USA > California > Siskiyou County > History of Siskiyou County, California > Part 25
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Its great rival for popular favor was the Union, and the rivalry and political differences between these two spurred them on to energetic exertions, resulting in giving Yreka two of the most ably conducted country papers on the coast. Mr. Nixon has stood manfully at his post for the past twenty years, and expects to die in the harness. In June, 1880, he commenced issuing the Journal semi-weekly, and it now appears every Wednesday and Saturday morn- ing. The paper has thirty-two columns of local, editorial, miscellany, and advertisements, is neat in appearance and made up in an artistic manner. Each page is eighteen by twenty-four inches. A fine assortment of job type is in the office, and Mr. Nixon is a job printer of long experience.
SCOTT VALLEY MIRROR.
In 1860 Dr. D. M. Davidson purchased material, including the old hand-press on which the Herald was first printed, and commenced the publication of a paper with the above name, in Fort Jones. In June, 1861, the material was purchased by Dumont & Fowler, and with it the
NATIONAL DEMOCRAT
Was instituted in Yreka. At that time the Union was the recognized organ of the Douglas wing of the Democratic party, while the Democrat supported the Breckenridge wing, until a fusion was effected in 1862, when it died a natural death.
SEMI-WEEKLY SCOTT VALLEY NEWS.
The first number of this paper was issued at Fort Jones by B. H. Evans, in the year 1878. Mr. Evans by his energy built up the News and success- fully opened a wide field of circulation for it. The material was a l new and the dress of the paper was neat and tasty, as it still continues to be. In Jan- uary, 1879, Mr. Evans sold to Norcross & Curtis, who continued the publication, Mr. Norcross with- drawing in the fall of 1879. In June, 1880, E. S. Culver became associated with Mr. Curtis, and the News is now published by Curtis & Culver. It is announced as "an independent newspaper, devoted to home interests," and its columns, well filed with topics of local importance, show the interest its pub- lishers take in local affairs. It has twenty-four col-
ums, and its pages are fifteen by twenty-two inches. With a good assortment of job type the paper is prepared to do excellent job work.
ETNA POST.
Another paper was added to the list in June last, by R. Beers Loos, recently connected with the Tribune. The Post is a neatly printed and spirited weekly, and is published at Etna. It is devoted to the interests of Siskiyou county and especially to Scott valley. Politically, it is strictly independent, speaking freely on all subjects.
These papers are the representatives of Siskiyou county throughout the State, and upon their excel- lence depends in a great measure the opinion formed of the people, business and resources of the county by those unable to make a personal examination. If this fact was realized better by the business men of the county, the papers would receive more hearty encouragement and support. Whatever attracts attention to, and places before the world the resour- ces and capacities of a community redounds to the benefit of all, and business men, so ready in most respects to act upon this theory, seem strangely backward in their support of the newspapers, their leading exponents and representatives abroad.
CHAPTER XV.
THE DEATH PENALTY.
THE extreme sentence of the law has been passed upon five individuals in this county, and upon three of them was it carried into effect. In the other two cases the penitentiary was substituted for the gal- lows. Many murders have been committed and a number of men convicted and sent to prison for varied terms, but it is unnecessary to fill these pages with such unpleasant occurrences, save where a sentence of death was passed. To the chapter entitled " The Court of Judge Lynch " the reader is referred for the particulars of all executions other than by due process of law.
JAMES BROWN.
After a trial in the District Court for the murder of a man named Antonio, James Brown was sen- tenced by Judge J. Montgomery Peters, December 30, 1854, to be hanged Friday, March 2, 1855. Before the day of execution arrived, his sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life, and after a few years in San Quentin he was pardoned by the governor and liberated.
SAMPSON CROWDER.
Early on Sunday morning, August 3, 1856, the news went flying swiftly along Scott river that a cruel murder had been committed at French Bar. The body of S. R. Lewis was found with a knife- wound in it, while near by lay Sampson Crowder drunk, grasping in his hand a large pocket knife. On the floor, also, lay a large knife, the property of another man.
