Humboldt-Statewide County CA Archives History - Books .....Humboldt County 1891
************************************************
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 November 30, 2005, 10:40 pm

Book Title: Memorial And Biographical History Of Northern California

HUMBOLDT COUNTY.

DISCOVERY OF THE BAY.

  This is on the ocean shore in the northwestern part of the State; only the
small county of Del Norte lying north of it; and in Humboldt County is the
westernmost point of the United States,—Cape Mendocino. The earliests visits to
this region by Spanish and English explorers have already been mentioned on
pages 9, etc. In 1825-'26, the old trapper, Jedediah S. Smith, who visited
almost every part of California, passed through here on his way to Oregon.
Although he "followed the coast," in some manner he failed to discover the
splendid bay. Michael Laframbois, a Hudson Bay trapper, followed Smith's track
in 1832.

  Major Reading, in 1845, on a trapping expedition, discovered the south fork of
the Klamath, which he believed to be the river flowing into the harbor of
Trinidad. In 1849 he moved over to the river to mine, "struck it rich," and
began employing Indians on a large scale; but he did not long have things to
himself. A party of Oregonians, who had heard of his discovery and followed his
trail, broke in upon his quiet monopoly. They objected to his Indian cheap
labor, and the Indians were "cleaned out" of Trinity very much as the Chinese
were recently made to leave Eureka. Reading was disgusted, but he took his
revenge by turning farmer and trader and getting all the miners' dust from them
in exchange for the necessaries of life.

  During the year 1848, in San Francisco, a public meeting was called to take
steps to rediscover and utilize the lost port of Trinidad, but the gold flurry
of the time prevented action.

  The story of the discovery of Humboldt Bay, and with it the real beginning of
the history of the region, is one of adventure, peril and hardship. As it was
thought that the harbor of Trinidad might prove to be a more important port than
even that of San Francisco, a diligent search was made for it in 1849-'50, both
by land and sea. In October, 1849, Josiah Gregg, who was elected leader of the
party, and Thomas Sebring, David A. Buck, J. B. Truesdell, Mr. Van Duzen,
Charles C. Southard, Isaac Wilson and L. K. Wood, who had been mining all summer
on the Trinity, determined to make their way down to San Francisco for the
winter along the coast instead of the route by the Sacramento. On reaching Bald
Hills the river was running on, and they decided to make a short cut over the
ridge south, and in this way they failed to discover that the Trinity was but a
tributary to the Klamath. This brought them to the mouth of a river which of
course they must take to be the Trinity.

  Meantime the rains came on, their provisions gave out, and, according to L. K.
Wood's account,— who was the historian of the party,— grizzly bears seem to have
formed the most material part of their supplies At a later stage of their
journey Wood met three bears and they almost "chewed him up." His companions had
to carry him on their backs along their desperate course. He was rendered a
cripple for life. Josiah Gregg, the head of the party, was told by the Indians
that there was a harbor four miles north; but Gregg's companions, feeling
certain that they were right in their river and the Spaniards wrong in their
harbor, wanted to turn back. Josiah waxed wroth and determined to go ahead. From
this circumstance "Mad" River received its name.

  They reached the ocean near the mouth of Mad River, and after contriving to
get across that river and into the brush beyond, they went into camp and began a
search for fresh water. Presently Wood returned with some brackish water in his
hat. They all visited the water and named it Trinity Bay; this was really the
upper end of Humboldt Bay. They remained there until January 1, 1850, when they
began a most weary journey to Sonoma, which they reached at last terribly
exhausted.

  The story created great excitement in San Francisco, and several parties were
made up to go to the new-found bay, establish a city and open up a new and
shorter route to the mines. Great rivalry ensued, each ship-load anxious to be
the first in locating the town site. Among other schooners that started were the
Cameo and the Laura Virginia. The Cameo arrived first at the mouth of the
harbor, but the bar was too rough to permit her passing. A boat's crew, however,
made their way inside, while the Cameo went on up the coast. Meanwhile the Laura
Virginia came up, crossed the bar, and to her belongs the honor of being the
first vessel to enter Humboldt Bay. The California was the second schooner to
visit the harbor.

