It is impossible at the present time, after the lapse of nearly forty-five years, to give from memory a connected account of all the transactions in which I was engaged during the spring, summer and fall of 1850. Consequently, I will write about events of which I find my original minutes, or others of which I still have a distinct memory, without regard to the exact dates or order in which they transpired. It is possible that some events which I may relate may have taken place at a time previous to that of cutting the hay.
Some time I believe during that spring as Mr. Pinney and myself were returning from the mines on our way to Marysville, or Yuba City, we made a stop at Charles Burch’s ranch, where we met a party of surveyors.
The engineer, Robert Elder, a Scotchman who had been employed for twelve years as an assistant engineer on the Michigan and Illinois canal, said to us that he was short of help and would like to employ us for a short time if our price was satisfactory.
Having no particular work in view, we set our price at eight dollars per day with board. Mr. Elder thought that was more than he could afford to pay for help that had had no experience at such work, but said we could go to work on trial for two or three days.
He was laying out a new city a short distance farther up the river, it being a mile square, or nearly so. He had then worked upon it for a few days. The survey was being done for a company in Sacramento City, who later erected one or two large buildings, and made considerable effort to get a city started, but at length it proved to be a “paper city,” as has been the fate of numerous other like schemes in the West. We commenced work and after a few days were constantly expecting a notice of acquittal from Mr. Elder, or otherwise a reduction of wages. Nothing, however, was said by either party in regard to it for nearly two weeks, when I inquired of him how much longer he supposed our services would be needed. His reply was: “I would like to have you stay a good while.”
Mr. Elder was a very kind man, yet he was somewhat eccentric, and his likes and dislikes very decided. Up to that time I had no reason to believe that he had any preference for me over Mr. Pinney.
We worked a few days after the time of the incident narrated, when one day he said to me that he would suspend work and go to Marysville for a few days and he desired us to go with him. We had boarded with an Englishman whom Mr. Elder had employed for that purpose, but he had lived at the ranch or house of a Frenchman by the name of John Roulo, located more than a mile down the river. Mr. Roulo had an Indian wife.
The Englishman was not a bad cook, but the principal diet for breakfast, dinner and supper the week through was stewed beef. This beef was of good quality and was very well cooked, but it did not agree with me for a constant diet, with scarcely any other kind of food.
About this time we went to Marysville, and Mr. Elder took a trip to Sacramento City to consult with some of the officers of the company for whom we were at work, or they came to Marysville, I am not certain which.
Mr. Elder desired me to remain and return with him. I made the proposition that I would do so upon the condition that I should board at the Frenchman’s, where he did. I confessed I could not stand the Englishman’s stewed beef any longer. He said I could just as well board at that place and might have done so if I had spoken about it to him. We returned and I worked until the job was finished. Mr. Pinney did not return with us.