Enter a name, company, place or keywords to search across this item. Then click "Search" (or hit Enter).
Volume 068-3 - July 2014 (8 pages)
Go to the Archive Home
Go to Thumbnail View of this Item
Go to Single Page View of this Item
Download the Page Image
Copy the Page Text to the Clipboard
Don't highlight the search terms on the Image
Show the Page Image
Show the Image Page Text
Reset View and Center Image
Zoom Out
Zoom In
Rotate Left
Rotate Right
Toggle Full Page View
Flip Image Horizontally
More Information About this Image
Get a Citation for Page or Image - Copy to the Clipboard
Go to the Previous Page (or Left Arrow key)
Go to the Next Page (or Right Arrow key)
Page: of 8
NCHS Bulletin July 2014
d
John L. Stidger. (Searls Library) James Stidger. (Searls Library)
to set aside the Constitution in this respect, then our
system of government is a failure, &c. The other point,
relative to the power of selling a mining claim for nonpayment of assessments, Judge Searls said that before
that could be done, there must be a positive agreement
between all the owners that the claims of each party
may be sold. This agreement may be either verbal or in
writing. It may be made either at the organization of the
company or subsequently, but it must be a clear, distinct
and positive agreement among all the members in which
all must agree thereto. That no agreement by implication will answer, that each owner must be present either
in person or by duly authorized agent.
Gen. James Allen sold his interest in the California
American in 1857, left Sacramento and returned to
Marysville to edit the Daily News until August 1858,
when he sold his interest in the Daily News to John Rollin
Ridge and announced his “retirement from editing.”
Judge Stidger at that time attended an “Independent”
convention at Nevada City. When Judge Buckner moved
that a committee report be adopted prior to selecting a
chairman, Stidger objected, saying he prefered having
permanent officers before proceeding to adopt the report,
because the report recommended the nomination of a full
ticket, and he “had come as a delegate from Bridgeport
Township to prevent nominations.” According to the
Nevada Journal, Stidger explained that, “With the exception of perhaps Nevada and Grass Valley he represented
the largest township in the county, and after making himself thoroughly acquainted with the wishes of the people
he did not believe 50 men could be found in Bridgeport
township who would vote an independent ticket.”
At the end of October Gen. James Allen joined his
brother-in-law at North San Juan. On June 5, 1860, he
bought an interest in the San Juan Hydraulic Press from
Benjamin Avery (who was going to Marysville to edit
the Appeal). Allen edited the San Juan paper for less than
a month before selling it to William Bausman.
Stage Coach Overturned
On July 29, 1860, a stage coach of the California
Stage Co. turned over and nearly killed Judge Stidger.
According to the Marysville Appeal of July 30:
Yesterday afternoon, as one of the Calif. Stage Co.
coaches which run between this city and North San
Juan was turning a sharp curve in the road near Mat.
Wood’s bridge, approaching Park’s Bar, it suddenly
and unaccountably turned over. O. P. Stidger, of North
San Juan, who was on his way hither to collect assessments due the Truckee Turnpike Company, of which he
is Secretary, was sitting on the top of the coach, and as
it settled down was trying to get off. He fell upon a mass
of stones, the body of the coach falling partly on him.
His skull was fractured and one of his thighs broken;
besides which he sustained many severe bruises.
He was taken to Park’s Bar, and left in charge of
two physicians, dispatches being sent to this city
for more aid, and to his son and friends at North San
Juan. President Haworth of the Stage Company immediately went out to his assistance, accompanied by Dr.
Gray. Stidger was the only person injured. He retained
his sensibility, and acquitted the driver of all blame,
as did all the passengers by affidavit as soon as they
reached Marysville. The driver, Charley Hall, is one of
the most careful and good tempered stage men in the
State. According to the statement of the passengers, he
was driving slowly at the time of the accident, his leaders being on a walk. As the coach top began to sink he
checked them, and when it turned completely over they
were not moving. There are rumors in circulation that
the overturn was caused by the malicious cutting of the
thoroughbraces, four strands of which bore indications
of having been severed by a sharp instrument. They
parted entirely when strained in turning the curve, and
hence the accident.
The Marysville Democrat reported, “At last accounts
he was lying in a cabin at Parks’ Bar, under charge of
Dr. Hague, and another physician had been sent for to
Smartsville.” In early September the San Juan Press said:
The symptoms in Judge Stidger’s case grow more favorable as the knitting process of the fractured bones
advances. The wound which troubled him most, and to
which no public allusion has heretofore been made, was
in the lower ribs of the left side, three of which were
torn loose from their connection with the vertebral column. Pain from this quarter has entirely subsided, and
the Judge grows more cheerful under the excellent treatment of his physicians (McDaniel, of Marysville, and
Simpson, of Timbuctoo) every day.