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 3
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 3
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Ash, Capt. William 930
Ash, William H.
626
Austin, C. L.
307
Austin, Frank Joseph
1063
B
Ballard, Leander S.
614
Ballard, Robert Bruce 610
Bane, Paul Davis.
985
Bank of Princeton 1028
Bank of Willows
368
Barceloux Ernest J. 1051
Barceloux, Pierre 523
Barham, William 918
Bartlett, Clifford 982
Beckwith, Byron D.
569
Bedford, John Archibald
827
Beeck, John 589
Beguhl & Belieu 1001
Behr, Ernst E.
1012
Belieu, W. T. 844
Bell, Merton 988
Berens, Peter V. and Johannes J ... 803
Berger, George A 625
Beville, William Thomas 463
Bickford, Octavius Freeland.
917
Billiou, Joseph
448
Birch, Theodore B 775
Blake, Charles S. 1049
Blichfeldt, Henry W 853
Blichfeldt, John O.
854
Blondin, Mrs. Mae 738
Boardman, Frank Dayton 898
Boardman, Wilbur Warren 806
Boedefeld, Luke R.
556
Bondurant, Jesse L. 713
Boggs, Hon. John 260
Boren, Emil. 770
Bostrom, C. N. 763
Boyd, James 296
Branham, Henry V 1001
Brim, Elbert A S20
Brough, John H 989
Brown, David
391
Brown, George Lorenzo. 617
Brown, Uriah Waverly
561
Brown, William Wallace.
535
Brownell, Irving Woodbridge
434
Brüggmann, Jochim
904
Brys, Cyprien
847
Buckner, George M. 810
Burger, Jerry Alexander 433
Burrows, Rufus G
381
Burton, Benjamin Howell 608
Butler, Charles A
696
Butler, Eugene Thompson
657
Butte City Ranch
1045
C
Cain, John Edgar
652
Calvert, Benjamin F.
796
Carpenter, William Gordon 831
Chaney, William 743
Clark, Andrew Jackson 815
Clark, Willard. 970
Cockerill, Mrs. Charles W 543
Colusa County Bank 583
Colusa County Free Library 826
Conklin, Marcus L.
686
Cowan, David C. 1009
Cramer, Douglas 393
Crane, Jefferson Davis. 295
Crutcher, James Wilson 376
Crystal Baths and Amusement Park 951
Culver, A. Holly
786
Curry, John J 866
D
Davis, Mayberry
409
Deacon, Arthur P., D. D. S 938
DeGaa, Harrison Darrough 300
Delpapa, John
729
De Thier, David
1067
Dickson, Walter
1070
Dodd, William
703
Domonoske, Henry
908
Donohoe, Charles L.
342
Douville, Mrs. Belle. 959
Drew, Leland Stanford
784
Drew, Willis
386
Dunlap, Herman 871
Dunning, Robert Bruce 995
Durbrow, William 1015
Durham, John F.
895
Durham, Oscar Minton
525
E
Earp, Peter Asbury 492
Eibe, Pacific Ord. 257
El Rio Rancho. 1016
Erickson, Arthur
1050
Eubank, Joseph C.
671
INDEX-BIOGRAPHICAL
F
Fallon, James P. 1048
Farnham, Lindley P .. 670
Felts, Christopher Columbus
416
First National Bank and First Savings Bank of Colusa 609
Fitch, Lucius Hubbard 1024
705
Flanagan, Ed.
Flood, John
425
425
Flood, Mrs. Mary
1036
Ford, Henry
754
French, Milton
642
Fruchtenicht, Jacob
G
Garnett, Hugh M.
Garnett, James Richard
312
Garnett, Peter R.
Garnett, Mrs. Ruth A. McCune
319
Gatliff, William W., M. D
1017
Gelston, A. M. 993
907
Gibson, William Wallace
928
Girard, Alcid D.
