PREFACE. There are still living, after the lapse of fifty years, many Pioneers, and more of their descendants, to whom I trust the following pages will bear more than a passing interest. To the pioneers they will restore the fast fading recollections of events in which their experiences were to a large extent very similar to my own. One by one our comrades are dropping from sight, passing to that new "Eldorado," whose streets are paved with gold, and where the hot blasts of sandy deserts, and the difficulties and dangers of the pioneer's life are unknown. This work, which has been a labor of love, was undertaken after solicitation of those whose judgment I respect. While written entirely from memory, I have endeavored to record simply facts and events as they occurred, and for my narrative lay no claim to literary merit. Whatever its defects I crave the indulgence of my pioneer comrades, and a generous public. I desire to acknowledge my indebtedness to R. Guy McClellan, author of "Republicanism in America," also to John Bigelow, author of the "Life of John Charles Fremont," in addition to other recorded data. I have written with the hope of pleasing as well as instructing the younger portion of the present generation who desire, and should become, familiar with the struggles, and circumstances, attending the acquisition and development of the great State in which we all feel so laudable a pride, and where over every school building there now floats the emblem of freedom, equality and fraternity. To wrest an extensive domain from semi-barbarism; to reveal its unlimited treasures; to open up new avenues of commerce; to form a progressive, enlightened and liberal government; to herald the advent of new social and religious conditions; these made a commendable field for noble endeavor. Living in the glorious advantages their labors secured to us; who shall say their duties were not well performed by the founders of our grand commonwealth. They brought civilization, beauty, and unrivaled attractions to a vast country of unbounded possibilities; a land of mighty monarchs of the forests, whose topmost branches pierce the clouds, the wonder of all beholders, a land of giant mountains, which, from their aerial heights, pour down to the thirsty valleys below their crystal floods, beautifying all the landscape with fruit, flower and vine, and creating panorama after panorama of unsurpassed terrestrial beauty. ILLUSTRATIONS. Hon. D. A. Shaw. Frontispiece ADJOINING PAGE 48 62 Gen. John C. Fremont The Squaw Man's House and Wife. . Indian Attack on E. J. Baldwin's Racine Party near Salt Lake, in 1853...... In the High Sierras. Public Library, Redlands, Cal. Santa Barbara Mission.. Yosemite Valley, California. 74 126 190 207 232 |