  Samuel Brannan fitted out a schooner, the Jane Morgan, which fell in with the
Laura Virginia returning from Trinidad. He made his way up to Trinidad and was
proceeding to lay out the town when the other settlers thought he was "hogging
it." A quarrel ensued, and Brannan, who was the only capitalist of the party,
returned to Humboldt Bay, where he and his friends decided to cut a canal to Eel
River and thus get to the mines on the Trinity, forgetting that they knew even
less about the Eel River than they did about the Trinity. Eel River was named by
Mr. Brannan after himself, but his name failed to remain permanent. The schooner
J. M. Ryerson was the first vessel to enter the mouth of Eel River.

  Of the land party, Dr. Gregg finally died from hardship and starvation before
the party reached the settlements. Wood was afterward for two or three terms
county clerk of that county, and possibly he is yet living. Buck was a borderer
from Missouri. He returned to the bay in the spring of 1850, took up the tract
called Bucksport, and was afterward drowned off Columbia Bar in the old Jane
Warren.

  Douglas Ottinger, a member of one of the parties who went by sea, gave to the
bay the name of Humboldt, after the great German scientist and traveler; but it
is also claimed that Major E. H. Howard, now of Eureka, gave this name to the
bay. The latter propably first suggested the name.

  Immediately after the discovery of Humboldt Bay by the land and sea parties as
above described, rival towns were of course started, the chief of these being
Union (now called Arcata), Eureka and Bucksport. R. V. Warner founded
"Warnersville" at Trinidad; but that place now has only the Government
light-house, postoffice-and prospects; while Eureka, situated on the best bay
next to San Francisco on the coast, has grown to be a fine city of 6,000 souls.

THE COUNTY.

  The county of Humboldt, named after the bay, was organized in 1853, under act
of May 12, that year, and the town of Union, now Arcata, was designated as the
county-seat. Bucksport and Eureka were bitter rivals for this bonanza. In 1854,
to determine the relative claims of the two places, Union was selected by vote
of the people, by a decisive majority. The usual charge of fraud in the election
returns was made. In the meantime the supervisors postponed the erection of a
court-house, while matters seemed unsettled. The controversy continued until the
Legislature of 1855-'56 determined to remove the seat of government to Eureka.
The Union business men, nothing daunted, went on improving their town and
increasing their trade with the mines. In 1860 the name of the town was changed
to its present Indian name of Arcata, while the township retains the name Union.

   It would require many columns to give a full account of the early history of
Arcata;—how the mining excitements, which doubled and trebled its population
several times and as often left it smaller than before, of the wars and bloody
fights and massacres; of the day-dreams of its founders which were destined to
end in smoke; of the thousand and one incidents and reminiscences of pioneer
days. Arcata is still an ambituous village of 1,200 inhabitants. In the southern
part of the town is the depot of the Arcata & Mad River Railroad, and from this
depot the railroad extends south over a vast mud flat or tide land, to a wharf
two miles in length, which reaches to deep water in the bay. Here the steamer
makes connection for Eureka, making three trips a day. Business establishments,
churches, schools and societies worship here as in any other highly civilized town.

  Humboldt County is 108 miles north and south, but there are 175 miles of ocean
frontage; and the greatest width is forty-eight miles. Rivers and forests abound
throughout the county. Eighty miles of the Klamath River are in Humboldt or on
its boundary line; Trinity River is for fifty miles of its course in the same.
In April, 1850, the town of Reading was laid out on the Sacramento River by
Major Reading as a supply point for the Trinity mines. Meanwhile the mines were
fast filling up by men from the Sacramento Valley. When communication was opened
between the new towns on the coast and the mines, which was not effected until
May, there were about 2,000 miners on the river. It did not then take long to
get the topography of the country straightened out. It was found that Eel River
was by no means a highway to the mines, and that both Trinidad and Humboldt bays
were of little use to the miners on Trinity River, who could communicate more
easily and cheaply with the Sacramento Valley than with the sea. It was also
found that the Trinity River, whose eccentric course had so deceived the early
prospectors, did not enter the ocean at all, but was simply a tributary to the
Klamath. Klamath City, laid out in 1850 at the mouth of the river, had but a
brief and inglorious career, on account of the shifting sand-bars below.

