Death Valley in 49 | Page 2

Jayhawkers.--Ceremonies of Initiation--Rev. J.W. Brier.--His Wife the best Man of the Two.--Story of the Road across Death Valley.--Burning the Wagons.--Narrow Escape of Tom Shannon.--Capt. Ed Doty was Brave and True.--They reach the Sea by way of Santa Clara River.--Capt. Haynes before the Alcalde.--List of Jayhawkers.
CHAPTER XIV.
Alexander Erkson's Statement.--Works for Brigham Young at Salt Lake.--Mormon Gold Coin.--Mt. Misery.--The Virgin River and Yucca Trees.--A Child Born to Mr, and Mrs. Rynierson.--Arrive at Cucamonga.--Find some good Wine which is good for Scurvy.--San Francisco and the Mines.--Settles in San Jose.--Experience of Edward Coker.--Death of Culverwell, Fish and Isham.--Goes through Walker's Pass and down Kern River.--Living in Fresno in 1892.
CHAPTER XV.
The Author again takes up the History.--Working in a Boarding House, but makes Arrangements to go North.--Mission San Bueno Ventura.--First Sight of the Pacific Ocean.--Santa Barbara in 1850.--Paradise and Desolation.--San Miguel, Santa Ynez and San Luis Obispo.--California Carriages and how they were used.--Arrives in San Jose and Camps in the edge of Town.--Description of the place.--Meets John Rogers, Bennett, Moody and Skinner.--On the road to the Mines.--They find some of the Yellow Stuff and go Prospecting for more--Experience with Piojos--Life and Times in the Mines--Sights and Scenes along the Road, at Sea, on the Isthmus, Cuba, New Orleans, and up the Mississippi--A few Months Amid Old Scenes, then away to the Golden State again.
CHAPTER XVI
St. Louis to New Orleans, New Orleans to San Francisco--Off to the Mines Again--Life in the Mines and Incidents of Mining Times and Men--Vigilance Committee--Death of Mrs. Bennett.
CHAPTER XVII
Mines and Mining--Adventures and Incidents of the Early Days--The Pioneers, their Character and Influence--- Conclusion.
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DEATH VALLEY IN '49
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PIONEER
CHAPTER I.
St. Albans, Vermont is near the eastern shore of Lake Champlain, and only a short distance south of "Five-and-forty north degrees" which separates the United States from Canada, and some sixty or seventy miles from the great St. Lawrence River and the city of Montreal. Near here it was, on April 6th, 1820, I was born, so the record says, and from this point with wondering eyes of childhood I looked across the waters of the narrow lake to the slopes of the Adirondack mountains in New York, green as the hills of my own Green Mountain State.
The parents of my father were English people and lived near Hartford, Connecticut, where he was born. While still a little boy he came with his parents to Vermont. My mother's maiden name was Ph?be Calkins, born near St. Albans of Welch parents, and, being left an orphan while yet in very tender years, she was given away to be reared by people who provided food and clothes, but permitted her to grow up to womanhood without knowing how to read or write. After her marriage she learned to do both, and acquired the rudiments of an education.
Grandfather and his boys, four in all, fairly carved a farm out of the big forest that covered the cold rocky hills. Giant work it was for them in such heavy timber--pine, hemlock, maple, beech and birch--the clearing of a single acre being a man's work for a year. The place where the maples were thickest was reserved for a sugar grove, and from it was made all of the sweet material they needed, and some besides. Economy of the very strictest kind had to be used in every direction. Main strength and muscle were the only things dispensed in plenty. The crops raised consisted of a small flint corn, rye oats, potatoes and turnips. Three cows, ten or twelve sheep, a few pigs and a yoke of strong oxen comprised the live stock--horses, they had none for many years. A great ox-cart was the only wheeled vehicle on the place, and this, in winter, gave place to a heavy sled, the runners cut from a tree having a natural crook and roughly, but strongly, made.
In summer there were plenty of strawberries, raspberries, whortleberries and blackberries growing wild, but all the cultivated fruit was apples. As these ripened many were peeled by hand, cut in quarters, strung on long strings of twine and dried before the kitchen fire for winter use. They had a way of burying up some of the best keepers in the ground, and opening the apple hole was quite an event of early spring.
The children were taught to work as soon as large enough. I remember they furnished me with a little wooden fork to spread the heavy swath of grass my father cut with easy swings of the scythe, and when it was dry and being loaded on the great ox-cart I followed closely with a rake gathering every scattering spear. The barn was built so that every animal was housed comfortably in winter, and the house was such as all settlers built, not considered handsome, but capable