USA > California > Lassen County > Fairfield's pioneer history of Lassen County, California to 1870 > Part 35
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Long Valley. A. S. Wright sold out to C. M. West and came to Honey Lake valley to live. Anton Rager sold to Joseph Rager.
Willow Creek. In the spring Thomas Summers and Wife came into the valley and lived at or near the Hurlbut and Kund- son place. Richard Quilty took a place on the south side of the creek between Parker and Leesburg. Gowanloek located about three miles northeast of Leesburg and built a cabin on the side of the hill north of the valley. Harris and Scott elaimed some land and built a cabin between him and Leesburg. John Camp- bell and family came into the valley this year. John Wright came in with a band of horses and settled in the little valley left vacant by the death of Pearson. People called him "Coyote Jack," and since his time the valley where he lived has been called "Jack's
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valley." In October Bernhard Neuhaus located at Leesburg and lived there almost all the rest of his life.
Very few people crossed the plains to this section in 1865 or any other year after that.
Those whose names are given in the following lists settled in the county in 1865. The length of residence does not apply to the children. The following lived here all the rest of their lives or are living here yet: Collins Gaddy, Enos W. Fairfield and Family, Asa M. Fairfield, Justus R. Bailey and Family, Philip J. Goumez, David Knoch and Family, George W. Harrison, James Dunn, and Charles P. MeClelland.
The following lived here almost a life time: Lurana Walker (Mrs. J. P. Sharp).
The following lived here from two or three to ten or twelve years : Lafayette Wiggin and Family, E. Walter Vanee, John Samis, Howard Putnam, *W. J. Matney and Family, T. R. Tierce, William Gamble, and James Watts and Family.
LASSEN COUNTY POLITICS. 1865
At the March meeting of the Board of Supervisors two new School Districts were set off-Milford and Soldier Bridge. The Board ordered the County Surveyor to survey the west line of the county from a point on the mountain due south of Susanville to the northwest corner of the county, and thence east to state line. This work was done during the following summer and fall.
The second grand jury called in Lassen county met March sixth and adjourned on the tenth. They found eleven bills. Seven men were indicted for gambling and one for hurrahing for Jeff. Davis. When the cases came to trial before the County Judge every bill was broken and thrown out of court because the Distriet Attorney had not made the papers out right. At the June meeting of the Board William J. Young, J. P., handed in his resignation and William R. Harrison was appointed in his place. The Board ordered that after that date all state and county taxes must be paid in gold and silver coin. Probably the county was getting too much of its own money in payment of taxes.
On the Fourth of July there was a grand celebration at Susanville. Prayer was offered by the Rev. Patterson and an oration was delivered by Captain William N. De Haven. The
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Honey Lake Rangers paraded and the ladies of the county pre- sented them with a splendid silk flag.
An election for county officers was held on September sixth and 489 votes were cast. Frank Drake was elected Sheriff; A. A. Smith, County Clerk and ex-officio Auditor, Recorder, and Su- perintendent of Public Instruction; E. D. Bowman, County Treasurer; I. N. Roop, District Attorney; Elton R. Nichols, County Surveyor ; James Hutchings, Coroner and ex-officio Pub- lic Administrator ; William C. Kingsbury, Assessor ; and Thomas H. Epley, Supervisor of District No. 2.
At the September meeting of the Board Dr. J. W. M. Howe was appointed County Physician, the first one appointed in the county. At the special Judicial election held October 18th J. D. Goodwin was elected Joint Assemblyman for Lassen and Plumas. William R. Harrison was elected County Judge. The following Justices of the Peace were elected : Susanville, C. E. Alvord and C. C. Goodrich ; Janesville, H. E. Lomas and James Hutchings ; Long Valley, J. McKissick and M. Bronson; Milford, J. C. Wemple.
At the December meeting of the Board the County Auditor was ordered to draw a warrant for $1000 on the General Fund in accordance with the organic Act. E. S. Dennison was allowed to build a toll bridge across what was known as "Grease creek" in the southern part of Surprise valley. C. Giddings was allowed $209 for finishing the jail and for wood furnished the county. It is impossible to tell exactly when the jail was completed, but probably it was some time in November. It cost about $4800.
INDIAN TROUBLES. 1865
There was a great deal of trouble with the Indians this year throughout northeastern California, northwestern Nevada, and probably in those part of Oregon and Idaho adjoining these sec- tions; but only those events which took place in the country where the Never Sweats lived and traveled will be related.
