An illustrated history of Sonoma County, California. Containing a history of the county of Sonoma from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, Part 17

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 786

USA > California > Sonoma County > An illustrated history of Sonoma County, California. Containing a history of the county of Sonoma from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time > Part 17

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Captain Stephen Smith visited this eoast in 1839 or 1×40. He seems to have been im- pressed with the opportunities here for a grand future for he disposed of his cargo of horns. hides and tallow. While on this eoast he had anchored in Bodega Bay and doubtless fixed. at that time upon that locality for a future home. Returning in 1843 he brought with him a boiler, engine, and complete ontfit for a steam saw and grist mill. He brought with him an assorted eargo of merchandise. With him eame Henry Ilegeler. a ship's carpenter, William A. Streeter. an engineer, and David D. Dutton, a mill- wright. Arriving at San Francisco some time in 1843, he secured the additional services of James IIndspeth. Alexander Copeland, Nathan- iel Coombs and John Danbinbiss (the three former of whom reached prominence in subse- quent California history). Anchorage was reached in Bodega Bay sometime in September, 1543. Captain Smith encountered some ditti- enlty on his first arrival, as John Bidwell, then Sutter's agent, elaimed that the land around Bodega belonged to Captain Sutter by virtue of purchase from the Russians.

In spite of these protests, however. Captain Smith stood his ground and maintained his position. He immediately set about the eon- struction of his mill, destined to be the first

steam-mill of California. lle selected as the site a point at the very edge of the redwood belt. about one mile easterly from the present location of Bodega Corners. There were three boilers, each thirty-six feet in length and two and one-half feet in diameter. These boilers were set in masonry so that the fire passed around them, instead of through them, as boilers are now constrneted. The engine was of equally primitive construction. The grinding burrs were about four feet in diameter and eighteen ineles in thickness, and encircled with heavy iron bands. The saw for entting lumber was what is known as a sash or molding saw; being of up and down perpendienlar motion. When everything was in readiness to start up this mill. a grand barbecue was prepared and people near and far came to behold the wonder. That it was aecounted a momentous event is evi- deneed by the fact that General Vallejo rode all the way fromn Sonoma to be present and partici- pate in the inauguration of this new California enterprise. Up to 1850 this mill did good ser- vice, and eventually a eireular saw took the place of the muley. In 1855 the old mill building was burned and all that now marks its former site is the excavation in the bank where it stood. and the well from which was pumped the water to feed its boilers. Captain Stephen Smith seems to have been a man of sagacity and great energy of character. Aside from his mill, he established a tannery in after years, which was in suecessful operation down to the time of the captain's death. His grant. the Bodega, contained 35,487 acres, and so long as the captain lived he managed it with care and intelligence, but after his death, which ocenrred in November, 1555. the vast estate was soon dissipated and wasted through the reckless management of Tyler Curtis, who married the widow, and it is doubtful if any of Captain Smith's children have much now to show of the great wealth of their father. Here it is in place to give the reminiseences of a gentleman who settled at Freestone in the very early days. llis statement covers much historie grond:

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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY.

"F. G. Blume of Freestone, one of the early pioneers of this State and county, is a German by birth, and was edneated as a physician. In 1837 he accepted the position of surgeon on the whale ship Alexander Barelay, of Bremen, whenee he sailed for the whaling grounds of the North Pacitie. After a successful eruise, his ship dropped anehor in Sancelito harbor the 23d of December, 1843, where she remained some time. From here Dr. Blume went to the Sand- wieh Islands, and in 1847 returned to Califor- nia, taking up his residenee at Sonoma, where for a time he practiced his profession. He arrived soon after the hoisting of the bear flag, and some months before the discovery of gold. He has a clear recollection of many of the his- toric events of that early period, and being an educated man and a close observer, a conversa- tion with him upon matters relating to the early history of this coast is highly interesting While engaged in whaling abont Sitka. previons to his arrival in California, he and his shipmates had frequent dealings and interviews with the Russian settlers of that region, whom he describes as the most generous, kind-hearted and hospitable peo- ple he had ever met. There was a never-ending rivalry among them as to who should treat the stranger with the greatest kindness and hospi- tality. A ball given by the Russian officials at Sitka was a really grand affair. Then, as now, the principal employments of the inhabitants was the produeing of furs. He states that AAlaska contains immense bodies of timber land which at a future time will become of great valne for ship-building and other purposes.

