The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1871-01-25
The Most Graphic Story Yet of How
Gold was First Discovered in Cal
ifornia.

7 Il.
We have received from Henry w
Bigler, one of the men working at
Suffers mill, in 1S48, when god was
discovered there, the following inter
esting letter, headed as below which
is full of character, and bears internal
evidence Of perfect truth.
Pennington, Davis County, Utah,
December %, 1870.
LIFE AND ADVENTURE OF W. MAR
SHALL.
"To the editor of the San Francisco Week
ly Bulletin.
DEAR SIR:-rhe above notice /
saw about thee months since, in the
23d No. and 10Th volume of your
paper, and as l am there referred to
rs being one OF the mill hands, who,
if alive, could substanliate the accura-
cy of the narrative. cheertully give
my testimony, although it is at a very
late hour, because l feel that it is a
,lutyI owe to Mr.. Marshall, and per
haps TO the public. / have not seen
the work referred to, neither have l
seen any person who said they had.
l was one of the men at work at
G, Iona at the time the gold was found
by Mr.. Marshall. | well remember
when lie sent young Indian for
James Brown to send him platte
Brown was on the top of a saw pit; he
jump, d down, saying: i wonder
what Marshall wants with a tin plaIe?
After We had quit our days work, Mr..
Marshall came into our shanty anil
told US he believed he had found gold,
ami directed Brown and myself TO
snut down the head gate, early in the
morning and throw in dirt and leaves
so as to completely shut off tho water,
which we did, while Marshall went
alone down into the tail race. In a
lew minutes he came back with a most
pleasing smile on his face. carrying
his old white hat IN his arms, saying:
Boys, by Cd I believe l have to md
q gold mine At this he sat his hat
on the work bench that stood at the
miIlyarti. an6 the mill hands all gath
cred around in an instant !, and there, /
sure enough, in the top OF his hat
crown (th,. top Knocked in a little)
was the pure metal; how much / do
not know, perhaps an ounce. One of
our company, by the name of Azariah
Smith, pulled out a five dollar gold
piece, and compared the coin with the
PARTICLES. There was a difference in
the looks, but this we accounted for
on account of the alloy in the COIN
Any of us would have been willing to
have been sworn and testified that
what James W. Marshall had lying
on the top his old hat crown was
gold, although none OF Us had ever
seen gold dust before. Some three or
tour day. after this, Marshall went
down to Suffers Fort -. see about
grub, aud to have the mineral tested.
He was gone tour days. Tnen he
aud was asked what he
made out of the metal, his reply
was, oh, boys, by Cd 1t is the pure
stuff: l and the old Captain locked
ourselves up, and the outsiders Won
dered what i'll he'll was up, and sur
missed that had found the quicksilver
mine found by woman down tow
ards Monterey; but we let them
sweat. We found that it agreed with
the encyclopedias, and we applied
aquafortis. and it had lotning to do
with it. We then weighed it i'll Wat
ter by balancing the dust against sill
yer OH pair of scales, in the air, hav-
ing a basin of water. We let the
scales down, when it come in contact
with the water, by Cd, the gold
went down, and the silver up. (mn-
toned up with his hands), and that
.old the story that it was the clear
stuff" lie then said Sutter would
be up in few days to look aud exam
ne the race. dc, In q few evenings +,
afterHayd Marshall crnle into eur