USA > California > Yolo County > The Western shore gazetteer and commercial directory for the state of California Yolo County : one volume being devoted to each county of the state, giving a brief history of each county. > Part 2
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"Of all the lands from East to West,
I love my native land the best,"
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THE WESTERN SHORE GAZETTEER.
Would have been as appropriate a quotation with him as with others.
For the purpose of effecting permanent settlements in California and perpetuating the dominions of Mexico over that territory, the Mexican Government had provided, upon certain prescribed conditions, for making very liberal grants of land to actual settlers in this country. Amongst the conditions upon which these lands were granted we may note the following: The applicant was required to be a Mexican · citizen, either native or adopted, or must have married a Mexican wife (in which case the land was granted in the name of the wife). He was required to reduce the land to actual occupancy, either by cultivation or grazing; must erect a dwelling-house of prescribed value and dimen- sions on every square league; must maintain a good reputa- tion, possess a good moral character, and if he acquired his land by the means of marrying one of the daughters of Mexico, he must provide well for his family and supply all their reasonable wants, if within his power to do so.
Mr. Gordon's love of adventure and the inducements thus held out by the Mexican Government, prompted him, early in the spring of 1841, after having secured a grant of two square leagues of land (three miles in width and six in lengthi), to invest his limited means in a few head of stock cattle and some horses and start with a party of men over- land to California.
In this party were Mr. Gordon, who now resides in Lake County; Messrs. Workman and Roberts, who now reside at Los Angeles; Mr. William Knight, who subsequently set= tled at Knight's Landing, in this county, and died at Knight's Ferry, on the Stanislaus River, in what is now Stanislaus County, in 1849 or 1850. There were in the party four heads of families, the whole consisting of twenty-five persons, of whose destinies we have not been able to learn, except of those mentioned above. .
Late in the fall of 1841 this little party, after having traversed a country almost unknown to civilization for many long and weary months, with nothing to disturb the monot- ony of their toils, arrived at an old mission opposite San Diego, where they took up their winter quarters. In the
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HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY.
spring of 1842 the party separated; Mr. Knight returned to Mexico to procure a wife and a grant of land, and Mr. Gor- don and his family pushed forward with their stock into what is now Yolo County.
Before crossing the Sacramento they went to the quar- ters of Gen. John A. Sutter, who had been located there about eighteen months, and had completed his fortifica- tions against the Indians, and who gave Mr. Gordon and his family a cordial and hospitable welcome. But they did not remain many days at the fort before they crossed the Sac- ramento and settled on what is to this day known as the Gordon Grant, about ten miles west from the present flour- ishing town of Woodland. Here Mr. Gordon and his family resided the best part of a year before there were any other inhabitants of what is now Yolo County.
His time was spent in trapping beaver and dressing their pelts, hunting other wild game, such as elk, deer and ante- lope, preparing their hides for market, "jerking" and dry- ing their flesh, herding his cattle, etc., not slaughtering any of his domestic animals, but suffering them to increase as rapidly as their natures and the prolific climate would admit of. The supplies of his family consisted princi- pally of wild game, and Mr. Gordon informs us that this was the happiest year of his life.
When he was on his way from Mexico he first heard of the conflict of arms in Texas, which resulted in her inde- pendence and final annexation to the United States, and was a part of that series of events that brought about the acquisition of California by the United States and the set- tlement of Mr. Gordon's immediate neighborhood by peo- ple from his native land.
It was not the fate of Mr. Gordon long to remain without neighbors, though they were not located so near him as to be particularly troublesome. They were as follows: Mr. Thomas O. Larkin, now a resident of Monterey, in 1842 obtained and settled upon a grant of five leagues of land, where the town of Colusa now stands, about fifty-five miles north of his (Gordon's) residence.
The same year Mr. Thoms settled on a grant at the mouth of Thoms' Creek, about one hundred miles north of
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.
THE WESTERN SHORE GAZETTEER.
