USA > California > History of California, Volume VI > Part 59
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87
Following the track of camp-building miners from the radiating centres at Sacramento and Stockton, we find them crossing the dividing ridges of the Cosumnes to fill up first Calaveras county, especially along the rich branches of Dry Creek, partly settled before the gold discovery. Here rose Amador, Sutter, and Volcano, which under subsequent quartz developments sustained themselves as flourishing towns. Volcano, though mined in 1848, assumed a settled appearance only in 1850. In 1855 it polled 1,110 votes, and boasted a journal, but declined after this. Amador Dispatch, March 30, 1872; Taylor's Eldorado, i., cap. 23; Connor's Cal., MS., 2. Sutter Creek became an incorpo- rated town in 1856, and had mills and foundries in token of prosperity. Jack- son, after being for a time county seat for Calaveras, became the seat for Amador when this was organized in 1854. Jackson was called Botellas by the Mexican miners of 1848, perhaps in humorous commemoration of L. Tellier, a settler. In Dec. 1850 it had nearly 100 houses. Two years later it lost the . county seat, but gained it again soon after, obtaining gas-works and progress- ing well, though ravaged by fire in 1862, and by floods in 1878. Earlier troubles are recorded in Sac. Union, Aug. 25, Sept. 18, Oct. 1, Dec. 22, 1855; Feb. 15, March 19, Oct. 11, 1556; S. F. Bulletin, Aug. 26, 1862. Butte City sought at one time to rival it. Calaveras bestowed the dignity upon Mokel- umne Hill, whose gilded mountain acquired for it the preponderating influ- ence, until in 1866 the more central San Andreas gained the supremacy. Mokelumue Hill became prominent in 1850, as described in S. F. Picayune, Oct. 17, 1850; suffered severely from fire in 1854; Alta Cal., Feb. 20, Aug. 21-4, 1854; Sac. Union, Sept. 15, 1855, March 25, Sept. 2, Dec. 16, 1856, and began to decline in the sixties. S. J. Pioneer, Feb. 22, 1879. San Andreas was laid in ashes in 1856. The name should properly read San Andrés. S. F. Bulletin, Feb. 2, Sept. 26, 1856; Sac. Union, Dec. 24, 1856. Southward Carson and Angel hold positions corresponding to the Volcano quartz group. Copperopolis sprang into prominence for a while as a productive copper mine, about the same time that silver lodes called attention to the higher ranges eastward, and prompted the organization in 1864 of Alpine county, with the seat at Silver Mountain, named after the highest peak of the county, and sub- sequently at Markleeville. Its hopes in these deposits met with meagre reali- zation, and its lumber and dairy resources languished under the decadence of Nevada, as its chief market. Its population, about 700, in 1800 owned 33 farms valued at $124,000, the total assessment being $540,000. Monitor Argus, Feb. 1886; Alpine Signal, May 7, 1879; Gold Hill News, Aug. 9, 1875; S. F. Times, July 9, 1868; Cal. Statutes, 1863-4, 441, 566, with incorporation act of Markleeville. The first settlement is placed at Woodford's, in 1855, on the immigrant route from Carson, where the first saw-mill also rose. Alpine Chron., Apr .- May 1864; S. F. Bulletin, May 9, 1864. Although most of the mining camps of Calaveras and Amador declined after a brilliant career, agri- culture flourished in many sections. particularly in the fertile western parts,
513
CALAVERAS AND SAN JOAQUIN.
