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 11

Author: Irvine, Leigh H. (Leigh Hadley), 1863-1942
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Los Angeles, Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1328

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 11

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The duties of the court of sessions at first were chiefly to administer the affairs of the county, a function which is now always discharged by the board of supervisors. In time a radical change was made in the powers of this court by conferring upon it the criminal jurisdiction previously ex- ercised by the district court. It had the power to inquire into all criminal offenses by means of a grand jury and to try all indictments found by that body except those for murder, manslaughter, and arson, which were certified to the district court. In 1863 the court was abolished and its powers were

HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

conferred upon the county court. This was the highest local tribunal of original jurisdiction, embracing chancery, civil, and criminal causes. As at first created it had original cognizance of all cases in equity and its civil jurisdiction embraced all causes where the amount in question exceeded $200, causes involving the title to real property, or the validity of any tax, and issues of fact, joined in the appropriate court.

This court had power to inquire into criminal offenses by means of a grand jury and to try indictments found by that body. In time the Legis- lature took from this court its criminal jurisdiction and conferred it upon the court of sessions, leaving it the power of hearing appeals from that court on criminal matters, and the power to try all indictments of murder, manslaughter, arson, and any causes in which the members of the court of sessions were interested.

CHAPTER XI.

Russians in Northern California.

It will be recalled that the good ship Ocean visited Humboldt bay early in the nineteenth century. Its coming was at the time when sea-otter hunt- ing was attracting a large number of Russians to the northern shores of California. It is interesting in this connection to digress for a moment and consider the status of California with regard to the world at large during those early years of silence and comparative isolation.

Though the Spanish did not visit Humboldt county, they regarded it as under their protecting wings. Mexico consulted Madrid concerning everything pertaining to the rights of nations in what was known as Alta California. There was a time when the northern part of California was the subject of parleying and negotiations between St. Petersburg and Madrid. Russia wanted to buy it or lease it for a long term of years. What would have become of Humboldt county if the Czar of Russia had bought North- ern California? This interrogation carries us far from the current of his- tory, but it is worth a moment's reflection.

It should be borne in mind that under the Spanish rule commerce with the great world outside was strictly forbidden, but many ambitious naviga- tors from other countries began, early in the nineteenth century, to direct their ships toward the Pacific coast with a view to getting a foothold in the new world, of which they were hearing a great many glowing stories. La Perouse was probably the first foreign visitor. He arrived in 1786, and in 1792 Vancouver saw the Pacific coast. In 1796, however, the Otter, a Boston ship, appeared at Monterey.

One of the most remarkable visits from a foreigner was that in 1806, at which time a Russian ship came from Sitka, Alaska, and anchored in the bay of San Francisco under the command of Rezanof, an officer of high degree. He remained in the state for some time and made himself popular by reason of his learning and courteous manner. Incidentally, the sad story of Rezanof furnished Bret Harte with material for one of his most beautiful poems, which is known as "Dona Concepcion." It deals with the love affairs and the romantic ending of the courtship between Rezanof and Dona Con- cepcion Arguello, daughter of an illustrious Spanish commander. Rezanof

HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

became betrothed to the daughter of Arguello, who was then comandante of the Presidio, and this close relation enabled him to do a great deal of trading with the people, under a suspension of the old rule against such traffic, which had long been prohibited.

Rezanof, or Razanoff, as it is often spelled, went to Russia on a mission of state, also to obtain the consent of the Czar to his marriage to Miss Arguello. He promised to return and lead the beautiful and trusting girl to the altar, but he died on his way across Siberia, perishing in a lonely hut to which he had been carried, after injuries received by being thrown from a horse. He arose from his bed too soon, being eager to join his bride, suffered a relapse, and soon died alone and far away. Miss Arguello waited for many years, but the lover of course could not return, nor did she receive news of his death until the roses had faded from her cheeks and her eyes had often been wet with tears. Harte's poem shows how the maiden watched and waited throughout the lonely years, hearing in happy dreams the foot- steps of his return. And when the shadow at last fell across her life- when she heard that her faithful lover had died without being able to send her even a whisper-she became heart-broken and took no further interest in the affairs of the world. It was then that she became a nun in the Roman Catholic Church. She died in a convent, at Benicia, in 1857, having long served as one of the Sisters of Visitacion.

