Butte County CA Archives History - Books .....Navigation Of The Upper Sacramento 1882
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 16, 2005, 11:28 pm

Book Title: History Of Butte County

NAVIGATION OF THE UPPER SACRAMENTO.

    One of the leading agents in the development of the valley portion of Butte
county has been the steamboats that ply up and down the Sacramento river. By
their opposition to the railroad they not only operate to keep the freight
tariff at a reasonable figure, but they also furnish the assurance that the
enormous crops of the valley shall not be blockaded in the country and kept out
of the market, for want of facilities for transportation. A few years ago, a
gentleman familiar with the subject published the following reminiscences of the
river navigation:—

    Some time in the spring of 1850, a small steamer, called the Jack Hayes,
went up the river above Colusa, to what exact point we do not know. The
Washington, a little, flat-bottomed steamer, went as high as Deer creek, also,
in the spring of that year. M. Littleton, a Mississippi river steamboat man, and
afterwards captain of several other boats on the river, was pilot on the
Washington.

    On the first of July, 1850, the Colusa, built at Benicia by Dr. R. Semple,
started from the latter place under command of Capt. Brennan. On this boat came
the writer of this sketch. We spent the Fourth at Sacramento, and on the fifth
started out for the Upper Sacramento. There had been no boats up in low water.
Brennan was a ship captain, and knew nothing about steamboating, but we got
along very well until we reached the present site of Colusa. The town had been
laid out seven miles above, and that was our objective point. The bend just
above Colusa, afterwards called the Devil's Hackle, gave us a great deal of
trouble, and some four miles above town a portion of the machinery broke, so
that but one wheel could be used. She discharged her freight at the point above
mentioned, and went back to San Francisco, where she laid up until the worms ate
her hull up, never having made but the one trip.

    About the first of August, 1850, the California, Capt. E. C. Boober, went up
the river to a point known now as the California islands, just below Chico
landing, where she sunk and became a total wreck. The timbers were used to build
a large hotel at Monroeville. Some time in September, the Lucy Long, a
flat-bottomed boat that had been used as a ferry-boat at Benicia, made a trip to
Colusa under command of James Yates, now a farmer residing four miles above
Colusa. She was so long making the trip that they got out of provisions, and,
when down about Grimes' landing, a couple of men came to Colusa after a supply.
She, of course, did not attempt another trip.

    The Martha Jane, a small side-wheel boat, belonging to P. B. Cornwall, now
of San Francisco, was placed on the river early in 1851, and advertised
extensively as intending to make regular trips between Sacramento and Colusa.
She was under charge of Capt. Hart, with a full Nashville crew. She made two or
three trips, but receiving no encouragement, quit them for a time. On one of her
trips, she struck a snag and sank, a couple of miles below Colusa. This only
added to the bad reputation of the river among steamboat men. On this trip Mr.
Cornwall was on board, and in coming to town, on foot, he got so badly poisoned
with poison oak that he was laid up for several days. On one occasion, Alpheus
Bull, of Bull, Baker & Co., the largest merchants in Shasta, came to Colusa a
few hours after the Martha Jane had left, with several ox-teams. The rain had
been holding off remarkably—in fact, we had no rain to speak of that season—and
Mr. Bull was afraid to risk taking his teams to Sacramento. Flaming posters met
his view of a steamboat making regular trips to Colusa. He was sorry that he had
not gotten in a little earlier, and, on the whole, he concluded that it was best
to go on foot to Sacramento, and load the Martha Jane up. Some time during the
fifth day, Mr. Bull made his appearance at Colusa. " Friend Green," said he,
addressing the advertised agent at the Colusa end of the route, "thy steamboat
was not at Sacramento. Neither could I find any one in that city who knew
anything of her." The perfect good temper maintained, under the circumstances,
almost converted the aforesaid agent to the doctrines of the Quaker. The boat
had gone on down to San Francisco, without even notifying C. B. Post & Co., the
Sacramento agents. During the spring of 1851, the Martha Jane was again put on
the trade, under the charge, of Capt. James Yates. She made three or four
regular trips, got no freight to make it pay, and again hauled off. By this
time, Col. Semple, who had never ceased in his efforts to get a steamboat on the
regular trade between Sacramento and Colusa, found that he must first go after
the up-country merchants for freight. Most of these owned their own teams, and
were making a good thing hauling goods, and, instead of wishing to see
steamboating a success, looked upon efforts in that direction with a jealous eye.

    Finally, about August, 1851, Lewis Johnson, a prominent merchant of Shasta,
promised to load a boat for Colusa. The iron steamer Benicia, belonging to the
Pacific Mail Company, was secured, and, undercharge of Capt. George V. Hight,
started out from Sacramento in August, we think, of 1851. When just below
Knight's landing, she struck a snag and went down. Johnson was then in for it,
and he went back to Sacramento, with Col. Semple, to secure another boat to
bring his goods on up to Colusa. Capt. R. J. Walsh, then doing business in
Shasta, also expressed a willingness to half load a good boat. Fortunately, the
Orient, which had been brought out from Maine by Capt. Butler, Bartlett and
others, just arrived in Sacramento in search of something to do. Arrangements
were made immediately to put her on the Colusa trade. There were, by this time,
a superabundance of little steamers plying between Sacramento and Marysville.

