USA > California > Amador County > History of Amador County, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 15
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" February 10th. Taplin was sent back with a few men to assist Mr. Fitzpatrick; and continuing on with three sleighs carrying a part of the baggage, we had the satisfaction to encamp within two and a half miles of the head of the hollow, and at the foot of the last mountain ridge. Here two large trees had been set on fire, and in the holes, where the snow had been melted away, we found a comfortable camp. Putting on our snow-shoes, we spent the afternoon in exploring a road ahead. The glare of the snow combined with great fatigue, had rendered many of the people nearly blind; but we were fortu- nate in having some black silk handkerchief's, which, worn as veils, very much relieved the eyes.
" February 11th. High wind continued, and our trail this morning was nearly invisible-here and there indicated by a little ridge of snow. Our situa- tion became tiresome and dreary, requiring a strong exercise of patience and resolution. In the evening I received a message from Mr. Fitzpatrick, acquaint- ing me with the utter failure of his attempt to get our mules and horses over the snow-the half-hidden trail had proved entirely too slight to support them, and they had broken through, and were plunging about or lying half buried in the snow. * * 1 wrote him to send the animals immediately back to their old pastures; and after having made mauls and shovels, turn in all the strength of his party to open and beat a road through the snow, strengthen- ing it with branches and boughs of the pines.
" February 13th. We continued to labor on the road; and in the course of the day had the satisfac- tion to see the people working down the face of the opposite hill, about three miles distant. * * * The meat train did not arrive this morning, and I gave Godey leave to kill our little dog (Tlamath), which he prepared in Indian fashion; scorehing off the hair, and washing the skin with soap and snow, and then
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EARLY CONDITION OF THIS REGION.
cutting it up in pieces, which were laid on the snow. Shortly afterward, the sleigh arrived with a supply of horse meat; and we had to-night an extraordinary dinner-pea soup, mule and dog. *
" February 16th. We had succeeded in getting our animals safely to the first grassy hill; and this morning I started with Jacob on a reconnoitering expedition beyond the mountain.
" We traveled along the crest of narrow ridges, extending down from the mountain in the direction of the valley, from which the snow was fast melting away. On the open spots was tolerably good grass; and I judged that we should succeed in getting the camp down by way of thesc. Toward sun-down we discovered some icy points in a decp hollow, and, descending the mountain, we encamped at the head- water of a little creek, where at last the water found its way to the Pacific. * * * We started again early in the morning. The creek acquired a regular breadth of about twenty feet, and we soon began to hear the rushing of the water below the ice-surface, over which we traveled to avoid the snow; a few miles below we broke through, where the water was several feet deep, and halted to dry our clothes. We continued a few miles further, walking being very laborious without snow-shoes. I was now perfectly satisfied that we had struck the stream on which Mr. Sutter lived; and, turning about, made a hard push, and reached the camp at dark. *
"On the 19th, the people were occupied in mak- ing a road and bringing up the baggage; and, on the afternoon of the next day, February 20, 1844, we encamped with the animals and all the material of the camp, on the summit of the pass in the dividing ridge, one thousand miles by our traveled road from the Dalles of the Columbia. The people, who had not yet been to this point, climbed the neighboring peak to enjoy a look at the valley. The temperature of boiling water gave for the elevation of the encamp- ment nine thousand three hundred and thirty-eight feet above the sea .. This was two thousand feet higher than the South Pass in the Rocky Mountains, and several peaks in view rose several thousand feet still higher. * *
From the summit the party passed down the western slope of the Sierras, following the general course of the stream, and suffering many hardships and privations, encountering much deep snow and sustaining life on none too juicy mule meat. The stream whose course was being followed was the south fork of the American river. Describing the happy termination of this perilous journey by an advance party of eight, Mr. Fremont says :-
