USA > Idaho > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 48
USA > Montana > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 48
USA > Washington > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 48
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22 Their names were Michael Jordan, A. J. Miner, G. W. Chadwick, Cyrus Iba, William Phipps, Joseph Dorsey, Jerome Francisco, John Moore, J. R. Cain, W. Churchill, H. R. Wade, A. J. Reynolds, James Carroll, William Duncan, Dr A. F. Rudd, F. Height, W. L. Wade, John Cannon, M. Conner, C. Ward, R. W. Prindall, D. P. Barnes, O. H. Purdy, J. C. Boone, W. T. Carson, P. H. Gordon, L. C. Gehr, and 3 others. In the Silver City Owyhee Avalanche of Jan. 8, 1876, is a notice of the death of Alexander Eddington, an Englishman aged 60, a 'pioneer of Owyhee,' who may have been of this party. In Ballou's Adventures, MS., Jordan's name is given as J. P. Jordan. H. R. Wade, who was the first treasurer-elect of Owybee co., died in 1863. William Duncan died in 1873 or 1874 in Nevada. J. R. Cain set- tled in Boisé Valley. F. Height and C. Iba settled in Utah. O. H. Pnrdy remained in Owyhee co., and wrote an account of these matters on the twelfth anniversary of the discovery of the Owyhee mines, in Owyhee Silver City Av- alanche, May 22, 1875. Peter MeQueen, 'one of the pioneers of the Owyhee mines,' was killed Jan. 26, 1864, by the caving in of a tunnel on which he was working near Bannack City. 'MeQueen was formerly from Wellsville, Ohio, in Columbiana county, and was 36 years of age.' He had returned from Owy-
417
SEARCH FOR LOST MINES.
Crossing Snake River near the mouth of the Boisé, they proceeded, not in the direction supposed to have been travelled by the immigration of 1845, but fol- lowed along the south side of Snake River to a con- siderable stream, which they named Reynolds Creek, after one of their number, where they encamped. Two of the company, Wade and Miner, here ascended a divide on the west, and observed that the formation
Rabbit Creek
Sinker
BOONVILLE
Jordan Creek
BLUE GULCH
RUBY CITY
Star
ording
Morning
SILVER CITY
.Star Tunnel
FLINT GULCH
Eagle
Fogus Road
Silver Legion
WADE'S GULCH
N
SAW PIT GULCH
N
Jordan Cr
1
W-
E
FLINT DISTRICT Rising Star
S
JORDAN CREEK.
of the country indicated a large river in that direction. Up to this time nothing was known of the course of the Owyhee River, which was supposed to head in Or- egon. It was not certain, therefore, what stream this was. On the following day their explorations lay in the direction of the unknown watercourse. Keeping up the creek, and crossing some very rough moun-
hee to spend the winter at Boise working a claim he held at the mouth of Pearce Gulch. Boise News, Jan. 30, 1864. Michael Jordan and James Carroll were killed by Indians.
HIST. WASH .- 27
FRENCH<
0
War
Poorman
TIMBER
MOUNT A
LONG GULCH
418
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
tains, they fell upon the head waters of another creek flowing toward the unknown river, where they com- menced prospecting late in the afternoon of the 18th of May, and found a hundred 'colors' to the pan. This place, called Discovery Bar, was six miles below the site of Boonville on Jordan Creek, named after Michael Jordan.
After prospecting ten days longer, locating as much mining ground as they could hold, and naming the district Carson, two other streams, Bowlder and Sinker creeks, were prospected without any further discoveries being made, when the company returned to Placerville.
The story of the Owyhee placers caused, as some said, a kind of special insanity, lasting for two days, during which 2,500 men forsook Boisé for the new diggings. Many were sadly disappointed. The dis- covered ground was already occupied, and other good diggings were difficult to find.23 The distance from Placerville was 120 miles; the mines were far up in the mountains; the road rough, and the country poorly timbered with fir. Nothing like the beautiful and fertile Boisé Valley was to be found on the lava- skirted Owyhee. Those who remained at the new diggings were about one in ten of those who so madly rushed thither on the report of the discovery. The rest scattered in all directions, after the manner of gold-hunters; some to return to Boisé, and others to continue their wanderings among the mountains. In the course of the summer fresh diggings were found in the ravines away from Jordan Creek; but the great
23 Henry B. Maize came to Cal. in 1850, returning to Ohio in 1853, and went to the Salmon River mines in 1862, where he wintered. In the spring he went to Boisé, and joined some prospectors to the Deadwood country. While there he heard of the Owyhee discovery, and was among the first to follow the return of the discoverers. His account is that the original twenty-nine had taken up all the available ground, and made mining laws that gave them a right to hold three claims each, one for discovery, one personal, and one for a friend; and that in fact they had 'hogged' everything. He prospected for a time without success, and finally went to the Malheur River; but hearing of the discovery of silver leads, returned to Jordan Creek and wintered there. Maize is the author of Early Events in Idaho, MS., from which I have drawn many facts and conclusions of value in shaping this history of Idaho.
