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Volume 059-3 - July 2005 (6 pages)
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Page: of 6
NCHS Bulletin July 2005
boys dressed and hurried off for the place. When they arrived at Sweetlands, Henry Sweetland met them on the
porch of his house and pointed to the room where their
friends lay on an improvised couch. Henry Sweetland explained that on hearing of the accident, he, with others, unearthed the bodies and had them taken to his house.
McKeeby writes,"The care that had been bestowed upon the
bodies, and Mr. Sweetland’s gentlemanly manner of expression so impressed me that I became attached to him at once
and from that time we were fast friends."
At the end of the mining season Lemuel found himself
with nothing to do until the rains came unless it was to
prospect or prepare claims for another season. He had accumulated approximately $5,000 and decided to seek investments. Eventually he bought a one-fourth interest in a claim
near Sebastopol, one mile from San Juan Hill. The following dry season was spent near Railroad Hill just above
Camptonville in Yuba where he had moderate success.
When the next rainy season arrived, McKeeby returned
to Sebastopol where he found his new partners already
there waiting for him. They went to work getting ready for
Operations that would follow the completion of a ditch that
would provide water for their claim.
We stayed close by our claim until the water came in
and then we set to work with water at one dollar an inch.
It was not long before we had lots of funds, and our
claim proved to be the best on the hill. The little town of
Sebastopol was close by the diggings. It was composed
of three houses at that time, and never grew much beyond that. The Crimean War was then in progress, and as
two Englishmen—brothers—who had put up a small saw
mill in the settlement were eternally talking Sebastopol,
we miners gave that name to the place. Our claim came
to be known as McKeeby’s Diggings, but we called it the
Gold Bluff Company.
In 1855, McKeeby and Henry Sweetland were named as
two of the eighteen Nevada County delegates to the
Democratic State Convention held at Sacramento to name a
candidate for governor and other state officers. Nevada
County Sheriff William Endicott was the leader of the delegation. Preparatory to going to Sacramento he called a
number of meetings of the delegation. At the last meeting
before leaving for the convention there was a split between
the Southern Democrats who supported Judge James Walsh
and the Northern Democrats who were for renominating
Governor Bigler. As a result the Southern wing of the party
withdrew from the delegation, and McKeeby was named
chairman of the remaining delegates. When the convention
was organized, McKeeby announced that Nevada County
cast their eighteen votes for John Bigler, who became the
party’s candidate.
At this time the American (“Know Nothing”) Party was
quite popular and the Southern Democrats joined them. As
a result, in the following general election J. Neely Johnson,
4
the American candidate, defeated Bigler. After the convention McKeeby writes: “I had no time for politics; my mining Operations absorbed all my time. In the winter of
1854-55 we set to work in good earnest and continued to
have plenty of water from that time on.”
My life in California up to 1856 had been a constant
struggle among other men without the benefit of home
society or the comfort of home living. About the only
women who came into our sight were those to be seen in
gambling places, but now there seemed to be a change;
merchants and others sent for their wives and families,
and we began to have church services in the little towns
that had sprung up in the mining districts. School houses
were being built; school teachers were being sought
after and located in these houses. This meant that the
miner should put on a boiled shirt on a Sunday. If a
church was to be built he must join the dancing club and
go to the little town . . . twice a week or more and help
dance up enough money to build the church and, later on
contribute to the support of a preacher; . . . he danced to
build the church edifice he danced to build the school
house, and he danced all around the school marm when
she came. ..
When a school house was built at North San Juan one mile
from McKeeby’s mining camp, all the single young men in
the vicinity lived in happy expectation of the arrival of the
“school marm.” They all had horses and spent Sunday afternoons visiting in the various nearby little towns such: as
North San Juan, Sweetlands, Birchville and French Corral.
On one of these occasions Lemuel invited three of his
friends to accompany him to meet a young lady friend,
Susie Sublett, in French Corral.
As I was a welcome visitor at the family home, we
rode up to the house, dismounted, hitched our horses and
strode . . . directly to the parlor door as was my usual
custom; when the summons came to enter, I advanced all
smiles followed by my friends. I had gotten to the middle
of the room before I noticed that it was a strange young
lady that met my gaze, and not the one I had expected. I
was quite-disconcerted at this but managed to ask if Miss
Sublett was in; the strange young lady smiled and said,
“Yes sir, please be seated and I will call her,” and she
rose and passed out of the room with so much stateliness
that I felt a shiver run down my back.. . In a few moments both young ladies retumed. We were duly introduced and spent a pleasant half hour. Here . met my fate
but I did not know it then. This young lady was to be our
school marm and was here to look over the field of her
future labors. .
At this time everything was flourishing in and about
my vicinity; the mines were paying; the water ditches
were being extended; buildings were being erected; merchants and miners were bringing their families here, and
North San Juan became quite a center of business for the
surrounding country.
‘