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Subject: [PIATT] Dick Piatt in CA, of Piatt Co IL
Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2003 19:13:47 +0000
This excerpt is the last three paragraphs of a story of the exploits of John
Anderson Draper, the Packard brothers amd others who left Decatur IL for the gold
fields of California 153 years ago last week. In this segment Silas Packard met
"Dick Piatt of Piatt Co" who might have been a Richard Piatt of Piatt Co IL who
went to Clifornia. The entire story can be found at:
http://users.motion.net/hageman/note0656.htm
*****
There Draper and Sawyer took a stage for Marysville. I [Silas Packard] went a
mile off the road to see Dick Piatt of Piatt county, who owed me $1,000 and the
others were to wait for me at Marysville. When I got there they had taken a boat
for San Francisco and left word for me to follow. I didn't like it very well when
I found they had gone off and left me, and as Piatt couldn't get the money for me
right then I waited. Piatt offered me $10 a day to stay for ten days and work for
him, saying that at the end of that time he would have the money for me. I worked
for him ten days and got the money. He wanted me to keep on working for him, so I
staid with him for a year, getting $100 a month, while the most he paid his other
men was $50 a month.
I quit of my own accord at the end of the year, but remained in California
another year. I had intended starting for home on the Golden Age, but two others
who were to start two weeks later induced me to stay and go to the Golden Gate. I
was glad I remained, for the Golden Gate caught fire and was burned and
two or three hundred passengers were drowned. Dick Piatt is up on the Sacramento
river now and doing well.
Mr. Packard is 72 years old and enjoys excellent health. Mr. Draper is 74 years
old and is strong and healthy. He visits Decatur frequently. He and Silas
Packard have always held each other in high regard, born of the intimate
relationship that existed between them in that memorable trip across the plain.
Both possess in a marked degree that strong social and congenial disposition
which makes men companionable.
Sunday Review, Decatur, Illinois, Sunday Morning, March 16, 1902
*****
--
Laverne Ingram Piatt
Ontario, OH
lapiatt@.att.net
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