Butte County
Biographies
HENRY EUGENE VAIL
HENRY EUGENE VAIL.--A pioneer whose
early life here was closely interwoven with the foundation and development of
this part of the California commonwealth was Henry Eugene Vail, who was born at
Palmyra, N. Y., on January 25, 1842, the son of Isaiah W. Vail, a native of the
State of New York, where he was born November 18, 1814, and who traced his
family back to the original Vail coming to the United States.
I. W. Vail was a machinist, and an expert maker of edge-tools, with a shop at Groton, Homer and Palmyra; and from the latter place he moved to Wattsburg, Pa. Both in the Empire State and in Pennsylvania he created for himself an enviable reputation for the high quality of his hand-made products. He was married in New York to Miss Abigail A. Cummings, who was born July 28, 1815, at Groton, and died at Forbestown, Cal., August 15, 1879. Mr. Vail died in that town on April 4, 1893.
Catching the California fever, in 1855, Mr. Vail brought his wife and two children to the Pacific Coast by way of the Isthmus, leaving New York on October 10, by the steamer George Law, bound for Aspinwall, crossing to Panama on the crude narrow-gauge railroad and then proceeding up the coast by the steamer Sonora, from which they were landed about November 3, or some twenty-three days after they set out for the land of promise. There were twenty-two persons, mostly relatives, in the company with the Vails, and Henry Vail was the last survivor to tell the story. Once free to roam the mainland again, Mr. Vail came to Forbestown and began work as a blacksmith. Then for ten years he did well as a gunsmith, making and repairing rifles; and in that field he continued until he died.
Two children were born to this worthy pioneer couple: Henry Eugene, the subject of this sketch, and James Kelsey, who was born at Wattsburg, Pa., on May 21, 1847, and died near Oroville, March 18, 1904. He was for many years a druggist in Forbestown, and then at Honcut.
After passing a couple of years in Wattsburg, Pa., where he went to school, Henry Eugene Vail started for California when thirteen years of age, and arriving in Forbestown continued his schooling for another three years. Then he began mining experience on his own account; and just what that experience was may best be told, perhaps, by repeating his own account, contributed some years ago to the Oroville Daily Mercury. “I can only speak personally from 1855,” he says, “although the most remarkable thing about those earlier days is the fact that from 1849 up to 1853 the early prospectors located, prospected, and named every important mining section from the valley to the summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Every river, creek or ravine they prospected; and its good or bad qualities were known. These old prospectors always made me think of a hive of bees. You place a hive in a new field, and in a very short time they will locate every honey-making flower within their reach; but the bee is small, and the man is large, yet he covered the same ratio of territory as the bees, and found nearly all the rich places.
“The evolution of the mining industry has been wonderful. I will take my own experiences as I travel the mining trail: First--pick, pan, shovel and iron spoon; second-- the rocker, pick, pan, shovel and sometimes bucket, if you had to carry your dirt any distance. With the rocker you could do as much work in an hour as you could in a day with a pan. Then came the sluice-boxes, into which you turned a flow of water, placing riffles, either crosswise or lengthwise, in the bottom. If you had all the water you required, you could do about as much work in an hour as you could do in a day with a rocker. The Long Tom was in use about this time; but it was short-lived, and but little improvement over the rocker, and I think not as good a gold-saver.
“Then came the ground-sluicing idea, the most important step forward in placer mining. In the first place, it was used to get rid of the overburden of valueless material lying on top of the pay gravel or bedrock dirt. This was a great help, but this idea soon developed into the fact that, unless the overburden contained clay that would pick up and carry off the gold, it was just as well, and I think better, to arrange if possible to have your ground sluiced on the bedrock and wash everything into it; for in this way you have developed a gold-saving device that has never been equaled and, in my judgment, will never be surpassed.
“The next step in advance was the hydraulic. It began in a small way. At first canvas hose was used, like that which fire companies employ, only larger, and sewed by hand, but soon sewed by the sewing-machine. In a very short time, iron pipe came into use, riveted together in twelve-, sixteen- and twenty-foot lengths, six and seven inches in diameter. Then the possibilities began to be understood, and a larger pipe and greater pressure were used until it looked as if there were no limit to its possibilities.
“About this time the surveyor and engineer were brought into the field, as long ditches and large storage dams were required, and it would not do to use guess-work. I know of banks of gravel and earth over four hundred feet in depth that have been successfully washed down in this way. Indeed, we have an object-lesson at the Cherokee Mine in this county, for by this method many millions of dollars have been taken from the ground that never could otherwise have been recovered.
“There is one more invention, called the hydraulic elevator. This invention has been used successfully where no other process could have been made to pay, since there was a lack of drainage and grade. I have no doubt that there are still some places where this method could be used to advantage if the required amount of water and pressure were available. As it requires ten feet of pressure to one foot of rise, if you wanted to raise your material twenty feet you would need two hundred feet of pressure.
“There is still another method, that of getting the gold from the old river channels, some of which are covered a thousand feet with lava, and have to be reached by long, expensive tunnels. Butte, Yuba, Nevada and Plumas counties have produced millions of dollars from these old channels, notably the Magalia Ridge, Butte County, where the celebrated Pershbaker Mine is situated. This mine has undoubtedly produced more gold for the amount of dirt washed than any other mine in the world; and there are yet untold millions of dollars hidden away in these old channels awaiting the advent of the right man with capital to open them up.
“Now comes the last, but not the least in importance, the gold dredging machines. These were first introduced into California through the efforts of W. P. Hammon and his associates. The first machine was small and rather crude, but they have gradually been improved, both in design and capacity, until today they are models of efficiency. They have made it possible to get millions of dollars which could not have been gotten in any other way. From statistics at hand, it is pretty safe to say that the product of these machines has been approximately forty millions of dollars; and Butte County has to its credit between two hundred eighty and three hundred millions of dollars.”
