USA > California > Lassen County > Illustrated history of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra counties, with California from 1513 to 1850 > Part 66
USA > California > Plumas County > Illustrated history of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra counties, with California from 1513 to 1850 > Part 66
USA > California > Sierra County > Illustrated history of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra counties, with California from 1513 to 1850 > Part 66
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In the early spring Parton opened a store on Jersey Flat, while James Hawkins brought a stock of goods, and sold them in Downieville. The prices were enormous, whisky being sixteen
RESIDENCE OF I.T. MOONEY, SIERRA CITY, SIERRA CO., CAL.
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dollars a bottle, and other necessaries bringing worse than "war prices." In April, 1850, the first eating-house was opened by Mrs. Judge Galloway in a large log cabin, and the pioneer meat market owed its origin to Ned Barker soon after. The town grew as if by magic. Hundreds came in every day, without cessation, for weeks. It is estimated that in April not less than five thousand people were at Downieville, coming and going all the time. Numerous stores and saloons were opened in tent houses, the proprietors having no time to indulge in more substantial architecture. Woods soon put up his large hotel, which became the must popular caravansary in that neighbor- hood.
As early as March a miner's meeting was held, at which thirteen resolutions were passed, form- ing the laws governing the people in their relations to each other as miners. Claims were fixed at thirty feet to a man. Downieville soon became crowded, and it was with difficulty that the multi- tudes could secure their board. Of course all the lazy, worthless fellows, who by a little labor could have made fifty dollars a day, protested that all the paying claims were taken, and that the dimen- sions were too large. Too indolent to perform the labors that others had done, and discover new mines, these malcontents demanded a division of the claims already found and located. But it was not long before hundreds left diggings that paid fifty dollars a day, to search for the famous Gold Lake, and the pressure was removed. They were also drawn away by the discoveries of diggings at Eureka, Howland flat, St. Louis, and other places.
Downieville presented a different aspect then from what it did a year or two later. The great pines that grew down to the water's edge were scarcely touched by the miners, except when they wished to get them out of the way. Myriads of tents covered the flats, in which the rude arts of the pioneer cuisine were practiced in all their primitiveness. S. W. Langton started, in the spring, his express to Marysville, and the arrival of the expressman with Ictters that cost the homesick miner a dollar apiece was far more anxiously looked for than is the mail-bag in these days of rapid communication, when the score is settled with Uncle Sam at the beginning of the journey.
The building of Mr. Durgan's saw-mill soon altered the appearance of Downieville. The trees began to fall on every side; saw and hammer awakened the echoes; building commenced in real earnest from lumber that cost eighty dollars a thousand at the mill, and carpenters were in demand at sixteen and twenty dollars a day. Gambling and drinking became the prevailing vices, as in all new camps, with their accompaniments of boisterous music, big, yellow nuggets, and oceans of coin striking the eye and ear at once. Whisky was retailed at four bits a drink, and was mostly made in the back rooms of the saloons. This explains why there was never a scarcity of whisky in the mountains, even when flour and beans were worth nearly their weight in gold.
