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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (July 15, 1906)
40 Ii t mm m mm SECTOR EDMVND WINSTON PETTUS FROfO THE PHOmfiAPtf which His FRIENDS 1MEBfJT I T WAS a great (Jay In Gainesville, Ala. Thirty-one of the hardiest and most adventurous of the young backwoods men who lived In the settlement and near by were to start that day on a long Jour ney in search of gold, which they under stood had been discovered the previous year almost 2000 miles to the westward. They didn't plan to make this journey by rail, for there were few railroads any where and none at all which reached either Gainesville or the new gold fields. They didn't plan to go by -water, because they thought the overland route would be pleasanter. more salubrious and more economical. Their plan was to go on horseback, transporting their supplies in wagons hauled by mules. And they car ried out their plan, making the start in March. 1S49. A member of the party, so far as known the only survivor, told the story of their transcontinental journey to the writer of this article the other day. On the day of the start this man was a few months under 2S. tall, broad and like a steam engine for endurance. He was a lawyer by profession, and while he cast his lot with the goldhunters, it waa not his Intention to seek the precious metal personally In California, but to practice law. In a new mining country, he rea soned, there would be plenty of disagree ments over claims, and the demand for lawyers to help settle them would be good. His name Is Edmund Winston Pettus. now S5, one of the Alabama members of the United States Senate the oldest member of that body and slated to be re turned on August 27, along with Senator John T. Morgan. Mr. Pettus became a famous lawyer later, but not in Califor nia. Still later he became famous as a Confederate soldier In the, Civil War, be ginning as a Major, ending as a Brigadier-General, and In the meantime per forming prodigies of valor. The westward Journey of tie Gaines ville Argonauts occupied about seven months. They penetrated trackless wil dernesses, crossed desert plains, climbed difficult mountains and forded icy rivers, mostly without guides. and surrounded much of the time by - n ms . ii in hostile Indians. But, thanks to their splendid health and dauntless courage, all arrived safe and well in Sep tember, at Sacramento City. There was only one serious casualty in the seven months to any member of the party. He ruined his right hand by the accidental discharge of his rifle. "Our baggage train consisted of ten or fifteen wagons, each hauled by a mule team," said the Senatqr, "and loaded light. From Gainesville we headed for Vlcksburg, Miss. There we took a steam boat for Little Rock. Ark., and from there we laid our course to Fort Smith." At Fort Smith they found that a certain Major Washington, of the United States Army, at the head of a party of dragoons, mounted on white and dapple-gray horses, was about ready to start for Santa Fe. It was the next objective point of the Alabama Argonauts, and they de cided, for safety's sake, to travel in the rear of the troops. But they did not fol low the soldiers long. They made such poor headway that It seemed to the eager Alabama Argonauts that it would take them a year to reach Santa Fe at the rate they were traveling. The Argonauts were thinking seriously of pushing on ahead when something happened which practically forced the soldiers and the goldseekers to part. The Major's horses stampeded two or three days out of Fort Smith, and galloped riderless back toward the fort, and the Major and his men had to send back after their mounts. Though then on the edge of the Coman che territory, through the heart of which they were to pass, the Alabamlans de cided to push on without any protection save their rifles and their own good sense and nerve. By that time the party had been In creased to about 10s, more than twice as many as It originally numbered. The ad ditions were goldseekers from different parts of the country, most of them, said the Senator, "men of courage, determina tion and good sense." They appreciated fully the dangers of the territory they proposed to penetrate, and decided to form an organization of their own, based on the military form. A Captain. Lieu tenants. Sergeants and Corporals were chosen by vote, and the others served as privates, agreeing to obey orders as Im plicitly as if they were regularly enlist yjli oldest Kan in Congress! crossed the- Infrt iNfflkAN CONTINENT HORSEBACK rer 49 NOTABLE JOURNEY X AW'l FR0M ALABAiV e 0LD F1ELDS OF CALIFORNIA THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN. PORTLAND. JTJXY 15. 