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 28
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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
time to crawl inside. When a dance was to oc- cur a large fire was kindled inside and the open- ings closed. Around this fire the naked In- dians would dance for hours, jumping and screaming, with the perspiration streaming from every pore. After working themselves up to the highest pitch of excitement and exer- cise, they suddenly rushed out and plunged into the cold waters of a neighboring stream, and then crawl out and lay on the banks exhausted. This sweat-house was also used as a council room, and in it the bodies of the dead were sometimes buried, amid the howlings of the survivors.
EARLY VISITORS AND SETTLERS.
After his visit to Mount St. Helena, Rotscheff sent cattle and sheep from Ross and established what has since been known as the Matintosk rancho, but was called by the Russians Muny.
In 1776 a fort was erected by the Spanish Governor, Felipe de Neve, a short distance northwest of Napa, on an elevated platean. The walls were of adobe, and three feet thick. The upper portion of the valley was nnoccupied except by the natives. In 1847 there were only a few adobe buildings. Horseback riding was the universal mode of traveling, and when a horse became tired he was turned loose and a fresh one lassoed out of the nearest herd.
Padre José Altimira and Don Francisco Cas- tro went in June and July, 1823, with an armed escort under Ensign José Sanchez, to select a proper site for a new mission. Altimira went on with his survey to Huichica (since then the property of Winter & Borel), and on the fifth day after exploring the Napa Valley,-"like to Sonoma in every respect,"-the party climbed the ridge of Suysunes, recently the property of Cayetano Juarez, where the State Insane Asy- lum stands, and there "found stone of excellent quality and so abundant that of it a new Rome might be built."
In 1831 Guy F. Fling, a young man, piloted George C. Yount to Napa County. He died in Napa in 1872. Mr. Yount, after he reached the valley, followed his occupation of hunting
and trapping all kinds of game, which included the gigantic elk. In 1836 he built the first log house ever erected in California by an American, on his Taymus. It was eighteen feet square below, and the second story was twenty-two feet square, with port-holes through which he often defended himself from the savages. He is also said to have erected the first flour and saw mill in California. The first permanent settlers after Mr. Yount were Salva- dor M. Vallejo, C. Juarez and José Higuera, each of whom obtained grants of land near Napa City. In 1839 Dr. E. T. Bale, an Eng- lishman, obtained and settled upon the grant called Carne Humana, north of Yount's grant. Colonel Clyman, a Virginian, settled in this county in 1846; E. Barnett was a resident here with Mr. Yount in 1840-'43; William Pope came in 1841; in 1843 William Baldridge set- tled in Napa Valley and built the grist-mill in Chiles Valley; William Fowler, with his sons Henry and William, and William Hargrave and Harrison Pierce, carne in 1843; John S. Stark, sheriff in 1856, came in 1846; and many others came prior to the discovery of gold.
Between 1840 and 1845 a considerable num- ber of emigrant wagons arrived across the Sierra, bringing American families, and some- times families of other nationalities, most of whom settled here. The Russians for more than thirty years remained in quiet possession of Ross and Bodega, under the rule of Koskoff, Klebinkoff, Kostromitinkoff and Rotscheff The latter Governor advanced with a party of Rus- sians to Mount Mayacamas, on the summit of which he fixed a brass plate bearing an inscrip- scription in his own language. He named the mountain St. Helena, for his wife, the Princess de Gagarin. The beauty of this lady excited so ardent a passion in the breast of Prince So- lano, chief of all the Indians abont Sonoma, that he formed a plan to capture by force or stratagem the object of his love; and he might very likely have succeeded had not M. G. Val- lejo heard of his intention in time to prevent its execution.
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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
EARLY SETTLERS.
George C. Yount, a native of North Carolina, came to California in 1831, as a trapper in the Wolfskill party, from New Mexico. For several years he hunted otter, chiefly on San Francisco Bay and its tributaries, and at intervals made shingles. In 1835 he was baptized at San Ra- fael as Jorge Concepcion, and worked for Val- lejo at Sonoma. In 1836 he obtained a grant of the Caymus ranch in Napa Valley, where he built a cabin or block-house, and for years was the only representative of the " Americans" in the valley. He still spent much of his time in hunting, and had many experiences with the Indians, being very successful in keeping them under control. In 1843 he was grantee of the La Jota ranch, an extension of Caymus, where he soon built a saw-mill, having also a flour- mill on his place; and the same year he was joined by two daughters who came overland with Chiles. In several of the old trapper's experiences, as related by him and embellished by others, a trace of faith in dreams and omens is shown; but the old story that a dream led him to organize the first relief expedition for the Donner party is unfounded. In later years the old pioneer found the squatters and land lawyers more formidable foes than had been the Indians and grizzlies of earlier times; but he saved a portion of his land, and died at his Napa home-called Yountville in his honor-in 1865, at the age of seventy-one years.
