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 23
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One of the most important of the natural re- sources of the county is the coal fields on the slopes of Mount Diablo. They were discovered in the later fifties, and in 1860 production be- gan. The annual output is increasing, that for 1889 having been 71,718 tons from two mines, the Empire and the Pittsburgh Mining Com- pany, which are all that are working at pres- ent. A number of men are employed, the coal being carried by a railroad six miles long to Pittsburgh landing on the river, where it is shipped. Another leading coal mine is the Black Diamond, not now being worked. Coal is brought to the Bay cities from foreign coun- tries as ballast in sea vessels, and sold cheaply here. Other minerals occur in the Mount Diablo region, but nothing is being done with them.
About two miles west of Martinez begin the great Nevada Warehouse and Dock Company's warehouses, the largest on the Pacific Coast. Beside them during the cercal season there are always lying a number of deep-water ships loading for Europe. The annual shipment of
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wheat sometimes runs as high as 400,000 tons. These warehouses are 2,300 feet in length along the shores of the Straits of Carquinez, by 150 to 300 feet wide. Below them, at Port Costa, are the great warehouses belonging to D. G. W. McNear, completed in 1881, and the pioneer in the business at this point. They are only sec- ond in size to those already described, having the same water frontage of 2,300 feet. Next below these come the warehouses of the Granger Association, with a water frontage of 1,000 feet. Balfour Guthrie & Co's warehouse adjoins the Grangers', and is also large. From these warehouses the great bulk of the wheat crop of California is pnt on board ship.
At a bend on the road, at a station called Crockett, looms up the mammoth flonring-mill of the "Starr Company," six stories high and very large, having also large wharves and ware- honses. The capacity of this mill is 9,000 bar- rels of flour per day, when run at full power. Adjoining the Starr mill is the machine works of J. L. Heald, one of the most extensive man- ufacturers of wine-making machinery, irrigating pumps and steam threshing-engines in the State. One mile further west are the large wharf's of the Port Costa Lumber Company, comprising 3,000 feet of water front. Another large lumber company is now engaged in build- ing wharves adjoining. Below this again, at Vallejo Juuction are the Selby Smelting Works, the most extensive gold and silver refining works on the coast, having an annual output of the precious metals of abont $25,000,000. At Powning, a short distance further along, are the works of the Safety Nitro Powder Company, engaged chiefly in the manufacture of dynamite. At Pinole Point, near by, are the California Powder Works, which makes the Hercules powder, also a dynamite, and is a large establish- ment. Near Sobrante are the works of the Vulcan Powder Company. At Stege station the California Cap Company make blasting caps, bombs, rockets, etc. At Pinole are also now being constructed buildings to be utilized s meat packing and canning works, toward
which Eastern capitalists have subscribed a cap- ital of $2,500,000. They have purchased 1,400 acres of land at the point and are apparently determined to command an extensive business.
DEL NORTE COUNTY.
This is a small section in the extreme north- western corner of the State, which was set off trom Klamath County (now extinct) March 2, 1858. The name literally signifies "to the north." Efforts were made in the Legislature to give it the names of Buchanan, Alta, Altis- sima and Rincon. James Buchanan was then President of the United States, but it was claimed that the plan was to give all the coun- ties names of local significance. " Alta " means upper, and " altissima " uppermost.
The first settlement in this connty was made in 1851, when a party of prospectors, consist- ing of Captain S. R. Tompkins, Robert S. Williams, Captain McDermott, Charles Moore, Thomas J. Roach, Charles Wilson, Charles Southard, two brothers named Swain, Mr. Tag- gart, George Wood, W. T. Stevens, B. Ray, William Rumley, W. A. J. Moore, Jerry Lane, John Cox, J. W. Burke, James Buck and a Mr. Penny, and several others, located in this part of the State. The Indians treacherously un- dertook to persuade them to move further up the river than where they first located. Three of the young men went up, and two of them were murdered outright and one mortally wounded. The rest of the party then went up the river, found the village of the Indians and put a majority of them to death. Two or three weeks after this the pioneers moved from Win- gate's Bar to a camp higher up the stream, to which place they gave the name of Happy Camp.
The next settlements were made at Trinidad and at the mouth of the Klamath, and the town of Crescent City on the south side of Point St. George was located. The year 1852 was the date of the earliest permanent settlement, although several vessels, including the Para-
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gon, Cameo, and the Lanra Virginia had an- chored in the roadstead in 1850.
