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 8
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 8
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The same legislature that defined the limits of the county passed a statute providing that counties in which a county gov- ernment had not yet been organized might organize by petitioning the district judge, the state at the time being divided into judicial districts. The people living in the vicinity of Monroeville, headed by U. P. Monroe, got up a petition and presented it to Judge Bean, county judge of Butte County, instead of district judge, asking him to call an election for the purpose of electing officers and organizing Colusi County. The people of Monroeville were perhaps excusable for ignorance of the law or a superabundance of enthusiasm in the matter, but his Honor should have known his limitations. Nevertheless he called an election for January 10, 1851, for the purpose of electing "one County Judge, Clerk, Sher-
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iff, Assessor, Recorder, Treasurer, Surveyor, Coroner and County Attorney." The judge seems to have formulated his election proclamation on instructions from Monroeville; for he named U. P. Monroe as inspector of the election, and designated "Mon- roe's ranch" as the place at which it was to be held, naming no other election officials or polling places. Evidently, though, he intended that there should be other voting places; for the procla- mation says, "It is the duty of the first Inspector to carry the returns to Sterling's ranch by Wednesday, the 15th day of Jan- uary, and with the Inspectors of the other polls held within the county, to canvass the returns of all the votes, and prepare certifi- cates of election for the candidates having the highest number of votes within the county." Apparently the court of Butte County was not aware of the existence of Colusa, for no mention is made of it in the election proclamation, although it was a thriving city of one house and half a dozen people; but the records of dis- bursements of the county treasurer show that J. C. Hicks, the carpenter who built the one house in the city, received pay for services on the election board that day, as did also Robert N. Parkhill, a Colusa settler mentioned heretofore in these pages, which would tend to show that the citizens of Colusa had an op- portunity to vote at this first election. Apparently they took little interest in it, however; for W. S. Green does not remember it at all, and Colonel Semple is not mentioned at all, in any connection. Under the circumstances, it is not a hard matter to forecast the result of the election. Monroeville carried the day and elected the only two officers who qualified. They were J. S. Holland, county judge, and U. P. Monroe, clerk and recorder, both of Mon- roeville. Naturally they preferred Monroeville as a county seat ; and without further ceremony they established the county gov- ernment there. Colonel Semple, seeing that local events were working the defeat of his cherished ambition to have the county seat at Colusa, took another tack. He went before the legislature, which was in session at the time, and had the act defining the boundaries of the county amended by adding the words, "the seat of justice shall be at the Town of Colusa." The next step in the controversy was the following petition, circulated in the early part of June, 1851, by the adherents of Monroeville :
"To the County Judge: The undersigned, electors of the County of Colusi, and State of California, being dissatisfied with the location of the seat of justice of this county, as fixed by the late Act of the Legislature, pray your honor for the removal, and that an election be held to determine to what place it shall be removed."
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The election, as above petitioned for, was held on July 11, 1851; and once again Monroeville was victorions. In spite of the act of the legislature, the county seat continued to remain there for nearly three years. At the general election in the fall of 1853 the county seat question was again voted upon, and this time the result was in Colusa's favor by three hundred ten votes to Mon- roeville's fifty-two. A short time later the records were removed to Colusa; and on June 6, 1854, a contract was let for a new courthouse at the new seat of justice, the contract price being three thousand dollars.
The best record to be found of the events connected with the organization of the new county is the report of Judge Ide, who was also county treasurer, to the state treasurer; and it is here given in full:
Monroeville, Colusi County, State of California, December 10, 1851.
