 white men fought 200 Indians, and I am sorry to say, came off second best in both engagements, with a loss of about 100 [sic] killed and wounded. [The writer apparently divides the battle of Hungry Hill and the skirmish at Bloody Spring into two battles.] The loss of the Indians not ascertained. There have been a number of houses burned and the families murdered in cold blood, in Rogue River Valley, and a courier has just arrived here from Portland with the intelligence that the Indians have burned nearly all the houses in the Willamette Valley, murdering a large number of women and children; and near Portland, upon an extent of thickly settled country ten miles square, there are only three houses at the prevent time. [I'm unaware of any destruction in the Willamette Valley.] All the disposable forces of the U.S. troops in California have been ordered to the scene of action, and we may expect the details of bloody doings before hostilities cease. I think the government of the U.S. very much to blame in its treatment of the Indians on the Pacific Coast. I believe it has been the policy of the government heretofore to extinguish the Indian title to lands in this country before they are surveyed and settled by the whites; but such has not been the case in California and Oregon, and the U.S. surveyors are now surveying lands here which have long been settled by the whites, and to which the red men's title has never been extinguished. We have encroached upon their game far away; the roiling of the water, and the noise of our steamers have almost entirely prevented the run of salmon (the Indian's favorite dish) in the rivers, until they have been driven to the last extremity, and they must now either steal, starve, or go far away from the haunts of the white man, for it is as impossible for the two races to live together in peace as it is to stop the onward progress of the "universal Yankee nation." One drop from the abundance now lying idle in the coffers of the U.S. would be sufficient to supply all their wants; but as that is withheld, I cannot find it in my heart to blame them for making one last though hopeless struggle to regain their hunting grounds. The fate of the red man is a melancholy one. They have been driven from the shores of the Atlantic far away across the Mississippi, and will soon be beyond the Rocky Mountains. We are fast driving them from the shores of the Pacific across the "Sierra Nevada," and somewhere between the two ranges of mountains the two tides will meet, and then the white man may calmly look on, and with a melancholy smile watch the grand result of his policy. It is not hard to predict what that result will be--viz, the extermination of the entire race. G.W.T.
Vermont Watchman, Montpelier,
Vermont, December 28, 1855, page 1Correspondence
of the Watchman
& State Journal.
Letters from California. No. 7 YREKA,
CALA., Jan. 5, '56.
Friend Walton:--When
you will receive this letter is a matter of great uncertainty, as we
are completely surrounded by mountains, covered with snow to the depth
of from six to fifteen feet. We have been almost totally without the
means of holding intercourse with the outer world for more than a
month, and in all probability the trails will be blocked up for two
months longer at least, and the only chance this letter has of reaching
its post of destination is to be packed across the mountain by some
expressman, with snowshoes upon his feet.This has been the severest winter, thus far, ever known in California since its settlement by Americans. The ground is frozen to the depth of one foot,completely stopping the miners from work, while all are lying upon their oars, and waiting, Micawber-like, "for something to turn up." We have had ten or twelve days of as severe cold weather as I ever experienced in the state of Vermont during the same length of time, the thermometer often ranging from ten to twenty degrees below zero; and the houses here not being built to withstand such severe cold weather, it has caused a great amount of suffering. The present winter is very much like that of 1852 and '53, as far as the weather is concerned, but the inhabitants are differently situated--then we had plenty of money and nothing to eat--now we have plenty to eat and no money. Since the settlement of California by the whites, the money market has never been as stringent as it is this time. The dry weather of the past year has prevented thousands of miners from working their claims, and all the gold which has been dug