Lassen County CA Archives History - Books .....Early History Of Lassen County 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 January 16, 2006, 1:26 am Book Title: Illustrated History Of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties EARLY HISTORY OF LASSEN COUNTY. It is a matter of considerable doubt as to who was the first member of the Caucasian race to pass through or come within the limits of this county. Several bands of trappers, after the trip made to California in 1833 by Captain B. L. E. Bonneville's party under Joseph Walker, pushed their way into the Nevada basin, and it is possible that some of these may have visited Honey Lake valley, though not probable, for they generally came as far as the sink of the Humboldt, and then crossed north to Snake river. The records of these trapping parties are meager, consisting chiefly of the lives and personal adventures of some of the more noted of the trappers, and of Washington Irving's "Bonneville." There were undoubtedly many trapping parties of whose movements we know nothing, some of which might, perhaps, have visited this valley. Ewing Young, in the fall of 1833, led a trapping company from the tributary streams of the Columbia river into the upper end of the Sacramento valley. The record fails to state the exact route taken, and it may have been by the way of Goose lake and Pit river; in fact, that is the most practicable route of travel between the two points named. In such an event, they would have passed through the north-western corner of this county. James P. Beckwourth, who discovered Beckwourth pass in 1851, and settled in Sierra valley the following spring, claimed to have visited Honey Lake valley in 1845 with a party of hunters and trappers, among whom was old Greenwood, after whom Greenwood valley in El Dorado county is named. The record of his life published by the Harper Brothers shows that he was in California at that time, but fails to tell us of any such visit, or of any incident at all similar to the following, which is related as being the occasion of his revealing his early knowledge of Honey lake. The incident is related as follows: Soon after Beckwourth established himself near his pass, a party of miners from Jamison creek came to his place in pursuit of a small band of marauding Indians. Beckwourth told them that, judging from the course taken by the fugitive savages, they were probably heading for a large valley which he had visited, as above stated. He could not tell just how far the valley was, but thought it could not be more than seventy-five or one hundred miles. He then gave a description of the place as he remembered it, saying that he saw at least a thousand Indian lodges on the border of a large lake of brackish, muddy water; that on the west the mountains were covered with a growth of tall, thrifty timber, while on the north and east they were entirely devoid of such vegetation; that the general character and appearance of the valley were the same as those he had passed through many hundred miles to the eastward. This is as good a description of Honey Lake valley as could or would be given by a man who had, like Beckwourth, only visited it as he had hundreds of others throughout the almost boundless west. The men were satisfied that he was acquainted with the country, and knowing of his long life among the Indians, asked him to take charge of their party and go in pursuit of the savages. He agreed to this, and they started immediately. They rode hard until sundown, and during the night proceeded as rapidly as was consonant with the difficulty of keeping the trail. Just at daybreak in the morning they reached the brow of the mountains to the south-east of where the town of Milford now stands, and were just in time to observe the party of a dozen savages whom they were following emerge from the timber at the base of the mountain some two miles in advance. Just beyond, on the south-western margin of the lake, were encamped a great many Indians, and the little band of pursuers decided to return home. They failed to overtake the fugitives, but they confirmed Beckwourth's statement of a prior knowledge of Honey lake. Early in January, 1844, Lieutenant John C. Fremont, while on his first exploring expedition to the coast, passed down from Oregon to the Truckee river in search of the fabulous Buenaventura river. On Christmas, 1843, he was at the lake near the southern boundary line of Oregon, then named by him and still called Christmas lake. From this lake, which lies just east of the one hundred and twentieth meridian, he kept his course in a southerly direction until he came to Mud lake, and then to Pyramid lake on the fourteenth of January, 1844. While it is possible that he touched the eastern edge of this county in his passage, it is probable that he passed down just a few miles east of the line that divides the states of Nevada and California. Certain it is that he did not see Honey lake, or else mention would have been made of it in his report. This is the first company of white men that is absolutely known to have come even so near as this to the county. From this time, except the possibility of Beckwourth, Greenwood, and others having been here in 1845, no one is claimed to have visited the valley prior to 1848. During that summer Peter Lassen and Paul Richeson were engaged in finding a northern route from Fort Hall to the upper Sacramento valley. It is claimed that, in their search through the mountains for a suitable route, they visited Honey Lake valley; but