USA > California > History of California, Volume VI > Part 55
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In 1857 an effort was made in vain to form Eureka county from the north- ern half of El Dorado. Nearly every surviving town in the county owes its beginning to mining, although so large a proportion now depends solely on agriculture and trade. Many had early recourse to these branches for supplying a profitable demand, potatoes being scarce and high. With the decline of mining, however, involving the death of so many camps, the vital- ity of the larger places declined, and by 1880 less than 11,000 remained of a population which during the fifties exceeded 20,000. But farming, and notably horticulture, stepped in to turn the current into a channel of slow though steady revival, still assisted to some extent by quartz and hydraulic mining. The census of 1880 assigned to the county 542 farms, but an improved acreage of only 69,000, valued at $1,181,000, with $482,000 worth of produce, and $297,000 of live-stock, the total assessment being $2,312,000. Farming
483
EL DORADO AND PLACER.
had its beginning here in 1849-50, when potatoes were first planted by the Hodges brothers, on Greenwood Creek, near Coloma. Grain and general farming engaged the attention, in 1851, of many about in Garden and Green- wood valleys, and around Centreville. By 1855 about 8,000 acres lay enclosed, nearly half being under cultivation; there were 3,000 fruit-trees, and as many vines, 3,000 head of cattle, half as many swine, and some 1,300 horses and mules. Forty saw and one flour mill had been erected, and 5 tanneries, 3 breweries, 15 toll-bridges, all attended by numerous teams for traffic. Scott had a shingle machine in 1847 at Shingle Springs. Several stage lines were running since 1849.
The adjoining county of Placer, created in 1851, chiefly out of Yuba, had a section of purely agricultural land, which was occupied shortly before the conquest by settlers who raised wheat and planted fruit before the gold ex- citement came to interrupt them. For list of early settlers in this and other parts of central and northern California, I refer to the opening chapter of this volume, and to the preceding volumes, for general progress of settlement before 1848. It is said that a crop of wheat was put in on Bear River by Johnson and Sicard in 1845, and that Chanon helped Sicard to plant fruit-trees the following season. Peaches, almonds, and vines from San Jose followed in 1848, and later oranges. The peaches brought high prices at the gold-fields. Mendenhall planted Oregon fruit at Illinoistown in 1850. Hist. Placer Co., 239-40. After 1849 several imitators appeared, and in 1852, 679 acres were under cultivation, yielding $20,000 in produce, chiefly barley; there were 3,500 head of stock; one third consisted of hogs. Yet only a small fraction of the population, 10,784 persons, was then engaged in farming, and of $2,000, - 000 invested capital over two thirds was in mining and one seventh in trade. Of the population, 6,602 were white males, 343 females, 3,019 Chinese, 730 Indians, the rest foreigners. See Cal. Census, 1832, 30-1.
By 1855 there were 143 improved ranchos, after which a rapid increase set in. Good markets were found among the numerous mining camps along the American forks and intervening divides, among which Auburn rose to the county seat and sustained itself as leading town. It occupied a beautiful spot, and later it became a health resort. Mines were opened there in 1848, and it was one of the best sustained of the placers. Population, Oct. 1850, 1,500. S. F. Picayune, Oct. 21, 1850. Was county seat of Sutter before 1851. Suffered severely from fire in 1855, Sac. Union, June 6, 9, Aug. 4-6, 1855, and in 1859 and 1863. Placer Co. Direc., 1861, 7. Incorporated in 1860, and dis- incorporated 7 years later. Cal. Statutes, 1860, 427; 1867-8, 555. Near by Copeland established one of the earliest ranchos. Dutch Flat was the trading centre of 1849, and in 1860 it polled the largest vote in the county, over 500. Incorporated in 1863, disincorporated three years later. Id., 1863, 255; 1865- 6, 10; Dutch Flat Forum, March 8, 29, 1877, Forest Hill and Iowa Hill long held the lead in the eastern section. They sprang up like magic after the gold development of 1853, Id., 43, and overshadowed Elizabethtown and Wis- consin Hill, as Forest Hill did Sarahsville or Bath, assisted by its cement de- posits. Illinoistown, first called Alder Grove or Upper Corral, and Yankee Jim's were prominent in early days, owing to their rich diggings. The latter was named after Jim Goodland, says Bullou's Advent., MS., 22, though the
484
CALIFORNIA IN COUNTIES.