Crescent City had a peculiar and romantic origin. An old story had been set afloat in 1849-'50 that a solitary prospector crossed the Coast Range and " struck it rich;" that he ac- cumulated a fabulous sum, hid it, and that the Indians assaulted him and left him for dead; that he recovered his consciousness, but not his reason, and he wandered out of the forest into the confines of civilization, and finally found his friends in the East. This story of course ex- cited the cupidity of some miners, who in the spring of 1851, under Captain McDermott, be- gan a search and first found a magnificent har- bor. Another party then started in search of that harbor and they found and named Paragon Bay. They dispatched a messenger to San Francisco, who organized another expedition to this bay, with the schooner Pomona, some time in the fall of 1852. The next spring the town site was selected. During the winter of 1852- '53 A. M. Rosborough purchased a land war- rant in J. F. Wendell's name for 320 acres, on which Crescent City now stands. The place was so named on account of the crescent shape of the roadstead. Smith's River Valley, the only other settlement of importance in that district, was settled in 1853.
In 1858-'59 there was a war with the Min- toon Indians on the Upper Mad River, result- ing in a surrender of the savages, under General Kibbe. In February, 1860, there occurred a great massacre of the redskins on Indian Island.
The Assemblymen from Del Norte County have been: R. H. Campbell, 1887; L. F. Cooper, 1880; W. B. Hamilton, 1883; R. P. Hirst, 1858, 1863-'64; W. B. Mason, 1881; James E. Murphy, 1869-'70, 1873-'78, and others from adjoining counties, which see.
EL DORADO COUNTY.
In this county is the spot now called Coloma, where Marshall made the discovery that imme- diately excited the whole world. For a full
account of this, the great gold discovery, see a previons chapter.
The word " El Dorado " is Spanish for golden , or the gilt.
In 1541, so tradition goes, Gonzalo Pizarro, brother of the conqueror of Peru, marched from Quito to seek the fabled kingdom of gold, which, according to the traditions of the abo- rigines, existed some place east of the Andes. The monarch of this fabulous kingdom was said, in order to wear a more magnificent attire than any other king in the world, to be adorned with a daily coating of gold. His body was anointed every morning with rare and fra- graut gums, and gold dust blown over him through a tube.
Thus attired, the Spaniards called him El Dorado. He was said to reside generally in the superb city of Manos, in one street of which there were said to be not less than 3,000 silver- siniths or silver-workers. The columns of his palace were affirmed to be porphyry and alabas- ter, his throne ivory, and its steps gold; the body of the palace was of white stone, orna- mented with gold suns and silver moons; and living lions fastened with chains of gold guarded its entrance. The county was so named from the fact that gold was first discov- ered within its limits.
About the middle of the summer of 1850 some Indians were killed in the neighborhood of Johnson's ranch, about six iniles above Placerville, on the immigrant road. It was rumored at the time that no provocation for this had been given by the Indians, and that it was done to stir up a war of extermination. If this was the scheme it worked well, for the In- dians killed some of the miners and then the citizens aroused and organized companies, placed Sheriff William Rogers at the head and marched to the county line withont finding any Indians. After they disbanded Indians came from their hiding places and again began com- mitting outrages. A subsequent attempt was made by the whites to exterminate the savages, with doubtful results, and this was the last.
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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
Into this county entered the old immigrant road by way of Carsonville. This side of the State line was an old Mormon station or trading post; next, the road crossed the summits of the mountains, then turned around the southern end of Silver Lake, passed down the head waters of the American and Cosuinnes rivers, followed the divide between these rivers through Sly Park, Pleasant Valley, Diamond Spring, Mud Springs, Shingle Springs and White Rock Springs into Sacramento County. A branch struck off at Grizzly Flat to Brownsville, Indian Diggings and Fiddletown; and from Diamond Spring by way of Placerville to Coloma, Kel- sey's, Spanislı Flat, Georgetown, Grenada, Centerville, Salmon Falls,-all points in the northern part of El Dorado County; from Mud Springs was a branch to Logtown, Saratoga and Drytown; and from Clarksville to Folsom. This route was first " hunted " ont by a Mormon named Hunt, in the spring of 1849, as advance agent for the Mormons. He made the journey with wagons and a party of fifteen or sixteen men. He afterward settled in San Bernardino County, where he was elected to the Legislature in 1853, but later returned to Salt Lake, when Brigham Young called all the Mormons home. But, older than this road, was one of nearly equal importance. namely, the road from Sacra- inento to Coloma, by way of Folsom, Mormon Island, Green Valley, Rose Springs and Union- town.
