I was literally chased from absolute poverty into the possession of nearly a million dollars.
I discovered a great mining district and founded a thriving town.
And if the matter of paternity is ever brought up in court, it will probably be proved to the satisfaction of a jury that I am the father of Kern county.
CHAPTER XIV.
Decade Between 1860 and ’70, Next to the Gold Age, One of the Most Stirring Times in History of State.
Realization Had Come That Mineral Riches Formed Smallest Part of Resources; Outlook Was Bright.
Late in the summer of 1865, I took up my residence in San Francisco. The war was over, the country settling down after the intoxication of a terrific struggle. But one fever was only followed by another, so far as I was concerned. I was barely 25, but far older than my years. In fact, I never had any youth at all. From the time when I ran away from college to join Walker’s expedition against Nicaragua, I was called on to meet problems that required a man’s decision, and so became one, long ahead of time. But I was brimful of a restless ambition to make my mark—to become one of the great central figures in working out the destiny of the Pacific Coast.
Those were stirring times, indeed. Few seem to understand that the decade between 1860 and 1870 was, next to the gold age of the ’50’s, the most important in the history of California. It was the period of transition from the fierce exploitation of the pioneers who looked only on the region as a thing to be despoiled of its treasures and to be abandoned. It saw the silent valleys changed to broad oceans of waving grain. It saw the foothills crowned with thrifty vineyards, saw the sure foundations laid of a great fruit industry, saw the beginning of systematic irrigation. It saw the port of San Francisco crowded with masts of vessels to carry its new-found wealth to distant lands, saw a mighty foreign commerce develop, saw the treasures of the Comstock Lode unlocked, saw a railroad stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific. And men arose to meet the new conditions. A splendid line of merchants seized the opportunities of trade. Isaac Friedlander opened the markets of England for our wheat. Macondray Brothers built up great business interests in the Orient. The trade mark of William T. Coleman & Company was a guaranty of their goods throughout the civilized world. These names are only typical of many. A new race of mighty miners developed, men like George Hearst, J. B. Haggin, Lloyd Tevis, Alvinza Hayward, G. W. Grayson and others, whose activities extended to Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Montana and to distant Mexico, pouring a fresh river of gold and silver into California.
The drift of population of the growing city also changed and the westward movement began, which will only be bounded by the ocean.