USA > California > Merced County > History of Merced County, California with biographical sketches of prominent citizens > Part 12
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By May 24th gold-dust had become an article of merehan- dise, the price being from $14 to $16 per ounce. The Califor- nian of that date had these advertisements :-
COLD! GOLD !! GOLD !!!- - Cash will be paid for California gold by R. R. BUCKALEW, Watchmaker and Jeweler, San Francisco.
GOLD! GOLD !! GOLD !!!- Messrs. DICKSON & HAY are purchasers of Sacra- mento gold. A liberal price given. BEE HIVE.
THE SECRET WOULD NOT KEEP.
Before Sutter had quite satisfied himself that the metal found was gold, he went up to the mill, and, with Marshall, made a treaty with the Indians, buying of them their titles to the region round about, for a certain amount of goods. There was an effort made to keep the seeret iuside the little eirele that knew it, but it soon leaked out. They had many misgivings and mueh liseussion whether they were not making themselves ridiculous; yet by common eonsent all hegan to hunt, though with no great spirit, for the " yellow stuff" that might prove such a prize.
the minds of those at home and abroad; the whole eivilized world was set agog with the startling news from the shores of the Pacifie. Young and old were seized with the California fever; high and low, rich and poor, were infected by it; the prospeet was altogether too gorgeous to coutemplate. Why, they could actually pick up a fortune for the seeking !
A RUSH FOR THE GOLD.
While the real argonauts of 1848 were wandering around among the hills and gulches that flank the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, armed with pan, spoon and huteher-knife, testing the scope and capabilities of the gold mines, the news of the discovery was speeding on its way to the Eastern States, by two routes simultaneously.
It reached the frontier of Missouri and Iowa by the Mormon seouts and roving trappers about the same time that vessels sailing round Cape Horn took it to New York and Boston, which was in the late autumn of 1848. The first reports repeatedly confirmed and enlarged upon, threw the whole country into the wildest excitement. In the city of New York and the extreme Westeru States the fever was hottest.
EMIGRANT COMPANIES.
1849 .- The adventurers generally formed companies, expect- ing to go overland or by sea to the inines, and to dissolve partnership only after a first trial of luek together in the " diggings." In the Eastern and Middle States they would huy up an old whaling ship, just ready to be coudemned to the wreckers, put in a eargo of such stuff as they must need them- selves, and provisions, tools, or goods, that must be sure to hring returns enough to make the venture profitable. Of course, the whole fleet rushing together through the Golden Gate made most of these ventures profitless, even when the guess was happy as to the kind of supplies needed hy the Californians. It can hardly he believed what sieves of ships started, and how many of them actually made the voyage.
Hundreds of farms were mortgaged to huy tickets for the land of gold. Some insured their lives and pledged their poli- cies for an outfit. The wild hoy was packed off hopefully. The black sheep of the floek was dismissed with a blessing, and the forlorn hope that, with a change of skies, there might be a change of manners. The stay of the happy honsehold said, " Good-bye, but only for a year or two," to his eharge. Unhap- py husbands availed themselves cheerfully of this cheap and reputable method of divorce, trusting time to mend matters in their absence. Here was a chance to begin life anew.
THE MINERS' LAWS.
" The miners found no governmental machinery competent to
Slowly and surely, however, did these discoveries creep into | proteet their lives or their property, and hence each mining
60
REVIEW OF THE GOLDEN ERA OF 1849.
camp made a law unto itself. The punishment, of course, was sure and swift, and, as a consequence there was but little of it. Gold was left in deep canons with no one to watch it, and every opportunity was afforded for theft; but if there were any dis- posed to take what did not belong to them, the knowledge that their lives would pay the forfeit if detected, deterred them from it. The excitement of the times led to gambling. It seemed that almost everybody, even those who had been leading church members at the East, were seized with the mania for gambling. Tables for this purpose were set out in every hotel, and one corner of many of the stores, both in mines and cities, were set apart for the monte table.
SAN FRANCISCO ON SUNDAY.
"Sunday in the time of the mining excitement differed little from other days. Banks were open; expresses were running; stores were open for the most part; auctioneers were crying their wares, and the town was full of business and noise. Gambling saloons were thronged day and night. The plaza was surrounded with them on two sides, aud partly on a third. Music of every sort was heard from them, sometimes of the finest kind, and now and then the noise of violence and the sound of pistol shots. The whole city was a strange and almost hewildering scene to a stranger."
THE ERA OF 1849.
