Volume 001-3 - May 1948 (2 pages)

May 3, 1948 JUNE MEETINGS On Saturday, June 5th, at 8:00 P. M., the Nevada County Historical Society will unite with all historical groups of the county in honoring Dr. C. W. Chapman at a reception in the Elks Home, 109% Pine Street, Nevada City. Dr. Chapman, as Chairman of the Donner Monument Committee for the Grand Parlor, Native Sons of the Golden West, accomplished the impossible when the beautiful monument, now situated at the north end of Donner Lake, was dedicated July 16, 1918. A dinner party will proceed the reception, and particulars will be announced later in the local papers. + + On Sunday, June 27th, the Nevada County Historical Society will make an excursion to the historical town of Rough and Ready. The group will meet in the Odd Fellows Hall in Rough and Ready at noon, where Mrs. Robert Steuber and Frank A. Fippin, as co-chairmen, have arranged for a delicious luncheon. The price is 85 cents each. Those planning to attend should make reservations by phoning Mrs. Steuber, Grass Valley 32-F-3, or Doris Foley, Nevada City 312-W, by Thursday, June 24th. After the luncheon, the group will be conducted to historical spots around Rough and Ready. Part of the original blacksmith shop is standing, in which Lola Montez placed small Lotta Crabtree on an anvil to dance and sing before a group of miners. The Slave Girl Tree, an immense cottonwood, will be of interest to the group. Tradition is that Hannah, a slave girl, who came with others from Kentucky in the early 50's, pushed her riding switch into the soil at this point. The switch took root and is now an immense tree probably 75 feet in height. Frank Fippin, who will guide the group around the town is an early-day resident of Rough and Ready, having been born there in 1860, and he will be able to entertain the “Historians” with much local color. 1850 at Rough and Ready. From “Sketches of the Gold Country,” by Harley M. Leete, Jr. On sale at the Nevada County Historical Museum, 75 cents HISTORICAL NOTES—for one’s personal files. BEGINNINGS OF ROUGH AND READY “ROUGH AND READY,’ whose name became the inspiration of Bret Harte for his story, “The Millionaire of Rough and Ready,” is like that of many a mining town in California. A discovery of rich diggings, an influx of prosperity and importance as long as the mines continued to yield. The first settlement was made in the fall of 1849 by the Rough and Ready Company, from which the town derived its name. The leader of this company was Captain A. A. Townsend, who had served under ‘Rough and Ready” Zachary Taylor, Commander of the American Forces in the Mexican War at Winnebago, and for this reason the company was styled Rough and Ready. They crossed the mountains by the Truckee route, and arrived on Deer Creek, near the mouth of Slate Creek, September 9, 1849. Here they mined in the bed of the creek for several weeks with good success. Grizzlies and deer were plentiful, and while one of the company was out on a foraging expedition after game, he came to the ravine below Randolph Flat. Being thirsty he stooped to drink from the clear stream at his feet, and in doing so discovered a piece of gold lying exposed upon the bed rock. They prospected here, and finding rich ground, removed their camp from Slate Creek to this place. A short time after the settlement of the Rough and Ready Company, the Randolph Company appeared and located on Randolph Flat. The Rough and Ready Company had endeavored to keep their success a secret. They had located the whole ravine, and had even taken up claims that were known to be of no value, in order to keep others away. They maintained their monopoly and whenever any miners began prospecting in the neighborhood, by going to the place they were at work and claiming the ground. This was the state of affairs when the Randolph Co. appeared and located on some ground claimed by the others. This proceeding threatened to result in difficulty between the two companies, but a compromise was effected, and the two parties divided the ravine between them. So successful were these companies in their mining operations that Captain Townsend returned East in the spring to procure more men. He made up a company of forty, whom he had under contract to work for him one year for the wages that then prevailed in the States. All are familiar with the magical growth of mining localities in the summer of 1850, and when Townsend arrived with his new party in September, he was both surprised and disappointed to find four or five hundred people in a town composed of a motley collection of tents and shanties, where but a few months before stood only the cabins of the two companies. He was obliged to hire his men out to the owners of claims, and to buy an interest in a claim for himself. The first family at Rough and Ready was that of a Scotchman named Riddle, who came here with his wife from South America. In April, 1850, James S. Dunleavy came with his wife and built the first frame house paying $200 per thousand feet for the lumber at Holt’s sawmill near Grass Valley. Mr. Dunleavy had come to this coast as a minister, and had for several years previously resided in San Francisco, where he was elected by the inhabitants of that place in 1847 to represent them in the Council called by Fremont, the acting Governor. The reverend gentleman got drunk on the night of the election, and seems to have retrograded rapidly, for upon his appearance in Rough and Ready he opened the first saloon in the new town, and a few months later dedicated the first ten-pin alley in the county. The following anecdote about him is quoted from Robert Welles Ritchie’s book “The Hell Roarin’ Forty Niners.” It’s about a funeral in Rough and Ready. During the service at the cemetery the reverend delivered a lengthy prayer, while the mourners stood with bowed heads. One of them noticed something shiny in the freshly dug earth beside the grave. He

