USA > California > Merced County > A history of Merced County, California : with a biographical review of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 19
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Richard Ivers, Michael Dugan, Joseph Sullivan, and, Patrick Carroll took a section of land each, the four lying in a square two miles on a side. The compact shape was a convenience for the pur- pose of patrolling it to drive off the herds of wild horses and half wild cattle which roamed over the plains. This is the first instance we have found of that considerable settlement by Irish people which took place in the early grain days. Quite a number of families now extremely well known on the East Side came in about that time. Robert Sheehy was at that time in the grain business, both growing and shipping, in the country from Napa to Vallejo, and he was instru- mental in sending a number of Irish families here ; and others of these came from the Napa vicinity. The Rahilly family came from that
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section. County Clerk P. J. Thornton's father came here also in the late sixties, and before the railroad was built he hauled from Stockton, out across the San Joaquin, up the West Side, and back across again at Dover, the lumber of which the oldest part of the house on the Alfarata Ranch was built. The route is instructive as to transportation routes and difficulties at that time. The tributaries of the San Joaquin River from the Sierra Nevadas were of course the reason for going over to the West Side; and clear from the time of Fremont's trip in 1844 down to the time when the railroad bridged these streams in 1872, they continued to offer obstacles, with their currents and the marshy areas that border them, that were very diffi- cult to pass.
The remaining fifteen families which came in this party Mr. Ivers does not remember. They did not settle in the immediate neighbor- hood of the four mentioned. Charles S. Rogers, whose father, Nath- aniel Sheffield Rogers, came to this same neighborhood with a party largely from San Joaquin County somewhere not far from this time, tells some interesting things about life there in the early days. N. S. Rogers settled about where Mr. Doty now lives. Job Wheat at that time was in the sheep business. He had a cabin about where Mr. Beutel now lives, in 1868, when the Rogers family arrived. He also had a sheep cabin on the high land known as "the Bluff," this side of Amsterdam, on what is now part of Bert Crane's cattle range. The cabin by day, and the light in it by night, were visible for miles; and the cabin was called "the Lighthouse." It was a useful land- mark for laying a course across the largely uncharted plains between Bear Creek and the Merced River.
A man named Oliver and N. S. Rogers heard of this country and came here together. Oliver owned the land, or some of it, on which the town of Merced was afterwards built, and he lived about where the Mercy Hospital now is. J. F. Goodale lived a little further down Bear Creek and on the other side, along in the vicinity of Dr. Thomas' place and the Santa Fe crossing. This place about the Santa Fe crossing is a piece of high land where the Indians, and the Mexicans after them, used to gather, Mr. Rogers says; he has in his collection one of those flat stones, somewhat like a mortar, used by the Indians in grinding acorns, which was dug up at this place.
Mr. Rogers tells two little stories of early days that help us to realize what life on the plains was like then. Some Americans had a bunch of horses in a corral at the Goodale place and left them without a guard for a short time. When they returned they found that Mexi- cans had come in and roped and thrown them, and shaved the mane and tail of every horse but one, to get the hair for hair ropes, riatas, and bridles.
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Ned Clark, a Canadian who came here with N. S .: Rogers and Oliver, lived in a cabin near a little new house of Mr. Beutel's just a mile or two out the British Colony Road. There were great num- bers of cattle roaming over the plains, and among them there was an old bull belonging to J. M. Montgomery. This bull made itself a particular nuisance to the newly arrived farmers in their agricultural operations, and it came to be one of their favorite outdoor sports to put a charge of shot or two into the old bull's tough hide. Clark was among the most enthusiastic of the bull-shooters. One day Clark was away from his cabin, and someone must have used shot that was too coarse, or fired at too short a range, for when Clark returned home he found that the bull, determined to the end, had come up to his cabin door and fallen dead across the threshold right into the cabin. This picturesque little story illustrates what soon grew to be one of the big problems of the times. There were cattle men who had been accustomed to let their stock run at will, there was stock which was not to be deterred from running at will, and now there were farmers whose farming could not be carried on if the stock was to be permitted to run over their crops. There could not help but be a lot of friction; and there was, as we shall see.
