USA > California > Contra Costa County > History of Contra Costa County, California, including its geography, geology, topography, climatography and description; together with a record of the Mexican grants also, incidents of pioneer life; and biographical sketches of early and prominent settlers and representative men > Part 53
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In the naming of the new town there was much variety of disposition. To begin with, the Spanish population and donors of the land wanted it to be named Todos Santos (All Saints), by which name it is recorded; the
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Township Number Three.
Americans had dubbed it "Drunken Indian" with that genius that the early pioneers displayed for the science of nomenclature ; but, it was left for the Contra Costa Gazette to give it the name of Concord, by which it is now known, habitually if not officially.
Concord is a thriving town, possessing two excellent hotels and many places of business. In 1870 a school was started in its precincts, and first taught by Mrs. Henry Polley, née Annie Carpenter. In 1873 a handsome Roman Catholic church was commenced, and was duly dedicated Novem- ber 5, 1876. In the town stands the Plaza, a park-like inclosure, well shaded and laid out with walks, which was completed in 1876. All in all, Concord is a pretty and prosperous place.
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TOWNSHIP NUMBER FOUR.
Geography .- Township Number Four is bounded on the north by Suisun Bay, on the east by Township Number Five, on the south by Township Number Two, and on the west by Townships Numbers Two and Three.
Topography .- The principal portion of this township is a series of mountains, the valleys being small though prolific. Mount Diablo, with its surrounding satellites, holds sway in all directions, down whose slopes come shady rivulets that prattle through the densely foliaged cañons. At its northern end we have a level strip of land, the beginning of the great San Joaquin plain.
Soil .- The soil in the portion of the Diablo and smaller valleys included . in Township Number Four, is much like that of Santa Clara, consisting mostly of a gravelly loam, mixed more or less with adobe. It produces fair crops of grain, is good for fruit, and, in most places, well adapted to the cultivation of the vine. This is demonstrated beyond a doubt by several vineyards which have been bearing for many years past. There is con- siderable land around or near the base of the mountain, of a reddish loam, containing more or less mineral matter.
Products .- The principal product of the township is coal. Grain is grown in the valleys and slopes of the foothills to a large extent, while all fruits do well, except apples, which require a cooler climate than is to be found here. Wine-making is carried on quite extensively ; principally by Messrs. Kohler, Morshead and Martini, all of which is in quality equal to any produced in the State.
Timber .- The timber found in this township is chiefly that usually confined to the mountain slopes bounding California valleys. The live and white oak is found in abundance, the silvery sycamore and the willow are everywhere met, the beautiful buckeye, the madrona and the laurel, line almost all the canons, while far away on the hill-sides lie piles of wood, the labor of the woodman, and ready for market.
Climate .- The climate of Township Number Four is generally warm and dry, the temperature in Summer generally ranging fron 70° to 80°, and occasionally when the north wind prevails, there will be a hot spell of three or four days, when the mercury will rise to 95° or 100° in the shade.
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Township Number Four.
For health there are few, if any, better localities in the State, the air being free from fog and dampness, with no malaria, no mosquitos, and no visible cause of disease of any kind. The sea-breezes have the chill all taken from them as they come gently floating over the land, and are first cool enough to be refreshing and to temper the heat which otherwise in Summer would be oppressive.
Early Settlement .- The early settlement of Township Number Four is interesting in the extreme, and is replete with historic lore.
Situated on the Los Medanos Grant is a place now known as New York Landing. Ichabod ! Ichabod ! At a very early date it was thought that on this spot would rise the metropolis of the Pacific, consequently a large city was laid out by Colonel J. D. Stevenson, of the famous regiment which bore his name, and to it was given the rather ambitious title of " New York of the Pacific." General W. T. Sherman in his " Early Recollections of Cal- ifornia," says : "I made a contract to survey for General J. D. Stevenson his newly projected city of New York of the Pacific, situated at the mouth of the San Joaquin river. The contract also embraced the making of sound- ings and the marking out of a channel through Suisun Bay. We hired, in San Francisco, a small metallic boat with a sail, laid in some stores, and proceeded to the United States ship Ohio. At General (Persefer F.) Smith's request, we surveyed and marked the line dividing the city of Benicia from the Government reserve. We then sounded the bay back and forth, and staked out the best channel up Suisun Bay. We then made the prelimin- ary surveys of the city of New York of the Pacific, all of which we duly plotted ; and for this work we each received from Stevenson five hundred dollars and ten or fifteen lots. I sold enough lots to make up another five hundred dollars, and let the balance go, for the city of New York of the Pacific never came to anything."
