USA > California > History of California, Volume IV > Part 59
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Clyman continued to record his movements and those of the men who remained with him. His first trip was to Yount's and back. Then he went before the end of July by way of New Helvetia, Liver- more's, and San Juan, to Monterey,4 spent the first days of August with Isaac Graham, and returned to Napa by Santa Clara. After a hunting tour with the Kelseys he visited Yerba Buena; but he lost his ink- stand, and the daily record was suspended for a time. At the beginning of December we find him at Clear Lake; and his diary for the winter is filled chiefly with a record of the weather and of his hunting ad- ventures. The hunting was good, but Clyman found little else in the country that pleased him; and he soon began to plan the organization of a company in the spring to return eastward, while many of his asso- was really Lichtenstein. In Yolo Co. Hist., 86, an account of the arrival is given on the authority of S. U. Chase, in which James Lewis, Thomas Smith, and Nelson McMahon are named, doubtless inaccurately, as members. Chase gives 24 names correctly, and says the party numbered 39. Clyman, in his Diary, also says there were 39 men, but names only McMahon, Sears, Frazer, Owens, and Sumner.
3 In his letter of July 15th, Sutter says: 'All of this people have a de- scent (!) appearance, and some very useful men amongst them. Some of them will remain here, and the majority will spread over the whole country like usual. A good many will come to Monterey and present themselves to you. I give them passports, and give notice to the govt. A letter informs me that in 0 or 8 weeks another company will arrive.' Larkin's Doc., MS., iii. 220. No such company came.
4 Aug. 25th-26th, there was a corresp. between Prefeet Castro and Judge Escobar abont a party of foreigners-doubtless Clyman's-who were to be required to show passports or state their names and business; but it was found they had gone, and Consul Larkin knew nothing about them. Castro, Doc., MS., i. 144; Monterey, Arch., MS., viii. 18-19.
574
IMMIGRANT COMPANIES AND PIONEERS.
ciates, equally disgusted with California, were already talking of a return to Oregon. These plans were car- ried out in 1846, as we shall see. The old mountain- eer's remarks about men and places, as well as his descriptions of personal adventure, are very interest- ing. The writer returned to California, where he was still living in 1878.5 Comparatively few of the McMahon-Clyman company bore names which be- came prominent in later annals of the country; yet Marshall was destined to be the discoverer of gold; and Chase, Sears, Lightstone, Cochran, and others were locally well known.
The Oregon immigration of 1845, like that of the preceding year, has been described in a diary, which, unlike that of Clyman, has been printed. It was written by Joel Palmer, captain of one of the com- panies, whose journey from Independence to Oregon lasted from May to October." This company on the way passed, and was passed by, many other similar parties; but it forms no part of my task, even if it were possible, to explain their movements or relative positions at any particular time. Colonel Kearny with some 300 U. S. dragoons passed over the route to the South Pass and back, theoretically perhaps to protect the emigrants, and practically to eat up the grass and consume the water at all the best camping spots in advance of them. One of his officers, Philip St George Cooke, saw fit to record the tour in print; and his narrative brims over with philosophical reflec-
5 Diary of Col. Jas Clyman's Overland Journey from Missouri to Oregon and California in 1844-6, MS., 148 p. This is a literal copy made in 1871 by R. T. Montgomery. The original is in the form of 9 small memorandum books. The diary extends from May 1844 to April 1846, when the writer started on his return. A tenth volume, describing the return, has been lost. Clyman's Note Book, MS., 27 p., is an abridgment of the same original made by Ivan Petroff in 1878. It contains some additions which will be noticed in the annals of IS46.
6 Pulmer's Journal of Travels over the Rocky Mountains to the mouth of the Columbia River, etc. Cincinnati, 1852. 12mo. 189 p. That portion narrating the trip from Independence to Fort Hall, the only part bearing in- directly upon the Californian immigration, from May 6th to Aug. 13th, is on p. 12-44.