They had all been on a drunken carouse the night before, and these and a few other circumstances were all the evidence of the crime that could be pro- duced. Crowder was at once taken into custody by Constable Barney, and Justice Daniel F. Finley
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HISTORY OF SISKIYOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
held an inquest, which occupied but a short time and resulted in a verdict that S. R. Lewis came to his death by a knife-wound inflicted by the hand of Sampson Crowder. Lewis was a native of New York and a man of average standing in the com- munity, and great indignation was felt by his friends. They began to gather and talk of violence, encouraged and assisted by a great many who, though not particularly friends of Lewis, were ready to assist at any time in meting out pioneer justice to a murderer. About noon they made a rush for the building where the prisoner was eon- fined, and were met at the door by the justice, con- stable, and a number of citizens, who were desirous of upholding the law and sought to dissuade the mob from their purpose. The crowd demanded the immediate surrender of Crowder, and were met with a refusal. They then called for the evidence taken at the inquest to be read, and when this had been done they became doubly excited, and demanded again to have Crowder given up to them. When they were again refused they made a determined attack upon the house, the officers refraining from firing upon them and thus avoiding a futile and bloody conflict. The doors were battered in and the boards torn off the side of the building, laying bare the room in which the prisoner was confined. Crowder was seized by rough hands and hustled along the center of a crowd of five hundred men, to a gulch a short distance down the stream, where preparations were made to hang him at once. This proceeding was a little too summary to suit the idea of justice entertained by many in the crowd, and a murmur of disapproval went up, ending in shouts of " Give him a trial," "Try him first." John G. Berry made a speech advising them to let the law take its course, or at least to give him a trial. A vote was then taken, and the result was almost unanimous for giving the man a trial. They pro- posed to hang him anyway, but thought it would look better if they went through the form of a trial first. The next step was to select a jury, and this was the rock on which they stranded. As men were solicited to form one of the body they would deeline the responsibility. They were willing to hang the man, but did not care to have their names so prominently associated with the aet. There were some, also, when asked to form part of the jury, who said they were opposed to the whole proceed- ing, and as one after another made this remark, they gathered courage, and boldly declared that it was a shame to so contravene the law, and recom- mended that he be returned to the custody of the authorities. Only six of that whole crowd expressed a willingness to become jurymen. A vote was then taken on the question of delivering him again to the officers, and the whole crowd stepped across the line in a body. This settled the matter, and Crowder was taken back to town, surrendered to the con- stable, and by him taken at once to Yreka and safely lodged in the county jail.
The law's delay, so annoying and subversive of justice, was not experienced in this case. The grand jury found an indictment for murder, and Crowder was brought up for trial in the District Court before Judge J. Montgomery Peters, on the twenty-fifth of August, but three weeks after the deed was com-
mitted. The case was prosecuted by Distriet Attor- ney R. B. Snelling, assisted by Eli H. Stone and J. D. Turner, while John D. Cook and John D. Cosby conducted the defense. The evidence was entirely eireumstantial, and the defense had no witnesses whatever. The trial lasted four days, and on the twenty-ninth the jury returned into court and were discharged. They had been out all night, and were unable to agree, one man holding out for acquittal. Another jury was impaneled the next day, and a new trial proceeded with, ending in a verdict of murder in the first degree, after a trial of four days. On the fifth he was brought before Judge Peters, and by him sentenced to be hanged on Saturday, the first of November.
On the day before the execution Crowder wrote a history of his life, by which it appears that his name was Sampson White Crowder. He was born in Attala county, Mississippi, February 16, 1832, his father being a pious Methodist, and his mother a half-blood Choctaw. In 1845 the family moved to Red river, in the Choctaw Nation, where he lived till he came to California in 1854. He mined at various points in Siskiyou county until the day Lewis was killed. He had been a victim of intem- perance, but for four months had not tasted a drop of liquor until this fatal night he yielded to tempta- tion, became drunk, and all that happened after- wards was as unknown to him as to the rest. The gallows was erected on the east side of the creek, near the cemetery, and when the day of execution arrived, Sheriff Samuel P. Fair summoned a body- guard of fifty men to escort the condemned man to the scaffold, and preserve order during the execu- tion. At twenty minutes past two Crowder stepped upon the fatal platform, attended by Rev. Mr. Baker, and gazed upon the faces of three thousand people assembled from miles around to see him die. He made a short speech, in which he warned his hearers to beware of drink, that whisky had brought him where he now stood, and said that if he killed Lewis he knew nothing of it. After standing there forty minutes the drop fell at three o'clock, and Sampson Crowder was ushered into eternity.
