USA > California > Mendocino County > History of Mendocino and Lake counties, California, with biographical sketches of the leading, men and women of the counties who have been identified with their growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 10
USA > California > Lake County > History of Mendocino and Lake counties, California, with biographical sketches of the leading, men and women of the counties who have been identified with their growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 10
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About two hundred acres in the valley are devoted to prunes, which rank at the top for quality. There are six extensive vegetable gardens about Ukiah, which furnish the town, and products are shipped north to a consider- able extent. Of fruit, every kind is grown to perfection, though figs, apricots and nectarines are not generally cultivated. Walnuts are found everywhere, but in no large tracts.
The town of Ukiah was first limited to one mile square with the court house for the center. Later its boundaries were extended nearly half a mile to the west, taking in all to the mountains. The streets north and south were originally laid out eighty feet wide, but some on the west have been reduced to fifty and sixty feet. East and west streets are forty feet wide. They are all graded, and in the center of town paved, and the main street from the northern to the southern line. There are fifty business brick build- ings in town and two brick dwellings, high school, two grammar schools, seven churches, an opera house that seats one thousand, another of five hun- dred capacity, four garages with machinery for repair work, two planing mills with lumber yards, two lumber yards, three blacksmiths, one vegetable market, one gristmill, four livery stables, one saddlery, two fish and poultry markets, three second-hand stores, two furniture and under- taking establishments, one clothing, three shoe, three drug and four hard- ware stores, two plumbers, one paint store, two billiard halls, seven saloons, two butchers, three tailors, one electric shop, two jewelry stores, five barbers, two candy stores, two bakeries, one creamery, three restaurants, two coffee houses, four restaurants and lodging combined, three hotels, three depart-
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ment stores, two dry goods, three miscellaneous stores, three news stores, eight real-estate offices, four printing offices, seven notaries, three banks, four dentists, eight law offices, a gas plant and a fine large new library building with several thousand volumes, and last, but not least, a fine town hall building, covering council room, tax collector's office, electric depart- ment and jail. The town possesses eight physicians, all in apparent good health. There is no malaria in the neighborhood, except imported cases, which soon recover; no mosquitos except an occasional one comes up in the cars from Marin or Petaluma.
The town has an adequate sewer system, and the water supply is lim- ited only by the power of steam or electricity. An ample supply is always assured, and pumps can be used anywhere within the town limits in case of emergency, and the quality is unsurpassed, as it really is over the whole county. A telephone system covers town and valley. A fine grist mill supplies all wants in that direction; a large winery runs every season, and the expansion of irrigation systems is constantly adding to the productions of the soil.
The Mendocino State hospital for the insane, with its payroll of nearly $92,500 per annum, is no small factor in the prosperity of the community. The bulk of its supplies comes from the outside world, but pays a certain toll, on their way, to our community. The original purchase of land for the location was made in 1889; one hundred acres, $30,000. Since then an ad- joining farm has been bought, and large crops of corn and alfalfa raised to make the dairy self-supporting. The grounds now consist of nine hundred and five acres, three hundred and three of which are under cultivation, much of which is under irrigation, in corn, alfalfa and vegetables. The total value of all the farm products of dairy, poultry, eggs, etc., amounts to $31,000 per annum. Fifty milk cows, thirty-five heifers, mostly Holsteins; one hundred hogs, two thousand chickens and many horses comprise the live stock of the establishment, and a large part of the labor is supplied by the inmates, who are perceptibly benefited by their participation therein. Outside of salaries, $239,000 was appropriated by the state for the sixty-fifth and sixty-sixth fiscal years. It is conceded to be the best and most economically managed of all the state institutions. Its corps of physicians, and an interne, ninety-three male and thirty-five female employes, stand high in the regard of the state board of control, and of the public who are brought in contact with them. There are at present over one thousand inmates.
