USA > West Virginia > Tucker County > History of Tucker County, West Virginia, from the earliest explorations and settlements to the present time; > Part 16
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It was on account of this that so many men of ambition and ability went west and south and north, or just any place where there was encouragement to put forth exertion. The tide has now turned, and is setting toward instead of from us. Instead of the poorest, we have one of the rich- est counties in the State. But this was not known when the rumors from California were alluring away so many of our young men.
Gold was discovered in California in 1848. The news soon spread from state to state, and it reached West Vir- ginia and Tucker County the same year. None hailed the news more gladly than Mr. Harper, who still remembered his disappointment in not getting to go to the Mexican
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War, and was waiting for an opportunity to try something else of the same nature. Not a day was lost. He, and A. P. Minear, of St. George, were the first to go. But Harper was the first. Minear went by water in 1849. Harper started in 1848, and wintered in Iowa. So anxious was he to get to the mines that he braved every danger in crossing the plains. Iowa was then on the frontier. Between there and California was a wide, desert plain, and the almost im- passable Rocky and Sierra Nevada mountains. Then it was an unknown country. A few explorers and adventurers had crossed, and a few small military posts, scattered at immense distances apart, served as the only evidence of civilized man. Large bands of wild and warlike Indians infested the region beyond the Missouri River, and were ever ready to fall upon any who should come into their country.
Early in the spring of 1849, Harper joined a train of ad- venturers and passed up the Platte River, and crossed the Rocky Mountains. A full journal of the company, with all that happened from day to day, would fill too much space here. Nothing of special importance took place. The routine of camp life, and traveling incidents were the same or similar from day to day. They drove ox teams, hitched to ponderous wagons. There were no graded roads. On the plains they needed none ; but, in the mountains it was often next to impossible to proceed. Sometimes they would let their wagons down mountains by ropes and pulleys. Or, they would fell trees, tie them by the tops to the hind axle of the wagons, and the stiff limbs, thus plowing in the ground, allowed the wagons to descend slowly.
Along the Humboldt it was a wild, desert country. The hills had no water, trees, grass or shrubs. The valleys be-
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tween the hills were barren and lifeless, and were often covered with salt and alkali.
When the emigrants reached this region, their progress became slower than before. They could find little forage for their cattle, and at times water was not to be had. The Indians, too, were ever hovering over the way, and none could feel safe, unless traveling in large companies. This served to keep the trains together, and, of course, made it harder to find things for the cattle to eat. It was probably the most distressing portion of all the journey ; and it was there, amid the rocky hills and alkaline plains, that many an adventurous man has found the termination of his wanderings.
These delays and perplexities were not endureable to a man of Harper's ambition and determination. He was too anxious to be first upon the Californian gold fields to be bothering with lazy ox teams and trundling carts, when the bourne of his dreams was only three or four hundred miles away, was not his nature. He had staid back, and endured the slow traveling until he reached the Sinks of the Hum- boldt River, that mysterious land where a river sinks in the sand, and all trace of it is lost. Here he expressed his determination to proceed in advance of the emigrants. They tried to persuade him from it, and pointed out the great dangers that would beset him if traveling alone through that wild and uncivilized country. But, like M'Cleland, he said that he could take care of himself. He shouldered his rifle and knapsack and struck forward alone into the rugged hills and snowy mountains. The huge crest of the Sierras lay before him, towering white and ponderous toward the sky, and presenting a wall against the world beyond. It was a fatal region, and few men could have crossed it alone.
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The Indians had made paths through the ravines and gorges, and bears and panthers had tramped a trail over the ridges. These, the stars and sun, and a slight knowledge of the geography of the rivers, were his only guides. At day he plodded slowly along among rocks and bowlders, or over wide plains, covered with a crust of salt, or alkaline dust, and across desert prairies, where even the wild Indians sel- dom would venture. At night he would creep into a hole in the rocks and sleep. Sometimes wolves would howl at him, and bears would stop to look at him ; but from mercy or fear, they did not molest him.
