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 32
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Beckwith ran the Tribune for about a year and was succeeded by a young man named Edward Madden. Just about the time that Madden took over the Tribune, Steele, on April 5, 1873, moved the Argus office from Snelling over to Merced. We have seen that Steele, in 1869, when there was talk of establishing a paper in Plainsburg, made objections; also, as just mentioned above, that he scored the newcomer who was proposing to establish a paper in Merced. There is no use at this late day in trying to establish the blame for the bitter feeling which led to the tragedy of December 7, 1874. There are many scathing editorials in both the Argus and the Tribune during the time from April, 1873, to December, 1874-and it is evident that there must have been bitter hatred between Madden and the Steeles. Mrs. Steele, who was a tireless writer, had written a book and was going about the central portion of the State canvassing for orders for it. On December 5, 1874, Madden published in his Tribune a short paragraph about this which Harry Granice, Mrs. Steele's son, took to be an unforgivable insult to his mother; and on the following Monday, December 7, 1874, as Madden was walking with his friend Hamilton, the county auditor, on Front Street in front of where M. Zirker's store now is, Granice stepped out with a navy revolver and shot him dead, firing five or six shots into his body.
Feeling ran very high, and Sheriff Meany sent N. Breen and a man named Hathaway with the prisoner to the Half Way House, later known as the Six Mile House, on the road towards Snelling, to
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get him away from a mob which gathered. The mob proceeded out toward the Half Way House; and as they approached, or news of their approach arrived, Granice escaped-it was disputed whether with the acquiescence of the officers. He made good his escape for the time being and is said to have been hidden for several days in a friend's home in Merced. He seems to have given himself up later. We read of the sheriff sending R. Shaffer to take him to the jail at Modesto for safe-keeping.
In the Express of March 20, 1875, we read that, in the case of the People vs. Harry Granice (indicted for murder ), in the district court, no district attorney being present, the court appointed R. H. Ward to represent the people ; that Ward was assisted by William L. Dudley of Stockton, special prosecutor, and that Jo. Hamilton and E. F. Lit- tlepage represented the defendant; that a motion for a continuance was denied; and that upon motion and affidavit the case was trans- ferred to Fresno County and set for trial on June 23. There was a slight further delay; but on July 7, 1875, Granice went to trial and on July 10 the trial was concluded and the jury found him guilty of mur- der in the first degree and fixed his punishment at life imprisonment, under a law then apparently from the press comments quit new. A book entitled "Hunted Down, or Five Days in the Fog," was written about Granice's escape at the Half Way House and the subsequent days; it has sometimes been attributed to Mrs. Steele, but a "card" signed by N. Breen and published in the Express during 1875 described it as "purporting to have been written by Harry H. Granice." The card was published by Mr. Breen to deny the truth of several state- ments in the book, he says, which reflected upon the sheriff and his deputies in their treatment of the prisoner. From the comments of the press at the time, the conviction seems to have been regarded as marking an end of the old pioneer idea that homicide was justifiable for rather numerous causes.
Granice did not serve any of the term, however. Because of some technical flaw in the indictment or proceedings, Judge Terry got him off. It appears that it was either because the indictment turned up missing or because it showed signs of having been altered.
The publication of the Argus was suspended for about three months, apparently, after the killing of Madden; we find it continuing again about March, 1875. The Tribune was published for six issues after Madden's death, December 12, 19, and 26, and January 2, 9, and 16, with Hood Alston as editor, and then the Merced Express continued without a break from where the Tribune left off. The Express was published at the start under a board of directors consist- ing of P. D. Wigginton, A. J. Meany, Patrick Carroll, E. M. Stod- dard, and Samuel C. Bates. The fact that Stoddard was one Repub-
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lican among four Democrats may perhaps be taken as another indica- tion of the new order of things.
In April, 1875, Frank H. Farrar, who had been managing agent of the Express, became its editor and proprietor. On November 27 of the same year he sold a half interest to W. P. Stoneroad. In March, 1877, N. B. Stoneroad purchased Mr. Farrar's interest and the paper was published by W. P. and N. B. Stoneroad with J. W. Robertson as editor. On March 1, 1879, N. B. Stoneroad sold his interest to W. L. Howell. Howell and W. P. Stoneroad published the paper until January 28, 1882, and then W. P. Stoneroad retired. In July, 1882, Joseph A. Norvell became editor ; and in March, 1884, he bought Howell out. Mr. Norvell published the paper until his death in December, 1909. Mrs. Norvell continued its publication until February, 1911, and then sold it to P. H. Griffin, the present proprietor.
