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 32

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1000

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 32

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From 1850 to 1854 all the Feather River re- gion was attached to Butte County; meanwhile no law existed here but that of the miners. March 18, 1854, the act organizing the county of Plumas was passed, and the first officers elected were: William T. Ward, Judge; Thomas Cox, District Attorney; John Harbison, Clerk; George W. Sharpe, Sheriff; Daniel R. Cate, Treasurer; Jolin R. Buckbee, Assessor; and Jacob T. Taylor, Surveyor. William V. Kings- bury was the opponent of Sharpe, and it is thought would have been elected in a fair con- test. Buckbee's opponent was Christopher Porter, and for them the vote was a tie. They were persuaded to decide the matter by a game of seven-up, in which Porter was badly beaten! A merry drinking crowd of course attended the play. After considerable lively discussion the town of La Porte and vicinity was taken from Sierra County and annexed to Plumas, by the Legislature, March 31, 1866.

The first District Court for Plumas County was held June 19, 1854, by Judge Joseph W. McCorkle, at American Valley, the temporary county-seat named in the organizing act. The only business of the court was to discharge the venire of jurors whom the sheriff had summoned, and admit attorneys to practice. MeCorkle came to California from Ohio in 1849, and in 1850 was elected the first district attorney for Butte and Shasta counties. In 1851 he served

in the Legislature, and that fall went to Wash- ington to represent his district in the lower house of Congress. Upon his return in 1853 the Governor appointed him Judge of the Ninth Judicial District, which then included Butte County, to fill the vacancy caused by the decease of George Adams Smith. He was oc- copying this office when Plumas County was created and attached to this district. In 1863 he moved to Virginia City, in 1868 to San Francisco, and later to Washington, District of Columbia, chiefly to prosecute claims before the Mexican claims commission.

William T. Ward, the first County Judge of Plumas County, was born in Massachusetts iu 1802, and came from Wisconsin to California in 1853; from 1857 to 1861 he was a farmer; from 1861 to 1865 he was the proprietor of the Genesee mine; then he was a resident of Susan- ville until 1875, during a part of which time he was postmaster, and then he moved to Quincy, where he resided until his death, April 21, 1878.

In 1864 the county of Lassen was cut off, taking territory that contained, in 1860, a popu- lation of 476.

Financially, although there have been several defalcations in the treasury, Plumas County has kept up its good credit, so that its six per cent. bonds bear a premium in the market.

Both Plumas and Sierra counties have a "gold lake " in tradition; but the exact " gold lake " concerning which a curious man named Stoddard raised a great excitement in 1849-'50, can not now be identified, even if it ever was ascertained. There are several interpretations of Stoddard's story, which was to the effect that he found a large number of lumps of pure gold ou the edge of the pond where he got down upon his hands and knees to drink. When he started ont with a company to rediseover the place, nearly a thousand others followed closely, and he either went off the trail purposely to keep the place a secret, or he lost his way. It is a secret to this day.

The result of the Stoddard gold-lake excite-

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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

ment was the discovery, by some small parties following it up, of diggings on Nelson, Poor- man and Hopkins' creeks, early in June, 1850, and those on Rich Bar and Middle Fork a few days later. Then there was a rush to those points, and more than could be provided with claims, but they all had to leave on the ap- proach of winter.

The pioncer wagon road ran from Meadow Valley to Buckeye; was constructed in 1856- '57; and the first turnpike company was formed March 28, 1860, who built the turnpike road from Plumas Mills to Indian Valley.

The first stage line operated in Plumas County was run by a joint stock company, namely, McElhany, Thomas & Co., organized in 1851 to run a stage from that point to Marysville twice a week. It ran and did well until winter set in, but did not resume the next spring. The next passenger enterprise was inaugurated in 1854, by Thomas II. Morrow, who ran a saddle-train of mules between Bid- well and American Valley. The next year he was succeeded by W. S. Dean, who ran the mules for a year and then put on stages. In 1858 he sold to the celebrated California Stage Company.

The principal towns in Plumas are Qunicy, the county-seat, La Porte, Gibsonville, Jamison City, Indian Bar, Greenville, Taylorsville, and Big Meadows, the last three being in the agri- cultural districts. There are besides these a number of mining camps and hamlets contain- ing from fifty to 200 inhabitants each.