"The ' fall of '49 and the spring of '50' is the era of Cali- fornia history, which the pioneer always speaks of with warmth. It was the free-and-easy age when everybody was flush, and fortune, if not in the palin, was only just beyond the grasp of all. Men lived chiefly in tents, or in cabins scarcely more durable, and behaved themselves like a genera- tion of bachelors. The family was beyond the mountains; the restraints of society had not yet arrived. Men threw off the masks they had lived behind and appeared out in their true character. A few did not discharge the consciences and con- victions they bad brought with them. More rollieked in a perfect freedom from those bonds which good men cheerfully assume in settled society for the good of the greater number. Some afterwards resumed their temperate, steady habits, but hosts were wrecked before the period of their license expired.
" Very rarely did men, on their arrival in the country, begiu to work at their old trade or profession, To the mines first. If fortune favored, they soon quit for more congenial employ- ments. If she frowned, they might depart disgusted, if they were able; but oftener, from sheer inability to leave the busi- ness, they kept on, drifting from bar to bar, living fast, reck- less, improvident, half-civilized lives; comparatively rich to-day, poor to-morrow; tormented with rheumatisms and agues, remembering dimly tbe joys of the old homestead; nearly weanedl from the friends at home, who, because they were never heard from, soon became like dead men in their memory ;
seeing little of women and nothing of churches; self-reliant, yet satisfied that there was nowhere any 'show' for them; full of enterprise in the direct line of their business, and utterly lost in the threshold of any other; genial companions, morbidly craving after newspapers; good fellows, but short- lived."
A REVIEW OF EVENTS.
At this day it seems strange that the news of this great dis- covery did not fly abroad more swiftly than it did. It would not seen so very strange, however, if it could be remembered how very improbable the truth of the goldl stories then were. And it appeared to be most improbable, that if gold was really found, it would be in quantities sufficient to pay for going after it. People were a little slow to commit themselves, at first, respecting it. Even as late as May 24, 1848, a corre- spondent writing in the Californian, a paper then published in San Francisco, expressed the opinion of some people, thus :-- " What evil effects may not result from this mania, and the consequent abandonment of all useful pursuits, in a wild-goose chase after gold?"
A good many people, far and near, looked upon the matter in this light for some time. The slowness with which the news traveled in the beginning, is seen in this :---
Monterey, then the seat of government, is not more than four or five days' travel from the place where gold was dis- covered. The discovery took place not later than the first of February, 1848. And yet Alcalde Walter Colton says, in his journal, under date, Monday, May 29th, "Our town was startled out of its quiet dreams to-day by the announce- ment that gold had been discovered on the American Fork."
If it took four months for the news of the discovery of gold to travel as far as Monterey, the capital town of the country, it is not surprising that it hardly got over to the Atlantic States within the year 1848. There was then an express that advertised to take letters through to Independence, Mis- souri, in sixty days, at fifty cents apiece.
If the gold news had been thoroughly credited bere, it might have been published all through the East by the first of May; but it was not. In the early fall of 1848, however, the rumor began to get abroad there, through private sources. At first it was laughed at, and those who credited it at all had no idea that gold existed here in sufficient quantities to be worth digging.
COLTON'S VISIT TO THE MINES.
Walter Colton, the alcalde of Monterey, and writer of " Three Years in California," hearing of the discovery of gold, visited the mines. From his descriptions we obtain an insight into the scenes of those days. We copy his journal for a few days :-
MENING ON THE STANISLAUS.
" 1848. Oct. 12 .- We are camped in the center of the gold
RES.OF JOHN CUNNINGHAM, 16 MILES EAST OF MERCED. MERCED, CO. CAL.
RES. OF F. M.PATE, 6 MILES SOUTH OF INDIAN GULCH, MARIPOSA CO. CAL.
FE
61
SCENES AND INCIDENTS IN THE GOLD MINES.
mines, in the heart of the richest deposits, where many hun- dlreds are at work. All the gold-diggers were excited by the report that a solid pocket of gold had been found on the Stanislans. In half an hour a motley erowd, with erow-bars, piek-axes, spades, and wash-bowls went over the hills in the direction of the new deposit. I remained and pieked out from a small ereviee of slate roek, a pieee weighing a half-ouuee.
" Oet. 13 .- I started for the Stanislaus diggings. It was an uproarous life; the monte-table with its piles of gold, glimmer- ing in the shade. The keeper of the bank was a woman, The bank consisted of a pile of gold weighing, perhaps, a hundred pounds. They seemed to play for the exeitement, earing little whether they won or lost.
" It was in this ravine that, a few weeks sinee, the largest lump of gold found in California was discovered. Its weight was twenty-three (23) pounds, and in nearly a pure state. Its discovery shook the whole mines. (Query-Does any one kuow the name of the finder?)
