USA > California > Lassen County > Illustrated history of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra counties, with California from 1513 to 1850 > Part 16
USA > California > Plumas County > Illustrated history of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra counties, with California from 1513 to 1850 > Part 16
USA > California > Sierra County > Illustrated history of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra counties, with California from 1513 to 1850 > Part 16
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Fortunately for the unsuspecting adventurers, who were upon the very verge of an awful slaughter, there was a friendly sentinel about that never slept, whose instinct was the watchword of fidelity, and whose sense of danger could be aroused where stillness reigned. Thus was it with the noble old bull-dog referred to. Close to his master's tent, concealed from view by darkness of night, he watched the move- ments of the murderous wretches until he could stand their impudence no longer, and then, selecting the boldest one, he pounced upon him without a bark or growl, and sinking his teeth into a protuberant angle of his body, he put the speediest possible end to the conspiracy. The air was instantly filled with the piteous yells of the ringleader, whose misery and torment, and the cause thereof, the accom- plices did not stop to investigate. The camp was, of course, aroused ; and whoever has observed or experienced the power of a bull-dog's grip, can appreciate the difficulty of the Indian attempting his escape. Instinct, which in this case was a sort of aposteriori argument, induced the villain to throw away his intended instrument of destruction, and, assuming a less criminal intent, get some of the captain's men to choke off the dog. In this he succeeded so well as to escape the punishment due him; and twice afterwards were similar stratagems concocted, and each time defeated through the sagacity of this noble animal. The nature of the conspiracies were revealed to the captain subsequently by his civilized and educated Indians.
" Before Captain Sutter came up the river, he purchased a number of horses and cattle from the rancho of Señor Martinez, but it was with great difficulty that he succeeded in getting his stock up to his station. The Indians were so troublesome that he had to detail almost the whole of his force from the camp, and then they could barely accomplish the undertaking. They did, however, finally get to their new home about five hundred head of cattle, fifty horses and a manada of twenty-five mares.
" Prior to the arrival of the stock, they had subsisted principally upon game-elk, deer, bear, etc .---- which existed in great abundance, and which probably constituted the principal subsistence of Captain Joseph Walker in the year 1833.
"After the captain had got his stock together, and after he had succeeded in getting the natives to render him some assistance, he began to lay out different and more substantial plans for the future. The site first selected he did not feel satisfied with, and accordingly changed his location from the bank of the American up to the present location of the old fort. With the Indians and his own men, he soon made enough adobes to build one good-sized house and two small ones within the grounds afterwards enclosed by the walls of the fort. His Kanakas built themselves three grass houses, such as they were in the habit of living in at the Sandwich Islands. These houses, which were subsequently burned, afforded them very comfortable quarters during their first rainy season or winter.
" At the same time that he was prosecuting these important and very commendable improvements at the fort, he was also employing a number of his friendly Indians in opening a road direct to the Sacramento where it was intersected by the American. After completing this road of communication, which required a vast deal of labor, on account of the almost impenetrable chapparel through which the road had to be cut, he named his landing-place upon the main river his Embarcadero-now the city of Sacramento."
The first company of overland emigrants reached California in 1841, among the number being Gen. John Bidwell, of Chico, and the late Capt. Charles M. Weber, of Stockton. Mr. Bidwell became secretary and general advisor to Captain Sutter, and remained with him about six years. It was after the arrival of this company that the famous fort was built, enclosing the large adobe building previously erected, the ruins of which may still be seen and are faithfully portrayed in the accompanying illustration. In 1842, Sutter made another settlement on the west bank of Feather river, which place he called Hock Farm, after a large Indian village that stood there. Here he removed a large band of cattle and horses, and
John Bidwell
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made this his principal stock-farm, the range embracing that part of Sutter county south of the Butte mountains. In 1850, Sutter took up his residence at Hock Farm, and made it his home for many years. He lived in Pennsylvania the few years preceding his death, which occurred in 1880, having become impoverished through his inability to fathom the ways of the American swindler.
