Wherein. James W. Marshall Is Required By
Statements of Authorities to Share Credit
. of Discovery; With Charles Bennett Both
Men Were Oregon Pioneers .-. x
At CoIoma.Cat. nine ycajs
made, Marshall andBcanctC
By Earl C. Brovmlce
flPHE half-told tale of California
gold, scores of times repeated,
Is the story of iad men, rushing
before the lash of desire to fields
of" treasure In an unknown land,
there to seek their shares in the
new-found riches riches whose
discovery California reluctantly
credits to a pioneer of the Oregon
country.
The missing half of the story ii
the credit that is due another Ore
gon pioneer credit that the his
torians of the Bear state have long
denied the memory of the man.
Yet recent findings, not inspired
by any desire of those who owe
him so much to do him justice,
seem certainly to warrant Charles
Bennett, who was for so long a
resident of Salem, ranking with
James Wilson Marshall of Oregon
In recounting the fortunes of Cali
fornia. -
Through years of study authori
ties hereabouts have confirmed,
apparently beyond doubt, Bennett's
title to a share of Marshall's credit
for paving the way for California's
golden future.
Before that wonderful January
24, 1848 when Marshall. and Ben
nett picked from the mire of an
open ditch the glittering yellow
particles that reflected California ,
into the eyes of the world" and
started the great westward migra
tion in 1849, there had been a long
series of gold "discqveries" on the
streams and creeks of that Spanish .
domain. "Discoveries" "are credit
ed to a series of adventurers who
seem to have started with Sir
Francis Drake's entry into Drake's
bay as early as 1579.
In 1845-46 the BoViney girls, well
known to George H. Hlmes of the
Oregon Historical society, found at
their play brilliant particles that
were proved to be gold. .The Bo
ney girls, with the.ir parents, had
been destined for Oregon, incident
ally, but were dissuaded and went
instead to California.
But it remained for James W.
Marshall and Charles Bennett,; Ore
gon pioneers, to discover and prove
the presence of native gold in
quantities of commercial impor
tance and to start that wild human
rush from every corner of the
- known world the rush that is his
toried now as "the days of '49."
The, itory of California gold,
modernized in the sense that
Charles Bennett is given his richly ,
merited place with Marshall, is told
.ty mmes-upon a basis of history
and personal investigation that led
him to conversations, with eye wit-
nesses to the unlatching of the
treasure trove. '
Marshall had crossed the plains
to Oregon in1844, indirectly from
bis native state. New Jersey, where
he had been a carriage maker. . He
is pictured by some who knew him
as & shiftless chap, imbued. with a
near - wanderlust, whose itching
feet led him far afield and so far
off. he straight and narrow path
to success that he died in compara
tive poverty; largely supported by
the state whose present owes hiiiv
so much. " " , ; . ;
The pioneer settled in Oregon,
presumably somewhere in the Wil
lamette valley, -and undertook the
quest .of fortunes But that was a
trying Win tar uui Uaj-ahaJl'a nla.na
THE
belbre this picture was
oPOioon, discovcrcicL
came to grief in failure. Discour
aged with his brief taste of the
fray, he moved on, undoubtedly
attracted by the activities of Cap
tain John A. Sutter, whose many
works had echoed into Oregon a
call for workmen.
We can know little of Marshall
from the time he left Oregon until
his discovery gave him fame that
dates, from January 24, 1848. He
had won employment with Captain
Sutter, then the leading citizen of
what became California.
Authenticated records prove that
Marshall and Charles Bennett, who
had latetly arrived from Oregon,
Where he had been successfully es
tablished, together with Peter I
Wimmer, undertook for Captain
Sutter a contract to erect at the
edge of the woods, not a great dis
tance . from the' famous Sutter's
fort, a primitive sawmill, that-the
emigrants thereabouts might be
satisfied in their demand for build
ing materials and that Sutter's -many,
activities might have outlet.
Plans for the mill called for an
open ditch near by, and this was .
excavated from a natural arroyo, in
a fashion that must have been typ
ical of Marshall, for it was only
half deep enough. To save them
selves more labor the workmen
determined to wash out the bed to
greater depth.
Had that ditch been made prop
erly in the first place it 'might be
that today California's golden era
would date from a decade later,
for what was to become a state,
carved from Spanish domain, was
very little populated and only the
cry of "goldf" that echoed around
the world could inspire what has
been pictured as one of the great
est migrations in . man's history '
a migration that opened the inten
sive development of the state to
which the, cry of "gold!" has ever
since been bringing new genera
tions of fortune seekers.
With a full head of water In the
"half-done ditch " the. banks gave
way before the force from Ameri
can river, near by. That job done
successfully, Marshall and Bennett,
facts now apparently indisputably
indicate, set out upon .an inspec
tion on the bright morning of Jan
uary '24, 1848.
In the sand over which a trick
ling little stream was flowing, Mar
shall discerned bright, shining
grains of yellow that drew his pass
ing attention. He knew nothing of
gold, its source nor its nature; and
was only impressed when Bennett,
one a miner on his own account in
. Georgia, had passed opinion upon
the find.
Marshall exhibited the finy par
ticles he had picked from the sand,
sand. . r -
"Gold," Bennett affirmed.