Colusa, or one hundred and fifty miles from Gordon's; and soon after Mr. Shards located a grant near Thoms'. The following year, in 1843, a Mr. Toombs located at Napa, about seventy miles, and Mr. Wolfskill on Putah Creek about twelve miles south, and William Knight about fifteen miles northeast from Gordon's-the last two being within the limits of what is now Yolo County. This for years constituted the neighborhood of the early settlers, but in 1845 Mr. Hardy obtained a grant of eight leagues of land adjoining Gordon's on the east. But we should have men- tioned that Don Antonio Armijo settled upon a grant at- Suisun about forty miles south in the year 1841.
At an early day one Berryessa obtained a grant of what is now known as Berryessa Valley, and his brother located · a grant in what is now Yolo County, and is designated as the Rancho Canada de Capay or Capay Valley, which after- wards was purchased by Messrs. Arnold, Gillig & Rhodes. A man by the name of McDowell settled where Washington now stands in 1844 or 1845, and established a gunsmith shop, where he repaired guns for his neighbors until the dis- covery of gold. He was killed in a drinking saloon in Sac- ramento in 1849.
We believe we have mentioned the names of all the actual settlers of the county previous to 1849 (though there were numbers of adventurers traveling through who temporarily sojourned with the settlers). Let us turn our attention to their avocations.
From the date of these first settlements until about the time of the discovery of gold, money was comparatively unknown to the stock-men and grantholders. The few heads of cattle that had been driven here had increased to herds of thousands. Elk had been slain by thousands, and their hides, which were worth four dollars each, prepared for market. Innumerable beavers were also captured, whose hides in barter were of the value of about six dol- lars each. The vast herds of cattle were watched and attended by Indians under a species of peonage, as they were forced away from their tribes and compelled to per- form these services, but received as a compensation about six dollars per month in whatever articles the employers
4
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HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY.
could dispense with. There were no courts in the country, and none were needed, for there were no crimes committed and no commercial contracts to be violated. What books the settlers had brought with them had been read and re-read until every page was memorized. Very small patches of corn had been produced and ground in a hand-mill and prepared for food. Stockmen had imported some thorough- bred animals as early as 1844, for the purpose of improving their breeds. Mr. Gordon, in 1844, purchased two Berk- shire sows and their families, whose increase amounted to large droves. He gave for the sows two fine horses, and before the gold discovery he sold from these a large num- ber of brood sows at one hundred dollars each.
A short time previous to the discovery of gold, these scattered settlers had commenced a rapid accumulation of money. Their families were well clothed and well fed; their Indian serfs lived in luxury. No bar-room broils and gambling bickerings were known; no jails and penitentia- ries were required; no public hospital in which the poor were cared for, because there were no poor to be thus sup- ported; there were no disputes about landmarks and no neighborhood babblings. Peace and quiet reigned supreme. Why should not the people have been happy ?
The reader may pause to imagine from what source these settlers had derived their surplus money-where was the market for the thousands of cattle, elk and beaver hides, we have mentioned? Whence came the thoroughbred cattle and swine ? How were the clothing and provisions obtained that families possessed in such abundance ? We answer, hide-dealers or traders came regularly with their trading ships to San Francisco (where there were but two or three adobe houses in 1841); thence they would send out their ships' launches with cargoes up the streams and sloughs and exchange them for the produce of the country, such as hides, furs, tallow and dried meat, and occasionally some live stock.
About the time these traders were expected (and they came very regularly), the slaughter of the herds began; hides were cured, tallow rendered and the meat dried. Then rude trucks or carts were loaded with the products
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. THE WESTERN SHORE GAZETTEER.
and drawn by oxen to the rivers or sloughs, where the ships' launches could reach them, and there exchanges were effected. The nominal prices of the exports that they there obtained were about as follows: Cattle hides, two dollars; elk hides, four dollars; beaver hides, six dollars; dried meats and tallow, ten cents per pound. For these the set- tlers received in exchange clothing of any desired quality, flour, rice, tobacco, sugar, tea, coffee, salt, spices, dried fruits, and, in short, everything in the line of clothing or provisions that their necessities required.
After a few years the settlers were able to export more than enough to pay for their required imports, and the bal- ance they received in cash, and thus before the mines were discovered had commenced accumulating actual cash.