The latter part of January it was reported that the Indians had robbed a camp and killed some stock in Secret valley, and about a month later they drove off some more stock from the same locality. This was the third time in about a month that they had taken stock from there and Smoke Creek. They also
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drove off some of Jack Byrd's stock. George Thayer, the express- man, was killed north of Smoke Creek while on his way from Honey Lake to Surprise valley.
THE MURDER OF LUCIUS ARCULARIUS
During the winter of 1864-65 the Granite Creek station on the emigrant road between Shaffer's and the Humboldt river was owned by Andrew Litch, who afterwards lived many years in Honey Lake valley, and Lucius Arcularius. The latter, known to both white and red men as "Lucius," was a man who was liked by everybody. The only fault ever found with him was that he was too kind to the Indians. He hired them to work for him and loaned them guns and ammunition with which to hunt rabbits; and Mr. Lomas says "All this was quite at variance with Honey Lake gospel." Not far from the first of March Arcularius started from the station on horseback and alone to go to Susanville. Lafayette Marks says that two or three days after he started some one going toward the Humboldt stopped at the station and the men he had left there inquired if they had met him on the road. The traveler replied that he had seen nothing of him. Some of them then went to the Smoke Creek station and were told there that he had not passed that place. Lomas says that W. V. Kingsbury, who kept the Smoke Creek station, came to Shaffer's and made inquiries about Arcularius. Harper says that some one went to Susanville and told the story of the missing man and that Joe Hale and Nick Curran, and perhaps others went out to look for him. However this may have been, a party started to follow his tracks after he left Deep Hole springs. They had no trouble in following them to Wall springs, but from there they were hard to trace. Finally, after hunting for several hours, they found his body with two bullet holes in it about three hundred yards from Wall springs. It would seem from appearances that two Indians lay in ambush and shot him. His horse turned sharply to one side and ran about a hundred yards and then he fell off. The Indians stripped him of his clothes and threw him into a bunch of grease brush. They took away everything he had, and as his horse was not found, prob- ably they got that, too. The party went to the Granite Creek station and fixed up a box and came back and buried him.
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THE MASSACRE AT GRANITE CREEK STATION
Soon after the middle of March Litch left the station in charge of A. J. Curry, Cyrus Crecle, and Al. Simmons. A week or ten days after he was gone an Indian who used to come there quite often came into the house and said in a tantalizing sort of way, "Where Lucius? Where he gone? When he come back?" A fellow called "Puck" Waldron, who happened to be there, grabbed up a gun, and putting it into the Indian's face, told him to look into it. He then pulled the trigger and killed the Indian dead. Probably there was another Indian or two outside who saw them take the body out and bury it, and these must have gone away after more Indians and come back as soon as they could. The following from "The Humboldt Register" (Published at Unionville, Nevada) of April 15, 1865, tells the sequel.
"THE BUTCHERY AT GRANITE CREEK STATION
"On the 7th, a small party, composed of W. R. Usher, Fox of Jesse, M. S. Bonnifield, Col. L. A. Buckner, and John Wood- ward left Unionville for a reconnoissance of a portion of the Honey Lake road. They overtook and joined another party, thirteen men from settlements along the river, out on the same mission. On the ninth the party reached Granite Creek station, eighty-five miles from here, owned by Andrew Litch and Lucius Arcularius. Arcularius had been killed by the Indians at Wall spring a month ago, and Litch was here for authority to act as administrator. The house, furnished with five guns and a good supply of ammunition, was left in charge of A. J. Curry, Cyrus Creele, and Al. Simmons. On the first of April a large column of smoke was seen rising from the vicinity, and the supposition is the station was that day attacked by the Indians. The walls of the house occupied by the men were built from thick pieces of sod. They had made ten loopholes for their rifles on the side attacked. The attack was made from a stone corral about thirty paces off, in front of the house. (To the east and lower than the house.) The whole front of the corral is bespattered with lead of the bullets fired from the house. By appearances the fight is supposed to have lasted about half a day. Curry was killed by a shot through a loophole-a body in the house having been recognized by persons acquainted with him. The legs from below the knees were missing.
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"The Indians must have exhausted their ammunition, for they fired long missiles before leaving, made from the screw ends of wagon bolts, cut about an inch long and partially smoothed. Two of these were found-one in a bellows near the house, and the other planted two inches deep in wood. Near the lodging place of the latter was a blood stain, and it is supposed the mis- sile had killed a dog belonging on the place-a savage animal, intolerant of Indians. His skin was tanned, but left on the ground.
