USA > California > A memorial and biographical history of the coast counties of Central California > Part 23
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The subsequent history of San Mateo, down to the American conquest of California, is somewhat meager. The Californians who had received land grants within the present limits of the county, pastured their stock on the same. The county was created in 1856. One of the first towns started was Belmont, which was made the county seat. Later, Redwood City became,and still remains, the county-seat. The latter place was laid out in 1854. The growth of the county was due to a con- siderable extent, first, to its nearness to San Francisco, and second, to the inexhaustible wealth of its redwood forests. The town of San Mateo was founded as a railway station in 1863.
THE PASTORAL AGE.
In the pastoral age of California, where
hides and tallow were its chief exports, the country around the bay was the great center of traffic. Vast herds were pastured on the ranches bordering on the bay, in wild oats and clover of luxuriant growth, with nothing to disturb them except the riata and brand- ing iron of the vaquero, or an occasional attack of a ferocious grizzly bear.
SPANISH GRANTS.
The land lying on the bay was, early in the history of the country, granted to Mexican citizens, in large tracts, for grazing purposes, under the very liberal land policy of the Mexican Government. These grants in- cluded " Burri Burri," "San Mateo," from which the county was named, " Las Pulgas," on part of which Redwood City is located, and "Corte Madera." These four ranches embrace about 70,000 acres, which is very nearly the extent of the level and foot-hill land lying along the shore of the bay of San Francisco, within San Mateo County.
On the ocean side of the Sierra Morena mountains are the " Corral de Tierra," "San Pedro," "Miramontez," " Cañada Verde," " San Gregorio," " Pescadero," " Buttano" and "New Year's Point " ranches.
Much of the coast country is now under cultivation, or is used for dairy farms. Of the mountain land, at least one-third is till- able, and the remainder is suitable for grazing, or is even more valuable for its timber, which includes most of the useful varieties common to California. Besides this, there are other
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valleys of importance, among them the " Cañada Raymundo," upper " San Gregorio" and " Pomponio," containing considerable areas of tillable land.
It was the custom in the old Spanish or Mexican times to transport the hides from the ranchos, in huge wooden-wheel vans, to the heads of the slonghs running inland from the bay. When this could not be done, a vaquero would select a large hide, pile half a dozen or more other hides on it, attach one end of his riata to it, and the other to the pommel of his saddle, and drag the load over the dry grass to waiting boats at the head of the slongh.
In this way, the estuary, upon which Red- wood City is now built, was first used for traffic. The hide business ceased on the coming of the Americans, and the estuary of the Pulgas rancho lost its primitive com- merce, and for a long time the ebb and flow of the tides alone disturbed the quiet of its tule-sheltered shore.
SAN MATEO UNDER AMERICAN RULE.
In 1848, and the greater part of 1849, all the freight by water, for this section, was landed at the San Francisquito creek estuary. A road led from there to the Coppinger and other lumber camps in the redwoods on the mountains. The re-discovery and utilization of the redwood estuary was the result of an opportune error, and forms an episode in the history of San Mateo county of sufficient interest to entitle it to reproduction here, in detail.
A PIONEER'S REMINISCENCES.
Dr. R. O. Tripp, still an honored citizen of San Mateo county, arrived in San Fran- cisco in May, 1849, from New York, having crossed Mexico from Vera Cruz to Tepic, and by sailing vessel from San Blas. After practicing his profession as a dentist awhile in San Francisco, charging four dollars for extracting a tooth, and eight dollars for plugging one, while his friend and com- petitor, Dr. Blankeman, had the face to charge a man six ounces of gold for drawing six teeth, he set out for the mines, but was " shipwrecked " in Suisun bay, and was com- pelled " to wade ashore," whereby he took cold, and on his return to San Francisco found himself quite ill. About this time he met Parkhurst and Ellis, of San Mateo, who had leased the right to cnt timber on widow Coppinger's rancho, el Corte Madera; and on their advice he concluded to go down there and recuperate. He went from the city to the mission in a sail boat, landing in Mission slough near the present site of the sugar refinery. It was easier to go that way than over the sand-hills. He walked as far as el Puerto Suelo, now Ocean View, and sat down to rest. There was, at that time, no habitation of any kind in sight. A man passing with a team, offered to take him as far as the Sanchez rancho, now Millbrae, where the first house was encountered after leaving the mission. The teamster charged the doctor five dollars for the ride, and, after staying all night at the Sanchez house, offered
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to take him to the redwoods for ten dollars. They proceeded down the road to San Mateo, and crossed the creek at the old mission building, which was kept as a hotel by Nicholas de Peyster, and was called the " Half-Way House." From there they went on to San Francisquito creek, and up that creek to the Mountain Home ranch, where he staid a week as the guest of the owner, Andrews, who had just sold a large crop of onions at $16 an arroba,-twenty-five pounds, equal to sixty-four dollars a hundred; and who, from the proceeds, had supplied himself with champagne and other luxuries, not common then nor since in the redwoods. From there the doctor went to the camp of Parkhurst and Ellis, who had returned from San Francisco, and had commenced making shingles. As Ellis drank hard, Parkhurst bought him out and invited Tripp to become his partner, which he did January 1, 1850.
