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Collection: Books and Periodicals
A Hundred Years of Rip and Roarin Rough and Ready By Andy Rogers (1952)(Hathitrust) (117 pages)

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Page: of 117

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a constitution to apply for admission to
the Union as a state.
His tenture of office was chiefly signalized by the passing of Clay's compromise
bill regarding the administration of Calirornia to the union. He was President while
the gold rush days of California gold hunters to California began. He was inaugurated
March 5, .1849.
President from Louisiana almost wasn't.
Mail at that time could be sent without
postage on it, but the postage was collected
at the point of delivery.
Over one hundred years ago the voters of
the nation were preparing to elect the twelfth president of the United States. The man
they chose was General Taylor, Louisiana
Planter, who because of his amusing stubbornness didn't even know he was a candidate until more than a month after his nomination.
In June of 1848, Taylor was at Cypress
Grove, his 1200 acres plantation, along the
river between Natchez and Vicksburg. One
night in Philadelphia, he was nominated for
the presidency by the Whig Party. The official notification was sent to him by letter. Now it happened that Taylor at this
time had become pretty sore at the postage
system. Most letters in those days was sent
prepaid, the addressee paid upon receipt.
General Taylor was a hero, a national figure.
His mail was heavy. Previously he had begun
to sending his incoming flood of mail to the
dead letter office, refusing to pay freight,
along with the rest went his notification of
his nomination. A month passed and the Whigs
were stewing, but still there was no acception from General Taylor.
One day the bull-headed 014 soldier was
riding over his plantation when the steamer
"General Taylor" tied up at his landing.
There were shouts of congratulations from
the passengers. What for? Thus,. Zachary
Taylor learned of his new prominence. He
retrieved the dead letter, mailed in his
acceptance. During the ensuing campaign,
he was attacked for his stubbornness in
this little drama, but he was elected, and
thereby became Louisiana's closest claim to
the presidency.
In the army, the general rode around in
the front lines, wearing a battered straw
hat and blue checked gingham coat, chewing
and spitting, and getting into the nick of
every fight. He was the crudest specimen
for a president candidate. Got the nickname
"Rough and Ready.”
Fort Bliss was named for Lieut. Col.
William Bliss, was founded on the Mexican
border in 1848, just outside where the city
of £1 Paso, Texas, stands. It was a trouble
spot with both liexicans and Indians, for the
permanent settlers and for the people on
their way to the California Gold Rush.
Mining camps made up Cousin Jacks,
slavey, Missourians, Whigs, High graders,
slickers, gamblers, hold-up men, suckers,
end Chinamen of every walk of life, and
people that became famous.
Gold digging of the forty-niners.
mance of those colorful days and tragic
events. Yet nothing finer than a fortyniner.
The first settlement arrived September
9th, 1849, who were the Rough and Ready
Company from Wisconsin, in covered wagons
with Rough and Ready printed on their wagon
train.
The leader, Captain A.A.Townsend, servRoGoogle
4
ed under Zachary Taylor, "Old Rough and
Ready," commander-in-ohief of the American
forces in the Mexicar War at Winnebago.
Others were: the Townsend brothers, Rec.
Pope of Iowa, Putnam and Carpenter of New
York, Hardy, Dunn and Richards of Wisconsin, Hold, Colgrave, P. Vanmetre, Slim
Judson, Emanuel Comstock, and Joe Sweigart.
They left to avoid troublesome times. These
Rough and Ready emigrants were luckier than
the Donner Party, "they got here."
These emigrants named the town after
Zachary Taylor, Rough and Ready. This was
a most fitting name and which name the rugged town has proudly born for over a hundred
years. Taylor, like the town was crude,
rough and ready; he chewed, spit, and was in
the nick of every fight. Rough and Ready
for anything to come. The United States
government, in honor of this great General,
issued a twelve-cent postage stamp as he became the twelfth president of the United
States. This stamp, if available, will be
used to postmark out this book.
In 1850 Rough and Ready boasted more
than 300 substantial frame buildings. Hotel
built in 1853,
CHAPTE:
GOLD RUSH AND GOLD WINING
Gold In rock--Ledges, Gravel
Quartz on top of the ground and
Thousands of feet below the ground
Take your choice"Come and Get it.*
One of the Greatest Stampedes in History
for
Trail of gold rush of forty-niners has
been often enough described and marvelled at.
Let's go back now since one hundred years.
Participants, travelers, related by remaining
"Old Timers."
Gold Rush helped to pull through the
Civil War. None of the greatest battles of
the war broke so many heartstrings, so many
fearful partings, caused such wide-spread
pain as did the California migration.
CALIFORNIA OR BUST
"Rough" if It had to be done
"Ready" for anything to come
It was not all bad.
The men who came to California in gold
rush days were generally speaking interested
in three things, "News from home," “The Precious metal he sought,” "and it's safe-keepn
’
Dg ;
At first there were no facilities to satisfy either of these desires. His letters
arrived at infrequent, uncertain intervals,
after coming around the Horn, or via Panama,
often requiring many months. The gold he
found he kept in a belt about his waist,
puried it, or hid it until he could sell it
at a high discount, or take it personally to
San Francisco.
His fortune, and often his life, were at
stake, being at the mercy of thieves, highway-men and slickers.
Express companies began in 1849 anc 1850.
Yells Fargo Express and banking began July,
1852, then gold poured in.
hiore fights than could be counted
as soon as they dismounted
With a gold pan
In rock and gravel and sand
They struck it rich
‘inich enabled them to take a snitch
Ther's still gold in them thar Hills
For all the Toms, Jacks and Bills.