USA > California > History of California, Volume VI > Part 53
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468
CITY BUILDING.
rank of a leading mining centre and incorporated city. In 1856 it began to sink with the declining gold-fields, weakened moreover by a conflagration which then swept almost the entire city. After being substantially rebuilt, it received temporary solace in becoming an entrepôt for the Washoe mines, changing meanwhile into a staid agricultural town with the dignity of a county seat. Discovered in the summer of 1848 by the mining party of Day- lor, Sheldon, and McCoon, farmers of the Cosumne, it became shortly after known as Old Dry Diggings. The first store is said to have been started by Beaner, and Mrs Anna Cook claims to have been the first white woman on the spot. During the winter Oregonians formed the leading American ele- ment, but Latin nationalities were prominent, streaked with criminals, and outrages became so glaring as to rouse the former to hold the first popular tribunal of flush times. Several robbers were caught and flogged, and three of them hanged to the nearest tree, whence the unsavory name of Hangtown. The legislature of 1850 gave recognition, however, to the neater appellation of Placerville, to the exclusion of Ravine City, suggested by the irregular site and by the Ravine designation of several parts of the camp. Another cloud long obscured it in defective land titles. Concerning names and their origin I refer to my Popular Tribunals, i. 144, etc .; Ballou's Adven., MS., 22; Coleman's Stat., MS., 10; Borthwick's Cal., 103; Grimshaw's Nar., MS., 1-2; Buffum's Six Mo., 83-4; Ross' Nar., MS., 12-13; Sayward's Pioneer, MS., 7; Sac. Record, March 6, 27, 1875; July 7, 1877. By the following season the rich surface was considered as worked out by many of the early ' cream-skimmers,' and in the early summer of 1850 the place bore a subdued appearance, with the main street almost abandoned, says a writer in El Dorado Co. Hist., 209. Although this appears to be an exaggeration, it is certain that the great overland migration of that year selected there the chief halting station and gave it a sudden bound, with a population in Oct. of 2,000. S. F. Picayune, Oct. 21, 1850; Cal. Courier, Aug. 21, 1850; Sac. Tran- script, Aug. 30, 1850; Feb. 1, 1851. During the winter miners were again making from $8 to more than $200 a day. Kalloch, a baptist, and father of San Francisco's socialistic mayor, founded the first church in the spring of 1850. Again came a spell of dulness, partly as a natural reaction upon the C'ate rush of prosperity, partly due to the inactivity enforced by the summer drought at dry diggings. The South Fork canal was started, however, to sup- ply the want, and this brought about a greater run of good fortune than ever before, with the rank of a leading mining town. The population increased until in 1854 it polled the third highest vote in the state, 1,944, following S. F. and Sac., and encouraged the building of two theatres, the first opened in 1852. Between 1853-5 a fire department was organized, and saw and flour mills, brick-yards, and foundries sprang up. On May 13, 1854, it was incor- porated as a city, with six alderman. Cal. Statutes, 1854, 74, 199; 1857, 33, 244; 1859, 419; Cal. Jour. Sen., 1854, 597; Hittell's Codes Cal., ii. 1431; Cal. Jour. Ass., 1856, 447-55, 902; and for mayor, Alex. Hunter, who had opened the first banking and express office. With 1856, however, the weekly gold harvest of 6,000 or 8,000 ounces began to decline, and on July 6th came a conflagration which swept nearly the entire town, with damages estimated at a million. Three months later upper Placerville was similarly devastated.
469
SONORA.
Alta Cal., Apr. 17, July 7, 11, 1856; S. F. Bulletin, Apr 18, July 7, 10, 11, 1856. The decline in mining, not having yet become very marked, the inhab- itants resolutely proceeded to rebuild, and in a substantial manner, which betokened strong faith. The Sac. Union, July 30, 1855, indeed sang its peon as the destined golden city of the Sierra. See also Id., Jan. 30, Apr. 11, June 1, July 9, Sept. 10-11, Oct. 10, 1855. Rich gold layers were found in cellars. This enterprising spirit was not altogether wasted, for in 1857, after many vain efforts, the county seat was transferred hither from Coloma, and justly so, considering its greater importance and more central position. A period of revival came with the development of the Washoe mines, which made Placerville a lively supply and way station until the railroad from Sac. drew its foreign trade away, and threw it back upon its local resources, which was viniculture and cognate industries, to which irrigation has lent stability. A branch railroad sustains it as the chief commercial town of the county. See, further, in Hist. El Dorado Co., 12; Hawley's Lake Tahoe, MS., 2. The population stood in 1880 at 1,950.