The way up the Sierra Navadas was, like the Alps were to Napoleon, "barely possible." He wound his way from ridge to ridge and from summit to summit. Sometimes the drifts of snow blockaded his path, or a deep ravine forced him to go miles out of his way. But still he went forward, and at last, after days of climbing and wandering among the rocks and snows of centuries, he reached the last summit, and California lay before him. Behind him, for hundreds and hundreds of miles, stretched the dead plains of Nevada and Utah, over which he had passed. It seemed that his journey was almost over. He was on the borders of Cali- fornia, the Land of Promise to him. As he stood there, in the bright sun and keen air of that afternoon, amid ever- lasting snows, he looked afar down upon the rolling hills and boundless plains that lay like an ocean before him, and thought of the throngs that were then drifting thither from all parts of the earth to share in the rich harvest of golden sands. He was one of the most adventuresome of all. He was a young man, buoyant with all the hopes and ambitions of youth, and the ransacked world had no impossibilities for him. He would yield to none in the general race for
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wealth and romance. He counted himself, as he stood alone on the bleak summit of that icy mountain, even then a conqueror. And he was; for many a hero would have failed where he had triumphed.
But the end of his journey was not yet. Down, down, down, over mountains, compared with which the Allegha- nies are molehills, he must go before he would reach the mines of gold.
He traveled nine days alone, and ate only coffee and crackers. At the end of that time he reached Placerville, then a small mining camp called Hangtown. He came to the camp late in the evening, without money or anything to eat. He went without his supper because he had noth- ing with which to buy it, and slept on the ground for the want of a bed. The mines were just then opening, and there were not many miners in the country. He knew not where to get his breakfast the next morning, and with that problem perplexing him, he walked up and down the camp, and came to a small creek where some Spaniards were dig- ging gold. He stopped to look at them. The gold was in fine grains, mixed through the sand and gravel, and was separated by washing and shaking it. It was a simple process, and when Harper had watched it awhile, he con- eluded that he could do it.
He went to the camp of a trader and borrowed a pick and pan, and set to work digging goll to get money to buy his breakfast. He succeeded so well that by nine o'clock he thought he had enough to pay for some erackers, and carried it to the trader who paid him six dollars for it, and offered him his breakfast free. But the latter part of the offer was declined by Harper who paid for the meal from the proceeds of his morning's work.
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He remained at Placeville only long onough to earn a few hundred dollars, and then he proceeded to Colonra, on the South Fork of American River. Here he was offered five thousand dollars to work on a saw-mill one year ; but he declined the offer, saying that he came to California to dig gold, not to chop logs.
We next find him at Rectors, on the Middle Fork of American River. He and five others put in the first fiume ever built on that river for mining purposes. They took a river claim that promised to yield abundantly, and made extensive preparations to open their mines. But winter was now at hand, and the annual rains commenced. They worked some in the rain, and waited for it to cease ; but it rained nearly constantly. The waters got so high that all mining had to stop. He was now out of employment, and began to wish that he had taken the contract on the mill.
But he would not be discouraged. He bought a rifle and hunted deer to supply the miners with meat. This paid very well, since venison brought an enormous price in the diggings. This was the upper camp on that river; and during the winter the Indians were troublesome. They killed several men, and broke up some of the camps. The miners organized for their defense, and a general frontier war was the result.
Now commenced Captain Harper's record as a war scout. He soon became known to be a skillful woodsman, and a daring leader, and the camps placed him in command of their fighting force. His band was small; but the men were picked from the chivalry of thirty states, and they knew what it was to be brave. He had the confidence of his men and he was not afraid to trust them. The Indians came down from the mountains and killed people, and fled
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back to their strong holds. It was difficult and dangerous to pursue them and hunt them out, and they went unpun- ished for sometime. But when Harper took command of the forces, the tables were soon turned. The Indians had attacked three miners, and killed one. Two were wounded and carried off as prisoners into the mountains.
