Collection: Directories and Documents > Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection

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Title: Borthwick's California - Gold Rush Panorama Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection Author: R.E. Mather Source(s): The Californians, Vol 12, No.1 # of Pages: 12 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-08-27 14:46:52 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:11:48 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 03:11:48

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

Page: of 12  

VO) E-UM_E 1-2.N-O. 1 THE CA LIE O RN LANES PA (Gabel 5 into a wilderness, eighty miles up among the mountains. ..A mighty rock jutted from the mountain-side by the stream, and ina hollow of its hospitable face I rested for twenty golden years. Ultimately . enclosed this hollow, building three walls of stones cemented by adobe. ..” There Harbin lived, hunting and gathering his food like the Indians before him. And there he waxed poetic, writing: When I felt lonely I turned to the stars or the flowers or the waters and was comforted. There’s a heap of company in astar if you know how to get on speaking terms with it, and the brooks tell stories, and the flowers are full of history, and the birds are honest friends. loam The last seven years were difficult for Harbin after he suffered a stroke and was partially paralyzed. A young Mexican lad cared for him until he was able to get around, but the old man would never be the same. It was then that he began petitioning the U.S. Government fora veteran’s pension for his service in Frémont’s volunteers. One of these petitions included his description of the Battle of Rancho Chino. He was awarded the munificent pension of $8.00 per month, commencing January 29, 1887. When his Mexican neighbors built him a pine coffin in anticipation of his death, Harbin realized the time had come to seek help. Swallowing his broken pride, he wrote of his plight to a daughter at Pine Ridge (Fresno County), probably Dora Kenyan. When Harbin received a train ticket from her, a kindly Mexican neighbor escorted him to a town where he could catch the train. After a miserable trip, during which he lost his ticket and was put off the train, Harbin finally arrived in Fresno. His daughter was shocked, scarcely recognizing the hairy old hermit standing before her. Harbin moved in and lived his few remaining years with her. He died on June 9, 1900 at the age of 79. From author to reader. The preceding biography was compiled from family records generously furnished by Elbert Harbin Gray and Robin Brilliant, direct descendants of James M. Harbin; also from Harbin’s dictated autobiography, published in the San Francisco Examiner June 27, 1897. Harbin’s version of his role in the “Battle of Rancho Chino” is published here for the first time. Some punctuation in Harbin’s account Evan Callaghan wounded Captain José Diego Sepulveda, above, with a bullet to the thigh when Sepulveda tried to finish him off with a lance. After the defeat of the Americans, Sepulveda led Wilson, Rowland and Harbin away from the other prisoners to kill them in revenge. has been added to clarify the text, but no substantial changes were made. Other family documents include a copy of J.M. Harbin’s honorable discharge from Frémont’s forces, showing him enlisting on the “tenth day of September, One Thousand Eight hundred and forty six,” signed by J.C. Frémont at San Gabriel on April 14, 1847. Though a few errors are apparent, most of Harbin’s Rancho Chino account appears reasonably accurate. Published sources referred to include Hubert H. Bancroft’s Register of Pioneer Inhabitants of California, 1542-1848 (Dawson’s Book Shop, Los Angeles, 1964); James M. “Matt” Harbin’s autobiography, “The King of the Mountains,” San Francisco Examiner, June 27, 1897; Harbin’s narrative of his experiences during the Mexican War, edited by myself; Historic Spots in California (Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, 1990), edited by Douglas E. Kyle and Joseine Miles’ “Reminiscences of Long Ago,” an article by Matt Harbin’s sister written in the 1800s and read before the Pioneer Women of Lower Lake (Lake County) and Laguna parlor 189, N.D.G.W. — DL Donovan Lewis writes from the heart of the gold country on early California history, having produced a weekly newspaper column, articles in several historical periodicals and two books: an unpublished novel The Golden Decade (based on John Sutter’s life in California) and, most recently, Pioneers of California: True Stories of Early Settlers in the Golden State (Scottwall Associates, San Francisco, 1993). To order this handsomely produced, illustrated, 567page hardback, a collection of pioneer biographies described by historian Richard Dillon as “concise, well researched and very readable,” send a check for $26.95 plus sales tax and $3.00 postage to Scottwall Associates, 95 Scott Street, San Francisco, CA 94117. It is also available at many book stores.