| Show DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN california THE century magazine for february contains a very instructive article entitled the discovery of gold in california written by john 8 hittell accompanying the article are narratives by charles B gillespie and E C kemble mr gillespie furnishes an account of the discovery as related by mr marshall the chief figure in the narrative while kemble it by nia his account in the summer of 1847 the number of united states citizens in california did not exceed two thousand the most prominent man was john A butter he was a native of baden germany bat a citizen of the united states by naturalization in missouri though in 1847 by naturalization also a mexican yet he was looked on as an american he settled in 1839 1899 ai at the head of navigation on the sacramento river here he built a structure which afterwards became known as butters Sut lers fort he was invested with official authority by mexican governors but he was always regarded as the friend of americans in 1847 butter conceived the idea of building a flour mill and a saw mill around the fort at that time was a MAU man named james W marshall a native of new jersey on the of august an agreement was made between sutter suiter and marshall marshall Mar shail to build the mill the latter to erect and superintend the work the former to furnish the supplies the place selected for the saw mill was Co coloma lorna 45 mites from the fort at this time several members of the mormon battalion arrived at fort sutter this battalion was first organized at the missouri river then marched overland and garrisoned san diego where on july 16 it was disbanded the members who now n ow arrived at the fort were on their wa way y to salt lake suiter butter hired a number of them to work on his bis mills about the of september 1847 the names of the Mor mons who dug the head bead and tall tail race of the saw mill were alexan der stephens james S brown ja james mes bargers barger william johnston Job azariah smith henry W bigler all of the battalion there were three others not mormons cormons Mor mons named wimmer scott and bennett john job n S hittell says in his article the first record of the diso discovery ovey and the only one made on the day oi of ite occurrence was in the diary of henry W bigler one of the mormon laborers at the mill he was an american by birth then a young man and now a respected citizen of st george utah he was in the habit of keeping a regular record of his notable observations and experiences selecting topics for remark with creditable j judgment his journal kept during his service in the and his subsequent stay in california is one of the valuable historical documents of the state on the of january 1884 I 1 in the evening bigler wrote in his diary this day dav some kind of metal was found in the tall baoe that looks like gold the Big lers diary on which the entry of the to is made deuced in facsimile fac simile in the century ar ae tide the words first discovered by james marshall the boss boas of the mill are interpolated and written after the entry mentioned above the century writer says that bigler himself made the interpolation if so some explanation should be published publish from him in 1856 marshall published a letter stating that be had discovered gold at coloma about the 9 A second letter written by him in 1867 1857 states that tb the e d two disco very took place on the or in 1870 his biography was published jle lk and that fixes the discovery on the this latter date was waa looked on as the precise day of the dige discovery overy until 1886 when the diary of bigler was as ex that was compared with the diary of another member of the mormon battalion and also with butters diary and ii it became quite clear that the was the true day john S hittell settled this point and was waa the first to publish it in january 1886 one fact is beyond question that bigler made the fi ritten record of the event and on the very day tylers eylers history of the mormon battalion has the following paragraph on con or about the of january 1848 water was turned into tho the race above the sawmill saw mill the ram race was found rood good but the water in leaving the head of the flume and reaching the head of the tail race having considerable fall washed a hole near the mhd base of the building being turned off superintendent marshall marshal went below to see what effect the wash was likely to have while thus examining his eyes caught sight of yellow shining metal which he picked up not k bowina knowing what it was waa but believed it to be gold an assay asay proved his conjecture correct the nuggets were in value from 25 cents to five dollars each ap hittell and tyler both concur in saying that marshall was the real discoverer of gold brother bigler to is yet alive and he must have a vivid remembrance of such an important occurrence as the discovery of gold he had the intelligence and industry to keep a diary in his youth such a mans narrative is worth something in the interest of truthful history he should speak this discovery had an important influence on the world hittell says but bat marshalls marchalls Mar find did not limit its great influences to our continent it aroused and stimulated industrial activity in all the leading nations it profoundly agitated all the countries of south america it if shook europe and asia it caused the first large migration of the chinese across the pacific it opened japan to the traffic of christendom it threw a belt of steam around the globe it educated hargraves and taught him where to find and how to open up the gold deposits of australia it built the panama railroad it brought the paci pacific fie ocean within the domain of active commerce directly Direct lv and indirectly it added to the stock of the precious metals and by giving the distribution of this vast sum to the english speaking nations added much to their great industrial and intellectual influence and with this great event of modern times the history of the mormon people will forever be identified the shovel of the humble Mor mormon mn has ban led to the production of greater wealth than the sword of cyrus who conquered croesus and subjugated lydia and Baby babelonia Babylon lonia la yes and greater than that obtained by alexander in persia by cortez in mexico and pizarro in peru the gold yield of california in 1848 was in 1849 in 1850 la in 1853 when it reached its zenith the yield averages now annually the gold yield altogether for the past forty oue years is estimated at 1200 but california is not dependent on gold for its prosperity its agricultural interests are now its mainstay |
