USA > California > Merced County > History of Merced County, California with biographical sketches of prominent citizens > Part 38
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Following its sinuosities the Farmers' Canal, from its head to its terminus, is about fifty miles long, though in an air linc not more perhaps than fifteen miles. This is tapped by lateral branches which afford facilities for irrigating a vast region of agricultural land, wbich without water would probably remain uncultivated for an indefinite period.
EAGLE AND MERCED COLONIES.
The first of these lateral branches traverses what is known as Eagle Colony, which is situated four or five miles northwest of Merced and about one-half mile from Atwater Station on the Southern Pacific Railroad. It comprises 3,000 acres, 1,200 of which have been already divided into ten, twenty, thirty, forty, and eighty-acre traets. With twenty acres a purchaser will receive one share of stock in the eaual, which insures water.
Merced traet comprises several thousand acres, situated ahout four miles below that of Eagle Colony and flanking Bcar Creek. This is divided into larger tracts. A large portion is adobe and the balanee sandy. Irrigation is provided the same as for the other colony, and facilities for transportation are the same as in the Eagle seetion.
Artesian Wells.
THE abundant supply of artesian water which has been obtained on the Chowchilla Raneh, is a subjcet of interest. No fewer than eighteen artesian wells have been bored on this ranch, of which fifteen have a constant flow.
The water of these wells is allowed to colleet in pools or run off' at will. They were bored and are used exelusively for stock purposes, and auld greatly to the value of the raneh.
It is a singular fact that although flowing wells have been obtained east of the San Joaquin River at intervals throughout the valley, but one has resulted from the explorations that have been made on the west side of that stream. This one is directly opposite the cluster of wells on the Chowchilla Ranch, and has a very feeble flow of less than one gallon a minute, tbe water being highly charged with sulpbur.
A well some three miles west of the Chowehilla Raneb, and some two miles east of the river, belonging to an individual land-owner, is one of the strongest in that section. It passes through the following strata, a memorandum of which is given in next column to illustrate the gcological formation of that portion of the valley.
DIAGRAM OF AN ARTESIAN WELL .*
DEPTH. 297 feet.
CHARACTER OF VARIOUS STRATA.
2 feet.
Surface soil and sandy loam.
98 feet.
This space passed through was composed of fine sand streaked with thin layers of clay soil. The sand was similar to the Band of the plains.
1 foot.
A layer of solid "hard-pan."
95 feet.
In going through this strata it was found to be composed of various kinds and qualities of sand from "quicksand " to coarse gravel.
101 feet.
This layer was a compact mass of hard blue clay, such as is jormed from the decomposition of granite and other rocks. After passing through this a flowing well was obtained
* The cost of boring this well was $157.
The discharge of the well is nearly one-half of a cubie foot per second. When capped for a few hours it seems to accumu- late forcc.
ARTESIAN WELLS EASILY FOUND.
The theory which has so long prevailed with the people of this section of the country, that artesian water is eonfined within a certain belt of land a given distance from the San Joaquin River, has recently been exploded and will henceforth go for nothing. One of the best wells in the county is that which was bored by Mr. Thomas Mull on the place of Augus- tine Smith, situated on Mariposa Creek, about seven miles from Merced, and adjoining the well-known raneh of Hcaly Bros. Artesian water in this well was struck at a depth of 220 feet, and the flow is said to be equal to that of any other in the county.
ARTESIAN WELLS ON CHOWCHILLA RANCH.
Number of wells :
Township-south.
Range-east ..
Section. .
NAME OR
DESCRIPTION
OF WELL.
Depth in feet. . .
inches ......
ty-four hours.
gallons in twen-
States standard
Flow in United
1 9|14
20 In north field.
G
58,642
2 914
28, 33 Montgomery line well.
190
9
64,817
3 1014
5 At Smith's raneh
220
6
40,811
4 10 14
6 At main rancb house . .
200
7
43,211
5, 6 In alfalfa field ..
7
64,817
5 10 14
4, 9 In N. E. corner south field
195
6
162,043
6 10 14
16 Montgomery line.
6
181,918
8|10|14 00
8 At grove and Ash Slough
180
7
43,211
9 10 15
10 Near Burns' sheep camp ..
210
6 No flow.
11 10 15
10 At Burns' sheep eamp. .
S
4,800
12 10 15
21 New well. . !
200
6
259,270
13 10 15
24, 25 Near Berenda.
