USA > California > Glenn County > History of Colusa and Glenn counties, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the counties who have been identified with their growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 23
USA > California > Colusa County > History of Colusa and Glenn counties, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the counties who have been identified with their growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 23
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Many of the pioneers of this period from 1854 to 1858 have escaped mention in this connection, for only of those who settled permanently in the county and possessed themselves of land are records obtainable. Many worthy pioneers took up their resi- dence in the county during this time; but other parts of the un- settled West called them thither.
The Drought of 1864
After three of four seasons of less than normal rainfall, the year 1864 opened with the ground as hard and dry as in August; nor were there any spring rains to alleviate this condition. Stock suffered terribly. Whenever it was possible, the stockmen had taken their herds out of the county to other pasturage; but the drought was a state-wide condition, and relief was many miles away. Hundreds of head of cattle died on the way to pasturage in the mountains. By fall the conditions were much worse. The rains held off until the last of November, and thousands of head of cattle and sheep died of starvation. Many settlers found themselves on the verge of bankruptcy by the loss of so great a portion of their herds. The year 1864 was a severe setback to the stock-raising industry, and many realized for the first time that other and diversified industries would be greatly to their benefit and a further guarantee of success. It was the setback of 1864 that first interested the settlers in the possibilities of grain- growing in connection with their stock-grazing, and perhaps had much to do with the new era to follow in the late sixties and early seventies.
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CHAPTER VI
THE ERA OF THE GRAIN-GROWER
First Attempts at Grain-growing
The early settlers along Stony Creek and near the river, in the vicinity of St. John, first planted wheat and barley in the year 1851. The more venturesome pioneers who settled on the plains for the purpose of growing grain were forced to abandon their squatter claims by the excessively dry seasons of 1854-1855, 1855-1856, and 1856-1857. In addition to severe drought during these years, a scourge of grasshoppers visited the plains in 1855 and completely devastated them of all vegetable life.
The government offered the lands on the plains for settle- ment in 1856, and during the same year confirmed the Mexican Grant land titles to those having ownership and possession of lands under former grants. Beginning with 1856, the new settler was offered every inducement to settle on the fertile plains of Co- lusa County. The previous years of drought, however, served to dampen the ardor of the farmer settlers; and stock-raising was still considered the only industry worthy of their energies. Be- ginning with the year 1868 a new era dawned. The winter of 1868- 1869 was one blessed with bountiful rainfall. Those hardy settlers who had again chanced a grain crop reaped a wonderful harvest of wheat and barley. Prices were high, and many settlers profited enough from their single crop to repay past losses and leave them sufficient funds to plant a much larger acreage the following year. In the year 1869 about ten thousand acres of virgin lands were broken, and sown to wheat and barley. The fame of Colusa County, and particularly that portion of it which is now Glenn County, as a county of wonderful crop harvests had spread over the entire valley.
Influx of Settlers
The year 1870 brought a great influx of settlers, seeking homes and fortunes. During that year many of Glenn County's solid citizens took up their homesteads, or purchased the rights of others, and engaged in grain-growing on a scale never con- templated by the early settlers. The larger number of the new settlers of this year came from Solano County, where they had had previous experience in grain-farming. The stories of Glenn County's bountiful crops attracted them to what they consid- ered a district offering superior farming opportunities.
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Mention is here made of a few of the grain farmers who settled in Glenn County during the years 1868 to 1873. Dr. Hugh J. Glenn settled at Jacinto in 1868, and I. V. Devenpeck settled northwest of Willows in the same year. In 1869, Ad. Duncan settled northwest of Willows on the property now owned by W. D. Killebrew. H. A. Greenwood and Henry W. Steuben settled in the vicinity of Orland in 1870. P. B. Lacroix, W. T. Troxel and Daniel Zumwalt settled near Willows between 1871 and 1873. During the same period, G. D. Mecum, Chris. Jasper and J. A. Smith became residents of the Orland district.
Growth and Decline of the Industry
By the season of 1872 the grain-growing industry had grown to the almost unbelievable proportions of a million sacks of wheat and barley. A close estimate of that year showed that about a million bags of grain was grown in Colusa County, a great por- tion of which was produced in the territory now making up the valley portion of Glenn County.
