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 37
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ities took any notice of the case and probably that is the reason why they did not. Biddle died a few days after the fight.
HIGH WATER
Tunison says that November 22nd the flats around Toadtown were all covered with water. He helped to drive some horses out to high ground. They were standing in the water and there was water for four hundred yards on either side of them. On the night of the 21st the water wheel of the gristmill floated out of its place, the bridge just below the mill was carried away, and a great deal of fencing went down the river. The same night David Johnston, Daniel W. Bryant, J. P. Ford, and George W. Perry, who lived along the river, had to move their families out.
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CHAPTER XII
1866. SETTLEMENT
T HIS YEAR the government established the first United States mail route between Susanville and Virginia City. Gran- ville Woods had the contract which began in July. He ran a stage line and carried the mail until that fall or the next spring, and then Charles Cramer bought the line and ran it until July, 1870. In 1869 he had a partner named Kline. About this time a post office was established at Janesville with L. N. Breed as post master, one at Milford with Charles Batterson as post master, and another at the Evans ranch in the north end of Long valley. Alvaro Evans was post master at the latter place for a couple of years, and then the office was moved to the ranch of John W. Doyle who was the post master for a great many years. For perhaps a year or two previous to this a man named Keating had carried the mail and express between Susanville and Virginia City, and the stores at Janesville and Milford took off the mail for their neighborhoods and distributed it for the accommodation of the public.
Mrs. A. T. Arnold says that as early as the spring of 1866 J. D. Carr ran a stage line from Susanville to Surprise valley. The first year or two his trips were very irregular on account of the Indian troubles, and he went only when he could get some one to go with him. As time went on and the road got safer they became regular, and in February, 1869, he advertised to make a trip from Susanville to Ft. Bidwell and back every week. Carr may have run this line until 1871.
At the March meeting of the Board of Supervisors the Janesville School District was divided, the line between the two districts running north and south through the center of the section west of that in which Janesville is situated. The school- house in the Janesville District was half a mile below town and fifty yards north of the road. Francis L. Parker taught school there that summer. The schoolhouse in the other district, the Stark District, was near the edge of the timber about half a mile west of where the two branches of the Baxter creek unite. "Puss" Stark taught their school that year.
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Willow Creek. Henry Davis bought out James Haley, and in the fall or the following spring Pickard abandoned his place.
Mt. Meadows. George W. Long bought Seaman's claim- the land along the creek between the Devil's Corral and Fre- donyer's Pass. S. B. Hughes and his Wife lived on the Long place in Mt. Meadows this year and probably for the next two years.
Those whose names are given in the following lists settled in the county in 1866. The length of residence does not apply to the children. The following lived here all the rest of their lives or are still living here: Jeremiah Bond, George N. Bennett and Family, George Fox Kelley and Family, Clarence Kelley, Frank A. Kelley, Charles Moore and Family.
The following lived here from fifteen to twenty years or more : Andrew Litch, George W. Glasscock and Family, William Wil- liams, Leroy Perkins, George Payne, Charles W. Moore.
The following lived here from a year or two to twelve or fourteen years: Jonathan Lovell and Family, George B. Hill, Frank Murphey, Judge William T. Ward, *Simeon Crane and Family, C. H. Sleyton.
LASSEN COUNTY POLITICS
In April the Board of Supervisors ordered that the report of T. H. Epley and S. J. Hill as road viewers be accepted, and the road as recommended be declared a public highway. To wit: Beginning at the village of Janesville and running parallel with the main street in a northwesterly direction about five hundred yards, thence in a northerly direction to the east side of the Sheffield (Pullen) ranch, thence running in a northeasterly direction about five hundred yards, thence running in a north- westerly direction to the summit of the Bald Hills and con- necting with the Toad Town road. It was also ordered that a public road be opened from a point near the Lassen Flouring Mills on Susan river to a point at or near the northwest corner of Joe Todd's (Davis) ranch, in as direct a line as possible and keep the same on good ground. In June Preston James was appointed Constable of Janesville to fill out an unexpired term. The resignation of B. F. Sheldon as Justice of the Peace of Honey Lake Township was accepted. In December the Board
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appointed Dr. Z. N. Spalding County Physician. The first named road is still traveled as then laid out.
