Tuolumne-Calaveras County CA Archives History .....Recollections Of My Early Life In Dodgeville And Of My Trip To  
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Nancy Poquette npoq@hotmail.com January 18, 2008, 3:39 pm

	Dodgeville, the present county seat of Iowa County, was named after 
Gen. Henry Dodge who was appointed governor of the territory of Wisconsin, and 
afterward, upon its admission as a state, became of the first senators. 
According to the most authentic evidence, the very first settlement in what is 
now the County of Iowa was at this point in the summer or fall of 1827. The 
first settlers of whom we have any record were Ezra Lamb and two others, one by 
the name of Putnam and the other named Moorhead, a tinker.

	The first mining claim was made by Ezra Lamb, and Mr. Plum near the 
spring in the north part of the village, and the first log cabins or huts were 
erected here. As soon as Gen. Dodge arrived, he made as extensive a claim as 
the mining rules would allow on the site of the business portion of the present 
city.

During the five years following 1840, settlers arrived in large numbers, 
principally from Cornwall, England. The log huts of the early miners were 
replaced by commodious and substantial frame buildings.

In 1845 [1840?] the population was estimated at 300 and by 1845 it had more 
that doubled. It was in the month of November 1846 when we came by horse teams 
from Milwaukee, thus completing the long journey of more than 4000 miles from 
Cambourne, England to Dodgeville, Wisconsin, then a territory. My brothers, 
John and Alfred, and my brother-in-law, James Bennett and my sister, Jane, came 
about 18 months before. My brothers had a brick building erected ready for us 
to move into. There was a basement story of two rooms and a cellar back of 
them. This upper story had 4 good rooms and a wing was afterward built for a 
kitchen. It was then one of the best houses in the village, but after a number 
of years the basement walls proved to be defective owing to faulty 
construction. The masons built a one-faced wall with ‘digging’ sand and 
insufficient lime, which eventually settled, causing the brick walls to crack 
so badly that it was unsafe to live in it and it was afterward taken down. The 
house was owned between my brother John and my father.

Most or nearly all the English people settled in the north portion of the 
village, and the Welsh and Americans I the southern part. The north part was at 
one time called “Minersville” or “Dirty Hollow.” Before the advent of sidewalks 
the name was not altogether inappropriate in the springtime and during rainy 
weather, but it did not please a good many. Perhaps some thoughtless person 
originated it because prevailing conditions seemed to warrant it. The boys and 
girls of the north side resented the dirty name. The ridge where the Courthouse 
now stands was torn up with digging holes and there was a wide space unoccupied 
by any buildings owing to the mining going on. For many years, it remained so.

On this vacant sport the Cornish boys of “Dirty Hollow” and the upper-town boys 
or “Blue-Bellied Yankees” as the Cornish boys called them, used to often meet 
on this battleground and stone each other. The stones from the digging holes 
afforded abundant ammunition. When they got tired they ran away and thus lived 
to fight another day. In the course of a few years when school houses were 
built this belligerent condition subsided and peace and goodwill prevailed. 

The country around was mostly rolling prairie, the exception being Black’s 
Grove near the present cemetery. This prairie was not fence until many years 
after. It afforded excellent pasturage for stock. On the ridge 
adjoining “Redruth hollow” was a mile racetrack where the sporting element 
frequently tried the speed of their fast horses. Bets were made and money 
changed hands. The land is now used for a better purpose. In the early days 
large bands of cows were brought up from Illinois and Missouri and sold at very 
reasonable prices ranging from $15 to $25 according to their quality to people 
who purchased them for their own use. Anyone could go out and cut their hay for 
winter use without any cost except labor. This afforded the laboring man an 
excellent opportunity to get his milk and butter for very little and also gave 
him a chance to raise a pig or two and a calf.

Dressed hogs well fattened were brought up from the Rock River country and sold 
as low as $3 per 100 lbs. Flour in barrels 196 lbs weight from the same section 
sold as low as $3 per barrel. Wages for miners was $1 to $1.25 a day. Good farm 
hands could be had for $10 per month and board. I think groceries, especially 
sugar cost more than at the present time. Boots and shoes were high in price. A 
pair of miner’s boots hand made were sold at $5 per pair. Cotton goods were 
also high. A good quality of calico sold at about 50 cents a yard. Refined 
sugar of the best quality about 10 cents a lb and new Orleans brown sugar from 
6 to 8 cents a lb.

