USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > The beginnings of San Francisco : from the expedition of Anza, 1774, to the city charter of April 15, 1850 : with biographical and other notes, Vol. II > Part 2
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459
THE OVERLAND EMIGRATION
Livingston, Alfred De Witt, Andrew G. Gray,* sur- veyor of the boundary commission.
Ships now began to arrive from all parts of the world, crowded with treasure seekers, and by the middle of November upwards of six hundred vessels had entered the harbor and the larger part of these were left swinging at their anchors while their crews rushed to the gold mines. Colonel Mason advises the adjutant general of the arrival of a ship at Mon- terey loaded with ordinance stores and says that it will cost more to unload the ship than the total freight from New York to Monterey.
The sufferings of the emigrants who came by sea, great as they were, were as nothing compared with those who came by land. Not since the crusades of the Middle Ages, has there been anything ap- proaching the overland emigration in magnitude, peril, and endurance. It is estimated that during the year 1849, forty-two thousand emigrants came overland to California, of whom nine thousand were from Mexico. Eight thousand Americans came by the Santa Fé route and twenty-five thousand by the South pass and the Humboldt river. t The horrors of the Camino del Diablo have been portrayed in a previous chapter. Bayard Taylor writes: "The emigrants we took on board at San Diego were objects
* Gray made the survey and laid out the "New Town" at San Diego, which was called "Gray Town" by the people of "Old Town."
t The figures are Mr. Bancroft's. He had, perhaps, the best opportunities for estimating the numbers.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
of general interest. The stories of adventures by the way sounded more marvellous than anything I had heard or read since my boyish acquaintance with Robinson Crusoe, Captain Cook, and John Ledyard. *
* The emigrants by the Gila route gave a terrible account of the crossing of the great desert lying west of the Colorado. They describe this region as scorching and sterile-a country of burning salt plains and shifting hills of sand, whose only signs of human visitation are the bones of animals and men scattered along the trails that cross it. The corpses of several emigrants, out of com- panies who passed before them, lay half buried in sand, and the hot air was made stifling by the effluvia that rose from the dry carcasses of hundreds of mules. There, if a man faltered, he was gone; no one could stop to lend him a hand without a likelihood of shar- ing his fate."*
The rendezvous for overland emigrants was usually Independence (Mo.) for both the Oregon and Santa Fé trails. Throughout the eastern states the winter of 1848-49 was one of preparation. Emigration parties were formed in almost every town, each member contributing a fixed amount for outfit. These were as elaborate as the taste of the members suggested or their means permitted. Provisions for the journey and for one or two years in Cali- fornia, with every known implement for digging and washing gold, arms, ammunition, large sup-
* Taylor: El Dorado, p. 47.
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OVERLAND ROUTES
plies of clothing, blankets, etc., and in some cases, goods for barter or sale, characterized the equipment of the emigration of 1849. Vehicles of every conceivable kind and quality were seen, from the ponderous "prairie schooner" drawn by three yoke of oxen, to the light spring wagon; riding horses and pack mules; together with relays of ani- mals for heavy hauls. Arriving at the rendezvous the small parties were joined in a large party together with such individuals and families as came in singly, a captain was selected and the caravan set out on its two thousand mile journey. The northern route was by the so-called Oregon trail, up the north fork of the Platte to the Sweetwater, up the Sweetwater, through the South pass, to the Green river, down the Bear to Soda springs, to Fort Hall on the Snake, to the Humboldt, down the Humboldt to the sink, across the desert to the Truckee river, over the Sierra Nevada to the head waters of the Bear river, thence down the river to the Sacramento and to Sutter's fort. From the sink of the Humboldt, three routes offered themselves: northerly to the Pitt river pass; west, across the desert to the Truckee, and southerly to Carson valley, where was grass and water, and thence over the sierra to the south fork of the Ameri- can river. It is estimated that by the end of April 1849, twenty thousand emigrants were in camp on the Missouri waiting for the grass on the plains to be high enough to feed. Many companies had started earlier and by the middle of May the trail from
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
