USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > A history of California and an extended history of Los Angeles and environs : also containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present, Volume I > Part 24
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de La Guerra, a leading citizen of Santa Bar- bara. Don Pablo was wrathfully indignant at the insult put upon his people, but after talking over the affair with Colonel Stevenson, he be- came somewhat mollified. He invited Colonel Stevenson to make Santa Barbara his headquar- ters and inquired about the brass band at the lower pueblo. Stevenson took the hint and or- dered up the band from Los Angeles. July 4th had been fixed upon as the day for the payment of the fines, doubtless with the idea of giving the Californians a little celebration that would remind them hereafter of Liberty's natal day. Colonel Stevenson contrived to have the band reach Santa Barbara on the night of the 3d. The band astonished Don Pablo and his family with a serenade. The Don was so delighted that he hugged the colonel in the most approved style. The band serenaded all the Dons of note in town and tooted until long after midnight, then started in next morning and kept it up till ten o'clock, the time set for each man to con- tribute his "dos pesos" to the common fund. By that time every hombre on the list was so filled with wine, music and patriotism that the greater portion of the fine was handed over without protest. The day closed with a grand ball. The beauty and the chivalry of Santa Bar- bara danced to the music of a gringo brass band and the brass cannon for the nonce was forgotten.
But the memory of the city's ransom rankled, and although an American band played Spanish airs, American injustice was still remembered. When the city's survey was made in 1850 the nomenclature of three streets, Cañon Perdido (Lost Cannon street), Quinientos (Five Hun- dred street) and Mason street kept the cannon episode green in the memory of the Barbareños. When the pueblo, by legislative act, became a ciudad, the municipal authorities selected this device for a seal: In the center a cannon em- blazoned, encircled with these words, Vale Quinientos Pesos-Worth $500, or, more liber- ally translated, Good-bye, $500, which, by the way, as the sequel of the story will show, is the better translation. This seal was used from the incorporation of the city in 1850 to 1860, when another design was chosen.
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After peace was declared, Colonel Mason sent the $500 to the prefect at Santa Barbara, with instructions to use it in building a city jail; and although there was pressing need for a jail, the jail was not built. The prefect's needs were pressing, too. Several years passed; then the city council demanded that the prefect turn the money into the city treasury. He replied that the money was entrusted to him for a specific purpose, and he would trust no city treasurer with it. The fact was that long before he had lost it in a game of monte.
Ten years passed, and the episode of the lost cannon was but a dimly remembered story of the olden time. The old gun reposed peacefully in its grave of sand and those who buried it had forgotten the place of its interment. One stormy night in December, 1858, the estero (creek) cut a new channel to the ocean. In the morning, as some Barbareños were survey- ing the changes caused by the flood, they saw the muzzle of a large gun protruding from the cut in the bank. They unearthed it, cleaned off the sand and discovered that it was El Cañon Perdido, the lost cannon. It was hauled up State street to Cañon Perdido, where it was inounted on an improvised carriage. But the sight of it was a reminder of an unpleasant in- cident. The finders sold it to a merchant for $80. He shipped it to San Francisco and sold it at a handsome profit for old brass.
Governor Pio Pico returned from Mexico to California, arriving at San Gabriel July 17, 1848. Although the treaty of peace between the United States and Mexico had been signed and proclaimed, the news had not reached Califor- nia. Pico, from San Fernando, addressed let- ters to Colonel Stevenson at Los Angeles and Governor Mason at Monterey, stating that as Mexican governor of California he had come back to the country with the object of carrying out the armistice which then existed between the United States and Mexico. He further stated that he had no desire to impede the es- tablishment of peace between the two countries; and that he wished to see the Mexicans and Americans treat each other in a spirit of frater- nity. Mason did not like Pico's assumption of the title of Mexican governor of California, al-
thoughi it is not probable that Pico intended to assert any claim to his former position. Gov- ernor Mason sent a special courier to Los An- geles with orders to Colonel Stevenson to arrest the ex-governor, who was then at his Santa Margarita rancho, and send him to Mon- terey, but the news of the ratification of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo reached Los An- geles before the arrest was made, and Pico was spared this humiliation.