has been sent out of the country to purchase supplies, leaving the country almost a bankrupt. There is no law here against usury, and those who have money readily obtain from five to eight percent per month for the use of it, and it is with the greatest difficulty that a loan of one thousand dollars can be obtained upon property worth ten thousand. It takes no great amount of foresight to see that business cannot withstand such a state of affairs, and unless we have a wet winter and spring you will hear of the greatest smashing up in California in the next twelve months that ever was heard of in the same length of time in any portion of the world. The Indian war is still raging in all its fury, all through Oregon and Washington territories. I can give you no reliable information in regard to the war north of Rogue River Valley, as we have received no reliable information from there for some time. Since my last there have been two engagements between the whites and Indians, in the before-mentioned valley, in which there were about fifty Indians killed and about fifteen whites. It is emphatically a war of extermination, as neither party ask nor give any quarter. A few days since a party of about thirty men started from Jacksonville on a scout after the Indians. After hunting for two days without coming up with the party they were in pursuit of--and being short of provisions--they started on their return to town. Three of the most prominent of the citizens of the valley were riding some three or four hundred yards in advance of the main party--not dreaming of danger, as they were within two or three miles of town--when they were attacked by Indians, and two of their number killed dead on the spot--the other making his escape. The main party, hearing the shots, immediately put spurs to their horses and hastened up; but before they arrived upon the ground, the Indians had stripped their murdered victims, taken their horses and made good their escape. [This sounds like the death of Martin Angel.] The Indians are driven to the last extremity, being almost entirely without food and clothing, and it has caused them to commit some of the most daring murders and robberies ever recorded in the annals of Indian warfare. The remains of one of the most wonderful animals known to natural history has been discovered a short distance below this town, on what is called "Canal Gulch." Several teeth have been found and preserved almost entire, the largest of which is seven inches across the crown, and was evidently one of the grinders. The smallest of the teeth--resembling the front teeth of an ox--are over four inches in diameter. About thirty yards below where the teeth were found, the miners have partly exhumed a perfect horn, curved like that of an ox, and over ten inches in diameter at the butt. It is not entirely dug out, but judging from what has already been uncovered, it must be at least fifteen feet in length. Several bones of enormous dimensions have also been found near the same place, but as soon as the atmosphere strikes them, they fall to pieces and look like slaked lime. The bones are found very near the bedrock, and about twelve feet below the surface. He was of the herbivorous species, without doubt--but how many thousand years have elapsed since he roamed an inhabitant of these mountain regions is, as the Spaniards say, a case of "quien sabe," but undoubtedly he was well acquainted with the golden age of this republic. Some of the miners think this is the land of Ophir, and that they have discovered the remains of one of the animals used by the subjects of that wise old monarch in packing the gold out of the country--that they loaded him rather heavily, and when he arrived in "Canal Gulch" he broke down, which accounts for the richness of the claims in that immediate vicinity. Others again think that the horn which has been found is "Gabriel's trumpet"--"that the Millerites were perfectly right in their reckoning of the time when the world should have come to an end, but owing to the loss sustained by Gabriel he was unable to toot his horn, which accounts for the inhabitants of this modern sphere being spared a little longer." This, however, is matter of conjecture, but I can vouch for the remains as described being discovered, as I have taken the pains to go and examine them. G.W.T.
Vermont Watchman, Montpelier,
Vermont, February 29, 1856, page 1Correspondence
of the Watchman
& State Journal.
Letters from California. No. 8 YREKA,
CAL., April 25th, 1856.
