USA > California > Mendocino County > History of Mendocino County, California : comprising its geography, geology, topography, climatography, springs and timber > Part 46
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Of course, we are unable to give all the names of those who were con- nected with the Big River mill in those early days, for a quarter of a cen- tury or more has had the effect of beclouding the memories of the " old boys " more than even they are willing to acknowledge. As far, however, as we have been able we have gathered these names together, and the year in which they arrived in the township, and will here place them on record, so that they may be handed down to succeeding generations as the pioneers of the Big River coast. In 1852 we find that the following men came in and located: William H. Kent, now at Little River; W. H. Kelley and John E. Carlson, now of Mendocino City ; J. Scharf; Gebhard and George Hegenmeyer, the former of whom now resides in Mendocino City; J. C. Byrnes, now of Noyo; Robert White and John C. Simpson, now of Cahto. In 1853 there came A. F. Mahlman, now of Little River. In 1854 we find that G. Canning Smith, L. L. Gray and James Nolan came into the township, and they are still residents of the township. In 1855 James Townsend, now of Albion, came to the township. In 1856 Silas Coombs and Ruel Stickney, both of Little River, now came into the township. In 1857 Thomas Walsh, William Heeser, now of Mendocino City, and E. W. Blair came in and located. In 1858 Haskett Severance, now of Nevarra, C. R. Kaisen, A. Heeser, now of Mendocino City, F. P. Furlong and J. D. Murray came in and settled. In 1859 N. E. Hoak came in. After this the settlement of the township was more rapid, and it is impossible to carry the list any farther and hope to have it at all complete. We would be glad to give a short sketch of all the pioneer settlers of the township, and so far as we have been able to secure them we have inserted them, and they will be found in their appropriate place in this volume, and certainly do not form the least interesting por- tion of our work, for it is of the experiences and doings of men that history is made.
Ah! those hardy old pioneers ! What a life was theirs, and how much of life was often crowded into a year, or sometimes even into a day of their existence. Now that the roads are all made, and the dim trail has been supplanted by well-beaten and much-traveled highways, how complacently we talk and write and read of their deeds and exploits. The writer of fifty years hence will be the man who will have the license to color up the heroic deeds of valor, and set forth in fitting words a proper tribute to the valor and prowess of the generation that is just now passing from our midst. We of to-day cannot, dare not, say it as it should be said, for there are living witnesses who would say it was too highly colored-too romantic, too fanci- ful. Heroic deeds do not seem so to the enactors of the drama of pioneerism.
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It has been theirs to subdue the wilderness and change it into smiling fields of bright growing grain. Toil and privations, such as we can little appre- ciate now, was their lot for many years. Poor houses, and even no houses at all, but a simple tent or even an Indian wickeup sheltered them from the rigors of the storm and the inclemency of the weather. The wild beasts of the woods were their night visitors, prowling about and making night hideous with their unearthly noises, and working the nerves of women, and often, perhaps, of men, up to a tension that precluded the possibility of sleep and rest. Neighbors lived many miles away, and visits were rare and highly appreciated by the good old pioneer women. Law and order pre- vailed almost exclusively, and locks and bars to doors were then unknown, and the only thing to fear in human shape were the petty depredations by Indians. For food they had the fruit of the chase, which afforded them ample meat, but bread was sometimes a rarity, and appreciated when had as only those things are which tend most to our comfort, and which we are able to enjoy the least amount of. But they were happy in that life of free- dom from the environments of society and social usage. They breathed the pure, fresh air, untainted by any odor of civilization; they ate the first fruits of the virgin soil, and grew strong and free on its strength and free- dom. They spent their leisure hours under the widespreading branches of the giant forest monarchs, and their music was trilled forth upon the silver air by the feathered choristers of "God's first temples."