Everyone
came to California to get rich and to go back East with the plunder taken from
the bowels of the earth; but not everyone realized his ambition, or was
desirous in the end of leaving California when he had the wherewith to retire
in comfort. After about twenty years of varied experience in mining, during
which time his father was associated with him for a while, Mr. Vail sold out
his interests and went to work for the company for a short time to help them
out; and then he engaged in quartz mining, having prospected and located ledges
near Forbestown. It was a honeycomb mine, and was so named; and when a
five-stamp mill had been put into operation, it was sold. Then there was the
Sagamore Mine, where one day twenty thousand dollars was taken out of a pocket.
One piece weighed one hundred six pounds, and was valued at five thousand
dollars. Mr. Vail located other mines, and finally, with Messrs. Belding and
Nickerson, bought the Shakespeare Mine and operated it for a while. Afterwards
he turned it over to Hayward and Hobart; but the latter died and the property
came back to Vail and his associates, after it had a thirty-stamp mill. Then it
was taken by Messrs. Cooney and Stoer.
About twenty years ago, Mr. Vail came to Oroville, and for two or three years prospected, when he became interested in dredging land. He was active in organizing the Pennsylvania Dredging Company, was a director in the same, installed the gold-saving plant, and superintended it eight months. He also organized the Oroville Gold Dredging Company, was a director in that enterprise, built a dredge on the Feather River, and was superintendent of that for three years, or until the available ground was worked out. Then he was interested in starting the Lava Beds Dredging Company, now the Oroville Electric Dredging Company, and installed the gold-saving plant for the original dredge, after which he was assistant superintendent and director until he sold out. He was also a director and organizer of the American Dredging Company, and installed their gold-saving plant. In later years Mr. Vail had been employed as a mining expert.
In 1857, Mr. Vail began the use of quicksilver, put in a sluice-box before he started work. He was bothered because of the sand and gravel on the top, and was the first party known to use quicksilver in the ground sluice on the ground, and then to work the quicksilver down with hydraulic or ground sluices. He demonstrated that this was a success. Afterwards he studied assaying. He did his own assaying, and also rendered the same service for other people. He had the finest assaying outfit in the county, and the tools with which he worked cost fifteen hundred dollars or more. All in all, Mr. Vail was an interesting and attractive personality.
Mr. Vail had been three times married. His first wife died after a year of domestic happiness. On November 23, 1866, while he was again in the East, he was married to his second wife at Marshall, Mich. She was a Miss Emma Louise Potter, born at Marengo, that state. They had three children: Eva Louise, the wife of Frederick Beik and the mother of one living child, Milton Willis Beik; Herbert Eugene, a mining engineer in charge of important work in Australia; and Vesta Emma, a school teacher at Santa Cruz. Mrs. Vail died in California on September 11, 1882. On January 11, 1888, Mr. Vail was united in marriage with Miss Emma Deborah Hunt, born at Colesville, Wyoming County, N. Y., who shared with her husband the esteem of a wide circle of friends.
Mr. Vail was of a social nature, and held membership in Chico Lodge, No. 423, B. P. O. Elks, and in Oroville Lodge, No. 113, F. & A. M. He was a Republican, and cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln. He was school trustee in the Forbestown district, and was the first from Forbestown to serve on the board of the Oroville Union High School. He erected the residence at 719 Myers Street, where he made his home, and also built three others. In all, he owned five houses in town. Mr. Vail died at his summer home at Chester, Plumas County, July 29, 1918, and was mourned by a very large circle of friends. He was a man who loved his home; and his happiest hours were spent with his wife. He loved to hunt and fish, and spent his summers in pursuit of pleasure; and this brought him close to nature, of which he was ever fond. He was an interesting talker, and had a very retentive memory; and he was always trying to do some good turn to make the pathway of some less fortunate than himself, more easily trod.
Mr. Vail used to tell of an interesting experience such as has doubtless befallen many a settler in California, who came here thinking some day to return to the old homestead. He always had a hankering to own a home on Chautauqua Lake, N. Y.; and after he had been in California twelve years he went back to the scene of his boyhood, traveling by way of Nicaragua. On his arrival, he found that he knew no one there and no one knew him; and getting homesick for California, he remained but a short time, and did not buy the farm that he had long dreamed of. In 1867, he returned to California by way of Panama, traveling part of the way on the new boat, the Henry Chauncey.
Another
reminiscence of Mr. Vail is interesting and full of sentiment. He remembered
the many beautiful and gorgeous wild flowers that grew in the mountain regions
of the Sierras when he first came here. They were sweet, lovely and rare; but
of late years he had noticed that almost all of them are gone, probably on
account of droughts and fires, and too close feeding by stock. Certainly they
bloom no more; and it was a source of keen regret to Mr. Vail that they were
lost to him and to the world.
IN MEMORIAM
(Acrostic)
Heaven gained, and Earth has lost, one of its best and
noblest men;
Each living friend, in truth can say “I’ll never see his
like again.”
No attribute of sterling worth that he did not possess;
Right and Truth, his guiding stars, in
adversity or success.
Years passed on from youth to age, his duties known and
done,
Every one of which he did as faithful as the sun.
Vileness condemned of any kind, in his own mild and modest
way;
A real Man was, in truest sense,
conceded has been day by day.
In friendship firm, a noble foe, had a kind and tender
heart,
Lived to age of seventy-six, and all through life “did well
his part.”
Forbestown, Cal., August 29, 1918. M. J. Cooney.
Transcribed by Vicky
Walker, 1/25/08.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 663-666, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Vicky
Walker.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies