13 April 1862 • Aurora, Calif./Nev. Terr. (MS: NPV, UCCL 00042)
P.S. Remember me
to Tom & Lockhart.
1explanatory note
Send me some stamps—3 and 10 cent.
Wasson got here night before last, “from the wars.” Tell Lockhart he is not wounded and not killed—is altogether unhurt. He says the whites left their stone fort before he and Lieut. Noble got there., and started to & AⒶemendation large amount of provisions and ammunition which they left behind them fell into the hands of the Indians. They had a pitched battle with the savages, some fifty miles from the fort, in which Scott, (sheriff,) and another man were killed. This was the day before the soldiers came up with them. I mean Noble’s men and those under Cols. Evans and Mayfield, from Los Angeles. Evans assumed the chief command—and next morning the forces were divided into three parties, and marched against the enemyiesⒶemendation. Col. Mayfield was killed, and Sargeant Gillespie also. One Noble’sⒶemendation Corporal was wounded. The California troops went back home, and Noble remained, to help drive the stock over here.3explanatory note And, as Cousin Sally Dillard says tha thisⒶemendation is all that I know about the fight.4explanatory note
Work not yet begun on the H. & Derby—haven’t seen it yet. It is still in the snow. Shall begin on it within 3 or 4 weeks—strike the ledge in July. Guess it is good—worth from $30 to $50 a foot in California.
Why didn’t you send the “Live Yankee” deed—the very one I wanted? Have made no inquiries about it, much. Don’t intend to until I get the deed.5explanatory note Send it along—by mail—d—n the Express—have to pay 3 times for all express matter; once in Carson and twice here.6explanatory note I don’t expect to take the saddle-bags out of the Express office. I paid 25 cts for the Express deeds.
Man named Gebhart shot here yesterday while trying to defend a claim on Last Chance Hill. Expect he will die.7explanatory note
Tell Mr. Upton that Green hasn’t paid me yet—he’s he’llⒶemendation have no money for several days. Tell him the two men would not acknowledge the deed. All I can do is to get the witnessⒶemendation, (Miller,) to acknowledge it. He will be in town in a day or two. I gave the deed to Mr. DeKay.8explanatory note
These mills here are not worth a d—n—except Clayton’s—and it is not in full working trim yet.9explanatory note
Send me $20 $40Ⓐemendation or $50—by mail—immediately.
Write to Billy10explanatory note not to be in a hurry, for I can’t get things fixed to suit me here for some time—can’t say how long.
The “Red Bird” is probably good—can’t work on the tunnel on account of snow. The “Pugh” I have thrown away—shan’t re-locate it. It is nothing but bed-rock croppings—too much workⒶemendation to find the ledge, if there is one. Shan’t record the “Farnum” until I know more about it—perhaps not at all.
“Governor” under the snow.
“Douglas” & Red Bird are both recorded.11explanatory note
I have had opportunities to get into several ledges, but refused all but three—expect to back out of two of them.
Stint yourself as much as possible, and lay up $100 or $150, subject to my call. I go to work to-morrow, with pick and shovel. Something’s got to come, by G—, before I let go, here.
Col. Young’sⒶemendation says you must rent Kinkead’s room by all means—Government would rather pay $150 a month for your office than $75 for Gen. North’s.12explanatory note Says you are playing your hand very badly, for either the Government’s good opinion or anybody’s else, in keeping your office in a shanty. Says put Gov. Nye in your place and he would have a stylish office, and no objections would ever be made, either. When old Col. Youngs talks this way, I think it time to get a fine office. AndⒶemendation I wish you would take that office, and fit it up handsomely, so that I can quit telling people that by this time you are handsomely located, when I know it is no such thing.
I am living with ’Ratio Phillips. Send him one of those black portfolios—by the stage, and put a couple of penholders and a dozen steel pens in it.
If you should have occasion to dispose of the long desk before I return, don’t fogetⒶemendation to break open the middle drawer and take out my things. Envelop my black cloth coat in a newspaper and hang it in the back room.
Don’t buy anything while I am here—but save up some money for me. Don’t send any money home. I shall have your next quarter’s salary spent before you get it, I think. I mean to make or break here within the next 2 or 3 months.