Scarcely a man can to-day be found in Siskiyou county who believes that the bloody deed was com- mitted by him whose life paid the penalty upon the scaffold. The man who owned the knife found by the body of the murdered man disappeared the day after the murder.
DANFORTH HARTSON, OR SAILOR JIM.
Sailor Jim was one of the characters of Siskiyou county, one of the bad characters. He had shot several Indians, and was looked upon with suspicion by many, some of whom thought him connected with the murder of old man Cosby, though in his confession he denied having had anything to do with it. In the spring of 1857 he shot John W. Burke, a most estimable citizen, at Canal gulch, near Hawkinsville, for which he was arrested and tried. Burke made a dying statement, charging Hartson with his death, which was admitted in evidenee. The jury, also, went to view the scene of the crime. The trial commenced May 6, 1857, and closed on the thirteenth, with a verdict of murder in the first
HISTORY OF SISKIYOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
FESTUS PAYNE
Is the eldest child of a family of five sons and daugh- ters of Daniel R. and Mahala (Sweet) Payne, who were natives of Saratoga county, New York, where Festus was born, January 22, 1824. He remained at home with his parents on the farm until nineteen years of age, when he started out for himself, learn- ing the carpenter's trade, which pursuit he has fol- lowed until the present time. In 1854 he removed to Garden Prairie, Boone county, Illinois. In 1859, late in the fall, he started from New York to San Francisco, and from there came direct to Scott val- ley, where he arrived on the fourth or fifth of April, 1860, and entered at once into milling and carpen- tering. He is now sole owner of the establishment on French creek known as Payne's mills, the most extensive of its kind in Siskiyou county, with a capacity of 5,000 feet per day; propelled by what is called a hurdy-gurdy wheel, fifty inches in diam- eter, and estimated at twenty-five horse-power, sup- plied by a thirteen-inch pipe, 1,200 feet pressure, equal to 120 feet perpendicular pressure. The machinery consists of a double circular saw, an edging machine, for making first-class lumber, two planing machines, a shingle mill, ripping saw, and feed mill for crushing oats, corn and barley, all under the personal supervision of Mr. Payne him- self, and in first-class condition. The supply of water is inexhaustible, and the mill is run to its full capacity eight months in the year. In con- nection with the mills there are abundant lands for gardening and grazing. The location is a very picturesque one in the mountains. On March 17, 1868, he was united in marriage to Martha M. Goodspeed, daughter of Nathaniel Goodspeed, of Oswego, New York. They have no children. Mr. Payne belongs to a long-lived family. His father died at the age of eighty-four, and his mother is yet living, at the ripe old age of eighty-three. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. at Fort Jones. In religion, he is a Protestant, and in politics, a Repub- lican. As will be seen in the illustration on another page, there are numerous buildings, for the care and preservation of all products on the place; barns for hay, stable for stock, blacksmith shop, and dry houses for lumber and fruit.
A. J. GOODNOE
Was a native of the town of Vestal, Broome county, New York, and son of Luther Goodnoe. On the sixth day of May, 1857, he was united in marriage to Miss L. J. Jones, a daughter of Joseph W. and Atlanta Jones; she was a native of Topsham, Orange county, Vermont. They were married in the town of Bonus, Boone county, Illinois, and resided and did business in Chicago until 1860, when they removed to California. After spending a short time in Quartz valley, he started for the Salmon river country. On reaching The Dalles, in Oregon, how- ever, he repented, and returned to Siskiyou county ; remained a short time at Oro Fino. While mining on Indian creek he met with a severe accident, which disabled him for hard labor, and after opera- ting in the Coyote gulch claim, now the Baker claim, until 1868, he removed to Fort Jones, and there remained in the employ of H. J. Diggles for
a short time, and then engaged in merchandising on his own capital. His education was limited, as his mother died while he was an infant, and he was left to the charities of strangers; was very observ- ing, and one of the self-made men, who are generally successful. In this respect he was not an excep- tion. Being possessed of commercial honor, indus- trious and careful, he won his reward. He died September 1, 1872, leaving to his wife a good property, unincumbered. He was a member of the Odd Fellows, and is interred in their beautiful cem- etery near Fort Jones. Six years after his death, and on the twenty-eighth day of June, 1878, Mrs. Goodnoe was united in marriage to R. D. Stone, of the town of Perry, New York, now engaged in merchandising at Fort Jones. A view of Mrs. Stone's residence will be found on another page of this volume.
