The gold seekers of '49

by Kimball Webster

I continued to work on the job and at length finished it, as I supposed. I had made the cut a true grade from the river to the point agreed upon, which made it 13 feet deep at the deepest point. The width was the number of feet stated by Mr. Hanson, but it was not quite wide enough to permit of two teams passing each other.

I had also finished the cut on the Yuba City side as was agreed upon, and I supposed that Mr. Hanson would be willing to accept the work and pay the amount agreed upon. I informed him that the contract was completed and requested him to examine it.

We went to the Marysville side, and after measuring the bottom of the deep cut Mr. Hanson said it was not sufficiently wide to permit two teams passing each other. I reminded him of the conversation in relation to the matter when the number of feet was given by him, but he could recollect nothing in relation to that matter. He insisted that it must be made considerably wider before it would be accepted. After having done about one-third more work than we really had contracted to do, to be required to make the cut two or three feet wider, when it was 150 feet long and 13 feet deep at the deepest point, seemed to me to be asking too much. But I found him determined not to pay for the work unless I yielded. I concluded to keep quiet and make the widening as he proposed.

I made the alteration as he had suggested and again I informed him that the contract was completed. Again he went with me to the place of the cut, and also Mr. Bayliss was with us.

Mr. Hanson began to measure and also to find fault with the work, claiming that the job was not nearly completed. He said he would not pay me until considerable more was done.

I could endure it no longer, and I said to Mr. Hanson that he was the meanest man I had had any dealings with in California. Thereupon, he became almost frantic, and he immediately drew the square over my head. It was a heavy carpenter’s steel square. He exclaimed that if I uttered another word he would split my head open! I immediately repeated the remark. Of course, it was not my intention to stand there quietly and permit him to cleave my head open, as he had threatened to do. But I stood still nevertheless, intending, if he attempted to strike me, to pursue the course that might seem to be best under the existing conditions. He threw down the weapon and said he would never pay me a dollar for the work until I had done a large amount more to finish it. Determined not to yield now, I replied I had already removed about twice the amount of earth the contract called for at first; that he had continually lied about it; that no dependence whatever could be placed on his word or veracity; that he was a very unjust specimen of a man; and that I would never remove another shovelful of earth for him.

He went away saying he would never pay me a cent. I was as fully determined I would do no more work on the job under any conditions. At first I thought I would sue him for the amount due me. After considering the matter for a day or two I concluded I would see what could be done with Mr. Bayliss, his partner, about the matter. I had been acquainted with him for a number of months, and had considered him an honest man. He had no part in making the contract so far as I was concerned. I went to him one day and informed him that I was about to go to Oregon and that I should like to settle the matter. As he was a partner with Mr. Hanson in the ferry, and I had always believed him to be a reasonable man, I had come to him to talk about the matter. Mr. Bayliss listened to my statements very kindly, but said he regretted the conversation that had taken place between Mr. Hanson and myself. If that had been otherwise he thought the matter might have been adjusted with little trouble, but Mr. Hanson was a very passionate man, and as he was then feeling toward me, he would not agree to any settlement that would be satisfactory to me. He said it would be of no use whatever to undertake to have Mr. Hanson agree to pay the full amount of the contract price, but provided I would consent to make a small discount he would see what arrangement could be made with him. When I again met Mr. Bayliss a little later, the proposed settlement had been agreed upon and he paid me accordingly.

I soon after left Marysville for San Francisco, on my way to Oregon. At San Francisco I met Mr. Elder and also Mr. Pinney, who had been waiting here all this time for the sailing of the steamer for Panama. He expected now to sail within two or three days. He might as well have remained and assisted me finishing the contract.

Mr. Pinney had brought his gold with him. It had been put up in several buckskin bags. After his arrival in San Francisco, instead of depositing it in one of the banks for safe keeping during his stay in the city, he had buried it in the sands of one of the vacant lots of the city.

When he went to recover it he failed to find it, when he became thoroughly alarmed. After a more thorough search, however, he found it. He said it had been removed from the place where he first deposited it and had been buried in another place. It was in vain I tried to make him believe that if anybody had taken the gold from its hiding place he would have carried it away, instead of concealing it in a new place, and he would never have got his hands on it again. While he admitted the force of the argument, he said he was perfectly sure that he found it in a different location from where he placed it. He said he was very nervous when he failed to find his fortune where he had buried it.