History of Siskiyou County, California, Part 15

Author: Wells, Harry Laurenz, 1854-1940
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Oakland, Cal. : D. J. Stewart & Co.
Number of Pages: 440


USA > California > Siskiyou County > History of Siskiyou County, California > Part 15


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The company will send up one hundred additional laborers as speedily as they can be embarked. They also design purchasing a steamer and running her up to the "Gold Bluffs." Sixty men are now at the scene of operations. We await with anxiety further


reports. Numerous specimens of the sand and gold were exhib- ited to the stockholders at the meeting last evening.


In addition to the long article in the Alta, Mr. Collins published two affidavits he had secured while at the wonderful beach. One was signed by M. C. Thompson and C. W. Kinsey, and the other by Edwin A. Rowe, both attested by L. B. Gilkey, justice of the peace of Trinity county. They spoke of the nature and richness of the beach, and Rowe's contained the following passage: "I am now, how- ever, confident that with the proper arrangements for amalgamating the gold, on a scale as extensive as your company is capable of doing, millions upon millions of dollars can be easily obtained every year for more than a century to come." The next day shares demanded a premium. On the eighteenth, the steamers Chesapeake and General Warren sailed for Gold Bluff, and a few days later the bark Chester. A great many companies were formed and vessels chartered to take them to the auriferous beach. Hundreds reached Trinidad en route to the bluff, but were met with the news that the gold could not be separated from the black sand, and that it was a waste of time and money to attempt it. Still many went to be convinced by experience, and when so convinced pushed on up the Klamath to the Salmon mines. It was principally these adven- turers, unprovided with supplies, who crowded into the Salmon country and produced the starvation times there. All efforts to work the beach on an extensive scale failed and were abandoned. Every year, however, a few men have worked there at a favorable season and made good wages, and they are doing the same at the present time; but how the " millions upon millions " have dwindled.


The starvation times on Salmon river have been several times alluded to and form quite an interest- ing chapter in the history of this region. So great was the fear of wintering in this comparatively unknown region, that probably not half a hundred men were to be found on the stream in December of 1850. Below the forks were McDermit, Swain and their party, at the forks were a few men, while on the north fork at Bestville was the party of Captain Best. These had all provided themselves with an ample supply of provisions, and passed the winter very comfortably. As soon as it was sup- posed that the worst part of the winter had passed, miners began to flock in from Trinity river, Trini- dad and Humboldt, and some came up Sacramento river and over through Scott valley. This was in the latter part of January and during the month of February, 1851. Many of these, especially those from Trinidad and Humboldt, came unprovided with supplies, expecting to find them on the river, and knowing that there were pack-trains at those points preparing to bring in provisions. The result was that, although a few small trains arrived with sup- plies, the provisions were soon eaten up and there was a crowd of several thousand men without any- thing to eat. At this juncture, early in the month of March, a terrific snow-storm set in and so com- pletely blockaded the mountain trails that it was impossible for pack-trains to pass through to their relief. Men lived on mule meat, on sugar, and sometimes on nothing at all. Those who took their rifles and went hunting met with poor success. One


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man killed two grouse and was offered eight dollars each for them and declined the trade. The extrem- ity to which some of them were reduced was very great, and for nearly a month not a pound of food come to their relief. Finally packers got as far as Orleans Bar, and men who had made a trail through the snow took small packs on their shoulders and carried them over the mountains to their starving friends. It was nearly the last of April before a train of mules made its way clear through to Sal- mon, and found a most hearty welcome. Hundreds of the miners who had been snowed in had made their way over the mountains, some to Orleans Bar, some to Trinity, and others to Scott Bar and the newly discovered mines at Yreka flats, suffering ter- ribly on the way, and reaching these places in a starving condition. A perfect stream of them came down Greenhorn in April and devoured all the pro- visions of the few men working on the creek at that time.


The development of this region in 1851 by the thousands that poured into Yreka and the Scott river diggings, and prospected the country from east to west and north to south, called for some political government, and the county of Shasta made two townships, to embrace the two well- known localities, Shasta Plains township and Scott River township. This was not enough for the peo- ple. Nothing could be done to advantage with the seat of justice at Shasta, more than one hundred miles away through the mountains. Population increased rapidly enough to warrant the formation of a new county. The subject was brought before the Legislature at its next session, and by the Act of March 22, 1852, the new county of Siskiyou was established, with the seat of justice at Yreka.


