Volume 043-3 - July 1989 (8 pages)

in their vicinity”. No wonder that Captain Day was interested in sawmills; it took quite some time before the soldiers were adequately sheltered. A further problem was feeding and clothing the detachment. And finally, there was the problem of deserters; many soldiers defected to try their luck in the mines. Due to the fact that the letters of Captain Day to his superiors have been preserved, we know quite a bit about Camp Far West!5, Captain Day hated his assignment and repeatedly requested to be reassigned. He finally succeeded on 9 June 1851. Thereafter, until the post was abandoned on 4 May 1852, the post was under the command of Lt. Davis. Isaac Wistar and Moore’s Sawmill In the January 1989 issue of the Bulletin we presented Isaac Wistar’s account of his journey from the Humboldt Sink to Steephollow Creek'® Most emigrant diaries stop after the diarist had arrived at the gold fields; only rarely do we learn what happened later. In Wistar’s case, we have his story after his arrival'’; we will follow it until the time of his adventures with Moore's sawmill. Soon after their arrival at Steephollow Creek, Wistar decided to leave the party. He received two mules as his share of the joint capital of the party. He met two persons, one named Lovett, an elderly man about 50 years old and Cook, who was about Wistar’s age. They teamed up and constructed a crude rocker. On account of their inexperience, they did not recover much gold; but as they gained experience, they were luckier and soon they had sufficient gold to send Cook to Sutter’s Fort to buy provisions. Soon they were joined by a large party of miners and they all mined successfully for about a month. . While this mining activity was going on, the animals were pastured and had to be checked upon every few days. One day, Wistar found the animals gone and started following their trail. While doing so, he met a “mountain man and trapper” named Hunt. He joined Wistar in following the trail. Hunt saw signs of Indians and, since it was not certain whether they were friendly or not, they kept in hiding as much as possible. As they did not have food, Hunt took a chance with the Indians by shooting a deer. Soon thereafter they found the animals in a meadow near a creek, full of trout. They decided to return to the camp, leaving the deer, but named the creek: Deer Creek. While returning to camp, the mule on which Hunt was riding was frightened by a grizzly bear and threw him into the creek. Apparently, the bear was as frightened as the mule; they had no trouble with it. Later Hunt returned to Deer Creek and Gold Run and found, together with the others, “the most famous diggings ever known in California’. Here, soon thereafter, Dr. A. B. Caldwell opened Caldwell’s Upper Store in October 1849. This later became Nevada City. Early October, Wistar decided to visit Sutter's Fort. He passed Gillespie’s Ranch and, south of the Bear River came upon a person, named Yeldell, who came from Missouri and was herding emigrant cattle. Yeldell invited Wistar to stay for a few days and. during that time, showed him how to deal with an attacking bull. Here Wistar got the idea of buying 20 some wild cattle, driving them to Auburn with the help of some Indians and, upon arrival in Auburn, slaughter the cattle and sell the meat. This was a profitable business. On his way back to Yeldell, Wistar was sighted by several grizzly bears, but not attacked. Wistar picked up the mules he had left with Yeldell and continued his journey to Sutter's Fort. Here he sold his mules and had his horse stolen. In Sacramento, as it was called already at that time, he met a certain Moore, “a man, scarcely over forty, though an old Missouri River steamboat captain”. Wistar stayed with him. Moore had some wagons and twelve or fourteen yoke of cattle. With him were eight young fellows who had come with him from Missouri and provided their own food and arms; other necessities were taken care of by Moore. Moore had followed the same trail as Wistar and, coming to Greenhorn Creek, had discovered a deep, natural hole in its bed, from which he had recovered $40,000 worth of gold. Moore had taken up a spot where a more numerous party had given up, since they could not get rid of the excess water. In three weeks, Moore and his men, almost without tools, had built a dam, constructed two flumes along the vertical rock walls of the canyon, installed two pumps which were operated by flutter wheels and pumped out a crevice, forty feet deep, where he found his gold. Wistar decided to stay with the party and added his own gold to the “bank”. Moore told Wistar that he wished to construct a sawmill. He knew nothing about sawmills, but Wistar had handled slabs