Thomas C. Nye, the governor’s nephew, and Jacob T. Lockhart, the United States Indian agent, both living in Carson City (Kelly 1862, 10, 85).
Clemens was in Aurora, approximately one hundred miles southeast of Carson City, in the rich Esmeralda mining district, an area claimed by both Esmeralda County, Nevada Territory, and Mono County, California. With the exception of the next letter, the datelines of his extant Aurora letters reflect the fact that the United States Post Office Department designation for the Aurora post office—his mailing address—was Esmeralda, California. That post office was established on 9 September 1861, during Clemens’s first visit to the town, which had been developing steadily since the discovery of mineral deposits in 1860. By July 1862 Aurora proudly claimed a population of nearly two thousand, with six hotels and restaurants, eleven billiard saloons, and ten quartz mills. This boom reached its peak in 1863–64, and by 1870 virtually all mining and milling had ceased. The Clemens brothers began investing in mining claims in the Esmeralda district in September 1861, and eventually owned feet, nominally worth $5,000, in at least thirty different ledges there. They never realized anything like the face value of their holdings, however, much less the great riches they anticipated (“Aurora,” Nevada City [Calif.] Transcript, 26 July 62, 2, reprinting the Esmeralda Star of unknown date; Angel, 418; Kelly 1862, 241; Salley, 12, 70; deeds in CU-MARK).
A condensed but essentially accurate account of the most recent battle in hostilities that began in the winter of 1861 between cattlemen in the Owens River area (south of Aurora) and Digger Indians defending their land. The cattlemen had gathered in a fortified spot above Owens Lake and had sent to Nevada and California for help. Eighteen men from Aurora, including Sheriff Scott, came to their aid in March 1862, and under the command of Colonel Mayfield, a private citizen, they sallied forth to engage the Indians, but were soon compelled to retreat. Meanwhile, Lieutenant H. Noble set forth from Fort Churchill, Nevada, with fifty soldiers of the Second Cavalry, California Volunteers, and in early April was joined near Aurora by acting Indian Agent and United States Marshal Warren H. Wasson, whose assignment was to attempt peace negotiations. At the scene of the hostilities, they combined forces with Lieutenant-Colonel George Evans, commanding forty soldiers also from the Second Cavalry, California Volunteers (who had set out from their post near Los Angeles). These forces, together with the cattlemen and their Aurora allies, were unable to defeat the Indians. The situation remained unresolved until October 1862, when a treaty was negotiated (Angel, 166–68).
An allusion to “Cousin Sally Dilliard,” Hamilton C. Jones’s burlesque sketch about a pompous young lawyer’s embarrassment at the hands of a digressive witness. Sally Dilliard is talked about, but is not actually a character, in the sketch. The words Clemens attributes to her are in fact spoken by the witness. The piece first appeared in the New York weekly Spirit of the Times: A Chronicle of the Turf, Agriculture, Field Sports, Literature and the Stage on 18 May 1844 (134).
The Live Yankee Gold and Silver Mining Company was incorporated on 13 September 1861 with a capital stock of $120,000 at $100 per share (“Mining and Other Corporations Formed in 1861,” Sacramento Union, 1 Jan 62, 3). The mine was located in Middle Hill, Aurora. On 17 December 1861 Orion Clemens purchased twenty-five feet in the ledge for $500 from William E. Teall, a representative in the House of the first Territorial Legislature (deed in CU-MARK; Andrew J. Marsh, 2). That same day the Carson City Silver Age characterized the Live Yankee as a “small but very rich lead” (“Items from Esmeralda,” San Francisco Evening Bulletin, 18 Dec 61, 3, reprinting the Silver Age of 12 Dec 61).
Express service between Carson City and Aurora was provided by Wells, Fargo and Company and by William H. Brown and Company’s Express Stage Line, which made one weekly round trip (Kelly 1862, 74). Clemens’s irritation at express fees was not unique. Six months before he wrote this letter, an Aurora correspondent of the San Francisco Evening Bulletin complained about “Wells, Fargo & Co. charging 25 cents for transmitting letters, when they send to other parts of California for 10 cents . . . places at a greater distance from the central office” (“The Esmeralda Mines,” 28 Oct 61, 2).
