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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Purchased from the income
of the bequest of
WILLIAM ROBERTSON COE
Honorary M.A. 1949, for
material in the field
of American Studies.

HEROES OF CALIFORNIA

STAGING IN 1849, IN THE SIERRAS OF CALIFORNIA.
Reproduced by permission from the painting by Gutzon Borglum. Page J36

HEROES OF
CALIFORNIA

THE STORY OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE GOLDEN
STATE AS NARRATED BY THEMSELVES OR
GLEANED FROM OTHER SOURCES

By GEORGE WHARTON JAMES
....
AUTHOR OF "THROUGH RAMONA'S COUNTRY," "THE OLD MISSIONS
OF CALIFORNIA," "THE WONDERS OF THE COLORADO DES
ERT," "IN AND AROUND THE GRAND CANYON," ETC.

As one candle lighteth another and ditninisheth not inflame,
so nobleness enkindleth nobleness

BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1910

Copyright, igio,
By Edith E. Farnsworth.

All rights reserved

Published, November, 1910

CvH7 73

¦printers
S. J. ^ARtfHiLL & Co., Boston, CT. S. A.

TO THOSE
S?*eraic JHen anU SEomen
OF SAN FRANCISCO
WHO, AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE OF 1006, AS" THEY
GAZED UPON THEIR DEVASTATED HOMES AND BUSINESS
HOUSES, THEN AND THERE BEGAN TO PLAN FOR THEIR
IMPROVED RESTORATION, WHICH NOW, IOIO, IS MORE THAN
ACCOMPLISHED, THESE VARIED CHAPTERS OF CALIFORNIA
HEROISM ARE DEDICATED AS A SINCERE EXPRESSION OF
APPRECIATION AND ADMIRATION

INTRODUCTION
T3RAVE and heroic deeds have always thrilled the
¦*-* minds of others to emulation. A great deed is
an inspiration for other great deeds. Bravery and
heroism are as contagious as cowardice and fear.
The habit of the mind should be towards right, re
gardless of all consequences. The brave man knows
nothing of consequences; he does his duty and leaves
consequences to take care of themselves.
During all ages it has been recognized that nothing
stimulates most men to heroism and nobility so much
as the example of their fellows. From all time the acts
of the noble and brave have been recited to incite to
emulation those who listen. All war songs have this
origin, and Napoleon could think of nothing more
powerful to say, when his soldiers were about to fight
in the presence of the sphinx and pyramids of the Nile,
than: " Forty centuries gaze down upon you."
This principle is recognized, also, in the Scriptural
records, where, to stimulate converts of the Christian
faith to live the new life demanded of them, the writer,
after recounting the wonderful deeds of the heroes of
the past, added these words: "Wherefore, seeing we
also are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin
which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us."

vi HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
As all need constant inspiration to noble endeavor,
and as Calif ornians especially have many " witnesses "
who proved themselves great and heroic souls in the
past, it has been my aim to present in these pages a
series of pictures of their heroism, hoping that my
readers may thereby be encouraged to emulate them
in spirit, if not in deed.
Wherever possible, the original narrators have been
allowed to tell the stories in their own words. I wish
to stimulate to a fuller reading and larger knowledge
of original sources. California has a greater wealth of
such literature than any other section of the United
States, and it should be better known. Parents are
urged to point out to their children, and teachers, also,
to their students, the pleasure and profit that can be
gained by further readings on the lines I have here
suggested. In the last chapter, references may be
found to books and magazines which give these fuller
particulars. The time will soon come, I hope, when
every school library in the State will possess the fol
lowing books, which might be regarded as the Cali
fornia classics: Palou's "Life of Serra," — a good
translation is needed and doubtless will be forthcom
ing ere long; Parker Winship's translation of the
Castaneda narrative of the Coronado expedition; a
good history of the California Franciscan missions;
my own " In and Out of the Old Missions," until a
better book makes its appearance; Patties Narrative;
McGlashan's "History of the Donner Party;" the
" Story of Virginia Reed Murphy; " Manly's " Death
Valley in '49," and the various magazine articles on the

INTRODUCTION vii
subject; Bonner's " Life of James Beckwourth,"
Hittell's " Life of James Capen Adams," the " Life of
Kit Carson," with General and Mrs. Fremont's various
works; a good life of Thomas Starr King; Mrs. Carr's
" The Iron Way; " the " Life and Services of Judge
Field; " books on the Comstock Lode and the Sutro
Tunnel; " Ramona " and the " Life of Helen Hunt
Jackson; " Clarence King's " Mountaineering in
California; " a sketch of James Lick's Life; William
Smythe's " The Conquest of Arid America," the " Life
and Work of Stephen M. White; " Edwin Markham's
story of how he came to write " The Man with the
Hoe; " Muir's " Mountains of California; " Har-
wood's " Life of Burbank," and the Century Maga
zine's series of articles on " California Before and
After the Gold Discovery."
The neglect to provide these books is a proof of
imdifference to the wonderfully inspiring and thrilling
stories contained therein. Students will revel in them,
more than in novels, if they are led to see the spirit
in which they are written. How shall they read, how
ever, when they are not even aware of their exis
tence. If the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West
would take hold of this majter with one-tenth of the
energy displayed by their pioneer ancestors, the thing
would be done in less than a year, and with this noble
aim these organizations would do more good to the
rising generation than any other one thing they could
accomplish. I trust it is not necessary to assure my readers that

viii HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
I have no thought that I have exhausted the list of
California's heroes and heroines. I have written of those
whose acts have impressed me, those who have stood
out as " beacon lights " in my reading. I doubt not,
however, that many readers will wish that this, or that,
or the other character who has loomed up as heroic to
them, should have found a place in these pages. So
that, were the list to be revised, possibly a hundred
more names, each as worthy as those I have selected,
could be added. In this is one of my great satisfac
tions. I confidently hope some such awakening will
be the result of the publication of this book, and that
the columns of our newspapers will contain many
admirable stories of heroism that I have overlooked.
Thus the good work will go on, and the youth of our
Golden State be quickened to higher and nobler
endeavor and greater achievement because of the
emulation that will be stimulated by the recital of these
noble deeds of the past.
Many an interesting chapter might have been
written on the quiet and almost unknown heroism of
pioneer physicians, preachers, priests, sisters of charity,
nuns, and teachers of the early days. California's his
tory is full of the deeds of heroic men who regarded
their own lives not at all.in the face of every kind of
danger,— snow storms, sand storms, cloudbursts, floods,
falling trees, hostile Indians, wild animals and cruel
and bloodthirsty banditti. Bret Harte has given some
vivid pictures of them, which, creatures of his own
imagination though they be, were, yet largely true to
fact and cpnvey a generally accurate idea of the spirit

INTRODUCTION ix
of the times. Books by the dozen might be written,
all worthy of careful perusal, telling of the incredible
hardships endured by patient and silent nuns and
sisters of charity as they engaged in their humanitarian
work of educating the young, relieving the distressed,
caring for the sick, and reclaiming the wayward in
those early days, before comfortable homes were
provided for themselves. And the pioneer priests
and preachers of all churches and creeds! What an
army of self-sacrificing heroes were they, whose names
and histories will never be fully recorded on earth.
Riding to and fro over mountains, plains and desert,
their lives in constant jeopardy, preaching in the open
air, in saloons, in dance-halls, anywhere, so long as
they could get a hearing, fearlessly counselling men
against the vices they loved and urging them to live
the virtues they hated, the pioneer minister of the gospel
performed tasks which were not for weaklings. Only
men strong, physically, mentally and spiritually, were
capable of doing their work, and doing it well, for
scepticism and infidelity often went hand in hand
with profligacy and vice, and it was no uncommon
thing for men inflamed with evil passions and intoxi
cated with liquor to threaten the lives of those who
dared rebuke their vices and incite them to purer and
holier living.
The pioneer teachers, too, who endured poverty,
isolation, and weary heart-longings in their zeal to
educate the growing youth of the new California, —
what a debt the State and country owes to them.
It will be noticed that I have no chapter on John

x HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Charles Fremont, the distinguished explorer of Cali
fornia's early days. This omission is not an act of
inadvertence. I felt that General Fremont's work
was so fully treated in all the histories of the State, and
every phase of his character so fully presented, by more
learned and able writers than myself, that it would be a
piece of perfunctory duty to introduce anything of
mine about him in these pages. Hence I deemed it the
wiser course to say nothing, except, in these introduc
tory words, to commend to the youth of the State his
passion for knowledge, his determination that it should
be as accurate as possible, his foresight as organizer
of a large party of explorers, his fearless plunging into
unknown and untried dangers, his cool courage and
clear judgment when in the midst of events and occur
rences that could not fail to try men's very souls. He
was a great man and a natural genius, whose life is
well worth extended study.
I should have liked to write about the heroism of the
brave men and women of San Francisco, and other
parts of the State, who were made homeless, and many
of them destitute, by the great earthquake and fire
of 1906. It would have made a thrilling chapter to
have recounted how they arose in their undaunted
courage, and set to work to reestablish their places of
business, and their residences upon the piles of ashes
and wreck left by the disaster. Here was collective
heroism such as the world never before saw. Scarce
a whimperer, scarce a falterer, scarce a deserter, though
desolation and ruin were on every hand. As serene
and indifferent as though this great disaster were

INTRODUCTION xi
but a trifling and passing episode, the work of rebuilding
the city has gone on until now, four years after, com
paratively little remains to be done to hide completely
the work of shake and fire.
Who, then, shall say that heroism is of the past?
That daring and bravery, physical and moral, belong
not to the men of to-day ? To the doubter, the caviller,
the pessimist I point to the living examples set forth in
these pages and to the new and triumphant glory of
San Francisco, who now, as surely as when Bret Harte
wrote the words: " Serene, indifferent to Fate,
Sittest at the Western Gate;

The Warder of two Continents I "
I would not have it thought that, in presenting these
sketches, I indiscriminately praise everything con
nected with the fives of the persons whose heroism is
commended. Unfortunately I have yet to find, even in
California, the perfect human being — the man or the
woman who, in all things, is great, heroic, wise, pure
and good. But I do not feel justified in withholding my
small meed of praise from any person who in one,
or many, things has manifested heroism, because he
has not in all things lived a perfect life. I have extolled
the spirit of Padre Serra, and in many respects I bow
down my soul in reverence before him. I have written
honestly and truthfully what I feel in regard to his
self-abnegation, his self-discipline, his heroic pioneer
ing; yet there are some things about this great and
good man that do not appeal to me as they do to those

xii HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
of his own faith. In Beckwourth's book there are
statements in regard to his sale of liquor to Indians.
If Beckwourth were alive to-day and were to do busi
ness in the manner there described, I would hasten to
the nearest court and swear out a warrant for his
arrest, and urge the officials to see that he received
severe punishment. Yet his bravery is worthy of emu
lation; as also is that of James Capen Adams, whose
hunting instincts do not seem at all commendable to
me. Pattie was a brave and heroic character, yet his
trapping of animals for their fur I regard as inhuman
and cruel, and I believe such trapping should be sup
pressed by law. I also think that he showed too great
a readiness to shoot Indians, and to take revenge upon
all Indians for the crimes of some. I look up with great
respect to the commanding genius of Judge Field, yet
some of the decisions which he rendered do not meet
my sense of justice; and I can see in the acts of the
" Big Four," who created the Central Pacific Railway,
many things that lay them open to censure and con
demnation. So, my young and older readers, do not take my
praise as indiscriminate. Look for the good in men, —
as I have done in the examples here presented — and
extol, honor and emulate that; the things that are
weak or evil ignore and avoid.
I do not claim that all the extracts I have made
are literature, — that they possess that pure literary
quality which sets them above the common writing of
ordinary men, — but I do claim that none of them are
bad, from the literary standpoint; and, what to me is

INTRODUCTION xiii
better than the mere choice and arrangement of the
words is that they are all good from the standpoint of
the spirit. They contain the fire, the energy, the life,
the sparkle of living men. In them is no conjuring up
of fictitious emotion while quietly seated in a comfort
able library, surrounded by every luxury. The men
and women who wrote the stories from which these
extracts were taken, lived the life, and therefore are
entitled to all the respect and attention which the human
heart naturally confers upon the actual doer of things,
as differentiated from the mere dreamer or writer about
them. If this book helps to arouse thought, excite desire for
further study of the lives of the pioneers, builders and
heroes of the State, and stimulate longing to be filled
with their heroic spirit, so that the rising generation
may bring to the problems that will confront them,
and the work they must accomplish, the same energy,'
bravery, self-sacrifice, self-discipline, high endeavor
and exalted purpose shown in the past, then, indeed,
will the time, thought and energy spent in its arrange
ment be more than repaid, and its author fully grati
fied.

Pasadena, August, 1910.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGB
I. The Dauntless Hero-Explorer, Alar-
£ON  I
II. The Watchful Hero-Commander, Mel
chior Diaz  4
III. The Self-Sacrificing, Self-Disciplining,
Pioneer Missionary Hero, Junipero
Serra  7
IV. The Indefatigable Hero, Captain de
Anza  .16
V. The Faithful Hero, Padre Sarria 24
VI. The Unterrified Hero— Trapper, James
O. Pattie  .28
VII. The Hero of the Sierras, Jedediah
Smith  40
VIII. The Typical Hero of Early Gold Days,
John Bidwell  45
IX. The Great-Hearted Hero of the Snows,
Charles T. Stanton .... 56
X. The Midnight Heroine of the Plain,
Virginia Reed  64
XI. The Generous Heroes of Death Valley,
Manly and Rogers .... 73
XII. The Unknown Heroes of Death Valley 86
XIII. The Watchful Hero Scouts, Carson
and Beale  94
XIV. Sailor Heroes of Pioneer Times . . 104

xvi CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
XV. The Reckless Hero of Indian Fame,
James P. Beckwourth . . . .109
XVI. The Daring Heroes of the Pony Express
and the Overland Stage . . . 123
XVII. The Street-Preaching Hero of 'Forty-
Nine," William Taylor . . . .137
XVIII. The Fearless Civic Hero of San Fran
cisco, James King of William . . 154
XIX. The Eloquent Hero of Patriotism,
Thomas Starr King  171
XX. The Heroic Hunter of Grizzly Bears,
James Capen Adams  180
XXI. The Mail-Carrying Hero of the Snow-
Crowned Sierras, Snow-Shoe Thomp
son  195
XXII. The Mountain-Climbing Heroes of the
Sierras, Clarence King and Richard
Cotter  207
XXIII. The Engineering Hero of the Sierras,
Theodore D. Judah .... 221
XXIV. The Building Heroes of the Cen
tral Pacific, Huntington, Stanford,
Crocker and Hopkins . . . .231
XXV. The Brilliant Hero of Intellect,
Stephen J. Field  245
XXVI. The Saving Hero of Philanthropy,
James Lick  261
XXVII. The Tenacious Hero of the Comstock,
Adolph Sutro  273
XXVIII. The Far Sighted Hero of the Orange
Colony, John Wesley North . . 292
XXIX. The Outspoken Hero of the Public
Service, J. W. Powell . . .309

CONTENTS

xvii

CHAPTEH
XXX.
XXXI.
XXXII.
XXXIII. XXXIV. XXXV.
XXXVI.
XXXVII.
XXXVIII. XXXIX. XL.
XLI.
XLII.
XLIII.

The Practical Hero of Invention,
Andrew Smith Hallidie

3i7

The Intrepid Heroes of a Gentle
Science, John Gill Lemmon and Sara
Plummer Lemmon  322
The Studious Hero of the Mountains,
John Muir  338
The Tender Heroine of Indian Friend
ship, Helen Hunt Jackson . . 361
The Persistent Hero of a Great His
tory, Hubert Howe Bancroft . 374
The Patient Hero of Agriculture,
Luther Burbank  385
The Sympathetic Hero of Land Reform,
Henry George  401
The Inventive Hero of Mount Lowe,
Thaddeus S. C. Lowe . . . 417
The Reclamation Heroes of the Colo
rado Desert, Wozencraft, Rockwood
and Chaffey  437
The Poet Hero for Humanity, Edwin
Markham  451
The Honest Hero of the Free Harbor,
Stephen M. White .... 459
The Executive Hero of Irrigation,
William Ellsworth Smythe . . 465
The PioneerHeroes of California. An
Address by Judge David Belden . 482
Bibliography  494
Index  503

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Staging in 1849, in the Sierras of California Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

On the Colorado River which Alarcon Ascended . . 4
Mud Volcanoes in the Colorado Desert . 4
A Chemelfuevi mother and child . . • • 5
A Chemehuevi basket maker . 5
Statue of Father Junipero Serra, Golden Gate Park,
San Francisjco  22
Junipero Serra .¦ . 23
Indians on the Colorado Desert; descendants of one
of the tribes met by Melchior Diaz ... 36
The Colorado River near where Diaz had his fight with
the Indians  37
A group of California Indians, descendants of those
missionized by Padre Serra and his co-workers 37
A Chemehuevi Madonna  50
"** • ¦ • 1
Chemehuevi maidens making mesquite drink . . 50
On the road that Serra traveled coming up to San Diego
from La Paz  51
The fort at Tubac, Arizona, from which De Anza
brought some of his soldiers  51
A Yuma Indian, descendant of one of those who guided
Juan Bautista de Anza ... 64
An Indian camp near Tumacacori ... 65
The mission of Tumacacori, from which place De Anza
marched to the founding of San Francisco . 80

xx LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
A Mohave mother and child  81
Yuma Indian water carrier  81
The Rancho Chico, 1854, John Bid well's home . . 96
John Bidwell's first cattle brand  96
Juan Bautista de Anza's house, Tubac, Arizona . . 97
Donner Party memorial cross, near Donner Lake, Cal
ifornia  97
Donner Lake, California  112
General View of the Colorado Desert . . . .112
A Glimpse of the slope of Death Valley, the Funeral
Mountains in the distance .... .113
A bucking horse in the heart of the Colorado Desert 126
Ten miles south of Furnace Creek, Death Valley . . 126
Alexander Majors  127
William Taylor  144
Virginia Reed Murphy  144
San Francisco in 1849, from the head of Clay Street 145
Pioneers lined up for their mail at the Post Office, comer
of Pike and Clay Streets, San Francisco, in 1849 . 145
Thomas Starr King  172
John Bidwell. Taken in 1880  172
James Capen Adams  175
John A. Thompson  .196
Snow shed in the Sierras  107
Theodore D. Judah . . .... 212
The High Sierra, California, crossed by the Central
Pacific Railway  213
The High Sierras surveyed by Theodore Judah . . 213
The Palisades ofthe Humboldt River, Nevada, through
which the Central Pacific Railway runs . . . 226

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxi

FACING PAGE

Snow plow on the Central Pacific Railway, in the High
Sierras  227
" Driving the last spike "  242
James Lick  243
The Summit, Lick Observatory, Mt. Hamilton, Cali
fornia  .... 268
Main Building, Lick Observatory, Mt. Hamilton, Cal. 268
Thirty-six inch refractor, Lick Observatory, Mt. Hamil
ton, Cal  .... 269
Monument, City Hall Square, San Francisco . . 269
One of the mines of Virginia City, Nevada, on the cele
brated Comstock Lode  278
Sutro Baths, looking east, May 1, 1896 . 279
Adolph Sutro ... ... . . 288
J. W. North .  288
Flower vases and main gate, Sutro Heights, San Fran
cisco . . .  289
Mission arches at the Glenwood Mission Inn, River
side, Cal  . . 294
Cross dedicated to Fra Junipero Serra, Rubidoux
Mountain, Huntington Park, Riverside, Cal. . . 295
Parent Washington navel orange tree, court of the
Glenwood Mission Inn, Riverside, Cal. . . . 304
Orange Grove, Riverside, California .... 305
-John W. Powell  314
J. G. Lemmon  315.
S. A. Plummer Lemmon  315
John Muir and John Burroughs discussing animal
sagacity .... . • • 33°
Yosemite Valley, from Artist's Point, California . . 331
John Muir, resting by the side of a High Sierra lakelet 350

xxii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

Hubert Howe Bancroft's Historical Library, San Fran
cisco  351
Hubert Howe Bancroft  374
Luther Burbank ,  374
Luther Burbank's Birthplace, Lancaster, Mass. . . 375
Luther Burbank's Old Home, Santa Rosa, Cal. . . 392
Luther Burbank's New Home, side view, Santa Rosa,
Cal  392
Professor and Mrs. T. S. C. Lowe  393
The Great Incline on the Mount Lowe Railway . . 432
Circular Bridge on the Mount Lowe Railway overlooking
Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley . . . 433
Alpine Tavern, Mount Lowe  446
A camp of ditch-makers in Imperial Valley, 1901 . . 447
Egyptian Corn, Imperial Valley, in 1907 . . . 447
Edwin Markham . . •  . 452
A " playa " or bed of a dry lake in the Colorado Desert 453
A beet field in Imperial Valley, 1907 . . . 453
Edwin Markham at his cottage, where he wrote " The
Man with the Hoe," Oakland, California . 460
The wharves, interior of San Pedro Harbor, Los Angeles,
Cal   46i
The Atlantic Fleet sailing into San Pedro Harbor,
Los Angeles, Cal  4.64
Combined harvester and thrasher on ranch of H. M.
Kinney^ Imperial Valley  465
One of the irrigating ditches which have made the change
in the Imperial Valley .... 4.6?
Judge David Belden  .g,
William Ellsworth Smythe .... 484

HEROES OF CALIFORNIA

CHAPTER I
THE DAUNTLESS HERO - EXPLORER, ALARCON
TWO names are intimately associated with the
discovery of the mouth of the Colorado River,
which forms the boundary line between the southern
portions of Arizona and California. These names are
Ulloa and Alarcon. The stories of their respective
voyages have often been told, yet the important differ
ence in the spirit of the two explorers has not been
emphasized as it should be.
Fearful of losing his hard-earned power, Cortfe, the
conqueror of Mexico, desired to extend his explora
tions and incidentally his conquests. His successes
had aroused the jealousy of several eminent men,
among others, Mendoza, the Viceroy of New Spain,
who was doing his best to surpass Cortes in achieve
ment. Accordingly, he equipped three vessels and
sent them forth from Acapulco, Mexico, under the
command of Francisco de Ulloa, with instructions to
sail north, and take possession of all new lands dis-

2 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
covered, for God and the King of Spain. During
this voyage Ulloa discovered the Peninsula of Cali
fornia and the GuK of California, which he named the
Sea of Cortfe. While at the head of this gulf he found,
as he says: " the sea to run with so great a rage into
the land that it was a thing much to be marvelled at ;
and with the like fury it returned back again with the
ebb, during which time we found eleven fathom of
water, and the flood and ebb continued from five to
six hours."
The following day, Ulloa and the ship's pilot went
to the ship's top, and saw the land circling around
to the west; and they speculated upon the cause
of the ebb and flow of the day before. Lakes were sug
gested, and some one thought " that some great river
there might be the cause thereof."
Instead of exploring this inlet and finding out for
himself, Ulloa was content to sail away south. He
thus proved himself either incompetent for the task
that Cortfe had given him, in that he did not realize the
possible importance of following up the current ; afraid
lest he might wreck his vessels; or too lazy to undertake
what he knew might require hard work.
It should need little or no comment to show that
Ulloa was not possessed of the true spirit; that he was
unworthy the high trust reposed in him.
Now let us see the spirit in which Alarcon accom
plished his task. He was ordered by the Viceroy
Mendoza to sail northward with two vessels, and
cooperate, as far as possible, with the great land ex
pedition of Coronado, which was being sent out to

THE EXPLORER, ALARCON 3
the discovery of what we now know as Arizona and
New Mexico.
In due time he reached the same place described
by Ulloa, where the great tide had courted investiga
tion. At once he decided that, as he wrote afterward,
" even though I had known I should have lost the
ships," he would discover the secret of the Gulf. Ac
cordingly boats were lowered and sent ahead to find a
channel, and the ships were taken up until the current
was so strong and the shoals so numerous that all
three vessels went aground, and were placed in great
danger. But even this did not daunt Alarcon. The re
turn of the tide freed the vessels from the sands, and
they were anchored in a place of safety. Then he
prepared to ascend the river in two of his small boats.
Here was a true explorer. Bold yet cautious, deter
mined yet not reckless, full of foresight yet resolute
and daring! He prepared for hostile Indians and
hardships of every conceivable kind, and, thus equipped,
pushed forward up the river for the great distance of
eighty-five leagues.
It is needless for our purpose to study his adventures
further. His name and memory will always be hon
ored by true Californians as the man who dared,
and who, as the result of his daring, is entitled to the
honor of being called " the discoverer of the Colorado
River."

CHAPTER II
THE WATCHFUL HERO-COMMANDER, MELCHIOR DIAZ
ANOTHER member of the Viceroy's exploring
party was Melchior Diaz, who had gone with
Coronado into the heart of the country. After Coronado
had reached his destination, he despatched Diaz across
country to find Alarcon. In due time Diaz reached
the Colorado River, followed it down to the Gulf,
found that Alarcon had sailed, and then returned up
the river to see if any messages had been left by the
latter, intending finally to report to Coronado at
Cibola. He had several interesting experiences, but
the one which I wish were better known is as follows:
While he was on his way up the river, he wished to
cross from the Arizona to the California side. He had
but twenty-five men and here is the way the historian
Castaneda tells the story:
" After they had gone five or six days, it seemed to
them as if they could cross on rafts. For this purpose
they called together a large number of the natives, who
were waiting for a favorable opportunity to make an
attack on our men, and when they saw that the strangers
wanted to cross, they helped make the rafts with all
zeal and diligence, so as to catch them in this way on
the water and drown them, or else divide them so that
they could not help one another. While the rafts were

ON THE COLORADO RIVER WHICH ALARCON ASCENDED. Page S

MUD VOLCANOES IN THE COLORADO DESERT. DIAZ LANDED
NEAR HERE. Page i

Copyright, 1904, by George Wharton James.
A CHEMEHUEVI MOTHER AND CHILD. Page 5

Copyright, 190%, by George Wharton James.
A CHEMEHUEVI BASKET MAKER. Page 5

MELCHIOR DIAZ 5
being made, a soldier, who had been out around the
camp, saw a large number of armed men go across to
a mountain, where they were waiting till the soldiers
should cross the river. He reported this, and an Indian
was quietly shut up, in order to find out the truth . . . and
he told all the arrangements that had been made. These
were, that when our men were crossing and part of
them had got over and part were on the river and part
were waiting to cross, those who were on the rafts
should drown those they were taking across and the
rest of their force should make an attack on both
sides of the river. If they had had as much discretion
and courage as they had had strength and power, the
attempt would have succeeded.
" When he knew their plan, the captain had the
Indian who had confessed the affair killed secretly,
and that night he was thrown into the river with a
weight, so that the Indians would not suspect that
they were found out. The next day they noticed that
our men suspected them, and so they made an attack,
shooting showers of arrows, but when the horses began
to catch up with them and the lances wounded them
without mercy and the musketeers likewise made good
shots, they had to leave the plain and take to the moun
tain, until not a man of them was to be seen. The
force then came back and crossed all right, the Indian
allies and the Spaniards going across on the rafts and
the horses swimming alongside the rafts."
Diaz showed himself a watchful and a prudent cap
tain. He knew he was in a place of danger, and this
made him unusually cautious, both for himself and his

6 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
men. He was alert and thoughtful, and there is little
doubt that the soldier who went around the camp and
discovered the large force of Indians on the other side,
was sent out as a scout by him. The brave and cour
ageous man is not the man who is reckless and indiffer
ent, but the man who, knowing the dangers that sur
round him, is alert, cautious, watchful and prudent.

CHAPTER III
THE SELF-SACRIFICING, SELF- DISCIPLINING, PIONEER
MISSIONARY-HERO, JUNIPERO SERRA
TN these days of material progress, and with our whole
¦*¦ nation regarding the acquisition of riches as the
clearest proof of success, it seems to me that it is well
for our youth to look closely into the lives of those men
who constructed the foundations upon which our State
is built.
Serra was a very simple-hearted man, yet in three
special realms he claims the reverent attention of the
youth of the State of which he was the first and greatest
of a large army of pioneers.
Without entering into tedious details, it is well to
recall that Serra was born in 1713, at Petra, in the
Island of Majorca — ¦ one of the islands of the Mediter
ranean, under the control of the King of Spain. When
he was seventeen he became a novitiate of the Fran
ciscan Order, and when he took the final vows he
assumed the name of Junipero, after the friend and
companion of St. Francis of Assisi, who was the
founder of the Order of Franciscans.
In due time, he became a professor in one of the
colleges and a Doctor of Divinity. He then began
to preach, and the simple-minded fervor of so learned
a man, combined with his clear-headed way of looking

8 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
at things, soon brought him great fame as a pulpit
orator. He had the wonderful faculty of satisfying the
educated and refined as well as the illiterate and
vulgar. He reached rich and poor alike. As a teacher
he was equally successful. The pathway to fame and
honor was clearly open to him. All he had to do was
to continue as he had begun, and there was little he
might not have attained. The Church of Rome has
never been niggardly in its gifts to its able sons, and
here was one who was worthy of her greatest gifts and
highest honors. Yet he wilfully and cheerfully turned
away from this glowing and alluring pathway, and
begged to be sent away over a new, dark, and unknown
road — the road to the missionary field among savages,
where trials, dangers, difficulties, and possibly death
awaited him.
Serra dared to do the thing that appealed to the
very highest in his nature. He dared to fling himself
in absolute and perfect trust upon God. He had'
but one aim, — to serve God in blessing the savages to
whom he asked to be sent. He dared to be free!
The theology of Dante was a terrible reality to Serra.
Only to such an absorption of belief was his work*
possible. Hell, the awful, material hell Dante so
vividly and powerfully portrays, burning with flames
of inconceivable torture forever and forever, with
all its dire circles of horror for those who were unbe
lievers in the Christ he worshipped, yawned, as he
thought, before the feet of these untamed and rude
natives. If they should be trained into a knowledge
of the Church and its saving ordinances by an apostolic

JUNIPERO SERRA 9
guide, they could attain a new hereafter. Purgatory was
open, and from thence, duly purged from their sin
and ignorance, they might climb into the blessed regions
of Paradise. Felicity untold, then, to that man who
would brave their savagery, dare their treachery, love
them even in their unlovableness, and thus lead them
into the fold of the Church.
Who should do it? Should he, Serra, with his soul
athirst for great deeds for God, stand by, in order to
listen to the applause of the civilized world as his words
of burning eloquence pleased their cultured ears,
and let some half-hearted, half-in-earnest priest go
out to these degraded and needy savages? No! The
greater their need and danger, the greater the necessity
for speed, power, and earnestness in the one who should
go to them. So, begging permission to leave the world
and its vain applause, society and its caresses, civiliza
tion and its luxurious comforts, casting all these things
behind him, he gladly, joyfully set forth to do his
chosen work as missionary.
Such was his burning zeal that four of his close
college companions were dominated by the same desire,
and in due time these five — Serra, Palou, Crespf, Verges,
and Vincens — found themselves at Cadiz ready to
ship for Vera Cruz, en route to the City of Mexico,
where the College of San Fernando, the head house
of the Franciscan Order in the new world, was
located. On the voyage, Serra's boundless devotion and
enthusiasm would not let him rest. He recited the
mass daily, and then incited the sailors and others

10 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
to come and confess to him, and during long hours into
the night he was engaged in this pious duty.
Water was very scarce. Instead of complaining and
making matters worse, he took the deprivation as a
means of training, and naively remarked, when asked if
he did not suffer from thirst:
" Not specially, since I have found out the secret of
not feeling thirsty, which is to eat httle and talk less,
so as not to waste the saliva."
On their arrival at Vera Cruz, the officials had pro
vided saddle animals to carry the whole band of mis
sionaries over the three hundred mile stretch between
that city and the City of Mexico. Few people would
have seen in this anything but the most reasonable
provision for their safe transportation. But Serra,
with an eye absolutely single to the work he wished
to do, and to which he had sacredly devoted his life,
found in it an opportunity for self-discipline. He
talked with his companion, Palou, persuaded him into
agreement, and then begged his superiors to allow them
to walk! When asked for his reasons, he explained
that he was sent to labor among the most degraded and
hostile of savage tribes, where hardship and severe labor
would be his daily experience. He desired that every
act of his life should be an act of conscious self-dis
cipline, preparation, training for everything that might
be before him.
Permission was given, and he and his colleague,
without provisions or guide, started forth on that long
tramp, determined to rely solely on Providence and the
goodness of the people whom they should meet.

JUNIPERO SERRA u
Of his life in Mexico prior to the time he was sent
forth as the padre presidente of the California missions
there is not room here to speak. Suffice it to say that
he did his highest duty with earnest enthusiasm and
fervent zeal. In a later work I hope fully to present the
whole life and labors of Serra.
When the Jesuits were expelled from the missions of
Lower California in 1767 Serra was put in charge of
the Franciscans who were sent in their places. Then
the onward and upward move to the colonization and
missionization of Upper California was decided upon
and Serra was required to take charge of this work.
Hence he became the first of the army of California
pioneers to whom the Golden State never tires of doing
honor. It is hard for us of to-day to realize what it meant for
Serra to come to California. He left congenial work,
devoted associates, loving friends, honor, applause,
fame and advancement in the eyes of men, to bury
himself in the unexplored wilds of a new coun
try. In his own land he had been one of the most popu
lar and appreciated preachers, honored and beloved.
Here, the best that can be said is that he received the
half adoring reverence of a part of the ignorant,
though rudely affectionate aborigines to whom he came
to minister, while the remainder bore him open hostility
and bitter hatred. Even those who gave him their
allegiance did not have the faintest comprehension
of what he was endeavoring to do for them, and he had
to humor their whims and caprices, their prejudices and

12 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
superstitions, as a mother humors her petulant and
self-willed child.
Here was a pioneer, indeed, in that he had no home
to come to. His home had to be in his own soul. In
one sense, he had not where to lay his head, for there
were no homes — in the way in which we use the
word — in the land to which he came. There were
only the rude, open, wicker-work or tule shacks of
the aborigines, full of filth and vermin, and foul with
the accumulated odors of the uncleanness of many sea
sons. The hard but hospitable bosom of Mother Earth
became his pallet; like Jacob, he used a stone for a
pillow; the open air was his coverlet, and the ineffable
blue of the sky, pictured with moon, planets, stars and
Milky Way, his ceiling; the howling of coyotes, the wild
shriek of the panther, the growl of the grizzly, the hoot
of the owl, the soft cooing of the mourning dove, and
all the queer, soothing, startling, conflicting night
sounds of trees, shrubs, insects, birds and beasts be
came the varied orchestra that sang him to sleep, or
quickened his waking hours.
He was a pioneer, indeed, in that he came to no
settled community where materials for the erection of
homes and churches were to be purchased. Everything
was in the raw state. He had to hew the trees, saw
the lumber, make the bricks, follow every shift and
device that necessity became the mother of, ere he
could begin to build, and then, — who was to build
for him. He became his own architect, contractor and
master-mason, and the human material he had to
work with and train to do his bidding was even worse

JUNIPERO SERRA 13
than the raw physical material of which the structures
were to be erected. Untrained, uncouth, undisci
plined savages, who, for centuries, had followed their
own will, were practically all upon whom he could call.
They were unused to control, impatient of restraint,
incompetent to use their hands and eyes in strange
labor, unable to see the necessity for care in doing
what they were told to do, shiftless, unreliable and
crafty in escaping from work they disliked. It is not
easy for the ordinary man to imagine the sublime and
exalted faith, the fearless and urgeful courage, the
tireless and undaunted energy that could undertake
the building of such majestic missions under these
disadvantageous conditions. And it must be remem
bered that Serra and his coadjutors did not come to a
people who were in sympathy with his beliefs, his
faith, his Church. With even a small band of believing
adherents to rely upon, the fight would not have been
so hard, but he had to instruct, convert, win his people
while they were working for him, or even before they
would begin to work, and in either case this added a
gigantic obstacle to anything like rapid progress.
To make even nominal Christians of these conserva
tive and superstitious Indians was in itself a great
achievement, but to do it, and at the same time lead
them to perform steady labor and become reliable
workmen in the face of their dislike to confining work
and teach them obedience and submission to restraint,
was a task requiring genius and tact of a very high
order. Such genius and tact Serra must have possessed,.
for he achieved the results, and not, as many believe, by

14 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
sheer force of arms and the exercise of military control.
It is true that he had a small band of soldiers as escort
and guard, but what was such a handful compared
with the thousands of brave, fearless and warlike
aborigines, had they been driven by cruel treatment
to open hostility and defiance of an authority they had
not yet learned to fear?
Brave is that pioneer who goes into a new land where
there are no corn-fields, no orchards, no gardens;
where one must carry with him the seeds to plant for
food, and wait until after the clearing, the plowing, the
sowing, for the coming of the harvest.
This bravery was Serra' s, for he and his co-workers
took so little food with them that in their first year at
San Diego the missionaries would have starved, had
it not been for the hospitality and generosity of the
Indians, who gave freely of their rude provisions
to the strangers who had come to live among
them. Herds of cattle, sheep and horses there were none;
stores of supplies and manufactories were unknown.
There were no roads, no means of conveyance. Nothing
was provided. Every article needed had to be brought
up that long, weary desert and mountainous peninsula,
or by sea, or over the Arizona and Colorado Deserts,
or else it must be created on the spot. These, then,
were the conditions under which Serra began and
carried on his labors. For years he journeyed, on foot,
up and down the coast from San Diego to San Fran
cisco, for the rules of his Order required him to walk
when possible. Several times he traveled, either by

JUNIPERO SERRA 15
sea or land, back and forth to confer with the State
and Church officials in Mexico.
In view of these facts, the work of Serra becomes
nothing less than marvelous. He lived to see ten
missions established, — San Diego, San Carlos, San
Antonio de Padua, San Gabriel, San Luis Obispo,
San Francisco de Asis, San Juan Capistrano, Santa
Clara, San Buenaventura and Santa Barbara, as well
as the presidios of San Diego, Monterey, San Francisco
and Santa Barbara. He died and was buried in the
mission. of San Carlos Carmelo, where his ashes still
rest.

CHAPTER IV
THE INDEFATIGABLE HERO, CAPTAIN DE ANZA
\ X 7HEN President McKinley wished to send a
* message to General Garcia of the Cuban forces,
the question arose as to who could be found to under
take the task. No one knew exactly where Garcia
was; he was surrounded by Spaniards who sought his
life, and by Cubans who were jealously guarding it.
It was necessary that the message be sent secretly,
for the United States did not wish to inform Spain
beforehand that she had decided to take up the cause
of Cuba.
A man, however, was found in Lieutenant Rowan,
who asked no questions, raised no objections, but,
with a glint in his eye and determination in his voice,
when asked if he thought he could reach Garcia, re
plied, " I think so ! I'll try!" The world knows of
his success.
Juan Bautista de Anza was a man of the Rowan
type, and every true Californian should know all about
his two historic trips from Northern Mexico to San
Francisco. When the early Franciscan missions and the first
presidios (San Diego and Monterey) were established
in California, the Spanish officials decided that it would
be an advantage to have a means of direct communica-

CAPTAIN DE ANZA 17
tion overland from Northern Mexico to Alta or Upper
California. Hitherto all travel to California had been
either by sea, or across the Gulf and then up the pen
insula, — a long, wearisome journey, even after the
Gulf had been crossed. It was also decided to establish
missions about midway between Sonora and San Ga
briel, on the Colorado River, thus affording travelers
a place where they could rest and recuperate.
The responsibility of finding this road was placed
upon Captain de Anza, a brave and honorable soldier,
whose father was also an officer of repute. At this
time he was the commander of the presidio of Tubac,
in Sonora, a little settlement now on the United States
side of the Mexican border, and some fifty miles south
of Tucson.
The route to be traversed was over the inhospitable
desert region to the Gila River, down its course to its
junction with the Colorado River, and thence over an
other and unknown desert to the Mission San Gabriel.
It is interesting to recall the fact that a quantity of
" red tape " had to be gone through in those days before
Captain de Anza could start upon his journey. Padre
Serra first petitioned the Viceroy of Mexico and the
King of Spain; the petition was favorably endorsed by
the former, and then duly considered by the king and
his Council at Madrid, granted, and a license issued,
allowing and authorizing the expedition. This was
probably in September of the year 1773.
With two priests, a dozen men and twenty soldiers, De
Anza was prepared to start, when he received a fore
taste of what he might expect on his trip. The Apache

18 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Indians made a raid on his camp, killed some of his
men and stole a number of his horses.
Now a brave man does not allow danger to deter
him from his purposes, but it makes him cautious and
careful. De Anza knew that he was liable to attack
all the way along from these murderous Apaches, who
hated the sight of the white men. His route lay over a
hot and sandy desert, that wearies the people of to-day
when they speed over it in an elegant Pullman car,
sheltered from all danger, and provided with every
luxury. The piercing rays of the sun, scant and vile
water, little or no forage for horses, no food for human
beings, wild animals and poisonous reptiles, mile after
mile of cruel cactus, acres of blinding alkali, whirlwinds
of hot sand, fearful heat at noonday and, at times,
fearful cold at midnight, — these were some of the
obstacles and terrors he knew he would have to meet
and overcome.
Yet, without waiting for reinforcements, his handful
of soldiers made nervous and fearful by the sudden
death of their close companions, he struck out over
the pathless desert, laughing at fierce heat, mocking
mirage, blinding alkali, choking sand-laden air, in the
strong conviction that the spirit of a man overcomes
everything that can come against him, even to the Gates
of Death, if he keeps his soul clean and his hands pure.
Accompanying the party were sixty-five cattle and
one hundred and forty horses for the use of the officials
and missions in California.
Before they reached the Colorado River, they were
met by a Papago Indian, who warned them that some

CAPTAIN DE ANZA 19
of the Yumas were decidedly unfriendly and had
threatened to " loot the whole outfit." But when the
Yumas were finally reached, Palma, their chief, who
was well known to one of the padres of the party,
welcomed them and gave every assurance of hospi
tality and trustworthiness.
From now on the journey became more arduous
than before. The scarcity of pasture and water for the
animals rendered it impossible to take them along,
so they were left in charge of a few men and the Indian,
Palma, while the rest faced the perils of the Colorado
Desert. It took them twenty days to reach the newly-
founded Mission of San Gabriel, with their clothing
in tatters, and out of supplies of every kind. Here the
party became somewhat divided, one of the padres with
some of the men going to San Diego, the other and
more men back to the Yumas, while De Anza, with but
six men, hurried on to Monterey and almost immedi
ately returned to San Gabriel. In eight days more he
was with the padre at the Colorado River, and fifteen
days later he was back at his starting-point, his own
presidio of Tubac.
The whole of this several-hundred-mile journey,
it must be remembered, was made on horseback, and
everything the party needed had to be taken along
on pack-animals.
When I hear people speaking of being " exhausted "
by a five hundred, or a thousand, mile ride on the cars,
where every comfort is provided and all hardships
are eliminated; when I see the young men of to-day
riding a few blocks on the street car to avoid the exer-

20 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
tion of walking, and see them taking " bracers " to
overcome the effects of some slight labor that should
be a pleasure to a healthful person, I wish that we
might have a few Captain de Anzas to set a fresh
example of tireless energy, total disregard of hardships,
and ready accomplishment of the severest duties.
But De Anza's first trip was merely to ascertain if
a route could be found. He had proven that it was
feasible, and was therefore empowered to gather colo
nists and recruit soldiers for a settlement and presidio
to be established on the newly discovered bay of San
Francisco. His party started out just one year before
the signing of the Declaration of Independence, — in
the year 1775. Doubtless on account of the success
of his first trip, De Anza had been promoted from
captain to lieutenant-colonel. Three priests started
with the expedition, two of whom left diaries, from
which most of our details of the trip are gleaned. The
party was composed of four officers besides the lieuten
ant-colonel, three priests, eighteen veteran soldiers,
twenty recruits, twenty-nine wives of soldiers, and one
hundred and thirty-six persons of both sexes — the
colonists. Then there were twenty muleteers for the
three pack-trains, seven servants and three Indians,
making a grand total of two hundred and forty persons.
There were six hundred and ninety five mules and
horses, and three hundred and fifty-five cattle.
Imagine this expedition starting out and journeying
day by day. Dr. Coues, the translator of Padre GarceV
diary, tells of the daily order:
" At the proper hour in the morning the order was

CAPTAIN DE ANZA 21
given to round up the horses and mules, the soldiers and
servants going for the horses and the packers for the
mules. While these people were packing and saddling,
Padre Font used to say mass, as there was plenty of
time. As soon as the three pack-trains were ready
to start, the commanding officer gave the order to
mount — Vayon subiendo ! and they all mounted,
forming a column in this wise: Four soldiers went
ahead as scouts. De Anza led off with the vanguard.
Font came next, and after him came men, women, and
children, escorted by soldiers; then the lieutenant
brought up the rear-guard. Behind these followed the
three pack-trains, with.the loose horses, and last of all
the beef-herd. As soon as they started, Font would
strike up a hymn, the Alabado, to which all the people
responded. The column, as may be easily seen, was a
very long one, even when well closed up. On making
camp, when they had dismounted, the lieutenant came
to report to the commanding officer whether they were
all up, or any had been left behind, and receive his
orders. At night the people recited their beads, each
family by itself, and finished by singing the Alabado
or Salve, or something of that sort, every one for
himself, and Font remarks that the variety had a
very pleasing effect. There were so many people
that when they encamped it looked like a regular
settlement, with the shelters that the soldiers made
with their cloaks and blankets on boughs, and with
the thirteen tents of the company — nine for the
soldiers and the others for the officers and com-
mandante."

22 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
It was a wonderful trip over the desert, and it re
quired no little courage, leadership and knowledge to
get such a party over the sandy wastes. It was mid
winter, and the cold was intense, for, in marked con
trast to De Anza's former trip, they were met day after
day with storms of hail, snow and rain. And when it is
cold on the desert, it seems colder than anywhere else.
The thinned blood feels it more, and the absence of
moisture makes the heat radiation so rapid that it is
not surprising to read in De Anza's diary that the people
suffered cruelly. There was much sickness but no
fatalities. About a hundred head of stock were lost,
as water was so scarce that the fevered animals could
not be restrained from breaking away in search of it.
The party often had to be divided, so that all should
not reach the water-holes, with their poor and scant
supply, at the same time. Wells were dug in many
places. The scarcity of feed for the animals was another
source of great discomfort.
On reaching San Gabriel, they were delayed for a
time by news of the uprising at San Diego, when the
Indians murdered Padre Jayme, and De Anza himself
went down to the scene of the trouble. It was not
until February of 1776 that they started for the north.
This was a weary journey, for the winter rains made
the roads almost impassable, and even the women and
children had to walk. Yet on the tenth of March they
all arrived safely and happily at Monterey, where Serra
himself was in waiting to congratulate and welcome
them. Worry or overwork or something had upset De Anza,

STATUE OF FATHER JUNIPERO SERRA, GOLDEN GATE PARK, SAN
FRANCISCO. Page 7

JUNIPERO SERRA.
From the painting in the Hotel del Monte, Monterey, Cal., after the
original painting in the City of Mexico. Page 7

CAPTAIN DE ANZA 23
and for a few days he was confined to his bed in Mon
terey; then, contrary to the advice of his physicians,
he rode to San Francisco — for upon his decision largely
depended the choice of the site where the San Francisco
mission was to be established — explored the region
pretty thoroughly, and finally chose the place where the
old Dolores Mission now stands. It was not until
September 17, however, that the presidio was estab
lished, and the mission on October 9. But, his work
done, De Anza delayed not an hour. He returned
south, reported to Governor Rivera, and on the second
of May started back for Sonora, where he safely ar
rived on the eighteenth day of June.

CHAPTER V
THE FAITHFUL HERO, PADRE SARRfA
THE romance of the Missions has never been
written. Possibly, as the years go by, the writers
of fiction will see more and more the possibilities af
forded by the lives of the old padres, the play of wit
between the intellectual and educated Spaniards and
the keen, shrewd, uneducated Indians, the solitude and
isolation of the padres' lives, the temptations of the
flesh, all the passion and emotion, the joy and sorrow
that compass the lives of human beings whether rude
and illiterate or refined and sensitive, out of which to
weave their stories of " fiction more true than life."
Helen Hunt Jackson in Ramona, preceded by Bret
Harte in several of his short stories, Mary Austin in
Isidro, Marah Ellis Ryan in The Soul of Rafael, Con
stance Goddard Du Bois in A Soul in Bronze, and Mrs.
A. S. C. Forbes in her Mission Tales in the Days oj
the Dons have all done good work in this line, but the
days to come will see much more written on the same
subject. When a library of books shall have been
accumulated, each one dealing with this epoch of
California life, there will be not one containing more real
pathos, real power than the simple truth told about
Padre Francisco Vicente de Sarrfa, who died of starva
tion at the Mission Soledad in 1835.

THE FAITHFUL HERO, SARRIA 25
Sarria came to California in June, 1809, and in
181 2 he was elected Comisario prejecto of the missions.
By this office he was made superior to the president
of the Missions in all temporal affairs, and was the
delegate of the Franciscan Commissary General of
the Mother House in the City of Mexico. He entered
into this work with quiet dignity and a solemn recog
nition of the responsibilities of the office. In 1813
he addressed a letter to all the missionaries of the
State, which in every way is a model. In spirit it
breathes true devotion and anxiety for the care of the
souls of both Indians and Spaniards; in composition
it is clear, forceful and well expressed, and in hand
writing it is regular and beautiful. A copy in his own
hand is to be found in the archives at San Carlos Mis
sion, Monterey. In this letter he enjoined a strict
comphance with the rules of St. Francis (the founder
of the Order), and especially urged the padres to
acquire the Indian language so as to be able to teach
the catechism and give other religious instruction in the
native tongue. He bade them not to forget their duties
to the Spaniards, and alluded to the management of
the temporal affairs as a duty which must not divert
their attention from their more important spiritual
obligations. Sarria lived during that very trying period in Mexican
history when Mexico threw off the yoke of Spain and
became, in 1821, an independent empire under Itur-
bide. The new empire, however, did not last long, for in
March, 1823, Iturbide was compelled to abdicate and
flee the country, and on his surreptitious return in

26 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
1824 was captured, tried, sentenced and shot. The
country now became a republic, and California was
made a province of the new federation. While the
change of government practically affected California
very Httle, all the officers and the missionaries were
required to take oath that they would be loyal to the
new powers. Padre Sarrfa was a Spaniard, full of
love for his native country, conservative to a high
degree, and, while a missionary in a foreign land
which he sincerely accepted as his home so long as his
superiors required him to do so, still regarded Spain
as " home," and himself as one of its loyal sons. Hence
it was impossible for him to swear allegiance to any
foreign power, and especially when that power had
come into existence through revolt to the Spain of his
love and devotion. Again and again, year after year,
he was called upon to " swear," and each time, calmly
yet positively, he gave the same reply. He was so
beloved by the Spanish people and soldiers as well as
by the Indians, that the governors, one after another,
felt it would be dangerous to punish him in any way, or
to do as they were authorized to do, — namely, banish
him or send him as a prisoner to Mexico. So, salving
their official consciences by reporting the case with its
difficulties to the Federal officials in Mexico, they did
nothing. Thus Sola, Arguello and Echeandia in turn
were required to place him under arrest, and send him
to Mexico, yet each evaded the orders; and while,
ostensibly, he was under arrest for several years, and
liable to be exiled at any moment — for the order was
thrice renewed — he lived on with his beloved Indians,

THE FAITHFUL HERO, SARRIA 27
calmly and quietly discharging his duties, and paying
no attention to the excitement of politics which seemed
of so great importance to others.
Gleeson, the historian, thus tells the story of Padre
Sarria's last days:
" Soledad, of which Padre Sarria was pastor, was
once a flourishing Christian settlement, possessing its
hundreds of converts and thousands of cattle. Want had
never been known there from the time of its foundation
up to the moment of confiscation. Immediately upon
the change, however, so great was the plunder and
devastation of everything belongmg to the Mission
that the Father who remained at his post with a few of
the Indians was unable to obtain the ordinary neces
saries of life. Yet, reduced as he was to the greatest
extremity, he would not abandon the remnant of his
flock. For thirty years he had labored among them,
and now, if necessary, he was ready to die in their
behalf. Broken down by years and exhausted by
hunger, one Sunday morning in August, the holy old
man assembled in his little church the few converts that
remained to him. It was the last time that he was to
appear before these natives. Hardly had he com
menced the holy sacrifice of the mass when his strength
completely failed him; he fell before the altar and
expired in the arms of his people, for whom he had
so zealously and earnestly labored. Noble and worthy
death for a Spanish missionary priest ! "

CHAPTER VI
THE UNTERRIFIED HERO-TRAPPER, JAMES O. PATTIE
THERE are some men who are born adventurers
and explorers. The quiet, calm, uneventful life
of ordinary dwellers in towns and villages is distasteful
to them. They are men of the open, of activity, of
resolution, of intrepidity, of courage, — men to whom
adventure is as the breath of their nostrils. To keep
such men in the monotony of civilized existence is
impossible. They are destined to be wanderers, and,
in the past, had their faculties been trained and they
themselves encouraged to make due reports of their
wanderings, the world at large might have received
much benefit from the knowledge they could have
communicated. Fortunately, here and there, a man
with a literary turn of mind did write and publish the
account of his travels; in other cases, literary men
transcribed and published them. One of the most
interesting of such accounts ever published in the
United States, dealing (amongst other regions) with
California, is that of James O. Pattie, a trapper of
Kentucky, who for six years journeyed from St. Louis
across the plains into New Mexico and Upper and
Lower California. He and his companions came down
the Colorado River almost to the Gulf, then crossed the
peninsula to two of the Jesuit Missions of Lower Cali-

JAMES O. PATTIE 29
fornia, reached the Pacific, were taken as prisoners to
San Diego, and there kept in prison for several months.
Here his father died and was buried. Pattie was re
leased on his undertaking to vaccinate the Spaniards
and Indians of California, — which he did, claiming
to have inoculated in all twenty-three thousand five
hundred persons. He finally returned to the United
States by way of Mexico.
To give a mere resume" of Pattie's adventures would
be impossible, but to show the spirit of the man, and
to incite in the youth of California a desire to familiarize
themselves with these interesting records, I propose
to make a few extracts which serve as samples of the
three hundred pages of which his Narrative is com
posed. To this man adventure was an every-day ex
perience; what to most men would be hardships un
endurable was his daily life. Almost indifferent to
danger, yet watchful and cautious; full of energy and
restlessness; wearied in a few days or weeks with the
ordinary life of a settlement; of a buoyant disposition
that speedily rebounded from disappointment, and
that could never long be despondent no matter how
serious the evils that had befallen him, his narrative
bears the stamp of truth. Contemporary history in
the main confirms his story, so that it may be accepted
as truthful and genuine.
Dr. R. G. Thwaites, in his Introduction to a recent
edition of Pattie's Narrative, says :
" For three generations the Patties had been fron
tiersmen. Restlessly they moved onward as the border
advanced, always hovering upon the outskirts of civ-

30 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
ilization, seeking to better their condition by taking
up fresh lands in untilled places, and remorsely fight
ing the aborigines who disputed their invasion. They
longed unceasingly for new adventures in the mysteri
ous West, that allured them with its strange fascination.
Brave, honest, God-fearing, vigorous in mind and
body, dependent on their own resources for food, and
for defence chiefly dependent on the familiar rifle, the
Patties belonged to that class of Americans who con
quered the wilderness, and yearly pushed the frontier
westward." Pattie and his father joined a noted trapper, Bernard
Pratte, of St. Louis, in an expedition composed of one
hundred and sixteen persons. The father was made
military commander of the caravan, which journeyed
across the plains and mountains into New Mexico.
" Pattie was surprised at the primitive life and cus
toms of the inhabitants of New Mexico, of which in
a few unadorned sentences he gives us a vivid picture.
Passing on to Santa ¥6, the ancient capital, our ad
venturers were just in time to join a primitive expedi
tion against a hostile band of Indians, wherein the
junior Pattie had the good fortune to rescue from
the hands of the savages a charming young Spanish
maiden, daughter of a former governor of the province.
The gratitude of the fair captive and of her father was
profoundly expressed, and their friendship proved of
lasting value to the gallant narrator."
Trapping on the Gila River, fighting Indians, ad
ventures with bears, a visit to the copper mines at
Santa Rita, and the return to Santa F6 occupied five

JAMES O. PATTIE 31
months. The party then returned to the Gila to secure
the furs they had buried there, only to find their cache
rifled by the Indians. Again, at Santa Rita, when
fighting Apaches, they made a treaty with them, and
Pattie's father leased the noted mines which he suc
cessfully worked for some time. But the son was seized
with " an irresistible desire to resume the employment
of trapping," and wandered off again, with a few com
panions. For eight months he rambled down the Gila
and Colorado Rivers, up to the Grand Canyon region,
thence over the mountains to the Yellowstone, return
ing to Santa Fe" and Santa Rita. After three days'
rest, he took another trip into Mexico, and the fol
lowing spring, his father having been compelled to give
up his mine, owing to the treachery and embezzlement
of a trusted employe, another expedition was started,
which led him down the Gila and Colorado and into
California, as I have before related.
To the Californian, the most interesting portion of
the narrative is that which deals with his reception in
California, and his report of the conditions he found
and events that transpired. " According to his account,
he and his companions were at first treated with severity,
being imprisoned at San Diego for lack of passports,
and there detained for many months. The elder
Pattie died in his cell, without being permitted to see
the son for whose presence he had piteously pleaded in
his latest hours. Young Pattie's hatred for the Mexican
governor (Echeandia) was not unnatural; but the
consequent bitterness of expression quite distorts his
narrative." The people in general treated him with

32 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
kindness, which he gratefully acknowledges, but the
suspicion of the governor, the action of the padres at
the mission, and the final refusal to pay him for his
work done in vaccinating so many people unless he
would settle in the country and become a Catholic,
aroused his resentment to the highest degree. Upon
leaving California, he thus reflects:
" Those who traverse it (the California coast) . . .
must be constantly excited to wonder and praise.
It is no less remarkable for uniting the advantages
of healthfulness, a good soil, a temperate climate,
and yet one of exceeding mildness, a happy mixture
of level and elevated ground, and vicinity to the sea."
Even in those days, we see, men could not help being
"boosters" for California. From the plethora of
interesting matter Pattie gives, it is hard to select ex
tracts. Every page is interesting. Here is a na'ive
story of a bear-shooting near the Gila River: "We
passed a cave at the foot of the cliffs. At its mouth
I remarked, that the bushes were beaten down, as
though some animal had been browsing upon them.
I was aware that a bear had entered the cave. We
collected some pine knots, split them with our toma
hawks, and kindled torches with which I proposed
to my companion that we should enter the cave to
gether and shoot the bear. He gave me a decided
refusal, notwithstanding I reminded him, that I had,
more than once, stood by him in a similar adventure;
and notwithstanding I made him sensible that a bear
in a den is by no means so formidable as when ranging
freely in the woods. Finding it impossible to prevail

JAMES O. PATTIE 33
on him to accompany me, I lashed my torch to a stick,
and placed it parallel with the gun barrel, so as that
I could see the sights on it, and entered the cave. I
advanced cautiously onward about twenty yards, seeing
nothing. On a sudden the bear reared himself erect
within seven feet of me, and began to growl, and gnash
his teeth. I levelled my gun and shot him between the
eyes, and began to retreat. Whatever light it may
throw upon my courage, I admit, that I was in such a
hurry, as to stumble, and extinguish my light. The
growling and struggling of the bear did not at all con
tribute to allay my apprehensions. On the contrary,
I was in such haste to get out of the dark place, thinking
the bear just at my heels, that I fell several times on
the rocks, by which I cut my limbs, and lost my gun.
When I reached the light, my companion declared, and
I can believe it, that I was as pale as a corpse. It was
some time before I could summon sufficient courage to
re-enter the cavern for my gun. But having re-kindled
my light, and borrowed my companion's gun, I en
tered the cavern again, advanced and listened. All was
silent, and I advanced still further, and found my gun,
near where I had shot the bear. Here again I paused
and listened. I then advanced onward a few strides,
where to my great joy I found the animal dead. I re
turned, and brought my companion in with me. We
attempted to drag the carcass from the den, but so
great was the size, that we found ourselves wholly un
able. We went out, found our horses, and returned to
camp for assistance. My father severely reprimanded
me for venturing to attack such a dangerous animal in

34 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
its den, when the failure to kill it outright by the first
shot, would have been sure to be followed by my death.
" Four of us were dispatched to the den. We were
soon enabled to drag the bear to the light, and by the
aid of our beast to take it to camp. It was both the
largest and the whitest bear I ever saw. The best
proof, I can give, of the size and fatness is, that we
extracted ten gallons of oil from it. The meat we dried,
and put the oil in a trough, which we secured in a
deep crevice of a cliff, beyond the reach of animals of
prey. We were sensible that it would prove a treasure
to us on our return."
Here is the recital of an experience with the Mohaves,
who live on the banks of the Colorado:
" We raised a fortification round our camp every
night, until we considered ourselves out of their reach.
This evening we erected no breast-work, placed no
other guard than one person to watch our horses, and
threw ourselves in careless security round our fires.
We had taken very little rest for four nights, and being
exceedingly drowsy, we had scarcely laid ourselves
down, before we were sound asleep. The Indians
had still followed us, too far off to be seen by day, but
had probably surveyed our camp at night. At about
eleven o'clock this night, they poured upon us a shower
of arrows, by which they killed two men, and wounded
two more; and what was most provoking, fled so
rapidly that we could not even give them a round. One
of the slain was in bed with me. My own hunting
shirt had two arrows in it, and my blanket was pinned
fast to the ground with arrows. There were sixteen

JAMES O. PATTIE 35
arrows discharged into my bed. We extinguished our
fires, and it may easily be imagined, we slept no more
that night.
" In the morning, eighteen of us started in pursuit
of them, leavmg the rest of the company to keep camp
and bury our dead. We soon came upon their trail,
and reached them late in the evening. They were
encamped, and making their supper from the body of a
horse. They got sight of us before we were within
shooting distance, and fled. We put spurs to our horses,
and overtook them just as they were entering a thicket.
Having every advantage, we killed a greater part of
them, it being a division of the band that had attacked
us. . . . We then returned to our company, who had
each received sufficient warning not to encamp in
the territories of hostile Indians without raising a
breast-work round the camp."
That Pattie's perilous life was not a singular one
is evidenced by a reference he makes to the fate of
the one hundred and sixteen companions, with whom
he originally started from Santa Fe\ He met with
some of them once in New Mexico, and inquired what
had become of the others:
" Some had died by lingering diseases, and others
by the fatal ball or arrow, so that out of one hundred
and sixteen men, who came from the United States in
1824, there were not more than sixteen alive. Most
of the fallen were as true men, and as brave as ever
poised a rifle, and yet in these remote and foreign
deserts found not even the benefit of a grave, but left
their bodies to be torn by the wild beasts, or mangled

36 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
by the Indians. When I heard the sad roll of the dead
called over, and thought how often I had been in
equal danger, I felt grateful to my Almighty Bene
factor, that I was alive and in health. A strong per
ception of the danger of such courses as mine, as
shown by the death of these men, came over my mind,
and I made a kind of resolution, that I would return
to my home, and never venture into the woods again."
The continuation of his narrative is proof that he
did not keep to his resolution. Here is an experience
he had with some Yumas who led him to tramp over
the desert to the peninsula missions.
"At our encampment upwards of two hundred of
them swam over the river and visited us, all appar
ently friendly. We allowed but a few to approach our
camp at a time, and they were obliged to lay aside
their arms. In the midst of these multitudes of fierce,
naked, swarthy savages, eight of us seemed no more
than a httle patch of snow on the side of one of their
black mountains. We were perfectly aware how
critical was our position, and determined to intermit
no prudence or caution.
" To interpose as great a distance as possible be
tween them and us, we marched that evening sixteen
miles, and encamped on the banks of the river. The
place of encampment was a prairie, and we drove
stakes fast in the earth, to which we tied our horses in
the midst of green grass, as high as a man's head,
and within ten feet of our own fire. Unhappily we had
arrived too late to make a pen for our horses, or a
breast-work for ourselves. The sky was gloomy.

INDIANS ON THE COLORADO DESERT. DESCENDANTS OF ONE OF THE TRIBES MET BY
MELCHIOR DIAZ. Page 5

George Wharton James, Photo.
THE COLORADO klVER NEAR WHERE DIAZ HAD HIS FIGHT WITH
THE INDIANS. Page 4

George Wharton James, Photo.
A GROUP OF CALIFORNIA INDIANS, DESCENDANTS OF THOSE
MISSIONIZED BY PADRE SERRA AND HIS CO-WORKERS. Page IS

JAMES O. PATTIE 37
Night and storm were settling upon us, and it was too
late to complete these important arrangements. In a
short time the storm poured upon us, and the night
became so dark that we could not see our hand before
us. Apprehensive of an attempt to steal our horses,
we posted two sentinels, and the remaining six lay
down under our wet blankets, and the pelting of the
sky, to such sleep as we might get, still preserving a
little fire. We were scarcely asleep before we were
aroused by the snorting of our horses and mules. We
all sprang to our arms, and extinguished our little fire.
We could not see a foot before us, and we groped about
our camp, feeling our way among the horses and mules.
We could discover nothing; so concluding they might
have been frightened by the approach of a bear or
some other wild animal, some of us commenced re
kindling our fires, and the rest went to sleep. But the
Indians had crawled among our horses, and had
cut or untied the rope by which each one was bound.
The horses were then all loose. Then they instantly
raised in concert their fiendish yell. As though heaven
and earth were in concert against us, the rain began
to pour again, accompanied with howling gusts of
wind, and the fiercest gleams of lightning, and crashes
of thunder. Terrified alike by the thunder and the
Indians, our horses all took to flight, and the Indians,
repeating yell upon yell, were close at their heels.
We sallied out after them, and fired at the noises,
though we could see nothing. We pursued with the
utmost of our speed to no purpose, for they soon reached
the open prairie, where we concluded they were joined

38 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
by other Indians on horseback, who pushed our horses
still faster; and soon the clattering of their heels and
the yells of their accursed pursuers began to fade, and
become indistinct in our ears.
" Our feelings and reflections as we returned to
camp were of the gloomiest kind. We were one thou
sand miles from the point whence we started, and
without a single beast to bear either our property or
ourselves. The rain had past. We built us a large
fire. As we stood round it we discussed our deplorable
condition, and our future alternatives. Something
was to be done.
" Driven from the resource of our horses, we happily
turned our thoughts to another. We had all the requi
site tools to build canoes, and directly around us was
suitable timber of which to make them. It was a
pleasant scheme to soothe our dejection, and prevent
our lying down to the sleep of despair. But this alter
native determined upon, there remained another ap
prehension sufficient to prevent our enjoying quiet
repose. Our fears were, that the unsheltered Indians,
horse- stealers and all, would creep upon us in the
night, and massacre us all. But the night passed
without any disturbance from them."
From this point they finally succeeded in starting
with two canoes, and floated down the Colorado River.
When they neared the Gulf, the bore or tide nearly
swamped them, and as they were unable to return
up the river, they buried their traps and skins, and
then started on that frightful journey across the desert

JAMES O. PATTIE 39
to the nearest of the Lower California Missions. It
came near to finishing them, — crossing the desert, —
and they were ill prepared for their reception at the
Spanish settlement. As before related, they were
taken to San Diego and placed in confinement.
It is to be hoped that these few extracts are sufficient
to indicate to the youth of California that the whole
story of this adventurer's experience is of an un
usual character and well worth careful perusal.

CHAPTER VII
THE HERO OF THE SIERRAS, JEDEDIAH SMITH
IT might be natural to infer that all the pioneers of
a given epoch in the history of California would
have somewhat similar experiences in reaching the
land of their desire, but doubtless even the brief refer
ence to their personal adventures given in these chap
ters will dispel such an inference. Their experiences
were as widely different as their individual character
istics and leading motives.
Jedediah Smith was one of the band of trappers
engaged by General W. H. Ashley at St. Louis, who,
in 1824, or thereabouts, established a trading and
trapping post near the Great Salt Lake. Two years
later he started out with fifteen companions to explore
the country, more for the benefit of future operations
than to trap, though he necessarily took the implements
of his trade with him. There is no way of knowing
exactly the route he took except that it was a general
southwesterly course, for in due time he reached the
Rio Virgen and followed it down to the Colorado
River, and thence down the Colorado to the Mohave
Indian villages. At these places he appears to have
been well received, for he remained fifteen days, and
when he left was furnished with two Indian guides,
plenty of fresh provisions, and horses stolen from the

JEDEDIAH SMITH 41
Spaniards. He struck off across the Colorado Desert
on the trail of Captain de Anza, and in December
reached the Mission of San Gabriel.
Here, on account of the suspicion with which all
strangers were received, the party was practically placed
under arrest, and Smith was sent down to San Diego,
— where Governor Echeandia had established his
headquarters, — to explain the object of his mission.
He appears to have got along with the governor more
easily than did Pattie a little later, as his passport was
vouched for as correct by Dana, Cunningham and
other Americans who were there at the time. He
was, therefore, permitted to purchase supplies, and,
on explaining that it was practically impossible for
him to return the way he came, to start eastward by a
new route. He wished to go north by way of the
Russian settlements to the Columbia River, but Ech
eandia would not permit that. He started in good
spirits, and for a month or more nothing was heard of
him. He then reappeared at San Bernardino with
the story that he had traveled about three hundred
miles, keeping at a distance of one hundred and fifty
to two hundred miles from the coast, where he had
found many naked Indians, a very fertile region, and
some beavers, but that when he tried to cross the
mountains — which he called Mount Joseph — the
snow was so deep that five of them died of hunger,
and he was compelled to return to save the life of
himself and his comrades.
All this had to be reported to the governor, who sent
back orders to have the whole party detained; but

42 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
in the meantime Smith had departed. This was late
in February. Where he went is not known, but in May
he was in the upper part of the San Joaquin Valley,
friendly with the Indians, and accused by Padre
Duran, of Mission San Jose", of enticing his neophytes
to desert. On the nineteenth of May, Smith wrote
a frank and full statement to Padre Duran, explaining
who and what he was, reciting his failures to cross the
mountains, and that he was compelled to wait until
the snow had gone. He was far from home, destitute
of clothing and all the necessaries of life, save only
game for food. He needed horses, and concluded his
letter: " Though a foreigner, unknown to you, Rever
end Father, your true friend and Christian brother,
J. S. Smith."
Perhaps becoming suspicious that his failures to
cross the mountains might be construed into a violation
of Mexican law, he started the very next day, with
but two companions, and succeeded in crossing the
Sierras. As this is the first record of any white man's
accomplishing the feat, it is well to give Smith's own
account, which, though brief and meagre, is inter
esting. He says:
" On May 20, 1827, with two men, seven horses, and
two mules laden with hay and feed, I started from the
Valley. In eight days we crossed Mount Joseph,
losing on this passage two horses and one mule. At the
summit of the mountain the snow was from four to
eight Jeet deep, and so hard that the horses sank only
a few inches. After a march of twenty days eastward
from Mount Joseph, I reached the southwest corner

JEDEDIAH SMITH 43
of the Great Salt Lake. The country separating it
from the mountains is arid and without game. Often
we had no water for two days at a time; we saw but
a plain, without the slightest trace of vegetation.
Farther on I found rocky hills with springs, then hordes
of Indians, who seemed to us the most miserable beings
imaginable. When we reached the Great Salt Lake,
we had left only one horse and one mule, so exhausted
that they could hardly carry our light luggage. We had
been forced to eat the horses that had succumbed."
What a journey, and what a record! From his
standpoint, what he had done was an ordinary, every
day affair. Hardships were the regular fare of trappers,
and nothing was made of it. Civilization may do many
things for us, but it has not yet produced a set of men
as hardy, brave, and defiant of hardship as Jedediah S.
Smith and others like him.
To prove how little he thought of the dangers and
perils he had escaped, he returned to California with
eight men, arriving some time about October of the
same year. For, it must be recalled, he had started
away with but two men, and consequently some of his
band were still in the territory of the Mexicans, who
did not view their presence with favor. After gathering
them together, he had a band of seventeen men, and
late in October went to San Jose* and Monterey, where
Captain Cooper signed a bond, pledging his person
and property for their good behavior and that they
were not hostile to the country.
This bond is now in the Bancroft Library, at the State
University in Berkeley, and sets forth that Smith and

44 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
his companions are honorable citizens of the United
States, and are to be treated as friends, and furnished
with arms, horses, and provisions at fair prices, so
that they can return to their homes by way of Mission
San Jose, the Straits of Carquinez and Bodega. They
must not delay en route, and must not visit the coast
south of latitude 42 °, nor extend their inland operations
farther than specifically allowed by the latest treaties.
Smith then writes: "I acknowledge this bond.
Jedediah S. Smith," after which Governor Echeandia
gives the party permission to return, with one hundred
mules, one hundred and fifty horses, a gun for each
man, and divers bales of provisions and other effects.
A guard of ten soldiers escorted the trappers to a point
a little beyond San Francisco Solano, and then some
thing must have happened, though we do not know
what, for on the eighteenth of November, Smith and
his whole company arrived in San Francisco on the
vessel Franklin, from Monterey. Then they pro
ceeded leisurely northwards, possibly by way of the
Russian settlements, but, when crossing the Umpqua
River, they were attacked by Indians, and fifteen were
killed and all their property lost. Smith and three
others barely escaped with their lives, and were next
heard of at Fort Vancouver. Smith eventually re
turned to Salt Lake in 1829, and was killed two years
later by Indians in New Mexico.

CHAPTER VIII
THE TYPICAL HERO OF EARLY GOLD DAYS, JOHN
BLDWELL
*TpHE most typical of all the pioneers who emigrated
-*¦ to California and settled there prior to the gold
discovery, and while the coimtry was under Mexican
rule, was John Bidwell. He arrived in California in
October, 1841, in the first wagon-train of emigrants,
for several years was General Sutter's assistant, finally
settled on the Rancho Chico, some ninety-six miles
north of Sacramento, and there died, April 3, 1900.
There was nothing dramatically heroic in Bidwell's
life similar to the chief events in the lives of some of the
pioneer heroes herein recounted, but the whole of his
career was of the unconsciously heroic type and is well
worthy of a more extended study than can here be
accorded it.
He was born August 5, 1819, at Ripley, Chautauqua
County, New York, and moved with his parents first
to Pennsylvania and then to Ohio. It was when in his
twentieth year, living in the western part of Ohio, that
he conceived a desire to see the great prairies of the
West. He started on foot to walk to Cincinnati, ninety
miles distant, and though conscious that traveling in
that wild country was considered dangerous, took no
weapon along.

46 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Arrived at Cincinnati, he went down the Ohio River
to the Mississippi, and thence up to St. Louis, finally
reaching Burlington, Iowa, which then had a popula
tion of about two hundred inhabitants. This region
not suiting him, he struck across country, without
road or trail, determined to see Missouri.
It is well to note this spirit of independent initiative
in a youth not yet twenty-one years of age. This makes
his later career more comprehensible, and denotes
that strength of character which would have enabled
him to become a controlling force wherever he had
found himself.
He settled in the Platte Purchase, a fertile region
that recently had been purchased by the United States
from the Indians, and he extolled its fertility and beauty
in glowing language, showing how great an impression
its natural advantages made upon him. Here he began
to teach school in the country, about five miles from
Weston, — this was in June, 1839, — and in the fall
of the year he located on a piece of land, intending
to send to Ohio for his father. When the settlers first
came to Platte County the land was unsurveyed, and
each family being entitled to about half a square mile
of land, they endeavored to locate about half a mile
apart. So long as this guesswork location was the only
method it was perfectly satisfactory and every one was
content, but when the surveyors came the exact lines
made by their instruments turned everything into chaos.
The boundaries sometimes ran through a man's house,
or cut his barn into triangles, and there had to be much
giving and taking to adjust matters without trouble.

JOHN BIDWELL 47
Here and there excess patches would exist, and on one
of these Bidwell made his location.
The following summer, 1840, however, on a vacation
trip to St. Louis, a bully " jumped " his claim, and
refused to either vacate or divide. As Bidwell was not
yet quite of age, and the law required this, and also
that he reside upon the land, which, strictly, he had
not done, he decided not to contest the claim but to
go elsewhere when spring came.
This was the turning point in his life. That winter
he came in contact with Robidoux, a French trapper
and trader (brother to the man who afterwards gave
his name to Rubidoux Mountain at Riverside, Cali
fornia), who had visited California on a trapping expe
dition from Santa Fe. He gave enthusiastic descriptions
of the country until he had turned the heads of all the
people for miles around. As a result a company was
organized the members of which pledged themselves to
properly outfit ahd meet the following May at Sapling
Grove, Kansas, ready to cross the plains and the Rocky
Mountains to the new El Dorado. In a month, five
hundred people were pledged; but when May came,
owing to the opposition of the merchants (who did not
wish to see their customers emigrate in a body), and
the newspapers, only sixty-nine men, women, and
children met at the rendezvous. In Weston Bidwell
was the only man who carried out his pledge. He saved
up money enough and bought a wagon, a gun, and
provisions, but the man who had agreed to go along
with him and provide the horses backed out, and for a
time left him in despair. Just at the last moment an

48 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
invalid, George Henshaw, rode into town on a fine
black horse, and with fifteen dollars in his pocket,
ready to risk the trip in a hope that he might thereby
regain his health. Bidwell persuaded him to become
his partner, but to do this he had to trade his horse
for a yoke of steers for the wagon, and a sorry-looking,
one-eyed mule which he could ride.
The party was ready to start, ignorant of the road,
without a guide, with less, possibly, than one hundred
dollars in the pockets of the entire crowd, and having
elected as captain a man who vowed if he were not so
elected, he wouldn't go. Just before they started,
however, they were joined by the distinguished Jesuit
priest, Father De Smet, two other priests, a guide named
Captain Fitzpatrick, and three men, who were going
out to the Flathead Indians in what is now Idaho.
The emigrants were thus guided over half their journey.
It is not necessary to recount their many and varied
experiences on the long and wearisome march. Bid-
well kept a journal, and later wrote in the Century
Magazine a graphic description, which every Cali
fornia resident, young or old, should read. For it is
the true narrative of the first emigrant train which
crossed the plains, the deserts, and the mountains from
the middle west to California.
The emigrants, many of them, were insanely afraid
of the Indians. On one occasion a man came into
camp from a hunt, without gun, pistol, or mule, and
lacking most of his clothes, declaring, with great ex
citement, that he had been surrounded by Indians and
robbed. Bidwell says:

JOHN BIDWELL 49
" The company, too, became excited, and Captain
Fitzpatrick tried, but with little effect, to control and
pacify them. Every man started his team into a run,
till the oxen, like the mules and horses, were in a full
gallop. Captain Fitzpatrick went ahead and directed
them to follow, and as fast as they came to a bank of
the river he put the wagons in the form of a hollow
square, and had all the animals securely picketed
within. After a while the Indians came in sight. There
were only forty of them, but they were well mounted
on horses, and were evidently a war party, for they had
no women except one, a medicine woman. They came
up and camped within a hundred yards of us on the
river below. Fitzpatrick told us that they would not
have come in that way if they were hostile. Our hunter
in his excitement said there were hundreds of them,
and that they had robbed him of his gun, mule, and
pistol. When the Indians had put up their lodges,
Fitzpatrick and John Gray, an old hunter, went out to
them and by signs were made to understand that the
Indians did not intend to hurt the man or take his
mule or gun, but that he was so excited when he saw
them that they had to disarm him to keep him from
shooting them; they did not know what had become
of his pistol or of his clothes, which he said they had
torn off. They surrendered the mule and the gun,
thus showing that they were friendly."
At Soda Springs, where Father De Smet left them,
thirty-two of the party, becoming discouraged, decided
not to venture without path or guide into the trackless
region -toward California, but concluded to go with the

50 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
missionary party to Fort Hall and thence find their
way down Snake and Columbia Rivers into Oregon.
The other thirty-two decided to remain firm to their
original purpose and proceed to California. Says Bid-
well: "We were now thrown entirely upon our own
resources. All the country beyond was to us a veritable
terra incognita, and we only knew that California lay
to the west." But they pushed on. " Unavoidable
delays were frequent; daily, often hourly, the road had
to be made passable for our wagons by digging down
steep banks, filling gulches, etc. Indian fire| obscured
mountains and valleys in a dense, smoky atmosphere,
so that we could not see any considerable distance in
order to avoid obstacles. The principal growth, on
plain and hill alike, was the interminable sage-brush
(artemisia), and often it was difficult, for miles at a
time, to break a road through it, and sometimes a
lightly laden wagon would be overturned. Its monoto
nous dull color and scraggy appearance gave a most
dreary aspect to the landscape. But it was not wholly
useless: where large enough it made excellent fuel,
and it was the home and shelter of the hare — generally
known as the jack-rabbit — and of the sage-hen."
After reaching the western side of Salt Lake, travel
with wagons became so arduous that they decided to
abandon. them: " On Green River we had seen the
style of pack-saddles used by the trapping party, and
had learned a little about how to make them. Packing .
is an art, and something that only an experienced moun
taineer can do well so as to save his animal and keep
his pack from falling off. We were unaccustomed to

Copyright, 190Jh by George IVharton James.
A CHEMEHUEVI MADONNA. Page IS

Copyright, 1U04, by George Wharton James.
CHEMEHUEVI MAIDENS MAKING MESQUITE

DRINK.

Page IS

George Wharton James, Photo.
ON THE ROAD THAT SERRA TRAVELED COMING UP TO SAN
DIEGO FROM LA PAZ.

Page U

George Wharton James, Photo.
THE FORT AT TUBAC, ARIZONA, FROM WHICH DE ANZA BROUGHT

SOME OF HIS SOLDIERS.