The Argus continued until January, 1891, when it was succeeded by the Merced Sun. The paper carried on page 2, until January 25, 1890, the names of Robert J. Steele, Editor, and Mrs. R. G. Steele, Associate Editor ; but on page 1 appeared the names Steele and Steele, Mrs. R. G. Steele, Lee R. Steele, from October 24, 1885, and for a time before that the name of Mrs. Rowena Granice Steele. Robert J. Steele appears to have been ill for several years prior to his death. He died on January 28, 1890. Following that the name of Mrs. Steele appears on both page 1 and page 2 until June 7, 1890. In that issue Lee R. Steele's name appears on page 2, and in the next issue on both page 1 and page 2, as editor and publisher.
On October 4, 1886, the Daily Argus was launched, with Lee R. Steele as editor. It was a small four-page five-column paper. No files seem to be extant, but by quotations in the weekly "From Mon- day's Daily"-or some other day's-it appears to have continued as long as the weekly.
During the summer of 1890 there was established in Merced a paper called the Journal, published by a group of leaders of the High License Party, led by John W. Breckenridge and James F. Peck. Both the Journal and the Argus were purchased by Charles D. Rad- cliffe and J. H. Rogers, and merged in the Merced Sun, the first issue of which appeared on January 19, 1891. Rogers sold out soon to Willard Beebe, and Radcliffe & Beebe continued to publish the paper until 1893, when Beebe sold out to Radcliffe and went to Los Banos and bought the Enterprise at that place. C. D. Radcliffe then ran the Sun alone until 1894, when his brother Corwin Radcliffe came to Cali- fornia and became a partner in the paper. C. D. Radcliffe died on May 26, 1919. After his death, about the beginning of 1920, Urban J. Hoult became a partner and Radcliffe & Hoult published the paper
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until Hoult's death on October 31, 1924. The publication was con- tinued by Corwin Radcliffe until May 1, 1925.
On June 1, 1880, Charles and Thomas Harris established the Merced Star, a weekly which was published continuously under the firm name of Harris Brothers until April, 1921, although Thomas Harris died many years before this date and the paper was carried on by Charles Harris. In April, 1921, Walter H. Killam, who had purchased the paper, took it over and made it a daily, and continued the publication a little more than four years, to May 1, 1925. On that date, Ray and Hugh McClung, who had purchased both the Star and the Sun, issued the first number of the Merced Sun-Star, the present and now the only daily in the county seat, and indeed in the county.
Outside of the county seat there are now published the following weeklies: The Los Banos Enterprise, established in 1888, B. A. Wilson, proprietor; the Livingston Chronicle, now in its seventeenth volume, Elbert G. Adams, editor and proprietor; the Atwater Sig- nal, Thomas D. Calkins, editor and proprietor (the issue of June 5, which is the date of this writing, is numbered Vol. XV, No. 51) ; the Gustine Standard, in its seventeenth volume, Miller & Woodruff, pro- prietors; the Dos Palos Star, in its twenty-ninth volume, Roy M. Mc- Kay, publisher; the Le Grand Advocate, in its nineteenth volume, C. L. Zimmerman, editor and publisher ; the Hilmar Enterprise, Betty Wright, editor and publisher, in its seventh volume. In Stevinson, for a time a few years ago, was published the Stevinson Colonist, now discontinued. In Delhi, for the past two or three years, a small paper called the Delhi Record has been published.
CHAPTER XXI
IRRIGATION
The first irrigation from the Merced River was along the river bottom, where a number of small ditches were early constructed and water rights obtained. Several of these ditches are shown on the surveys of the township plats, which for that region were surveyed for the most part from 1852 to 1854. Peter Fee, in his diary cover- ing the years 1858 to 1862 inclusive, refers more than once to working on the ditch, and under date of February 6, 1862, records that a man named James Morton was shot by Erastus Kelsey, in a quarrel over a ditch apparently, and speaks of Kelsey's "trial" the following day -doubtless meaning his examination before a magistrate. Henry Nelson and Mrs. Mary J. Little both mentioned this episode. Mrs. Little stated expressly that no blame attached to Kelsey; and nothing more appears to have been done about the matter. It would be more than useless now to attempt to go into the merits of the quarrel. Fee records the bare facts of the shooting and the "trial," and as Morton appears to have been working for Fee (though this is but an infer- ence ), it is reasonable to expect that Fee would do him at least justice. The examining magistrate appears to have concluded that Kelsey acted in self-defense.
These early ditches for the irrigation of the river-bottom lands have had a very important effect upon the use of those lands, but have scarcely affected any broader extent of the county, beyond leaving a little less water for the non-river-bottom lands. They and their water rights still exist, and have had to be taken into account in all subse- quent appropriations of water from the river, but beyond that we may dismiss them from further review. The extent of the water claimed for them was given some publicity at the time, about ten years ago, when an attempt was made to form an irrigation district to take over the Crocker-Huffman Land & Water Company's system and water rights. This statement, which may be taken as substan- tially correct, was that the average flow of the river is approximately 1665 cubic feet of water a second, and that of this the old Ruddle mill, or Lee Hamlin mill, was entitled to the first forty second-feet, and of the next 300 second-feet the river-bottom ditches were entitled to 75 per cent and the Crocker-Huffman Company to the remaining 25 per cent. The Crocker-Huffman Company claimed the remainder of the river's flow. These quantities are again being gone into in the trial of the case of the Henry Cowell Lime & Cement Company et al.
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vs. the Merced Irrigation District et al., the trial of which ran for some ten days during April of this year and was then continued until June. Something less than one-sixth of the river's average flow is therefore the maximum which these ditches together with the Hamlin mill claimed, and this would be subject to be scaled down somewhat, as the river falls below the 300 or 340 second-feet of flow after midsummer.
The Merced River naturally was the source of supply which attracted all early as well as later irrigators or would-be irrigators of the East Side, with the exception of those near enough to the San Joaquin to draw on its waters. The first move on a large scale to divert the waters of the Merced was in fact made by men whose main design was to take the water clear to the San Joaquin, and whose main place of proposed use was close down to that stream. The moving spirit in this enterprise was William G. Collier, who was born in Shelby County, Kentucky, July 17, 1827. Like so many Kentuckians among the Western pioneers of that time, he came to Missouri and lived there for a time, and made it the jumping-off place for California. He came to California in 1853 and to Merced County in 1859. He was an educated man; was a student for three years at the University of Missouri, and was trained as a surveyor. For a number of years during the sixties he was county surveyor of Merced County. On March 30, 1870, together with William P. Sproul and Stephen Baltzley, Collier incorporated the Robla Canal Company, with a total capital stock of $25,000, consisting of 250 shares of a par value of $100 a share. The corporation's principal place of business is designated in the articles of incorporation as Col- lier's Ranch. Collier was president and manager, and also engineer.
In organizing this corporation, Collier was putting into effect a dream which he had had for a number of years, for irrigation on a large scale. He had first located in Merced County on the north side of the Merced River somewhere about across from the Stevinson Ranch; but to obtain better water facilities he had soon abandoned his location there and moved to the south side, where he came to own about 3000 acres of land, not all, however, at the one place. Almost from his first location on the Merced he had turned over in his mind plans for irrigation on a large scale, and the Robla Canal Company was the fruition of these dreams. The corporation planned to construct a canal from substantially the diversion point of the main canal now owned by the Merced Irrigation District, out across the lands south of the river until it struck the north branch of Bear Creek, thence down that branch to the main stream of Bear Creek and down that to "the Roblas and the Lone Willow," and thence in a northwesterly direction to the vicinity of the junction of the Merced
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with the San Joaquin. Members of Mr. Collier's family, who were familiar with how this project originated, believe that in it he pro- moted and organized the first irrigation system of a sufficient size and extent to be fairly entitled to be called a "system" in the State of California, and that as a consequence he is entitled to be called the father of irrigation in the State.
In the Merced River at the point of diversion was a dam belong- ing to three men named Blunt, Yeiser, and Perrings. Deeds from Thomas Blunt and James Perrings to the Robla Canal Company con- veying respectively three-eighths and one-eighth of this dam, with its water right, appear of record in May, 1873. The grantors conveyed rights of way for the canal across their lands; they stipulated that the corporation was to keep the dam in repair, and it appears that each one-eighth was to have one foot of water under a four-inch pressure as part of the consideration. There was also a nominal money con- sideration; Blunt, for his three-eighths, got a dollar in money besides the other considerations mentioned. One at least of these instru- ments, besides being signed by the grantor, is signed also by William G. Collier, President of the Robla Canal Company, on the grantee's behalf.
What the size of the Robla Canal was to be does not appear from the articles of incorporation. Several miles, apparently six or seven, appear to have been constructed under Collier's direction, and a tun- nel on this stretch was regarded as an innovation in engineering.
On May 20, 1873, the Farmers' Canal Company was incorpor- ated; and in November, 1876, we find recorded a number of deeds from the Robla Canal Company to the Farmers' Canal Company. The latter, which attacked the problem on the larger scale which three years' increase in population in the country made possible, was formed by the following men, who subscribed the sums set opposite their several names, thus raising, in all, the sum of $41,000 for the project : H. J. Ostrander, 50 shares, $5000; W. W. Gray, 50 shares, $5000; M. D. Atwater, 60 shares, $6000; Thomas Upton, 60 shares, $6000; William P. Fowler, 60 shares, $6000; Wilson E. Elliott, 60 shares, $6000; Norval Douglass, 30 shares, $3000; R. H. Morrison, 15 shares, $1500; H. B. Jolley, 20 shares, $2000; Stephen Fitzgerald, 5 shares, $500.
The purpose and object were declared in their articles of incor- poration to be "the mutual benefit of its stockholders in agricultural pursuits, by appropriating 100,000 inches of water of the Merced River ... for the purpose of irrigating the lands of the stockhold- ers of this corporation and of others who may wish to purchase water of this corporation for irrigating purposes." and "to construct, use, and keep in repair, a canal commencing at a point on the left bank of
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the Merced River, in said Merced County, near the line dividing town- ship ranges fourteen and fifteen east of the Mount Diablo base and meridian, and between a certain dam on said river, known as the Blunt, Yeiser and Perrings Dam, and a certain oak tree standing on the left bank . . . above said dam; which said oak tree is about thirty inches in diameter at this time and is marked on the westerly side with the letters R. C. C. and B. T., being a bearing tree marking the head of the Robla Canal Company's canal. From thence running in a southerly direction to the highest bank attainable on or near the right bank of the San Joaquin River, as shall hereafter be determined and located by the engineer of this corporation; said canal to extend in its course across Bear Creek, Mariposa Creek, and the Chow- chilla. Said canal to be of sufficient size to carry the said 100,000 inches of water." They then go on to claim for carrying water the channels of all the streams and their branches the canal shall cross, below the point of crossing to their mouths, and state that their pur- pose also includes the construction of branch canals.
It will be seen that this was an ambitious project. The 100,000 inches of water claimed, undoubtedly would mean that quantity daily, which would be equivalent to 2500 cubic feet per second, or about fifty per cent more than the average flow of the Merced. Nowhere nearly as much of a project was ever constructed as was here projected; but we must remember that this statement of the extent of the com- pany's aims and of its claims of water was designed to be broad enough to cover any possible future growth, up to what the river could irrigate. The Elliott & Moore history of the county, of 1881, says the canal from its head to its terminus, following its sinuosities, was about fifty miles long. It did not go down towards the Chow- chilla, however, or even apparently to Bear Creek, but came down the present course of the canal below the diversion point to Canal Creek and down to the Livingston country.
C. D. Martin, who came here in 1884 to work temporarily for C. H. Huffman on the work this company's successor, the Merced Canal Company, was doing, and who has been a resident of Merced ever since, says that the Farmers' Canal Company built a narrow canal about twenty feet wide and about seven miles long, down through the upper tunnel, which was ten feet wide, and they also built the Livingston Canal to about two miles north of Livingston and the Colony Branch to the vicinity of Atwater, to land northeast of Central Camp which was going to be colonized. This work, accord- ing to Mr. Martin's information, was done in 1879.
In 1882 C. H. Huffman organized the Merced Canal & Irrigation Company, and they bought out the Farmers' Canal Company. The new company began work in 1883. The first year's work was widen-
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ing the first seven miles of canal and the tunnel. In 1884 they com- pleted about five miles of the new canal, from the upper tunnel down to the Carmichael place. In 1885 they started the second tunnel. In 1886 practically all of the canal was completed to the reservoir, now known as Yosemite Lake, and part of the reservoir. In 1887 the reservoir was completed and a big celebration held. There were great expectations and a boom in Merced property.
