A memorial and biographical history of northern California, illustrated. Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy...and biographical mention of many of its most eminent pioneers and also of prominent citizens of today, Part 9

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1000

USA > California > A memorial and biographical history of northern California, illustrated. Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy...and biographical mention of many of its most eminent pioneers and also of prominent citizens of today > Part 9

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In person, General Vallejo, even at his ad- vanced age, is a strikingly handsome man. He is tall and erect in carriage, with the military air of one disciplined to arms in his early youth. He is a brilliant conversationalist, an eloquent speaker, even in English, which he acquired late in life. To these accomplish- ments may be added the grace of gesture and manner which he inherits with his blood from an ancestry of Spanish cavaliers.

In the first Legislature of this State, M. G. Vallejo told the following story: "At that period (late in the last century) few families had emigrated to this country, and any one of the female sex was an oasis in the desert. My father was one of the many who emigrated in bachelorship, and while sojourning in San Luis Obispo he unexpectedly met with a lady who was in travail. As there was no one except her husband to assist her, he acted as her holder (tenedor). The lady was safely delivered of a girl, whereupon the holder solicited the hand of the child, and a formal agreement was made be- tween the parties that if at mature years the girl should willingly consent to the union the ceremony should be duly performed. The mar- riage took place in the young lady's fourteenth year, and the offspring of that marriage has now the honor to present this short biographical sketch !"

THE GREAT SCOURGE OF 1832-'33.

Colonel J. J. Warner, now of Los Angeles, a member of the Ewing trapping expedition,

HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

which passed north through these valleys in 1832, and back again in 1833, says:

" In the fall of 1832, there were a number of Indian villages on King's River, between its month and the mountains; also on the San Joa- quin River, from the base of the mountains down to and some distance below the great slough. On the Merced River, from the monn- tains to its junction with the San Joaquin, there were no Indian villages; but from about this point on the San Joaquin, as well as on its principal tributaries, the Indian villages were numerous, many of them containing some fifty to one hundred dwellings, built with poles and thatched with rushes. With some few excep- tions, the Indians were peaceably disposed. On the Tuolumne, Stanislaus and Calaveras rivers there were no Indian villages above the months, as also at or near their junetion with the San Joaquin. The most hostile were on the Cala- veras River. The banks of the Sacramento River, in its whole course through the valley, was studded with Indian villages, the houses of which, in the spring, during the day-time, were red with the salmon the aborigines were curing.

" At this time there were not, on the San Joa- quin or Sacramento river, or any of their tribn- taries, nor within the valleys of the two rivers, any inhabitants but Indians. On no part of the continent over which I had then or have since traveled was so numerous an Indian popu- lation, subsisting on the natural products of the soil and waters, as in the valleys of the San Joaquin and Sacramento. There was no eulti- vation of the soil by them; game, fish, nuts of the forest and seeds of the field constituted their entire food. They were experts in catching fish in many ways, and in snaring game in divers modes.

" On our return, late in the summer of 1833, we found the valleys depopulated. From the head of the Sacramento to the great bend and slough of the San Joaquin we did not see more than six or eight live Indians, while large num- bers of their bodies and skulls were to be seen

under almost every shade-tree near water, where the uninhabited and deserted villages had been converted into grave-yards; and on the San Joa- quin River, in the immediate neighborhood of the larger elass of villages, which the preceding year were the abodes of large numbers of these Indians, we found not only many graves, but the vestiges of a funeral pyre. At the mouth of King's River we encountered the first and only village of the stricken race that we had seen after entering the great valley; this village contained a large number of Indians tempora- rily stopping at that place.

" We wereencamped near the village one night only, and during that time the death angel, passing over the camping-ground of the plague- strieken fugitives, waved his wand, summoning from a little remnant of a once numerous people a score of victims to muster in the land of the Manitou; and the cries of the dying, mingling with the wails of the bereaved, made the night hideous in that veritable valley of death."

PROMINENT EARLY VISITORS.