On October 3, 1868, we run across this: "Paradise City .- We are informed that the handsome and growing little town of Paradise City, situated on the north bank of the Tuolumne River, still con- tinues to improve rapidly, the new buildings being brick, showing that the people have confidence in the permanence of the place. Mr. Charles S. Peck, one of our townsmen, is the contractor and builder of brick buildings there, and is now engaged in the erection of a three story brick hotel. . .. He has also closed a contract for . . . a large two story brick school house. The buildings erected in Para- dise City by Mr. Peck this season would of themselves make quite a town. It will at no distant day become a large and important town and a convenient shipping point for a large scope of country. We also find in the same column a reader calling attention to the "ad" of "The Paradise Flouring Mills," elsewhere in the issue. They were run by "Messrs. Herron & Co.," and "These mills are located in the center of a section of country noted for raising the best article of wheat grown on the Pacific coast." We are assured that they are erected to make the "best article of flour that human skill, aided by the best of machinery, can produce."
In the issue of October 10 is an editorial starting out, "Wine is a mocker and strong drink is raging," inspired by the fact that a bottle of the mocker from the cellar of J. B. Cocanour has been left at the Herald office. Steele gives us to understand that he tried it only on some visitors and the printer's devil, and says the visitors, "who
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claim to be judges," pronounced it "equal to the best quality produced in Sonoma and Los Angeles," and adds, "As an article of commerce we desire to see the production of wine fostered and encouraged."
In the same issue is an announcement that Judge Talbott will address the people of Hopeton on the political issues of the day. About this time the name Forlorn Hope seems to have been dropped; it could not hope to survive with the booster abroad in the land. There is also an election proclamation by the Governor, in an even- numbered year.
In the next issue we note several advertisements from Tuolumne City ; in fact Tuolumne City advertises to an extent which throws all the other towns that appear as advertisers decidedly into the shade. There are the Covert House, Mrs. Jane Goodrich, late proprietress of the Granite House, Chinese Camp (one of the straws indicating the movement away from the mining country) ; Robert Phillips, gen- eral store, Front Street, on the levee ; George H. French, Main Street, stoves and tin ware, wood and willow ware, Douglas lift pumps, tin, copper, and sheet iron work; Dudley's Hotel and Restaurant, corner Main and Covert Streets, Albert A. Dudley; and the Pioneer Hotel, Front Street, R. B. Robinson, proprietor. There are news stories- meaning of course the little essays characteristic of the newspapers of the times, compounded half of news, half of comment-on the railroad, Republican speaking, supervisors' election; and lower down, J. B. Cocanour's announcement that he is a candidate for reelection.
On October 24 there is a communication to the effect that someone offers to open a high school if $100 a month can be raised for it, and that J. M. Montgomery, Dr. G. M. Summers, and Silas March are named as trustees. And there is the news that there is a scarcity of teams, because so many of them have been taken off the roads onto the farms. Also in this and the next issue we learn that there has been an earthquake. Earthquake stories occur every now and then.
Along through the winter we read, in November, that Cocanour was reelected, that they are growing cotton down on the Kings River, that many of the new settlers are without shelter, especially around Dover (due partly to lack of transporattion for building materials ), that Dr. J. W. Fitzhugh has resumed practice, that R. Simpson is a merchant and Mr. Jolly justice of the peace at Dover, and that Wigginton & Howell have a real estate office functioning (the first bank in Merced seems afterwards to have grown from it). In December there is a Christmas ball at Paradise, and editorials appear on a proposed new mail route across from the San Luis Ranch by way of Dover and Hill's Ferry, the railroad, smallpox in the State, a new pork-packing business by J. M. Montgomery, and a new road and ferry at Dover. There is a Christmas story, "The Old
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Slave," by Mrs. Rowena Granice Steele. Surveyor General Bost is home for Christmas, and Howard and Brother have returned from a prolonged absence. In January there is something about a "Syca- more Bend & Tejon Railroad," an item that men are wanted by the farmers, an "ad." of H. Shaw, Blacksmith, Dover, a story that navi- gation has reopened on the Stanislaus and the Tuolumne, an incidental mention of "quite a village of Chinese" in Snelling, a considerable write-up of the San Joaquin Valley from the San Francisco Call, some Millerton correspondence, and a story about some blooded cattle which J. M. Montgomery has bought. We learn there are two boats a week to Dover, and that a deer has been killed near Snelling. Along in February appear a discussion of "Bridges Needed," paper items all local on account of the rain, and comment on mail failures, overflow of the Merced, "our hunters" killing 213 quail, and the town improving.
