San Andreas independent., 1857-01-10
A "Reminiscences.


days, spent by the miners of this section, DUR
ing lS48-9. Amidst the general gloom of
that famous winter it was the good fortune, for
bad luck,) of the writer of this, to rough it in
the Mines; and as many of the circumstances,
now daily witnessed, recalls to memory some of
the scenes then transacted, we have hastily
penned the following recollections, which may
be interesting to the general reader. The incl
dents are facts, the day and date may vary,
as at that time, the day of the week or month
was an event never thought of,--all reckonings
were lost in the universal excitement of the
chase,-the game being gold, nothing but yell
low gold, when the cry of aeU diggings(o was
the Tally Hol of the hunters, which would start
as swift a band as ever pursued a fox to his
lair, r,-depopulating gulches that were worked
out, or only paying an ounce per day for others
where pounds, per day. were reported to be
made, when in fact, nine cases out of ten they
were not worth as much as those just abandoned.
Of course the hunters were seldom weary In
such rich field of adventure, where the sports
man bagged his game" not only by pounds,
but by the aro5as!
From time to time we shall continue to pub
lish such early incidents as we may remember,
believing that these facts are the safest and
most reliable data yet published in reference to
the early history of our gold discoveries. The
writer of this, John Harvey and Harry Wilson,
were the first three white men who worked
in the gulch, where the town of Mokelumne
Hill is now located But of that another time.
In the spring of l849, party of "us miners"
who having eat beans until the scurvy began to
make sad havoc with our gums, went down on
the Mokelumne river to McKenzie's ranch, (now
Staples, to recuperate During our stay there,
Mr.. Ricord employed three of us, at $500 90
where Robinsons Ferry now is, on the Stanis-
laus river On the 9Th day of February, 1849,
three persons, "Bob," Bill" and ''us' with the
trader, Ricord, started from McKenzie's ranch
for Angels Camp; we had nine pack mules and
horses laden with two hundred pounds each,
of assorted goods, principally whisky.) The
rains in the early part of the winter had been
very heavy SO that it was almost impossible to
travel in any direction with pack-animal.-
The first day out we done very well, making
up the river, about ten miles, and encamped
where Terry & Hodges Touring mill now stands.
The cargo consisted of eight fve-gallon kegs
of brandy; two cases of absynthe; seven cases
of brandy; some bad whisky; eight dozen clay
pipes three dozen shirts, and a lot of blankets
and etceteras; valued as follows: pipes, s. 90
each; blankets, $40 90 per pair; absynthe,
$50 90 per bottle brandy the same; that i'll
the kegs we retaled at one ounce the tin-cup-
full, or 50 90 the drink, land as we had so
many running streams to cross, it stretched out
amazingly;) boots, $40 per pair beads, gum
powder and medicines, weght-for- weight in
gold The mud was belly-decp for the mules,
and some days we had to carry the freight half
the distance made, besides pulling the mules,
by the ears, out of the different mud-hoIes as
often as they went down. During the whole
trip the weather was very fine,-no snow or
rain fell, ON the mountains, in the month of
February, 40. We gradually worked our way
along, making from three to ten miles per day.
The fifth day out, while encampcd on the north
side of the North Branch of the Calaveras, near
where Latimer's store now is, we met the In
dian chief, Polo, who informed us that we were
trespassing on his country,-and asked where
we were going? We told him to the Stanislaus.
He then pointed to his Rancheria, which was
close by across the river, stating that he had
four hundred warriors,-and unless we left the
mountains by noon next day, he would murder
us and take our horses and goods (and had
the Indians known we had whisky they certain
ly would have carried out their threat J we,
however, made our journey without again hear
ing of Polo or his tribe. On the tenth day we
arrived at Angels Diggings, where we sold some
brandy, pipes and shirts small store was at
the Camp, kept by Dick Armor Next morning
just as we had packed everything up, to start, a
miner came up and inquired the price of pipes
We told him So 90 each; 'sbut," said Ricrod,
"they are all packed up! If you wish the one
am smoking, will sell it, The miner pull
ed out his dust, and the amount was weighed
out after the miner had left, Ricord said " /
got that fellow, for put in the $4 weight, .
said weight just balanced S. coin.
We only remained one day at Angels,-hc
diggings being arorked out IN that vicinity. We
proceeded, passing through Carson's, which was
also worked out, and not a miner left to tell the
tale, to the foot of Murphy's Gulch on the STAN
islaus, (Robinson's Ferry.) This was the great
Head Quarters of the District, where everybody
came to make purchases, get drunk, and lose
their money at monte. The miners omniun,
gatherum) of the place, had been out of whisky
for six long weeks, so that our assortment was
to the purchaser We gotinto camp about sun