We will here relate a few disconnected incidents, and then pass on to a later period in our history. , In March, 1847, a man by the name of Joseph Buzzle started in a canoe from Sutter's Fort, in Sacramento County, paddled his canoe across the Sacramento River, across the country in the County of Yolo, and to the very door of Mr. Gor- don's dwelling, ten miles west of Woodland-an incident destitute of interest to persons unacquainted with the coun- try, but of astounding interest to many of the present set- tlers.
In June, 1846, the owners of the Rancho Cañada de Capay had not yet asserted their rights thereto, and those few persons who were temporarily stopping in what is now Yolo County, had no knowledge of the claim. Mr. W. L. Todd, now a resident of the county, a William W. Rou- lette, with his wife, one G. J. Scott and his brother, W. W. Scott, built a cabin on that grant. We have said that Don Antonio Armijo was a grantholder at Suisun; he had produced a few acres of wheat, and as he had no means of harvesting it, except by cutting it by hand with knives, he with a few men went to the cabin above referred to, stopped for the night, got Todd and Scott to reinforce his party-in all consisting of thirteen persons-and went to Grand Island to capture some Indians to harvest his wheat. When this object was accomplished, on their return they stopped at Mr. Gordon's residence. At this time the war
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HISTORY OF YOLO-COUNTY.
was raging between the United States and Mexico, but not a blow had yet been struck in California.
General Vallejo was in command of a company of five Mexican soldiers at Sonoma. When Don Armijo arrived at Gordon's with his party, some of them were informed by him (Gordon) that Captain Merritt had started from the "Buttes," and on the following day would take Sonoma ; but the rumor was withheld from Armijo, on account of his being a native-born Mexican citizen. The little party then went and joined Merritt at Sonoma; this was the first town captured from the Mexicans in California.
In the capture of the place General M. C. Vallejo (sub- sequently a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention and member of the first Legislature of California), Captain Don Salvador Vallejo, Colonel Victor Pruden, Don Jacob P. Leese and Don Julio Carrello, were taken prisoners of war and sent to Sutter's Fort. On the fourteenth of June, 1846, this little handful of men proclaimed California a free and independent republic, and on that day hoisted their flag, known as the "bear flag"; this consisted of a strip of worn-out cotton domestic, furnished by Mrs. Kelley, bor- dered with red flannel, furnished by Mrs. John Sears, who had fled from some distant part to Sonoma for safety, upon hearing of the war that had been thus commenced. In the center of the flag was a representation of a bear, en passant, painted with Venetian red, and in one corner was painted a star of the same color. Under the bear were inscribed the words " Republic of California," put on with common writ- ing ink. This flag is preserved by the California Pioneer Association, and may be seen at their rooms in San Fran- cisco. It was designed and executed by W. L. Todd.
Subsequently, the American flag was substituted for the "Bear flag," William B. Ide was left in command of a lit- tle garrison to guard Sonoma, and most of the company went and joined Fremont, and with him went on to Lower Cal- ifornia.
When, subsequently, the treaty of peace was made, where- by California was ceded to the United States, all the grant- holders acquiesced, and many, doubtless, inwardly rejoiced, but no outward demonstrations of joy were discoverable,
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THE WESTERN SHORE GAZETTEER.
and quiet was maintained amongst the people, out of re- spect to their neighbors of Mexican birth.
When John C. Fremont was occupying California, about the year 1847, and Commodore Stockton was in the Terri- tory, one M. M. Wambough was paymaster, or otherwise had possession of Stockton's money, he professed to have been assailed, overcome and robbed, by a crowd of bandits. The money was gone, but Wambough returned, his hat hav- ing been pierced by many bullets. Subsequently, and after the organization of the State Government, application was made to the Legislature for relief, and the hat was brought before that body in proof of the robbery. It is said that the relief bill was abont to pass, when the late David C. Broderick rose in his seat and holding the hat in his hand exclaimed: "Had it not been for a miraculous intervention of Providence, the assailed must necessarily have lost his life"-pointing to a hole on one side of the hat and then upon the other side-"the bullet which entered here, passed there through the crown of the hat near the band, and, had not Providence caused the missile to curve over the top of his head, it must necessarily have passed through the cen- ter of the brain." The bill did not pass, and it was subse- quently shown that, soon after the supposed robbery, Wambough had passed through Yolo and stayed over night with Mr. Gordon, and had attempted to exchange a large amount of silver for gold, rendering probable that the al- leged robbery was but a sham. We have not examined the legislative journals to ascertain whether any record of the affair has been preserved, and do not know to what extent this account may be relied on. We have related it as we received it.
