History of California, Volume VI, Part 6

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe
Publication date: 1885-1890
Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers
Number of Pages: 816

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9 ' Having an understanding with Mr Marshall to dig on shares. . . so long as we worked on his claims or land.' Bigler, Diary of a Mormon, MS., 75. A Mormon writing in the Times and Transcript says: 'They undertook to make us give them half the gold we got for the privilege of digging on their land. This was afterward reduced to one third, and in a few weeks was given up altogether.' Mrs Wimmer states that Sutter and Marshall claimed thirty per cent of the gold found on their grant; Brannan for a time secured ten per cent on the pretext of tithes.

CHAPTER IV.

PROXIMATE EFFECT OF THE GOLD DISCOVERY.

MARCH-AUGUST, 1848.

THE PEOPLE SCEPTICAL AT FIRST-ATTITUDE OF THE PRESS-THE COUNTRY CONVERTED BY A SIGHT OF THE METAL-THE EPIDEMIC AT SAN FRAN- CISCO-AT SAN JOSÉ, MONTEREY, AND DOWN THE COAST-THE EXODUS -DESERTION OF SOLDIERS AND SAILORS-ABANDONMENT OF BUSINESS, OF FARMS, AND OF ALL KINDS OF POSITIONS AND PROPERTY.

As when some carcass, hidden in sequestered nook, draws from every near and distant point myriads of discordant vultures, so drew these little flakes of gold the voracious sons of men. The strongest human appetite was aroused-the sum of appetites-this yellow dirt embodying the means for gratifying love, hate, lust, and domination. This little scratch upon the earth to make a backwoods mill-race touched the cerebral nerve that quickened humanity, and sent a thrill throughout the system. It tingled in the ear and at the finger-ends; it buzzed about the brain and tickled in the stomach; it warmed the blood and swelled the heart; new fires were kindled on the hearth-stones, new castles builded in the air. If Satan from Diablo's peak had sounded the knell of time; if a heavenly angel from the Sierra's height had heralded the millennial day; if the blessed Christ himself had risen from that ditch and proclaimed to all mankind amnesty-their greedy hearts had never half so thrilled.

The effect of the gold discovery could not be long confined to the narrow limits of Sutter's domain. The

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LITTLE THOUGHT OF IT AT FIRST.

information scattered by the Swiss and his dependents had been further disseminated in different directions by others. Nevertheless, while a few like Hum- phrey, the Georgia miner, responded at once to the influence, as a rule little was thought of it at first, particularly by those at a distance. The nature and extent of the deposits being unknown, the significance or importance of the discovery could not be appre- ciated. It was not uncommon at any time to hear of gold or other metals being found here, there, or any- where, in America, Europe, or Asia, and nothing come of it. To emigrants, among other attractions, gold had been mentioned as one of the possible or prob- able resources of California; but to plodding agricul- turists or mechanics the idea of searching the wilder- ness for gold would have been deemed visionary, or the fact of little moment that some one somewhere had found gold.1 When so intelligent a man as Sem- ple at Benicia was told of it he said, "I would give more for a good coal mine than for all the gold mines in the universe." At Sonoma, Vallejo passed the matter by with a piece of pleasantry.

The first small flakes of gold that Captain Folsom examined at San Francisco he pronounced mica; he did not believe a man who came down some time after with twenty ounces when he claimed to have gathered it in eight days. Some time in April Folsom wrote to Mason at Monterey, making casual mention of the existing rumor of gold on the Sacramento. In May Bradley, a friend of Folsom's, went to Monterey, and was asked by Mason if he knew anything of this gold discovery on the American River. "I have heard of

1 ' The people here did not believe it,' says Findla, ' they thought it was a hoax. They had found in various places about S. F., notably on Pacific Street, specimens of different minerals, gold and silver among them, but in very small quantities; and so they were not inclined to believe in the discovery at Sut- ter's mill.' Gillespie testifies to the same. He did not at all credit the story. Three samples in quills and vials were displayed before the infection took in the town. Gillespie's Vig. Com., MS., 4; Findla's Stat., MS., 4-6; Willey's Thirty Years, 19-20.

PROXIMATE EFFECT OF THE GOLD DISCOVERY.

it," replied Bradley. "A few fools have hurried to the place, but you may be sure there is nothing in it."

