A Chronicle of the California Trail and El Dorado

A Chronicle of the California Trail and El Dorado, by Stewart Edward White.

• Spanish Days
• The American Occupation
• Law – Military and Civil
• Gold
• Across The Plains
• The Mormons
• The Way By Panama
• The Diggings
• The Urban Forty-Niner
• Ordeal By Fire
• The Vigilantes Of ’51
• San Francisco In Transition
• The Storm Gathers
• The Storm Breaks
• The Vigilantes Of ’56
• The Triumph Of The Vigilantes

Bibliographical Note

California has been fortunate in her historians. Every student of the history of the Pacific coast is indebted to the monumental work of Hubert H. Bancroft. Three titles concern the period of the Forty-niners: The History of California, 7 vols. (1884-1890); California Inter Pocula, 1848-56 (1888); Popular Tribunals, 2 vols. (1887). Second only to these volumes in general scope and superior in some respects is T.H. Hittell’s History of California, 4 vols. (1885-1897). Two other general histories of smaller compass and covering limited periods are I.B. Richman’s California under Spain and Mexico, 1535-1847 (1911), and Josiah Royce’s California, 1846-1856 (1886). The former is a scholarly but rather arid book; the latter is an essay in interpretation rather than a narrative of events. One of the chief sources of information about San Francisco in the days of the gold fever is The Annals of San Francisco (1855) by Soule and others.

Contemporary accounts of California just before the American occupation are of varying value. One of the most widely read books is R.H. Dana’s Two Years before the Mast (1840). The author spent parts of 1835 and 1836 in California. The Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie (1831) is an account of six years’ travel amid almost incredible hardships from St. Louis to the Pacific and back through Mexico. W.H. Thomes’s On Land and Sea, or California in the Years 1843, ’44, and ’45 (1892) gives vivid pictures of old Mexican days. Two other books may be mentioned which furnish information of some value: Alfred Robinson, Life in California (1846) and Walter Colton, Three Years in California (1850).

Personal journals and narratives of the Forty-niners are numerous, but they must be used with caution. Their accuracy is frequently open to question. Among the more valuable may be mentioned Delano’s Life on the Plains and among the Diggings (1854); W.G. Johnston’s Experience of a Forty-niner (1849); T.T. Johnson’s Sights in the Gold Region and Scenes by the Way (1849); J.T. Brooks’s Four Months among the Gold-Finders (1849); E.G. Buffum‘s Six Months in the Gold Mines (1850)–the author was a member of the “Stevenson Regiment”; James Delevan’s Notes on California and the Placers: How to get there and what to do afterwards (1850); and W.R. Ryan’s Personal Adventures in Upper and Lower California, in 1848-9 (1850).

Others who were not gold-seekers have left their impression of California in transition, such as Bayard Taylor in his Eldorado, 2 vols. (1850), and J.W. Harlan in his California ’46 to ’88 (1888). The latter was a member of Fremont’s battalion. The horrors of the overland journey are told by Delano in the book already mentioned and by W.L. Manly, Death Valley in ’49 (1894).

The evolution of law and government in primitive mining communities is described in C.H. Shinn’s Mining Camps. A Study in American Frontier Government (1885). The duties of the border police are set forth with thrilling details by Horace Bell, Reminiscences of a Ranger or Early Times in Southern California (1881). An authoritative work on the Mormons is W.A. Linn’s Story of the Mormons (1902).

For further bibliographical references the reader is referred to the articles on California, San Francisco, The Mormons, and Fremont, in The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

Bibliographical Index

Alvarado, Governor of California, 15-16, 18, 23 “Arcadian Age,” 58-62 Ashe, Richard, 251, 252

Baker, Edward, Colonel, 236, 244 “Bear Flag Revolution,” 32-36 Benton, T.H., father-in-law to Fremont, 29; exerts influence in Fremont’s behalf, 40 Bluxome, Isaac, 202, 204 Bovee, 253 Bowie, 251, 252 Brannan, Sam, 56-57, 155, 189

Cahuenga, Treaty of (1847), 42 California, inhabitants, 1 occupation by Spain, 2 et seq classes, 5-6 life of early settlers, 6 et seq advent of foreign residents, 13 et seq population in 1840, 16-17 arrival of two parties of settlers (1841), 17 Fremont’s expedition, 29 military conquest by U.S., 30 et seq. Mexican laws in, 46-50; constitutional convention (1849), 50-52 influence of discovery of gold, 52-54 overland migration to, 67 et seq journey by way of Panama to, 96 et seq life in the gold fields, 107 et seq city life in 1849, 119 et seq law, 174-176; politics, 176-180 financial stringency (1855), 181-183 California Star, the, 123 Carson, Kit, 38 Casey, J.P., 191, 192 et seq, 220 et seq Chagres in 1849, 99-100 Cole, Beverly, 202 Coleman, W.T., 201, 202, 204, 205, 211 et seq, 251 Cora, Charles, trial of, 189-191 re-trial by Vigilantes, 225-226

