ere a
week or ten days, then left for home. The "girl I left behind" was a
Vermont lady but was visiting a sister in Cincinnati, Ohio. In the
spring of 1853 I went on to Ohio to see the "girl I left behind me," and
married the "girl I had left behind me." We then went to Vermont, where
we remained until the year of 1854. In the summer of this year I had the
second attack of the "California fever." I called in Dr. Hichman and he
diagnosed my case, and pronounced it fatal, and said there was no
medicine known to science that would help me, that I must go, so I took
the "girl I left behind me" and started for San Francisco.

Vigilance Committee of 1865.

On my return to San Francisco it did not take me long to discover that
the city was wide open to all sorts of crime from murder, to petty
theft. In a very short time I became interested in the Pacific Iron
Works, and paid very little attention to what else was going on around
me until the spring of '56. Here was a poise of the scales, corruption
and murder on one side, with honesty and good government on the other.
Which shall be the balance of power, the first or the last?

On May 14th, 1856, James King, editor of the "Evening Bulletin," was
shot by Jas. P. Casey on the corner of Washington and Montgomery
streets. He lingered along for a few days and died. This was too much
for the people and proved the entering wedge for a second vigilance
committee. During the first 36 hours after the shooting there were 2,600
names enrolled on the committee's books. Of that number, I am proud to
say, I was the 96th member, and the membership increased until it
amounted to over 7,000.

Shooting of Gen. Richardson.

I will first relate a crime that had happened the November previous
(November 17, 1855), in which Charles Cora had shot and killed General
William H. Richardson, United States Marshal for the Northern District
of California. These men had a quarrel on the evening of November 17th,
1855, between 6 and 7 o'clock, which resulted in the death of General
Richardson by being shot dead on the spot in front of Fox & O'Connor's
store on Clay street, between Montgomery and Leidesdorff streets, by
Cora. Shortly after this Cora was arrested and placed in custody of the
City Marshal. There was talk of lynching, but no resort was had to
violence. Mr. Samuel Brannan delivered an exciting speech, and
resolutions were declared to have the law enforced in this trial.
General Rich