MS., 16Q-1.
possible roadway to the fort.® Sutter resolved to lose no time in erecting the mill, and invited Marshall to join him as partner.* The agreement was signed in the latter part of August,^** and shortly afterward Marshall set out with his party, carrying tools and supplies on Mexican ox-carts, and driving a flock of sheep for food. A week was occupied by the journey.^^ Shelter being the first thing required on arrival, a double log house was erected, with a passage-way between the two parts, distant a quarter of a mile or ^ more from the mill site.^^ Subsequently two other cabins were constructed nearer the site. By New- Year s day the mill frame had risen, and a fortnight
- Mjurehall estimated that even then the lumber would have to be hauled
18 miles, and could be rafted the rest of the way. A missiou Indian, the alcalde of the Cosumnes, is said to have been sent to solve some doubts con- cerning the site. Marshall must indeed have been well disciplined. Not many men of his temperament would have permitted an Indian to verify his doubted word.
- A contract was drawn up by John Bidwell, clerk, in which Sutter agreed
to furnish the men and means, while Marshall was to superintend the con- struction, and conduct work at the mill after its completion. It is difficult to determine what the exact terms of this contract were. Sutter merely re- marks that he gave Marshall an interest in the mill. Pers. Jiem., MS., 160. Bidwell says nothing more than that he drew up the agreement. Cal. I84i-S, Ills., 228. Marshall, in his communication to I/utchings* Mcujazine^ con- tents himself with saying that after returning from his second trip, the 'co- partnership was compiet^.' Parsons, in his Life of Marshall ^ 79-80, is more explicit. *The terms of this agreement,' he writes, 'were to the effect that Sutter should furnish the capital to build a mill on a site selected by Marshall, who was to be the active partner, and to run the mill, receiving certain com- pensation for so doing. A verbal agreement was also entered into between the parties, to the effect that if at tiie close of the Mexican war then pending California should belong to Mexico, Sutter as a citizen of that republic should possess the mill site, Marshall retaining his rights to mill privileges, and to cut timber, etc.; while if the country was ceded to the United States, Mar- shall as an American citizen should own the property. * In the same work, p. 177i is aa affidavit of John Winters, which certifies that he, Winters, and Alden S. Baglev purchased, in Dec. 1848, John A. Sutter's interest in the Coloma mill — which interest was one half — for $6,000, and also a third of the interest of Marshall for $2,000, which implies that Marshall then owned the other half. Mrs Wimmer, in her narrative, says that Sutter and Marshall were eqnal partners. 8, F. BuUttiih, Dec. 19, 1874.
>* Marshall says Aug. 27th; Parsons, Aug. 19th; Bidwell, in a letter to the anthor, Aug. or 8ept
" Mrs Wimmer makes the time a fortnight.
One part of the house was occupied by the men, and the other part by the Wimmers, Mrs Wimmer cooking for the company. About the close of the year, however, a dispute arose, whereupon the men built for themselves a eabin near the half-completed mill, and conducted their own culinary depart- toent. Their food was chiefly salt salmon and boiled wheat. Wimmer's joang SODS assisted with the teaming.