7
No flow.
14 10 15
25 Near Berenda.
175
7
51,613
15 10 15
4, 9 Kentucky well ..
233
S
280,875
16 11 15
7
86,422
17 11 15
1, 2 MeLaughlin's eamp
7
40,811
18 11 16
29 Franeiseo well.
8
14,404
7 1014
24 Middle well.
6 No flow.
10 10 15
16 Little well.
233
Diameter of pipe,
RES.OF J.L.CRITTENDEN, 7 MILES SOUTHWEST OF HILL'S FERRY, MERCED CO.CAL.
181
INDIANS OF MERCED COUNTY.
PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS OF MER- CED COUNTY.
Number, Mode of Life, Government, Marriage, Dress, Food, Hunting, etc.
INDIANS WASTED AWAY.
THE aboriginal population of the country now forming tbe county of Merced, instead of making the advances towards civilization that many of their sister tribes in the southern por- tion of California have made, through the instrumentality of' the early Mission Fathers and others, have wasted away, and most of them have become nearly extinct.
The numerous tribes that once occupied the valley of the San Joaquin and the foot-hills of the Sierras, have actually died out, or been reduced to a few miserable individuals.
The only surviving remnant of them being now represented by about one hundred, at the most, of tbe miserable Wallas, wbo subsist among the rocks on the Stanislaus River, near Knight's Ferry, all the rest having died out entirely, and their names having passed from the memory of the oldest residents. "Tribal names are frequently given by one writer which are never mentioned by any other. Yet we find many tribes on whose names authorities agree, and, though the spelling differs, tbe sound is about the same. Writers find less trouble it seems in distinguishing the tribes of the northern division, which they say is composed of people who resemble their neighbors more than is the case in central California, where the meaningless term 'Indians.' is almost universally applied in speaking of them. "The natives when asked to wbat tribe they belong, give the name of their chief, which is misunderstood by the inquirer to be that of the tribe itself."-Bartlett's Narrative ; Vol. II, page 30.
"From the San Joaquin northward to the Klamath, there are some hundreds of sınall tribes."-Henley, in Indian Affairs Report, 1854; page 304.
THE RACE HAS DISAPPEARED.
The race is a thing of the past; the villages which dotted the banks of the rivers are razed to the ground, and nearly all traces of their existence are obliterated. Most of the aborigines have gone to the happy hunting-grounds, those remaining being scat- tered among the hills and settlements, possessing no tribal rela- tions or village organizations.
Kit Carson says that in 1829 the valleys of California were full of Indians. He saw much of large and flourishing tribes that then existed. When he again visited the State in 1839, they had mostly disappeared, and the people who resided in
the localities where he had seen them, declared that they had no knowledge of them whatever. They had disappeared, and left no record of the cause that had led to their extermination. No estimate of their numbers appears to have been made until 1833, and it was known that they had then greatly decreased. It does not appear difficult to account for the rapid decrease in the number of these savages. The different tribes were con- tinually at war. Besides this, the cholera broke out among them in the fall of 1833, and raged with terrible violence. So great was the mortality, they were unable either to bury or burn their deal, and the air was filled with the stench of putrefying bodies.
INDIANS DESTROYED BY A PLAGUE.
Colonel Warner says: " I have never read of such a general destruction of a people by any angel, good or bad, or by plague or pestilence, as that which swept the valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin in the summer of 1833.
" In the autumn of 1832 a party, of which the writer was a member, traveled from the mountains down along the banks of the San Joaquin River and up those of the Sacramento for some distance above the confluence of the latter with Feather River. " The number of Indians liviug along and in the vicinity of the banks of the river was so much greater than I had ever seen living upon the same area of country that it presented a constant source of surprise. In the latter part of the summer of 1833 we entered the northern extremity of the Sacramento Valley from Klamath Lake and Pit River countries. We found the northern part of the valley strewed with the skeletons and fragments of skeletons of Indians, under the shading trees, around springs and convenient watering places, upon the banks of the river, and over the plain, where wolves and coyotes. waddling from tree to tree or over the plain, their hides distended with unnat- ural fatness, had dragged and denuded them. From the head of the valley to the American River but one living Indian was seen, and he was the most perfect personification of solitude that was ever presented to my view.
