USA > California > Siskiyou County > History of Siskiyou County, California > Part 54
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This last delicacy, made by the fair hand of Mrs. Lowry, the only woman in the camp and the first white woman to settle in the county, drew crowds to her table. Many went more to see and have a pleasant word with the "handsomest woman in town" than for the meal she smilingly set before them. That summer the ladies became more numer- ous by about half a dozen. Mrs. E. C. Kelly, Mrs. John B. Pierce, Mrs. James Hill, Mrs. Hull, and the first unmarried lady, Miss Josephine Rollins, after whom Josephine county, Oregon, is named. Socially Miss Rollins had no rival, and wanted not for devoted admirers.
The town did not long remain on the flats, but soon took up its present location. The first vivid recollection Judge Steele has of the present town site, was on that day in March 1851, when he arrived in haste from Scott Bar, to take up a claim in the new diggings. An immense crowd of human beings was congregated here, and a near approach showed them to be Indians, and very excited. A great foot-race was about to be run by a Shasta chief and a Rogue River Indian. There were fully two hundred braves of the Shasta tribe present, a> well as a number from Rogue river, and these with their squaws and children, made a large and motley crowd. The excitement was intense, and the betting reached fever heat; horses, weapons and even their squaws being wagered by the enthusiastic braves. It was a picture such as few of the white inen pres- ent had ever seen. The course was from where the court house stands to where Mr. Thomas resides, then reckoned at three miles, but now known to be less than two. As to the result of the race, which party rejoiced and which was left to mourn, history is silent.
About the last of April, W. J. and John S. Evans arrived and camped on the creek. They made sev- eral two-wheeled carts from their wagons, and began hauling dirt from the mines to the creek to be washed. Their example was immediately followed by many others. Nearly all the arrivals thereafter pitched their camps along the creek, where there was a thick growth of cottonwood trees, and soon they lined its banks from Greenhorn to Hawkinsville. A large corral was built at the foot of Miner street, where stock was kept, and this became a kind of headquarters. Samuel Lockhart moved his saloon down to the creek about the first of May, desiring to be near the center of population. He built a large structure of poles, shakes and canvas, the first business place in the present town of Yreka, and if now standing would be in the street, at the junction of Center and Main streets. Immediately after, Mr. Turner built a house about eighteen feet square, of cottonwood logs, between where Elijah Carrick's house and his blacksmith shop now stand.
A tendency to move to the new location was at once exhibited, and it was decided by a few public- spirited men to lay out streets for a town. Sam. Lockhart, D. II. Lowry, George E. Smith, F. G. Hearn, and a few others, took that task upon them-
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HISTORY OF SISKIYOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
selves, and being without any instrument or tape- line, paced off the lots. Some of them looked as though the pacer had been following a man around with a jug. In this way Main street was laid out, from where Waterman's corral was afterwards built to the old Hardin stable, above W. A. Hovey's residence, and Miner street from the creek to about Fourth street. This was early in May, and it was not long before Miner street was built up clear to the mines. It received its name because the high- way to the mines, and Main street because then the principal business street. About the last of August, Second street was laid out, and later in the fall, O. D. Hoxie and others, who wanted corner lots, opened Oregon street. Third street was not laid out until 1853, and Fourth street in 1855. The original width of Miner street was the same that it now is between Second and Main.
The new town was rapidly built up of shake and log houses, brush shanties, and tents, as well as by combinations of these materials. Capt. Charles McDermit built a two-story log house where the Tribune office now stands, by far the most pre- tentious structure in the city, for such it was called.
Before the town was moved from the flats, in fact, but a few days after the rush of miners began, a dispute arose and the people chose a man named Kennedy for alcalde. He was succeeded by Cut Eye Foster, so named from a scar across his eye. Cut Eye Foster's Bar in Yuba county also perpetu- ates the memory of this man. He soon left for below, and an election was held in May in the new town by the creek. At this time George C. S. Vail was chosen alcalde, and James E. Thomas, now of Fort Jones, constable. Judge Tyler, of San Fran- cisco, was the unsuccessful opponent of Thomas, and William Vaughn of Vail. Judge Steele in his history of the bench and bar, in Chapter XII., has related some of the judicial peculiarities of this worthy officer. Late in the summer - Medcalf succeeded Vail in the judicial office, and in the fall a regular election was held for justices and constables of Shasta Plains township, by order of the court of sessions of Shasta county at which Medcalf and Archibald McArthur were chosen justices, and Dr. O. S. Allen and J. E. Thomas constables. McArthur was an old Scotchman, stubborn as any of the race, and when he learned that it was necessary to go to Shasta and qualify, he declined to serve, and William B. Apler was chosen in his place.
