In Part 7, two writers introduced us to a person named Richard Crone, who was also known as Irish Dick, Bloody Dick and a few other names. Apparently he was hanged from the famous tree a couple of years after…
Why Did They Call It Hangtown? – Part 7
Finishing up with stories about the famous hanging that changed the name of Placerville, then Old Dry Diggings, to Hangtown, we look at two books, a history book entitled “The Argonauts of California,” by C. W. Haskins, published in 1890,…
Why Did They Call It Hangtown? – Part 6
Still continuing with stories about the famous hanging that changed the name of Placerville, then Old Dry Diggings, to Hangtown, we now look at the version provided by the well-respected Theodore H. Hittell in his “History of California,” Volume I,…
Why Did They Call It Hangtown? – Part 5
Continuing with stories about the famous hanging that changed the name of Placerville, then Old Dry Diggings, to Hangtown, we now look at two versions of the story provided by one of Placerville’s most thorough historians, Marilyn Ferguson. Her version,…
Why Did They Call It Hangtown? – Part 4
Last time we looked at the famous hanging that changed the name of Placerville, then Old Dry Diggings, to Hangtown, as it was written by Edward Gould Buffum in his book, “Six months in the gold mines: from a journal…
Why Did They Call It Hangtown? – Part 3
As a part of the look at the various stories about the famous hanging that changed the name of Placerville, then Old Dry Diggings, to Hangtown, Edward Gould Buffum’s first-person account is one of the most important. In Chapter VI…