Sonora was remarkable in early days as the centre of the southern mining region, and for its at one time preponderating Hispano-American element by which it was founded, the name being given by the Sonoran diggers who first camped here. Anglo-Americans quickly assumed the control, however; not without an aggressiveness which led to many race dissensions, which re- duced the population from 5,000 in 1850-1 to about 3,000. For these the city government adopted in 1851 soon proved too heavy, suffering as it was from the effect of several disastrous fires; and so the administration was transferred in 1855 to a board of trustees. As elsewhere, agriculture has gradually in- creased to counteract the decline of former resources, and even to warrant reincorporation.
The name Sonora Camp was given in the middle of 1848, partly to dis- tinguish it from the adjoining Jamestown and Wood Creek, or American camps. Among the first settlers were C. F. and T. Dodge, and R. S. Ham, the latter chosen first alcalde that same autumn, and succeeded by Jas Frasier. In Unbound Doc., MS., 13, E. T. Dummett is mentioned as alcalde in Sept. 1849. S. José Pioneer, July 28, 1877. Its rich gold-fields attracted miners rapidly, until it surpassed every other camp in 1849, with a population of 5,000, and attendant life and revelry. The enforcement of the foreign miners' tax in the following year roused the foreigners, and although bloodshed was avoided, many of them were driven out to swell the robber hordes which sub- sequently gave so much trouble to the vigilance committees and authorities. Jour. Com., July 29, 1850; Avila, Doc., 225; Son. Democ., Oct. 9, 23, 1875, with docs; Placer Times, Jan. 15, 1852; Alta Cal., March 16, June 18, July 3, Sept. 19, 1851; Cal. Courier, July 22-9, Aug. 2, 1850; S. F. Herald, June 1, 4, July 9, 1850. Concerning condition of town, Borthwick's Cal., 316, 329; Pac. News, May 8, Sept. 11, Nov. 2, 1850, with allusion to a saw-mill. One effect of the tax was to drive away half the foreign miners, Hayes' Mining, i. 33; but the population rose by the winter to 3,000, at which figure it long remained. Capron, California, 100, estimates it at 4,000 in 1854. Scurvy had committed great havoc during the preceding winter, especially among
470
CITY BUILDING.
the Mexicans. The community accordingly combined on Nov. 7, 1849, to establish a hospital, and the appointment of trustees for this suggested the desirability of extending the organization into a town government, with an unpaid council of seven, C. F. Dodge, alcalde at the time, being chosen mayor. A survey and plan of the town formed one of its tasks. With the formation of the county in the spring, this body ceded its power to a miners' justice of the peace, R. C. Barry, chosen in May 1850, Sonora being made the county seat. In the following May it was incorporated as a city with two aldermen, headed by Dodge as mayor for two consecutive terms. This system proving expensive, however, a simplified charter of 1855 vested the government in a board of five trustees, with merely municipal power. Cal. Statutes, 1851, p. 375-9; 1854, p. 208-11; 1855, p. 35-7; Cal. Jour. Sen., 1851, p. 1835; 1855, p. 879; Id., Ass., 1856, p. 952. Reincorporation followed later. Statutes, 1862, 228; 1877-8, 23, 596. The public burden had been aggravated by three devastating fires, besides minor outbreaks, the first in the autumn of 1849, which swept away nearly the entire canvas and brush town; the second on June 18, 1852, which destroyed its most valuable sections, with a loss of $700,000; the third on Oct. 4, 1853, of half this extent. Alta Cal., June 20-1, Aug. 20, Oct. 6-7, 1883, places the former loss at fully a million, and hints at incendiarism. Floods occurred, although doing little damage. Id., Jan. 8, 1853; S. F. Herald, June 20-1, 1852; Oct. 6-7, 1853; Sac. Union, Feb. 27, 1856. Borthwick, Cal., 347-52, refers to the rapid rebuilding. The Sonora Herald was issued on July 4, 1850, followed in 1852 and 1854 by two other journals, notably the Union Democrat. In the same year religious congrega- tions were formed, the catholics being here foremost, with the first church of adobe. A few manufactures followed Charbonielle's first saw-mill, and grad- ually agriculture. View and description in Pict. Union, Apr. 1854; S. Jouq. Repub., Sept. 25, 1852; Sonora Herald, Dec. 9, 1854; Sac. Union, Jan. 10, May 2, July 4, Aug. 6, Oct. 13, 22, Nov. 3, 20, 1855; Jan. 10, March 11, Apr. 3, June 10, Oct. 1, 13, 27, 1856; Alta Cal., S. F. Bulletin, about same date; Tu- olumne Independ., Jan. 13, 1877, etc. The population by 1880 stood at 1,490.
