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 39
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passed into the timber on the mountains to the north of town, and were thereby enabled to elude their pursuers. Winnemucca, being personally known to several of our citizens as an 'honor- able' Indian, was removed to the jail for safe keeping.
"The Agent at Pyramid lake and all others whom it may con- cern, should be cautious about the sending in of their pet Indians into this locality. Enough has been said to satisfy outsiders what course the people here are liable to pursue. No Piute can under any circumstances be allowed to remain among us. What the object of the Indians was we are left to surmise. They have no love for Honey Lakers, and may be the advance guard of a large marauding party, seeking lodgement upon the Ft. Crook and Red Bluff routes of travel."
The foregoing quotation tells briefly a part of what occurred during this visit. In the past years the Indians had caused them so much trouble that the Honey Lakers had sworn vengeance. Probably the most of these depredations had been committed by the Pit Rivers and the renegade Piutes living north of the reser- vation, but the Honey Lakers were in no mood to discriminate and it was not safe for any Piute to come into the settled part of the valley. Old Winnemucca wanted to visit his old-time friends and he also wanted to hunt around Eagle lake. He was smart enough to know the danger, so he got all the papers he could, thinking they would serve to protect him. Probably he talked to his acquaintances along the road and told them what he wanted to do, for it is said that Robert Johnston followed him to Susanville to see if he could prevent him from going any fur- ther north. William Dow and Tunison were coming from Oregon with cattle and Johnston was afraid that the Indians would attack them. When he got close to Susanville Winnemucca sent his warriors to the edge of the hills a mile or more northeast of town, no doubt telling them to be on the lookout for trouble. Tak- ing one Indian with him he went on into the town, and having found his old friend Governor Roop, he dismounted and entered into a conversation with him. When the people of Susanville heard that Winnemucca was there a good many of them became much excited and a crowd gathered around Roop and the Indians. A few of them got their horses and guns and things began to look rather dangerous for the redskins. Joe Hale and Hank Wright seemed to be the leaders of the crowd and they wanted to take
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the Indians and hang them. Roop told them that he had smoked the pipe of peace with Winnemucca, that he had many times been at the mercy of the chief and the latter had always taken care of him, and that they would have to kill him before they hanged the Indians. Captain Weatherlow, Cap. Hill, John Ward, Cut- ler Arnold, and some other prominent men who were old timers, joined Roop and they kept the crowd back. Just about this time the Indian who was with Winnemucca and who was still mounted on his horse, got frightened and started off down the road toward Toadtown with Wright and some others in pursuit. The Indian was mounted on a small, beautiful horse that looked like a thor- oughbred, and he knew how to ride him. When they got across Piute creek Wright, who was in the lead, raised his gun to shoot. As he did this his horse stumbled and gave him a hard fall. De Forest thinks that Wright went no further, but McIlroy says he went on to the Dobyns place. The white men went on, some one being considerably in the lead. George Funk had stopped his team in front of the Dobyns place, about a mile below where the road crosses Piute creek. The Indian went past before he had time to do more than notice him; and when the white man who was following him came along Funk, thinking that it was another Indian, almost shot him before he discovered his mistake. Mc- Ilroy says that a small party of soldiers followed close in pur- suit of the white men, and that Funk stopped them at a bridge near the Dobyns place. He cursed and abused them and said he would shoot the first man who crossed it. They all believed him and stayed where they were. I. N. Jones, who then lived about a mile and a half below Susanville, saw the Indians going toward town and expected they would have trouble. A while after they passed he hunted up his rifle, and when he heard a horse cross the bridge close by on a run he hastily put a cap on his gun and ran outside. The Indian was passing the house, running his horse easily and keeping just out of gunshot of the man who was nearest to him. Jones snapped his gun at him three times, but had been loaded a long time and failed to go off. The two went on down the road and more men soon followed. When the man close to the Indian got down to the Johnston place near the gristmill his horse gave out. A horse with a saddle on stood near the gate and he took it and went on. At the gristmill the Indian took the left hand road and after going a short distance went
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into the willows. Thomas J. Lomas came along at that time on his way from the Shaffer ranch to town. He saw a man with a gun looking through the willows and soon met another man rid- ing furiously. They hunted the Indian out of the willows and he rode off toward the northeast, keeping just far enough ahead of his pursuers to make them think they were going to overtake him. When he reached the hills he let his horse go and left them as though they had been on foot.