and logs in the Pennsylvania back woods in 1846-47 and so could contribute some experience. Wistar proposed to build the mill on Bear River. There was one big difficulty: where to find the necessary ironware. Near Sacramento, ships had unloaded many kinds of machinery which was useless, for there were no means of transporting them and most of them did not work anyway. Some of this material would be useful in the construction of the sawmill and, to disguise their plans, Moore and Wistar bought all of it for 100 ounces ($1600). Among the ironware was a thirteen inch crank and this, together with some other useful hardware, was carted away. At that time, a heavy rainstorm of long duration started, which flooded the Sacramento Valley they had to cross. Consequently, transport by means of wagons was impossible. The problem was solved by sending the wagons and cattle to the location where the sawmill was to be erected. To transport the ironware, a scow (a flat bottomed, rectangular vessel) was constructed and the ironware was transported this way as far as possible. Wistar brought the scow back to Sacramento, where it was sold for $450 to be used as a ferry. The final trip of the ironware was on the backs of the animals; the crank was carried by four men in a “hand barrow”. At the chosen site, a block-house was constructed and also a corral for the animals. During the winter, a dam was laid in the river and the wooden part of the mill erected. At the end of winter, the dam and water wheel were completed, the machinery was installed and a large supply of logs was cut and hauled. Exactly at that time, an “American ranchero”, accompanied by Mexican and half-breed vaqueros appeared and claimed to be the owner of the land where the mill had been constructed, by virtue of a Mexican land grant. This was not taken seriously, and they were ordered away. A few days later, “fifteen or twenty vaqueros, led by one or two Americans, suddenly descended from the hills in the rear, shouting and firing. Soon all the men were in the block-house and opened fire on the assailants. This cooled their courage somewhat and they were “‘let to recover their wounded and retire’. They were warned that, ifa single man of Moore's group had been lost, “we would have caught and hung the entire gang”. This was however not the end of the story. Some time later Captain Day of the U. S. Army appeared and showed an order from General Riley, Military Governor of California, requiring him to remove all squatters from Gillespie's ranch, in accordance with the treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo and stated that he had some forty soldiers and a howitzer to enforce his demand, if necessary. Protesting did not help and, although the Captain showed understanding for the position of Moore and his men, he had to obey the General’s orders. Realizing that resistance would be futile, Moore decided to comply. And Wistar decided to leave the group and sold his rights back to Moore, in exchange for a fine American horse and a pair of blankets. Here we leave Wistar and only report a few of his concluding comments. Moore decided to surrender and, keeping his party together, went to Nevada City “‘where he made quite a fortune by the successful construction and management of a ‘ditch’ or conduit to supply water at the proper level for miners’ use”. During the following summer, when the mill was operating successfully, producing lumber, worth $300 to 400 per thousand feet, it mysteriously caught fire which completely consumed the structure. Wistar comments: “By whom the deed was done was never ascertained with certainty, but I never heard that the public lay awake much at night, guessing about it”. The narrative of Wistar, which we have here briefly summarized, was quite probably written from memory. To test its reliability, we will try to identify the persons mentioned and the events discussed. Lovett and Cook could not be identified. In the case of Cook, it being quite a common name with initials lacking, it was not even tried. As for Hunt, we may have found him in the History of Nevada Counry'®. Here we find: ‘The blue lead was discovered on Hunt’s Hill in 1852 by a man, named Hunt, on the north side of Greenhorn Creek in 1849; it is therefore not unlikely that he returned there, since the group had been quite successful there. Yeldell can be positively identified. The Steeds write: “We found that one John W. Yeldell (beyond doubt the same Yeldell who killed the bull) was the alcaide before whom Hoyt, Gillespie and Robinson appeared to record their real estate deals of the 12th and 13th of May 1850!9”. The story of the naming of Deer Creek is reported by the eminent historian E. G. Gudde, exactly as Wistar wrote it?@ He apparently o