Joseph B. Chiles, born in Kentucky in 1810, came first to California with the Bartleson party in 1841, obtained from Vallejo the prom- ise of a mill-site, and the next year returned East for the mill; in 1843 he came back with the party that bears his name, being obliged to leave his mill on the way. In 1844 he was grantee of Catacula rancho in Napa Valley. He went East again in 1847, probably as guide and hunter in Stockton's party. In 1848 he made his third overland trip to California, at the head of a party, including his own family of a .son and three daughters. For his second wife he married M. G. Garnett in 1853, and
has since then resided in Napa and Lake conn- ties, an exemplary citizen.
Edward Turner Bale, an English surgeon, landed at Monterey in 1837, and practiced med- icine there for five or six years; in 1840-'3 he was surgeon of the California forces by General Vallejo's appointment: was a man of good edu- cation, but always more or less in trouble on account of his debts and quarrels. In 1840 he opened a liquor shop in a room hired of Larkin for a drug store, and was arrested in the result- ing complications with the authorities. In 1841 he obtained a grant of the Carne Humana rancho in Napa Valley, where he went in 1843. In 1844, having been whipped by Salvador Vallejo, he attempted to shoot the latter, was put in jail and narrowly saved his life. The rumored intention of the Kelseys and other foreigners to rescue the doctor caused much ex- citement. In 1846 he built a saw-mill, and in 1847-'48 did a large business in lumber, the increased value of his land making him a rich man. He died in 1849 or 1850, leaving a widow, two sons and four danghters.
Harrison M. Pieras settled in Napa probably about 1843, coming in a whaling vessel from Oregon the preceding year; in 1845-'48 he was in the employ of Dr. Bale; in 1848 he built the first structure at Napa City, used as a saloon, and this building was still standing in 1881. Pieras died in 1870.
William Hargrave, an immigrant from Ore- gon in the Kelsey party in 1844, settled in Napa as a hunter. He was prominent in the Bear revolt, and later served in the south as a Lientenant in the California Battalion. A few years ago he was still living in Napa.
William Fowler, a native of New York, emi- grated from Illinois to Oregon in 1843, and the next year, with two or more sons, in the Kelsey party, to this State, bringing with him a letter of recommendation as a good Catholic and car- penter; worked for a time at Sonoma; spent some time in Pope Valley; was at New Hel- vetia in 1847; and finally, with his son Henry, bought a farm of Dr. Bale near Calistoga,
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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
where at the age of seventy-two he married a second wife, and died in 1865, at the age of eighty-six years. His son, also named William, came in the same party from Oregon, and worked as a carpenter at Sonoma, New Hel- vetia and San Rafael. In Oregon he had mar- ried Rebecca Kelsey, who left him on his arrival in California. Application was made to Larkin for a divorce, and despite his lack of authority to grant it she was married by Sutter to another man. This, the junior Fowler, was probably killed in 1846, in the Bear-Flag rebellion.
William E. Elliott, a native of North Caro- lina, came overland from Missouri in 1845, with the Grigsby and Ide party, with his wife, Eliza- beth, whom he had married in 1821, and seven children. Was summoned before Castro as the representative of the immigration; became a famous hunter, and on one of his early expedi- tions is credited with having discovered the geysers. He built a cabin on Mark West Creek; worked for Smith at Bodega, but left his family in Napa Valley. He joined the "Bear" in 1846, and Mrs. Elliott is said to have furnished cloth and needles for the famous flag. The old hunter raised grain and cattle in Napa and Sonoma; kept a hotel in 1849, and in 1854 moved to a farm in Lake County, near Upper Lake, where he died in 1876, at the age of seventy-eight.
THE MEXICAN LAND GRANTS
that were made within the present limits of Napa Connty were the following: Humana Carne, 17,962 acres, patented to the heirs of Edward A. Bale in 1879; Catacula, 8,546 acres, to J. B. Chiles in 1865; Caymus, 11,887 acres, to George C. Yount in 1863; Chimiles, 17,762 acres, to Gordon and Coombs in 1860; Entre Napa, 400 acres, to P. D. Baily, 81 acres to N. Coombs in 1866, 2,051 acres to J. Green in 1881, 877 acres to M. F. de Nignara in 1879, 403 acres to Ralph L. Kilburn, 40 acres to Joseph Mount and others, 1,104 acres to Mount & Cotrell, 70 acres to John Patchett, 307 acres to J. P. Thompson, 62 acres to J. P.