Of marvellous growth was Nevada City, which bounded upward within a few months from a mere camp to the foremost mining town in 1850, the centre for some 12,000 miners, overflowing with bustle and revelry. The in- sufficient rains of the following winter produced a reaction, but ditches being constructed, a revival took place, attended by ground-sluicing and drift-dig- ging on an extensive scale. The discovery of quartz veins lifted expectation to such a pitch as to call for a city charter; but this new form of mining not being understood here at the time, the bubble burst and retrenchment became the order. A steadier development followed improved methods, and in 1856 the city was able to cast the third highest vote in California. While con- tinuing to flourish, sustained by good veius and the dignity of the county seat, it was soon to be surpassed by the contemporary and adjoining settle- ment of Grass Valley, the chief quartz mining locality in California. The development of the latter has been less spasmodic and checkered, from the nature of the main resource, and it differs from most mining towns in not be- ing defaced by unsightly excavations and denudations pertaining to placers.
471
NEVADA AND GRASS VALLEY.
The houses lie scattered over extensive undulating hill slopes, in the midst of orchards and flower-beds, presenting a most picturesque appearance.
The first cabin near the site of Nevada is attributed to J. Pennington, T. Cross, and W. McCaig, in Sept. 1849. In the following month A. B. Cald- well erected a log store, after which the Deer Creek Diggings, as they were called from the stream tributary to Yuba River, received the name of Caldwell's upper store. . The field proved rich, and rumors spreading of the many fortunes dug out, a rush of gold-seekers ensued in the spring, until the number at one time gathered within a circuit of seven miles was estimated at from 15,000 to 35,000, with 150 stores, 14 hotels, 2 hospitals, church and school, and a city population equalling that of Sac., writes the Sac. Transcript, Jan. 14, 1851; Oct. 14, 1850. Some 4,000 or 5,000 in the vicinity, says Cul. Courier, July 13, 1850. Over 400 houses. Id., Oct. 14; S. F. Picayune, Sept. 14, 1830; Puc. News, Oct. 22, 1850. With 2,000 inhabi- tants, and a dozen camps around with 8,000. Shinn's Mining Cumps, 210. Thus it sprang up the foremost mining town within a few months; as the Transcript expresses it, with 2 or 3 saw-mills and clapboard-men busy pre- paring building material; with churches and schools; Sargent, in Grass Val. Dir., 1856, 22-3, with bull-ring and gambling-houses far surpassing its head town of Marysville in riches and revelry. The winter of 1850-1 proving dry, a depressing reaction set in, capped by a disastrous incendiary fire of March 11, 1831, which reduced half the place to ashes, with a loss of half a million dollars. Alta Cal., March 14, 1851; S. F. Picayune. Dane, Fireman, 71, places the loss at $1,200,000. But just then began a revival, based chiefly on quartz dis- coveries and aided by the completion of the first ditch, Rock Creek, nine miles long, a stupendous enterprise for that time. The different methods of washing were extended by ground-sluicing, and drift-digging became a leading feature, notably at the suburb Coyoteville, so named from the coyote mining there followed, where the population centred for a time. Evidences of prosperity were the appearance, in April 1851, of The Journal newspaper, and the con- struction of a special theatre. Then came brick buildings and a foundry and other industries. In March 1850 an alcalde had been chosen in the person of Stamps, the first married settler, also a sheriff, and the name of Nevada ap- plied from the snowy range above. In May this official body gave