Butte County
Biographies
CHARLES ALEXANDER WYCKOFF
CHARLES
ALEXANDER WYCKOFF.--If there is one man in all California with whom the
inimitable Mark Twain would have rejoiced to sit down and compare notes, it is
probably Charles Alexander Wyckoff, the veteran stage-driver, who can tell more
good yarns, and yarns that are true, about early life in the gold-mining days
than any other pioneer hereabouts. Born
in New York City on February 9, far back in 1839, he was the son of Daniel
Dunham Wyckoff, a native of Pennsylvania, who was a ship-sawyer in Williamsburg,
N. Y. Then he removed to New Jersey,
where he had charge of one of the turnpikes, and afterward migrated as far west
as Wisconsin. In Westport township, Dane County, he had a farm, and there he
died. Mrs. Wyckoff had been Miss Sarah
Doty, a native of New York, and she died in New Jersey. One child, the subject of our sketch,
resulted from this union.
Brought up in New York, New Jersey, and
Wisconsin, to which latter state he came in 1852, Charles Wyckoff attended the
public schools, and remained at home until he was twenty years of age, when he
started for Pike’s Peak. He left
Westport, Wis., a member of a party of seven, with two wagons and two and three
yoke of oxen, and crossed the Mississippi at Dubuque and the Missouri at
Council Bluffs, afterward proceeding up the Platte towards Pike’s Peak. On the way they met miners by the score,
“busted” and worse off; so they themselves concluded to come on to California
by way of Landers Cut-Off, and they continued up the Snake River into Honey
Lake Valley. There he remained a month,
and then came to Butte County, arriving on December 19, 1859, at Mountain
House, on the Quincy road, twenty-five miles east of Oroville.
Almost immediately he went to work on a
ranch, then he teamed for a while, freighted, and finally engaged in mining, at
which he continued until 1865. On
February 25th he enlisted in Company A, First California Cavalry,
into which he was mustered for three years and was sent to Texas by way of Los
Angeles; but near the latter city word was received of Lee’s surrender and the
murder of Lincoln. They were ordered,
therefore, to Arizona instead, where he then campaigned in different parts of
the territory. Finally, his company was
sent back to San Francisco, and on May 14, 1866, Mr. Wyckoff received an
honorable discharge.
When the war was over he returned to
Oroville and for some time was employed in mining and ranching. The winters were passed, however, in
Oroville, in the service of livery stables, and in 1868 he became a sawyer, sawmilling
at Nick Turner’s mill, at Mountain House, for ten years; one year at Chico
Meadows; at Lumkin three years, and with the Merrimac Company seven years. Then he put in about nine years with the
Merrimac Company seven years. Then he
put in about nine years with the Igerna Mill, in Siskiyou County, thus
completing practically thirty years in sawmilling. Having had enough of that line of work, Mr.
Wyckoff took up the transfer business in Oroville, and followed it until 1914,
when he quit active work altogether and retired to private life.
On December 3, 1885, in Chico, Charles
Alexander Wyckoff and Alice Evelyn Willett were married, the bride being a
native of Cherokee, in this county. One
son, Albert Joseph, resulted from this union; he served in Troop H of the First
Utah Cavalry, and was at the front in Nogales, Ariz., during the trouble in
Mexico, and now lives in Oakland.
A Republican in matters of national
politics, Mr. Wyckoff is a member of the W. T. Sherman Post, No. 96, G. A. R.,
of Oroville, in which he has served as post commander, and is now adjutant and
quartermaster. He was made an Odd Fellow
in Bidwell Lodge, No. 47, I. O. O. F., later became a member of Oroville Lodge,
No. 59, of which he is past Noble Grand.
He is past Chief Patriarch in Oroville Encampment, No. 22, and is now
Scribe; he is also a member of the Canton and of the Rebekahs.
Among the thrilling adventures one may
hear modestly told by Mr. Wyckoff is one that leads back to the days when he
was driving the stage out of Oroville, in 1864, running to Smith on the Quincy
road. It was on June 25th
when Charles Wyckoff held the reins and guided the faithful steeds drawing the
heavy coach with two passengers, O. W. Cherry and A. F. Linden, together with
the treasure-box of Whiting and Company, containing $1,882 in gold dust and
$220 in coin. Two men suddenly appeared
at the side of the road, one taking the horses by the head, and the other with
cocked pistol aimed at Wyckoff, demanding the treasure-box. The driver responded that there was no
treasure on the coach; whereupon the robber replied, “I know a damned sight
better! Hand it out and put on no
airs!” This brought out the desired
chest, which the robber carried to the side of the road and broke open with an
axe. While doing so he dropped his
pistol; Wyckoff picked up his own pistol
from the seat and was about to shoot the highwayman, when the passengers
discovered a third man in the bush with leveled pistol and begged the driver to
desist.
About this time Constable Brown, of Bidwell’s
Bar, arrived in a buggy. He was at once
made to stop at the rear of the stage while the robbers went through his
pockets, but as he had only $6.50 he was allowed to keep it. The robbers did not wish to molest the
passengers, but they held their pistols pointed toward the stage and buggy, and
told the occupants to “go on and tell no lies.”
The stage proceeded to Oroville, leaving the robbers to disappear in the
high grass.
Pursuit was at once started from Oroville
by a posse under the leadership of J.V. Parks, and a party of emigrants was
caught and brought before Judge Coughey for examination. They included two white women and an Oregon
squaw and five men, some of whom gave their names as Sheridan, Stairs, and
Sims, but afterward changed them to W. S., U. T., and Charles Gasoway, J. F.
Schuller, and John Shores. They were
arraigned before Judge Safford, tried, convicted and sentenced to terms varying
from three to ten years. It turned out
that the old man of the emigrants, W. S. Gasoway, had seen the package of gold
dust and money put in the chest-box at Bidwells Bar, and had returned to camp
where the plan was made to rob the stage.
Mr. Wyckoff says that it was fortunate that the holdup was not a week earlier,
for then he had $75,000 in gold dust in the box, all of which would probably
have been lost.
Transcribed by Priscilla Delventhal.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 700-704, Historic Record Co, Los
Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Priscilla Delventhal.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies