USA > California > A memorial and biographical history of northern California, illustrated. Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy...and biographical mention of many of its most eminent pioneers and also of prominent citizens of today > Part 21
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Its situation is on the dividing line between the agricultural valley and the mining and fruit- growing foot-hills. It is the terminal point of the California Northern Railroad, running to it from Marysville, a distance of twenty-eight iniles. Stage lines, wagon roads, telegraph and telephone lines connect it with all parts of Butte, Plumas and Sierra counties.
Oroville, as its name implies, was in the early days a great mining center, and until very recently numerous great mining enterprises were in active progress in its immediate vi- cinity. A rich stratum of gold-bearing gravel is known to underlie the entire site of the town, which has not been worked.
The country surrounding Oroville is greatly varied. To the east, foot-hills rapidly rising to the mountain slopes; to the south, foot-hills and gravel plains sloping into rich agricultural valley lands; to the west, gravel plains reach- ing many miles; and to the north, foot-hills and agricultural lands, rich and varied. All these lands are now used for agriculture and grazing, but their value for viticulture and hor- ticulture has of late been very highly appre- ciated.
As a location for the establishment of manufactures and mills of all kinds, Oroville possesses great natural advantages. If it were desired to run machinery by water power, there is sufficient to run mills and factories to any extent. There is a large flour mill already in operation, and but recently capitalists in Oak- land have determined to erect a sash and door factory.
The subdivision of lands and the planting of orchards of citrus and deciduous fruits on all the lands around Oroville has been very active the last year. Since it has been fully estab- lished that the country is fully adapted for olives and oranges, great excitement has pre- vailed. About 1,200 acres of real estate has changed hands within one year and a cor- responding rise in value has been the result. We hear of orange groves and olive orchards being planted in every direction, and there is no telling to what extent the country may be developed in that direction.
Two large water ditches originally con- structed for mining purposes terminate at Oroville, and are now used to irrigate the orange groves, orchards and vineyards. These supply ten times as much water as is now de- inanded, yet several other large ditches are be- ing constructed. Water is abundant and will always be cheap. A person may take land any- where around Oroville for orchard or garden purposes with the assurance that water can be had, and at low rates.
Besides the county buildings, which are large and commodious, Oroville is also the seat of the county infirmary, a large establishment, situ- ated in the midst of an orange grove, and a great credit to our civilization.
OTHER TOWNS.
Biggs and Gridley are towns of 1,000 inhabi- tants each, situated on the railroad, in the midst of rich agricultural lands, with schools, churches, a newspaper each, and an intelligent, thriving people.
Numerous smaller towns and villages dot the
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county over, whose general features are suf- ticiently described in the foregoing pages. Along the railroad are Moore's Station, Nelson, Dur- ham, Nord and Cana. In the interior are Cherokee, Pentz, Magalia and Grainland. Ma- galia has also been known by the name of Dog- town.
SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES.
The people of Butte County believe in schools and churches. There is not a neighborhood in the county which has not its school. The pub- lic schools, supported by State and Connty mon- eys, run eight months in the year, and have excellent teachers, who are paid from $50 to $125 per month salary. The buildings are all first-class and furnished with the best patent desks.
The churches represent nearly all denomina- tions and are elegant and commodious. Minis- ters are paid from $1,000 to $1,800 salary.
The State Normal School at Chico is one of the finest institutions in the land. The build- ing and furniture cost $90,000. The school is the pride of Northern California.
STATE OF SOCIETY.
The state of society in Butte County may be determined by the foregoing statements con- cerning schools and churches. As everywhere in California, they have a mixed population. People are there from all the continents; but they are none of them savages. The population is principally American, all of it civilized and nearly all highly enlightened. Probably no community in any Eastern State is more law- abiding, peaceful, industrious or civil, thoughr some are decidedly more religious. A new comer soon finds his own class and associates with it, whether it be low or high. If he fre- quents saloons they are nunerons. If he at- tends church he will find a full congregation with himn. The one class respect the rights of the others. There is an Indian village, or rancheria, on the Rancho Chico, under the care of General and Mrs. Bidwell, which has its school, church and Sunday-school.
POLITICS.
The two great parties hold equal sway in Butte County, and have done so for years. To illustrate this the county gave thirty-three ma- jority for Hayes in 1876, twenty-nine majority for Hancock in 1880, upward of 100 majority for Blaine in 1884, and upwards of 100 ma- jority for Cleveland in 1888. The county offi- ces are always held by members of the two parties, about half-and-half At present the superior judge, sheriff, recorder, assessor, col- lector and school superintendent are Demo- crats; the county clerk and treasurer are Re- publicans. The parties being thus evenly bal- anced, it is the rule that the best man for the place wins the race. The connty is greatly favored by having honest and efficient public officials. The peace of the community is never disturbed by political strife.
The Representatives of Butte County in the State Assembly have been:
Marion Biggs, 1869-'70; Max Brooks, 1877-'80; A. C. Buffum, 1863-'64; Philip P. Caine, 1859; F. E. Cannon, 1859; J. B. Clark, 1873-'74; R. M. Cochran, 1867-'68; J. M. Cunnard, 1862; W. N. DeHaven, 1871- '72; John Dick, 1856; W. W. Durham, 1880; S. Ewer, 1854; J. R. Fleming, 1883; C. B. Fowler, 1852; Leon D. Freer, 1881; L. C. Gran- ger, 1883-'87; J. C. Gray, 1873-'74; P. H. Harris, 1861; Henry Allen, 1885-'87; James Hitchens, 1858; Richard Irwin, 1853-'54; J. T. Jenkins, 1875-'76; John Lambert, 1860; James L. Law, 1852; Charles G. Lincoln, 1855; J. S. Long, 1857; James C. Martin, 1869-'70; J. B. McGee, 1854; J. G. Moore, 1863; H. J. Morri- son, 1857; Nelson D. Morse, 1852; Gilbert HI. Neally, 1877-'78; W. M. Ord, 1867-'68; George W. Printy, 1862; E. S. Ruggles, 1875- '76; R. F. Saunders, 1851; F. M. Smith, 1863; George E. Smith, 1865-'66; George S. Sumner, 1863-'64; C. C. Thomas, 1853; William P. Tilden, 1861, 1865-'66; J. N. Turner, 1871-'72; J. M. Ward, 1885; Thomas Wells, 1853, 1855; Joseph C. Wertsbaugher, 1881.
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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
CALAVERAS COUNTY.
The name " calaveras" is a corrupt form of the Spanish word for skulls. Some incline to the belief that some devout friar, desirous of commemorating the crucifixion, slightly changed the name Calvary.
The stream was named by Captain Moraga, who headed the first expeditions made on the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. He en- camped on the stream, and was surprised in the morning to find that he had stopped among numerous bones and skulls of men. He had chanced upon an ancient battle-ground, where had taken place a sanguinary conflict between two tribes of Indians. It is said that 3,000 dead remained on the field. Some think, how- ever, that these dead were the remains of those taken by the fearful scourge of 1833, referred to elsewhere in this volume
When Calaveras County was organized, Feb- ruary 18, 1850, Double Springs became the county-seat,-for a short time only, however, for it was captured by a stratagem and trans- ferred to Jackson, where it remained for nearly two years. From that place it was transferred to Mokelumne Hill, as the result of a choice by the people. But the politicians asserted that men on the south side of the Mokelumne River got the offices, and they went to work to con- vince the people that their interests would be better served by having a new county organ- ized. By this time (1853) there were several ambitious towns willing to take charge of the county seat and furnish " grub" and whisky, particularly the latter, and all were rich enough to indulge in the luxury of going to law. It was also urged, with too much reason to be disputed, that the public funds were being wasted at Mokelumne Hill, where the officers were behaving themselves very loosely.
June 14, 1854, according to act of the Legis- lature, the people by vote set off Amador County, containing Jackson, from Calaveras.
Calaveras County had Mokelumne Hill for the seat of government, its gilded mountain
having acquired for it the preponderating influ- ence, until in 1866 the more central San Andreas gained the supremacy. (By the way, it is claimed that this name should have been spelled San Andrés.) Mokelumne Hill became promi- nent in 1850; suffered severely by fire in 1854, and began to decline in the '60s. San Andreas was laid in ashes in 1856, but is now a flourish- ing town.
Southward, Carson and Angel hold positions corresponding to the Volcano quartz group. Copperopolis sprang into prominence for awhile as a productive copper mine about the same time that the silver lodes called attention to the higher ranges eastward, and prompted the or- ganization of Alpine County in 1864, with the seat at Silver Mountain, named for the highest peak of the county, and subsequently at Mark- leeville. Its hopes in these deposits met with meager realization, and its lumber and dairy resources langnished under the decadence of Nevada as its chief market.
