Lassen County CA Archives History - Books .....Official History Of Lassen County 1882
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Book Title: Illustrated History Of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties

OFFICIAL HISTORY OF LASSEN COUNTY.

   Having maintained the inviolability of the domain of California, and having
settled by actual survey the fact that Honey Lake and Long valleys lay within
the boundaries of this state, the authorities of California were prepared to
listen to the grievances of her new citizens, and grant them all the relief
possible. That it was a hardship for the people of this section to be united in
a common government with those beyond the mountains was admitted by all, and
that a separate county organization was the character of relief required was
also an admitted fact; but the serious question was whether the population was
sufficient, and the amount of taxable property large enough, to properly support
a county government. The people living here—and they were the most interested in
the matter—thought they could. They had undertaken to sustain a county
government for Nevada, and they could see no reason why they could not do the
same for California.

   Though the people of Plumas county were loth to lose a strip of territory
that had now become so valuable, they recognized the fact that it would be an
injustice to their neighbors across the mountains, many of whom were old
pioneers of Plumas county, and they therefore made little objection to the
project of the formation of a new county. The legislature of 1863-4, after full
consideration of the subject, passed the Act of April 1, 1864, organizing a new
county out of the extreme eastern and north-eastern portion of Plumas and the
extreme eastern portion of Shasta counties. To this was given the name of
Lassen, in honor of old Peter Lassen, whose life and pioneer labors have been
fully given in the preceding pages. The full text of the organic Act is as follows:

CHAP. CCLXI.—An Act to create the County of Lassen, to define its boundaries,
and provide for its organization.  [Approved April 1, 1864.]

The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assembly, do
enact as follows:

   SECTION 1. There shall be formed, out of the eastern portion of Plumas and
the eastern portion of Shasta Counties, a new county, to be called Lassen County.

   SEC. 2. The boundary of Lassen County shall be as follows: Commencing on the
boundary line dividing Sierra and Plumas Counties, at a point on the summit of
the ridge which crosses said boundary line, and which divides Long Valley from
Sierra Valley; thence following the summit of said ridge (north-westerly), which
separates the waters of Feather River from those which flow into the Great Basin
and Honey Lake Valley, to a point due south from the Town of Susanville; thence
due south to the summit of the ridge separating the waters which flow into the
East Branch of the North Fork of Feather River, running through Indian Valley,
from those which flow into the North Fork of Feather River, running through the
Mountain Meadows; thence following the summit of said ridge to a point due south
from a point where the old and present traveled road from the Big Meadows, via
Hamilton's Ranch, first crosses the said North Fork of Feather River; thence due
north to the southern boundary line of Shasta County; thence west along said
boundary line to a point due south of the Black Butte Mountain; thence due north
to the southern boundary line of Siskiyou County; thence east along said
boundary line to the eastern boundary of the State; thence south along said
State line to the south-east corner of Plumas County; thence west along the
boundary line of Sierra and Plumas Counties to the place of beginning.

   SEC. 3. There shall be appointed by the Governor of this State a County Judge
for Lassen County, whose term of office shall continue until the first day of
January, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, and until his successor at the next
special Judicial election is elected and qualified.

   SEC. 4. There shall be held an election for county officers, and for the
location of the county seat of Lassen County, on the first Monday of May,
eighteen hundred and sixty-four, at which election shall be chosen by the
qualified voters of said county one District Attorney, one County Clerk, who
shall be ex-officio the Auditor, Recorder, and Superintendent of Public
Instruction, one Sheriff, one County Surveyor, one County Treasurer, one County
Assessor, one Coroner, who shall be ex-officio Public Administrator, and three
Supervisors, and two Justices of the Peace, and two Constables for each township
in the county.

