Personal Reminiscences of Early Days in California with Other Sketches Part 9

EXHIBIT B.

Mr. William H. Parks, of Marysville, has always a.s.serted that my election as Alcalde was owing to a wager for a dinner made by him with a friend. He was at the time engaged in transporting goods to the mines from the landing at Nye's Ranch on the Yuba River, called Yubaville, and arriving at the latter place whilst the election was going on he made the wager that I would be elected, and voted all his teamsters, numbering eleven, for me. As I had a majority of only nine, he claims that he had the honor of giving me my first office. The claim must be allowed, unless the person with whom he wagered offset this number, or at least some of the teamsters, by votes for my opponent.

After the election Mr. Parks introduced himself to me, and from that time to this he has been a warm and steadfast friend. He afterwards settled in Sutter County, but now resides in Marysville. He has ama.s.sed a handsome fortune, and takes an interest in all public affairs. He has represented his county as a Senator in the Legislature of the State. He is a gentleman of high character and has the confidence and respect of the community.

My opponent for the office of Alcalde was Mr. C.B. Dodson, from Illinois. I afterwards met him only once or twice in California, and knew little of his history. But when I was a member of the Electoral Commission, in February of this year (1877), a copy of a paper published in Geneva, Illinois--the _Republican_, of the 10th of that month--was sent to me, containing the following account of him, from which it appears that he, too, has lived a life of strange vicissitudes and stirring adventure:

REMINISCENCES.

An account of the various positions of the selected arbitrators says that in 1850 Judge Field was elected Alcalde and Recorder of Marysville, California. Judge Field's compet.i.tor for the position was our townsman, Capt. C.B. Dodson, who was defeated by nine votes. As there is no doubt that had the Captain gained the position of Alcalde he would have risen as his compet.i.tor did, to various judicial positions, and finally to the arbitrator's seat, these nine votes must be considered as the only reasons why Geneva does not number one of her citizens among the arbitrators for the highest of the world's official positions. Among the votes polled for our friend Dodson on that occasion was that of Macaulay, one of the family of the famous historian of England's greatest days and proudest times.

The Captain has been a natural and inveterate pioneer, and few citizens of the State have figured more prominently or proudly in its early annals. In 1834, forty-three years ago, Mr. Dodson came to dispute with the aboriginal Pottawatomies the possession of the Fox River valley. White faces were rare in those days, and scarcely a squatter's cabin rose among the Indian lodges. The Captain built the first saw-mill on the river, and he and Col. Lyon were the hardy spirits about whom the early settlers cl.u.s.tered for encouragement and advice.

In 1837 he was employed by the government to superintend the removal of the Indians to Council Bluffs and Kansas, and their successful emigration, as well as their uniform good will toward the whites prior to their removal, were largely due to his sagacity and influence among them.

When Capt. Sutter first found the yellow gold gleaming in the dirt of his mill-race, and all the world joined in a mad rush to the mines, the venturesome spirit of Capt. Dodson led him to press forward with the first, and he was a "forty-niner," that pride of the old Californians. In that surging crowd of wild adventurers from the ends of the earth, the Captain was, as he has been among the early pioneers of Illinois, a directing and controlling spirit. Though he failed in his judicial aspirations for Alcalde, and Judge Field succeeded, yet his continued exertions and marked influence caused him to leave a name richly a.s.sociated with all the early history of Marysville and vicinity.

When the war broke out, Mr. Dodson was among the very first to proffer his services, and he raised the first company of cavalry which went to the front from Kane County.

The Captain is not an old man yet in health and vigor, although an "old settler" in varied and numerous experiences. His name is marked in unmistakable characters on every prominent event of the early settlement of Northern Illinois, and blended and a.s.sociated with all the pioneer way-marks of California. A friend and companion of all the great Illinoians of the generation which is now pa.s.sing into old age, he has not yet ceased to be a spirit actively mingling in all the affairs of the present times. But we only started to tell of his contest with Field, not to write an eulogium on the Captain, for here where he is known it is better p.r.o.nounced in his record, which lies in the memories of his friends.

* * * * *

EXHIBIT C.

_Oath of Office as Alcalde._

STATE OF CALIFORNIA, } SACRAMENTO DISTRICT. } _ss._

SACRAMENTO CITY, _January 22d, 1850_.

Personally appeared before me Stephen J. Field, First Alcalde of Yubaville, in the District of Sacramento, and made oath that he would discharge the duties of the office of First Alcalde as aforesaid with faithfulness and fidelity to the best of his ability, and that he would support the Const.i.tution of the United States and the const.i.tution of the State of California.

R.A. WILSON, _Judge of 1st Instance, Sacramento District._

* * * * *

EXHIBIT D.

The following are the orders of the District Court mentioned in the Narrative.

_Order imprisoning and fining Mr. Field for alleged contempt of court._

DISTRICT COURT, } EIGHTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT, } COUNTY OF YUBA. }

At a term of said District Court held at Marysville, county of Yuba, on the 7th of June, 1850, present, Hon. Wm. B. Turner, Judge, the following proceeding was had:

_Ordered_. That Stephen J. Field be imprisoned forty-eight hours and fined five hundred dollars for contempt of court.

* * * * *

_Order expelling Messrs. Field, Goodwin, and Mulford from the bar._

DISTRICT COURT, } EIGHTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT, } COUNTY OF YUBA. }

At a term of said court held at Marysville, on the 10th of June, 1850, present, Hon. William R. Turner, Judge, the following proceeding was had:

Whereas, Messrs. Field, Goodwin, and Mulford, having set at defiance the authority of this court, and having vilified the court and denounced its proceedings, the said Field, Goodwin, and Mulford are hereby, by order of the court, expelled from the bar of the same.

* * * * *

_Order imprisoning and fining Judge Haun for releasing Mr. Field from imprisonment upon a writ of habeas corpus, and directing that the order to imprison Mr. Field be enforced._

DISTRICT COURT, } EIGHTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT, } COUNTY OF YUBA. }

At a term of said District Court held at Marysville, county of Yuba, on the 10th of June, 1850, present, Hon. Wm. B. Turner, Judge, the following proceeding was had:

Whereas, Judge Haun having, in defiance of the authority of this court, and in violation of the law, obstructed and prevented the execution of an order of this court to imprison Mr. Field for a contempt offered to the court while in session, by releasing the said Field from the custody of the sheriff; the said Haun is hereby sentenced to forty-eight hours' imprisonment and to pay a fine of fifty dollars.

The sheriff will enforce the order of the court to imprison Mr. Field for forty-eight hours.

* * * * *

EXHIBIT E.

_Record of Proceedings in the Court of Sessions, mentioned in the Narrative._

Court of Sessions of Yuba County.

Met at Marysville, June 10th, A.D. 1850, at 10 o'clock A.M., and was duly opened by R.B. Buchanan, sheriff of the county.

Present, Hon. H.P. Haun, County Judge, F.W. Barnard, a.s.sociate Justice.

IN THE MATTER OF } STEPHEN J. FIELD } Application for Habeas Corpus.

On the reading of the pet.i.tion of the applicant, duly authenticated by his oath, it is ordered that the prayer of the pet.i.tioner be granted, and that R.B. Buchanan, sheriff of Yuba County, or any person acting under him and having said Field in custody, bring the said Field into court forthwith, to be dealt with according to law.

In pursuance of the above order, the said Field came into court, and proceeded to address the court on the matter touching the cause of his confinement, and while making his remarks, and previous to the close thereof, and while the court was in session, R.B. Buchanan, sheriff of Yuba County, at the head of fifty men, entered the court, and stated that he came there for the purpose and with the intent to seize H.P.