Ewing Young, who had trapped with parties on the upper part of the Del Norte, the eastern part of the Grand and the Colorado rivers, pursuing the route formerly traversed by Capt. Jedediah S. Smith, in 1829-'30, entered the San Joaquin Valley and hunted on Tulare Lake and the adjacent streams. During the last part of 1832, or early in 1833, Young, having again entered the San Joaquin valley and trapped on the streams, finally arrived at the Sacramento River about ten miles below the mouth of the American. He followed up the Sacramento to the Feather River, and from there crossed over to the coast. The coast line was traveled till they reached the mouth of the Umpqua, where they crossed the mountains to the inland. En- tering the upper portion of the Sacramento Valley, they proceeded southerly till they reached the American River. Then they fol- lowed down the San Joaquin Valley and passed out through the Tejon Pass, in the winter of

HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

1833-'34. Besides these parties, there were several trappers, or " lone traders," in this re- gion during the same period.

The attention of the officers of the wealthy and powerful Hudson Bay Company was first spec- ially called to the extent and importance of the fur trade in California by Captain Smith, in 1827 or '8. The first expedition sent out by them was that under the command of McLeod. A short time after the departure of this company a second one was sent out under the leadership of Mr. Ogden, which followed up the Columbia and Lewis rivers, thence southerly over western Utah, Nevada, and into the San Joaquin Valley. On their return they trapped on the streams in Sacramento Valley, and went out at the northern limit in 1830. Thereafter the IIudson Bay Com- pany continued to send trappers into all this re- gion, for a time employing about ninety or one hundred men in this State.

During the months of January and February, 1844, John C. Fremont, then brevet captain of topographical engineers, on his return from his first exploring expedition to Oregon, passed down the west side of the Sierras, and crossed the snow-covered summit to Helvetia (Sacramento), suffering many privations and hardships. To reach this point they followed down the sonth fork of the American River. Fremont has published a journal of his trip, describing the experiences of himself and of his men with the Indians and with the usual vicissitudes of western travel, and also of the beauty of the hill and valley scenery and the primeval streams of pure water.

The next winter another party, of hardy pioneers, worked their laborions way through the drifting snow of the mountains and entered the beautiful valley, one of them remaining in his snow-bound camp at Donner Lake until re- turning spring made his rescue possible. The party consisted of twenty-three men, viz .: John Flomboy; Captain Stevens, recently a resident of Kern County, California; Joseph E. Foster; Dr. John Townsend; Allen Montgomery; Moses Schallenberger, now a resident of San Jose,

California; C. Greenwood and his two sons, John and Brit; James Miller, of San Rafael, California; Mr. Calvin; 'William Martin; Pat- rick Martin; Dennis Martin; Martin Murphy and his five sons; Mr. Hitchcock and son, and others.

William Sublette came overland in 1845 with a party of fifteen men, probably by way of the famous " cut-off" named after him. He went East with Clyman and Hastings.

James Alexander Forbes, a native of Scot- land, lived some years in South America, and came thence to San Francisco about 1830. In 1832 he was acting as a kind of clerk or major- domo for a Mexican at Santa Clara. A year or two afterward he was naturalized. In July, 1834, he married Ana Maria, daughter of Juan C. Galindo, being then twenty-seven years old. In 1836 he was agent for the Hudson Bay Com- pany; elector in 1838; sindico in 1839; and in 1842 he was appointed British vice-consul at Monterey, which office he filled for a few years, but without moving to Monterey, as there was little to do. In 1844 he was the grantee of the Potrero de Santa Clara; in 1845-'46 he was at San Francisco in charge of the Hudson Bay Company's property, after Rae's death, having apparently used his influence against Sutter and Micheltorena, being involved in a contro- versy with Leidesdorff, and obtaining for him- self and wife some beach lots in that place. He disclaimed taking any part in procuring a British protectorate over California, and in the troubles of 1846-'47 he took but slight part. Governor Mason declined to permit him as British vice-consul to import goods free oť duties. Mr. Forbes died in Oakland, in 1881, at the age of seventy-seven, retaining to the last much bitterness of feeling against many American peculiarities. His children have been Carlos H., residing at Los Angeles, in 1885, with ten children: Martha (deceased), James Alexander, Jr., Michael, Frederick, James Alonzo, Luis Felipe (deceased). Maria Clara, Juan Telesforo, Margaret, Francis II. and Alfred O.

HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

THE ILL-FATED DONNER PARTY.

