Volume 002-1 - January 1949 (2 pages)

OFFICERS FOR THE CENTENNIAL YEAR OF 1949 NEVADA COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY President: Elmer Stevens Vice President: Doris Foley Secretary-Treasurer: Junies Chase Directors: Julia Cox, Judge James Snell, W. W. Kallenberger, Eugene Ingalls, Isabel Hefelfinger, William Durbrow, George W. Hallock, Robert Paine, Amelia Cunningham. JANUARY MEETING The Nevada County Historical Society is due for a real treat January 17th, with a Nevada County Chinese Contribution. Edward Tinloy is chairman of the evening. It will be held in the Grass Valley High School Auditorium, Monday, January 17th, at 8:00 P. M. FEBRUARY MEETING The Golden Centennials Film is coming to Nevada County! This film of the discovery of gold in California, was made by the State Centennials Commission. The names of actors portraying historical characters are withheld. The film is in technicolor, and will be shown in the Nevada City Elemntary School a editockain, Monday, February 7, at 8:00 P. M. George W. Hallock is the chairman. CENTENNIAL HALL OF FAME (Men who arrived in Nevada County in 1849 or earlier) JONAS SPECT, who shared the honor with James W. Marshall of discovering gold in Deer Creek, Nevada County, in the summer of 1848, added a number of firsts to his name. He was elected to the first Constitutional Convention and to the first State Senate. The first mining laws were drafted by him, and he established the first public ferry in the state. He was sixty-six years old at the time of his death, July 6, 1883.—Nevada Daily Transcript. WOOLBERTON DAYS arrived at the present site of Chicago Park, Nevada County, September 28, 1849. His life was a most colorful one. He was the first white child born in Chautauqua County, New York. At twelve years of age he was sent to St. Mary’s College in Baltimore to study for the Priesthood, After three years, he ran awzy, and shipped for Rio De Janeiro, where he was employed to care for the Emperor of Brazil, then but one year old. He left this employment in 1831, and returned to Baltimore. In 1836 he shipped as Hospital Steward on the South Sea Exploring Expedition of Commodore Wilkes, and after being shipwrecked, landed at Yerba Buena, (San Francisco) in 1840. He was sent to New York and honorably discharged the following year. He married Miss Martha Park Custis, a relative of Martha Washington, in 1848. They had one son, W. W. Days, born in 1853. (The Nevada County Historical Society would greatly appreciate any museum exhibit, pictures or stories of this very colorful couple.) To the list of Nevada County men arriving in California in 1849, we add the names of Delos L. Calkins, Selby Flat; George Sanford. Nevada City; Henry Oliver Wait, Grass Valley; W. K. Weare, Nevada City; David I. Wood, Bridgeport. (Names, pictures and biographies of the pioneers of 1849 should be sent to Doris E. Foley, 538 Main Street, Nevada City.) (Cover photograph taken by and courtesy of Frank S. and Harriet L. Jakobs, Grass Valley) The Old Chinese of Placer Mining Days -.A Memory Il 1 like to “reminisce”. The boyhood happenings at the old time placer mining Chinese camps will not be recalled by very many this day. Either the majority have passed on or at the time of the events they were of no particular interest to many. A Chinaman was a “Chink”, that was all. Many of these old characters I knew, snowballed, rocked, teased, I now realize for them I had a genuine affection. I recall the funeral of Jim Yet Wah. Jim was a sort of tycoon amongst the Chinese at the settlement known as the China Garden. He ran the garden and had a store in a walled up dugout—a cellar. The most interesting place for a store one could imagine. Today nothing remains but a mound of earth and relic of the stone walls. To gain entrance to this store with its peculiar tasting brown sugar bars of candy, the melon or citron candied to perfection, the strips of cocoanut candy or candied plums, the litchi nuts, and the eternal salted watermelon seeds, certainly was an event. Anything could happen, anything could emerge from the dark corners and from the crevices made by goods piled on the shelves. The whole affair was mysterious. The only light coming through the cellar door merely increased the illusions. Jim was a sort of Solomon as well. The trouble and controversies