The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1894-05-04
THE FINDING OF GOLD.
How the .;eciouS Metal Was Dis
covered in California.

covered in California.
Volumes have been written about the
discovery of gold in Cali ornia and
tories without mum ber ancnt now and
hen il happened. As matter of fact,
he cXisteucc of the precious metal
'eens to have been known to the In
fans and the piouS Spanish padres
cong before the Americans conquered
,he lind; but, even granting that Mar
halls was thr first find that was her
lided 10 the world at large, AMI that
he date thereof wa, January -. 1913.
then the accounts of that di COW
ery have been jumbled and twisted in
such immune, able ways that it would
seem THAI all chYoniclers of the inter
esting event were begui ed by its daz-
zling splcndors into the romantic realms
oi fiction
The men who worked for Sutter on
the old Coloma mill have nearly ali
found uncontested claims, and are rest
ing therein forever; bat up at the 40
mining camp at the Midwinter iair is
elderly One-iegged Mormon, named
james ). Brown. who is the only living
man who was present when Marshall
washed the yellow grains in the camp
dough pan; and he is the man who first
tested those fiaky scales with fire, and,
gong forth from the shanty to where
the men were at work on the mill race,
was the first TO cry: Boys, here's
gold!''
James Brown is sixty five years old
now. In 1S4s he was a lusty youth of
not yet twenty summers. He had two
legs then. 1t was only quarter of
century ago that he lost the other at
a bear hunt
Il am the oldest miner alive in Cali
fornia to-dav." said he. II don't mean
that | am the oldest in years, because
[ am only sixty-five, and there arc
many men here to-day who have
worked in the early days and are now
much older than me. But i was the
first miner. / was with Marshall when
he first discovered gold in January,
1915 aud / was the first man to know
about it. The story is an old one. 1t
was at Capt Suffers mill on the
Nmcrican river, which we were build
ng. Marshall, who was wheeiw1ght
ny trade, was in charge of the work
lie was particular frien OF mine
out there were nearly one hundred OF
rs working on the millrace at the
time. He had been reading books
about gold and mines and things, and
| remem Der very well his coming 10 me
one dav and talking about quartz and
be,irocl and similar matters, and telling
nt, that be thought there was gold IN
the country.
You see, we had come upon the
rock when we We're digging the race
and were afraid that it would interfere
with our making an even channel for
the. " ater Then it WAS that Marshall
came to me and told me about the
books he had been reading, and on the
/ afternoon of the 23d of January, lS4S,
| he determined to do little prospect
| in.r lie asked me to bring him the
| pan 1t was common, ordinary pan
! that we baked bread in and the like
lie spent all the afternoon with that
/ pan trying to find gold, but he hadn
| got anything by supper
The next morning early he started
| out wit h the pan again. We boys were
! ,-xcavating in the ditch when he came
up from tho hole where he was work
i ing and told us he had found some min
eraL lie had 1t in his hat; whole lot
| of little flake-like scales. They were
all mall bits, and all scaly, and he
wasn't sure what they We're. lie hand
!
flakes and bit it. / could tell by biting
| it that it was gold, but. of course, 1
wasn't sure. So took it into the cab
in, where a log fire was burning, and
| tested it in the fire to see if 1t would
melt. But it wouldn't melt, and then
| knew it was gold, sure. Then | came
| out with it to where the men were
working, and, Boys said l, 1T is
goldr
THAT was the first announcement of
the discovery of gold in California, and
was the first man to test the metal
and the first man to proclaim IL
1t is needless to say that neither
Hrown nor Marshall nor any of those
,thcr mill builders at Coioma was look
nn for or expecting gold in those days
As n matter of fact, they were working
with the vaguest hope OF ever receiving
,nv monetary consideration for their
labor. As the old pioneer very tersely
and pathetically puts 1T: "oid capt
Sutter owes me one hundred dollars in
cold cash pct for the work | put in on
that mill race. and / know Til never
get it, seeing as he Is dead
But we had no kick coming, be-
cause we had agreed to accept cattle,
horses and grub in part payment for
our work Moreover, we picked up
enough gold before we left the place
To square our accounts with the cap
tain's Coloma enterprise.
.-Y,. had come with a bigger MISSION
than that of seeking gold We were
MorInons Many of US were soldiers
| had been serving with my battalion
in the south. but after our disband
mcnt was marching with the rest o
our people to u UCah. At Coloma W.
found that we had not provisions an6
stock enough to supply the eutire ex
petition during the rest of the journey
over the wilderness, SO we decided t.