Page:California Historical Society Quarterly vol 22.djvu/10

 thousand dollars in silver and between twenty and thirty thousand in gold, which had been collected between March 1, when the ferry began to operate, and April 23, 1850, the date of the massacre. The three survivors (William Carr, Joseph A. Anderson, and Marcus L. Webster) escaped down the river in a boat. Their sworn depositions were recorded before Abel Stearns, alcalde of Los Angeles, on May 9, 1850.

The amount of money collected in less than two months by the operators of the ferry was ample proof of a lucrative business, and shortly thereafter a new company of twelve members was organized in San Francisco to revive the ferry business at Yuma. This party, with several additional employees, chartered a boat from San Francisco to San Diego in June 1850 and purchased ox teams for the overland journey to the river. According to Louis John Frederick Jaeger, one of the members of this company, they took no iron or lumber with them, but had only food, equipment, and a supply of hand tools to be used in preparing cottonwood timbers for the boat. They arrived at the river on July 10 and began work immediately. On August 10 the first ferry, a small scow 12 feet wide, 35 feet long, and 2 feet deep, was put into service. Later a second and larger scow 12 feet wide and 60 feet long was constructed. Since no nails were available, wooden pegs or pins were used to hold the boats together. The ferry rates usually charged were $10 for a team and wagon and 50c for single animals, except sheep, which were generally carried across at the rate of 12½c. Business was good. Profits amounted to $884.50 in one record day when, in twenty-five trips within seven hours, 7,076 sheep were ferried across the river. Toll was collected generally in kind rather than in cash. For example, in November 1856 the ferrymen received three hundred sheep as payment for taking across eight hundred head. Before the end of 1850 Jaeger and William Ankrim bought out the interests of the remaining members of the company. In addition to operating the ferry business Jaeger held contracts for supplying the army post with meat and sold supplies to the immigrants. He carried on a profitable business until 1877, when the railroad reached Yuma.

The second pressing need on the Colorado, once a ferry was established, was the protection of immigrants from Indian attacks. Realizing this need, the United States Government detailed Major Samuel P. Heintzelman and a detachment of troops to the Gila junction, where they arrived in November 1850 and established Camp Independence. The troops were withdrawn the following year, but returned in February 1852. The post was then moved to the site of the missions San Pedro y San Pablo del Bicuñer and Concepcion, where Padre Francisco Garces and others had been massacred in 1781, and the ruins of which could still be seen. The new location was given the name Fort Yuma.

From the beginning, the problem of supplying this military post proved more difficult than that of controlling the Indians. Food, equipment, and