Three miles from Truckee, and resting in the green lap of the Sierras, lies one of the loveliest sheets of water on the Pacific coast. Tall mountain peaks are reflected in the clear water, revealing a picture of extreme loveliness and quiet peace. Yet this peaceful scene was the amphitheater of the most tragic event in the annals of early California. "The Donner Party" was organized in Sangamon County, Illinois, by George and Jacob Donner and James F. Reed, in the spring of 1846. In April, 1846, the party set out from Springfield, Illinois, and by the first week in May had reached Indepen- dence, Missouri, where the party was increased until the train numbered about two or three hundred wagons, the Donner family numbering sixteen; the Reed family, seven ; the Graves family, twelve; the Murphy family, thirteen: these were the principal families of the Donner party proper. At Independence provisions were laid in for the trip, and the line of journey taken up. In the occasional glimpses we have of the party, features of but little interest present themselves, beyond the ordinary ex- periences of pioneer life. A letter from Mrs. George Donner, written near the junction of the North and South Platte, dated June 16, 1846, reports a favorable journey of 450 miles from Independence, Missouri, and with no forebod- ings of the terrible disasters so soon to burst upon them. At Fort Laramie a portion of the party celebrated the Fourth of July There- after the train passed unmolested, npon its jour- ney. George Donner was elected captain of the train at the Little Sandy River, on the 20th of July, 1846, from which act it took the name of the " Donner Party."

At Fort Bridger, then a mere trading post, the fatal choice was made of the route that led to such fearful disasters and tragic death. A new route, via Salt Lake, known as Hastings' Cnt-off, was recommended to the party as short- ening the distance by 300 miles. After due deliberation, the Donner party of eighty-seven souls (three having died) were induced to separ-

ate from the larger portion of the train (which afterward arrived in California safely), and com- menced their journey by way of Hastings' Cnt- off. They reached Weber, near the bend of the cañon, in safety. From this point in their journey, to Salt Lake, almost insurmountable difficulties were encountered, and instead of reaching Salt Lake in one week, as anticipated, over thirty days of perilous journey were con- sumed in making the trip-most precious time in view of the dangers imminent in the rapidly approaching storms of winter. The story of their trials and sufferings, in their journey to the fatal camp at Donner Lake, is terrible; nature, and stern necessity seemed arrayed against them. On the 19th of October, near the present site of Wadsworth, Nevada, the desti- tute company were happily reprovisioned by C. T. Stanton; furnished with food and mnules, together with two Indian vaqneros, by Captain Sutter withont recompensation.

At the present site of Reno it was decided to rest. Three or four days' time was lost. This was the fatal act. The stormn-clouds were already brewing npon the mountains, only a few miles distant. The ascent was ominous. Thick and thicker grew the clouds, outstripping in threaten- ing battalions the now eager feet of the alarmned emigrants, until, at Prosser Creek, three miles below Truckee, October 28, 1846, a month earlier than usual, the storm set in, and they found themselves in six inches of newly-fallen snow. On the summit it was already from two to five feet deep. The party, in much con- fusion, finally 'reached Donner Lake, in dis- ordered fragments. Frequent and desperate attempts were made to cross the mountain tops, bnt at last, baffled and despairing, they returned to camp at the lake. The storm now descended in all its pitiless fury upon the ill-fated emi- grants. Its dreadful import was well under- stood, as laden with omens of suffering and death. With slight interruptions the storm continued for several days. The animals were literally buried alive and frozen in the drifts. Meat was hastily prepared from their frozen

HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

carcasses, and cabins rudely built. One, the Schallenberger cabin, erected November, 1844, was already standing, abont a quarter of a mile · below the lake. This the Breen family appro- priated. The Murphys erected one 300 yards from the lake, marked by a large stone twelve feet high. The Graves family built theirs near Donner Creek, three-quarters of a mile further down the stream, the three forming the apexes of a triangle; the Breen and Murphy cabins were distant from each other about 150 yards. The Donner brothers, with their families, hastily constrneted a brush shed in Alder Creek valley, six or seven miles from the lake. Their provisions were speedily consumed, and starvation, with all its grim attendant horrors, stared the poor emigrants in the face. Day by day, with aching hearts and paralyzed energies, they awaited, amid the beating storms of the Sierras, the dreadful revelations of the morrow, " hoping against hope " for some welcome sign. On the 16th of December, 1846, a party of seventeen were enrolled to attempt the hazard- ous journey across the monntains, to press into the valley beyond for relief. Two returned and the remaining fifteen pressed on, including Mary Graves and her sister; Mrs. Sarah Fos- dick, and several other women, the heroic C. T. Stanton and the noble F. W. Graves (who left his wife and seven children at the lakes to wait in vain for his return) being the leaders. This was the " Forlorn Hope Party," over whose dreadful snfferings and disasters we must throw a veil. A detailed account of this party is given from the pen of C. F. McGlashan, and lately published in book form from the press of Crowley & McGlashan, proprietors of the Truckee Republican, to which we take pleasure in referring the reader. Death in its most awful form reduced the suffering company to seven-two men and five women-when snd- denly tracks were discovered imprinted on the snow. "Can any one imagine," says Mary Graves in her recital, "the joy these footsteps gave us? We ran as fast as onr strength would carry us." Turning a sharp point they sud.