INDIAN TROUBLES. 1866
This year was another busy one for both Indians and whites in northeastern California, northwestern Nevada, and the ad- joining portions of Oregon and Idaho. In a year or two the citizens and soldiers together had killed off the most of the Indians who, from the beginning of their settlement, had com- mitted depredations in the valleys of northeastern California and along the roads from Honey Lake valley to the Humboldt and Idaho mines.
January 12, 1866, Captain G. D. Conrad of Company B, Second California Volunteer Cavalry, with thirty-five soldiers, nine citizens, and twelve Piutes had a fight with the Indians near where Fish creek runs into Queen's river. The first night out they were joined by twenty-five men from Company I, same regiment, under Lieutenant Duncan. Dr. Snow, a citizen doctor, went with him. The night of the eleventh they had to run in a circle on the desert to keep from freezing. The Indians got into a place covered with rye grass and tules and full of gullies. They used poisoned arrows and fought bravely for two hours and a half. Their leader was Captain John, a chief of the Warner lake Shoshones, who killed Colonel McDermit and a soldier named Rafferty the previous year. Captain Rapley shot him through the head. Thirty-five Indians were killed and two squaws were killed by mistake. Seven soldiers were wounded. One Indian was wounded in the back. It was said that every Indian died rather than surrender. The Indians' camp and their supplies were destroyed.
FIGHT WITH THE INDIANS IN GUANO VALLEY
During the winter of 1865-66 the Indians had been making raids into Paradise valley and bothering the settlers in the country to the west of it. Major S. P. Smith, stationed at Smoke Creek, an officer who generally found Indians when he hunted for them, organized an expedition to follow a band that had just wounded a settler and driven some stock from Surprise valley. "The Humboldt Register" of March 17th says that on the second of February Major Smith left Smoke creek with Lieu-
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tenant Robinson and thirty-six men of Company D, Second Cavalry, California Volunteers. At Ft. Bidwell they were joined by thirty-two men of the same company and regiment and nine men of Company F of the same regiment. The next day they were joined by Major Mellen and Captain Starr with ten men of Company F of the same regiment. Nineteen citizens of Surprise valley went with the soldiers. On the fifteenth of February they found the Indians in Guano valley in the extreme northern part of Washoe county, Nevada. The Indians were at the mouth of Rock Canyon on the east side of the valley. The soldiers got onto a table-land where they could have a fair fight, and when within a mile of the Indians Major Smith divided his command giving Captain Starr with twenty men the left, Major Mellen and Lieutenant Robinson with twenty-one soldiers and nineteen citizens the center, and sent six citizens to the extreme right to hold the mouth of the canyon. He also left a guard in camp with the pack animals. (Something wrong in that count of the citizens .. Bancroft's History says there were fifty-one soldiers and thirty citizens in the expedition .- F.) At half past nine the order to charge was given; and the boys broke through the Indian ranks, scattering and shooting down everything that wore paint. The Indians fought sullenly and asked for no quarter, but at length they took shelter under a bluff of rocks. The men then dismounted and marched up to the rocks under fire and brought down every Indian that would show himself. They fought seven hours, but could not kill the whole band because a good many of them were in the rocks where they could shoot without being seen. It was thought that there were two hundred or two hundred and fifty Indians in the fight. There were eighty warriors and thirty-five squaws killed. The squaws were dressed the same as the bucks and were fighting, and they had to kill them to tell whether they were men or not. The whites recovered sixty horses, one a valuable animals belong- ing to a lady in Surprise valley. They captured and turned loose nine squaws and ten children, and destroyed three tons of dried beef. The whites lost one private killed and Major Smith and six privates wounded.