There being no railroads, everything had to be hauled by teams from milwaukee 
or Galena and transportation was costly. The farmer hauling his wheat to 
Milwaukee and selling it for 50 cents a bushel taking more than a week to make 
the round trip was not to be envied. He did not have a binder to cut and bind 
his wheat. He had to cut it with a ‘cradle’ and his hay was cut with a scythe. 
The pioneer farmer and his family had gret difficulties and hardships to 
contend with. Then the mower and reaper were invented. It helped the farmer and 
saved much hard labor, but they were expensive.

In the early days a buggy was a rare object to see. Often ox teams were the 
only means of conveyance. A few farmers had light wagons and horses but very 
few had buggies then. No wonder that farming was not much sought after. Land 
was cheap and could be homesteaded within 4 or 5 miles of town. West of 
Dodgeville where Cobb and Edmund now stand, lands were low in price. Those who 
held on to their land as a rule did not get rich very fast. The advance in the 
price of land helped him very much. 

Since the Civil War conditions have greatly changed. Now the farmer whose farm 
is paid for had easy sailing compared with the pioneer. Now the land is 
assessed at actual value, the farmers are complaining of the high taxes. The 
standard of living is much higher now. People have much better homes and have 
many luxuries, which were denied the pioneer of the early days. I have an idea 
that there is about as much general discontent now as there was in the pioneer 
days. They seemed to enjoy life as they went along. They didn’t expect very 
much and didn’t get very much so were not disappointed. Times were hard in the 
countries where those of foreign birth came from, and they probably found 
conditions of living here better than where they formerly lived.

In England at that time, the miner considered he was doing fairly well if he 
earned 3 pound, or $15 a month. The husbandman who did farm work was paid very 
low wages. The miner here received twice as much as he did in England and he 
had no good reason to be dissatisfied. A millionaire in those days wouldn’t 
find many of his kind. The vast wealth of this country, which is being largely 
concentrated in the hands of a few thousand men, is a great danger and a menace 
to the well being of this great Republic.

The old Rock Chapel on Church Street and the present Welsh Congregational were 
the English-speaking churches and a small Welsh church near the old cemetery 
were all the churches in Dodgeville when we came here, but some years after, 
Jabez Wilson, one of our citizens, donated the lot on which the primitive 
Church now stands. It was occupied by the Wesleyans on Sundays and Wednesdays, 
and for the use of the public at other times. It was called the ‘Republican 
Church.’ The deed specified these conditions. The building was a one-story 
frame building. These facts were substantiated in the lawsuit between the PM 
Church and the Congregational Church some years ago [Feb. 1897 when the suit 
was brought].

There was a good deal of intoxicating liquor drunk here from 1846 to the time 
of the Civil War. The drink habit was very general among the mining class in 
England, and those miners who indulged in liquor brought their habits with 
them. Whiskey was cheap and anybody who desired could start a saloon. It was 
also sold in stores frequently. The government did not exact any revenue from 
the business then. It had not gone into partnership with the liquor traffic 
then. The results were demoralizing. It was considered a mark of hospitality 
when a neighbor or friend called to hand out the whiskey decanter. Card playing 
in saloons for drinks was general and profanity and drunkenness were common. 
Fights and drunken brawls were frequent occurrences.

There were a number of very sober religious men here in those early times who 
set a good example. Regular preaching services on Sunday. A good Sabbath School 
and weeknight prayer meetings were kept up. Later on there were several good 
revivals and many heads of families were converted, causing a great 
reformation. Soon after this, gold was discovered and a great rush for the new 
El Dorado in California. Quite a number of the Cornish miners went, among them 
several of the hard drinkers, which made Dodgeville a better place to live 
after they were gone.

In the autumn of 1850, the cholera broke out in Dodgeville and several towns in 
the county. The first case occurred in Wingville, now Montfort, and Dr. Sibley 
of this place was called to attend the case. The doctor took the disease and 
died. Some days after the first case occurred, the place had many victims. One 
Sunday there were 5 funerals. The citizens were panic-stricken, and all who 
could do so left the place. Many went out near Cobb and lived in tents on the 
prairies.

