USA > California > Mendocino County > History of Mendocino County, California : comprising its geography, geology, topography, climatography, springs and timber > Part 32
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Evidently nothing came of this, for if there had there would have been no need of the following order passed by the Board, February 28, 1872: " It is ordered that the Clerk of Mendocino county be requested to confer with the Board of Supervisors of Humboldt county, with a view to the appointing of two or more persons to act in conjunction with two persons appointed by the Board of Supervisors of Mendocino county, to establish and mark out by natural landmarks, and others, an imaginary line between the two counties, commencing at a point on the fortieth parallel, as marked by a recent sur- vey, for the purpose of facilitating the work of assessing the two counties."
This resulted in attaining the desired end, for on the 19th day of November of that year the report of W. H. Fountleny for the survey of the northern boundary line was filed with the Board of Supervisors of Mendocino county, and as no. farther mention is made of any action in regard to the matter, it is evident that this survey was satisfactory to all parties. This line comes to the coast at Shelter Cove.
We now pass to a consideration of the Board of Supervisors as a body and to the legislative enactments which have any reference to them, and also certain acts of the Board which may properly be placed under this head. For this purpose we must go back to the days when Sonoma and Mendocino were, virtually, one county so as to be able to follow the matter up from incipiency.
From the period of the organization of the county until the year 1855, its affairs were controlled by the Court of Sessions, above mentioned, and a Board of Supervisors, the latter having certain functions not granted to the former. In the last named year a change had come o'er the governmental dream; the Court of Sessions was abolished, and an Act passed March 20th, entitled " An Act to create a Board of Supervisors in the counties in this
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State, and to define their duties and powers." For better reference the ninth section of the above Act is quoted in full : " The Board of Supervisors shall have power and jurisdiction in their respective counties. First, To make orders respecting the property of the county, in conformity with any law of this State, and to take care of and preserve such property. Second, To examine, settle, and allow all accounts legally chargeable against the county. and to levy for the purposes prescribed by law, such amount of taxes on the assessed value of real and personal property in the county, as may be authorized by law: provided, the salary of the County Judge need not be audited by the Board; but the County Auditor shall, on the first judicial day of each month, draw his warrant on the County Treasurer in favor of the County Judge for the amount due such Judge as salary, for the month preceding. Third, To examine and audit the accounts of all officers having the care, management, collection or disbursement of any money belonging to the county, or appropriated by law, or otherwise, for its use and benefit. Fourth, To lay out, control and manage public roads, turnpikes, ferries, and bridges within the county, in all cases where the law does not prohibit such jurisdiction, and to make such orders as may be requisite and necessary to carry its control and management into effect. Fifth, To take care of and provide for the indigent sick of the county. Sixth, To divide the county into townships, and to change the divisions of the same, and to create new townships, as the convenience of the county may require. Seventh, To establish and change election precincts, and to appoint inspectors and judges of elections. Eighth, To control and manage the property, real and per- sonal, belonging to the county, and to receive by donation any property for the use and benefit of the county. Ninth, To lease or to purchase any real or personal property necessary for the use of the county; provided, no pur- chase of real property shall be made unless the value of the same be pre- viously estimated by three disinterested persons, to be appointed for that purpose by the County Judge. Tenth, To sell at public auction, at the Court-house of the county, after at least thirty days' previous publie notice, and cause to be conveyed, any property belonging to the county, appropri- ating the proceeds of such sale to the use of the same. Eleventh, To cause to be erected and furnished, a Court-house, jail, and such other public build- ings as may be necessary, and to keep the same in repair; provided, that the contract for building the Court-house, jail, and such other public buildings, be let out at least after thirty days' previous public notice, in each case, of a readiness to receive proposals therefor, to the lowest bidder, who will give good and sufficient security for the completion of any contract which he may make respecting the same; but no bid shall be accepted which the Board may deem too high. Twelfth, To control the prosecution and defense of all suits to which the county is a party. Thirteenth, To do any and per-
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form all such other acts and things as may be strictly necessary to the full discharge of the powers and jurisdiction conferred on the Board.