it would seem as though this could not be so, for if they had come through the pass to Honey lake, it would appear to be very poor judgment, indeed, to select the route by the way of Mountain Meadows and Pit river, which was the famous Lassen road. This road has been described a few pages prior to this in a history of Lassen's life. Though it would seem improbable that Lassen and Richeson, after coming through Noble's pass to Honey Lake valley, would have selected the long and difficult route they did in preference to this one; still it is possible, and those two gentlemen may have visited this valley in 1848. It is certain that they were in the county, for the route ran from Mountain Meadows northerly to Pit river. A great many emigrants passed through the western end of the county in 1849, following the Lassen trail, but as they were bound for California and the gold-fields, they paid no attention whatever to the country through which they were passing. Indeed, it is a matter of considerable doubt if they knew they had yet arrived in the state of California. The Lassen road fell into disrepute that year, and the next season was not used to any extent, if at all. The writer has never met any one who came over that road in 1850. Early in the spring of 1851 a prospecting party of eighty men, headed by a man named Noble, and now known as Noble's party, after crossing Indian valley, passed through the mountains to Honey Lake valley. The company soon returned and disbanded, but Noble, who was impressed with the value of the pass through the mountains which they had found, went on to Shasta, then the chief town in the extreme northern portion of the state, and made known his discovery to the enterprising business men of that place. The pass was then called and has since been known as Noble's pass. Realizing the fact that the opening of an emigrant route through the upper mountains with its terminus at Shasta would be of vast benefit to that town commercially, the business men of the place raised a subscription, and hired Noble and a small party of men to go out to the Humboldt, and divert as much of the stream of emigration as possible through the new pass, and to the town of Shasta. Early in the summer of 1852 Noble started with his comrades upon their journey. It was in August, 1852, that Noble's party reached the Humboldt. There soon came along a train of emigrants, in which were a number of returning '49ers, who were acquainted with the sad results that had followed in former years a departure from the regular trail, and who were also posted on all the methods and ways of the early Californians. No sooner did Noble and his party tell them of the new and shorter route to the valley, than the old Californians became highly indignant, and not only declined to try the new road, but threatened violence to its advocates if they persisted in their efforts to induce the unsophisticated emigrants to do so. Matters were amicably adjusted, however, and a few emigrants agreed to try the new route. The company thus made up traveled the old Lassen or Oregon trail as far as Black Rock, and then struck across the desert twenty-five miles to Granite creek; thence sixteen miles to Buffalo springs; thence nine miles to the mouth of Smoke creek; up that stream four miles; thence ten miles to Mud springs; thence seventeen miles into Honey Lake valley, where John D. Kelley now lives. Crossing the valley and passing through the present site of Susanville, they crossed the summit of the Sierra by Noble's pass, following then the course of Deer creek to its mouth. As soon as it became demonstrated that this route possessed superior advantages in the matter of feed and water, as well as being shorter than any other, agents were kept stationed at the intersection with the overland trail, for the purpose of turning the emigration over this road and into the northern mines. That year, and for a number of years thereafter, the new road was traveled quite extensively. Had the emigrants of 1849 who departed from the old road at the same place to follow Lassen's Horn route been lead by this trail, and thus shown at that time the advantages of the road, instead of the disadvantages of the Lassen route, a great difference would have been made in the early development of this region. In other words, had Lassen made this his route, instead of the long, difficult, and dangerous trail he selected it is more than probable that the great bulk of the overland travel to California would have come through Honey Lake valley and Noble's pass, instead of following the Truckee and Carson trails. As it was, however, the experience of those who trusted themselves to the Lassen road in 1849 had the effect of throwing all so-called cut-offs into disfavor, and-the result was that the great tide of emigration still surged along the old trail, and refused to be seduced by the specious arguments of those who sought to divert it into other channels. During the year 1853 the route was improved and shortened considerably, and travel through Honey Lake valley increased rapidly. The agents, who were stationed somewhere in the vicinity of Lassen's old sign board, explained the advantages of the new route so successfully that many were induced to try it. That season Isaac N. Roop, postmaster at Shasta, came over from that city with a few companions, for the purpose of establishing themselves on the line of the road, where a profitable trade could be carried on with the emigrants. Roop located a tract of land one mile square, at