In March, we find mention of the Stockton & Tulare Railroad, spring plowing ( this was on the uplands north of Snelling), and that Cole Fitzhugh is home from an extended hunt in the Coast Range, where he shot a grizzly; and there is an editorial on "Preparing to Live," about permanent improvements in Snelling, and another on "Our Woolen Mills."
On April 3 we read of more improvements in Dover, and there is a story about quite a brisk business having been done during the past two weeks by our people in locating lands, mostly north of the Merced. "The best lands of the county have all been entered," we are told, which statement we must not permit to lead us into drawing any mental picture of these best lands as actually settled. This was about the time when Isaac Friedlander and William S. Chapman, and some smaller fry, had "entered" thousands and thousands of acres in this valley. One gets the impression from the records of the late sixties and early seventies that they owned nearly the whole country. Friedlander is referred to in connection with the building of the first canal on the West Side, a little later than this. He was a Jew, a grain-shipper of San Francisco, and apparently aspired to own a grain-raising empire in the San Joaquin Valley. Chapman & Mont- gomery we see referred to as owners of the Chowchilla Ranch, and Chapman owned a lot of land in the Plainsburg vicinity, and a lot more further north and west, plains on both sides of the lower Merced. In a notice of an application for new roads out across the plains towards Dover and Bear Creek, we see the name of J. W. Mitchell as one of the owners of the land to be passed over.
The land was being "entered," but there was still a lot of elbow room. O. H. Terrell relates that as a newcomer in Snelling in Janu- ary, 1870, he went to work for J. M. Montgomery, and Mr. Mont-
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gomery sent him on horseback down to J. K. Mears on Mariposa Island with a letter about the purchase of some sheep, and that he passed through the country between the present sites of Atwater and Buhach. There were no fences; and there were no towns, and no railroads, or roads in the way. When he had got Mears's answer, he carried it up Bear Creek to Montgomery's ranch about ten miles above where Merced is now; and the only signs of habitation he passed along the way on this journey were the old adobe house at Robla and M. Goldman's new store down towards the Meadowbrook Farm. Where Merced now stands he rode through tall weeds, up to his waist as he sat on his horse. Montomery and Cocanour, and perhaps a few others, had a few small pieces of land taken up along Bear Creek where there were water-holes, usually a forty in a place. Montgomery had six forties where Merced now is, patented in 1862. There was a lot of land patented before 1870, however, and it is obvious that Terrell must have passed within no such great dis- tance of some settlers, as for example Ivers, Carroll, Dugan, Sullivan, Rogers, et al., out British Colony way, but apparently the country wasn't badly crowded. When he reached Montgomery's ranch, and Montgomery had come up from the Chowchilla, Terrell returned to Mariposa Island and Mears sent a man with him, and they drove the sheep across through Sandy Mush to the Chowchilla Ranch; and the only man they encountered on the way was Silas Bowman, who had a little shack out in that country.
Returning to the Herald, we read on April 17, 1869, that Cap- tain J. G. Morrison, a newcomer of a year, and Samuel H. P. Ross are candidates for the Assembly, George Turner and W. S. Weed for treasurer, and Samuel Shears for sheriff. In the same issue :
"The Railroad Line .- A corps of engineers passed through our county this week, making a preliminary or experimental survey of routes for a railroad. We are not informed whether it is the West- ern Pacific or the Stockton and Tulare Railroad Company that is making the survey, but from the silence of the Stockton papers on the subject, we judge . . . the former. ... The farmers along the route are very much encouraged at the prospect of soon having increased mail and transportation facilities."
On May 1 we read that the farmers of the county are stocking up with farming machinery. Also that a day has been fixed for the meeting of the Union and Central Pacific at Pomontory Point. On the 15th, the Millerton correspondent, writing under date of May 10, says Converse's Ferry on the San Joaquin River has become entirely ruined and it is almost impossible to run the ferry boat. "At the present time it is impossible to cross teams," he writes, "and travel is at a standstill at that point."
