East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, September 23, 1915, ROUND-UP SOUVENIR EDITION, Image 11

East Oregonian : E.O., September 23, 1915, ROUND-UP SOUVENIR EDITION, Page Page Eleven, Image 11

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Newspaper Page TextEast Oregonian Round-Up Souvenir Edition Pendleton, Orepon, TTiurday, September 23, 1915 Page Eltvpn EilMiilliliifiiiliHiiiiiiuiiiiiimiiii.iiiiiliiilh On the Trail of Gold in Forty-Nine Historical Sketch o the Early California Ditcoveriet and the Fabulous Riches That Fell to Some Men Twenty Pages BY ARTHUR DUNN. The first mining reporter in Cali fornia was the celebrated Hakluyt publicity agent to Sir Francis Drake. ho, when this continent wan yet an uncertain quantity, wrote in his his tory exploiting: :he greatness of that distinguished visitor near Kan Fran cisco bay "There 1b no part of the earth here to be taken up wherein there Is not ft reasonable quantity of (told and silver." it will not avail to denounce him as a fraud and a fabricator three hun dred and thirty-five years after his fumy tried to boost realty values on the Pacific, nor will It benefit us much to equip with Kumdrops and pursue the path of frozen fact, for, If We do, we shall learn that Marshall Was not the first discoverer of gold In California, and thus shatter another of our cherished traditions. So let us raise the monument to the miner of the mlllrace, and give glory to those men of might who so loved adventure that they were lured from the com forts of civilization to prepare the ay for the throngs that were toi mentioning' It casually to workmen In this simple fashion: "Hoys, 1 think I've found a gold mine," but his hearers informed him that there "waa no such luck," This momentous event happened In January, 1848. Marshall himself fix id the date as "between the 18-20," uhich gave rise, quite naturally, to the belief that It necessarily was the 19th. But Marshall was not at all certain, nor was he usually accurate, so the hlstorluns have fixed upon January 25th as the date of discovery. The genuineness of the gold, how ever, was not attested for some time, nnd It was not until March that Isaac Humphrey was shown some of It at Han Francisco. He had had mining experience and he posted off Imme diately to Coloma, although friends to whom he Imparted the secret of the find refused to place credence In It and would not abandon the enter prise that was then under way to tend a messenger overland to the east, with copies of thi California Star, containing Fourgeaud'a "Pros pects of California." The purpose of this expedition was to attract eml- ramento valley. He declared If Mar i hall's flukes and pebbles were gold he had ample on his ranch. John liidwell, one of the sturdy members of the Bartletson party of '47, who was clerk to Sutter, Joined the for tune seekers, and had a band of In dian retainers washing the sand for him. The news spread rapidly. The pursuit had begun. There is an "underground" that car ries the news of a gold discovery to the farthest quurters of the universe, k emiiigly as swiftly and as surely as wireless wafts the news from sea to shore. News of Marshall's discovery reached the Atlantic seaboard and Europe. Men lauKhed at the absurd report emanating from that "God-forsaken country at the end of no where." I once saw a J20 gold piece, absolutely mint perfect, offered for sale for 119.75, and prospective pur chasers actually bit the coin In an ef fort to test its genuineness, only to re ject the offer scornfully. So It must have been, In those days with the re port of great rlchea existing In the re gion beyond the range of civilization's telescope. The first official notice of Buckaroo Bowlers Brought Honors Home to Pendleton yr.w t:-'.., ' . v 1 7 AY iVM r -r K fTTTv. SJt 'fit ii mi n il it tiintuim I . a m. Dntinrl.nn rijtiraaantftH Panri 1st flfl In t hft This bowling team, wearing cowooy costumes ami - northwest bowling tournament held at Spokane last winter. They brought home some honors with them, too. making a very creditable showing. From left to right they are: Pat McDevltt. Jake Myers. Omar Steph ens, Fred J. McMonles, Loren Hoover and Fred Book. come and build a new empire. California has been producing gold ever sines 1776. That U recorded fact. Whether there wers earlier Mexican miners than those who found the placers of the