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 16
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 16
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on August 8, 1845, by Pio Pico, governor of California, and approved by the assembly the following month. Col. Ritchie and Paul S. Forbes also claimed this grant, and the board of land commissioners confirmed their petition, patent being granted to them in December, 1852. There were at one time a number of settlers on the land of this grant, and all were evicted by the patentees.
CHAPTER XV First White Settlers in Lake County
Knowledge of the first visit of a white man to the territory now embraced in Lake county, or of its date, is now lost in the misty vistas of tradition. Whoever he may have been, his pioneering was scarcely less venturesome or romantic than the early deeds of Daniel Boone and other pathfinders. The section was wild and isolated and thickly peopled with primitive Indians. Grizzly bears and panthers were numerous, and resented intruders.
It is authentically related that at a very early date a party of white hunters passed one winter in the valley near Lower lake. The narrative states that they were making their way from the Oregon country and instead of keeping on down the Sacramento river, had started across the moun- tains, heading for the old Russian settlements at Bodega and Fort Ross. The Russians had left these settlements in 1841, and it is apparent from the course of these pioneer trappers that they were not aware of this and also did not know of the existing settlements in Napa and Sonoma valleys. This party built a log hut at the lower end of Clear lake, which is believed to be the first white man's habitation in the county.
No direct evidences exist of possible visits of the hunters of the Russo- American Fur Company, which company established its trading post at Bodega in 1811, and that at Fort Ross a few years later. As their hunting excursions would easily extend up the Russian river as far as the rancheria of the Sanel Indians, who were related to the Hoolanapos of Clear lake, it is quite probable that the Russians would hear of the big lake, visit and hunt on it. Indeed the fairer complexion of an occasional Indian noted by early settlers indicated a slight infusion of Russian blood in these tribes.
The first actual occupation of the country, warranting the title of a settler, was that of Salvador Vallejo. In 1835 General Mariana Guadalupe Vallejo was placed in command of the Mexican forces north of the Bay of San Francisco, with headquarters at the Presidio Sonoma. He proceeded to subject all hostile Indians in his territory to Mexican rule. An expedition was organized in 1836 to make a foray into the Clear Lake region, then unknown to the Spaniards except by reports of the Indians. Captain Salva- dor Vallejo, a brother of the commandante, and Captain Ramon Corrillo commanded the force of soldiers. But little is recorded of the operations of the expedition, but its success was evidenced by the tractableness of the Indians following it, especially toward the Spaniards.
It was in consideration of these services that Salvador Vallejo applied for the Laguna de Lup-Yomi grant. His possession of the land was prob- · ably, however, based on pre-emption, sustained by his brother's military authority. The date of Vallejo's occupation of the valley is fixed at 1840.
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This time is based on old Chief Augustine's statement that it was about ten years before the killing of Stone and Kelsey. Vallejo brought many cattle into the valley, putting them in charge of a major-domo and ten vaqueros. They built a rude log house and a corral on the land now occupied by Mrs. M. A. Rickabaugh's ranch in Big valley, near Kelseyville. The late Judge Woods Crawford stated that when he came into the valley in 1854 the re- mains of this corral still existed, and in 1857 some of the stakes (it being an upright pole stockade) were dug out of the ground in a good state of preservation.
Augustine stated that the first major-domo was one Juarez, who re- mained several years. The next was named Guadalupe, who married an Indian woman, but lost her because his abuse drove her back to her tribe. Next in succession were Moretta, an American named Hubbard, and one Pinola. The Indians did all the work, constructing the house and corral, and herding the cattle. The vaqueros rode bareback, with only a "hackamore" bridle to guide their bronchos. In time the stock had multiplied until the valley was filled with cattle, and they had become wild as deer and difficult to herd. Vallejo finally drove out all the cattle he could round up, but disposed of about eight hundred head to Stone and Kelsey when they came to Lake county.
The Adventurous Career of Stone and Kelsey
The most interesting and tragic chapter in the history of the early set- tlement of Lake county is undoubtedly the adventurous career of Stone, whose given name is unknown, and Andy Kelsey, in the county for several years, and their massacre at the hands of the Indians. Conflicting views are held as to the blame of this killing, based on the evidence of white settlers and of Chief Augustine, but the consensus of opinion is that the deed was justified by the harsh and unjust treatment given the Indians by these two frontiersmen. Making due allowance for the rude stage of de- velopment of that time and of the Indians' semi-savagery, the facts stand out that Vallejo's major-domos had lived among them for years without trouble, and that a succession of cruelties was practiced on the meek ab- origines by Stone and Kelsey, arousing resentment which became warfare and resulted in their death.
