goldfields

On this date — June 21 — in 1879 the notorious stage robber Black Bart held up a stage coach near Forbestown in Butte County. It was his first robbery in the year 1879 and his ninth robbery since he began his career in 1875. This incident would be followed by two more robberies in October in Shasta County. He generally committed his crimes in the summer and fall, and then retired to San Francisco to live off his ill-gotten gains over the winter.

The description of the robber in this newspaper notice fits Black Bart’s modus operandi. A lone bandit, no accomplices, only wanting the Wells, Fargo box, never molesting a lady — those were the signs of the “gentleman bandit.”

Of all the stagecoach robbers in California history — and there were many — Black Bart is the name that still holds a place in the minds of the public. Why does he remain the most famous hold-up artist in California history?

One reason is the length of his career. He committed 28 robberies and eluded capture for eight years. That’s a long time in a chancy business.

Another reason is his choice of pseudonym and his penchant for advertising himself by leaving notes in verse at the scene of the crime.

His real name was Charles Boles, but “Black Bart”, a name he seems to have picked out of thin air, sticks in the memory. His verse was crude, but it caught the public’s attention, especially when he signed himself as “Black Bart, the Po-8.”

It also helped that he was a “gentleman bandit.” He was never cruel or vicious. He didn’t molest women. He didn’t murder stagecoach drivers or passengers. He politely asked the driver to “Please throw down the box” while holding a shotgun that he would later claim wasn’t even loaded.

For eight years, from July 1875 to to November 1883, “Bart” got away with it. Wells Fargo detectives and county sheriffs couldn’t catch him. A left-behind handkerchief with a laundry mark was his undoing. Black Bart was finally captured and sent to San Quentin prison in November 1883. He spent five years in prison and disappeared from public notice after his release in 1888.

Lake Oroville is full to the brim. If you are one of my readers living in Butte County, you already know this. If you are elsewhere I hope you will enjoy seeing the change.

Yesterday I went with my husband Jim and daughter Jean to have a look. It is a glorious sight. No deep dirt rim around the lake anymore — just acres and acres of water. In 2021 the water was so low that it looked like this:

That photo from CNN shows the intake gates at the hydroelectric power plant in the dam. The water was so low that the plant couldn’t function. Today the same gates are under water and can’t be seen.

The spillway has been repaired and is working at full capacity. Water is roaring down into the Feather River. To get an idea of how big that spillway is, notice the two tiny trucks on the right side of the spillway about two-thirds of the way up. dwarfed by the spillway.

In 2017, after a wet winter, the spillway broke, resulting in an emergency evacuation order for the city of Oroville. If you are interested in learning more about the breakup of the spillway, what caused it and how it was repaired, watch this “Practical Engineering” YouTube video. It’s informative and easy to follow.

At 770 feet, Oroville Dam is the tallest dam in the United States. (Hoover Dam is 726 feet high.) Standing by the road that crosses the top of the dam and looking west, you get a beautiful view of the Feather River with the city of Oroville and the Sutter Buttes in the distance. Looking to the east, it’s all blue water and green trees. (The orange barrier in the last photo prevents boats from getting close to the spillway intake.)

Lake Oroville is a State Recreation Area and a great place for boating, swimming, fishing, picnicking, and other outdoor activities. Enjoy it while it’s full!

Last month I was at the Paradise Chocolate Fest, on Authors’ Row, sharing a table and selling books with ANCHR. There I met another author and I liked the look of her book so much I bought a copy.

The author is Jenifer E. Rowe and the book is Madam Pantaloons: Gold Rush Pioneer. The book, written for young readers, tells the true story of an independent woman in early California.

Jeanne Marie Suize was a native of France and came to California with her brother in 1850. They went to the goldfields at Jackson, Amador County, to mine for gold.

Marie soon discovered that placer mining in a dress and petticoats was awkward. Her cumbersome garments made work in a streambed difficult, and it ruined her clothing. Trousers and boots were much more suitable. The miners started calling her “Madam Pantaloons.”

Marie didn’t care that there were laws in place that forbade women to wear men’s clothing. She was arrested and told to put on a dress, but she persisted in her independent ways. She was a woman who lived life on her own terms.

Marie Suize had a head for business. She not only engaged in mining, but also saw the potential for grape-growing and wine-making in California. In partnership with a man named Andre Douet, she developed a vineyard, winery, and shops selling their products in San Francisco and Virginia City, Nevada.

Little else is known of Madame Suize. She died on January 8, 1892 and is buried at Jackson.

Jenifer Rowe has sought out every scrap of information on Jeanne Marie Suize, but the information is scant. She fills out her short book with useful information on transportation, mining, camp life, and women’s roles in Gold Rush California.

