History of Sonoma County : including its geology, topography, mountains, valleys, and streams, Part 7

Author: Alley, Bowen & Co. 4n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: San Francisco : Alley, Bowen & Co.
Number of Pages: 1008

USA > California > Sonoma County > History of Sonoma County : including its geology, topography, mountains, valleys, and streams > Part 7

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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

In the early part of 1839 a company was made up in St. Louis, Missouri, to cross the plains to California, consisting of D. G. Johnson, Charles Klein, David D. Dutton, mentioned earlier as having coming to the country with Captain Smith, and William Wiggins. Fearing the treachery of the Indians this little band determined to await the departure of a party of traders in the employ of the American Fur Company, on their annual tour to the Rocky Mountains. At Westport they were joined by Messrs. Wright, Gegger, a Doctor Wiselzenius and his German companion, and Peter Lassen, as also two missionaires with their wives and hired man, en route for Oregon, as well as a lot of what were termed fur trappers, bound for the mountains, the entire company consisting of twenty-seven men and two women.

The party proceeded on their journey and in due time arrived at the Platte river, but here their groceries and breadstuff gave out; happily the country was well stocked with food, the bill of fare consisting henceforward of buffalo, venison, cat-fish, suckers, trout, salmon, duck, pheasant, sage-fowl, beaver, hare, horse, grizzly bear, badger and dog. The historian of this expedition thus describes this latter portion of the menu. "As much misun- derstanding seems to prevail in regard to the last animal alluded to, a particu- lar description of it may not be uninteresting. It is, perhaps, somewhat larger than the ground squirrel of California, is subterranean and gregarious in its habits, living in 'villages;' and from a supposed resemblance in the feet, as well as in the spinal termination, to that of the canine family, it is in popular language known as the prairie dog. But in the imposing technology of the mountain graduate it is styled the canus prairie cuss, because its cussed holes so often cause the hunter to be unhorsed when engaged in the chase."

'After enduring a weary journey, accompanied by the necessary annoy- ances from treacherous and pilfering Sioux, hail-storms, sand-storms, rain and thunder-storms, our voyagers arrived at Fort Hall, where they were disappointed at not being able to procure a guide to take them to California. This was almost a death-blow to the hopes of the intrepid travelers ; but hav- ing learned of a settlement on the Willamette river, they concluded to proceed thither in the following spring, after passing the winter at this fort. Here Klein and Doctor Wiselzenius determined to retrace their steps; thus the party was now reduced to five in number-Johnson going ahead and leaving for the Sandwich Islands. In September, 1839, the company reached Oregon, and sojourned there during the winter of that year; but in May, 1840, a vessel arrived with Missionaries from England, designing to touch at Califor- nia on her return, Mr. William Wiggans, now of Monterey, the narrator of this expedition, and his three companions from Missouri, among whom was David D. Dutton, at present a resident of Vacaville township, in Solano county, got on board; but Mr. W., not having a dollar, saw no hope to get away ; as a last resort, he sent to one of the passengers, a comparative stranger, for the loan of sixty dollars, the passage-money, when, to his great

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

joy and surprise, the money was furnished-a true example of the spontane- ous generosity of those early days. There were three passengers from Oregon, and many others who were "too poor to leave." In June, they took passage in the "Lausenne," and were three weeks in reaching Baker's bay, a distance of only ninety miles. On July 3d, they left the mouth of the Columbia, and, after being out thirteen days, arrived at Bodega, in Sonoma county, then a harbor in possession of the Russians. Here a dilemma arose of quite a threatening character. The Mexican Commandant sent a squad of soldiers to prevent the party from landing, as they wished to do, for the cap- tain of the vessel had refused to take them farther on account of want of money. At this crisis, the Russian Governor arrived, and ordered the soldiers to leave, be shot down, or go to prison ; they, therefore, beat a retreat. Here were our travelers at a stand-still, with no means of proceeding on their journey, or of finding their way out of the inhospitable country ; they, there- fore, penned the following communication to the American Consul, then at Monterey :-

" PORT BODEGA, July 25, 1840.