This fight was a little out of the range of the people of Lassen county unless some of the Indian depredations were com- mitted in the lower end of Surprise valley. It is given here
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because it is said to be the last fight ever made by some of our old Indian acquaintances. W. H. McCormick and C. T. Sharp, both among the very first settlers in Surprise valley, say that the Indians engaged in the battle were Smoke Creek Sam and his band and that he was killed. Probably they had been joined by other Indians. McCormick says that out in that country the chief was known as "Smoke Creek Jim." He also said that he was piloted over the battle ground by a trooper who was in Major Smith's command. The soldier said that during the fight, after both his legs were broken, Sam would pull himself up with his gun and yell to encourage his men. He died soon after the fight, having been wounded fourteen times. In 1912 Sharp told William T. Cressler, to whom I am indebted for the information, that he was among the settlers who went with Major Smith, and that he was the only one of them who was alive at that time. He said that Joseph Marks, Samuel Matney, C. C. Rachford, himself, and four or five other settlers were in the Guano valley fight, and that Matney, known as "Tuledad," scalped Smoke Creek Sam. Probably this Indian and his band did more devilment in a small way than any other band in this section, and their destruction saved the lives and property of a good many white men.
Along the last of March the Indians drove some stock out of Willow Creek valley.
STRESHLY, MULRONEY, AND HOUGH'S MULES STOLEN BY THE INDIANS
The following narrative was taken from the testimony of Streshly, Hough, and others. In the spring of 1866 Orlando Streshly, a Honey Laker, went to Idaho with three six-mule teams loaded with freight. Two of the teams had reached Silver City and the other one was at Osborn's ranch twenty miles west of there, and about a mile and a half from Camp Lyons where there were two companies of soldiers. The team camped at the Osborn ranch not far from the first of April. The next morning half the mules were gone-stolen by the Indians. The three left were in the yard close to the house; the ones taken had gone down on a flat about a hundred and fifty yards away. Streshly followed the tracks of the mules as soon as he discovered their
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loss, and they led him to Camp Lyons; but there he lost them, for the herd at the Fort had been turned out before he got there and they had trampled out the tracks he was following. He went back to the Osborn ranch and got Asa Adams, also from Honey Lake, and they both went back to Camp Lyons. They could not follow the tracks any further so they went back to camp. The next day Adams went down to Inskip's ranch, six- teen miles below there, where the pack train of Edward Mul- roney, another Honey Laker, had camped the previous night. When Mulroney's packer got up that morning he found that his mules were all gone, but he immediately started in pursuit and
got part of them and also one of Streshly's. This animal was slow and she had been whipped unmercifully by the Indians to make her keep up, but failing to do this they left her. The packer said he saw the tracks of the other Streshly mules. They were large animals and had on heavy work shoes, and their tracks could easily be told from those of the pack mules. He thought the Indians rode Streshly's mules when they stole Mulroney's, for their tracks were behind those of the others when they were driven off.
Three weeks after this Levi F. Hough of Indian valley lost twenty-eight pack mules, a bell mare, and two saddle horses on Jordan creek six miles from Silver City. They followed the animals sixteen miles southwest, and there they turned and crossed a lava bed about five miles wide where it was impossible to track them on the rocks. They went to the other side of the lava and there found the tracks again. Streshly and Hough and three or four of their hired men and six soldiers from Camp Lyons followed them to the lower crossing of the Owyhee river, between twenty-five and thirty miles west of Camp Lyons, and there they could see the tracks of the two shod mules going into the water behind the pack mules. It was of no use to go any further, so they returned to camp.
Not long after this Mr. Streshly was in Boise City, and there he learned from a stable keeper that some Bannock Indians had brought in two mules that answered the description of the ones he had lost, and sold them to a party that was going to Montana to prospect. This was in the country of the Bannocks, so it was supposed that they stole the animals lost by the Honey Lakers and Hough. These Indians were at peace with the whites, and
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THE YEAR 1866
at that time the government was feeding a great many of them in that section. The stealing appears to have been done by small parties of Indians, perhaps without the knowledge of their chiefs. They took the stock of travelers and teamsters, but did not molest the large bands of horses and cattle running in that part of the country which belonged to people living there.
CATTLE STOLEN FROM HONEY LAKERS AT SOLDIER MEADOWS, NEVADA
From the testimony of Robert Johnston, Samuel Swearingen, Henry Talbert, E. V. Spencer, and A. L. Tunison's diary.
