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HISTORY
El
Dorado County, California.
CHAPTER
XII.
EARLY CONDITION--INHABITANST--EXPLORATIONS
IN CALIFORNIA
Animal
Life, Mammiferous and Fowls--The Indians--Their Characteristics by
Different Travelers--Habitation, Food, Clothing--Their
Family Life--Other
Habits, Hair Cutting, Painting, Tattooing--Their Fondness for
Ornaments--Industry--Faith and Burying Their Dead -- Their
Signal Fires--Gluttonous
Habits-- Temes chals --Appearance of the First
Trappers--J.S. Smith- -
Alexander R. McLeod--Joseph R.
Walker--The Truckee River--Stephen
H. Meek--Wilke's Expedition, the Detachment Under Lieutenant George F.
Emmons--First Emigrant Company Under Captain Bartleson--Another Emigrant
Company Under William Workman.
When first visited by the Spaniards, California abounded in
wild animals, some of which are now extinct. One of these, called by the
Spanish people "berendo," and by the natives "taye,"
Father Venegas says: "It is about the bigness of a calf a year and a
half old, resembling it in figure except in the head, which is like that
of a deer, and the horns very thick like those of a ram; its hoof is
large, round and cloven, and its tail short." This was the Argali, a
species intermediate between the goat and sheep, living in large herds
along the foot of the mountains supposed to be a variety of the Asiatic
argali.
On his journey from Monterey to San
Francisco Father
Serra met with herds of immense deer, which the men mistook for European
cattle, and wondered how they got there. Several deer were shot whose horns
measured eleven feet from tip to tip.
Another large animal which the natives called "cibalo,"
the bison, inhabited the great plains, but was eventually driven off by
the vast herds of domestic cattle. When Langsdorff's ship was lying in the
bay of San Franciso, in 1804, sea-otters were swimming about so
plentifully as to be nearly unheeded. The Indians caught them in snares or
killed them with sticks. Perouse estimated that the presidio of Monterey
alone could supply ten thousand otter skins annually, worth twenty dollars
and upwards apiece.
Captain Beechey in 1824, estimated the annual export of
skins (of sea-otter, beaver, etc.) to number 2,000 and he points to the
indolence and ignorance of the Californians shown in the incident that the
rivers abounded with these animals, but they bought the skins from the
Russians, paying twenty dollars and upwards apiece for them.
Upper California, when first visited by the missionaries
under Spanish protection, was inhabited by the same race of men as the
lower provinces. The natives of Upper California, however, differed
somewhat both in physical character and customs, from their southern
brethren; but hardly more than what they varied one from another in the
different districts. They were acknowledged to be timid and feeble race by
all who had a chance to compare them with the hardy red men of the
northwestern plains of North America.
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Northern
Highway 49 includes El Dorado, Placer, Nevada & Sierra Counties
Includes Coloma, Placerville, Pilot Hill, Cool, Georgetown, Greenwood, Auburn, Colfax, Grass Valley, Nevada City, Rough & Ready, Downieville, Sierra City and smaller communities along the route.
Pages: 264
Photos: 232 |
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From the accounts given by the missionaries, whose
travels were chiefly undertaken with the intention of converting the
natives, and for this purpose fixed on the proper places to plant
missions, it appears that the boarders of the Rio Gila and Rio Colorado
were thickly peopled by Indians, who, though they cultivated some maize
and even wheat, and also had some cattle, did not show the slightest
hostility or opposition to the travelers who, on the contrary, were
received with kindness and presented with such food as there could be
found, were esteemed by the fathers as a very low state of civilization.
The moral qualities of these native people are certainly
not beyond the range of their physical, but the estimates as to their
qualities are more or less influenced by the standpoint of the reasoner.
