Page:California Historical Society Quarterly vol 22.djvu/77

 The Diary of a Used-up Miner

Jacob Henry Bachman Edited by Jeanne Skinner Van Nostrand

IN THE December 1942 issue of this Quarterly^ the tattered remnants of John Woodhouse Audubon's California Company were brought "over- land by way of The Horn" (as one member of the company expressed it^) in the pages of Jacob Henry Bachman's diary. The California portion of his diary now presented is not a record of the fortunes of the entire company but rather the experiences of one member after he reached the long desired gold fields.

Before going on with the diary, it seems pertinent to explain Bachman's relationship to Audubon and to identify him as far as is possible from the meagre facts available. Bachman's grandparents, John and Eva Bachman, settled in the little town of Rhinbeck in Dutchess County, New York,^ and had four children: Eva, Jacob, Henry, and John. John, after a brief enroll- ment at Williams College in Massachusetts, accepted the pastorship of the Lutheran Church in Charleston, South Carolina.* The rest of the family remained in New York. In Charleston, Reverend John Bachman's interest in ornithology developed into an absorbing study and led to a life-long friend- ship with the famous naturalist, John James Audubon and his family. Audubon's younger son, John Woodhouse, married Bachman's daughter, Maria Rebecca, and the elder son, Victor, married another daughter, Eliza. Jacob Henry Bachman, of New York, was probably the Reverend John Bachman's nephew and therefore a cousin of John Woodhouse Audubon's wife. As the majority of the CaUfornia Company were recruited from among friends and members of the family in New York,^ it was natural that Jacob Henry Bachman should be included in its membership. Nothing is known of this Jacob before he joined the California Company except that he was born about 1815.^ His hfe after 1849 is known only from his diaries, one or two legal notices, and the reminiscences of old-time residents^ of Calaveras County.

In California, Bachman prospected with his companions of the overland trip until the company died the natural death predicted for it by its leader.^ After the company's dissolution the members were free to mine where they pleased. Many soon gave up, but Bachman stayed on, prospecting along the streams of Calaveras County, frequently and hopefully moving to new locations with first one partner and then another. He picked the surface of ground which later yielded great wealth to those equipped with mining