USA > California > Solano County > History of Solano County...and histories of its cities, towns...etc. > Part 6
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THE HISTORY OF SOLANO COUNTY.
against the Reverend Father, soldiers, and neophites. Having delivered himself he enquired what they wanted. On the corporal's replying that he had been sent to conduct him to the guard-house, Galbraith seized a sledge, and swaying it above his head rushed upon the soldiers, who, intimidated at the gigantic size of the blacksmith, whose broad and deep chest was swell- ing with infuriated passion, horror stricken fled in dismay. With uplifted hammer he pursued them across the court of the Mission, and to the guard house in front of the Mission, where the affrighted corporal and soldiers arrived among their comrades, closely followed by the terrific mountaineer, who, alike fearless of Spanish soldiers as he had ever been of Indians, drove the trembling forces, a sergeant and twelve men, to their quarters, where they were imprisoned. He then hastily loaded with grape shot a fine piece of artillery which stood in front of the quarters, and directing its mouth towards the Mission, he gathered up the arms which the soldiers in the confusion had abandoned, and prepared to act as exigencies might require. The priest, seeing the course events were taking, sent a messenger to open communications with the victor, who, from the sudden burst of passion and violent exercise had dispelled the effects of the brandy, and with its removal his choler had subsided.
In the early part of 1839 a company was made up in St. Louis, Missouri, to cross the plains to California consisting of D. G. Johnson, Charles Klein, David D. Dutton and William Wiggins. Fearing the treachery of the Indians this little party determined to await the departure of a party of traders in the employ of the American Fur Company, on their annual tour to the Rocky Mountains. At Westport they were joined by Messrs. Wright, Gegger, a Doctor Wiselzenius and his German companion, and Peter Lasson, as also two missionaires with thier wives and hired man, bound for Oregon, as well as a lot of what were termed fur trappers, bound for the mountains, the entire company consisting of twenty-seven men and two women.
The party proceeded on their journey and in due time arrived at the Platte river, but here their groceries and breadstuff gave out; happily the country was well stocked with food, the bill of fare consisting henceforward of buffalo, venison, cat-fish, suckers, trout, salmon, duck, pheasant, sage-fowl, beaver, hare, horse, grizzly bear, badger and dog. The historian of this expedi- tion thus describes this latter portion of the menu. " As much misunderstand- ing seems to prevail in regard to the last animal alluded to, a particular description of it may not be uninteresting. It is, perhaps, somewhat larger than the ground squirrel of California, is subterranean and gregarious in its habits, living in 'villages ;' and from a supposed resemblance in the feet, as well as in the spinal termination, to that of the canine family, it is in popular language known as the prairie dog. But in the imposing technology of the mountain graduate it is styled the canus prairie cuss, because its cussed holes so often cause the hunter to be unhorsed when engaged in the chase."
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THE HISTORY OF SOLANO COUNTY.
After enduring a weary journey, accompanied by the necessary annoy- ances from treacherous and pilfering Souix, hail-storms, sand-storms, rain and thunder-storms, our voyagers arrived at Fort Hall, where they were disappointed at not being able to procure a guide to take them to California. This was almost a death-blow to the hopes of the intrepid travelers ; but having learned of a settlement on the Willamette river, they concluded to proceed thither in the following spring, after passing the winter at this fort- Here Klein and Doctor Wiselzenius determined to retrace their steps ; thus the party was now reduced to five in number - Johnson going ahead and leaving for the Sandwich Islands. In September, 1839, the party reached Oregon, and sojourned there during the winter of that year; but in May, 1840, a vessel arrived with Missionaries from England, designing to touch at California on her return, Mr. William Wiggins, now of Monterey, the narrator of this expedition, and his three companions from Missouri, among whom was Mr. David D. Dutton, now a resident of Vacaville township, in Solano county, got on board; but Mr. W., not having a dollar, saw no hope to get away ; as a last resort, he sent to one of the passengers, a compara- tive stranger, for the loan of sixty dollars, the passage-money, when, to his great joy and surprise, the money was furnished - a true example of the spontaneous generosity of those early days. There were three passengers from Oregon, and many others who were " too poor to leave." In June, they took passage in the "Lausenne," and were three weeks in reaching Baker's bay, a distance of only ninety miles. On July 3rd, they left the mouth of the Columbia, and, after being out thirteen days, arrived at Bo- dega, now in Sonoma county, but then a harbor in possession of the Russians. Here a dilemma arose of quite a threatening character. The Mexican Com- mandant sent a squad of soldiers to prevent the party from landing, as they wished to do, for the captain of the vessel had refused to take them farther on account of want of money. At this crisis, the Russian Governor arrived, and ordered the soldiers to leave, be shot down, or go to prison ; they, there- fore, beat a retreat. Here were our travelers, at a stand-still, with no means of proceeding on their journey, or of finding their way out of the inhospit- able country ; they, therefore, penned the following communication to the American Consul, then stationed at Monterey :
" PORT BODEGA. July 25, 1840. " To the American Consul of California :
" DEAR SIR- We, the undersigned citizens of the United States, being desirous to land in the country, and having been refused a passport, and been opposed by the Government, we write to you, sir, for advice, and claim your protection. Being short of funds, we are not able to proceed further on the ship. We have concluded to land under the protection of the Rus- sians ; we will remain there fifteen days, or until we receive an answer from
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THE HISTORY OF SOLANO COUNTY.