" To the American Consul of California-

" DEAR SIR :- We, the undersigned citizens of the United States, being desir- ous to land in the country, and having been refused a passport, and been opposed by the Government, we write to you, sir, for advice, and claim your protection. Being short of funds, we are not able to proceed further on the ship. We have concluded to land under the protection of the Russians; we will remain there fifteen days, or until we receive an answer from you, which we hope will be as soon as the circumstances of the case will permit. We have been refused a passport from General Vallejo. Our object is to get to the settlements, or to obtain a pass to return to our own country. Should we receive no relief, we will take up our arms and travel, consider ourselves in an enemy's country, and defend ourselves with our guns.

" We subscribe ourselves,

" Most respectfully,

" DAVID DUTTON, " JOHN STEVENS, " PETER LASSEN, " WM. WIGGINS, "J. WRIGHT."

We have above mentioned the names of those intrepid pioneers who came to Sonoma and settled-a list of the earliest of these has been given in its proper place. In our histories of the townships such matters have received the most marked treatment, and leave but little to be dealt with in the general history. Prior to the discovery of gold but comparatively few arrived, and anterior to the "Bear Flag" times their number could be counted by tens. There were these trusty pioneers, Cyrus Alexander (1840) ; Frank Bidwell (1843), and Mose Carson (1845,) in Mendocino township. In

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

Analy, there were John Walker, and the hale, hearty and most genial host, James M. Hudspeth (1843). In Sonoma there was General Vallejo (1835), now one of America's most loyal citizens. William Benitz, and Ernest Rufus (1845), had been in Salt Point. Frederick Starke (1845) had settled in Vallejo township, while throughout the county there are many names we have been unable to trace.

With the year 1846 more emigrants mounted the Sierras, and descended into the California valleys, some to remain; but there were those who never arrived, as the following interesting relation of the sufferings of the ill-fated Donner party will exemplify :-

Tuthills's History of California tells us: "Of the overland emigration to California, in 1846, about eighty wagons took a new route, from fort Bridger, around the south end of Great Salt Lake. The pioneers of the party arrived in good season over the mountains ; but Mr. Reed's and Mr. Donner's com- panies opened a new route through the desert, lost a month's time by their explorations, and reached the foot of the Truckee pass, in the Sierra Nevada, on the 31st of October, instead of the 1st, as they had intended. The snow began to fall on the mountains two or three weeks earlier than usual that year, and was already piled up in the Pass that they could not proceed. They attempted it repeatedly, but were as often forced to return. One party built their cabins near the Truckee Lake, killed their cattle, and went into winter quarters. The other ( Donner's ) party, still believed that they could thread the pass, and so failed to build their cabins before more snow came and buried their cattle alive. Of course these were soon utterly destitute of food, for they could not tell where the cattle were buried, and there was no hope of game on a desert so piled with snow that nothing without wings could move. The number of those who were thus storm-stayed, at the very threshold of the land whose winters are one long spring, was eighty, of whom thirty were females, and several children. The Mr. Donner who had charge of one com- pany, was an Illinoisian, sixty years of age, a man of high respectability and abundant means. His wife was a woman of education and refinement, and much younger than he.

During November it snowed thirteen days ; during December and January, eight days in each. Much of the time the tops of the cabins were below the snow level.

It was six weeks after the halt was made that a party of fifteen, including five women and two Indians who acted as guides, set out on snow-shoes to cross the mountains, and give notice to the people of the California settle- ments of the condition of their friends. At first the snow was so light and feathery that even in snow-shoes they sank nearly a foot at every step. On the second day they crossed the 'divide,' finding the snow at the summit twelve feet deep. Pushing forward with the courage of despair, they made from four to eight miles a day.

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

Within a week they got entirely out of provisions; and three of them, suc- cumbing to cold, weariness, and starvation, had died. Then a heavy snow- storm came on, which compelled them to lie still, buried between their blankets under the snow, for thirty-six hours. By the evening of the tenth day three more had died, and the living had been four days without food, The horrid alternative was accepted-they took the flesh from the bones of their dead, remained in camp two days to dry it, and then pushed on.