Page 17

JOHN BIDWELL 51
it, and the difficulties we had at first were simply in
describable. It is much more difficult to fasten a
pack on an ox than on a mule or a horse. The trouble
began the very first day. But we started — most of
us on foot, for nearly all the animals, including several
of the oxen, had to carry packs. It was but a few
minutes before the packs began to turn ; horses became
scared, mules kicked, oxen jumped and bellowed, and
articles were scattered in all directions. We took
more pains, fixed things, made a new start, and did
better, though packs continued occasionally to fall off
and delay us."
Their captain proved a poor leader, and twice or
thrice abandoned them, but he either got lost or scared
and each time before long returned to the party.
The straits to which they were reduced as they de
scended into California can better be imagined than
described from the following quotation: " We went on,
traveling west as near as we could. When we killed
our last ox we shot and ate crows or anything we could
1 kill, and one man shot a wild-cat. We could eat any- .
thing." The ascent and descent of the range was
equally difficult, and every day and night saw new and
fresh hardships.
The party finally reached the edge of the San Joaquin
Valley but did not know they were yet in California.
They saw the Coast Range beyond and deemed that it
had to be climbed before the promised land was reached.
" The evening of the day we started down into the
valley we were very tired, and when night came our
party was strung along for three or four miles, and

52 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
every man slept right where darkness overtook him.
He would take off his saddle for a pillow and turn his
horse or mule loose, if he had one. His animal would
be too poor to walk away, and in the morning he would
find him, usually within fifty feet. The jaded horses
nearly perished with hunger and fatigue."
A few days later, however, they met an Indian who
guided them to the home of Dr. Marsh, located about
four miles from San Jose, and thus their weary pil
grimage as emigrants came to an end.
Bidwell wrote two other articles in the Century
Magazine of great personal and historic interest, viz.,
" Life in California before the Gold Discovery," and
" Fremont in the Conquest of California," but of
greater interest to us now is his Diary, written and sent
back to Missouri. It is dated " Bodega, Port of the
Russians, Upper California, March 30, 1842," and
gives the detailed account of his journey to California,
at the close of which he gives some " Observations
about the Country." These show the clearness of his
mind and the keenness of his judgment, and also in
clude shrewd observations on Captain Sutter, and
some strong words of censure about Dr. Marsh, whom
he denounces as " perhaps the meanest man in Cali
fornia," recounting incidents that confirm this censure.
His earliest occupation was to assist Captain Sutter,
who sent him to dismantle Fort Ross, which he, Sutter,
had just purchased from the Russians. When returning
from the accomplishment of this work Bidwell had
his horses stolen from him, and in their recovery, made
" his first exploration of the Sacramento Valley, during

JOHN BIDWELL 53
which he named all the streams coming into the Sacra
mento from the east between Butte Creek and Red
Bluff. He also made a map of the valley from his ob
servations on horseback, which served as the standard
map of that country until the actual surveys were made
in later years. Thus, two years before Fremont's first
explorations, did Bidwell traverse and explore the
primeval wilderness of Northern California at a time
when there was not a white settler north of Sacra
mento." In October, 1844, Bidwell was accepted to Mexican
citizenship and was granted a ranch known as Ulpinos,
on the Lower Sacramento, in what is now Solano
County, but when the settlers raised the Bear Flag,
in 1846, he was one of the committee which drafted
the plan of organization, and himself wrote the agree
ment, which all signed, to the effect that: The under
signed hereby agree to organize and remain in service
as long as necessary for gaining and maintaining the In
dependence of California. " From this time until the
close of the struggle with Mexico," writes Mr. C. C.
Royce, " Bidwell was in active service in various ca
pacities, holding successively the rank of lieutenant
captain and quartermaster, with the rank of major.
He was also appointed by Fremont alcalde at the
Mission of San Luis Rey, and commanded that post at
the time of the Flores revolt in the fall of 1846, during
which he had some thrilling and hazardous experiences."
He was the first man to carry the news of the dis
covery of gold to San Francisco; was a member of
the first State Senate; the committee man who named

54 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
most of those counties whose names are not of Spanish
origin; and was sent to Washington with the block
of gold-bearing quartz which was used as California's
contribution to the George Washington monument.
While there he heard the discussions against the ad
mittance of California into the Union, and voiced the
discouragements of the Californians to a lady whom he
was commissioned to bring back to her husband in
San Francisco. She had been a schoolmate of Senator
Seward, and invited him to a farewell dinner before
she left for California. This afforded Bidwell the op
portunity to present to Seward the cogent reasons for
the immediate admission of California. This won
not only a new vote for California, but an earnest and
eloquent advocate of her claims, with the result that
on August 13, 1850, the bill passed in the Senate, on
September 7th, in the House, and two days later was
signed by President Fillmore. Bidwell immediately
sailed, bearing the glad tidings, arrived in San Fran
cisco from Panama, on the steamer Oregon, on Octo
ber 18, being the first to bring the full news of Cali
fornia's completed statehood.
A Democrat in politics until the Civil War, he spoke
in no uncertain voice at the time of the nation's peril,
and was appointed brigadier general of the California
militia. Mr. Royce claims that " to his intense loyalty,
military alertness and efficiency on the one hand,
coupled with the unrivaled and convincing eloquence
of Rev. Thomas Starr King, is due, more than to any
other individual influences, the decision of California to
remain loyal to the Union, despite the desperate efforts

JOHN BIDWELL 55
of the powerful Southern element led by Gwin, Terry
and others."
In 1892 he was made the candidate of the Prohibition
party for president, and in no measured terms declared
his opinion of the liquor traffic.
He gained more votes for his party than has ever
been known before or since, and even his political
enemies had nothing but kind words to speak for him,
so open, honorable, and fair was his course against
them. His treatment of the Indians found on his ranch
has been at wide variance with that of most landed
proprietors. Not one has ever been ejected, all who
wished to work were given work and paid in food,
clothes and wages. He set apart for them a tract
about half a mile northwest of his own house, aided
them in substituting permanent frame houses for their
own rude and temporary structures, afforded them
constant and efficient protection from the intrusion,
insolence and outrage of lawless whites, and in every
way became a father and friend to them. Their love
and devotion to him and Mrs. Bidwell demonstrate
their appreciation. No other person has ever been
necessary to settle their little or big disputes, and now
that he has " gone " Mrs. Bidwell takes her husband's
full place in their regard and confidences.
At the age of eighty years, after a brave and heroic
life, filled with useful and beneficial labors, General
Bidwell laid down his earthly task, April 3, 1900, and
passed on to his reward.

CHAPTER IX
THE GBEAT - HEARTED HERO OF THE SNOWS,
CHARLES T. STANTON
THE stories of pioneer days are full of acts of in
dividual heroism, each one of which should be
preserved. Some of these undoubtedly have been
forgotten and never will be recorded on earth. Others
have been buried in volumes, the existence of which
is forgotten. This volume is written in the hope that
for generations to come, it, or a better book of like
character, will keep alive the memory of some of these
heroes, until an awakened people erect to them more
substantial and enduring monuments.
Elsewhere is given a brief outline of the history of
the Donner Lake party. When that party met with its
second great disaster in the loss of Mr. Reed's oxen on
the Great Salt Lake Desert, it was then discovered that
their provisions were so low as almost to shut out the
hope that they could reach California without an addi
tional supply. To go back was impracticable, as the
advancing column would be marching further and
further away each day from any aid thus gained. The
road ahead was untraveled and unknown. The dis
tance was largely conjectural, as far as actual travel
was concerned. The hardships were certain, the
dangers unescapable, the risks many. Hostile Indians,

CHARLES T. STANTON 57
wild animals, perils from storms, quicksands, sun
stroke, scarcity of water, cold, heat, loss of way, and
a thousand and one known and imaginable trials all
upreared their unpleasant forms to prevent any thought
ful man from undertaking the mission.
Yet in spite of all the obstacles, known and unknown,
two men volunteered to go on ahead to California,
without money to purchase aid, and by the simple
statement of the needs of the party attempt to secure
from strangers the required help. One of these vol
unteers, William McCutcheon, had a wife and daughter
in the party; the other, Charles T. Stanton, was alone,
and could have had no other motive in seeking relief
for the party than a disinterested one.
It was a solemn occasion when these two men,
each on horseback, with a small quantity of provi
sions, carrying a letter to Captain Sutter, of Sutter's
Fort, in which the sad plight of the party was set
forth, said their farewells and left their companions.
As they were watched until they disappeared from sight,
what emotions stirred in the souls of those left behind.
Naturally every one felt that McCutcheon would re
turn, — his wife and daughter were a sufficient magnet,
— but how about Stanton ? He had no family ties, no
social obligations; nothing but his plighted word, his
honor and his humanity.
Of their trip over the deserts of Utah and Nevada,
and the climb of the Sierras we know practically noth
ing. But we do know that they safely passed through
all dangers, and reached Sutter's Fort. Here Mc
Cutcheon was taken sick, but not before he and Stanton

58 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
had laid the case of the party before the generous-
hearted Sutter and had received his promise of help.
Consequently Stanton was compelled to return alone.
Sutter gave him five mules, laden with flour and dried
beef, and the aid and assistance of two Indians, Lewis
and Salvador, who were to accompany him and return
with the party.
We can imagine the brave man starting joyously
on the return journey. He knew the dangers now,
as he did not before, for he had seen the stern barrier of
the Sierras, had camped on its dangerous slopes, and
had seen how its trails and poor roads would be oblit
erated with one fall of a heavy snow. Yet joy filled his
manly heart, for he was returning to give help, com
fort and succor to the needy.
And how they welcomed him on his arrival! They
were reduced aheady to sad straits. Many were walk
ing, and they were almost out of food. None of them
would ever have survived had he not come so oppor
tunely. The party had reached the Truckee River,
beyond where Reno now stands. Snow had already
fallen on the high summits of the Sierras, and every
thing foreshadowed a severe storm. Stanton urged
the wearied people on. He pointed out their dire
danger, and he made clear to them that if the snow
trapped them on this side of the summit there would
be little or no hope of their escape. But, if they would
push on and reach the summit at once, the descent
into the valleys of California would be comparatively
easy. He knew pretty well that their lives depended
upon following this course.

CHARLES T. STANTON

59

Frantic at the thought of the danger thus made
clear to them, each selfishly strove to do the best he
could for himself, and considerable energy was wasted
in these endeavors. "At last, one day, a determined
and systematic attempt was made to cross the summit.
Nearly the entire train was engaged in the work. The
road, of course, was entirely obliterated by the snow.
Guided only by the general contour of the country,
all hands pressed resolutely forward. Here, large
boulders and irregular, jutting cliffs would intercept
the way; there, dizzy precipices, yawning chasms,
and deep canyons would interpose; and anon, a bold,
impassable mountain of rock would rear its menacing
front directly across their path. All day long the men
and animals floundered through the snow, and at
tempted to break and trample a road. Just before
nightfall they reached the abrupt precipice where the
present wagon-road intercepts the snow-sheds of the
Central Pacific."1
There, wearied and tired, they stopped for a confer
ence. They were thoroughly frightened now. Some
of the party wished to bribe the Indians to go ahead
with them, but Stanton kept them with him. He
wanted them all to make one more desperate at
tempt. Yet when some of the tired ones declared they could
not take another step (and they doubtless believed it was
true, though some of them afterwards showed that they
could have traveled twice as far as they had come that
day) and insisted upon resting all night, he and the
1 " History of the Donner Party," C. F. McGlashan, p. 57.

60 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Indians did not leave them to their fate, but remained
behind to share whatever Fortune had in store for
them. " That night came the dreaded snow. Around the
camp-fires under the trees great feathery flakes came
whirling down. The air was so full of them that one
could see objects only a few feet away. The Indians
knew we were doomed, and one of them wrapped his
blanket around him and stood all night under a tree." **"
Even then, had Stanton and the Indians chosen,
they could have gone on ahead and escaped. He could
have made a good excuse (as many a man's conscience
has allowed him to do for worse things), by pleading
that, as the party would not press forward when he
assured them their lives were in danger, he could not
jeopardize his own life by remaining. But no! he
had come to their relief, and even in their folly he
would stick by them and do the best he could to aid
them. The party now returned to the lake which afterwards
bore the name of " Donner," built cabins, and settled
down to make the best of it until the snow ceased.
" Many attempts were made to cross the mountains,
but all who tried were driven back by the pitiless
storms. Finally a party was organized, since known
as the ' Forlorn Hope.' They made snow-shoes,
and fifteen started, — ten men and five women."
Stanton, dauntless and hopeful, declared: "I will
bring help to these famishing people or lay down my
1 Mrs. Virginia Reed Murphy in The Century Magazine. July,
1891, p. 421.

CHARLES T. STANTON 61
life." The two Indians were of the party, and a
brave-hearted, jovial Irishman, named Patrick Dolan.
Imagine them as they started from that place of
suffering and woe. Snow! snow! snow! everywhere!
They took a supply of provisions that, with the utmost
care, would last them only six days. They had also
matches, a gun, a hatchet and a thin blanket apiece.
They wore snow-shoes which they had made from the
packs brought over by Stanton. That night they
camped within sight of the lake and the cabins they were
leaving. They had traveled only four miles.
" The next day they traveled six miles. They crossed
the summit, and the camp was no longer visible. They
were in the solemn fastnesses of the snow-mantled
Sierras. Lonely, desolate, forsaken apparently by
God and man, their situation was painfully, distressingly
terrible. The snow was wrapped about cliff and forest
and gorge. It varied in depth from twelve to sixty
feet." The third day they walked five miles. It had snowed
during the night.
" Starting almost at dawn, they struggled wearily
through the deep drifts, and when the night shadows
crept over crag and pine and mountain vale, they were
but five miles on their journey. They did not speak
during the day, except when speech was absolutely
necessary. All traveled silently, and with downcast
eyes. The task was beginning to tell upon the frames
of even the strongest and most resolute. The hunger
that continually gnawed at their vitals, the excessive
labor of moving the heavy, clumsy snow-shoes through

62 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
the soft, yielding snow, was too much for human en
durance. They could no longer keep together and
aid each other with words of hope. They struggled
along, sometimes at great distances apart. The fatigue
and dazzling sunlight rendered some of them snow-
blind. One of these was the noble-hearted Stanton.
On this third day he was too blind and weak to keep
up with the rest, and staggered into the camp long
after the others had finished their pitiful supper.
Poor, brave, generous Stanton! He said little, but in
his inner heart he knew that the end of his journey
was close at hand.
"Who was this heroic being who left the beautiful
Valley of the Sacramento to die for strangers? See
him wearily toiling onward during the long hours of
the fourth day. The agony and blindness of his eyes '
wring no cry from his lips, no murmur, no word of
complaint. With patient courage and heroic fortitude
he strives to keep pace with his companions, but finds
it impossible. Early in the morning he drops to the
rear, and is soon lost to sight. At night he drags his
weary limbs into camp long after his comrades are
sleeping 'neath the silent stars. It must be remembered
that they had been accustomed to short allowance of
food for months, while he had been used to having
an abundance. Their bodies had been schooled to
endure famine, privations and long, weary walks. For
many days before reaching the mountains, they had
been used to walking every day, in order to lighten
the burdens of the perishing oxen. Fatigues which
exhausted them crushed Stanton. The weather was

CHARLES T. STANTON 63
clear and pleasant, but the glare of the sun during the
day had been like molten fire to their aching eyes.
" On the morning of the fifth day, Stanton was sitting
smoking by the smouldering fire when the company
resumed its journey. Mary Graves, who had a tender
heart for the suffering of others, went kindly up to
him, and asked him if he were coming. ' Yes,' he re
plied, ' I'm coming soon.' Was he answering her, or
the unseen spirits that even then were beckoning him
to the unknown world? 'Yes, I'm coming soon!'
Those were his last known words. His companions
were too near death's door to return when they found
he came not, and so he perished.
" He was a hero of the highest, noblest, grandest
stamp. No words can ever express a fitting tribute
to his memory. He gave his life for strangers who had
not the slightest claim to the sacrifice. He left the
valleys where friends, happiness and abundance pre
vailed, to perish amid chilling snow drifts — famished
and abandoned. The act of returning to save the
starving emigrants is as full of heroic grandeur as his
death is replete with mournful desolation.
" In May, 1847, W. C. Graves, in company with a
relief party, found his remains near the spot where he
had been left by his companions. Wild animals had
partially devoured his body, but the remains were easily
identified by means of his clothing and pistols." *
1 McGlashan in his "History of the Donner Party."

CHAPTER X
THE MIDNIGHT HEROINE OF THE PLAINS, VIRGINIA
REED
THE story of the Donner Lake party is well known.
The chief facts are that in 1846, while California
was still a foreign country — being then a province
of Mexico — a party of home-seekers left Springfield,
Illinois. The chief organizer of the expedition was
James T. Reed, and two families of the name of Donner
were among the first to join him. Owing to circum
stances that afterwards occurred, the party became
known by their name instead of by Reed's. When they
reached Independence, Missouri, many others joined
them, and a large band of men, women and children
finally left that then frontier town with their faces ear
nestly set towards the Sea of the Setting Sun. When they
reached Fort Bridger they were urged to take a cut-off,
which, it was said, would save them three hundred
miles. A large majority decided to go by the old road,
which they, did, and ultimately reached California with
comparative ease and safety. Eighty-four persons, led
by the Reed and Donner families, took the cut-off and
thereby entangled themselves in great difficulties, and
occupied so much of their time that they were eventually
caught in the snow on the eastern slope of the Sierras.
But before they reached this point, several disasters of

Copyright, 1904, by George Wharton James.
A YUMA INDIAN. DESCENDANT OF ONE OF THOSE WHO GUIDED
JUAN BAUTISTA DE ANZA. Page lt

George Wharton James, Photo.

AN INDIAN CAMP NEAR TUMACACORI.

Page a

VIRGINIA REED 65
great moment occurred. Mr. Reed suffered a great
loss in that, when crazed for want of water in crossing
the Salt Lake Desert, his oxen rushed off beyond con
trol, and were never seen again; and, a couple of weeks
later, while at the sink of the Humbolt, more head of
oxen were stolen from the party by the Indians.
When finally caught in the snow, over forty of the
party perished, and such were the dire straits to which
the survivors were reduced for food, that they were
compelled (all save the Reed family) to partake of the
flesh of their companions who had died. Ultimately
succor came to them, and they were conveyed by
different relief parties to safety and California.
Shortly after crossing the Humbolt River in Nevada,
however, a tragic incident occurred which led to the
act of heroism here related.
The party arrived at a short but sandy hill, and as
the oxen were all wearied it had been the custom at
such places to " double up " teams and one driver
with his oxen help another up the hill, when both teams
would return for the second wagon. A driver named
Snyder, for some unaccountable reason, decided to
go up alone. His oxen could not accomplish it, and
the driver became angry and began to abuse his ani
mals. Mr. Reed, who had been on ahead, seeking out
the best road, happened to return at this juncture,
and in trying to calm the excited man aroused his ire
to a point of frenzy. He jumped upon his wagon tongue
and struck Mr. Reed with the butt end of his whip, ma
king three ugly gashes in his scalp, from which the
blood streamed. Mrs. Reed, with a good woman's

66 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
impulse, rushed in between the two men, and the blow
descended again, but this time upon her devoted head,
cutting it as it had done her husband's. As the crazy
man raised his whip to strike again, Mr. Reed drew
his hunting knife and thrust it into Snyder's side, killing
him almost instantly.
That afternoon the party sentenced Reed to banish
ment, under conditions which can only be deemed
cruel and wicked. He was to go forth into the trackless
desert without food, water, bedding, guns or ammuni
tion, and even without one of his own horses to ride.
At first he refused to obey the sentence, but finally the
pleadings of his wife prevailed, and at her urgent
request a horse was allowed him.
What now follows is a chapter from the story of
Mrs. Virginia Reed Murphy, Mr. Reed's daughter,
who was then a child of twelve years of age.1
Who can conceive the sad loneliness that flooded
the hearts of the forsaken family, as they ate their
scant meal that night in their isolated wagon ? Elliott
and a few of the others were as kind as they could be,
but they saw that it was wise to be as unostentatious
as possible, for awhile at least, in what they did for the
family of the unfortunate Reed. As the darkness of
night came on, Virginia, who had been doing her best
to comfort her heart-broken mother, spoke to her with
calm determination: " Mama, I'm going out to find
my father and take him some food and his gun and
pistols and ammunition." Startled out of her over-
1 " The Story of Virginia Reed Murphy, one of the Donner Party,"
by George Wharton James, soon to be published.

VIRGINIA REED 67
whelming sorrow by the words of her daughter, Mrs.
Reed exclaimed: "What do you mean, child? You
cannot find your father!" But Virginia had fortified
herself on all points. She replied: "I'm not going
alone. I've asked Milt, and he says he'll go with me."
So while her mother lay in silent agony of mind, the
child began to gather together the things she knew her
father needed. The party had already been put on
short provisions, but Virginia found some crackers,
a small piece of bacon, some coffee and sugar. Then
she secured a tin cup or dipper for her father to make
coffee in, and placed his gun, pistols and ammunition
with the food. Now she got a lantern, saw that there
was a piece of candle in it, and then put a number of
matches in her pocket — most of which she intended
to give to her father.
All this had to be done silently and after the other
children were fast asleep, for both mother and child
knew that the feeling was so strong she would not
have been allowed to go had any suspicion of her inten
tion entered the minds of the rest of the party. Milton
had been cautioned by the thoughtful maiden not to
come near their wagon until the whole camp was quiet
and asleep, and then to approach only in the most
stealthy manner.
When everything was ready, Virginia resumed her
place by her suffering mother's side : "How will you
find your father this dark night ? " the latter questioned
in a whisper. " I shall look for his horse's tracks and
follow them," was the instant response. Breathlessly
the two waited for the arrival of Milton. Soon he was

68 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
heard. Then, after a fond but silent farewell and a
heartfelt "God bless you, my brave daughter!" the
mother sank back upon her couch, while the twelve-
year-old girl and her companion started out on what,
to me, was one of the bravest expeditions of all history.
Out into the darkness they creep. Stealthily they
hide themselves in the shadows cast by the wagons
in the flickering light of the dying camp-fire, which
makes them dance and leap like hideous and misshapen
monsters. They cautiously approach the unsuspicious
sentinel, who wearily tramps back and forth, and
hold their breath with anxiety as he suddenly stops,
watches the sleeping camp and peers into the mysteri
ous darkness of the desert. Lying down upon the
ground, they crawl and silently drag their bodies along
until out of his hearing, and then, feeling with their
feet lest they fall into unseen danger, now and again
startled by some sudden noise that suggests to their
excited senses the presence of wild animals or wilder
men, they slowly increase the distance between them
selves and the camp. At last Virginia whispers:
" Stop, Milt. Let us light the lantern! " and, stooping
down, she spreads out her skirts, so that not the slight
est flash of match or beam of light can reach the senti
nel or any other member of the camp. Elliott lights
the lantern, which she then takes in her own hand
and covers with her scant skirts, so that its beams
illuminate only the small circle in which she stands.
Now, carefully looking, she searches eagerly for the
footprints of her father's horse. To and fro, back and
forth, she peers. Though feverishly anxious and ready

VIRGINIA REED 69
to fly on the wings of the lightning, there is no careless
haste in her search. She is thoughtful and deliberate.
She even completely circles the camp in her intelligent
determination to find those tracks. At last her keen
search is rewarded. She starts forward, a half-sob,
half-cry of gratitude and thankfulness escaping from
her lips. She turns to Milton, points to the tracks, and
then eagerly follows them. With all her senses made
keen by agonizing love, she refuses to trust the first
assurances of her vision. Again and again she kneels
and examines the tracks until she is finally convinced
she is right. Then confidently, but with no relaxation
of caution — for an inadvertent flash from the lantern
might bring a death-dealing shot from the rifle of the
sentinel — she follows where they lead, Milton close
behind with the gun and provisions. On and on they
go, — for hours it seems to the impatient child. Mile
after mile the tracks lead. Now they have lost them.
They carefully circle and eagerly search to find them
again. What an agony Virginia suffers in those few
moments !
Listen! Suddenly on the midnight air the wild
and fearful howl of coyotes makes the darkness hideous
and horrible. From the distance comes an even more
appalling and to be dreaded cry — that of the maraud
ing panther, seeking for prey. At that cry it is no fig
ment of the imagination to say that Milton's hair
stands on end. But on they go for a few moments.
Again they halt. With her hand held tightly to her
breast, as if to still the fearful beating of her heart,
Virginia gazes with wild eyes into the darkness, while

7o HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Milton, strong and brave though he is, seems paralyzed
with fear. What has so frightened them ? We cannot
see, but we can conjecture that they have heard a few
sounds that are more weird and sinister than those of the
wild and ferocious desert animals. For they are sug
gestive of human tigers, whose lust for blood they have
aheady had too sad evidence of, — the Indians of
her childish fears. All the terror of the past years of
her life seem to be condensed into the awful power
of one dread moment. Can she possibly go on with
that unspeakable fear clutching at her heart? Child
though she is, she silently calls upon God and summons
Him to help her. She dare not be afraid when her
father is in need and in danger. Is she not going to
minister to him when no one else can ?
Nothing must be allowed to deter her from the
successful accomplishment of this mission. So, forget
ful of her own weariness, steeling her heart to withstand
all fears, and resolutely calming herself when panic
grips her heart-strings at the thought of a possible
horrible death if captured by the Indians, she reso
lutely goes forward. At length her persistence and
bravery are rewarded. She sees in the far-away dis
tance the faintest gleam of light. Her heart leaps up
with joy and she whispers to Milton: " There is papa! "
The next moment the startling thought springs
into being : " What if it is an Indian fire ? " Then
her reason asserts itself. " You are on the track of
your father's horse. Follow that, and it will be all
right, and if — " And then for a moment her heart
stops beating again, for the suggestion enters her mind

VIRGINIA REED

7i

that if — ah if — her father has fallen into the hands
of a band of treacherous Indians, what might not that
fire reveal to her ?
" But, anyhow " — comes the next thought, " it
matters not what I find, I can only know by going
on." So, saying nothing to Milton of the fear that al
most paralyzes her, she steadily marches on. How
slowly they go ! How far away the light is! Will they
never reach it ? It seems as if the more they walk the
farther away it gets, until, glad moment, in its dim
rays the eyes of discerning love at last recognizes the
the beloved form, and with a cry of almost maternal
yearning Virginia sobs out: " Oh, papa, my papa,"
and the next moment is convulsively clutched to the
heart of the despairing father.
" My child, my Virginia, you should not have come
here," he cries, when the first transport of happy sur
prise is over.
" I've brought you some food, and your gun, and
a blanket, and a little coffee and some crackers. And
here's a tin cup, too, father, and your pistols and some
powder and caps. Oh, and here are some matches! "
replies the little maiden, laughing and crying in her
joy, as, one by one, she spreads the articles out on
her wondering father's knees.
" Is this a dream ? or is it an angel visitation sent
from God ? " breathlessly queries Mr. Reed. But
Virginia soon convinces him of her personal presence,
and as he takes the gun and other things she has
brought, he resolves with a new and deeper resolve
than ever, that, God helping him, he will hurry on to

72 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
California, and secure for his brave little daughter,
with her sister and baby brothers and their loved
mother, the help and succor they need.
Then his arms enfolding her to his heart, with
Milton near by, all three sit and cry, until, their emotion
subsiding, they talk of the mother, back in camp, and
of Patty and James, and the baby. Two or three hours
thus speedily pass, until the first sentinels of dawn
silently make their presence known. Then the fond
father sadly arises and bids his daughter say good-by
and go back to her mother.
" Go back ? " she cries, as if the idea were ridiculous:
" I'm not going back, father; I'm going with you.
Milt will go back, but I'm going on with you. Oh,
papa, papa, don't send me back, for I cannot bear to
see those cruel men. Let me go with you! "
" You know, Virginia darling, I want you badly
enough, but it cannot be. Don't make it harder for
me than it is by trying to go with me." And then, he
gently unfolds the arms that convulsively cling to him,
and kissing her again and again, he places her in Elliott's
arms, with the words: " Here, Milt, take her back to
her mother." The next moment, gathering up the
precious articles she has brought to him — articles
ten fold more precious because of that fact — he
mounts his steed and rides out into the solitude of the
western desert.

CHAPTER XI
THE GENEROUS HEROES OF DEATH VALLEY, MANLY
AND ROGERS
THE heroism of Manly and Rogers is on a par
with that of Stanton, whose story has aheady
been told. The horrors of Death Valley, and how it
came by its name are told in the next chapter.
In studying the history of the pioneers of the State
of California, one cannot help being impressed by the
stories of unconscious heroism that, in the most simple
and ingenuous way, have been recorded by their
unpractised authors. It cannot be denied that there
are few pioneer stories that can stand the test of aca
demic criticism. Few of them are grammatically con
structed, and they nearly all reveal ignorance of the
science of rhetoric. Poorly written, wretchedly punctu
ated, badly constructed, they yet contain epics as
thrilling as those of Homer, recitals as dramatic as
those of Caesar, adventures as startling as those
of Marco Polo, achievements as brave as those of
Napoleon. But the world, for many centuries, has
been led to believe that heroes are military men, that
great achievements are only to be looked for from men
wearing a uniform, and that the acts that thrill the
soul are generally to be expected during the physical
conflicts called war. We have been blinded to the

74 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
achievements of real bravery and true heroism by
the glare of the false, the meretricious, the sensational.
The time has come when men will see more clearly,
understand more fully, and when actions will more
nearly be relegated to their proper altitude in the
esteem of the race. Hence we are beginning more and
more to take notice of the deeds of such men as those
whose names head this chapter, the story of whose
heroism is told by one of the participants in his record
of Death Valley, ¦* with the simple ingenuousness of a
child. Of the early experiences of the Death Valley party
space forbids more than the barest mention. It was
one of those combination parties that met at Salt
Lake City, and, as in the case of the Donner party,
they were induced to take a " cut-off " that led them
into woeful trouble. After numerous adventures
and hardships, they arrived near the eastern side of
what is now known as Death Valley. There were
seven wagons in the party. The oxen were so exhausted
and poor that they could travel no further, and it was
decided that the party must return a little distance to
where there was a good spring and wait while some
one went ahead and explored a road to the nearest
California settlements and brought back relief.
Manly himself and a strong, burly Tennessean
finally volunteered for the service. An ox that had
nearly " given out " was slain to provide food for the
two, and the condition of the poor creature can be
understood when it is told that seven-eighths of its
1 "Death Valley in '49," W. L. Manly.

MANLY AND ROGERS 75
flesh, dried, was packed into the knapsacks of the two
men. Manly writes:
" I consented, though I knew it was a hazardous
journey, exposed to all sorts of things, Indians, climate
and probably lack of water, but I thought I could do it."
They journeyed over the valley, crossed the range,
following in the track of a party that had gone on ahead.
In two or three days they came upon the dead body
of one of them, who had died in a rocky place where
it was impossible to make a grave. Soon they caught
up with this party, who were already growing despond
ent, as another member had died. Then, pushing on
ahead, the two went on their errand, and, in due time,
reached the San Fernando Valley over the Soledad
Pass, where peace and plenty abounded. Here they
met with a man named French, who took them to the
San Fernando Mission, where they were kindly treated,
and provided with two horses, provisions, pack-saddles
and ropes, and shown how to pack their animals
properly. Then Manly bought a little, one-eyed mule,
and Rogers purchased a horse, ¦ — a snow-white mare.
At once they started on their way back. At first
it was easy; then they came to the desert over which
they had crossed before with so much difficulty, and
finally to a range of mountains on the other side of
which they knew their comrades were anxiously await
ing them. They had aheady been longer than the
time appointed, and were they to go the route they
had come — around the range to the north — they
would occupy several days longer. So they decided
to cross the range. Their pack and saddle-horses

76 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
were now almost exhausted, and only the little mule
seemed able to pick up enough scant living to keep
up his strength. At last they came to a place where
they were compelled to leave the horses and go on,
the mule being able to go where the horses could not
follow. Here let Manly tell the story:
" We removed the saddles and placed them on a
rock, and after a few moments' hesitation, — mo
ments in which were crowded torrents of wild ideas
and desperate thoughts that were enough to drive
Reason from her throne, we left the poor animals to
their fate and moved along. Just as we were passing
out of sight the poor creatures neighed pitifully after
us, and one who has never heard the last despairing,
pleading neigh of a horse left to die can form no idea of
its almost human appeal. We both burst into tears, but
it was no use, — to try to save them we must run the
danger of sacrificing ourselves and the little party
we were trying so hard to save.
" We found the little mule stopped by a still higher
precipice or perpendicular rise of fully ten feet. Our
hearts sank within us and we said that we should
return to our friends as we went away, with our knap
sacks on our backs, and the hope grew very small. The
little mule was nipping some stray blades of grass, and
as we came in sight she looked around to us and then
up the steep rocks before her with such a knowing,
intelligent look of confidence, that it gave us new cour
age. It was a strange wild place. The north wall of
the canyon leaned far over the channel, overhanging
considerably, while the south wall sloped back about

MANLY AND ROGERS 77
the same, making the wall nearly parallel, and like a
huge crevice descending into the mountain from above in
a sloping direction. We decided to try to get the con
fident little mule over this obstruction. Gathering
all the loose rocks we could, we piled them up against
the south wall, beginning some distance below, putting
up all those in the bed of the stream and throwing
down others from narrow shelves above; we built a
sort of inclined plane along the walls, gradually rising till
we were nearly as high as the crest of the fall. Here was
a narrow shelf scarcely four inches wide and a space
of from twelve to fifteen feet to cross to reach the level
of the crest. It was all I could do to cross this space,
and there was no foundation to enable us to widen it
so as to make a path for an animal. It was a forlorn
hope but we made the most of it. We unpacked the
mule, and getting all our ropes together, made a leading
line of them. Then we loosened and threw down all the
projecting points of rocks we could above the narrow
shelf, and every piece that was likely to come loose
in the shelf itself. We fastened the leading line to
her, and with one above and one below we thought
we could help her to keep her balance, and if she
did not make a misstep on that narrow way she
might get over safely. Without a moment's hesi
tation the brave animal tried the pass. Carefully
and steadily she went along, selecting a place before
putting down a foot, and when she came to the
narrow ledge leaned gently on the rope, never making
a sudden start or jump, but cautiously as a cat moved
slowly along. There was now no turning back for her.

78 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
She must cross this narrow place over which I had
to creep on hands and knees, or be dashed down fifty
feet to a certain death. When the worst place was
reached she stopped and hesitated, lookmg back as well
as she could. I was ahead with the rope, and I called
encouragingly to her and talked to her a little. Rogers
wanted to get ready and he said, ' holler ' at her as
loud as he could and frighten her across, but I thought
the best way was to talk to her gently and let her
move steadily.
" It was a trying moment. It seemed to be weighed
down with all the trials and hardships of many months.
It seemed to be the time when helpless women and
innocent children hung on the trembling balance be
tween life and death. Our own lives we could save by
going back, and sometimes it seemed as ij we would save
ourselves the additional sorrow oj finding them all dead
to do so at once. I was so nearly in despair that I could
not help bursting into tears, and I was not ashamed
of the weakness."
I would have my readers note carefully the words
italicized, for the italics are mine, not Manly's. Here
is a clear evidence of the presence of the temptation
to go back and abandon the attempt at relief, and even
the specious argument with which it was forced upon
his attention, as well as a candid and frank recognition
of the desire to yield to the temptation, — " and some
times it seemed as if we would perhaps save ourselves
the additional sorrow of finding them all dead to
return at once." Yet the brave fellows manfully faced
death for themselves and went on.

MANLY AND ROGERS 79
To resume Manly's story:
" Finally Rogers said, ' Come, Lewis! ' and I gently
pulled the rope, calling the little animal to make a trial.
She smelled all around and looked over every inch of
the strong ledge, then took one careful step after an
other over the dangerous place. Looking back, I saw
Rogers with a very large stone in his hand, ready to
' holler ' and perhaps kill the poor beast if she stopped.
But she crept along, trusting to the rope for balance, till
she was half way across, then another step or two, when,
calculating the distance closely, she made a spring
and landed on a smooth bit of sloping rock below,
that led up to the highest crest of the precipice, and
safely climbed to the top, safe and sound above the
fall." What a picture ! Some day I hope one of California's
artists will paint it, so that a copy may be placed in
every school in the State, as a reminder of the golden-
hearted heroism of the men and the courage of the
brave little mule.
As they neared the camp, they came upon the dead
body of one of the men they had left when they started
on their California journey, so it was with some trepida
tion that they finally reached the wagons. There they
found that several members of the party had grown
impatient and had determined to go on ahead, some
of them declaring that " If those boys (Manly and
Rogers) ever get out of this cussed hole, they will be
'tarnal fools if they ever come back to help anybody."
But they had kept their pledges, and had brought new
life and hope to the almost discouraged ones, so that

80 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
now they were ready once again to endure the hard
ships that were before them, and to journey on to
the California of their desire.
The story of that journey is fascinating to the reader,
though arduous and heart-breaking to those who made
it, but we have space- here for pictures of two only
of their experiences. As the horses were unable to
get through, arrangements were made to carry the
women and children on the oxen. Let Manly tell
the story of their plans :
" They had selected two oxen for the women to ride,
one to carry water, and one to carry the four children.
There were no saddles, but blankets enough to make a
soft seat, and they proposed to put a band or belt
around the animals for the riders to hold on by, and
the blankets would be retained in place by breast
and breeching straps which had been made. They
had found out that it was very difficult to keep a load
of any kind upon an ox, and had devised all this harness
to meet the trouble."
To carry the smaller children a kind of " pannier,"
had been made by taking two strong shirts, turning the
sleeves inside, sewing up the necks, and then sewing
the two tails together. When this was placed across
the ox a pocket was formed on each side large enough
to carry a small child. It took them some time to
select from their wagons what they should take, and
what leave.
" Mrs. Arcane was from a city and had fondly con
veyed thus far some articles of finery, of considerable
value and much prized. She could not be persuaded

Copyriglrt, 1905, by George Wharton James.
THE MISSION OF TUMACACORI, FROM WHICH PLACE DE ANZA MARCHED TO THE FOUND
ING OF SAN FRANCISCO. Page tt

Copyright, 1904, by George Wharton James.
A MOHAVE MOTHER AND CHILD. Page S4

Copyright, 1904, by George Wharton James.
YUMA INDIAN WATER CARRIER. Page 86

MANLY AND ROGERS 81
to leave them here to deck the red man's wife, and
have her go flirting over the mountains with, and as
they had little weight she concluded she would wear
them and this would perhaps preserve them. So
she got out her best hat and trimmed it up with extra
ribbon, leaving some with quite long ends to stream
out behind. Arcane brought up his ox, Old Brigham,
for he had been purchased at Salt Lake and named in
honor of the great Mormon Saint.
" Mrs. Arcane also dressed her little boy Charlie
in his best suit of clothes, for she thought he might
as well wear them out as to throw them away.
She made one think of a fairy in gay and flying ap
parel. In the same way all selected their best and most
serviceable garments, for it was not considered prudent
to carry any load, and poor clothes were good enough
to leave for Indians. . . . High overhead was the sun,
and very warm indeed on that day in the fore part of
February, 1850, when the two children were put on Old
Crump to see if he would let them ride. The two small
children were placed in the pockets on each side,
face outward, and they could stand or sit as they should
choose. George and Melissa were placed on top, and
given hold of the strap that was to steady them in
their place. I now led up Mrs. Bennett's ox, and
Mr. Bennett helped his wife to mount the animal, on
whose back as soft a seat as possible had been con
structed. Mrs. Arcane, in her ribbons, was now helped
to her seat on the back of Old Brigham, and she care
fully adjusted herself to position, and arranged her
dress and ornaments to suit, then took hold of the

82 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
strap that served to hold on by as there were no bridles
on these two.
" Rogers led the march with his ox ; Bennett and I
started the others along, and Arcane followed with
Old Crump and the children. Bennett and Arcane
took off their hats and bade the old camp good-by.
The whole procession moved, and we were once more
going towards our journey's end, we hoped. The road
was sandy and soft, the grade practically level, and
everything went well for about four miles, when the
pack on one of the oxen near the lead got loose and
turned over to one side, which he no sooner saw thus out
of position, than he tried to get away from it by moving
side-wise. Not getting clear of the objectionable load in
this way, he tried to kick it off, and thus really got
his foot in it, making matters worse instead of better.
Then he began a regular waltz and bawled at the top
of his voice in terror. Rogers tried to catch him, but
his own animal was so frisky that he could not hold
him and do much else, and the spirit of fear soon
began to be communicated to the others and the
whole train seemed to be taken crazy.
" They would jump up, and then come down, stick
ing their fore feet as far as possible into the sand, after
which, with elevated tails, and terrible plunges, they
would kick and thrash and run until the pack came off,
when they stopped, apparently quite satisfied.
" Mrs. Bennett slipped off her ox as quick as she
could, grabbed her baby from the pocket on Old
Crump, and shouting to Melissa and George to jump,
got her family in safe position in pretty short order.

MANLY AND ROGERS 83
Arcane took his Charlie from the other pocket and
laid him on the ground, while he devoted his own atten
tion to the animals. Mrs. Arcane's ox followed suit,
and waltzed around in the sand, bawled at every turn
fully as bad as any of the others, but Mrs. Arcane
proved to be a good rider, and hard to unseat, cling
ing desperately to her strap as she was tossed up and
down, and whirled about at a rate enough to make any
one dizzy. Her many fine ribbons flew out behind
like the streamers from a mast-head, and the many
fancy ' fixins ' she had donned fluttered in the air in
gayest mockery. Eventually she was thrown however,
but without the least injury to herself, but somewhat
disordered in raiment. When I saw Bennett he was
half bent over laughing in almost hysterical convulsions
at the entirely impromptu circus which had so suddenly
performed an act not on the program. Arcane was
much pleased and laughed heartily when he saw no
one was hurt. We did not think the cattle had so much
life and so little sense as to waste their energies so
uselessly. The little mule stepped out one side and
looked on in amazement, without disarranging any
article of her load." '
Thus tragedy and comedy elbowed each other on
this wonderful journey. The little party soon got
over their excitement, and in due time reached the
place where Manly and Rogers had left the two
horses. It was with much trepidation they approached
this precipice, and a halt was made to enable a careful
examination to be made. They finally decided to
attempt it. Says Manly:

84 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
" We men all went down to the foot of the fall, and
threw out all the large rocks, then piled up all the sand
we could scrape together with the shovel, till we had
quite a pile that would tend to break the fall.
" Early in the morning we took our soup hastily, and
with ropes lowered our luggage over the small preci
pice, then the children, and finally all the ropes were
combined to make a single strong one about thirty feet
long. They urged one of the oxen up to the edge of the
fall, put the rope around his horns, and threw down
the end to me, whom they had stationed below. I was
told to pull hard when he started so that he might not
light on his head and break his neck. We felt this
was a desperate undertaking, and we fully expected
to lose some of our animals, but our case was critical
and we must take some chances. Bennett stood on one
side of the ox, and Arcane on the other, while big
Rogers was placed in the rear to give a regular Tennes
see boost when the word was given. ' Now for it,' said
Bennett, and as I braced on the rope those above gave
a push and the ox came over, sprawling, but landed
safely, cut only a little by some angular stones in the
sand pile. ' Good enough,' said some one, and I threw
the rope back for another ox. ' We'll get 'em all over
safely,' said Arcane, ' if Lewis, down there, will keep
them from getting their necks broken.' Lewis pulled
hard every time, and not a neck was broken. The sand
pile was renewed every time and made as high and
soft as possible, and very soon all our animals were
below the fall. The little mule gave a jump when they
pushed her, and lighted squarely on her feet all right.

MANLY AND ROGERS 85
With the exception of one or two slight cuts, which
bled some, the oxen were all right and we began loading
them at once.
" Bennett and Arcane assisted their wives down along
the little narrow ledge which we used in getting up,
keeping their faces towards the rocky wall, and feeling
carefully for every footstep. Thus they worked along
and landed safely by the time we had the animals
ready for the march. We had passed without disaster
the obstacle we most feared, and started down the
rough canyon with hope revived, and we felt we should
get through. After winding around among the great
boulders for a little while, we came to the two horses
we had left behind, both dead and near together.
We pointed to the carcasses, and told them those were
the horses we brought for the women to ride, and that is
the way they were cheated out of their passage. The
bodies of the animals had not been touched by bird or
beast." While they still had an arduous and weary journey
ahead of them, the worst of it was over, and they
reached Los Angeles in safety and happiness, there to
again scatter and mingle with the life of the new State,
and become a part of its future activities.

CHAPTER XII
THE UNKNOWN HEROES OF DEATH VALLEY «
IN the story of the Donner party, the horrors of
snow and cold were revealed, in that out of the more
than eighty people who camped there, but forty es
caped and reached the promised land of California.
Manly and his party crossed Death Valley, and
various members of his and preceding parties perished,
but they were blessed in the fact that the winter, which
brought cold and snow to the Donner party in the
north, made their passage over the desert possible.
For, in summer, only the most heat-hardened and
experienced may dare attempt to cross Death Valley.
It is known, however, that another party endeavored
to accomplish this impossible journey in the heat of
summer, and were caught in its merciless furnace so
that not a single person escaped to tell the sad tale.
Robert E. Rinehart, in the Los Angeles Times for
Sunday, August 16, 1908, gives a graphic description,
from which the following account is taken.
" Three errors of judgment furnished Death Valley
with the party that gave it its name. The lost wagon-
train attempted to cross the desert and the valley in
the height of summer.
" Reaching the valley, the emigrants, ignorant of
the preternatural dryness of the spot in summer,

HEROES OF DEATH VALLEY 87
entered the hot hollow with only an ordinary supply of
water; and last and most fatal of all, instead of going
south as the Jayhawkers had done, they went north.
Yet their mistakes, outside the ill-chosen summer, were
excusable. In truth their mistakes would normally
have occurred to any party in the same position. The
two serious errors had a large element of bad luck, a sort
of Nemesis. The party was doomed.
" But who were the members of this wretched party?
Whence did they come? What friends and relatives
had they abandoned in the East at the lure of California
gold? " These are unanswered questions. A few names,
alleged victims of this party, have been preserved by
Death Valley tradition; but who can say tradition
has been accurate? It has run riot with the number
of victims. Sometimes the death toll is thirty; again
it is thirteen. Indeed, little is known about the doomed
wagon-train beyond its wretched climb of the Funeral
Range, its pitiful, plucky progress down Furnace Creek
Canyon, its dreadful death march up the furnace-like
valley and the horror of the end up among the desolate
sand dunes of Death Valley. Overland history, bitter
as it is with desert hardship and suffering, has no equal
to this last chapter of the death party that named Death
Valley. " Uncertainty shrouds the early movements of the
ill-fated wagon-train. It probably set out from Salt
Lake City some time in the early summer of 1850.
Manifestly it was ill-advised and under poor guidance
or it would never have attempted the southern trail

88 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
at that time of year. To all appearances no seasoned
desert man was with it. But it had courage. This
courage and its desert ignorance carried it far in face
of great hardship and handicap — carried it to Death
Valley and death.
" Vague as was the early travel of these emigrants,
their later trail is plain. In the great heat of the
summer they reached Ash Meadows and the Amargossa
Wash. Probably they had been drawn from the regu
lar trail by the wheel marks of the Jayhawkers and their
followers. At Ash Meadows they found plenty of
water, and in good condition and good spirits, still
following the Jayhawker wagon ruts, set out for the
divide over the Funeral Range clearly apparent ahead
on the western horizon.
" During this trip began their distress. The journey
to the summit proved longer and steeper than it looked.
The rough trail taxed the oxen cruelly, plodding along
with the great lumbering wagons. The midsummer
desert sun blazed hotter with every pull. It was a
good forty-mile drag uphill. The last half was a bitter
trail. " Here the doomed emigrants began to write their
tragedy on the desert floor. The oxen from sheer
exhaustion could not draw the heavy wagons. To
lessen the loads, household articles were cast along the
trail. Women as well as men walked beside the wagons.
" In a deplorable state the party reached the summit
from which the trail leading downward gave an easier
way. But it had been on short water supply for many
an hour, because since leaving Ash Meadows no water

HEROES OF DEATH VALLEY 89
was to be had. Water-famished, the emigrants toiled
down Furnace Creek Wash. To add to their trials a
band of Indians waylaid them at a bend in the wash
and killed a number of their oxen. The emigrants
beat off their assailants and plodded on down the
trail, arriving finally at Furnace Creek Canyon; and
at last, none too soon, at the rippling, rushing little
Furnace Creek. The water was very hot, but it was
good spring water and good Samaritan water to the
distressed wagon-train.
" That the party stopped a few days at Furnace
Creek to recuperate is certain. From its scouts it
learned that the canyon opened into a valley white-hot.
It must have appreciated that the worst lay ahead, for
which was needed every ounce of strength and forti
tude. It could not go back. It had to go forward into
the unforbidding unknown. So one morning it stood
at the Furnace Creek Canyon gateway and gazed out
into the bowl-like Death Valley, red, fiery-red around
the rim; white, withering- white at the bottom's dip.
" The emigrants had the choice of the south or the
north, safety or death. No Jayhawkers' wagon ruts
were there to mark the way to the south and safety.
That trail had been buried beneath the rocky spew
flushed down Furnace Creek Canyon by the spring and
summer cloudbursts. To the south lay the long length
of the valley, with its glaring, ominous salt marsh.
Banked on the other side was a seemingly unsurmount-
able mountain range. To the north, around the rim
of the valley, ran what seemed level ground for the
wagons. True, far up in the north the hollow ended

90 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
with an embankment of buttes. This was more or less
discouraging, but beyond them the barricading
mountain range appeared to break and give a passage
out to the west. Moreover, the north way avoided the
salt marsh. This way promised release. They chose
the north, and death.
" Appreciating the long burning road ahead, the
emigrants filled every available keg, bucket, camp pot
and kettle with water from Furnace Creek. They
feared that water might run low in the toil up the valley.
They reasoned that perhaps that water supply might
have to hold over until the next day. With such a gen
erous store of it, however, they were more than hopeful
of withstanding even the thirst attacks of two days.
They reasoned well, for how could they know the
deadly, sinister character of that deep hot hollow
ahead ?
" To understand the torture of that last day's travel,
the unlooked-for vanishing of that generous supply
of water, and the mysterious exhaustion of man and
beast, one must know Death Valley in summer. One
must know that this furnace spot, the lowest dry land
in the western hemisphere, perhaps in the world, is
also the most arid. The hot, withering desert winds,
dry as an oven blast, blow into the south entrance
of the valley and sweep northward as up a chimney.
They blow over the surface of the sizzling salt marsh.
These winds, aheady low in moisture, as they slip
over the griddle-like marsh, are roasted. By the time
they reach the north end of the valley they are destitute
of moisture as a cinder. It is asserted that in August

HEROES OF DEATH VALLEY 91
the air at the north end of Death Valley has less than
five per cent, humidity. When one considers that
seventy per cent, humidity is pleasantly normal, the
terrible strain of Death's Valley's* five per cent, humidity
can be rated for all its evil. A pedestrian cannot walk
half a mile through this blasting atmosphere without
several generous draughts of water. Desert nomads,
seasoned desert travelers — for no others venture
on a Death Valley tramp in summer — have drunk a
gallon of water in going two miles. The arid air when
drawn into the lungs fairly licks the moisture from the
body's tissues.
" Picture, then, the anguish of the day and night
after the band of doomed emigrants set out from the
mouth of Furnace Creek Canyon on their death march
around the northeast segment of Death Valley. Along
the broiling rocky floor the tired oxen, stumbling,
dragged the wobbly wagons. Men and women in
anguish tramped a trail so blistering that in these days
a desert man wraps his feet in moistened sacks before
he trusts himself to the same scorching way. The evil
sun poured down its heat rays upon the travelers and
shriveled their very skin. The withering desert air,
breathed into their lungs, inflamed their tissues. Mental
and bodily lassitude seized them. In helpless horror
they saw their water store dwindling before the unre-
strainable call of man and beast. Yet, driven by
despair, that death party pushed on more than twenty-
five miles through sun and sand, and at night camped
beyond the North Buttes among the sand dunes. They
reached their journey's objective point as planned in

92 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
the morning, and found ahead of them the divide
through the Panamints. To this day they call the place
Emigrants' Pass. But the emigrants never passed
over it.
" Wonderful was the persistent pluck of that doomed
party. With an order worthy of bright promise rather
than impending destruction, the men made their last
camp. Wagons were backed into the regulation circle,
their tongues pointing outward, and chains and ox-
yokes laid out in approved overland fashion. The
cattle were turned loose to rustle. Camp fires were lit,
built from the scant desert fuel. Supper was cooked
and eaten, but it was a supper without water, for the
supply was practically gone, and near the camp were
no signs of water. Then all lay down in the mystery
of the desert darkness.
" In the gamut of desert hardship there is no horror
such as the horror of a camp without water. Horses
whine pitifully, and cattle bawl hoarsely in their efforts
to make known the unspeakable thirst torture they do
not understand. Fantasy plays with the restless nerves
and minds of men and women, and drives them to
delirium. Thirst-maddened, men and women shriek
for water. On that dreadful night Death Valley's
christening party drank the bitterest cup of human woe.
" Wretched as was the night, the dawn that broke
on the luckless camp was worse. Madness, thirst
madness, had set in. Men and women in frenzy fled
the camp, and scattered at random over the trackless
sand waste in search of water. Some too weak to leave
the wagons, abandoned by their fellows, perished

HEROES OF DEATH VALLEY 93
miserably in camp. Bookish altruism had vanished
with the water. Fugitives flying in vain, a foe within
them, scoured the sun-scorched sand of Lost Valley.
The strongest reached the canyons of the Panamint
Mountains, and found water, only to die of starvation
in the valleys and mountains beyond. Others, crazed,
came to the bitter ripples of Salt Creek and in their
delirium gulped down the brackish, poisonous water.
They died beside the stream. Lone wanderers, lost
among the sand dunes, dropped in their steps and
passed over the Great Divide. All round the sombre
site of that last camp were strewn the shining skeletons
of man and beast — skeletons, for the watchful coyotes
saw to that."

CHAPTER XIII
THE WATCHFUL HERO SCOUTS, CARSON AND BEALE
THERE are few more vivid pictures of the diffi
culties experienced in reaching California in the
early days than some of those published in the United
States government reports, of Lieutenant-Colonels W.
H. Emory and P. St. George Cooke, and Captain A. R.
Johnston, who marched from Santa F£, via the Colo
rado Desert, as part of Kearny's Army of the West.
With the earlier part of that journey we have nothing
to do, except to state that, on the sixth of October, 1846,
they met Kit Carson, the noted scout, who, with fifteen
men, was on his way to Washington, bearing despatches
from Colonel Fremont in California.
Knowing Carson's ability as a guide and scout,
General Kearny prevailed upon him to allow the
despatches to be sent on by another messenger, in
order that he might return with the invading army,
which he accordingly did.
As they came down the Gila River, and neared the
Colorado, they discovered a band of five hundred
horses being taken to Mexico, which they captured.
Colonel Emory gives an interesting account of the
way the native Californians handle these horses. " The
captured horses were all wild and but little adapted
for immediate service, but there was rare sport in

CARSON AND BEALE 95
catching them, and we saw for the first time the lasso
thrown with inimitable skill. It is a saying in Chi
huahua that ' a Cafifornian can throw the lasso as well
with his foot as a Mexican can with his hand,' and
the scene before us gave us an idea of its truth. There
was a wild stallion of great beauty which defied the
fleetest horse and the most expert rider. At length a
boy of fourteen, a Cafifornian, whose graceful riding
was the constant subject of admiration, piqued by
repeated failures, mounted a fresh horse, and, followed
by an Indian, launched fiercely at the stallion. His
riala darted from his hand with the force and precision
of a rifle ball, and rested on the neck of the fugitive;
the Indian, at the same moment, made a successful
throw, but the stallion was too stout for both, and
dashed off at full speed, with both ropes flying in the
air like wings. The perfect representation of Pegasus,
he took a sweep, and, followed by his pursuers, came
thundering down the dry bed of the river. The lassos
were now trailing on the ground, and the gallant young
Spaniard, taking advantage of this circumstance,
stooped from his flying horse, and caught one in his
hand. It was the work of a moment to make it fast
to the pommel of his saddle, and, by a short turn of
his own horse, he threw the stallion a complete somer
sault, and the game was secure."
Less than two weeks later, more mules and horses
were captured, but, like those captured near the
mouth of the Gila River, they were mostly unbroken,
and not of much service. On the fifth of December,
1846, they met Captain Gillespie, Lieutenant Beale

96 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
and thirty-five men, sent from San Diego with a des
patch to General Kearny, and the following day, at
San Pasqual, they had an engagement with the Cali-
fornians, in which eighteen officers and men were
killed, and thirteen wounded.
In the Life of Carson, written by Lieutenant-Colonel
Dewitt C. Peters, there is a full account of this disas
trous struggle and the specific actions that induced me
to give to Carson and Beale a chapter in this California
Hero Book. Let me quote: " After being thus badly
cut up, and with not more than one or two officers
left who had not been wounded, while the men had
been handled with equal severity, the Americans were
obliged to take refuge at a point of rocks which chanced
to be near where their advance had been defeated. A
rally was made at this place. The Mexicans, however,
did not venture to attack them. Both sides were ap
parently weary of fighting for that day. The firing
ceased, and, soon after, night closed over the scene
of the battle-field.
" General Kearny's care now was to attend to the
wounded. There was no rest for his command that
night, as, during the hours of darkness, his men were
busy interring their dead and looking after the wants of
the sufferers. A sharp lookout, also, was kept on
the movements of the enemy, who were continually re
ceiving reinforcements. A council of war was held
in the American camp, when General Kearny, after
taking the advice of his remaining officers, decided to
move on early in the morning, with the hope of meeting
reinforcements. He had despatched three men as

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CARSON AND BEALE 97
bearers of despatches to Commodore Stockton at San
Diego before the battle; but, whether they had been
successful or not in reaching the commodore, the
general did not know. Just before the late fight, they
had returned to within sight of their friends, when they
were taken prisoners by the Mexicans.
" The order of the march on the following day was
as follows: Kit Carson, with a command of twenty-five
men, proceeded in the advance, while the remainder of
the now very much crippled band of soldiers followed
after on the trail made by their guide. Steadily and
compactly these brave men moved forward, being
continually in expectancy of a charge from the enemy,
who would show themselves, from time to time, on the
neighboring hills, and then again, for a time, disap
pear. " During the previous day, a Mexican lieutenant
had his horse shot from under him, and he himself
had been taken prisoner. On a favorable opportunity
occurring, General Kearny ordered the ' halt ' to be
sounded, when, through a flag of truce, he asked a
parley. It being granted, he succeeded in making
an exchange of the lieutenant for one of his des
patch-bearers. He gained nothing by this, for the
man stated that he and his companions had found it
impossible to reach their point of destination, and
hence they had turned back.
" The manoeuvring on the part of the Mexicans,
which we have alluded to as consisting of making
temporary stands on the hills, and then changing
their positions as the Americans drew near to them,

98 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
continued for the greater part of the day. Finally,
as General Kearny and his men were approaching
the water, where they intended to camp, and were not
over five hundred yards from it, down came the Mexi
cans, divided into two separate commands, for the
purpose of making a charge. They were at first
warmly received by the Americans, who, after a time,
were obliged to give way to superior numbers; but,
in doing so, they retreated in good order to a hill about
two hundred yards to their left. Here they halted,
and determined to decide the battle; but the wary
Mexicans, on seeing the strength of the position taken
by their foes, declined to attack them, and drew off
to a neighboring height, from which they commenced
and maintained a deadly fire on the Americans. Cap
tains Emory and Turner, with all the available dragoons,
were sent to dislodge them. This they did in splendid
style, after a sharp encounter, and, when their com
panions saw them take possession of this position,
General Kearny, with all his wounded and luggage-
trains, joined them there. Here a permanent resting-
place, for the time being, was made. In fact, the men
had no other choice, as they were now pretty effec
tually used up from fighting, severe loss, and fatigue.
The Americans found on this hill water barely suffi
cient for their own use, and were obliged to exclude
the idea of sharing it with their animals. Although
within sight of abundance of this much-needed article,
yet they did not dare to drive the latter to it, for they
were too weak to defend them from the assaults of
the enemy.

CARSON AND BEALE 99
" The situation of General Kearny's force was
now critical in the extreme, as, besides the dangers
that surrounded him, the men were reduced to living
on their mules. That afternoon, another council of
war was called, at which desperate efforts to be made
for immediate relief were discussed. When every
spark of hope had almost died within* them, and when
they were in a dilemma as to what still remained for
them to do, Kit Carson . . . arose and said he was willing
to make the attempt of creeping through the Mexican
lines. Should he succeed, he pledged his word that
he would carry information to Commodore Stockton
at San Diego, and thus bring them succor. No sooner
had he made this proposition than he was seconded by
Lieutenant Beale, then of the United States Navy,
who, equally as brave and daring as Carson, volun
teered his services in the undertaking.

" General Kearny at once accepted the noble and
generous offers of these two men, knowing that if he
waited until the following day and then attempted to
leave the hill, the consequences would be most dis
astrous; for, in so doing, a sanguinary battle must
certainly ensue, with the chances greatly against him.
Having made the few preparations necessary, Kit
Carson and Lieutenant Beale waited the setting in of
night, under the cover of which they had both resolved
to succeed in the performance of their mission or die
in the attempt. Having got well under way, and while
stealthily crawling over the rocks and brush, they found

ioo HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
their shoes would often, even with the greatest prevent
ative care being taken, strike against the various im
pediments to their progress and make sounds which
might lead to their detection. To avoid this they took
them off and pushed them under their belts. Slowly,
but surely, they evaded the vigilant guard of the Mexi
can sentinels, whom they found to be mounted and three
rows deep, evidently being determined not to be eluded.
So near would they often come to these Mexican
sentinels, that but a few yards would measure the
distance between them and their enemies, yet,' with
brave hearts, they crept along over the ground foot by
foot; they were almost safe beyond these barriers,
when all their hopes came near being dashed to pieces.
This alarm was caused by one of the sentinels riding
up near to where they were, dismounting from his
horse and lighting, by his flint and steel, his cigarette.
On seeing this, Kit Carson, who was just ahead of
Lieutenant Beale, pushed back his foot and kicked
softly his companion, as a signal for him to lie fiat
on the ground as he (Carson) was doing. The Mexican
was some time, being apparently very much at his
leisure, in lighting his cigarette; and, during these
moments of suspense, so quietly did Kit Carson and his
companion lie on the ground, that Carson said, and
always after affirmed, that he could distinctly hear
Lieutenant Beale's heart pulsate.
"Who can describe the agony of mind to which
these brave hearts were subjected during this severe
trial? Everything — the lives of their friends as well
as their own — so hung on chance, that they shud-

CARSON AND BEALE 101
dered; not at the thought of dying, but for fear they
would fail in accomplishing what was dearer to them
than life, the rescue of the brave men whose lives
hung on their success. After quite a long time, the
Mexican, as if guided by the hand of Providence,
mounted his horse and made off in a contrary direc
tion from the one where these bold adventurers were
biding their time to accept either good, if possible, or
evil, if necessary, from the wheel of Fortune. For a
distance of about two miles, Kit Carson and Lieutenant
Beale thus walked along on their hands and knees.
Continually, during this time, Kit Carson's eagle
eye was penetrating through the darkness, ever on the
alert to discover whatever obstacle might present itself
on which was stamped the least appearance of danger.
Having passed the last visible image in the shape of a
sentinel and left the lines behind them at a suitable
distance, both men regained their feet, and once more
breathed freely. Their first thought was to look for
their shoes, but, alas, they were gone. In the excite
ment of the journey, they had not given them a thought
since depositing them beneath their belts. Hardly a
word had hitherto passed between these two compan
ions in danger, but now they spoke hurriedly and con
gratulated each other on the success that had so far
attended them, and thanked God in their hearts that
He had so mercifully aided them. There was no time
for delay, as they were by no means free from danger,
though they thought the worst was over. Kit Carson
was familiar with the country, and well knew the
necessity of avoiding, for fear of being discovered,

102 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
all the well-trodden trails and roads which lead to San
Diego, every one of which was closely watched by the
enemy. He chose a circuitous route, over rocks, hills
and wild lands. The soil was lined witfi the prickly
pear, the thorns of which were penetrating, at almost
every step, deep into their bare feet, which, owing to
the darkness and thickness of the plants, they could
not avoid. The town of San Diego was located many
miles in a straight line from the point from whence they
had started, but, by the roundabout route they were
obliged to travel, this distance was much lengthened.
All the following day they continued their tramp and
made as much progress as possible. Their mental
excitement kept them in good spirits, though, from
previous fatigue, the want of food during this time,
and by the rapid pace at which they were traveling,
they were putting their physical powers to their full
test. Another night closed in around them, yet ' on
ward ' was their watchword, for they thought not of
rest while those behind them were in such imminent
peril. Kit Carson's only compass was his eye, which
served him so well that soon the dark outlines of the
houses of San Diego could just be discerned. Both
men were ready to leap for joy. They were challenged
by the American sentinels about the town, and an
swered in pure English, ' Friends,' which same English
was unmistakable proof to the guard from whence they
came. On stating their important business, they
were conducted into the presence of Commodore
Stockton, to whom they related what we have tried
to describe. Commodore Stockton, with his usual

CARSON AND BEALE 103
promptitude, immediately detailed a command of about
one hundred and seventy men to make forced marches
in order to reach and relieve their besieged country
men. With as much despatch as possible, this force set
out, taking with them a heavy piece of ordnance, which,
for want of animals, the men themselves were obliged
to draw, by attaching ropes to it. Kit Carson did not
return with them, for it was considered that he had
seen service enough for the present; besides,. his feet
were badly swollen and inflamed from the rough usage
they had recently been obliged to submit to. He
graphically described the position of General Kearny,
so that the relief party could have no difficulty in
finding him. He remained to recruit in San Diego.
. . . Unused then to such hardships and mental excite
ments on land, as was his more experienced companion,
Lieutenant Beale, from the trials of the service per
formed, became partially deranged; and for treatment
was sent on board the frigate Congress, which ship lay
in the harbor, being one of the vessels attached to the
commodore's fleet. Two long years elapsed before
the gallant lieutenant fully recovered from the effects of
this adventure, which, for the bravery and unselfishness
evinced in its planning, and the boldness with which it
was carried out, without mentioning the good results
it produced, was not excelled by any feat performed
during the Mexican War."

CHAPTER XIV
SAILOR HEROES OF PIONEER TIMES
IN the days of '48 and '49, when gold seekers were
pouring into California by every possible route
and method, many came by sea. There were no float
ing palaces then upon the Pacific Ocean, whatever
may have been the style of the steamers coursing up
and down the Mississippi River. And the sailing
vessels that rounded Cape Horn were often the victims
of storms and other perils that not only endangered
the lives of the voyagers, but often destroyed them.
In Dana's Two Years before the Mast, — a classic
which every California boy and girl should not only
read but possess in his or her own private library —
are some vivid pictures of perils suffered on the sea
voyage to California. When Dana returned to New
England, he went in the Alert, and on September 21,
1836, he arrived in Boston. There he published his
book, containing his diary of the trip.
In 1840, under another captain, W. D. Phelps, the
Alert again arrived in Monterey, and continued to sail
back and forth between New England and California,
so that, when Fre*mont arrived and needed help,
Phelps was able to render it in a most effective manner.
Captain Phelps kept a diary, in several manuscript
volumes, and these are now in my possession. From

SAILOR HEROES 105
them I extract the following description of a storm
which struck the Alert near Santa Barbara. It is a
nautical man's description of an experience which
was often visited upon the pioneers, and which demon
strates that the Pacific Ocean was not (and is not) always
as pacific as is its name.
" At 4 p. m. tacked ship to the south and west. At
8 the weather looked favorable for a moderate
night. Tacked inshore. At 10, perceiving a sudden
and considerable fall of the barometer, wore ship
immediately and stood off shore, carrying all possible
sail to make an offing, as the signs of a coming gale
were now too strong to be neglected. The ship was
under double reef topsails, fore and main courses, top
mast staysail, and a main spencer. At a quarter past
eleven the gale was fast increasing, the sea making
a breach over fore and aft and the ship straining hard;
took in the mainsail as it was impossible to carry it
any longer. As heaving the ship to at this time would
cause her to drift dead on a lee shore and her fate (if not
that of all hands) would be sealed before morning, I de
termined that the remaining sail must be kept on her until
we had gathered sufficient offing to give her a clear drift,
or the sails and spars must be allowed to blow away.
At a quarter before midnight, the gale was very severe,
the squalls and wind so violent that it was impossible
to look to windward. The ship was madly driving and
plunging into a frightful sea, but still making good
progress from the land. All hands were stationed
at their posts to act as occasion required, and many an
inward prayer was breathed that the sails and spars

106 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
would outlive the violence of the gale, or at least until
they had placed us in a safe position. They performed
their duty as well as expected but not so well as hoped
for. A few minutes before twelve the fore topsail
yard broke in the middle, and while securing the sail,
which was also split, a fearful noise of tearing accom
panied with a loud report as of a gun told us that the
main topsail had also taken leave of the yard.
" After about two hours' severe toil the remnants
of the two topsails were secured, and the broken yard
lashed aloft; the mizzen topsail was safely furled.
The topmast staysail had blown to fragments. At
this time (2 a. m.) the gale had increased to such a
height that it seemed impossible for it to blow harder.
The sea also was tremendous. Still the foresail and
and main spencer held on, the ship rolling, and plung
ing and drifting dead to leeward. We had done all that
could be done to ensure the safety of the ship, and now
all we could do was to let her drift and anticipate the
fearful result. Part of the crew and officers were
now sent below to secure the casks, boxes, etc., which
had broken loose and were in commotion under deck,
while the rest were looking out for the breakers of a
lee shore. At this time I retired to the cabin to deter
mine the position of the ship with regard to the land,
and found that my passengers were silently and with
great anxiety, no doubt, preparing themselves for the
worst. Ungrateful indeed was the task of setting off
the ship's place on the chart and painful the discovery
that we had not over twenty miles drift in the direction
we were now rapidly going. I knew that the passengers

SAILOR HEROES 107
were anxiously watching my every look. I controlled
my feelings as much as possible, but dared not look them
in the face lest they might read something there that
would not add to their comfort. To their inquiries of
our prospects, I could only say that we must hope for a
favorable change. We were heading S. W. and with the
lee way and variation were making a N. W. course.
In this direction and at the distance of about 15 or 18
miles lay Pt. San Pedro, a high headland with dan
gerous rocks near it, to the west of which the barred
entrance of San Francisco denied us entrance on ac
count of the tremendous sea which was now rolling
over it, threatening destruction to any ship that should
approach it. W. N. W. of us were the rocky islets of
the Farallones — which are dangerous to approach
even in fine weatfier — and should we fortunately drift
clear of these, a few miles further we must bring up
on the ragged headland of Punto-de-los Reyes. I
returned to the deck after recommending ourselves
to the protection of Him who alone ' rides on the tem
pest and directs the storm,' and making what arrange
ments the occasion seemed to require, as calmly as
possible, awaited the results, expecting to hear the
dreadful breakers any moment. Until that appalling
event should occur, I deferred informing the crew
of their situation. But, oh the intense agony of feel
ing produced by a dark stormy night and the horrors
of a lee shore — none can know like him on whom
rests the sole responsibility of managing the ship
in which are many precious lives. It is at such a time
that a single night will do the work of years in a man's

108 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
age. At 6 a. m. the day broke, but the gale still raged
in all its fury; the land could not be seen, as the gloom
was thick and the rain descended in torrents. Our
first object was to get down the fragments of the main
topsail and bend a new one. This we accomplished,
and at 8 o'clock a close-reefed main topsail brought the
ship more head to the sea, and relieved her very much.
After the refreshment of some hot coffee and a slight
breakfast — of which I could not partake — we again
turned to and sent down the wreck of the fore topsail
yard and sail, and as all this work had to be done in
the teeth of a severe gale, it occupied us until noon.
I now judged that it was impossible to be more than
2 or 3 miles from the land, and I imagined every
moment I could ' hear the warning voice of the lee shore,
speaking in breakers,' when, of a sudden, we were
taken hard aback by the westerly wind, blowing off
shore, and shortly a clear sky showed us that we were
distant from the breakers about ten miles, but that
the direction in which we were drifting would have
enabled us to keep off shore about 12 hours longer, had
the gale continued. Thanks to a merciful and prayer-
hearing God, we were preserved from wreck, and in
the afternoon got up a new topsail yard, bent new sails,
and, at sunset, when the sea had subsided, bore away
with fair wind and an unclouded and beautiful evening,
for Monterey. At midnight hove to, to wait for day
light."

CHAPTER XV
THE RECKLESS HERO OF INDIAN FAME, JAMES P.
BECKWOURTH
T TIGH up in the list of pioneer scouts must be
*¦ ¦¦¦ placed the name and fame of James P. Beck-
wourth. Of reckless daring and undaunted courage,
he won a recognized position in his own day and a
fame which time will not dim. There is some doubt
as to his birth, but it is sure that there was some negro
blood in his veins, and this gave him enough of an
Indian appearance to enable him — whenever he
wished to do so — to pass himself off as an Indian.
The extent and character of his adventures were such
that many people have been inclined to doubt them,
but Leland, who edited an English edition of his Lije,
says: " My own honest opinion of the work is that it is
true in the main, simply because it was impossible
for its hero to have lived through the life which other
sources prove that he experienced, and not have met
with quite as extraordinary adventures as those which
he describes. Life is, even to this day (1891), as excit
ing and as full of peril in some parts of America as is
possible," and he tells a story which was given to him
by a reliable eye witness, which Beckwourth had not
related in his memoirs. The story is as follows:

no HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
" I do not think that Beckwourth was ever head chief
among the Crow Indians, though I dare say he made
himself out to be such; but that he was really a sub-chief
is true, for I myself was on the ground when they made
him one — and a strange sight it was. Beckwourth
was a very powerful man — he had been a blacksmith
— and he certainly was a desperately brave fighter.
" A very? large grizzly bear had been driven into
a cave, and Beckwourth asked of a great number of
Crows who were present whether any of them would
go in and kill the creature. All declined, for it seemed
to be certain death. Then Beckwourth stripped him
self naked, and wrapping a Mexican blanket around
his left arm, and holding a strong, sharp knife, he en
tered the cave, and after a desperate fight, killed the
bear. I came up to the place in time to see Beckwourth
come out of the cave, all torn and bleeding. He looked
like an evil demon if ever man did. The Crows were
so much pleased at this that he was declared a sub-
chief on the spot."
Beckwourth was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia,
in 1798. In 1854-1855 T. D. Bonner — a wanderer
in the mountains of California — found him there,
became interested in his story and wrote it. In his
preface Bonner says:
" After ten thousand adventures, Beckwourth finally
became involved in the human stream that set toward
the Pacific, and, almost unconsciously, he established
a home in one of the pleasant valleys that border on
Feather River. Discovering a pass in the mountains
— now incorrectly known as Beckwith Pass — that fa-

JAMES P. BECKWOURTH in
cilitated emigrants in reaching California, his house
became a stopping-place for the weary and dispirited
among them, and no doubt the associations thus pre-
, sented have done much to efface his natural disposition
to wander and seek excitement among the Indian
tribes." I have heard Miss Ina Coolbrith, the poet, tell the
story of the meeting between the party in which were her
father and his family (herself of the number), and Beck
wourth. The party had traveled for months over the
plains and now, tattered in garments, wearied in body,
harassed in mind, sun-burned and weather-beaten,
they had reached the place where the plains ended and
the steep mountain chain of the Sierras towered before
them. Indians were dogging their footsteps, and the
little girl, supposed to be asleep in the wagon, heard
the men talking of the possibility of attack; and there,
wide-eyed and full of alarm at danger, the full extent
of which she did not begin to comprehend, she lay and
trembled, watching such shadows as were cast and
imagining them the outward signs of the horrors she
felt within. Then Beckwourth came to their relief.
He offered to guide the party through his recently
discovered pass to Spanish Ranch in Plumas County.
Well does she remember his coming. Like a picture
that one is not sure one has seen or only dreamed of,
he appears to her mental vision now. A dark-faced
man, something like a mulatto, with long, braided
hair reaching down to his shoulders, dressed in beaded
buckskin, with moccasins on his feet, and no hat upon
his head, he rode into the camp. His horse was half-

ii2 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
saddled, as Indians used to ride in that day. His voice
was strong and masterful but pleasant to the ears of
the child, for, as soon as he saw there were children
in the train, he took sweetmeats from his pockets and
a bag he had on his saddle, and began to distribute
them, saying words that cheered the youngsters and
made his appearance and dress only the peculiarities
of a hero. When he saw Ina and her two little brothers,
the boys in their short dresses, tears came into his eyes
and he said, " God! they're the sweetest things in
life." Then he began to talk to Mrs. Pickett (Miss Cool-
brith's mother) of the great attraction children were to
him. What a romantic figure he made riding ahead
and leading the train, and how happy the little Ina felt
to have him by and by come back to her father's wagon,
reach over and lift her up to a place in front of him on
his saddle, and then go on again to the front.
No romance can be more interesting than the record
of Beckwourth's fife on the border in the early day, and
it belongs peculiarly to young Californians to read
and enjoy it. Of all Beckwourth's early adventures,
I have no room here to speak. He was once paid an
annual salary by the United States government (it is
said two thousand dollars) to keep the Crow tribe
from molesting the whites who were crossing the plains.
Several times he was on the United States pay-roll as
a scout. For a time he was an Indian trader. He was
about fifty years old when he reached California and
settled down. The following is a part of his story:
" I was now inactive for some time again, and occu
pied my leisure in rambling about the environs of

DONNER LAKE, CALIFORNIA.

Page 80

U. S. Geological Survey, W. C. Mend-enhall, Photo.
GENERAL VIEW OF THE COLORADO DESERT.

A GLIMPSE OF THE SLOPE OF DEATH VALLEY, THE FUNERAL MOUNTAINS IN THE
DISTANCE.

Page 71

JAMES P. BECKWOURTH 113
Monterey. I then engaged in the service of the com
missariat at Monterey, to carry despatches from thence
to Captain Denney's ranch, where I was met by another
carrier. On my road lay the mission of San Miguel,
owned by a Mr. Reed, an Englishman; and, as his
family was a very interesting one, I generally made his
home my resting-place. On one of my visits, arriving
about dusk, I entered the house as usual, but was
surprised to see no one stirring. I walked about a little
to attract attention, and no one coming to me, I stepped
into the kitchen to look for some of the inmates. On
the floor I saw some one lying down, asleep, as I sup
posed. I attempted to arouse him with my foot, but he
did not stir. This seemed strange, and my apprehen
sions became excited; for the Indians were very
numerous about, and I was afraid some mischief had
been done. I returned to my horse for my pistols,
then, fighting a candle, I commenced a search. In
going along a passage, I stumbled over the body of a
woman; I entered a room, and found another, a mur
dered Indian woman, who had been a domestic. I was
about to enter another room, but I was arrested by some
sudden thought which urged me to search no farther.
It was an opportune admonition, for that very room
contained the murderers of the family, who had heard
my steps, and were sitting at that moment with their
pistols pointed to the door, ready to shoot the first
person who entered. This they confessed subsequently.
" Thinking to obtain farther assistance, I mounted
my horse and rode to the nearest ranch, a distance of
twenty-four miles, where I procured fifteen Mexicans

n4 ' HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
and Indians, and returned with them the same night to
the scene of the tragedy. On again entering the house,
we found eleven bodies all thrown together in one pile
for the purpose of consuming them; for, on searching
further, we found the murderers had set fire to the
dwelling; but, according to that Providence which ex
poses such wicked deeds, the fire had died out.
" Fastening up the house, we returned immediately
back to the ranch from which I had started with my
party, making seventy-two miles I rode that night.
As soon as I could obtain some rest, I started, in com
pany with the alcalde, for San Luis Obispo, where, it was
believed, we could get assistance in capturing the mur
derers. Forty men in detached parties, moving in dif
ferent directions, went in pursuit. It was my fortune
to find the trail, and with my party of six men I man
aged to head off the suspected murderers so as to come
up with them in the road from directly the opposite
direction from Reed's. When I came opposite, one of
the men sang out, ' Good day, sefiors.' I replied, but
kept on riding in a lope.
" The bandits, thrown entirely off their guard,
insisted upon entering into conversation; so I had a
fair opportunity of marking them all, and discovering
among -them a horse belonging to the unfortunate
Reed. I then rode to Santa Barbara, a distance of
forty miles, and, with a party of twenty men, started
boldly in pursuit. After much hard travel, we finally
came upon the gang, encamped for the night. Without
a moment's hesitation, we charged on them, and gave
a volley of rifles, which killed one, and wounded all

JAMES P. BECKWOURTH 115
the others, save an American, named Dempsey. The
villains fought like tigers, but were finally mastered
and made prisoners.
" Dempsey turned State's evidence. He stated that,
on the night of the murder, his party stopped at Reed's ;
that Reed told them that he had just returned from
the mines, whereupon it was determined to kill the
whole family and take his gold, which turned out to
be the pitiful sum of one thousand dollars. After the
confession of Dempsey, we shot the murderers, along
with the ' State's evidence,' and thus ended the fives
of fourteen villains, who had committed the most
diabolical deed that ever disgraced the annals of
frontier life."
For four months he engaged in this messenger
service and then traded in the mines at Sonora for
awhile, then in Sacramento, and finally proceeded to
Greenwood Valley, in the Sierras, to establish his
winter quarters. Unfortunately, he was seized with
rheumatism, and this gave him a great deal of trouble
that winter; yet it did not diminish his love of adven
ture, as the following story proves:
" Before I was able to get about, I was called on by
the inhabitants to go several miles to shoot a grizzly
bear, and as I was unable to walk the distance, several
of them volunteered to carry me. The bear was in the
habit of walking past a row of cabins every morning
on his return to his den, he having issued forth the
preceding night to procure his evening meal. They
had fired several shots at Bruin as he passed, but he
had never deigned to pay any attention to the molesta-

n6 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
tion. I mounted a horse, and rode some distance along
his customary path, until J came to a tree which offered
a fair shelter, to await his approach. I placed my
back against it as a support while I awaited his coining,
the neighbors drawing off to a safe distance to witness
the sport. By and by grizzly came in sight, walking
along as independently as an alderman-elect. I allowed
him to approach till he was within twenty paces,
when I called out to him; he stopped suddenly, and
looked around to ascertain whence the sound pro
ceeded. As he arrested himself, I fired, and the ball
entered his heart. He advanced ten or fifteen paces
before he fell; the observers shouted to me to run,
they forgetting in their excitement that I had not
strength to move. The bear never stirred from where
he fell, and he expired without a groan. When dressed,
he weighed over fourteen hundred pounds."
After recounting, with many details, one of his
experiences in trading with a demoralized band of
Indians, he concludes:
" This trading whisky for Indian property is one
of the most infernal practices ever entered into by man.
Let the reader sit down and figure up the profits on a
forty-gallon cask of alcohol, and he will be thunder
struck, or rather whisky-struck. When disposed of,
four gallons of water are added to each gallon of al
cohol. In two hundred gallons there are sixteen hun
dred pints, for each one of which the trader gets a
buffalo robe wortfi five dollars! The Indian women
toil many long weeks to dress these sixteen hundred
robes. The white trader gets them all for worse than

JAMES P. BECKWOURTH 117
nothing, for the poor Indian mother hides herself and
her children in the forests until the effect of the poison
passes away from the husbands, fathers, and brothers,
who love them when they have no whisky, and abuse
and kill them when they have. Six thousand dollars
for sixty gallons of alcohol. Is it a wonder that, with
such profits in prospect, men get rich who are engaged
in the fur trade? Or is it a miracle that the poor
buffalo are becoming gradually exterminated, being
killed with so little remorse that their very hides,
among the Indians themselves, are known by the ap
pellation of a pint of whisky? "
As a matter of record, it is well to preserve Beck
wourth's own account of. the discovery and history
of the pass that bears his name. He was going from
American Valley up to the home of the Pitt River
Indians at the time. Says he:
" While on this excursion, I discovered what is now
known as ' Beckwourth's Pass ' in the Sierra Nevada.1
From some of the elevations over which we passed
I remarked a place far away to the southward that
seemed lower than any other. I made no mention of
it to my companion, but thought that at some future
time I would examine into it farther. I continued on
to Shasta with my fellow-traveler, and returned after
a fruitless journey of eighteen days.
" After a short stay in the American Valley, I again
started out with a prospecting party of twelve men.
We killed a bullock before starting and dried the meat,
in order to have provisions to last us during the trip.
1 It is marked on the maps and locally known as Beckwith's Pass.