In the fall of 1847, Stone, Shirland, Andy Kelsey and Ben Kelsey, the last named two being brothers, secured from Salvador Vallejo the use of the land which he claimed, with their purchase of his remaining stock in the county. Stone and Andy Kelsey came to the rancheria and took possession of the place and cattle. Their operations began with the construction of an adobe house forty feet long by fifteen feet wide, divided into two rooms and a loft above, which was situated on what is now the Piner ranch, just west of and across the creek from the present town of Kelseyville.
The work was done by Indians, practically without pay, and the ra- tions and treatment given them were far short of what they had been used to when working for the Spaniards. Resenting this, the Indians complained and got only harder tasks and whippings for their dissatisfaction. Trouble began to brew, and the Indians helped themselves to what they could find and killed not a few cattle for food.
Stone and Kelsey realized their increasing danger and inveigled the Indians to store their weapons in the loft of the house. In the spring of
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1848 the Indians became aggressive, and numbers of them gathered at the rancheria and besieged the two white men in their house. A friendly Indian made his way to the Sonoma settlement, carrying word of the perilous situ- ation. There a relief party was formed, consisting of Ben and Sam Kelsey, William M. Boggs, Richard A. Maupin, a young lawyer from Kentucky, Elias and John Graham. They rode horseback over the rough trail via the present sites of Santa Rosa, Calistoga, over St. Helena mountain, through Loconomi valley, over Cobb mountain, and down Kelsey creek. Ems Elliott had joined the expedition at his father's ranch near the Hot Springs, now Calistoga. The ride took about thirty-six hours of almost continuous traveling.
A Night Attack Upon the Indians
They arrived at their destination after dark and halted in the creek bed at some distance from the house, while Mr. Boggs reconnoitred. He crossed the creek, made a detour to the left and came out on the high ground just south of the building. The sight which met his eyes was a wild and weird scene of savagery, enough to curdle the blood, which left in the minds of those witnesses a vivid recollection which lingered to their last days.
The adobe house loomed up in the night, dark and silent. Surrounding it, shrieking and yelling like fiends, danced a horde of naked savages. The squaws hovered over the fires, adding their dismal wails to the pandemonium. It required courage of a high order for eight men to resolve to attack those hundreds of impassioned Indians, to risk their lives to save the besieged whites, but not a man of them failed.
A council was held on the return of the scout, and the party determined to make a mounted charge with noise to stampede the Indians, but to avoid shooting if possible. They rode silently to where Mr. Boggs made his recon- noissance. Down a short and steep hill they spurred their horses, with wild yells, right into the thick of the howling savages. So complete was the surprise and so fierce the charge, the Indians broke and fled in all directions. In a few minutes not one of them was in sight.
At the sound of white men's voices and horses' hoofs, Stone and Kelsey quickly unbarred the doors of their fortress, from which they had not ex- pected to come out alive. It was learned the principal cause of the Indians' hostile demonstration had been the withholding of their bows and arrows by the white men. That the aboriginals had been weaponless no doubt contributed to the fortunate outcome of what seemed in advance a desper- ate encounter.
The Indians soon finding out that other Kelseys were in the party, whom some of them knew, and no shots having been fired. they came out of hiding and conferred with the whites. A pretense that a big force of soldiers, with their "boom booms," was coming, had a quieting effect on the Indians. Stone and Kelsey had been shut up in the house for several days and had eaten their last rations.
Their hazardous experience did not teach Stone and Kelsey any lesson of forbearance and pacification with the Indians. On the morning after the rescue, the Kelsey brothers summoned the entire tribe and picked from them one hundred and forty-four men to constitute an expedition against a small band living in Scotts valley, who were believed to have been the marauders on the cattle herds. The ten white men led the expedition, and later were joined by Walter Anderson and a young man named Beson, who had just
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come into the Lower Lake region. The party passed the present site of Lakeport, then went west to the head of Scotts valley, and proceeded down the valley, scouring the country for the objects of their pursuit. They reached the junction of Scotts valley and the Blue Lakes canyon late that night without having found the Scotts valley Indians. The next morning some of the bucks in the expedition brought in a wounded captive. This Indian indicated that his band was farther up the Blue Lakes canyon. The pursuit continued till the party reached the divide, now the boundary line between Lake and Mendocino counties.
