History of Placer County (Excerpt from)(1882) (6 pages)

Listury of Placer County, Ch REMINISCENCES bom AW Oak 357 aee JWN. GENEROSITY AND GRATITUDE. The new owners worked the bar with great success until the rains in November compelled them to leave it. They then went to Deer Creek, and were among the first locators of claims on Gold Run (not the Gold Run of Placer County), a little stream overlain then with deep muck and grasscovered soil, which emptied into Deer Creek opposite the present town of Nevada City, from the south. In making locations there they did not forget the one who had given them their start upon the North Fork, but located ground for him also, and sent word of their action; but not being able to get to it in time, and the great rush there a little Inter, which rendered it impossible for the locators to hold it without representation, made it unavailable. The following spring, in witnessing its working, the one for whom the Higgins boys located the ground frequently saw a “ panikin,” holding about a pint, full of gold asa half day’s work of two men with a rocker—the top dirt having been stripped off previously. SEEKING SHELTER. As the winter of 1849 approached, men began to leave the river, as at other points, and gather at the settlements on the ridges, and Alder Grove became quite populous. Before the rains had fairly set in, Mr. Mendenhall had completed a double log House—he occupying one part as a hotel and Charles L. King and Horatio Hoskins the other portion as a store. In September John D. Egbert, Robert 8. Egbert, and Oliver Egbert had arrived and located in the vicinity, the two latter settling down to mining, making shakes, and doing all sorts of work, while the former, having a commercial turn, devoted his time to teaming and trading. It was not long before the Egbert Brothers had a cabin filled with miners’ supplies, and were ready to trade in those or any other article going. Pierson, meantime, had been busy laying in stores, and had several oxteams running over the road freighting from Sacramento. Sears & Miller sold their store in November to David Fairchild and M. D. Fairchild, father and son, and the little community, with all of these sources of supply to draw upon, seemed to be well-prepared for the winter before them. INDIANS. As there were many beautiful little valleys upon the divide between Auburn and Lllinoistown, and as the locality reached the altitude where grew the sugar-pine. as well as being the home of tho black oak, and there being an abundance of game, it was a favorite abiding-place of the Indians, and scores of little knolls overlooking the small valleys spoken of were covered with the circular-shaped huts, constructed mainly of bark. Cords of the long cones of the sugar-pine were stacked up near these villages, with the seed, or nut, still in them, which were only shelled when required—their natural cell affording better protection from the effects of rain by the closing up of the scales of the bur by dampness upon the outside, than any method the Indians had adopted for their preservation, Immense caches of manzanita were also made. Largo cribs were built of small-sized logs, filled with acorns and covered with bark. These were the main winter stores of the aborigines, and were then an adjunct to every cluster of wigwams, and the quantities gathered and stored were astonishing. Toward the end of November the Indians began to get impudent and saucy. They were more numerous than the whites; they were, of right, no doubt, the natural lords of the heritage; the country had been occupied by their ancestors away back to a time beyond the memory of the oldest among them, and they soon began to look upon the interloping gold-diggers aslegitimate subjects of plunder. Aslight castigation for a few instances of palpable theft made them avoid the settlement. When any would come, it would only be an old man or two, accompanied, perhaps, by several urchins of the tribe, but “signs” of a great many could be seen at any time just at the outskirts of the place, which circumstance was looked upon as an unfavorable indication of their good feeling and intentions. DASTARDLY ROBBERY AND BLOODLESS BATTLE. Finally, about the second week of December, during the temporary absence of the proprietors, who had gone to Auburn, the Indians broke into the store, at the lower end of the valley, and carried off or destroyed nearly everything that was portable, except liquors, which at that time they never drank. For several nights they continued these visits, and no one came to make them afraid. But just at dusk on the evening of the 15th of December, 1849, during the prevalence of a heavy storm, which had been incessant during the day, the proprietors of the store approached the place with five pack-animals laden with additional supplies. A smoke issuing from a hole in the shake roof, instead of coming through the chimney, first attracted their attention. A bar was spiked to the logs on the outside, across the door, as they had left it six days before. Listening for a moment, suppressed sounds of merriment were heard in the Indian dialect. It was no time for parloying, but one for action. The howling storm without, and the darkening pall of night had more terrors to the fatigued and hungry white men than the arrow points of the exuberant savages within. The barricade was wrenched from off the door, which was suddenly thrown open, and two drenched and storm-chilled angry white men confronted more than a score of comfortably conditioned Indians, surprised at their feast. The fire they had made under the place they had entered prevented escape in that way, and their only opportunity was to flee through the door. ee oem 4) CA