	My father had just returned from England a short time before the 
cholera broke out, and brought with him a man called William Rogers, a brother 
of my brother-in-law, Matthew Rogers. Matthew and my father were taken down 
with the disease in our old brick house. My mother and Nanny, my sister, wife 
of Matthew, waited on them. Shortly after, William Rogers, who came from 
Cornwall with my father, was taken down suddenly and died the next day in our 
house, where he was staying. The supply of coffins was exhausted. Old Mr. Marr, 
the undertaker, was a victim. He died soon after the disease broke out. As no 
coffins were to be had, rough, un-planed boards were made into boxes of the 
length needed and the remains consigned to their resting place in the old 
cemetery. I remember going over to Redruth Hollow with a horse and cart for the 
rough coffin to enclose Mr. Roger’s remains. The streets were white with lime 
that had been scattered on them for sanitary purposes as a disinfectant.

During the weeks that followed, my father and brother-in-law were attended by 
no regular physician [for cholera], but were waited on by “Old Man Tyrer” as he 
was called, who lived about a mile west of the present NW Depot. He had 
remarkable success with the cases he treated. I think it was said that all 
those he treated recovered. He waited on my father and Matthew Rogers and both 
recovered. His treatment was medicated steam inhaled through the nose. Soon 
after, those [who] had gone away returned, when the plague ceased. Mother, my 
sister, Mrs. Rogers and myself kept well and suffered no attack. 

Not long after this, I obtained a position as clerk with Fregaski and Rowen in 
a general store and stayed with them for a year or more until they closed out 
of their business. My brother, John went to California in 1851 and in the 
spring of 1852, he sent money to pay my passage to California. He was working 
in the placer gold mines near Sonora on Kinkaids Flat, 4 miles from town. 
Sonora was the County seat of Tuolumne Co. In the early part of May 1852 in 
company with several Dodgeville citizens whom I was acquainted with, I started 
for California. I was then 16 years and 8 months old and weighed 110 lbs, so I 
was a lightweight for my age. I had however had some experience in handling the 
pick and shovel some years before which was a benefit to me. 

At that time the Mil and St Paul Railroad. was begun and 20 miles of road was 
in operation. We went by Stage to Madison and thence to the Railroad line via 
the plant road to Watertown to the terminal of the St. Paul Road. From ‘Mil’ 
[Milwaukee] we went to Toledo Ohio by Steam ship and from thence to Buffalo and 
on to New York City via the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. We 
remained in New York several days at No. 2 Front St. a hotel largely patronized 
by Cornish miners. It so happened that a party of miners from Lake Superior 
came into the hotel and my brother Alfred was among them. So we journeyed 
afterward together until we reached San Francisco. At last the party engaged 
passage on the steamship Northern Lights a Vanderbilt boat via the Nicaragua 
Route. We paid $170 for our fare in the steerage from New York to San 
Francisco. 

After an uneventful passage we arrived in Greytown or "San Juan Del Norte" the 
landing place where a small steamer of light draft awaited our arrival to take 
us up the river as far as Castille Rapids near the entrance to Lake Nicaragua. 
The water was low and when necessary a great many of the passengers would get 
off to lighten the boat and walk through the jungle where a path had been made, 
thus enabling the steamer to get over the shallow water in the numerous rapids 
we had to pass. There was a dense tropical forest along the river, number of 
monkeys and tropical birds making strange music and chattering in the trees. 

After some days we reached the Castille rapids, and waited for the coming of a 
larger steamer to take us across Lake Nicaragua. It was towards evening when 
the steamer arrived. We soon got on board and were not long before we entered 
the lake and were on the boat all night arriving at Virgin Bay early in the 
morning. It is a beautiful body of water set in the mountain range affording 
the grandest scenery. There are a number of active volcanoes in Nicaragua. It 
is a volcanic region, and eruptions occur at irregular intervals. I think the 
view from Virgin Bay most delightful and the scenery is most impressive, and I 
have not forgotten it through sixty years.

Virgin Bay is about 12 miles from the Pacific Coast at "San Juan Del Sud" (St. 
John the South.). Here we had to ride on horse back or mule back, or tramp it. 
The trail led through the mountains, and was narrow so that most of the way we 
had to travel single file. No carriages could pass over it. Some of the lady 
passengers were perplexed over the situation and found it necessary to borrow 
pantaloons to ride the mules or ponies provided. A lady by the name of Williams 
borrowed a pair of me, which proved satisfactory. She remembered the incident 
when I met her in Victoria, British Columbia 50 years after. That 12 miles was 
long and rough but in due time we finished the journey and reached "San Juan 
Del Sud," on the Pacific where we got our first view of the Great Pacific 
Ocean. It had taken about a week in getting from ocean to ocean. In the middle 
of the day the shade was desirable, as it was pretty hot. The old barracks 
called a hotel was near the beach. A few went bathing but soon after a shark 
was seen which ended that luxury. Oranges, limes and lemons were cheap and 
abundant, and grew near by or were brought there. 

