Interesting Reminiscences

BUFFALO, Jan. 7, 1879

EDITOR, BUFFAO COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER:

As the building of the Griffin is in order, I have an item. In the year 1835 I was an apprentice to John Carrick, then a ship-builder in this city. He sent me down to Cayuga Creek to measure timber he had purchased of Mr. Thomkins. On my arrival at the creek I found that the water had fallen so much as to pull, or drag out the piles; the raft was made fast to them by throwing up the dirt from a deep hole. Mr. Thomkins picked up a hand-made spike. I looked at it, and told him that kind of spike had been superceded several years ago by present ones. He said that it was here that La Salle had built his vessel, and that as there had been none built since, it was undoubtedly one that had been used for that purpose. He gave it to me. It was similar in make to those used on the Queen Charlotte and Detroit, two vessels built by the British for the war of 1812, and taken from them in the battle of Lake Erie.

V. BIDWELL

While residing in San Francisco, Mr. Bidwell wrote the following interesting communication to the Chicago Inter-Ocean, which we republish at his request:

SAN FRANCISCO, June 23, 1877,

To the Editor of the Inter-Ocean

Pardon me for intruding upon your time, if upon perusal you should find the matter not interesting enough to give to your readers as a matter of history, showing them how few years have passed since their splendid city was a hamlet of four houses, and that part of your State, as it were, a desert which now blossoms as a rose.

In looking over the papers from your city I find the death of Captain B. F. Davison. The deceased and myself composed a part of the crew of the schooner Detroit, in the year 1832. We took up a load of pork, beef, and flour to Chicago in the year above mentioned for General Scott's army. The crew consisted of the following persons: Captain, Harry Whitaker; mate, James Lundy; crew, B. F. Davison, Larry Green, Vincent Bidwell (your correspondent), and a colored man named Chub. We arrived in Chicago about the 25th of June, 1832. At that time there were but four buildings, the fort, a bakeshop, and officers' quarters, likewise a store belonging to Newberry & Dole up at the forks of the river, which came out into the lake half a mile or more West from the present piers. We unloaded part of our cargo with a batteau, and the balance of the load (on account of the arrival of the steamer Sheldon Thompson Captain Augustus Walker, with troops for General Scott's army, having the cholera on board), had to wait three or four days, when the Commissary told us to land the balance on the beach. She was the first steamboat making a landing where the city now stands. There was at that time an Indian camp on the North Side, composed of women and children, the warriors being with General Scott fighting Black Hawk at Naperville. The names of officers of vessels that were in company with us at that time were as follows:

Schooner Mariner, Captain Harp Johnson; mate, John Sims.

Schooner White Pigeon, Captain Norman Patterson; mate, John Shooks.

Schooner United States, Capt. Thos. Titus; pilot Robert Wagstaff; mate, Lester Cotton.

Schooner Marshal Ney, Captain, John Steward; mater David Drueau.

I have been informed that Captain Harry Whittaker is alive, and now living in New York City. With that one exception, and myself, all the persons named in connection with this narrative have gone to that bourne from whence no traveler returns. Should you think fit to publish the main incidents of this letter, please send me a copy of your valuable paper, and believe me your friend.

VINCENT BIDWELL

No. 678 Harrison Street, San Francisco, Cal., formerly of the firm of Bidwell & Banta, ship-builders, Buffalo, N.Y.