Placerville: Miners, Bankers, and Runaway Hogs

Miners’ Meeting.

At a meeting of the miners of Smith’s Flat, on the evening of September 21st, 1854, E. Gage, Esq., was called to the chair, and T.M. White appointed secretary, and the following laws for the government of claims in Smith’s Flat District, were unanimously adopted.

Mining Laws of Smith’s Flat.

1. The boundaries of Smith’s Flat Mining District shall be as follows, viz:

Beginning at the south east corner of Negro Hill District, thence east until it strikes where the road running through Smith’s Ranch intersects the emigrant road East; thence south until it strikes the Coon Hollow ditch; thence west, along said ditch, until it strikes Spanish Hill District; thence north to the south line of Negro Hill District; thence east on said line to the place of beginning.

2. The size of mining claims shall be 50 by 100 yds.

3. Each miner may hold two claims — one by location and one by purchase, or both by purchase.

4. All claims must be recorded by a Recorder duly elected; and he shall receive one dollar for recording each claim. He shall set a permanent stake at each corner of each claim, and put a written notice on each, giving the name or names of the party or parties, having such claims recorded, with the number of the claim and time of recording, and shall file a duplicate of such notice in a book kept for the purpose. It shall be his duty, also, to record all claims that he may be requested to.

5. No claim shall be forfeited by not being worked between the first day of July and the first day of December; provided the owner of any claim shall notify the Recorder of his intention to work said claim before he leaves it.

6. Any person having a claim shall forfeit it, by neglecting to work it one whole day in every seven, between the 1st of December and the first of July following.

7. Any person having two claims may hold both, by working either, as above mentioned.

8. Any difficulty that may arise relative to mining interests, shall be referred to a jury of five miners; — four of them to be chosen by the parties, and the fifth by these four.

9. Any person having a claim that requires a tail race, shall have the privilege of cutting it through the claims adjoining it below, (provided, said cutting shall not interfere with the working of the same,) until he has obtained sufficient fall for all reasonable mining purposes. But he shall in no case permit his tailings to accumulate on the claims below, to the detriment of the working of said claims.

Hill Claims.

1. A tunnel claim shall be 150 feet front, and run to the centre of the hill.

2. A claim must be worked within ten days from the time at which it is taken up, and as often as one day in each week thereafter.

3. Two or more holding claims, may form a company to work any one of them, without being bound to work each of them.

4. Any miner or miners finding new diggings in this district, shall be entitled to one extra claim for each member of the company, on any vacant hill ground in the district.

5. Any tunnel company who shall have expended $200 upon notifying the recorder of their intention to leave their claim, shall not forfeit the same, provided, they resume operations within three months from the time of giving said notice.

Resolved, That the old code of laws be repealed, so far as they conflict with those now adopted.
Resolved, That the above be published in the Mountain Democrat.
Meeting adjourned.
E. GAGE, President.
T.M. WHITE, Sec.

Mountain Democrat, The (Placerville, California) Sep 30, 1854

THE DIGGINGS.

Owing to the scarcity of water in many localities, mining is not carried on so actively as in the early part of the summer. But, where water is to be had, at Negro Hill, the Reservoir, and the various tunnels in the vicinity supplied by the South Fork Canal, and on the creeks and bars, the miners are making their usual good wages. Next month the South Fork Canal will be completed, and will afford an abundance of water. We may then look for an activity in mining operations, that has not been equaled in any portion of the State heretofore, during the dry season.

Mountain Democrat, The (Placerville, California) Jul 22, 1854

A Placerville Church (Image from http://www.co.el-dorado.ca.us)

NEW CHURCH. – The enterprising citizens of Negro Hill have erected a fine church and school house at this point, which was dedicated to religious and educational purposes, on last Sunday evening, by Rev. G.B. Taylor.

Mountain Democrat, The (Placerville, California) Dec 23, 1854

Placerville - 1851 (Image from http://www.co.el-dorado.ca.us)

PLACERVILLE STREET IMPROVEMENT.

“Let other poets raise a fracas
‘Bout vines an’ wines, an’ drunken Bacchus,
An’ crabbit names an’ stories wrack us,
An’ grale our lug,
I sing the juice Scot’s bear can mak us
In glass or jug.”