The steamer, Independence, had not arrived and we had to wait a week in that 
very uncomfortable place before she came to take us to San Francisco. She was a 
miserable excuse for a passenger boat. About 260 passengers were on board. I 
believe it was 16 days before we entered the Golden Gate the entrance to the 
great harbor of San Francisco. On the way up the coast we put in at the Mexican 
port of Acapulco, a small but beautiful land-locked harbor, and stayed some 
hours. A number of natives, some of whom were small boys swam around the boat 
and many coins were thrown in the water, which they dove after and very quickly 
obtained them. It was an interesting sight to many of the passengers who had 
never seen the like before. The steerage fare didn't suit my appetite. The hard 
sea biscuit and fat bacon I had not been used to, and I should have fared 
pretty hard had not Alfred Jenkins and his wife, cabin passengers who were 
citizens of Mineral Point, kindly remembered me by smuggling some appetizing 
food from the cabin table. There was a young man who was a waiter in the cabin 
who was from Davenport, England, with whom Alfred and myself became acquainted. 
Some 7 or 8 days before we reached San Francisco one of the cabinet pantrymen 
took the Panama Fever and this young Englishman got me his place in the pantry, 
and my brother Alfred got the job of cleaning the knives and forks. We both 
lived well from that on and were paid $2 a day for our time when we got into 
port. I thought we were quite fortunate. 

The 4th of July was celebrated on board, being on a Sunday. Through the kinsman 
of the young Englishman I was an invited guest. The cabin table was decorated 
with small flags. I dare say the speeches made were patriotic, though I do not 
remember any thing that was said (but I am certain I had a good dinner). 

The city of San Francisco at that time had a population of 5 to 10,000. 
Gambling houses, where many were fleeced, were open night and day. We did not 
stay there longer than we were obliged to. Here my brother Alfred and I 
separated, he going to the north at Weaverville, and I to Sonora in the 
southern mines, which was about 75 miles from Stockton at the head of 
navigation, which place we reached by steamer. Having yet a ride by stage of 75 
miles, we lost no time and soon were at the end of our journey. These places 
can easily be found in any late geography. About 4 miles from Sonora is Kincaid 
Flat where my brothers John and Thomas had claims. The latter came to 
California from England, where he married a Miss Reynolds the daughter of a 
respectable farmer. After remaining a few hours in the city of San Francisco we 
got on board the steamer for Stockton. We crossed the magnificent Bay of San 
Francisco and steamed up the Sacramento River to where the San Joaquin River 
flows into it and from there up the latter to Stockton the head of navigation 
on the river at that time. There was a stage line from Stockton to Sonora, the 
county seat of Tuolumne County, which was the principal town in the southern 
mines. In and around the vicinity of Sonora within a few miles were many rich 
mining claims. 

On reaching Sonora I was at the end of my journey. Four miles from Sonora my 
eldest brothers John and Thomas were mining on Kinkaids Flat a recent 
discovery. I was very glad to meet my brothers and received an affectionate 
greeting from them. My brother Thomas had arrived there from England (leaving 
his wife there) some few weeks before my arrival, and had purchased an interest 
in a claim joining the one owned by my brother John and partner, an Irish man 
by the name of Dan Downey, who was the discoverer of the claim. I think my 
brother paid him the small sum of $100 for a half interest. It proved to be a 
fortunate investment. 

I was at that time about 16 years and 6 months old and small for my age. My 
weight about 115 lbs. rather a lightweight to undertake to fill a man's place. 
The gravel had to be carted about ¾ of a mile to Sullivan's Creek where it was 
washed and the gold extracted by a very simple process, called the Long Tom, 
which was about 10-ft. in length and 2-ft in width, the sides being 10-in high. 
At the lower end there was a sheet iron grating with holes about ¾-in diameter, 
some 3-ft in length and full width of the trough or box, and turned up at the 
end over which all the washed gravel and dirt passed, except the stones which 
were too large to pass through the grating. Underneath the grating was the 
riffle box in a sloping position. A man stood at the lower end and shoveled 
away all the material, which did not pass through. In the riffle box were one 
or two strips of lumber some 1 and ½ inches wide placed across the bottom so as 
to prevent the gold from washing away. 

