|
HISTORY
El
Dorado County, California.
CHAPTER
XXIII.
REMINISCENSES
AND ANECDOTES.
The discovery of gold and the consequent rush of people
to Coloma deprived J. W. Marshall, the discoverer of gold, of his right to
land, etc., obtained under the Mexican rule, before the treaty was made
that gave California to the United States ; and it would be no more than
right and just that he should receive something to indemnify him for those
rights independent of some reward due him for the discovery of gold.
The first idea of recognizing the obligation of the
State to give some aid to Marshall, was brought up in the State
Legislature, in session of 1860 to 1861. Mr. Laspeyres of San Joaquin
county introduced a bill to the effect that steps should be taken by the
state to aid the discoverer of gold in California ; this bill, however,
was killed by amendments.
Again, in the Spring of 1870, the following call made
the circuit of the press : "J. W. Marshall, the discoverer of gold in
California is living at a place called Kelsey, El Dorado county, in this
State. He is old and poor, and so feeble that he is compelled to work for
his board and clothes, being unable to earn more." But meagerly was
this call responded, and of all the assistance that came up to help the
poor old man, nothing was done on the side of the State.
The San Francisco Pioneers, in 1873, petitioned the
State Legislature for a pension for Captain Sutter, with the result that
$250 per month, as a pension, were paid to the latter out of the State
Treasury ; while Marshall, petitioning at the same time in his own behalf,
running out of money became pennyless, and the Pioneer Society of
Sacramento forwarded him one hundred dollars.
Subsequently, when W. H. Brown became a member of the
State Senate from El Dorado county, a bill for the aid of Marshall was
introduced by him in the Senate, in session 1877 to 1878, (Senate Bill No.
413.) This bill allowed James W. Marshall the sum of one hundred dollars
per month for a period of two years, provided, however, that this
appropriation should cease in case of Mr. Marshall's death, before the
expiration of the two years.
These two years have expired a long time, but other
steps for his relief have not been made since, as far as we know, and
Marshall, when we saw him last, was still walking straight and upright,
apparently promising to outlive many a younger man.
In referring to the life-pension allowance made by
Congress, in session of 1872 to 1873, to Thompson for carrying the mail on
foot from Placerville over the Sierra Nevada to Genoa and Carson, before
the road had been opened as a stage road, and the mail was carried by
stage, to gratify the good services of an undaunted and indefatigable
servant, Thompson--better known as Snow-Shoe-Thompson1
-- was repeatedly mentioned as the pioneer in the business for which the
allowance was proposed at that time. While we do not wish to depreciate
the services and merits due to Thompson, it is due to truth and justice
also to state, that one of the earliest settlers of El Dorado county,
Jack. C. Johnson, of Johnson's ranch, preceded Thompson as a
trans-mountain mail carrier ; he was the man that opened up, market out,
and traversed the route called after him, "Johnson's Cut-off,"
which subsequently was traveled by Thompson, and he crossed the mountain
range through the depression laid down on all the maps as "Johnson's
Pass." By this very rout, and through this pass Johnson has carried
the mail from the present site of Genoa to Placerville in twenty-six and
one half hours previous to Thompson's first trip over the same route. It
is not more than right that the government appreciated Thompson's services
who intrepid and faithfully did his difficult and dangerous duty,
unconcerned of season and weather, but let the truth of history be
vindicated. Jack Johnson claims the name as the Nestor and pioneer of
trans-mountain mail carrying on foot by the Placerville route.
----------------
It was in the period of the legislatory session of 1860,
when the Mall of Legislature was made then scene of a bloody tragedy, and
though the final act of this tragedy took place at Sacramento and
consequently outside the line of El Dorado county, concerning the cause of
the affair and the principals who set it in scene, however, it belonged to
El Dorado and therefore we have to deal with it as an* home affair. The
following is taken from the Sacramento Standard of April 12th,
1860:
"A serious and perhaps fatal affray took place
yesterday at twenty minutes before one o'clock, in the room of the
Sergeant-at-Arms of the Assembly, between Dr. Stone and John C.
Bell, both
members of the Assembly from El Dorado county, in which the latter
received five knife wounds in different parts of the body, which are very
dangerous and may prove fatal. The wounded man was taken to a rear room in
the Occidental salon, opposite the Capitol, where he was attended by Drs. Titus,
Price, Morton and Proctor. He was subsequently removed to the
boarding house of Mrs. Mara, on I street, where every attention was paid
to him. Dr. Stone gave himself up to the custody of officer McClory. The
Assembly immediately after the arrival of the news, took a recess but
re-assembled in half an hour and adjourned till 10 o'clock next day."
