USA > California > Mendocino County > History of Mendocino County, California : comprising its geography, geology, topography, climatography, springs and timber > Part 43
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76
of two-inch hose, with the necessary hooks, ladders, ropes, buckets, etc. The company has a building which was erected at a cost of $150.
CHURCHES .- Presbyterian .- A church organization under the auspices of the Presbyterian denomination was effected at Point Arena by Rev. F. M. Dimmock, on the 23d day of June, 1873. The organizing members were : B. F. McClure, Rhoda McClure, S. C. Stewart, Sarah Stewart, Robert Cuth- bertson, Grace Cuthbertson, William Munroe, Mary Chalfant, Margaret Galoway, and Melinda O'Ncil. There were no regular services until October, 1874, when Rev. Thomas Kirkland began filling the pulpit at this place and at Brush creek, remaining till October, 1877. In May, 1879, Rev. C. H. Crawford came here, and has since remained in charge of that pulpit. The present membership is twenty-seven. The services are held in the building known as the "Court-house," which was erected by the citizens of the town for public purposes, such as courts, religious services, and public gatherings in general. There is a flourishing Sunday-school in connection with the church, consisting of fifty-five members, under the superintendancy of Dr. Bacon.
Methodist Episcopal Church .- Rev. E. A. Hazen, the present pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at Point Arena, has kindly furnished us the following sketch of the church work at that place :-
" In the year 1867 Rev. David H. Haskins was sent to the Point Arena charge and remained for two years; Wm. J. Mackey, Presiding Elder. A class was organized November 10, 1867, consisting of C. B. Pease and Betsey P. Pease, in full communion and Adam Antrim, Mary Antrim and Isaac Heylock, probationers. He received a large number into the church on pro- bation, but just how many continued faithful, we cannot learn. The first official board consisted of Cornelius B. Pease, class leader and steward, and the following stewards : Isaac Heylock, Adam Antrim, Joseph Jackson, J. G. Morse, E. F. Mathews, Joseph Ainsley, -- Cook. He left in full con- nection in the church twenty-three members. He was succeeded in the charge by Wm. B. Davis, a local deacon, employed by the Presiding Elder, George Clifford, who remained until the conference of 1870. Of his pastorate we have but little recorded, except that he held a camp-meeting, and that J. Kearns, J. Hamilton, J. Jackson, J. Sheppard, J. Heylock, -- Andrews Wm. King and J. G. Morse were his official Board. In September, 1870, N. N. Vernerton was appointed to the charge, and did good work; but his health failing during the year, he was helped out by Jacob Miller, a local preacher. During his pastorate a large tract of land in Point Arena, now occupied by the church property, was secured to the church, and a parsonage started thereon. Jacob Miller, Joseph Sheppard, Dr. J. G. Morse, H. O. Triplet, J. Jackson and A. J. Andrews, were the official Board. In September, 1871, Jesse Green was appointed to the charge, and served until September,
.
377
ARENA TOWNSHIP.
1872. Of his pastorate very little is recorded. In September, 1872, M. Woodward was appointed pastor, and remained for two years. He received one on probation, six by satisfactory statement, and two from the list of pro- bationers. W. S. Turner was the Presiding Elder. In September, 1874, Rev. John Appleton was appointed pastor and served for three years, and during his pastorate the church building at Point Arena was erected, also the one at Brush Creek. In September, 1877, J. W. Bluett was appointed to the charge and served one year; W. S. Turner, Presiding Elder. He received ten on probation, and nine by letter. Just how many he dismissed does not appear, nor does it how many each of his predecessors dismissed; but at the close of his pastorate there were only forty, in full connection and on probation, to be found. In September, 1878, E. A. Hazen, the present incumbent, was appointed to the charge; Rev. George Clifford, Presiding Elder. During his pastorate, up to this date (July 9, 1880), he has received six on probation, five from the probationer's list into full connection, and twenty by letter. Three from the list of probationers have gone to other churches. Eight removed without letter and four by letter. We have now a membership of fifty-seven. During the present pastorate there has been collected and paid $247.on improving and furnishing parsonage, and $127 for an organ at Point Arena and $125 for one at Manchester (Brush Creek). The charge, during all this time, has consisted of preaching places at Point Arena and Manchester, with regular appointments every alternate Sabbath at each, with occasional appointments at other places, extending from Russian River to Cuffey's Cove. The church building at Point Arena is certainly a hand- some structure and is a great credit to the town, and speaks volumes for the liberality and enterprise of the worthy citizens of that place.