The general idea in 1849 was that all the gold must be in the rivers ; but in 1850 the rich flats, the deep bars, and the high benches began to be worked with surprising results. Some fluming of the river-bed was done during the year, and in 1851 this kind of mining had become almost a mania. Between Downieville and Goodyear's, a distance of four miles, the river was carried nearly the whole way in flumes, costing an immense amount of money. Though a great deal of gold was taken out, these enterprises, on the whole, failed to supply very large dividends, in consequence of the tremendous losses occasioned by incipient floods. The fluming companies generally were deceived by the holes in the river-bed, which, when pumped out, were often entirely barren. The richest company working on the bars was the Steamboat, on Steamboat bar, which for some weeks in 1851 averaged $5,000 a day. The Virginia company, of which S. B. Davidson was secretary and general manager, had a claim below the mouth of Slug canon, running down to Steamboat bar. There were nine in the company. In 1851 their highest day's work produced $2,617, and on the
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five succeeding days they secured 82,200, $1,659, $1,120, $2,138, and $2,135, consecutively. It was the custom among all the companies to divide the gold every night, thus avoiding complications with defaulting cashiers. The Jersey company, in 1850, had a claim above the present site of the Jersey bridge, embracing the spot where Frank Anderson had made the first discovery of gold. Twenty persons formed the company in the fall, who worked twenty rockers. Their yield was very gratifying, even in those days, the gold being weighed nightly on the steelyards in the butcher- shop, and divided with even-handed justice. Their harvest ran from twenty to sixty pounds of gold-dust every day. On Durgan flat, Frank Anderson, Charles Lewis, James Irwin, and J. W. Hamilton had a claim sixty feet square. On this they worked eleven days, and took out $12,900, one day's yield amounting to $4,300. Then they sold the precious piece of land to other parties, Anderson's partners going back to the states. The new company did somewhat better, averaging $1,500 per day to each man, working also eleven days. The Bennett boys then took their chances on what remained, and averaged $1,200 per day per man, until they disposed of the property to others. During the six months from the time of opening this claim, it passed into several other hands, yielding, in the aggregate, over $80,000. Around Downieville every foot of ground paid rich returns. The Tincup diggings, spoken of elsewhere, proved a mint to those who worked them, for a long time. It is said that in 1850 three men always made it a point to fill a tin cup with gold, before quitting work at night, and they didn't wear themselves out at labor either. On a low bar just below, George Barton and party were working. One day they sunk a hole five feet deep, and panned out $2,500 in two hours, consisting of coarse gold that ranged in size from two bits to eleven ounces. In the fall of 1850 the largest piece known to be found on the river was excavated at Gold bluff, two miles above town, on the Sailor claim. It was pure gold, almost round, and weighed twenty-five pounds. Other pieces from the same claim weighed from one to five pounds. They were exhibited in the theater, on the stage. Mr. Barton, who has written many very inter- esting reminiscences for the Messenger, tells the following, as illustrative of the condition of society at this period :"
"There was an absence of women in 1850, and well on to 1851. There were not half a dozen women in town, white or Spanish. In the fall of 1851 I was mining on Durgan flat, and was in the shaft drifting, when suddenly I heard the most exciting yells and hurras on the surface, and called to find out what was the cause. It was some time before I could get an answer. My partner at last hallooed down, 'Come up-come up; they are coming.' 'Well, who is it ?' 'Why, the women!' All hands knocked off, and soon the flat was alive with men. The trail then was nearly straight down Galloway's hill, and they were in view from town for about an hour. They were four or five of the demi-monde, under the care of the afterwards notorious Rose Cooper; as they neared town it grew dark, and the miners crowded in from up and down the river, cheering and yelling up the crowded' main street, till they landed in the Gem saloon. One of the women was so frightened that when she entered she fainted, fearing they were going to be lynched, as the Spanish woman had been hung by a mob on the 5th of July the same year. In 1851 a Mr. Morris built a theater back of the lower plaza, and Ned Bingham, McClosky, and a tolerable company occupied it; and that was a step on the road to more civilizing influences. It was run straight along, Sundays included ; in fact, that and Saturdays were their best nights. The scenery. was the worst of daubs, and the stage furniture the wildest attempts at sylvan scenery : interiors of castles, ships, and raging seas; but it pleased all, and the miners heartily supported it."
In 1851 the Downieville precinct polled 1,132 votes. Sierra Woodall was the first white child born in the county. Her introduction to the world was made in 1851, at Snake bar, two miles
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below Downieville, and at the organization of the county the name of Sierra was given her. Agnes Galloway was the first child of Downieville, now Mrs. H. F. Turner of Sierra valley.