A little later, in 1842, Sutter settled Nicolaus Altgeier on the east bank of the Feather river, where the town of Nicolaus now stands, and where he lived till the day of his death. The settlement of Theodore Cordua on the site of the city of Marysville, soon followed in 1842. Cordua, who occupied the land under a lease from Sutter, called it New Mecklenburg, and made a stock-farm of it, and to some extent a trading-post. He obtained more or less otter, beaver, and other skins from passing traders and hunters, and frequently went to Yerba Buena to exchange them for goods, navigating the rivers, and sometimes the bays, in a large canoe. He became a Mexican citizen in 1844, and obtained a grant of land embraced between the Yuba and the Honcut, Feather river and the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada. Cordua amassed considerable wealth, but lost it, became discouraged and broken-down in health, and went to the Sandwich Islands, where he died.
The first settlement made after that at New Helvetia, and before Hock Farm was established, was that of John Sinclair, in 1841, about two miles northeast of Sutter's and on the opposite side of the American river. This was made in the interest of Capt. Eliab Grimes and his nephew, Hiram Grimes, to whom Sutter afterwards conveyed the land. It was a good stock-farm, and is now known as the Rancho del Paso.
In 1842, three settlements were made besides those at Nicolaus, Hock Farm and Marysville, those having all been on Sutter's property. They were William Gordon on Cache Creek, J. R. Wolfskill on Puto creek, and Manuel Baca and Felipe Pena, at the present town of Vacaville. Mr. Gordon was an old trapper and had come to Los Angeles from New Mexico in 1841. He died in Lake county in 1876. A grant was made to Charles W. Flugge in the north end of Sutter county, which was afterwards pur- chased by Thomas O. Larkin, who failed in an effort to have it located in the mining regions.
In 1843, Thomas M. Hardy located on a grant to him of six leagues, situated on Cache creek, between Gordon's line and the Sacramento. His rude hut was erected opposite the mouth of Feather river, on the site of the town of Fremont. He was an Englishman, and during the American conquest aided the Mexicans. He died in 1849. The same year, also, William Knight settled in Yolo county. He was from Baltimore, had graduated in the study of medicine, lived at Santa Fé, where he became a Mexican citizen, and pushed on to Los Angeles in 1841. Knight's Landing on the Sacramento and Knight's Ferry on the Stanislaus both received their names from this gentleman, who died in Novem- ber, 1849.
It was in 1843 that John Bidwell, Peter Lassen and James Bruheim pursued a party bound for Oregon as far as Red Bluff, and recovered some stolen animals. On his return, in March, Mr. Bidwell made a map of the upper Sacramento valley, on which most of the streams were laid down and have since borne the names then given them. From this Peter Lassen selected his grant on Deer creek, in Tehama county, and started to go there in December, but did not reach there until the next February, having camped at the Butte mountains. This was the first settlement north of the Sutter grant, that is, north of Cordua at Marysville. Lassen's ranch became a well-known landmark in the next few years. From this point Fremont started for Oregon in the spring of 1846, and Peter himself guided Lieutenant Gillespie, a few days later, in search of the Pathfinder, and overtook him that memorable night on the bank of Klamath lake. He laid out the Lassen road for emigrants, and gave his name to the great Lassen peak, that stately monument of nature that rears its snowy head so loftily but a few miles to the north of his old home. He removed to Honey Lake valley in 1857, and built him another pioneer home,
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meeting his death in 1859 at the hands of the Pi Ute Indians in the mountains north of Pyramid lake. When that section was created a county, in 1863, it received the name of the old pioneer.
A party arrived from across the plains in 1843, coming by the way of Fort Boise and Pit river, following down the west side of the Sacramento, which they crossed below the mouth of Stony creek. Among these was Pearson B. Reading, afterwards major in the California battalion during the American conquest. This gentleman sketched the country lying about the mouth of Stony creek. He was not a Mexican citizen, and, therefore, gave the map to a Mexican woman, the wife of Dr. Stokes, of Monterey, who obtained a grant of four leagues and gave one-half to Mr. Reading. It was first settled on by a man named Bryant in 1846. Major Reading procured a grant for himself on Cottonwood creek, in Shasta county, and sent a man named Julian to locate on it in 1845. Mr. Reading settled there in 1847, after the cessation of hostilities in California. Reading's ranch was a noted place in the days of early mining, and the major vainly endeavored to make a large city there during the Trinity excite- - ment of 1850.