Thus it will be seen that the ancient drama of the human heart had a beautiful setting in those far away times of adventure. It was the old grand passion that unlocked the gates of San Francisco to the Russians, the same drama that broke the heart of the trusting young woman. It seems that Rezanof fell in love with the comandante's beautiful daughter as soon as he saw her, but when he left her it was forever. Harte thus refers to the patient waiting of the disappointed Concepcion :

Long beside the deep embrasures where the brazen cannon are,

Did she wait her promised bridegroom and the answer of the Czar;

Watched the harbor-head with longing, half in faith and half in doubt, Every day some hope was kindled, flickered, faded, and went out.

Rezanof's visit was followed, in 1812, by the coming of a number of Russian pioneers, whose purpose was trading rather than settling the coun- try. All produce that the Russians either raised or traded for was sent to northern Russian stations. The population, always under strict military government, amounted to about three hundred in 1840. It consisted of Aleutians, Indians, and Russians.

Under the initiative of a large fur company they founded a trading station some nineteen miles north of Bodega bay, built a fort that has always been known as Fort Ross, although its Russian name is said to have been another word which sounds like the word Ross, and carried on a thriving trade with the simple aborigines, as well as with a number of Spaniards. The station was established in 1812 and did fairly well until 1841, when it was abandoned. Long before this time, however, it was in evidence that the Russians would not try to colonize either Humboldt or Mendocino county, being satisfied to remain at Fort Ross and do their trapping and fishing from there. It should be said that the Spaniards and Mexicans had always looked upon that fort and the Russian settlements around it with disfavor.

HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

When the Czar of Russia decided to abandon his fort he sold the Rus- sian holdings to Capt. John A. Sutter, an enterprising and successful Swiss pioneer, who played an important part in the later history of California, and on whose properties the famous James W. Marshall discovered gold in 1848. It should be remembered, however, that the going away of the Rus- sians from Fort Ross did not mean that Russians and other foreigners were to be seen no more in northern California in those times. The Columbia and North American fur companies pooled their interests, and thereafter it was very common to see trappers, hunters and fur traders throughout the northern part of the state, some of them visiting Humboldt county. It should be understood that not only the Spanish, but many of the others of those early times regarded the coming of foreigners with disgust, looking upon them with suspicion and regarding them as intruders.

From time to time the Mexican Congress passed stringent laws against foreigners from every nation, not desiring them to gain a foothold in the territory. In spite of these measures, however, the influx of people from every part of the United States and from outside nations increased quite rapidly. Not many years had passed before Americans, English and French were actually in control of the bulk of mercantile pursuits. In this con- nection Soule tells us in his remarkable volume called "The Annals of San Francisco," that runaway seamen and stragglers, as well as settlers from Columbia and Missouri, largely swelled the number of white settlers. He tells us that the indolent Spanish stupidly looked on while the prestige of their name, wealth, and influence passed into stronger hands.

With the relaxation of the Spanish severity in the southern portions of the state there was naturally a large growth of outside population in every community, and several hundred of these worked their way into Humboldt county. It should be remembered that those who came to Humboldt county were largely from Nova Scotia and the New England States. They gave character to the population and the influence of their sturdy careers is felt unto this day.

Tom Gregory, the poet, sage, and historian of Sonoma county, sheds light on the Fort Ross situation, which he has studied with much patience. He tells us that in 1811 Alexander Kuskoff sailed into Yerba Buena, but he did not appreciate or enjoy the reception he found waiting for him from the Spanish and local authorities, so he hurriedly departed in high dudgeon. As he went toward Bodega bay he saw a river flowing into the ocean, and promptly named it Slavianki. The name did not last long, for General Vallejo christened it Russian river, which name it has always borne.

