The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-04-05

lars made in the gold diggings north and east
of Sacramento, | recalled the fact that, while
my poor husband tramping over Central
California, almost beside himself because he
had brought his wife away out to strange
land, far away from civilization, he had
many a time passed by and even gone among
gold deposits thar would have made him a
combined Vanderbilt and Gould had he but
known.
Along in May 1874 Gen. Suffer heard
from some friendly Indians that the white
settlers N Oregon and Northern California,
up near where the ModOc Indian war took
place, were making money by buying furs
from the Indians and selling them to the
trading agents for the Astor company and
some English buyers, who sailed up and down
the coast for the purpose. SO we started for
Oregon. | have been told by some California
historians that | was one of the first white
women to make the journey, which dan
gerous IN those days | can assure you. There
were fourteen men in our party. We went up
the east side of the Sacramento river for
about forty miles, and then crossed over by
swimming our horses and cattle, of which
the crowd had quite a number. 1t was there
l first witnessed the killing Of an Indian.
The men were all out trying to drive the
stock into The river, and I left alone N
camp, when several nude Indians came in,
and | thought they intended to steal
stepped to tree where the guns were. AS
they approached me | warned them away.
l marvel now how | ever dared so much, and
| my grandchildren cannot believe l was in my
| senses to have stayed as L did in such
barbarOus country.
My husband saw from where he was that
Indians were in camp, and sent one of the
men, whom he called Bear Dawson, to pro ect
me. Dawson was reckless young man, and
as he rode up he ordered the Indians to go,
but they drew their bows on him and re-
versed the order. Then he drew his pistol
and killed one of them and the rest fed. The
Indian fell within six feet of me. After that
my husband got Of the Indians to swim
across the river and tow the canoe in which
the child and | were sitting. The Indian took
/ because knew
had their guns bearing on him.
There's heap of adventures l could tell
! you about those days. One night when near
! Shasta Butte, We had twenty horses stolen
! from our party by the Indians, and a nice
mare was shot and killed with arrow with
! in forty feet of where l was sleeping. The
! next morning we had a fight with the In
! dians and l myself counted five Of them as
! they went down before the guns of the men
| in our party.
In going down one of the Siskiyou noun
! tains the Indians killed several of our horses
! and cattle. We went far Oregon City,
! but there found that the profit of dealing
/ in furs had been exaggerated and there was
! no money in 1t for any one not used to the
! business and possessed Of lots of capital We
! lived at Oregon City for five months. My
husband and | had the best house of any
! one in our party. 1t has one room, and was
built of rough pine boards. 1t begun
! and finished by the men in our party in three
! days. Our diet was game and no one ever
had such abundance of Venison and quail
as we. I have seen many a deer carcass
hauled away from camp because we could not
eat it. My husband would not waste powder
and shot on any more quail than were neces-
sary for food. but any one could have
shot 200 or 300 quail in one day in Oregon at
| that time. In 1916 returned to Napa val
ley, California. On our return, when we had
but five men, our stock stampeded by the
Indians near Shasta. By this time had two
children.
while the arrows were flying into our
camp l took babe and rolled it in a
blanket and hid 1t in the brush and returned
and took my other child and hid it also.
The moon shining bright and it seemed
to me that every time l heard a gun fired
| could hear an Indian fall into the river.
We had an Indian boy we had brought from
Oregon, and while the men and Indians were
fighting he succeeded in capturing all our
saddle horses and tying them in camp"
do you remember the news of the finding
of the first gold in California; asked the re
/ porter.
Il never could forget that If l should live
thousand years 1t was in May. 1S4S, and
were living in Napa, My husband was
! foreman for a Mexican ranchman and by
that time had managed to make living.
| One night when Mr.. Harris came home he
said that one Of the men who worked for
! Mr.. Vallejo upon Sonoma creek, was ter
ribly excited. and said that they had found
| bits OF gold in the sawmill sluice up at
/ Coloma, and that the canyons and gulches up
that way were full of gold nuggets Mr.
! Harris and | had been fooled so many times
! by exaggerated stories in California that
! we gave the subject only passing comment
We thought no more about the stories until
| a sailor same TO our house on his way to
| Suffers fort few days later. He said
that his brOtheT-in-law had seen some gold
| down at San Jose that lad been washed out
by several Of Suffers workmen. He had
/ quit sailing and his way to Coloma
Then the news of the gold find came thick
and fast, considering what e sparsely set
! tied region We were living in When a
month more had passed, and we began to see
for ourselves nuggets of gold as large as
peas in the hands of people, my husband be-
leved that the stories Of the riches in the
mountains were, after all, true. He started
with several other men to walk to Coloma.
In three weeks he was home again with 81 300
in gold and silver. He was as crazy as every
one else by that time, and / was about the
| same. Then he fixed the babies and me more
| comfortably, stocked the house with pro-
visions and started off for the gold digginss
| again. The whole country was literally in
sane with excitement, and when autumn
| came a white man white boy who was
| at all able-bodied was not to be found for
! miles and miles around Napa for thew had
| all gone seeking gold. Prices for everything
We ate or used rose to ten and twelve times
| their former value, and 1t was often he nd
| work to get provisions at any price. be-