CHAPTER IX.


SISKIYOU COUNTY AS A POLITICAL BODY.


WHEN the State was divided into counties by the Act of February 18, 1850, this region was a terra incognita to the legislators. The Trinity excitement was then at its height, but still little was known of that region, the population having progressed but little beyond the diggings on the Sacramento river and Clear creek and about Shasta. This whole region was erected into one county called Shasta, with the county scat at Reading's Ranch, and hav- ing the following boundaries :-


Beginning on the summit of the Coast Range in latitude forty- two degrees north and running thence due east to the north- east corner of the State; thence due south, following the bomund- ary of the State, to the north-east corner of Butte county ; thence, following the north-western and northern boundaries of Butte county, to the Sacramento river; [This boundary line was : Beginning on the Sacramento river at the Red Bluffs, in latitude forty degrees, thirty-two minutes, and twenty-three seconds north, and running thence due cast to the dividing ridge which separates the waters flowing into the Sacramento river below the Red Bluffs, and into the Feather river, from those flowing into the Sacramento river above the Red Bluffs ; thence following the top of said ridge to the summit of the Sierra Nevada ; thence due east to the boundary of the State. ] thence due west to the sum- mit of the Coast Range ; thence in a north-easterly direction, following the summit of said range, to the place of beginning.


All that portion of the State lying west of Shasta county, and embracing what afterwards formed Trinity, Humboldt, Klamath and Del Norte coun-


ties, was created Trinity county, but as it was yet a comparatively unknown region it was attached to Shasta for judicial purposes. This action was taken because it was expected a large population would soon be found on Trinity river and about the bay of Trinidad. By the Act of April 25, 1851, the county seat of Shasta county was changed to Shasta City, and Trinity county was divided in two, all south of a line due east from the mouth of Mad river being Trinity and all north of that line Klamath county. The Act of May 28, 1851, provided for the official organization of those two counties, thus detaching them from Shasta.


The discovery of the mines on Scott river and at Yreka, with the consequent influx of population, has all been detailed in the previous chapter. So rapidly did the population increase in 1851, that it became absolutely necessary to form a new county. The county seat of Shasta was too far away, and the inconvenience of doing official business there was so great that the need of a new county was impera- tive. The Court of Sessions of Shasta county had created two townships in this portion of the county, Shasta Plains, embracing Yreka and vicinity, and Scott River township. When the Legislature met in 1852, it created several new counties in the State, among others the county of Siskiyou, by the Act of March 22, 1852.


1-A new county is hereby created known as the county of Siskiyou, bounded as follows, to wit :-


At a point known as the Devil's Castle, near and on the opposite side from Soda Springs on the upper Sacramento river; from said point or place of beginning to run due east to the east- ern boundary of California; and thence north to the Oregon line; and from thence, running west along the boundary line of the Territory of Oregon and the State of California, to a point on said line due north of the mouth of Indian creek (being the first large creek adjoining the Indian territory, at a place known as Happy Camp, which empties into the Klamath river on the opposite side, below the mouth of Scott river); and from thence across Klamath river, running in a south-easterly course, along the summit of the mountains dividing the waters of Scott and Salmon rivers, to the place of beginning.


2-The county seat of said county shall be located at Shasta Butte City, and shall be known by the name of Yreka City.


3-There shall be held an election for county officers in the county of Siskiyou on the first Monday in May of the present year, 1852.


4-Designates offices.


5-H. G. Furo's, Judge Smith, Judge Tutt, David Lowry and B. F. Roe, in Siskiyou county, are hereby appointed and con- stituted a Board of Commissioners to designate the election pre- cincts in the county of Siskiyou for said election, to appoint the Inspectors of election, etc.


The proper names of the commissioners were, Wilson T. Smith, H. G. Ferris, D. H. Lowry, Charles M. Tutt and Theodore F. Rowe. The Act also provided for the assumption by Siskiyou county of its just proportion of the debt of Shasta county, contracted while it was a portion of that body.