round towns like Ione City and Milton. Among prominent ancient mining towns were Yeomet, which had a promising position at the junction of the Cosumnes north and south forks; Muletown, which was kept up a while by hydraulic mining; Drytown, which received its final blow from a conflagra- tion in 1857. Fiddletown grew till 1863; Plymouth began to gain by 1873; Lancha Plana, supported by bluff mining, boasted a journal and claimed nearly 1,000 inhabitants in 1860; and Murphy flourished in 1855. Carson's Flat was the great camp of 1851. Taylor's Eldorado, i. 229-31. Copperopolis rose in 1861, and shipped in 1863-4 over $1,600,000 net via Stockton. In 1850 Calaveras stands credited with farms worth $76,800, containing $172,800 worth of live-stock, and $14,700 in implements. The census of 1880 gives it 467 farms valued at $756,000, with live-stock $262,000, and produce $308,000, the total assessment standing at $1,871,000, yet the population fell from 16,299 in 1860 mining days to 9,090. Amador did better, for her larger farm- ing area embraces 531 farms, valued at $1,481,000, stock $296,000, produce $453,000, total assessment $2,468,000, population 11,384. Placer Times, Feb. 29, 1852; Calaveras Chron., Sept. 1873; Feb. 1877; Stockton Indep., March 7, 1877; Calaveras Citizen, July 21, Nov. 10, Dec. 29, 1877; Mokel. Chron., Jan. 25, 1879; Amador Times, March 22, 1879, etc .; S. J. Pioneer, Aug. 11, 1877; Hist. Amador Co., passim; frequent notices in Sac. Union, S. F. Call, Bulletin, Chron., and Alta Cal .; Cal. Statutes, 1854, 156; 1855, 315; 1857, 251; 1863, 231; Hittell's Codes, ii. 1631. Lumber was cut in 1846 for a ferry-boat, and Ione had a saw-mill in 1851. Farming was carried on before the gold discovery, and continued more extensively in 1851-2.
The trade centre for these as well as the more southern counties lay at Stockton, to which the traffic of the early gold excitement had given growth. Its success brought several rivals to the front within San Joaquin county, as Castoria on the adjoining slough, San Joaquin and Stanislaus cities which faced each other at the southern extreme, and Mokelumne City near the mouth of the Cosumnes, but their aspirations failed even for becoming sub- ordinate points of river distribution. San Joaquin was started in 1849. Pac. News, May 2, Aug. 28, 1850. Castoria was laid out in 1850. Cal. Courier, Oct. 12, Nov. 1, 1850; Pac. News, Oct. 1, 1850; Alta Cal., Jan. 17, 1851. It struggled till 1853. Mokelumne City was opened as an entrepôt in 1856, and sloops built here ran direct to S. F. It rose to poll 172 votes, but the flood of 1862 so ravaged the place that it never recovered. Stanislaus, which dates from the Mormon settlement of 1846, was transferred to a railroad station. Buffum's Six Mo., 156; Hawley's Observ., MS., 6; S. Joaq. Agric. Soc., Transac., 1861, 115. Lockeford and Woodbridge absorbed the river trade of the Mokel- umne, but most other districts became tributary to railroad stations like Lodi, Lathrop, Farmington, and other places thickly sprinkled in this agricultural region. Woodbridge, long known as Wood's ferry, was laid out in 1859. Lockeford, settled by Locke in 1855, was laid out in 1862, when the steam- boat Pert reached this point. Tinkham's Stockton, 14-16. Farmington was the Oregon rancho of Theyer and Wells; Lodi, with flour and saw mill, started in 1869. Crops were raised at Farmington in 1846-7, near Stockton, and on the Stanislaus. In 1850 farming was resumed, and by 1852 about 4,000 acres HIST. CAL., VOL. VI. 33
514
CALIFORNIA IN COUNTIES.
were cultivated, yielding 120,000 bushels of grain, besides vegetables. In 1880, the farms numbered 1,100, valued at $18,553,000, produce $4,420,000, live-stock 1,300,000; population 24,349 against 5,029 in 1852. Swamp-land was widely reclaimed. Ship-building and wagon-making date from 1850-1. Timber was lacking. Douglas was named after Gen. Douglas, and Dent after Gen. Grant's brother-in-law. McCollum's Cal., 38; S. Joaq. Directory, 1878, 174-251; Hist. S. Joaq. Co., passim .; S. J. Pioneer, Aug. 18, 1877, etc .; Stock- ton Indep., March 17, July 14, 1877; June 22, 1878; Sept. 11, Dec. 23, 1879; Feb. 27, 1880, etc .; Tuoloume Indep., Feb. 1, 1879; S. J. Mercury, Nov. 27, 1879; Alta Cal., March 21, IS51; Aug. 11, Jan. 10, 19, July 9, Aug. 11, Sept. 22, 1853; May 21, Dec. 2, 1854; with frequent scattered letters in Id., Sac. Union, S. F. Bulletin, since 1854; Cal. Jour. Sen., 1859, Apr. 3, 40-3; Id., Ass., 1860, 350, 376-80.