the Missouri river to Fort Laramie presented a con- tinuous line of wagons and pack trains. Through the valley of the Platte the cholera broke out, claim- ing many victims and spreading terror through the ranks of the emigrants. This began to disappear as they approached the Rocky mountains. At last, after some days of travel through a rugged and broken country where high bluffs force them from the river to make long detours, Fort Laramie is reached and the first stage of the journey is com- pleted. For the next three hundred miles the country is a desert, with little grass and less water, through the forbidding Black hills, up the Sweet- water, across the continental divide by the South pass, at an elevation of seven thousand and eighty- five feet; thence through a somewhat better country, the Green river valley, to Bear river, which here flows northward, making a horseshoe around the mountains. Down the Bear they travel for a dis- tance of about ninety miles to Soda springs. Here the Bear turns southward and the emigrants proceed westerly to the Portneuf river down which they travel to Fort Hall, on the Snake river. The route is now down the Snake to Raft river, thence over the hills to Goose creek and up Goose creek to the head waters of the Mary, or Humboldt, as the river now began to be called. This was the regular route. There were a number of short cuts which saved the travelers from one to two hundred miles of distance, but cost them weeks of extra time to get through;
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463
THE DREADFUL JOURNEY
short cuts which were all right for pack-trains, but all wrong for wagons. On reaching the Humboldt the traveler has two-thirds of the whole distance behind him and is on the last stage of his journey. And what a journey it has been, and how changed he is from the one who set out so blithely from Independence three months ago. How bright the anticipations then! how cosey the snug family retreat within the great canvas-covered "prairie schooner!" how jolly the conversation and the stories around the camp fire! the song and music after the day's toil was over. The long weary journey, the dreadful monotony of the endless plains, the barren desert, the bleak and almost impassable mountains, the heat and dust, the scorching sun and the drenching rains, the sickness and suffering, and the deaths that have thinned his party, have long since dulled his spirits and left in place of the joyous buoyancy of the start, a sullen, dogged determination to push forward. The faint-hearted abandoned him at the Platte, at Laramie, and at Salt Lake; the weak died; and before him now was the greatest trial of the journey, the greatest test of strength. Many were yet to fail, to die of starvation, of cholera, of scurvy, and some, who had passed through so much of hardship and suffering, were to die by their own hands as they approached the fatal desert and saw in the distance the lofty barrier of the Sierra Nevada .*
* Delano: Life on the Plains, p. 238. Five drowned themselves in one day in the Humboldt river.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
Almost before the trains had reached the Platte the emigrants realized that they had overloaded their wagons and already began to throw away use- less freight and baggage. As the difficulties of the journey increased and animals gave out, wagons, provisions, and property of all kinds were abandoned. Large quantities of bacon were tried out and the fat used for axle grease. During the latter part of the emigration of 1849, the difficulties were greatly in- creased. Feed became very scarce; the water of the Humboldt had a bad effect on the horses and they died in great numbers; the Indians, ever on the alert became more aggressive, stealing the stock and leaving many families from four to six hundred miles from the settlements without teams or means of conveyance. The remaining animals are now giving out. Everything that can be dispensed with is thrown away that the loads may be lightened for the weakened oxen. The destruction of property is immense and the road is lined with abandoned wagons, sheet iron stoves, shovels, picks, pans, clothing, and other articles-even guns .* From halfway down the Humboldt to the sink the carcasses of animals were so thick that had they been lain along the road, one could walk over them without putting foot to ground.
At last the sink of the Humboldt is reached and before the emigrant lies the most dreaded desert of
* It is said that $50,000 worth of guns were thrown away in 1849, being first broken to prevent their use by Indians.
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A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE
all. Here are long stretches of alkali with drifts of ashy earth in which the cattle sink to their bellies and go moaning along their way, midst a cloud of dust and beneath a broiling sun. The road is covered with putrifying carcasses and the effluvia arising from them poisons the air. Even feeble women must walk and the animals relieved of every possible burden. To add to the general distress the cholera again broke out and carried the emigrants off by hundreds. The march now resembles the rout of an army. All organization is at an end and each one pushes on with what strength he has. Wagons come to a stop and are abandoned, while the animals are detached and driven forward. No one now thinks of gold. It has become a struggle for life.