Although most of the mining camps of Cala- veras and Amador declined after a brilliant career, agricultnie flourished in many sections, particularly in the fertile western parts, around towns like Ione City and Milton. Among prominent ancient mining towns were Yeomet, which had a promising position at the junction of the Cosumines north and south forks; Mule town, which was kept up awhile by hydraulic mining; Drytown, which received its final blow from a conflagration in 1857; Fiddletown, which grew until 1863; Plymouth, which began to gain in 1873; Lancha Plana, which was sup- 'ported by bluff mining, boasted a journal and claimed nearly 1,000 inhabitants in 1860; and Murphy, which was flourishing in 1855. Car- son's Flat was the great camp in 1851; and Copperopolis arose in 1861, and in 1863-'64 shipped over $1,600,000 worth of copper net via Stockton.
In 1850 Calaveras stands credited with farms worth $76,800, containing $172,800 worth of live-stock and $14,700 in implements. The census of 1880 gives it 467 farms, valned at
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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
$756,000, with live-stock at $262,000, and produce at $308,000,-the total assessments standing at $1,871,000; yet the population fell from 16,299 in mining days to 9,090 in 1880.
For the Stockton & Copperopolis Railroad - -the only thoroughfare of the kind running into the county-see under head of San Joa- quin County.
The members of the State Assembly from Calaveras County have been: Isaac Ayer, 1865 -'68; James Barclay, 1863; E. T. Beatty, 1855 -'57; Tunis S. Bever, 1867-'68; C. L. F. Brown, 1871-'72; James Burdick, 1859; Thomas Camp- bell, 1862; William Childs, 1861; M. M. Col- lier, 1865-'66; F. F. Davis, 1863; B. Dyer, 1864; Edward Fahey, 1873-'74; P. A. Galla- gher, 1860; John L. Gibson, 1871-'72; George W. Gilmore, 1873-'74; Martin W. Gordon, 1854: E. L. Green, 1869-70; J. W. Griswold, 1862; A. J. Honghtaling, 1854; W. P. Jones, 1852; L. Langdon, 1864; C. A. Leake, 1853; C. W. Lightner, 1859; John Y. Lind, 1851; B. L. Lippincott, 1861; B. F. Marshall, 1858; F. W. McClenahan, 1887; C. A. McDaniel, 1854; F. G. McDonald, 1863; W. S. McKim, 1852; Otto Menzel, 1867-'68; H. A. Messenger, 1880; Charles E. Mount, 1859; D. W. Murphy, 1851; Thomas O'Brien, 1858, 1861-'62; W. A. Oliver. 1853; Eustace Parker, 1858; S. N. Parker, 1864; James Pearson, 1855-'56; W. P. Peek, 1873-'74; William C. Pratt, 1854; J. B. Red- dick, 1875-'76, 1881; W. M. Rogers, 1853; Martin Rowan, 1854; N. G. Sawyer, 1865-'66; L. M. Schrack, 1871-'72; H. A. Shelton, 1860; George L. Shuler, 1857; S. B. Stephens, 1855; T. W. Taliaferro, 1855-'56; Mark S. Torrey, 1885; Joseph S. Watkins, 1857; A. R. Wheat, 1877-'78, 1883; W. S. Williams, 1869-'70; Samuel Wilson, 1860; A. R. Young, 1869-'70; George E. Young, 1852.
COLUSA COUNTY
Is sixty miles north and south and averages about forty-five miles east and west, and conse- quently contains about 2,800 square miles. Of this about 1,500 square miles lie in the Sacra- 8
mento Valley. As the summit of the Coast Range forms the western boundary, the remain- der of the area is composed of mountains, low hills and smaller valleys. There are probably about 200 square miles of this valley portion, 700 square miles of low hills and 400 of mnoun- tains. The Sacramento River, running almost due south, forms the eastern boundary. The river makes twelve miles of easting and sixty miles of southing. This part of the Sacramento River has not been filled up by hydraulic min- ing, and its water is clear except after rains. To the town of Colusa, twenty-two miles above the southern line of the connty, steamers tow barges carrying as much as 700 tons. Above that point 300 tons is considered a fair load. The fall of the river from the upper end of the county to the town of Colusa is eighteen inches to the mile and from that place down it is only six inches. Compared with the lower portion, the upper river has more rapids and bars, and it also washes its banks and changes its position more. The average width of the river is some- thing more than 300 feet, and the height of the banks at low water is twenty-three feet. The other principal streams of the county, besides the Sacramento, are Butte Slough, eighteen miles north of the southern boundary of the county; Sycamore Slough, four miles below Butte Slough; and Stony Creek, rising on the Coast Mountains about forty miles north of the sonth line of the county and running north and then east. Although this carries off a great deal of water during the rainy season, in the dry portion of the year it loses itself in the gravel before reaching the river. It is from an eighth to a quarter of a mile wide, and its banks twelve to fifteen feet high. The current is so rapid that its deposits have been principally boulders and sand.
