USA > California > Placer County > History of Placer county, California > Part 89
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2,000
Steen & Willits
2,500
Patriek
1,500
Edwards (banker)
1,000
Winn (bookstore)
1,500
Geo. Haycock 8,000
Ogelby 4,000
Cadien.
5,000
Matthews
3,000
Vogeley
3,000
Empire Stable
2,500
MeKinney
4,000
Wells, Fargo & Co. saved their papers.
Up to the time of our going to press P. J. Edwards' safe had not been opened; probably all his papers are preserved.
A meeting was held to-day at 12 o'clock for the purpose of devising means for the alleviation of the destitute.
Messrs. Ladd, Crutcher, Hotchkiss, Rich & Ben- nett of Iowa Ifill, Wm. D. Lawrence of Birds' Flat, 1Iousel of Grizzly Flat, Brown of Wisconsin Hill, Reno of Independence Hill, and Trask of Roach Hill, were appointed a committee to receive sub- scriptions. A meeting will be held at 3 o'clock for the purpose of taking into consideration the widen- ing of the streets.
Two o'clock. The work of re-building has com- menced. Two houses have been moved on to Main street. Teams are busily engaged in hauling lumber for the reconstruction.
The telegraph office has been removed to the News office, and was in working order by 9 o'clock, A. M.
Main street has been surveyed by Mr. Young twenty feet wider than originally. Additional losses:
Mrs. Coleutt. . $3,000
Hotchkiss . 300
Stiles 1,200
392
HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
Carder & Harmon
$ 400
Coyle (Commercial Hotel).
2,000
Levy & Co.
2,000
Heberle & Stoekwell
800
Sullivan & Kligo
1,000
Sterling
3,500
P. H. Sibley
800
Mrs. Hawkins
800
M. E. Church
500
The town was again burned on the 27th of March, 1862, involving a loss of $65,000. Notwithstanding these disasters the citizens rebuilt in a substantial manner, hut the losses were such as to seriously impair the fortunes of the wealthy and bring to ruin and discouragement those of feebler characters.
DR. OLIVER H. PETTERSON
Is the only son of Oliver and Elizabeth Petterson, the former a native of Sweden, and the latter a native of England. Oliver H., our present subject, is, however, a native of New York City, having been born there on the 12th day of November, 1830. Ile received a classic edneation in his native city, and was a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1850. He also attended a full course of lectures at the State University. At the age of twenty-one years he bade farewell to the great metropolis and sailed for California in the ship Philip Horne. Nearly six months were consumed in the voyage, as he made the passage of Cape Horn. Early in August, 1851, he landed in San Francisco, and proceeded at once to Sacramento, where he took charge of the City Hospital. This position he held for one year, and then removed to Salmon Falls, El Dorado County, and commenced the practice of his profession. He remained at that point about two years, and while there was Justice of the Peace and Associate Justice of the Court of Sessions. His next location was at the New Almaden Quicksilver Mine, in Santa Clara County. where for eighteen months he was surgeon for that company. Ile then returned to San Francisco and practiced medicine for two years in that city, but the climate proving detrimental to his health, he was obliged to seek other fields for his labors. We next find him located at lowa Hill, in Placer County, in the enjoyment of a large and lucrative practice in his profession. The Doctor is a man well known outside of his praetice, as well as recognized in his calling for honesty, integrity, and the skillful treatment of diseases.
He was married May 4, 1864, to Miss Elizabeth Beybring, a native of Mexico, of German descent.
MICHIGAN BLUFF,
One of the oldest of Placer's mining towns, rests high upon the brow of the canon of the Middle Fork of the American River, looking over into the neigh- boring county of El Dorado, thirty miles northeast of Auburn, from which point it is reached by wagon road through Todd's Valley and Forest Hill. It is in Township No. 6, has a population of 468, and is 3,488 feet above the sea.
There is no authentie data attainable whereby the facts can be chronicled in these pages, relating to the nomenelature of this noted mining locality. It is presumed, however, that a party of prospectors from the State of Michigan, in the spring of 1850, camping somewhere near the base of Sugar Loaf Hill, gave cause for the name. Sugar Loaf is a peak, the shape of which is indicated by the name, whose crest rises 3,740 feet above the sea level, or 250 feet higher than the main street of the town, at the Phoenix Hotel. The present village is situated immediately at its southern base; but the first town, which in earlier days was commonly known as Michigan City, was located about half a mile below upon a stretch of tolerably flat ground which once existed there.
