USA > California > Lassen County > Fairfield's pioneer history of Lassen County, California; containing everything that can be learned about it from the beginning of the world to the year of Our Lord 1870 Also much of the pioneer history of the state of Nevada the biographies of Governor Isaac N. Roop and Peter Lassen and many stories of Indian warfare never before published > Part 19
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Dancing was the chief amusement and the winter of 1859-60 A. A. Smith and F. A. Sloss taught a dancing school, Smith play- ing the violin and Sloss teaching the dancing. In the Bank- head neighborhood they held their school in the building that Dr. Slater and Chapman had put up that fall.
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CHAPTER VI 1860. SETTLEMENT
I N January R. F. Cahill claimed a tract of land formerly held by Mullen and Snow. The western part of it was on Gold Run north of Lanigar and Nixon's place and it lay southwest and south of Richmond. William Braton, Antone Storff, Joseph Lynch, W. C. Kingsbury, John Borrette, Isaac Roop, M. S. Thompson, A. B. Jenison, E. Rice, O. Streshly, I. Coulthurst, A. A. Smith and L. Vary claimed 3900 feet on a "mineral lead" which had been discovered by the first three of the above named men about half a mile south of Richmond. This discovery made quite an excitement and nearly all the men in the valley went there. They held a meeting and appointed A. A. Smith recorder and he charged something like $5 for recording a claim. The excitement died out in a short time, probably because it was found that the rock was of no value. A tract a mile wide and extending two miles up "Lake's creek" was taken by J. L. Jelm and W. Jansen. This was on the creek above the valley located by O'Laughlin in June, 1856. Lake's creek was the west branch of Baxter creek and before this was called "Irishman's creek." Wil- liam Andrews, William and Charles West, M. L. Thompson, Theo- dore A. Lynn and S. B. Lusk located a tract a mile wide and six miles long beginning at the lower end of Bridge Creek valley and running west up the valley. Neale and Brother recorded a change in the boundaries of their land. From this notice it appears that they claimed the land on the south side of the river from the west side of the Richard Thompson location in March, 1857, to the Fuller place seven miles below Susanville. A. J. Demming aban- doned his place in Willow Creek valley soon after his brother was killed by the Indians and this left the valley without any set- tlers.
In February Isaac Roop, M. S. Thompson, A. D. McDonald, A. B. Jenison, E. L. Varney and B. Shumway claimed all the water in Susan river commencing at the upper end of James Hunter's claim and extending a mile up the river. They intend- ed to build a dam and improve the river as soon as the spring high water had gone down. E. Brannon, Fred Morrison and E. R. Nichols claimed all of Round valley and all the water in the
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stream running through it as far as Willow Creek valley. No one remembers that they ever lived on their claim.
In March Francis and Harriet Lanigar and Charles Nixon claimed ninety-six acres west and southwest of their ranch on Gold Run. J. E. Shearer located a half section north of Harvey, Lathrop & Company's claim.
In April Strong, Breed & Co. claimed two sections in Smoke Creek valley. E. Brannon relocated the section on the south fork of Pahutah creek that was taken by M. S. Scott in January, 1859, and "jumped" by Major Andrews the following November.
This spring another step was taken in the digging of the Buggytown ditch, and it might be called the commencement of what really was that ditch. The following account was given by William H. and W. P. Hall.
When this valley was settled the water from Lassen creek emptied into a slough that ran along close to the foot of the hill on the south side of the river bottom. Some of the water from Gold Run found its way into the same slough. As early at least as 1860 the Neale Brothers started a ditch out of the slough north of where the Johnstonville schoolhouse now stands, and carried it around the hill into a slough just north of the house on the old Isaac Stewart (Charles Ripley) place. This house was a short mile below the Johnstonville bridge. Water from this ditch was used on the Stewart place by Asa Adams during the summer of 1860. That fall or the next spring W. P. Hall and John E. Bachelder bought what is now the Leavitt place two miles below Johnstonville from the Neales, and they and the Neales enlarged the ditch in 1861. The original ditch would irrigate only fifteen or twenty acres. S. R. and W. H. Hall, John C. Davis, and James Doyle worked on this ditch. Hall and Bachelder took water for their use out of the slough into which it emptied. In the middle of the summer the slough where the ditch commenced dried up and they tried to get water from the river into it. They repaired the small ditch said to have been made by W. H. Crane when he worked for the Neales in 1858 or 1859, but could get no water through it for it ran up hill. Then they dug a ditch out of the swamp higher up, but the water soon failed. The next year they went still higher up and got water out of another swamp.