During the year 1872 and 1873 a few farmers abandoned grain-growing for sheep-raising. Wool sold for fifty cents per pound in 1872; and this was the cause of their changing back to grazing.
The years 1873 and 1874 were prosperous ones for the grain farmers. Dr. H. J. Glenn harvested a crop from thirty thousand acres, which yielded an average of twenty-five bushels of wheat per acre. Large grain warehouses were constructed at Jacinto and Princeton. The grain industry had come to stay, and shelter for grain awaiting shipment was found necessary. During the next three years large crops were grown. More land was sown each year, adding greater wealth to the county, and enhancing the prosperity of its settlers and home-builders. The crop of 1878, however, suffered greatly from rust everywhere in the state; and this resulted in no small loss to the farmer.
About this time another pest caused considerable loss to the farmer. The wild geese and ducks became so plentiful that one large grain-grower of that period, Levi Moulton, placed armed guards, afterwards known as "goose herders," around his fields of grain. During the first season his goose herders destroyed over seven thousand wild geese. The following year the farmers were compelled to resort to the poisoning of their fields, in order more quickly to destroy the wild geese and ducks that were at- tracted to the valley during the winter and early spring, and which would often in a single night devastate a field of forty acres of grain.
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The year 1880 stands ont in the history of the county as the banner crop year of the grain-growing industry. A larger acreage was planted than theretofore, yields were far greater, prices were above the average, and grain-growing became the remunerative occupation of almost every one. Dr. Hugh Glenn produced from his vast acreage, known as the Glenn Grant, almost a million bags of wheat. Some other large growers of that year were: Mr. George Hoag, William Murdock, Pierre Barceloux, P. B. Lacroix, Charles Merrill, I. V. Devenpeck, Ad. Duncan, Laban Scearce, H. B. Julian, Patrick O'Brien, Joseph Billion and C. S. Chambers.
- The years 1881-1882 and 1882-1883 were average crop years. The winter of 1884-1885 promised an exceedingly dry season, and crops were supposed to have been lost through lack of rain; but during the month of Jannary, 1885, a four-and-one-half-inch rain brought profit out of loss. Later rains followed, March being a month of floods, and the harvest season returned a crop of over eight million bushels of grain, an exceedingly large crop. The fol- lowing year promised well for a bumper grain crop; but on June 11, 1886, the most severe "norther" experienced in the county caused a million bushels' loss of grain. Many fields were flattened, and those which remained standing suffered greatly by being stripped.
The year 1887 was chiefly distinguished as the year of the advent of the combined harvester. Formerly all the grain had been harvested by headers and threshers. The combined har- vester, which ent the grain and threshed and sacked it with the same operation, meant a considerable saving in the expense of harvesting. The harvester revolutionized grain-farming in the valley.
Previous to 1889, all grain-farming operations in the valley had been carried on by horse and mule power; but in the sum- mer of that year George Mudd, who was farming near German- town, purchased and operated the first steam tractor in the county. The Mudd tractor was used to operate a harvester, and from that day the horse and mule began their decline in the harvest field and in other farming operations in the county.
The constant farming of the lands of the plains for a period of twenty-five years resulted in the inevitable exhaustion of the soil's resources. The grain-grower was very improvident of the soil's fertility, taking everything from the land and giving noth- ing in return. During the early nineties, crop yields were light. Many extensive grain-growers failed; and others turned large portions of their acreage to pasture and engaged in stock-raising, farming only so much land as was necessary to produce feed for 13
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their stock. Under the summer-fallowing system, however, Glenn County still produced fair and average crop yields. Grain-grow- ing still maintained its place among the productive industries of the county, though the extensive grain ranches of the seventies and eighties were abandoned. Farming was carried on by farm- ers operating small acreages. Grain-growing in the county grad- ually became closely identified with stock-raising; and the farmer of today depends also upon his herds of cattle, sheep, hogs, horses, and mules for the guarantee of his livelihood.