" When the first gold dust was brought to So- noma there was much donbt as to its genuineness. Governor Boggs and the military officers pro- nonneed it gold, and their opinion was accepted as correet. In a short time miners began to arrive with large quantities of dust, and it be- came almost a drug in the market. There was but little coin in the country, and Cooper & Beasley, hotel keepers, bought large quantities of dust at from four to five dollars per ounce. Change smaller than one dollar was especially

scarce, and a blacksmith named Fling was often employed for hours in cutting Mexican dollars into halves and quarters. Gambling was carried on on a large seale by a considerable portion of the inhabitants and visitors. Company D), United States Volunteers. Captain Braekett, was stationed at Sonoma, and Lieutenant, now Gen- eral George Stoneman, was there.

" Deer, bear, antelope, elk, and smaller game were abundant hereabouts and very tame. On more than one occasion Dr. Blume has driven eattle and elk into a corral together on the Petaluma Ranch. In 1847 ammunition was 'eontraband,' and it was with mueh difficulty that it could be proenred. Twenty-five cents was paid for gun caps, and but few would be obtained at that or any other price. In the sum- mer and fall the valleys and hillsides were covered with wild oats from four to eight feet in height, and ownership of lands whielt are now among the most valuable in the State could be secured for a mere trifle. There was not a house in Petaluma Township, and the only building between Sonoma and Freestone was the old adobe, near this eity.

" We have given but an outline of a few of the many interesting events relating to the early history of the coast that came within the personal knowledge and experience of this old pioneer.

"In 1848 Dr. Bluune removed from Sonoma to Freestone, where he has since resided. He has been several times elected justice of the peace of Bodega Township and is now serving as postmaster of Freestone."

Joseph O'Farrel having exchanged a raneh in Marin County for the Canada de Joniva in Analy Township, and acquired by purchase from MeIntosh the grant, in Bodega Township known as the Estero Americano, he established his residence in a beautiful valley in the red- woods, where he was living in good style with all the comforts and convenienees of modern life around him, when American population be- gan to come in. The Corrillio families, both at Santa Rosa and Sebastopol, had erected adobe

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houses and were surrounded with other evidences of permanent residences. Mark West. occupy- ing a grant on the creek that still bears his name, had erected a large adobe dwelling so likewise had Henry D. Fitch on his Sotoyome grant on Russian River. Excepting the large adobe establishment of General Vallejo, in Vallejo Township, near Petaluma, the places above enumerated were about the only ones that could be ealled permanently established for any period ante-dating 1850. At all these ranches there was quite a showing of cattle and horses. But taken as a whole, the present County of Sonoma was an uninhabited wild in 1850, save and except the small valley of Sonoma. N. N. Iledges, yet a resident of Petaluma, and who. in company with Stephen Fowler (long de- ceased), built a house for Captain Smith at Bodega, says that at that time there was not a panel of fence on the trail between Petaluma and Bodega exeept a corral in Big Valley. As close as was Petaluma to San Francisco its neigh- borhood did not boast a resident until in 1850.

The first to come was Dr. August Heyer- mann, in the early part of that year. He reared a log cabin on the old A. W. Rogers place, just south of Petaluma. Late that fall Tom Loek- wood, accompanied by a party of hunting com- panions, came up Petaluma Creek in a whale boat and spent two months in eamp near the head of Petaluma Creek. They were joined early in January of 1851 by Lemarens Wiatt and John Lins. The company now consisted of Tom Lockwood, Lemarcus Wiatt, John Lins, Levi Pyburn and a man named Pendleton. Their number was afterward increased by the arrival of Thomas Bayliss and David Flogdell, and all for a time continued to hunt game for the San Francisco market.

