Eliza's "Memory" - Eliza Gregson

 
The Memoir Of Eliza Gregson

1824-1889

In 1844 James & Eliza [Marshall] Gregson [My 4th Great Uncle & Aunt] traveled by wagon across the country to California.  James & Eliza experienced the Bear Flag Revolt, lived with the Donner Party Survivors after they were rescued and James Gregson was one of the first to find the gold that began the Gold Rush. Their daughter Annie was the first white child born at Sutters Fort. 

In 1876, James Gregson was asked to give a statement about his life, for a History Of Sonoma County, which was published in 1880.  Feeling that the pioneer women had been neglected by the historians, Mrs. Gregson proceeded to write her own “Memory.” This she did on the blank sides of old bill-heads, letters, and other scraps of paper, which were preserved by her daughter, Mrs. Eliza Butler.

"To those interested in the history of the period, Mrs. Gregson's account will be of even more value than her husband's. Here is to be found a rare, detailed record of everyday life written by a pioneer woman. Her “Memory” begins with her life in England and includes her journey to the United States, her marriage, the hardships of the overland journey to California in 1845, the births, sicknesses, and deaths of her children, her husband's work for Sutter, the delightful Indian custom of skinning a coyote alive, the use of cow manure broth to break her husband's fever, the terrible experiences of the Donner party, incidents connected with the conquest of California, the discovery of gold and the resultant rush, the establishment of a home in Sonoma, and many other experiences known only to the pioneer woman."

Eliza's "Memory" was first published in CALIFORNIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY VOLUME XIX NO. 2 JUNE 1940.  It has nearly as many inserted footnotes as it does original text, and after consideration, I removed most of those and placed them all the way at the bottom of the page, keeping only the more relevant tidbits in the text.  Although the notes are valuable for researchers, for the casual reader, they were mostly distraction.  In their place,  I've added photos of the things Eliza mentions.

  Parts of her memoir are quite shocking. After recounting the strength of the Donner women, who beat a track for the men, made the camp fires, and prepared the food, she mentioned Mrs. Fodick, who stayed behind with her ailing husband when he could not keep up.  Her husband died quickly, and the new widow was able to quickly catch up to the party  that had left them behind.   Eliza recounts,  "She told them he [Mr Fodick] is dead. Fowler said,  can we have him to eat?  She said you cannot hurt him now. so some of them went back & brought some of his flesh & cooked it."  

 Eliza then comments, derisively,  "So speak about womens rights say they are weak & ought to have no rights." [California would be the 6th state to allow women to vote, in 1911.  Eliza would die 20 years before that occurred.]

James & Eliza Gregson

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Mrs. Gregson's “Memory”
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I was Born in the city of manchester [England] 1824 on the 15 of march lived there untill I was about 4 years old, & then went to A place calld Stockport. afterwards moved into derbyshire where we lived untill I was about 13 years. my memory ofton gose back to my childhood years at that place. wich was named pleasley. the people were old fashened & kind & many of them had lived there ever since they were born some of them were over 100 years old. majority were staunch Methodists. I always thought they were the most contented & happy christian people I have ever seen in all my ramblings through life.

my parents [John and Anna Hughes Marshall] where both born in the north of england. my father was a man fond of company. & he was a good maschinist & made money fast but the worst of it was could spend it as fast, while liveing at that place he made the acquaintince of some young noblemen & he learned to gamble as well as any of them which soon made my mother complain & so things went on from bad to worse untill we had to leave & come back to the north of derbyshire & we came to the city of manchester where we staid for a few months then moved back into the country to a place called by the name bugsworth among the coal mines & lime kilns where my father started a cotton factory for manufactering of very fine stocking yarn. but fates were against him & he failed. & to make matters worse he endorst a note for a man, & the man left him to pay it.

 so my father got togather all the money he had & left by the underground railroad for America leaveing myself my mother 3 brothers & one sister my eldest brother 14 years old & he a very delicaket boy, myself 12 years & the rest of the children younger and to small to do much work according to laws of engilsh laws every thing was sold under the hamer, my mother thought she would try & save some good blankets to cover herself & children. & to do so she told me to take them when the bumbailifs were absent and hide them in the top of the dary house chimnys that house was built on the side of a hill. the front faced the Valley & the dary wass partly under ground. by some means we were suspected & they found them & they were sold at auction leaveing us almost destitute

we then moved to a town called hayfield where my Brothers & myself got employment in a cotton factory. & we had to get furniture & beding for we had nothing. think of it californians where there are no factory bells to call you out at 5 oclock A.M. & work untill about 8 P.M. with sometimes milk & other times treakle & oat meal much [mush] 3 times a day. notwithstanding all this we got along very well. 

about this time my mothers sisters husband died in manchester & she with her two daughters came & made there home with us. 

in the spring of 1839 my father paid our passage in New York. & we came across the occain my Aunts family with us. & we settled in the town of pawtucket R.I. & we lived there untill I was 19 years old when a young englishman [James Gregson] who used to live neighbors to us when I was a little child came to see us. in the spring of 1843 & we were maried the next 20 of october.

so from being a weaver in the cotton factory & my husaband a blacksmith & boiler maker, we turned our thoughts westword, We lived at his fathers house in philidelphia that winter & in the spring of 1844 we started leaveing all behind with just 18 dollers in 10 cents peices. 

 Oh what a big lot of money to travle to illinois with we were young and detirmined to make a liveing away from the cotton shops. my husaband was not very stout & I thought that his trade was more than [he] could stand many years longer & that was the main spring to our proceedings.

Well there was to much fever & auger [ague] & we could not stand that. we could make a good living if we could only keep from shaking. so missfortuns seldom come alone. We had a sweet little babe born to us on the 26 of septembe[r] 1844. only to stay 3 months & then he died & we laid him away in the grave hopeing to meet again when our time on earth is past.

 again to[o] my father & mother had not lived agreeable & my mother & two Brothers & sister came to [Rock Island County] illinoise in the fall of 1844 & we all lived in a cabbin where there was holes in the sides that you could throw you hat through if you wished to. was it any wonder that we were sick or that our babe died. but there was no help for it. we were geting poorer every day.

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TRAVELING WEST

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so in the spring of 1845 we made what preparations we could all of us together & started for

oragon. there was a great deal of talk about that country that we could get homes if we would settle on the land & that there was a big lot of land for A man, & A lot I forget how much for his wife & for each child if they would settle there Well we thought that was a good thing & away we started very poorly suplied in April 1845.

Maybe this is what their wagon would have looked like..  this is an 1867 painting by 

 Benjamin Franklin Reinhart titled The Emigrant Train Bedding Down for The Night 

 it was estamated that it would take us 6 months so we accordingly laid in provisions enough for the trip. that is we thought we had but we were mistaken. We had 3 yoak of good cattle & one good wagon for 6 persons & our party*  took one passenger in at bloomington [Burlington] Iowa & we had one tent & as few things as possable.

*The party evidently consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Gregson, John, Henry, and Mary Ann Marshall (Mrs. Gregson's brothers and sister), and Mrs. Ann Marshall (her mother). The passenger has not been definitely identified

We had as good traveling as could be expected for people that was fresh from the city & as green as the grass in the feilds. from my childhood I allways loved to milk so sometimes we used to milk the cows as they [were] feeding on the [grass] along the road. that was before we left the settlements after that we fared rather hard. for traveling made us very hearty.

The former location of Fort Hall, 100 years later

 nothing of espesial interest accord [occurred] untill we arived at fort Hall 4 on snake river where we found that our stock of provisions was rather low we laid in a little more. when we were a little this side of fort hall on snake river the provisions being rather low & the

cattle being poor, myself & hussband we left our little party & got in with a man by the name of [Elijah] bristow* 

Fort Hall was a fort in the Western United States that was built in 1834 as a fur trading post by Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth. It was located on the Snake River in the eastern Oregon Country, now part of present-day Bannock County in southeastern Idaho.

 I did the cooking & washing & my husband drove the team into Callnia our cattle

was giving out so we had to cut the wagon down & make a cart of it & throw away some of our goods things began to look very scaly just then.

We traveled on a day or so & came across a party of emagrants bound for Callifornia & they were looking for recurits [recruits] so we joined their company wich was about 40 wagons in all* they had an old man by the name of Greenwood* for A pilot for the road was new & was but little known to any but the trapers. it was on this road the indians were very bad. When we came tomarys river [the Humboldt] they began to molest us.*  Sometimes when we were in camp in the evening our cattle would come runing into the Corrail with arrows sticking in their sides & most of them died one evening a pretty young hefeir came in with 2 or 3 arrows in her flesh so that she died & a doctor [Carter] in the company put some stricknine in the heifers meat & left it for the indians to eat, *  3 or 4 of the boys remained to watch & they saw the indians come & take it away I expect they had A Joly time of it.

at last we came to the Sierra Navada Mountains which seemed insurmountable it wass some time before we could see which way we must go, at last we had to take the wagons apart & take them up in peieces over the mountains & the poor cattle got ove[r] or rather they were draged up with bleeding shines [shins]. the folks got ove[r] as best they could & reached the summit & rested two days. next traveled another day & camped on the banks of a beautiful lake & I think it was lake taho *.  [Undoubtedly Donner Lake.]

 that night while all the camp was asleep we were awakened by A very loud noise & trembling of  the ground. which proceedid from one of the campers had A barrill (was caused by the explosion of a keg of Powder in the wagon belonging to Jacob R. Snyder and Co. 

