Manly - Death Valley in 49: an autobiography of a pioneer who survived the California Desert

First Skyhorse Publishing edition 2016

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Rain Saukas

Print ISBN: 978-1-63450-440-9

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-0033-8

Printed in the United States of America

TO
THE PIONEERS OF CALIFORNIA,
THEIR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN,
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED,
WITH THAT HIGH RESPECT AND REGARD
SO OFTEN EXPRESSED IN ITS PAGES,
BY THE AUTHOR .

Birth, Parentage.Early Life in Vermont,Sucking Cider through a Straw. 11

The Western Fever.On the Road to Ohio.The Outfit.The Erie Canal.In the Maumee Swamp.

At Detroit and Westward.Government Land.Killing Deer.Fever N Agur.

The Lost Filley Boy.Never Was Found.

Sickness.Rather Catch Chipmonks in the Rocky Mountains than Live in Michigan.Building the Michigan Central R. R.Building a Boat.Floating down Grand River.Black Bear.Indians Catching Mullet.Across the Lake to Southport.Lead Mining at Mineral Point. Decides to go Farther West.Return to Michigan.

Wisconsin.Indian Physic.Dressed for a Winter Hunting Campaign.Hunting and Trapping in the Woods.Catching Otter and Marten.

Lead Mining.Hears about Gold in California.Gets the Gold Fever.Nothing will cure it but California.Mr. Bennett and the Author Prepare to Start.The Winnebago Pony.Agrees to Meet Bennett at Missouri River.Delayed and Fails to Find Him.Left with only a Gun and Pony.Goes as a Driver for Charles Dallas.Stopped by a Herd of Buffaloes.Buffalo Meat.Indians.U. S. Troops.The Captain and the Lieutenant.Arrive at South Pass.The Waters Run toward the Pacific.They Find a Boat and Seven of them Decide to Float down the Green River.

Floating down the River.It begins to roar.Thirty Miles a Day.Browns Hole.Lose the Boat and make two Canoes. Elk. The Caons get Deeper.Floundering in the Water. The Indian Camp.Chief Walker proves a Friend.Describes the Terrible Caon below Them.Advises Them to go no farther down.Decide to go Overland.Dangerous Route to Salt Lake.Meets Bennett near there.Organize the Sand Walking Company.

The Southern Route.Off in Fine Style.A Cut-off Proposed.Most of Them Try it and Fail.The Jayhawkers.A New Organization.Men with Families not Admitted.Capture an Indian Who Gives Them the Slip.An Indian Woman and Her Children,Grass Begins to Fail.A High Peak to the West.No Water.An Indian Hut.Reach the Warm Spring.Desert Everywhere.Some One Steals Food. The Water Acts Like a Dose of Salts.Christmas Day.Rev. J. W. Brier Delivers a Lecture to His Sons.Nearly Starving and Choking.An Indian in a Mound.Indians Shoot the Oxen.Camp at Furnace Creek.

A Long, Narrow Valley.Beds and Blocks of Salt. An Ox Killed.Blood, Hide and Intestines Eaten. Crossing Death Valley.The Wagons can go no farther.Manley and Rogers Volunteer to go for Assistance.They Set out on Foot.Find the Dead Body of Mr. Fish.Mr. Isham Dies.Bones along the Road.Cabbage Trees.Eating Crow and Hawk. After Sore Trials They Reach a Fertile Land. Kindly Treated.Returning with Food and Animals. The Little Mule Climbs a Precipice, the Horses are Left Behind.Finding the Body of Captain Culverwell.They Reach Their Friends just as all Hope has Left Them.Leaving the Wagons.Packs on the Oxen.Sacks for the Children.Old Crump.Old Brigham and Mrs. Arcane.A Stampede [Illustrated.] Once more Moving Westward.Good-bye, Death Valley.

Struggling Along.Pulling the Oxen Down the Precipice [Illustrated.]Making Raw-hide Moccasins. Old Brigham Lost and Found.Dry Camps.Nearly Starving.Melancholy and Blue.The Feet of the Women Bare and Blistered.One Cannot form an Idea How Poor an Ox Will Get.Young Charlie Arcane very Sick.Skulls of Cattle.Crossing the Snow Belt.Old Dog Cuff.Water Dancing over the Rocks.Drink, Ye Thirsty Ones.Killing a Yearling.See the Fat.Eating Makes Them Sick. Going down Soledad Caon.A Beautiful Meadow. Hospitable Spanish People.They Furnish Shelter and Food.The San Fernando Mission.Reaching Los Angeles.They Meet Moody and Skinner.Soap and Water for the First Time in Months.Clean Dresses for the Women.Real Bread to Eat,A Picture of Los Angeles.Black-eyed Women.The Author Works in a Boarding-house.Bennett and Others go up the Coast.Life in Los Angeles.The Author prepares to go North.

Dr. McMahons Story.McMahon and Field, Left behind with Chief Walker, Determine to go down the River.Change Their Minds and go with the Indians. Change again and go by themselves.Eating Wolf Meat.After much Suffering they reach Salt Lake. John Taylors Pretty Wife.Field falls in Love with her.They Separate.Incidents of Wonderful Escapes from Death.

Story of the Jayhawkers.Ceremonies of Initiation Rev. J. W. Brier.His Wife the best Man of the Two.Story of the Road across Death Valley.Burning the WagonsNarrow Escape of Tom ShannonCapt. Ed Doty was Brave and TrueThey reach the Sea by way of Santa Clara RiverCapt. Haynes before the AlcaldeList of Jayhawkers

Alexander Erksons StatementWorks for Brigham Young at Salt LakeMormon Gold CoinMt. MiseryThe Virgin River and Yucca TreesA Child Born to Mr. and Mrs. RyniersonArrive at Cucamonga Find some good Wine which is good for ScurvySan Francisco and the MinesSettles in San JoseExperience of Edward CokerDeath of Culverwell, Fish and IshamGoes through Walkers Pass and down Kern RiverLiving in Fresno in 1892

The Author again takes up the HistoryWorking in a Boarding House, but makes Arrangements to go NorthMission San Bueno VenturaFirst Sight of the Pacific OceanSanta Barbara in 1850Paradise and DesolationSan Miguel, Santa Ynez and San Luis Obispo California Carriages and how they were usedArrives in San Jose and Camps in the edge of TownDescription of the placeMeets John Rogers, Bennett, Moody and SkinnerOn the road to the MinesThey find some of the Yellow Stuff and go Prospecting for moreExperience with Piojos Life and Times in the MinesSights and Scenes along the Road, at Sea, on the Isthmus, Cuba, New Orleans, and up the MississippiA few Months Amid Old Scenes, then away to the Golden State again.

St. Louis to New Orleans, New Orleans to San FranciscoOff to the Mines AgainLife in the Mines and Incidents of Mining Times and MenVigilance CommitteeDeath of Mrs. Bennett

Mines and MiningAdventures and Incidents of the Early Days---The Pioneers, their Character and Influence---Conclusion

S T - A LBANS , Vermont is near the eastern shore of Lake Champlain, and only a short distance south of Five-and-forty north degrees which separates the United States from Canada, and some sixty or seventy miles from the great St. Lawrence River and the city of Montreal, Near here it was, on April 6th, 1820, I was born, so the record says, and from this point with wondering eyes of childhood I looked across the waters of the narrow lake to the slopes of the Adirondack mountains in New York, green as the hills of my own Green Mountain State.