USA > California > Amador County > History of Amador County, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 44
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This town also had its fun with the enrolling officer in 1863. When he put in an appearance, some one blew a tremendous horn which gave notice to all the able-bodied to decamp, which was done to an extent sufficient to make the enrolling rather difficult.
QUINCY.
Scarce one man in ten who lives in Ione valley has ever heard of Quincy, though they can scarcely look
up from their plowing without seeing the former site of this town, which is as much a thing of the past as Babylon or Nineveh. But for a newspaper pub- lished there in an early day, its very existence would remain unknown. According to this paper (the Quincy Prospector), edited and published by Alexan- der Badlam, now Assessor of San Francisco, the town was quite large, having a Broadway with houses numbered; stores, with stocks of general merchandise; saloons; doctors', lawyers', and even real estate offices. From the paper it might be inferred that it was quite a city, rivaling Sacramento or even Muletown in its best days. The locality of the town is uncertain, but it is known to have been somewhere between Muletown and the Boston store. Some of our antiquarian societies will confer a great favor on the world, and advance the cause of science, by sending out an exploring party to dig up its valuable relics before the tooth of time shall have obliterated them.
MULETOWN.
This place was about two miles north of Ione, and in the fifties was a very lively camp. It belonged to the foot-hill diggings, the gold in the gulches and hills having been liberated from the quartz veins by a wash of the sea, all the gravel having a peculiar, polished appearance without the rounded form usually seen in river deposits. The ravines were very rich. Yancy, a native of the Argentine Republic, often made a hundred dollars a day with a pan alone. Others made nearly as much. A China- man picked up a piece weighing thirty-six ounces. He was so elated that he immediately left for home. The first store was kept by Charles Simmons; others were started soon after by the Dillards, and also by a man of peculiar character, named Cunningham. These insignificant places, with not a tenth as large stocks as the present stores at Ione, would sell thousands of dollars' worth of merchandise a day. Water was brought inin 1854 by the Johnston broth- ers. After the ravines were worked, the hills were attacked with hydraulic power, and paid better than the ravines had ever done. The first hydraulic was put up by Wm. H. Fox & Co., consisting of pen- stock, flume and hose. The next was by Willson, Miller, & Bagley, with iron pipe, then but recently introduced. Some of the claims paid as high as one thousand dollars per week to the man. In its best days, Muletown had several hundred inhabitants, mostly Irish, though other nationalities were well represented. The peculiarities of the Irish had full sweep. Most of those who could afford to, purchased horses, and on Sunday would ride out in quest of fun and adventure. They were not skillful or graceful horsemen at first, and a Muletown crowd could be distinguished at a long distance by the flopping limbs and furious riding. The pranks and funny affairs of Muletown would fill a book. A few only will be related.
RESIDENCE & STOCK RANCH OF JAMES ROBERTSON, NEAR MOUNTAIN SPRINGS, TP 1. AMADOR C9 CAL.
RESIDENCE OF MATTHEW MURRAY, LANCHA PLANA, AMADOR C.9 CAL.
LITH, BRITTON & REY S. F
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IONE VALLEY AND VICINITY.
MINERS' COURT.
In 1850 the miners had got tired of being taken from their work to testify in cases of disputed min- ing titles, and a public meeting was called to consider the situation. It was finally resolved that all such cases should be settled by arbitration; that no appeal should be taken; that any party that should feel aggrieved should fight his opponent a fist fight, according to the rules of the ring, the best man tak- ing the ground. It was also agreed, that in case of a great disparity in size or strength, the weaker per- son might substitute a friend to do his fighting. In order not to interfere with the work, the fights were to come off on the first Sunday after the dispute. It happened that the first trial of this kind fell on a Sunday on which there was to be a Catholic service. How to proceed so as to keep the priest in ignorance of the matter, so that he might not interfere, was the question. At a meeting held the evening before to make arrangements, it was determined to commence the fight at daylight at a spot a little distance from the town. It was thought that by conducting the matter quietly the Father might not hear of it. There were several parties to the affair, involving several fights, but it was hoped that they might be finished before the women and children should awake, as the custom was to sleep late on Sunday.