you, which we hope will be as soon as the circumstances of the case will permit. We have been refused a passport from General Vallejo. Our ob- ject is to get to the settlements, or to obtain a pass to return to our own country. Should we receive no relief, we will take up our arms and travel, consider ourselves in an enemy's country, and defend ourselves with our guns.
" We subscribe ourselves, .
" Most respectfully,
DAVID DUTTON, JOHN STEVENS, PETER LASSON, WM. WIGGINS, J. WRIGHT."
To John R. Wolfskill is the honor due of being the first American settler in Solano county. In 1838, his brother William and himself came to Los Angeles, and there remained until 1842, when the former received a grant of four leagues of land, situated on both sides of the Rio de los Putos, which, under a family arrangement, the latter located on in that year. John R. Wolf- skill, being, therefore, the actual American pioneer of the county, we have made it our duty to personally consult him by visiting him at his magnificent man- sion on Putah creck. Having ridden on horseback from Los Angeles, where he had been laboring for years for a miserable pittance, he drove with him ninety head of cattle, and ultimately arrived at his destination after a weary journey, cheered by no society save the growling of wild beasts and the low- ing of his own kine. When he arrived on the northern side of the bay of San Francisco, he made for Napa, and here procured a horse from George Yount, the pioneer of that county, and crossing the mountains, struck into Green valley, and thence into that of Suisun, and thus travelling, passed through the present site of Vacaville, and arrived on the banks of the Putah. On his attaining his haven, the country had the appearance of never having known the foot of man; Indians there were none; cattle there were none save those which he had brought with him; but there were evidences on every hand of bears, and other wild animals. Mr. Wolfskill, inured as he had been to hardship almost from his birth, thought little of these things ; he had early served a hunter's craft in the wilds of unsettled Missouri, whither he had accompanied his father in the year 1809, from his native State of Kentucky; had learned the bitterness of being cooped up in Cooper's Fort, now Howard County, Mo., during the war of 1812, and could check-mate the tricky savage at his own game, and prove a match for the ferocious grizzly on his own ground. The first night on his new domain the lonely voyager passed high up on the fork of a tree away from the possible hug of prowling bears and the presence of creeping things; the
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THE HISTORY OF SOLANO COUNTY.
dawn found him with gun on shoulder on the search for food; no time was lost in making arrangements for a permanent location. A position for his future home was chosen on a site near to that where now stands the house of his brother, Sarshel Wolfskill, and, half a mile from his own present dwelling ; what timber was necessary was cut, and in a short time, with the assistance of a stray Indian or Mexican, the pioneer hut was completed, and the energetic backwoodsman had once more the comfort of a roof over his head, with more ample security from the lurking animals without.