That, briefly, is the story of the
discovery 'of California gold by
Marshall and : Bennett. Marshall
might never have known the won
ders he held in his hand had Ben
nett not been" near. Bennett jnight
never , have noted the presence' of
those sparkling .grains had Mar
shall hot espied them. ' :
Yet California has erected a
monument to Marshall and, in the
later years of his life, pensioned
. him officially as the discoverer of
the glittering yellow stuff that
m&da a. Ktata
OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND, SUNDAY
it
t)
Folk who knew both . Marshall
and Bennett, neither of whom were
ever burdened by the wealth their
discovery opened to them; have re
corded 'highly interesting stories
about them. They have. too. re
peatedly and rather consistently
enhanced the half-told story of the
discovery. They have disproved
.the California claim that Bennett
was . only interested in the gold
when Marshall had determined its
worth. . They have affirmed posi
tively that Marshall and ' Bennett
were together at the time of the
discovery
Marshall, they aver, was a rest
less, never settled man, with little
aim in life aside from doing that
and quitting this. He made no
success of anything he attempted,
neither his adventure in the Ore
gon country nor his trade as a car
riage maker, though, withal, he
was a likeable, agreeable and to
ll tally unlettered stalwart, whose
jjw $ if
J? it
F
re
1 v S
is.
only harm in 'the world was his
own shiftlessness.
Bennett, on the other hand, had
been a success in the wild country
which he was one of the first to
invade and, in spite of the fact that
the fabulous wealth he might have
had from his find of gold was
never his, he returned to Oregon
after a few years in California and
established himself at Salem as a
solid, prosperous man of affairs
and family. Marshall, apparently,
had ,no family during his western
lifetime. ' :
When Bennett had ascertained
the nature of the yelow particles
found among the sand of that
primitive tail race there was still
a measure of doubt 'in his mind
' and, with Marshall, he submitted a
few nuggets to Mrs. P. L. Wimmer,
5 ;:: USiM-'i
MORNING, DECEMBER
'ftK'wa-- v
Sutter's Mill at site oPltohall-Bennett 3ol& discovc-i.
who was cooking for the pioneer
crew at the site o Sutter's mill
Mrs. Wimmer tested them over the
fire and by pounding them between
stones until there was no doubt of
their golden content.
It was then that Marshall, in an
attempt to sew up the secret of the
find between the discoverers and
their employer, Captain Sutter,
made his memorable trip to Sut
ter's Fort with samples of :the gold
he had found. Mysteriously he
presented them to the captain, who
tested them in his own crude way
and satisfied . himself that fortune
was at hand. . ' ,
But the secret would spread, de
spite his every effort to. gain title
to the banks of American river for
himself and associates, and it is re-,
corded' that Charles Bennett, over
enthusi.stlc, was largely responsi
ble for releasing the news that
brought t early California that
19, 1920.
maze of humanity upon which her
human future has been built.
First, however. Sutter, Marshall
nd Bennett traded beads t and .
trinkets to the Indians in the vi
cinity of what later became the
little town of Coloma, for -what
they held up as titles to the terri
tory. They collected, too, from all
who sought to mine the streams
and. creeks, a third of. all the gold
obtained.
Such a state of affairs main
tained until a party of miners, at
tracted from the Oregon country,
rebelled: at the monopoly and held
the Sutter-Marshall-Bennett titles
for naught. To solve the problem
Sutter dispatched Bennett to seek
a grant of land from the governor.
The v emissary -s was unsuccessful,
however, and in his enthusiasm he
had literally "spilled the beans,"
that were to cause the gold ferer
epidemic that' reached almost over"
the world.
Returning from that trjp, Ben
nett brought with him Isaac
Humphrey, an experienced miner,
who is said to have been the first
man to seek consistently; for the
treasure Marshall and Bennett had
discovered. Though all at Sutter's
mill were by now aware of the dis
coverv. they little knew ita imnoN
tance, and had continued for weeks
at their usual tasks.
It was not until more than a
year after the discovery that word
east, west,, north and south, and
the human influx, from the states,
from the Sandwich islands and
sven from South ' America, started
in earnest.
That influx brought men of all
kinds and sizes and minds into the
gold fields, with the high cost of
living at their heels. Flour ad
vanced almost overnight to as high
as $400 a barrel and mining tools
went "out of sight."
The influx, too, brought despair
to the discoverers, for their for
tunes were not secured t and they
had failed to mine the treasure
they had found.
.Gradually Captain Sutter's vast
holdings his mills, his stores and
his farms were ravished by the
horde that advanced to American
river and other Streams. He lost
practically all he had made. Mar
shall, never, It seems, able to hold
fast to what he got,. mined with a
slight degree of success, but never,
enough to assure his future, and.
for some time before his death he
was supported by. the state.
Bennett, of the three, fared best,
for he was & man of family and
ambition.- He did not get from his
gold pan. the wealth that awaited
hisefforts, but he did profit hand
somely, it is said. It has, been
only a comparatively few years
since the Bennett family erected a
monument to his memory over his
grae at Salem. Reliable inform
ants declare that a poke of gold
dust was tendered in payment for
that monument. .
When mining and the wild, life
of "the days of 49" had lost its In
terest, Bennett settled down on a.
California farm and there succeed
ed in large measure for several
years before his return to Salem,
the approximate scene of his first
, home in, the Oregon country. . At
Salem he caused to be built the
Bennett house, an early hotel that
enjoyed a wide and popular pa-
' tronage among pioneers. ;