the head of Honey Lake valley, and posted a notice upon his claim, of which the following is the record on the book of claims kept by him in 1856, as recorder for the territory of Nataqua: "NOTICE. "I, Isaac Roop, do take up and claim the following-described tract of land: Beginning at a pine tree on the south side of Susan river, at the foot of the bluffs; thence running north some four hundred rods, more or less, to a pine stake set at the foot of the bluffs on the north side of Susan river; thence west to the timber; thence south along said timber to the top of the bluffs on the north of Susan River; thence up said river on the top of said bluffs two miles; thence across Susan river to the top of the bluffs on the south side of Susan river; thence down on the edge of said bluffs to the edge of the timber; thence to continue in a south-easterly course to the place of beginning (this being in the head of the valley). "Sept., A. D. 1853. ISAAC ROOP. "July, A. D. 1854. Built a house on the above claim. Left for Shasta, Nov., A. D. 1855. "A true copy of the original, this first day of May, A. D. 1856. ISAAC ROOP, Recor." This was the only location made in the valley that season, the other members of Roop's party abstaining from making any land claims whatever. They all, including Roop, soon returned to Shasta to spend the winter, leaving the valley as they had found it, save the lonely notice which reared its head above the sage-brush, and wondered at the desolation which surrounded it. It will be observed that in the notice he applies the name Susan river to the stream that comes down from the Sierra and flows easterly to Honey lake. It is claimed by some that this name was then given the stream, by him in honor of his only daughter, Susan, who was then living in the east. By others it is maintained that an emigrant girl named Susan DeWitt, who died on the road, and was buried a short distance east of the Buffalo salt works, in Nevada, has her memory perpetuated in the name of this stream. Still others say that a young lady bearing the name of Susan passed through with one of the trains in 1852, and that her name was bestowed upon the stream. These contradictory opinions are held by the early settlers, all of whom would seem to have been so situated as to know the facts in the case; and as it is impossible to decide between them, we let the matter stand as it is. One thing is certain: Roop, in his notice, left the first record of this name for the beautiful mountain stream, and it is not improbable that he bestowed this title upon it to better define the boundaries of his location. It is, however, also improbable that emigration would pass this river for two seasons without a name of some kind being applied to the stream. During the year 1854 the Shasta people still maintained agents along the Humboldt to attract emigration over this road, and the travel through the valley was large. These emigrants were all bound for California, and none of them thought of stopping short of the mines on the other slope of the mountains, the majority going clear to the Sacramento valley, only to turn around and make their way back into the mountains. In May, 1854, Roop and John Hill went from Shasta to the valley, to see if the snow was sufficiently melted to admit of the passage of a wagon loaded with supplies. On the way, they overtook a prospecting party of about a dozen men, one of whom was Hyram K. Wilcox, who had left Shasta a few days before. They all came on to the valley together, arriving on the sixth of June, the prospectors soon becoming dissatisfied, and returning across the mountains. Roop and Hill also went back to Shasta, and Roop soon returned with a load of merchandise and supplies, accompanied by his brother Ephraim Roop, William McNall, Captain William Weatherlow, and others. During the summer, this party built the rough, one-story log house, about 20x30 feet in size, which still stands in an orchard in the eastern suburbs of Susanville, and is owned by A. T. Arnold, Mr. Roop's son-in-law. This building was covered with a shake roof. Since it was used for a fort in the Sage-Brush War, it has been called Fort Defiance. In this building was placed the stock of goods that had been brought over from Shasta, and a brisk and profitable trade was carried on with the emigrants. That summer, Mr. Roop located a water right on Pah Ute creek, then called Smith creek, and posted up the following notice: "NOTICE. "I, the undersigned, claim the privilege to take all of the water out of Smith creek at the junction of the two forks where this stake stands. I shall build the dam some six feet high, and carry the water along the South hill to the emigrant road. "August, A. D. 1854. ISAAC ROOP. "Recorded this first day of May, A. D. 1856. ISAAC ROOP, Recd." From this creek they dug the Roop ditch, about one-half a mile long, by which they conveyed water in close proximity to the log house. While working upon this improvement, it was always necessary to leave a guard at the house; for, though the Indians were not openly hostile, their predatory habits compelled the early settlers to be constantly on their guard to protect their property. When winter set in, Roop and the larger number of his companions returned to Shasta, while a few stopped in the valley until spring, though there was no necessity for their doing so. During the year 1854, Lieutenant E. G. Beckwith, in charge of an exploring party, passed through the valley. The war department had sent out, the previous year, several