A party went after the Indians who stopped northeast of town; but they must have taken the alarm when they saw the chase going on down the road, for they struck out into the hills to the north and were soon out of danger.
The officer in command of the soldiers talked about shooting people who molested the Indians, and this was told to Hale and the others as soon as they got back to town. Of course this made them feel very hostile toward him and he soon had a row with Hale. Some say that Hale met him on the street and insulted him shamefully, others that the row took place in the saloon and that Hale raised a chair to strike him, but was prevented from doing it. The officer went away, but the soldiers and the citizens kept on quarreling. The latter asked what was going to be done with Winnemucca and were told that they intended to hold him as a hostage. Hale said "Well, why don't he come out and say so?" The officer then came out of the Steward House and lined his men up across the street near the Pioneer saloon, and the citi- zens, with their rifles in hand, lined up not far away. The officer began talking to Hale as if he was a dog, but Joe told him to stop that and talk like a gentleman or he would shoot him. This brought the officer to his senses and his explanation was made without any more trouble. The Honey Lakers were thoroughly aroused, and had the soldiers taken any hostile steps, probably they would have all been killed. T. J. Lomas heard the conver- sation between Hale and the officer.
Winnemucca was taken into Roop's house for safe keeping. Later on, Mrs. A. T. Arnold says, all the men went away and left her with a pistol to guard him. While they were gone Hale came to the door. She told the chief to go into the bedroom and then told Hale to come in at his peril.
The soldiers stayed in town a few days and then took Winne- mucca to Ft. Bidwell, staying one night at the Hurlbut and
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Knudson ranch in Willow Creek valley. It nowhere appears that Winnemucca ever visited Susanville again. Perhaps he thought he was too popular-his presence attracted the attention of too many people.
THE MURDER OF CHARLES LEAGUE
Told by "The Eastern Slope," Alvaro Evans, Mrs. J. A. Forkner, and Mrs. Sarah McClelland.
In the latter part of October Charles League, a resident of Honey Lake valley, hauled a load of freight to Summit lake in northwestern Nevada for Griffin and Williams. He arrived at his destination in safety, and after unloading his freight, started for home. On the evening of the second of November he reached the Flowing Springs station where Charles P. McClelland and Louis M. Crill were taking care of stage stock for the Chico and Idaho line. Robert Elliott stayed there that night, too. During the night the dogs barked and made a great deal of fuss as though there were Indians around, and the next morning they tried to keep League from starting out. Their talk had no effect on him and he hitched up his team and took the road to Honey Lake.
After he had gone McClelland went to looking around the house and found some arrows that had been shot at the dogs. Shortly before this some signal fires had been seen on the moun- tain, and all this made them sure that a party of Indians was lurking around. It is said that soon after League started Elliott saw a smoke in the direction he had gone and called the atten- tion of the other men to it. They became alarmed for League's safety and McClelland and Crill took their rifles, mounted their horses, and followed him. After going about a mile and a half they saw five Indians going up the side of the mountain leading League's four horses with their harness on. They followed them for some distance, and finding they could not be overtaken, shot at them, but were too far away to do any execution. They then turned their attention to League and found him lying in the road near his wagon. Evidently the Indians had shot him from ambush, stripped him of his clothes, and hastily departed. Per- haps the smoke was caused by an unsuccessful attempt to set the wagon on fire. McClelland then went across the desert to Hardin City where Alvaro Evans was building a quartz mill, and told
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him what had happened. Evans at once sent a messenger to Camp McGary and then sent a spring wagon after League's body. He made a rough coffin and the remains were taken to Honey Lake.
The commanding officer at Camp McGary came with twenty- five soldiers, half a dozen men from the camp at Hardin City joined them, and they took the trail. They followed it south along the summit of the mountain for a part of two days until they were north of Wall springs. A snow storm then came on and they gave up the pursuit. The newspapers accused the Pyramid lake Piutes of committing this murder, but Evans says that the Pit Rivers were the guilty ones.