Ukiah has its watering places or health resorts, not to be neglected by either the invalid or pleasure seeker. Vichy Springs, three miles east, so named for the similarity of its waters to those of the celebrated Vichy of Germany, had a wide reputation among the Indians for curative power. and has lost none of it among more civilized frequenters. It has recently changed hands, and another year is to be improved and placed where it belongs, both in fashion and popularity. Orr's Hot Sulphur Springs, four- teen miles west, situated at the foot of a precipitons verdure-covered bluff. five hundred feet high, just in the edge of the redwood belt, are justly celebrated in rheumatic complaints, and a delightful resort for a summer outing. The springs yield sufficient gas to light the place, and heat a man- gle, and probably would afford enough to heat the hotel and cottages if developed to the fullest extent. 5
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The county farm, for the care of its indigents, is located just outside the town limits, and is a credit to the county and a source of profit to the town. North of Ukiah valley lie both Redwood and Coyote valleys, in the same township, however. Redwood commences at the hamlet of Calpella, named after an Indian-Kol-pellah-some six miles north of Ukiah, and stretches along the middle fork of Russian river about eight miles. It is only one farm wide the most of the way, lying between benches of upland, and is exceedingly fertile along the river bottom, and the low bordering hills are being brought into cultivation for vineyards and orchards. Calpella con- sists of store, hotel, blacksmith shop, and eight or ten dwellings, but is im- portant as the voting place of a wide section of country, including both Redwood and Coyote valleys, with a registered vote of nearly two hundred.
Coyote valley is a small valley on the east fork of Russian river, four miles north of Ukiah, containing nine farms. One of these contains one thousand acres of mountain and valley, and has an extensive pump- ing plant to irrigate over one hundred acres devoted to alfalfa, cheese and chickens. Several of the others are also irrigated by the same means, for alfalfa and fruit. In former days a grist mill ground out a busy existence in the north end of the valley, but flood first, and fire later, closed its existence. A large tract, for so small a valley, which was once a waste of high chemissal, scrub oak and manzanita, is now a smiling grain field. A series of pumping plants furnish the water to sprinkle the highway from Ukiah to and through Coyote.
In the eighties there existed a park association, and race meets and animal shows were held yearly for some years, but a mortgage ate up the stockholders' interests, and it passed into private hands. Occasionally it is still the scene of such contests. The town of Ukiah has purchased a square of two acres or more in the southern limit for park purposes, where will probably be held all fairs in the future.
In a fraternal way. Ukiah is not blest to the extent of Fort Bragg, as none of the foreign population have entered into this competition. But there are enough, and many honored names appear on their list of officers: First, always in the field, come the Masons' several organizations :
Abell Lodge, F. & A. M., was instituted June 19, 1860, with charter members as follows: J. B. Price. M. V. Cleveland, N. S. Fanning, William Henry. L. M. Warden, O. H. P. Brown, and J. A. Shore. The first officers, both under dispensation and charter, were J. B. Price, W. M .; M. V. Cleve- land, S. W .: N. S. Fanning. J. W .: William Henry, Treas .; L. M. Warden, and G. C. Smith, Secy. The present officers are F. T. Barker, W. M .; Hale McCowen, Jr., S. W .; P. W. Handy, J. W .: J. R. Matthews. Treas. : Ed V. Henley, Secy. Membership, one hundred and thirty.
Ukiah Chapter No. 53, instituted July 3, 1878. Charter members: J. W. Jenkins, J. L. Burchard, T. L. Carothers, J. H. Donohoe, T. L. Barnes, J. Updegraff, L. D. Montague, B. C. Bellamy, George McCowen, S. Horn- brook, J. Albertson. The first officers were J. W. Jenkins, M. E. H. P .; E. W. King. E. K .; G. W. Heald. G. S .: J. S. Reed, Treas. : Sam Wheeler. Secy. The present officers are J. P. Anderson, E. H. P .: William Finne, K .; F. T. Barker, S .; J. H. Barker, Treas .; C. U. White, Secy. Membership, eighty.
Ukiah Commandery No. 33, instituted March 17, 1892. Present officers : T. M. Cleland. E. C .; L. W. Babcock, G .: J. R. Matthews, C. G. ; J. D. Palmer,
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S. W .; G. P. Anderson, J. W .; F. C. Gowell, Recorder ; J. H. Barker, Treas. Membership, fifty-six.
Kingsley Chapter, O. E. S., instituted July 23, 1881. Charter members: W. L. Bransford, Patron; M. E. P. McCowen, W. M .; Emma Metzgar, W. A. M. Present officers: Ella McCracken, W. M .; Ed. D. Henley, W. P .; Della Mckay, W. A. M .; Martha Toles, Secy .; Emma Cranz, Treas. Mem- bership, one hundred and fifty.
Casimir Chapter, O. E. S., instituted April 13, 1907. Present officers : Celia Lobree, W. M .; William Finne, W. P .; Martha H. Redemeyer, A. W. M .; Nellie F. Gibson, C .; S. B. Hatch, Secy.