Quincy was laid out and named by H. J. Bradley, of Quincy, Illinois, and proprietor of the American ranch on which the village is situated. As an inducement to the people to locate the county-seat there in 1854 he built and tendered to the use of the county free of charge a rude shake building in the rear of his hotel. This was used as the court-room, while the other county officials found offices elsewhere in town. John Harbison, the county clerk, located his office in the upper story of the Bul- lard building, corner of Harbison avenue and Main street.

At the fall election there were three candi- dates for the honor of being the county-seat,- Quincy, Elizabethtown and O'Neill's Flat. Thomas B. Shannon, a merchant of Elizabeth- town, worked for that place,-" Betsyburg," as it was called,-but the people concluded that that village was locked up in a ravine too nar- now, and decided in favor of Quincy; and upon representation to the postoffice department at Washington that Quincy was a larger place than Betsyburg, the postoffice was the next year moved from the latter place to Quincy, greatly to the disgust of the abandoned ambitious little town. On each letter to that place the postage at that day was 25 cents, until 1858, when the California Stage Company took the contract for carrying the mail from Oroville to Quincy. Whiting & Co.'s dog express was chiefly de- pended upon in the winter for the transporta- tion of mail.

A new and substantial conrt-house was com- pleted in 1859. The first jail was a log struct- ure, built in the spring of 1855, by John S. Thompson, at a cost of $500. In it convicts condemned for the gallows were safely kept. The present brick jail was built in 1863, by Mowbry & Clark, for $7,035.

Quincy is now a thriving mountain town, surrounded by good farms and a mineral region that is in a good way of development.

La Porte, at first called Rabbit Creek Dig- gings, is the most important settlement in the extreme southern portion of the county. It is pleasantly situated on the banks of Rabbit Creek, 4,500 feet above sea level, sixty-one miles from Marysville, twenty miles fromn Downieville and thirty-five from Quincy. The first house here was built in the fall of 1852, by Eli S. Lester, and was called the Rabbit Creek Hotel.

The first newspaper in Plumas County was established at Quincy in August, 1855, edited and published by John K. Lovejoy and Edward McElwain. It was named the Old Mountain- eer, was independent in politics and successful in finances. In 1857 they sold to John C.

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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

Lewis and James, McNabb, who changed the name to Plumas Argus and ran it until 1860, when it fell into the hands of the sheriff. Dur- ing the three-sided campaign of 1856 three papers were published at the office of the Old Mountaineer, namely, the Argus, the Plumas Democrat and the Fillmore Banner. The Old Mountaineer was Republican in politics.

At present Plumas County ships a great deal of the products of the dairy to San Francisco.

The representatives of Plumas County in the State Assembly have been: B. W. Barnes, 1871- '72; J. R. Buckbee, 1867-'68; J. D. Byers, 1873 -'74; J. W. S. Chapman, 1875-'76; R. A. Clark, 1863-'64; J. D. Goodwin, 1865-'66; M. D. Howell, 1863; P. O. Hundley. 1860; Richard Irwin, 1857; W. W. Kellogg, 1881; R. C. Kelly, 1856; Asa Kinney, 1855; John Lam- bert, 1869-'70; Calvin McClaskey, 1883; Charles Mulholland, 1880; Thomas B. Shannon, 1859-'60, 1862; J. L. C. Sherwin, 1858; R. H. F. Variel, 1887; J. H. Whitlock, 1877-'78; Joseph Winston, 1856; A. Wood, 1861; George Wood, 1881, 1885.

SACRAMENTO COUNTY.

Sacramento County is named after the river upon which it is situated, and the latter was named by the Spanish Mexicans, Catholics, in honor of a Christian institution. The word diť- fers from its English correspondent only in the addition of one letter. It would have been a graceful compliment to General Sutter if his own name, or the name New Helvetia, which he had bestowed upon this locality, had been given to the city. Helvetia is the classic name of Switzerland, Sutter's native country.

Sacramento City is 38° 35' north latitude and 121° 30' west longitude from Greenwich.

The depot at Sacramento is thirty-one feet above sea level. From the city the most promi- nent mountains and mountain ranges visible are:

1. The Sierra Nevada, snow-capped during half the year or a little more. The most visi- ble portion of this range, to whose snow-line the distance is about seventy-five miles east-

ward, is the head of the American River. The most conspicnous peaks there are: Pyramid, 10,052 feet high; Alpine, 10,426; Round Top, 9,624; Tell, 9,042; Ralston, 9,140; Robb's, 6,746.