III.
From 1848 to 1870.
On the nineteenth day of January, 1848, John A. Sutter and his partner, James W. Marshall, were engaged in the construction of a saw-mill, on the south fork of the Ameri- can River, at a place now called Coloma, in El Dorado County, about forty-five miles castward from where the
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HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY.
City of Sacramento now stands. On that day Mr. Marshall, who yet resides at Coloma, was engaged in removing ob- structions from the mill-race, when he made the first dis- covery of gold in California of which we have any account. There was no mistaking the character of the mineral dis- covered.
Mr. Marshall knew it to be gold. He very correctly judged that if the fact were revealed to his employees, that all other business would be abandoned for the pursuit of gold. He attempted to keep the discovery a secret, for a time, but it was found in too great abundance-the secret could not be kept. The intelligence was soon conveyed to the scattered inhabitants of the Territory of California, and then the gold excitement had fairly commenced. It is hardly probable that Mr. Marshall, on the morning of the nine- teenth of January, 1848, had ever imagined that he, on that day, was to be made the instrument that should revolution- ize the commercial world; that he should make a discovery that would be the direct cause of uniting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans with bands of iron; that should, in time, be a commercial highway for all parts of the earth, popu- late three-fourths of the Continent, open a commerce with the Continent of Asia, with South America and the Islands of the Pacific, unprecedented with them; that should send to the American shores men of every clime, whose national characters and love of home, under any other imaginable circumstances, would have impelled them to remain in their native lands. But such was the fact.
News of the wonderful discovery was carried, as if by magic, to all parts of the civilized world, and became the topic of conversation in every family and social circle, and the theme of speculation amongst capitalists and commer- cial men.
The inhabitants of Yolo, from twenty-five to thirty in number, all went in search of gold, and these rich agricul- tural regions were depopulated. Discoveries followed each other in quick succession, until the vast fields of placer gold mines were developed. Merchants and speculators saw that the nearest points to the gold mines upon navigable streams would inevitably be the sites of future towns and
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THE WESTERN SHORE GAZETTEER.
cities, or, in other words, that the heads of navigation were the most feasible localities for furnishing supplies to the mining communities.
For the supply of the rich placers on the American and its branches, the point where Sacramento City was located was the most accessible. In the same year the rich placers on Feather and Yuba rivers were developed, and fortunate indeed would be the man who should discover and secure the town site, most accessible to those mines, that could at the same time be reached by vessels of fair tonnage. At this time, as we have remarked, the few settlers of what is now Yolo County, had left for the mines. At a point on the Sacramento River, where the Feather River empties into that stream, was the head of navigation. Here the Feather River was fordable.
This was the nearest point to the mines of Feather River and the Yuba that could be reached by vessels of sufficient size to supply their wants. Here, on the Yolo side of the Sacramento, the land was high, and furnished an inviting locality for a town. As this place, which is now called Fremont, occupies a conspicuous place in the history of Yolo County, we shall speak of its settlement, of its pro- gress and final fall, with such incidents as are immediately connected therewith, without attempting, in the same con- nection, to keep in view other contemporaneous occur- rences of the county.
1849.
About the first of March, 1849, Mr. Jonas Spect freighted a small schooner with merchandise at San Francisco, and sailed for the head of navigation on the Sacramento, for the purpose of establishing a trading post, from which the mining communities on the head waters of that stream and on Feather and Yuba rivers and their tributaries, might obtain their supplies. He found that point on the Sacra- mento River, at the mouth of Feather River, and named the place Fremont. It was not without difficulty that this point was reached. He was about twenty days sailing from San Francisco to Sacramento. On the twentieth of that month, having arrived at the latter place, he started over-
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HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY.
land, in advance of liis vessel, and on the twenty-first ar- rived at the point we have mentioned. On the next day the schooner arrived. The day following he, with his men, built his business stand, composed partly of willows and in part of canvas brought for that purpose, in which his goods, wares and merchandise, were placed. And he, then the only inhabitant of Yolo County there, on the twenty- fifth day of March, 1849, in the tabernacle thus constructed, commenced the joint business of merchandising and hotel keeping. This trading post and hotel soon attracted not only the attention of the mining communities referred to, but of capitalists and speculators.