exploring expeditions to examine the various routes across the continent, for the purpose of ascertaining which was the most feasible for a trans-continental railroad. One of these detachments, under the charge of Lieutenant Beckwith, crossed Honey Lake valley, and went through Noble's pass to Fort Reading. They then went up the Sacramento and Pit rivers, passed down the old Lassen trail, and again to Fort Reading. The observations and conclusions of Lieutenant Beckwith are embodied in his report, which was submitted to congress by the secretary of war, and is to be found in the "Pacific Railroad Reports, Volume 2." In the early part of the year 1855, Peter Lassen was living with Isadore Meyerwitz (or Meyerowitz) on a ranch in Indian valley, located by them in 1850. In June, 1855, he started over the mountains on a prospecting trip, accompanied by Kenebeck, Parker, and another man, themselves mounted on horses, and their outfit packed on the backs of mules. They came into the valley three miles west of Janesville, where they pitched their camp just back of the ranch now owned by Richard Bass. The next day Parker and the one whose name is unknown started out to make some kind of a trade with the Indians, going around the lake to the north in search of them, and encamped in the vicinity of the hot springs. At the same time Lassen and Kenebeck traveled towards the north-west, along the base of the Sierra, and after going about six miles, camped at a pile of bowlders, which are in front of, and but a short distance from, the first cabin he built in the valley. They prospected for a few days, and were so gratified at the result, that Lassen returned at once across the mountains to procure men and supplies to work the place systematically. In the latter part of June, Lassen came again to the valley, accompanied by Joseph Lynch, William Gallagher, and Samuel Knight. They brought with them a complete mining outfit and a supply of provisions. The first thing necessary was to bring water to the claim, and this they did by digging a ditch two miles in length, from the little stream now known as Lassen creek. This ditch has always been called the Lassen ditch. After they had worked a couple of weeks a cause of difference arose between Knight and Lassen, and the former took what property there was belonging to him and left the valley. About ten days after the ditch was completed the water supply failed; but during that time the claim had paid them good wages. They therefore decided to go to Indian valley and make preparations to return here and spend the winter. In October, 1855, Lassen came back to Honey Lake valley, accompanied by Isadore Meyerwitz, Joseph Lynch, ------ Greenwood, and a Spaniard named Lazier. They brought a good supply of provisions, blacksmith and mining tools, a plow, and such other implements as they thought would be necessary or useful. They also brought a number of cows, oxen, and horses. Lassen then located a tract of land one mile square, embracing the place where they had encamped while engaged in mining, and now included in the ranches of John Hulsman, Joseph Lynch, and David Titherington. This he did not survey until the following spring, and never had it placed on record. In a short time the Spaniard and Greenwood went back to Indian valley, leaving Lassen and Meyerwitz alone in the valley. Soon after, John Duchene came over from Quincy, where he had gotten into some difficulty, and hired himself to Lassen. Newton Hamilton and Marion Lawrence, called generally Commanche George, came over the mountains, packing a good supply of provisions. It was their intention to locate land; but they did not do so that season. They made their camp with the others, and began prospecting. Fearing that the snow would fall to such a depth as to prevent his stock from sustaining themselves by browsing, Lassen cut about twenty tons of hay from the bunch-grass that grew in such abundance, and stacked it near his camp. The next thing required was a shelter for himself and men during the winter. They then erected the long, low, log house, which has never been without a pioneer tenant to this day, Joseph Lynch having lived there constantly. The cabin, or house, is nearly fifty feet long, sixteen wide, six logs high, and covered with a shake roof. At either end is a room sixteen feet by twenty. One of these Lassen used for a general storeroom, and the other for an apartment to live in, and which he floored with lumber cut with a whip-saw. At one end of this room was built a rock fireplace, with sufficient capacity to admit cord-wood. The openings to the outside world were a door and a three-foot-square window, over which barley sacks were nailed to keep out the cold. The small room in the center was used by Peter as a sleeping apartment, and where it is said that he always kept a bed for a traveler or a friend. In this rude hut the pioneers of Lassen county, Peter Lassen, Isadore Meyerwitz, Joseph Lynch, Newton Hamilton, Marion Lawrence, and John Duchene spent the winter of 1855-56; and though this humble dwelling has furnished a pioneer with shelter for a quarter of a century, it gives evidences of remaining a monument to the memory of its builders long after the last one shall have passed away. During the year a man named Moses Mason came into the valley and located a piece of land adjoining Roop's on the north-west corner, but did not remain upon it or make any improvements. The next year his notice was recorded, and reads as follows: "NOTICE. "I, Moses Mason, do take up