USA > California > History of California, Volume V > Part 13
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planting immediately began. Then a wagon road was located from San Bernardino to San Diego. In March, 1852, a city was laid out, Lyman and Rich planting the center stake of the town site on "Temple Block"- now the public square of San Bernardino. The blocks were thirty-six rods square, and the streets five rods wide; a feature of beauty much commented upon at the present time. The town resembled, in this respect, Salt Lake City. In April a bowery was erected, also an adobe building, sixty by thirty feet in dimensions, with a good shingle roof. There public meetings were held, likewise day and Sabbath schools.
After founding their settlement, the colonists made a road to the forests of redwood, pine, and hemlock, eleven miles to the northward. Near the point where this road entered a cañon, the workmen found, at an altitude of two thousand feet, what are now the Arrowhead Hot Springs, one of the best sanitary resorts on the Pacific coast.
Later, municipal and county governments were organized, Daniel M. Thomas being county judge, and Andrew Lytle, mayor. There was also an ecclesiastical regime-a Stake organization, with Amasa M. Lyman as president, and other prominent men in the high council. Charles C. Rich was associated with Elder Lyman in the presidency, and after they left, David Seeley presided. William Crosby was bishop of San Bernardino ward or branch. These organizations were maintained during the six years that the "Mormons" resided there. What they accomplished in a material
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way is partly told in "The Western Standard" of December 27, 1856; the "Standard" reproducing its account from "The Los Angeles Star."
"During the past week," says the "Star," "we paid a visit to the city of San Bernardino. We were glad to find that consider- able progress has been made in city improvements, since the period of our former visit. Several new stores have been erected, the old ones have been improved, and the number of persons engaged in trade considerably increased. The spirit of enterprise which characterizes the people of California is as observable here as in older and more populous communities.
"As yet, there is no Court House, the sessions of the courts being held in a large room of Bishop Crosby's Hotel. Neither is there a county jail, nor indeed much need for one. There are two schools well attended, and a third school house is being erected. In the school house, the services of public worship are held, according to the forms of 'Mormonism,' which is the prevailing religion of the people of the city.
"The Ranch of San Bernardino is laid off in lots of 1, 5, 10, 20, and 40 acres, the extent of the city being two miles square. The property is held by Lyman, Rich, and others, in trust, we believe, for the benefit of the Church. The condition of the mortgage on the ranch is such now, that a warranty deed is given to the pur- chaser for his land, which is fully released from all liabilities, thus giving encouragement to immigration and substantial improve- ment of the farms. In consequence, a large amount of fencing will be put up the coming year, should the mills be able to produce sufficient lumber for the purpose. This will depend on the nature of the season. An abundant rain will make the people prosperous. The population of the ranch has increased considerably during the past six months, amounting at present to about three thousand.
"Being desirous of obtaining information regarding the resources of the community, we applied to J. H. Rollins, Esq., the County Assessor, who very kindly furnished us with such statistics as were in his possession. From him, also, we obtained the report of the County Surveyor, an abstract of which we give elsewhere.
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"From the Assessor's list we take the following account of the amount of stock cattle, from one year upward, including American yearlings and two-year-olds:
American cows 13,510
California cows, gentle 618
American oxen . 230
American horses 174
California horses
1,383
Mules 229
Sheep
3,917
Goats
500
Hogs 437
"The amount of grain raised is as follows: Wheat 30,000 bushels, barley 15,000 bushels, corn 7,000 bushels, and some 200 bushels of oats, the potato crop being almost an entire failure on account of drouth. Garden vegetables are abundant otherwise.
"The amount of butter, cheese and eggs produced and sold to merchants in the city of San Bernardino is as follows: Butter 1,700 lbs., cheese 3,000 lbs., eggs 13,000 dozen. This is considered not more than one-half of the amount of these articles produced.
