[Illustration: Building of the
society of California pioneers.]
It was organized for the purpose of perpetuating the
memory of the events of those days and for the benefit
and mutual protection of its members. No person
was eligible for membership except he had arrived in
California before the 1st of January, 1850, and the
descendants of Forty-niners when arriving at the age
of twenty-one are eligible. At the opening of
the World’s Fair in San Francisco in January
last, in the ceremonies in the marching of the procession
through the streets of the city, they were received
with the greatest enthusiasm and cheers, which was
a marked manifestation of the veneration in which they
are held by the people of California.
The writer was practising his profession in the city
of Albany, his native place, in 1848, when reports
came of the discovery of gold in California.
In a short time samples of scales of the metal of the
river diggings were on exhibition, sent to friends
in the city in letters. Many of Colonel Stevenson’s
regiment had been recruited in that city. Soon
these rumors were exaggerated. It was said that
barrels of gold were dug by individuals named.
Soon the excitement extended all over the country,
and the only barrier to wealth, it seemed, was the
difficulty of getting to the Eldorado. Why the
discovery of gold there should have produced so much
excitement cannot be fathomed. It seemed an era
in human affairs, like the Crusades and other events
of great importance that occur. Your correspondent
became one of its votaries, and organized a company
to go to the gold rivers and secure a fortune for all
interested in it, and it seemed all that was required
was to get there and return in a short time and ride
in your carriage and astonish your friends with your
riches. Suffice it to say, this company was fully
organized (with its by-laws and system of government
drawn up by the writer), and sailed from the port
of New York on the ship Tarrolinter on the
13th of January, 1849, to go around Cape Horn, arriving
in San Francisco on the following July. From
that time I became absorbed in all the news from the
gold regions, and losing confidence somewhat in the
certainty of a fortune from my interest in the company,
and reading of the high price of lumber, the scarcity
of houses, and the extraordinary high wages of mechanics
there, conceived the project of shipping the materials
for some houses there, having all the work put on them
here that could be done, thus saving the difference
in wages, and to have them arrive there before the
rainy season set in, and thus realize the imaginary
fortune that I had expected from my interest in the
company. In the following spring I had twelve
houses constructed. The main point upon which
my speculation seemed to rest was to get them to San
