USA > West Virginia > Tucker County > History of Tucker County, West Virginia, from the earliest explorations and settlements to the present time; > Part 21
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of import only to those who enjoyed it and took in the many strange sights that a great city contained.
They secured passage on a fine steamer for Panama, and with everything propitious they swept from the harbor out upon the stormy Atlantic. The novelty of the new life, the change of scenery, the sea-sickness and the absence of everything terrestrial, kept the passengers from growing melancholy with the monotony of the surroundings. In fair weather, they stood on deck; but when it was stormy, they remained in the cabins, or down below. While pass- ing the mouth of the Gulf of California, an incident took place, which has never been forgotten by those interested. They were all below ; for, in passing the Gulf, Cape San Lueas as the point is called, the wind blows a gale toward the land, and passes up the gulf to the hot region about the mouth of the Colorado River. John Minear was below with the rest ; and, desiring to go on deck, and not seeing his own hat at hand, he picked up . Bonnifield's hat, and proceeded to the deck. The moment he protruded his head above the timbers of the ship, the wind swept away his hiat like a cannon ball, and it passed out to sea, and its fate is unknown to this day. It was a small affair, but it cast a gloom over both Minear and Bonnifield, the former because he had lost it, and the latter because it was lost. Bonni- field never forgot that hat ; and he often wonders whether it was eaten by a shark, or whether, like Jonah, it was swal- lowed by a whale, or whether it became water-logged and sank into the fathomless caverns of the sea, or whether the winds and waves lashed and dashed it until it was beaten to pieces, and the dissevered fragments were scattered and strewn upon the rocky coasts of islands, continents, penin- sulas, isthmuses and capes. In all probability its fate will
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never be known ; but it has never been forgotten by Bonni- field who had to go into port and step upon the Golden Shore bare-headed.
When they reached San Francisco, Minear went to his sister, Mrs. Stemple's. As soon as he had rested a little, he began looking about for a way to make his fortune. He had nothing in particular laid out to do and, in consequence, commenced looking about over the country for an opening. He rather preferred farming, and had no difficulty in find- ing a piece of land which suited him. It was about eighty miles northward from San Francisco, in the heart of a country of which he thus speaks in one of his letters :
The whole country is as one flower garden, as far as can be seen. The low, rolling hills and the level plains between are so thickly covered with bloom of every imaginable color and dye, that the brightness dazzles the eye, and one must turn away before he can fully realize how splendid and magnificent the scenery really is. So rich in perfume are the flowers that if one walks through them his clothes will retain the odor for hours thereafter, and even for days !
He was only looking at the country, and he next visited some of the watering places and fashionable resorts of Cal- ifornia. But he saw nothing there worth taking hold of from which to make money. He then went into the mount- ains, and explored some of the timbered regions, of which he thus speaks :
Trees ten and fifteen feet across the stump are nothing unusual, and are so often seen that they attract no attention. They are usually from one hundred and fifty to three hundred feet high ; and sometimes are nearly two hundred feet to the limbs.
Thus, by moving about from place to place, but doing very little work, he spent the year, and came out of it with less money than he had at the beginning.
He was now pretty well satisfied that he had seen all of
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California that it was to his interest to see, and he began to contemplate joining his brother Pool in Oregon. Accord- ingly, he took steamer for Portland, and arrived there in due time. He found the land along the Columbia mostly new country, partly timbered and partly not. Business seemed more brisk than it had been in California. At least, it was more to his liking. He selected the lumber as the best business at that particular time, and accordingly devoted himself to the pursuit of it. Cedar was from sixty to eighty dollars per thousand feet, square measure, and at this he thought himself able soon to make a fortune and return home rich. The trees were eight or ten feet in diam- ter, and were usually cut that high from the ground, by building a scaffold, or adjusting a board in a notch cut into the tree. At this work he remained two years; but, not getting rich as rapidly as he thought he ought to, he quit it, passed on a steamer two hundred miles up the Columbia and landed in Washington Territory, where he again en- gaged in the lumber trade, but this time in cord-wood.
