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Volume 036-3 - July 1982 (8 pages)
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Page: of 8
Nevada County Historical Society
Bulletin
Volume 36, No. 3 July 1982
TWO PEOPLES
Note. In this issue we present a
“sneak preview” of Dave Comstock’s
book: Gold Diggers and Camp
Followers. This material was taken
from chapters 23 and 24 of the book. A
review of the book will be found
elsewhere in this issue. This material is
copywrighted by D.A. Comstock.
vdP.
I
George Holt had barely enough
strength to drag himself through the
heavy brush to the neighboring sawmill
of James Walsh and Zenas Wheeler. His
body hurt terribly and his clothes were
drenched in blood. Whenever bushes or
brambles caught at the broken arrow
shafts still hanging from his body, he
cried out in pain. When he thought he
could go no farther, and just as he began
to lose consciousness, he saw the mill.
Fortunately, Jim Walsh chanced to be
looking in his direction when Holt
pitched forward. As he ran to the
wounded man, Walsh called out to his
partner:
“Zenas, quick! Bring the whiskey and
a bucket full of water!”
“What’s happened?”
“It’s George Holt—looks like he’s been
shot up by Injuns. C’mon, Zenas, get a
move on, before the man dies!”
Jim Walsh tried to ease George’s body
into a position which brought less pressure on the arrows. Some of the shafts
had broken off, but others were still
intact. It would take a doctor or a surgeon
skilled in the art of removing arrows to
get them out, for the points were barbed
and could not be retrieved like those used
to hunt game. Removing them was as
painful or more so than being hit in the
first place, and even after they were gone
there was still the danger of infection by
erysipelas.
Zenas Wheeler rode his mule four
miles north to Grass Valley, where he
hoped to find someone to take care of
By David Allan Comstock
FOOD PREPARATION IN A NISENAN VILLAGE
Holt and where he also hoped to raise a
posse to go after the Indians. But neither
at Grass Valley nor at the Rough and
Ready camp could he find a doctor willing to remove the arrows.
“Why don’t you get the army surgeon
from Far West?” he was asked. “He’s the
one to do a job like that.”
“In fact,” said another, “you should
get the soldiers to come up here and teach
them redskins a lesson. That’s what
they’re here for, but you never see hide
nor hair of them when there’s trouble. Go
down to Camp Far West and make the
Army stop all this killing!”
Eventually he had convinced John
Day, a former officer in the Mexican War,
and some of Day’s friends to return with
him to the sawmill. Day had offered to
carry a message to the army post from
Walsh and Wheeler.
“You lead the way, Wheeler, and we'll
follow,” said the ex-captain, “but keep an
eagle eye out for Indians. We don’t want
to step into another ambush.”
II
Throughout the winter the wolesem
had been hard at work erecting two
strange buildings beside the creek. One
was downstream from the other, and
each was attached to a thing which
rotated. It was as if one had put many
feathers, not just three, on the end of an
arrow, then turned the shaft round and
round.
However, instead of feathers, the fins
on these giant shafts were made of wood
and were partly submerged. When water
in the stream pressed against them they
moved away from it—or tried to, because
in time each fin or blade again was forced
17