As a reminiscence of those old by-gone days, and to give to future gener- ations an idea of what the pioneers had to undergo at times, we give below an account of the journey of two ladies - Mrs. W. H. Kent and Mrs. J. F. Hills-from San Francisco to Mendocino City via Petaluma, Cloverdale, etc. We will go and meet them at New York City, and follow them on their long and tedious journey to their new home in the Golden West. They took passage from New York on the steamer George Law, and after a suc- cessful passage, although fraught with all the tedious vexations of a sea voyage on the rough Atlantic, they arrived at the Isthmus, which they crossed on the second train of cars that ever passed over that road. On this side they embarked on the steamer Golden Age, arriving in San Fran- cisco March 27, 1855. They expected, of course, to meet their husbands at the wharf, but it must be remembered that communication was not so perfect in those days as now, and failure to meet engagements and appoint -. ments where any great distance had to be traveled was the rule, and not the exception, as now. Just at the time the husbands expected to start to San Francisco to meet their wives, a heavy rain-storm caused all the streams to swell beyond their ordinary flood levels; and they were detained for three weeks, during which time the ladies were doing the best they could, under the circumstances, in a strange city, full of strange people and stranger customs. At last Mr. Kent arrived in San Francisco, and proceeded at once
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to meet his wife. When they had parted in their Eastern home, Mr. Kent was dressed as an American citizen, having on a dress suit, white shirt, and all the et ceteras that go to make up the garb of an Eastern gentleman of a quarter of a century or more ago. But when they met how changed was his appearance! He had on a blue flannel shirt, checked pants, black cravat, and all the other articles of apparel which were usually worn by the early Californians. But we doubt not Mrs. Kent was just as glad to see him as she would have been under any other circumstances, and perhaps was never so rejoiced before nor has been since to see his familiar face. They then began casting about for a way to get up to Big River, but no schooner could be found bound to that port, as the mills were shut down just at this time, so they had to make the journey overland. They took the steamer to Petaluma, where they spent the night at Tony Oakes' hotel. That genial mein host, who will be remembered by all the pioneers of Men- docino county with feelings of kindness for the many favors extended to them by him in the years long agone, still survives the storms of life, and now presides over the destinies of an extensive caravansary in the beautiful little city of Haywards, Alameda county, and is still the same genial Tony that all knew and loved so well. From Petaluma they took a carriage for Cloverdale, paying $20 each for the passage. On the way to Santa Rosa they only passed one house. At Santa Rosa they took dinner, and then proceeded on their journey, going as far as the widow Fitch's place, near Healdsburg, that night. The house on this ranch was an adobe, and looked more like some old castle on the Rhine than like the dwelling-houses which the eyes of our travelers had been accustomed to look upon. Now the weather was the most delightful, and the full glory of a California spring-time was visible on every hand. The green grass had sprung into such life that it covered the valleys and mountain sides with an emerald carpet. The myriads of wild flowers, just now in the full exuberance of their wonderfully beauteous blooming, served to heighten the beauty of the scene, and to break the monotony of the verdant foliage and grass which formed the background to the picture. On the distant mountain sides and in the nearer valley, the beautifully bright sunlight fell in a shimmer of golden flood, making the world a truly beautiful paradise. In the morning, after a breakfast made on hot sheep, they proceeded on their journey. They had to be ferried across Russian river in a small skiff, and the horses were led after them and swam across. At Cloverdale they stopped at Markell's house, so well known in the early days, and so well remembered by all old settlers in this section of California. From Cloverdale to Mendocino City there was no road, and only a trail led from one place to the other, and this part of the journey had to made on horseback, and for this purpose Indian ponies were provided; and the cavalcade started off full of life and buoyant spirits, bent on making the most enjoyment possible out of the tedious trip.
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HISTORY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
The trail led up through Anderson valley, and came out on the coast below Greenwood creek, thence up the coast to Big River.
