MINING PIONEERS AIR THEIR VIEWS, 



REUNION OF CALIFORNIA VETERANS IN CHICAGO. 



A MOST enjoyable occasion was the re- 

 cent seventh annual business meeting 

 and banquet, in Chicago, of the Western 

 Association of California Pioneers. The 

 organization was effected in 1890 through 

 the efforts of Charles P. Jackson, Addi- 

 son Ballard, H. A. Eastman and others, 

 and there are now 143 members. Chicago 

 is rapidly becoming a great mining center, 

 and, with the influx of mining men, it is 

 likely that the membership will be largely 

 increased. The reunion was held in the 

 club-rooms of the Sherman house. At the 

 business meeting the following officers 

 were elected: President, Addison Bal- 

 lard; first vice-president, Candam Knight; 

 second vice-president, G. G. Curtis; treas- 

 urer, G. G. Pope; secretary, G. W. 

 Hotchkiss; trustees, Joseph Clark, Israel 

 Sunderland, Thomas Mahew, John Kin- 

 sey, J. A. B. Walker. 



Among the members present were M. 

 Parkins, George G. Custer, E. G. Crane, 

 J. A. B. Waldo, W. E. Reed, S. P. Blod- 

 gett, L. M. McEvven, T. P. Sears, John 

 B. Kerr, Addison Ballard, H. W. Emery, 

 J. H. Smiley, G. W. Hotchkiss, J. C. 

 Gault, John Kinsey, G. E. Strong, H. 

 Latham, Thomas Mahew, J. A. Macomber, 

 J. F. Thompson, William Johnson and 

 others. Benjamin R. Nickerson, of Chi- 

 cago, eighty-five years of age, is the old- 

 est member. He is the only surviving 

 member of the first California Legislature. 



The decorations about the banquet room 

 were of golden hue, as also those on the 

 tables, and old-gold badges were worn by 

 the veteran miners. A more hardy, better 

 preserved, better informed or more jolly 

 set of men has not come together in Chi- 

 cago for many a day. All are wealthy, and 

 most of the gentlemen are still in active 

 business. As seen by the names, several 

 are still prominent in politics, as well as 

 business, in Chicago. 



This annual reunion is held in com- 

 memoration of the discovery of gold in 

 California, which occured January 24, 

 1848. September 9 is also a day of cele- 

 bration, as it marks the admission of Cali- 

 fornia into the Union in 1850. 



Alderman Ballard was toast-master, and 

 he used a handsome gavel made from the 



wood of the hanging tree at Hangtown and 

 Sutter's Mill, near which the first find of 

 the yellow metal was made. There were 

 no regular toasts, the time being occupied 

 in discussing the good things on the menu, 

 and in exchanging reminiscences and mak- 

 ing speeches on the days of '49, when the 

 California gold fever was at its height., as 

 well as the days of Pike's Peak, and the 

 new finds of today. " What was missed 

 at Pike's Peak," in Colorado, by the 

 armies of men who toiled about there in 

 1859, was dwelt upon by members who 

 were there at that time. The Cripple 

 Creek of today is down the southwest slope 

 of Pike's Peak, near its western base. In 

 1859 men froze to death and died of star- 

 vation right in the neighborhood of where 

 the new Cripple Creek diggings are 

 today. 



George Custer made the Western trip 

 in 1850. He told graphic stories of the 

 hanging tree at Hangtown. After being 

 in California for some time he returned to 

 "the States," with his father by way 

 of the Isthmus of Panama and New York. 

 It was in 1849 that Mr. Ballard went to the 

 California gold fields, and the trip con- 

 sumed six months. Chicago then had no 

 railroads. He returned in 1852. Mr. H. A. 

 Eastman went by way of the Isthmus 

 and remained ten years. Mr. Parkins (of 

 Mendota, 111..) went West in 1849, using 

 a team of oxen, and the trip out was made 

 in five months. In his party there was a 

 long train of "prairie schooners." Mr. 

 E. G. Crane, a cousin of Congressman 

 Hopkins of Aurora, walked all the way to 

 Pike's Peak in 1859. 



After the reminiscences came discussions 

 on the great progress of the West, what 

 irrigation was doing for its development, 

 the admission of Utah, and the bills in the 

 present Congress for the admission of Ari- 

 zona, New Mexico and Oklahoma. That 

 ex-President Harrison had just made argu- 

 ment in the United States Supreme Court 

 in favor of the California (the Wright) 

 Irrigation District Law was regarded as 

 conclusive that one great constitutional 

 lawyer was willing to risk his reputation 

 at a most critical time that the said law 

 was constitutional. 



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