Two years after the discovery of gold, Isaac, at the age of 34 years, joined the westward "rush", searching not for gold but for business opportunities. He left his family, indentured 20 local boys and set out from Saint Joseph Missouri. Along the Platte River he rode with the famous scout Kit Carson who, just 4 years earlier had led Fremont onto the Salinas Plain.
One of the dangers that year was cholera, killing 2,000 hopeful pioneers (out of 5,000 who started the trip). Another was the pioneer himself and use of firearms, as chronicled in the following conversation between Harvey and Carson.
Kit Carson
"I will here mention we bid Kit Carson goodbye as he was going south to get out of the cholera. We had traveled several days together but he would not travel or camp near the emigrant trains – said he would prefer fighting Indians than travel behind emigrant wagons with their goods tied up to the bows loaded, falling down and going off every few days. "
"One morning just as a large train was finishing breakfast, a young man was sitting on a wagon tongue and had loaded his pistol and capped it. His thumb slipped off the cock and shot him in the breast and he fell over dead, never spoke. Carson and I were about 20 yards away and we got there just as they were raising him up. His father, mother and several brothers and sisters were around him – the mother weeping over him and all the family. We turned away and Carson said I have been telling you all the time these emigrants not knowing how to use firearms were more dangerous to themselves and everyone around them. "
Isaac's complete journal can be found in the Bancroft Library
The complete journal is in the Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley, California. "Isaac Julian. To California in 1850 reminiscences, Salinas, CA, 1897". UCB, Bancroft, BANC MSS C-D 5091. The transfer of the original notes into digital format was made possible by a grant from the HARDEN Foundation (Grant # 96-158).