"March 6th. We continued on our road through the same surpassingly beautiful country, entirely unequaled for the pasturage of stock by anything we had ever seen. Our horses had now become so strong that they were able to carry us, and we trav- eled rapidly-over four miles an hour ; four of us riding every alternate hour. Every few hundred yards we came upon little bands of deer ; but we were too .eager to reach the settlement, which we momentarily expected to discover, to halt for any other than a passing shot. In a few hours we reached a large fork (North Fork of the American river), the northern branch of the river, and equal in size to that which we had descended. Together they formed a beautiful stream, sixty to one hundred yards wide, which at first, ignorant of the nature of the country
through which that river.ran, we took to be the Sacramento. We continued down the right bank of the river, traveling for a while over a wooded upland where we had the delight to discover tracks of cattle. * * * We made an acorn meal at noon and hurried on. Shortly afterwards we gave a shout at the appearance on a little bluff of a neatly built adobe house with glass windows. We rode up, but, to our disappointment, found only Indians. There was no appearance of cultivation, and we could see no cattle, and we supposed the place had been aban- doned. We now pressed on more eagerly than ever; the river swept round in a large bend to the right ; the hills lowered down entirely; and, gradually enter-
ing a broad valley, we came unexpectedly into a large Indian village, where the people looked clean, and wore cotton shirts and various other articles of dress. They immediately crowded around us, and we had the inexpressible delight to find one who spoke a lit- tle indifferent Spanish, but who at first confounded us by saying there were no whites in the country ; but just then a well-dressed Indian came up and made his salutations in very well-spoken Spanish. In answer to our inquiries, he informed us that we were upon the Rio de los Americanos (the river of the Americans), and that it joined the Sacramento river about ten miles below. Never did a name sound more sweetly! We felt ourselves among our country- men; for the name of American, in these distant parts, is applied to the citizens of the United States. To our eager inquiries he answered, 'I am a vaquero (cow herd) in the service of Captain Sutter, and the people of this rancheria work for him.' Our evident satisfaction made him communicative; and he went on to say that Captain Sutter was a very rich man, and always glad to see his country people. We asked for his house. He answered that it was just over the hill before us, and offered, if we would wait a moment to take his horse and conduct us to it. We readily accepted his civil offer. In a short distance we came in sight of the fort; and passing on the way the house of a settler on the opposite side (a Mr. Sinclair), we forded the river; and in a few miles were met a short distance from the fort by Captain Sutter himself. He gave us a most frank and cordial reception-con- ducted us immediately to hisresidence-and under his hospitable roof had a night of rest, enjoyment, and refreshment, which none but ourselves could appre- ciate."
Gen. Fremont the next day started back with provisions and horses to meet and relieve the main body of the party, who were several days in the rear. He met them near the forks of the river, " Each man, weak and emaciated, leading a horse or mule as weak and emaciated as himself." Of . sixty-seven horses and mules, only thirty-three had survived that terrible journey across the mountains. Many of them had been killed for food, while others had died of starvation or exhaustion or lay at the bottom of rocky cañons, down which they had plunged from the precipitous heights above. Many valuable specimens, collected during the long jour- ney were lost.
It was in the few years prior to the discovery of gold that the genuine pioneers of California braved the unknown dangers of the plains and mountains, with the intention of settling in the fair valley, of which so much was said and so little known, and
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HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
building a home for themselves and their children. Many of these immigrants crossed the mountains by nearly the same route pursued by the Central Pacific Railroad, except that they followed down Bear river to the plains. The first settlement reached by them was that of Theodore Sicard, at Johnson's Crossing, on the Placer county side, and a few miles below Camp Far West. This settlement was made in 1844, and was the first point reached by the members of the ill-starred Donner Party in 1847. Opposite Sicard's settlement was Johnson's ranch, owned by William Johnson and Sebastian Kyser, who settled there in 1845. Johnson's Crossing was for years a favorite landmark and rallying point.