A Manzinita Bush

Well we still kept up the march day after day, ever watching and looking for the promised land. after many days myself with some other young folks climbed up a very steep mountain and there standing under a Manzinita bush we saw the valley below streaching far and wide like an ocean. it looked beautiful to us, for we were tired and weary of the mountains, but we were still 3 or 4 days travel from it. 

At length we arrived at Johnsons ranch on Bear river *  from there to Sutters fort on the Sacramento river, * a part of our company went south to San Jose and others to Sonoma.

Johnson's ranch (where the town of Wheatland now stands), on the north side of Bear River, in Yuba County, was the first settlement reached by the immigrants who came by way of Donner's Pass and down the San Juan Ridge, or the ridge north of Bear River, into Yuba County. 

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AT SUTTERS FORT

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Drawing of Sutters Fort, July 1846 by Joseph Warren Revere. The buildin in the foreground is the Vaquero Building where James & Eliza lived.  Sutter’s Fort was built in 1839 by John Sutter as an agricultural and trading colony in the Sierra Nevada Range of northern California. It was the western terminus of the California Trail, and marked the final destination for California-bound travelers on the trail

 Our family went to whip sawing for captain Sutter, on the Mocosomy [Cosumnes] about 50 miles southeast of the fort.*  There we staid until the 24 of December 1845 when we returned.

on the 25 of december 1845 two men by names of harry trow*  & Ned Robetson *

 both english men who had been sailors they had been working with our men whiping sawing they came to us bringing with them An englishman by name hardy. *  he wanted my husaband & myself to go & live on his ranch away up the Sacramento the ranch was on the west side of the river where the feather river emtied into sacramento were we entreded into an agreement with Mr hardy & trow to stay with them for 3 years. at the end of that time we were to receive 1 league of land at that ranch. also 100-50 head of cattle for our servise which was taking care of said ranch. While they hardy & trow would go & work at carpentering for the spanyards. all apeared right for a time & they comenced to build a frame house as we were living in a tula wigwam. the said Mr hardy was a very morrose ill tempered man very seldom in a good humer. he had one little indian boy about 9 or 10 years old he used to vent his bad temper on the little fellow. the boy used to run & cling to me for procetion [protection] after a week or two the boy ran away & was not seen again.

one eveing in ganuary the later part of that month it had been rainging very hard & we were siting around our fire which was built in the middle of our wigwam Gregson & trow sitting at sort of a table playing some sort of a game to pass away the time myself & Mr hardy sitting by the fire converseing about england & our native towns. he said that he was born at runcorn & that his father & mother lived there. I told him the cercumstances in the year 1839 when our family were starting for the United Stats. our mothers thought it best for we elder children to go to mancheter [Manchester] on sunday & they would come on the railroad & meet us on monday morning on the New baily bridge. monday moring came but no Mothers so we 5 children the eldest about 16 years old we concluded to start & did so. we arrived at runcorn in the eveing. after taking our lugage on the bank & not knowing where to go. there was an old man standing there he was tall & gray headed a little peice from there was a long boat house & one dewling [dwelling] house. standing in the doorway was an elderly lady. in a few minuts she came towards us & asked what are you doing here where is your parents? We told her all about it. When the tears started & ran down her cheeks & turning to her hussband she said we must take these children in somebody may do as much for ours my coussan Sarah said have you children gone from home She answered we have one son gone away now You must come to my house & have your supper & ly down untill 12 oclock to night & then I will awake you & see you safe on the steam packet bound for liverpool. as soon as I had concluded hardy sprang up & exclaimed that is my father & mother. our conversation frequently turned on the same subject.

hardy & trow could not agree so after a short time they quarled & trow left & we could get nothing so we left & came back to the fort the 6 agreement papers between them & us were in Captain Sutters possesions & they where at the hawk farm *  which was distroied by fire about the year 49 or 50 so all was gone in that case. I write this on account of a lawsuit which took place in 1867 & 68 & Mr. hardy was drowned about the 1849. leaveing his ranch unsetled. he told me he had a wife & one son in england. Well we left him & when we were leaving he was sorry & beged us to stop with him as we were his own country people.

Local Yuba-Sutter residents restoring the Sutter Hock Farm facade in 1927

Hock Farm, on the Feather River, named for a tribe of Indians living in the vicinity, was part of the New Helvetia grant of eleven leagues, which Sutter had obtained in 1841. There he kept large herds of horses, cattle, and sheep, and, after his fort was sold in 1849, went there himself to live.

Sutters Fort

So in the latter part of April 1846 we returned to the fort & my husaband worked for Capt Sutter somtimes in the blacksmith shop & sometimes diging ditches for they had no fences around the farm. & there was no work for woman excepting a little cooking & very little at that. & our cloathes we had to patch untill the original peice could scarcely be found. our men worked for 1 dollar per day. & common dress goods $1 per yard. so it took $8 to buy 1 dress & our food was very coarse flour & sometimes pretty good beef no coffee or tea or sugar or Milk or butter. the flour being unbolted acted on us the same as medicen & making very bad work.

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 Bear Flag Revolt

The California Republic

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in 1846 the United States & me[x]ico went to war. & the war extended of course to Call
[California]. in the early part of the year 1846 my husband inlistid in freemonts [Frémont's] batalion as a volantere he was stationed at the fort during that summer. * While some of the others went down [to] southerern Call.

[The “Pay Roll of the Garrison at Fort Sacramento” (MS No. 94 of the Fort Sutter Papers, Henry E. Huntington Library) shows that Gregson enlisted as a private on August 8 and was discharged on November 8, after three months service at $12.50 a month.]

now I shall have to refer back again to the year 1845 when we arived at the fort the governor of Call [Pio Pico] sent a writen document to Capt Sutter Autherizeing him to drive back the americans & not to let them stop in the country. *  well most of the emigrants had but very little of anything left & it was out of the question. we could not & would not leave. it was then that the big hearted old Capt spoke in his useual way. by. Jo! You stand by me. I stand by you [to] the end.

Some ameracans brought general Valago [Vallejo] and his Brother Salvador Valago & 1 frenchman [Victor Prudon]. 1 amercan [Jacob P. Leese]. & 1 englishman [Robert Ridley] prisoners to the fort for safe keeping, & the few soldiers that remained at the fort kept gaurd over them. they were treated very kindly. *  dureing that time we received rations.

The statements made here are well supported by most of the works on the Bear Flag revolt.

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Bear Flag Revolt, (June–July 1846), short-lived independence rebellion precipitated by American settlers in California’s Sacramento Valley against Mexican authorities.

The Americans issued a declaration of independence and hoisted a flag, its white ground emblazoned with a grizzly bear facing a red star. 

On July 9 forces under Commodore John D. Sloat occupied San Francisco and Sonoma, claimed California for the United States, and replaced the bear flag with the American flag.

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now to show how the indians did with a thief the house we lieved in was two or three oo [two or three hundred] yards south of the fort. one day while I was sitting doing little or nothing I heard some very loud yells I went for to see what was the matter & there was about 9 or 10 indians. & they had caught a large coyotay & they had skined him alive. & although it was a very hot day in July the poor thing would shiver as if he was freezing. & every time he would shiver the indians would dance & through up their hands & yell with all their might. there was a few white persons watching. I suppose the Mr Coyoty had been stealing their beef.

during the harvest time the Capt employed the wild digers [Digger 7 Indians] & they would come in gangs of 50 togather & as naked as they were born. they cut the grain with sickles & Butcher knives.  & they were fed on boiled bran sometimes a few beef bones thrown in their food was put into long wooden troughs & laid on the ground & the indians would sit on each side of the trough & scupe their mess with thier hands. & it was laughable to see them When it was two hot they would shake their hands.

 there was a few white wimen besides myself. there was Mrs McDowel *  & Mrs leihy. *  & Mrs Montgomery in other years latter Mrs Wallace [Wallis] of Mayfield near S.F. city. *  about this time I saw Mr Hardy & it was the last time I eve[r] saw him, the summer is past again & on the second day of Sepber there was a weding at the fort the mans name was Wyman & the girls was Amearci Kelsey.  and on the third day Ann E Gregson was born.

there are several incedents happened during the summer of 1846 one very warm day in July 46 I was sitting in my house when I heard loud yells outsides I arose & went to see what was the matter When lo & behold in front of the fort was 8 or 10 indians & 2 or 3 white men. t caught a very large Coyiota in a trap. the coyota had been stealing their beef & they were punishing him for it. they had skined it alive & every time the poor thing would Shiver with pain. they would throw up their hands & yell with delight. So much for indian justise. *

[This is a repetition of what Mrs. Gregson has related before. ]

Sutters Fort, 1893

during the years 45 & 46 & 47. I must [not] omit to name the families that was at the fort there was Cap John A. Sutter the oldest resedent & at Whose instigation the fort was erected to proctect himself & all others that might have need of it. the old Capn was very generous to a fault. so large was his heart that he could not say no, peace to his ashes. & there was Mr John Bidwill [Bidwell] who was the cleark for the Cap S. Bidwill was an honest steady sobber man useing nether liqure or tobacco & Gorge McKinstry *  & Cap Kern *  who was Fremonts draughtsman, over the paths to Call & among the familys in 46 & 7 where Jim Smith who married our mother *  & they lived in one of the adobe houses outside of the fort & Gregsons who lived in one end room of the same— & a family named Mc Dowel*  Mr & Mrs McD & 3 little girls lived inside of the fort Mr & Mrs leighy*  & their 2 little girls, & they buried their oldest little boy,

there was a great deal of sickness among the emigrants & several deaths occord. there was a doctor Gilde*  who said to the people if [he] was taken with that malarry [malaria] desease he knew how he would be doctored. bleeding was his theory, so he was accatked [attacked] with the same desease. so he requested one of the men to bleed him & and he died soon afterwards.

in the summer of 46 there was a commany of U.S. Solders stationed in the fort & I think it was the west side of the fort. that there was quite a lagoon of water where the indians used to wash & bathe.