INDIANS KILLED IN DRY VALLEY
A week or two after League was killed Alvaro Evans left Hardin City and went to his home in the north end of Long val- ley. While on his way there he crossed the trail of some Indians near Wall springs, and they were going south toward the Pyra- mid Lake reservation. When he got home he sent word to Old Winnemucca, with whom he was well acquainted, to come and see him right away. When he came Evans told him about the murder of League and about the trail toward Pyramid lake, and told him to let him know as soon as he learned anything about the Indians who made that trail. He also told him that if he didn't do something about it, the Honey Lakers would rise and clean out the Piute reservation. (Old Winnemucca had good cause to hunt up that band of Pit Rivers. Besides the killing of League, the occasional depredations of small bands of Pit Rivers in the Long valley country were laid to the Piutes .- F.)
The morning of the last day of November, shortly after Alvaro Evans had left home, Winnemucca came to the ranch with twelve warriors and said that the Indians who killed League were camped in Dry valley about six miles east of the Evans ranch, and that if the Evans Boys would arm his men, he would go up there and kill them. They gave the Piutes some guns and pistols, and Allen Evans, J. N. (Newt.) Evans, Ans. Marsh, Eli- jah Miller, and five or six other men living in that part of the valley, went along to see the fun. They all started from the ranch about two o'clock the next morning and in an hour reached what is called "The Sierra camp." The chief said "Wait till
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daylight. Then we kill them." About daylight he and his braves went up to the camp of the Pit Rivers. When they got close to it an old Indian came out and saw them and ran back and awoke the others. They came running out and fired at the Piutes, kill- ing one of them, and this had the effect of sending them back to the white men for protection. The latter immediately charged the Pit Rivers, of whom there were ten bucks and five or six squaws and children. They took to the junipers, but the whites followed them and killed nine of the bucks and captured the squaws and children. The other Indian got away. During the fight the horse ridden by Allen Evans was shot through the withers a couple of inches below the top, and the whites re- ceived no other damage. One of the newspapers of western Nevada in commenting on this affair said "Here is the way to fight Indians; ten killed out of eleven-more severe punishment than the whole military force of the government has been able to display in the state for the last twelve months."
Winnemucca took the captives home with him to the reser- vation and about six weeks afterwards they all ran away. A Piute named George, who had worked for the Evans Brothers and then gone back to the reservation, followed them. He over- took them on the east side of the Fort Sage mountain (State Line Peak), and killed them all excepting a little boy six years of age and a girl of twelve. Probably they hid in the brush and he did not find them. Charles Cramer, who lived in the northeastern corner of Long valley, says that two men from Virginia City were out hunting and found the little girl and brought her to his house. They took her home with them and raised her. The next day after the Indians were killed Allen Evans was hunting cattle in that locality. While riding around in the brush he heard a noise that attracted his attention. After considerable searching he found a little boy sitting on his feet in the snow with a rabbit- skin robe over him. Evans took him on his horse and brought him home. On examination it was found that both his feet were frozen hard clear up to his ankles. He was put into an outhouse and some Indians who were camped close by took care of him. In a short time the frozen flesh began to decay and one morning he was missing. Evans supposed that the Indians killed him and took him away.
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SUMMERS AND HURLBUT'S HORSES STOLEN
From Tunison's Diary
On the night of December 7th the Indians stole two horses from Willow Creek valley. One belonging to P. D. Hurlbut was stolen from the stable and one running outside from Thomas Summers. They shot an arrow into a colt belonging to another man and scattered the cattle a good deal. The horse belonging to Summers got away before they had taken it very far.
On the 8th Hurlbut, Knudson, Summers, and Tunison fol- lowed the trail of the Indians north toward Eagle lake and found out that two of them were on horseback and that there were per- haps six of them in all. Four days later William Dow, Robert Johnston, Tunison, Hurlbut, Gowenlock, and two or three other men, went to the upper end of the valley and left their horses at Quilty's place. From there they went on foot and tracked the Indians to the place where they killed Hurlbut's mare. They tracked them a little further and then went back to Quilty's. The following day they tracked them on to another camp, and from there to one at the east end of Eagle lake. The 14th they started out on horseback and followed the trail to the north end of the east arm of the lake, and there the trail left it. They camped there, and Dow, Tunison, and Gowenlock went on a scout over into Grasshopper valley. They got up before three o'clock the next morning and all of them tramped until sunrise, but saw no Indians-nothing but tracks going north. That day they re- turned home, having hunted Indians with the same result as that obtained by many an expedition sent out by the Never Sweats in days gone by.