Ukiah Lodge No. 174, I. O. O. F., instituted July 20, 1870. Charter members : E. WV. King, N. Ellis, C. Hofman, J. R. Short, J. P. Clark, Robert White, W. W. Cunningham, W. H. White. First officers: E. W. King, N. G .; C. Hofman, V. G .; N. Ellis. Secy. ; J. R. Short, Treas. Present officers are: L. H. Foster, N. G .; B. D. Van Nader, V. G .; W. O. White, Secy .; J. Roller, Treas. Membership, one hundred and fourteen.
A. O. U. W., Ukiah Lodge No. 33, instituted May 14, 1878. Present officers: W. D. L. Held, W. M .; L. P. Anker, F .; N. Anker, Fin .; A. O. Carpenter, Recorder. Membership, twelve.
Fraternal Brotherhood, Ukiah No. 263, instituted December 18, 1902. Officers : Oscar Olsen, P .; Frank Olsen, V. P .; Al Sawyers, Treas .; Jerry Olsen, Secy. Members, seventy.
Yokia Camp 369, W. O. W., instituted April, 1898. Present officers : WV. G. Poague, C. C .; C. R. Thomas, A. V. L .; C. H. Duncan, Banker ; C. Bailey, Clerk. Membership, sixty-one.
Ukiah Aerie 319, instituted in May, 1903. Present officers: H. A. Keller, P. W. P .; C. F. Benton, W. P .; O. L. Olsen, W. V. P .; O. F. Hargis, W. C .; J. C. Warren, W. S .; W. S. Van Dyke, W. T. Membership. two hundred and sixty-seven.
Yokaya Tribe 110, I. O. R. M., instituted August 16, 1901. Present offi- cers: G. L. Smith, S .; Fred Figoni, S. S .; S. P. Garaventi. J. R. S .: R. L. Hutchinson, Proph .; H. L. Kohn, C. R .; A. L. Tracy, K. of W.
Ukiah Camp 9017, M. W. A., instituted in December, 1900. Present offi- cers : WV. H. York, C .; L. J. Holzheiser, A .; H. L. Kohn, C.
American Yeoman, Independence Homestead No. 1219.
Ukiah No. 63, K. O. T. M., instituted in June, 1900. Present officers : F. P. Bull, L. C .; B. F. Davidson, P. C .; A. W. Custer, K. of R. Member- ship, thirty-one.
Cornelia Rebekah Lodge No. 205, I. O. O. F., instituted in March, 1894. Officers: H. M. Carpenter, N. G .; Mrs. Elizabeth Chalfant, V. G .; Sallie Thomas, Secretary. Present officers: Mrs. Emma Kirtley, N. G .: Catherine Sloper, V. G .; Mrs. Kate B. Prather, Secy .; Laura Shattuck. Treasurer. Membership, one hundred and fifty.
CHAPTER VII Potter Valley Township
This township was formerly part of Calpella township. which was divided, the western part annexed to Ukiah, and the eastern part, i. e .. Potter Valley, became a township unto itself. It comprises the drainage basin of the east fork of Russian river as far south as the head of Coyote
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Valley, and reaches north to Little Lake Township on Eel river, and east to the county line of Mendocino and Lake, and is about fifteen miles in extreme length and ten miles wide.
It has the general climate and soil characteristics of the other interior valleys-river loam and rich black clover land in the valley and generally sandy soil on the hills, though in some places the black, almost adobe, shows in the hills.
The incorporation of Potter Valley includes the whole township prac- tically and was so made for the purpose of excluding saloons from its neigh- borhood. The valley proper is seven miles long and two miles wide at most, and is nearly all in a high state of cultivation, and now that the waters of Eel river have been turned into the head of Russian river by the Water and Power Company much irrigation is probable in the near future. Alfalfa is much raised in the upper end of the valley, and there yields three good crops without irrigation, and can easily be brought up to six or eight cuttings, as in the heat of summer it may be cut with profit every month from May to November. In the southeastern corner of the valley, J. D. Brower, the pioneer in irrigation there, has a considerable retaining dam and has been using the water for alfalfa for several years. Hay, wheat, oats, barley and corn are the principal crops; there are many fine orchards and three or four hopyards. Potatoes, pumpkins, squashes, beets, carrots, tomatoes, etc., are grown for home use, but none for market. Premium watermelons and the "Golden" muskmelon originated here.