At this time Wolfskill's nearest English-speaking neighbors were, on the one hand, at Napa, on the other, at Sutter's Fort, now Sacramento; dis- tances of forty-five and thirty miles, respectively. Many a time was the never-ending solitude broken by a ride and return on the same day to these places, undertaken simply for the pleasure of a short conversation, which, when accomplished, again would recur a season of prolonged lonesomeness, varied only by the toil of clearing ground, the pursuit of game, and the prosecution of a deadly war with grizzlies, of which Mr. Wolfskill has killed a large number. One evening alone he having, in a distance of a mile and a half, while riding along the course of the Putah creek, sent five to their long account.
Uncle John Wolfskill, as he is familiarly spoken of in the district in which he resides, carries his seventy-five years well, and, but for the extreme whiteness of his beard and a slight bend of his shoulders, would still be considered a man in the prime of life. Fortune has smiled upon him in the fullness of his years. Portions of his estate he has sold or rented, but he, with his son and brother, have a large tract under cultivation. His resi- dence stands nearly three hundred yards from the banks of the Putah creek, surrounded on every side by a splendid orchard of fruit trees of every variety, including oranges, olives, figs, and grapes, one vine having tendrils of forty feet in length that form a magnificent arbor; while the building is of fine, soft, smooth stone, found on the property in considerable quanti- ties, which has a beautiful appearance, and combines all the comfort of an old country establishment, with the advantages of habitation, which a glorious climate affords.
Thus we have satisfactorily traced the establishment of the first American in Solano county, but emigration had not, as yet, come into California, for no sign of gold had then been found, nor, indeed, had the remarkable adapt- ability of the soil for agricultural as well as pastoral purposes been given to the world. Those who occupied the lands did so in peace, and continued so to do for years. It was not until 1846 that any positive influx in the population of the county made itself apparent. In this year Benicia was first settled, but ere relating this portion of Solano's history, let us draw attention to the circumstances which induced to the selection of the site by Doctor Robert Semple.
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THE HISTORY OF SOLANO COUNTY.
In the early part of 1846 the United States and Mexico were at war. A fine fleet of the best ships of the Union proudly bore the flag on the Pacific ocean and along its coast. Fremont, the intrepid, with a small force of regulars, were engaged on the frontier of California on a supposed scientific survey. Great Britain and France, through their representatives, were watching with keen anxiety the out-turn of affairs, being ready at a moment's notice to take advantage of any loop-hole that might present itself, and assume a. protectorate over the coast, or take forcible· possession of the country. The native Californians were not numerous; those were divided in council, scattered over a vast territory and poorly equipped with defensive weapons. At this juncture affairs culminated to a point, and the little town of Sonoma was called upon to play a part in the history of the west, which was finally settled by the acquisition of California to the United States.
On the morning of June 16th a band of thirty-three Americans, recruited from Sutter's Fort and the adjacent .districts, marched into the town of Sonoma, captured the garrison and took General Vallejo, the officer com- manding the Province of California, a prisoner. The company who carried out this high-handed action were under the orders of one of their number named Merritt, whom they had elected to the position of Captain. They proceeded entirely on their responsibility, committed no excess, but still were determined in their policy.
Being without authority to use the flag of the United States, a banner of their own was therefore resolved upon, and three men, Ben Duell, (now of Lake county) Todd, and Currie, manufactured the standard, the two former, who were saddlers it is believed, sewing the stripes of red, white, and blue together, while they with the bear, from which the color received its name, were painted by the latter. A narrator of these events naively remarks : " The material of which the stripes were made was not, as has been stated, an old red flannel petticoat, but was new flannel and white cotton, which Duell got from Mrs. W. B. Elliott, who had been brought to the town of Sono- ma, her husband, W. B. Elliott, being one of the bear-flag party. Some blue domestic was found elsewhere and used in making the flag. The drawing was rudely done, and, when finished, the bear resembled a pig as much as the object for which it was intended." The idea of adopting the insignia of a bear was that having once entered the fight, there should be no surrender until the thorough emancipation of California was accomplished. The bear-flag is still preserved as a choice relic by the Society of California Pioneers, and on notable occasions it sees the light in a procession by the Association.
