Collection: Books and Periodicals

About This Item:

Title: A Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California (1891) Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Publisher: Lewis Publishing Company Published: 1891 Copyright: In the public domain or published before 1925 Source(s): Google Books # of Pages: 713 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-07-22 00:25:09 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:11:29 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 06:30:36

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

Page: of 713  

400 , HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. their wits, and were afraid to approach the monster for some time. The event of the first steamboat landing at the mouth of the Yuba was celebrated by champagne flowing like water until all felt jolly. Not long atter this a sternwheel boat called the Edward Everett, having come round the Horn in the ship Edward Everett, of Boston, and put up on the bay of San Francisco, landed at Yuba City, at the month of the Yuba, and proceeded on up the Yuba River until it came to Marysville, where it was received with a right warm welcome, demonstrating that the Feather and Yuba rivers were navigable, and bringing goods from Sacramento City cheaper than by whale-boat or yawl. Lumber that came round the Horn trom the State of Maine was in great demand, and soon a hotel was erected on the Plaza at Marysville named the Covillaud Hotel, the first frame hotel in that place; and at opening the house for the reception of gnests the proprietor gave a ball; tickets, one ounce of gold dust, or $16. The country had to be scoured for ladies, and at tirst, when the ball began, only seven ladies could be found, and in order to make up two sets a young, good-looking man named John Brazier, from Boston, was prevailed upon by the ladies, Misses Fairchilds, to impersonate a lady, which he did to the satisfaction of the men for a while; but, the sell being discovered, he had to “make himself scarce,” and one more lady was found about midnight, and the eight ladies had to dance until broad daylight; and so ended the first ball given in Marysville in 1849 or 1850. The ladies had no lack of partners. When the spring of 1850 opened up and the snow began to melt in the mountains, every person that could do so, went prospecting. Sailors deserted their ships, soldiers ran away, and all hands took to hunting for the precious metal. The eagerness was intensified by the report that a “ gold lake” had been discovered, which proved to be a myth, but was the cause of many rich discoveries being made. Mr. Armstrong was an eye-witness where tive men, with common tablespoons and table knives were filling the quart tin cups with gold, and the dirt from which they separated the gold. By moving the earth from side to side the gold could be seen with the naked eye, picked up by hand. Some of the cups were nearly full, others half full, and some had been filled and emptied and commenced to fill again. The gold in the dirt looked as plentiful as grains of corn on a barn floor. What a country this has been, and years to come the half will never have been, told. The people of the United States never knew the rich inheritance gained by the war with Mexico. Also at another place, Smith’s Bar, on the southeast fork of the north fork of Feather River, shortly after its discovery, a man filled his prospect pan, using a spoon to collect the gravel, and in every spoonful taken the gold could be seen. He filled his pan with the dry dirt and went to the river and washed it out. when the bottom of the pan was completely covered with the precious nuggets piled upon one another. It required only about thirty minutes to fill the pan and wash it out. Since the hydraulic mines have been shut down by the action of the courts the miners’ vocation is nearly gone; only drift diggings and quartz mining left, causing them to hunt for other industries and making the valleys and every piece of land available for homes. There is only one great detriment: moneyed men have scooped up such large tracts all over the State trom San Diego to Siskiyou, that where once was a school-house nothing of it is remaining, Mr. Armstrong had to suffer with the rest. After a residence in the mountains of seventeen years, he conclnded tu try politics, and was nominated and elected Anditor and Recorder twice, by handsome majorities; and now, after a series of years he is hoping to spend the remaining years ofa life in this country. Arriving here in the early immigration, he can look back and see what wonderful changes have taken place, when all this favored land was the hunting ground of the Indian, and now advancing with rapid strides to vie with the most favored countries under the sun.