The similar adjoining county of Stanislaus, which was formed in 1854 and rose to become a leading wheat-producing district, was scoured by miners along the eastern border, since 1848, where a few began to settle as ferry-men and traders. Among them were G. W. Branch and J. Dickinson, with fer- ries, Dr Strentgel, H. Davis, C. Dallas, C. W. Cook, J. W. Laird, Jesse Hill, and others. On the Stanislaus rose Knight's Ferry, laid out as a town in 1835, and becoming the county seat for a time, a dignity held prior to 1862 successively by three towns on the Tuolumne, the ephemeral Adamsville and Empire City, and by the more substantial La Grange, which rose to promi- nence under a mining excitement in 1854-5. Knight's Ferry was supported later by farming interests. Knight, trapper and exploring guide, opened the ferry in 1848-9. After his death it passed into the hands of the brothers Dent, who laid out the town known for a time as Dentville. It was the county seat between 1862-7. Alta Cal., March 22, 1857; Aug. 17, 1859; Sta Cruz Times, March 5, 1870; Scient. Press, Oct. 14, 1871. Adamsville was founded in 1849 by Dr Adams, and Empire City in 1850. Pac. News, May 2, 1850. Empire ranked in 1851 as the army depot and head of Tuolumne navigation. La Grange was first known as French Camp, from French miners of 1852, though worked since 1849, and became a flourishing way-station. It declined greatly after losing the seat. The first settler on the spot was Elam Dye. Hayes' Mining, i. 43; S. F. Bulletin, Dec. 31, 1855; Sac. Union, Nov. 3, 1855. All of these towns were surpassed by the more central Modesto, laid out in 1870 under railroad auspices, and made the county seat in 1872, with gas, several mills, and two journals. Stockton Indep., Dec. 30, 1870; S. F. Chron., Aug. 3, 1884. Turlock and Oakdale became prosperous stations, the latter the ter- minus for many years of the Visalia road, with plough factory, etc .; population 376 in 1880. Tuolumne City was founded in 1849 near the mouth of the Tuolumne River, in the vain hope of becoming the entrepôt for this stream. It was laid out by P. McDowell, but collapsed at the first low water. Placer Times, May 20, 1850; S. F. Herald, June 5, 1850. The adjacent Grayson and Hill's Ferry, the latter a claimant to the head of navigation on the San Joaquin, tended to undermine it. Grayson was laid out early in 1850 by A. J. Grayson, a pioneer of 1846, and flourished with the aid of a ferry. Alta Cal., May 24, 1850. Two lines of steamboats touched here. In 1852, Tuol-
STANISLAUS AND MARIPOSA.
umne, of which Stanislaus was the leading agricultural section, stood cred- ited with 1,870 acres in cultivation, and 7,700 head of stock. In 1880 the census gave Stanislaus 692 farms, valued at $7,654,000, produce $2,142,000, live-stock 8997,000, population 8,751 against 2,245 in 1860. Modesto Herald, Feb. 1880; Hist. Stanislaus Co., passim; Alta Cal., Feb. 28, 1856; Feb. 18, ISSO; Sac. Union, Dec. 31, 1856; Oct. 28, 1858; S. F. Call, Jan. 10, Feb. 9, Aug. 4, 1873; Post, Chron .; Cal. Statutes, 1854, 21-4, 148-9; 1855, 245. A flour and saw mill started up at Knight's Ferry in 1853-4.