Another emigrant party came in from the north in 1843, among whom was L. W. Hastings, a civil engineer, who laid out a number of California towns in the early days. They had crossed the plains to Oregon the year before, guided by the well-known mountain man, Stephen H. Meek. This was the first regular train of emigrants, consisting of families and using wagons, that had made the overland journey. Their wagons were abandoned at Fort Hall, from which point they used pack- animals, by way of the Snake and Columbia rivers, to the Willamette valley. That winter, Mr. Hast- ings laid out Oregon City, as agent for Dr. Mclaughlin. In the spring of 1843, Mr. Hastings and others became dissatisfied with Oregon, and Meek piloted them to California by the old Hudson Bay trail, through Shasta valley and down the Sacramento. Near Cottonwood creek, in Shasta county, they had a little difficulty with Indians, on account of a theft committed, in which an Indian was shot. As they progressed south ward their reputation seemed to precede them, and when they reached the neigli- borhood of the present town of Colusa, they encountered a large array of savages, apparently assembled with hostile intent. Meek had been used to the summary manner of treating Indians in vogue among the trappers of the Rocky mountains, and, with several others, fired a volley into the crowd of natives, that put them to ignominious flight, a few being killed. When the party arrived at New Helvetia they reported that they had been attacked by Indians, and Sutter marched against them with a force of forty men, chiefly Indians in his employ whom he had taught the use of firearms, and punished them severely. These Indians were of the Willey tribe.
In 1844, a number of locations were made in the valley. Edward A. Farwell and Thomas Fallon settled on the Farwell grant, in Butte county. Thomas O. Larkin, United States consul at Monterey, having secured a grant of ten leagues for his children, employed Mr. Bidwell to locate it for him, and that gentleman selected the land in Colusa county in July. It was first settled in the fall of 1846, by John S. Williams, in the employ of Larkin. Samuel Neal and David Dutton settled on Butte creek, seven miles south of Chico. William Dickey, Sanders and Yates settled on the Dickey grant, on Chico creek-the present property of Hon. John Bidwell. The same year, A. G. Toomes, R. H. Thomes, Job F. Dye, William G. Chard and Josiah Belden selected and received grants for land in Tehama county, on which they settled the following spring. The grant to S. J. Hensley, in Butte county, was also located upon in the spring of 1845, by James W. Marshall, the discoverer of gold, and Northgrave.
South of the Sutter grant but few settlements were made at that early date, the Americans prefer- ring the upper end of the valley. William Daylor settled on the Sheldon grant, on Cosumne river, still known as the Daylor ranch, a map of which was first made by Dr. Sandels in 1843. Charles M. Weber, then keeping store in San José, having obtained, through Guillermo Gulnac, a grant where the present
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city of Stockton stands, Thomas Lindsay was engaged to locate there in August, 1844. He was killed by Indians that winter, and Sutter, upon his return from aiding Micheltorena in the war with Castro, the following spring, punished the perpetrators, a number of them being killed, as was also a member of Sutter's party-Juan Baca, a relative of the Bacas of Vacaville, and a son of an ex-governor of New Mexico. After the American conquest, Captain Weber settled there permanently and laid out a town which he called Tuleburg, but afterwards rechristened Stockton, in honor of the fiery conqueror of California.
Pablo Gutierez, a vaquero in the employ of Captain Sutter, obtained a grant of five leagues on the north side of Bear river, and settled there in 1844. That winter he was executed as a spy, having been captured while carrying dispatches from Sutter to Micheltorena. His grant and cattle were sold at auction by Captain Sutter, as magistrate, and were purchased by William Johnson and Sebastian Kyser, for one hundred and fifty dollars. This place was thereafter known as Johnson's ranch, and was a great landmark in the early days. Opposite this grant, on the south side of Bear river, Theodore Sicard, a French sailor who had first come to California in 1835, and who had been Sutter's superintendent in 1842-3 at Hock Farm, settled upon a grant of four leagues of land in 1845.
At the time the Castro rebellion was inaugurated, in the fall of 1844, there were pending before the Mexican authorities a large number of grants in the upper end of the valley, including the second grant to Captain Sutter. The settlers and applicants in that section viewed with alarm the probable overthrow of the power their interests required should be maintained, at least until their grants had been legally made and ratified. When, therefore, Micheltorena appealed to Sutter for aid to put down the rebellion of Castro, that gentleman imposed the condition that all the applications for grants which he, as magistrate, should approve, were to be considered as granted, and that a general title, at that time conferred by the governor, should be considered as binding as a formal grant. On these terms the settlers joined Sutter and marched to the aid of Governor Micheltorena. How the war was ended and the governor expelled from California, is a well-known matter of history. This general title and the grants claimed under it were not confirmed by the United States courts, when, in after years, title was sought from the government.