901
Glenn, Hugh James 441
897
Gobel, Frank Leslie 921
Gobel, Obadiah
948
Golden, Edward J. 507
Golden, Michael
340
Graves, Fountain Columbus
725
Grealy, Rev. Father P. A. 973
Green, Edward E
371
Green, Parley H.
271
Green, Mrs. Sallie B
264
Green, Will Semple.
385
Greenwood, Hiram A
785
Greenwood, Willis A.
834
Grenfell, Roy W 984
Grey, John H. 1030
Grieve, Lundy Lloyd
596
Griffin, Thomas David
969
Griffith, Jonathan 281
Grimes, Cleaton 529
Grimm, Peter Henry
1060
Guenon, Gustave
1047
Guilford, William
1044
Guilford, William Sumner
H
Hale, Edward F 953
Halterman, John W.
Hamann, Jochim Frederick. 1064
262
Hamilton, John C.
Hancock, Arthur Raymond
974
809
Hansen, Charles 398
Hanson, George M. 398
Hanson, Nicholas Wilson
398
Hanson, William P
480
Harbison, James C.
Harbison & Kitchin 334
Harden, George B. 527
Harder, August F 946
Harder, Hans Henry 977
Harelson, Adelbert James 760
Harelson, Charles M. 759
Harelson, Ellsworth C. 664
Harlan, Thomas Helm
514
Harlan, Thomas William 518
Harlan, William F., M. D., D. O. 356
Harrington, John Curry 968
Harrington, Tennent 454
Harrington, Hon. William Pierce .. 353 Harrison, Jasper M. 774
Harrold, Herbert F. 1073
940
Hart, Fred 704
Haskell, Hardy J 845
645
Hastings, George Washington 577
Haugh, Patrick Henry 1037
Haworth, Thomas Eugene 957
Hazelton, John B. 388
1032
Held, Fred M 344
Henning, August
Henning, Walter M 603
Hicks, Proctor Knott 744
Hicks, Thomas Jefferson 732
High, Mr. and Mrs. G. H. 652
Hine, Benjamin. 511
331
Hochheimer, Ira
330
Hochheimer, Moses
Hoever, Mrs. John H. 451
Houchins, Henry Lewis. 635
Houchins, Samuel 636
Hudson, Lindsey 999
Huffmaster, Leonard 885
Hulen, John Thomas 580
Hurlburt, Frank C. 800
Husted, Henry
789
Huttmann, Elmer J.
923
Hynes, Rev. Father M. J
J
Jacobsen, Richard
1040
James, Joseph 578
602
Jansen, Claus F.
Jasper, Carl Henry 555
Jellison, Miller H. 551
960
Johnsen, Albert Henry
1068
Johnson, Paul D. 573
Johnson, William
Jones, Mrs. Mary G. 1058
983
Jones, P. G.
804
Jones, Ralph T
K
Kaerth, Jacob William 701
Kaiser, Amiel. 383
Kauffman, Bert F. 1035
Keegan, Mathew J. 906
Keim, William Henry 1006
Kelly, John 719
Kesselring, Francis Marion 891
Kibby, Eli J. 996
Kidd, William T. 975
King, Charles Emmett
913
Kirkpatrick, Margaret Ashurst 457
1043
Hochheimer, Hon. Amiel
332
Gattsch, John Henry
558
Gillaspy, George Richard
474
407
Heathcote, Edward
Hassig, Jacob
French, Curry M.
285
812
INDEX-BIOGRAPHICAL
Kirkpatrick, Thomas J 457
Kirkup, William
870
Masterson, Edward Kendrick 769
Masterson, James 581
Maxey, Roy 1031
Mehl, John 367
Mehrens, Albert 802
Mellor, George.
680
Knight, John E
445
Knock, Bayard
679
Knock, Thomas L.