2. To the southwest fifty-three miles, rises Mt. Diablo, 3,450 feet high.

3. Toward the west thirty or forty miles arises an eastern spur of the Coast Range, while toward the northwest about ninety iniles, in the same ranges, are Mt. Jolin's, 8,000 feet high, Mt. Snow and Sheet Iron Mount, on the west- ern border of Colusa County.

4. The Marysville Buttes, forty to fifty miles nortlı, are about 2,000 feet high and cover an area of fifty-five square miles.

The surface of the Sacramento Valley presents three distinct features. As the mountains descended into the valley, they are fringed by a range of low foot-hills, which gradually dis- appear in a broad, level plain, which must have been at some time long past the bottom of a large body of water. Through the center of this plain runs the Sacramento River, fringed by the low bottom lands always found with such geo- logical formations. Thus the foot-hills, the plain, and the bottoms present three distinct tracts of land, each with peculiarities fitting it for special use. It may be said in a general way, that on the foot-hills and the plain lands near them are the great fruit-raising districts, while the plain proper is most suitable for grains and grasses, and on the rich alluvial bottom lands any fruit or vegetable suitable for a tem- perate or semi-tropical climate will grow to full perfection.

At the southern end of Sacramento Valley, in the very richest portion of the State, and very near its geographical center, lies Sacramento County, with an area of 640,000 acres, 200,000 of which are under the highest cultivation, while about 320,000 more are in use for stock- raising, pastnrage, etc. It is watered its entire length from north to south by the Sacramento River, and by the American, Cosumnes and Mokelumne from east to west.

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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

The surface of the county is generally level, a section along the eastern side rising into low hills and rolling prairies. Along the east side of the Sacramento River extends a belt of tule land, which toward the southern boundary of the county expands to a width of fifteen miles. Parallel with the Cosnmnes is Dry Creek, forming part of the county boundary. Syea- more and cottonwood abound along the water- courses.

Near the center of Sacramento County, and on the east bank of the Sacramento River, at the point of its confluence with the American, is the city of Sacramento, the capital of the State, a thriving, wealthy and beautiful eity. Here is the railroad eenter of the State. To the east, the Central Pacific stretches its iron arm across the continent. To the north, the California and Oregon reaches out to connect with the Northern Pacitic, and so furnish another route to Eastern markets; to the west the California Pacific makes possible almost hourly communication with San Francisco and the commerce of the Pacific Ocean, while the Western Pacific connecting at Oakland with the Southern Pacific system opens up another route to seaports east and west. In addition numer- ous branch roads and feeders make this city the best connecting and distributing point in the State.

The average rain-fall has been 19.4 inches. This, with the moisture incident to the prox- imity of so many rivers and running streams, and the almost annual overflow of the bottom lands, renders the county so well watered that but little irrigation is necessary. Still there are some small sections lying comparatively higlı, and away from the streams, where the natural water supply is insufficient. They are, however, small, and in nearly all cases abundant water is obtained by sinking wells and raising the water by windmills or other power. A total failure of crops for want of water has never been known. Still, as an abundant supply of water renders many things possible which are not so without it, a company has been formed to offer an abi-

dant supply of water to all who desire to irri- gate any of the plain lands, in raising crops that need more water than the usual rain-fall affords, or where the availability of water may insure against the danger of injury to valuable plants, which might be seriously affected by even an occasional year of unnsnal drought. An application has been made for 2,000 inches of water from the American River.

All fruits do well withont the aid of artificial watering, but in some of the high-lying sections irrigation is said to increase the Insciousness of the fruit. Vegetables require irrigation, espe ciallyfor the second and third crops.