575
THE OREGON TRAIL.
tions to the entire exclusion of useful information.7 Let it suffice to regard the route to Fort Hall as a great national highway along which ox and mule trains passed westward during the season, not with the frequency or regularity or convenience of the more modern railroad trains, but yet without hardships and dangers so excessive as to prevent the travellers from being born and married and buried on the way.
Very few, comparatively, left the Missouri River with the intention of going to California; but more were tempted to swerve from the way when they reached Fort Hall. Says Palmer: "While we remained in this place great efforts were made to induce emi- grants to pursue the route to California. The most extravagant tales were related respecting the dangers that awaited a trip to Oregon, and of the difficulties and trials to be surmounted. The perils of the way were so magnified as to make us suppose the journey almost impossible ... On the other hand, as an induce- ment to pursue the California route, we were informed of its shortness when compared with that to Oregon ; as also of many other superior advantages it possessed. These tales, told and rehearsed, were likely to produce the effect of turning the tide of emigration thither. Mr Greenwood, an old mountaineer, well stocked with falsehoods, had been despatched from California to pilot the emigrants through; and, assisted by a young man by the name of McDougal, from Indiana, so far succeeded as to induce thirty-five or thirty-six wagons to take that trail," in addition to the fifteen wagons that had been fitted out expressly for Califor- nia.8 Sutter, who had received letters from Hastings,
7 Cooke's Scenes and Adventures in the army; or Romance of Military Life. Phil. 1857, 12mo, p. 282-390, etc. They passed the emigrants on May 25th- 26th, the author noting a wedding by which a pair of blankets was made to do double duty; and again met them on July Sth on the return march, when the author met Capt. Joe Walker on his way to Cal. Palmer, Journal, p. 18, 31, notices the same meetings.
B Palmer's Journal, 43-4. 'What the result of their expedition has been I have not been able to learn;' but he adds in a note that the emigrants, 'not finding California equal in point of soil to their high-wrought expectations, have made the best of their way to Oregon'! The same writer, p. 10, speaks
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IMMIGRANT COMPANIES AND PIONEERS.
and expected "a very large company of more as 1,000 souls," wrote in July, "I am very glad that they meet with some good pilots at Fort Hall, people who went over there from here to pilot emigrants by the new road, which was found right down Bear Creek on my farm."9 Most of those who came to California state, in the narratives to be noticed later, that they started originally for Oregon.
The second company to arrive in California, being the first offshoot of the Oregon immigration at Fort Hall, may be called the Swasey-Todd company, from the names of its latest survivors, or it might be termed the Snyder-Blackburn party, from the names of its best known members, as it appears to have had no regular captain. It was composed of twelve or thirteen young men, who, with their pack-animals, determined to press on in advance of the teams.1º I give their names in a note, chiefly on the authority of Swasey, who was in 1884 a resident of San Fran- cisco.11 There is a degree of uncertainty respecting the exact relations of this advance party and the main company, since most witnesses, members of the latter, whose narratives I shall notice presently, say nothing of any such division; but I suppose the truth to be that a portion of the teams managed to keep up with
of a party of Germans from St Lonis, 4 men, 2 women, and 3 children, with 2 wagons and 8 mules, who started for California and travelled with Palmer's company to Ft Hall. See Hist. Or., i. 552, this series, for a pub- lic meeting in Or. in June 1846, at which testimony against Cal., and the methods of turning the stream of immigration thither, was taken from 6 of the victims.
9 Larkin's Doc., MS., iii. 220.
10 Mrs Healy, in Ide's Biog., 33-4, says ' a party of young men concluded to "pack through," that is, to go on horseback-pack themselves and their baggage on horses;' and she remembers the names of 6. Palmer, Journal, 44, names McDougal as one of the most active in promoting the California movement at Ft Hall.
11 Members of the Swasey-Todd company of 1845: William Beale, Wm Blackburn, Wm B. Gildea, Francis Hocn, Thomas Knight (?), John Lewis, George McDougal, Hiram Rheusaw, Thomas (?) Smith, Harry Spiel, Jacob R. Snyder, Wm F. Swascy, Wm L. Todd.
