USA > California > A history of California: the American period > Part 10
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The reunited company, ascending the Sierras on the north side of the Walker, came at last to a little stream which flowed westward instead of toward the east. This proved to be the headwaters of the Stanislaus, one of the largest tributaries of the San Joaquin. The course of the river through the mountains was too rough and precipitous to furnish an easy route of travel. The emigrants became
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entangled in gorges and cañons, some of which were more than a mile in depth, and had to abandon many of their animals.1 Food became scarce; so they ate crows, wild cats, and anything else they could lay hands on. One member of the party separated from his companions, and was not heard of again until he reached, in some miraculous way, the establishment of John A. Sutter, where Sacramento now stands.
The horses and mules that still survived were so weak they could scarcely travel, and the emigrants, as they dragged themselves down the last weary ridge of the Sierras, were too worn out with fatigue to realize that the San Joa- quin Valley lay before them; and that California itself was at hand. Some of them, indeed, even when they reached the floor of the valley, thought that California must be still five hundred miles away! Bidwell thus describes how the party came to the San Joaquin:
"When morning came the foremost of the party waited for the others to come up. They had found water in a stagnant pond, but what was better, they had shot a fat coyote and with us it was anything but mule meat. As for myself, I was unfortunate, being among those in the rear and not aware of the feast in the advance. I did not reach it in time to get any of the coyote ex- cept the lights and the windpipe. Longing for fat meat and willing to eat anything but poor mule meat and seeing a little fat on the windpipe of the coyote, I threw it on the coals to warm it and greedily devoured it.
"But halcyon days were at hand. We turned directly to the north to reach what seemed to be the nearest timber. This was at a distance of ten miles or so, which in our weakened condition it took us nearly all day to travel. It brought us to the Stanislaus River at a point not far from the foothills. Here the rich alluvial bottom was more than a mile wide. It had been burned over, but the new grass was starting up and growing luxuriously but sparsely, like thinly sown grain. But what gladdened our eyes most was the abundance of game in sight, principally antelope. Before dark
1 Bidwell, on a scouting expedi- tion, came upon one of the huge overturned Sequoia Gigantea of the
Calaveras Grove-the first white man known to have seen a specimen of the "Big Trees."
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we had killed two of them and two sand-hill cranes, and besides there was an abundance of ripe and luscious wild grapes. Still we had no idea that we were yet in California, but supposed we had yet to cross the range of mountains to the West."
Within a few days, however, this dreary illusion was dis- pelled, and by the aid of an Indian guide the party came to the ranch of Dr. John Marsh, some six miles from the foot of Mount Diablo. They reached this November 4, 1841, after having spent six months on the long and dangerous way. Here the company separated and soon became widely scattered throughout the province. Some of the Americans were arrested by General Vallejo at San José; but the arrest in most cases was a mere formality. Bidwell, however, be- cause of Marsh's failure to secure a passport for him, as he had done for the others, was held for three days in the San José jail. No food was given him; and the fleas in his cell were "so numerous as to darken anything of a light color." Yet even Bidwell's imprisonment was merely the result of official oversight; and as soon as his predicament became known, General Vallejo issued the necessary pass- port and ordered his release.
A number of the volumes used in the preparation of this chapter have already been referred to in the body of the text. The account of the Bidwell expedition is based on the Bidwell manuscript (California, 1841-8), in the Bancroft Library.
CHAPTER IX
IMMIGRATION AND TRAGEDY-THE DONNER PARTY
A NUMBER of the Bidwell party, shortly after their ar- rival on the coast, found their way northward to the recently erected settlement of New Helvetia in the Sacramento Valley. This establishment, semi-military and semi-feudal in character, was founded and ruled over by John A. Sutter, one of the most interesting figures of early California history. Sutter was born of Swiss parents in the Duchy of Baden in the year 1803. When a little over thirty years of age he came to the United States and lived for a time with one of his countrymen in Indiana. A year or two later he drifted on to St. Louis, where he engaged in an unsuccessful trading venture to Santa Fé. After this he joined a trapping party to the Rocky Mountains, and subsequently pushed on to the Pacific by way of the Columbia.
