USA > California > Lassen County > Fairfield's pioneer history of Lassen County, California to 1870 > Part 4
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DR. MCCLAY KILLED BY AN INDIAN
Dr. McClay was the first white man killed in Honey Lake valley by the Indians; and the following account of it was given by Fred Hines.
The last of September, or the first of October, 1853, Dr. McClay's train was camped on the flat, just below where Roop afterwards built his cabin. The next morning, when they were hitching up to resume their journey, they discovered that some of their cattle were missing. Just as they made the discovery, an Indian they had brought from the head of the Humboldt river started to run toward the foothills to the north. Some of them followed him on horseback, and shot him as soon as they caught up with him. McClay, his son, and some of the men of the train, followed the trail of the cattle back along the road until they came to a swamp about ten miles down the river. There the trail went into the tules, for at that time it was a tule swamp all along there. They followed the trail into the tules, and rode around in them looking for the cattle. They had not hunted very long before an Indian rose up and shot Dr. McClay in the breast with an arrow. They returned and got a carriage, and took him back to camp. His wife pulled out the arrow, and he died that night. His body was taken to Shasta and buried there.
Dr. Minor, with whom Mr. Hines crossed the plains, camped near the tule swamp the night before; and during the night one of his horses was shot by the Indians, it was supposed.
The following quotations are from F. and S., and from Roop's record of filings. "In May, 1854, Roop and John Hill went from Shasta to the valley, to see if the snow was sufficiently melted to admit of the passage of a wagon loaded with supplies. On the way they overtook a prospecting party of about a dozen men, one of whom was Hyram K. Wilcox, who had left Shasta a few days before. They all came on to the valley together, arriving on the sixth of June, the prospectors soon becoming dissatisfied, and
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HISTORY OF LASSEN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
returning across the mountains. Roop and Hill also went back to Shasta, and Roop soon returned with a load of merchandise and supplies, accompanied by his brother Ephriam Roop, William McNall (McNaull), Captain William Weatherlow, and others." William Armstrong was one of the crowd.
"During the summer, this party built a rough, one-story log house, about 20 by 30 feet in size, which still stands in an orchard in the eastern suburbs of Susanville, and is owned by A. T. Arnold, Mr. Roop's son-in-law. This building was covered with a shake roof. Since it was used for a fort in the Sage-Brush War, it has been called Fort Defiance. In this building was placed the stock of goods that had been brought over from Shasta, and a brisk and profitable trade was carried on with the emi- grants." As it was hard work to haul freight into the moun- tains at that time, their stock must have been a small one. Probably it consisted of a few staple articles, and some tobacco and whiskey; for in those days, if a trader did not have the last named goods, his patrons would be badly disappointed.
The log house they put up stands on the east side of Weather- low St., about 140 feet back from the street, and 380 feet north of Main street. It is twenty-seven feet long, and eighteen feet, nine inches wide, outside measurement; and was intended to be eight feet high at the corners.
That year, Roop claimed a water right on Pah Ute (Piute) creek, then called Smith creek, and posted up the following notice :
"NOTICE
"I the undersigned claim the privilege to take all the water out of Smith Creek at the junction of the two forks where this stake stands I shall build a dam some six feet high and carry the water along the south hill to the emigrant road.
"August A. D. 1854.
Isaac Roop.
"Recorded the first day of May A. D. 1856.
Isaac Roop Recorder"
"From this creek they dug the Roop ditch, about one-half a mile long, by which they conveyed water in close proximity to the log house. When working upon this improvement, it was always necessary to leave a guard at the house; for, though the Indians were not openly hostile, their predatory habits compelled
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THE YEARS 1848 TO 1856
the early settlers to be constantly on their guard to protect their property. When winter set in, Roop and the larger number of his companions returned to Shasta, while a few stopped in the valley until spring, though there was no necessity for their doing so."
Roop put his dam in the creek about one hundred and sixty yards above where Roop street strikes it. It is not known how much of the ditch was dug that year, but they raised a few vege- tables. This ditch was the beginning of a water system that supplied Susanville with water until the early 70's. Mrs. Arnold says that I. N. Roop and his brother stayed in the valley during the winter of 1854-5, but the former went below early in the spring. Captain Weatherlow stayed, too.