Statement of the Treasurer of Colnsi County to the State Treas- urer :
On the 1st day of December, instant, the present Treasurer of Colusi County was appointed to the office by the Court of Sessions of said county, to supply and fill the vacancy of G. P. Swift, Treasurer, resigned October 21st; bond filed 6th of Decem- ber, instant, which was justified instead of being accepted by the County Judge, by reason that said Judge was personally inter- ested, and the said Treasurer this day enters upon the discharge of the duties of said office, by complying as far as practicable with the requirements of Section 49, in the latter clause; and to guard against the penalty imposed by the fifty-second section of the Revenue Act. Owing to the peculiar circumstances in which this county has existed during the six months past, relative to services rendered by its officers, onr officers (present) will be de- tained somewhat (if not in some essential cases wholly impeded) in the collection of the state and county tax for 1851. Only $93.07 has been collected and paid into the treasury. Of this $11.971% is for court house; $25.95 for connty purposes; and $55.141% for State and State loan on interest tax. The tax list was delivered to the Sheriff, or to the Under-Sheriff, J. C. Hnls, who, as near as I can learn from information derived from un- official sources, has collected some $401.46, exclusive of his own fees, and has resigned without making payment thereof either to the treasury or to his principal, December 8th. December 10th H. P. Bemis was appointed Under-Sheriff, and is proceeding to give notices as the law directs, except as to time, and will, it is expected, make a vigorous effort to collect the said taxes, which
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amount in the aggregate to $5,147.25, of which $1,838.301/2 is for State purposes; $551.49 is interest on public State loan tax; $1,383.301% is for county purposes; and $918.15 for court house and jail. Further, there are 101 polls assessed at $3-$202 for State purposes, and $101 for county purposes. The State Comp- troller has received the Auditor's duplicate, together with a very brief statement of some of the difficulties under which we labor.
Some of the principal taxpayers (or who should be tax-paying persons) positively refuse to pay any tax. There was collected by former Treasurer, G. P. Swift, some $600 or $700 of poll and other tax on personal property. Of this I cannot specify, as the said ex-Treasurer has not, as yet, although ordered so to do by the County Judge, delivered over the money and papers pertaining to the office of Treasurer of Colusi County. It is expected that most of the tax will be collected within thirty or forty days from this time, although it will be, and is probable that a considerable por- tion of our tax for this year will remain delinquent, from the fact that many persons have removed from the county, and some from the state. I am unwilling to trouble you with so long a communi- cation, but it may be essential to the welfare of the interests of our county, in this manner and at this time, that I, their County Judge and Treasurer, at present should explain.
This county, as you probably know, was organized under an order obtained by the petition of its legal voters, of Judge Bean, of the adjoining Butte County-election 10th of January, 1851. J. S. Holland was elected County Judge, and U. P. Monroe was elected Clerk and Recorder. The other officers elected either did not qualify or failed to give bonds according to law. At an election called and held on the 25th of February, other officers were elected; of these, William G. Chard and Joseph C. Huls, the former Assessor and the latter County Surveyor, and John F. Willis, Sheriff, qualified and gave bonds, which were accepted by Judge Holland. The Court of Sessions was organized on the 8th of March, by the election of William B. Ide and Newell Hall to the office of Associate Justices, being the only Justices of the Peace qualified to vote at said election. Judge Holland was then quite unwell, and only able to superintend the said organization, which completed, he, being quite sick, left the newly elected Jus- tices (a lawful quorum) to proceed in the county business. The said court divided the county into precincts, townships, road dis- tricts, etc., and ordered that the taxes for county purposes the year ensuing should be the highest rate allowed by law, which was then twenty-five cents to each $100, this county then not being in debt subsequent to the present year. Judge Holland lingered in an inconvalescent state and died on the 12th of April.
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An election was called on the 3rd of May, when John T. Hughes received a majority of the votes cast for County Judge. Newell Hall, Esq., removed from the township in which he was elected, and the office of Junior Associate Justice became vacant, and there was no other qualified Justice within the county except the Senior Associate. An election was called, and Justices called to supply vacancies. One Justice, viz., J. C. Huls, qualified and gave honds; and he became in due time a member of the Court of Sessions. Judge Hughes held one term of the Court of Ses- sions in Colusi only, and the only business brought before that session was the appointment of a road-viewing committee. On the second Monday of Angust, the Associate Justices met in accordance with the old law (Judge Hughes being absent from the county), when for the first time was presented William G. Chard's Assessor's list-so indefinitely expressed that it was utterly im- possible to equalize the said list, and the said Chard and his assistants were all absent from the county ; moreover, at this time we received the scattered fragments of the new Acts of legisla- tion, by which we learned that since May 1st our acts were not in accordance with the supreme law of the land.
