Page:California Historical Society Quarterly vol 22.djvu/156

 pans after going back 5 miles we saw two men coming with them they haveing found them half mile back at M we packed up and moved on crossing quite a stream towards night did not know the name. We saw a notice from Mas^s train stateing that an Indian had been shot and Mortally wounded and probably his tribe would be revenged five miles further we camped poor grass distance 1 5 miles We have passed a large number of ox trains in the last few days and the roads have been quite rough and dust beyond account as fine as flour rising in clouds no wind during the day The country has exhibited nearly the same appearance as has been seen over the first ridge

Sept I St 4p [the last entry is in pencil] Today our road lay along the river most of the time occasionally leaveing it for a few miles dust/ dust!! dust! ! ! towards night we left it struck into a Kenyon and overe hills in- stead of keeping the river and camped near a small spring at 9 P. M. no feed passed a mile back from camp. We passed a Mormon train from Cal they report Gold! Gold! Provisions reasonable fortunes made but 40 times as many spent Society not yet under Uncle Sams laws

The record of the expedition ends abruptly with this last penciled entry. Apparently the party followed the Truckee River, crossed the Sierra by the Donner Pass and arrived at Sutter's Fort on September 27, 1849. The bark had already arrived at San Francisco, and the goods and boat were sold at a profit. David Staples and his brother Fred, after a short try at mining, soon engaged in the business of packing supplies from Stockton to the South- ern Mines. Returning east in 1850, David brought back his wife and infant daughter around the Horn, arriving in San Francisco in January 185 1.

Staples bought land on the Mokelumne River near where Lodi now stands, and became one of the leading citizens of that area. He raised cattle and wheat, operated a ferry and a toll bridge, was postmaster for several years, and was the first justice of the peace in Elliott Township, San Joaquin County. In 1858 he was a director of the State Agricultural Society. There is a story that he trapped bears and sold them at San Jose for the bull baiting there.2^

Although he took an active part in politics, he held no public office other than those of justice of the peace and postmaster. He supported and fought for the CaHfornia Constitution of 1850 and was among the first to join the Republican party. He was a delegate to the state convention of that party, on June 8, 1859, which, after a debate on the question of fusion with the Anti-Lecompton Democrats, nominated a straight Republican ticket headed by Leland Stanford for governor.^^ At the state convention, on June 15, i860, he was chosen as a delegate to the national convention,^^ and later cast his ballot at Chicago for Abraham Lincoln. In the spring of 1861 he went to Washington to attend the inauguration, but because of an Apache outbreak