USA > California > San Joaquin County > An illustrated history of San Joaquin County, California. Containing a history of San Joaquin County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its future prospects; > Part 18
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Commencing in a small way, in Hook's build- ing, the business so increased that in a short time a larger room was secured. Within five weeks after arrangements were perfected with Baker & Hamilton, agricultural-implement dealers in San Francisco, $30,000 worth of goods were disposed of, upon which there occurred not a single loss. In order to increase capital and facilitate operations, the grangers obtained a charter for a corporation May 14, 1874, the first officers of which were, T. J. Brooks, Pres- ident; S. S. Burge, Secretary; and John Was- ley, Treasurer, all farmers. In October, 1876, they moved into still more commodions quarters.
They were the second parties in the State to attempt the manufacture of barbed wire for
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fence. They purchased several car loads of a particular kind of fence wire, known as the "Scott Patent," which gave such universal satisfac- tion that they decided to manufacture it on this coast themselves. They commenced operations in July, 1878, turning ont their first fence wire on the 20th of that month, and on the follow- ing 12th of Angust shipped their first consign- ment of 3,500 pounds. To the fact of the establishment of this industry in Stockton by the Grangers' Union, the farmers inay accredit the reduction of fence wire and of expense in inclosing their land.
ARTESIAN AND GAS WELLS.
This subject comes more appropriately in this chapter than elsewhere in this work, as it con- cerns the rural community everywhere equally with the towns and cities. From V. M: Peyton and the Stockton Independent of April 4, 1877, the following facts are obtained.
In 1854, when agriculture in the San Joaquin valley first began to assume importance, those who had undertaken to farm the lands of the surrounding country, felt the necessity of irri- gation. While there was an abundance of water running to waste in the rivers that rose in the perennial snows of the Sierras, and flowed through the plains on their way to the sea, the construction of canals from these streams seemed too great an undertaking for them. Artesian wells had been sunk in the Santa Clara valley with good success, good streams of flowing water having been obtained at a depth of cighty to 100 feet. It was considered that the same results might possibly be obtained in the San Joaquin valley, and if it could be demonstrated that flowing water conld be reached at that depth, it would prove an inestimable boon to the farm- ers, as it would thus be possible for every fariner to have water upon his farm. In order therefore to make a test of the matter, the city authorities joined with the county supervisors and each donated $1,000, to pay the cost of making the experiment. Work was begun in the summer of 1854, and the well was bored
to the depth of 200 feet without striking water. The funds were exhausted and work was sus- pended. There was a general desire manifested, however, to continue boring, but the supervisors refused to contribute further, until the matter had been in a measure ratified by the people. It was made a public question at the county election in the fall of 1854, and supervisors were elected and pledged to the support of the pro- ject. Mr. Peyton was the principal man to push the enterprise, being secretary and treas- urer of the "Artesian Well Board of Trustees."
The people having thus manifested their de- sire to go aliead with tlie well, work was again begun in 1856, the city and county contribut- ing $2,000 each for that purpose. The contract was let to L. A. Gould, of Santa Clara County, who furnislied tools and men for $18 a day. An attempt was made to prosecute the work on the old well. The old pipe was removed, new double eight-inch pipe put in, and the tools put in for boring, but, after expending several hun- dred dollars, it was found that some malicious person had dropped a cannon ball or hard stone in the well, which it was impossible to bore through. The well had therefore to be aban- doned and a new well was started twenty feet east of the old one. By December 1, 1856, the new well had been sunk to a depth of 466 feet, of which 340 feet was lined with double nine-inch iron pipe, the remaining dis- tance being lined with the same quality of pipe eiglit inches in diameter. At the point of quit- ting work, 1,002 feet down, the water rushed up fifteen feet above the surface of the ground. The first 400 feet cost $1,200 to dig, besides the pipe, which cost $720. From the depth of 400 feet it cost $6.25 per foot to bore the well, increasing 25 cents per foot at every 25 feet to a depth of 600 feet, after which it in- creased 50 cents per foot at every 25 feet. The total cost of the well was $10,000, of which the city and county contributed each one-half. The expense of boring artesian and gas wells at that period is in great contrast with what it is now- adays, when companies in the Eastern States
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often bore dowu through 1,000 feet of rock for $1,000 or less.