Grain-growing on the Grant
The history of grain-growing in the county cannot be written without directly mentioning in some detail the extensive farming operations of Dr. Hugh J. Glenn, for whom Glenn County was named, and who was at one time the largest grain farmer of the United States, if not of the entire world.
Dr. Glenn came to California in 1849. After engaging in mining, freighting and the livery business at Sacramento, he returned to Missouri. In 1853, he again came to California and engaged in the cattle business, with S. E. Wilson and Major Briggs, of Yolo County, as partners. His first place of residence in what is now Glenn County was at the mouth of Stony Creek, on the Sacramento River. In 1856, he disposed of his California in- terests and again returned to Missouri. The call of California, however, could not be resisted; and during 1859 and the years following he made several trips from Missouri and New Orleans to California, with droves of cattle, horses and mules. In 1865 he attempted farming in Yolo County, with Major Briggs as a partner.
In 1867, attracted to the place of his first residence in what is now Glenn County, because of the opportunities that district offered for grain-farming, Dr. Glenn purchased a ranch at the present site of Jacinto. This first ranch consisted of seven thousand acres and was purchased for one dollar sixty cents per acre. The following year, 1868, Jacinto became the residence of the Glenn family.
After 1868, Dr. Glenn added to his holdings until, in 1874, forty-one thousand acres was under plow, and a crop of wheat with an average yield of twenty-five bushels per acre was har- vested from thirty thousand acres. From the year 1874 to the year of his death Dr. Glenn was known as the "Wheat King" of the world. His ranch comprised about fifty-five thousand acres, all tillable land, of which about forty-five thousand acres was farmed to wheat and barley.
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In order to give an idea of the extensive operations carried on by Dr. Glenn during these years, the following facts are pre- sented. The pay roll for labor performed during the harvest season averaged about thirty thousand dollars per month. Over one hundred eight-mule teams were employed in putting in the crop; and when the plowing season commenced, the plow teams made one round only of their fields during their day's work. The teams were accompanied by a cook house for the men, and a feed and water wagon for the stock. This bare statement of the method of operation will perhaps give the reader the best idea of the extensive farming operations on the great ranch. In 1880, a crop of almost a million bags of grain was grown upon this ranch. Over twenty-seven thousand tons of wheat was exported to England by Dr. Glenn under his own charter, for which he received eight hundred thousand dollars. For convenience in farming, the ranch was divided into seven fields, the largest of which contained twelve thousand acres. The total fencing sur- rounding these fields amounted to more than one hundred fifty miles. At the height of the harvest season as many as six hundred men were employed on the ranch. At Jacinto a small town thrived. Jacinto had a hotel (still standing), saloon, blacksmith shop, machine shops, store (still standing), post office, and ware- house. During the early years of his operation of the big ranch, Dr. Glenn recognized the value of surface drains to care for the surplus flood waters of the winter. Drains constructed at that time by his orders are still in use, and serve their original pur- pose. Water for stock on the plains back from the river was secured by scooping out large barrow pits, down to the depth of surface water. These water holes can still be seen along the Willows and Jacinto roads.
In February, 1883, Dr. Glenn was shot by his secretary, Hurum Miller. For a time after his death the farm was operated by the administrators; but poor crop years and low prices finally resulted in the subdivision of the great ranch, which was section- ized and offered to the public at very low prices. With the com- ing of irrigation and subdivision, a new era of settlement by the small farmer and the home-seeker commenced. The Sacramento Valley Irrigation Company purchased the remaining holdings of the estate in 1909, for the purpose of placing it under irrigation and selling it, in forty-acre units, to the small farmer for inten- sive cultivation. The fifty-five-thousand-acre wheat ranch of the eighties is now the residence of many small farmers, who irrigate their lands and intensively farm their small home plots.
The beautiful Glenn home site at Jacinto is owned and occu- pied by Mrs. Ella Glenn Leonard, the only daughter of Dr. Glenn.
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To the north, and adjoining the Jacinto place, Charles H. Glenn owns about seven hundred acres, where he has erected a spacious dwelling for his permanent home.
