USA > California > Siskiyou County > History of Siskiyou County, California > Part 11
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Tibbats. Black. Warfields. Wood.
Molair.
Inass.
Besides these there went with the party for safe escort Mr. Walker and wife, sister, three sons and 7
two daughters, Burrows, wife and child, and Nichols, with Warfields' wife and child. In reference to the journey of this party through what is now Siskiyou county, Commodore Wilkes writes as follows, in United States Exploring Expedition, Vol. 5 :-
"On the 29th, they set ont to ascend the Bound- ary mountains, which separate Mexico from the United States. It is a range of hills from twelve hundred to two thousand feet high, some of whose summits have a mural front; the features of all the ridges wear a basaltic appearance, though some of them are of sandstone, and contain fossils. As they ascended, they every moment expected to be attacked, particularly at a steep and narrow path, where a single horse has barely room to pass. The man Tibbats was one of a party of fifteen, which was defeated here by the Indians, some three years before. One of their number was killed, and two died of their wounds on the Umpqua, whither they were obliged to retreat, although they had forced the Indians back with great loss. He showed great anxiety to take his revenge on them, but no oppor- tunity offered, for the party had no other difficulty than scrambling up a steep path, and through thick shrubbery, to reach the top. Not an Indian was to be seen, although they had evidently made some preparations to attack the party ; the ground had been but recently occupied, some large trees felled across the path by burning, and many other imped- iments placed to prevent the party from advancing. The whole mountain side was admirably adapted for an ambuscade.
" At the summit of this range, they got their first view of the Klamet valley. It was beneath them, walled on both sides by high basaltic hills, one beyond another. Mount Shasta, a high, snowy peak, of a sugar-loaf form, which rose through the distant haze, bore southward, forty-five miles dis- tant. They descended on the south side, and en- camped on the banks of Otter creek, within a mile of the Klamet river.
" This ridge divides the waters flowing to the north and south. The soil seemed to change for the worse, becoming more sandy.
"In consequence of the illness of some of the party, it was concluded to remain stationary on the 30th; the others made excursions around the camp. The country they saw was a broad prairie valley, dotted with oaks and pines, with a serpentine line of trees marking the edges of the streams till they are lost in the distance. This valley lies in the midst of hills, clothed with a forest of evergreens, and through this the waters of the Klamet flow, passing. beyond it, through a narrow valley on the west. The most remarkable object in this place is the iso- lated conical peak, which rises immediately from the level plain to the height of one thousand feet, and is destitute of trees, except on its summit.
" Near their camp were the remains of an Indian hut, which had been constructed of bent sticks. " Lieutenant Emmons, during the day, obtained both dip and intensity observations. The thermom- eter, in the shade, rose to 100°. At dawn the fol- lowing morning, it was 32°. The hunters did not succeed in procuring any game.
"On the Ist of October, they were enabled to take an early start. The weather was, however,
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HISTORY OF SISKIYOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
sultry, and the atmosphere again so smoky as to shut out the Shasta Peak from view. In about two hours they crossed the Klamet river, where it was about eighty yards wide, with low banks, destitute of bushes. It was about four feet deep, with a pebbly bottom. Both above and below the ford, there were rapids; the volume of water was about equal to that of the Umpqua. From the appear- ance of its banks, it is subject to overflow. The prairie, after crossing the river, became dry and barren, from which a solitary butte, by which term these hills are known, occasionally rose up, from one to five hundred feet high. These are peculiar to this country. Heaps of volcanic rocks, consisting of large masses of grayish or reddish porphyritic lava, in blocks of from one to ten cubic feet in size, were lying on the surface in disorderly piles. Beyond, to the eastward, the lava heaps became still more numerous.
"They encamped on the southern branch of the Klamet river, which is a beautiful, clear, and rapid stream, where they met with a small spot of grass, the only one they had seen during the day. Two Indians were discovered on the look-out from one of the lava heaps. Lieutenant Emmons, taking the guide with him, succeeded in preventing their escape, and was enabled to approach them. They were at first under great fear, but soon became reconciled, and sold two salmon they had with them, which they had taken in the river with their fish-spears. The salmon were of a whitish color, and not at all delicate to the taste; their tails were worn off, and the fish otherwise bruised and injured. Many salmon are caught in all these rivers. The Indians were thought to be better-looking than those before seen about the villages, and were quite naked, excepting the maro. After having disposed of their fish, they were willing to sell their bows and arrows, which they had hid in the grass. These, which were all neatly made, were bought for a knife. They then pointed out some more of their tribe, who were seated on the side of a distant hill, and were very desirous that they might be per- mitted to come into the camp; but permission was refused them. Here our gentlemen saw large bun- dles of rushes, made up in the form of a lashed-up hammock; which the Indians are said to use instead of canoes.
