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 44
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The writer was then living in the valley, and though only a boy at the time, he well remembers the talk about the rising of the lake. At that time it was higher than it was ever known to be, either before or since. There was all sorts of talk going on in regard to it. Some thought there was an underground outlet to the lake and that it had become stopped up. People used to believe that there was an outlet, and also that there were large springs in the bed of the lake. So much land around the lake was covered with water that people were afraid it would keep on rising until all the good land in that part of the valley was useless for cultivation. They thought they would have to dig a canal and drain the water of Honey lake into Pyramid lake, for the latter was said to be the lower of the two. In a year or two the lake began to go down, and this went on until the summer of 1889 when it was entirely dry again.
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CHAPTER XV
1869. SETTLEMENT
L ONG VALLEY. Robert Ingram bought a ranch, probably the one south of the Warm springs ranch.
Willow Creek Valley. Adam Jacobs claimed what was once the Parker place east of Quilty, Hugo Schminck located east of Jacobs, and Jacob C. Miller located south of Quilty.
Big Valley. Richard A. Ricketts, who still lives in Big valley, says that Joel Purdem and Jason Jones and their families were the first settlers in the Lassen county part of Big valley. They came in from Oregon in March and located in the lower end of the valley. Mr. Ricketts with his Wife and three children located in the same neighborhood on the 29th of May. Teddy O'Laherty, John Cannon, and - -White and Wife settled in the lower end of the valley some time that year. Mr. Ricketts says that of the first three settlers in that part of the valley he was the only one to stay there. Joseph Wilson says that Alex- ander Parker came into the valley this year with 3000 head of cattle and twenty-eight men, and this time he stayed there.
Mrs. Mary E. Harris, now of Alturas, California, tells the following. April 15th, 1869, her father, Adin G. McDowell, with his Wife and their two boys, Mrs. Harris and her husband, L. W. Harris, and their child, located at what was afterwards the town of Adin (Modoc county) in the northeastern corner of Big valley. Samuel Nebeker and his family were also in the party. The next spring the town was named in honor of Mr. McDowell. She does not agree with Ricketts, but says there was not a settler in the Lassen county part of the valley at that time. In the fall B. F. Studley and Newton Stanley and their families settled on Willow creek about three miles southwest of Adin. H. J. Ehlers, Rev. H. D. Haskins, John Ogden, J. Miles, Rev. J. C. McKendree, Adin G. McDowell, and L. W. Harris discovered gold on what is now known as Hayden Hill this fall, and the winter of 1869-70 H. J. Ehlers, L. W. Harris, and J. C. McKendree and their families and J. Miles, H. D. Haskins, and T. J. Harris lived there. The first settlers at Lookout were two men named Whitty and Courtright who came there with their families in 1870. The same year Asa White and family and
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--- Moss settled about two miles south of where Bieber now stands. W. A. Bunton and family located at the foot of Hayden Hill on the north side of it. W. H. Stevens, Norton Stone, and James Hall settled with their families on Butte creek south of Adin. Moses A. Carmichael located in the northwestern part of the valley near the county line. In 1872 the Providence School District was organized. This was the first public school taught in that part of the county.
Mrs. Clara V. Wilson, the wife of Joseph Wilson of Susan- ville, says that early in the fall of 1869 Warren Pratt, her first husband, his brother, Newton Pratt, James and Robert Glenn, and four others went from Ft. Jones in Siskiyou county to Big valley leaving their families at home. They took two wagons and had a hard time getting over the mountain roads with them. Each man took a piece of land in the edge of the timber near the Bull Run slough. They brought some tools with them and each one put up a cabin on his claim. These cabins were roofed with shakes, but had neither floors, doors, nor windows. They saw no Indians, but they heard that some mischief had been done by them in other parts of the valley so they stood guard every night. They stayed there about six weeks, and then on account of their business at home and fear of the Indians, they returned to Ft. Jones and never went back to Big valley.
THE SETTLEMENT OF DIXIE VALLEY AND VICINITY
The most of this was told by Mrs. James P. Eldridge, but some information was given by T. J. Wright.
