Benjamin Franklin CROGHAN

                   1860 CENSUS,CEDAR CO. IOWA.  MARRIAGE LISCENSE.  DEATH CERT.  JOURNAL OF B.F. CROGHAN, LISTING NAMES AND DATES OF CHILDREN.BIRTH.
BFCroghan in Elkhorn City,Douglas Co. Neb.1856
B.F. Croghan left his family in Kansas after 1775,and  with a group of men  went  to Ca.  They were hoping to find their fortune.  I don't think any of them ever did,and I know B.F. didn't,   He kept a journal of his journey through Ca. starting in Siskiyou Co. near Henley.  He told of winters with little food,  existing on coffee and dried apples.  He spoke of finding mastadon bones at several of their mines.  He describes his journey through area later known as Lassen Park and through areas now called ,Butte Meadows,Inskip,(Snow Mine) and Stirling City, and spent a winter in Lovelock.  Earlier he had watched a large group of  Monarch butterflies as they migrated south.  One of the Monarchs spent the winter with him in a cabin that was snowed in for some time.  He ended up at Jarbo Gap,Concow and Yankee Hill area where some of his desc. live today.  His son Grant joined him there with his wife and son.  Grants wife Almeda died at the birth of a child and B.F. helped him raise his children.B F 's grandaughter Bess said he put up the first telephone lines in yankeehill.  He and his son also left in their journals stories about the Indian burnings they attended.   He left this poem in his journal.

Come aul ye rovering farmers..........A warning take by me
never by a farm an go to California to pay for it...
If you do  your wife will run away with som other man   an drag your children aul ore the land.

I bought me a farm in Kansas ,for my wife and little wons
and went to California to pay for it
I work night and day to rais the money.......sent her two hundred a year
but that was not enough for her

So won day a farmer came rideing by,  he being young and she in love
she rent him the farm for won third....in place of that he takes it aul
and runs away to Iowa
where my little wons is scattered aul ore the land

I have followed mining for seven long years and always com out behind
com aul my jolly partners with me still
we will go home to our friends and tell them of the hardships we have been through
aul tho my llttle wons is scattered aul ore the land

i work both in heat and cold and rain and snow
to make the money so she could flirt with som other man
so let her flirt   i will stay in the land of gold  if it is cold to make a hold to find the gold
aul tho my little wons is scattered aul ore the land

com aul young ladies fair and watch the roving farmer
he will leave you in dispare to hunt the land of clover
so you can take another man an rome aul over..if your children is left alone in dispair
do not drag them aul ore the land

now i will bring my verses to a close
for the one i chose out of rochester she rose....to shelley she goes for a rose,me she does not know
for i am in the land of gold with pick shovel and the hoe  to pull out the ore
whilst my little wons travel aul ore the land

so now i am told that she is getting old she can not romp and rome with another man in my home
as she did in my home with the farm aul turned with plenty and over
while i dug after the gold in the oven   for the one that was so slovin

aul tho i am old aul most to mould...tho i have strength and ambishion
to get the gold and take som won home that i may romp an rome..
in place of the won that left my home to find new clover
if my little wons is scattered aul over

in another year i think ill take her over... to look at the farm my wife run aul over
for the man that was not the oner
he being cunning and she being wise...they concluded to clime the skys
and left old Frank to wipe his eyes

now it is aul over...i hope she is happy.....so am i tho i must youse the axes
as the farm did not pay the taxes....you see it was dry flax would not grow
so imust youse the hoe to pay those taxes
if my little wons is cast aul ore the land