USA > California > Amador County > History of Amador County, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 51
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76
A man by the name of Mills, a New Yorker of good family and education, was brought to trial. HIe had many friends, and was furnished with money and a lawyer to defend him. Judge Carter of lone undertook his defense. He brought logic and pathos to bear, and finally induced the jury to bring in a verdiet of not guilty, on condition that he would leave the country immediately. He went back to Ione, which, as Oleta was an independent community, he considered complying with the sentence. He soon left the county, however, and was afterward shot, as was said, while engaged in unlawful act.
.
A tax gatherer from Coloma, the county seat of El Dorado, put in an appearance one day and ex- pressed the determination to collect poll-tax from every one in the place. He stopped long enough to take a drink or two, and was sped on his way by numerous threats, backed by revolvers, with his purse no heavier for poll-taxes.
EXECUTION BY LYNCH LAW.
In the Autumn of 1852, a man. passing by the name of "one-armed Smith " turned out an old and worn-out horse, supposed to be worth about five dollars, to graze. A Mexican, seeing it apparently without an owner, put a saddle on it and rode a short distance, without attempting to take it out of the country, however. He was apprehended, and hung on a tree north-west of the town. While the trial was in progress, E. R. Yates, the Magistrate, "ordered Walker, the Constable, to quell the riot. The result was, to use the words of Abe De Haven, " Rast. come out and ordered us to stop. I was about to slay him right and left, when he jumped back and says, don't you understand?" from which it was inferred that no very serious opposition to the exe- cution was intended.
KILLING OF CARTER BY DR. UNKLES.
Some ill-feeling existed on the part of Captain Stowers, Carter, and Curtis, towards Unkles, in consequence of a misunderstanding in some eom- mercial transaction. Captain Stowers went into the old man's drug-shop, gave the bottles a sweep with his cane, exclaiming, "This settles my account." Carter had his to settle also, and went, with some others, to the door of the cabin, and commeneed abusing the Doctor. There was scarcely room for more than two or three men in the little box, and as they (Carter and his party) commenced crowd- ing in, he met them and civilly requested them to stay out; that he wanted no trouble with them; that they evidently intended no good. This remonstrance not being heeded, he drew a small pocket-knife, and began thrusting and making passes at Carter, the foremost man in the crowd. Little attention was paid to his words or his thrusts, but the old man was in earnest. With an instinet born of his knowl- edge of anatomy to direct his hand, the little knife was a most deadly weapon. The first stroke laid bare the jugular vein; another. directed towards the chest, was stopped by folds of Carter's shirt; another penetrated his side, producing a sickening sensation, which compelled him to lie down, pro- ducing death in a few minutes. Carter's friends picked out a tree upon which to hang the Doctor; but when the circumstances that Unkles was physi- cally insignificant, and that the parties pressing him were intent on serious mischief, became known, few were found willing to assist in his execution, and he was not molested.
FATAL EXPLOSION.
In the early part of 1853, H. C. Farnum and James Mcleod built a steam saw-mill at Oleta, to utilize the fine timber which covered all the hills around. Some two or three months afterward, in the early part of April, the boiler collapsed a flue. The force of the steam, reacting against the bed in which the boiler was placed, threw it out of posi- tion, propelling it through the side of a building,
-
T
224
HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
also through the office or counting-room. McLeod, standing in the line of the movement, was caught on the end of the boiler, and forced along until the boiler stopped. Both legs and one arm were broken, and he was in addition thereto much burned, lacer- nted, and internally injured, yet when the clouds of steam cleared away, he was seen dragging himself by his remaining arm to the water. Ile survived but a day or two, suffering intensely, and begging his friends to kill him. Farnum and another party were sitting on the opposite sides of a table in the counting-room, when the boiler, with McLeod on the end, came crashing through the building, passing between the two. Farnum had one arm broken, and was otherwise bruised and burned; the man sitting opposite, inhaled the hot steam, which resulted fatally in a year or two. McLeod was a native of Canada West, and was universally esteemed.
SERIOUS CASE OF ERYSIPELAS.
