Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-08-17
THOSE DAYS or OLD.
WHEN MEN SOUGHT FOR GOLD IN THE
DAYS OF F0RTY-NINE.
A New Englander's Graphic Description
Thereof-Brave Pioneers Who Per-
ished Here-Sutter's Fort.

Forty-fve years ago there were no socia
clubs such as we have now, and but very
few societies in comparison with what on.
may find nowadays. In the great cities
| men met at the taverns and talked politics
over mugs of flip and fagons of ale. liz
the suburban towns, where there were nc
taverns, the villagers gathered at the coun.
try stores, and during the long winter
nights discussed the leading topics of the
day. 1t was at one of these corner grocery
stores in the town where / then lived that
1 first heard of California and the discovery
of gold. had been sent to the store on an
errand, and upon entering the premises /
| found a group of earnest men talking over
| the latest news from the land of gold. To
my mind not one of these men seemed to
know just where this new Ell Dorado was
situated. and common geography which
had been examined seemed to afford them
| but little satisfaction. Upon one point,
| however, every man was agreed. Go
which way you would it was hard road
to travel, and to reach it a man must meet
perils and face death step by step. 1t was
common belief in '4S that
| CALIFORNIA WAS LAND OF FICTION,
Its gold fields delusion and snare. 1t
was thought to be a country of violence
| and death-a land without law or order-a
| land where the Mexican robber and the es-
| capped convict from foreign lands stalked
| abroad like demons from the pits of hell
Even its waters were thought to be nests
g. tla& L.
rover's flag kept watch and ward upon
every sea. The man who by chance es-
capped the perils en- route to this land of
promise, escaped only to fall into the jaws
of death upon his arrival there. He who
DOTTED his apron to face such combina-
ton of evils as these was said to be fool,
and his departure but the quintescence of
folly.
NEW ENeLAND's AReoNAUTs.
But beyond these forebodings of evil New
England saw llghtin the clouds, OF proph-
esq, and ships sailed away and pack trains
moved out upon the sea of sand. Twenty
thousand men, the flower of New England
youth, gathered along the seaboard and
disappeared as suddenly as shooting star
in the gloom of night. For six months
New England was in tears, and the home
of the pioneer was a home of mourning.
Could you but have stood upon some lofty
eminence in the early days of '49 and
| looked down upon that panorama as it
moved along over land and sea, you would
| have beheld spectacle such as the world
| had never seen before and can ever hope
| to see sgain while it rolls in space. Ships
whitened the sea pack mules lined the
deserts; emigrant trains, miles in extent,
moved along like armed men across the
arid plains; the hills were alive with
camp-fires the crack of the rifle echoed
| back through the somber forests; the
woodman's ak was heard along the river
bottoms, and man and beast exhausted
and shattered, finally halted and slept in
the
NEW Ell DORADO OF THE GOLDEN WEST.
Did prophesy prevail? Did men die, as
it had been said that men must die, en-
route to the ''land of promise?" Yes, men
did die, as men must always die who go
in advance and prepare the way that others
| may follow. The sea of water swallowed
up some, but the sea of sand swallowed up
many times more. The smoldering camp
fire, the jaded OK, the abandoned team, the
uncovered grave and the mutilated dead
told their sad story. From the banks of
the turbid Missouri river to the sleepy
stiffness of the Sacramento, there is not a
cry of anguish and been moistened by an
emigrant's tear. In its research after truth
history may uncover
FOOTPRINTS YET UNKNOWN,
And revive scenes as brilliant as they were
tragic 1t may aim to be truthful-it may
try to be Just to the period and the dramatic
interests that followed, but it can never tell
its own story that were impossible. The
only history of that period exists in the
memories of those who made it. If the
| facts are culled now and garnered while
| the men still live, we shall have history /;
otherwise 1t will be book of fiction and
| not of facts.
| OF the six fair-faced young men that fol-
| lowed my father to Suffers Fort in July,
| 1S49, l am, believe. the only survivor.
| My father was the first to succumb. He
died in Suffers Fort in October of that
| memorable year. and wss buried under the
shadow of its walls. Bryant followed a
| few months later, and was laid at rest in
the corral in Auburn ravine, about where
Ophirville stands to. day. On prospecting
tour in 1850 Carter gave out, and was absn-
doned in the Sierras. Subsequently his re-
mains were brought back to the Eagle
Roost," on the South Yuba, and if not dis
turbed his bones may yet be found on the
hillside opposite Washington on that river.
Burns went down with his ranch
IN THE FLOOD OF 1852,
And Rogers struck out for the Sandwich
Islands to repair his broken constitution.
About this time Wallace disappeared for
good, and nothing was ever heard from
| him afterward Somewhere beneath your
| great city my father sleeps his last sleep,
and portion of my own body has returned
to dust Nevertheless, my love for the Land
| of Gold calls the memories which cluster
| around it back to me, ever and anon, like
| some well-remembered dream. Suffers
| Fort, the outpost of civilization in pioneer
| days, and latterly the headstone to its early
dead, has become
LANDMARK OF UNUSUAL INTEREST
To me. 1t IS a shrine that marks the spoi
where my father died, and recalls the sim
pie burial services that closed his history
1t seems almost impossible for one to con.
ceiye of a change 80 rapid and marked as
the conditions between 184S and 1S90-tha
grand old fort, standing out there, al
alone, like the monarch Of all it surveyed
a place of supreme rest-a shelter for the
wearied traveler-swallowedu up. Even it
burial ground has become lost in that time
and the lines of its old walls have disap
peared.
For many years past have carried II
my heart a secret wish that some day O.
other-a day before it was too late
should be permitted to revisit your cit,
and its sacred shrine, and once more min
gle in
THE SCENES OF DEPARTED DAYS.
Never had hope been so nearly realized
never had desire been so nearly consum
mated as mine were two years ago to-day
! Hope, however, told hattering tale, an
pulled my beard while it smiled upon M
face for all at once the cup passed from m
never to return. We had just complete
the structure known as The Society G
California Pioneers of New England. W
had laid its foundation in cement and ha
given 1t a name under the most favorabl
auspices We had about completed tn
3 superstructure when we discovered ba
I defect but still the work went on. 1t wa
a beautiful edifice when finished, but sti
there was that moral defect which coul
not be concealed.
UsURPrNG THE PIONEERS PLACE.
e Opening the door for II years from tn
e discovery of gold, and trying to make me
: pioneers who had not arrived in the cour
- AN ware after II had become settler