Placer Directory, 1861, 12-13, gives the honor to the Sydneyite Jim Robinson, who was hanged for horse-stealing in 1852. The place suffered severely from fire in 1852, Alta Cal., June 16, 1852, yet quickly rivalled again in size any town in the county. Gilbert brothers were among the first settlers. Ophir was sustained by horticulture and quartz. In 1852 this was the largest place in the county, the vote being 500. Gold Hill, near by, was of secondary importance. See, further, under mining; Sac. Transcript, 1850-1; Placer Co. Directory, 1861, 9, 200, et seq .; Dutch Flat Enquirer, Oct. 9, 1862. Michigan Bluffs and Todd Valley were long prominent. The railroad built up a num- ber of stations between Cisco and Rocklin, notably Colfax and Lincoln, the former aided by the narrow-gauge line to Nevada, and transferred from El Dorado the transit business with Washoe, and the emigrant route so long striven for in vain by Placer. In 1852 a road was constructed to Washoe Valley, from Yankee Jim's, for $13,000, but failed to secure traffic. Placer's larger area of tillable soil saved this county from sharing in the decadence of El Dorado, and its foothills became celebrated for their salubrity of climate and viticultural advantages. The population in 1860 was 13,270, and in 1880 14,200, the gains in the west balancing the eastern losses. Its total assess- ment ranged then at more than $5,774,000, of which $1,885,000 covered the value of 514 farms, with $618,000 in produce and $379,000 in live-stock.
Sacramento county, which occupied the fertile bottom below these two mining counties, benefited by their demand on traffic and productions. It stood prepared for both as the site of the key to the valley, the capital, which remained throughout the great entrepôt and the most promising manufactur- ing place. Sutter's efforts from 1839 in planting fields and originating differ- ent industries encouraged a number of others to follow his example, and to establish ranchos, at least along the great bay tributaries. Cal. Census, 1852, 8, 31-2. Of manufactures Sutter had before 1848 established tanneries, flour and saw mills, the latter not completed. There was a brick-yard as early as 1847 at Sutterville, and a grist-mill on the Cosumnes. The incipient industries at Sutter's Fort and on the Cosumnes, checked by the gold dis- covery, took shortly after firmer roots, and in 1850 two flour-mills opened at or near Sacramento, brick-making was resumed in 1849, machine-shops started the year after, and in 1851 a number of new and rival branches fol- lowed.
On the American main river lay three notable grants; on the Cosumnes Daylor and Sheldon had half a dozen assistants and neighbors; and on Dry Creek and the Mokelumne were several more settlers, all of them ready to welcome those who after 1849 prepared to retire from mining and join in agricultural pursuits so favorably begun. The county was accordingly cred- ited already in 1850 with over 2,000 acres of improved land, live-stock valued at $115,000, and fully as much more in produce, namely, improved acres 2,044, with implements valued at $2,250; about 800 horses and mules, 7,000 cattle, and 2,000 sheep and swine; over 10,000 bushels of wheat and barley, and $41,000 worth of garden produce besides hay. U. S. Census, 1850, 976-8. By 1852 the live-stock had increased to a value of $300,000, and the agricultural products to over $1,000,000; of cereals there were over 180,000 bushels,
4S5
SACRAMENTO.