Well the Solders 8 used to bathe there to. one day some solders & indians were washing & bathing When one of the solders was taken with the cramps & before any of the indians could get him out he was drowned & they buried him with milterry honers. I never learned his name [ This was William König, a German from Leipzig.  N.H. Diary, p. 49.]

 in the fall of 46 ther was quite a number of emigrants came to the fort but they scatered to other parts of Call. some few remained at the fort now comes on another part of the war in Call Captain freemont was about Monteray & he wanted some horses that were away north of the fort & he wanted them brought down to him for his use & he said that if the few white men that was at the fort would volenteer, he would provide for their famieles & that they should receive solders rations. So Mr Gregson & others went & got the horses & drove them to Montrey. leaving their famiels in charge of the Armerican Government intill the war should cease or stop. *

Well he went & left me & my little girl about six weeks old. to do [the] best I could. I got along pretty well untill nearly Christmass with nothing to do only take care of the little one, the worst of it [was] I had very little to eat & I got so thin in flesh that I could scarsely carry the few cloaths that were on my back. I was nursing a fat cross baby & had very little norishments—about that time Mrs leahy she says to me come & live with me & we will put our grub together it will be better  for us both, as her husband was gone to so I moved the few things I had & stayed with her & Mrs Montgomery.

Well at that time we could hear nothing from the seat of war one day there came A man with lettersto Captain sutter & Cap Kern stateing there had been a battle with the spanierds on the salines [Salinas] plains & there was 4 Armercans killed & 7 wounded. with no names [mentioned] We fewwomen where very uneasy about this time. for we did not [know] weather we were widows or not.* [The men killed wereCapt. Charles Burroughs, George Foster, Ames, and Thorne (or “Billy the Cooper”?). See also James Gregson's

account]

about a week before Christmas it comenced raining as hard as it could for a fortnight without intermision & the whole of Sacramento was over flowde, & on about that week the man of war boat portsmouth came up from yerbobine [Yerba Buena] up the Sacto to within 2 or 3 hundred yards west of Sutters fort the Captain & crew were very kind to us ladies Mrs leahy & Mrs Montgomery & myself & our famileys went to visit them, before they left yerbobino the people at that place told them that there were no ladies at the fort besides the squaws. & they were well pleased to find they were mistaken. 

that winter was a very wet one & we were scarce of food and fuel & we had hard work to keep fires. the indians were told to suply us with fire wood but the whole valley [was] flooded to the foot hills & they had hard work to suply themselves as far as I can remember it was as bad as the year 1861 & 62, but there was no one to keep any account of it.

another itom which I must not forget I was liveing with Mrs leahy & in 9 the same house with Mrs Montgomery. Mrs leahy had two little girls Mary Ann & liby. Mary Ann [was] between 4 & 5 years old. well Mrs leahy was very kind to me for which I hold her in greatful memery She had been teaching Mary Ann her letters as best she could. She asked me if I would teach her little girls to write as she did not know how herselfe I told her Yes I would & was very glad for I had no employment so at it I went during that time Mrs Montgomery would watch us with great interest.  one day she says to me will you teach me Mrs Gregson. I looked at her to see if she was in enerst. & I told her yes if you want to learn. She said if you will learn me how to write I will do something very big for you if I am able. So I fulfilled my part but she forgot her part.

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The Donner Party

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Illustration depicting the arrival of a relief party during an attempted rescue of the Donner party, February 1847.

Well the winter passes away & early in the year 47 the startling news arives at the fort that some emigrants [members of the Donner party] had just come in from the sirranaveds [Sierra Nevada]  almost starved to death. & that they had left a large party starving in the mountains. So what was to be done there was but a few people at the fort. & old Captain Sutter sent out his vacquars [vaqueros] that is the indians that he had trained he sent them out to bring in about 12 head of the fatest [steers] & they did as they were told. they killed the beefs & barbaqued the meat & packed it on the best mules that was to be found & started them off. there was a few white men went along with the indians to rescue the starveing people. 

amongst the white men that went out was one young man [Charles Tyler Stanton]  that had just come in from the mountains he volenteered to go back again. he had no relations nor any intrest but humanity & a big heart promted him & taking of his waikcoat & his watch & a letter to be sent to N.Y. to his sister in case he should never return. poo[r] man he was froze to death. *

Charles T. Stanton was traveling with the Donner party.  He pushed ahead, and was the first to return back with supplies.  He lead the way over the pass three times, but on December 21, snow-blind, exhausted, and starving, he dropped behind and was leftto die. 

Sarah [Graves’] Fosdicks' younger sisters. At the time they began their journey westward, Mary Anne was nineteen, Eleanor was thirteen, Lovina was eleven, and Nancy was about to turn eight. The youngest sister Graves sister, Elizabeth, is not pictured here. She was nine months old when they left for California.

there was but a few white women but we did all in our power for them. in two or 3 weeks back again some of them came. the mules allmost all dead & 3 or 4 indians besides white people. & they wanted more food for the starving ones that could not come. I shall never forget the looks of those people for the most part of them were crazey & their eyes danced & sparkled in their heads like stars. among the first lot that came out were 18. 5 girls & wemen the rest were men. the[re] were only two men survived a Mr fowler*  [William M. Foster]  & Mr Edey.*  & 4 of the females were named Graves *  the  youngest one was about 11 years old & one maried lady Mrs Fosdick*  [Sarah Graves Fosdick (22), wife of Jay Fosdick and daughter of F. W. Graves]   her husband died & she buried him in the snow.

Mrs Sarah [Graves] Fosdick

Read more about Sarah in 

The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party by Daniel James Brown

praphs I might as well speak a little more about Mrs fosdick. the wemen would take the lead over the snow & beat the track for the men to walk in. but for all that the men sunk down & died. the wemen even led them by the hand & made the camp fires & gave them food one morning Mrs fosdicks husband was dieing he tried to travel but did not succeed & the rest of the party could not stop for him to die. So she told them I will stay with him untill he dies You go I will overtake you in about 2 hours she was seen 10 coming with her husbands black silk Neckercheif around her neck She told them he is dead. Fowler said can we have him to eat. She said you cannot hurt him now. so some of them went back & brought some of his flesh & cooked it. So speak about womens rights say they are weak & ought to have no rights.

James & Margaret Reed

the second party that came out were Mrs reeds family *& one servant women* & a part of the two donners familys. Jake & Gorge donner the[y] were two brothers with their wifes & children. of the gorge donner family * there was 5 girls elithey [Elitha] & Leah [Leanna] & frances and gorgeana [Georgia] & Elza [Eliza]. of jake donners family * two sons I was gorge donner & one girl named Mary donner. poor girl both her feet were frozen & they were in shocking condition the flys had blown them & there was maggots in them & she suffered a great deal. there was a doctor at the fort he came & put some medesien on them but her feet was ruined* another women by the name of Kesburg she left one dead baby in the camp & started with one little girl 2 years old it died & she had to bury it in the snow. She left her husband behind I shall speak of him

Photograph of Johann Ludwig Christian "Lewis" Keseberg, a survivor of the Donner Party. This is taken after the Donner Party's events, in California. After the ordeal, Johann became a successful businessman, captaining a ship, co-owning a hotel, and opening a brewery from an abandoned bar room. In the flood of 1861-2, he lost it all, becoming destitute and homeless.

{They left old Mr & Mrs [George and Tamsen] Donner with no one else but Keysburg [Lewis Keseberg] whose cabin was about 8 miles this west side of the nevada line. The old man Donner was too sick to travel and one of his hands were very sore. Mrs Donner would not leave her husband. So they left her some beef and promised to return for them in a short time. Mr. & Mrs. Jake Donner died in a short time after the arrival of rescueing party to them. In due time the men went out again and the weather was getting milder and the snow not so deep in the mountains. The first camp was Keysburgs they found him in his cabin cooking his supper of human flesh. they followed the tracks to the other camp but found no one, but the foot prints of Mrs Donner where she had apparently been cutting meat from a steer which had been buried in the snow, showing, plainly that she had not died from starvation. returning to Keysburgs camp, they asked him where is Mrs Donner? He said she died and he cut her flesh up and had it in a box and her husbands too for there was the sore hand. There were boxes filled with human flesh all cut and packed in butcherly style.