Rheusaw is also called Renshaw and Rusoff. Thomas Knight was not strictly a member of this advance party, having a team with the main body, which he went back to meet on the summit. Miss Ide names Keyes as one of this party, but I think he must have been with the teams. There is also a list in the Napa Register, June 1, 1872.
577
THE SUBLETTE PARTY.
the horsemen until they reached the mountains.12 At any rate, McDougal and his men left Fort Hall on or about August 13th; kept in advance of the main body; crossed the Sierra by the Stevens, or Truckee, route, without special adventures; and reached New Helvetia late in September.13
The third company of the year was one respecting which I know only the fact of its arrival, and what is to be learned from a letter of Sutter to Larkin dated October 8th. He says: "Yesterday Mr Sublette of St Louis arrived here with his party consisting of fifteen men. He passed both of the companies of emigrants,14 who have crossed the most difficult passes and are close by Mr Sublette is a brother-in-law of Mr Grove Cook, and a man of considerable prop- erty. He intends to establish himself here when he likes the country. A good many of these emigrants have cash more or less, some of them several thou- sand dollars in gold. Not one company has arrived before in this country which looked so respectable as this. I have now a great chance to buy plenty of well broken American oxen and wagons from the
12 Knight, Early Events, MS., 3-4, says that his party, with fifteen wag- ons, went ou to the Truckee, from which point he with McDougal and Sny- der went on before to Sutter's, whence he returned to meet his party on the summit, where he found that his wagon and other property had been burned by the explosion of a keg of powder. Miss Ide, Biog., 40, mentions the explosion near the lake, and also the fact that the wagon belonged to a mem- ber of the advance party. Swasey, Statement, MS., 1-2, says nothing of this; but in conversation to-day (April 23, 1880) thinks that Knight may be right.
13 According to the New Helvetia Diary, MS., 3 et seq., the best possi- ble authority, Gildea with Greenwood and a few others arrived September 27th, more came on the 28th, and 11 on the 30th, having left their wag- ous in the mountains. Sept. 30th, preparations to send back aid for those in the Sierra. Oct. 2d, part of the new arrivals left the fort ou a hunting tour. Sutter, Diary, 6, also has the date of arrival Sept. 27th; and says that on the 30th he sent aid-that is, by Knight on his return. Swasey testifies that ac- cording to his memoranda he arrived Sept. 26th, though Snyder always in- sisted it was on the 23d. Bidwell, Cal. 1841-8, MS., 112, and Belden, Hist. State., MS., 42, mention the arrival, and name some members of the company.
1+ The allusion must be to two portions of the Grigsby-Ide company. In N. IIelv. Diary, MS., 5-6, are the following entries: 'Oct. 7th, to-day a party from the U. S. arrived, having with them Mr Sublette of St Louis. They report 60 wagons in the mountains.' Oct. 10th, part of Sublette's party start for S. F. Four of them got passes.
HIST. CAL., VOL. IV. 37
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IMMIGRANT COMPANIES AND PIONEERS.
young men, which prefer horses so that they can travel in the country."15 "16 None of the fifteen are known by name. Some of them are perhaps in the list of the next company, and others probably in the general list for the year. Sublette and three men, not of his original company, were met by Bryant in July 1846 on their way east.
I now come to the fourth company of immigrants, passed on the way by Sublette's, the main body left at Fort Hall by Swasey and his companions in August. I call it the Grigsby-Ide company, John Grigsby having been, according to some authorities, the captain, and William B. Ide not only a prominent member but also somewhat famous a little later. There were about fifty men, whose names, so far as I can ascertain them, are given in a note.16 Many of
1> Oct. 8th, S. to L. Larkin's Doc., MS., iii. 315. In Jan., Sublitz-probably the same man-was at Yerba Buena with some of his company; and notwith- standing Sutter's praise, he was pronounced by Leidesdorffa 'great Blaggard.' Id., iv. 6. In 1844 Clyman had met Mr Sublette on the plains with a party largely composed of invalids travelling for their health. Knight speaks of having met Sublette somewhere on the plains. Ide mnet on the summit 'a pack-train on their way to some fort.'