"During the year 1854, Lieutenant E. G. Beckwith, in charge of an exploring party, passed through the valley. The war department had sent out, the previous year, several exploring expeditions to examine the various routes across the continent, for the purpose of ascertaining which was the most feasible for a trans-continental railroad. One of these detachments, under the charge of Lieutenant Beckwith, crossed Honey Lake valley, and went through Noble's pass to Fort Reading. They then went up the Sacramento and Pit rivers, and passed down the old Lassen trail, and again to Fort Reading. The observa- tions and conclusions of Lieutenant Beckwith are embodied in his report, which was submitted to congress by the secretary of war, and is to be found in the 'Pacific Railroad Reports, Volume 2.'' As early as 1851, Lieut. R. S. Williamson made a survey for a railroad through the country just north of Honey lake.
"In the early part of the year 1855, Peter Lassen was living with Isadore Meyerwitz (or Meyerowitz), a Jew, on a ranch in Indian valley, located by them in 1850. In June, 1855, he started over the mountains on a prospecting trip, accompanied by Kenebeck, Parker, and another man, themselves mounted on horses, and their outfit packed on the backs of mules. They came into the valley three miles west of Janesville, where they pitched their camp just back of the ranch now owned by Richard Bass." (This is the upper end of Elysian valley.) Some of the earliest settlers say that they came over Diamond Mountain, and camped under the tree where Lassen was afterwards buried. "The next day Parker and the one whose name is unknown started out to
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HISTORY OF LASSEN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
make some kind of a trade with the Indians, going around the lake to the north in search of them, and encamped in the vicinity of the hot springs. At the same time Lassen and Kenebeck traveled towards the north-west, along the base of the Sierra, and after going about six miles, camped at a pile of bowlders, which are in front of, and but a short distance from, the first cabin he built in the valley. They prospected for a few days, and were so gratified at the result, that Lassen returned at once across the mountains to procure men and supplies to work the place systematically."
"In the latter part of June, Lassen came again to the valley, accompanied by Joseph Lynch, William Gallagher, and Samuel Knight. They brought with them a complete mining outfit and a supply of provisions. The first thing necessary was to bring water to the claim, and this they did by digging a ditch two miles in length, from the little stream now known as Lassen creek. (Wrong. Lassen's ditch was taken out of what was afterwards called Hill's creek.) This ditch has always been called the Lassen ditch. After they had worked a couple of weeks a cause of difference arose between Knight and Lassen, and the former took what property there was belonging to him and left the valley. About ten days after the ditch was completed the water supply failed, but during that time the claim had paid them good wages. They therefore decided to go to Indian valley and make preparations to return here and spend the winter.
"In October, 1855, Lassen came back to Honey Lake valley, accompanied by Isadore Meyerwitz, Joseph Lynch,-Greenwood, and a Spaniard named Lazier. They brought a good supply of provisions, blacksmith and mining tools, a plow, and such other implements as they thought would be necessary or useful. They also brought a number of cows, oxen, and horses. Lassen then located a tract of land one mile square, embracing the place where they had encamped while engaged in mining, and now including the ranches of John Hulsman, Joseph Lynch, and David Titherington. This he did not survey until the following spring, and never had it placed on record. In a short time the Spaniard and Greenwood went back to Indian valley, leaving Lassen and Meyerwitz alone in the valley. Soon after, John Duchene came over from Quincy, where he had gotten into some difficulty, and hired himself to Lassen. Newton Hamilton and
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THE YEARS 1848 TO 1856
Marion Lawrence, called generally Commanche George, came over the mountains, packing a good supply of provisions. It was their intention to locate land; but they did not do so that season. They made their camp with the others, and began prospecting.
"Fearing that the snow would fall to such a depth as to prevent his stock from sustaining themselves by browsing, Lassen cut about twenty tons of hay from the bunch grass that grew in such abundance, and stacked it near his camp. The next thing required was a shelter for himself and men during the winter. They then erected a long, low, log house, which has never been without a pioneer tenant to this day, Joseph Lynch having lived there constantly. The cabin, or house, is nearly fifty feet long, sixteen wide, six logs high, and covered with a shake roof. At either end is a room sixteen feet by twenty. One of these Lassen used for a general storeroom, and the other for an apartment to live in, and which he floored with humber cut with a whip-saw. At one end of this room was built a rock fireplace, with sufficient capacity to admit cordwood. The openings to the outside world were a door and a three-foot-square window, over which barley sacks were nailed to keep out the cold. The small room in the center was used by Peter as a sleeping apartment, and where it is said he always kept a bed for a traveler or a friend. In this rude hut the pioneers of Lassen county, Peter Lassen, Isadore Meyerwitz, Joseph Lynch, Newton Hamilton, Marion Lawrence, and John Duchene spent the winter of 1855-56; and though this humble dwelling has furnished a pioneer with shelter for a quarter of a century, it gives evidences of remaining a monument to the memory of its builders long after the last one shall have passed away."
