Lawrence Berry Washington
After discharge from the army following the Mexican War, Lawrence B. Washington returned to the family home, Cedar Lawn, near Charles Town. His father, John T. A. Washington had died in 1841, four years after his mother had passed away, and the family, including two teen-aged daughters and one teen-aged son were in the care of the older brother Benjamin Franklin Washington and older daughters Sally Eleanor, George Anna Augusta, Mary Elizabeth and Mildred Berry. The eldest son Daniel Bedinger Washington was married and had removed to Putnam County, Virginia. Thornton Augustine Washington was a student at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point. B. F. Washington, who had been designated executor of his father's will and guardian of his infant children, was married with two young sons. He was engaged in local and state politics of the Democratic Party and had an active law practice in Charles Town. The youngest brother, George Washington, at age s, the oldest eventeen, in order to acquire a practical knowledge of managing a large farming business prepared himself by working on the farm of Colonel Robert Lucas and his son William, the husband of Virginia Ann Bedinger (43),the oldest daughter of Daniel Bedinger.
Lawrence Berry Washington, now returned from duty in the army was available to help manage the Cedar Lawn and Bullskin farms. But, in January 1848, gold was discovered on the American River in California and another adventure was on the near horizon for Lawrence B. Washington. Gold Rush fever reached Jefferson Co., Virginia where three gold hunting companies were organized. On January 8, 1849, Benjamin Franklin Washington placed notice in the Spirit of Jefferson, Charlestown, Virginia for the organization of a third mining company, the Charles Town Mining Company. Lt. Lawrence B. Washington was one of the first to sign up for membership. The Charles Town Mining Company, soon grew to a joint venture with eighty-five young men of Virginia to journey to California in search for gold. The expedition of the Charles Town Mining Company left Charlestown on March 27 aboard a special train of the Winchester & Potomac Railroad.
Lawrence Berry Washington, now returned from duty in the army was available to help manage the Cedar Lawn and Bullskin farms. But, in January 1848, gold was discovered on the American River in California and another adventure was on the near horizon for Lawrence B. Washington. Gold Rush fever reached Jefferson Co., Virginia where three gold hunting companies were organized. On January 8, 1849, Benjamin Franklin Washington placed notice in the Spirit of Jefferson, Charlestown, Virginia for the organization of a third mining company, the Charles Town Mining Company. Lt. Lawrence B. Washington was one of the first to sign up for membership. The Charles Town Mining Company, soon grew to a joint venture with eighty-five young men of Virginia to journey to California in search for gold. The expedition of the Charles Town Mining Company left Charlestown on March 27 aboard a special train of the Winchester & Potomac Railroad.
Lawrence Washington would write sixteen months later from Monterrey, California, that "The splendid mining company, which I was fast enough to put myself in great trouble to join..." had arrived in Sacramento. The adventures of the aspiring gold miners crossed the country by way of railroad, steamboat and mule driven wagons, in their journey across trackless plains, deserts and swollen rivers, through hostile and friendly Indian country, to the gold fields of California is told in the page of this website entitled "The Gold Rush and the Charlestown Mining Company". Soon after arriving in California, the men found that eighty men was too many to efficiently mine gold as a group. They judged that it was advantageous to form smaller groups in searching for gold and some of the men preferred to engage in other beneficial pursuits. They voted to breakup the company and divided the assets of the company among the members. Each member received a refund of $129. In addition, each member was supplied with a gun, pair of woolen blankets, gum blanket and clothes bag. Benjamin Franklin Washington, after a brief sojourn to the gold fields returned to Sacramento, later to San Francisco and became the owner and editor of newspapers and had a successful career. Lawrence Berry Washington did not, that we know of, search for gold. Two months after arriving in California, almost all of his money gone, he wrote to a friend in Jefferson County "...may the good lord be with you as he must have been with me, otherwise I should hardly now be alive to pen this,...". The whole of Lawrence Washington's letter follows: [i]
Monterrey California, October 26th, 1849.