On Wednesday, the 15th of March, the Californian, one of the two weekly newspapers then published at San Francisco, contained a brief paragraph to the effect that gold had been discovered in considerable quantities at Sutter's saw-mill.2 The editor hazarded the remark that California was probably rich in min- erals. On the following Saturday the other weekly paper, the California Star, mentioned, without edito- rial comment, that gold had been found forty miles above Sutter's Fort.

The items, if noticed at all, certainly created no excitement. Little if any more was thought of gold probabilities than those of silver, or quicksilver, or coal, and not half as much as of agriculture and fruit- growing.3 This was in March.

In April a somewhat altered tone is noticed in ac- cording greater consideration to the gold discoveries.4

2 This, the first printed notice of the discovery, ran as follows: 'Gold mine found. In the newly made raceway of the saw-mill recently erected by Cap- tain Sutter on the American fork, gold has been found in considerable quan - tities. One person brought thirty dollars' worth to New Helvetia, gathered there in a short time. California no doubt is rich in mineral wealth; great chances here for scientific capitalists. Gold has been found in every part of the country.'

3 The editor of the Star, writing the 25th of March, says: 'A good move it would be for all property holders in the place, who have no very settled purpose of improving the town, and distant ideas of rare chances at specula tion, to employ upon their unoccupied lands some few of our liquor-house idlers, and in the process of ploughing, harrowing, hoeing, and planting it is not idle to believe some hidden treasure would be brought out. Some silver mines are wanted in this vicinity, could they be had without experiencing the ill effects following in the train of their discovery. Monterey, our cap- ital, rests on a bed of quicksilver, so say the cute and knowing. We say if we can discover ourselves upon a bed of silver we, for our single self, shall straightway throw up the pen and cry aloud with Hood: 'A pickaxe or a spade.' On the same date he says: 'So great is the quantity of gold taken from the mine recently found at New Helvetia that it has become an article of traffic in that vicinity.'

4 Fourgeaud, in a serial article on 'The Prospects of California,' writes in the Star the Ist of April: ' We saw, a few days ago, a beautiful specimen of gold from the mine newly discovered on the American fork. From all ac- counts the mine is immensely rich, and already we learn that gold from it, collected at random and without any trouble, has become an article of trade at the upper settlements. This precious metal abounds in this country. We have heard of several other newly discovered mines of gold, but as these re- ports are not yet authenticated, we shall pass over them. However, it is well known that there is a placero of gold a few miles from the Ciudad de los An-

THE MIGRATION QUIETLY SETS IN.

Yet the knowing ones are backward about committing themselves; and when overcome by curiosity to see the mines, they pretend business elsewhere rather than admit their destination. Thus E. C. Kemble, editor of the Star, announces on the 15th his inten- tion to "ruralize among the rustics of the country for a few weeks." Hastening to the mines he makes his observations, returns, and in jerky diction flippantly remarks: "Great country, fine climate; visit this great valley, we would advise all who have not yet done so. See it now. Full-flowing streams, mighty timber, large crops, luxuriant clover, fragrant flowers, gold and silver." This is all Mr Kemble says of his journey in his issue of the 6th of May, the first number after his return. Whether he walked as one blind and void of intelligence, or saw more than his interests seem- ingly permitted him to tell, does not appear.

There were men, however, more observant and out- spoken than the astute editor, some of whom left town singly, or in small parties of seldom more than two or three. They said little, as if fearing ridicule, but crossed quietly to Sauzalito, and thence took the di- rection of Sonoma and Sutter's Fort. The mystery of the movement in itself proved an incentive, to which accumulating reports and specimens gave intensity, till it reached a climax with the arrival of several well- laden diggers, bringing bottles, tin cans, and buckskin bags filled with the precious metal, which their owners

geles, and another on the San Joaquin.' In another column of the same issue we read that at the American River diggings the gold 'is found at a depth of three feet below the surface, and in a strata of soft sand-rock. Explorations made southward to the distance of twelve miles, and to the north five miles, report the continuance of this strata and the mineral equally abundant. The vein is from twelve to eighteen feet in thickness. Most advantageously to this new mine, a stream of water flows in its immediate neighborhood, and the washing will be attended with comparative ease.' These, and the two items already alluded to in the Star of the 18th and 25th of March, are the only notices in this paper of the diggings prior to the 22d of April, when it states: 'We have been informed, from unquestionable authority, that another still more extensive and valuable gold mine has been discovered towards the head of the American fork, in the Sacramento Valley. We have seen several specimens taken from it, to the amount of eight or ten ounces of pure virgin gold.' The Californian said even less on the subject during the same period.