In the meantime after a few fights, and the murder of one or two of the independents, Fremont made his appearance on the scene, and fitted out an expedition to pursue the Californians which he did with much vigor, finally
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THE HISTORY OF SOLANO COUNTY.
driving Castro, their commander, with his forces, out of the district. While these events were being enacted, the American flag was hoisted at Monterey on July 7th, by direction of Commodore Sloat; on the following day it was opened to the breeze on the plaza at Yerba Buena, and, on July 10th, the revolutionists received one with every demonstration of joy ; down came the flag of independence, the inartistic bear-flag, and up went the stars and stripes, thus completing the conquest of the district of Sonoma of which Solono county then formed a portion.
The detachment to escort General Vallejo to Sutter's Fort, wherein he was to be held as a prisoner of war, was placed under the command of Doctor Robert Semple, then a captain serving under the bear flag, who, while proceeding by boat along the shores of the Carquinez straits, casually observed to the general on the remarkable eligibility of the present site of Benicia as one on which to found a city. At the time the matter was referred to simply as a topic of conversation ; on the return journey, how- ever, after the short detention of the General, he once more brought up the subject, which terminated in his promise to make a concession for that purpose of five miles of water front and one in depth; this we find on reference to the county records was finally carried out, by deed of gift, on May 19th, 1847, the name of Thomas O. Larkin, consul for the United State at Monterey, being associated with those of General Vallejo and Doctor Robert Semple, the deed containing certain provisions which will be treated on in the history of the city of Benicia.
Thus the first town in Solono county was located and soon after settled. We must now return to the doings of the year 1846. In this year immigration was greater than on any previous one, among those arriving being Landy Alford and Nathan Barbour. What their experiences were let us here relate. Starting from Andrews county, Missouri, for this, then almost " undiscovered country," they crossed the plains and came to the banks of the Feather river in October, 1846. The waters being in flood it was too deep to ford, they, therefore, with that wit which becomes sharpened by a stern necessity, devised the following mode of reaching the opposite bank. Taking the box, or bed of their wagons, they fastened to each corner an empty keg, thus making a raft or float ; in this they conveyed, not only all their household goods, but also their entire families, the live stock which they were bringing with them being compelled to swim across. Not long after this our party found themselves at Wolfskill's ranch, already referred to, and here they divided, the Alford's going to Sonoma accompanied by Barbour's wife, while Barbour remained behind for a few days, and finally enlisted in the battalion that Fremont was at the time recruiting, with which he went to Sacramento and served five months. In the end of March, 1847, Mr. Barbour followed his friends to Sonoma where he, with Alford, framed two houses which they intended erecting on a couple of lots given
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THE HISTORY OF SOLANO COUNTY.
them for the purpose. On one occasion while at work shaping out their posts and beams, they were found by Thomas O. Larkin who made them an offer of a startling nature, this being no less than a proposal to take both their houses to Benicia free of charge, to give them one thousand dollars each for them, they having the privilege of living in them during the winter, only with this simple proviso, that they should be erected on certain specified lots in that city. The offer was accepted and they moved to Benicia in October, 1847. With the same train in which started for Cali- fornia those mentioned above, traveled Daniel M. Berry, who with his family arrived in September, 1846, and at once proceeded to Rio Vista, but in the following spring removed from there and came into the Suisun valley and pitched a tent on what is now the farm of Joseph Blake, situated about six miles west of Fairfield. In this year there also located in Vaca valley, Albert Lyon, John Patton, J. P. Long, Willis Long, and Clay Long, who commenced the business of stock-raisers. At this time there also lived in the adobe at Rockville, formerly occupied by Solano, the proselytized chief of the Suisuns, one Jesus Molino, an Indian who farmed some land.
Captain Von Pfister, a most worthy gentleman of Benicia, who arrived in that city in the month of August, 1847, possesses a set of books, a day-book and journal, used in his business, which impart a fund of information in regard to the carly settlement of the county, and in a measure serves as a directory for that year. When the captain landed in Benicia, one William McDonald was then building an adobe, which Von Pfister rented on com- pletion, and opened the first store in the county. From this establishment, the neighborhood for many miles around was supplied, including residents in Contra Costa, notably the Spanish family of Martinez, who founded the pleasant town of that name on the opposite shore of the Carquinez Straits. The books above referred to inform us that there then lived in the county the following gentlemen-of course there were others whom it has been impos- sible to trace-all of whom did business at this pioneer emporium. Robert Semple, Edward Higgings, Charles Hand, Benjamin Furbush, David A. Davis, William Bryan, George Stevens, James Thompson, Stephen Cooper, F. S. Holland, Landy Alford, Benjamin MeDonald, William Russell, William Watson, William I. Tustin, Henry Mathews, while Ward & Smith, and Robert A. Parker, then the principal merchants of Yerba Buena, were the wholesale establishments with which Von Pfister did business.
