USA > California > Humboldt County > History of Humboldt County, California : with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, farms, residences, public buildings, factories, hotels, business houses, schools, churches, etc., from original drawings, including biographical sketches > Part 25
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FARM & RESIDENCE OF H.S. CASE, 1/2 MILES FROM HYDESVILLE, HUMBOLDT CO. CAL.
117
KLAMATH FORMED AND DISORGANIZED.
Dissatisfied citizensof Klamath County took legal steps to eon- test the act. An injunction was issued by the County Judge, J. T. Cary, in June, restraining the Boards of Supervisors of the three interested counties from taking any action in the matter until the constitutionality of the act could be tested in the Supreme Court.
This did not prevent the appointment of the Commission- ! ers and on the 24th of August, Hon E'. Steele and A. Swain, ou the part of Siskiyou County, met John A. Watson and John Kelcher, Commissioners of Humboldt County, at Orleans Bar, to carry out the provisions of the aet.
They found that in obedience to the injunction the Super- visors and officers of Klamath County had takeu no steps to- wards settling the affairs of the county. They were refused access to the books by P. W. Wasmuth, the Treasurer, and were unable to accomplish the task that had been assigned them. Under these circumstances they adjourned and reported the situation to their respective boards, Nothing further was donc until the decision of the Supreme Court was rendered.
The ground upon which the law was contested was, that it was a delegation of legislative power to the people, as it made the disorganization of Klamath County, and the taking effect of the law, dependent upon a vote of the people of Siskiyou. In March, 1875, a decision was rendered, fully sustaining the legality of the act, deciding that it was not a delegation of authority, but the making of the act to take effect upon the happening of a contingent event, namely, the affirmative vote of Siskiyou County to receive a portion of the territory and assume a portion of the debt.
THE DIFFICULTIES FINALLY SETTLED.
It now remained to carry the law into effect. After consid- erable correspondenee and a failure to meet, Commissioners Steele and Swain resigned, and H. B. Warren and W. T. Laird were appointed.
A meeting was arranged for October, but the Siskiyou Com- missioners failed to be present, and the matter still remained uusettled. The next winter a bill was introduced into the Legislature by Assemblyquan J. Clark, of Humboldt.
It authorized the Humboldt County Supervisors to settle the affairs of Klamath County, and apportion the debt; made it obligatory upon Siskiyou to assume the portion thus assigned to it; provided for a tax in both counties to pay the Klamath County bonds; provided for the transfer of causes in the courts to the courts of Humboldt County; and donated the county real estate to the Orleans Bar School Distriet.
Assemblyman Harris, of Siskiyou, submitted a substitute, which differed from the original bill by placing the settlement and apportionment in the hands of four Commissioners, two from each county, and providing for the sale of the county real estate at auction. The act was passed as thus amended.
The Supervisors of Siskiyon appointed Jolm Dagget and John
V Brown May 22, 1876, to serve as Commissioners under the act, which called for a meeting ,June 5th, at Orleans Bar.
The Commissioners of Humboldt County. W. J. MeNamara and W. P. Hanna, were there at the appointed time, but Dag- gett and Brown failed to appear, the expenses of the meeting, according to a provision in the law, falling upon Siskiyou County, through whose laches it had been rendered futile.
After this failure, new Commissioners were appointed by both counties, James Beith, Jr., and Hudson B. Gillis on the part of Siskiyou, and Thomas Cutler and William P. Hauna for Humboldt. They met in Orleans Bar, August 14, 1876, examined the books, settled up the county affairs, and made the following apportionment :-
VALUATION-Portion in Siskiyou. $328,018
" Humboldt 273.511
$601, 529
OUTSTANDING DEBT-TO Siskiyou. 813,003.27
Humboldt 10,892.50 $23,955.80
CASH ON HAND-Apportioned to Siskiyou. . . $2,414.81 " Humboldt .. 2,013.54
$4,428.35
The report of the Commissioners was accepted by both coun . ties, and Klamath County became a thing of the past.
KLAMATH COUNTY BONDS.
From a late number of the Times, we take the following article about the Klamath County bouds of 1857.
When Klamath County was wiped from its existence on the map and its territory divided between Siskiyou and Humboldt Counties, the debt had to be assumed by the counties in which it was included. The portion due by Humboldt County when Mr. Stateler's warrant sball have been paid, will all be paid, with the exception of about $1,200.
