The record-union., 1891-07-11
THIRTY YEARS AGO.
A Sacramento L-ady's Experience With
Two Highwaymen.
An Old Miner Visits the Scenes of
Former Days-Remnant of tie
Bear flag Party.


The following sketch is from contri-
button by W. K Wear to the Nevada
City Herald. 1t refers to the changes
that time has made in that locality:
''On the night of the 14th Of September,
1850, most of the dams on the Yuba River
were washed away, and in May, 1861, the
writer lost all improvements for working
Deer Creek. Having been been under a
cloud for the past six months, did not
| feel able to join the crowd at Chicago
Park, and concluding to be in affinity
with the movement, projected a pri-
Vate picnic nearer home. To that end
my toilsome steps were turned toward
the suspension bridge, and thence follow
ing the route OF twenty, thirty, forty
| years ago, turned to the right at Tribula-
ton Trail and threaded it's windings
through the suburban village on Piety
Hill. A stranger might suppose from
these names that the old settlers were
very Puritanic or exceedingly pious
| they were), but the gentleman who has
the credit of perpetuating scriptural rec
objections by this means was not cele-
| brated in that way, or if he was he did
| not find 1T out. l refer to one of the city's
| pioneers, think of the second decade,
Judge Belden, whose residence was there.
Pursuing my way l did not seem to
dents were resuscitated at every step, for
/ twas my route to my claim on Deer
| Creek below, and my private picnic was
| shared by quite a procession of the dead
and some few living. First came the
residence of Belle Sterling, the first
! young woman / saw on Deer Creek III
lS5l-a pleasant memory. Next, the site
of the first vineyard in the locality, SO far
as j know, the work of Z. g. Waite,
once editor Of the Transcript. / well re-
member how we old silurians of 40 who
! thought there was nothing worth seeking
but gold land tripped up on it,, laughed
at the enterprise. Still there are some of
us who have not recovered from the
gold fever, and never will. 1t does not
matter whether the ig1liS fdtltatS shines to
| bewilder or daZZles to blind, or not, we
shall follow its gieam. To some that age
is myth, to some tradition, but to
! some tits as fresh as when the song of the
miner and the music Of the tom or rocker
woke the monotony of old primeval 81
lence III every gulch and rayine which l
crossed that day.
Il proceeded toward Peck's ravine
now silent and desolate, but III the olden
time a thriving little community, and
thence to the old Dingley location now
the Providence, where there still is a
souvenir OF Dlngley-an orchard in the
| unfenced wilderness, which the boys see
shall not go to waste. Even In 1862 the
locality was lively, in the estimation of
some, but 1t was played out country to
the '49er, and many of them, like the
writer, left for Silverland, in most in
stances leaving better than they found,
! for there are few silver placers, only on
| the debris of some rotten ledge, that car
ried modicum of gold. True, there
were ledges, small ones, where, without
capital, a miner could run an arastra.
| Moving along to the next point is a
grand vista open to the view of the '49er
who has worked up from a rocker TO a
| tom, thence to sluice OF fourteen inches
in width, at which stage it was thought
| the acme of progress had been reached;
then came the ground sluice, and SO on
| ward until the sale of mineral land and
! the acquisition of patent stopped all in
| dividual enterprise in the simple laboring
miner, and made the tairest portion Of
our domain once more wilderness.
Every phase of civilization, every
phase OF progress known to history, has
been repeated and realized in this infant
commonwealth of the Pacific. AS / gazed
on the vista before me and could remem-
Der but one '49er still there, l felt that /
was like mariner on the desert island,
where himself and all the ships crew
had been cast away, and where they had
cast lot as to who should be killed to
allay the pangs of hunger, till only he re-
| mained.n
.........Ihe Union Democratic State Con-
vention met in this city on the 4th of
July, 1861, and was called to order by
Joseph p. Hoge. James w. Coffroth was
! elected permanent President. The candi-
dates for Governor were John Conness,
| John q. Downey, Eugene Casserly, John
| Bidwel and j. w. McCorkle. The honor
OF leading the ticket fell to Conness
Henry Edgerton of Napa was nominated
| for Congressman from the Southern Dis
trict, but before the ballot was taken he
| addressed the Convention, making one of
| the most eloquent speeches of his life in
the course of which he said:
! I'VE know that this Union sprang from
the valor and sacred blood of our ances-
| tors, and we love il for ali that it has cost.
for all it has done for us in the past,
and for all we hope from it in the future.
! LApplause.J We remember that for more
| than seventy years we have lived peace
fully, happy and prosperous under that
! Government; that we have enjoyed, in
! the largest measure the blessings of that
civil and religious liberty which our
| fathers planted, for which they so sternly
contended, and which they so grandly
won-a rational, temperate, yet brave.
resolute, unyielding freedom, the sover-
| eign rule ofthe Constitution, of the Union,
| OF justice, Of order and of law wild
| applausel-a bright, serene, majestic
| image, that even now lifts its face in aw-
| ful rebuke at the traitor who would de-
stroy, the coward who would sell, or the
braggart who would pervert its rich gifts
OF blessings, OF rights, OF obligations or of
duty
The speaker was here cut short by the
members of the convention rising and
| cheering at the tops of their voices. Re-
suming, he said: "If l should be pro-
NOTED by your suffrages to the candidacy
| to which l aspire, and should be so for
| tunate as to be elected, / shall always be
found in the House of Representatives
| voting every dollar and every man, every
drop Of blood necessary, on the side Of
the Constitution and the Union. And
my efforts viii be unremitting until the
! banner of the Union and the Constitu-
! tion-that proud emblem of all that is
pure IN human government, of all that is
good and beautiful and elevated and true
in human life-shall float from every fort
and fortress, and in every harbor from
| the Atlantic TO the Pacific, and from the
| frowning headlands of Maine to the calm
and peaceful shores Of the Gulf of Mex
/ ico."
The convention could stand it no
longer, and the orator was unable to pro-
ceed because Of the excitement and en-
| thusiasm aroused by his fiery elo-
quence. The Bee of that date, referring
to the scene, said: when Henry Edger-
| ton, the gallant champion of the Union
and the Constitution, said in earnest and
thrilling tones the Union Convention
! lquotingI, that vast assem-
blage, as if governed by one electric inn
! pulse-and such was actually the case
/ rose and cheered and yelled in manner
never before witnessed in a California as
semblage. The deepest chords of the
! patriotic heart were touched by master
hand, and they welled forth in gushing
volume to the music of the Union"