118 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
We proceeded in an easterly direction, and all busied
themselves in searching for gold; but my errand was
of a different character; I had come to discover what I
suspected to be a pass.
" It was the latter end of April when we entered
upon an extensive valley at the northwest extremity
of the Sierra Range. The valley was aheady robed
in freshest verdure, contrasting most delightfully with
the huge snow-clad masses of rock we had just left.
Flowers of every variety and hue spread their variegated
charms before us; magpies were chattering, and gor-
geously-plumaged birds were carolling in the delights
of unmolested solitude. Swarms of wild geese and
ducks were swimming on the surface of the cool,
crystal stream, which was the central fork of the Rio
de las Plumas, or sailed the air in clouds over our heads.
Deer and antelope filled the plains, and their boldness
was conclusive that the hunter's rifle was to them
unknown. Nowhere visible were any traces of the
white man's approach, and it is probable that our steps
were the first that ever marked the spot. We struck
across this beautiful valley to the waters of the Yuba,
from thence to the waters of the Truchy (Truckee),
which latter flowed in an easterly direction, telling
us we were on the eastern slope of the mountain range.
This, I at once saw, would afford the best wagon-road
into the American Valley approaching from the east
ward, and I imparted my views to three of my com
panions in whose judgment I placed the most confidence.
They thought highly of the discovery, and even proposed
to associate with me in opening the road. We also

JAMES P. BECKWOURTH n9
found gold, but not in sufficient quantity to warrant
our working it; and, furthermore, the ground was too
wet to admit of our prospecting to any advantage.
" On my return to the American Valley, I made
known my discovery to a Mr. Turner, proprietor of
the American Ranch, who entered enthusiastically
into my views; it was a thing, fie said, he had never
dreamed of before. If I could but carry out my plan,
and divert travel into that road, he thought I should
be a made man for life. Thereupon he drew up a
subscription list, setting forth the merits of the
project, and showing how the road could be made
practicable to Bidwell's Bar, and thence to Marysville,
which latter place would derive peculiar advantages
from the discovery. He headed the subscription with
two hundred dollars.
" When I reached Bidwell's Bar and unfolded my
project, the town was seized with a perfect mania for
the opening of the route. The subscriptions toward
the fund required for its accomplishment amounted to
five hundred dollars. I then proceeded to Marysville,
a place which would unquestionably derive greater
benefit from the newly-discovered route than any other
place on the way, since this must be the entrepot or prin
cipal starting-place for emigrants. I communicated
with several of the most influential residents on the
subject in hand. They also spoke very encouragingly
of my -undertaking, and referred me before all others
to the mayor of the city. Accordingly, I waited upon
that gentleman (a Mr. Miles), and brought the matter
under his notice, representing it as being a legitimate

120 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
matter for his interference, and offering substantial
advantages to the commercial prosperity of the city.
The mayor entered warmly into my views, and pro
nounced it as his opinion that the profits resulting
from the speculation could not be less than from six to
ten thousand dollars; and as the benefits accruing
to the city would be incalculable, he would ensure my
expenses while engaged upon it.
" I mentioned that I should prefer some guarantee
before entering upon my labors, to secure me against
loss of what money I might lay out.
" ' Leave that to me,' said the mayor; ' I will attend
to the whole affair. I feel confident that a subject
of so great importance to our interests will engage the
earliest attention.'
" I thereupon left the whole proceeding in his hands,
and, immediately setting men to work upon the road,
went out to Truckee to turn emigration into my newly-
discovered route. While thus busily engaged I was
seized with erysipelas, and abandoned all hopes of
recovery; I was over one hundred miles away from
medical assistance, and my only shelter was a brush
tent. I made my will, and resigned myself to death.
Life still lingered in me, however, and a train of wagons
came up, and encamped near to where I lay. I was
reduced to a very low condition, but I saw the drivers,
and acquainted them with the object that had brought
me out there. They offered to attempt the new road
if I thought myself sufficiently strong to guide them
through it. The women, God bless them! came to
my assistance, and through their kind attentions and

JAMES P. BECKWOURTH 121
excellent nursing I rapidly recovered from my linger
ing sickness, until I was soon able to mount my horse,
and lead the first train, consisting of seventeen wagons,
through ' Beckwourth's Pass.' We reached the American
Valley without the least accident, and the emigrants
expressed entire satisfaction with the route. I returned
with the train through Marysville, and on the intelli
gence being communicated of the practicabifity of my
road, there was quite a public rejoicing. A northern
route had been discovered, and the city had received
an impetus that would advance her beyond all her sisters
on the Pacific shore. I felt proud of my achievement,
and was foolish enough to promise myself a substantial
recognition of my labors.
" I was destined to disappointment, for that same
night Marysville was laid in ashes. The mayor of
the ruined town congratulated me upon bringing a
train through. He regretted that their recent calamity
had placed it entirely beyond his power to obtain for
me any substantial reward. With the exception of
some two hundred dollars subscribed by some liberal-
minded citizens of Marysville, I have received no
indemnification for the money and labor I have ex
pended upon my discovery. The city has been greatly
benefited by it, as all must acknowledge, for the emi
grants that now flock to Marysville would otherwise
have gone to Sacramento. Sixteen hundred dollars
I expended upon the road is forever gone, but those
who derive advantage from this outlay and loss of time
devote no thought to the discoverer; nor do I see
clearly how I am to help myself, for every one knows

122 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
I cannot roll a mountain into the pass and shut it up.
But there is one thing certain: although I recognize
no superior in love of country, and feel in all its force
the obligation imposed upon me to advance her inter
ests, still, when I go out hunting in the mountains a
road for everybody to pass through, and expending my
time and capital upon an object from which I shall
derive no benefit, it will be because I have nothing
better to do.
" In the spring of 1852 I established myself in
Beckwourth Valley, and finally found myself trans
formed into a hotel-keeper and chief of a trading-post.
My house is considered the emigrant's landing-place,
as it is the first ranch he arrives at in the Golden State,
and is the only house between this point and Salt Lake.
Here is a valley two hundred and forty miles in circum
ference, containing some of the choicest land in the
world. Its yield of hay is incalculable; the red and
white clovers spring up spontaneously, and the grass
that covers its smooth surface is of the most nutritious
nature. When the weary, toil-worn emigrant reaches
this valley, he feels himself secure; he can lay himself
down and taste refreshing repose, undisturbed by the
fear of Indians. His cattle can graze around him in
pasture up to their eyes, without running any danger
of being driven off by the Arabs of the forest, and springs
flow before them as pure as any that refresh this ver
dant earth."
Since this chapter was written I note that the Western Pacific
Railway is built through the pass discovered by Beckwourth, and that
the officials of that railway, with wise and enlightened desire to pre
serve historic accuracy, are denoting it as Beckwourth, instead of
Beckwith, on their maps and literature.

CHAPTER XVI
THE DARING HEROES OF THE PONY EXPRESS AND THE
OVERLAND STAGE
' I ""HIS is not so much the recital of individualistic
-*¦ exploits of heroism and bravery, as of collective
acts of great daring and courage, in which extraordinary
heroism was the daily experience of all the active
participants. No man could ever have engaged in
the work of the old overland stage, or the pony express,
unless he were at least physically brave. And, when
one comes to analyze acts, or especially a life, of physical
bravery, it is sometimes hard to draw the. fine and say
where that ends and moral heroism begins.
To fully realize these preliminary words, it is but
necessary to recall the conditions under which the over
land stage was started and the circumstances that sur
rounded its daily operation. California was seized
for the Union by Commodore Sloat, on Tuesday,
July 7, 1846. Gold was discovered by Marshall in
January, 1848. The news speedily reached Salt Lake
by means of the Mormons, and Oregon by way of
Honolulu, and immediately an influx of gold-seekers
began. But it was not until the end of the year
that the East fully awoke to the importance of the
discovery. There were no rapid means of communica
tion, — no regular methods of any kind. The con-

124 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
vention called by General Riley to. frame a civil con
stitution for the new State convened on September 3,
1849, and on October 13 the work was accomplished
and the constitution signed. The first election took
place November 13, when Peter H. Burnett was
elected first governor, and the constitution was ratified
by a vote of twelve thousand and sixty-four against
eight hundred and eleven. Burnett was installed on
November 20, and on December 15 the State legislature
met at San Jose* and elected Fremont and Gwin United
States Senators.
Here, then, was a State practically three thousand
miles away from the seat of federal government, and
without means of speedy communication between them,
save by special despatch at enormous expense. The
mail was carried via Panama and came once a month.
In 1851 this was extended to twice a month, at a cost
of between seven hundred thousand and eight hundred
thousand dollars a year. This state of affairs continued
until 1858, when the Butterfield route from San Fran
cisco to St. Louis was established via Los Angeles,
Yuma, Tucson, and over New Mexico, Texas and
Arkansas. Nothing, however, was gained in time by
this change, for it required about as long as to come
by the steamers. The fastest time made at this period
from San Francisco to New York was twenty-one days.
The only advantage was that the overland stage went
twice a week, whereas the steamers sailed only twice a
month. At this time (1858) Messrs. Russell, Majors and
Waddell were running a daily stage between St. Joseph,

HEROES OF PONY EXPRESS 125
Missouri (then the terminus of the railway lines) and
Salt Lake City, as well as transporting large quantities
of government stores by freight wagons over the same
line. This route for some time had engaged the atten
tion of Senator Gwin. He realized how much shorter it
was than the Butterfield route, but every attempt to get
his colleagues in the United States Senate to consider
the construction of such a route, by subsidy or other
wise, was met with their assurances that such a route
was not feasible during a large part of the year. The
Sierran barrier, they urged, would effectually prevent
any regular stage from running, even were a road con
structed, and therefore it was a waste of time to con
sider such a project. Senator Gwin, however, was not
so easily daunted, and in 1859, meeting Mr. Russell
in Washington, he used his most eloquent endeavors to
persuade him to start such a line. He assured the
stage man that if he would demonstrate its feasibility
he would guarantee a large subsidy for carrying the
mail that would more than indemnify his firm for the
large outlay, but that it was useless to ask his colleagues
for their vote for a subsidy until the route had actually
been opened and operated during the winter months.
Enthusiastic over the idea, Mr. Russell came west
to confer with his partners. On looking at it from the
purely commercial standpoint, these practical men
threw cold water upon the scheme, but when Russell
urged it afresh, on the ground of its national importance,
the benefit it would be to the northern States in case
of any conflict with the South, and further, because it
would gain them an influential friend in Senator Gwin,

126 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
they finally decided to accede to his wishes and go
ahead. Accordingly, five hundred of the fleetest horses of the
country were purchased, and the services of over two
hundred competent men secured, eighty of whom were
chosen, because of their sfimness, as riders. The
lighter the man the better for the horse, as in some
portions of the route the scheduled time required
a speed of twenty miles an hour.
The stage company aheady had stage stations some
ten to twelve miles apart, located between St. Joseph
and Salt Lake City, but an entirely new set of stations
had to be built between Salt Lake City and Sacra
mento. These were located at a distance of about
seventy-five miles apart, and through a country that
none but heroes would have engaged to work in. It
was infested with wild animals, hostile Indians, and
occasionally with abandoned whites, who were more
cruel and bloodthirsty than either. It was wild and
desert country, totally uninhabited, except for theroving
Indians and desperadoes, who valued human fife less than
they valued that of a buffalo or an antelope. In the sum
mer, the hot, dusty, alkali plains were as dangerous and
trying as were the rocky Sierras, deeply covered with
snow, in the winter. None but brave men, experienced
scouts, Indian fighters, plainsmen, inured to hardship
and ready for any adventure, would have dared under
take the work. They were paid one hundred and
twenty to one hundred and twenty-five dollars a month
for their services, and were engaged because of their
vigilance, bravery, agility and determination to "get

A BUCKING HORSE IN THE HEART OF THE COLORADO DESERT.

A:.hfZ1i-

-;-» •

">-<•»?*

U. S. Geological Survey, F. B. Weeks, Photo.
NTEN MILES SOUTH OF FURNACE CREEK, DEATH VALLEY.

ALEXANDER MAJORS.
Founder of the Pony Express.

Page 132

HEROES OF PONY EXPRESS 127
through." Their romantic story has never fully been
told. The day of the first start was April 3, i860. It
was an epoch-forming day in transcontinental trans
portation, for not only did it cut down the time to ten
days, but it clearly demonstrated that the central route
was feasible, and thus prepared the congressional mind,
as well as that of the public, for tfie building of the
Central Pacific Railway.
Harry Roff was the first rider. Mounted on a spirited
bronco, he left Sacramento and covered the first twenty
miles, including one change, in fifty-nine minutes. On
reaching Folsom, he changed again and started for
Placerville, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, fifty-five
miles away. Here a rider named " Boston " took the
mail-pouch and dashed on to Friday's Station, crossing
the Sierra, where " pack-trains and mules were kept
constantly moving back and forth to tread down the
snow, which in some places was over thirty feet deep.
Sam Hamilton relieved " Boston," and took the ride
through Genoa, Carson City, Dayton and Reed's
Station to Fort Churchill, — seventy-five miles. So far,
one hundred and eighty-five miles, the time consumed
was fifteen hours and twenty minutes, in spite of the
crossing of the snow-covered range. At Fort Churchill,
Robert H. Haslam — better known as " Pony Bob," —
took the sack and carried it one hundred and twenty
miles through the country of the hostile and warlike
Paiutis to Smith's Creek. From this point Jay G.
Kelley rode to Ruby Valley, Utah, one hundred and
sixteen niles; thence H. Richardson carried the pre-

128 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
cious mail one hundred and five miles to Deep Creek.
The last rider, George Thatcher, took it to Rush Valley
(Old Camp Floyd), eighty miles, and on to Salt Lake
City, — fifty miles.
The westward mail from St. Joseph, Missouri,
started at the same time and passed from rider to rider
by way of South Pass, Salt Lake, Humbolt River and
Carson Valley over the Sierras to Sacramento, which
it reached on April 13. The news of its coming caused
great excitement and enthusiasm; crowds went out
to meet it, and both houses of the State legislature
then in session adjourned to welcome it and do honor to
the occasion. The carrier came in time for the regular
afternoon steamboat for San Francisco, and with his
horse and the precious mail-bag, just as he had ar
rived, was put on board, and conveyed to San Fran
cisco, where he arrived at one o'clock on the morning
of the fourteenth. That city already had telegraphic
communication with Sacramento, so the whole city
was on hand to welcome the solitary rider with brass
bands, torches and all the acclaim of a great public
event. A procession was formed, the music struck up,
and the crowd, enthusiastically cheering, conveyed the
mail-carrier and his precious pouch to the post-office.
Thus was inaugurated the celebrated Pony Express,
which continued in active operation for only about
two years. There were two mails a week, each way,
but only about two hundred letters could be carried
each time. Tissue paper ordinarily was used for the
correspondence, and the postage was fixed at five
dollars for each half ounce. «

HEROES OF PONY EXPRESS 129
" Pony Bob " thus describes some of his experiences,
which may be regarded as fairly typical of those of his
compeers: " About eight months after the Pony Express com
menced operations, the Paiuti War began in Nevada,
and as no regular troops were then at hand, a volunteer
corps, raised in Cafifornia, with Colonel Jack Hayes
and Henry Meredith — the latter being killed in the
first battle at Pyramid Lake — in command, came over
the mountains to defend the whites. Virginia City,
Nevada, then the principal point of interest, and hourly
expecting an attack from hostile Indians, was only in
its infancy. A stone hotel on C Street was in course of
erection, and had reached an elevation of two stories.
This was hastily transformed into a fort for the pro
tection of women and children.
" From the city the signal fires of the Indians could
be seen on every mountain peak, and all available
men and horses were pressed into service to repel the
impending assault of the savages. When I reached
Reed's Station, on the Carson River, I found no change
of horses, as all those at the station had been seized by
the whites to take part in the approaching battle.
I fed the animal that I rode, and started for the next
station, called Buckland's, afterward known as Fort
Churchill, fifteen miles down the river. This' point
was to have been the termination of my journey (as I
had been changed from my old route to this one, in
which I had had many narrow escapes and been twice
wounded by Indians), as I had ridden seventy-five
miles, but, to my great astonishment, the other rider

130 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
refused to go on. The superintendent, W. C. Marley,
was at the station, but all his persuasion could not
•prevail on the rider, Johnnie Richardson, to take the
road. Turning then to me, Marley said : ' Bob, I'll
give you fifty dollars if you make this ride.'
" I replied: ' I'll go you once.'
" Within ten minutes, when I had adjusted my
Spencer rifle — a seven-shooter — and my Colt's
revolver, with two cylinders ready for use in case of
an emergency, I started. From the station onward
was a lonely and dangerous ride of thirty-five miles,
without any change, to the sink of the Carson. I
arrived there all right, however, and pushed on to
Sand Springs, through an alkali bottom and sand
hills, thirty miles farther, without a drop of water
all along the route. At Sand Springs I changed horses,
and continued on to Cold Springs, a distance of thirty-
seven miles. Another change, and a ride of thirty
miles more, brought me to Smith's Creek. Here I was
relieved by J. G. Kelley. I had ridden one hundred
and eighty-five miles, stopping only to eat and to change
horses. " After remaining at Smith's Creek about nine hours,
I started to retrace my journey with the return express.
When I arrived at Cold Springs, to my horror I found
that the station had been attacked by Indians, the
keeper killed and all the horses taken away. What
course to pursue I decided in a moment — I would go
on. I watered my horse — having ridden him thirty
miles without stop,he was pretty tired — and started for
Sand Springs, thirty-seven miles away. It was growing

HEROES OF PONY EXPRESS 131
dark, and my road lay through heavy sage-brush, high
enough in some places to conceal a horse. I kept a
bright lookout, and closely watched every motion of
my poor horse's ears, which is a signal for danger
in an Indian country. I was prepared for a fight, but the
stillness of the night and the howling of the wolves
and coyotes made cold chills run through me at times,
but I reached Sand Springs in safety and reported
what had happened. Before leaving I advised the
station-keeper to come with me to the sink of the Carson,
for I was sure the Indians would be upon him the next
day. He took my advice, and so probably saved his
life, for the following morning Smith's Creek was at
tacked. The whites, however, were well protected
in the shelter of a stone house, from which they fought
the Indians for four days. At the end of that time
they were relieved by the appearance of about fifty
volunteers from Cold Springs. These men reported
that they had buried John Williams, the brave keeper
of that station, but not before his body had been nearly
devoured by wolves.
" When I arrived at the sink of the Carson, I found
the station men badly frightened, for they had seen
some fifty warriors, decked out in their war-paint and
reconnoitering the station. There were fifteen white
men here, well armed and ready for a fight.
" The station was built of adobe, and was large
enough for the men and ten or fifteen horses, with
a fine spring of water within ten feet of it. I rested
here an hour, and after dark started for Buckland's,
where I arrived without a mishap and only three and a

i32 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
half hours behind schedule time. I found Mr. Marley
at Buckland's, and when I related to him the story of the
Cold Springs tragedy and my success, he raised his
previous offer of fifty dollars for my ride to one hundred
dollars. I was rather tired, but the excitement of the
trip had braced me up to withstand the fatigue of the
journey. After a rest of one and a half hours, I pro
ceeded over my own route, from Buckland's to Friday's
Station, crossing the western summit of the Sierra
Nevada. I had traveled three hundred and eighty miles
within a few hours of schedule time, and surrounded
by perils on every hand."
Alexander Majors, one of the founders of the Pony
Express, in his Memoirs says: " Two important events
transpired during the term of the Pony's existence.
One was the carrying of President Buchanan's last
message to Congress, in December, i860, from the
Missouri River to Sacramento, a distance of two thou
sand miles, in eight days and some hours. The other
was the carrying of President Lincoln's inaugural ad
dress of March 4, 1861, over the same route in seven days
and, I think, seventeen hours, being the quickest time,
taking the distance into consideration, on record in
this or any other country, as far as I know.
" One of the most remarkable feats ever accom
plished was made by F. X. Aubery, who traveled the
distance of eight hundred miles, between Santa F6,
New Mexico and Independence, Missouri," in five days
and thirteen hours. This ride, in my opinion, in one
respect was the most remarkable one ever made by
any man. The entire distance was ridden without

HEROES OF PONY EXPRESS 133
stopping to rest, and having a change of horses only
once in every one hundred or two hundred miles.
He kept a lead-horse by his side most of the time, so
that when the one he was riding gave out entirely,
he changed the saddle to the extra horse, left the horse
he had been riding, and went on again at full
speed. " At the time he made this ride, in much of the terri
tory he passed through he was liable to meet hostile
Indians, so that his adventure was daring in more ways
than one. In the first place, the man who attempted to
ride eight hundred miles in the time he did took his
fife in his hands. There is perhaps not one man in a
mfifion who could have lived to finish such a journey."
Another rider, J. G. Kelley, thus tells some of his
own experiences. He was appointed assistant to the
station-keeper at Sand Springs:
" The war against the Paiuti Indians was then at its
height, and we were in the middle of the Paiuti country,
which made it necessary for us to keep a standing guard
night and day. The Indians were often seen skulking
around, but none of them ever came near enough for
us to get a shot at them, till one dark night, when
I was on guard, I noticed one of our horses prick up
his ears and stare. I looked in the direction indicated
and saw an Indian's head projecting above the wall.
" My instructions were to shoot if I saw an Indian
within shooting distance, as that would wake the boys
quicker than anything else; so I fired and missed my
man. " Later on we saw the Indian camp-fires on the

i34 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
mountain, and in the morning saw many tracks. They
evidently intended to stampede our horses, and if
necessary kill us. The next day one of our riders,
a Mexican, rode into camp with a bullet hole through
him from the left to the right side, having been shot by
Indians while coming down Edwards Creek, in the
quaking-asp bottom. This he told us as we assisted
him off his horse. He was tenderly cared for, but
died before surgical aid could reach him.
" As I was the lightest man of the station, I was
ordered to take the Mexican's place on the route. My
weight was then one hundred pounds, while. I now
weigh two hundred and thirty. Two days after taking
the route, on my return trip, I had to ride through the
forest of quaking-asp trees where the Mexican had been
shot. A trail had been cut through these little trees,
just wide enough to allow a horse and rider to pass.
As the road was crooked and the branches came to
gether from either side, just above my head when
mounted, it was impossible to see ahead more than
ten or fifteen yards, and it was two miles through the
forest. " I expected to have trouble, and prepared for it by
dropping my bridle reins on the neck of my horse, put
my Sharp's rifle at full cock, kept both spurs in the
flanks, and we went through that forest like a ' streak
of greased lightning.'
" At the top of the hill I dismounted to rest my horse,
and looking back, saw the bushes moving in several
places. As there were no cattle or game in that vicinity,
I knew the movements must be caused by Indians,

HEROES OF PONY EXPRESS 135
and* was more positive of it when, after firing several
shots at the spot where I saw the bushes moving, all
agitation ceased. Several days after that, two United
States soldiers, who were on the way to their command,
were shot and killed from the ambush of those bushes,
and stripped of their clothing, by the red devils."
These stories are but typical. Others could be told
equally interesting of adventures " by flood and field,"
— fording dangerous streams, sinking into quicksands,
swallowed up by floods and cloudbursts, caught in
sandstorms, perishing in snow-drifts, scorching to
death in alkali flats that reflected the fierce rays of
the summer sun, bewildered by mirages, tormented by
thirst, etc., etc. These gallant men deserve a monu
ment to their memory and work, for every day saw
them do brave and heroic deeds.
Equally meritorious was the profession of stage-
driving in those early and Indian-threatening days.
Most of the old-time " knights of the whip " were
true heroes.
Regardless of all obstacles, they resolutely endeav
ored to get through " on time." Attacks by Indians,
" hold-ups " by " road agents," blockings of the road
by snow, mud or drifted sands, the flooding of streams
that must be forded, the breaking of bridges, accidents
to themselves, stock, or coaches, — anything, every
thing must be overcome and the wheels roll into the
station on " schedule time." Many a time have I
ridden with these old knights of the whip, for thirty
years ago, when I first came to the West, though the
Central Pacific Railway had ousted the overland stage,

136 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
there were many side routes in California, Nevada 'and
Arizona over which stages still ran.
This chapter cannot better be concluded than by
a quotation from a novel, one of the first written by
a Cafifornian, which gives a true account of a portion
of a stage-ride over the Sierra Nevada:
" The brake was left untouched, and the vehicle
pushing upon the horses sent them flying down the
grade with fearful rapidity. It was not driving that
Jack now did. It was too dark to drive. He could
only hold the lines in his hand and let the horses follow
their own instinct. True, they would not go over the
precipice of their own accord; but they might go so
near the edge at any moment as to let the coach fall
over. . . .
" And so they thundered along the narrow shelf cut
in the mountain-side, at the rate of sixteen miles an
hour, trusting all to the instinct of six mustangs.
" At each half minute a gleam of lightning would blaze
forth, and show them the yawning gulf, fifteen hundred
feet deep, along the very edge of which they were madly
rushing. So, round and round, they twisted and curved
with the spurs and angles of the mountain, at times
running out upon a projecting point, at the end of
which, seemingly, nothing but wings could rescue
them from the fearful plunge that lay beyond; but,
just as the leap was to be taken, the jaunty lead horses
would turn a sharp corner of the projecting wall, fol
lowed by the others, and at last the coach itself would
sway over the abyss, and then, with a roll and a swing,
follow the flying horses along the ledge, still in safety."

CHAPTER XVII
THE STREET-PREACHING HERO OF " FORTY-NINE,"
"WILLIAM TAYLOR
REGARDLESS of differences of opinion in the
ology and churches, every person can recognize
courage, bravery and heroism in actions prompted by
religious befief. Intelligent Methodists appreciate the
spirit of the work of Padre Serra as much as do the
Catholics, and good Christian Scientists can see the
bravery and courage of Livingstone as well as the
Scotch Presbyterians. Whatever a man's belief, it
certainly requires faith, bravery, courage of a high
order • — in a word, heroism — to preach a pure and
simple religion in all its rigor to men of openly wicked
lives. It will not be denied by any student, and cer
tainly not by any pioneer, that there was much open
wickedness in California, both in San Francisco ahd
the mines, in the early days after the discovery of
gold. While it is not true, as some have rashly as
serted, that the greater part of the pioneers were men
of irreligious and immoral lives, it must be confessed
that for many years certain phases of wickedness
were rampant, open and defiant. Senator Wilson
Flint says that in 1850 three sides of Portsmouth Square
in San Francisco " were mostly occupied by buildings
which served the double purpose of hotels and gambling*-

138 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
houses, the latter calling being regarded at that time
as a very reputable profession."
A writer in 1876 says: "Gambling! It is not
strange that, to-day, San Franciscans are so fond of
speculative sports and businesses. Twenty and twenty-
five years ago they all gambled. The finest and most
substantial houses in the city were the ' gilded palaces
of chance.' Faro, roulette, monte", and rondo were all
favorite games. Gold was so easily obtained and so
abundant, that everybody had money to stake on the
game. Sometimes these stakes were enormous. Twenty
thousand dollars were risked on the turn of a single
card. Such large bets were, of course, rare; but one
thousand, three thousand, and five thousand dollars
were almost nightly lost and won as single stakes.
" So popular was the game, that men who had quit
the pulpit, the deaconship, the Sabbath-school teach
er's place, to come to California, as naturally drifted
into the gambling-house and took their turn at play
as the most hardened gamester. The gambling-
houses were the only places of resort. Every lodging-
house was full and overflowing; hotels were crowded,
and as there were no homes in this strange community,
the restless people must needs seek shelter in the
barrooms where the games went on. These places
were comfortable at least; they were well lighted at
night, there was that other subtle attraction, that
exciting and intoxicating amusement that, once in
dulged in with success, becomes fascinating."
The writers of the Anttals oj San Francisco state
that: "The general population of San Francisco

STREET PREACHING HERO 139
in 1852, with shame it must be confessed, in those
days — as is still the case in 1854, to a considerable
extent — drank largely of intoxicating liquors. A
great many tippled at times, and quite as many swore
lustily. They are an adventurous people, and their en
joyments are all of an exciting kind. They are bold
and reckless, from the style of the place and the nature
both of business and amusement. Newcomers fall
naturally into the same character."
Again they say: "There is a sad recklessness of
conduct and carelessness of life among the people
of California, and nearly all the inhabitants of San
Francisco, whatever be their native country, or their
original pacific disposition, share in the same hasty,
wild character and feeling."
I have quoted these passages, but deem them all,
except that of Senator Flint, exaggerated. The open
ness of vice was so glaring that it obstructed the vision
of the ordinary observer, and prevented him from seeing
and knowing the large number of good men the city
possessed. But it was bad enough, and honest, true,
sober, and Christian men of every faith, Catholic
and Protestant alike, felt that something should be
done to check the open spirit of profligacy, vice and
immorality. A common expression of those early days to palliate
man's open indulgence in wrong-doing was "God
doesn't hold any man responsible for his conduct after
he crosses the Missouri River," and another: "It is
impossible to live religion in California, and there
fore it's no use to try."

i4o HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
These quotations, even though exaggerated, show
that drinking, gambling, sensuality and carousing
generally were openly indulged in, and both palliated
and tolerated by many people. Nearly every man
went fully armed. The revolver and bowie knife
were almost as common possessions as an ordinary
pocket-knife is to-day. Hence it can well be seen
that a timid and hesitating soul would have deemed
it the risk of his life to enter the stronghold of this
class of men and boldly tell them of their lawlessness.
But among the earliest arrivals in San Francisco after
the gold discovery became known was a man who
knew no fear, who had no timidity, who was bold
to temerity, and outspoken to apparent recklessness.
This man was William Taylor, a Methodist preacher
from Baltimore, Maryland, who for seven years
preached every Sunday in the streets of San Francisco,
and afterwards wrote a book, entitled Seven Years
Street- Preaching in San Francisco, from which most
of the statements in this chapter are taken.
He arrived in San Francisco September 22, 1849,
and on December 3, 1849, he announced at the little
Methodist church " on the hill," that he would preach
in the open air, in Portsmouth Square, at three P. M.
Says Taylor: "It was regarded by most persons
present, if not all, as a very dangerous experiment;
for the gamblers were a powerful and influential party
in the city, and the Plaza was their principal rendez
vous, and Sunday the best day of the seven for their
business. The Plaza was nearly surrounded by
gambling and drinking-houses. The gamblers oc-

STREET PREACHING HERO 141
cupied the best houses in the city, and had them
furnished in the most magnificent style.
" The walls of these houses (the gambling and
drinking-saloons) were hung with splendid paintings;
' the tables ' contained ' piles ' of gold and silver ; the
musicians occupied a high platform in the rear end
of the saloon; the ' needful ' was served out by ' a
gentleman of the bar,' in one corner, near the en
trance, where many a jolly circle drank to each other's
health the deadly draught. These places, especially
at night, all night, and on Sunday, were crowded
with moving masses of humanity, of every age and
complexion. So powerful was this class of men in
the city, that I do not remember of ever hearing of one
of them, in those days, being arrested, even for mur
der." Here it was that William Taylor, his wife and another
lady seated near by, took his stand on a carpenter's
work-bench, and, after singing an old-fashioned Meth
odist hymn, began to preach to an immense crowd.
To be a successful street-preacher requires genius of
a peculiar order, and Taylor's introductory remarks
at least foreshadowed his possession of this genius.
He said: " Gentlemen, if our friends in the Atlantic
States, with the views and feelings they entertained
of California society when I left there, had heard that
there was to be preaching this afternoon in Portsmouth
Square, in San Francisco, they would have predicted
disorder, confusion, and riot; but we, who are here,
believe very differently. One thing is certain, there
is no man who loves to see those Stars and Stripes

142 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
floating on the breeze" (pointing to the flag of our
Union), " and who loves the institutions fostered under
them; in a word, there's no true American but will
observe order under the preaching of God's word
anywhere, and maintain it, if need be. We shall have
order, gentlemen." He then proceeded with his
address, and this " proved to be the first of a series
of nearly six hundred sermons preached in these
streets, the confluence of all the various creeds, and
isms, and notions, and feelings, and prejudices of tfie
representatives of all the nations, Christian and
heathen." This shrewdness in introducing the subject to his
peculiar audience was but one proof of his especial
fitness for the work he had chosen. Other qualities
were equally essential to success. He must be able
to seize upon any passing or trivial circumstance, and
turn it to advantage; he must be witty and skilful at
repartee; he must be good-natured, patient and gentle
manly under diversely irritating and provoking cir
cumstances, yet firm and insistent upon the mainte
nance of' good order; fearless in speech and conduct;
honest, sincere and simple in his daily life; and he
must also be a devotee to that which he declares.
Scores of forceful instances might be related showing
Taylor's power to seize and happily turn the passing
circumstance to his advantage. He once preached,
on the Pacific Street Wharf, with a barrel of whisky
as a pulpit, and thus prefaced his discourse: " Gentle
men, I have for my pulpit to-day, as you see, a barrel
of whisky. I presume this is the first time this barrel

STREET PREACHING HERO 143
has ever been appropriated to a useful purpose. The
' critter ' contained in it will do me no harm while
I keep it under my feet. And let me say now to you
all, to sailors and to landsmen, never let the ' critter '
get above your feet. Keep it under your feet, and you
have nothing to fear from it."
The following Sunday his pulpit was a barrel of
pork, and this led to the following introduction: "I
see my pulpit of last Sabbath, the barrel of whisky, is
gone, and I am very much afraid that my timely
warning, as is too often the case, was not heeded, and
that its contents have ere this gone down the throats
of some of our fellow-citizens. I have in its stead to
day, as you see, a barrel of pork, literally less of the
spirit and more of the flesh." He then proceeded to
discourse upon the necessity of keeping under the lusts
of the flesh if a man would attain to the happiness of
wisdom. A shrewd, homely wit aided this turning of circum
stance to fortuitous advantage. One Sunday two
fruit vendors, thinking to turn to profit the large
crowds that Taylor always gathered around him, set
up their movable stands, one on each side of his barrel
pulpit. Appearing not to notice their presence, Taylor
— as he quaintly terms it — began to " sing up " his
congregation, and soon had a circle about twenty deep,
standing as close as possible, with the Spanish and
French fruit-dealers in the centre. He then cried out:
" Grapes, pears, and oranges! Gentlemen, you must
not suppose that I have any interest in this Sunday
traffic in calling you together around it. I hope you

144 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
will not patronize these Sabbath-breakers. You are not
so grape-hungry but that you can wait until to-morrow,
and then during the six days in the week lay in a
supply for Sunday. These fellows have set up here,
expecting to* make a fine speculation out of my audi
ence this morning; but they will find that they have
brought their fruit to the wrong market."
By this time the fruit-dealers were very uncom
fortable, and would gladly have escaped, but they
were so completely hemmed in that they were com
pelled to take the preacher's raillery, and then stand
while he preached a longer sermon (doubtless) than
usual, without the sale of a dime's worth of their fruit.
On another occasion, to quote from Mr. Taylor:
" Once, when a lean-looking man, driving a poor
horse, was trying to urge his way through the crowd,
I said: ' Look at that poor man! Working seven days
in the week is bringing him rapidly down to his grave!
A man cannot break the law of the Sabbath without
violating a law of his own constitution. Look at his
sunken, sallow cheeks, and his dim eyes! How the
sin of Sabbath-breaking is telling on him! He'll die
soon if he doesn't reform. Look at his poor old horse!
The Lord ordained a Sabbath for that horse, but his
merciless master is cheating him out of it. See there,
how he beats him. After all, I had rather be the horse
than the man, if he dies as he lives.'
'' On another occasion a wag, thinking to have a little
sport, tried to ride through the crowd on a burro.
His animal refusing to go through, I said: ' See there,
that animal, like Balaam's of the same kind, has more

WILLIAM TAYLOR.
From the engraving in his " Street Preaching in

San Francisco.'

Page 1S7

VIRGINIA REED MURPHY.

Page fi4

SAN FRANCISCO IN 1849, FROM THE HEAD OF CLAY STREET.
From old wood-cuts. Pages 137-153

PIONEERS LINED UP FOR THEIR MAIL AT THE POST OFFICE,
CORNER OF PIKE AND CLAY STREETS, SAN FRANCISCO, IN 184O.

STREET PREACHING HERO 145
respect for the worship of God than his master, who
only lacks the ears of being the greater ass of the
two.' "
Reference has already been made to Mr. Taylor's
attacks upon what he conceived to be Sabbath-break
ing. He was equally fearless in attacking other evils.
Naturally the rum-seller came in for his share of these
denunciations. " Look at that rum-seller. The house
in which he lives, and from which are the issues of
death, once belonged to a man of property and respect
ability. He lived there with his happy family; but
the wily ' gentleman of the bar ' took advantage of
the moral imbecility of his victim, just as the high
wayman takes advantage of the physical imbecility
of the man he murders and robs. He has long since
sent his victim's shattered, bloated carcass to a drunk
ard's grave. His family are in the poorhouse, daily
shedding fountains of tears more bitter than death."
Once he was called upon to preach a funeral dis
course over a gambler who had been shot in a quarrel
with a fellow-gambler. A habitue of the gambling-
house went to Mr. Taylor, saying: " I think it would
be a pity to bury the poor fellow without any kind of
religious ceremony, and it will be a comfort to his
friends." Surrounded by gamblers, Mr. Taylor preached to
them of the evil of their profession. Among other
remarks, he said: " What are you about? What are
you doing here in California? Look at that bloody
corpse! What will his mother say? What will his
sisters think of it? To die in a distant land, among

146 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
strangers, is bad; to die unforgiven, suddenly, unex
pectedly, is worse; to be shot down in a gambling-
house, at the midnight hour — Oh, horrible! And
yet this is the legitimate fruit of the excitement and dis
sipation, chagrin and disappointment, consequent
upon your business; a business fatal to your best
interests of body and soul, for time and for eternity.
" Again, look at its influence upon society. The
unwary are decoyed and ruined. Little boys, charmed
by your animating music, dazzled by the magnificent
paraphernalia of your saloons, are enticed, corrupted,
and destroyed, to the hopeless grief of their mothers."
He was scathing in his denunciation of the land-
sharks who preyed upon the poor sailors. In an elab
orate and especially prepared address, he completely
exposed their nefarious methods, and his book contains
a chapter entitled " ' Shanghaing ' the Sailors." His
sympathy with the sailor is shown on every page and in
every line. He truthfully says: " The history of the
sailor, his isolation from domestic society and the
refinements and luxuries of home, his spirit of adventure,
courage, patience, toils, sufferings by starvation, cold,
shipwreck, confinement in foreign hospitals, adven
tures among savages and cannibals, his imprisonments
and slow tortures, his death, by the violence of war
and piracy, by the violence of the hurricane that sweeps
the ocean, and by the more dreadful tortures of wasting
famine, has been written in detached fragments on
every page of the history of commercial nations, and
especially of our own country."
He defines "shanghaing" as follows: "The term

STREET PREACHING HERO 147
' shanghaing ' is of Cafifornian origin, and was intro
duced in this way. A few years ago it was very diffi
cult to make up a crew in San Francisco, especially
for any place from which they could not get a ready
passage back to this land of gold. Crews could be
made up for Oregon, Washington Territory, the Is
lands, and the ports of South America; for from any
of these places they could readily return. Even from
Canton, they could stand a pretty good chance of a
direct run back; but from Shanghai, there were
seldom ever any ships returning to California. To
get back, therefore, from Shanghai, they must make
the voyage around the world. That was getting quite
too far away from the ' placers ' of our mountains.
Hence, to get crews for Shanghai, they depended
almost exclusively on drugging the men. Crews for
Shanghai were, therefore, said to be ' shanghaied ' ;
and the term came into general use to represent the
whole system of drugging, extortion and cruelty."
The preacher went on to show how a perfect system
existed for swindling and oppressing the sailor, so
that he was robbed on every hand, often maltreated,
shipped against his will, kept in a state of abject sub
jection, drugged and poisoned, and even sometimes
brutally murdered if he, dared resist the oppressions
of these fiends in human form. "To drown men's
souls in rum, to poison, enervate, and destroy their
bodies, and rob them of all their hard earnings, and
leave their widowed mothers, wives, and children,
who are dependent upon them, to beg or starve, is
perfect sport for the ' land-shark.' The great man-

148 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
eater of the deep is satisfied to get the stray carcass of
a sailor occasionally, but these dry-land monsters
must have soul, body, and estate of all the sailors, if
possible." He was equally fearless in his impeachment of duel
ling. It is interesting here to note that he was an in
timate friend of James King of William, and, of course,
heartily approved of the latter's brave and courageous
stand on the subject of " the code." He it was who
nursed King, day and night, after he was shot by Casey,
and was with him when he died. Hence it can well
be imagined that he would have no " soft words " to
utter when, in 1854, he was asked to preach the funeral
sermon of Colonel Woodfief, who had been killed in
a duel by a man named Kewen. While offering
all the consolation and sympathy he could to the be
reaved widow, he expressed his sincere regrets that the
husband had not had the moral courage to do as James
King had done, viz., to refuse to meet the challenger,
whom he called a moral coward. His arraignment
of the " code " was bitter and severe. He showed that
those who participated in duelling were law-breakers,
both in the sight of God and man, and that the sooner
men abandoned their ideas of such false " honor "
the better it would be for them and the country.
One Sunday he preached on the subject " King
David's Fool." His text was " The fool hath said in
his heart, There is no God." In the plainest, most
direct and simple fashion he thrust home these plain
words of the psalmist, and contended that lives speak
louder than words. He asserted that the lives of the

STREET - PREACHING HERO 149
gamblers, rum-sellers, sensualists and others proclaimed
more loudly and certainly than words their belief in
the statement of King David's fool. Then he showed
the folly of the belief, and contended for the wisdom
that recognized the moral control of the universe to
which every human being is subject, and to which,
sooner or later, he must bow.
One thing it is well to note in this street-preaching
work of Mr. Taylor. Though he conducted about
six hundred services, he never took up a collection
for his own personal needs. Several times his enthu
siastic auditors started to take up a collection — and
it is well known that the miners and sailors who often
comprised a large part of his audiences were most
liberal and generous men — but he always restrained
them. He positively refused to have his street serv
ices trammeled by collections. He determined that no
man should be able to impugn his motives and say
that he preached for money.
It is an important historical fact that should not be
forgotten that to William Taylor California owes its
great eucalyptus forests and plantations. After this
chapter was written, I came across his own statement
as to how the eucalyptus was introduced. He says:
" There were no such trees on that coast when I went
there in 1849. ! sent the seed from Australia to my
wife in California in 1863. Her seed-sowing made
such a marvelous growth that a horticulturist neighbor
of ours wrote me to send him a pound of the seed —
the smallest of all seeds — and the nurseries, thus
seeded, dotted the whole country with great forests

150 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
of evergreen, the most prominent floral landmarks
of the Pacific Coast."
It is interesting to note the conditions of things when
Mr. Taylor settled in San Francisco. The Reverend
O. C. Wheeler, the Baptist minister, was paying five
hundred dollars a month rent for a five-roomed house.
The newcomer was aghast at such prices, and soon
decided that the only way for him to live would be
to build a house. But how? Lumber was selling at
from three to four hundred dollars per thousand feet,
and the members of his little church were so poor
that a subscription raised only twenty- seven dollars
— about enough to buy nails and hinges. He then
decided to cross the Bay to the redwoods, and cut out
enough lumber to serve for the building of a house.
He was neither a sawyer, a carpenter, or a builder, but
already he was possessed of that spirit of California
that enables a man of spirit to turn his hand to anything
and accomplish results. A friend accompanied him.
Passage was taken in a whaleboat, and fortunately
another friend lived up the mountain, five miles
away, whither the two walked. In two weeks they
secured enough lumber for the house. Here is Mr.
Taylor's own account : " My scantlings, which I bought
in the rough, split out like large fence rails, I hewed
to the square with my broadaxe. I made three thou
sand shingles, and exchanged them with a pit-sawyer
for twenty-four joists, each seventeen feet long. I
bought rough clapboards six feet long, and shaved
them about as regularly and as smoothly with my
draw-knife as if with a plane. These were for the

STREET PREACHING HERO 151
weather-boarding. I used similar boards, slightly
shaven, for roofing, which were waterproof and very
enduring. I bought the doors from a friend at the
1 reduced price ' of eleven dollars per door; the
windows for one dollar per light, twelve dollars for each
window. Hauling my stuff from the redwoods to the
landing cost me twenty-five dollars per thousand feet.
The regular price for transport thence to San Fran
cisco was forty dollars per thousand feet, but by hiring
a boat and working with my own hands, I got the work
done for less than half that price."
He bought a lot on Jackson Street, above Powell,
for twelve hundred and fifty dollars (on time), and
under the instruction of a brotherly house-builder set
to work. He hired a few carpenters at twelve dollars
a day until the house was roofed in, and then com
pleted the work himself with such casual help as
friends could afford to give. The result was a com
fortable, two-story house, sixteen by twenty-six feet,
built at a cash outlay of $1491.25.
He also enclosed the back part of the lot, and started
a garden. It was the second garden planted in San
Francisco, and was a great surprise and pleasure
to passers-by. A restaurant-keeper one day asked if
he might purchase some of the growing green-stuff, and
was told he might do so at his own price. He gathered
a pailful and offered ten dollars for it, and came again
for more. Three chickens were bought for eighteen
dollars, and though a house was built, with a secure
lock, for their protection, some thief pulled a board
off the back of the house and robbed the roost of its

152 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
contents. This was exasperating, especially as eggs
were selling at six dollars a dozen, wholesale, to be
retailed at nine dollars. To provide milk for his
little girl, Mr. Taylor went to Sacramento and bought
a cow for two hundred dollars. Before this he had been
paying a dollar a quart, and this was supposed to be
a reduced rate.
As we have seen, for seven years he preached in the
streets and elsewhere, in San Francisco, and this was
the beginning of an active career of missionary en
deavor that spread over many lands, carried on with
characteristic energy for over fifty years. Whatever
one may think of his theology, his preaching had won
derful effect in bringing men to see the folly of their
evil lives, and in leading them into paths of sobriety,
honesty, truth and religion. Shortly before he left
California, he went with a gentleman and his wife
and two children for a holiday in the mountains. When
Sunday came some one suggested that he preach to
the couple. With his usual directness, fearlessness and
frankness, and his avowed principle of always adapt
ing his sermon to his hearers, he gave the two a most
searching and admonitory address. He called the
wife's attention to her forgetfulness of former religious
professions, and censured his host for his harsh
speech to his little boy, and his profanity. At the close
of his address the husband grasped him by the hand and
remarked: " I thank you for your candor and your
kindness." In October, 1856, he and his family returned east,
where he preached for three years; then he established

STREET PREACHING HERO 153
missions in Australia, South Africa, India and South
America. In 1884 he was suddenly and unexpectedly
made Missionary Bishop of Africa for the Methodist
Church, and continued at this work -until his death.

CHAPTER XVIII
THE FEARLESS CIVIC HERO OF SAN FRANCISCO, JAMES
KING OF WILLIAM
"True to your God, you were to your country true,
And we will love God more for knowing you."
THE Vigilance Committees of San Francisco have
been discussed all over the civilized globe, and it
is well that young Californians should have a clear
idea of what these committees were, and the facts
that brought them into existence. In the appendix will
be found references to those works that give a full
history. The purpose of this chapter is to show
the heroism of the life of James King of William,
whose murder caused the organization of the most
important of the Vigilance Committees, viz., that of
1856. He was born in Georgetown, District of Columbia, on
January 28, 1822. When a young man " he assumed the
term 'of William,' which was found to be necessary
in order to distinguish him from a number of other
James Kings then living at Georgetown. William was
his father's name. Some men distinguish themselves
from others of the same name by using the word
' senior ' or ' junior ' ' ist,' ' 2nd,' and so on. The
same end was attained in this instance, by adopting the

JAMES KING OF WILLIAM 155
affix ' of William.' It is a custom in some parts of the
United States, and particularly in Maryland, thus to
take the father's given name as a portion of the
son's." He had an elder brother who was a member of
Fremont's expedition of 1846, which crossed the Rock
ies to Cafifornia, and who was with his second expedi
tion of 1848. This brother so filled the mind of James
King with glowing pictures of the future possibilities
of the land by the Sunset Sea that he decided to emi
grate there. This was before gold was discovered
and while California was still an integral part of
Mexico. Accordingly, in 1848, he left Washington
for New York, intending to set sail at once. While
waiting for a vessel he received a letter from his brother
which intimated the change of government which had
just taken place and is interesting reading:
" You must recollect that society is not formed yet
properly in California, and as the population in
creases they will gradually form laws, adapted to
their own peculiar circumstances. I think it would
be well to inform yourself of the situation of the country
and of the rights of the people, for as soon as the treaty
is ratified, public attention there will be at once turned
to the establishment of a civil government. ... I
think it would be best to invest your money, or a portion
of it, in a good rancho, and if you can purchase Joachim
Estrada's, near the mission of San Luis Obispo,
anyways reasonable, with the stock, do it by all means.
Only, have the title examined. This last advice I give
you upon the supposition that you would like an agri-

1 56 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
cultural life. If you can buy a lot or a few yards of the
Quicksilver Mine, you had better do it. The best one
is about six miles from the Pueblo San Jose", near
Mr. Cooke's rancho. If you travel by land between
San Francisco and Monterey, you will pass through
San Jose", and it is but a short ride to the mine. Visit
it by all means, if you are in the neighborhood."
He left New York on May 24, 1848, crossed the
Isthmus of Panama, and sailed for Valparaiso, hoping
there to find a vessel going to Cafifornia. On his arrival
he found Chile excited by the news of the discovery
of gold. Purchasing some goods, he hired nine Chilefios
to proceed with him to work in the mines. Upon their
arrival in San Francisco, six of his workmen deserted
him. He and the other three at once hurried to Hang-
town (as Placerville was then called) and in three weeks
time secured enough gold to pay for his goods and
his expenses from Valparaiso. Then he went to Sacra
mento and engaged for awhile in business, but, as he
was a banker by training, he decided to go East, secure
capital, and open a bank in San Francisco, which he
did on December 5, 1849. He was a man of sterling
integrity, and soon became known throughout the
whole State, doing a large and thriving business. His
wife and four children joined him in 1851, and his
home was one of the hospitable mansions of the new
city. Owing to a diversion of a large sum of money which
he had entrusted to one of his agents in the mines for
the purchase of gold dust, he became saddled with
a speculation. This distressed him, and led him to

JAMES KING OF WILLIAM 157
invest more than he felt his business would warrant,
and such was the high and noble principle of the
man that, immediately he felt in the slightest degree
insecure, he turned over everything he possessed,
including his beautiful home, to another large bank
ing firm, on their undertaking to pay in full all his
creditors. This sensitiveness of honor and scrupulous honesty
added to the high esteem in which he was aheady held.
For it must be remembered that, while among men of
honor the standard of business morality was quite as
high then as it is now, fhe public sentiment of San
Francisco was more liable to be a variable quantity.
The early population of this city was not only cosmo
politan, but woefully varied. While there were many
men of the highest integrity and purest life, there were,
says Hittell, " thieves and ruffians from all parts of the
world, and particularly from the British penal colonies
of New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land." This
criminal element was present in such large force that
" outrages, ever increasing in atrocity, were committed
by them. There was hardly a crime, from pocket-
picking to murder, that was not common; and in the
presence of so many and such bold desperadoes no one
was secure of his property or even of his life. Thefts,
robberies, arsons, and assassinations were of almost
daily occurrence, and of late months (1851) fearfully
on the increase; while the courts, being conducted
by judges and officers who, if not corrupt, were at least
inefficient, afforded no relief."
In 1849 the city had been cleared of notorious ruf-

1 58 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
fians, but in 1851 matters were again so bad that a
Vigilance Committee was organized, and another
clearing out took place.
In 1853, King of William was foreman of the grand
jury, and was thus publicly called upon to do something
to suppress the moral and social abominations and the
political corruptions which were again swamping the
community. So fearlessly did he proceed with ' this
work that his name became a synonym for courage,
purity and integrity.
Then came the change in his fortunes and the transfer
of his business. A little later, to his intense distress,
the banking firm to whom the transfer had been made
and with which he had allied himself, as well as other
prominent houses, failed, and in their failure brought
the usual suffering and loss to many others. While there
has never been the slightest doubt in the minds of all
best qualified to know that King's course was prompted
by the highest principles, and while it is confessed
that not a single person lost financially through him,
it can well be understood that he would be the object
of attack at this time. His replies to his enemies show
a frankness, a candor, and ingenuousness, and disposi
tion to have the world know all the facts that are abso
lutely incompatible with anything but unimpeachable
integrity. But, as a necessary consequence, this placed
others in a less enviable light, and one of these —
a prominent citizen, by name Alfred A. Cohen —
felt himself aggrieved by what King had both written
and said. Three days later they met on Montgomery
Street, and in the encounter that took place Cohen

JAMES KING OF WILLIAM 159
considered himself insulted. That afternoon he sent
to King, by the hand of John K. Hackett, a challenge
to fight a duel. To this challenge Mr. King replied
with the following letter in the newspapers, a letter
that should be well digested by every young student
of the history of moral progress.
" San Francisco, July 18, 1855.
" Mr. John K. Hackett,
" Sir: I now proceed to give you my reply to the
note you handed me last night. At first, waiving other
insuperable objections to the mode indicated of settling
such difficulties, I could not consent to a hostile meeting
with Mr. Cohen. The public have aheady been fully
advised of my estimate of his character. The relative
positions of Mr. Cohen and myself are entirely unequal
in worldly fortune, and domestic relation. He is un
derstood to be possessed of an abundant fortune. In
the event of his fall, he would leave ample means for
the support of his wife and child. Recent events have
stripped me entirely of what I once possessed. Were I
to fall, I should leave a large family without the means
of support. My duties and obligations to my family
have much more weight with me than any desire to
please Mr. Cohen or his friends in the manner pro
posed. I have ever been opposed to duelling on moral
grounds. My opinions were known to Mr. Cohen, and
when he addressed me the note which you had the
impudence to deliver, he was well aware that it would
not be accepted or answered affirmatively. That fact
is sufficient to demonstrate his contemptible cowardice

160 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
in this silly attempt to manufacture for himself a
reputation for ' chivalry.'
" Whilst nothing could induce me to change my
principles upon the subject of duelling, my conscience
is perfectly easy as to my right and the propriety of
defending myself should I be assaulted.
" Do not flatter yourself, sir, that this communi
cation is made out of regard either to yourself or to Mr.
Cohen. I write this for publication in the newspapers.
I avow principles of which I am not ashamed, and
shall abide the result.
" James King of Wm."
Here was the gauntlet flung with dignity and power
in the very face of the " chivalry." It was the first
time in the history of California that any one had had
the moral courage to refuse to fight a duel when chal
lenged. Expressions of sympathy and gratification
at Mr. King's course at once began to pour in upon
him, among others the following, signed by seventy
of the most prominent and honored men of the city:
" Your fellow citizens, whose names are subscribed
to this letter, desire to express to you their admiration
of the moral courage and sound principle manifested
in your refusal to accept the challenge of Mr. Cohen to
meet him in a duel. We believe that the so-called
code of honor which requires all who consent to be
governed by it to submit every injury, insult, misrepre
sentation or misunderstanding to the decision of the
pistol or the knife, and to be in violation of the law

JAMES KING OF WILLIAM 161
of God, and of the laws of this State, and of those
sacred obligations which a man owes to his family,
his relatives and dependents, and to society.
" We are convinced that if an expression of the senti
ment of this community could be had upon this subject,
a very large majority would be found to view with ab
horrence the risking of life for insufficient cause, and
often upon a mere punctilio; and that we express the
feeling common to them, as well as ourselves, when we
thank you for the bold, manly and uncompromising
manner in which you have refused to sanction the
practice. With the expression of an earnest hope,
that if no higher principle should govern our fellow
citizens, a regard for their interest may soon induce
them to see to it that good laws well administered
shall in future save us from violence and bloodshed;
and with assurances of our high esteem and regard,
we remain, " Your obedient servants."
Hittell says: "King's stand upon the subject (of
duelling), on account of its accordance with the law
and its being recognized as dictated by enlightened
principle, was considered as doing him great credit,
and gained him very great applause. Nearly all the
newspapers of the day heartily praised it; and no one
dared openly to disapprove obedience to the constitu
tion and statutes. Though some duels have since taken
place and some men still adhere or profess to adhere
to the code, few or no duels between otherwise respect
able men have taken place for a number of years; and

162 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
James King of William, more than any other man, is
entitled to the praise of having started the movement
that put a stop to the barbarous practice."
We now come to the part James King of William
played in exposing municipal corruption, his assassina
tion, and the resulting formation of the great Vigilance
Committee of 1856.
Owing to his financial troubles and those of the
firm of Adams and Company, he was called upon to
make several defences and explanations in the public
papers. " His success in these and a consideration of
the effect produced by his plain, direct, incisive, Anglo-
Saxon sentences upon the public mind seem to have
suggested to himself and some of his friends the feasi
bility of starting a newspaper. Accordingly he made
the proper arrangements, and on the evening of Monday,
October 8, 1855, issued the first number of the Daily
Evening Bulletin, a small sheet of four pages, ten by
fifteen inches in size. In his salutatory, he said that
necessity, not choice, had driven him to the experiment,
and that no one could be more fully sensible than him
self of the folly of a newspaper enterprise as an invest
ment of money. " But," he continued, " we invest no
money of our own (for we have none) ; and only a few
hundred dollars, generously advanced us by a few
friends, is all that we have risked in the enterprise.
If successful, we shall be able to feed, clothe and shelter
our family in San Francisco, where the school facili
ties are such as in justice to those who have claims upon
us, we are unwilling to forego."
Then began a series of attacks of the most fearless,

JAMES KING OF WILLIAM 163
direct, open and manly character upon every person,
firm, institution, judge, senator, congressman, called
by name, whom he regarded as guilty of dishonest,
corrupt, wicked or fraudulent acts. He spared no one.
" His language was not choice, nor his denunciations
as well rounded and rhetorical as they might have
been! But he was an honest man, a true patriot, and
deadly in earnest to save the city and State he loved
from being made the playthings of corrupt men, who
desired nothing but their own unholy gain and ambi
tions." The result was the people had faith in him, and his
paper bounded into a success and popularity that was
as instantaneous as it was remarkable. As stated by
himself: " Would the San Francisco public sustain a
truly independent journal — one that would support
the cause of morality, virtue and honesty, whether
in public service or private life, and which, regardless
of all conseqences, would fearlessly and undauntedly
maintain its course against the political and social evils
of the day?"
" The answer Yes! was soon and loudly made, and
enthusiastically echoed from every town and mining
camp in the country."
"A notorious and professed banking house, but which
was virtually a political institution (that of Palmer,
Cook and Co.), that had long overridden the constitu
tion, and made and unmade — against the will of the
people, and by the most disreputable means — nearly
every officer of the city and State, was assailed by the
Bulletin in regular form; and its corruption, its inso-

164 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
lent and dangerous usurpation, and at the same time its
inherent weakness, exposed. The wrongers and swin
dlers of the unfortunate creditors of Adams and Com
pany (the bankers with whom he had been connected),
were pitilessly attacked and held up to the scorn and
detestation of the people. The demoralizing system
of bestowing Federal, State and city appointments
chiefly on professional gamblers, duellists, rowdies and
assassins — on the debauched, illiterate, idle, criminal,
and most dangerous class of the mixed population of
the country — was forcibly pointed out and indig
nantly condemned. A high standard of honesty was
laid down for all public men. The law's cruel delay,
the baseness and corruption of its ministers, the dis
honorable professional conduct of leading pleaders
in the courts, all were made plain to the honest and
unsuspecting, and properly stigmatized. In short,
the glaring evils of the body politic, the denial and
perversion of justice, and the unworthy personal char
acter and incapability of the general class of men who
held office, or who were connected with the courts of
law, were loudly and unsparingly denounced. Mr.
King did not waste his energies by uttering smooth,
general homilies on evil doings; he struck directly
at the evil-doer. If a man whose conduct required to
be publicly exposed were really a swindler, a gambler,
or a duellist, a common cheat, a corrupt judge, or a
political trickster, the Bulletin, standing alone in this
respect among the timid, time-serving, or bribed city
press, dared so to style him. But not only did Mr.
King, in his paper, expose scoundrelism, vice and crime,

JAMES KING OF WILLIAM 165
and smite their votaries wherever he detected them;
he also endeavored, and not in vain, to aid in whatever
could restore and strengthen the moral tone of society.
He urged the decent observance of the Sabbath; ie
recalled public attention to the plainest and most
necessary dictates of religion; he encouraged the es
tablishment of public schools, and dwelt on the bless
ings of a sound and liberal education; he frowned on
gambling, duelling, and wilful idleness; he sought to
soothe and reinspire the desponding who had the desire
but lacked the opportunity, and especially the energy
and perseverance, to earn a living by the sweat of then-
brow; he strove to free the city from the unblushing
presence of the lewd who had so long assumed inso
lently to follow, if not often to lead, the virtuous and
decent portion of the community. The political knave,
the dishonest office-holder, the gambler, swindler,
loafer, and duellist, the base class of lawyers — in
brief, the vicious, lewd and criminal of every kind, were
in consternation; their unhallowed practice and gains
were disappearing."
Hittell declares: " No such newspaper, or anything
like it, had appeared in the city or country, and per
haps not in any other country before. It was an ideal
fighting journal. It was heroic. Whatever might be
its mistakes and its errors, it was sincere and it meant
right. ... It was exactly what the people wanted and
they responded unreservedly. In the fearful condition
of public affairs, with fraud and corruption and crime
and immorality of every kind and nature on every
side, it formed a rallying point, towards which all the

166 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
elements of law, order, honesty, and integrity could
converge, and around which they could arrange them
selves." Things thus continued until on Saturday evening,
November 17, only a little more than a month after
the Bulletin was started, the city was startled by the
cowardly assassination of William H. Richardson,
United States marshal for the district of California,
by a gambler named Charles Cora. It cannot be denied
that Richardson was not altogether an ornament to
his high office, but the murder was so flagrant, so
cowardly, so despicable, that public feeling ran high,
and there was an instant demand that the city officials
do their duty.
But Cora had protectors of financial strength in the
class to which he belonged, and also in the fact that
a dissolute woman of great wealth was his paramour.
It soon became rumored that the most eloquent and
able lawyers had been retained in his defense, and also
that a corruption fund had been raised. At this,
King's voice rang out clear. He demanded a full trial
and a speedy one, and that if the officials failed in their
duty the people should arise again in their majesty
as the source of political power and with full observ
ance of justice duly try and punish these recreants and
betrayers of the public trust. He mentioned the keeper
of the city jail and the sheriff by name, and placed the
responsibility for the murderer's safe-keeping where
it belonged.
The trial was had, the facts of the murder were clearly
established, yet, as the public anticipated, the jury

JAMES KING OF WILLIAM 167
was hung, seven voting for a verdict of murder, one
for manslaughter, and four for acquittal. The Bulletin
that afternoon came out with a terrific onslaught on
the disreputable element, on trickery of the law, and
the veniality of the lawyers. Day after day, his sledge
hammer blows continued. People who professed to
despise his paper, who had cause for fear, were in
hourly dread lest their misdeeds should be made known.
King became the most powerful man in the State,
because of his simple, direct, unpurchasable honesty,
his fearlessness and his determination to expose those
who were ruining the city he loved.
There was but one result to be anticipated. Even
in our day, with all the officials of our large cities
ostensibly enrolled on the side of the cause of civic
righteousness, it would be dangerous for a- man to
call by name those who were in high position and en
gaged in criminal or immoral pursuits. Whether a
conspiracy was formed, as was alleged, or not, there
is no doubt but that the forces of evil combined and
it was determined to " put King out of the way." The
occasion arose four months later, when King opposed
the appointment of one Bagley to the position in the
United States Custom-house, on the ground that he
had, shortly before, engaged in a pistol fight with James
P. Casey, one of the supervisors. But while Bagley
was attacked, Casey was not spared, for the editorial
continued (and it must be remembered that King's
statements were true) : " It does not matter how
bad a man Casey has been, nor how much benefit it
might be to the public to have him out of the way, we

168 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
cannot accord to any one citizen the right to kill him,
or even beat him, without justifiable personal provo
cation. The fact that Casey has been an inmate of
Sing Sing prison in New York is no offense against the
laws of this State; nor is the fact of his having stuffed
himself through the ballot-box, as elected to the board
of supervisors from a district where it is said he was
not even a candidate, any justification why Mr. Bagley
should shoot Casey, however richly the latter many
deserve having his neck stretched for such fraud on
the people."
The upshot of this attack on Casey was that, affer
an interview between himself and King, when the
latter ordered him out of his office, Casey shot him
with the same cold-blooded deliberation tfiat Cora had
displayed in the murder of Richardson. For while
King lingered six days, it was feared that his wound
was fatal. This murder drove the city wild. The
populace was now aroused, and woe betide any lawyer
or official or judge who would dare, in the slightest,
to obstruct the path of speedy justice. King was still
in the hands of the physicians, when it was quietly
rumored that the call for the gathering of the Vigilance
Committee had been sent out. This rumor was prema
ture, but it was made a fact the following day. The
next few days saw the committee reenrolled, fully
organized in companies of one hundred, well-armed,
in perfect control and under efficient leadership, and
on the following Sunday morning, at noon, San Fran
cisco witnessed the quiet and orderly assembling of
several companies of the Vigilantes, who, at a given

JAMES KING OF WILLIAM 169
moment, silently and solemnly marched to the old
Broadway jail under the shadow of Telegraph Hill.
" They came together," says Hittell, " with admirable,
almost mathematical precision; and, as they fell into
position, they of course understood what was intended.
It was an extraordinary spectacle. The whole place was
closely invested by armed men, not indeed in uniform,
but with muskets and bayonets flashing in the brilliant
sunlight. Some few had hunting rifles or shot-guns,
and one tall Nantucket whaleman, besides a navy
revolver in his belt, carried a harpoon and several
fathoms of rope on his shoulder. Around and, as it
were, hemming in all, crowding the streets, covering
the summit and vacant slopes of Telegraph Hill and
the neighboring roofs, and filling the porticoes and
windows, were dense masses of people, eager to see
what was to be done, and hushed in expectation."
The leaders of the Vigilantes demanded from Sheriff
Scannell the surrender of the jail, and also the persons
of the two prisoners, — Cora (who was being held for
a new trial) and Casey. In due time they were both
forthcoming, and were lodged in an impromptu jail
provided by the Vigilance Committee at their head
quarters. The day of Cora's trial was set for Tuesday, the
20th of May, and soon after it began the marshal an
nounced the death of King, which had just occurred.
Cora was found guilty. Then Casey's trial took place,
with the same result. Both men were sentenced to
death, and, on Thursday, the twenty-second, at the
time King's funeral was taking place, Cora and Casey

i7o HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
were hanged at the Vigilance Headquarters on Sacra
mento Street. King was buried at Lone Mountain,
while Cora and Casey were both entombed in the old
Mission Dolores Cemetery, where their elaborate
tombstones are still objects of interest to the curious.
King was dead, but his memory still lives, and
though corruption has since flourished in the city for
which he gave his life, there can be no question but
that the good he accomplished has continued to seed
and will in the years yet to come bring forth good fruit.

CHAPTER XIX
THE ELOQUENT HERO OF PATRIOTISM, THOMAS STARR
KING
TT will be difficult for almost every young reader
¦*- of this sketch of Thomas Starr King to realize
to the full the significance of tfie statement that, during
our Civil War, this Unitarian clergyman was, without
question, the foremost citizen of California. To under
stand this term aright, even in a limited measure, it
is necessary to make clear the condition California was
in at the dawn of the rebellion. There was a large
Southern population, and some of the important offices
were held by open Southern sympathizers. Prior to
i860 it might be said with truth that a large number of
Californians were in favor of slavery and Southern
principles in general. In the presidential campaign of
i860 John B. Weller delivered a speech for the Breck-
enridge, or so-called " chivalry " Democrats, in which
he said: "I do not know whether Lincoln will be
elected or not, but I do know that, if he is elected and
if he attempts to carry out his doctrines, the South will
surely withdraw from the Union. And I should con
sider them less than men if they did not."
The Democrats of the State were widely divided
in the i860 election, but there can be little doubt that,
had they stood together, they would have carried the

172 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
State by an overwhelming majority, the combined vote
of the two sections of the party totalling about seventy-
two thousand, while the Republican vote was only
about thirty-nine thousand. And had the State had a
Democratic governor and officials, there is no knowing
what a struggle the loyalists would have had thrust
upon them. As it was, the fight was sharp and severe,
for while Governor Downey was a professed Unionist,
he was " still hampered with old-time doctrines when
slavery ruled unquestioned, and he did not receive and
welcome soon enough the new light of freedom which
had arisen in the land." The military commander of
the Department of California was Brigadier- General
Albert Sidney Johnston, a native of Kentucky, and a
strong Southern champion. But he was relieved in
favor of a Union general, went immediately South,
and was killed while leading the secession army at the
battle of Shiloh. Yet in July, 1861, — over three
months after Fort Sumter had been fired upon, and
tfie war was fairly begun, — a prominent lawyer named
Edmund Randolph, who had been thought to be a
staunch Unionist, made a speech at a Democratic
convention in Sacramento in which he said: " My
thoughts and my heart are not here to-night in this
house. Far to the east, in the homes from which we
came, tyranny and usurpation, with arms in its hands,
is this night, perhaps, slaughtering our fathers, our
brothers, and our sisters, and outraging our homes in
every conceivable way shocking to the heart of humanity
and freedom. To me it seems a waste of time to talk.
For God's sake, tell me of battles fought and won.

THOMAS STARR KING.
Taken about 1858.

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THOMAS STARR KING 173
Tell me of usurpers overthrown; that Missouri is
again a free State, no longer crushed under the armed
heel of a reckless and odious despot. Tell me that
the State of Maryland lives again; and oh! let us read,
let us hear, at the first moment, that not one hostile foot
now treads the soil of Virginia! If this be rebellion,
then I am a rebel. Do you want a traitor ? Then am I
a traitor. For God's sake, speed the ball; may the
lead go quick to his heart, and may our country
be free from the despot usurper that now claims the
name of President of the United States."
Not so much was thought or said of this, as it was
put down to the extravagance of excitement, but when,
the following month, the leading Presbyterian clergy
man of San Francisco, who had come from New
Orleans, began to preach secession to his congrega
tion (in which were many Unionists as well as Southern
sympathizers), and to pray for " presidents and vice-
presidents," the city and State were up in arms.
Out over the tumult of the city at once was heard a
trumpet call to duty that thrilled every heart. It was
a comparatively new voice in California, and that of a
man only about thirty-five years of age, yet it had al
ready been heard by delighted thousands on various
topics of spiritual and ethical value. It was that of
Thomas Starr King. He had already clearly shown
his position in regard to the rebellion by lectures on
Washington, Daniel Webster and the Constitution of the
United States, Lexington and Concord, and by preach
ing a rousingly patriotic sermon entitled " The Great
Uprising." In this sermon, " after emphatically de-

i74 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
daring that it is the duty of a Christian minister to
feel no personal animosity to any human being, he
distinguished between a wrong done to himself and a
wrong done to the community. He illustrated the
distinction in this reference to the President of the
Confederate States : ' He is a representative to my soul
of a force of evil. His cause is pollution and a horror.
His banner is a black flag. I could pray for him as
one man, a brother man, in his private, affectional,
and spiritual relations to heaven. But as President
of the seceding States, head of brigand forces, organic
representative of the powers of destruction within our
country, — pray for him! — as soon for Antichrist!
Never! ' It would, he added, be as incongruous for
him as he prayed for Abraham Lincoln, as it would be
for an English churchman, during the Sepoy rebellion,
to have prayed for Queen Victoria and Nana Sahib
in the same breath." The close of his sermon solemnly
echoed the tone that rang through the paragraphs
preceding it: " God bless the President of the United
States, and all who serve with him the cause of a common
country! God grant the blessing of repentance and
return to allegiance to all our enemies, even the traitors
in their high places! God preserve from defeat and
disgrace the sacred flag of our fathers! God give us
all the spirit of service and sacrifice 'in a righteous
cause! "
The effect of such clean-cut, direct patriotism was
soon felt, not only in San Francisco and the State of
California, but throughout the whole nation. In Cali
fornia, besides the large number friendly to the South,

THOMAS STARR KING 175
and the Unionists, there was a considerable army of
the timid, the lukewarm, the " temporizers," — those
who doubted the wisdom or prudence of using force
against the rebels.
To convince these of their duty to the Union became
Starr King's passion, and he went up and down the
State, into cities, towns, lumber and mining camps,
agricultural settlements, tiny villages and hamlets,
anywhere, everywhere he could secure an audience,
and cried aloud his message of patriotism and loyalty.
In the words of a former president of the State Univer
sity, his own son-in-law, Horace Davis: "His power
and influence were soon felt, and strong measures
were used to force him out of the field. He received
anonymous letters hinting at assassination. He was
openly threatened with personal violence, and pistols
were actually drawn on him in rude interior camps;
but no persuasion, either of love or fear, could turn
him from what he deemed his high privilege of defend
ing his country."
After the elections had made all secure as far as
official loyalty was concerned, he set forth with equal
earnestness, vigor and eloquence to call upon the people
of his adopted State to give real and practical, visible and
tangible help to the cause, as well as their sympathy.
The East was sending men and money. California
was sending neither. He cried: "If the government
thinks it best not to call on us for men, we can at least
send our money for the wounded, the sick and the
suffering." In Mr. Davis's words : " Mr. King entered into

176 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
his movement with intense energy, for it appealed to
his whole nature. . . . He traversed the State in its
length and breadth, appealing to their love of country
and their pity for the sick and wounded soldiers, or
ganizing committees everywhere to carry on the work,
over the Siskiyou Mountains by stage into Oregon,
and on north to Puget Sound and Vancouver's Island.
You know the result, the inestimable mercies and
comforts that came to our soldiers from these gifts.
The Pacific Coast gave nearly one and a half million
dollars; and its gifts came at the most critical period,
when they could do the greatest good.
" The money thus raised was the ' Sanitary Fund,'
supplying the ' ammunition ' for the work of the
Sanitary Commission, which cared for the sick and
wounded soldiers and their wives and children; and
California and the Pacific Coast, aroused by Starr
King's stirring eloquence, raised for this work almost
as much as the rest of the United States combined.
He showed us it was our duty to do this, owing to our
not sending any soldiers to participate actively in the
conflict." At his death, one of our California poets and phil
osophers, James Linen, thus wrote: " Although physi
cally weak, Thomas Starr King was mentally strong,
and the deep-toned thunders of his voice made the
formidable fabric of political corruption tremble to its
base. No man could wield intellectual weapons more
vigorously, or like him carry by storm the convictions
of an audience. By his warm and powerful appeals,
stubborn prejudice melted away. His was never a

THOMAS STARR KING 177
puerile conflict, but a battle of moral strength. It
was a warfare enlisted on the side of grand patriotic
principles, which he proudly refused to compromise.
His glowing eloquence threw a charm and splendor over
all his controversies. His mind was liberal and com
prehensive. Free from arrogance and pride, he was
affable and courteous in his manner. He was plain
in appearance and gentle as a lamb among his friends.
He was terrible, however, in his grand philippics
against rebels and the abettors of treason. Viewing
slavery as a moral, withering evil, an enemy of free
institutions, and the cause of all his country's troubles,
he sought its overthrow as a national curse, and con
sequently directed all the energies of his mental power
against the demoralizing system. He loved his country,
and glorified in its starry flag, which gives assurance of
protection to millions.
" No one could question the lofty purity of his pa
triotism. While he regretted the existing rebellion,
he nobly advocated its speedy repression. His warmest
sympathies were with the sacred cause of freedom,
which he looked upon as the cause of God. His feelings
were entirely on the side of Liberty and her brave de
fenders, the gallant soldiers of the North."
Tireless in his efforts, sparing not himself in the great
cause that was so dear to his heart, his feeble body felt
the fearful strain. As one of his Eastern friends wrote:
" The soul of this Christian patriot seemed to kindle
into an ever-increasing blaze with the fuel which the
events of the war supplied, and it constantly broadened
as it blazed. Indeed, the only question started by

178 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
his admiring friends was this: How long will this un
wearied inward fire continue before it begins to con
sume the frail body which contains it ? "
It was not long before the question was answered.
Attacked by a throat disease, supposed to have been
diphtheria, he was carried away so rapidly that his
physician, when the distinguished patient demanded to
know his condition, was compelled to answer that he
did not think he could live another half hour. With
bravery and calmness he heard this death-sentence,
dictated and signed his will, sent messages to his East
ern friends, bade a loving adieu to his loved ones,
and quietly and fearlessly took the hand of Death,
and went into the presence of God.
The Rev. William D. Simonds thus tersely states
the effect of his life upon his own and succeeding gen
erations: " Scarcely forty years of age, a Californian
only from i860 to 1864, he had in this brief period
so won the hearts of men that in honor of his funeral
the legislature and all the courts adjourned, the na
tional authorities fired minute guns in the bay, while
all the flags in the city of San Francisco and on the
ships hung at half-mast. How Californians loved this
man we can but dimly understand, the feeling was so
tender, strange and deep. Men of the most diverse
creeds, agreeing in little else, were united in calling
Starr King the ' Saint of the Pacific Coast.' Not all
the years that since have passed — years so fatal to
many reputations — have hidden from the thought of
the people the story of that saintly life. One of the
giant sequoia trees of the Mariposa Grove bears his

THOMAS STARR KING 179
name, and a dome of the High Sierras near the Yosem-
ite Valley is called Mount Starr King. Loving hands
have made his grave under the shadow of that church
which is his monument, and Golden Gate Park contains
a splendid statue of the preacher and patriot — the
man ' who saved California to the Union.' "
WHITTIER ON THOMAS STARR KING
" The great work laid upon his two score years
Is done, and well done. If we drop our tears
Who loved him as few men were ever loved,
We mourn no blighted hope nor broken plan
With him whose life stands rounded and approved
In the full growth and stature of a man.
Mingle, O bells, along the western slope,
With your deep toll a sound of faith and hope !
Wave cheerily still, O banner, half-way down,
From thousand-masted bay and steepled town I
Let the strong organ with its loftiest swell
Lift the proud sorrow of the land, and tell
That the brave sower saw his ripened grain.
O east and west, O morn and sunset, twain
No more forever I — has he lived in vain
Who, priest of freedom, made ye one, and told
Vour bridal service from his life of gold."

CHAPTER XX
THE HEROIC HUNTER OF GRIZZLY BEARS, JAMES CAPEN
ADAMS
IN the early '50's and '6o's one of the picturesque
figures of San Francisco was James Capen Adams,
well known over the whole continent as hunter and
tamer of grizzly bears, who had taught two great
grizzlies to carry his packs for him when he went on
his mountaineering trips. Indeed, so remarkable were
his adventures, that Theodore H. Hittell, one of Cali
fornia's historians, wrote a dignified book of nearly
four hundred pages giving a graphic account of his
experiences. From this book the following extracts
are made.
Adams was born in Medway, Massachusetts, in 1807.
He was whole-souled in whatever he undertook, so
when he grew tired of shoe- making and engaged himself
to capture wild animals for a company of showmen, he
entered into his new enterprise with a will. While still
a young man, the rash daring of his character revealed
itself in his determination to conquer a Bengal tiger
that had hitherto proven intractable. After entering
its cage several times, he began to pride himself upon his
success, when the treacherous creature fell upon him,
swept him to the ground and drove his teeth and claws
into him. He was rescued with the utmost difficulty.

JAMES CAPEN ADAMS 181
This disaster put a stop to Adams's hunting for some
fifteen or more years; and for a time rendered it prob
lematical whether he would ever recover.
When the Cafifornia gold excitement broke out,
Adams joined the great army of pioneers and reached
the Golden State by way of Mexico in the fall of 1849.
He had various experiences, until, in the fall of 1852,
to use his own words, " disgusted with the world and
dissatisfied witfi myself, I abandoned all my schemes
for the accumulation of wealth, turned my back upon
the society of my fellows, and took the road towards
the most unfrequented parts of the Sierra Nevada,
resolved henceforth to make the wilderness my home
and wild beasts my companions."
He became friendly with a near by band of Indians,
and they helped him in various ways, showing him their
method of tanning the skins of the animals he shot.
He made for himself a complete suit of buckskin, and
ever after this was his costume. When the Indians
moved down the river to avoid the winter, Adams re
mained alone, and for months he did not see a human
being. Yet he declares these to have been the happiest
months of his life. He thus describes the grizzly king
of the mountains:
" The mountains are the favorite haunts of the
grizzly bear, the monarch of American beasts, and,
in many respects, the most formidable animal in the
world to be encountered. In comparison with the lion
of Africa and the tiger of Asia, though these may ex
hibit more activity and blood-thirstiness, the grizzly
is not second in courage and excels them in power.

18a HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Like the regions which he inhabits, there is a vastness in
his strength which makes him a fit companion for the
monster trees and giant rocks of the Sierra, and places
him, if not the first, at least in the first rank of all quad
rupeds.

" The grizzly bear of California, in the consciousness
of strength and magnanimity of courage, alone of all
animals, stands unappalled in the face of any enemy,
and turns not from the sight of man. He may not
seek the conflict, but he never flies from it. He may
not feed upon royal meat, nor feel the flow of royal
blood in his veins; but he is unapproachable, over
whelming. The lion and the tiger are like the desert
with its fiery simoons and tornadoes; the grizzly bear
of California like the mountains with their frosts and
avalanches. . . .
" He sometimes weighs as much as two thousand
pounds. He is of a brown color, sprinkled with grayish
hairs. When aroused, he is, as has been said before,
the most terrible of all animals in the world to en
counter; but ordinarily will not attack man, except
under peculiar circumstances. It is of this animal
that the most extraordinary feats of- strength are re
corded. It is said, with truth, that he can carry off a
full-grown horse or buffalo, and that, with one blow
of his paw, he can stop a mad bull in full career. When
roused, and particularly when wounded, there is no
end to his courage; he fights till the last spark of life
expires, fearing no odds, and never deigning to turn

JAMES CAPEN ADAMS 183
his heel upon the combat. It is to him that the appella
tions of science, ursus ferox and ursus horribilis are
peculiarly applicable."
Adams thus describes his camp : " It consisted
merely of a convenient spot, where wood, water and
herbage were near at hand. There we would unpack
our mules, turn them out to graze, and build a large
fire, which was seldom allowed to go down. In the day,
this fire served for culinary purposes; at night, for
warmth and protection. I slept invariably in my blan
kets, upon the ground; never in any house, or within
any inclosure, unless the weather was rainy, when a
few boughs, disposed into a kind of booth, would con
stitute all my shelter from the elements. On a few
occasions, a blanket was spread to keep off the rain
or dampness; but, as a general rule, my bed was
entirely exposed."
When Adams entered the mountains, it was with no
intention of becoming a hunter of bears. This change
came about owing to the fact that his brother dis
covered his whereabouts, came to see him, and finally
urged him to enter into a partnership, by the terms
of which he was to capture wild animals alive, or
secure their skins, send them to his brother and
receive a certain share of the proceeds. About this
time he fell in with a man named William Sykesey,
who for some time became a sharer in his perils and
dangers. One of his first experiences was to shoot a grizzly
bear and then capture her two year-old cubs, both of
which he tamed, and one of which became his insep-

184 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
arable companion and friend for many years, — the
celebrated Lady Washington.
After slaying the mother, he thought he could easily
secure the cubs. Says he: " As I rushed at them, they
retreated; as I pursued, they broke away, and, doub
ling, shot past with a rapidity of motion which de
fied all my skill. I chased a long time without success;
and, finally, when they and I were nearly worn out,
they suddenly turned and made so violent an attack
upon me that I was compelled, for my personal safety,
to betake myself to a tree, and was glad to find one to
climb. Although but little more than a year old, I saw
that they had teeth and claws which were truly formi
dable." For half an. hour they kept him treed and then, not
" understanding the art of starving an enemy " —
as an older bear does — they went away. But he was
now bent on their capture, and with the aid of some
Indians finally succeeded in doing so by lying in wait
for them at the spring where they came to drink. While
awaiting their coming and a good opportunity to
capture them, he shot and killed another grizzly, which
supplied him with meat. Here is his account of his part
of the capture. When the animals came he pursued
one and the Indians the other : " My cub, which proved
to be a female, bounded into the plain, and required a
long chase. She ran quite a mile before it was possible
for me to throw the lasso, which was no sooner over
her head than she poked it off, and started on again. I
followed several miles, and threw the lasso over her
again and again, as many as seven times, before it kept

JAMES CAPEN ADAMS 185
its place; but it did finally retain its hold, and she was
mine. I immediately sprang from my horse, and,
whipping out a muzzle and cords from my pockets,
soon had her bound head and foot. She was so beau
tiful that I had to stop and admire her some time
before going to see what my comrades had done.
" They had been equally successful, though they
had not come off so easily in the combat, having been
pretty well scratched."
Adams gives a long account of his experiences in
taming Lady Washington and Jackson, as he respect
ively named his two cubs, and he contends that if
the bear be taken early enough — even the dreaded
grizzly — " he grows up a devoted friend, exhibiting
such remarkable qualities of domestication as almost
to lead one to suppose that he was intended, as well as
the dog, for the companionship of man."
Be this as it may, if certainly was not long before
he had these cubs well-trained, and in the course of
his narrative he tells us of Lady Washington's accom
panying him on his trips, carrying his packs, warning
him of the presence of foes, sleeping by his side and
saving him from cold, and of Ben Franklin — another
grizzly which he captured later — saving his life, for
he had taught Ben to go hunting with him.
On one occasion he and Sykesey built a bear trap oppo
site a precipitous hill which was covered with chaparral,
and appeared entirely overgrown with a thick and
vigorous vegetation of creeping and branching vines
which had become interwoven. Here let Adams tell the
story.