Knowing that J. W. Leigh, long the editor of the Monterey Democrat and now receiver of publie moneys in the San Francisco land office, had spent several months of 1850 in company with other hunters, in the immediate vicinity of Petaluma. at our request he redneed his re- miniseences of the same to writing. Mr. Leigh

and his companions camped near the head of Petaluma Creek, probably somewhere between the present residence of Joseph Gossage and the Haines chieken ranch. It will be interesting to future generations to know the exact conditions around where a populous eity now stands in the middle of the nineteenth century:

" Referring to your request as to my reminis- eences of your county, I hardly know how to shape them in sneh position as to be interesting to the ordinary reader. Really, there is little to say except the mention of the extraordinary wealth of game that then existed in the country elk by the hundred, antelopes on the plains like flocks of sheep, deer in the woodlands so numerous that at every clump of bushes a buck seemed hidden, jumping ont as we passed like jack rabbits in the Fresno country now. My recollections of the face of the country is that it wore a smiling and peaceful aspeet, suggest- ing nothing of a wilderness, but looking rather like an English park or the prairies of Iowa. Coyotes and wildeats abounded, and the wood- lands concealed lions and grizzlies as numerous, relatively, as the quadrupeds they preyed upon. So, too, there was no end of earrion crows. ravens, turkey-buzzards and vultures, the last named of linge size. rivaled only by the condors of South America. all of which seemed to re- gard ns as caterers to their voracity, for they eame to know the signifieanee of the rifle, and Hoeked constantly after its report to eat what we threw away of the game killed by us, hardly waiting until we had taken our share, which was the hannehes only. It was strange, while we were doing the murderous work alluded to, how calm and peaceful the landscape looked. with its eopses of woodland, grassy open- ings and wide plain, on which herds of elk and bands of antelope fed apparently ignorant of the death-dealing quality of man a new species of the carnivora who had come into their haunts. My observation was that their eyes in- formed them nothing of men. When to lee- ward of them they manifested euriosity, and manuvering to approach us, trusted to their

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organs of smell to make us out. They would come quite close, or let us get near, but showed little of distrust until they got scent of us, when they would be off like a Hash, panie- stricken. From this performance I made out that man is like the lion, tiger and similar beasts of prey, and that his body gives out an odor which offends the senses of his four-footed victims as would the seent of blood. We did not kill .for the lust of killing;" profit was the object of the hunters with whom I was, and they killed ouly the ' bucks,' carefully seleet- ing such as were in their prime. This was in September, 1850. In all the country through which we ranged -- from the site of the present Petaluma to what is now the town of Santa Rosa, there was sign of but a single ' settle- ment,' of some squatter, who had fenced a few acres, plowed and sowed them to eorn, potatoes and melons, and had gone off to the mines and left crows and raccoons to reap the product of his labors. My companions were but two, men who had been trappers in the . Rockies,' one from the shores of Chesapeake originally, and the other having been born on the banks of the Cumberland River, in Tennessee. They had the skill of Cooper's ' Leather Stocking,' were thoroughly versed in wood lore and knew the habits of their game as if 'to the manner born, but were rough and uncouth in speech and morals to a degree that amazed me. I had a tieree quarrel with one of them, I remember, to the point of a duel a l'ontrance, but patehed up a truce with the understanding that neither knew what kind of a man the other was and so might give offense without meaning it."

Such being the conditions around the head waters of Petaluma Creek, at that time, and in fair view of the Vallejo buildings at the foot of the Sonoma Mountains, the reader can well understand how game must have abounded further back, where seldom disturbed by the presence of man.

But this was to be changed in the near future. Those who came to hunt, determined to locate here. Wiatt and Linns started a little