The above verse, as every body knows, is the beginning one of Robert Burns’ eulogy on “Scotch Drink;” the peculiar national beverage of his fatherland. The pride which animated him in the witty composition may have been different in [spirit], yet the same in kind with ours, in referring to the excellence and completeness of our street improvements. San Francisco, Stockton, and Sacramento have, for months, literally “grated our lug” ’bout piles, and planks, an’ pitfull sidewalks, while it has been equally the custom of visitors from either of those illustrious localities, to harp and carp about the alternate dust and mire of our mountain City.

In the future, however, for these croakers, “Othello’s occupation’s gone.” The principal streets of Placerville now present an appearance of substantial firmness not equalled in the State. Not of combustible or decaying boards — eternally wearing and shivering into yawning man-traps and requiring a perpetual re-taxation for repairs, — but deeply Macadamized with imperishable stone alike impervious to heat or cold. — The substratum is of stone blocks of considerable size, covered with gravel or small cobbles, which effectually fill up all the interstices, and render the surface smooth as a carpet.

You will not, O denizens of plank-bottomed towns, hope, therefore, any reciprocation from hitherward, of your melting records of fractured limbs or skulls insensate — the fruits of planking discrepancies.

Mountain Democrat, The (Placerville, California) Feb 3, 1855

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Image from http://bodocktimes.blogspot.com

NOTICE.

OWNERS of hogs within the city limits, are hereby notified that the City Pound had been moved to the alley in the rear of the Station House; and that sales of hogs that may be impounded, will take place every Saturday, at 11 o’clock A.M. — commencing on Saturday, the 3d day of March.

RENICK CONE, Pound Master.
City of Placerville, Feb. 24, 1855

Mountain Democrat, The (Placerville, California) Feb 24, 1855

From the Town Talk.

A Node to a Bank.

Oh, Bank, grate malstrom for koin!
How yew swaller up things. What
A maw yew hev got for Bull-Lion.
And when yu hev filled yourself chock
Full how yew luv to bust up
And brake things.

Yew grate malstrom for koin!
Grate bank! What air you good for
Eny how, yew overgrown cirtter, but
To chaw up all a feller has got
and then larf into his face and sa,
“Oncet I had koin but now eye’m
Bust and can’t do nothink!”

Grate malstrom for koin!
Yew are a ga deceiver — yew fell
Into a feller’s pocket for speshe and
Tickle him up ’bout keepin it safe
Wen you knowd yew warnt
Safe enny how. You’ve played H-ll.

Grate malstrom fur koin!
How du yew feel now, yew old buster?
Yew hev dun it — yew hev
Put your foot into it and
Yew hev split menny hopes.
Where do you Xpect to go tu,
Yew old buster? Hev yew
Kicked up sich a dust that
Yew can’t tell what its all
About? Hev yew?
You nasty, vile malstrom fur koin?

B. PEPPER.

Mountain Democrat, The (Placerville, California) Mar 31, 1855

From the Mountain Democrat

Part 2

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Auburn Ravine (Image from http://bancroft.library.ca.gov)

THE RAVINES.

One day last week three miners in prospecting a ravine emptying into the South Fork, opposite the mouth of White Rock Canon, took out a lump weighing twelve ounces besides other gold, amounting in all to near sixteen ounces, and have been making good wages since.

Would it not be a good idea in some of those who are lying around the taverns doing nothing, to start out with a pick and shovel and try their luck a little further in the ravines hereabouts?

There are many hillsides that have not been prospected at all, which, perhaps, are richer than any that have yet been opened in our vicinity. No miner is “hard up” long at a time who is industrious and persevering. Dame Fortune, like the rest of her sex, is capricious; and if she frown, to-day may relent to-morrow; and is sure to reward, with her choicest favors, continued exertion.

“Better luck next time” must be the miners motto if he would succeed; he must [keep at work] if he would make money. We were once a miner ourselves and know from experience, that loafing is a poor way to strike good diggings, and that playing seven up for the whisky won’t pay board bills.

Mountain Democrat, The (Placerville, California) Apr 22, 1854

“It Pays to Economize”

NOTIFIES MEMBERS IN RHYME

County Clerk Charles Fischer has received the following verses from Monroe, Wis., where the poet, J.W. Stewart, is the clerk of Green county. The unique invitation is both good reading and timely. Few officials combine a love of statistics with the poetic gift.

NOTICE TO COUNTY BOARD MEMBERS.

You are hereby notified,
And this you must remember;
Go to your County Court House,
On the eleventh day of November.

‘Tis a meeting of the County Board
And that is the opening day;
So be there promptly on time,
And hear what there is to say.