Believing that the captured Indian had deceived them, Ben Kelsey tied the unfortunate up to the limb of a tree and compelled every Indian to cut a switch, march past and give him a blow on the bare back. Kelsey was remonstrated with by others of the white men, and the prophetic remark was made that somebody's blood would pay for that brutal scourging. After his beating, the captive revealed the hiding place of his tribesmen, on a mountain west of the mouth of Blue Lakes canyon, probably Cow mountain. The Kelsey Indians made a dash up the mountain side and captured the entire band, dragging and driving them to the valley below. That night was afterward described by members of the party as about as harrowing an experience as they had ever felt, when the dozen white men camped in the wilds with hundreds of bucks of two warring tribes, both of whom had deep grievances against the whites. The next day the entire body of Indians was marched by way of Tule lake and Clear lake to Kelsey's ranch, a few of the whites making a detour into Scotts valley and burning the rancheria of the captured tribe.
The Sonoma settlers left for their homes, and Stone and the Kelseys continued in their acts of aggression and injustice toward the Indians. That summer a party of bucks was taken to the Kelsey ranch in Sonoma and made to build adobe houses. Chief Augustine was one so taken. He said that when he ran away and returned to Lake county he was imprisoned in a sweathouse for a week. He said many Indians had been whipped by Stone and Kelsey.
The outrage that aroused the deepest resentment in the hearts of these simple and long-suffering redmen, and which constituted the direct inciting cause for the massacre of that pair of cruel yet remarkably daring pioneer whites, was the gold hunting expedition. In the spring of 1849, in the gold excitement, a party was organized at Sonoma to go prospecting at the head- waters of the Sacramento river. The expedition, as organized, comprised Sam and Ben Kelsey, ex-Governor L. W. Boggs (who, however, did not go with the party), William M. Boggs, Salvador Vallejo, Alf Musgrove, A. J. Cox, John Ballard and Juan Castinado. On formation of their plans, Ben Kelsey went to Clear Lake and got fifty picked men of the Indians.
Of that band, the early authorities state that probably not more than one or two Indians ever got back to Lake county. Hunger. disease, priva- tion and their Indian enemies decimated their numbers. The blame is placed mainly on Ben Kelsey. He found selling the expedition's supplies more profitable than prospecting, and depleted their provisions. The Indians starved, and malarial fever worked its ravages. The Indians who returned told a heart-rending story. When months passed and their sons and brothers did not return, "Kelsey blood shall pay the penalty," was the revengeful thought of the remainder of the tribe.
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The Massacre of Stone and Kelsey
Stone and Andy Kelsey remained in Lake county during this expedi- tion, and their conduct toward the Indians became more outrageous. It was a sport to shoot at them to see them jump, and to lash the helpless red- men, to amuse chance white friends who came into the region. They seized Chief Augustine's wife and forced her to live with them. This squaw played a leading part in the conspiracy which brought on the white men's death.
In the fall of 1849, when Stone and Kelsey were away with the vaqueros, attending to their cattle one day. Augustine's squaw poured water into their loaded guns. The next morning some of the Indians made a charge on the house. Kelsey was killed outright with an arrow, shot through a window. Stone escaped upstairs, and on the Indians rushing up after him, jumped out of an upper window, ran to the creek and hid in a clump of willows. By this time the entire rancheria was aroused to bloodthirstiness, and all the bucks joined in the search for Stone. An old Indian found him and killed him with the blow of a rock on the head. The bodies were buried in the sand of the creek bank. A simple stone on the bench above Kelsey creek, now occupied by the Kelseyville 1. O. O. F. cemetery, marks the graves of that adventurous if vicious pair of pioneers of Lake county.
The Indians' feeling of security from further invasion of the whites was rudely dispelled in the spring of 1850. A detachment of soldiers under Lieutenant Lyons (afterwards the brave general who fell at Wilson's creek. near Springfield, Mo., in the Civil War) was sent to punish them for the Stone and Kelsey massacre. The soldiers came over Howell mountain, via Pope and Coyote valleys. When they arrived at the lower end of Clear lake, they learned the Indians had taken refuge on an island in the northern end of the lake. The soldiers sent back to San Francisco or Benicia and secured two whale boats and two small brass cannon. These were arduously brought up on wagons, the first vehicles ever in the county, over narrow trails and rough, unbroken country.
