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Volume 001-2 - April 1948 (2 pages)
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Page: of 2
It was natural that this California Dickens should be illustrated by the equally popular California Cruikshand, Charles Nahl.
It was Nahl who left Germany in the revolution of 1848-.and blistered his hands in
Rough and Ready. The boldness of his work
left him no rival in the field of portraying
the early miners.
In the year 1850, the placers had almost
gone out, and many a newly minted Californian might have returned east, leaving
Sutter to pick up the pieces, had it not been
for a lucky accident down the street. In the
Boston party there was George Knight. He
struck his foot on an outcropping—running
test—here was gold in solid rock.
The thought fired his imagination, from
that time to his death his ambitions and his
faith were tied to the tantalizing threads of
gold in Grass Valley. “Honest, I know I was,
for others were so much smarter than I, there
wasn’t a chance to steal. Only alternative was
to dig or starve. I did both. I owned onesixth of the Massachusetts Hill, a splendid
quartz lode which paid the workmen admirably, the owners nothing. We held the honors, our men held the trumps, and while they
filled their stomachs and pockets, we filled
our heads with future hopes.” He told a tale
of falling asleep one evening by the fire. He
was visited by an old friend who whispered
to him of an immensely rich mine, yet not
discovered in Grass Valley. The spirit vanished, so Old Block advertised for twelve
sturdy men to prospect for the imaginary
mine.
When the panic in 1855 struck Grass Valley, a crowd of excited depositors gathered.
He met the emergency. He mounted the
counter and told the people to come in. He
would pay to the last dollar. His own property would go. Confidence was restored. Had
Pardee of San Francisco used the same judgment, Wells Fargo would have been saved
the embarrassment.
Hardly had this disaster hit when Grass
Valley was swept by fire. Sunrise in September showed over thirty acres of ashes. Three
hundred buildings were gone. Many were to
leave, but here was a figure coming down
Main Street, A. Delano directing the progress. A willing crowd assisted the express
agent with a ten foot sign, “Wells Fargo
Open for Business.”
He then opened his own business. It was
here that he returned east. As he left he
wrote, ‘Here all the early locaters were
gtass widowers, so when a name was an
issue, Grass Valley.” Then as women came,
for a time they thought better and called it
Centerville, then again Grass Valley was bestowed by the supervisors.
In fact, it must have been for his loneliness that Leslie Weekly, 1855, provided
him with an imaginary wife in the person of
Lola Montez. “Old Block has got his nose
in it again,” said the wag, “the brilliant but
capricious Lola Montez fell in love with his
nose and married him on the strength, and
on the nuptial day gave him a present of
$40,000 and then left him all but his nose.”
The editor of the Sacramento Union was
bitter. “Old Block is a married man and of
such character and principle to even run after
such a trollup and wild jade as Lola Montez,
much less marry her.”
One of Lola’s eccentricities he defended.
Lola had taken a fancy to raising a pet bear
when she shook Patrick Hull, newspaperman.
Frank Shoule of the California Chronicle
wrote:
“One day when the season was drizzly,
And outside amusements were wet,
Fair Lola paid court to her grizzly
And undertook patting her pet.
So all her caresses combating,
He crushed her white slender hand flat
Refusing his love to her patting
As she had refused her's to Pat.
But since she was bitten by Bruin
The question is anxiously plied,
Not if t’is the Countess ruin,
But whether the poor bear had died?
The Golden Era reported the lady had recovered and Old Block apologized for Bruin
and seemed “'to regard the beast of sentiment
and fine taste” —
“When Lola came to feed her bear
With comfits sweet and sugar rare,
Bruin ran out in haste to meet her
Seized her hand because t’was sweeter.”
In 1873, Grass Valley was plunged into
gloom by the news the Eureka Mine had
been lost. The town was doomed. Old Block
rented Hamilton Hall. This story was told
by the late Dr. Meek of Berkeley. ““He was
a striking fiyure, Prince Albert coat, top hat,
prominent rpse and chin whiskers.”
“My friends, have no fear for the future
of Grass Valley. Underlying this town is a
perfect work of gold-bearing ledges. You
may rest assured that your children’s children
will be mining a hundred years from now,”
so spoke the sage of Grass Valley. How truly
his prophecy will be, the next twenty years
will tell.
NEVADA COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY