USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Biographical review; this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Litchfield County, Connecticut > Part 2
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tickets for passengers to San Francisco, Cal. It was a small ship of about three hundred tons' measurement. This was done about the time we arrived at Panama. No other vessel was there, and we had no idea when there ever would be another. The situation seemed des- perate. We accidentally became acquainted with two young men from Providence, R. I., who had tickets for "The Equator." They seemed down-spirited and homesick, and said, if they had not got their tickets. they thought they would turn round and go back home. We very soon showed them that there would be no loss, but a profit, on the tickets. We all felt much better when those tickets were in our pockets and the money was in theirs.
It was but a few days before we were on board of our ship at the island of Toboga, twelve miles down the bay from Panama. This was about March 15, six weeks from Bos- ton. This ship was built in 1812 for a pri- vatecr, was of a good model for sailing, when she was fitted for a whale-ship. The space between decks was made four and a half feet high, just right to stow away oil in. That was at Panama fenced off into pens, one board high, each pen for ten passengers, seven by twelve feet. Think of it, ten men to occupy twelve feet! If they had all been of my size. it would appear possible to make it do. . As it was, it was a very tight squeeze. As 1 was not quite as thick as I was broad, I was obliged to take my position on my side and stay there. Being on the floor, there was no fear of falling out of bed. We were within a few degrees of the equator, the hottest plice on earth. There was not a chair, table, or an carthen dish on the ship: and. to our amazement, we found that there were no pro- visions on the ship except what was left over by the sailors on their three years' whaling voyage, not even flour. The water was in
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impure oil casks, and smelled very rank. The meat, beef and pork, was fair, considering its age. The sea biscuit was so hard that it could not be eaten until it was broken up with an iron maul, or soaked in water or tea, either process revealing from each biscuit dozens of weevils and small maggots. The tea was the ten-cent kind, three pounds for a quarter, cheapest molasses for sweetening, and a very little China rice. That was our full bill of fare on the ship. We found out these facts when we were under sail, too late to change anything. Captain Mathews was the one responsible person in this case. His sole idea of life was to save every cent that ever came his way, no matter what suffering and wrong were done to others. It took but a few short hours to get the ill will and hatred of every person on board the ship. It would seem as if the curses that were heaped upon him were enough to sink his craft to the bottom of the ocean.
When a few days out, I was attacked with isthmus fever, about forty cases in all on the ship. It is easy to imagine that it was not a very comfortable place for sick people. Nevertheless, all but one recovered in two or three weeks. Poor Brownell from Iowa died. His body was sewed up in a piece of old sail cloth, with a few chunks of iron at his feet, placed on a plank at the side of the vessel, and slid down into the water. That was a sad day for all of us. When we left Panama it was estimated that we should make San Fran- cisco in from fifty to sixty days. When we had been out six weeks, we had worked, or drifted, down near the equator, and made a little west; but we were as far from San Francisco as the day we sailed. Most of the time we were in a dead calm, with the sails flapping every way. Occasionally we got a little breeze that put us toward our destina-
tion. Perhaps the next day, on taking an ob- servation and reckoning, we would find the current had carried us back as many miles as we gained by our nice breeze.
We were at length informed by Captain Mathews that one-half of our provisions were exhausted, and that we must at once be put on short allowance. We put in at Cocus Island, the only land we saw on our Pacific voyage. It is a high rock, several miles in extent, un- inhabited; but it has several times been ex- plored since our visit by persons looking for Kidd's treasures, as tradition says it was one of his places for hiding his valuables. We took on water from a waterfall near a narrow beach. As provisions were so short, we could not afford to waste one hour by unnecessary delay; and there was no possibility of getting a pound more of anything until we got to our journey's end. Our rations were two biscuits and a piece of beef or pork the size of my two fingers each day, with a pint of water at morning and night. As the case was getting more and more desperate, the wind increased to almost a gale, sending us over the sea at a rapid rate. It appeared to me that Providence had come to our aid to save us from our perils.