While little mining was done in that vicinity, on the rivers, as early as the summer and fall of 1848 -first at Rector's Bar by a party of sailors, and later in the season by a company who went there from Sutter's Fort with J. D. Hoppe-it was not until 1850 that any extensive operations were begun. In the fall of 1849 there seems to have been two men, one named Robert Wilson, who worked a short time in Dutch Gulch, but who did little, as one would stand out upon the flat and watch for Indians-of whom they were afraid-while the other dug and washed the gravel for gold. They did not stop here long, however, under these circumstances; but that they did well in thus working, is evinced by the fact that Mr. Wilson returned to the spot in 1880, after a lapse of thirty-one years, confident that he knew of a spot in the vicinity of his early lahors, where a fortune lay awaiting him.
With the above exception, the work done in that vicinity during the year 1849, seems to have been confined entirely to the bars upon the adjoining streams in the deep canons, and this was only in the shallow places, by crevicing. That fall two men, Ned and Bronson, being at work upon the Middle Fork of the American, decided to follow up the stream for the purpose of prospecting. In doing so they reached the mouth of a large canon coming into the river from the northeast, where they found in crevicing the cleanly water- washed bed rock, con- siderable quantities of large, heavy gold. Not long after this the rainy season begun and they were compelled to leave-going to Pilot Hill, El Dorado County, where, during the summer, they had located claims to be worked in the winter after water came. While at Pilot Hill they exhibited their gold to a number of persons, whom they informed of their intention to return in the spring to the spot where they obtained it, but only to their intimate friends would they disclose the locality. As time wore on, the flight of imagination became loftier and loftier, increasing the importance of the new find, until the Bronsons gave away their claims at Pilot Hill, as they were too insignificant for them to work, and awaited the coming of spring, when they could
O. H. Petterson.
.
393
TOWNS AND LOCALITIES.
. return to the canon they had left on the Middle Fork -always representing it to be a long ways off and in an almost inaccessible locality. Lawrence Bargy, Sid. Kitchum, and several other men who came from Syracuse, New York, with the Bronsons, were at that time also living at Pilot Hill, and, being townsmen, became allied, and were all to go in the spring together to the wondrous mines on the Middle Fork. Quite a company of men thus became inter- ested in the prospect between the friends of all- some of whom were living at Coloma, some at lang- town, and at other places-to the number of twenty or twenty-five. Outside of this particular circle nobody knew where the good diggings of the Bron- sons were located. It nevertheless became notorious that they were to start out in thespring, and parties were constantly on the watch prepared to follow them up. Meanwhile the favored ones were going well provided for; they had purchased not less than sixty mules and horses, and packed to the rendezvous at Pilot Hill several loads of tools, provisions, etc., from Sacramento, during the latter part of the winter, to be ready to start on the melting of the snow in the mountains. February was a pleasant month; the rendezvous was below the snowy zone; the continued fine weather that prevailed through the first week of March brought out the early vege- tation and flowers, so that by the middle of that month the party thought the season far enough advanced to justify a movement. Accordingly, with as much secrecy as any such large party could gather, they assembled, packed up and went away at night. Not many days elapsed after the cavalcade had got under way, before there were from 500 to 600 men in their wake-pursuing them, and as rolling snow gathers volume as it courses down an inclination, so did the crowd of pursuers increase as it proceeded, until the rush became enormous.
The Bronson party traveled up the Georgetown Divide, crossed Cañon and Otter Creeks to where Vol- canoville now is, and thence descended the hill to Volcano Bar, on the Middle Fork. Finding the river so high that it was impossible to proceed up the canon, with much delay and difficulty they got across the stream, climbed the hill on the north side, and were upon the ridge between the North and Middle Forks of the American, up which the party travelcd. Upon arriving at Bird's store, in a little valley about a mile west of where the town of Michigan City was afterwards built, they went into camp-the Bronsons believing they were not far away from the canon at the mouth of which they had found their gold. A few people even at that time had preceded them; but it was the operations of this party which caused the great influx of popu- lation into Bird's Valley to the number of two or three thousand in the spring of 1850, and the subse- quent creation of the little temporary town there, and of building the permanent one afterward, of Michigan Bluff.