329
Krohn, Peter
537
Kronshein, Arthur F. 1000
Kuhlmey, Henry 504
L
Lacroix, Paschal B. 1004
Lambirth, Charles Leroy 879
Larsson, Siegfried A. 981
Laustau, John 1061
Laux, Frederick
927
Leachman, Ord L.
753
Leake, Mrs. Sarah
572
Morrissey, William Henry 749
Muller, Mrs. Caroline 841
Myers, Lucinda A. 966
Myhre, Chris 477
N
Nason, Fred Arthur 869
Nelson, Dorr S. 822
Nelson, Edward 1057
Nelson, John
259
Newland, Joel Francis 413
Newman, Mrs. Mary 301
Newsom, Thomas H. 667
Nichols, Leslie A 717
Nichols, Richard Henry 842
Nichols, Mrs. Willie Bell 773
Nordyke, Joseph
905
0
O'Brien, James Patrick
322
O'Hair, Michael 562
Osgood, Harry F. 616
Ossenbriiggen, Matthias 308
O'Sullivan Brothers 859
O'Sullivan, Jeremiah.
860
Otterson, William Harvey
310
Overholtzer, J 718
P
Packer, Mrs. Clara C. 648
Papst, William H. 430
Paulson, John 1052
Peake, Edwin Henry. 874
Pearson, Charles E
663
Pence, George B 658
Pence, Marvin Earl 876
Peterich, John Henry 986
Petersen, William J. 348
Marshall, Hubbard F 720
Marshall, William W. 333
Martens, Hans H
792
Martinelli, A. L ....
896
Mason, George Lemuel 893
Masterson, Dennis Hugh 418
Kissling, Jean
1072
Kissling, John
1071
Kissling, Peter
865
Kitchin, Allen
568
Klewe, William F.
843
Merrill, Morris A
549
Miller, William Frank 362
Milligan, Henry. 690
Minton, Perry William 961
Minton, Silas D. 955
Mitchell, James Ewing 668
793
Moline, Peter E. 950
Monroe, Daniel F 323
Monroe, John William
613
Moore, Allen T. 731
Moore, Dick 881
Morey, Amos James 1018
Morris, John M. 857
Morrissey, James Byron 429
Leonard, John M 1029
Logan, Hugh A. 279
Logan, John Stephen
347
Lovelace, Charles William
647
Lovelace, John H. 661
Lovelady, William J.
848
Lowe, Samuel James
397
Lucas, James LeRoy
934
Luce, Alonzo 567
Luce, Alonzo, Sr
564
Luce, Zachariah
685
Ludy, William Wirt. 935
Lundeen, Jonas 943
Mc
McComish, Charles Davis 471
McCune, John 469
McDaniel, Elijah 273
McDaniel, J. E. 282
McDaniel, Levi Jefferson
378
McEnespy, Frank Chapman
942
McGahan, Mrs. Edith Morris .. 925
McGowan, Henry W. 1008
McGrath, Rev. Father C. C. 538
McLouth, Charles M.
1055
McMath, Henry K. 990
McVay, Irwin Nelson 1020
McVay, Joseph Edwin 723
McVay, William Nelson
924
Macoun, David B. 767
Mallon, James F 1026
Manor, Alexander B
944
Manor, Harry W. 939
Manzanita & Cherry Mines, The
307
Markham, George W. 452
Maroney, Thomas E. 837
Peterson, Vincent A. 503
Phelps, Robert Evermont 902
Pieper, Amiel D. 678
Pinney, William M.
949
Pleau, Louis
1062
Mitchell, Leo Arthur
INDEX-BIOGRAPHICAL
Pleck, John
864
Poirier, Chester G.