Joseph Lynch lived there until his death in December, 1885, three years after the foregoing was written. This cabin was on the south side of Lassen creek, about one third of a mile west of where the mountain road from Susanville to Janesville crosses that stream. It was about four miles south and a mile east of Susanville. The cabin built the fall of 1855 was ten by twelve feet, or perhaps a little larger, and about seven feet high at the corners. It had a fireplace, and a door so low that one had to stoop to enter it, and no window. It was built of unhewn logs of unequal size, and looked as though it had been hastily con- structed. In after years additions were made to it. For a while
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HISTORY OF LASSEN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
Lassen did a little blacksmithing under a big tree right in front of it. This cabin was burned by Peter Vogt about the year 1896, because the logs had decayed and it had fallen down.
It is hard to understand why F. and S. call Lassen and his five companions the pioneers of Lassen county. Just before that, they say that some of the Roop crowd stayed in the valley during the winter of 1854-5. Roop claimed land in the county two years before Lassen did, and put up a cabin the year before Lassen built his. Why wasn't Roop the pioneer of the county ? Ephriam Roop, McNaull, and Weatherlow stayed in the Roop cabin all through the winter of 1855-6. I. N. Roop was there the latter part of the winter.
"During the year a man named Moses Mason came into the valley and located a piece of land adjoining Roop's on the north- west corner, but did not remain upon it or make any improve- ments. The next year his notice was recorded, and read as follows :
"NOTICE
"I Moses Mason do take up and claim this valley on Smith Creek of some four hundred acres more or less. November A. D. 1855. M. Mason.
A true copy of the original. May first, 1856. Isaac Roop, Recorder.
The above claim joins Roop on the North-west corner."
"During the winter, Lassen and his companions busied them- selves in sawing out lumber with a whip-saw for sluices, and splitting rails for fencing. About five thousand rails were gotten out, and in the spring were used to fence a portion of his land. The weather was so mild and pleasant that the stock passed through the winter with but little need of the hay he had provided.
"It is stated in the Sketches published in the 'Mountain Re- view,' that in December, 1855, William Hill Naileigh (better known as Captain Hill), - McMurtre, Captain Gilpin, and two others were piloted into the valley from Gold Canyon, Ne- vada, by old Winnemucca, the Pah Ute chief, and that they prospected on Gold Run and discovered what was known as the Hill diggings." In a lawsuit about the Lassen ditch in 1875, Cap. Hill testified that he came into the valley in 1855, and in 1856 discovered the Hill diggings on Hill's creek.
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THE YEARS 1848 TO 1856
It is probable that the information gathered by Mr. Dodge for F. and S., together with that obtained by the writer, is all that will ever be known of the history of this county previous to 1856. So far as is known, every man who settled here before that time is dead. Isadore was drowned in the lake in 1856, and his body was never recovered. Lassen and Lynch lie under the big tree beneath which the former camped the first night he was in the valley, and Commanche George is buried in the sage- brush about a mile north of them. I. N. Roop, Naileigh, Weath- erlow, and Wilcox lie in the Susanville cemetery. Ephriam Roop died on the Isthmus of Panama while on his way to the East. The fate of the others is unknown to the writer. In all prob- ability they, like thousands of other pioneers, died in some county hospital or while prospecting in the mountains, and lie in un- marked and unknown graves.
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CHAPTER II
1856
T HE news had gone abroad that gold had been found in pay- ing quantities in Honey Lake valley, and men, and perhaps a few women, began to come over the mountains early in the year. The most of them came from the mines on the headwaters of Feather river. Leroy Arnold said that in those days if a man owned a mine where the gold was ankle deep, he would soon hear of a place where it was knee deep and would leave his mine and go there. Some took up land, but the most of them went to mining. They worked on Gold Run, Hill's creek, Lassen's creek, and the gulches in that vicinity. Considerable mining was done there until 1861. Lynch says there were more men engaged in mining in 1856 than in any of the following years, and that possibly there might have been a hundred men working at it that year. More or less mining was done in that neighborhood for more than forty years after Lassen discovered the mines.