Rescarch determined that it was at the mouth of El Dorado C'añon where the Bronsons had obtained their gold; but how changed in appearance ! Instead of an insignificant stream as they had left it in the fall, the Bronsons and party found a great, rapid river-larger now, a great deal, than the Middle Fork was the fall before-and the water so high that but little work could be done. Bird's Valley was at that time about as far up in the mountains as it was pos- sible for animals to travel, for snow, which, as late as the middle of April, fell in the valley to a depth of eight inches to one foot. Hundreds of men sought the river for diggings, at Stony, Rector, and other bars, but the water being too high to enable them to work to any great extent, the majority of them remained congregated at Bird's and other eligihly located camping places, awaiting a time when the water would be low in the streams. Some of these who had camped upon the flat east of Bird's, and nearer to the supposed rich diggings, while waiting for the subsidence of the water, and being attracted by the fine growth of sugar-pine in the vicinity, became of the belief that by riving out shakes, etc., and constructing shanties they might be rented to some of the many homeless, tentless and shelterless prospectors thronging the vicinity. In accordance with this suggestion several of the more speculative individuals of the community began the work of building, and being in some instances obliged to do slight grading for their primitive structures, while doing so discovered that they were upon ground composed largely of gravel -- smooth-washed, rounded, white quartz gravel-which upon being washed was found to contain gold. This ultimately led to the location of the ground for mining purposes; as also, the permanent establishment of the town of Michi- gan Bluff. Not long after this time Lawrence Bargy returned to Pilot Hill, disgusted with the diggings at the mouth of El Dorado Canon, and reported the discovery of gold at Michigan Bluff, saying that some fine gold had been found away up near the top of the ridge from the river-fine gold, and but little of it- and men had located claims there, but were wild for having done so; and for his part said he " wanted no diggings so far away from water," which opinion goes to show the citizen of to-day what the esti- mated value was of the mines there in the mind of some of the pioneers.
Though many claims had been located in the deep gravel diggings of Michigan Bluff from 1850 to '52, but little progress had been made toward their develop- ment until the latter year, when several ditch compan- ies were organized to bring the water to the banks, where it could be made available in washing the ground. The first of these was begun in 1852, but was not completed so as to run water until the spring of 1853. The water was taken from from Volcano Cañon, a distance of about five miles, and its carrying capacity about fifty inches. Philip Stoner, George Smith and - Barker were the owners.
50
394
HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
The second ditch was also begun in 1852, and completed in 1853; but did not convey water to the diggings as soon as the other, owing to careless engineering-four miles of the lower end being too level. This brought water from El Dorado Cañon; was twelve miles long, with a capacity of five hundred inches. Edwin Tyler, Charles Blake, C. H. T. Palmer, and - - Webster were the owners. Several years later it was extended some six or eight miles to the east branch of El Dorado Cañon.
With the introduction of water, although the price for its use was one dollar an inch, several hydraulie operations were started, many shafts and tunnels were begun; population augmented rapidly, and the "city" soon became a tangible reality. Previous to this time, in the fall of 1852, a bydraulic apparatus had been put in place at El Dorado Hill, a mile east of Michigan Bluff, by Jo. Burnham, Jo. Millsap, Lex. Gooch, John Lowe, Wm. Burnham and Benj. Mitten, which was operated by water from Poor- man's Cañon, flowing through a ditch about one and a quarter miles long, of a capacity of one hundred inches, where with a pressure of seventy-five feet, directed by canvas hose through a one-inch and three-quarter-inch nozzles, and sluices one foot wide, the gravel was sent off (as they then thought) with great rapidity.
Among the first hydraulic miners at Michigan Bluff was Tim. G. Smith. afterward Sheriff of Ormsby County, Nevada, who began upon the first introduction of the water. Claims were very small in those days compared with those of the present time. The Millsap elaim, tailing into Poorman's Canon, was also one of the earliest hydraulic mines worked, with water taken from Volcano Cañon by a ditch about six miles long, costing $7,000, constructed by Jo. Burnham and Jo. Millsap, who also sold water at seventy-five eents an ineh, having more than they required for their own use. The Millsap hydraulie used about two hundred inches of water, and was rigged with four-inch leather hose. This company built the pioneer car of the district-a wooden one entirely-laid a track, and moved the bowlders from their claim with it.