Late in the fall of 1869 George W. Long, H. Carson Wright, J. W. Tuttle, R. F. Gates, and -McMillan went into Dixie valley. Part, or all of them, claimed land and put up some log cabins. Long's cabin was on the north edge of the central part of the valley, that of Gates about three fourths of a mile to the east, and Wright's was northeast of Long's. It is not known whether or not any of them spent the winter in the valley, but probably they were all there the next year. In 1870 John D. Kelley and Wife and his partner, Hiram Winchel, Daniel and Charles Cramer, and George Riddle settled in the valley- Kelley and Winchel on the west side of it, and Riddle to the east of them. The Cramers settled on the northeastern side of the valley. This year Long and perhaps some of the others put
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up some hay. James P. Eldridge and Wife and a man named Sharp spent the following winter in the valley. About the same time Little valley, just below Dixie, was settled by Samuel Graves, Joseph Layton, and Old Man Ralston. Long afterwards bought these men out. In the fall of 1871 J. P. Eldridge bought out a man by the name of Jones, who had a claim five miles below Little valley, and lived there for the next forty-one years.
George W. Harrison says that the last of June, 1870, Andrew Miller, H. K. Cornell, and himself went on a prospecting trip. They went to Eagle lake, then to what is now known as Dixie valley, and then to Hayden Hill. Mr. Harrison is positive that there were no cabins in the valley at the time of their visit to it. He says that hay was put up there that year. He thinks that the settlers put up their cabins that fall, and that Long and Wright named the valley about the same time. He does not dispute the statement that Mr. Long and the others claimed land there in the fall of 1869, but thinks that Mrs. Eldridge is mistaken or was misinformed in regard to the time when the cabins were built.
Horse Lake Valley, Secret Valley, and Madeline Plains. This year B. E. Shumway put up a cabin on his place north of the lake in Horse Lake valley. This spring and the previous fall he built a wagon road from Willow Creek valley through Horse Lake valley to Mud springs on Madeline Plains. Before this there had been no road between these two places, but light rigs had gone through there. Later on he continued this road work. At Mud springs he struck the "Townsend Road" and this he repaired to Cold springs and from there on to Tuledad. Shum- way did this work for T. N. Long and Charles Cramer, who a year or two afterwards, probably in 1871, ran a stage line from Susanville to Fort Bidwell. In June, 1869, T. N. Long and Samuel Johnson went across Madeline Plains from Mud springs to Cold springs. At the latter place Shumway had set up four posts to hold up a brush roof as a shelter for his horses and built a pole corral. They went around north of the McDonald Peak and came south along the west side of it. They stayed one night near the McDonald, or Van Loan, place, but saw no sign of any buildings there. Excepting what was at Cold springs,
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they saw no camps on the Plains, but Sol. Geller may have had a sheep camp on a creek several miles west of Mud springs. The foregoing was told by T. N. Long.
The following facts were learned from John B. McKissick, Frank E. Horne, and Albert L. Shinn. In 1869 James Watt settled at Mud springs and had a tent set up to the north toward where Termo is now located. -Jackson located at the southeast corner of the Plains at the western base of Mt. Observa- tion. There were no buildings at that place until 1870 when Jacob McKissick bought him out and built a house and a corral. In 1870 Oliver Shinn, Father of A. L. Shinn, and family settled at the head of Smoke creek, and Frank E. Horne located at the southeastern extremity of the Plains and put up a stone house. E. A. Harris established a stock ranch on Red Rock creek at the east end of the Plains, and T. N. Long says that Joseph Evans came to Cold springs with stock. Long claimed the land around Cold springs and this year he had a house built there. Daniel McDonald was on his place. Shinn says that J. P. and Daniel McKissick each had a house in Secret valley, but J. B. McKissick claims that there was only one house in Secret in 1870 and that belonged to Jacob McKissick.
Those whose names are given in the lists below settled in the county in 1869. The length of residence generally applies to the husband and the wife, but not to the children.
The following lived here all the rest of their lives or are still living here. David A. Edwards and Family, Samuel G. Alexander and Family, Stephen A. Doyle and Family, F. H. Lindsay, Adam Jacobs, John R. Woolen and Family, Robert M. Smith, and Mrs. Hannah Chisholm (Mrs. Stevinson Lax) and Family.
The following lived here from a year or two to fifteen years. M. D. Bull, Thomas McFadden, Joseph Lomas, George Bangham and Family, A. G. Bechtol, Hugo Schminck, and *A. H. Pratt.
HAYDEN HILL AND ITS MINES
The following was told by Leonidas H. Hopkins who went to Hayden Hill in 1873 and who was prominently connected with the place and the development of the mines there.
