Death Valley in 49 | Page 2

Chief
Walker, Determine to go down the River.--Change Their Minds and go
with the Indians.--Change again and go by themselves.--Eating Wolf
Meat.--After much Suffering they reach Salt Lake.--John Taylor's
Pretty Wife.--Field falls in Love with her.--They Separate.--Incidents of
Wonderful Escapes from Death.
CHAPTER XIII.
Story of the 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.
* * * * *
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 Phœbe 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