HomeMy WebLinkAboutFebruary 2018 SLOWhatHistory of SLO: Pioneers’ Story
WITH JOSEPH CAROTENUTI, CITY HISTORIAN/ARCHIVIST
SAMUEL ADAMS POLLARD II
We are speaking with Samuel Adams Pollard who came
to California before statehood. Briefly, as reported last
month, after service in the Mexican-American War, the
twenty-three-year-old Virginian heard of the gold strikes
in the West. “This new excitement,” he later wrote, “just
suited me.” As with many, if not most, of the pioneers,
his journey to the central coast was neither easy nor
direct. Let’s continue.
You recalled going to Mexico to eventually arrive on the
west coast. I’ve seen your reminiscences covering these
years but I’m sure the readers would like some details.
“Oh, yes. I wrote them for the Society of California
Pioneers in 1901.
Yes, living in New Orleans was an advantage. By
December of ’48, I joined a group of a dozen men and
we sailed south to Tampico. It was advisable to go with
a group. The terrain was unfamiliar and the danger very
real. For many years, even California was dangerous.
Tampico was a new city and a convenient port on the
eastern side of Mexico. However, we needed to get to
the other side. I knew some Spanish and was put in
charge of buying the necessary supplies as we were going
overland about 700 miles to Mazatlán. We were warned
as everywhere the old women beseeched us not to go
further as “ladrones” (thieves) were sure to kill us. The
women were always kind to us but the men were a bunch
of cut-throats.
Our trip took us to San Louis Potosi, Guadalajara, Tepir
and finally to the coast. We arrived in one piece but saw
many a “ladrone” along the way. They hung from trees
like mummies drying in the sun. We arrived by the end
of the year, found another ship and sailed north. It just
so happened the ship was the Benjamin Euphemia. I
heard that the city decided to buy the ship and use it as a
prison brig in the San Francisco harbor.
Sailing into San Francisco Bay, I thought it was the
loveliest country I had ever seen with bright sunshine
and green hills. However, I couldn’t leave the ship
since I was broke and needed to pay a $1 hospital
tax. Fortunately, a man came aboard and offered
me $16 to unload a coal ship. That was a lot of
money but hard work and didn’t last long. I tried a
little bookkeeping and even prospecting at Woods
Diggings but I decided a miner’s life - let alone living
in San Francisco - was not for me.”
Woods Diggings?
“Now that was some adventure! Gold had been
discovered in the area – you know it as Jamestown
- and by the spring of ’49, hordes of Mexican,
Chileans and Chinese flooded the camps along with
Europeans and Americans. While there was talk of
finding nuggets along the paths, I didn’t find many
and within a few months, I headed south.”
Why?
“Let me tell you, San Francisco was not a great place.
Thousands of men poured into the port, ships were
abandoned, life was chaotic and I was broke. I met
William Beebee – another pioneer you should talk
with – and decided to become a merchant.”
Contact: jacarotenuti@gmail.com
Visit: www.joefromslo.com 2/2018
"The Euphemia was a prison and the Apollo a saloon."