POINT ARENA TANNERY .- This industry was put on foot by Daniel Gillis in 1867. The building was thirty by fifty feet, and had only a few vats in it, and everything connected with it was on a small scale. In 1871 J. A. Rey- nolds and R. D. Handy purchased the business from Gillis, and they proceeded at once to make improvements and to enlarge the premises and the facilities. They erected two buildings for tanning purposes, and two sheds for bark; also twenty new and larger vats, making a total of twenty-eight vats, with a capacity of one hundred and forty sides per weck. In 1875 Mr. Reynolds purchased Mr. Handy's interest, and he has since conducted the business him- self. This is one of the several business ventures embarked in by the enterprising citizens of the place, and when the finances of the State are in a healthy condition it proves adequately successful.
EAGLE PAPER-MILL COMPANY .- In 1868 Thomas Nugent began an enter- prise which promised well indeed, but which, unfortunately, has proved a " sinking fund" of a decided character to all who have had any money invested in it, and is at present standing idle. This industry was nothing
378
HISTORY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
more or less than a paper-mill, which, although the building is located near Manchester on Mill or Brush creek, we place under the head of Point Arena, from the fact that the most of the capital which has been invested in it has come from the citizens of that place. This was the first and only enterprise of this character which ever ventured upon the sea of industry in Mendocino county. After Mr. Nugent had demonstrated to his entire satisfaction that it was a failure financially, he managed to induce L. W. Pollard to invest his spare shekels in the sinking ship. But he did not propose to go down with- out a struggle, and in a short time he had convinced the leading moneyed men of Point Arena that it was a most wonderful venture, and that capital was all that was necessary to make it such a success, as no other venture had ever been in that section, and the fish nibbled at the bait awhile and finally swal- lowed it whole, to the amount of $20,000. This money was secured by the organization of a joint stock company and the sale of shares of the capital stock, the entire stock being sold. This company proceeded to demonstrate that the enterprise was an all-absorbant, yielding handsome returns, on paper only, and dividends on the wrong side of the ledger. Finally the wheels of the machinery ceased to sing the merry chant of busy occupation, and began to rust from sheer disuse. Matters remained thus statu quo till July 11, 1876, when a new stock company was organized, with a nominal capital of $50,000, of which amount $25,000 was paid up. Once more the hum of industry was heard, and the journals were bright again. The business was kept in operation till February, 1879, when the mill was closed down, having absorbed the last cent of the subscribed stock into its capacious maw, making a total of $45,000 outside of the amounts invested by the first two individual owners, which had been used up in trying to make it a success. Since the last-named date there has been nothing done, nor is there likely to be again at any time in the near future. There were several factors which entered into the failure of the enterprise, such as the price of labor, the distance from the supply of the raw material, and the lack of transportation facilities to the market, and the state of the market itself when the manufactured article arrived upon it. It is quite possible that the time may come when the man- ufacture of paper will be profitable, even in a remote locality like this, but to watch and wait for it will try the patience of a thorough-going, pushing business man, and he will be apt to let it all go by the board before that time.
As this is the only enterprise of the kind in Mendocino county we subjoin the following description of the modus operandi of the manufacture of paper at this mill, hoping that it may prove of interest to the readers of our work:
Paper is made at this place from old scraps of paper, cotton and linen rags, old rope and burlaps, which articles come to the mill in great bales. It is carefully sorted and the proper material for the various kinds of paper segregated. In this establishment book, news, brown wrapping (hardware) and Manilla paper is manufactured. For making book and news paper
Samuel Or
379
ARENA TOWNSHIP.
