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Collection: Directories and Documents > Pamphlets
Juanita - The only woman lynched in the Gold Rush days (PH 20-9)(1967) (36 pages)
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Page: of 36
meet him there early in the morning. Together they
would tidy up and stroll down to their cabin. Some of
the miners stared hungrily after the young Mexican
girl, but whatever her moral standards were, she
seemed to be content with her José.
Josefa was attractive by all accounts, and a contemporary has describedheras “rather low of stature,
stout built, with raven tresses that flowed freely over
her neckand shoulders—black eyes, teeth regular and
of pearly whiteness. She might be called pretty, so far
as the style of swarthy Mexican beauty is so considered.
She...dressed with considerable attention to taste.” 3
The morning of July 4, 1851, dawned bright and
clear, and preparations were madeto have a grand and
glorious celebration. Bunting and flags were up everywhere, andin the center of towna platform was erected
from which the speakers of the day would lecture. Most
of the miners gave up any thought of work that day and
flooded into town, bent on seeing how much tanglefoot
they could dispose of. There were bands and parades,
and an address by the famous orator, Colonel John D.
Weller, whowas campaigning for United States Senator
andwas later to be governor of California. His speech
was interrupted every few moments by a chorus of
hurrahs and the tossing of several hundred hats in the
air. Itwasa riotous occasion, made all the more rowdy
by the fact this was the first Fourth of July celebration
Since California had become a state.
By afternoon there was hardly a sober man in the
camp as several thousand miners staggered from saloon to saloon. Whiskey barrels were rolled across the
streets in a steady procession between the hooves of
frightened horses and brawling miners. A shout went
up in front of a tent saloon as a fight broke out and a
man was stabbed. The assailant was quickly collared
by drunken miners and tried on the spot. The “trial”
took about five minutes, andthe guilty party was flogged
while spread-eagled on a hitching post.
Late in the afternoon the stage from Marysville
clattered down the dusty road, scattering the roistering
miners before it. The coach pulled up at the express
office and the correspondent for the Pacific Star and
8