PROXIMATE EFFECT OF THE GOLD DISCOVERY.

treated with a familiarity hitherto unknown in these parts to such worshipful wealth. Among the comers was Samuel Brannan, the Mormon leader, who, hold- ing up a bottle of dust in one hand, and swinging his hat with the other, passed along the street shouting, "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!"5

This took place in the early part of May. The conversion of San Francisco was complete. Those who had hitherto denied a lurking faith now unblush- ingly proclaimed it; and others, who had refused to believe even in specimens exhibited before their eyes, hesitated no longer in accepting any reports, however exaggerated, and in speeding them onward duly mag- nified.6 Many were thrown into a fever of excitement,7 and all yielded more or less to the subtle influence of

5 ' He took his hat off and swung it, shouting aloud in the streets.' Bigler's Diary, MS., 79. Evans in the Oregon Bulletin makes the date 'about the 12th of May.' See also Findla's Stat., MS., 4-6; Ross' Stat., MS., 12; N. Helr. Diary, passim. Gillespie, Vig. Com., MS., 4, refers to three samples seen by him, the third 'was a whole quinine-bottle full, which set all the people wild.' 6 By the 10th of June the sapient sceptic, Kemble, turned completely around in expressing his opinion, denying that he had ever discouraged, not to say denounced, 'the employment in which over two thirds of the white population of this country are engaged.' But it was too late to save either his reputation or his journal. There were not wanting others still to denounce in vain and loudly all mines and miners. 'I doubt, sir,' one exclaims, in the Californian, 'if ever the sun shone upon such a farce as is now being enacted in California, though I fear it may prove a tragedy before the curtain drops. I consider it your duty, Mr Editor, as a conservator of the public morals and welfare, to raise your voice against the thing. It is to be hoped that General Mason will despatch the volunteers to the scene of action, and send these unfortunate people to their homes, and prevent others from going thither.' This man quickly enough belied a wisdom which led him unwit- tingly to perform the part of heavy simpleton in the drama. Dunbar, Romance of the Age, 102, with his usual accuracy, places this communication in the Alta California, May 24, 1848-impossible, from the fact that on that day no paper was issued in California, and the Alta never saw the light until the fol- lowing January.

" Carson, Rec., 4, who for a long time had rejected all reports, was finally convinced by a returning digger, who opened his well-filled bag before him. 'I looked on for a moment;' he writes, 'a frenzy seized my soul; unbidden my legs performed some entirely new movements of polka steps-I took several-honses were too small for me to stay in; I was soon in the street in search of necessary outfits; piles of gold rose up before me at every step; castles of marble, dazzling the eye with their rich appliances; thousands of slaves bowing to my beck and call; myriads of fair virgins contending with each other for my love-were among the fancies of my fevered imagination. The Rothschilds, Girards, and Astors appeared to me but poor people; in short, I had a very violent attack of the gold fever.' For further particulars, see Larkin's Doc., MS., iv. passim.

ROUTES TO THE MINES.

the malady.8 Men hastened to arrange their affairs, dissolving partnerships, disposing of real estate, and converting other effects into ready means for depart- ure. Within a few days an exodus set in that startled those who had placed their hopes upon the peninsular metropolis.9 "Fleets of launches left this place on Sunday and Monday," exclaims Editor Kemble, "closely stowed with human beings ... Was there ever anything so superlatively silly ?"10 But sneers, expostulations, and warnings availed not with a multi- tude so possessed.

The nearest route was naturally sought-by water up the Bay into the Sacramento, and thence where fortune beckoned. The few available sloops, lighters, and nondescript craft were quickly engaged and filled for the mines. Many who could not obtain passage in the larger vessels sold all their possessions, when necessary, and bought a small boat;11 every little rickety cockleshell was made to serve the purpose; and into these they bundled their effects, set up a sail, and steered for Carquines Strait. Then there were two routes by land: one across to Sauzalito by launch, and thence by mule, mustang, or on foot, by way of San Rafael and Sonoma, into the California Valley; and the other round the southern end of the Bay and through Livermore Pass.

8 Brooks writes in his diary, under date of May 10th: 'Nothing has been talked of but the new gold placer, as people call it.' 'Several parties, we hear, are already made up to visit the diggings.' May 13th: 'The gold excite- ment increases daily, as several fresh arrivals from the mines have been re- ported at San Francisco.' Four Months among the Gold-finders, 14-15.