arising at times amongst the Chinese would he settled without the recourse to cleavers, hatchets and knives. When the time came for old Jim to die, occasioned an event long in my memory. He was placed in a coffin resting on two saw horses out in front of the China gate. A canopy was placed over the bier. There he rested in state until the funeral. But all was not to be serene. For some reason or other a handful of nickels and dimes was showered over the remains. That nearly wrecked the works. We white urchins viewing the proceedings made one wild dive and scramble. For a few moments it was nip and tuck as to whether Old Jim was to remain in state on the saw-horses or was to be cast upon the ground. Precariously the coffin tilted on one saw-horse and then upon the other, the coffin jigging meantime. After much “ki yi ing” and uproar the young ruffians were scattered and order restored. The town “hearse’’, a light two horse rig larger than a buckboard but much smaller than a “deadax” wagon bore the remains to the China cemetery. Sing was the son of Jim Yet Wah and the chief mourner. He headed the cortege. He was supported on either side by another Chinaman and then started one of the most peculiar and tortuous, apparently, walks I have ever witnessed. Al! the kids vowed that Sing had needles in his slippers which caused the spectacular locomotion. He swayed from side to side in agony semingly and meandered from one side of the road to the other diligently held upright by the two aides at his sides. Another aide followed dispersine “devil papers'’—sheets of small size punctured with openings. Presumably the devil was to pass through all these openings before catching up with the cornse. The holes being many and the number of small sheets being plen-. tiful or the devil was slow, anyway he never causht up. However, the devil was working under a decided handicap. The din of the firecrackers and the racket of the China band, noise used to frighten the devil—and it could—had the devil badly befuddled and it was hardly conceivable that he could sneak through and manipulate every hole in the “devil-paper”. Now the racket, uproar and din occasioned by the firecrackers and cym-

OFFICERS FOR THE CENTENNIAL YEAR OF 1949 NEVADA COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY President: Elmer Stevens Vice President: Doris Foley Secretary-Treasurer: Junies Chase Directors: Julia Cox, Judge James Snell, W. W. Kallenberger, Eugene Ingalls, Isabel Hefelfinger, William Durbrow, George W. Hallock, Robert Paine, Amelia Cunningham. JANUARY MEETING The Nevada County Historical Society is due for a real treat January 17th, with a Nevada County Chinese Contribution. Edward Tinloy is chairman of the evening. It will be held in the Grass Valley High School Auditorium, Monday, January 17th, at 8:00 P. M. FEBRUARY MEETING The Golden Centennials Film is coming to Nevada County! This film of the discovery of gold in California, was made by the State Centennials Commission. The names of actors portraying historical characters are withheld. The film is in technicolor, and will be shown in the Nevada City Elemntary School a editockain, Monday, February 7, at 8:00 P. M. George W. Hallock is the chairman. CENTENNIAL HALL OF FAME (Men who arrived in Nevada County in 1849 or earlier) JONAS SPECT, who shared the honor with James W. Marshall of discovering gold in Deer Creek, Nevada County, in the summer of 1848, added a number of firsts to his name. He was elected to the first Constitutional Convention and to the first State Senate. The first mining laws were drafted by him, and he established the first public ferry in the state. He was sixty-six years old at the time of his death, July 6, 1883.