The river is skirted on either side with oak, sycamore, cottonwood and ash. Much of this, however, has been cut off. Along the coast range is much valuable pine timber. Away from the river, where the people have to depend upon wells for water, the average distance to
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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
good water is about twenty feet. In many por- tions of the plains it is only ten feet. At one place in the southwestern portion, water is not reached short of seventy-five to 100 feet. At this depth bones and timber are often found, which have been covered by some cataclysm. One man took up most of the skeleton of a deer. In the alkali districts very good water is ob- tained by boring down sixty to seventy-five feet and tubing out the surface water.
The valley land is very high. The original alkali spots, never exceeding fifty square miles, perhaps, is fast disappearing.
The average summer heat, taking the hottest part of the day, is abont ninety degrees; aver- age in winter, sixty degrees; extreme heat, 115°, and extreme cold 29° above zero. Very seldom is ice formed, and never over half an inch in thickness, and the heat is never oppressive. The average rainfall is about twenty inches per annnm, which is the same as the Sacramento Valley generally.
Colusa is one of the original counties named February 18, 1850; but at first it was attached to Butte County for its official purposes. In the early part of 1851, Colusa was an aspiring city of one house and half a dozen inhabitants; and Monroeville, a rival, was equally aspiring and'contained;exactly the same number of build- ings and perhaps the same number of inhabi- tants. Each was afraid that the other would get ahead in the organization of the county. The influence of the founders of Colusa had the connty created and named, which then was spelled Colnsi. To be ahead with the matter, the Mon- roeville people petitioned Moses Bean, Judge of Butte County, to have the county organized. Although he had no authority in the matter, he issned a proclamation ordering an election of officers for the proposed new county of Colusa, Jannary 10, 1851. The election was held, but all the men chosen failed to qualify except J. S. Holland, county judge, and Uriah P. Monroe, county clerk. Holland died April 12, and some one, not now known, called an election to fill the vacancy. At this election thirty-eight
votes were polled in the connty and John T. Hughes was elected. He held one court and left the county. There was no county judge then until September 3, when William B. Ide, of Bear-Flag Rebellion notoriety, was elected and at once entered upon the duties of the of- fice without waiting for the term to expire. At this election forty-seven votes elected an Assem- blyman, namely, H. L. Ford; E. D. Wheatly, clerk; J. F. Willis, sheriff; W. H. Shepard, assessor; Ben Knight, treasurer; Uriah P. Mon- roe, public administrator; and John T. Hnghes. district attorney. The last two probably did not accept their offices. Five elections were held in 1851.
The organizers had not thought a word abont the location of a county-seat, but the officers first elected, being of the Monroe faction, com- menced business at Monroeville, without any forms of law. At the session of the Legisla- ture of 1851 Colonel C. D. Semple managed to get a bill through defining the boundaries of the county of Colusi, and fixing the seat at Co- lusa. The acting officers paid no attention whatever to this law: they went right on at Monroeville. In 1853 a vote was taken resnlt- ing in establishing the seat at Colusa by 310 votes against sixty, and accordingly a court- house and jail were ordered built there, at a cost of $3,000, the contract being dated Janu- ary 6, 1854.
William B. Ide, an intelligent but singular man, died of small-pox at Monroeville, Deceni- ber 20, 1852, when he was county judge.
Colusa is an Indian word, and was the origi- nal name of a numerous tribe of Indians who lived on the western side of the Sacramento River. Its meaning is not known.
The town was laid out at the rancheria of the Colus Indians, and the termination a given to the name. In the legislature General M. G. Vallejo insisted that i was the proper termina- tion, and so it went into statutes. While the county-seat was held at Monroeville the partisans of the place were very particular in marking the distance, while the partisans of the town of
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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
Colusa insisted that the town and the county ought to be spelled alike. After 1854 the stat- utes concerning the county had the termination a and the officials seals were changed accordingly.
