Sierra Mountain Times

Artwork By J. E. Kitchell By Wayne Kirkbride

So much has been written about this celebrated American writer of the 19^th Century, and he is probably best known for the period when he lived on the East Coast and published many works for which he became famous. As a young man in his twenties, Samuel Langhorne Clemens had yet to find his destiny growing up in Hannibal, Missouri. His many adventures and travels would someday be the fodder for his tales both in newspaper articles and novels. The time he spent out West, especially in the gold country of the California Mother Lode, was short, but enriched generations of readers captivated by his story telling.

What brought young Clemens out West? The Civil War had started, and after only a two-week enlistment with the Confederacy, which he found disagreeable, he resigned and took up his brother Orion’s offer to travel with him to Nevada Territory where Orion had been given an appointment from President Lincoln as Secretary of the new territory. Those travels overland later became the factual and embellished story “Roughing It”. As it turned out, there was no position available for Clemens in the Territorial government so he decided to try his luck at mining. Just getting by in the Esmeralda district of Aurora, Nevada (later boundary changes made the area part of California) he was offered a job as editor of the Virginia City Enterprise after the owner was impressed with a few of the writings Clemens had contributed.

In 1862, at age 26, Clemens began writing and reporting. When he was assigned to cover the convening of the Legislature at Carson City, he began using the pen name for the first time of “Mark Twain”, a river term he had picked up as a river pilot on the Mississippi River. His articles and his fame were starting to be noticed on the West Coast. Historical accounts say that Clemens, aka Mark Twain, wisely decided to leave Nevada for getting involved in agreeing to a duel, which by Nevada law, was a felony. In 1864 he traveled over the Sierra to California to San Francisco where he enjoyed the growing sophistication of that city. There he began writing for the “Morning Call” newspaper and occasionally for one or two literary papers. It was during this time he became acquainted with other writers, including Bret Harte.

The cabin where Mark Twain once lived on Jack Ass Hill. 

 During this time Mark Twain took up a friendship with a printer named Steve Gillis. When Gillis was arrested for a barroom brawl, Twain signed a bond for $500 for his release. When it appeared that the law was serious about prosecuting Gillis, he decided to head to Virginia City and out of reach. Twain, realizing that he couldn’t make good on the bond, also made the choice to avoid the authorities and headed for Tuolumne County, California to be the guest of Steve Gillis’ two brothers, James and William, who had a one room cabin on Jackass Hill from which they worked pocket mines for gold. From December 1864 to January 22, 1865 Twain stayed at the cabin until he and Jim Gillis made the short trip to Angels Camp to try their luck. Mostly what they found was day after day of rainy weather and on February 20, 1865, the two returned to the cabin on Jackass Hill and Twain began formulating his story of the jumping frog contest as had been told by one Ben Coon while they waited for the rain to stop in a dreary hotel around a single stove in Angels Camp.

After being gone for three months from San Francisco, Mark Twain returned, became a contributor to “The Californian” and a San Francisco correspondent for his old employer, the ”Virginia City Enterprise”. On November 18, 1865, the New York “Saturday Press” published “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog”, later to be published and better known as “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”. The story gained wide recognition and cemented Twain’s fame as a writer.

Mark Twain’s short stay in the Mother Lode provided experiences upon which he would use in his writings. One such article appeared in “The Californian” on March 18, 1865: “I had a very comfortable time in Calaveras County, in spite of the rain…Calaveras possesses some of the grandest natural features that have ever fallen under the contemplation of the human mind – such as the Big Trees, the famous Morgan gold mine which is the richest in the world at the present time, perhaps, and ‘straight’ whisky that will throw a man a double somerset (somersault) and limber him up like boiled macaroni before he can set his glass down. Marvelous and incomprehensible is the straight whiskey of Angels Camp.”

In another humorous tale, Twain wrote for the “Enterprise” in October, 1865 his recollections, perhaps also embellished, but nonetheless entertaining, of the Rawhide Ranch Mine in Tuolumne County. His yarn tells of two miners and their scary, but funny experiences as they attempt to descend into the depths of a mineshaft, attached precariously above ground to a horse named “Cotton”. In Twain’s words: “This somewhat famous mine – famous now, though a placidly – worked and almost unknown concern for the past ten years – is situated in Tuolumne County, California, near Sonora; near Tuttletown; near Jimtown; near Jackass; near Chaparral Hill; near – well, near forty places, but in the immediate vicinity of none. It is exceedingly rich in gold…”

So much has been written about this celebrated American writer of the 19^th Century, and he is probably best known for the period when he lived on the East Coast and published many works for which he became famous. As a young man in his twenties, Samuel Langhorne Clemens had yet to find his destiny growing up in Hannibal, Missouri. His many adventures and travels would someday be the fodder for his tales both in newspaper articles and novels. The time he spent out West, especially in the gold country of the California Mother Lode, was short, but enriched generations of readers captivated by his story telling.

