Samuel Murray Stover 1824-1897 My 2nd Great Granduncle on My Father's Side - Part 1

Dr. Samuel M. Stover

Samuel Murray Stover was the second son of William Ward Stover and Sarah Murray Drake. He was born on May 10, 1824 in Elizabethton, Carter County, Tennessee. His older brother David Lincoln Stover was my second great grandfather. Samuel also had a younger brother Col. Daniel Stover. There were no other children in this family that I know of.

Samuel was born when his father was 29 and actively involved in civic affairs. The Stover family was comparatively well off in that William owned land and several slaves. Though I have not found any records for Samuel dated prior to 1849, I think it is reasonable to assume that he and his brothers received some education and that as young men they worked on the family farm.

Cross County Travels to California During the Gold Rush

The first record I have for Samuel is a copy of the diary he kept from May to September of 1849 as he traveled cross country to California during the Gold Rush. The diary was published by his grandson H.M. Folsom in 1939 and was reprinted in three issues of the WAGS Bulletin in 2012 in volume 39-40. The original is held by Milligan University in Elizabethton.[1]

The Miners Pioneer Ten Commandments of 1849
Scenes When Crossing the Plains in 1849
Lithograph by Kurz & Allison, 1887

Samuel traveled as part of a group called the Tennessee Company. The other members of the group included William Carter Taylor, John E. Brown, Charles Mason and John Edwin T. Harris. They began their journey from Independence Missouri and Samuel’s first dairy entry was logged on May 1, 1849. He wrote, “We have agreed to each furnish an equal share of the outfit, to mine together and to and make an equal division of the proceeds of our labor, at the end of twelve months after our arrival at the diggings in California.”[2] He made journal entries every day commenting on the weather, the people they encountered, the landscapes they were traveling through and the health problems of fellow travelers. On May 6^th he noted that three or four immigrants had died of cholera. On May 26^th a member of their party, H.A. Wood died from cholera. As he continues, he made several notes about graves they passed.

On May 10^th he wrote, “Today I am 25 years of age. How fast the years glide by. Youth and old age, what a short span between them! Went to Wilson’s camp, not yet ready to start. I killed a prairie hen eighty yards offhand. Returned to camp, all well.” On May 13^th he had dinner with his aunt Deborah Stover whom he hadn’t seen for twenty years.[3]

Lithograph by Kurz & Allison

On May 19^th he wrote about an encounter with one of the local Indians, “… a fine looking Indian came and inquired if I was a doctor. He wanted me to go and see his father. …I took some medicines …. and came to the cabin of the sick Indian. He was an old man and was evidently in the last stages of cholera. His squaw was a fine looking woman of about 35 years of age. They had two very handsome little Indian children. I gave him some medicines and directed the young Indian on how to give them.” This event took place while they were traveling through Kansas. He made several notes about encounters with the Pottawattomie Indians that he noted were very friendly and warned them that the Pawnee would steal from them. On June 8^th they encountered a large group of Sioux Indians that he described as “fine looking men”.

By June 1^st they had travelled two hundred miles. Several in their party were sick and unable to continue so the group decided to rest for a day. Some in their group decided to return to their homes in Kentucky. 

Route map that Samuel's party took from the Watauga Bulletin, Vol. 39

Samuel’s June 9^th commentary made me laugh. He wrote, “A very pretty young lady at Fort Kearney (in Nebraska) sold us some milk. Smiled very gratefully and looked as though she thought she was an object of admiration. I thought her quite handsome, but it may be that not having seen a young lady for a month might have added to her charms.”

Most of Samuel’s entries are matter of fact but on some days, he was more poetic – June 13^th he offered, “These hills are very beautiful and picturesque at a distance, resemble the waves of the ocean, looks like they had been thrown up by the ebb and flow of the waters. Some of them raise almost perpendicular and fall as suddenly.”

From June 16^th to July 14^th, he traveled along the Platte River through Kansas and into Colorado. Several of his journal entries talked about herds of buffalo that they saw and hunted. He continued to mention encounters with the native Americans and on June 20^th he described a serious gunshot wound to one of his fellow travelers that he helped to treat. Ultimately the party took the injured man to Ft. Laramie. Most days he noted how many miles they traveled which typically ranged from 12 to 25 miles each day.

Gold Miners of El Dorado County from the Library of Congress collection

In July he encountered two immigrants that were from Tennessee – a Mrs. Vestil “treated me to a fine supper of buffalo meat, biscuits and coffee.” The following day they met Mr. Bridleman from Sullivan, Tennessee and eight Virginians. Occasionally, Samuel commented on the number of travelers for example on July 11^th he noted that they’d seen “some two or three hundred wagons.” On the 15^th he again mentioned “Several hundred wagons passed during the day and the creek again is white with wagons and tents and the bottom is alive with stock.”

July 17^th brought reports of Indians killing whites in Oregon and reassurance that gold was abundant in California. On July 24^th he reported that their mules had stampeded. This reminded me of the Western movies we used to watch on television in the late 1950s and 60s. It’s odd to realize my second granduncle actually experienced these things in person.

News clip that mentions our supposed
connection to Sir Francis Drake

Finding water and grazing for themselves and their animals was a constant need. For most of the route they found abundance but on August 22^nd he wrote, “No grass except here and there a bunch. Not enough for an animal to live upon….. found the stream was so small and so much stock around it that we could not get a drop for our animals…..Had great trouble at night on account of the dead and tired oxen that had fallen in the road ….. we slept until morning when we were aroused by the gnawing of our horses which had become so famished that they had begun to eat up our wagon, to gnaw off their blankets and bridle rein.”

Friday, August 31^st, “Today we crossed the Sierra Nevadas. … when we came to the top a beautiful forest of tall and stately pines that burst upon our vision … nothing could be more welcome than the shores of the Pacific.”

The last published entry was dated September 12^th. Regrettably, I’ve not found anything about whether the Tennessee Company found success in the gold fields nor any report about the return trip to Eastern Tennessee.

I am not certain but strongly suspect that another accounting of Samuel may be in the History of Sonoma County by J.P. Munro-Fraser published in 1880. The book includes a chapter about Nicholas Carriger who moved to Sonoma County, California from Elizabethton, Tennessee. The Stover and Carriger families were associated in Tennessee. In this book the author mentioned that a Dr. Storer was included in a party of men who took “a drove of cattle to Trinity County … the party being composed of Mr. Carriger, his two brothers, Solomon and Caleb, and Dr. Storer, with eleven Indians …. and remained there until June in 1850.[4]” I believe this mention of a “Dr. Storer” is actually about Dr. Samuel M. Stover.

Samuel's signature from the will of his grandfather
Abraham Drake

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[1] Another copy of the diary is held by the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley campus.

[2] WAGS Bulletin Vol. 39 (2) 2010 p. 146.

[3] Robert Nave and Margaret Hougland researched the names of the people that Samuel mentioned in the journal and added footnotes to explain who each was.

[4] History of Sonoma County p.675.