The following men are shown by different records to have been in Cal. in 1845, most of them at Sutter's Fort; but the exact circumstances of their coming are not known. Some doubtless came by sea, but others probably overland, and the list probably includes most of the Sublette party. W. D. Barry, A. J. Bolan, Elij. Bristow, Ahner Bryan, Clemens, Wm Dodson, C. Dornte, Eustis, Sam. Gibson, Jac. Herman, Hess, Jackson, Julian, John H. Kelley, Dan. Leahy, McDonald, Jas McDowell and family, Mckenzie, Thos Middleton, John Neal, G. R. Nightengell, H. O'Brien, Wm O'Connor, Noah Peters, Sanford, Chas Savage, Felix Scott, Win Sigler, Stanley, Nic. To- metty, Hen. Trow, J. Washburn, Lewis Wigman.
There is a possibility that another small party, an offshoot from the Oregon immigration, arrived this year in addition to the six recorded in this chapter. In this connection I should note that Mrs Maggie M. Hunt, a daughter of James McDowell, the well known pioneer of Yolo Co., furnishes through John Bidwell a partial list of the party that came with her father, as prepared by Gco. W. Bell. The list is as follows: Geo. W. Bell, Wm Bennett, Dr Boyle, Jas Cameron, J. Colwell, English and family, Hen. Everts, Dolphns Hannah, Sam Hawkins, Dr Zac. Hawkins (died on the way), Dav. Ingals and fam., Hen. Marlin, Wm McClure, Thos B. Reed, Simpson, Jos Smith (nephew of the Mormon prophet, who came to Cal.), Jas Stevens and fam., Rich. Stevens and fam., Dr Welsh and fam., Whitaker, White and family, and Rich. Wylis. In the Oregon immigration of 1845-see Hist. Oregon, i. 525 et seq., this series- the reader will find names resembling many of these. It is not cer- tain that any one of them came to Cal., but possibly a few did so.
16 Grigsby-Ide immigrant company of 1845: Anderson (?), Wm R. Bassham, Jarvis Bonney, Truman Bonney, Julian Bradshaw, Buffin (?), Thomas H. Burgess, Geo. Carter, Michael Coleman, Wm C. Cooper, Thos
579
THE GRIGSBY-IDE COMPANY.
these men brought their families; and of men, women, and children, there were doubtless over one hundred souls in the company. Under the guidance of the Greenwoods, they left Fort Hall about the middle of August, and proceeded slowly, without other mishaps than the loss of some cattle and the burning of a wagon with its load, down the Humboldt, across to the Truckee, and into the mountains. The work of crossing the Sierra with the teams was of course a tedious one; but the winter snows had not yet begun to fall, and Ide, bringing his Yankee genius to bear on the problem, is said to have devised new methods
Crafton (hoy), Davis (?), Benj. Dewell, Wm B. Elliott, Sam. Field (?), Isaac A. Flint (?), John Gibbs, B. Grant (?), Caleb Greenwood, John Greenwood, James Gregson, C. C. Griffith, James A. Griffith, Frank F. Grigsby (?), G. W. Grigsby (?), John Grigsby, Hess (?), Dav. Hudson, Wm Hudson, Dan. Ide (boy), James Ide (?), Lemuel Ide (boy), Wm Ide, Wm B. Ide, A. Kinney (?), S. Kinney (?), Roht C. Keyes, Thos Knight (?), Pat. McChristian, Henry Marshall, John Marshall, Meeres (?), G. R. Nightengell (?), Harvey Porterfield, Potter (?), Charles Roether (?), Wm R. Roulette, Horace Sanders, Felix Scott (?), John Scott, Wm W. Scott, John Sears, Eugene F. Skinner, G. M. Smith (?), Thomas (?), Fern. Tustin (boy), Wm I. Tustin, Wilmot (?), Geo. Williams (?), Joseph Wood, Wright (?), Dav. York (boy), John York, W. E. York (boy).