A number of witnesses were summoned and the case was
examined before Justice Barr at 2 o'clock, on April 12th, District
Attorney Cole appeared for the prosecution, and Messrs. Coffroth and
Stewart for the defense, Attorney-General Williams also sat by the side of
defendants counsel and participated in the examination of the witnesses.
After some lengthy talk of postponement it was concluded to go on with the
case and the following witnesses were called: Dr. Morton, Judge Wilkins
(member of the Assembly from Sonoma), Dr. Proctor, Wm. B. Carr, Hon. Phil.
Moore, Harvey Lee, Capt. McClory, L. Robie, A. C.
Lawrence (member of the
Assembly from Trinity county), Supervisor Green, Frank Stewart, Humphrey
Griffith, J. S. Stocker, and S. B.
Wallace. The facts and particulars of
the affray as gathered from the sworn testimony of the witnesses before
the Justice's Court gave clear evidence. In the following lines we give
the testimony of Judge Wilkins, which embraces about the whole of the
evidence: "Was present at the time of the affray ; at my request Mr.
Bell had gone into the Sergeant-at-Arms room, and we were conversing when
Mr. Bell turned to Dr. Stone and said: "Doctor, I am going to defeat
your measure." The measure in question was about the formation of the
new county. Stone asked what were his reasons, the conversation continued
and finally turned upon personal matters and the politics of El Dorado
county. Bell charged Stone with having defeated certain members of the
party of the county ticket ; Stone denied it, Bell repeated his charges
whereupon the Doctor said : "If you say so you are a liar." I
only heard the lie given once, then both put themselves in an attitude of
defense ; I saw Bell put his hand in his pocket, there was some talk of a
knife but I saw none, I said "Gentlemen this is no place to settle a
difficulty." Bell raised his hand to strike and at that instant there
was a pistol shot by Stone ; Bell then followed Stone and clinched and
struck him ; they were not more than two feet apart when the pistol was
fired. After the pistol had been fired the fight was continued, Bell was
striking fiercely at Stone and seemed to have the best of him, and then I
saw the pistol for the second time, I think it was a small pocket-pistol.
There were several persons in the room at the time. I supposed that Bell
was going to draw a weapon from the position in which he stood with his
hand in his pocket."
After the examination of the witnesses the Court decided
that it was a case of self defense and the attack of Dr. Stone
justifiable, as it was evident that Bell had commenced the affray. Dr.
Stone was bound over to appear before the higher Court with $5000 bail,
which was given by Dr. Pearis and Frank Hereford.
Death
of Hon. John C. Bell
On Sunday morning April 15th, 1860, Hon. John C. Bell
died in Sacramento from the effect of the wounds inflicted upon him by Dr.
W. H. Stone, in the room of the Sergeant-at-Arms. The intelligence of his
death threw a gloom over Placerville, and saddened the hearts of his
numerous friends in El Dorado Co. He was burried* in Sacramento on
Tuesday, and was followed to the grave by the State officers, both
branches of the Legislature, and the Odd Fellows. The procession was large
and imposing, and the funeral ceremonies solemn and impressive in an
eminent degree. During the day the flags were displayed at half-staff from
public buildings and the several engine houses, and the bells were tolled.
Gen. James W. Denver, C. F. Rugg, H. C.
Sweetser, J. R. Boyce, A. D. Richtmire, Jacob
Welty, and Samuel Nixon acted as pall-bearers.
The Assembly Chamber was draped in mourning, as were also
the seat and desk of Mr. Bell. Some generous hand also strewed his desk
with white flowers.--Appropriate resolutions were offered in the House by
Mr. Conness. Eloquent and feeling eulogies were delivered in the Senate
and House on the deceased,--in the Senate by Col. Dickinson, and in the
House by Messrs. Conness, Wilkins, Welty and Lamar, at the conclusion of
which both Houses adjourned in respect to his memory.
A resolution was adopted by the House appropriating one
thousand dollars out of the Contingent Fund for the purpose of defraying
the expense of his funeral and erecting a suitable monument to mark his
final resting place ; and a committee of three-- Messrs. Conness, Welty
and Beach--was appointed by the Speaker to carry out the object of the
resolution.
Mr. Bell was a native of Cincinnati, Ohio; emigrated to
this State in 1852, settled in this county, and at the time of his death
was aged about 30 years. He had no relatives in this State. He was a
quiet, unobtrusive gentleman, possessing many attractive qualities, a kind
heart, a generous disposition and firmness and integrity of character of
the highest order.
The
Senator.
The dismantling of the river steamboat of the golden
era, known by every old timer in California who all repeatedly made use of
her services to go down to 'Frisco," will be justification enough to
give a short sketch of her strange and romantic history. A local item in
one of the San Francisco dailies but recently announced that the old
pioneer steamer Senator, belonging to the Pacific Coast Steamship
company, was to be dismantled for a coal barge and her machinery removed.