  In December, 1850, great excitement was created by the discovery of the Gold
Bluff mines, on the shore near Trinidad, but they were never made to pay. In
this year also, upon the division of the State into counties, the whole
northwestern portion of the State, being almost wholly unknown at the time, was
set-off as Trinity County, with Eureka as county-seat. In 1852, Klamath County
was organized to include all territory north of Mad River, Trinity being south
of that, and with this change Weaverville obtained the county government,
Orleans Bar being county-seat of Klamath. In 1858, Humboldt County was formed,
containing all its present territory excepting the portion north of Mad River,
which belonged to Klamath.

  Klamath County seems never to have prospered. In the early days Orleans Bar
was a very rich camp and contained a large population. As the placers were
worked out, however, population decreased, and, the county being heavily in
debt, things were in a bad way. Finally in 1874, after a struggling existence,
the county was blotted out and its territory divided between Humboldt and Del
Norte, the latter county having been formed in 1856.

  In January, 1853, the Government founded Fort Humboldt on the Bay, selecting
the high bluff immediately fronting the entrance to the harbor, on which
Bucksport was situated. There was nothing in the way of fortifications attempted
except a slight earth-work, now almost indistinguishable. The barracks,
officers' houses, etc., are rapidly tumbling down, but are yet standing. The
chief distinction that Fort Humboldt possesses is from the fact that Lieutenant
Ulysses S. Grant, afterward the great General, was stationed there for a time.

  Rapid progress was made in the redwood lumber industry, which from the first
has been the leading one of the county. The first saw-log was cut in 1850, and
in 1854 a logging railway, several miles in length, was built, a good
substantial iron-laid, well-ballasted road, near Eureka, the first railroad to
be built in California, or on the Pacific coast. To show to how great a
magnitude lumbering had already risen, it may be mentioned that in 1854, no less
than 20,567,000 feet of lumber was sawed. Shipbuilding also began early, the
steamer "Glide" having been constructed on the bay in 1854.

  Humboldt has had a good deal of Indian troubles. From 1852 to 1856 especially
there was constant warfare, many settlers and their families being murdered.
Nothing that the Indians did, however, equals in atrocity the massacre performed
among them in 1860, which seems effectually to have quenched their spirit, for
there has been no trouble since. A large rancheria existed on Indian Island,
opposite Eureka. During the night of February 20, some white wretches went
across and without warning slaughtered over 150 Indians, bucks, squaws and
children, just as they came in the way, few escaping. The Hoopa Indian
Reservation was set off by the Government in 1864, and by 1868 the last of the
Indians were removed to it. At the present time, however, they are by no means
strictly kept to their reservation. Numbers of them employed as laborers, etc.,
and seemingly steady and intelligent employes, are to be found about the towns
and logging camps. They seem less degraded than the Indians further south. The
Hoopa Valley is one of the most beautiful of the county, containing about 38,000
acres of splendid land. This is farmed by the Indians, who have stock, raise
some grain, have a flour-mill and seem prospering. It was formerly called Eden
Valley.

EUREKA,

the chief town of the county, is a well built and handsome city. It possesses a
very large trade, both local and foreign, many hundred vessels being dispatched
every year to foreign ports laden with lumber and lumber manufactures. The cause
of its pre-eminence in the first instance was due to its fine shipping
facilities, having deep water close to its front. In Eureka, and on the islands
opposite, are several very large sawmills, which, during lively times, run day
and night sawing the gigantic redwood logs. The operation is very interesting,
many new devices being adopted for handling the enormous sticks, often over
twenty feet in diameter. Eureka possesses also many other manufactures,
shingle-mills, sash and door, and furniture factories, foundries, boiler and
engine works, etc., such as would be naturally called for in a lumbering region.
She has large tanneries also, and near by a cheese factory. A new court-house,
completed in 1889, cost $175,000, and is a very fine structure. The Eureka
Academy and Business College, founded 1887, possesses handsome buildings in the
heart of the town, and is a very prosperous institution. Eureka has also
twenty-one public school buildings, many fine churches, and a host of
magnificent residences, in which are housed her lumber millionaires, who are
many. Eureka is an important ship-building point, several busy yards being
located in town and near by. She has gas and electric lighting, has good
waterworks and is well sewered. Eureka became an incorporated city April 18,
1856. A United States Land Office is located there, and it is a port of entry,
possessing a very large trade.