But changed are all things now! Where was then the wilderness, are now the fields of shining grain. The rude saw-mill site has developed into a handsome village, with its church spires pointing like finger-boards, the way the worshipers at its shrine are wont to travel, from the church militant below to the church triumphant above. At every mile-post almost, along the road are reared the bulwarks of our religious liberty, social freedom, and of our vaunted civilization-the public school-houses, in which the youth cf the land receive instruction in all that goes to make the free American citizens. The arts and trades thrive, and on every hand the marks of prosperity are visible. And above all, standing out in bold relief, are the happy homes of the people, who now live where the pioneers endured such hardships, and best of all, is the fact, that many of the good old pioneer fathers and mothers still remain with us, in the full vigor of their manhood and womanhood to enjoy these hard-bought privileges and pleasures. Others still are with us, but in the waning, mellow glow of life's setting sun, looking back upon the life they have led, with a remembrance mingled with joy and sorrow, shaded and lighted by their varied experiences; looking out upon the results of their labor with feelings of exultant pride, knowing and feeling that the generations yet to come, will rise up and call them blessed ; looking forward with glowing hearts, full of hope, trust and loving faith to the joyful time when they shall hear the Master's voice bidding them come up higher, and enter into his joy ; when the gladsome welcome, " well done " shall thrill their hearts with a pleasure that shall never die. Others have gone on before, to that reward, already, and their places are occupied by their children, and even their chil- dren's children, and a strange people who knew them not will soon fill the land. So, here on history's page, let us render a fitting tribute to their revered memory :---
" No more for them shall be Earthly noon or night, Morn or evening light. But death's unfathomed mystery Has settled like a pall Over all."
BRIDGEPORT .- Beginning at the southern boundary of the township and passing northward, up the coast, the first place we come to is Bridgeport, which, although it can scarcely be classed in the catalogue of towns, as regards its size, must necessarily be noticed under this caption. The starting of the town was the construction of a chute at this point in 1870, by C. Hoag. In 1878, this chute was rebuilt, it having been washed away the year before, during a heavy storm, of which there were several during that winter, which tried very severely the strength of the chutes and wharfs along the coast. At the present time, there is one store and one
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blacksmith shop at the place. The post-office is known as Miller, another one of those peculiar freaks which will come over American people from time to time, giving the town one name and the post-office another. It is a good farming and grazing section around the place, and there is also a great amount of tan-bark, cord-wood, fence-posts, and railroad ties shipped over the chute every year. R. D. Kidder is the postmaster, and the chute is at present owned by Mrs. Eliza Fields.
CUFFEY'S COVE .- There are two reports current as to how this little town came by its cognomen, both of which we will relate, and leave the reader to take his choice or to search for another, and perhaps truer version. The first story is to the effect, that in an early day, a craft of some kind. on which there were a party of prospectors, was sailing up the coast, and when abreast of this place, a huge grizzly was descried taking a sun-bath on the rocks. The craft was "hove to," and the anchor dropped in this bight or inlet, and the men went ashore, and soon dispatched his bruin's lordship, and from that time on, the place began to be known as Cuffey's Cove, referring to the bear that had been slain there. The other legend which has come down to the present time, is to the effect that the early settlers found a negro here when they came to the place, whom they donned with the title of Cuffey, and since that time the place has had its present name. As stated above Frank Farnier, better known as " Portugee Frank," was the first permanent settler here, and it is not known just when he came in, or what motive impelled him to locate here, and live so far away from civilization. Soon after him came the Greenwood Brothers, who built the first real house in the township, and settled on the stream which still bears their patronymic. The town is now quite a busy little village, consisting of about fifty buildings, one church and one school-house. The business interests are represented by one general merchandise store, two variety stores, one livery stable, one black- smith shop, one hotel, one meat market, one shoe shop, and six saloons. There are also four chutes here, over which pass, annually, immense quanti- ties of bark, wood, posts, pickets, ties and lumber. When all these enter- prises are working their complement of men, there is no busier place to be found on the coast, and none where money is more plentiful. One man, J. S. Kimball, ships annually, from two hundred and fifty to three hundred thou- sand ties, and has on his pay-roll, from one hundred and fifty to three hun- dred men during the busy season. Frank Retter is the postmaster and telegraph operator, and J. S. Kimball is Wells, Fargo & Co.'s agent.
Catholic Church .- St. Mary's "Star of the Sea" Catholic Church, at Cuffey's Cove, was built in the present year (1880) by Rev. Father J. Sher- idan, at a cost of about $3,000. The style is simple gothic, with an arched ceiling throughout the whole building. There are three aisles in the nave, and three altars in the chancel, together withi a choir gallery inside an labove
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the front entrance. The size of the church is seventy-six by thirty-six feet, with a twenty-two-foot ceiling. It has a spire which is twelve by twelve at its base, and eighty-four feet to the top of its cross.