Harper collected his men as soon as he heard the rumor of what had been done, and by daylight he was in hot pur- suit. The savages were making for the mountains to their dens, where they had been accustomed to hide. They, no doubt, expected to get away as they had done before; but they had a different man to deal with. Harper pressed forward with all speed, and forced them upon a flying re- treat over the long, barren ridges that skirt the plains of the American River. They found that he did not turn back for rocks and cliffs. They then shaped their course for the stupendous mountains in the distance, where the snow lay deep on the ground. They evidently calculated that he would stop at the edge of the snow. But he had seen snow before, and it was nothing more in his way than it was in theirs. Rather, it was a help, for it enabled him to follow them without spending time in searching out the trail.
They now realized what kind of man they had to deal with, and they were at their wit's ends how to dodge him or to draw him into an ambuscade. There was nothing left for them but to run for their lives, and they had little time to decide upon it. It was now late at night. The pursuit had continued all day, with only rest long enough to eat twice. The Indians, as near as could be ascertained, had not eaten or rested at all. The snow was two feet deep, but in nearly all places it would bear the weight of a man. There was no difficulty in following the savages, and
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it could be noticed that something was being gained. The fact was, they were the hardest put to it to keep away any longer. They were never before pursued by a man who hung on with such bull-dog determination. Others were accustomed to follow to the rocks, or probably to the snow, but there they turned back. But there was no turn back in the present case, and the Indians found it so to their sorrow; for late at night they left their prisoners, and sep- arated in as many ways as there were Indians, which, of course, ended the pursuit.
The two wounded men were picked up, more dead than alive. The party returned to camp, which they reached the next evening.
By this time Harper was considered the leading scout in all that country ; and he was kept constantly on duty. He roamed among the hills and was sure to discover the trail of any Indians who should go toward the mining camps. They hated him, and would have killed him on sight, if they had not been afraid to undertake it. He was a splen- did shot with a rifle, and it was risky work for the Indian who would venture within two hundred yards of him. They sometimes tried to slip in at night; but he would always prevent it.
It had been a rainy week on the American River, late in the winter of 1849, and the miners had remained for the most part in their tents, amusing themselves with cards or other games. But the rain brought no rest for Harper. He was kept on scout duty all the time. He soon had searched the country for miles around ; and, in a deep val- ley, some seven miles from the mining camps, he found the den of the Indians. He reconnoitred and found them a arge band. Toward sunset he started to camp to report,
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and as he proceeded, he fell upon a trail running in the direction of his camps. The thought struck him that the Indians meant mischief, and he determined to follow them and hunt out their designs. He had not far to go till he espied them huddling around their fire. He took another path, and reached the mining camp about nine o'clock at night.
He found everything in uproar and confusion among the miners. News had been received that the Indians had fallen upon a camp of traders, near by but on the opposite side of the river. The river was too much swollen for safe cross- ing, and the traders on one side and the miners on the other were accustomed to talk each day across the stream. On that day, when the miners went down to the river to talk across, they saw no traders, but instead they saw a band of Indians tearing down the traders' tents, and breaking open their goods. When the news was carried to camp, it threw all into excitement, and some were in favor of re- treating toward Sacramento and others wanted to fortify the camp and fight it through.
In the midst of this commotion Harper arrived, and re- ported that he had seen a camp of the enemy not far off. He was in for an immediate attack, but some opposed him. But he collected his thirty men, and armed them for a double-quick march upon the camp of the enemy.
At midnight he started with his thirty men, and picked his way through the tangled thiekets of snow-brush and manzanita that covered the hillsides. It was a dark night, and the progress was slow and tedious. The Indian camp was four miles distant, and so rough was the way that it was not reached till day-break. Harper had planned to sur- round it so that none of the savage wretches could break
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away. He sent his men by several paths to come up on different sides of the encampment ; and he went up directly in front with four men. He got near enough to count five Indians. He waited for the rest of his party to get into position ; but when he had grown somewhat impatient with waiting, he saw his party on a distant hill. "They had taken the wrong path and had lost their way. He determined to make the attack anyhow. He whispered to his men to fire when he should have raised his gun. They did so. The almost instantaneous report of five guns proclaimed that five indians were in eternity. None were left in the camp. All were killed. In the camp was found some of the plun- der taken from the traders. Harper's band then crossed the river, and attacked the other gang of savages, and utterly routed them, not even allowing them time to carry off their plunder.