place to a justice of the peace, the eccentric Olney. With the revival in 1851 an in- terested clique rushed for a city charter, with ten aldermen, and M. F. Hoit for mayor, Cal. Statutes, 1851, 339, but the collapse of the quartz excitement, resulting in a large decrease of population, led to an application for the repeal of the charter. The debt so far incurred, $8,000, was left unsettled for lack of funds. A new and less expensive incorporation of 1853 being set aside by the courts, another city organization was effected in 1856. Id., 1856, 216-19; Cal. Jour. Sen., 1851, p. 1829; 1852, p. 769; 1856, p. 906. See also Idl., House and Assembly. Three heavy conflagrations, of July 19, 1856, which swept away the business section, with a loss exceeding a million dollars and ten lives, and of May 23, 1858, and Nov. 8, 1863, covering nearly the same dis- trict, but with a loss of only $230,000 and $550,000, S. F. Bulletin, July 21-3, 1856, Alta Cal., etc., proved temporary checks to progress. In 1856 the city cast the third highest vote in California. The development of quartz mining,
472
CITY BUILDING.
and the prestige of the county seat, served to sustain the city. In 1861 a gas company was formed. The chief trade was with Sac., with which a rail- road opened in 1876, but this city had meanwhile absorbed much of Nevada's entrepôt traffic in the country by means of her main line eastward. For fur- ther account of progress, I refer to sketches in Grass Val. Directory, 1856, 15 et seq .; Nevada Co. Directory, 1867,, 73 et seq .; Nevada Co. Hist., 78 et seq .; Sac. Union, Nov. 28, 1854; July 12, 26, Sept. 1, 21, 29, Nov. 22, 1855; Sept. 19, Dec. 10, 1856, etc .; Alta Cal., Sept. 13, 1856, etc .; Nevada Herald, Aug. 28, 1879. The census of 1880 assigns a population of 4,022, the township standing fully 1,000 behind Grass Valley.
Oregonians appear to have begun mining in 1848 at Grass Valley, but the first cabin is attributed early in 1849 to Saunders, Taylor, and Broughton, and the first store in Dec. to J. Rosiere; yet Morey claims the first store in Grass Valley proper, in the summer of 1850. The main pioneer settlement rose in Boston Ravine. The quartz discoveries of June, and especially of Oct. 1850, attracted wide attention; and the same year a stamp-mill was erected and a ditch begun, while a justice of the peace was chosen in the person of Jas Walsh, who in the preceding summer had built the saw-mill. By the following March 150 buildings were counted. Pac. News, Apr. 23, 1851; a church was founded, followed by a school early in 1852. A year later a journal appeared, then came brick buildings, which grew in favor after the bitter experience of Sept. 13, 1855, when 300 structures were swept away by fire, involving a loss of about $400,000. Sac. Union, Sept. 15, 22, 29, 1855; Alta Cal., Sept. 15, 1855; July 21, 1856; Grass Val. Union, Sept. 13, 1873. The population then numbered 3,500. After a failure in 1855, it was in 1861 incorporated as a modest town, with five trustees and some officials. Amendments followed in 1866 and 1870. See Cal. Statutes, 1861, 153, 1863-4, 57 In 1862 emphasis was given to its progress by a gas company. Just then the mining excitements in the adjoining territory of Nevada cast a spell here as in many another place, but this lifted in 1864, after which the town steadily increased in prosperity until it surpassed all others in the county. Further details in Bean's Directory of Nev., 185 et seq .; Grass Val. Directory, 1861, etc .; Nevada Co. Hist., 63 et seq ; Miscel. Hist. Pap., pt xxxiv; Grass Val. National, March 28, 1868, and other numbers; S. F. Bulletin, Apr. 25, 1868; Dec. 1, 1855, etc .; N. Y. Times, Nov. 10, 1868; S. F. Herald, Aug. 21, 1852; frequent notices in Alta Cal , and Sac. Union.