   SEC. 5. F. Drake, C. Stockton, and NT. Breed, of Lassen County, are hereby
appointed Commissioners to designate additional precincts to those already
established within the boundaries of Lassen County as may be necessary for the
conveinence of the voters, with such powers as a Board of Supervisors are now
clothed by law. Said Commissioners shall appoint Inspectors and Judges of
Elections for the various precincts of said county. They shall also divide the
various townships of said county into three districts, to be known as Supervisor
Districts Number One, Two, and Three; and one of the Supervisors whose election
is herein provided for shall be chosen from each of the said districts by the
qualified electors thereof. Said Commissioners shall be a Board of Canvassers,
who shall receive the returns of election from the various precincts of said
county, and it shall be their duty, at the time in this Act specified, to
canvass or count the votes given for the different officers, with power to issue
certificates of election to each person receiving the highest number of votes
given for each separate office; they shall also canvass the votes cast for
county seat, and shall declare the place receiving the highest number of votes
the county seat of Lassen County.

   SEC. 6. Said Commissioners shall meet at Kingley's & Miller's store in
Susanville, Honey Lake Township, on the second Monday in April, eighteen hundred
and sixty-four, and after being duly sworn, by an officer qualified to
administer oaths, to truly perform the duties by this act imposed upon them,
shall designate precincts, if in their opinion others than those already
established are necessary to accommodate the voters of said county, and shall
appoint one inspector and two judges of election for each precinct in the
county. The commissioners shall choose one of their number as chairman, and one
as clerk, who shall keep a record of all their proceedings, which record shall
be deposited in the county clerk's office as soon as a clerk shall have entered
upon the discharge of his duties. A majority of said commissioners shall
constitute a quorum for the transaction of business

   SEC. 7. The commissioners, after having designated places of voting,
appointed inspectors and judges of election, as required in section six of this
act, shall give public notice of said precincts established in said county,
specifying in said notice the townships in which each of them is located; also
the time of holding the election, the number and name of each officer to be
elected in said county, and in each district and township of the same, by
notices posted at each precinct appointed at least ten days prior to the day of
election.

   SEC. 8. The inspectors and judges of elections of the several precincts shall
conduct said election in the manner as required by the* general election law of
this state, and shall return the list and poll-books kept by each of them to the
commissioners, at Kingley's & Miller's store in Susanville, Honey Lake Township,
on or before the Monday following the day of the election; and the said
commissioners are hereby required to be at said place on said day, for the
puspose of receiving the. same, and shall then and there open said returns, and
canvass the votes as required by the fifth section of this act. They shall make
a statement in writing, showing the votes given at each Election Precinct for
each person voted for, and the office for which each person was voted to fill;
and the person receiving the highest number of votes for each office shall be
declared elected to the same; and the said Commissioners shall issue to each
person so elected a certificate of election, which shall be signed by the
Chairman and Secretary.

   SEC. 9. Each person elected shall, within ten days after receiving his
certificate of election, file with the President of the Board of Commissioners
the bond required by law, and shall. qualify in the same manner as required by
the general law of this State before entering upon the duties of his office;
provided, that the County Judge appointed may qualify before the President of
the Board of Commissioners immediately after his appointment is made known to
him; and all other county and township officers may qualify before the County
Judge, in the same manner as required by the general law in the counties of this
State.

   SEC. 10. The President of the Board of Commissioners, without delay, shall
transmit to the Secretary of State an abstract of said election returns, and
shall file the original returns in the Clerk's office as soon as he shall have
entered upon the duties of office. Said Commissioners shall be allowed a
reasonable compensation for their services by the Supervisors of Lassen County,
to be audited and allowed as other county charges.

   SEC. 11. All other county officers elected under the provisions of this Act,
except Supervisors, whose terms of office are hereafter provided for, shall hold
office for two years from the first day of March, eighteen hundred and
sixty-four, and until their and each of their successors are elected and
qualified; provided, that Justices of the Peace and Constables shall hold office
for two years from the first day of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-four.

   SEC 12. The County Judge shall reside and keep his office in the township
where the county seat is located, and shall receive a salary of eight hundred
dollars per annum, which shall be paid quarterly, as other county charges. He
shall hold the Courts required by law to be held by County Judges, the same
commencing on the first Monday in March, June, September, and December;
provided, however, the County Judge may call and hold special terms of Probate
Court whenever public necessity may require.