  The Government has now in course of progress the improvement of the harbor of
Humboldt Bay, agitation for this having begun in 1877, In 1878-'79 Captain James
B. Eads, the great engineer, gave it a thorough survey and since then work has
been progressing steadily. When completed it will have cost several millions,
and will make the harbor perfect and safe at all times and equal to any on the
coast.

ARCATA

is a favorite residence town, being more free from fogs than its larger
neighbor. It is a growing town, with a considerable inland trade, being the
natural outlet for the northern country. It has good churches, schools, etc.
Until 1860, it bore the name of Union, the word Arcata meaning the same in the
Indian tongue. Several large saw-mills, shingle-mills, etc., are near by and it
has also a tannery and cheese factory. Other points on the bay are Field's
Landing, where are the wharves of the Pacific Lumber Company, the Eel River and
Eureka Valley Lumber Company and others. It has a growing shipping trade, Eureka
being its port of entry.

OTHER POINTS.

  Hookton was formerly an important place for the shipment of dairy produce, but
it has now decayed owing to the construction of the railroad. Bucksport is no more.

  In the Eel River Valley, which contains the largest body of agricultural land
in the county, are several important towns. Ferndale, the center of the dairy
interests of the county, is a town of great wealth and a good business point. It
is thrifty and improving, being founded in 1860. Port Kenyon, on Salt Creek, a
couple of miles distant is its1 shipping point. This place is the product of the
Roberts Bros., who have greatly advanced the interests of this portion of the
county, running a weekly steamer to San Francisco. Port Kenyon has saw and
shingle mills. Fortuna, formerly Springville, is an important manufacturing
town, possessing saw, shingle, excelsior, planing and other mills. It is a most
lively and progressive town. Rohnerville had its beginning in 1859, and is the
center of a rich farming country. The Humboldt County Fair is held here annually
and is well attended. Hydesville, founded in 1858, is a good business point, the
present tenminus of the Eel River & Eureka Railroad. At Hydesville begins the
great sheep and stock ranges of the county, the eastern and southern portions
being given over to that. Scotia is a lively town, the product of the operation
of the Pacific Lumber Company, whose mills are the largest in the county. Rio
Dell is a town in the Eel River Valley surrounded by a good farming region.
Petrolia is so named from the existence of petroleum in its vicinity. About it
is a good dairy and farming country. Camp Grant is noted for its fine peaches.
Bridgeville, Blocksburg and Garberville are supply points in the sheep and
cattle regions. Shelter Cove has a favorite summer hotel and some shipping
importance.

  In the northern part of the county are Trinidad, which possesses a good harbor
and was once a lively town. Nothing is doing there now, the saw-mills being
closed down. Orleans Bar, the center of the gold-mining regions of the county,
was an important point in the '50s; now of little importance, although
possessing hopes for the future, possessing many undeveloped quartz ledges, and
having a good fruit country about It. Blue Lake is a growing town on the Mad
River, in a good farming country. North Fork possesses a large saw and shingle
mill, and is the terminus of the Arcata & Mad River Railroad.

  The chief glory of Humboldt County is its

REDWOODS.

It has about 450,000 acres of this glorious timber, which cuts on an average
100,000 feet to the acre. Within the county are twenty-four saw-mills of large
capacity, and several smaller ones. Each of the large mills has a fully equipped
shingle mill attached, as also lath mills, etc., besides which there are
thirteen independent mills running on shingles exclusively. These saw-mills cut
on an everage about 125,000,000 feet of lumber per year, while the shingles
number about 250,000,000. Besides these there are shakes, posts, pickets, lath,
railroad ties, etc., to a vast extent. Ship-building has also become an
important industry in the county. There are two regular shipyards and a marine
railway. Over 100 vessels have been built on Humboldt Bay, which have won the
reputation of being superior vessels. Before dismissing this portion of our
subject we should mention some of the leading and pioneer lumbermen.