There were many solemn faces, a few prayers, and many curses, all aimed at our captain's head. Many an oath was made that, if Captain Mathews should ever be caught on shore, he would be shot at sight. After forty-six years of deliberation I have a settled conviction that he was the meanest man I have ever met. I well remember while in our perilous position that I had a strong convic- tion that, if ever I got on shore alive, and had a crust of wholesome bread and a cup of pal- atable water, I would never complain for the want of acceptable food; and I think no one has, since I put foot on shore, ever heard me complain of the food set before me. We had
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a very lively sail to a point about fifteen hun- dred miles south and west of San Francisco. There we tacked ship, and headed directly for our port in a wind current that almost always blows fresh down that part of the Pacific. We were happy then.
One morning the captain got a good obser- vation of the sun, the first for several days. We were all taking our scanty breakfast. The meal was not taken under very favorable circumstances, as at most of the meals when the wind blew we could either sit down on the deck, where we had found all the soft places to rest, or put one arm round some ratline, or take a turn of some rope round the body to steady ourselves from pitching over, and still retain in our hands our precious tin plate and tin cup. While thus situated, the captain gave word that, "if the wind holds as it is, we will be in San Francisco at four o'clock in the afternoon." Well, there was a time then. Men yelled, screeched, and screamed, as if the lower regions had broken loose. Most of the tin cups and plates were thrown into the sea. An old bass drum on board got a good beat- ing. The fat man from Missouri got out his fiddle, on which we had heard him play the "Arkansaw Traveller " most of the time every day for three months. Now it had to talk. He determined that it should rise above the howling of the storm, and surely it did. 1 never saw so much happiness expressed in a little crowd as at that time on that weather- beaten little ship; but I did not hear any one say, "Thank God."
We were sailing under reefed topsails, and we were plunging in big waves that made the ship tremble. The captain seemed to be looking aloft, then at sea, which seemed to be getting rougher. Finally he said, "Boys, we have either got to have an empty belly or a wet jacket," then gave the sailors an order
to "shake out the main topsail." That was quickly done. In less than a minute the ship went down a big wave with more force than ever; and, as her bow struck the next wave, it was with such force that the main boom, a timber two feet in diameter, snapped off like a pipe stem near the bow of the ship. From the boom there were several iron chains and heavy ropes attached to the masts and yards. The ship immediately swung round into the troughs of the sea, rolling until it looked as if we might go bottom side up. As she would roll back and forth, with the chains and ropes swinging across the deck with such force that a person's life would not be safe for a min- ute on the deck, everybody went between decks in a hurry, and wondered what would come next. The topmasts went one at a time, yards came down with crash after crash. The outlook at that time was that we should all be at the bottom of the sea shortly. Every- body looked and felt solemn, and it was a dumb soul that did not at that time realize that there was a God in the wind and on the waves. Men prayed then who had never prayed before. Gold was forgotten. The homes and loved ones so many miles away were brighter and dearer than ever before. No one ever saw a greater change in the looks and actions of men in a few minutes than at this time.
When everything that the wind and waves could move had gone over into the sea, and there was nothing standing that could fall. the captain and sailors ventured outside to in- spect the situation. Fortunately there were on board as passengers five or sit old sea captains and at least fifty old sailors. Soon we saw them all busy, getting ont from below the decks somewhere extra spars, ropes, and sails, carried by all ships to use in an emer- gency. Men never worked with a better will
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or with better judgment, and in about two hours they had got out something that served as a jib boom with a sail set. We were soon swung round, head on to the sea; and we were again pointed for San Francisco. In a few hours more we had on as much canvas as the sea and wind would safely allow. Many then said with reverence, "Thank God." About midnight we came suddenly right up in near view of Farallon Island, forty miles south west of San Francisco - a dirty jumble of rocks, which look as if they were made on purpose to smash up ships. We were right up to the breakers. As quick as possible we whirled round, just in time to avoid the rocks. It did then seem as if we were doomed. No one wanted to talk any more that night. It was a good time for reflection. We could clearly see that we werc helpless creaturcs; that God only could temper the winds and the waves, and guide our frail ship.