THOMAS PATTON
Is the thirteenth child and ninth son of John H. and Eliza Jane Patton, who were natives of Pennsyl- vania, where they were married, afterwards remov- ing to near the town of Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio, where Thomas was born, on the twenty-sixth day of March, 1836. At thirteen years of age he went with his parents to Lake county, Indiana, and after about two years spent there, he started for the Pacific coast. Upon reaching Council Bluffs he decided to tarry there for a time, and on the ninth day of May, 1853, he renewed his journey across the plains. He arrived in Sacramento valley, near the site of the town of Anderson, September 6, 1853, and at once went to Scott valley and began work on a farm. He has continued a resident in the valley most of the time since. At one time he went to Nevada to mine, which proved a disastrous under- taking for himself and partner, financially, but was a valuable experience. Three of their party were killed by Indians and their property stolen. In 1856 he volunteered with the "Ninety and Nine " others from Siskiyou, to go and fight the Indians in the Rogue River valley. He was in several skirmishes, the most disastrous of which was the fight in May on a small stream between Crescent and Sayler diggings; when out of twenty-one horses twenty were killed, and of the twenty-one men who rode them, only seven escaped. Mr. Patton thinks he was the only survivor who rode a horse out of the engagement, and his recollection is that they did not kill an Indian. In 1864 he purchased the farm he now owns. He has 315 acres of good land, well adapted to general husbandry. He deals mostly in stock. Mr. Patton was married November 23, 1873, to Josephine E. Carraco, who was born in Sutter county, California, daughter of Protus and Emily Carraco. By this marriage there are two children : Minnie Eudora, born September 5, 1874, and Leila Estella, born June 2, 1880. He belongs to a long- lived race, as out of a family of sixteen children, brothers and sisters of his, all lived to be grown men and women. He is a member of the Fort Jones Lodge, No. 115, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he has been vice-grand ; also a member of the encampment. A view of his residence can be seen on another page.
HISTORY OF SISKIYOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
LUCIUS STAFFORD WILSON.
John Wilson, grandfather of the above, came from Londonderry, Ireland, and was known as "Big John." He was a triplet, and at his birth was easily put in a quart measure. His son, John Wilson, was father of the subject of this sketch; the mother was Laura Hayward. Lucius Stafford Wilson was born in Genesee county, New York, September 25, 1833. He attended the common schools of his day, and received the usual education of boys of his time. When but nineteen years of age, he sailed for California, rounding the cold and stormy Horn, and landing in San Francisco in April, 1853. That fall he came to Siskiyou county, and went to the south fork of Scott river, where his brother, John P. Wilson, was working with Samuel Cole, Abram White, Thomas White and Jeremiah Day. He kept a trading-post that fall and winter for M. B. Callahan, located about three miles above Callahan's ranch, and in the spring of 1854 bought it and kept it on his own account for a year. The ranch he now lives on was located in 1852 by his brother and partners, and in 1855 he purchased Mr. Cole's interest and moved upon the ranch to live, and has ever since made it his home. He has owned it all for a number of years. The old log house, hewn by John Fell, and the first hewn house in the valley, shows in the view of Mr. Wilson's place, with a flag over it. It was his first home here, but is now the headquarters of a flock of chickens. In the upper story of that old house was organized in 1855 the first division of Sons of Tem- perance in the valley, of which John P. Wilson was the first Worthy Patriarch. Mr. Wilson 'wa's" married December 3, 1862, to Miss Martha M. Smith, born at Middletown, Des Moines county, Iowa, May 8, 1844. They have been blessed with six children :- Oulton, born September 14, 1863 ; Laura May, September 7, 1866 ; John Milton, October 12, 1870; Lucius Stafford, Jr., March 25, 1875; Albert Garfield (deceased) and Arthur Earle, August 7, 1880. The first two were born in the old log house. Mr. Wilson is a man of marked character and stern integrity. He has held the office of justice of the peace for several years, and was for one term an associate justice of the old court of sessions. His love of square dealing and known integrity of character eminently fit him for the position of justice, in which he enjoys the confidence and respect of his neighbors. He is one of the successful men of Scott valley.