The treaty of peace between the United States and Mexico was signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo, a hamlet a few miles from the City of Mexico, February 2, 1848; ratifications were exchanged at Queretaro, May 30 following, and a procla- mation that peace had been established between the two countries was published July 4, 1848. Under this treaty the United States assumed the payment of the claims of American citizens against Mexico, and paid, in addition, $15,000,- 000 to Mexico for Texas, New Mexico and Alta California. Out of what was the Mexican territory of Alta California there has been carved all of California, all of Nevada, Utah and Arizona and part of Colorado and Wyoming. The territory acquired by the treaty of Guada- lupe Hidalgo was nearly equal to the aggre- gated area of the thirteen original states at the time of the Revolutionary war.
The news of the treaty of peace reached Cali- fornia August 6, 1848. On the 7th Governor Mason issued a proclamation announcing the ratification of the treaty. He announced that all residents of California, who wished to be- come citizens of the United States, were ab- solved from their allegiance to Mexico. Those who desired to retain their Mexican citizenship could do so, provided they signified such inten- tion within one year from May 30, 1848. Those who wished to go to Mexico were at liberty to do so without passports. Six months before, Governor Mason had issued a proclamation pro- hibiting any citizen of Sonora from entering California except on official business, and then only under flag of truce. He also required all Sonorans in the country to report themselves either at Los Angeles or Monterey.
The war was over; and the treaty of peace had made all who so elected, native or foreign
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born, American citizens. Strict military rule was relaxed and the people henceforth were to be self-governing. American and Californian were one people and were to enjoy the same rights and to be subject to the same penalties. The war ended, the troops were no longer needed. Orders were issued to muster out the volunteers. These all belonged to Stevenson's New York regiment. The last company of the Mormon battalion had been discharged in April.
The New York volunteers were scattered all along the coast from Sonoma to Cape St. Lucas, doing garrison duty. They were collected at different points and mustered out. Although those stationed in Alta California had done no fighting, they had performed arduous serv- ice in keeping peace in the conquered territory. Most of them remained in California after their discharge and rendered a good account of them- selves as citizens.
CHAPTER XXIII. GOLD! GOLD! GOLD!
S EBASTIAN VISCAINO, from the bay of Monterey, writing to the King of Spain three hundred years ago, says of the In- dians of California: "They are well acquainted with gold and silver, and said that these were found in the interior." Viscaino was endeavor- ing to make a good impression on the mind of the king in regard to his discoveries, and the remark about the existence of gold and silver in California was thrown to excite the cupidity of his Catholic majesty. The traditions of the existence of gold in California before any was discovered are legion. Most of these have been evolved since gold was actually found. Col. J. J. Warner, a pioneer of 1831, in his Historical Sketch of Los Angeles County, briefly and very effectually disposes of these rumored discov- eries. He says: "While statements respecting the existence of gold in the earth of California and its procurement therefrom have been made and published as historical facts, carrying back the date of the knowledge of the auriferous character of this state as far as the time of the visit of Sir Francis Drake to this coast, there is no evidence to be found in the written or oral history of the missions, the acts and correspond- ence of the civil or military officers, or in the unwritten and traditional history of Upper Cali- fornia that the existence of gold, either with ores or in its virgin state, was ever suspected by any inhabitant of California previous to 1841, and, furthermore, there is conclusive testimony
that the first known grain of native gold dust was found upon or near the San Francisco ranch, about forty-five miles north-westerly from Los Angeles City, in the month of June, 1841. This discovery consisted of grain gold fields (known as placer mines), and the auriferous fields dis- covered in that year embraced the greater part of the country drained by the Santa Clara river from a point some fifteen or twenty miles from its mouth to its source, and easterly beyond Mount San Bernardino."
