Early Days of San Francisco by John Henry Brown

Author:John Henry Brown [Brown, John Henry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Geschichte
Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
Published: 2017-11-22T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

I HAVE HEARD AND SEEN many times in print, reports of those who first discovered gold dust in California. In regard to the first person who discovered it, I do not wish to say, as several claimed the honor; but I well remember who brought the first gold dust to the city. It was brought by a man belonging to Oregon, by the name of Bennett, in the month of October 1847. Mr. Bennett arrived in the city of Yerba Buena, and came to Brown's Hotel, and inquired if he could be accommodated for a few days. He was a tall spare man, with light hair, inclined to be sandy. In conversation, he informed me that he was from Oregon, and that his business in the city was to try to find some person who had a cash capital of about one thousand dollars. I informed him that there were persons in the house who had that amount or more. He wished me to give him an introduction, as he could make a good thing for them and himself. The next day I introduced him to George McDougal. After the introduction, I was going to leave the room, when McDougal called me back, and said if there was anything to be made I should have an interest with them.

Bennett then took from his pocket an old-fashioned English snuff-box, about the size of a ten-cent blacking box, and observed to McDougal, that if he was willing to spend his money for the purchase of red and blue blankets, that he could obtain for him any amount of that kind of metal, (showing him at the same time what the box contained) but McDougal thought it was a put up job to get money out of him, and he informed Bennett that it would pay him better to try someone else. The next one I thought of was Major Humphries. He had been a miner for many years before he came to California. He informed me that he had worked in the Galena Mines, and had been very lucky and was well off when he arrived in California.

He and Bennett had several conversations together; but I never knew what was said, as Major Humphries was a man who kept his business to himself. Two days after the introduction of Humphries to Bennett, Humphries inquired if I knew what had become of a carpenter, who was known by the name of "The devil take the hindmost one." The man's real name was Spencer, he lived with another carpenter by the name of Foster, who was a brother-in-law to a man named Nie. Humphries got these two carpenters to make him a machine, at the time they did not know for what purpose it was intended; but made it after Humphries orders; and we did not see or hear from Humphries again for many months. He then informed us that he had made the machine to use at the mines as a gold-washer, and it answered the purpose better than he expected.

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