"Gone With The Posse, Mama..." - Story Of A Gold Country Badge

Fred Huston was a farrier and part-time gold seeker living in Jamestown, Cal. when he was asked to join a posse looking for the prolific highwayman Charles Boles - known at the time as the poetically inclined "Black Bart."

"Bart" had just held up a stage in Oroville and was reportedly just steps ahead of lawmen who'd set their caps to catch him when word spread that a wider net was needed and a posse was being formed.

Fred put down his blacksmith's hammer picked up a rifle and joined up, telling his mother he'd be gone awhile. But the fleet-footed Boles was a skilled woodsman and cross country trekker. He made good time getting out of the area with $2000 or so of Wells Fargo's money and promptly disappeared.

Fred eventually joined up with the legendary Harry Morse, who dedicated a good portion of his life to catching the elusive highwayman who, as it turned out, was living the life of a wealthy mine owner in that most sinful of cities, San Francisco.


The posse traveled near and far looking for Bart, Huston getting a badge made by Reiningers of San Francisco, a short rosewood truncheon, and a monthly purse to participate. All he ever found was a young schoolmarm, Nettie Hinch, when the posse passed through Gilroy.

It took the mountain man a while to get around to it but eventually he asked Nettie to come away with him, she acquiesced and they moved back to Jamestown, leaving Morse to eventually track and capture the fast-moving Boles in San Francisco, after he left an embroidered handkerchief behind at the scene of one of his robberies.

Fred and Nettie were married and settled down to having children, Fred still gathering his "poke sack" of beans and coffee and taking off into the mountains to fish and pan for gold while Nettie waited at home.

His badge, photo and truncheon surfaced recently at a home in Livermore, Cal. Nettie's picture was not far away.

Early View of New York Goes Big

An early daguereotype of a country road, fence line and home - along with a telling handwritten note - sold at auction this week for $62,500 in, where else? - New York.

The proud new owners are Billy and Jennifer Frist of Nashville. “It’s a very unique, historically significant daguerreotype,” Mr. Frist, who has been collecting photos since 1993 and is a nephew of Bill Frist, the Tennessee Republican and former Senate majority leader, told the New York Times.

The picture, believed to date from October 1848 or earlier, shows a white house on a hill with a white picket fence, next to what is believed to be the old Bloomingdale Road, the continuation of Broadway, in what is now the Upper West Side.

"No, really, business is booming..."

We had the pleasure of attending a Holiday cocktail party with friends over the weekend (okay, it was more than one party, I admit it) and I could not help but notice how our friends would peer at me, place a consoling hand on my shoulder and say: "So, how is business?"

The answer, I'm pleased to report, is that business is quite good.

It seems that the current downturn, while serious and certainly worthy of investigation at certain levels (ahem) has had only a limited effect on our sales and, in fact, is driving consignments as some people look to sell things they may not have under ordinary circumstances.

We've had some nice, early Gold Rush-era documents come in, as well as some other items which didn't last long, and seem to be enjoying a spate of contact with authors and researchers hoping to make use of our photos. We do help scholarly endeavors when we can.

But all this has had little impact on those who feel the market downturn has completely closed us down. That would explain why my answer of "you know, things are still pretty good" drew such disbelieving looks.

Well, that's the way it is. More things coming online soon, as well as a new dog in the family my wife promises will be hers and taken care of by her and the kids. It's okay, as unrepentant animal lovers more life in the house the better, but the resident cats will undoubtedly have some adjustments to make.

Stay in touch, thanks for all your calls and letters and emails. And good hunting!

J.D. O'Connor

Well, I'll be jiggered...

Superb old Walrus Ivory corkscrew by Will & Finck and straight from the Barbary Coast. As an added plus, this one has the original owner's initials carved in the handle. Boars hair brusk and mellow overall patina make this one the finest example we've handled in a long time. The simplest tools had a lot of style back then. Check it out, under "Antiques," with a few more of its closest friends.