"There are in this county seven saw mills, six driven by water; and one steam mill (thirty-five horse power engine). One grist mill, with two pairs of French burrs, owned by Lyman, Rich, and Hanks. Also one at Jarupa, with one pair of French burrs, owned by Don Louis Roubideaux; and one at San Bernardino, owned by Charles Crismon, with which is connected a saw mill, and planing and sash machine. Also, in the same locality, is a steam distillery, which is owned by Charles Crismon, and is now in operation. Four of the above water mills have not been in operation since June last, from the dry season.
"In the San Bernardino Mountains there are two shingle machines, which have cut during the season 500,000 shingles."
The report of the surveyor of San Bernardino county, Arvin M. Stoddard, contained the following items:
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MORMONS IN CALIFORNIA
"The ranch of San Bernardino is the finest in the County, and among the finest in the State. It is owned by the 'Mormons,' and under their management is becoming one of the most thrifty places in this portion of the State. The ranch is subdivided into five, ten, twenty, forty and eighty acre lots, which are sold to any person desiring to settle here, on reasonable terms; by which means it is fast progressing in the scale of agricultural improve- ments, having some of the finest land in the State upon which to operate. It bids fair to become celebrated as a fruit growing country; already has a large amount of different varieties of trees been imported from Oregon, which under proper culture thrive remarkably well. The grape also is beginning to be extensively cultivated, and at the present time the inhabitants are enjoying the fruits of their labors in some of the largest and best grapes that can be found in the State. For raising vegetables, this ranch is well adapted, and for grazing is not to be excelled by any."
The San Bernardino colony was maintained until the latter part of 1857, when, owing to prospective trouble between the territory of Utah and the general government-trouble caused by false reports, and happily averted without bloodshed-the "Mormon" missions in the west were discontinued, and all "Mormon" colonizing work outside of Utah aban- doned; most of the people moving back to their former homes.
THE CALIFORNIA MISSION
Many years elapsed before there was again any considerable number of Latter-day Saints within the state of California. During the latter part of the eighties, Elders J. W. Pickett and Mark Lindsay, who had removed from Utah to the coast, were directed by President Wilford Woodruff, then head of the Church, to call on the Nethercott family in Oakland,
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HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
they having written, requesting that missionaries be sent to them. As the result, several members of that family were baptized. The Nethercotts had a friend, Norman B. Phillips, in the south end of the state, and through the instrumentality of Elder Lindsay, this man and his wife also came into the Church. Phillips afterwards labored as a missionary in Oakland and in Sacramento. These were the beginnings of the present-day California Mission.
The first regularly called missionary in this field was Elder John L. Dalton, who, from 1892 to 1894, labored in the north, bringing together quite a number of men and women who had drifted away from the Stakes of Zion in the Rocky mountains. Dalton was followed by A. S. Keller, and H. B. Williams, also from Utah; and these missionaries, by George H. Maycock, J. D. Cummings, Nels Johnson, and Ezekiel Blodgett.
In January, 1894, Doctor Karl G. Maeser, superin- tendent of Church schools for the Latter-day Saints, was at the Midwinter Fair, in charge of the Utah exhibits. He was made president of the California Mission, and directed the holding of its first conference in San Francisco. Dr. Maeser returned home in August of that year, and then came Elder Charles J. Nethercott, appointed with his family, to do missionary work in and around Oakland, his early home.
Meanwhile two of the leading men of the Church, Elders Francis M. Lyman and Brigham H. Roberts, had been laboring strenuously in southern California, principally among old members of the body. They reorganized the San Bernardino branch, and visited
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MORMONS IN CALIFORNIA
San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego, holding numerous meetings, and everywhere giving new life and impetus to the mission.
Its third president was Henry S. Tanner, under whom, from 1894 to 1896, the work grew apace. The San Francisco and Los Angeles conferences were organ- ized by him, and the work opened up in the larger cities of the state. President Tanner was assisted by capable men, one of whom, Ephraim H. Nye, became his successor. Elder Nye was released in April, 1901.