186 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
" One evening as we were about giving over work
for the day, my attention was attracted by a noise
on this hill; and, upon casting my eyes upward, I
beheld a large grizzly bear coming down, back fore
most, allowing her weight to carry her, while she re
tarded what would otherwise have been too rapid a
descent by holding on to the rocks and bushes with her
claws. So ludicrous was this mode of progression, —
if coming down tail foremost can be called progression,
and so droll her movements in catching at every twig
and branch in her course, that, but for the danger of
my situation, I could have laughed outright. As, how
ever, laughing or any other noise, under the circum
stances, might have exposed us to immediate peril,
I kept perfectly silent, and beckoned Sykesey to reach
me my rifle, which was leaning against a tree near where
he stood. As he did so, I whispered that we were in a
dangerous situation, and that it would require all our
coolness and nerve to escape destruction. At the same
time, I cautioned him to reserve his fire and be ready
in case my shot should prove ineffectual; and, at all
events, to stand by me in case of extremity. I spoke
thus, because the fellow seemed frightened; but this
solemn talk frightened him still more; he, however,
promised to obey my instructions, and stand by me like
a man. " By this time the bear had slid down within shoot
ing distance; but, her position not presenting so fair
a mark as was desired, and there not now being light
enough to procure good aim, I was loath to fire; never
theless, feeling that it would be the only opportunity,

JAMES CAPEN ADAMS 187
and trusting to good fortune, I blazed away. The smoke
hardly lifted, and the echoes were hardly still, when,
crack! went Sykesey's rifle too; and, upon looking
around, I saw that he not only had fired, but had also
taken to his heels, and was running as fast as his legs
would carry him, leaving me to take the chances alone.
There was, however, no time to reprove this cowardly
conduct, for the bear now came down with a tumbling
plunge, and I drew my bowie-knife in the expectation
of an immediate conflict. Indeed, I braced myself for
a deadly encounter, when, very unexpectedly, the
bear rushed past, perhaps not seeing me, and bounded
away for the dense thicket in the ravine below. Her
motions, and a few drops of blood which stained her
course, showed that she was badly wounded. Catching
up my rifle, and reloading as quickly as possible, I
pursued, in hopes of obtaining another shot and finish
ing the business; but before I was able to overtake
her she gained the thicket, which was too dense, and
it was now too dark, to attempt to enter."
The following day, as they passed the spot where
the bear disappeared in the chaparral, Adams taunted
Sykesey and declared that if he would exhibit a little
more courage than he had done on the preceding eve
ning he would enter the chaparral and look for the
animal. On Sykesey protesting that he would " stand
by him to the last drop of his blood," they entered the
thicket and followed the track of the bear, only to find
her dead in her den.
Soon after this they saw several large black wolves
in a ravine, while they were on the top of a high preci-

188 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
pice almost over them. Adams shot, killing two and
wounding another in the shoulder. He says:
" Having no thought of any difficulty, I dropped
my rifle, drew my knife, climbed down the precipice,
and gave the wounded wolf chase. Upon overtaking
him I seized him by the tail and threw him upon the
ground, with the object of stabbing him; but, by an
unexpected turn, he snapped at my right forearm and
completely penetrated it with his fangs, and so potent
was the bite that the knife dropped from my unnerved
hand. For a few moments the pain was excessive;
but when the first paroxysm was a little over, I drew
my revolver, and finished the beast by a shot in the
heart. Upon turning up my buckskin sleeve, the
blood flowed profusely, and the wound showed itself
to be severe; one of much less severity, received from a
coyote bite since my return from the wilderness, and
the help of three surgeons, kept my arm in a sling eight
months, and came near costing me my hand.
" But, in the mountains, I acted as my own doctor,
and practised the water-cure system with great success.
I therefore merely directed my Indian, when he had
loaded his rifle, and came up, to wet my handkerchief
in cold water and wrap it tightly about the wound. In
civilized life, when an injury of this kind is received, it
is poulticed and bandaged; sometimes probed and
lanced; and, frequently, very bad work indeed is the
result; but experience has taught me that cold water
and nature are apt to be better than salves and doctors;
and I would undertake to cure almost any bite, not
poisonous, by simply dressing it with cold water. A

JAMES CAPEN ADAMS 189
simple cut of the finger by nature heals rapidly, but,
if plastered up, remains sore many days."
While thus wounded he had to walk to his camp,
several miles through an almost unexplored region,
and on the way killed a coyote and had a good scare
from a panther. The next morning, after more water
treatment, his wound was free from soreness and soon
healed. One day, as he was returning home, he gave his rifle
to one of his companions, and with Lady Washington
started to go alone. Tempted to shoot some antelope
with his pistol, he got into thick chaparral, then sud
denly bethought himself that it might be dangerous,
as there were signs of numerous grizzlies around.
He finally decided to return and began backing out.
" Suddenly," he says, " Lady Washington gave a
snort and chattered her teeth. I wheeled around at this,
and directly behind the Lady, full in sight, standing
upon his hind legs and wickedly surveying us, stood a
savage old grizzly. That he had hostile intentions,
all his actions clearly showed; and there I was, almost
without arms, and with the Lady as well as myself to
take care of.
" In this emergency, I seized the chain with which
the Lady was usually tied, and which was now wrapped
about her neck, and unwound it as noiselessly as pos
sible. I was then about to move to a tree which stood
near, when the enemy dropped upon his all fours, came
a little nearer, and rose again. Here was a dilemma. I
knew from the nature of the beast that if I moved now,
I was to expect him either to instantly attack or pre-

i9o HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
cipitately fly, — but the former much more probable
than the latter. I did not wish to hasten an unforeseen
determination on his part, however, and therefore
stood stock-still, with my pistol in my hand; and thus
we both, motionless as stone, eyed each other. It is
difficult to tell how long the bear would have gazed
without acting, — not long, probably; but seeing his
indecision, I resolved to turn it to my advantage; and
suddenly discharging the pistol, rattling the iron chain,
and at the same time yelling with all my might, I had
the gratification of seeing the enemy turn tail and run,
as if frightened out of his wits. Not satisfied with
this, I followed after him yelling and shouting, with the
Lady growling, and the chain clanking. It seemed as
if a thousand evil ones had sprung up all at once in the
wilderness, and the old bear tore through the bushes
as if each particular one was after him."
One day he was chasing some buffaloes, when they
dashed into a marsh. " Seeing them fairly in the mud,
we sought low places in the bank, and rode after them;
but, as the soil grew less and less firm, we soon dis
mounted, and pursued on foot. The animals plunged
deeper and deeper, and, being hampered with their
great bodies, completely mired; so that we easily
reached them, and in a few minutes slaughtered four.
" There was one lying in the mud a little further
distant, and, as my rifle was discharged, I resolved
to kill him with my bowie-knife. ... I approached
without sufficient caution, for, upon getting close, with
my knife drawn ready to plunge into his neck, he sud
denly made a mighty effort, lunged against me, and

JAMES CAPEN ADAMS 191
laid me sprawling before him. He then, with his
crooked horns, butted against my prostrate form,
and pressed me deeply into the mire; so that I was in
great danger from being drowned. The mud was soft
and yielding, and my body sank deeply; but this turned
out to be a fortunate circumstance; for, had the ground
been harder, I should certainly have been ground to
pieces. While thus going down into what threatened
to be my grave, Kimball ran up, and, just as I was
disappearing, sent a ball into the bull's body, which
made him throw up his head. In this moment, I sprang
to my feet, with the knife still in my hand, and stabbed
the beast to the heart, and he soon expired."
About a week later the whole camp was awakened
by the presence of a grizzly which, however, retreated
before a pistol shot. " This adventure excited the whole
camp, and particularly Foster, who was of a chivalrous
and impulsive character, and wished to go after the
beast, even in the darkness. Such madness I would
by no means allow; but, in the morning, we had hardly
started upon the hunt, when we came upon a large
grizzly with two large cubs. She was probably the
visitor of the previous night; and Foster was almost
beside himself for a shot. I cautioned him to go around
with the rest of us to a wooded knoll beyond the animal;
but he thought he could kill a bear as easily as a buck,
and determined to advance from where he was.
" Seeing that he was bent upon his self-willed resolu
tion, we exacted only a promise that he would not
fire until we reached the knoll ; but, before getting upon
the top of it, we were startled by the report of his rifle,

ioa HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
and, at the same time, one of those terrific roars which
the grizzly makes when it rushes for a man. I knew,
in an instant, there was danger, and sprang forward;
but only in time to witness poor Foster's death. He
had wounded the brute, and then ran for a tree; but,
before he could climb out of reach, the bear seized his
feet in her mouth, and dragged him to the ground,
and later, with one blow, dashed out his life."
Another time, in the Yosemite, — that grand moun
tain valley that stands unique as one of the most pic
turesque and varied in the world, and whose name,
in the Indian, Yo-ham-e-te, signifies Grizzly Bear, —
he waited for three days for a bear to come out of her
cave, and when he grew impatient, went in, determined
to bring the adventure to a close. " Before putting my
plan into execution, I stuck my cap full of green twigs,
and stationed myself in such a manner in the bushes
that it would take a nice eye to discern my form, even
though looking directly towards me. Having thus
disposed myself, cocking and drawing my rifle, I uttered
one of those terrific yells with which I have so often
started a grizzly to his feet. It echoed like the roar of a
lion up the canyon; and in a moment afterwards there
was a booming in the den like the puffing and snorting
of an engine in a tunnel, and the enraged animal
rushed out, growling and snuffing, as if she could belch
forth the fire of a volcano. She rose upon her hind
feet, and exhibited a monster form, — limbs of terrible
strength. She looked around in every direction; but
in a few moments, seeing nothing to attack, she sat
down upon her haunches, with her back towards me

JAMES CAPEN ADAMS 193
and her face towards the opposite side of the canyon,
as if her enemy were there.
" During these few minutes I stood as motionless as a
statue, hardly breathing, waiting and watching for an
opportunity to fire. Had I met sucfi an animal un
awares, in an unexpected place, her ferocity would have
made me tremble; but after my long watch I was
anxious to commence the attack, and felt as steady
as a piece of ordnance upon a battery. As I watched,
I saw her turn her head towards the den, and, fearing
she would retire, I gave a low, sharp whistle, which
brought her to her feet again, with her breast fronting
directly towards me. It was then, having my rifle
aheady drawn, that I fired; and in an instant, dropping
the rifle, I drew my pistol in one hand and my knife
in the other. The bear, as the ball slapped loudly
in the fat of her body, staggered and fell backwards,
and began pawing and biting the ground, — a sure
sign of a deadly hurt. . . . The work was nearly done;
but so anxious was I to complete it at once that I com
menced leaping over the bushes; when, gathering her
savage strength, she arose, and, with one last, desperate
effort, sprang towards me. The distance between us
was only thirty feet, but, fortunately, full of brush,
and she soon weakened with the prodigious energy
requisite to tear her way through it. I discharged the
six shots of my revolver, the last of which struck under
the left ear, and laid her still for a moment; when,
leaping forward, my knife gave the final stroke."
Later, Adams captured a young grizzly cub, which
he called Ben Franklin, and which he afterwards

i94 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
brought to San Francisco where it became as well-
known as Lady Washington. It was not until he had
had many years of such exciting adventure that he
finally settled down, giving to others some of the pleas
ure that he himself enjoyed in the friendship and com
panionship of his tame grizzly bears, and telling
with quaint humor the stories the historian has pre
served for those who will come to live in our State
when a wild bear will be as rare as it now is in England.

CHAPTER XXI
THE MAIL-CARRYING HERO OF THE SNOW-CROWNED
SIERRAS, SNOW-SHOE THOMPSON
THERE are those whose daily deeds, if performed
by men in a different sphere of life, would be
heralded as worthy of the world's praise. Yet the men
who engage in such occupations perform them without
a thought of outside considerations, regarding the dis
charge of their duty as the chief thing to be considered.
Doubtless many and various motives could be found
which have induced such men to enter upon their
adventurous careers, and where the desire to benefit,
or bring comfort to their fellow men is a prime motive,
disinterestedness must be added to the heroism they
display. Such was the characteristic of " Snow-shoe Thomp
son," one of the pioneer heroes of California, who,
though well-known fifty years ago, is now almost
forgotten. To William Wright, a compeer of Bret
Harte, Mark Twain, Joaquin Miller, and the earlier
writers of California, who wrote under the nom de
plume of Dan de Quille, in the Overland Monthly of
October, 1886, I owe the following interesting story.
" The most remarkable and most fearless of all
our Pacific Coast mountaineers was John A. Thomp
son, popularly known as ' Snow-shoe Thompson.'

196 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
For over twenty years he braved the winter storms, as
both by day and by night he traversed the high Sierra.
His name was the synonym for endurance and daring
everywhere in the mountains, where he was well-
known, and was famous in all the camps and settle
ments. He was seldom seen in the valleys, or any of
the large towns except Sacramento, where he only
went when business called him. Notwithstanding
that he seldom left his mountain home, there are but
few persons of middle age on the western side of the
continent who have not heard of ' Snow-shoe Thomp
son,' or who have not in times past read an occasional
paragraph in regard to some of his many wonderful
exploits. Before the completion of the Central Pacific
Railroad, when he was regularly crossing the Sierra
Nevadas during the winter months, with the mails
strapped upon his back, more was heard of him,
through the newspapers and otherwise, than during the
last few years of his life, yet every winter up to the
last he lived, he was constantly, performing feats that
excited the wonder and admiration even of his neigh
bors and friends, though for years they had been
familiar with his powers of endurance, and his un
daunted courage.
" These feats would have been heralded far and wide
had they been performed in a more accessible or popu
lous region. He, however, thought lightly of the daring
and difficult things he did. They were nearly all done
in the course of his regular business pursuits. It was
very seldom that he went out of his way to do a thing
merely to excite astonishment, or elicit applause."

JOHN A. THOMPSON.
(" Snow-Shoe " Thompson.)

Page 196

SNOW SHED IN THE SIERRAS.

Page SOI

SNOW-SHOE THOMPSON 197
Thompson was born at Upper Tins, Prestijeld, Nor
way, April 30, 1827. Ten years later his parents
moved to the United States, and for a year lived in
Illinois, before pushing on further into Missouri.
Then in 1841 they moved to Iowa, remaining there until
1845, when they returned to Illinois. In 185 1 John,
then twenty-four years of age, was allured by ¦ the
gold call, and came overland to Hangtown (now
Placerville), at which place, and also at Coon Hollow
and Kelsey's Diggings, he worked as a miner. He
soon became dissatisfied with the labor of mining, so,
in 1854-1855, he went to Putah Creek, in the Sacra
mento Valley, and set up as a rancher. But his eyes
were constantly turned to the mountains, which he
ardently loved, and he waited, longing and hoping for
the time when he could return.
" Early in the winter of 1856, while still at work on
his Putah Creek ranch, Mr. Thompson read in the
papers of the trouble experienced in getting the
mails across the snowy summit of the Sierra Nevada
Mountains. At the time he was engaged in cutting
wood on his ranch. What he heard and read of the
difficulties encountered in the mountains, on account
of the great depth of the snow, set him to thinking.
When he was a boy, in Norway, snow-shoes were ob
jects as familiar to him as ordinary shoes are to the
children of other lands. He determined to make a
pair of snow-shoes out pf the oak timbers he was en
gaged in splitting. Although, he was but ten years of
age at the time he left his native land, his recollections
of the shoes he had seen there were in the main correct.

198 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Nevertheless, the shoes he then made were such as
would at the present day be considered much too heavy,
and somewhat clumsy. They were ten feet in length,
were four inches in width behind the part on which
the feet rest, and in front were four inches and a quarter
wide. "•Having completed his snow-shoes to the best of
his knowledge, Thompson at once set out for Placer
ville, in order to make experiments with them. Placer
ville was not only his old mining camp, but was also the
principal mountain town on the ' Old Emigrant Road '
— the road over which the mails were then carried.
Being made out of green oak, Thompson's first shoes
were very heavy. When he reached Placerville, he
put them upon a pair of scales, and found that they
weighed twenty-five pounds. But their owner was
a man of giant strength, and he was too eager to be up
and doing to lose time in making another pair out of
lighter wood.
" Stealing away to retired places near the town,
Thompson spent several days in practising on his snow-
shoes, and he soon became so expert that he did not
fear letting himself be seen in public on his snow-shoes.
" When he made his first public appearance, he was
already able to perform such feats as astonished all
who beheld them. His were the first Norwegian snow-
shoes ever seen in California. At that time, the only
snow-shoes known were those of the Canadian pattern.
Mounted upon his shoes — which were not unlike
thin sled runners in appearance — and with his long
balance-pole in his hands, he dashed down the sides

SNOW-SHOE THOMPSON 199
of the mountains at such a fearful rate of speed as to
cause many to characterize the performance as fool
hardy. Not a few of his old friends among the miners
begged him to desist, swearing roundly that he would
dash his brains out against a tree, or plunge over some
precipice and break his neck. But Thompson only
laughed at their fears. With his feet firmly braced,
and his balance-pole in his hands, he flew down the
mountain slopes, as much at home as an eagle soaring
and circling above the neighboring peaks.
" He did not ride astride his guide-pole, nor trail it
by his side in the snow, as is the practice of other snow-
shoers when descending a steep mountain, but held
it horizontally before him, after the manner of a tight
rope walker.
" Having satisfied himself in regard to what he could
do on his snow-shoes, Thompson declared himself
ready to undertake to transport the mails across the
mountains. His first trip was made in January, 1856.
He went from Placerville to Carson Valley, a distance
of ninety miles". With the mail bags strapped upon
his back, he glided over fields of snow that were in
places from thirty to fifty feet in depth, his long Nor
wegian shoes bearing him safely and swiftly along upon
the surface of the great drifts.
" Having successfully made the trip to Carson Valley
and back to Placerville, Show-shoe Thompson became
a necessity, and was soon a fixed institution of the moun
tains. He carried the mails between the two points
all that winter. Through him was kept up the only
land communication there was between the Atlantic

2oo HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
States and California. No matter how wild the storms
that raged in the mountains, he always came through,
and generally on time.
" " The loads that Snow-shoe Thompson carried
strapped upon his back would have broken down an
ordinary man, though wearing common shoes and
traveling on solid ground. The weight of the bags he
carried was ordinarily from sixty to eighty pounds; but
one winter, when he carried the mails for Chorpenning,
his load often weighed over one hundred pounds.
" In going from Placerville to Carson Valley, owing
to the great amount of uphill traveling, three days were
consumed; whereas, he was able to go from Carson
Valley to Placerville in two days, making forty-five
miles a day. Not a house was then found in all that
distance. Between the two points it was a Siberia of
snow. " While traveling in the mountains, Snow-shoe
Thompson never carried blankets, nor did he even
wear an overcoat. The weight and bulk of such articles
would have encumbered and discommoded him. Ex
ercise kept him warm while traveling, and when en
camped he always built a fire. During the first year
or two after he. went into the business, he carried a re
volver. Finding, however, that he had no use for
such a weapon, and it being of the first importance
to travel as fight as possible, he presently concluded
to leave his pistol at home.
" All that he carried in the way of provisions was a
small quantity of jerked beef, or dried sausage, and a
few crackers or biscuits. The food that he took into

SNOW-SHOE THOMPSON 201
the mountains was all of a kind that could be eaten as
he ran. For drink he caught up a handful of snow,
or lay down for a moment and quaffed the water of
some brook or spring. He never took with him liquor
of any kind. He was a man that seldom tasted liquor.
" ' Snow-shoe ' never stopped for storms. He always
set out on the day appointed, without regard to the
weather, and he traveled by nights as well as in the
daytime. He pursued no regular path — in a trackless
waste of snow there was no path to follow — but kept
a general route or course. By day he was guided by
the trees and rocks, and by night looked to the stars,
as does a mariner to his compass. With the places of
many stars he was as familiar as ever was Hansteen,
the great astronomer of the land of his birth.
" At the time Thompson began snow-shoeing in the
Sierras, nothing was known of the mysteries of ' dope '
— a preparation of pitch, tallow, and other ingredients,
which being applied to the bottom of the shoes, enables
the wearer to lightly glide over snow softened by the
rays of the sun. Dope appears to have been a Cali
fornia discovery. It is made of different qualities, and
different degrees of hardness and softness. As Thomp
son used no dope, soft snow stuck to, and so clogged
his shoes, that it was sometimes impossible for him to
travel over it. Thus, it frequently happened that he
was obliged to halt for several hours during the day,
and resume his journey at night, when a crust was
frozen on the snow.
" Snow-shoe's night camps — whenever the night
was such as prevented him from pursuing his journey,

202 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
or when it was necessary for him to obtain sleep —
were generally made wherever he happened to be at
the moment. He always tried, however, to find the
stump of a dead pine, at which to make his camp.
After setting fire to the dry stump,he collected a quantity
of fir or spruce boughs, with which he constructed a
sort of a rude couch or platform on the snow. Stretched
upon his bed of boughs, with his feet to his fire, and his
head resting upon one of Uncle Sam's mail bags, he
slept as soundly as if occupying the best bed ever made;
though, perhaps, beneath his couch, there was a depth
of from ten to thirty feet of snow.
" When unable to find a dry stump, he looked for a
dead pine tree. He always selected a tree that had a
decided lean. If he could avoid it, he never made
his camp beside a tree that was perfectly straight.
For this there was a good reason. It very often hap
pened that the tree set on fire in the evening was burned
through, and fell to the ground before morning. When
he had a leaning tree, at the foot of which to encamp, he
was able to make his bed on the safe side; but when the
tree stood perfectly erect, he knew not on which side
of it to build his couch. It not infrequently happened
that he was aroused from sleep in the morning hours
by the loud cracking of the tree at the foot of which
he was reposing, and he was then obliged to do some
fast as well as judicious running, in order to save his
life. This was a bit of excitement that he did not
crave when wearied with a hard day's travel.
" However, he did not always camp by trees and
stumps. He sometimes crawled under shelving rocks,

SNOW-SHOE THOMPSON 203
and there made his bed of boughs, building a small fire
on the bare ground in front of it. At a place called
Cottage Rock, six miles below Strawberry Valley, he
had a small, dry cavern, in the shape of an oven, in
which he was in the habit of housing, as often as he
could make it convenient to do so. There, his bed of
boughs was always ready for him. Curled up in his
cavern — which was but little larger than an ordinary
baker's oven — with a fire of blazing logs in front, he
slept in comfort and safety. He only camped when he
felt the necessity of obtaining sleep, and when suffi
ciently refreshed by his slumbers was in the habit of
arising and pursuing his journey, whatever the hour of
the day or night, provided that a blinding snowstorm
and utter darkness did not prevail."
In all of his experiences, through darkness and storms,
fog and blizzard, he was never once known to have lost
his way. He accounted for this by an intuitive sense.
He used to affirm, not boastingly, but as a matter of
fact: "I was never lost — I can't be lost. I can go
anywhere in the mountains, day or night, storm or
shine. I can't be lost." Then tapping his forehead
with his forefinger, he continued: " There's something
in here which keeps me right."
It has often been remarked that " republics are
ungrateful," and in Thompson's case the aphorism was
well justified. As Mr. Wright says:
" Snow-shoe Thompson was one of those unfortunate
persons whose lot in life is to do a great deal of work
and endure many hardships for very little pay. For
twenty winters he carried the mails across the Sierra

204 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Nevada Mountains, at times when they could have been
transported in no other way than on snow-shoes.
After he began the business he made his home in the
mountams, having secured a ranch in Diamond Valley,
when for five winters in succession he was constantly
engaged in carrying the mails across the snowy range.
Two years he carried the United States mails when
there was no contract for that service, and he got
nothing. On both sides of the mountains he was told
that an appropriation would be made and all would
come out right with him; but he got nothing except
promises. " When Chorpenning had the contract for carrying
the mails, Thompson turned out with the oxen from
his ranch and kept the roads open for a long time;
and when there at last came such a depth of snow that
the road could no longer be broken, he mounted his
snow-shoes and carried the mails on his back. Chor
penning failed, and Thompson never received a dime
for his work.
" First and last, he did a vast deal of work for noth
ing. Some seasons our overland mail would not have
reached California during the whole winter, had not
Thompson turned out on his snow-shoes and carried
the sack across the mountains. He took pride in the
work. It challenged the spirit of adventure within him.
It was like going forth to battle, and each successive
trip was a victory. This being his feeling, he was all
the more readily made to believe that in case he turned
in and did the work, he would eventually be paid.
As Mr. Thompson approached his fiftieth year, he

SNOW-SHOE THOMPSON 205
began to think that in his old age he ought to receive
something from the government in reward for the
services he had performed. He asked but six thousand
dollars for all he had done and endured during the
twenty years. His petition to Congress was signed by
all the State and other officials at Carson City, and by
everyone else that was asked to sign it. In the winter
of 1874 he went to Washington to look after his claim,
but all he got was promises.
" Thompson was a man of splendid physique, stand
ing six feet in his stockings and weighing one hundred
and eighty pounds. His features were large, but regular
and handsome. He had the blond hair and beard,
and fair skin and blue eyes of his Scandinavian an
cestors, and looked a true descendant of the sea-roving
Northmen of old. Although he spoke English as well
as a native-born American, one would not have been
surprised to have heard him break forth in the old
Norse. Had he lived in the days when his ancestors
were carrying terror to all the coasts of Europe, he
would have been a leader, if not a king, among them.
On the sea he would have been what he was in the
mountains — a man most adventurous, fearless, and
unconquerable. " He died at his ranch in Diamond Valley, thirty
miles south of Carson City, Nevada, May 15, 1876,
after an illness of but a few days, and when he was
but forty-nine years and fifteen days old. His tomb
is in Genoa, where a stone, on the top of which
is carved a pair of snow-shoes, was erected by his
widow.

206 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
" He was the father of all the race of snow-shoers
in the Sierra Nevadas; and in those mountains he was
the pioneer of the pack-train, the stage-coach and the
locomotive. On the Pacific Coast his equal in his
particular line will probably never again be seen.
The times and conditions are past and gone that called
for men possessing the special qualifications that made
him famous."

CHAPTER XXII
THE MOUNTAIN-CLIMBING HEROES OF THE SIERRAS,
CLARENCE KING AND RICHARD COTTER
TN a certain library is one whole shelf of large books
-'- in reddish binding titled Annual Reports of the
United States Geological Survey. At the head of the
row is a small — and compared with the others, insig
nificant — volume. It has no great intrinsic value, and
yet, to some people, that volume is more interesting
than any of the others, for the reason that it is the First
Annual Report of the Geological Survey, and bears
the name of a different director from any of the others.
Clarence King was the first director of the great scien
tific institution that was afterwards fully organized
by that one-armed science- hero of Gettysburg — Major
J. W. Powell; and he is intimately associated with
California and dear to Calif ornians because, in 1871,
he published a volume — Mountaineering in the Sierra
Nevada — that is one of the classics of English literature.
But, different from many classics, this book is pulsating
with fresh life. It is full of red blood, and out-of-doors
and climbing and riding and adventure that thrills one
as he reads. One of California's living authors of
renown says there is but one book in her library that
she cares to read every year, and that book is King's
Mountaineering. This book, to some readers, is full of

208 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
that unconscious heroism, where the true hero writes
simply and naively of great deeds, dismisses them with
out a word of comment, and leaves you to discover
them for yourself. Hence, some parts of it are worthy
of being read many times a year, as a few quotations
may prove.
The Geological Survey of California came into ex
istence in 1 86 1, under the guidance of Professor Josiah
Whitney. It worked for about eleven years and was then
practically given up, — nor has it since been resumed.
One morning in 1864 Professor Brewer and his
assistant, Hoffman (after whom two majestic moun
tains in the Sierra are named), attempted to reach the
highest point in the range. They returned at night,
terribly fatigued. " For eight whole hours they had
worked up over granite and snow, mounting ridge
after ridge, till the summit was reached about two
o'clock," writes Clarence King.
" These snowy crests bounding our view at the east
ward we had all along taken to be the summits of the
Sierras, and Brewer had supposed himself to be climbing
a dominant peak, from which he might look eastward
over Owen's Valley and out upon leagues of desert.
Instead of this, a vast wall of mountains, lifted still
higher than his peak, rose beyond a tremendous can
yon, which lay like a trough between the two parallel
ranks of peaks. Hoffman showed us on his sketch
book the profile of his new range, and I instantly
recognized the peaks which I had seen from Mariposa,
whose great white pile had led me to believe them the
highest point in California.

KING AND COTTER 209
" Their peak, as indicated by the barometer, was
in the region of thirteen thousand, four hundred feet,
and a level across to the farther range showed its
crests to be at least fifteen hundred feet higher. They
had spent hours upon the summit scanning the eastern
horizon, and ranging downward into the labyrinth of
gulfs below, and had come at last with reluctance to the
belief that to cross this gorge and ascend the eastern
wall of peaks was impossible.
" Brewer and Hoffman were old climbers, and then-
verdict of impossible oppressed me as I lay awake think
ing of it; but early next morning I had made up my
mind, and, taking Cotter aside, I asked him in an easy
manner whether he would like to penetrate the terra
incognita with me at the risk of our necks, provided
Brewer should consent. In a frank, courageous tone
he answered, after his usual mode, ' Why not ? ' Stout
of limb, stronger yet in heart, of iron endurance and
a quiet, unexcited temperament, and, better yet, de
voted to me, I felt that Cotter was the one comrade
I would choose to face death with, for I believed
there was in his manhood no room for fear or
shirk." Brewer finally gave his consent, though not with
out reluctance, and the trip was successfully made.
Several times, b<5th on the ascent and the descent, they
came to the places which try men's souls. They had
lively work in crossing King's Canyon and came at
last to a spot where, " Looking down over the course we
had come, it seemed and I really believe it was, an
impossible descent; for one can climb upward with

2io HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
safety where he cannot downward. To turn back was
to give up in defeat; and we sat at least half an hour,
suggesting all sorts of routes to the summit, accepting
none and feeling disheartened. About thirty feet over
our heads was another shelf, which, if we could reach,
seemed to offer at least a temporary way upward. On
its edge were two or three spikes of granite; whether
firmly connected with the cliff, or merely blocks of
debris, we could not tell from below. I said to Cotter,
I thought of but one possible plan : it was to lasso one
of these blocks, and to climb, sailor-fashion, hand
over hand, up the rope. In the lasso I had perfect
confidence, for I had seen more than one Spanish bull
throw his whole Weight against it without parting a
strand. The shelf was so narrow that throwing the
coil of rope was a very difficult undertaking. I tried
three times, and Cotter spent five minutes vainly whirl
ing the loop up at the granite spikes. At last I made a
lucky throw, and it tightened upon one of the smaller
protuberances. I drew the noose close, and very gradu
ally threw my hundred and fifty pounds upon the rope;
then Cotter joined me, and for a moment we both hung
our united weight upon it. Whether the rock moved
slightly, or whether the lasso stretched a little we were
unable to decide; but the trial must be made, and I
began to climb slowly. The smooth precipice-face
against which my body swung offered no foothold, and
the whole climb had therefore to be done by the arms,
an effort requiring all one's determination. When about
half-way up I was obliged to rest, and, curling my feet
in the rope, managed to relieve my arms for a moment.

KING AND COTTER 211
In this position I could not resist the fascinating tempta
tion of a survey downward.
" Straight down, nearly a thousand feet below, at
the foot of the rocks, began the snow, whose steep,
roof-like slope, exaggerated into an almost vertical
angle, curved down in a long, white field, broken far
away by rocks and polished, round lakes of ice.
" Cotter looked up cheerfully, and asked how I was
making it; to which I answered that I had plenty of
wind left. At that moment, when hanging between
heaven and earth, it was a deep satisfaction to look
down at the wild gulf of desolation beneath, and up
to unknown dangers ahead, and feel my nerves cool
and unshaken.
" A few pulls hand over hand brought me to the edge
of the shelf, when, throwing an arm around the granite
spike, I swung my body upon the shelf, and lay down
to rest, shouting to Cotter that I was all right, and that
the prospects upward were capital. After a few mo
ments' breathing I looked over the brink, and directed
my comrade to tie the barometer to the lower end
of the lasso, which he did, and that precious instrument
was hoisted to my station, and the lasso sent down
twice for knapsacks, after which Cotter came up the rope
in his very muscular way, without once stopping to
rest." They reached the dividing ridge up which they had
hoped to go to reach the summit, and found it impracti
cable. There seemed but one way open to them.
That was to descend into Kern Canyon and make the
ascent that way.

212 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
" One look at the sublime white giant decided us.
We looked down over the precipice, and at first could
see no method of descent. Then we went back and
looked at the road we had come up, to see if that were
not possibly as bad; but the broken surface of the
rocks was evidently much better climbing-ground than
anything ahead of us. Cotter, with danger, edged his
way along the wall to the east and I to the west, to see
if there might not be some favorable point; but we
both returned with the belief that the precipice in front
of us was as passable as any of it. Down it we must
go. " After lying on our faces, looking over the brink,
ten or twenty minutes, I suggested that by lowering
ourselves on the rope we might climb from crevice
to crevice; but we saw no shelf large enough for our
selves and knapsacks too. However, we were not
going to give it up without a trial; and I made the
rope fast around my breast, and, looping the noose over
a firm point of rock, let myself slide gradually down
to a notch forty feet below. There was only room be
side me for Cotter, so I made him send down the knap
sacks first. I then tied these together by the straps
with my silk handkerchiefs, and hung them off as far
to the left as I could reach without losing my balance,
looping the handkerchiefs over a point of rock. Cotter
then slid down the rope, and, with considerable diffi
culty, we whipped the noose off its resting-place above,
and cut off our connection with the upper world.
" ' We're in for it now, King,' remarked my com
rade, as he looked aloft, and then down; but our blood

THEODORE D. JUDAH.

Page 222

THE HIGH SIERRA, CALIFORNIA, CROSSED BY THE CENTRAL
PACIFIC RAILWAY. Page 223

THE HIGH SIERRAS SURVEYED BY THEODORE JUDAH.

Page 22S

KING AND COTTER 213
was up, and danger added only an exhilarating thrill
to the nerves.
" The shelf was hardly more than two feet wide,
and the granite so smooth that we could find no place to
fasten the lasso for the next descent; so I determined
to try the climb with only as little aid as possible. Ty
ing it around my breast again, I gave the other end
into Cotter's hands, and he, bracing his back against
the cliff, found for himself as firm a foothold as he
could, and promised to give me all the help in his
power. I made up my mind to bear no weight unless
it was absolutely necessary; and for the first ten feet
I found cracks and protuberances enough to support
me, making every square inch of surface do friction
duty, and hugging myself against the rocks as tightly
as I could. When within about eight feet of the next
shelf, I twisted myself round upon the face, hanging
by two rough blocks of protruding feldspar, and look
ing vainly for some further hand- hold; but the rock,
besides being perfectly smooth, overhung slightly, and
my legs dangled in the air. I saw that the next cleft
was over three feet broad, and I thought possibly I
might, by a quick slide, reach it in safety without en
dangering Cotter. I shouted to him to be very careful
and let go in case I fell, loosened my hold upon the rope
and slid quickly down. My shoulder struck against the
rock and threw me out of balance; for an instant I
reeled over upon the verge, in danger of falling, but,
in the excitement, I thrust out my hand and seized a
small Alpine gooseberry-bush, the first piece of vege
tation we had seen. Its roots were so firmly fixed

2i4 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
in the crevice that it held my weight and saved
me. " I could no longer see Cotter, but I talked to him,
and heard the two knapsacks come bumping along till
they slid over the eaves above me, and swung down to
my station, when I seized the lasso's end and braced
myself as well as possible, intending, if he slipped, to
haul in slack and help him as best I might. As he came
slowly down from crack to crack, I heard his hobnailed
shoes grating on the granite; presently they appeared
dangling from the eaves above my head. I had gath
ered in the rope until it was taut, and then hurriedly
told him to drop. He hesitated a moment, and let go.
Before he struck the rock I had him by the shoulder,
and whirled him down upon his side, thus preventing
his rolling overboard, which friendly action he took
quite coolly.
" The third descent was not a difficult one, nor the
fourth; but when we had climbed down about two
hundred and fifty feet, the rocks were so glacially pol
ished and water- worn that it seemed impossible to get
any farther. To our right was a crack penetrating
the rock, perhaps a foot deep, widening at the surface
to three or four inches, which proved to be the only
possible ladder. As the chances seemed rather des
perate, we concluded to tie ourselves together, in order
to share a common fate; and with a slack of thirty feet
between us, and our knapsacks upon our backs, we
climbed into the crevice, and began descending with
our faces to the cliff. This had to be done with un
usual caution, for the foothold was about as good as

KING AND COTTER 215
none, and our fingers slipped annoyingly on the smooth
stone; besides, the knapsacks and instruments kept a
steady backward pull, tending to overbalance us. But
we took pains to descend one at a time, and rest where-
ever the niches gave our feet a safe support. In this
way we got down about eighty feet of smooth, nearly
vertical wall, reaching the top of a rude granite stairway,
which led to the snow; and here we sat down to rest,
and found to our astonishment that we had been
three hours from the summit.
" After breathing a half minute we continued down,
jumping from rock to rock, and having, by practice,
become very expert in balancing ourselves, sprang
on, never resting long enough to lose the aplomb;
and in this manner made a quick descent over rugged
debris to the crest of a snow-field, which, for seven or
eight hundred feet more, swept down in a smooth, even
slope, of very high angle, to the borders of a frozen lake.
" Without untying the lasso * which bound us to
gether, we sprang upon the snow with a shout, and
glissaded down splendidly, turning now and then a
somersault, and shooting out like cannon-balls almost
to the middle of the frozen lake; I upon my back, and
Cotter feet first, in a swimming position. The ice
cracked in all directions. It was only a thin, trans
parent film, through which we could see deep into the
lake. Untying ourselves, we hurried ashore in different
directions, lest our combined weight should be too
great a strain upon any point."
There was plenty more of excitement before they
reached the summit. When they did so, King says:

I
216 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
" I rang my hammer upon the topmost rock; we
grasped hands, and I reverently named the grand peak
Mount Tyndall."
Now came the descent. At one place " the rock
was so steep that we descended in a sitting posture,
clinging with our hands and heels. I heard Cotter say,
' I think I must take off these moccasins and try it bare
footed, for I don't believe I can make it.' These words
were instantly followed by a startled cry, and I looked
round to see him slide quickly toward me, struggling
and clutching at the smooth granite. As he slid by,
I made a grab for him with my right hand, catching
him by the shirt, and, throwing myself as far in the
other direction as I could, seized with my left hand a
little pine tuft, which held us. I asked Cotter to edge
along a little to the left, where he could get a brace
with his feet and relieve me of his weight, which he
cautiously did. I then threw a couple of turns with the
lasso round the roots'of the pine bush, and we were
safe, though hardly more than twenty feet from the
brink. The pressure of curiosity to get a look over
that edge was so strong within me that I lengthened
out sufficient lasso to reach the end, and slid slowly
to the edge, where, leaning over, I looked down, getting
a full view of the wall for miles. Directly beneath, a
sheer cliff of three or four hundred feet stretched down
to a pile of debris which rose to unequal heights along
its face, reaching the very crest not more than a hundred
feet south of us."
There was still excitement ahead. They came to a
place where King's River dashed, " a broad, white

KING AND COTTER 217
torrent, fretting its way along the bottom of an im
passable gorge. . . . To the south of us, a little way
up stream, the river flowed out from a broad, oval lake,
three-quarters of a mile in length, which occupied the
bottom of the granite basin. Unable to cross the tor
rent, we must either swim the lake or climb around its
head. . . .
" Around the head of the lake were crags and prec
ipices in singularly forbidding arrangement. As we
turned thither we saw no possible way of overcoming
them. At its head the lake lay in an angle of the vertical
wall, sharp and straight like the corner of a room;
about three hundred feet in height, and for two hun
dred and fifty feet of this a pyramidal pile of blue ice
rose from the lake, rested against the corner, and
reached within forty feet of the top. Looking into the
deep blue water of the lake, I concluded that in our
exhausted state it was madness to attempt to swim it.
The only alternative was to scale that slender pyramid
of ice and find some way to climb the forty feet of
smooth wall above it. . . .
" We found the ice-angle difficultly steep "...
but finally reached its top. There " we found a narrow,
level platform, upon which we stood together, resting
our backs in the granite corner, and looked down the
awful pathway of King's Canyon, until the rest nerved
us up enough to turn our eyes upward at the forty feet
of smooth granite which lay between us and safety.
Here and there were small projections from the
surface, little, protruding knobs of feldspar, and
crevices riven into its face for a few inches.

218 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
" As we tied ourselves together, I told Cotter to hold
himself in readiness to jump down into one of these
in case I fell, and started to climb up the wall, succeed
ing quite well for about twenty feet. About two feet
above my hands was a crack, which, if my arms had
been long enough to reach, would probably have led
me to the very top; but I judged it beyond my powers,
and, with great care, descended to the side of Cotter,
who believed that his superior length of arm would
enable him to make the reach.
" I planted myself against the rock, and he started
cautiously up the wall. Looking down the glare front
of ice, it was not pleasant to consider at what velocity
a slip would send me to the bottom, or at what angle,
and to what probable depth, I should be projected into
the ice- water. Indeed, the idea of such a sudden bath
was so annoying that I lifted my eyes towards my com
panion. He reached my farthest point without great
difficulty, and made a bold spring for the crack, reaching
it without an inch to spare, and holding on wholly by
his fingers. He thus worked himself slowly along the
crack toward the top, at last getting his arms over the
brink, and gradually drawing his body up and out of
sight. It was the most splendid piece of slow gymnas
tics I ever witnessed. For a moment he said nothing;
but when I asked if he was all right, cheerfully re
peated ' All right.'
" It was only a moment's work to send up the two
knapsacks and barometer, and receive again my end
of the lasso. As I tied it round my breast, Cotter said
to me, in an easy, confident tone, ' Don't be afraid

KING AND COTTER 219
to bear your weight.' I made up my mind, however,
to make that climb without his aid, and husbanded my
strength as I climbed from crack to crack. I got up
without difficulty to my former point, rested there a mo
ment, hanging solely by my hands, gathered every
pound of strength and atom of will for the reach, then
jerked myself upward with a swing, just getting the tips
of my fingers into the crack. In an instant I had
grasped it with my right hand also. I felt the sinews
of my fingers relax a little, but the picture of the slope
of ice and the blue lake affected me so strongly that I
redoubled my grip, and climbed slowly along the crack
until I reached the angle and got one arm over the edge
as Cotter had done. As I rested my body upon the
edge and looked up at Cotter, I saw that, instead of a
level top, he was sitting upon a smooth, roof-like slope,
where the least pull would have dragged him over the
brink. He had no brace for his feet, nor hold for his
hands, but had seated himself calmly, with the rope tied
around his breast, knowing that my only safety lay
in being able to make the climb entirely unaided;
certain that the least waver in his tone would have dis
heartened me, and perhaps made it impossible. The
shock I received on seeing this affected me for a mo
ment, but not enough to throw me off my guard, and I
climbed quickly over the edge. When we had walked
back out of danger we sat down upon the granite for
a rest. " In all my experience of mountaineering I have never
known an act of such real, profound courage as this
of Cotter's. It is one thing, in a moment of excitement,

220 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
to make a gallant leap, or hold one's nerves in the iron
grasp of will, but to coolly seat one's self in the door
of death, and silently listen for the fatal summons,
and this all for a friend, — for he might easily have
cast loose the lasso and saved himself, — requires as
sublime a type of courage as I know."
It was in this fashion and by such men that the
exploring of the mountains of California was accom
plished, and to read Clarence King's book is to bathe
one's self, not only in the largeness of the wide land
scapes of California's out-of-doors, but also in the large
ness of heart of extraordinary men.

CHAPTER XXIII
THE ENGINEERING HERO OF THE SIERRAS, THEO
DORE D. JUDAH
IN a gigantic enterprise there is often scope for the
widest exercise of several varieties of genius. As
the next chapter will show, the building of the Central
Pacific Railroad developed a commanding genius of
finance, — Huntington; a genius of equal calibre as a
constructor, — Crocker; another genius as a politician
to remove obstacles, — Stanford; and still another, as
a watch-dog of its own treasury, — Hopkins. Each
man stands out conspicuous; and Huntington, Stan
ford and Crocker especially are more than local char
acters. They loom large as celebrities, and their names
are aheady written boldly and broadly in the nation's
autograph album of great men.
But another name, though less known, is equally
entitled to this honor, in connection with the work of
organizing the Central Pacific Railroad. The work of
this man was earlier, and in many respects more exact
ing, more arduous, and required greater knowledge
and greater skill in handling men. Not only that;
it must also be recognized that his was the far-seeing
vision, the prophetic soul that fired into life the com
mercial instincts of the other four geniuses who bore
the burden of actually achieving what he had the

222 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
daring to conceive, the ability to plan, and the wisdom
to urge. This man, who for all time should stand as
a moral hero to young Californians, was Theodore D.
Judah. He was young when he died, for the toll of his
years was but thirty-seven. Thirty-seven, and yet he
had accomplished so much! Born in Bridgeport,
Connecticut, he was induced to come to California in
1853 to superintend the selection of a route and con
struction of a railroad from Sacramento to the northern
mines. Sacramento, as the chief city at the head of
navigation, was to be the starting-point, and the rail
way was to cross the Sacramento valley, strike the
foot-hills of the Sierra Nevadas, and then proceed north
to the mines. In the face of the great cost of labor —
who was going to work making railroad grades for a
few dollars a day when he might work at the mines
and perhaps become a millionaire ? — and the equally
great cost of materials, all of which had to be trans
ported from the East either around Cape Horn, or
across the Isthmus, the first twenty-three miles was
constructed to Folsom, and, with much rejoicing, on
February 22, 1856, the opening ceremonies were
held. But it stopped there! By 1856 the mines were
less profitable than they had been in 1848, 1849 an^
1850, and the new railroad was not doing the business
its promoters anticipated.
In the meantime Mr. Judah was studying the field.
In his native Connecticut he had never seen such moun
tains as these California Sierras. How they shouldered
their way up to the sky! How they dominated the
valley! How proudly their snow-crested summits

THEODORE D. JUDAH 223
fellowshiped with the sun! What a barrier they were
between the here and the — what was beyond. By
and by, their very presence became a challenge to
Judah, and he determined to solve their mysteries,
and to know what was beyond them; then his engi
neering pride was aroused, and he determined to find
a way to scale them with a railroad.
One day he secured a holiday and took a stage ride
over to Nevada. He was such an indefatigable worker
that his trip was a surprise to people. They wondered
at Judah — of all men — taking a rest. But there was
a great purpose in this seeming holiday. Several times
Judah came near being left. He would leave the stage
and take " short cuts," or would wander from the road
to get outlooks from higher points. It was clear to
an observer that he was a much interested man. On
his return, the results of his trip became apparent in
that new interests had been awakened in his soul.
He began to talk of a railwayacross the Sierras. Then —
with his essentially practical mind — he began to work
to find the route for it. He was only about thirty
years old, but it was not long before he saw clearly
that a railway could be built, and as soon as that was
determined he threw himself, heart and soul, into the
work of its accomplishment. Week after week, month
after month, year after year, he tramped up and down
canyons, slid down or wearily climbed up steep slopes,
visited every possible pass, stood on every available
summit, suffered heat and cold, rain, sleet, snow and
storm, until he knew the Sierras, by heart.
In 1859 — September 20 — a railroad convention

224 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
was held in San Francisco, of which John Bidwell
was chairman, with delegates from California, Oregon,
Washington and Arizona, for the purpose of taking
such steps as should ensure the building of a trans
continental railway. Judah was present, and it is
universally conceded that he was the best posted and
most efficient delegate. Called upon for information,
he freely poured forth his stored- up knowledge. An
older man might have withheld much, for fear that
others might forestall him and reap the advantage of
his labor. But Judah never seemed to have had any
fear of anything of this kind. He was too large-hearted
to put a national scheme upon the basis of a proposition
for personal profit. He was unanimously selected,
therefore, to go to Washington as the representative
of this convention, see the President of the United
States, the heads of the various departments, the leaders
of Congress and all others he might deem desirable,
to the end that, by his influence, legislation would be
set in motion for the furtherance of the transcontinental
railway. With fidelity, knowledge and zeal he accomplished
his part of the Washington mission, and I would that
every reader of this sketch could read Judah's report
of his labors. He failed in his mission, owing to the
sectional jealousies between North and South, raging at
their height, but his report is a model of clear, dis
passionate statement of facts, without prejudice or dis
couragement, and reaffirming his faith in the feasibility
and practicability of the project and its ultimate con
summation. And then — lesson for the grafters of

THEODORE D. JUDAH 225
to-day — he enclosed a bill of expenses for forty dollars !
His actual expenditures for stage fare, hotel bills,
carriage hire, etc., had amounted to twenty-five hundred
dollars, but that he would pay himself. The bill was
for necessary printing, which was all he expected the
convention officials to pay.
During these years of hard and unremunerative
work Judah attracted the attention and engaged the
interest of the Sacramento men who afterwards became
the " Big Four " of the Central Pacific Railroad. If
this young engineer from Bridgeport was so sure of the
feasibility of building a railroad, why were they not
interested? Leland Stanford was a dealer in groceries
and provisions, Crocker a dry-goods merchant, and
Huntington and Hopkins sold hardware. None of
them was rich, but they were " big " men, though
neither they nor any one else knew it at the time.
The building of a great railroad is a tremendous
project; and its financing a great problem. When
one considers the way millions are spent — loca
ting the route, surveying, grading, blasting, shovel
ing, filling, tunneling, bridging, cutting, the cost of the
rails, transporting them from the mills to the road-bed,
laying them, keeping them in order, the rolling stock,
engines, passenger and freight cars, stations, depots,
freight-houses, switches, side-tracks, offices, etc., —
the mind of the ordinary man is bewildered. To
others, however, these matters are simple. They grasp
the problems, see the needs, the compensations for the
expenditures, and then, if they can but convince others
that they see clearly, their success is assured.

226 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Judah had seen these things very early, and he soon
made the " Big Four " see them. They went into
politics. Stanford was nominated for governor of
California on the Republican ticket, and ten days later,
June 28, 1861, the Central Pacific Railroad Company
of California was organized, with Stanford as presi
dent, Huntington vice-president, Judah engineer,
Hopkins treasurer, and James Bailey, a Sacramento
jeweler, secretary. The capital stock was named as
eight million five hundred thousand dollars, divided
into eighty-five thousand shares of one hundred dollars
each. The " Big Four " and Judah each subscribed
for one hundred and fifty shares, and paid into the
treasury ten dollars per share as a working fund. Judah
was at once sent back to the mountains to complete
his surveys and make a final determination of routes.
What a history- making epoch! What an honored
position and high responsibility for a young man!
How much depended upon his wisdom and judgment,
his care and thoroughness!
Judah's report of 1861 (October 1) should be re
garded as one of the Classics of California Historic
Literature. It ought to be read by every intelligent
man and woman, who to-day is enjoying the results
of his thorough and careful work.
Eleven days after the report was submitted, Judah
was on the steamer, going to Washington, by way of
Panama, as the Railroad Company's representative
to Washington. A man who was to be of great service
to the cause was on the steamer with him, and Judah
at once set to work, with the same zeal that had won

THE PALISADES OF THE HUMBOLDT RIVER, NEVADA, THROUGH WHICH THE CENTRAL
PACIFIC RAILWAY RUNS. Page

SNOW PLOW ON THE CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILWAY, IN THE HIGH SIERRAS.

Page 241

THEODORE D. JUDAH 227
him the passes of the Sierras, to win his adherence and
helpfulness. This was Representative A. A. Sargent,
who had just been elected and was on his way to take
his seat in the House. Before he reached Washington,
Judah had pumped him full of knowledge in regard
to routes, costs per mile, tunnels, probable amount of
tonnage freight, of passengers and everything else a
Congressman ought to know, so that when the bill
finally came before the House, he was able thoroughly
and properly to present it.
In New York he met United States Senator James
A. McDougall, at whose request he prepared a bill
for presentation to the Senate.
Then he himself entered into the campaign of edu
cation in Washington. In this he was materially helped
by both the gentlemen above named, and when the
bill came up for action, they did valiant service in both
the House and the Senate, and on July 1, 1862, they
had the pleasure of knowing that it had become a law.
As soon as the bill was passed, Judah prepared
and filed in the office of the Secretary of the Interior a
map and designation of the route of the Central Pacific
Railroad through California; whereupon, as provided
by the act, lands to the distance of fifteen miles on each
side of the route were withdrawn from private enter
prise, preemption or sale. He then proceeded to New
York and began making provisional contracts for
iron and equipments for the first fifty miles of the road.
On July 21, having successfully accomplished the
objects of his mission, he took the steamer from New
York, carrying with him a testimonial from a large

228 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
number of senators and representatives in Congress,
thanking him for his assistance in aiding the passage
of the bill, assuring him that his examinations and
surveys had settled the question of the practicability of
the route and enabled many of them to vote confidently
on the great measure, and bearing witness to the value
and effectiveness of his indefatigable exertions and
intelligent explanations. He had indeed succeeded
admirably; and, so far as seen, his success was due
almost entirely to himself and achieved without soiling
his hands or leaving a stain upon his name.
Immediately upon his return to California, he began
to show to the people the great advantages the govern
ment had conceded and the wisdom of aiding the work
in every possible way. At the same time he bent his
marvellous energies to the proper launching of the
engineering end of the enterprise. The road to Folsom
was abandoned, and he conclusively showed the reason
why, so that even those who protested against it were
left without argument. He also called especial atten
tion to every detail of the requirements of Congress,
with a conscientious anxiety to meet every promise,
and to keep all pledges made to the State of Nevada.
Not only this, but he had experts at work examining
the minerals and rocks along the route, and these
he exhibited with their reports.
In October, 1863, Judah again started for Washing
ton, in order to be present at the sessions of Congress
when new and additional railroad legislation was
proposed. On the way he was stricken with fever,
and died in New York on November 2, 1863. Hittell

THEODORE D. JUDAH 229
says: " In him perished a genius — one of the greatest
in his important line — without whom the way over
the Sierra would not have been found perhaps for many
years. Like many other men of genius, his reward
consisted chiefly in his own activity and the conscious
ness and satisfaction of doing noble work thoroughly
and well. He made for others, or enabled them to
make, uncounted wealth and to occupy places of
first-class prominence in the world; but, for himself,
he made in the way of money comparatively nothing;
and in name and recollection, as new and inferior men
took his place and easily continued in the path he had
found and so clearly pointed out, he was in a short
time substantially forgotten. While the railroad in
its completed state, and its offspring and imitations,
which now span the continent, have changed the face
of the globe, and engrossed to a greater or less extent
the attention of courts and cabinets in almost every
quarter of the earth, it is only in old records and reports
that the name of Judah, the bright spirit that called
them into being, is to be found. But whether remem
bered and recognized or not — and it is only to posterity
and not to him that it can make any difference — his
admirable work is his monument, and it must and will
forever remain so."
Can anything be added to these generous words?
The fact that in the few short years since 1863 the
name of Judah is almost forgotten, and his work is
known to but few, is proof of the need of the proper
instruction of our youth in the lives and work of such
heroes of peace as he. To be a civil engineer, and

230 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
personally conduct the surveys; a practical builder
of railways, so that he could intelligently estimate
the cost of a new road; a superintendent of operation,
so that he could equip and organize a force to run the
railroad; a business man, so that he could let con
tracts; a promoter, so that he could — as Hittell says,
" without soiling his hands or leaving a stain upon his
name " — push a bill for such a gigantic undertaking
and involving such vast millions, such princely gifts
of the public domain, and affecting so many millions
of people, through the halls of Congress; a financier, so
that he could induce capital to help forward the plans;
a conciliator, so that he was able, more than any other
man the Central Pacific Railroad Company ever had,
to calm the jealousies, soothe the opposition and con
vert the obstructionists who were determined to put
every possible obstacle in the way of the project, —
to be all these things and more, was to be abundantly
blessed of God. And then, to use all these divinely
bestowed powers — not to make wealth for himself,
not to snatch at the paltry honors of the hour, but to
devote them earnestly, consistently, sincerely and
constantly, up to the hour of his death, for the benefit
of his fellows, — this was to have lived the life of a
hero and to have fully earned the hero's crown.

CHAPTER XXIV
THE BUILDING HEROES OF THE CENTRAL PACIFIC,
HUNTINGTON, STANFORD, CROCKER AND HOPKINS
TT7ITHOUT railroads, what would California be
" * to-day, as far as material prosperity is concerned ?
When we think of the immense activity of all the differ
ent railways that now operate in California, the millions
of tons of freight, both for the State and " in transit,"
and the hundreds of thousands of passengers carried
each year, the mind is incapable of conceiving the
chaos that would arise were the railroads to vanish at
a word.
And yet it is not long — comparatively speaking —
since there was not a mile of railway in California.
Only forty years ago (May 10, 1869) the last spikes
were driven that wedded the Union Pacific and Central
Pacific Railways in the Salt Lake Desert near Prom
ontory, and that gave to the Pacific Coast its first
transcontinental railway.
" In this day of perfected transportation, with the
civilized earth conquered and bound by innumerable
cords of steel and wire, where the base of supplies
is not so very far from the place of consumption, few
can realize the problem before those intrepid men
who, with little money and large hostility behind them,"
started to build from the Pacific Coast back to the

232 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
East. They had no base of supplies near at hand. Every
pound of railroad steel and general supplies had to
come nineteen thousand miles by water, around Cape
Horn, from New York, and when, later, the Union
Pacific Railway was built over Nebraska and Wyo
ming into Utah, they had to haul " their strenuously
obtained subsistence and material over a thousand
miles of poorly equipped road. They fought moun
tains of snow as they had never before been fought.
They forced their weak, wheezy little engines up tre
mendous grades with green wood that must sometimes
be coaxed with sage-brush gathered by the firemen
running alongside of their creeping or stalled iron
horses. There were no steel rails. Engineers worked
unhelped by the example of perfected railroad building
of later times. No tracks or charts of the man-killing
desert! No modern helps, no ready, ever-eager capital
seeking their enterprise! Only scepticism, hatred from
their enemies, and ' You can't do it ! ' flung at them
from friend and foe."
So writes Mrs. Sarah Pratt Carr, whose father was
Charles Crocker's principal reliance in the field, and
who, herself, saw the daily fight against Nature and
Time and Space. Yet what she here describes was the
difficulty of the work years and years after the enter
prise had begun, and had received the official endorse
ment and financial help of the United States govern
ment. What of the time before this aid was secured?
The whole story is one of bravery, daring, heroism,
persistence and pluck that, in spite of whatever
fault may be found with the railroad for some of

THE BUILDING HEROES 233
its acts, should never be forgotten by the youth of the
State. And here, before I proceed further, let me make
clear that while I am personally opposed to the system
of land and bond grants that made the building of the
transcontinental railway possible (as will be revealed
in a later chapter), I do not condemn those who, at
this early date, held a different opinion. Nor does this
mental attitude render me indifferent to the exhibition
of heroism the building of the railway manifested, as
the remainder of this chapter will prove.
As far back as 1836 John Plumbe, a Welshman by
birth, an American by education and feeling, a civil
engineer by profession, began to agitate, at Dubuque,
Iowa, a project for a railroad from the Great Lakes
across the Territory of Oregon to the Pacific Ocean.
Other far-seeing men — some of our wiser statesmen —
early recognized the possibilities, and one, Lewis
Gaylord Clarke, in the Knickerbocker Magazine,
prophesied its ultimate fulfilment. But neither the
government, nor the country, at that early day, was
prepared to undertake so gigantic a task, and even
after the United States had acquired California, in
1846, Asa Whitney's project to aid the construction
of a Pacific Raijway by a grant of alternate sections
of land, for a width of thirty miles on each side, found
few earnest advocates, though it must be confessed it
attracted almost universal attention.
When gold was discovered, things changed somewhat.
The sea voyage, via Cape Horn, was too long and too dan
gerous. Even when the trip was broken at the Isthmus,

234 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
and a railway built there to speed the traveler, the time
consumed was enormous; while the overland stage
was equally objectionable, besides being tedious, expen
sive, and dangerous. Hence Congress, in March, 1853,
made a first appropriation of one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars to defray the expenses of searching
for a practicable route. The War Department under
took the fitting out and equipment of six surveying
parties, and, to Calif ornians, there are few papers issued
by the Government that are so interesting as the thir
teen large volumes of Railroad Survey Reports, pub
lished between the years 1855-1860, when Jefferson
Davis was Secretary of War, giving the results of these
various explorations.
The subject was agitated constantly by the Cali
fornia legislatures, one after another, that of 1853
making quite an elaborate report and urging its im
mediate consideration upon the Federal government.
It called attention to the fact that " the distance from
San Francisco to Washington, by way of Cape Horn,
was nineteen thousand miles, or more than the entire
circumference of the globe in latitude thirty-eight de
grees, the parallel of San Francisco, and that the
distance by way of Panama or Nicaragua was as
long as a direct line from Washington to Pekin. It
urged the necessity of the road, not only in a
business and social, but also from a military point of
view." As the State most interested, California had the right
to urge her claims. Later on she showed that her
gold had contributed a wonderful stimulus to railroad

THE BUILDING HEROES 235
building in all the Eastern States, where the number of
miles in operation increased from eight thousand five
hundred and eighty-eight, in the year 1850, to thirty
thousand five hundred and ninety-eight in i860. She
showed how she was discriminated against by the lack
of a railroad, in the fact that the money it would cost
a family to reach her borders would settle them on a
good farm in what was then called " the West." The
transmission of a single letter by mail for a long time
cost forty cents. But not until 1861 was anything
practical in the way of actual preparation for real
building accomplished, and that was done in Cali
fornia, as related in the preceding chapter. Stanford,
Huntington, Crocker, Hopkins, Judah and a few others
organized the Central Pacific Railroad Company, and
in the most practical way proceeded to get the railway
there had been so much talk about.
Not one of these men had much money, — all told
they were not worth half a million dollars, — and
none of them was supposed to have much influence.
Stanford, however, had just come into the lime
light, and revealed unsuspected power, by having
gained the Republican nomination for governor. This
latter fact helped considerably, but even that did not
stop the torrent of abuse and ridicule that was poured
out upon them for their audacity, their daring, their
impudence, etc. But Judah's calm and serene con
fidence in his plans staggered the objectors, and Stan
ford's forceful conduct of public affairs after his elec
tion, in 1861, soon began to demonstrate that these
men knew what they were doing. They had power,

236 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
and regardless of all opposition they went forward to the
consummation of their plans.
Unfortunately — in one sense — these men were all
Sacramentans, and San Francisco felt slighted. Mrs.
Carr, in her Iron Way, makes Governor Stanford
give expression to the following: " Poor San Fran
cisco! She sits on her shifting hills, snubbing Cali
fornia, tyrannizing Nevada, scorning the world. She
thinks she's Earth's only golden daughter, that she
has no need of the iron thread we ' shopkeepers ' are
stringing across the Sierras. But our thread of iron
shall become her chain of steel. The ' shopkeepers '
shall be the arbiters of her fate. Poor, short-sighted
city! She shall see her trade divided, her rivals pros
perous. Where she should have been queen, she shall
be vassal. Her children might be millions, — they will
be only thousands. To-day she fights us, and throws
away the chance of becoming America's greatest city."
There is no denying that for a while the governor's
remarks about San Francisco's attitude were justified,
and it was long before the foolish opposition ceased.
In time, however, wiser counsels prevailed, and San
Francisco did her share nobly to help on the great
work, which was to make her the gateway to the
Orient. And yet perhaps the very fact that the bankers
and capitalists of San Francisco were sceptical as to
the ability of the " Big Four " to carry on their project
and refused them financial help, led them to seek the
specific aid of the government by subsidies of bonds.
The land grants were all right as far as they went, but
no one wanted to buy land that as yet was unknown and

THE BUILDING HEROES 237
unreached, and immediate help was required. Here
the genius of Huntington came into play. It was no
doubt owing to his financial ability that bonds were
suggested. The government was prevailed upon to
give, for every mile of road completed, sixteen one
thousand dollar bonds, bearing six per cent, interest,
and falling due in thirty years.
Then Huntington in the East, and Stanford in Cali
fornia, bent their energies to raising the money neces
sary to meet the weekly pay-roll of graders, scrapers,
drivers, engineers, track-layers, bridge-builders, tun-
nellers, carpenters, blacksmiths, and the hundreds who
were doing the actual work of reaching and scaling the
Sierras. Acts were passed in the State legislature em
powering the various counties — Placer, San Francisco,
Sacramento, San Joaquin — to issue bonds, when voted
upon by the citizens, for the purpose of aiding the road.
Then the State was to help with a contribution of half
a million dollars. But enemies were at work. An at
tempt was made to repeal this latter act, and San
Francisco placed obstacles in the way of the payment
of its quota, which the courts did not remove until 1856.
Never was there a great enterprise that had more
opposition than did the Central Pacific Railroad.
There is, perhaps, a doubt as to whether even the
power of the Big Four could have coped with the ob
stacles, had it not been for Judah's wondrous capacity
and serene confidence. He rendered it possible for
Huntington to go to Congress with his later requests
and secure what was absolutely essential for the life
of the undertaking. And while, in the struggles that

238 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
came after Judah's death, it must freely be confessed,
the Big Four all developed into wonderful men, it is a
question whether they would have had the opportunity
so to develop had it not been that Judah's work car
ried them forward in the first arduous hours of the fight.
Huntington found he could not raise the money fast
enough for the needs of operation, — as the govern
ment had put a time limit upon the completion of the
road. So another financial move was determined upon.
A bill was presented in Congress, which finally passed,
giving to the railroad the power and right to issue
first mortgage bonds to the extent of its mileage, of the
same amount and character as those that the govern
ment had issued or was to issue. This act doubled the
bonding power of the road, gave the railway company's
bonds the first claims, and thus made them more easily
negotiable, and, at the same time, while in a measure
lowering materially the security of the government
bonds, did not prevent their being sold at about the
same rate as before.
Immediately a change took place in the finances of
the company. Money now became as plentiful as
hitherto it had been scarce, and the work was pushed
with renewed vigor. The same. act also increased the
land grant from fifteen miles to twenty-five miles,
alternate sections, on each side .of the railway, and ex
tended the time for the building of the first fifty miles
of road, and required only twenty-five miles to be
built each year thereafter, provided, however, that the
whole distance to the State boundary be finished in
another four years.

THE BUILDING HEROES 239
The whole of the construction work in the field was
relegated by Stanford, Huntington and Hopkins to
Crocker. Indeed, the directors of the railway (of
which Crocker was one) let the contract for the building
of the railway to Charles Crocker and Company (of
which firm they were the " Company ").
From the counter and office of a small dry-goods store
to the superintendency of a great railway building con
tract was a change that few men could safely undergo,
but Charles Crocker made it as if by magic. He disap
peared from the one position to reappear fully equipped
for the other. He seemed to have an eye instantly to
detect or discover the superintendent of construction,
foremen and bosses needed. Between himself and Pratt,
the man he placed in charge of the work in the
field, there was a perfect understanding. Pratt was an
Eastern man, who, with his wife and baby daughter,
came west in time to enter into this work. With his
whole heart and soul he bent his energies to it, devoting
himself to Crocker and his interests with a fidelity that
never swerved, and making the success of the Central
Pacific his passion and his delight. His daughter, in
her Iron Way, has done good service in her day and
generation in picturing some of the scenes she lived
among as a little girl. For her father, while retaining
a home in California, was desirous of having his family
with him, so he established them in a temporary, but
comfortable home, which, as the work of building the
railway progressed, was moved on along the right of
way. At one time the " enemy " sent its emissaries into the

24o HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
working camps and persuaded the laborers that the
" iron " — the rails — was being delayed, and that, if
they pushed the work on, they would be laid off until
it arrived. They were thus craftily urged to idle, to
shirk, to " old soldier," and delay the progress. Men
were bribed to wreck trains of supplies, for which the
workers were waiting, and every conceivable obstacle
that devilish cunning and craft could devise and fiendish
ingenuity and courage execute, was set in motion to
harass, delay and dishearten those who had the work
in hand. The modern-day strike was not then in
vented, but men were bribed to desert by wholesale.
Rumors were diligently spread abroad, at times, of
new and rich strikes in mining camps at far-away dis
tances, and laborers were thus inveigled to desert their
work. Before they could find out they had been
swindled, a week or two, or a month had gone by.
Think of the heart-break of the railroad builders who
were tied to time by their contract with the govern
ment, the State and the various counties.
It was these tactics, and not because they wished it,
that led the Central Pacific officials to the use of Chinese
labor. As early as 1862, in Governor Stanford's in
augural, he had openly proclaimed against further
Chinese immigration. Their presence in the mines had
aheady demonstrated their undesirability, — accord
ing to his opinion, — and he urged the repression of the
influx of the Asiatic into California. Yet, when white
labor was found to be so unreliable, and the work was
pressing, Stanford was soon to learn that where the devil
drives there is little choice. Crocker played a great

THE BUILDING HEROES 241
trick upon him in which he was compelled to acquiesce.
Five hundred Chinamen were secretly marched from
an incoming ship, loaded on a train and sent to the
front before either they — the Chinamen — or any one
else knew their destination, and when once they were
set to work and their ability and reliability had been
proved, there was no more talk against Chinamen on
the part of railroad men who knew.
Day after day, week after week, month after month,
Crocker and Pratt went up and down the line like rest
less Lucifers, fired with that everlasting urge and push
that drove the demons of laziness and inertia out of
thousands of men. What a tribute to the power of soul
over body that two men could so enliven, encourage,
compel thousands that they would work to the utmost
of their physical power, in order to accomplish the will
of their leaders.
Slowly but surely, the road crept up the western slope
of the Sierras. Cape Horn was reached and finally the
summit.* Then the down grade was begun — past
Donner Lake, Truckee to Reno — and finally Ne
vada was happy in having rail connection with the
Pacific Coast. Then the race across Nevada began.
Two companies were to build the railroad from the
Missouri to the Pacific, one working eastward, — the
Central Pacific, — the other working westward, —
the Union Pacific. Each was to be paid in bonds
according to the miles of road built, and while the
Union Pacific had the advantage of comparatively
level country (fully five hundred miles) over a large
part of its route to start with, the Central Pacific had

242 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
to surmount the Sierras at the outset. The former
road began at Omaha, Nebraska. When the North-
• western Railway reached Omaha, in December, 1866,
the Union Pacific was in direct raihoad connection
with its base of supplies, while the Central Pacific had
to have its supplies transported nineteen thousand
miles around Cape Horn.
In spite of these terrific obstacles, work was pushed
with tremendous energy. By midsummer of 1867 the
Central Pacific was completed to the summit of the
Sierras; fifteen tunnels, embracing a length of six
thousand two hundred and sixty-two feet, were being
rapidly bored through the almost adamantine granite;
while ten thousand men and thirteen hundred teams
were working on the down grade of the eastern
slope. Chinamen were now used by the thousands,
and Charles Crocker was their general. They were
organized into companies, with their officers, and
drilled to obey the word of command exactly as do
troops. As the road progressed, it began to do business on
the completed portion. This brought in large sums
of money from freight and passenger receipts to aid
the building fund, hence no reasonable expense was now
spared to push the railway ahead as fast as men and
money could accomplish it. The rivalry between the
Union and Central became keener and keener as the
gap grew smaller, and when, at the end of 1867, the
Central Pacific reached Reno, there was great rejoicing
in its councils, for the race would now be far more to
its advantage than to its rival. The Union was far

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DRIVING THE LAST SPIKE.
From the painting in the Museum, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.
Page 243
JAMES LICK.

Page 262

THE BUILDING HEROES 243
ahead, but it had four or five hundred miles of the
Rockies to overcome, while the Central had only the
comparatively smooth ground of the Nevada plateau
to cross.
What an exciting chapter could be written on that
race across Nevada, — how the enemies of the Central
Pacific did not hesitate to resort to deception and fraud
and even worse to hinder its progress ! But the impetus
gained was now too great to be stopped.
Over the desert the army of workers slowly pushed
their way. The route was bustling with life. Thousands
of employes built up numerous small towns as they
advanced, some of which have totally disappeared,
while others became the nuclei of permanent places,
such as Wadsworth, Winnemucca, Palisade, Carlin.
Saw mills were started in the Sierras to supply ties and
lumber for buildings. Scores of axes echoed in the
mountain forests, as they bit into the great trees.
Where there were streams they were used to float the
logs to the nearest available points. The excitement
grew as the two gangs neared each other. One day the
Central Pacific actually laid seven miles of track.
Its directors were desperately anxious to reach Ogden
at least, and the Union Pacific directors equally anxious
to reach Monument Point, — west of the Salt Lake —
though at one time they had declared it their intention
to reach the California State line. But ultimately, on
May 10, 1869, a clear, cloudless, glorious Nevada day,
the " laurel " tie was placed, amid ringing cheers, the
connecting rails were laid, the golden spike set, and
the trans-American telegraph wire was adjusted.

244 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
The prayer of thanksgiving had been offered. Then,
amid breathless silence, Governor Stanford, with a
special silver hammer, gave the gentle ticks that sent
the news flashing across the continent — the Atlantic-
Pacific railway is completed; one may now ride in
comfort from one side to the other of our great country.
It was a heroic achievement, a grand and glorious
consummation of a sublime idea, and in its enjoyment
the true Californian will never forget the silent tribute
of his thanks and admiration to Judah and the Big
Four whose pluck and heroism accomplished it.

CHAPTER XXV
THE BRILLIANT HERO OF INTELLECT,
STEPHEN J. FIELD
THERE are heroes and heroes. All are not of
the same kind, or in the same class. One is a
hero of physical courage, another of religious zeal,
another' of bravery in facing political corruption, an
other in preventing wrong to the helpless. Yet the
study of the life of each one is of use to us. We can
not look upon the life of any true hero without being
profited. In the case of Stephen J. Field we have the heroism
of a man who devoted his gigantic intellect, with single
ness of purpose, to the arduous task of fitting the laws
of the United States to an alien civilization incorpo
rated into our own, and where social and business con
ditions were entirely different from those found in any
other part of the country.
The Field family is a noted one, Stephen Johnson
Field's three brothers all having attained honor and
fame, — David Dudley, equally great with his younger
brother as a jurist; Cyrus West, as the sagacious, ener
getic and triumphant conqueror of space and ocean
by his Atlantic cable; Henry Martyn, as a traveler,
preacher and editor.
Stephen reached California December 28, ii

246 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
" with hardly any funds, and with no resources except
untiring energy and capacity for work, great intellec
tual ability, natural and cultivated, the well-laid foun
dation of legal learning, "and the high hopes of opening
manhood." He went to Marysville, was its first al
calde, and one Monday in January, 185 1, took his seat
in the assembly of the State legislature as the member
from his county. In this assembly he demonstrated
his high heroic patriotism by devoting the whole of his
energies to the formulation of most important laws, the
chief of which were in connection with the mining in
terests. Here was no wire-pulling pettifogger seeking
his own advancement, no " log-roller," looking for
financial gain in his legislative action, but a hard
working, conscientious patriot, giving freely of his
superlative mental powers that the chaotic condition
of the mining industry might be changed to an orderly
and legal method.
It is hard for us, in this day of calm, settled, peaceful,
community life, to realize the wild and confused con
dition of affairs during the first years after the discovery
of gold. In the great rush there were a few men of high
character, education and culture who were capable
of being leaders. " A larger number were of less edu
cation and culture," says Judge Pomeroy, " but still
were full of energy, and, coming from the United States,
were inclined to be law-abiding, possessing at least
some of the American feeling of respect for the law and
love of justice. A third, and it must be confessed, a
large class, consisted of the worst characters of the
older communities, — rogues, knaves, ¦ gamblers, and

STEPHEN J. FIELD 247
professional criminals, acknowledging no laws, and
defying all.
"The law of the country was itself chaotic. The
civil law, as formulated in Spanish codes, and modified
by Mexican legislation, was in operation prior to the
cession of California to the United States. Large
tracts of land were held as grants under the Mexican
law, and — when confirmed — gave rights of absolute
possession to their owners.
" The mixed mass of immigrants had brought with
them their own ideas of law, — ideas as diverse as
were their facial characteristics, and naturally they
wished to base their conduct upon the laws with which
they had hitherto been familiar. The first legislature of
the State of California had adopted as the fundamental
law of the State the Common Law of England. But
this did not meet the peculiar conditions existent
here. It left the mining interests in as confused
a condition as if there were no law. And these in
terests, it must be remembered, in those early days
overshadowed all others in their magnitude and im
portance. " The mineral lands, as a whole, belonged to the
United States, as a part of the public domain; but dif
ferent opinions prevailed with respect to the ownership
of the minerals themselves while still remaining in the
soil. Some persons maintained that they belonged to
the United States, others that they were owned by the
State; but the conviction was universal that neither
the national nor the State government should assert
any right of ownership, and that its assertion would

248 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
greatly impair the development of the mineral wealth
of the country."
Some miners had taken advantage of the " State
ownership " doctrine, and they asserted their right
to carry on their mining, not only in the public lands,
but also in all land. They even asserted this right
with respect to private lands which were actually
occupied by their owners, and were used by them for
other purposes than mining, — for agriculture, for
grazing, for residence. " This claim was not an empty
theory; it was carried into actual operation. The
miners entered upon private lands at will, used and
occupied for farms, cattle-ranches, vineyards, etc., in
search for silver and gold, heaving up the soil and doing
great damage."
In this condition of the country, the better class of
miners had taken some important steps. They held
meetings and passed rules and regulations which, to
their own practical sense of right and justice, were
feasible, — rules about priority of claims, extent of
ground each person might appropriate, how he must
work to keep it, and the like. These rules, once adopted,
were enforced with that primitive vigor and strictness
with which Bret Harte has made us familiar. Short was
the shrift and severe the penalty on all violators, yet
seldom could it be charged that, in the main, injustice
was done. Naturally the rules slightly differed in the
different camps, yet there was a general similarity
in them all.
When elected to the State legislature, Mr. Field
set himself to reduce this system to law. His keen and

STEPHEN J. FIELD 249
logical mind, and his personal observations among the
miners had shown him the wise, proper and judicial
thing to do. Casting aside all precedents, going right
to the heart of the difficulty in a manly and fearless
manner, based upon common sense and justice, he —
in effect — introduced a bill which, when passed, made
into laws all the rules and regulations that the miners
had voluntarily imposed upon themselves.
When he was elected to the judicial bench, many
cases came before him for settlement where the old
codes were relied upon, and when rude, rough, danger
ous and desperate men, by force, even to the point of
murder, were determined to gain their ends, right or
wrong. As Professor Pomeroy has well said: " On the
whole, the California judges were confronted by a task
enormous in its difficulty and importance; wholly
unprecedented in the legal and judicial history of the
country; with little aid from the doctrines of juris
prudence prevailing in other States; and requiring to
be grappled with, adjusted, and settled without delay,
upon a just and solid basis. Their difficulties were
enhanced by the character and dispositions of a large
portion of the population. As was inevitable, the ab
sence of legal and social restraints had induced great
numbers of persons to engage in the most extensive
schemes of fraudulent acquisition, of grasping and
accumulating property through an open disregard of
others' rights, of asserting the most unscrupulous and
unfounded claims, of overriding law, order, equity and
justice in every possible manner, having the semblance
of legal sanction. These persons were often influential,

250 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
and could control the newspapers and other organs
of temporary public opinion. When their projects
were thwarted by judicial decisions, they attempted
to coerce the court by public attacks of the most bitter
nature upon individual judges, attacks such as have
never been known, and would never for a moment be
tolerated in the Eastern States, but which the court was
powerless either to prevent or punish. The most able
and upright members of the court were made the
objects of virulent abuse, the extent and fierceness of
which we can hardly realize at the present day. It is
true that, in course of time, the truth gradually asserted
its power, the public mind appreciated the justice and
integrity of the decisions, perceived their wisdom, and
acknowledged their beneficial results."
Taking the most independent and fearless course,
Judge Field was perhaps the most often the victim
of these unprincipled attacks. More than once was he
threatened, and his life placed in actual jeopardy,
yet it can truthfully be said, so far as a careful study
of many of his decisions entitles me to speak with
authority, that never once was he swerved from his
sense of justice by threats or danger of any kind. When
subtle bribes (and in many cases gold was almost
openly used) were placed before him, he adhered to
his duty. This element of fearlessness will be referred
to later in reference to another phase of his work.
During his Assembly career, we owe to him another
important and beneficent law. In the statutes of
almost every State there have been trivial exemptions of
personal property of debtors from execution, seizure

STEPHEN J. FIELD 251
and sale. He felt that, in the new State, a scheme of
exemption should be provided that was more generous,
believing that even the strictest justice and the claims of
creditors would be better subserved thereby. Not only
should a debtor have his bedding, clothing and house
hold effects preserved to him, but the tools and imple
ments with which he worked. With these he might be
able to secure employment and pay his debts; without
them he was plunged into a morass of despair, which
not only effectually prevented the payment of his debts,
but possibly rendered him a burden to the community.
Accordingly, he introduced a measure, which became
law, exempting the implements, wagons, and teams
of a farmer, the tools of a mechanic, the instruments
of a surveyor, surgeon and dentist, the professional
library of a lawyer and a physician, the articles used
by the miner, the laborer, etc.
As a judge, the same qualities of statesmanship soon
became apparent. New conditions existed in Cali
fornia, and old legal methods could not be made to
apply. Judge Field at once showed that he had the
moral courage, the daring, to do what is most unusual
and rare in a lawyer or a judge. He dared to strike
out entirely new paths, enunciate fundamental and
living principles as the basis of his decisions and relegate
to the lumber heap all the accumulated trash of the
centuries, which, under the awful name of " prece
dent," ties the hands, blinds the eyes, befogs the judg
ments of nearly all the men who sit upon our legal
benches. His gigantic intellect, his ready grasp of
principles, his persistent determination to get at all

252 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
the facts in the case, his indomitable energy and capacity
for hard work enabled bim, when backed up by his
upright soul and fearless courage, to do the thing that
to a lesser man would have been impossible.
For it cannot be denied that some of the men who
were elevated to judicial positions in the early days
of the State were totally unfit — from every moral
standpoint — to occupy their high and lofty places.
Some of them were criminals and desperadoes, and
had it not been for their high intellectual attainments
they could not have been imposed upon any com
munity for a single hour. Among such men Justice
Field stood out preeminently in the isolation of his
nobleness of character and purity of life.
These qualities of soul soon began to reveal them
selves in some of the important decisions which he
rendered. In litigation that affected but a few individ
uals it is comparatively easy to ignore the ill will of the
defeated parties to the suit, but where a whole com
munity, a county, a State is involved, the temptation
to temporize is much enhanced. It is well known that
in California the Chinamen had few friends, especially
in the days prior to, and at the time of the passing of
the Exclusion Acts. Judge Pomeroy declares that this
State prejudice against the Mongolian has led to the
enactment of both State and municipal legislation that
violates the constitution and contravenes the treaty
made between the United States and China.
On several occasions Judge Field took occasion
to show that the prejudiced and hostile acts of Cal
ifornia against the Chinese were neither good law

STEPHEN J. FIELD 253
nor good morals, and regardless of the stir his de
cisions provoked, calmly went on the even tenor of
his way.
In 1874 a case came before him in which it was pro
posed to return to China a certain woman who had
been denied entrance in accordance with the terms
of the State law of 1872. The woman took out a writ
of habeas corpus, contending that she did not come
under any of the classes that could justifiably be ex
cluded. In his decision Judge Field said, among many
other good things: " I am aware of the very general
feeling prevailing in this State against the Chinese, and
in opposition to the extension «of any encouragement
to their immigration hither. It is felt that the dissimi
larity in physical characteristics, in language, in man
ners, religion and habits, will always prevent any
possible assimilation of them with our people. Ad
mitting that there is ground for this feeling, it does not
justify any legislation for their exclusion, which might
not be adopted against the inhabitants of the most
favored nations of the Caucasian race and of the Chris
tian faith. If their further emigration is to be stopped,
recourse must be had to the Federal Government,
where the whole power over this subject lies."
It was pleaded against the woman that she was
immoral, but no proof was offered upon the subject,
and only the commissioner's opinion was taken as
sufficient justification to exclude her on that ground.
Judge Field at once riddled that doctrine and defended
the honor of the woman — even though a Chinese —
against any but the most positive and legal proof.