" On the 2d, they traveled all day over a rolling prairie, without water; the low ground was in- crusted with salts, notwithstanding which, the land was better than that passed over the day before. . Some patches of spiræa and dogwood were met with, and a better growth of grass; although it was still very scanty.
" Large herds of antelopes were seen, but none of them were killed; the hunters also recognized the mountain sheep, which are of a dark color, much larger than the common sheep, and having large horns. Towards the afternoon they came to some holes containing water; and such had been the suf- fering of some of the animals from thirst, that they rushed into them with their packs, and it required much labor to extricate them, for which purpose it was necessary to use the lasso. About midday they left the Klamet valley, which is far inferior to any portion of the country they had passed through;
and as they crossed the hills which enclose it, they found that the outcropping rocks were composed of a dark green serpentine. They encamped a little beyond the hills, and in the vicinity of their camp, boulders of a course syenite, forming the bed of the creek, and lying along its course, were seen. The hornblend crystals of the latter rock were often two inches long, and were set in a white granular paste of feldspar.
" At their camp they were visited by a party of Shasta Indians, who were allowed to enter it, and for some time there was a brisk trade for their bows and arrows. These Indians are a fine-looking race, being much better proportioned than those more to the northward, and their features more regular. One of the boys was extremely good-looking. He had a bright black eye, and pleasing expression of countenance; he was clad in dressed deer-skins, over his shoulders and about his body, but his legs were bare. They all wore their black hair hanging down to their shoulders; and they do not compress their heads. Mr. Agate had much difficulty in get- ting them to stand still for the purpose of having their portraits taken, and gave them a miniature of his mother to look at, hoping that this would allay their fears, but it had a contrary effect, as they now believed that he desired to put some enchantment upon them, and thought that he was the medicine- man of the party.
" They obtained an exhibition of the archery of the Indians by putting up a button at twenty yards distance, which one of them hit three times ont of five: the successful marksman was rewarded with it and a small piece of tobacco. They use these bows with such dexterity as to kill fish, and launch their arrows with such force, that one of the gentlemen remarks he would as leave be shot at with a musket at the distance of one hundred yards, as by one of these Indians with his bow and arrow. Their bows and arrows are beautifully made; the former are of vew and about three feet long; they are flat, and an inch and a half to two inches wide; these are backed very neatly with sinew, and painted. The arrows are upwards of thirty inches long; some of them were made of a close-grained wood, a species of spira, while others were of reed; they were feathered for a length of from five to eight inches, and the barbed leads were beautifully wrought from obsidian; the head is inserted in a grooved piece, from three to five inches long, and is attached to the shaft by a socket; this, when it penetrates, is left in the wound when the shaft is withdrawn; a very shallow blood-channel is sometimes cut in the shaft. In shooting the arrow, the bow is held hori- zontally, braced by the thumb of the left hand, and drawn by the thumb and first three fingers of the right hand. To obviate the disadvantage of draw- ing to the breast, the chest is thrown backwards; on discharging the arrow, they throw out the right leg and stand on the left. Their quivers are made of deer, raccoon, or wild-cat skin ; these skins are gen- erally whole, being left open at the tail end.
" A disease was observed among them which had the appearance of leprosy, although the doctor did not recognize it as such; one of the six had wasted away to almost a skeleton from its effects.
" The old man was pointed out as the father-in-
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HISTORY OF SISKIYOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
law of Michel La Framboise, who, as I have said before, has a wife in nearly every tribe.
" As to dress, they can scarcely be said to wear any except a mantle of deer or wolf skin. A few. of them had deer-skins belted around their waists with a highly ornamented girdle.
' On the 3d, they continued their route up the plain, and soon reached its termination, after which they entered the forest on the slopes of the Shasta range; the path was rendered very broken and uneven by the knolls of trachyte which were seen in every direction. On arriving at the top of the ridge, they had a magnificent view of the snowy peak of Shasta, with a nearer and intermediate one destitute of snow, with tall pines growing nearly to its top. Where the surface could be seen, it appeared as though it was covered with large blocks of rock; its conical shape proved its volcanic character, although no crater could be perceived.