Meantime, in 1860 and 1861, the war came on in the east, and Tucker County was between two fires. The Confeder- ates held the mountains south of the county, and along the railroad north of the county were large numbers of Union troops. Raids were frequent into Tucker, and many per- sons felt unsafe. Among those were Enoch Minear and A. C. Minear. They were strong supporters of the Union cause, and they imagined that they were in danger. They thought it best, or at least, well enough, to remove a little from the seat of war. Accordingly, they went to California.
Adam C. Minear was born at St. George, October 6, 1845. St. George was at that time called Westernford. A. C. was the youngest of a family of ten ; and, being young was no
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doubt all that prevented his going when his brothers went. He was young, only seventeen ; but he felt able to meet the world and battle it for all it was worth, and risk his fortune on the issue.
He took passage from New York to the Isthmus of Pan- ama on a splendid ocean steamer. He seemed to enjoy his time, and found something each day to interest him ; for, as he said in one of his letters :
The cry of "whale" from some lunatic would seldom fail to bring on deck every passenger able to leave his state room ; and the silly dunces would stand with eyes strained and mouths open in their heroic efforts to discern the whale's stupendous carcass heave above the waters. Of course, nine times out of ten, or nineteen times out of twenty, there was no whale to be seen. In fact, I never got to see one at all. But it seemed that the passengers could learn nothing by experience. They were always ready to rush upon deck, and be made the fools of some bigger fool. Some of the aristocracy, who have more imagination than brains, looked through their long spy-glasses, any declared that they could see whales by the thousand ; but I noticed that they could see just as many whales with their glasses pointed toward the sky as when in any other quarter.
* * * *
There were on the ship, as I suppose there are on all ships, per- sons who had often before been over the same route, and whose knowledge of it enabled them to point out something of interest or some historical locality almost every hour of the day. If a cape came in view, they knew something about it, by whom it was dis- covered, or who was buried there ; or they could relate some geo- graphical fact connected with it.
Young Minear was getting his eyes opened to the world, and the range of his knowledge was growing wider. He was a good scholar for his age and chance. His education had been acquired in the old school-house, of the school of 1856, that stood on the bank of the mill race, which was
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dug by John Minear in 1776. A. C. had gotten to be a good scholar, and, although young, he was prepared to travel. The value of travel to him, and the interest which he took in seeing that of which he had only read before, and had known only as it existed in school geographies, may be judged from the following extract from one of his letters :
When I passed those islands, and saw the capes and promonto- ries rise above the sea, my mind went back to the school room, and I remembered and pitied the dumb boys who used to stand sneak- ing before the teacher, because they could not tell exactly whether Cuba was at Babylon or in Cape Hatteras. The poor scoundrels could not tell ; for, I have been there, and know by experience how hard it is to remember things that are only things. I thought that I pretty well understood the general character of land and water; but I find that I am dumber than most people take me to be. Is- lands are larger, and oceans bigger, and storms stronger and mountains rougher than one can get any idea of by reading books. In our debating 'Rinkle' we used to discuss which woukl teach a man the more, reading or traveling. Some of us were always ready to express opinions, and argne on one side or the other; but none of us had ever traveled any, and had no means of knowing what there is in the world. For, if we were to read half the time for ten years, we could not learn what I have learned in coming from New York down here .*
A youth who thus traveled with his eyes open, and who found leisure to see every island, inspect every cape and promontory, and to despise the silly people, who, in the ex- citement of the moment, could turn their spy-glasses sky- ward and see whales, such a youth was getting benefit from his traveling. He has left recorded in letters and in his di- ary a journal of his proceedings southward over the Atlan- tic, through the West Indias, and across the Caribbean Sea.
* Panama.
