History of IdahoIn the fall of 1861, prospectors starting from the placer mining camp of Oro Fino, situate upon the waters of the Clearwater in what was then the eastern part of Washington Territory, and which had itself only been discovered a few months before, found rich placer gold deposits in the Florence Basin on a small tributary of the Salmon River. The news spread and the few white men who had straggled into this unknown and almost inaccessible region, soon congregated in the new camp. The deposits were not only rich in gold but seemed extensive, and the parties interested made diligent efforts to procure proper supplies to carry them over until spring. A severe winter, however, set in unusually early and most of those who had made locations found themselves without provisions and were compelled to go to the lower country to escape starvation. The news of the discoveries soon reached, in an exaggerated form, the scattered residents of Oregon and Washington and quickly spread over the mining sections of California, in which state the placer mines that had caused its settlement and occupied the attention of most of its residents, were fast becoming exhausted. The miners, comprising as they then did a majority of the population of both California and Oregon, a restless class — always ready to leave an established region to share in the opportunities presented by newly discovered min- ing sections, almost unanimously prepared to go to the new Eldorado, as soon as weather conditions would permit, and commencing in the early spring of 1862, came the last of the great "Rushes" from the placer mining camps of the coast, which left the mining sections of the two states nearly depopulated.
Table of Contents CHAPTER I
Read the Book - Free Download the Book - Free ( 94.1 MB PDF ) VOLUME II Read the Book - Free Download the Book - Free ( 116.2 MB PDF ) VOLUME III Read the Book - Free Download the Book - Free ( 115.7 MB PDF ) HON. JAMES H. HAWLEY. Hon. James H. Hawley, Idaho pioneer in many parts of the state, a distinguished member of the bar, governor from 1910 until 1912, his record has ever been such as has reflected credit and honor upon the state that has honored him. Born in Dubuque, Iowa, January 17, 1847, he is a son of Thomas and Annie (Carr) Hawley, who were natives of Brooklyn and of Cooperstown, New York, respectively. In the paternal line he comes of English ancestry with an Irish strain, while on the distaff side he is of Irish, Holland and English lineage. One of his great-grandfathers in the maternal line was a soldier of the war of the Revolution, while his grandfather was a soldier of the War of 1812. Mr. Hawley's mother died when he was an infant, and his father went to California in 1849, leaving the boy with relatives. His father resided in California until 1856, when he removed to Texas and lived there until his death a number of years later. |