"The dwellings of the Indians in the numerous villages located upon and along the banks of the Sacramento River and its tributaries were void, and no foot-tracks but those of fowls and wild beasts were to be seen in the lonely villages.
" After erossing Feather River these villages along the Sacra- mento, which in the winter previous were each inhabited by hundreds of Indians, were desolate and the abodes of ruin.
DIED BY THOUSANDS IN SAN JOAQUIN.
" The same appalling proofs of this dire calamity were con- stantly presented to us as we traveled up tbe San Joaquin. Neither biblical nor profane history has portrayed such mournful results of the march of a destroying angel, as were presented to our senses as we repassed through along by these silent, vacated
182
HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY.
villages, which some ten months previous we had seen swarm- ing with Indian life, and resounding with voices from hundreds of human throats. Around the naked villages, graves and the ashes of funeral pyres, the skeletons aud swollen bodies, told a tale of death such as to us no written record has ever revealed. From the head of the Sacramento Valley until we reached the mouth of Kings River, not exceeding five live Indians were seen, and here we found encamped a village of Indians among whom the destroying angel was cating his greed of human victims by a ghastly carnage. During the one night more than a seore of victims were added to the hosts upon which he had been feeding. The wailing of that stricken village during the night was incessant and terrible. The sword of the destroyer was a remittent fever with which the victims were first stricken down to be finished by a hot air bath, followed by a plunge into a cold water one. It was evident to us from the signs which we saw that at first the Indians buried their dead, but when the dead becaine so numerous that the living could not bury them, resort was had to the burning of the bodies, and when the living, from diminished numbers, were unable to do this, they abandoned their villages, the sick and the dying, and fled in dismay, only to die by the side of streams and pools of water, and beneath the shade of protecting trees."
SAN JOAQUIN INDIANS IN 1848.
Alealde Colton in his " Three Years in California," deseribes his journey through the San Joaquin Valley on his way to the mines, and says: "On the plain we fell in with the camp of Mr. Murphy, who invited us into his tent and set before us refreshments that would have graced a scene less wild than this.
" His tent is pitehed in the midst of a small tribe of wild Indians who gather gold for him, and receive in return pro- visions and blankets. He knocks down two bullocks a day to furnish them with meat. Though never before in the wake of civilization, they respeet his person and property. This, how- ever, is to be ascribed in part to the fact that he has married the daughter of the chief-a young woman of many personal attractions, and full of that warm, wild love, which makes ber the Haide of the woods. She is the queen of the tribe, and walks among them with the air of one on whom authority sits as a native grace-a charm which all feel, and of which she seems the least conscious.
" The men and boys were busy with their bows and arrows. A difficulty had arisen between this tribe and one not far remote, and they were expecting an attack. Though the less powerful tribe of the two they seemed not the least dismayed. The old men looked stern and grave, but the boys were full of glee as if mustering for a deer hunt. The mothers, with Spar- tan coolness, were engaged in pointing arrows with flint stones. so sbaped that they easily penetrate and break off in the effort
to extract them, and always leave an ugly wound. They pro- ject these arrows from their bows with incredible force, often burying them to the feather in the luckless elk; the deer gives his last life-bound and falls, while the unsuspecting doe drops unwarned. I saw no signs of intoxication among these Indians, and was told by Mr. Murphy that he allowed no liquor in camp.
SKILLFUL USE OF BOW AND ARROW.
"Monday, October 9, 1848. On returning to our camping tree this afternoon I found three wild Indians quietly squatted in the shade. They had been attracted their by a red belt, which hung from one of the limbs. They could speak only their native dialect, not a word of which I could understand. We had to make ourselves intelligible by signs. They wanted to purchase the belt and each laid down a piece of gold, which were worth in the aggregate some $200. I took one of the pieces and gave the Indian, to whom it belonged, the belt. They made signs for a coin; I offered them an eagle, but it was not what they wanted-a Spanish mill dollar, but they wanted something smaller-a fifty-cent piece, and they signified it would do. Taking the coin tbey fastened it in the end of a stick, so as to expose nearly the entire circle, and set it up about forty yards distant. They then cast lots by a bone, which they threw into the air, for the order in which they should discharge their arrows. The one who had the first shot, drew his long sinewy bow and missed; the second, he missed ; the third, and he missed-though the arrow of cacb flew so near the coin it would have killed a deer at that distance. The second now shot first and grazed the coin; then the third, who broke his string and shot with the bow of the second, but missed; and now the first took his turn, and struck the coin, whirling it off to a great distance. The other two gave him tbe belt, which he tied around his head instead of his blanket, and away they started over the hills full of wild life and glee, leaving the coin as a thing of no importance in the bushes where it had been whirled."