We had no longer any evidence, by the letter of the law, that we, the Associate Justices, constituted a legal quorum to do busi- ness; that we are not lawfully, by any provision of the said new law, convened, not being called by order of the Judge for special term, nor yet convened in general term-time, and further, we are of the opinion that there existed on the 1st day of May, 1851, a vacancy in the office of County Judge of Colusi County. And having the Acts of the Legislature of California for our guide, we conclude that if a vacancy did exist on the said first day of May, it could only be filled by an appointment of the Governor. An opinion prevailed in the minds of said Conrt, that if an officer be illegal, all his acts, official, are illegal also; and if so, the Court has become disorganized by lack of a legal quorum. In conformity with this opinion, the Junior Justice refused to act, and the Court dissolved withont adjournment. In this state the business of the county was suspended until the first Monday in October last, when, in accordance with the law, I, having been elected at the general election to the office of County Judge, and being duly sworn, convened three Justices of the Peace, being all the qualified Justices resident in said county, and organized again the Court of Sessions, which was engaged four days in the trans- action of criminal business, when the Junior Associate was ab- sent, and the other, after one day's further attendance, left also. A called session was ordered expressly for the purpose of hearing complaints and for the purpose of equalizing the assessment roll,
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and five notices were posted in the several precinets. On or about the first of October the Assessor returned to the county, and was ordered to go over his assessment again, or to appear and give such information as would enable the Court to equalize the list or assessment roll. On the 17th, one of the Associate Justices only appeared, and the vacancy could not be filled, and the Assessor being sick did not attend, nor did he procure and return to the Court any description of the personal property of the taxpayers, whereby the Court could be informed, in any wise, of the impar- tiality of the assessment, the amount of the personal property being given in the sum total, expressed by figures; and it does not appear that any oath was required, or of what the amount of personal property consisted. The Court not being able to come to any decision on the subject of equalization of the assessment roll, the Court was adjourned to the 4th of November following. On the 3rd of November I repaired to the county seat for the purpose of holding the first County Court since the first organiza- tion, and having discovered on the 27th of October that the Pro- bate Court had previously no record of its existence, I now dis- covered that the County Court and Court of Sessions were in the same condition, as also was the District Court, except such minutes as I myself, as a member of the Court of Sessions, had taken, and excepting the minutes signed by Judge Sherwood, of the District Court, Ninth District.