NEVARRA .- The next town that we come to as we proceed up the coast is Nevarra, and it is not very much of a town either, although its good citizens are bouyant with hope for the future of their village. The first settler was Charles Fletcher, a staunch pattern of the genus pioneer, who staked his tent on the south side of the river away back in the infant '50ies, and, having constructed a dug-out canoe began, like Charon of fabled story, to paddle travelers that way across the river to the confines of an unknown and yet- to-be-discovered country. And right here he has since remained, and is to-day living on the same little plat of ground that his shanty then occupied, and is one of the few links which still remain to bind the almost forgotten past with the living, active, present. In time the mill was built here, and shortly after the bridge, and quite a settlement sprang up around the hardy old-timer, and his avocation wa's gone. There is a general merchandise store, a blacksmith shop and a saloon on the "Flat," as the locality of the mill site is called, locally. On the "Ridge," as the bluff on the north side of the river is called, there is one hotel, one store, and one livery stable, and one or two other buildings. Charles Wintzer is postmaster and agent for Wells, Fargo & Co., and F. A. Walton is telegraph operator. The stage line from Clover- dale to Mendocino City comes out to the coast at this point.
Catholic Church .- St. Patrick's Catholic Church at Nevarra was erected in 1866, at a cost of about $800. Its size is about forty by twenty, with a ceiling fourteen feet in height. This point is supplied by the Reverend Fathers who are placed upon the Mendocino mission work.
"NEVARRA."
Under this caption Mr. Charles H. Shinn, in the Overland Monthly, in 1874, has given to the world the following beautiful poem, descriptive of a passage on board a schooner from Nevarra to San Francisco-" the Mistress of the Western Seas" :-
" Fair seas grown silver under dappled skies, Brown shores in evening shadows waning slow, While on broad hills the reverential pines Stand with sad faces bent to watch us go. How the seas call, and toss their misty hands; How the winds sweeten with a breath of fir Blown from the far woods; how the grasses stir With their low sympathies, and wordless signs! Alas! we mar the wave-perfected sands, And turn sad feet to where the Ino lies!
Broad, lifted sails; a stormy, quivering keel!
The rocks slip past, the riven surges beat,
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The still shores darken, all the sacred trees Wave low farewells, the grassy slopes repeat Their dim song woven by the northern wind; And the smoke-curtained mills lie low and dun In the great trees, the red sword of the sun Smites from the warm west through the smokey seas, The air drops flame, the leaning hills behind Draw back from rush of fire and ring of steel!
Wind-trembling, moaning deep! We turn to thee With the hill-dust above our tired eyes, Now let us feel thy heart throb sweetly low With thine illimitable ministries, And thy calm musings of eternal things; Or lean above the music of thy smiles To hear the palm-song of the pleasant isles. Were it not well to drift forever so, And dream forever under shining wings, Above thy yearning minstrelsies, dear sea?
All night our vessel pants through fields of foam, All night the steersman holds the trembling wheel; We round Arenas, with the holy light Set on the gray rock as a crystal seal; We hear the blind waves storm her silent base, And her lamp turns in noiseless ways of peace, And strong men sailing over treacherous seas Gaze out across the danger-circled night, And feel a far gleam touch them iu the face With all the love of land, and light of home.
Dim seas of dreaming, full of under calls, And faint, far sighs, more clear than silver reeds, Sweep round us, lost ones, in unmeasured night, Yet glad with wonders audible, and needs Made beautiful with speech! Uplifted wings Shade the dark seas, and bear us swiftly through The shadows of the star-sown fields of blue, Fed by cloud-rivers with continuous light, And chords of song, and of diviner things, Drawn sweetly down in starry waterfalls.