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On the 22nd: "Improvements .- Our town is now beginning to show signs of improvement. Mr. J. M. Montgomery has in course of erection a brick building, designed for a family residence, which when completed will be the largest, most substantial and costly build- ing in the county. Mr. Leeson is engaged in removing his buildings from Coulterville, and will soon have them put up on the vacant lot on the south side of Lewis Street, adjoining Anderson's livery stable. A contract is about being let for the Odd Fellows' Hall, which is designed to be a magnificent structure, on the vacant lot adjoining the Galt House. We observe that large bills of lumber are being ordered by Mr. Anderson, to be sawed at the mills above Coulterville, for which Mr. A. is agent. These facts may be taken as signs that the era of the prosperity of our town is approaching. Surrounded as we are by a rich and rapidly improving farming country, the growth of the town may be considered permanent, and every year will add to its business prosperity and the number of its inhabitants."
Under the title "Haying," we read that the farmers are cutting large quantities, and that they are using modern mowers and rakes.
"Mariposa Creek .- We hear from this locality, so peculiarly favored by nature, that the early sown crops look splendidly, and are now so far advanced towards maturity that there can scarcely be a doubt but that they will turn out well at harvest. The same may be said of Bear Creek; and on this river, the prospect was never better, the season suiting the most of our grain lands exactly."
"Cattle .- We observed several large droves of cattle being crossed at the ford just above this place, the past week, on their way to mar- ket, having been purchased by professional drovers of our citizens. Cattle bring paying prices now, and each drove that moves northward brings thousands of dollars into our county."
On May 29 we read that a Major Rowen has been hurt in an accident while mowing for Mr. Adam Kahl on Mariposa Creek.
"Bear Creek .- The crops on Bear Creek, since the late rains, have improved greatly, and the farmers are in better spirits. Most of the grain crops were somewhat late. . =
"The San Joaquin and Lower Merced .- The crops in the above section of the country, so we are informed, . . . have come out amaz- ingly since the late rains. Many of the fields were planted late in the season, and those which have not been fed down by the large bands of cattle and horses which rove about over the adjoining plains will yet make pretty fair crops. Though the season has been unfavor- able to those just beginning to farm upon the plains, none are dis- couraged. . . . "
June 5, 1869: "Sandy Mush is the euphonious name of a new settlement formed near the San Joaquin River between the Chow-
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chilla River and Mariposa Creek. In the settlement are about forty voters, all of whom located there last winter and planted crops. All are pleased with their location, and though they planted late and have been considerably troubled by the cattle and other stock running at large on the plains, they will reap an abundance of grain to supply the incoming immigration to that section. The wheat and barley growing in the new section will not come up to the average of older settlements where lands were summerfallowed, but having proved their lands to be productive they consider themselves permanently located, and are at work building them good homes. Of the forty- two voters in the settlement, who will vote at the Lone Tree precinct, not one of them will vote the negro and Chinese suffrage ticket."
What looked most important in 1869 does not look so now. Probably most of these forty-two, sound Democrats as they seem to have been, were within about three years to vote to move the county seat away from Snelling over to Merced. But Merced had not yet come into existence; a little later the editor tells of discovering it, in its very early youth.
"Hopeton .- Our sister town, down in the 'Big Bottom,' gives signs of progress and improvement. The Messrs. Eagleson are doing a lively business in their mercantile establishment, and we are informed that a blacksmith and wagon-maker's shop will be started there on a large scale the coming week. Besides the store of the Messrs. Eagleson, whose advertisement can be found in our columns, there is another store, two schools, two churches, and a collection of neat dwelling and farm houses. The crops in the neighborhood-as they always have been-are excellent, and the people are prosperous. It is, in fact, the most wealthy locality in our county, and is daily receiv- ing accessions to its population."
"Preaching .- The Rev. Mr. Culp, of the Methodist Church, South, will preach at the Court House in this place tomorrow (Sun- day) evening. Services to commence at early candle light."
"Thresher For Sale .- See the advertisement of R. Simpson-of Dover-of a thresher and horsepower for sale. The season for harvesting the ripening grain is now upon us, and a first rate oppor- tunity is thus offered for any one in the county desiring such a machine to purchase." The "ad.": "One Sweepstakes Thresher !! With Pitts' Ten-Horse-Power. For Sale by R. Simpson, Dover."