Gebhart, head of his own mining company, and John Copeland, representing S. H. Chase and Company, both claimed ownership of the same lead on Last Chance Hill in Aurora. On 11 April Copeland, Chase, and two other partners confronted Gebhart and his laborers at the mine shaft, and a gun battle ensued in which Copeland shot Gebhart in the stomach and slightly wounded one of the men with him (Vox Populi 1862, 4). Gebhart died some days later.
Clemens’s debt to Mr. Upton (presumably M. Upton, a Carson City dry-goods dealer) was still unpaid three months later (see 23 July 62 to OC). Green was probably Edmund Green, one of three supervisors of Esmeralda County, the superintendent of the Wide West mine, and a co-owner of the eight-stamp Pioneer Mill near Last Chance Hill—Aurora’s first mill, erected in June 1861 (Wasson, 45; Angel, 401, 416). William De Kay was the deputy county clerk of the Esmeralda district (Kelly 1862, 247). He held an interest in the Flyaway and probably in other Aurora claims. Miller remains unidentified.
Joshua Elliot Clayton, a well-known San Francisco civil and mining engineer, was a pioneer settler and prospector in Aurora who helped lay out the town and, with two others, located the important Real del Monte claim on Last Chance Hill in August 1860. His twelve-stamp mill on Martinez Hill, east of Aurora, was the only Esmeralda mill with machinery specifically designed for the efficient reduction of silver ore. It reportedly was in operation by February 1862 and by April was operating around the clock, seven days a week (Langley: 1861, 99; 1863, 100; 1865, 121; Silversmith 1861, 4; Wasson, 44; Angel, 120, 416; Kelly 1862, 244; “Aurora,” Marysville [Calif.] Appeal, 22 Feb 62, 2, reprinting the Carson City Silver Age of 16 Feb 62; “News from Esmeralda,” Stockton Weekly Independent, 26 Apr 62, 2, reprinting the Carson City Silver Age of 18 Apr 62).
William Dixon of Keokuk.
Apparently the Red Bird, the Douglas, and the Governor (possibly the Governor Nye) were claims that had interested Clemens for some time. In response to a letter from him (now lost), Horatio Phillips wrote on 8 December 1861: “I will find out where the ‘Governor’ is & the ‘Douglass’ & attend to them.” He added that “the Red bird Co were at work starting a tunnel but I will attend to them all” (NPV). Clemens’s correspondence contains no further mention of these claims nor of the Pugh. On 16 November 1861 he and Orion had paid Noah T. Carpenter $200 for twenty feet in the Farnum (or Farnham) lead, located in the Van Horn mining district east of Aurora (deed in CU-MARK; Kelly 1862, 253).
Colonel Samuel Youngs (1803–90), formerly of New York, had been a prominent citizen of Aurora since November 1860 and from 1865 to 1870 operated a four-stamp mill there. A fervent Unionist, he was a member of the 1861 Territorial Legislature and a delegate to the 1863 state Constitutional Convention (Andrew J. Marsh, 667 n. 15; Zimmer, 46, 63; Angel, 414). “Old Col. Youngs is very friendly, and I like him much,” Clemens wrote Orion on 4 July 1862, but late in 1863 he ridiculed Youngs in his Territorial Enterprise correspondence as an “estimable old fossil” and a “snuffling old granny” (SLC 1863, 3:28; SLC 1863, 3:55). John W. North (1815–90), a native of New York, was appointed surveyor general of Nevada Territory in June 1861 by President Lincoln, and from 1862 to 1864 was an associate justice of the territorial supreme court (Andrew J. Marsh, 692–93 n. 280). Reminiscing years later to a western correspondent, Clemens named North among the “unforgotten & unforgetable antiques” of his Nevada past (24 May 1905 to Robert L. Fulton, PH in CTcHi, in MTL , 2:773). For Kinkead, see 8 and 9 Mar 62 to Clagett, n. 6click to open link.
MS, Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Vassar College Library (NPV).
L1 , 185–189; MTB , 1:196, excerpts; MTL , 1:70–72, with omissions.
see McKinney Family Papers, pp. 459–61.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.