"Glennair," the home of Frank Buckner Glenn, is the site of the old "Home Ranch," one of the subdivision ranches made under the direction of Dr. Glenn for convenience in farming. The grounds are beautifully parked, having been laid out by the famous landscape gardener, McLaren, of Golden Gate Park. The farm of several hundred acres is modern in every respect.
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CHAPTER VII
COUNTY DIVISION, AND ORGANIZATION OF THE NEW COUNTY
In 1850, when the State Legislature created Colusa County by establishing its boundaries, little thought was given to the amount of territory embraced. The location of Colusa, the county seat, in the extreme southern part of the county, distant about fifty miles from its northern boundary, was the cause of much incon- venience and expense to the citizens in the northern portion of the county. The immediate vicinity of the town of Colusa had been receiving the lion's share of the attention of the officers of the county, without due regard to the interests of the residents of the north. A just proportion of the revenues of the county, secured by taxes upon lands and personal property, had not been equitably expended in the interests of that portion of the county from which the revenue was derived. Colusa, because of its larger population and its control of the offices of the county since its organization, had formed a ring popularly termed the "Court- house Ring." These grievances and errors of county manage- ment caused many of the thinking residents of the northern por- tion of the county to cast about for a possible solution of the difficulties they had experienced in their attempts to force proper respect for the interests of their district. Roads had been neg- lected, bridges were needed, and the tax rate was increasing each year without benefits in return for the added costs. Murmurings and mutterings had been heard for several years; and in 1880 the editor of the Orland Times, Frank Freeman, then a hard- ware merchant of that thriving city, openly espoused the cause of dividing the county and creating a new commonwealth in their own separate interests.
The first plan for county division, as proposed by the sup- porters of the idea, specified as the territory of the new county
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the northern part of Colusa County, beginning at the present sonth- ern boundary of Glenn County, and that part of Tehama County south of Thoms Creek, including the town of Scatterville-that is, the present city of Corning-with Orland as the geographical center of the new county and consequently the location of the county seat. Some of the bolder champions of a new county ral- lied to the support of Editor Freeman, but the older heads dis- couraged action at that time and counseled delay.
The movement for creating a new county was again agitated in 1882; and this was the real beginning of the struggle which culminated four years later in the introduction of a bill, in the Legislative Assembly of 1887, proposing the division of Colusa County and the creation of a new county to be called "Glenn," and to embrace that portion of the County of Colusa north of the township line between townships seventeen and eighteen. The supporters of county division were in large majority in 1887. Their action in introducing the bill was taken with as little pub- licity as possible. A petition asking the Legislature to create the new County of Glenn was circulated among the resident tax- payers of the proposed new county, and was signed by over eight hundred petitioners.
The Colusa County political ring could ill afford to stand the loss of the tax money of the northern district. The bill was bit- terly opposed by them in the Legislature, and failed of passage in the State Senate by a vote of twenty-one to twenty upon recon- sideration, after having passed the Assembly by a constitutional majority.
After the Legislature adjourned, the time was well employed by the people of the northern district in marshaling their strength for the next struggle, in the legislative session of 1888-1889. During that session the Divisionists and Anti-divisionists arrayed all the strength they could mnster. Large delegations of citizens -men, women and children-visited the Legislature in session, lobbying for the passage of the bill creating the new County of Glenn. Money was used freely by professional lobbyists on both sides. Finally the Assembly and Senate, by the necessary con- stitutional majority, passed the act creating the new county. The signature of Governor Waterman was needed to the act to divide the old and create the new county. The Governor failed to sign the act. Thus, the Divisionists were defeated, and all the work and energy expended by them had been lost. By his failure to sign the act creating the new county, the Governor decreed that the proponents of division must come again before the Legisla- ture for the relief they sought. This they did at its next session, in 1890-1891.
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In 1890-1891, the third bill was introduced in the Legislature, providing for the creation of Glenn County by a majority con- current vote of the resident electors of the territory to be em- braced within the boundaries of the new county. This bill, after a fight more bitter than those of the preceding sessions, passed both houses of the Legislature by a substantial majority and was immediately signed by Governor Markham.