Government Punishes the Indians
A number of volunteers from among the settlers joined the military expedition. Part of the soldiers, with the cannon, proceeded in the boats up the lake. The others rode up the west side of the lake. This party was in command of Lieutenant George Stoneman (afterward General Stoneman. and noted in the War of the Rebellion). The rendezvous of the white men was at Robinson's Point, south of the island. During the night, part of the detachment went by land around the head of the lake with the cannon, ap- proaching to the nearest point on the north side. In the morning a few rifle shots were fired by the latter to attract attention. The bullets failed to carry to the island and the Indians gathered on the shore on that side and jeered at the whites. Meanwhile the soldiers in the boats came up on the opposite side, and at a signal, the cannon opened fire. The cannister shot plowed through the surprised redmen, killing and wounding many at the outset. The panic-stricken Indians rushed to the south side of the island and a line of soldiers rose up from the tules and received them with a deadly fire of musketry. Beset on every side, the remaining redmen jumped into the water and attempted to swim to the mainland. Tales of the white partici- pants and Indian traditions differ as to the extent of this massacre, but there
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is little doubt but that at least one hundred Indians were killed or drowned in the engagement. The name of Bloody Island, still attached to this site, attests to the sanguinary nature of the conflict.
The soldiers proceeded over the mountains to Potter and Ukiah val- leys, engaging in other skirmishes, and returned to Benicia by way of Russian River valley and Santa Rosa. Their wagons and boats were left at Clear lake, and parts of them were found in various sections of the county within comparatively recent years.
The First Permanent Settlement
Without doubt, Walter Anderson was the next white settler after Stone and Kelsey. He, with his wife, who was unquestionably the first white woman in the county, settled near the present site of Lower Lake in 1848. A young man by the name of Beson lived with him for a period. Anderson moved on to Mendocino county in 1851.
The next house after the Stone and Kelsey adobe was a log cabin built in 1853 by Robert Gaddy, Charles Ferguson and C. N. Copsey. It was located about one and one-half miles west of the site of Lower Lake. The second house was built the same year, near the present Quercus landing on Clear lake, by J. Broome Smith and William Graves, the latter as a boy being a survivor of the famous Donner party. The third house was built by Jef- ferson Warden, in the fall of 1853, in Scotts valley, on what is now the Walter Faught place. Joe Fournier, a Frenchman, had a cabin there. None of these men had families. William Scott settled in this valley in 1848 and gave it his name, but did not remain long.
In the spring of 1854 there arrived a party consisting of Martin Ham- mack and his wife, his son Brice Hammack and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Woods Crawford, Mary and Martha Hammack (the three last named women being daughters of Martin Hammack), John, William, Robert J. and Saralı, younger children of the party's leader, all of whom crossed the plains from Missouri to Shasta county. With them were John T. Shin, J. J. Hendricks, J. W. Butts, J. B. Cook and his son, W. S. Cook, who accompanied the party from Shasta county ; and several others who did not become permanent settlers. The party camped where Kelseyville now stands, on April 8, 1854. Elijah Reeves and family arrived three days later. The Hammack party came via Napa City, Yountville, over Howell mountain into Pope valley, over Pope mountain into Coyote valley, thence to Lower Lake, and over Seigler moun- tain to Big valley. In Coyote valley, vaqueros in charge of stock owned by Jacob P. Leese, tried to drive the party off, thinking them land jumpers. They camped enroute at what are now the McIntire and Dorn ranches. A few nights after their arrival in Big valley, a big grizzly was killed within their camp.
The men of the party commenced erection of habitations. They went up on Seigler mountain, split out and shaved cedar boards six feet long. The heavier timber was hewn out of oak. The house occupied by Woods Craw- ford was the first built. It was located on what is now the Joe Wooldridge ranch. The two Hammack homes were built about a mile east of Crawford's. This party brought in about two hundred head of horses and cattle and engaged in stock raising. The bears were considered more dangerous at that time than the Indians. 8
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What was known as the Elliott party came into this section in the fall of 1854 and located in the Upper Lake region. This party consisted of Wil- liam B. Elliott and wife, two unmarried sons and a daughter, aged twelve or fourteen years, two married sons, Alburn and Commodore, with their wives, and Benjamin Dewell and his wife, who was a daughter of Elliott. Dewell and wife preceded the others by a month. They settled on Clover creek, a quarter-mile above the present town of Upper Lake, the Elliotts locating on the east side of the creek and Dewell on the west side. This party brought four or five hundred head of stock and engaged in stock raising.