" The Shasta peak is a magnificent sight, rising as it does to a lofty height, its steep sides emerging from the mists which envelope its base, and seem to throw it off to an immense distance; its cleft sum- mit gave proof of its former active state as a vol- cano. The snow lies in patches on the sides and part of the peak of this mountain; but there is a great difference in the position of its snow-line from that of Mount Hood or St. Helen's. Its height is said to be fourteen thousand three hundred and ninety feet, but Lieutenant Emmons thinks it is not so high. After passing this ridge, they soon met the head-waters of the Sacramento, flowing to the southward, and their camp was pitched on the banks of another stream, that came from the Shasta peak.
"Our party now had their prospects somewhat brightened, having passed safely through the coun- try of the " Bad Indians." I cannot but regret that they should at this time have been found in so hos- tile a state that it rendered it not only prudent, but necessary for the safety of the party, that all inter- course should be avoided, and consequently one of the objects of the Expedition, that of acquiring some knowledge of their actual condition, numbers, etc., was frustrated.
" On the 4th, they had fairly entered into the dis- trict of pines; again some of the Lambertiana were measured, and found to be eighteen feet in circum- ference, with cones sixteen inches long.
"They encamped on Destruction river, which runs from this mountain range towards the south, in a place where they found food for their horses and water in abundance. The air was delightful; the forest protected them from the rays of the sun, and besides this the game was plentiful. Near the encampment, in a north-west direction, was a mountain ridge shooting up in sharp conical points and needle-shaped peaks, having a precipitous front. One of these peaks almost overhangs the valley, pre- senting a gray surface of naked rock two thousand feet high. The valley which adjoins is strewn over with boulders of white granite, similar to that already described. From this, there is little doubt that the ridge is formed of the same material. At meridian they reached a small valley bordering on the Destruction river, where they found a chaly- beate spring. The water oozes out from the rocks,
bubbling up freely, and is highly charged with car- bonic acid gas. In taste it was found agreeable to both the riders and the animals. Its temperature was 50°, that of the air being 75°; about a gallon per minute is discharged. Around it there is a thick deposit of iron rust, and a few yards distant a small pond, the bottom of which was also coated with a ferruginous deposit. The rocks in the vicin- ity of the spring were of the trachytic and slightly cellular lava, which is speckled with grains of feld- spar. The hunters said that the spring was in all respects similar to that on the Bear creek, which empties into the Youta lake, known in the Rocky mountains as the Soda spring. Mr. Dana found some difficulty in accounting for this emission of carbonie acid, as no limestone was found or known to exist in the neighborhood; yet he is inclined to believe that it may be owing to the decomposition of sulphuret of iron."
From this time until the discovery of gold opened this whole region to the occupation of white men, not a year passed but witnessed parties following this trail either to or from California. In 1843, Stephen H. Meek led a small party of emigrants from the Willamette valley over this trail to Sutter's Fort. In Rogue River valley they met Capt. Joe. Walker, the celebrated mountaineer, with a party of men and a band of two thousand head of cattle, on their way from the Sacramento valley to the Oregon settlements. On Willow creek, Meek's party came suddenly upon a rancheria of Shastas, busily engaged in drying the meat of cattle they had stolen from Walker. A charge was made upon them, and all the women and children captured, the braves effect- ing their escape. All the dried meat was taken by the captors, and the prisoners released. That night they encamped on the Shasta river, and early next morning a Shasta crawled up softly and shot George W. Bellamy, one of the guards, in the back, and made his escape. The arrow was drawn out and Bellamy recovered.
In 1844, a large band of emigrants passed from California into Oregon by this route. In May, 1846, two companies of emigrants that had come to Cali- fornia the year before and were dissatisfied, passed over this trail to the Willamette valley. The first company contained about eight families, amounting to thirty souls, among whom were William and Abner Frazer, now living near Salem, Oregon, and Charles Savage, now residing at Jacksonville, Oregon. Mr. Savage had just arrived in California with Fremont and had been discharged from the service with several others at their own solicitation. They , drove with them three hundred cattle and two hun- dred horses that had been brought by them from the States. The second company was composed of twenty men, among whom were John, James and Henry Owen, the last of whom now lives at Eugene City, Oregon, and drove with them six or seven hundred head of wild cattle they had purchased in California, being a few weeks in the rear of the other party.
