embly, pioneer
organist, Stockton, California, 1852.]

CHAPTER FOUR

HOW I MADE THE FIRST BEAR FLAG IN CALIFORNIA

When I was fifteen years old the San Joaquin slough was wide enough
for river steamers, schooners and sloops to make safe landings in the
heart of Stockton. This was in 1854. Schooners brought lumber,
potatoes and hay to Stockton from San Francisco. One of the boats
making a monthly trip to Stockton was captained by a popular young man
familiarly called "Captain Charley." That is my reason for not calling
him by his name. I never saw him, but my brother, George Kroh, would
often stand on the wharf and watch his men unload the steamer. It was
on one of these occasions that Captain Charley in conversation with
one of his friends said, "I tell you, John, I'd give a fifty-dollar
slug if I could get a Bear flag to fly from the topmast of my natty
schooner. Nothing would please me more than to come up this slough
with just such a flag. I won't rest, either, until I have Old Glory
and the Bear Flag flying on my craft." When the captain's friend left
him, my brother stepped up to him and said, "Were you in earnest,
captain, when you said you would give a fifty-dollar slug for a Bear
flag?" The captain laughed and said, "I certainly was in earnest, and
I'll say it again to you."

My brother said, "Captain, I have a sister who can make you that
flag." "All right," said Captain Charley, "You have a fine flag ready
when I get back and the slug will be yours." It was a bargain and they
shook hands on the deal. When George came home he said to mother,
"Where's Maggie?" "Up stairs," was the reply. He came up and said in
an off-hand way, "Maggie, how would you like to make a Bear flag?" I
looked up in surprise and said, "A bear flag? What kind of a flag is
that?" My sister, Mary, spoke up and said, "Why, Maggie, it is the
flag of California. I saw a picture of it in the newspaper, and I cut
it out." She then asked George who wanted the flag. "Well," he
replied, "Captain Charley of one of these schooners said this morning
he would give a fifty-dollar slug to get a Bear flag to float beside
Old Glory, and I told him you would make it for him." A fifty-dollar
slug all my own! "Ha, ha," I laughed in high glee. "I'll make it if
sister will help me." So it was planned I should make the first Bear
flag to fly on any boat up the San Joaquin river.

The next morning sister and I went to the dry goods store at Grove an