and claim this valley on Smith creek, of some four hundred acres, more or less. "November, A. D. 1855. M. MASON. "A true copy of the original. "May first, 1856. ISAAC ROOP, Recorder." During the winter, Lassen and his companions busied themselves in sawing out lumber with a whip-saw for sluices, and splitting rails for fencing. About five thousand rails were gotten out, and in the spring were used to fence a portion of his land. The weather was so mild and pleasant that the stock passed through the winter with but little need of the hay he had provided. It is stated in the "Sketches" published in the Mountain Review, that in December, 1855, William Hill Naileigh (better known as Captain Hill), ------McMurtre, Captain Gilpin, and two others were piloted into the valley from Gold Canon, Nevada, by old Winnemucca, the Pah Ute chief, and that they prospected on Gold run, and discovered what was known as the Hill diggings. Early in the spring of 1856, Newton Hamilton, Isadore Meyerwitz, Joseph Lynch, and Commanche George (Marion Lawrence) also made locations of land on their own account. Commanche George located a tract near Janesville, which now forms a part of the Haley Brothers' ranch, plowing an acre of land, which he planted to corn and potatoes. He soon after sold it to Squire Lewis Stark of Quincy, for a trifling consideration. Newton Hamilton located a section of land, on which he made no improvements, and the same spring sold to A. G. Hasey,.L. C. McMurtre, and W. T. C. Elliott. Joseph Lynch and Isadore Meyerwitz each located a section of land below the site of Janesville, on which they did no work. Lynch afterwards sold his location to George Fry and DeWitt Chandler. In the month of July, Meyerwitz went out upon the lake to take a ride in a boat which he had built. With him were George Lathrop, ------ Reed, and Jack the Sailor, who were all residing with him in his cabin, and an Indian squaw. When they had proceeded some distance from the shore, the boat was capsized, and Meyerwitz and the squaw were drowned, the others beingable to swim to the shore. After this sad event, Lathrop became possessed of the location the drowned man had made. He did not improve it any, and the same year sold it Manly Thompson. On the fourteenth of March, 1856, Ebenezer Smith came over from Meadow valley, Plumas county, and located a section of land about three miles below that of Meyerwitz, on the south-west side of Honey lake, which he did not improve, and in January, 1857, sold to Nicholas Clark and Thomas Eaton. The former has retained the interest thus acquired from that day to the present time, and has resided upon the land for many years past. According to the records, these are all the land locations made prior to April 26, 1856, at which time the first attempt at a form of government was made. Others had come into the valley, however, and it is probable that many of these had taken possession of tracts of land which it was their intention to formally locate in the near future. Isaac N. Roop came back that spring and took possession of his old location, and occupied the log cabin he had built in-1854. Except a few entries made from time to time in the records of Plumas county, and a few documents now in the office of the secretary of state at Carson City, pertaining to the part taken by the citizens here in the organization of the territory of Nevada, the only records of this section prior to its organization as a county are contained in two little books, 7x9 inches in size. One contains all land entries and claims of all kinds, and the other the laws promulgated for the territory of Nataqua, arbitration trials, and other judicial proceedings. These books are in the possession of Mr. Arnold, Governor Roop's son-in-law. Up to this time no attention had been paid to the matter of a government, or the establishment of laws and the selection of officers to administer them. Now, however, so many people come into the valley, and interests became so likely to clash at various points, that it was deemed necessary by the settlers to establish some system of government. The exact location of Honey Lake valley was a matter of grave doubt. It lay so near the line that the majority of the settlers believed it to be beyond the limits of California, and therefore a portion of Utah, which then extended west to the California line. The eastern boundary of California was the 120° of west longitude, and this they all knew; but not having means at hand of ascertaining the location of that line, and thinking it was as far west as the summits that divided them from Plumas county, they imbibed the idea that they were beyond the limits of California, and without the jurisdiction of Plumas county, of which they would otherwise have formed a part. This line was known to cross Lake Tahoe at about its center, and a pretty definite idea of its location could have been obtained by climbing one of the summit peaks, and with a compass in hand marking the location of the lake, following the line north with the eye. This was not done, and probably was not thought of; nor were any other steps taken to ascertain the exact location of the valley. They were of the opinion, and acted upon the assumption, that they were east of the 120° of west longitude. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties San Francisco: Fariss & Smith (1882) File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/lassen/history/1882/illustra/earlyhis122gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/ File size: 28.2 Kb