The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1895-09-05
SAW THE FIRST GOLD
He TELLS ABOUT THE MARSHALL
DISCOVERY AT Suffers.
Another Account Of That Oft Told Imper-
tant Event-Jsmes Brown Says the In
ducements Were Not Enough TO Keep
Him From Going to Meet His Friends.

Him From Going to Meet His Friends.
There is alive but one of the men who
worked for Sutter In the mill at Coloma,
where on JAN "a, 1s4S, James W. Mar
| shall discovered gold. That survivor is
James Brown. He Is nearly 20 years of
| age and makes his home with grandchild
In Pomona valley He is the only man
living who was present when Marshall
| washed the yellow grains In the camp
| doughpan, and he Is the man who first
tested the flaky scales with fire, and going
| forth from the shanty to where the men
were at work on the mill race cried, Boys,
here's gold"
~ am the Oldest miner alive in Califor-
mia today" said he the other day 81 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 come upon the
rock when we were digging the race and
were afraid that 1t would interfere with
| our making an even channel for the wa
ter. Then 1t was that Marshall came to
me and told me about the books about
| gold and mines he had been reading, and
| on the afternoon Of Jan. 23, 184S, he de.
| termined to do little prospecting. He
asked me TO bring him the pan. 1t was
common ordinary pan that we baked
bread In and the like. He spent all the
afternoon with that pan trying to find
| gold, but be hadn't got any thing by sup
| per.
"The next morning early he started out
with the pan again We boys were exca-
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 hat--a whole lot of little fake
like scales. They were all small bits, and
all scaly, and he wasn't sure what they
were. He handed the hat to me, and
took one Of the flakes and bit it, could
tell by biting 1t that 1t was gold, but
wasn't sure. So took 1t into the cabin,
where log fire was burning, and tested
it in the fire to see If it would melt. But
1t wouldn't melt, and then knew 1t was
gold sure. Then 1 came out with it to
where the men were working and, Boys, ;
said 1, 1T is goldI'
"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 1t.
Neither Brown nor Marshall nor any
Of the other mill builders went to Coloma to
look for gold. They were working with
the vaguest hope of receiving pay for their
labor. AS the old pioneer put it, "Old
Captain Sutter owes me 800 cold cash yet
for the work put In on that mill race,
and know I'll never get 1t, seeing as he
Is dead"
"But we made no kick, he went on.
"We had agreed to accept cattle, horses
and grub in 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 Coloma enter
prise. We had come with bigger mission
than that of seeking gold. We were Nor
mons. Many of US were soldiers. had
been serving with my battalion, and after
our disbandment was marching with the
rest of our people to Utah. At Coloma we
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
Sutter in the meantime.
money was scarce in those days, and
though Captain Sutter was very well 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 wheelwrights, smiths, carpenters
and masters of every other trade In our
company and he was able to secure our
services without the expenditure of a cent
of ready money.
when the discovery had once been
made, we tried for awhile to keep quiet,
and Sutter, who wanted to see his mill
completed, was particularly anxious to
keep the secret close. The workmen COM
pleted 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
theless, to be sure about matters, we sent
them to Sacramento to make certain.
They tested them there and finally decided
that they really were gold, Then they
sent on the news to San Francisco, where
the announcement was published for the
first time by man named Sam Brannan,
who had brought lot of type and q press
and everything around the Horn.
Ibid / stay long at Coloma after the
completion of the mill, you ask? No, sir.
Only few Of us did Myself and most of
our people only remained long enough to
dig up enough gold to equip ourselves for
marching back over the plains to meet
those Of our people who were coming out
to join u.s."
And was not the promise of an easily
made fortune induoement enough to keep
you at ColomaY
How could 1t beP Had we not our
friends on the plains, and had we not to
meet themp"
And about how much did you all
make?"
"Oh, 1t was all according to luck--some
made more, some made less-some made
5000 or ss00 some made 81, 900 or So, 00O
/ guess had something like 81, 500 In
dust Marshall, who found it first, had
none at all. Marshall was not lucky any.
how. He was one of the original bear flag
men-one Of the fllibusters who thought
he owned the country. They had selected
the bear flag as their banner because bears
were so abundant out here In those days
The first bear flag was nothing but an old
strip of canvas, on which the men daubed
a picture OF bear with tar, their paint
brush being their own fingers. n--Pomona
(Cal.) Letter. tiF