Radio Script #284

Little Talks On Common Things
December 18, 1955

Less than a year ago I thought the on Iy i nteresti ng th i ng I cou I d ever te I I you about Dr. Thomas Flint was his participation in the Coolidge murder case here in Watervi lie 108 years ago. Then, last summer, came the reve lation of Dr. F I i nt’s amaz i ng diary and the book !lAdobe Days it.” wri tten by his co us in L lewe llyn Bi~by’s daughter. As a result of the discovery of these writings I have already told you this fall how FI int went to Cal ifornia and there with his brother and cousin founded Flint, Bixby and Company, which bought up and developed several of the old Spanish ranchos. Thus it seems that he never practiced medicine in California. Dr. Flint became a wealthy rancher, owner at one time of a hundred thousand head of sheep.

Now want to te II you how Thomas FI int and h is two partners returned to Maine in 1853 for a brief visit with relatives, then went on to carry out the real purpose of their trip east — to gather a big flock of sheep and a herd of cattle to take back with them to California; how they gathered the animals in Indiana and I II inois, transported them as far as they could by river steamers, then drove them across plains and mountains and desert to California. In that f lock were the fi rst Span ish Meri no sheep ever seen on the west coast — sheep which made the nucleus of the vast flocks which brought wealth to the three partners — Thanas FI int, Benjamin FI int and Llewellyn Bixby.

It was on Christmas Day, 1852 when the three relatives left the little gold town of Volcano for the long journey to Maine. Their purpose was, in the words of FI int’s diary: “Brother Benjamin, cousin L. Bixby and myself being agreed to”onite our fortunes for the undertaking of bringing to California sheep and cattle.”

It wasn’t easy to arrange transportation in those days. They had a chance for cabin passage in a steamer going around Cape Horn, but they wanted the shorter trip via the Isthmus of Panama, just as Thomas and Llewellyn had come to California,a year and a half earl ier. So after several days’ wait in San Francisco, they final IV arranged for steerage passage on the steamship Northerner for Panama. That was the vermin-infested craft on which Thomas and Llewellyn had first arrived~ but Thomas tel Is us they found she had been completely overhauled and deloused, and furthermore the fare to Panama had been reduced to $50 in competition with the regular mai I line.

They planned, as we know, to buy sheep and cattle in the East. Buy them with what? With money they personally took with them in the form of gold. Here is what Dr. Flint says about it: !’We concluded to carry our gold on our persons, stowed in buckskin jackets made for the purpose. It amounted to $3,500 for each of us to carry, a tota I of more than $10,000. I t must have every minute our personal protection. It proved cumbersome to carry. $3,500 in gold is a considerable weight. We could not stow it any way in those buckskin jackets so it would not drag and rub us day and night. We therefore took possessi on of a berth, wh i ch were pi ent i fu I because there were few passengers. We put those gold-loaded jackets between two mattresses, one of us sleeping over our deposits at night and one being constantly on guard during the day.tT

When they reached Panama, we learn that they packed the gold in a large chest of such size that its weight would not arouse suspicion. Says Flint: i’A sma II va lise or satche I carried by anyone com ing into Panama from Ca Ii forn i a is likely to be snatched at a thief’s first opportunity, bUT a oig en esT aT~ iracts no attenti on.

In that chest the partners’ $10,000 in gold was carried across the Isthmus of Panama. It was just as tough a journey as Thomas had found it when he had crossed the Isthmus in the opposite direction 18 months earlier. But at last, with the gold sti I I safe, they arrived at Barbacoa, then the terminus of the Panama Rai lroad. There Thomas and his partners witnessed an interesting episode wh i ch Thomas recounts in his da i ry. “J ust at the ti me for the tra in to start”, wrote Thomas, !twe had a I ittle excitement caused by a Vi rginian who had induced a Negro slave to return to that state with him, but when the Negro learned from other darkies at the station that he was going back to slavery and could escape by stopping right where he was, because he could not legally be held in Panama, the fellow fai led to respond when his ONner called, whereat the owner asked that the train be held a few minutes. His friends, with much bragadocio, swore they would get that nigger anyhow. So they started to get him, knowing he was up in a garret nearby. They started to ascend a rickety staircase, when they heard a command to stop. Looking up, they saw a lot of big-bore Mexican muskets pointed close to their heads. They decided they didn’t want the nigger so bad as they did a few minutes before, and crestfallen they reboarded the waiting train. We who were not in sympathy with them enjoyed their discomforture. Many slave owners had brought Negroes to California TO dig gold for them, and J suspect more than one of them has lost a darkie somewhe re i n Panama.”

