goldfields

Luzena Stanley Wilson

The account of Luzena Stanley Wilson is one of the most vivid and charming of all the Gold Rush stories that have come down to us. She told her story to her daughter Correnah in 1881 while Correnah was recovering from an illness, and her daughter later published it. Read this opening and ask yourself if you would have picked up and left everything behind as quickly as the Wilsons did.

The gold excitement spread like wildfire, even out to our log cabin in the prairie, and as we had almost nothing to lose, and we might gain a fortune, we early caught the fever. My husband grew enthusiastic and wanted to start immediately, but I would not be left behind. I thought where he could go I could, and where I went I could take my two little toddling babies. Mother-like, my first thought was of my children. I little realized then the task I had undertaken. If I had, I think I should still be in my log cabin in Missouri. But when we talked it all over, it sounded like such a small task to go out to California, and once there fortune, of course, would come to us.

“It seemed like such a small task.” Just pack up for a summer trip across prairie, mountain and desert. It would be an adventure, and when they arrived “fortune, of course, would come to us.” That’s what all the ’49ers thought, and they couldn’t wait to get to El Dorado.

The Wilsons at the time had two children, Thomas, who was about three years old, and Jay, a baby under one year old. Can you imagine a 6-month long camping trip with two toddlers?

It was the work of but a few days to collect our forces for the march into the new country, and we never gave a thought to selling our section, but left it, with two years’ labor, for the next comer. Monday we were to be off. Saturday we looked over our belongings, and threw aside what was not absolutely necessary. Beds we must have, and something to eat. It was a strange but comprehensive load which we stowed away in our “prairie-schooner”, and some things which I thought necessities when we started became burdensome luxuries, and before many days I dropped by the road-side a good many unnecessary pots and kettles, for on bacon and flour one can ring but few changes, and it requires but few vessels to cook them.

Bread and bacon, bacon and bread, some beans, and coffee — those were the staples of the overland trek. Simple and monotonous.

One luxury we had which other emigrants nearly always lacked—fresh milk. From our gentle “mulley” cow I never parted. She followed our train across the desert, shared our food and water, and our fortunes, good or ill, and lived in California to a serene old age, in a paradise of green clover and golden stubble-fields, full to the last of good works.

In honor of Beverly Cleary’s 102nd birthday (born April 12, 1916), I am rerunning the post I wrote in 2016. Beverly Cleary is still on this earth, and still a beloved author, and if you have never read a book by her, I urge you to do so. You will be so glad you did!

Are you a Beverly Cleary fan? I am, and in honor of the author’s 100th birthday, I wrote a guest post on my daughter’s blog, Howling Frog Books.

Does Beverly Cleary qualify as northern California history? Of course! In the first place, anything 100 years old is history.

As for California, it’s true, she was born and raised in Oregon and her most famous stories are set on Klickitat Street in Portland. But she graduated from the University of California at Berkeley (me too!) where she met her husband (me too!)  After a stint as a children’s librarian (me too!) in Yakima, Washington (me in Bakersfield), she and her husband moved to Carmel, California, where she started writing books and kept on writing for the next 49 years (not me).

Today she lives in a retirement home in Carmel (which is northern California, if you live in San Diego) and is enjoying carrot cake for her birthday.

Her best-known character, Ramona Quimby

So read about her here, and all over the Web. And read one of her many, many books. If you don’t want to read a children’s book (and why not?) then read her wonderful memoirs: A Girl from Yamhill and My Own Two Feet. Guaranteed enjoyment.

My autographed copy of Beezus and Ramona

California poppy blossom; photo by Luke Ravitch on Flickr

April 6 is California Poppy Day, honoring our state flower. The California Poppy was designated the state flower in 1903, and in 2010 April 6 was named an official state holiday (but not one where anybody gets the day off, sorry to say). Instead, according to Senate Bill 944:

. . . all public schools and educational institutions are encouraged to conduct exercises honoring the California Poppy, including instruction about native plants, particularly the California Poppy, and the economic and aesthetic value of wildflowers; promoting responsible behavior toward our natural resources and a spirit of protection toward them . . .

So I hope you learn something about the California Poppy today. Here are some tidbits of information, with which you can stun your friends and family.

The California poppy (Eschscholzia Californica) is one of 12 species in the genus eschscholzia, which is named for botanist Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz. 

Before they flower, the plants look a bit like carrots. But don’t try to eat the yellow taproot — it is mildly toxic. I am not sure what constitutes “mildly toxic” and I do not plan to experiment and report my findings.

Other species of eschscholzia grow in Western North America and you can find pictures and descriptions at the wonderful website CalFlora.

