Presentation of a Californian Baton to the South Wales Choir 18th August 1874
On Friday evening, at a concert held at Llanelly, the Messrs. Davies brothers, natives of the town, who own extensive mineral properties in California, handed to the Llanelly section of the South Wales Choir a conductor’s baton, as a present from the Welsh residents of Cherokee Flat, County of Bute, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The baton was made of Californian Mountain laurel, mounted and tipped with gold, and with gold-bearing quartz let into the handle.
The Californian Baton
There is a community called Cherokee (sometimes referred to as Cherokee Flat) near here. Only a few people live in the area now. As far as my staff and I are concerned, we’ve never heard the area referred to as Welsh Cherokee Flat. In our brief search, we did find a reference to a John Welsh, who along with his son established a mining claim in the area in 1869. “Although the original claim was only two hundred feet by four hundred feet in size, it was one of the richest areas in the entire Cherokee mining district.”
By 1870, this claim, and subsequent claims secured by the group, became known as the Welsh Company Mine. Little is known about the working of the mine. In 1875, it was sold to the Spring Valley Company.” Source: Butte County Historical Society “Cherokee Flat” by Jack D. Sturgeon, “Diggins” Winter Edition 1966, v.10, no. 4, quote from p.13. We will do some research of other local histories to see what we can find regarding the Welsh and a connection to Cherokee. We will let you know what we find.
Cynthia Pustejovsky
Branch Librarian
Butte County Library
Durham Branch
2545 Durham Dayton Hwy
Durham, CA 95938
530 879-3835
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