Appearances notwithstanding part 2

 

The story goes, That in order to avoid prosecution because of the 1860 debacle with Walker in Nicaragua, the teenaged Asbury Harpending took 5 bucks from his father and split for California which was the final frontier.  

By the time young Asbury arrived in San Francisco, he had parlayed his 5 dollars into 250 by selling fresh fruit to the other passengers on the ship.  Proving his merit as a privateer from early on, four years later Asbury was the founder of a town.  

That's why we say appearances notwithstanding.  

Asbury was a hustler with the Midas touch for ripping people off and he learned there was less work and as much money to be had in selling overpriced goods to miners than there was in actual mining. 

During the civil war young Asbury knocked around California avoiding combat in a war he helped to create but expected others to fight.  

He and his confederates operated what we would consider a terror cell out of San Francisco aligned with the pro confederate Knights of the Golden Circle.   The purpose of this organization in California was to establish strongholds on the west coast.  

For all intents and purposes, young Asbury was a spy and became the west coast bagman for the KGC, personally accumulating about 2 million dollars of wealth by the end of the civil war.  

There is no exact figure for the amount of money Harpending actually transferred from the west coast to confederate coffers, but he made at least 1 well-known trip to Virginia for a drop and to return with mail and dispatches for enemy operators in San Francisco. 

 

Prior to the war the KGC group advocated for the expansion of the United States into Mexico and points south establishing even more slave-holding territories for representation in congress.  They actually wanted to form a country including the south, all of Mexico, and the Caribbean with Havannah Cuba being the capital, and these would be countries of the golden circle, with the golden circle meaning slaveholding countries.  

 Their leader was an American general named George Washington Lafayette Bickley who planned but failed to execute a coup against Lincoln in 1860.  

If the plot succeeded the conspirators would have replaced President-elect Lincoln on innaguaration day with the former vice president and Democratic candidate, General John C. Breckinridge.  Breckinridge would eventually assume command of confederate forces during the civil war, and ultimately became their secretary of war.

As I have pointed out previously,  who in the hell covers these topics if I do not?

 

The town called Havilah which young Asbury founded, sits in the shadow of a mountain named after a Confederate general by members of the KGC to show the expansion of their territory to include the west. 

I wonder how much of a hand Harpending had in the naming of Mt. Breckenridge, I mean he was the founder of the town which became the county seat.  Either way, it doesn't look good, just saying.  The truth is often inconvenient.  

  

to be continued...