Thinking that these interests might suffer from such scattered condition of the only legal evidence of the existence of these Courts, I issued a special order to U. P. Monroe, County Clerk, ordering him to perform these several duties of the County Clerk himself, or to cause them to be duly performed by some one duly appointed and sworn as his deputy. And, there being no person willing to devote his whole time in keeping the office open, accord- ing as the law requires, at the county seat, and who was able to procure the requisite bonds, as I was bound in compliance with my official duties to be at the county seat to attend twenty-four distinet sessions of various courts per annum, and considering I should save 2,000 miles of travel, I rented out my rancho and accepted the service as Deputy County Clerk, and am become my own Clerk, in accordance with the old maxim, "If you would have a good servant and one you like, serve yourself." But to resume more particularly this long narration, of our county affairs in relation to taxes ; the said Court of Sessions, being on the 17th of October, adjourned to the 4th of November, and from the said 4th of November from day to day, until one of the Associate Jus- tices was in attendance, at which time the equalization of the assessment roll was again attempted but again laid over to the 4
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regular term in December, first Monday, in consequence of the inability of the presiding Judge legally to act in deciding a ques- tion in which himself and children were interested. During the interim, the County Assessor, being recovered of his sickness, appeared at my office and made some explanations in the manner of the assessments, also some corrections, and signed his assess- ment roll, officially, which was not done before. November 24th I received an answer from the Comptroller of State to a statement I had made in relation to abstract of taxable property in Colusi. I came to the conclusion that I had better proceed at once to make the Anditor's tax lists, and have them ready to be accepted or rejected by the Court of Sessions at its December term. I did so and made up the books (duplicates) on a basis of equalization proposed and signed by the only Associate Justice hitherto in attendance. On the first day of the December term, Dr. H. P. Bemis being appointed Clerk for the term, I called up the deferred business of equalization, and it was passed by the vote of both Associate Justices, and was so entered by the Clerk on the min- utes. The aforementioned tax duplicates were examined and an order issued for their delivery to the Sheriff and Treasurer, with the order and execution on the backs thereof, for collection, duly executed and signed by the Clerk and presiding Judge.
The above represents our true state in relation to the past ; what it will be, in future, a little time will tell; the taxed swear they will not pay, and threaten combination to prevent the sale of property.
I shall be pleased to receive any advice or direction in the matter and shall conform to the requisition of the law as far as practicable.
Your very obedient servant, Wm. B. Ide, Treasurer of Colusi County, Cal.
From the above it will be seen that for the first year of its existence the government of Colusa County was William B. Ide, County Judge, Treasurer and Deputy County Clerk, and unoffi- cially performing such duties of the other offices as were per- formed. Judge Ide seems to have been the only official who took office-holding seriously, and to him must go whatever thanks are owing by posterity for the fact that the county got going as a county in 1851. Apparently he held himself personally responsible for the proper performance of all county official duties, and did many things that could not have been expected of one man, even in those unsettled and unorganized days. Among the unusual services he performed for the county was
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the construction of a cage, or iron cell, for the safe-keeping of prisoners. There was no county jail, and it was a problem with the court how to safeguard prisoners while the processes of law were being gone through with. The difficulty was solved by Judge Ide, who sent to San Francisco for some bar iron, and with his own hands cut the bars into proper lengths, drilled the holes, and constructed the "jail," which served its purpose ad- mirably. While the county seat was at Monroeville, this "jail" remained out under a tree, where the whole town could take a hand in seeing that the prisoners did not escape; and when the seat of government was transferred to Colusa, the jail went along with it and was installed in the new courthouse, where it served its original purpose for a number of years. The "new court- honse" will be remembered by many people as the old house that stood just east of the Colusa Theater and was used by Judge J. B. Moore as a residence before he built the house he now lives in.
The court of sessions, mentioned by Judge Ide, was abolished many years ago. It was composed of the county judge and two associate justices chosen by the justices of the peace of the county from among their number. Its first sessions in this county were rather unsatisfactory, as will be noted from Judge Ide's report, and caused him a good deal of worry.
Although Judge Ide appears from the foregoing to have been the most prominent, and certainly the most painstaking, man connected with the organization of the county, Will S. Green, in his history of the county, intimates that Ide was under the control of U. P. Monroe; for he administers a neat slap to the Judge by saying that Monroe disappeared "after running the county government for some time."
By the end of 1852 county affairs were running quite smoothly, and ever since that time there has been no lack of men to fill the offices. As an evidence of the growth of popu- lation, it might be stated that the United States census gave the entire population of the county as one hundred fifteen in 1850; while in 1852 there were two hundred seventy-six men who paid poll tax, and of course a great many others who didn't. In the latter year a bill was presented in the state Senate pro- viding for the division of the county into two counties, to be called Leco and Avena. The bill was referred to the proper committee, and the committee reported that there was not pop- ulation enough for two counties, and county division was post- poned for forty years.