As you know, I like to visit Table Mountain Ecological Reserve in Butte County every year for the wildflower display. The true California poppy is not a native of Table Mountain, but two of its cousins are there:

Foothill poppy

One is Eschscholzia caespitosa or foothill poppy, which is nearly identical, except that it lacks a collar below the petals. These are only found in a few rocky outcrops.

The other is the smaller, paler cousin of the California poppy, Eschscholzia lobbii, or frying pans. (Yes, the flower is called frying pans. I’m not sure why, but you can think of it as a little pan full of melted butter, ready for your morning eggs.)

Frying pans are very common on Table Mountain. You see them everywhere — swathes of little yellow poppies.

Frying pans (Eschscholzia lobbii)

More information on California’s state symbols can be found at https://statesymbolsusa.org/states/united-states/california

Continuing George McKinstry Jr’s letter to Edward Kern, December 1851:

Louis Keseberg

Old Louis Keseberg,* the Donner Party Man-Eater, has made a fortune and is now running a restaurant on K street in Sacramento City. I would like to board there, I wouldn’t.

Pierson B. Reading** is on his farm raising wheat and pumpkins in abundance – I camped on his rancho some six weeks last summer. He was the Whig candidate for Governor but could not make it. It was said his friendship with Captain Sutter cost him the Squatter votes. He has been wounded twice in Bear-Hunts since you left—shot in the hand two years ago and broke his leg badly two months ago. Next time it will be his head if he doesn’t quit. He plans to go to Philadelphia on the 1^st of April next and marry; about time I think. . .

Old Snyder and Sam Hensley*** both married. Bidwell too damn prosperous to mention.

After all the death and disaster that befell the Sutter’s Fort “Old Guard” it is refreshing to hear McKinstry say “Bidwell too damn prosperous to mention.” At least someone was successful.

Sam Norris has made two or three hundred thousand, but is reputed hard up and thought to be busted. Sam Brannan, ditto. In fact I could fill up a foolscap sheet with the names of the busted Old Guard in this community, including your humble servant. I purchased the Chico Rancho of old William Dickey, who went to the States or Ireland—I don’t know where the hell he is. Old John Yates**** went to England. Sam Neal† is on his farm; he has built a large frame house and still loves horses—still rides the little grey.

Dr. Bates and his brother made a snug fortune—lost it—gone to practicing again. Old Nicolaus Altgeier made a city on his farm. The city blew up and I think the explosion bent him some.

*So much has been written on the Donner Party disaster that I have never thought I needed to cover it. Whether or not Keseberg was a murderer or a cannibal is still debated.

Pierson B. Reading

**Pierson B. Reading came to California in 1844 as part of the Chiles-Walker Party. He owned Rancho Buena Ventura at the site of present-day Redding. (Which is named after him even though the railroad changed the spelling.)

***Samuel Hensley came to California with the same group as Reading. Both men were close friends with John Bidwell, and Hensley’s grant, Rancho Aguas Nieves, lay just south and east of Rancho Chico.

****John Yates was an English sailor who came to California in 1842. In 1845 he was located on Rancho Chico with Dickey. Later he owned Yates Ranch, a few miles south of Oroville.

†Someday I need to write about Sam Neal. His ranch was south of Rancho Chico, where Neal Road is today.

Here is a picture of Sam Neal — who looks like he is being played by Clint Eastwood.

One of the most entertaining letters on California history that I have seen is one written by George McKinstry Jr. to Edward Kern in December 1851. Kern was John C. Fremont’s cartographer and artist on his expedition to California in 1846. McKinstry and Kern had known each other at Sutter’s Fort, but Kern returned to the United States with Fremont at the end of the Mexican War. He never came back to California. In spite of his short stay, the Kern River and Kern County are named for him.

George McKinstry Jr. in 1880

McKinstry, who had moved on to San Diego, gives Kern updates on long list of men they had known at Sutter’s Fort. It is astonishing how many of these men are no longer in the land of the living. I don’t recognize all these names, but I will give notes on a few that I do know, and links to ones that I have written about.

Since you left this country a most astonishing change has taken place. The new Yankees would say for the better, but not we old fellows from Captain Sutter down to old Bray!*. . . Times are not what they “useter was.”

The old Sacramento crowd are much scattered by death and disaster since you left. William Daylor by cholera; Jared Sheldon shot in a row with miners; Perry McCoon by a fall from his horse; Sebastian Keyser** drowned; Little Bill Johnson*** – x – Kin Sabe? Captain “Luce” missing in the mountains; Olimpio, Sutter’s Indian messenger, shot by miners; Old Thomas Hardy, rum; John Sinclair, cholera; William E. Shannon, cholera; old William Knight,**** rum as expected; Charley Heath, rum and missing; Bob Ridley,† fever I think; and others too numerous to set down.