Colorado river, his tory Is silent, but we are Informed with a nicety as to detail, that a sil ver ore vein was uncovered In 180I .at Ollial, In the district of Monterey. In 1838. slxty-nlna years after the ar- mval of the Franciscan friars and the establishment of the first mission mining had been done for twenty years. Then, on May 4, 184, Thomas O. Larkln, United States Con i.i! hi Monterey, took official cogni zance of repeated rumors rf the ex istence of mineral wealth In Califor nia. Writing to James Huchanan then secretary of state, he said: "There Is no doubt that gold, silver quicksilver, copper, lead, sulphur and coal mines are to be found all over California, and It Is equally doubtful whether, under their present owners, they will ever be worked." Mr. Larkln may be commended for tils sagacious suggestion that the I'ni- ed States take over California: whether the state department looked upon the rainbow In the west In Its negotiating with Mexico can only be conjectured, but we know that Cali fornia became American territory shortly after Mr. Larkln wrote to Sec retary Huchanan. .Now, James W. Marshall was not a miner. He was a carpenter, and cme to General Suiter's ranch from Oregon. He took up some land along Eutte creek, stocked it with cattle, and was then called away on ac count of the Mexican war. During his absence his ranch was looted, nnd when he returned he was obliged aiiain to enter the service of Sutter. Sutter and he agreed to build a saw mill for lumber, Marshall superln Undlng the work nnd sharing in the profits, and Sutter providing the ne cessary money. Ho located the mill site at a place to which was given the name Culuma, after Coloma, and while walking along the mlllrace he r.otlced specks of what he believed to be gold. He was not certain of the value of his discovery and, Indeed, took It In a mntter-of-fact manner, grants to this section and the ac counts glowingly predicted a wonder ful agricultural future for the terri tory, but very little mention Is made of gold. Rather did the author an nounce that every precious metal was to be found, employing language sim ilar to that used by writers of pros pectuses years after when a new spe cies of mining promoter was abroad In the land. Marshall and Sutter had endeavor ed to keep secret the discovery of gold, not because of a desire to "cor ner" the output so much as a wish to complete their mill before the work men should go seeking the precious metal on their own account. Silence may be golden, but Sutter could not keep the secret of his gold, and him self wrote It to friends at distant points; and he sent Charles Bennett, who waa Marshall's assistant, to Monterey In an effort to gain title to a district of land twelve miles square which he had negotiated with the In dians. Bennett was cautioned against speaking of the gold, but he had no sooner reached Benlca. then the first city in California, than he disputed the value of the coal discovery near Mount Diablo and proudly brought forth some of the gold nuggets he had tathered near Coloma, displaying them with the remark: "Here Is something that will change all Cali fornia; will bring thousands here and build great cities. This Is gold and the country Is full of It." It wis nat ural for men to excuse his exuber ance on the ground that he waJ "pe culiar." and none paid the slightest attention to his remark. He went on his way to Monterey, where his er rand met with failure, for it was not within the power of the military com mander to make land grants In a ter ritory under only nominal possession of the I'nlted States. Here Bennett stain confided his "secret" to offi cers and soldiers alike, ano men n.nvorl nn In San Francisco. Here he learned of Humphrey, who had been a cold miner in Georgia, and eagerly ahnnri him ihe s-old. When Hum phrey nrrlved at the mill he found t'mt everybody was washing for gold and meeting with good success. Then envne Pearson B. Reading, owner of a large ranch at the head of the Sac- rugs lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll: WHEN IN NEED OF PURE DRUGS, PROPERLY COM POUNDED PRESCRIPTION OR DRUG STORE WANTS GIVE US A TRIAL Exclusive Meritol Agency TALirJAH & CO. LEADING DRUGGISTS the find 'was sent by the ever watch ful Larkln to the authorities at Wash ington, where It was received In the middle of September. The New York Herald printed some of these