In the spring of 1855, Lansing T. Musick and Joseph Willard, with their families, came in and settled at the present Mendenhall place. Musick engaged in farming, hunting, trapping and had a little stock. Willard en- gaged in raising hogs.
A Mr. Barber settled a quarter mile above the present site of Lower Lake in the fall of 1854 or early in 1855. J. R. Hale settled a mile further up Seigler creek. Dr. W. R. Mathews (subsequently the first county clerk) and the Copsey family located in what was known as the Copsey settlement, three miles south of Lower Lake, about 1855. These were all men of families. The first settlers in Scotts valley were G. C. Cord, a gunsmith, and a man named Ogden, brothers-in-law, with their wives, who located on the present Chester White ranch but remained only two or three years.
George M. Hanson, a man prominent in the early history of Illinois, who was a member of the senate of that state when Abraham Lincoln made his first appearance as a legislator and who placed Mr. Lincoln's name before the national convention as a candidate for vice-president in 1856, brought three of his sons to what is now Lake county, in 1854. They prospected the region thoroughly and first settled on Middle creek, near Upper Lake. Mr. Hanson returned to Yuba county and the sons, who were David M., James Francis and Daniel A. Hanson, soon moved to Long valley.
In Coyote valley the stone house on the Mexican grant existed as early as 1852, and two men were there in charge of stock belonging to A. A. Ritchie. In Loconomi valley the first settlers were the Bradfords, at what later became the Mirabel mine.
The first merchandising business in the county was started in 1855 by a man named Johnson, who sold in 1856 to Dr. E. D. Boynton, from Napa. He built a store and put in more goods, at Stony Point, later called Tuckertown, a short distance south of the present site of Lakeport.
Richard Lawrence, Green Catran, Daniel Giles and Benjamin Moore were the first settlers in Bachelor valley, in the middle '50s. These men were unmarried, from which fact the valley received its name.
In the Lower Lake section, I. B. Shreve, C. N. Copsey and L. W. Parkerson settled in 1851. W. WV. Hall came in 1854, Terrell Grigsby located Seigler Springs in 1854. In 1856 there came C. C. Allen, O. J., John C. and Thomas Copsey, William R. Mathews and family, N. Herndon and family, William Slater and family, and Jarvis Cable. W. C. Goldsmith came in 1857, and in 1858 Charles Kiphart, Calvin Reams, A. Hill, A. S. McWilliams, E. M. Day, O. N. Cadwell and Ed Mitchell, all men with families, Robert Gaddy, Charles Ferguson, J. R. Hale. S. A. Thompson, C. L. Wilson, L. H. Gruwell, William Kesey and E. P. Scranton were also early settlers in this section. A man by name of Burns located in the valley named after him in
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1857. In 1855 William E. Willis settled near the lake in Burns valley, and he sold to Jacob Bower in 1857. George Rock came into Coyote valley as agent for Jacob O. Leese as early as 1850 and built a log house where the stone house of the Guenoc ranch now stands. There followed him J. Broome Smith, Robert Watterman, Capt. R. Steele, Robert Sterling and J. M. Hamil- ton. Benjamin Knight, Richard and Perry Drury settled in Long valley in 1855.
Establishment of Government
The first act in the way of establishing government in the Clear Lake region was in 1855, when this territory was embraced in Hot Springs town- ship of Napa county. On April 14 of that year, the Napa county supervisors appointed S. Grigsby a justice of the peace and C. N. Copsey constable. On November 6, 1855, Clear Lake township was organized as part of Napa county. It included Lupoyomi, Coyote, Cobb and Scotts valleys, and the smaller valleys about Clear Lake. Two voting precincts were established, known as Upper Lake and Lower Lake. At the general election of 1855, R. H. Lawrence and L. Musick, both residents of the Lake section, were elected respectively justice of the peace and constable of Hot Springs town- ship.
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