THE MURDER OF MRS. THOMPSON
In May Richard Thompson, a very early settler in the valley, was indicted by the grand jury for the crime of murdering his Wife, Margaret Thompson. It was charged that the crime was committed at their home two miles south of Susanville during the early part of March. He was tried at the June term of the District Court, found guilty of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to be hanged. This sentence was commuted to impris- onment for life, and he was sent to the state prison at San
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Quentin. After staying there about three years he was pardoned on account of his poor health. He then returned to Honey Lake and spent the rest of his life here.
THE MARKS-MYERS "SHOOTING SCRAPE"
While this encounter was going on it looked as though it might prove to be a serious affair, but it ended in such a harmless way that people regarded it as a joke. Below are a few of the stories told about it.
Several people who lived in the valley at that time remember it something like the following: On the 31st of March while Joseph Myers was sitting in Bowman & Lockwood's store in Susanville engaged in reading, La Fayette Marks, with whom he had previously had some trouble, approached him from behind and threw his arms around him. Myers was armed with a pistol and a knife, and he drew the latter and jabbed Marks in the arms with it until he let go and ran out of the store. As he went through the door Myers fired at him, but hit the door casing instead of the man. Marks went after his pistol and returned to the store, and getting behind a pile of flour, took two or three shots at Myers who was on the other side of the pile. His pistol then failed to work, and as his opponent was about to get his battery into action, Marks lay down behind the flour. Myers then put his pistol over the flour until it almost touched the other man's back and pulled the trigger, but the weapon failed to go off. While he was trying to get his pistol to revolve Marks ran out of the store and across the street. As he was doing this sprinting act Myers shot at him and just grazed one of his ears. This was the only blood drawn during the pistol practice.
Tunison doesn't tell how he got his information, but says "April 7. Shooting scrape in Susanville last week. Two men fired four or five shots each and one hit once. No harm done."
A man who was in town when the trouble occurred says that the shooting began out in front of the store. Marks fired a shot or two and then, for some reason, ran into the store and lay down behind a pile of flour. Myers followed and put his pistol close to him, but when he pulled the trigger it failed to go off. While he was working with it Marks ran out of the back door and got away.
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The records of the county show that the principals in this bloody affray were arrested and shortly afterwards the grand jury indicted both of them. Myers was tried first and was acquitted. Marks was then tried and found guilty of "assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to do bodily injury," and was fined $500, or 250 days in jail. This fine was reduced twice- the last time to $125, or 60 days in jail-and probably it was then paid.
THE HISTORY OF THE BLACK ROCK MINES
Of all the stories told on this Coast about lost mines the following is one of the strangest. When these mines were dis- covered there was a wagon load, perhaps two or three wagon loads, of almost pure silver ore in sight which a few years later could not be found. In the same vicinity, still later on, they found large ledges which some assayers said were very rich, while others, equally good or better, said there was not a trace of precious metals in them. Rock from these ledges worked at one time gave large returns. At another time rock from the same ledges, sometimes from the same load, yielded little or nothing. Finally, when a quartz mill was built in that district and run for weeks on the best rock, not even a color was obtained. Another run was made with the same results. Another mill near by made a run without getting anything, and the district was abandoned.
As is usually the case, more than one story is told about the discovery of silver in this district. "In Miners' Mirage-Land," written by Idah Meacham Strobridge, tells the story in one way, and "Thompson and West's History of Nevada" tells it in a slightly different way. The following story of its discovery is the way it has always been told by the men of this part of the country, men like A. B. Jenison, who was intimately acquainted with James Allen Hardin, the discoverer of the mine, and other prospectors who knew him and also knew the Black Rock country. A part of the story of the discovery was told to the writer by William H. Jenison who had it from his Father, A. B. Jenison.
