USA > California > Humboldt County > History of Humboldt County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 10
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There was a notable raid at Trinidad, a terrible battle at Redwood creek, and a number of engagements between scouting parties and Indians followed. The mountaineers were the most active of the whites in pursuing the Indians at this time. They had enough to do when pack trains had to be escorted across the mountains and houses had to be guarded, for swiftly moving bands of savages had to be trailed over deserted hills and through dangerous canyons. The moun- taineers proved themselves to be very effective, and it was through their able battling with the reds that victory finally came to the white men. August and September brought desolation and death to the whites and reds alike in the vicinity of the Trinity mines. Bledsoe's history gives a wonderfully interesting account of this two years' war, and the reader who may be interested is referred to it. Not only so, but Bledsoe's wonderfully interesting volume should be con- sulted by any person desiring to know more minutely the facts concerning the Indian wars of the northwestern part of California.
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We have given the foregoing account, with some local color, simply to give the reader a general idea of the conditions which confronted the pioneers who founded Humboldt county. In conclusion it may be well to give a view of the ideas entertained by those who have given careful consideration to the Indian question.
It is the opinion of a number of investigators and men who have had a long and intimate acquaintance with the pioneers that the wars with Indians were caused very largely by the overbearing and criminal conduct of a comparatively few men. It is said that one of the most flagrant of the early incidents which led to the war was that of a man who attempted to assault a beautiful young Indian woman as she was going along with her boy. He allowed his passion to get the best of him and demanded that the woman yield to him. She refused and her son clung to her garments, whereupon the bully, made angry by the outcry of the boy, shot him down by his mother's side, after which he proceeded to carry her away to his tent. After this her people killed an ox and did some other deeds in revenge, and it was not long before the community was in an uproar. In speaking of these early Indian troubles, J. Ross Browne says: "I am satisfied, from an acquaintance of eleven years with the Indians, that. had the least care been taken of them, these disgraceful massacres and wars would never have occurred. A more inoffensive and harmless race of beings does not exist on the face of the earth, but wherever they attempted to procure a subsistence they were hunted down; driven from the reservations from the instinct of self- preservation ; shot down by the settlers upon the most frivolous pretexts, and abandoned to their fate by the only power that could afford them protection." The massacre of the Indians still continued, and in February, 1861, thirty-nine Diggers were killed by the settlers on main Eel river above the crossing of the old Sonoma trail. A few settlers at Kentinshaw, at the beginning of the winter, in order to avoid danger to their stock from snow, moved down on main Eel river at the point named. Not long thereafter some of them returned to look after their houses, and found that the Indians had destroyed all of them. Thereupon a company started in pursuit of the offenders, taking along some friendly Indians to assist them. They found the band that committed the damage and killed the Indians, to the number stated above. The Indians at once retaliated as best they could and the settlers were driven from the interior. It was estimated that nine thousand head of cattle were killed by the Indians. Another war was at once started in which local volunteers participated.
For many years, it is evident, that the Indians of the state in general were abused and defrauded of their natural rights and sometimes cheated out of government bounties. Their domestic happiness was disturbed by lawless adven- turers, and they were driven from their favorite fishing grounds and hunting places under a pretense of Indian hostilities, when the primary object in some cases was to get possession of choice locations and obtain money from the govern- ment for quelling disturbances. This statement will not apply as an indictment against the whole or even against a very large part of the early settlers; but it is known that there was a large number of unscrupulous men who acted as here indicated. It is not strange that these encroachments upon the natural rights of the Red Men aroused their passions and inflamed their savage nature into a veritable fire, until they were driven to become dangerous foes to the white race and forced to cause much suffering. For a long time they retarded the growth
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and prosperity of the country, but it has been a good many years since there was any outbreak.
A little glance at the reservation question will show that under the act of Congress passed in 1864, it was provided that not more than four reservations should be set apart for Indians in California, and that these would be under two superintendents. The Hoopa valley, in Humboldt county, was of course one of the settlements.