The next thing where was her money, for Mr & Mrs Donner had about $800.00 dollars it was not tobe found Keysburg denied any knowledge of any money.}

so that one man by the name of big Ofallen* put a rope around his neck & strung him up to a treetwo or three times untill he was black in the face. & then he told where there was $500 but wouldtell no more. so they brought him down to the fort. where he & his wife stayed that winter.

one day old Mrs Lenox we thought we would like to see the maneater I told the old lady you go in first & I will follow. during the conversation Mrs Lenox asked him how human flesh tasted & he said it was better than chicken & several times that winter his wife would arrouse the people by 11 screaming murder at midnight she said that he wanted to kill her.

 Kesburg got offended at the folks for saying that he killed Mrs Donner & he sued them at law. during the examination he said that he got 4 pounds of tallow out of her. once he called one of the little donner girls to come to him but she answered him no you killed my mother he stayed about the fort for some time afterwards I saw but very little of him * [McGlashan and Mrs. Houghton,, did not believe that Keseberg had murdered the Donners, nor did Bancroft. ]

{So the spring of 1847 came and the war being ended, the soldiers began to come back again, and we women would watch for any news, at last they returned, and some of the friends that I had been with all winter went to San Francisco. But we stayed at the fort, and Gregson and Mr. Lenox engaged with Capt Sutter to go upon Bear river and get out Mill-stones for him, which they did. * [The millstones were for the grist mill that Sutter was building at Birghton, a few miles above the Fort. ]

=================

SACRAMENTO FEVER

====================

I wanted to move to Yerba Buena as it was then called, but my wishes were not considered and we then with Lenox's, moved to the tan yard on the American river and stayed that summer, * and in the latter part of the summer Gregson along with most of the people, was taken down with the Sacramento fever, which came very near taking his life, so near that the doctor*  came in for his pay, and we gave him all [the] cows and horses we had for money we had none. The doctor thought my husband would die in a few short hours My mind was in a terrible state for what could I do. The fever was raging and he was delerious. I sat down and thought and I asked the old lady Lenox, is there nothing I can get for him I must do something or he will die, and you are a western woman can not you tell me of something some herbs? she answered no. Then I went out in the fields. I could find nothing no not even a blade of grass. All that there was, was some cow manure and it came to me, the cows have eaten up all the grass and herbs, why not the manure make a good medicine. So I took some of it wrapped it up in a cloth and boiled it then I filled a pint bowl full and took it to him. When he saw it he said, You want to poison me. I told him no see me drink. with that

he took the bowl with both hands and drank it all and went to sleep.} *  slept 3 or 4 hours but the fever was gone [and he] himself [was] as weak as an infant. * [Capt. R. E. o'Neill, of San Francisco, has known of Hispanic-Americans using cow and sheep manure broths to break a fever. There may be cinchona, quinine, or some other chemical febrifuge in the mixture, but more probably it is a case of the patient's getting well in spite of the treatment.]

during this time myself & my babe was sick but not as sick as the men & the indians suffered tererable they died almost in heaps & was not able one to bury the other when he died my husband recovered his health partly but not fully for a long time. but he went back to work again. & our little girls health being in very poor state in October I had a chance to go down to San Franco *  I took her down so to see if it would not do her good & while there we stayed with Mrs leahy she was very kind to us & as she had several boarders I did all the work I was able so to help pay our board my babe remained sick & one day I watched her expecting every hour would be the last When she reveived a little I took her to doctor leavensworth*  he was very kind & would take no pay & the little one recovered.

=============

FIRST STEAMBOAT  ON THE SACRAMENTO

 THE SITKA

===============

December 1847 - The Sitka, a Russian-American Company steamboat, returned from a trip up the Sacramento River to John Sutter’s fort he called New Helvetia. The 37-foot side-wheel steamer had been delivered to San Francisco in pieces aboard a Russian bark from Sitka, Alaska.

then I wanted to go home but there was no conveyance & I had to wait. mind in those days there was no steamboats or any other boats but a little la[u]nch belonging to Sutter & it had no regular runing [One day there appeared a little steamboat*  she was sailing on the bay she was a pretty little thing, the first one that ever steamed across the bay. Her name was Sitka. They were going up the Sacramento river to the fort. So Mr. Leahy engaged a passage for me and my child. So I naturally thought I shall be at home in a day or two. But I was sadly disappointed. It took 9 days and nights to steam up that river. The boiler leaked, and I do believe that I could have walked home quicker.

To make matters worse we were short of provisions and I did not mind for myself but my little girl fared badly. So we got home the day before Christmas day 1847.

See John Haskell Kemble, “The First Steam Vessel to Navigate San Francisco Bay,” this QUARTERLY, XIV(June 1935), 143-46. The N.H. Diary (p. 98) records on December 4, 1847: “Afternoon the little Steamboat arrived here from San francisco having had a voyage of 7 days, Passengers Messrs. McKinstry, Petit, Stevens, Edde, Scott & Mrs.Gregson.” That steamboat was the “Little Sitka,” a 37-foot steamboat owned and captained by William Alexander Leidesdorff Jr. This was the first steamboat to ever travel on the Sacramento River. The passengers included George McKinstry (sheriff for the Sacramento district), Eliza Gregson, her infant daughter, Humber Petit, William Eddy (a Donner Party survivor), and William Stevens.

And after a few weeks which was in January we left the tan yard and went to live at the sheep corral.* Mrs. Lenox and myself we had each one a house to ourselves and there was a small store close by. The proprietor was a Scotchman I have forgotten his name. He left the store in charge of another man named Coats. * The store was robbed one night while Coats was away and the thief escaped.

=============

THE SAWMILL

FINDING GOLD

===============

 At this time Sutter engaged my husband and I to go to Coloma. My husband to be the blacksmith for a saw mill which was being built by Capt Sutter and James Marshall. Myself to cook for the hands which were about  15 men. One man by the name of Bennet, *

 the others I have forgotten. Well a day or two before we started which was about the last day of Dec. [Several lines have been erased here.] The weather was  rather bad and it took us two days and a half to make the trip. We reached our destination just about 11 A.M.

The Indians that were about had never seen a white child, and it was soon noised abroad that there was a white child on the place and the Indians came from a distance of 40 miles to see her. They would come to the door and look and then they would cover their faces with their hands, and were very much astonished at the sight.} *   they even went so far as to pinch her shoulders & pull her hair to see if she was a real human they were very fond of her one squaw wanted me to swap babes with her. 

after a week or two we heard that the mineral that was taken out of the tailrace of the sawmill [was gold] & the hands would occasanale bring in a little gold dust

 after a while I got tired of seeing nothing but squaws & I wanted to see a white woman again so they took me and my child about 15 miles to a place I think it was the dimond springs to see Mrs Wimmer  [Elizabeth Jane, wife of Peter Wimmer] & her family * I 13 stayed two days & nights & then returned home. [Well I found her camping out and Sleeping in the wagon. she was very glad to see me and we did not sleep very much, but put in the time talking while I stayed, which was two days and nights, and then I returned home. She showed we while there a nugget of pure gold nearly as large as my thumb. William Scott who had been stopping with the wimmer family had found it the last of January 1848, and there was no gold excitement at that time. * 

Sutters Mill

 The exact date on which gold was really discovered, I am unable to state as it was some time before we could believe that it was real gold. In a few days however after we got settled at Coloma The work hands were digging the tail race at the mill, and one evening they had turned on the water so as to sluice out the dirt. 

The next morning JasMarshall and Pete Wimmer were standing on the bank examining the work, when Marshall said to Wimmer, “What is that glittering down in the tail-race?” Wimmer jumped down and picked up some substance, which proved to be fine scale gold, and there was no other kind of gold found in that place, as we afterwards learned. The work hands would occasionally bring in a little gold dust.} *

This small piece of yellow metal, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, is believed to be the first piece of gold discovered in 1848 at Sutter's Mill in California, launching the gold rush.

about this time there was a man named humphrys*  he was a minealoligist [mineralogist] & so [when] the weathre opned out people began to come into the mines one man by the name of turner*  [came] & brought his daughter Mary & I persuaded him to leave her with me untill he went to bring the rest of his family & he did so which pleased me very much She was about 16 years old. one day as our work was done we went down to the mill which was about half a mile down the hill. & we thought we would wash out some dirt & try to find gold well we saw something shining in the bottom of the tailrace so we got down & gathered some. but turning to my companion I said this is too light & if we take this up to the house the men will laugh at us so we went home no better than we was.

by & by her parents moved into the mines & camped close by us. I must say here that for about 3 months we our liveing was very poor We had salt beef so poor & salty that it looked like blue flint —& salt Salmon too salty & oily that it was not fit to eat & boild barley sometimes boiled wheat & peas dried neither bread or Coffee or tea or sugar. 1 keg of Butter strong enough to run away of itself so that is the way we lived for about 3 months.

about this time gold hunters began to arive with pans & in A short time the new[s] began to spread far & wide about the first of May some men came up from Sonoma & told me that my little sister Mary Ann was married to a Doc. Ames an assistant Doc in the N.Y. Volunteers* she being only a little past 13 years old.

somewheres about this time old James Marshall & J gregson went prospecting for gold a little further up the river than they had been and they found plenty of scale gold my husband asked Marshall to divide with him.  he very quickly answered no you are working for me. Very well says gregson I will work no more & I shall gather gold for myself which he did now the people were coming in from all parts of the of Call & chili & by & by the oragononians commencing to arive early in the gold excitement Mr Gregson made the first pick & afterwards made a good many picks & drills for the miners. & the men stopt working on the mill every thing was gold crazy run away sailors and solders came into the mines my mother & two brothers & my sister came to hunt for gold. my sisters husband had deserated & she did not know where he was at that time. 

