John Veatch

John Allen Veatch (5 March 1808Template:Snd24 April 1870),<ref>Veatch, John Allen, Texas State Historical Association</ref> a surgeon, surveyor, and scientist, was known for his discovery of large deposits of borax at Tuscan Springs, California, on 8 January 1856.<ref>https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/veatch-john-allen</ref>

Biography

Veatch moved with his family to Texas in 1834, where he surveyed for the Mexican government. He received two land grants in 1835, one located in what would become Beaumont, Texas, and another near the future Sour Lake, Texas.<ref>https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/veatch-john-allen</ref> After the Texas Revolution, where he served as a surgeon, Veatch moved to California, where he discovered borax in Lake County, California.<ref>https://www.redbluffdailynews.com/2024/08/17/borax-tehama-countys-white-gold-tales-of-tehama/</ref> Veatch eventually ended up in Oregon, where he taught at the Willamette University College of Medicine.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Possible identification as Judge Holden

Veatch has been considered a popular candidate for the historical Judge Holden, mentioned in Samuel Chamberlain's autobiography My Confession: Recollections of a Rogue and, later, the historical novel Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Like Holden, Veatch either commanded or was second in command of a scalp-hunting party into Mexico. Holden was also a polymath, skilled in the very same areas as Veatch, such as geography.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Others have speculated that Charles Wilkins Webber is another possible historical identification for Judge Holden.<ref>https://allthatsinteresting.com/judge-holden</ref>

References

• (page 23) Who Was Who in America 1967