Collection: Books and Periodicals > Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins

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Title: Volume 057-4 - October 2003 Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Collection Name: Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins # of Pages: 6 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2014-03-12 07:48:46 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 04:06:02 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 04:06:02

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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Oscar Maltman. (Doris Foley Library photo.) Tomlinson “constructed a pit into which the claims were sluiced by hydraulic power. The frame was 82 feet high, 40 by 32 feet at the base and 17 by 9 feet at the top, which assumed the shape of a truncated pyramid which was lattice braced.” It was described as: ... two overshot wheels 25 feet in diameter each, one above mashing into the other by means of a cast iron cog segments. A flume discharges the water into the upper wheel and passing down and under it is poured into the buckets of the under wheel on the opposite side—thus double power is obtained from the same water. The cog segments of the under wheel mash into a pinion wheel, 36 feet above the bottom of the pit, which turns two hexagon drums over which passes an endless chain, the links of which fit the sides of the hexagons mentioned. To the chain is attached 25 strong wrought iron elevators holding about a barrel each. Sufficient power is intended to be applied to the machine to empty 40 barrels of dirt and water per minute. The sluice into which the water is discharged from the wheel, and the water and dirt from the elevators, is 800 feet long emptying its contents below what is called ’’the falls" on old Coyote Hill. Mr. Tomlinson has a ditch of his own, which will supply the requisite amount of water for his machine six months in the year, and his claims being near the Coyote Ditch, water can be obtained year round. This enterprise of one of our citizens, if successful, is destined to be of great advantage to the mining community. The Manzanita claims were first located in 1852 by four companies: Eversall & Womack, Huett, Craddock & Company, the Pacific and the Mountain Summit (the latter owned by the Maltman brothers and two partners). The claims were later consolidated and known as the Tomlinson claims. The claims contained 400 acres; and 1,400 inches of water was being used in 1880. By that year the Manzanita claims were the only placer mine being worked in Nevada City. The NCHS Bulletin October 2003 claims were owned by the Manzanita Gravel Mining Company and had yielded more than $3,000,000. The company was formed in New York in 1879 with capital of $250,000. Tomlinson’s ditch, which cost $4,000 to build in the mid 1850s, carried water to his diggings from Slate Creek. In 1860 Tomlinson built the Elevator and Flouring Mill on Manzanita Hill, utilizing machinery he had used previously to elevate gravel in his diggings. He sold the mill to Nevada City banker John C. Birdseye in September of that year, but for some reason it was soon abandoned. It was during that same year that the 1880 History relates the following story about Tomlinson: Tomlinson’s Celebration. During the exciting Presidential campaign of 1860, Bell and Everett had no more enthusiastic supporter than O. M. Tomlinson, of Nevada City. Tomlinson was an eccentric genius who owned some water power near Sugar Loaf, that he had used in elevating and washing dirt. When his claim was exhausted he commenced the erection of a flour mill. As the fourth of July began to draw nigh the idea of a celebration suggested itself to Tomlinson. He wrote four verses of a campaign song, and each noon drilled his workmen in its execution. Schmidt Schneider, a violinist, was engaged to play the air for the men, while saloonkeeper A. W. Potter acted as leader of the choir. The untuneful voices of the workmen grated so harshly upon the musician’s ear that he would add his German imprecations to the general discord. At last came the long expected fourth and crowd of people. Judge Colburn read the Declaration of Independence, and then Tomlinson marshaled his host, before whom stood Potter with his baton and Schneider with his fiddle, for the crowning effort of the day. With many dexterous flourishes Schneider executed the well known air “Oh! Willie We Have Missed You,” after which was sung with majestic wavings of the baton and ear-piercing discords of the choir four verses, of which the following is the only one tradition has preserved: To Union true we will be Brave, brave to wave; Here on the land of the free And our gift from the brave Why did you stray from home? I will tell you, they “Pearced’”’* me away, Till tears of fear had never come; They “Bucked’’* me hard to stay, Till roaring came on the swell, With sound cheerful, cheering, that, For chosen choice was John Bell and Edward Everett. (* references to the 14th and 15th Presidents, Franklin Pearce and James Buchanan) In the late 1850s and early 60s Tomlinson was a party to