October 14, 1857, the city council voted $500 to continue the work and asked the supervisors to contribute the same amount, which request was promptly complied with, as the work was soon afterward completed.
During the progress of the State fair, in Au- gust, 1857, work was suspended, and a zinc reservoir was built around the fountain made by the flowing water, adding materially to the attractiveness of the fair grounds, which were then on the square surrounding the well. On the 16th of February, 1859, a contract was let to P. Edward Conner, founder of the City Waterworks, for the exclusive use of the water for twenty years. The terms of payment were $700 a year, Mr. Conner agreeing to furnish all water wanted for city and county purposes.
For a number of years after the completion of the well, the water was allowed to overflow the top through a perforated tube, forming a beautiful fountain; but when the requirements of the growing city commanded the use of all the water, the fountain was shut off. At the first county agricultural fair held August 30, 1860, the pavilion, a large tent, was erected over the fountain.
At a meeting of the Natural History Society of Stockton, a paper was read by C. D. Gibbs, who, in connection with Dr. J. B. Trask, of San Francisco, had been investigating the properties, force and volume of the well, which contained the following facts in connection therewith :
" The depth of the well is one thousand and two feet. The temperature of the water as it issues from the surface is seventy-seven degrees, the atmosphere being sixty degrees Fahrenheit.
"The water rose eleven feet above the surface of the plain, and nine feet above the established grade of the city, and it is probable, if the pipes were properly connected and made perfectly tight, that it would rise several feet higher.
" On a superficial examination the water was found to be charged with two gases, supposed
to be carbonic oxide gas and carbonic gas. It will, however, require a proper analysis, and a more extended examination than a few hours to determine the properties of the water and gases.
" With a properly constructed vessel for se- curing the gas as it issues from the pipe, and obtaining a pressure, the water may be forced up high enough to be carried into the second stories of the buildings; but it will have to be determined by experiments.
" As a consequence of the presence of car- bonic acid gas, the water must not be conveyed from the main conduits in lead or copper pipes, if used for drinking or culinary purposes; great danger would result to the health and lives of the community."
The flow of water amounted to half a million gallons per twenty-four hours. Considerable gas arose with the water, but the citizens did not think of utilizing it. Of late years the well has become choked up, thus materially dimin- ishing the flow.
As already stated in Chapter I, the strata gone through were thin alternations of sand, gravel and clay of various colors. Gold was found at a depth of eighty-two feet, in a mixed stratum ; at a depth of 340 feet, in a stratuin of coarse sand, was found a redwood stump, and from this point the water ascended to within three feet of the surface. At 560 feet a vein was tapped that arose five feet above the surface of the ground.
In 1878 W. L. Overhiser put down four artesian wells for irrigatiug purposes, ten feet apart and 135 to 144 feet in depth. The water, however, has not an "artesian flow," and the proprietor pumps the water up to a higher level with steam power. This was the first experi- ment of the kind attempted in the county.
After the completion of the artesian well at Stockton in 1858 nothing more was heard of natural gas here until 1883, when Cutler Sal- mion, seven miles from Stockton on the Freuch Camp road, found natural gas at 1,260 feet. This gas is caught and used in lighting, heating and
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cooking in his house. For this purpose there is an abundance; probably more than seventy- five per cent. of all the gas delivered by the well escapes into the air. This well is compound, being a well within a well. Inside the larger well, which is 1,000 feet- deep, and from which flows a strong stream of soft water, a smaller casing is inserted. This extends to the deptlı of 1,250 feet, and from that level conducts sep- arately to the surface a mineral water burdened with gas. Mr. Salmon was the first in the county to utilize natural gas, and he has since been followed by a number of others. The McDougall well delivers more gas than any other well in the county opened prior to 1887. By actual test it registered between 7,000 and 8,000 feet of gas per twenty-four hours, under the average meter pressure.
In the spring of 1887 work was begun on what is known as the Haas, well, in the south- western portion of the city of Stockton. It has reached a depth of over 2,000 feet. The water, 92°, flows at the rate of 1.500 gallons a minute. For the first thousand feet the diameter of the well is twelve inches, and, owing to various difficulties mnet with in the process of boring, the diameter was reduced from time to time nntil it was only four inches. The well is now yielding about 100,000 feet of gas per day, which is enough to supply 500 families with 200 feet each daily. This is said to be sufficient for heating, cooking and light- ing the largest residence in Stockton. The Haas is the deepest in the county, costing over $10,000. Considering all the cost of equip- inents, the sale of gas at the present price, $1 per 1,000 feet, yields an annual income of about 160 per cent. on the investment.