The actual facts are that these two old pioneers, Col. Stevenson and Dr. William Parker, conjointly had purchased the land and had in contempla- tion the building of a city as stated above, to which they had transported lumber, fixtures, etc., to commence operations. On July 6, 1849, there ar- · rived in San Francisco two brothers and their families, viz. Joseph H., and W. W. Smith, who contracted to proceed to the proposed city and begin building. The initial building in the city was erected for the accommoda- tion of the two families, and according to the contract, was to be occupied by them, " rent free," for the first three months. They took possession about August 1, 1849, and resided in it until they acquired it by purchase. This structure was eighteen by forty feet; subsequently twenty feet more were added to the south end, and a tent running west twenty by fifty feet was tacked on, while the whole edifice received the appellation of the " New York House," a name that has passed into the chronicles of Contra Costa county. Afterwards W. W. Smith added an oven to the premises-one of
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magnificent proportions-for besides being capable of baking bread, cakes, and such like, an entire " beef" has been placed on its smooth tiles at night and the next morning brought out " cooked to a turn." This was the first house built in the township, and there, on the point above Antioch, to which it was removed, does it still stand, a landmark to evidence the earlier settle- ment of the district. At the period of the arrival of the Smith families José Antonio Mesa had a camping spot with a tule roof about half a mile west of what is now Pittsburg Landing, while there was a deserted cabin in the hills, and a patch of tobacco growing immediately below the spring which now supplies the town of Nortonville with water.
Let us for a moment glance at the workings of the New York House and its proprietor. Mr. Smith, besides receiving as much as fourteen dollars per day wages at his trade of carpenter, during the evening occasionally fried fifty dollars' worth of doughnuts, bread, etc., which latter was worth one dollar per loaf, the oven having a capacity of twenty-two loaves. During the rainy season the men employed in plying in boats on the river, often paid a dollar for the privilege of sleeping on the floor of the New York House, in their own blankets ; while, in respect to table commodities the chief articles usually provided were bread and fresh beef, to which Mr. Smith occasionally added butter and fruit, the former of which was pro- cured from ships at the price of one hundred dollars per keg of a hundred pounds, and the latter from San Francisco. The New York House was the first building erected between Salvio Pacheco's, at what is now the village of Concord, and Dr. Marsh's residence on Marsh creek. The next house to go up was that of John Beemer, agent for Messrs. Stevenson and Parker, who was also the first Postmaster (Junction postoffice it was called), and Justice of the Peace under the new State Constitution. The third house was one erected for Dr. Forejo, of San Francisco, in which Henry F. Toy opened a saloon. This man Toy, it is said, lived with an Indian squaw, by whom he had a child, but finding these encumbrances too much, exchanged the boy for a horse and the woman for a Newfoundland dog. These houses were all erected in New York of the Pacific; before leaving this city, how- ever, we should mention that Mr. Smith removed in December, 1849, to a farm situated near where the town of Antioch now stands, and leased the New York House to his sister-in-law, Sarah B., the widow of his brother, Rev. Joseph H. Smith, who died February 5, 1850. It was subsequently leased to Zachariah Shafer, who shortly afterwards failed in business and left. The building remained unoccupied for some time and was, as we have already said, finally removed to Smith's Point, a slip of land which juts into the river above Antioch, where it now stands, a monument of the first savings of these pioneer families.
In the Spring of 1850 Howard Nichols, now residing near Clayton, ar- rived in New York of the Pacific, where he found a thriving place with
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Township Number Four.
several houses of entertainment, the New York House being prosperous, and kept on strict temperance principles. Shortly after Nichols purchased the ship Mount Vernon, and turned her into a receiving hulk, alongside of which the steamers took on board and discharged freight and passengers. He then bought the contents of the Kennebec House, a hostelry which had succumbed to fate, and fitting up the Mount Vernon as a boarding-house in 1851, received a large number of customers.