The second of May, 1866, a train of twelve ox teams reached Soldier Meadows, west of the Black Rock range and about 180 miles from Susanville, and camped near the station at the lower end of the Meadows. Six of the teams belonged to Robert John- ston and the others belonged to Jesse Williams, Henry Wright, James Walters, and A. L. Tunison. They stayed there the next day and let their cattle rest. When they got up the morning of the fourth they found that seventy-three or seventy-five oxen out of one hundred and fourteen had disappeared. They had been feeding on the flat close by without any guard. There were twelve or fifteen men in camp, and Johnston, Samuel E. Swear- ingen, Lee Button, Henry Reppart, "General" Weiler, a man called "Curley" and another one called "Alex" at once fol- lowed the tracks of the cattle which led them in a northwesterly direction. After going a short distance, two or three miles, they saw a band of Indians on the rocky side of a large mountain. Some of them were on foot, others on horseback, and Johnston estimated their number at twenty-five or thirty. They got within a quarter of a mile of the nearest Indians who abused them and told them to come on. The white men were on foot and not very well armed, so they did not accept the "invite," but went back to camp. Along the trail they found seven or eight head of cattle shot to death with arrows. At that time there was a military post at Summit Lake, twelve miles north of where they were camped, and a few soldiers were stationed there under the command of Captain Mehers. Johnston immediately sent a man to him and requested that some soldiers be sent in pursuit of the Indians.
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E. V. Spencer, a young lawyer named Martin, Henry Talbert, Henry Parish, James Elliott, and Edward Labott, who had been prospecting west of there in the High Rock canyon, were camped on the east side of Mud Meadows about two miles below the Johnston camp. Johnston went to them, told what had hap- pened, and asked them to go after the cattle. The six prospectors got ready as soon as they could and started on horseback after the Indians. Swearingen and perhaps another man went with them but the former said he went only part way. Probably there were no horses with the ox teams, or more men would have gone with them. The trail led to the northwest, and after leaving the valley it went up the side of a steep mountain. From there on it followed a sort of rocky table-land very much cut up by deep canyons, and over which it was impossible to travel very fast, even if there had been no trailing to do. Where the ground was soft the trail was easy to follow, but the Indians often drove the cattle over rocky ground where they left little or no trail, and it took time to hunt it up on the other side of the rocks. Besides this, the cattle were driven through places where it would seem impossible for them to go. They judged from the pony and moccasin tracks that there were about a dozen Indians, and they appeared to be getting away as fast as they could. The first day out the pursuers found an ox that had been killed with arrows and a little piece had been cut out of the brisket. They made about twenty-five miles that day, and camped because they could not follow the trail during the night. The next day they followed the trail, still going toward the northwest, over almost the same kind of a country as that of the previous day. They began to wonder why the soldiers did not overtake them, and debated the question whether it was safe for them to go any further. They knew that Captain Mehers had only a few men and there was nothing certain that he would send any of them. The night of the second day they were about fifty miles from camp, probably near the head of High Rock canyon, and might run into a large band of Indians at any time. They had taken only two day's provisions with them, so they concluded to give up the pursuit. The next day they went back to camp, and on arriving there found that Captain Mehers had only seven or eight men and refused to let any of them go away from the post.
The foregoing testimony was given in 1896 when Robert
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THE YEAR 1866
Johnston was claiming pay from the government for the loss of his cattle. According to Spencer and Tunison the officer at Summit Lake would send no soldiers after the Indians who stole the cattle, and the other witnesses seem to have said nothing about it. In 1905, while testifying in behalf of Mr. Johnston, William Brockman said that he came to Soldier Meadows several days after the cattle were stolen. He and some others followed the tracks of the cattle for ten or twelve miles and then returned because they had no hope of overtaking the Indians. He also said that he saw a small squad of soldiers, perhaps ten or twelve, coming back from the pursuit of the Indians. Perhaps they were from some other army post.
As soon as the news reached Honey Lake Henry Hatch, John- ston's partner, William Dow, and A. L. Tunison went out there and found the train camped at Summit Lake. They had hauled their wagons there with the remaining cattle. Tunison says that Johnston lost thirty-five head of oxen, Williams fourteen, Wright twelve, Walters six, and that he lost eight.
