Merced County CA Archives History - Books .....Settlement Of The Plains 1925
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Book Title: History Of Merced County California

CHAPTER XI

THE SETTLEMENT OF THE PLAINS

   The Merced County which we have seen, chiefly through the eyes of the county
seat, in the year immediately following the Civil War, may be called a static
Merced. Three or four years after the close of the war, when the ravages of that
conflict had been somewhat mended, there began what must probably be regarded as
the most important single movement in the whole history of the county—the
settlement of the plains, and the beginning of the great grain-farming days.

   We have had a look at the county through the columns of the Merced Herald, in
1865. Of the history of the county during the war itself there is little to be
gleaned directly from records. What little there is, is subject to grave
suspicion so far as its unbiased reliability is concerned, for those were times
of very warm feeling in Merced, "the South Carolina of California." We have seen
samples of the political editorials in the year after the war, and we may be
certain that they were not less warm—they and the general feeling they
reflected—while the war was still in progress. Of the county's earliest paper,
the Banner, there are no files in existence. A story of the Banner's stormy
history, from the time of its first issue on July 5, 1862, until its fatal
injury at the hands of Union soldiers some time in February, 1864, and its
complete demise several weeks later in the same year, has been written in the
1881 history of Elliott & Moore by Mrs. Rowena Granice Steele, wife and fellow
editor of the proprietor, Robert J. Steele. Her account makes the Banner and its
proprietors appear pretty much as martyrs, but her account is obviously a good
deal biased. When we hear from the children of early settlers, as we can, or
when we read it in Wigginton & Robertson's Herald, in the case of L. P. Hall,
alias Pierce, of the shortlived Democrat, that citizens of this county went to
Alcatraz during the war; when we hear of Harvey J. Ostrander, sturdy
representative of a mighty slim majority, sticking up the colors of the Union on
a pole in front of his house and preparing to stand guard over them with arms if
necessary; when such a man as J. C. James, a pioneer from the north in the early
sixties, remarks mildly, in reference to the raid on the Banner office, that he
"guesses they were disloyal," we get a few glimpses of the rather dimly outlined
obverse of the picture.

   Happily now, after two generations, the bitter feeling of those stormy days
is but a softened memory, and we may dwell more pleasantly on the kindlier
phases of the resemblance to the old South which fairly entitled the Merced
River settlements to the title mentioned—"the South Carolina of California."
There was a good deal of the kindness and hospitality of the South, which still
survives; there was a rather surprising lot, for so new a country, of the
feeling of aristocracy, limited doubtless or modified by the small number of
negroes—there were a few—for whom there was no closer substitute than the
Chinese and the Indians. We can hardly escape a suspicion that the very strong
tendency to settle along the river and creek bottoms was made stronger by the
fact that so many of the settlers came from river and creek bottoms back home.
There are cotton and cotton gins, there are Judges and Colonels, there is stress
laid upon gentlemen and the fine theory that they can do no wrong, there are
fine horses, there are camp-meetings, there are mansions, there are shootings.
If Huck Finn had floated down the Merced on the ferry boat that went to the
Tuolumne, the country, we imagine, would have looked familiar to him.

   The most of the settlement of course was along the Merced itself, though the
settlements on the creeks further south—Bear Creek, and especially Mariposa
Creek, and the smaller ones—must not be minimized. The Turner (or Turner &
Osborn) Ranch, where the first supervisors and the first court met, was west of
the present highway and the Central Pacific tracks, and J. B. Cocanour had a
place on Bear Creek clear down at what we now call Robla. But the Merced
settlements were continuous pretty well down to the San Joaquin, with the most
settlers from Forlorn Hope up to Merced Falls.

   J. W. Stockird, who is a grandson of Col. Archibald W. Stevin-son, and who
remembers back to the assassination of Lincoln, moved with his father and mother
from the Stevinson Ranch to Hopeton in 1867, where his father, John Thomas
Stockird, bought the old Barfield place. Mr. Stockird remembers that at that
time or earlier there were settlers along the river below Hopeton as follows:
Beginning where Livingston now is, and going down the river on the south side,
came first W. P. McConnell; then Phillip Henry Bink, just below Livingston; then
David Chedester, William C. Turner, W. G. Collier (then county surveyor), Col.
A. Stevinson, J. J. Stevinson, and Mahlon Stone. On thei north side there were
only about five, going down from the vicinity of Livingston: T. P. Carey, then a
place where Isom J. Cox afterwards lived, Adams, John Hawkins, who had the
ferry, and Judge George G. Belt. Going up from Livingston on the south, Neill
Brothers' place came down to McConnell's.  Their house was in the bottom near
where R. Shaffer afterwards built the house on the bluff. Next up the river on
the south side was Augustus ("Gus") Jones, then Dr. Joshua Griffith, then the
Cocanour place, now known as the Borland Ranch, next Reuben T. Chandler, and
then J. M. Montgomery. Going up on the north side there were W. P. McSwain, J.
B. McSwain, and one other, and then William J. (Doc.) Barfield, Dan Ingalsbe,
Albert Ingalsbe (in the bottom under the bluff), and Samuel H. P. Ross,
adjoining Albert Ingalsbe. Ross married the widow of "Jim" Ruddle, John Ruddle's
brother. Above Ross came John Thomas Stockird, on the place first owned by the
Ruddles, then by Barfield, then by a man named Corcoran, before Stockird, and
now known as the Silman place; and above Stockird came Erastus and Tom Eagleson.