A BATH IN THE STANISLAUS.
" Oet. 14 .- A uew deposit was discovered this morning near the falls of the Stanislaus. An Irishman had gone there to bathe, and in throwing off his clothes, had dropped his kuife which slipped into a ereviee, and in getting it pieked up gold- dust. He was soon tracked out, and a storm of pieks were splitting the rocks.
" Oet. 15 .- Quite a sensation was produced by the arrival from Stockton of a load of provisions and whisky. The price of the former was :- flour, $2 per pound; sugar and coffee, $+. The whisky was $20 per quart. Coffee-pots and sauce-pans were in demand, while one fellow offered $10. to let him suek with a straw from the bung. All were soon in every variety of inebriety.
" Oet. 16 .- I encountered to-day, in a ravine some three miles distant, among the gold washers, a woman from San Jose. She was at work with a large wooden bowl, by the side of a stream. I asked her how long she had been there, and how inneh gold she averaged per day. She replied: " Three weeks, and an ounee."
"Oet. 18 .-- A German, this morning, picking a hole iu the ground near our camping tree, struek a piece of gold weigh- ing about three ounees. As soon as it was known, some forty pieks were flying into the earth, but not another piece was fonnd. Iu a ravine, a little girl this morning picked np what she thought a eurious stone, and brought it to her mother, who found it a lump of gold, weighing six or seven pounds.
"Oet. 20 .- I encountered this morning, in the person of a Welchman, a marked speeimen of the gold-digger. He stood somne six feet eight in his shoes, with giant limbs and frame. A slender strap fastened his eoarse trowsers above his hips, and confined the flowing buut of his flannel shirt. A broad-rimmed
hat sheltered his browny features, while his unshorn beard and hair flowed in tangled confusion to his waist. To his back was lashed a blanket and bag of provisions; on oue shoulder rested a huge crow- bar, to which was hung a gold-washer and skillet; on the other rested a rifle, a spade, and a piek, from which dlaugled a eup and a pair of heavy shoes, He recognized me as the magistrate who had onee arrested him for breach of the peace. " Well, Alealde," said he, "I am glad to see you in these diggings. I was on a burster; you did your duty, and I respeet you for it; and now let me settle the difference between us with a bit of gold; it shall be the first I strike under this bog." Before I eould reply, his traps were ou the ground, and his pick was tearing up bog after hog. These removed he struek a layer of elay. "Here she comes," he ejaeulated, and turued out a piece of gold that would weigh an ounee or more. " There, Aelalde, accept that, and when you reach home have a bracelet made for your good lady." He continued digging
THE ALCALDE MEETS THE MINER.
around the same place for the hour I remained, but never found another piece-not a partiele. No uneommon thing to find ouly one piece and never another near it."
THE DESERTED CLAIMS.
Scattered all up and down through the mining districts of California are hundreds of such spots as that represented by Colton. Time was when the same place was full of life and activity ; when the flume ran; when the cabins were tenanted; when the loud voices of men rose, and the sounds of labor kept the birds away that now fly so fearlessly around the tumbling ruins. But the claim gave out, and the miners, gathering their tools together, vamosed for some other spot, and desolation set iu. The unused flume dropped to pieces, ownerless huts became forlorn, aud the debris only added to the dismalness of the place. Or who knows, some dark deed may have led to the abandonment of the claim, for surely the spot looks uncanny and gloomy enough for twenty murders.
62
ORGANIZATION OF STATE GOVERNMENT.
LIST OF CALIFORNIA GOVERNORS.
The Governors of California since its settlement to the pres- ent time were as follows :--
SPANISH RULE.
INAUGURATED.
NAME.
1767-1771
Gaspar de Portala.
1771-1774
Felipe de Barri.
1774-1782
Felipe de Neve.
1782-1890
Pedro Fajes ..
1790-1792
Jose Antonio Romea
1792-1794
** Jose J. de Arrillaga.
1794-1800
Diego de Borica.
1800-1814
Jose J. de Arrillaga.
.1814-1815
*Jose Arguello. .
1815-1822
Pablo Vincente de Sola
MEXICAN RULE.
Pablo Vincente de Sola 1822-1823
1823-1825
Luis Arguello.
. June, 1825-Jan., 1831
Jose Maria de Echeandia.
Jan., 1831-Jan., 1832
Manuel Victoria.
.Jan., 1832-Jan., 1833
*Pio Pico .. Jan., 1833-Ang., 1835
Jose Figuerra. .Aug., 1835-Jau., 1836
*Jose Castro ..