Hardin crossed the plains in 1849. In the course of time the train with which he was traveling reached the Black Rock range of mountains in what is now northwestern Nevada, about ninety miles in a straight line northeast of Susanville. This is
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a short range extending north and south and terminating at the southern end in a bold, black peak facing the desert. This mountain gives the range its name. While on his way from eastern Oregon to the Truckee river and thence over the Sierras to California, Fremont camped at the hot springs west of this mountain (about the first of January, 1844), and it so attracted his attention that he took its latitude and longitude and gave it in his narrative of that journey. To the east of the range is the northern part of the Queen's River desert and west of it is a narrow arm of the same desert. We will now go back to the train. By the time they reached this point they were "scarce for almost everything," especially provisions and ammunition. Hardin, who was a sort of hunter and scout for the train, started out in the morning to see if he could kill some kind of game. Jenison told it as though he went alone, Mrs. Strobridge and T. and W. say there were two men with him, and Andrew Hardin of Petaluma, a nephew of J. A. Hardin, says his uncle told him there was one man with him. (Ross Lewers tells that John Lambert, at one time superintendent of the Sierra Nevada mine in Virginia City, said that he was with Hardin when the ore was discovered and that they melted it in a bake oven.) The road runs on the west side of the range, and the hunters traveled across the foothills parallel to it. Nothing grows on this range but greasewood, and the mountain is volcanic rock and volcanic ashes with sand hills down next to the desert. This was a poor country for game and they found none. When three or four miles north of the Double Hot spring (Hardin told Jenison he could not remember whether he was west of the road among the sand hills or east of it in the foothills, though probably it was the latter) they passed the lower end of a little ravine which had been cut out by the water. Something bright in the bottom of it and along its sides attracted their attention, and upon looking more closely, they found it was some kind of metal which they thought might be lead. Andrew Hardin told the writer that his uncle said there was a wagon load of it. It looked as though it would make bullets, and as they were short of ammunition, they took several pieces, perhaps thirty or forty pounds, along with them. When they got into camp they found it melted easily, so they made bullets of part of it and used them. Hardin took a small piece of it with him to California. Jenison did not say
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what become of the rest of it. In the other two stories it is claimed that Hardin and all those in his train, and Mrs. Stro- bridge says those in another large train camped close by, were positive that the metal found was silver and that there was enough of it to make them all rich. But in the light of what afterwards took place it would seem that no one who saw it then had any idea that it was silver, or that it had any particular value. Hardin settled at Petaluma in Sonoma county and went to work at the carpenter's trade. A few years afterwards the piece of metal found in the desert, which in the meantime had been carelessly thrown around, fell into the hands of an assayer who found that it was carbonate of lead and silver, and very rich in the last named metal.
About this time, or perhaps a little later, A. B. Jenison and Frederick Alberding moved into the neighborhood of Petaluma from the Rogue River valley in Oregon. They became acquainted with Hardin and heard the story of the silver ore, and after talking the matter over concluded to organize an expedition to go back and find the place where he got it. "The Petaluma Journal" of July 9, 1858, says "A party of some fifteen or eighteen persons left this locality a few days since for the east- ern slope of the Sierra Nevadas, where they go in search of what they believe to be an immense deposit of silver ore." The paper said that A. J. Harding was the leader of this expedition and that they expected to be gone about two months. T. and W. say the following were the members of that expedition: "M. S. Thompson, Allen Harding, A. B. Jamison, Fred. Alberding, H. Whiteside, Charles Humphries, Major James Pingley, Holt Fine, P. McGuire, and Oman." In the above Hardin's name is not spelled right, "Jamison" should be Jenison, and Oman's given name was George W. The other names may be right. It is possible that a man named Clyman and several others were also in the party. Hardin was sure that he would have no trouble in going to the place where he found the silver; but when he reached that locality, either the face of the country had changed or he had forgotten how it looked, and he utterly failed to find the little ravine where he had seen a wagon load of the precious metal. They hunted for it until fall and then Hardin and some of the party went back to Petaluma, and the others stayed in Honey Lake valley. The next spring Hardin came
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