Says Father Venegas: "It is not easy for Europeans, who were never
out of their own country, to conceive an adequate idea of these people;
for even in the least frequented corner of the globe there is not a nation
so stupid, of such contracted ideas, and weak, both in body and mind, as
the unhappy nations here. Their characteristics are stupidity and
insensibility, want of knowledge and reflection, inconstancy, impetuosity
and blindness in appetite. An excessive sloth and abhorrence of all
fatigue, an incessant love of pleasure and amusement of every kind,
however trifling or brutal; in find, a most wretched want of everything
which constitutes the real man and renders him rational, inventive,
tractable and useful to himself and society." Certain it is, that
they at least have none of that boldness and independence of character,
and very little of that activity and perseverance which distinguishes the
Indians nearer the pole. And another writer says: "The whole of the
Indians inhabiting the territory are of the same race as those which
formerly inhabited the coast, and whose children are now subjects or
slaves of the missionaries. They seem to have made no advance toward
civilization since the first discovery of the country. Their habitations
are small round huts of rushes, of a temporary character, erected where
they halt for a season, and burned when they change their station (the
exterior has the appearance of a beehive). In each dwelling there are nine
or ten Indians of both sexes and of all ages, nearly in the state of
nudity, huddled around a fire kindled in the center; the whole presenting
a picture of wretchedness and misery seldom beheld in even the most savage
state of society." The whole furniture consists of a chest, a dish
and a bowl, made in the shape of a high crowned hat, a bone used for an
awl in manufacturing the form or articles out of bulrushes or roots, and
once in a while a shell to drink out of. When removing from one place to
another the women have to carry the whole outfit, including the babies,
loaded on their shoulders and hanging down their backs; the man only
carries his bow and arrows, with their appurtenances. Father Palou on the
habits of subsistence of the Indians says: "The natives of this part
of the country maintain themselves by the seeds and herbs of the field, to
collect which, when in season, is the duty of the women. They grind the
seeds and make a gruel from the flour, and sometimes a kind of pudding or
dough, which they form into balls the size of an orange. Some of this
flour has an agreeable flavor and is very nutritive; that produced from a
black seed has the taste of a toasted almond. To this they add fish and
sometimes shellfish, and in addition they have the produce of the chase
and wild fowl. Sometimes it happens that a whale is driven ashore and they
would have a great feast. In the highlands they gather an eatable root
which they call amole, about the size of an onion ; when
roasted this has an agreeable, sweetish taste. The female sex make more
use of clothing than the male, even the young girls have always some
covering made of the tule or bulrush, consisting of one piece before
another one behind, made in the manner of a petticoat; they also
have a piece thrown over their shoulders." They have their marriages,
but they only consist of the consent between the parties, no ceremonies
are connected, and they are binding as long as both parties agree; in case
of disagreement, and they should choose to part, their only mode of canceling
the marriage is by using the expression : "I throw you
away." They are given to polygamy, and frequently it happens that the
wife urges her husband to marry her sister or even their mother ; but
these many wives of one husband live all together in one hut without
jealousy or dispute, each looking on the whole of the children as though
they were her own.
They are in the habit of cutting their hair short, and
when one of their relatives or friends dies, and put ashes on their heads
and faces, as well on other parts of their bodies. This habit of cutting
their hair, however, seems not to have been a general one all over, for
the Indians of the south, on the contrary, had a great pride in the
abundance of their hair, which they ornamented with beads,
etc., made
into wreaths, bound around their heads. All are in the habit of painting
themselves; black, blue, and red seem to be the principal colors. This is
not only done for their own beautifying but it seems also an emblem of
mourning for their friends, for whom they had a strong affection. This is
not the only means used of producing impressions that were not born with
them ; some tries tattoo their bodies like the Indians of the Islands, but
not to such an extent, and this practice is here more confined to women.
While in summer they go around nearly naked, in the winter they wear a
garment made of deer skins, otter skins, or made of feathers of different
water fowls ; this latter is chiefly used by the women. The feathers are
twisted and tied together into a sort of rope, and these are bundled and
tied so as to have a feathery surface on both sides. Like all savages,
they are fond of ornaments for their person, consisting of bits of carved
wood worn as earrings, bandeous of feathers around their heads, shells
rounded and strung up like beads hung around their necks. In one of their
feather bandeous Langsdorff counted 450 tail-feathers of the golden,
winged woodpecker, and as there are only two of these in each birds tail,
one can make himself an idea of the number of birds that were killed for
the purpose, and of the labor and persistency spent in gathering this
material. But the mechanical dexterity of this people was not limited to
these feather-works ; other articles were made of tule-grass or bulrushes,
and in the construction of their baskets, bowls, etc., they displayed
considerable ingenuity ; some of them, made out of the bark of trees
were water-tight and used for carrying water. The largest of their
manufactured articles were their boats, called the balsa, made from the
same material that the baskets were made from.
