USA > California > Lassen County > Fairfield's pioneer history of Lassen County, California to 1870 > Part 29
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THE YEAR 1862
When the matter was related in the courtroom Fredonyer closed his argument very suddenly, and for his pains received a sen- tence of six years in the state prison. Subsequently, James Duesler, always interceding for the good, bad, or indifferent, started a petition, and had Fredonyer pardoned; but he never returned to Plumas county." Many of the best men among the settlers of this valley believed that Fredonyer was innocent and that it was a "put up job" on him.
LASSEN'S MONUMENT
On June 24th, St. John's Day, the Masons had a celebration at Richmond and erected a monument over the grave of Peter Lassen. This monument is still standing, but it shows the effects of the elements. It stands ten feet north of the great tree and is quite an elaborate piece of work. It is constructed from native volcanic ash rock, is two feet and seven inches square at the base, and ten and one half feet high. On both the north and the south sides of it is the following inscription: "In Memory of Peter Lassen, the Pioneer, who was killed by the Indians April 26, 1859. Aged 66 years." Under the inscription is a gun crossed by an arrow and a powder horn hangs from a gun. Besides this a number of Masonic symbols are carved on the monument.
That night there was a "Grand Ball' at the Richmond Hotel.
THE FIRST UNITED STATES MAIL ROUTES IN THE COUNTY
In January, 1862, the U. S. government advertised for pro- posals for carrying mail on all the routes in California from July 1, 1862, to June 30, 1866. Among them were two newly established routes into this county. One of them was from Oroville, by Cherokee Flat, Butte Mills, and Longville, to Susanville in Utah Territory, 106 miles and back, once a week. The other route was from Red Bluff, by Lost Camp and Pine Grove, to Susanville, 135 miles and back, once in two weeks. Dean and Harbison of Plumas county were given the contract on the first route at $2500 a year. They must have sub-let this contract to the Davis Brothers, for Edward and Frank Davis ran a two-horse stage and carried the mail between Oroville and Susanville during that summer and fall. When the roads got bad A. L. Harper carried it on horseback until the snow stopped
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that. During the winter it was carried on snowshoes, George Baker bringing it to Humbug valley (Longville) and Harper from there to Susanville. The first post office in the county was established at Susanville. Governor Roop was appointed post- master and he held the office until his death in 1869. His office was always in a little building on the north side of Main street about the middle of the street between Lassen and Gay.
Previous to July the mail and express were brought from Oroville to the valley this year by a man named Fargo.
ROUGH ELLIOTT'S FIGHT WITH DOUGLAS Told by Joseph C. Wemple
In the summer of 1862 Rough Elliott brought to his raneh below Milford the first reaper ever seen in that part of the country. It was a combined mower and reaper. Mr. Wemple and John C. Dakin rented the Fairehilds and Washburn ranch that year and Elliott let his hired man, Hobbs, come over with the reaper and cut some of their grain. Wemple and Elliott did not agree in their measurement of the land cut over, the latter making it seven acres more than the other man did, and he wanted to bet $100 that he was right. Wemple had only $90, but he went over to the store and bet that with him, putting the money into the hands of the storekeeper, Mr. Everett. Each one was to seleet a man to deeide the matter. Wemple selected a man of some education named Douglas, who worked for Fair- childs, and Elliott took Hobbs. They agreed that Wemple was right and the stakes were given to him.
