USA > California > Lassen County > Illustrated history of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra counties, with California from 1513 to 1850 > Part 13
USA > California > Plumas County > Illustrated history of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra counties, with California from 1513 to 1850 > Part 13
USA > California > Sierra County > Illustrated history of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra counties, with California from 1513 to 1850 > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73
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The estimated population of California on the first of January, 1849, was :-
Californians 13,000
Americans
8,000
Foreigners
5,000
Total.
26,000
Early in the spring the first vessel came laden with gold-seekers, who were followed in rapid suc- cession by others. This was the premonition of the tidal-wave that swept this shore that and the ensu-
- ing year from the outside world. Between the twelfth of April, 1849, and the twenty-eighth of Febru- ary, 1850, there arrived in San Francisco 43,824 passengers, of whom 31,725 were American men, 951 American women, 10,394 foreign men, 754 foreign women.
At the same time that the high seas were bringing this throng of humanity to our shores, a steady stream of immigration was pouring over the mountains from the plains. The experience of Lassen's party in 1848 was repeated the next year, when a large emigration came over that route, and became snowed in and out of provisions on the head-waters of the Feather river. When word of their preca- rious situation reached the valley, the people of San Francisco, Stockton and Sacramento, who remem- bered the sad fate of the Donner party, made a great effort in their behalf. Their condition was repre- sented to Gen. Percifer F. Smith, who, with the consent of Gen. Bennett Riley, the military governor, placed one hundred thousand dollars in the hands of Major Rucker, United States quartermaster, to purchase animals and supplies for their relief. The military authorities were the more moved to this act of humanity because General Wilson, United States Indian agent, was among the sufferers. John H. Peoples, who was afterwards drowned in one of the Trinidad expeditions, was selected to lead the relief party. About the first of October, Mr. Peoples started with twenty-four pack-animals, three wagons, and fifty-six beef-cattle, having twenty-five men in his party. He found the emigrants in the snow on Pit river, out of food and suffering with the scurvy. On the first of December he brought in fifty families to Lassen's ranch, including General Wilson's, the last thirty miles being traversed through a blinding snow-storm. The majority of the emigrants settled in the head of Sacramento valley, or went to the Trinity mines in the early spring.
CENSUS TABLE.
Year.
January 1, 1849 (Estimated)
Population. 26,000
Increase.
66
1850
107,069
81,069
66
1852
264,435
171,838
1860
379,994
115,559
1870
560,247
180,253
1880
864,836
304,589
It needs but a glance at this table to see the necessity that existed of some acceptable form of gov- ernment for this territory, which was receiving those tens of thousands, coming from the pulpit (but few), the college, the bar, the factory, the shop, the farm, the dens of vice, the prison-ships and penal colonies of the world.
Gold was discovered January 19; the treaty of peace was signed February 2; the United States ratified that treaty March 10; Mexico ratified it May 24 ; official news of the gold discovery was sent to Washington August 17, and the official news of peace was received by Governor Mason in September; all in 1848.
88
From the seventh of July, 1846, when Sloat hoisted the flag at Monterey, until the news was received officially in September, 1848, that peace was declared, a military governor was the proper head of the government here. From that time forward there was no law existing, under which the military branch of the United States government could, yet it did, continue to control the country. Gen. Ben- nett Riley superceded R. B. Mason as governor April 13, 1849, and upon going into office, found that a spirit of discontent pervaded the people, because of the uncertainty that seemed to exist in regard to what laws were operative in the territory. They were given to understand that those existing at the time of its conquest remained in force within its limits, provided that they were not contrary to the constitution of the United States, and would continue to do so until changed by competent authority. This fact was not a popular one with the incoming inhabitants, especially the American portion of it, and the result was that but little respect was paid to any law except that of the revolver.
With such a state of affairs, General Riley, under advice of the president, deemed it advisable to set on foot a territorial organization, although not authorized by law to do so. Consequently, June 3, 1849, he issued a call for an election of delegates to take place on the first day of the coming August, at which time alcaldes (justices of the peace) and judges of the courts of the first instance were also to be elected in places entitled to such officers. The election occurred in accordance with the call, and the delegates assembled at Monterey, September 1, when they commenced the organization of a territorial government by framing a constitution, and, completing their labors, adjourned October 13, 1849. The constitution was submitted to the people on the thirteenth of the next month (November), at which time a general election of state officers occurred. The vote was almost solid in its favor, twelve thousand and sixty-four having been cast for, and only. eight hundred and eleven against its adoption. At the election the votes cast for governor were :-
Peter H. Burnett. 6,716
W. Scott Sherwood 3,188
J. W. Geary 1,475
John A. Sutter 2,201
Wm. M. Stewart. 619
Total vote for governor . 14,199
John McDougall was elected lieutenant-governor, and Edward Gilbert and George W. Wright were chosen to represent the territory in congress. The light vote, where a few weeks later a population of 107,069 was claimed, proves conclusively that the miners cared but little for politics.