During the session of 1861-2 the Legislature passed a law for the organi- zation of townships, regulating the powers and duties thereof, and desiring that the same should be submitted to the vote of the people. This law made each township a corporate body, the powers of which were vested in three Trustees, with the same or similar powers as those had by the Board of Supervisors. A similar set of officers were to be elected for each town- ship, to perform the duties thereof, under this law, as were elected for the whole county, with the exception of a County Judge, District Attorney, and Sheriff. Each township became in all important affairs a county, with county powers. county officers, and county expenses. In the place of one tax collector and one assessor, by this arrangement the county would have these officers for each of the townships, and the expenses of the county be increased eight-fold.
Upon the organization of Mendocino county it naturally fell into the channels of government which were prevalent at the time in other counties; hence at the first election, held on the first Monday in May, 1859, there were three supervisors elected, as provided for in the Act of March 11, 1859. The parties elected were : Daniel Miller, J. F. Hills, and O. H. P. Brown. Their first session was opened May 16, 1859, and Mr. Miller was called to the chair. Their first work was to divide the county into townships, and define and describe their boundaries, and designate them by name as follows :-
BIG RIVER TOWNSHIP .-- Bounded on the north by the county line, on the south by the Mal Paso, east by the Coast Range, west by the Pacific ocean ; containing Noyo, Big River, and Albion precincts.
ARENA TOWNSHIP .- Bounded on the north by the Mal Paso; south by the south county line; east by the Coast Range; west by the Pacific ocean, con- taining Arena precinct.
ANDERSON TOWNSHIP .- Bounded on the north by the range of mountains dividing Anderson valley and Ukiah valley, to the Redwood mountains by the county line; south and west by the Coast Range; containing Anderson Valley and Nevada precincts.
UKIAH TOWNSHIP .- Bounded on the north by the third standard line; on the south by the line of Anderson township; on the west by the Coast Range; and on the east by the county line; containing Feliz and Ukiah precincts.
CALPELLA TOWNSHIP .- Bounded on the north by the line of mountains dividing Walker's valley from Little Lake valley ; east by the county line;
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HISTORY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
west by the Coast Range; south by the third standard line; containing Calpella and Potter precincts.
LITTLE LAKE TOWNSHIP .- Bounded on the north by the county line; on the east by South Fork of Eel river; west by the Coast Range; south by Calpella township line; containing Little Lake and Long Valley precincts.
ROUND VALLEY TOWNSHIP .- Bounded on the north by the county line; east by the county line; south and west by the south fork and main branch of Eel river; containing Round Valley precinct.
From the above, it will be seen that there were originally in the county, seven townships and thirteen voting precincts. Since then, the lines of the townships have been so changed as to admit of two more townships, as follows :-
SANEL TOWNSHIP .- May 24, 1860, the following entry was made on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors :- It is ordered that a new township, known as Big Rock be established, bounded as follows: Commencing at the south- east corner of Mendocino county; thence north with the Napa county line, two miles north of A. P. Riley's ranch ; thence south-west to the south end of Lake; thence south so as to leave Willard's and Knox's ranch in said town- ship ; thence to Alfred Higgins' ranch, so as to leave him in Ukiah town- ship; thence south-west to Sawtell's, so as to leave him in said township ; thence south to the Mendocino county line; thence east to the place of beginning.
The name of Big Rock was given to this township on account of the spur of mountain on the course of the Russian river, now usually called "The Lover's Leap." It is a bold, jutting head of solid rock, and is a prominent land- mark for that township. Shortly afterwards-before the election in Novem- ber-the name was wisely changed to Sanel.
TEN-MILE RIVER TOWNSHIP .- This township was not established until May 7, 1873. The following is a transcript of the order of the Board of Supervisors which established it :- It is ordered that a new township be formed from a part of Big River township; commencing on the coast at a point on the north bank of Pudding creek, at the mouth of said creek; thence east, up the creek to where the same intersects the Little Lake town- ship line; thence north, following the line of Little Lake township to the Humboldt county line; thence west, and along said county line to the Pacific ocean; thence down and south following the bank of the Pacific ocean to the place of beginning.