Walker, 335 acres to Edward Wilson, 360 acres to Charles E. Hart, and 2,558 acres to Julius Martin; Le Jota, 4,454 acres to George C. Yount in 1857; Locoallomi, 8,873 cares to the heirs of Julian Pope in 1862; Napa, in parts to S. Val- lejo, Lyman Bartlett, A. L. Boggs, L. W. Boggs, J. E. Brown, L. D. Brown, Nathan Coombs, G. M. Cornwall, A. Farley, O. H. Frank, J. M. Harbin, Hart & McGarry, Johnson Horrell, H. Ingraham, William Keely, Eben Knight, H. G. Langley, John Love, B. McCoombs, Hannah McCoombs, J. R. McCoombs, Ann McDonald and others, James McNeil, W. H. Osborne, A. A. Ritchie, J. K. Rose, J. P. Thompson, John Truebody and Ogden & Wise; Tulucay, 8,865 acres to C. Juarez in 1861; Yajome, 6,652 acres to Salvador Vallejo in 1864. In Napa and Sonoma counties: Huichia, 18,704 acres to J. E. Leese in 1859; Mallacomes, 17,742 acres to J. S. Berreyesa in 1873.
GOVERNMENTAL.
At the time of the conquest Napa County formed part of the northern military depart- ment, under the Mexican Government, of which the headquarters were at Sonoma. It was or- ganized and its boundaries fixed by the Legis- lature April 25, 1851. The boundaries were afterward changed, April 4, 1855. A consider- able portion of its area was afterward cut off and became a portion of Lake County. At the 1872 session of the Legislature a further change was made, altering its northern line and giving a portion of Lake County to Napa.
The first deed on record at the court-house was dated April 3, 1850, from Nicolas Ilignera to John C. Brown, and acknowledged before II. M. Kendig, recorder. Some records are in the Spanish language. The second is dated February 15, 1850, from Nathan Coombs and Isabella, his wife, to Joseph Brackett and J. W. Brackett "of Napa Valley, District of Sonoma, in the northern department of Cali- fornia," and acknowledged before R. L. Kil- burn, alcalde.
The present court-house plaza was occupied
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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
by Lawley & Lefferts, as a lumber-yard, in 1855. It was originally a low field, but after the building was constructed, in 1857, the grounds were graded and filled and shrubbery planted, the cost being defrayed partly by the supervisors and partly by citizens. The orig- inal fence around the ground was built in 1857. The plaza is now a very faithful tract, worthy of the reputation of the Golden State. The corner-stone of the present court-house was laid in 1856, and, as originally built, the upper story was largely used as a jail; but it was afterward rebuilt and a new jail erected in the rear.
Napa County has had three court-houses: the first, 20x30 feet, two stories high and without plastering, was located on the northwest corner of Coombs and Second streets. Persons sen- tenced for long terms were confined in the adobe jail at Sonoma, while petty offenders were placed in the upper rooms of this court- house. This building was burned August 25, 1875. It served for a court-house from 1850 to 1856, when the second building was erected, at a cost of $19,990; but afterward improve- ments were made to the extent of $11,000 from time to time, and required frequent repairs, so that in course of time it cost the county over $50,000. The present court-house, a modern structure, was built in 1878-'79, the contract price being $50,990.
The Assemblymen from Napa County have been: T. H. Anderson, 1857-'58; John M. Coghlan, 1865-'66; F. L. Coombs, 1887; Na- than Coombs, 1855, 1860; George N. Corn- wall, 1854, 1875-'76; J. C. Crigler, 1867-'70; W. B. H. Dodson, 1863-'64; Edward Evey, 1862; R. C. Haile, 1856, 1869-170, 1877-'78; Chancellor Hartson, 1863, 1880-'81; F. C. Johnston, 1883; William R. Matthews, 1859; J. M. Mayfield, 1877-'78; Edward McGarry, 1853; J. McKamy, 1853; H. A. Pellet, 1885; John B. Scott, 1861; John S. Stark, 1852; W. W. Stillwagon, 1871-'72; S. K. Welch, 1873- '74, 1877-'78.
RESOURCES.