Eight hundred miners were working on Durgan flat in 1851. Durgan erected a little foot- bridge across the stream to Downieville, and the inhabitants of that section were taxed each four dollars a month for the privilege of walking across it. On the night of February 19, 1852, Downie- ville was entirely destroyed by fire. There were so many cloth tents and plain board shanties that the fire fiend made quick work of it, and the morning sun shone on a flat waste of ashes. The loss was about $150,000. Houses of a more substantial character soon replaced the old ones. On the following day a great meeting of the inhabitants was held. Robert Keifer, George A. Booth, and another man were appointed to lay off the streets, which they did on the twenty-first. The citizens could not agree at first about the width to make the thoroughfares, but at length, after holding three meetings, in which the matter was fully discussed, it was decided to make the streets forty feet wide. McNulty opened the St. Charles hotel two days after the fire. It was an im- mense, light frame, covered with cotton, with benches and tables running lengthwise of the struct- ure. On the anniversary of. Washington's birthday McNulty took in, for meals alone, $2,600. Craycroft & Co. in a short time put up their immense saloon, which had a counter in it seventy-five feet long, that on many an occasion lightened the purse of the rash individual who called the whole house up to drink, and to whom the long perspective of expectant men waiting to be served at his expense must have been a cheering sight. A brief glance at a few of the business men stationed here in the summer of 1852 may not be inopportune. In the line of dry goods, E. W. Haskell & Brother led the trade; Knapp & Paull kept a variety store; Sam Rosinsquy dealt in boots and shoes; Ferdinand Reis supplied the miners with implements and tools; while William B. Hamblin & Son sold them pots, kettles, and tinware; Hawley, Simmons, & Co. and Thomas Tobin & Co. wholesaled and retailed groceries and liquors; S. Walton & Co. traded general merchandise for gold-dust; A. A. Cochran owned the Sierra drug-store; Green & Shepard worked in precious stones and metals ; George A. Reynolds bought gold-dust ; Dr. B. N. Freeman, Dr. George Chase, Dr. Wilson Carr, and Dr. C. D. Aiken attended to the physical ailments of the camp. The National theater, with J. J. McClosky as manager, supplied Thespian amusements to the pleasure- seekers ; while Reverend R. R. Dunlap preached Methodism to the religiously inclined. Among the numerous hotels were the Arcade, kept by A. Wheeler, and the Bridge house, by Mrs. E. Lowry & Co., together with McNulty's and Wood's caravansaries. In 1851 Craycroft & Cheever had built a saw-mill above town, which was in operation; and in 1852 Philo A. Haven erected an- other farther up the East Fork. Haven's flume headed two miles above Downieville, carrying water and lumber right into town. It was a successful enterprise, and is still in existence, the property of Benjamin Pauley, who has owned it a great many years. Mr. Haven sold to John Cum- mings and John Angle, in 1854. Craycroft & Co. held their mammoth raffle December 31, 1853, for $3,000 in cash, and other property, amounting in all to $55,000 ; P. Shiffer being the agent and manager of the affair.
In 1856 W. H. Ladd & Co. were running a bank in Downieville. The Reis house had passed into the hands of Grippen & Day, and many other changes in business had occurred, among others the establishment of the United States hotel by Nicholson & Pearce. It was at this time that Lola Montez, countess of Landsfelt de Heald, the wonderful spider dancer, made her appearance on the boards of the National theater, creating a profound sensation in the susceptible breasts of the popu- lation. She was greeted with crowded houses, and so strong was the impression left behind by this Teutonic beauty that her name was immortalized in the christening of a lofty peak, Mount Lola.
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Downieville was a second time baptised with fire, on the first day of January, 1858. The flames got beyond the control of the citizens, and swept with remorseless fury over the fated town, destroying everything within their reach. But a vestige remained on the Downieville side of the once sightly and crowded business streets; ghastly ruins stared at the spectator from every side; business, homes, treasured articles of domestic use, and merchandise of every description were all swallowed up in the general holocaust. In this fire the bridge to Jersey flat was destroyed, as were likewise the offices of the Sierra Citizen and the Democrat. As these papers, in their de- moralized condition, failed afterwards to publish a list of the losses, and as it is impossible to obtain more than a few items of the kind from personal recollections of individuals, we are unable to make a complete statement of what was destroyed. The fire was more destructive than any subsequent one that has visited the town, owing largely to the want of proper means to make an effectual stand against it. Many lost all they had in the flames, and some distress was felt; but the neighboring towns came promptly to their relief. The donations received were as follows : Nevada City, $402; Forest City, $318.50; Monte Christo, $315; Alleghany and Smith's flat, $278; Marysville, $221.50; sundry persons, $69.25; whole amount received, $1,604.25. Forest City, in addition to her money contribution, gave twenty-six pairs of blankets.
Downieville rapidly recovered from this blow. The inherent germs of progress were too deeply planted for even such a catastrophe to prove disastrous, and with the resuscitating faculties within her, commonly ascribed to the fabled Phoenix, she could do no less than rise from her own ashes better than before.