   SEC. 13. The District Attorney shall receive a salary of four hundred dollars
per annum, to be paid quarterly, and such other fees as are allowed by general
law. All other county and township officers not specified in this Act shall
receive as compensation the fees allowed by law in Plumas County in this State.

   SEC. 14. The Board of Supervisors shall hold regular meetings at the county
seat the first Mondays in March, June, September, and December of each year.
Special terms may be held at the call of the President of the Board of
Supervisors; provided, not more than two special terms shall be held in any one
year. One of the three Supervisors shall be chosen from each of the districts.
The Supervisor elected from District Number One shall be President of the Board,
and shall hold office for one year from the first day of March, eighteen hundred
and sixty-four. The Supervisor elected from District Number Two shall hold
office for two years from said day." The Supervisor elected from District Number
Three shall hold office for three years from said day; and thereafter, every
Supervisor shall hold office for three years, and the one holding the oldest
commission shall be the President of the Board. Their compensation shall be
twenty cents for each mile necessarily traveled in going and returning to the
county seat to attend the regular meetings of said Board, and three dollars for
each day's attendance on the same.

   SEC. 15. Lassen County shall be a portion of the Second Judicial District,
and the District Judge shall hold one term of Court in said county, commencing
the second Monday in October, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, and every year
thereafter two terms, commencing on the first Monday in June and the second
Monday in October.

   SEC. 16. For Assembly representative purposes, • Lassen County shall be
attached to the County of Plumas; for Senatorial representative purposes, to the
Twenty-Fourth Senatorial District, and for Congressional representative
purposes, to the Third Congressional District.

   SEC. 17. Said Commissioners of election shall appoint three of the qualified
electors of Lassen County, one from each of the Supervisor Districts, and who
shall be freeholders in their respective districts, to select two sites, which
they shall deem most suitable for the county seat, who shall, prior to
performing the duties imposed upon them, first make oath, before some officer
qualified to administer the same, that they will faithfully and impartially make
the selection as by this Act required. Any two of said persons so appointed
shall be a quorum. After having made such selection, they shall report to the
Commissioners the sites so selected.

   SEC. 18. Said Commissioners shall cause to be posted in each precinct in said
county a notice of the selection so made for a county seat, at least ten days
before the day of election mentioned in section four of this Act. The notices
shall plainly designate by name each place selected to be voted for as county
seat, and the place receiving the highest number of votes shall be the county
seat of Lassen County.

   SEC. 19. All assessments for the current legal year shall be made by the
Assessor of Lassen County, and all taxes shall be collected by the Sheriff, who
shall be ex-officio Tax Collector; and the Board of Supervisors are hereby
authorized to levy and cause to be collected, in manner prescribed by the
general law. of this State and the provisions of this Act, an annual tax for
State and County purposes not to exceed the sum of two dollars and fifty cents
on each one hundred dollars of taxable property in the county.

   SEC. 20. On the application of the Recorder of the County of Lassen, the
County Recorder of Plumas County shall cause to be made and delivered to him
suitable books of record, containing certified copies of the records of all
deeds, patents, mortgages, claims, powers of attorney, mechanics' liens, and
other instruments recorded in the Recorder's office of Plumas County, and
affecting property situated in the County of Lassen, as described in this Act;
such books, containing said certified copies, shall have the same force and
effect as the original records in the County of Plumas. It shall be the duty of
the Board of Supervisors of Lassen County to provide for the payment of the
expenses necessarily and actually incurred in the purchase of said books and in
the copying of said records.

   SEC. 21. All actions, or proceedings in the nature of actions, whether
original or on appeal, civil or criminal, which shall be pending in the District
Court, County Court, or Probate Court, in and for said County of Plumas, at the
time of the organization of Lassen County, in which the defendants are residents
of Lassen County, or the property involved is situated in said County of Lassen,
shall be removed for trial and final determination to the proper Courts of
Lassen County, on motion of any party interested; provided, that all actions
which shall have been commenced for the collection of taxes and licenses shall
not be removed from the Courts of Plumas County.