Thomas and William Potter and M. C. Briggs were the first whites to locate in the valley, coming here in 1852, though their families did not arrive until two or three years later. In 1856-7 John Gardner and Fowler were in the valley with a band of horses. In 1857 Dick Swift and Samuel Chase arrived, and Berry Wright and Williams. Samuel Mewhin- ney and family and John Leonard and family came in the spring of 1858. In that year also Samuel, Lewis, Stoddard and James Neil, John McCloud, William Eddy and others. In 1859 the valley was virtually full of settlers. In that year Thomas McCowen, A. O. Carpenter, Andrew Lefever, William Van Nader, Samuel Mccullough and others arrived. Later the Carner family, Vans, Wattenberger, Boice, Wolfe, McCreary, Fuller, Pursell arrived. There is no locality in the county where the old original stock is so well represented in name and blood as in Potter Valley. Their increase has overflowed into the surrounding hills and little nooks, intermarried, and "possessed the land." Recently an agent was in the valley desirous of purchasing four hundred acres in a body for the purpose of founding a school, but $200 per acre was no temptation to either old or young.
Building was difficult as the timber was mostly oak in the valley and pine on the hills and not fitted for log houses. A few of these were put up, some were built of shakes, both oak and pine-some of the latter was whip- sawed-and most of the houses had oak puncheon floors. Two adobes were also put up and stood for years. By 1863-4 roads were dug out so that redwood was brought in from the western branch of the river, some eighteen to twenty miles, though this also was split lumber. A little sawed lumber was procurable from the head of Redwood valley, from Reed's mill, and some from Holden's mill on Ackerman creek. A sawmill was built by William Van Nader in 1874 on the mountain east of the valley, but it was
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of too small caliber to do more than furnish finishing and flooring, and it was afterwards moved to Round valley and taken by the government. Prac- tically all the lumber for the many fine houses and large barns in the valley has been hauled by teams from twelve to twenty-five miles, as well as a majority of the fencing. Wire fencing was then unknown, but is now taking the place of the wornout redwood pickets and oak rails.
In the early times supplies were packed in from Healdsburg, and it was no uncommon occurrence for a horse to knock itself off the narrow trail and go rolling down the mountainside. Experience taught them to give a tree or rock more room for their packs when passing.
The road out of the valley to Coyote was made by private work, some men voluntarily laboring twenty to thirty days on it. A road was also made north toward Round Valley, and a branch of it to Little Lake. Even- tually there was another over the divide to Eel river and up to Gravelly valley. L. B. Frazier built a steam mill about ten miles out on Sanhedrin, in the yellow and sugar pine timber, and moved it nearer as the timber was ex- hausted. The sugar pine was mostly shipped to San Francisco, and the yellow pine used in the box factory in Ukiah. In early days, from 1861 to 1865, political feeling was bitter; and at the time of the death of Lincoln three arrests were made in the valley, Thad W. Dashiell and John McCall (for rejoicing at the death of Lincoln), and a school teacher, Miss Buster (for trampling the flag under foot). They were soon released and returned to the valley. In after years Mr. Dashiell was taken to task for voting the Republican ticket. His only reply was, "I packed sand at Alcatraz for the privilege of expressing my opinion." Separate schools were maintained at one time, with politics rather than geography as a dividing line.
One of the first Fourth of July celebrations that the county witnessed was held in this valley. For music William Van Nader manufactured a drum by cutting a section of a fir tree. hollowing it out, heading it with deer skins, and in the morning its resonance could be heard the whole length of the valley.
Dances were held at private houses lasting from dark to daylight, and sometimes a breakfast was served to favored guests who were not in a hurry to go home. Quilting and fencing bees were often held, thus helping the husband and wife at the same time. And the people collected just as hilariously to labor for a sick neighbor as they did to dance at his husking. Occasionally a bear hunt enlivened the leisure hours, and more than one was tracked through the valley to the chemissal around, and brought home in triumph. Not always, though, for on one occasion a huge-footed beast was tracked along the western slope the whole length of the valley and far into the hills north. At another time, following the bear into the brush, the hunters found themselves surrounded by three bears, and backed out to more advantageous positions, securing one of the trio eventually. Wild oats covered the hills and clover the valley, either or both growing to the height of three feet. and game was abundant. In 1858 bear would nightly prowl around and investigate the rail-making operations of settlers, but not take a hand at it. If the farmer needed meat, and was too busy to hunt, a rifle and a few bullets were given "Hunter Jim," and venison ap- peared on the supper table-but not bear meat. No Indian would molest Bruin. Bears were believed to embody the spirits of bad Indians.