"The Indians gained possession of a storehouse adjoining the dwelling by tearing out a wall. (The station house was on a little flat above the desert and faced toward the east. It was built of sod and had a shake roof. Ten or twelve feet back, or west, of it was a stone building, perhaps ten feet long and six feet wide, which was used for a storeroom. The Indians dug through the back wall of this building.) This enabled them to reach and fire the roof (of the larger building), and then it is supposed that Creele and Simmons resorted to flight, taking that desperate chance in preference to burning. (They took their guns, but didn't carry them very far.) Creele struck out across the flat towards Hot Springs. The flat is all alkali, very wet, and the tracks are left plain. Three Indians, two on horseback and one on a mule, pursued him and captured him; brought him back to the house, and all the conditions attest that he was burned to death. A portion of the skull, a jaw-bone, and some small pieces of bone were found; the other portions of the body having been reduced to ashes. At the point where the arms would be, were large rocks piled up, everything indicated that he had been thus weighted down; and then a large pile of sawed lumber was built up over this-stubs of the sawed lumber near these marks were found-and the poor fellow thus burned up.
"Simmons took the road to Deep Hole station. He ran about thirty or forty rods, and there the mark of a pool of blood de- notes that he fared not quite so badly-having been shot down. The body was dragged off a short distance and much mutilated. The remains of all the men, such as were found, were buried by this party on the ninth."
In the foregoing narrative the explanations made in the paren- theses were given by Lafayette Marks who says that he was at
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the scene of the massacre not long after it took place, and whose account of it agrees closely with the above. He says the men at the station seem to have expected trouble and prepared for it. They had plenty of arms, ammunition and provisions, and had a barrel full of water in the house. The marks of bullets on the corral, which he and Charles Lawson think was about sixty yards away, showed that they wasted their ammunition and that the most of it was gone when the end came. Marks and others think the siege must have lasted two or three days. Alvaro Evans says that when the Indians got into the storeroom they picked up an old mattress that was lying outside, set fire to it, and put it against the roof of the house.
The "Register" continues: "The party then went to Deep Hole station to see how its occupants had fared. This place was occupied by three brothers named Partridge and a Chinaman. (If there were three men by the name of Partridge there, two of them may have been brothers.) They were entirely ignorant of the fate of the Granite Creek station, though only ten miles off; and had not apprehended danger. They had seen the smoke on the first, but thought it nothing serious.
"The party from here spent a day-the tenth inst .- helping the Partridge Boys to cache goods they could not bring away, and on the eleventh started with them, bringing their live stock for this side of the county. At Granite creek they stopped and made further observations. The place with all its property, had been worth not less than $400. (Probably $4000 was meant.) All was burned. A large wagon was destroyed, the spokes being sawed out of the wheels. A large lot of good lumber was piled up on the haystacks and fired. The stove was broken up, and the bottoms of the pots broken in. Nothing escaped but a keg of syrup which had been overlooked. A reaper, haypress, and other tools were demolished.
"Everything showed that the boys had made a gallant and protracted fight. They would have held the house, it is believed, if it had not been fired. Curry's body having been recognized, and the skeleton of Simmons being easily recognized by pecul- iarly marked teeth, the ashes, the piled rocks, the stubs of the burned lumber denoted that it had been Creele's fate to breathe
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his last in flames and smoke. Charles Kyle and family with their stock, and all other settlers thereabouts left their homes and came this way.
"There is a sorrow ripening for the redskins, and as it is known that all tribes furnish fiends for these marauding parties, conviction is gaining ground that it is not good for the country to encourage the breeding of Indians. Men who have lost friends by the hands of these miscreants promise an early and a fearful vengeance."
The last of May, 1865, Captain Byrd started for Idaho with 1100 head of cattle and 165 horses. Besides himself and his son, Austin Byrd, there were twenty men to handle this stock. In the party were Thomas Harris, Thomas Votaw, William J. Sea- graves, William H. Dakin, John S. Howard, Alex. Hostetter, Wheeler, - Belt, L. Gillespie, "Nigger" George, an Indian named Humphrey, and a Frenchman. Andrew J. Hunt joined them at Cow Creek.