While Vail was alcalde, a band of horse-thieves began operating in the mines. Their ways of oper- ating were various. One day they claimed a splendid mule that belonged to an old man, and the case was brought up before Vail for trial. They all swore to the identity of the animal and that he had been stolen from them in the mines further south. The owner testified that he and his partner had pur- chased a span of matched mules in Missouri, had ridden them across the plains, and when he decided to go to the new mines, they had divided their pos- sessions, each partner taking one of the mules. The thieves outnumbered the old man and Vail decided that the mule belonged to them. A few days passed, and one evening the defrauded owner sat by the cor- ral at the foot of Miner street, where the mule was kept, disconsolate and disheartened. From a dis- tance down the trail there came faintly borne on the
still air the bray of an approaching mule. The mule in the corral pricked up his ears and answered it. The old man jumped up and exclaimed "There comes my partner now, Ill show 'em whose mule it is." The two animals kept calling to each other until the man with the approaching mule turned the corner of Main street toward the creek. Quite a crowd had collected by this time to watch the pro- ceedings. The new mule, despite all the efforts of his rider, turned out from the road, went up to the corral, and the two animals began rubbing noses as if overjoyed to again see each other. At the same time the two partners were greeting each other in a joyful manner. Vail sprang up and said, "Old man, that is your mule. That is better evidence than was ever given in a court of law." Turning to the foiled thieves he said, " If I ever hear of you attempt- ing this game again, I will head a crowd that will hang you higher than Haman." They departed for newer pastures.
It was for men of this kind, and other bad and desperate characters, that a vigilance committee was organized among a certain class of citizens. Alvy Boles was chosen judge, and Abraham Thompson, constable, of this organization. Justice Medcalf belonged to it, as well as a great many others, but it was kept so secret that but few outside the organiza- tion were aware of its existence. Its object was to further the ends of justice by assisting the authori- ties, though it was prepared to administer justice of its own. No acts of violence were committed, and the only known move they made, was to run a horse- thief named Hartley, out of town. Mr. Boles himself states that they gave a large number of undesirable characters notice to leave town, and that most of them emigrated to Jacksonville when mines were discovered there. This, however, is unknown to other citizens of the town.
When the town was moved to its present loca- tion, the name Thompson's Dry Diggings had ceased to apply to it, and it was nameless, until Alcalde Vail began to date his official papers at Shasta Butte City. By this name was it thereafter known; but so similar was that to Shasta City, that it was found desirable to change it. The next spring the bill that was introduced into the legislature to create this county, substituted the name Yreka for Shasta Butte City. It was occasionally spelled Wyreka, but soon settled down into the accepted orthography of to-day. It is a corruption of I-e-ka, the white, the Indian name for Mount Shasta.
By order of the court of sessions of Siskiyou county, an election was held in Shasta Butte City township, May 29, 1852, for justices and constable. The township embraced Yreka, Humbug and Cot- ton wood. Yreka, including Greenhorn, cast 712 votes. Daniel France and James Strawbridge were chosen justices, and H. R. France, constable.
On the twenty-ninth of September, was born in Yreka the first white child born in the county. He was son of Mr. and Mrs. James Hill, and was named William Shasta Hill, but he was generally called Shasta Butte. At the time of his birth there were but three or four ladies in the town.
The many historical events of the early years of Yreka have been woven into narratives in other por- tions of this volume. The town gradually substi- tuted wood and brick for the canvas and shake
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HISTORY OF SISKIYOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
houses, fire frequently rendering the demolition of these structures unnecessary. Two fires occurred in 1852. In the spring both sides of Miner up to Second, and Main as far as Center street were burned. The next fire was in September, and cov- ered nearly the same ground. Churchill & Parker, who had been burned out by both of these fires, then built a stone and briek store on the northwest cor- ner of Miner and Main streets, the first in town.