chiefly barley. Invested capital, $8,000,000. For these products the eastern border of the county provided early outlets in a number of mining camps; several shipping points for surrounding farms rose, as Freeport, built up by the Freeport R. R. Co., which proving a failure, reduced the town from 300 or 400 inhabitants to a mere handful. Then there were Courtland, Isleton, where later rose a beet-sugar factory, and Walnut Grove, the railroad reviving others, while adding to their number, as Arcade, Florine, Elk Grove, and Galt. Brighton, the site of Sutter's mill, moved later toward the railroad; Norristown, or Hoboken, a mile southward, the old site having a clouded title, Bauer's Stat., MS., 9-10, aspired after the Sac. disasters of 1852-3 to become its successor, but faded away like a dream; Folsom, founded in 1855 as the terminus of the Sac. Valley railroad, became a stage headquarters, and acquired a reputation for its granite quarries which promoted the estab- lishment here of a branch prison. Granite was the first appropriate name entertained, but the influence prevailed of Capt. Folsom, who manipulated the Leidesdorff grant covering this point. This title had so far prevented earlier attempts, since 1852, to make available the water-power of the place. Folsom Telegraph, March 10, 1866; March 26, 1870, etc. This journal in itself illustrates the progress of the place. See also Sac. Union, Jan. 22, March 13, Apr. 4, 9, Oct. 31, 1856, etc .; S. F. Bulletin, Aug. 23, 1856; Alta Cal., Jan. 21, 1856.
The county early demonstrated the superiority of farming over mining as a wealth-producing pursuit, for within a few years the value of its farms alone surpassed the combined total assessments of the two adjoining mining counties, as did its population in number. The census of 1880 placed the population 34,390, with 1,100 farms valued at $12,330,000, with $2,488,000 in produce, and $2,240,000 in stock; total assessment, $18,416,000. See the sec- tion about Sacramento city for other information.
The rich bars of Yuba River filled the banks so rapidly with camps that the county of this name had to be further divided in April 1851 to form Nevada, of which Nevada City became the seat, as the most central of the prominent mining towns. Grass Valley, to the south, was then only about to open the quartz veins which soon lifted it to the most populous place in the county, and Rough and Ready, which lay too far westward, was already de- clining. This place was founded in the autumn of 1849 by the Rough and Ready Co., so named after Gen. Taylor, and headed by Capt. A. A. Townsend. The Randolph Co. soon joined. In Jan. 1850 Missionary J. Dunleavy brought his wife and opened a saloon. In Feb. H. Q. Roberts started the first regular store. By April a populous town had risen, which by Oct. polled nearly 1,000 votes, and claimed the leading place in the county. It had 3 or 4 compactly built streets, and about 4,000 or 6,000 tributary inhabitants, say the Sac. Transcript, Oct. 14, 1850, Cal. Courier, Dec. 25, 1850, and S. F. Picayune, Oct. 21, 1850. A vigilance committee was formed to govern the town, insure its safety, and promote the location here of the county seat. The drought of the winter 1850-1 proved a serious blow, and the town was almost deserted, but ditches being introduced, a decided revival took place. A fire of June 1853 destroyed twoscore buildings, valued at $60,000, Alta Cal., June
486
CALIFORNIA IN COUNTIES.
30, 1853, and another in 1859 reduced it to a petty hamlet. Grass Valley Directory, 1856, 44-5; Nevada Co. Hist., 89-91; Id., Directory, 1867, 359-61. Nevada and Grass Valley are described elsewhere, and camps are noted under mining.
Little Fork rose to prominence in 1852 on the strength of a rich gravel de- posit, which long sustained it. It was mined in 1849, founded in 1850, had over 600 inhabitants in Sept. 1852. Id., 367-8; Nev. Gaz., Dec. 18, 1869. Burned in 1878. North Bloomfield throve on similar resources in 1855 and revived in 1867. This place was opened in 1851 as Humbug City, after the creek, had 400 inhabitants in 1856, declined a while after 1867, had 1,200 in- habitants in 1880, together with Malakoff. The flourishing Indian Camp of 1850 remains now as Washington. You Bet sprang up in 1857, and absorbed several surrounding camps, such as Red Dog and Walloupa. Its name was due to the frequent and emphatic 'you bet ' expression of a pioneer resident. Woods' Pioneer, 97. North San Juan proved the stanchest town in the north-west section, with a tributary population of nearly 1,000 in 1880. Near by lay Birchville, Cherokee-with 400 inhabitants for a long period-French Corral, and Sweetland, which have fairly sustained themselves, with 300 or 400 inhabitants. At the northern border is Moore Flat, with a population of 500 in ISSO. Orleans Flat, originally Concord, surpassed it till 1857. Eureka South revived in 1866 with quartz developments. In the east is Truckee, founded in 1863-4 as a railroad station, becoming a flourishing centre for lumber and ice, later aspiring to the dignity of seat for a new county. Truckee River was named after an Indian with a corrupt French appellation. S. J. Pioneer, Oct. 5, 1878; Reno Star Journal, May 1875; S. Raf. Herald, May 20, 1875. Truckee was applied to the strange gait of the Indian, writes a pioneer in Sta Cruz Times, Aug. 6, 1870. Called Coburn Station, after the proprietor of a saloon. Rebuilt after the fire of 1868, the name preserved in the creek was applied to it. Nevada Scraps, 386-90.