The commissioners appointed to organize the county met at the house of D. H. Lowry, in Yreka, on the nineteenth of April, 1852, and proceeded to discharge their duties. A full transcript of their proceedings is given in the chapter on "Elections." The election was held on the third of May, and on the twelfth, the commissioners canvassed the votes, and declared the following gentlemen elected, whom they also inducted into office :- County Judge, Wil- liam A. Robertson; County Clerk, H. G. Ferris; Sheriff, Charles McDermit; District Attorney, J. D.


H. G. Weary


FLEMING G. HEARN.


Jacob Hearn, grandfather of the subject of our sketch, moved from Maryland to Woodford county, Kentucky, about the year 1790, where Harrison Hearn was born about the year 1800. Here also Fleming was born, July 22, 1826. His parents soon after located in Owen county, where his mother died in 1836 or 1837. The children were taken by the relatives. Two years later his father married again, and settled in Shelbyville, Kentucky, where he died three years afterwards. The children were again taken by the relatives. The subject of this sketch made his home with his uncle in Woodford county, and at the age of fifteen went as apprentice to a cabinet maker, where he worked nearly three years. He relinquished this employment on account of failing health, and commenced the study of den- tistry. In 1846 he joined Capt. Thomas E. Mar- shall's Company E, First Regiment of Kentucky Cavalry, Col. Humphrey Marshall commanding, and marched from opposite Memphis, through Arkansas and Texas, to Camargo, Mexico; remained there to recruit, and then went to Monterey. Was with Colonel Marshall on his march to Victoria, and was one of the seven of his company who participated in the battle of Buena Vista. On his return home in 1847, he resumed the study of dentistry, and in the fall of 1848 formed a partnership with Dr. Thomas Carter, a physician and dentist of Frankfort, now deceased. In April he was won by the glowing accounts of Oregon and California as a field for young men, and, selecting a supply of dental mate- rial, he bade farewell to relatives and friends and started across the plains. September 16, 1850, he safely arrived in Oregon City, where he remained for the winter. Glowing reports from California induced him togo thither, and on the eighth of Jan- uary, 1851, he set out for the land of gold. The party as finally made up consisted of twenty-one


men, F. G. Hearn, Abner C. Hunter, William M. Rust, William Noble, Israel Staley, John Noble, old man Mitchell, Henry Mitchell, Simeon Traver, Henry Cowen, Jacob Wagner, John Thornton, James Thornton, Henry Vanasault, George Taylor, - Miles, - Hendricks, Joseph Hawkins, Samuel Delaplain, - White, and one other. They reached the mouth of Yreka creek February 26, 1851. They fell in with a company of men on their way to Scott Bar, and some of them, including Hearn, united with this company and went to Scott Bar. In this company were William and John Burgess, John Haislip, and Silas J. Day. They were detained a few days in Scott valley by a snow-storm, and when they reached Scott Bar they found no grazing for their animals. Most of the company turned about and went back to Yreka creek to hunt up some old diggings they had heard of on Greenhorn. Here they fell in with an Oregon company, one of whom, Abe Thompson, soon discovered gold on Yreka flats, where claims were at once staked off, and work com- menced in earnest. Mr. Hearn, with Rust and Hunter, purchased the ground thirty by sixty feet, afterwards known as the Pine Tree claim. Hunter and Rust returned Fast, and Hearn mined till Septem- ber, when the exercise of his profession was de- manded so often that he commenced it as a business, though not so remunerative as mining. He mined again that winter, and in March. 1852, opened a dental office. In September he went back to Ken- tucky, but returned in the spring of 1853, and has ever since been practicing his profession in Yreka. He married Miss Jennie L. Stephenson March 15, 1855. They have a family of three daughters and one son: Minnie R., Isabelle, Harrison, and Clara. He celebrated his thirtieth anniversary in the county on the twenty-sixth of last February. Mr. Hearn is a prominent member of the Odd Fellows and Red Men.


H


RANCH OF OLLIVER W. GOODALE. 600 ACRES, 6 MILES WEST OF FORT JONES, SISKIYOU CO CALIFORNIA.


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HISTORY OF SISKIYOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.


Cook; Surveyor, James T. Lowry; Treasurer, W. D. Aylett; Assessor, Richard Dugan; Coroner, Roger B. Ironside.


