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 8

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

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"Cards was the only entertainment and nothing more exciting than 'Old Sledge' was played. On one particular evening the card quartette included Quar- termaster Rundell, Lieutenants Underwood, Collins and myself. Grant did not play, but reclined on the bed smoking a cigar. He seldom volunteered a remark, yet when addressed always answered pleasantly.

HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

"We were all laughing heartily at something, I have forgotten what, when Grant said, 'Well, boys, you can see a deal more fun in that than I can.'

"Rundell replied, 'Grant, I am afraid that you were born without a sense of humor.'

" 'Perhaps I was, but that is not the only sense that I lack.'

"The bed on which Grant lay was something of a curiosity. It was an im- mense structure made by one of the men for Rundell, who was six feet, six inches in height. The bed was seven feet long and the same in width, having a head- board which reached to the ceiling and was carved in leaf and scroll design with considerable skill. I afterwards came into possession of the bed and removed it to my home, but after I left the ranch and it was in the hands of a tenant, my house and its contents were destroyed by fire.

"The last that I saw of Grant was just before his departure. One morning I was going to Eureka and at the foot of the hill where the road turns toward the post, I met Captain Grant and Lieutenant Collins. They were in a buggy and Grant's face was partly hidden by a high coat-collar. He did not notice my salutation which was returned by Collins. I did not know at the time that he contemplated a change. I always found him gentlemanly in manner, treating all with quiet courtesy."

Another old friend and admirer of Grant was F. S. Duff, from whom remin- iscences were obtained. At the time of Grant's service in Humboldt, there were not over two-score houses in Eureka. Mr. Duff owned a sawmill, lodging house and store, and furnished the lumber and many supplies for the fort. All the officers frequented the Duff home and put up at his lodging house when in Eureka. Mr. Duff was one of the very few intimate friends Grant made during his stay at the garrison.

"Many a stormy night when it was too dark to ride back to the fort, did Captain Grant share my bed," said Mr. Duff. "I furnished the lumber to build many of the houses at the fort and I have enjoyed many evenings with the officers there. In fact, it was my usual custom to drive down to the post Sundays and dine with them.

"The officers' quarters and the furniture in them were hand made, rude and rough. There was no society in the ordinary sense of the word; hunting and fishing become tiresome even with the most enthusiastic sportsmen, which Grant was not.

"I never heard him complain, yet I could see that he was filled with an intense_ desire to_be with his family. One day he lost his wife's ring, which he wore. The intrepid soldier, who preserved his coolness in the bloodiest battles, was completely unstrung. The next morning half of the command was turned out and the parade ground was 'panned' until the ring was found."

Grant's relations with his commanding officer were inharmonious, to say the least. Colonel Buchanan was extremely punctilious and something of a martinet. Grant was a plain, practical, thoroughly drilled soldier, and he had little use for the fuss and frills of military etiquette. His casy methods and carelessness of dress were constant sources of irritation to his superior officer. Little inconse- quent trifles of dress and ceremony became ever recurring causes for remarks and unpleasantness. Yet whatever faults the critical colonel may have found, neglect of duty was not among them. The conscientious performance of insig-

HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

nificant duties of a line captain was duplicated when he had the great Federal army in his keeping.

When Grant reached Humboldt he had an octagonal shaped gold piece which was called a "slug" and was worth $50. With this he bought a plow and vegetable seeds and made a large garden which supplied the post with fresh vegetables. Fresh beef was not always to be had, but Grant made a contract with Seth Kinman, a famous hunter of those days, to supply the commissary department with elk meat. After Grant became president of the United States, old Seth Kinman traveled to Washington and presented his old-time friend with a chair made of polished elk horns.

While on duty Grant never forgot to look out for the welfare of his men." He made frequent visits to their quarters, tasting their food and inspecting sanitary conditions. The men felt free to go to him with complaints and grievances knowing that they would be given a hearing and their claims considered with fairness. Mrs. Shields writes :

"Life at the post was insufferably dull. The Indians gave little trouble and months intervened between the arrival of the mails. There were days and days of rigid drilling and discipline until officers and men became stalled and wearied. Commissary whisky of the vilest kind was to be had in unlimited quantities and all partook more or less. The combination of whisky and idleness was followed by the usual results.