The copper excitement of 1865-6 raised a crop of ephemeral towns, of which Spenceville alone survived as a little village. For references to early towns, see Cal. Courier, Oct. 16, Dec. 25, 1850; Larkin's Doc., vii. 174; Nev. Co. Hist., 60 et seq .; Alta Cal., July 11, 1853; July 15, Aug. 21, 1854; Sac. Union, 1854 et seq .; Grass Val. Directory, 1856, 14, 89, et seq .; Ballou's Adren., MS., 26; Nev. Co. Directory, 1867, 396.
Boca was built up by a brewery company, and several towns have been revived to some extent by manufacturing enterprise, one source for which exists in the forests. Saw-inills were started as early as 1849-50 near and at Grass Valley, and by 1852 $129,000 was invested in this branch alone in the county. Mining employed about $4,500,000, chiefly in quartz operations. Agriculture flourished under the general prosperity, and in 1852 some 1,500 acres were in cultivation, yielding nearly 15,000 bushels of grain and 10,000 bushels of potatoes, the most favored of esculents in early days. The live- stock numbered 14,000. The farming capital was placed at $113,000, and that employed in trade at $370,000. Cal. Census, 1852, 29-30; Nev. Co. Hist., 167-70. In 1855 the cultivated acreage amounted to 4,300, and the fruit- trees numbered 3,200, according to an official report which appears incom- plete. The many toll roads and bridges established since 1850 gave stimu-
487
YUBA AND SUTTER.
lus to trade. The second newspaper in the mining districts was issned at Nevada in 1851. A branch railroad, narrow gauge, was begun in 1875. See Id., 123 et seq. Quartz and other resources have helped to sustain the popu- lation at the high figure of 20,800 according to the census of 1860, with prop- erty assessed at $6,926,000, of which $818,000 was represented by 356 farms, with $271,000 in produce and $188,000 in live-stock.
Yuba county presented a favorable combination of mining, forest, and farming tracts, the latter so attractive as to invite since 1841 a number of settlers along the main Feather, Yuba, and Bear rivers, and Honcut Creek. T. Cordua's rancho, commanding the outlet of the camp-speckled Ynba, sug- gested the trade centre, which rose here in 1849 under the name of Marys- ville, as explained elsewhere. For early settlers, see the opening chapter of this volume. Good prospects led a number of speculators to plant rival towns to bid for the trade, such as Yuba City, Plumas, El Dorado, Eliza, and Featherton on Feather River, Kearney on Bear River, and Linda on the Yuba, besides Veazie, Yatestown, Hamilton, and Nicolaus, most of which places faded away or lingered as petty hamlets; for Marysville commanded the sit- uation, and despite her lateral position she became seat of government, which before 1851 stood between Butte and El Dorado, Placer and Nevada being segregated in 1851, and Sierra in 1852, partly owing to the distance from Marysville. Plumas was founded by Sutter and Beach some 15 miles below, and Featherton by Covillaud the same distance above Marysville; but like Kearney and El Dorado they obtained no practical existence. Placer Times, March 30, May 3, 1850; Sac. Transcript, Apr. 26, 1850; Pac. News, May 27, 1850; Alta Cal., May 27, 1850. Eliza, founded by the Kennebec Co., Id., Cal. Courier, July 11, 1850, Bauer, Stat., MS., 5-6, subsided gradually, as did Linda, named by Rose after the pioneer steamer. Camp Far West on Bear River was a military post abandoned in 1852. Fredonia lay 15 miles below Marysville. Sac. Transcript, Apr. 26, 1850. Among mining camps Park, Rose, and Foster bars stood prominent, together with the adjacent Timbuctoo and Smartsville, and Frenchtown to the north, each of which at some time claimed a population of over 1,000, except Smartsville, which dates only from 1856, founded by G. Smart, and Frenchtown, started by Vavasseur. Origin of Timbuctoo, in Marysville Appeal, Jan. 16, 1873. Brown Valley became conspicuous in 1863 for quartz resources, which failed to realize expec- tations, while Camptonville sustained itself as the centre of a rich gravel field. Brownsville sprang up in 1851 round a saw-mill, and became known as an educational and temperance town, and Wheatland was laid out in 1866 as a railroad station, to become a flourishing shipping place, with a population of 630 by 1880. References to early settlements in Ballou's Adven., MS., 25-6; Yuba Co. Hist., passim; also in Sutter, Placer, and Nevada histories, and Placer Times, Oct. 27, 1849.
