The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1950-08-31
HORSE AND
BUGGY DAYS
by
Ida 10 Martin


.'Argounauts" of the prairie-the
old covered wagons started to roll
in the famous Gold rush. Word
reached this section IN the year 1848,
and in Hagerstown, like it happened
in countless villages and towns, ex-
citement ran high. So it has al
ways been when there was prom
Use of gold, or wealth of any kind,
even as it is with our modern get
rich quick" schemes. There were
stories of men getting fabously rich
by the finding of single nugget, or
by just couple of days work.
Just recently 1 came into direct
contact with man who knew what
the thrill of finding gold was, He
told of huge valley between two
mountains filled to a great depth
with silt all gold bearing
The stories of course stirred count
less adventurous folks of this Coun-
ty as everywhere and soon there was
a general rush for the Fabulously
Wealthy West.
At that time the shortest route
to the land of promise was five
thousand and five hundred miles and
an extremely dangerous on. A much
more popular route because of less
danger from the outlaws as well as
terrain advantages, was over seven
teen thousand miles. Those who set
out in the famed covered wagons,
for the shorter route, found it hard
trip of fro mtwo to four months. The
longer route, took at least six
months, and often longer, plus the
extreme dangers of rounding the
southern tip of the continent, at
Cape Horn, or as many did, trans
fer to horse and cart across the
Isthmus now Panama.
But history records that "the
worst awaited the seeker of gold
when he arrived in the new coun-
try" Here, beckoned by the I'M
quenchable thirst for gold" were
assembled the most lawless from
many lands. Only two years before,
the land was in the complete con-
troll of the Indian, and knew a few
sleepy" Spaniards. In the San
Francisco Bay section, which was
no doubt typical of many, were to
be found, living in hastily thrown
together huts, a strange assortment
of peoples; lawyers, college-grad-
yates, soldiers, miners, trappers,
people from every walk of life, fill
ed now with but one common
thought or as one historian puts it;
carried away by the craze of spec
ulation and gambling" Here were
some of the brightest men of the
country and some of the most reck-
less and daring. Human life meant
little; and after short stay, the
new inhabitants came to regard gold
even as a sort of means of gambling
and speculation. Gold was COM
mon, and the things for which it
could be exchanged were just miss
ing, so you can imagine what would
happen. One arrival from this
County stated that he paid six dol
lars for a breakfast; four dollars for
shave fifty or sixty dollars for
an ordinary pair of boots, an article
which was almost indispensable; and
so new arrivals found their supply
of cash rapidly disappearing in the
Golden West
Now l want to trace the adven-
lures of one of Washington Coun-
tvs leading men, one who had play
ed an important part in the life of
the community through his news
paper work, Mr. Edwin Bell one
time editor of the torch Light"
He was one of the first to leave in
the second year of the rush, in
January of 1849.
Mr. Bell was a Hagerstown born
man, arriving in 1919. He was a
law student, and a member of the
local Bar, and for eight years be-
fore he left this County, was editor
of the Torch Light. AS we have a
live interest in newspapers, we note
what happened to it after his de-
parture And in noting this, we
find another fact of interest; ap-
parently Mrs. Bell did not accom-
pany her husband to California, for
she continued as owner after he left,
with her brother-in-law, William
Motter, as editor, until she sold the
paper, in 1851, to Mittag and Sneary.
Mr.. Bell went to Baltimore and
engaged passage on the ship
-sxylon" Delayed till the sailing
day, he secured letters from num-
erous Congressional persons to
people of Importance in California.
We aro fold 4bof &c fho CHR, uyoiohod