The bonds which were held by Mr. Stateler, bave something of a history. The owner of them lived many years ago in Del Norte County and had warrants to the amount of $825.90 against the County of Klamath. The indebtedness of the county was bonded and bonds given him for the amount of the warrants. He subsequently moved to Virginia City, and was there in busi- ness as a banker. Like most men who have had dealings with mining stocks, he led a chequered life. More than onee he was very wealthy and then lost all his money by unfortunate spee- ulation or bad loans. The little bonds against the County of Klamatb were laid away and forgotten.
It is supposed that they were burned in 1865, when Mr. Stateler's place of business was destroyed. Some of our county officers were talking over the bonds which bad never been payed and Mr. Stateler's name was mentioned as the owner of three. One of the gentlemen present had known him in years gone by, and wrote to bim about the bonds. Mr. Sta- teler put the matter into the hands of Mr. DeHaven and has seenred a warrant for $2,640, the yearly interest since 1857 at 10 per cent. being more than double tbe principal
118
DEL NORTE COUNTY ORGANIZED.
DEL NORTE COUNTY ORGANIZED.
First Officers; Courts; Its Prosperity and Progress; Its Resources: Present Con- dition; Future Prospects. etc.
ORGANIZATION OF DEL NORTE.
The Crescent City Herald of the 23d of February, 1856, advo- cated a division of Klamath County and the formation of a new county out of thic northwestern part to be called Requa, in- cluding in the new county that po: tion lying north and west of a line drawn from Spanish Bar, on the Upper Klamath, to the mouth of Blue Creek, on the lower, thence to the ocean, including the Indian reservation.
The paper alluded to attributes the great financial embarrass- inent of that county to the peculiar topographical nature of the same; certainly it was a heavy load of sin to impose upon the mountains, cañons and ravines of Klamath.
The Legislature of 1857 passed the Act organizing Del Norte County, and this bill located the seat of justice at Crescent City, aud ordered an election held in May, 1857, for the elec- tion of county officers. The bill also provided that Del Norte pay one-third of the indebtedness of Klamath County, and that it was to issue bonds therefor, bearing ten per cent. per annum interest to Klamath County. Twenty per cent. of the taxes and other moneys received by the Treasurer of Del Norte was ordered to be set aside as a sinking fund for the redemp- tion of the bouds; and the sum arising from this twenty per cent. was to be appropriated annually to their redemption. The Board of Supervisors of Del Norte County was author- ized to levy a special tax, not to exceed twenty-five ceuts on each one hundred dollars of valuation of taxable property in tbe county; the fund arising from the special tax to be applied in liquidation of the debt of Klamath.
KLAMATH COUNTY DEBTS ADJUSTED.
The Board of Examiners appointed under the provisions of the Act of the Legislature of 1856-57 dividing Klamatb County and creating the new couuty of Del Norte, consisted of Messrs. Lewis, Peveler, McDonald and Buel. They met at Orleans Bar on the third Monday in September, and proceeded to the discharge of their duties. They first went to work to ascer- tain the indebtedness of Klamath County prior to the 4th day of May, 1857. Tbis they found to be $5,534.85. But the more the Board investigated the furtber they were from agreeing upon any basis of settlement.
The Board then eudeavored to agree upon a fifth man to dc- cide the point, but there they failed again, and adjourned withi-
out accomplishing anything more than the ascertainiug the amount of debt to be divided.
The whole debt outstanding of Klamath County on the 4th day of May, 1857, of which Del Norte had to pay its portion, was $26,843.54. The Board having failed to divide this, the only thing now to be doue under the pro- visions of the Division Act, was for the County Auditor of Del Norte to draw his warrant on the Treasurer of his county for onc-third of this amount, being $8,948.
The Legislature of 1858-59 appointed Commissioners to ap- portion the Funded Debt of Klamath County, and the interest tlicreon, between the counties of Klamath and Del Norte. This question had long beeu a bone of contentiou between the two counties, and several attempts to settle the matter had bceu made without success.
The Commissioners, W. M. Bnel, on the part of Klamath County, and Ben F. Dorris, on the part of Del Norte County, declined to act in the premises, alleging as a reason, that, in their opinion, a just and equitable settlement could not be made on the basis of the revenue of seven months of each county. In their report to the Board of Supervisors of Del Norte County, they stated, that upon an examination of the statements furnished them by the Auditors of the two counties showing the net rev- euues of both, they found that seven months taken as a basis would work greatly to the prejudice of Klamath County. They therefore proposed, after a due consideration of all the circumstances attending the embarrassed condition of affairs, to take the revenue of the first year, namely, from May +, 1857, to May 4, 1858, as the basis of settlement. The ap- portionment on this proposition was as follows : Joint debt of Klamath and Del Norte Counties, as ascertained from the books of Funding Commission, $31,986 54; amount of revenue col- lected in both counties from May 4, 1857, to May 4, 1858, $14,667.69; apportionment of the debt according to the above basis - Klamath County $20,307.00; Del Norte County, $11,679.54; interest to be calculated to the 11th of June, 1859. Finally in 1859, the Legislature passed an act amending tbe boundary between Klamath and Del Norte, and providing for tbe payment of the debt existing at the time of the organiza- tion of Del Norte.