1906. w i i an ed soldiers while on the march and in camp, as well as when danger threatened from the Indians, should such a thing oc cur. "I was a private, but I soon learned." said the Senator, "that the born leader will be the real leader when one Is needed, no matter who has been appoint ed to the post. First Indian Scare. "We traveled by compass. We had the best maps then obtainable and we knew the general direction we should take from Fort Smith to Santa Fe. Every morn ing before breaking camp we laid our course for the day. choosing some moun tain for a landmark after we were within sign of the mountains, but on the plains some object like a clump of trees grow ing on the horizon along a water course. "One man was delegated to carry the compass and to go ahead of the main party as guide, always keeping the dis tant landmark in view. He was accom panied by two or three other scouts, and the duty of the little advance party was twofold to watch for Indians as well as to find the way. Most days, however, their work was solely that of guides. They might And that it would be neces sary to turn aside temporarily from the general direction indicated because the ground was impassible for the wagons, returning to the course as laid out later. "One day we had a big scare. I was one of the extra men with, the guide that day. "We hadn't gone very far and camp had not yet been broken when we saw. away ahead of us, what looked like at least a thousand horses. We had heard of Indians riding on the sides of their horses so that they could not be seen, and we suspected that the thousand horses had a thousand riders, and that the thousand riders were an army of Comanches, who, having heard of our coming, were on the way to meet us, kill us and rob us of our supplies. A big wagon train like ours would have been a fine prize for them. Presently our suspicions were strengthened by the fact that we could see that a few of the horses actually had riders. "Our guide didn't know what to do, but Allen McCasklll, a privace in our organisation, who was in the advance party that day, showed qualities of leader-ship on the spot. He told us to fall back slowly, and to watch the ad vancing savages closely. He would himself ride back to camp as fast as he could and get everything ready to receive chem there. They were com ing straight on all the time, but he got back to the camp, and, in fact, so did we, before they came up. "When we reached camp we found that McCasklll. who was a Scotchman with a hard head that was full of brains, had got everything in first class order. He had 'parked' che wag ons so that they formed a hollow square, had placed the mules and horses Inside, and had got out the extra guns and ammunition. Every thing was ready. "it wasn't long before the Indians reached us. They came directly for our wagon train till within 200 or 3D0 yards; then they swerved to one side, and. after a short parley with us, passed on. We saw then that, while there were many horses, there were only six Indians. "They were the few riders we had seen, but they weren't Comanches. They were Seminoles. Indians orig inally from our own Alabama coun try, but then living in the Indian Ter m i m m ritory. They had been further wesc Into the mountain country, and had stolen this drove of horses from the Comanches. The six Seminole horse thieves bore us no ill will and had no time to stop long. They were fleeing for their lives, they said, fearing to be overtaken and killed by a Comanche j army, which they believed was pursu ing them. "When they had gone on we resumed j our Journey in peace. There had been no real danger, but the indications I were that there was, and McCasklll was justified in the preparations he made to receive the supposed hostile band. After they had passed on a funny thing happened. The elected Captain, who made no objections to following McCaskllls plan, and who had obeyed orders as promptly as the others as long as it looked like a pos sible light, began to find fault with everything, and to charge McCaskill with Insubordination. This by no means increased the Captain's pdpular ity. "So far as we ever knew, the thievish Seminoles were not caught by the Comanches. We met no pursuing band and we never heard of any." "Was that the only encounter you had with the Indians on the Journey?" "No. We met them many times, and once we were really near to a fight. j We had reached the mountain country ! and were surrounded by Comanches. I We had made our camp In a cove, a I recess In the side of the mountain), looking out upon a valley, and were protected by high rock walls on all sides but one. A band of about a hundred Comanches approached ub, fully armed; not with rifles, but bows and arrows. We weren't afraid of any serious damage, but we prepared for them by getting our guns ready, and when thoy had nearly reached us, up went our rifles to our shoulders as if we were about to fire. That brought the Indians to a halt; they saw that they could not prevail against our bullets, and they shot no arrows, but I am convinced that they intended to rob us." When the party reached Santa Fe it was thought advisable to exchange the wagons for pack mules, and the gold seekers spent some time there reorganiz ing their transportation service. It had been planned to proceed westward from Santa Fe, ford or swim the Rio Grande, cross the mountains to the Gila River and follow its course to Southern Cali fornia. But the current of the Rio Grande, very high with melted snow water from the mountains to the north, was too powerful for us. Up the Rio Grande Kit Carson. "The river was practically a succession of falls where we wished to cross," said the Senator, "and they were too close to gether for us. Had they been farther apart we could have swum our mules diagonally across, landing them some dis tance below the place we started them. But with so swift a current they would have been carried over the falls below before they could reach the opposite bank. "So we didn't cross the Rio Grande at all: we went round it. That took us 800 miles out of our way. I mean that we went north, and finding the crossing im possible all the way up the stream, finally