John A. Stone "Old Put"

I don't know as much as I should about the life of John A. Stone. I thought he lived up here in Placer and El Dorado Counties. He's buried in Greenwood (El Dorado County), which is about halfway between Auburn and Placerville, California.

I did find this quote:
"Stone claimed to have sung all of his songs at various times and places and occasionally with the assistance of a group of men known as the Sierra Nevada Rangers. With encouragement from friends, he published his songs as Put's Original California Songster in 1855 which was followed by other "Put's" songsters that dealt with the mountains of California. "Sweet Betsy" appeared in the second edition of Put's Golden Songster (1858) ..." Quoted from "The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing" by Guy Logsdon, p. 215ff.

[Dicho used this quotation in another post, saying that Stone never found gold - I checked the Logsdon book, and I think that's a bit too strong an interpretation of what Logsdon said.]

Here's the text of California State Highway Marker #521 in Greenwood, California:

NO. 521 GREENWOOD - John Greenwood, a trapper and guide who came to California in 1844, established a trading post here in 1849. The gold rush town of Greenwood boasted a theater, four hotels, 14 stores, a brewery, and four saloons. Among its illustrious citizens was John A. Stone, California songwriter, who was buried here in 1863.
Location: SW corner of the intersection of State Hwy 193 and Greenwood St, Greenwood

Source: http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21417

And then I came across the introduction to the terrific book titled The Songs of the Gold Rush, (1964) by Richard A. Dwyer and Richard E. Lingenfelter from UCLA (Pages 8-9). An excerpt:

Little is known of Put's early history, except that he came overland to California in 1850. A few writers believe he came from Pike County, Missouri, because he made a number of references in his songs to the denizens of Pike. Many other writers of gold rush songs, however, did the same, and it is doubtful that they all came from Pike.
On his arrival in California, Put at first went to mining. His luck was no better than the average until the summer of 1853, when he discovered near Columbia a single block of gold-bearing quartz weighing more than 700 pounds and worth some $15,000. With his fortune he retired from mining and devoted himself to his favorite pastime of improvising new and topical songs to the accompaniment of his guitar. He soon organized a small troupe, the Sierra Nevada Rangers, to tour the mining camps of the Mother Lode. Their entire repertoire of humorous and satirical songs were written by Old Put out of his experiences in the mines. The popularity of these songs prompted him to publish them in 1855 in a pocket-size paperback, The Original California Songster....
Old Put's songs were so successful that his book ultimately went into its fifth edition, with a total printing of 25,000 copies.As indicated by the advertising, his most popular songs were "The Fools of '49," "Arrival of the Greenhorn," "Sweet Betsey from Pike," Hangtown Gals," and "Emigrant from Pike."
In 1858 Stone published an additional selection of his songs in Put's Golden Songster....
Despite the success of his songs, Put's fate was tragic. When rich placers began to give out and most of the miners moved to new diggings, he retired to a small log cabin at Greenwood, some sixteen miles north of Placerville. Unquestionably, the sadness and loneliness expressed in some of his later songs mirrored his own feelings, for he became very despondent and tood to drinking heavily. Finally on January 24, 1863 or 1864, he ended his life....

That's a start. I'd like to learn more about Stone's story.

-Joe Offer, Applegate, CA-