WCP1635

9. Letter from "Columbia," September, 1852.¹

... I have now left the mountains for a time and am enjoying some of the comforts of civil[is]ation in this town, but alas, our hopes are not yet realized, & we are anxiously waiting for the water. The fact is we made every effort to complete our upper works in time to take the benefit of the large stream of water that flows through the mountains in the spring and summer months. We got the whole of it completed early in August, & just as we were ready to turn the water into the race the water decreased so in the river that a very small stream indeed remained for our use, & that running through our flume & canal for upwards of twenty miles, so evaporated by the heat & dryness of the atmosphere on the mountain sides, that scarcely any water now reaches the diggings, & we have to wait now till rain or snow falls in the mountains, to replenish the streams, before we can reap any thing from all our labours & exertion. We have incurred a debt of about seventy five thousand dollars, which we have to pay before we expect anything ourselves, but that we could easily pay in about two months if we had a full supply of water. Since I last wrote ^to you I have had a deal of work on my hands. I had almost the entire control & management of the upper works, that is, [the] Fluming and Tresseling part^2,3,4 [2] as well as the laying out and superintending the whole, a distance of about ten miles. I was also at the same time President of the Company, & Assistant Engineer & Surveyor, & I am happy to say that the whole is now completed to the entire satisfaction of the Company, and we now only require the supply of water to make us one of the most flourishing & largest water Companies in the state. At our last meeting in the beginning of this month, we were incorporated under the state act, and now are now [a] legalized corporate body under the State & title of the Tuolumne County Water Company.⁵ Under this act, I, being a foreigner, cannot hold office in the Company as President or Trustee, & am now ^therefore free from the responsibilities of that office, & as there is no salary connected attached to it, I am not sorry for it. I am still Assistant Engineer & Surveyor, & constantly engaged, as we are now running our line of ditch or canal on to some extensive flats about ten miles from here, embracing a large area of mining country, which, when we have water will give employment to several thousand miners.....

S [sic]

Some of us took an excursion a few weeks ago into the mountains about fifty miles above our works, to see if a certain lake which was reported to be in such a situation that the waters might be turned into our river, could be made available. The lake prooved [sic] to be only a small pond, which was of no use to us, but we had a very pleasant time in the mountains, travelling most of the time on the ridge which dicides [divides] the forks of the Stanislaus River, with a deep ravine on either side, many thousand feet below, throuhg [sic] which occasionallr [sic] could be seen the river which is now dwindled to the smallest stream......