PROGRESS OF THE COUNTY.
The people had mucb to congratulate themselves upon, and had good reason to expect a great increase in population, busi- ness, and wealth during the years to come. The division of Klamath County had been accomplished and the new county of Del Norte created; and above all, the determination shown by tbe judicial officers of the new county to punish and thereby prevent crime, angured a new era in the administration of county affau's, and au improvement in the moral tone of the community.
The month of April, 1857, brought the heaviest immigration
110
RESOURCES OF DEL NORTE COUNTY.
to Del Norte that had ever been known during the same length of time. Over 450 passengers were landed at the port of Cres- cent City within three days.
During the months of March, April and May, the first busi- ness months of the year, there were landed at Crescent City 1,278 tons of freight and 1,717 passengers. Aud the above may be taken as a fair criterion of the average business of the town in 1857.
FIRST COUNTY OFFICERS.
On Monday, May 4, 1857, the clection for the first county officers for the new county of Del Norte took place, and the persons elected were: County Judge, F. E. Weston; County Clerk, Beu Reynolds; Sheriff; N. Tack; District Attorney, John P. Haynes; Treasurer, E. Y. Naylor ; Assessor, Solon Hall; Coroner, Jasper Houck; Surveyor, D. C. Lewis; Public Administrator. Jolin T. Boyce. The Super- visors elected were : First district, Wm. Saville; Secoud, Ward Bradford; Third, P. H. Peveler.
Under their administration, the new county was reasona- bly prosperous, and has so continued uuder succeeding admiuis- trations. Tho present(1882) officers are James Murphy, Superior Judge; W. B. Mason, Assemblyinan ; Treasurer, William Sa- ville ; Sheriff, Chas. E. Hughes ; Assessor, W. H. Woodbury ; County Clerk, P. H. Peveler ; District Attorney, E. Mason ; Superintendent of Schools, John Miller.
RESOURCES OF DEL NORTE.
1
The county is exceedingly well timbered with redwood, spruce, hemlock, eedar and pine. In the eastern part of the county the surface is much more brokeu and mountainous, with less timber. The Siskiyon Mountains, in the castern and een- tral portion of the county, attain an altitude of 6,000 feet, mauy peaks reaching from 4,000 to 5,000 feet; along the coast the mountains seldom reaching more than from 700 to 1,000 feet; the latter are covered with very heavy redwood and spruce timber.
A comparatively small amount of land is cultivated, dairying being the great industry which requires nearly all the land for grazing purposes.
Views aud descriptions of the principal dairies of Smith River are given in this work.
Owing to dairying the amount of grain raised in the county is very small. Potatoes could be raised in great quantities, new land yielding from eight to ten tons to the aere, but the home market at present does not warrant the farmer to plant very many.
There is small amount of arable land in the eastern portion of the county in the vicinity of Happy Camp and Indian Creek, and is mostly farmed to vegetables, which find ready sale among the mines in the vicinity.
The extent of farming land in the county now surveyed will amount to about 15,000 acres; this, taking all the surveyed
land in the county, would only make about 100, 535 ans. A great portion of the unsurveyed lands are excellent timber.
Toward the mouth of Smith River, is the Occidental and Oriental Fish Packing Company, largely engaged in canning salmon fish, which are caught, canned, and shipped to all parts of the world. The company employ from sixty to seventy five hands, and caught and canned last year 158,750 caus. or 7,000 cases, valnul at $43,500.
There are several saw-mills in the county. Two of the larg- est near Crescent City. The Elk River Mill, owned by Hobbs. Wall & Co., is the largest, being a two-story steam mill, the upper story being ocenpied by the saw-mill, the lower story by the most extensive box factory on the coast. The mill has a capacity of 50,000 feet of Inmber, per day. It has an iron track railroad one mile long from the mill to the end of the wharf.
J. Wenger & Co.'s mill is located at the lower end of Lake Earl. The logs are rafted down on the lake to the mill; on arriving they are hauled up by steam, couverted into lumber, and thence, by tramway, to the wharf, and from there to ves- sels. This mill has a capacity of 32,000 feet per day.