The great floods of the winter of 1852-53 had a disastrous effect upon Yreka. The roads were so impassable on account of mud and water, and the mountain trails so blockaded with snow, that pack- trains were unable to get in with supplies. Pro- visions became exhausted. Salt, flour, bacon, beans, rice, and nearly everything of that nature were eaten up, and a new supply could not be obtained. Flour sacks were seraped and soaked to remove from them every vestige of their contents. There was plenty of fresh meat, cattle in abundance, game in profusion, and as a last resort horses and mules, so there was no danger of actual starvation, though many who could not afford to pay the exorbitant prices charged for everything, fared far from sump- tuously. Salt was the dearest and most necessary article, for a diet of fresh meat without any season- ing became naseous. A small sack of that article was brought in from Oregon and sold rapidly in small lots at one dollar per ounce.
Among the first to arrive in Yreka when the mines were discovered, were Alvy Boles and Dr. William Dane. Boles was a blacksmith, and had brought an anvil and tools, which he set up under a tree. When the town was moved to its present location, they built a shop where Clarkson's shop now stands. Boles & Dane also engaged in mer- chandising, and ran a private pack-train. In 1852, Boles took up and cultivated considerable land along the creek, in all about 140 acres. He raised barley, wheat, corn, potatoes, cabbages, turnips, and beets. He had twenty-two acres of potatoes on the McNulty place. The seed for all these he procured at considerable expense and trouble. He had a splendid erop of potatoes, and when the stringeney occurred in the supply of provisions, had a fortune at his command, had he chosen to take it. Specu- lators offered him fifty cents per pound for his potatoes, well knowing that they could double their money, but Mr. Boles said he would not speculate on the sufferings of his fellow-men. and would con- trol the distribution of the crop himself. He set the price at twenty-five cents a pound, and only allowed one man to buy one hundred pounds. In this way he kept the price within the means of all, and prevented the speculators from controlling the market.
Even at this price he would have made a great deal of money, but he credited all those who could not, or said they could not, pay, and in the end was cheated out of three-fourths of the purchase money of those he sold. When the supply of potatoes grew smaller, and the pack-trains still failed to arrive, he reduced the quantity allowed each man to fifteen pounds. Men called him an old fool, and few seemed at all grateful to the man who had fed them on vegetables all the winter at one-fourth the price they must have paid had he acted as most
men would. Without Boles' vegetables, it is a question if seurvy and other diseases would not have prevailed that winter. When he had doled out the last pound, a Jew merchant nailed up a board bearing the legend, "Potatoes, one dollar a pound." This was too much for Boles to stand. He went to the Hebrew with a crowd of angry men, and ascertained that the potatoes had been procured for the Jew in small lots by impecunious men the Jew had hired for the purpose, many of them having been put on the "slate." A pleasant suggestion of hanging the Jew was made, which frightened that speculative individual considerably; but Boles vetoed the act, and compelled him to divide his stock of potatoes into small lots, and sell them at the old price of twenty-five cents. Soon after this the pack-trains arrived, and the hard times were at an end.
The next fall Boles ran for justice of the peace, and was badly beaten, the same men who had never settled their potato bills voting against him. It was a common thing on the day of election to hear him upbraid these ungrateful spongers. " Yes, and there's another one of 'em," he would say, "there you are working against me, when I saved you from starving last winter." "Yes, you did," was the reply, "and you were a d -n fool for doing it, too. A man who don't know any better than that, don't know enough to be a justice of the peace." Boles has ever since wondered in what part of the human anatomy gratitude is located; he says it certainly is not in the stomach.
In the summer of 1854, a large portion of the business section of the town was destroyed by fire. It originated in a shake house near where the engine house now stands, and was first seen when but a little blaze in the shakes about the chimney, so small that it could be covered with a hat. In half an hour it would have taken Dido's ox-hide to go around it. There were no facilities whatever for combating a fire. Each man did as he thought best and worked with whatever he could find available. Buckets were plentiful but water was scarce. There were no street cisterns nor a system of water-works. The fire had its own way, and lapped np the frail wooden buildings so quickly that some men were burned out before they realized the danger. It burned Miner street from where it started to Oregon street, taking everything but. the stone and brick building now occupied by Adolph Winckler. The loss was great, but in a few months new buildings, most of them of brick, covered the ground, and only by their new- ness was there evidence of a fire having occurred.