In an effort to avoid the desert a large part of the emigration of 1849 was diverted to the northern route through Lassen's pass. They left the Humboldt at the big bend, sixty-five miles above the sink, and took a northwesterly course. They were told they would find grass in ten miles, grass and water in twelve, and at Rabbit springs, thirty-five miles distant, abundance of both, and from there on they would have no further trouble. It was false information and it lured thousands to their ruin. There was little water or grass; the deserts to be crossed were much greater in extent than those of the Humboldt; the emigrants traveled some three hundred miles out of their way and those late in the season found themselves in a rugged mountain region, in three feet
466 THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
of snow, and two hundred and fifty miles from the nearest settlement. The Pitt river Indians were hostile and active, and many lives were lost. Major Rucker, commanding the relief expedition, reported that between seven and nine thousand emigrants with from one thousand to twelve hundred wagons had taken this route.
Many took the lower or Carson river route. Cross- ing from the sink of the Humboldt to the sink of the Carson, a distance of fifteen miles, they followed up the Carson river some eighty miles to Eagle valley, where there was abundant grass, then southerly through Carson valley and over the sierra to the south fork of the American.
In the latter part of July, the advance trains of the emigration began to arrive in the Sacramento valley and soon a steady stream poured in. Gaunt, hollow-eyed men and women leading or carrying children told tales of horror. Behind these, in the great basin, were thousands battling with famine and pestilence. Notwithstanding the absorbing char- acter of their occupation, the rough miners did not hesitate to go to the relief of the sufferers or to con- tribute generously of their gold. General Smith ordered all available troops to the Sacramento valley and Major Rucker of the First dragoons was put in charge of the relief operations, while one hundred thousand dollars was appropriated for supplies. Parties were sent in all directions with hard bread, pork, flour, rice, and barley, beef cattle and work
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467
DEATH ON THE PLAINS
oxen, and riding mules. A relief station was estab- lished at the Truckee lower crossing (Wadsworth), at the Hot springs in the Carson valley (Genoa), and on the upper Feather river. From the relief stations men were sent out on the desert as far as the sink of the Humboldt, and the sufferers brought in. They met whole families, men, women, and children on foot, without food. Women, whose husbands had died of cholera, with their little chil- dren, without water or food; men scarcely able to walk, who said that for two hundred miles back they had eaten nothing but dead mules; one old man with his wife and daughter, on foot, had nothing but a few blankets which they carried on their backs. The number of sufferers was so great the relief corps could furnish barely enough food to enable them to reach the nearest station. It is said that in the emi- gration of this year five thousand died on the plains from cholera alone.
In 1849 the rains began much earlier than usual and the fall was heavy. In the mountains the snow was of prodigious depth. The northern relief station on the Feather river sent out men on all the trails with food and riding mules, to meet the emigrants coming through by the Lassen route. The amount of suffering was dreadful. Many of the emigrants had been two or three days without food when the government trains reached them. There were three feet of snow on the ground through which many were making their way on foot. Three men made
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desperate efforts to get through. For some days they had been on an allowance of one meal per day. When still seventy miles distant from the nearest settlement they took stock and found they had bread for two days only. Pushing on through the snow they came in a few miles to a wagon containing two women and two or three children who had eaten noth- ing for two days. With a generosity which was rare under the circumstances, they gave all they had to these helpless ones and went on without. They got through. The relief corps met women wading through the deep snow carrying their children, and strong men who had fallen through utter exhaustion. The officer in charge of the camp writes: "A more pitiable sight I never beheld as they were brought into camp; there were cripples from scurvy and other diseases, women prostrated by weakness, and children who could not move a limb, and men mounted on mules who had to be lifted off the animals, so entirely disabled had they become from the effects of the scurvy. "* On December 20th, Major Rucker reported that he had brought in all who had crossed the mountains and had closed the relief camps.
In 1850, the suffering was even more severe than in 1849. Throughout the States the reports of the overloaded wagons had been received and many went to the opposite extreme. By the time Fort Laramie was reached provisions had begun to give
* Report of Maj. Rucker: Senate Doc. 52, pp. 96-151. See also Delano: Life on the Plains, pp. 178-235.