Among the Utah visitors to California at the time of the Golden Jubilee-January, 1898-were Henry W. Bigler, James S. Brown, Azariah Smith, and William J. Johnston, sole survivors of the party who were with Marshall, the gold finder, half a century before. They went as honored guests of the Society of California Pioneers, to participate in the celebration, and were conspicuous as "Companions of Marshall" in the pro- cession of the memorable Twenty-fourth, the fiftieth anniversary of the famous discovery. That same year, on the second day of September, Wilford Woodruff, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died in San Francisco, while seeking rest and recuperation on the coast. His first counselor, President George Q. Cannon, died at Monterey, April 12, 1901.
The California Mission is now presided over by Elder Joseph E. Robinson, and during his administra- tion it has increased both in territory and in member- ship, some of its branches extending into Arizona. During the summer of 1912 four thousand Latter-day Saints were expatriated from Mexico, on account of brigandage and war. About six hundred of these
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HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
remained within the territory of this mission. In 1901 it comprised four branches, with three subdivisions, aggregating about seven hundred souls. It now has twelve branches and three wards, with about thirty-five hundred names on its records.
The California Mission has grown in prestige and power from the beginning. Its headquarters are at Los Angeles, where there is a thriving branch, with subdivisions at Long Beach and Ocean Park. The Gridley branch numbers nearly eight hundred souls. They have built a fine social hall, valued at $3,500, and a church valued at $11,000, with real estate valued at $1,500. The crowning event in the history of the mis- sion, up to the time of this writing (January, 1914), is the erection at its headquarters, 153 West Adams street, Los Angeles, of a splendid brick chapel, with art windows, and front embellished with Utah oolite; the entire structure costing $25,000. The interior is appropriately furnished with hardwood pews and chairs and has a beautiful baptistery, with Sabbath school auditorium and class rooms. Two other buildings have been erected on the same block-one for the accommo- dation of the mission president and his family, the other for the office force and traveling missionaries. The Los Angeles chapel was dedicated by the present head of the Church, President Joseph F. Smith, in May, 1913.
THE LOS ANGELES CHAPEL (Latter-day Saints)
This structure fronts on West Adams street, Los Angeles. It was built by the Latter-day Saints between December 9, 1912, when ground was broken, and January 7, 1913, when the corner stone was laid. The chapel was dedicated May 4, 1913.
HISTORY & CALIFORNIA
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CALIFORNIA'S MINING HISTORY
T HE mining history of California virtually began in the year 1849, although gold had been discovered before that time and had attracted the attention of the whole world. During the summer of that year, however, it is estimated that no less than fifty thousand people started overland for California and probably as many more left the seaports of the eastern states for the same destination and with the same object in view-to dig for gold. This rush continued for several years and resulted in the estab- lishment of camps, villages, towns and cities throughout the mining regions of the state, most of which are still in existence, although in many the population is much scantier and is devoted to other pursuits, as the diver- sified interests of the state gradually became known and utilized. But it was the gold miners who settled California and brought about its early development. California has well earned and deserves its title of the "Golden State." Since 1849 and up to the end of 1913 it has produced, in gold alone, the vast sum of $1,587,694,320. The entire United States produc- tion of gold since 1792 (including that of California) has been $3,451,915,000, so that the single state of California has produced within about $276,000,000 of as much as all the gold derived from Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and the southern and scattering states. In other words, all the other twenty-five gold-producing states of the union combined have only yielded about $276,000,000 more than the single state of California in a period of one hundred and twenty years.
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HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
In the sixty-five years during which gold mining has been carried on in the state the average production has been $24,426,066 per annum, equal to an average monthly production for the consecutive seven hundred and eighty months, of $2,035,505.
It is to be noted, moreover, that California is still the leading gold producer among all the states of the union, and there is still a larger number of producing gold mines than in any other state. Gold is being mined yet in thirty-one of the fifty-eight counties of California. With the exception of the few years when the Cripple Creek region of Colorado was yielding largely, California has always been the leading producer.
