Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1907-09-01

+ GEORGE w. MEAcHAM +
~. <.ss'
lance we lost all track of that corral and
decided to pitch tent. was taken sick,
and told my companions to go down thu
steep mountain-like hill and do some
prospecting.
'One day as was lying in that awful
tent, with never the thought that could
live out doors. l was thinking of home
and all that it meant and wondering If L
should ever see 1t again, when my hair
almost stood up straight at the sound of
a womans voice.
Nursed by Girl
St''It was y6 maid who asked me
\ M was sick. she said her mother had
sent her up to see what was the matter.
There was Mormon family little dis
lance away and they brought me hot
milk and home-cooked food, such as
had not tasted since left good old New
York. | soon began to mend In health
and Joined my partners in the diggings.
I'VE used to fry our bacon In pan
with handle five feet long. which cost
us 49, We would SIT around the camp
fire and hold the long handled frying
pan over the blaze We would fry our
pdCOn anu tIieH TURN III the SlapJaCk
dough, and each fry himself fapjack,
and pass 1t to the next. In that way we
would Just about get around once, when
the first one would be ready to fry an
other
1--WE carried on our prospecting there
with considerable success, and one day
we took out $140O in one hour.
1T went back to San Francisco in time
to see the fire Of 1885, which wiped out
the little town. I took the contract for
the underpinnings of the houses from
Clay to Washington street. using lumber
from Chile.
1--WE again went for mining claims, at
what was known as Yankee Jim's.' We
encountered snow three feet deep, and
as 1t fell to my lot to go back after the
provisions had a pretty lively time
One morning I went out and found q
mule stiff and almost dead. The boys
got up and wrapped their blankets around
the other mules, but they died.
Loses In Venture
Next entered the company that was
formed to turn the north fork of the
American river mile out of its course
1 paid in $4,000 and came out with @
cents. 4i
Il then went into the butchering bust
ness and did a land office business
bought ranch on Dry creek and later
hotel. Then the yearning for home, an
what was promised awaiting me Their
| took me back.
II went back by way of Panama an
was married in Newark in 1852. 1 stage
there about six months and then decide
| to return to California and settle UP m
| affairs and return to the east and m,
wife for good
! II came back to California by way O
Nicaragua On this voyage the Panama
fever broke out on the ship and TO
twenty-one days there was an averag
of five bodies thrown overheard a day
They would be taken with the illness il
the morning and be dead at night.
luckily recovered
IT was in Sacramento on the night o.
the big fire there, the election night o.
1852
Later met man who was very kind
to me, and hearing later that he was IL
/ went to his cabin and did what could
for him. l called doctor, and imagine
my horror when he told me that the
man had the smallpox. I was in for 1t
just after having had the Panama fever
and thought I might as well stay.
Burles Money
1.-THE man died that night and l made
rude coffin with the boards of a table
and put him in, dressed as he was.
knew that he had at least $500 in gold In
his clothes, but put it all in rather than
touch it. dug shallow grave an6
buried him. But luckily / did not take
the disease.
II bought ranch back of Oakland and
started in the stock raising business
"In 1858 Mrs. Meacham came out and
Joined me. We lived ten years at this
ranch where our daughter. now Mrs
Strobridge. was born"
Later Mr.. and Mrs. Meacham went tc
Nevada. Mr. Meacham continuing in the
stock business for over forty years. They
come to Los Angeles six years ago.
A bit of romance cropped out in the
lives of these pioneers when their only
daughter Mrs. Idah Meacham Stro-
bridge, married the son of Samuel Stro-
bridge, who was a companion of Mr.
Meacham on the first memorable half
year voyage to California.
Mrs. Strobridge is a prominent clul,
woman and has inaugurated bindery
at the bungalow home, 231 East Avenue
Forty-one. She has taken a prominent
place in art circles. establishing tho
Little Corner of Local Art in her bindery,