The greater part of Stanislaus pertained during its first years as a little esteemed section to the nugget region of Tuolumne, centring round Sonora, headquarters for the southern mines, and chief battle-ground of the antago- nistic Latin race and the Anglo-Saxons. This race-feeling was one of the grounds for the futile struggle of Jamestown to gain the county seat from Sonora. Jamestown was one of the earliest camps; vote 299 in 1855, when a fire ravaged it. Sac. Union, Oct. 4-5, 1855; Hayes' Mining, i. 34. The ex- treme richness of this district gave rise to a larger number of prominent camps than could be found on a similar area elsewhere, many of which main- tained respectable proportions for a long time, notably Columbia, so named by Maj. Sullivan, the first alcalde, and others, in April 1850, one month after the opening of this mining ground by J. Walker and party. It was laid out in 1852, when its first newspaper was started. It was nearly destroyed by fire, July 1854, yet incorporated in 1856. Alta Cal., July 11-12, 1854: July 10, 1852; Tuolumne Indep., March 1879; S. F. Herald, July 11, 1854; Oct. 29, 1851; population in 1850 from 2,000 to 5,000. Warren's Dust, 149; Placer Times, May 17, 1850; S. J. Pioneer, Sept. 8, 1877. View in Pict. Union, Apr. 1854. Incorporation act and repeal, in Cal. Statutes, 1857, 188; 1869-70, 438. Jacksonville, started in 1849, was named after Col Jackson, the first storekeeper. Woods' Sixteen Mo., 121, 125; Hayes' Mining, i. 42; McCollum's Cal., 38; Pac. News, Dec. 29, 1849. Among others were Chinese Camp, once polling 300 votes, Springfield, Shaw Flat, which in 1855 claimed a tributary population of 2,000, Yankee Hill, a nugget ground, Saw Mill Flat, where the bandit Murietta held forth. Southward lay Big Oak Flat and Garotte, the former settled in 1850 by J. Savage. Hayes' Mining, i. 38. A gradually supplanting agriculture came to relieve others, and to infuse a more sedate tone into the elements so deeply tinged by the gambling spirit, rowdyism, and race-antipathy of early digger times. The first orchard is ascribed to W. S. Smart at Spring Garden. The first mill was Charbonelle's at Sonora; by 1854 there were 24 in the county. In 1880 Tuolumne had 721 farms, valued modestly at $1,054,000, with produce $393,000, live-stock $332,000; total assessment $1,596,000, and a population of 7,848 against 16,229 in 1860. Tuolumne Co. Direct., 33 et seq .; Son. Union Democ., March 17, Apr., May, July 28, Sept .- Oct. 1877; Tuol. Indep., Feb. 10, Dec. 17, 1877, etc .; Sac. Union, Oct. 18, 1855; Sept. 25-7, Oct. 27, Dec. 30, 1856, etc .; Alta Cal., July 26, 1834; Aug. 7, 1856; Oct. 9, 1857; May 21, 1859; Aug. 6, 1860; May 26, 1867; S. F. Bulletin, Aug. 6, 1856; May 29, 1880.
The region beyond Tuolumne was opened only in 1849, J. D. Savage being one of the first to enter and to establish a trading post, while Col Frémont
516
CALIFORNIA IN COUNTIES.