No list was made in early times, so far as I know. Besides the half-dozen boys mentioned above, there were doubtless many others. Those men who were accompanied by their families were apparently: Anderson (?), Bonney, Buffin (?), Davis (?), Elliott (7 children, including several sons, some of them grown), Griffith, Grigsby, Hudson, Ide, Kinney (?), Meeres (?), Potter (?), Roulette, Scott (?), Skinner, Thomas (?), Tustin, and York; but it will be no- ticcd that nearly half of these are among the doubtful members. Of the 56 men named in the list, 35 are named by several authorities, and there is no room for doubt about them, 15 of the number giving bonds for good behavior at Sonoma in Nov. Of the 23 names marked as doubtful, two, Field and Flint, also gave bonds, but do not seem to have been remembered by anybody as members. G. M. Smith is named at the fort in connection with the party, but not positively as belonging to it. These, with Felix Scott and the two Kinneys, whose presence at Sutter's Fort is recorded, may therefore have come in Sublette's or some other party, though Miss Ide remembers families named 'Keeny' and Scott in the Grigsby-Ide company. Eight names-An- derson, Buffin, Davis, Grant, Meeres, Potter, Thomas, and Wilmot-rest only on the memory of Miss Ide (Mrs Healy); and some if not most are probably erroneous, or at least belong to men who went to Oregon instead of Cal. The two Grigshys I suppose to have been sons of Capt. John Grigsby, though I have no positive evidence. It is not clear that James Ide came to Cal. Four- Nightengell, Roether, Williams, and Wright-are mentioned by newspapers or county histories as having come in this party or with members of it. Hess is named in the N. Ifelv. Diary, and is remembered by Bidwell. Thos Knight may be properly enough included in this or in the Swasey-Todd party. The fact that many went to Oregon the next year in parties of which no lists are extant makes it difficult to fix these names accurately. The mat- ter is however cleared up as far as possible in the biographical sketches given elsewhere.
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IMMIGRANT COMPANIES AND PIONEERS.
which greatly lessened the difficulties. It was at different dates and in small parties from the 10th to the 25th of October that they came down Bear Creek to Johnson's, and made their appearance at Sutter's.17 Here the company broke up in a few days, some going south, but most either remaining in the Sacra-
17 In New Helvetia Diary, MS., the entries on the subject are as follows: Oct. 8th, 'Visitors of the party from the U. S. came to the fort, bringing with them letters from different friends in the U. S.' These were probably mem- bers of the relief party from the fort. 10th, 'Two emigrants from the hind comp. of 15 wagons came in to-day for provisions, and immediately leftagain.' Ilth, 'R. Gildea with his party from the wagons. Dr Carter also.' 12th, Bonney and family. 14th, Bonney went back with a horse. 15th, 'G. M. Smith came in from the mts with some 2 or 3 more from the wagons and re- port the wagons most on to the plains.' 17th, '5 wagons from the mts arrived last night about 12 o'clock.' 19th, 'Last night 1 more wagon belonging to Mr Hcss; to-day 2 more belonging to Mr Todd and Mr Roulette-4 or 5 wag- ons more are expected immediately.' 20th, 5 more wagons. Several of the mnen engaged to work at the fort. 21st, several more. 23d, a German fam- ily from the U. S. 24th, 3 more wagons. 25th, 4 wagons, those of Ide and Skinner. 30th, Ide started up river. 31st, Skinner and Tustin shingling the hatter shop. Sutter, Diary, 6, notes the arrival of a large party with 60 wagons on Oct. 7th; but there is perhaps an error, as this was the date of Sublette's arrival. Dewell says he reached Johnson's on Oct. 7th; Marshall at Sutter's on Oct. 20th; Ide at Sutter's soon after Oct. 25th; and others late in October, without specifying the day.