419
OWYHEE AND JORDAN CREEK.
event of the season was the discovery of silver-bearing ledges of wonderful richness on the lateral streams flowing into Jordan Creek. This created a second rush of prospectors to Owyhee, late in the autumn of 1863.24
Great interest was taken in the Owyhee silver mines, claimed to be the second silver deposit of im- portance found within United States territory; and much disappointment was felt by Oregonians that this district was included within the limits of the newly organized territory of Idaho, as upon exploration of the course of the Owyhee River, ordered by Gover- nor Gibbs, it was found to be.
The first town laid out on Jordan Creek was Boon- ville. It was situated at the mouth of a cañon, be- tween high and rugged hills, its streets being narrow and crooked. In a short time another town, called Ruby City, was founded in a better location as to space, and with good water, but subject to high winds. Each contained during the winter of 1863-4 about 250 men, while another 500 were scattered over Car- son district. In the first six months the little timber on the barren hills was consumed in building and fucl. Lumber cut out with a whip-saw brought forty dollars a hundred feet, and shakes six dollars a hun- dred. In December a third town was laid off a mile above Ruby, called Silver City.
24 Maize, in his Early Events, MS., says that the Morning Star was the first ledge discovered, and that it was located by Peter Gimple, S. Neilson, Jack Sammis, and others, and that Oro Fino was next. In this he differs from Purdy, who places the Oro Fino before the Morning Star in point of time; and from Gilbert Butler, who says that in Whiskey Gulch, discovered by R. H. Wade in July, was the first quartz vein found. Silver City Idaho Avalanche, May 28, 1881. A. J. Sands aud Svade Neilson discovered Oro Fino. Purdy also says that the first quartz-ledge was discovered in July, and located by R. H. Wade, and the second, the Oro Fino, in August, A. J. Sands being one of the locators, as he and Neilson were of the Morning Star. Silver City Owyhee Avalanche, May 22, 1875. As often happens, the first discov- eries were the richest ever found. Men made $50 a day pounding up the Oro Fino rock in common hand-mortars. It assayed $7,000 in silver and $800 in gold to the ton. A year afterward, when a larger quantity of ore had been tested by actual working, 10 tons of rock were found to yield one ton of amalgam. Walla Walla Statesmen, Nov. 18, 1864. Same of it was marvel- lously rich-as when 1} pounds of rock yielded 9 ounces of silver and gold; and I pound yielded $13.50, half in silver and half in gold.
420
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
The general condition of the miners in the autumn was prosperous. Idaho City, called Bannack until the spring of 1864, had 6,000 inhabitants. Main and Wall streets were compactly built for a quarter of a mile, crossed by but one avenue of any importance. Main street extended for a quarter of a mile farther. Running parallel with Elk Creek were two streets- Marion and Montgomery-half a mile in length. The remainder of the town was scattered over the rising ground back from Elk and Moore creeks. There were 250 places of business, well-filled stores, highly deco- rated and resplendent gambling-saloons, a hospital for sick and indigent miners, protestant and catholic churches, a theatre, to which were added three others during the winter,25 three newspapers,26 and a fire
25 In point of time they ranked, Idaho theatre Ist, J. L. Allison manager; Forrest 2d, opened Feb. 1864; Jenny Lind 3d, opened in April; Temple 4th. The Forrest was managed by John S. Potter.