There was every prospect of the town becoming a city second to none in importance in the interior,of the embryo State of California. Before another building had been erected the place was visited by Samuel Brannan, William McD. Howard, Lieutenant Maynard, and hosts of others, who afterwards became notable Californians. It was confi- dently believed that Fremont would ever remain the head of navigation on the Sacramento River, and that Feather River would ever become navigable, was not dreamed of.
Although the town-site was embraced within the " Harbin Grant," such estimate was placed upon the rights of Mr. Spect and Mr. T. B. Winston (the latter having become as- sociated with the former), that William McD. Howard, as agent for the firm of Mellus, Howard & Co., visited Fre- mont and offered them one hundred and fifty thousand dol- lars in gold for their town-site privileges. Prior to the settlement of the town by Mr. Spect, a camp of Indians had located there, and the crossing of the Sacramento River was effected by the use of a skiff and some canoes. Wagons were crossed by placing an Indian canoe under each wheel, and then paddled across by the Indians. Feather River was then fordable at its mouth; teamsters and packers could take their supplies thence on either side to the mines.
The first material augmentation of population was by an emigration from Oregon, headed by a Mr. John E. Bradley, now a resident of Santa Clara, a Cumberland Presbyterian preacher, who preached to the new settlement regularly for several weeks. Families came across the plains and located
2
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THE WESTERN SHORE GAZETTEER.
there. In July, 1849, a corps of civil engineers arrived from the State of Louisana, amongst whom was William J. Frieson, a native of South Carolina, now a resident and flourishing farmer of this county, residing near Knight's Landing. During this season large immigrations arrived from the Atlantic States; Fremont continued to grow in importance; mercantile houses were becoming plentiful; drinking saloons were established; gambling houses were abundant; and, though there were no courts, no Territorial, State or County, organizations, the legal profession had its representative there, who advertised to attend to the duties of his profession-C. P. Hester, Esq .- who since has been Judge of the District Court of the Third Judicial District. Dr. R. W. Murphy, now of Sacramento City, was the first to commence the practice of medicine.
Early in the spring of 1849, Miss Matilda McCord, of Bloom- ington, Indiana, opened the first school. The first regu- lar church was established by Rev. Isaac Owen, a missionary preacher from Indiana. On the twenty-second of February, 1849, the whaling ship William Henry sailed from New Bedford, Massachusetts, having on board two buildings and a cargo of goods belonging to a company of thirty men. In September, 1849, they arrived in San Francisco. A part of the company, with a supply of the goods and one of the buildings, were sent to Fremont; they purchased a town lot for one thousand dollars and erected the building, and commenced business. C. H. Gray (for several years Sheriff of the county) and H. B. Wood, now partners in the hard- ware business in Woodland, were members of this company. Six of the company died with the cholera in 1850, at Beni- cia. All trace of the remainder of them is lost.
About this time a ship arrived at Fremont from Bangor, Maine, having on board the steamer Governor Dana and a large cargo of goods. The company erected an extensive mercantile house, and placed it under the supervision of the late Henry Hare Hartley, subsequently County Judge, and at a later day a candidate for Justice of the Supreme Court.
In October, 1849, a company of Government troops, with a supply train, passed through the place on their way to Benicia. One of the soldiers entered a gambling saloon,
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HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY.
became intoxicated and somewhat abusive, and was killed by a gambler. This was the first homicide committed in Yolo County. The gambler was not arrested, and no par- ticular excitement arose from the transaction.
The town of Fremont now contained a population esti- mated by some as high as three thousand, though this is probably an over-estimate. Among those who were resi- dents there, and who have since become generally known throughout the State, may be mentioned the late Humphrey Griffith; the late H. H Hartley, already mentioned; Charles F. Reed, late candidate for Surveyor-General, and I. N. Hoag, Esq., long Secretary of the State Agricultural Soci- ety. It will be remembered that, up to the time referred to, there was no State Government, and, of course, no county organization.
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