Exactly a month after leaving San Francisco, the Flints and Bixby arrived in Phi ladelphia, where they took their gold to the U. S. Mint, had it assayed, and got the i r redeemab Ie rece i pt. “‘We were dres$ed a little rough and at the hotel we were at first seated at a most inconvenient table. But when we got dressed up and the report of our gold got around, we were placed well up in the din i ng room.” Then Thomas F lint states that he had boarded at the same hote I for a time in 1848. Now the trial of Dr. Valorus Coolidge for the murder of Edward Mathews closed at Augusta on March 24, 1848. Thomas Flint, student of medicine in Coolidge’s office and chief witness against Coolidge, must have left Maine for Phi ladelphia soon after the close of the trial. We know that he finished his medical studies there in 1849, and in his own diary he tel Is us he had been there in ’48.

On January 31, 1853 Thomas set down in his diary this record, referring to Waterville: nAbout six o’clock in the evening we arrived on the cars in WaterviI Ie, the end of the rai Iroad. Got supper at the Elmwood House. At about 7 P.M. we took stage for the 18 mi Ie ride to Anson. Coldest of cold weather.

It was so cold we had the stage curtains drawn and buttoned down tight. Stopped at Norridgewock to leave mai I and warm up. Left Llewellyn at his father’s door in Norr i dgewock. Got to our own home in Anson at 11 P.M. I have frequently said, in the course of these programs, that the number of Maine men and boys who went to California with the Forty Niners was almost unbelievably large. Between 1849 and 1852 no fewer than 14 went from the little hamlet of North Fairfield alone.

Whi Ie the number who went to the gold fields was large, those who returned, even for visits, were extremely few. That explains the following notation in F I i nt’s d iar:y: PWe were among the few who had gone to Ca Ii forni a and had returned.

We were therefore objects of much interest. Everyone seemed impressed with the idea that we must know everybody in California. We had visits by the score, almost every day, asking if we had seen their friends in the gold fields~’ The partners stayed in Ma i ne five weeks, then on March 8 started on the i r real mission. They stopped at Portland at the old hotel I have written about in “Kennebec Yesterdays” — the U. S. Hotel, now the Edwards and Walker hardware store.

In the 1850’s bank notes were of dubious worth. When one traveled, he had to take pains to get paper money that would be readi Iy accepted, or go to the same risk the boys had when they brought their gold dust and nuggets across the Isthmus — carry a burdensome amount of gold and si Iver coin. FI int’s diary tells us what they did: Hln Boston we exchanged our money at the Suffolk Bank for their bills, as they were good anywhere West and none others were.!! They intended to go by rai I road from Boston to Albany, but a freshet having washed out the bridge across the Hudson, they had to get over by ferry where.~ says Thomas, Hwe saw the city by gas light.”

On they went~ by the recently bui It rai I road lines, to Buffalo, Cleveland:, Columbus and Cincinnati, where they met a Maine man, J. F. Noyes, who had recently settled there. On March 16 they were in Dayton. There Thomas wrote:

“We were called at 2 A.M. and went aboard the cars. No breakfast, nor could we get a mouthful unti I we arrived in Indianapolis in the middle of the afternoon. The rai I road was new, rough, and had no stations al I the way from Dayton to Indianapolis. We went on and arrived at Terre Haute about 5 P.M. This is the end of the rai I road to the West. The balance of the trip to the Pacific must be made on horseback or on foot.