George R. Lybarger and Dewitt C. Chandler opened a store
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on the road about half a mile east of Bankhead's. At that time the road ran along the edge of the timber straight to the Thomp- son ranch, now owned by Ira E. Bailey. They sold goods there about a year. Smith J. Hill built the second house in what is now Janesville. It was on the south side of the road a little west of the creek, was fourteen by twenty-four feet and a story and a half high, and was built of square hewed logs. It was used as a dwelling house until 1900 and was pulled down two years afterwards. The Neale Brothers and John C. Davis opened a store near the house on the Neale ranch. It was about one fourth of a mile east of Lassen creek and half a mile from the river. Probably goods were sold there until the spring of 1862.
This spring Marshall Bronson claimed a place near the sum- mit between Long and Sierra valleys and lived there for many years. William Hood and James Goble settled at the Hot Springs ranch. It is not known whether they bought it from Wasson or whether he abandoned it. In the spring of 1859 Wasson sowed five or six acres of wheat there. It was so dry that it didn't come up until the following spring and then it grew and made a crop. This was the first grain raised in Long valley. William Ross located the Constantia ranch this spring.
In May Jerry Tyler claimed a section south of W. C. Kings- bury and southwest of Fairchilds and Washburn. Soon after this he bought out Kingsbury. This month Wright P. Hall went to Marysville and bought two saddle horses and ten dozen milk pans and packed them into the valley, he and his Wife arriving at the Neale ranch June first. Hall and Bachelder made butter that summer and sold it here and in Virginia City.
When Dr. H. S. Borrette crossed the plains in 1859 he brought with him a Boyer's patent grist mill. It weighed about two hundred pounds and was a hollow corrugated steel cone with another corrugated cone inside of it. It was made on the prin- ciple of a coffee mill and was made to grind finer by tightening it up. He ran it by water power at the sawmill above Susanville during the summer of 1860 and it made good flour and corn meal and chopped feed. Finally some one let a bolt run through it and that spoiled it. This was more like a gristmill than anything that had been in the valley before that time.
This summer W. C. Kingsbury and William Corse, and per- haps some others, built a sawmill on Gold Run just where the
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creek bottom widens out into a valley. Fairchilds and Washburn commenced a sawmill a little below the place where Lassen had his gristmill. It was completed in March, 1861, and was de- stroyed by fire May 5th, 1883. Colonel Lewis ran the sawmill above Susanville this summer.
Some time during the summer the crickets made their first invasion of the valley since its settlement. They came from the hills north of the valley, crossed the river about four miles below Susanville, and then went on toward the south. They didn't do much damage, for there wasn't much in the way of crops for them to destroy.
William J. Seagraves, who had just crossed the plains, says that in the fall of 1860 Dr. Atlas Fredonyer had a tent and a sort of trading post in Mt. Meadows just below the "Narrows," two and a half miles from the upper end of the valley. About this time he located a tract of land a half or three quarters of a mile up the valley from his camp and above the "Narrows." Although men had come in with stock before this, Fredonyer was the first settler in this valley and the first man to spend the winter there. Probably he stayed there the winter of 1860-61.
In Long valley Wright and White sold the Willow Ranch to George Robinson and moved into a cabin which they built near a spring at the foot of the mountain back of that place. Daniel McKissick settled on the southern part of the Jacob McKissick ranch. This place was afterwards known as the R. E. Ross ranch. George Greeno built a cabin on the side of the hill near the road leading into Honey Lake valley. At that time the road ran through the pass to the west of the point over which it now passes. Dr. House lived with Greeno the following winter.
In October Daniel Schneeberger claimed a section of land "lying on Bank Head's Creek beginning about one mile south- westerly from Bank Head's House." I. Roop appointed E. R. Nichols his deputy recorder. E. M. Cheney took a claim of 58 acres east of the old Roop sawmill and on the south side of the river. Jacob Boody came into the valley with his Wife and step- daughter, Dora Epley, and bought the Dr. P. Chamberlain ranch on the lake about five miles southeast of Bankhead's.
Besides the improvements already given and those made on the ranches there was considerable done in Susanville and Rich- mond. F. and S. say: "The next year (1860) Charles Nixon
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built a one story frame house, 20 by 30 feet in size, in which a stock of goods was placed. This was the first building erected solely for mercantile purposes, and still stands (1881) just to the east of Cutler Arnold's log hotel. During the summer of 1860 Dr. Z. J. Brown came into the valley with a small stock of drugs, and displayed his healing wares to the suffering public beneath a canvas tent. In the fall he had so prospered that he erected a frame building where Smith's Hotel now stands. It was octagonal in shape, and from this peculiarity the proprietor was endowed with the title of Dr. Eight Square." This building stood on the south side of Main street about a third of the length of the block from Gay street east. A stable built of lumber was put up for the Cutler Arnold hotel. It stood near the middle of the lot north of the hotel, and was the first public feed stable in Susanville.