254 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Accordingly the woman won her suit and was duly
discharged.
In July, 1870, an ordinance of the city and county
of San Francisco was passed for the regulation of
lodging-houses. It was confessedly an attack on the
Chinese, and in 1873 a large number of them were
arrested and fined ten dollars each. The parties
fined in most cases preferred to go to jail rather than
pay the fine. By a law of the State, each day's im
prisonment discharges two dollars of the fine. The
jails were crowded, and it was declared that the refusal
to pay the fines was ordered by the heads of the Chinese
Companies in order to make the city " sick " of feeding
the Chinese in the city prisons.
The city authorities thereupon enacted a new or
dinance, two provisions of which were avowedly against
the Chinese, — though of course their name was not
mentioned. These provided, first, that any person duly
committed to the jail should have the hair of his head
cut or clipped to the uniform length of one inch from
the scalp, and second, that no person should remove or
cause to be removed, from any cemetery or grave- yard
within the limits of the city and county, the remains of
any deceased person or persons without the written
permit of the coroner.
There was a great deal of discussion about this
ordinance, and much opposition on account of its
manifest injustice and discrimination against the
Chinese. That it was " smart " and " clever " no
one denied. In 1876 the State legislature was drawn
into the matter and passed an act which, with a re-

STEPHEN J. FIELD 255
enactment of the hair-cutting ordinance, was to " do
the trick."
A Chinaman, Ah Kow, was arrested under the ordi
nance, ordered to pay a fine of ten dollars, which he
refused, was jailed and there had his queue cut off by
the sheriff. Whereupon he sued the sheriff for ten
thousand dollars damages.
The case came before Judge Field. His decision
is most interesting and instructive reading, and I com
mend it to the youth of the State as a model of clean-cut
justice, vigorous though legal English, and pure mo
rality. Here are a few extracts:
" The second objection to the ordinance in question
is equally conclusive. It is special legislation, on the
part of the supervisors, against a class of persons who,
under the Constitution and laws of the United States,
are entitled to the equal protection of the laws. The
ordinance was intended only for the Chinese in San
Francisco. This was avowed by the Supervisors on
its passage, and was so understood by every one. The
ordinance is known in the community as the ' Queue
Ordinance,' being so designated from its purpose to
reach the queues of the Chinese, and it is not enforced
against any other persons. The reason advanced for
its adoption, and now urged for its continuance, is
that only the dread of the loss of his queue will induce a
Chinaman to pay his fine. That is to say, in order to
enforce the payment of a fine imposed upon him, it is
necessary that torture should be super-added to im
prisonment. Then, it is said, the Chinaman will not
accept the alternative, which the law allows, of work-

256 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
ing out his fine by imprisonment, and the State or
county will be saved the expense of keeping him during
his imprisonment. Probably the bastinado, or the
knout, or the thumbscrew, or the rack, would accom
plish the same end; and no doubt the Chinaman would
prefer either of these modes of torture to that which
entails upon him disgrace among his countrymen and
carries with it the constant dread of suffering and mis
fortune after death. It is not creditable to the hu-
manity and civilization of our people, much less to
their Christianity, that an ordinance of this kind was
possible. " The class character of this legislation is none the
less manifest because of the general terms in which
it is expressed. The statements of Supervisors in
debate on the passage of the ordinance, cannot, it is
true, be resorted to for the purpose of explaining the
meaning of the terms used; but they can be resorted
to for the purpose of ascertaining the general object
of the legislation proposed, and the mischiefs sought
to be remedied. Besides, we cannot shut our eyes to
matters of public notoriety and general cognizance.
When we take our seats on the bench we are not struck
with blindness, and forbidden to know as judges what
we see as men; and where an ordinance, though general
in its terms, only operates upon a special race, sect,
or class, it being universally understood that it is to be
enforced only against that race, sect, or class, we may
justly conclude that it was the intention of the body
adopting it that it should only have such operation,
and treat it accordingly. . . . The complaint in this

STEPHEN J. FIELD 257
case shows that the ordinance acts with special severity
upon Chinese prisoners, inflicting upon them suffering
altogether disproportionate to what would be endured
by other prisoners if enforced against them. Upon the
Chinese prisoners its enforcement operates as ' a cruel
and unusual punishment.'
" Many illustrations might be given where ordi
nances, general in their terms, would operate only upon
a special class, or upon a class with special severity,
and thus incur the odium and be subject to the legal
objection of intended hostile legislation against them.
We have, for instance, in our community, a large
number of Jews. They are a highly intellectual race,
and are generally obedient to the laws of the country.
But, as is generally known, they have peculiar opinions
with respect to the use of certain articles of food, which
they cannot be forced to disregard' without extreme
pain and suffering. They look, for example, upon the
eating of pork with loathing. It is an offense against
their religion, and is associated in their minds with
uncleanness and impurity. Now, if they should, in
some quarter of the city, overcrowd their dwellings, and
thus become amenable, like the Chinese, to the act con
cerning lodging-houses and sleeping-apartments, an
ordinance of the Supervisors requiring that all prisoners
confined in the county jail should be fed on pork, would
be seen by every one to be leveled at them; and, not
withstanding its general terms, would be regarded
as a special law in its purpose and operation.
" During various periods of English history, legis
lation, general in its character, has often been enacted

258 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
with the avowed purpose of imposing special burdens
and restrictions upon Cathofics; but that legislation
has since been regarded as not less odious and obnoxious
to animadversion than if the persons at whom it was
aimed had been particularly designated.
" But, in our country, hostile and discriminating
legislation by a State against persons of any class, sect,
creed, or nation, in whatever form it may be expressed,
is forbidden by the Fourteenth Amendment to the
Constitution. That amendment in its first section
declares who are citizens of the United States, and then
enacts that no State shall make or enforce any law
which shall abridge their privileges and immunities.
It further declares that no State shall deprive any
person (dropping the distinctive term citizen) of life,
liberty or property, without due process of law, nor
deny to any person the equal protection of the laws.
This inhibition upon the State applies to all the instru
mentalities and agencies employed in the administra
tion of its government; to its executive,legislative, and
judicial departments; and to the subordinate legis
lative bodies of counties and cities. And the quality
of protection thus assured to every one while within
the United States, from whatever country he may have
come, or of whatever race or color he may be, implies
not only that the courts of the country shall be open
to him on the same terms as to all others, for the se
curity of his person or property, the prevention or
redress of wrongs, and the enforcement of contracts;
but that no charges or burdens shall be laid upon him
which are not equally borne by others, and that in

STEPHEN J. FIELD 259
the administration of criminal justice he shall suffer for
his offenses no greater or different punishment."
Then, speaking of the hostility to the Chinese, he
says: "Thoughtful persons, looking at the millions
which crowd the opposite shores of the Pacific, and
the possibility at no distant day of theh pouring over
in vast hordes among us, giving rise to fierce antago
nisms of race, hope that some way may be devised to
prevent their further immigration. We feel the force
and importance of these considerations; but the remedy
for the apprehended evil is to be sought from the
general government."
In concluding his decision he affirmed: " Nothing
can be accomplished by hostile and spiteful legislation
on the part of the State, or of its municipal bodies,
like the ordinance in question — legislation which is
unworthy of a brave and manly people."
As soon as this decision was rendered, the press and
public of the State began a storm of abuse against
Justice Field that was fierce and virulent. " It seemed
as though, for the time, reason had fled from the minds
of the people of the State." But regardless of it all,
Mr. Field adhered to the principles he had laid down,
and few lawyers of to-day will be found who will dissent
from them. That it required moral courage to do this
no one will doubt, when I assert what was well known
at the time, viz., that had it not been for that decision
and the " fierce opposition and hatred it engendered
among the lowest and most ignorant of the political party
with which he was connected," he would have re
ceived the support of his own State and undoubtedly

26o HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
the nomination of the National Democratic Conven
tion for president.
These are but some of the causes with which the
name of Justice Stephen J. Field is inseparably con
nected. His life and work throughout were character
ized by the same devotion to principle, the same
high sense of honor, the same fearless heroism in
the discharge of his duty, hence it is well that he
hold a high place on the roll of " the heroes of peace,"
who have added lustre to the fair fame of the State of
his choice.

CHAPTER XXVI
THE SAVING HERO OF PHILANTHROPY, JAMES LICK
'"T^HE term " miser " is one of opprobrium and
*¦ obloquy, which no man of sensitive nature
could wish to have applied to himself.
At the outset let it be distinctly understood that
James Lick was not a miser of the usurer type. Instead,
as will be shown later, he was at times so extravagant
as to lead his neighbors to denounce his reckless ex
penditures. He was a strange mixture of penuriousness
and open-handedness, and being a man of strong
character, marked personality, unbending will, ap
parently caring for no friendships, almost morose and
sullen in the presence of women, and confining his
energies to his various business enterprises, there is
little wonder at the many and conflicting statements
current in regard to his life and its purposes.
He was born at Fredericksburg, Lebanon County,
Pennsylvania, August 25, 1 796. As a youth he worked
with an organ builder named Aldt, in Hanover, Penn
sylvania, and in 1819 found employment with Joseph
Hishey, a prominent piano manufacturer of Baltimore.
He was working there one day, when a young man came
in seeking employment. Lick interested himself on
his behalf, gave him breakfast, and secured him a

262 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
position, thus forming a friendship which practically
lasted for life, with Conrad Meyer, afterwards the
noted piano maker of Philadelphia.
In 1820 Lick left, Hishey's and went to New York
to start in business on his own account, but as things
did not shape themselves to his liking, he left the
United States, and for ten years engaged in piano-
making at Buenos Ayres. In 1832 he surprised Meyer
by returning with a forty thousand dollar cargo of
hides and nutria skins, which he speedily dis
posed of at a profit, but, soon growing restless for
the larger life and freedom of the newer country, he
returned to South America. Here he wandered about
somewhat, from Buenos Ayres to Valparaiso, Callao,
and Lima. Working with his usual industry and
energy, he accumulated a fortune. He remained
eleven years in Peru, but the last two years of his stay
his mind was much taken up with California. He
purchased and read everything he could find descriptive
of the land, and became well informed as to its advan
tages. The inopportune seizure of California by
Commodore Jones was an act which called the atten
tion of the world, and especially of South America,
not only to California, but also to the possibility that,
some day, the United States might seize and firmly
hold it. And when the news spread that Commodore
Sloat had placed the United States flag upon the public
buildings of Monterey — the capital city of California
— James Lick came to the conclusion that it was there
to stay, and decided that he would embark for the new
country. To get away he had to sacrifice his stock,

JAMES LICK 263
which inventoried nearly sixty thousand dollars, for
thirty thousand dollars. This sum was paid to him in
doubloons,, and to transport it in safety, he bought
an old safe, embarked with it, and landed in San
Francisco in the ship Lady Adams in the end of 1847.
His first purchase in San Francisco was of the large lot
and an adobe house on the northeast corner of what
are now Montgomery and Jackson Streets, for which
he paid five thousand dollars.
It will be recalled that, in the spring of 1848, San
Francisco contained a population of barely a thousand
inhabitants. Upon the discovery of gold came an
unprecedented influx of population from all parts of
the globe. The majority, both of the newcomers and
of the older inhabitants of the town, flocked to the
mines, while a sagacious and shrewd minority stayed
behind. Of this latter class was James Lick. Even
then he foresaw the possible growth of San Francisco,
and determined to profit by it. In those days the
waters of the bay reached up as far as the site of the
Palace Hotel and Montgomery Street, and the southern
most street was California Street. Where Market
Street now is was a high ridge of sand, and all the way
from California Street to Happy Valley, Montgomery
Street wound and straggled through irregular and
various-sized sand dunes. The rude wharves ran up
to Sansome Street on the east; Telegraph Hill was
dotted over with tents and shanties; and passengers
were " dumped " rather than landed, almost as the
skipper of the vessel willed, anywhere from Clark's
Point to the Potrero.

264 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Lick carefully went over the ground, determined
what seemed to him to be the natural direction for
the new city's growth, and then quietly expended a
large part of his capital in the purchase of sand hills,
chaparral-covered dunes, and so-called city blocks,
which even the most sanguine scarcely deemed worthy
of acceptance as a gift.
In 1852 he bought a fine property near San Jose",
and erected thereupon the flour mill which made his
name world-famed. Hitherto his expenditures had
been so carefully made, and he was so scrupulous about
every cent in a transaction, no matter how large, that
he had gained a reputation for parsimoniousness, yet
in the erection of this mill, he was most extravagant.
He finished it throughout with solid mahogany, polished
with the same care and skill that he used to bestow
upon the piano cases of his earlier days, and it is
affirmed it cost him fully two hundred thousand dollars.
It was known as the " Mahogany Mill " and also as
" Lick's Folly." Yet, as it turned out the finest flour then
made in California, it was a paying investment, and
its product commanded the market of the whole
coast. Around the mill he planted an orchard of fruit
trees with his own hands, and this, in itself, soon
proved to be a fortune. It was owing to his peculiar
and individualistic ideas as to fruit culture that another
story of his miserliness became current. He had a
theory that all trees were materially improved by the
presence of bones around the roots. Accordingly
he went around the town, to the restaurants and
private houses, securing all the stray bones he could

JAMES LICK 265
find, which he then carefully buried around the roots
of his trees. As he offered no explanation of his peculiar
request, all kinds of stories were spread as to the uses
to which the bones were placed.
But he had other and larger interests in San Fran
cisco, and was also interested in the work of the Paine
Memorial Society of Boston, so he donated the mill
and orchard on January 16, 1873, to tnis society, one-
half of the proceeds of the sale to be used for building
a Memorial Hall, and the other half to sustain a lecture
course. It scarcely needs to be added that he was highly
disgusted when an agent of the Boston society came to
California, sold the property, without consulting him,
for eighteen thousand dollars cash, and returned with
the money to the city of culture.
To this day the older residents of San Jose tell of
Lick's careful mode of living, while owning the palatial
mill. He lived in a small cottage, meagrely and simply
furnished, and drove an old rattletrap wagon, tied
together with rope, and with a harness that could only
be called leather through a courteous remembrance of
its early days. He was careless about his clothing,
unsociable in his nature, and never entertained man
or woman at his own table. Naturally such a man
was regarded as " queer," and his indifference to dress
and general appearance was put down to miserliness.
Yet James Lick proceeded on the even tenor of his
way, planting rare and beautiful trees, which he im
ported from all parts of the world at great expense, and
as the result of large correspondence. Indeed, it can
safely be affirmed that to him, more than to any other

266 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
person up to the day of his death, California owes its
wealth of imported trees and shrubbery.
As soon as San Francisco began to grow, Lick erected
what was, in its day, the most elaborate, magnificent
and palatial — in the truest sense of that much abused
word — hotel in the world. It was ahead of its time,
yet in a city of such marvellous growth and profligate
expenditure as San Francisco, it was soon, surpassed.
The dining-room was fashioned after that of the palace
of Versailles, the floor alone being composed of many
thousands of pieces of inlaid rare and costly woods,
all polished like a piano case. With his own hands he
carved some of the rosewood frames of the mirrors,
and he engaged the leading California artists to paint
their best pictures for panels around the room.
At the age of seventy-seven he found himself in failing
health, possessed of several millions of dollars, with
practically no one dependent upon him. For some time
he had contemplated giving to the California Academy
of Sciences a piece of land on Market Street, for the
erection of a building for a museum and office pur
poses. -This gift was largely brought about through
the wise suggestions made to Mr. Lick by William H.
Knight, then in charge of the California books of the Ban
croft store, a member of the Academy, and later the presi
dent of the Southern California Academy of Sciences.
Professor George Davidson, of the Coast Survey, then
president of the Academy, called to thank him for
his gift, and in the conversation that followed, Mr.
Lick disclosed his intention of leaving a large sum of
money for the erection of the most powerful telescope

JAMES LICK 267
yet constructed. His ideas were unformed, his knowl
edge of the science exceedingly limited, and he was self-
willed to a degree. Yet so earnest was he in his de
termination to found the Observatory that Professor
Davidson held many conferences with him from Feb
ruary, 1873, to August, 1874, in regard to the subject.
Of these he says:
" James Lick originally intended to erect the Ob
servatory at Fourth and Market Streets (San Francisco).
His ideas of what he wanted and what he should do
were of the very vaguest character. It required months
of careful approaches and the proper presentation of
facts to change his views on location. He next had a
notion of locating it on the mountains overlooking his
mill-site, near Santa Clara, and thought it would
be a Mecca, — but only in the sense of a show.
" Gradually I guided his judgment to place it
on a great elevation in the Sierra Nevadas, by placing
before him the results of my experimental work at
great elevations, as well as the experience of other high-
altitude observers. At the same time, by my presenta
tion of facts and figures of the cost and maintenance
of other observatories, he named the sum of one million,
two hundred thousand dollars in one of his wills, as
the sum to be set aside for founding the James Lick
Observatory, and for its support."
On July 16, 1874, he made an agreement, or really
a deed of trust, turning over to certain well-known
citizens of San Francisco, the California Academy of
Sciences, and the Society of California Pioneers, his
vast estate, to be by them used for the various scientific

268 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
and philanthropic purposes specified. The gifts to his
relatives in all amounted only to twenty-four thousand
dollars, but for the Observatory he set aside seven hun
dred thousand dollars, the same to contain a " powerful
telescope, superior to and more powerful than any
telescope ever yet made," which was to be located on a
site he had aheady purchased on the borders of Lake
Tahoe, Placer County, California.
The trustees named took possession of the property
in accordance with the trust deed, sold some of the
property and were duly proceeding to carry out the
provisions of the deed when Mr. Lick changed his
mind and wrote them the following letter. It was dated
San Francisco, March 24, 1875.
" When I executed the instrument in which you are
named as my trustees, I supposed I had a very short
time to live, and that if my intentions of founding an
observatory and other public institutions were ever to
be carried out, it would be through you. I was there
fore induced, hastily and without due and proper con
sideration, to execute the instrument referred to. It is
still my intention, and ever will be, to carry out the
general purposes therein expressed, but I now find
• upon a cool and careful study of the provisions of that
instrument which my improved health has enabled
me to make, that there are many and serious mistakes
and errors of detail in it which ought to be corrected.
One of the most serious of these is, that by the terms
of the said instrument, the execution of the great works
which I have contemplated is virtually postponed until
after my death — a result that I certainly never in-

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MAIN BUILDING, LICK OBSERVATORY, MT. HAMILTON, CAL.

THIRTY-SIX INCH REFRACTOR, LICK OBSERVA
TORY, MT. HAMILTON, CAL.

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MONUMENT, CITY HALL SQUARE, SAN FRAN
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JAMES LICK 269
tended. Another serious objection is that some of the
beneficiaries (whose claims upon me I perhaps did not
sufficiently consider) have declined to accept its terms,
and this fact, as I am advised, will indefinitely delay,
if not entirely prevent, the carrying out of the plans,
for the execution of which you were appointed my
trustees and agents.
" Under the circumstances, and as I desire while I
still live to see the works contemplated at least started,
and as I am advised and am entirely satisfied that the
instrument referred to does not and cannot accomplish
the purposes desired by the public, as well as myself,
I respectfully ask you, and each of you, to resign or to
revest in me the subject of the trust, so that by the exe
cution of other papers better calculated to carry out
my plans, the works contemplated from the beginning
may at once be commenced and carried on to com
pletion without delay."
I have thus quoted this letter in full for two important
reasons. One is that it shows that James Lick was
willing, openly, to confess that he had been too hasty;
and the second is, that he saw clearly that the way to
have his wishes carried out was to get them well started
while he was alive.
Three days after the date of this letter the board
of trustees acceded to his request, and a complete revo
cation of the trust deed was filed with the recorder.
This action caused a vast amount of unfavorable
comment by those who were not willing to believe
in Mr. Lick's good faith, but it made no difference
whatever to him. He called conferences with his

270 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
heirs, finally settled with them as to their wishes, and
received signed releases against his estate and pledges
that they would not contest his will. Then, free from
all fear of disturbance, he conferred afresh with scien
tists, men of affairs, philanthropists and others, made
a fresh trust deed (dated September 21, 1875), ap
pointing five new trustees, of which his son, John H.
Lick, was one. There were a few minor changes in
the benefactions, but in the main they remained as he
originally wrote them.
But this second board was not entirely satisfactory,
and a third one was selected in 1876. On the first of
October of this year he passed away, and though
several legal complications hampered the carrying out
of the provisions of the trust for some three years,
they were ultimately set in motion and have all been
successfully completed.
The chairman of this third board, Captain R. S.
Floyd, and the vice-chairman, Mr. J. S. Sherman,
afterwards placed in my hands many letters and papers
of James Lick, from which some interesting facts were
gleaned. The Tahoe site for the Observatory was given
up on account of the winter cold. Mount St. Helena
was considered, but it was not until his old henchman
and confidential man of business, Thomas E. Fraser,
assured him that Mount Hamilton, overlooking his
former home at San Jose", was over four thousand feet
high, that he decided to locate it there. In impetuous
haste he sent Mr. Fraser that same day to ride or climb
to the summit and see whether it was possible to
build an observatory there, and on his return with a

JAMES LICK 271
crude plan, showing that after certain leveling was
done it would be a very favorable site, and would still
be over the stipulated height, he made a proposition
to the Board of Supervisors that if they would build a
good wagon road to the summit, he would pledge himself
to erect there the great Observatory that should contain
the largest telescope yet made.
This road, twenty-six miles long, was built in 1876
at a cost of seventy-eight thousand dollars, and the
Observatory duly established there, and many thou
sands from all parts of the world have since visited it.
It should not be forgotten, however, that Mount Hamil
ton was on government land, therefore, in June, 1876,
an act was passed by Congress, granting the site to the
University of Cafifornia.
His greatest benefactions are those which have
helped the poor and needy; the free baths, where not
only all may " wash and be clean," but where laundries
with drying grounds and rooms are provided for the
poor, where they may do their laundry free of expense,
and thus remove the discomfort of it from their small
homes; the Old Ladies' Home, where women with few
or no friends may spend their declining years at least
free from sordid cares; gifts to the orphans of San
Francisco and San Jose"; to the Society for the Pre
vention of Cruelty to Animals; and the School of
Mechanical Arts, which has aided thousands of
youth of both sexes to gain practical knowledge
giving them an upward step in life.
That James Lick was an eccentric man none will
deny. That his gifts were the result of varied and mixed

272 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
motives is also true. But the main facts of his life
stand out boldly and clearly. These are, first, that he
was indifferent to the ill will of those who assumed
that he was a miser, and, second, that he bore them
no malice for this false assumption. He gave of his
vast fortune for the benefit of the people, many of
whom, doubtless, had cast animadversions upon him.
These two facts denote him a man of large soul and of
heroic character, and one whom the youth of California
and elsewhere may well admire and emulate.

CHAPTER XXVII
THE TENACIOUS HERO OF THE COMSTOCK,
ADOLPH SUTRO
/"T"vO further any large and legitimate enterprise which
•*- engages the labor of a great number of people
and confers benefits on many is a praiseworthy under
taking, but to father an enterprise by new and hitherto
untried methods, which produce these beneficent
results, is heroic. Such was the work of Adolph Sutro,
one time mayor of San Francisco, the creator of Sutro
Heights, the planter of the Sutro Forest, the builder
of the Cliff House and the Sutro Baths; and the pro
jector of the San Francisco which is now growing up
in that immediate neighborhood. The work to which
I refer was the plannmg and construction of the Sutro
Tunnel, in connection with the celebrated Comstock
mines in Nevada. Few people of this generation can
recall the heroic battle fought by Mr. Sutro, but as it
was a turning point in his own life and led to his be
coming a leader in good work for the benefit of the com
mon people, it is worthy of an important place in this
California Hero book.
Born in Aix-la-Chapelle, Germany, April 29, 1830,
of well-to-do parents, whose house, still standing, is an
indication of their prosperous position, young Adolph was

274 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
given a fair education and early set to work. At six
teen he was superintendent of his father's cloth factory,
and at eighteen was sent to establish and then manage a
branch factory at Memel, in Eastern Prussia. In 1847
his father died, leaving a large family of young children.
The Revolution of 1848 ruined his business. As all of
his sons were too young to cope with the great diffi
culties that arose, Mrs. Sutro decided to come to the
United States, where she thought her boys would have
a better chance in life. She accordingly left for Balti
more, but, on the arrival of the family in New York,
that city was found to be in the exciting throes of the
first news of the California gold discovery. This
decided young Adolph, so leaving his mother and the
rest of the family to proceed on their way, he immedi
ately reembarked for San Francisco, where he arrived
November 21, 1850, with a fortune which consisted
solely of " health, hope, courage, ambition and in
domitable energy." To this category should be added
character, for without that he never could have attained
to what the future had in store for him.
The first nine years of his life on the Pacific Coast were
devoted to petty trade, — the buying and selling of
anything that assured a profit. In 1856 he married.
Three years later he felt a similar thrill to that which
had allured him to California, caused by the discovery
of the afterwards world-celebrated Comstock lode in
Nevada. Immediately the mining and speculative world ran
to the scene, and the activity displayed was marvelous.
Shafts were dug, mines opened, mills erected, with all

ADOLPH SUTRO 275
the necessary camp accompaniments, with incredible
speed, and when the silver and gold began to pour into
the mints and markets of the country, the excitement
and exodus Nevadaward increased. Among those
caught in this enlarged flood was Adolph Sutro. He
went to Virginia City, and in a very short time his
practical and trained mind saw that the clumsy and
old-fashioned methods being followed in mining were
both inadequate to the needs and frightfully expensive.
The shafts of the mines were deep, as low as fifteen
hundred feet; the temperature in the lower levels high,
ranging even to no° Fahrenheit; great volumes of
water were encountered, and pumping fifteen hundred
feet was expensive; the air was foul and poisonous,
and like an inspiration the thought flashed through the
visitor's mind: Why not drain and ventilate those
mines? That was the beginning of a new era, not only in the
Comstock mines, but in Adolph Sutro's life. Before
this is considered, however, let us take a survey of the
field and learn somewhat of the interesting history of
this noted mining region.
Silver had possibly been mined on Mount Davidson
before the discovery of the Comstock lode, though
it is not certain. Two brothers, Hosea B. and Edgar
Allen Grosch, sons of a Universalist minister of Utica,
New York, as early as 1852 mined, or at least pros
pected, for silver, and there seems to be an impres
sion that they found it, though the Groschs were very
reticent about their doings. They did not associate
with the other prospectors, and seem to have been of

276 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
a very superior class, rumor crediting them with an
extensive library in their cabin, which stood near where
Silver City later was located.
In January, 1859, H. T. P. Comstock and others,
among whom was a man named John Bishop, went
prospecting from Johnstown, and reached a hillock in
Gold Canyon, where they found a little gold in the
quartz. Their prospect pans gave them gold as fine
as flour and only small amounts, but as there was plenty
of water near by to work the placers with, they decided
to locate the area, and call it Gold Hill. Among these
miners were Peter O 'Riley and Pat McLaughlin. They
located well up at the head of the ravine, but their
" diggings " did not " pan out " quite as well as those
lower down, — only about one dollar and a half to
two dollars per day, and they soon began to feel dis
couraged. Water was scarce, so they decided to dig
a hole to make a reservoir. At a depth of about four
feet they struck into the rich decomposed ore of
what afterwards was known as the Ophir mine. It was
queer looking stuff, — a great bed of black sulphurets
of silver filled with spangles of native gold. The gold,
however, was of a much lighter color than that hitherto
found, and for awhile they were uneasy lest it were
not pure metal. But they were glad for any kind of
a " change of luck," and now they found the bottoms
of their rockers covered with gold as soon as a few
buckets of the new dirt had been washed. Soon they
were taking out a thousand dollars' worth of gold a day,
with the rockers • alone. Then they took the harder
lumps left on the screens, and pounded them in a com-

ADOLPH SUTRO 277
mon hand mortar, and one of them thus took out one
hundred dollars a day in gold.
The day the discovery was made, Comstock hap
pened upon the scene, and on seeing the unusual quality
of the ore coolly told the two miners that they were
working on his land, — that he had " taken up " one
hundred and sixty acres as a ranch, and that he also
owned the water they were using. There seems to have
been some doubt expressed later whether Comstock
had posted up the notices required by the law before
he could legally claim the one hundred and sixty acres
and the water, but, at the time, he thoroughly con
vinced the two miners and refused to allow them to
work unless he and his friend Penrod were admitted
to an equal share in the claim, with an additional
hundred feet for the use of the water. After some
haggling, his terms were agreed to, and these four men,
and another named J. A. Osborne, commonly known
as " Kentuck," became the recorded locators of the
world-famed Ophir mine, which in about ten years
yielded nearly five millions of dollars' worth of gold and
silver. These original miners, however, had no idea that
the blue-looking, heavy rock, which sank to the bottom
of their pans and bothered them so, was of any value.
They cursed it, and wished the gold were not found
in such unworkable company. Not only did they not
save this rock and its shattered particles, but they most
conscientiously got rid of it as rapidly as possible.
Its worth was not discovered until a gentleman from
the Truckee meadows visited the spot, and picking up

278 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
a piece of this " cursed blue rock," took it with him,
merely as a curiosity. He gave it to Judge James Walsh
of Grass Valley, who took it to the assay office of
Melville Atwood, which happened to be not far from
his own. To the blank astonishment of all concerned, it
was found that this ore yielded at the rate of several
thousand dollars per ton in gold and silver. As soon
as this fact was known, excitement took full possession
of the town, and in less than twenty-four hours there
began an exodus from Cafifornia to these new mines,
the locators of which were quietly washing out the
gold, and throwing away the silver, perfectly content
that they had the " biggest thing on earth " as it was.
When the newcomers arrived, they began to swarm
over the hills like grasshoppers. Soon the original
prospectors were so lost in the crowd that they were
hardly known or recognized. But the reports of the
new finds soon brought men of understanding, and
under their direction the mining began to be done
in a more scientific maimer, and the world learned that
a real " bonanza " had been found.
The location of these mines is on Mount Davidson,
a forbidding peak of a range of hills that runs east of,
and parallel with, the Sierra Nevada. The country
slopes down to the valley of the Carson River, and it
was this slope towards the Carson that led Adolph
Sutro to formulate his Tunnel Plan for working the
Comstock mines. As we have seen, he visited the
mines soon after the discovery of their great wealth,
and had seen some of the ore brought out. Says he:
" I had expected to see an extraordinary deposit, but

ONE OF THE MINES OF VIRGINIA CITY, NEVADA, ON THE CELEBRATED COMSTOCK LODE. Page 279

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ADOLPH SUTRO 279
I was astonished at the magnitude and importance of
the discoveries that had been made. At that time only
forty tons of ore had been taken from the mines and
sent to San Francisco. Their reduction yielded a sum
in the gross of one hundred and sixty thousand dollars,
or an average of four thousand dollars to the ton —
the most profitable forty tons that have ever been
worked from that lode." This was in March, i860.
On the twentieth of April a letter that he had written
appeared in the San Francisco Alta California, in
which he said:
" The working of the mines is done without any
system as yet. Most of the companies commence
without an eye to future success. Instead of running a
tunnel from low down on the hill, and then sinking
a shaft to meet it, which at once insures drainage, ven
tilation, and facilitates the work by going upwards,
the claims are mostly entered from above and large
openings made, which require considerable timbering,
and expose the mine to all sorts of difficulties."
Here was the inception of the idea of the Sutro
Tunnel. In 1861 Mr. Sutro erected a mill for the
reduction of the ores, so that it would not be necessary
to ship them to San Francisco, and then he began to
work for the tunnel. In 1864 he went to the State
Legislature of Nevada and petitioned it to do all that
could legally be done to give him a right of way for the
tunnel, which was done, section two of the act defi
nitely stating " that the object of the said tunnel is
for the purpose of draining the Comstock lode, and
all other lodes along its line of direction or course,

28o HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
and for the discovery and development of other lodes
through which the same may pass."
In spite of the fact that the Nevada legislature passed
this act, many of the' members thought Mr. Sutro was
hopelessly insane to propose anything of the kind, and
that it could never be accomplished. They seemed to
act upon the theory that as he could not possibly use
the franchise, it could do no harm to grant it, and
anyway they would get rid of him and his importu-
•nities. But they did not know their man. With this franchise
he organized a company, the president of which was
United States Senator Stewart, — a man of great
force of character as well as shrewd business ability.
He now began to make contracts with the mines on
the Comstock lode, but was met on every hand with
the indifference of men who were used to mining in
one fashion, and who could see neither sense nor
reason in any new plan. With tireless energy, and
never-flagging faith in his scheme, however, he worked
on, and at last succeeded in closing a number of con
tracts by which the Mining Companies bound them
selves to pay the Tunnel Company two dollars a ton
on each and every ton of ore that might be extracted
for all time to come. This royalty at the time was
deemed a small sum, if the advantages Mr. Sutro
promised were actually manifested.
With these contracts in hand, it should now have
been an easy matter for the Tunnel Company to have
raised all the money they needed for the construction
of the tunnel. But to their amazement a sudden hos-

ADOLPH SUTRO 281
tility, secret and powerful, seemed to have developed,
and capitalists fought shy of the project.
An Act of Congress was now applied for, granting
to Mr. Sutro the right to construct the tunnel through
government territory, and to enjoy the profits from any
mines that might be discovered in the driving of the
tunnel. It also gave the privilege of buying some land
at the mouth of the tunnel, and confirmed the royalty
rate of two dollars per ton to be paid by the Mining
Companies, and made the patents of companies there
after obtained subject to the payment of the same
royalty. It was thought necessary by all concerned
to have these two latter clauses made compulsory,
or else it might be possible that after the tunnel was
built, at tremendous expense, and the mines drained
and ventilated thereby, some company would repudiate
its contract, and thus get all the benefits, while refusing
to share in any of the expense.
Now began a fight that for virulence and persistency
has had no equal on this coast. The most powerful
monied interests of California and of Nevada, led by
the Bank of California, determined to prevent the
building of the tunnel. Mr. Sutro openly claimed their
opposition arose because they were now alive to its
importance, and to the financial return that would
come from it, which they were determined to secure
for themselves, and history clearly supports his con
tention. A lesser man would have given up the fight
in disgust, and have died broken-hearted. But not so
Adolph Sutro. He proved " a born fighter," and with
a simple directness that looked like folly, and yet

282 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
could not have been bettered by a political genius, he
began to fight his opponents right on their own ground,
where their authority was supreme, their word law, their
acts unquestioned, and their arrogance and insolence
unbounded. He had worked on his plan for several years, ex
pended all his own money and all the capital he could
interest in securing Congressional action, had been
several times to Washington and to Europe at great
expense, and now found the most powerful interests
of California and Nevada blocking his further progress.
They stopped his credit throughout the banking world,
going so far as to send disparaging telegrams to New
York and European banks; and they owned or con
trolled all the newspapers on the coast and in Nevada,
so that he could not print any explanation or appeal
about the tunnel, even though he paid for it. They
were sure they had him cornered. The very perfection
and completeness (apparently) of their plans was the
secret of Sutro's ultimate success. He had a large
number of sensational announcements printed, and
thoroughly distributed simultaneously through every
street of Virginia City and all the adjacent mining
camps, calling a mass-meeting of the miners, ahd tell
ing that he wished to lay before them the whole of his
plans and ideas in regard to the Sutro Tunnel. When the
hour arrived, the miners were there en masse. They
admired the pluck of the man; they knew the power of
the interests he was fighting, and they were well aware
that it was " on the cards " that Sutro was to be crushed,
and the Sutro Tunnel then built by his opponents.

ADOLPH SUTRO 283
I have the speech that Mr. Sutro delivered on that
occasion before me now as I write. How it rings with
the natural oratory of pure democracy. How plain and
outspoken it was. Here was no political trimming, no
straddling the fence, no vagueness, no uncertainty,
no temporizing. The speaker used Christ's own
method: " Let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay."
He said exactly what he meant, and meant what he said
to be understood by his hearers exactly as he said it.
And they accepted it in that same spirit. Of course his
enemies called it the speech of a demagogue, and
claimed that he had tried to incite his hearers to vio
lence. In a hearing of the Sutro Tunnel Commission,
afterwards appointed by Congress, quotations were read
from this speech to prove this claim. Here is one of the
quotations so Used:
" Rouse up, then, fellow citizens. You have no
Andrew Jackson among you to crush out the bank
which has taken your liberties, but you have the power
within yourselves. I do not mean to incite you to any
violence; I do not mean to have you assert your rights
by riot, force and threats. That would be unwise, un
necessary, and would only recoil upon yourselves. But
I do mean to say that you can destroy your enemy by
simple concert of action. Let all of you join in together
to build the Sutro Tunnel ; that is the way to reach them.
They do aheady tremble lest you will act; they know
you will form a great monied power, and that you will
own the mines; they know it will cement you to
gether." The whole speech is a document that should be

284 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
preserved. It is full of historic and scientific data in
regard to these and other mines that are invaluable
to the student. But most of all is it useful as a revela
tion of the spirit of a man of growing power; a man,
who, unconsciously, was preparing himself to be a
Voice for the common people. True! there are times
when his indignation asserts itself, and this indignation
is exercised against those who would crush out his
great plans, — or absorb them for their own private
advantage. Yet one cannot but admire the pluck,
the courage, the daring that nerved this one man,
single-handed, in the very stronghold of the enemy, to
say such words of them as these :
" It became evident to me that the ring entertained
the opinion that their combined efforts must soon
crush me out and use me up financially, physically and
mentally in such an unequal contest. But they had
got hold of the wrong man; I was not so easily to be
disposed of. When I found that these traitors, after
having signed contracts, after having urged and helped
me on to expend mine and my friends' money, after
having induced me to labor almost day and night for
several years, which I did with zeal and enthusiasm —
I say, when I found that they were determined to rob
me of my labors, I made up my mind that they should
not succeed in their efforts. I was determined that this
base, unscrupulous and mercenary combination should
not carry out its purposes, and made a sacred vow that
I would finish this work if I had to devote the whole
balance of my life to it, and defend my rights as long
as the breath of life was in me."

ADOLPH SUTRO 285
But he did not stop here. While he was about it
he determined to become aggressive, as well as de
fensive. He took the war right into their own camp
and attacked them where he knew they would feel it
worse than anywhere else, viz., their pockets. He
exposed what every miner present knew full well, —
their nefarious business methods, as well as their
absolutely dishonest and wicked gambling system, and
the amazed miners listened as he unfolded in clearest
English plots and schemes that, as a rule, were never
referred to, save in whispered tones. Here is a small
part of this expose.
" There is still another way by which you are vic
timized. Supposing the superintendent and foreman
of a mine are pliable tools in the hands of these cormo
rants, how easy it is, when a rich body of ore is dis
covered, to keep it secret, and instead of taking it out
start the miners going in the wrong direction, taking out
inferior ore or bed-rock, sending it to the mills, in
volving the mine in debt, necessitating assessments,
and thus depreciating the stock. And how simple is it
for the ring to gobble it all up again quietly, while it is
down, and after a large amount of it is secured, to set
all the men to work that can find room and take out
the good ore, make a great noise over it, declare large
dividends, send up the stock, and then quietly sell out
and pocket a million or so.
"How many of you have been bitten in this manner ?
What show have you when the cards are thus stacked
on you ? Have you ever seen a cat play with a mouse ?
It lets it run a little piece and then catches it again,

286 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
and repeats the experiment a number of times, to its
great delight and amusement; but did you ever know
it to fail that the cat ate up the mouse in the long run ?
" A few of you make a good strike once in awhile
by sheer accident; that keeps up the excitement, and
so you keep on gambling in stocks, pay your assessments,
and in the end you will all be eaten up like the poor
mouse. There is no guess-work about it; it is a sure
thing." The results of this address were many. It gained
for him the confidence, respect, adherence and financial
support of the miners, so that he was enabled to go ahead
on the work in a modest way, regardless of the so-called
" financiers." It naturally gained for him the in
creased enmity and hostility of those opposed to his
projects, and he was startled and doubtless somewhat
alarmed, soon after, to receive a telegram from Wash
ington urging him to hasten there, as the agents of the
Bank of California were seeking to persuade Congress
to repeal the bill granting certain rights and concessions
to the Tunnel Company. He went at once, and there,
as elsewhere, found strong men ready to stand behind
him. General Blair, of Michigan, in the House of
Representatives, declared that a representative of the
Bank of California " took me in his buggy and carried
me to his crushing mills, and showed me the line of the
new raihoad he was building, or rather had got the
people to build for him. He took me to his mines, to
the very bottom of them, showed me all about them, and
told me he was determined this Sutro Tunnel business
should be stopped." Then, closing his speech, he

ADOLPH SUTRO 287
said: " Sir, this bank has waved its hand over the
Comstock lode and ordered Sutro away. That is the
whole of this transaction, as it seems to me."
A full discussion of the matter in Congress led to the
appointment of a Commission. Before this Commission,
Mr. Sutro acted as his own lawyer, examining and
cross-examining witnesses, and more than holding his
own against the clever and skillful lawyer sent by the
Bank of California to harass and defeat him.
More than this, it showed how earnestly he had gone
to work thoroughly to master the subject in which he
was interested. The opposition had the superintendents
of two of their mines present, and they sought to
confuse the Commission and Mr. Sutro with then-
superior knowledge. But they had misjudged their
man. Sutro proved himself to be a thorough engineer ;
he had the laws of force and motion "at his finger
ends;" in figures his calculations were accurate and
made with lightning-like rapidity; he demonstrated his
familiarity with geology, orology, topography, metal
lurgy, hydrostatics, mechanics, and engineering, and
convinced the Commission that he knew more about
the ventilation and drainage of mines than either the
theoretical experts or the " practical men." The
report of the meetings of this commission is fascinating
in the extreme. Every page shows the watchfulness,
the vigilance, the resourcefulness, the eternal per
sistence of this man of new and large ideas. For once
money could not purchase mental power enough to
dominate and control. This one man was more than
a match for them all.

288 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
The whole story in detail should be told, but there
is not a tenth part room in this book for that purpose.
The enemies of the Tunnel were indefatigable and
powerful. It seemed as if they could never be defeated.
They bought up senators and representatives, but Mr.
Sutro's clear course had won him so many friends in
Washington that when these hhelings sought to intro
duce bills that would nullify his work for the Tunnel,
they invariably detected the nefarious plots, and suc
ceeded in having amendments passed to these bills
providing "that nothing herein shall be construed to
affect the rights of the Sutro Tunnel Company."
This was one of the first great fights by an individual
against corporate greed and corruption. Sutro's was
the voice of common humanity against the man who
would ride upon its shoulders and exploit it for his own
financial advancement. It was an epoch-forming
fight, for from that day to this, more earnestly than
ever before, graft, greed, corporate selfishness and
corruption have been attacked and punished. The
fight is not yet ended. Many a year's battles are yet
to be fought, but each year the common people are
learning more and more about their " inalienable
rights," and clear-eyed, pure-souled teachers, prophets
and warriors are arising from their ranks to educate,
inspire, and battle for their fellows. For his work in
this regard on the Comstock, Adolph Sutro deserves
the heartfelt thanks of all the generations that will
come after him on the Pacific Coast, and not only in
this limited area, but throughout the world. His fight
was successful. His fearless firmness and bulldog

ADOLPH SUTRO.

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FLOWER VASES AND MAIN GATE, SUTRO HEIGHTS, SAN FRANCISCO.

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ADOLPH SUTRO 289
persistence ultimately won. " He fought the bank to
a finish," — as a Nevada State official recently ex
pressed it, and the tunnel was finally completed in
October, 1878. Three years later I went through it,
and from that day to this my admiration for its creator
has increased. The tunnel is ten feet high, twelve
feet wide, twenty thousand five hundred feet long, with
north and south branches having one thousand two
hundred feet in the aggregate, making its entire length
more than five miles.
And there is one important thing that must not
be forgotten. Not only did Mr. Sutro battle for his
tunnel in Congress, and in Virginia City, not only did
he meet experts, and lawyers, and commissioners, and
politicians, not only did he go to Europe and learn
of engineers and scientists and political economists,
not only did he finance this great project by interesting
the capitalists of Europe in his undertaking, but,
when work was to be done at the Tunnel he was there,
ready, if necessary, to do his share side by side with the
common man. As Hittell well says: " As a pusher of
tunnel construction he was something like Charles
Crocker as a driver of raihoad building; he threw off
his coat, rolled up his sleeves and took right hold,
wherever he could help, encourage or hasten the work.
He did not hesitate to strip and go to the front. Flying
dirt and smoke, heat and foul air, dripping slush over
head and sticky mud underfoot had no terrors for him.
He went in with the grimy, half-naked miners; and,
while he was with them, he was of them — a man of
immense will power, of extraordinary executive ability,

290 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
the right sort of a man for the place and the labor while
it lasted."Soon after the tunnel was completed Mr. Sutro
disposed of his interests to his associates and retired
to San Francisco. He arrived at a time of great de
pression. People were losing faith in the " destiny "
of the city by the Golden Gate. Mr. Sutro at once
gave practical evidence of his state of mind. He
bought land by the hundreds, nay thousands of acres.
He purchased the place now known as Sutro Heights
and the region overlooking the world-famous Seal
Rocks. He built the Cliff House, enlarged the old
house on the hill and made it most homelike and
comfortable, and then proceeded to fashion the garden
that has added to his fame and carried the name of
Sutro Heights to the ends of the earth. To hold the
sand from blowing to and fro, and thus convert it
into sites for future homes, he introduced the Bermuda
and Bent grasses, and planted the Sutro Forest, at the
same time collecting the great Library which he placed
so generously at the disposal of students of every
class, character, and nationality. Then he took upon
himself the leadership in the great fight made against
the Funding Bill of the Central Pacific Railway by
which it is claimed he saved to the people of the United
States upwards of a hundred millions of dollars. Next
was a fight for a five cent fare, with transfers, for the
city of San Francisco, which he triumphantly won.
This led the people to elect him to the office of mayor,
which office he honorably filled in the interests of all
the people.

ADOLPH SUTRO 291
Thus his life stands, a monument of pluck, persever
ance, fighting against wrong, upholding the cause of
the people, seeing great things, dreaming great visions,
accomplishing great things, a truly heroic character,
one whose memory true-hearted men and women will
never let die.

CHAPTER XXVni
THE FAR SIGHTED HERO OF THE ORANGE COLONY,
JOHN WESLEY NORTH
/"TaO go into a strange country, take a barren and
-*- almost useless tract of land, experiment and dis
cover new methods or objects of agriculture and horti
culture and in less than forty years transform the
desert into one of the richest cities — per capita — in
the world, establishing upon a firm and permanent
foundation a new industry, is an achievement sufficient
to justify the enrolment of any man's name upon the
list of his State's or nation's heroes. Such a man was
John Wesley North, a native of New York State,
who, on March 17, 1870, issued a circular from Knox
ville, Tennessee, where he then resided, entitled A
Colony for California.
Before I proceed to give the history of the develop
ment of this colony, let me draw a rapid picture of it
as it appears to-day, — in the year 1910. Stand with
me on the top of Mount Rubidoux, which is located at
the western boundary of Riverside. We reach this
summit in an automobile, up a specially constructed
road, built by the people of Riverside and Henry E.
Huntington, the railway magnate. It is one of the best
pieces of automobile mountain-road in the world.
At the foot of the mountain is the ancient Indian trail,

J. W. NORTH 293
over which Indians traveled prior to the advent of the
Caucasian race, and where, later, the venerable Junipero
Serra passed, with others of his Franciscan band, as
they journeyed from San Diego to the Mission of
San Gabriel the Archangel. The striking cross, near
which we stand, was erected as a memorial to the
pioneer Franciscan.
Before us, reaching for miles and miles, stretch the
orange groves of the city of Riverside, and the thousands
of acres of the rich farming land of the Santa Ana
valley. On the one hand, an ocean of rich, deep green,
tinged with the vivid gold of the orange, and lashed
into sparkling foam with the exquisite cream of the
myriads of blossoms, the odor from which rises as
sweet-smelling incense to the very heavens. On the
other, the many varied lighter greens of the fertile
fields, while surrounding all as a massive and rugged
frame for a perfect picture are the majestic mountains,
with their snow-clad summits piercing the blue, at
altitudes ranging from ten to thirteen thousand feet.
Now let us seek to obtain a more intimate view of
the details. The municipal limits embrace a large
proportion of the orange groves, about fifty-six square
miles in extent. The city was incorporated in 1883.
Churches and schools are prominent, there being
twenty-five of the former and fifteen of the latter, be
sides a kindergarten and a good business college.
Many of these buildings are of a superior order of
architecture and substantially built. The striking
building, from whose tower sweet chimes ascend, is
the Glenwood Mission Hotel, one of the noted hotel

294 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
structures of the world, and close by is the Carnegie
Library, in similar style of architecture. In the near
future a Federal building of the same style, to cost
one hundred and ten thousand dollars, will be erected
opposite to it, and on another corner, the City Hall.
Not far away is the new Young Men's Christian Asso
ciation building, and all are surrounded by elaborate
grounds, where lawns of richest emerald vie with the
varying greens of the tropical shrubbery to delight
the eye and rest the senses.
Railway trains of three great transcontinental sys
tems shuttle back and forth in every direction, as well
as electric cars. The long avenue is the world-famed
Magnolia Avenue, a double drive, shaded by euca
lyptus, palm, and other majestic trees, and extend
ing for miles through the orange groves. On this
avenue, about six miles from the civic centre, is Sher
man Institute, the government Indian school — the
largest in the United States. Here, many hundreds of
the Indian youth of both sexes are being educated,
and Sherman is to the West what Carlisle is to the East.
Near by is the newer Victoria Avenue, equally
beautiful, also a double drive,7 with its surrounding
groves and cultivated lands. Winding around from
the mountains to the Pacific is the Santa Ana River,
from which is drawn, in numerous radiating canals,
the life-giving water, without which, in a short period
of time, all these richly cultivated acres would revert
to primeval desert.
The population of this city is in the neighborhood
of fifteen thousand people. Its assessed valuation is

MISSION ARCHES AT THE GLENWOOD MISSION INN, RIVERSIDE, CAL.

Page 29S

CROSS DEDICATED TO FRA JUNIPERO SERRA, APOSTLE, LEGISLATOR, BUILDER AND FOUNDER
OF THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA, BY RT. REV. THOS. J. CONATY, BISHOP OF MONTEREY
AND LOS ANGELES, RUBIDOUX MOUNTAIN, HUNTINGTON PARK, RIVERSIDE, CAL. Page 293

J. W. NORTH 295
about twelve million dollars. In the orange season
of 1908-1909, it shipped nearly six thousand car-loads
of oranges and lemons, which brought back to the pro
ducers three million dollars. These people, both in the
city and country, are so averse to the saloon, that for
many years there has not been a known liquor-shop,
and the orderly character of the city, and its small
criminal business in the Superior Court of the county,
is proof of the wisdom of their action in thus banishing
the saloon from their borders.
The domestic water supply of the city is secured from
artesian wells, supplied to the consumer under heavy
pressure, and the canals of two great systems supply
the irrigation water for the orange groves.
For years the city operated its own electric light and
power plant by water power, but a short time ago it
sold forty thousand dollars' worth of four per cent.
bonds at a premium, with which it put in a new steam
plant to supplement the water-operated plant.
This, in simplest outline, is the city that sprang from
the modest circular, issued by Judge North, in 1870.
Part of this circular read as follows : " Appreciating
the advantages of associative settlement, we aim to
secure at least one hundred good families who can
invest one thousand dollars each in the purchase of
land; while at the same time we invite all good,
industrious people to join us who can, by investing
a smaller amount, contribute in any degree to the
general prosperity." The advantage of co-operative
over individual settlement was thus forcefully ex
pressed. " Experience in the West has demonstrated

296 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
that one hundred dollars invested in a colony is worth
one thousand dollars invested in an isolated locality."
The circular also stated:
" We do not expect to buy as much land for the
same amount of money in Southern California as we
could obtain in the remote parts of Colorado or Wy
oming ; but we expect it will be worth more in proportion
to cost than any other land we could purchase in the
United States.
" We expect to have schools, churches, lyceum,
public library, reading-room, etc., at a very early
date, and we invite such people to join our colony as will
esteem it a privilege to build them."
In the summer of 1870, Judge North, together with
Dr. James P. Greves of Marshall, Michigan, Judge
E. G. Brown of Belle Plaine, Iowa, and other gentlemen
interested in the proposed colony, visited Southern
California and examined various locations offered as the
site for the proposed colony. San Bernardino County
was not then considered as possessing many attractions
to settlers. It was the largest county in the State, con
taining over twenty-three thousand square miles, and
contained but one town, San Bernardino, which was the
county seat and was but little more than a village.
That which is now Riverside was then included within
the limits of San Bernardino County, but the entire
county did not contain more than a fraction of the
population,. or of the assessed valuation, now contained
within the municipal limits of the city of Riverside.
There was no railroad within four hundred miles of
San Bernardino, except a short road leading from Los

J. W. NORTH 297
Angeles to San Pedro, and practically all the travel
to San Bernardmo County was by steamer from San
Francisco to San Pedro, and by team from Los Angeles
to San Bernardino. The chief business of the county
was the raising of sheep and cattle, and such general
farming as provided for the necessities of the settlers
themselves. The Riverside plain was then a dry, uncultivated
mesa, which had never seen a civilized habitation, nor
been disturbed by the hand of man. Over it ranged
herds of cattle, and its sole product was the natural
growth of alfilerilla upon which the stock fed. In ap
pearance it was much like the great stretches of desert
the transcontinental traveler sees in passing through
Arizona. The lands had a valuation of seventy-five
cents an acre, and the Mexican who owned them
laughed in his sleeve at Judge North's folly in purchas
ing them, for the Southern California Colony Asso
ciation, at two dollars and a half and three dollars and
a half an acre, while he pocketed his receipts with de
light. And certainly it required the greatest faith, the
clearest ideas, and a large amount of real moral her
oism to induce scores of people to leave theh Eastern
homes, take the long transcontinental journey — it
was not as easy nor as cheap then, as now — and
settle on this barren land. What if the plan should
fail? What if the pessimistic prophecies of those who
had owned the land for three-quarters of a century did
come true ? It is easy enough now to see that the colo
nists were acting wisely, — wiser even than they knew, —

298 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
but it was not clear then, save to the one or two brave
and fearless souls, whose courage, enthusiasm, brains,
foresight and practical common sense had to keep the
rest in countenance while the experimenting was still
going on, and the results were somewhat in doubt.
Rightly to understand the success of Riverside, it is
essential that we grasp at least a reasonably satisfactory
idea of the character and personality of Judge North,
and of the fife behind this new experience, that led so
many people, of such a superior order, to throw in their
fortunes with him.
His parents were old-fashioned Methodists, who
lived on a farm, and who brought up their boy —
named after the great founder of Methodism, John
Wesley — in the strictest and most orthodox fashion.
He worked hard as a farm hand for nine months in the
year, and the other three he spent in the district school.
He began to teach school himself at fourteen, and
at sixteen he entered the Wesleyan University, at
Middletown, Connecticut. Before he had reached the
years of manhood, his soul was fired with the wrongs of
the helpless slave, and he took their cause upon his heart
and tongue with all the courage, fervor and intensity
of his strong nature. He allied himself with the two
Tappans (Arthur and Lewis), H. B. Stanton, William
Goodell, William Lloyd Garrison, Gerritt Smith,
Samuel J. May, and the good Quaker poet, John G.
-Whittier. He lectured in every town (save one) in
Connecticut, going to and fro as a flaming brand,
debating the question with any and all who disputed
his facts or opposed his conclusions.

J. W. NORTH 299
When he was thirty years old he entered the legal
profession, but his nature was not suited to monotony
of office routine. He was essentially a pioneer, and
in 1849, the year after his marriage, he took his young
wife with him and settled at the Falls of St. Anthony,
in the territory of Minnesota. From his cabin on
Hennepin Island, he saw the first house erected on the
site where now stands the wonderful city of Minneapo
lis. St. Anthony (now a part of Minneapolis), soon
after his arrival, was a prosperous town of some three
thousand inhabitants. Here North gained a good repu
tation and excellent practice as a lawyer, but he was
not content long. With a few others he moved to a
location sixty miles south, and founded the town of
Fairbault, and, as soon as the mills, etc., were well
at work, he sold out, moved again, and this time, un
aided and alone, founded what is now the prosperous
city of Northfield.
So far, everything had gone well with him; what
ever his hand touched seemed bound to succeed. But
now came adversity. The financial panic of 1857
swept over the whole country. The Minnesota boom
fell as flat, as, twenty years later, did that of Southern
California. Town lots were valueless, for, with the
absence of ready money, immigration into the country
practically ceased. From being accounted a rich man,
Judge North found it difficult to pay his debts, but
before he left Northfield every obligation was met,
though to do this meant the sacrifice of all the property
he held.
He was an enthusiastic Republican and entered

3oo HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
heartily into the Fremont and the Lincoln campaigns.
His fierce anti-slavery principles, his absolute famil
iarity with the subject, gained in his earlier years while
lecturing, and his marvellous power as a debater, made
him both hated, feared and respected by his opponents,
and almost adored by his followers. He was made
chairman of the Minnesota delegation to the Republican
Convention of i860 that nominated Lincoln, and was
one of the notifying committee. When Lincoln was
elected, he appointed Judge North to the position of
surveyor-general of the Territory of Nevada, then in
the very whirl of the excitement consequent upon the
discovery of the Comstock lode. With the remarkable
adaptability he afterwards displayed in such wonderful
degree, he soon erected a stamp mill, and then, when
his office was abolished, he returned to the practice of
law, until the Bar of the territory recommended him
to a Judgeship of the Supreme Court, to which Presi
dent Lincoln appointed him. This office he held until
Nevada became a State. He was also president of the
first Constitutional Convention of Nevada.
Then, at the close of the war, in 1865, his restless
energies sent him down into the South to help in the
work of reconstruction. He believed that Northern ideas
and Northern capital would aid the South materially,
and he had some of both, for his life and work in
Nevada had been remunerative. February, 1866, there
fore, found him at Knoxville, Tennessee, owner of an
iron foundry and machine shop. He knew nothing of
the business, but that was no real difficulty, for he soon
learned it. One thing, however, he could not learn, —

J. W. NORTH 301
and that was to keep his Northern tongue from ex
pressing his Northern ideas. This to the Tennesseans
was so objectionable that they not only made living
with them unpleasant, but they added to the obstacles
which the whole South was suffering from, as the imme
diate result of the war, and he was finally compelled, by
the loss of all his capital, to abandon the enterprise and
look elsewhere.
It was at this time that he issued his famous Southern
California Colony circular. He had never been in
Southern California, but had read much about it, had
talked about it with Governor Fremont and others
familiar with its climatic charms and horticultural
possibilities. From what has aheady been shown of Judge North's
career and character, the reader can now understand
how he was able to secure such a high class of settlers
to go with him into a country not one of them knew
anything about. The replies were numerous and
speedy, and that same year saw him in San Francisco,
seeking to engage capital to carry on his new enter
prise. His plan was to buy a large tract, divide it
into blocks of two and a half acres, and farm lots of
twenty acres, and then sell, with the right to water
for irrigation from- the ditches to be constructed by
the owners. Even his own friends thought the plan
chimerical, and, while not openly opposing it, they did
nothing to help it along. Yet with faith unbounded,
the indefatigable and optimistic pioneer camped on the
trail of the capitalists, until — possibly to get rid of
him and his persistency — the Hon. Charles N. Felton

302 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
agreed to furnish the money to buy the land and put
in the irrigation canals. Full of joy, he started for
Southern California, speedily investigated and decided
upon the purchase of portions of the Jurupa Rancho
and Rubidoux Rancho. These comprised the original
Riverside colony, but in later years the bounds of
the city have extended far beyond these limits.
Riverside was laid out and surveyed and was
then known as Jurupa,1 a name soon changed,
however, to Riverside, as more euphonious and
having reference to the Santa Ana River, from which
the water supply of the new colony was derived.
The construction of an irrigating canal was immedi
ately begun, and was completed as far as the town
site in the summer of 1871.
But what were the new colonists to engage in as a
profitable business ? Here Judge North's foresight and
sagacity stood the infant settlement in good stead.
He carefully investigated the orange orchards of the
old mission San Gabriel and the asistencia of San
Bernardino. He found that oranges thrived with few
setbacks, and, knowing the value of the fruit, saw
a large commercial future for it. At that time there
was so small a demand for oranges, nearly all large
ranches having their own trees, that the industry may
be said to have had no existence. A few orange trees
had been raised from seed (in addition to those
growing at the Missions), and were producing fruit
1 Jurupa is an Indian name, and was given to the " seven
leagues of grazing land ; a little more," granted to Juan Bandini
on September 28, 1838, by Juan B. Alvarado, Mexican Governor
of California.

J. W. NORTH 303
in a few isolated localities, usually upon low lands and
not upon the high mesas, the irrigation of wliich was
more difficult and costly, and which have since proved
the best for orange-growing. The early settlers of
Riverside met with many discouragements. They were
remote from markets where they could either buy or
sell to advantage; there were no adequate means of
communication or transportation, and the country
was necessarily of slow growth. There was no money
to be had upon any kind of security or at any kind of
interest. Those who had lived longer in the country,
and had brought into bearing the few seedling trees
referred to, insisted that the enterprise upon the River
side mesa could not possibly be successful; that the
mesa land was not fit for cultivation; that it certainly
would not produce oranges; that even if orange trees
would grow upon it, they would not bear anything;
and that even if they should bear, the hundreds of
acres, which it was then expected to plant, would so
overstock the market that oranges would not sell at
any price, and orange groves would be worthless.
Under these discouragements but cheered by the
clear views of Judge North, the handful of people at
Riverside worked steadily on. They knew nothing
at that time of any of the improved or budded varieties
of oranges, and knew of no way to produce the fruit
except by bringing the seedling trees into bearing.
There were no young trees in nursery nearer than Los
Angeles, and a few were brought from there and
planted. By far the greater number, however, were
raised from the seed at Riverside. Decayed Tahiti

304 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
oranges were purchased at San Francisco by the barrel
and shipped to Riverside, where the seed was separated
from the pulp by hand and planted in seed beds, finally
making nursery and orchard trees.
The Australian blue-gum, or eucalyptus, was then
being introduced into California, and, thinking to raise
some of these trees for the use of the settlement, an order
was sent to a San Francisco seedman.for five pounds
of the seed. The answer was returned that there were
not five pounds of the seed in the United States, but that
one ounce of the seed would be sent for five dollars.
That quantity was purchased, and from this ounce of
seed the first eucalyptus trees of the colony were grown.
It was not known at that time that a seedling lemon
root was not a healthy or fit root for any citrus fruit,
and great quantities of lemon seeds were planted and
seedling lemon trees raised. These were found, after
coming into bearing, to be so inferior and unhealthy
that they were finally cut down and destroyed. The
China lemon also, a very inferior variety, was raised
from cuttings, making a tree or bush so wholly useless
that it also was destroyed. Limes were raised from
seed, and many extensive lime orchards were brought
into bearing, only to find the fruit unprofitable; these,
too, in turn were destroyed.
Many acres of raisin vineyard were planted, and
were so successful that large sums were realized by the
settlers from the raisins. In fact, Riverside laid the
foundation for the raisin industry in California. In
later years, however, it was found that in the warmer
valley of the San Joaquin, where the nights were warm

PARENT WASHINGTON NAVEL ORANGE TREE, COURT OF THE GLEN
WOOD MISSION INN, RIVERSIDE, CAL.
Transplanted by President Roosevelt. Page 305

ORANGE GROVE, RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA.

Page 293

J. W. NORTH 305
and the grape reached its maturity much earlier than
in Riverside, the raisins could be cured before the
beginning of the rainy season. Raisin growers found
the true home of their industry in that region, and the
Riverside raisin vineyards were almost entirely rooted
out and replaced with more profitable fruit.
In the early seventies occurred an incident which
created slight interest at the time, but which proved
to be fraught with incalculable good, not only to
Riverside, but to the entire orange-growing industry
of California. This was the receipt, by one of the
settlers at Riverside, from a friend in the city of Wash
ington, of two orange trees, which had been brought
to the Agricultural Department from the city of Bahia
in Brazil. These were of the variety then known as the
Bahia orange, but which by reason of its peculiar
appearance, remarkable success, and wide propagation
in Riverside, has been since known as the Riverside
Navel Orange. Buds were taken from these trees and
inserted in the stocks of then growing orchards, and the
variety has since been propagated from tree to tree until
it is the best known, most extensively raised, and most
profitable variety of orange produced in the United
States. It is entirely seedless, and can only be propa
gated by budding or grafting.
Perhaps the greatest discouragement in the whole
history of this industry was that arising from the in
troduction and ravages of those small insects known as
the red scale, and the white, or cottony cushion scale.
These small insects multiplied so rapidly, and then-
presence upon the tree and effect upon the fruit was so

306 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
disastrous, that the orange growers saw ruin staring
them in the face. At that time, however, science came
to their aid. Scientific men were sent to remote parts
of the globe in search of insect enemies of the red and
white scale. Such enemies were found, were brought
from Australia in small numbers, were colonized in
the infected groves and orchards of Southern California,
and their energetic and faithful, work has proved a
great protection against the scale insects.
The whole growth of the industry which has made
Riverside famous has been a long continued, earnest
and persistent struggle to produce the finest fruit,
to produce it in large quantities, to seek extended
markets, to secure paying prices, to protect those mar
kets by adequate tariffs from foreign competition, and
to provide, by means of co-operative packing and mar
keting associations and exchanges, for returning to the
producer the largest possible share of the proceeds.
It can be safely said that no industry in the country
affords a better example of intelligent and thorough
co-operation and complete success.
At the same time it must not be understood that the
whole project was carried out on the co-operative basis,
as originally planned by Judge North. The initial
expense of the irrigation works was so great that, as
we have seen, a private company was compelled to
take over both the land and the water. It spent some
fifty thousand dollars on the first canal, and then, with
water actually on the land, sold it to the colonists at
twenty-five dollars an acre. This included the right
to purchase a certain amount of the water, at a small

J. W. NORTH 307
annual charge, which originally was about a dollar
an acre. As the demand for water grew, requiring the
enlargement of the irrigation facilities, this annual
charge grew to ten dollars an acre. But, at the same
time, the value of the land thus irrigated leaped into
figures hitherto undreamed of. In a few years the
sheep ranch of Jurupa, still unimproved, save for the
presence of the water, sold for from three to five hundred
dollars an acre, while the growing orange orchards
could not be purchased for less than one to two thou
sand dollars an acre.
Devoting his energies unselfishly and energetically
to the upbuilding of the community, Judge North was
too busy helping others and directing municipal affairs
to become a money-maker. He who founded the
colony, and started the enterprise, had every oppor
tunity to " get in on the ground floor " and make great
wealth, but resolutely turned his face in the other di
rection. He had learned years ago, in the old Methodist
homestead, — and his many years of association with
every class of men had confirmed the truth of the Christ
statement, — that " Ye cannot serve God and mam
mon." He regarded faithful service to the people as
service to God, and refused to be a money-getter for
himself. Hence in npne of his ventures did he reap a
large pecuniary reward. When he left Riverside in 1880
to go to Fresno County, he took very little money with
him, though his wisdom and foresight had enabled
many other people to accumulate competencies.
In the later years of his life, I knew him well. He
had seen that vast areas of land in the San Joaquin

308 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Valley, owing to its longer period of summer heat, were
better adapted for the growth and curing of raisins
than was Riverside. Accordingly he had established a
colony there, near Fresno, in which he lived. Just as
he had seen Riverside spring into a prosperity that no
necromancy ever surpassed, so he saw Oleander and
its surrounding colonies become one of the greatest
raisin-producing centres of the world.
Could he not, in his declining years, look out over
the battle-fields of his life, and see where he had
grappled with the forces of nature, and conquered and
subdued them for man's benefit? Could he not see
where he had met an army of his fellows, grappled
with their prejudices, theh ignorance, theh pessimism,
their indifference, and routed these evils, and then, by
the clear light of his own practical wisdom, steady
foresight and boundless enthusiasm, guided his en
lightened friends into prosperity, happiness, content?
As he faced the setting sun, and its beams kissed the
hoary locks of his honored old age, he entered upon
his new adventure, fearless and unafraid, as he had
worked on earth, as true and brave a hero as ever re
ceived the plaudits of his fellow men.

CHAPTER XXIX
THE OUTSPOKEN HERO OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE,
J. W. POWELL
TV TUCH is said and written about the veniality of
-"-?A men in high official positions, yet there are many
heroes of truth and honor among them, and there is no
doubt but that the great mass, both of the superior
officials and the rank and file, are honest, true and
patriotic. Once in a while, however, public officials
are brought face to face with large temptations, and,
if there is promise of financial profit without fear of
detection or any great loss of self-respect, there is
reason to fear that too many yield their consciences
and accept the emolument. To their honor, also, be
it said with gladness, there are those to whom such
temptations have no power. Such an one was Major
John Wesley Powell, the organizer and director of those
two great branches of the scientific work of our United
States government, viz., the Geological Survey and the
Bureau of American Ethnology. While Major Powell
was not a Californian, he was essentially Western
in his sphit and methods, and as this event transpired
in California, and pertained as much to this State as
almost any other, it seems appropriate that it should
find place in this volume.
To those of this and succeeding generations who are

3 xo HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
familiar with the gigantic krigation schemes of the
United States Reclamation Service, and the wonderful
constructive work they have engineered and carried
through, it will seem almost impossible to realize that
it is only within a couple of decades that this marvelous
reclamation work has been accomplished.
The active propaganda of the benefits of irrigation
had already been taken up, as elsewhere related in
these pages, by Mr. William E. Smythe and others.
These men were conscientiously working for a desirable
end, and honestly seeking to improve the condition
of the common man, but the land speculators were
carefully watching their actions, and preparing to
use theh honest enthusiasm in innocently furthering
plans by which they could financially profit in a most
extravagant manner. Major Powell believed that
these plans depended entirely upon blinding the peo
ple as a whole, and the national legislators espe
cially, to the available amount of water for krigation
purposes. Through extensive researches conducted
under Major Powell by the experts of the United States
Geological Survey, — men of trained observation and
scientific deduction, — he had come to the conclusion
that while immense areas of the arid lands could be
reclaimed, there was only a certain amount of water,
under any circumstances and after the most rigid con
servation, available for this purpose. He saw that
immense tracts of land, in the aggregate amounting to
hundreds of millions of acres, had already passed from
the government into the hands of private (or cor
porate) parties, who, naturally, would wish to sell

J. W. POWELL 311
this land, when the time arrived, at as large a price
as possible. He also saw that, with the limited available
water supply, there was not enough water to irrigate
these private lands and at the same time have water
sufficient to irrigate the arid lands that still remained
in the government's possession, and which, alone, were
open to homesteading or other preemption by the
common people for actual occupancy.
He saw, therefore, that if the national government
could be induced to spend millions upon millions of
dollars for the building of immense dams, securing
all the water and snow-fall of vast localities, instituting
reservok systems and conservation plans over immense
areas, constructing hundreds of miles of canals and
laterals for the supply and distribution of the life-
giving fluid to the arid lands, and that if the great land
speculators could then control this krigation and con
servation work so that the water could be diverted
upon their lands instead of upon the arid govern
ment lands, the former would be marvelously en
hanced in value, while the latter would be left in thek
original barren and almost valueless condition.
Then, with prophetic eye, this servant of the people
looked into the future. He saw, what these conscience
less speculators also saw, that the population of the
United States was rapidly increasing and that in a
comparatively short space of time hundreds of thou
sands of families of financially poor people would be
seeking farms for homes. But while financially poor,
he knew that the majority of these seekers were rich
in energy, rich in industry, rich in morality, rich in all

3i2 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
the virtues that go to make up the very best parts of a
great nation's citizenship. He therefore determined
that if there were to be any conflict in this tremendous
work of conservation and krigation (which he clearly
saw the government would be compelled soon to
undertake and carry to a completion at a fabulous
expenditure of money), he would ally himself on the
side of the poorer, common people, rather than on
the side of the land speculators who wished to fur
ther exploit the common people to their own enrich
ment. The plan of the speculators, as Major Powell under
stood it, was to allow the honest and enthusiastic
conservationists and krigationists to go ahead in their
convention soon to assemble in Los Angeles and urge
the government to carry out thek plans, while they
themselves stood aside until the work was well ad
vanced, then they intended to step in and assume control
and so shape legislation that they could divert the water
thus conserved, at the expense of the nation, to thek
own lands, and to thek own vast enrichment. ,
It appeared that their only hope to accomplish this
was to silence Major Powell. They knew that the
enthusiastic workers for irrigation were too honest to
see thek schemes, and not politicians enough to sus
pect anything, or ckcumvent them if they did, but they
had had experience enough to know that Major Powell
could not be hoodwinked or blinded. He was as keen-
eyed to. detect a political " job," as he was to grasp
a scientific principle. They therefore determined that
there was but one thing to do, and that was to bribe

J. W. POWELL 313
him. How should this be done and by whom? An
open bribe they knew would be scorned. A mere sug
gestion that he cease his watchfulness would be tread
ing upon dangerous ground. They knew his honor,
they knew his vigilance, and yet they thought they
could " reach " him, as they had done many a public
official before. Thek offer would have to be a sugar-
coated pill; they would have to wrap the alluring sweet
of sophistry around the bitter dose of bribery ere they
could induce Major Powell to swallow it. Could they
do it? They determined to try. They would offer
him, at a low price, a share in a syndicate they had
aheady organized, in order that they might have the ad
vice and counsel of his farseeing intellect. Then, once
in the syndicate, they intended to prevail upon him, not
openly to further thek plans, but, not to do anything.
He was simply not to do, to remain passive, to keep
his hands off, and say nothing. They would shape
matters as they desired them. His business was to see
that all the available water supply of the United States
was conserved. It was none of his business how those
waters were used, or where they went to, upon whose
lands they were conveyed. And they intimated that,
just as soon as the work was begun, and legislation
shaped their way, that they — the syndicate — would
— if he desked to convert his holdings into cash —
repurchase his interests at a price that would net
him over a million dollars. The one thing they feared,
however, was that he would enlighten the world, and
the legislators, upon this matter of water supply, and
thus render the defeat of thek schemes certain. They

314 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
particularly wished him to be silent on this point at the
national convention, and urged his absence.
The offer was made, but in so careful and subtle a
manner that even Major Powell's clear brain did not,
at first, perceive the moral delinquency it implied on
his part. Some of those nearest and dearest to him,
to whom he communicated the offer, and his rising
scruples and suspicions concerning it, ridiculed the
latter and urged his immediate acceptance. Here was
a life's competence; men of high position and who were
regarded as models of integrity were making fortunes
in less scrupulous ways; why should he be so particular ?
Then, in telling me this story himself, — and Major
Powell asserted at the time that his soul's battle had
never before been revealed to a human soul, — he
said : " I was tempted for a while to let the thing go.
I wanted to do the best I could for my friends and
family. I didn't want to be quixotic and tilt at a
windmill. I didn't want to hamper my future work
by making an army of such powerful enemies, but what
was it my duty to God and the people to do ? My
men were working up in the Sierra Santa Monica,
some twenty miles from Los Angeles. I said to myself:
' I'll go up there and leave these politicians to fight it
out by themselves. I'll neither approve nor disapprove! '
I went, but that night I could not even go to bed, much
less sleep. Conscience and brain alike were extra
alert. Both were as clear as was the California sky
above me, which made the stars seem close and so
penetrating that I felt they were peering into my
very soul, and thek purity demanding a like purity

JOHN W. POWELL.

Page S09

J. G. LEMMON.
Taken about 1894-5,

Page 388

S. A. PLUMMER LEMMON.
Taken about 1894-5,

Page .

J. W. POWELL 315
of me. I got up and marched back and forth. The
sweat poured from my face in the agony I suffered
and I learned to believe that a man can sweat
blood in his soul's struggles. But I could not
stifle either my mind or my conscience. My duty
was clear. I was not only the head of a great
government department to do my scientific work and
let others determine what the outcome of it should be,
but I was there as the representative of the people, —
the poor, the homeless, the struggling, the helpless, —
who did not know, and could not know, and would be
helpless even if they did know, — of the assault that
was being made upon the land, which, in reality,
should be theks. I could not 'stand it any longer.
Without breakfast, or a word to my men, I hurried down
to Los Angeles, and kept the appointment that had been
made me, — to speak on this subject at a certain hour.
Those who had approached me fully expected me to
avoid the dangerous line of thought I had suggested.
But — you know all the rest."
I was present and heard his address, and I heard
and saw the hubbub and uproar that followed. The
good men and true of the convention did not believe
his statements — and the conspkators knew they
would not — so even the honest and unbribable ele
ments of the convention (which were in a large majority)
innocently joined the scheming minority in thek con
demnation. They shouted and stormed and even sought
to prevent his continuing his address; for a time it
seemed as if the convention had become a howling
mob, showing by face, gesture, action and word thek

316 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
deske to down the one-armed man, who, now that his
own battle of soul was fought and won, stood calmly
and indifferently facing them, as long before he had
faced the armies of the South, and the dangers of the
unknown Grand Canyon. In vain the chakman bat
tered with his gavel. For a long time uproar reigned,
but finally he was allowed to proceed, and he said his
say. During the remainder of the convention he was
openly and covertly attacked. His ideas were denied
and ridiculed. To this day there are some members who
honestly believe that his ideas were wrong. Be that
as it may Major Powell firmly believed them; so much
so that he deliberately threw away the equivalent of a
million dollars in defence of them. His expose blocked
the plans of the schemers. They were silenced, at
least for the time. The principles laid down by Major
Powell have been carried out, in the main, and, what
ever the future has in store, he kept his soul pure.
His active work on earth is ended, and he, brave war
rior for the highest morality in public life, has gone to
his reward in the wonderful advancement that all
souls receive when they are victors in life's conflicts.

CHAPTER XXX
THE PRACTICAL HERO OF INVENTION, ANDREW SMITH
HALLIDIE
/^VNE of the essential features of the California spkit
^' is the ability to think for oneself, to refuse to be
held by the thoughts and methods of the past, to meet
new problems in new ways. This spkit was well exem
plified by the way A. S. Hallidie, of San Francisco,
grappled with the transportation problem. The city
of the Golden Gate is a very hilly city, and yet some
of the finest building sites are on the steep slopes or
summits of these hills. Even to-day, when millions of
dollars have been spent in cutting and paving streets
on these hills, it would be almost an impossibility to use
many of the best sites if there were no cheap and easy
means of public transportation. The ordinary horse-
car could never have scaled these steep grades, and
even had horses been found capable of ascending them,
it is doubtful whether passengers could have been found
brave enough to risk thek lives in making the descent.
Something had to be invented to meet the necessity, for,
as yet, the powers of electricity were not applied to the
street-car as they are to-day. At this juncture Mr.
Andrew Smith Hallidie turned his inventive energies
to the problem, and those who knew him realized that
it was as good as settled, for both he and his father were
natural inventors, and both were interested in the solving

318 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
of just such problems. As early as 1835 his father had
patented his invention of making ropes and cables
from kon and steel wke, and in 1855, w^en Andrew
himself was but nineteen years old, he had shown his
own power by designing and constructing an aque
duct, suspended on a wke, with a span of two hundred
and twenty feet, across the middle fork of the American
River. In the mines there was a growing demand
for wke rope, and Andrew determined to supply it.
In June, 1856, he extemporized hand machinery for
making wke rope, and produced the first wke cable
made on the Pacific Coast. The following year he es
tablished a manufactory for wke ropes in San Fran
cisco. Then, for several years, he built wke suspension
bridges, as well as made cables for use in the mines, —
where it was found far more reliable than ordinary rope
to haul up the cars loaded with ore and miners from the
depths. In 1867 he took out a patent for a rigid sus
pension bridge, and the same year invented and put
into use another contrivance for conveying freight over
a mountainous country by means of an overhead con
tinuous wke rope. This was soon known as the " Hal
lidie Rope-way," and is largely in use throughout the
country. By its means timbers, fuel, tools, provisions
and all kinds of supplies are transported to the mines,
and in the returning cages or buckets ore is sent to the
mill. Mr. Hallidie's genius had many problems to
solve in making this rope- way the complete and satis
factory thing it is to-day, one of the chief of which was
the grip pulley. By means of this pulley, — which,

ANDREW SMITH HALLIDIE 319
as its name implies, grips the cable, — power is ap
plied to move the cable, and then, if its speed becomes
too great, the same power becomes a brake to restrain
it. Another important feature is the gearing, which
allows the heavy loads of ore descending to pull up the
supplies, etc., ascending, in this way utilizing all the
natural power possible.
One of the longest rope-ways in use is four miles
long, between stations two miles apart. At Mineral
King the stations are six thousand feet apart, and the
mine is one thousand nine hundred feet above the mill.
In one place the span is seven hundred feet between
posts, and the cable crosses a canyon six hundred feet
above the bottom.
While thus busy constructing these rope-ways, Mr.
Hallidie was daily seeing the need of improved street
railway transportation in San Francisco. Horse-cars
were in use up some of the lesser inclines, and almost
daily his heart was wrenched by witnessing the painful
efforts of the struggling horses to drag thek loaded cars
up these hills. Accidents happened with alarming
frequency, for sometimes the horses would lose thek
footing and the brakes being unable to hold the load,
the cars would either rush forward upon them, or drag
them back as thek weight took them to the foot of the
hill. But an endless cable, carrying moving cages of
rock, in the country, was an entkely different thing from
an endless cable, carrying moving cars, filled with
human passengers, suspended in the streets of a city
The feature of suspension must be eliminated, and the
principle of the endless wke cable applied to a railway

320 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
on the street level. It was in 1871 that the idea was
clear to Mr. Hallidie how it might be done. A model
was made and patented. Then came the long, tedious,
and often disheartening time spent in experimenting
and perfecting his invention. Three capitalists in San
Francisco generously came forward and supplied the
needed funds for the purpose, by subscribing twenty-
two thousand dollars each, and in two years' time, a
cable was successfully laid in an underground conduit,
propelled by powerful machinery at a fixed station, and
street cars moved by it. This was the Clay Street Cable
Raihoad. The grips are quite common now, but they
requked many months of trying experiment before they
were perfected. It is no light strain to have a grip
attached to a street-car, heavily loaded with passengers,
even on a level track, much less up a steep incline,
suddenly seize a moving cable, fasten on to it, and thus
overcome the inertia and take the car along. Grips
used to break and cables wear out with alarming
rapidity before the present method was adopted. On
August 1, 1873, tne dav Street Railway was set in
successful operation, and at once demonstrated a
success. The Hallidie method became known and was
used throughout the world. It worked a complete
revolution in street-car service, and indeed was the
most important of all inventions applied to street
transportation until the electric car came upon the
scene. When Professor Lowe constructed the Mount Lowe
Railway, the question arose as to how the steep sixty-
two per cent, grade of the incline should be overcome.

ANDREW SMITH HALLIDIE 321
Here Mr. Hallidie's genius, combined with that of Pro
fessor Lowe, designed the balanced cars on the endless
cable and the grip sheave, with its seventy jaws, each of
which automatically seizes the cable as it revolves.
The result is a perfectly successful and safe device
which has now been in operation, without the faintest
suggestion of an accident, since 1893. The operation
of this cable incline is entkely different from that of
a cable street railway. In the latter the cable is gripped
from the car, and the movement of the car depends
upon the security of the grip's hold upon the cable.
On the Mount Lowe incline, on the other hand, the
cable and the car are built together, — the one firmly
fastened to the other; the machinery above merely
moves the cable, the latter taking the two cars along
as it moves.
As Mr. Hallidie's invention was designed to meet
peculiar California necessities, and it is in most suc
cessful operation, with a variety of local adaptations,
in the State, I have thus preferred to take and use it
as an example of inventive skill used for the benefit
of the people, rather than some other and more general
application of inventive power.