There is a column "ad." by Wigginton & Howell, Real Estate Agents, who habitually run a column. They offer, in this particular "ad.", an 800-acre farm on the Tuolumne at $10 an acre; a first- class bottom farm on the Merced River a few miles below Snellings, 210 acres all best farming land, well improved, with good fence and buildings, at a bargain and on easy terms; another of 550 acres on
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the Merced, 400 acres fenced, 300 acres in wheat and barley, first- class buildings and orchard, well stocked with horses, cows, and farm- ing implements, including a header, all for $8000 cash if sold by the 20th day of June. "A rare bargain; $8,000 is not two-thirds of its value."
On June 12, there is a brief account of the assassination of Judge George G. Belt :
"The Dennis-Belt Homicide .- On Friday evening last, Judge George G. Belt, one of our citizens, . . . was assassinated in cold blood by a Mr. Dennis, a man who formerly resided in this county." Belt, according to the story, was shot from behind, on the streets of Stockton. He left a wife, four boys, and five girls.
There is a paragraph about crops in Fresno-excellent crops reported from the Mississippi settlement on the San Joaquin, fifty bushels of wheat, and barley proportionally more; also from the farms on Big Dry Creek and the Kings River.
June 19, 1869 : "Heavy Grain .- Samples from Neil McSwain's farm on Bear Creek about fifteen miles south of this place, . . . heads of barley five inches long, heads of wheat from seven to eight. Heads of wheat from Mr. Kahl's farm from eight to eight and one-half inches, barley equally as good." "Short crops will be considered a myth in this section in future years under our improved system of farming."
"The First Fruits of the Season." Under this title the editor acknowledges his thanks for some apples and apricots from L. D. Durgin, on the Scott Ranch.
"Beyond the Joaquin .- Several of our citizens have visited that portion of our county lying west of the San Joaquin River this week, and all agree in pronouncing the prospect there the most lovely and promising that the eye of man ever beheld. The wheat crops are yielding, as well as can be ascertained, from thirty to fifty bushels to the acre, and the scene is as lively as the most stirring business man could wish."
"Fire on the Plains .- We learn from a gentleman just in from the Chowchilla River, that there was considerable excitement among the people in that section of the country about fire on the plains. He saw several persons who had been engaged in 'fighting' the all-devouring element, but being a stranger, could not tell us the exact locality in which it was raging."
"Grasshoppers .- Considerable complaint is made by our river valley farmers of a destructive raid now in progress by these pests. ." On June 26, we read that complaints of their ravages are . on the increase, and that G. W. Halstead, Sr., has cut his corn crop
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for fodder to save it. The small grain, says the story, is ripe and safe from the grasshoppers.
In the issue of the 26th we read that the woolen mill at Merced Falls is almost shut down for want of labor. Superintendent Nelson has discharged forty Chinese the week before and sent to San Fran- cisco for more. Also, there is a new store of Simon & Davis at Dover, and another of Sensabaugh & Silverberg at Merced Falls. There is a Masonic "In Memoriam" resolution for Brother J. T. Stockird. Mark Howell, J. G. Morrison, and I. N. Ward, are the committee who drafted it. There is an announcement that there will be a Fourth of July celebration at Paradise City.
On July 3 an editorial "To Our Patrons," asks that back bills be paid up, and announces plans for a new press and a larger paper. It says the county has doubled in population and increased fifty per cent in wealth in the past twelve months. The new paper appeared in August-The San Joaquin Valley Argus.
On July 10 we read that the farmers are now threshing grain, and that the yield is up to the expectations of the most sanguine. "From the west side of the San Joaquin the reports are of extraordinary yield. That portion of our county, which one year ago was a wilder- ness, has raised this year at a fair estimate not less than 50,000 acres of grain, not to be estimated at a yield of less than 30 bushels to the acre. ... Preparations are already being made for the next year's crop and the indications are that the yield of grain in Merced County for 1870, should the season prove favorable, will be fully five times that of 1869. It would be difficult to find a people who enjoy a greater degree of prosperity than do the people of Merced County."
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