ALMON BEAVERS, MY GOLD RUSH UNCLE
According to family lore, my 3rd great uncle Almon Beavers had gone to the California gold rush where he became ill and was nursed back to health by Native Americans. Afterwards, he married a Native American. I recently found myself on FindaGrave, looking at his memorial.1 There were two posts I hadn’t seen.
The first was posted In March 2024. Brian Y wrote: “Great (x3) grandfather. Pioneer. Rescued Konkau Maidu from the Nome Cult Trail. Married Wistome (Wildflower), daughter of Mo-Lay-Yo, and possibly an aunt to Ishi.”
The second was a newspaper clipping I had not yet found, a clipping from the Oroville Daily Register, 19 July 1919, titled “Short History of Deceased 49er is Told”:
The following account of the life of Alman Beavers, one of the ‘49ers of Butte county, who passed away a few days ago, has been submitted by Mrs Edith Jensen, of Berry Creek:
The death of Almon Beavers, the aged pioneer, who was buried July 2, revives much of California’s early history in the minds of his old friends.
Mr. Beavers was born in North Carolina, moving with his parents to Texas when but a boy, from that state he came to California in 1853 and was affectionately called “Texas” Beavers by his friends on account of coming to California from that state.
Fifty years ago he conducted a butcher shop in partnership with Mike Kesselring at Peavine, now known as Merrimac, a stage station and post office on the Oroville and Quincy road. In those days mail was carried on dog sleds over the mountains in winter and Mr. Beavers often told of Buck Whiting, father of E C Whiting and Capt. Frank Whiting, carrying the mail in this fashion and coming to his butcher shop after a hard trip in the snow and buying the best cuts of meat to feed his dogs.
About this time he married Mary, the daughter of the Chief of the Peavine tribe, who still survives him. Two sons and two daughters are the result of this union; a son Alfred L. Beavers, and an infant daughter, preceded the father to the great beyond; besides his wife he leaves to mourn his loss, his son, J Allsey Beavers, of Chico, his daughter, Mrs. Stacie M. Walsh of Oroville, two granddaughters, Mrs. Doris Weaver and Miss Lillie Walsh, six grandsons, Harold A, Almon B., and Alfred L. Beavers, Charles, Alvin and Jimmie Walsh, and an infant great-granddaughter, little Watt Thomas Weaver.
Mr. Beavers was a man of sterling worth and respected by a host of friends.
After reading this article, I was able to find “A Beavers” in the 1860 US federal census living in Butte County, California with Michael Kesseling and they are butchers,2 lending credence to that part of the story. Although I knew about Mary, Alfred, Alsey, and Stacie, I was unaware of the death of an infant daughter. But, I knew he likely didn’t arrive in California in 1853.
Almon’s mother, Stacy Roberts, became a 15-year-old widow when her husband died in 1823 in Wake County, North Carolina, 2 1/2 months before her first child was born, my 2nd great grandfather Umpstead Rencher, named for his father. Stacy remarried in 1825 in North Carolina to Alfred Bevers by whom she had 10 children, according to a grandson.3 Alfred died and Stacy married a younger Frenchman, Louis Cannon, in 1846 in Sumter County, Alabama. I have spent years searching for the Beavers children.
Almon Beavers, born 2 Feb 1831 in Wake County, North Carolina, first shows up in records in 1854. I cannot find him in the 1850 federal census of Sumter, Alabama where his mother and known-to-me-siblings are living, nor in Texas. After the 1850 census, Umpstead Rencher moved his young family to Liberty, Texas. In 1854, Almon is in the Washington L Jolley wagon train headed for the Salt Lake Valley with his brother Umpstead.4 The Renchers left their Texas home in February 1854. Almon Beavers is still with them in Utah in April 1855.5
Now, as to the small blurb left by 3x grandson Brian Y which, on first reading, may as well have been written in Greek, “Great (x3) grandfather. Pioneer. Rescued Konkau Maidu from the Nome Cult Trail. Married Wistome (Wildflower), daughter of Mo-Lay-Yo, and possibly an aunt to Ishi.”
Googling Konkau Maidu brought me to California Trail Interpretive Center which stated the Konkow Maidu was a group of tribes who lived in the northern California valleys and the Sierra Nevada. The Konkow Maidu were hunter gatherers and during warm weather lived in temporary cedar bark wickiup or teepee-like structures that they could carry with them as they roamed between the mountains and valleys. In wintertime, they lived in permanent underground houses which could be built up to 15 feet below the surface. A central fire would provide heat and there were openings to let in light and air and allow smoke to escape. The homes were accessed from rooftop ladders. 6
The Nome Cult Trail is California’s Trail of Tears. The Maidu were forced to march over 100 miles in just two weeks in September 1863 after wrongly being accused of murdering two children. A military escort rounded up 461 Konkow Maidu and forced a rapid march. Many died of heat and thirst, illness and malnutrition. Descendants “describe whippings, shootings, and the beatings of children to speed up their mothers.” Two days before reaching their final destination, 150 sick and malnourished Maidu were left behind at Mountain House Camp supposedly with food for a month. When news of the abandonment reached the fort, Superintendent James Short was sent to take food and bring them to the fort. Contrary to the report, he found “…about 150 sick Indians were scattered along the trail for 50 miles … dying at the rate of 2 or 3 a day. They had nothing to eat … and the wild hogs were eating them up either before or after they were dead.” Of the 461 Konkow Maidu who began the journey, only 277 arrived.7
The United States Senate never ratified the 18 treaties signed 1851-1852 between the California Native American tribes and the US. One such peace and friendship treaty was signed August 1, 1851 at Bidwell’s Ranch with the Indian agent, and the chiefs or headmen of several tribes: Mo-Lay-Yo signed his mark for the Es-kuin.8
Ishi was the last known member of the Yahi tribe who wandered starving and alone into Oroville, California in 1911 after forest fires in the area. He had been among the 40 who had escaped when his tribe was massacred in 1865, and by 1908, only his mother, uncle, and another woman who may or may not have been his wife survived. By 1911, at age 50, he was alone. The name Ishi means man in the Yana language and is an adopted name. (The Yana is the parent tribe to the Yahi.)9 I’m choosing to ignore Bryan’s reference to Wistome being a possible aunt to Ishi due to the word “possible;” plus, she was still alive when Ishi was declared the last of his tribe.
I don’t know that records exist to prove the Native American name of the wife of Almon Beavers is Wistome nor that she is the daughter of Mo-Lay-Yo. However, Mo-Lay-Yo did exist and had the authority to sign a treaty on behalf of the Es-kuin tribe.
I never would have discovered this information had I not revisited a source. My find was truly exciting. But I wonder if the family story was backwards. Was Almon the one who was nursed back to health or did the story refer to the Konkau Maidu who he rescued and nursed back to health?
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1. FindaGrave memorial for Alman Beavers https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6076406/alman-beavers
2. 1860 federal Census https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDK6-CRC
3. Autobiography of Joseph Alvin Rencher, 1868-1929 https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/KWJ8-HRJ
4. Washington L. Jolley Company https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/individual/almon-beavers-1831
5. Memories for Alman Beavers https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/KCWX-MGY
6. Konkow Maidu, California Trail Center https://www.californiatrailcenter.org/konkow-maudi-tribe/
7. Nome Cult Trail, California Trail Center https://www.californiatrailcenter.org/the-nome-cult-trail/
8. 1851 Treaty https://treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-mi-chop-da-es-kuin-etc-1851-21831
9. Wikipedia entry for Ishi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishi
VETERANS DAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2024
Submitted by George Wolfmeyer
On the eleve