26 The first newspaper established in the Boise basin was the Boise News, a small sheet owned and edited by T. J. & J. S. Butler, formerly of Red Bluff, Cal., where they published the Red Bluff Beacon. Henry H. Knapp accompanied T. J. Butler, bringing a printing-press, the first in this part of Idaho, and later in use in the office of the Idaho World. Knapp's Statement, MS., 2. J. S. Butler was born in 1829. He came from Bedford, Ind., to Cal. in 1852, mined for 3 years, and in 1835 started the first newspaper in Tehama co., and which, after 7 years, was sold to Charles Fisher, connected with the Sac. Union, who was killed at Sacramento in 1863 or 1864. Butler married a daughter of Job F. Dye of Antelope rancho, a pioneer of Cal., and went to farming in the Sacramento Valley. His father-in-law took a hierd of beef-cattle to the eastern Oregon mines in 1862, and sent for him to come np and help him dispose of them. Butler then started a packing busi- ness, running a train from Walla Walla to Boisé, and recognizing that, with a public of 30,000 or more, there was a field for a newspaper, took steps to start one, by purchasing, with the assistance of Knapp of the Statesman office in Walla Walla, the old press on which the Oregonian was first printed, and which was taken to Walla Walla in 1861. Some other material was obtained at Portland, and the first number of the Boise News was issued Sept. 29, 1863, printing-paper costing enormously, and a pine log covered with zinc being used as an imposing-stone, with other inventions to supply lacking ma- terial. But men willingly paid $2.50 for one number of a newspaper. The News was independent in politics through a most exciting campaign. Two other journals were issued from its office, representing the two parties in the field-union and democratic-the democrats being greatly in the majority, according to Butler.
The Idaho Democrat was edited by J. T. Allison, and published by D. C. Ireland, an immigraut of 1863 from Minnesota, who, when the campaign was over, went to the Willamette Valley. Ireland was one of the party of 1863 which descended Snake River to Lewiston in a small boat. IIe has been a newspaper man ever since settling in Oregon, publishing the Oregon City Enterprise and the Astorian, which he started, besides being connected at va- rious times with Portland journals. The Idaho Union was published by Bruce
42]
CENTREVILLE AND IDAHO CITY.
department. Considering the distance of Boisé from any great source of supplies or navigable waters, this growth was a marvellous one for eleven months.
Centreville also grew, and was called the prettiest town in the Boisé basin. It contained, with its sub- urbs, 3,000 people.27 A stage-road was being built from Centreville each way to Placerville and Idaho City by Henry Greathouse, the pioneer of staging in southern Idaho. Placerville had a population of 5,000. It was built like a Spanish town, with the business houses around a plaza in the centre. The population of Pioneer City was 2,000, chiefly Irish, from which it was sometimes called New Dublin. These were the principal towns.
On the 7th of October a festival was given in Idaho City, called Moore's ball, to celebrate the founding of a new mining state, at which the pioneers present acted as hosts to a large number of guests, who were lavishly entertained.23 Society in Boisé was chaotic, and had in it a liberal mixture of the infernal. The union-threatening democracy of the south-western states was in the majority. Gamblers abounded. Prostitutes threw other women into the shade. For- tunately this condition of things did not last long.
Smith and Joseph Wasson, and edited by John Charlton. The two cam- paign papers started early in October, and suspended when the election was over. The News office employed two sets of men day and night to issue these three sheets weekly, and do all the printing of the country. In October 1864 the Butlers sold their establishment, to avoid the excitement of a political crisis, to H. C. Street, J. H. Bowman, and John Pierce, Strcet editor, who changed the name to that of Idaho World. Its business was worth $20,000 a year, and the new firm soon cleared $50,000, Bowman having gained the control. It became a semi-weekly in May 1867. It changed editors several times, being democratic, having in 1866 that itinerant disunionist James O'Meara at its head. In 1873 it became again independent. It was sold in 1874 to the Idaho Publishing Company.
Butler's Life and Times, MS., from which these facts are drawn, is a con- cise account of the principal events in the early history of Idaho, of great interest and value. It treats of journalism, politics, crime, business, and Indian affairs, with evident sincerity and good judgment.
27 Knapp's Statement, MS., 7. This authority describes all the early min- ing towns, the bread riot, express carrying, and other pioneer matters, in a Incid manner. Knapp came from Red Bluff, and long remained a resident of Idaho.
28 This anniversary ball seems to have been repeated in October IS64. Idaho World, in Portland Oregonian, Oct. 31, 1864.
422
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
Sickness attacked many a sturdy miner, laying him in his grave away from all his kindred, who never knew where were his bones. Yet not unkindly these un- fortunate ones were cared for by their comrades, and the hospital was open to them, with the attendance of a physician and money for their necessities. The Boisé News called upon all persons to send in notices of deaths occurring under their observation, and offered free publication, that the friends of the de- ceased miner might have a chance of learning that his career was ended in the strife for a fortune.29 To avoid the winter many went east, and into Colorado, Utah, and Oregon, and others would have gone but for the mining law of the district, which required the holders of claims to work them at least one day in seven. 30
Californians were numerous in southern Idaho.31 Many had been in the Oregon and the Clearwater mines, when the Boisé discovery drew them to these diggings. They were enterprising men, and patron- ized charities and pleasures liberally, many of them being old miners and having no puritan prejudices to overcome. The sport which offered the most novel attractions, while it was unobjectionable from a moral standpoint, was that furnished by the 'sliding' clubs of which there were several in the different towns. The stakes for a grand race, according to the rules of the clubs, should not be less than $100 nor more than $2,500, for which they ran their cutters down certain hills covered with snow, and made smooth for the purpose.32 A circulating library and a literary club
29 From Nov. 1864 to Nov. 1865, 125 men were received at the hospital, who had been injured by the caving of banks, and other accidents incident to mining.