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Potter has ever been a temperance community, and it has been many years since a saloon flourished here. In an early day the "Sons of Tem- perance" was established there, but died out, yet its influence remained. Over the hill on Eel river several times a saloon has been opened, and on the southern line of the township, at Cold creek, another, but the supervisorial district having voted dry this latter has been transformed to a soft drink emporium. The town was incorporated in July, 1889, and includes so large a portion of the township that it is practically all of it. The present officers are: Trustees, C. B. Neil, D. Burkhardt; John Gavin, Mayor, T. P. Hopkins, Treas. The assessed valuation for 1913 was $489,961; tax rate, seventy-five cents ; population in 1910, 576, with a registered vote of 179. The registra- tion for the municipal election of 1914, of course, includes the female voters and is 270.
Fine corn is raised in the valley without irrigation, frequently without a shower upon it from planting to harvest. Alfalfa is constantly increasing its area, and now that the waters of Eel river are available for pumping and even for ditching much more will be sown with a purpose of beef and pork production.
The Snow Mountain Water and Power Company's enterprise has greatly benefited the valley, though some consider it a detriment, on account of its increasing the flow of water in Russian river to the extent of washing the banks. This enterprise has its head in Gravelly valley, fifteen miles easterly in Lake county. There a dam 140 feet high and 600 feet long is proposed, which will impound 2500 acres of water, backing it up the main stream seven miles and up Rice fork three miles. A careful measurement of the water flow was had all through the season in 1905, and at the dam site the stream (Eel river) raised nineteen feet one day, running five miles an hour and 250 feet wide. It was estimated that there was water enough in that one day to supply San Francisco three years. Shafts have been sunk 75 and 100 feet on either side of the river at the dam site and a tunnel run under the channel to connect them in the endeavor to locate the bed rock. It was the intention to construct a cement core dam twenty feet or more thick, and then fill the channel full above and below with detritus from the high hill on both sides for 800 feet, and locate the overflow half a mile distant through a low gap in the ridge, returning the water to the stream a half mile below the dam. Whether this plan still holds we may not say. Something over a million dollars has been spent on the project, but not needlessly, as it is being used for electric purposes without this large projected retaining dam. Two miles north of Potter, by road, is a diverting dam of 300 feet length, forty-foot base, sixty-five feet high. From this a tunnel was run 5900 feet through the mountain to Potter. There is a twenty- foot head above the tunnel, which is 6x7 feet clear and has 400 feet fall to the dynamos in the valley. The tunnel is mostly in serpentine rock, cemented on the bottom and timbered sides and top. There are two lines of service pipe from the tunnel down the hill to the dynamos, three in number, of 4000 horsepower each, and room for another in the power house. Electricity is furnished for Potter valley, Ukiah town and valley, Lake county, nearly all of Sonoma county and considerable for Napa. The system connects with the Bay Counties' system, so that mutual assistance is rendered in time of need. The Bay Counties is short of power in the winter, while the Snow Mountain is short in the late summer. Eventually the water from
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the dynamos will be ditched along the hill base on both sides of Russian river, and then will the whole territory blossom as the rose from April to December. The water may be easily taken out again in two different places between Ukiah and Cloverdale and its good work be multiplied. What the intention of the company is in regard to the water after it leaves its dynamos, no one can say except themselves, and they have not spoken except to say that if the farmers will dig the ditches they will supply the water at $3 per acre per annum. Meantime several are pumping the water without paying for the privilege.
Some of the best soil in the State lies in Potter, but it has been fear- fully abused, cropped year after year, or, rather, decade after decade, return- ing nothing of what has been taken off. not even the straw, which has been generally burned. Of late years much hay has been shipped out, besides the grain, and this course has had its effect. The first wheat in the valley threshed sixty-six bushels to the acre, and now the same land, after fifty years' constant cropping, yields only twenty bushels, though five and one- quarter acres recently yielded three hundred bushels.
Fruit, especially pears, apples and plums, luxuriate, of unsurpassed flavor and coloring, and peaches yield crops about three years out of five. Prunes also are excellent, but are not generally raised. Hops yield heavily of first-class quality. Not much is done in root crops except at the upper end of the valley, where beets and potatoes thrive.
Minerals there are on every side : Copper, gold, manganese, etc., but 10 one has ever made expenses in working the leads. Alabaster exists in the mountains north and asbestos also.
There are three schools in the valley, which are open about nine or ten months in the year, in charge of competent teachers.
Two large farms in the valley have been purchased by Russians, one of which has been cut in long, narrow sub-divisions, half a mile long and a few rods wide, after the old country custom. They have built their houses on the comparatively worthless hill ground and cross the river to their daily toil. The women do much of the farm work, while the men work out or are off in San Francisco or the coast mills at work.
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