About their faith and belief there is as much as nothing
known ; but one superstition seems firmly believed by all, viz.; that any
sickness with which they were afflicted arose from the incantations of
their enemies. Most of them burnt their dead, and together with the dead
all his household goods, ornaments and arms. They had special burying
places for this purpose, and as far as El Dorado county is concerned
there are three such places that could be made out with certainty ; one
near Columbia Flat ; one close by Diamond
Springs, and one lower down near
the Cosumnes river. Dr.
Santels, a Swedish
scholar, who traveled over this country in 1843, gave a description of
their signal fires. He says : "A hole is dug in the ground wider at
the bottom than at the top ; this hole was filled with combustibles and
set on fire ; once well ignited the hole is nearly closed at the opening.
By this means the smoke rises to a considerable height in a column, and
thus information was conveyed to different tribes of the approach of an
enemy or friend, and whether they are coming in large or small
bodies." About the gluttonous habits of the
Indians he writes: "The Indians that constituted the crew of the
schooner, having been rather stinted of food for a day or two, determined
on a feast as a recompense for their previous fasting. They presented on
that occasion a spectacle I have never before witnessed of disgusting
sensual indulgence, the effect of which on their conduct, struck me as
being exceedingly strange. The meat of a heifer, most rudely cooked, was
eaten in a voracious manner. After gorging themselves they would lie down
and sleep for a while, and get up and eat again. They repeated this
gluttony until they actually lost their senses, rolled upon the ground,
dozed, and then sprang up in a state of delirium. The following morning
they were all wretchedly sick, and had the expression peculiar to drunken
men recovering their reason after a debauch." Notwithstanding
their filthy habits, the Indians generally were very healthy ; their
principal remedy for all diseases, where the natural means of their
herbarist medicines did not bring the expected result, consisted in hot
air baths, called temes chal, constructed as a big oven or hovel,
out of mud, with a small hole for entrance on the side, and another one on
the top from which the smoke escaped ; the interior, with the natural soil
for the floor, was big enough to allow about a half a dozen persons to use
the room at the same time, and they kept on with adding sticks to the fire
as long as they could stand the heat. A profuse perspiration soon
followed, which was scraped off with a kind of a wooden spoon ; and
thereafter they used to plunge into the cold water of the river, for which
purpose the temes chals usually were built close to a river's
bank. The Spanish settlers always considered
the Indians not belonging to the missions, particularly those on the Rio
Colorado and adjacent countries, as most ferocious and inimical to the
white man, and that it was almost impossible to pass through their
territory ; thus they were astonished by the first appearance of the
American trapper, and still more so by learning the fact that they had
escaped the vengeance of the wild Indians ; this opinion, however, is a
great exaggeration, based upon the imperfect knowledge of the country they
were living in ; for although some of the tribes may not have been so
docile, yet none of them were very formidable. But the most extraordinary
daring of these American adventurers presented such a remarkable contrast
to the indolent creole, who seldom left his house, on account of the rays
of the sun, to which he did not like to expose himself, while the American
trapper furnished him an imposing example of strength and endurance
effected by their rough pursuit, and a comparison between both these
nationalities, already at that time, was showing the chances of each of
them in an eventually coming conflict. Neither
the Spaniards nor their progeny, the native Californian, knew anything of
California outside of the Coast range district and the great valleys where
they used to pasture their herds of all kinds of stock. In 1820, Captain
Luis Arguello, by order of the governor of California, went on an
exploring trip through the northern region of the territory. He followed
the upper part of the Sacramento river and penetrated as far as Fort
Vancouver, on the Columbia river, being without a doubt the first
Caucasian, who traveled on that route. To him some of the rivers owe their
names ; thus the Yuba river, Rio de las Uva (grapes); Feather river, Rio
de las Plumas ; Bear river, Rio de los Osos ; etc. Nothing, however, is
known of an exploring trip into the heart of the mountains that skirt the
great valley basin to the east ; the sight of their snow-clad crest made
the effeminate race shiver, and probably the grand scenery and gigantic
beauty of nature enclosed in the mountains, had not charm and attraction
enough to warm them up again ; so the whole region remained to them a terra
incognita, and they felt fully satisfied to have given the name :
"Sierra Nevada," meaning snowy mountains. To
the daring and adventurous advance-agents of the civilization of the great