in their vicinity”. No wonder that Captain Day was interested in sawmills; it took quite some time before the soldiers were adequately sheltered. A further problem was feeding and clothing the detachment. And finally, there was the problem of deserters; many soldiers defected to try their luck in the mines. Due to the fact that the letters of Captain Day to his superiors have been preserved, we know quite a bit about Camp Far West!5, Captain Day hated his assignment and repeatedly requested to be reassigned. He finally succeeded on 9 June 1851. Thereafter, until the post was abandoned on 4 May 1852, the post was under the command of Lt. Davis. Isaac Wistar and Moore’s Sawmill In the January 1989 issue of the Bulletin we presented Isaac Wistar’s account of his journey from the Humboldt Sink to Steephollow Creek'® Most emigrant diaries stop after the diarist had arrived at the gold fields; only rarely do we learn what happened later. In Wistar’s case, we have his story after his arrival'’; we will follow it until the time of his adventures with Moore's sawmill. Soon after their arrival at Steephollow Creek, Wistar decided to leave the party. He received two mules as his share of the joint capital of the party. He met two persons, one named Lovett, an elderly man about 50 years old and Cook, who was about Wistar’s age. They teamed up and constructed a crude rocker. On account of their inexperience, they did not recover much gold; but as they gained experience, they were luckier and soon they had sufficient gold to send Cook to Sutter’s Fort to buy provisions. Soon they were joined by a large party of miners and they all mined successfully for about a month. . While this mining activity was going on, the animals were pastured and had to be checked upon every few days. One day, Wistar found the animals gone and started following their trail. While doing so, he met a “mountain man and trapper” named Hunt. He joined Wistar in following the trail. Hunt saw signs of Indians and, since it was not certain whether they were friendly or not, they kept in hiding as much as possible. As they did not have food, Hunt took a chance with the Indians by shooting a deer. Soon thereafter they found the animals in a meadow near a creek, full of trout. They decided to return to the camp, leaving the deer, but named the creek: Deer Creek. While returning to camp, the mule on which Hunt was riding was frightened by a grizzly bear and threw him into the creek. Apparently, the bear was as frightened as the mule; they had no trouble with it. Later Hunt returned to Deer Creek and Gold Run and found, together with the others, “the most famous diggings ever known in California’. Here, soon thereafter, Dr. A. B. Caldwell opened Caldwell’s Upper Store in October 1849. This later became Nevada City. Early October, Wistar decided to visit Sutter's Fort. He passed Gillespie’s Ranch and, south of the Bear River came upon a person, named Yeldell, who came from Missouri and was herding emigrant cattle. Yeldell invited Wistar to stay for a few days and. during that time, showed him how to deal with an attacking bull. Here Wistar got the idea of buying 20 some wild cattle, driving them to Auburn with the help of some Indians and, upon arrival in Auburn, slaughter the cattle and sell the meat. This was a profitable business. On his way back to Yeldell, Wistar was sighted by several grizzly bears, but not attacked. Wistar picked up the mules he had left with Yeldell and continued his journey to Sutter's Fort. Here he sold his mules and had his horse stolen. In Sacramento, as it was called already at that time, he met a certain Moore, “a man, scarcely over forty, though an old Missouri River steamboat captain”. Wistar stayed with him. Moore had some wagons and twelve or fourteen yoke of cattle. With him were eight young fellows who had come with him from Missouri and provided their own food and arms; other necessities were taken care of by Moore. Moore had followed the same trail as Wistar and, coming to Greenhorn Creek, had discovered a deep, natural hole in its bed, from which he had recovered $40,000 worth of gold. Moore had taken up a spot where a more numerous party had given up, since they could not get rid of the excess water. In three weeks, Moore and his men, almost without tools, had built a dam, constructed two flumes along the vertical rock walls of the canyon, installed two pumps which were operated by flutter wheels and pumped out a crevice, forty feet deep, where he found his gold. Wistar decided to stay with the party and added his own gold to the “bank”. Moore told Wistar that he wished to construct a sawmill. He knew nothing about sawmills, but Wistar had