In the fall of 1869 H. J. Ehlers, Rev. H. D. Haskins, John Ogden, J. Miles, and Rev. J. C. McKendree came to Big valley from Yreka. There they were joined by Adin G. McDowell and
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.
L. W. Harris, and the party started out to hunt for the "Lost Cabin" mine. They searched for some time in vain. One night they camped on the southwestern side of what was afterwards known as Hayden Hill, intending to start for home the next day. The following morning the man who was acting as cook, per- haps it was Haskins, was left to pack up and the rest of the party straggled around over the hill looking at the rock. The cook finished his task before the others returned, and the thought came to him that it would be a good plan to clean out the spring near which they had camped for the benefit of those who might afterwards come there. While doing this he noticed something that looked like mica, and there was considerable of it amongst what he shoveled out of the spring. When the other men returned he called their attention to it and said it didn't look exactly like mica, but could not be gold because there was so much of it. They panned out some of it and took it with them to Yreka, and there it was found to be gold. Part of them at least, and perhaps all of them, returned at once and located what they called the "Providence Mine." It has been told who lived there the winter of 1869-70.
The next spring J. W. Hayden and Seneca Lewis came in and located several mines on the north and east sides of the hill. For a while the place was called Providence City, and then it was named Hayden Hill in honor of J. W. Hayden.
In 1870 a good many men went there from northern Cali- fornia and western Nevada, and if the usual course was followed, every ledge on the hill was located by somebody. Charles Cramer, who was in partnership with his brother Daniel, says he went there this year and built a hotel and a feed stable. Probably they were abandoned or moved away when the excite- ment was over. The seven men who discovered gold there organized the Providence Mining Company. F. and S. say they realized "some $40000 from washing the decomposed quartz." The same authority says that "they were drawn into a mill enterprise with a San Francisco company, whose super- intendent knew nothing of practical mining. After crushing 100 tons of wall rock, in which there was no pay except the vein matter on the surface, they removed their mill and con- demned the hill. The eight paying mines there now (1882) show how valuable was their judgment." This company hired Robert
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Johnston and Frank Murphy, perhaps in 1871, to haul the machinery of the Evans Company quartz mill from Black Rock, and they built their mill on Willow creek east of the hill and two or three hundred yards below the mouth of a little stream that empties into the creek. They abandoned their mine in 1873 or 1874. Hayden and Lewis were left in possession of the hill and they claimed it all, regardless of the fact that they could not hold it when others came in.
In 1875 two men named Ament, father and son, and their Wives, Amos Swan, and Al. Simpson came to the hill. They creviced around and dug out pockets and worked their dirt and rock in an arastra, the first one there, but Mr. Hopkins doesn't know who built it. In 1876 G. F. Hoes, who owned the Evening Star mine, worked his rock with an arastra, and the next year Hoes and Lee L. and W. F. Harbert worked the ore from the Brush Hill mine in the same way. F. and S. say "Lewis was the original discoverer of the Brush Hill mine, from which the Hoes and Harbert brothers have taken $100,000." This was up to 1882.
In 1877 L. H. Hopkins located the Golden Eagle mine. His father, William H. Hopkins and C. H. Nash, both of whom had located mines on the hill, consolidated their interests with his and formed the Golden Eagle Mining Company. In 1879 or 1880 they built a five-stamp mill on the Golden Eagle mine, and under their management and later on this mine produced several hundred thousand dollars.
In 1878 and 1879 there was a greater rush to the hill than in 1870, there being two or three hundred people there during those years. In 1878 the Hayden Hill post office was established with L. H. Hopkins as post master. In 1879 Thomas A. Rose- berry and George H. Knight put in a stock of general mer- chandise, the first store in town. They carried on the same business in Adin at this time.
The first number of "The Mountain Tribune," May 6, 1881, has the following advertisements for Hayden Hill: "Roseberry & Knight, General Merchandise; Mrs. Anderson, Anderson Hotel; B. S. Bradshaw, Restaurant; R. Sailing, Butcher Shop, Fashion Saloon, and Livery and Feed Stable; W. P. McBride and W. C. Graves, Blacksmith Shop."
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Hayden and Lewis lived the rest of their lives in a cabin on the north side of the Hill. They discovered a good many ledges, but never made anything out of them and both died poor.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF BIEBER
The most of the following was written from information given by Nathan Bieber after whom the town was named. He is still in business there-the only merchant of early days left in the place.