These two companies had been at Lassen's ranch with Fremont and his party of about fifty men, from which point they made the final start of their journey. Fremont, however, turned off the regular trail and proceeded up Pit river, or as it was then.
52
HISTORY OF SISKIYOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
called, the east fork of the Sacramento. He pro- ceeded by way of Goose, Clear and Tule lakes to the west shore of Klamath lake, where he camped for a few days. On the ninth of May, Samuel Neal and M. Sigler rode into camp with the information that a United States officer was on their trail with offi- cial dispatches, and would fall a victim to the sava- ges if not rescued, the two messengers having only escaped by the fleetness of their animals. Taking five trappers, four friendly Indians and the two messengers, Fremont hastened to the rescue, and at sun-down met Lieutenant Gillespie, accompanied by Peter Lassen, sixty miles from the camp he had left in the morning. They camped that night in the Modoc country, near Klamath lake, and there it was that the savage Modocs committed the first of the long series of murders that have marked their deal- ings with the whites. Exhausted as they were, the men lay down to sleep without a guard, a piece of care- lessness inexcusable in mountain men of such expe- rience and reputation, especially among Indians they knew to be hostile. The Modocs were not slow to take advantage of the opportunity. Late in the night the watchful Kit Carson heard a dull, heavy thud, as if a blow had fallen on some one, and called to Basil Lajeunesse, who was sleeping on the other side of the camp fire, to know what the trouble was. Getting no answer, and catching a glimpse of moving figures he cried out "Indians! Indians!" and seized his rifle. Quickly the trappers, Lucien Max- well, Richard Owens, Alex. Godey and Steppenfeldt sprang to his side, and rushed to the aid of the men attacked. The chief was killed and his followers fled, but Lajeunesse, Denne, an Iroquois, and Crain, a Delaware, were dead. This camp was on Hot creek, in this county.
An examination of the trail in the morning showed the attacking party to have been about twenty strong, and in the dead chief Lieutenant Gillespie recognized an Indian who had, the preceeding morn- ing, presented him with a fine fish, the first food he had eaten for forty hours. On the eleventh, Fremont left his main camp and started with his whole com- pany back to California, to begin the war of inde- pendence that ended in its conquest by the United States. A detachment of about fifteen men was then left in ambush there to punish the perpetrators if they should return to the scene of their outrage. They soon overtook the main body, bringing two Modoc scalps to show that they had been partially successful. Just before night the advance guard of ten men under Kit Carson came suddenly upon an Indian village on the east bank of Klamath lake, and charged into it at once, killing many braves and burning the rancheria, but sparing the women and children. Still later that day another skirmish was had, and Kit Carson's life was saved by Fremont, who rode an Indian down who was aiming an arrow at the scout. The Modocs fought with that same desperate bravery that characterized many of their after encounters, but after this disastrous result of their first attack upon the whites it would seem as though they would have given them a wide berth in future, but the reverse was the fact. Years afterwards a Modoc chief related the occurrence to Hon. Lindsay Applegate, and in response to a ques- tion as to why they had made the attack upon Fre-
mont, said that these were the first white men they ever saw, and wanted to kill them to keep any more from coming.
In the spring of 1846 a company of Oregonians organized a volunteer expedition for the purpose of exploring a route west from Fort Hall into southern Oregon and thence into Willamette valley. This party consisted of Capt. Levi Scott, John Jones, John Owens, Henry Boggus, William Sportsman, Samuel Goodhue, Robert Smith, Moses Harris, John Scott, William G. Parker, David Goff, Benjamin F. Burch, Jesse Applegate, and Lindsay Applegate, the last of whom has written an account of their trip from a diary kept by him. On the twenty-ninth of June they left the trail at the north base of the Siskiyou mountain, and passed over the mountains to the eastward to Klamath river, near where it starts from the lake. Just ahead of them when they diverged from the trail was a party of about eighty men, Frenchmen, half-breeds, Columbia Indians and a few Americans, among whom were C. E. Pickett, a well-known merchant pioneer of Sacramento, and John Turner, the trapper. They had been for a number of days skirmishing with the Rogue River Indians who had stolen some of their stock, and the exploring party could hear the reports of their guns just ahead of them on the mountains. This company passed down the trail through Shasta valley into California.