30 According to the laws of the district, 'any citizen may held 1 ercek claim, 1 gulch, 1 hill, and 1 bar claim, by location.' Boise News, Oct. 13, 1863. 31 The Boise News of Nov. 21st gives the names of 230 Californians, from Siskiyou county alone, then in the Boisé basin.
32 A challenge being offered by the Placerville Champion Sliding Club of Boisé basin to the Sliding Club of Bannaek, the former offering to run their entter Flying Cloud, carrying 4 persons, from the top of Granite street to Wolf Creek, or any distance not less than a quarter of a mile, was accepted, when in February the Wide West of Bannack ran against the Flying Cloud for the
423
WINTER IN THE MINES.
also alleviated the irksomeness of enforced idleness in their mountain-environed cities.
The winter was mild in the Boisé basin until past the middle of January, when the mercury fell to 25° below zero at Placerville. So little snow had fallen in the Blue Mountains that pack-trains and wagons were able to travel between Walla Walla and the mines until February. These flattering appearances induced the stage companies to make preparations for starting their coaches by the 20th of this month; but about this time came the heaviest snow, fol- lowed by the coldest weather, of the season, which deferred the proposed opening of stage traffic to the 1st of March.33 The first attempt was a failure, the snow being so deep on the mountains that six horses could not pull through an empty sleigh.34
best 2 in 3. The Wide West won the race. Other lesser stakes were lost and won, and the occasion was a notable one, being signalized by unusual festiv- ities, dinners, dancing-parties, etc. One sled on the track, called the French Frigate, carried 20 persons, and was the fastest in the basin. Each cutter had its pilot, which was a responsible position. Frequent severe injuries were received iu this exciting but dangerous sport. See Boisé News, Jan. 30 aud Feb. 6, 1864.
33 The line from Walla Walla to Boise was owned by George F. Thomas and J. S. Ruckle. (There was a line also to Lewiston, started in the spring of 1864, owned in Lewiston.) It was advertised that they would be drawn by the best horses out of a band of 150, and driven by a famnous coachman named Ward, formerly of California, where fine driving had become an art. Geo. F. Thomas of Walla Walla was a stage-driver in Georgia. Going to Cal. in the early times of gold-mining in that state, he engaged in business, which proved lucrative, and became a large stockholder in the Cal. Stage Co., which at one time had coaches on 1,400 miles of road. As vice-president of the co. he established a line from Sacramento to Portland, where he went to reside. On the discovery of gold in the Nez Perce country, he went to Walla Walla, and ran stages as the ever-changing stream of travel demanded. With J. S. Ruckle he constructed a stage-road over the Blue Mountains at a great expense, which was opened in April 1865, and also contributed to the different short lines in Idaho. Idaho City World, April 15, 1865. Henry Greathouse, another stage proprietor on the route from the Columbia to Boisé, was an enterprising pioneer who identified himself with the interests of this new region. He was, like Thomas, a southern man. With unusual prudence he refrained from expressing his sympathy with the rebellious states, though his brother, Ridgeley Greathouse, was discovered in S. F. attempting to fit out a privateer, and conhned in Fort Lafayette, whence he escaped to Europe.
34 In northern Idaho the snow and cold were excessive. Daniel Mckinney, P. K. Young, M. Adams, John Murphy, and M. Sol. Keyes, who left Elk City Oct. 6th with a small pack-train for the Stinking Water mines on Jeffer- son fork of the Missouri, were caught in a snow-storm, and wandered about in the mountains until the Ist of Dec., when they were discovered and re- lieved. Walla Walla Statesman. Feb. 13, 1864. Several similar incidents oc- curred in different parts of the territory.
424
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
For the same reason, the express from Salt Lake, which was due early in February, did not arrive until in March.
On the 16th of March the first saddle-train for a month arrived at Placerville, bringing a party of twelve, one of whom was a woman. They were eleven days on the road.35 On the Ist of April the pioneer coach, belonging to the Oregon and Idaho Stage Company, which was to run its stages from Umatilla landing to Boisé, arrived at Placerville with a full load of passengers at $100 each. But this coach had come from Shasta, California, and had taken the California and Oregon stage-road to Port- land, going thence to The Dalles by steamer, and there taking the road again. It had been fifty-nine days on the trip. Four other coaches of this line, starting from Shasta March 2d, accomplished the journey in twenty-three days. Ish and Hailey of Oregon owned this line.