On the fifteenth of December the legislature met at San Jose, and on the twentieth of the same month General Riley turned over the governmental control of affairs to the care of the newly-elected territorial officials, and the machinery of state was set in motion. "The legislature of a thousand drinks " immediately inaugurated business, and on the sixth day went into a joint convention for the election of two United States senators to represent the state at Washington as soon as she became such by being admitted into the Union. The balloting resulted in the choice of John C. Fremont and William M. Gwin, who afterwards served for a few days in the capacity for which they were elected. Those gentlemen, our first senatorial representatives, witnessed that fierce contest of the Titans as they strug- gled against each other in congress over the question of slavery, a firebrand the California constitution had hurled into their midst, igniting a flame quenched only by the shock of the legions that melted away under Grant and Lee around Richmond.
The people on the Pacific coast had said in their organic law that slavery should not be tolerated
Peter J. Burnett
89
within their territory. Calhoun, Foote and Jefferson Davis replied, backed by an almost unanimous South, that we should never become a state of the Union while such a declaration was engrafted in our constitution. It was in response to such a sentiment, coming from Jefferson Davis, that the great American orator, Henry Clay, rose in that body and said: "Coming, as I do, from a slave state, it is my solemn, deliberate, and well-matured determination, that no power-no earthly power-shall compel me to vote for the positive introduction of slavery, either south or north of that line." (Missouri com- promise line.) In this debate Daniel Webster, always Calhoun's antagonist, uttered one of those sentences that fasten themselves upon the memory of mankind : "I would not take pains to reaffirm an ordinance of nature, nor to re-enact the will of God." William H. Seward, then young in the senate, was found battling side by side. with Webster, Clay, Benton, and the Little Giant of Illinois, Stephen A. Douglas, in their efforts to gain admission for California, and in his enthusiastic warmth uttered the following beautiful thought : "Let California come in-California, that comes from the clime where the west dies away into the rising east. California, that bounds at once the empire and the continent. California, the youthful Queen of the Pacific, in the robes of freedom, gorgeously inlaid with gold, is doubly welcome. She stands justified for all the irregularities in the method of her coming."
While this contest was in progress, the territorial legislature had gone quietly on enacting laws. One was passed February 18, 1850, dividing California into counties, and on March 2 another was enacted, authorizing the first county elections that took place on the first of April. On the twenty- second of April the legislature adjourned, having enacted in its four months' session one hundred and forty laws that were supposed to so completely cover the requirements of the times as to warrant that body, in its own judgment, in making their enactments the only existing law.
Four months after the adjournment of the legislature, the bill for the admission of California passed the senate, the vote being taken August thirteenth, and going to the lower house, passed that body Seps tember seventh. It was signed by President Fillmore on the ninth of the same month, and Senators Fremont and Gwin were permitted to take their seats, as well as the other two representatives of the youthful "Queen of the Pacific," and October 18, 1850, General Bidwell arrived in San Francisco on the steamer Oregon, the bearer of the welcome news.
With California standing as a state at the threshold of her destiny; with her limits defined and laws established ; with her name a magic talisman to the world ; with the $100,000,000 in gold from her ravines, gulches and cañons distributed among the nations ; with her $455,000,000 that, in the coming eight years, were to follow in the same channel ; with the little that is said and the much that remains untold, we are compelled to close this history.
GOVERNORS OF CALIFORNIA.
Name.
AMERICAN RULE-TERRITORIAL.
Term.
1. Com. John D. Sloat
July 7, 1846.
August 17, 1846.
2. Com. Robert F. Stockton
August 17, 1846.
January 16, 1847.
3. Col. John C. Fremont
January 16, 1847. March 1,1847.
4. Gen. Stephen W. Kearny
March 1, 1847.
May 31, 1847.
5. Col. Richard B. Mason
May 31, 1847.
April 13, 1849.
6. Gen. Bennett Riley
April 13, 1849.
Dec. 20, 1849.
6
90
Governors of California-Continued.
AMERICAN RULE-STATE.
Name.