The story of the discovery as told by Warner and by Don Abel Stearns agrees in the main facts, but differs materially in the date. Stearns says gold was first discovered by Francisco Lopez, a native of California, in the month of March, 1842, at a place called San Francisquito, about thirty-five miles northwest from this city (Los Angeles). The circumstances of the dis- covery by Lopez, as related by himself, are as follows: "Lopez, with a companion, was out in search of some stray horses, and about midday they stopped under some trees and tied their horses out to feed, they resting under the shade, when Lopez, with his sheath-knife, dug up some wild onions, and in the dirt discovered a piece of gold, and, searching further, found some more. He brought these to town, and showed them to his friends, who at once declared there must be a placer of gold. This news being cir- culated, numbers of the citizens went to the place, and commenced prospecting in the neigh-
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borhood, and found it to be a fact that there was a placer of gold."
Colonel Warner says: "The news of this dis- covery soon spread among the inhabitants from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, and in a few weeks hundreds of people were engaged in washing and winnowing the sands and earth of these gold fields."
Warner visited the mines a few weeks after their discovery. He says: "From these mines was obtained the first parcel of California gold dust received at the United States mint in Phila- delphia, and which was sent with Alfred Robin- son, and went in a merchant ship around Cape Horn." This shipment of gold was 18.34 ounces before and 18.1 ounces after melting; fineness, .925; value, $344.75, or over $19 to the ounce, a very superior quality of gold dust. It was deposited in the mint July 8, 1843.
It may be regarded as a settled historical fact that the first authenticated discovery of gold in Alta California was made on the San Fran- cisco rancho in the San Feliciano Cañon, Los Angeles county. This cañon is about ten miles northwest of Newhall station on the Southern Pacific railroad, and about forty miles northwest of Los Angeles.
The date of the discovery is in doubt. A peti- tion to the governor (Alvarado) asking permis- sion to work the placers, signed by Francisco Lopez, Manuel Cota and Domingo Bermudez is on file in the California archives. It recites: "That as Divine Providence was pleased to give us a placer of gold on the 9th of last March in the locality of San Francisco rancho, that be- longs to the late Don Antonio del Valle." This petition fixes the day of the month the discovery was made, but unfortunately omits all other dates. The evidence is about equally divided between the years 1841 and 1842.
It is impossible to obtain definite information in regard to the yield of the San Fernando placers, as these mines are generally called. William Heath Davis, in his "Sixty Years in California," states that from $80,000 to $100,000 was taken out for the first two years after their discovery. He says that Mellus at one time shipped $5,000 of dust on the ship Alert. Ban- croft says: "That by December, 1843, two thou-
sand ounces of gold had been taken from the San Fernando mines." Don Antonio Coronel informed the author that he, with the assistance of three Indian laborers, in 1842, took out $600 worth of dust in two months. De Mofras, in his book, states that Carlos Baric, a Frenchman, in 1842, was obtaining an ounce a day of pure gold from his placer.
These mines were worked continuously from the time of their discovery until the American conquest, principally by Sonorians. The dis- covery of gold at Coloma, January 24, 1848, drew away the miners, and no work was done on these mines between 1848 and 1854. After the latter dates work was resumed, and in 1855, Francisco Garcia, working a gang of Indians, is reported to have taken out $65,000 in one season. The mines are not exhausted, but the scarcity of water prevents working them profit- ably.
It is rather a singular coincidence that the exact dates of both the first and second authen- ticated discoveries of gold in California are still among the undecided questions of history. In the first, we know the day but not the year; in the second, we know the year but not the day of the month on which Marshall picked up the first nuggets in the millrace at Coloma. For a number of years after the anniversary of Mar- shall's discovery began to be observed the 19th of January was celebrated. Of late years Jan- uary 24 has been fixed upon as the correct date, but the Associated Pioneers of the Territorial Days of California, an association made up of men who were in the territory at the time of Marshall's discovery or came here before it became a state, object to the change. For nearly thirty years they liave held their annual dinners on January 18, "the anniversary of the discovery of gold at Sutter's sawmill, Coloma, Cal." This society has its headquarters in New York City. In a circular recently issued, disapproving of the change of date from the 18th to the 24th, the trustees of that society say: "Upon the organi- zation of this society, February 11, 1875, it was decided to hold its annual dinners on the anni- versary of the discovery of gold at Sutter's saw- mill, Coloma, Cal. Through the Hon. Newton Booth, of the United States Senate, this infor-
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mation was sought, with the result of a commu- nication from the secretary of the state of Cali- fornia to the effect 'that the archives of the state of California recorded the date as of Jan- uary 18, 1848. Some years ago this date was changed by the society at San Francisco to that of January 24, and that date has been adopted by other similar societies located upon the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. This society took the matter under advisement, with the result that the new evidence upon which it was pro- posed to change the date was not deemed suffi- cient to justify this society in ignoring its past records, founded on the authority of the state of California; therefore it has never accepted the new date."
