The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1891-04-16
DISCOVERY OF GOLD.

The Disputed Date Is Now Established
by Documentary Evidence.
The various societies of California
pioneers are accustomed to celebrate
the 10Th of January as the date of the
discovery of gold by J. w. Marshall at
Coloma, but that it is an error is shown
Mr.. John s. Hittell in The Century as
follows Ga fac simile of the entry in
Bigier's diary being printed in the mag
azine as ocular evidence:
The first record of the discovery, and
the only one made on the day of it's oc-
cur1ence, was in the diary of Henry w.
Bigler, one of the Mormon laborers at
the mill. He was an American. by
birth, then a young man, and now a
respected citizen of st. George, Utah.
He was in the habit of keeping regu-
lar record of his notable observations
and experiences, selecting topics for re-
mark with creditable judgment His
journal, kept during his service in the
Mormon battalion and his subsequent
stay in California, is one of the valuable
historical documents of the state. On
the oath of January, in the evening,
Bigler wrote in his diary, 'This day
some kind of mettle was found in the
tale race that looks like goald" .
Nothing was said in public about the
date of the discovery until 1856, eight
years after the event, when Marshall
published letter in which he said that
he found gold at Coloma "about the
10Th" of January, 1S4s Neither then,
nor at any subsequent time, did he
claim that his recollection of the day
was aided by written memorandum.
In 1857 he published statement that
the discovery was made on the 18th,
10Th or Goth. His biography, prepared
under his direction, and printed in
1870, fixed the 10Th as the precise day.
AS years elapsed he became more exact,
perhaps under the influence of public
opinion, which from 1856 to 1886 ac-
copied the 10Th as the day.
On the 9th of September, 1885, at the
annual celebration of the admission of
the state into the Union, delivered an
address on the gold discovery to the
Pioneer society of San Francisco, and
sent a copy of it in print to Mr.. Bigler,
of whom had heard as one of the sur
vivors of the Coloma party, and re-
quested him to correct any errors, if he
found any. He replied that according
to his diary the gold was found on the
oath. At my solicitation he copied the
entries of his book from that day to the
middle of May; and then began an
investigation which made me familiar
with the diaries of Azariah Smith,
survivor of the Mormon battalion and
one of the mill builders at Coloma, and
with the diary of Suffer.
These three diaries agreed substan-
TALLY with one another, and with Mar
shall's statement that four days after
the discovery he took specimens of the
gold to Suffers fort. Smith made his
entries on Sunday as rule, and on the
Both of January he wrote that on the
preceding week gold had been found at
the mill, and that Marshall had gone
to New Helvetia to have it tested. This,
was probably written in the morning,
for Bigler's entry made on the same
day mentions that the test was success
full, implying that Marshall had re-
turned.
Suffers diary reports that on the
18th of January Marshall arrived at the
fort ION important business, !" without
mentioning the gold. The agreement
of the three diaries with Marshall's
statement that he went to New Hell
vetia four days after the discovery, the
superior value of documentary evil
dence as compared with vague recol-
lections, dimmed by years of interven-
ing events, and the uncertainty OF
Marshall in reference to the date, left
no room for doubt that the oath was
the tine day, which gave to the pub
lie for the first,time ia January. 1885