TRIBES AND VILLAGES.
* In order to present a true description of their peculiar char- acteristics, the writer will be compelled to depend to some extent upon wbat otbers have scen and written.
We propose to adopt Mr. Bancroft's idea and treat of them as insignificant bands, roaming over a comparatively narrow arca, and apply one description to all. In their aboriginal manners and eustoms they differ but little, so little in fact, that one description will apply to all, not only to those who inhabit this county, but in fact to the whole central division.
"Thin portion of our article is from C. D. Branch's "Prhnitive Inhabitants of Stanislaus, " pub- Ilshed in Ellotty & Moure's History of that county.
183
TEMESCAL, OR INDIAN SWEAT-HOUSE.
SWEAT-HOUSE OF YO SEMITE INDIANS.
About the only thing common to all the Indians of the Pacific Coast was the sweat-honse. This great sanitary institution was found iu every rancheria or villige. The sweat-house of the Yo Semite Indians is thus described by Lieutenant Bunnell : " They were constructed of poles, bark, grass and mud, The frame-work of poles is first covered with bark, reeds, or grass, and then the mud is spread thickly over it. The struct- ure is in the form of a dome, resembling a high mound. After being dried by a slight fire, kindled inside, the mud is covered with earth of a sufficient depth to shed rain from without, and prevent the escape of heat from within. A small opening is left at the bottom for entrance. As a luxury, no Russian or Turkish bath is more enjoyed by civilized people than are these baths by the Indians. Hot stones are taken in and the aperture is closed until suffocation would seem impending, when they would crawl out reeking with perspira- tion, and with a shout, spring into the cold wa- ters of the stream. As a remedy for disease, the same course is pursued, though varied at times by burning and inhaling resinous boughs and herbs.
" This treatment was their cure-all, and whether it killed or re- lieved the patient, de- pended upon the nature of his disease and the vigor of his constitution.
INTERIOR OF THE TEMESCAL, OR INDIAAN SWEAT-HOUSE.
Their knowledge of the proper
treatment of disease was on a level with their attainments in all the arts of life.
" Roots and herbs were sometimes used. as remedies; but the 'sweat-house' was the principal reliance in all desperate cases.
"It was also a sort of town hall, and used on all publie occa- sions. When a dance is to occur, a large fire is kindled in the center of the edifice. The apertures, both above and below, are then closed, and the dancers take their positions. Half- nakerl Indians and squaws join in the festivities, Simultaneously with the commencement of the dancing, which is a kind of shuffling hobble-de-hoy, the music bursts forth. Yes, music fit to raise the dead. Such screaming, shrieking, yelling and roar- ing was never before heard."
THE DIGGER INDIAN.
The term Digger is applied indiscriminately to all these tribes in northern and central California, signifying the digging of roots, and possibly burrowing in the ground. This term has always been used by the inhabitants of this county, in speaking of the Indians among us.
We have sometimes heard those abont La Grange and Snelling called the Wallas. which is their true name, but more fre- quently have heard the term Digger used. The fact of this nick-name having been applied to all these tribes alike, has proven a fruitful source of confusion to writers upon the subject.
Mr. Bancroft, by his territorial division, succeeds in avoiding these causes of bewilderment which have befallen many writers. He does so by neither treating the inhabitants of an immense country as one tribe, nor by attempting to ascribe distiuct names and idiosyncrasies to hundreds of small and in- siguificant bands, roam- ing over a compara- tively narrow area of country, and to all of which one description will apply.
Baucroft, the histo- rian, in his "Native Races of the Pacific · States," divides the wild tribes of California into three geographical divis- ions, namely: the North- ern Californians, the Central Californians, and the Southern Cali- fornians, those of this valley being in the central division, which comprises the whole of that portion of California extending as far north as 40° 30', and as far south as 35°, and east and west from the Pacific Ocean to the California boundary. He says: "The races of this region (meaning the central) are not divided, as in the northern part of the State, into comparatively large tribes, but are scattered over the face of the country in innumerable little bands, with a system of nomenclature so intricate as to puzzle an Œdipus."