The next Winter after Fremont made his perilous crossing of the Sierras, another party, a band of hardy pioncers, worked their laborious way through the drifting snow of the mountains, and entered the beautiful valley, one of them remaining in his snow- bound eamp at Donner lake until returning Spring made his reseue possible. The party consisted of twenty-three men: John Flomboy; Captain Stevens, now a resident of Kern county, Cal .; Joseph Foster; Dr. Townsend; Allen Montgomery; Moses Schallen- berger, now living in San Jose, Cal .; G. Greenwood, and his two sons, John and Britt; James Miller, now of San Rafael, Cal .; Mr. Calvin; William Martin; Patrick Martin; Dennis Martin; Martin Murphy, and his five sons; Mr. Hitehcoek, and son. They left Council Bluffs, May 20, 1844, en route to California, of the fertility of whose soil and the mildness of whose climate glowing aceounts had been given. The dan- gers of the plains and mountains were passed, and the party reached the Humboldt river, when an Indian named Truekee presented himself, and offered to guide them to California. After question- ing him elosely, they employed him as their guide, and as they progressed, found that the statements he had made about the route were fully verified. He soon beeame a great favorite among them, and when they reached the lower crossing of the Truckec river, now Wadsworth, they gave his name to the beautiful stream, so pleased were they by the pure water and abundance of fish to which he had direeted them. The stream will ever live in history as the Truckee river, and the fish, the famous Truckee trout, will continue to delight the palate of the epieure for years to come.
From this point the party pushed on to the beauti- ful mountain lake, whose shores but two years' later witnessed a seene of suffering and death unequaled in the annals of America's pioneers. Here, at Don- ner lake, it was decided to build a eabin and store their goods until Spring, as the cattle were too exhausted to drag them further. The eabin was built by Allen Montgomery, Joseph Foster, and Moses Schallenberger, all young men used to pioncer life, and who felt fully able to maintain themselves by their rifles upon the bears and dear that seemed so plentiful in the mountains. The eabin was built
of pine sapplings, with a roof of brush and raw- hides; it was twelve by fourteen feet and about eight feet high, with a rude chimney, and but one aperture for both a window and door; it was about a quarter of a mile below the foot of the lake, and is of peculiar interest, as it was the first habitation built by white men within the limits of Nevada county, the entering wedge of civilization that in a few years wrested these beautiful hills with their wealth of gold from the hands of the barbarous Digger, and brought one more country under the dominion of intelligence.
The cabin was completed in two days, and the party moved on aeross the summit, leaving but a few provisions and a half-starved and emaciated eow for the support of the young men, who had undertaken a task, the magnitude of which they little dreamed. It was about the middle of Novem- ber when the party left Donner lake, and they arrived at Sutter's Fort on the 15th of December, 1844, the journey down the mountains consuming a month of toil and privation. The day after the cabin was completed a heavy fall of snow eom- menced and continued for several days, and while the journeying party were plunging and toiling through the storm and drifts, the three young men found themselves surrounded by a bed of snow from ten to fifteen feet deep. The game had fled down the mountains to escape the storm, and when the poor eow was half consumed the three snow-bound prisoners began to realize the danger of their situa- tion. Alarmed by the prospect of starvation, they determined to force their way aeross the barrier of snow. In one day's journey they reached the sum- mit, but poor Schallenberger was here taken with severe cramps, and was unable to proceed the follow- ing day. Every few feet that he advanced in his attempt to struggle along, he fell to the ground. What could they do? To remain was death, and yet they could not abandon their sick comrade among the drifting snows on the summit of the Sierras. Foster and Montgomery were placed in a trying situation. Schallenberger told them that he would remain alone if they would conduct him back to the eabin. They did so, and providing everything they eould for his comfort, took their departure, leaving him, siek and feeble, in the heart of the snow-loeked mountains.
A strong will ean aeeomplish wonders, and a deter- mination to live is sometimes stronger than death, and young Schallenberger by a great exertion was soon able to rise from his bed and seek for food. Among the goods stored in the cabin he found some steel-traps, with which he caught enough foxes to sus- tain himself in his little mountain cabin, until the doors of his prison were unloeked by the melting rays of the vernal sun, and a party of friends eame to his relief. On the 1st of March, 1845, he, too, arrived at Sutter's Fort, having spent three months
UTH BRITTON & REY, S.F.
DOWNS' MINING COMPANY.
R.C.DOWNS & J.A.HANFORD, OWNERS.
VOLCANO. AMADOR COUNTY, CAL.
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EARLY SETTLEMENT.
in the drifting snows of the "Snowy Mountains"- the Sierra Nevada.