  William Carson, of the firm of Dolbeer & Carson, cut the first saw-log in the
county in October, 1850. Hon. John Vance, for three terms the mayor of Eureka
and one of her most prominent as well as most wealthy citizens, began operations
in 1850. In the same connection should be mentioned David Evans at the head of
the Excelsior Mills, and the late Allen McKay, who founded the Occidental Mills.
In connection with shipping we must mentiom Captain H. H. Buhne, a pioneer of
1847, who was one of the Laura Virginia company that first entered Humboldt Bay.
He is an extensive tug and ship owner. These men all started poor and by
enterprise and energy made their way upwards to wealth and honor.

  Next to lumber and kindred industries ranks

STOCK-RAISING AND WOOL-GROWING.

  The annual wool clip of the county is about 2,000,000 pounds. The stock
interests are also very large. The late Hon. John Russ was one of the first, in
1852, to drive cattle into Humboldt. He acquired a vast fortune, leaving a widow
and family who reside in the comfortable family mansion near Ferndale. Butter
and cheese making is another important item in the business of the county.
Gold-mining is also still a large interest, although not so important as
formerly. Fishing is conducted quite extensively on the bay and off the coast.

  In matters of

TRANSPORTATION,

Humboldt County is singularly favored by water and almost entirely shut off by
land. Two regular lines of steamers are on the route between Eureka and San
Francisco, one runs regularly to San Francisco from Eel River, calling at
Shelter Cove on the way, while a fourth runs regularly between Arcata and San
Francisco. In 1888, the total numbers of arrivals and departures of vessels was
736 and 702, respectively, showing the magnitude of the shipping trade. The
destination .of many of these vessels was to foreign ports, as Australia, South
America, Europe, etc. There are ten or a dozen railways in the county, all but
two of them being simply logging roads. The two are the Eel River & Eureka
Railroad, which runs twenty four miles up Eel River, and Arcata & Mad River
which runs twelve miles up the Mad River. From the terminus of the former a
stage line connects, through Mendocino County, with Ukiah and the San Francisco
& North Pacific Railway. A railroad to extend from Eureka to Red Bluff across
the mountains is being now much talked of, and if built would add greatly to the
importance of Eureka, and probably make it the terminus of a trans-continental
road. Humboldt County people take great pride in the fact that there are

NO CHINESE IN THE COUNTY.

  In 1885, following a series of outrages by the Chinese, which culminated in
the death of a prominent citizen; the people of Eureka notified them to leave,
which they did with all their goods and chattels. Other towns throughout the
county took similar action, and in some instances bought their property.

THE PRESS.

  The newspapers of Eureka are metropolitan in tone and represent ably, as do
the other journals of the county, the interests of their section. The Times
(morning) and Standard (evening), the one founded in 1854 and the other in 1875,
have both daily and weekly editions. The Mail (1887), and the Western Watchman
(1884) are both weeklies. In Ferndale is published the Enterprise (1879). In
Arcata is the Union (1886). In Arcata is also printed the Encinal, (1887), which
is published at Glendale, near by. Rohnerville supports the Herald (1881); Blue
Lake, the Advocate (1888), and Hyderville the Home Journal (1889). All of these
are weeklies.

LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATION.

  Humboldt County has been represented in the State Assembly by the following:
L. M. Burson, 1860; Jonathan Clark, 1875-'76; John Daggett, 1859-'60; E. L.
Davis, 1859; J. J. De Haven, 1869-'70; W. B. Hagans, 1861; H. W. Havens, 1858;
A. J. Huestis, 1865-'66; B. G. Hurlburt, 1873-'74; J. F. McGowan, 1887; G. C.
Midgett, 1881; A. H.Murdock, 1855; C. S. Ricks, 1856-'57; Joseph Buss, 1871-'72,
1877-'78, 1885; M. Spencer, 1854; C. L. Stoddard, 1880; J. H. G. Weaver,
1883-'85; G. W. Werk, 1862; Charles Westmoreland, 1867-'68; S. G. Whipple, 1863;
A. Wiley, 1863-'64, George Williams, 1887.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California.

Illustrated, Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast
from the Earliest Period of its Occupancy to the Present Time, together with
Glimpses of its Prospective Future; Full-Page Steel Portraits of its most
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers and also of
Prominent Citizens of To-day.

"A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendents." – Macauley.

CHICAGO
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1891.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/humboldt/history/1891/memorial/humboldt17nms.txt

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

File size: 24.5 Kb