Buckskin Mose
Buckskin Mose: Or, Life from the Lakes to the Pacific, as Actor, Circus-rider, Detective, Ranger, Gold-digger, Indian Scout, and Guide is a fictional work published in 1873 that is based on a number of historical incidents in the region.
The book was allegedly written by "George W. Perrie". Another name associated with the book is Curtis B. Hawley, who is listed on the title page as registering the copyright.[1] The title page also states that C. G. Rosenberg edited and illustrated the book.
Many of the names and stories in the book correspond with actual events. For example, the murders at Granite Creek Station are recounted, as are the murders at Deep Hole. However, the murder of General George Wright is fictitious, Wright drowned at sea in 1865.
In 1911, Fairfield was looking for a copy of Buckskin Mose.[2]
The 1916 Fairfield's Pioneer History of Lassen County, California[3] describes the book:
- "BUCKSKIN MOSE"
- The George W. Perry spoken of was called Buckskin Mose. He was a blacksmith and at one time had a shop in Toadtown south of the bridge near the gristmill. Either he or his Wife afterwards wrote a book called Buckskin Mose. He picked up all the stories about the Indian fights that had taken place in this section and the book related these with more or less romance thrown in. Henry Arnold, B.B. Painter and Mose himself were the principal heroes in the book and according to it they must have killed the most of the Indians slain in these parts for almost twenty years. The queer part of it is that if the book had told the truth it would have been of historic value but the way it is written one must know what the truth really is in order to find any of it there.
A 1938 article states that a George Washington Perry wrote the book.[4]
References
- ↑ New Books," The Daily Appeal (Carson City, Nevada) · October 3, 1873, p. 2.
- ↑ If any reader of the Advocate has a complete copy of the old book "Buckskin Mose"...," The Lassen Advocate, Susanville, California, March 24, 1911, p. 3.
- ↑ Fairfield's Pioneer History of Lassen County, California," Asa Merrill Fairfield, 1916, p. 405
- ↑ "Perry Presents Historic Book to Lassen Library," Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, California, September 27, 1938, p. 7.
External links
- Buckskin Mose - entire text at Project Gutenberg