Friend Walton:--I
should have written you sooner, but that I have been so busy for the
last three months, trying to settle up my affairs preparatory to my
return to the home of my nativity.I long to get far away from the noisy scenes of California life to rusticate for awhile in some parts of the Green Mountain State. I long to sniff its pure mountain breezes, to roam over its verdant hills, and through its luxuriant valleys. I long to wind my way far up into its mountain fastnesses--as of yore--to capture those spotted denizens of its clear murmuring streams. I long for its solitude, and its society--I long once more to hear the sound of its "church-going bells," and to enjoy its calm quiet sabbaths, so different from those spent in California. Speaking of sabbaths in California reminds me that probably the whole of your readers are not aware of the manner in which the sabbaths are spent in nearly all the mining towns of this state. A short description of a sabbath in Yreka will give your readers a pretty good idea of the same day in all the mining regions of California. Sunday is the only day of recreation known to the miner. He works hard for six days, and on Sunday comes to town to purchase his supplies, and upon that day the merchants do more retail trading than during all the balance of the week. Every sabbath, in the streets of Yreka are congregated about two or three thousand people, from every part of the civilized world, and some parts of the savage. In the course of half an hour you can hear spoken almost all the different languages in the world. Just imagine to yourself this heterogeneous mass of human beings collected together in our small town--one-fourth of them drunk, and one-third of the balance "three sheets in the wind"--the sober playing all sorts of practical jokes upon all who are unfortunate enough to get drunk; imagine further that you see this mass hurrying to and fro first to a man fight (of which there are a number every Sunday), and then to a dog fight--with all sorts of oaths, of which the different languages are so richly stored, issuing from the mouths of the drunk as well as sober--with some dozens of gaily dressed Kanakas, mounted on their spotted Cayuse horses, galloping to and fro--a few Indian squaws with children lashed to their backs waddling through the streets, followed by a score or so of dogs adding their mellifluous voices to the general din, and your imagination will have mirrored to your mind a life picture of a Yreka sabbath. Last sabbath I was sitting in my office quietly perusing the last numbers of the Watchman when a friend came running in and informed me that a duel was to come off a short distance from town, between two well-known citizens of Yreka. I hastened after the crowd, and soon arrived at the place of meeting--on a low bench of the mountain first outside the town. When I arrived, the principals were conversing with their friends, and the seconds were measuring off the ground. The weapons selected were double-barreled shotguns--distance fifteen paces. Before everything was arranged, there were four or five hundred people upon the ground to witness the combat. After some little delay the principals took their places, and after a response to the word "Ready" was given in the affirmative by both parties, one of the seconds gave the word "Fire, one--two--three." Both guns cracked at the same instant, and I saw one of the parties fall to the earth, groaning in terrible agony, the blood streaming from his face. I hastened to get a nearer view of the wounded man, who was being borne to the nearest house by his friends; when someone whispered in my ear that the whole affair was a hoax, got up for the purpose of running an Oregonian out of town, that the blood upon the man's face was manufactured for the occasion, and came from a sponge in the apparently wounded man's hand. By this time the other principal and his second had taken to the chaparral. Some of the knowing ones soon found out their place of concealment, and informed them that the other party was in the last agonies of death, and easily persuaded the poor Oregonian that, unless he left this section of country immediately, there was great danger of his being hung by the mob. The better to effect his escape, he was persuaded to attire himself in female apparel, and when fully rigged he had the appearance of a very respectable old lady. They then mounted him on the back of an ugly cayuse horse, who was addicted to jumping stiff-legged, with a very poor excuse of a sidesaddle to sit on, and as soon as the horse was turned loose he gave one bound and down came Mr. Female ker-wallop. The sight of a female in trouble in Yreka is always enough to excite the sympathies of the sterner sex, and there was soon a large crowd collected, ready and willing to render any assistance in their power, but when instead of clean pantalettes, and a small shoe--the bystanders discovered beneath the petticoats of this would-be female a pair of greasy buckskin pants and big stogie boots, and discovered on the chin of this hitherto closely veiled personage a huge pair of whiskers--it was too much for the gravity of the crowd; and they made the welkin ring with peals of laughter. With a little assistance he was again mounted, and the head of the horse turned Oregonward. And now commences the chase. The wild cayuse, once started, tore down the streets at a furious pace, followed by half a dozen volunteer officers, headed by an ex-city marshal. The Oregonian outstripped all of his pursuers, and the last time he was heard of he was very near the confines of Oregon, urging on his jaded steed with a pair of large California spurs and a hickory switch; and it is generally supposed that he will not be seen in this section again very soon. Something of the kind usually occurs every Sunday--some poor victim is sold to amuse the crowd, and such is a sabbath in the mines of California. The great "Yreka water ditch" is at last completed, a distance of over seventy miles; but the ground is so dry and there has been so little rain during the past winter that the leakage and evaporation use up nearly every drop of the water before it reaches the Yreka flats, and the ditch will do us no good until the next rainy season. Hundreds of miners are doing nothing for want of water, and money is distressingly scarce. The Indian war continues with unabated fury all through Oregon, and from present appearances it is likely to continue during the summer. In Rogue River Valley, about sixty miles from here, there are over five hundred men under arms, regular volunteers, but as yet they have gained no decisive victory over the Indians. The successes of the Indians have rendered them far more bold than they were formerly. They continue to rob and murder, almost with impunity. Over one hundred and fifty men, women and children have already fallen, victims to their savage cruelty, in Rogue River Valley and its vicinity. The families are leaving the valley in large numbers, and should the war continue for six months longer it will be almost entirely depopulated. The past winter has been the driest known in California for nearly twenty years, and thousands of cattle and horses have perished for want of water and grass. We have had some light rains of late, and nature wears a smiling aspect, but whether there has been rain enough to bring the crops to maturity is a matter of great uncertainty; my impression is that in a great portion of California there will not be over half a crop raised the coming summer. G.W.T.