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CHAPTER VII
COLUSA COUNTY POLITICALLY
Colusa County was born in a warm time, politically. When the infant county first opened its eyes, it beheld a spirited "serap" in progress over the location of the county seat-a "serap" that lasted for four years, and was finally settled when the county records and the county jail were brought from Mon- roeville to Colusa. Ever since those early days, moreover, the political pot has occasionally been the scene of violent ebulli- tions-contests that have not at all indicated that the people are of a disputatious nature, but rather that they are alive and awake to political questions. It will be a sad day for the coun- try when the people cease to take an active interest in politics, local and national.
For several years after the removal of the seat of govern- ment from Monroeville to Colusa, the political life of the new county flowed along smoothly. Men were too busy developing the land to take much time for politics. There was no news- paper to unite the people in a common bond of public senti- ment. The county offices were not particularly desirable; and no local question arose to create especial interest.
But the slavery question, which was looming up more and more portentously each year in the East, was beginning to throw ยท its shadow across California and Colusa County. The founders of the town of Colusa were Southern men, as were many of the early settlers. Naturally they wrote back to their friends and relatives of the beauties and advantages of the new country, and induced many of them to settle here. And the casual settler, looking over the state for a home, naturally chose the location where there was a nucleus of his own people. The result was, that when the great storm broke in 1861 this county had a preponderance of Southern people and Southern sentiment. This was partially offset by the fact that the state remained loyal to the Union, and that upon one or two occasions United States troops were sent here during the war to temper the enthusiasm for the South; so that it is fairly accurate to say that Northern and Southern sentiment were equally divided, or at least equally influential, during the unpleasantness.
Of course there could not help being some display of parti- sanship at a time when there was so much at stake on both sides ; but there were remarkably few scenes of violence during the entire period of the war. The Presidential election of 1864,
.
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between Lincoln and McClellan, was a fierce contest in this county, neither side leaving anything undone to insure vietory. McClellan carried the county, of course, for this was then the "banner Democratic county of the state"; and it has borne that title ever since. It also used to be said that the "left wing of Pap Price's army had settled in Colusa County" -- a saying that may be taken as an indication of the number of ex-Confed- erate soldiers who located in the county after the war. So the county came by its Democracy honestly enough, and has main- tained it uninterruptedly from those days till this, although in recent years much more moderately than in the days immediately following the war. In some of the counties of the high-tariff, rock-ribbed protection state of Pennsylvania, it used to be said that you could hunt all day with a shotgun without finding enough Democrats to make a mess. A similar statement might have been made of the Republicans of Colusa County many years ago. Timid Republicans kept their politics .under cover, lest their taking sides with the minority party might "hurt business." One Colusa business man told me that he lived in the town for seven years before anybody knew that he was a Republican. Today fierce partisanship is one of the things that were, and are not. The final chapter in its passing was written when the state legislature passed a law making county, school and judicial offices non-partisan. Where the newspapers used to record after each election that "The entire Democratie ticket was elected by a large majority," we now find the county offices filled by men from both parties; and there are probably dozens of people in the county who don't know what party the various officers belong to, and don't care. People and papers who once worked night and day "for the good of the party," now work equally hard, I hope, for the good of the country-and the two jobs are sometimes vastly different.
In 1865 came the close of the Civil War and the abnormal conditions attending it, and shortly thereafter came the announce- ment of Lincoln's assassination. At this time, when there was every reason to begin to forget the old animosities, the flames of partisanship burst out more fiercely than they had ever done before in the county. Some of the more hot-headed of the South- ern sympathizers announced that they intended to fire an "anvil salute" in celebration of Lincoln's death. The blacksmith shop and the anvil were located across Fifth Street from the River- side Hotel; and the story goes that John H. Liening, proprietor of the hotel, a man of German birth but a rabid Union man, who is said to have feared neither man nor devil, took his Win- chester rifle and, repairing to the upper balcony of the hotel,
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