And here we come to the incident which reopened the Redwood estuary, and gave it the name it now bears.
RAFTING TIMBER.
Parkhurst and Tripp entered into a contract with some San Francisco carpenters to get out square timber and piles, and float them with the tide to San Francisco. An old North river boatman was to manage rafting the lumber dowu the bay to the city. The San Francisco partners, Lloyd, Rider and Hayward, left San Francisco in a small boat in February, 1850, for a visit to the red- woods. They were directed to steer for the
usual landing place for the San Mateo red- woods, at San Francisquito creek. By acci- dent they entered the Redwoods estuary, instead, sailed up as far they could go, tied their boat to an oak tree, on what was after- ward the Hawes farm, and struck out for the foot-hills. From an elevation they saw the sinoke of the camp, and made for it. On questioning them, Mr. Tripp soon concluded that they had not come by the San Francis- quito creek embarcadero. The next day he went with them, and found that the new route, which they had drifted into, was the nearest and best route from their camp. They set about building a road to it, and hauled out their square lumber and pile-logs that way that season. They launched these logs from the bank, where Chamberlain's store now stands. Their first raft contained 250 pieces of timber in six sections. They were shipped when the winds were highest, and three sections got away from them near Goat island, and were lost. They got the other three sections to the wharf, with the aid of a tug. They realized $82 per thousand for the square lumber, and for the piles eighty-two and a half cents a running foot. They hauled lumber to the landing all summer; but they did no more rafting till the high winds had subsided; after that they got the logs into San Francisco without loss. During the . summer they received all their supplies by way of Redwood. And these were the first shipments to and from what is now Redwood City. They had all the hard ground from Chamberlain's store to the tannery crowded
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with lumber, which was hauled during the summer and shipped that fall. It was this redwood timber, strewn along the shore wherever hard ground was found, that gave the place the name of " Redwood Slough," after- ward changed to Redwood City. Dr. Tripp says that he and his partner closed out for that year, and found that they had done fairly well, after having paid Andrews and South- ard $1,300 stumpage.
They received their first load of supplies by teams from San Francisco; and two loads came by way of San Francisquito creek; the latter costing them $75 a load, freight from the embarcadero to their camp.
In the summer of 1850, when one of the loads of supplies arrived in a flat-bottomed boat at the slough, Dr. Tripp says he sent for the freight, but the man could not find either the slough or the freight, and he him- self had to go down after it, but he had to pay the man $25 extra for the day he had lost in looking for it. But as he was out of provisions, he had to have them at any cost. They had a scow built that summer, and after that received all their supplies that way.
A man named William Smith built the first house on the slough. Charles Living- ston started the first store just back of Cham- berlin's, in the old building used as a ware- house. This was in 1851. Smith built the brick warehouse now used by Hanson, and lived in a house opposite. He married one of the Voiget girls.
Dr. Tripp was in fact the first regular merchant in the county. He left the lum-
ber camp and built where he now lives, in 1851, and commenced merchandising. Park- hurst, who had been Tripp's partner, went to San Francisco, where he obtained a place in a hardware store. While there, he would buy goods for his old partner, and have them shipped to him.