Thus was the new county of Siskiyou launched upon the political sea, upon which it has ever since been sailing.


All eivil affairs of the counties in California, at that time, were managed by the Court of Sessions, a body composed of the county judge and two jus- tices of the peace. The first meeting of this court was held on the seventh of June, as fully appears in the history of the courts. It became evident that the two townships of Shasta Plains and Scott River were not enough, so rapidly did the population increase and spread, and at the first session the fol- lowing order was made :-


Ordered by the Court, that the name of the township of Siski- you county, known as Shasta Plains township, be, and it is hereby, changed to Yreka township.


O, dered by the Court, that there be another township set off and organized in this county, to be known as Humbug township, and bounded as follows, to wit: Commencing at the mouth of a creek emptying into the Klamath river, ab mt twelve miles above the mouth of Scott river, and nearly opposite to a creek empty- ing into the Klamith river from the north side, both of which streams are usually called Indian creek; and up sail creek from its mouth, in a southerly direction, to the top of the divi le sep t- rating the waters of said creek from the waters of Scott river, Shasta river and of Humbug creek; and along said divide, in all its windings and bearings, to the termination of said divide, between the mouth of Shasta river and Humbug creek; and thence down the Klamath river to the place of beginning.


On the eighth of June, James L. Freaner and H. G. Ferris were appointed commissioners to confer with like officials of Shasta county as to the propor- tion of the debt the new county should assume. There is no record to show the result of the confer- ence.


On the twenty-ninth of May an election had been held in Shasta Plains, or Shasta Butte City township, and in Seott River township, for justices and con- stables, by order of the county judge, and the day after the township of Humbug was created the judge also ordered an election therein for the same officials, to be held June 26, 1852. At the general election in November, justices and constables were elected for the regular term in these three town- ships.


On the seventh of December, 1852, the court created the township of Cottonwood, embracing all that portion of the county lying north of Klamath river, and ordered an election to be held therein on the twenty-fourth of the same month. At this election Thomas O'Neal was chosen justice and William Chance, constable, but the gentlemen failed to qualify, and the first officials of the township were those elected in September of the following year, as appears in the list given in the history of the courts, to which reference is made for township officials.


These four townships comprised the whole county until February 27, 1855, when the rapid settlement of Scott valley led the court to make the following oi der :-


It is ordered by the Court that that portion of Siskiyou county known as Scott valley, embracing the slopes declining towards the valley, and the tributary streams thereto, he, and the same is hereby, erected into a separate township, to be known as Scott Valley township.


An election for township officers was called for the twelfth of March, 1855.


Thus was the county divided into five townships, when the Court of Sessions was superseded by a board of supervisors, Yreka, Seott River, Humbug, Cottonwood and Scott Valley.


A general Aet for the creation of boards of super- visors in the various counties was passed by the Legislature in 1855, by which the county elerk, assessor and surveyor were created a special board for the purpose of dividing the county into districts and providing for the election of supervisors therein. The proceedings of this board, in and for Siskiyou county, are as follows :-


STATE OF CALIFORNIA, County of Siskiyou.


In compliance with the provisions of Section Second of an Act of the Legislature of th s State, entitled "An Act to Create a Board of Supervisors in the Counties of this State, and to define their Duties and Powers," the County Clerk, H. G. Ferris, the County Assessor, Samuel P. Fair, and the County Surveyor, E. M. Stevens, met as a Special Board of Supervisors, at the office of the County Clerk, in Yreka City, the County Seat of sail con ity, on Saturday, the thirty-first day of March, A. D. 1855, at four o'clock P. M, for the transaction of business, as required by the Act aforesaid.


It is ordered by the Board, that this county be divided into three Supervisor Districts, as follows, to wit ;---


The first district shall be that portion of Siskiyou county known as Yreka township, to be called Yreka District.


The second district shall embrace that portion of Siskiyou county included in Seott Valley township and Scott River town- ship, to he called Scott River district.


The third district shall embrace that portion of Siskiyou county included in Humbug township and Cottonwood town- ship, to be called Klamath district.