The crossing of Pit river where Bieber now stands was called "Chalk Ford" on account of the chalky nature of the ground at that place. This ford was first used in 1864 or 1865. The writer could not learn when the first bridge was built, but one was there in 1877.
The land on which Bieber stands was claimed as a home- stead by Theodore Pleisch in May, 1873. He built a cabin on the east bank of the river about a hundred yards above the ford. The first store and the first dwelling house there were erected by Nathan Bieber in 1877. The store was located about five hundred feet east of the ford and the dwelling house about two hundred and fifty feet south of the store. The first blacksmith shop was built by W. F. Lamburth in 1878, and was about two hundred and fifty feet northwest of the store. The same year Andrew Koegel put up a saloon one hundred feet north of the store. In 1878 Mr. Bieber's residence was used as a hotel, and two years later Lewis Powers built the first hotel in town about a hundred feet east of the saloon. The first livery stable was built by Karl Gerig. The town was laid out by William R. Schooler. F. and S. says that in 1879 Mr. Bieber secured the location of a post office at this place, and that in 1881 Thomas P. Ford founded the "Mountain Tribune." The first number was issued May the 6th. The first school was taught by Mrs. M. P. Woodin, the wife of James Woodin, during the fall of 1880. School was held at first in the Town Hall, but afterwards a schoolhouse was erected about a thousand feet northeast of the store. The first church was not built until many years after the town was founded.
One of the first numbers of "The Mountain Tribune" says that the town of Bieber was laid out in 1877. "Only four buildings were erected that year and two more in 1878. In
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this condition the town languished until the following spring, when the Brownell Bros., general merchandise, in company with the Odd Fellows, built a store and hall. A general impetus to business seemed to prevail, and during the summer the principal portion of the town, as it now stands, was built. Brownell Bros. began business in Bieber May 21, 1879. Shubert & Gibbins put up a wagon shop in 1880. S. E. Perkiss commenced a cheese factory in June, 1881, and during the same summer L. Powers erected a new hotel on the corner of Powers and Main Sts.
The first number of "The Mountain Tribune" had the fol- lowing advertisements: "N. Bieber & Co., General Merchan- dise; Brownell Bros., General Merchandise; Lewis Powers, Bie- ber Hotel, William G. Stearns, City Hotel, Shubert & Gibbins, Carpenters, Wagon Makers, and Undertakers; William F. Lam- burth, Blacksmith ; William Goerig, Sr., Livery and Feed Stable; William G. Stearns, Chalkford Saloon, Swigard & Kenyon, Old Chalkford Saloon; John A. Brown, Attorney at Law; L. L. Ralls, Justice of the Peace; D. R. Brownell, Notary Public and Insurance Agent." Miss Nellie Lyon was the School Teacher.
THE SUSANVILLE WATER SYSTEM
In August, 1854, Isaac N. Roop posted up a notice on Smith's (Piute) creek to the effect that he was going to put a dam into the creek, build a ditch along the south hill, and carry the water to the emigrant road. This ditch was taken out of the creek about 160 yards above where Roop street, if extended, would cross it. When more houses were built in Rooptown a branch of this ditch was taken to each one of them. After a while the place grew up the hill so far that Roop had to take out another ditch about half a mile above the first one. This ditch carried the water as high as the northeast corner of Main and Roop streets, and by means of covered ditches the whole town was supplied with water until the early 70's.
February 17, 1866, Charles Nixon filed on what was known as the "Big Springs" on the north side of the river three miles above town, for the purpose of supplying Susanville with water. May 31, 1869, Dr. Z. N. Spalding, W. H. Crane, and A. A. Smith filed on the same springs for the same purpose, but there is nothing to show that they did anything further in the matter.
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During the summer of 1869 Charles Belden and Moses D. Bull undertook to bring the water from these springs into Susanville. It was to be done by means of an open ditch, excepting that the water was to be carried around the points of the hills and across the canyons through bored-out logs. They had a reservoir near the cemetery and from there the water was to be distributed. The work was a failure. The logs leaked where they were put together and in other ways failed to answer the purpose for which they were intended.