reached South Pass, going westward through It." This detour lengthened the journey so that it was nearer, 3000 than 2000 miles. Continuing, the Senator said; "We met Kit Carson, the noted scout, at Taos, 30 miles north of Santa Fe. and made arrangements for him to guide us from there on to California. He was to have, in compensation, a mule from every mi SENATOR man at the close of the trip. If every man still owned a mule. Carson did not guide us, however, because he was under con tract to serve the Government whenever called upon, and the Major Washington of whom I have spoken demanded his ser vices. We felt very sore about it. How ever, we got general directions from Car son and went on. On July 3 we climbed a range of mountains on which the snow was 40 or 50 feet deep In some places. We camped on the mountains July 4; we had to cut down trees and make big fires to keep warm. "Two or three days later we crossed a river: I am not sure what river it was. but the current was very swift from the melting snow, and was broken by falls and rapids. However, the falls were far enough apart to let us swim our mules across. We sent our baggage across In canoes, cutting down cottonwood trees and turning them Into 'dugouts' on the spot. "I could swim like a duck and so could every other member of the party except one man. After we had got the mules and the baggage across safely we prepared to take that man across. He was frightened almost to death. He was the only man who had proved a coward so far. He was sure he would fall out of the boat and be drowned, and we had the greatest diffi culty to get him Into It. Finally I, with two other men. seized him, laid him In the bottom of the canoe, and told him we would shoot him if he tried to get out we didn't mean this, of course, but there was no other way then, swimming, we took the canoe across. "The man remained quiet till we had almost reached the farther bank. "The water was so high that the limbs of the cottonwoods on the bank almost trailed in the water. The canoe was swept down stream under these low limbs and the fool coward In the boat was more nervous than ever. One of the branches scratched his face. He grabbed the branch, over went the dugout, and the man was in the stream. He seized me, as men will In such cases, and to save myself and get ashore I had to kick him loose. He went floating down the stream, and while I was shaking myself some one threw a rawhide laria to him; he caught it and we got him out of the water alive. We had little respect for him any more. "During the journey one member of our party came near being lynched. It was when we were still 40 or 50 miles south of the Independence road. We had one more mountain range, which paralleled the In. dependence road, to cross. The physician of our party and another man rode ahead. We expected to overtake them before the day was over, but, coming to a place where there was a beautiful spring in a hillside cove, decided to stop there and make camp earlier in the day than usual. "We fired guns and halloed, and did all sorts of things to attract the attention of the two men ahead and bring them back, but they didn't hear us. We built signal fires, which we kept going all night, and blew horna, but the men neither saw nor heard our signals. Next day Edward Har wood and I were detailed to trail the men rf possible. "We had no great difficulty in doing this. After four or five miles we found a dead, horse which had given out and been left behind. The trail of the other horse and one man led up the mountain side, and we followed it till we found where they had built a campfire the night be fore. From there we trailed a horse and a man down the mountain to the plain and into a ravine, where there was a pool of water. We saw indications that the man had knelt by the pool and dipped a canteen iato the water twice or perhaps It was two canteens. "The trails of both man and horse led back to camp in the mountains. We knew A 1N1T1 If 111 the man's trail for that of the doctor, but we' could neither find him nor the horse. Next day we all crossed the range and struck the Independence road. There we found the other man tied to a sap ling. We found a big crowd there, too. The Independence road was a great thor oughfare in those days, and it was thronged all the time. "The doctor had charged the other man with horse stealing and deserting his comrade. It would have gone hard with the poor fellow If we had not reached the place as we did. Either of the crimes with which he was charged was as bad as anything a man could be accused of In those days out there, and he would surely have been lynched if found guilty by the mob court which had been formed to try him. The doctor had already given In his testimony, but Harwood and oth ers testified to the good character of the accused and we both told how the two men had got lost and how we had fol lowed their trail. Our testimony freed the accused, and we resumed our journey. "The doctor didn't stand very well af ter that with us. He died in California." Food Supplies Brigham Young. "How about your food supplies? Did they last?" "There was an abundance of game al ways to be had for the trouble of shoot ing it. But we had no vegetables and our bacon and coffee ran short. Now we couldn't stand an uninterrupted diet of nothing but fresh meat; we wanted ba con and coffee badly. We got a good sup ply of these things at "South Pass and again at Salt Lake