Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1921-04-07
sis, Colo in California.

VS. and when child emigrated
10 80, Missouri with his parents
20 'sl7 he went with his parents in
10 wo-,non OK train to what is now
US ,.Tske City. On the route across
=" ,Ia;rs his parents dissentcd from
ins ,,orr,ons in their polygamy doc
t' 81 the first change young
ul.. . and his parents pushed on
,.rOss the Sierras. s -
-, ~. Rodney Adams, an aged man
with his granddaughter in Riv-
"' '4, county. is The last alive, as far
C,,;fornia can find out, who was
~ lanes Marshall when the first
' S,Is, nuggets were found. He is
hing his recollectons of California
lave the miners came, and a pub
49,, is awaiting copy as it is slowly
Y ,onn3 out. His recollections have
s,.n invaluable for Pacific Coast his
iUranS.
.O,s when lanes Marshall found the
e.. oold," said Mr.. Adams as he sat
;. HE pranddaughter's house at He
-, California, the other day. 81 was
r,,onero for Captain John Suffer, al
,bonph was but youth. | was away
-;,b cattle the morning Marshall
found the gold.
81 cot back to the ranch house late
:, the afternoon, and Jim Marshall,
,bo had been building mill race for
Suffers grist mill, was sitting on the
torse front steps. recall that Mar,
,b,u was more cheerful than usual.
ALE motioned me to come to him,
q, dropped from my mustang, and
said in low tones:
"Rod, whatd you say if could
sbov his whole country full OF gold p
4What could say, green boy of
,be plains What did | know of 9
oold.crazv world? kept my mouth
sbr, and looked wise. Marshall then
took me 10 one side, and told me in
balf.whspers how he had found five
chunks of native gold as large as
slberts He showed me the nuggets,
ucOn which he had experimental by
boiling, hammering and scraping to
find whether they really were gold,
Marshall had no idea then that his dis
cOvey was so important. His mind
was set on the mill which he had al
most finished and on several me-
chanical devices he had invented in it.
Among the things he said 70 me about
the gold he had found was that some
day he was going to hunt systematical-
k for more gold nuggets and that
he might get few thousand dollars
Of fortune together in that way. He
had absolutely no idea of the vast
ness of the mining possibilities his
recovery would lead to.
80 little did the fnding OF the
gold disturb either of us that remem-
Der that we went to bed early and slept
Nundly Marshall cautioned me to
keep the gold find a secret. But Mar
snail was loquacious and he himself
ragged of his find. Five days later
several MeXicanS brought in more mug
gets Then the MormonS, wo were
working for Suffer and Marshall, found
sod and the Importance of the find in
creased little in the minds Of Mar
"a!! and all OF us at the Coloma camp.
lew years later, when the worlds
"n'neTce was turned, as Lord Derby,
@la' BY the gold discovery in Cali
UfnIa, and when more than 100000
young men had hockcd 10 California,
'"' Oaa MADE new civilization,
1oH1s'ea how we could have been so
o''' at hrst to the meaning of the
us. nuggets that Marshall picked up
ihe news did not get down to San
francisco, about $50 miles away, until
u''Fe months later. When the gold
'HS SHOWN him, Captain Suffer, said,
It's that's gold, and it will be tine
'4'% OIL us meaning that It wa> the
wv Of their schemes for a big saw
u'' and Hour mill along the American
riyer
nut another week passed before the
s"ei became general at San Francisco
. uaek in the mountains gold had
. s'4S''y been found. remember that
-, men argued that the geologi-
s-,. 'o'1'iatIon of the Sierras made the
S .'4''g OF gold there an absurdity.
So'He said the golden flakes exhibited
-. He iron pyrites and other laughed
n NV sad they we're from a copper for
.;'. The San Francisco Star
w., I people who could believe there
'aS gold enough in all CoJ;forn;o m