USA > California > Tulare County > History of Tulare County, California with biographical sketches > Part 12
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of Pablo Gutteirez was with him, having immediate supervis- ion of the Indian vaqueros, taking care of the stock on the plains, " breaking " wild horses, and performing other duties common to a California raneho. This Mexican had some knowledge of gold mining in Mexico, where he had lived, and after returning from the mountains on Bear River at the time mentioned, he informed General Bidwell that there was gold up there.
As heretofore mentioned, Dr. Marsh describes gold and sil- ver mines as early as 1842.
SUTTER'S SAW-MILL CONSTRUCTED.
1847 .- Captain Sutter alwayshad an uneonquera ble desire for the possession of a saw-mill, by which he could himself furnish the necessary material for the construction of more improved buildings than the facilities of the country could at that time afford. Around his fort in 1847, was a person named James W.
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MARSHALL'S DISCOVERY OF GOLD.
Marshall, who had a natural taste for mechanical contrivances, and was able to construct, with the few crude tools and appli- ances at hand, almost any kind of a machine ordinarily desired. It was to this man that Sutter intrusted the erection of the long-contemplated and much needed saw-mill. The contract was written by Mr. John Bidwell, then Captain Sutter's Secre- tary, and signed by the parties. Marshall started out in No- vember, 1847, equipped with tools and provisions for his men. He reported the distance of the selected site to be thirty miles, but he occupied two weeks in reaching his destination in Co- loma. 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.
MARSHALL'S DISCOVERY OF GOLD.
1848 .- On the 19th of January, 1848, Marshall observed some glittering particles in the race, which he was curious enough to examine. He called five carpenters on the mill to sec them; but though they talked over the possibility of its being gold, the vision did not inflame them.
One lump weighed about seventeen grains. It was malle- able, heavier than silver, and in all respects resembled gold. About 4 o'clock in the evening Marshall exhibited his find to the circle composing the mill company laborers. Their names were James W. Marshall, P. L. Wimmer, Mrs. A. Wimmer, J. Barger, Ira Willis, Sydney Willis, A. Stephens, James Brown, Ezekiah F. Persons, H. Bigler, Israel Smith, William Johnson, George Evans, C. Bennett, and William Scott. The conference resulted in a rejection of the idea that it was gold. Mrs. Wimmer tested it by boiling it in strong lyc. Marshall afterwards tested it with nitric acid. It was gold, sure enough, and the discoverer found its like in all the surrounding gulches wherever he dug for it. The secret could not be kept long. It was known at Yerba Buena three months after the discovery.
TWO IMPORTANT EVENTS.
1848 .- The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, by which Califor- nia was ceded to the United States, was concluded in Mexico, on February 2, 1848. It proves to have been on that very day, the 2d of February, 1848, that here in California, Marshall rides in from Sutter's Mill, situated at what is now Coloma, forty miles to Sutter's Fort, his horse in a foam and himself all bespattered with mud; and finding Captain Sutter alone, takes from his pocket a pouch, from which he pours upon the table about an ounce of yellow grains of metal, which he thought would prove to be gold. It did prove to be gold, and there was a great deal more where that came from. General Bidwell writes: "I myself first took the news to San Fran- cisco. I went by way of Sonoma. I told General Vallejo. He told me to say to Sutter 'that he hoped the gold would How into his purse as the water through his mill-race.'"
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN.
We cannot observe the coincidence of the date of this great discovery, with that of the negotiation of the treaty of peace with Mexico, by which California was acquired by the United States, without thinking. What if the gold discovery had come first ? What if the events of the war had postponed the con- clusion of peace for a few months ? What if Mexico had heard the news before agreeing upon terms ? What if Mexico's large creditor, England, had also learned that there was abundance of gold here in California? Who can tell, when in that case, there would have been peace, and upon what terms, and with what disposition of territory.
THE DISOVERY OF GOLD DOUBTED.