Napa County consists mainly of two large valleys. The Napa Valley extends the entire length of the county, and throughout its length is a railroad. The Berryessa Valley is on the east side of the county. The main dividing ranges consist of mountains 500 to 2,500 feet high. The mountain range which bounds Napa on the east contains several peaks of consider- able elevation, the highest being Mount St. Helena, supposed to be an extinct volcano, 4,343 feet high. The summit is accessible even by vehicle. The Mayacamus Ridge forms the western line of the county and is one of the most beautiful in the State. It was included in the ranch of 35,000 acres granted to Jose de Jesus Berryessa and Sisto Berryessa in 1843, by Manuel Micheltorena, Governor of the Cali- fornias.
The main valley is about thirty-five miles long, about five miles wide at the southern end and tapering to a sharp point at the north. Its river gives name to the county. It is tortuous, especially in the southern portion, where it passes through a large tract of level tule land. It runs generally close to the foot-hills on the east side of the valley.
There are no heavily timbered tracts in the county; in the western part there were some redwoods of considerable size. On Howell Mountain were mountain sugar-pines six feet in diameter. Away from the water courses is a great deal of oak of different kinds, but it is all brittle and almost worthless. About the geysers and across the northern part of the county is found the California nutmeg. This is a beautiful tree, with a fruit resembling the nutmeg of commerce.
Napa has some of the most valuable building stone in California, a light volcanic rock found in the mountains east of Napa Valley. This material was largely used in constructing the asylum. It is light yellow in color, coarse and soft in texture, but hardens by protracted ex- posure.
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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
While Napa is distinguished as a fruit, grain and vine-growing county, it possesses also a variety of mineral products, of which gold, silver, mercury, iron, petroleum, chromium and manganese are the principal; but about the only mining is of cinnabar. Deposits of this quicksilver ore occur in the northern part of the county, where several companies are engaged in this branch of mining. The first discovery of this mineral was made in September, 1861, by John Newman; and the first miners of this metal were James Hamilton, at the Phoenix mines, and George N. Cornwell, R. G. Mont- gomery and George E. Goodman, at the Red- ington or Knoxville mines, in Pope Valley, and Knox & Osborne afterward at the same mine.
Chrome is mined in Capelle Valley. Indi- cations of coal have more than once caused considerable expenditure, but no returns. The manganese exists near St. Helena.
Mining has at various times occupied a good deal of attention in Napa County. At present gold and silver are being successfully extracted at the Palisade mine above Calistoga, and a force of men is now opening up the old Silver- ado mine on the eastern side of Mount St. Helena, which gave large returns in silver in the sixties, the ore-chute being then considered worked out.
It has been said of Napa County that, pro- portionately to size, it is the wealthiest county in California. Certain it is that it leads all other counties in its production of wine and wine grapes, and during the continuance of high' prices for wines, a vast deal of money flowed into the county, of which a goodly part was laid out in extending the vineyards and in making other improvements. As a result, the whole valley, and especially the upper end where the process of subdivision has been most rapid, has an old and settled look most pleasing to the eye. When to this is added the unusual and picturesqne beauty of the valley, it is no wonder that Napa County has called forth the most glowing eulogiums and has been called the " most lovely, the most fertile and the most
favored land of the West." A feature that ap- peals to most is the fact that the county is entirely out of debt, saving only railroad and court-house bonds to the amount of $175,000, funded at six per cent. and falling in within the next fifteen years.
The date at which the prosperity of the county begins is the advent of the railroad, in January, 1865. The first movement made for the build- ing of the Napa Valley Railroad, was made in in January, 1864, when subscription books to start in the enterprise were opened at the bank and store of A. Y. Easterby & Co. March 26, of that year, Hon. Chancellor Hartson intro- duced a bill before the Legislature providing for the issuing of county bonds to the amount of $225,000 to aid the project. It was provided that bonds should be issued at the rate of $10,- 000 per mile for the first five miles constructed and $5,000 for the remaining thirty-five miles on to Calistoga. 'This proposition was submit- ted to a vote of the people, who answered with 486 yeas to 168 nays. Soon afterward the com- pany was organized with C. Hartson as Presi- dent, Samuel Brannan, Treasurer, A. A. Cohen, Secretary, and A. Y. Easterby as Vice-Presi- dent. By the following Jannary the road was completed, as to grading and track laying, from Soscol to Napa City, by Patterson & Gray, for the sum of $32,000. A small engine and two cars were placed on duty. Subsequently, fur- ther measures were taken with some opposition until 1868, when the road was completed to Calistoga, its present terminus.