February 4, 1855, a publie meeting was held at the Morning Star House, on the lower flats, to con- sider the Chinese evil. It was presided over by Maj. J. W. Dunn, and Dr. Anderson was secretary. A memorial to Congress was adopted. Thus did Yreka put herself on record as opposed to the Chinese at an early date.
INCORPORATION-1854.
Having existed more than three years with no other government than that of a judicial township, and with no peace or police officers other than the justice of the peace and constable, Yreka, in 1854, aspired to the dignity of an incorporated town. The
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HISTORY OF SISKIYOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
condition of society, the number of reckless and law- less men, the multiplicity of saloons, gambling halls, dance houses, etc., rendered some system of police supervision necessary. This question was considerably discussed by the citizens whose property and business interests called for protection, and action was taken to achieve the desired result.
At a session of the County Court held May 5, 1854, Hon. R. L. Westbrook presiding, the following peti- tion was presented : ----
TO THE HONORABLE, THE COUNTY JUDGE OF THE COUNTY OF SISKIYOU, STATE OF CALIFORNIA :-
Your petitioners, citizens and qualified electors of the town of Yreka City, in said county, who have been residents of said town for thirty days last passed, pray Your Honor that they be incor- porated, and a police established for their local government and for the preservation and regulation of the common appertaining to said town, as set forth by the plat setting forth the metes and bounds of said town, which is hereuuto affixed and made a part of this petition.
To this were appended 200 signatures, among them being the names of the following well-known citizens :---
H. D. Van Wyck, S. F. Van Choate, A. V. Gillett, A. P. M.cCarton, Charles Nickel, Sigmund Wetzel, Charles C. Peters, H. T. Shepard, A. Witherill, A. E. Raynes, John Lentell, E. Carrick, George C. Furber, Samuel P. Fair, F. A. Rogers, J. D. Cosby, W. D. Slade, C. N. Thornbury, William S. Menden- hall, J. W. A'Neal, S. E. Peacock, D. B. Kitts, W. H. Gatliff, J. S. Cummins. S. D Brastow, Henry Sels & Co., A. V. Burns, James E. Thomas, Pem- broke Murray, F. G. Hearn, T. N. Ballard, F. J. King, R. B. Snelling. A. M. C. Smith, Jesse Barber, Joseph Tyson, H. G. Ferris, N. Dejarlais.
This action was taken under the provisions of an Act of the legislature, passed March 27, 1850, granting the county judge power to incorporate towns, upon petition of a majority of the legal voters. The court took the following action on the petition :---
And the Court considering said petition and application in due form, and that the requisite number of petitioners had signed it,
Ordered, that the prayer of said petition be granted, and that the said town be; and the same is hereby, declared incorporated -that the boundaries thereof be as set out and described in the survey and plat hereinbefore copied, and that said corporate town be known and designated as Yreka City, and as such town, shall possess all the rights, privileges and immunities granted by law, and that an election be held at the Yreka House in said town on Monday the 22d day of May, 1854, for the officers of said corpo- ration.
Attached to the petition was a plat of the town as surveyed by E. M. Stevens, containing 360 acres.
An election was accordingly held, and as it was the first corporation election, the full returns are given as a matter of interest.
TRUSTEES.
William White (three). 3
A. Hathaway (twenty-eight). 28
M. M. Conant (eighty-nine) 89
E. C. Kelley (one hundred and thirty-one). 131
D. B. Sandborn (one hundred and thirty-one). 131
H. D. Van Wyck (one hundred and thirty-one). 131 A. G. Annibal (one hundred and thirty-four). 134 P. Gilbert (one). 1
George Stilts (one).
1
J. L. Knapp (six) .. 6
D. C. Stevens (one) 1
A. V. Gillett (two).
William Burke (one). 1
TREASURER.
A. V. Burns (one hundred and thirty-four). 134
ASSESSOR.
J. W. A'Neal (eighty-eight). 88
L. 1. Deleplain (fifty-one). 51
S. P. Fair (one). 1
J. W. Deleplain (one). 1
FOR MARSHAL.
S. Ely (eighty-seven). 87
H. T. Millett (twenty-three) .
J. Jackson (thirty-seven): 37
YREKA, May 22.
We, the undersigned, Judges of an election for town corpora- tion officers for the town of Yreka City, do hereby certify that the above is a true copy of an election held at Yreka, May 22, 1854. J. L. KNAPP, Inspector.