Marshall himself was uncertain about the exact date. At various times he gave three different dates-the 18th, 19th and 20th, but never moved it along as far as the 24th. In the past thirty years three different dates-the 18th, 19th and 24th of January-have been celebrated as the anniversary of Marshall's gold dis- covery.
The evidence upon which the date was changed to the 24th is found in an entry in a diary kept by H. W. Bigler, a Mormon, who was working for Marshall on the millrace at the time gold was discovered. The entry reads: "January 24. This day some kind of metal that looks like goold was found in the tailrace." On this authority about ten years ago the California Pioneers adopted the 24th as the correct date of Marshall's discovery.
While written records, especially if made at the time of the occurrence of the event, are more reliable than oral testimony given long after, yet when we take into consideration the conflicting stories of Sutter, Marshall, the Win- ners and others who were immediately con- cerned in some way with the discovery, we must concede that the Territorial Pioneers have good reasons to hesitate about making a change in the date of their anniversary. In Dr. Trywhitt Brook's "Four Months Among the Gold Find- ers," a book published in London in 1849, and long since out of print, we have Sutter's version of Marshall's discovery given only three months after that discovery was made. Dr. Brooks
visited Sutter's Fort early in May, 1848, and received from Sutter himself the story of the find. Sutter stated that he was sitting in his room at the fort, one afternoon, when Marshall, whom he supposed to be at the mill, forty miles up the American river, suddenly burst in upon him. Marshall was so wildly excited that Sutter, suspecting that he was crazy, looked to see whether his rifle was in reach. Marshall declared that he had made a discovery that would give them both millions and millions of dollars. Then he drew his sack and poured out a handful of nuggets on the table. Sutter, when he had tested the metal and found that it was gold, became almost as excited as Marshall. He eagerly asked if the workmen at the mill knew of the discovery. Marshall declared that he had not spoken to a single person about it. They both agreed to keep it secret. Next day Sutter and Marshall arrived at the sawmill. The day after their arrival, they prospected the bars of the river and the channels of some of the dry creeks and found gold in all.
"On our return to the mill," says Sutter, "we were astonished by the work-people coming up to us in a body and showing us some flakes of gold similar to those we had ourselves procured. Marshall tried to laugh the matter off with them, and to persuade them that what they had found was only some shining mineral of trifling value; but one of the Indians, who had worked at a gold mine in the neighborhood of La Paz, Lower California, cried out: 'Ora! Ora!' (gold! gold!), and the secret was out."
Captain Sutter continues: "I heard afterward that one of them, a sly Kentuckian, had dogged us about and, that, looking on the ground to see if he could discover what we were in search of, he lighted on some of the flakes himself."