On March 18 they bought in Terre Haute three horses and saddles and made their way over mud-soaked roads to the town of Paris, Illinois, just across the I nd i ana line.

Within a few days they were making calls at the farms around Bloomington and Peor i a, i nqu i ring about sheep. Thomas’ ent ire di ary record for Ap ri I 5 reads: Iran the hunt for sheep_ Fran inquiries we began to think we were in poor I uck, because sheep are scarce.”

On Apr i I 9 they got the i r first 50 sheep. By even i ng of the next day they had 400. Meanwhi Ie FI int tells us how he spent one night: flDrove to Eben Downings for the night. Sma I I house, and the bed given us was foot to foot with the fami Iy bed where a brat of a youngster kept us awake ti II after midnight, ye II i ng to have a cand I eli ghted, wh i ch the mother wou I d not do. Next morn i ng we started for Ch iii pretty we II used up for want of s Jeep.!T

By Apri J 20 their flock numbered more than a thousand. They stopped at Warsaw three days to get the sheep sheared, and on one of those days they had dinner at a Mr. Turner’s, an old man of 80 from Livermore, Maine. Thomas Flint tells us that the whole prairie in that section of I I linois had been settled by immigrants from Maine. They even found a Norridgewock fami Iy by the name of Stevens.

On May 7 they really started for California. They now had 1,880 sheep, 11 yoke of oxen, 2 cows for mi Ik, 4 horses, 2 wagons, and a complete camping out~ fit. In addition to the three partners, there were four herders and three dogs. It cost them $62 to get their stock across the Mississippi by ferry, but at last they were in Iowa, on the west side of the great river.

Thomas Flint’s diary record of May 16 is a strange medley: BWe took steamer from Quincy to St. Louis. Hot as blazes. In the evening went to Wyman’s Hall in st. Louis and heard Prof. Agassing lecture on geology. Not much beauty on the female part of the audience.”

They next took a steamer up the Missouri to Counci I Bluffs. Thomas said it was a dul I trip because they had on board fourteen Baptist mi.nisters bound for a conventi on at G I as cow , Mi ssouri. nPrayer meeti ng at one end of the saloonn, writes Thomas, nand cards at the other.”

On May 29th they passed Fort Kearney at the mouth of the Platte and the next morni ng arrived at Counci I Bluffs. From here on the on Iy way for men and animals was on foot, with an occasional ferry across the streams.

By mid-June the sheep were beginning to show sore feet. The party had seen both buffalo and Indians, but none of the latter showed hosti lity. But on June 27 an inc i dent occurred, wh i ch F lint re I ates as fo II ows : PAs the moon was coming up about midnight, we were sudden Iy called by the guard, followed by report of a gun. Pistol in hand, I hurried to where my saddle mare was staked and found James Force dead, two bullet holes in his chest. We hunted the banks, but did not dare to get too close to the thick bush, nor could we get the dogs to hunt; so we kept guard unti I daylight. We buried Force and, collecting our stock, saw some distance from camp an Indian climbing out on the opposite side of the creek. We shot several times, but he was too far away and made the bluffs in safety. ”

At Fort Laramie they found the old adobe fort crumbling to ruins. Two dilapidated wooden bui Idings were occupied by a company of U. S. Cavalry, and on scaffolds in trees hung the bodies of dead Indians. Toward the end of July they had a visit from an Indian and his fami Iy, who in pantomime made them at last understand that there were bad Indians ahead. Th is fami I y were apparent Iy good I ndi ans ~ though Flint says, !Twe lost a batch of hot biscuits when they left.”

Next Sunday evening we shal I devote this program, as we have for the past seven years, to the observance of Christmas Day. Then let us start off the New Year on January first by resuming that momentous journey across the continent of Thomas F lint and his company with the i r 1,800 sheep. I know you want to learn what happened when they met the bad Indians, as indeed they finally did.

And with that item of suspense we must say good night for old times’ sake.

Year: 1955