At noon the next day, ninety days from Panama, June 16, 1849, we arrived in the har- bor of San Francisco. We had left on board of the ship only one more day's water and provisions, a rather close call. There was no wharf in San Francisco at that time. Row- boats took the passengers and luggage to the beach. Dr. Brown with myself located near the beach, where there was a spring of nice water, which we appreciated. I at once went to gathering up sticks for a fire. In a very short time the coffee-pot of water was boiling; and Dr. Brown came from the street with a beefsteak, a loaf of baker's bread, and a package of ground coffee. Perhaps that meal was not good, but in memory it was much the best meal I have ever eaten. We ate and drank moderately, then put up our tent, lay our blankets on the soft sand, and we were ready to receive callers and to call up anybody we
wanted to talk with that happened to be pass- ing that way. Our locality was called Happy Valley. I think the Palace Hotel now stands on the ground we occupied. On one side of the plaza there was an old Mexican adobe (unburned brick) one-story building. I do not think there was another building in the
city except Sherman & Ruckle's store. There were several hundred tents, both small and larger ones. They were used as dwellings, hotels, stores, offices, etc. Much the larger part of merchandise was piled up outdoors, with a small tent by the side of it, to use as office and sleeping quarters. Perhaps there were a very few small houses that I did not see, or that have escaped my memory.
Only a little more than a year before this date the Mexican War had closed, and the United States had received California in settlement for the damage we had done Mexico .. There were at this date no officers from either Mexico or the United States authorized to speak or act for either government, and no or- ganized government among the people at that time in California. Everybody was for him- self, but woe to the man who infringed upon the rights of other people. There was no quarrelling or fist-fighting there. The bullet, the knife, or a slip-noose of hempen rope gen- erally settled all serious wrongs in a very short time - no courts or jails, but lots of justice. Before the discovery of gold the United States government had contracted for several steamers to go out there by the way of Cape Horn (seventeen thousand miles), to serve as mail steamers and for all legitimate business from the south and Central American and Mexican coasts. Two of those steamers had arrived at San Francisco before we got there, and had gone down the coast to com- mence regular trips to and from Panama, touching at several Mexican ports. Therc
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were also established steam lines from New York and New Orleans to the Isthmus of Pan- ama. These two return steamers to Panama took the first reliable and intelligent account of the situation on the Pacific side of the world and of the way and means of getting there. They also took lots of gold to show what it was like.
For several days Dr. Brown and myself de- voted our time to gathering up information in regard to the gold discoveries and other mat- ters that might decide us in our future ac- tions. Anything a man wanted to buy was at an enormous price : anything he wanted to sell would bring nothing, as everybody was going somewhere, and could not care for it. The mistake of a lifetime was that we did not lo- cate right where we were, buy everything that was cheap, and sell to people who were hunt- ing for the kinds of goods we had bought. I will only mention one article that was much wanted, and none for sale; but every vessel that arrived had a few boards or planks for their own convenience, which were fitted into frames, to cover over with canvas and make first-class houses. The price of all lumber, ranging all the way from hemlock to mahog- any, was three dollars a foot, board measure. But we had come very far through much tribu- lation to dig gold. We took passage on a forty-ton schooner for Stockton, the head of navigation on the San Joaquin (pronounced San Warkeen) River, passage thirty dollars. That trip occupied about four days, distance near one hundred miles. There we engaged for the carrying of our luggage by a mule train that was bound for Woods Creek and Jamestown, near Sonora and Morman Gulch, where gold diggings were numerous. While waiting over at Stockton for a day or two for the mule train to get ready, we saw a man seated on a wine keg in a lumber wagon being
driven to a large tree that stood in the princi- pal street. As there was quite a crowd fol- lowing the team, we followed on with then. When the team halted under the tree, a rope was thrown over a limb, a slip-noose adjusted at the man's neck, and the team drove on - all done in five minutes. We heard that he had been caught stealing something.