If this account is correct, Bigler's entry in his diary was made on the day that the workmen found gold, which was five or six days after Marshall's first find, and consequently the 24th is that much too late for the true date of the discovery. The story of the discovery given in the "Life and Adventures of James W. Mar- shall," by George Frederick Parsons, differs materially from Sutter's account. The date of the discovery given in that book is January 19,
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1848. On the morning of that day Marshall, after shutting off the water, walked down the tailrace to see what sand and gravel had been removed during the night. (The water was turned into the tailrace during the night to cut it decper.) While examining a mass of debris, "his eye caught the glitter of something that lay lodged in a crevice on a riffle of soft granite some six inches under water." Picking up the nugget and examining it, he became satisfied that it must be one of three substances-mica, sulphurets of copper, or gold. Its weight satis- fied him that it was not mica. Knowing that gold was malleable, he placed the specimen on a flat rock and struck it with another; it bent, but did not crack or break. He was satisfied that it was gold. He showed the nugget to his men. In the course of a few days he had col- lected several ounces of precious metal. "Some four days after the discovery it became necessary for him to go below, for Sutter had failed to send a supply of provisions to the mill, and the men were on short commons. While on his way down he discovered gold in a ravine at a place afterwards known as Mormon island. Arrived at the fort, he interviewed Sutter in his private office and showed him about three ounces of gold nuggets. Sutter did not believe it to be gold, but after weighing it in scales against $3.25 worth of silver, all the coin they could raise at the fort, and testing it with nitric acid obtained from the gun shop, Sutter became convinced and returned to the mill with Marshall. So little did the workmen at the mill value the discovery that they continued to work for Sutter until the mill was completed, March II, six weeks after the nuggets were found in the tailrace.
The news of the discovery spread slowly. It was two months in reaching San Francisco, although the distance is not over one hundred and twenty- five miles. The great rush to the mines from San Francisco did not begin until the middle of May, nearly four months after the discovery. On the 10th of May, Dr. Brooks, who was in San Francisco, writes: "A number of people have ac- tually started off with shovels, mattocks and pans to dig the gold themselves. It is not likely, however, that this will be allowed, for Captain Folsom has already written to Colonel Mason
about taking possession of the mine on behalf of the government, it being, he says, on public land."
As the people began to realize the richness and extent of the discovery, the excitement in- creased rapidly. May 17, Dr. Brooks writes: "This place (San Francisco) is now in a perfect furore of excitement; all the workpeople have struck. Walking through the town to-day, I observed that laborers were employed only upon about half a dozen of the fifty new buildings which were in course of being run up. The majority of the mechanics at this place are mak- ing preparations for moving off to the mines, and several people of all classes-lawyers, store- keepers, merchants, etc., are smitten with the fever; in fact, there is a regular gold mania springing up. I counted no less than eighteen houses which were closed, the owners having left. If Colonel Mason is moving a force to the American Fork, as is reported here, their journey will be in vain."
Colonel Mason's soldiers moved without orders-they nearly all deserted, and ran off to the mines.
The first newspaper announcement of the discovery appeared in The Californian of March 15, 1848, nearly two months after the discovery. But little attention was paid to it. In the issue of April 19, another discovery is reported. The item reads: "New gold mine. It is stated that a new gold mine has been discovered on the American Fork of the Sacramento, supposed to be on the land of W. A. Leidesdorff, of this place. A specimen of the gold has been ex- hibited, and is represented to be very pure." On the 29th of May, The Californian had sus- pended publication. "Othello's occupation is gone," wails the editor. "The majority of our subscribers and many of our advertising patrons have closed their doors and places of business and left town, and we have received one order after another conveying the pleasant request that the printer will please stop my paper or my ad, as I am about leaving for Sacramento."
The editor of the other paper, The California Star, made a pilgrimage to the mines in the lat- ter part of April, but gave them no extended write-up. "Great country, fine climate," he wrote on his return. "Full flowing streams, mighty
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timber, large crops, luxuriant clover, fragrant flowers, gold and silver," were his comments on what he saw. The policy of both papers seems to have been to ignore as much as possible the gold discovery. To give it publicity was for a time, at least, to lose their occupation.
In The Star of May 20, 1848, its eccentric editor, E. C. Kemble, under the caption "El Dorado Anew," discourses in a dubious manner upon the effects of the discovery and the extent of the gold fields: "A terrible visitant we have had of late. A fever which has well-nigh de- populated a town, a town hard pressing upon a thousand souls, and but for the gracious inter- position of the elements, perhaps not a goose would have been spared to furnish a quill to pen the melancholy fate of the remainder. It has preyed upon defenseless old age, subdued the elasticity of careless youth and attacked indis- criminately sex and class, from town councilman to tow-frocked cartman, from tailor to tippler, of which, thank its pestilential powers, it has beneficially drained (of tipplers, we mean) every villainous pulperia in the place.
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