"Under conditions like this, trifles became causes of great moment. One day Captain Grant went duck shooting in the northern part of the bay some distance from the fort. Being absorbed in his sport, he did not notice the ebbing tide until his boat was stuck hard and fast in the mud, a distance from the shore, and he was obliged to stay there until the next tide released him. Colonel Buchanan made his usual fuss over the incident, but Grant simply ignored his fretting and bluster. Grant's indifference to the Colonel's scoldings and fault- findings was one cause of the friction between the two men.

"In regard to the cause of Grant tendering his resignation, about which much comment has been made, the statements of A. P. Marble, with whom the writer conversed before the old soldier's death, reveals Grant in those trying times. The old servant denied that there was any special cause for Grant's resignation, other than that he was not satisfied with existing conditions. Cognizant of his own power and ability, he felt that his life was being wasted. His military ambitions were blasted and his captain's pay inadequate for the support of his family. Besides, his environments were decidedly unpleasant.

"Colonel Buchanan was an efficient officer but strict in petty details to the verge of absurdity," said Mr. Marble. "I will relate an incident proving this. General Crook, of Indian fighting fame, was a lieutenant in Grant's company. He was a sweet-tempered fellow, about twenty years old and brimful of fun and laughter.

"One morning Colonel Buchanan was standing in front of his headquarters and, looking across the parade grounds, saw Lieutenant Crook standing in an easy position with his hands in his pockets.

"The Colonel addressed me, 'Orderly!'

"'Yes, sir?'

"'Present my compliments to Lieutenant Crook and tell him to take his hands out of his pockets.'

HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

"I approached the lieutenant and, suppressing a smile, delivered the message. Crook was not on duty at the time and with a pleasant smile, he replied, 'Orderly, present my compliments to Colonel Buchanan and tell him that my pockets are my own.'"

Mrs. Shields saw in the possession of Mr. Marble a form of Grant's resigna- tion which had been thrown aside by him and picked up by the servant while putting the room in order. It probably was a first draught written out and discarded, as the wording is different from the one he did send, and it is addressed to the commanding officer at San Francisco rather than at Washington. It read as follows :

"April 11, 1854.

"Major-Gen. John A. Wool, San Francisco.

"Sir :-- I have the honor of tendering my resignation as Capt. of Co. F, 4th Regt. of Infantry, U. S. A.

"Signed. U. S. GRANT."

The resignation which was sent by Grant was as follows :

"Fort Humboldt, "Humboldt Bay, April 11, 1854. "Col.,

"I very respectfully tender my resignation of my commission as an officer of the army and request that it may take effect from the 21st of July next. "I am, Col., "Very respectfully, "Your obt. svt., "U. S. GRANT, "Capt. 4th Infantry.

"To "Col. S. Cooper,

"Adjt. Gen. U. S. A., "Washington, D. C."

The resignation went to the department at Washington at the hands of Colonel Buchanan, was accepted and took effect at the date requested, and soon thereafter Grant left for San Francisco, leaving behind him all hopes of military glory and a year of wasted life.

While Grant was in Humboldt county he had two severe attacks of sickness. His physician was Dr. Jonathan Clark, father of W. S. Clark, banker and mayor of Eureka in 1913. Mrs. Shields thus concludes the interesting story of Grant in Humboldt: "It was after the recovery from the first illness that he tendered his resignation and he had just recovered from the second when the knowledge of its acceptance reached him.

"When the doctor met him again he said rather sadly, 'Well, doctor, I am out,' then added, 'but I will tell you something and you mark my words; my day will come. They will hear from me yet.'

"These words, spoken so deliberately, almost solemnly, impressed his hearer as a prophecy.

"Dr. Clark saw his friend again. When Ex-President Grant made his famous journey around the world, Clark made a special trip to San Francisco to see his former patient. Grant was in the drawing room of the Palace hotel surrounded by a throng of visitors when Dr. Clark entered. The great man +

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HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

recognized his friend immediately and came briskly forward, greeting the doctor with cordiality and inquired after many of the people of Eureka. Unhappy as had been his year at Fort Humboldt, Grant had nothing but the kindest words for his associates there and from the pinnacle of his fame regarded them with the same quiet kindliness with which he had held them in the dark days of his residence at that dreary western garrison."

CHAPTER VIII.