Our good friend Captain John Sutter has fitted up the Hock Rancho in superb style but I regret to say his reign seems smashed to flinders; old Theodore Cordua, tambien; Daylor and Sheldon estates said to be insolvent; our old and particular crony, John L. Schwartz,‡ still inhabits the Fishing Rancheria and has finally built that two-story house to escape the mosquitoes which he talked about so much. God know how he stands the pressure; he goes it, though, more than ever on the rum.

Old Kitnor is Captain Sutter’s mayordomo at Hock – he made a fortune and went bust; William A. Liedesdorff, dead; old Eliab Grimes, dead; Jack Fuller, ditto – also Allen Montgomery. Montgomery’s widow married the man who called himself Talbot H. Green, formerly with Larkin at Monterey and afterwards W. D. M. Howard’s partner in San Francisco. His real name was found to be Paul Geddes some time back, a bank robber from the United States. He departed to clear up his character, which was the last seen of him.

And there is much more — so stay tuned!

*Bray – Irish immigrant in the Stevens party of 1844.

**Sebastian Keyser – an Austrian trapper who came overland with Sutter. He was the recipient of the Llano Seco grant and later ran a ferry on the Cosumnes River, where he drowned in 1850.

***Bill Johnson – owner of Johnson’s Ranch on the immigrant trail. Bancroft notes he either died or went to the Sandwich Isles. If McKinstry knew anything, de’s not saying.

****William Knight – for whom Knight’s Landing is named.

†Bob Ridley – managed Fort Ross for Sutter before Bidwell took over the task.

‡Schwartz – member of the 1841 Bidwell-Bartleson Party, who had a grant on the Sacramento River where he established a fishing station.

Often when I am looking for a particular story in an old newspaper, I don’t find what I want, but something else catches my eye. This time it was the Red Bluff Beacon for May 11, 1859. I was looking for an item on Peter Lassen, but instead I cam across this verse promoting Oppenheim’s Dry Good Store, which was moving to “new diggings.”

M. OPPENHEIM has just returned from San Francisco with an extensive and varied stock of Fine and Fancy Dry Goods; probably the largest stock of this description of goods ever brought to this place.

Oh Ladies! all attention, pray,
Give ear unto my strain;
And as you walk about so gay,
To call on be but deign.
For though a lady’s toilet is
Composed of things a heap,
You’ll find them all within my store,
Best quality and cheap.

A lady’s dress will oft wear out,
No doubt to her great bother.
But now she need no longer pout,
When cheap she’ll get another.
From hooks and eyes to Eugenie Hoops,
All things I have in store,
So low that all who buy, confess
They ne’er bought like before.

Then come and buy, at prices low,
My goods are fast a-selling;
But buy, or not, the goods I’ll show,
You’ll may be buy, no telling.
But remember that my prices are
But down to suit the times;
And all the ladies wants can now be filled
At Mr. M. Oppenheim’s.

At present my store is next door to Pierce, Church & Co’s. On and after the 20^th inst., I will be found next door to Markwitz’s tin shop, on the west side of Main Street. M. OPPENHEIM  Red Bluff, May 11 1859

Empress Eugenie in 1860, wearing the fashionable Eugenie hoop skirt. “Everybody buys ’em now.”

Note his mention of Eugenie Hoops, so named because the Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, popularized them in Europe. Hoop skirts were becoming fashionable in the mid-1850s and ladies in Red Bluff probably weren’t wearing such things quite yet. But they would want to be en vogue, and they could get what they needed at Mr. Oppenheim’s.

The young naturalist at work

It is a tradition in our family to visit Table Mountain here in Butte County at least once in the spring, and I never feel that once is enough. Today was the day for our first visit — a perfect sunny day for it, and we are expecting rain most of the rest of the week. Rain is great for the flowers, but sunshine is best for viewing.

My love of wildflowers is the source of the name of this blog. Goldfields (Lasthenia) carpets the hillsides of Table Mountain, especially near the vernal pools.  Wildflowers plus California history — what a great combination.

Goldfields, and a few sky lupine

Kellogg’s monkeyflower

Today we saw plenty of lupines, frying pans (a smaller version of California poppies), goldfields, yellow carpet, and purple owl’s clover. The bluedicks and bird’s eye gilia were just getting started. We also spotted meadowfoam, Douglas violets, oakwoods violets, yellow seep monkeyflower, Kellogg’s monkeyflower, popcorn flower, larkspur, redmaids, volcanic onion and bitterroot. The season for wildflower viewing will continue for about a month.

Owl’s Clover

Get yourself a copy of Wildflowers of Table Mountain, by Albin Bills and Samantha Mackey, and go! You will be glad you did. (The book is a wonderful guide, and locally available at many book outlets.) Photography cannot do justice to the streams, the waterfalls, and the California blue and gold wildflowers of Table Mountain.