By this time Sutter had conceived the plan of founding a colony in California. Sailing to the Sandwich Islands, he secured some aid from Americans resident there, and a few Kanakas to assist him in the undertaking. He at length reached the California coast (by way of Alaska) in 1840, and secured permission from Governor Alvarado to carry out his project.
At that time the Sacramento Valley, while known to the Californians, was neither fortified nor settled. The Indians, both in the valley and in the surrounding mountains, had long been a menace to the ranches on the coast, upon which they made frequent raids, driving off large numbers of horses and cattle almost with impunity. A colony, such as Sutter proposed to establish, would check this practice with no expense to the provincial treasury, except the grant of a few leagues of unoccupied wilderness land. Sutter selected
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as the site of his colony a tract lying along the Sacramento River, about two miles from where that stream receives the waters of the American. Here he proceeded to carry out his very ambitious plans. With the aid of his Sandwich Islanders, some native Indians, and the few foreigners who joined him from time to time, he began to lay the foundation for what he hoped would one day become an independent state.
Not long before the arrival of the Bidwell contingent, Sutter had bought out the Russian colony of Bodega, secur- ing through his purchase a good deal of valuable personal property, some very shadowy land claims that brought him nothing but trouble, and an ever pressing debt for nearly a hundred thousand dollars. Among the most useful of the Russian effects were a small launch, a considerable number of horses and cattle, and some forty odd pieces of ordnance, of many types and sizes, and all of it in various stages of dilapidation.
This artillery, however, was probably superior to any- thing possessed by the regular forces of the province, and gave Sutter a very considerable military prestige. Within a few years, indeed, he was not only able to make himself master of the surrounding Indian tribes, but also to defy any attempt the California officials might make to oust him from his position. And while Sutter's relations with the government were generally of the most friendly char- acter, it was clearly seen, both in Mexico and in Califor- nia, that his control of the frontier made him a potential menace to all local authority.
A very pretentious fort added to Sutter's security and gave New Helvetia a decided military character. This fort was a quadrangular structure built of adobe brick. It mounted twelve guns and could shelter a thousand men. An armed garrison was regularly maintained, sentries were on guard continually, and military drill was held each day.
In addition to Sutter's military activities, he displayed a vast amount of energy in more peaceful endeavors. To care for the ever growing needs of his colony, and especially
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to meet the pressing demands of his Russian debt, he branched out into a great variety of pursuits and tried all sorts of experiments, most of which impoverished, rather than enriched him. He planted large areas to wheat; built a flour mill; diverted water from the American River for irrigation purposes; grazed large herds of cattle and horses; sent hunters into the mountains and along the rivers for furs and elk skins; set up a distillery; began the weaving of coarse woolen blankets; ran a launch regularly for freight and passengers between his settlement and San Francisco Bay; employed nearly all foreigners who came to him for work, whether he needed them or not; trained the Indians to useful occupations; at times chastised the thieving, war- inclined tribes which the Spanish Californians could not sub- due; administered justice as an official of the provincial gov- ernment; and, in short, made his colony the nucleus of all activity, whether political or economic, in what was then the only settled portion of interior California.
In addition to these varied activities, with their decided local and personal interest, Sutter contributed in a much larger way to the making of California history through his aid to American immigration. Few people today realize how large a part this hospitable, visionary, improvident land baron of the Sacramento played in the American ad- vance to California. His fort occupied the most strategic position in all Northern California, so far as the overland trails were concerned, and became the natural objective for parties crossing the Sierras, by the central and northern routes, or coming into the province by way of Oregon.
At Sutter's, these immigrants, exhausted and half-starved as many of them were, found shelter, food and clothing, and an opportunity to learn something of the new land and people to which they had come. More than one company, caught in the mountain snows, was saved from destruction by a rescue party sent from Sutter's Fort. The situation of the latter also made it impossible for the California authorities, had they been so inclined, to check or turn aside the stream of overland migration. The passes and
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trails of the northern Sierras lay open to American frontiers- men so long as Sutter maintained his position on the Sacra- mento.