trading post ou the creek near the present Wash- ington street; Bayliss and Flogdell established a boarding house; J. M. Hudspeth erected a warehouse near the creek, and thus was started the city of Petaluma. There had been quite a number of new arrivals, and one among the very earliest of these was Major James Singley. who is yet one of Petaluma's most respected citizens. Among those of that early period whose names are at our command are George B. Williams, Robert Douglas and family; the Starkeys, the Tustins, the Lewises. The Mer- ritts had located temporarily in Green Valley, and John Merritt informs us that he put up the first stack of hay ever seen at Petaluma on the site now ocenpied by the MeCune Block, corner of Washington and Main streets. It is useless to attempt to particularize on individu- ality further. People were coming into the county in constantly increasing volume, and very many were intent upon securing homes in the country. But where to find unclaimed lands was the rub. Go where they would they found the land resting under the shadow of some Spanish grant. In sheer desperation many set- tled on grants and prepared to build their homes, and leave the consequences to the future. The settlements thus formed were dif- ferent in character from those ever before wit- nessed in frontier settlements. It was largely made up of those who had tried their fortunes in the mines and becoming discouraged with the vocation of gold-seekers. determined to turn their attention either to farming or the raising of stock. As a rule they were unmarried men, although among them were a few men who had families in the East. Hence it was that up to as late as 1855 a large proportion of the habi- tations in Sonoma County were designated as " Bachelor ranchos." The buildings. con- strueted in many instances, as already stated, on land covered by some Spanish grant, were very rude habitations. The most common structures were built by setting posts in the ground. The weatherboarding was of boards split out of red- wood, usually twelve feet long, and the roof of

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elapboards (shakes) four or five feet long. Usu- ally the ground was used for a floor, although some indulged in the luxury of a plank Hoor. Bedsteads and bunks, such as conld be con- structed with handsaw and hatehet, was the furniture of the sleeping apartment, while a few shelves in the kitchen made of split boards usu- ally sufficed for a dish cupboard. With the addition of a cook-stove the establishment was complete. Commeneing with 1851, these rude tenements sprung up like mushrooms, and inside of a few years, throughout the length and breadth of the county, were scattered these bachelor domicils. In those years the man who did not do his own cooking and washing was an exception to the general rule. It was not a question of choice, but of necessity. Neither did education, pride or previous con- dition ent any figure in the case. Here were to be found men of every walk and grade of life working side by side, whether in field or kitchen. Society was democratic, simple and pure, in a degree never before witnessed in any country. and, perhaps, never to be repeated again. It was a rough and rugged experience, and yet it was just under such conditions that very many of Sonoma County's present most substantial and respected citizens laid the foundla- tion of their fortunes. It must not be supposed that even in those early years women and families were unknown in Sonoma County: but they were so few in comparison to those who had bachelor ranches that they were the exception and not the rule. In the slow process of years, however, those cheerless homes of benedicts gave place to the more attractive and refining influence of the mothers of the native sons and daughters in Sonoma County. Many of these noble women, who by their presence and toil helped to guide and cheer those engaged in pioneer work, have ended their weary life-mis- sion, but they richly earned the right to have monuments of enduring marble erected to their memories.

We are describing conditions as they existed between 1848 and 1855. If the reader knows

the meaning of the stock phrase " breeding back," he will rightly appreciate the real condi- tions of Sonoma County at that time. Most of the men who took up ranches and entered upon agricultural or stock-raising pursuits were be- low the meridian of life, and easily adapted themselves to the conditions with which they found themselves environed. There was a eer- tain degree of dash and daring among the native Californians very captivating to the young Americans. As expert riders and manipulators of the reatta the natives excelled. In almost every valley there was a band (manada) of Spanish animals and from these sourees the set- tlers drew a cheap supply of riding and work animals, although ox-teams were then largely used. To break and handle these California horses led to the adoption of California habits and methods. Hence the " bucharo " saddle was in almost universal use, and Americans be- eame enamored with the use of huge Mexican spurs, that, in the language of Chaucer. "sounded 'een as loud as doth the chapel bell." In those days if a rider, either Californian or American, was approaching you, his coming was heralded by the ringing of his spurs. Everybody rode as if they were going for a doctor. The native horses had a power of endurance that would put to shame the nerve of candled and groomed horses of a later period. If engaged in the stoek or dairying business, every man became in a degree a " bucharo" -- that is he was in the saddle a great part of the time, and if he wished to catch a wild horse or cow, his ever-ready "reatta " was brought into requisition. The Americans soon acquired a wonderful dexterity in the throwing of the reatta. If a new saddle horse was needed the manada was driven into a corral and an animal selected, " lassed," blind- folded. saddled and mounted, and then fun began! The animal, if high metaled, of course bucked, and the rider received commendation from the spectators just in degree as he main- tained his position in the saddle. In those early days we have seen men ride such " buek- ing" mustangs for the mere editieation of the

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spectators. When we see young men of this day riding on the little American saddle, with their tooth-piek shoes crowded into little iron stirrups, and rising in their sitting so that you could shie a hat between them and their saddle, we just smile when we think of what would be their fate if riding a bueking horse-why, there would not be enough of them left to make shoe- strings. In the short space of a third of a century the art of horse-back riding has virtu- ally become a lost art in California.