Daily Evening Bulletin, 184-188, 190 Delano, 75 Dempster, Clancey, 201, 202, 204 Den, Nicholas, 14 Doane, Charles, 219 Donner party, 26 Dows, James, 202 Duane, Charles, 235 Durkee, John, 249-251

Farragut, David, 242 Farwell, 201 Fremont, J.C., expedition, 29 et seq personal characteristics, 40-41, 44-45 negotiates treaty with Californians, 42 appointed Governor of California, 42 asks permission to form expedition against Mexico, 43-44 court-martialed and dismissed from service, 44 Gatun in 1849, 100-01 Gavilan Peak, U.S. flag raised at, 30 Gift, Colonel, 218 Gillespie, Lieutenant, 30, 31-32 Gold, influence of discovery upon life in California, 52-54; discovered by Marshall (1848), 55; news brought to East, 62; influence in Europe, 65-66; the diggings, 106 et seq. Graham, Isaac, 15-16 Green, Talbot, 172

Harlan, William, account of overland journey, 68-69; quoted, 121; experience in San Francisco, 128; Hartnell, 14 Herald, 200 Hittell, T.H., recounts incidents of overland journey, 70, 72 Hopkins, Sterling, 251, 252 Hossefross, 202 “Hounds,” The, 137-39 Howard, Volney, 241, 244, 245, 246

Ide, W.B., 34 Indian menace to immigrant trains, 71

Jenkins, John, trial of, 153-156 Johnson, J.N., Governor of California, 210 et seq. Johnston, Captain, 38

Kearny. General Stephen Watts, 37 et seq. Kearny, Woolley, 235 Kelly, John, 115 King, James, of William, 183, 184 et seq., 207-08, 227

Larkin, T.O., 28-29 “Law and Order” party, 179, 208; clash with Vigilantes, 236 et seq. Leese, Jacob, 33

McGlynn, J.A., 129-30 McGowan, Edward, 195-96, 235 McLean, William, 235 McNabb, 252 Maloney, Rube, 248, 251, 252 Marshall, James, discovers gold, 55 Mason, Colonel R.B., 46 Meiggs, Harry, 172 Merritt, 33 Mesa, Battle of the, 41 Mexican government in California, attitude toward settlers, 17-19, 27 Mexican War, influence upon affairs in California, 35 Missions established by “Sacred Expedition,” 3 Montgomery, Lieutenant, 35 Mormons, 19-20, 56-57, 77 et seq. Mountain Meadows massacre, 95 Musgrave, J.D., 235

Oregon question, effect upon Western migration, 20-21, 55 Oregon Trail, 21-22

Panama as a route to California, 96 et seq. Panama, city of, in 1849, 102-103 Pattie, James, 14 Pico, Andres, 37 Portola, 2 Pratt, P.P., 80

“Regulators,” the, 136-37 Richardson, William, 189 Rigdon, Sidney, 80 Rowe, 252 Ryan, W.R., quoted, 7, 120-21

“Sacred Expedition,” 2 San Diego, first mission founded (1769), 13 San Francisco, before discovery of gold, 123; effect of discovery of gold, 123-24; in 1849, 124 et seq.; fire of Dec. 4, 1849, 141; later fires, 142; Volunteer Fire Department, 143-46; civic progress, 146-49; population in 1851, 150-51; in the mid-fifties, 159 et seq. San Gabriel River, Battle of (1847), 41 San Pascual, Battle of, 38 Santa Fe, 14 Semple, 33 Serra, Father Junipero, 2 Sherman, W.T., 208-09, 242-243, 245 Sloat, Commodore J.D., 35, 36 Smith, Growling, 48 Smith, Jedediah, 15 Smith, Joseph, Jr., founder of the Mormon Church, 77-79; as a leader, 79-80; death, 85 Smith, Peter, claims against city of San Francisco, 170 Sonoma captured, 32-35 Spain, religious occupation of California, 2 et seq.; discourages immigration into, 13 Spence, David, 14 Stockton, Robert, Commodore, 36 et seq.; quarrels with Kearny, 38-39 Stuart, James, 151-52 Sunday Times, the, 192 Sutler, Captain J.A., 23-26 Sutter’s Fort, 24, 25, 29, 30, 33, 106 “Sydney Ducks,” 136, 234

Terry, Judge, 241, 242, 243, 245-46, 251, 252 Thomes, W.H., quoted, 9 Three Weeks in the Gold Mines, Simpson, 64 Truett, 201, 220, 251

Vallejo, General, 18 Vigilantes, of 1851, 150 et seq.; of 1856, 231 et seq.

Walker, Joseph, 29, 30 White, James, 235 Wightman, Peter, 235 Wool, General, 242

Yerba Buena, see San Francisco Young, Brigham, 85-88, 89, 90, 91