El Dorado County History Historical Souvenir of El Dorado County California with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Prominentmen and Pioneers. Oakland 1883. Paolo Sioli, Publisher. Compiled by P. Sioli. Transcribed by Peggy Hooper, Oct 2009. This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter. All persons donating to this site retain the rights to their own work. CHAPTER XII. EARLY CONDITION � INHAIBITANST - EXPLORATIONS 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� T. 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 Bartelson � Another Emigrant Company Under William Workman. When first visited by the Spaniards, California abounded in wild animals, some of which are now extinct. Of one of these, called by 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 Francisco, 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 Monte- rey alone could supply ten thousand otter skins annually, worth twenty dollars and upwards apiece. Captain Beechey in 1824, estimated the annual export of skin (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 a 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. 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 borders 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 foond, were esteemed by the fathers as in 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 ade- quate 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 pleas- ure and amusement of every kind, however trifling or brutal ; in fine, 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 perseverence 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 for- merly 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 a 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 sav- age 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 r 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 subsist- ence 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 amok, 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 and 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 cancelling 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, when one of their relatives or friends dies, and put ashes on their heads and faces, as well as 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 tribes 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 bandeaus, 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 tree^ 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 ene- mies. 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 tires. He says : " A hole is dug in the ground wider at the bottom than at the top ; this hole was filled with com- bustibles 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 ap- proach 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 had never before witnessed of dis- gusting 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 them- selves 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 deli- rium. 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, temes chal, constructed as a big oven or hovel, out of mud, with a small hole for en- trance on the side, and another one on the top from which the smoke escaped; the interior, with the na- tural soil for the floor, was big enough to allow about 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 per- spiration 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 exam- ple of strength and endurance effected by their rough pursuit, and a comparison between both these na- tionalities, 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 ex- ploring 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 Serra 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 what 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 hin- drance 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 m 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 way 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 peace- ful 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, which 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 this 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 B. Myers, of Greenwood, El Dorado county, California. In the year 1838, the United States government sent out a fleet of vessels under command of Commo- dore 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 trail and the Sacramento river. This party consisted of : Lieut. George E. Emmons, in command. Past Midshipman, Henry Eld. Past Midshipman, George W. Colvocoressis. Assistant-Surgeon, J. S. Whittle. Seamen : Daughty, Sutton, Waltham and Merzer. Sergeant, Stearns ; Corporal, Hughes. Privates, Marsh and Smith. There were attached to the expedition for observations, etc.: T. R. 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 � glowing 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 handed to- gether 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 Hopper, 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 at 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. Elias 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 the western slope of it between the Stanislaus and 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 Santa 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 Hampton. Dr. Gamble. Isaac Givens. Hiram Taylor. Colonel McClure. Charles Givens. Frederick Bachelor. Dr. Meade. Mr. Teabo. Mr. Pickman.