9 ' Several hundred people must have left here during the last few days,' writes Brooks in his diary, under date of May 20th. 'In the month of May it was computed that at least 150 people had left S. F., and every day since was adding to their number.' Annals S. F., 203. The census taken the March previous showed $10, of whom 177 were women and 60 children; so that 150 would be over one fourth of the male population. See also letter of Bassham to Cooper, May 15th, in Vallejo, Doc., MS., xxxv. 47. Those with- out means have only to go to a merchant and borrow from $1,000 to $2,000, and give him an order on the gold mines, is the way Coutts, Diary, MS., 113, puts it.

10 Cal. Star, May 20, 1848. Kemble, who is fast coming to grief, curses the whole business, and pronounces the mines 'all sham, a supurb (sic) take- in as was ever got up to guzzle the gullible.'

11 ' Little row-boats, that before were probably sold for $50, were sold for $400 or $500.' Gillespie, Fig. Com., MS., 3.

PROXIMATE EFFECT OF THE GOLD DISCOVERY.

Roads there were none save the trails between larger settlements. With the sun for compass, and moun- tain peaks for finger-posts, new paths were marked across the trackless plains and through the untrodden woods. Most of the gold-seekers could afford a horse, and even a pack-animal, which was still to be had for fifteen dollars,12 and thus proceed with greater speed to the goal, to the envy of the number that had to content themselves with wagons, which, though white- covered and snug, with perhaps a family inside, were cumbersome and slow, especially when drawn by oxen. Often a pedestrian was passed trudging along under his load, glad to get his effects carried across the stream by some team, although he himself might have to breast the current swimming, perchance holding to the tail of some horse. There were ferries only at rare points. Charles L. Ross13 had left for the mines the last of April, by way of Alviso, and crossed the strait of Carquines by Semple's ferry at Martinez. At this time he was the only person on the boat. When he returned, less than a fortnight after, there were 200 wagons on their way to the foothills, wait- ing their turn to cross at the ferry.14

In the general eagerness personal comfort became

12 One rider rented his animals at the mines for $100 per week. Brooks crossed to Sauzalito with four companions who were attended by an Indian servant to drive their six horses laden with baggage and camp equipments. Vallejo, Hist. Cal., MS., iv., points out that Sonoma reaped benefit as a way- station.

13 Experiences of a Pioneer of 1847 in California, by Charles L. Ross, is the title of a manuscript written at the dictation of Mr Ross by my stenographer, Mr Leighton, in 1878. Mr Ross left New Jersey in Nov. 1846, passed round Cape Horn in the bark Whiton, arriving in Cal. in April 1847. The very in- teresting information contained in this manuscript is all embodied in the pages of this history.

1+ 'They having collected there in that short time-men, women, and chil- dren, families who had left their homes, and gathered in there from down the coast. They had organized a committee, and each man was registered on his arrival, and each took his turn in crossing. The boat ran night and day, carrying each time two wagons and horses and the people connected with the. 1. Some of them had to camp there quite a while. After a time somebody else got a scow and started another ferry, and they got across faster.' Ross' Experiences, MS., 11-12. 'Semple obtains from passengers some $20 per day, and has not a single boatman to help him. Only one man has offered to re- main, and he only for two weeks at $25 a week.' Letter of Larkin to Mason from San José, May 26, 1848, in Doc. Hist. Cal., MS.

EXCITEMENT.

of secondary consideration. Some started without a dollar, or with insufficient supplies and covering, often to suffer severely in reaching the ground; but once there they expected quickly to fill their pockets with what would buy the services of their masters, and ob- tain for them abundance to eat. Many were fed while on the way as by the ravens of Midas; for there were few in California then or since who would see a fellow- being starve. But if blankets and provisions were neglected, none overlooked the all-important shovel, the price for which jumped from one dollar to six, ten, or even more,15 and stores were rummaged for pick- axes, hoes, bottles, vials, snuff-boxes, and brass tubes, the latter for holding the prospective treasure.16

Through June the excitement continued, after which there were few left to be excited. Indeed, by the middle of this month the abandonment of San Francisco was complete; that is to say, three fourths of the male population had gone to the mines. It was as if an epidemic had swept the little town so lately bustling with business, or as if it was always early morning there. Since the presence of United States forces San Francisco had put on pretensions, and scores of buildings had been started. "But now," complains the Star, the 27th of May, "stores are closed and places of business vacated, a large number of houses tenantless, various kinds of mechanical labor suspended or given up entirely, and nowhere the pleasant hum of industry salutes the ear as of late; but as if a curse had arrested our onward course of enterprise, everything wears a desolate and sombre look, everywhere all is dull, monotonous, dead."17

15 ' I am informed $50 has been offered for one,' writes Larkin on June Ist. 16 " Earthen jars and even barrels have been put in requisition,' observes the Californian of Aug. 5th.