Kuskoff halted at Bodega bay, still feeling highly insulted. While smarting keenly under that feeling he tried to annex the whole territory in that part of California to the Russian possessions, and threatened to go as far north as the Oregon line. He called the territory Roumiantzof. He thought he was doing wonders in his efforts thus to slice a large piece from the Spanish dominion. Russian surveyors at once began work, and before long had run their lines throughout Sonoma county and the Russian River valley. They ascended Mount St. Helena, leaving a copper-plate on the summit of that grand landmark, the same being inscribed with the date of the visit; and what is more important, the name of Princess Helena, wife of Count Rotscheff, commanding officer of Fort Ross. That the grant they

HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

bought was within the area now known as Bodega township, with or with- out other townships added, old records dimly show .. Gregory says: "How- ever-and another credit to the Slavonians-this is the only instance where the original owners of Californian lands were ever paid anything. The price gladly accepted by the Indians was three pairs of breeches, three hoes, two axes, four strings of beads. Certainly this valuation was not a boom figure, but it must be remembered that California soil was then figuratively and literally rated as dirt cheap, preceding the arrival of the more modern real estate man with his florid literature."

When Fort Ross was sold, after a long delay, and its far away day in court, it was purchased by Capt. John A. Sutter for $30,000, and finally sold to William Muldrew for about one-fifth of that amount, and for years it clouded the land titles from Tomales bay to Cape Mendocino.

It should be remembered that Kuskoff's agriculturists around Bodega did very well. They put considerable grain land under cultivation and built a farm house. On his return from Sitka with a rich cargo of skins and glowing accounts of the mild summers, Count Baranof, the Russian chamberlain, was persuaded to establish a permanent settlement on the California coast. Gregory tells us that Russia and Spain were then as much at peace with each other as was possible in those stormy days, and it is quite possible that the Russian officer was acting under secret instructions from St. Petersburg.

Baranof went nineteen miles north of Bodega bay to a place which the Indians called Madshuinuie. The Russians called it Kostromitinof. This hopelessly tangled the Spanish tongue, says Gregory, so they called the settlement Fuerte de los Rusos, and this finally became Fort Russ, later Ross, by the natural corruption of the tongue. The Russians built a high stockade overlooking the ocean. At one of the angles of the wall they set aside a space for the Greek Catholic chapel. Finally about twenty guns commanded the town and the sea. On September 10, 1812, by our calendar, the Russians celebrated the founding of their fort with the firing of guns, the celebration of the mass, and a period of feasting.

The comandante at San Francisco notified Governor Arrillaga of the invasion of the Spanish territory by the Russians. The case went up to Madrid, but meantime the Indians and the Aleutians employed by the Rus- sians went on with their work every day, the Russians making desperate efforts to intrench themselves firmly in the agricultural line. They laughed at the very thought of anything like war. Many of the Russian soldiers married Indian women, a soldier officer performing the ceremony when the chaplain of the church was absent.

The Russians would have been splendid farmers for the rough regions of Humboldt county if they had carried out their original intention of com- ing farther north, judging by their efficiency in Sonoma county. Few per- sons understand that the Russians had gained considerable of a foothold in Sonoma county, or begin to appreciate the magnitude and importance of this first Russian colony which planted the standard of its civilization there. Large amounts of butter and beef, lumber and fish, as well as all the products of the soil were sent to Sitka and the Hawaiian Islands. The colony was well supplied with horses, mules, cattle, swine, and poultry,

HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

and with a fruitful continent on one side and an equally fruitful ocean on the other they were lords of the manor. Gregory tells us that while the Fort Ross garrison could have marched from Sonoma to San Diego at any time between 1825 and 1841 without much interference from the Spanish or Mexicans, the Russians began to show a disposition to leave California.

The seal-poaching along the coast was giving out and driving the Russian hunters of Ross more and more inland to the farms-and farming as a means of wealth was somewhat beyond the desires of those then in charge.

Governor Wrangell, of Alaska, the head of the fur company, realized that the Russians should control more territory than that immediately around Fort Ross, if they were to do anything. Therefore he approached the Spanish for the purchase of all of the country north of San Francisco, and west of the Sacramento river. This was getting pretty close to Hum- boldt county, as will be seen. There was a strong proposition made to the Spanish but it would seem that the officials of California had suddenly undergone a change of heart, as they were afraid to act. They submitted the offer to the authorities in Mexico.