Michael C. Brannan put up a rather low two-story frame hotel, called the "Brannan House," near the northeast corner of Main and Lassen streets. This was the first frame hotel in town. Brannan ran the hotel a while and then rented it to David Patterson and Horace McCauley. In its time this building was used for many purposes. For some years the United States Land Office was in the upper story and the Masons and Odd Fellows used it for a hall. The lower floor was used as a store and a post-office. V. J. Borrette says that this year Governor Roop owned a log cabin near the southeast corner of Main and Gay streets and there was a frame building on the southeast corner of Main and Union streets. It should have been told above that the "Brannan House" was pulled down in the fall of 1879 or the spring of 1880 and that in 1880 the Odd Fellows erected a two-story frame building on that corner.
At Richmond Frank Drake put up a two-story frame hotel, probably 30 by 60 feet and 18 or 20 foot posts, the largest build- ing that had been erected in the valley up to this time. It was on the north side of the road about a hundred yards east of the log building used as a store and a hotel. The new hotel was com- pleted in September and they had a dance to celebrate the occa- sion. There was a big crowd present, for in those days, and for a good many years afterwards, most of the people in the valley went to a dance whenever they had half a chance. Ed. A. Townsend played the violin and after supper Dr. H. S. Borrette
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played the cornet for the first time in this part of the world, though not for the last time for twenty years or more. Tickets for the dance and supper were $5, the price for a regular dance for twenty years after that. D. I. Wilmans ran this hotel for the first year or two. In a short time the glory of Richmond departed and a few years afterwards the hotel was turned into a hay barn and used for that purpose until it was blown down by a great wind on the 24th of March, 1908.
This was the first year of Richmond's greatest prosperity and it was the live business place of the valley. There were a good many men working in the mines south of it, it was the end of the Diamond Mountain trail, and there was considerable travel to and from Indian valley, Quincy, Oroville, and Marysville. The greater part of the merchandise brought into the valley was packed over this trail, and much of it was unloaded at Richmond and then hauled with wagons out onto the Humboldt road and traded to emigrants. Frank Drake had a large stock of goods, there was a blacksmith shop run by Tim. Darcey, and a wagon shop run by Saunders. F. A. Sloss had a saloon and a bowling alley and there were several dwelling houses. There was a crowd loafing around the most of the time and generally there were enough "tough" ones amongst it to keep things lively.
In November Perry M. (Whack) Craig, son of Milton Craig, fell out of a boat and was drowned in the mill pond above Susan- ville. Governor Roop had given the land for a cemetery and this boy was the first one to be buried in it.
T. and W. give some figures from a census taken in what is now Nevada in 1860, and they show something of conditions in all the country along the eastern slope of the Sierras. There were sixty-six saloons, no preacher, four school teachers, six printers, nineteen doctors, and no lawyer practicing his profes- sion. In Long valley there were three public houses, ten miners, and sixteen ranchers. It was claimed that over 1900 persons were taken in Honey Lake valley and along the border by the California marshal that should have been taken in Nevada. Or- lando Streshly estimated that there were 600 or 700 people in Honey Lake valley in 1860.
"The Grizzly Bear" says: "During the year a record kept of the emigrants passing Honey Lake gateway into the Sacra- mento valley, showed 450 wagons containing 277 families. There
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were with them 135 young women of marriageable age, 376 children, and a total of 1951 people. They had 1200 horses, 4200 cattle, and 7000 sheep."
Of those who came to the county in 1860 the following lived here all the rest of their lives or are still living here:
James Doyle and Wife, John F. Hulsman, Wright P. Hall and Wife, Albert S. Wright and Wife, Thomas Montgomery, L. P. Whiting, John H. Summers, Frank Summers, Robert Gow- anlock, Jacob Boody and Wife and Dora Epley (Mrs. Hiram M. Moe), Philip Boody, Eli Newton, C. C. Goodrich, Daniel McKissick and Family, John B. McKissick, Hiram L. Partridge, *John Cornelison, Charles M. White, Alexander Painter, and William Ross.
The following lived in the county from ten to twenty-five or thirty years: John E. Bachelder, E. M. Cheney (Cheney valley was named after him), Davis C. Hall, and William Hood.
