The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-08-28

curry. 1t is said that the first piece of
gold ever taken in the United States be-
longed to this deposit, and was picked
up in 1899 by Conrad Reed, a boy who
lived in Cabarrus County, North Caro-
lima. 1t was as large as q smooth
ing-iron, but was sold to a sill
versmith for three dollars and
fifty cents. Afterward much larger
Jumps were found; one weighed twenty
eight pounds, according to tradition.
This excited so much attention that ex-
ploration was begun, and the gold
traced southwark, until the borders of
the Cherokee territory in Northern
Georgia were reached, and prospectors
began to encroach upon the reserva-
ton. Protests from the Indians natur-
ally followed, and Georgia sent a large
police force to keep back the invaders,
but it was of little avail. The rush to
the mines was much like the stampede
to the Pacific coast in 1849, and reck-
less, dissipated men from all quarters
of the country fiocked in, prowled about
the woods, set up log huts and shanty
groceries on all the streams, and paid
no respect to the rights of the Indian,
or any one else unable to defend them.
Even United States troops were power
less to keep the lawless hordes west of
the Chestatee, and here as elsewhere
the discovery of gold was the end of
Indian possession and aboriginal sim
plicity and charm.
These days are known as the period
of "the Intrusion"---one of the two
dates from which the mountain men
reckon all events; the other being +" the
late war;" Finding that no protection
of the Indians by police measures was
feasible, the State in 1880 adopted the
Indians, territory and all, and consti-
tuted the region a county called Chero-
kee, out of which several small counties
have since been made. Then the min
eral lands were divided up into forty
acre lots, and put up at lottery by the
State. One of these lots, on the Yahoola
River-Ne. 1052-now a part of the
Hand Company's property, had already
become celebrated. 1t was within the
reservation, but men used to creep
across to it at night, and carry home a
meal-bag full of dirt, out of which they
would pan from twenty to forty dollars
next day. The instant it was ascer-
tanned that an old farmer down in the
central part of the State had drawn
this prize, shrewd speculators set of
post-haste to buy it from him. t7
1t soon came to be found here, as
elsewhere, that gold was not to be
picked up in wenty-eight-pound Jumps
every day, nor did every bushel of soil
pan out q double eagle. The worthless,
horde of invaders gradually drifted
newcomers, whose accession was of
90 xL1 e%osI
The population, like the dirt. was slowly
panned out, and the current of events
carried the dross away. At present the
mines are largely owned by corpora
tions, or by private capitalists who are
not residents of the district. Only two
of the companies, however, are repre-
sented in the New York Mining Board,
il am rightly informed. 1t was found
that as the gold occurred neither in ex-
tensive placers, like those of California,
nor in indestructible quartz lodes, the
methods of mining in vogue elsewhere
would not answer here if the best results
were to be obtained. The inventive
genius and practical knowledge of those
interested were therefore set to work to
devise the best means Of meeting the
case, and it was speedily found that the
talisman which alone would open the
riches of the hills to human use was
,Oater. So far as this mere fact is con-
cerned, it could hardly be called a
discovery" but the utilization of the
idea, and the practical methods by
which the enormous power of this nat
ural agent has been put under the
miners control, are the work of Colonel
Hand, to whom, more than to any one
else. no doubt, belongs the credit of the
splendid development of this industry
during late years, and the glowing
prospects it now holds out.-Eraest In
gsrsou, in Harper's Magazine for Sep
te7nber