What brought young Clemens out West? The Civil War had started, and after only a two-week enlistment with the Confederacy, which he found disagreeable, he resigned and took up his brother Orion’s offer to travel with him to Nevada Territory where Orion had been given an appointment from President Lincoln as Secretary of the new territory. Those travels overland later became the factual and embellished story “Roughing It”. As it turned out, there was no position available for Clemens in the Territorial government so he decided to try his luck at mining. Just getting by in the Esmeralda district of Aurora, Nevada (later boundary changes made the area part of California) he was offered a job as editor of the Virginia City Enterprise after the owner was impressed with a few of the writings Clemens had contributed.

In 1862, at age 26, Clemens began writing and reporting. When he was assigned to cover the convening of the Legislature at Carson City, he began using the pen name for the first time of “Mark Twain”, a river term he had picked up as a river pilot on the Mississippi River. His articles and his fame were starting to be noticed on the West Coast. Historical accounts say that Clemens, aka Mark Twain, wisely decided to leave Nevada for getting involved in agreeing to a duel, which by Nevada law, was a felony. In 1864 he traveled over the Sierra to California to San Francisco where he enjoyed the growing sophistication of that city. There he began writing for the “Morning Call” newspaper and occasionally for one or two literary papers. It was during this time he became acquainted with other writers, including Bret Harte.

During this time Mark Twain took up a friendship with a printer named Steve Gillis. When Gillis was arrested for a barroom brawl, Twain signed a bond for $500 for his release. When it appeared that the law was serious about prosecuting Gillis, he decided to head to Virginia City and out of reach. Twain, realizing that he couldn’t make good on the bond, also made the choice to avoid the authorities and headed for Tuolumne County, California to be the guest of Steve Gillis’ two brothers, James and William, who had a one room cabin on Jackass Hill from which they worked pocket mines for gold. From December 1864 to January 22, 1865 Twain stayed at the cabin until he and Jim Gillis made the short trip to Angels Camp to try their luck. Mostly what they found was day after day of rainy weather and on February 20, 1865, the two returned to the cabin on Jackass Hill and Twain began formulating his story of the jumping frog contest as had been told by one Ben Coon while they waited for the rain to stop in a dreary hotel around a single stove in Angels Camp.

According to “The Complete Works of Mark-Twain” on www.mtwain.com/l_biography.html, the following episode sealed Mark Twain’s disdain for the hard work of a miner. One day Twain and Jim Gillis were prospecting up on a hill near Angels Camp with Twain fetching buckets of water to wash the earth for specks of gold. It began to rain as they ascended the hill and finally Twain could take no more. “Jim, I won’t carry any more water,” he said. “This work is too disagreeable. Let’s go to the house and wait till it clears up.” Gillis had just taken out a pan of earth. “Bring one more pail, Sam,” he pleaded. “I won’t do it, Jim! Not a drop! Not if I knew there was a million dollars in the pan!” They left the pan on the ground and went back to Angels Camp. The rain continued and they returned to Jackass Hill without visiting their claim again. Meantime, the rain had washed away the earth on the top of the pan and exposed a handful of nuggets – pure gold. Two strangers came along, and observing it,  sat down to wait until the thirty-day claim notice posted by Gillis should expire. The minute the thirty days were up they followed the lead a few pans farther, and took out, some say, ten to twenty thousand dollars…Twain missed it by just one pail of water.

After being gone for three months from San Francisco, Mark Twain returned, became a contributor to “The Californian” and a San Francisco correspondent for his old employer, the ”Virginia City Enterprise”. On November 18, 1865, the New York “Saturday Press” published “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog”, later to be published and better known as “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”. The story gained wide recognition and cemented Twain’s fame as a writer.

Mark Twain’s short stay in the Mother Lode provided experiences upon which he would use in his writings. One such article appeared in “The Californian” on March 18, 1865: “I had a very comfortable time in Calaveras County, in spite of the rain…Calaveras possesses some of the grandest natural features that have ever fallen under the contemplation of the human mind – such as the Big Trees, the famous Morgan gold mine which is the richest in the world at the present time, perhaps, and ‘straight’ whisky that will throw a man a double somerset (somersault) and limber him up like boiled macaroni before he can set his glass down. Marvelous and incomprehensible is the straight whiskey of Angels Camp.”