My brother owned a mule and cart, and his partner, Mr. Downey, owned a horse 
and cart which he drove himself while I was hired to drive the mule and cart. 
My brother did the washing at the Long Tom, and a man was hired to dig the dirt 
with a pick and help to load. Each driver had to help fill the load. I carried 
as many loads a day as Mr. Downey and got a man's wages which was $5 a day. I 
thought that was pretty good pay. The gravel was only some 2 and ½  to 3 feet 
to bedrock and was easy digging. 

After about 3 months the pay streak was worked out, and my brother sold out to 
his partner, after which he went to Hawkings Bar on the Tuolumne River and 
bought 4 shares in a river claim. One share for himself, one for me, one for 
William Wedlake, and one for my brother Alfred who had recently come from 
Weaverville in the northern mines. It was in August month and we lived in a 
brush tent, which we had made. Our work was to build two dams, one at the head, 
and one at the lower end of the claims and lay trestle work and build a flume, 
in which an undershot water wheel furnished power to run Chinese pumps to prime 
out the water between the two dams so as to work the river bed. After the water 
was lowered sufficiently to begin working just below the upper dam, we began 
sluicing the gravel. We were just beginning to get rich pay dirt and had not 
reached the bed rock where we expected to find the best pay, when one night the 
river rose and washed out our dam which put an end to our work for the season. 
There were 38 shares in the claim. After paying for the material we made a 
dividend of ten dollars per share, so our board expenses and all our labor, 
which was very hard, went for nothing. We disposed of our shares and did not 
try river mining again. 

We returned to Kinkaid Flats where we remained through most of the winter and 
lived in the log cabin we had previously occupied. Then the rainy season began 
provisions began to rise in price very rapidly. My brother went to Sonora and 
bought some things we needed among the rest was a sack of corn meal which cost 
$22 per 100 lbs. Soon after flour, potatoes, beans, pork, ham and etc, went as 
high as $1.00 a pound, in many camps. There was so much rain that the roads 
were almost impassable for teams. Most of the freight was carried by pack 
animals from Stockton some 75 miles. While the corn meal lasted, we generally 
had mush and molasses for supper with a "heavy cake" to finish with. 

In the early spring we bought a mining claim inside the city limits of Sonora 
near the "Bull Pen" where bull fights and bull and bear fights took place 
occasionally, (always on Sunday) as miners came to town generally on that day 
to do their trading in line of purchasing provisions and etc, and other things 
they needed. There were saloons and 2 large gambling houses which seemed to be 
liberally patronized. Music furnished by skillful musicians was an attraction 
that drew many into those places. And doubtless many hard working men were 
relieved of their hard earnings by their own folly, illustrating the old saying 
that "fools and their money are soon parted." Drinking, gambling, wine, and 
women of the underworld were the pitfalls of destruction then as they are 
today. Carrying revolvers was a very common practice. They were not concealed 
but were fastened to the side by a belt around the body, which supported the 
holster in which the weapon was carried in full view of every one. Among the 
population were many Mexicans, mostly of the peon class, many of them dangerous 
characters. Crimes were of frequent occurrence, and lynchings often followed.

Finally vigilance committees were organized in various cities to deal with the 
criminal classes. Trial by the ordinary legal process was slow and uncertain, 
but the prompt action of the vigilantes was a terror to the evil-doers. I saw 3 
or 4 men, one of them was a white man, the others Mexicans, who had been tried 
by due process of law, hung at the same time in Sonora, who had been found 
guilty of murder. The hanging was in public and a large crowd were gathered, 
probably through curiosity than anything else. 

In the summer of 1853, my brother John gave up mining, and with two others, 
both Cornishmen, went into the cattle business. They went to Los Angeles in 
Southern California, which at that time was a small town of a few hundred 
inhabitants, where owners of great herds of cattle made their homes. The 
vaqueros or "cowboys" did the herding on the grazing grounds. They were 
generally Mexicans or Chileans from Chile, South America. They were experts in 
riding and throwing the lasso. 

