River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1894-04-19
THE FINDING OF GOLD.
How the Precious Metal Was Dis
covered in California.

1
| long before the Americans conquered
the land; but, even granting that Mar
shalls Was the FIST End that was her
aided 70 the world at large, aud that
the date thereof was January "a, lS4s,
even then the accounts of that discov-
cry have been jumbled and twisted in
such innumei able ways that it would
seem that all chroniclers of the inter
esting event were beguiled by its daz-
cling splendors into the romantic realms
| of fiction.
The men who worked for Suffer on
the old Coloma mill have nearly all
found uncontested claims, and are rest
| ing therein forever; but up at the 40
mining camp at the Midwinter fair is
an elderly one-legged Mormon, named
James s 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 falxy scales with fire, and,
| going forth from the shanty To where
the men were at work on the mill race,
was the first 10 cry: Boys, here's
goldr'
James Brown is sixty-five years old
now. In 1s4s he was a lusty youth of
not yet twenty summers. lie had two
legs then. Ii was only quarter of q
century ago that he lost the other at
bear hunt
II am the Oldest miner alive in Cali
fornia to-day" said he II don't mean
that am the oldest in years. because
| am only sixty-five, aud there are
many men here to-day who have
worked in the early days and are now
much older than me But was the
first miner. | was with Marshall when
he first discovered gold in January,
ls4s. and l was the first man to know
about it The story is an old one. It
was at Capt Suffers mill ON the
American river, which we were build
ing. Marshall, who was a wheelwright
by trade, was in charge of the work.
He was a particular friend of mine,
but there ~ere nearly one hundred of
us working on the millrace at the
time. lie had been reading books
about gold and mines and things. and
rememb Der very well his coming to me
one day and talking about quartz and
bedrock and similar matters, and telling
me that he thought there was gold in
the country.
You see, we had come upon the
rock when we were digging the race
and were afraid that it would interfere
with our making an even channel for
the water. Then it was that Marshall
came to me and told me about the
books he had been reading, and on the
afternoon of the Esd of January, 1s4S,
he determined to do little prospect
ing. He asked me to bring him the
pan. 1t was a common. ordinary pan
that we baked bread in and the like.
lie speht all the afternoon with that
pan trying to find gold, but he hadn't
got anything by supper.
The next morning early he started
out with the pan again. We boys were
excavating in the ditch when lie came
up from the hole where he was work
ing and told us he had found sorAe min
eraL lie had it in his hat; "a whole lot
of little fiake-like scales. They were
all small bits, and all scaly, and he
wasn't sure what they were. He hand
ed the hat to me, and took one of the
flakes and bit it / could tell by biting
it that it was gold, but, of course,
wasn't sure. So took it into the cab
in, where a log fire was burning, and
tested il in the fire to see if it would
melt But il wouldn't melt, and then
knew it was gold, sure. Then I came
out with il To where the men were
working, and, Boys said 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 it .
1t is needless TO say that neither
Brown nor Marshall nor any of those
other mill builders at Coloma was look
ing for or expecting gold in those days.
AS matter of fact, they were working
with the vaguest hope of ever receiving
any monetary consideration for their
laIor. AS the old pioneer very tersely
and pathetically puts it: odd Capt
Suffer owes me one hundred dollars In
cold cash yet for the work put in on
that mill race. and ! know I'll 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.
I'VE had come with a bigger mission
than that of seeking gold. We were
Mormons. Many Of us. were soldiers
had been serving with my battalion
in the south. but after our disband-
ment was marching with the rest of
our people to Utah. At Coloma we
found that we had not provisions and
stock enough TO supply the eutire ex-
petition during the rest of the Journey
over the wilderness. so we decided to
send the older people, men of family.
etc. ahead with supplies enough TO
carry them through. while over
hundred of us decided to wait over an
other year and work for old Capt. Sui
ter in the meantime.
Money was scarce in those days,
and, though Capt Suffer was very well
fixed, he had but little ready cash
We only wanted stock and provisions,
and these we agreed to acceptin lieu
of ready cash payments for any serv-
ices we might render. At that time
the old captain was anxious to build
grist mill and lumber mill on the
American river. Labor was searce-
skilled labor nonresident Therefore
our arrival was very timely for him.
We had wheelwrights. smiths, car
penters and skilled masters of every
other trade in our company, and he
was able to secure our services without
the expenditure of cent OF ready
money.
"Whel- the discovery had once been
made we tried for awhile 10 keep it
quiet. aud Suffer, who was anxious to
see his mills completed, was particu-
larly anxious to keep the secret close,
but though the news spread round
among sill the workmen they neserthe-
less completed both the grist and the
lumber mill, and did not desert their
posts on the v ork they had originally
contracted 10 do TO seek the yellow
metal
Though had tested the first grains
81 cold ~, fhn .rI x.-ssh .aash