In 1846 or '47 Dr. Robert Semple went up to the head of the Sacramento Valley to see some old pioneers who had settled in what is now Tehama County. Returning by way of the river, he tied two cottonwood logs together for a boat. He found great difficulty in naviga- tion until he came to the rancheria of the Colus Indians: from there down it was easy. Looking over the vast territory of fertile lands around this spot, he made a memorandum of it as the future city of the upper Sacramento Valley, and found that it was owned by John Bidwell under a Mexican grant. When in 1849 his brother, Colonel Charles D. Semple, came out to Cali- fornia, he favorably received his notions, hunted up Bidwell and purchased his grant. In the spring of 1850 he set out with a little steamboat for the future city. The Colus rancheria, to which the Doctor had directed him, was entirely hidden from the river, and the first rancheria in sight from the river was a temporary encamp- ment of a portion of the Colns Indians seven miles above the present site of the town. The Indians being asked about the name of the tribe. very promptly answered Colus; and, thinking he was on the right spot, and the water being so high as to render navigation alike every- where, the boat's cargo of inerchandise and men were landed and a town laid out and christened Colusa.
In the spring of 1850 Dr. Semple commenced to build a steamboat at Benicia to run up to the new town, and on the first of July that year she made her first trip, and she too was named Colusa. She was a side-wheel boat, had a very trim hull and cabin, and was of fair size. But no engine could be found large enough to run her, and no two small engines could be found that were alike so as to constitute a pair; so the novel experiment was tried of running one wheel with an engine made for the style of the Mississippi steamboats, and the other with a
smaller engine, with an entirely different stroke and power. They ran the boat, and on the morning of the third of July the proprietor started out from Benicia for Colusa. On the sixth they arrived at the present site of Colusa, then called Salinon Point, and then troubles commenced; for it required nearly a week to get up to where the town was laid out. Abont three miles up the river the little engine broke down, and the boat had to be warped from there np. An Indian guide was employed to point ont the exact site of the place, leading the boat- men through a thicket of wild rose-bushes to a point opposite the place; for this was on the east bank of the river. The Indian took the men's clothes across tied in a boat upon the top of his head, and then they could wade or swim across. In a day or two the boat reached the landing, was discharged, and started back with one wheel. Although it cost over $60,000, this was the last trip she ever made.
Colonel Semple found that he had made a mistake in the location of the city, and that the Colus rancheria was really some seven miles lower down the river. About a month after- ward the goods were hauled down there, and thus the city was founded. In this locality it was favorably situated for the trade between Shasta and the northern mines. Colonel Semple bought a little steamer called the Martha Jane and ran her regularly a few trips, but it was too early in the development of the country to obtain remunerative patronage, and he had to sell her. In the autumn of 1851 Captain George V. Hight undertook the navigation of this portion of Sacramento with an iron-hulled boat, but it struck a snag on the first trip and sank, just above Knight's Landing. Next Captain Bartlett, with the Orient, a fast little stern-wheel boat of about 100 tons' burden, suc- ceeded in making several profitable trips. The town was then growing rapidly.
One of the greatest drawbacks to the town has been the imperfect title to the land, made so by conflicting boundaries of grants and im- perfect description given in deeds. This mat-
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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
ter, however, was nearly all settled about fifteen years ago.
Colusa is unusually well favored as being in one of the best agricultural districts in the United States.
In 1850 there were perhaps a thousand In- dians in Colusa County of the Colns tribe, 200 or 300 of the Willies, who inhabited Grand Island, 200 of the Cortinas, who had their headquarters near the head of Cortinas Creek, about twenty miles southwest of Colnsa. There was also a large tribe in the vicinity of New- ville and some scattering villages near the upper end of the county. Those about Newville were considered the most dangerous. The Grand Is- land Indians survived the white civilization the longest and for many years made good harvest hands. The Colus tribe were under the im- mediate control of Sioe, a chief of more than ordinary intelligence, who held a sort of provin- cial control over all the other tribes of the valley. His word was law, and he had the power of life or death over his : ubjects. They never had any clothing, except that the squaws, for the sake of ornamentation, wore a fringe of small cords extending from their waist to near the knees. When the first settler visited these Indians, all the clothes which the male portion of the tribe had was one stove-pipe hat and one vest. The latter was turned up-side down, the legs thrust through the armholes and buttoned up behind. A person who has never tried it has no idea how a vest worn in that way will fit.
The Mexican land grants for Colusa County have been: Colus, 8,876 acres, to C. D. Semple in 1869; Jacinto, 35,487 acres, to William M. McKee in 1859; Larkin's children's ranch, 44,364 acres, to F. Larkin and others in 1857. In Colusa and Tehama counties: Capay, 44,388 acres, to J. Soto in 1859. In Colusa and Yolo counties, Jimeno 48,854 acres, to Larkin and Missroon in 1862.
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