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EMIGRANTS OF 1850
out, but the emigrants went forward recklessly, trusting to chance to get through. The Mormons at Salt Lake were able to afford some relief but they were short of provisions themselves. The supplies of many of the trains held out until the Humboldt river was reached when their stores became ex- hausted. Emigrants arriving at Sacramento in July, 1850, reported the desperate condition of those in the desert; that Mary's river (Humboldt) was six or seven feet higher than it was ever known to be before, and that the bottoms, where the only feed grew, were almost entirely under water. One traveler hired some Indians for fifteen dollars to swim the river and float some grass across to him, thus saving the lives of his oxen. Another said that what little grass they procured on the way down the Humboldt they had to swim for, sometimes cutting it and some- times being compelled to pull it while standing in the water up to their waists. "I have seen hundreds, more than one hundred and fifty miles on the other side of the Sink of Mary's River," writes W. Crum to the Sacramento Transcript, "that were out of provisions, or had but a few pounds to sustain a miserable and wretched existence, with animals that could never reach the Desert,* by reason of the scarcity of forage. From this circumstance alone it may be possible that three-fourths of the animals now on the plains must perish from hunger,
* The desert referred to in these reports and communications, always means that between the sink of the Humboldt and the Truckee river.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
and the emigrant, with his scanty fare, must foot until life itself becomes a burden. Those who started late will fare still worse; as the season becomes warmer, feed less, and provisions shorter. I saw one man with two small boys 120 miles beyond the Sink, who had left his wagon and lost all his animals but one, and all the provisions he had was three or four pounds of rice; another, with his wife and children, I overtook seventy miles beyond the Sink, with four horses that were just able to move with the empty wagon, the wife walking ahead in the burning sand and scorching sun, to relieve the poor laden animals that were destined never to see the Sink." J. M. Sheppards, who arrived about August Ist, reported that only about one wagon out of five would get through. His company started with twelve wagons of which two would get in; many that start with three or four horses get in with one; many emigrants on arriving in Carson valley sell their finest horses for ten or fifteen pounds of flour. After arriving at the Truckee river or the Carson valley, the emigrants still had the difficult passage of the Sierra Nevada to make and most of them were destitute of animals or food and many of both.
Tales of distress were brought by each arrival. The cholera had again broken out and its ravages were appalling. Nine-tenths of those in the desert were on foot and starving. "Mothers may be seen wading through deep dust or heavy sand of the desert, or climbing mountain steeps, leading the poor chil-
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1434023 RELIEF PARTIES
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dren by the hand; or the once strong man, pale, emaciated by hunger and fatigue, carrying upon his back his feeble infant, crying for water and nourishment, and appeasing a ravenous appetite from the carcass of a dead horse or mule; and when they sunk exhausted on the ground at night overcome with weariness and want of food, it was with the certainty that the morning sun would only be the prelude to another day of suffering and torture."*
The miners contributed liberally to succor the unfortunate emigrants. From lack of organization and direction much of the effort was wasted and supplies were slow in reaching the desert. Captain William Waldo left Johnson's ranch August 27th with a drove of beef cattle, after waiting three days for the trains promised from Marysville and Yuba City. Seventeen hundred pounds of flour were deposited on the western side of the sierra, the com- mittee being unable to get it across for lack of mules. At the Truckee lower crossing beef was deposited with the relief committee and Waldo left with them ten good horses and mules to help the sick and desti- tute to cross the desert. He entered the desert September 7th and pushed on as far as the Great meadows of the Humboldt, about the locality of the present town of Palisade. About midway of the desert he came upon two men who had laid them- selves down to die. They had been living on the putrified flesh of the dead animals on the road which
Delano: Life on the Plains, p. 237.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