At the first election under the Constitution in 1850, there were on shore and on shipboard at New York of the Pacific, from five to eight hundred voters. The proclamation of Governor Riley had been issued to have all needed officers elected, and, if any precinct failed to elect them, the Prefects had power to appoint magistrates or alcades, so that an election could be held. This proclamation divided the districts somewhat, making all east of the Mount Diablo range of mountains in the San Joaquin district. The first elected to the office was W. W. Smith, who soon opened an office in his private residence, but finally removed it to a building at the back of the town, subsequently known as the Pratt House, where the owner resided afterwards until he was murdered. The alcade had charge of all sanitary, civil, criminal and judicial affairs of his district, with full power to appoint his officers, levy taxes and collect fees. This officer spent some two thousand dollars in time, money and medicines, in caring for the sick and dead, none of which was ever reimbursed, and he found the position honorary and very expensive.
In those early days the business between San Francisco and the inland towns, situated on the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers, was done en- tirely by sailing craft of every conceivable size and shape, the time con- sumed in a trip being often wearisome and lengthy. Most of these usually called at New York to take in fresh provisions, and brought considerable trade, but, in 1850, steamer after steamer was put upon the interior lines, which, by their more rapid transit, broke up the business at this point, and considerably lessened the importance of the embryo city.
Besides the early settlers mentioned above, there was a Mr. Lord, who was supercargo of the bark Oscar, of Bangor, Maine, he being also agent for the ship Orderly Clerk. On the first named vessel the steamer Governor Dana was brought out in sections, lengthened and re-built at New York of the Pacific. Another prominent gentleman was H. H. Hartley, who was the first practising lawyer in the district. Of him the following is related : Mr. Hartley was a native of England, and in that country had studied and practised law. The phraseology of the British courts he brought with him, and commenced addressing the court as " My Lord." In a case before the Alcalde at New York, Hartley was counsel for the plaintiff, the master of the ship Kennebec, and Mr. Bodfish the attorney for the defence. On rising to address the Bench, Hartley, instead of commencing "May it please the Court," began " May it please your Lordship," when he was called
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to order by the opposing counsel. He very naturally inquired wherein had he erred, when he was informed by Bodfish that he should have said " please the Court-we are in the United States of America-we have no Lords here ;" the Court ruled the point of order well taken, but the habit was so strong in Mr. Hartley that it was long before he broke himself of it. At the period of which we write, Mr. Hartley was the Secretary of the Company to which the ship belonged that Mr. Lord was agent for, while Mr. Bodfish was agent for the Kennebec company. A brother of Bodfish was proprietor of one of the most popular hotels in the town, while one of them had his wife and sister with him. These men owned a small steamer and several small sailing craft on the upper Sacramento river, and when communication on the inland waters became an absolute fact and no longer a matter of conjecture, they transferred their domiciles to Red Bluff in Tehama county. J. C. McMaster is one more of the very early residents of the district. He came to California in 1849, in the same vessel as did the Smiths, and after passing some time at the mines and Stockton came to New York of the Pacific, and commenced work on the buildings then rising there. He afterwards, in partnership with William Dupee, purchased the sloop Flying Cloud, fitted her up and placed her on the line between San Francisco, Stockton and Sacramento. Mr. McMaster is now the much- respected Supervisor from Township Number Five.
Since these halcyon days, New York of the Pacific has ceased to be anything but a name, the place is usually called New York Landing or Black Diamond, the latter being the designation of the Post-office there established.
Let us now glance at another portion of the township. In the year 1852 Captain Howard Nichols left New York, and settled where he now resides, at the foot of Mount Diablo, not far from the town of Clayton. Here he found already located J. D. Allen, near where Mr. Nichols now lives ; a man named Evans dwelt about a mile and a half from the present residence of Nicholas Kirkwood; while William Taynton came about the same time, and settled where they live now. At this period the Clayton estate was the property of Alexander and George H. Riddell, of Benicia. We are given to understand that Captain Lewis and a family named Robertson also lived here about that time.