1. * Peter H. Burnett
December 20, 1849.
2. John McDougall
January
9, 1851.
3. John Bigler John Bigler
January
8, 1854.
4. J. Neely Johnson
January
8, 1856.
5. John B. Weller
January
8, 1858.
6. * Milton S. Latham
January
8, 1860.
7. John G. Downey
January
14, 1860.
8. Leland Stanford .
January
8, 1862.
9. + Frederick F. Low
December
2, 1863.
10. Henry H. Haight
December
5, 1867.
11. * Newton Booth .
December 8, 1871.
12. Romualdo Pacheco
February 27, 1875.
13. Wm. Irwin.
December 9, 1875.
14. George C. Perkins
January
8, 1880.
* Resigned.
+ Term of office increased from two to four years.
POPULATION OF CALIFORNIA.
COUNTIES.
1870.
1880.
COUNTIES.
1870.
1880.
1
Alameda
24,237
63,639
27
Plumas
4,489
6,881
2
Alpine
685
. 539
28 Sacramento
26,830
36,200
3
Amador
9.582
11,332
29
San Benito
+ 5,593
4
Butte
11,403
19,025
30
San Bernardino
3,988
7,800
5
Calaveras
8,895
8,980
31
San Diego.
4,951
8,620
6
Colusa
6,165
13,362
32
San Francisco.
149,473
233,066
7
Contra Costa.
8,461
12,400
33
San Joaquin .
21,050
24,323
8
Del Norte.
2,022
2,499
34
San Luis Obispo
4,772
9,064
9
El Dorado
10,309
10,647
35
San Mateo.
6,635
8,717
10
Fresno.
6,336
10,459
36
Santa Barbara
7,784
9,522
11
Humboldt
6,140
15,515
37
Santa Clara
26,246
35,113
12
Inyo
1,956
2,974
38 Santa Cruz.
8,743
12,808
13
Kern .
2,925
5,607
39
Shasta
4,173
9,700
Klamath
1,686
40
Sierra
5,619
6,617
14
Lake
2,969
6,643
41
Siskiyou
6,848
+ 8,651
15
Lassen .
1,327
3,329
42
Solano
16,871
18,774
16
Los Angeles
15,309
33,392
43
Sonoma
19,819
25,874
17
Marin .
6,903
11,326
44
Stanislaus
6,499
8,680
18
Mariposa.
4,572
4,340
45
Sutter
5,030
5,212
19
Mendocino
7,545
11,000
46
Tehama
3,587
9,414
20
Merced
2,807
5,661
47
Trinity
3,213
4,881
21
Modoc
+ 4,700
48
Tulare
4,533
11,361
22
Mono
430
5,416
49
Tuolume
8,150
7,634
23
Monterey
9,876
# 11,270
50
Ventura
24
Napa
7,163
12,894
51
Yolo
9,899
11,880
Nevada
19,134
20,534
52
Yuba
10,851
11,540
26
Placer
11,357
14,278
1
Total
560,247
864,836
* By act approved March 28, 1874, the territory comprised in the county of Klamath was annexed to the counties of Humboldt and Siskiyou.
+ Modoc county was formed from the eastern part of Siskiyou county.
# San Benito county was formed from the eastern part of Monterey county.
. Ventura county was formed from the eastern part of Santa Barbara county.
Inaugurated.
January
8, 1852.
.
5,088
25
91
AN IMPORTANT DOCUMENT.
The histories of California, since its acquisition by the United States, have all given a similar version of the position, acts and intentions of the British government, in regard to the possession of this state, prior to and at the time when Commodore Sloat solved the problem of possession by the seizure of Monterey. Thinking from the tone of those versions that it was possible they might be partizan statements, instead of authentic history, a letter of inquiry was addressed to J. Alex. Forbes, ex-vice- consul of Great Britain, and the following reply, that speaks in no uncertain terms, was received :-
WEST OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, Dec. 12, 1879.
COLONEL FRANK T. GILBERT ---
DEAR SIR : I received duly your letter of the tenth current, informing me that you are engaged in writing a California State History, and desiring to adhere strictly to correctness, in your narration of political occurrences in this state prior to its acquisition by the United States, you send me two extracts from historical compilations of California, by Messrs. Tuthill and Cronise, for the purpose of testing the accuracy of certain statements therein published, relative to negotiations which they allege I had, in 1846, with Governor Pico, General Vallejo and General Castro, for affecting a separation of California from the Mexican Republic, and for placing the former under the protection of Great Britain.