The well at the Crown Mills was completed in March, 1888, and is down 1,380 feet. It is ten inches in diameter for 1,230 feet, and then
reduced to eight inches. The flow of water is 350,000 gallons per day, and the yield of gas about 29,000 feet. This well cost $4,000. The use of the gas in the mill makes a saving of $250 a month. The company proposes to sink another well.
The California Paper Mill Company of Stock- ton has a well 1,228 feet deep, costing $3,500, which furnishes gas for lighting and fuel, sav- ing them $100 a month. They also will sink another and a deeper well.
The Northern Natural Gas Company's well is the latest success. It is 1,630 feet deep. The casing is twelve inches for the first 640 feet, ten and one- half for the next 666 feet and eight and one-half inches for the last 324 feet. Cost, $6,150. Gas yield, 30,000 feet per day; water flow, 300 gallons per minute, which will be used for finshing sewers. Temperature 86°. The water commenced flowing over the top of the well at 750 feet, and the first flow of gas oc- curred at a depth of 1,000 feet. This company is preparing to furnish a small section of the city, where most of the stockholders reside, at 50 cents per 1,000 feet, which is one-third the cost of oak wood fnel at $6 per cord.
The last Legislature made an appropriation for boring a gas well on the grounds of the Asylum, which is now in progress, starting with a fifteen-inch bore. Several other parties are also preparing to sink wells, among whom is the old coal gas company near the Haas well site, proposing to go down 3,000 feet. The latest improved process for boring these wells is the " hydraulic," which consists in letting down a volume of water through an inner pipe and thus forcing the debris up outside of the same within a larger pipe.
The use of natural gas is being introduced for domestic purposes throughout the city.
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TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION.
CHAPTER IX.
PIONEER TRAVEL AND FREIGIITING.
HE old Mexican custom of travel with horses and freighting by burros need not be described or commented upon here; but the rush of immigration occasioned by the gold discovery of 1848 brought in new methods, more characteristic of the enterprising Yankee and Northern European. At first, for two or three years, a large part of the supplies were taken to the mines by mule-back or man-back, for freight- ing was difficult at the seasons when the mines could be worked, and no supply depot could well be maintained in the mines from the fact that the mining camps were continually shift- ing. The carriage of supplies by inen was done alinost exclusively by Chinamen and Chilians: the usual weight for a man to carry was 100 pounds. The freight to Sonora, a distance of sixty miles, was 25 cents a pound; and to Mari- posa, a distance of 120 miles, $1 a pound. Mail was carried from here to the mines on horse- back, the price for delivering a letter outside of Stockton being $1.50; and the carrier did also a lucrative business in selling newspapers along his ronte, the price of a paper being usually from $1.50 to $2.50.
To facilitate transportatiou, wagons of im- mense size were built, called " prairie schoon- ers." One of these imninense structures, built by Williamn P. Miller and called the "Stockton- ian," was twenty-eight feet long, eight feet high and five feet wide, and weighed 5,000 pounds.
The hind wheels were seven feet in diameter. It cost $1,000. M. Caricoff drew in three of these wagons, one fastened behind the other, 31,000 pounds of wheat to the Stanislaus mills at Knight's Ferry, with only fourteen unules.
Many teamsters håd a bow fastened over the hames and furnished with tinkling bells, so that their welcome jingle as they tugged their weary way along up the mountain ravines could be heard for miles around by the merchants and other denizens of the camps.
Staging, carrying express and mail, after it was once started was run to such an extreme by way of competition as to financially embar- rass or ruin many parties. Horses were driven to death. Fifty to sixty miles a day was ill- deed the average drive. On one occasion, when Sonora had been destroyed by fire, in 1853, a stage left there at 1:30 p. M. and reached Stock- ton at 8 o'clock, having made the entire dis- tance, sixty miles, in six hours and a half!
On account of the inuddy character of the ground at Stockton during the rain season, a better landing was in early day sought at other points, and at one time Tuolumne City seemed a formidable rival of Stockton; but the low water which succeeded the first dry winter killed the budding hopes of that almost inaccessible town.