They went across the country until they struck the emigrant road to the Humboldt river and then followed that. In two or three days Votaw and Harris went back to attend to the Byrd stock left in Honey Lake. In the Black Rock country there was a long drive across the desert without any water and the stock got very thirsty. When they were near enough to the Rabbit Hole springs so that the horses could smell the water they out- traveled the cattle. Byrd told Austin to let the horses go and keep up with them, and to stay at Rabbit Hole until the rest of the stock came up. The horses reached the springs some time during the night, but the water was so far down in the holes that they could not get any of it and Austin let them feed along toward the foothills. About daylight he heard an "Indian yell" and then another one, and the horses all stampeded up the can- yon with the Indians after them. Young Byrd stampeded on the back track down the canyon for fear they would be after him, and kept it up for five or six miles until he met the rest of the party. Jack Byrd took Dakin and several other men and followed the trail of the horses until he was satisfied that they had been driven off by the Indians. He did not go any further because he thought it was best to stay and take care of the cattle. He claims that the band stolen here consisted of one hundred and twenty-seven well-broken saddle horses.
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They resumed their journey and on the third of July reached Cow Creek, Owyhee county, Idaho, without further mishap. This was a mile and a quarter below Camp Lyons, a military post then occupied by a part of five companies of the First Regiment Oregon Volunteers. As the feed was good there and they thought they were close enough to the Post to be safe from attack by the Indians, they concluded to stay for a while and Dakin, Hunt, Howard, Hostetter, and Wheeler were hired to take care of the stock. The night of the 15th of August the Winnetts, a band of the Snake river Indians, stole twenty-three head of their saddle horses. Austin Byrd went to Camp Lyons for help and was told by the officer in command that he could not aid him at that time. His men were so badly scattered that he could hardly take care of the Post and the Indians had stolen some of his horses. Byrd, Howard, and Dakin then followed the trail of the horses toward the Malheur mountains as far as they dared to go. It was not very safe for a few white men to be out that way just then. Shortly after this a few soldiers got out and rode around a little, but they found no horses and killed no Indians. While the three men were following the horses the Indians drove off some of their cattle. The soldiers saw it done, but were afraid to interfere. Byrd and his men followed them as far as they dared to go and then came back and made preparations to take the cattle to a safer place. While they were getting ready the Indians killed a good many of their cattle. A band of them would get on a bluff and occasionally a few would dash down among the cattle, kill several, and then run back. About the first of September they got fourteen men together and took the stock across the Snake river and four miles up the Boise. When they rounded them up they found they were out about one hund- red head. The next year Captain Byrd drove all his stock out of Honey Lake and left this section for all time to come.
In 1891, while living in Walla Walla, Washington, Byrd filed a petition in the Court of Claims of the United States asking for $41,950 to pay for stock taken from him by the Indians in 1859, 1860, and 1865. He died the next year after he filed this claim, and in the course of time Austin Byrd fell heir to it. Harry Peyton of Washington, D. C., was his lawyer. The claim was cut down to about one half of what it was at first, but he never recovered any damages from the United States. The foregoing
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was told from testimony given by the two Byrds, William H. Dakin, and others, who were witnesses for the Plaintiff,
William J. Seagraves was a witness for the United States Government and in many respect his testimony differed mate- rially from that of the other witnesses. He testified that the loss of Byrd's stock was caused by carelessness and incompet- ency in handling it. He also testified that at Rabbit Hole he was put in foreman of the drive and held that position until they reached Idaho. Austin Byrd made another affidavit after this in which he denied almost everything that Seagraves said.
On the 14th of March Captain Wells with a company of cavalry surprised at daylight a camp of Pah Utes on the banks of Mud lake within the Pah Ute reservation, and killed every Indian found in camp. Major McDermit reported to Governor Blasdel that thirty-two Indians were killed.
On the night of the 30th of May two men, George Shortridge and -Bissell, were killed in the lower end of Surprise valley. Olin Ward says they lived at Lake City in that valley and had been to Susanville for flour. That night they camped near Thomas Bare's cabin and the Indians killed them. Some man coming down the valley found them the next day. A man who had camped at Duck lake came along the next morning and never saw them. He went on up the valley a ways and met some men who had heard of the killing and were going down there, and turned and went back with them. For a long time people suspected that he did the killing. The "Grizzly Bear" says that the two men "were ambushed and killed, Short- ridge being scalped. The Indians stole six horses and all the supplies that they could find, and made their escape. It was afterwards claimed the murder and robbery were committed by white men disguised as Indians."