As I have taken no exception to those statements, my silence regarding them may perhaps be ascribed to a tacit recognition of the same as true. Never having seen those compilations, I was en- tirely ignorant of the inaccuracies therein published until I read the above-mentioned extracts. My . notice thereof, at this late day, may appear supererogatory, and, so far as concerns myself, I regard those statements with indifference ; but I feel it my duty to defend the aforesaid respectable Californians from the illiberal unauthorized imputations cast upon them by those compilers in their erroneous asser- tions, respecting which, even if those statements were true in fact, I deny the right of Messrs. Tuthill and Cronise to censure Governor Pico, General Vallejo and General Castro for their personal or official acts, in proceedings which they were at perfect liberty to carry into full effect for achieving the inde- pendence of California, by and with the consent of a majority of the inhabitants thereof, and without the least responsibility to any foreign power. Furthermore, I declare that the statements contained in the aforesaid extracts are absolutely inaccurate, unfounded in fact, and based upon hearsay evidence, originating in incorrect official reports of Mr. Thos. O. Larkin to the United States government, under which, since 1844, he held the appointment of consul at Monterey, of whose official acts alone and with due respect to his memory I speak in this connection.
Mr. Larkin's very limited knowledge of, the Spanish language, and his exclusiveness, prevented him from exercising political or social influence with the rulers or the people of California, and rendered difficult his acquisition of reliable information of the political occurrences that were passing in the spring of 1846, when he informed his government that he had discovered the existence of an intrigue or scheme, in which Governor Pico, General Vallejo, General Castro and myself were secretly negotiating " for passing their country to the possession of England, under the direction of a Catholic priest named Macnamara, who was to conduct a colony of Irishmen to California, as he had petitioned the Mexican government for large grants of lands around the bays of San Francisco and Monterey, at Santa Barbara and along the San Joaquin, of which lands that government had readily granted, not all that Macnamara asked, but three thousand square leagues in the San Joaquin valley, and for the perfection of the patent it only needed the signature of Governor Pico." Here we have the absurd assertion that the executive authority of a departmental governor suddenly became superior to that of the supreme government of Mexico, in that the former had to approve the official act of the latter, by signing the patent for the said
-
92
grant made to Macnamara, whom Mr. Cronise says was "an agent of the British government," and that his title deeds for said land "fortunately fell into the hands of the Federal government before they were signed by Governor Pico !" etc. And further, "to show how thoroughly informed the Federal govern- ment were of this design, we quote the following instructions from Secretary Bancroft to Commodore Sloat, under date of July 12, 1846, only two months after Forbes' contract had been signed." I now ask, what contract, when and where signed ?
In justice to Governor Pico, General Vallejo and General Castro I say that neither of them ever had any negotiation with me as above stated. I deny that the Rev. Mr. Macnamara was an agent of the British government. That gentleman came from Ireland to Mexico for the purpose of soliciting a grant of land for colonizing it with Irish emigrants. He was informed by the Mexican president that large grants of land suitable for colonization could only be obtained in California, as there were large tracts vacant in this department. Accordingly Mr. Macnamara went to Mazatlan to take passage for Mon- terey, but not finding any vessel there bound for this coast, he finally succeeded in obtaining a passage in an English corvette, whose captain was a countryman of Macnamara. He arrived at Monterey in June, 1846, when I made his acquaintance, and being informed by him of his desire to petition Governor Pico for a large tract of land for colonization, I informed him that the only lands suitable for his purpose were situated in the San Joaquin valley. He petitioned the governor and received a grant of two hundred square leagues, subject to the approval of the supreme government of Mexico, and with the condition of placing two hundred families of immigrants upon said lands within one year from the date of his grant.
These are the facts respecting the occurrences that caused so much apprehension in the mind of Mr. Consul Larkin, that the United States would be cheated out of the principal prize that made war acceptable to her. 1
Mr. Cronise states that the deeds for three thousand square leagues of land in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys, made in favor of this Macnamara, very fortunately fell into the hands of the Federal government before they were signed by Governor Pico. Mr. Macnamara had no muniment of title upon which to base his tremendous claim for compensation ; consequently nobody was injured by his petition to the governor for that grant of land, and there was no necessity for the unfounded animad- version of the aforesaid alleged participants in the pretended political above-mentioned intrigue. Mr. Cronise forgot to explain to his readers how Mr. McNamara's deeds for three thousand square leagues of land fell into the hands of the Federal government before they were signed by Governor Pico.