No doubt you’ll enjoy your work,
while at your county seat;
May you have a harmonious session,
And have plenty of things to eat.

In this notice that I give you,
I’ll try to give you the facts;
It may aid you in your work,
As well as guide you in your acts.

Much State Aid Road has been built,
State expenses are also very high;
and when you pay your taxes,
It will almost make you cry.

You may call this state progressive,
Or the land of milk and honey;
But to pay the running expenses,
You bet, that takes some money.

We have a grand University,
Every state does look this way;
The property owners pay the taxes,
And the politicians make the hay.

Over a million, from the tax payers
For this institution, it does take;
In the ways of using money,
It does surely take the cake.

There are commissioners of all kinds,
And many systems, which are to come;
But the system for increasing taxes,
Has them all “going some.”

All these things are expensive,
Still, it was voted, don’t you know;
But the payment of high taxes,
May teach us to go slow.

This state is considered prosperous,
Will you tell me, what made it so?
Was it the State Highway Law?
Most emphatically, I say no!

It’s the industry of our people,
Who toil from morn till night;
With the aid of the dairy cow,
That’s made them win the fight.

‘Tis such men as, Moore and Babcock,
And the tillers of the land;
That’s made Wisconsin prosperous,
And not, our tax figuring band.

We may be prosperous now,
But we’er liable to lose our head;
As we may be taxed to death,
And be numbered with the dead.

Unless we make some changes,
I can see the handwriting on the wall;
That a new party, will take our place
About a year from this fall.

Then come prepared for business,
At this session of the County Board;
And help reduce the taxes,
From the point, to which they’ve soared.

Instruct the next Legislature,
Either by Resolution or otherwise;
To stop being so extravagant,
And to learn to economize.

Elect good men to represent you,
From the district, in which you live;
Then let “economy” be their motto
Or any other, that you choose to give.

I trust these lines will be read,
By people of every size;
Who should remember my motto,
“That it pays to economize.”

Here’s to the State of Wisconsin,
Here’s to the County of Green;
Which is the greatest dairy County,
That the world has ever seen.

Now remember my instructions,
And be there on the opening day;
I will now, bid you Good-bye,
As I have nothing else to say.

– J.W. STEWART,
County Clerk.

Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) Nov 8, 1913

MEASURES NOT MEN

By Douglas Malloch

Let’s vote for men not measures, truth not laws,
Concern ourselves not with effect but cause.
The leader is the army, judge the court,
And matter more than rules of every sort.
Platforms and precepts and ideals and creeds,
What are they all unless expressed in deeds?
The greatest nation or the smallest clan,
The thing that really matters is the man.

In men the land much always put its trust;
No law is just unless the judge is just.
I’d rather trust my fortunes to the wise
Than written wisdom that some knave applies.
A golden scepter is a tawdry thing,
However wise the law, if fool the king,
Men matter most, and so I say again,
Let’s vote for measures less, and more for the men.

Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) Dec 17, 1907

Sam: The Ruling Spirit of America

Image from http://www.sonofthesouth.net

“Who is Sam?” –

He is the worthy son of old granny FEDERALISM, whose history is recorded in the alien and sedition laws, and such other kindred measures of government, as her ardent worshippers labored to perpetuate as best adapted to keep in check the impertinent spirit of republicanism, which was manifest in this country at an early day, and to promote which the republican or democratic party labored hard, and triumphantly.

“Sam” is now nearly forty-one years of age, having been born at Hartford, Connecticut, in the first “Know Nothing lodge” ever created in this country, in the fall of 1814. The “lodge” was held in session for three weeks, and no outsider knew what was going on within. Finally the doors were thrown open, and it was proclaimed that a new ruler was born, and the principles of his code were proscription of the South; and vengeance on foreign-born citizens, viz: Representation according to free population, and entire prohibition of foreign-born citizens from voice or place, in any degree, in the administration of the affairs of government; which, interpreted, means abolitionism in its Yankee form, and repeal of all naturalization laws.

“Sam,” at his birth, was an ill-looking, unpromising little creature, almost an abortion — so much so, indeed, that his parents and godfathers were ashamed to have him christened in public, and it is believed that the ceremony was not performed until 1854, when the “lodge” again secretly met, and, after great deliberation, it was decided to have the ceremony performed at midnight, and announced “Sam” as the ruling spirit of America, and he issued his bull accordingly, proclaiming that “Americans should rule America.”

Mountain Democrat, The (Placerville, California) Jul 21, 1855