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Volume 069-2 - April 2015 (6 pages)
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Page: of 6
NCHS Bulletin April 2015
the capital of Columbia to be close to her sons while they
were at college, so whatever kindness the English family
bestowed upon Nathan may have been in that setting."
Shortly after arriving in Grass Valley Nathan decided
to both practice law and engage in mining. On September
3, 1852, he was listed as one of three candidates for the
position of Justice of the Peace for Grass Valley Township
and Nathan was the successful candidate.'* He may have
also formed a law partnership, as a notice of a debt settlement meeting for the firm Woodbury & Co. was to be
held in the offices of “McKae & Davis” in Centerville."
The security of having regular employment may have
rekindled Nathan’s taste for risk-taking. In response to
the scarcity of beef in California—a topic often covered
by the local press—Nathan wrote to Mary on December
27, 1852, to suggest that an older brother, James, invest
$10,000 in a scheme to bring cattle and sheep across the
plains, with their youngest brother, Jonathan Bunyan
“The Miner’s Dream.” Oil painting. (Bancroft Library photo.)
“Bun” Davis, heading up the drive.!’ Nathan guessed
that the enterprise “will make [Bun] $10,000 within a
year after he leaves.” Downplaying the risk of such an
endeavor, Nathan suggested that any “loss to Indians and
disease on the plains would not be more than 1/5.” There
is no evidence to suggest that Bun, then a newly practicing physician, took Nathan’s proposal to heart.
For many California immigrants, being far from home
on birthdays and holidays was particularly difficult, and
Nathan was no exception. In that same letter, Nathan expressed regret about being separated from the family:
Two letters are before me, one following close on
the other and to be answered this second day after
Christmas—which sacred day is never joyous away
from home. And every one is ever referring back to his
younger days, and regretting absence from his mother,
who taught him to be merry that day. And his playmates
who used to be happy with him. But God has ordained it
otherwise and mindful as I am of that God and regardless of his will I am, I believe, possessed of this idea
(may it [be] the glorious truth) that he is mindful
of us and will bring about a happy result from
this long separation trial. At any rate, it gives
me heart, and I go on hoping and offending, and
working and wasting still!
Nathan also gave his family a brief and rare
description of the physical world he inhabited
in Grass Valley:
This morning the snow is ‘nearly two feet deep
and the lower Sacramento flooded. It is assumed
Sacramento City will again be inundated, which
will be death to the people following directly
after the awful fire a few months ago. There is
some game here and I have the old gun I brought
from home so that I am not altogether without
amusement. It is no little exercise to walk in
snow up to the mine and over the mountains.
As a Justice of the Peace, one unique aspect
of California law that Nathan administered was
the right of a married woman to act as a sole
trader—that is to conduct business under her
own name. California’s law was unusual and
the most progressive of the few sole trader laws
in the States. Assemblyman Edward Fortescue
Warrington Ellis of Nevada County had introduced the bill on February 6, 1852, and it was
passed by the state legislature on April 12th."
In order to become a sole trader a woman had
to meet a number of criteria, including making
a public declaration to an authorized official