The morning came and nearly all the male popula- tion were present. The ring was marked out, the bottle-holders and seconds appointed, and the fight commeneed. The contest proved longer than was expected. The litigants were both plucky. Round after round was fought, still no sign of yielding. The sun was getting well up and the women and ehildren would soon be moving. So far there had been no cheering. The blows had fallen thick and fast, taken and given. It is not strange then that the friends of each party began to cheer the combatants, until the noise aroused the women and the priest, who came rushing to the ground, about the time each side thought the other side was about whipped. " How dare you desecrate the Sabbath this way ?" says the priest, addressing one of the seconds, whose shirt, from sponging his principal's face, was quite bloody. The second, answering for the meeting, replied that it was much better to settle a difficulty by a fist fight than with knives and pistols, as had been recently donc at Voleano, where the priest lived; that it was sometimes necessary to choose the least of two evils. The priest turned away, mounted his horse and left the place, without saying a word. There was no service that day. It was expected that he would give them a fearful admonition the next time, but the subject was never mentioned. This method of settling disputes involved so many inconveniences that it was not tried again.
THE FUNNY MAN.
Muletown had a philanthropist by the name of Cunningham, who had very original ways of bene- 25
fiting mankind. He had been very successful in trade, also in mining, and wanted to nse his money for the benefit of the community. " He was rough, but generous and brave," as the poet would have it, a good deal addieted to drink, fully conscious of his importance, and inclined to be dictatorial when in his cups. He built a hall which was free to all churches, public meetings, and respectable parties, which was dedieated with a dancing party, with the following schedule for tickets :-
Tickets to gentlemen without ladies $6.00
with one lady 3.00
two ladies free.
The entertainment was magnificent, and gave sat- isfaction to his numerous guests. The hall was used also as a school-house, the old man contributing liber- ally to the support of the school.
While the camp was still flourishing, his wife died. She was buried without the usual funeral ceremonies, which were postponed to a more convenient season, that he might get them up in a style becoming his wealth. Sometime after, he stipulated with Elder Sharp, the Methodist preacher at Ione, to preach two sermons at twenty dollars each. He gave notice of a frec dinner to all who would attend, and as the style of his entertainments was well known, the attendance was numerous. As the old man was somewhat wanting in reverence for the cloth, and apt to make disparaging remarks, the Elder thought it best to take along Father Rickey, and some of the elder members of his church, to overawe the old man, which did not succeed, however, as he was quite ready to applaud or condemn, when anything pleased or displeased him. "That's good," said he, "that's bully, that's first ratc," looking around in triumph. "The next sermon will be better than this." The Elder continued his remarks without being disturbed by the applause. During the ser- mon, Mr. Cunningham felt a call from nature, and asked Elder Sharp to wait a few minutes till he could go out; but the preacher, not being used to such interruptions, continued his sermon. Cunning- ham commenced raising his bulky form, some of Sharp's friends trying to hold him down in his seat. He shook them off, however, for his strength was immense, and balanced himself in front of the preacher, wrath oozing out of every inch of his bloated face, his bulky form and baggy cheeks quivering with rage. "By G-, sir, I would like to know who is running this funeral!" The Elder heaved a sigh and subsided, waiting for the old man to come back. Cunningham died, and was buried near his wife, nearly a score of years since, and the sheep and goats feed where once stood his hall and the surrounding town, but the memory of his many benevolent deeds will last until the pioneers have gone to their final rest.
A FAITHFUL WIFE.
In the early fifties, two Mexicans getting into a difficulty, agreed to settle the matter in dispute
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HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
with an exchange of pistol shots, the contest to be continued with knives, in case both parties survived the shooting, until one was slain, which was done. The wife of the party slain wished to continue the fight, but was not allowed. She remained faithful to his memory, and once every month, for years afterward, lighted twelve candles on his grave, and, alone, watched the whole night.
When copper was discovered in the MeNealy claim, Muletown took a little start upwards, but soon resumed its decay, one house after another being removed, or falling to ruins. The removal of the inhabitants was accelerated by the prevalence of ehills and fever, supposed to be generated by the immense pile of tailings, which cover the low lands in the vicinity. The house owned by the Johnstons, the proprietors of the ditch, was eonsumed by fire a few years since, and now, naught but the searred hill-sides remain to show that twenty years ago the place was alive with a striving humanity. Wood- burn, Member of Congress from Nevada, mined in Muletown in 1860.
CHAPTER XXXII. LANCHA PLANA* AND VICINITY.
Its Early Settlers - Cholera and Diarrhea -Judge Palmer's Bridge - Fires-First School -Notable Homicide - Bluff Mining-Open Sea-Chaparral Hill-Growth of the Town -Bonita Affair-Indian War-Butler Claim-Decline of the Town-Put's Bar and the Fruit Interest-Overflows- Townerville-Camp Opera-French Camp-Copper Centre.