only white cotton or linen rags and white paper are used. Manilla paper is made of old rope and burlaps, while the heavy wrapping paper is made of the coarse material which will not work into Manilla. The rope and burlaps are first passed through a chopping machine, which cuts them into pieces about two inches square. This process is gone through with twice, when the material is passed through a coarse bolter for the purpose of freeing it from dirt. It is then placed in a large vat and covered with lime water, which is kept hot and moving about by a jet of steam passed into it. The object of this is to bleach the material. After remaining in this vat fifteen hours it is put into a vat in which there is a beater, which is so arranged that all the matter in the vat must pass through the machine, which con- sists of a cylinder, under which there is a plate, both of which are corrugated; water is added to the mass and the cylinder set in motion. As the material gets ground up finer the cylinder is allowed to work closer and closer to the plate until they touch. Muriatic and sulphuric acids are now added to further bleach the pulp, which it has now become. After the rope and bur- lap material has been triturated for six hours a certain proportion of paper pulp is added and the process continued three hours longer. It is then passed into a vat called a " stuff chest," in which there is kept revolving an "agitator," so that the pulp may be kept evenly distributed through the water. It is pumped from this into a box-like receptacle to which there is a gauge to regulate the outward flow of the pulp according to the desired weight or quality of the paper to be made. From this it passes through a strainer or screen, so that only particles of a given fineness can pass into the composition of the paper. It is now deposited into a vat in which there is a gauze cylinder revolving, arranged so that the water is drawn from the inside of it. This causes the pulp to float on the current of the water pass- ing through the screen, against it, and to adhere to and pass up on it. It is taken from this cylinder by a felt belt and passed through a press-roll, when it is taken up by a coarser felt belt and passed through another press-roll, during which process all the water has been extracted. It is then passed over four consecutive cylinders through which a current of steam is passing for the purpose of thoroughly drying it. The pressure of steam in these cylinders varies from forty to sixty pounds, according to the quality of the paper. It then passes through two series of calender presses of three cylin- ders each, whence it passes to the reels. From these it is placed under the knife and cut into sheets of the requisite size. It is then folded and put into quires and pressed, and then bundled, when it is ready for the market.
BREWERY .- The Point Arena brewery was put in operation in 1870, by J. Schlachter, and has since been continued by him. It has a capacity of three hundred gallons at a brewing. Owing to the fogs which are so prev- alent on the coast the barley raised there is unfit for brewing, and hence
380
HISTORY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
all grain used for that purpose has to be shipped from the city. The mar- ket for the product is purely local, supplying all the section lying between Gualala and Nevarra.
THE POINT ARENA NEWS .- This newspaper venture, proved, as does many another in the State of California, a sad failure, after a short period of use- fulness. We say period of usefulness, for no paper was ever issued for three consecutive editions that did not prove useful to some body, or serve to ad- vance some cause or interest. Volume 1, number 1, of the News was issued March 22, 1877, under the proprietorship of John Kester. It was a neat looking folio devoted to the local interests of the section. November 29, 1877, George S. Affolter and W. P. McClure, became the owners and pub- lishers of the paper, and this management continued in control of it till May 31, 1878, when Mr. Affolter purchased Mr. McClure's interest, and became sole proprietor. September 13, 1878, he found that the depression 'of the financial condition of affairs would not admit of pursuing the business far- ther, and the paper was suspended.
MANCHESTER .- This is a small hamlet lying a few miles up the coast from Point Arena, and consists of a blacksmith shop, a store, school-house, Metho- dist Episcopal church, and a very few dwelling houses. The school-house and church buildings are certainly both very creditable, and show to good advantage what sort of a spirit prompts the hearts of the people who reside in that vicinity.
LANDINGS AND CHUTES .- Between Gualala and Point Arena, there are six chutes and landings. Going northward from the former place, Bourn's Landing is the first one met with. The right to construct and maintain a wharf and one or more chutes at this point was granted to Morton Bourn by the State, February 22, 1870; the franchise was of twenty years' duration. A strip of land three hundred feet wide was granted to him for the purposes of business, adjacent to the chute or wharf. The Gualala Mill Company have a chute at this place, which they constructed in 1872, but it was washed away in 1878 by the high seas, and again rebuilt that year.
The right to construct, maintain and use a wharf at Fishing Rock, in the county of Mendocino, was granted to Mart T. Smith, his associates and as- signs, for the term of fifteen years, May 13, 1861. The right to use a space two hundred feet wide, beginning at low water and extending to water deep enough for the purposes of navigation was granted also.
