The record-union., 1892-04-02

IOiIONtIlS ISttSf Inlay nave th0 ueSlItu el-
fect-that of locating William Molen, if
alive, CT his last resting place, if dead:
MILAN (Mo) March 24, 1892.
EDS. RECORD UNIo&: Pietse publish in your
paper this letter, 80 that / may ina my
father, William Molen. lie went IL California
IN the year 1900 witli Richard MarsnitH ana
p. =. More, ana Others wGUse names L c,nnot
recall. The last heard OF my father was in
the Ycar SOB.
Ic1nnot ten what place he was heard from,
as the letters were destroyed. was but Two
years ofage when he let. There were tive OF
Us in the family and mother died soon afterhe
left. am the only enc no" living, aud must
and him, Il possible. lie went there IN search
of gold, lie is now about % or 70 years OF
age, il living, which be may De.
VIII you please u5liSh this, and ask other
papers thfougho 1t the country TO copy the
same: Please SEND me copy OF your paper,
so that may suoscrioe ior H. Ionrs truly,
REBECCA j. WARREN.
Milan, sullivan County, Missouri.
There is something truly pathetic in
this appeal OF "A daughter TO the people OF
4 iar-ou land to assist her in tinding her
fathers something that recalls the touch
ing lines of familiar recitation In one OF
the old-tine school readers:
Father! dear father! are you sick upon the
strangers shore?
Grandmother says 1t must be 500 write to
once more,
And let Your loving daughter come to smooth
your restless bed,
Ana hold the cordial to your dps and press
your .aching head!
William MoIen may, as his daughter
hopes, be yet among the living, and il SO
it Is hoped that lie may be found and re-
stored to the last surviving member of
the family that he lett behiud him when
ne came across the continent TO
mine for gold in the days OF old" But
the probability is that he-like so many
others who came here in early days 10
seek their fortunes, and became lost to
their loved ones at home-SleepS some
where III an unknown grave on Il hillside
above 1.-The gulch" where himself and
comrades dug for riches.
All over the auriferous regions of the
Golden State, where once were busy min
ing camps" there are graves that never
Will be found, except by accident; and
even then it viii be impossible to tell who
were their occupants. Even the camps
and towns themselves have in many in
stances vanished, and their sites are COW
cred by dense thicketS of chaparral or
"greasewopd,' or the beautiful manza-
nlta, whose only occupants are an occa-
sional panther or coyote, with now and
then wandering sportsman or pros
pector.
There were ravages made in those days
by eDidemicS of SMALLPOX and typhoid
fever and cholera, when thousands of
gold-seekers were swept away, many of
whom We're unknown even to their near
est neighborS. 1t was but recently that
here, on the outskirts OF this city, some
workmen came upon group Of skeletons
of victims of the terrible cholera scourge
that swept over the coast in the early
hftieS. Among them were doubtless the
bones OF many whose relatives have for.
long years sought i'll vain to find. Even
in these times 1T is n common occurrence
for victims of violent deaths to be buried
without their identity being discovered.
ON the other hand, there are some Iiv-
ing relics OF a certain class of the earlier
miners yet to be found-men who be-
came broken down, physically and men
tally, by the vicissitudes OF the miners
life who long ago lost their grip" and
subsist now upon charity and live only
in memories of the past Most of the
towns and villages in the foothills, that
have survived the dryrot that followed
the mining boom, have each q few of
these living relics. They are objects of
curiosity, and sometimes Of awe, to the
latter-day touriSt-these have beensu of
| the golden age.
The natives never tire of pointing out
to the stranger these white haired, de-
crepit old men, and telling of the fortunes
sometimes mythical, but often real, they
had dug from ''yonder gulch'' in the days
| Of '49, or thereabouts. There are only a
few OF them left, however, and their race
! IS rapidly becoming extinct.
Yet some ot these Old men have families
back in the States. . from whom they
have had no tidings for many long years,
because they themselves had neglected to
write, preterring, from one cause or an
other, TO be regarded as dead.
1t may be that William Molen vet
haunts, like Rip Van Wrinkle, some of
these scenes of his early-day experiences,
and that his daughters letter here given
may fall under his eyes, or that Of some
Ia. hot i-rn,1- -
| finding him a comfortable home in his
| Gn.Iin innr Hnars