Somwhere, about July or august he came into the place where we were living & we were hideing him for fear of him being arested. at this time Mrs Wimmers little boy was born*

& we had to bring him out to light as there was no other Doctor.

in 1848. goods began to arive in the mines & every kind was very high prised flour $1 per pound. Coffee $10 per pound tea $18 per pound & other things in proporsion eggs $18 per dozen. $1. yard for common calico. We wemen folks took in all the sewing such as makeing overalls We could make $10 per day. there was several families camped arround us & there was a store started. & another house built covered with canvas also some houses built down on the flat close by the Mill & the wemen folks got plenty of sewing to do

but salt & bad living so long began to tell on my husband & little girl they were both taken sick & no one knew what was the matter my husband was scarcely able to walk & on the 25 of september my daughter Mary Ellen was born * that same day my other daughter was taken down sick & did not walk for 7 months afterwards: & there I was with two sick ones & myself not able to help either one of them. We paid Doctor tenent* $300 but he did not know anything. so that was all the same as thrown away. after staying there untill the latter end of October 1848 the doctors told my husband that he must leave that part of the country or he would die.

==============

TO SONOMA

===============

So we engaged Robert Spence*  to move us away to sonoma. & every day that we got aw[a]y from the mines he got a little bit better & when we arived at Sonoma he could walk pretty well & he began to get well very fast. not so our oldest daughter her teeth droped out of her mouth & she was a poor sick child for some months during [which] I took in washing & ironing & sewing to help suport my family. the prise of every thing was very high

Barracks at Sonoma

 Well so we worked along that winter as best we could I would sew untill 1 or 2 oclock in the night & in the day I would wash & take care of the two babes

in the spring of 49 he [Gregson] was feeling so much better that he [decided that] he would try the mines again so he started off leaveing me & the two little ones.

 I still did all the work that I could get to do. during this time there was severall families living in sonoma valley there was Mr & Mrs 15 Bruner* [Christian Bruner and his wife Mary, natives of Switzerland]  & they were taking care of goargannia & Eliza donner of the donner party & Mr & Mrs Carerger, * & John & tom hopper* & old valayo [Vallejo]. it would take a long time to write every incedent that occord during this spring suffice to say nothing of any importance happened untill a man by name of Wm Scot died * he came through to Callornia the same year as we did

Shortly after that a sailor stoped at my house for to light his pipe & being alone with my two little ones I was somewhat afraid when looking at my children he asked what was the matter with them & where was my husband I told him that my man was somewheres in town & that both my little ones were sick. the oldest one had not walked for nearly 7 months & the little one had a blood tumer growing on her face between her eyes.* he said he could show me a herb that would cure annie but the other one he could do nothing for her, so he told me to get some marshmallow & boil it & give her it to drink & also to bathe her in it & he said she would walk in two weeks. I did as he told me & sure enough she got up on her feet in less than two weeks & walked. She startled me one day by holding up both her hands & saying see mama annie can walk.*

[A blood tumor is a hemangioma, either hereditary or the result of mechanical injury. These benign growths or birthmarks are now usually removed at birth.  Scurvy is now a relatively rare disease due to the widespread information concerning vitamin C, which is contained in practically all fresh fruits and vegetables. ]

during the winter & spring of 1848 & 49 & all through that summer I took in washing & sewing to support my familly & I toiled as best I could. the reader of this must not suppose that I had no enjoyment or friends for Mr & Mrs Bruner where very kind & got me employment so that we did not lack for food or cloaths, although it took all that I earned.

 again my husband returned from the mines sick. & in the fall of 49 my mother & sister Mary ann & two Brothers left the mines & came down to sonoma. & my Brother Henry & my husband went up to suttersville*  on the sacramento & there bought lots & built adoby houses & the winter of 49 & 50 it rained so hard & the overflow washed them all away so were left without any recorses that is without any money again.

View Of Sutterville, 1855

Early in 1846 Sutter had laid out the town of Sutterville, three miles below the Fort on the Sacramento River. The settlement flourished until after gold was discovered and Sacramento came into being. The new town soon rivalled and then surpassed Sutterville and the latter gradually faded away. 

during that fall the tumer on babes face had grown to the size of an egg & it was expedient that it must be taken off so it happened there was an army surgioun in town & he with the help of my Brotherinlaw Dr Ames the work was accomplished the fee $100 and 50 that was our first going in debt so what with debts hard work & little means we remain poor untill this day.

==============

GREEN VALLEY

==============

Well in the year 1850 my husband & my Brother henry*  came out to green valley in analey

township. & they went to Capt Cooper*  & got a permit to settle on the ranch where we now reside. 

Mr Gregson & Henry marshall & John came out here in January 1850 & built a log cabbin & made some fences & got some potatoes of Cap [Stephen] Smith of bodago [Bodega] paid 10cts per pound, the first planted in green valley 

on the 1 of May 1850 I started with Mr & Mrs [T.] Churchman* with oxen in the wagons slow traveling We were 2 days & two nights We had to camp out the weather 16 was very fine, & when we came to green valley it seemed almost like a paradise it was like a picture grass & clover & flowers in abundance the grass was as tall as myself.

Well we staid for about 1 month in the mashall cabbin dureing that time gregson & the boys raised another log cabbin on the gregson ranch, so we moved into it & set up housekeeping with what little we had. the deer was plenty & when we wanted meat our men would go & kill some. I tell you it was rather lonely for some time. the churchmans family went over into the other valley & settled there after a time some others like ourselves came into the Valley to squat on Coopers claim & so it remained in green Valley. 

in June & July 1850 Mitchill Gilliams* with his family & a man called major I. W. Sulivan* came & settled on the left side of our ranch, & also lank [Lancaster] Clyman* & family settled on the other side that is west of us & a little to the left of us. others came in untill the Valley was pretty well settled,

Map showing the Marshall & Gregson Homesteads

between here & petaluma there was no settlements, & there was plenty of elk & the men of the Valley made up a party about the 1 week in July & started hunting elk & they came back on the eight. now I must tell a little about myself a night or 2 before the men went out hunting in my dreams of the night I saw a white garment spoted with bright blood. I was rather uneasy & I did not want gregson to go for fear that he would get hurt some how, & I did not rest very good untill he was home again.

James Henry Gregson, 1870

Well on the 9th day of July about 9 oclock in the morning the hawks were very bad & they would come almost into the house & pick up a chicken gregson snaped his rifle two or 3 times & he laid it on the table to fix it. I was sitting in front of the door with my 2 little girls one on eather side of me. I was feeling rather sick with the head ach when the gun hammer went down & shot me through the left shoulder making a bad wound but not fatally &

then I saw the same cloth with spots of blood it was 3 months before I was healed.

 & on the 24 of September our son William F was born I must not forget to say that all the neabours were very kind unto us during our misfortunes & sickness Well we did not raise much produce this year but still we did not starve quite 

in the winter of 49 & 50 I sold a roan horse for $100 With the proceeds I bought the flour to do us during the first year in Green Valley. I also brought a cat & kittins & we had one black horse old nig he was not a work horse so Gregson had to borrow some mony to buy a yoke of oxen so that he could haul rails to fence in some land & brake the sod so as to plant potatoes & some garden vegetabls 

Sometime in august 1850 my sister Mary Ann Ames & her husband came out from sonoma Valley & took up their abode with us & they had a son born about the 24 or 25 of october. he lived about 4 weeks when by some mistake she gave him some medesane which caused his death

the same fall we had a sick man by the name of fred Starkey* but he got well & left soon 17 afterwards Mary Ann & Doc moved into thier own little cabbin a little futherup the Valley.

the year of 50 is past with its privations its accidents & sorrow & some enjoyments & myself & 2 little girls & 1 little boy we spent our christmas with our Mother Mrs Marshall.

1851 after a rather stormey winter [with] plenty of work [there was] nothing for both myself & husband provisions high cloaths high prised & very little coming in making everything hard on us, & to make matters worse we just began to get letters from his kinsfolks in the east then we learned that Mr & Mrs Gregson were both dead & the rest of the family scattered or maried & the youngest boy John gregson was in the Orphan Asiulm. 