Los Angeles was about 500 miles from the southern mines and the cattle were 
driven that distance, which took about a month to six weeks. The cattle were 
rounded up at night after grazing and a man or two kept guard through the 
night. Occasionally through the night some trifling thing would frighten them 
and they would rise and stampede in every direction, when all hands would be 
aroused, and follow them on horseback until they quieted down. Sometimes it 
might take some days to get them all together again, before they could pursue 
their journey. After reaching the mines they were herded by the cowboys until 
they were slaughtered and the meat sold in the various mining camps. 

Within a few miles of Sonora were a number of mining camps, which furnished 
employment to a great many miners. Shaw's Flat was about 3 miles from Sonora, 
Springfield, 4 miles, Jamestown, about 4 miles; Columbia about the same 
distance, Chinese Camp about 10 miles; Sullivan's Creek I mile. It was all 
placer mining at first, and after a few years most of the shallow diggings were 
worked out and abandoned. Some years later quartz mines were discovered some of 
which 50 years later are still being worked. Pocket mining, so named on account 
of the gold being found in pockets, sometimes many thousands of dollars have 
been taken out of a few square feet of ground from a single pocket. By 
following a small stringer of quartz it would often lead to another pocket. 

The great "Mother Lode" as it is called can be traced by its surface croppings 
for scores and possible hundreds of miles. And many rich discoveries have been 
made in or near the huge body of quartz. Near Jamestown are several good mines 
alongside the Mother lode, where it crosses the "Table Mountain." This mountain 
can be traced for many miles and appears very level. It was once the bed of an 
ancient river. Between Shaw's Flats and Jamestown, volcanic rock or lava can be 
seen standing almost perpendicular from 25 to 50 ft. high. Many tunnels have 
pierced the side of the mountain and struck a bed of gravel in places rich with 
gold, far below the lava on the top of the mountain. It is evident the lava 
from some extinct volcano must have flowed down the bed of the river and filled 
the valley and turned the stream into another channel. In one place an 
acquaintance of mine at the base of the mountain found a gravel bed which led 
into the mountainside where there was a spring. The gold found was mostly 
coated with a film of black material very thin. The gold was of a coarse grade 
in size. I dare say Table Mountain has been examined by the Cal State Geologist 
but I have never seen in print any description or explanation of this very 
remarkable mountain which at a distance seems to be so level. The Mother lode 
and the Table Mountain are both interesting features in the geological 
formation of that section. 

In 1857, some paying quartz ledges were discovered about 2 miles from Sonora at 
what was called ‘Saulslyville,’ and they have been worked to a depth of several 
hundred feet, and they still give employment to quite a number of miners. The 
veins were generally not large but of good quality. About 2 miles from 
Soulsbyville toward the foothills of the Sierras, an old friend of mine by the 
name of William Vincent, a native of Cambourne, England, and a man by the name 
of William Blakely, discovered a quartz ledge, in which I purchased an 1/8th 
interest for $1200. The claim was 800 ft in length. The surface rock was of 
honeycomb formation and through oxidation and action of the atmosphere the gold 
was in loose particles in the cells, but at a few feet in depth the pyrites of 
iron took the place of the honeycomb rock on the surface, and those had to be 
roasted in order to recover the gold. 

The names of the men who formed the company were William Vincent, William and 
James Blakely of New York, who were the discoverers; James Bennett, my bro-in-
law; Francis Dunstan, of Dodgeville, WI; William Hendy, John H. Benberthy and 
myself, also Dodgeville men; John Edwards, Richard Inch, the former from Hazel 
Green, WI, the latter from Cornwall, Eng.; and Rev. M.C. Baker, an American who 
was at the time, pastor of the ME Church at Springfield. 

We started a tunnel and soon reached the vein, which was about 3 ft in width. 
After following the vein for about 100 ft, it widened and formed two veins with 
stringers of quartz in the ground between. We had no stamp mill to crush the 
quartz. Mr. Inch, who was a mining engineer, owned an old 8 stamp mill and the 
company entered into a contract with him to crush a thousand tons. Before his 
contract was finished the company decided to build a 20 stamp up to date mill 
at that time, operated by a 20 ft overshot wheel. 

It was supposed that the vein would continue in depth and also into the hill. 
About that time my brother-in-law, James Bennett, decided to sell his interest 
and return to his family in Dodgeville. I had not been feeling very well for 
some months with indigestion, and decided to sell my interest also and return 
to Wisconsin with him. 

