Daddy Downey and Mammy Downey were reputed to be already living at Rough-and-Ready when the first settlers arrived; they were considered saints and word of their great age and piety had spread far beyond the foothills, into The Union Ditch newspaper and beyond. However, the arrival of a second aged couple first made them hermits and then Mammy passed away. With both of them gone, the sheriff of Calaveras revealed the shocking truth.