In the bar room at Weber's Hotel in San Jose, one day in Fcb- ruary, 1848, a man came in, and to pay for something he had purchased, offered some gold-dust, saying that gold had been discovered at Sutter's Mill on American River, and all were go- ing to work. The people were very incredulous and would not believe the story. An old Georgia miner said that what the man had was really gold, and requested him to investigate the matter. When he arrived at Sutter's Mill, he asked Sutter regarding it, and the Captain assured him that it was a certain- ty, and that a man could make five dollars a day. Hc carried the news to San Jose and the place was almost deserted, every one hastening to the mines.
The people were suspicious regarding the quality and amount of the gold. As the weeks passed, confidence was gained and the belief that there might possibly be precious minerals in other localities was strengthened.
Prospectors gradually pushed out beyond the narrow limits of the first mining district, and thus commenced the opening up of the vast mining fields of California and the Pacific Coast.
SPECIMEN PIECES OF GOLD.
A Frenchman fishing in a prospect hole for frogs for his breakfast, at Mokelumne Hill, in November, 1848, discovered a speck of gold on the side of the excavation, which he dug out with his pocket-knife and sold for $2,150.
Three sailors who had deserted took out $10,000 in five days on Weber Creek. Such strokes of good fortune turned all classes into miners, including the lawyers, doctors and preachers.
The exports of gold-dust in exchange for produce and mer- chandise amounted to $500,000 by the 25th of September. The ruling price of gold-dust was $15 per ounce, though its intrinsic value was from $19 to $20.
The first piece of gold found in California weighed 50 cents, and the second $5. Since that time one nugget worth $43,000, two $21,000, one $10,000, two $8,000, one $6,500, four $5,000, twelve worth from $2,000 to $4,000, and cightecn from $1,000 to $2,000 have been found and recorded in the History of the
A
PART OF RANCH & RESIDENCE OF W & J. ROBINSON. HANFORD, TULARE CO. CAL.
RANCH & RESIDENCE OF E. GIDDINGS. 5 MILES W. S.W. FROM HANFORD, TULARE CO. CAL.
65
WONDERFUL PRODUCTIONS OF GOLD.
State. In addition to the above, numberless nuggets worth from $100 to $500 are mentioned in the annals of California gold mining during the last thirty years. The first two refer- red to were exchanged for bread, and all trace of them was lost. The finder of one of the $8,000 pieces became insane the following day, and was confined in the hospital at Stockton.
MERCHANTS REFUSE GOLD-DUST.
A meeting of citizens in San Francisco, presided over by T. M. Leavenworth and addressed by Samuel Brannan, passed reso- lutions in September, 1848, not to patronize merchants who refused to take gold-dust at $16 per ounce. A memorial was also sent from San Francisco to Congress in that inonth for a branch mint here. It stated, among other things, the opinion that by July 1, 1849, $5,000,000 worth of dust at $16 per ounce would be taken out of the mines. The figures were millions too low.
ADVANCE IN REAL ESTATE.
Real estate in San Francisco took a sudden rise. A lot on Montgomery Street near Washington, sold in July for $10,000, and was resold in November with a shanty on it for $27,000. Lots in Sacramento, or New Helvetia, also came up to fabulous prices that winter. By the month of October the rush from Oregon caused the Oregon City papers to stop publication. In December, the Kanakas and Sonorians came in swarms. A Honolulu letter, November 11th, said :---
"Such another excitement as the news from California cre- ated here the world never saw. I think not less than 500 persons will leave before January Ist, and if the news con- tinues good, the whole foreign population except missionaries will go."
The news did continue good, and they came, some mission- aries included. Soon there came up from the mines complaint of outrage and lawlessness, mostly against Kanakas and other foreigners. How well they were founded, to what they led, and how they were suddenly and summarily silenced, is a story that covers a very interesting part of the history of California and the progress of civilization in America.
On the 29th of May, the Californian issued a slip stating that its further publication, for the present, would cease, be- cause nearly all its patrons had gone to the mines.
SAN FRANCISCO DESERTED.
A month later there were but five persons-women and chil- dren-left in Yerba Buena. The first rush was for Sutter's Mill, since christened Coloma, or Culluma, after a tribe of In- dians who lived in that region. From there they scattered in all directions. A large stream of them went over to Weber Creek, that empties into the American some ten or twelve miles below Coloma. Others went up or down the river. Some, more adventurous, crossed the ridge over to the north and middle forks of the American.
