Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-04-20
THIRTY YEARS ago.
EXCITING SCENES ON THE ARRIVAL OF
THE PONY EXPRESS.
A Day That Early Residents Will Long
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES of Peter
Lundberg.

IN Placervllle at LOO P. NJ. The San Fran
cisco boats had been held over to avail
the arrival of the mail in this city. Al
along street the citizens had run up thei
flags and decorated their buildings in homo
of the great event. Loryea's crockery es
Enlistment had rugged up a dummy
horse bearing banner inscribed PONY
Express-Russell, Majors g. Co. Take til,
Skates" Richard Dale had his bigges
doll rugged up in front of his store, ant
various other business men had appropri
ate signs hung out.
A cavalcade of citizens had been organ
lied early in the day to meet the pony ant
rider outside the city and escort them in
Accordingly, late in the day deputatior
of eighty persons, with a detachment
of the Hussars, assembled at the old
Suffer Fort and stretched out their lines on
either side along the road, some of the horse.
men carrying small flags. The company
waited long and patiently for the tardy
pony. and meanwhile the excitement in
the city was increasing. ] street was lined
with spectators from Tenth to the water.
front. The balconies along the street were
filled with ladies and the house-tops were
crowded with men and boys anxious to
catch a glimpse of the daring express rider
and give him royal welcome.
At length all this preparation was re-
warded. At 5:25 P. NJ. cloud of dust was
seen to rise in the direction of the old Fort,
and presently horseman bearing small
flag was seen to emerge therefrom and dash
down ] street, a struggling. charging band
of excited horsemen following in his wake.
Almost simultaneously from the church
towers and engine-houses in all parts of
the city rang out merry peal of bells. A
cannon had been planted in the plaza,
manned by the boys of Young America
Engine Company, No. 6, and it gave en-
phasis to the excitement by belching forth
a salute as the rider dashed by. 1t was an
swered by an anvil chorus at Ninth and
streets, fired by No. Two's boys, and an.
other salvo was fred by Holmes & An
drews on Sixth street, near j.
Amidst the firing and shouting, and
waving of hats and ladies' handkerchiefs,
the pony-the veritable pony-came down
the street at rafting pace. A thick cloud
of dust enveloped the party as it came
dashing along in the most hopeless confu-
sion. The little cayuse stretched his neck
well to the race, and with his rider, the
hero of the hour, was cheered to the echo
Such a scene-both for comicality and be-
coming enthusiasm-the CITY had never
before witnessed. Here and there were
riderless steeds whose masters had fallen
by the wayside in the wild rush, and
others might as well have been riderless,
for all the control the men on their backs
had over them.
Finally, out of all this confusion of
mingled fun and earnestpess-"rider and
horse, friend and foe, in one dusty burial
bent''-emerged the Pony Express, gallop-
ing up to the door of the Alta Telegraph
Company and depositing its precious mail
in ten days from st. Joseph, Mo-, to Sacra-
mento! The crowd that had gathered
about the telegraph Office greeted the rider
and his painting pony with cheer upon
cheer.
And thus was successfully inaugurated
the overland pony express-the forerunner
of the railroad which was to span the con-
tinent few years later. 0fthe trials and
sufferings and delays subsequently ex-
perienced by the brave riders who bore the
news across the trackless plain and noun
tains during that interval, the public are
well aware. Many man was shot down
from his horse by the savages of the wilder
ness, or hunted by them for days ard
nights, suffering all sorts of privations.
The pioneer rider on this end of the line
Sacramento-was Sam. Hamilton. He left
Sportsman's Hall at 1:15 P. NJ. on the day
first mentioned, and Placerville at LOS He
made his first relay at Mud Springs, the
second at Mormon Tavern, the third at the
Fifteen-mile House, and the fourth at the
Five-mile House. The last five miles was
made in twenty minutes, despite the man
ner in which he was INSTRUCTED by the
half crazed cavslcade that went out to
meet and escort him into town. OF the
eighty letters brought through by the first
express for San Francisco and Sacramento,
six were for this city-two for the Sacra-
mento UNION, one for Governor Downey,
one for J. w. Coleman, one for Stephen 4.
Johnson, and one other.
NV. n. Brainard, an esrly-day resi-
dent of this city, contrib utes to the Chicago
Tribune an illustrated article on "Sacra-
ment in 1850 including sketch of Gen.
eral Suffers career and his founding of the
old fort here, from which the following is
taken "Alvarado was the Mexican Gov
ernor of California at that time, and after a
good deal of persuasion he gave Captain
Suffer permission to locate in the valley of
the Sacramento river, he agreeing to build
and maintain fort in that section as a
protection for the settlers and defense
against the wild Indians. After exploring
the Sacramento, Feather and American
rivers, he decided to make permanent es-
Enlistment at the junction of the Ameri-
can river with the Sacramento, and there
built what has since been know as Suffer s
Fort, with colony at first of three whites
and eight kanakas from the Sandwich
Islands, and located the Mexican grant of
land that he had obtained at the junction
of the American and Sacramento rivers,
embracing the site of the present city of
Sacramento. When | first saw Suffer s
Fort in 1850 it was in very good repair.
General Suffer was then living on his Hook
Farm on Feather river, about thirty-five
miles north of Sacramento, and family of
pioneers were occupying the main build
ing inside of the walls of the fort The
gold hunters of 1913 and 40 had run over
and destroyed his wheat and crops and
he was obliged to leave, besides he had
sold portion of his lands to the
syndicate who laid out the city of Sac
ramento. The fort was 300 feet long by
I60 feet wide. There were bastions on each
of the southeast and northwest corners
two stories high. Cannon were mounted
on the second story and placed so as to de-
fend the four sides of the fort. The walls
were built of adobe brick after the Mexican
style. The outer walls were two and hall
feet thick and eighteen feet high. There
was an inner wall built seventeen feet in.
side of the outer walls, eighteen inches
thick, and fourteen feet high, and the
space between the two walls was rooted
over, and sloped inwards, and covered
with pine shingles, and the whole was par.
titioned by walls into rooms of various
sizes, and were used for mechanical shops
of all kinds needed and store rooms fol
wheat, and some offices and living room:
for Captain Suffer and his dependents
There was also a mill for grinding fioul
in one corner, the motive power being ter
mules. The millstones were granite an(
the miller Yves an Indian trained to tn,
business. There was building 60x25 feet
formerly used as distillery in lS44, bu
the alcoholic beverage made so mucl
trouble among the Indian retainers tina
Captain Suffer closed that business. q
also had a dungeon for criminals and in
subordinates and guard-room for hi
Mission Indian soldiers, of whom he hat
about forty in his service. There wer
about $50 feet of room frontage inside o
the fort seventeen feet deep, the most o
which was rented to traders 70
stores and other uses after tn
discovery of gold, and it was
busy place until the latter part of the sum
mer of 1s49, when the traders moved 4
the Sacramento river landing and front c
the city. Suffers fort is thing of tn
past. The adobe walls were pulled dow
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