633
Potts, George Monroe and Martha
Jane 736
Price, John
726
Prine, David
508
Provence, Harvey Edward
972
Province, Nathan
Pryor, Benjamin Pollard
875
Purkitt, Hon. Claude F
439
Purkitt, George Henry
337
Purkitt, Mrs. Theodora Tiffee, M.D. 359
Q
Quigley, Patrick S
919
Quint, Herman
408
R
Rademacher, Anthony 989
Rahm. Roscoe 863
Rasmusson, Julian Martin 741
Rathbun, William T., M. D. 607
Rawlins, Henry Grove
672
Rawlins, Thomas Franklin
587
Reager, Frank S. 470
Reager, Louis M.
392
Reed, Henry E 920
Rees, J. S., D. D. S 929
795
Rehse, Hans Henry
Rehse, Henry Edward 852
Reidy, Timothy
593
Renaud, Andre
1059
Retterath, George
780
Rice, Martin Luther 552
Rice, Thomas A
546
Rider, Charles A
1007
Roebuck, Francis H. 1003
Ryan, Francis J
571
Ryan, James H
707
Ryan, John Andrew 623
Ryan, John P
684
S
St. Louis, Antwine T
692
St. Louis, George E 410
St. Louis, Henry B .. 436
St. Louis, Raymond E
952
Sale, Joseph S.
584
Sanderson, Joseph Virgil. 926
Sanford, Charles F. 1027
Schillig, Frank 1039
Schmidt, Christian Friedrich 590
Schmidt, Frank K. 708
Schohr, Max Paul 620
Sears, David Price
1069
Seaver Brothers 619
Sehorn, Andrew Wallace 483
Sehorn, Cathy M.
349
Sehorn, Edward Marion 447
Sheldon, Charles C. 1019
Shellooe, Daniel
460
Shellooe, Daniel A. 461
Sickels, M. A 735
Sidener, Flint W 998
Sievers, Hans 574
Simpson, Preston L. 967
Sites, John
510
Sites, William Franklin 639
Slocum, H. P. & Son 1013
Smith, Eugene P. 987
Smith, John Andrew 415
Smith, Capt. Thomas Alexander 714
Snowden, George Washington 305
Snowden, James William 327
Soeth, John William 833
Somers, Charles Hugh 339
Spalding Ranch, The 1013
Sparrow Brothers 947
Speier, Leon 811
Spencer, Mrs. Maud
1034
Stahl Brothers. 791
Stahl, Christopher 791
Stahl, John 791
Stanley, John 1041
Stanton, Claude D 751
Stanton, Seth W. 979
Stillwell, Stephen A. 873
Stinchfield, Moses
498
Stinson, Rocsoe. 1024
Stormer, Samuel Isaac 406
Stovall, Charles Edwin 764
Stovall, Jesse Curl 372
Sutton, Joseph A.
464
Sweet, Charles K.
976
T
Talbot, James Robinson 467
Taylor, George Newton
880
Teal, Franklin Pierce. 1011
Templeton, Charles A. 858
Tennant, Robert L.
846
Tenney, Joseph G. 708
708
Tenney & Schmidt
Terrill, John Roach and Amanda .. 628
Thayer, Albert Austin
519
Thomas, John
954
Thompson, John Stickney 911
Thompson, Leonard 394
Tiffee, John R. 275
Tolley, James B 937
Tremhlay, Francis X., M. D. 355
Trexler, John Wesley 540
Triplett, Eli 630
Troxel, Frank W 757
Troxel, George W. 697
Troy Laundry
978
Tucker, David C. 604
Turman, Hosea B. 395
Tuttle, Lewis Edmund, D. V. S.
742
Twede, Lars Hansen
674
V
Vanderford, George
932
Van Scyoc, Jackson 691
Van Syckle, Henry Weaver 494
Vestner, Charles A.
1005
von Renner, Rev. Herman J.
836
533
INDEX-BIOGRAPHICAL
W
Walker, John 486
Walter, Karl E. 962
Ward, John C ..... 654
Ware, George A 361
Waugh, Oscar
662
Weast, John Kyle. 747
Wehh, Joseph H. 777
Welton, Arthur T. 882
West, Alfred L.