Ide, Biographical Sketch (Claremont, N. H.), 1880, 16mo, 240 p., is a book to be more fully noticed in the annals of 1846. Chapters iii .- iv. p. 28-50 are devoted to a description of the overland journey, chiefly from the recollections of Mrs Sarah E. Healy (Ide). The Ide party, 13 in number-father, mother, daughter, two grown-up sons, two small sons, an adopted boy, and four men who drove the teams for board and passage-with 165 cattle, left home in Illinois in April and joined the train at Independence, bound like the rest for Oregon. The crossing of the Sierra is somewhat minutely described; and at- tention is particularly given to Ide's skill and energy by which the teams were brought to the summit in two days. They found the spot where the Stevens company of 1844 had encamped and left their wagons; and then 'our emigrants on coming to this plain all made a rush for the long-sought Cali- fornia; ambitious to be first-not waiting much for one another; the best teams leaving the rest; every one looking out for himself only. Some went to one part of the country and some to another.' The Ides soon went up the valley with Peter Lassen. Thomas Knight, Early Events in Cal., MS., came from St Louis with Burgess, joining the Batchelder co. for Oregon at Inde- pendence in April. James Gregson, Statement, MS., p. 1, etc., came with his wife, a sister of the Marshalls, from Illinois, bound for Oregon. Benjamin Dewell, Napa Reporter, Oct. 12, 1872, came from Indiana for Oregon, and left Independence May 6th. John Brown, the captain, was succeeded by Grigsby at Laramie. Wm B. Elliott, Santa Rosa Democrat, Feb. 5, 1876, left Missouri with wife and 7 children in April. Wm J. Tustin, Recollections, MS., 1-2, came from Illinois in April with wife, child, and ox-teams for Ore- gon. Henry Marshall, S. José Pioneer, Aug. 10, 1878; Sonoma Co. Hist., 474, came in the Welch co. with Gregson and others to Ft Hall. In Yolo Co. Ilist., 32, this company is incorrectly represented as coming from Oregon. See also McChristian's Narrative, MS. All these authorities give some slight details of the journey.
581
FRÉMONT'S SECOND VISIT.
mento Valley, or going to the Napa and Sonoma val- leys. Of the latter, about twenty appeared at Sonoma in November, when older settlers signed guaranties for their good behavior, George Yount becoming se- / curity for most, but the names of J. B. Chiles, Will- iam Benitz, and Manuel Torres appearing on a few of the papers.18 Some of this company went to Oregon in the spring; and of those that remained many took a prominent part in the troubles of 1846.
In December came the fifth company of the year, Frémont's explorers, who crossed the mountains in two parties by widely different routes. Immediately after completing his report on the exploration of 1844 as already noted,19 Frémont had hastened to St Louis, and organized a company for a third expedition. In May or June he left the rendezvous, near Independ- ence, with about a hundred men, including a few of his old companions, and proceeded to Bent's Fort. From this point he started in August with about sixty men, ineluding half a dozen Delaware Indians. He ascended the Arkansas River to its source, explored the coun- try in a north-westerly course to Utah Lake, and spent over a week at the end of October in an exploration of Great Salt Lake. The few details accessible re- speeting these operations have no direct bearing on the history of California.
At the end of October the explorers entered what is now Nevada, in the region of Pilot Peak; and on November 5th, at a spot called Whitton Spring, near the head waters of the Mary, or Ogden, or Humboldt, the company was divided. Frémont with a small party took a southern route through the unexplored regions since constituting the counties of Elko, Eureka, Nye, and Esmeralda; and reached Walker Lake on the 23d.20
18 Nov. 19th-27th, the original bonds in Vallejo, Doc., MS .. xii. 152-75.
19 See chap. xix. of this volume for Frémont's 2d expedition.
20 The stations along this route where observations of lat. and long. were taken were, Whitton Spring, Crane branch of the Humboldt, head of s. fork of Humboldt, Connor Spring, Basil creek, Boiling springs, Moore creek, Se- condi spring, Sheep Mt., Lake Walker. Fremont's Geog. Mem., 56-7.
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