A large train of immigrants came to California in 1844, and each year thereafter saw constantly- increasing numbers of settlers pouring in from across the plains, many joining the American forces in the war for the conquest of California immediately upon their arrival. The majority of these emigrants, many of whom brought their families, settled at various points in the valley, Sutter's fort, however, being looked upon as the general headquarters and rallying-point in time of danger. Not only was Sutter's settlement the seed of civilization that took root and has developed into the splendid growth of to-day, but Sutter, himself, was the generous patron of all emigrants seeking a home in the valley. By his energy and enterprise he gathered men about him who aided in the development of the resources of the country, and when strong enough to do so, branched out, as we. have seen, and made companion settlements, still relying upon Sutter for aid and protection. He gathered the Indians about him and taught them how to till the soil, herd cattle, use the mechanic's tools and engage in manufacturing. He covered the valley with cattle, horses, and sheep ; first subdued to the yoke of the plow the unbroken soil, and filled the air with perfume from the ripening grain. He made brick, built a woolen-mill, where cloth was manufactured, established blacksmith and wagon-shops, built a grist-mill and saw-mill, erected a strong fort, on the walls of which were planted cannon, and trained a body of natives in the use of firearms, to serve as a defense in case of danger, and was always ready to make his place a harbor of refuge for the surrounding settlers when threatened by Indian outbreaks or by hostility of the Cali- fornians. To him, then, is due the highest meed of praise of all the pioneers of California, and though
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not the man whom accident led to pick up the first piece of gold, yet ought he to be honored as the true discoverer-the one through whose energy and sacrifice a condition of affairs was created which led directly to the discovery, and made that discovery valuable.
BURR
SUTTER'S MILL, COLOMA, IN 1851. (Where gold was disc vered by James W. Marshall, January 19, 1848.)
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA.
. BY HARRY L. WELLS.
History fails to inform us of a time when gold was unknown. The researches of the achæologist convince us that, in the dim twilight of civilization, jewels and the precious metals were unknown or unappreciated, but the earliest authentic records that now exist of the most ancient civilized nations speak of gold being used, both as a commercial medium and an ornament. The great Pharaohs of Egypt procured it in the Zabarah mountains in great quantities, and of this gold were made the orna- ments of which the children of Israel spoiled the Egyptians when they fled from the land, as well as the golden calf that Aaron set up for the discontented people to worship at the base of the holy mountain of Sinai. In the reign of Solomon, one of the most splendid and magnificent the world has ever known, gold abounded in great profusion, and was wrought into ornaments and vessels for the temple with astonishing prodigality. This was the celebrated gold of Ophir, brought by the Phoenicians and Jews from that unknown land of Ophir, whose location is a puzzle to historians. From the coast of Asia Minor, a voyage thither and return consumed three years, and it is supposed to have been on the south- east coast of Africa or in the East Indies. In the Ural mountains, that still yield their yellow treasure, gold was being mined in the time of Herodotus, and ancient Ethiopia and Nubia added their contribu- tions to the precious store. The Romans procured it in the Pyrenees and in the provinces of Italy bor- dering on the Alps, while the Athenians obtained it in Thessaly and the island of Thasos. The ancient Spaniards washed the golden burden of the river Tagus, while the nations of Eastern Asia found it in abundance in their own country.
At the time of the discovery of America and the opening to Europe of the vast store of treasure accumulated by the Aztecs and Incas, as well as the inexhaustible mines, the estimated supply in Europe was but $170,000,000. Its production had, to a great degree, ceased, so that only enough was annually added to replace the loss by wear and usage. For years, the alchemists had been endeavoring to trans- mute the baser metals into gold, many of them claiming to have succeeded, and were persecuted by the ignorant, credulous and bigoted populace for witchcraft and being in league with the devil ; and long after the great store-house of America was thrown open did these deluded and deluding scientists pursue the ignis fatuus of gold. Humboldt estimated the quantity of gold sent from America from the time Columbus planted the cross on San Domingo until Cortez conquered Mexico, in 1521, at $270,000 annually, but from that time the golden stream that flowed into Spain made that nation the richest in Europe. An idea of the vast quantity possessed by the natives, and used chiefly for ornaments, can be had from the statement that the celebrated Pizarro received for the ransom of the captured Inca, in Peru, a room full of gold, that is estimated to have been of the value of $15,480,710. The discovery of the great silver-mines of Potosi, in 1545, added to the vast mineral wealth that poured into Spain from Mexico, Peru and the East Indies.
