Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 April 1913 — 4 AKERS LIVE [ARTICLE]

4 AKERS LIVE

Survivor! trf Death Valley Hold Reunion in California. Col. John Colton of Galesburg, HU Tells How the Party of Gold Seekers Ignored the Advice of Mormon Guides. Salt Lake City, Utah.—Only four of the “Jayhawkers of ’48,” a large party of ggld seekers whose sufferings on the trail to California thrilled the country In the days of the great gold rush, are living today. These four held a reunion In California the other day, not far from the scene of their fescue when they staggered out of Death Valley, mere shadows of the party that had entered that trackless desert three months before. Col. John B. Colton, whose home is ffa Galesburg, 111., but who haß extensive property interests in the west, and who always attends the reunions of the “Jayhawkers of ’49,” gave some interesting facts concerning this most disastrous of western pilgrimages the other day. The members of the party were called Jayhawkers because so many of them were from Kansas. Colonel Colton and the Illinois delegation started from Galesburg on the Ist of April, 1849, headed for the California gold fields. The party made the Journey to Omaha and westward along the main highway of the gold seekers, the Platte river. On reaching Salt Lake, the Jawhawkers were warned against taking the northern route to the coast, as ,the news of the terrible fate of the Donner party, which had become lost in the deep snows, and some of whose members had lived upon the bodies of their companions, was then the chief topic of conversation at all western posts.

On the advice of the celebrated trapper, Jim Bridger, the party left Salt Lake and traveled due south to what was known as Little Salt Lake, where other large parties were met. It was decided to depart from the traveled trail and strike due weßt to the head of the San Joaquin river, instead of going the roundabout way via Los Angeles. This move was made in the face of the protests of the Mormon guides. A larger part of the party agreed to take the short cut, and 110 wagons started westward from Little Salt Lake. After a few days of travel the party came to a seemingly endless gorge about 2,000 feet deep, whose walls were almost perpendicular. From this point, the party entered a trackless waste. Few, if any, white men had penetrated Death Valley at that time. Soon the Jayhawkers came face to face with horrors of

which they had never dreamed. Days and nights of toiling across the dazzling sands brought no relief In the form of water. For fifty-two days the party lived without food save the few cattle that were killed.

“The horror of those days and nights in Death Valley will never be forgotten by any of those who went through it all," said Colonel Colton. “I weighed over 150 pounds when I began that trip, and weighed 60 pounds when I was rescued. The others had lost flesh in proportion. "There was a woman with us. and she bore up better than most of the men. We called her ‘the little woman’ and we call her so today, for she is still living. She is Mrs. Juliette Brier of San Jose, Cal.*

“On February 4, Tom Shannon and myself, who were slightly in the lead, came upon a fertile valley, where thousands of cattle were grazing, un-

der the care of vanqueros. We saw a gleam of red through trees, which proved to be the root of a ranch house. We had come upon the magnificent estate of Senor del Valle, known as the Ranch San Francisquito, a cattle ranch some eleven leagues square.

“For two weeks we remained here until we gained sufficient strength to proceed onward." Colonel Colton, though well in his eighties, is strong and vigorous. He remained in the west and won a fortune there.

The first reunion of the "Jayhawkers of ’49” was held in 1872 at the home of Colonel Colton in Galesburg. The last one was held at the home of Mrs. Brier in San Jose. The other living members of the “Jayhawkers" of the gold trail are L. Dow Stephens of San Jose and John Groscnp, who lives about forty miles from that place.