Congress, in July, 1868, authorized the abandonment of some Indian farms on Smith river in Del Norte county and removed the Indians to the Hoopa valley in Humboldt county. A resident of Humboldt county was employed, being an experienced mountaineer, well acquainted with the routes, to bring the Indians to the reservation in Humboldt county.
The Hoopa reservation has an area of about thirty-eight thousand acres, and the valley is estimated to contain about two thousand five hundred acres of arable land. With the assistance of the Smith river reservation Indians, through sys- tematic and expert operation, a large crop of grain and vegetables was raised in the valley soon after they came there. The reservation was under a fine state of cultivation almost immediately and the government report indicates that it is now one of the best in the country. Where all was once bloodshed and consterna- tion, peace and plenty now prevail. Those wars and those times are now only a memory, yet they are a part of history.
CHAPTER IX. Life and Times in the Early Fifties
One of the first things that impresses one who talks with an intelligent pioneer of '49 or '50 who retains a vivid recollection of "the days of old, the days of gold, the days of forty-nine" is that he was in the very morning of life when he crossed the plains or rounded the Horn. The picture of a company of young men, each a bold soldier of fortune, is the inevitable impression left on the investigator after interviewing a pioneer, whether he came to Sutter creek in 1849 or to Humboldt county in the early '50s.
John Carr gives a vivid account of those who were his associates in those times, in his entertaining Pioneer Days in California. He tells the reader that he was always amused when he read the wholly incorrect accounts of pioneer days, as set forth by writers of later years. Their story books and newspaper articles were often illustrated by woodcuts of "rockers" and "long toms," while the portraits or cuts of the miners themselves were such that he sometimes imagined that the miners must be disturbed in their graves. It will be interesting to quote him, thus: "I sometimes think that, if it were allowed to the spirit of man to come back to this world, some outraged miner who sleeps his last sleep on the mountain side, or in the flats of California, would rise from his grave and haunt the artist who drew such caricatures of the early Californian miners. Most of the miners that I see in the woodcuts appear to be old, haggard looking men, with bent backs, slouch hats, and wrinkled faces, more like the picture of the tramp of 1890 than the honest miner of 1850.
"As a rule the first immigrants that came to California were young men- the very flower, physically speaking, of the United States; and the pictures in the modern woodcuts no more represent them than they do Chinese. It has been
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my endeavor to give a correct history of the times and doings of the men and women of the past who were the pioneers of our civilization and who planted American manners, customs, and laws in the great state of California."
The sturdy young men who blazed the way for civilization in Humboldt county met with many hardships among the Indians and beasts of the forests. Not only so, but they had almost no social life. There were neither women nor children in the North_until 1851, when Mrs. Joseph Ewing, long thereafter a resident of Eureka, had the honor of being the first woman to arrive in Trinity county. She became popular with "the boys" and was looked upon as the mother of the camp. She and her husband started the United States hotel and were followed by Richard Johnson and his wife, who lived for many years in the Bear River country. They also started a hostelry which they called Sidney Mill.
Boys were also a rarity. The writer remembers talking with an old man of the name David Dean, a resident of Freshwater, who said he was the first boy who ever saw Eureka. He came from the East with his parents when very young. "I attracted as much attention as a circus," he said, "as some of the men followed me around as if they had never scen a boy before. They all treated me well."
There was a rude form of justice, accompanied by force. It seems that about until the summer of 1851 nobody paid much attention to either politics or civil law. The miners made their own laws, civil and criminal. It seems that the Legislature of '50 and '51 passed the act creating Trinity county. Carr tells us that Shasta county was then the most northerly county of the state, and very little attention was paid to the state laws there. Under the act creating Trinity county, the whole of the territory embracing Trinity, Humboldt, Old Klamath and Del Norte, was embraced within the limits of Trinity. Nobody cared much about nor paid much attention to the act of the Legislature until the middle of the summer, when a crowd of men were seen riding into Weaverville by the astonished natives.
