Pages 204 thru 207 

HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY

CHAPTER XXXVIII

GOLD SEEKERS
 

_GOLD in California!!  To be had for the digging!

The news swept like wild fire over the country back in the days of 1848 and 1849.  Excitement ran high.  Marvelous tales were coming of the rich dirt with its generous yield of the precious dust.  Nuggets growing in size each time the tale was repeated - to be picked up anywhere!  From all parts of the country, men, fired by the spirit of daring and adventure, were turning their faces and footsteps toward the west.  The gold rush was on!

Desire to join in trail of the Forty-Niners swept over the young men of Macon county.  Rich in ambition to see something of the world, as well as to claim a fortune, they prepared to go.  They wanted their share of the big diggings.

CARAVAN LEAVES

At daybreak on the morning of March 25, 1850, a caravan of men and loaded wagons pulled out from the Old Square.  Laughter and tears were mingled, as the caravan took its departure.  Men were leaving their wives and families, their sweethearts, their friends.  They did not know all that was before them.  Yet any feeling of sadness was overcome with the thoughts of the fortune they would bring back.  With cheers and farewells, cracking of whips over the mule teams, waving of arms in a last good-bye, they were off!

Fifteen or twenty wagons and a goodly number of men were in the party which left that morning.  Ammunition, guns, rifles, provisions, camping outfits, and other needed equipment for the journey filled the wagons, all of which were drawn by mules.

By the end of the first day they had reached Illiopolis.  The second night they camped at Springfield.  Progress was slow on account of the mud.  It took three weeks to reach Quincy.  There they were ferried across the Mississippi.

At St. Joseph, Mo., they joined a larger caravan headed for the west.  They did not leave at once, however.  It was necessary to wait a few weeks until the grass along the trail grew sufficiently to supply the mules and cattle with feed.  It was not until May 10 that the caravan made its start westward.  By that time the party had grown to about sixty.¹

Isaac Miller had gone from Decatur to Oskaloosa, Ia., to join his four sons, who were to go on the trip, but the sons persuaded Miller not to go, as they thought the journey would be too hard for the older man.  Miller had been accompanied to Iowa by his stepson Ben Frazee.  The Miller boys and Frazee went on to St. Joseph and joined the caravan, while the elder Miller returned home.

Many tales have been told of the journey to the west, for the gold seekers had many interesting experiences and encountered many hardships.

After leaving St. Joseph, the party headed for Fort Kearney, Neb.  On their way they often met bands of Indians, but were not molested.  From Kearney on to Fort Laramie, Wyo., they made better progress as the ground was dry.  In another ten days they reached Fort Hall.  Farther and farther they continued their way until finally the desert was reached.

Up to this time the Decatur wagons had kept pretty well together but now real troubles began and they became separated.  The mules began to get sick.  Men and animals were nearly crazed with thirst before they reached water.  The men kept small bullets in their mouths to keep them damp and cool, and they wrapped lead around the bits of the mules for the same purpose.  Silas Packard and Samuel Powers had to part company with the rest when Mr. Powers's fine team of mules became sick shortly after the desert was reached.  Soon all the wagons were scattered and not more than two were together at any time for the rest of the journey.  Sometimes one wagon traveled alone.  Finally the wagons were abandoned and supplied were packed on the backs of the mules.  Ben and John Sawyer and D. H. Garver were on one of the two wagons which were the first to cross the Sierra Nevada mountains into California.  Anderson Draper, who had been with Packard, rode on ahead and reached the Carson river.  After he and his mule had quenched their thirst, Draper filled a vessel with water and went back five miles to find Packard.  "An angel from heaven would not have been more welcome than Draper with that water," Packard said afterwards.  They were among the first to cross the mountains and start mining.

In one stretch of desert beyond Carson the only water was from a rock from which boiling water gushed forth at intervals.  The weary travelers used the hot water to make tea, or filled their kegs and let the water cool.

One group of the Macon county men reached Nevada City, Cal., Oct. 2, 1850.  They had been more than six months on the way.

The success of the men who hunted for gold was in varying degrees.  Some found but little, others a good deal.  However, they all felt the trip was worth while for the experience, if not for the gold.  Some stayed a year or two, others longer.  Some never came back.  Dr. Edmund Packard of Decatur, was one who died in the west.

It was no easy life in those days in California, especially in the winter time.  Often the trails were blocked with snow and provisions became scarce.  Donnerville, one of the richest mining camps on the North Yuba, was blocked in the winter of 1850-51.  Men had to go down the river to Foster's Bar, where they had to pay 50 cents a pound for floor, and had to carry it on their backs up to their camp.  There they sold it at $1 a pound.

Stories of big finds were always abroad.  One Decatur man said the largest nugget he picked up was worth $16.25.  The largest one he saw was worth $1,000.  Incidentally it came from Poor Man's Creek.  It was necessary to keep an eye on one's gold and other belongings for robberies were frequent.  Rough characters crowded the mining camps and there was a great deal of fighting an drinking and gambling.  In a letter written by John Sawyer, he said:  "Benjamin left for --- some two months ago.  John Hanks had three mules stolen or lost off the ranch.  I had two went the same way.  Hanks had $200 stolen, Morris about $100 - their trunk broken open in daylight.  My trunk was cut open at the same time, but the creature was not there, as I had taken my money, watch and pistols out and had them with me, by which I saved them.

"There have been some ten or twelve tents robbed this winter.  Within two miles around their is a band of robbers connected from  the north to the south.  They steal mules and cattle and run them from one to the other.  The mines are full of blacklegs.  More gambling done than a little.

Mr. Sawyer was sick with the fever for a long time, and was not expected to live.  His sickness cost him, he said, upwards of $400.

Even murder attracted little attention during the days of the gold rush as illustrated by one story.  At a Christmas ball at the Grass Valley hotel in the winter of 1850 after an entire night of dancing Mr. Ross was fired upon by two different men, and as he ran across the street, a third took a shot at him.  Ross fell dead.  Each of the three claimed to be the one who fired the fatal shot.  The constable took the three contenders for the honor (?) of killing the man before the justice of the peace at Rough and Ready, a rich mining camp nearby, and told the justice how matters stood.  Not having any witness against any of them all three were discharged and away they went.

Not all the men who went to California for gold left in the caravan of 1850.  Richard Oglesby, Henry Prather and a half dozen others made the trip in 1849.  A caravan, headed by E. O. Smith, went in 1852.  Israel Horner, a farm hand of Chauncey Powers, was in this party.  At Death Valley he was reported missing.  A searching party found him delirious, scooping out he sand in search of water.

Among the Macon county men who at one time or another made the long trek to California in search of gold were:
 

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1.  Two of the men in the caravan had excellent reputations as wrestlers.  They were Anderson Draper and C. B. Garver.  They were about evenly matched as to size and weight.  Other men in the crowd kept urging the two wrestlers to put on the match to see which was the better man.  Neither Drapers nor Garver had any desire to fight.  When the Caravan stopped at the Missouri river,  however, the crowd declared that it would not move a step farther until the wrestling match was pulled off.  So Draper and Garver met, on the grassy banks of the stream.  For a time it was an even battle, but finally Draper threw his opponent.  The crowd was satisfied, and the caravan proceeded.

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