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When he got to Aspinwall he soon had made up his mind concerning it, as we can see from his journal :
An hour's stroll through the streets of this ancient town is enough to convince the average emigrant that it is not the safest place on the globe, although one has at his command all the modern means of self defense. It looks to me like the den of rob - bers and the habitation of wickedness in every shape. The people seem to be of different languages ; but as far as that is concerned, it is all Dutch to me. They must make their living by stealing or robbing ; for they don't appear to be working a bit. They loaf around the corners of the roads, and wait for people to come along to be robbed. At least it looks so to me. I can't see how Pool# stood it on this Isthmus two or three months, while, if I have to stay here that many hours it is more than I have bargained for.
When he had crossed the Isthmus, which was done on the cars and was a ride of forty miles, he was in Panama, of which place his opinion was soon made up and expressed :
A person in search of civilization need not stop here very long. He will soon find out that he is "barking up the wrong stump," for it is worse here than at Aspinwall, and I am getting tired of the surroundings. If a ship don't soon come to take me to San Francisco, I will be tempted to make my way on foot through Mexico. The weather is warm here. although so late in the fall.
A ship did soon come from San Francisco to take the pas- sengers there, and no time was lost in getting aboard. The passage northward was the same old story of a sea voyage. Some things were getting their newness worn away. The credulous travelers failed to see such multitudes of whales, and there was less excitement when a report of any kind actually did get started. In passing Cape San Lucas, as is always the case, there was a strong wind, and the sea became boisterous. Many became sea sick, but the Cape was passed and all became quiet again. The next thing of note was
" A. P. Minear, brother to A. C. Minear.
1
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the arrival at San Francisco. From a letter of A. C. Minear's the following is taken :
At last the Golden Gate appeared. A sigh of relief went up from every passenger on board. I could not, in my own gladness, re- frain from thinking how many thousands of sea sick mortals have hailed with joy this same harbor, this same Golden Gate ; and how many have looked back over the long way of waters, the ocean of storms and the domain of desert seas, and then cast their eyes for- ward to the solid shore, where rest would be found at last, and where sea sickness would not be dreaded, The scenery was beau- tiful, although we were only approaching the shore. Except the solitary peaks of a mountain here and there along the coast to the southward, this was my first sight of California. I was eager to see it, and leaned against the gunwales to steady myself that I might the better scan the shore.
As we drew nearer, I noticed that the mountains were not as heavily timbered as they are in [West] Virginia.
I have never read much of the past of California, and less still of this harbor. I know only a little of what has taken place here. But I felt an interest in the things about me ; for I felt that it was romantic ground, and that it was intermixed with strange stories.
*
As soon as I got on shore, and had taken a hasty survey of San Francisco, I began to feel more at home. But I find that it is hard to get acquainted with San Francisco. The people are of every nation and of every tongue.
As soon as A. C. Minear had looked for a few days about the country, and had visited his relatives in California, he set out for Oregon, where his two brothers, Pool and John, then were.
Solomon Minear had been killed by a horse after his arri- val in California. George Minear went to that State, but returned to Iowa. William lived and still lives in Oakland, California. Miss Catharine Minear, a daughter of Enoch Minear, and a sister of A. C., had gone to California with
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her father, and had married C. W. Moore, of Idaho, and still resides in Boise City, in that Territory.
A. C. Minear passed through Oregon and Washington Territory, stopping occasionally on the way, and early in 1864 reached Silver City, Owyhee County, Idaho. The mines had only recently been discovered, and the first who had attempted to work them had been driven out with loss by the Indians.
Meanwhile, John Minear had grown tired of the lumber business, and had gone two hundred miles up the Columbia, into Washington Territory, where he took a contract to fur- nish two thousand cords of wood at ten dollars a cord. He strung out seven yoke of cattle to a wagon and hauled seven cords of wood at a load. He made money at this ; and just as he was finishing his contract, came the rumors of the mines in Idaho, to which A. C. Minear and A. P. Minear, his brothers, were already on the way.
Teams with which to haul goods to the mines were in great demand. John Minear put one hundred head of cat- tle on the road, hitched them to ponderous wagons loaded, with freight, and started for Idaho, five hundred miles away. Merchants paid fifty cents a pound for hauling their goods into the country, and at these figures, something ought to be made by a man with fifty yoke of cattle: He had with him a quartz mill, owned by his brother, A. P. Minear, and was taking it to Idaho, at a cost of sixty thousand dollars. . In September, 1864, with his ox-teams, John Minear reached Silver City.