This work, which has been of the greatest ultimate benefit to the valley, was characterized at the time as a gigantic " steal," engineered by that prince of scheme and adventure, the famous Sam Brannan. This line, which the county paid for but does not own, is now a portion of the Southern Pacific system, and is conducted generally in the interests of the valley. In 1888 a company was organized to build a road from Napa City to Lake County, via Conn Canon and Pope Valley, and thence to Humboldt County. Considerable grading was done in
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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
-parts of the county, when the grade and right of way was sold to the Southern Pacific. Since then all work has stopped, and it is doubtful if it will ever be resumed.
Until the advent of the railroad as stated, Napa County had been almost entirely devoted to grain and stock-raising, with dairying as the leading industry of the lower tide lands of the southern part of the county. Since then grape- growing and wine-making has become the chief industry, with fruit-growing and the like, a promising record. From Napa City to Calis- toga there is a constant succession of vineyards and wine-cellars, showing plainly the great im- portance of the industry to the county. From Yountville, nine miles above Napa City to a point about midway between St. Helena and Calistoga, the whole country is given over to the vineyards, St. Helena being the center of pro- duction. The many massive stone wine cellars, many of them architecturally very fine, is a great surprise to the stranger.
In other places will be found descriptions of some of the leading cellars, so that we need not enter into detail here. The success of the in- dustry is due, however, to such men as C. Krug, J. C. Weinberger (now deceased), H. A. Pellet, Dr. Crane, H. W. Crabb, J. Schram and others, pioneers in wine-making, who have expended time and money in experimenting and attaining good results, and later to such as W. W. Lyman (the Napa Wine Company), the Berniger Bros., W. B. Brown, C. Lemme (now deceased), and his son R. W. Lemme, the Edgehill Wine Com- pany, C. P. Adamson, Captain Niebaum, Ewer & Atkinson, J. A. Brun & Co., Carpy & Co., and many others, who with those first men- tioned are carrying to the highest perfection the processes of wine manufacture. Noteworthy in this connection, is the fact that experienced wine men are gradually drawing out of the valley bottom lands and are seeking the products of the hillside and mountain vineyards. While the yield of grapes from these is less, the quality is vastly superior. It is from these mountain vineyards that the choicer brands of wines have
come which have made Napa County famous the world over, and enabled her to sell her wines even in the markets of Germany and France.
The raising of fine-blooded horses, trotters, etc., is also becoming a feature of Napa County. There are already the beginning of several valuable studs. The organization of the Napa Agricultural Society has been a moving cause in this. It had its beginning in a small way as far back as 1854. It is now merged in the Napa and Solano Agricultural Association, which holds fairs alternately at Napa and Val- lejo, at both of which places it has grounds and courses. The race-course at Napa is said to be one of the best in the country, and is noted for the fast time made on it.
NAPA.
Napa, formerly styled Napa City, is the county town and leading city of Napa County, a place of great prosperity and extensive trade, and a favorite residence for retired wealth.
The original town plat of Napa City was planted in beans in 1847, which was the first evidence of civilization in that locality. There was then not a house in the county except a few adobes, occupied by Mexicans and a few hardy American pioneers. The first mention of the place in a newspaper was a statement in 1848 that the ship Amalek Adhel had passed np the Napa river and found plenty of water to a cer- tain point, and that beyond that was the em- barcadero de Napa. Early in May, 1848, the first building was erected, which formed the nucleus around which the present city has grown. It was one and half stories high, 18 x 24 feet in size, and was built by Harrison Pierce for a saloon. This building was still standing a very few years ago.
The town site was surveyed and laid out by of the late Hon. Nathan Coombs in the spring 1848, the limits including only the land lying between Brown street and the river, and extend- ing 600 yards from Napa street to the steamboat landing. During that year John Trubody mowed almost the entire plat, which was cov-
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ered with a rank growth of wild oats, and sold the hay to the Government. The gold discovery temporarily checked settlement here: but after the first reverberation improvements began and were continued until a beautiful city was the result.
A mile and a half southeast of the city is the
STATE ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE.
With the view of providing further accom- modations for the care of the insane of this State, the Legislature of 1869-'70 anthorized the appointment of a commissioner to visit the principal asylums of the United States and Europe for the purpose of obtaining all prac- ticable information. Governor Haight ap- pointed Dr. E. T. Wilkins, who visited 149 asylums. From the numerous plans which he collected, the one for the asylum at Napa was selected, with the aid of Wright & Saunders of San Francisco, architects. In March, 1872, the Legislature authorized the appointment of a commission to select a site and made an appro- priation of $237,500 toward the erection of the building. Governor Booth appointed Judge C. H. Swift of Sacramento, Dr. G. A. Shurtleff of Stockton, and Dr. E. T. Wilkins of Marysville, and in August of that year Napa City was selected for the site.
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