—Nevada Daily Transcript. WOOLBERTON DAYS arrived at the present site of Chicago Park, Nevada County, September 28, 1849. His life was a most colorful one. He was the first white child born in Chautauqua County, New York. At twelve years of age he was sent to St. Mary’s College in Baltimore to study for the Priesthood, After three years, he ran awzy, and shipped for Rio De Janeiro, where he was employed to care for the Emperor of Brazil, then but one year old. He left this employment in 1831, and returned to Baltimore. In 1836 he shipped as Hospital Steward on the South Sea Exploring Expedition of Commodore Wilkes, and after being shipwrecked, landed at Yerba Buena, (San Francisco) in 1840. He was sent to New York and honorably discharged the following year. He married Miss Martha Park Custis, a relative of Martha Washington, in 1848. They had one son, W. W. Days, born in 1853. (The Nevada County Historical Society would greatly appreciate any museum exhibit, pictures or stories of this very colorful couple.) To the list of Nevada County men arriving in California in 1849, we add the names of Delos L. Calkins, Selby Flat; George Sanford. Nevada City; Henry Oliver Wait, Grass Valley; W. K. Weare, Nevada City; David I. Wood, Bridgeport. (Names, pictures and biographies of the pioneers of 1849 should be sent to Doris E. Foley, 538 Main Street, Nevada City.) (Cover photograph taken by and courtesy of Frank S. and Harriet L. Jakobs, Grass Valley) The Old Chinese of Placer Mining Days -.A Memory Il 1 like to “reminisce”. The boyhood happenings at the old time placer mining Chinese camps will not be recalled by very many this day. Either the majority have passed on or at the time of the events they were of no particular interest to many. A Chinaman was a “Chink”, that was all. Many of these old characters I knew, snowballed, rocked, teased, I now realize for them I had a genuine affection. I recall the funeral of Jim Yet Wah. Jim was a sort of tycoon amongst the Chinese at the settlement known as the China Garden. He ran the garden and had a store in a walled up dugout—a cellar. The most interesting place for a store one could imagine. Today nothing remains but a mound of earth and relic of the stone walls. To gain entrance to this store with its peculiar tasting brown sugar bars of candy, the melon or citron candied to perfection, the strips of cocoanut

candy or candied plums, the litchi nuts, and the eternal salted watermelon seeds, certainly was an event. Anything could happen, anything could emerge from the dark corners and from the crevices made by goods piled on the shelves. The whole affair was mysterious. The only light coming through the cellar door merely increased the illusions. Jim was a sort of Solomon as well. The trouble and controversies arising at times amongst the Chinese would he settled without the recourse to cleavers, hatchets and knives. When the time came for old Jim to die, occasioned an event long in my memory. He was placed in a coffin resting on two saw horses out in front of the China gate. A canopy was placed over the bier. There he rested in state until the funeral. But all was not to be serene. For some reason or other a handful of nickels and dimes was showered over the remains. That nearly wrecked the works. We white urchins viewing the proceedings made one wild dive and scramble. For a few moments it was nip and tuck as to whether Old Jim was to remain in state on the saw-horses or was to be cast upon the ground. Precariously the coffin tilted on one saw-horse and then upon the other, the coffin jigging meantime. After much “ki yi ing” and uproar the young ruffians were scattered and order restored. The town “hearse’’, a light two horse rig larger than a buckboard but much smaller than a “deadax” wagon bore the remains to the China cemetery. Sing was the son of Jim Yet Wah and the chief mourner. He headed the cortege. He was supported on either side by another Chinaman and then started one of the most peculiar and tortuous, apparently, walks I have ever witnessed. Al! the kids vowed that Sing had needles in his slippers which caused the spectacular locomotion. He swayed from side to side in agony semingly and meandered from one side of the road to the other diligently held upright by the two aides at his sides. Another aide followed dispersine “devil papers'’—sheets of small size punctured with openings. Presumably the devil was to pass through all these openings before catching up with the cornse. The holes being many and the number of small sheets being plen-. tiful or the devil was slow, anyway he never causht up. However, the devil was working under a decided handicap. The din of the firecrackers and the racket of the China band, noise used to frighten the devil—and it could—had the devil badly befuddled and it was hardly conceivable that he could sneak through and manipulate every hole in the “devil-paper”. Now the racket, uproar and din occasioned by the firecrackers and cym-