Notwithstanding the early establishment of ranchos, live-stock appears alone to have received attention previous to 1850, when grain crops are first recorded by J. Morriet, Bryden, and Piatt, the former bringing cattle in 1849. The census of 1850 has no figures for Ynba, yet Cal. Census, 1852, 54- 6, shows so remarkable an advance as to be doubtful in this respect. The
488
CALIFORNIA IN COUNTIES.
melons raised are placed at 1,000,000, the barley crop alone is estimated at over 312,000 bushels, and wheat, etc., add 20,000 bushels. See also Yuba Co. Hist., 46, 79, 89, 99. In 1852, 7,000 acres were reported under cultiva- tion, while the live-stock numbered over 10,000 head. Invested capital, exclusive of real estate, amounted to $4,500,000, of which 2,000,000 was in trade, and two per cent in 18 saw-mills and one flouring mill, the first saw- mill dating from 1849, at Moore's on Bear River, which, in 1854, was changed to a grist-mill. Id., 39, 69-71, places the Buckeye Mill at Marysville, of 1853, as the earliest flour-mill. A tannery and foundry are ascribed to this town in 1852. The saw-mills produced 9,000,000 feet for the year. Marysville had a newspaper in 1850. Under the gradual change in leading resources, farms figure here at a larger value than in any of the preceding counties, and to them is mainly due that the population has so very nearly sustained itself at the early number, declining only to 11,280 in 1880, from 13,670 in 1860. The farms in 1880 numbered 515, valued at $2,197,000, with $824,000 in produce, and $429,000 in live-stock; total assessment, $4,293,000.
Sutter forms the only purely agricultural county on the east side of the valley. The earliest occupant was John A. Sutter, who here established Hock Farm in 1841. He was soon joined by several settlers, notably Nicolaus Altgeier, who, incited by the rush for town sites, expanded his hut and ferry- landing into a trading post, and half a year later, with the beginning of 1850, laid out Nicolaus. Lot advertisement in Placer Times, Feb. 16, 1850. In 1851 the name was applied to the township. Sutter Co. Hist., 22 et seq. It had 2 dozen houses in April, according to Sac. Transcript, Apr. 26, Nov. 14, 1850; Cal. Courier, Aug. 7, Oct. 16, 1850; Alta Cal., May 27, 1850; Sutter Banner, Apr. 15, 1867. Tapping as it did Bear River, and being accessible at low stages of water by steamboats, it became for a time the county seat, and managed to maintain a certain prominence as a shipping place. The head of navigation had at first been limited to the mouth of Feather River, and here accordingly the town of Vernon was laid out as early as the spring of 1849. It gave great promise and obtained for a time the county seat; but declined through the overshadowing influence of other upper towns. It was founded by I. Norris, F. Bates, and E. O. Crosby. Some say G. Crosby, and substitute B. Simons for Norris. Pac. News, Dec. 6, 1849; Buffum's Six Mo., 153. Officials of 1849, including Alcalde Grant, in Unbound Doc., MS., 58-9; Colton's Three Years, 416; Field's Rem., 19-20; Kirkpatrick's Jour., MS., 34. Fremont, on the opposite side of the Sacramento, rivalled it for a time. Sac. Transcript, Apr. 26, 1850. In the summer of 1849 Vernon had 600 or 700 in- habitants, but the flood of 1849-50 frightened them away, says Crosby, Stat., MS., 27, one of the founders. The steamer service which at this time ex- tended to Marysville gave the real blow. The county seat was here in 1851- 2. Yuba City, with similar pretensions and in anticipation of Marysville, was founded in August 1849, by S. Brannan, P. B. Reading, and H. Cheever, under a grant from Sutter. Advertisements in Placer Times, Aug. 25, 1849, Apr. 1850. But the advance of Marysville acted against the place, and in 1852 it had a population of only 120, with 15 to 20 dwellings, one hotel, and about 6 shops. Armstrong's Exper., MS., 10, by one of first residents; Alta
489
SIERRA AND BUTTE.