Captain Stowers and his friend Slater, who lived in one of the shanties called by courtesy " hotels," came out one day, bandaged and bundled, terribly sick. Swellings all over them, angry swellings and indolent ulcers that would not heal, were symptoms of very bad cases of erysipelas! They were going to die; nothing would save them. Squire Yates was con- sulted as to settling their affairs. His good sense, or, perhaps, experience, solved the difficulty. "You dirty dogs," said he, after an examination, "you ought to be hung! You are rotten with lice, gray- backs"-which was the casc. The lice were three deep, all gnawing away at the portly Captain, suck- ing the delicious juices out of his body. His feelings experienced a sudden revulsion, not exactly from mourning to joy, but wrath rather. Some few " cuss words," like scattering drops of rain before a shower, fell from his lips, and then the storm burst. Better ring down the curtain.
LYNCH LAW VETOED.
In 1854, a Mexican and a Frenchman, journeying together towards Oleta, drank each other's health so frequently as to produce confused perceptions of passing events. On arriving at Oleta, the French- man missed his watch, and accused the Mexican of stealing it. The dispute coming to the knowledge of some of the " home rulers," they proposed to have a '49 trial. As they were ravenous for blood, they soon found the Mexican guilty, condemning him to be hung immediately, and set about executing the sentence. Henry Kutchenthall, R. M. Briggs, Ed. and Jonathan Palmer, expostulated with the crowd; told them they were not '49ers; that '49ers never acted in such an infamous manner, and much more of the same offect; to no purpose, however, until, led by Kutchenthall, they rushed in with drawn revol- vers, and liberated the Mexican.
Three or four courageous men, backed by revol- vers and a sense of right, were often able to subdue a cowardly mob of scores.
THE FAMOUS SAFE ROBBERY.
Wells, Fargo and Company had their agency at the United States Hotel, kept then by the Kendall brothers. One morning the safe was found robbed of the contents, some ten thousand dollars. A liberal reward was offered for the recovery of the money and the apprehension of the thief. Many persons were anxious to get the reward, and set about the matter with more zeal than discretion. Charles Ackerly, a dissipated man, stated that being out late the night before and looking through the window of the office, he saw one of the Kendalls tampering with the safe. This rather unreasonable story was not credited, especially as he refused to testify at all in court, though kept in jail some time for contempt. Three strangers, who happened to come into the town about the time of the occurrence, were suspected, arrested, and brought before the Magistrate for examination. While this was in progress three masked men forcibly took Stupperfield, one of the strangers, out of the custody of the officers, con- ducted him to the outskirts of the town, and com- menced taking testimony in a manner not laid down in modern works on evidence, but one in vogue a few centuries since, and occasionally resorted to in California at an early day. They told him that his partners, meaning the other two strangers, had con- fessed the crime and had been hung, and that they were going to. serve him the same way unless he told them where he had hidden the money. He asserted his innocence of the charge; said he was a respecta- ble man ; had never committed any crime unless it was gambling a little, and expressed the fear that if he was hung it would kill his mother and sister. Ilc asked some one to take the address of his mother and sister, and write to them his last words, that he died innocent of any crimc. Some one volunteering to gratify him was thrust rudely aside with the un- feeling remark that " The man had better be praying, for his time is mighty short." The noose was fixed around his neck and he was drawn up and held sus- pended until he ceased struggling, when he was let down until he recovered. Denying any knowledge of the transaction, he was again " strung up," and again let down. Though unable to speak, he was drawn up a third time by the baffled reward-hunters, who were getting enraged at the man who would not "own up." At this stage of the affair Dr. Phelps, who came up, interfered to save the man any further torture, or rather to save his life, for he had now be- come insensible. IIe reached over the heads of the executioners, and with a Bowie knife cut the rope and the man fell to the ground. Deputy Sheriff Gist coming up about the same time, the court dispersed. The man was with difficulty resuscitated, his limbs being paralyzed for some time in consequence of injury to his spinal chord from the repeated hang- ings. It turned out that Stupperfield, as well as the other two strangers arrested, were in Forest Home
RESIDENCE CF R.W.PALMER. JACKSON , AMADOR CO CAL
RESIDENCE Of MRS ROSA FROELICH. JACKSON, AMADOR CO CAL
225
NORTH-WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY.
the night of the robbery. Publie opinion has fixed the robbery on one of the parties engaged in this hanging. As the men were masked, it is unsafe to attempt to name them, though many persons have no doubt about their identity. It is better that pos- terity should remain ignorant of the names of the parties, than have the doubtful honor fixed on the wrong person.