Elliott felt injured over the matter and tried to work some plan to get even on the money he had lost. A few days after this he and Hobbs, who was a footracer, were in Milford and they proposed to run a raee to see who should buy the drinks for the erowd. They ran and Hobbs won. Elliott then wanted to make a mateh with him for $250 on a side, the race to be run in two weeks, and Hobbs agreed to run. He and Douglas had come to the country together so Hobbs asked him to put up the money for him (Hobbs). Douglas thought that the other man was honest so he put up a note that he held against Fair- childs. Elliott and Hobbs pretended to have a row and the latter came to Wemple and asked him to board him while he was training for the race. This was done as a blind to avoid
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suspicion. Elliott did not train at all and that did not look just right. Just before the race Wemple bet him $10 that he would be beaten because Hobbs was a good runner and was training well. On the day of the race Elliott had plenty of money and tried to get Wemple to bet more, but the latter told him that he had ten dollars of his money and would get no more. When the race was run Hobbs kept a sideways watch on Elliott and dropped back so as to let him come in ahead. The fraud was so apparent that Douglas immediately said "Mr. Elliott, you can not draw that money down. My friend Hobbs has gone back on me. He has thrown the race." He then went to the stakeholder and told him to give back to Elliott his own money, but not to let him have the note. Several times after that Elliott abused him shamefully, calling him a coward, etc. The next time he began to abuse him Douglas said he would not stand it any longer, and if he was not armed they would go outside and settle it. Elliott said he was not armed and that he did not need any weapons for his kind, and they went out in front of the store to fight. Douglas struck the other man and knocked him back six or eight feet, but he threw his hands behind him and did not go entirely down. He jumped up and drew a knife from the back of his neck and struck Douglas on the left side of the neck just missing the jugular vein and cutting a gash four inches long. Several men caught hold of Elliott and kept him from killing the other man. A. M. Vaughan, who was one of Elliott's best friends, was there and it looked for a while as if there would be a general row, but they soon quieted down. Wemple walked up to Elliott, put his hand in his face and called him a dirty coward, and he never resented it.
They carried the injured man down to Wemple's house and tried to stop the bleeding of his wound, but with such poor success that it looked for a time as though he would bleed to death. Finally Wemple stopped the bleeding by putting some damp cotton covered with pulverized gunpowder into the cut. While they were doing this Elliott took to the woods and did not come back for a week, or at least until it was sure that Douglas would not die. As there were no courts here then, nothing more was said about it and Elliott escaped punishment. Ever since the Carson valley affair he had been looked upon by many as a sort of leader. He was thought to be a desperate
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man and was feared by some, and in one way and another had quite a following. After Douglas got well he worked a while longer for Fairehilds and then went over to Dogtown (Magalia) and hung out his shingle as a doctor.
CORNELISON AND RAFAEL SHOT
October 9th, or a little before that, the people in that part of the valley gathered at Fort Janesville for a social dance. Some time during the night Wiley Cornelison got into a row with a Spaniard named Steve Rafael and struck him. The Spaniard drew his pistol and shot Cornelison in the side, the bullet passing around and lodging in the museles of the small of the back. Rafael was then shot in the arm by A. M. Vaughan and ran outside followed by a crowd, but they failed to catch him and he mounted his horse and rode away. He stayed in the valley for some time after this and was not arrested because many thought that he acted in self-defense. It was reported here that he went out into the Humboldt country and some time afterwards was shot for stealing stoek. Dr. Slater probed Mr. Cornelison's wound and found the bullet, but he did not dare to remove it and Cornelison carried it the rest of his life.
The writer has been told several stories about the foregoing ; but they were so conflicting in regard to the cause, exact location, and result of the difficulty, that he has confined himself to the known facts in the case
WILLIAM FOX SHOT BY DR. R. F. MOODY
This affray took place in Susanville on the 15th of June. Fox, who was a quarrelsome man, had threatened the doctor's life and this time drew a pistol on him. Moody, however, got in the first shot and gave his antagonist a flesh wound that disabled him. Probably the doctor could have killed him just as easily, but he wanted to save himself without killing the other man. It is said that this cured Fox of being a bad man and he gave Moody no more trouble. Doubtless he thought he had good reasons for pursuing such a course.
SEAMAN KILLED BY HYDE
On the 21st of December Charles W. Seaman was shot in Susanville by George Hyde. Jolın T. Long, who was then a small boy, says he stood on the southwest corner of Main and
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Gay streets and saw Hyde come out of a saloon just west of him, probably the one called the "Humboldt Exchange." Sea- man was standing on the other side of the street almost exactly opposite talking to some men. Hyde walked across to the group, drew his pistol, and shot him once in the breast. He died a few days afterwards from the effects of the wound. The shooting was caused by Seaman's attentions to Hyde's wife.
The next day Hyde was brought before William J. Young, a justice of the peace living in Susanville. Squire Young's docket shows that he was held to answer for the crime of "assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to commit murder" and was admitted to bail in the sum of $3000. But there is nothing to show that he was ever brought to trial and those who lived here at the time say that he was never punished in any way.
