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Show r-j"" 1 ' 1 11 ' zzz jA I'AW t t J ' Sam. Brannan By ELMO SCOTT WATSON yJOhj. N JAXDAKY 24 It Is exactly S3 years since a crew of workmen, en-' en-' B4 gaged in the prosaic task of build- R- ? ing a sawmill on a western river, no-'. no-'. pr,J ticed some glittering particles in the j sand and picked them up to carry iK&r them hack to their employer. From V that simple circumstance grew one of the most romantic episodes In the annals of our nation and before the W final links in the chain of cause and effect had been forged the discovery -which they made that day had profoundly affected af-fected the social, political and economic history of the whole United States. For January 24, 1848, was the real beginning of "the olden days, the golden days, the days of '49," the beginning of the first great gold rush in America, the beginning be-ginning of an epic migration which has few . parallels in history. Paradoxical as it may sound, the "Days of '49" in reality began In 1848. But, considering the term in its broadest interpretation, the title of "The First of the Forty-Niners" may justly be applied to three men .Tohann August Sutter, James Wilson Marshall and Snm Brannan. Considering Con-sidering the importance of the movement which they launched, they should have come to the end of their careers "full of years and honors." But Fate played a grim joke on this trio, and the end of all three was almost a literal proof of the old Spanish proverb that 'Tie who finds gold will die In the almshouse." Let us consider their careers in the order of their appearance on the stage of this romantic lrama. First .Tohann August Sutter, the Swiss jidventurer, who had emigrated to America In 1834. went west and in July, 1830, was stranded In the Bay of Yerba Ruena (now San Francisco). After making a journey into the interior, where lie was much impressed with the possibilities of the country, he conceived the scheme of founding found-ing a colony in the Sacramento valley. California Cali-fornia was then owned by Meiico and Monterey was the capital. Hastening there Sutter laid his plan before Gov. Juan Alvaredo. lie would establish a cor-don cor-don of outposts and check the incursions of hostile hos-tile Indians from the north, he would gather the peaceful Indians of California together and give them employment and he would bring Kanakas Kan-akas from the Sandwich Islands also to work for him. So Impressed was Alvaredo with Sutter's Sut-ter's scheme that he gave him a grant of eleven square leagues. So In 1S41 Sutter established his colony, which he named New Helvetia or New Switzerland. Within a few years Sutter had wrought a marvelous mar-velous transformation in the raw country. Bridges were built over the streams, roads marked out, marshes drained, wells and ditches dug, and many other Improvements made. The Mexican government had appointed him governor gover-nor of northern California and he reigned In New Helvetia In feudal splendor over nearly 100,000 acres (for Sutter had been very generous with himself in surveying his "eleven square leagues") of land, tended by several hundred white, Kanaka and Indian retainers. In his pastures pas-tures grazed 12,000 head of cattle, 15,000 sheep and 2,000 horses and mules. Establishing stores he traded from Canada to Mexico and as far east as St. Louis. Governor Micheltorena, Al-v Al-v varedo's successor, presented him with an additional addi-tional eleven square leagues. It is at this point that James Wilson Marshall conies Into the picture. Born in New Jersey, Marshall was originally a wngnnmaker by trade but he had heard the call of the West and had been a wanderer over a large part of the trans-Mississippi trans-Mississippi region until finally he became an employee of Sutter, a sort of a foreman. Marshall had persuaded Sutter that it was high time for them to quit getting out the lumber which they needed by hewing and whipsawing 0 and suggested that they hulld a sawmill. Accordingly Ac-cordingly Sutter sent Marshall to build a mill on the American river about 40 miles above the fort. On the historic morning of January 24 he went to inspect the mill race and noticed some glittering glit-tering particles in the sand. It might be gold, or It might be only mica. Marshall, who knew something about the common tests for gold, subjected sub-jected the particles to these tests and as the result re-sult began to believe that he had actually discovered dis-covered some of the precious metal. He does not seem to have been very much excited over It, however, for It was not until two or three days later that he made a trip