On New Years, the sixteenth day since leaving Truckee Lake, they were toiling up a steep mountain. Their feet were frozen. Every step was marked with blood. On the second of January, their food again gave out. On the third, they had nothing to eat but the strings of their snow-shoes. On the fourth, the Indians eloped, justly suspicious that they might be sacrificed for food. On the fifth, they shot a deer, and that day one of their number died. Soon after three others died, and every death now eked out the existence of the survivors. On the seventeenth, all gave out, and concluded their wan- derings useless, except one. He, guided by two stray friendly Indians, drag- ged himself on till he reached a settlement on Bear river. By midnight the settlers had found and were treating with all Christian kindness what remained of the little company that, after more than a month of the most terrible sufferings, had that morning halted to die.

The story that there were emigrants perishing on the other side of the snowy barrier ran swiftly down the Sacramento valley to New Helvetia, and Captain Sutter, at his own expense, fitted out an expedition of men and of mules laden with provisions, to cross the mountains and relieve them. It ran on to San Francisco, and the people, rallying in public meeting, raised fifteen hundred dollars, and with it fitted out another expedition. The naval commandant of the port fitted out still others.

The first of the relief parties reached Truckee lake on the nineteenth of February. Ten of the people in the nearest camp were dead. For four weeks those who were still alive had fed only on bullocks' hides. At Donner's camp they had but one hide remaining. The visitors left a small supply of provi- sions with the twenty-nine whom they could not take with them, and started back with the remainder. Four of the children they carried on their backs.

Another of the relief parties reached Truckee lake on the first of March. They immediately started back with seventeen of the sufferers; but, a heavy snow storm overtaking them, they left all, except three of the children, on the road. Another party went after those who were left on the way ; found three of them dead, and the rest sustaining life by feeding on the flesh of the dead.

The last relief party reached Donner's camp late in April, when the snows had melted so much that the earth appeared in spots. The main cabin was empty, but some miles distant they found the last survivor of all lying on the cabin floor smoking his pipe. He was ferocious in aspect, savage and repulsive in manner. His camp-kettle was over the fire and in it his meal

DO Shalluch

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

of human flesh preparing. The stripped bones of his fellow-sufferers lay around him, He refused to return with the party, and only consented when he saw there was no escape.

Mrs. Donner was the last to die. Her husband's body, carefully laid out and wrapped in a sheet, was found at his tent. Circumstances led to the suspicion that the survivor had killed Mrs. Donner for her flesh and her money, and when he was threatened with hanging, and the rope tightened around his neck, he produced over five hundred dollars in gold, which; pro- bably, he had appropiated from her store."

In relation to this dreary story of suffering, this portion of our history will be concluded by the narration of the prophetie dream of George Yount, attended, as it was, with such marvelous results.

At this time, ( the winter of 1846) while residing in Napa county, of which, as has been already remarked, he was the pioneer settler, he dreamt that a party of emigrants were snow-bound in the Sierra Nevadas, high up in the mountains, where they were suffering the most distressing privations from cold and want of food. The locality where his dream had placed these unhappy mortals, he had never visited, yet so clear was his vision that he described the sheet of water surrounded by lofty peaks, deep-covered with snow, while on every hand towering pine trees reared their heads far above the limitless waste. In his sleep he saw the hungry human beings ravenously tear the flesh from the bones of their fellow creatures, slain to satisfy their craving appetites, in the midst of a gloomy desolation. He dreamed his dream on three successive nights, after which he related it to others, among whom were a few who had been on hunting expeditions in the Sierras. These wished for a precise description of the scene foreshadowed to him. They recognized the Truckee, now the Donner lake. On the strength of this recognition Mr. Yount fitted out a search expedition, and, with these men as guides, went to the place indicated, and, prodigious to relate, was one of the successful relieving parties to reach the ill-fated Donner party.

Of those who were fortunate to press the wished-for peaceful glades with their weary feet were the Gordons, W. J. Morrow of Mendocino, (1848;) Louis. Adler of Sonoma, (1848;) and some others whose names will be found elsewhere

Who does not think of 1848 with feelings almost akin to inspiration?