In another humorous tale, Twain wrote for the “Enterprise” in October, 1865 his recollections, perhaps also embellished, but nonetheless entertaining, of the Rawhide Ranch Mine in Tuolumne County. His yarn tells of two miners and their scary, but funny experiences as they attempt to descend into the depths of a mineshaft, attached precariously above ground to a horse named “Cotton”. In Twain’s words: “This somewhat famous mine – famous now, though a placidly – worked and almost unknown concern for the past ten years – is situated in Tuolumne County, California, near Sonora; near Tuttletown; near Jimtown; near Jackass; near Chaparral Hill; near – well, near forty places, but in the immediate vicinity of none. It is exceedingly rich in gold…”

While in Tuolumne County, Twain frequented the Swerer’s store in Tuttletown when it was a thriving town with a population of 7,500, with a nearby railroad, several stores, and more than one house of ill-repute. He became friends with Daniel Daniels, his wife, and their three children who had built a cabin near Mormon Creek and Long Gulch. Long after he left the Mother Lode, he never forgot them and other friendships he had made while there.

Another encounter with Mark Twain in Tuolumne County was recorded for posterity by Lee Whipple-Haslam, with her book published in 1925, “Early days in California; scenes and events of the ‘50s as I remember them”. Born Lee Ann Summers in 1849, in Missouri and coming to California with her family to seek their fortune in the goldfields, Lee Ann was a girl of 15 or 16 when she wrote of her meeting Mark Twain. The Summers family was living just east of present day Tuolumne City, which was known as Summersville in those days, in a house Lee Ann’s father had built. Following the tragic death of her father, her mother began taking in boarders, mostly miners from the area. Lee Ann assisted her mother. As she recalled, “My acquaintance with Mark Twain was more by accident than design, but fate was kind to me. His first appearance was in the dining room at our house. I was waiting on tables, and while taking his order, I sized him up as another Missourian, and a green one at that. During the evening mother entered into conversation with him, and, as usual with Missourians, they imparted numerous and various details of ancient forefathers, and, after lengthy discussion, decided that according to all the rules and laws of Missouri, they were cousins. After shaking hands and hearty congratulations I made another discovery – that he was anything but green. The next day I was combing my hair; he walked up to me and laid his hand on my shoulder and looked in the glass; and simultaneously it reflected our faces. After glancing a moment at the glass he remarked: ‘You have a good honest face, but do not grieve; for beauty is only skin deep. But ah! me, freckles go to the bone.’ They would not have far to go if they were on you! I replied. Besides, I love these freckles; I brought them from Missouri and could not part with them (I did not tell him how I yearned for the separation). Our boarders thought him wonderful and asked me if there were many more like him in Missouri? I told them no; that he was a Missouri freak that had broken loose from his hitching post. I was afraid of his quick repartee and sarcasm, even while I admired his versatility and conversational ability. He was visionary and would build air castles and fill them so full of hope and ambitious dreams that the underpinning would collapse. He locked horns with Cupid while in Summersville and, as was his natural characteristic, started to build a new air castle, but a castle for two. After swearing me to secrecy, he confided all this to me. I told him he was building on quicksand for a foundation. I said, ‘You have a master mind. Why grasp at the shadows of life for the reality. Why not write, as I know only you can? Grasp for fame, and strive to live in the memory and admiration of coming generations. Fame and gold will come at your bidding.’ Ah, what prophetic words, spoken half in jest! How vividly all this occurred to my mind, when I, with so many others went to Jackass Hill to honor the memory of my illustrious kinsman. “

So it seems that while in Tuolumne County, Mark Twain not only mined the areas around Jackass Hill and Angels Camp, he also struck out to explore the mining opportunities around Cherokee and Turnback Creek. Assuming Lee Ann Summers was correct in her observation of Twain, his flirtatious nature and intent, real or imagined, never materialized beyond that, and Twain would give up his pursuits of seeking gold after his three months of “vacation” and return to San Francisco where, as they say, the rest is history.

For more information on Mark Twain, check out a presentation put on by the Tuolumne County Historical Society at the Sonora Library on Friday, January 23, 6:30 p.m., where Pat Kaunert will portray Mr. Twain.  The recently republished book, “Mark Twain’s Sojourn in Tuolumne County” will be available for sale during that time. It can also be purchased at the Sonora museum.