     She was the first boat that ever did a paying business on the Upper
Sacramento; and it might be well said that steamboating had just then been
inaugurated on the upper waters of that river. Butler was captain of her, and
Littleton pilot on the first trip. It may look strange that, with quite a number
of small boats seeking employment, it was so hard to establish navigation on
such a river as the Sacramento. About the time the Orient was making her first
trip, Capt. A. Foster, at present assistant superintendent of the Railroad
Company's steamers, and in charge of what is known as the "steam wheel fleets"
on the Sacramento and San Joaquin, and Capt. G. P. Page, now in command of the
Gov. Dana, and who had been in the northern mines for a couple of years, were
gathering up statistics as to the amount of freight brought into that region,
and, on finding that it required thirty tons a day to supply the demand,
concluded to go down the Sacramento and see if it could not be navigated, and,
if so, to go into the steamboat business. Foster had gone up the river in a
small boat, in September, 1849, as far as Chico landing, and was of the opinion
that the navigation of the river was practicable, at least, up to that point.
Accordingly, Foster, Page, A. B. Montrose, and a man by the name of Church
started in a canoe from a point near Shasta, and examined the river carefully,
taking soundings, and re-examining difficult places from that point to the mouth
of the Feather. They arrived at Sacramento on the day of the election—first
Wednesday in September—and the whole party voted for P. B. Reading for governor.
When they got down they found a half interest in the Orient for sale, and
Montrose, Foster and Page purchased it. As she was well officered, and no change
could then be made in that particular, the two latter shipped as deck-hands.
Young men in those days were in the habit of taking hold of anything that turned
up, and these young men did not think that the fact that they owned two-sixths
of a first-class steamboat excused them from work. Capt. Wm. Pierce, one of the
most successful steamboat men on the river, shipped, also, as a deck-hand on the
Orient, a short time after. Of course, neither of these stayed in that position
long, for they had the ability to do something else to a better advantage.

    The Orient made two trips a week, regularly, until some time in November,
1851, when she was loaded by Van Wie & Co., Colusa merchants, for Red Bluff. She
made a successful trip up, discharged her frieght, and started down, but ran
aground, and a falling river left her high and dry. It took them some time to
get her back into the river, and, while aground, the rest of the company bought
out Butler, and Erastus Bartlett was placed in command. This was the first time
a steamboat ever went to Red Bluff, and on that trip Geo. V. Hight and Albert
Foster were the pilots. The Orient made the second trip to Red Bluff in January,
1852. In June of that year she made the first low-water trip to Red Bluff. On
her fourth trip, in November, 1852, she ran on a snag, just below Monroeville,
and sunk. After being repaired, she made regular weekly trips to Red Bluff until
June, 1853, when she was put on the stocks and lengthened out. For some months
the Orient had the Red Bluff trade all to herself, and charged one hundred
dollars a ton for freight from Sacramento. After she began to make regular
trips, she carried a large number of passengers. In fact, as soon as she and
other boats began to make regular trips to Colusa, the Shasta stages began to
connect with the boats, and the stream of travel was divided with the stage-line
running by way of Marysville and Chico.

    The Orient crew were pretty much all Maine men. Butler and Bartlett came
from Portland. Neither of them remained long upon the river, however. Capt.
Foster was born in Waterloo, Maine, October 16, 1826, arrived in California in
July, 1849, went to the mines, where he worked until lie began steamboating,
which he has followed ever since. In 1865, he took charge of the steamer
Chrysopolis, since which time he has not been much up this river, except in the
capacity of superintendent of the company's steamers. Capt. Page was born in
Fairfield, Maine, July 4, 1830, came out with Foster to California in 1849, and
was a mere boy when he came on this river. He soon got to be a pilot on the
Orient, and has had command of a number of boats since. He has been in charge of
the regular up-river boat since the railroad bought the steamers.

    After trade had been pretty well established by the Orient, late in the fall
of 1851, the Gabriel Winter, the Munsel White and Capt. Sutter came on the river
between Colusa and Sacramento. M. Littleton was master of the latter, but we
disremember the officers of the others, except that Napoleon Hight, brother of
Capt. George Y. Hight, was pilot on the White. The latter was a boat of pretty
good carrying capacity, and did a large business. In. 1852, the San Joaquin,
Capt. Moore, went up the river as high as Tehama. Capt. James Rodgers, of
Wellsville, Va., and who has ever since been prominently connected with
steaniboating on the river, was pilot on the Man Joaquin on this trip. The
Comanche, Capt. Grant, went to Tehama in the winter of 1851-2, made two more
trips and hauled off. She was owned, principally, by Maj. P. B. Reading. The
Jenny Lind made a trip to Tehama.