Rapid transit was often made, especially by the Mexicans, by driving a band of twenty or more horses in front; and wlien the rider's horse, or indeed any other, became weary, the travelers
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would lasso a fresh horse from the band. Thus they would make seventy-five to a hundred miles a day. Allusions are made elsewhere in this volume to the exciting scenes attendant upon the expressing of freight to the southern inines, which was in fact the principal busi- ness of Stocktonians for the period referred to. Remarkable feats, singular accidents and mys- terious coincidents were numerous. There is no end to anecdotes in those matters.
NAVIGATION.
From Tinkham's History of Stockton we learn that John Doak and Mr. Bonsell in 1848 built a ferry-boat in Marin County, where the Government had a small steam saw-mill, and had it towed up the San Joaquin to a point where they ran the boat for a time, when the rates were $3 for man and horse, $8 for a wagon and $1 for each person without a vehicle. A year afterward Mr. Doak constructed the first sailing vessel ever built on the tributaries to the San Francisco bay. Oak trees were cut near the ferry, sawed up by whip-saws and thus pre- pared for the construction of the hull. The two masts, costing when delivered $600, were hauled from Calaveras County. The vessel, of about forty tons' burden and namned the San Joaquin, was used for freighting between Stockton and San Francisco. It proved to be a staunch vessel and was afterward nsed on the bay for many years.
Captain Weber's whale boats and his little sloop, Maria, were the first to make a business of carrying freight and passengers between Stockton and San Francisco. Fromn two or three days to as many weeks were required to inake the trip one way, and the passenger fair was $10 to $15. During the season of 1849 many other sail vessels got to running on the San Joaquin, in the carrying trade.
In the fall of 1849 Mr. Doak went to San Francisco and purchased 127,000 feet of Oregon Inmber, inade it into rafts at the mouth of the San Joaquin and floated it up by tidal wave to 9
Stockton within the space of two weeks, and with it started the first lumber yard in this city
The first steamers to land at this port were the John A. Sutter, the Mint, the Maunsel White and the Merrimac. When one of these -probably the John A. Sutter-first arrived at Stockton, with flags and banners flying, the event was celebrated with great cheering and conviviality. A large and excited crowd col- leeted upon the banks, and cheer after cheer was given for the new comer and her gallant captain with a gusto characteristic of the ear- nestness of those stirring days. Fastening her cable to a small oak tree then growing upon the bank, the stump of which may still be seen at the foot of Centre street at low tide, she landed her passengers and freight upon the bank. The event was celebrated by a general indulgence in conviviality by the citizens and the crew of the vessel, which in the eyes of the Stocktonians was no less in size and importance than the Great Eastern; and if any of the party walked a little crooked and tangled, there were no lov- ing wives at that date awaiting them to snatch thein bald-headed at the door, and no zealous police longing to take them in tow.
The event was unheralded, and was a com- plete surprise to the whole neighborhood. This fact was made known to the writer by a gen- tleman who, while traveling toward Stockton from the mines, where he had been digging gold, heard the unusual sound of a steam whis- tle. l'resuming that no steam engine was within a hundred miles of Stockton, he in sur- prise- turned to his traveling companions and remarked in language more forcible than polite, " What the devil is that? Is this enchanted ground?" Arriving in the town a few honrs after he found the entire topic of conversa- tion to be the arrival of the new steamer. Reaching the bank of the channel, round which was clustered the then village of Stockton, he saw the pioneer steamer, the advance guard of the fleets of vessels that have swelled the river commerce of this city to more than a million
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dollars annually, and which must increase ten- fold ere another decade rolls ronnd.