There is nothing on the records to show just how the county was divided into Supervisorial districts until 1860. February 21st of that year, the fol- lowing division into districts was made :-
FIRST DISTRICT-Ukiah, Sanel, Anderson Valley and Nevarra precincts.
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SECOND DISTRICT-Calpella, Potter Valley, Little Lake, Long Valley, Round Valley and Sherwood precincts.
THIRD DISTRICT-Noyo, Big River, Albion and Garcia precincts.
By an Act of the Legislature passed May 3, 1861, the regular meetings of he Board of Supervisors for Mendocino county were set for the third Mon- days of February, May, August and November, but they could hold two special sessions during the year. Their compensation was fixed at five dol- lars per day and twenty cents mileage each way.
Previous to April 4, 1864, the Supervisors had been voted for only by the electors of the district which they represented, but on that date an Act of the Legislature was passed which provided that Supervisors should be voted for by all the electors of the county. This would seem to be a very strange proceeding, at least unusual, for in most counties in the State the former method obtains at the present time. It was claimed that this arrangement was put into operation for political purposes, but at this great removal from the time of the order it is impossible to get at the true impelling motives. The candidate for the office had to be a resident of the district from which he wished to be elected. This Act provided for the election of one Supervisor each year and that they should hold the office for a term of three years. This was an excellent plan, and one that has ever worked to advantage wherever tried.
No further changes occurred in the manner of electing the Supervisors, their times of meeting, terms of service, etc., until April 1, 1878, when a Bill passed by the Legislature provided for several new features. Following is a transcript of the Act of that date :-
SECTION 1. The county of Mendocino shall consist of five Supervisor dis- tricts, composed as follows: The townships of Anderson and Sanel, shall constitute the first Supervisor district; Ukiah and Calpella, the second ; Lit- tle Lake and Round Valley, the third ; Ten-mile River and Big River the fourth, and Arena the fifth.
SEC. 2. The Board of Supervisors shall consist of five members, one of whom shall be chosen from each of the Supervisor districts of the county, and shall be a resident of the district from which he is elected. They shall be voted for by the voters of the entire county. They shall hold office for the term of two years, or till their successors are elected. Each member shall receive a salary of three hundred dollars per annum, paid quar- terly, in the months of February, May, August and November, and the same mileage as is now allowed. Within twenty days from the passage of this Act the County Judge shall appoint one Supervisor for the first district and one for the fifth.
In accordance with the provisions of the above Act of the Legislature, pro- viding for two more members of the Board of Supervisors, the County Judge
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HISTORY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
appointed C. P. McGimsey for the first district and Neils Iverson for the fifth. Since that time there has been no changes in the Board or its affairs.
We will now consider the courts of the county. As will be remembered, we stated above that originally the entire supervisorial as well as judicial labor of the counties fell upon the shoulders of the Court of Sessions until 1855, when the Board of Supervisors was established for each separate county to perform the labors that naturally came into their department of the county economics, but that Act did not do away with the Courts of Ses- sions, nor their judicial duties. From time to time their duties were pre- scribed and we may say also proscribed, until the Court of Sessions performed duties very similar to that of the District Judge under the late regime. An Act of the Legislature, approved April 12, 1859, set forth the rules that should regulate all the courts in Mendocino county. It was as follows : The Court of Sessions, County, and Probate Courts, in and for the counties of Sonoma, Marin and Mendocino, shall be held at the same term, viz .: com- mencing on the first Monday in the months of February, May, August and November of each year, provided, that the County Judge may call and hold a special term of said court whenever the public interest may require it; and at all terms of said court, the business pertaining to the Court of Sessions shall first be disposed of and after that the business of the County Court and Probate Court, in the order in which they are named. This order shall be observed as a rule of procedure only, and after the business of one court is disposed of, the business of the other may be taken up on the same day in such order as the Judge may determine.
April 25, 1860, an Act of the Legislature was passed, establishing the terms of all the courts held in Mendocino county. The context of the Bill was as follows :-
SECTION 1. The District Judge shall hold three terms of his court annu- ally in the county of Mendocino, to-wit: on the third Monday of each of the following months, viz .: March, July and November of each year.