Early Troubles With the Indians

All accounts of early adventures by the settlers of Trinity county, from which Humboldt county was made, emphasize the fact that there was much mystery involved in the consideration of the Klamath river. That stream was supposed by many to be the Trinity river, while others mistook it for the Salmon. Its source was long unknown after its mouth had been discovered. The Klamath soon attracted a large number of gold hunters, and it was not long after they began to come into the country before the Indians along the Humboldt bay began to look upon them with suspicion.

Many of the old timers were really rough and ready men, and were inclined to treat the Indians as if they were mere dogs. Suspicious and watchful, the Indians magnified all little injuries into much larger ones and entertained a number of small grievances. Of course, there were some men of wicked dis- position who, being surly and overbearing, did wrong to the Indians.

One of the characteristics of the Indians is that they cannot particularize or distinguish between individuals. The result was that they held all of the white men responsible for any injury done to them by any one white man, being so constituted mentally that they were unable to distinguish between an individual who had done them wrong and a community of men of the same color of the wrong-doer.

The old doctrine of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth found splendid exemplification among the Indians, for if a white man murdered an Indian he immediately killed the first white man he caught, not seeming to care whether the real culprit escaped or not. It was this habit of the Indians which caused a number of the most serious difficulties encountered by the early settlers of Humboldt county.

A few of the old residents of Humboldt county have a keen recollection of perilous times with the Indians. Mrs. R. F. Herrick, an aged woman of Arcata, has a distinct memory of some of the stirring events as late as 1859. In a letter which the editor of this history has been permitted to see, she says as follows :

"We landed in Eureka on November 29, 1859, having a letter of introduction to the Rev. Mr. Huestus. We finally found him at Arcata, and when we crossed the bay and viewed our surroundings we decided to go to the American hotel, which was then kept by a Mr. Bull. We then thought Arcata was the most beautiful place we had ever seen in California. The Plaza_looked like green velvet, and the dark background of great redwood trees, I think, was the most beautiful I had ever seen. I then thought that the Indian name, which means a bright or sunny spot, was very appropriate. When I saw Arcata first the sun

HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

was shining over it. I remained at the hotel while my husband went to look at a place near the mouth of Mad river.

"I did not know anyone in the county, but Mrs. Murdock,. Mrs. Bowles, Mrs. Culberg, and Mrs. Minor called and asked me to Mrs. Minor's, where a sewing society was in session, and there I made more acquaintances.

"The tenth of January we moved to the White place. We bought some cows and my husband made the first cheese that was ever manufactured in Humboldt county, and the firm of Coddington & Bowles shipped this cheese by pack-train to the Trinity mines.

"I was very much afraid of the Indians, especially one who was known as Sore Eyed Tom, a big Indian, who came to my house in a sneaking sort of way. Ail the clothing he wore might be described as a knife about two feet long attached to his neck by a buckskin thong. I was very homesick and lonesome, and he came in one day and he said he was hungry and wanted what he called whago bread.

"I had set some of this bread to rise and did not have any baked at the moment. I was then paring potatoes, so I told the Indian that I did not have any bread ready. He said, 'Too much lie.' That was too much to hear, so I forgot my fear and started for him with the butcher knife raised as if to strike him. I never in my life saw anyone run so fast as that Indian did. He did not wait to open the gate, but jumped over the fence, and as far as I could see him, he was running. I was never afraid of Indians again."

This respected lady says she often went with neighbors to minister to the sick. Among others she met one who was known as Coonskin's daughter, who was very sick. The Indians seemed to appreciate everything which the white ladies did when they carried her up to their house and cared for her and cured her. The father was the chief of the Indians. He mixed his blood with that of Mrs. Herrick's, which was the ceremony that gave her the right to be known as an adopted daughter of the tribe. All the Indians were instructed to look out for her and her family. There was at this time no Indian trouble in the county.

On the second day of February, 1859, the lady heard some shooting and the screams of women and children down by the river. Her husband wanted to go down, but it was before daylight and it was believed imprudent to go.

Men, women and children came tumbling over the fence and on to the porch for protection by the household. After daylight her husband went down to the river and there found one young Indian man dead at the water's edge and an old man lying dead just outside of the house.