There are many conflicting statements about the matter, some saying that Stupperfield was taken away from the presence of the Magistrate, others that the maskers took him from a deputy, after the preliminary examination, before a decision was ren- dered, the latter hypothesis having the weight of evidence.
The affair did not terminate with one prosecution. Lee Warden, the Constable, aeting on the testimony of Ackerly, watched the house closely, and from some movements therein, concluded that the money was concealed not far away, a suspicion that proved correct, as it was found in an old oven not far from the house. The storm of persecution was now turned on him. He was arrested and thrown into jail, and as Job says, "escaped by the skin of his teeth," though public opinion has exonerated him of any connection with the robbery.
FIRST SCHOOL.
Dennis Townsend, afterwards county Superin- tendent of Schools for many years, taught the first school, Mrs. Bain sending one child, Rolands two, Gilpin three, Lagrave one, and Burt one. Lizzie Scott, now Mrs. Button, at Ione, was also a pupil. Few men were more devoted to their profession than Dennis Townsend. Coming to California when gold-hunting was the sole objeet with most men, his educational feelings were aroused to aetion by the sight of the children growing up untaught. Leaving the making of a fortune out of the question, he adopted the profession of a teacher, at a time that it meant inevitable poverty and sacrifiee, which profession he followed during his life, or, until the arduous dutics ruined his health and mind. If we measure men's wealth by the accumulation of gold, he died poor; if by the love of thousands of human beings, who have modeled their lives after his instruction, and hold his memory in veneration, he died one of the wealthiest men in the country. He was the inventor of the folding globe, by which the study of geography has been greatly simplified.
CHURCHES.
The first church was built in the Winter of 1852-53 it being a small room, perhaps twelve by twenty, fitted up with desks and seats. Elder Blain, of the Methodist Episcopal church, held service occasionally with a few miners, and the wives of Briggs, Lagrave, and occasionally the Scott girls from Amador, sisters to the first-named women. A new church was ereeted in 1855, which was elegant and commodious.
The town continued to grow until about 1863. 29
At one time, four stage-lines concentrated here, tak- ing passengers to Indian Diggings, and other mining towns, also for the cities. The hill diggings, though not rich, furnished remunerative employment to a great many men. Soon after the discovery of the Nevada mines, the population began to decline in common with the other placer mining tows of Ama- dor county. As the placers were worked out, the Chinese, who are willing to work for the smallest pittance, began to occupy the country. They now own nearly all the older part of the town. The buildings, water-worn and sunburned, would burn up in a moment if a fire were once kindled, and the old landmarks would be gone. The Chinese por- tion of the town shows gradual and certain decay. Though manifested in different ways, prosperity and adversity make their own record. Pomposity, obesity, contentment, and fine raiment, indicate easy circumstances; modesty, leanness, irritability, and shabbiness, belong to adversity. The latter conditions prevail in the Chinese quarters in Oleta to an alarming degree.
MINING PROSPECTS.
There is more placer mining around Oleta than in any other of the mining camps. The gulches were soon worked out, but the low-grade gravel hills remained unworked until smaller wages were satis- factory, or until improved methods of mining were adopted. The reduced price of water also has had much to do with the working of low-grade gravel mines. Loafer hill, as well as other hills in the vicinity, has many years of drifting. The ridge between Slate creek and Sucker creek is also paying ground. At the Brown claim, on Sucker hill, may be seen the most advanced methods of gravel mining. There is a large area of eemented gravel of low grade. The ordinary process of sluiee-washing failed to make it remunerative. A stamp mill was tried, but the cost of crushing absorbed all the returns, leaving no margin for dividends. The crushing process, how- ever, was supposed to get the most of the gold that was in the gravel; so a point was gained for further experiments. The Duham " Gold and Water Saving Machine " seems to have solved the problem for this kind of mining.