It was on the Fourth of July, 1846, that the road party reached Klamath river, nearly two months after the attack on Fremont's camp. Mr. Apple- gate's narrative says: "Following the river up to where it leaves the Lower Klamath lake, we came to a riffle where it seemed possible to cross. William Parker waded in and explored the ford. It was deep, rocky and rapid, but we all passed over safely, and then proceeded along the river and lake shore for a mile or so, when we came into the main valley of the Lower Klamath lake. We could see columns of smoke rising in every direction ; for our presence was already known to the Modocs and the signal fire telegraph was already in active operation. Moving southward along the shore we came to a little stream, (Hot creek) coming in from the south- ward, and there found pieces of newspapers and other unmistakable evidences of civilized people having camped there a short time before. We found a place where the turf had been cut away, also the willows near the bank of the creek, and horses had been repeatedly driven over the place. As there were many places where animals could get water without this trouble, some of the party were of the opinion that some persons had been buried there, and that horses had been driven over the place to obliterate all marks, and thus prevent the Indians from disturbing the dead. The immense excitement of the Indians on our arrival there strengthened this opinion. At this place we arranged our camp on open ground, so that the Indians could not possibly approach us without dis- covery. It is likely that the excitement among the Modocs was caused, more than anything else, by the apprehension that ours was a party sent to chastise them for their attack on Fremont. We were but a handful of men surrounded by hundreds of Indians, armed with their poisoned arrows, but by dint of
ESCHILLI ZE.
SAMUEL JACKSON.
E.SCHULTZE.
MRS. SAMUEL JACKSON.
SAMUEL JACKSON,
The subject of this sketch, is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, the second son and third child of a family of five children, and was born near Gainsboro, Fred- erick county, Virginia, January 27, 1827. His grandfather, Samuel Jackson, was a native of Scot- land, and his grandfather McVeagh, was of lrish extraction. They both came to Virginia in early times. His father, Samuel Jackson, married Miss Cynthia MeVeagh. They reared a family of five children, viz .: Benjamin Franklin, Margaret Ann, Samuel, Jonathan, and Ruth Grace. Samuel worked on his father's farm until about twenty-two years of age, when he went, in October, 1851, on a visit to Ohio, where he spent one winter, thence to Illinois and later to St. Louis. From there he went to New Orleans, where he made the acquaintance of two returned Californians, whose stories of life on the Pacific coast decided him to come hither at once. With about $500 in his pocket, he took passage on the steamer Cortez bound for Panama, and on the Pacific side on the California, landing at San Fran- cisco in November, 1852. He proceeded to Sacra- mento and engaged in a bakery at eighty dollars per month. He soon went to a place called Lower Springs, near Shasta, and began mining. Later he went to Weaverville and mined on Big and French Bars. In the fall of 1853 he removed to Yreka, but finding it dull went on to Cottonwood where he had a very rich claim in Rocky gulch. He soon sold this for the paltry sum of $250, and went to Virginia Bar, so named by Mr. Jackson and his friend Good-
night, who was also a Virginian. They brought a ditch on to this claim and operated the mine for a time. He then went to Shasta valley and pur- chased the place he now lives on from one Wither- ell, an old sailor. The improvements consisted of a cabin without a roof, about four hundred rails made and some potatoes planted. He remained here to raise three crops, after which he rented the place and went to Greenhorn, where he purchased two claims. After operating them for two years, he decided that farming was the best trade, sold out and returned to where he now lives. Was married to Miss Caro- line Sherrill, of Independence county, Arkansas, January 10, 1861. She was a daughter of Alfred and Margaret Sherrill. Her father was a native of North Carolina and her mother of Tennessee. The family consists of four living and two deceased, viz .: Harvey Edward, born October 31, 1861, died No- vember 8, 1867, at 11 P. M .; Thomas Jefferson, born August 31, 1863; Rosa Ellen, born January 23, 1865, died November 8, 1867, at 8 P. M .; Samnel Henry, born August 14, 1868; Alice Virginia, born March 8, 1870; and Jonathan Franklin, born July 1, 1872. Mr. Jackson's first purchase in Shasta valley was about one hundred and sixty acres. To this he has continuously added until he now has about nine hundred and fifty acres, well stocked with cattle and horses and well improved with buildings and fences. Fruits are grown in great abundance. He has a fine spring of water which is pumped by a hydraulie ram to a supply tank from which it is conducted into the residence through pipes.
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