back to the fort to tell Sutter of the discovery he had made. The two men immediately set to work testing the metal, first with nitric acid, then by balancing It on scales with an enal weight of silver and placing the scales under water. In water, the gold dust, having more specific gravity than the silver, pulled down the scales. There was no longer any doubt In their minds as to what these shining particles were. That night Sutter, as he later said, "felt the curse of the thing upon him." He and Marshall agreed to keep the mnlter secret until they could finish the mill and until they could establish claim to the surrounding hinds. So Sutter called together the Indians who had a nominal title to Vvrr ' "3 VMOEHnOOO a i J am.es W M arjh. all Gen. John. A. Sutter e M " t i S 1 r . M 4 'X i -Mi7 -1 The '49 er Memorial mLosArtqeles these lands and from them leased twelve square miles of the surrounding country. Then he sent an employee named Charles Bennett to Monterey to have the lease confirmed by Colonel Mason, the American military governor of California. On the way Bennett, stopping at Benicia, revealed re-vealed the purpose of his journey. Curiously enough, few who heard his story believed it and only a few went to the American river to investigate. in-vestigate. Make way now for Sam Brannan ! Who Sutter Sut-ter and Marshall were and what they did Is known to virtually every American school child. But history has strangely neglected this flamboyant flamboy-ant character, Sam Brannan, who was. If anything, any-thing, the most romantic figure of the three. Back In the late thirties and early forties Brannan Bran-nan was a journeyman printer, a free-lance writer, an editor and "a natural born promoter." Also he joined the Mormon church, when that sect began to flourish, and from an editorial job on the Messenger, a Mormon propagandist newspaper, news-paper, lie soon blossomed out into a full-fledged elder in the Church of the Latter Day Saints. About the time of the exodus of the Mormons from Nauvoo, 111., under the leadership of Brig-ham Brig-ham Young for their Journey westward to find the promised land, Brannan chartered the little ship Brooklyn, filled it with some 300 Mormons and set sal from New York via Cape Horn for California. Late In July, 1S4G, the Brooklyn passed through the Golden Gate and Brannan's Mormons were the first American colonists to reach Yerba Ruena, the little Spanish settlement on San Francisco bay. It is doubtful whether Sam was at heart a Mormon, or anything else in a religious way. He was an opportunist of the first water and Mor-monism, Mor-monism, for his purposes, was as good as any other religion. At any rate, It gave the rover a sort of clerical standing and a chance for leadership lead-ership which he was not the man to overlook. In the hold of his ship he had brought with him a newspaper plant, the machinery for a flour mill, plows, harrows and other pioneer necessities. ne-cessities. He assumed leadership from the day of his landing. He preached the first English sermon ever heard there, solemnized the first American marriage on the soil, set up the first flour mill and gave the little settlement its first newspaper, the California Star. It wasn't long before he cut loose from the Saints. Or, rather, the Saints got rid of him. A Mormon sketch of his life says, "His course and habits were not consistent with the life of a Latter Day Saint and he was disconnected from the church." But If his career as a Mormon had ended, his career as a California promoter (perhaps another historic "first") bad just begun. He got out a special edition of his Star, within a few months after his arrival at Yerba Buena, and sent two thousand copies of the paper overland to the Mississippi valley and the eastern states, extolling extol-ling the virtues of the country to prospective settlers. Then came March, 1S4S. bringing with it to Yerba Buena the first news of the discovery of gold on General Sutter's lands. A brief account of the fact was published In a rival paper, but Brannan's editor was inclined to discredit the news, as were also most of the new colonists. But to Sam Brannan It was a bugle call to new adventure. He went to the scene of the alleged find and In a few weeks he came galloping back to S.in Francisco, rushed through the Plaza hat- - - x , s - - ;7 i - . tf7 7V !'"7- 7ftf"VA- iw i7Nv. ;A 1-71 - ' r " hjStf ' Paanirvg for Pay-Dirt less and travel stained, waving In his hand a flask of gold dust as he shouted, "Gold, Gold, Gold from the American river." Again Sam Rrannan was a "first" the first to bring to San Francisco authentic news of the gold discovery. There