A large majority of the earliest settlers of this county came from the mines of California, generally from those on Feather river. They had come to the coast several years before that, and by the time they got here they were used to the hardships of frontier life. They could ride and shoot, and were resolute, energetic, and self-reliant. Some one has said that the pioneers of California were the best body of men that ever settled in any country. "The weak in mind never started to come here, and the weak in body died on the road." Besides fighting nature, they had to fight Indians and outlaws; and only men of good nerve would stay in the country. The majority of the pioneer women were also strong in mind and body.
The early settlers of Honey Lake valley needed both courage and the ability to endure hardships, for they were in a very dangerous locality. They were exposed on all sides to attack by the Indians and no help was near at hand. Between them and the settlement in Indian valley was a range of mountains generally hard to cross during the winter, and the settlements in the Carson country were more than a hundred miles away. Fortunately, the most hostile Indian tribes were either distant or not very strong, and the Pi-Utahs, as they were then called, were comparatively friendly.
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THE YEAR 1856
SETTLEMENT. 1856
At the beginning of this year Roop and Lassen each had a cabin, and perhaps one or the other of them had done a little fencing. The former had a short irrigating ditch and the latter a mining ditch. These were all the improvements there were in the county.
Early in the spring Commanche George (Marion Lawrence) located the land along the stream that flows out of Elysian valley, from the lower end of that valley to the Bald mountain to the north. Lynch claimed a tract along what is now called Parker creek, a couple of miles southeast of where Janesville now stands. Isadore located at the corner of the lake about three miles south- east of him. F. and S. say that Newton Hamilton took a section of land which he afterwards sold to Hasey, McMurtre, and Elliott. If that is so, the land must have been on Gold Run creek, and its northern boundary about two miles south of Roop. These four locations were never placed on record.
The greater part of the information in this book in regard to the claims of the settlers, was taken from Roop's book where those claims were recorded; but what is shown there frequently had to be helped by what the writer learned from Dow and Hines, and by what the writer himself had learned since 1865. Many of the notices of location in Roop's book read like this: "Notice. I commence at this stake and run east one mile, thence south one mile, thence west one mile, thence north to the place of beginning. Claimed by Daniel Reed. This II day of March, 1857." Being copies of the original notices, they are frequently lacking in punctuation and many words are mis-spelled. The descriptions are vague; and when distances from any known places are given, they are guessed at. This year many men recorded claims on land they never saw, and left the valley a few days afterwards. Some stayed a short time, but made no improvements on the land they claimed. Many put no relinquishment of their claims in the record book, and the claims were put on the same land, one after the other. The writer has been able to tell where nearly all the claims were located; and if the reader will notice their direction and distance from known claims and landmarks, he, too, can tell their location nearly enough for all practical pur- poses. Unless otherwise stated, the claimant took a section of land.
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HISTORY OF LASSEN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
March 14, 1856, Ebenezer Smith of Meadow valley, Plumas county, California, (known as "Red Head," or "Bricktop," Smith) located on the south side of the lake about half way between the present sites of Janesville and Milford.
In April, Florence Smith, wife of E. Smith, claimed about 660 acres on the south side of the river southeast of Roop. (N. B. Roop's southeast corner was on the south side of the Susan river, perhaps a quarter of a mile from it, and at the cast edge of the bluffs opposite the mouth of Pah Ute creek. His east line ran north from that.) A. G. Hascy located just north of where the Richmond schoolhouse now stands, his southwest cor- ner at the edge of the timber; John Strode on the south side of the river about a mile and a half east of Roop's east line, and a mile north of Hasey's north line; W. T. C. (Rough) Elliott just north of Hasey, and M. T. Shores north of Elliott.
In May, Paul Hulsey, or Hulsa, located west of Lassen; Wm. Hill (Cap. Hill) in the little valley between Lassen and the west fork of Baxter creek; J. F. Hill, location uncertain ; John Hollingsworth, north of the river and east of Roop; R. J. (Bob) Scott, where Milford now stands and north of it; Dow, Estep, and Aganett, two sections one mile west of Scott; W. M. Lyttle & Co., south of Hasey; Mathew Adams, location uncertain ; George Lathrop, on the lake, three miles west of Scott; George (Joe) Eppstein, joining E. Smith on the east; and Stephen Raney on the lake east of Eppstein.