After the flood of 1862 swept away A. P. Minear's fortune at Rainier, he commenced looking about for something else to do. He took seven yoke of oxen and started up the river. He had an idea of engaging in the cord-wood busi-
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ness ; but it was not his definite purpose to do so. He told his wife that he would be gone six months, and punctu- ally to the very day he returned. He had engaged in haul- ing cord-wood for the Oregon S. N. Co., and had cleared ten thousand dollars. With this he bought several large teams of oxen and heavy wagons. When his contract was done, he returned home; but he left another contract for one thousand cords unfinished. In 1863 he returned to complete the contract. The steamboats got into a war with each other, and the overseer of the wood works asked Minear if he would not as lief wait till the next year before finishing the contract.
This was just what Minear wanted. He had heard rumors of the new gold findings in Idaho, and he was de- sirous of visiting the country and seeing it for himself. He thought it well that he should get into some other business. Accordingly, he agreed to postpone the completion of his contract till the next year, and returned to Portland with twelve large ox-teams. He loaded his wagons with a large supply of provisions for the men, and to sell when they should reach Idaho. It was a long procession, and may have looked like the moving of an army of Egyptian chariots.
On November 3, 1863, in the midst of a terrific snow- storm, the teams arrived in Placerville, Idaho. The country was wild and almost uninhabited, and there was scarcely any feed for cattle to be had at all. What hay the Minears could get they paid two hundred and fifty dollars a ton for. The cattle were so crazy and fierce with hunger that it was dangerous to go near them. From a letter of A. P. Minear's the following is taken :
On Friday I stored my goods in a large log house in the edge of town. Saturday I got my cattle out to a place where it was pos-
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sible for them to get some little to eat. Sunday it began to be noised about the camps that there was a man in the edge of town who had goods to sell. They crowded into my house till they filled full every part not occupied by goods. They said that it was the custom to buy one Sunday and pay the next. They were all strangers to me ; but I told them if such was the custom, all right. That day I sold them on credit four thousand dollars worth of goods, and did not know a man. Thus it went till the next Sun- day, when they all paid, except forty-six dollars. I sold all iny goods in this 'manner, and cleared nineteen thousand dollars on them.
In the spring of 1864 he returned to Oregon, finished his wood contract, and was prepared to make another expedi- tion to Idaho. He bought a quartz mill, loaded it on his wagons, was joined by J. W. Minear's wagon train, and they departed for the Idaho mines. They had their wagons loaded with tools, provisions, and everything that it was supposed they would need.
He had no particular place designated to which to go, and when his teams were fairly on the road, he left them and went on ahead to select a site for the mill. He selected Silver City, Owyhee County, Idaho, as the best location ; and then returned, met his teams, and arrived with them in Silver City in July. He estimated that he was then worth thirty-five thousand dollars. He put from forty to fifty men to work erecting the mill, and on the 14th of September that year, 1864, he turned out the first silver brick of Idaho. By the next spring he "was forty thousand in debt; or that much worse off than nothing."
The following concerning this quartz mill is taken from it letter written by John W, Minear. The three brothers, A. P., J. W. and A. C. Minear were all in Silver City at that time :
* From a letter of A. P. Minear's.
.
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Then commenced the exciting times of this district. The men were all anxious to see the mill start and to get their ore worked. They would take their ore to the mill to get it crushed, just as we used to take our corn when I was a boy. Everybody was rich in mines, although not a dollar in pocket. The men often took from the mines from sixty to one hundred dollars worth of silver a day.
When A. P. Minear left Rainier in 1863, his wife com- menced closing out the business, and sometime that sum- mer she joined him where he was delivering the cord-wood, and where he had built her a neat little cottage furnished nicely.
When her husband went into business in Idaho, she sold out again, bought a fine span of horses and a light wagon, and with her little traps, and three children in it, set out to join him. It was five hundred miles, and the road lay through a wild country, filled by bands of hostile Indians. She camped out at night, and finally reached her husband in safety.