CHAPTER XXXI
THE INTREPID HEROES OF A GENTLE SCIENCE, JOHN
GILL LEMMON AND SARA PLUMMER LEMMON
AT first thought, there might not appear anything
of the heroic about the life and work of any
botanist. How can a mere gatherer of flowers be a
hero? Yet one has but to read the life and work of such
men as Fremont (who did not despise his work as a
botanist), Douglas, who early studied California's
trees and flowers and after a most heroic life died tragi
cally in the Hawaiian Islands, John Muk, whose
studies of the trees and flowers of the high Sierras
often led him into great danger, and many others, to
realize that even in the mere gathering of plants there
may be a high purpose which can be carried out only
by a truly heroic soul.
Such heroes undoubtedly were John Gill Lemmon
and his noble wife, formerly Miss Sara A. Plummer,
whose herbarium in Oakland, California, has long
been the Mecca of visiting botanists from all parts of the
globe. Professor John Gill Lemmon first saw the light of
day in a large, comfortable log cabin in the forest-
bordered wilds of Lima, Michigan, January 2, 1832,
and was carefully reared by wise parents. In time he

J. G. AND SARA P. LEMMON 323
was sent to the best public and private schools, then
to the Michigan State Normal School, from whence,
well equipped for his work as a teacher, he went forth,
soon, however, to be made superintendent of schools.
His ambition not yet being satisfied, he entered
the State University of Michigan, but before gradu
ation, stirred by the deeply patriotic impulse of
a true-hearted man, he dropped pen and books
and volunteered for three years or as long as
the strife should last. He entered the Fourth
Michigan Cavalry June 8, 1862, and served with
honor in thirty-six engagements in Kentucky,
Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia, until captured,
August 26, 1864. He was thrust into Andersonville
and Florence prison-pens and kept there during the
last six months of the war, and was one of the hundred
and thkty-five who could stand alone, out of the five
thousand prisoners, when release came. But he was
almost a physical wreck, and his mother, with her
family, brought him to California in 1865, with the
mournful expectation of merely making his few last
days as peaceful and comfortable as possible. His
home was made in a little cottage in Sierra Valley, and
here he slowly began to revive to an interest in the
things of this life.
One day, as he lay in the shadow of his cottage,
scarcely able to move, he saw in the near distance an
odd little clover. Not all his strenuous experiences in the
war, and the cruel hardships of his prison life had been
able to kill his love for the amiable science of botany,
and the sight of this quaint and strange clover aroused

324 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
afresh in his soul all his interest. Slowly he rolled
over and crept towards the strange flower. He gathered
it with a quickly beating heart, for he had never seen
just such a clover before. Near by were other strange
flowers, and his delighted eyes feasted upon them
as he eagerly gathered them and returned to his
cot. Then he plucked up strength and courage
enough to write to good Asa Gray, the great Har
vard botanist, who wrote back : " You have discovered
seven new plants — new to science. Good ! Send some
more! "
This letter was like new wine to the worn out
man. His soul revived under the stimulus of the
kindly encouragement. In time he enlarged the
scope of his daily walks, and soon was able
to go out for a whole day's ramble. He found
enough new specimens to keep him constantly inter
ested, and his collection of California flora rapidly
grew in size and importance. Scarcely a month passed
without his contribution of some valuable addition
to the knowledge of the Eastern and European botan
ists in regard to the flora of the Golden State.
Though never again to be the strong man that, in
the full glory of youth, had taken up arms for the good
of his beloved country, he recuperated sufficiently to
feel that he had a life's work ahead of him. He began
systematically to explore, not only California, but the
adjoining states and territories, from Alaska down
to Old Mexico, and as far east as the western base of the
Rocky Mountains.
It was on one of these explorations, nearly twenty-

J. G. AND SARA P. LEMMON 325
five years ago, that I first met him, and was immediately
attracted by his lovable, gentle nature. How fascinat
ing were the stories of his experiences : climbing snowy
mountains, dodging hostile Indians, camping with
friendly ones, sliding down canyon precipices where
only the mountain goat had hitherto trailed, sleeping
beneath the giant redwoods and sequoias, scorched on
the alkali flats of the below-sea-level areas of our west
ern deserts. Pathos and comedy, tragedy and humor
rubbed elbows with each other during those years of
happy labor, made sweeter and more precious by the
companionship and dear comradeship of his wife. It
was the love of botany and nature science that brought
these two spkits together, and they were married in
Oakland in 1880, after an acquaintance of four years,
during which they were fellow members of a botanical
club in Santa Barbara, organized by Mr. Lemmon.
Henceforth these two traveled together. Thek
wedding journey was into the wilds of Arizona and New
Mexico, and the habit once formed was kept up through
life. Year after year they went, with thek ponies, or
wagon, or burros, happy in themselves and in thek
work. Nothing in the floral line escaped thek eager search :
cactuses of a hundred varieties, yuccas by the score,
the tiny creeping gilias, and the giant suaharos and
sequoias, trailing seaweeds, floating lilies, and the
shrinking orchids of the dense forests where sunlight
seldom enters. Year after year added to thek store
of plants and knowledge. These botanists lived with
the objects of thek study; they watched them grow

326 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
from seed, slip or bud, and visited them again and
again in thek wild, almost inaccessible natural habitats,
until they were able to speak of them with authority.
Every new trip gave them new triumphs for thek
flower-presses laden with new species of plants. Each
of them, husband and wife, has had the highest honor
accorded them that can befall botanists, viz., the
dedication of a new genus of plants to them. These
are known throughout the world as the Lemmonia and
Plummera. For more than a quarter of a century Mrs.
Lemmon took her water colors and sketch pad along
and made field sketches, in color, of the plants in thek
native haunts.
In the year 1881 Arizona was not the peaceable,
quiet, hospitable country it now is. In those days
Apache raids and massacres were frequent. Even the
most hardened Indian campaigner, knew that an order
to advance into the Apache country meant no tender
foot's picnic, and yet, in this year, this gentle-hearted
student of the plants, accompanied by his wife, urged
only by the deske to hunt down the so-called " Irish "
potato in its native habitat, hitched up the team to thek
camping wagon, and aimed right for the Indian region.
Two years previously Colonel Charles D. Poston had
assured them that he was confident wild potatoes could
be found in Southern Arizona. With eager zeal Pro
fessor Lemmon and his wife had searched for two
seasons, but in vain, and now they were going to try
again. They arrived at Fort Bowie, in the famous
Apache Pass, just after the summer rains had brought
forth a most abundant and interesting flora, but thek

J. G. AND SARA P. LEMMON 327
hearts were bent on finding potatoes, so they pushed
forward into the Chkacahua Mountains, where one
of the most feared bands of Apaches had long had its
stronghold. When every one else was fleeing the
country, these scientists boldly went, with sublime
unconsciousness, where all expected they would meet
thek death. Instead of that they found what they had
so eagerly been seeking — the wild potato. But here
let Professor Lemmon tell the story himself.
" One day in September, while searching for ferns
in the clefts of one of the highest peaks north of the
Pass, there was discovered, under a tangle of prickly
bushes and cacti, a solitary little plant perceived at
first glance to be a Solanum; but query : Was it bulb-
bearing? Carefully the little stranger was uprooted,
when lo, a tuber! an undoubted representative of the
true potato family.
" The plant proved to be a specimen of Solanum
Jamesii, of Torrey. Great was my disappointment
when, after diligent search day after day in that lo
cality of various features of plain, canyon, and peak,
not another plant was to be detected. Time and again
the little scrap of a plant was examined, but it was so
meagre and dejected by age that it had but few char
acteristics which reminded one of the rank potato vines
of our gardens. With great care and kindling interest
I dissected its organs and compared its characters with
the meagre descriptions at hand. How much more
my emotions would have been aroused, had I then
known that it was probable that from this very species,
rather than from any other of the thkty-six known, our

328 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
first potatoes sprung, according to the researches and
reasonings of Humboldt.
" We were prevented from making a thorough ex
ploration of the southern portion of the Chkacahuas
— to which we removed in September — by the rumors
that reached us day by day of Indian outrages in the
mountains to the north of us; culminating at last in
the startling intelligence brought us by a friendly
cowboy, who rode all night to warn us, that Juh and
his whole band of Chkacahua Apaches had broken
out of the San Carlos Reservation at four o'clock the
morning before, and were fleeing dkectly towards
thek old haunts, the very valley in which we were
peacefully botanizing.
" We took refuge in the cabin of a queer old hermit,
Dr. Monroe, who had been there for four years, and
who had prepared for such emergencies by digging a
tunnel one hundred and twenty feet long through the
sharp point of a long ridge projecting into the valley
between two creeks. Midway of the ridge the tunnel
was constructed with a double elbow, enlarged to
eight feet by ten, and six feet high, to which one could
retreat with his supplies and weapons, and could shoot
out towards either end of the tunnel at his foes in the
light, while himself shrouded in the darkness by the
elbow. In case of overpowering numbers, he could
light a fuse leading to a magazine concealed in the
cobbles at each end of the tunnel, which, when ignited,
must blow everything to atoms in the vicinity.
" The mouths of the tunnel, opening out on the sides
of the ridge, were each artfully concealed by a cabin

J. G. AND SARA P. LEMMON 329
made of shakes and brush, one of which was generously
assigned to us. While we were there for eleven days,
in momentary expectation of attack, Juh and his band,
split up into squads of half a dozen to fifty warriors,
scoured the country, torturing and killing all the whites
in thek path.
" One large band passed along by the mouth of
Rucker Valley, and no one knows why they did not
ascend to thek familiar haunts, as there was not the
slightest obstacle to such a course, although the full-
garrisoned Fort Bowie was but forty miles away, and
the Apaches passed near it on the way; followed, to
be sure, two days later, by two companies of well-
mounted cavalry, majestically marching along by twos,
accompanied with baggage wagons and other com
fortable military equipage. •
" In October we returned to Oakland to pass the
winter in closet-work over our varied treasures from
Arizona. Last May (1882) we again joyfully prepared
our simple outfit for an extended exploration of the
other mountains of Southern Arizona, determined
that we would find more of that wild potato if it took all
summer — and it did."
Professor Lemmon then recounts the long and ardu
ous search for the potato. After being duly settled in a
tent at Fort Huachuca, kindly provided by the com
manding officer:
" Every thkd day, equipped with flower press,
pick, and luncheon, I climbed slowly and wearily, as
perforce I must, over one ridge after another, and up
to spur upon spur of the high peaks; hastily culling

33o HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
the rare flowers and ferns by the way, and putting
them, carefully displayed, into the portable press;
taking note of habitat and peculiarities to be recorded
on return. Generally the unseen peril of rattlesnakes
and centipedes, together with the open attacks of cacti
and yucca, were added to the intense heat of the sun,
jeopardizing life and limb. The level rays of sunset
usually found me at the top of a mountain ten to twenty
miles from camp. Fortunately the declivity favored
the return trip. You slid perhaps for rods at a plunge,
down with splintered shales and volcanic cinders, knee-
deep, to a bush-covered landing, where you must pass
along the side of the mountain until another shat
tered vertical ledge of slate or trachyte is reached.
When the moon favored, late returns by her lovely aid
were always calculated upon.
" Whenever Mrs. Lemmon could not accompany
me on these extra laborious trips, she was busily
occupied in making paintings of the flowers in the
vicinity of the camp, or in changing dryers within the
many packages of plants collected on previous explora
tions. " Sometimes we took long journeys on our horses,
going round the bases of dividing ridges between
canyons, or climbing by perilous zigzag trails over
them. From the highest points, the peculiar features
of a flat, desert country, interspersed with island
mountains dancing in a heated atmosphere, bounded
our horizon.
" These long trips occupied from three to five days'
time, and often included the ckcuit of half the range;

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YOSEMITE VALLEY FROM ARTIST S POINT, CALIFORNIA.
Page 347
J. G. AND SARA P. LEMMON 331
at times we passed across the Mexican boundary at the
risk of being deprived of our animals by Mexican
officials, little better than Italian bandits; or worse,
being cut off altogether by Apaches, several tribes of
whom were again on the war-path under the notorious
chieftain, Juh, still at large. During one of these trips
we passed over the locality where recent massacres
had occurred; and, as appeared afterward, while on
one of the high southern ridges, near Cave Canyon,
an Apache massacre was being perpetrated upon two
Americans and three Mexicans, only five miles below
us — a fate which we narrowly escaped by happening
to choose the upper trail."
But heat, cacti, yucca, rattlesnakes, Gila monsters,
Mexican bandits, and the criminals of the United States
and Mexico who plied thek nefarious business on both
sides of the border, and Apaches combined could not
restrain the search or dampen the ardor of these two
devoted servants of science, and finally thek efforts
were triumphantly rewarded. Three species were
found, the last of which requked longer search than
the others:
" The thkd kind of wild potato of Arizona was not
so easily found. It was only after a long day's climb
. . . that I reached the summit of the highest peak
of the Huachuca, a little over ten thousand feet alti
tude. This peak is steep and rugged, besides being
beset with a dense clothing of thorny bushes covering
most of its surface. In the shade of the north side
a spke of timber, sharply defined at the sides, ascends
to the very top. Here, in this very highest point, under

332 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
the shade of fir, pine, and poplar trees, kept moist by
melting banks of snow for a great part of the year,
were found several plants of this little species.
Widely scattered among the rank herbage, they were
bravely lifting thek mostly simple and nearly orbicular
leaves and nodding balls of seed from under the golden-
rods and brilliant asters."
Every reader of these pages should finish the whole
story, which well might be termed " The Romance of
the Irish Potato." It may be found in The Overland
Monthly, for April and May, 1883, and is well worthy
a place among the true classics of California literature.
A later Overland — that of September, 1888 — con
tains an exquisitely written, graphic and vivid descrip
tion of the San Francisco Mountains, near Flagstaff,
Arizona, and of a visit Professor and Mrs. Lemmon
paid to the Grand Canyon, by way of Peach Springs
and Diamond Creek, a route now almost forgotten
since the railway to El Tovar was built. They aimed
to reach the height of Agassiz, the extinct volcano that
forms the highest peak of this beautifully chiseled
mountain-range. " On the way our noiseless vehicle allowed us often
to approach quite near herds of graceful antelope
feeding in the secluded parks, before thek watchful
sentinels, stamping the earth with heavy strokes, started
the herds off with long bounds.
" The peak, nearly devoid of timber for its upper
three thousand feet, was furrowed by several ravines
yet partially filled with snow, and thek dazzling white
ness, lit up by the declining sun as we approached,

J. G. AND SARA P. LEMMON 333
contrasted very effectively with the variegated tints
of red, yellow, brown, and black scoriae displayed in
stripes and blocks on the bare projecting ribs; while
beneath all the supporting meadow of rich grasses held
up long reaches to the very banks of melting snow.
" We pitched our tent for the night near the spring
and cabin of a sheep-herder. Next morning we were
occupied till late, as usual after a day's travel in such
a rich botanical region, in drying out the botanical pads;
several of the plants, too, were strangers and tempted
examination, so it was ten o'clock before we got off for
the peak.
" The first three or four miles being a gradual rise
covered with grass, we decided to drive the wagon up to
a convenient spot near the snow and picket the mules
for the day, while we prosecuted the further ascent on
foot, — designing to return and make camp at that
point for the night and go on eastward next day.
" But no water could be found for the mules. In
vain we searched an hour among the ravines; the
water from the melting ,banks sank at once into the
scoriae and volcanic ashes; so we were forced either
to abandon the trip altogether, or to hasten up, leaving
the animals securely tied to suffer a little for water
until our return, when we would hurry down to the
herder's spring.
" We chose to make the ascent, — in fact the nearness
and detail of the monster cone piercing the sky a mile
or so above us was simply irresistible."
Then follows a graphic description of the ascent
and the view from the summit. Professor Lemmon

334 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
here seems to have been insphed. His prose-poems
can only be compared to those equally inspked pro
ductions of the poet-geologist, Clarence Dutton, written
on the brink of the Grand Canyon at Point Sublime.
A touch of solid prose, however, ends the poetic
rhapsody. Here it is:
"Is it any wonder that we did not leave the spot
until the scene-shifter shut off the light ? Ah! but that
was almost a fatal delay for us.
" Hastening down the steep by long strides and
slides in the loose scoriae, we found our animals pull
ing at thek ropes in great fright. No doubt a brown
bear — somewhat plentiful in the region — had visited
our camp, and of all wild beasts a bear will give most
alarm to a mule. Hurriedly attaching the mules to the
wagon, we mounted, put on the brakes, and began the
descent towards the light in the herder's camp.
" But in the darkness the large boulders and blocks
of scoriae, large as modern stove-ranges, that were
easily seen and avoided on the up-trip, were unseen
now, and the way seemed full of them. The mules,
fleeing from a frightful spot, refused to obey the curb-
reins, though I drew upon them with all my strength.
" Over the obstacles we bounded; now this side of
the vehicle was elevated nearly to the point of over
turning, now the other. My wife threw herself into
the bottom of the wagon, and resigned herself silently
to her fate; while I wrapped the lines about my hands,
pressed the brake-bar hard down, and steered the
frightened animals, now at full speed, directly down
the steep. As the mules flew along, the little wagon

J. G. AND SARA P. LEMMON 335
seemed to be almost upon thek backs; the wheels
hitting only the tops of the rocks, and veering from
side to side as the mules dodged the larger boulders.
" By the most marvelous series of accidents the
occupants of that little wagon escaped, for a few min
utes of this breakneck speeding brought them safely
to the camp of the frightened herder, who held his
lantern up to thek blanched faces, but could only
wring from them the exultant explanation of the clat
tering sound, that they had been to the top of the peak
and had looked over into the Grand Canyon."
An adventure of quite a different character befell
Professor and Mrs. Lemmon on one of thek earlier
visits to the Canyon. They reached " Peach Spring at
two o'clock in the night, and experienced a reception
characteristic of new raihoad towns of the period. We
were conducted by a brakeman to Farley's tent, the
only habitation known as a hotel in the town, and were
quartered in a portion of it curtained off by cheap
calico. " Scarcely had we lost consciousness, when pistol
shots were heard, and a loud, querulous female voice
outside announced that two gamblers in an adjoining
saloon had been quarreling, and that ' Jem Smith
was shot full of holes.'
" Some of the bullets passed through and over our
tent, causing us to lie awake shivering until daylight,
while thinking of the then unrealized safety we en
joyed when in the hermit's tunnel of the Chkacahua,
and the miner's stone cabin of the Huachuca."
After twenty years of such arduous and yet delightful

336 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
explorations, Professor Lemmon was appointed botan
ist by the California Board of Forestry, and his wife was
made botanic artist. This gave them a great oppor
tunity to do pioneer work in California in such a way
as to give a strong impetus to the study of forestry. Thek
work was so excellent that the Department of Botany,
at Washington, D. C, in one of the Annual Reports,
states that the written results of Professor Lemmon's
labors and the illustrations which accompanied them
were by far the best that had ever been recorded.
Indeed, it may safely be affirmed that this pak of
pioneer botanists were the first forestry conservationists
of the State, for as early as 1882 they fought for the
preservation of our noble forests. In 1 886-1 889 the
State published thek reports, in which the conservation
of the forests is urgently insisted upon ; and later, at thek
own expense, they issued books and pamphlets, illus
trative of the subject, educative and informing in the
highest degree. In those days only the very few in the
land saw the dangers that are now so well understood,
and only here and there, like voices crying in the wilder
ness, could those be found with courage and persistence
to protest against the destruction of our never-to-be-
replaced forests for mere commercialism.
Mrs. Lemmon was as earnest and energetic as her
husband. For three years she was Chakman of the
Forestry Committee of the California Federation of
Women's Clubs, and with pen and voice never ceased
pleading for the noble trees she loved so well. One of
her pleas was an eight-page brochure, Some Hints on
Forestry, and this was followed by a seventy-page

J. G. AND SARA P. LEMMON 337
booklet, with many illustrations, entitled How to tell
the Trees, in which her husband wrote an admkable
chapter on the grand forest endowment God had be
stowed upon California.
Thus, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, these
sweet-spkited, amiable, and devoted heroes have lived
and worked, quietly benefiting a people, many of whom
were never even aware of thek existence. In November,
1908, the beckoning finger called Professor Lemmon to
new and better fields of labor, leaving his loving com
rade to issue the book upon which his latest energies
were spent, — a work describing and fully illustrating
all the native trees of California, — a fitting and appro
priate closing chapter in memory of the flowering
pathways they trod together for fully thkty years.

CHAPTER XXXII
THE STUDIOUS HERO OF THE MOUNTAINS,
JOHN MUIR
IN an earlier chapter has been given the story of
Clarence King's mountaineering and the heroism
of his endeavors. Soon after the time that Clarence
King did the work there recorded, a young man, whose*
name was to be even more inseparably connected with
the mountains of California, was working his way from
Madison, Wisconsin, through the South towards the
Pacific Coast, though when he started he had no inten
tion to make that the end of his journey. His name was
John Muk, — a well-known Scotch name, but as yet
almost unknown in American annals. Now, by the life
and work of this one man, the name of Muk is known
throughout the world.
Rightly to understand and appreciate this life, one
should read an article in The Outlook, of June 6, 1903,
in which Ray Stannard Baker shows how the lad
Muk prepared himself unconsciously and unknow
ingly for the work of the man Muk. It is a wonderful
example of that self-discipline I have endeavored
to inculcate in the chapter on Junipero Serra. Here
are a few quotations to show the spkit of the lad :
" This one of the boys of the Muk family was am
bitious, often taking his mathematical problems with

JOHN MUIR 339
him to the fields and working them out on chips from
the trees that he felled; and though he knew that his
father's rules were like those of the Medes and Per
sians, never changeable, and that he could not hope
for more time to read in the evening, he was finally
told that he might get up as early as he liked in the
morning. Though accustomed to sleep ten hours every
night, he now broke off sharply to five hours by sheer
force of will.
" ' It was winter,' he said; ' a boy sleeps soundly
after chopping and fence-building all day in frosty ak
and snow; therefore I feared I would not be able to
take any advantage of the granted permission. For
I was always asleep at six o'clock when father called,
the early-rising machine was not then made, and there
was no one to awake me. Going to bed wondering
whether I could compel myself to awake before the
regular hour and determined to try, I was delighted
next morning to find myself early called by will, the
power of which over sleep I then for the first time
discovered. Throwing myself out of bed and lighting a
candle, eager to learn how much time had been gained,
I found it was only one o'clock, leaving five hours all
my own before the work of the farm begun. At this
same hour, all winter long, my will, like a good angel,
awoke me, and never did time seem more gloriously
precious and rich. Fke was not allowed, so to escape
the frost I went down cellar, and there read some
favorite book or marked out some invention that
haunted me.'
" John Muk's career may be said to have had its

34o HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
beginning on the day that he set forth, a raw country
boy, to conquer the world, hope in his heart and an
odd bundle of whittled wooden machinery on his
shoulder. He had made a thermometer out of the
end rod of his father's wagon, so fastening it to the side
of the house that the expansion of the kon in varying
degrees of heat was indicated on a large dial. He had
invented and built an automatic saw-mill, and several
wooden clocks, one of them in the form of a scythe
hung on a burr-oak sapling, representing the scythe
of old Father Time — a good timekeeper, indicating
the days of the week and month, and having at
tachments for other inventions — for lighting fires and
lamps, a bedstead that set the sleeper on his feet at
any desked time, and so on. He had also invented an
automatic arrangement for feeding horses, a bathing-
machine, barometer, pyrometer, hydrometer, safety
locks, etc., all original, even the clocks, he never at
that time having seen the works of any sort of time
keeper." In i860 his neighbors prevailed upon him to exhibit
his wonderful inventions at the Wisconsin State Fak,
to be held at Madison. Since he had come to the farm
from Scotland (when he was eleven years old) he had
never been more than six miles from home and had not
ridden on a railway, yet a glimpse at his sackful of
machinery so interested both conductor and en
gineer that they allowed him to ride on the engine.
When he reached Madison the superintendent of the
Fak was " only too pleased at the prospect of exhibiting
his marvels, and they soon occupied a prominent

JOHN MUIR 341
place in the fine-arts hall, where Muk, too shy to pose
as the inventor, mingled with the crowd and heard
the admking comments of the spectators. Though
suddenly finding himself a celebrity, he refused,
quaintly enough, to read the accounts of his inven
tions which appeared in the newspapers, for his
father had always warned him of the deadly poison of
praise." " For four years he was a student (at the State
University), supporting himself largely by working in
the harvest-fields, by teaching school, and doing all
manner of odd jobs."
" It is related that where he once taught school he
fitted up a machine which lighted the fire for him every
morning, so that he did not have to reach the school-
house so early."
Thus he was unconsciously preparing himself to
begin his real life work. Through what battlings and
strugglings a man attains. In 1866, when he was
twenty-seven years old, he writes:
" I have been keeping up an irregular course of
study since leaving Madison but with no great success.
... A lifetime is so little a time that we die ere we get
ready to live. I would like to go to college, but then
I have to say to myself ' you will die ere you can do
anything else.' I should like to invent useful machin
ery, but it comes ' you do not wish to spend your life
time among machines and you will die ere you can do
anything else.' I should like to study medicine that I
might do my part in lessening human misery, but again
it comes ' you will die ere you are ready, or able to do

342 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
so.' How intensely I deske to be a Humboldt, but
again the chilling answer is reiterated. But could we
but live a million of years then how delightful to spend
in perfect contentment so many thousand years in
quiet study in college, so many amid the grateful din
of machines, so many among human pain, so many
thousands in the sweet study of Nature among the
dingles and dells of Scotland, and all the other less
important parts of our world. Then perhaps might
we, with at least a show of reason, shuffle off this mortal
coil and look back upon our star with something of
satisfaction. ... In our higher state of existence we
shall have time and intellect for study. Eternity with
perhaps the whole unlimited creation of God as our
field should satisfy us, and make us patient and trust
ful, while we pray with the Psalmist : ' So teach us to
number our days that we may apply our hearts unto
wisdom.' . . . What you say respecting the littleness of
the number who are called to ' the pure and deep com
munion of the beautiful all-loving Nature ' is particu
larly true of the hard-working people with whom I now
dwell — in vain is the glorious chart of God in nature
spread out for them. ' So many acres chopped ' is thek
motto, so they grub away amid the smoke of magnifi
cent forest trees black as demons and material as the
soil they move upon. ... In my long rambles last
summer I did not find a single person who knew any
thing of botany, and but a few who knew the meaning of
the word; and wherein lay the charm that could con
duct a man who might as well be gathering mammon,
so many miles through these fastnesses to suffer hunger

JOHN MUIR 343
and exhaustion was with them never to be discovered.
. . . That ' sweet day ' did, as you wished, reach our
hollow, and another is with us now. The sky has
the haze of autumn and excepting the aspen not a tree
has motion. Upon our enclosing wall of verdure new
tints appear. The gorgeous dyes of autumn are too
plainly seen, and the forest seems to have found out
that again its leaf must fade. Our stream too has a less
cheerful sound and, as it bears its foam-bells pen
sively away from the shallow rapids in the rocks, seems
to feel that summer is past."
Let us now go back to the earlier portion of this letter
and reread it. Here are four distinct aims that moved
Muh's soul at this time. Study of nature, machinery,
the healing work of the physician and to be a Humboldt.
He bitterly regretted the shortness of human life that he
could not take up and master all four departments.
An accident soon after this date for the time being
injured his eyesight so severely that he feared he had
lost sight in his right eye for ever. Here is what he
wrote at the time. His letter is dated April 3, 1867.
" I felt neither pain nor faintness, the thought was so
tremendous that my right eye was gone, that I should
never look at a flower again. The sunshine and the
winds are working in all the gardens of God, but I, I
am lost. I am shut in darkness."
Three days later he writes: "I believe you that
' nothing is without meaning and purpose that comes
from a Father's hand,' but during these dark weeks
I could not feel this, and as for courage and fortitude,
scarce the shadows of these vktues were left me. The

344 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
shock upon my nervous system made me weak in mind
as a child."
Little by little his sight began to return and on June
9th he writes: " I am thankful that this affliction has
drawn me to the sweet fields rather than from them."
As soon as he was able he started, with a plant press
on his back, and three books in his pocket, — the New
Testament, Burns and Milton, — for a tramp through
the South. Glad and thankful to be out-of-doors, he
tramped, often footsore, weary and hungry, over a
thousand miles, to Florida. Then he crossed to Cuba
and botanized there.
On this trip he slept out-of-doors most of the time,
both as a matter of preference and economy, but it was
unwise, for in the Florida swamps he contracted a
a fever which again brought him to despak — but the
accident to his eyesight and the fever were blessings in
disguise. Here are parts of two letters he wrote while on his
Southern trip. " Among the Hills of Bear Creek,
seven miles southeast of Burkesville, Kentucky,
Sept. 9th. I left Indiana last Monday and have
reached this point by a long, weary, roundabout
walk. I walked from Louisville, a distance of one
hundred and seventy miles, and my feet are sore, but
oh, I am paid for all my toil a thousand times over.
. . . The sun has been among the tree tops for more
than an hour, and the dew is nearly all taken back and
the shade in these hid basins is creeping away into
the unbroken strongholds of the grand old forest. I
have enjoyed the trees and scenery of Kentucky ex-

JOHN MUIR 345
ceedingly. How shall I ever tell of the miles and miles
of beauty that have been flowing into me ? These lofty
curving ranks of rolling, swelling hills; these concealed
valleys of fathomless verdure and these lordly trees
with the nursing sunlight glancing on thek leaves upon
the outlines of the magnificent masses of shade em
bosomed among thek wide branches. These are cut
into my memory to go with me forever.
" I am in the woods on a hill top with my back
against a moss-clad log. I wish you could see my last
evening's bedroom.
" It was a few miles south of Louisville where I
planned my journey. I spread out my map under a
tree and made up my mind to go through Kentucky,
Tennessee, and Georgia to Florida, thence to Cuba,
thence to some part of South America. But it will be
only a hasty walk. I am thankful, however, for so
much." The second letter is dated Cedar Keys, November
8th. " I am just creeping about, getting plants and
strength after my fever. I do not yet know which point
in S. America I had better go to."
Then suddenly his purpose changed. California was
suggested. He decided to accept the suggestion. He
came by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and in April of
1868 stood in the streets of the active, bustling, exciting,
gold-loving San Francisco. One would have supposed
this new and stkring city of the Pacific shore would have
aroused his curiosity and deske to know all of its
wonders and mysteries. But not a nerve thrilled

346 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
to any call the wonderful city made. Far to the south
and east were the Sierra Nevada - — those peaks of the
great snowy range that separate California from Nevada
— with thek deep canyons, glacier-formed domes,
fearsome precipices, dense forests, all sending out
thrills of allurement. He knew next to nothing about
what he was going to see; he anticipated nothing of the
great discoveries that were to make him famous, yet
the mysteries and wonders of this portion of great
Nature called to him with many voices that could not
be withstood, and, with but one day given to the at
tractions of the city, he fled to the mountains.
It was the voice of his fate, his love, calling to him.
He could not have resisted it had he tried, and he did not
try. He went, he saw, and was conquered. Since then
he has wandered over many thousands of miles of the
earth's varied surface, yet he has never lost his first love
for the Sierra Nevada.
With all this after knowledge before us, it is inter
esting to read in a letter dated " Near Snelling, Merced
Co., California, July 26th, 1868. Fate and . flowers
have carried me to California and I have reveled and
luxuriated amid its plants and mountains nearly four
months. I am well again. I came to life in the cool
winds and crystal waters of the mountains, and were it
not for a' thought now and again of loneliness and
isolation, the pleasure of my existence would be com
plete. I will remain here eight or nine months."
That was in 1868. It is now 1910; forty-two years
later, and John Muk is still within sight and reach and
smell of his beloved Sierras.

JOHN MUIR 347
But at this distance it is more than interesting to read
a few passages from his first letter descriptive of the
wonders of California.
" After a delightful sail I arrived in San Francisco
in April, and struck out at once into the country. I fol
lowed the Diablo foothills along the San Jose valley
to Gilroy — ¦ thence over the Diablo Mountains to the
valley of San Joaquin by the Pacheco pass, thence
down the valley opposite the mouth of the Merced
River, thence across the San Joaquin, and up into the
Sierra Nevadas to the mammoth trees of Mariposa,
and the glorious Yo- Semite — thence down the Merced
to this place.
" The goodness of the weather as I journeyed towards
Pacheco was beyond all praise and description —
fragrant, and mellow, and bright, the sky was perfectly
delicious. Sweet enough for the breath of angels, every
draught of it gave a separate and distinct piece of pleas
ure. I do not believe that Adam and Eve ever tasted
better in thek balmiest nook. The last of the coast range
foothills were in near view all the way to Gilroy; thek
union with the valley is by curves and slopes of in
imitable beauty, and they were robed with the greenest
grass and richest light I ever beheld, and colored and
shaded with myriads of flowers of every hue, chiefly
of purple and golden yellow, and hundreds of crystal
rills joined song with the larks, filling all the valley
with music like a sea, making it Eden from end to end.
" The scenery too, and all of nature in the pass is
fakly enchanting, — strange and beautiful mountian
ferns, low in the dark canyons, and high upon the

348 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
rocky sunlit peaks, — banks of blooming shrubs, and
sprinklings, and gatherings of garment flowers, precious
and pure as ever enjoyed the sweets of a mountain
home. Oh what streams are there beaming, glancing,
— each with music of its own, singing as they go in
shadow and light, onward upon thek lovely changing
pathways to the sea. And hills rise over hills, and
mountains over mountains, heaving, waving, swelling,
in most glorious overpowering, unreadable majesty ¦ —
and when at last stricken and faint like a crushed in
sect, you hope to escape from all the terrible grandeur
of these mountain powers, other mountains, other oceans
break forth before you, for there, in clear view, over
heaps and rows of foothills is laid a grand, smooth, out
spread plain, watered by a river, and another range
of peaky, snow-capped mountains a hundred miles in
the distance. That plain is the valley of the San Joa
quin, and those mountains are the great Sierra Ne
vadas. The valley of the San Joaquin is the floweriest
piece of world I ever walked — one vast, level, even
flower-bed — ¦ a sheet of flowers — a smooth sea, ruffled
a little in the middle by the tree-fringing of the river,
and here and there of smaller cross streams from the
mountains. Florida is indeed a land of flowers, but
for every flower creature that dwells in its most de
lightsome places, more than a hundred are living here.
Here, here is Florida. Here they are not sprinkled
apart with grass between as in our prakies, but grasses
are sprinkled in the flowers; not as in Cuba, flowers piled
upon flowers, heaped and gathered into deep glowing
masses, but side by side, flower to flower, petal to

JOHN MUIR 349
petal, touching but not entwined, branches weaving
past and past each other, but free and separate —
one smooth garment, mosses next the ground, grasses
above, petaled flowers* between.
" Before studying the flowers of this valley, and their
sky, and all of the furniture, and sounds, and adorn
ments of thek home, one can scarce believe that their
vast assemblies are permanent, but rather that, actu
ated by some great plant purpose, they had convened
from every plain, and mountain, and meadow of thek
kingdom, and that the different coloring of patches,
acres and miles, marked the bounds of the various
tribe and family encampments."
In 1876 he joined the United States Coast and
Geodetic Survey in order to know something of the
deserts and mountain ranges on the other side of the
Sierras. For three years he worked, mainly in Ne
vada and Utah, enlarging his knowledge, and coming
into contact with many interesting and unconven
tional people in the States of Sage Brush and Mor
mons. Then he went back to his glacier studies in the
Sierras, and in 1879 determined to explore the glaciers
of Alaska. There he discovered the great glacier that
bears his name, as well as Glacier Bay, into which it
flows. He traveled thousands of miles up and down
the streams of Alaska, often alone, sometimes with
Indians, many hundreds of miles in the company of
Rev. S. Hall Young, a Presbyterian missionary. In
1881 he was a member of the Corwin expedition which
went in search of De Long and the ill-fated Jeannette,

350 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
and thus was afforded another opportunity of extend
ing his glacial studies in the Behring Sea and along the
coast of Siberia. The continuity and persistence of his
interests may be seen from the -fact that he personally
explored and studied the most notable ice-rivers of
North America, as well as the work of the ancient
and extinct glaciers, and then, in 1893, went to Norway
and Switzerland in order to compare what he had seen
on this continent with the conditions there.
In person he is tall, wky, of slight build, but pos
sessed of the muscles, nerves and sinews of a trained
athlete. Dressed in black conventional costume, he
looks more like a minister than the hero of moun
tain climbing adventures and daring glacier-explor
ing. Muk's later work has been mainly in the West.
He has been a persistent and tkeless worker. Hun
dreds of pages in magazines, scientific journals, news
papers testify to his indomitable energy, and his two
books, The Mountains of California and Our National
Parks, are prose poems full of meat for scientist, orator
and writer. Everything he writes is worth reading.
He always has something to say and says it well, be
cause he writes unaffectedly and simply. But when his
heart is bounding with joy he does not refrain from
expressing it, — he pours it out with enthusiasm and
thus communicates the same delightful emotions to
his readers. He has written only one other book, —
a beautiful story of a dog, Stickeen.
To give a little of Muk's flavor, his literary style,
as differentiated from his letters, let me quote an ex-

Copyright, ,190.i, by Helen Lukens Gattt.
JOHN MUIR, RESTING BY THE SIDE OF A HIGH SIERRA LAKELET. Page 350

HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT S HISTORICAL LIBRARY, SAN FRANCISCO.

Page S74

JOHN MUIR 351
perience from the first-named book, in the chapter
entitled, " A Near View of the High Sierra."
" I made my bed in a nook of the pine-thicket, where
the branches were pressed and crinkled overhead like a
roof, and bent down around the sides. These are the
best bedchambers the high mountains afford — snug
as squkrel-nests, well ventilated, full of spicy odors,
and with plenty of wind-played needles to sing one
asleep. I little expected company, but, creeping in
through a low side-door, I found five or six bkds
nestling among the tassels. The night-wind began to
blow soon after dark ; at first only a gentle breathing,
but increasing toward midnight to a rough gale that
fell upon my leafy roof in ragged surges like a cascade,
bearing wild sounds from the crags overhead. The
waterfall sang in chorus, filling the old ice-fountain
with its solemn roar, and seeming to increase in power as
the night advanced — fit voice for such a landscape.
I had to creep out many times to the fire during the
night, for it was biting cold and I had no blankets.
Gladly I welcomed the morning star."
His objective point was Mount Ritter — one of
the glorious snow-clad peaks of the Sierras.
" There, immediately in front, loomed the majestic
mass of Mount Ritter, with a glacier swooping down
its face nearly to my feet, then curving westward and
pouring its frozen flood into a dark blue lake, whose
shores were bound with precipices of crystalline snow;
while a deep chasm drawn between the divide and the
glacier separated the massive picture from everything
else. . . . After gazing spellbound, I began instinctively

352 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
to scrutinize every notch and gorge and weathered
buttress of the mountain, with reference to making
the ascent. The entke front of the glacier appeared as
one tremendous precipice, slightly receding at the top,
and bristling with spires and pinnacles set above one
another in formidable array. ... I could not dis
tinctly hope to reach the summit from this side, yet
I moved on across the glacier as if driven by fate.
Contending with myself, the season is too far spent,
I said, and even should I be successful, I might be
storm-bound on the mountams; and in the cloud-
darkness, with the cliffs and crevasses covered with
snow, how could I escape? No; I must wait till next
summer. I would only approach the mountain now,
and inspect it, creep about its flanks, learn what I
could of its history, holding myself ready to flee on
the approach of the first storm-cloud. But we little
know until tried how much of the uncontrollable there
is in us, urging across glaciers and torrents, and up
dangerous heights, let the judgment forbid as it may.
" I succeeded in gaining the foot of the cliff on the
eastern extremity of the glacier, and there discovered
the mouth of a narrow avalanche gully, through which
I began to climb, intending to follow it as far as pos
sible, and at least obtain some fine wild views for my
pains. Its general course is oblique to the plain of the
mountain-face, and the metamorphic slates of which
the mountain is built are cut by cleavage planes in such
a way that they weather off in angular blocks, giving
rise to irregular steps that greatly facilitate climbing
on the sheer places. I thus made my way into a wilder-

JOHN MUIR 353
ness of crumbling spkes and battlements, built to
gether in bewildering combinations, and glazed in
many places with a thin coating of ice, which I had
to hammer off with stones. The situation was graduj
ally becoming more perilous; but, having passed several
dangerous spots, I dared not think of descending; for,
so steep was the entke ascent, one would inevitably
fall to the glacier in case a single misstep were made.
Knowing, therefore, the tried danger beneath, I be
came all the more anxious concerning the developments
to be made above, and began to be conscious of a
vague foreboding of what actually befell; not that I
was given to fear, but rather because my instincts,
usually so positive and true, seemed vitiated in some
way, and were leading me astray. At length, after
attaining an elevation of about eight hundred feet, I
found myself at the foot of a sheer drop in the bed of
the avalanche channel I was tracing, which seemed ab
solutely to bar further progress. It was only about
forty-five or fifty feet high, and somewhat roughened
by fissures and projections; but these seemed so slight
and insecure, as footholds, that I tried hard to avoid
the precipice altogether, by scaling the wall of the
channel on either side. But, though less steep, the walls
were smoother than the obstructing rock, and repeated
efforts only showed that I must either go right ahead
or turn back. The tried dangers beneath seemed even
greater than that of the cliff in front; therefore, after
scanning its face again and again, I began to scale it,
picking my holds with intense caution. After gaining
a point about half-way to the top, I was suddenly

354 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
brought to a dead stop, with arms outspread, clinging
close to the face of the rock, unable to move hand or
foot either up or down. My doom appeared fixed.
I must fall. There would be a moment of bewilder
ment, and then a lifeless rumble down the one general
precipice to the glacier below.
" When this final danger flashed upon me, I became
nerve-shaken for the first time since setting foot on
the mountains, and my mind seemed to fill with a
stifling smoke. But this terrible eclipse lasted only
a moment, when life blazed forth again with preter
natural clearness. I seemed suddenly to become pos
sessed of a new sense.' The other self, bygone ex
periences, Instinct, or Guardian Angel, — call it what
you will, — came forward and assumed control. Then
my trembling muscles became firm again, every rift
and flaw in the rock was seen as through a micro
scope, and my limbs moved with a positiveness and
precision with which I seemed to have nothing at all
to do. Had I been borne aloft upon wings, my
deliverance could not have been more complete.
" Above this memorable spot, the face of the moun
tain is still more savagely hacked and torn. It is a
maze of yawning chasms and gullies, in the angles of
which rise beetling crags and piles of detached boulders
that seem to have been gotten ready to be launched
below. But the strange influx of strength I had received
seemed inexhaustible. I found a way without effort,
and soon stood on the topmost crag in the blessed
light." There are fiye things in John Muk's career that stand

JOHN MUIR 355
out with boldness as landmarks for the guidance of
young men who would attain in thek sphere, as he
has attained in his. These are: i. His determinate
and careful selection of the work he deemed worthy
the energy of his life. In John Muk, the author of
that much praised book — The Simple Life — would
find a living example of his teaching. No man can love
Nature as Muk does and not become simplified in tastes,
requkements, needs. And thus it is that a man lives.
Muk knows no policy, no diplomacy; follows no man-
made charts of life, has no fear as to what other
people think, feel, act or do. He does his own chosen
work bravely, fearlessly, reverently, and knows, with
Emerson, that God's Spirit within a man will never
guide him far wrong. Here is a short extract from one
of his own frank expressions upon this subject: "I
am glad to know by you and Emerson, and others,
living and dead, that my unconditional surrender to
Nature has produced exactly what you have foreseen —
that, drifting without human charts through light
and dark, calm and storm, I have come to so glorious an
ocean." 2. The result of this selection was a concentration
of power that was bound to produce results. Muk
eliminated all distracting influences. He subordinated
his deskes for lesser good to the good he deemed
highest for himself, — his complete abandon to a study
of Nature.
3. Everything he did, he did thoroughly. He was a
born questioner. What people said and believed was
" so " did not necessarily make it so. Muir was a phi-

356 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
losopher. He reasoned that as errors have been made
by taking things for granted in the past, such errors
will continue to be made, and, therefore, in his moun
tain and glacier work he would question everything,
and then demand an answer. This meant a steady,
persistent thoroughness, a resolute patience that tries
and tests men. It does more, too. If they stand the
test it develops them. And so Muk was developed.
You cannot determine the flow of glacial ice in a day,
or a week, or a month, or a year. You cannot resolve
questions of geology in an hour. Theories are not
changed into scientific certainties by chance. Let
Muk tell in one of his letters how he studied glaciers
and came to his conclusions. Says he: "Although I
was myself thus fully satisfied concerning the real
nature of these ice masses I found that my friends re
garded my deductions and statements with distrust,
therefore I determined to collect proofs of the common
measured arithmetical kind.
" On the 21st of August last, I planted five stakes in
the glacier of Mt. McClure, which is situated east of
Yosemite Valley near the summit of the range. Four
of these stakes were extended across the glacier in a
straight line, from the east side to a point near the
middle of the glacier. The first stake was planted
about twenty-five yards from the east bank of the
glacier, the second ninety-four yards, the thkd one
hundred and fifty-two, and the fourth two hundred and
twenty-five yards. The positions of these stakes were
determined by sighting across from bank to bank past
a plumbline made of a stone and a black horse hak.

JOHN MUIR 357
On observing my stakes on the sixth of October, or
in twenty-six days after being planted, I found that
stake No. i had been carried down stream eleven inches,
No. 2 eighteen inches, No. 3, thkty-four, No. 4, forty-
seven inches.
" As stake No. 4 was near the middle of the glacier,
perhaps it was not far from the point of maximum
velocity, forty-seven inches in forty-six days or one inch
per day.
" Stake No. 5 was planted about midway between the
head of the glacier and stake No. 4. Its motion I found
to be in forty-six days forty inches. Thus these ice
masses are seen to possess the true glacial mo
tion. Thek surfaces are striped with bent dkt bands.
These surfaces are bulged and undulated by inequal
ities in the bottom of thek basins causing an up
ward and downward swedging corresponding to the
horizontal swedging as indicated by the curved dkt
bands. " The Mt. McClure Glacier is about one-half mile
in length and about the same in width at the broadest
place. "It is crevassed on the southeast corner ; the crev
asse runs about southwest and northeast and is several
hundred yards in length. Its width is nowhere more
than one foot in width.
" The Mt. Lyell Glacier, separated from that of
McClure by a narrow crest, is about a mile in width
by a mile in length."
4. From this and other of his letters it is evident that
no second-hand knowledge was ever of service to him.

358 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
He learned everything at first hand. The world is
deluged to-day with Nature books. But no man knows
Nature who only reads about her. He must live with
her, personally commune with her. Muk having done
so for many years, his words, when he either writes
or speaks, have weight. When he first began to tell
of what he had discovered of the living glaciers in the
Sierra Nevada, the scientists laughed at the presump
tion of a " sheepherder " to question the determina
tions of such great scientists as Whitney, King, Le
Conte, and Hoffman. These men knew there were no
living glaciers in the Sierras. They knew the Yo
semite Valley was formed by a great cataclysm which
had split open three thousand feet of solid granite
and yawned so vastly that the bed of the valley had
dropped in to that depth. Who was Muk, that he dare
challenge these long-accepted theories of the scientists ?
Muk was nothing, save in that he was the human in
strument of careful observation, thorough reflection,
and accurate recording of the facts; and he lived to see
every scientist in the world hastening to declare his
belief that he was right and his fellow-scientists of the
past wrong.
Muk never would have changed the knowledge of
the world from error to truth had he been content to
accept other people's ideas. He must know for him
self. And thus must every person do who would really
know. This lesson Muk learned early and has taught
grandly to the world. The slow accumulation of facts,
the resolute hunting down of an idea, the persistent
determination that things must prove themselves ere

JOHN MUIR 359
he accepted them, ultimately made of him a great
scientist. 5. Nor is this all that Nature made of Muk. She
made him a poet and a man of power. To many people
these two things do not harmonize — • poetry and power.
Yet every true poet is a man of power. The poet is
one who sees and knows, who understands and inter
prets. Power is not always measured by pounds and
tons, kilowatts and other material indications. The
power of initial thought can seldom be measured or
estimated, yet one thought properly given has some
times changed the whole current of history. The power
of thought is well seen in the lives and works of such
men as Luther, Mahomet, Patrick Henry, Lincoln,
Herbert Spencer, Darwin and Muk. And in no way
does one lose power in becoming a poet. The poet is
one who sees below the actual or material surfaces
of things, and understands their spkit, then has the
ability to tell what he sees in the most perfect way, so
that you also see. The poet, then, is an enlarger of other
people's visions. He broadens, widens, deepens,
heightens thek outlook upon the things that surround
them. Is this an occupation unworthy the energies of
the manliest of men? Nay, but rather should all men
seek to be poets if thereby they might heighten the joy
of living in themselves and thek neighbors. It is the
poet in them that makes of men artists, painters,
sculptors, architects, writers. And according as they
get thek inspkation so is thek power. The man who
gets his inspkation from Nature, from the basic things,
from the primitive sources, is filled with a basic, primi-

360 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
tive power that is dominating, overwhelming. Such
was the power of Michael Angelo, of Shakspere, of
Millet, of Rodin. Such is the power of Muk. Such
power is for all time; it lasts as long as man lasts. It is
permanent, because the good in human nature is
permanent, persistent, divine.

CHAPTER XXXIII
THE TENDER HEROINE OF INDIAN FRIEND
SHIP, HELEN HUNT JACKSON
T X THEN the pioneers came to California, they found
" many Indians living in dug-outs in the sides of
the mountains, or in the rudest kind of mud houses,
so they called them Diggers and wrote home that they
were the most degraded and worthless human beings
they had ever seen or known. Even those who thought
they knew something of them, and studied them, came
to the conclusion that they were a good-for-nothing,
wretched, useless race, cumbering the earth, and that
the sooner they could be gotten rid of the better. In
time a saying became as common here as it was else
where, viz., " the only good Indian is the dead In
dian," and many white people quoted this as a justifi
cation for all kinds of evil and dishonest treatment
of the Indian. Throughout the whole country there
were but few to defend this helpless race, and those
who did were berated for thek waste of sympathy.
The cruelties of the Indians in warfare were brought
up, thek occasional outbreaks, and the murder, with
atrocious details, of helpless women and children. But
it was overlooked and forgotten that these outbreaks
were caused, in every case, by the wicked and cruel
treatment the Indians had received at the hands of

362 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
white men. On every hand this treatment was common.
From the government down to the meanest hunter,
miner and squatter, no one felt that the Indian had
any rights that needed to be respected. We wanted
the land the Indians roamed over, we wanted the forests
they lived in during the summer, we wanted the game
they hunted for food, we wanted the streams in which
they fished, we wanted springs, especially 'in the desert
and arid regions, from which they secured water
for themselves and thek flocks and herds; indeed
we wanted everything they possessed that we thought
we could use, for were we not " the superior race,"
and had not God given to us this great country to use
simply and solely for our own benefit?
What to us was the doctrine of the Fatherhood of
God? What cared we about the brotherhood of man?
Those doctrines applied only to our own race, our
own people; and these Indians were bronze-skinned
and only " savages." Because they were bronze-
skinned and wore the rude robes of thek forefathers,
the dressed pelts of animals; because they did not
herd themselves in cities, in crowded streets and tene
ment and apartment houses, and build hotels and
court-houses and churches in which to live and practise
" law " one upon another, and have some one teach
them " religion," they were necessarily " heathen "
and lawless and religionless. Hence why spare them ?
They were dreadfully insistent at times that they had
" rights." They didn't like to have thek springs
taken away; they resented being told that they must
no longer hunt over the plains where thek ancestors had

HELEN HUNT JACKSON 363
hunted before ever a white man trod the continent;
they resisted when they were driven from thek corn
fields by civilized white men. They had the impu
dence to be angry when members of this great, noble,
and Christian white race corrupted thek wives and
daughters. They were foolish and simple-hearted
enough to expect white men — especially officers of the
army and government — to speak the truth when they
pledged thek words of honor, even in solemn treaty,
that they — the Indians — should be protected in all the
rights they had enjoyed from time immemorial. Thek
old men thought they were patriotic when they pleaded
with the representatives of the white race to prohibit
the selling of alcoholic liquors to thek young men and
thek women; they saw the havoc the deadly fire
water was causing and wished to stay its insidious
influence; but we were a great commercial nation and
could not interfere with the vested interests of our
brewers and whisky distillers, simply to please a few
" brutal, ignorant savages." What did the ruin
of the bodies — never mind the souls — of a few
thousands of Indians amount to, compared with the
commercial interests of " our great and wonderful
country ? " The Indians had a kind of an idea that the
land they had used for centuries belonged to them,
but it was left for a California court of justice —
confirmed by the Supreme Court of the State and
afterwards by the Supreme Court of the United States
— to show them the foolishness of such an idea.
Helen Hunt Jackson saw all these things, and being
a good and noble woman, with red blood coursing

364 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
through her heart,- and ability to use her own brain,
regardless of what others said, she came to the con
clusion that no matter what we called ourselves, or the
Indians, our conduct towards them was not Christian,
was not honest, was not true, was not civilized, was not
anything, in fact, that was good, decent, honorable
and commendable, but, on the other hand, was fiendish,
monstrous and cruel in the extreme.
In this she was not alone. There were large num
bers of men and women in the land who had discovered
the same things, and some of them were trying to stem
the tide of evil treatment of our helpless wards. But
Mrs. Jackson had not only a large heart, she had a
clear brain and a determined soul, and she swore a
large oath that, God helping her, she would do some
thing that should help stop these great wrongs.
Fkst she wrote a book entitled The Century of Dis
honor, which recited our government's wicked treat
ment of the Indian in the open and cruel violation of
treaties; and she gave " chapter and verse " of these
treaties and quoted government officials' reports to show
the grievous wrongs that constantly were being com
mitted. This book produced somewhat of a sensation, but
it was as a handful of sand thrown into the ocean.
This aroused her to see that something more must be
done. Enough had been said to prepare the country
for her message, and she began to give it in clear,
womanly tones, yet insistently, forcefully, and relent
lessly. Her mind was keenly logical; she was an
indefatigable and tkeless worker; she saw what the

HELEN HUNT JACKSON 365
people ought to know, and her literary gift enabled
fier so to set things forth that she had the open sesame
to many powerful and influential papers. Her en
thusiasm was unbounded, and she compelled atten
tion by the seriousness of her charges, the logical
ability with which she prepared them, and the per
sistence with which she pressed them. Evaded on a
point, she brought the evader's attention to it from
another standpoint. She compelled a complete reve
lation of the hands of the officials; they shuffled and
quibbled, shkked and tried to elude, but, with a power
no one ever dreamed her to possess, she led them on
to unmask thek batteries, disclose thek secret pol
icies, and either defend or abandon them. Her con
troversy with Carl Schurz, the Secretary of the Interior,
is as interesting as the combat between an able lawyer
and an equally able witness; and when she had forced
him clearly to declare his attitude, she did not hesitate,
with equal clearness, either to condemn or have it
condemned by the leaders of the New York press.
Here, then, is the woman, who, in 1882, came to
Southern California to study on the ground itself the
Franciscan Missions and the Indians for whom they
had been founded. Her careful researches made in
the Astor Library, New York, in 1880, had informed
her of some of the wrongs perpetrated upon them,
and with a heart fired by the constant injustices done
to Indians generally, who were denied by " the powers
that be " any standing in court, and were therefore
at the mercy of all the hangers-on and politician-
vultures who sought to fatten on thek very flesh and

366 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
blood, she was ready to take up thek case just as soon
as its urgency was made clear to her.
The Century Magazine had given her a commission
to write a series of articles, — what, they hardly knew,
save that they were to be on the Missions and the
Indians of California, and with characteristic energy
and clear-sightedness she began to go right to the
heart of the subject.
She secured letters to the Catholic bishop and
priests who might be able to help her ; she made friends
with old Spanish families and sought thek aid; she
visited the Missions themselves, and in the spell of
thek presence sought to live again in the time of thek
greatest activities. She consulted original records
and gathered a vast fund of information, which she
transmitted into delightfully interesting literature in
her Century articles. Fkst she wrote about Junipero
Serra and the Missions he and his successors founded
and conducted. Then she took up the existent con
ditions of the Mission Indians.
What she then saw led her to resolve to attempt
to move the government to do something, honestly
and really, not by mere resolutions and reports and
red tape and verbal flimflam, but by action, to preserve
to these poor creatures some portion of the homes that
were " legally " being wrested from them.
Accordingly, on July 7, 1882, she was instructed
by the Indian Department, " to visit the Mission
Indians of California, and ascertain the location and
condition of the various bands; whether suitable
land in their vicinity, belongmg to the public domain,

HELEN HUNT JACKSON 367
could be made available as a permanent home for
such of those Indians as were not established upon
reservations, and what, if any, lands should be pur
chased for thek use."
She visited the various tribes in company with the
Hon. Abbott Kinney, — later known as the founder
of Venice, a beautiful seaside resort near Los Angeles,
— and made her report to the government, but, to her
amazement, next to nothing was done. Then she saw
that her appeal ( must be a dkect one to the hearts of
the American people. She realized that politicians
would do little or nothing unless compelled to act by
the dkect demand of thek constituents, so, fired to
the very depths of her heart, she determined to write a
novel, — a book that should compel attention and teach
Americans that Indians were human beings as capable
of high emotions, of beautiful ideals, of noble lives as
they themselves were. November 8, 1883, she wrote
the following letter from Colorado Springs (her home),
to two of her Spanish friends in Los Angeles, who had
taken her to thek hearts and aided her in her research
work among the Indians:
" My dear Friends, Mr. and Mrs. Coronel: I send
you herewith the very bad picture of myself, which I
think you will wish you had never seen. If you do,
you are quite at liberty to burn it up.
" I had forgotten that I paid you the five dollars
for the work done by the Indian woman. Keep it, if
you please; there may be something to come from
Father Ubach to pay expressage on, or there may be a

368 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
box to be made to hold all my stone mortars, etc.,
which Mr. Bliss is going to get for me one of these years.
It may be well for you to have a little money of mine
on hand to meet these possible charges. I have asked
Father Ubach to send to me in your care the old
looking-glass frame which I forgot to put into the box
he sent here; it was really one of the things I cared
most for of all the relics promised me, and I was ex
ceedingly sorry to forget it. He, however, did much
to atone for this by putting into the box a piece of one
of the old olive trees from the San Diego Mission. I
shall present part of it to Archbishop Corrigan. I
think he will value a piece of one of the fruit trees
planted by Father Junipero. I am sure you will have
rejoiced at the removal of Lawson from the agency of
the Mission Indians. I hope the new man will prove
better; he hardly can prove worse. I wish we could
have selected the new agent ourselves; but it was a
political appointment, of which we knew nothing until
it was all settled. Our report has been favorably
received, and its recommendations will be incorporated
in a bill before Congress this winter. I hope the bill
will pass. But I know too much of Washington to be
sanguine. However, if we had accomplished nothing
more than the securing the appointment of Brunson
& Wells, Los Angeles, as United States attorneys, to
protect the Indians' rights to lands, that would be
matter of gratitude. I suppose you have heard of
that appointment. I hope through thek means to
save the Saboba village, San Jacinto, from being
turned out of thek home. Now, I am as usual asking

HELEN HUNT JACKSON 369
help. I will tell you what my next work for the In
dians is to be.
"I am going to write a novel, in which will be set forth
some Indian experiences in a way to move people's
hearts. People will read a novel when they will not
read serious books. The scenes of the novel will be
in Southern California, and I shall introduce enough of
Mexicans and Americans to give it variety. The thing
I want most, in the way of help, from you, is this: I
would like an account, written in as much detail as you
remember, of the time when you, dear Mr. Coronel,
went to Temecula and marked off the boundaries of
the Indians' land there. How many Indians were
living there then ? What crops had they ? Had they a
chapel? etc. Was Pablo Assis, thek chief, alive?
I would like to know his whole history, life, death, and
all, minutely. The Temecula ejectment will be one
of the episodes in my story, and any and every detail
in connection with it will be of value to me. I shall
also use the San Pasquale Pueblo History, and I have
written to Father Ubach and to Mr. Morse, of San
Diego, for thek reminiscences. You and they are
the only persons to whom I have spoken of my pur
pose of writing the novel, and I do not wish anything
said about it. I shall keep it a secret until the book
is about done.
" I hope very much that I can succeed in writ
ing a story which will help to increase the interest
already so much aroused at the East in the Indian
question. "If you think of any romantic incidents, either

370 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Mexican or Indian, which you think would work well
into a story of Southern California life, please write
them out for me. I wish I had had this plan in my
mind last year when I was in Los Angeles. I would
have taken notes of many interesting things you told
me. But it is only recently, since writing out for our
report the full accounts of the different bands of Indians
there, that I have felt that I dared undertake the
writing of a long story.
"Iam going to New York in a few days, and shall
be busily at work there all winter on my story. My
address will be, ' The Berkeley,' corner Fifth Avenue
and Ninth Street.
" I hope you are all well, and enjoying the same sun
shine as last year. Mr. Jackson is well, and would
send his regards if he were at home.
" Yours, always cordially,
" Helen Jackson."
When once this thought of writing a novel had
entered her mind, she was totally absorbed by it. Every
energy was bent towards its accomplishment. All
her fervor, literary ability, powers of research, observa
tion and enthusiasm were harnessed in the one cause.
Her researches had given her a wonderful familiarity
with all the details, so picturesque, so unusual, so
pathetic, so romantic, for the details of the book, and
her life of travel and writing about what she had seen
rendered her peculiarly fitted to set forth the exquisite
beauty and grandeur of Southern California as the
background of her story. Then, too, so many real

HELEN HUNT JACKSON 371
incidents were ready to her hand to fit into the novel.
These she gathered from every available source. Don
Antonio Coronel and his noble wife opened up the
riph treasure-house of thek well-stored minds, and re
vealed the deep and loving sympathies of thek profound
natures and poured forth facts and suggestions innumer
able. From Miss Sheriff, who had for years been a teacher
at Saboba, Mrs. Jackson heard the story of the slaying
of the Indian, Juan Diego, in the mountains near by,
by Sam Temple, who accused him of stealing his horse.
Mrs. Sheriff, now Mrs. Fowler, still lives at San Jacinto..
From Mrs. Jordan, who was personally familiar with
all the facts, she heard the corroboration of the story,
learned the absolute truth of Juan Diego's attacks of
" loco," the taking of Temple's horse, and gained the
character of Aunt Ri.
From Juan Diego's wife, whose actual name is
Ramona Lubo, she heard the story of how Temple
came and shot down her husband at close range as he
came out of their little cabin, and of Ramona's flight
to Cahuilla.
From Don Antonio and certain Los Angeles lawyers
who were interested in the Indians, as well as from
the government records and the lips of the Indians
themselves, she heard of the evictions at Temecula
and San Pasqual.
With her literary friends, chiefly Mrs. Jeanne C.
Carr, of Pasadena, she consulted freely about the
story, and no one will ever be able to estimate the
influence Mrs. Carr's clear mind, artistic conceptions,

372 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
and deep loving nature, fully given over to the In
dians, exercised upon the growing novel.
All that was now needed was her framework, the
skeleton of the story, the plot. She had studied the
Missions, the old Spanish days, the Indians in thek
humble homes, Southern California in general, as no
other person had ever done.
She created the plot and little by little the story
assumed shape. Mrs. Jackson had seen enough of
Southern California to have absorbed its spkit, its
sunshine, its glowing atmosphere, and now, filled
with facts about the Indians over which she had
deeply brooded, until they had become vivid pictures
engraved upon her very soul, she began to write.
Once the pen was in her hands, a divine frenzy seized
her. She wrote as one possessed. Indeed she wrote
to her publisher that it was only the physical impos
sibility that prevented her from finishing it at a sitting,
for, said she: "I have the whole story at my finger
ends." Its publication formed an epoch. When it appeared,
in 1884, many critics hailed it " the great American
novel." Throbbing with emotion, palpitant with
life, vivid in its picturing of all the scenes, whether of
inanimate or animate nature, realistic in its delinea
tions of human character, sympathetic in its dealings
with the despised and downtrodden Indians, outspoken
in its denunciation of the wrongs perpetrated upon
them; recognized at once as an authoritative picture
of the Spanish California life of the time, it sprang with
a bound into public favor. It was not widely heralded

HELEN HUNT JACKSON 373
by advertising as a great novel, but it won its way by
its own power. Few, indeed, of the popular novels that
are " the greatest sellers " for a few weeks or months
are remembered after a year or two are gone, but
Ramona is as widely read, and almost as widely pur
chased to-day, as when it was in the full dawn of
its first popularity. Only the other day I stood by
the desk of a " baggage smasher " in one of the bag
gage rooms of a railway depot. In one of the pigeon
holes, ready at hand for a spare moment or at lunch-
time, was a well-worn copy of Ramona. " That's
the bulfiest story I ever read in my life," said the rude-
handed son of toil, in response to my comment. And
I could not help but feel: How is it possible for one to
read this story and not feel its humanizing influence?
Thus the good work goes on. The book is a constant
missionary, ever silently, but potently, preaching the
beautiful doctrine of the humanity of all men, regard
less of the color of thek skin, and the Universal Father
hood of God.

CHAPTER XXXIV
THE PERSISTENT HERO OF A GREAT HISTORY,
HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT
CALIFORNIA and the Pacific Coast region have a
history more varied, more strange, and more ro
mantic, perhaps, than that of any country in the world.
Speaking for California alone, during the sixty
years of its existence, its history is unequaled, full
of dramatic surprises, changes and evolutions. Origi
nally occupied by two classes of Indians, — the peace
able fishers, trappers, hunters and basket-makers of
the coast and interior valleys, and the more warlike
tribes of the mountains, — prior to its entry into the
sisterhood of the United States, it had several important
epochs. Fkst came that of Spanish discovery, then its
missionization by the Franciscan padres, when the
striking mission buildings were erected, followed
by its separation from Spain, its government as a
province of Mexico, and a rather large influx of Ameri
can hunters, trappers, shippers and coast traders.
Then came the military invasion of Fremont, Sloat,
and Kearny's " Army of the West," the seizure from
Mexico, the discovery of gold, and the establishment
of a State government. It saw its mines add to the gold
supply of the world fabulous amounts in a short space
of time, and had barely settled down to a recognition

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HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT 375
of its own life when it was again thrilled through and
through by the discovery of the mines of the Comstock
Lode in Nevada. It occupied a unique position during
the Civil War, and developed the overland stage lines
and pony express to a higher degree of efficiency than
had ever before been known. It started an epidemic
of raihoad building all over the country by the com
pletion of its transcontinental railway, and quickened
rapid transit in many cities by the development of its
cable street-railways. It has had its heroic epoch —
the days when cattlemen were its kings — and its
pomological and agricultural developments. Its growth
in krigation has been a revelation to the world, and its
transformed deserts are now among the garden spots
of Western America. Its oil discoveries, and the use of
oil for fuel in houses, manufactories., and steam engines
have revolutionized the fuel problem on the Coast,
and made possible wonderful advancement in manu
facturing. Its scenic and climatic envkonment has
been an increasingly potent factor in its attractiveness
to settlers from all parts of the world, and, in con
clusion, it has developed a civilization peculiarly its
own, which is destined to influence the future history
of the world far more than its most far-seeing prophets
realize. Naturally the written records of a country grow
scarcer and more valuable the further Time carries
back the hour of thek occurrence, while the unwritten
history of the participants in any particular epoch can
be obtained only while they are still alive.
To undertake to gather these written records, pub-

376 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
fished and unpublished (the latter found in private or
official documents, often of the highest value), and to
collect the many personal and unwritten stories, was
a task that might have engaged the undivided attention
of a government bureau, with unlimited means at
its disposal, and a large band of trained experts under
its control.
But this work was left for an ordinary business man,
a publisher and seller, of books, a man who made no
pretension to expertness in gathering historical material
and who had no literary training, but who had the
perspicacity to clearly perceive the urgent need of the
case, and who had the daring and patriotism to say:
" Since no one of the many who are qualified, financially
and intellectually, to accomplish this needful work
seem disposed to undertake it, I will do my best at it,
even though I fail in the attempt." Failure, however,
was not destined for such men as Hubert Howe Ban
croft. He called upon his subordinates to gather every
thing bearing upon California history of every nature.
Nothing was too great, nothing too small to be ignored.
Slowly and then more rapidly the material grew. The
area of the field also grew, for it was found that Cali
fornia was inextricably connected with Mexico, the
north Mexican States, the Pacific States, Arizona, New
Mexico, and Utah, until, instead of covering one State,
twenty had to be considered.
Look well at this man, at the time of this determina
tion, and see if he is not a true hero. An ordinary
business man, with little or no literary training or ex
perience, whose whole life had been spent in the ardu-

HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT 377
ous labors of guiding and dkecting a rapidly growing
bookselling, printing and publishing business, for
which he had to make the capital as he went along.
Even had he done the work poorly and inadequately
he would have deserved the laurel wreath with the
applause not only of his compeers but of the studious
of his State and nation for all time. But he did not
do it poorly. The necessities of the case led him to
innovations in history-writing that have subjected
him to much and severe criticism, yet the prime purpose
was accomplished and well accomplished. He gave
to the world as the result of his efforts and those of his
co-workers thkty-nine volumes, which present in read
able, historic form — and much of it with literary
fluency and grace — the varied and stirring history of
this great region. As the years go by, the stupendous
vastness of his work and the wisdom of his methods
in its accomplishment will be the more recognized
and appreciated.
Hubert Howe Bancroft was born in Granville, Ohio,
May 5, 1832, of Ashley Bancroft and Lucy Howe, the
fourth in a family of six children. To the hard work
of the farm as well as to an excellent heredity he freely
attributes the sturdy physique and ability to work hard
that has been his endowment through life.
When the California gold excitement broke out,
Bancroft's father left for the gold fields, and a year
later, December, 185 1, the future historian decided to
follow him, with a consignment of bocks and station
ery, with which he would enter into business. There
was no intention in his mind at this time to make Cali-

378 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
fornia his permanent residence, but though he jour
neyed back and forth eleven times over the Panama
route, prior to the building of the transcontinental rail
way, he always returned to the land with which he
was afterwards to become so remarkably identified.
When he finally decided to settle down to business
in California it was not long before he began to build
up the great business which afterwards afforded the
sinews of war for the life-work in which he engaged.
As a business man and money-maker he was a
marked success, and in sixteen years it was acknowl
edged that his business, which now included the manu
facturing and publishing as well as the selling of
books, was one of the largest not only in the West
but in the world.
He was not yet forty years old; he had acquked a
competency, and it was natural that with his restless
and unconsciously ambitious temperament he should
turn his attention to some larger and more important
field. For ten years or more this field had slowly been in
a state of preparation for him. It all arose from a re
quest by one of his employees, Mr. William H. Knight,
for certain books on California and the West, which he
needed for a Handbook he was then engaged in pre
paring. These books were placed by Mr. Knight on
shelves near his desk, and as they accumulated, the idea
of forming a collection of Western material slowly
evolved itself in Mr. Bancroft's mind. Herein was the
germ of the great library that afterwards made possible
the greater history. Begun casually, it soon became
a hobby, a personal pastime, though in it all, at first,

HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT 379
was a business man's idea, held vaguely, that, as a col
lection, it could readily be sold to some library or other
institution. In 1862 it amounted to about a thousand volumes,
and Mr. Bancroft began to feel satisfied that he had
about completed his labors, when he made a visit to
Europe. Here his eyes were opened, and he discovered
that when he had multiplied his books by five instead
of completing his collection he had but begun. Then
the real passion took hold of him, and in 1866 he
returned to Europe, made a historical survey of the
field, and, for the first time, realized that a collection of
books on California must necessarily include Mexico
and all the larger Pacific Coast territory, including
Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and
the whole Northwest.
London, Paris, Burgos, Madrid were in turn visited
and explored for treasures. The search continued
through Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Holland
and back to Paris and London. " Everywhere I found
something and seized upon it, however insignificant,
for I had long since ceased to resist the malady. Often
have I taken a cab or a carriage to drive me from stall
to stall all day, without obtaining more than perhaps
three or four books or pamphlets, for which I paid a
shilling or a franc apiece. Then again I would light
upon a valuable manuscript which relieved my pocket to
the extent of three, five, or eight hundred dollars."
When ten thousand volumes had been collected,
he felt sure his collection must be reasonably complete,
when one day there came a pamphlet in his mail, which

38o HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
proved to be a catalogue of seven thousand books dkect
from Mexico. " A new light broke in upon me. I had
never considered that Mexico had been printing books
for three and a quarter centuries — one hundred years
longer than Massachusetts — and that the earlier works
were seldom seen floating about book-stalls and auction-
rooms." The history of this particular collection was
romantic in the extreme, and the value of the books
no less marked than thek story was interesting. It
was impossible for Mr. Bancroft to reach Leipsic,
where they were to be sold, in time for the auction.
Says he: " Shutting my eyes to the consequences, I
telegraphed my agent in London five thousand dollars
earnest money, with instructions to attend the sale and
purchase at his discretion." The result was that three
thousand of the volumes offered were bought and
shipped to San Francisco.
That same year another valuable collection was
bought, and this was but the beginning of library
buying on a large scale. The list of important pur
chases alone would fill every page of this chapter and
yet be incomplete. In 1880 he bought at one sale —
that of the Ramirez library — nearly thkty thousand
dollars' worth of most valuable books, without which
his later work would have been impossible.
The gathering of the personal material was equally
fascinating and far more romantic. The story of how
it was accomplished reads like a novel, but with the
thrill of actuality in it. The jealousies to meet, the
apathy to overcome, the suspicions to allay, the egotism
of would-be historiographers to dispel, the vanity of

HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT 381
every kind of human nature to satisfy — what a story
it is. Vallejo, Alvarado, Sutter, Bandini, Arguello,
Pico, Sepulveda, Hayes, Wilson, Ubach, Robinson,
Warner, Coronel, Widney, and a host of others to in
terview, interest, and then settle down to the actual writ
ing or dictation of thek experiences. Thousands upon
thousands of pages of manuscript were thus obtained by
incalculable labor, incredible devotion, and no incon
siderable expense. Then there were the archives of
all the Missions and towns, all of which had to be copied
on the spot, as no one would allow them to be removed.
The San Francisco archives alone, gathered from
all parts of the State, bound in nearly four hundred
volumes of from seven to nineteen hundred pages each,
would have requked the work of an ordinary copyist
about a hundred years, working continuously and faith
fully. Under the dkection of an expert, fifteen Span
iards were set to work, told what and how to copy, and
in a year, at a cost of eighteen thousand dollars, all
that Mr. Bancroft needed was placed in his library
ready for his reference.
In no brief chapter like this can anything more than
the merest suggestion of the incredible labor and travel
undertaken be given. And yet when all of this was
done it can readily be seen that only the first step had
been taken towards the preparation of a history of
California and the whole Pacific region. Any other than
a master mind, a natural genius for organization would
have simply sat down dazed and baffled by the very
immensity of the material that had been brought to
gether.

382 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Little by little, however, while the library had been
collecting, Mr. Bancroft and his able and devoted as
sistants had been formulating a system — evolved
out of many systems — of indexing, catalogumg and
preparing all this chaotic mass for literary purposes.
At the same time Mr. Bancroft had been preparing
himself for the task of writing and superintending the
writing of others.
It requked heroism of a peculiar sort to make the
library, but how much more heroic was the daring that
led to the writing of the history must be left to those
of poetic imagination and some literary experience to
estimate. Let it be freely granted that Mr. Bancroft had de
voted help from his able lieutenants, Oak, Nemos,
Savage, Cerruti, Mrs. Victor and others. Give them
each all the credit they claim, justly or unjustly, and
then the achievement stands forth as the conception,
the work of a genius, a general, a great dkector.
But Mr. Bancroft's work did not end here. The
library gathered, the history written, who would dare
undertake the printing and publishing of so elaborate
a work ? Thkty-nine volumes of almost eight hundred
pages each, full of names that must be correct and notes
that must be verified was of itself a task to stagger the
best established publishing house in the world. Then
to publish and ckculate — sell — such a work was an
added task before which ordinary courage would falter.
Yet, after various experiments, the historian shouldered
the whole of this work himself and, what is more, car
ried it through to a successful and triumphant issue.

HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT 383
There was a time, however, when it seemed as if
an adverse fate would triumph and arrest the work when
it was but half completed. Mr. Bancroft and his wife
were in San Diego when he received a telegram that
his store was burning. Half an hour later came another
saying that absolutely nothing had been saved but the
account books. " Twenty volumes had been issued, and
the firm was still two hundred thousand dollars behind
on the enterprise. There was not a book left ; there was
not a volume of history saved; nine volumes of history
plates were destroyed, besides a dozen other volumes
of plates; two carloads of history paper that had just
come in, and twelve thousand bound volumes were de
voured by the flames. There was the enterprise left,
and a dozen volumes of the history plates in the library
basement, and that was all."
It took time to find out whether the firm could go
on or not, and what anguish in the waiting, what re
grets, what retrospections ! Had he been content
merely to make money one-fourth the energy ex
pended on the history had made him ten times a mil-
lionake, for money always came to him easily. And
to face not so much financial failure, as the loss of
twenty or more years of life spent in the most arduous
and brain-racking of labors was enough to have dis
couraged even so dauntless a soul as Mr. Bancroft
had proven himself to be. But, rising to the situation,
his -unconquerable soul asserted itself. The firm was
reorganized, the store rebuilt, a separate structure
erected for the prosecution of the work on the History,
and the wheels set in full motion again.

384 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
And they continued until success crowned his ef
forts. The great work was accomplished, and in many
a library there stands upon the shelves the product of
Mr. Bancroft's indefatigable and unprecedented ef
forts, — a monument alike to his remarkable fore
sight as an observer, indomitable energy and courage
as a collector, sagacity and genius as a historian, and
daring as a publisher. The West owes him a debt
it can never pay; the world will reap where he has
sown for all time. To me, personally, Hubert Howe
Bancroft stands forth as the greatest historian the
world has ever known, not only because of what I have
here so inadequately recounted, but because of the
fearless impartiality, the just integrity and the al
together honest methods followed in presenting facts
to the world. His footnotes alone are the positive evi
dences of his truth and integrity. They point ex
actly to all his sources of information, thus giving
to the readers a check upon his every statement, his
every conclusion. No other historian has ever at
tempted to do what he has done, and because of this
great achievement and the spkit in which it has been
accomplished, Hubert Howe Bancroft is one of the
California heroes we should delight to honor.

CHAPTER XXXV
THE PATIENT HERO OF AGRICULTURE, LUTHER
BURBANK
THE year 1849 was a memorable year in California
history. It was the year of the great influx of the
gold pioneers from all parts of the world, and it was also
the year of the bkth of Luther Burbank.
He first saw the light in Lancaster, Worcester County,
Massachusetts, March 7, in that memorable year.
He was the thkteenth (lucky number) of fifteen chil
dren, born to Samuel Walton Burbank by three mar
riages. He came to California in 1875, — deliberately
chose it as his future home, and ever since then has
been in every sense of the word a true and devoted
Californian. It is not my purpose here to enter into any explanation
of Burbank's wonderful horticultural, floricultural and
pomological achievements. These have been fully
written about by Harwood, De Vries, David Starr
Jordan, Professor Wickson, and the experts of the
Carnegie Institution. It is of his moral heroism, ex
ercised quietly, unseen, unnoticed through a long and
active life, — until the electric glare of the past few
years, — that I wish particularly to write. Emerson
and Goethe, and other philosophers, often called at
tention to the fact that the things a man unconsciously

386 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
writes into his life, paints into his pictures, erects into
his buildings, carves into his statues, are by far the
most important of all the things that he does. Anyhow
they are the things that reveal, that betray the real
man, be the things revealed good or bad. It is this
unconsciously written story whose lines are here re
traced. In his earliest years Luther Burbank was a quiet,
shy lad, making playmates of plants rather than of
other children. His doll — strange prophecy — was
a cactus plant, fondly carried about until an accident
shattered the plant and a young heart at one operation.
As a boy he was put to work in the shops of the Ames
Plough Company. Though he longed for the open ak,
and the companionship of the trees, the plants, the
flowers, the clouds, the sky and the free open, such
was his conception of duty that he suppressed all his
longings and doubly concentrated his mind with de
liberate purpose upon the work he was set to do.
When the time came, however, Burbank gladly left
the shops for the fields, discovered his vocation and
the Burbank potato, and soon thereafter ckcum-
stances, not gold, forced him to California.
He reached Santa Rosa in 1875. Then misfortune
came to him in the shape of illness, which quickly
robbed him of his small hoard of dollars. He was glad
to take refuge in an empty chicken-house, and accept
whatever odd jobs he could get. One day, as I drove
with him from Santa Rosa to his proving grounds at
Sevastopol, we passed a buggy driven by a man who
responded very elaborately to Mr. Burbank's friendly

LUTHER BURBANK 387
nod and simple salutation. After we had passed, with
a whimsical smile upon his face, he turned to me and
said: " I never see that man but I am reminded of an
incident of those days of my poverty and distress, when
I was glad to do anything that came to hand. One day
I heard that that man was building a house. I went
to him and asked him for the job of shingling it. He
asked me what I would do it for. The regular price
was two dollars and a half a thousand, but I was so
anxious for the work that I offered to do it for one
dollar and seventy-five cents. ' All right,' he said,
' come and begin to-morrow.' But I had no shingling
hammer and all the cash I had in the world was sev
enty-five cents, which I at once expended in purchasing
the necessary hammer. Next morning when I reached
the job, my new hammer in hand all ready to go to work,
I was surprised and — what shall I say — dismayed,
to find another man aheady at work, while the owner
calmly came to me and said: ' I guess you'll have to
let that job go, as this man here has undertaken to do it
for one dollar a thousand.'
" How disappointed I was ! I had spent my last cent,
had a hammer that was no use to me now, and no job.
But I kept a stiff upper lip and work soon came, and
I've never been quite so hard up since."
Harwood, in speaking of this period of Burbank's
life, graphically says: " The man who was to become
the foremost figure in the world in his line of work, and
who was to pave the way by his own discoveries and
creations for others of all lands to follow in his foot
steps, was a stranger in a strange land, close to starva-

388 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
tion, penniless, beset by disease, hard by the gates
of death. And yet never for an instant did this heroic
figure lose hope, never did he abandon confidence in
himself, not once did he swerve from the path he had
marked out. In the midst of all he kept an unshaken
faith. He accepted the trials that came, not as a matter
of course, not tamely, nor with any mock heroics, but
as a passing necessity. His resolution was of kon, his
will of steel, his heart of gold; he was fighting in the
splendid armor of a clean life."
Slowly he regained his health, doing odd jobs as he
was able, and at last had money enough to secure a
small plot of ground, begin a nursery, and, at the same
time, carry out the plan formed years ago, — become
an improver and creator.
Yet, in all his experimenting he was innately modest.
There was no blare of trumpets. Note this well, young
men and women. He went his own way; followed the
vision that he alone saw; but he did it reverently, re
spectfully, modestly. There were no loud declarations
as to the ignorance of the horticulturalists of the past ;
no open defiance of the horticulturalists of the present ;
but simply a quiet, calm, silent, modest sailing of his
own ship over the unknown sea. Too often the young
want to do as Burbank did, but they spoil thek lives
by the blatancy of thek methods, the immodesty of thek
self-conceit, and the rudeness of thek criticisms of
those whose lives have demonstrated that they were
real benefactors to the race. In a speech made at the
banquet in Luther Burbank's honor, given by the
California Board of Trade in San Francisco, California,

LUTHER BURBANK 389
John P. Irish beautifully referred to this quality in
Burbank's character:
" Mr. Burbank has conferred upon California the
imperishable honor of association with his name and his
work. That work has been prosecuted by him with a
devotion that thought of no personal gain. The fame of
it has gone forth to the world. His life has been so
quiet, his absorption so complete, that Californians
know him only by his creations, whose benefits they
enjoy. A gentleman who is here tells me that when
in London, entertained hospitably by an English
gentleman, his host talked only of Luther Burbank,
and the Californian was ashamed to admit that he had
never met Mr. Burbank and did not know the location
of his wonder-working efforts. When he left he asked
his host what he could do to repay his great hospitality,
and the Englishman said: ' Send me a branch from
one of Luther Burbank's plums, from his own nursery,
that I may graft it on a stock in my garden, and you
will more than repay all.' "
And, while it is somewhat running ahead of the story,
it is appropriate that it should here be noted that, in the
words of one of his own neighbors, Judge Burnett:
" It is pleasing to reflect that the distinction which
has come to him unsought has not disturbed the splendid
equipose of his nature. The current of his life flows
on with the same serenity, purity and sweetness that
characterized his youth and early manhood."
Note well, then, his modesty when he began his
work, and also when, success attained, that work
brought him world-wide fame, honor, wealth, and

39o HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
the plaudits of the great minds of earth. When I first
visited him in his home, this was the earliest impression
I received. As I then wrote :
" Though honored by kings and princes, by scientists
and leaders of men the world over, he is the simplest
kind of man at home. There is none of the haughtiness,
or pride, or self-conceit that would have taken pos
session of a smaller man, and that would have shown
itself in his daily intercourse with his subordinates.
While they all revere and respect him, honor and
obey him, they all feel his simplicity of character, the
pure democratic soul within him, and one and all speak
to him, and of him, in the everyday name of ' Boss.'
But it is when you hear the sweet intonation of the
voices of the maids in the house and the men in the
fields as they thus speak, that you feel and compre
hend the friendliness of the man.
" His neighbors in Santa Rosa (where he lives) and
Sevastopol (where his testing grounds are), and on the
seven-mile drive thither, have the same warm, kindly,
democratic feeling towards him, and he responds as
cheerily to the salutation of the wood-hauler and the
potato-digger as he does to that of the banker or rail
way magnate, and we met all kinds as we drove from
Santa Rosa to Sevastopol and back."
On the occasion of my visit referred to, I wrote :
" When night-time came, he invited the ' help ' to
the lawn at the rear of the house that I might tell them
a few experiences among the Indians, and as we sat
there the telephone bell rang. He answered it, and
on returning, called out as he approached: ' I've

LUTHER BURBANK 39i
prevented that thing from annoying us again by taking
off the bell.' Then, as happy and joyous and free as a
boy, he threw his hat on the grass, went down on his
hands and knees, and came to us turning a somer
sault." Here is an unspoiled king, the true democrat, the
man who actually lives his belief in the brotherhood
of man. Here is no false dignity, no pomp, no cere
mony. His dignity is in his life. He commands respect
by his inherent power, and needs none of the haughtiness
of the factitious dignity that is not sure of its position.
His humble attitude is the sign of his soul's self-con
scious supremacy, — a supremacy which sees the
dignity of every other soul.
Early in his nursery career in California, he dis
played that daring of mind, and audacity of execution
that are inseparably connected with the independent
thinker — another manifestation of the true California
spkit. Harwood tells an illustrative story:
" One day there came to the young nurseryman
an order . . . from a man who was going to start a
large prune ranch. He wanted twenty thousand young
trees to set out. It would take, in the ordinary course
of events, from two and a half to three years for a
nurseryman to raise the trees, but this was a hurry-up
order; if it was to be filled, it must be filled in nine
months. " He took the order. With all haste he scoured the
country for men and boys to plant almonds. It was
late in the season and the almond seed was the only one
which would sprout at that time among all the trees

39s

HEROES OF CALIFORNIA

that were suitable for his plans. It grows very rapidly,
too, and this was taken into account. In a compara
tively short time the young shoots were big enough for
budding. Twenty thousand prune buds were in
readiness, were budded into the growing almonds, and
the young trees started forward in thek race for the
prize. When the nine months were up, the twenty
thousand prune trees were ready. Nature had been
outwitted, or, better put, had been led to outdo herself;
the fruit-grower was delighted; the young nurseryman
was a good many dollars in pocket. To-day, twenty
years afterward, one of the finest prune orchards in
California or the world is growing from these trees."
Another of the marked characteristics of Luther
Burbank is his readiness to acknowledge his ignorance.
I have heard questions put to him again and again,
to which the questioners undoubtedly expected the
answer of knowledge. Without any more hesitation
or consciousness than when he is able to answer, he
promptly replied: "I do not know!" "I cannot
tell," and thus, again, revealed the innate greatness of
his soul.
While he was able to make money rapidly, and did so,
he was absolutely uninfluenced by any monetary con
sideration in the carrying out of his larger plans. As
a nurseryman he had a keen eye to business, as any
honest man ought to have. But when it came to his ex
periments, even his few friends who knew, deemed him
reckless almost to the point of censure. For instance,
he personally assured me that he had burned over half
a million plum trees in the production of the wonderful

LUTHER BURBANK S OLD HOME, SANTA ROSA, CAL.