In accordance with the provisions of the act, the Governor appointed five commissioners to determine all matters not pro- vided for in the act creating the new county, and to call an elec- tion of the electors residing therein for the purpose of determin- ing by majority vote whether the county created by an act of Legislature should be duly organized. The following were the commissioners appointed by the Governor: George H. Purkitt, chairman of the commission; J. N. Davis, of Afton; M. B. Scrib- ner, of Orland; J. R. Troxel and Milton French, of Willows.
On May 5, 1891, a bitterly contested election was held. On May 11, the commissioners met and canvassed the election, and determined for all time the question of the creation of the County of Glenn by declaring the act ratified by a majority vote of the electors of the new county, and the following officers elected : Judge of the Superior Court, Seth Millington; Sheriff, P. H. Clark; Clerk, Wm. H. Sale; Assessor, Lawrence R. Stewart; Dis- triet Attorney, Ben. F. Geis; Coroner, Dr. A. H. Martin; Public Administrator, James O. Johnson ; County Surveyor, H. A. Hicks ; Tax Collector, E. C. Kirkpatrick; County Treasurer, James M. Millsaps; Auditor, A. W. Sehorn; Recorder, M. B. Sanders; Superintendent of Schools, W. M. Finch; Supervisor of District No. 1, H. C. Hulett, Chairman; Supervisor of District No. 2, J. F. Pieper; Supervisor of District No. 3, N. B. Vanderford; Super- visor of District No. 4, William M. Johnson; Supervisor of Dis- triet No. 5, Philander Stone.
The Anti-divisionists, or Colnsa County faction, after the election of May 5, 1891, shot their last bolt in their fight against county division by bringing a snit in the Superior Court of Sacra- mento County, praying for an order of court against the division of the county upon the grounds of illegal voting, colonization of voters, stuffing of ballot boxes, and the making of fraudulent re- turns of election by election officers; and attacked the constitu- tionality of the act of Legislature creating the new county, and the legality of all proceedings held thereunder. This action was decided in favor of division; and on appeal made to the Supreme Court, the decision of the lower court was sustained. Suits were also instituted at Marysville, charging many individual electors
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with illegal voting, stuffing of the ballot boxes, and fraudulent actions of election officers. After considerable annoyance and trouble to the persons charged in these spite suits, all action was dropped and the question was closed permanently.
From the year 1882, when the Orland Times advocated for the first time the division of Colusa County, until the fifth day of May, 1891, the cause of division was ably supported by its orig- inator, Frank Freeman. In 1887, Mr. Freeman moved his print- ing press to Willows, consolidated his paper with the Willows Journal, and founded the first daily paper of Colusa County, styled the "Willows Daily Journal." In the legislative battle of 1890-1891, Mr. Freeman was actively in charge of the interests of the Divisionists. For a period of eleven years he had consistently fought for the assertion of the rights of the people of the northern district of Colusa County.
The Honorable K. E. Kelley
Mention has been made of the first demands of the Division- ists of 1886. The general who planned the moves and strategy of the long fight for county division was a former editor and publisher of the Willows Journal, an ex-State Senator and an attorney of ability, the Honorable K. E. Kelley.
The Honorable K. E. Kelley represented the Counties of Yolo and Solano as State Senator in the twenty-fifth Legislative Assembly, during the regular and special sessions of 1882. In 1885 Mr. Kelley came to Willows and purchased the Willows Journal, which he edited and published, in connection with his cousin, W. H. Kelley, for two years. Afterward he entered the practice of law and became closely identified with the social and political life of the county. His energy, shrewdness, persistence, and knowledge of men and their motives, placed him in the front as a leader of the forlorn hopes of the county Divisionists. In all the later struggles for the division of Colusa County and the formation of Glenn County, Mr. Kelley was acknowledged by the opponents of that measure to be a most skilful, adroit and for- midable adversary. To the Honorable K. E. Kelley, more than to any other man, can be attributed the final success of the move- ment for the formation of the county.
Later Mr. Kelley became interested in the development and settlement of the county. Kelley's Addition and Kelley's Ex- tension to the town of Willows recall his interest in the up-build- ing of that city. The Kelley Grade Road from Fruto to Ander- son Valley, in which was located his former home, named by him "The Retreat," was constructed at his suggestion and request.
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