THIS town, situated in the south-western part of the county, where the Mokelumne river leaves the mountains, was settled soon after the discovery of gold. Though the foot-hills were not as rieh as at the main gold belt, the gold was finer, more evenly distributed, and over a great surface of country, enabling a great number of persons to make remu- nerative wages. Like nearly all sueh plaees, it was first worked by the native Californians, or Mexicans. It did not amount to much as a town until 1850, and then the population was seattered along the river at Poverty Bar, Winters' Bar, and other places, Win- ters' Bar, perhaps, having the largest number. As these towns were in the same eounty, and intimately associated together in carly times, a history of Lancha Plana will involve, to some extent, a history of the other towns, although not included in the county of Amador.
In 1850, we find the towns in a flood-tide of pros- perity. Many men, since noted in the history of our country, settled here about this time. The Dudleys, Al. and Bill, and others who had a love for intellectual strife, but none for hard work, and were, consequently, generally flat broke, gave name to Poverty Bar. A man by the name of Luffton, for- merly a lieutenant in the regular army, who was cash- iered in Jackson's time for some irregularity in money matters, was also in the vicinity, living with a squaw
for a wife. He was a braggart, pompous, and con- sequential, professing to hold his honor in high esti- mation, and ready to avenge an insult with his sword, which was always ready for emergencies. His professions of valor were taken for what they were worth, and were finally squelched in a difficulty by a shower of flour upon his person, which caused a great laugh but no bloodshed. General Stedman, afterward a noted soldier in the Union army, mined on the Oregon bar. He had been an engineer on the Ohio eanal, was used to the control of men, and was employed by the Oregon Bar Company to con- struct a dam to turn the river, all previous efforts to make a dam stick having failed. He constructed log pens, eight or ten feet square, floated them to the desired place, and sunk them by filling them with rock. Timbers and brush against these, and then gravel, made a good dam, enabling the company to work the river, which, however, proved worthless. The operation bursted the company. Some of the cribs could be seen as late as 1860. Gen. Stedman would take off his wet clothes when he came out of the river, don a pair of overalls, and walk around on the hot sand barefooted, like the rest of the boys. He was very fond of whist, being a skillful player. The Oregon Bar Company was composed mostly of Southern men, who brought their negroes with them. The miners generally looked upon the introduction of negro labor with disfavor, and to this antipathy, more than to any moral principle, we owe the pro- hibitive clause in our Constitution. When the com- pany had determined on removal, the negroes were sent out to gather up the horses, but they failed to find their way back to the eamp, though the party remained several weeks to give them a chance to return. Koon, one of the principal owners, tried to enlist the miners in a search for the missing slaves, but they did not respond to his efforts.
Charles T. Meader, afterwards merchant at Stock- ton, and the great copper miner, also commenced life in California at this place, besides many more of note whose names appear in the course of our history. The criminal element was well represented. Sam Brown, who, perhaps, committed more murders on this coast than any other person, also resided in Lancha Plana, though at a later date, as also did Sam Marshall, the murderer of Dan Childs, and Ritter, of Willow Springs. A company of men from Steuben- ville, Ohio, also made their influence felt. They were roughs, shoulder-strikers, much like the New York firemen, and were the cause of many disturbances, generally being in the lead whenever a mob was gathered. Most of them perished by violence, for the forbearance of men would not last forever.
In 1850 an effort was made to expel the Mexican population. A mass-meeting was ealled, violent harangues were made, and resolutions calling for the immediate expulsion of the Mexicans offered. Gen- eral Stedman opposed the measure as an unfair and unreasonable act, and contrary to our solemn treaties,
* Flat boat,
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LANCHA PLANA AND VICINITY.
and probably to his influence was due the failure of the movement. Soon after this, his trusted servant, a Mexican boy, robbed Stedman's camp of the money and other valnables, and left, and was not seen after- wards, though a thorough seareh was made. Some persons who were angry at Stedman for the part he took in opposing the expulsion of the Mexicans, openly rejoieed at his loss.
CHOLERA AND DIARRHEA.