The year 1848 is one wherein reached the nearest attainment of the dis- covery of the Philosopher's stone, which it has been the lot of Christendom to witness: On January 19th gold was discovered, at Coloma, on the American River, and the most unbelieving and coldblooded were, by the middle of spring, irretrievably bound in its facinating meshes. The wonder is that the discovery was not made earlier. Emigrants, settlers, hunters, practical miners, scientific exploring parties, had camped on, settled in, hunted through, dug in and ransacked the region, yet never found it; the discovery was entirely accidental. Franklin Tuthill, in his History of Cal-

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

ifornia, tells the story in these words: "Captain Sutter had contracted with James W. Marshall, in September, 1847, for the construction of a sawmill, in Coloma. In the course of the winter a dam and race were made, but, when the water was let on, the tail-race was too narrow. To widen and deepen it, Marshall let in a strong current of water directly to the race, which bore a large body of mud and gravel to the foot.

On the 19th of January, 1848, Marshall observed some glittering particles in the race, which he was curious enough to examine. He called five car- penters on the mill to see them; but though they talked over the possibility of its being gold, the vision did not inflame them. Peter L. Weimar claims that he was with Marshall when the first piece of " yellow stuff" was picked up. It was a pebble, weighing six pennyweights and eleven grains. Marshall gave it to Mrs. Weimar, and asked her to boil it in saleratus water and see what came of it. As she was making soap at the time, she pitched it into the soap kettle. About twenty-four hours afterwards it was fished out and found all the brighter for its boiling.

Marshall, two or three weeks later, took the specimens below, and gave them to Sutter, to have them tested. Before Sutter had quite satisfied himself as to their nature, 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 secret inside the little circle that knew it, but it soon leaked out. They had many misgivings and much discussion whether they were not making themselves ridiculous; yet by common consent all began to hunt, though with no great spirit, for the "yellow stuff" that might prove such a prize.

In February, one of the party went to Yerba Buena, taking some of the dust with him. Fortunately he stumbled upon Isaac Humphrey, an old Georgian gold-miner, who at the first look at the specimens, said they were gold, and that the diggings must be rich. Humphrey tried to induce some of his friends to go up with him to the mill, but they thought it a crazy expedition, and left him to go alone. He reached there on the 7th of March. A few were hunting for gold, but rather lazily, and the work on the mill went on as usual. Next day he began "prospecting " and soon satisfied himself that he had struck a rich placer. He made a rocker, and then com- menced work in earnest.

A few days later, a Frenchman, Baptiste, formerly a miner in Mexico, left the lumber he was sawing for Sutter at Weber's, ten miles east of Coloma, and came to the mill. He agreed with Humphrey that the region was rich, and, like him, took to the pan and the rocker. These two men were the com- petent practical teachers of the crowd that flocked in to see how they did it. The lesson was easy, the process simple. An hour's observation fitted the least experienced for working to advantage.

Slowly and surely, however, did these discoveries creep into the minds of

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

those at home and abroad; the whole civilized world was set agog with the startling news from the shores of the Pacific. Young and old were seized with the California fever; high and low, rich and poor, were infected by it; the prospect was altogether too gorgeous to contemplate. Why, they could actually pick up a fortune for the seeking it ! Positive affluence was within the grasp of the weakest; the very coast was shining with the bright metal, which could be obtained by picking it out with a knife.

Says Tuthill : Before such considerations as these, the conservatism of the most stable bent. Men of small means, whose tastes inclined them to keep out of all hazardous schemes and uncertain enterprises, thought they saw duty beckoning them around the Horn, or across the plains. In many a family circle, where nothing but the strictest economy could make the two ends of the year meet, there were long and anxious consultations, which resulted in selling off a piece of the homestead or the woodland, or the choicest of the stock, to fit out one sturdy representative to make a fortune for the family. Hundreds of farms were mortgaged to buy tickets for the land of gold. Some insured their lives and pledged their policies for an outfit. The wild boy was packed off hopefully. The black sheep of the flock 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 household said, "Good-bye, but only for a year or two," to his charge. Unhappy husbands availed themselves cheerfully of this cheap and reputable method of divorce, trusting Time to mend or mar matters in their absence. Here was a chance to begin life anew. Whoever had begun it badly, or made slow headway on the right course, might start again in a region where Fortune had not learned to coquette with and dupe her wooers.