Well richard gregson wanted to come out to Callna after a time father borrowed $300 to help him & he concluded that it was not enough & he never came & we had to foot the bill so what with one thing or another it kept us on the bed rock with plenty of work & but little pay. & fathers health not good if he went to work a day he would be taken down sick so we had to hire a good deal.

& in 52 we had another boy born on the first of Sept so making one more to cloath & feed*

about this time old Johney Moor & gregson started a blacksmith shop on the hill Well it did for a while but the benifits were all on one side & we came out the losers

gregson went upon the hill to see if [he] could get some deer meat & being tired he

sat down to rest right on the spot where we now live. Well he with some hired men went into the woods & cut down trees & scored the logs & with help he got them out & hauled them here & as was [the] custom the neighbors all turned out to raise a hewed log house & green Valley was pretty well filled with neighbors by this time. we moved into this house on the 20th of October 53 & it was only half finished for seaverall years.

about this time Newburg & bernhard kept a store near freestone*  (but before this Miller & Walker opened a store a little the other side of Sebastopol) *

in the spring of 54 on the last day of May another daughter was born to us*  somewheres in the summer of 54 I [think] it was the neighbors began to want their claims surveyed & Cap Cooper came into the Valley to look after the land & received pay for the same. [Here a few words have been cut from the bottom of the page.] our line & Henry Marshalls the surveyor mark & it did not sute. We gregsons had been paying taxes for more land than we had inside our fence & Marshall had it surveyed ove[r] twice & he was not yet satisfied but wanted it done over again but the surveyor Mr Gray*  told him that it was right & that he knew his bissiness better than mashall so that ended that part & we was in possesione of our rights (160 acaers)

 We fenced in our ranch planted some Apple trees & grapevines & so this classes & all we can make goes on to the farm again

in the early part of 52 [possibly 53] my Brother Henry & my mother went on a visit to the eastren States—namly Mass & R.I. to see my eldest Brother F Wm. M. who never left there. it was during that visit that my Brother henry became acquainted with Mary Jane Coterril & latter in that year he married her & a few weeks latter they all came back again to Call. & they lived [in] a adobe house down below where they live now. my children called her our new Aunty—

Well nothing of importance transpiring only the common routine of business incdently to farming & such kind of work. such as ploughing & clearing planting out orchards & vineyards & raising stock & milking cows trying all ways to make a liveing & our girls & boys getting large enough to help us. so that we might be able to pay our debts

& on the 5 of Oct 1856 our son Henry M was born in 56 our country about sonoma county begins to improve, towns springing up all over & the people building houses & leaveing old cabbins to be used for outhouses. & the people begin to talk county fairs & improve their stock. & farms improveing more & better fences & more usefull emplements to work with

At healdsburg the first county fair we recieved a silver butter knife for the best butter.

Well passing along we have another daughter born to us the 20 of March. 1858.*

caroline one more daughter born to us on the 29 of October 1862. *

there are but few persons that can write their history while they are alive sufice it to say all our children are maried & scatered over the land & myself & husaband are almost alone as we were 42 years ago.

=====================

THE END

Eliza Gregson died in1889
====================

Tom Street & Richard Gregson (Grandson of James & Eliza)

On the porch of James & Eliza Gregsons Cabin in Green Valley

============================

========================

A book written about Eliza [Marshall] Gregson's life, based on her own memoir. 

https://amzn.to/3UG1iTJ

1984

1945

========================================

ALL THE FOOTNOTES

As included when first published in 

CALIFORNIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY VOLUME XIX NO. 2 JUNE 1940.

*Elijah Bristow was a Kentuckian who came overland to Sutter's Fort in 1845 and went to Oregon the next year, where he died in 1872. Hubert Howe Bancroft,History of California (San Francisco, 1884-90), II, 730. John Henry Brown states that Bristow (whom he calls Bristol) was one of the group who, as the end of the journey approached, left their teams and went ahead on horseback. In this group he includes also Blackburn, Snyder, McDougal, and Knight. John Henry Brown,Reminiscences of Early Days of San Francisco (1845-50 ) (San Francisco: The Grabhorn Press [1933], p. 12. Bristow is mentioned in the New Helvetia Diary, a Record of Events Kept by John A. Sutter and His Clerks (San Francisco: The Grabhorn Press, 1939), on pp. 10, 15, 32, and 34. (This work is hereafter cited as N.H. Diary.)

* Henry Marshall, “Reminiscences of a Pioneer,” in The Pioneer, San Jose, August 10, 1878, states that he “left Independence for Oregon with Captain Welch and one hundred and twenty-nine wagons, and perhaps five hundred persons. We divided first into three companies, and then split into small parties. I came on the way as far as Fort Hall with Welch.” This was undoubtedly Dr. Presley Welch who was captain of the train piloted

by Stephen H. L. Meek and of which Joel Palmer was a member. See Joel Palmer, Journal of Travels over the Rocky Mountains to the Mouth of the Columbia River (Cincinnati, 1847), p. 16. Palmer and Welch went on to Oregon, but, Marshall writes, “at Fort Hall a train was made up for California and I joined it. The Hudsons [David and William], Elliots [William B. Elliott] and [Michael] Coleman for whom Coleman Valley is named, joined also,

with P. McChristian and James Gregson.” Bancroft,op. cit., IV, 576-86, divides the 1845 overland immigration to California roughly into five parties: the Swasey-Todd (or Snyder-Blackburn) company; a company of fifteen men under William L. Sublette; the Grigsby-Ide company; Frémont's exploring expedition; and a party under Lansford W. Hastings. The Gregsons, Marshalls, Elliott, Coleman and McChristian he assigns to the Grigsby-Ide party. 

Yet Gregson himself, in his “Statement” which we print hereafter, records that “near Fort Hall we fell in with Jacob R. Snyder and Judge Blackburn who were traveling with pack horses, they came on with usGeo. McDougal joined us at Fort Hall and also Knight from whom Knights Valley is named”;

 and Bancroft states that these men came with the Swasey-Todd party which left the Grigsby-Ide company at Fort Hall. William F. Swasey, The Early Days and Men of California (Oakland, 1891), p. 29, also includes them in his party of twelve, but does not mention Gregson or the Marshalls. Apparently the personnel of each company varied during the journey, since it was difficult for all to maintain the same rate of speed.

“At Fort Hall we were met by an old man named Caleb Greenwood and his three sons; John was 22, Britain18, and Sam 16. Caleb Greenwood, who originally hailed from Nova Scotia, was an old mountain man and was said to be over 80 years old. He had been a scout and trapper and had married a squaw, his sons being half breeds. He was employed by Captain Sutter to come to Fort Hall to divert the Oregon-bound emigrants to California. He called the Oregon emigrants together the first evening we were in Fort Hall and made a talk. He

said the road to Oregon was dangerous on account of the Indians. He told us that while no emigrants had as yet gone to California, there was an easy grade and crossing the mountains would not be difficult. He said that Capt. Sutter would have ten Californians meet the emigrants who would go and that Sutter would supply them with plenty of potatoes, coffee and dried beef. He also said he would help the emigrants over the mountains with their wagons and that to every head of a family who would settle near Sutter's Fort, Captain Sutter would give six sections of land of his Spanish land grant “After driving southward for three days with Caleb Greenwood, he left us to go back to Fort Hall to get other emigrants to change their route to California. He left his three boys with us to guide us to Sutter's Fort “ Fred Lockley,Across the Plains by Prairie Schooner: Personal Narrative of B. F.

Bonney (Eugene, Ore.: Koke-Tiffany Co. [1923]), pp. 3-5; also quoted in Charles Kelly,Old Greenwood: The Storyof Caleb Greenwood (Salt Lake City: Privately printed, 1936), pp. 83-84.

Snyder states that it was a young steer and that was poisoned on September 8 by “a Dr. Carter traveling with us.” “The Diary of Jacob R. Snyder,” in Quarterly of The Society of California Pioneers, VIII (December 1931), p. 252. Bancroft, op. cit., IV, 578, lists a George Carter in the Grigsby-Ide party.

The biographical note on James Gregson in the History of Sonoma County (San Francisco: Alley, Bowen & Co., 1880), p. 475, gives the following version: “while on the road and passing through Humboldt cañon, they were attacked by Indians, who killed all their stocks except one yoke of cattle, which compelled our little party to make a two-wheeled vehicle out of their wagon, on which their baggage was transported, together with those persons

who were unable to walk. All the men, also Mrs. Gregson and her mother, traveled on foot the entire distance from Humboldt to Johnson's ranch on Bear creek, the party arriving there on October 20, 1845.”

See Note 3. Knight says that he, with McDougal and Snyder, left the party at the Truckee River and went on to Sutter's Fort. Returning to meet his party on the summit, he found that his wagon and other property had been burned by the explosion of a keg of powder. Thomas Knight, “Early Events” (MS in Bancroft Library), pp. 3-4; also Bancroft, op. cit., IV, 577. Mrs. Sarah E. Healy, William B. Ide's daughter, also tells of the explosion in [Simeon

Ide],A Biographical Sketch of the Life of William B. Ide [Claremont, N.H., 1880], p. 40.

