Groslouis Whereabouts

Most historical accounts of Randolph name two Groslouis brothers in the party that discovered gold at Whiskey Run. Different accounts, though, name different brothers. Inspired by how earlier researchers were able to incorporate the Groslouis surname into Randolph history, I wanted to try to clarify which of the brothers were in the discovery party.

Since the early 2000s, a profusion of official records have been published in genealogy databases. Notwithstanding the spelling variations and transcription errors of the Groslouis surname, I was able to trace the brothers’ whereabouts over time.

After reviewing the claims made about each brother, I will discuss my thoughts about which brothers discovered the beach gold.

Note: This post continues my examination of the discovery of gold at Whiskey Run Creek and the establishment of a mining camp-town called Randolph. Three previous posts describe how the Groslouis brothers were written into local history: Development of a Discovery Story Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Two other posts have focused on the Groslouis family history in Oregon: Charles Groslouis and his children.

Why Peter?

Newspapers and local histories have consistently cited Peter as one of the discoverers.¹ The earliest account I’ve found is a Port Orford Post news story that reported “Peter Groulois” and “Jo. Groulois” among the first men to mine at Randolph.

Forty years later, William Packwood named Peter and Joe as members of a party who, when looking for gold, traveled north past other miners to discover gold (at Whiskey Run Creek).²

Why Joe?

Walling’s History of Southern Oregon named only Joe.³ After 1919, Joe disappears from the story of Randolph gold, replaced by either John or Charles.

Since 1973, local historians have cited John and Peter as the brothers who discovered the gold.

Why John?

John was at the Coquille Ferry House meeting in January 1854, where he corroborated an account of hostilities between Randolph miners and local Indians. ⁴

Based upon the Coquille Ferry House Letter, geographic historian, Lewis McArthur, tentatively suggested that Grouslous Mountain⁵ could have been named for John:

Also, Reinhart remembered Peter and John as his Curry County neighbors in Fall 1854; he noted they’d had “very rich gold claims.”

Another Randolph gold story omitted John, and instead named Charles.

Why Charles?

Peter’s granddaughter, Lillie Tully, said that Peter and Charles were on their way to the gold rush in California when they camped at Whiskey Run and discovered the gold in 1849.⁶

Hult repeated Tully’s story when describing lost treasures in Oregon. French Canadian researchers also incorporated Tully’s story when writing biographical sketches of the Groslouis family. More recently, bloggers and podcasters have repeated Tully’s story in their tales of lost treasure.

So, what do the whereabouts of the Groslouis Brothers tell us?

Chronological and Geographic Evidence

Drawn from military, census, and archival newspaper records, the evidence below lists the whereabouts of the brothers by year, county, and state.⁷

JOE

• 1846-47 Mexican American War, CA
• 1852 Siskiyou, CA
• 1857 Curry, OR
• 1858 Curry, OR
• 1870 Coos, OR
• 1880 Curry, OR
• 1881 Curry, OR

CHARLES: I’ve not found any official records that place him outside of the Fort Vancouver area. Peter’s granddaughter said that after mining at Randolph, Charles and Peter toured Europe, and Charles died in England.⁸ This might explain the lack of records for him.

Discussion

Official records place Joe, Peter, and John in Southern Oregon; a family story places Charles there. When examining the evidence, there’s not enough known about Charles to support his presence at the Whiskey Run discovery.

Reinhart doesn’t directly say that John and Peter discovered the gold, only that they had rich gold claims at Randolph. The evidence makes me question if John was visiting his brothers in Curry County when Reinhart met him.⁹ Is it possible that whoever transcribed Reinhart’s handwriting misread the name or its abbreviation (“Jo.” or “Jos.”) as “John”? Or, perhaps, did historical sources in the early 1960s prompt an editor to name John?¹⁰

I pose the above questions because it appears that John stayed in Southern Oregon for a relatively short time, returning to French Prairie by 1855. Likewise, Peter also returned to French Prairie by 1858. In contrast, records show Joe as a long-time resident of Curry County. He’s listed in the 1857 and 1858 territorial censuses and, later, in the 1880 state census. His last recorded dwelling was on Floras Creek Road, shown below as the blue line between Hwy 101 and the red map pin.¹¹

Conclusion

While it’s probable that all four brothers mined at Randolph between 1853 and 1854, the following evidence indicates Peter and Joe discovered the gold:

• The earliest history of Randolph (published in 1880) named Peter and “Jo.” Because that story is the closest in time to actual events, it is more credible than later accounts.
• Packwood mined at Randolph in 1853-1854, so his first-hand experience lends credibility to his account that Peter and Joe were in the discovery party. Packwood’s presence at the Coquille Ferry House meeting suggests that he would have been able to differentiate John from Joe.
• Peter and Joe both served during the Mexican American War. Then, they mined together at Siskiyou in August 1852, just prior to the discovery of gold at Randolph. This suggests the two traveled north together from Siskiyou to Whiskey Run beach, most likely in the winter of 1852.