As stated, the soil of the county offers every variety requisite for a large and varied produc- tion. The foot-hills and their washings form a fringe, from five to eight miles wide, entirely around the Sacramento Valley. The soil here varies from a red, sandy loam to a cool, gravelly soil, all especially adapted to fruits. For many years the foot-hill lands were regarded as alnost valneless, but experience has shown that their soil is perhaps better adapted to a full develop- ment of the best qualities of strength and flavor in fruit, especially in grapes, than the lower-ly- ing lands, which are of more clay or alluvial character, and so warmer soils. And it is now claimed that the question of securing fine flavor for California grapes and wines, as well as abun- dant quantity, will find its best solution among the cool, gravelly soils of the foot-hills. The soil of the plain lands varies from red loam and a rich clay to a rich alluvium mixed with sand. This varies in localities, but affords such a vari- ety that the productions of this portion of the county covers a range from those of the cereals of the middle temperate climate to the fruits of the semi-tropical. They afford, however, mostly soil for grains and grasses. Wheat, oats, hay, alfalfa, barley, corn, hop, besides grapes and fruits, flomish when planted in suitable loca- tions. But the richest lands are the bottom lands, which fringe the rivers and larger streams for a distance of from one to three miles. These are covered with a deep, rich alluvinm, upon

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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

which may be raised any kind of vegetables, and temperate and semi-tropical fruits are reaching full perfection in size, quantity and quality. These lands are almost annually overflowed, and the deposit left by the receding waters is said almost to equal guano in its fertilizing effects. Many of these lands are now protected, so that . the rising waters may be controlled and utilized with judgment. Upon such lands, so watered, and in such a climate, almost anything will grow.

Owing to the fact that the country is traversed by so many rivers, it contains an unusual amount of this exceedingly rich land, which is nearly all under the highest cultivation.

PRODUCTIONS.

The productions of Sacramento County com- prise all the grains, vegetables, fruits, trees and flowers grown in the temperate and semi-tropi- cal climates. Everything in the way of grain, bread-stuffs, vegetables, and fruits needed for man's comfort and support may be successfully cultivated here The soil is rich and varied, water is abundant, and the climate is propitions. Here is no winter, in the common acceptation of the word, nor any rainy season as it is under- stood in the tropics. The winter months are called the "rainy season," not that it then rains incessantly or severely, but because the rainfall comes almost exclusively in those montlis. In the summer it rarely rains. The grain is sel- dom housed when harvested, but is left in the fields until ready for the market, the husband- man feeling little fear of trouble from the ele- ments.

CLIMATE.

Perhaps no feature of California has been more powerful in inducing immigration than its mild and eqnable climate. The north Atlantic States have their cold, damp east winds, which blow from the ocean at times for days in succes- sion, and whose power of penetration is such that neither woolen underwear nor rubber top- coats seem able to keep them from " searching the marrow of one's bones." The borders of

the Great Lakes are visited with winds so cold and so charged with moisture that they clothe all nature in coats of ice, and often jeopardize the lives of the domestic animals. On the northern shores of the lakes, the jingling sleigh- bells for fully five months in the year strive by their merry music to direct attention from the chill of death that lies over the land, and from these section thousands longingly turn their faces from the cold and ice to the sunny land where each may sit in the shade of " his own vine and fig tree.

In this regard Sacramento County offers temptations that are not exceeded in attractive- ness by those of any portion of the State. The following data, called from the published re- ports of the United States Government observ- ers will give a fair idea of the charming climate, which has enabled the city of Sacramento to win for itself the delightfully suggestive sobriquet of the "City of Roses."

During the ten years 1878-'88, the highest temperature recorded is 105°, which was reached once, and the lowest is 21°, also reached but once. A better idea of the range of tempera- ture may be had from the fact that during the same period the average number of days in each year upon which the thermometer reached 90° was bnt .thirty-six, while the average number upon which it sank below 32° was but eleven. With no severity in winter, the warmth of sum- iner is rendered enjoyable by the winds from the sea, which reach this region of the country modified and tempered, so that with scarcely an exception the warmth of a light blanket is de- sirable at night. Here the heat has never the oppressive and enervating effect which renders summer so depressing in some sections. The atmosphere is never over-charged with moisture, and never entirely dry ; so the open air is always invigorating and the breezes refreshing. The long, mild, summer day renders the cultivation of the lands easy and profitable, while the cool nights so refresh the workman that he is not enervated, but all mental and physical force is strengthened, and life is vigorous and enjoy-

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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

able. It is usnal to compare such climates with that of Italy, so famous as the resort during past centuries for those seeking the relief and pleasure found beneath her skies. So it may not be out of place to simply state a comparison between Rome, the capital and center of Italy, and Sacramento, the capital and center of Cali- fornia. The statistics from official sources on either hand are stated below. Averages for past ten years:

Spring.

Sum'r.

Autumn.

Winter. Year

Sacramento ..

