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dNTIL thlt;* umgic wand of gold wan waved o’er the green slopes of the Sierras, drawing thither in u wild, tumultuous rush tens of thousands of eager adventurers from the four corners of the earth, California was comparatively but little known. No til rally, much ill to rest attaches to the personality of the man. or men, who were instrumental in causing the most wonderful revolution any portion of theearth’s surface ever saw; and the recent propositionin California to erect a monument to the memory of*■James \Y. Marshall* the discoverer of gold at Ctdontn,invests the subject with peculiar interest at the present time*In all eases where anything in done that calls for public attention, there du not lin k false claimants of honors due another* and the discovery of gold in California in no exception. However, the claim of Mar shall in ho indie putable, and that of nil others ho Him-s\ I hat there will never be any reversal of history onthin point. The actual discoverer was beyond doubt the man who lirst saw, picked up and tested the gold* but whether he deserves all the credit* or even tie-lion’s share of it, in not ho c- rtain. It in the opinionof many that Cuptain John A. Sutter in the man who should lie eulogised in this matter, rather than he who whs the actual, but accidental, tinder of the first piw of gold. In the first place it must not he supposed that Marshall's discovery was the (irst known of thewxistence of the royal metal in California Passingover the early Spanish and English statements ilint California contained gold as being founded on romancemid the absurd Ih1 lief prevalent in those days of thefabulous wealth of the west, we will eonie down to tie* present century, (odd was discovered by Jededi Smith, an American trapper, near Mono lake, in h'J5; at Sun Ininlor, in San Diego county, in Iin Santa Clara county, in IH.1H; and near the mission of San Fernando in IH1I, the latter mines being quit** uxt»*n sivolv worked at the time Marshall iiutde the disne cry at ('elmna. It was the fat1! that gold was found to exist in hitherto unknown abundance iluit caused such n wild stampede for California, white pn vious discoveries had created no stir w hateverTo pro]K»rly understand the subject ami form an►pinion upon its merit*, the conditions that then*-■h| and the causes that brought thorn forth si ion hi lrconsidered. The piotwr settler *l the valley was Captain John A. Sutter, who was born of Swiss parents in Baden, Germany, February lH,,{ graduated from the military academy at B« rite. SwiUerlmid, and became a lieutenant in the eel* lirut^l ^w.-s guard «f the French army, and subsequently a captain in the Swiss army in ItttM he came to Annnea*4
Newspaper Details
Portland West Shore
Portland, Oregon, US
Sat, Nov 09, 1889
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Dean T.
USA 11 Dec 2022
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