   SEC. 22. By the provisions of this* Act, said Lassen County is hereby
required to provide for the payment of its proportion of the present
indebtedness of Plumas County, and shall make payment in the following manner:
The County Treasurer of Lassen County is required to draw from the Treasury of
Lassen County, and pay over to the Treasury of Plumas County, the sum of one
thousand dollars, on the first day of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-six;
and also the further sum of one thousand five hundred dollars on the first day
of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven; and on the payment of the
above-named sums of two thousand five hundred dollars, the County Treasurer of
Plumas County shall give a receipt in full for the payment of the indebtedness
specified in this section of this Act, and such receipt shall be a full and
final discharge of the said County of Lassen of its proportion of the
indebtedness of said Plumas County.

   SEC. 23. Said Lassen County shall, within eighteen months after its
organization, cause so much of its western boundary line which runs due north to
be surveyed, and shall give timely notice to the Supervisors of Plumas and
Shasta Counties when such survey will be made; and all expenses of said survey,
whether incurred on the part of Shasta or Plumas County, or otherwise, shall be
paid by Lassen County.

   SEC. 24. All Acts and parts of Acts in this State are hereby repealed, so far
as they conflict with the provisions of this Act.

   SEC. 25. This Act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

   In pursuance of the provisions of the above Act, the three commissioners
therein named, Frank Drake, H. C. Stockton, and L. N. Breed, met on Monday, the
eleventh of April, 1864, at Miller & Kingsley's store in Susanville, the place
designated in the statute, and organized by taking the oath before J. S. Ward,
and electing Mr. Drake chairman and Mr. Breed clerk. After perfecting their
organization, they adjourned to Masonic hall for the transaction of business.
Their first action was to create three supervisor districts, as follower
DISTRICT NO. 1.—"All that portion of territory belonging to Lassen county
situated and lying west of a line commencing at the summit of the mountains on
the line between Plumas and Lassen counties, south of a large pine tree that
stands near the monument of Peter Lassen, and running north to said tree; thence
to the western boundary of Hines' ranch; thence to the lower end of "Willow
Creek valley; thence due north to the Siskiyou county line." DISTRICT NO. 2.—"
All that portion of territory belonging to Lassen county situated and lying east
of the boundary line of District No. 1, and between that line and another line
commencing at the summit of the mountain on the line between Plumas and Lassen
counties, south of the eastern boundary of Clark & Hamilton's ranch, and running
north to the eastern boundary of said ranch; thence in a north-easterly
direction to the Hot springs, situated about four miles east of Shaffer's ranch;
thence east to the boundary line between California and Nevada territory."
DISTRICT No. 3.—" All that portion of territory belonging to Lassen county
situated and lying south and east of the eastern and southern boundary line of
District No. 2."

   The next action of the commissioners was the creation of four judicial
townships, with names and boundaries as follows: SUSANVILLE TOWNSHIP.—" All that
portion of territory embraced and situated in District No. 1." JANESVILLE
TOWNSHIP.—"All that portion of territory embraced and situated in District No.
2." HONEY LAKE TOWNSHIP.—:c All that portion of territory embraced and situated
in District No. 3, and north of the ridge dividing Honey Lake valley and Long
valley, where the present traveled road crosses said ridge." LONG VALLEY
TOWNSHIP.—"All that portion of territory embraced and situated in District No.
3, and south of the boundary line of Honey Lake township."

   After appointing the proper officers of election in the various precincts for
the election of county officers on the second of the ensuing May, the board
adjourned. After the election, they again convened, canvassed the returns, and
declared the following gentlemen duly elected the first officers of Lassen county:

DISTRICT ATTORNEY        E. V. Spencer, 
COUNTY SURVEYOR          E. R. Nichols.
SHERIFF                  James D. Byers.
COUNTY ASSESSOR          A. H. Brown.
COUNTY CLERK             A. A. Smith.
COUNTY CORONER           Z. J. Brown.
COUNTY TREASURER         E. D. Bowman.
SUPERVISORS              H. C. Stockton, E.G. Bangham, A. Evans.