denly came upon an Indian rancheria. The acorn-bread offered them by the kind and awe- stricken savages was eagerly devoured. But on they pressed with their Indian guides, only to repeat their dreadful sufferings, until at last, one evening about the last of January, Mr. Eddy, with his Indian guide, preceding the party fifteen miles, reached Johnson's ranch on Bear River, the first settlement on the western slope of the Sierras, when relief was sent back as soon as possible, and the remaining six sur- vivors were brought in the next day. It had been thirty-two days since they left Donner Lake. No tongne can tell, no pen portray, the awful sufferings, the terrible and appalling straits, as well as the noble deeds of heroism that characterized this inarch of death. The eternal mountains, whose granite face bore wit- ness to their sufferings, are fit monuments to inake the last resting place of Charles T. Stan- ton, that cultured, heroic sonl, who groped his way through the blinding snows of the Sierras to immortality. The divine encominm : " He gave His life as a ranson for many, " is his epitaph, foreshadawed in his own noble words, " I will bring aid to these famishing people or lay down my life."

Nothing could be done, in the meantime, for the relief of the sufferers at Donner Lake, with- ont securing help from Fort Sutter, which was speedily accomplished by John Rhodes. In a week, six men, fully provisioned, with Captain Reasin P. Tucker at their head, reached John- son's ranch, and in ten or twelve days' time, with provisions, mules. etc., the first relief party started for the scene at Donner Lake. It was a fearful undertaking, but on the morning of the 19th of February, 1847, the above party began the descent of the gorge leading to Donner Lake.

We have purposely thrown a veil over the dreadful sufferings of the strieken band left in their wretched hovels at Donner Lake. Reduced to the verge of starvation, many died (including numerous children, seven of whom were nursing babes) who, in this dreadful state of necessity, were summarily disposed of. Raw-

HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

hides, moccasins, strings, etc., were eaten. But relief was now close at hand for the poor, stricken sufferers. On the evening of the 19th of Feb- ruary, 1847, the stillness of death that had settled upon the scene was broken by prolonged shouts. In an instant the painfully sensitive ears of the despairing watchers canght the wel- come sound. Captain Tucker, with his relief party, had at last arrived upon the scene. Every face was bathed in tears, and the strongest men of the relief party melted at the appalling sight, sat down and wept with the rest.

But time was precious, as storms were immi- nent. The return party was quickly gathered. Twenty-three members started, among them several women and children. Of this number two were compelled to return and three per- ished on the journey. Many hardships and privations were experienced, and their provis- ions were soon entirely exhausted. Death once inore stared them in the face, and despair set- tled upon them. But assistance was near at hand. James F. Reed, who had preceded the Donner party by some months, suddenly ap- peared with the second relief party, on the 25th. The joy of the meeting was indescribable, espe- cially between the family and the long absent father. Re-provisioned, the party pressed on and gained their destination after severe suffer- ing, with eighteen members, only three having. perished. Reed continued his journey to the cabins at Donner Lake. There the scene was simply indescribable; starvation and disease were fast claiming their victims. March 1, Reed and his party arrived at the camp. Pro- ceeding directly to his cabin, he was espied by his little daughter (who, with her sister, was carried back by the previous party) and imme- diately recognized with a cry of joy. Provis- ions were carefully dealt out to the famishing people and immediate steps were taken for their return. Seventeen comprised this party. Half starved and completely exhausted they were compelled to camp in the midst of the furious storm, in which Mr. Reed barely escaped with his life. This was " Starved Camp," and from

this point Mr. Reed, with his two little chil- dren and another person, struggled ahead to obtain hasty relief if possible.