On the seventh of August Col. Charles McDermit was killed while returning to Camp McDermit, then known as Quinn's River station, from a scout on Quinn's river. He was shot by an Indian lying in ambush and lived only four hours after being wounded. (In early days Quinn's river was called "Queen's river" and probably that is what is was originally named .- F.)
September 12th Captain Payne and Lieutenant Littlefield with eighteen men of Company E, First Nevada Cavalry, had
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a fight with the Indians at Willow creek in Queen's River valley. About twenty miles northwest of Buffalo Springs they reached the top of the mountain overlooking Queen's River valley, and from there saw Indian camp fires. They separated, each officer taking half of the force, and about daylight each party got to within a mile of the Indian camp and charged it. The Indians ran, but kept up the fight, and one soldier was wounded. Thirty- five Indians were killed right there, and they thought that fifty must have been killed in all. The soldiers captured a lot of guns, ammunition, bows, arrows, provisions, and some things that the Indians had taken from the whites they had murdered.
THE MURDER OF BELLEW
On the fourth of November three or four ox teams that were hauling goods from California to the Humboldt over the Honey Lake road, were approaching Cedar springs, thirteen miles from Rabbit Hole springs. One of the teams had gone some distance in advance of the others and was captured by the Indians. The driver, a man named Bellew, was killed and mutilated and the wagons plundered and set on fire. The Indians went off toward Black Rock.
"Black Rock Tom" and his band went on the warpath about the middle of March, and were joined by the Indians living in the mountains to the north and northeast and by renegade Sho- shones and Bannocks, and they kept up hostilities in Paradise valley and on the northern frontier. In May Charles Adams, a Honey Laker, started a colony in Paradise valley. In a fight there with the Indians the following July M. W. Haviland, a member of the colony and another of our Honey Lake acquaint- ances, was wounded. The peaceably disposed Pah Utes were afraid that the warlike attitude of this band would bring the anger of the whites upon the whole tribe and cause their destruc- tion. Because of this, Captain Soo, the chief of the Humboldt river Pah Utes, determined to aid the soldiers in killing off the hostile Indians, regardless of tribal relations.
The news of Bellew's murder was taken to Dun Glen and Lieutenant Penwell was ordered out with twenty-six men in pursuit of the Indians. Captain Soo, who had been the leader in the Williams massacre in 1860, acted as their guide. When he examined the signs about the scene of the murder he came to
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the conclusion that Black Rock Tom was the guilty party, and the command moved north in pursuit. On the ninth of Novem- ber they overtook the Indians, and found them intrenched upon a mountain west of Pah Ute Meadows. After an unsuccessful attempt to dislodge them, they fell back about seven miles into the valley and camped for the night. The next morning they started for Dun Glen without having killed any Indians or lost any men themselves.
On the 13th of November Lieutenant R. A. Hosmer of Com- pany B, Second California Cavalry, with sixty soldiers, four citizens, and Captain Soo with fourteen of his warriors started from Dun Glen to make another effort to punish the bold outlaw. On reaching the sink of Queen's river a hundred miles north- west of Dun Glen, the wagons were left in charge of fourteen men and the rest continued the march. At daylight on the morning of the 17th, after having passed through the swampy sink of Queen's river during the night, Captain Soo declared, as the summit of some low hills was reached, that he could see the smoke of the enemy's camp fires some nine miles away to the northeast. He also insisted that the smoke came from the camp fires of Black Rock Tom. The march was continued, and when they got to within five miles of the point where he said he could see the smoke, it could be seen by all. The Indians did not see them until they were about two miles from them, when Lieu- tenant Hosmer said "Come on, boys, we can't go around. The best man will get there first." The command then struck out, every man for himself, for a two mile charge. Captain Soo, who was riding on an old McClellan saddle given him by the soldiers, finding that some of the whites were likely to pass him, reached down and cut the girth of his saddle with a knife and threw out the saddle from under him. He kept on barebacked, and was the first to charge in among the enemy who were doing their best to escape. A skirmish battle that extended over sev- eral miles of country followed. Along the last of it Captain Soo used an old cavalry saber with good effect. Only one prisoner was taken, and that was a squaw whom a citizen was trying to kill, but was prevented by a soldier. Only six Indians and five squaws eseaped, among whom was Black Roek Tom. David O'Connell was killed and Sergeant Lansdon and another man were wounded. The bodies of fifty-five Pah Utes were found, but
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