handled slabs and logs in the Pennsylvania back woods in 1846-47 and so could contribute some experience. Wistar proposed to build the mill on Bear River. There was one big difficulty: where to find the necessary ironware. Near Sacramento, ships had unloaded many kinds of machinery which was useless, for there were no means of transporting them and most of them did not work anyway. Some of this material would be useful in the construction of the sawmill and, to disguise their plans, Moore and Wistar bought all of it for 100 ounces ($1600). Among the ironware was a thirteen inch crank and this, together with some other useful hardware, was carted away. At that time, a heavy rainstorm of long duration started, which flooded the Sacramento Valley they had to cross. Consequently, transport by means of wagons was impossible. The problem was solved by sending the wagons and cattle to the location where the sawmill was to be erected. To transport the ironware, a scow (a flat bottomed, rectangular vessel) was constructed and the ironware was transported this way as far as possible. Wistar brought the scow back to Sacramento, where it was sold for $450 to be used as a ferry. The final trip of the ironware was on the backs of the animals; the crank was carried by four men in a “hand barrow”. At the chosen site, a block-house was constructed and also a corral for the animals. During the winter, a dam was laid in the river and the wooden part of the mill erected. At the end of winter, the dam and water wheel were completed, the machinery was installed and a large supply of logs was cut and hauled. Exactly at that time, an “American ranchero”, accompanied by Mexican and half-breed vaqueros appeared and claimed to be the owner of the land where the mill had been constructed, by virtue of a Mexican land grant. This was not taken seriously, and they were ordered away. A few days later, “fifteen or twenty vaqueros, led by one or two Americans, suddenly descended from the hills in the rear, shouting and firing. Soon all the men were in the block-house and opened fire on the assailants. This cooled their courage somewhat and they were “‘let to recover their wounded and retire’. They were warned that, ifa single man of Moore's group had been lost, “we would have caught and hung the entire gang”. This was however not the end of the story. Some time later Captain Day of the U. S. Army appeared and showed an order from General Riley, Military Governor of California, requiring him to remove all squatters from Gillespie's ranch, in accordance with the treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo and stated that he had some forty soldiers and a howitzer to enforce his demand, if necessary. Protesting did not help and, although the Captain showed understanding for the position of Moore and his men, he had to obey the General’s orders. Realizing that resistance would be futile, Moore decided to comply. And Wistar decided to leave the group and sold his rights back to Moore, in exchange for a fine American horse and a pair of blankets. Here we leave Wistar and only report a few of his concluding comments. Moore decided to surrender and, keeping his party together, went to Nevada City “‘where he made quite a fortune by the successful construction and management of a ‘ditch’ or conduit to supply water at the proper level for miners’ use”. During the following summer, when the mill was operating successfully, producing lumber, worth $300 to 400 per thousand feet, it mysteriously caught fire which completely consumed the structure. Wistar comments: “By whom the deed was done was never ascertained with certainty, but I never heard that the public lay awake much at night, guessing about it”. The narrative of Wistar, which we have here briefly summarized, was quite probably written from memory. To test its reliability, we will try to identify the persons mentioned and the events discussed. Lovett and Cook could not be identified. In the case of Cook, it being quite a common name with initials lacking, it was not even tried. As for Hunt, we may have found him in the History of Nevada Counry'®. Here we find: ‘The blue lead was discovered on Hunt’s Hill in 1852 by a man, named Hunt, on the north side of Greenhorn Creek in 1849; it is therefore not unlikely that he returned there, since the group had been quite successful there. Yeldell can be positively identified. The Steeds write: “We found that one John W. Yeldell (beyond doubt the same Yeldell who killed the bull) was the alcaide before whom Hoyt, Gillespie and Robinson appeared to record their real estate deals of the 12th and 13th of May 1850!9”. The story of the naming of Deer Creek is reported by the eminent historian E. G. Gudde, exactly as Wistar wrote it?@ He apparently o