JOHN P. FARMER, { Judges. E. C. KELLEY,
[Attest.] A. G. ANNIBAL,
W. THOMAS,
Clerks.
The new city governinent assumed control at once, and began to lay out and fit up a city cemetery, to construct sewer drains, to purchase land for the purpose of widening the streets, and in various ways to make improvements on a scale entirely too magnif- icent and expensive for the financial resources at its command. The result was that when the first board of trustees surrendered the management of affairs into the hands of their successors, they had not only used all the money they had been able to collect for taxes and licenses, but had outstanding obliga- tions amounting to about $3,000, a portion of which the new board paid, and the balance, being purchase money for land, was never paid, the land reverting to the original owners. The board, which assumed office in May, 1855, was composed of R. B. Snelling, A. V. Gillett, J. Lytle Cummins, John D. Cook, and F. G. Hearn. The board organized with Cummins as president, and Hearn, clerk. They soon found that the reckless manner of contracting obligations pursued by their predecessors, had practically swamped the government. Nearly all the money received from taxes and licenses was paid out on old contracts, leaving but little to sustain the corpora- tion during the current year. A great number of orders having been issued, and several judgments having been obtained in the courts against the cor- poration, and the trustees fearing to make them- selves personally responsible, it was thought best by all to disincorporate the town. There were two factions, one that desired no town government what- ever, deeming the expense more than equal to the benefit derived; and one that desired a new incor- poration that could shake off all but the just claims against the old corporation, and by a better system of revenue provide for its support, and for discharg- ing all just obligations and relieve the trustees from their liability on contracts, as well as to reimburse them for cash paid out.
A petition was accordingly presented to the county court, January 8, 1856, asking that the town be declared disincorporated, upon which, how- ever, the court took no action. The machinery of the city government continued to move until the term of the trustees expired, about which time its vital spark was extinguished by the supreme court. Under the same law had also been incorporated a .
8 dehuarchive
JEROME CHURCHILL,
The subject of this sketch, one of the successful financiers of Siskiyou county, was born at Eliza- bethtown, Essex county, New York, on the eleventh day of June, 1826. He is a son of Jesse and Martha (McCauley) Churchill. The family consisted of four children. The parents were farmers, and Jerome remained at home working on the farm and attend- ing school some in winters, as was the custom in early days. When he was still quite young his parents removed to Canandaigua, and in 1839 to Chicago, Illinois, where they are yet living at a ripe old age. In 1849, Mr. Churchill crossed the plains to California, arriving at Lassen's ranch in Septem- ber, going from there to Sacramento and to Auburn, where he spent the winter of 1849-50. In the sum- iner of 1850 he was engaged in packing from Hum-
boldt bay to Trinity. In May or June, of 1851, he came to Yreka, and packed from the Sacramento valley to Yreka. In a short time he opened a store, and during the first year of his merchandising was burned out twice. In 1859 he retired from business and has since made money-loaning his chief occupa- tion, devoting some time to the supervising of three extensive ranches, in which he holds a controlling interest. He married Miss Julia Patterson, daughter of Warren Patterson of Waukegan, Lake county, Illinois, and by this union there have been five chil- dren, viz .: Carrie M., deceased, two who died in infancy, and Jerome and Jesse who are living at the home in Yreka. Mr. Churchill has never sought political honors, but public affairs have received his attention, and all movements for the benefit of the county his encouragement and support. In politics he is a Republican.
JOURNAL OFFICE.
RESIDENCE OF CHAS. IUNKER, CENTRE STREET, YREKA, CAL.
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HISTORY OF SISKIYOU COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
great many towns in the State, among others being Nevada City. A man was arrested there for some misdemeanor, and employed Hon. William Stewart, afterwards United States Senator from Nevada, to defend him. Bill Stewart, as he was generally called, threatened to " bust the government " unless his client was discharged. His threat was not heeded, and he had quo warranto proceedings instituted by the attorney general, which resulted in a decision by the supreme court, early in 1856, that the law under which the town was incorporated was unconstitutional, the constitution not conferring such powers upon the county judge. Among the numerous towns affected by this decision was Yreka.
The business men and responsible citizens of the town, then requested the sheriff to create a deputy, whose duty it should be to act as town marshal, and who should be paid by subscription of citizens.
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