One day, in the fall of 1851, Dr. Tripp says a man came to his store and told him that he, Tripp, was running for supervisor, and wanted to know what his politics were; to which he replied that he had voted for General Taylor. The election was held at the Mountain House ranch. Some voters scratched his name, but he says he took no interest in the matter, and had almost for- gotten the election when he received a letter requesting him to meet with the San Fran- cisco supervisor, San Mateo being then a part of San Francisco county. After that he says he rode up to the city every Sunday and met with the board on Mondays.
Dr. Tripp and his partner, for a considera- ble time, had the only store between the Mission Dolores and Santa Clara. They had trade from San Mateo, Halfmoon bay, and Pescadero. The coast trade was carried on pack-mules. The stock and outfit for the first store started in Pescadero was supplied by this firm.
Dr. Tripp is fairly entitled to the distinc- tion of being the first merchant and the first elected public officer in San Mateo county, and perhaps the only merchant in this State continually in business from 1850 down to he present date, occupying the same store,
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with some improvements, in which he com- menced his mercantile life forty years ago.
ADVENTURES OF OTHER PIONEERS.
Among other early settlers of the penin- sula now known as San Mateo county, were William Holder, Charles Ayres, and James Weeks, who gave some very interesting rem- iniscences to a local journal, from which a few extracts are here given :
William Holder and William Cottam came here in 1850, and first settled at the place where Belmont is now located. In 1851 they put up a small building on the bank of the creek, and opened what was then called a fonda, where refreshments were offered for sale. The same year they 'bought the long boat of a vessel, which they con- verted into a sloop of about eighty tons' burthen, and engaged in carrying freight up and down the creek, and also in carrying fire-wood to San Francisco. About this time Charles Davidson appeared on the creek with the sloop Plumas of twenty tons' capacity; and Dennis Martin was running a sawmill by water power near Searsville. In 1852, Peter Becker brought the Julia on the creek, which some years after Charles Hanson and Peter Brown bought. A Mr. Shaw started the first store here in 1851. Of those who were prominent here from 1850 to 1854, was Captain Voiget, who had been here buying hides as early as 1836. In 1850 he lived on what is now the Polhemus place. Holder says Captain Voiget showed him a sketch in
water colors of this section, drawn when he was here in 1836.
W. C. R. Smith married a daughter of Captain Voiget. The first grand ball was given in his house on the 1st of January, 1854. In 1855, or soon after, Charles Liv- ngston put up a brick store, where Price's hotel is. Having sold out to Langley, Price afterward bought out the latter, and took down the brick store to make room for his hotel.
Charles Ayres came in 1852, and he and J. G. Pritchard, in the spring of that year, bought eighty acres of what is now known as the Selby tract, and engaged in farming with poor success, and so they came to Red- wood City and put up a building for a bakery, part of which is still used as an office of the Tremont House.
Mr. Ayres says he paid as high as $47 a barrel for flour while he was running the confectionery and bakery. In 1855 they bought more ground and built, and engaged regularly in the hotel business.
Mr. Ayres says the first hotel which was opened, in April, 1853, in Redwood City, was built by a man named Harris. It was the original American Hotel, and stood where the Wahl building now is. The successive owners of this hotel were: Hancock, Thur- ber, Aldrich and Raymond. It was burned down in 1864. It was rebuilt in 1866, by Merrill, and again burned in 1878, but was not rebuilt.
The building now owned by Claus Hadler, known as the Eureka corner, was opened as a
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hotel in 1854. It was built by Harry Morse, an early sheriff of Alameda county, but now the head of the well-known "Harry Morse Detective Burean," and Daniel Balch, after- ward a noted assayer on the Comstock.
It was kept as a hotel by Ayres & Pritch- ard for awhile, and after various changes came into the possession of its present owner and into its present nses.
CHAPTER III.
THE REDWOOD FORESTS.
NE of the first things which attracted the attention of Americans and other foreigners on their arrival in central or northern California, when the country was under Mexican rule, was the redwood forests of the coast counties; and there many of the first comers to the province cominenced their California life.