took the earliest steps toward quartz mining upon his famous grant, named, like the county, after the Rio de las Mariposas. Its comparatively meagre placers gave support to but few camps, and those that rose in early days owed their existence chiefly to quartz. Their fading hopes revived with the disap- pearance of the cloud of litigation so long hanging over the land. The only town of note besides Mariposa, the county seat, with about 500 inhabitants and 2 journals, was Coulterville, with its orchards and vineyards. The scenic wonders of the Yosemite Valley drew a profitable traffic. In 1855 the valley section was segregated to form Merced county, with the county seat for some years at Snelling, first started as a mining camp and way-station, and named after the Snelling family, which in ISal bought the land and hotel, the first in Merced, of Dr Lewis. The disadvantages of the county seat first chosen on Turner and Osborne's rancho, on the Mariposa, 8 miles from Merced, caused Snelling to be selected the same year. It was laid out in 1856, grew rapidly, and obtained a journal in 1862, but was almost destroyed by flood and flame in 1861-2. In 1872 it lost the county seat, and declined into a quiet town. S. Joaq. Argus, June 18, 1870, etc .; Merced Reporter, Nov. 1874. Merced was laid out for the county seat under railroad au- spices, and soon acquired the leading position. It was surveyed Feb. 1872. Minturn, Plainsburg, and Cressey were minor stations. Merced Falls once looked to its water-power for a future. Hopeton, below on the Merced, and Dambert, Los Baños, and Central Point, were leading villages on the other side of the San Joaquin. Hornitos gained incorporation privileges in 1861. Cal. Statutes, 118. The rich valley land was not subdivided so as to receive proper cultivation and development. The 388 farms mentioned in the census of 1880 embraced 656,700 acres, valued at $4,820,000, produced $881,- 000, live-stock $824,000, population 5,650 against 1,141 in 1860. The popu- lation of Mariposa decreased like that of most mining districts, numbering 4,340 in 1880 against 6,240 in 1860, its small valleys containing 176 farms, valued at $331,000, with produce at $181,000, and live-stock $168,000, the total assessment rising, however, to $1,295,000. S. F. Herald, Nov. 12, 1852; Alta Cal., Nov. 12, 1852; Apr. 12, 1855; Sept. 26, 1857; Oct. 1, 16, 1858; July 15, 1864; June 6, 1867; Sac. Union, Feb. 1, Apr. 10-11, Oct. 5, 1855; Jan. 23, Feb. 22, March 14, Apr. 17, May 13, 27-8, Oct. 21, Nov. 26-9, Dec. 13, 26-7, 1856; Sept. 23, 1858. Also S. F. Times, Bulletin, Call, Feb. 2, June 17, Dec. 25, 1877; Mariposa Co. Register, Mariposa Gaz., May 3, 1879; Stockton Indep., Sept. 19, 1870; Cal. Statutes, 1855, 123-8; Hittell's Codes, ii. 1778. The first orchard and vineyard in Merced is ascribed to H. J. Ostran- der, and the first alfalfa and well, while J. Griffith in IS51 sowed the first field of wheat, and erected the first grist-mill; the next was the Nelson mill, at Merced Falls.
Fresno county in 1856 was segregated chiefly from Mariposa. With only a narrow fringe of mining country, and with a vast expanse of arid-looking plains in the centre and west, and an equally uninviting ruggedness along the Sierra slopes, it seemed to have few attractions for settlers; and indeed, dur- ing the first years Indian troubles tended to repel them, so that occupation was restricted to the placers of the north-east, with a sprinkling elsewhere of
517
TULARE AND KERN.
stock-raisers. In time, however, it was found that with irrigation, for which advantages were numerous, the soil could be made exceedingly productive, and this of the most assured character. Yet the application was hardly pos- sible for the ordinary farmers, except in combination, and this was effectively achieved by colonies. The first to be started on a successful basis was the Central California, opened in 1875, round Fresno, which encouraged others. Land was taken mostly in 20-acre lots for viniculture, until this hitherto re- pulsive section promised to become one of the most flourishing in the country. The first colony, the Alabama, of 1868-9, failed, and was almost abandoned by 1874, because it had not been started right. The Hist. Fresno Co., 111-20, describes the progress of 9 colonies prior to 1882. The San Joaquin and Kings River canal, the first enterprise on an extensive speculative plan, takes its source at the junction of Kings River and Fresno Slough. While not a financial success, owing to its experimental difficulties, it encouraged other canals which benefited by its experiences. M. J. Church of Fresno has done much for irrigation, while B. Marks ranks as founder of the first suc- cessful colony. Fresno City, laid out in 1872, by the railroad, and becoming the county seat two years later, owed its rapid growth greatly to these colo- nies. It was surveyed in May; the first store was opened in July-Aug., by D. Frölich; journal in 1874; several industries started. Riverdale and Wash- ington became also thriving. Fresno Expositor, Jan. 1, 10, 1879; Id., Repub., March 1880; S. F. Bulletin, March 10, 1880. It reduced to a mere shadow Millerton, the first seat of justice, which had risen upon the mining camp of Rootville, and was partly sustained by the adjoining Fort Miller, established Apr. 1851 and abandoned in 1863. Rootville rose under its wing to be re- named Millerton, obtained a journal in 1856, and had 113 school children in 1870. After 1872 the leading people moved to Fresno. The first saw-mill rose here in 1854. Madera, Selma, and Kingsburg figure among the stations which absorb the trade of the county, partly at the expense of earlier towns like Kingston, which had its beginning as Whitmore's ferry. Yet Centreville holds its own as a flourishing way-station, and Coarse Gold is still a mining camp in the north-east, with a fine sheep region adjoining, while in the ex- treme west New Idria is sustained by important quicksilver mines, worked chiefly by Cornish and Mexican miners. Panoche Valley northward is a val- uable section. Coal and petroleum promised to swell the resources, and quartz-mills were put in operation. Fresno Flat was sustained by several camps. Buchanan rose on the Chowchilla, on the strength of copper deposits, which proved unprofitable. Although Fresno has advanced greatly since 1880, it is well for comparison to state that the census then gave it 926 farms, value $4,400,000, produce $978,000, live-stock $1,570,000, total assessment $6,354,000, population 9,480.