Nicolas Gutierrez Jan., 1836-Apr., 1836
.Apr., 1836-Aug., 1836
Mariano Chico.
Aug., 1836-Nov., 1836
Nicolas Gutierrez.
Juan B. Alvarado. .Nov., 1836-Dec., 1842
.Dec., 1842-Feb., 1845
Manuel Micheltorena
.Feb., 1845-July 1846 Pio Pico.
AMERICAN RULE-TERRITORIAL.
Com. John D. Sloat. . July 7, 1846-Aug. 17, 1846
. Aug. 17, 1846-Jau. - , 1847
Com. R. F. Stockton.
Col. John C. Fremont. . Jan. - , 1847-Mar. 1, 1847
Gun. S. W. Kearny . . Mar. 1, 1847-May 31, 1847
Col. Richard B. Mason .May 31, 1847-Apr. 13, 1849
. Apr. 13, 1849-Dec. 20, 1849 Gen. Bennet Riley
STATE-GOVERNORS.
. Dec. 20, 1849
+Peter H. Burnett.
Jan. 9, 1851
John McDougal.
.Jan. 8, 1852
John Bigler.
Jan. 8, 1854
John Bigler.
.Jan. 8, 1856
J. Neely Johuson
Jan. 8, 1858
John B. Weller
Jan. 8, 1860
+Milton S. Latham
Jan. 14, 1860
John G. Downey Jan, 8, 1862
Leland Stanford.
Dec. 2, 1863
#Frederick F. Low
.Dec. 5, 1867
Henry H. Haight.
.Dec. 8, 1871
+Newton Booth.
.Feb. 27, 1875
Romualdo Pacheco.
William Irwin. Dec. 9, 1875
Jan. 5, 1880
George C. Perkins
Organization of the Government.
1846 .- Thomas O. Larkin, the American Consul at Mon- terey, who under instructions had gained a great amount of influence among the leading native Californians, suggested and caused the issuance of a circular by Governor Pico, in May, 1846, calling a convention of thirty of the more prominent men in the country. This assemblage was to diseuss the condition of affairs and to petition the Mexican authorities for an improved government; if the request met with a refusal, the territory was to be sold to some other power. The tend- ency of this discussion would be towards the transfer of the territory to the United States. The convention did not meet, however, as events transpired which precluded the possibility of a peaceful transfer. Lieut. Johu C. Fremont arrived in that year, and soon became embroiled in a wordy conflict with the authorities, and Ide and his party deelared a revolution at Sonoma as heretofore mentioned.
The more intelligent settlers of California saw at an early day the urgent necessity of a regular constitution and laws. The provisional government existing since the conquest of 1847 was but a temporary affair and by no means able to satisfy the wants of a great, growing and dangerous population, which had now so strangely and suddenly gathered together. The inhab- itants could not wait the slow movements of Congress. Attempts were made by the citizens of San Francisco, Sonoma, and San Jose to form legislatures for themselves, which they invested with supreme authority. It was quickly found that these independent legislative bodies came into collision with each other, and nothing less than a general constitution would be satisfactory to the people.
Great meetings for these purposes were held at San Jose, San Francisco, Monterey, Sonoma, and other places, in the months of December and January, 1848-9. It was resolved that delegates be chosen by popular election from all parts of the State to meet at San Jose. These delegates were to form a Constitution. These movements were general on the part of all citizens and no partisau feeling was shown iu the matter.
CONVENTION CALLED AT MONTEREY.
While the people were thus working out for themselves this great problem, the theu great Military Governor, Gen. Riley, saw fit to issue on the 3d of June, 1849, a proclamation calling a Convention to meet at Monterey on the 1st of September, to frame a Constitution.
Theso delegates were forty-eight in number, and while they represented all parts of the State, they were also representatives of every State in the Union. They were men not much used to those deliberations expected of such a body, but they determined to do their duty in the best possible manner.
· Ad interim.
| Resigned.
: Turm increased from two to four years.
63
MEETING OF THE FIRST LEGISLATURE.
The delegates, at their first regular meeting on the 4th of September, chose by a large majority of votes, Dr. Robert Semple as President of the Convention; Captain William G. Marcy was then appointed Secretary, and the other necessary offices were properly filled up. After rather more than a month's constant labor and discussion, the existing Constitution of California was drafted and finally adopted hy the Conven- tion.
This document was formed after the model of the most ap- proved State constitutions of the Union, and was framed in strict accordance with the most liberal and independent opin- ions of the age.
On the 13th of October, 1849, the delegates signed the in- strument and a salute of thirty-one guns was fired.