Vermont Watchman, Montpelier,
Vermont, June 6, 1856, page 4SISKIYOU, THE HEAD OF CALIFORNIA
By R. H. DeWITT
Last and best. This may have been said of other sections in the past.
It can truthfully be said of Siskiyou County now. Westward the course
of empire has taken its way. From the East the multitudes have come. A
part to Oregon, landing at Portland, and a part to California, landing
at San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento.
Siskiyou News, Yreka,
January 15, 1914, page 2From the north they have moved southward, and points in the Rogue River Valley give eloquent evidence of their presence by the substantial increase in land values. From the south, they have moved northward, and the flow of the tide seems to have ended at about Tehama County, with an occasional wave lashing itself into Shasta. Thus it will be seen that Siskiyou, a vast empire in itself, equal in area to the state of Massachusetts, is about the last to feel the onward tread of the homeseeker. With her multitude of resources, she stands at the head of California, bidding welcome to all who would partake of her wonderful opportunities for health, wealth, the pursuit of happiness and the enjoyment of the simple life. Siskiyou is a county of BIG things. She boasts of the most beautiful big mountain on the continent, Mt. Shasta, the biggest saw mill in the world, located at McCloud; the biggest fish hatchery in the West found at Sisson. One of the biggest marble deposits in the country forms Marble Mountain, six thousand feet high, which is a close competitor for a place among the seven wonders of the world. Her valleys are big and verdant. Her big mountains are covered with thick growths of the finest timber, and the hearts of the people are big and beat in harmony and thankfulness for the lavish manner in which nature has endowed them. Her resources are varied and they have not been utilized to anywhere near the limit of their possibilities. MINING.
The history of mining in the county, especially of the days when Bret
Harte was telling his stories and Mark Twain was making the world laugh
with yarns of the "woolly West," reads like a page from the Arabian
Knights. In 1851 gold was discovered on the spot where the town Yreka
now stands. The "diggins" were fabulously rich. The oldest inhabitant
is authority for the statement that Yreka Flats yielded ten millions in
gold; while Greenhorn gravel beds, two miles south, and Hawkinsville,
two miles north, added their further millions.This was the beginning of placer mining in the county, which soon extended to other parts. Humbug, Deadwood, Virginia Bar, Scott Bar, Oak Bar, South Fork, Sawyers Bar, Forks of Salmon and innumerable benches along Scott and Klamath rivers were the scenes of mining excitement, and together they poured forth their millions into the arteries of commerce. Then came the river mining by the wing-dam process and quartz mining with its arrastras and primitive stamp mills--the black powder days. The conclusion of the tenderfoot is invariably that the mines are worked out. Not so. As a striking example of the contrary, the Osgood mine, on the same Yreka Flats, has recently made discoveries that justify the erection of a five-stamp mill and concentrators, and this after a couple of years of systematic development work in underground tunnels, and the Wacker group of claims nearby have shown sufficient promise to keep men employed in almost continuous development at that property. On Greenhorn Creek, previously referred to, after an expenditure of several thousand dollars in prospecting the ground, the Butte Dredging Company have just purchased and paid for 110 acres of land along the creek and will install one of their three modern dredgers upon the property. Worked out? No. Simply the application of modern methods is needed to secure what the surface miners left behind. This is the situation in Yreka Basin and repeats itself in practically all the other mining sections of the county. In the DEADWOOD DISTRICT,
along
McAdams Creek, a gold dredger has been in operation the past three
years, and the returns have been highly profitable. (In passing, the
ground so far utilized for gold dredging purposes is valueless for
other uses, hence the arguments generally applied to this method of
mining do not apply here.) A number of small quartz ledges in this
vicinity utilize the arrastra method of extraction. The veins are small
but rich. Over in theSALMON RIVER
country
there has been much activity. The Black Bear mine, a mine with a
history, formerly owned by Governor John Daggett, is still in
operation. The company now working it recently moved the mill from the