Mr. Carr says: "They did not look like miners, and looked too honest to be gamblers. The query was, 'who were they?' We were not long in suspense, for they announced themselves as candidates for the offices of the newly made county of Trinity. They were residents around Humboldt Bay."
It seems that Blanchard ran for county judge, C. F. Ricks for county clerk, John A. Whaley for assessor, Tom Bell for county treasurer, Dixon for sheriff, John A. Lyle and John H. Harper for senator, McMillan for the Legislature. The list was almost complete. It was then that Mr. Ricks began his memorable fight for the county seat. He was anxious to get the vote for Eureka, and Whaley for Arcata or Union Town, as it was then called, made the other fight. Buck- sport had many friends, but it did not amount to very much in the contest.
It is interesting to go back to those early times for evidences of the social life and economic conditions in general. It seems that in those early days the United States mails were very uncertain and very costly, but whenever new mines were discovered or a new camp was located it is said that some enterprising person would go around and obtain all the names of the people in the camp. Soon there- after he would start a pony express and it was not much trouble to induce each man to take some kind of a newspaper. It is said that the Western men would usually take the Missouri Republican or the Louisville Courier-Journal, while the Eastern men took the New York Herald or the New York Tribune. The news- papers sold for fifty cents each, and the postage on each letter was $1. Men did not begrudge the $1 and were glad to receive mail at that price. It is said that
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one could seldom go into a miner's tent or cabin without finding some of the newspapers mentioned.
The houses of those times were very crude. From four to six men were usually found in each habitation, and the same number were usually present at each "mess." Honesty was the rule, the only trouble, or almost the only trouble about property, being the theft of small articles now and then by wandering Indians. It was this habit of stealing among the Indians, in part, which caused a great deal of bitter warfare in later years.
It was common to see stray horses and oxen wandering around camp. Some- times they would upset the unprotected barrels of sugar and flour, or play havoc with the food, much to the amusement or disgust of the miners, according to the pientifulness of the aforesaid articles. But as there was generally a great scarcity, the funny side of the situation did not appeal to the miners until some years thereafter.
The single house of a miner, often situated near a spring or creek, was frequently the forerunner of a town. Those houses were hardly worthy of the name, being crude and having no floors except the earth itself. The beds were usually made of logs, which were squared so as to be comfortable, and lined with gunny bags or potato sacks. Fern leaves and hay were frequently used to spread over the log and soften it for a bed. The covering was of blankets, and on this the miners were rather comfortable and would have remained so but for the habits of those who did not use sufficient water and precaution with them- selves, for which reason many of the camps were infested with vermin.
One of the comforting features of those houses consisted of large fire-places, which, in cold weather, always had roaring fires. They were built usually of granite or slate and were very capacious, being at least six feet wide. This great size enabled them to accommodate good sized logs and saved the miners and others of the camp from cutting the wood very short.
Frying pans were frequent and flapjacks were common. The camp men frequently took turn about as to the cooking, or frequently one who was more good-natured than the others, or who was an expert at the culinary game, presided as cook. When a man would act as cook he was usually given good service by the others, who would bring him water and do the washing of the dishes. Some- times it was a great problem to find good food aside from the flapjacks and hardtacks of old times, but frequently quail, rabbit, coon, squirrel, deer, and hare were found. At times the meat was so scarce that miners, feeling a great desire for it, would eat coyote or even in some instances, a hawk. This condition was rare, however, and few of the old-time miners can recall times so hard as this.
One of the great perils in many camps was from rattlesnakes, which were very numerous. A snake would cause consternation in a camp where bruin and the wild lions of the hills would be laughed at or hunted to death.