On the second day after leaving Starved Camp Mr. Reed and the three companies were over- taken by Cady and Stone, and on the night of the third day reached Woodworth's camp at Bear Valley, in safety. The horrors of Starved Camp beggar all description,-indeed require none. The third relief party, composed of John Stark, Howard Oakley and Charles Stone, were nearing the rescue, while W. H. Foster and W. H. Eddy (rescued by a former party) were bent on the same mission. These, with Hiram Miller, set out from Woodworth's camp on the following morning after Reed's arrival. The eleven were duly reached, but were in a starving condition, and nine of the eleven were unable to walk. By the noble resolution and herenlean efforts of Mr. Stark, a part of the number were borne and urged onward to their destination, while the other portion were com- pelled to remain and await another relief party. When the third relief party, under Foster and Eddy, arrived at Donner Lake, the sole surviv- ors of Alder Creek were George Donner, the captain of the company and his heroic and faithful wife, whose devotion to her dying hus- band caused her own death during the last and fearful days of waiting for the fourth relief. George Donner knew he was dying, and urged his wife to save her life and go with her little ones with the third relief party, but she refused. Nothing was more heart-rending than her sad parting with her beloved little ones, who wound their childish arms lovingly around her neck and besought her with mingled tears and kisses to join them. But duty prevailed over affection and she retraced the weary distance to die with him whom she had promised to love and honor to the end. Such scenes of anguish are seldom witnessed on this sorrowing earth, and such acts of triumphant devotion are among her most golden deeds. The snowy cerements of Donner Lake enshrouded in its stilly whiteness no purer life, no nobler heart than Mrs. George Donner's.

HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

The terrible recitals that closed this awful trag- edy we willingly omit.

The third relief party resened four of the last five survivors; the fourth and last relief party rescued the last survivor, Lewis Keseberg, on the 7th of April, 1847. Ninety names are given as members of the Donner party. Of these, forty-two perished, six did not live to reach the mountains, and forty-eight survived, some of whom are still living.

Thus ends this narrative of horrors, withont a parallel in the annals of American history of appalling disasters, fearful safferings, heroic fortitudes, self denial and heroism.

THE INDIANS.

Bancroft, in his " Native Races of the Pacific States," divides the Indians of the coast into seven distinct groups. The Californians com- prise one of the important branches occupying the territory between latitudes 32}° and 43° north, extending east to the Rocky Mountains. This group is subdivided into geographical sec- tions, namely, the Northern Californian, the Central Californian and the Southern Califor- nian. The early inhabitants of California be- longed to the Central division, which occupied all of California and extended from about 35° to 403° north. The races in this region were separated into numerous small tribes whose system of nomenclature was exceedingly prim- itive. The segregation of these Indians was not properly into tribes, but into villages, each having its own name and head.

The men generally wore their hair long, taken up all around and tied up in a bunch. The ends, being loose, floated out, much re sembling a feather-dnster. To bind the hair they used a net made from the milk-weed. In this they frequently placed grasses or flow- ers, forming a wreath. The women " banged" their hair in front, as do now their civilized white sisters; and for a sort of comb they used a sharpened mussel-shell pressed against a stick. The longer hair was brushed back and allowed to float in its confusion. The

men generally wore their beard in the form of a goatee, plucking the hairs on the side of the face. The growth was not luxuriant, but the hair was fine in texture. The women had their heads and necks ornamented, but did not trouble themselves about other covering. A string of beads made from spiral fossil shells was worn around the neck. Through the holes in the ears were placed the leg-bones of vult- ures, or small ornamented elders from six inches to a foot in length, their nets hanging down to the shoulders. Sometimes they in- serted a quill or small bone through the nose for ornament. In their huts their coverings were made from the feathers of ducks and geese, thoroughly bound together and these strips woven into a blanket. They also had coverings made from the skins of the wild hare and deer. The women also wore necklaces, made of small white beads. These strings were drawn around the neck several times. They wore no head- dresses. All wore a double apron in front and behind, attached to a belt, which was in the form of a strap, from the milkweed. At times the women donned these feathers or string cov- erings, although their general use was for the bed. Their ears were pierced, although the holes were not as large as the inen had in their ears. Both the men and women tattooed, the latter carrying it to a greater extent. Small lines of a dirty blue or black, a quarter of an inch in width, were drawn down from the cor- ners of the mouth and from the center of the lower lip. The women never painted their faces.

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A memorial and biographical history of northern California, illustrated. Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy...and biographical mention of many of its most eminent pioneers and also of prominent citizens of today, Part 9

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 1000

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1000