Although gold is found in small quantities in nearly every country, the three great centers of pro- duction are California and the western states and territories, Australia, and Russian Siberia. Gold is
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found in considerable quantities in Italy, Austria, Hungary, Ural mountains, Siberia, China, Japan, India and the Indian Archipelago, Borneo, and the other large islands of that group, Australia, New Zea- land and Africa, and in small quantities in Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Russia in Europe, and, in fact, in nearly every land in the Old World. In the western henri- sphere it is found and mined in Brazil, and from Chili, following up the Andes, Cordilleras, Rocky, Sierra, and connecting chains of mountains, clear into British Columbia, and now, by recent discoveries, even in Alaska. Canada and Nova Scotia add their quota, while the Appalachian gold-fields, running through Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, have yielded a golden treasure since the first discovery was made, in 1799, in Cabarrus county, North Carolina.
Until the discovery in California, followed by Australia three years later, Russia was the greatest producer in the world. The home of big nuggets seems to be in Australia, where were found the great Ballarat nugget of 2,217 oz. 16 dwts., valued $50,000, and exhibited at the great Paris Exposition, and the still larger one, called the Sarah Sands, weighing 233 lbs. 4 oz. troy. The first discovery of the metal in Australia was made in 1839, but the government officials, fearing the effect upon the 45,000 convicts there, caused it to be kept a secret. Several times was the fact that gold lay hidden in the soil ascertained and the knowledge suppressed, but at last, in 1851, E. H. Hargreaves returned there from the mines of California, prospected on the river Macquarie, in New South Wales, and made the discovery that brought thousands thither, and to the still richer mines of Victoria, and added millions to the world's store of precious metals.
The estimated production of gold in the United States, from 1848 to 1873, is $1,240,750,000, of which California gave $995,800,000.
Blake gives the following table of the gold-yield of the world for the year 1867 :-
California
$25,000,000
Nevada
6,000,000
Oregon and Washington Territory
3,000,000
Idaho
5.000,000
Montana
12,000,000
Arizona
500,000
New Mexico
300,000
Colorado.
2,000,000
Utah and Appalachians.
2,700,000
Total for the United States
$56,500,000
British Columbia.
2,000,000
Canada and Nova Scotia
560,000
Mexico
1,000,000
Brazil
1,000,000
Chili .
500,000
Bolivia
300,000
Peru.
500,000
Venezuela, Columbia, Central America, Cuba and Santo
Domingo
3,000,000
Australia
31,550,000
New Zealand.
6,000,000
Russia
15,000,000
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Austria
1,175,000
Spain
8,000
Italy
95,000
France
80,000
Great Britain.
- 12,000
Africa
900,000
Borneo and East Indies
5,000,000
China, Japan, Central Asia, Roumania and other unenumer- ated sources
5,000,000
Total
$130,180,000
One of the chief allurements possessed by the unknown country to the northwest of Mexico, to Cortez and other explorers, was its supposed richness in gold, silver, and precious stones. In his letter to Charles V. of Spain, in 1524, Cortez speaks of this unknown land "abounding in pearls and gold." Still later the not-over-veracious chaplain, Mr. Fletcher, who chronicled the events of Sir Francis Drake's voyage along the coast in 1589, in speaking of the country just north of the bay of San Fran- cisco says, "There is no part of earth here to be taken up wherein there is not a reasonable quantity of gold or silver." As at the same time, in the month of June, he speaks of snow and weather so cold that meat froze when taken from the fire, one at all acquainted with the nature of the climate there . and knowing that snow seldom falls in winter and that the thermometer, even in the most severe sea- sons, sees the freezing point but occasionally, needs not be assured that the worthy chaplain was addicted to drawing largely upon his imagination in chronicling events. No gold has ever been discovered there, and the probable possession of it by the natives may have been the foundation for his assertion. The opinion that the precious metals existed in California seems never to have entirely died out, although it lost its potent influence in stimulating exploration and conquest.
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