old site to a more convenient point and are preparing to work new
ground. This mine has a record of over three millions to its credit
since 1860, and the present owners expect a repetition of past
performances. The King Solomon mine in the same district recently made
a very rich strike and have a force of men continuously at work. The
Homestake, owned by R. S. Taylor and associates, has, under the
superintendency of John F. Boyle, turned out a large quantity of high
grade, the kind used by jewelers in the manufacture of quartz jewelry,
and they have large quantities of lower grades on the dump. The high
grade referred to went as high as one hundred dollars the pound, and
the low grade will average two hundred dollars the ton. From this
property and the Highland mine nearby the county purchased several
thousand dollars' worth of the best ore for its permanent mineral
exhibit. The Highland closed a very successful season and will resume
operations in the spring. This mine is owned by a company of Hollanders
who purchased it a few years since for $200,000.00. The placers along
the Forks of Salmon show promise of a good season's run and have never
failed yet. DownSCOTT RIVER
the
production will be better than normal this year. This section has
always been noted for its large nuggets and produced one a few months
ago valued at $550.00. Quartz Hill is located here and has produced
nearly two millions and is good for a few millions more. Along portions
of theKLAMATH RIVER
near
Happy Camp there has been much activity. The Siskiyou Mines Co. control
eighteen hundred acres and have three large hydraulics working. Reeves
Davis, who is operating the Och mine and other locations, just closed a
successful run. In this neighborhood the copper deposits of the county
are located. The two best known are the Dakin and Blue Lead properties,
which have been sufficiently developed to place them in the real copper
mine class. Immense bodies of the ore have been blocked out, and all
that is needed to convert them and others into highly profitable
producers is a railroad.HUMBUG.
In early days, miners hearing tales of rich diggings in this section
rushed in and failing a realization of their dreams instanter returned
and pronounced the district a humbug. Later events disclosed their
error, but the name still clings. It has been one of the largest
producing districts of the county--formerly in placers, later in
quartz. The Mono (formerly the Punch Creek) proved
conclusively that
the mines in this section go down. It has been big producer and is now
being worked by its lessees, Poor & Joley. A large amount of
development work has been done at the Eliza mine the past three years
and a material volume of ore blocked out. The upper levels of this mine
wars worked .in the '70s and were rich in free-milling ore. That in the
lower levels is base and will probably require some refractory ore
process to extract the values. There is a ten-stamp mill and
concentrators on the property. Thrash & Coalsen have
opened up
large ore bodies and have crushed a small quantity with satisfactory
results. The McKinley people have devoted the past year to development
work entirely. Several small ledges with arrastra equipment grind away
in imitation of the "mills of the gods," and when a real awakening
comes in a mining way this section will be one of the first to
benefit--because of its great possibilities.AGRICULTURE.
This industry is carried on principally within the five large valleys
of the county--Scott, Shasta, Butte, Strawberry and Squaw--while many
thousand acres are so employed in numerous small valleys tucked away
among the mountains and lying along the streams in the various canyons.SCOTT VALLEY
is
a veritable paradise about forty miles long and an average of five
miles in width containing about one hundred and fifty thousand acres of
arable land. It is drained and irrigated by Scott River and its
tributaries. Two packing houses and several creameries utilize the
swine and the cream from its numerous dairies. In the valley are
located the towns of Fort Jones, Greenview, Etna and Callahan. Fort
Jones boasts of two banks, a flour mill, large mercantile
establishments, and has to its credit the erection of a brick business
block in the recent past. Greenview is the seat of the largest
creameries in the county. Etna Mills has about 900 population and is
growing. It is the seat of supplies for the Salmon River mining
district, where much of the products of the valley are marketed. One of
the most complete model breweries in the state is located here, noted
for the purity and excellence of its output. A new union high school is
in course of construction.(Concluded next
week.)