It is believed that the presence of the North Americans who were com- ing over the Nevada mountains in strong bands and planting themselves with all the airs of welcome visitors along the coast had much to do with Governor Alvarado's toleration of the Russians.

The Californian, whether a subject of Spain or Mexico, feared and disliked the Americans, who had no fear, neither great love or respect for the greaser.

It is worth while to bear in mind that the contract by which General Sutter acquired Fort Ross was signed on December 13, 1841, by Sutter and Kostromitinof in the office of the sub-prefect at San Francisco, this trans- action being thus legalized. Thus ended the power of Russia in California.

CHAPTER XII.

Topography, Climate and Scenery.

Sometimes it has seemed strange that Humboldt county was not set- tled by white men until many years after the sweet-toned bells of Carmel and other missions had rung their messages to the aborigines of the south. The Spanish priests not only preferred the milder climate of the south, but it would have been exceedingly difficult for the missionaries to have overcome the natural barriers of mountain and forest, savage Indians, and climatic conditions isolating Humboldt from the world-barriers that are still unbroken during the winter season, in the absence of a completed railroad.

It has already been shown that the early sea voyagers discovered no sea opening to the county, and the view they obtained was mountainous and forbidding. The county is the farthest north but one in the state, while Cape Mendocino, its most western point, is within a few miles of being the most western point of land in the United States.

HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

George A. Kellogg, for many years secretary of the Humboldt County Chamber of Commerce, thus describes the physical appearance of the county : "Humboldt county is situated nearly in the extreme northwestern part of California, its northernmost point being about thirty-two miles from the southern boundary of Oregon, from which it is separated by Del Norte county. Its southern boundary is the parallel of forty degrees north lati- tude, making its length north and south one hundred and eight miles, with a width averaging about thirty-five miles. Its area is 3,507 square miles, or in acres, 2,244,480.

"In physical features it is a mountainous district, with over a hundred miles of coast line, a commodious harbor nearly midway therein, with numerous rivers flowing in a general northwesterly direction, and a promi- nent headland-Cape Mendocino.

"Viewed from the sea, the entire county appears covered with an almost unbroken forest from the ocean beach to the mountain summits of its eastern boundary, although actually less than half of its area is forest proper, though much of the remainder is covered with a tangled and matted wilderness of brush.

"Along or near the coast is the redwood belt-a dense and almost con- tinnous forest extending through the entire length of the county north and south, with a varying width averaging some ten miles. To some extent included in this belt, but principally to the eastward thereof, are consider- able forests of pine, oak, spruce, fir, alder, and madrone, making up an area nearly equal to that of the redwood. Still further to the eastward, and also in lesser degree within this forest region, are large tracts of bald hills covered with native grasses, which furnish the best of grazing lands."

It is estimated that the redwood forests originally covered 538,000 acres. More than forty billion feet of this, board measure, is still standing. Its value is so great that it has been estimated that if a circle forty miles in diameter were to be drawn from Eureka, the eastern half of it would contain more wealth of natural products than can be found in any similar area on the globe, not excluding the gold mines of the Rand. Of course, the western half of this circle would be the ocean.

The surface of the county is for the most part hilly, even mountainous. The elevations begin almost immediately from the shore, increasing to the eastward until many of the peaks attain an elevation of from four to six thousand feet. From Mendocino to Trinidad Head the elevations are more gradual. In this depressed part of the county are found the largest bodies of rich, level land in the county. Here also exist the principal harbors, the mouths of the two most important rivers, most of the principal towns, and the greater part of the population. It should be said, however, that the completion of the through railroad, the development of Fort Seward as the metropolis of southern Humboldt, and some other events will change these conditions within the next five or six years so as to equalize the distribution of population.

Humboldt county's coast line is one of rugged beauty, its aggregate windings north and south being about one hundred and fifty miles. In an air line it is one hundred and eight miles long and an average of thirty-five miles in width. It contains 3,507 square miles of land, or 2,244,480 acres. Its resources and possibilities make up a section teeming with wealth and

HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

opportunity. Del Norte county lies between Humboldt and the Oregon line.