City. "We had seen women on the Independ ence road, but had met none for a long time before coming to Salt Lake City. A little way out of the city one of our men found a slipper alongside the trail. He looked upon it as such a prize that he picked it up and put it on the tip of his gun and held it aloft all the way Into the town as a sort of trophy. There were plenty of women there, but all I remem ber about them was that we were able to get them to wash our clothes, and so did not have to wash them ourselves for the first time in a long while. They were good washerwomen. "We remained at Salt Lake ten days or more, strengthening our pack teams and laying in supplies. We were treated very handsomely by the Mormons, though I must admit that they charged good prices. "Yes, I met Brigham Young. He was a big man. tall and broad. Just a little fat maybe, but one of the best built and handsomest men I ever saw. The Mor mon people Impressed me favorably as a whole. They were of the best back woodsman type, the best type of men any where; hard as flint, brave and patient. We were in Salt Lake City late in July. "The first California town we saw was Sacramento City. when we reached it." said the Senator, "though the population numbered thou sands. That was a log house. All the peo ple lived in tents. There were big stores there, stores where you could buy any thing you wanted if you had money enough, but the prices were tremendous. "We bought our mining tools at Sacra mento City and then went to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the CarBon River road. We spent all 'the next Winter within three or four miles of Placervllle. "We found the biggest prices at Downie ville, on the American fork of the Sacra mento River, in the mountains. Seventy five dollars for a barrel of flour is a sam ple. I paid $100 for a pair of boots, rough, heavy things the roughest and heaviest made but the best for miner's use. "Most of the men in the party went out II I iii J ML to dig gold- I went out tq practice law. But the courts weren't organized and there was no chance for me to practice. So I went to digging gold, too. "I must say I think the mob courts in California in 1S49 dealt out pretty even handed justice. There was no legal tech nicalities at the trials the men just got together, some one was chosen to be judge, some one to be prosecutor, every body who knew anything about the facts told what he knew, and judgment was passed promptly. There was no delay In execution, either. "I kept clear of the mob courts, mostly, but I did take part In one trial. It was at Placervllle. A man was charged with kill ing another, and I undertook to defend him. Tmwe was some objection at fir, but when I explained that I had studied law and been a solicitor in Alabama they allowed me to take up the case. I made a novel defense. I hardly think there ever was such another defense in a mur. der case before or since. "I had seen the 'murdered' man and found that he wasn't dead. I had seen the doctor attending him, and he said the man wasn't going to die at least not then. He and the accused had got Into a quarrel which led to a fight in which the supposed murdered man had received a lot of knife wounds. But they weren't deep ones only cuts the supposed mur derer had only slashed his man, not stabbed him. "Well, my defense was accepted and the accused wasn't hanged then. I went away with him. A long time afterward I met him in another part of the country and 'asked him about it. ' " They waited till the other fellow got well.' said the Englishman, and then they whipped me and cleared me and let me go.' "That was right in my judgment. I knew about one hanging that was the result of no trial. It was one of the quickest hangings on record. "A young man, a newcomer, walked Into a gambling establishment and the gambler shot him dead in his tracks. It was quick work, and, as it turned out, the result of a mistake. The gambler had never seen the young fellow before. It was the gambler's impression, though, that the newcomer was a man with whom he had quarreled the night before, and he didn't want to learn whether he was right or not. The murdered man's brother went for the gambler with a bowie knife, but others present held him back. They thought it a pity for the gambler to be killed so respectably as with a knife, so they got a rope and hanged him inside of ten minutes. The place was called Hangtown after that." "I have seen it stated. Senator, that you took with you on your trip to the Coast a select library of three volumes." "Yes." replied the Senator, "the Bible. Shakespeare and Bums' poems. I read the Bible from cover to cover; I read the side notes, I read the caption? of the chapters. I learned great parts of It by heart, and I haven't forgotten them yet. I learned many of Burns' poems by heart and much of Shakespeare in the same way, too. I still have the Bible I took with me at home In Selma. It is a little book, not longer than that," measuring about three Inches on his Index finger, "and thin, with very fine type, but It was the whole Bible." The Senator said that though he worked hard at placer mining he didn't make a fortune at It. The largest surplus he had at any one time was about J1000. as he now remembers it. He took about J300 In gold with him, and when he reached home again in 1861, having been gone two years and a month, he had about the same amount of money in his pocket. DEXTER MARSHALL.