The house in which the delegates met was a large, handsome two-story stone erection, called " Colton Hall," and was, perhaps, the best fitted for their purposes of any building in the country. It was erected by Walter Colton, who was the Alcalde of Monterey, having been appointed by Commodore Stockton July 28, 1846. The building is still standing in a good state of preservation, and we here present a view of it as it looked at that time.
FIRST CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE.
On Saturday, the 15th of December, 1849, the first Legisla- ture of the State of California met at San Jose. The Assembly occupied the second story of the State House-a cut of which is on page 65-but the lower portion, which was designed for the Senate Chamber, not being ready, the latter hody held their sittings, for a short period, in the house of Isaac Branham, on the south-west corner of Market Plaza. The State House proper was a building sixty feet long, forty feet wide, two stories high, and adorned with a piazza in front. The upper story was simply a large room with a stairway leading thereto. This was the Assembly Chamber. The lower story was divided into four rooms; the largest, twenty by forty feet, was designed for the Senate Chamher, and the others were used by the Secretary of State, and the various committees. The build- ing was destroyed by fire on the 29th of April, 1853, at four o'clock in the morning.
SOLONS DISSATISFIED WITH SAN JOSE.
On the first day of the first Legislative session only six Sen- ators were present, and perhaps twice as many Assemblymen. On Sunday, Governor Riley and Secretary Halleck arrived, and by Monday nearly all the members were present. Num- ber of members: Senate, 16; Assembly, 36. Total 52. No sooner was the Legislature fairly organized than the members began to growl about their accommodations. They didn't like the Legislative building, and swore terribly between drinks at the accommodations of the town generally. Many of the
solons expressed a desire to move the Capital from San Jose immediately. On the 19th instant Geo. B. Tingley, a member of the House from Sacramento, offered a bill to the effect that the Legislature remove the Capital at once to Monterey. The hill passed its first reading and was laid over for further action.
FIRST STATE SENATORS ELECTED.
On the 20th Gov. Riley resigned his gubernatorial office, and by his order, dated Head-quarters Tenth Military Department, San Jose, Cal., Dec. 20, 1849 (Order No. 41), Captain H. W. Halleck, afterwards a General in the war of the Rebellion, was relieved as Secretary of State. On the same day Governor Peter Burnett was sworn by K. H. Dimick, Judge of the Court of First Instance.
The same day, also, Col. J. C. Fremont received a majority of six votes, and Dr. M. Gwin a majority of two for Senators of the United States. The respective candidates for the United States Senate kept ranches, as they were termed; that is they
COLTON HALL, MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA.
kept open house. All who entered drank free and freely. Under the circumstances they could afford to. Every man who drank of course wished that the owner of the establishment might be the successful candidate for the Senate. That wish would be expressed half a dozen times a day in as many dif- ferent houses. A great deal of solicitude would be indicated just about the time for drinks.
FIRST INAUGURAL BALL.
On the evening of the 27th, the citizens of San Jose having become somewhat alarmed at the continued grumbling of the strangers within their gates, determined that it was necessary to do something to content the assembled wisdom of the State, and accordingly arranged for a grand hall, which was given in the Assembly Chamber. As ladies were very scarce, the country about was literally "raked," to use the expression of the historian of that period, " for señoritas," and their red and yellow flannel petticoats so variegated the whirl of the dance that the American-dressed ladies and in fact the solons them- selves were actually bewildered, and finally captivated, for, as the record further states, "now and then was given a sly wink
64
ACTS AND AMUSEMENTS OF EARLY LEGISLATURES.
of the eye between some American ladies, and between them and a friend of the other sex as the señoritas, bewitching and graceful in motion, glided by with a captured member." But, notwithstanding this rivalry, the first California inaugural ball was a success. " The dance went on as merry as a mar- riage bell. All were in high glee. Spirits were plenty. Some hovered where you saw them not, but the sound thereof was not lost."
THE NOTED LEGISLATURE.
Speaking of the appellation applied to the first hody of Cal- ifornia law-makers, i. e., " The Legislature of a thousand drinks," the same quaint writer says, "with no disrespect for the members of that hody, I never heard one of them deny that the baptismal name was improperly bestowed upon them. They were good drinkers -they drank like men. If they could not stand the ceremony on any particular occasion they would lie down to it with hecoming grace. I knew one to be laid out with a white sheet spread over him, and six lighted eandles around him. He appeared to be in the spirit land. He was really on land with the spirits in him-too full for utterance. But to do justice to this hody of men, there were but a very few among them who were given to drinking habit- ually, and as for official labor, they performed probably more than any snhsequent legislative body of the State in the same given time.
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