The following lived in the county only a few years: C. P. Sheffield and Family, John W. Epley, T. C. Purdom and Wife, Andrew Ramsey, W. J. Ramsey, James E. Ellison, *H. P. Bates, *Edward A. Townsend, Dr. Z. J. Brown, *E. Brannan, *E. L. Varney, James Goble, and *Michael C. Brannan.
PIONEERS WHO ARE STILL LIVING
The "Lassen County Pioneer Society" called any one a pio- neer who settled in the county or was born here before July 1, 1860. The following list gives the names of those who are living at this date, May, 1915. Probably there are many others still alive, but they are not known to the writer.
Asa Adams, who settled here in December, 1856, was alive not very long ago and was in San Bernardino County, California. See end of Chap. 2.
The following were here in 1857: William Dow, Isaac Coul- thurst and Wife, Mrs. Smith J. Hill (Susan Bankhead), Hugh, David B., John W., Agnes J., and Margaret Bankhead, Thomas Brown, Mrs. Fanny (Brown) Neale, George Arnold, Mrs. Emma (Arnold) Pritchard, Mrs. Emma (Lanigar) Frazieur, Fred F. Kingsbury, John W. Stark, Mrs. Eva (Slater) Partridge and her Mother, the widow of Dr. John A. Slater, Mrs. S. M. (Jones) St. Clair, and Mrs. Helen (Conkey) Williams.
The following were here in 1858: Smith J. Hill, William H.
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Jenison, Mrs. Ellen (Jenison) Spargur, Stephen S. Bass, John P. Mulroney, Ross Lewers, Mrs. Amanda Gray, T. W. Hughes, Mrs. Minnie (Gray) Muller, Robert Gray, Mrs. C. H. Archibald (Mrs. John S. Ward), Mrs. Jennie (Ward) Chapman, and Mrs. Minnie (Streshly) Long.
The following were here in 1859: Joseph C. Wemple, William Milton Cain and Wife, Mrs. James Lawson (Mrs. Morris), J. Bristo Rice, George Rice, Wade H. Lawson, George R. Lybarger, Mrs. Mollie (Chapman) Sloss, Charles T. Emerson, Charles Law- son, Cyrus Lawson, John S. Borrette, Harry Borrette, Fred A. Borrette, Mrs. Belle (Painter) Bond, John Edward Bass, Mrs. Arthur Ruggles (Ida F. Spalding), A. W. Worm (now Wern), Matthew Gray, and Emerson B. Shumway.
The following were here in 1860, but part of them came in after the first of July: Mrs. Mary J. (Stickney) Hall, Wife of Wright P. Hall, James Doyle, Wife, and son, Thomas B., George M. Cain (born in September), Charles Hill, Mrs. Dora (Epley). Moe, Mrs. Cordelia A. Wright, Mrs. Martha M. (McKissick) Tipton, Mrs. David C. Hyer (Helena Streshly, born in January), James H. Jones, born in April, Dora May Epley (Mrs. B. B. Price), daughter of Thomas H. and Mary Epley, born in Susan- ville, April 10, 1860, and said by her parents to be the first white child born in that place, and Mrs. Mary Epley. Edward Mul- roney, the son of Ned Mulroney, was here before 1861. It may be that William Meyers (1858) and Mrs. T. C. Purdom, now Mrs. M. J. McLear (1860), are still alive.
POLITICS IN THE PROVISIONAL TERRITORY OF NEVADA. 1860
Very little was done in politics this year. In regard to the organization of a new territory, they just waited for the action of congress. Governor Roop still continued to serve, but his acts were principally in connection with the Indian troubles. The first of February he appointed M. S. Thompson as his aid- de-camp. He was to rank as Colonel of Cavalry.
Judge Child urged the people of Carson county to hold an election, and this they did in August, filling the vacant county offices and electing members of the legislature. In September Judge Child held a session of the county court, the first in three years. T. and W. say: "The Court considered the matter of the county indebtedness, and 'ordered that all county scrip issued to this date be declared void and repudiated.'"
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People were too busy with the Indians and with mining to pay much attention to politics. There was a great rush to the mines of Virginia City, Gold Hill, and that vicinity. R. L. Fulton in a Report to the Nevada Historical Society says: "The mines of the Comstock Lode were discovered in June, 1859, and the next spring Nevada had 7000 people. Within twelve months twenty quartz mills were built, and as many sawmills were cutting lumber in the hills. All the machinery was hauled from California and the freight over the mountains cost from five cents to ten cents a pound."
