The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1880-11-05
The GOLDEN AGE.
story Of the Discovery of Gold in
California.

IN small shanty In the rather sqnalld
little hamlet Of Yerba Buena, on the Bay
Of San Francisco, that two young men
foIn the States, having just printed on
q band-press the $50 copies of their
weekly paper, sat down upon stools,
t4eary, faint and discouraged, to talk
over the prospects of the country and be-
moan the fate that had cast them where
society and money were so scarce. They
were Americans, but the land Of their
birth was as remote to them then as st.
Petersburg to a peasant of the AMOR
valley. They longed to return, but
never expected to be rich enough. The
Mexican war was just ended few
months before. The treaty of Guada-
hlpe Hidalgo gave California to the
United States. The California so coded
included the present State of that name,
Nevada, and most of Utah. 1t was an
empire larger than France and England.
Divided by range of mountains almost
rs lofty as the Alps and longer than the
Garpathians, running from north to
south, the eastern half was terra incog-
n1ta OF barren desert buttes and mount
ain spurs, containing throughout its
whole extent but one feeble settlement
OF whites, known as Mormons. I'm
known savages of the lowest aboriginal
type dominated all the rest. The west
ern half, as it then appeared, was one
great valley covered with bright flowers,
rank verdure, clumps Of majestic oaks,
wooded hills, sloping from the coast
range ON the west and the Sierras on the
east, hills, plains and valleys alive with
herds Of deer, elk, antelope and cattle
and horses as wild as the game; the
charming panorama enlivened and per-
fected by sparkling rivers, whose waters
were as clear as the cloudless sky above
them, their banks fanked with dense
growth of ash, maple, alder, willow,
hazel, cottonwood, sycamore, wild grape
vines, and, toward their confluence with
the bays, waving tule of the darkest
green, resembling at first sight the great
cornhelds on the lowlands of the Ohio.
In all this vast valley region there was
but one white settlement. 1t was known
as Suffers Fort.
1t was located near the confluence of
the Rio de los Anne icaros with the Sac
ramento. To the far south, beyond the
sources Of the San joaquin river, not
far from the Pacific ocean, stood the
Ciudad de los Angeles" Mexican in
its construction and population. A
Catholic mission at Santa Barbara and
another at San Luis Obispo (Saint Louis,
the Bishop another at Monterey on
the bay of that name another at Santa
Clara in the lovely valley of that name :;
another called Mission de San Jose not
far from the latter, and another at the
village of Yerba Buena, which has since
grown into the city of San Francisco.
1t was then a collection of adobes. built
around the public square we now call
the Plaza. The waters Of the bay
extended as far as Montgomery street,
where the Bank Exchange now stands.
and few whalers aud small coasting
schooners lay at anchor 300 yards from
shore, about where the postoffice now
stands on Battery street. There we're
also American settlements at Sonoma
and Napa, composed of farmers who
emlgrated from the Western States a
few years before, and here and there
arose along the borders of the t1lle the
smoke from the hut of the lonely trap
per of beaver. These, with the ranches
of the old Dons, their corrals and the
inevitable adobe dwellings,, surrounded
by innumerable cattle and horses, made
up the sum of what there was of civilized
and semi-civilized life in California at
the time the two young printers of Yerba
Buena were discussing their situation.
Now and then q vessel put into the bay
of Monterey, or San Francisco. OF San
Diego, to load with hides, or whaler
for repairs, dropping a few Mexican
dollars or doubloons, which were the
currency of the country. 1t was, to an
active or ambitious mind, dull and
listless life; but to the majority, who
loved ease, Il healthy climate and beauti-
fully-diyersilied scenery.
Ap'easing land of drowsy head It was,
OF dreams that fit before the half-shut eye,
And of gay castles in the clouds that pass,
Forever flashing through q summer sky.
About the same hour that the two
Yerba Buena printers were deploring
their fate Of isolation from the busy
world, a scene was enacting that was to
have greater effect upon the material
INTERESTS of modern society than any
event since the discovery of America.
1t WIS on the 10Th day of January, 1S48,
on the south fork of the American river,
ilfty-tour miles east of Suffers Fort.
Early In the morning of that day, James
w. Marshall, who was building mill
Tor himself and Suffer, from which they
expected to supply the ranches and set
Elements with pine lumber, picked up
from the bedrocks of the race of the mill
q small piece of yellow metal. It weighed
about seventeen grains. 1t was MALE
able, heavier than silver, and in all re-
spects resembled gold. About 4 o'clock
in the evening Marshall exhibited his
find to the circle composing the mill
company laborers. Their names were
james w, Marshall, P. L. WINNER, Mrs.
WINNER, James Barger, Ira Willis, Sgd
ney Willis, Alexander Stephens, James
Brown, EzSiah Persons, Henry Bigler,
Israel Smith, William johnson, George
Evans, Charles Bennett and William
Scott. The conference resulted in the
rejection Of the idea that it was gold.
Yrs. WINNER tested it by boiling it in
strong lye. Marshall afterward tested
it with nitric acid. 1t was gold, sure
enough, and the discoverer found its
like in all the surrounding gulches
wherever he dug for it. The secret could
not be long kept. 1t was known at
Yerha Buena three months after the dis
covery, and the two printers above men
toned put this slight notice of it in their
weekly paper, The Collaboration, on the
10Th of April
New Go1p MINE.--It is stated that a new
gold mine has b EN- discovered on the American
Fork of the Sacramento. supposed to be lit was
nod on the land of William A. Leidesdorff.
Esq, of this place. A specimen of the gold
has been exhibited, aud is represented to be
very pure.
May opened with accounts of new dis
coyeries. The Californian of May 8
sail "Seven men, with picks and
spades, gathered 81, 800 worth in fifteen
days" That was little more than SIS
Per day per man. On the 18th of May
the same paper said: "Many persons
have already left the coast for the dig
gings. Considerable excitement exists
here. Merchants and mechanics are
closing doors. Lawyers and alcaldes
are, leaving their desks, farmers are
neglecting their crops and whole families
are forsalling their homes for the Dig