In the winter of 1864-5 provisions became scarce, as might be expected in a country untilled, and so far from civilization, and where the great mass of the people had gone there with nothing but a shovel and pick. Nearly ev- ery one of the two or three thousand people then in camp got short of things to eat. Many were glad to get beans cooked " straight," as it was called, that is, without salt or seasoning. The following is from an account given by Mrs. Catherine Moore, a sister of the Minears, and then in Idaho :
The snow buried our house so that I did not see daylight for three weeks, except when the snow was shoveled from the windows. We had flour ; but many of the people had not, and some had only beans, and some, for all I know, may not have had that much. Many lived on beans cooked in water, without salt, and they were glad to get that. In one camp, a few miles from here, the men had been eating this kind of provisions for several weeks, and grew so
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tired of it that they said that they would hunt something else. So they left their camp, which was buried in the snow, and they could get out only by climbing up through the roof, and out at the top. However, they got out, and wandered off over the snow to hunt some place where flour was kept. But it was a fruitless search, and after strolling about for two or three days, getting lost and hungry and cold and discouraged, they came back to their camp, and were entirely willing to eat beans.
Meanwhile, in the camp where the Minears were, rations were running fearfully short. From a letter of A. P. Mi- near's we learn something of the situation and of the coun- try at that season of the year :
There was flour at the foot of the mountains, about twenty miles distant ; but it was worth almost a man's life to make the trip at that time, through the drifting snow and terrific wind storms. However, I offered to go, and I got twenty-four volunteers. It was only twenty miles to the store where the flour was kept; and we thought that we could make it out in one day. But we learned our mistake. When night came on, we got into the edge of the timber, and by the merest accident found a little hut where six men were getting out boards.
The hut was so small that the thirty-one of us could barely squeeze inside of it. There was no room to lie down or to sit down; so we had to stand up. There we stood, tired as we were, all night; while outside the snow flew and the wind whistled and roared over the little cabin. The next morning twenty-five of us started for the store at the foot of the mountain. We walked hard all day through the ice and snow drifts, and about dark reached the store, having made twenty miles in two days.
When they reached the store, the owners refused to sell the flour, although Minear offered them the money. They would not even set a price on it. It was their purpose, no doubt, to hold on to it until the miners were reduced by hunger, and would give an enormous sum for it. Minear and his men offered them everything that was fair and right, but were flatly refused the flour. It was a case of necessity
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with them, and they would have it. The letter goes on :
Finally I told them and my men that we would have to take it. In less than half a minute every man had shouldered a sack and was upon the road home. We went back half mile or so, and stop- ped in a willow swamp. By hard work we kept our fire burning all night. We opened one sack of flour, dipped up water with our hands from a cow track in the swampy ground, and by that means we mixed up a little flour and water. We roasted the dough by wrapping it around a stick and holding it to the fire. This we kept up till morning, when we started, and that night reached the little cabin in the woods. It was nine or ten o'clock before all got in.
I was so tired I could not stand up in that cabin all night ; so I went out in a snow-pit, drew my coat over my head, and lay down. I was soon nicely covered with drifting snow, and slept soundly. The next morning it was very cold ; the snow was flying thick and fast, and the wind was blowing like fury. Many times we could not see twenty feet in any direction for the drifting snow ..
Before leaving the hut, I had each man to split up some boards into small sticks, like your finger, and each man took a bundle of them. The plan was to stick one in the snow every few feet, so that, should we get lost, we could trace our way back to the cabin. This was a well-timed expedient ; for we had not been out of the timber half an hour until we were all lost in the storm. It was no use trying to go forward ; so the only thing that was left was for us to remain where we were or to trace our way back to the cabin. We decided to do the latter. It was no easy undertaking. The snow had covered some of the stakes which we had stuck in the snow, and some had been blown away by the wind. We had to kick around until we found them, and then leave a man at the last until the next was found. By this means we got back to the hut in the timber, where we took another stand for the night.
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