The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1907-10-24

Mr. George w. Hotchkiss.
Sec. Western Association California
Pioneers.
My Dear Sir:
You have requested me to write a
history of my trip and work while
in California. l herewith give you a
few incidents which | can recall, re-
lating to my overland journey to the
wonderful land of gold.
On the 18th day of June 1S49 | left
my home in the state of Maine to see
something of this big land of ours, |
was then twenty-three years of age
and had spent my early years on my
| fathers farm. At that time | had no
| thought of going to California. ! spent
portion of the summer i'll western
| New York and in September boarded
| the steamer at Buffalo bound for Chi
cago After pleasant though un
eventful trip | arrived in ChicagO-I
will mention an incident had form
! ed the acquaintance the winter pre-
nois, thirty miles from Chicago, his
noiS, thirty-miles from Chicago, his
name was Bliss. He invited me to
| come and see him if | ever came west.
! | wanted to find him but did not have
! his address. | only remembered that
| he lived thirty miles from Chicago. |
went to hotel for the night all the
| time wondering how | might find my
| friend Bliss. Mr.. Bliss was a Yankee
! farmer and it occurred to me that he
| might be subscriber to the Prairie
| Farmer, so in the morning | went to
! their Office and the post office address
| of my friend was discovered much to
| my relief. The remaining portion of
| the season | spent in cruising about
the state until late in November when
| engaged in teaching school for the
| winter. During this time several COM
| DanieS were formed in the vicinity
with the purpose of making the over
! land trip to California and | caught the
| fever myself. One OF my brothers,
j. A. Bullen who spent the winter in
| the northern part of the state-l had
| left him in New York the previous
| autumn-Came to see me. he had .ne
| California fever too, and we decided
| to take the trip We went to ST. Louis
| and took passage on a steamer for st.
| Joseph intending to obtain our outfit
at that place. We found it was too
| early in the season to start across the
plains as there was not sufficient grass
| for the animals, we therefore went a
| few miles into the country and board
| ed with a planter for about a month
and in the meantime we bought a
couple of mules for riding and secured
what we considered sufficient supplies
| for the journey, and made a bargain
with a man who had a fine four horse
team, who also was bound for the land
of gold, to carry our provisions and
luggage through We left the Missouri
river opposite st. Joe on the 18th, of
May 1850 and reached HangtOwn (now
Placerville) on the following 18th, day
of August travelling a distance OF about
two thousand miles in 93 days. Our
journey across the plains was on the
| whole, a pleasant one, we enjoyed al
| most uninterrupted good health dur
| ing the trip, for which | desire to
render my gratitude to the Heavenly
Father who protected us. Several in
| cidents occurred on the trip which
call to mind. Our line of travel lay
across the country from st. Joe to
| Grand Island thence up the Platte
river to South Fork which we forded.
Here we first saw wild buffalo they
were not extinct at that time. few
days later we killed buffalo that had
| mark here that our company consisted
of twenty men and the same number
of horses We followed up the Platte
Valley to FIT Laramie where we camp
ed for couple of days. We proceeded
| up the Platte for a distance. then up
| the Sweet Water ard across the Rocky
Mountains at South lass, Our trail
| up to this time had been ..ne, no bad
nd foll nl
down the western slope of the Rockies
| and at length took the ''Hedspeth and
Myers cut off, leaving the Salt Lake
trail to the south of us. Very little
| worthy of note transpired up to this
time. On the 3rd, of July we struck
Bear river few miles south of the
bend" Here we celebrated ,.e 4th,
appropriately, but without liquor AS
| we wended our way we passed the
| famous Steamboat Springs which
need not describe here. After proceed.
ing about 1900 miles on our journey
the fine team of the party who con-
tracted to carry our luggage, were so
exhausted by reason Of the severe ia
tigue and lack af proper care, that we
held council and decided to disband.
We divided the remaining provisions
| and the company separated and each
| subdivision taking their own way.
We. brother and /, had favored our
mules as much as possible anticipat-
ing that we might need good strong
| animals before we should reach the
end of our journey, started on our own
hook and Travelled at the rate of one
hundred miles in three days. Soon we
came to the head waters of the Hum
bolt river and followed down it's course
to the "Sink of the Humbolt" 300 miles
crossing the river 33 times before
| reaching the Sink" We reached our
last crossing of the river about the