The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-08-14
DISCOVERIES OF AMERICAN GOLD.
A Timely Review of Four Hundred Years of a
Pursuit of the Yellow Metal.

Carolina, Georgia. Virginia, Maryland,
pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York,
Massachusetts,. Vermont, lower Canada
and other parts Of the continent
In Georgia, especially, great excite
ment prevailed for some time. The
richest finds were reported from the
Cherokee reservation. PROSECUTORS be-
gan to encroach upon the domain of
the red men, Protests naturally fol-
lowed, and Georgia sent q, large police
force to keep back the invaders. but it
was OF little avail Reckless, dissipated
men from all quarters Of the country
f1ocked in, prowled about the woods,
set up log huts and shanty groceries
on all the streams, and even the fed
eral troops were powerless to keep the
lawless hordes west of the Chestatee.
These days are known as the period Of
1.-The intrusion"-one of the two dates
from which the mountaineers reckon all
events, the other being the late war"
Finding that no protection of the In
dians by police measures was feasible,
the state in 1880 adopted the Indians,
reservation and all, and constituted the
region a county. Then the mineral
lands were divided up into 40 acre lots,
and put up at lottery by the state. 1t
soon came to be found here, as else
where, that gold was not to be picked
up in Jumps every day. The worthless,
lazy, dissolute majority of the eaEy
horde of invaders gradually drifted
away, while only the small minority re-
manned. The population, like the dirt,
was slowly panned out, and the current
Of events carried the dross away.
In Habersham county, Ca, gold was
discovered in 1881 by a man named
Wilpero, who, observing the resem-
blance of the surface and of the foli-
age and the streams of the region with
the gold section of North Carolina, dug
for the precious metal and found it in
considerable quantities.
? In Virginia gold was mined for many
years. The largest masses of the metal
were found in or near rivulets or runs
or water. On brook at the Whitehall
mine gold of the value of $4,000 was
found in the course of a few days in a
space about 20 feet square.
The gold fever in the south had al
most died out when from the farthest
quarter of the United States the re-
Gently acquired California, came the
news of gold finds far more remarkable
and productive than those heretofore
made
Not that gold was new to California.
For three centuries there had been wild
talk about fabulous mineral wealth in
the region of the Sierras. In the '20'S
and sos of this century small nuggets
OF gold had been repeatedly obtained
from the Indians. One day, a <lborer
In the employ of the Russian-American
in California came to the
with the story that he
had seen gold in the bed of a stream
and advised that a party be sent to
examine it. The man was told to mind
his own business. Although such rum0rs
Of the existence of gold in California
had occasionally been heard, still they
had never been verified or traced to any
reliable source, and they were regarded
as we now regard the fabulous stories
of the golden sands of Gold Lake or
those of Silver Planches, which are said
to exist in the inaccessible deserts of
But when, towards the summer of
lS4S, bags and bottles full of gold were
displayed at San Francisco, a. .Sonoma
and Monterey the people realized the
fact that California was rich of gold:
that the precious metal was not difficult
to obtain, and that gold mining, under
all conditions, must be profitable. The
news spread. gold fever broke out
anew, and from east, north and south
bands of gold hunters headed towards
The newly discovered Eldorado.
The first Californian gold was found
1t Coloma, near the site of the present
city of Sacramento; it's discovery was
by accident; its discoverer was James
W. Marshall: the man on whose lands
it was found, John Augustus Suffer.
The lives of these two men are so re-
narkable that it may be of interest TO
present brief graphical-account.
John Augustus Suffer was born in
Kandern, in the Grandduchy of Baden, /
-eay-r 7s1r q of rrizc
Having graduated at che |
college at Berne, ne entered /
The French service as an officer Of the |
Swiss guard, and served in 1924
through the Spanish campaign. In 1884 4
ne emigrated to this country and set !
led in St. Louis, remaining here for 1
several years. Afterward he carried on /
!. profitable trade with the Indians and I
.rapperS of the west, whose accounts /
If California induced him in 1888 to /
ross the Rocky mountains. He went |
irst to Oregon, descended Columbia 1
liver to Fort Vancouver, and thence !
sailed to the Hawaiian Islands, where /
ne purchased a vessel and set out for 1
5itka Alaska, then Russian settle |
nent. After disposing of his cargo to !
advantage there, he sailed along the /
Pacific coast, and on July 2. 1882 was |
stranded in the bay of Yerba Buena, |
grant of land near the /
present site of Sacramento from the (
Mexican government, founded the ear
lest white settlement in those parts /
md built a fort which he called New I
Ielvetia. The Mexican government ap-
1o;nted him governor of the northern {
rontier country. but, as he favored the /
of California 10 the United /
states the Mexicans regarded him with /
roi loo
Wilkes exploring expedition reached i
san Francisco, Suffer gave him aid and /
and ne extended a similar i
Welcome to John c. Fremont and his
,arty. In 1914 he took into his employ
James w. Marshall, a native of New
Jersey, who had just come to Califor-
Tia Marshall served in the Bear Flag
var, and after mis- return entered the
lumber business with his former en-
,loyer at Coloma. Ell Dorado county.
On the afternoon of Jan. 49, 1913,
While experimenting the construction
Il a mill race at Coloma, he found
nugget of gold, and, collecting several
unces of the ore, took the specimens
o the men, saying: Boys, believe I
ave found gold nine" The remark
Produced no marked effect upon his
hearers, and Marshall walked off 10
lis house. Next morning he came again
With several nuggets of gold, which he
lad picked from the surface of the
Mill race. Led by Marshall the labor
RS all hastened down to the mill race
nd soon were absorbed in picking from
he seams and crevices of the rock the
precious yellow metal.
On the evening of Feb. 3 1S4S, Mar
hall rode into the fort, his horse foam
ng and spattered with mud. Taking
;utter aside he showed him about half