Fancy an old-fashioned churn about twelve or four- teen feet long, with staves of bar-iron half an inch thick and three inches wide, riveted to stout hoops instead of being banded or held together, the spaces between the staves being, say, onc-twelfth of an inch. This is hung nearly horizontal on pivots, like a flour bolting machine, and partly immersed in a bath of water. The gravel is poured into one end of the churn, the rotary motion, which may be obtained by the same water which is used for the bath, or by steam-power, tumbles the gravel from one side to the other, all the time pass- ing it through the water until it is washed eom- paratively clean, rolling out at the lower end, out of the way. The gold is caught on amalgamat-
226
HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
ing plates under the cylinder. The arrangement of these are such as to be with difficulty understood without druwings.
The results are as follows :-
Cost of mining out the gravel per ton .50c.
" crushing in cement mill .50c
$1 00
Total yield.
$1 00
Profit, nothing.
Cost of mining being the same
50c.
" " reducing by Duham's process 10c.
60c.
Total yield by same 90c.
Margin for profit.
30c.
90c. 90c.
The capacity of the machine is ten tons per hour. The machine weighs about three tons, and may be taken in pieces of less than fifty pounds each. About two inches of water will run it.
SEAWELL ADDITION.
The tract between Dry ereek and the Cosumnes, originally belonging to the El Dorado Company, was set off to Amador by Act of the Legislature in the Winter of 1856-57, through the instrumentality of Seawell, member from the Amador side. Indian creek, emptying into the Cosumnes at the forks, heads not far from Oleta. Pigeon creek is a short stream between Indian creek and the Cosumnes. These streams were never rich in gold, though mined even to the present time. This country was a part of the ancient river system, and much of it was buried up in lava or lava wash. The glaciers swept out wide valleys, which are now the sites of fine farms. The voleanic debris forms a fine, warm soil, suitable for the vine and stone fruits. Ulinger's ranch has per- haps twenty thousand vines of different varieties flourishing finely. The wine is said to be of fine quality. Other farms in the vicinity are also prom- ising. The farming interests in this portion of the county will, no doubt, soon be the predominating element in the prosperity of the people. The soil is deep, generally free from boulders, and, having a granitie base, strong and enduring. The shallow mines have in many instances materially assisted the owners to tide over the unproductive time of " open- ing up a farm." Fruits and grain flourish without irrigation, though it is generally believed that apples and pears, and more especially small berries, would be much improved by it. At present the want of a market prevents the development of the cultivation of fruits. When canneries and dryers are estab- lished the resources of this portion of the county will be appreciated and developed.
COSUMNES RIVER.
This, by Aet of the Legislature, 1856-57, con- stitutes the northern boundary of the county. The south fork was probably the poorest in gold of all the rivers in the mines; though around Fairplay,
Cedarville, and Indian Diggings, a range correspond- ing with Volcano and Murphy's, there were some very rich placers. Near the lower end of the flat, above the falls, were some deposits of fine gold, where the miners made from two to six ounces a day. This flat, like many places both north and south of the river, is a glacial erosion, one peculiarity of which is to pile up irregularly rounded gravel, clay and other debris, peculiar to such agencies, against the dam or terminal wall, called by geolo- gists a moraine. If the track of the glacier is over anriferous slates or through gravel containing gold, rich deposits will be found at the lower end of a valley, or, as the miners say, at the wrong end, reversing the usual methods of deposit. Two or three rich riffles of small extent were discovered and worked in 1851, and subsequently in 1852. The following rather amusing account of an attempt to introduce improved mining will not only explain itself, but give an idea of the mistaken notions prevailing among miners with regard to the nature of gold deposits. The article was originally published in the Oakland Times :-
The south fork of the Cosumnes heads among some very good placer mines, or rather what were good mines, for the once busy places are indicated by the scarred hills, and the chimneys of the long since deserted cabins. The main channel was rather poor, though some of the riffles or bars were rich in the seale gold, which was characteristic of this river, some small deposits paying as much as one hundred dollars per day to the man, which was enough to justify, in the then uncertain knowledge of the nature of river deposits, a belief in the unbounded richness of the inaccessible deep holes with which the river abounded. Early in 1852 some sailors, who had been on a slaver on the coast of Africa, obtained possession of a long, deep hole, just below one of these rich bars, which had paid for