What do you think?

If you have further information about the Groslouis brothers or the discovery of gold at Whiskey Run, please contact me or leave a comment below.¹²

End Notes

1. Only Walling’s history, published four years after the Port Orford news story, does not name Peter. ↩︎
2. “Andrew” is not a Groslouis brother, so I’ve excluded him from the current discussion. ↩︎
3. I previously described how Walling named “Joe Crowley.” The Lockley newspaper story did not provide a surname. ↩︎
4. William Packwood was a signatory of the letter sent from the Coquille Ferry House. ↩︎
5. If driving today, Floras Creek, the last recorded dwelling place of Joe Groslouis, is about 10-15 miles away from Grouslous Mountain. ↩︎
6. Tully’s story also raises questions about when the gold was discovered: she cited 1849. I’m skeptical that the brothers would have continued onto Siskiyou to mine gold in 1852 if they’d found gold on the Whiskey Run beach three years earlier. I wonder how the details of the family story might have changed over two generations: Tully’s mother (Peter’s daughter) would have been about one year old when Peter died. ↩︎
7. Sources cited in previous post. ↩︎
8. Based upon Peter’s timeline, travel to Europe would have taken place sometime between 1858 and 1867. I’ve found no records to document Peter and Charles’s European travel; that said, Tully’s story about them visiting Europe remains plausible. ↩︎
9. Perhaps John, wanting to distance himself from the violence at Randolph, joined his brothers in Curry County after the miners attacked the local Indian village on January 28, 1854? ↩︎
10. Doyce Nunis, the historian who edited Reinhart’s manuscript, cited both Victor and McArthur in his bibliography. ↩︎
11. Although attributed to John, is it possible that Grouslous Mountain was named after Joe? ↩︎
12. EPILOGUE: Based on household census data, Joe did not marry or have children. John married and fathered one daughter (whose whereabouts after 1880 are unknown). In contrast, Peter married and fathered eight or nine children, most of whom married within the French Canadian community. After his death, Peter’s widow and at least three of his children eventually relocated to tribal lands in Montana or Washington State. ↩︎

Works Cited

The Coquille Valley Sentinel (Coquille, Oregon). 1922, August 18. “A $40,000 Cache of Gold,” p. 8, Historic Oregon Newspapers, University of Oregon, Knight Library. https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn96088222/1922-08-18/ed-1/seq-8/.

Felsman, Eugene Mark. 1995. “Groslouis Family Group Record.” Genealogy. Montana, Flathead Reservation, Tribal Census, 1870-1995, Family Search Database, Digital Folder Number 110712828. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6P1M-7GKZ [Image 498].

Hult, R. E. 1973 [1957]. Lost Mines and Treasures of the Pacific Northwest. Binford & Mort Pub, pp. 83-88

Lockley, Fred. 1919, September 10. “Impressions and Observations of the Journal Man,” The Oregon Daily Journal (Portland, Oregon), 1902–1972, p. 10. Historic Oregon Newspapers, University of Oregon, Knight Library. https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn85042444/1919-09-10/ed-1/seq-10/

McArthur, Lewis A. 1952. “Oregon Geographic Names, Third Edition,” 278. Digital Library. Wikisource, the Free Online Library. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Oregon_Geographic_Names,_third_edition.djvu/298

The Morning Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), 1922, August 19. “Quest Abandoned for Buried Gold,” p. 5, Historic Oregon Newspapers, University of Oregon, Knight Library. https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83025138/1922-08-19/ed-1/seq-5/

 “Oregon, County Marriages, 1851-1975,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVFN-G4PB : Sun Mar 10 03:15:46 UTC 2024), Entry for Thomas Rondeau and Clemente Groslouis, 1873, Vol 2, p. 156 [Image 261].

Port Orford Post (Port Orford, Oregon). 1880, December 30. “Mines and Mining,” p. 2, Historic Oregon Newspapers, University of Oregon, Knight Library. https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/2024240276/1880-12-30/ed-1/seq-2/

Reinhart, Herman Francis, Doyce B. Nunis, and Nora B. Cunningham. 1962. The Golden Frontier: The Recollections of Herman Francis Reinhart, 1851-1869, 80-81. First paperback printing. University of Texas Press.

Victor, Frances Fuller, and Frank C. Baker. 1894. The Early Indian Wars of Oregon, Compiled from the Oregon Archives and Other Original Sources, With Muster Rolls, 324. University of California Libraries. Digital copy available at Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/earlyindianwarso00victrich/page/324/mode/2up

Walling, A. G. 1884. History of Southern Oregon: Comprising Jackson, Josephine, Douglas, Curry and Coos Countries, Comp. from the Most Authentic Sources …, p. 492. Available online at the Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/a14001444/ [Image 764].