In the year 1855 George W. Hawxhurst located where the town of Somersville now stands, and commenced prospecting for coal, discovering and locating the Union vein, in March, 1855. In the Spring of 1856 Charles Rhine settled in the township, and opened a store about two miles from Clayton, on land now occupied by William Hawes. When he came, James McNeil lived on the same section ; Joshua Marsh was where Captain Russelman now resides; John H. Weber was where he at present is; A. Richardson lived near the "Divide," and the Stranahan Brothers were
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Township Number Four.
also located in the township. In this year Nicholas Kirkwood took up his abode on the land he to-day occupies, to be followed in the succeeding year, 1857, by James Gay and Daniel S. Carpenter, in New York valley.
In the meantime the town of Clayton had been established by Joel Clayton, hotels built and stores opened by Romero Mauvais and George Chapman, Charles Rhine and A. Senderman respectively, and much ex- pected from the looked-for discovery of coal in paying quantities in the vicinity-which never came. Clayton, however, has its beauties of location to enhance it in the eyes of the citizens of Contra Costa county. Standing at the head of Mount Diablo valley, with the mountain, nearly four thousand feet high, in the background, with ranges of hills on either side covered with verdure, and many of them cultivated in grain nearly to their tops, you look down across the valley covered with grainfields and dotted with farm houses, orchards, vineyards, and scattering oaks, to the Straits of Car- quinez. Over these waters are passing steamers and sailing craft, laden with the products of the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys, to San Fran- cisco, Benicia and Port Costa, or with the return freights of merchandize, agricultural or mining implements to supply the wants of the people resid- ing in those valleys. Across the Straits may be seen the military barracks and the United States Arsenal, and portions of Benicia. Still beyond, in Napa county, may be seen the blue and purple crest of Mount St. Helena, which sometimes, in the months of February and March, is made more prominent by its mantle of snow, glistening in the sunlight, and warning the husbandman and fruit-grower of the dangers of frost to their crops. The Coast Range of mountains in the distance presents a barrier to this charming view, which, for beauty, variety and picturesqueness, is rarely surpassed.
In the year 1856, Jerry Morgan, who, we have already seen, settled in the Ygnacio valley in 1853, had been out bear hunting at the back of Mount Diablo, when he discovered the tract of land now by common acceptation called Morgan Territory. It was not thought worth surveying by the Government ; Morgan, however, was struck by its beauties of scenery and adaptability for pasturage for stock; he therefore settled on it, and in the following year, in the month of October, brought his family thither. In Morgan Territory, Marsh creek has its headwaters, and goes purling and babbling through its length, o'ershadowed by waving branches, overhanging crags and the huge sides of Diablo. When Morgan came to the place there was a man named Steingrant living on the place now owned by John Roche, where he had a corral, and was engaged in herding government stock. He was the only settler in the rocky district. In 1857 Alonzo Plumley, now residing near Byron, in Township Number Five, acquired a possessory right from Morgan of one-half of the tract as originally taken up, and settled on it. In 1858, John H. Weber and Marion Francis Gibson
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History of Contra Costa County.
located where the widow of Robert Howard now resides, Weber living on the land now owned by him below the school-house.
In 1858 a school was started in Morgan Territory, on the place where Mrs. Howard now lives, not far from the site of the present school-house, and was first taught by William Ellis, since when a school has been main- tained regularly.
In 1859 Ransome Woods settled above Mr. Morgan, while Solomon Perkins located on the place now owned by Robert Lewis; and John Gib- son, with Christopher Leeming, came to the ranch of Samuel Foster, on Curry creek. They were bought out by Edward Curry in 1860.
The ten thousand acres which Mr. Morgan fenced in on first taking pos- session teemed with game of every kind. In one year he killed no fewer than forty-six bears, he says, while the streams abounded with fish-in fact, a hunter's paradise. In 1856 he was three days getting into the tract with his wagons, passing where the town of Clayton was built the year after.
It is not our purpose here to go into the subject of the discovery of coal in this and the adjoining township; that will be found treated else- where in this volume ; suffice it to say, that from its first being put to a practical test in 1859 up to the present time, 1882, the yield has been large and the improvement immense. With the realization of the dreams that brought inexhaustible coal fields, the two mining towns of Nortonville and Somersville sprang into existence, and have since been busy centers of in- dustry, and a credit to any land.
In the year 1860 Henry Polley settled in Clayton, and later commenced farming, and still resides in its vicinity.