CHAPTER X. Organization of Humboldt County
In order properly to understand the early days and organization of Humboldt county the reader should gain some idea of the organization of the state and its first election. It should be understood that the first elec- tion held in California, in 1849, was not participated in by the residents of
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the north, if there were any. In 1849 the state was not organized, and the election precints were established only in those interior towns and mining camps that had sprung into prominence during the few months after the great gold rush following the discovery by the immortal Marshall. Up to this time the adventurous feet of prospectors had not passed the beautiful ver- dure-clad hills of the northern latitude. Of those who were destined to be- come the founders of the county some were then in the Southern mines, others were toiling wearily westward or tossing upon the bosom of ocean around the Horn eager to reach the land of gold and sunshine. Many others were in their Eastern homes with hardly a thought of the far-away land that was to beckon them to its shores.
Elliott tells us that upon the subdivision of the State into counties in 1850 Mr. Wathall, a member of the Assembly and of the delegation from the Sacramento district which includes the Sacramento valley as far as the Oregon line, proposed the names of Shasta and Trinity for the northern part of the State, which at that time included what is now Del Norte, Trinity, Humboldt, Siskiyou, Modoc, Lassen, Shasta, and a part of Butte county.
It is interesting to reflect that when the State was-divided into-counties by the act of February 18, 1850, the northern region was generally an un- known land to the Legislators. The excitement in Trinity county was at that time at its very height, but still very little was known of the entire region, the population having progressed but little beyond the diggings on the Sacramento river and Clear creek, and about Shasta. All the north- eastern part of this territory was erected into one county called Shasta, with the county seat at Reading's ranch. The northwestern part was called Trinity county, with the county scat at Trinidad, and thus the territory was divided into Trinity and Shasta counties.
All that portion of the State lying west of Shasta county and that which was afterwards formed into Trinity, Humboldt, Klamath, and Del Norte counties was created and known as Trinity-county, but as it was yet a comparatively strange land it was attached to Shasta for judicial-pur- poses. This action was taken because it was expected that a large popula- tion would soon be found on Trinity river and about the bay of Trinidad. Trinity county was divided in 1852, all south of a line due east of the mouth of Mad river being Trinity, and all north of that line being Klamath-county.
The California Legislature of 1850-51 provided for the organization of Klamath county and ordered an election to be held on the second Monday in June, 1851. The act was approved on May 28, 1851.
The officers were duly elected and the county government took effect immediately thereafter. This act recognized Trinity county, and the ter- ritory consisted of Klamath at the north and Shasta at the east. The Legislature appointed commissioners to designate election precincts and superintend the election. Five commissioners were appointed, none of whom were from what is now Trinity county ; two were from Humboldt City, two from Eureka, and one from Union, the old name for Arcata.
The following were the first officers elected for Klamath : county judge, Dr. Johnson Price; district attorney, William Cunningham; county clerk, John C. Burch; sheriff, William H. Dixon; assessor, J. W. McGee; treas- urer, Thomas L. Bell.
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By act of the Legislature, approved May 12, 1853; Trinity county was divided into two parts. The western portion was organized into Hum= boldt county, and the eastern portion retained the old name of Trinity. The clerk of Trinity county was required to restore to the clerk of Hum- boldt county, the books,-records, maps, and papers held by Trinity county, and the same became a part of the records of Humboldt county, including maps of the towns of Union (Arcata), Eureka, and Bucksport. This change in boundaries made the territory into five counties as follows: Klamath, Siski- you, Humboldt, Trinity, Shasta.