May 10, 1872, E. V. Spencer, W. H. Crane, and J. C. Part- ridge, Trustees of "The Susanville Ditch Company," filed on the same springs and for the same purpose that the others had taken them. This company, which was composed of people who lived in Susanville, made a success of the work. The water was brought in an open ditch, flumes being used when it was neces- sary, to the western part of town and there it was distributed through iron pipes. The work was completed in 1873, and with some additions and improvements the system has been in use ever since.
LASSEN COUNTY POLITICS
April 17, 1869, the Board of Supervisors appointed Charles Cramer Assessor to fill the vacancy in that office.
At the General Election held September 1st, 310 votes were cast. County officers were chosen as follows: District Attorney, W. R. Harrison ; Sheriff, T. N. Long; County Clerk, J. H. Breed; Treasurer, John R. Lockwood; Assessor, J. C. Wemple; Sur- veyor, William C. Kingsbury; Coroner, Dr. Z. N. Spalding; Supervisor, 3d District, Jacob MeKissick. John Lambert was elected to the Assembly for Plumas and Lassen counties.
No County Superintendent of Schools was voted for. It appears that for the first time this county officer should have been elected, but there was a failure to nominate. March 15, 1870, the Board appointed T. N. Stone to fill the vacancy, but a few months later he resigned and L. M. Crill was then appointed. The first man elected to this office in the county was Dr. Z. N. Spalding, who was elected September 6, 1871, and served two terms.
At the Special Judicial Election held October 20th, 225 votes were cast. W. T. Sexton and C. F. Lott ran for District
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Judge and the latter was elected. In this county Sexton received 123 votes and Lott 96. John S. Chapman was elected County Judge. The following Justices of the Peace were elected : Susanville, H. K. Cornell and C. B. Clark. Janesville, Abner McMurphy and E. G. Bangham. Long Valley, Marshall Bronson.
INDIAN TROUBLES. 1869
THE MURDER OF PARTRIDGE AND COBURN Told by Lafayette Marks and Others
During the spring and early summer of 1869 the station at Deep Hole springs, sixty miles east of Honey Lake valley on the emigrant road to the Humboldt river, was kept by Hiram L. Partridge, and Vesper Coburn worked for him. There were a few Indians who had belonged to the old marauding bands still roaming around in northwestern Nevada, and the friends of the two men had repeatedly warned them of the danger of stay- ing there. About the last of July Christopher C. Rachford, after- wards Sheriff of Modoc county, who was coming in from Star City, arrived at Deep Hole. The door of the house was open, but there was no one around the place. He looked the premises over and found that the oxen and the wagon were gone. He then went down onto Squaw creek and there he found the wagon and the bodies of the two men. From their appearance he thought they had been dead several days. (They were killed the 27th of July.) Rachford carried the news to Surprise valley. Olin Ward, for many years a prominent stock man of that section, said that Rachford told the foregoing to him. At the time of the murder and for several days previous to it a band of Piute Indians had been camped in Surprise valley, and had to the knowledge of the citizens, made two trips to Deep Hole springs; but no suspicion of hostile intentions were entertained, though signal fires were on the hills every night. The same night that Rachford reached the valley every Indian disappeared, and though the soldiers from Camp Bidwell sought industriously they failed to find them.
Probably the same day that Rachford was there a party of Honey Lakers, also coming in from the Humboldt, reached Deep Hole late in the evening. Finding no one there they took pos-
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session of the place for the night. They thought it strange that the premises had been left alone and the next morning they began to look around. Before long they noticed a comparatively fresh wagon track going from the station out into the brush, and after following this some distance, Tunison says two miles, they found the dead bodies of Partridge and Coburn. Judging from appearances, they had hitched a yoke of cattle to the wagon and gone after a load of sage brush for fuel, leaving their guns at the station. When they saw the Indians coming they went to the oxen, pulled the bows from the yoke and set them free, and then ran for home. They didn't get very far, perhaps a hundred yards, before Partridge was killed. Coburn got a hundred yards further and a bullet broke his leg just above the ankle. Even after this he must have tried to run, for the broken bone was forced through the flesh. When found he had a small knife, one blade of which was opened, tightly grasped in his hand. He was shot twice and Partridge five times. The Honey Lakers took the bodies to the station and buried them and then came on to Susanville. John C. Partridge, Hiram's cousin, Collins Gaddy, Lafayette Marks, and Cap. Hill immediately started for Deep Hole with a couple of buggies and two coffins. The bodies of the two men were brought to Susanville and buried there August 5th, Partridge being given a Masonic burial.
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