CONDITIONS IN 1862
This year the really good times for the Never Sweats began. Until they had a market for what they could raise it had been "purty pore pickin' " in this section, as has been related. For quite a number of years after the valley was settled it was said to be an easy matter to tell a Never Sweat wherever one saw him, for his rig was largely patched out with rawhide, bale rope, and wire. It is also said that whenever one of them drove into a feed corral in Virginia City, Marysville, or any other town where they were known, the owner of it began to pick up his curry combs and brushes, feed boxes, and such little things, for fear that when the poor Never Sweat went away he might make a mistake and put them into his wagon. Ruta-baga turnips were said to be Honey Lake currency. Orlando Streshly used to tell a story something like this: One day he was plowing in a small field and it began to rain. The traces of his harness were made of rawhide or buckskin and the rain softened them so they began to stretch. In a short time when he started his team on one side of the field the traces stretched so much that the plow stood still while the team went across to the fence on the other side. He took off the harness and hung them over the fence stakes and left them there still attached to the plow. When he went there the next day he found that the traces had dried and shrunk, and being unable to get away from the fence stakes, had pulled the plow up to them making a furrow clear across
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the field. As a rule, it is hard times for poor people who settle on the frontier in any country, and in some ways it was worse than usual for those who settled in the remote mountain valleys. Mr. Lomas says that when Surprise valley had been settled only a year or two a man from there stopped at Shaffer's. He was ragged and patched beyond anything that Lomas had ever seen before and the men present laughed in spite of all they could do, although they were sorry for the poor fellow. When he noticed it he said "Boys, I know what you are laughing at; but if you laugh at these clothes, I wonder what you would do if you saw me with my working clothes on." It is needless to tell that this remark made every man in the room a friend to him.
But now a time of greater comfort and prosperity had come to the people of this section. There was a gristmill and several sawmills in the valley and a U. S. mail at last. Although it came in but once a week in the summer time and was rather uncertain in the winter, it was an improvement on former days. Some of them had to go twenty-five miles to get to the post office, but that was not very far then. According to the various documents recorded at the time Susanville was in California, Nevada Territory, Utah Territory, or no territory at all; but at Virginia City, Carson City, or Marysville, they knew where Honey Lake valley was and a letter addressed to that place reached its destination.
Although some grain was still cradled, Rough Elliott, Nich- olas Clark and Son, Manley Thompson, A. T. Arnold, C. T. Emerson, J. S. Hollingsworth, and perhaps some others, brought in combined mowers and reapers this year. Edward Mulroney brought in a thrashing machine of the latest make and Nicholas Clark and Son and Robert Hamilton brought in another one. Improved machinery meant less hard work and a greater pro- duction of hay and grain. The land was new and fertile and much of it was easily made ready for cultivation. Good grain was sometimes raised on unbroken land.
In Virginia City and the adjoining towns and in Unionville and the mining towns of the Humboldt where there had been a rush of people during 1861-62, there was a demand for every- thing one could haul there-cven jack rabbits-and the prices would satisfy almost anybody. The best years for this section were 1861 and the three subsequent years, but prices were high
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until the Central Pacific R. R. reached Reno in 1868. This spring Shaffer sold flour at Richmond for $16.50 a hundred and what he hauled to Virginia Ctiy brought $28 a hundred when it first arrived there, but in a few days it fell to the trifling price of $22. In June flour sold in the valley for $14 a hundred. In Virginia City that spring barley was 15c a pound, hay $200 a ton, and potatoes 121/2c a pound. W. M. Cain, T. N. Long, York Rundel, and others who teamed it, got five cents a pound freight from here to Virginia City this year. In 1863 ranchers from the Carson valley came here for seed wheat and paid 11c a pound for it. Abel Parker, the grandfather of the writer, got 9c a pound for barley at Milford. S. R. Hall sold potatoes at the Humboldt for 121%c a pound. He bought some clear, un- planed lumber on Gold Run for $30 or $35 a thousand, hauled it out there, and sold it for $250 a thousand. The previous year William Dow delivered some common lumber at Unionville for $200 a thousand. Freight to Virginia City was 31/2c a pound. Charles Lawson says that in 1864 he bought all the crop of barley raised by the Washburns at 8c a pound loose, and they wouldn't even help him sack it. He sold it in Virginia City for 13c a pound. In 1865 grain got down to four cents a pound in the valley and freight was a little lower. During these years cattle and good work horses greatly increased in value, but for a long time a good broken plug saddle horse could be bought for $35 or $40. The nearer the railroad got to Nevada the lower prices of farm produce were on the Comstock, and when it got to Reno the people of this section had to compete with those of Sacramento valley, and prices went to the bottom compared with what they had been in the early 60's.