SEC. 2. The County Court and Court of Sessions for the county of Men- docino shall be held, commencing on the first Monday of each of the following months : March, May, September and December of each year.
SEC. 3. The regular terms of Probate Court for Mendocino county shall convene on the third Monday of each of the following months : March, June, December and September.
The terms of the different courts of the county remained in accordance with the above schedule for the following four years, when, on April 4, 1864, a change was ordered by an Act of the Legislature, which was as follows: "The regular terms of the County and Probate Courts in and for the county of Mendocino, shall commence on the first Monday in March, June, September, and December of each year." In 1866 another change occurred, and on
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LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY.
January 11th of that year a Bill was approved as follows: "The time for holding the District Court in the county of Mendocino is hereby changed, so that the same shall be holden on the second Monday of April, third Monday of July, and the first Monday of November of each year."
As soon as the county government was organized, and business for the county had to be transacted, it became necessary to have some suitable building as a place to perform such necessary business, also a proper place for the detention of criminals; hence we find in the records of the Board of Supervisors at their first meeting the following order: "The second story of the building known as the ' Musical Hall' in Ukiah City, ordered rented at twenty-five dollars per month for county officers and county purposes until further ordered by this Board." All old settlers will well remember this building, as it was one of the prominent landmarks of Ukiah when the business part of the town was down on Main street. It stood just north of the present site of Mr. John S. Reed's dwelling, and very nearly on the site of the new hall erected by that gentleman in 1880. It was a wooden structure with rough boards placed in an upright position for siding. The upper story was a rough arrangement, but answered the purpose of offices for awhile, as that was the best quarters obtainable in the town.
Under date of August 18, 1859, we find that the Board of Supervisors ordered that sealed proposals for a new Court-house and jail be solicited. These bids were opened September 19, 1859, and in pursuance to this we find that the contract for the construction of these buildings was awarded to E. Rathburn for the sum of $6,000. It was ordered by the Board that the Court-house and jail be erected in the middle of the plaza, and that the Court- house be thirty-five feet wide. The plans and specifications of these build- ings were not engrossed upon the minutes of the Board of Supervisors, hence we are unable to give a particular description of them, suffice it to say that the Court-house was of brick, arranged somewhat as the present one is. The buildings were completed so as to be accepted by the Board on the 24th of January, 1860, and immediate possession was taken of them.
It would seem that the quarters of the jail became inadequate to the demand made upon them quite soon, for on the third day of September 1864, the Board ordered that the sum of five hundred dollars be expended for a new jail, to be built in the rear of the Court-house and jail then stand- ing. This addition to the room of the jail seems to have proved sufficient for all purposes until the erection of the new Court-house and jail, but it would seem that the building was not really a secure place of confinement in the original condition, for under date of November 24, 1866, the Board appropriated five hundred dollars for the purpose of putting iron cells in the jail. Indeed the Grand Jury's report of September 23, 1864, called the attention of the Court to the fact of its unsafe condition in the following lan- guage: " We have examined the jail and find that it is no jail at all. We are
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HISTORY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
satisfied that it is useless to lodge criminals in it, as several escapes have re- cently been made." The order for iron cells was afterwards modified, so that all the money was put into one large cell, which is now the cell in the upper story of the present jail. The old citizens of Ukiah will remember what a time was had in getting that cell up from Petaluma, as it was before the days of railroads, and all freight was brought through from the above-men- tioned place on large wagons. The cell arrived there in mid-winter, and it was a long time before the condition of the roads would permit the teamsters to make the trip through to Ukiah.
