OCR Text |
Show I TODAY IN HISTORY I MONDAY, JANUARY 24. It is sixty-two years ago today slneo gold wus nrst discovered In California, and Its finding came about. In a peculiar way. James Wilson Marshall, wno was born in Hunterdon county. Now Jersoj. had emigrated to California and located at the silo of the present city of Sacramento. Sacra-mento. Ono day. while engaged In trying try-ing to find a location for a sawmill tor his employer, ho blasted away some rock and let the water, during the night, puss through a elulcc gate to wash away the debris. Kurly In the afternoon of Monday. January Jan-uary 24, IS IS. wlille sauntering along the trail race, inspecting tho work. Marshall Mar-shall noticed yellow particles mingled with the excavated earth, which had been washed by the lato rains. Ho gave It little heed at first, but presently, seeing see-ing moro and some in scales, the thought occurred to him that possibly It might be gold. Sending nn Indian to his cabin tor a tin "plate, he washed out some of tho dirt, nnd although not a metallurgist himself, ho was pretty nearly satisfied that It must bo gold, and the mighty secret, of the Sierras stood revealed A few days Imor lie returned lo Sutter's Sut-ter's Fort carrying with him :i number of specimens of tho yellow rock. Me emptied them on a table before General Sutler, with tho remark; "I bcllevo this is gold, but the people at the mill laughed at rno and called mc crazy." Sutter examined the stuff attentively and finally said: "It certainly looks llko It: we will try it" First aquafortis was applied and the substance stood the test. Various other tests wero tried with equal satisfaction. On January 20th Sutter started for the sawmill, whero an examination exami-nation showed him that gold was In nbundancc all along tho river and Us tributary ravines and creeks. It was not long before tho announcement announce-ment of tho discovery spread nil over the country and prospectors from all sections sec-tions Hocked to California, Marshall never derived any financial results from his discovery, other than for some years before his dath he received a small pension pen-sion from tho state. Marshall's discovery led to what Is known ns the "rush of '49." While California Cali-fornia still holds second place as a gold producing slate. It has boon far surpassed sur-passed by Colorado, with Alaska u close third. T?.5,.ny church history Is sacred to St. Timothy, a disciple of St. Paul. It Is the birthday of Benjamin Lincoln (1733). the revolutionary soldier: Andrew Klll-f,(itL. Klll-f,(itL. 'I "). who surveyed and laid out )Ys,llnp,.on' D: c ' Joseph 1 1. C'hoate (lf3J). the eminent lawyer, nnd Frederick Fred-erick tho Great M7J2L |