goldfields

On January 8, 1850 it commenced raining in the Sacramento Valley. The rain continued for ten days, and this after an already wet winter, with rains that began in October 1849.

Sacramento City, built on the riverside where the American and Sacramento Rivers joined, was inundated, with water extending a mile inland from the embarcadero. The streets were filled with water, tents and buildings were swept away, and thousands of dollars of merchandise were lost.

Here are a few quotations from an eyewitness report which appeared in the Daily Alta California, 16 January 1850:

Long before noon hundreds of boats were crossing every street, far and near, and bearing to the several vessels that lay at the river’s bank, women and children, the sick and the feeble; and as they arrived, the owners of the vessels were ready to offer them prompt aid and every comfort in their power; and when they were safely landed upon the decks, the shout of joy went up to heaven in loud cheers from those who landed them, for their safety, and these shouts were echoed back by the hundreds of voices that were in the surrounding boats, and within hearing of the response. During the entire day and until night, this work of humanity and mercy went on.

As an evidence of the power of the current, the new and valuable brick building, corner of J and 3d street, built at great cost by the Messrs. Merritt, having walls nearly or quite 18 inches in thickness, was undermined, and fell with a heavy crash, carrying with it the next store, Messrs. Massett & Brewsters, with which it fell into the flood a mass of ruin. The large iron store on K street, was lifted from its position, carried into the street, and then overthrown, and various others shared the same fate.

The City Hotel, where so many of our friends have enjoyed the excellent fare that was always provided by the proprietors, was so completely submerged as to compel the boarders to enter by boats, at the second story, the first being completely under water.

The full article can be read at the California Digital Newspaper Collection web page.

For the 49ers, this was their first winter in California. They had no idea whether this was normal or not. By 1862, when the floods were even more extensive than those of 1850, they knew that flooding at least once a decade was going to be the norm.

Happy New Year to all the history buffs out there. I hope 2017 is filled with wonderful discoveries and joyful events.

Are you a member of a group or club that needs a speaker? I love to speak to groups—it’s a lot of fun to talk about John Bidwell and his world. It’s a treat to interact with folks who love history. So if you know anyone looking for a speaker, send me a note at goldfieldsbooksca@gmail.com. (Note the “s” in the middle of the address, actually, two of them — it’s easy to miss them.)

I love to talk to elementary students, too, so if you know a teacher, pass this on. 3rd and 4th grade students visit Bidwell Mansion — a talk and slideshow about John and Annie Bidwell before they visit is a great way to get ready. Sometimes I even bring John along with me! (As portrayed by Nick Anderson.)

I have several ideas and projects in the works, and I’ll keep you posted about those as they progress. In the meantime, make 2017 a wonderful year!

John Bidwell knew he was in California when he arrived at John Marsh’s rancho on November 4, 1841. Like most Americans who came to California in the 1840s, he went to John Sutter to find work.

By Christmas Day, Bidwell had been at Sutter’s settlement for about a month. Sutter had enthusiastically hired Bidwell and planned to send him off to the coast to oversee his recent acquisition of Fort Ross. Here is Bidwell describing Sutter’s “Fort” as he first saw it:

The settlement, if it could then be so designated, was in an embryo state. No crops had been raised; grain had been sown, but owing to an unprecedentedly dry season, it had failed to mature.

There was no such thing as bread, so we had to eat beef, and occasionally game, such as elk, deer, antelope, wild geese, and ducks. Our Christmas dinner that year was entirely of ducks. (Colusa County, p. 37)

Just ducks for Christmas dinner! But they wouldn’t go hungry, for there was no shortage of ducks and geese along the river that winter.

So safe at last in California, John Bidwell enjoyed a merry Christmas with John Sutter, his trail mates Jimmy John and Mike Nye, and Sutter’s motley household of Mexicans, Kanakas, and Indians.

I hope you have a very merry holiday season too, whether it’s ducks for dinner, or turkey, ham, or roast beef. Or even vegetarian (which wasn’t an option for Bidwell). Thanks for reading my blog. I’ll be back next year with more Northern California adventures.

In his book The Other Slavery, historian Andrés Reséndez reveals a missing piece of American history — the enslavement of Native Americans. From the first days of Columbus in the Caribbean down to the 20th century, Indians were pressed into slavery.

Only it wasn’t called slavery. It was called indenture, or debt peonage, or not given any name at all. Indian slavery was different from African slavery. The slaves were not transported across the ocean. They were captured and sold by rival Indian tribes, hunted down by white kidnappers, or taken up on charges of vagrancy. Unlike Africans, who all came to North America originally in bondage, Native slavery varied depending on location and tribe.

It was different in other ways too. African slavers sought primarily young men, but with Indian slavery, women and children were more desirable. Women had useful skills — weaving, food preparation, child care. Women and children were more docile and easily managed. In the West particularly, household servants were often Native Americans, often children who had grown up working for their owners.

Indian slavery was not legal, but it persisted anyway. The Spanish crown prohibited Native slavery in 1592, but it continued. Mexico outlawed all forms of bondage and gave the Indians citizenship, but peonage continued. The 13th Amendment prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States, and this certainly should have applied to Indians as much as African-Americans, but Native bondage was ignored. They weren’t called slaves, so how could they be set free?