The after history of the Indian Truckee, whose name so many objects bear, is an interesting one. Passing down the mountains, he arrived at Sutter's Fort with the main party, and remaincd until the breaking out of the war in 1846, when he joined Fremont's Battalion, and was ever afterwards known as Captain Truckee. He was quite a favorite with Fremont, who presented him with a Bible with the donor's autograph on the fly leaf. This with a copy of the St. Louis Republican, Captain Truckee jealously preserved until the time of his death. After the American conquest, Truckee returned to his people, east of the Sierras, and when the rich silver discoveries in the Washoe region brought thousands of white men there, he became their fast friend and a universal favorite among the miners. The Indian camp where he lived was in the Palmyra District, Lyon county, Nevada, about a mile from Como, and near the spring where the town of Palmyra was subsequently built. One day in 1860, Captain Truckce went to the mining camp at Como to ask the men what remedy he should use for a large swelling on his neck. The men thought he had been bitten by a tarantula and advised him to apply a slice of bacon. Poor Captain Truckee died that night, his last request being to be buried by the white men and in the white man's style. The miners dug a grave near Como, in the croppings of the old Goliah ledge, and good Captain Truckee was laid away to rest, the Bible and the paper he had cherished so long lying by his side.
The terrible sufferings of the Donner party have been already portrayed. The groans of the starv- ing, and the wails of the dying, crazed with hunger, will ever haunt the shores of Donner lake, and the winds as they moan among the drooping branches of the pines, will whisper tales of suffering such as few have seen, and the most vivid imagination fails to realize. The two cabins built by the Donner party near that of Schallenberger, and which formed the camp of the Breens, Graves, and Murphys, were the second monuments of civilization in Nevada county. About two weeks before the Donner party found the way across the summit barred by the snow, another immigrant train passed in safety. Among these immigrants were Claude Chana, who now lives at Wheatland, Yuba county, and Charles Covillaud, one of the original proprietors of Marysville, and who married Mary Murphy, a member of the Don- ner party, from whom the name Marysville was derived. The widely different experiences of these two parties in crossing the mountains, but illustrate the changes that can there be wrought by a few days of snow. This party also followed down Bear river to Johnson's ranch, from which point the relief parties were sent to Donner lake. The years 1846, 7 and 8, saw many trains of immigrants on their way to Oregon and California, those for this State crossing 9
the mountains by several routes, though most of them came by way of Truckee river.
CHAPTER XVI.
AMADOR COUNTY.
Early History-Origin of the Name of Carson Pass-River and Valley-First White Men in the Territory-Sutter's Whip- saw-mill-Discovery of Gold-Organization of Calaveras County-Removal of County-Seat from Double Springs to Jackson-Second Removal to Mokelumne Hill-First Set of County Officers-Second Set of County Officers-Members of the Legislature-Miscellaneous Matters in Calaveras-Joa- quin's Career-Chased by Indians-Mokelumne Hill in Early Days-Green and Vogan's Line of Stages-Stories of Griz- zlies-Bull and Bear Fight.
A GENERAL history of the State has been given, in which but little mention has been made of that por- tion of the territory out of which Amador county was afterwards carved. It is probable that some trappers occasionally visited the lower portions of Mokelumne river, though not often, for the Indians, who inhabited that portion of the country, watched with jealous eye the intrusion of strangers for any purpose whatever. The Hudson's Bay Company had a trail from French Camp to Oregon, which was most of the way through the tules, and of course far to the west of the present limits. The " Arroyo Seco " grant purports to have been made in 1840, but it is quite certain that no Mexican had ever set his foot on the hills, or had ever seen them except far away, from the Diablo range of mountains. Those persons who accompanied Gen- eral Sutter in his campaign against Mikelkos in 1843, might have seen the Lyons mountains twenty miles to the east. As early as 1840, according to James Alexander Forbes, then the agent for the Hudson Bay Company in Alta California, all attempts to raise cattle on the east side of the San Joaquin, had been an utter failure, the Indians invariably driving off the stock and destroying the ranches.
CARSON PASS, VALLEY, AND RIVER.
The impression is generally prevailing that Carson discovered the pass bearing his name. In the famous trip across the mountains Fremont and Carson trav- eled northward from Walker's river, crossing the river bearing Carson's name in their course, making the crossing of the summit by way of Truckee and Lake Tahoe. The river was then named in honor of Carson, the pass and valley being named from the river, so that it is quite probable that Carson never crossed the mountains at that point until 1853, when he came through with a division of U. S. troops under Colonel Steptoe.