Several local organizations were effected, and some, with aid from the Legislature, inade sur- veys for various wagon roads across the Sierra Nevada mountains. Notably in 1855 a wagon road convention was held at Placerville and at Sacramento, to devise plans for the construction of the road during the next two years; and, after a great deal of trouble, contracts were let and work commenced, and nearly half the worst portion of the route was done, when the con- tractors failed.
The American South Fork, as nearest the point of distribution, at Sacramento, and carry- ing with it the prestige of the gold discovery,
long attracted the widest current of immigra- tion. A just tribute to fame was awarded to the sawmill site at Coloma, the first spot occupied in the county, in 1847, by making it a.main station for travel and the county-seat for El Dorado, and so remaining until 1857, after which, the mines failing, it declined into a small yet neat horticultural town. The sawmill, transferred to other hands by Marshall and Sutter, supplied in 1849 the demand for lumber. The first ferry on the fork was conducted here by J. T. Little, a flourishing trader; and E. P. Rann constructed there the first bridge in the county early in 1850, for $20,000, yielding a return of $250 a day. In October, 1850, the population was estimated at 2,000.
The early miners drifted mainly along Weber Creek toward Placerville, which became the most promising of El Dorado's towns, its final county-seat and center of attraction. South- ward rose Diamond Spring, which strove for the county-seat in 1854. It was almost destroyed by fire in Angust, 1856. Mud Springs, later named El Dorado, was incorpo- rated in 1855, with great flourish, but disincor- porated in 1857. Several small towns arose on the divide. Above the South Fork sprang up notably Pilot Hill, or Centerville, which claimed the first grange in the State. Greenwood and Georgetown also aspired at one time to become the county-seat.
To Colonel J. B. Crandall is due the honor of having first made a stage line across the mountains, in the summer of 1857, with six- horse Concord stages. In May, 1858, a semi- weekly line was established upon this route. Passenger fare from Placerville to Salt Lake City was $125. The first overland through inail coach from the East successfully arrived at Placerville July 19, 1858, and was continued regularly for ten years, when the Central Pacific Railroad was completed to Cisco and the stages were then run from that point. The oldest express line in the county was established by Alexander Hunter, the agent of the California State line. It was run in connection with
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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
Stevens, Placerville and Sacramento stages, and connected with Wells and Fargo's express at Sacramento; and this was kept up for years.
El Dorado is one of the original eounties of February 18, 1850; and Coloma, the only town in the county, was designated as the seat of government; but the population was change able and evanescent, and no substantial public buildings could be erected there. In 1854 a fight for the county-seat began, which lasted three years and ended in a victory for Placer- ville. This place, the most historic town in the gold region, was first known as Old Dry Dig- gings. In 1849 a Frenchman and a Spainard were hung there to a tree by a inob for high- way robbery on the Georgetown road, and this gave the name of " Hangtown " to the place, by which it was known throughout the early min- ing days, when it was the most thronged point in California, the headquarters of the gold excitement. In 1854 the place was incorporated under the name of Placerville, the municipal election being held June 5 that year. Alexan- der Hunter, previously mentioned, was elected the first mayor.
The altitude of Placerville is 1,895 feet; and the summit at Johnson's Pass, 7,266 feet; and the height of Genoa above sea level is 4,794 feet.
In 1857 an effort was made in vain to form Enreka County from the northern half of El Dorado. Nearly every surviving town in the county owes its beginning to mining, although so large a proportion now depends solely on agriculture and trade; but with the decline of inining the vitality of the larger places also de- clined, so that by 1880 less than 11,000 re- mained of the population which during the '50s exceeded 20,000. Farming, however, and nota- bly horticulture, stepped in to turn the current into a channel of slow though steady revival. The census of 1880 assigned to the county 542 farms, with an improved acreage of only 69,000. Farming had its beginning in this region in 1849-'50, when potatoes were first planted by the Ilodges Bros., on Greenwood Creek, near
Coloma. By the year 1855 forty saw-mills and one flour-mill had been erected; also five tan- neries and three breweries, fifteen toll-bridges, etc.
There are a number of splendid caves in this county, the principal being near the Cosumnnes copper mine, and the alabaster cave, or Coral cave, on the road from Pilot Hill to Rattle- snake Bridge. This has unusually fine stalact- ites. A large quantity of copper exists in El Dorado County, some silver, cinnabar, iron, as- bestos, and large quantities of lime-stone, mar- ble, roofing slate, etc.
No similar area of country in the world can boast of a finer water supply than El Dorado County.