The arrival of the Bidwell-Bartleson company at Marsh's ranch ushered in, as already noted, the period of organized immigration to California. Almost contemporaneous with the coming of this party, some twenty-five emigrants, re- cruited partly in Missouri and partly from American resi- dents in New Mexico, reached Los Angeles by way of the Gila and the Colorado. This company was known, from the names of its leaders, as the Workman-Rowland party; and while Bidwell and his companions for the most part settled along the coast north of Monterey, or in the Sacra- mento Valley, the immigrants who came from Santa Fé established themselves in the south. Here many of them, like Rowland and Workman, the leaders, and Benjamin D. Wilson, the first mayor of Los Angeles under American rule, acquired large grants of land, upon which they dwelt in entire harmony with the California authorities and became respected citizens of the province.
Other parties were not slow to follow the lead of Bidwell and of Rowland. In 1843 a company consisting of thirty or thirty-five members, reached New Helvetia from the Willamette Valley, travelling by way of Rogue River, Shasta, and the Sacramento. The original expedition, of which these California immigrants were only a part, left Independence, Missouri, in 1842 and reached the Columbia over the Fort Hall route in October. Here, however, the constant rains, for which Oregon has long enjoyed a dis- tinctive reputation, proved too much for over fifty of the party, who consequently sought a somewhat less saturated climate farther to the south.
Indian difficulties and other discouragements, however, disheartened about a third of the California contingent, who turned back near Rogue River, leaving their companions to finish the journey as best they might. The company, though thus considerably reduced in number, arrived at Sutter's Fort early in July, after one or two serious encounters
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with hostile natives. Once at New Helvetia, the immi- grants immediately drifted apart, some going to the coast, some taking up land in the Napa Valley (where Yount, one of the trappers of Pattie's party, had settled), and others finding employment with an American named Stephen Smith, who had begun the construction of the first steam grist and saw mills in California, near the old Russian settle- ment of Bodega.
The leader of this company, Lansford W. Hastings, was something more than ordinary settler. Like Hall J. Kelley, he was a Pacific Coast enthusiast, a propagandist, almost a professional organizer of western emigrant parties, and a descriptive writer of unusual ability. For several years he was engaged in presenting the attractions of California to the American people and in leading companies from the western states across the Sierras. Not only was he familiar with most of the established overland routes, but even added his contribution to the work of the explorers in opening up a more direct way, known as Hastings' Cut-Off, from the Great Salt Lake to the Humboldt. Following the expedi- tion of 1843, Hastings became involved in the Mormon plan of sending a colony to the coast. Moreover, from beginning to end, his mind was busy with a scheme to bring about the independence of the province and to set up a republic on the Pacific. The model he set for himself in carrying out this program was Sam Houston of Texas.
A second expedition to reach California in 1843 was the so-called Chiles-Walker party. This company, consisting at first of approximately thirty men, besides a considerable number of women and children, left Independence, Missouri, under command of Joseph B. Chiles, a former member of the Bidwell-Bartleson party of 1841. After a short stay in California, Chiles had returned to Missouri for the express purpose of organizing a new company for the overland trip; and the party he led out of Independence was chiefly the result of his efforts along this line.
The company, somewhat better equipped than most expeditions, carried their belongings in wagons instead of
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on pack animals. With them they took not only ordinary household goods; but also, heavy furniture, farming utensils, and even a complete outfit for the erection of a saw mill on the Sacramento!
Leaving Independence in May, they followed the usual route to Fort Hall, which they reached without special inci- dent. Here, however, the company divided. A small party consisting only of men under the command of Chiles, turned northward to Fort Boise for supplies; while the main expedi- tion pursued a more southerly course under the guidance of Joseph R. Walker, the trapper who had first entered Cali- fornia ten years before.