May 3, 1948 JUNE MEETINGS On Saturday, June 5th, at 8:00 P. M., the Nevada County Historical Society will unite with all historical groups of the county in honoring Dr. C. W. Chapman at a reception in the Elks Home, 109% Pine Street, Nevada City. Dr. Chapman, as Chairman of the Donner Monument Committee for the Grand Parlor, Native Sons of the Golden West, accomplished the impossible when the beautiful monument, now situated at the north end of Donner Lake, was dedicated July 16, 1918. A dinner party will proceed the reception, and particulars will be announced later in the local papers. + + On Sunday, June 27th, the Nevada County Historical Society will make an excursion to the historical town of Rough and Ready. The group will meet in the Odd Fellows Hall in Rough and Ready at noon, where Mrs. Robert Steuber and Frank A. Fippin, as co-chairmen, have arranged for a delicious luncheon. The price is 85 cents each. Those planning to attend should make reservations by phoning Mrs. Steuber, Grass Valley 32-F-3, or Doris Foley, Nevada City 312-W, by Thursday, June 24th. After the luncheon, the group will be conducted to historical spots around Rough and Ready. Part of the original blacksmith shop is standing, in which Lola Montez placed small Lotta Crabtree on an anvil to dance and sing before a group of miners. The Slave Girl Tree, an immense cottonwood, will be of interest to the group. Tradition is that Hannah, a slave girl, who came with others from Kentucky in the early 50's, pushed her riding switch into the soil at this point. The switch took root and is now an immense tree probably 75 feet in height. Frank Fippin, who will guide the group around the town is an early-day resident of Rough and Ready, having been born there in 1860, and he will be able to entertain the “Historians” with much local color. 1850 at Rough and Ready. From “Sketches of the Gold Country,” by Harley M. Leete, Jr. On sale at the Nevada County Historical Museum, 75 cents HISTORICAL NOTES—for one’s personal files. BEGINNINGS OF ROUGH AND READY “ROUGH AND READY,’ whose name became the inspiration of Bret Harte for his story, “The Millionaire of Rough and Ready,” is like that of many a mining town in California. A discovery of rich diggings, an influx of prosperity and importance as long as the mines continued to yield. The first settlement was made in the fall of 1849 by the Rough and Ready Company, from which the town derived its name. The leader of this company was Captain A. A. Townsend, who had served under ‘Rough and Ready” Zachary Taylor, Commander of the American Forces in the Mexican War at Winnebago, and for this reason the company was styled Rough and Ready. They crossed the mountains by the Truckee route, and arrived on Deer Creek, near the mouth of Slate Creek, September 9, 1849. Here they mined in the bed of the creek for several weeks with good success. Grizzlies and deer were plentiful, and while one of the company was out on a foraging expedition after game, he came to the ravine below Randolph Flat. Being thirsty he stooped to drink from the clear stream at his feet, and in doing so discovered a piece of gold lying exposed upon the bed rock. They prospected here, and finding rich ground,

removed their camp from Slate Creek to this place. A short time after the settlement of the Rough and Ready Company, the Randolph Company appeared and located on Randolph Flat. The Rough and Ready Company had endeavored to keep their success a secret. They had located the whole ravine, and had even taken up claims that were known to be of no value, in order to keep others away. They maintained their monopoly and whenever any miners began prospecting in the neighborhood, by going to the place they were at work and claiming the ground. This was the state of affairs when the Randolph Co. appeared and located on some ground claimed by the others. This proceeding threatened to result in difficulty between the two companies, but a compromise was effected, and the two parties divided the ravine between them. So successful were these companies in their mining operations that Captain Townsend returned East in the spring to procure more men. He made up a company of forty, whom he had under contract to work for him one year for the wages that then prevailed in the States. All are familiar with the magical growth of mining localities in the summer of 1850, and when Townsend arrived with his new party in September, he was both surprised and disappointed to find four or five hundred people in a town composed of a motley collection of tents and shanties, where but a few months before stood only the cabins of the two companies. He was obliged to hire his men out to the owners of claims, and to buy an interest in a claim for himself. The first family at Rough and Ready was that of a Scotchman named Riddle, who came here with his wife from South America. In April, 1850, James S. Dunleavy came with his wife and built the first frame house paying $200 per thousand feet for the lumber at Holt’s sawmill near Grass Valley. Mr. Dunleavy had come to this coast as a minister, and had for several years previously resided in San Francisco, where he was elected by the inhabitants of that place in 1847 to represent them in the Council called by Fremont, the acting Governor. The reverend gentleman got drunk on the night of the election, and seems to have retrograded rapidly, for upon his appearance in Rough and Ready he opened the first saloon in the new town, and a few months later dedicated the first ten-pin alley in the county. The following anecdote about him is quoted from Robert Welles Ritchie’s book “The Hell Roarin’ Forty Niners.” It’s about a funeral in Rough and Ready. During the service at the cemetery the reverend delivered a lengthy prayer, while the mourners stood with bowed heads. One of them noticed something shiny in the freshly dug earth beside the grave. He