Those unsigned title deeds were the copies or register of Macnamara's grant, which were doubtless found in the government archives after the change of flag, and, of course, they were unsigned by Gov- ernor Pico. Macnamara had the original.
The only facts upon which Mr. Consul Larkin based his official report to the United States govern- ment of the supposed intrigue for placing California under British protection, originated in the following information imparted to him by myself :- 1st. That Governor Pico and two members of the departmental assembly, who were Don Juan Bandini and Don Santiago Argüello, had informed me, that as California was in reality abandoned by the government of Mexico, the authorities of this department were seriously discussing the necessity of severing their political relations with that republic for the purpose of solicit- ing the protection of a foreign power, for which object the governor and said members requested me to inform her Majesty's government thereof, to ascertain if its protection would be extended over California. 2d. That, in reply thereto, I informed Governor Pico and the said members, that I was absolutely without authority to give them any official answer upon the subject, but that I would duly inform her Majesty's government of the matter.
93
On the seventeenth of July, 1846, Rear Admiral Si. George Seymour, in command of her Majesty's ship Collingwood, arrived at Monterey, and forthwith addressed an official letter to Governor Pico, at Los Angeles, informing him that, in view of the existing war between the United States and Mexico, her Majesty's government would not interfere in the affairs of California. That official note was sent by me to Governor Pico, by a special messenger, under a safe-conduct granted by Commodore Stockton. On the return of the messenger to Monterey, I paid him one hundred dollars for his service, and delivered the safe-conduct into the hands of Captain Mervine, then in command of the United States forces at that port.
In conclusion, I deny positively that the British government ever had any intention of establishing a protectorate over California.
Respectfully yours, J. ALEX. FORBES.
,
THE GREAT FUR COMPANIES AND THEIR TRAPPING EXPEDITIONS TO CALIFORNIA.
BY HARRY L. WELLS.
For twenty years, while California was a Mexican territory, the streams of the great Sacramento valley and in the northern portion of the state were constantly visited by bands of trappers, belonging both to the several American fur companies and to the great Hudson Bay Company. A brief outline of the character of these companies will be necessary to a proper understanding of the nature of the trapper occupation of California.
The first and most important of these is the celebrated Hudson Bay Company. Very soon after the first colonization of America, the shipment of furs to England began, and in 1670 Charles II, granted a charter to Prince Rupert, the Duke of Albemarle, the Earl of Craven, Lord Ashley and others, giving them full possession of the country about Hudson Bay, including all of British America not occupied by the Russians and the French. They established forts and a system of government, and became a most powerful corporation. The Canadians established a trading-post at Mackinaw, and many individuals were engaged independently in the fur trade beyond the limits of the territory occupied by this vast monopoly. In 1783, these traders united in one association, called the Northwest Company, and soon became formidable rivals to the English company. It was Mckenzie, of this new organization, who, in 1789, penetrated to the Arctic ocean by the way of Slave lake and Mckenzie river, and, in 1792, crossed the Rocky mountains, discovered Frazer river, and on the twentieth of July reached the Pacific ocean near King's island, in latitude 52°, having made the first overland journey across America. From this time the competition was sharp and brisk between the rival associations, and they both became powerful and well settled. The expedition of Lewis and Clark to the Columbia, and their residence among the Mandans, in the winter of 1804-5, attracted the attention of these companies to this region, and in 1806, Simon Frazer, a partner in the Northwest Company, established a post on Frazer lake.
The pioneer among American traders in this region was John Jacob Astor, who had been engaged in the fur business in the East since 1784, as founder and manager of the American Fur Company. In 1810, he organized the Pacific Fur Company, and sent the ten-gun ship Tonquin to the mouth of the Columbia, where it arrived March 22, 1811. McDougal, Tom McKay and David Stuart, partners in the company, were passengers. They erected a fort near the mouth of the river, and named it Astoria. Captain Thorn then sailed with the vessel along the coast, to trade with the natives, and himself and all on board, save the interpreter, were killed by Indians at Vancouver's island. In July, a party of the Northwest Company, under Mr. Thompson, arrived at Astoria, with the intention of taking possession of the mouth of the Columbia river, but, finding themselves anticipated by the Americans, retraced their steps to Montreal. On the fifteenth of February, 1812, a party of the Pacific Fur Company under Wilson Price Hunt arrived at Astoria, after an overland journey of privation and danger lasting eight- een months. In May, of the same year, the ship Beaver arrived from New York with supplies. Posts had been established on the Okinagan, on the Spokane, and above the mouth of the Shahaptan ; but, in
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