These skirmishes acted as a damper upon the Indians. They found themselves unable to cope with the men of the mines. Harper soon beset them in their camp seven miles away, in the hidden valley, and they were beaten out, and chased pell-mell up and down the hills, and were given no place to rest. They were kept upon the trot day and night, and finally they broke up into small bands and fled to the mountains of the North, far beyond the limits of the mines. This ended the Indiar war of 1849, in that section.
In the spring of 1850, E. Harper's two brothers, Thad- deus and Jerome, arrived in California, and the three worked in the mines that year. They then went to Santa Clara Valley and bought a farm. Thaddeus and Jerome re- mained on the farm ; but Ezekiel returned to the mines and worked till December, 1851. He then sailed from San Francisco for New York. He stopped in Central America,
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and spent sometime hunting, and shooting alligators, liz- zards and large snakes along the banks of El Rio San Juan Del Sur. He arrived in New York, and soon after reached home. He visited his parents, and early in the spring of 1852 again set out to cross the plains for California. This time his brother Jacob accompanied him and they reached Missouri without the occurrence of anything of note. There they bought four thousand sheep, intending to drive them to California. If an ox team was slow, a band of sheep was slower. The progress was not encouraging. Five or six, or at most ten miles a day was as much as could be made. The Indians were not particularly troublesome at that time, and by the commencement of summer the sheep had been driven to the summit of the Rocky Mountains.
At that time the Asiatic cholera was raging on the plains, and Jacob Harper did not escape. What little his brother could do for him amounted to nothing, and he died on the summit of the Rocky Mountains, and was buried by his brother. His untimely death cast a shadow of gloom over all, and it was with feelings of sadness that his companions moved on, down the wild western slope, and left him to the society of storms and tempests.
The Indian knows his place of rest Deep in the forest shade.
The sheep were driven on to California, and were sold with great profit. With the proceeds of these sales, to- gether with those of the teams and wagons, and also of the farm in Santa Clara Valley, they built a block in San Fran- cisco. It was called the St. Charles. His brother remained in San Francisco, but E. Haper went to Oregon, built a store at Raineer, and shipped produce to the other members of the firm in the city.
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In the spring of 1855, their property in San Francisco was burnt. Their loss was great, and they had nothing left when they had paid their liabilities. Captain Harper returned to the mines and worked as hard as he had done in early mining days. At the end of five months he had saved $2500. The next winter, 1855-6, he sailed on the Golden Age for Panama, and thence to New York. He visited his parents in the Valley of Clover, and traveled over nearly all the Western States.
In December, 1856, he sailed from New York on the steamer George Luw. This was to him a memorable voyage, and the ship has since become memorable. It was the famous Central America that sunk the next year in the Caribbean Sea. This voyage of Harper's, in December, 1857, came near being the final one. When off Cape Hatteras there came on a terrible storm. That Cape protrudes into the stormiest part of the Atlantic, and a ship seldom passes it without being beset with hurricanes and waves. Many a stout ship has succumbed and gone down there.
As the George Law was passing that point, it was struck by a gale. The ship was old, and the storm was a dreadful one. The ship was thrown on its beam end, and lay twen- ty-four hours at the mercy of the billows. An exrtact from one of Harper's letters written after his arrival in Aspinwall will give a vivid account of the storm.
ASPINWALL, January 18, 1857.
It came without warning. I was standing on the hurricane deck when I noticed that the clouds were flying with uncommon speed and in different directions. They seemed to boil upout of the ocean and roll hither and thither, up and down the sky, until they hid everything from view, except the water, which at that time was calm as it ever is in that part of the sea. The clouds appeared to be nearly on the water; and they came nearer and
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grew blacker, till, suddenly, I found that darkness was settling down upon us, and all nature, so much of it as was visible, was changing appearance, and was assuming an ominous aspect.