SISKIYOU, THE HEAD OF CALIFORNIA
By R. H. DeWITT SHASTA VALLEY.
The largest valley in the county contains approximately four hundred
thousand acres, more than half of which is adapted to profitable
farming, dairying and fruit growing. The people of this section are
fully alive to the great possibilities which surround them. The Mt.
Shasta Land & Irrigation Co. recently purchased four thousand
acres
of land which they have subdivided. Eleven artesian wells have been
driven with depths of from 15 to 95 feet and flowing from 15 to 100
inches. The sinking of one well does not affect the flow of another,
and it is the intention to sink one hundred wells in all. High-voltage
power is furnished by the California & Oregon Power Co., and
the
enterprise shows every promise of deserved success, in which Dr. G. W.
Dwinnell is the moving spirit. The Shasta Valley Irrigation
Association, organized over two years ago for the purpose of getting
sufficient water from Klamath River near the lower Klamath Lake to
irrigate one hundred thousand acres of rich land, has made some
progress. Considerable money has been expended in the work, and it is
confidently believed that federal aid will be accorded. The towns of
Montague, Gazelle and Edgewood are located in this valley.Montague has a growing population of real live wires. Here a flour mill affords a market for the farmers' wheat, and a modern creamery absorbs the cream from the herds. The town recently voted bonds for a water system. Many new buildings have been erected, and prosperity seems to abide with the good people of that busy burg. Edgewood, located at the southern end of the valley, is trading post of importance and supports an exceedingly well-managed creamery. Gazelle is an important shipping and feeding point, and thousands of beef cattle are shipped from here each year. BUTTE VALLEY
has
an area of one hundred thousand acres, entirely enclosed by mountains,
well timbered with sugar and white pine. Some of the finest cattle
ranches in the state are here. The soil is rich, light and sandy in the
southern and eastern part, heavy and loamy in the northern. Alfalfa,
sugar beets, clover, timothy and potatoes bring good crops, and many
cars of the latter were shipped to the markets below this year. Owing
to the high altitude, more than four thousand feet, an agriculture
experiment station is greatly needed that a more scientific basis of
farming can prevail and the products best adapted to its soils and
climate be determined. The federal government stood ready to
appropriate twenty-five thousand dollars for the purpose conditional on
the state of California appropriating ten thousand dollars. A bill was
introduced at the recent session of the legislature, carrying out said
requirement, by Assemblyman W. B. Shearer of this county and passed
both houses. Later an anesthetic was administered and it now sleeps the
sleep of the just and righteous, much to the chagrin of the painstaking
legislator and the great disappointment of his constituents. In the
meantime, they are farming as their fathers used to farm. The towns of
Macdoel and Dorris in Butte Valley are prosperous and gradually growing.STRAWBERRY VALLEY
is
located near the southern end of the county between the Trinity and
Sierra ranges, and rising therefrom. Towering up among the clouds as
though to storm the very heights of heaven is the hoary head of Mt.
Shasta. About sixty thousand acres are here, and most of it is awaiting
development. The soil is exceptionally rich and is of two classes. One
is light and sandy and of a reddish color, the other a coal black loam.
Fruits and berries thrive here, and truck gardening is becoming an
important industry, several carloads of onions, cabbage and potatoes
having been shipped out this season, bringing fancy prices. Great
opportunity is here offered for celery culture, which attains a
perfection of yield and crispness and flavor that carries one way back
to Kalamazoo.Sisson is located in the heart of the valley. Here the celebrated Sisson Tavern is located, and nearby is the big fish hatchery. It is the junction point of the Southern Pacific and McCloud railroads and the base of departure for the hundreds of tourists that each year make the ascent of Mt. Shasta. There are one box and two sash and door factories, and preliminary arrangements for a creamery are under way. SQUAW VALLEY
has
a large acreage suitable to farming and fruit growing. Much of it is
still in forest, the property of the McCloud River Lumber Co., and is
not open to settlement. The town of McCloud is here located, as are the
big mills of the lumber company of the same name. Seventeen hundred men
are on its payrolls, and the annual cut is in the neighborhood of
eighty million feet.LUMBERING
is
one of the big industries of the county. There are upwards of two
million acres of standing timber here and about fifty saw mills in
operation, with an annual cut of two hundred million feet and employing
a large number of men.TOWNS OF THE COUNTY.