Ordered that bills, or notices, of the election provided for in the Act above referred to, including the division of the county into districts as above made, be published and circulated immedi- ately, throughout the several election precincts of this county.


Ordered this Board do now adjourn sine die.


H. G. FERRIS, S. P. FAIR, E. M. STEVENS, 1 Supervisors.


Special Board of


In accordance with the provisions of the Aet and the action of this board a special election was held on the ninth of April, 1855, resulting in the choice of the following gentlemen to constitute the first board of supervisors :-


Yreka distriet, Owen MeCoy; Scott River dis- trict, D. M. Davidson; Klamath district, Charles D. Smith.


These gentlemen assembled in Yreka on the seventh of the succeeding May, for the purpose of holding the first regular meeting. Mr. Davidson was unanimously chosen chairman. Two days were consumed in reading and discussing the record of the Court of Sessions, after which all the acts of that body, in civil matters, were approved, save an order authorizing the treasurer to loan the money in the building fund. From that date all the busi- ness of the county, pertaining to its eivil govern- ment, has been transacted by this board and its successors.


By this time Shasta valley had become well set- tled and a region of enough importance to demand a separate organization, therefore it was created a township on the seventh of August, 1835, with the following boundaries :-


Beginning at the eastern point of the bluff or mountain about one-half mile south of J. S. Oldham's ranch; thence easterly to the southern point of the mountain called Sheep Rock; thence south to the county line; thence westerly, along said line, to a point due south ot the divuling ridge between Shasta and Scott rivers; thence northerly, along said dividing ridge, to the point where the spur of the mountain leads off easterly and forms the divide which terminates at the point of starting; thence east-


9


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HISTORY OF SISKIYOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.


erly, along said dividing spur, to the point, or place, of begin- ning.


This received the name of Shasta Valley township, and officers were chosen at the general election, held the following month.


On the same day, the seventh of August, the board set off another township, in the south-west corner of the county, and called it South township. Officers were also chosen here at the September elec- tion. The boundaries were :-


Beginning at the western point of the hill, or bluff, on the east side of Scott river, immediately below Fort Jones; thence west, crossing Scott river, to the top of the mountain on the west side; thence still westerly, along the dividing ridge of said mountain, to its south-westerly point; and thence due west to the western boundary of the county; thence southerly, along said county line, bearing round with the same toward the east, to a point due south of the dividing ridge between Scott and Shasta rivers; thence northerly, along said ridge, to the point where the spur of said ridge bears off westerly, forming the divide which extends to the place of starting; and thence along said ridge to the place of beginning.


The next to be created was Klamath township, on the fourteenth of August, 1856, officers being chosen at the general election held the following November. The boundaries being as follows :--


To include all the territory in the county drained by Klam- ath river and its tributaries, from a straight line crossing said Klamath river at right angles, at the mouth of Burwell's creek, and extending to the top of the mountain on both sides; (said Burwell's creek empties into the Klamath river about five miles below Humbng, and about five miles above Cook & Green's ranch, being the creek from which water is carried, by means of a ditch, to Burwell's Bar); thence along the summits of the mountains on both sides of the Klamath river, in a westerly course, to the western boundary line of the county-said western boundary line being a north and south line, crossing said Klam- ath river at the mouth of Indian creek, passing a few rods west of Doolittle's house.


These townships all remained a portion of the supervisor district to which they had belonged before they were detached.


In compliance with the Acts of February 4th and March 31, 1857, requiring the boards of supervisors to set off and define and number the proper super- visor districts in the counties, the board of super- visors made the following assignment, on the sixth of August, 1857, the townships remaining in the same districts to which they had formerly belonged :-


District No. 1-South, Scott Valley, Scott River and Klamath townships.


District No. 2-Humbug and Cottonwood town- ships.


District No. 3-Yreka and Shasta Valley town- ships.


May 6, 1859, the boundary between Scott Valley and South townships was more definitely declared, as follows :-


Commencing on the west side of Scott valley, at a point between Wilson & Bro., and Bradford & Young's ranches, and thence running east, along the line of the new road across the valley, as far as the valley extends; also, on the same line, westerly, as far as the valley extends. The township south of said line, and within the limits of said valley, to be known as South township; and that north of said line, within the limits of said valley, to be known as Scott Valley township.




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