On the 1st of May coaches began to run from Idaho City and Placerville to Boisé City and Owy- hee.36 Road and ferry franchises were much sought after. A new road up the John Day River and through Canon City to Boise was opened the 20th of June. A. B. Mcacham, of Modoc-war fame, and his brother Harvey, settled at Lee's Encampment, on the Blue Mountains, so named from Jason Lee having parted from his friends at this place on his journey east in 1838, and erected what was known as the Mountain House, doing much to open roads and facilitate trade. A franchise was granted to a com- pany to build a road from the head of Camas prairie 37 to Boisé, but it was found impracticable to build it as projected, and it was abandoned. The Owyhee Ferry
35 This saddle-train was owned by Greathouse, who was making arrange- ments to put on a line of stages to connect with the O. S. N. Co.'s boats at Wallula.
36 Ward, the driver before mentioned, and John J. MeCommons owned this line at first, but the latter retired.
37 Reference is here made to Camas prairie north of Salmon River.
425
MINING IMMIGRATION FROM CALIFORNIA.
Company also obtained a franchise at the first session of the Idaho legislature.38
The question of cheap freights was much dis- cussed. The large number of men from northern California who were interested in Boisé held that a road could be made from the Boisé basin to the Sac- ramento River, by which freights could be brought more cheaply in wagons alone than by the O. S. N. Co.'s boats, and wagons from their landings. A com- pany was incorporated, called the Idaho and Califor- nia Wagon-Road Company, February 6, 1864, to build a wagon-road from Snake River Ferry, near old Fort Boisé, to Red Bluff, California, via Ruby City.30
On the 19th of April there arrived from Healds- burg, California, a party of six men with pack-ani- inals, who came by the way of the Washoe and Hum- boldt mines and Owyhee. They reported the road lined with people on their way to Idaho, and that wagons had already arrived within fifteen miles of Jordan Creek, where the hills became too rough for them to proceed farther. On the 1st of May a train of eighteen wagons left Scott Valley and Yreka for Boisé, and on the 11th of June six others belonging to William Davidson, taking the Yreka and Klamath Lake route. These two routes continued to be travelled during the period of the California emi- gration to Idaho, and but for the hostility of the Indians, were good roads needing little improvement. One party of twenty-three, that left Red Bluff April 24th, took the route first contemplated by the pro- jectors of the Idaho and California Road Company
38 Maize says that Michael Jordan, Silas Skinner, and W. H. Dewey built a toll-road from Owyhee to Boise in the summer of 1864. Early Events, MS., 3. Bristol established a ferry across Boisé River at Boisé City, and another across Snake River on Jordan's road to Owyhee. Bristol's Idaho, MS., 12.
39 Portland Oregonian, Nov. 4, 1863; Boisé News, Feb. 13, 27, and March 5, 1864. The incorporators were Thos J. Butler, J. S. Butler, John Charl- ton, Isaac D. Huntoon, Harry Norton, George Woodman, G. A. B. Berry, John Gray, J. B. Francis, W. R. Underwood, J. W. Keenan, J. W. Brown, and A. G. Turner. Capital stock, $50,000. The Idaho and California Tele- graph Company was incorporated at the same time by some of the same per- sons. The route indicated by the wagon-road company was via Pitt River, Goose Lake, and the Malheur River.
426
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
down the Malheur to the mouth of the Boisé, and be- came lost between the Warner Lakes and the head waters of the Malheur. They wandered about for three weeks, but finally reached their destination about the 20th of June.
Not only was there a large immigration both over- land and by sea, via Portland, but the freight offer- ings by steamer to the latter place were more than could be carried, and a number of sailing vessels were employed. This freight consisted of dry goods, hard- ware, and groceries. Provisions were furnished by Oregon and Utah.40
About the 1st of May two express lines were estab- lished between Boonville and Sacramento. They left Boonville on the 2d and 4th respectively, and re- turned, the first on the 22d, bringing the Sacramento Union of the 16th, to the delight of Californians. They continued to make successful trips until inter- rupted by Indian hostilities. 41
In the spring of 1864 a contract to carry the tri- weekly mail from Salt Lake to Walla Walla, via Fort Hall and Boisé City, was awarded to Ben Holladay & Co., carriers of the California mail, the service to
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