Cal., Jan. 25, 1850, etc. Pac. News, Apr. 27, May 27, 1850, lands her pros- pects, which were fostered by a ferry; 80 or 90 houses and more preparing, says Sac. Transcript, Apr. 26, 1850. Further, in Sutter Co. Hist., 37, 99, etc .; Sac. Union, July 21, 1855, etc. Yuba City was opposite the mouth of Feather River, but the superior site and progress of Marysville undermined the for- mer, and after 1850 the place declined. In 1856, however, it was made the county seat for Sutter, and began to recover, attaining finally a population of about 600. It was incorporated in 1878. Previously the county had among other seats Auburn, which in 1851 was surrendered to Placer, and first Oro, which proved a paper city. It was founded in the winter of 1849-50, by Gen. Green, 2 miles above Nicolaus. It attained only to one house. Cal. Courier, Oct. 16, 1850, etc. Two stations opened later along the railroad, and Merid- ian was among the petty places started on the banks of the Sacramento. See Sutter Co. Hist., 92-7, for settlers after 1849, when town building and traffic attracted a goodly number. For previous data, see the opening chapter of this vol. The county lay away from the beaten paths of traffic that might have raised larger towns, and with hardly any resources to encourage manu- factures. Half of the few enterprises started were failures, like the brewery opened in 1850 at Nicolans, the sorghum and castor-oil mills of 1863-7, and even Chanom's grist-mill on Bear River. The county did not possess a newspaper of its own before 1867. It was purely a farming district, in which grain was raised as early as 1845, chiefly on the east side of Feather River, to supply Sutter's Russian contract. See Sutter Co. Hist., 83. Yet owing to the gold excitement, the U. S. Census of 1850, 977-9, reports only 200 acres improved land, yielding chiefly potatoes, but with implements valued at $10,000, and farms at $100,000; live-stock, 3,500 head. In 1852 there were 1,400 acres in cultivation, yielding over 50,000 bushels, mainly barley. Live- stock about 7,000 head. Only $3,600 are given as invested in trade. Cal. Census, 1852, 50. Vines had already been planted at Hock Farm. It depends wholly upon its fertile farms, placed by the census of 1880 at 581, the value being $5,172,000, with $1,526,000 in produce, and $511,000 in live-stock; pop- ulation 5,160.
It is an appropriate name, that of Sierra, for a county occupying as it does the summit of the Nevada range, with too limited an extent of soil in the small, scattered valleys, and too severe a climate to acquire any considerable prominence in agriculture, or to sustain the large influx of population brought by the early gold rushes. The Cal. Census, 1852, 44-5, records 168 acres under cultivation, yielding chiefly vegetables; live-stock, 400 head; capital invested, $475,000, largely in mining. By 1880, there were 156 farms, valued at $453,000, with $252,000 in produce, and $140,000 in stock, other property being assessed at $1,000,000. Of manufactures little beyond saw- mills found encouragement, the first by Durgan being in 1850, at Washing- tonville. Crayford and Cheever started another in 1851, above Downieville; in 1852 two were added. The population declined from 11,390 in 1860 to 6,620 by 1880. At Downieville was built a foundry in 1855, and two brew- eries in 1854 and 1861. While occupied by miners in 1849, the Gold Lake excitement of the following year furnished the main influx which lifted
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