   There were six ferries on the Merced: John Hawkins', below the Stevinson
place; McSwain's, about where what is called the Ward Ranch is, a little above
the present McSwain Bridge; Cox's Ferry, opposite Hopeton; and Young's, Murray's
and Phillips's, these last three bunched within two miles or less from Merced
Falls down. We read in the papers a little later of an attempt to establish a
ferry more nearly opposite Snelling, and also a "Free Bridge," but it does not
appear whether they were established.

   In 1865 Harvey J. Ostrander sunk what is said to have been the first well on
the plains out away from the streams. Its location is given in the Elliott &
Moore history of 1881 as about half-way between Bear Creek and Mariposa Creek
andl about three miles east of where Merced was afterwards built. This well was
used to water sheep; but it demonstrated that the plains were habitable, and in
the same year Mr. Ostrander settled on the plains not far from where Planada now
is. Others, stockmen and grain-farmers, appear gradually to have followed suit,
though apparently not on any very large scale for about three years.

   In August, 1868, after the Herald established by Wigginton & Robertson had
run its course, Robert J. Steele, of the Banner, again appears in the Merced
County journalistic field. He was just nicely in time to catch the movement with
which this chapter-deals, as it struck its stride. In Vol. I, No. 1, of Steele's
Herald, August 22, 1868, we ,read:

   "Immigrants Arriving.—During the week we have noticed several immigrant
wagons containing families just arrived overland from the States, pass through
town on their\way to Bear Creek and Mariposa Creek, where they will settle and
enter into the business of farming. We are informed that settlements are being
rapidly formed in the southerly portion of this county, and it is hard to tell
which portion of our vast plains which have hitherto been given/ up to the
pasturage of wild cattle and horses that roamed over them at will, shall become
the most densely populated. The tide of immigration has set in this way, and
will doubtless continue, until every nook and corner that can be made habitable
is filled."

   The same issue chronicles the birth of a new town and the growth of on old.

   "New Town.—Dover, situated on the San Joaquin River, five miles above the
mouth of the Merced, is a new town that has but recently been laid off and
commenced to be settled. We are informed that building is going on and that
already a store has been established by the Messrs. Simpson, which supplies the
people with dry goods, groceries, hardware, and other necessaries. The place
supplies the best landing for steamers on the east bank of the San Joaquin of
any other (sic) point in the county and is the natural outlet for the immense
trade that will in one or two years be built up in this county. That portion of
the county is being rapidly settled up by industrious farmers who will, the
coming fall, sow the lands with wheat, thereby adding to the general wealth,
commerce, and. prosperity of the State. The place is of easy access from all
parts of the county south of the Merced River, and in future years must
necessarily grow to be an important shipping point, and the country to the
eastward of it will be in one or two years more at farthest, what Paradise
Valley is at the present time—the granary of the State."

   It is a rash man who will put a prophecy in print to be read sixty years
later, but in this case six years would have served as well as sixty to refute
the editor's enthusiasm about the permanence of the new town. We read in another
reference to Dover, some time within a few months after this one, that the town
was started about the middle of July, 1868; and W. J. Stockton says it was no
longer in existence when he came to the West Side in 1872. A careful reading of
the newspaper references to river navigation along through these years would
disclose that the men of that time had not learned as much about the ups and
downs—particularly the downs—of the San Joaquin and its tributaries as we know
now. A lot of that knowledge was to be acquired in the costly school of
experience during the next year or two. We shall see at the end of July of the
year following this a hope expressed by the editor that the water will remain
high enough for navigation for a few weeks more to enable the farmers to get
their crops to market; and we shall see, as we should expect, that it was a vain
hope. A lot of them were left with large quantities of grain on hand, warehouses
had to be built—at Hill's Ferry and Dover among other places—and there were hard
times on account of inability to get crops to market and convert them into money.