Mr. Herrick told her they were going to bury them that afternoon, and two graves were dug just inside of the sand dunes in a green, grassy glade. The corpses were tied in deerskins, like mummies. The young Indian had one wife and baby. She sat patting the corpse and waiting the death-song to come, a pathetic wail that, once heard, can never be forgotten.

About that time Mrs. Herrick and her husband saw twenty or thirty Indians dancing, with war paint on them, and all armed with bows and arrows strapped across their backs. Mrs. Herrick told her husband that if the white people did not desist from abusing the Indians there would be an awful Indian war. Her words proved prophetic.

We have gone a little ahead of our story in order to give a glimpse of con- ditions as reported by Mrs. Herrick. It should be said, however, that what was

HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

known as the Klamath War occurred in 1855. It was the first serious trouble between any very large body of Indians and the whites, and its origin may be traced indirectly to difficulties that had long passed. These were local and per- sonal, but they conveyed the intelligence to the mountain tribes that the white people were trying to drive them away.

An example of the superstitions of the Indians is well worth citing. One day a captain of the name of McMahon met a few Indians and inflicted chastisement on them, by the aid of his company, for some petty thieving and other wrongs which they had done. The rancheria of the Indians was inadvertently fired on by the troops, and one old squaw was killed thereby. The captain then left with his company, and the Indians were very serious, as one might know they would have been, over the occurrence. They suspected Robert Walker and three of his companions who lived on the Klamath river. This was in 1851.

It was not long after this event, which resulted in the death of the squaw, before Walker and his companions noted that several hundred Indians were holding a pow-wow around his cabin. One grave old Indian came and told Walker that it was the belief of the tribe that he and his companions had killed the squaw. The Indians proposed to give the white men a fair trial, as they said, by taking them up to a place under a certain mysterious tree. A fire was to be built near the tree, and if the smoke were to be wafted towards the cabin in which the white men had lived it would be a sign from the Great Spirit that the men were guilty; but if the smoke were to go in any other direction than towards the cabin it was to be a sign that the men were innocent.

Walker was much surprised, but was a man of cool nerve. He recalled that he had often noticed that along toward noon the rising heat was such that a breeze always took the smoke from his cabin up toward the hills, so his problem was to get the Indians to postpone the trial for an hour or two. He forthwith began to entertain them by stories and to delay them by asking a number of questions. The chief said he would appeal to Mowena, the Great Spirit of his tribe, who would unerringly judge righteously for white men and Indians alike. Then, as the hour grew near, Walker said he was ready to go and he knew, he said, that the Great Indian Spirit would be just to him and his companions. So deeply were the Indians impressed by the efficiency of their fire-tests as a means of communicating with the Great Spirit that they quickly went to the cabin and tendered their friendship to Walker and his companions.

The great fire was built and the breezes carried the smoke away from the cabin, thereby convincing the Indians that they had made a mistake in accusing these men of murder. After this peculiar trial had convinced the Indians that they were wrong, Walker presented the spokesman with a lion's skin, and in a week thereafter the Indians returned and gave him and his companions a present of smoked salmon. These Indians long bore in mind the trial and long maintained friendly relations with Walker. Other events, however, served to inflame the Indians, who were occasionally imposed upon and cheated by some of the worst of the early settlers. Sometimes those who had no authority from Uncle Sam would deal with the Indians and swindle them outrageously.

In the fall of 1852 Colonel McKee, the government's first Indian superin- tendent for California, went up the Klamath river with a hundred mules loaded with presents for the Red Men. These presents consisted of beads, knives and handkerchiefs of gay and varied colors. Cheap articles of rich color appeal to

HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

the natives of the great forest. Colonel McKee, like nine out of ten employes of the Indian department, had very little knowledge of the Indian character and very little regard for the obligation of any agreement he might make with them. It is said that he unloaded his mules and distributed his presents, calling to his aid as interpreter the same Robert Walker whose life had been saved by the fortunate culmination of the trial by smoke. It is said that a large company of Indians flocked into the camp of Colonel McKee and were very much pleased with the presents which he distributed.