There are miles and miles of redwood forests in the county, so thiekly wooded that one can scareely see a dozen yards, that the lumberman has never eutered, "and" says the Record, "we are inelined to believe that this generation will have passed away long before there will be a scarcity of this timber. Although the saw-mills in this county have been running mauy years and have eut a vast amount of this species of luinher, still all of their lumbering has been done on the low lands with- in two or three miles of the ocean, never having gone back to the hills, where the finest growth of timber can be found.
MINES AND MINING IN DEL NORTE.
The production of gold for the county annually is about $250,000 from placer mines in all parts of the county.
Copper mines are also valuable. One owned by M. F. Jew- ett of San Francisco is considered a very rich mine; extensive developments are now being made. Copper ore was first dis- covered in 1860, in the northwestern part of the county.
Hou. James E. Murphy has a number of miners employed in developing his copper mine, which is now, beyond doubt, one of the finest mining properties on the coast, the ore yielding from thirty to forty per cent. pure copper. The ore is easily smelted in a blacksmith's forge, and requires nothing at all for fluxing. There are eroppings of copper ore all over Min- eral Point which are easily traeed for over a mile in length. If a more easy and accessible way were opened, there miglit be from 10,000 to 15,000 tons of copper ore exported annually from these mines.
The chrome mines of Del Norte County are situated in the vicinity of the copper mines. The first shipment being made by the Tyson Smelting Company, of Baltimore, Md., in 1869,
120
THE GREATEST NEED OF DEL NORTE.
which has control of the chrome husiness in the United States. There are extensive deposits of chirome in this county.
Deposits of iron ore, of various grades and classes, are found in different parts of the county, the hulk of which is in the vicinity of the copper and chrome mines. These iron ores have been tested hy scientific men, who pronounce them of a very high grade.
Coal was discovered several years ago, a few miles north from Crescent City.
GREATEST NEED OF DEL NORTE.
What Del Norte County mnost needs is harbor improvements at Crescent City. That will bring in people with capital who will improve her many water powers, saw up her immense for- ests of redwood into lumber, and unlock the great vaults in which her vast minerals are now sleeping. The now sparsely- settled country will then teem with many industries which, at present, are scarcely thought of; then her gold, iron, ehrome, tislı, lumher and hutter will be sent hy her own ships to all parts of the world.
The harhor is at Crescent City, which is located on a small hay in latitude 41º 44', longitude 120° 10', which is 280 miles north of San Francisco by water.
The harbor is an open roadstcad, with no bar to cross, and affords tolerahle good shelter for vessels during the summer months, when the wind generally blows from the northwest, but is open and unprotected against the southerly gales which prevail during the winter months on this coast, and, at times cause a heavy sea to set in from the southwest, dangerous to vessels in the harbor. There is considerahle of a hay here, with several large rocks, which are from one-fourtb to one-half mile from the shore.
Crescent City Described.
When the town was located it was named Crescent City, hecause the bay on which it is situated is a semieircle.
In February, 1853, the land was surveyed hy T. P. Rohin- son and divided up into town lots.
M. Rosborough purchased a land warrant in J. F. Wendell's name, for the 320 acres of land on which Crescent City now stands.
The grant which Wendell had purchased from the State was, however, afterwards declared to he void, the United States Government claimed the right to the land, and those who had invested in town lots were in danger of losing both their lots and money. Anarrangement was finally effected by which the Common Council of Crescent City purchased the land from the United States, at $2.50 per acre. The Council then issued eer- tificates of title to all those who had bought town lots from Wendell, and to those who were originally interested in the location of the town.
FIRST BUSINESS IN CRESCENT CITY.
The first mercantile firms who opened business at Crescent City were S. H. Gruhler, Gilbert & Farrington, Hamilton & Co., and a short time afterward Gilkey & Co. R. F. Knox & Co., of San Francisco, sent F. E. Weston to represent and take charge of their interests. They bought and shipped in his charge on the Pomona, a small saw-mill, which he imme- diately erected near what is now the corner of C and Third Streets. That mill made the lumber of which the first houses in Crescent City were constructed. A year or two later they built a larger saw-mill near the corner of G and Seventh Streets, and in 1856, they added a grist-mill.
The first sack of flour ever ground in this county, was turned out of the Crescent City Mills in October, 1856. In 1857, Mr. Weston left aud S. G. Kingsland took his place in charge of the property and husiness. In 1860, these mills were burned down, with all the surrounding improvements with the excep- tion of the house now occupied hy Judge Hamilton, and a large amount of lumher and grain was consumed at the same time.