Thus ended the career of what we believe to have been the most profitable
vessel ever build since the invention of the steam engine. Considering
that she has outlasted the Golden Age, Golden Gate, Sonora, St. Louis,
John L. Stephens, Sierra Nevada, Uncle Sam, Brother Jonathan, Northerner,
Yankee Blade, Pacific, S. S. Lewis, Independence, North Star, Nebraska,
Nevada Great Republic, Oriflamme, Ajax, Colorado, Constitution, Golden
City, America, Japan, Alaska, Arizona and Montana, Sacramento
and others, the longevity and excellence of this ship borders somewhat on
the marvelous. After thirty-four years of more constant service than any
other vessel has ever seen, she has not been broken up entirely but
converted into a coal barge still to serve some nautical purpose.
The history of this Methusela of American steamships in
short is as follows: She was built in 1848, at New York, by W. H. Brown,
to run between Bangor, Maine, and Boston, but before she was quite
finished, the California gold fever broke out and she was dispatched for
the Pacific coast, arriving in September 1849. She left New York with coal
in her hold and all her main deck staterooms, the later being first
consumed. Arriving at Rio De Janeiro, she took coal, water and supplies,
then sailed for Valparaiso and thence to Panama, where she took on 520
passengers at $300 in the cabin and $200 in the steerage. After arriving
at San Francisco, her deep water bulwarks were cut away, her masts taken
out and she was speedily transformed into a river steamer. She began to
make tri-weekly trips to Sacramento, at $35 cabin passage, $15 deck
passage, $5 for a stateroom and $3 for a single berth extra. Freight was
$20 per ton. Dinner, which was the only meal served on board, was $2 per
head. Her receipts for the round trip would often amount to $20,650 of
which $10,000 would be for cabin passage, $4,400 for deck passage, $650
for staterooms and berths, $1,600 for meals and $4,000 for freight. This
lasted for about four months, before any other boat of good business
capacity came on the line, the New World being the next one.
To recollect the names of her officers : Captain
Lafayette Maynard, U. S. N.; John Van Pelt was mate and also acted as
pilot; Dennis Crowley, second mate; J. L. Sheppard, engineer; Marshall
Hubbard, clerk, and James Duffy, steward. After a lapse of six months
Captain Maynard went ashore to act as agent of the boat and John Van Pelt
was promoted captain. When the New World came out, Marshall
Hubbard, of Massachusetts, and Francis Cunningham bought an interest in
her and she ran opposite days with the Senator, under command of Captain
Edgar Wakeman, whose license was afterwards revoked by the local
inspectors for a collision with the Eclipse. He was succeeded by
Captain Samuel Seymour, who died in 1859. The New World had been
build in New York expressly to run on the Sacramento river, and was the
first steamer ever launched with steam up, in the Atlantic waters. But
when the passenger trade on the Sacramento river changed into the freight
trade, requiring larger boats, she was sold, in 1864; she could not carry
over seventy tons, while the Senator often had four hundred tons aboard.
There were nearly four months in which the Senator's gross receipts
were upwards of $50,000 per week, but she drew too much water for a
low-water boat, and from September to January she was too deep for the
river.
Early in 1854, a great combination was formed by which
seven lines of boats were consolidated into the California Steam
Navigation company. After the consolidation the Senator was laid up
at Washington, across the river from Sacramento, from July, 1854, until
the following May, when she was taken down to San Francisco to be placed
upon a southern route. On her way down she met with some accident ; Capt.
Seymour was bringing her down without a pilot and concluded to run the
"old river" instead of steamboat slough, as was usual. But just
coming out of the old river at the foot of Obispo island, he struck her
rudder against a snag and tore it out. Two little schooners were lying
near there, windbound, and for the sake of getting his boat to San
Francisco Capt. Seymour agreed with the captains of the little crafts to
tow them down for nothing for the sake of getting his boat steared*. The Senator
was then lashed between them and reached port in safety.
Speaking of the Senator reminds us of a pleasant
story first related by Judge P. W. Keyser in his centennial address,
delivered at Nicolaus, Sutter county, July 4th, 1876, which illustrates
the modus operandi of Senator Green, one of the first California
State Legislature.