We were finally off across San Joaquin val- ley for Knight's Ferry on the Stanislaus River. The first night we halted at Morman Slough near sunset, near twelve miles out. The eighty mules arrived ahead of us. They all went into the pool at once to drink and flounder in the water, making it a very thin mush, too thick to drink and too thin to chew. The filth they left behind them made it about half and half. We arrived soon on foot, hun- gry and tired, but more thirsty; no water to be had except from that pool. Well, from our experience on "The Equator " we thought we would not be too particular, and drank enough of that beverage to quench our thirst. Persons who had eaten monkey soup. drunk "Equator " water and Morman Slough miv- ture, ought to be tough enough to take .il- most anything without making a wry face. The next day we were to travel to Stanislaus River, twenty-five miles, with no water except what we should carry from that pool. We were up betimes, and ate breakfast, ready to start at four o'clock, with the hope of reach- ing the river before the hottest part of the day. We took along one quant of the Morman Slough misture to use in case of necessity. We took the well-travelled trail in a smooth country. We started off at a good walking gait ; and by the time the sun was up we were tired, and glad to taste of our bottle of nectar. and before we had got half-way to the river we had exhausted the last drop.
We knew there was no way to get another
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drop, and the more we thought of that the more anxious we were to have it. There was no way for us but to push on - but to push on in that blazing sun, the thermometer above one hundred degrees, not a tree or a shrub or a rock for all that twenty-five miles, no chance for a minute's rest, unless we should sit down on the hard hot ground. On making the rise of a little higher land we saw, a quarter of a mile away, what appeared to be an abrupt bank, with a little shady spot that might afford us a place for rest ; and we were eager to enter the underground shade. When we were within a rod of that place, we dis- covered tracks that showed us we were just entering a grizzly bear's den. We very soon came to the conclusion that we were not near as tired as we had thought. We retired to the old trail in good order, but at a better gait than when we approached the place of rest. We imagined that when we got to the top of that elevation we should see some sign of the river. It was about noon. We were suffer- ing much from thirst, but the hope of soon seeing pure water kept us in tolerable spirits. When we got on top of that elevation we could see another one a few miles ahead of us like the one just passed. I think before we saw the river that we passed over as many as six or eight of those elevations a mile or two apart (rolling prairie). Our tongues got as dry as a piece of velvet and too large to keep entirely in our mouths. Even our lungs felt as if every bit of moisture was gone from them. It seemed as if we must lie down and die; but we staggered on and on, from the conviction that the next elevation must reveal to us that water which was life to us.
Finally, from the last of those elevations a most heavenly view all of a sudden was be- fore us. Right at our feet was a lovely val- ley, full of live-oaks, and that beautiful river
right from the snow-tipped mountains rushing through and down past them. We staggered on as best we could to the first tree. There some Mexicans with many mules were en- camped. They had cooked and eaten their dinner (3 P.M.); and the greasy kettle, in which some remnants of a stew were left, had been filled with water. It stood in the hot sun, and was well covered with dust. When we reached that pail it seemed as if we had taken our last step. We at once were down by the side of that pail, and from it were drinking the most precious water man ever saw. The horrors of the thirst we had suffered for four or five hours before reaching that sacred spot cannot be described or under- stood unless one has had experience of that kind. We would have given all we possessed or ever expected to have for a few spoonfuls of that lukewarm water that saved our lives.
We lay there upon the ground too exhausted to move. Occasionally we took moderate doses from that pail; and now I have no doubt but Providence placed it there, in its luke- warm condition, to preserve our lives. The ice-cold water only a few rods from us would surely have killed us if taken while we were in the sad condition we found ourselves when we arrived at that dinner pot. It was nearly four hours that we lay there before we could get up life enough to move on a few rods to the river bank. Knight's Ferry was there. A rope was stretched across the stream, per- haps four rods wide, and made fast at both ends. A few dry logs were made into a raft, upon which we stood, and pulled our way over, price one dollar a head. We found a tent on the bluff near the river, where we were served with a typical California meal of those days - beef fried with salt pork, boiled beans, fried flapjacks, dried-apple sauce, and coffee, price everywhere one dollar. Our Mexican
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muleteers arrived just before dark. Un- doubtedly they took plenty of water. They are used to that kind of a life, and know how to get along with it. Twenty years later I went across San Joaquin valley, near the route travelled this day. It was then a continuous grain field, with here and there fine orchards and vineyards, and windmills raising plenty of water from shallow wells.