Thomas A. Springler introduced the first newspaper into this county, namely, the El Dorado Republican, at Placerville, in the sum- iner of 1851, and it was the first paper in the interior of California outside of Sacramento. It was continued regularly until February 18, 1854, when he sold out to D. W. Gelwicks & Co., who replaced the Republican with the Mountain Democrat, which paper was well managed. The Miners' Advocate was first issued also in the summer of 1851, at Coloma. James R. Pile & Co. were the proprietors, D. W. Gelwicks editor, and D. G. Waldron busi- nees agent. This was the second paper in the whole mining district of the State. It was Whig in politics. In 1853 the material was sold to a party who changed its name to the Empire County Argus. The Miners' Advocate was transferred to Diamond Spring, and after- ward had a varied history.
Up to 1855 the people were taxed heavily for the care of the indigent sick, who had to be re- moved to the Marine hospital at San Francisco. This institution was abolished by the Legisla- ture in 1855, and county infirmaries provided for. The county then awarded the contract to Drs. Asa Clark and Obed Harvey for taking care of those who were dependent upon the public. They erected a building, to which the county made an appropriation of $3,500, and
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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
entered upon their duties. Both these gentle- inen are still living and are holding responsible sitnations.
The members of the State Assembly from El Dorado County have been: S. A. Ballon, 1854, 1858; Wm. Barklage, 1871-'72; A. J. Bayley, 1871-'72, 1883; John C. Bell, 1860; A. B. Bird, 1867-'68; Edgar Bogardns, 1855; John L. Boles, 1855; John Borland, 1856; James E. Bowe, 1856; Alfred Briggs, 1854, 1859; D. E. Buel, 1858; James Burr, 1863; J. S. Campbell, 1863-'66; G. J. Carpenter, 1875 -'76; J. Carpenter, 1857; Samnel H. Center, 1871-'72; Robert Chalmers, 1871-'72; J. R. Clark, 1863; William Coleman, 1859, 1861; C. W. Coltrin, 1861; George M. Condee, 1859; Jolın Conness, 1853-'54, 1860-'61; W. F. Cnn- ningham, 1855; John Cutler, 1852; Seneca Dean, 1862; John H. Dennis, 1862; G. A. Douglass, 1859; G. N. Donglass, 1859; F. A. Dow, 1863-'64; Elon Dunlap, 1860; David Fairchild, 1860; Thomas Fitch, 1863; Theron Foster. 1855, 1861; Thomas Fraser, 1863- '64, 1880-'81; John Frasier, 1862; Stephen T. Gage, 1856; J. D. Galbraith, 1859; S. Gar- field, 1853; Charles Gildea, 1867-'70; N. Gil- more, 1873-'74; A. J. Graham, 1858; James J. Green, 1861; Gaven D. Hall, 1851, 1857; S. F. Ham, 1857; Asa H. Hawley, 1860; T. D. Heiskell, 1856; Robert Henderson, 1861; Sam- nel Hill, 1861; H. Hollister, 1854; William R. Hopkins, 1852; John Hume, 1857; Alexander Hunter, 1861; G. H. Ingham, 1873-'74; Charles F. Irwin, 1883; J. C. Johnson, 1855; J. J. Kendrick, 1851; J. F. Kidder, 1865-'66; Har- vey Lee, 1858; D. T. Loofborrow, 1858; Henry Mahler, 1887; II. McConnell, 1855; George Mc Donald, 1854, 1857; S. A. McMeans, 1852- '53; J. D. McMurray, 1869-'70; James H. Mil- ler, 1869-'70, 1877-'78; M. N. Mitchell, 1857; H. A. Moses, 1858; H. B. Newell, 1867-'70; J. W. Oliver, 1856; Charles Orvis, 1857; H. G. Parker, 1862; D. C. Patton, 1860; C. W. Pearis, 1858; Thomas B. Rowland, 1883; S. W. Sanderson, 1863; G. W. Simpers, 1873-'74; H. C. Sloss, 1859; E. L. Smith, 1865-'66; N.
T. Smith, 1855; E. C. Springer, 1854; Ogden Squires, 1859; E. A. Stephenson, 1854-'55; W. H. Stone, 1860; D. P. Tallmadge, 1854; Edward F. Taylor, 1865-'66; W. H. Taylor, 1856; P. Teare, 1863-64; J. S. Tipton, 1858- -'59; J. Turner, 1857; E. H. Watson, 1885; J. H. Watson, 1860; L. S. Welsh, 1856; James D. White, 1856; Stephen Willets, 1867-'68; George E. Williams, 1873-'74; Austin Wing, 1852-'53.
MODERN TIMES.