Page 391

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LUTHER BURBANK 393
trees that bear his name. Most of these trees could
have been sold, and they were passably good trees.
But passably good was not good enough. His aim was
high, and he would not, for mere money, lower that
aim in any one thing, for if lowered at all, the standard
necessarily was lowered, and to keep that standard at
its maximum of elevation was the meaning of life itself
to Luther Burbank.
Perhaps at this point some curious reader may ask:
" How does Mr. Burbank actually determine what trees
he will keep and what destroy ? " As I have had the
gratification and pleasure of seeing him at work in this
very task, I will explain. It must be borne in mind that
the process of weeding out, of selection, takes years
to complete. For instance: Out of a thousand trees
examined this month, a hundred may be retained, the
others destroyed. Of this hundred, the weeding out
process next year may leave only teii, and the year later,
only one, or perhaps not even one. Two assistants fol
lowed us, as we passed down the row. Before we
began, he rapidly suggested to me what he was aiming
at. " Fkst of all the tree as a whole must be shapely —
it must look well. Its leaves must be possessed oi
certain qualities, for thus he determined its climatic
hardihood. The skin of the fruit must be of good color,
perfect and suitable shape, and of the proper strength.
The inside of the fruit must be firm, juicy, sweet and
of good flavor.
One glance, and all the first requkements were
examined into. A representative plum was plucked,
perhaps two or three, and while I was tasting, Mr.

394 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Burbank had decided all he wanted to know. One
glance determined the skin qualities, a feel, and a taste
the interior fruit qualities, and almost as quickly as
I can write it, he passed the trees one after another
saying, after testing the fruit, " Kill! " "Kill! "
"Keep!" "Kill!" etc. A white string tied to the
tree by the assistant signified " Keep! " a black one
"Kill!" While watching this process, I learned another of
Mr. Burbank's California characteristics. He is the
man of absolute authority. He does not delegate to
any one what he himself has to determine. He knows
what he is doing, and he does it, with fearless self-
confidence. As his long-time friend, Professor Wick-
son, says, speaking of his innate modesty and how easy
it is for the casual observer to misunderstand this:
" Those who meet Mr. Burbank but casually are . . .
apt to magnify his reticence until they see in it timidity,
self-depreciation, inexperience, embarrassment, and
the like. All these forms of weakness are absent from
the man. He is self-confident but not self-assertive.
He is fearless and not to be easily turned from the way
he expects to go, but he does not insist that others
shall go his way. He seldom errs in his judgment of
men and he usually gives the loud and effusive visitor
the right of way in conversation, studying him mean
time with a wondering eye."
His reticence is really the reticence of genius. How
can he talk with those who do not understand ?
Another revelation came to me as we walked through
the proving-grounds at Sevastopol. I noticed that

LUTHER BURBANK 395
none of his men smoked or used tobacco in any form,
and commented to Mr. Burbank upon the fact.
" That," said he, " is imperative in our work. The
processes of Nature sometimes are so delicate and
fine that, if we would aid her, the nerves must be of
the steadiest, and under the most perfect control.
This, I speedily found out in the beginning of my work,
was impossible with the tobacco user. I have never
used the weed myself, and it cannot be used by any of
my helpers! "
I scarcely deem it necessary to say that this heroic
soul is inflexible in his honor and truthfulness. No
one ever bought a single plant from him and was con
sciously deceived by him as to its qualities or name.
Here was no sharp practitioner, willing to sell anything,
even his own honor, if he could get a price. It is too
well known that in California, as elsewhere, nursery
men (and others) have sold inferior stock, or wrong
varieties rather than lose a sale. Never once, in Bur
bank's whole career, was such a thing knowingly done.
It was by such faithfulness to principle that he ulti
mately built up his business so that it was paying him
an annual income of not less than ten thousand dollars
a year. Here was an abundant fortune for a man of
his modest requkements. Why not retke and take
an easy time, travel, see the world, see what other
horticulturalists have done, visit Kew and other noted
gardens? Some men might have done this, but not
Luther Burbank. Though constantly experimenting
as far as his time and opportunities allowed he was ever
looking forward to the day he could give up his purely

396 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
commercial work as a nurseryman and devote the
whole of his life to the one work to which he was so
earnestly consecrated. He knew the price he would
have to pay, but he resolutely faced that. Herein,
again, he showed his possession of that long-patient,
never- wearying California spkit, that sees its object far,
far ahead, and unswervingly works, through every
difficulty, over every obstacle, towards it.
He sold his business and resolutely set to work to
carry out his experiments at the expense of his fortune.
He not only used up all the interest he got from his
invested money, but he soon began to eat into the prin
cipal. Year after year he worked, steadily sticking to
his costly experiments, and seeing his fortune dwindle
and melt like snow in the afternoon sun, but never for a
moment did he falter. He determined to keep on as
long as his money held out, then, said he, in talking to me
about this period: " I was willing to begin over again.
I felt sure I could then earn enough to live on, and if
not, — if I had grown too old and feeble, the good God
would see that I was cared for in some way." And* he
said it reverently, for, though he no longer holds to the
old Puritan faith of his childhood as far as creeds and
doctrines are concerned, his nature is essentially rev
erent and religious.
It was while he was thus unselfishly and quietly using
up his fortune, though scarce any one knew what
he was doing, for he never told of his work for the
benefit of the world, that the recognition from the
scientific world came that ultimately led to the placing
of his fortunes on a solid financial footing.

LUTHER BURBANK 397
It has often been said that Burbank is no scientist.
Nonsense! Listen to the judgment of one of the great
est of America's pure scientists, David Starr Jordan:
" It seems to me that Mr. Burbank, while primarily
an artist, is, in his general attitude, essentially a man
of science. Academic he doubtless is not, but the
qualities we call scientific are not necessarily bred in
the academy. Science is human experience, tested and
set in order. Within the range of moulding plants,
Mr. Burbank has read carefully, and thought carefully,
maturing his own generalizations and resting them on
the basis of his own knowledge. Within the range of
his own experience, he is an original and logical thinker,
and his conclusions are in general most sound. . . .
In his field of the application of our knowledge of
heredity, selection and crossing in the development
of plants, he stands unique in the world. No one else,
whatever his appliances, has done as much as Burbank,
or disclosed as much of the laws governing these phe
nomena. Burbank has worked for years alone, not
understood and not appreciated, at a constant financial
loss, and for this reason, — that his instincts and pur
poses are essentially those of a scientific man. . . .
In his own way, Burbank belongs in the class of Farady
and the long array of self-taught great men who lived
while the universities were spending thek strength
on fine points of grammar and hazy conceptions of
philosophy." . . .
Then Dr. Jordan closes with these strong words:
" If his place is outside the temple of science, there are
not many of the rest of us who will be found fit to enter."

398 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Other recognized scientists, like Hugo de Vries
and Professors E. J. Wickson, Loeb and Vernon L.
Kellogg, confirm Dr. Jordan's assertions, after pro
longed studies of Burbank and his methods, hence any
charge of charlatanism is both ungenerous and untrue.
He is a practical, as opposed to a theoretical, scientist.
Herein is another of the elements of the California
spkit, through and by which the academic world is to
be influenced. Crystallization in a living organization
is the precursor of death. The California spkit is
full of life. It refuses to crystallize, — to state finals,
to assert definite, fixed ultimates. Life is tentative,
changeable. The settled of to-day (in the minds of
men) is proven to be the unsettled of to-morrow. The
academic spkit, however progressive, too often is cock
sure. The California spkit says " Wait awhile! It is
not necessary to state ultimate conclusions yet ! " In
this spkit Burbank has done his work. Therefore he
has transcended the conservatives. Yet such has been
his thoroughness, his skill, his well-balanced judgment,
his results, that, in spite of themselves, the narrow-
minded and jealous, even among academicians, have
been compelled to recognize his scientific mastership.
And here let me call attention to another result of
Burbank's work. Though his methods have been
known to scientists for years, and practised in a measure
by many, his achievements have so dkected the popular
attention to the subject that he has awakened more
minds to the possibilities of plant mutation than all
the scientists of the world combined. This, surely, is an
object to be desired, to awaken, to stimulate, to broaden

LUTHER BURBANK 399
the intellect of the masses. The California spkit is
essentially democratic. It believes in no other special
privileges than those that come to a man by natural
inheritance or hard work. It would have all men enjoy
all there is to enjoy, — know all there is to know, —
be all man can be. The knowledge of what Burbank
has done, spread abroad among the children of the poor,
has done more to quicken the general intellect of the
race, to produce those soul-visions that lead to mental
and spkitual uplift, than time can ever tell. The benefit
is as far-reaching as the life of the race.
And yet few know or dream that all this outer work
of Burbank's has only been the preparation for a larger
work upon which, in early life, his heart was intensely
set. Plants and flowers have been the means to that
end. His real object has been to find out how the
great God worked for the improvement of plant life,
and then, when those secrets were discovered, he hoped
he could find the ear and attention of his fellow- men
to show how these same principles could be applied
to the improvement of the human race.
He felt that if he became an acknowledged expert —
recognized throughout the world as a practical master
of the laws governing the development and improve
ment of plants, he could " speak as one having au
thority," and the world would listen and heed in regard
to the improvement of the human race.
During the years of his life the cries of the ill-born
have been sounding in his ears, the groans of the sick,
the moans of the crippled and diseased, the deformed,
the lame, the halt, the palsied, the blind. He knew

4oo HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
that these groans and cries of anguish, these wails of
agony and despak were not part of the plan of the Al
mighty and Loving Father of men. He knew it was
never the intention of the Allwise that so many innocent
children should be born to a few months of speechless
agony and then a horrible death. So, with a heart full
of love to humanity, with his ears ever open to the
cry of the poor and suffering, he determined to do all
he could to teach men that such pain and suffering were
unnecessary and unnatural, that they could be pre
vented, and that the first care of humanity was the
breeding of a healthy, strong and happy race.
When the California Board of Trade tendered him
a complimentary banquet in San Francisco, where
governors, United States senators, college presidents,
judges and other notables assembled to do him honor,
this was the theme upon which he spoke. His words
were a great surprise. Up to that time not even his
intimate friends had known what was in his thought.
But the words then spoken will contmue to echo around
the world, quickening the hearts of men and women to
a higher idealism in the cultivation of the human plant.
Here, then, to me, is Luther Burbank's greatest
proof of heroism and deep spkituality. He has not
worked for fame, for honor, for applause, for wealth.
He has worked for his fellow- men, and particularly for
the child, the unborn child, that, when it was born,
it might have the joy, the happiness, the perpetual
pleasure of being welcome to this life, and as well born
as knowledge, science and love combined could accom
plish.

CHAPTER XXXVI
THE SYMPATHETIC HERO OF LAND REFORM,
HENRY GEORGE
/"~\NE may count upon the fingers all the religionists,
^* scientists, lawmakers or philosophers who have
materially changed the current of the thought of the
world. To those, even of powerful intellect, the task of
giving a new trend to the thoughts and actions of men
must appear either hopeless or impossible. Fkst the
reformatory, revolutionary idea must be found, and
then it must be so presented that it takes possession
of the mind of the world. If a man declares that he
has such a thought, he is liable to be charged by his
fellows with an overweening vanity, an arrogance
that stamps him with a great moral weakness. On the
other hand, if he have such an idea and fails to give it
to the world, it can have no reformatory effect.
Henry George was born September 3, 1839, in Phila
delphia, Pa., but it was not until he had become a
printer and was working in San Francisco that the
" flaming idea " took full possession of his soul, though
for years he had been pondering the subject. When only
eighteen years of age the question had been aroused
in his mind in conversation with an old miner, who had
suggested that as the country grew in population and
material prosperity, the condition of those who had

402 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
to work for a living would grow, not better, but worse.
Or, later, as he himself states it: "Like a flash it
came upon me that . . . with the growth of population,
land grows in value, and the men who work it must pay
more for the privilege."
This was the beginning of the thought that was to
grow and expand until it changed the destinies of
nations. In the year 1868 he wrote an article for the
newly founded Overland Monthly, of which Bret
Harte was editor, entitled " What the Railroad Will
Bring Us." It is a ten-page article, some seven
thousand words in length, and reveals the student and
thinker. Here, in his first notable contribution to
literature, he shows the growing power of his idea.
In stating what the building of the Union and Central
Pacific Railways will bring to California, he says:
" The sharpest sense of Americans — the keen sense
of gain, which certainly does not lose its keenness in
our bracing ak — is the first to realize what is coming
with our railroad. All over the State land is apprecia
ting; fortunes are being made in a day by buying and
parcelling out Spanish ranches; the government
surveyors and registrars are busy; speculators are
grappling the public domain by the hundreds of thou
sands of acres, while for miles in every dkection around
San Francisco, ground is being laid Off into homestead
lots." In concluding his article, which, in the main, is a
wise appreciation of the good the railroad would do,
he still reverts to the theme that was ultimately to
take full possession of his soul, for he declares: " The

HENRY GEORGE 403
truth is, that the completion of the railroad and the
consequent great increase of business and population
will not be a benefit to all of us, but only to a portion.
As a general rule (liable of course to exceptions),
those who have, it will make wealthier; for those who
have not, it will make it more difficult to get. Those
who have land, mines, established businesses, special
abilities of certain kinds, will become richer for it,
and find increased opportunities; those who have only
thek own labor will become poorer, and find it harder
to get ahead — first because it will take more capital
to buy land or to get into business; and second, be
cause, as competition reduces the wages of labor, this
capital will be harder for them to obtain.
"What, for instance, does the rise in land mean?
Several things, but certainly and prominently this:
that it will be harder in future for a poor man to get a
farm or a homestead lot. In some sections of the State,
land which twelve months ago could have been had
for a dollar an acre, cannot now be bought for less
than fifteen dollars. In other words, the settler who
last year might have had at once a farm of his own,
must now either go to work on wages for someone else,
nay rent, or buy on time; in either case being com
pelled to give to the capitalist a large proportion of the
earnings which, had he arrived a year ago, he might
have had all for himself. And as proprietorship is
thus rendered more difficult and less profitable to the
poor, more are forced into the labor market to compete
with each other, and to cut down the rate of wages —
that is, to make the division of the joint production

404 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
between labor and capital more in favor of capital
and less in favor of labor."
Other effects of the centralization of wealth are
forcefully presented, and it is clear to see that the
young writer by no means regarded the incoming of
the railway as an unmixed good. When, a little later,
he saw the actual results he had prophesied and, in
addition, realized that the raihoad was becoming more
grasping and determined upon absolute control of the
State, he began to speak out even more clearly against
the system which made this possible. While he could
see clearly enough that the railway builders had un
dertaken herculean labors, and that they were striving
with bravery even to heroism to accomplish them,
he also saw that the land grants and subsidies of both
State and nation were incorrect in principle, for they
saddled the people of the future with burdens they had
no right to bear. Accordingly, as he had already
graduated from the typesetter's case to the editorial
chak, and was sending out forceful articles both East
and West, he began to attack the railroad policies
with characteristic energy and determination. This
requked a courage and independence rare in young
men, — he was but thirty years of age. For, as his
son well states in his Life of Henry George: " The
Central Pacific had become the overshadowing in
fluence in California. It owned or controlled most
of the press, swayed the legislature, bent the courts,
governed banks, and moved as a mighty force in
politics. It was quick to recognize talent, and as
quick to engage or reward it. Out of imperial coffers

HENRY GEORGE 405
it had fortunes to bestow. With a word it could make
men, and so far as the masses were concerned, could
as easily break men. Of those who could not, or would
not serve, it asked only silence, merely immunity from
attack." But George could neither be bought nor silenced.
For a time he edited an Oakland paper, and then he
was made editor and given a fourth interest in the
Sacramento Reporter. Into the work of this paper he
threw himself heart and soul. The Central Pacific
Railway had aheady received from State and nation
large grants of lands, bonds, and subsidies, but they
were calling for more. Viewing things as he did,
George could do no other than oppose them, which
he did forcefully and constantly. Finding he could
not be silenced, the railway quietly bought control of
the paper, thus taking away from him the organ in which
he expressed and disseminated his ideas, compelling
him to sell out his interest and seek a new method
of sending his surging thoughts broadcast. For some
time past he had ceased to take his opinions unques
tioned from books. He had learned to do his own
thinking. Ideas were rapidly formulating themselves
into a clear philosophy.
He saw the public lands of the United States, which
seemed so vast as to be practically illimitable, being
given away with a reckless disregard of the future.
He saw that the ultimate result of this would be that
in a comparatively short time much land would be in
few hands. This he regarded as unjust and contrary
to true political economy. The result was that as

406 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
soon as his thought became clarified in his own mind,
— after several public lectures upon the subject, —
he issued the first of a series of works that were ma
terially to influence the thought and political action
of the larger part of the civilized world. This pamphlet
is composed of forty-eight pages and cover, printed in
small type, and bears the title: Our Land and Land
Policy, National and State, and its date is 187 1. An
original copy of this brochure is now worth its weight
in gold.
In this pamphlet Henry George discusses the ex
tent of the public domain, the prospective value of land,
the land policy of the United States, public sale and
private entry, and donations of public lands, especially
with relation to the railroads.
He then proceeds to a statement of the specific
conditions that existed in California at that time in
regard to the monopolization of land, first through the
Mexican land grants, then the railroad grants, and
the private entry and scrip locations. He fearlessly
exposes the manifest injustice to the great masses of
the people in these monopolizations, and then pro
ceeds to an arraignment of the State for its manage
ment of State lands, swamp lands, etc., and makes
specific charges against certain land grabbers who, he
claims, by fraud secured from twenty thousand acres
to over one hundred thousand acres each. Then,
after giving a short list of those who own some " two
million acres apiece," others three or four hundred
thousand acres, one firm four hundred and fifty
thousand acres, " around one patch of which,

HENRY GEORGE 407
alone, they have one hundred and sixty miles of
fence," and so on, down to those who hold but the
small amount of from eighty thousand to twenty
thousand acres, he says, speaking of this latter
class: " They are so numerous, that, though I have a
long list, I am afraid to name them for fear of making
invidious distinctions." Then he continues: "These
men are the lords of California — lords as truly as
ever were ribboned dukes or belted barons in any
country under the sun. We have discarded the titles
of an earlier age, but we have preserved the sub
stance. . . . They are our Land Lords just as truly.
If they do not exert the same influence, and wield the
same power, and enjoy the same wealth, it is merely
because our population is but six hundred thousand,
and thek tenantry have not yet arrived. Of the mil
lions of acres of our vkgin soil which thek vast domains
enclose, they are absolute masters, and upon it no
human creature can come, save by thek permission
and upon thek terms. From the zenith above, to the
centre of the earth below (so our laws run), the uni
verse is theks."
That Mr. George was not a blatant demagogue
closing his eyes to facts is proven by the concluding
paragraphs to this portion of his argument. He says:
" Let me not be understood as reproaching the men
who have honestly acquired large tracts of land. As
the world goes they are not to be blamed. If the
people put saddles on thek backs, they must ex
pect somebody to jump astride to ride. If we must
have an aristocracy, I would prefer that my children

4o8 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
should be members of it rather than of the common
herd. While as for the men who have resorted to
dishonest means, the probabilities are that most of
them enjoy more of the respect of thek fellows, and
its fruits, than if they had been honest and got less
land." The balance of his pamphlet is then devoted to the
philosophical discussion that later eventuated in his well-
known land theories, which it is not my purpose to
discuss in these pages, save, later, to state merely
thek broad, general principles.
His theories once given to the world, he was called
upon frequently to expound and enlarge upon them,
both in public and private, by voice and pen. His
first formal speech on the subject was given in August,
1876, at Dashaway Hall, San Francisco, when he was
thkty-seven years old. He saw therein another en
larged opportunity for propagating his ideas, and from
that time forward deliberately trained himself as a
public speaker. The following year he was invited
to lecture at the University of California on Political
Economy. He steered clear of all unsettled questions,
and stated that what he had to say was more suggestive
than didactic. Yet he did not hesitate, in his dkect
and unmistakable fashion, to condemn the writers
of text-books on political economy for thek conscious
or unconscious upholding of the -whole capitalistic
system, thus antagonizing the feelings and prejudices
of those who had most to gain by a study of such
books. Said he: " The name of political economy has been

HENRY GEORGE 409
constantly invoked against every effort of the working
classes to increase thek wages or decrease thek hours
of labor. . . . Take the best and most extensively
ckculated text-books. While they insist upon freedom
for capital, while they seek to justify on the ground
of utility the selfish greed that seeks to pile fortune
on fortune, and the niggard spkit that steels the heart
to the wail of distress, what sign of substantial promise
do they hold out to the working man save that he
should refrain from rearing children?
" What can we expect when hands that should
offer bread thus hold out a stone? Is it in human
nature that the masses of men, vaguely but keenly
conscious of the injustice of social conditions, feeling
that they are somehow cramped and hurt, without
knowing what cramps and hurts them, should wel
come truth in this partial form; that they should
take to a science which, as it is presented to them,
seems but to justify injustice, to canonize selfishness
by throwing around it the halo of utility, and to present
Herod rather than Vincent de Paul as the typical bene
factor of humanity? "
Speaking of the simplicity of the science, he must
have made the learned professors feel quite uncom
fortable :
" For the study of political economy you need no
special knowledge, no extensive library, no costly
laboratory. You do not even need text-books nor
teachers, if you will but think for yourselves. All
that you need is care in reducing complex phenomena
to thek elements, in distinguishing the essential from

4io HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
the accidental, and in applying the simple laws of
human action with which you are familiar. Take
nobody's opinion for granted; ' try all things; hold
fast that which is good.' In this way the opinions of
others will help you by thek suggestions, elucidations,
and corrections; otherwise they will be to you but
as words to a parrot. ... All this array of professors,
all this paraphernalia of learning, cannot educate
a man. They can but help him to educate himself.
Here you may obtain the tools; but they will be useful
only to him who can use them. A monkey with a mi
croscope, a mule packing a library, are fit emblems of
the men — and unfortunately, they are plenty —
who pass through the whole educational machinery
and come out but learned fools, crammed with knowl
edge which they cannot use, all the more pitiable, all
the more contemptible, all the more in the way of
real progress, because they pass, with themselves and
others, as educated men."
This university address was followed by a Fourth
of July oration devoted to " Liberty," which, in view
of his later teachings, can only be regarded as one of
the opportunities offered him for clearer formulation
of his thought. It was a scathing denunciation, though
veiled to many who heard it in the flowers of rhetoric,
of those who apostrophized Liberty with thek tongues,
but in thek lives worshipped only that god that gave
them liberty to tyrannize over thek fellows.
Now occurred a period of great financial depression
throughout the whole country, and California felt it
keenly. To Henry George it brought distress and

HENRY GEORGE 411
poverty for a time, yet out of that distress was born
the book Progress and Poverty that was to give an
uplift to the political morals of the world. He began
to write in September, 1877. His original intention was
to prepare a magazine article dealing with the fact
that, as humanity progressed materially, it seemed
unable to prevent increasing poverty. Writing about
the thoughts of his heart with a daring courage, he
attacked the " most gigantic vested right in the world,"
— land monopoly. At the same time he seemed bathed
in an atmosphere of his own creation which carried
sympathy for his fellows wherever he went. As his
biographer says: " Sympathy was, perhaps, Henry
George's predominant trait of character. It had made
him heartsick at sight of the want and suffering in the
great city; it had impelled him to search for the cause
and the cure. In the bonds of friendship it carried
him into the other's thoughts and feelings. Intuitively
he put himself into the other man's place and looked
at the world through those other eyes. . . . He had
not studied man from the closet. He had all his rugged
life been at school with humanity, and to him the type
of humanity was the common man. Civilization built
up from the common man, flourished as the common
man flourished, decayed and fell with the common
man's loss of independence. He himself had climbed
out on swaying yards like the commonest sailor, car
ried his blankets as a prospector and common miner,
felt something of the hardships of farming, tramped
dusty roads as a pedlar, had every experience as a
printer, and suffered the physical and mental tortures of

4i2 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
hunger. Learning and pride and power and tradition
and precedent went for little with him; the human
heart, the moral purpose, became the core thing."
For a year and a half he thought and studied, wrote
and rewrote. None knew that he was working on a
book that should shake the greed of the world; he
himself only knew that he was declaring what he felt
was a higher truth than man had yet seen; and to
not a soul did he explain that his writing was the result
of a vision and a vow to which his soul demanded that
he be true. When the book was finally completed, he
flung himself upon his knees in his solitude and wept like
a child, committing the results to God. This was learned
after his death from a letter he wrote to a religious friend.
Now came the task of finding a publisher. The
Appletons, Harpers and others refused it on various
grounds, but mainly because it was too revolutionary.
So at last he and his friends went to the cases and set
it up themselves, had plates made, and the first edition
was printed in San Francisco under the title : Political
Economy of the Social Problem. An interesting fact
in connection with this home-made edition is that
his closest friend and helper, both at the type stand and
the desk, was Dr. Edward Robeson Taylor, poet and
humanitarian, later the reform mayor of San Fran
cisco after the downfall of Schmitz. Mr. James H.
Barry, for many years the editor of the San Francisco
Star, also helped him set type and print this edition.
Two weeks after he sent a copy of the San Francisco
edition to his father in Philadelphia, the Appletons wrote
that they were now ready to publish it on a royalty basis.

HENRY GEORGE 413
Among letters received from notable men to whom
he sent his first edition was one from Sk George Grey
of New Zealand, the country which afterwards based
its land policies entkely upon the principles George
had enunciated. Sk George wrote: "I have already
read a large part of the book. I regard it as one of the
ablest works on the great questions of the time, which
has come under my notice. It will be of great use to me.
... It has cheered me much to find that there is so able
a man working in California, upon subjects on which I
believe the whole future of mankind now mainly hangs."
While the book is a large book of over five hundred
pages, it is mainly an exemplification of the matter
presented in his pamphlet of 1871 ¦ — Our Land and
Land Policy — - aheady discussed. Poverty and its
causes, the present distribution of wealth, and the
effect of material progress upon such distribution,
bring the reader to the presentation of the remedy. As
he says in his Introduction: "This identification of
the cause that associates poverty with progress points
to the remedy, but it is to so radical a remedy that I
have next deemed it necessary to inquke whether there
is any other remedy. Beginning the investigation again
from another starting-point, I have passed in examina
tion the measures and tendencies currently advocated
or trusted in for the improvement of the condition of the
laboring masses. The result of this investigation is
to prove the preceding one, as it shows that nothing
short of making land common property can permanently
relieve poverty and check the tendency of wages to the
starvation- point."

4i4 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Whatever one may think of this conclusion, the book
is a wonderful book. It is a classic as cogent and
powerful as Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, or John
Stuart Mill's Political Economy, with far more of
red blood, human sympathy and democratic principle.
Some chapters, especially the last, on " The Problem
of Individual Life," are thrilling in the extreme, and
call upon the laggards, the selfish and the indifferent
with trumpet tones for higher, nobler, better living.
At first it won its way slowly into public favor, and
then with bounds and leaps. It was later followed with
other contributions upon the same subject, and as
George himself grew more sure — not of his subject,
but of his method of public presentation — he became a
platform propagandist of great power.
It was some time before the common people knew
thek prophet, and the truth he had enunciated for
thek deliverance, but when they did learn it, thek
confidence and affection knew no bounds.
It needed that some one of themselves, not trained
in the schools and universities, not warped by the
ideas of divine right, superior class, and preservation
of the existing order, not imbued with the wholly
materialistic idea of the survival of the fittest, or logical
corollary that the strong physically or intellectually,
have the right, because they have the power, to control
the weak, one who did not accept Pope's dictum that
" Whatever is, is right," but one who believed in the
teaching of Him who said: "All things whatsoever
ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so
to them; " I say it needed that some one who had

HENRY GEORGE 415
not been brought up to regard wealth and its con
sequent luxury as his " divinely ordered " right, but
one who was poor and lowly and a worker should
become thek champion. How else could thek cause
be presented save by one who knew it as his every-day
life? No man can knowingly write on all the phases
of political economy who does not himself belong or
has not belonged to the great working masses of the
people. Henry George was truly one of the masses. His great
heart throbbed as did that of the Master's to the woes
of the needy and oppressed, and when they knew him
" the common people heard him gladly."
There is not space in this chapter to record his
journeyings and lecturings to and fro in America,
Canada, England, Ireland, Australia, and " around
the world." He lived to see thousands of philosophers
and statesmen converted, in the main, to the doctrines
he had enunciated, and to-day the governments of
New Zealand, New South Wales, and other English-
speaking peoples are largely conducted on those prin
ciples. The great political conflict that raged in England
in the winter of 1909-19 10 was practically upon the same
ideas, and the speeches of Lloyd George, the English
Chancellor of the Exchequer, were thought for thought
on the lines laid down by his great American name
sake. Writing, lecturing, and entering the political arena
that he might further propagate his truth, Henry
George used up his vitality and power, until, in the
mayoralty campaign in New York, in 1897, he was

4i6 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
stricken with apoplexy, October 28, and passed on
to his reward.
At once, from all parts of the world, came words of
appreciation, — none truer than these from one of the
New York City papers that had strongly opposed his
candidacy: " He was a tribune of the people, poor for
thek sake, when he might have been rich by merely
compromising; without official position for thek sake,
when he might have had high offices by merely yielding
a part of his convictions to expediency. All his life
long he spoke and wrote and thought and prayed and
dreamed of one thing only — the cause of the plain
people against corruption and despotism. And he
died with his armor on, with his sword flashing, in the
front of the battle, scaling the breastworks of intrenched
•corruption and despotism. He died as he lived. He
died a hero's death. He died as he would have wished
to die — on the battlefield, spending his last strength
in a blow at the enemies of the people. Fearless,
honest, unsullied, uncompromising Henry George! "
On the tablet that covers his grave in Greenwood
Cemetery are placed these words from Progress and
Poverty, that he had written years before:

" T7/E truth that I have tried lo make clear
will not find easy acceptance. If that
could be, it would have been accepted long ago.
If that could be, it would never have been ob
scured. But it will find friends — those who
will toil for it; suffer for it; if need be, die for it.
This is the power of Truth."

CHAPTER XXXVII
THE INVENTIVE HERO OF MOUNT LOWE,
THADDEUS S. C. LOWE
TN this age of wealth-worship it is a great thing for
-*¦ a man of inventive genius to devote his wonderful
powers to the good of his fellow-men; to bring to them
at a small cost added comfort, joy, ease, content. It
is a greater thing to so control his inventions that rich
corporations cannot monopolize them and thus use
them for thek own enrichment. A man who can and
does achieve both these results is surely one whom the
great world should delight to honor. And such an one
is Professor Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, who, from a child
hood of hardship and poverty, won his way to a place
ot honor in the world's regard by his inventive genius,
the results of which he resolutely devoted to the good
of the common people.
It is given to but few men to do as much for their
fellows in so many ways as has fallen to the lot of
Professor T. S. C. Lowe, now of Pasadena, California.
Born August 20, 1832, at the little town of Jefferson
Mills, New Hampshire, he endured a greater share of
hardships than most poor suffered in those early days.
He was one of several children, and his father, owing to
untoward ckcumstances over which he had no control,
was compelled to leave the brave and stout-hearted

4i8 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
mother to bring up the little flock. With a love as
wise as it was tender she did all she knew how to keep
the wolf from the door and to train her children in
vktue and honest labor. But the struggle was too
hard to be maintained alone, so, after many bitter
tears on her part, it was decided that Thaddeus must
be " bound out " to a near by farmer. Thaddeus, a
sturdy, thoughtful, fearless youngster, zealously anxious
to relieve his mother of any extra burden, made light
of her fears and anxieties and refused to see any great
hardship in having to leave home and go out to work for
a neighbor. But he rested too much in the expectation
that others would treat him with the same gentle and
kindly consideration that his noble mother had ac
corded him. It was a rude awakening to the high-
strung lad to find that honest work was not all that
some men required of thek " hands." Abuse and
rudeness must be expected and quietly suffered, for
kindness and sympathetic friendliness were opposed,
in the minds of such men, to good discipline and to a
preservation of the proper distance that should exist
between " master " and " servant." But such ideas
were as poison to the clear brain of the democratic
young Thaddeus. He punctured the claims of caste
as readily as he was ultimately to puncture the old-
fashioned claims of certain scientists, for one early
morning, after talking the matter over with his bosom
friend, Nathan Perkins, afterwards recognized as one
of New Hampshke's distinguished and noble sons, he
started away from his native village, his whole worldly
possessions wrapped up in a handkerchief, and his

THADDEUS S. C. LOWE 419
whole fortune of eleven , cents hidden deep in his
pocket. To recount all his early struggles, failures and tri
umphs is here impossible. His early history reads like
a romance, and is full of instructive lessons to the
growing youth of our land. Step by step, in the face
of great obstacles, he worked his way upward and
onward. Nothing daunted him. Ever alert, ever will
ing to do any good and honest work, he was not content
to do things as others did them, and early revealed
that inventive genius that has since been turned to such
good use for the benefit of mankind. Every available
moment outside of the time requked for his duties
was expended in study, and soon his knowledge of
herbs, of chemistry and anatomy, and of practical
surgery learned from his wise old grandmother, was
called upon by the simple-hearted neighbors, and he
gained quite a reputation as a healer of disease and
a mender of broken bones.
Before his twentieth year he had saved enough to
gratify his deske for seeing more of the world than or
dinarily falls to the lot of a poor lad; and for his wedding
trip — he married young — he journeyed from Zanes-
ville, Ohio, down the Muskingham and Ohio rivers,
into the Mississippi and to New Orleans, Louisiana,
giving lectures on the way, and incidentally studying
the country and people of the South.
When he returned to New England, it was to resume
his studies of chemistry with greater fervor than before,
and in connection with this study he soon saw an op
portunity to gratify a deske that was one of the earliest

420 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
emotions of his young and active mind. Even as a young
child the wonderful movements of the clouds, and the
changes of the weather had ever interested him. Born
right in the heart of the White Mountains, Mount
Washington and all the Presidential Range being in
sight from his mother's door, he watched the floating
clouds of both winter and summer, saw them at times
sail away, at another hang like banners to the mountain
summits, then again, discharge thek contents as hail,
sleet, snow or rain, while at still other times they were
dissipated into impalpable mist by the heat of the
summer sun; and he came to the conclusion that there
were wonderful secrets of the upper ak that he would
like to penetrate, that would doubtless explain these
wonderful, though common and everyday phenomena.
As a chemist, he learned the properties of gas and saw
how a balloon could be best constructed and filled,
and, no sooner was his vivid imagination stkred by vis
ions of ascending into the upper atmosphere and study
ing the conditions he found there, than he proceeded
to the construction of a balloon. Soon he was making
regular ascensions. Then the failure of the Atlantic
Cable gave him another inspkation. Why not use
the balloon to cross the Atlantic, and thus give to mer
chants and others the news they so urgently needed.
Distinguished people in Philadelphia, whom he had
interested, including such men as George W. Childs
and Professor John C. Cresson, suggested that he apply
to Professor Joseph Henry, of the Smithsonian Institu
tion, for aid in furthering this laudable and practical
project, and in a number of interviews the distinguished

THADDEUS S. C. LOWE 421
savant made himself fully cognizant of young Lowe's
far-reaching ideas. He saw that here was a mind
different from the ordinary, and found great delight
in drawing him out. He discovered that the young
aeronaut had already learned some things of the upper
atmosphere, and that he believed there existed a steady
upper ak current that invariably moved eastward, no
matter how diverse, opposite or complex the wind
movements on the earth's surface might be.
" Prove to me the existence of that eastward current,
without risking your life on the Atlantic ocean," said
Professor Henry, " and I'll find you the means of
crossing the Atlantic in your balloon."
" How shall I do it to satisfy you ? " queried the
urgent young student.
" Go a thousand miles inland, wait until all the earth
currents are blowing westward. Then make an ascent
in a small balloon, and travel eastward and I'll be
satisfied," responded the savant.
Young Lowe didn't wait an hour. He went to
Cincinnati as quickly as he could go, taking with him
a balloon of the size needed for the experiment. The
telegraph service was placed at his disposal and reports
of wind conditions regularly made to him. The balloon
was filled with gas and anchored ready to make the
ascent at a moment's notice. Day after day passed.
One evening he was at a banquet given in his honor by
Mr. Potter, the owner of the Cincinnati Commercial,
at which Murat Halsted, the distinguished editor,
and many of Cincinnati's notable men were present,
when the welcome news was brought that the wind cur-

422 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
rents were all blowing westward. Without waiting to
change his society clothes for those more appropriate
for a balloon ascent, and still wearing his silk hat, he
hurried down to the balloon, accompanied by his fellow
banqueters, Mr. Halsted bringing down with him
a large demijohn filled with hot coffee. At Mr. Potter's
request, Mr. Halsted wrote a brief notice of the ascension
and Professor Lowe waited until three o'clock in the
morning to allow the pressmen to insert this notice
in the Commercial and run off two or three hundred
copies which he could carry away in the balloon. It was
fortunate for him that this was done, as a few hours
later it saved him from being shot as a Federal spy,
as I will soon relate.
In the meantime, when the Cincinnati people read
thek morning papers, they were amused by the state
ment that " Professor Lowe's balloon, which had as
cended to prove the existence of a perpetual current
blowing to the east, when last seen was rapidly traveling
westward." But the darkness of the early morning didn't allow
the newspaper men to see long enough. While the
balloon did travel very rapidly to the west when it
first ascended, it was not long before it reached the
eastward current, and then Professor Lowe made the
historic trip for which he will ever be remembered.
When he struck the Alleghany Mountains he bounded
over a mile into the upper ak, and then, striking the cur
rent between this range and the Blue Ridge, he was
drawn slightly to the south and descended at noon on
the coast of South Carolina, having traveled a distance

THADDEUS S. C. LOWE 423
of eight hundred miles in nine hours. Returning inland
a little distance, by means of a westerly current, he
landed among some of the " Clay Eaters," who, as the
war had just broken out, vowed he was a spy from Fort
Pickens. It requked both nerve and persuasive power
to convince those people of thek error, but they finally
consented to take him to Unionville, twenty-five miles
away, which was the nearest railway point. When the
wagon came it was drawn by six mules. Professor
Lowe asked why they brought six animals for so small
a load, and they said that when they saw the balloon
(in its inflated condition) they thought it would requke
at least that number of animals to draw so ponderous a
thing. They were wonderfully surprised to see it in its
collapsed condition. Seated on the balloon (to ease
the jolting of the rough roads), with his silk " tile "
upon his head, Professor Lowe began to laugh at his
own comical appearance, but laughter soon ceased when
a dozen or more men, each armed with a revolver and
Winchester rifle, grimly and silently surrounded the
wagon. He saw he was still regarded as a spy and that
any suspicious movement would mean instant death.
On his arrival at Unionville, however, he fell among
friends. One of them, seeing the newspapers which
Professor Lowe finally handed to him, explained.
" This settles it all right. This paper is still damp from
the press. It's a strange story. Eight hundred miles.
in nine hours, but we're compelled to believe it." Ac
cordingly the " spy " was released and sent on his way
to Columbia. Here he was again arrested and jailed,
and would have had an awkward time had it not been for

424 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
the friendly interference of the president and professors
of the college, who were acquainted with the purely
scientific nature of Professor Lowe's work, and knew
that it had absolutely nothing to do with the war.
His adventures, however, at this time, were thrilling
and exciting enough to stk the blood of the most slug
gish, and they undoubtedly turned his active brain into
the very dkection for which the southern men had
arrested him. It was now that his dominant genius be
gan to assert itself. He was but twenty-eight years old,
yet while the fires of hatred were being fanned by the
wild utterances of men who did not realize the horrors
of such a fratricidal war, he, with a soul full of zeal for
the preservation of the Union, began to exercise his
intellect to the utmost to formulate a plan whereby his
knowledge of ballooning might be made of service to his
beloved country. For he was a patriot, in the larger,
truer sense, from his bkth. Every fibre of his being
thrilled with the joy of true democracy. He was him
self of the common people; he believed in them, if they
had a fak chance; he saw that if the principles of the
founders of this country were carried out, the poor and
lowly would here have as large and good opportunitesfor
improvement as the high, the educated and the rich, if
they chose to work hard to utilize them, hence he burned
with an intense, zealous earnestness to do his part in
helping preserve the Union, to which his whole heart
and mind were so devotedly attached. Professor Henry
and President Lincoln sent for him as soon as his return
to Cincinnati was known, and the upshot of thek con
ferences was that this young man, self-taught and self-

THADDEUS S. C. LOWE 425
reliant, was given power to organize the first Balloon
Corps for military operations in the field that the world
had ever seen. For months he operated for the different
commanding generals under the dkect auspices of Presi
dent Lincoln, making daily and nightly ascents, witness
ing many skkmishes and battles and giving most valu
able information as to the movements of the enemy that
could not possibly have been gained from any other
source. He invented and set into successful operation
methods by which he could telegraph from his balloon
to the tent of the commanding general in the field below,
tfius giving accurate and detailed description of events
actually transpking at the moment the news was re
ceived. His chemical studies and inventive powers also came
into most valuable play. He soon realized that the
old and antiquated methods of generating gas for filling
his balloon were absolutely impossible, if it were to
become a practical and feasible instrument of aid in
active warfare. The exigencies of war demanded that
the balloon be transferable at will to any part of the
field, or even to distant parts. To transfer it, filled with
gas, was impracticable, yet to empty it, transfer it and
then generate the gas for refilling was equally im
practicable. So many hours were requked to generate
gas by the old methods that any ordinary conflict would
begin, be fought out and the armies moved, before so
large a balloon could have been filled. So Professor Lowe
invented and constructed retorts on wheels, which
could be drawn anywhere, and by means of which
the making of sufficient gas was the work of but a few

426 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
minutes. Thus he was able to make ascensions almost.
at will and in many and diverse parts of the scene of
operations. At all hours of the day and night he was
ready. Many a time the movements of the enemy were
detected by this novel and vigilant watcher, and the
Confederate generals made desperate efforts both to
destroy the balloon and either kill or capture the bal
loonist. Consequently Professor Lowe was given
extraordinary powers by his commanding officers, and
he and his balloon also became objects of great interest
to the enemy. Time and again thek sharp-shooters,
both of the infantry and artillery, dkected thek fire
upon him, but while they were getting his range he
went on coolly making his observations, knowing that
he was perfectly safe for some time, and that the mere
pulling of a string would release the gas valve, and allow
him to descend a little, or that the throwing out of a bag
of sand ballast would send him up higher, the changed
position in either case putting him out of range of the
enemy's guns.
He operated thus, working day and night at the be
hest of the commanding generals, until the overwork,
the hardships of the field and the malaria combined
to produce a condition of ill health, which drove him
home and well-nigh killed him. Even to this day,
in spite of his well spent and abstemious life, he still
suffers from physical ailments fastened upon him during
that time. With that keen foresight, however, which
is one of his most marked characteristics, he had pre
pared for just such an event by carefully training his
subordinates to carry on his work. This they did to the

THADDEUS S. C. LOWE 427
best of thek capacity, so that, while Professor Lowe
lay on his bed of pain and affliction, his mind was at ease
with the assurance that the plans he had so carefully
formulated were being carried out with a reasonable
measure of success.
Before he had recovered his health the war was
brought to a successful close. He immediately turned
his inventive genius to work, and built and equipped a
floating refrigerator, the first steamship in the history
of the world designed for the purpose, which made sev
eral trips from Galveston, Texas, to New York, loaded
with Texas beef, etc. This was the origin of the re
frigerator in actual commerce, and the benefit to the
people of this invention can never be estimated. By
it meats and fruits and other perishable food products
are now transported from one part of the world to
another, either by land or sea, without injury or detri
ment. The surplus cattle of Texas are converted into
beef and shipped wherever needed, the strawberries
of Georgia are sent to the North, and the oranges of
Florida and California to every town and hamlet in
in the country, as well as to ports all over the civilized
globe. And yet this invention was, at the time of Professor
Lowe's presentation of it to the world, so far in advance
of people's knowledge of its value, that he personally
not only derived no benefit from it, but actually suffered
most heavy financiarl loss.
It was equally so with his valuable invention for the
making of artificial ice. He set in operation several of
these machines, on the same principle that they are

428 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
now working, viz., the compression of ammonia, etc.,
and thus made it possible for the housewife in her small
refrigerator, as well as the chefs of the most luxurious
hotels, to keep milk sweet, butter hard and fresh, meats
and vegetables cool and pure, no matter how hot the
weather might be. It seems impossible to measure the
benefit this invention has been to the human race, yet
I feel that the world should know that, owing to its being
in advance of its time, when Professor Lowe figured
up his profits and losses on the giving of this product
of his genius to the world, he was eighty-seven thousand
dollars in debt, independent of his long months of time
and exhaustive labor, and this debt was subsequently
paid by him out of the profits of one of his later inven
tions. It is this invention to which attention is now called.
Disappointed and chagrined at his experiences in trying
to bring the commercial and home world to a realization
of the benefit of his refrigerator and ice inventions,
he vowed he would never again invent things ahead of
his times, so he turned his attention to the improvement
of present methods of gas supply. In this field he is the
recognized master of the world. His varied inventions
for the making of gas alone entitle him to the undying
gratitude of his fellow men. For not only has it light
ened the labor of millions of the toiling women of earth;
not only has it reduced the heating of a room, the making
of a fire for the cooking of a meal to the mere turning of a
gas cock and striking a match, but it has been done
in such a way that, while immense fortunes have been
made by thousands of men as the result of investments in

THADDEUS S. C. LOWE 429
the invention, it has .brought down the prices of this
useful and necessary commodity so that the poorest of
the poor can now practically have light and heat suffi-i
cient for all purposes.
Allured by the " glorious climate of California "
Professor Lowe now settled down in the beautiful home
city of Pasadena, but his restless energy soon compelled
him to another enterprise which has endeared him to
hundreds of thousands of tourists and travelers, as well
as to the nature lovers of his own state. In sight of the
magnificent home that he had built on Orange Grove
Avenue are the beautiful peaks of the Sierra Madre
range of mountains, reaching from five thousand to
eleven thousand feet in snow-clad majesty from the foot
hills to the clear blue of the Southern California sky.
Save for a few steep and almost impracticable trails all
these glorious heights were inaccessible to the majority
of people. Knowing thek sublime beauty and re
membering the enjoyment of the thousands who yearly
ride up the railway of his native Mount Washington, he
resolved to scale, with a railway, the most salient of
the higher peaks near Pasadena. With characteristic
energy his surveyors were sent into the field. Three
different parties reported it impossible by any ordinary
or known method of engineering — except at prohibitive
expense — to build a railway to the peaks he had chosen.
But to Professor Lowe, as to Napoleon, the word " im
possible " is unknown. He determined the impossible.
He took one of the surveys that reached from Altadena
into the heart of the most picturesque canyon of the
range and graded and built the railway to a natural

430 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
amphitheatre, where he completely bridged the canyon,
erected a novel structure, which combined hotel, dan-
icing pavilion, offices, banquet hall, etc., and then made
a mile or more of the canyon accessible by means of
plank walks and stairways, leading to fernbeds, moss
grottos and several exquisite and charming waterfalls.
The next desked elevation was thkteen hundred
feet above, on the summit of Echo Mountain. How to
reach it was the question. The engineers said " im
possible," unless Professor Lowe was willing to spend
a fortune in cutting out a winding shelf to and fro
on the steep slopes. But this determined and clear
sighted man, taking the problem into his own hands,
did the same as the great Alexander of Russia, when,
dissatisfied with the engineers' survey, he took a ruler
and drew a straight line on the map from St. Petersburg
to Moscow, exclaiming: "There is the route of my
railway. Now proceed to build it." Professor Lowe
instructed his engineers to grade an incline up the almost
perpendicular slope from Rubio Pavilion to the top
of Echo Mountain. They knew nothing of his plans,
but simply obeyed orders. When the grade was com
pleted he ordered ties laid, wide enough for three rails,
except midway up the incline, where a wider track
would be required for a short distance. While the
grading had been going on he had planned a three-
railed track, upon which two balanced cars should ride,
one ascending, the other, descending, with an auto
matic and fixed turnout in the centre, and this was now
put in place. A perfect hoisting machine had been
designed, which, as it revolved, gripped the inch and a

THADDEUS S. C. LOWE 431
half steel wke cable to which the two cars were built,
and thus the Great Cable Incline became an assured
fact, and for seventeen years it has been operated, with
out the stoppage of a single day, and without accident
or injury to any person whatsoever.
Still interested in his meteorological researches, Pro
fessor Lowe now secured and placed upon Echo
Mountain the largest search light in the world, intend
ing to use it for purposes of study of cloud movements
and wind currents. Then, a few hundred feet higher
up, he built and thoroughly equipped the Lowe Astro
nomical Observatory, which he placed under the charge
of the eminent astronomer, Dr. Lewis Swift, who has
discovered and recorded more nebulae than any other
astronomer since the Herschels.
To give to thousands the enjoyment of the expansive
view from Echo Mountain he built two fine hotels, the
Chalet, and Echo Mountain House, and here guests
were entertained and privileged to gaze upon one of the
most beautiful and varied scenes in the world, including
the orange, lemon and other orchards of the San Gabriel
Valley, with the score of towns and villages that dot its
surface, the mountains, foot-hills, further valleys, sea-
beach, islands and placid-faced ocean.
Now his genius determined to reach greater heights,
and the Alpine Division of the Mount Lowe railway
was cut out . of the solid granite mountain sides,
equipped and set in operation. This division opened
up to public enjoyment the great canyons of the Sierra
Madre and reached an elevation of five thousand feet
on the shoulders of the mountain that the officers

432 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
of the Geological Survey decided should be named
Mount Lowe. Here, another large, picturesque and
well-equipped hotel, Alpine Tavern, was erected, ih
the heart of a forest of pines, spruces and sycamores.
From this point it was Professor Lowe's intention
to extend the railway about three more miles, to the
summit of Mount Lowe, six thousand one hundred
feet above sea-level, where another hotel, built of the
solid granite of which the mountain itself is composed,
would have been erected. He also expected to estab
lish an institution for the furtherance of pure and com
mercial science, parts of which would have been an
other astronomical observatory, with the largest tele
scope which could be made, and a chemical laboratory
equipped fully for every department of analytical and
experimental work. Then, over the deep and mile wide
canyon separating Mount Lowe from the San Gabriel
(or Observatory) peak, a swinging cable railway was
planned. Timid and doubtful people could not realize
that such a railway is both practical and safe. From
suggestions and plans furnished by Professor Lowe
several of such aerial railways are now in successful
operation. Perhaps the most wonderful of them all is in
California, plying over the great canyon of the American
River, which passengers on the Central Pacific Railway
will remember as the abyss they gaze into as the
trains round Cape Horn. Here, cars loaded with logs,
weighing scores of tons, are hourly swung across the
canyon, where trains are made up and the logs drawn
to the saw-mill. The empty cars are returned by the
same method.

THE GREAT INCLINE ON THE MOUNT LOWE RAILWAY.

Page 432

CIRCULAR BRIDGE ON THE MOUNT LOWE RAILWAY OVERLOOKING PASADENA AND
THE SAN GABRIEL VALLEY. Page 434

THADDEUS S. C. LOWE 433
These latter plans, however, were arrested by the
financial panic of 1893, at which time Professor Lowe
relinquished control of the railway.
Since then he has devoted himself to the perfect
ing of another great invention, now successfully
installed in a working plant and more than fulfill
ing his most sanguine expectations. By means of
this plant he takes the heavy crude petroleums
and refines them for practical uses. Thkty-five
per cent of the crude oil is thus made to pay the
original cost of the whole amount and the working
expenses of the refining process. The residue is now
made to yield an amount of asphaltum which more
than again pays the original cost of the whole
amount of oil. In the processes of refining, large
amounts of tar and lamp-black are extracted, and
these have hitherto been regarded as almost worth
less. By this new process a mixture of these worth
less by-products is converted, in nineteen hours, to
the most hard, solid and perfect metallurgical coke
known. Here then is one plant performing three
successive operations with the same crude product (in
different stages of manipulation), each one of which
pays the whole cost of the operations and of the original
product, viz., refining the oil, the making of asphaltum,
and the production of coke. But in these various
processes another product of great value has been
generated in vast quantity. To produce the results
aforementioned a terrific heat has had to be created
and maintained. At this great temperature not only
are the gases in the oil decomposed, but also the gases

434 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
of the water that is injected into the ovens. These gases
are collected, forced through a washer which retains
the heavy carbons, known as lamp-black, and through
the scrubber, which removes the tar. They are then
condensed and purified and thus become the purest
and best of illuminating and fuel gas ready for distribu
tion through mains and pipes to the various consumers
of a large or small city. The gas is thus practically
a free gift to the operators of the plant.
But this is only a part of the story. In all coke-
oven systems and other similar plants, where immense
heat must be secured and maintained, it has been found
impossible hitherto to prevent a large loss of heat
through the flues and chimneys necessary for the draft,
without which the heat could not be obtained. By an
ingenious, practical and thoroughly well-tested system,
Professor Lowe has now arrested this loss of heat, and
turns it to good account by generating steam which
operates large engines, produces electric power, runs
an ice-making and also a refrigerating plant, and also
gives to the operators a large amount of steam and
electric power for sale.
By means, therefore, of this plant, a large or small
city can make its own hard fuel (Lowe anthracite coke),
asphaltum, ice, refrigeration and gas, and supply all the
steam and electric power needed, and the whole thing
be run under one management, under one roof and at
one expense.
Hence, in looking over this one man's life, we find
he has invented and given to the world the following
beneficial and useful inventions and institutions.

THADDEUS S. C. LOWE 435
1. The use of balloons during war for observations
upon the movements of the enemy.
2. Artificial refrigeration of steamships, and rail
way cars for the transportation of perishable food
products. 3. Artificial Ice.
4. Cheaper and better illuminating gas.
5. The Mount Lowe Railway.
6. The Lowe Observatory.
7. A later invention, which reduces the cost of
illuminating and fuel gas to the minimum.
Is it any wonder then, that, in his native village of
Jefferson Mills (now Riverton, New Hampshke) his
seventy-fifth bkthday was made the occasion of a
wonderful demonstration in his honor. The selectmen
and citizens of the town extended invitations to the
whole countryside, and on August 20, 1907, a salute of
seventy-five guns was fired from a battery under
the control of the veterans of Lancaster and neigh
boring cities. After appropriate exercises, when a
great flag, twenty by thkty feet, sent by Professor
Lowe, was presented to the town, and raised upon
the newly erected flagpole, the enthusiasm was
immense among the many thousands who were as
sembled. Thus New Hampshke royally honored
its distinguished native son. Though a native of
New Hampshke, Professor Lowe is essentially a
Californian in spirit. For over twenty years he has
made it his own State. His noble and cultured
wife, who, as a scientist, is almost as well-known
as her husband, has borne him thkteen sons and

436 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
daughters, nine of whom are still living. He is
many times a grandparent and his sons are markedly
men of affaks.
Favored with opportunities to know Professor Lowe
and his work in most intimate fashion, I regard him as
one of the world's great heroes. His chief character
istic has been and is a deske to benefit and bless the
common man. He is now working upon plans for an
airship outlined while he soared in the upper ak
during his balloon experiences in war times. Were
he thkty or even twenty years younger, one might
well prophecy that in six months he would be roam
ing from one capital of the world to another, travel
ing at will in the upper heavens, carrying not one or
two solitary passengers, but taking twenty, thkty or
more, in as great comfort as is now enjoyed by pas
sengers on the most palatially-appointed trains, and
with less risk of accident.
A hero of war, he has been no less a hero of peace, and
in the years to come his fame will increase as the world
becomes better acquainted with his beneficent achieve
ments.

CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE RECLAMATION HEROES OF THE COLORADO
DESERT, — WOZENCRAFT, ROCKWOOD AND CHAFFEY
** I VHERE have been few changes in California —
-*- that landof remarkadleand wonderful changes —
so remarkable and wonderful as that which, in less than
a single decade, has changed a portion of the arid,
desolate, awe-inspking solitudes and wastes of the
Colorado Desert into a great empke, forming a new
county, proudly bearing the suggestive name — Im
perial. In other chapters the marvels of krigation have
been presented, but there is nothing in the whole
history of the subject that deals with such dramatic
changes as those that concern the Colorado Desert
and Imperial County.
A few hundred years ago this desert was an arm
of the Gulf of California. Let the reader glance at a
good map of Cafifornia and endeavor to see the salt
waters of this gulf extending northward to the San
Bernardino range of mountains and covering all the
country now occupied by Yuma, Imperial, etc., up to
Indio and Palm Springs. Tfie beaches of the gulf
shore line are still in evidence, and may be followed for
hundreds of miles.
The Colorado River was the instrument that changed
this arm of the sea into a desert. Every year it brought

438 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
down millions of tons of sand, silt and rock-debris in its
swkling and swiftly flowing waters and ejected them
from its mouth to settle and sink and slowly fill up
the contiguous sea-bottom. In one year recently, scien
tific calculations were made, and it was found that,
in that short time, about one hundred and twenty mil
lions of tons of sand and silt were thus carried in solu
tion and suspension by the Colorado River; and this did
not take into account the small rocks and pebbles that
were rolled along on its bottom. With this suggestive
fact as a basis of calculation, the mind soon staggers
under the burden of figuring what ten, twenty, fifty
centuries have accomplished. Millions of millions of
tons removed bodily by the storms, cataclysms, world-
making throes from the plateaus of Wyoming, Utah,
Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona to be redeposited in
the bed of the gulf, and thus build up new land for
the occupancy of man in ages yet to come.
This is the process, and it is even now being carried
on. The mouth of the Colorado each year is slowly
being forced further south, the body — the banks —
of the river being elongated to correspond to the south
ward movement of the mouth.
In leaving the country high and dry, however, certain
singular conditions were brought about. For instance,
a little below where Yuma is now located, the river made
a sudden bend to the west. The result was it ejected its
sand and silt transversely across the gulf to the great
mountain range, which rose abruptly from the waters
and formed the backbone of the peninsula of Lower
California. In course of time, this portion of the gulf

THE RECLAMATION HEROES 439
was so filled up that at low water one could walk across
the ridge formed by the deposits from Yuma to the
mountains. This detached the portion of the gulf above
this ridge from the main body, and thus made an
inland salt lake, that reached up to the foot of the San
Bernardino range to the north. Little by little, this
lake filled up and evaporated, until, in the course of
many years, it became dry land, only a small part of it
remaining below sea-level.
Thus it was when the eyes of the white man first
saw it. When Melchior Diaz and Juan de Onate —
old Spanish explorers — gazed upon it, they doubtless
expressed the feeling of countless later thousands when
they declared it " God-forsaken." So, too, undoubtedly
felt Captain Juan Bautista de Anza, who conquered its
tracklessness and took the colonists for the soon-to-be-
founded San Francisco over its sun-scorched horrors.
But fifty years ago a man of vision saw it. His eyes
closed, and he looked fifty years — a hundred —
ahead, and dreamed the dreams that such men often
dream, while the prosaic and wide-awake world looks
on and calls them " impractical fools." Then this
dreamer began to set in motion the wheels that he
hoped might help to make his dream come into the realm
of the practical. He appealed to the State legislature
and received a grant of all the State's interest in the
lands named. The State legislature also instructed
California representatives and senators in Congress to
support a bill granting sixteen hundred square miles
to him and his associates in consideration of thek
reclaiming the same by means of water diverted from

440 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
the Colorado River. The House Committee on Public
Lands, in reporting favorably on this bill, said in part :
" This tract embraces (according to Lieutenant
Brigland) about sixteen hundred square miles in the
basin of what is now and must remain, until an ener
getic and expensive system of reclamation is inaugu
rated, and brought to successful completion, a valueless
and horrible desert. . . .
" From the report of the several reconnoitering parties
sent out by the government, from United States sur
veyors who have made extended government surveys
over it, and from the reports of army officers, who have
frequently traversed it, comes the concurrent and uni
versal testimony of its utter aridity and barrenness."
This dreamer was Dr. O. M. Wozencraft, of San
Bernardino, California, and his plan was to take the
stream that had made the desert and compel it to
nourish and sustain the desert by krigation, until it
would fulfil the Biblical prophecy and blossom as the
rose. This gentleman was a practising physician of
culture and refinement, for a while the Indian agent
of Southern California, who died in the nineties hon
ored and respected. His great desert plan, however,
while gaining the sanction of Congress, was swept aside
by the turmoil of the Civil War, and it was left for
others to carry it to ultimate success.
In 1892, John C. Beatty, a company promoter, and
described as " of the Colonel Sellers type of man," took
up the project and formed the Colorado River Irriga
tion Company, securing the services of Mr. C. R.
Rockwood as engineer to make surveys and report

THE RECLAMATION HEROES 441
on the feasibility of the undertaking. Rockwood made
surveys in 1892 -1893 from a proposed heading on the
Colorado River known as Pot Holes, situated about
twelve miles north of Yuma, and a mile below the spot
where the United States Reclamation Service has since
built the great Laguna Dam. Beatty interested a large
number of people, from a member of the Cabinet
to hotel bell boys, in purchasing the stock of his com
pany, but no actual construction work of any kind
was done.
For three years Beatty struggled, then practically
abandoned the project. But Rockwood had now
become interested, and he determined to try to carry it
through to success. He organized a company, with
the aid of others, and continued to endeavor to interest
capital to carry it through to completion.
But to most men it seemed too chimerical, too prob
lematic, too risky, to venture large sums of money
upon. " Capital " is always conservative, unless it
is practically assured of large and certain return.
And gigantic schemes of this nature never would be
carried out, unless there were a few men in the world
who have, in addition to the poet's vision, sufficient
capital to enable them to carry out thek plans.
Such a man was now found to actualize what others
had dreamed about, in the person of George Chaffey,
a Canadian, born in the year of the California gold ex
citement (1848), whose experiences especially fitted
him for just such a work. Mr. Chaffey was a practical
engineer — one who had actually done things, who had
come to Southern California in 1880, and the following

442 • HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
year had purchased one of the old Spanish ranches
a few miles from San Bernardino. With his brother,
W. B. Chaffey, he constructed a water system, which
brought the water from the near-by mountain canyon
and conveyed it to the ten-acre lots into which he sub
divided the land. These watered lots were then sold
to settlers, and the town of Etiwanda started. This
was one of the first of the settlements of Southern Cali
fornia that have since changed the country from a vast
cattle ranch into contiguous groups of successful fruit
farms. Etiwanda was such an instantaneous success that
the following year the Chaffey brothers purchased a
portion of the old Cucamonga Rancho; subdivided it
as before; named it Ontario, after thek native prov
ince; and placed it on the market.
In the meanwhile he had done other useful public
services, which it is not out of place to mention here.
Fkst, in far-reaching importance, was the perfecting,
in association with Mr. L. M. Holt of Riverside, of the
mutual-company system of water distribution, which
has since formed the basis of all methods. Hitherto
each land-owner claimed a certain amount of water
from a certain stream or supply. If a ditch had to be
constructed, all he cared about was to see that the
water, in sufficient quantity, reached his land. In
early days, when there were few claimants for water,
this plan was fakly successful, but when a hundred
claimants were clamoring for water, and found its use
imperative to make thek lands cultivable and preserve
thek newly planted orange and lemon trees alive, some

THE RECLAMATION HEROES 443
more generally efficient system was found necessary.
For it can readily be seen that if there were, say, forty
claimants to the water, those that were near to the
source, or to the distributing ditch, would have a great
advantage over the others who were further away.
If the first class received all the water their lands needed,
they would not be apt to care very much about those
of the second class. Hence, if the ditch banks broke, or
the service was in any way impeded, it became a case
of each man caring for himself and the " de'il caring
for the hindermost."
By the mutual method devised and put into practical
operation by Messrs. Chaffey and Holt at Etiwanda
and Ontario, the company as a whole became respon
sible for the distribution of water to the lands of the
most remote and inaccessible as well as to those near by.
In that same year of 1882, Mr. Chaffey started the
first electric light plant run by water power in Southern
California, and also installed an electric light system
in Los Angeles, making that city the first municipality
in the United States exclusively lighted by electricity.
Some of the high masts then erected by Mr. Chaffey
are still standing in Los Angeles, shedding thek light
over the new conditions as they did thkty years ago
over the old.
These things are referred to as showing the active
and practical bent of Mr. Chaffey's mind and his
ability to seize upon the unapplied forces of nature and
utilize them for man's benefit.
Ontario grew rapidly. Euclid Avenue — a magnifi
cent road that stretched across the entke valley —

444 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
was planted out, a college endowed and started, and
another innovation, the first tunnel for water, was con
structed under the bed of San Antonio Canyon to tap
the underground flow of water which was found to exist.
This was another idea that has revolutionized the con
servation of water in Southern California, such towns
as Pasadena securing the major portion of thek water-
supply by this tunneling method. Ontario was soon
covered with a system of cement and kon pipes for the
delivery of water, so that krigation could be system
atized and thorough, and thus render fruit culture
independent of rainfall.
Such thorough and practical work soon made On
tario known as the " model colony." Its success was
heralded far and wide. It barred out saloons and fos
tered only the progressive and helpful, and when, in
1904, the United States government wished to exhibit
to the world what it regarded as a model colony, On
tario was the one selected. Hundreds of thousands of
people saw that model exhibit, and saw the concrete
results of Mr. Chaffey's foresight, skill and practical
endeavor. But he was not yet prepared to undertake the great
task Dr. Wozencraft had in mind. Though the " vi
sionary " urged him to take it in hand, it, as yet, seemed
utterly impracticable. So, as if in unconscious working
out to an unseen and divine plan, in 1885, a royal com
mission appointed by the government of Victoria,
Australia, visited California for the purpose of studying
and reporting on krigation methods. In due time they
reached Etiwanda and Ontario, and came in touch

THE RECLAMATION HEROES 445
with Mr. Chaffey. They were so impressed with what
they saw, and the man who had been chiefly instru
mental in achieving it, that they immediately made
arrangements with him and his brother to under
take certain reclamation projects by krigation in
Australia. The history of the colonies of Mildura
in Victoria, and Renmark in South Australia, read like
a faky tale, which I should much like to recount in
these pages, but which can only briefly be touched
upon because they gave to Mr. Chaffey the personal
experience of the perfect practicability of reclaiming
desert land in the hottest kind of a climate, which led
him ultimately to revise his earlier adverse decision
about tfie reclamation of the lands of the Colorado
Desert. Riches and honor in full measure were assured to
him in this land of his latest endeavor, had he cared
to remain, but the allurements of his beloved California
were too great to be long resisted, and as soon as he
saw the early fruition of his labors in Australia and
found his brother willing to superintend them, he
returned to the Golden State.
Now he was ready for the greatest achievement of
all. Mr. Rockwood and his associates were almost in
despair. Financiers fought shy of thek plan because
of the great initial expense, and the altogether unprom
ising appearance of the land to be reclaimed. All the
surveys and estimates hitherto made had placed the
first cost of the canals at not less than one million
dollars, and it seemed a hopeless task to raise so large
a sum. At last Mr. Chaffey was appealed to by Messrs.

446 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Rockwood and Ferguson, as twenty years before he
had been called upon by Dr. Wozencraft. But now
his eyes were opened. He made a thorough examina
tion of the water supply and the soil of the desert,
taking into consideration all the physical and climatic
conditions. He now saw the merit of the proposition,
and his mind leaped to the gigantic nature of the task.
He threw himself, soul and body, into its accomplish
ment. At the outset he determined to abandon all the
surveys that had hitherto been made and follow a
new line which he saw was feasible. Given a free hand,
with characteristic push and energy, guided by his
large experience, he went to work. Morning, noon
and night he was personally in the field, dkecting
operations and seeing that they were carried out
as he desired. Thus the heading was built and
the main canal constructed. Yonder in the desert
Mr. Rockwood was surveying laterals, distributing
canals, and getting them dug ready for the water that
Mr. Chaffey promised in a few months. In May, 1901,
water was on the desert. Settlers began to pour in.
The land was government land, free, or nearly so, for
the taking, by those who were willing actually to live
upon it. The water only was charged for, and a number
of mutual-water companies were organized, each to
control its own district, and each to have a certain
amount of responsibility and control of the parent
company which supplied water to them all. But all
did not go with proverbial smoothness. And, while it
is not my purpose to enter into any dispute or argument,
it does seem to me necessary to a clear understanding

ALPINE TAVERN, MOUNT LOWE.

Page 434

A CAMP OF DITCH-MAKERS IN IMPERIAL VALLEY, igoi. Page 450

EGYPTIAN CORN, IMPERIAL VALLEY, IN 1907.

Page 451

THE RECLAMATION HEROES 447
of Chaffey's heroic character that I state a few of the
extra difficulties he had to overcome in addition to those
necessarily incident to his great undertaking.
When Mr. Chaffey contracted to construct the head
ing and canals, and supply water to the Imperial
Valley (Colorado Desert) lands, he was made president
of the California Development Company, and given full
control; both of the company's finances and its engi
neering. But the books of the company were in New
York, and he was not fully aware of the actual condi
tion of affahs as was later revealed.
At this time he was under the impression — which
his contract clearly justifies — that the company owned
one hundred thousand acres of land in Mexico, through
which the water alone could be conveyed to the dis
tributing canals in the Imperial Valley, and also owned
an option for the purchase of the necessary land at the
site chosen for the heading on the Colorado River, where
it was now determined to divert the water. The con
trol or ownership of these two pieces of property was the
key to the situation, and supposing that the company
controlled them, Chaffey began work and called for
settlers to come and take the land he would soon make
valuable. Realizing what he had done at Etiwanda,
Ontario, Mildura and Renmark, many people came
and took up land, actually preparing to settle upon it
and cultivate it as soon as the water commenced to
flow. Then, to his chagrin, Chaffey found that his
company did not own the Mexican land, that the option
had expked on the land needful for the Colorado River
heading, and also that the Attorney General of New

448 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Jersey had commenced suit against the company
for the annulment of its charter on the ground that it
had not paid its annual tax. That, in fact, the Cali
fornia Development Company was in a moribund
condition, on the verge of legal dissolution, and that all
connected were on the point of abandoning it to its fate.
A weaker man would have thrown up his contract
and washed his hands of the whole affak. But not so
Chaffey. On the strength of his representations and
because of his reputation for honorable dealing and
accomplishment of his undertakings, innocent men
and women had invested thek little all and made the
great move of thek lives upon the Imperial lands.
He practically began at the beginning again — secured
the Mexican lands and the land for the head-gates
on the Colorado River by actual purchase, and freed
the charter from jeopardy by payment of the unpaid
taxes, thus putting the company upon a sound finan
cial basis. He also accepted a burden of liabilities
to the amount of four hundred thousand dollars,
principally in the form of script, interchangeable for
water rights at its face value, which had been dis
posed of by the earlier promoters of the company at
a ridiculously small percentage, every cent of which
had been swallowed up in promotion expenses. Not
a spadeful of earth had been turned, or any other
work done, save the making of the surveys some
of which he had been compelled to abandon on ac
count of the prohibitive expense of carrying them out.
These were some of the difficulties that Mr. Chaffey
overcame. The water was given to the Imperial Valley

THE RECLAMATION HEROES 449
and its reign begun. With his later relationship to the
project it is not necessary here to speak.
But a few words must be said descriptive of the
County of Imperial, which is made up entkely of this
land, that less than ten years ago was vkgin desert.
The new county was formed in 1906. It is practi
cally the whole western end of what was San Diego
County, and embraces an area of four thousand square
miles. As akeady shown it is a part of the great basin
into which the sand and silt of the Colorado River was
emptied for centuries, hence is composed of a soil whose
richness, fertility and depth no man can estimate. And
as if to provide for all future ages the Colorado River
— the Nile of America — continues to bring down in its
waters rich fertilizers, which the government experts
claim have a market value of about $3.50 per acre
foot. As the actual cost of the water to ranchers, for
krigation purposes, is about fifty cents an acre, the
value of the river to the settler can well be understood.
It may be stated without fear of contradiction, that
the Imperial Valley is one of the fertile spots of the
world. There is scarcely anything that can be grown
anywhere that does not thrive and do well here. Even
bananas and dates — ¦ those fruits that requke great
heat to ripen them, and plenty of water to soak their
tree roots — do remarkably well, and such crops as
sweet potatoes, Bermuda onions, Smyrna figs and canta
loupes are already bringing large returns. Kaffir,
Indian and Egyptian corn, sorghum, and alfalfa are
raised, not by the hundreds of acres, but by the hun
dreds of thousands of acres, as feed for stock. Alfalfa

450 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
regularly gives from six to nine crops annually, and
yields from a ton to a ton and a half at a cutting.
Grapes, oranges, and all citrus fruits, as well as apri
cots,, peaches, and other deciduous fruits, thrive as well
as in any part of California, and scores of car loads,
both green and dried, are shipped frora the valley every
season. Last year, 1909, a successful experimental
farmer had one thousand acres of cotton come to
maturity, and after thorough testing it is found to be of
the finest quality the United States has yet produced.
Among some of the finest samples is one grown from
Egyptian seed, which repeated experiments have dem
onstrated will not grow in the South. Here it has de
veloped even better than in its original habitat, and
large quantities are akeady planted for next season.
The close proximity of the Imperial Valley to San
Diego and Los Angeles renders transportation and
sale of all its commodities comparatively easy, and,
as there are satisfactory indications that the oil field —
which has revolutionized the fuel and manufacturing
problems of Southern California — extends into the
Colorado Desert and practically surrounds Imperial
County, it is a reasonably safe prophecy that ere long
mills will be established in the very heart of the new
cotton belt and thus use up the product on the spot.
The growth of this remarkable young county — al
ready full-fledged, powerful, thriving and with a recog
nized influence — is no less a testimony to the heroic
work of George Chaffey than to the foresight of Dr.
Wozencraft and the persistent promotion of C. R.
Rockwood.

CHAPTER XXXIX
THE POET HERO FOR HUMANITY, EDWIN
MARKHAM
/_I-VHE world has ever honored the bravery of the
-*- warrior. Its plaudits and favors have been show
ered upon those it has been pleased to call its " heroes."
Indeed so wedded has heroism become with militarism
in the minds of the masses that if one speaks of a hero
he is almost immediately asked: What battle did he
fight? What victory did he win?
Yet, while physical courage should be commended,
it is only the lowest order of which man — the living
soul — is capable, — there is mental courage, and,
higher still, spkitual courage. It is of this latter quality
that Edwin Markham in writing and publishing his
poem, The Man with the Hoe, gives us a noteworthy
example. At the time this poem was published, Mark
ham was the principal of a grammar school in Oakland.
He had worked his own way up from the plow and the
forge to an honored position in one of California's
largest cities. Naturally he was ambitious, and his
poetic gifts were slowly coming to be recognized. Being
a man of discernment, he knew full well that those who
have favors, wealth and patronage to distribute do not
like to be criticized, and they resent any attack made
upon the manner in which they have gained thek

452 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
wealth, or the system under which they live that has
made its accumulation possible. Hence he was aware
that if, in any way, he attacked, or even seemed to
attack, the wealthy and thek methods of gaining
wealth, he would become a strong candidate for thek
disfavor and a dkect object for thek disapproval and
rejection. If, in addition to attacking the present
selfish method of accumulating great fortunes, he took
up the cause, and allied himself with those who were
trodden under foot by the inordinately rich, he would
add insult to offense and put himself decidedly beyond
the pale of those who could confer large and deskable
favors. To do this requked a pure soul, a clear vision and
manly courage, and these qualities I claim for Edwin
Markham in the writing and publishing of
"THE MAN WITH THE HOE"1
'' God made man in His own image,
in the image of God made He him." — Genesis.
Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world.
Who made him dead to rapture and despair,
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes,
Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?
Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw?
Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow?
Whose breath blew out the light within this brain?
Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave
To have dominion over sea and land;
1 Reprinted by kind permission of Mr. Markham and his pub
lishers, McClure and Co., New York.

Reproduced by permission.

Copyright, 190IS, by A. E. Bradley.
EDWIN MARKHAM. Page 453

PLAYA

OR BED OF A DRY LAKE IN THE COLORADO DESERT. Page ^52

A BEET FIELD IN IMPERIAL VALLEY, IOO7.

Page #?

EDWIN MARKHAM 453
To trace the stars and search the heavens for power;
To feel the passion of Eternity?
Is this the Dream He dreamed who shaped the suns
And marked their ways upon the ancient deep?
Down all the stretch of Hell to its last gulf
There is no shape more terrible than this —
More tongued with censure of the world's blind greed —
More filled with signs and portents for the soul —
More fraught with menace to the universe.
What gulfs between him and ithe seraphim!
Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him
Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades?
What the long reaches of the peaks of song,
The rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose?
Through this dread shape the suffering ages look;
Time's tragedy is in that aching stoop;
Through this dread shape humanity betrayed,
Plundered, profaned and disinherited,
Cries protest to the Judges of the World,
A protest that is also prophecy.
O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,
Is this the handiwork you give to God,
This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched?
How will you ever straighten up this shape;
Touch it again with immortality;
Give back the upward looking and the light;
Rebuild in it the music and the dream;
Make right the immemorial infamies,
Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes?
O masters lords and rulers in all lands,
How will the Future reckon with this Man?
How answer his brute question in that hour
When whirlwinds of rebellion shake the world?
How will it be with kingdoms and with kings —
With those who shaped him to the thing he is —
When this dumb Terror shall reply to God
After ithe silence of the centuries?

454 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Immediately on its publication the fierce fires of
controversy and condemnation began to rage. Mark
ham was bitterly assailed and the assertion made that
his poem was an insult to labor. He finally made reply,
and from this reply I cull the following.
After showing that his poem does not refer to all
farm-toilers and laborers, those who are well-paid,
happy and contented, those who know the poetry of the
farm, he tells of his own boyhood experiences and then
continues :
" These things are deep and sweet in memory, but
I know also the prose of the farm. I know the hard,
endless work in the hot sun, the chilling rain; I know
the fight against the Death-clutch reaching to take the
home when crops have failed or prices fallen. I know
the loneliness of the stretching plain, with the whkl of
the dust underfoot and the whkl of the hawk overhead.
I know the dull sense of hopelessness that beats upon
the heart in that monotonous drudgery that leads no
where, that has no light ahead.
" Fourteen years ago "(this was written in 1900), " I
came upon a small print of Millet's picture of The
Hoeman; and it at once struck my heart and my im
agination. It was then that I jotted down the rough
'field notes ' of my poem. For years I kept the print
on my wall, and the pain of it in my heart. And then
(ten years ago) I chanced upon the original painting
itself. " For an hour I stood before the painting, absorbing
the majesty of its despak, the tremendous import of
its admonition. I stood there, the power and terror

EDWIN MARKHAM 455
of the thing growing upon my heart, the pity and the
sorrow of it eating into my soul. It came to me with a
dim echo of my own life — came with its pitiless pathos
and mournful grandeur.
" I soon realized that Millet puts before us no chance
toiler, no mere man of the fields. No; this stunned
and stolid peasant is the type of industrial oppression
in all lands and in all labors. He might be a man
with a needle in a New York sweat-shop, a man with
a pick in a West Vkginia coal-mine, a man with a hod
in a London alley, a man with a spade on the banks
of the Zuyder Zee.
" The Hoeman is the symbol of betrayed humanity,
the Toiler ground down through ages of oppression,
through ages of social injustice. He is the man pushed
away from the land by those who fail to use the land,
till at last he has become a serf, with no mind in his
muscle and no heart in his handiwork. He is the
man pushed back and shrunken up by the special
privileges conferred upon the Few.
" In the Hoeman we see the slow, sure, awful degra
dation of man through endless, hopeless, and joyless
labor. Did I say labor ? No — drudgery! This man's
battle with the world has been too brutal. He is not
going upward in step with the divine music of the
world. The motion of his life has been arrested, if not
actually reversed. He is a hulk of humanity, degraded
below the level of the roving savage, who has a step
of dignity, a tongue of eloquence. The Hoeman is
not a remnant of prehistoric times; he is not a relic of
barbarism. He is the savage of civilization.

456 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
" The Hoeman is the effigy of man, a being with
no outlet to his life, no uplift to his soul — a being with
no time to rest, no time to think, no time to pray, no
time for the mighty hopes that make us men.
" His battle has not been confined to his own life:
it extends backward in grim and shadowy outline
through his long train of ancestry. He was seen of
old among the brickmakers of Egypt, among the mil
lions who lifted wearily the walls of Ilium, who carved
the pillars of Karnak and paved the Appian Way.
He is seen to-day among the stooped, silent toilers
who build London and beautify her tombs and palaces.
" These were some of the memories and agitations
that pressed upon my soul as I stood in the presence
of this dread thing — the Accuser of the world. So I
was forced to utter the awe and grief of my spkit for
the ruined majesty of this son of God. So the poem
took shape. It sprang from my long purpose to speak
a word for the Humiliated and the Wronged. I have
borne my witness. It is said; it is truth; let it stand."
There you have the poet's own fearless declaration.
There are those who deny that any of humanity has
ever been wronged, but Markham saw with clearer
vision, and when he saw, he at once ranked himself
with all the power of his genius "on the side of the down
trodden, the lowly, the despised, the friendless. As
Joaquin Miller eloquently wrote of him: " Consider
what Markham put aside, as putting aside a crown,
to take his place with the poor and the despised.
Wealth (enough, at least), books and a great knowl
edge of books, high honors and the esteem of great

EDWIN MARKHAM 457
and good men; the love of men and the idolatry of
women. We scribes used to call him ' Jove ' in his
stately young prime when speaking of him, so majestic
was his presence. Yet he put it all by and became a
blacksmith, a mighty sledge in his strong right hand
to batter down the prison doors, and break the chains
of blind men in prison grinding at a mill."
He saw that some men were being forced by dke
necessity to work too hard, that other men might have
ease; they were not having any opportunity to think
of anything save the grinding toil of the field, the
foundry, the mill, the shop. So he voiced his protest
against such inhumanity and unbrotherliness. And how
the blows rang; how the kon struck fire; how the heat
burned and seared. The world felt the blows, and
men and women who had been asleep in thek own
selfish comfort and pampered luxury awoke to the
sorrows, sufferings and needless woes of others. His
dkect questions were sharp-pointed arrows that pene
trated the joints of the selfish armor of men.
It matters not what answer the lords and rulers
of the lands throughout all the ages give; what ex
cuses fall from thek ready tongues; what salves the
prophets of soft things apply to thek consciences;
there is no ignoring the fact that millions of human
beings to-day know none of the joys, the delights,
the blessings of mental and spkitual elevation and in
spkation. They have had no chance. They have
been kept too busy doing the hard work of the world,
and some day the query from the very lips of God will
startle the luxurious and selfish and greedy of this

458 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
world with the question asked in the earlier ages of
mankind: What hast thou done to thy brother?
Since his removal to the East other injustices to
the helpless, defenseless and championless have
aroused his indignation and led to his entering the
arena on their behalf. There are few things in
American literature more calculated to stk the heart
than his tremendous appeals for the working children
of our land. He made a personal study of child
labor in the factories, mills, work-shops, etc., through
out the country, and embodied the results, with all
the power of his genius and sympathetic humanity, in
a series of articles in the Cosmopolitan Magazine.
With the flaming Sword of Right and Justice he cut
away the glittering tinsels of sophistry and attempted
justification the " rulers of this world " wrapped
around their cruel inhumanity, and in clear and
trumpet tones called upon all true men, who believed
in the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of
Man, to come to the rescue of these helpless and out
raged little ones.
Only a man of spkitual power and intense reliance
upon the God of justice would have dared so openly
and so boldly to demand justice and love for his needy
and helpless brother.