Friend Fredrick. [ii] may the lord be with you as he must have been with me, otherwise I should hardly now be alive to pen you this, after all I have undergone within the last 6 months. The splendid "mining company" one half of which was composed of splendid rascals, which I was fast enough to put myself to great trouble to join. It busted up on arriving at the Sacramento, property, joint stock sold & divided out. They divided up into partners, as they could agree, in order to go to work. Frank [iii] went up the Sacramento [River]. Monroe,[iv] Smith,[v] Cran, [vi] the 3 Moores, [vii] Bradley, [viii] Conway, [ix] and Garnhart, [x] were messmates throughout the trip & still cling together. You know the Moores are shifty fellows. Smith if he sticks with the party must, I think, come out. Tell Miss Luce, Joe and John, Col. Manning is a working man and gets on in his usual quiet way. His health is excellent. but you won’t believe me when I tell you. He is slender as I am, with his full-grown beard which we all wear. He has often past me as I him on the rout without knowing him in his altered shape. He often laughs and says he misses his legs when he gets up of a morning. The above was is the state of the company as I left it a month or 6 weeks ago. I am now some 250 or 300 miles from any of them and you in Jefferson will be apt to hear from them much easier than I, for I don’t know where to find anyone of them. But they can all write to Jefferson, where some day our friends in California may meet you and me again. I trust in the lord. As for myself I always thought I could do better in a company by myself. So I took shipping and sailed for this port, was delayed by baffling winds, put in 2 days at San Francisco waiting for another boat for this place, seized with a violent fever, landed here exactly last Sunday 3 weeks ago (today is Friday) too sick to stand, went straight to bed burnt up with fever, crammed the calomel and quinine. I went to bed Sunday, and Sunday after one week I got up and dressed. The following week I was in bed about half the time tho I got up and dressed every morning. Well, a stranger in a strange land, not a human face I had ever met, nearly ran out of funds in no business. what was to be done? Well this you know is the seat of government. Our Governor lives here. There are government houses here. The offices are "government headquarters," "paymasters office," "Quartermasters office," Commissaries office," all under one roof a big native California building. There is a fort here with a small garrison of soldiers with the necessary officers, clerks & c. of all the different departments. The men hired to work & c. & c. The American banner waves over the government house, and over the fort on the hill. The "stars and stripes" always have an attraction for me, by the lord. I exclaimed I am an unfortunate emigrant, but I am an American Citizen. Where ever my countries banner waves, there I will make myself at home. I will go to headquarters, so of I put to the governor Gen. Riley [xi]. Now before I go further, I will tell you I consider this Gen. Riley the greatest officer and the best man since the days of Bonaparte, and that man in the bible that was said to be after God’s heart. The lord never made a better braver a kinder bigger souled old man and someday I will convince you that what I say is so. Well, I went to him told him my condition, showed him some letters, certificates of character, &c., told him I wanted employment. He sent me to the different individuals at the heads of the various departments, told me to apply and he would back my application for anything. In the meantime there was a convention assembled here for the purpose of forming a State Constitution (which is since accomplished). The old General introduced me to the Secretary of that convention who was very polite and when applied to for business he gave me a job right in hand by which I made $18 at a clip in about 6 hours writing, copying documents. I had but one quarter dollar in my purse when I made this hall. The Secretary told me if I had been there from the beginning of the Convention I could have mad at least $600 or $800 but the convention dissolved a day or two after. I am now employed writing, handling money and taking account of stores in the government department. I get $100 per month. It is a certain support but devilish light wages for California. But if my wages are light my work is lighter that is if it’s all to be as it has been for the 2 weeks I’ve been employed, I'll content myself for the present keeping a sharp look out for something better. I must do a business of at least $250 or $300, to get along and now. Fredric I wish I could say more, but as I sent this in an a letter to George it must be short. The boat that carries the mail won’t leave for 4 or 5 days, yet I will leave space for a line on the last day. Meantime, my warmest regards and most respectful compliments to your mother whose kindness to me I will ever remember with gratitude. Tell Dr John that I always thought him a man of good sense, but that of all the times he ever shared sound wisdom, the time when he refused to take charge of the "Sanitary department" of the C. T. Va. M. Company for California. Tell him to remember me to the chickens, and not to forget that I have a brass back mule running about the premises. I must have him. Tell Mr. Grove I think of him often and tell him to tell Aunt Molly [xii] I won’t miss her. I came so near slipping of the hinges while sick that I have been very harmless ever since (and that's a fact). Tell him soon as I get funds enough ahead, though I don’t know how soon it will be, I will step across over on “tother” side the world to see how you all get along over there. Oct 28th Sunday, The 4th that I have seen in Monterrey. Well Frederick I have been 2 weeks sick and at work here. I am getting on wonderfully smooth and comfortable, I must close this letter today and have it ready for the mail – the steamer will be here the first – Your friend Lawrence B. W……… |
Sources:
[i] The letter was published in an article written by P. Douglas Perks published in The Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society, Vol. LXXIII, December 2007, "Ho, for California! The Charlestown Virginia Mining Company", pp. 16-23. [The transcription in the article by Mr. Perks is without changes in spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. For presentation here, changes in spelling, capitalization, punctuation and a few editorial changes have been made for the convenience of the reader.]
