Larger Than Life: The Exploits of the Miner and Adventurer David E. Buel

By Edward Slagle

As a sheriff he proved himself to be absolutely fearless, and turned one of the most lawless regions in California into one of the safest. A special agent for the federal government who knew him when Buel was in charge of an Indian reservation later said of him, “He was an honest Indian Agent—the rarest work of God that I know of.” He was one of the founding fathers of three towns and one of the main developers of four major mining districts. He made and lost fortunes. David E. Buel epitomized some of the worst and much that was the best of the Old West.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Edward Slagle
• Release date: Apr 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301392582

Edward Slagle

The author is a former geologist and environmental specialist with a special interest in history. The subjects he has chosen to address are the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps and biographical sketches of important mining figures in the history of the Western United States.

Book preview

LARGER THAN LIFE

The Exploits of the Miner and Adventurer

David E. Buel

by

Edward S. Slagle

Copyright 2013 Edward S. Slagle

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Chapter 1

Of all of the notable figures who gained fame in the Old West there were few who deserved recognition by later generations so much, yet have received so little of it, as David E. Buel. Wyatt Earp achieved lasting fame mainly because of a shootout that lasted perhaps twenty seconds. Wild Bill Hickock’s fame originated in large part because of the popularity of a highly-fictionalized biography. Buel, on the other hand, piled up an enormous record of impressive events and adventures for a quarter of a century.

David E. Buel was an extraordinary man in many ways, not the least of them in his physical appearance. During the days when the average Civil War soldier stood 5’7 in height, Buel towered over most of his contemporaries at 6’4 (one of the two measurements in his military records shows a height in excess of 6’4 and the other gives his height as being 6’5.) He also had the unusual combination of blue eyes with dark brown hair. Apparently similar unusual traits ran in the family: the military records for two of his brothers gives one brother’s height at 6’3 and the other’s at 6’5, and at least one had blue eyes.

David was one of the last of eight or more children, mostly consisting of sons, of Daniel and Mary Buel. At least four of those sons served in either the Mexican or the Civil War. Daniel died some time before 1840, but Mary was about seventy-six years of age when she died in Lexington Township, Michigan on August First, 1862. She appears to have run a boarding house or hotel in Lexington after her husband’s death.

David was born in Delaware County, New York on October First, 1825. The family left New York not long after his birth; and there are many reasons to believe that they may have lived in Ohio for a time before eventually settling in St. Clair County, Michigan. For example, Grover Buel, one of David’s older brothers, is known to have married Emily Hopkins in Ravenna, Portage County, Ohio in 1843. Portage adjoins Trumbull County, the one in which David Buel’s future wife lived before moving to California to marry David. Emily Hopkins had been born in Nelson, Ohio on October 3, 1818; and David’s wife, Diana Nina Lucy Terrill, had been born in Astabula County, Ohio. The association with Ohio even extends to Buel’s business interests. Although Buel’s future business partner, Isaac C. Bateman, is known to have been born in Pennsylvania, Isaac’s brother William was born in Ohio.

Although little has yet come to light concerning Buel’s formative years, the few letters and other writings of his that have been discovered suggest that he was better educated and more literate than were most of his contemporaries. There