Henry Marshall, in his “Reminiscences” (see Note 3), states that they reached Sutter's Fort on October 20, 1845, but the History of Sonoma County (see Note 5) says that they arrived at Johson's Ranch on that day. On Saturday, October 25, “Sutter sent two Waggons to Pine woods, Gregson's “Statement,” printed herein. 

Henry Trow is mentioned several times in the N. H. Diary, beginning with September 18, 1845. Bancroft,op. cit., V, 751, states that he was in Sutter's employ from 1845-46, was mentioned in connection with Benicia affairs, 1847-48, and was later in the mines of Trinity or Shasta. According to Bancroft,op. cit., V, 698-99, Edward Robinsin was an American sailor who is said to have touched at Monterey in 1830 and to have “coasted off and on” for ten years; he then settled in the Sacramento Valley. In 1847 he married Mrs. Christina Patterson and lived on Dry Creek, San Joaquin County, but went to the mines for a while in 1848. He is mentioned frequently in the N. H. Diary. Thomas M. Hardy was in California as early as 1843 when he was granted the rancho Rio de Jesus Maria on the Sacramento River near the mouth of Cache Creek. In 1844 he was a carpenter and translator in the Sonoma

district, was in the mines in 1848, and in 1848 or 1849 was drowned in Suisun Bay, Bancroft,op. cit., III, 775. He is mentioned many times in the N. H. Diary.

The Mansion located on Hock Farm was destroyed by an arson fire on June 21, 1865, deliberately set by a vagrant ex-soldier, whom Sutter allowed to loaf around the farm, who retaliated against Sutter for having him bound and whipped after being caught stealing. The blaze destroyed all of Sutter's personal records of his pioneer life as well as works of art and priceless relics except for a few treasured medals and portraits that Sutter was able to save.

The proclamations and orders from Pio Pico were received on October 21, according to The Diary of Johann August Sutter (San Francisco: The Grabhorn Press, 1932), p. 28. See also N.H. Diary, p. 8. Pico was acting on orders dated July 10, 1845, which he had received from the Mexican Government, instructing him to prevent the entry of immigrant families into the department. Bancroft,op, cit., IV, 605, citing the following MSS: Manuel Castro, Documentos para la historia de California, I, 152; Superior Government State Papers, XVIII, 8; Departmental State Papers, VI, 89, and VIII, 11; Documentos para la historia de California, II, 202, etc.

James McDowell and his wife, Margaret Pyles, and daughter Maggie A. came overland to California in 1845 with a party Bancroft was unable to identify. He was employed as a gunsmith by Sutter, 1845-47. In August 1847 he moved with his family across the Sacramento, bought a rancho there and built a house. In May 1849 he was murdered, and the next year his widow had the townsite of Washington laid out on her land. She married Dr. E. C. Taylor in 1851 and died at Washington in 1883. Bancroft, op. cit., IV, 723.

The wife of Daniel Leahy who was an Irish cooper at Sutter's Fort, 1845-46, and in 1847 owner of a lot in San Francisco, where they lived at least until 1854. He died in Nevada in 1875, leaving a family in Oregon. Bancroft,op. cit., IV, 709. Sarah Montgomery came overland with her husband, Allen, in 1844 with the Stevens party. He died in 1847, and she married, on October 25, 1849, the notorious Talbot H. Green (Paul Geddes, a fugitive from justice). When the facts came out about Green, she divorced him and married Joseph Sawyer Wallis, in 1854. John Adam Hussey, “New Light upon Talbot H. Green,” in this QUARTERLY, XVIII (March 1939), 32-63. Bancroft records, op. cit., IV, 743, that in 1885 Mrs. Wallis was still residing at Mayfield, “taking part sometimes in public meetings

of progressive and strong-minded females.” America Kelsey, daughter of David Kelsey, came to Oregon in 1843 and to California in the Kelsey party of 1844,with her father and mother, two sisters and possibly a brother. George F. Wyman, whom she married in 1846,

was sent by Sutter to raise recruits for the Micheltorena campaign in December 1844, and is often mentioned inthe N.H. Diary. He was living at Spanishtown (now Half Moon Bay), San Mateo County, 1878-84. Bancroft,op.cit., IV, 699, and V, 780.

*

Swasey,op. cit., pp. 28-29, says that Dr. W. B. Gildea was a dentist, from St. Louis, whom he persuaded at Fort Laramie to join his California-bound party of twelve, which included Jacob R. Snyder, William Blackburn, and others. The N. H. Diary, p. 3, records the arrival at Sutter's Fort, on September 27, 1845, of “Dr. W. B. Gildea and J. Greenwood with a small party preceding a large company from the States.” Dr. Gildea, employed by Sutter, took charge of the pharmacy and became the physician at the Fort. Swasey,op. cit., p. 35. He died there on January 24, 1846, and was buried the same day.N. H. Diary, p. 24. 

See Bancroft,op. cit., V, 358-59. Each volunteer was to receive $25.00 per month, with horse, saddle and bridle. His family were to be furnished with flour and meat by the government (the cost to be deducted from the soldier's pay) and might be quartered at “Fort Sacramento” if they desired. Document dated October 28, 1846, at Fort Sacramento and signed by Edwin Bryant, Benj. S. Lippincott, and others. Fort Sutter Papers, MS No. 51.

The battle of Natividad, or Salinas Plains, occurred on November 16, 1845. See Bancroft,op. cit., V, 363-72. An account of the battle was printed in the California Star, San Francisco, August 21, 1847. The men killed wereCapt. Charles Burroughs, George Foster, Ames, and Thorne (or “Billy the Cooper”?). See also James Gregson's

account printed herein.

Charles T. Stanton, a native of New York but more recently a resident of Chicago, with William McCutchen had left the Donner party about September 18, 1846, somewhere in eastern Nevada and had pushed through to Sutter's Fort. There he left McCutchen, who was ill, and traveled back with food, seven pack-mules and two Indian vaqueros, rejoining the party on October 19—the first to bring back supplies. He later led the way three

times over the pass, but on December 21, snow-blind, exhausted, and starving, he dropped behind and was leftto die. George Rippey Stewart, Jr.,Ordeal by Hunger (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1936), pp. 55, 77, 125, 301, and 302.

Mrs. Gregson probably means William M. Foster, from Pennsylvania, a son-in-law of Mrs. Lavina Murphy. His wife, Sarah A. C. Murphy, survived, but their baby son died in the mountains. Foster was a member of the fourth relief party. In 1847-48 he kept a furniture store in San Francisco, and later was a storekeeper in the mines. Foster's Bar was named for him. Bancroft, op. cit., III, 745; see also Stewart,op. cit.

William H. Eddy, a carriage-maker from Illinois, was one of the most active in saving other members of the party. His wife Eleanor, son James P., and daughter Mary all perished in the Sierra. Eddy married Mrs. F. Alfred in 1848, and Miss A. M. Pardoe in 1856, and died at Petaluma in 1859. Bancroft,op. cit., II, 788-89; and Stewart,op. cit. Mary Ann (20), Ellen or Eleanor (15), Lavina (13), and Nancy (9). Their father and mother—Franklin Ward Graves

and his wife Elizabeth—and brother Franklin, Jr. had died in the Sierra. Stewart, op. cit., p. 299; and Bancroft,op. cit., III, 764.

Sarah Graves Fosdick (22), wife of Jay Fosdick and daughter of F. W. Graves. See Stewart,op. cit., p. 142. In 1848 Mrs. Fosdick married William Ritchie, and in 1856, Samuel Spiers. She died near Watsonville in 1871. Bancroft,op. cit., III, 744.

Margaret W. Reed, wife of James Frazier Reed; the Reed children: Martha J. (Patty), James Frazier, Jr., and Thomas K.; and Virginia E. Backenstoe, generally known as Reed, for she was Mrs. Reed's daughter by her first  husband. Stewart,op. cit., p. 300, and Bancroft,op. cit., V, 690. Eliza Williams, half-sister of Baylis Williams. Stewart,op. cit., p. 300.

See Bancroft,op. cit., II, 783; and Stewart,op. cit., p. 299. Ibid.

Mary's foot, frozen and numb, had fallen into the fire at Starved Camp. After the party arrived at Sutter's Fort, Mary was carried through to San Francisco, where her foot was treated by Andrew J. Henderson, surgeon of the U.S. Ship Portsmouth. Eliza P. Donner Houghton, The Expedition of the Donner Party (Chicago, 1911), pp. 128,313. She was married in 1859 to S. O. Houghton, but died the next year, and he, in 1861, married her cousin Eliza, the author of the book just cited. Bancroft,op. cit., II, 783.

William O. Fallon [or o'Fallon], an Irish trapper, was known as “Mountaineer,” “Big,” or “Le Gros” Fallon. He was a member of the fourth Donner relief, and his diary, published in the California Star, and quoted in J. Quinn Thorton, Oregon and California in 1848 (New York, 1849), II, 232-39, was the foundation of the charges against Keseberg.

Cf. Stewart,op. cit., pp. 259-65, 287-93; see also Charles Fayeette McGlashan, History of the Donner Party (San Francisco: T. C. Wohlbruck, 1931), pp. 184-206. McGlashan and Mrs. Houghton,op. cit., pp. 360-70, did notbelieve that Keseberg had murdered the Donners, nor did Bancroft. Keseberg died in the County Hospital at Sacramento, on September 3, 1895, aged 81 years. 