By the close of June the discoveries had extended to all the forks of the American, Weber Creek, Hangtown Creek, the Cosumnes (known then as the Makosume), the Mokelumne, Tuolumne, the Yuba (from urus, or yuras-grape), called in 1848 the " Yuba," or "Ajuba," and Feather River.
On July 15th, the editor of the Californian returned and issued the first number of his paper after its su-pension. It contained a description of the mines from personal observation. He said :-
"The country from the Ajuba Yuba; to the San Joaquin, a listance of about 120 miles, and from the base toward the summit of the mountains, as far as Snow Hill [mean- ing Nevada], about seventy miles, has been explored and gold found on every part. There are now probably 3,000 people, including Indians, engaged in collecting gold. The amount collected by each man ranges from $10 to $350 per day. The publisher of this paper collected, with the aid of a shovel, pick, and a tin pan, from $44 to $128 per day-aver- aging $100. The gross amount collected may exceed $600,000; of which amount our merchants have received about $250,000, all for goods, and in eight weeks. The largest piece known to be found weighs eight pounds.
NUMBER OF MINERS AND THEIR SUCCESS.
1848 .- On the 14th of August, the number of white miners was estimated at 4,000. Many of them were of Stevenson's Regiment and the disbanded Mormon Battalion. The Californian remarked on that day that " when a man with his pan or basket does not average $30 to $40 a day, he moves to another place.
Four thousand ounces a day was the estimated production of the mines five months after the secret leaked out. In April the price of flour here was $4 per hundred. In August it had risen to $16. All other subsistence supplies rose in the same proportion. Here is a part of a letter from Sonoma, to the Californian, August 14th :-
" I have heard from one of our citizens who has been at the placers only a few weeks, and collected $1,500, still averaging $100 a day. Another, who shut up his hotel here some five or six weeks since, has returned with $2,200, collected with a spade, pick, and Indian basket. A man and his wife and boy collected $500 in one day."
Sam Brannan laid exclusive claim to Mormon Island, in the American, about twenty-eight miles above its mouth, and levied a royalty of thirty per cent. on all the gold taken there by the Mormons, who paid it for awhile, but refused after they came to a better understanding of the rules of the mines. By Sep- tember the news had spread to Oregon and the southern coast and on the 2d of that month the Californian notes that 125 persons had arrived in town "by ship" since August, 26th. In the "Dry Diggings " near Auburn, during the month of August, one man got $16,000 out of five cart-loads of dirt
66
GRAND RUSH FOR THE GOLD MINES.
In the same diggings a good many were collecting from $800 to $1,500 a day.
In the fall of 1848, John Murphy, now of San Jose, discov- ered Murphy's Camp Diggings in Calaveras, and some soldiers of Stevenson's Regiment discovered Rich Gulch at Mokelumne Hill. That winter one miner at Murphy's realized $80,000. It was common report that John Murphy, who mined a num- ber of Indians on wages, had collected over $1,500,000 in gold- dust before the close of the wet season of 1848.
The following notice of the discovery is from the Califor- nian, of San Francisco, on the 19th of April, 1848 :-
NEW GOLD MINE .- It is stated that a new gold mine has been discovered on the American Fork of the Sacramento, sup- posed to be [it was not] on the land of William A. Leidesdorff. Esq., of this place. A specimen of the gold has been exhibited and is represented to be very pure.
May opened with accounts of new discoveries. The Cali- fornian of May 3d said: "Seven men, with picks and spades, gathered $1,600 worth in fifteen days." That was a little inore than $15 per man per day. On the 17th of May the same paper said :-
" Many persons have already left the coast for the diggings. Considerable excitement exists here. Merchants and mechanics are closing doors. Lawyers and alcades are leaving their desks, farmers are neglecting their crops, and whole families are forsaking their homes, for the diggings."
By May 24th gold-dust had become an article of merchan- dise, the price being from $14 to $16 per ounce. The Califor- nian of that date had these advertisements :-
GOLD ! 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 Sacramento 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 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.