CHARLES HOVENDEN
Is a son of George and Hepzebah Hovenden, and was born in England, October 15, 1828. His parents were farmers, and Charles remained at home work- ing with them until fifteen years old, when he and his brother Alfred, now at Hubbard, Marion county, Oregon, emigrated to the United States in 1844. They first settled in Peoria county, Illinois, but later moved into Fulton county in the same State. There he learned the carpenter's trade, and in 1849 he and his brother emigrated to Oregon, crossing the plains with the usual ox-team. Later in the same year they journeyed on to California, spending the winter of 1849-50 at Sacramento. In the spring, in com- pany with Doctor Williams and E. M. Root, he started up the Sacramento river in a scow boat, and after landing at Marysville and going on to the Yuba river, they began mining about four miles from Foster's Bar. During the next summer he worked in Indian valley for the purpose of changing the course of the stream, and returned to Marysville in the fall and engaged at his trade for a short time. In 1852 he began packing into Indian valley, where he opened a store, which he sold in a short time. He continued to pack, however, until 1856. In 1857 he sold out and went into Oregon to purchase cattle, then came to Scott valley and purchased the farm on which he now lives. In 1860 he returned to Illinois to visit his father, but on reaching home learned that he had been deceased three months. April 22, 1861, he was married to Sytheria E. Harkness, a native of Peoria county, Illinois, and at once set out for a journey across the plains to their home in Siskiyou. By this union there have been five children, Lillian A., born March 1, 1862; Row- ena E., June 15, 1863; Cora Antoinette, November 14, 1865; Nellie M., August 6, 1867; Charles W., December 30, 1875. He has one of the finest farms in Scott valley, containing 645 acres; all under good fence and cultivation. The residence was erected in 1874-75, and is full two stories high with thirteen good-sized rooms, and thoroughly furnished through- out. He has ample barns and granaries for the care of all stock and grain, and is one of the successful men of Siskiyou county.
FARM OF CHARLES HOVENDEN, 645 ACRES. 3 % MILES N.E. OF ETNA, SISKIYOU CO., CAL. .
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HISTORY OF SISKIYOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
degree. On the eighteenth, Judge J. Montgomery Peters sentenced him to be hanged on Wednesday, July 15, 1857. The prosecution was conducted by the District Attorney, E. H. Stone, and the prisoner was ably defended by S. Hurlbut and Riley Hay- den, who tried in vain to secure for him a new trial. Sheriff Fair prepared for him the same gallows on which Crowder had been executed, and when the day arrived conducted the doomed man to the scene of his death, escorted by the members of Siskiyou Hook and Ladder Company. When everything was ready the fatal drop was made to fall, and every one was horrified to see the criminal's head slip out of the noose, after sustaining a severe jerk. Sailor Jim fell clear through the platform to the ground, from which he was raised in a half-conscious condition and again assisted upon the scaffold. While they were making preparations to hang him the second time, he said, "For God's sake, don't do that again." This time more care was observed, and soon his lifeless body hung at the end of the rope. All the agony of mind, if there is such, that is suffered by a criminal during the preliminaries to an execution, Sailor Jim passed through twice. The awakening from what he no doubt imagined was death to a realization that he must go through the torture again, must have been terrible to him. No wonder he entreated them not to make another blunder. He made a confession, in which he admitted the killing of Burke, but claimed it to have been in self-defense.
THOMAS KING.
After lying in jail two years, and receiving two trials, hoping for a release from the extreme penalty of the law until a few weeks before his death, Thomas King was executed on the twenty-third day of June, 1865, for a heartless and causeless murder, for dealing a death-blow, unprovoked and unex- pected. He was born in Ireland, and when about twelve years of age, left his home because his parents had punished him for some offense. For several years he roamed about the United Kingdom, the associate of bad characters, until for the commission of some felony he was transported to Australia. When the Crimean war was raging, a regiment was raised among the convicts, by order of Lord Raglan, the men being given their liberty at the close of the war. In this regiment King enlisted, and after the fall of Sebastopol received his discharge. He made his way to Halifax, and from there to California, an l to this county. After mining at Humbug, Scott Bir and various other places, he went to the south fork of Scott river, where he committed the terrible crime, for which the law exacted the penalty of his life.
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