This is especially true of San Mateo county. It is believed that the first foreign settler in the county (though Joseph Chap- man, who came in 1818, was the first in the county) was one William Smith, known at the time as "Bill, the sawyer." The late James Pease claimed to have deserted from a Hudson Bay Company's ship, the Nereid, in Yerba Buena, in 1823 or 1824, and that " he wandered into the redwoods near Wood- side, where he found Smith, who was married at the time, and lived in a hut with his wife and baby, near where John Coppinger after- ward built his residence. He was the only foreigner there, and had already dug a saw
pit, felled some trees, cut them into proper lengths, and had sawed some lumber, with much difficulty. He had to get his Indian help from the missions. The arrival of Pease was a fortunate event for "Bill, the sawyer," who at once engaged the newcomer as an assistant. They cut timber for a number of years with whipsaws, and supplied the Cali- fornians with such timber as they needed in the adobe honses, which were being built then on the ranchos of that region.
They worked at this business alone for several years. One day, however, they were joined by George Ferguson, who had de- serted from a ship at Sausalito, and who, after many adventures, arrived in the redwoods. Ferguson took up a claim near Smith and Pease, and was soon after joined by a fellow- seaman named James Weeks. From that time on others came, but did not remain per- manently, until the arrival of John Coppin- ger, a deserter from the British navy, in 1834 or 1835. He set about felling trees and making lumber in a systematic manner, pro- curing the aid of Californians, Indians, and of foreigners, whenever they could be- found.
James Weeks was first employed by " Bill the sawyer," and Ferguson, who was with Smith when he came. He staid there somne time, learning to whipsaw, and afterward went with Ferguson to San José, and built the first flourmill there. He then returned to the redwoods, and with Smith built a saw- pit, felled trees, and began to hew lumber for sawing, sometimes sleeping in the pit, the log cabin of Bill being some distance from
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the work. Smith and Weeks parted when Coppinger came, and Weeks joined the latter in making shingles and sawing lumber.
ARCADIAN LIFE.
Weeks gives the following picture of his Arcadian life in the San Mateo redwoods: " I spent a happy life working in the Pul- gas redwoods. Sometimes I would go to San José, Yerba Buena, Santa Clara, Monterey or Santa Cruz; was not overburdened with constant hard labor. Our time was our own, and we knew how to enjoy it. Except the house of ' Bill, the sawyer,' and the residence of the Soto family, there was not a building in the township. The Indians who had not been gathered into the fold of the missions, had rancherias in the cañons amid timber-clad mountains. Hill and vale were alike thronged with game, while the herds of the ranches roamed literally upon a thousand hills.
" The marsh lands occupied a greater area than they do to-day, while the cultivated or occupied (pasture) lands were covered with wild oats that grew ' shoulder high with a horseman.'
" Thus the land lay for many quiet and peaceful years. Immigration began in 1841, and increased with each succeeding year, compounding in numbers like interest on a note of hand in the flush times of the gold discovery.
" In 1844, Dennis Martin arrived in the Sacramento valley, and in the following year came into San Mateo redwoods, to the Corte Madera rancho, then owned by John Cop-
pinger, James Pease, John Pepper and Charles Brown was then there. Brown was occupy- ing the Mountain Home ranch.
" The country was now on the eve of an eventful change. It passed under the sov- ereignty of the United States in 1846, but nothing more than the rumor of the war with Mexico reached the shades of the San Mateo redwoods.
" It was not so with the discovery of gold, which took place two years later. That event came like an electric shock, and was felt in every town, mission, ranch and camp, not only in California, but throughout the civil- ized world. Dennis Martin and others rushed from the peaceful redwoods to the gold pla- cers. Martin, contrary to the general rule, was successful; and in 1850 he returned and located near Searsville, and in the fall of that year, he erected a water-power sawmill on San Francisquito creek, about three-fourths of a inile below Searsville. This was the first sawmill ever built in the country. But it was only run for a few weeks, when it was carried away by a flood.
" The next mill was built by a man named De Hart, on the Mountain Home ranch, then owned by Charley Brown. De Hart let a contract to one Whipple to run the Inmber to the tail of the mill at $25 per 1,000. Whipple soon mnade money enough to buy the mill, selling a large quantity of lumber at $75 a 1,000, for which he did not have to pay for the hauling at the rate of $25 per 1,000. He afterward moved the mill and broke np.
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Whipple, who was a Mormon, died recently in San Francisco."
REDWOOD AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS.