Slowly and surely, however, did these discoveries creep into the minds of 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 !
GRAND 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 butcher-knife, test- ing the scope and capabilities of the gold mines, the news of 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 scouts and moving 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 re- peatedly confirmed and enlarged upon, threw the whole coun- try into the wildest excitement. In the city of New York and the extreme Western States the fever was hottest.
EMIGRANT COMPANIES FORMED.
1849 .- The adventurers generally formed companies. expect- ing to go overland or by sea to the mines, and to dissolve part- nership only after a first trial of luck together in the " dig- gings." In the Eastern and Middle States they would often 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 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 by the Cali- fornians. It can hardly be believed what sieves of ships started, and how many of them actually made the voyage.
Hundreds of farms were mortgaged to buy tickets for the land of gold. Some insured their lives and pledged their poli- cies for an outfit. The wild boy was packed off hopefully. The black sheep of the flock was dismissed with a blessing, and the folorn 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 mat- ters in their absence. Here was a chance to begin life anew.
THE MINERS' LAWS.
The miners found no governmental machinery competent to protect their lives or their property, and hence each mining 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 cañons with no one to watch it, and every opportunity was afforded for theft; but if there were any disposed to take what did not belong to them, the knowl- edge 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 ma- nia 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.
67
REVIEW OF THE GOLDEN ERA OF 1849.
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, and 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 bewildering scene to a stranger.
THE GOLDEN ERA OF 1849.
" The ' fall of '40 and the spring of '50' is the era of Califor- nia 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 palm, was only just beyond the grasp of all. Men lived chiefly in tents, or in cabins scarcely more dur- able, and behaved themselves like a generation of bachelors. The family was beyond the mountains; the restraints of soci- ety had not yet arrived. Men threw off the masks they had livel behind and appeared out in their true character. A few did not discharge the consciences and convictions they brought with them. More rollicked in a perfect freedom from those bon'ls which good inen 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, begin to work at their old trade or profession. To the mines first. If fortune favored, they soon quit for more congenial employ- ment. 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 agurs, remembering dimly the joys of the old homestead; nearly weaned 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 seem so very strange, however, if it could be remembered how very improbable the truth of the gold 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 go-
ing 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 first discovered. The discovery took place not later than the 1st of February, 1848. And yet Alcalde Walter Colton says, in his journal under date, May 29th, "Our town was startled out
ALCALDE COLTON MEETS THE MINER. (See next page. )
of its quiet dreams to-day by the announcement 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 adver- tised to take letters through to Independence, Missouri, in sixty days, at fifty cents apicce.
If the gold news had been thoroughly credited here, 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 dig- ging
ALCALDE 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 gain an insight into those days. We copy his journal for a few days :--
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SCENES AND INCIDENTS IN THE GOLD MINES.
" 1848 October 12 .- We are camped in the center of the gold mines, in the heart of the richest deposits, where many hundreds are at work. All the gold-diggers were excited by the report that a solid pocket of gold had been found on the Stanislaus. In half an hour a motley crowd, with crow-bars, pick-axes, spades, and wash-bowls went over the hills in the direction of the new deposit. I remained and pieked out from a small crevice of slate roek, a piece weighing a half-ounce.
"October 13 .- I started for the Stanislaus diggings. It was an uproarous life ; the monte-table, with its piles of gold, glim- mering in the shade. The keeper of the bank was a woman. The bank consisted of a pile of gold, weighing, perhaps, a hun- dred pounds. They seemed to play for the excitement, 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 know the name of the finder ?)
" October 14 .- A new 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 knife, which slipped into a crevice, and in getting it, picked up gold- dust. He was soon tracked out, and a storm of picks were splitting the rocks.
PRICES OF PROVISIONS.
" October 15 .- Quite a sensation was prodneed 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, $4. The whisky was $20 per quart. Coffee-pots and sauce-pans were in demand, while one fellow offered $10 to let him suck with a straw from the bung. All were soon in every variety of inebriety.
"October 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 much gold she averaged per day. She replied: " Three weeks, and an ounce."
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