The Republican journal., 1897-11-04
Portland Sunday Times.

county commissioner OF w dluo county, ana
a well-known citizen of Eastern Maine.
Mr. Fowler was young man OF twenty
years when the great California gold ex
element began. In the winter and spring
of 1919 stories of the wonderful discoveries
i'll the Eldorado of the West began to be
discussed by the firesides of Waldo and
kennebec counties.
The young men Of that day were more
adventurous than those of to- day; for
more of them started for California than
even think of going to Klondike to-day.
Yet California was at thai time as much
an unknown country as Alaska isx to- day.
There were as many lions in our way
them says Mr.. Fowler, las are now put
before those going to the klondike. The
newspapers were as full of stories of perils
and hardships then as they are now. But
we found that all these terrors diminished
as we approached them, and | imagine it
is so with the perils of the klondike.'
1t was a formidable undertaking for a
country boy of 20 years to set out for
California in 1919. Mr. Fowler sailed from
Bath in the ship Hampton, the vessel
leaving the Kennebec in the early days Of
September, 1919, and entering the Golden
Gate in eight days less than six months.
The Hampton was hip of about AS
tons. She was commanded by Captain
Davis huge man, six and one-half feet
tall. Mr.. Fowler brother, button Fowl
er, had been to sea several years and had
risen to be mate of the Hampton.
The ship carried forty six passengers
when she left Bath, each paying 5000 or
$3.50 passage money, according as he went
in the first or second cabin.
OF the passengers, Mr. Fowler remem-
bers the names of William Bodfsh, Ben
jamin Libby, Samuel Kendall, and Mr..
Flood of Fairfield, Robert Henry. Albert
Bates and Mr.. kidder of Skowhegan;
stephen T. and Joseph Rackitf Of Unity;
Augustus D. Brown of Portland: DE-.
Buraigh, brother OF the late Hall f.
Bulleigh, and Captain Foote Of Sidney,
even then an old man. Most of thesv mon
are dead. Samuel Kendall of Fairfield
ana Albert Bates OF Skowhegan are living.
Dr Bmleigh became prominent man in
Idaho, and was one of the witnesses at
the impeachment of President johnson.
Joseph Racklitf was drowned while cross
ing the Middle Fork of the Canadian
River in Il canoe.
The passengers on the Hampton had the
regular sea fare of those dayS-dutt,
lObscouse,t( ia combination of hard bread
and beeD, beans, potatoes, yams, chick
tllS anu lltSH POI 1Itlt WIS Il tttt
deal of growing at the food says Mr..
Fowler, "but after | had knocked around
the world two or three years | concluded
that we lived pretty well on the Hamp-
tom
The ship stopped at Rio Janeiro and
Valparaiso; bat these incidents did not
diminish greatly the tediousness of the
long voyage. They read, played checkers
and other games, and watched he horizon
intently for that most exciting OF ocean
incidents, the appearance of sail. While
rounding Cape Horn they were blown
southwark so far by fierce gale that they
reached a place where the sun scarcely
set at all, and where the young men from
Maine could read the fine print of their
Bibles by sunlight at any hour of the
night.
MI. Fowler was very sick during the
first portion of the voyage, and thinks he
would have died but for the faithful
nursing of Stephen Racklitf, who had
practiced medicine somewhat. One of the
passengers did die before the ship reached
Rio Janeiro.
Finally, one February day in $780, the
Hampton sailed in the Golden Gate, and
the Argonauts from Maine saw the forest
of masts of the vessels that had brought
sells were lying SO close together that a
great storm which soon swept the harbor
caused them to crash into one another
with great damage.
LAS stepped ashore in San Francisco, "
says Mr.. Fowler, lone OF the first men
met was William Weeks of Clinton. (now
Benton) He said to me: "Well, Fowler,
| suppose that you are like all the rest
who land here?''
- How is that?' | said.
I" No money! he replied.
Il was obliged to confess that | had
only five cents, and as it took forty cents
to get one of the letters from home that
were awaiting me in the post office, !
could not be said to be in the best of cir
cumstances. Weeks took from his pocket
fifty dollars in gold dust, done up in a
piece of newspaper. | thanked him fol
it, and began to look for work. | soon
found it and began helping unload YES
sci at dollar an hour. | returned the
gold dust to Weeks, and did not want fol
a dollar after that. Weeks was, by the
way, a brilliant man, and after strange
vicissitudes of fortune became, [ think
attorney general of California, and pres
identia elector on the Lincoln ticket.
After working for time at San Fran
cisco, Mr.. Fowler, in company with hii
brother Dutton, Orrin Bates and Benja
min Libby, went to the Middle Fork o
the American River and began mining
with the picks, shovel and cradle. The,
worked there fourteen months. 1t wal
hard labor with the toiler's spirits nov
dampened by i'll luck and now exhilaratee
by success. Many days they would ge
nothing, and sometimes there would be
day when the result of their toll would b.
yellow dust enough to make Thousand
dollars. Generally they dug down from
six to fifteen feet, until they came to
ledge. The gold was usually in the las
foot of earth next the ledge. Sometimes
they would be rewarded by finding mug
gets of considerable size. One Sunday
when they were not at work, Mr.. Fowle
began idly to split into seam of slate
that happened to attract his interest b,
the neatness with which it could be spill
into sheets. What was his surprise tt
find, on splitting the slate, bright, clean
yellow gold between the layers of slate
And that seam yielded several hundred
lo11