17 The following advertisement appears in this issue: 'The highest mar- ket price will be paid for gold, either cash or merchandise, by Mellus & How- ard, Montgomery street.' Again, by the same firm goods were offered for sale 'for cash, hides and tallow, or placera gold.' Cal. Star, May 27, 1848. Of quite a different character was another notice in the same issue. 'Pay up before you go-everybody knows where,' the editor cries. 'Papers can be forwarded to Sutter's Fort with all regularity. But pay the printer, if you

PROXIMATE EFFECT OF THE GOLD DISCOVERY.

Real estate had dropped one half or more, and all merchandise not used in the mines declined, while labor rose tenfold in price.15

Spreading their valedictions on fly-sheets, the only two journals now faint dead away, the Californian on the 29th of May, and the Star on the 14th of June. " The whole country from San Francisco to Los An- geles," exclaimed the former, " and from the seashore to the base of the Sierra Nevada, resounds to the sor- did cry of gold! GOLD !! GOLD !!! while the field is left half planted, the house half built, and everything neglected but the manufacture of shovels and pick- axes, and the means of transportation to the spot where one man obtained $128 worth of the real stuff in one day's washing, and the average for all concerned is $20 per diem." Sadly spoke Kemble, he who vis- ited the gold mines and saw nothing, he to whom within four weeks the whole thing was a sham, a superlatively silly sham, groaning within and without, but always in very bad English, informing the world that his paper " could not be made by magic, and the labor of mechanism was as essential to its existence as to all other arts;" and as neither men nor devils

please, all you in arrears.' See also Findla's Stat., MS., 4-6. After quite a busy life, during which he gained some prominence as editor of the Star and Californian and the Alta California, and later as government official and newspaper correspondent, Kemble died at the east the 10th of Feb. 1886. He was a man highly esteemed in certain circles.

18 Pay the cost of the house, and the lot would be thrown in. On the fifty-vara corner Pine and Kearny streets was a house which had cost $400 to build; both house and lot were offered for $350. Ross' Ex., MS., 12; Larkin's Doc., MS., vi., 144. On the door of a score of houses was posted the notice, 'Gone to the Diggings!' From San Jose Larkin writes to the governor, ' The improvement of Yerba Buena for the present is done.' Letter, May 26th, in Larkin's Doc. Hist. Cal., MS., vi. 74. Even yet the name San Francisco has not become familiar to those accustomed to that of Yerba Buena. See also Brooks' Four Months, in which is written, under date of May 17th: 'Work- people have struck. Walking through the town to-day I observed that laborers were employed only upon half a dozen of the fifty new buildings which were in the course of being run up.' May 20th: 'Sweating tells me that his negro waiter has demanded and receives ten dollars a day.' Larkin, writing from S. F. to Secretary Buchanan, June Ist, remarks that 'some par- ties of from five to fifteen men have sent to this town and offered cooks $10 to $15 a day for a few weeks. Mechanics and teamsters, earning the year past $5 to $8 per day, have struck and gone. . . A merchant lately from China has even lost his Chinese servant.'

DESERTING SAILORS.

could be kept to service, the wheels of progress here must rest a while.

So also came to an end for a time the sittings of the town council, and the services of the sanctuary, all having gone after other gods. All through the Sundays the little church on the plaza was silent, and all through the week days the door of Alcalde Towns- end's office remained locked. As for the shipping, it was left to the anchor, even this dull metal some- times being inconstant. The sailors departing, cap- tain and officers could only follow their example. One commander, on observing the drift of affairs, gave promptly the order to put to sea. The crew refused to work, and that night gagged the watch, lowered the boat, and rowed away. In another instance the watch joined in absconding. Not long afterward a Peruvian brig entered the bay, the first within three weeks. The houses were there, but no one came out to welcome it. At length, hailing a Mexican who was passing, the captain learned that everybody had gone northward, where the valleys and mountains were of gold. On the instant the crew were off.19

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History of California, Volume VI, Part 6

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe Publication date: 1885-1890 Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers Number of Pages: 816

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe
Publication date: 1885-1890
Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers
Number of Pages: 816