Humboldt bay lies about half way between the northern and the south- ern boundary of the county. The bay has one of the best harbors on the coast, the most important but one in the state. Its tidal area is twenty- eight square miles; its lineal channel is twenty-six miles. The numerous rivers and streams of the county flow in a northwesterly direction. There are many beautiful valleys in the county. Eel river, Mad river, Trinity river, Klamath river, Mattole river, Bear river, Van Duzen river, Elk river, Maple creek, and Redwood creek are all streams of importance.

There is nothing mysterious about the climate of Humboldt county, which differs greatly from the climate of other portions of the state, espe- cially from the climate of Southern California. Places adjacent to the coast are never so hot as those locations either in or close to the great interior valleys. It should be clearly understood, however, that Humboldt county is directly influenced by the primal causes that give the entire state its equable temperature, freedom from cyclones, sunstroke, blizzards, and other unpleasant and destructive climatic disturbances.

There is a wide range of temperature during the summers of Hum- boldt county. Eureka and the section for a few miles back of it have the coolest summer climate in the United States, the least yearly range between summer and winter not exceeding 37 degrees. Hot days are un- known in this favored section. A temperature of 80 degrees is regarded as high. In the valleys and hills, however, the thermometer reaches true summer proportions. The redwoods, moreover, conserve moisture and the woods are always cool. Like the rest of California, Humboldt county is free from summer rains. The prevailing winds from the west give the county that sea air which is the delight of the coast resorts in particular. The absolute highest temperature ever known in Eureka was on June 6, 1903, which was 85.2 degrees above zero. The lowest temperature ever recorded was on January 14, 1888, 20.3 degrees above zero. The average daily range of temperature in twenty-five years was 10.7 degrees. The average annual rainfall is 44.92 inches. The average winter temperature is 47.4 degrees above zero; spring, 50.2; summer, 55.3; autumn, 53.4.

Thousands of persons ask "What gives California her mild climate?" without seeming to have the slightest idea what the cause is. For many years it has been taught that the Japan current is responsible for our weather. Everything pertaining to the verdure-clad hills of early spring, to the skies of blue and gold, and to the purely Californian skies, has been attributed to the Japan current; but the expert climatologists regard this current as more of a myth than a reality. To give the cause of the climate in a sentence it might be said that the prevailing winds from the west are the fundamental cause of our immunity from excesses of heat and cold. The winds from the great warm Pacific are our salvation from the ills that afflict our eastern neighbors. Add this to the peculiar topographical ad- vantages, and the question is solved.

The Federal Government has given us a scientific explanation. In "Bulletin L," a discussion of the climatology of California, issued by the Federal Government in 1903, Prof. Cleveland Abbe, of the Central Weather Bureau, Washington, D. C., says: "The prevailing casterly drift of the atmosphere in temperate latitudes, causing the well-known winds from the

HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

west, is one of the prime factors in modifying the climate of the coast of California. The coast line, stretching through ten degrees of latitude, is subject to a steady indraft of air from the west. In this movement, together with the fact that to the west lies the great Pacific ocean, lies the secret of the difference in temperature between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts at places of like latitude."

Incidentally, the rotation of the earth on its axis, in the whirl of more than a thousand miles an hour from west to east, determines the casterly drift of the winds in the northern hemisphere. The prevailing winds from the west, say at Chicago, bring the breath of winter from the fields of snow and ice. In the summer months the same winds from the west, fresh from hot and arid regions, bring sunstroke and melting heat, cyclones, and the many rigors of severe seasons. It is different on the coast because of the origin of the winds, which sweep over many thousand miles of the Pacific, whose average temperature is 55 degrees above zero, Fahrenheit. The explanation is simple.

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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 11

Author: Irvine, Leigh H. (Leigh Hadley), 1863-1942 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Los Angeles, Historic Record Company Number of Pages: 1328

Author: Irvine, Leigh H. (Leigh Hadley), 1863-1942
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Los Angeles, Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1328