Excerpt from History of Amador County, California: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers Many things will creep in which were better left out, and others of importance are omitted. Some matters will receive undue importance, and few will be accurately related. Not until edition after edition has been brought before the public will the prominent events receive due notice, or the doubtful ones have justice done them. A thousand eyes will be sharp ened to criticise the narrative. A thousand new witnesses will arise to contradict, affirm, or correct. The publishers hope that the public will make due allowance for errors unavoidable in the first attempt to collect the facts pertaining to the early history of the county. In many instances the testimony, even of eye-witnesses, is very conflicting. This is true of the aifairs of August, 1855. Hardly any two agree in their narratives of the circumstances. In this, as in other matters, the most probable statements are recorded. Nothing has been set down in malice, and some things have been left out as being too much like tales told out of school; as far as possible con signing them to oblivion. Having resided over a quarter of a century in the county, and acted a part, though a humble one, in many of the circumstances narrated, the writer has drawn largely on his own memory for many of the incidents. The chapters on geology and mining, will, it is hoped, furnish interesting and profitable reading to all, especially those engaged in mining. The facts and theories are the result of years of observation, and many miles of travel, and are not retailed at second hand from Whitney or other scientists. The observations on mining have been compiled from the statements, opinions and experiences, of hun dreds of intelligent miners. Thanks are due to all the superintendents, especially to those of the Amador Consolidated, the Keystone, the Oneida, the Empire, the Downs and the Zeile mines for valuable information on gold mining, and to Edward Johnson of the Newton mine, for statistics and methods of copper mining. The habits of the early miners will be read with interest. The writer hopes that some of the false impressions, produced by Bret Hart, Joaquin Miller, and other writers, regarding early Californians, will be dissipated by a true description thereof. The stories of the YubaDam, Tuolumne Debating Society and others of that kind, have truth enough for a hint to a lively imagination arid no more; and those who, in after years, judge California by those things, will be wide of the mark. The writer, having been a resident of the State since 1850, has an interest in the good reputation of the pioneers, and is glad to enter his protest to such absurdities being re corded as history. With him, the work has been one of love, and a design to do justice to our countrymen, with no desire to hold them up to derision. The publishers intended to give statistics of the growth of the mining and agricultural industries, but found the published returns entirely worthless. In some instances, the estimations were utterly ab surd. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

History of Amador County, California, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers By JD Mason Contents I--Knowledge of the Pacific Coast Fifty Years Since II--Big Canyon of the Colorado III--Permanent Occupation of California IV--The Missions of St. Francis V--Downfall of the Old Missions VI--Primitive Agriculture VII--Sir Francis Drake's Discoveries VIII--The American Conquest IX--San Joaquin county from the Time Capt. CM Weber first Saw it in November, 1841 until the close of 1847 X--Biographic Sketch of General Sutter XI--The King's Orphan XII--Sutter's Fort in 1846 XIII--The History of the Donner Party XIV--The Discovery of Gold XV--Early Condition of this Region XVI--Amador County XVII--Domestic Habits of the Miners XVIII--Organization of Amador County XIX--Rancheria Murders XX--Political Parties in 1855 XXI--Amador County at the Beginning of 1860 XXII--End of the Second Decade XXIII--Condition of the County at the Beginning of the Third Decade--1870 XXIV--Financial Matters in 1876 XXV--Geology of Amador County XXVI--Geology of Amador County by George Madeira XXVII--Origin of Mineral Veins XXVIII--Quartz Mining XXIX--Quartz Mining East of the Mother Lode XXX--Jackson XXXI--Ione Valley and Vicinity XXXII--Lancha Plana and Vicinity XXXIII--Volcano and Vicinity XXXIV--North-Western Part of the County XXXV--North-Western Part of the County XXXVI--Eastern Part of Amador County XXXVII--Arroyo Seco Grant ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Windham Press is committed to bringing the lost cultural heritage of ages past into the 21st century through high-quality reproductions of original, classic printed works at affordable prices. This book has been carefully crafted to utilize the original images of antique books rather than error-prone OCR text. This also preserves the work of the original typesetters of these classics, unknown craftsmen who laid out the text, often by hand, of each and every page you will read. Their subtle art involving judgment and interaction with the text is in many ways superior and more human than the mechanical methods utilized today, and gave each book a unique, hand-crafted feel in its text that connected the reader organically to the art of bindery and book-making. We think these benefits are worth the occasional imperfection resulting from the age of these books at the time of scanning, and their vintage feel provides a connection to the past that goes beyond the mere words of the text.