In June, Henry Denney and Henry Keelty claimed one sec- tion in Elysian valley south of Commanche George; William Weatherlow, on the north side of the river north of Strode, and about a mile and a half east of Roop; John Griffin, on the south side of the river south of Weatherlow; Stephen O'Laughlin, the little valley on the west fork of Baxter creek, over the ridge east of Cap. Hill; Ephriam Roop, on the south bank of Susan river, having its northeast corner at the west base of "Curloo Butte"; (Curlew Butte is the little rocky hill on the south side of the river about three miles below Susanville) and Henery in the forks of Susan river and Willow creek.
In July, T. P. Kingsbury and D. A. Breed located two sec- tions between Commanche George and O'Laughlin ; John Adams, east of MeMurtre and south of Carter (MeMurtre's claim lay east, or northeast of Hasey) ; R. W. Dezoe, west of E. Smith;
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THE YEAR 1856
Joshua Abbott, one half section having D. P. Carter on the east and E. C. Gillett on the west, and crossing Susan river and taking. in "Curloo Butte"; Samuel Burnie, or Brunie, in Antelope valley, "some three miles northeast of Roop's House and at the foot of the mountain"; G. W. Byerly, on the north side of the river and east of Weatherlow; W. B. Galphin, north of Mc- Murtre; H. C. Nichols, east of Joseph Eppstein, "being the ground formerly taken up by Stephen Raney"; and L. E. Cush- ings, south of Nichols. Ebenezer Smith claimed "this boiling spring situated on the northeast side of Honey lake for the pur- pose of building a bath house, and also a building spot sixty feet front facing the lake by one hundred feet back."
In August, Florence Smith, by E. Smith, Agent, claimed a section east of I. N. Roop, having the river for its north line; the next day J. B. Mankins claimed almost the same piece of land; and the day following that, John C. Mankins claimed a section almost south of Roop, the eastern part of which took in a part of the two previous claims; Dave Hescock, Francis Lani- gar, and Charles Nixon, three sections east of E. Roop and Byerly; James and William Shelton, two sections east of the foregoing claim; T. C. Smith, north of J. B. Mankins and east of Roop; Thos. N. Kingsbury claimed the section north of Elliott previously located by M. T. Shores; William Morehead claimed the land taken up by Strode, and forfeited by him, relinquishing it himself the following November; and C. T. Miller and Bro., the two sections previously claimed by Kingsbury and Breed and relinquished by them.
In September, Capt. Weatherlow claimed the land taken up by Moses Mason in 1855; Thos. P. Kingsbury transferred to A. G. Hasey the land claimed by him in August; L. M. Robertson took the land previously claimed by Weatherlow on the north bank of Susan river, but soon relinquished it; William N. Craw- ford re-located the land taken by Griffin in June, but relinquished it before long.
No settlement was made in Long valley until this year. During the fall, our old acquaintance, Ebenezer Smith, who seems to have been "on the job" when there was land to be taken up, located a tract of land in the southwest corner of the north end of the valley. It was about six miles south of what is now called the "Willow Ranch," or eleven and one third miles south of
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HISTORY OF LASSEN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
where the road crosses the summit between Honey Lake valley and Long valley. Geo. W. Humphrey, afterwards a prominent stockman of Sierra valley, came in with him, but did not remain there very long.
In October, Ladue Vary made a location at Deep Springs (Deep Hole), on the emigrant road between the Humboldt river and Honey Lake; J. W. San Banch, an old Northwestern Fur Company's trapper called "Buckskin," in Antelope valley; and J. H. Patty relocated the claim southwest of "Curloo Butte" taken by E. Roop in June, and forfeited by him.
This fall Nicholas Clark and his son William H. came into the valley from Plumas county, but stayed only a short time.
In November, M. W. Haviland relocated the Weatherlow- Robertson tract on the north side of the river one and a half miles east of I. N. Roop; A. D. Morton, on the north side of the river east of Haviland; D. P. Dexter, northwest of R. J. Scott; W. N. Crawford, north of Dexter, but relinquished it in two days; Logan E. Whitaker, northeast of Scott; Wm. Morehead, west of Dexter, and one half claim on the lake west of Dexter; W. N. Crawford and L. M. Robertson one section west of Morehead; Thomas Mitchell relocated J. Wycroft's claim. This was the land where Janesville stands and that to the north of it. Anton Storff located north of Mitchell; R. J. Lennox relocated the most of the tract claimed first by Strode and then by Morehead; W. W. L. Lennox "jumped" I. N. Roop's claim.
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