The men under Chiles reached Sutter's Fort without serious mishap, though unfortunately little is known of the incidents of this part of the journey. Crossing from Boise to the Sacramento by way of the Malheur and Pitt Rivers, they entered California over a previously unexplored route and one seldom used by subsequent immigrant parties.
The main company, following the lead of Walker, crossed from Fort Hall with their heavily laden ox wagons to the Humboldt river. This they followed, in keeping with the usual practice, to its sink in western Nevada. Thence turning south, the party struck Walker Lake; but made no attempt to follow the route by which the Bidwell party had crossed the Sierras two years before. Instead, they held a course running to the south, through difficult moun- tainous, or semi-desert country, until they came to the large alkaline body of water now known as Mono Lake. Flowing into this lake from the Sierras were a number of clear running streams, one of which was given the name of Walker Creek. A long meadow, running parallel to the lake, furnished an ample supply of nutritious grass for the oxen.
From Mono Lake, the emigrants' course lay over a suc- cession of sandy ridges, very discouraging to the slow mov- ing caravan, until the crest of a pine-clad ridge gave them outlook upon one of the fairest sights in all California. Before them a river, clear as crystal, ran in great loops through a pleasant valley sloping gently to the south. The
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floor of this valley was covered with green grass, and dotted here and there with herds of elk, deer, and bands of antelope. To the left, as the emigrants looked down the course of the valley, rose a range of brown-gray mountains, almost devoid of trees and other vegetation, but with an occasional snow bank clinging to the sides of some unusually high peak. To the right, white-capped, rugged, beautiful beyond the power of words to describe, stood the impenetrable wall of the Sierra Nevada.
Down this valley, which Frémont two years later called Owen's Valley in honor of one of his own men, Walker led the members of his company. Grass was plentiful and frequent ice cold streams flowed from the mountains across the emigrants' course. As the caravan neared the lower end of the valley, however, the way became more difficult. Wide sandy stretches impeded their progress, and boulder- strewn tongues shot out from the base of the mountains, forcing the wagons to make many tedious detours. At last, near a lake into which the river emptied (afterwards known as Owen's Lake), the company were compelled to abandon their wagons and pack such goods as they were able to carry upon the backs of the horses and oxen. The heavy mill machinery was buried in the sand, where twenty years later a band of prospectors were greatly mystified by its discovery.
Some days' journey beyond Owen's Lake, the company entered the pass by which Walker had led the Bonneville hunters out of the San Joaquin in 1834, and to which he had given his name. Through this broad gateway the Sierras were successfully crossed, without the impediment of snow or other serious inconvenience.
On the California side of the mountains, however, intense suffering awaited the emigrants. In seeking to reach the western side of the San Joaquin Valley,1 the company found themselves caught in hot, choking alkali wastes, where for a hundred miles there was almost no water, and where the
1 The western outlet of Walker Pass lies about 60 miles northeast of the modern city of Bakersfield.
THE SIERRA DIVIDE
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heavily impregnated dust seemed to eat out the tissues of the lungs and dry up every particle of moisture in the body. By the time they came to the Coast Range there was little life left in any of them; but on one of the tributaries of the Salinas River, they found a welcome taste of paradise. Here lay a small valley, known probably to Walker for many years, where there were grass, trees, and water in abundance, and where game was as plentiful as heart could ask. After a few weeks of recuperation in this pleasant spot, the com- pany finished the last few miles of its long journey, reaching the Gilroy Rancho, near Monterey, in January. Here the emigrants separated. Before long, like the companies which had preceded them, they were to be found in various parts of California, a welcome reënforcement to the foreign population of the province.
During the years 1843 and 1844, other parties followed those already enumerated in this chapter. In some cases the expeditions came by way of Oregon; but more frequently they took the shorter route from Fort Hall to the Sierras and crossed into California by whatever pass they were fortunate enough to discover.