was a rush to the diggings, Sam's Mormons Mor-mons following his lead again, "as if he had been the Pied Piper," says one chronicler. Within a few days only seven men out of three hundred were left in the town. By June 2,000 miners were at work near the sawmill, now called Coloma. By July 4,000 were there. The earliest arrivals were of the better class and Sutter had no trouble with them. They patronized his stores and purchased all of their supplies from him. But when the gold lure drew to California an influx of men from all corners of the earth, there came more bad men than good, who corrupted his Indians with their deadly dead-ly firewater and Influenced his hitherto faithful employees to desert him. Squatters settled on his lands and jeered at his efforts to dislodgl them. flis vineyards were trampled to the ground ; his livestock stolen, his stores looted and the Improvements which he had made appropriated ap-propriated for the use of the maddened gold seekers. The titles to his lands received under the grants from the Mexican government were not respected and Sutter appealed In vain to the American authorities. He brought suit against more than 17.000 persons and spent more than $200,000 In prosecuting his claims. From being the greatest man In that country he found himself him-self becoming the most hated because of the litigation liti-gation In which he was involved, and eventually the hatred resulted in the destruction of his home, the Hermitage, to which he had retired before the onrush of the argonauts. After several sev-eral years of litigation in which he was repeatedly repeat-edly defeated Sutter, the former "king," found himself a ruined man. The state of California granted him a pension of $250 a month but after receiving it for 14 years he voluntarily relinquished re-linquished that bounty. In 1872 he sent his two daughters to Bethlehem, Bethle-hem, Pa., to enter a Moravian school and later transferred them to another school In Lltitz. There he made his home and spent his declining years in numerous visits to Washington and in futile attempts to secure justice from the federal fed-eral government, which he claimed had allowed him to be robbed during the gold rush. He died In Washington on June 17, 1SS0, and he died In poverty. As for Marshall, he received the same treatment treat-ment from the gold seekers that had been Sutter's Sut-ter's portion. California gave him a pension of $1,200 a year, then withdrew it because the legislature leg-islature believed the money was spent in drink to which he had become addicted. In August, 1S85, five years after Sutter's death, a lonely, embittered, poverty-stricken old man died in a ramshackle hut in the dying town of Coloma. It was James W. Marshall, "the man who discovered discov-ered gold in California." As for Sam Rrannan, he enjoyed a period of glory and of prosperity for a time, then the curse of gold overtook him. With the Incoming flood tides of adventurers and settlers. Sutter's fort expanded Into Sacramento Sacra-mento City and San Francisco became a metropolis metrop-olis of many races the most cosmopolitan and the most lawless city in the world. Between the two cities as his bases of operations Brannan grew rich and prosperous. There was no species of industry beyond his exploitation, ne was gambler and banker, merchant and hotel owner. Importer and exporter, gold digger and real estate es-tate speculator, shipowner and perhaps a bit of a smuggler. Everything was grist for Sam's mill. The great commercial house of Oshorn & Brannan, Bran-nan, specializing In oriental merchandise, became be-came one of San Francisco's biggest Institutions. And Sam Brannan ruled the city like a mandarin. man-darin. He spent money like a prince, entertained lavishly, drank deeply, played for high stakes and became the most spectacular figure In a delirious de-lirious city of magic and madness. This lasted for a while, then came the turn in his fortunes. Misfortunes began to rain down upon him and he sought solace In drink. The usual thing happened. Friends deserted him. Business men whose enterprises he had financed out of his own pocket looked askance at him or passed him by without recognition, nis wife divorced him and took his children from him. After that there were more "ups and downs." during which he "reformed." quit drinking by force of his will power and eventually lived to the age of seventy before death claimed him in 1SS0 not in such poverty as had heen the lot of Sutter and .Marshall but far from being the "mandarin" svho had once ruled the "mad, bad city" of Sn Francisco In the Golden Days of '40. by Weaiern Newspaper Union.) |