Cholora and diarrhea prevailed in this vicinity in 1850, as in nearly all the towns of California. Poor living, the great change of the thermometer, (as many as sixty degrees between midnight and midday,) the working in the cold water of the river, and the blaz- ing sun overhead, with the reduced condition of the system after a long voyage at sea, or trip across the plains, predisposed the system to disease, and made an easy harvest for the epidemic ; a few days of diarrhea and the cholera finished the work in an hour or two. There were no homes, no medicines, no nurses, and but few physicians, though some quacks, pretenders, seeing a chance to make money, put out their M. D., and for a fee of an ounce, gave bad medicine and worse advice, which accelerated the fatal journey. Hundreds died whose names were never known, and whose families, perhaps, are living in hopes to this day, to hear from them. Dr. Brusic, then living here, was active in relieving suffering, and won the esteem of all by his disinterested efforts, and is remembered with kindness by numbers who have not kept trace of him since. He is still living, hale and hearty, at Ione, and ean relate many thrilling incidents in his lorg eareer in California and in the army for the suppression of the Rebellion.
The first ferry was established in 1850, by Kaiser and Winter, the boat being a kind of raft made of casks lashed together; it carried over passengers only, the fare being fifty eents. A French Canadian by the name of Frank, opened the first store.
Lumber was worth one dollar per foot; tacks, one dollar and a quarter per paper; ineh screws, one dol- lar per dozen; a sheet of iron large enough for a rocker, three dollars.
Tom Love was the first to introduce the long tom, which soon took the place of the rocker. At first the water was conducted to the tom through hose and short ditches, but the elevating wheel was shortly introduced; this resembled the flutter wheel, and was ten to fifteen feet in diameter. It was placed in a strong current in the river, and elevated the water in buckets (sometimes oyster cans were used), nailed to the rim of the wheel, which went up partly filled with water, and were emptied, by the turn of the wheel, into a trough which carried the water to the tom. As many as twenty or thirty wheels were sometimes running near a camp.
JUDGE PALMER'S BRIDGE.
This bridge was built in 1852, and seems to have been a slender affair, set on bents or posts in the
river, with timbers reaching from one bent to another, much like the bridges which Cæsar built two thousand years ago, when he made his famous campaign among the German tribes. The Judge, being a Latin scholar, probably got his plan from Cæsar's Commentaries. Accounts differ as to how long the bridge stood. The Judge says until the rains came; others say that it fell the next day after it was completed; that only one man, a Dutch- man with a horse and cart, crossed on it. As it was completed in the Fall, just before the big rise of '52, all the stories may be correct. All parties agree that it was raining very hard; that he was engaged in a game of pedro, or something like it; that a great outery among the Chinamen caused him to get up from the table and look out of the door. The bridge was taking its departure for the bay without as much as by your leave. Not a muscle of his face stirred. With his usual serenity he reseated himself. at the table, inquiring " Whose deal?" That, and nothing more.
After the departure of the bridge, Westmoreland's ferry continued to be the only way of crossing, though a bridge some distance up the river was built by Delaney, now a resident of San Francisco, which, having been put up of green lumber, fell when the hot Summer shrank the timbers. About 1856 the present bridge was built. It has witnessed the quarter-century which marked the rise and decay of the mining towns of the river, and is likely to do service much longer.
FIRES.
The first and only fire in Lancha Plana was in 1853, burning the entire town, which, at that time, was a cluster of tents and brush shanties. It is needless to say that the loss was inconsiderable, and did not much retard its prosperity.
THE FIRST SCHOOL
Was taught by James Gould, who came from Vol- cano and set up a private school in 1853. At this time there were but few families in the place, and perhaps not more than ten or twelve children.
The church was built by subscription in 1855, and was used by all denominations for religious purposes, and also by the citizens generally as a town hall.
NOTABLE HOMICIDE.
This occurred in 1855, and from the respectable standing of the parties, was an event in the history of the town. A stream of water used for running a wheel was turned away, causing a dispute in which some high words were passed. A man by the name of Norton, who was not interested in the affair, came up to quiet the dispute, when Dr. Beek, a man of generous though hasty feelings, threw a rock, breaking Norton's skull. A general row ensued, in which knives and pistols were freely used, without any further serious casualties, however. Dr. Beck gave himself up, and seemed to be extremely peni-
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HISTORY OF AMADOR COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
tent in regard to the matter, even giving directions for dressing Norton's wound, and would, doubtless, have done everything in his power to prevent a fatal result. He was acquitted of the charge of murder, and afterwards went to Santa Fè to settle the estate of a brother, who had been engaged in trade, and who had been shot in a difficulty. A hasty temper provoked another shooting affair, in which he was the victim this time: thus ends the tragedy with three victims.
