The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1895-07-12
SAW THE FIRST GOLD
HE TELLS ABOUT THE MARSHALL
DISCOVERY AT Suffers.


There is alive but one of the men who
worked for Suttcr in the mill at Colo,na,
where on Jan "a, 1915, James W. Mar
shall discovered gold. That survivor is
James Brown. He is nearly 20 years of
age and makes his homo with gran,lchild
i'll Pomona valley. He is the only man
living who WAS present when Marshall
washed the yellow grains in the camp
doughpan, ard he is the man who first
tested tho flaky scales with fire, and going
forth from tho shanty TO where the men
were ut work on tho mill race cried Bows,
hcro'S goldr'
Il am tho oldest miner alive in Califor-
nia today, said he the other day. Il don't
mean the oldest In years, but was the
first miner. There were about 100 of us
building Captain Suffers mill on the
American river We had como upon the
rock when we were digging the raco and
wcrc afraid that it would Interfere with
our making an even channel for tho wa
ter. Then 1t was that Marshall came TO
me and told mo about the books about
gold and mines he had been reading, and
on tho afternoon of Jan. 23, 1913, lo de-
tcrmincd 10 do little prospecting. He
asked me to bring him the pan. 1t was
common, ordinary pun that we baked
bread In and the like. He spent all the
afternoon with that pan trying to find
gold, but he hadn't got any thing by sup
per
The next morning early he started out
with the pan again. We boys We're cXca-
waiting in the ditch when he came UP from
the hole where he waS working and told
us he had found some mineral. He had
il in his ha;--n whole LOT Of little flake
like scales. They Were all small bits, and
all l..
We're. He handed tho hat TO me, and
took one of the flakes and bit it. could
tell by biting it that it was gold, but 1
wasn't surc. SO took it into the cabin,
where II log fire was burning, and / tested
it i'll the fire TO STE ii il would melt. But
ii wouldn't melt, and then l knew it was
gold sure. Then / came out with it to
where the men wero working, and, Boys,
said !, it is gold!'
THAT was the first announcement of
the discovery of gold in California, and I
was the first man to test the metal and the
first man To proclaim it,
Neither Brown nor Marshall nor any
of the other mill builders won't to Coloma TO
look for gold. They Were working with
the vngucst hope of receiving pay for their
labor. As the old pioneer put it, "Old
Captain Suffer owes mo 800 cold cash yct
ami know I'll never get it, seeing us he
is dead"
. But we made no kick " he went on.
eve had agreed to accept cattle horses
ana grub i'll part payment for our work.
Moreover, we picked UP enough gold be
fore we left the place to square our ac-
counts with the captains Colona enter
prise. We had como with bigger mission
than that of seeking gold. We We're Nor
mons. Many of us Were soldiers had
been serving with my battalion, and after
our disbandmrnt was marching with the
rest of our people To Utah At Colomn wo
found that we had not enough provisions
and stock for the rest of the journey over
the Wilderness, so we decided to send the
older people and men of family ahead with
supplies enough to carry them through
while over 100 of us decided to wait over
another year and work for old Captain
Suffer in the meantime.
Money was scarce in those days, and
though Captain Suffer was very we'll fixed
he had but little ready cash We ONLY
wanted stock and provisions, and these we
agreed To accept in lieu of ready payment for
any services we might render. At that
time the old captain was anxious to build
griSt mill and lumber mill on the
American river. Labor was scarce There
fore our arrival was Very timely for him
We had whcclwrights, smiths, carpenters
and masters of every other trade in our
company, and hc WAS able to secure orr
services without the expenditure OF n cent
of ready money.
When the discovery had once boon
made, we tried for awhile to keep quiet.
and suffer who wanted to see his mill
completed, was particularly anxious to
I'll w, -T,l-,
plctcd both the grist and the lumber mill
and did not desert their posts or the work
they had originally contracted to do To
seek the yellow metal
Though ! had tested the first Grains of
gold in the fire and with my teeth never
thcleSS, To hc.siire about matters we sent
them To Sacramento to make certain
They tested them there and finally decided
that they really We're gold Then they
sent on the news To san Francisco, where
the announcement was published for the
lliNt time by Il man named Sam Grammar,
who had brought Il lot of type and IA press
and everything around the Horn
Did stay long at Column after the
completion of the mill you ask? No. sir.
Only few of us did Myself ana most of
our people only remained long enough To
dig up enough gold to equip ourselves; for
marhing back over The plains to ncct
those ol our people who were coming out
TO join Us. "
And was not the promise Of an easily
made fortune induccmcnt enough To keen
you N Coloma:'
How could it be? Had we not our
friends Oh the plains, and had we not to
meet thcn:'
And ahont how much did you all
make"
Oh, il was all accordingto lnck-somc
made more, some made lc>s-somc made
5000 or $500; some made 81, 1000 or -, 600
guess Lad something like 81, 800 iii
dust Marshall who found it first, had
none at all Marshall was mot lurL,- amy.