had made them sick and for three days had eaten nothing. He relieved their needs and they reached the station. Two other men had died of starvation. From Boiling springs to the Great meadows he met few who had any provisions at all. One-fourth of the entire number on the road were reduced to the necessity of subsisting on the putrified flesh of dead animals. This had produced the most fatal conse- quences and disease and death were mowing them down by hundreds. "The cholera has carried off eight in one small train in three hours, and seven others are attacked and, it is thought, will die ere three hours more have elapsed." From the sink westward the havoc was fearful. "Sir," he writes, "by the time this reaches you I presume that you will need no evidence from me to satisfy you of the alarming and wretched condition of these people. It appears that the judgment of God has pursued them from the time they set out up to the present. First cholera-then starvation-next war, starva- tion, and cholera. The day has now passed when anyone will have the hardihood to say that there is no suffering amongst the Overland Emigrants; at least no one who is within 200 miles of this place will make such a declaration. * When I tell them (the emigrants) that they are 400 miles from Sacramento, they are astonished and horrified; many disbelieve me. They were induced to believe when at Salt Lake, that they were then within 450 miles of Sacramento City." Indians have stolen a great
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DESPERATE CONDITIONS
number of the emigrants' stock, he says, and scarcely a day passes when there is not a skirmish with them. Many women are on the road with families of chil- dren, who have lost their husbands by cholera, and who will never cross the mountains without aid. There are yet twenty thousand back of the desert, and fifteen thousand of this number are now destitute of all kinds of provisions, yet the period of the great- est suffering has not arrived. It will be impossible for ten thousand of this number to reach the moun- tains before the commencement of winter. All remember the fate of the Donner party.33 On September 15th Waldo is back on the Truckee river sending in frantic appeals for supplies. He is issu- ing, he says, from five to eight thousand pounds of beef per day, and flour only to the sick. The station is surrounded by sick, unable to proceed on their journey. The flour deposited at Bear valley by the Marysville train has not arrived. The relief raised by the Feather river towns has failed for want of system. If the people of California wish to extend efficient relief to the emigrants, their supplies must be placed under the control of one agent. The emi- grants must have bread; thousands must die unless
they can be supplied with bread. The cholera is killing them off from this point to the head of the Humboldt. Ten thousand pounds of flour should be immediately forwarded to the Truckee station and another station established near the summit with the same amount, and such other articles as
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THE BEGINNINGS OF SAN FRANCISCO
are necessary for the sick. If the money cannot be raised for this, he offers to turn over to the com- mittee, or to any other body of men, real estate in Sacramento which has cost him ten thousand dollars, if they will advance at once eight or ten thousand dollars, forwarded in flour and other necessary articles for the sick, to the summit and to the Truckee station. This, in connection with the beef, horses, mules, and the dead stock that can be jerked before it putrifies, will save ten thousand human beings from starvation. He says that if he were to describe the cases of extreme suffering that he has seen in the last fifteen days the account would occupy a quire of paper. He was to leave on the morning of the 16th for the head of the Humboldt to induce all that are yet from four to six hundred miles back to return to Salt Lake. Ten persons died of cholera, the day before, while trying to cross the desert .*
By September traders were flocking to the desert with supplies, selling flour at one dollar and seventy- five cents to two dollars and fifty cents per pound. They also carried water and grass into the desert and gathered up the animals they found abandoned. They sold water at half a dollar a pint.t Many of the emigrants had no money and were obliged to
* Captain Waldo's report is printed in the Sacramento Transcript of September 23, 1850.
+ Letters and reports in Sacramento Transcript Sept. 3, Aug. 5, 1850; Alta California July 31, Sept. 13, and Oct. 6, 1850.
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THE END OF THE JOURNEY
part with their property. In starting out many put nearly all they had into outfit; others thinking they were going to a land of gold did not bring much money with them. It was a great mistake. Money was required for ferrage across streams, for supplies, and for various purposes, and the want of it caused loss and hardship.34
At length the emigrants reached the end of their journey, but their troubles were not over; they were attacked with fevers and bloody flux, and many perished miserably after having endured all but death in crossing the plains; they reached the Sacramento valley sick and weary, with the horror of the scenes through which they had passed still upon them. For a time they were distressed and unsettled. Their numbers were so great that the relief extended by the miners, large as it was, could not reach them all, and many suffered and died for want of proper care and the nourishment which their condition required. Many were happy at first to get employment to pay their board, and even those accustomed to the luxu- ries of life were glad to get any servile employment suited to their strength and ability. Gradually the dark gloom that over-shadowed them was dispelled by the kind treatment and aid they received on all sides, the memory of their suffering faded, and with returning health hope revived and ambition again awoke.
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