The franchise for a landing and chute at Fish Rock was granted to Wil- liam S. Ferguson, February 27, 1870, to extend for twenty years. This place is known locally as Ferguson's Cove, and in all coast surveys as Haven's Anchorage. It seems that a commander of a Government coast surveying vessel by the name of Haven anchored in this bight for a few days, several years ago, and he gave it the name of Haven's Anchorage, and it is known on
381
ARENA TOWNSHIP.
all coast survey maps by that name. The first franchise for a chute at this place was given to E. J. Stevens, March 26, 1866, but whether he con- structed his chute or not is not known.
The franchise for the chute at Beebee's Landing was granted March 28, 1868. It was to endure for a period of twenty years.
The franchise for the chute at Scott's Landing was granted to Lew. Ger- lock, February 22, 1870. The right to use a strip of land one hundred feet wide for the purposes of business was included in the franchise. It extended for a period of twenty years.
MILLS .- The first mill ever put in operation in Point Arena township was erected by William Tift. The exact date of the building of this mill is not now known, but it was the first one in the township; it was a water-mill with a sash saw, and did very fair execution in its day, sawing quite an amount of lumber. It was located in a gulch a short distance north- ward from Gualala. But little is known of its history, in fact reports con- cerning it are almost of a legendary character now.
The second mill was constructed at the mouth of the Gualala river by John S. Rutherford and George E. Webber in the spring of 1862. It had a capacity of twenty thousand feet at that time, and had a circular saw, and was run by steam. In 1872 new boilers and engines were put in, which increased the capacity to thirty-three thousand feet. The machinery at present consists of one double circular saw, each fifty-eight inches in diameter, one muley, one single edger, one trimmer, one picket machine, one shingle machine with a "drag" or cut-off saw for sawing the bolts off at the required length; one grist-mill with one buhr, with a capacity of fifteen tons of barley per day. In 1875 the company put in operation a fine railroad, which they use for transporting their logs from the woods to the mill, and also in taking the lumber from the mill to the port. The entire length of the road is about eight miles, being five and a half from the mill to the woods, and two and a half from the mill to the place of shipment. The track is five feet and eight inches wide, and is laid of regular Trail. There is one locomotive put up on the geared principle, and has power enough to draw sixteen cars loaded with logs or lumber, and is able to make six trips to the woods and three to the landing daily. It is a great advantage to have a railroad, for the logs and lumber can be transported more expeditiously and with much lighter expense than any other way except driving, and in the "long run " a railroad is better than that, for in the streams along the coast, driving is feasible only at certain seasons of the year, and there are great risks to be run then, for the high water is too apt to overcome the booms, and then the work of a whole season is floated out to sea in a day, entailing irreparable loss upon the mill men. At this mill logs are driven whenever it is deemed feasible, but they are able to keep up their supply of logs, and to keep the mill
382
HISTORY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
in operation, no matter what the stage of water may be in the river. After the lumber is manufactured it is placed on cars and drawn to the port where it is passed down chutes on board of vessels. This port is at Bourn's Landing, and is considered by seamen to be one of the safest places on the coast to load, as it stands out well into the sea. and vessels are always able to put to sea whenever a storm comes up. The franchise for the railroad and wharf was granted May 15, 1862 and empowered the company to build and maintain a railroad from the mouth of the Gualala river, where the mill was located, to the landing, and included one hundred feet on each side of the chute for business purposes. The franchise was granted for a period of twenty years. In 1878 the old wharf and chute of this company were washed away by a heavy south-easter, and the present substantial structure was put up the following spring. The mill company owns about twelve thou- sand aeres of timber land which lies on the Gualala river and its branches. It is estimated that during the first, ten years the mill cut six million feet of lumber, per year, and that during the last eight years it will average eight million feet per year, making a total of about one hundred and twenty-five million feet of lumber which has been cut by the mill. When asked about how long the timber would hold out at the present rate of cutting, the proprietors replied it would certainly continue to be available for the next fifty years. It is expected to put in new and improved machinery during the present year, which will increase the capacity to fifty thousand feet daily. The improvements will consist of a triple eireular saw, a Stearns' gang edger, and a pony cireular, all of which go far towards adding speed and capacity to the mill. There is not a triple circular saw in Mendocino county at the present writing. Mr. Webber disposed of his interest to Messrs. Heywood and Harmon about 1868, and finally Mr. Rutherford dis- posed of his interest. The present firm is composed of the following named gentlemen: S. H. Harmon, C. L. Dingley, W. B. Heywood, and F. Heywood. The company keep about one hundred and fifteen men employed the year round, and their wages will average about $30, per month; hence it will be seen that an enterprise of this kind keeps many people employed and puts a goodly amount of money into eirculation each month. The company also owns three schooners.