So intently was I watching the transformations going on in the firmaments about me, that I had not noticed what others were do- ing. In all my travels I had never beheld such a sight, and I stood in amazement and wonder. at an utter loss to divine what it meant or what it portended. But, at this point, I was aroused from my reverie by a sailor who seized me by the arm and ordered me to go below. I now saw that everything on the ship was in commotion. The captain was standing by the generale giving orders, and the sailors were taking in sail and clenring the decks, and getting everything in readiness for the worst. The passengers were nearly all in the cabin or the hold ; but I could see that they were in the greatest consternation. I stood where I was, till the order to get below was repeated with a threat. I then started.
Just then I felt the first breath of the coming storm. A whiff of wind struck my face, then another, and another, each one getting stronger and quicker, till they became a strong breeze. There was something in that breeze that seemed to prophesy what was coming. Perhaps the subsequent storm, or probably the appearance of the elements, or the commotion on the ship. left the impression ; but I got it there, and when that breeze struck me, I felt that n calamity was at hand.
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The ship was now rocking and plunging in a dreadful manner. The waves were beating over her, and the deluge of water that was poured upon the deck nearly washed me from my feet before I could get below. Just as I did so, a tremendous wave struck the ship. I thought the whole thing was flying to splinters. The tim- bers crashed and creaked, and the vessel rolled helplessly upon her side as if she had given up the struggle and had surrendered to her fate.
The scene among the panie-stricken passengers at that awful moment was beyond the powers of language to describe. Every- thing movable rolled to the lower side of the ship, and there piled up inu confusion and ruin. I seized a post to save myself from fall- ing and being buried in the common wreck. I seized the post with
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one hand and with the other caught a lady who was falling. She said : "Are we lost ?" 1 told her, "No," and she seemed to place confidence in what I said, although I had no idea of ever seeing the sun again. I could hear the water roaring over us; and the groaning of the timbers and the crushing of the braces made it evi- dent that it would soon be over at that rate. I don't belive that I was excited or in any degree lost my presence of mind. I reasoned as clearly as I do now. Around me, above the dash and roar and thunder of the ocean, I could hear the poor terror-stricken passen- gers shriek and implore ; but I had no such feelings. I have looked upon too many scenes and exhibitions of the terrible in all its forms to be frightened at anything.
I felt surprised that the ship did not go to pieces and sink. I hung to the post, intending to do so to the last. There was no change in the situation for some time, till the ship sprung a leak.
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I held to the post no longer. I let the lady take care of herself. I saw that there was something to be done. I got on deck, and held to the rigging. The spray flew so as to nearly blind me, and also, at times, strangled me. There were only five among the pas- sengers who were able to do anything. I was one of the five. We held to the rigging with one hand and pumped water with the other. Before night the water was six feet deep in the ship, and all the pumps were working to their utmost capacity. That was a terrible night. There was no abatement in the storm. The ship rolled at the mercy of the
Wild waves and the remorseless dash of billows.
The night was intensely dark, and the clouds seemed to have come down upon the fierce, black ocean, and enshrouded all in a gloom as thick as the darkness that fell as a plague upon Egypt. It was a long night. I think it was the longest I ever knew.
I took no rest. We five worked unceasingly at the pumps. All the rest of the passengers were helpless with fatigue and sea sick- ness, so that, in addition to our work at the pumps, we had to pro- vide for those who were unable to do anything for themselves.
There is such a thing as utter exhaustion. Before morning came, we were unable to do anything scarcely; for, the work, and hun-
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ger, had pulled us down. Still we kept at the pumps and did the best we could. We, at last, began to hope that there was some chance of escape. This may have aided us to struggle on ; but, at best, it was little we could do. When morning broke, it found our ship in a deplorable plight. But the storm soon began to abate, and at length we considered ourselves out of immediate danger. When all became calm enough to permit the captain to take the latitude and longitude he found the ship only twenty-four miles from where it had been at the commencement of the storm. This seems proof to my mind that the wind blew from various directions. The water was six feet deep in the ship when we got into this har- bor. It has been a miraculous escape.
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