We moved on in the morning over a good trail. For the first time we were in the foot- hills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Pure springs of water were plenty; and everything was enjoyable except the lameness of our legs and soreness of our feet, which made it un- comfortable to walk. We started in advance of the mule train, and kept ahead. We ar- rived at Woods Creek, where we first saw the gold diggings. We found a camp of about one hundred miners, and we decided to locate there until we could look over that place and the numerous diggings in that vicinity. Our whole outfit for the work consisted of picks, shovels, and milk pans. Everybody that worked got from five to twenty dollars' worth of gold each day. We were told that a few little pockets had been struck where larger sums had been taken out. At Jamestown and Sonora, also at Morman Gulch, were very lively camps. Some rich strikes had been made at each of these places, and the lucky ones were at the gambling-tables, trying to make money easier; but, of course, they all got "broke " in a short time. Gambling and the vices that go with it made almost every miner poor.
The most of the people there were from Mexico, Lower California, and Chile -Yankees scarce. After two weeks' stay in that neigh- borhood we heard of Murphy's diggings, some twenty miles to the north, where, it was said, pieces of gold were larger, and plenty of unoc-
cupied ground for the new-comer. We pulled up stakes, and made the trip in a day and a half with our own horses, swimming the Stanislaus River, some twenty miles above Knight's Ferry. We were soon encamped at a beautiful spot at the lower end of the little valley, and took up a good claim for gold digging. About five feet down through a gravelly soil we came to a clayey formation, where gold was found, mostly from the size of a kernel of wheat to the size and shape of a bean or a pumpkin seed. We were obliged to carry the dirt for washing either in pans or sacks some fifty rods. It was with me a te- dious business. Swinging a pickaxe or a shovel and packing our precious dirt tired me beyond endurance. Dr. Brown was much stronger than I; but, as we divided equally all the gold we obtained, I was ambitious to do my half of the work. About one week's work was done at this place with satisfactory results. It was noon. The sun was pouring down into the hot hole where we were at work. 1 put down my shovel ; and I said to the doctor: "This is all very nice, but I shall never swing a shovel or a pick again for gold. No more gold dig- ging for me." The doctor was much sur- prised, dropped his pickaxe, and raising his hands inquired what I was going to do. "Well, I am going to build a shanty, then go down to San Francisco, and buy a stock of goods, and try merchandising right there where our tent stands." In ten minutes it was agreed that he and I were to share alike in his gold digging and my trading business.
We went back into the pine woods near us, and picked out the smallest trees we could find, six to ten inches in diameter. Our only tools were a hatchet and hand-saw, that we hand taken with us from New Hampshire. The trees came down, were cut into proper lengths. and some of them split in halves. We set up
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these sticks firmly in the ground, above sur- face six feet on sides and ends of the shanty, put on plates put up a ridge pole and rafters, all tied together with strips of rawhide fur- nished us by the butcher, Ben Marshall, who a few years later became a well-known poli- tician. Our house frame was twenty feet by thirty. We wove into the roof and sides pine boughs to keep out the sun, and as a "protection" against burglars we hung up two sheets, to swing apart in the day-time for a door. At night we closed up by fastening them together with a pin. A back door was never made; but we had our little cloth tent at the rear of the store, where we slept on the ground in our blankets, and where we had beautiful dreams of home. We had plenty of good water. Fresh beef and mutton were only one bit (twelve and one-half cents) a pound. Salt, flour, beans, salt pork, old hams, rice, and most of the other staples were only fifty cents a pound. Our pioneering days seemed to be over. We were happy, and why should we not be? Beef, water or coffee, and slap- jacks every day - that was enough.
It was near the Ist of August that I started for Stockton on horseback. Made the trip (seventy-five miles) in three days. I crossed the three branches of the Calaveras River, where there was but little water at that time. There was plenty of water for drinking as often as I wanted it. Several tents had been put up on the road, where refreshments could be obtained ; and there were large trees all the way, and clumps of manzanita and other shrubs were oc- casionally seen. I carried my own provisions, and made my own coffee. At night after I had eaten supper I always led my horse to one of those clumps of bushes, one-fourth or one- half a mile from the road, where I slept com- fortably, the horse being picketed as much out of sight as possible. There were numerous
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