Lenox, or Lennox, is mentioned in the N.H. Diary on pp. 50, 70, 72, 75, 89, 95, 97, 108, 112, 129. In one instance he is called J. Lenox, although Bancroft (op. cit., IV, 712) gives his initial as “T”. The millstones were for the grist mill that Sutter was building at Birghton, a few miles above the Fort. 

The N.H. Diary (p. 54) records that on June 26, “Mistresses Lenox & Gregson moved down in the Hatterhouse.” This was probably either Andrew J. Ward, a physician who had come to California with the New York Volunteers, or Dr. Bates, both of whom are mentioned frequently in the N. H. Diary. Capt. R. E. o'Neill, of San Francisco, has known of Hispanic-Americans using cow and sheep manure broths to break a fever. There may be cinchona, quinine, or some other chemical febrifuge in the mixture, but more probably it is a case of the patient's getting well in spite of the treatment.

The N.H. Diary records, on September 25, 1847 (p. 80): “The Launch has been despatched by Sunset Supercargo Mr Keseberg, Passengers Mrsers Keseberg & Gregson Thaddeus M. Leavenworth, a native of Connecticut, was a physician and Episcopal clergyman who had come as a chaplain with the New York Volunteers in 1847. He was an alcalde of San Francisco, 1847-49, but went to Sonoma County to live in 1850. 12

This was on January 19, 1848, according to the N. H. Diary, p. 110.

James Coates. The proprietor of the store was possibly Samuel Norris, who Bancroft,op. cit., IV, 755, says was of German or Danish birth. The robbery occurred on March 8 or 9, according to the N.H. Diary, p. 1229 

It was about Dec 1847 when the mill stones were finished the grist mill was being built on the American river about 3 miles across in an easterly direction from the fort.*

See Note 46. The N.H. Diary (p. 96) notes that the last of the millstones arrived at the mill on November 28, 1847. Charles Bennett was sent by Sutter to Monterey to apply in his behalf to Col. Richard B. Mason, the military governor, for a grant of land (of the millsite and surrounding country), to include mill, pastures and mineral privileges. Although he had been instructed to say nothing about the gold to anyone, he gave away the secret at

Benicia on the way down, and again in San Francisco. Bancroft, op. cit., VI, 43-44, and John Henry Brown, op. cit., pp. 70-72.

Peter L. Wimmer came overland to California in 1846 with his wife, Elizabeth Jane. He worked for Sutter was a millwright in 1847-48 and was one of the men employed at the Coloma mill when gold was discovered by James Marshall, on January 24, 1848. Bancroft, op. cit., V, 778. 

George McKinstry, Jr., who came overland in 1846, was active in relief measures for the Donner party. He was the first sheriff of the Northern District, at Sutter's Fort, 1846-47; took part in public affairs at Sacramento in early mining times; and had a trading post on the Cosumnes, 1849-50. From 1871-74 he was a physician at San Diego. Bancroft,op. cit., IV, 725. Edward M. Kern came as an artist with Frémont's expedition of 1845. He served as a lieutenant in the California Battalion in 1846, being in command at Sutter's Fort after the Bear Flag revolt. He left California in 1847. Kern River and Kern County were named for him. Bancroft,op. cit., IV, 699. The correspondence and records kept by him at Sutter's Fort, known as the Fort Sutter Papers, are now in the Henry E. Huntington Library, at San Marino. Mrs. Anna Hughes Marshall married James Smith on January 11, 1846, at Sutter's Fort.N.H. Diary, p. 22. Smith, a native of England, naturalized in 1844 after having been in California three years, was a farmer in the Sacramento Valley. Bancroft, op. cit., V, 723.

See Note 20.

See Note 21.

Mrs. Wimmer tested the first piece of gold found by Marshall, by boiling it in her soap kettle. This (a flake, not a nugget) is now in the Smithsonian Institution. See

Philip Baldwin Bekeart, “James Wilson Marshall, Discoverer of Gold,” in Quarterly of The Society of California Pioneers, Vol. I, No. 3 (September 1924), 14-30. The Wimmers later claimed that a nugget in their possession  was the first gold found by Marshall. William Wallace Allen and Richard Benjamin Avery,California Gold Book (San Francisco, 1893), pp. 5-6, 72-74. In 1849 the Wimmers moved to what is now Calaveras County, and from

1878 to 1885 they resided in Southern California. Bancroft,loc. cit. William W. Scott, who had come overland in 1845 in the Grigsby-Ide party, is said to have been the first man to

whom Marshall showed the gold he discovered. The nugget described by Mrs. Gregson is very likely the one the Wimmers later claimed was the first piece of gold found by Marshall. See Note 58. “April 2d. Mr. Humphrey a regular Miner arrived, and left for Columa with Wimmer and Marshall.” The Diary of Johann August Sutter, p. 46. Isaac Humphrey had been a miner in Georgia, and knew how to make a rocker and wash out the gold. Bancroft, op. cit., III, 791.

Turner and his daughter Mary have not been identified

Thaddeus M. Ames, a native of New York, had come to California with Stevenson's Regiment of New York Volunteers in 1847, in Co. C. He was later a doctor in Mendocino County and represented that county in the State assembly in 1862-63. He died in Green Valley, Sonoma County, in 1876. Bancroft,op. cit., II, 696.

The child was born in August 1848. Bancroft, op. cit., V, 778.

Mary Ellen later married a member of the McChristian family.

Possibly Samuel J. Tennent, an Englishman who, while a surgeon on a whaler at the Sandwich Islands, had left his vessel and come to California on hearing of the gold discovery. Bancroft, op. cit., V, 745.

Robert Spence had been a member of Co. E of the California Battalion, in which he had enlisted at Sonoma in October 1846.

Christian Bruner (or Brunner) and his wife Mary, natives of Switzerland, had lived in New Orleans before coming to California in 1846.  Bancroft,op. cit., II, 733-34. The Donner girls had been cared for, soon after their rescue, by the Brunners at their ranch about twenty-five miles from Sutter's Fort, and later at Sonoma. In 1857 Brunner was sent to San Quentin for killing his nephew, but was pardoned in 1861. Houghton,op. cit., pp. 147-54, 165, 171 ff,

293-97, 317-19, 325-31.

Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Carriger, immigrants of 1846. See Bancroft,op. cit., II, 743, and Hist. of Sonoma County, pp. 673-76.

See Bancroft,op. cit., III, 787-88, and Charles L. Camp, “William Alexander Trubody and the Overland Pioneers of  1847,” in this QUARTERLY, XVI (June 1937), especially pp.  135-36. 

See Note 59.

Henry Marshall had come to California with the Gregsons in 1845, had enlisted in Captain Sears' company of Frémont's Battalion in 1846, was wounded at the Battle of Natividad, and joined his mother, brother, and sisters at Sonoma in 1847, where they were living in an old adobe on the Petaluma ranch, opposite Petaluma. He wentto Green Valley to live, early in 1850. Marshall, “Reminiscences,” in The Pioneer, August 10, 1878.

John B. R. Cooper, a half-brother of Thomas O. Larkin, was claimant for Rancho El Molino, in Sonoma County.See Hist. of Sonoma County, pp. 150-51, and Bancroft, op. cit., II, 765-66. Churchman is mentioned in the N.H. Diary as early as April 1847. He went to work for Sutter on his mill in May.Op. cit., pp. 127, 136.

Mitchell Gilham became a permanent settler in Green Valley in 1851.Hist. of Sonoma County, p. 172. An M. Gillian (possibly the same) had settled near Sebastopol in 1850. Ibid., p. 171. Major Isaac Sullivan married Miss Polly Gilham in 1851.Ibid., p. 172.

Lancaster Clyman was in Oregon in 1843-44. He may have been a brother of James Clyman. See Charles L. Camp, ed., “James Clyman, His Diaries and Reminiscences,” in this QUARTERLY, V (March 1926), 47. 

Possibly D. Frederick Starke. See Hist. of Sonoma County, pp. 592-93.

John N., who later became a resident of San Luis Obispo, Calif.

In 50.1 [1851?] 

Edward Newburgh and Isaac Bernhard (natives of Bavaria) opened a store in Green Valley in 1853, but gave it up in 1857 (or 1864 according to another account) when they went into business in Petaluma. Hist. of Sonoma County, pp. 538 and 577. James M. Miller and John Walker settled in Analy township, Sonoma County, in 1850, and opened a store about  one mile south of Sebastopol. Hist. of Sonoma County, pp. 171, 172, 175.

Eliza Jane Gregson (now Mrs. Thomas Bennet Butler) was born on May 31, 1854.

Possibly Nicolas Gray, of St. Louis, Mo., who had come to California to survey the Larkin ranches. 18 

Adelia J., born on March 28, 1858, later married George Fraits, of San Luis Obispo County.Hist of Sonoma County, p. 476.

Another son, Luke B., was born on March 27, 1868. Hist. of Sonoma County, loc. cit.

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