   I. J. Harvey was appointed county judge a few days later, by Governor Low,
and the list of county officers was complete, for the clerk was ex-officio
superintendent of schools, and the coroner was ex-officio public administrator.

   On the sixth of March, 1871, the supervisors received a petition to create a
new township for Big valley and Hayden hill; but as it was irregular in form
they referred it back to the petitioners for correction. No further proceedings
in the matter were had until the February term, 1873, when the board created BIG
VALLEY TOWNSHIP—" Commencing at the north-west corner of the county; thence
along the northern line of the county to its north-east corner; thence along the
eastern line to a point intersected by the southern line of township No. 34,
north; thence following said township line westward to its intersection with the
western line of the county; thence northward along said line to the place of
beginning." On the fourth of May, 1874, the board ordered that "Big Valley
township be known and described as that portion of Lassen county included in
Providence, Washington, Pleasant Butte, and Cedar Bun school districts."

   The neat court-house shown on our title-page was constructed in 1867, at an
expense of more than $10,000. The contract was let on the fourth of February of
that year, to William Williams, for $9,850, and the building was completed and
occupied before the end of the year. It stands on a block of land which Governor
Roop donated to the county for that purpose, June 18, 1864, soon after the
county was first organized.

   When the county of Modoc was organized, with great difficulty and after a
hard struggle by its citizens, Lassen county maintained the integrity of its
territory. About the time Lassen county was formed, settlers began to enter the
extreme eastern end of Siskiyou county. Stock-raising was the first and is still
the leading industry. Bunch-grass grows in luxuriance in the many large and
small valleys, forming a veritable stockman's paradise. Gradually, Goose Lake
valley, Surprise valley, Warm Spring valley, Big valley, Fall River valley, and
many others, lying in eastern Siskiyou, north-western Lassen, and north-eastern
Shasta counties, became settled. The distance from these points to Yreka,
Susanville, or Shasta, where all county and legal business was transacted,
rendered the government of this region a matter of great difficulty and expense
to the counties and annoyance to the people. As soon as population became
sufficiently dense to support a county government without too severe a tax upon
the people, the question of the formation of a new county was discussed. To this
end the people of Surprise valley petitioned the legislature, in the fall of
1871, to create a new county, taking from the north end of Lassen and the east
end of Siskiyou and Shasta counties, and locate the county seat in that valley.
A counter petition was presented by the people living in Big valley and the
settlements along Pit river, who could not see how this move would settle their
difficulties, for the new county seat would be as far removed from them as was
the old.   The measure failed in the legislature.

   The project was not abandoned, and Assemblyman Cressler introduced a bill, in
1874, to create the county of Canby out of the east end of Siskiyou and the
north end of Lassen. The section under consideration had been brought more
prominently before the people by the Modoc War, which had held the public
attention the year before, and the name to be applied to the new county was
given in honor of General Canby, who lost his life in that campaign. This
movement was strenuously opposed by the people of Lassen county, with the
exception of those who resided in the section to be segregated. The total
population of Lassen was but little over 1,500, the assessment roll 11,200,000,
and the county debt $31,000. It was claimed that if the county was deprived of
this territory it would not be able to maintain a government, and would have to
be disorganized. This was a rather extreme view of the situation, but it would
certainly have been a great loss to this county, and one it was but illy able to
sustain. The people in the extreme north-eastern portion of Siskiyou county also
opposed the bill, for local reasons. They knew that if a portion of Lassen
county was taken in, the population in the southern portion of the new county
would be in a sufficient majority to secure the county seat, and therefore they
wanted Lassen county to remain intact.

   The measure was defeated in the legislature, in consideration of the
inability of Lassen county to spare any of its territory. Another bill to meet
the new requirements of the situation was immediately introduced by Mr.
Cressler. This provided for the formation of the county of Summit out of the
eastern end of Siskiyou alone. It became a law February 14, 1874, with the name
of the county changed to Modoc. Thus was Lassen county left unshorn.


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/official278ms.txt

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