The following spring, Mr. Hendy, John Penberthy, and Frank Dunstan sold their 
interest and came back to Dodgeville, their home. The mine looked promising at 
that time and the price of a share advanced about $2000 a share more than I 
obtained. When the tunnel was driven further into the hill, it came to a point 
and formed a single vein again and failed to yield in values as before. A shaft 
was then sunk from the tunnel to a depth of some 40 feet to find out the 
character of the lode. The result proved that the vein got too poor to pay for 
working. 

In the fall of 1859, in company with my brother-in-law we started our return 
journey to Wisconsin. We sailed from San Francisco on the Steamship Golden Gate 
and arrived in Panama in about 12 days a distance of about 3,500 miles. We 
crossed the Isthmus in the night by rail along the present route of the Panama 
Canal, but had no opportunity to see the nature of the country along the route. 

We arrived at Aspinwall in the night and without delay went on board of the 
Steamship Baltic a vessel of 3000 tons burden, and in the morning we steamed 
out of the harbor bound for New York some 2500 miles, passing near the island 
of Cuba on our way north. We reached New York in about 7 days. We had no storms 
to contend with and we made the voyage in schedule time. We saw but few 
steamers on the trip, and there was nothing of especial interest that happened. 
Our stay in New York was quite short and soon we were on our way by train to 
Chicago where we arrived in due time, and were soon on our way to Dodgeville, 
and were home at last in a few hours to the end of our long journey where our 
relatives and friends gave us a cordial greeting. 

I had been away for about 7 ½ years and had lived nearly all the time in a 
bachelor's cabin, and did my own cooking, washing and mending. It was a humdrum 
sort of a life, with few attractions and hard toil. 

One of the incidents which occurred the winter of 1852 at Kinkaid's Flat which 
afforded a little excitement was a report that a grizzly bear had been seen 
near the camp and the miners turned out to get a view of the formidable and 
dangerous animal. Some were armed with pistols and guns and other weapons which 
to give battle to his Grizzlyship. The chaparral bushes were carefully searched 
and the pine trees of large size scanned very critically but to no purpose. The 
final conclusion was that the bear had decided to leave the vicinity for safer 
quarters. My opinion is if the bear had given battle there would have been a 
lively stampede of the hunters. 

Another incident was during the rainy season of 1850. It was on a Sunday. A 
heavy rain had fallen during the night. My brother Alfred and one or two others 
started to go on foot to Sonora. I also went. When we reached Sullivan's Creek, 
we found the stream which was usually easy to cross, had swollen to quite a 
size which we did not attempt to cross. In looking in some of the shallow 
gullies, which the rain had washed bare, one of the party espied a small nugget 
of gold. Then we all began to search. It was but a short distance from where my 
brother John's wash place stood. I went there and looking around I saw a nugget 
of gold which I picked up, which was worth about $6. Not long before that time, 
a Cornishman by name Jack Rabey picked a nugget of gold and quartz near the 
Bullpen in Sonora which was valued at about $1000.00. There was mining ground 
where it lay among the gravel. 

At Carson's Camp in Calaveras Co. where the Mother lode cropped out above the 
surface, some rich quartz had been found. In the gulch at the foot of the hill 
there were a number of claims which paid very well. My brother Alfred and I 
purchased a ¼ interest in one of the claims. The bedrock was some 10 to 15 feet 
below the surface. Several feet below the surface of the ground was of no 
value. The method of handling was by ‘ground sluicing.’ The ground down to pay 
gravel was undercut by digging with picks. The stream of water was conducted to 
the fall of the bank. Then when the ground toppled over, the dirt which was 
quite free of stone was carried away by the force of the water, thus getting 
rid of the useless material and disposing of it at much less labor and expense 
than by shoveling. After the ground sluicing, the gravel and bedrock was 
afterward cleaned by picking and shoveling into sluice boxes where the gold was 
recovered. I well remember one day the company who worked the claim below ours 
found a nugget weighing 45 ounces. Its market value was $850.

Additional Comments:
        James Roberts was born in 1835 and these memoirs were written, it 
appears, around 1920. The manuscript of James Roberts is in the G. H. Sanford 
Collection (1927) of papers at the archives of the Wisconsin State Historical 
Society in Madison, WI, 816 South Street, Archives Division. They are listed as 
Author-Eleanor Sanford, collector, MAD 4/14/SC 326, call numbers. Above are 
excerpts from those recollections about Dodgeville, the Roberts and Rogers 
families, and James' trip to mine gold in California.

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