In 1864 Russel Stevens built a mill at Fish Rock Gulch, which had a capacity of about fifteen or eighteen thousand feet of lumber daily. The machinery was moved away when the timber was cut out. It is not known how much was eut there, but evidently quite a considerable as the mill had the capacity, and the stumps still standing indicate that fact.
In 1869 John Woods put in a mill about one mile north of Gualala, which had a capacity of about fifteen thousand feet per day. It was a steam, cir- cular saw-mill, and did good work. In 1872 the mill was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt, and after running one season, it was moved about a quarter
383
ARENA TOWNSHIP.
of a mile farther north. It is gone from there now, and heaps of half decayed saw-dust and edgings are all that is left to mark the site, and almost all there is to tell the tale of the mill's existence.
During 1869 and 1870 Messrs. Stevens & Whitmore built and put in operation what is known as the Garcia mill, located on the river of that name, about five miles eastward from the town of Point Arena. In 1872 Messrs. B. Nickerson & S. Baker purchased the property, and have since remained the owners. It has, at present, a capacity of forty-thousand feet per day; and is run about eight months in a year, which will enable the mill to cut about eight million feet of lumber per season. The machinery of the mill consists of one sixty-inch, double-circular saw, one forty-eight-inch pony saw, one edger, two trimmers, one slab saw, one picket saw, one siding saw, three planers, one picket header, two boilers, and a single engine. There is a dam across the river at the mill which serves to hold the water and form a body sufficient to float the logs for a mile or more above the mill. The logs are drawn from the woods with heavy ox-teams, and "dumped" into the river at convenient places, and thence driven to the mill. After the lumber is sawed, it is placed in a flume and floated a distance of seven miles to the hoisting works, where it is elevated from the level of the river bottom to the mesa land, a height of three hundred feet. The flume is sixteen inches deep and thirty inches wide; and water for it is brought from the north fork of Garcia river, a distance of a mile and a half from the mill. The flume is carried across the river on a suspension, and the fall from the mill to the hoisting works averages ten feet to the mile, or seventy feet in all, which gives quite a rapid movement to the water in the flume. A single stick of timber will pass down in four hours, but when the flume is full, it ordinarily occupies twenty-four hours to get down. At the lower end of the flume there is a large over-shot water-wheel, which is driven by the water of the flume. Extending from the end of the flume to the level of the mesa is an arrangement somewhat similar to a flume, only in the bottom of it, and at intervals of about three feet there are transverse rollers in which are placed a series of short spikes. Extending along the entire length of this quasi flume is a strong iron shaft on which there are bevel cog- wheels which play into similar cog-wheels attached to the ends of the spiked rollers. This shaft is attached to the ponderous water-wheel men- tioned above, and is set in motion by it, and as a consequence, all the rollers begin to move. When a stick of timber or a piece of lumber comes down the flume the force of the water carries it upon one or two of the spiked rollers, and it then begins to travel up the grade, and is passed from roller to roller until it reaches the top. This is certainly one of the greatest labor- saving contrivances to be seen anywhere along the coast. Here it is placed on cars and drawn on a tramway by horses, about a mile to the port, where there are extensive chutes, and all facilities for shipping lumber. It is said
384
HISTORY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
that there is one great drawback to the use of the flume, and that is that the water serves to discolor the lumber, so that it brings inferior prices in the market. It cannot effect the price very much, however, or it would not be followed for years without making any change. It might be that this report grew out of a jealous feeling of rivalry, as nothing was said about it by the proprietors, and it is to be hoped that it is not true. This company owns about two thousand seven hundred acres of timber land, and there is a great deal more that is available: It is estimated that the mill has cut thirty-five million feet of lumber, and no estimate can be put on the amount still standing and available to the mill. The company employs one hundred and fifty men all through the busy season. There is quite a body of sugar pine available to this mill, there being, probably, one million feet of it. There is also about one million feet of California laurel along the Garcia river.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.