THE MEEWOC NATION.
According to Powers the Mcewoc nation extended from the snow line of the Sierras in Tuolumne County, to the Can Joaquin River. Within that portion of this territory which comprises Stanislaus County, we find the Walias living on the
184
HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY.
Stanislaus and Tuolumne Rivers, in the castern part of the county; tbe Wallalshumnes lower down the valley, occupying the region between these two rivers; the Potoancies and Coconoons between the Tuolumne and Merced, and the Yach- ichumnes between the San Joaquin and Mount Diablo.
As to tribal distribution, the Meewocs north of the Stanis- laus designate principally by the points of the compass. These, are toomun, choomuch, hayzootic, and olowit (north, south, east, and west), from which are formed various tribal names, according to the direction in which they live.
THE WALLA TRIBE.
The word Wallie or Walla, has excited much discussion as to its meaning. It seems to be generally settled, however, that it is derived from the word " Wallim," which means " down below," and was applied by the Yo Semite Iudians to the tribes living below them. These Indians, as we have said before, lived on the Stanislaus and Tuolumne Rivers, living chicfly in rancheria's on the opposite side of these rivers from the towns of Knight's Ferry and La Grange. They were consequently the first to come in contact with American civilization, as these places were settled in early days by the miners as they flocked in from other States.
As this is the tribe which has been the most observed by the writer since he can recollect, it is of them that he will have more to say than any other.
The Walla, however, being a perfect type of the river and foot-hill Indian, it will only be necessary to give a description of him in order to enable the reader to form an idea of all tbe otbers.
PHYSICAL FEATURES.
In beight these Indians rarely exceed five feet eight inches, and more frequently they are lower in stature. In build, they are strong and well knit, though seldom symmetrical. A low, retreating forehead, black, deep-set eyes, thick, bushy eye- brows, bigh cheek-bones, a nose depressed at the root, and some- wbat spread out at the nostrils, a large mouth, with thick prominent lips, teeth large and white, but not always regular, rather large ears, large hands and feet, the latter being per- fectly flat, and a broad chin is the prevailing type.
The complexion is generally very dark, often being nearly, black, though some are more of a copper color. Tbe hair is very thick, course, black and straight; is generally worn short, especially by the men and some of the older women. The younger ones always wear theirs long.
The men have beards, short, thin, and stiff. We have seen some of the young men with a soft, downy moustache upon their upper lip, cultivating it with as much pride as the ordi- nary " Young America."
THEIR MODES OF DRESS.
The original dress of these natives was very simple, and liko all the aboriginal tribes who lived in a mild, warm climate. Nature was more instrumental in forming the fasbions for them than any leader of the art from among their number.
In primitive times they went naked, unadorned with any of the modern embellishments which their contact with civili- zation has led them to adopt.
In the summer-time the apparel worn by the men was scarcely anything; they wore a thin strip of covering about the loins when in full dress, which was very seldom, they usually preferring to be perfectly unencumbered by anything in the shape of clothing. The winters, however, interfered witb this indelicate mode of appearing, and they were compelled to resort to the skin of deer, and other animals, which was thrown over the shoulders, and sometimes a species of robe was made from the feathers of water-fowl, or strips of beaver skin twisted together, and rabbit and squirrel skins tied together and wound around the body, and affording an effectual protection against the inclemency of the weather.
TOILET OF AN INDIAN BELLE.
The women were scarcely better clad, although we think they were much more modest than their sisters of the Colus tribe, wbo were the admiration of our friend Green of Colusa, in his younger days, and who, he says in his article on " Indians of Colusa county," # were so negligent and untidy as to allow their tunicas to wear out " until a very few cords sufficed to remind them of the modesty of Mother Eve."
Our Indian women in summer-time wore a fringed apron of tule and other grasses, which fell from the waist before aud behind nearly down to the knces, and open at the sides. We never heard of their failing to keep these dresses in good repair, and think when one became sufficiently soiled or damaged to shock the modesty of an admirer, that they certainly must have ordered a new one.
There was a great plenty of grass in the country at tbat time, and it would have been an easy matter for one of our belles to have kept a wardrobe with several changes in it for all emergencies.
A SHOCKING THOUGHT.
To think of one of these belles appearing at a ball with simply a bunch of tules bung down in front as her only ball dress, is simply sbocking.
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