Part of the freight was taken on to Idaho, and the rest of it left at Summit Lake where it wasted or was destroyed. Mr. Johnston said that the officer there would not let him leave it near the post on the land owned by the government for fear that they would be responsible for it. These men put in their claims against the United States government for damages done by the Indians, but up to this time few, or none of them, have received any pay.
INDIANS KILLED AT PAPOOSE VALLEY
Told by William Dow
Late in June Joe Hale was hunting horses in Cheney valley. While engaged in this he passed the camp of "Old Tom," an Indian valley Indian, and one of the first of this tribe who came into Honey Lake with their families. At this camp Hale noticed some Indians who looked as though they didn't belong in this locality, and when he returned to Susanville he told what he had seen. The same day William Dow, Robert Johnston and Wife, Rolla Arnold, and A. U. Sylvester came into town from Pine creek where they had been fishing. On their way home Mr. Dow, who was on horseback, left the road and went along south
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of it to do some hunting. He saw a band of about a dozen Indians and tried to get up to them, but as he rode toward them they kept edging off. He called to them and they answered that they were Indian valley Indians, but he could see they were Piutes. When he got into town and told about seeing these Indians, Hale said "Those are the same Indians that I saw at Old Tom's camp," and expressed the opinion that they had traded with him for a lot of ammunition. People were satisfied that they were wild Indians and that they might be going out to the Summit lake country where the ammunition would be used to kill white men. Several men said that if Dow would go along and guide them, they would see that these Indians made no fur- ther trouble. The next morning when he got to town there were only four men ready to go with him-Joe Hale, Byron B. Gray, Charlie Drum, and E. V. Spencer. They went out and struck the trail just a little this side of Bridge creek, and camped that night at what is now known as Martin springs. It looked as though the Indians had camped there, too. Somewhere they had divided into two or more bands, and the next day the white men followed one of them to where they crossed Pine creek at what is now known as Champ's headquarters. By a direct route this would be thirty-five or forty miles from Susanville. They then came back and went down Pine creek to Eagle lake and camped there that night. The next morning Dow and Gray had some sore-footed horses and could not keep up with the rest of the party. When those in the lead got to Papoose valley at the southern end of Eagle lake, they saw some squaws camped there and went down and spoke to them. They could speak good Eng- lish and said that they were Indian valley Indians and that the men were out hunting. The white men then turned back and met Dow and Gray and told them that these were some of the Indians they were hunting for. They also said that nothing could be done at present, for the men were all away from camp, and they had better wait until night and then take them in. They camped at a little spring just southeast of Papoose valley and the fol- lowing morning, a little after daylight, they went over to the Indian camp and killed four bucks. One other buck was shot, but he got on his horse and escaped. Another buck and some squaws got away without injury. The white men returned to Susanville that day.
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THE YEAR 1866
"OLD TOM" KILLED
Told by William Dow and Fred Hines
Something was told about this Indian in the preceding article. He was here in 1857 when Mr. Dow came into the valley, and for some time after that he and the other Indian spoken of were the only Indian valley Indians who lived here. He had long been suspected of selling ammunition to the wild Indians living in northwestern Nevada. For some time previous to his death whenever he went to a house in the nighborhood of his camp and found no men there, he would demand ammunition from the women in a threatening manner. He generally wanted powder and caps, and he picked up all the tea lead he could find. Another thing that looked suspicious was the fact that he had the skins of animals which he could not get in this part of the country. Added to all this, just about this time a large band of Indian valley Indians came into Susanville and told that Old Tom was selling ammunition to the wild Indians.
After killing the Indians in Papoose valley the whites went into Susanville and told what they had done. That same day Old Tom's case was discussed and six or seven men went out to his camp, which was then on Gold Run near the old Lanigar place, then owned by John R. Perkins. Perkins went along with them, and after going a short distance south from his house they scattered out and went through the timber. Finally Perkins ran across him. Evidently he had heard something of what was going on, for when he saw Perkins he started off as fast as he could. Perkins followed and caught up with him, and told him they wanted him to come in and make some explanation about selling the ammunition. He refused to come and started away, but was headed off. The same thing was done two or three times, and at last Tom threatened to yell to some other Indians who were camped near by if he was stopped again. He started off once more and then Perkins shot him several times with his pis- tol. He ran a short distance and fell down dead.
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