There came a time at last when the county buildings became altogether too small for the purposes required, and had to be supplanted by more capa- cions structures. The offices, not any too large at first, had had their limits encroached upon from year to year by accumulating records and documents, until it became an absolute necessity to have more room. Another great and proper motive that incited action in that direction was the pressing need of a fire-proof receptacle for all the records and documentary matter of the county. Realizing all this the Board of Supervisors on the 5th day of De- cember, 1871, passed the following order: "It is hereby ordered that the plans, specifications, and detailed plans for the building of a Court-house and jail in Ukiah City, Mendocino county, be received at the Clerk's office of Mendocino county, up to the third Monday in January, 1872, at 12 o'clock, M., of that day, for which plans so adopted the Board will pay two hundred dollars; reserving the right to reject any or all of the plans. The cost of erecting the same by any of the said plans is not to exceed forty thousand dollars." The vote in the Board, on the adoption of the above order stood as follows: T. W. Dashiel and W. J. Hildreth, yes, and W. A. McFarland, no. The fol- lowing order was then passed by the Board: "It is ordered that the Clerk of this Board make and transmit to our Representative in the Assembly, a copy of the draft of the Bill this day adopted by the Board providing for the' . erection of county buildings, and be it ---
Resolved, That our Representative in the Assembly, and our Senator from this district be, and they are hereby respectfully requested to use their endeavors to have said Bill passed by the present Legislature."
In compliance with the above resolution the passage of the Bill was secured, and was approved and received the Governor's signature, January 18, 1872. This Bill provided for the issuance by Mendocino county, of bonds to the amount of forty thousand dollars, which bonds were to be of the de- nomination of five hundred dollars each, and should bear the rate of nine per cent per annunı ; principal and interest payable only in gold coin of the United States, principal payable at any time within twenty years at the election of the county ; bonds to be signed by the Auditor, and counter- signed by the Treasurer to be valid.
Under date of January 15, 1872, it is recorded in the minutes of the
..
Frank Kelly
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Board of Supervisors, that the Board procceded with the examination of the several plans submitted for the erection of county buildings, and after duly examining and considering the same, those proposed by C. A. Pettit, Esq., were awarded the preference, and were ordered to be filed for adoption, pro- vided the action of the Legislature should be such as to justify the Board in so doing.
By January 24, 1872, the Board had been informed of the action of the Legislature as mentioned above, and in accordance with the provisions of that Act ordered: " That the Auditor procure the necessary blanks for bonds, and interest coupons for the issuance of the bonds of the county to the amount of forty thousand dollars, under the Act of the Legislature for the ercetion of county buildings, and issue the same under date of February 20, 1872. Ordered further, that the District Attorney draw a contract for the erection of said buildings in accordance with the plans and specifications adopted by the Board."
It would seem that a change came suddenly over the Supervisorial mind in regard to the matter, for on March 19, 1872, it is entered in their minutes that-"all bids heretofore received are rejected, and the plans and specifica- tions also rejected." Three days later, however, their mood was changed again and the sunlight of approval shed a radiant effulgence upon them, for on the 23d of March the minutes of the Board bear the following testimony: The Board adopted revised specifications made by A. P. Petitt. The follow- ing facts and figures relating to the dimensions of the Court-house, are taken from the specifications mentioned above. The extreme length of the build- ing is one hundred and eleven feet; the extreme width through the center is seventy feet. The front end is forty-nine feet, and the rear end forty-five feet and six inches in width; the height of the building is thirty-seven feet from the ground-line to the top of the cornice, and from thence to the top of the dome thirty-four feet, making the total height seventy-one feet. The first floor is four feet above the ground-line, and to the second floor thirteen feet from the first, and to the ceiling of the second-story, from the second floor, sixteen feet. The foundation walls are all made of concrete, and are laid two feet below the ground-line; are four feet six inches for the outside walls, and for all partition walls the concrete foundation wall is one foot below the ground-line, and two feet wide. The brick for the walls are of the best quality, the outside course being pressed. The outside walls are twenty-two inches in thickness, while all the partition walls are one foot. All the offices and the hall of the first floor of the Court-house are wainscoted to a height of four feet. The cornice is what is known as the " bracket," and is very elegant. Gas-pipes are laid in all the rooms, and sewers and wastage- pipes lead to all sinks and closets in the building. All the materials used in the construction of the building were of the best quality. The framing timbers were of Mendocino fir and pine, The jail is situated just in the rear
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