The towns of the county not previously mentioned are Weed, Dunsmuir,
Hornbrook, Oak Bar, Scott Bar, Hamburg, Happy Camp, Sawyers Bar and
Yreka.Weed is a highly prosperous lumber town and railroad junction. The population is about 1500, composed largely of workmen and their families connected with the Weed Lumber Co.'s box and sash and door factory which is located here. About 1500 doors are turned out every ten hours. Hornbrook is situated on the main line of the Southern Pacific and is a combination mining and farming town. Two hotels accommodate the traveling public, and a large area draws supplies from the large and well-stocked stores. The little town of Ager is only a short distance to the south and is the gateway to productive farms skirting the Klamath River and to the celebrated Klamath Hot Springs. Oak Bar, Scott Bar, Hamburg, Happy Camp and Sawyers Bar are mining towns enjoying the prosperity that comes from a good season's run. YREKA.
There is only one Yreka in all the world. It is located in the center
of Siskiyou, the head of California. It is the county seat and is on
the line of the great California state highway. Her citizens possess a
high sense of civic enterprise, and many marked improvements have been
made in the past. Cement walks are on all the principal resident
streets, a lasting testament to the activities of the Improvement Club,
and the main business street has just been paved from the Yreka
railroad depot to Gold Street at an expense approximating thirty
thousand dollars. The city council is progressive, and more
improvements are in sight. The Yreka chamber of commerce is an active
body, fully alive to the interests of the town and county. Since the
state highway is assured, a better feeling is noticeable and much
activity looked for in the spring. A new public library is an assured
fact. A Masonic temple is among the possibilities, and the Mount Shasta
Hospital, an institution of proven merit, expects to erect a modern and
commodious hospital building to accommodate its increasing business
from faraway points.In an article of this length it is impossible to do justice to the vast resources of this remarkable county. The story of the apple, the pear, prune and other fruits would be interesting and possibly instructive. The activities of the busy bee in its numerous apiaries must be passed. We can only mention the thirty thousand acres of alfalfa for which the soil is peculiarly adapted, where two crops a year yield three to five tons to the acre on dry land and three crops on irrigated land with from five to ten tons to the acre. The school system can be commended. The numerous summer resorts that abound throughout the county, especially in the renowned Sacramento River Canyon; and the mineral water industry should have mention, where Dunsmuir, known as "the heart of Shasta's Wonderland," reigns supreme and prospers as an up-to-date incorporated city and division point of the great Southern Pacific system. Nor should the scenic beauties of the county be passed without an attempt at description. It requires a vocabulary greater than mine and one far more skilled in the arts of description to do it justice. The artificial charms which form the attractions of great cities and the pleasure haunts of men render one indifferent and blase, and they pall upon the senses. But nature here wears a freshness and glory that can never fade. Worship at her shrine increases a desire for that happiness and contentment which only nature gives and adds to one's capacity for its appreciation. Were the natural beauties of the county transferred to Europe, for instance Switzerland, there would be a first-class automobile road to near the summit of Mt. Shasta; the Salmon River country, with its native wildness undefiled, would be dotted with resorts, and the Klamath from near its source to its exit from the county would swarm with tourists. High up in the mountains are beautiful lakes of clear water, wildflowers, berries, nuts and ferns--a land of delight for the hunter and fisherman. Mule deer, blacktail, bear and numerous smaller animals are plentiful. Quail and doves inhabit the valleys, and on the ponds and lakes abide ducks and geese of all kinds. Steelhead trout, eastern brook and salmon are always here in season for the fisherman. As glorious as has been Siskiyou's past, the future is before it, and no section of our beloved state offers greater opportunity for a life of prosperity, health, peace and contentment. Last revised March 21, 2025 |
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