In a few years the question of incorporating the city was raised and agitated. It became apparent that the interests of the two flats were closely identified with those of the town itself, from which narrow streams of water should not separate them. These ideas found fruition in an act of the legislature approved March 18, 1863, incorporating within the following boundaries the town of Downieville :
" Commencing on Sierra turnpike, at the north-west corner of Stacey's storehouse; thence in a southerly direction, crossing the North Yuba river, to the south-west corner of Judge Van Clief's dwelling-house, on Durgan flat; thence south-easterly to the south-west corner of S. D. Hill's dwell- ing-house on Durgan flat; thence north-easterly to the south-east corner of Mr Towle's dwelling- house, on Piety hill; thence easterly, crossing the South fork of the North Yuba river, to the south- east corner of M. J. Ayer's house, on Jersey flat; thence north-easterly to the south-east corner of J. W. Bailey's dwelling-house, on ' Bailey's ranch'; thence north-easterly, crossing the North fork, to the north-east corner of A. Wheeler's dwelling-house, on the North fork of the North Yuba river ; thence westerly to the north-west corner of S. W. Langton's dwelling-house ; thence to the place of beginning."
The first municipal election was held on Monday, the twenty-seventh of April, 1863. Two tickets were in the field, the People's and the Union, and the former was elected by an average majority of forty votes. The trustees so elected were Joseph Wackman, Charles W. Gilbert, Ernest Kruse, H. A. Fordham, and J. N. Flandreau. At the first meeting, held May 4, J. N. Flan- dreau was chosen president; E. M. Grippen appointed marshall ; R. Smidaker, night-watchman; and J. F. Cowdery, city attorney. H. A. Fordham became secretary, but resigned, and C. W. Gilbert succeeded him. Two ordinances relating to loose hogs and fast driving were passed at this meeting. The contract for building the Jersey flat bridge, a former one having been swept away by the floods of 1861, was awarded by the council to James Borland, June 8, 1863. The incorporation act was amended by an act approved March 31, 1866, which changed the boundaries as follows :
RESIDENCE OF W. T.LUTHER. DOWNIEVILLE SIERRA CO· CAL ..
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"Commencing at the north-east corner of the warehouse of Hughes & Garnossett, on the turnpike; thence southerly to the south-west corner of the dwelling-house belonging to Thomas Frehill, on Durgan flat ; thence easterly to the flume known as Flandreau's flume, and along the same to a point on the South fork of the North Yuba river opposite the south-east corner of the house of J. Volmer; thence northerly to the south-west corner of Noble's foundry; and thence north-westerly, crossing the north bank of the Yuba river, to the north end of the brewery of F. Busch ; and thence to the north-western corner of the Catholic church; and thence to place of beginning."
In a few years the expense of a city government became irksome to the people; interest in the election of officers began to flag, and finally these elections were discontinued altogether. The town is still incorporated, and may at any time desired revive its municipal institutions, but at present there is little disposition to do so.
An act was passed in March, 1863, establishing a fire department in Downieville, to consist of chief engineer, first and second assistants, president, secretary, treasurer, and a board of delegates of three from each hose company. Downieville for some years had had two of these companies, both of which are in existence at present : the Mountain Torrent hose company No. 1, and the Cat- aract hose company No. 2. At the first election of the department Otto Housman was made chief; Jack Campbell, first engineer; John Long, second engineer; Will Stich, secretary and treasurer. The delegates chosen from the Mountain Torrent company were John Brockman, Henry Bassing, and W. N. Burrows; from the Cataract company the delegates were Mat Lynch, E. M. Grippen, and J. Meroux. It was not long ere the choicest powers of the department were brought into requisition, this time to cope with another great fire that threatened to exterminate for a third time the prosperous town. The fire of February 21, 1864, wiped out the principal part of the business portion, and was only held in check by pulling down frame buildings that furnished fuel for its continuation. In this way the solid brick structure now owned by J. W. Brown was saved from the destroyer, though it received a severe scorching. The Sierra Democrat was again burned out, and only a very small amount of damaged material was recovered-proving the finishing stroke of that excellent sheet, that caused its permanent dissolution. The hall and records of the Masonic order were a second time destroyed, and the property of the Odd Fellows met a similar fate. The Cath- olie church, which had been destroyed in the fire of 1858, was now farther up the hill, and escaped a second burning. This fire, in its effects on the prosperity of the town, was somewhat more disas- trous than that of 1858. The population had decreased in consequence of mining excitements else- where, which drew off those given to speculation, and the ruined structures were replaced only as the demands of business required. Downieville had reached its culminating period, from which it settled down into a steady-going hamlet, making thereafter but little noise or stir in the world.