It is apparent from the foregoing that its redwood forests were a very important factor in the first settlement of San Mateo county. Eventually the products of the forests gave name to the estuary, whence they were shipped, and afterward to the city which was built on its shore and in fact, the lumber interest played an equally important part in the development of other sections of California. The first steam mill of any kind in the Territory was built in the Bodega redwoods, by Captain Stephen Smith in 1843. General Vallejo, who was present when Captain Smith started the mill, said afterward, " I distinctly remember hav- ing predicted on that occasion that before many years California would have more steam engines than soldiers." This prophecy was soon verified.
The redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), in many of its valuable qualities, equals, if it does not surpass, any tree known in the for- ests of America. It belongs to the same general family as the so-called "big trees," but differs materially from it in the texture of the wood and its foliage. The redwood proper grows only on the coast of California. It approaches on the north the Oregon line, but does not cross it. It is not found south of Monterey county. It grows best in the fog belt along the coast, or within the influ- ence of the sea breeze. Beyond that line it
does not flourish. Formerly the cañons fac- ing the ocean were literally packed with red- wood trees, as they are still in northwest Cal- ifornia.
It is a grand sight to see the gray line of fog crawling like a living creature through the high foliage of a redwood forest. It is the tribute of the sea to the greatest of the productions of its embracing shore. As the mist moves slowly on it is condensed, drops from the foliage and moistens the feeders of the tree to the tips of its ontlying roots. This mild bnt effective process of irrigation is continued every day and night during the season of fog.
Undoubtedly the tremendous height and girth, which the tree attains in favorable localities, are due to the moisture it distils from the northwest summer trade winds blow- ing fresh from the ocean. Wherever this in- fluence is felt within the line of its growth, the canons contained more or less redwood. On the rich bottom land on Russian river, there was a forest of many thousand acres, where the trees ranged from ten to eighteen feet in diameter, and from 250 to 400 feet in height.
QUALITY OF THE TIMBER.
Redwood does not warp; its grain runs strait and therefore it splits true; and it takes on a fine polish as a finishing wood. This is especially true of what is known as "curly" redwood, which can be made to surpass in beauty the finest mahogany. Redwood con- tains no resin, and when green or wet is diffi-
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cult to burn, although when thoroughly sea- soned it burns very rapidly. It is very durable, both in or above the ground, in the water or out. It is said that the stockades, built by the Russians at Fort Ross, in 1820, is still a solid structure. Fences built in the early settlement of San Mateo county are still sonnd.
For water, wine, and other tanks, it is the best material known. Redwood water tanks are universally used throughout California, and in the arid regions of Arizona and New Mexico. Tanks of this material are used by all the brewers on the coast for the storage of beer, and it is coming into use in the East for the same purpose. About 1,500,000 feet of this tank lumber was used by brewers in Milwaukee, Toledo and Detroit, in 1890; and during the same year 12,000,000 feet of redwood lumber of all kinds was shipped to the East, with every prospect that this trade will largely increase in the future.
John Muir, the naturalist, thinks some of the Sequoia gigantea, cousins of the redwood, may be 6,000 years old. On a sixteen-foot redwood tree, as many as 1,280 rings of annual growth have been counted.
There is an extensive business done in wood, tanbark and other forest products, which are shipped direct to San Francisco by sea. A large area of redwood timber, in the same section, owned by private individuals, will prove valuable to the county in the future. The forests at present inaccessible are practically untouched, which is in some respects fortunate, as standing redwood tim-
ber is getting scarce, especially so near San Francisco, and every year adds to its value- The question of facilities for marketing it is only a question of a short time, as there are a number of shipping points along the coast which can be utilized for this purpose when it will pay to build roads to them. New channels of trade are being opened up in the Eastern market, where the reputation of this valuable timber will steadily improve and liold its own against any wood on earth. When all of its good qualities are more gen- erally known, the demand for it will be enormous.
The products of the county include all the crops common to the country bordering on the bay of San Francisco. The staples are wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, beans, and in some parts of the county flax has been suc- cessfully grown for the manufacture of oil from the seed. The dairying interest of San Mateo county is large and profitable. The largest dairies are at Visitacion, San Bruno, Millbrae and Belmont, nearly all of which send their supply of milk daily to San Fran- cisco.
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