The mines, as first located at Michigan Bluff, lay upon an extensive flat, where the town was first built, lying between Skunk Canion on the west, and Poorman's Guleb on the east, with Tichenor's Ravine and Dutch Gulch intervening; the latter, where it reached the flat, being a mere channel eut into the gravel, with no bed-roek at sides or bottom, the depression dividing the gravel plateau. The eastern side of the flat was named Red Hill, while the west- ern part was called Michigan Bluff Flat. The claims around the flat were only twenty feet front, and were numbered from 1 to -, and went in that order all round the brow of the oval plateau, narrowing as they went back toward the center. When the main hill was reached different mining regulations were adopted, in 1854, and one hundred feet square was
allowed to each claim. As the ground became deeper shafts were sunk and horse-power whims erected to raise the dirt and water. The first of these whims, with a twenty-foot drum, was eon- strueted by the "Know Nothing" Company, the members of which were Joseph and William Burn- ham, Matthew Nunan (now an Ex-Sheriff of San Francisco County), Capt. Michael White, Nelson Finley, J. Hugh Ivins, and William Christie, each one of whom had consolidated bis 100x100 elaim. This shaft was sunk in 1854, and was 150 feet deep, seven feet deep of the bottom stratum of which was drifted and washed, yielding a net profit per man of 810.00 a day until worked out. The Empire Com- pany sunk the first shaft in deep ground and began drifting, That ground was drifted over twice, and in many places three times-the posts first put in hav- ing. by pressure above, been driven into the bed-rock so that it again united with the gravel, while at the same time the hed-rock coming in contact with the air would rise up, or, in mining parlance, " swell."
As time passed by, one by one these small-sized elaims were purchased from the original locators, until at the present time nearly all of the ground embraced in Michigan Flat and Red Hill is consoli- dated under the name of Big Gun Mine, under the ownership of Jas. A. and H. L. Van Emmon, who have a patent for about 300 acres.
To such an extent had the ground around the rim of the flat upon which Michigan City was built been washed away or eut up by drifts, and with the reser- voirs in which the water from the ditches was stored so situated above that it percolated the land remain- ing, in 1858 the whole site upon which the town was built began to settle and slip downward, cracking the walls of buildings, and seriously affecting the stability of every structure, great and small. This continued until it was rendered unsafe to remain longer, and, in 1859, the site where the present vil- lage stands was selected and built upon. Sugar-Loaf Hill affords most of the water used, there being an occasional well dug in the sloping ground at its base, but the main supply, cold, clear, and delicious, is delivered throughout the village in pipes under pres- sure from tunnels run in the side of the hill.
This flourishing village was almost wholly de- stroyed by fire on the 22d of July, 1857, causing a loss of $150,000, as the work of an hour.
NEWCASTLE.
The present village of Newcastle is on the line of the Central Pacific Railroad, five miles southeast of Auburn, in Township No. 2, having an elevation of 956 feet above the sea. Here was a mining town of the early days, but now it is the center of one of the most important fruit-growing distriets of the State.
OPHIR.
The name of Ophir was a favorite one with the pioneer gold-hunters, and it was given to numerous
395
TOWNS AND LOCALITIES.
localities and claims which were supposed to be of extraordinary richness. Here was supposed to be the land of Ophir spoken of in the Bible, whence came the gold to adorn the temple of Solomon. The Ophir of Placer County is situated on Auburn Ravine, about three miles west of the Court House, and is still an important and pleasant village. Its history as a village dates from 1850. In 1852, it was the most populous town in the county, polling in that year 500 votes. In recent years it has been distinguished for the number and wealth of its quartz veins and the fruitfulness of its orchards and vine- yards. Oranges, figs, olives, almonds, and other semi-tropical fruits grow luxuriantly. The present population is about 600.
PENRYN.
The busy town of Penryn bases its prosperity upon the enduring granite, and a more solid and lasting foundation could not be found or desired. The site is on the line of the Central Pacific Rail- road, eight miles southeast of Auburn, twenty-eight miles from Sacramento, and at an elevation of 610 feet above the sea. The population, as given by the census of 1880, was 238; but the vote of the precinct in the same year being 91, a larger population is indicated. The town is a growth of the granite quarries in the neighborhood, which were opened in 1864. This was not at once made a station, and pas- sengers to and from Penbryn-as it was then spelled, after its patronym in Wales-were obliged to go to some other station. Later a station was established, and the spelling of the name changed by Judge Crocker to suit the modern method of sim- plicity. Penryn owes its existence and prosperity as a town to
GRIFFITH GRIFFITH,
The proprietor of the celebrated Penryn granite quarries. This gentleman is a native of Great Britain; was born December 8, 1823, at Ty Gwyn, Llanllyfni, Carnarvonshire, North Wales. His parents were David and Mary (Roberts) Griffith, the father being superintendent of a large slate quarry in that country. The elder Griffith died when the subject of our sketch was but fourteen years of age. leaving a family of seven children, the youngest being but one year old. Hard labor on the farm, to aid the mother, burdened by heavy taxes and high rents, added to the support of the large family, occu- pied the next five years of his life. At the age of nineteen, he went to work in the slate quarry, and soon became foreman over a gang of thirty men.