Among other mining states of the union, California has, as a gold-producing region, the distinction of hold- ing the record on all counts. It has made by far the largest aggregate yield; made the largest output in any single year; made the highest annual average, although its mines have been worked for sixty-five years; kept the lead as a gold-producer the greatest consecutive number of years; has the largest number of gold mines; pursues the greatest number of varied branches of gold mining; has the widest distribution of its gold deposits; has the largest area of auriferous gravels; and the deepest gold mines.
As to the distribution of the gold deposits alone, aside from their varied forms, it may be stated that California reaches through nine and a half degrees of latitude, and between the extreme northwest and south- east corners the direct distance is seven hundred and seventy-five miles while the width is from one hundred and forty-eight to two hundred and thirty-five miles.
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CALIFORNIA'S MINING HISTORY
Along the Sierra Nevada and its foothills, and the northwestern Coast range, and the southeastern desert region, in the tier of counties extending from one end of the state to the other, there is not a single one without its gold deposits in one or more forms.
Gold is mined in the highest part of the Sierra Nevada, the foothills, the valleys, and on the beaches bordering the ocean. Even in the wastes of the Mohave and Colorado deserts are many productive gold mines. The gold is taken from quartz, placers, seam diggings, pockets, river, hydraulic, drift, ocean beach sand, by dredging, wing-damming, sluicing, dry-washing, and other forms of mining. In one county there are gold mines being worked at elevations of 9,000, 11,000, 13,000, and 13,500 feet, while in the same county gold is being taken out at places over two hundred feet below the level of the sea. At the Kennedy mine, Amador county, at an elevation of 1,500 feet, they are mining at the bottom of a vertical shaft 3,896 feet deep or 2,396 feet below sea level. It may be thus noted that the gold deposits extend over a longitudinal area of seven hundred and seventy-five miles, a lateral area of an average width of one hundred and ninety-one miles (or extreme width of two hundred and thirty-five miles) and a vertical range of 15,896 feet.
The climatic conditions in all except the very highest ranges are favorable to continued work the year round and even there the deep quartz mines keep in operation for twelve months. In some of the foothill and upper valleys, the men work in their orange and olive orchards and vineyards during one season, and drift under them for gold at another season. It is to be noted that today
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HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
the three great gold-dredging fields of the state are at points where citrus fruits first ripen-Oroville, Marys- ville, and Folsom. The county producing the most gold is a foothill county, and the next in rank a valley one, neither in the snowy mountains. The leading producer of gold is a quartz mining county, and the one next in order gets its gold from the auriferous gravels by the dredging system in the midst of orange and olive orchards and vineyards.
It seems rather odd, in view of the facts to the contrary, that there is a prevalent impression that gold mining in California is almost a thing of the past, and that there is no other mining worth considering. Yet, the state continues to produce more gold than any other in the union and, with the value of all its mineral substances combined exceeds annually the out- put of any state west of the Mississippi river. Indeed, it stands fifth in rank among all the states in value of its mineral products. In the past fifteen years there has been a gradual annual increase in value of total mineral substances until in 1912 the total yield was valued at $92,837,374. This greatly exceeds the gold product of the banner year of 1852 when the yield from the placers was $81,294,700. At the present time gold and petro- leum combined represent about sixty-five per cent of California's mineral output, the petroleum alone being about forty per cent of the total output of the entire United States.
Nearly all who hastened to California in the early pioneer days came with the expectation of getting a harvest of gold in a few months and returning to the "States." But they soon discovered that the precious
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CALIFORNIA'S MINING HISTORY
metal was not to be gathered at the grass roots, but had to be dug for, and not every piece of ground in the country contained gold. Morever, the work of getting out the gold was not easy even for those who found where it was. Probably less than half of those who succeeded in reaching the mines engaged in the actual business of mining. The working miners had to be provided with necessities and soon merchandizing and other industries sprang up on all sides. With very few exceptions the multitudes who came to mine, knew nothing whatever of the business. They did not even know what were the favorable places to look for the gold until shown by others who had preceded them.