One of the most important of these companies was the Stevens-Murphy party, which consisted of over fifty men, besides women and children, when it left the Missouri in May, 1844. At Fort Hall about half the emigrants turned north for Oregon, but the remainder took the fairly well defined trail to the Humboldt River.
From the sink of this river, the party, instead of seeking Walker Pass as Chiles and his companions had done the preceding year, crossed southwest directly to the Sierras and entered California by way of the Truckee River and Bear Creek. The passage of the mountains was made in the late fall and early winter, and was consequently accompanied by very considerable hardship. A division of the company took place near the summit, at the beautiful lake which two years later witnessed the slow tragedy of the Donner party. Because of this division, the emigrants did not all reach Sutter's Fort at the same time. But by good fortune the
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early snow fall was light, and the last of the train were out of the mountains before the way became impassable.
The Stevens-Murphy party, aside from ante-dating the forty-niners by half a decade, claim distinction along two other lines. They were the first immigrants to take wagons all the way from the western states to the settled portions of California; and they were probably the first Americans to reach the Sierra divide by way of the Truckee River, thus opening the most central of the immigrant trails and dis- covering a route of which the first transcontinental rail- road afterwards made use.
During the year 1845 at least 250 persons reached Cali- fornia by the overland trails. To narrate the trials and vicissitudes of the five or six parties to which these immi- grants belonged, would be to repeat in large measure what has already been said of previous companies. The story of every early expedition to California is an epic of romance and adventure well worth the telling, if this can be done at proper length. But where lack of space forbids narration in detail, little can be gained by attempting a mere summary of each expedition.
Without seeking, therefore, to describe the experiences of these various parties, it will be sufficient merely to men- tion the more important of them by name. Under the leadership of James Clyman, one of the Bidwell-Bartleson company of 1841, forty-three Oregonians left the Willamette in June, reaching Sutter's about the middle of July. In this company was a man of no particular distinction named James Marshall, who some years later, by a chance dis- covery, set the whole world agog.
A month after the arrival of the Clyman party, thirteen young men, commonly spoken of as the Swasey-Todd company, crossed the Sierras by the Truckee route into the Sacramento Valley. In the fall, one of the Sublettes made his appearance at Sutter's in charge of fifteen men, who had accompanied him from St. Louis. The party was ex- ceptionally well equipped with oxen and wagons, and nearly all the members had rather unusual reserves of ready money.
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A few days later, the advance guard of the largest com- pany of the year began to arrive at New Helvetia. This party, known as the Grigsby-Ide party, consisted of over a hundred persons. It left Fort Hall in August and reached the Sierras over the Humboldt-Truckee route with- out special incident. Once at the crest of the mountains, however, the company forgot all sense of union; and each family struck out for itself to reach the long sought Cali- fornia. In the mad scramble that followed, some wagons were left far behind; and from the 8th of October to the 25th the members of the scattered train came straggling into Sutter's hospitable establishment.
One other company came to California before the year closed. This was led by the potential filibuster and explorer, Lansford W. Hastings. It left Independence late in August, with twenty-two or twenty-three members. Because of the lateness of the start and certain unexpected delays, the crossing of the Sierras was attended with very grave danger. But since the company consisted only of men, they were able to reach the plains a day or two before the passes became snow-blocked for the winter. The party arrived at Sutter's on Christmas Day, where the holiday feast proved a wel- come contrast to the hunger and privations suffered in the mountains. Besides Hastings, at least one other member of this party acquired some measure of fame in later Cali- fornia history. This was Robert Semple, who, among other claims to distinction, could boast a remarkable stature. He was six feet, eight inches tall.
The arrival of these various overland companies, and the coming of some settlers by sea, materially increased the foreign population of California. The actual immigration, however, fell far short of the numbers that rumor said were on the way. Both in California and in the United States, the air was thick with stories of a westward migra- tion that in a year or two would populate the entire Paci- fic Coast and displace the Mexican control of California.
In the spring of 1845, for instance, it was commonly reported that seven thousand persons were assembled at
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