So we sail southward, by glad breezes blown All the still hours; we pass the Farallones, Encircled with unceasing lines of spray, And brooding ever with perpetual moans And wings of sea-birds .- Lo! the riven Gate, With the sun on the walls of Alcatraz! Through the twin cliffs with straining sail we pass, And round to moorings in a peaceful bay, Whereon her sand-hills, girt with queenly state, The mistress of the western seas lies lone."
SALMON CREEK .- This is a small village which is mostly the outgrowth of the lumbering industry. There is one store, one hotel, one shoe shop, and
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HISTORY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
one blacksmith shop. There is quite a little village of mill buildings about the place, but nothing very permanent or attractive.
ALBION .- This is another milling town with but little or nothing in it outside of the mill buildings, but of these there are a goodly number, and the town in its glory presented a neat and handsome appearance. To the south of the place, a hotel has been built, and other rudimentary indications of a town site are visible, which will probably, should it ever pass out of its swaddlings, be called " Albion Ridge."
LITTLE RIVER .- As we pass on to the northward we come to this little village, which lies on the north side of the stream known by the same name. The first settlers here were Lloyd and Samuel Bell, and the Moore brothers, who "took up" or "entered" the land here. In 1856 W. H. Kent purchased the Bell tract, and until 1864 the place was known as Bell's Harbor and Kent's Landing. In August of the last-named year, Messrs. Stickney, Coombs, and Reeves began hewing timber for their mill, and on the evening of October 15th, of that year the whistle sounded a triumphant blast that rang out through the redwoods the knell of their doom. On the
7th of the following December the first schooner-the Josephine Willcutt- arrived under charge of Capt. James Harlow, and by some mismanage- ment set the bad example of going ashore, but fortunately it sustained but little damage. The first lumber was shipped in January 1865, and during that year there were thirty-eight schooners loaded at that point for the San Francisco market, which is probably as good a record as can be shown by any mill on the coast. January 17, 1875, the steamer Fideleter of the North Pacific Coast Line commenced making weekly trips from San Francisco northward, and calling in here each way, since which time that company has kept a steamer on the line. In 1865 a school-house was erected and during the first term of school there was only an average attendance of nine scholars. * In 1877 the population had so increased that the average attend- ance was raised to seventy. To go back for a moment to 1854, we find that in that year a Mr. Baldwin erected a house where R. Stickney now has his elegant residence, which was the second house in the vicinity. The third house was erected on the town site, and was located about where I. Steven's house now stands. The mill company opened a general merchandise store in connection with their business in 1865, which was the first enterprise of the kind in the place.
At present the town consists of upwards of fifty buildings, comprising dwellings and business houses. There are two stores, two hotels, one black- smith shop, and one livery stable in the town. There are two chutes, which serve as channels extending from the land into the sea, and through which passes the lumber product of the mill, and also the other exports common to
Niels Iversen
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the coast. There is also a wharf which was constructed in 1876. Isaac Stevens is the postmaster, and Jasper Gray telegraph operator.
MENDOCINO CITY .-- This town is the most important place on the coast of Mendocino county, and is located on the north shore of Mendocino bay, at the mouth of Big river, one hundred and twenty-eight miles from San Francisco. It is the shipping point for a large lumber region, and the outlet for the produce of a large agricultural section. Away back in 1850 or 1851 foul weather drove a man by the name of William Kaster ashore at this place, as he was cruising along up the coast in a small craft of some kind, and when once here he was loth to leave, and finally settled on the land on which the town was built in later years. On the 19th day of July, 1852, a brig might have been seen in the offing heading landward, and bearing directly for the bight at the mouth of Big river. Closer and closer it came, until at last it "hove to" and dropped anchor in the quiet waters of the sheltered cove. But there was no one to watch their movements from the shore save about a half dozen white men and some listless Indians. Of the white men all but one, perhaps, belonged to their own party and had been sent overland with oxen. The secret of the whole movement was that a saw-mill was about to be built and put in operation here and the vessel had on board the machinery for it, and the men who were to put it in operation. The projector of the enterprise was the irrepresssible Harry Meigs, and the name of this brig was Ontario. The machinery was soon disembarked, and the construction of the mill buildings begun, and in a short time the hum of the steel was heard echoing up the canons and floating out across the heaving billows of the Pacific.
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