In Benicia is presented a town which rose as a rival to S. F. prior to the gold discovery, on the strength of its superior advantages in possessing a fine harbor at the head of ocean navigation, and nearer to the gold-fields, a beau- tiful and salubrious site, and a position central and of easy access to tributary rivers and valleys. Encouraged subsequently by becoming the military and naval headquarters, and the depôt of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, the population rose by 1850 to 1,000, the place obtaining the dignity of city and county seat. Aspirations as a metropolis were crushed in 1849, when the inflowing fleets cast anchor and discharged their passengers and mer- chandise at the city near the Gate; but in 1853 bright visions rose anew, when the legislature, then in session there, formally declared it the seat of
473
BENICIA AND VALLEJO.
government These hopes were dashed in the following spring by the removal of that body to Sac .; a blow followed by several others, until the declining community had to renounce even the title of city as too burdensome.
The founding and progress of Benicia up to the gold excitement in 1848 are fully related in my preceding vol., Hist. Cal., v. 670-4. The place then boasted nearly a score of buildings, with 200 lots sold, and a special alcalde, S. Cooper The gold fever carried away the population, but restored it richly laden, with hopes in the future revived by the action of Com. Jones, who early in 1849 sounded the harbor and brought up his fleet, led by the Southampton, after which the western bay adjoining was named. Soon after- ward Gen. Smith selected a site on the Suisun side for barracks, arsenal, and quartermaster's stores, and Benicia was recognized as the military and naval headquarters, as Taylor, Eldorado, i. 216, observes. Sherman's Mem., i. 68; Larkin's Doc., MS., vii. 39 et seq. The P. M. S. Co. established its shops and depôt here in 1850, with wharf improvements, and a growing beneficent outlay for labor and supplies. During the preceding year, several early river steamboats were put together and launched here; the regular steam traffic between Sac. and S. F. made this a halting-place; the old ferry across the strait was speedily provided with steam power; and in 1850-1 some three score of vessels, mostly lumber-laden and deserted, gave a busy aspect to the anchorage. All these promising features tended to bring in settlers, until the population in 1850 had risen to 1,000, including the garrison, and 50-vara lots were selling at from $500 to $2,000, says Buffum, Six Mo., 149-50. The Placer Times, Feb. 1850, allows only 40 houses and 230 souls; but the S. F. Picayune, Nov. 30, 1850, concedes over 100 houses, with a presbyterian church, founded in Apr. 1849, a masonic hall, used partly for court-house, a large hospital, an effective windmill for supplying water. Tustin's Rec., MS., written for me by one of the first settlers. During the year $40,000 was expended for public works, yet leaving a debt of only $13,000. Sac. Tran- script, Feb. 14, 1851. This expenditure was greatly promoted by the new dignity of Benicia as an incorporated city, by act of March 27th, Cal. Statutes, 1850, 119, and as county seat for Solano. The first mayor, Jos. Kearney, was assisted by a council of six without pay; property taxes not to exceed one per cent. Amendments in Id., 1851, 348, and later; Hittell's Codes, ii. 1670. The Benicia Gazette appeared in 1851, and a state-house rose in 1852, together with a young ladies' seminary. Vallejo, Doc., MS., xiii. 299. Such were the mod- est yet not insignificant results of the efforts which a few years before sought to wrest the metropolis rank from S. F. Benicia's failure was due greatly to the worse than lukewarm attitude of Larkin, one of the founders, and Gwin's opposition in congress, which prevented Benicia from becoming a port of entry. The Sac. Transcript, Sept. 30, 1830, sneers at the pretension. The legislature, by act of May 18, 1853, declared it the seat of government. Cal. Statutes, 1853, 320. For grants and steps in connection therewith, see Cal. Jour. Sen., 1853, 630, 655-6, Apr. 27; Alta Cal., Feb. 2, 5, 10, 1853, etc .; Cal. Comp. Laws, 1850-3, 930. But the high hopes were quickly dashed to the ground, for on the following March Ist the legislature suddenly flitted to Sac. This blow was followed by others. A railroad project, the Marysville and Benicia of 1853, failed. Five years later the county seat was transferred to Fairfield,
474
CITY BUILDING.
