Collection: Books and Periodicals > Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins

About This Item:

Title: Volume 059-4 - October 2005 Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Collection Name: Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins # of Pages: 8 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2014-03-12 08:16:56 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

Page: of 8  

drinking saloons. The town derives its trade and its importance from the Gold Quartz Mines within its immediate vicinity. Contiguy@™ ous to the town is a large settlement called Boston Ravine. It is at the base of Massachusetts Hill. The churches in Grass Valley are the Roman Catholic church, a large and imposing brick edifice that cost 35,000 dollars, the Episcopal church, the Methodist Episcopal, the Presbyterian, the Baptist Campbellite, and the African Methodist. All these churches are on Church Street. There is also a Chinese Temple in a part of the town called Chinatown. The Jews have a hall in which they frequently hold public service and they have a burying ground called the Hebrew Cemetery. A stage leaves the National Exchange three times each day for Nevada City, four miles distant. A stage leaves for Marysville 30 miles distant each day, and daily arrives. A stage leaves for Auburn daily and arrives daily. A stage leaves at three o’clock each morning for Lincoln to connect with the cars which reach Sacramento in season for the Steamer to San Francisco at evening. The Sacramento and Virginia City stage passes through Grass Valley three times a week each way. The stages make their trips on Sundays as well as other days. This is the case throughout California and Oregon. The first week of our stay in Grass Valley, we boarded at the National Exchange Hotel where we had a comfortable /™™ room and indifferent fare. On Friday, Jan. 30 [1863], at the expiration of our week’s board at the hotel, we went to visit Dr. McCormick [Grass Valley’s early physician and a member of Emmanuel Church] on Church Street. We remained at his comfortable residence enjoying the kind attentions and hospitalities of himself and family until the 18"* of February, at which time, directly after the Ash Wednesday service at the church, we went to Melville Attwood’s at the Boston Ravine. [Melville Attwood was an officer of the Gold Hill Mining Company. He and his wife, Jane Forbes Attwood, were among the earliest members of Emmanuel Church, and Melville was the first senior warden, the ranking lay officer.] Here we were elegantly entertained and enjoyed ourselves exceedingly. Mrs. Attwood treated us with great kindness. Her attentions will be kept in grateful remembrance. We remained in her hospitable home until the 14'* of February when we removed to the pleasant residence of Geo. D. Roberts on Church Street, Mr. Roberts having kindly offered us the use of his furnished house for a few months. Having heard that a dying man at Indian Springs, 8 miles distant, desired to see an Episcopal clergyman, on Wednesday the 11'* of March [1863] I hired a buggy and drove ym to the place. I spent two hours with him in conversation, prayer and administering the Communion. He was most happy to see me and repeatedly thanked me for my visit, giving me the welcome assurance that I was the means of NCHS Bulletin October 2005 affording him much spiritual comfort. His name was Cyrus O. Phillips. When I bade him adieu, he took my hand in his, kissed it most affectionately and bathed it with his tears. It was to me a solemn and affecting interview. From a full heart I thanked God for giving me the privilege of ministering to one who received my ministrations so gratefully. He died March 19, and was buried at Grass Valley on the following day. On Tuesday, Feb. 24, I visited the Gold Hill Mill, in company with Mr. Martineau the Superintendent. Quartz rock is dragged to the mill in wagons and dumped there in the yard. It is broken by hammers into pieces weighing one or two pounds each. It is then shoveled into a trough. At this mill there are seven troughs, each trough having three pounders worked by machinery, to crush the quartz into powder. Each pounder is of cast iron and weighs 750 pounds. The base or “shoe” of the pounder has a surface of a square foot. The pounders are elevated by a 60 horse low pressure steam engine. Water is brought from the mine in sluices and passed through these troughs washing the crushed rock and earth through a perforated sieve down wooden ducts a foot wide, carpeted with a blanket. There are several of these ducts extending down to the end of the apartment. The lower ducts are ruffled by placing small pieces of wood across. Quicksilver is placed at these ruffles and collects a part of the floating gold. These ducts also pass down into circular tanks kept revolving on wheels. These tanks are supplied with Quicksilver and are called Amalgamators. The amalgamated masses are afterwards taken out and placed in Retorts or Crucibles which precipitate the gold. That left on the blankets is sometimes panned out. Quartz yielding ten dollars worth of gold to the ton passably pays for the labor of mining, hauling and crushing. That yielding 20 dollars is considered very good. Any yielding 30 or 40 dollars is excellent. At Allison’s Ranche, a ledge was found that yielded 200 to 300 dollars to the ton, But this ledge was soon worked out, and the remaining ones yielded much less. The price charged at Gold Hill Mill for crushing and then passing the earth through the sifting process is four dollars a ton. After visiting the Mill I went in company with Mr. Martineau to the Mine at Gold Hill, first providing myself with water proof boots, leggings, hat and coat. We descended by a perpendicular ladder a shaft about 5 feet in diameter. Descending some 25 to 30 feet, a platform was reached. Here candles were lighted, and each of us taking one, we proceeded downward some 30 feet more. We now reached the bottom and found the earth tunneled: we passed on through the avenue or alley bending our heads and backs as we proceeded for the extreme height of the passage was not more than 4-1/2 to 5 feet. Sometimes the passage was so narrow that we were obliged to crawl on our hands and knees, and sometimes to creep on our bellies. After pro5