The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-03-07
L" MORMON GULCH. >
The Story of the First California
State Election.

The "reminiscences of California
pioneer are thus graphically detailed in
a recent issue of the San Francisco
Daily Evening Bulletin:
If I do not mistake my reckoning the
rain and election day came together
Tuesday, November 13, 1S49. 1t was
the first election in California for the
State officers of the country's youngest
sister of the Union, and the rain was the
first of that rainy season. 1t was
damp day, but it was far from being a
dismal or dull day in our camp. We
were in cold Tuolumne," in a camp
then noted for its richness and excep-
tionally free from the wild, lawless and
tragic scenes which too often, in those
days, brought to mining camps an evil
name, and desperate characters to make
the game worse even than the name. It
was known as Mormon Gulch, and was
situated about four miles from West Van
Benschotan's noted camp on Woods
creek, and eight miles from the Sono-
ranian camp (now Sonora), which was to
the southern mines then the same as
Hangtown (Placerv;lie) was to the
northern mines.
PIONEERS OF MORMON GULCH.
Mormon Gulch was not dull camp.
It had its "cl.aractcrs, and among the
chief men were A. A. Tuttle, afterwarl
county Judge of Tuoiumne; Mike
Tubbs, an English sailor, our alcalde,
and his brother the sheriff; Tom Wade,
in after years q prominent citizen of
Mokelumne Hill and mayor of Placer
vile; Charley Shaw, wild Texan, who
succeeded Tubbs as sheriff; Oliver
Twist-the only name he went by in
camp-a mountain man, son of an old
trapper, and nimrod who never failed
to bring down his grizzly in the three
"bar hunts" We had; "Poker Burns,
famous for his Munchausenisms in praise
of the empire city; Yankee, who was the
only New Englander among us; and last
and luckiest, "Nigger Bob" faithful
slave, who maintained his dissipated and
worthless master-a son of an Alabama
clergyman-in his extravaganza at the bar
and the monte and poker tables, uncom-
plalnngly, out of the rich claim he was
allowed to hold up the gulch. He was
general favorite, and before the first
rain fell he sold his claim and started for
Stockton, there to provide in some way
to send his young master back again to
Montgomery; but the wretched man fell
by the wayside on the Journey from ex-
cessive drinking, and Bob, unable to
find any teamster willing to carry the
corpse to Stockton, had it decently
buried near the old "Mountain House, u
returned to the camp and took up fresh
claim, which proved mine, indeed, to
him, for in few months he made his
pile in it.
There were two notorious characters,
not exactly of the camp, but who regu,
larly once fortnight made it the scene
of their howiing orgies. They were
known as Nick-of-the-W Woods and
"Oregon Tom," and 10 Proctor as the
Jibbenainosay would have paled his
Intellectual dramatic fire before the de.
monical display of our Nick, had he
ever encountered him when in the
height of his "good time with his in
separable other daredevil bacchanalian,
the partner of his morning luck in the
diggings and the sharer of his big trees in
camp, when the whisky suffered until
their joint purse was emptied. The
pair always entered the camp at night,
never left it or slept while their dust u
held out, and regularly departed before
daybreak, when the protracted spree was
over. Just where their claim was, nc
one in camp, except Oliver Twist, knew,
and all that he could be induced to say
of it was, that it "was lousy with gold, u
as it must have been to maintain them
as it did in their frequent carousals,
when drinks were four bits, cigars dol
lar, and their average squanderings at
least four or five ounces per day. But
with all their riproariousness they were
scrupulously "square," in their dealings
and as open handed as princes are pro-
verbally accredited to be. There were
among the improvident and desperate a
dozen or more who had deserted from
Major Graham's command Of the United
States cavalry, ordered to California that
year, and they were far from being a
favorite acquisition in the gulch. The
most obstreperous of the party was call
ed Bill Bailey Ghey had all assumed fic-
titious names to escape identifcation)
and more pestiferous trough never
cursed a peaceful camp with his alb.
hored presence. He was too indolent tc
work and had not money to gamble, but
he kept pretty full of whisky, and in his
cups was insulting and quarrelsome. He
had cunning enough, nevertheless, tc