Tulare corresponds in its agricultural features to the preceding county, while the absence of mineral deposits is compensated for by a large propor- tion of forest land, provided especially with oak. Irrigation has been widely extended from a primitive beginning anterior to the sixties, one of the canals, the 76, having a width of 100 feet, with a carrying depth of four feet. Num- bers of artesian wells insure crops, while the vast area of marsh-land presents
518
CALIFORNIA IN COUNTIES
a fine range for hogs and other stock. These advantages attracted an immi- gration before which the Indians of the reservation faded, and the silent plains were transformed into smiling farms and vineyards, clustering round towns like Visalia, the county seat, which from a pretty hamlet of 1859 rose to an important place, and the rapidly developing Tulare. The white people numbered only 174 out of 8,582, according to the census of 1852. By 1870 the population increased to 4,533, and by 1880 to 11,281, with little over 100 Indians. The farms numbered 1,125, value $3,525,000, produce $712,000, live-stock $875,000, total assessment $5,204,000; but the increase since then has been rapid. The first settlement in the county is ascribed to Campbell, Pool, & Co., who opened a ferry on Kings River in the spring of 1852. Alta Cal., Oct. 17, 1852; Burton's Hist. Tulare, MS., 3 et seq. N. Vice, the Texan bear-hunter, settled here, and aided by O'Neil laid out the town early in Nov. 1852, naming it after himself. A month later it claimed over 60 inhabitants, and gained the seat of government in 1854 from the adjacent Woodville, which in consequence was completely overshadowed. A mill was rising in Dec. 1852, a journal was started in 1864, and by 1880 it had over 1,400 inhab- itants, with gas and water works. Alta Cal., Dec. 11, 1852; Hayes' Angeles, viii., 169; Visalia Delta, Feb. 14, 1866; Oct. 12, 1876, etc. Incorporation act in Cal. Statutes, 1873-4, 191. Goshen, Tipton, Hanford, and Lemoore fast gained ground. The first saw-mill was started in 1856 on Old Mill Creek.
The Kern River mining excitement of 1854-5 did much for this region, promoting traffic and settlement, and by opening a field of industry in the extreme south of the valley, which in 1866 caused the formation of Kern county. The county seat was at first assigned to Havilah, which sprang into prominence as a quartz centre, surpassing the hitherto leading Kernville, but with the expansion of agriculture, under irrigation and railroad outlet, the fertile delta country westward acquired a supremacy, and the seat of govern- ment was transferred to Bakersfield, which, sustained by the railroad, made rapid progress. Havilah was named after the place in Genesis, where the first allusion is made to a land of gold. Bakersfield was founded on the tract of T. Baker, and formed a thriving village, with a newspaper, when in 1870 some speculators sought to gain possession of the land on technical grounds, though in vain. The county seat was transferred in 1874. Mojave, Tehachapi, and Pumpa were soon among the rising stations. Cal. Jour. Sen., 1871-2, 531. Although a number of small inviting valleys exist, the richer level tracts are less adapted for small farmers, so that this section did not receive the same early impulse as the districts to the north. It had 282 farms according to the census of 1880, valned at $1,927,000, produce $543,000, live-stock, $851,- 000, total assessment $6,000,000; population 5,600. Farming early assumed considerable proportions in the rich delta region, where settlers began to re- claim land and open roads. Cotton culture has been undertaken since 1871.