Reséndez looks at slavery’s beginnings in the Caribbean, the encomienda system in Mexico, and the spread of slavery throughout the American Southwest. When the Mormons arrived in Utah, they came upon a thriving slave trade already in place, and in their efforts to rescue and convert natives, they found themselves entangled in buying and keeping Indian children. In New Mexico the removal of the Navajo to a reservation was an opportunity for slave traders to capture and sell into bondage countless women and children. And in California, even before the Gold Rush, the Indians were coerced into labor by the rancheros, both Mexican and American

Reséndez explores how Native American slavery has been overlooked. He sees in it a major cause of the decline of the Indian populations that can be added to the well-known causes of disease, massacre, and removal. For anyone interested in Native American history or the history of the American West, this is an important book.

On December 8 and 9, 1848 (168 years ago), news of the gold discovery in California was first reported in the New York Daily Tribune. The first report was a letter written on August 17th from Monterey by Col. Richard B. Mason who surveyed the gold regions with Lieut. William Tecumseh Sherman. You may read the entire story here:

He relates how James Marshall found the gold in the tail race of the mill he was building for Sutter:

He then went to the fort, told Captain Sutter of his discovery, and they agreed to keep it secret until a certain grist-mill of Sutter’s was finished. It, however, got out and spread like magic. Remarkable success attended the labours of the first explorers, and, in a few weeks, hundreds of men were drawn thither. At the time of my visit, but little more than three months after its first discovery, it was estimated that upwards of four thousand people were employed.

He goes on to describe how gold fever overtook all the inhabitants of California:

The discovery of these vast deposits of gold has entirely changed the character of Upper California. Its people, before engaged in cultivating their small patches of ground, and guarding their herds of cattle and horses, have all gone to the mines, or are on their way thither. Labourers of every trade have left their work-benches, and tradesmen their shops; sailors desert their ships as fast as they arrive on the coast; and several vessels have gone to sea with hardly enough hands to spread a sail. Two or three are now at anchor in San Francisco, with no crew on board. Many desertions, too, have taken place from the garrisons within the influence of these mines; twenty-six soldiers have deserted from the post of Sonoma, twenty-four from that of San Francisco, and twenty-four from Monterey.

This was followed the next day by two letters from Thomas O. Larkin to the Secretary of State. Larkin had been the American consul in Monterey when California had been part of Mexico. His letters were actually written earlier than Mason’s; they are dated June 1 and June 28.

Sir: I have to report to the State Department one of the most astonishing excitements and state of affairs now existing in this country, that, perhaps, has ever been brought to the notice of the Government. On the American fork of the Sacramento and Feather River, another branch of the same, and the adjoining lands, there has been within the present year discovered a placer, a vast tract of land containing gold, in small particles.

Larkin makes a point of noting that “this placer, or gold region, is situated on public land.” That meant it was free for the taking. Imagine the excitement!

And so every man started figuring out how to make the journey, and worrying that all the gold would be picked up before he could get there. The Rush was on!

The Association for Northern California Historical Research has just launched its new book: The Road to Cherokee, by Mary Ray King. This work of fiction is a first for ANCHR, a historical romance set in Butte County, focusing on two families that come to California in 1850 and seek their fortunes in the rich gold mines of the hills and the rich farmland in the valley.

The author, Mary Ray King, penned her novel in the 1940’s but passed away before seeing it in print. Her granddaughter, Jean Whiles, brought it to the attention of ANCHR. King’s story has been expanded with historical photos, maps, and introductions about the author and about the historical background. This is a rich book!

The Road To Cherokee: A California Epic ($24.95 in paperback) is available at The Bookstore and Bidwell Mansion (Chico), My Girlfriend’s Closet (Paradise), Discount Books (Oroville), the Butte County Historical Society (Oroville), and the Gridley Museum. Or you can contact ANCHR direct for your copy (530-636-0778 or ANCHR.Books@gmail.com)

Dan Barnett, writing in the Chico Enterprise-Record says “Get it now!”

File this under “They Don’t Write Newspapers Like They Used To”—

Random photo of two Californians

100 years ago:

WYANDOTTE HAS ELIGIBLE BACHELORS FOR RICH CHICO WIDOWS — BUT NOT ENOUGH

(Originally published in the Oroville Mercury and republished in the Chico Daily Enterprise Nov. 28)

There are some 85 wealthy widows in Chico, according to the sworn statement of the Enterprise, who are waiting for some handsome man to propose to them.

By a coincidence there are 30 handsome and husky bachelors in Wyandotte. The Enterprise has publicly stated it is ready to sacrifice the interests of Chico by marrying off any of these widows. The Mercury has a list of Wyandotte bachelors. Let the Enterprise send in a list of widows and the county clerk and Judge J.V. Parks will get busy.

“Exhibit A” is a fine, tall, 6-footer, who has a good disposition, is kind to animals and owns a ranch. He would not object to a widow, especially a wealthy one, providing she is a good cook. Short, stout blonde preferred.

“Exhibit B” short, plump and dark. Also owns a ranch. Plays the oboe but would discontinue his musical exercises if his future wife objects to music. Would like as a life partner a tall, dark, slim, widow.

“Exhibit C” tall, handsome and — but why throw all our cards on the board?

In fact, to give those Chico widows a chance we will even go so far as to print a list of some of the Wyandotte bachelors, kindly furnished us by Fred Cornehl, a public spirited citizen of Wyandotte.

— Chico Daily Enterprise, Nov. 28, 1916

I like “Exhibit A” but I am not a short blonde. I am a pretty good cook though.

Thanks to Sally Mau of the Chico Enterprise-Record, who writes this weekly feature.