JAMES E. HARTZELL
James E. Hartzell was born on October 15, 1888, in Scranton, Pennsylvania
to Edward and Viola Hartzell some years before Edward married Sidsie Jensen Rhoades. Years afterward, when
Edward was engaged in his obsession of finding the lost gold, James
often accompanied him on his prospecting ventures. About one year after the death of his father, James
Hartzell married Emma Brundage Adams on January 6, 1925 in Price, Utah.
John E. Hartzell, presently of
Price, Utah, a grandson of Edward Hartzell and a nephew of James Hartzell, related the following information
concerning the Hartzell family:
"After grandfather died in
1924, 1 went on many of those prospecting trips with uncle James and my father. Uncle James told me a lot
while we were out in the mountains and he told me never to forget it. I'm sure he knew what he was talking
about, for both grand-dad and uncle James had seen the gold that came from that mine. I'll say it this
way; there was such a mine and that's a fact, and everything I'm
telling you is the truth."
Immediately, the interviewer,
author Gale Rhoades, was brought to the attention of something which he had almost forgotten about since
gathering information about the Lost Rhoades Mines; his second aunt, Ethel Rhodes Pehrson (a niece of Caleb
Rhoades), had once told him that Caleb had hammered a watch fob from a piece of raw gold, and without prompting,
John Hartzell reiterated this fact by saying:
"Caleb had made a watch fob
out of a chunk of the gold and when he died, Sidsie put it in her safe deposit box at the bank with her other
possessions, such as land deeds. Now, I've heard that when Sidsie died and grandfather went to get possessions
from the box, the watch fob and several of her land deeds were missing."
Several men have died while
searching for the Lost Rhoades Mines in the rugged Uintah Mountains and James E. Hartzell, unfortunately, was
one of these. We asked John Hartzell about the details of his uncle's death.
"Yes, my uncle (James
Hartzell) did die looking for that one thing. He was somewhat of a loner whenever he went prospecting -
never did like it too much if anyone went along with him. I can remember once when he left on foot, with no
gun and walked over the mountain at night alone and back again. He was, himself, somewhat of a woodsman and
like Caleb he grew a bushy beard.
"I remember well that last
trip of his, when he died. At that time, he said he was going into the mountains and he asked my
step-brother, Charley Williams, to take him up there, leave him for two weeks and then go back in and
pick him up.
"James had been complaining
about his health so Charley told him that he'd rather not take him in, especially to leave him alone, because
of his age and his poor health, but James said he'd get up there one way or another even if it meant doing it
without Charley's help. So, Charley took him in, left him with his pet dog, and returned to work planning to return fourteen days later to get him."
Now for a more detailed account
of this event, we refer to the Salt Lake Tribune of August, 1961:
SEARCH DISCLOSES BODY OF PRICE
PROSPECTOR Fruitland, Duchesne County. A growling fox terrier puppy Sunday morning brought searchers to
the side of his dead master in the mountains 18 miles northwest of here. The decomposed body of James E.
Hartzell, 71, Price, last seen by a sheepherder August 7th, was discovered by George A. Sorenson, Tribune
Staff Writer and member of Salt Lake County Sheriff's Jeep Patrol, off Bobby Duke Trail on Red Creek, Wasatch
County.
Wasatch County Sheriff, Floyd
Witt said there was no indication of foul play.
A 40-man search was started
Saturday when a nephew (Charley Williams) returned to the man's camp to take him home and could not find him.
Mr. Sorenson said he stumbled on the body when the sevenmonth-old puppy growled at him.
The man's diary and testimony of
a sheepherder led authorities to believe Mr. Hartzell died on or about August 7th. The prospector's last entry
in his diary on August 6th read: "Tomorrow I'll work in the southeast direction toward Bear Hollow
area."
A sheepherder, Steven Hamilton,
said he saw Mr. Hartzell August 7th when Mr. Hartzell complained of feeling ill. The man's nephew took him
into the area August 5th. When he could not find his uncle on his return Saturday, he notified Sheriff Witt.
However, John Hartzell has
elaborated upon the incident somewhat has follows:
"When Charley took James in
there, they ate breakfast together before Charley came back home for work. Charley knew how much grub James
had and when he went back after him only a few eggs and etc. had been eaten, and he said that there were
spider webs across the top of his water bucket. Charley figured from that, that James had died the day after
he had left him on August 6th - not August 5th as the newspaper article pointed out.
"A sheepherder gave James a
lift toward camp and when he got near his camp, James told him that he could make it on in on foot, so the
sheepherder left him there.
"His body was found in high
brush and had it not been for the pup, which had lain by his body for about 13 days, the searchers may not
have found him, which by the way was only about 400 to 500 yards away from the camp.
"I helped in that search for
James. As near as anyone could figure out, when he left the sheepherder, he started to walk to camp but he
soon started to suffer a heart attack and began to drag his feet with each step. Inside the brush he laid down
and placed his pack under the back of his head. He died there and in that position, with his faithful dog at
his side."
Through interviews with John
Hartzell, together with the story of James Hartzell's death, it becomes apparent that the Hartzell family have
always thought at least one of Caleb Rhoades' mines to be in the Red Creek area of the Uintah Mountains; James
camped "near the Boddy Duke Trail" and would have searched the "Bear Hollow" area the next
day had he not died, and John Hartzell has stated: "Up quite high on Red Creek we once found an old cabin
which had either been only partially built or rotted away....near this cabin we found the badly aged skeletons
of three horses and each horse had a clearly visible bullet hole right between the eyes. Judging
from the old bones, they’d been there for a very long time.”29.
John Hartzell also stated that it was his understanding that a man by
the name of Burns, from Salt Lake City, had accompanied Enock Rhoades to the mine, but that both Burns and
Rhoades were shot to death by the Indians while they were inside the mine. Of course, John Hartzell could not
remember from whom he had heard this story and, for the sake of history it matters not, for it is just “a
story.”
James E. Hartzell
Photo taken about 1955.
George Williams
Cal Giles , Wasatch County Search and Rescue tied James Hartzell to a plank of ply-wood and carried his body out on his horse.
Aug 1961