Listury of Placer County, Ch REMINISCENCES bom AW Oak 357 aee JWN. GENEROSITY AND GRATITUDE. The new owners worked the bar with great success until the rains in November compelled them to leave it. They then went to Deer Creek, and were among the first locators of claims on Gold Run (not the Gold Run of Placer County), a little stream overlain then with deep muck and grasscovered soil, which emptied into Deer Creek opposite the present town of Nevada City, from the south. In making locations there they did not forget the one who had given them their start upon the North Fork, but located ground for him also, and sent word of their action; but not being able to get to it in time, and the great rush there a little Inter, which rendered it impossible for the locators to hold it without representation, made it unavailable. The following spring, in witnessing its working, the one for whom the Higgins boys located the ground frequently saw a “ panikin,” holding about a pint, full of gold asa half day’s work of two men with a rocker—the top dirt having been stripped off previously. SEEKING SHELTER. As the winter of 1849 approached, men began to leave the river, as at other points, and gather at the settlements on the ridges, and Alder Grove became quite populous. Before the rains had fairly set in, Mr. Mendenhall had completed a double log House—he occupying one part as a hotel and Charles L. King and Horatio Hoskins the other portion as a store. In September John D. Egbert, Robert 8. Egbert, and Oliver Egbert had arrived and located in the vicinity, the two latter settling down to mining, making shakes, and doing all sorts of work, while the former, having a commercial turn, devoted his time to teaming and trading. It was not long before the Egbert Brothers had a cabin filled with miners’ supplies, and were ready to trade in those or any other article going. Pierson, meantime, had been busy laying in stores, and had several oxteams running over the road freighting from Sacramento. Sears & Miller sold their store in November to David Fairchild and M. D. Fairchild, father and son, and the little community, with all of these sources of supply to draw upon, seemed to be well-prepared for the winter before them. INDIANS. As there were many beautiful little valleys upon the divide between Auburn and Lllinoistown, and as the locality reached the altitude where grew the sugar-pine. as well as being the home of tho black oak, and there being an abundance of game, it was a favorite abiding-place of the Indians, and scores of little knolls overlooking the small valleys spoken of were covered with the circular-shaped huts, constructed mainly of bark. Cords of the long cones of the sugar-pine were stacked up near

these villages, with the seed, or nut, still in them, which were only shelled when required—their natural cell affording better protection from the effects of rain by the closing up of the scales of the bur by dampness upon the outside, than any method the Indians had adopted for their preservation, Immense caches of manzanita were also made. Largo cribs were built of small-sized logs, filled with acorns and covered with bark. These were the main winter stores of the aborigines, and were then an adjunct to every cluster of wigwams, and the quantities gathered and stored were astonishing. Toward the end of November the Indians began to get impudent and saucy. They were more numerous than the whites; they were, of right, no doubt, the natural lords of the heritage; the country had been occupied by their ancestors away back to a time beyond the memory of the oldest among them, and they soon began to look upon the interloping gold-diggers aslegitimate subjects of plunder. Aslight castigation for a few instances of palpable theft made them avoid the settlement. When any would come, it would only be an old man or two, accompanied, perhaps, by several urchins of the tribe, but “signs” of a great many could be seen at any time just at the outskirts of the place, which circumstance was looked upon as an unfavorable indication of their good feeling and intentions. DASTARDLY ROBBERY AND BLOODLESS BATTLE. Finally, about the second week of December, during the temporary absence of the proprietors, who had gone to Auburn, the Indians broke into the store, at the lower end of the valley, and carried off or destroyed nearly everything that was portable, except liquors, which at that time they never drank. For several nights they continued these visits, and no one came to make them afraid. But just at dusk on the evening of the 15th of December, 1849, during the prevalence of a heavy storm, which had been incessant during the day, the proprietors of the store approached the place with five pack-animals laden with additional supplies. A smoke issuing from a hole in the shake roof, instead of coming through the chimney, first attracted their attention. A bar was spiked to the logs on the outside, across the door, as they had left it six days before. Listening for a moment, suppressed sounds of merriment were heard in the Indian dialect. It was no time for parloying, but one for action. The howling storm without, and the darkening pall of night had more terrors to the fatigued and hungry white men than the arrow points of the exuberant savages within. The barricade was wrenched from off the door, which was suddenly thrown open, and two drenched and storm-chilled angry white men confronted more than a score of comfortably conditioned Indians, surprised at their feast. The fire they had made under the place they had entered prevented escape in that way, and their only opportunity was to flee through the door. ee oem 4) CA