The John A. Sutter was in command of Cap- tain Warren, a man whose genial social quali- ties endeared him to all who knew him. He was a man well calculated to fill the position of captain, for from the annals of those days we find him afterward in command of seven different steamers which have from time to time plied upon the waters of the San Joaquin. In Jnne, 1850, the Sutter was withdrawn from the Stockton and placed upon the Sacramento route, having netted her owners the snug little sum of $300,000. While on her way to Marysville a short time afterward she was blown up, a common fate of steamers in those days, and, becoming a total wreck, was never rebuilt. The El Dorado took the place of the Sutter upon the Stockton route, under the command of the same captain. The El Dorado was a side-wheel steamer, and had been previously running on the Sacramento river. The rate of fare and freight on these two boats was cheap for the times, but was equal to a small fortune at the present, being $20 a ton for freight and $18 cabin passage, or $12 on deck, if the hardy traveler preferred to sleep in his own blankets, and was fortunate enough to possess them. The freight and passenger traffic increased so rapidly that the El Dorado was unable to meet the de- mands of trade, and the new boats were placed on the ronte-the William Robinson some time in June, 1850, and the Mariposa, Captain Far- well, in July. The Mariposa commenced plying in opposition to the El Dorado and William Robinson, the latter having formed a combina- tion to keep up the prices. The merchants of Stockton, among whom were Heath & Emory, Starbuck & Spencer, George G. Belt, McSpedon & Co., Buffington & Lunn, Buffum & Co., and others, feeling aggrieved at the high price of freight imposed by the steamers, agreed with the captain of the Mariposa that if he would run his boat on the Stockton ronte, and carry freight at a reasonable rate, they would give him their support. He complied, but when the opposi-
tion came down in their rates to $4 a ton they failed to keep their agreement. The result was a new combination of the three steamers and a restoration of the high prices of former times.
Captain Warren weut East in November, 1850, and with the aid of San Francisco capital purchased the engine and fixtures for a magnifi- cent steamboat, the Santa Clara, which boat when built was devoted to the Stockton and San Francisco trade. Its first arrival here was cele- brated with the customary hilarity. A few months afterward, however, it was burned. Warren next commanded the Jenny Lind, a neat side-wheeler that would make the distance be- tween " the city " and Stockton in seven hours, which was less time than any previous boat could make it.
In April, 1850, the famous large propeller which had donbled Cape Horn and was plying on the Sacramento river, made a trip to Stockton. She drew eight feet of water.
With one exception, that of the Merrimac, all water communication between Stockton and San Francisco was made by sailing vessels up to the winter of 1849-'50, and almost all kinds of sailing craft, schooners, sloops, brigs, etc., were placed npon these waters. In the winter of 1849-'50 several ships drawing eight and ten feet of water were brought to this port and abandoned. On the 13th of May the first sail- ing vessel was launched at this place by Win. Emmerson. She was a sloop of about twelve tons, and was named the " Mary Mason," after the daughter of J. M. Buffington, a little girl six years of age. This was the beginning, and the results were that for many years S. H. Davis kept a ship yard iu operation on Lindsay Point, where lie constructed twenty-four steam- ers, twelve barges, three propellers, two dredge barges, two sloops, and one schooner; and in 1878 another yard was started by the California Steam Navigation Company.
" In January, 1851, a small steamer called the Union was placed on the line and continued running for some monthis. In October the Sagamore made her appearance to compete for
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the trade of the San Joaquin, but lier life was short and her end a tragedy. She had just started from the wharf in San Francisco, No- vember, 1, 1851, heavily loaded with freight and crowded withi passengers, wlien a terrible explosion of her boilers instantly converted her into a perfect wreck. The loss of life was ter- rible, more than fifty persons being either killed or severely wounded. The calamity was attrib- uted to the carelessness of the engineer. The same evening the Mariposa on her way up was run into by the steamer West Point in Suisun bay, and sunk to the water level. She was afterward towed into the shallow water, her passengers having been transferred to the El Dorado. A steamer called the Tehama took the place of the Sagamore, and the El Dorado reduced ner fare to $12 cabin and $8 deck passage. Two new steamers appeared at the wharf in December, the Erastus Corning and the San Joaquin. The Mariposa, having been repaired again, solicited patronage in January, 1852. To presume that cheap fare to the metropolitan city is confined to the present time is not borne out by facts, as the Erastus Corning (January 2, 1852), reduced her deck fare to $1.50. The San Joaquin then offered to carry passengers for nothing! It is strange how often events repeat themselves. The lis- tory of a single decade is often the history of each succeeding decade for a century of time. The opposition and rivalry of steam boats in the early days of traffic on the San Joaquin have been repeated time and again by the Oll and the New California Steam Navigation Companies and others steamers competing for the monopoly of the commerce of the river, and so long as the river flows on to the sea it will bear upon its yellow waters vessels freighted with the produce of the San Joaquin valley sent forth to feed the nations of the earth. It is pleasant to look back upon the steamboating of pioneer days, and note the strides of progress which have been made. Finer steamers are now plying on the river than were ever seen in the palmniest days of the past,
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