West it was withheld to make the first exploring voyages over and through
the mountain region. The trappers of the American Fur Company and the
Hudson Bay Company passed over them at different times and over different
routes to and from their choice trapping grounds in the great valleys and
the Coast Range mountains of this coast. The
first of these trapping expeditions that crossed the Sierra Nevada is
supposed to be one fitted up by the American Fur Company in the summer of
1825, under Jedediah S. Smith (for his discovery of gold, see
"Discovery of Gold,") as leader, from Green river station. He
advanced to the country west of Salt Lake, discovered whit is now called
Humboldt river, calling it Mary's river after his Indian wife ; pushing
further on, he found his way blocked by the great mountain range, but this
instead of building up a hindrance for further explorations, invited his
adventuresome nature to see what could be found for his trade on the other
side. Where he crossed the Sierra is only a matter of supposition, but it
must have been not far from where the old emigrant-road crossed
afterwards, near the head waters of the Truckee. The party trapped for
beaver and otter from the American river to Tulare lake, and had their
camp for a while near the present site of Folsom, following their calling
in a northerly direction and finally returning over the mountains about
the locality of Walker's pass. In May, 1827, we find the same J. S. Smith
with only a few companions on another voyage, near the mission of San
Jose, having lost most of them on his way into the Mojave country, on the
Colorado river, in a fight with Indians. He made his was through, arriving
in January at the mission of San Gabriel, procured passports for himself
and companion from the general at San Diego, and camped in May near the
mission of San Jose, where he wrote a letter to Father Duran, stating that
he was on his way to Oregon in the peaceful business of trapping ; and
after having reunited himself with the company he had left on the American
river, the year before, he started for the Columbia river, following the
coast, but was attacked by Indians at the mouth of the Umpqua river, and
all but himself and two others were killed and robbed of all their traps
and furs. They escaped to Fort Vancouver and after telling their story to
the agent of the Hudson Bay Company, a party was fitted out to
recover the stolen property and chastise the Indians, and meeting with
success in both directions, they returned to Fort Vancouver ; the greater
portion, however, followed Alexander Roderick McLeod on a trip into
California they entered by the same route where Smith had come out, and
trapped on the streams of the valleys. Next to
Smith's stands the record of Joseph R. Walker, who started in July, 1833,
from the rendezvous of the American Fur Company on Green river with a
party of about forty trappers. Stephen H. Meek, now of Sikiyou county, was
one of this party, and to him we are indebted for the following
information : They advanced to the country west of
Salt Lake, and suffered a great deal from want of food and water until
they reached Mary's River, now Humboldt, following this stream to its sink
; then it was decided to cross and trap for the following summer on the
California side of the mountains ; so they went on, but again ran short of
water, and had to send out in search of it, and one of their hunters came
upon the Truckee river, near the Meadows, turned his horse and in full
speed brought the joyful news back into camp, shouting : "A great
river ! A great river !" This man's name was Baptiste
Truckee, a
Canadian, and his name was given to the stream he had discovered.
Following up the run of the river they penetrated as far as Donner
Lake,
but the snow-bound mountains--it being then in the month of December--did
not invite them to a crossing, and they returned to the Meadows on the
Truckee river, passing through Washoe valley to Carson river, and
discovered Walker river, called after the captain of the company, and
crossed the mountains through Walker's pass, also called after him. They
went into camp on the shore of Tulare lake, but failing to accomplish the
purpose of their mission they retraced their steps over the mountains back
to the Humboldt and Green rivers. Mr. Meek is still a resident of Siskyou
county in this state. Nearly every party of trappers who passed through
the country left a few of their number here, and after the fur trade began
to break up, from about 1838 and later, many of them settled down on the
streams of California. One of this class of settlers in El Dorado county,
although a somewhat late one, is Lewis Be Meyers, of Greenwood, El Dorado
county, California. In the year 1838, the United
States government set out a fleet of vessels under command of Commodore
Chas Wilkes, on an extended voyage that lasted five years. In the month of
September, 1841, a detachment of this expedition started on an overland
trip from Vancouver, on the Columbia river, to Yerba Buena, (San
Francisco,) passing down the Hudson Bay train and the Sacramento river.
This party consisted of :
There were attached to the
expedition for observation, etc.:
- TR. Peal,
naturalist.
- W. Rich, botanist.
- James
D. Dana, geologist.
- A.T. Agate, artist.