Mr. Huffman bought the Farmers' Canal for about $80,000, Mr. Martin thinks. Huffman had interested William H. Crocker of San Francisco in the project, and Crocker had financed it. Huffman had a lot of land; he was a big grain-raiser. He acquired more land, a lot of it out towards Cressey, and in other parts of the territory served by the canal system. Shortly after the completion of the system the Crocker-Huffman Land & Water Company was organized, with Huffman and Crocker the chief owners. Huffman put in his land and retained a little more than fifty per cent of the stock of the company. The year 1888 is familiar to all water-users under the Crocker-Huffman system, for the life of the corporation was fifty years and the water contracts were all drawn to run to 1938.
But we have run ahead of the construction work on the Merced Canal & Irrigation Company's works. Charles Barrett was first in charge of the construction work, and Mr. Martin, when he came here in 1884, as he intended temporarily, became assistant under Barrett. Martin was afterwards promoted to the charge of the job. They had about 400 mules, mostly on two-animal scrapers, and about 200 men at work for three years. Mr. Martin had over 200 men at work on the Rotterdam Colony when they were developing that.
Development and colonization followed the construction of the canal and reservoir. V. C. W. Hooper was about the first colonizer, Mr. Martin states. He colonized Yosemite Colony. About the same time A. N. Towne, a director of the Southern Pacific Company, sub- divided Bear Creek Colony. The only improved land when Mr. Martin came here in 1884 was the Buhach Ranch, which raised the buhach plant, from which an insect powder was made, and also had a vineyard and made wine and brandy. C. H. Huffman, chief pro- moter of the Merced Canal & Irrigation Company, was a grain farm- er. W. H. Hartley, one of the other directors of the concern, was another. Not all the grain-raisers, used as they were to dry farming, favored the project. This seems to have been among the reasons why the irrigation was never extended any further south than it was.
The Crocker-Huffman Land & Water Company grew and lasted. It sold its land with a water clause in the contracts, the purchasers paying $10 or $20 an acre for the water right, and $1 or $2 an acre a year usually for the water service. There were a few contracts which
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called for payments of only 621/2 cents an acre a year, and perhaps half a dozen free. It was said during the negotiations which led up to the purchase of the Crocker-Huffman system by the Merced Irri- gation District in 1921-1922, that the company made no money out of its dollar or two dollars a year an acre for delivering water. It was a time for trading talk, but it is probable that it did not make much from that directly. It had its land sales, and its $10 or $20 an acre in payments for the water rights; and it had the Bellevue Ranch, which enjoyed water from the system, including later water than the contracts obliged the company to deliver to the contract- holders.
At any rate, at the time when the irrigation district bought the system the Crocker-Huffman Company was serving approximately 50,000 acres with water. This was distributed over an area which included a lot of other land not under its water contracts, running from several miles south and east of Merced to Livingston, and from the edge of the foothills well out towards the San Joaquin from the State Highway and the Central Pacific Railroad.
The formation of the Merced Irrigation District did not result from the first efforts towards that end. There was an effort to form a district which began late in 1913 or early in 1914; by the spring of 1914 it was well under way. Horace G. Kelsey was chairman of the committee for the purpose; and Edward Stanton Ellis, then publish- ing the Livingston Chronicle and afterwards the Assemblyman from this district at the 1915 session of the State legislature, was secretary. The Crocker-Huffman Company was willing to sell out; it employed M. D. Wood, whose long acquaintance with the section and his high standing in the community commanded confidence, to promote the district project, and opened and maintained offices for several months in an effort to carry the plan through. In May, 1914, S. F. B. Morse, the local manager for the company, appeared before a gathering of some fifteen large landowners and real estate men interested in the project, and made an offer to the effect that if the people would within a year organize a district to include something like 253,000 acres, the Crocker-Huffman Company would construct storage facilities, extend its canals, and turn the completed project over to the district at a price amounting to $32 an acre. The plan contemplated a period of years to pay this off, but that fact was not well understood by the people generally. There was a good deal of opposition, due to several causes-the natural unwillingness of men to change from the known to the unknown, the fear of too great a cost and of inability to pay the resulting heavy assessments, jealousy between the town of Merced and the surrounding country, and doubt as to whether the system thus offered would be adequate to supply the full need for late irrigation water for a large district.
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