The foregoing names are produced merely to give a sort of general idea of who some of the original settlers were, but it must be by no manner of means inferred that they were the first to locate in that section. It is fair to assume that Doctor Robert Semple was the first to appear with any defined ideas of taking up a permanent residence on the spot, for to him and two others did the land belong ; there were no houses wherein to live ; so those who came were per force content to dwell in their wagons and
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THE HISTORY OF SOLANO COUNTY.
tents. Yet this was for no lengthened period, as in 1847 we find on record that houses were constructed by William I. Tustin, now of San Francisco, Robert Semple, William Bryan, William Russell, Thomas O. Larkin, Stephen Cooper, Nathan Barbour, Landy Alford, and a man named Benedict.
In this year, too, Samuel Green McMahon arrived in the northern part of the county and located on certain lands in the Wolfskill grant, on Putah creek, while in the previous year Don Juan Bidwell, an American, who had adopted a Spanish synonym of his name, and had served against the Bear- flag party with the Spaniards, received a grant of land in what is now Rio Vista township. About this time William McDonald, of Benicia, purchased a farm in the Sulphur Spring valley, on what was for many years after known as the Wood's ranch, and there broke the first ground in the south- ern portion of the county, and produced crops, principally of vegetables, which were a marvel to those early residents who had come from the Eastern agricultural States.
In the fall of the year 1847, Captain Von Pfister, traveling overland, visited the site of the present State Capital. His journey was made through that portion of the district now known as Solano County, he having started from Benicia and forded the Rio de los Putos, somewhere between Wolf- skill's house and that portion of the marsh where the creek loses itself in the tules, presumably at the point where the old Spanish trail crossed that stream. There were then only five houses between these two points, at four of which the captain visited. The first was that of the Indian, Jesus Molino, at Rockville; here he found about one hundred acres of ground under cultivation, producing beans, peas, wheat, barley, and other cereal and bulbous plants with which the producer was wont to purchase his necessary stores ; his farming implements were of the most primitive kind, the plough used being the crooked limb or elbow of a tree, armed with a pointed, rough, iron socket, which was unevenly dragged through the soil. He next visited the Berry ranch, in Suisun valley, and here found a clap-board house, the only one in the district of the kind ; and hence he proceeded in turn to the ranches of Armijo and Vaca and Peña, and made his exit from the county as already described.
This year of 1847 may be said to close the pre-historic days of the State, for it was not until the following year that California became a household word and had her name tremblingly and hopefully pronounced by eager lips. As things were then, matters progressed smoothly, but it was little calculated what was in store for the county in the future; what there was we shall attempt to define as we go on.
The year 1848 is one wherein reached the nearest attainment of the dis- covery of the Philosopher's stone, which it has been the lot of Christendom to witness : on January 19th gold was discovered, at Coloma, on the American river, and the most unbelieving and cold-blooded were, by the
1
I. G. Hilton
THE NEW YOP PLELIC LIE AR.
- ir, Lewis and Four dations
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THE HISTORY OF SOLANO COUNTY.
middle of spring, irretrievably bound in its fascinating meshes. The wonder is that the discovery was not made earlier. Emigrants, settlers, hunters, practical miners, scientific exploring parties, had camped on, settled in, hunted through, dug in and ransacked the region, yet never found it; the discovery was entirely accidental. Franklin Tuthill, in his History of Cal- ifornia, tells the story in these words : Captain Sutter had contracted with James W. Marshall, in September, 1847, for the construction of a saw-mill, in Coloma. In the course of the winter a dam and race were made, but when the water was let on, the tail-race was too narrow. To widen and deepen it, Marshall let a strong current of water directly into the race, which bore a large body of mud and gravel to the foot.
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