- J.D. Breckenridge, assistant-botanist.
- Baptiste Guardipii, guide.
- Tibbats, Black,
Warfield, Wood,
Molair and Inass, mountaineers.
The years
1840-1841, introduced a new feature in the history of the exploration of
the territory on this coast. Dr. John Marsh's--then a resident of this
country--flowing description of California, given in the newspapers of St.
Louis, Missouri, commenced to attract considerable attention, and some
adventurous characters who did not find room enough at home for the
development of their faculties, soon banded together in a little emigrant
army to set out for the Pacific coast ; and among their number we find
names of men whose subsequent acts helped materially to shape the destiny
of this state. The party consisted of
thirty-six, thirty-four of them were men. Mrs. Nancy A. Kelsey, the wife
of Benjamin Kelsey, and her little daughter Ann, were without doubt the
first American females who entered California by the overland route.
Following are the names of the men forming the party :
- Captain
J. B. Bartelson, captain of the party ; returned to Missouri, is now dead.
- John Bidwell, lives at Chico.
- Joseph B. Childs, still
alive.
- Josiah Belden, lives at San Jose and San
Francisco.
- Charles M. Weber, died at Stockton, May
4, 1881 .
- Charles Hooper, lives in Napa
county.
- Henry Huber, lives in San Francisco.
- Mitchell Nye, had a ranch at Marysville, probably now alive.
- Green McMahon, lives in Solano county.
- Nelson McMahon,
died in New York.
- Talbot H. Green, returned east.
- Ambrose Walton, returned east.
- John McDonel, returned
east.
- George Henshaw, returned east.
- Robert Ryckman, returned East.
- Wm. Betty or Belty,
returned East by way of Santa Fe.
- Charles Flugge,
returned east.
- Gwin Patton, returned East, died in
Missouri.
- Benjamin Kelsey, lives in Santa Barbara
county or Clear Lake, Lake county.
- Andrew Kelsey,
killed by Indians at Clear Lake.
- James John or Littlejohn, went to Oregon.
- Henry Brolasky, went
to Callao, South America.
- James Dowson, drowned in
the Columbia river.
- Maj. Walton, drowned in the
Sacramento river.
- George Shortwell, accidentally
shot on the way out.
- John Schwartz, died in
California.
- Grove Cook, died in California.
- D. W. Chandler, went to the Sandwich Islands.
- Nicholas Dawson, dead.
- Thomas Jones, dead.
- Robert
H. Thomes, died in Tehama county, Cal., March 26, 1878.
- Elian Barnett.
- James Springer.
- John Rowland.
The train was made up out of three
different divisions, one being emigrants for Oregon, the second was a
company of Jesuit priests going on a mission to the Indians of Oregon and
Idaho, the third was the above named party. They left Independence,
Missouri, May 8, 1841, and traveled together to Fort Hall, near Salt Lake,
where Captain Bartelson's party separated from the rest, and without a
guide started for California, by the way of Mary's or Humboldt river, then
went to Carson river, and from this to the main valley of the Walker
river, which they followed up near to its source, and from this point
commencing their mountain passage of the Sierra Nevada, descending on the
western slope of it between the Stanislaus and the Tuolumne rivers,
reaching the San Joaquin valley and passing down along the Stanislaus,
then crossing the San Joaquin river, arrived at Dr. Marsh's ranch, near
the eastern base of Mount Diablo, on November 4, 1841. After a rest of a
few days here the party disbanded, and each one looked after his own
interest. About the same time, in November, 1841,
another party of emigrants from the Western States arrived by the Sante Fe
and Sonora route, in the southern part of the territory, disbanding at Los
Angeles. Members of this company were :
- William Workman, in command, died at Los Angeles in 1876.
- John Roland, living at Los Angeles.
- Benito D. Wilson,
living at Los Angeles.
- Albert G. Toomes, living in
Tehama county.
- William Knight, died in Yolo county
in 1849.
- William Gordon, died in Yolo county,
October 3, 1876.
- Thomas Lindsay, killed by Indians
at Stockton, 1845.
- William Moore.
- Wade Hajpton.
- Dr. Gamble.
- Isaac Givens.
- Hiram Taylor.
- Colonel McClure.
- Charles Givens.
- Frederick Bachelor.
- Dr. Meade.
- Mr. Teabo.
- Mr. Pickman.
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