HONEY LAKE POLITICS. 1860
In Honey Lake valley political conditions were nearly the same as those existing in the country to the south of them. Dur- ing the greater part of the year there was more talk about Indians than about politics. Plumas county maintained a sort of authority over them, levying taxes which some of the Never Sweats paid and some did not. It is said that one fall, perhaps this one, Rough Elliott refused to pay his taxes and the Plumas authorities went to his ranch with the intention of taking some of his stock. Elliott was not at home when they got there, but his Wife, a sister to R. D. Sides, went out with a shotgun and stood them off and they went away without taking anything. There was no danger of her getting hurt, for at that time women were very scarce and more valuable than horses, cattle, or taxes.
There must have been an election held in the valley this fall by order of the Plumas county authorities, for V. J. Borrette was elected Justice of the Peace for Honey Lake township, Plumas county, at an election held in Plumas county on Tues- day, the sixth day of November, 1860. John D. Goodwin, clerk of the county court, issued his certificate of election and he qualified before Lewis Stark who was then a Justice of the Peace living in this valley.
INDIAN TROUBLES. 1860
During this year there was an abundance of trouble with the Indians for the settlers on the eastern slope of the Sierras. In telling of the relations existing between the settlers of Honey Lake valley and the Pahute Indians after the murder of Lassen Weatherlow says: "The same friendly relations existed as be- fore. The treaty was respected on both sides. The Indians were
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. kindly treated and no white man attempted to molest their squaws or wrong them in any way. This friendly state of affairs continued until the discovery of rich silver leads in the Washoe country brought a host of miners, prospectors, and adventurers of every kind to Carson and Virginia City who were brought in contact more or less with the Pah-ute tribe, and who knowing nothing of the treaty the Honey Lake people had made with Winnemucca, or cared nothing to observe it, frequently treated the Indians with injustice and cruelty, utterly disregarding the common rights even of an inferior race. The Pah-utes fre- quently complained to us of their wrongs and evidently expected that the terms of our treaty should extend to the whites who were flocking into the southern portion of the territory. Of course the people of Honey Lake could offer them no redress nor interfere in their behalf. Winnemucca and his people nothwith- standing the misunderstandings they were frequently having with the people of Virginia City and the prospecting parties through the mountains still remained in apparent friendship toward the settlers in our valley, but the same earnest feeling of confidence in the justice of the whites did not exist. The red man according to his nature and teaching held any and every white man in a measure responsible for the wrongs he had re- ceived at the hands of any unprincipled white man. Still no threats had been made toward the settlers of Honey Lake, nor had any overt act of hostility been done toward us by the Pah- utes until the month of January, 1860."
THE MURDER OF DEXTER E. DEMMING Told by William Dow and Fred Hines
The first outrage committed by the Indians was the murder of Demming at the extreme upper end of Willow Creek valley about eighteen miles by the road from Susanville. In the fall of 1858 S. R. Hall and A. J. Demming went into Willow Creek valley and each located a ranch at the upper end of it. They did not stay there the following winter, but the next spring Demming went back and built a cabin on his place. That year his brother Dexter crossed the plains and went on below, but after staying there a short time he came back and lived with Jack until he was killed on Friday, January 13th, 1860.
Dow says that Jack Demming came to Susanville on the 12th
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on snowshoes after some supplies with which to make fence rails and stayed over night, going home the next day. Hines says he came to Toadtown on the 13th with a couple of axes he wanted to sharpen. It took him some time to grind them on the small grindstone that Hines had and he got a late start for home. He said he wanted something to read and Hines let him have "Lor- enzo Dow's Sermons" and "Dr. Kane's Arctic Explorations." He got home just as darkness was coming on, and when he reached the top of the hill on which his cabin stood he saw by the snow- shoe tracks and the blood on the snow that something was wrong. Looking into the cabin he saw that everything in it was gone excepting the homemade furniture, and further search showed him that the horses were gone, too. He then thought that his brother might have been wounded and gave a yell, but he received no reply. He put what he had brought with him down beside the cabin door, got onto his snowshoes and started back to this valley, giving a couple of yells as he went down the hill in front of the cabin.
It took him three or four hours to get back to Toadtown and he arrived there just before people went to bed. At that time E. G. Bangham and Henry Hatch lived in the board house built by Dow and Hatch in 1857. Hines and Sylvester and probably Tutt lived almost directly across the road from them. Dr. Spalding lived on his place just below them and William and John Dow and A: L. Tunison lived in a little cabin near him. Daniel Murray was keeping store there and Henry Hastings ran a blacksmith shop.
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