The first vessel huilt at Crescent City was, in 1854, the Rosalie, commanded hy E. A. Babcock. Sbe was huilt of spruce and hemlock.
From March 16, to October 22, 1854, the number of arrivals, according to the Custom House reports, were, steamers, 39; sailing vessels, 9; total, 48. Amount of freight carried hy steamers, 3,385 tons; hy sailing vessels, 540; total, 3,925; or, in round mumhers, 4,000 tons of merchandise. .
During the same period the number of passengers carried from San Francisco to Crescent City, according to the Purser's reports, was 2,286.
Thus it will be seen that the travel to this part of the State was large, and that its many natural advantages were at that time receiving considerable attention, and the place for a few years had a rapid growth.
The eity has two churches, Methodist and Catholic, where the usual services are conducted.
Crescent City Lodge, No. 398, I. O. G. T., meets every Satur- day evening.
Del Norte Lodge, No. 183, A. O. U. W., meets every Tues- day evening.
Klamath Lodge, No. 41, I. O. O. F., meets every Thursday evening.
Crescent Lodge, No. 45, F. and A. M., meets on the Monday evening of, or next preceding the full of the moon. The Ma- sons have a fine hall, the largest building in town, and the Order is in a prosperous condition.
The schools of Crescent City are among the hest in the State, and at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876, Crescent City received credit for the hest exhihit of work done in the schools of California. From the report of the puhlie schools of Cres- cent City for the month ending December 22, 1880, by H. H.
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SALMON CREEK FARM, PROPERTY OF E.P.VANCE,I MILE FROM TABLE BLUFF, HUMBOLDT CO. CAL.
RANCH OF JOEL S. WHITMORE, 18 MILES FROM HYDESVILLE, HUMBOLDT CO. CALA.
121
EARLY MINING TIMES IN HAPPY CAMP.
Heath, Principal, it appears that the whole number of chil- dren enrolled in the school is 120; three teachers are employed. The number of children in the county in 1880 was +77 ; the amount of money appropriated by the State was 8629.04
On the 10th of June, 1854, that necessity of all civilized communities, a local newspaper, was established, with Messrs B. F'. Fcclitig and W. B. Freaner as publishers. It was call the Crescent City Herald, was a five-column paper, published all at home, and ably edited.
The Valedictory of the Crescent City Courier, which had been purchased by Mason & Tack from Walter B. Thorpe, and publishod by them for a period of one year, appeared in the is- sue of March 13, 1875. The publishers had probably found it up-hill work publishing a country newspaper, and had thought it tho better part of valor to retiro from the lists. The Courier was resurrected in November, 1875, by Silas White, as pub- lisher and proprietor, who discontinued it in the fall of 1881. The Del Norte Herald is the only paper now published in the county. It is ably managed by J. E. Eldridge as editor and proprietor, who gleans all the local news worthy of record. It is in its 4th year of publication.
Crescent City contaius a population of abont 1,000, and the district polls a vote of 305. It is well laid out and compactly built. The buildings are nearly all of wood, superior himber being manufactured here for building purposes. Spruce aud fir are mostly nsed, redwood not being suitable for that purpose. There aro twelve brick buildings and one stone warchouse.
HAPPY CAMP.
The noted Happy Camp was the first settlement made within the present limits of Del Norte. In the spring of 1851, a party consisting of Captain Gwin, R. Tomkins, Robert L. Williams, Capt. Chas. McDermott, Charles D. Moore, Thos. J. Roach, Charles Wilson, Charles Southard, W. Taggart, George Wood, W. T. Stevens, William Rumley, W. A. J. Moore, Jerry Lane, John Cox, S. S. Whipple, J. W. Burke, James Buck, Abisha Swain, L. H. Murch, J. H. Stimnh- field, Jeremiah Martin, William Bagley, Daniel MeDougall, Jack McDongall, William McMahone, and several others, started from Trinidad, worked their way up the Klamath River, camping on every bar which showed the color of the gold they were secking, and continually compelled to keep guard against the prowling and treacherous Indians. Not - withstanding all the precantions taken by the company, three young men of the party were killed by the Indians. In return an attack was made on an Indiau village, and it was believed all were murdered. The company then passed on up and lo- cated Happy Camp. They built a cabin which they used as a storehouse, and Cochrane remained there to look after the property and mules while the others scattered along the river mining. Soon the original party was increased by large addi- tions. The name of this place was said to arise from the miners
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