In 1861 the first house was built by Noah Norton in the town of Nor- tonville, on a site now covered by one of the coal " dumps ;" about a year after he erected another building which still stands. There were several people here then, among them being Atwell Pray, who, with Charles Gwynn, started the Black Diamond Hotel in 1863. There had been a hotel, how- ever, opened at the Cumberland mine in 1861, by George Scammon. At Somersville, in this year, there was a boarding-house at the Independent Shaft, kept by a man named Griffin, the owner of the American Exchange building in Antioch, while, on the site of the Pittsburg Hotel, there was a similar house to the one now standing, kept by a man named Hendricks. In 1863 a store was opened at Somersville by A. Senderman, while two years later, 1865, Joel Clayton opened a store in Nortonville nearly opposite where now is the office of Morgan Morgans, Mine Superintendent.
On Wednesday April 8, 1863, an hour or two after midnight, a most fatal fire broke out in the boarding-house of Sydney Maupin, near the Pittsburg Coal Mine. The ground the premises occupied is that on which now stands the Pittsburg Hotel of George H. Scammon. In it Mr. Maupin and three of his children perished. Mr. Maupin was an old resident of the county,
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Township Number Four.
and was highly esteemed. Once more we have to chronicle the devasta- tions of the fiery fiend. On February 28, 1864, the little town of Clayton was almost blotted out of existence. Two hotels and several other places of business were destroyed to the amount of about fifteen thousand dollars, the whole property lost being uninsured. In the year 1865, or perhaps earlier, a school was opened on the site of the present building, in Somers- ville, and was taught by T. A. Talleyrand. The following year, 1866, saw a like institution in full force in Nortonville, under the preceptorship of D. S. Woodruff. This building stood near the present shaft, but was removed to the top of the hill in 1870, the original building having been added to it, until at present it boasts four departments. In 1867 the Congregational Church at Clayton was built, while, at Somersville, Post No. 28, Grand Army of the Republic, was organized April 12, 1869, and in the same year a neat little church erected.
On March 9, 1872, we have to record the death of Joel Clayton, a gen- tleman who had done much towards the advancement of the township and county, and who was intimately identified with the early discoveries and developments of the coal mines, while in October, of the following year, death claimed E. G. Stranahan, who was crushed by a caving bank while digging a cellar.
On October 16, 1874, the engine-house of the new shaft and hoisting works of the Black Diamond Company, at Nortonville, was burned; and on July 24, 1876, a terrible disaster occurred in the same town, whereby several persons lost their lives.
On June 18, 1877, the Union Hotel at Somersville was totally destroyed, for the second time, by fire; while on December 28, 1878, another confla- gration reduced to ashes the store of Ferdinand Gambs there, the loss being fifteen thousand dollars.
We will now pass on to the especial histories of the towns of Clayton, Nortonville and Somersville.
CLAYTON .- The little village of Clayton lies snugly nestled at the foot of Mount Diablo, on its northern side, and at the head of Mount Diablo valley, which extends from the town of Pacheco, in a southeasterly direc- tion, to the foot of the mountain, a distance of some eight or nine miles The place takes its name from Joel Clayton, whose son is still a resident of the neighborhood, and was started in 1857, Mr. Clayton only laying out one street, and a few lots on either side of it. His object in establishing a village at all, was the prospect of finding coal in the vicinity. He had been, for a number of years, an active and extensive explorer on the coast for coal and other mineral deposits, and was intimately identified with the early discoveries and development of the coal mines in Contra Costa county.
In or about 1858 he had a town site surveyed, by K. W. Taylor, and
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the lots offered for sale; with this, settlers arrived, and soon a cluster of houses sprang up.
The first house remembered in what is now the village, was a small dwelling that stood on the site of the present residence of Charles Rhine, occupied by Mrs. Rees, but it was constructed before Clayton was. In 1857 a Frenchman named Romero Mauvais built a place, which he opened as a tavern, that stood on the site now occupied by the Clayton Hotel; while not long after George Chapman erected a hotel alongside of the present livery stable of James Curry. In that same year Charles Rhine moved his business from the point where he had first located, two miles out of town, and opened a store next to Mauvais' hotel; and not long after A. Senderman opened a store next to the Chapman hostelry : thus had the town its start, and prospered for a few years.
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