    In December, 1852, the Daniel Moore, of which W. H. Taylor, who afterwards
played so conspicuous a part in the "company," was principal owner and master,
came on this trade. John Cunningham, who has been mate on some boat on the river
ever since, was mate on the Moore. Cunningham came from Marietta, Ohio, and was
first on a steamboat in 1840, as a cabin-boy. He commenced steamboating in this
state in 1851, on the Marysville trade. C. P. Littlefield, now engineer on the
Gov. Dana, and who has been in constant employment on this river since that
time, was the engineer on the Moore. Littlefield is from Brunswick, Maine.
During the thirty years that he has been in charge of an engine, lie has never
had an accident to cause a moment's delay. He commenced running from San
Francisco to Sacramento on the H. T. Clay. The Daniel Moore went to Red Bluff,
and was the second boat to land at that point.

    The Marysville, Capt. Henry Oilman, and the Gazelle, Capt. John Farris, came
on the trade early in 1853. Captain Farris' father now resides in Colusa, and he
is running on the Colorado. Ex-Railroad Commissioner Tuttle was part owner of
the Gazelle, and ran on her as a carpenter. The Fashion, Capt. Geo. V. Hight,
also came on the river early in 1853. Sam. Hulse, an Ohioan, now on the steamer
Small, was the engineer on the Fashion. He ran on several other boats on the
river afterwards. Capt. Sam Crossen, now of the Colusa mills, and for many years
an engineer on the river, was employed on the Fashion on her first trip.

    Late in 1852, or early in 1853, U. P. Monroe purchased the Express, a
side-wheel boat, and she came on the river under charge of Capt. Morgan, as a
Monroeville packet. In 1853, Monroe conceived the idea of clearing the river of
snags between Colusa and Monroeville, and for this purpose he brought up an
immense amount of anchor-chain, windlasses, etc., and began to haul the snags
out by means of stationing windlasses on the bank, the power to the windlass
being a yoke of cattle. He spent a great deal of money on the work, enough to
cripple himself, financially, and break his contractor, Mr. Kelsey, and never
received a dime of benefit, Capt. Wm. Pierce was the chief pilot on the Express.

    During the winter of 1853-4, a larger class of boats were put on. Among them
was the Cleopatra, Capt. Taylor, owned by Reddington, Foster, Taylor and
Calvert, and the Gem. Capt. W. H. Moore, owned by Gilman and Moore. The Belle,
belonging to Taylor & Co., was built about the same time. The Plumas, with Capt.
Pierce as chief pilot, came on the river in 1854, and was sunk near Tehama.

    The Shasta, Capt. Littleton, owned, principally, by P. B. Reading, went up
the river in 1854, about the time the combination was formed. Her owners refused
to put her in the company, and she laid at San Francisco for a long while. She
never came up the river again.

    In 1854, there had got to be so many boats on the several rivers of the
State, and competition was so great, that boating was no longer a paying
business, and a company was formed, by the principal owners putting their boats
in at a valuation, and taking stock in the company.

    This steamboat combination, as it was then called, was the most powerful
corporation of its day in California. Of course, there was opposition on this
river, as well as on others, but the company managed to buy off, or run off,
most of the opposition boats, and held control of the carrying business of the
State, until the railroads began to supplant them in the matter of carrying
passengers, and then the boats were sold to the railroad company. Both the old
company and the new sent up only such boats as were necessary to do the business.

    At first the freight was all up. The down freight, even at the time of the
combination, would not have loaded one boat a month. At a much later date than
that—aye, even ten years later—we have seen lettuce, radishes, etc., going up to
Chico.

    The down freight business began to be of some importance about 1860, and
grew until 1868-9, when it over-balanced the up freight, and boats had to be
dispatched light to bring down the grain. When the railroad was finished to Red
Bluff, in 1872, the boats shortened their trips to Colby's landing, and points
below.

    About 1860, Thomas Dwyer, J. H. Roberts, and others, formed the Sacramento
Wood Company, and had boats and barges engaged in taking wood down the river;
and then, as the grain trade developed, they put on boats and barges suitable
for that, and they have ever since maintained the principal opposition to the
company's boats, and have been the direct cause of low freights on the river.
They now have three first-class boats and ten barges in the trade. These barges
carry from three hundred to eight hundred tons at a time. The larger barges,
when loaded, draw only three feet of water.



Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF BUTTE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA,
IN TWO VOLUMES.

I.
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA FROM 1513 TO 1850.
BY FRANK T. GILBERT.

The Great Fur Companies and their Trapping Expeditions to California.
Settlement of the Sacramento Valley. 
The Discovery of Gold in California.
BY HARRY L. WELLS.

II.
HISTORY OF BUTTE COUNTY,
From its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time. 
BY HARRY L. WELLS AND W. L. CHAMBERS.

BOTH VOLUMES ILLUSTRATED WITH VIEWS AND PORTRAITS.
HARRY L. WELLS,
517 CLAY STREET, SAN FRANCISCO
1882.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by HARRY L. WELLS, in
the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

FRANCIS, VALENTINE & Co., Engravers & Printers
517 Clay St., San Francisco



File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/butte/history/1882/historyo/navigati49nms.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cafiles/

File size: 17.5 Kb