.. 59.5

71.7

61.5

48.3

59.5

Rome. .57.6

72.2

64.0 48.9 60.7

In the face of these facts, the claim must not longer be made for fair Italy alone, that it is a land where " perpetual summer exists, skies are blue, and the sun ever shines."

As to the healthfulness of Sacramento, Judge J. W. Armstrong has ascertained that but one other city in the world shows a cleaner bill of health, and that is the capital of the Basque Province, in the northern part of Spain.

MINES AND MINERALS.

In the early days of mining a great deal of gold dust was taken from the placers in this county-Mormon Island, Michigan Bar and several other localities having afforded good diggings of this kind. In the low hills on the east a considerable extent of shallow placers have also been worked, some of these until quite recently.

The most of the gold now produced in Sacra- mento is taken ont in the vicinity of Folsom, chiefly along Alder Gulch, by the Portuguese and Chinamen. The deep deposits are worked by shafts and drifting, the shallow by hand sluicing in the dry season and ground slicing in the wet, when there is free water. There are gold-bearing quartz veins in the east-lying hills, but they are mostly small, and have been but little worked. In these hills oceurs a belt of serpentine containing chromic iron in small bunches and pockets.

In the neighborhood of Folsom occurs an ex- tensive bed of excellent granite, which for many years has been largely worked.

At the quarry of David Blower, two miles east of Folsom, opened ten years ago, there is exposed a thirty-foot face, twenty feet above and ten below the surface. About fifteen tons of roughly dressed stone are shipped from this quarry weekly, the most of it being used for cemetery work and street curbs. Thirteen men are employed here at wages ranging from $2.50 to $4 per day.

In the quarry on the State Prison grounds at Folsom, a large force of convicts are employed getting out stone for the dam being built by the State on the American River.

Most of the cobblestones nsed for paving the streets of San Francisco were taken from the banks of the American River, in the vicinity of Folsom.

At Michigan Bar, on the Cosnmnes River, occurs an extensive bed of potter's clay. Being a good article, and easily obtained, large quan- tities of this clay are taken out and shipped to the potteries at Sacramento, San Francisco, and elsewhere in the State. Great quantities of brick are made from the more common clays found abundantly in this connty.

THE MEXICAN LAND GRANTS

within the present limits of Sacramento County were: Cosumnes, 26,605 acres, patented to the heirs of W. E. P. Hartnell in 1869; Omoch- umnes, 18,662 acres to Catherine Sheldon and others in 1870; Rio de los Americanos, 25,521 acres to J. L. Folsom in 1864; San Juan, 19,983 acres, to Hiram Grimes in 1860. In Sacramento and San Joaquin counties, Jabjon de los Moquelumnes, 35,508 acres, to the heirs of A. Chavolla in 1865.

In February, 1858, Edwin Stanton was sent to San Francisco as special counsel for the Gov- ernment in pending law cases. Captain Sutter claimed thirty-three leagues of land in the Sacramento Valley, under two grants; one for eleven leagues made by Governor Alvarado in 1841, which was adjudged legitimate; bnt. the other, which he had obtained from Micheltorena, for twenty-two leagues, covering the sites of

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HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

Sacramento and Marysville, was not allowed, the commissioners deciding that the act was done after Micheltorena had been expelled by a revolution, and not being governor he continued to exercise the powers and functions of that office. This decision also affected the titles of several other grantees in this region. Nye's claim to four leagues on Sacramento was one of these. Great uneasiness prevailed among the settlers regarding the titles until 1865, when Sutter's original grant of eleven leagnes was confirmed.

JOHN A. SUTTER AND HIS FORT.

The first permanent settler within the limits of what is now Sacramento County, who is known to history, and who initiated Enropean civilization, was Captain John A. Sutter. The following sketch of his life we condense from a lecture delivered in New York, April 6, 1866, by General Dunbar in Sutter's presence, and published in the Sacramento Union of May 10 following:

Sutter was born of Swiss parents, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, February 28, 1803. Reared and educated in Baden, young Sutter entered the military service of France as Cap- tain under Charles X., and remained there until he was thirty years of age. At this period, yielding to his pioneer impulses, he embarked for New York, and arrived there in July, 1834. His object in coming to the New World was to select a place and prepare the way for a colony of his countrymen in the West. He first located at St. Charles, Missouri; but the vessel containing his effects was sunk, his property lost, and he abandoned the place of his first choice.

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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 32

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 1000

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1000