a few days astonishingly, every bucketful of dirt having a dollar in it. The hole was supposed to contain at least a bushel of gold, which opinion was strengthened by finding several dollars' worth of dust on the naked granite rock which crossed the channel, forming the dam which retained the water. This appeared to have been swashed. out of the hole by the freshet which occurred in March of that year. The sailors, knowing little or nothing of mining, had taken in as partners two experieneed miners to engineer the working of the claim. A race, or canal, was cut around the hole, a dam thrown across the river, and about the first of July the water was all turned into the canal, the seepage through the dam being but trifling. Still there was five or six feet of water over the supposed treasure; how to get rid of it was the question. In the latter days of mining a steam engine and pump would have made short work of it, but in those days such a thing was not thought of, and the proposal to blast down the channel was rejected on aceount of the expense. At this stage of the affair one of the men who had been taken in as engineer pro- posed to construct a sypbon to drain off the water, and made a model to show its workings, bringing forward Comstock's Philosophy as authority. The sailors had no faith in " book larnin," and came very near rejeeting the proposal, but finally gave a reluc- tant consent, and the construction of a syphon out
227
NORTH-WESTERN PART OF THE COUNTY.
of inch pine lumber, with no tools but a jack- plane, saw, and auger, was commenced. The lum- ber, all the way from Maine, cost twenty-eight cents a foot, and was carried over the mountains from Ye- omet, the nearest town. The syphon was made eight inches square in the clear, the edges of the lumber being put together with white lead. The ends of the several sections were joined by wrapping them with several folds of tarred canvas. To prevent leakage through the small worm-holes and pores of the wood, several coats of hot tar were applied to the outside. When finished the "simon," as it was universally called, was near a hundred feet long, look- ing much like ." the great sea serpent we have read of." The project had excited much derisive comment among the several hundred miners in the vicinity, and when the day came for putting it in, all work was suspended, a great crowd gathering to see it work, or rather fail to work, for not one had an encourag- ing word for the projector; even the sailors had lost what little confidence in it they had at first, and were threatening personal violence to the originator. Those who have ever undertaken anything contrary to the universal opinion have some idea of the sore- ness a hundred wagging tongues will produce. From this point it may be as well to let the narrator use his own words: "I now floated one end of the tube out into deep water and sunk it to the bottom, put- ting a large rock on it to hold it down; the other end was bent over the rock so as to obtain a fall of perhaps eight feet. I had gates at the ends and a valve opening outward at the highest part of the bend to aid in filling it with water. Everything being arranged I stationed a man at each end to tend the gates, taking charge of the valve at the top my- self. When the syphon was full I let it stand a moment to see that all was tight, and then closed the valve, wedging it down tight, and gave directions for the gates to be withdrawn. The syphon run a few barrels of water, gave a kind of snort, and was apparently dead! The crowd gave a derisive shout, using such expressions as " Yerl do ter travel, won't yer ? Gonter take out a patent ? Reckon yerl have ter study yer book a while longer, my friend. Yer've been ter college, have yer ?"
Though these expressions were made more in fun than anger, I was exceedingly mortified. Science had gone back on me. Comstock was a cheat ! To add to my discomfort, my partner, who had con- tended for my knowledge of such matters and who, when the growling had assumed ominous proportions, had taken his little pile of three hundred dollars and told the sailors they had abused his partner long enough, and offered to bet his whole pile on the " simon " and thereby silenced their clamors, for a while at least, gave me a reproachful look I shall always remember, and went off to the cabin. The crowd of spectators, after venting their opinions, went to a saloon near by to finish the day at cards and whisky. After the first shock of disappointment was over I commenced a critical examination to see where the failure was. I half expected that some one had thrust a bowie-knife through the flexible joints, or that some crack had admitted the air, but all seemed as perfect as when I laid it down. At the lower end I made a discovery. When the water started through the syphon it raised the light pine box out of its bed so as to let the air in. I now dug away so as to let it down a little deeper and put a heavy rock on it to hold it to its place, and put in the gates without assistance, not wishing to have any spectators at the next trial. A second time I filled it and carefully
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.