838
West, Hiram Leroy 427
West, Richard Franklin, D. D. S. 941
Weyand, Hon. Ernest
473
Weyand, Julius
479
Wheeler, William Walter 992
White, James Albert and Edna 799
Whitsett, Charles A
1054
Whyler, Edward Henry 805
Whyler, Frederick William 805
Wickes, Clarence R
762
Wilderman, Joseph
997
Williams, Andrew 276
Williams, Mrs. Sarah W. Cary 375
Williams, Solomon Hasbrook 1022
Williams, William Henry 288
Wren, C. Hugh
1010
Wright, George E. 594
Wright, Eddie L. 768
Wright, Robert Mills 778
Wright, William Tolles 512
Y
Yarbrough, Robert 660
Yerxa, Woodford A. 963
Young, Robert Harvey 706
Z
Zornig, Julius August
1066
Zumwalt, Joseph
404
Zumwalt, William R.
673
HISTORICAL
IRMAS, CAL.
HISTORICAL
HISTORY OF COLUSA COUNTY
By Charles Davis McComish
FOREWORD
It occurs to me that possibly a history of Colusa County ought to begin with a history of the histories of Colusa County. For the present work is not by any means the first of its kind. At least two volumes have preceded it, devoted exclusively to a his- tory of this county.
The first was a most complete and interesting work written by the late Will S. Green and pubished in 1880. It was exhaust- ive in its detail, was copiously illustrated, and forms an exceed- ingly valuable contribution to local historical literature, because much of the material contained in it was drawn from the author's personal experiences in the very early days of this county.
The second of the two histories of the county was written by Justus H. Rogers, a newspaper man of Orland, and was pub- lished in 1891. It, too, is a complete and valuable work, one whose interest and value will increase as time passes.
Besides the books above mentioned, Colusa County has had chapters in numerous histories of the state, histories of the Sacramento Valley, and the like, that have been published from time to time, but were more or less incomplete because of the wide fields they covered.
As thirty-seven years have elapsed since the Green history was published, and twenty-six years since the publication of the Rogers history, and as history is made with exceeding rapidity in a comparatively new community, it has been deemed wise to undertake once again the recording of the events that have made the history of the county, bringing the account down to date and leaving the facts on record, so that future historians may take up the story and carry it along, in order that it may be kept continuous. For one of the chief differences between civil- ized and savage peoples is this, that the latter leave no written records of their activities.
The existence of the two works mentioned above, and the completeness with which they have gone into the early history of this county, will influence the present author to touch those 1
18
COLUSA AND GLENN COUNTIES
. early events comparatively lightly and to lay more stress upon the events of the period elapsing since the publication of the former histories of the county-events that as yet are not per- manently recorded. For the current events of today will be the history of tomorrow, and it will be read by the student of the future with just as much interest and profit as will the records of the beginnings of our county.
CHAPTER I
EARLY HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
A history of Colusa County naturally should be prefaced with a brief history of the state, in order to "lead up to the subject" properly. In the present case the preliminary recital of events will be very brief, merely enough to connect up the work in hand with the general events of the time, in order that as much time and space as possible may be devoted to the happenings with- in the county itself.
When the year 1542, A. D., dawned, the eye of a white man, so far as we know, had never looked upon the empire we now call California. There are legends and stories extant to the effect that one Mannelo, a Spanish sailor, had been left for dead on the shores of San Francisco Bay by his companions, who had come ashore from their vessel for fresh water and got into a fight with the Indians. This is said to have been between 1535 and 1540, and Manuelo is said to have recovered and lived with the Indians for several years before he found his way back to civilization; but the story is so hazy and improbable that it is hardly worthy of belief. The voyage of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, one of the lientenants of Cortez, up the coast from Mexico, where the Spaniards had a number of strong colonies, is the first visit to California by the whites, of which we have any definite record. This was in September of 1542, just fifty years after Columbus dis- covered America, and three hundred seventy-five years ago. For far the greater part of that three hundred seventy-five years, California was little disturbed by glances from the eyes of white men. It lay and slept in its mellow sunshine, walled off from the rest of the world by almost impenetrable mountains on one side and the almost boundless ocean on the other. Year after year the trees budded in the spring and shed their leaves in the fall; the grasses flourished and died away as the seasons passed over them ; rabbits, antelope, elk and other herbiverous animals roamed the plains and valleys in countless numbers; the Indians fought or
19
COLUSA AND GLENN COUNTIES
compromised with the grizzly bear and the mountain lion; the seasons rolled on-and the great state slept in its silent isolation.