Footnote numbers [v] and [xii], below, were written by the author of this page. The other footnotes are from the paper by Douglas Perks cited above.
[ii] Frederick Augustus Briscoe
[iii] Benjamin Franklin Washington, Lawrence B. Washington's brother and President of the Charlestown Virginia Mining Company.
[iv] Monroe Manning
[v] Frank Smith whom the members of the Company met at St. Joseph, Missouri had been over the Oregon Trail as early as 1845 and had learned the art of successful overland travel. The Charlestown Company secured the services of this talented frontiersman as a guide and later elected him to member with full financial rights in the Company. Much of the success of the journey resulted from his leadership.
[vi] Smith Crane
[vii] Henry H., James H. and John Moore, Jr.
[viii] Thornton C. Bradley
[ix] Hugh Conway
[x] John H. Garnhart
[xi] Maj. Gen. Bennet Riley was military governor of California April-December 1849; a veteran of the
War of 1812, the Indian Wars, and the Mexican War; Riley commanded the first wagon train escort along the Santa Fe Trail.
[xii] George G. Grove and his wife Mary Grove. One might ask, could it be that Mary Grove is the prototype of the character, Aunt Molly Braun, portrayed in Lawrence B. Washington's novel "A Tale to be Told Some Fifty Years Hence"? The speculation is bolstered by his offhand remark in the letter.
[xiii] Bedinger and Dandridge Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
[i] The letter was published in an article written by P. Douglas Perks published in The Magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society, Vol. LXXIII, December 2007, "Ho, for California! The Charlestown Virginia Mining Company", pp. 16-23. [The transcription in the article by Mr. Perks is without changes in spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. For presentation here, changes in spelling, capitalization, punctuation and a few editorial changes have been made for the convenience of the reader.]
Footnote numbers [v] and [xii], below, were written by the author of this page. The other footnotes are from the paper by Douglas Perks cited above.
[ii] Frederick Augustus Briscoe
[iii] Benjamin Franklin Washington, Lawrence B. Washington's brother and President of the Charlestown Virginia Mining Company.
[iv] Monroe Manning
[v] Frank Smith whom the members of the Company met at St. Joseph, Missouri had been over the Oregon Trail as early as 1845 and had learned the art of successful overland travel. The Charlestown Company secured the services of this talented frontiersman as a guide and later elected him to member with full financial rights in the Company. Much of the success of the journey resulted from his leadership.
[vi] Smith Crane
[vii] Henry H., James H. and John Moore, Jr.
[viii] Thornton C. Bradley
[ix] Hugh Conway
[x] John H. Garnhart
[xi] Maj. Gen. Bennet Riley was military governor of California April-December 1849; a veteran of the
War of 1812, the Indian Wars, and the Mexican War; Riley commanded the first wagon train escort along the Santa Fe Trail.
[xii] George G. Grove and his wife Mary Grove. One might ask, could it be that Mary Grove is the prototype of the character, Aunt Molly Braun, portrayed in Lawrence B. Washington's novel "A Tale to be Told Some Fifty Years Hence"? The speculation is bolstered by his offhand remark in the letter.
[xiii] Bedinger and Dandridge Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
Continued: Sojourn in Cuba