Beyond the Sierra stretches a narrow belt of silver-bearing country, bor- dered on one side by snow-capped peaks, towering 15,000 feet into the clouds; on the other by forbidding alkali flats, arid wastes, and volcanic tracts marked by strange contortions, acrid waters, and steaming geysers. The discovery
.
519
MONO, SAN BERNARDINO, AND SAN DIEGO
of a limited placer round Monoville brought a population which in 1861 led to the creation of Mono county, with the seat of government at first at Au- rora-but this town, described in Wasson's Bodie, 49-51, was soon after sur- rendered to Nevada-and then at Bridgeport. But Monoville faded away, and Bridgeport yielded the supremacy to Bodie, famed for many rich quartz mines, and the terminus of a railroad, which skirts the lake and approaches Benton, the next town of importance, and described in Benton Messenger, Feb. 8, 1879. Leavitt's lies to the left of the northerly Patterson mining district. The rise of Bodie is narrated in Wasson's Bodie, 220-5; Bodie Standard, May 1, Sept. 23, 1878. The region southward, early traversed by emigrants, who reported silver in 1850, and entered by stockmen in the beginning of the six- ties, revealed similar lodes, which on trial, proved disappointing, and led to the failure of many costly mills, and the decline of towns like Owensville and San Carlos. They served, however, to attract an immigration sufficient to give by 1865 a decisive check to the hostile Indians, and to bring about the organization of Inyo county with the seat of government at Independence. The mining interest, centring in the Kearsage district, was soon surpassed by the agricultural resources, although these were practically restricted to the narrow valley of Owen River, while the more sterile Mono was content with a supplemental stock-raising. Inyo was by the census of 1880 given 242 farms, valued at $717,000, produce $295,000, live-stock $233,000, popu- lation 2,930. Mono counted only 64 farms, value $389,000, produce $181,- 000, live-stock $103,000, yet possessed a population of 7,500, although witlı an assessment of only $969,000 against $1,353,000 for Inyo. The Carson and Colorado R. R. helped to develop this county. The report of silver by emi- grants passing through Inyo in 1850 led to several futile expeditions, and only with the opening of such mines in Nevada did real prospecting begin in this region. For accounts of early expeditions, settlement, and progress in the preceding counties of Fresno, Tulare, Kern, Mono, and Inyo, see Inyo Independ., July 8, 1876; Alta Cal., June 2, Oct. 3, 17, 1852; July 23, Aug. 8- 10, Dec. 4, 1854; May 29, Oct. 2, 22, Dec. 12, 1859; S. F. Herald, Dec. 10, 1852; Aug. 8, Oct. 12, 1853; Sac. Union, S. F. Bulletin, Bodie Standard, March 1, 1879; Benton Mess., March 22, 1879; Independence Indep., July 12, Sept. 1, 1879; Fresno Expos., Nov. 27, 1878; Jan. 1, July 30, Oct. 8, 1879; Fresno Repub., Nov .- Dec. 1879; Bakersfield Cal., June 8, 1876; June 22, 1878; Kern Co. Register, 1880; Fresno Co. Circular, 1882; Hist. Fresno Co., Id., Kern, passim; McDaniel's Early Days, MS., 26; Barton's Hist. Tulare, MS., 3 et seq .; Cal. Statutes, 1852, 312; 1855, 203; 1856, 183; 1858, 36; 1861, 235, 566; 1863- 4, 528-6; 1865, 355, 796, 863; 1871-2, 891, 1005-8; Hittell's Codes, ii. 1739, 1756, 1765, 1782, 1851
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.