Excepting in a few respects social conditions remained the same in the county for more than thirty years after its settlement. Ministers of the Gospel came into the country and in the course of time a few churches were built. Of course schools increased in number as the population increased. In the latter 60's the most of the men discarded their pistols and Bowie knives and there was less drinking and gambling. Dancing remained the principal amusement and in the early days they made a stren- uous business of it, so to speak. Mrs. E. V. Spencer told of a dance she attended in the early 60's where they danced all night and after breakfast the next morning pulled down the curtains
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and danced all the forenoon. In the afternoon they moved to another ranch and danced all night again. Some time in the 80's there was a dance somewhere in the valley every night during the holidays, and four or five couples who lived near Milford went to every one of them. Those pioneers were a tough lot, physically at least. If any one would throw up his hat and yell "We are going to have a dance, " a good crowd would gather on very short notice. For a long time women were scarce and in order to make a dance a success all of them had to attend it. The married ones brought their children and sometimes the beds in the house where the dance was held were full of sleeping little ones. There were no wallflowers and the women used to go away and hide so they could get a little rest. A dance in those days was in many ways a different affair from what one is now.
The large emigration which came here in 1862 greatly increased the population of the county, and the high prices obtained for what they had to sell brought on an era of prosperity that caused the country to improve rapidly.
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CHAPTER IX
1863. SETTLEMENT
T HERE were no squatter filings made here this year nor hereafter. The old order had passed away. About the middle of September E. Dyer, a government surveyor, came into the valley and began to survey the land. The first land surveyed was that where Janesville stands and to the north and east of it. He next surveyed the Township north of that, and then the one in which Susanville is situated. All the settled part of the valley was surveyed this year.
After the land was surveyed it became necessary to file on it at a U. S. Land Office, and the government gave the preference to the men who were living on the land. A man was allowed a certain time, probably six months, in which to file on any quarter section that he already claimed, and if he did not file within that time some one else could take it. Then the trouble commenced. The most of the ranchers claimed more than a quarter section and, very naturally, they hated to give it up. Some of them hired men to file on land for them and in this way obtained a title to all the land they claimed. Others tried to hold by force that part of the land not allowed them by law, and when some one filed on it, "jumped it," as it was called, they took weapon in hand and drove off the intruder if they could. Sometimes this worked, but not always. Public senti-' ment was against the "jumper" in most cases, for the majority of the people were in the same boat, and very often, as of old, the neighbors turned out and helped drive off the man who was "jumping" land. Quite a number of shooting scrapes occurred over these affairs and several men were wounded. Another source of trouble was the fact that the fences were not on the surveyed lines and some of the ranchers wanted to put them on those lines to the detriment of their neighbors. This condition of affairs lasted for several years before people seemed to under- stand that a man owned only the land that he held by a good title.
Susanville. George Heaps and Joseph Hale bought the "Humboldt Exchange" saloon from John Burkett and changed the name to "Pioneer" saloon. These two men ran this saloon
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for many years and it was a favorite place of resort. From that day until this there has always been a saloon of that name there, and though several buildings have been burned another one has always been built in its place. F. and S. say: "In 1863 a schoolhouse was built on the site of the present building (south- west corner of Cottage and Weatherlow streets.) It was a frame structure, one story in height, and 20 by 30 feet in size. This building was used until 1872, when the school becoming too large to be accommodated in it, the old house was moved away and a fine, two-story frame school building was erected. A fireproof store building, the first in town, was built of stone, by Andrew Miller and Rufus Kingsley, over the front door of which they placed a stone tablet bearing the inscription '1863.' "' This building was on the south side of Main street about the middle of the block between Lassen and Gay, and was con- structed by J. W. Hosselkus and Joseph Roop, brother of I. N. Roop. The schoolhouse referred to was begun in the fall of 1862 and finished during the following winter. In 1900 the second building was moved away and a large two-story brick building erected on the site of it. During the summer the first bridge was built across the river south of town. Some time before this a large log hewed flat on the top had been put across the river for a footbridge. Once a man led his horse across it, and at another time it was crossed by a wild horse that ran away with the man who was riding it. Joseph Strauss had a brewery on the south side of Main street, just east of Piute creek, which may have been put up the previous year. This fall H. K. Cornell, who had bought the place, rented the brewery to Charles Bader. This fall W. J. Young sold his picture gallery to Townsend. Besides the places already told about there was a barber shop near the southwest corner of Main and Gay streets, Cutler Arnold had a store a little west of that, and Nathan Phillips had another one still further to the west. Meyer Asher and Meyer Greehn opened a store this year, and P. D. Hurlbut and Lewis Knudson ran a shoe shop during the winter of 1863-64. In the spring or early summer H. C. Stockton brought a sawmill from near Horsetown in Shasta county and set it up on Susan river a mile and a half above the Devil's Corral bridge. It was a water mill and was run until almost the end of the century.
