Covered Wagon Women, Volume 2 by Kenneth L. Holmes

Author:Kenneth L. Holmes [Holmes, Kenneth L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781496225566
Publisher: Bison Books
Published: 2020-07-28T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER X.

Sunday, September 8. This morning a row-boat came up the river from San Francisco, containing five men, who stopped at the river bank to cook their breakfast. They told us they had come around Cape Horn, and narrated some of their privations on the long voyage. For many weeks they were on short rations, having only three crackers each, and a small supply of water, daily. For a time there was a fair prospect of their starving to death. After hearing their dismal stories, we concluded that our overland journey was, in comparison, but a pleasure excursion.

Monday, September 9. This was a memorable day in more respects than one; for, though we were not informed of it at the time, it was on this day that the bill was passed in Congress admitting California as a state into the Union. It was not until a month later that the news reached us by steamer from New York by way of the Isthmus of Panama, which at that time was the only means of communication with the rest of the United States.

To-day also witnessed the final breaking up of our party of gold -seekers, and the forming of new plans for its different members. The Carson brothers, who had joined us at the Missouri River, and whose camp was now near our own, removed their animals and wagons into the city, expecting to find there better opportunities of disposing of them, preparatory to setting out for the gold mines.

Mr. Aaron Rose, who came with us from Martinsville, and Mr. William Johnson, who, with his horse, accompanied us from Green River, bade us good-by and started off with high hopes for the rich mines of Yuba River, a large tributary of the Rio de los Plumas;* which flows into the Sacramento about twenty-five miles north of that city.

Our friend Mrs. Foshee, whom we last saw sitting in her stranded carriage in the middle of the Humboldt desert, was not deserted by her usual good fortune. Her party in the passenger train came through in good time and without incident; and soon after reaching Sacramento, she secured an engagement in a private family residing near our camp, at a salary of $100.00 per month.

Saturday, September 14. To-day Mr. Frink made a visit to the city of Sacramento to inquire for letters, as we had not heard from home since we left Martinsville. He found $5.00 worth of letters, the postage being forty cents on each. At the same time he bought some provisions, among them an onion, for which, alone he paid a dollar.

In the afternoon I went with Mr. Frink to the Methodist parsonage in the city, where we met the Rev. Mr. Penn, who came out in 1849. I inquired of him concerning the condition and prospects of the Baptist Church, and he informed me that the Rev. O. C. Wheeler, of New York City, was then in the city, having recently arrived from San Francisco to organize a Baptist Church in Sacramento.

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