Benjamin Briggs’ 49er Diary – Part 2

Last week we covered the first part of the wagon train diary of Benjamin Briggs, who later went on to found La Crescenta. Briggs, two of his brothers and a friend set off in early 1849 to strike it rich in the gold fields. Halfway through the journey, Briggs was accidentally wounded during a target shooting accident, the bullet lodging in his spine.

It was July and they had to suspend their trip for five days while Briggs recuperated.

Two days after the shooting, Briggs recorded in his diary, “I was bled.” As crazy as it sounds, bloodletting was a common treatment for nearly every ailment during that time, even woundings. A vein was cut and several ounces of blood allowed to flow out. This might be repeated several times. It’s amazing anyone survived.

After five days of watching other wagons pass them by, Briggs was loaded into their wagon. They continued their journey, and Briggs continued his diary. “Travelled 10 miles. I was not well.” And the next day, “Not able to ride” and “Inflammation set in.” They continued over the Rockies, and it must have been excruciating for Briggs to be in a jostling, bouncing wagon with a bullet lodged in his spine. Yet he never mentions the pain.

Their little group began to make up for lost time as their mileage increased. They were now in a great desert with little water and feed for the livestock. They sometimes traveled at night to avoid the heat. At the end of September, they crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains. “Mountains steep and hard to climb” and “Descended down the mountain road, crooked and rocky, leading through pine groves” was written.

They arrived in California and were in the home stretch. “Down the river road, rather rough, crossing the river several times.” They headed south toward Sacramento, roughly following the Feather River.

In November they were delayed by several powerful storms, which muddied the roads and made rivers unfordable. Several entries record their problems with too much water. “Come to a deep slough and could not cross.” The next day: “Swam our cattle and rafted our wagon across.” “Built a bridge and crossed Bear River.”

On Nov. 19, the group reached Sacramento and sold their team. Benjamin Briggs was still weak from his bullet wound, and had to put his dreams on hold of striking it rich in the gold fields. While the rest of the party left for the mines, Benjamin’s brother George stayed with his wounded brother. They decided to establish a ranch instead of panning or mining for gold. George traveled to San Francisco and purchased a boat, brought it back to Sacramento, and the two rowed and sailed up the Feather River to Yuba City. From there they rowed a few miles up the Yuba River and selected a site to start a fruit orchard.

In a way, it was fortunate that Benjamin had been wounded so that he and his brother were unable to work the mines. For it was not the gold seekers that made their fortunes in the gold rush. It was those who sold goods to the hapless miners that gained wealth. The Briggs brothers developed their ranch, sold fruit to the miners and became rich.

Benjamin Briggs returned to Ohio and married. When his wife came down with tuberculosis, the two returned to California and managed one of the Briggs brothers’ fruit ranches in Santa Paula. His wife succumbed to TB, and Benjamin decided to dedicate his life to medicine. He traveled to Europe for medical school, then back to Ohio to establish a practice. Perhaps because of his wife’s death due to tuberculosis, he dreamed of establishing a sanitarium for the treatment of lung diseases. That brought him back to California in 1881, where he sought out the most healthful air in the world, finding it in the Crescenta Valley. But Briggs’ own tuberculosis was catching up with him. He just had a little over 10 years to establish La Crescenta. Dr. Benjamin Briggs, our founder, died of tuberculosis in 1893.