CHAPTER XL
THE HONEST HERO OF THE FREE HARBOR, STEPHEN
M. WHITE
"\^OU will meet with the idea prevalent in the
-¦- world that a man has a right to be selfish, to
look at every proposition and ask : " What is there in
it for me ? " and that the acquisition of money is the
deskable thing. This is certainly a mistake. The men
who are regarded as moral heroes, even by selfish and
wicked men, are those who are unselfish and who ad
here to high and noble principle. Money is not the
test of success. Neither is fame. Yet when fame and
the honor and respect of the world come as the re
sult of fidelity to principle when seeming self-interest
beckoned into other paths, fame and honor and respect
alike are to be estimated as high rewards and valued
accordingly. These remarks find thek illustration in the career
of Stephen M. White, United States Senator from
California during the years 1893 to 1899. I would
that every young man and woman in the State might
read and know his history and some of his most power
ful speeches. Not only would they be fired thereby
to a higher zeal, a truer patriotism, a nobler principle,
but they would also acquke a knowledge of the battles
that a community often has to fight to gain its expressed
will, when opposed by persons or organizations that

46o HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
own or control large monetary power. It is well that
every future citizen of California should know how the
United States government came to spend millions of
dollars in the construction of a harbor at San Pedro,
and how near, at one time, it came to spending those
millions at Santa Monica. The history of that great
conflict is intimately woven into the life of Stephen
M. White. Here is what his biographer says of it:
" No record of this strong, brave man's career
would be complete without especial reference to his
tkeless and successful contest for the establishment
of a free harbor at the port of San Pedro on the coast
of Southern California. ... In all the history of
American legislation never was there made a more
bitter, relentless and uncompromising fight on both
sides. On one side the people,, knowing thek rights
and daring to maintain them, on the opposing side one
of the most powerful corporations on the Continent
led by one of the most adroit, capable and stubborn
of men. The corporation was the Southern Pacific
Company, of Kentucky — a corporation wholly Cali
fornian, and Kentuckian only in name; its intrepid
leader and president was Collis P. Huntington; the
leader in the people's cause was Stephen M. White,
United States Senator from California.
" Successive Boards of Engineers representing the
government of the United States had selected San
Pedro as the site for a deep-sea harbor, and the con
struction of a breakwater, whose cost would run into
the millions of dollars. Mr. Huntington, for reasons
sufficient unto himself, and probably apparent to every

EDWIN MARKHAM AT HIS COTTAGE, WHERE HE WROTE THE MAN WITH THE HOE,
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA. Page 458

THE WHARVES, INTERIOR OF SAN PEDRO HARBOR, LOS ANGELES, CAL.

STEPHEN M. WHITE 461
one having no more than a superficial knowledge of
the conditions surrounding the selection of a harbor site,
decided that the government must and should locate
the harbor several miles further up the coast at Santa
Monica in an (almost) open roadstead. Certain of the
examining board of engineers considered both sites, and
all of them who did so decided against the Santa Monica
proposition and in favor of San Pedro. But Collis
P. Huntington, with his powerful corporation behind
him, stood fast. The case seemed hopeless. The
forces of money, position, daring and determination
were in combination for the Santa Monica project.
On the other side stood the reports of honest and com
petent governmental engineers, the people — and
Stephen M. White.
" The battle was on. And how it raged for five long
years, no resident in the southern portion of California
is likely to forget. Doggedly, determinedly, bitterly,
Mr. Huntington and his powerful array of attorneys
hung to the cause of Santa Monica with the grip of tiger
jaws. Washington swarmed with lobbyists. Hunting
ton himself, went to the capital to appeal to Senators and
Representatives with the power of his millions and
the promises of the great things that could be accom
plished by his influence.
"As has been said, when Senator White entered
upon this task for the people, the case seemed hopeless
— the force on one side seemed so powerfully mighty,
that on the side of the people so pitifully weak.
" But the race is not always to the swift nor the
battle to the strong. The people won. Congress sup-

462 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
ported the reports of the engineers and made appropri
ation for the construction of a deep-sea harbor at San
Pedro. " Then there was a further contest in opposition to
the construction of the harbor, even after Congress had
definitely made a location thereof and authorized
and instructed the commencement of the work." The
Secretary of War, purely on his own responsibility,
" held up " the work. But he had Stephen M. White
to count with, and again the. people won. The War
Secretary was driven from the false position he had
assumed, and the contract was let.
" At this writing (June, 1903) the great harbor at
San Pedro is well along toward completion. And there
it will , remain forever a monument to the sagacity,
cleverness, adroitness, audacity, and unswerving loyalty
of Stephen M. White!
" During the pendency of that strenuous contest,
and upon the occasion of one of Mr. Huntington's
many visits to the national capital, the magnate of
many millions met Senator White at a hotel in which
they were mutual guests. One evening Mr. Huntington
requested Senator White to come to his rooms. The
story of that interview has been told by a writer in the
Los Angeles Times as related by Senator White him
self. Said the Senator in telling of some incidents
of the great harbor contest: 'He (Mr. Huntington)
asked if there was no way for us to get together on the
harbor business. I said that I did not see any way
to do so — that I did not think that he would give up,
and I knew I would not.

STEPHEN M. WHITE 463
" ' Said he (Mr. Huntington), " I don't see why. It
might be to your advantage not to be so set in your
opinion." I then said to him: " Mr. Huntington, if
that harbor were my personal possession, and you
wanted it, there would be an easy way for us to get
together and one or both of us make some money. But
as that harbor belongs to the people, and I am merely
holding it in trust for them, and have no right to give
it away, I do not see how we can come* to any under
standing." " ' "Certainly," said Mr. Huntington, " that is very
high moral ground to take, but a little quixotic. The
people will think no more of you in the end. Many
will think less of you." I said, " Mr. Huntington, I am
not taking your view of that matter either. It is my
own self-respect I am looking at now." So the matter
closed.' " After it was all over and the fight was won for the
people, the millionake came to the Senator, and in the
course of conversation said: ' White, I like and respect
you. You are almost always against me, but it is not
for what you can make out of us to come over. You
have a steadfast principle and you fight like a man, in
the open and with clean weapons. I cannot say that
of all the public men I have had to deal with.'
" The man who could wring that tribute from Collis
P. Huntington had won a greater victory than the mere
act of winning a contest for a cause of the people. It
was a tribute to manhood. It was a laurel wreath of
immortality, not because it came from a millionake, but
because it was an acknowledgment of honesty and

464 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
loyalty and of the respect those qualities must earn
from the most bitter and relentless opponent."
The concluding paragraphs of Mr. White's speech
in the United States Senate on this subject are well
worth pondering:
" The struggle which I have made here may seem
stubborn to some, but it is maintained in the conscious
ness and belief that I am acting for the public interest.
No demagogical appeal — notwithstanding intimations
to the contrary — has influenced or ever will influence
me. I have been able to maintain myself in my con
servative methods without condescending to belittle-
ments. I experience natural pride in my presence here,
but I would willingly sacrifice that honor rather than
yield my maturely formed judgment to any senseless
clamor, to threats or flattery, to condemnation or ap
plause, and I might say, Mr. President, that I would
rather be a lawyer whose word was as good as a rich
man's bond, and whose opinion upon an intricate
question of judicial science was valued by the master
minds of my profession, than to hold in my hand all the
honors that ever were won by appeals to the passions
or prejudices of men."

THE ATLANTIC FLEET SAILING INTO SAN PEDRO HARBOR, LOS ANGELES, CAL.

COMBINED HARVESTER AND THRASHER ON RANCH OF H. M.
KINNEY, IMPERIAL VALLEY. Page 452

ONE OF THE IRRIGATING DITCHES WHICH HAVE MADE THE
CHANGE IN THE IMPERIAL VALLEY. Page 473

CHAPTER XLI
THE EXECUTIVE HERO OF IRRIGATION, WILLIAM
ELLSWORTH SMYTHE
'fTT'E have seen, in a preceding chapter, the wonderful
» " effect of irrigation in certain localities, such as
the Imperial Valley and Riverside. We have seen the
barren, desolate, lizard-occupied rancho of La Jurupa,
and the sun-baked, thrice-heated, below-sea-level-area
of the Imperial Valley converted into rich, prosperous
and beautifully fertile regions by the wise introduction
of water. But the problems of irrigation are many
and various, and those who have educated the people
to a proper understanding of the possibilities existent
in this method of farming, have had to do, at the same
time, a large amount of studying and experimenting
to rightly use it to the best advantage. The educators
of the people in irrigation, therefore, have had to be
pioneers, — pioneers of peace, happiness, home-mak
ing, content for men, women and children. It is an
honored and blessed occupation to show a struggling
man how he may make a comfortable home without
struggle, with nothing but ordinary and reasonable
labor. It is a power to be thankful for, to be able to take
men from the ranks of the hopeless and place them
where happiness and peace again smile upon them.
Why should not a man who can do this be regarded

466 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
and acclaimed as a hero, a real hero, as much as the
man who guides a number of his fellowmen on a
slaughtering expedition? Why should not a man who
leads such a forlorn hope as this, and who brings the
joy of content to thousands, be hailed as a hero as
well as he who leads the volunteers to the forlorn hope
of the battle-field?
Such a hero is William Ellsworth Smythe, one of the
generals (if we must have military terms) of the Irri
gation Movement. The history of this movement
reads like a faky tale. All the elements of marvel
are in it, with the " lived happy ever after " at the
end, applying itself actually to millions of lives. In
America it practically began with the work of Major
J. W. Powell, a hero of the highest type, the subject
of a chapter elsewhere in this book. His was the pro
phetic eye, the large vision, the devotion of misunder
stood work for the general benefit of humanity. But
he was a careful scientist, though a far-seeing humani
tarian, and a long-visioned prophet. As the Dkector
of the United States Geological Survey he was able
to make a thorough study of conditions throughout
the arid West, and pave the way for the accomplish
ment of the dream he had dreamed. Rudely outlined,
his plan contemplated the securing by the national
Government of all the natural sites for vast reservohs,
the scientific impounding of waste waters of streams,
springs and rainfall, the conveying of this water in the
most effective manner to the soil of the arid regions
that was practically worthless without it, the establish
ment of experimental farms in the different localities,

WILLIAM E. SMYTHE 467
so that experts could guide settlers in thek choice of
crops, and then the calling of the people to occupy
the lands, make thek homes upon them, become actual
owners of the soil, tillers of it, and thus develop hith
erto useless territory into powerful and prosperous
communities. But to accomplish all this work requked several
important preliminaries. The cost would be enormous.
How was it to be met ? The legislators who handle the
money of the nation do not always see with the far-
seeing eye of the keen-brained scientist. They, there
fore, must not only be educated, but the people must
also be educated to see the possibilities — nay, the
absolute certainties of the project — or they would
condemn the wholesale expenditures requked to bring
them to pass.
Here is where the hero volunteered, and sprang into
the breach. Here is where the standard bearer raised
the flag on high, shouted Follow me! and daringly
rushed to the battle. And it is no mere figure of speech
to use such words. It was — if not a forlorn hope — :
a gigantic task to educate the people; it was an
onslaught upon ignorance and prejudice. It was a
philanthropic campaign that only a generous-hearted,
clear-brained, impulsive-souled volunteer could have
undertaken and carried to success. If a cold-blooded
man had stepped forward and undertaken the work,
it would never have been done. It requked fervor, en
thusiasm and verve to insphe the people with faith,
to convince them of the possibilities, and lead them to
deske to enjoy them.

468 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
William Ellsworth Smythe was the man, prepared
of God, for this especial work. Born in Worcester,
Massachusetts, December 24, 1861, he missed, only
by one day, being the Christmas gift of blessing to his
parents, which he has since become to his race and
people. He has been, indeed, a messenger of peace and
glad tidings to many. When he was about twelve
years old his father suffered one of those financial
reverses that seem to be great adversities and burdens
at the time, but that later developments show to have
been great blessings in disguise. Mr. Smythe, Senior,
was a wealthy manufacturer, of Pilgrim and Revolu
tionary stock, and had he not met with this reverse,
there is no doubt but that his son would have grown up
in the easy ckcumstances and consequently easy life
of many another son of equally well-to-do parents.
At sixteen the growing lad had to leave the home nest,
and cast about for the future. He had just read Par-
ton's Life of Greeley, and was crammed full of " Old
Horace," his enthusiasm for agriculture, for the West,
his broad humanitarianism, bordering upon socialism,
and was fired with his presentation of Fourierism and
the new institutions of benefit and blessings to be de
rived from the building up of colonies. It would be
interesting to the world that is to-day reaping the
benefit of Mr. Smythe's active life could all the subtle,
and at the same time powerful, influence of that book
of Parton's be made manifest. It is self-evident to the
outsider that to this day he is pouring out through
his own mental filter the ideas poured into it in those
days of his boyhood. Indeed, I make the bold assertion

WILLIAM E. SMYTHE 469
that had Horace Greeley lived a generation later, in
Smythe's envkonment, he would have undertaken
exactly the same work that Smythe has done.
In due time Smythe heeded the great journalist's
advice, and came West. After an unsuccessful attempt
at book-publishing, he set his face westward, and in
1888, when he was twenty-seven years old, settled
at Kearney, Nebraska, which was being boomed by
a New England syndicate, and for two years edited
the daily paper they established. Here was the be
ginning of his education for his larger work. The
bottom dropped out of the boom and he went to the
Omaha Bee. While there he felt the full, dke, awful
force of the Great Drought of 1890.
Only those who have actually seen and felt it can
know the terrible calamity a drought is in these Western
regions. The Eastern mind cannot conceive it. Where
rain falls abundantly and grass is always green, there
is no comprehension of the entkely different condi
tions of the West. Panic speedily entered the hearts
of thousands. The drought spelled absolute ruin.
There was no hope. Starvation for themselves and
families drove some men to insanity, others to suicide.
Now was the time for the launching of the krigation
movement. • Despak would compel attention, and
enthusiasm combined with reason would inspke new
hope. Let Mr. Smythe tell his own story from a
chapter of his book, entitled The Conquest of Arid
America. " In 1890 I was an editorial writer on the Omaha
Bee, under that strong and able leader of Nebraska

470 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA i
public opinion, Edward Rosewater. During the pre
vious summer I had made a brief trip to the Maxwell
land grant in New Mexico, and for the fkst time saw
men engaged in turning water upon land to make good
the deficiencies of rainfall. I suppose I had heard or
read the word ' krigation,' though I have no recollec
tion of it. Certainly, the word meant nothing to me
until the drought struck Nebraska a year later. Then
the thought occurred to me that the several fine streams
flowing through the State might be employed to excel
lent advantage. Men were shooting thek horses and
abandoning thek farms, within sight of these streams.
There were the soil, the sunshine, and the waters, but
the people did not understand the secret of prosperity,
even with such broad hints before thek eyes.
" I thought of the thrkty orchards and gardens
I had seen on the Las Animas and the Vermejo, a
few hundred miles farther southwest, and when Mr.
Rosewater dkected me to write editorials urging the
public to contribute money, food and seed for the
drought-stricken farmers of Nebraska, I suggested
that these should be supplemented by a series of papers
dealing with the possibilities of krigation. He gave
me permission to do so, on condition that I would sign
the articles myself, as it was then considered little less
than a libel to say that krigation was needed in that
part of the country.
" How many lives those articles influenced, or are
even yet to influence through the forces they set in
motion, I do not know; but they changed my life
completely. I had taken the cross of a new crusade.

WILLIAM E. SMYTHE 4?I
To my mind, irrigation seemed the biggest thing in
the world. It was not merely a matter of ditches and
acres, but a philosophy, a religion and a programme
of practical statesmanship rolled into one. There was
apparently no such thing as ever getting to the bottom
of the subject, for it expanded in all dkections and
grew in importance with each unfoldment. Of course,
all this was not realized at first, yet from the beginning
I was deeply impressed with the magnitude of the work
that had fallen to my hand and knew that I must cut
loose from all other interests and endeavor to rouse the
nation to a realizing sense of its duty and opportunity.
" The first result of the articles in the Bee was a
series of irrigation conventions in western Nebraska,
beginning with the one at Culbertson, the seat of
Hitchcock County. These county gatherings led to
a State Convention at Lincoln, and the State Conven
tion made me chakman of a committee to arrange for
a National Irrigation Congress, which was held a
few months later at Salt Lake, within sight of the
historic ditch on City Creek, where English-speaking
men began the conquest of the desert.
" I resigned my comfortable place on the Bee,
launched the Irrigation Age (the first journal of its
kind in the world, so far as I know), and went forth
to do what I could. It was my rare good fortune to find
a life-work, while yet on the sunny side of thkty, to
which I could give my heart and soul with all a young
man's enthusiasm."
The ball was thus set rolling, and it has rolled
on ever since. The second Congress was held in Los

472 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Angeles, in 1893 (this was the memorable Congress to
which reference is made in the chapter on Major
Powell). The thkd was in Denver, in 1894, and there
have been subsequent ones at Albuquerque, New Mex
ico, in 1895; at Phcenix, Arizona, in 1896; at Lincoln,
Nebraska, in 1897; at Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1898;
at Missoula, Montana, in 1899, etc.
In 1897 a wonderful impetus was given to the move
ment by the publication of Captain Hkam M. Chit
tenden's Reservoirs in the Arid Region. Trained in
the United States Corps of Engineers, formerly in
charge of the government works in the Yellowstone
National Park and on important Western rivers, and
then assigned to the study of reservok problems on
certain rivers of the West, he brought to the subject
the powers of a scientific mind well able to grasp the
subject with a thorough comprehension. He " recom
mended that the government should acquke full title
to and jurisdiction over any reservok site which it
might improve, and full right to the water necessary
to fill the reservok; also that it should build, own, and
operate the works, holding the stored waters abso
lutely free for public use under local regulations."
The question as to whether the public lands to be
krigated should be ceded to the different States had
been already practically disposed of by Major Powell's
attitude, and the public interest that had followed the
dissemination of his ideas. It was seen that such a
cession would soon amount to nothing more than the
control of it all by private wealthy owners, who would
use it for their own selfish monetary gain.

WILLIAM E. SMYTHE 473
Now that Captain Chittenden suggested the pro
cedure for the conducting of the reservoks, light upon
the whole problem seemed to be at hand.
In the meantime two other Californians had become
interested in the Irrigation Question and all it implied.
Mr. George H. Maxwell, a young lawyer, with energy,
power and foresight, organized the National Irrigation
Association, and Mr. C. B. Boothe, a Los Angeles
merchant, threw himself heart and soul into the move
ment. In 1900 the political parties took it up, and the
issue was thus made national and put squarely before
the people. The results are generally well known.
The irrigation works of the United States Reclamation
Service aheady completed rival the seven wonders of
, the ancient world in thek magnitude; and in the
influence they have had upon the people, they surpass
them ten thousand fold. It gives a patriotic American
a thrill of pride to see the Laguna Dam on the Colorado
River, the Roosevelt Dam and that at Granite Reef,
on the Salt River in Arizona, the Carson- Truckee Dam
in the Sierras, that of Yakima, and all the others.
And who is able to estimate the far-reaching results
of these colossal works ? Think of what it means, —
the influx of such vast and active populations in these
once barren and desolate regions! The building up of
new communities. The establishment of thousands of
new and prosperous homes, for ever free from the fear,
the dread, the overhanging pall of the possibility of
years of drought. Who would not rather be the man
who materially aided in bringing this beneficent result
to pass than wear all the honors of Napoleon? So

474 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
we hail thee, William E. Smythe-, as one of the great
heroes of peace, for we are realizing more and more
each year the truth of Milton's great statement in his
Sonnet to Cromwell: " Peace hath her victories
No less renowned than War."
In the forepart of his book Mr. Smythe has the fol
lowing, which but states the facts :
Emancipation
The Nation reaches its hand into the Desert,
And lo! private monopoly in water and in land is
scourged from that holiest of temples, — the place where
men labor and build thek homes!
The Nation reaches its hand into the Desert.
The wasting floods stand back, the streams obey
thek master, and the stricken forests spring to life again
upon the forsaken mountains!
The Nation reaches its hand into the Desert.
The barred doors of the sleeping empke are flung
wide open to the eager and the willing, that they may
enter in and claim thek heritage!
The Nation reaches its hand into the Desert.
That which lay beyond the grasp of the Individual
yields to the hand of Associated Man. Great is the
Achievement, — greater the Prophecy !
It is literally true that, as the result of the work
of education begun by Major Powell and so success-

WILLIAM E. SMYTHE 475
fully carried on by Mr. Smythe, the people of the United
States are, in the main, aroused to the need of con
servation of our national resources, and not only our
own nation, but the world, for an International Con
ference is soon to be held at The Hague upon the sub
ject. To William E. Smythe, more than to any other
man, is entitled the credit for two things in this kriga
tion movement: He created the popular literature
upon the subject, and put a soul into it. While Powell's
work was comprehensive, it reaches only the scientist
and statesman. It was preliminary work, — the deep
concrete work of the foundation; necessary and essen
tial, but not seen and known of the masses. Smythe
popularized the subject, and throwing his very soul
into the work, vivified it so that the world lifted its head
and listened. With a voice of eloquence and power,
he toured the country, lecturing with Western vim and
enthusiasm upon the theme that had so fully taken pos
session of him.
He wrote convincing and enthusiastic articles which
gained admission into the Century, Atlantic Monthly,
North American Review and all sorts of publications.
The first paper in the Century evoked a two-column
leader from the New York Sun, which treated the
matter almost as the discovery of a new empke. Then,
too, his book, The Conquest of Arid America, contains
three elements of value, wliich have given it a real and
permanent acceptance.
I. It is scientific. It discloses the real economic
character of aridity and of irrigation and of our climate.

476 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
II. It is historical. It sketches the unfoldment of
Western life and institutions, and shows how later de
velopments have depended upon krigation.
III. It is practical. It gives reliable, definite in
formation for the home seeker. Personally I know of
scores throughout this great Western empke who have
come here purely on the strength of this book, and
the comfort and content of these men and thek families
is more than honor and fame. Is not this a making of
history more worthy of record than the chronicle of
bloody battles, fought for the furtherance of selfish ends,
and those that deal only with the horrible, the mean, the
reprehensible traits of human nature? Here has been
a warfare for the public good, and not for selfish
purposes. Mr. Smythe's labors have been at the cost
of much personal sacrifice, of consecrated devotion,
of financial loss. Had he bestowed the same amount of
thought, energy and ability to the public lecture plat
form and thought only of his own financial good, he
could have made himself independently rich long
ere now. But he has resolutely kept his face to the
stars. Even in his practical projects, — which have
made money for others, — he has labored only until
success was assured, and then stepped out to further
his larger plans elsewhere. In Idaho, in 1895, he and
Benjamin P. Shawhan established New Plymouth,
in the Payette Valley, twelve miles from the town of
Payette. The pioneers of this settlement were of rather
unusual quality, being drawn largely from urban
business and professional life, yet they entered enthusi
astically and successfully upon the work of making

WILLIAM E. SMYTHE 477
homes on sage-brush land, twelve miles from a
raihoad, in a remote and undeveloped part of the
West. " The Plymouth industrial programme aimed at
-complete independence of the people by the simple
method of producing the variety of things consumed,
on small, diversified farms; of having surplus products,
principally fruit, for sale in home and Eastern markets;
and by combining the capital of the settlers, by incor
poration of a stock company, to own and develop the
town-site, and to erect and operate simple industries
requked in connection with the products of the soil.
On the social side, the plan aimed to give these farmers
the best advantages of town life, or at least of neighbor
hood association. This was accomplished by assem
bling the houses in a central village, laid out, in accord
ance with a beautiful plan, with residences grouped
on an outside ckcle touching the farms at all points.
This plan brought the settlers close together on acre-
lots — " home acres " — thus preventing isolation,
and giving them the benefit of school, church, post-
office, store, library, and entertainments.
" The Plymouth settlers have been contented and
prosperous from the first, and have had less than the
usual share of early trials and disappointments. They
testify that the social advantages of the colony plan, as
compared with the drawbacks of individual and iso
lated settlements, are alone sufficient to warrant its
use. Availing themselves of a favorable opportunity,
they acquked the krigation system and other valuable
property by purchase from the Eastern bondholders,

478 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
on terms which went far to enrich them as a commun
ity." *
This was an important work, but as soon as it was
well on its feet, Mr. Smythe's boundless energy re
quked a new field for its manifestation.
The question has often been asked: How much
land is necessary to enable a man and his family to
live healthfully and comfortably ? All kinds of answers
have been given to this question, and the quantity of
land has been variously estimated from a few acres to
as high as sixty or more. No one, however, who has
seen the small holdings of the farmers of Brittany, and
made himself aware of thek productiveness under care
ful cultivation, needs to be told that a large acreage is
not essential to comfort, happiness and content.
In the sunny climate of California, with fertile soil
and crops controlled by irrigation, everything is favor
able to the development of the small landholder. Mr.
Smythe's knowledge, both of California and the prac
tical needs of the farmer, were now brought into play
in what might be regarded as by far the most important
work of his life. He enunciated the bold doctrine that
a family can find true independence on one acre, and
that when this fact is understood, the great West can
meet the material, social, intellectual and spkitual
needs of millions of people.
To put his ideas into concrete form, as he had the
colony idea in Idaho, he interested land owners and
others, and after careful and thorough study selected
1 The Conquest of Arid America, by Wm. E. Smythe, Macmillans,
p. 192.

WILLIAM E. SMYTHE 479
•
a large tract of land some seventeen miles from San
Diego, on a line of railroad, and there organized the
" Little Landers." This was in July 28, 1908.
Colonists pay on an average five hundred dollars,
which includes thek acreage, a lot fifty by one hundred
and fifty in the beautiful village, and a share in all the
improvements. These improvements include water
piped in village lot and acre, land graded for irrigation,
park laid out and improved (each home will front upon
the park), street graded, side- walks, curbs and sewer
age installed, and village hall built and ready for use.
When the improvements are completed and the entke
acreage sold and brought under cultivation, all public
works will be turned over to the landowners, by means
of a local corporation of which they will be the stock
holders. The mutual water company will maintain the
park. Thus we have public ownership of those things
used by the public, and private ownership of those
things (town lot and acre) used by the individual.
No land whatever is sold for speculation. Every
purchaser must be an actual settler, in person or by
proxy, and his title to the land is made contingent upon
his beginning to improve his " acre " within six months
of the date of purchase.
Akeady a large settlement has demonstrated the
truth of the proposition. As a speaker recently de
clared in the village hall of the "Little Landers:"
"Your fundamental proposition, that one acre of
land in this climate, intelligently tilled, with a market
dkect to the consumer, will support a family in com
fort, is absolutely true. I know it to be true — have

480 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
known it for years. But William E. Smythe is the
only man in the United States who would have dared
to proclaim this truth and proceed to put it into action."
In commenting on this statement, Mr. Smythe says:
" Sometimes I wonder if mine is a case of 'fools rush
in where angels fear to tread! ' Every man who has
really studied the subject, at home or abroad, knows
the possibilities of ' a little land and a living.' You
may be sure tfiat I studied it very thoroughly before
launching the Little Landers. I studied it with the aid
of Bolton Hall, of Prince Krapotkin, and other writers
who have brought together the experience of the world,
but most of all I studied it in California, and especially
in San Diego.
" Given water, soil, climate, transportation, market,
industry and intelligence, and there is no other oppor
tunity in the world so certain to yield a generous living
to the average man as the acre farm. Oh, make it two
or three acres if you will, but when you have do*njp your
best on your two or three acres, I will show you men who
are getting better results on less land. What this nation
needs is landed proprietors working for themselves.
What we want at San Ysidro is land lovingly tilled
by the hands of its owners, not land grudgingly tilled
by the alien hands of hked labor. And the man who
tries to till lovingly much more than an acre will find
the job too big for him. Of course, there are certain
crops which do not require close attention, and if a
man has sufficient capital to indulge in the luxury, he
can use land in that way, but I would rather see an
independent family living on every acre."

WILLIAM E. SMYTHE 481
As soon as the men and women in our cities, who are
what Jack London calls " The People of the Abyss,"
learn what this " Little Landers " movement means
to them, and true philanthropists are found who will
place these helpless creatures upon the land, it will
soon be found that this is one way out of social
bondage. It will become the refuge for great elements
of our population.
To have accomplished so great a result, — to have
set in motion such beneficent forces, is indeed to have
been a hero, a leader, a standard-bearer, and as such
California and the nation will ever honor and revere
William Ellsworth Smythe.

CHAPTER XLII
THE PIONEER HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
(An address by Judge David Belden)
David Belden came to California in 1855, for a short time
was engaged in mining, became a lawyer, and was finally elected
Judge of the Superior Court of Santa Clara County. He died in
San Jose, May 14, 1888. He resided in Nevada City, Nevada
County, when he decided to embrace the profession of law. Though
he had been in the State but two years, his personality and attain
ments had so impressed themselves upon his fellow-citizens that they
invited him, in 1857, to deliver the Fourth of July address in Nevada
City. He consented to do so, but, to his amazement, he learned that
it was the intention of the Committee to organize a burlesque pro
cession which should caricature the events that occurred at the
nation's birth. He remonstrated with earnest eloquence against such
a desecration of the day, and tried to stem the tide of buffoonery
which seemed to be swamping the patriotic intelligence of his friends.
But they outvoted him, and went on with their preparations. Under
such circumstances, most men would have assumed an air of offended
dignity and resigned from the position offered, lest they be deemed
party to, and in a measure responsible for, the transgressions against
the national feeling of others. But not so with Mr. Belden. He
was made of sterner stuff. He occupied the position of " orator of
the day," and delivered a rebuke, keen, sarcastic and scathing, that is
remembered to this day. He, himself, was a pioneer, and also a hero,
hence it is appropriate that his oration on the Pioneer Heroes of
California should find place in this volume.
' I SHERE have been many orations delivered upon
-*•*¦ the pioneers, and many of them are well worth
careful perusal. But those that were delivered by men
who were themselves pioneers, and were spoken to
pioneers while the memories of pioneer days were still
fresh, have a vigor and a personality about them that
the orations of later days do not possess. Even less

THE PIONEER HEROES 483
than thkty years after the great gold excitement flooded
the coast with men from all parts of the world, — as
early as 1876, — Judge Belden, in his oration at San
Jose, expresses the feeling that the event was far away
and growingly remote in the past. As perhaps the best
of the early day orations, it merits a place in this book.
It was not a prepared and polished address. Those
who heard it, and Judge Belden' s friends, claim that
it was a purely extemporaneous effort. If so, it stands
forth as a model of vigorous English, of wonderful
construction, of vivid power, as well as a truthful pano
rama of the scenes of the pioneer's life and experi
ences. After a few preliminary remarks, Judge
Belden said:
" For thkty years, not only over this State, but in
many of the principal cities of the East, the pioneers
of California have commemorated thek advent to this
coast. At each gathering, gifted speakers, with what
ever of genius, eloquence, poetry and pathos they could
command, have told the story and illumined the lives and
ways of the early pioneers. The paths of the men of
Forty-nine lie before me, a beaten thoroughfare, a
harvested field, its golden grain long since garnered,
and to which I come at the eleventh hour a late and
loitering gleaner. That a new generation has arisen
since the event and the era we are celebrating,
that there may be those to whom the story of
that time may not sound like a thrice-told tale,
that to these as new auditors this may come with
any seeming of novelty, is an illusion by which,
however willing, I cannot deceive myself; too many

484 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
pens have been busy with the history of our pione.ers.
Harte, Mulford, and a score of others, with whatever
of imagination might most embellish, fact, have told
to these newcomers far more than the one could ever
have known or the other ever believed. Fact and fancy
have been alike exhausted, and repeating with the wise
King of Israel that there is no new thing under the sun,
I must bring forth, from a sparsely filled storehouse,
what I know to be old.
"It is over thkty years since the report reached the
East and flashed around the world of the discovery of
gold in boundless quantities upon the banks of the
American River. Exaggerated by repetition and mag
nified by distance, the El Dorado of the Pacific was
represented as a land where, to any who chose to gather?
it, the fortune could be made in a month that elsewhere
requked the labor of a lifetime. Who does not recall
the manner in which these marvelous reports were re
ceived and discussed on every hand and in every com
munity ? Who has not heard of the gatherings at the
village store,, the resolve of the restless and the ad
venturous, the reports each day of new parties who were
selling out, sacrificing everything for the gold-fields by
the Pacific ; the fear that it might all be dug before they
could reach the mines. How the contagion spread
until the staid and contented felt an unwonted fever
in thek veins, and looked restlessly, and longingly after
these who were starting. Of the companies organized,
in which the village Rothschild shared in the equip
ment for an interest of one-fourth or one-half the gains
acquked. Of the thousands of machines invented and

JUDGE DAVID BELDEN.

Page

WILLIAM ELLSWORTH SMYTHE.

Page 468

THE PIONEER HEROES 485
constructed, equally ingenious, equally elaborate and
alike worthless, by which gold mines were to be found,
and worked when found. Of the counsels and ex
hortations of those who stayed and the promises of those
who went; of the amount with which each resolved to be
content, and the exact time he allotted to himself for
acquking it, and returning home. Of the diaries to be
kept, the letters written ; of the notice in the local paper
of each party as it departed, with the editorial assur
ance that, whoever else might fail, such men as that
village sent forth must conquer success and make thek
mark in the world. Of the making up of trains for the
plains, the gatherings of the men, the trades, the pur
chases of equipments, the bickerings, the misunder
standings. Of the men that every one wanted to secure
because they were rough and more accustomed to out
door life, and whose presence must make the journey
successful and secure, and who as a rule proved the
most worthless and inefficient vagabonds in the camp.
Of the rotten ships that went from Eastern ports laden
with precious lives and were heard of no more. Of the
diaries kept for a few days or weeks with scrupulous
care and diligence, then the omission, first of a day or
two, then of longer intervals, and then wholly aban
doned. Of the new surprises that awaited them on
every hand, when the worn and wearied voyagers by
sea and by land finally reached the end of thek jour-
neyings. Of the reports, bewildering in thek con
tradictions, as to where the best mines were to be found;
of those who paraded sacks of gold and lauded to
the skies Northern or Southern mines, Mokelumne

486 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Hill, Hangtown, and told of fortunes to be had for the
picking them up; while back from the same place
came a horde, ragged, foot-sore and hungry, cursing
the- State and the day they saw it, and especially the
localities thus loudly commended. Of the grave de
liberation of the newcomer as to whether he should
look for coarse or fine gold diggings, one day yielding
to the fascination of a pile of nuggets, and resolving to
look for mines with lumps about the size of a hen's egg,
wavering as he saw the sacks of fine dust from the Yuba,
and finally concluding that, as gold was purchased by
weight and not by bulk, he would take his fortune in the
finer dust; of his journeyings to the mines, his failures,
his disappointments and disgust. Of the letters home,
written at first with methodical punctuality, but finally
taking the road of the abandoned diary. Of the num
berless companies formed and expeditions planned to
find some mine of marvelous richness, of which but one
man knew the location; of the senseless explanation he
gave for not having at least a specimen of these hidden
treasures, — sometimes Indians, want of provisions,
or the like, — and the uniform credulity with which
we swallowed it all and fitted out trains, and sent
parties with this fraud, only to know we had been
deceived, and ending generally in an unsuccessful effort
to hang the deceiver. Of adventures by the Yuba, the
forks of the American River, of Gold Bluff and Gold
Lake, and the numberless golden mkages that danced
before the adventurers of those days and lured them
on to disappointment and disaster. Of the much that
was noble and grand and self-sacrificing, and much •

THE PIONEER HEROES 487
too that was wild and wicked and wekd in those men
and in those fitful, feverish times.
" We remember our feelings as we left the homes of
our nativity and fancied we could never be contented
elsewhere, until, as new interests, associations and
affections grew up around us, the distance seemed im
perceptibly at first to widen between us, and when we
recalled the friends and scenes of former days they
presented themselves with a vague, distant mistiness,
almost as though they were the recollections of another
and not of ourselves.
" These are recollections common to us all, the rem
iniscences alike of tfie wanderer from Pike County,
Missouri, Posey County, Indiana, the native of New
England and the emigrant from the Rhine. And to the
old pioneers, with these recollections of thkty years
pressing upon us, how feeble must appear any attempt
at portraiture in words. While I speak, like the whisper
that wakes a hundred sleeping echoes, Memory is
marshalling before each of us the events of his Cali
fornia career. Like a panorama, the years of our
pioneer life are passing in retrospect before us — the
kindred that we left behind; the hopes that buoyed us
up and lured us. onward; the fortunes for good or for
evil that have befallen each and that made up the check
ered warp and woof of the years that are but a memory.
Could one but paint in words this picture as each now
beholds it for himself; could I indeed describe what we
all feel and know, the story of the pioneers could indeed
be told, thek memories fittingly enshrined for all time
to come.

488 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
" This task, grateful though it would be, is alike
beyond either the capacity I bring or the time I have
allotted to myself for these remarks. There is, however,
a feature of pioneer life, one class of the great flood-tide
that 1849 cast upon this coast, that has been but little
considered. It is a foible of humanity ever to worship
at the shrine of success, and to follow with blind lauda
tions the favorites of fortune; the unsuccessful, equally
or more deserving though they may be, find little place
either in the memories of men or the chronicles of his
tory. The stories of the pioneers are no exception to
this rule. The successes and the achievements of the
few are blazoned to the world; of the many who fought
and fell in the vanguard of our heroes in the battle
of life, the story of thek struggle ended with them.
" Who does not recall, in the adventures of the early
days, the thousands that, smitten by disease, essayed
the voyage round the Cape, the perils of the plains,
with the cry ' Health or a speedy grave.' To not one
in a score of these came the coveted boon of health.
Thek resting-places mark the pathway of our empke
from the banks of the Mississippi to the shores of the
Pacific, and until the sea shall give up her dead none
may know of those pioneer hosts that found thek
resting-places in the dark depths of the ocean. Suffer
ing and disease were thek companions as they journeyed
hither. Pestilence and hardship welcomed thek ar
rival. By the rivers whose golden sands had lured them
from peaceful homes and loving friends, they fell by
thousands, unknown and unremembered.
" Who does not remember, in his own camp, or that of

THE PIONEER HEROES 489
his neighbor, the delicate boy, the pet of the company,
wholly unfitted for the hardships of the mines, but am
bitious and hopeful, scorning the thought that he was
not equal to any exertion and every position, bearing his
part in the rugged work of his comrades, and pretending
not to feel that day by day his powers were wasting
away; the gentle strategy which gave to the failing boy
the easiest of the labors of the camp; and, finally, the
kindly counsel and the generous aid that returned him
to die amid the scenes of his youth and the friends of his
childhood ?
" Who among the miners of those days has not scores
upon scores of times given prodigally that some one,
a stranger, perchance, whom he had never seen, might
close his eyes in his old distant home? We are told
that by such deeds treasures are laid up in heaven. If
this be so, many a noble pioneer has the fortune awaiting
him in the hereafter that was denied him here.
" Then there was one who delayed his going till
disease pressed so fiercely upon him that the journey
could not be made, and he knew that he must die
amid strangers in a strange land. What feature of
pioneer life presents more noble characteristics than the
cabin of the sick and dying miner? Brave and un
complaining was the sufferer, kind and gentle his
watchers. When the last letters were dictated to loved
ones, the last dkections given, as he looked upon the
familiar faces, while the shadows darkened about him,
there came to these, his tried and faithful comrades,
his last words — they were the last utterances of
thousands — 'Iam going, boys. You have been very

49o HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
kind to me. God bless you all.' ' God bless you, old
boy,' would be the sobbing response, the last whispered
benediction to the ear of the dying man. And then,
beneath some lordly oak or stately pine, they fashioned
his grave, and upon a rough board, or a fragment of
stone, they scrawled his name and the place of his bkth
and the day of his death, and placed it above — and the
pioneer's history was ended. All over the world there
are thousands of loving, hoping hearts that have waited
through all these long and weary years for the coming
of these slumberers by the rivers, these dead of our
early pioneers. Green be thek memories and peace to
thek ashes, these our brothers gone before us.
" Another and a more numerous class are those who
have failed of success, and are counted among the
fallen in the battle of life. They are that class upon
whose every effort some malign influence ever casts
a blight. Energetic and industrious, possessed of every
quality that should command and does merit success,
thek pathway is one of unbroken disaster and mis
fortune. Born to disaster, flood and fire, casualties of
every form make these hapless ones thek sport. Un
lucky the world terms them, and if by this is meant
Fortune that only sees that she may smite, the term is
well applied. Nowhere was this class more largely
represented than in the mining regions and in the days
of 1850. We can to-day, each of us, recall, perhaps,
some of us in our own experiences, the fields and the
efforts of these hapless adventurers. Such we have seen
locate a mining claim, where upon either hand fortunes
had been found, and every indication that human

THE PIONEER HEROES 491
judgment or foresight could suggest showed that the
same was before them. We have seen them enter with
strong hands and buoyant hopes upon a work that may
well-nigh task the patience and the resource of a State.
We have seen the tunnel that was to unlock thek
golden treasure driven year after year, for hundreds
and thousands of feet, through the flinty rock, steadily,
persistently and untiringly; against obstacles and
embarrassments that might well have brought hopeless
discouragement, they struggled on, and at last, prema
turely aged with the labors and hardships of this toil,
with the best years of thek lives gone, maimed and
crippled by the casualties of thek enterprise, financially
beggared, they learned that there was nothing before
them, that thek work was worthless, thek lives wasted,
and, broken alike in body and in mind, they must seek
elsewhere new fields for toil, must begin again the
battle of life.
" What wonder that when long years of such exertion
bring to the toiler but Dead Sea apples, bitterness and
ashes, when he sees upon every hand wealth that recom
penses efforts but a tithe of his own — what wonder
that in bitterness of heart he arraigns the Providence
that permits all this; that he looks with scorn and loath
ing on a world where Fortune proves thus partial and
unkind; what wonder that among the many that have
met but successive misfortunes and unbroken adversity,
there should be many discouraged, misanthropic and
reckless men. And when I see one of these worn and
broken men still clinging to the scene of his former
labors, if much of the manhood and nobleness of his

492 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
early years seems lost or obscured, I reflect what hopes,
what purposes, what affections may not have been in
him crushed out in these withering disappointments,
and, in the language of the Master, I say that to him
that has suffered much, much should be forgiven.
" I have spoken of the pioneers of thkty years ago,
for it is thek advent to this coast we to-day commem
orate; of the miners and the mountains, for it was
there my own early associations were had. Of the
pioneers in the valleys and the builders of the cities,
we only know that they shared fully the measure of
disappointment that befell thek brothers in the mines.
Where to-day are the cities and thek founders that in
1850 lined the Bay of San Francisco — paper creations
that were to rival London in magnitude, Paris in beauty,
and New York in growth and prosperity ? Who to-day
can recall the name of either town or founder of these
cities? What hopes and expectations vanished with
them we may never know, for thek projectors have
disappeared as completely as the builders of the mounds
in the valleys of the West.
" I have spoken thus far of the failures and misfor
tunes of these former times. The successes have been
many, and have been marked. They are known and
need not be repeated. The spirit of the old Argonauts
still survives. Bold, fearless explorers, they are still
searching for the golden fleece. From California to
the frozen zone, not a river, a stream, or a mountain
that has not been tested and tried by these hardy
adventurers. And the deserts of Arizona and New
Mexico equally attest thek energy and enterprise.

THE PIONEER HEROES

493

Nor do the boundaries of the nation place any barrier
to thek progress; they are pouring in a resistless flood
upon the land of the Aztec, and Mexico wakes from the
slumber of centuries at the trampling of our peaceful
cohorts. " The pioneer adventures of to-day will be the success
ful enterprises of the future, and the golden fleece
that could not be won in the mountains will be found
in our teeming valleys, our vine-garlanded hillsides.
Wherever enterprise or inclination may guide thek steps,
the hope and the benediction that accompanied us to
this new land go forth with them. And if, like many of
us, they shall fall or shall fail in the field that is before
them, may they ever merit success though they find
but adversity.
" Pioneers of 1849, m the thkty years of our Cali
fornia life, mucfi of the time allotted to man has passed
away. For many of us the shadows are to-day length
ening eastward. The crest on the waves of a sea that
beats in ceaseless cadence on the shores of Time each
year sees many known and honored among us swept into
the still depths of the hereafter. Ours be it to know
that, whether remembered or forgotten, the work of
our hands shall outlive the names of its founders, and
that the empke we leave behind us, the nation's bul
wark by her western sea, shall endure for all time, the
handiwork and the monument of the Pioneers of the
Golden State."

CHAPTER XLIH
BIBLIOGRAPHY
THE foregoing chapters have been gleaned during
a careful study of California literature extending
over the past thkty years. Many of the later chapters
are the result of personal intercourse with the heroes
named. Hence it is impossible, in every case, to give
original sources. The following list, however, will
be an excellent starting-point for those who wish to
study these men and women of California's nobility.
At the outset it may generally be stated that the his
tories of Hubert Howe Bancroft can be consulted, with
advantage, on all the earlier chapters of this book.
Poole's Index will also suggest many interesting
magazine articles to those who wish to study the subjects
further in a general way. Every high school student
should be made familiar with Poole's Index to Periodical
Literature and the great uses to which it can be put.
Every good library is provided with it, and students will
find it of incalculable help.
Chapter I. Alargon. The original story of Alarcon's
journey up the Colorado River may be read in Hak-
luyt's Voyages. In Stories of Adventure, by Edward
Everett Hale (Little, Brown, and Co.), on page 102,
explanation is given of the origin of the name " Cali-

BIBLIOGRAPHY 495
fornia," but it should not be forgotten that the reference
there is to the peninsula which Ulloa had discovered
and not to the State we to-day know as one of the United
States. Hubert Howe Bancroft, in Volume I of History
of California (Volume XVIII of Works), gives a chapter
on " The Discovery of California " and the origin of the
name, pages 64-109. The Romance of the Colorado
River, by F. S. Dellenbaugh (Putnam's), contains two
good chapters on Ulloa and Alarcon, and the title of
the book is no misnomer for the rest of the contents.
Chapter II. Melchior Diaz. The vast story of
Coronado's expedition is to be found in the original
historian's narrative: Account of the Expedition to
Cibola which took place in the year 1540, in which all
thosf settlements, their ceremonies and customs, are
described. Written by Pedro de Castaneda, of Najera.
The original is translated, with notes and an illumina
tive introduction, by George Parker Winship, in Part I,
Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology
(1892-93). There is also a chapter in Stories of Adventure, by
Edward Everett Hale, on Fra Marco and Coronado's
expedition. Chapter III. Junipero Serra. Palou's Life of Serra
has been poorly and partially rendered into English
by Father Adam. This, however, is out of print and
hard to obtain. If enough schools and others would ask
for its translation and publication, it could be speedily
done in a satisfactory manner. Charles F. Lummis
in Volume 16 of Out West publishes his translation
of Serra's hitherto unpublished Diary of Serra's trip

496 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
from Loreto to San Diego, March 28 — June 30, 1769.
Missions and Missionaries of California, by Zephyrin
Englehardt, the official historian of the Franciscans in
California, is an excellent work. It may be obtained by
writing Father Englehardt at Watsonville, California,
or at any Franciscan establishment in the State. In
my own In and Out of the Old Missions of California
(Little, Brown, and Co.) there is much of Serra and his
work, and Bancroft's Histories contain more.
Chapter IV. Juan Bautista de Anza. The best
account of the heroic captain's exploits is found in
On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer, Garces' Diary, 1775,
1776. Translated by Elliott Coues and published by
Francis P. Harper, New York, 1900.
Chapter V. Padre Sarria. Bancroft's Histories, and
Shea's History of the Catholic Missions among the
Indian Tribes of the United States, 15 29-1854.
Chapter VI. Pattie. The Personal Narrative of
James O. Pattie of Kentucky. Reprinted in 1905, in
Early Western Travels, by A. H. Clark Co., Cleveland.
Chapter VII. J. S. Smith. Bancroft's Histories.
Chapter VIII. John Bidwell. A Journey to Cali
fornia, being Bidwell's diary of the trip across to Cali
fornia, May 18 to November 6, 1841. John Bidwell,
by C. C. Royce, Chico, California, 1906. Articles by
Bidwell in The Century Magazine on " The Fkst
Emigrant Train to California" (November, 1890);
"Life in California before the Gold Discovery"
(December, 1890); " Fremont in the Conquest of
California " (February, 1891).
Chapter IX. Charles T. Stanton. McGlashan's

BIBLIOGRAPHY 497
History of the Donner Party (A. L. Bancroft, San Fran
cisco, 1881). This is the most reliable account of this
party yet written. Mrs. Houghton, George Donner's
daughter, is now writing her story, and she is expending
great care upon it.
Chapter X. Virginia Reed. McGlashan's Donner
Party (as above) and " Across the Plains in the Donner
Party " in Century Magazine (July, 1 891), by Vkginia
Reed Murphy. I also have in preparation the Story of
Virginia Reed Murphy, which I hope to publish in
1911-12. Chapter XI. Manly and Rogers. Death Valley in
'49, by W. L. Manly. Now out of print. I can supply
copies, however, so long as they last, for $1.75 each.
Chapter XII. Many fugitive newspaper articles
have been written on the subject of this chapter. See
also Bancroft, and Illustrated Sketches of Death Valley,
by John R. Spears (Rand, McNally and Co., Chicago,
1892). Chapter XIII. Carson and Beale. There are several
" Lives " of Kit Carson. A good one is by Mrs. Jessie
Benton Fremont. The one I have used is Kit Carson's
Life and Adventures, by Col. D. C. Peters (Dustin,
Gilman and Co., Hartford, 1874). Poole's Index will
also give many references to the great scout.
Chapter XIV. Consult Poole's Index and books on
pioneer times.
Chapter XV. J. P. Beckwourth. In 1854, 1855, T.
D. Bonner visited Beckwourth in California and there
wrote, from his own dictation: The Life and Adven
tures of James P. Beckwourth, Mountaineer, Scout,

498 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Pioneer, and Chief of the Crow Nation of Indians.
Charles G. Leland edited this for T. Fisher Unwin
(London, 1892), and this English edition is the one that
I have used.
Chapter XVI. The Pony Express and Overland Stage
Lines. Bancroft's, Hittell's and other California his
tories, and numerous magazine articles (consult Poole),
will give a much larger conception of these great under
takings than I have given in this brief chapter. In-
man's Santa Fe Trail, and Seventy Years on the Fron
tier, by Alexander Majors (Rand, McNally and Co.,
1893). There are also two excellent articles entitled
" Knights of the Lash," by Major Ben C. Truman, in
Overland Monthly (March and April, 1898), and two
others entitled " Overland Staging on the Thkty-
second Parallel Route in the Fifties," by Jesse Edward
Thompson, in Overland (August and September,
1888). I do not know of anything in American
literature that gives so graphic, vivid and truthful a
description of the overland stage as does Mark Twain
in Roughing It. (Harpers & Bros. , New York).
Chapter XVII. William Taylor. The three follow
ing works are all written by Bishop Taylor: Story of
My Life (Hunt and Eaton, New York, 1895), California
Life Illustrated (New York, 1858) and Seven Years'
Street Preaching in San Francisco (New York, 1857).
Chapter XVIII. James King of William. Bancroft's
and Hittell's Histories, and Representative and Leading
Men of the Pacific, by Oscar T. Shuck (Bacon and Co.,
San Francisco, 1870).
Chapter XIX. Thomas Starr King. See Poole's

BIBLIOGRAPHY 499
Index for magazine articles, Shuck's Representative
Men (see above), A Tribute to Thomas Starr King, by
R. Frothingham (Ticknor and Fields, Boston, 1865),
and Memoir of King by Edwin P. Whipple in Chris
tianity and Humanity (Houghton, Mifflin and Co.,
Boston, 1897). There is also an interesting reference
to King and Bret Harte in Overland Monthly.
Chapter XX. James Capen Adams. The Adven
tures of James Capen Adams, Mountaineer and Grizzly
Bear Hunter of California, by Theodore H. Hittell,
1861. In July, 1910, Mr. Hittell writes me that C.
Scribner's Sons (New York) are preparing to issue a
new edition of this most interesting and romantic
book. Chapter XXI. Snow-Shoe Thompson. See Dan de
Quille's article in Overland Monthly (February, 1881),
from which all the quotations of the chapter are
made. Chapter XXII. Clarence King and Richard Cotter.
Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada, by Clarence King
(C. Scribner's Sons, New York).
Chapter XXIII. Theodore D. Judah. The Reports
of Legislative Proceedings in the California Legislature,
and Theodore H. Hittell's History of California.
Chapter XXIV. The Builders of the Central Pacific
Ry. Hittell's and Bancroft's Histories. Also see Poole's
Index for many fugitive articles, and The Iron Way, by
Sarah Pratt Carr (A. C. McClurg and Co., Chicago,
1907). Chapter XXV. Stephen J. Field. The California
Law Reports contain Judge Field's Decisions. My

500 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
chief work of reference was Judge Pomeroy's Some
Account of the Work of Stephen J. Field, published
privately in 1881.
Chapter XXVI. James Lick. Bancroft's and Hit
tell's Histories. Consult Poole's Index for magazine
articles, especially those in Overland Monthly. E. S.
Holden's Handbook to the Lick Observatory.
Chapter XXVII. Adolph Sutro. The Mineral Re
sources of the United States, and the Importance and
Necessity of Inaugurating a Rational System of Mining
with Especial Reference to the Comstock Lode and the
Sutro Tunnel in Nevada (Baltimore, John Murphy
and Co., 1868). Report of the Commissioners and Evi
dence, etc. (Washington, 1872).
Chapter XXVIII. J. W. North. Consult Poole's
Index for articles on Riverside.
Chapter XXIX. J. W. Powell. Report of the Sec
ond Irrigation Congress, held in Los Angeles. Report
of the Land of the Arid Regions? of the United States,
by J. W. Powell (Washington, 1879); Also, as
evidences of Powell's great work for science and
humanity, see Reports of United States Geological
Survey, and Reports of Bureau of American Ethnology.
Chapter XXX. A. S. Hallidie. Consult Poole's
Index. Chapter XXXI. John Gill Lemmon and Sara P.
Lemmon. Overland Monthly (April and May, 1883,
and September, 1888); California State Forester's
Reports, 1886-1889.
Chapter XXXII. John Muir. Consult Poole's
Index, The Mountains of California, by John Muir

BIBLIOGRAPHY 501
(N. Y. 1894, The Century Co.), Our National Parks,
Stickeen, The Story of a Dog, The Outlook (June 6,
i9°3)- Chapter XXXIII. Helen Hunt Jackson. Consult
Poole's Index. Mrs. Jackson's three books dealing
with Indians are: A Century of Dishonor, Ramona,
and Glimpses of California and the Missions, all by
Little, Brown, and Co., Boston. Also see Through
Ramona's Country, by George Wharton James (Little,
Brown, and Co.).
Chapter XXXIV. H. H. Bancroft. See his His
tories and especially his Literary Industries (Harper's,
1891). Chapter XXXV. Luther Burbank. Consult Poole's
Index. New Creations in Plant Life, by W. S. Harwood
(MacMillan's, 1905), is the story of Burbank's fife
and work, intelligently and sympathetically told.
Chapter XXXVI. Henry George. Progress and
Poverty, by Henry George, Life of Henry George, by
Henry George, Jr. Also consult Poole's Index. All
of Henry George's Works (Doubleday, Page & Co.).
Chapter XXXVII. T. S. C. Lowe. Harper's Weekly
and Leslie's Weekly during war times. Consult Poole's
Index, and Scenic Mount Lowe, by George Wharton
James. Chapter XXXVIIL Wozencraft, Rockwood and Chaf
fey. The Wonders of ihe Colorado Desert, George
Wharton James (Little, Brown, and Co.). Local
newspapers from 1900.
Chapter XXXIX. Edwin Markham. Consult Poole's
Index, The Man with the Hoe and other Poems, and

502 HEROES OF CALIFORNIA
Lincoln and other Poems, by Edwin Markham (Mc-
Clure's, New York).
Chapter XL. Stephen M. White. Stephen M.
\White, by L. E. Mosher and R. W. Gates, 2 volumes
(Times Mkror Co., Los Angeles, 1903).
Chapter XLI. William E. Smythe. Read articles
by W. E. Smythe in Out West; also Irrigation Age,
which he founded and edited. Consult Poole's Index.
Also The Conquest of Arid America, Constructive De
mocracy, both by W. E. Smythe (MacMillan).
Chapter XLII. Judge David Belden. Life of
David Belden (Belden Bros., New York, 1891).

INDEX

INDEX

Adams, lames Capen, hunting
instincts condemned, xii; a
picturesque figure, 180; life
by Hittell, 180; birth of, 180;
attacked by tiger, 180; ar
rival in California, 181 ;
takes to wilderness, 181 ; de
scribes grizzly bear, 181 ; his
camp, 183 ; an early experi
ence, 184; thrilling adven
tures, 186-192 ; companion
killed, 192; adventure in the
Yosemite, 192, 193; settles
down, 194.
Alargon, Hernando de, sent by
Mendoza to cooperate with
Coronado, 2; discovers and
explores Colorado River, 3;
cautious and determined, 3.
Annals of San Francisco, quo
tation from, 138-139.
Anza, Juan Bautista de, in
command at Tubac, 17; to
establish road to Upper Cal
ifornia, 17; attacked by
Apaches, 17; dangers sur
rounding, 18; crosses desert,
18, 19; party divided, 19;
reaches Monterey, 19; re
turns to Tubac, 19; to estab
lish settlement on San Fran
cisco Bay, 20; promotion of,
20; his party, 20; Garces'
diary of expedition, 20, 21,
suffering of party, 22;
reaches San Gabriel, 22; goes
to San Diego, 22; resumes
journey north, 22; arrives at
Monterey, 22; illness of, 23;
arrives at San Francisco, 23 ;
returns to Sonora, 23.

Apache Indians, attack de
Anza's party, 17.
Army of the West, 94, engage
ment with Mexicans, 96; in
great danger, 99 ; relieved by
Stockton, 103.
Ashley, Gen. W. H., engages
Jedediah Smith as one of
band of trappers, 40; estab
lishes post near Salt Lake,
40. *
Aubery, F. X., Pony Express
rider, 132; remarkable ride
of, 133-
Austin, Mary, pictures of old
Mission life in Isidro, 24.
B
Bailey, James, elected first
secretary of Central Pacific
R. R. Co., 226.
Baker, Ray Stannard, article on
John Muir, 338.
Bancroft, Hubert Howe, the
collecting of material for his
tory, 376; his birth, 377; set
tles in California, 378; the
beginning of his library, 378,
379 ; its growth, 380, 381 ; re
verses, 383; the work com
pleted, 384.
Beale, Lieutenant, carries des
patches to Kearny, 96; vol
unteers with Carson to go
for aid, 99; gets through
Mexican lines, 101 ; reaches
San Diego, 102; illness of,
103.
Beatty, John C, promotes plan
to reclaim the Colorado Des
ert, 440; abandons scheme,
441.

5°°

INDEX

Beckwourth, James P., methods
condemned, xii ; Leland's
Life of, 109; encounter with
grizzly bear, no; birth of,
no; Bonner's story of, no;
Ina Coolbrith's story of, m;
her impressions of him, 112;
discovers murder of Reed
family, 113; trails murderers,
114; captures them, 114;
story of murder, 114; exe
cutes murderers, 114; hatred
of liquor traffic with Indians,
116; discovery of Beck
wourth's Pass, 117, 118; de
scription of country, 118;
plans for building road' 119;
construction begun, 120; ill
ness of, 120 ; recovery, 121 ;
leads first train through
Pass, 121 ; his losses by ven
ture, 121 ; chief of trading-
post, 122.
Belden, David, sketch of, 482;
address on Pioneer Heroes
of California, 483-493.
Bibliography, 494-502.
Bidwell, John, settles on Ran
cho Chico, 45 ; birth of, 45 ;
walks to Cincinnati, 45; ad
venturous disposition, 46 ;
settles on Platte Purchase,
46; teaches school, 46; his
claim "jumped," 47; joins
Robidoux's party, 47 ; secures
outfit, 47 ; the party strength
ened, 48; his journal, 48, 52;
fear of Indians, 48; party
divided, 49; difficulties of
road, 50; reaches California,
51 ; assistant to Captain Sut
ter, 52 ; dismantles Fort Ross,
52; in Sacramento Valley,
52 ; makes map, 53 ; becomes
a Mexican citizen, 53; joins
movement for independence,
53 ; C. C._ Royce's account of,
53 ; appointed alcade by Fre

mont, 53; carries news of
discovery of gold, 53; his
work for Statehood, 54; his
politics, 54; efficient service
during Civil War, 54; Pro
hibition candidate for Presi
dent, 55 ; his treatment of the
Indians, 55; his death, 55.
" Big Four " (Huntington,
Stanford, Crocker, Hopkins),
methods often condemned,
xii ; Judah attracts attention
of, 225; their various call
ings, 225; subscriptions to
stock, 226.
Bonner, T. D., Life of James
P. Beckwourth, no.
Books Recommended, vi, vii.
Boothe, C. B., works for irri
gation, 473.
" Boston," rider on first Pony
Express Route, 127.
Burbank, Luther, his birth,
385; settles in California,
385; early life, 386; illness,
386 ; disappointments, 387 ;
characteristics, 387-389 ; a
large order and a daring ex
periment, 391, 392; his sys
tem of selection, 392-394; his
integrity, 395 ; experimental
work, 396; recognition of its
value, 396; opinion of by
Jordan, 397; his influence on
the popular mind, 398, 399;
work for humanity, 400.
Burnett, Peter H., elected first
Governor of California, 124.

California, History of, books
bearing on, vi, vii.
Carr, Sarah Pratt, quotations
from, 231, 236.
Carson, Kit, on way east with
Fremont's despatches, 94 ;
turns back with Kearny's

INDEX

5°7

Army of the West, 94; vol
unteers with Beale to go for
aid, 99; gets through Mexi
can lines, 101 ; reaches San
Diego, 102.
Casey, James P,. duel with
Bagley, 167; attacked in
Bulletin by King, 167; alter
cation with King, 168; mur
ders King, 168; Vigilance
Committee recalled, 168 ;
taken from jail, 169; trial of,
by Committee, 169; execu
tion of, 170.
Castaneda, account of Diaz's
adventures, 4, 5.
Central Pacific Railroad Co.,
conceived and organized by
Judah, 221 ; convention for
organization, 224; first at
tempt fails, 224; magnitude
of task, 225; organization
perfected, 226; national aid
granted, 227; work begun,
228; connected with Union
Pacific, 231 ; difficulties of
building, 232; opposition to,
237; finances improve, 238;
obstacles to construction,
240; Chinese labor on, 241;
Sierras crossed, 241 ; pay
ment for completed road,
241 ; rivalry with Union
Pacific, 242; the last spike,
243-
Chaffey, George, settles in Cali
fornia, 441 ; developes water
system at Etiwanda and On
tario, 442; developes the
mutual-company idea, 442,
443; electric lighting, 443;
Ontario a "model colony,"
444; Australian work, 444,
445; return to California,
445; appealed to by Rock
wood, 446; takes up plan to
reclaim Colorado Desert,
446; difficulties and litiga

tion, 446-449; Imperial Val
ley, 449; prosperity due to
him, 450.
Chaffey, W. B., constructs
water system at Etiwanda
and Ontario, 442; Australian
work, 444, 445; return to
California, 445; appealed to
by Rockwood, 446; takes up
plan to reclaim Colorado
Desert, 446.
Chittenden, Hiram M., Reser
voirs in the Arid Region,
472.
Coolbrith, Ina, meeting with
Beckwourth, in; her im
pressions of him, 112.
Cora, Charles, kills Wm. H.
Richardson, 166; trial de
manded by King, 166; trial
of, 166; disagreement of
jury, 167; taken from jail by
Vigilantes, 169; trial of, by
Committee, 169 ; execution
of, 170.
Coronado. See Vasquez.
Cortes, Hernando, ambitious to
extend his power, 1 ; ap
points Ulloa to command
expedition of discovery,
1.
Cotter, Richard, joins Clarence
King in mountaineering trip,
209; thrilling experiences as
cending Mount Tyndall, 209-
216; the dangerous descent,
216-220; his coolness and
bravery, 219.
Coues, Dr., gives account of de
Anza's routine, 20, 21.
Crespi, Juan, companion of
Serra, 9 ; sails ' from Cadiz,
9; arrives at Vera Cruz, 10.
Crocker, Charles, in charge of
construction of Central Pa
cific Railroad, 239; his abil
ity, 239; secures Chinese
labor, 241.

5o8

INDEX

D
Dana, R. H., Jr., Two Years
Before the Mast, 104.
Davidson, George, quotation
from, on James Lick, 267.
Davis, Horace, comments on
Thomas Starr King, 175, 176.
Death Valley Party, 74-93.
De Smet, Father, joins party
with Bidwell, 48; leaves
party at Soda Springs, 49.
Diaz, Melchior, with Coronado,
4; sent to find Alarcon, 4;
reaches gulf of California,
4; Castaneda relates story of,
4; foils Indian plot, 4;
watchful and prudent com
mander, 5.
Dolores Mission, selected by
de Anza as site of San Fran
cisco Mission, 23.
Du Bois, Constance Goddard,
pictures of old Mission life
in A Soul in Bronze, 24.
Duran, Padre, accuses Smith
of enticing neophytes to des
ert, 42; Smith's explanation
to, 42.

Echeandia, Mexican Governor,
Pattie's hatred of, 31; harsh
treatment of Pattie, 31 ; per
mits Smith to purchase sup
plies, 41 ; tries to detain
Smith, 41 ; Smith gives bond
to, 44-
Etiwanda, town started by
Chaffey, 442; its great suc
cess, 442; Australian Com
mission at, 444.

Field, _ Stephen J., decisions
questioned, xii ; settles in
California, 245; alcade, 246;
in State legislature, 246;

fearlessness as judge, 250-
259; devotion to principle,
260.
Fitzpatrick, Captain, joins
party with Bidwell, 48; tries
to calm fears of party, 49;
goes to meet Indians, 49.
Flint, Wilson, quotation from,
137-
Forbes, A. S. C, pictures of
old Mission life in Mission
Tales in the Days of the
Dons, 24.
Fremont, John Charles, no spe
cial chapter on, x; fully
treated in all State histories,
x; his career commended, x;
appoints Bidwell alcade of
San Luis Rey, 53; sends des
patches by Carson, 94;
elected United States Sena
tor, 124

Garces, Julian, diary of de
Anza's expedition, 20, 21.
George, Henry, birth, 401 ; con
ception of his idea, 401-403;
courage and independence,
404; editor of Sacramento
Reporter, 405; opposed to
Central Pacific Railway Co.,
policy, 405; Our Land and
Land Policy, 406-408; his
speeches, 408-410 ; Progress
and Poverty, 411-414; diffi
culties of publication, 412;
its popularity, 414; lecturing
tours, 415; New York may
oralty campaign, 415; his
death, 416; appreciation of
him, 416.
Gold, discovery of, in Califor
nia, by Marshall, 123.
Graves, W. C, finds body of
Charles T. Stanton, 63.
Grey, Sir George, quotation

INDEX

5°9

from letter to Henry George,
413-
Gwin, William M., elected
United States Senator, 124.

H
Hallidie, Andrew S., his in
ventive genius, 317-319; the
cable road, 320; the Mount
Lowe railway, 321.
Hamilton, Sam, rider on first
Pony Express Route, 127.
Harte, Bret, vivid pictures of
California life, viii; quota
tion from, xi.
Haslam, Robert H., "Pony
Bob," rider on first Pony
Express Route, 127; narra
tive of, 129-132.
Hayes, Colonel Jack, com
mands volunteer corps in
Paiuti War, 129.
Hittell, Theodore H., quota
tion from; on James King,
' 161, 165 ; life of James
Capen Adams, 180; tribute
to Theodore P. Judah, 229;
on Adolph Sutro, 289.
Holt, L. M., developes, with
Chaffey, the mutual-company
water system, 442, 443.
Hopkins, elected treasurer of
Central Pacific R. R. Co.,
226.
Huntington, Collis P., elected
vice-president Central Pacific
R. R. Co., 226 ; ability as fi
nancier, 237; opposes San
Pedro harbor, 460; contro
versy with White, 461, 462;
meeting with White, 462;
opinion of White, 463.

Irish, John P., tribute to
Luther Burbank, 389.

Jackson, Helen Hunt, pictures
of old Mission life in Ra
mona, 24; espouses the cause
of the Indian, 364; The Cen
tury of Dishonor, 364; con
troversy with Schurz, 365;
commissioned by Indian De
partment, 366; plans her
novel, 367-372; Ramona, 372;
its influence, 373.
Jayme, Padre, murdered by
Indians, 22.
Jordan, David Starr, tribute to
Luther Burbank, 397.
Judah, Theodore D., birth of,
222; arrives in California,
222; builds short railroad
from Sacramento, 222; plans
transcontinental line, 223 ; as
delegate to Washington in its
interest, 224; mission fails,
224 ; the " Big Four,'' 225,
226; Central Pacific Railroad
Co., organized, 226; elected
engineer of road, 226; second
mission to Washington, 226;
bill enacted, 227; files plans
for road, 227 ; return to Cali
fornia, 227 ; educates people,
228; starts for Washington,
228; death of, 228; Hittell's
tribute to, 229. K
Kearny, General Philip, com
mands Army of the West,
94; prevails on Carson to
join him, 94; engagement
with Mexicans, 96; critical
condition of army, 99; Car-
¦ son and Beale go for aid, 99;
army relieved by Stockton,
103.
Kelley, Jay G, rider on first
Pony Express Route, 127;
thrilling experiences of, 133"
135-

5i°

INDEX

King, Clarence, first director of
U. S. Geol. Survey, 207; his
Mountaineering in the Sierra
Nevada, 207; extracts from,
208, 209; thrilling experi
ences ascending Mount Tyn-
dall, 209-216; the dangerous
descent, 216-220.
King, James, of William, birth
of, 154; letter from his
brother, 155; arrives in Cali
fornia, 156; opens bank, 156;
his integrity, 157; foreman
of grand jury, 158; business
reverses, 158; challenged to
fight, 159; his reply, 159; its
reception, 160; starts news
paper, 162; its success, 163;
denounces wrong-doing, 163-
165; demands trial of Cora,
166; a power in the State,
167; opposes appointment of
Bagley, 167 ; attack on Casey,
167; altercation with Casey,
168; murder of, by Casey,
168; effect of on citizens,
168; Vigilance Committee re
called, 168; trials of Cora
and Casey by Committee,
169; execution of murderers,
170; burial of King, 170;
good he accomplished, 170.
King, Thomas Starr, promi
nence during Civil War, 171 ;
powerful sermon for Union,
173; tours State for cause,
175; life threatened, 175; ap
peals for funds for Sanitary
Commission work, 176; trib
ute to, by James Linden, 176,
177; illness and death, 178;
tribute to, by William D-
Simonds, 178 ; Whittier's
poem on, 179.

Leland, Life of James P.
Beckwourth, 109.

Lemmon, John G., his birth,
322; early life, 323; enlists
for war, 323; in Anderson
ville, 323 ; health broken, 323 ;
removes to California, 323;
discovers new plants, 324;
encouraged by Asa Gray,
'324; his botanical researches,
324; marriage, 325; his wife
an enthusiastic botanist, 325;
the wild potato, 326; danger
from Indians, 328; arduous
trips, 329-332; ascent of
Mount Agassiz, 332-335 ;
work for conservation, 336;
his labor appreciated, 336;
his death, 337.
Lemmon, Sara Plummer, mar
riage^ 325; an enthusiastic
botanist, 325 ; her sketches of
plants, 326; a dangerous trip,
326-329; hostile Indians, 328;
ascent of Mount Agassiz,
332-335 ; pioneer conserva
tionist, 336; authorship, 336,
337; edits husband's last
book, 337.
Lick, James, birth of, 261 ; in
New York, 262; to Buenos
Ayres, 262; at Lima, Peru,
262; arrives in San Fran
cisco, 263; real estate invest
ments, 264; the "Mahogany
Mill," 264; his peculiarities,
265 ; builds hotel, 266 ; gift to
Academy of Sciences, 266
plans for Observatory, 267
the deeds of trust, 267-270
his death, 270; Observatory
established, 271; his bene
factions, 271.
' Linden, James, tribute to
Thomas Starr King, 176, 177.
Lowe, Thaddeus S. C, birth of,
417; _ early life, 417-419;
chemical researches, 419, 420;
balloon ascensions, 420 ;
agreement with Professor

INDEX

5"

Henry, 421; discovers east
ern current of air, 421-424;
ballooning experiences dur
ing the war, 424-427; experi
ments in refrigeration, 427,
428; invention of gas making
machinery, 428; settles in
California, 429; inclined rail
ways, 429-431 ; builds Ob
servatory, 431 ; Mount Lowe
Railway, 431, 432; refining
petroleum, 433, 434; his in
ventions, 435; his fame, 436.
M
McCutcheon, William, one of
Donner party, 57; volunteers
with Stanton to go for aid,
57; carries letter to Captain
Sutter, 57; safe arrival, 58;
illness of, 58.
McGlashan, C. F., History of
the Donner Party, 59.
Majors, Alexander, joint-pro
prietor of stage route, 124;
establishes first Pony Ex
press, 126; Memoirs of, 132.
Manly, W. L., one of Death
Valley Party, 74; volunteers
with Rogers to seek aid, 74;
reaches San Fernando Mis
sion, 75; returns with suc
cour, 75; suffering in the
desert, 75 ; abandons animals,
76; regains the party, 79;
party goes forward, 81 ;
amusing episode, 82; reaches
Los Angeles, 85.
Man with the Hoe, The, 452.
Markham, Edwin, teaching
school, 451; The Man with
the Hoe, 452; its reception,
454; the author's defense of
the poem, 454-457! a cham
pion of the helpless,_ 458.
Marley, W. C, superintendent
of Pony Express station, 130.
Maxwell, George H., organizes

National Irrigation Associa
tion, 473.
Mendoza, endeavors to surpass
Cortes, 1; appoints Alargon
to command of expedition to
cooperate with Coronado, 2.
Mohave Indians, Pattie's excit
ing encounter with, 34; pur
sues and defeats them, 35.
Muir, John, early life, 339; in
ventive genius, 340; reflec
tions, 341, 342; temporary
loss of sight, 343; through
the South, 344; illness, 345;
in California, 345; in the
Sierra Nevada, 346; descrip
tion of country, 347-349;
with Coast and Geodetic Sur
vey, 349; to Alaska, 349;
member of Corwin expedi
tion, 349; visits Norway and
Switzerland, 350 ; personal
appearance, 350 ; his . literary
style, 350-354; five land
marks in his life, 355-360.
Murphy, Virginia Reed. See
Reed, Virginia. N.
North, John W., issues circu
lar for colony, 292; Riverside
to-day, 292-295; the plan,
295, 296; the land selected,
297; his early life, 298; prac
tice of the law, 299; ap
pointed judge, 300; colony
formed and land purchased,
301, 302; starting the or
chards, 302-304; the first
navel oranges, 305; starts
new colony, 308.

Ontario, town started by
Chaffey, 442; its growth,
443; system of water supply,
444-

5"

INDEX

Palou, companion of Serra, 9;
sails from Cadiz, 9; arrives
at Vera Cruz, 10; walks to
Mexico City, 10.
Papago Indians, warn de Anza
of danger from Yumas, 18.
Pattie, James O., trapping of
animals, cruel, xii ; a trapper
of Kentucky, 28; travels in
Lower California, 28; taken
prisoner, 29; vaccinates in
habitants, 29 ; Thwaites' story
of, 29; joins Pratte, 30; im
prisoned at San Diego, 31 ;
his father's death, 31 ; hatred
of Governor Echeandia, 31 ;
his narrative, 32-38; bear
hunting on the Gila, 32; at
tacked by Mohaves, 34; death
of his companions, 35 ; hc/rses
stolen by the Yumas, 37;
builds canoes, 38; crosses
Colorado Desert, 38.
Peters, Dewitt C, Life of Car
son, 96.
Phelps, Captain W. D., in com
mand of the ship Alert, 104;
of assistance to Fremont,
104; diary of, 105-108.
Pomeroy, Judge, quotation
from, 246, 249.
Pony Express, The, first con
sideration of, 125; establish
ment of first route, 126; first
arrival in San Francisco,
128; tariff for letters, 128;
dangers for messengers, 129.
Powell, John W., his ideas on
Reclamation, 310-312; the
speculator's plan, 312-313; his
temptation, 314; his speech
and its reception, 315, 316.
Pratt, assistant to Charles
Crocker, 239; loyalty to the
Central Pacific Railroad, 239.
Pratte, Bernard, a noted trap

per, joined by James O.
Pattie, 30. R
Randolph, Edmund, violent
speech for slavery, 172.
Reed, James T., organizer of
the Donner Party, 64; kills
Snyder in altercation, 66;
banished by party, 66.
Reed, Virginia, account of
Donner Party, 60; daughter
of organizer of Donner
party, 66 ; takes aid to father,
67; dangers of the journey,
68-71 ; finds her father, 71 ;
returns to party, 72.
Richardson, H., rider on first
Pony Express Route, 127.
Richardson, William H., assas
sination of, 166.
Rinehart, Robert E., story of
the Death Valley party, 86-
93-
Rivera, Governor, receives de
Anza's report, 23.
Robidoux, French trapper,
joined by John Bidwell, 47;
organizes party, 47; varied
experiences, 48.
Rockwood, C. R., makes sur
veys for reclaiming the Colo
rado Desert, 440, 441 ; ap
peals to Chaffey Brothers,
446; their interest enlisted,
446; work taken up, 446;
successful conclusion, 446 ;
Imperial Valley prosperity
largely due to him, 450.
Roff, Harry, rider on first Pony
Express Route, 127.
Rogers, one of Death Valley
party, 74; volunteers with
Manly to seek aid, 74;
reaches San Fernando Mis
sion, 75 ; returns with suc
cour, 75; sufferings in the
desert, 75 ; abandons animals,

INDEX

5i3

76; regains the party, 79;
party goes forward, 81 ;
amusing episode, 82; reaches
Los Angeles, 85.
Royce, C. C, quotation from,
on Bidwell, 53.
Russell, joint-proprietor of
stage route, 124; enthusiastic
for Pony Express, 125 ; es
tablishes first Route, 126.
Ryan, Marah Ellis, pictures of
old Mission life in The Soul
of Rafael, 24.

St. Joseph, Missouri, first
westward Pony Express
started from, 128.
San Antonio de Padua Mis
sion, founded by Serra, 15.
San Buenaventura Mission,
founded by Serra, 15.
San Carlos Mission, founded
by Serra, 15; copy of Sar-
ria's letter in archives of, 25.
San Carlos Carmelo Mission,
Junipero Serra buried in, 15.
San Diego Mission, established
by Serra, 15; division of de
Anza's party arrives at, 19;
de Anza goes to, 22.
San Francisco de Asis Mission,
founded by Serra, 15.
San Gabriel Mission, founded
by Serra,' 15; on road from
Lower to Upper California,
17; de Anza arrives at, 19.
San Juan Capistrano Mission,
founded by Serra, 15.
San Luis Obispo Mission,
founded by Serra, 15.
San Luis Rey Mission, Bidwell
appointed alcade of, 53.
Santa Barbara Mission, founded
by Serra, 15.
Santa Clara Mission, founded
by Serra, 15.
Sargent, A. A., meets Judah on

trip to Washington, 227 ; aids
in Central Pacific R. R. Co.,
legislation, 227.
Sarria, Francisco Vicente de,
arrives in California, 25;
elected Comisario prefecto,
25 ; letter to missionaries, 25 ;
his loyalty to Spain, 26;
Gleeson's account of, 27;
death of, 27.
Serra, Junipero, spirit extolled,
xi; birth of, 7; joins Fran
ciscan Order, 7; fame as a
preacher, 8; influenced by
Dante, 8; becomes a mission
ary, 9; his companions, 9;
sails from Cadiz, 9; suffer
ings on voyage, 10; arrives
at Vera Cruz, 10; walks to
Mexico City, 10; Jesuits ex
pelled from Lower Califor
nia, 11; appointed presidente,
11; a pioneer, n; revered by
natives, 1 1 ; simplicity of life,
12; ability of, 12, 13; his
genius and tact, 13 ; his bra
very, 14; results of labors of,
15 ; Missions established by,
15; death and burial, 15; pe
titions for road to Upper
California, 17; welcomes de
Anza, 22; memorial cross to
293.
Simonds, Rev. William D., trib
ute to Thomas Starr King,
Slavery, sentiment in Califor
nia for, 171-173-
Sloat, Commodore, seized Cali
fornia for the United States,
123.
Smith, Jedediah, joins General
Ashley's band of trappers,
40; on Rio Virgen and Colo
rado River, 40 ; crosses Colo
rado Desert, 41 ; reaches San
Gabriel, 41; arrested, 41; re
leased by Echeandia, 41;

5i4

INDEX

writes Padre Duran, 42;
crosses the Sierras, 42; re
turns to California, 43 ; bond
signed by Captain Cooper,
43; returns to Salt Lake, 44;
killed by Indians, 44.
" Snow-shoe " Thompson. See
Thompson, John A.
Smythe, William E., birth of,
468; in Nebraska, 469; The
Conquest of Arid America,
469, 475 ; editorials on irriga
tion, 469-471 ; popularizes
movement, 475; his book
scientific, historical, practi
cal, 475, 476; quotation from,
477; the "Little Landers,"
478-480; a great benefactor,
481.
Soledad Mission, Padre Sarria
dies at, 24; Sarria pastor of,
27.
Stanford, Leland, nominated
for Governor, 226; elected
president Central Pacific R.
R. Co., 226; elected Gov
ernor, 235 ; efforts to raise
funds, 237; announces com
pletion of road,' 244.
Stanton, Charles T., one of the
Donner party, 57; volunteers
with McCutcheon to go for
aid, 57; carries letter to Cap
tain Sutter, 57; safe arrival,
57; illness of McCutcheon,
57; returns with Indian com
panions, 58; rejoins party,
58; urges speed, 58; Mc
Glashan's history, 59; efforts
to escape, 59; return to the
Lake, 60 ; the " Forlorn
Hope," 60; sufferings of ad
vance party, 61-63 ; his death,
63; his body found, 63.
Stockton, Commodore, Carson
offers to seek aid of, 99; des
patches aid to Army of the
West, 103.

Sutro, Adolph, birth of, 273;
early years, 274; arrival in
America, 274 ; settles, in Cali
fornia, 274; the Comstock
lode, 274-278 ; formulates
plan for tunnel, 278, 279; se
cures State aid, 279; national
aid granted, 281 ; tunnel op
posed, 281 ; mass meeting of
miners, 282; his speeches,
283-286; congressional inves
tigation, 286; tunnel com
pleted 289; Hittell's view of,
289; retires from corpora
tion, 290; real estate inter
ests, 290; elected mayor, 290.
Sutter, Captain, joined by Bid-
well, 52; orders Fort Ross
dismantled, 52; letter from
Donner party, 57; sends aid
to, 58.

Taylor, William, arrival in San
Francisco, 140; preaches first
sermon, 141 ; shrewdness and
wit, 142-144; denunciation of
gambling, 145 ; origin of
" Shanghaing," 147 ; labors
for seamen, 146-148; preaches
against duelling, 148; sends
first eucalyptus seed, 149;
builds his house, 150; high
cost of living, 152; his suc
cess, 152;, establishes mis
sions, 153; appointed Mis
sionary Bishop, 153.
Thatcher, George, rider on first
Pony Express Route, 128.
Thompson, John A. (" Snow-
shoe"), bravery and endur
ance of, 195, 196; birth of,
197; arrival in California,
197; makes his first snow-
shoes, 197; agility surprises
friends, 199; begins carrying
mails, 199; travelled light,
200; method of camping,

INDEX

5i5

202; working without pay,
204; his claims rejected, 205;
death of, 205.
Thwaites, R. G, Introduction
to Patties' Narrative, 29-31.
U
Ulloa, Francisco de, sails from
Acapulco by order of Cortes,
1 ; discovers peninsula and
gulf of California, 2 ; incom
petency of, 2.
Union Pacific Railroad Co.,
connected with Central Pa
cific, 231 ; payment for com
pleted road, 241 ; rivalry with
Central Pacific, 242; the last
spike, 243.

Vasquez de Coronado, in serv
ice of Mendoza, 2; Alar
con sent to cooperate with,
2; sends Diaz to find Alar
con, 4
Verges, companion of Serra, 9;
sails from Cadiz, 9; arrives
at Vera Cruz, 10.
Vigilance Committee (of 1856),
reorganized upon murder of
James King, 168; take Cora
and Casey from jail, 169;
trial of, 169; execution of,
170.
Vincens, companion of Serra,

9; sails from Cadiz, 9; ar
rives at Vera Cruz, 10.
W
Waddell, joint-proprietor of
stage route, 124; establishes
first Pony Express, 126.
Weller, John B., speech for
Breckenridge, 171.
White, Stephen M., the strug
gle for San Pedro harbor,
460-462; meeting with Hunt
ington, 462, 463; Hunting
ton's opinion of, 463 ; conclu
sion of speech in Senate,
464.
Whittier, John G., poem on
Thomas Starr King, 179.
Wozencraft, Dr. O. M., secures
aid of State and national au
thorities, 439, 440; plan for
reclaiming the Colorado Des
ert, 440; interfered with by
Civil War, 440.
Wright, William, account of
" Snow - shoe " Thompson,
195-206.

Yuma Indians, reported un
friendly to de Anza, 19; give
aid to his party, 19; division
of his party return to, 19;
stampede and capture Pat
tie's horses, 37.