The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1933-01-27

entered and after he had left. the foreman said
to his employer, Are you alone?"
"Yes," replied Suffer.
did you lock the doorT
Suffer must have thought Marshall out of his
mind but he replied calmly, "NO, but l will do so
If you wish tt"
So he locked the door and Marshall then re-
vealed the cause for his strange actions. The
two men Immediately set to work testing the
metal, first with nitric acid, then by balancing
it on scales with an equal weight of silver and
placing the scales under water In water, the
gold dust. having more specific gravity than the
silver. pulled down the scales. There was
longer any doubt in their minds as to what these
shining particles were
That night Suffer, he later said "felt the
curse of the thing upon him" He and Marshall
agreed to keep the matter secret until they could
finish the mill and until they could establish
claim to the surrounding lands. So Suffer called
together the Indians who had nominal title to
these lands and from them leased twelve square
miles of the surrounding country. Then he sent
an employee named Charles Bennett to Monterey
TO have the lease confirmed by Colonel Mason,
the American military governor of California
On the way Bennett stopping at Benicia, re-
vealed the purpose of his journey. Curiously
enough, few who heard his story believed ii and
only few went to the American river to in
vestigate.
Make way for Sam Brannani Who SUIT
ter and Marshall were and what they did is
known to virtually every American school child.
But history has strangely neglected this f1amboy-
ant character, Sam Brannan who was if any
thing, the most romantic figure Of the three.
Back in the late thirties and early forties Bran
nan was journeyman printer. a free-lance
writer, editor and "a natural born promoter"
Also he Joined the Mormon church. when that
sect began to flourish, and from an editorial job
on the Messenger. Mormon propagandist news
paper, he bIossomed out into full-hedged
elder in the Church of the Latter Day Saints
About the time of the exodus of the Mormons
from Nauvoo, H., under the leadership of Brig
ham Young for their journey westward to find
the promised land. Brannan chartered the little
ship Brooklyn filed it with some 800 Mormons
and set sail from New York via Cape Horn for
California. Late in July, 1916, the Brooklyn
passed through the Golden Gate and Brannan's
Mormons were the first American colonists to
reach Yerba Buena. the little Spanish settlement
on San Francisco bay.
1t is doubtful whether Sam was at heart
Mormon, or anything else in a religious way He
was opportunist of the first water and Nor
monism, for his purposes was as good as any
other religion. At any rate it gave the rover
a sort of clerical standing and a chance for lead
ership which he was not the man to overlook
In the hold of his ship he had brought with
him newspaper plant, the machinery for a
-four mill, plows, harrows and other pioneer ne
cessities. He assumed leadership from the day
of his landing. He preached the first English
sermon ever heard there solemnized the first
American marriage the SOIL set up the first
flour mill and gave the little settlement its first
newspaper, the California Star. II wasn't long
before he cut loose from the Saints. Or rather
the Saints got rid Of him. A Mormon sketch of
his life says "His course and habits were not
consistent with the life of Latter Day Saint
and he was disconnected from the church"
But II his career as Mormon had ended his
career as California promoter (perhaps another
historic "frst') had just begun He got out a
special edition of his Star within a few months
after his arrival at Yerba Buena, and sent two
thousand copies Of the paper overland to the
Mississippi valley and the eastern states extol-
ling the virtues Of the country to prospective
settlers.
Then came March. 1S4S, bringing with II tn
feroa Buena the first news of the discovery Of