Both young readers and adults will enjoy getting to know “Madam Pantaloons.” We need books that show the diversity of early California’s population and this is one book that fills the bill. The book is available from Barnes & Noble.

From time to time I’ve followed up on members of the Bidwell-Bartleson Party and what they did after they arrived in California, men like John Bartleson, Josiah Belden, Joseph Chiles, and Nicolas Dawson (many posts for him).

Another member of that 1841 group of emigrants was Henry L. Brolaski. Other than the list of members, John Bidwell only mentions him once in his journal, when Brolaski is one of the men who goes to Fort Hall in hopes of finding a guide or at least some information about the trail across the Great Basin.

Twenty-two years after that momentous journey, Henry L. Brolaski wrote to John Bidwell from St. Louis Missouri. He knew Bidwell was still in California, but he wasn’t sure where. He had heard that Bidwell had written an account of their journey and he wanted to get a copy.

St. Louis Dec 11^th 1863

Mr. Bidwell

            Dr Sir  My name will probably call to your recollection that we were companions in a journey across the plains in 1840. I have heard that you published an account of the trip and I should like very much to have a copy of your work. Will you be kind enough to send me one per express or advise me where it can be had. I will cheerfully pay all charges.

            I fully expected to have settled in California but local interest and business here has caused me to abandon the idea. I am getting old now and deem it hardly worth while to think of further change. I really hope it may be in your power to comply with my request.

            Not knowing how to address you properly or where you are located I have doubts of this reaching you otherwise I should write you a longer letter. Should it do so I should be pleased to learn from you the whereabouts of Mr. Hopper, Barnett, Beldin, Chandler or others of our companions.

            Very respectfully yours, H. L. Brolaski

Bidwell’s journal had been printed in Missouri in 1843 or 1844 without his consent (so he said, but he revised the journal and sent it back to a friend in Missouri). He probably didn’t have a copy to send to Brolaski. He would tell the story again later, but this letter is before the narratives he dictated for Bancroft and for The Century Magazine. I don’t know if Mr. Brolaski ever got his wish.

Henry L. Brolaski was born in Pennsylvania in 1814, the son of a Polish immigrant and his New England wife. In 1835 he married Eliza Higginbotham and that same year a daughter was born to the couple in Callao, Peru, where Henry’s older brother Joseph was in business. The next year he was back in Philadelphia, and by 1837 he was in Missouri. (This is all based on the birthplaces of his children.)

By the time Henry set out for California in 1841, he had a wife and three children in Missouri. What dreams or schemes drew him to the West? Did he sense opportunity in California or did he just long for adventure? One thing we know, he didn’t take his wife and children, like Ben and Samuel Kelsey did.

He worked for a short time in Monterey for Thomas O. Larkin, but less than a year after arrival he sailed for Peru and by the end of the year he was back in the States. On November 14, 1842 he applied for a passport in Boston, and asked to have it sent to his Philadelphia address. They didn’t have passport photos back then, so instead they gave a physical description.

Henry rejoined his family in Missouri and added another son to the children. Then in 1849 the Gold Rush exerted its irresistible pull, drawing him back to California, and once again he left his wife and children behind. According to this newspaper notice he tried his hand at mining. It looks like he was the leader of a group of sixteen men prospecting on the American River.

He didn’t stay long at Brolaski’s Bar. He left those men to work on their canal and reef while he went into business in Sacramento City that summer of 1850. The firm of Brolaski, Goodall & Co. sold provisions of all kinds to miners at their store at 3rd and J Streets.The census, taken in October, lists him as a merchant.

No sooner had he started in business then he was out again. He sold his interest in the store in the fall of 1850 and left California to return to Missouri. His second California sojourn was over. Perhaps he had made enough money to revitalize his business ventures in St. Louis.

Three more children, twin boys and a girl, were born to Henry and Eliza between 1852 and 1855. An 1875 city directory lists him as the president of the Brolaski Shoe Manufacturing Company.

Then at the age of 65 he set out on another business venture, this time in Colorado. In 1876 he went to Silverton with his son Harry M. Brolaski and located a site for a reduction mill to process silver ore. The project ended when Henry died in 1877 of pneumonia.

Henry L. Brolaski led a long and far-flung life of business mixed with adventure. He could claim the distinction of being a member of the first wagon train to California and the first Polish-American in California.

A note on sources: I couldn’t write this post without the wonderful online resources that are now available. All the information about Henry Brolaski’s family and his whereabouts come from either FamilySearch.org, a free genealogical resource from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or the California Digital Newspaper Collection. The definitive book on the Bidwell-Barleson Party is The Bidwell-Barleson Party: 1841 California Emigrant Adventure, by Doyce B. Nunis, Jr.