These Indians said they wanted to hear his proposal for continued friendship and peace with the whites, after which a day was set for the making of a treaty which was to be lasting and effective proof of the seriousness and earnestness of the friendship. A large number of Indians were present, and then Colonel McKee, with the pomposity of one high in authority, made a grandiloquent speech, telling the Indians that the white men were as many as the leaves on the trees, and that if the Reds did not remain peaceable their property would be destroyed, but if they remained quiet and inoffensive they would be protected in their lives and property. In conclusion, he said he wanted them to be good Indians until he could go back to San Francisco and return, and when he came back, which was to be in so many moons, he would do more than he had ever done to prove the friendship of the Great Father at Washington.

He turned to Robert Walker and commanded him to interpret the speech to the Red Men. It appears that Walker then had established a ferry across the Klamath river, and in order to make it profitable it was necessary to have the co-operation of the Indians in time of high water. As when he conceived the idea of detaining the Indians in his cabin until the noon breeze should carry the smoke from their trial of fire up the river and away from his home, so now there came to him another happy suggestion. He would make Colonel McKee's speech do a good turn, for he knew the Indians would neither understand nor appreciate the speech if it were literally translated, so he might in reality do Colonel McKee a great service by changing it to suit his own ideas. He therefore began his translation by saying that the white men in San Francisco were more plentiful than the leaves on the trees, and wound up by an assurance from Colonel McKee of perpetual friendship, provided that the Indians would take care of the ferry until Colonel McKee could go to San Francisco and return. Well, Colonel McKee did not return, nor did anybody keep that part of the promise which Walker translated into the treaty. Walker having finished his translation, the Indians held a consultation and answered that they would accept the proposal, whereupon Walker immediately reported to Colonel McKee that his proposition was accepted and that the Red Men would be good Indians until his return. Colonel McKee appeared to consider that his entire duty was not yet done, and he immediately proceeded to lay out a reservation, drawing lines from Weitchpec down the Klamath many miles, including a section of country which lies between the Hoopa and Klamath reservations as at present located. Having accomplished this, he packed up his mules and rode away. And that was the last that was ever seen of Colonel McKee.

The Indians kept their part of the treaty as it was translated to them by Walker, sacredly observing their agreement to assist in operating the ferry, and were in fact on their good behavior during the four or five months that McKee was away, but when they found they had been lied to, and were firmly of the

HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY

opinion that Colonel MeKee and Walker possibly had been in collusion to deceive them, they began to have serious misgivings.

It would have been easy at this time to have a general war, but there were a number of strong-minded Indians who prevented this. One known as Trinity Jim, and another one who was his associate, did a great deal to prevent the serious outbreak in 1852, when a large number of white persons would have been killed and their property destroyed. However, trouble had been brewing for a long time, and it was inevitable that there could be no settlement of their differences, except a contest for the possession of the Klamath river.

There were many faults on both sides. Many Indians would steal cattle and occasionally a murder would be committed, accompanied with robbery and slaughter, and in this connection some of the white men mistreated the Indians very badly. A terrible murder was committed in the year 1852 on the Klamath river about twelve miles below Weitchpec, at what was known as Blackburn's ferry. A trail had been cut through from Trinidad to this point, and a man by the name of Blackburn had built a ferry there, together with a stopping-place for settlers. One night when Blackburn and his wife, with five or six tourists, were sleeping in their tents, the Indians made a silent and barbarous attack. The five men in the tent slept on the floor with their heads outwards, touching the bottom of the tent. Silently, with deadly intent, the Indians crept up and tomahawked them from the outside while they slept. They then attacked the inmates of the house, but Blackburn was prepared for defense, and while his wife loaded one gun, he fired another, thus keeping the Indians at bay until day- light. Up in the mountains not far away there was a camp of eight white men, and when they heard the firing they went down to the ferry and drove the Indians away. It is easy to realize that this was the beginning of serious trouble. Black- burn and his wife escaped without injury, but there was a strange and sad incident in connection with them. Blackburn had been expecting his father to arrive from the East and made preparations to receive him. On the morning after the attack on his house he went to a rancheria, owned by supposedly peaceful Indians, situated a few hundred yards above on a bench of the mountains. There he found the body of his father, who had been murdered almost within sight of the house he had nearly reached. Whether the murderers were ever punished is not now known, but a volunteer company of miners was raised and several Indians' residences were attacked and burned. This was probably the extent of the punishment that the Indians received. It is not known whether the real murderers were those who fell under the fire of the miners.

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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 8

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