Columbia Sept, 1852

My dear Mother

It is such a long time since I wrote to you that I hardly know how to excuse myself, except that I have been waiting an equally long time to hear from you, but without success. The last letter I received from England was from Fanny¹ and Thomas² and written last Christmas time, and received by me about March or April last that I replied to soon afterwards, and have been anxiously waiting ever since for another letter from you some of you, and as I suppose Alfred³would have been in England some time I had expected to hear from him. Another reason, too, for not writing before was that I am now totally ignorant of your whereabouts, and do not even know how or where I am to direct this letter. The last letter I had informed me you were out visiting somewhere in Somersetshire, and Fanny and Thomas were then at Neath, but quite undetermined as to their future operations. I directed my last letter to Fanny, to the care of Mrs. Young, which I suppose was duly received, all future l[sic] letters to me you had better direct to the Office of T. C. Water Company, Columbia, Tuolumne, California. I have not much in the way of news to communicate. Nearly every body now is engaged in electioneering, and ther[e] is going to be a great struggle between the two Americans, the Whigs and the Democrats, as to who will win victory in the strongest for President. The democrats appear to be the stro strongest party in California. I have now left the mountaitains [sic] for a time and am enjoying some of the comforts of the civilization in this town, but alas, our hopes are not yet realized, and we are yet anxiously waiting for the water. The fact is we made every effort to complete our upper works in time tot [sic] take the benefit of the large stream of water that flows through the mountains in the spring and summer months. We got the whole of it completed early in August, and just as we were ready to turn the water into the race, the water decreased so in the river that a very small stream indeed remained for our use, and that running and that running [sic] through our flume and canal for upwards of twenty miles, so evaporated by the heat and dryness of the atmosphere on the mountainsides, that scarcely any water now reaches the diggings, and we have to wait now till rain or snow falls in the mountains, to replenish the streams, before we can reap anything from all our labours [2] and exertion. We have incurred a debt of about seventy five thousand dollars, which we have to pay before we expect anything ourselves, but that we could easily pay in about two months if we had a full supply of water. Since I last wrote to you I have had a [great] deal of work on my hands. I had almost the entire control and management of the upper works that is the Fluming and Tussling part, as well as the laying out and superintending the whole, a distance of about ten miles. I was also at the same time President of the Company, and Assistant Engineer and Surveyor, and I am happy to say the whole is now completed to the entire satisfaction of the Company, and we now only require the supply of water to make it one of the most flourishing water C [sic] Company in the state. At our last meeting in the beginning of this month, we were incorporated under the state act, and are now a legalised corporate body under the State and title of the Tuolumne County Water Company. Under that act, I, being a foreigner, cannot hold office in the Company, as President or trustee, and I am now therefore free from the responsibility of that office, and as there is no salary attached to it, I am not sorry for it. I am still Assistant Engineer and Surveyor, and constantly engaged as we are now running our line of ditch of canal on to some very extensive flat about ten miles from here, embracing a large area of mining country, which, when we have water will give employment to several thousands of miners. I have never yet received any newspapers from England, so it will be useless now to send any. I have occasionally sent you some newspapers, as I happened to get them, which contained anything I thought might interest you. I hope you have received some to them. The last two or three I have directed to Mr. T. Sims⁴ Swansea. The last one contained a fine oration delivered in Sacramento in consequence of the death of a distinguished individual in San Francisco from duelling, and also an account of the death of the celebrated American statesman, Henry Clay with the doingsa at San Francisco in consequence thereof.

Some of us took an excursion a few weeks ago into the mountains about fifty miles above our works, to see if a certain lake which was reported to be in such a situation that the waters might be turned into a river, could be made available. The lake proved to be only a small pond which was of no use to us, but we had a very pleasant and romantic time in the mountains, travelling most of the time on the ridge which divides the forks of the Stanislaus River, with a deep ravine on either side, many thousand feet below, th [sic] through which occasionally could be seen the river which is [3] now divided dwindled to thesmallest [sic] stream. We would sometimes come upon a small flat or valley among the hills, up which a luxuriant vegetation of grass flourished with several flowers of various degrees of beauty, hid there far away in the mountains, which have been blooming and decaying year after year, unnoticed and unseen. I often think of the beautiful words of the Poet⁴ as peculiarly applicable to California.

"How many a gem of purest ray serene

The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear.

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen

And waste the fragrance on the desert air."

I cannot, however say much for the fragrance of most of the wild flowers of California, as there are only a few which have any pleasant smell. I have endeavoured to collected a few seeds of some of the best wild flowers this season, but I have lost most of them. I send you two sorts of Lilly [sic]. One, the large one white lilly [sic] has a very pleasant smell, and grows about three of four feet high. It grows here mostly on the tops and fertile sides of the mountains, in a dry soil. The other one, the tiger lilly [sic], grows nearly the same in appearance, except that it is always found in wet and marshy ground. It has a fine red flower, speckled with black something like what they designate by the same name in England. If you have no room to plant them yourselves, let some one have them who would like to cultivate them, as I s [sic]should like to know whether they will grow or not. I will try to send you some more in another letter. If Alfred is at home now or in England. I hope he will write me a good long letter to make up for the long time I have been without hearing of him. I should like very much if he could come here for a season. I think he could have good sport in the bee and butterfly time, for about six months. If he arrived here about April or May, to say nothing of the snakes, lizards, and other 'varmint'. I shall send this by the mail that leaves here on the first of October, so hope you will get it in good time. Give my love to all at home, and believe me.

Your affectionate Son | John Wallace.