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Reflections
Cutters brothers' remarkable journey finally ended here : Reflections : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisCutters brothers' remarkable journey finally ended here
| by Roger Matile
| 6/30/2011
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Back in December, I wrote about the impact the California Gold Rush of 1849 had on Kendall County and many of its residents. Among those who took part in the rush to mine gold were the Cutter brothers, Henry and James.
With so many stories to tell, I didn't have the space to go into the Cutters' remarkable adventures too deeply. But they lived a true adventure, one that deserves a little more recognition.
The Cutters arrived in Kendall County in 1852 on their way back to California to try their luck in the gold fields once again. Their first trip, by ship, had been a financial success. But the trip itself had been a nightmare, so they decided to travel overland for their second go round. However, when they saw the rich farmland along the Fox River at Oswego, they decided they'd gone far enough and settled down. It's the story of that first trip that deserves to be told.
After gold was discovered near Sutter's Mill in 1848, the word quickly got out and the nation's first gold rush was on.
Massachusetts residents Henry C. Cutter, age 19, his elder brother James, and a brother-in-law, James Porter, heard about the gold strike and apparently caught a severe case of gold fever. In October 1849 they left their home near Boston to try their luck.
The Cutters were not alone. An estimated 80,000 headed for California in 1849, each determined to become rich. Some, as we saw before, took the long route overland, while others took water routes, either around Cape Horn on sailing ships or through the Caribbean and across the disease-plagued Isthmus of Panama and up the Pacific Coast.
After some study, the Cutter party decided on the Caribbean route, traveling by rail to New York and then by steamer to Havana, Cuba. After two days' rest, the group boarded the steamer Falcon bound for the mouth of the Chagres River in Panama.
In 1849 the Panama Canal did not yet exist-in fact, Teddy Roosevelt wasn't even a gleam in his father's (let along his mother's) eye. So the party boarded canoes and were paddled 60 miles up the Chagres by hardy Panamanians. The trip up the jungle river took three steaming, insect-plagued days, during which the travelers endured heavy tropical rains and severe flooding. Leaving their canoes, the Forty-niners rode burros and hiked the rest of the way over the remote mountains of central Panama, finally arriving at Panama City on the Pacific.
There, they were given the frustrating news that the coastal steamer for San Francisco would not arrive for another month. A month was too long to wait-the Cutters were interested in gold not in consorting with hordes of insects and reptiles. So the Cutters and about 80 other impatient Americans got together and bought an old sailing ship, determined to sail themselves to California.
After loading water and provisions aboard, the party set sail, aiming the bow of the leaky old ship north. Unfortunately, the usually dependable trade winds were unusually undependable that year. After creeping along for two weeks, the miners found their water supply had leaked out of poorly made casks. Suffering from thirst under the hot Pacific sun for several days, they finally made their way to a port on the coast of Nicaragua, where supplies were replenished. Then, a few days later, they were forced to put ashore yet again, this time on the Guatemalan coast.
That was the last straw for many of the would-be mariners. About half the ship's company decided to walk to Acapulco, Mexico, while the rest decided to sail on. Ironically, the two parties were reunited in Acapulco when they both arrived at the same time.
There, they rested and had a very good time indeed. In fact, they had such a good time that they decided to fire a salute to honor the city on their way out of the port using the ship's decrepit cannon. When Henry Cutter's brother-in- law, James Porter, touched off the old, overloaded gun it blew up, killing Porter. The now-subdued group returned to Acapulco, buried the unfortunate Porter, and set sail once again for California. A few days later, they ran into a severe gale that damaged their old ship so badly it began to sink.
Putting into Mazatlan, Mexico for repairs, dockyard workers confirmed what everyone suspected-the ship was an unrepairable wreck. This time, the party split up for good. James Cutter, decided to wait for the coastal steamer to arrive. Henry Cutter, weary of trying his luck at sea, bought a dependable-looking horse and with several of his weary compatriots, started overland for San Diego. After reaching the southern California village, he and his friends sold their mounts and booked passage on a steamer bound for San Francisco. Cutter's brother, James, who had decided to wait at Mazatlan for the coastal steamer, had arrived at San Francisco several weeks ahead of his brother. Patience, it seems, actually does pay off sometimes.
The brothers were reunited in a mining camp with the interesting name of Soldier's Gulch. During the next year, by admirable thrift, hard work, and a large helping of luck, they managed to save $10,000, which they split 50-50.
After an uneventful trip home, the pair reached Boston in April of 1852. In August of that same year, the brothers decided to try their luck again. They figured they had had enough maritime adventures to last a lifetime, and so this time they headed west overland.
But when they reached Illinois on their way to the gold fields, they were so impressed with the rich farmland in the Fox Valley they decided to settle here. Near Oswego, they bought land from Levi Arnold, one of the village's founders, divided the parcel in half, and began to farm in the area where their descendants live to this day.
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