The first authentic report of the presence of white men in the county was in 1846, when Sutter, with a party of Indians and a few white men, sawed lum- ber for a ferry-boat in a cluster of sugar pines on the ridge between Sutter and Amador creeks, about four miles above the towns of Amador and Sutter. In 1849 the remains of the timbers and the sills over
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HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
the pit were in good preservation though showing indications of being older than the gold-hunting immigration. The partially filled-up pit may still be scen.
At this time the country was one unbroken forest from the plains to the Sierra Nevadas, broken only by grassy glades like Ione valley, Volcano flats and other places. The tall pine waved from every hill, the white and black oak alternating and prevailing in the lower valleys. The timber in the lower foot- hills and valleys, though continuous, was so scattering that grasses, ferns, and other plants grew between, giving the country the appearance of a well-cared-for park. The quiet and repose of these ancient forests, seemed like the results of thousands of years of peaceful occupation, and at every turn in the trails which the immigrants followed, they half expected to see the familiar old homestead, orchard, cider- press and grain fields, the glories of the older settle- ments in the Eastern States. These things, after thirty years' residence, are beginning to appear, but this settlement is the subject of our history, and must not be anticipated. How much the ancient syl -- van gods were astonished and shocked at the irrup- tion of the races -that tore up the ground and felled the woods, the poets of some other generation will relate.
DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN AMADOR COUNTY.
In the latter part of March, 1848, a man arrived in Stockton, then called Tuleburgh, bringing with him specimens of scale-gold, from Sutter's mill. He informed the people there of the recent discoveries on the American river, the specimens confirming his report; whereupon, Captain Weber, catching a spark from the flame, fitted out a prospecting party, con- sisting of settlers on his grant, some strangers that chanced that way, and a force of Si-yak-um-na In- dians, and commenced the exploration of the country east of Stockton, beginning at the Stanislaus, and working north. The fever was on them; haste and nuggets their watchwords; inexperience their com- panion, and failure the result, until they had reached Mokelumne river, where the Captain decided to make a more deliberate search, the result of which was the discovery by him, on that river, of the first gold found in the section of country, that was after- wards known as the Southern mines. Owing to their more careful search and added experience, gold was found north from this river, in every gulch and stream to the American river. Arriving at Sut- ter's mill, it was decided to commence mining at what was called afterward Weber's creek, near Placerville. As soon as he had got work on Weber creek well under way, he returned to Stockton, and organized a party to explore the country south of the Mokelumne river. In a short time they re- turned with finer specimens than had been found at Coloma. A mining company was formed, which afterwards gave name to Wood's creek, Murphy's
creek, Angel's Camp, and other places. Then com- menced the general working of the "Southern mines," the rush of miners, the immigration which built up the flourishing counties of Amador, San Joaquin, Cala- veras, Tuolumne, and the changing of the world's commerce.
The Mokelumne river, the gulches at Drytown, Volcano, and Ione, were mined extensively in 1848. General Sutter and party tried it near the town of Sutter, but he was disgusted with the opening of a saloon near his works, and left the mines, never to return. The emigration from the Eastern States, by way of the plains and the Horn, brought a large accession to the population, and brought about the necessity of some political organization. El Dorado county was organized with Dry creek as its southern boundary, Calaveras, with Dry creek as its northern limits. From these two territories, Amador was afterwards carved, first in 1854, by setting off the territory north of the Mokelumne from Calaveras, and in 1856-57, by the addition of the strip from EI Dorado lying south of the Cosumnes, the boundaries farther east being rather indefinite, as will be here- after seen. A short account of the organizations of these two counties, will suffice for this work. Cala- veras county was organized in the session of the Legislature, in 1849-50. It is said that it took its name from an immense number of skulls found on that river. The story was that a great number of Indians coming down from the Sierras to fish for salmon, were all slaughtered. There is a probability that they were the result of the fearful mortality, before mentioned, occurring among all the valley tribes, from the head waters of the Sacramento to those of the San Joaquin, in 1830. The county took its name from the river.
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