The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-12-12


Howard Shinn, recently published by the
Appleton's. in their Story of the West
series. The volume has been noticed in
our columns, but we make this extract
for the special reasons given on the
editorial page.-EDIToR.
In the closing years of the decade
Q840, SOY the most thoughtful and in
telligent of the prospecters who lived
in Washoe (now Nevada) two broth
ers named Ethan Allen and Hosea
Ballou Grosh, the sons of prominent
Universalist minister of Pennsylvania,
were steadily at work searching from
canyon to canyon for silver, gold and
other minerals. No one else in all
that region was SO we'll equipped for
the prospecter's work, none better de-
served success, and none were so un-
fortunate. Among the many drama
tic chapters of the story of the Com
stock, nothing surpasses in human
interest the simple story of these
two miners.
Much that has been written about
the Grosh brothers and the "irst dis
covery of silver" is mere tradition
and hearsay; in fact, their story has
never been given its rightful place in
the history of Nevada. / have been
fortunate in securing from DIR. Rich
ard Maurice Burke, of London, On
tario, the loan of manuscript ac
count of the Grosh brothers, which
for the first time makes connected
narrative possible. DR.. Burke-their
faithful friend and chronicler, who
begins his narrative with: "In the
summer of 1857 Allen and Hosea
Grosh, George Brown, and the writer
were mining in Gold Canyon" -ap-
pears in other records of the time as
''the young Canadian prospecter."
Leaving the mines after the exper-
fences to be told in this chapter, he
studied medicine, has been for years
at the head of an Insane Asylum in
| Canada, and is known in literature by
various essays, and by his life of
Walt Whitman.
DIR. Burke describes the Grosh
brothers as of medium height, slight
in figure, good looking, fairly we'll
educated, very quick of observation,
ready with expedients, gifted (espec-
tally Allen) with exceptional powers
of original thought, thoroughly hon
est and honorable, absolutely devoted
to each other, industrious, persever-
ing, chaste, sober, and above all,
"filled with that genuine religion of
the heart, which is the salt of the
earth" They went to California in
the schooner Newton expedition -
leaving Philadelphia February 1S49,
endured more than ordinary hards-
hips, reached the placer mines of Ell
Dorado county, found little gold, and
in the summer of 1858 reached the
Western Utah Camps.
They worked in Gold canyon until
the autumn of 1854, making only a
bare living, then returned to Califor-
mia to prospect for quartz, but still
without success. They were always
working hard, but they seem never
to have known anything but hard
times. They just made enough to
keep themselves going. Neverthe-
less they never lost courage, and
they hoped for better days. Writing
home from California to their father
March 1866 they give the first hint
of Nevada silver:
ever since our return from Utah,
we haye been trying to get couple
of hundred dollars together, for the
purpose of making careful examin-
alton of silver lead in Gold Canyon
Native silver is found in G old
Canyon: it resembles thin sheet-lead
broken very fine, and lead the miners
suppose it to be, We found
silver ore at the forks of the CANYON.
A large quartz vein shows itself in
this situation"
They did not obtain the two hun
dred dollars, but managed to reach
Gold Canyon with great difficulty in
September, and, as they soon wrote,
"found two veins of silver at the forks
of Gold Canyon. One of these
veins is a perfect monster. We
have hopes, almost amounting to
certainty, of veins crossing the Can
yon at two other points" Then they
went back to California to try to earn
a little more money, but failed com
pletely. 1--WE have had very bad
luck, writes Allen.
In June, 1857. writing from Gold
Canyon, Allen Grosh, gives more par
ticulars of their discoveries; "We
struck the vein without difficulty.