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Mrs. Matilda Montgomery, the Wife of Thomas Montgomery, taught a private school this summer and E. P. Grubbs taught the public school the following fall and winter. In June Mrs. A. T. Arnold and Dr. Spalding organized the first Sunday school in the schoolhouse. The town raised the money to buy an organ and some books. At that time an Englishman named Carberry was preaching here, the first preacher in the valley, but he was not a regularly ordained minister. Late in 1864 he left here to go to Surprise valley and was never heard from after that. His fate is unknown.
Janesville. Smith J. Hill put up a frame building on the north side of the road between Blanchard's store and Bank- head's house, and his brother, Jacob Hill, used it for a saloon and a shoe shop. In the spring of 1867 this building was moved about three quarters of a mile to the northwest, just beyond the Sloss creek and on the south side of the road to Susanville. It was used for a schoolhouse more than twenty years before it was burned down. Thomas H. Epley says that U. L. and P. J. Shaffer built a steam sawmill on the creek just above Janesville during the winter of 1862-63. In January, 1867, this mill was sold to D. R. and L. F. Cate and in September Mr. Epley and Oscar Hood bought them out. They ran the mill with B. H. Leavitt for a head sawyer until the spring of 1869 and then it burned down. Wiley Cornelison built a blacksmith shop across the road from Bankhead's house and ran it for a year or two. This building was used for a blacksmith shop by him, James M. Wiggin, A. Otto, E. W. Vance and H. H. Wienckie, and others, for more than twenty years. Amos H. Barnes and Family moved into the Bankhead house. He built an addition to it and opened a hotel which he kept until he moved to Reno in the early 70's. Soon after he left the house was pulled down and a two-story frame hotel was built where it stood. Bascom D. (or Henry Bascom) McColm taught school in the Fort this fall and A. M. Vaughan finished out his term.
Smith J. Hill and his Wife say that in May, when their daughter Jane Agnes was a year old, Hill and L. N. Breed named the place where she was born "Janesville" in her honor. They and some others are positive that this is right. H. E. Lomas and many other early settlers are equally positive that his story is right. All of them are reliable people and the reader
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is left to judge for himself which "Jane" the place was named after.
This fall Libbie Hankins, a girl fourteen or fifteen years old, the daughter of Mrs. A. A. Holmes, died in Janesville. Her death was the first one in the place and her funeral the first one ever held there. The funeral sermon was preached by a woman named Harding who was a Spiritualist.
Toadtown. Daniel W. Bryant tells the following: In 1863 P. W. Cunningham and Fred S. Johnson agreed to move a gristmill belonging to Dr. John Briceland from Cow creek near Millville in Shasta county to Toadtown (Johnstonville). Cun- ningham and Johnson wanted a gristmill and they started out to look after one. Briceland's mill had been undermined by the stream and was about to fall into it, and he wanted to find a place to which he could move. He agreed with the two Honey Lakers that they should move the machinery of the mill to this valley and have a one half interest in it. They moved the most of it over that year and put up a building where the Toadtown gristmill now stands-that part of the mill that extends north and south. In March, 1864, Mr. Bryant went from the Baxter ranch three miles northeast of Janesville to superintend the putting in of the machinery. Johnson P. Ford, with the help of Cunningham and William Sanders, put in a breast wheel. It took until the spring of 1865 to get the mill ready to run. It was a mill of the kind in common use at that time, and had only one set of millstones. Mr. Bryant ran the mill about three years. Probably in the early 70's it was sold to Samuel R. Hall and in a few years he sold out to William H. Hall and Henry Snyder. These two ran the mill until 1907 and then Hall sold to Snyder.
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