This county has kept up pretty fully its im- portance as a producer of the precious metal, while at the same time making a genuine ad- vance towards the position of a great fruit re- gion. As is the case elsewhere along the foot- hills, it has been discovered that the county possesses a citrus belt, and numbers of orange and lemon trees have been set out. Fruits of other kinds, decidnous, nut-bearing trees, etc., and also grapes, both for table use and for wine- making, have been grown extensively in differ- ent parts, El Dorado indeed being one of the first counties to undertake on a large scale the growth of grapes and fruits. Some of the vine- yards and orchards abont Coloma, for instance, date far back near to the beginning of things in California; in other words, to the early '50s, and even '49. No county distances El Dorado in the extent and richness of her natural re- sources, which include mining for more than gold alone, quarries of slate and stone, lime- burning, lumbering, stock and sheep raising, and especially her fruit and grapes.
El Dorado has had a varied, not to say un- fortunate history, of late years. The elusive hope .of becoming a link on the transconti- nental system of railways was long a source of great trouble to the people, liberal bonuses be- ing voted more than once, which somehow always reached the hands of the companies and yet the promised roads were never built. A mill-stone of debt was thus linng about the neck of the county, which only of late years has been removed, and the county permitted to step for- ward into the prominence nature intended for
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her. Until lately there was no railroad in this county, and the agricultural and dairying ele- ment of the population had to depend upon the miners here for their market.
The railroad reached Shingle Springs, twelve miles from Placerville, as long ago as 1865, but it only reached the latter point in 1888, bicker- ings, lawsuits and misunderstandings being the cause of the hitch, and the county seeming to lose every time. Indeed, in 1881 the road sus- pended operations altogether, and it was not resumed till the following year. With the con- pletion of the railroad, however, to Placerville, things have taken on a new aspect, and lost ground will probably be recovered.
The county roads are unusually good, the gradients as a general thing being light and the road-bed smooth. This is probably due to the fact that until the completion of the Central Pacific, the main turnpike thoroughfare over the Sierra Nevada passed through the county. Even yet the idea is occasionally put forth that the main line of the Central Pacific is to run up the Placerville cañon and by a long tunnel under the crest of the Sierras.
PLACERVILLE,
the old-time " Hangtown," the name being changed by the Legislature in 1850,-is one of the most picturesque towns in the State, the main street following for over a mile the mean- deringsof a ravine, once exceedingly rich iu gold. On the hillside and tops are the finer residences and some large buildings that present a fine appearance. The town, too, has the reputation of being the wealthiest of its size in California. It has at any rate an old and " settled " appear- ance, with its rows of large brick stores and public buildings that impresses strongly the visitor. The county court-house, hall of records and jail is a massive pile of red brick standing flush with the main street, erected in the early days.
Near Placerville are the hospital and county farın, second to none in the interior of the State and well kept. There are two large public
school buildings, and the Placerville Academy, long one of the most prosperous private schools of the interior. There are four churches, well supported, a good fire department and an ample water supply, the town being lighted by gas. A few miles east of the town are the three large lumber mills of Messrs. J. & J. Blair, one of the most enterprising firms of the place. They have also a mill in the mountains over thirty miles above town. Placerville has also flouring mills, a planing mill and box factory, and a foundry and machine shop. One of the char- acteristic sights is that of the Pacific quartz mine on the top of one of the hills in town, the sound of the stamps being plainly heard on the main street. Placerville has a fine opera-house. District fairs are also held here annually, there being here a fine race track.
OTHER TOWNS.
Georgetown, always one of the prettiest towns in the mountains, is 2,700 feet above sea-level, and is still pre-eminently a mining town, but surrounded on every side by gardens, vines and fruit trees. It is a prosperous business point, with churches, schools and lively merchants. Three saw-mills are running within a few miles of the place. Georgetown is connected by stage with Placerville and Auburn.
Coloma holds the honor of having been the scene of the first discovery of gold. A hand- some bronze monument to Marshall, the discov- erer, was erected by the State Legislature in 1888 on the fortieth anniversary of the event, on the summit of an elevation overlooking the spot. Some notoriety attaches to one of its first citizens and his wife, namely Mr. and Mrs. Peter L. Wimmer, as they were so intimately con- nected with Marshall in the gold discovery.
Mr. Wimmer, a native of Ohio, came over- land with his wife in 1846; worked for Sutter as a millwright in 1847-'48, and was one of the men employed at the Coloma mill when gold was discovered, being perhaps with Marshall on the eventful morning when " they " picked up the first nugget. It was Mrs. Wimmer who at
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