dis patches, and they attracted wide at tention. Some of the yellow Journ cllsts of the day (that was before Outcault's Yellow Kid was Invented by George Palmer, sometime sailor of San Francisco) Indulged their fan cies to a remarkable degree The New York Journal of Commerce pub lished the following, dated at Monte rey: "I know of seven men who worked seven weeks and two days on the Feather river; they employed on an average fifty Indians and got In these wren weeks and two days, two hun dred and seventy-five pounds of pure cold. I know the men, and have seen the gold; so stick a pin there!" Such a lively tale was certain to ex cite men, and this statement, greatly Jmbelllshed, waa given wide publicity throughout the east. When Lieuten ant L. Loeser of the third artillery reached Washington by way of Peru and New Orleans, carrying a small tea-caddy containing 13000 worth of gold, the nuggets were exhibited In the war department, and the president Of the United States took official no tice of the new El Dorado in a mes sage to the congress. So It was not difficult for sixty-one vessels, aver aging fifty passengers each, to sail between December 14th and January 18th from the Atlantic seaboard to round Cape Horn. In February, fifty more vessels sailed from New York, seventy from Philadelphia and Bos ton, and eleven from New Bedford. t7p to the spring of 1850, two hundred and fifty vessels had actually cleared the Atlantic seaboard for San Fran cisco and It is recorded that forty five vessels arrived in San Francisco bay In one day. And the news had spread in Peru and expeditions out fitted there; Chinese, inveterate gam blers, came' chattering and Jaberlng from their crowded cities; the gov ernment lottery at Manila virtually was abandoned for the greater gam He with fortune In the new world. The Japanese heard the news with indifference. One man set sail for the Sandwich Islands In a whalebont In August, 1S4S, to come to the land of riches. Throughout the world trade was stimulated or stagnated as the tide of emigration temporarily affected varl- (Contlnned on page eighteen.) HOME IJFE AND HOME STUDIES (Continued from Page 10.) A man we knew once decided that tire manu facturers were all a bunch of thieves and robbers. Another $60.00 tire had gone to pieces and he had just been politely turned down by the tire dealer who told him again "that tires carry only an implied life of 3500 miles." Als- that he couldn't do a thing for him. When he drove out of the garage Mr. Motorist accidentally backed right through a large plate glass window which cost $125.00. The tire dealer gasped, but said nothing. He knew the motorist had got "revenge." The motorist allowed that "accidents will happen" and the dealer paid for the new glass. It's aggravating to go on buying tires that fall down in service. But why do it? Ajax tires are guaranteed in writing- for 5000' miles. With each tire you buy you get a definite pledge of service, not merely a promise. And you save $3 to $15 every time you get an Ajax tire, because you are assured of 43 more anticipated mileage. Insist on Ajax tires. HUGHSON & MERTON F5975 Los Angeles, Main 7290 San Francisco, Seattle, Portland TTt -Ti T5 HC'' Guaranteed in writing 000 MILES If hilt uktrt trtiliimimc Qutliif vm art fusnuttrisf It." FACTORY Ajax-Grieb Rubber Company.. Trenton, New Jersey. 1796-1798 Broadway, N.' Y.. OREGON -MOT El QiMtmE DISTRIBUTORS AND RETAILERS B. F. Trombley, Prop. 113421 W. Court SU Pendleton flltmm'wnnmmtiWTwtiii lukujiuiUoiMmimu amjut the lnstruclon In agriculture which the pupil receives at school, snd a record of the results of which will be faithfully kept and turned In to the teacher at the conclusion of the project. At school the pupil's exer cises In arithmetic, spelling, English, geography, etc., are so directed that the value of these subjects In practi cal life Is made clear. For example. In the language lessons, the pupil may be asked to write out the meth od which he used ' In testing milk with a Bahcock tester, special empha sis being placed upon the need for making the meaning absolutely clear. In the ssme way the records obtain ed from cow testing may be used as exercises In arithmetic and the pupil asked to compute the total yield of butter fat, Its money value, and the estimated profit from any given dairy herd. 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