The drift of early settlement in Sonoma County was naturally toward Bodega because, not only the Russians had demonstrated its fit- ness for agriculture, but Captain Stephen Smith had established himself there and was in a posi- tion to assist immigrants in their venture in agricultural pursuits. It was a demonstrated fact that that region would produce in great abundance potatoes, much needed in the mines of California. Seed potatoes were very high. Captain Smith was in a position to furnish this, and found many ready to rent land and embark in the business of potato growing. In 1851 such reaped a rich reward. In 1852 seed pota- toes were available for others, and settlers in Big Valley and the coast hills embarked in the business, and with large profits. This led to the planting of an increased acreage of potatoes in 1853, and the result was an over-production. and consequent disaster to those engaged in the business. In 1854 the potato crop was again in excess of the demand, and those who had en- gaged in the business of potato raising were virtually bankrupted. And, as if in verification of the adage, " misfortunes never eome alone," the wheat erop of the coast valleys for 1854 -'55 were smitten with both smut and rust. When we hear farmers of the present day growling about short erops, or low prices, our memory naturally reverts to those three years of unre- quited toil of our farmers, and we wonder as to what would be about the length of Sonoma County farmers' faces now if they had to pass through similar experiences.

These early farmers of Sonoma County had

settled npon the naked land. In many instances they first planted their erops, then turned their attention to building fences. If they had some means, they could buy slats and posts in the redwoods. If they had no money, as many of them had not, it involved the riving of slats and the splitting of posts themselves, and then the hauling and constructing of the same into fences. The toil involved was immense, and none but those who passed through those experiences will ever know what of deprivation and physical effort it eost to found the early settlements of Sonoma County.

As this chapter is mainly intended to give the reader a correct conception of the newness and comparatively uninhabited condition of Sonoma County in the early fifties we give place here to a communication written by us in 1877, reminiscent of the then long past:

" Ens. Akaus: Noticing that you are about to lay upon the shelf your twenty-second volume it naturally causes my mind to drift back to that long-ago, verging close upon a quarter of a century, the occasion of my advent into your county. As these memories ante-date the birth of your journal, they may not be devoid of in- terest to some of your readers. In brief, the spring of 1854 found me in San Francisco, waiting, like Micawber, . for something to turn up.' That something did turn up just in the nick of time, and was nothing more or less than the discovery of rich gold mines on Russian River.

" Over three years experience in the Sierras had failed to eliminate from my nature that credu- lity which kept so many miners following every ignis fatuns bearing the title of . new gold mines.' At the time of which I write there were three steamboats plying between San Francisco and Petaluma. The Secretary and a boat the name of which has passed from my mind, were running a spirited opposition. The Reindeer, of which your fellow-townsman, E. Latapie, was captain, was running free and easy. on its own hook; making up in safety what it lacked in speed. On the latter I took passage,

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and from its deck had my first view of the de- vious meanderings of Petaluma Creek. In less than two weeks thereafter the Secretary went up in a cloud of steam, and. like a leaden plum- met. to the bottom of the bay. carrying with her a score or more of passengers. There are resi- dent in your county yet some of those who took a salt-water bath on that occasion, but who were fortunately resened by the boat with which the Secretary was racing at the time of the disaster. A fellow-passenger on the Reindeer, who knew all the ins and outs of your then ineipient city, conducted me to the . Tom and Dave's House,' where I found food and lodging. The title of this house was derived from a contraction of the given names of Thomas Bayliss and David Flogdell, who were its keepers. Proprietors and house, alike, have passed away. As my destination was the Eldorado on Russian River, I only tarried one night in Petaluma, and with carpet-bag on back hastened onward.

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An illustrated history of Sonoma County, California. Containing a history of the county of Sonoma from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, Part 17

Author: Lewis Publishing Company Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 786

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 786