It was thirty-seven years after Cabrillo explored San Diego Bay and died on the shores of California, that Sir Francis Drake, the Englishman, reached California, in 1579, on the memorable trip that took him around the world. He of course found no trace of any previous explorations or settlements, and believed that he was the first white man to reach these shores. He landed, and as was the custom of Englishmen, took possession of everything in sight-and everything that touched anything in sight-in the name of his sovereign. Then he headed across the Pacific for home.
During the twenty-three years following Drake's visit to California, three or fonr Spanish vessels visited the coast; but in each instance their stay was brief, and they accomplished nothing of permanence or value. The last of them came in 1602; and then again, for one linndred sixty-seven years, California was allowed to sleep absolutely unmolested by white men.
This brings us to the year 1769, when Father Junipero Serra · established the mission at San Diego, the first permanent settle- ment in California, and the first of the famous California mis- sions, the last of which was established in 1823.
The period from 1769 to 1833 marked the growth and pros- perity of the missions in California. There were twenty-one of them, all told, extending in a line along or near the coast from San Diego to Sonoma. Most of them were prosperous, and some of them were exceedingly rich in lands, live stock, fruits and grains. Each had a population of from five hundred to two thousand people, most of whom were converted Indians. Of San Luis Rey, the largest of the missions, it has been said that "at one time it had a baptized Indian population of several thousand, owned twenty-four thousand cattle, ten thousand horses, and one hundred thousand sheep, and harvested fourteen thousand bushels of grain a year."
From 1769, when the establishment of the missions began, till 1824, when Mexico achieved her independence from Spain, the missions were subservient to the latter country; and it was the strictness of the Spanish laws governing commerce that kept them from becoming more of a power in the commercial world. They were allowed to trade only with Spain, and in Spanish ships; and as grapes, fruits, nuts, and wines were produced also in Spain, the only things Spain needed to buy of them were hides and tallow, which came to be the chief articles of commerce. Of course their commercial activities were thus greatly impeded and their isolation promoted.
20
COLUSA AND GLENN COUNTIES
When Mexico shook off the yoke of Spain in 1824, California, because of the great distance from Spain, cast in her lot with Mexico, although the sympathies of the people of the missions and of the large ranchos surrounding them were largely with the mother country. At this time practically all of the white people of the state were Spaniards connected with the missions, the presidios or forts guarding the missions, and the ranchos in the neighborhood of the missions, the only exception worthy of note being a colony of Russians who established a fur-trading post at Fort Ross, in Marin County, in 1812.
But about this time American and British wanderers began to drift into the state, most of them being hunters and trappers. One of these was Jedediah S. Smith, a trapper who arrived in 1825 and was said to have been the first white man to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains. A few of these adventurers settled down, married into the Spanish families, and made permanent homes here. Prominent among these early American settlers was one Chapman, who deserted from a pirate ship that had come up from the coast of South America and plundered some of the mis- sions and ranchos during the troublous times of the Mexican- . Spanish War. Chapman, it seems, was a sort of genius in mechan- ical and other ways, and he proved to be a great help to the padres of the missions in improving many of their domestic processes and operations. He finally fell in love with and mar- . ried the daughter of Captain Ortega, the discoverer of San Fran- cisco Bay, and lived a long, contented and useful life in the state. Conditions of life were extremely pleasant in those days, and it was easy to drift into a condition of dreamy contentment and luxury. Many a modern man, tired of the busy bustle of today, has wished devoutly that his lot might have been cast with the gay and care-free inhabitants of California before the "Gringos" came.
