The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-01-14
The First Gold Found In California.


A correspondent of the San Francisco
Bulletin gives the following interesting
story of the first discovery of gold in Cali
fornia, as told him by Mrs. WINNER, who
has i'll her possession the identical piece
which caused such a revolution in the his
tory of the Pacific coast:
s'We arrived here in November, 1916 said
Mrs. WINNER, with a party of fourteen
families, across the plains from Missouri.
On arriving at Suffers Fort, Sacramento,
we found Fremont in need of more men.
My husband enlisted before we had got
the oxen Hnyoked, and left me and our
seven children at the fort in care of Com
missary Curtain. We drew our rations
like common soldiers for four months.
Captain Sutter arranged room for us in
the fort. AS soon as Mr.. WINNER return
ed from Santa Clara, where he had been
stationed during the winter, he joined
three others and went over the mountains
to what is now called Donner Lake, TO
fetch over the effects of the Donner family,
after that terrible winter of suffering that
you have heard about.
''In June, lS47, they loaded all our house
hold plunder for Battle Greek, up on tne
Sacramento, to put up saw-mill, but tfey
Captain Sutter and j. w. Marshall were
equal partners, and were the head of the
expedition. After seven days of travel,
blazing trees, we arrived at sundown a
mile above the town. Next morning Mr..
WINNER went out to select site for the
mill. and | site for the house. He was
to oversee the Indians, be handy man
about, and was to be cook. We had from
fifteen to twenty men employed. We soon
had log house-a good log house-and a
log heap to cook by.
"They had been working on the mill-race.
dam, and mill about six months, when,
one morning along the lastdays of Decem-
Der or the first week of January, 1S47-S,
after an absence of several days to the fort
(that was our San Francisco in those
days., Mr.. Marshall took Mr.. WINNER and
went down to see what had been done.
while he was away. The water was en-
tirely shut of, and as they walked along,
talking and examining the work, Just
ahead of them, on a little rough, muddy
rock, lay something looking bright, like
gold. They both saw it, but Mr.. Marshall
was the first to stOOp TO pick it up, and,
as he looked at it, doubted its being gold
"Our little son Martin was along with
them, and Mr.. Marshall gave it to him to
bring up to me. He came in hurry and
said Here, mother, here's something
Mr.. Marshall and pa found, and they want
you to put it into saleratus water to see if
it will tarnish.' | said, This is gold and
| will throw it into my lye-kettle,' which
had just tried with feather, and if it is
gold it will be gold when it comes OUT
finished off my soap that day and set it of
to cool. and it stayed there till next morn
;nr thn hroa tah off l,a
w0rkhands raised up his head from eating
and said, 4 heard something about gold
being discovered; what about it?' Mr..
Marshall told him to ask Jenny, and told
him it was in my soap kettle. Mr.. Mar
shall said it was there if it had not gone
back to California.
"A plank was brought for me to lay my
soap upon, and cut it in chunks. At the
bottom Of the pot was double handful of
potash, which lifted in my two hands,
and there was my gold as bright as it
could be. Mr.. Marshall still contended it
was not gold, but whether he was afraid
his men would leave him or he really
thought so, don't know. MIR. WINNER
remarked that it looked like gold, weighed
heavy, and would do to make money out
of. The men promised not to leave till
the mill was finished. Not being sure it
was gold, Mr.. WINNER urged Mr.. Mar
shall to go to the fort and have it tested.
He did so, and George McKinstry, an as
sayer, pronounced it gold. Captain SUIT
ter came right up with Mr.. Marshall, and
called all the Indians together, and agreed
with them to certain boundaries that they
claimed, and on the right of discovery de-
manded thirty per cent. of all gold taken
out. They, in payment, were to give the
Indians a certain number of handker-
chiefs, pocket looking glasses, shirts,
beads, and other trinkeJs."
Mrs. WINNER. will you be kind
enough to tell me how you came in pos
session of the piece of gOld?"
" Yes; it was just this way: One day
Mr.. Marshall was packing up to 90 away.
He had gathered together good deal of
dust on this 30 per cent. arrangement, and
had it buried under the floor. In over
hauling his traps, he said to me in the
presence of Elish PackwOOd, Jenny, |
will give you this piece of gold. always
intended to have ring made from it for
my mother, but will give it to you.' |
took it, and have had it in my possession
from that day to this"
"You have not the exact date of the dis
covery of the gold?" | asked.
"NO, but it was somewhere about the
holidays, for | know that Captain Sutter
had sent up to me dozen bottles of old
brandy-six for the men and six for me.
At first | could not find them-at last we
found them in barrel of dried peas. OF
course the men hid big Christmas, and
after they had drunk up their six bottles
they wanted mine. and they got them"
The piece of gold must describe. Its
value is between four and five dollars. 1t
looks like (pardOn the comparisOn) a piece
of spruce gum just out of the mouth of a
school girl, except the color. 1t is rather
flat, full of indentations, just as the teeth
make in piece of nice gum. There are
one or two rough points on the edge,
which, with little stretch of the imagina-
ton, give the appearance of a mans head
with helmet on; then, turn it another
way, and, as Mrs. WINNER said, sit looks
like some kind of varmint or other" 1t
can be easily identified by any one who has
ever seen it before.