BLUFF MINING
Commenced in 1856. It is not known who made the first discovery, probably several about the same time. A bed of gravel, several feet thick, extended over the flat and through the bluff, richer than the river ever was; it was, in fact, the former bed of the river in pliocene times, though, when the river ran long enough to deposit such a mass of auriferous gravel a hundred times greater than was found in the river-bed proper; when the stream buried it as deep or deeper than the bluff; when it eroded the valley where Winters' Bar, Poverty Bar, and the flat on which Lancha Plana rests-are ques- tions involving many doubtful points. The his- tory of Buena Vista mountain, is the history of the bluffs around Lancha Plana, and a short digression from the recent to the ancient, may be interesting to those who either have, or will hereafter, mine in this vicinity. Laneha Plana furnishes, perhaps, the best point in the county to study the effect of ero- sions and deposits. The bluffs and deposits of gravel around Campo Seco, must also be considered in this history. The story shall be short, though marvel- ous, and the proofs such that any thinking man can sce them for himself in an hour's walk.
THE OPEN SEA.
First, suppose that around Lancha Plana all of the sandstones are away, only the slate, and roeks of that character, stand in the shallow bay, or water of the sea, which extends west from the foot of the mountains, which are not yet cut and eroded into channels as deep as now by hundreds of feet. A stream is flowing in here, but, though it has force enough to bring in moderate sized gravel, it does not bring sediment faster than the tides, which daily sweep past the boulder-like slate rocks scat- tered up and down the present river, can carry it away. Then was deposited the gravel along the foot-hills, forming the beds now lying under the pay-streak under consideration, and separated from it in many places by a hard floor of sand. It may be seen under the claim of Mat Murray, on the bed- rock north of the town, and wherever gravel lies under the coal formation all the way to Jackson creek, the position fixing its age. The coal formation may be seen under what is called Alum peak. A liberal allowance of time may be made here. Above the coal formation allow time for a deposit of elay, say an eighth of an inch a year; this is during the gla- cier period, when little gravel is being brought
down, all being ground into fine clay. This being done, let the sandstones, the fine building stones of Lancha Plana, appear; after that, gravel in moderate quantities. Some of the hills north of Lancha have this gravel, notably around China gulch. In some instances, the gold is in paying quantities.
Lancha Plana by this time was several hundred feet under ground. Now the streams begin to run with greater force. The ocean line is crowded out miles and miles. The progress of the filling is now much faster. Gravel, sand, clay, and lava, alternate with each other, until the first deposits are buried a thou- sand feet deep, and the whole country to the east is a plain higher than Buena Vista mount- ain. In Calaveras county is a mountain of peculiar structure, that may be a part of a plain a thou- sand feet higher than the Buena Vista mountain. If it should prove to be so, then we may provide for the lapse of a still greater number of years, not only in the filling, but in the crosion which is to fol- low. Then the present system of rivers was formed. They begin to gnaw away the great masses of mat- ter which had taken so many millions of years to heap up. Little by little, as now, the earth is carried out on the plains to fill up the San Joaquin valley which heretofore has been an open sea. The great masses of gravel deposited in the mountains, like that at Mokelumne Hill and Jackson, in fact, covering the greater part of the country, is now being moved and re-adjusted. The gravel hills around Campo Seco and Camanche are now one after another deposited, the streams eroding, in all instances, more than they deposit, wearing away and concentrating the gravel and the gold. Now the rivers are beginning to find their present channels, as they wear deeper and deeper into the sandstones and rocks, for they have again struck the slate roeks. They have now worn down far below the glacier erosions, and now flow in saw-like channels, instead of the long, smooth val- leys of the time when such vast masses of gravel were on the move. The volcanoes have now been quiet for ages. The whole country is comparatively in a state of repose. The bluff banks by Lockford and the Poland House may begin to show, as the stream is not pressed with sand and gravel from the mountains. Having no serious work on hand, the river may commence eroding a valley in the former deposits, making room for the present bottom-lands. When this condition has arrived, we may look for the river to reach the level of the big gravel deposits forming the base of the bluffs. How many years the river was wearing into the sandstones, into the hard clays, carrying them off ounce by ounce, perhaps only as muddy water, none can tell. It had to make room for the gravel; then had to have uninterrupted ages to bring the gravel down from the deposits in the mountains. Running in a nearly straight course towards the plains, it slowly piled up aeres of gravel, perhaps a hundred, and for some unexplained reason buried it up in sand again, until a flat appears, of
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