Among the incidents happening in this decade should be mentioned the accident which occurred on the twenty-seventh of May, 1863. Company K, sixth regiment California volunteers, had a short time before been recruited in Sierra county, with headquarters at Downieville. By the premature discharge of a cannon fired in honor of the capture of Vicksburg, from the bluffs below town, Lieutenant M. M. Knox and Second Lieutenant William A. Donaldson were horribly mangled and killed. Knox was blown down the declivity two hundred feet, while Donaldson had his eyes blown out, his wrists torn off, and was otherwise mutilated. Military rites were performed over the grave by the National Guard, the Sierra Guards, and the fire companies.
Downieville was made a post-office in 1852, Edward Haskell receiving the first appointment as postmaster. He was succeeded in 1854 by James Gernon, who presided over the mails for four
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years. In 1858 Francis Anderson was appointed, and signed P. M. to his name until 1862. In that year A. G. McKinsey obtained the position, holding it during the long period of thirteen years. In 1873 William Ryan became the postmaster of Downieville, and is the present incumbent.
A man named Kempton started the first private school in Downieville, in the spring of 1853. The money for its support was raised by subscription from the few families who had children to send. Kempton taught but two months, when, not finding a fortune in the educational line, he gave the school up to a Mr. Boucher, who in a short time resigned in favor of a man by the name of Rogers. In the fall of 1853 Mrs. S. M. Shoemaker established a school where the bank is now situated, which became a very creditable institution, according to the laudations of the Mountain Echo. In 1854 Mrs. Stephens taught in this place; then a young man by the name of Myers, and afterwards a Mr. Patterson. In the spring of 1856 J. A. Cobus was engaged in teaching, when Mr. George Hardy started a subscription list to build a school-house. He succeeded in raising about $800. The contract was let to George Webber and another party, for $780. At this time the public was considerably in arrears with former teachers. To lift this indebtedness, a theatrical performance was given in the Downieville theater, which was participated in by R. H. Taylor, W. S. Spear, Captain Hungerford, George Barton, Cheever, and several others. The play produced was the " Golden Farmer." Several young men took the ladies' parts, and the single entertainment was a grand success, netting for the school fund about seven hundred dollars. D. H. Cowden taught the first school in the new building on Jersey flat, starting with twenty pupils. In 1861 the building was raised eight feet, to accommodate a primary school in the basement. This is the same building now used for school purposes, in which Mr. James Tully presides as principal over one hundred and fifty-one pupils in regular attendance. The value of school property in the Downieville district is estimated at $1,900.
Downieville can boast of having been the whilom residence of many who afterwards rose to distinction and prominence in the various walks of life. Hon. Joseph Mckibben made Downieville his home for several years after its inception. In 1851 he represented Yuba county in the Califor- nia senate ; and when Sierra county was created commenced the practice of law at the county seat. He was nominated for congress from the third district, in August, 1858, upon the democratic popular sovereignty ticket, and was elected by a large majority, and served with considerable ability. At the opening of the war he joined the Union ranks, and soon became colonel of a regiment, where he did excellent service for his country during the entire war. The illustrious and gallant Colonel E. 1). Baker resided in Downieville for some time after leaving Illinois. During the Mexican war he served with distinction under General Scott, acquiring considerable celebrity before following the tide of gold-seekers westward. He was admitted to practice in the Sierra county courts, where his wonderful eloquence was heard in many an important case, taking at once a position in the front rank of California attorneys. Upon his removal to Oregon, a San Francisco paper upbraided the people of this state for not properly appreciating his remarkable talents in oratory and the law. Oregon did credit to herself in sending Colonel Baker to the United States senate, from which body he withdrew to join the army of the Potomac, as colonel. His death, which occurred at Edward's ferry, October 21, 1861, was lamented by the whole northern people, and especially by the inhabitants of the Pacific coast, to whom he was endeared by many tics. John Mackey, the great millionaire, lived in Sierra county when fortune had not yet learned to smile upon him. He was a common working-man, though a good judge of ore, and worked on the ridges at Forest City and Alleghany. It was in Downieville that he married the young widow of Dr. E. J. Bryant, who was the daughter of Captain Hungerford, a popular barber of the town.
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