But the days of the missions were fast passing. As soon as Mexico had gained her independence, she staged the first of that series of internal revolutions that has lasted till this day. Mexico, from the beginning, has been a busy country, governmentally ; and naturally she had little time to give to the government of her colony, California. Most of the governors she sent up were poli- ticians of the worst type; and their task was not lightened by the fact that most of the Spanish population preferred Spanish to Mexican rule, while a large element of the people hoped to see California one of the United States.
Mexico, as soon as she had upon her hands the responsibil- ities of a self-governing country, ceased to send funds for the support of the government in California, having, no doubt,
21
COLUSA AND GLENN COUNTIES
abundant use at home for all the funds she could raise. The local officials, in their need, turned to the missions, and for several years nearly all the governmental expenses of the colony were supplied by the padres.
When, in 1810, Mexico began her revolution against Spain, the Spanish anthorities apparently believed that the California missions would take sides with, or at least would be a great help to, Mexico, and ordered that the missions be abolished. Spain did not have the power to have the order carried out, however, and the missions continned to exist for about twenty years. But, deprived of the protection of the mother country, and neglected and plundered by Mexico, the once prosperous missions came upon evil days. Their prosperity and happiness waned, and in 1833 the Mexican government completed their destruction by an order that they be completely secularized, that their lands be divided among the converted Indians, and the padres be sent to other fields.
The decay of the mission settlements and the disappearance of the peaceful pastoral life abont them was rapid. The Indians were unable to take care of themselves without the guidance of the padres ; and they were speedily stripped of their lands, cattle and other possessions. During the period between 1833 and 1842, hunters, trappers and other adventurers were coming into the state with great frequency, and a new order in California was beginning. Captain John Sutter, the Swiss pioneer, arrived in 1839, and John Bidwell and party in 1841. By 1842 the fame of California's lands and climate had spread throughout the United States, and that year there occurred the first wave of the great flood of immigration to California. Hundreds of people came across the plains to see or settle in the wonderful new land.
By 1846 the new order was fairly well established. The Americans in the state were so numerous and so confident that they organized the Bear Flag army of some thirty-three men- several of whom afterwards became citizens of Colusa County- waged the Bear Flag war for the overthrow of Mexican rule, took General Vallejo prisoner, and cooperated with Commodore John D. Sloat, who had arrived about that time with two vessels and had captured Monterey, in the complete taking over of the gov- ernment of California from Mexican to American domination and government.
In 1848 gold was discovered by James W. Marshall in the race of a sawmill he was building for Captain Sutter, forty miles east of Sacramento; and a few months later the crest of the great flood of newcomers had struck the state. Of course many of the gold-seekers were disappointed; and this, together with the ad-
22
COLUSA AND GLENN COUNTIES
mission of California as a state in 1850, led to the rapid explo- ration and settlement of all parts of the state-which brings us directly to the history of Colusa County.
CHAPTER II
EARLY EXPLORATIONS AND FIRST SETTLERS
Early Explorations
Colusa County as we know it today (1918) is not the Colusa County that was organized in 1851. The county as first organized comprised all of what is now Colusa and Glenn Counties, and part of what is now Tehama Connty. But in 1855 the state legislature passed a bill cutting off, and adding to Tehama County, all that part of Colusa County lying north of township 22, the present northern boundary of Glenn County. The part taken away was six townships, or thirty-six miles, wide, and included the city of Red Bluff. In 1891 the county was again divided and Glenn County was formed, the line of division being drawn through township 18, north; and thus Colusa County lost another strip of territory, this one being about twenty-eight miles wide.
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