In June, 1847, Mr. Griffith came to the United States, taking a sailing vessel via Quebec, and mak- ing his way to the granite quarries of Quincy, Mas- sachusetts. There be obtained employment of Wright, Barker & Co., first as a quarryman, and then as a stone-cutter. For this firm he wronght some years, at Quincy, Milford, and Lynnfield, in Massachusetts, and at Millstone Point, in Connecti- cut, for Barker & Hoxie, of Philadelphia.
In 1853 he removed to California, arriving in San Francisco on the 14th of April, of that year. His first effort in this State was in mining at Coloma, and afterwards at Mormon Island and Negro Hill, in El Dorado County. There the bed-rock was gran- ite, and along the river banks were immense bowl- ders and projections of this rock, glistening with the polish of the waters, and as hard as adamant. The experienced quarryman viewed these as his familiar companions of past years, and here was promised a vocation more to his taste than the precarious search for gold. But of Mr. Griffith's experience in this new line of business for California, we will relate in our notice of the Placer County granite.
Mr. Griffith is fond of society, and is a genial com- panion. His wife is a native of North Prospect, Maine, her maiden name being Julia Ann Partridge. He is a member of the Masonic Order, a Knight Templar, Thirty-second Scottish Rite, Knight Defender of the Shield and Star, and a life member of the Cambrian Mutual Aid Society. In politics he is a Republican since the Charleston Convention of 1860, but never has held or aspired to office.
PLACER COUNTY GRANITE.
While fruit-growing, the product of gold, raisin manufacturing, the grain interest, wool-growing, lime-burning, pottery manufacturo, smelting of iron ore, the production of wines and brandies, and other industrial interests in which multitudes are engaged, are noted in their proper order in this work. there is another important industry, which, though even at this time may be considered large, is yet in compar- ative primacy. This is the quarrying, dressing, and preparing of granite for builders' use. This primitive rock occurs in a zone which, upon the eastern side, reaches well up in the foot-hills-to an elevation, ap- proximately, of 800 feet-and crops out as far to the westerly as a height above the tide level of about 150 feet, at which point the abrasions of centuries bave washed down and hidden it under the undulating sur- face of the higher plain lands, where it is no longer seen. This granite zone extends across the entire county from north to south, and is visible in width, from east to west, a distance of at least twelve miles. In traveling through the granite region, one is im- pressed favorably by the peculiar aspect of the land- seape; with the smooth roads, which are without dust in summer and mud in winter, the white-oak. with its hanging mosses; the first appearance of the silver- leafed pine; the live-oak with deep verdure; the chapparral and the buckeye, with an occasional bush of holly; while not infrequently will be seen monu- mental nodules of the solid granite itself rising to a height of twenty or more feet, that have been left as the erosion of thousands of years of frost and sunshine has worn away its surroundings, leaving it unscalcable without the aid of ladders-a reminder that once the overhanging cliffs of granite looked down upon a deep, yawning chasm, now occupied by the fair valley of the Sacramento.
396
HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
The pioneer worker of granite in California for building purposes is Mr. G. Griffith, whose works are illustrated in this book. His experience was brought into requisition in the year 1853, by the Meredith Brothers. at Folsom, Sacramento County, in testing the quality of some large granite bowl- ders, which were then lying near the American River, at Negro Bar, to determine the worth of the material for constructing large buildings. The granite proving to be of fair quality, Mr. Griffith soon had large contraets at Sacramento, and opened his first quarry of importance near Mormon Island. While established in that locality, he furnished the granite used for all buildings of importance in the State, such as the Adams & Co.'s Express, Saera- mento; for the fortifications at Aleatraz, Fort Point, and other costly structures.
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