The act provided that its boundaries should commence at a point in the ocean three miles due west of Mad river, thence due east from the point of beginning to Trinity river, thence up the Trinity river to the mouth of Grouse creek, thence south to the north line of Mendocino county, and thence to the ocean. This boundary was rather indefinite and caused con- siderable trouble thereafter. In 1874 Humboldt and Siskiyou counties ac- quired the territory of old Klamath county, and it no longer appears on the maps. In 1874 it was disorganized, divided, and attached to Siskiyou and Humboldt. Much the larger part was attached to Humboldt, and at this date the territory of the original two counties has become seven coun- ties, and one has disappeared. There at once arose a number of contests regarding the location of the county seat of Humboldt county. Rival towns along the bay did all in their power to obtain the coveted prize, and much bitterness of feeling resulted as the contest went on, as has been said else- where in this history. The town of Union was designated as the seat of justice, but Bucksport and Eureka were far from being reconciled. In fact they became jealous rivals. At the first contest for location of the county seat, people of Eel River, in conjunction with all the rural districts of that part of the county, joined with Bucksport and supported that place for the location, but Union, or Arcata, bore off the prize. The air was filled with charges of fraud and dishonesty.
A petition signed by more than one-third of the voters of Humboldt county was put in circulation and an application was made for another con- test, and this was entered into with great bitterness on both sides. In order to settle the matter an election by popular vote was immediately called.
It is interesting to recall the claims which were set forth by Bucksport at the time of the second contest. In a signed argument the proposition appeared in the following language: "That Bucksport is the most appro- priate place for county seat in Humboldt county. It has the best townsite, the best natural advantages for a commercial city, and by far the best water off the bay for shipping purposes. That it is the nearest central of any of the places proposed, and most accessible; that it will accommodate the citizens generally better than any other place, produce more general quiet, and that, when once established, will be far more likely to remain perma- nent than any other place on the bay ; are facts of so general notoriety and so well established in the minds of the public, that arguments in sub- stantiation are unnecessary."
In the Humboldt Times of October 14, 1853, is published a conveyance from William Roberts to the committee for the purpose of laying such honorable motives before the public as shall secure the selection of Bucks- port for county seat. Mr. Roberts agreed to convey by deed to the trus-
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tees named by him a large portion of his quarter section of land-at Bucks- port on which is situated that most beautiful plateau overlooking the bay. The deed provided for surveying the tract into lots 50x100 feet and that every citizen of the county "outside of Bucksport precinct shall be entitled to a lot of that size for the nominal price of $1 if he shall support Bucksport for the county seat and it be selected as such."
The result of the matter was that neither place received the majority of the votes cast. Union retained the location until the act of the Legisla- ture in 1856, removing it from that place to Eureka, which act took effect on May 1, 1856.
The board of supervisors at a special meeting April 12, 1856, accepted the proposal of R. W. Brett to furnish the county with a court room, two jury rooms, clerk's, treasurer's, and sheriff's offices, at Eureka for one year from the first day of May, 1856. Mr. Brett reserved to himself the use of the court room, and with this reservation furnished the rooms mentioned for $200 per annum.
On Thursday, the first day of May, L. K. Wood, the county clerk and ex-officio recorder, removed the records, books, files, a safe, and other property belonging to those two offices to Eureka, in accordance with the act declaring Eureka the county seat of Humboldt county from and after that day.
R. W. Brett, who owned the building at Eureka occupied by the county for court room and offices, had them improved by January, 1857, by having the court room extended through to the front of the building the same height and width, making the various spaces to some 25x25 feet and sixteen feet high. These rooms were used until the court house was built.
In 1860 Humboldt county purchased a block of ground lying between Second street and the bay, being above the termination of First street and between I street on the west and K on the east, with a large frame building thereon built at that time.
The contract was then entered into for placing this building on the block, adding wings thereto for a court house. The main building was eighty feet in length, parallel with Second street, by twenty-four feet deep. There was a front projection for entry way at the center extending towards Second street 12x26 feet.
The affairs of the county were managed by what was known as the court of sessions from its organization in 1853 until 1863, when they passed into the hands of the board of supervisors. The county judge, as chief justice, and two justices of the peace as associate justices, composed the old court of sessions. Annually the county judge convened the justices of the peace of the county, who selected from their own number two who should act as associate justices of the court of sessions for the ensuing year.
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