Bear creek or river, as it is sometimes called, was in
the early days a small but pretty stream, quietly and lazily wandering
through the foothills and down to the plains where it run* between well
defined and well wooded banks, its calm flow disturbed and imbeded* by
trees and underbrush growing thickly in the midst of its clear waters, to
Feather river, with which it formed a junction a mile or two above
Nicolaus. Of course it was unnavigable, except to light row-boats, and not
to them in low water, while the large river steamers, of which the largest
and finest at that time was named the Senator, could even at the highest
water scarcely approach the mouth. Green, however, in describing, during
the discussion of the county-seat question of Butte county, the advantages
of his town of Oro, spoke of the splendid river on which it was situated,
the waters of which, he asserted, when at the lowest stage of a long, dry
summer, could be easily navigated. A brother Senator, who knew Green's
weakness for hyperbole, interrupted by asking him if he meant to say that
the river streamers could navigate Bear river at its lowest stage of
water. "I mean to say," replied Green, "that the Senator
can navigate it at any time of the year." After adjournment some one
accused him of having, to put it mildly, stretched the truth in saying
that a steamer like the Senator could navigate Bear river. "I never
said," answered Green, "that the steamer Senator could, I
said the Senator could, but I meant the Senator who asked the impertinent
question."
The
Uniontown Bell.
Long years ago there was a denomination of Baptists in
Uniontown, who build themselves a fine church. Some time after the
building was erected, some of the enterprising members went around among
the citizens with a subscription paper and raised money to buy a large,
fine-toned bell, to put in the church steeple, and for a few years it rang
out its merry chimes at the usual occasions. In course of time, Uniontown,
like all other mining communities of California, went down and soon the
little church organization was entirely broken up in consequence of its
members moving away, and for several years there had been no service held
in the church. The doors had separated from their hinges, and the windows
broken in, and the bell, from which the rope long since rotted, hung still
in unbroken silence. The building nearly became the appearance of an old
ruin, fit for the inhabitation of owls and bats. Just then, in 1871, it
happened that a Baptist minister from Sierra county, who was formerly a
pastor of this church, came to Uniontown, and without consulting the
trustees of the church ascended into the belfry of the old building and
took therefrom the bell, and brought it up to Coloma with the intention of
expressing it to Sierra county the next day. The citizens hearing of the
proceeding denounced it an outrage on the community, some six or eight of
them followed the parson to Coloma, and went to a Justice of the Peach,
who advised them to get counsel. The sought legal advice, but the minister
in anticipation of this had retained all the lawyers in town. Then just in
time a young spring of the legal profession appeared on the stage of
action. His services were immediately engaged, he wrote out his papers,
handed them to a constable and in less than fifteen minutes the bell was
arrested and confined in jail. The minister was completely non-plussed*,
and [before?] the law could get a hold on him, he disappeared in the night
and did not show himself in Coloma or Uniontown again, but the bell
remained in jail probably awaiting its trial.
-------------------
An amusing incident ocurred* at Georgetown in the early
days of the Republican party. At the presidential election of 1856, when
Fremont and the wooly horse were in the field, an old Democrat, made such
when he first came from the old sod, who believed he had been wrong,
turned Republican and voted for Fremont and the wooly horse. He took many
a drop of the crathur with his new friends until his head and heels
rebelled. About dark he started for his cabin, but the road had become
tangled and serpentine, and he found the bottom of a deep shaft that did
not belong to him. He shouted and bellowed, wept and prayed for help, but
no help came. All night and most of the next day he prayed. Some miners
roaming over the hills hearing an unusual noise, searched and at last they
discovered that the sound issued from a shaft. They carefully approached,
hearing the low moans of a person in distress and praying for help. Words
came in plaintive tones, intermingled with sobs, and then these words:
"O God, if you will help me out of this pit I will never in all my
life vote the Republican ticket again, be dad." The poor fellow was
almost demented, being without food, cold, and death staring him in the
face, believing it was a punishment for voting for the wooly horse. A rope
was procured and the poor fellow restored to the sunlight. He kept his
word, and did not drink any more.
____________
A short time go a Chinese pauper died in an old cabin on
the outskirts of town (Placerville)> On notification of his death at
the Sheriff's office an officer called upon the head Chinamen and
requested them to see to the interment of their compatriot. They responded
that the Chinaman had paid taxes to the Court House, and the Court House
must bury him, thereupon was held a council of war at the Sheriff's
office, resulting in a bit of strategy. The head Chinamen were
informed that it was all right, the Court House would give the corpse the
honor of incremation*--in vulgate, would burn the body up. The ruse was
successful ; this would interfere with the religious duty of transporting
the bones to the consecrated soil of China. The head men yielded
gracefully ; rather than have the body burnt they gave it Celestial
burial, and lost the pains to which they had gone in removing the poor
fellow to the old cabin to die and be buried by the Court House.
1. The snow shoes which Thompson used
to make his dangerous trips in the winter, are still preserved at the
Ormsby House, Carson City, Nevada. (back)
|
