serious sacrifices, Of course, no person ever lost
a cent by him: he has recently died, leaving an
estate of eight million dollars. During his
lifetime, I had opportunities to know him well, and
take much pleasure in bearing testimony to his great
worth and personal kindness. On the failure of
his bank, he assumed personally all the liabilities,
released his partners of all responsibility, and offered
to assist me to engage in business, which he supposed
was due to me because I had resigned my army commission.
I remained in St. Louis till the 17th of December,
1857, assisting in collecting for the bank, and in
controlling all matters which came from the New York
and San Francisco branches. B. R. Nisbet was
still in San Francisco, but had married a Miss Thornton,
and was coming home. There still remained in
California a good deal of real estate, and notes,
valued at about two hundred thousand dollars in the
aggregate; so that, at Mr. Lucas’s request,
I agreed to go out again, to bring matters, if possible,
nearer a final settlement. I accordingly left
St. Louis, reached Lancaster, where my family was,
on the 10th, staid there till after Christmas, and
then went to New York, where I remained till January
5th, when I embarked on the steamer Moles Taylor (Captain
McGowan) for Aspinwall; caught the Golden Gate (Captain
Whiting) at Panama, January 15, 1858; and reached
San Francisco on the 28th of January. I found
that Nisbet and wife had gone to St. Louis, and that
we had passed each other at sea. He had carried
the ledger and books to St. Louis, but left a schedule,
notes,
etc., in the hands of S. M. Bowman, Esq.,
who passed them over to me.
On the 30th of January I published a notice of the
dissolution of the partnership, and called on all
who were still indebted to the firm of Lucas, Turner
& Co. to pay up, or the notes would be sold at auction.
I also advertised that all the real property, was
for sale.
Business had somewhat changed since 1857. Parrott
& Co.; Garrison, Fritz & Ralston; Wells, Fargo & Co.;
Drexel, Sather & Church, and Tallant & Wilde, were
the principal bankers. Property continued almost
unsalable, and prices were less than a half of what
they had been in 1853-’54. William Blending,
Esq., had rented my house on Harrison Street; so I
occupied a room in the bank, No. 11, and boarded at
the Meiggs House, corner of Broadway and Montgomery,
which we owned. Having reduced expenses to a
minimum, I proceeded, with all possible dispatch,
to collect outstanding debts, in some instances making
sacrifices and compromises. I made some few
sales, and generally aimed to put matters in such a
shape that time would bring the best result.
Some of our heaviest creditors were John M. Rhodes
& Co., of Sacramento and Shasta; Langton & Co., of
Downieville; and E. M. Stranger of Murphy’s.
In trying to put these debts in course of settlement,
I made some arrangement in Downieville with the law-firm