The pioneers were all placer miners, working surface deposits only. The pick, pan, rocker, sluice, and long tom comprised their appliances; the gulches, ravines, shallow gravel deposits, river beds and bars, the source of their gold. In these places nature had, by a system of concentration extending over countless ages, stored the gold set free by the erosion of the rocks, and washed out of the buried rivers of the past, and it was found in nuggets, coarse grains, and fine particles. Worthless surface soil had to be removed to get at shallow gravel deposits, or small shafts sunk to reach it. In many places cuts were made in the bedrock and the gravel shoveled into ground sluices. Always the gravel or sands had to be washed to recover the gold and in many places water had to be brought in by ditch or flume for this purpose. For many years an enormous yield of gold was maintained from these sources. Gradually, however, as was to have been expected, the
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HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
richer areas available for this kind of mining were narrowed, as ground was worked out, and then atten- tion was turned to other sources of gold supply.
Finding, as the miners of those days did, these surface auriferous deposits only at certain points, they began to look for the sources of the placer gold. This led to the search for quartz veins, and also for the large bodies of auriferous gravel which were contained in the hills of the mining region. In time deeper gravel deposits were found and opened and quartz veins or ledges were discovered and developed.
The first radical departure from the then known methods of gravel mining was made about the end of 1852 by E. E. Mattison, a miner at Yankee Jims, Placer county, who conducted water through a small ditch to a pressure box and from that carried it through a canvas hose, with a tin nozzle, discharging it under pressure against the gravel bank. By means of this primitive but epoch-making device the gold-bearing gravel and dirt was washed by the water into and through sluices and riffle boxes much faster than men could possibly handle it. This was the first attempt at hydraulic mining, a system which has been put in use in all parts of the world. The same plan has been adopted in railroad construction or where large bodies of earth had to be removed and where water under a high head was available, and was found specially useful in certain parts of the work on the Panama Canal, the "giants" or nozzles and other mechanical equipment having been made in California for the canal contractors. Not long after Mattison's invention (which was never patented) iron and steel pipes were substituted for
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CALIFORNIA'S MINING HISTORY
canvas hose and massive giants or nozzles, some as large as eleven inches in diameter were used, through which large volumes of water under immense pressure were thrown against the gravel banks. Hundreds of miles of canals and ditches were dug, great reservoirs were formed, flumes built, and pipe lines laid at enor- mous cost. It was estimated that when hydraulic mining was at last prohibited by law in certain portions of California, over $100,000,000 was invested in that branch of the gold mining industry alone, and that the annual gold yield from that source was from eight to ten millions of dollars.
In certain places the early-day miners who worked the shallow gulch placers followed the pay gravel up to the head of the stream and would often find that the gravel would continue under a capping of hard lava which covered the hill-top. In other places isolated hills or ridges were seen to be topped with rich beds of auriferous gravels. These places were usually high above the present streams. It was soon determined that these gravel deposits were in the beds of ancient buried or "dead" rivers. The finding of these Tertiary gravels, was, like the first important discovery of gold, the result of chance rather than by any preconceived theory or systematic plan of exploration.
The gravels in these dead rivers occupy deep water- worn channels, once the beds of broad and swiftly- flowing streams. Careful studies have later been made of these ancient rivers, made possible by the long- continued work of the drift miners, and a large part of them has been mapped, and their courses generally traced, showing that the periods when these streams
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HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
existed and were active was of great length, and that there were numerous rivers, at different heights. Most of them are now covered with a heavy lava capping. Where the lava-cap has been eroded or cut across, the gravels are exposed and may be mined by the hydraulic system; but where the lava cap remains, tunnels, some- times several thousand feet in length, must be cut to tap the actual river channel, when the deposit is worked by the "drifting" system. After the bedrock tunnel through barren material has reached the gravel of the ancient river channel, the miners prepare to "drift" up the gravel channel proper. The auriferous gravel is blasted and dug out, only the lower portion, near the bedrock, being mined, and this is removed to the outer air where it is washed on washing floors, or where cemented, is first crushed in mills with light and rapid- dropping stamps.
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