The adventurers generally formed companies, expecting to go overland or by sea to the mines, and to dissolve partnership only after a first trial of luck together in the " diggings." In the Eastern and Middle States they would buy up an old whaling ship, just ready to be condemned to the wreckers, put in a cargo of such stuff as they must need themselves, and provisions, tools, or goods, that must be sure to bring returns enough to make the venture profit- able. 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 by the Californians. It can hardly be believed what sieves of ships started, and how many of them actually made the voy- age. Little river-steamers, that had scarcely tasted salt water before, were fitted out to thread the Straits of Magellan, and these were welcomed to the bays and rivers of California, whose waters some of them ploughed and vexel busily for years afterwards.

Then steamers, as well as all manner of sailing vessels, began to be adver- tised to run to the Isthmus; and they generally went crowded to excess with passengers, some of whom were fortunate enough, after the toilsome ascent

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

of the Chagres river, and the descent either on mules or on foot to Panama, not to be detained more than a month waiting for the craft that had rounded the Horn, and by which they were ticketed to proceed to San Francisco. But hundreds broke down under the horrors of the voyage in the steerage; contracted on the Isthmus the low typhoid fevers incident to tropical marshy regions, and died.

The overland emigrants, unless they. came too late in the season to the Sierras, seldom suffered as much, as they had no great variation of climate ' on their route. They had this advantage, too, that the mines lay at the end of their long road ; while the sea-faring, when they landed, had still a weary journey before them. Few tarried longer at San Francisco than was neces- sary to learn how utterly useless were the curious patent mining contrivances they had brought, and to replace them with the pick, shovel, pan, and cradle. If any one found himself destitute of funds to go farther, there was work enough to raise them by. Labor was honorable; and the daintiest dandy, if he were honest, could not resist the temptation to work where wages were so high, pay so prompt, and employers so flush.

There were not lacking in San Francisco, grumblers who had tried the mines and satisfied themselves that it cost a dollar's worth of sweat and time, and living exclusively on bacon, beans, and "slap-jacks," to pick a dollar's worth of gold out of rock, or river bed, or dry ground ; but they confessed that the good luck which they never enjoyed abode with others. Then the display of dust, slugs, and bars of gold in the public gambling places; the sight of men arriving every day freighted with belts full, which they parted with so freely as men only can when they have got it easily ; the testimony of the miniature rocks; the solid nuggets brought down from above every few days, whose size and value rumor multiplied according to the number of her tongues. The talk, day and night, unceasingly and exclusively of " gold, easy to get and hard to hold," inflamed all new comers with the desire to hurry on and share the chances. They chafed at the necessary deten- tions. They nervously feared that all would be gone before they should arrive.

The prevalent impression was that the placers would give out in a year or two. Then it behoved him who expected to gain much to be among the earliest on the ground. When experiment was so fresh in the field, one theory was about as good as another. An hypothesis that lured men perpet- ually farther up the gorges of the foot-hills, and to explore the cañons of the mountains, was this :- that the gold which had been found in the beds of rivers, or in gulches, through which streams once ran, must have been washed down from the places of original deposit farther up the mountains. The higher up the gold-hunter went, then, the nearer he approached the source of supply.

To reach the mines from San Francisco, the course lay up San Pablo and

HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

Suisun bays, and the Sacramento-not then, as now, a yellow, muddy stream, but a river pellucid and deep-to the landing for Sutter's Fort; and they who made the voyage in sailing vessels, thought Mount Diablo significantly named, so long it kept them company and swung its shadow over their path. From Sutter's the most common route was across the broad, fertile valley to the foot-hills, and up the American or some one of its tributaries; or, ascend- ing the Sacramento to the Feather and the Yuba, the company staked off a claim, pitched its tent or constructed a cabin, and set up its rocker, or began to oust the river from a portion of its bed. Good luck might hold the impa- tient adventurers for a whole season on one bar; bad luck scattered them always farther up.

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History of Sonoma County : including its geology, topography, mountains, valleys, and streams, Part 7

Author: Alley, Bowen & Co. 4n Publication date: 1880 Publisher: San Francisco : Alley, Bowen & Co. Number of Pages: 1008

Author: Alley, Bowen & Co. 4n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: San Francisco : Alley, Bowen & Co.
Number of Pages: 1008