and later the P. M. Co. transferred its shops to S. F. In 1859 the charter was repealed as too expensive, and the government was vested in a board of trustees, with the task to pay off the debt of $100,000, which was slowly ac- complished with real estate, at a tenth of the price once ruling. It became later quite an educational centre, especially for female colleges. Fernandez, Cal., 187; Alta Cal., May 14, June 11, 1855; June 3, July 29, 1856; July 15, 1871; Solano Co. Hist., 146 et seq .; S. F. Bulletin, Nov. 9, Dec. 3, 17. 1855; June 9, 1877; July 16, 1880; Woods' Pioneer, 34-6; Pict. Union, Jan. 1855, with view; Cal. Jour. Sen., 1853, 630; Bartlett's Nar., ii. 12; Capron's Cal., 94; Ukiah Democ., Jan. 5, 1878; Solano Co. Atlas, 11; Vallejo Chron., Dec. 27, 1877, etc .; Willey's Pers. Mem., 97; Benicia Tribune, March 21, 1874; Id., New Era, Dec. 6, 1879, etc. The census of 1880 gives a population of 1,794.
One cause for Benicia's decline lay in the proximity of Vallejo, a town founded in 1850 for a state capital. This project failed, but the establish- ment four years later, on Mare Island, of a navy-yard by the federal govern- ment, gave fresh impulse to the place. While possessing advantages similar to those of Benicia, it possessed a still better harbor, deeper and with close access to the shore, and commanded, moreover, the river outlet of the fertile Napa Valley, and later it aspired to become the railroad centre for at least the northern side of the bay.
Vallejo's sympathy for Benicia cooled; and in the state senate in 1850 he was open to plans for increasing the value of his property here. The selec- tion of a site for a permanent seat of government engaged the attention of speculators, and he resolved to strive for the prize by proposing to found the town of Eureka at the mouth of Napa Creek, and offering the legislature therein 156 acres for public building sites, and $370,000, within two years, for buildings, $125,000 being for a capitol. Memorial of Apr. 3, 1850, in Cal. Jour. Legis., 1850, 498-502. This bid, eclipsing all others, was accepted by act of Feb. 4, 1851. Cal. Statutes, 1851, 430; report of committee, Cal. Jour. House, 1851, 1423. Previous to this the name of Vallejo had been sub- stituted for Eureka. Cal. Pioneers, pt. iii. 12. Pending the acceptance, Sur- veyor Whiting had laid out the town, and its prospects induced several set- tlers to build. More than one hotel rose, and Major Hook was chosen justice of the peace. Sac. Transcript, Feb. 14, March 14, 1851, exaggerates, saying that some threescore houses were projected, and dozens of men daily on the way thither. Advertisements in Pac. News, Aug. 22, 1850; Cal. Courier, July 31, 1850. S. F. Picayune, Dec. 28, 1850, commends the place, although 'no town exists there.' The fact was that owing to the lukewarmness of Vallejo's associates, his own lack of business tact, and the machinations of his oppo- nents, the place had not caught the public fancy; and when the legislature opened the third session here on Jan. 5, 1852, it presented a most primitive and forlorn condition. The $125,000 capitol so far was a rather insignificant two-story building, with a drinking-saloon and skittle-alley in the basement- the third house, as it was ironically called. Placer Times, Jan. 15, 1882. Dis- appointed, the legistators hastened away the following week to the more comfortable and attractive Sac. Driven hence by a flood in March, the con- sideration was brought home to them that Vallejo still remained by popular vote the capital, until the founder failed to comply with his bond. Report
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