   To look back from the vantage point of 1925 at Editor Steele's comments on
the events in the midst of which he moved, affords as interesting and convincing
an instance as could well be had of the inability of a contemporary properly to
see and estimate the broad trends of the history that is being made while he
looks on. From Snelling up the river into the mining country was the old
established order of things; the San Joaquin and the Sacramento were also
established as main avenues of heavy transportation; and the product of the new
kind of farming was bulky—it could not) be driven to market on its own four
feet; and moreover, it was soon to exceed in quantity anything that could- be
grasped by even a pretty vivid imagination. Also the cause and the effects of
railroads were not so well known as they are now, for railroads were exceedingly
new—it was not until the spring after Steele started his Herald that the Central
and Union Pacific met at Promontory Point. So if he exults a little as he tells
of people moving their buildings from Coulterville down to Snelling, and fails
to realize that Snelling in a few years will fall away towards the decay which
is claiming the mountain town; if he travels through the busy short-lived towns
that shipped their grain by water along the Tuolumne, and fails to realize that
the railroad will be the end of these, and that even if they were to stay,
Snelling was not due for a share of their prosperity because of the fact that it
was above the head of navigation, he is no worse a prophet than many who have
prophesied since. At any rate he tells us a vivid story of his times. In the
same first issue we read:

   "Merced Falls.—This place, at which is situated the new woolen mills, just
now about completed, presents quite a lively appearance, and will soon be a
manufacturing town of great importance. The woolen mills will be set in
operation in the course of about two or three weeks, which will give employment
to a large number of persons and soon build up the place to become the largest
town in the county. The machinery will be run by water, of which there is
abundance for ten times the power required to propel the machinery now about to
be set in operation. The flocks on the hills and plains in the immediate
vicinity of the factory will supply wool of every grade desired at the lowest
price, and we think the success of the -enterprise cannot fail to induce other
capitalists to embark in the business of manufacturing at other points both
above and below the Falls. The aspect of the town has changed within a few
months past from a dilapidated mining town to that of a brisk and growing
business place. Property is looking up, and in a few months the population of
that portion of the valley will be double or treble what it has been in past
years."

   August 29, 1868: "More Immigrants.—During the week we have noticed several
wagons pass our door which had the appearance of having crossed the plains this
season, filled with families which were on their way to homes in the great
valley to the southward. Those arriving are usually people from the South and
West, who have fled from the reign of terror "which prevails in the late slave
States, and come here in hope of finding homes where they can live in peace
under the forms of constitutional law. They have been driven away from their
country, their homes, kindred, and property by the tyrrany of the military
despots appointed by a lawless set of usurpers holding the reigns (sic) of
power, and come among us in the hope of carving out for themselves and families,
by the sweat of their brows at honest labor, a comfortable competence. Our
earnest wish is that their fondest hopes will be realized, and that they will
soon be enabled to give aid and encouragement to the unfortunate ones who are
forced by sheer poverty to remain in the stricken land from which they have so
lately fled. Lend them a helping hand."

   Also on August29, 1868: "Crops.—The harvest in the valley is now over, and we
hear no complaint among our farmers except of bountiful crops and the distance
necessary to convey their crops overland to find a market. Cheap and rapid means
of transportation is the great disideratim (sic) now, for the product is so
great that the market afforded by the mining counties contiguous will not
suffice. Improved navigation on our streams, and railroad communication with
tide water must be an accomplished fact in a short time, for the people will no
longer remain behind the balance of the world in these conveniences."

   September 5, 1868: "Stockton and Merced Railroad.—A meeting of the directors
of this company was held last evening, and the following officers were elected:
President, Dr. E. S. Holden; Vice-president, Dr. C. Grattan; Secretary, N. M.
Orr; Treasurer, E. R. Stockwell; Attorney, E. S. Pillsbury. We clip the above
from the Stockton Gazette of Tuesday." The Herald then goes on to say it expects
the books to be opened for stock subscriptions, and that the proposed railroad
will be of great benefit to the farmers.

   September 5, 1868: "The San Joaquin Settlement.—We are informed that that
portion of the valley in this county and Fresno bordering on the San Joaquin
River, continues to fill up rapidly with settlers. Large tracts of land have
been purchased and people are coming in and erecting houses as fast as building
materials can be procured from below. Notwithstanding that portion of the county
has been permitted to lay undisturbed by the plow of the agriculturalist until
the present time, unnoticed and unthought of as a farming country, yet it is
destined to become the most productive portion of the San Joaquin valley. The
valley is so extensive, and the soil so rich, that there is no possibility of
that section failing to become one of the a few years at most, the largest town
or city on the San Joaquin most productive portions of the State. In that
locality will be, in River or its tributaries above Stockton.   Dover has a
future of prosperity and rapid and permanent growth that all may envy, but few
will be able to rival in any agricultural country. Trade is springing up, and in
a few months what was, one year ago, an open, wild prairie, will be a thriving
town and densely settled surroundings. The people now settling in that locality
are a thorough-going, industrious, and intelligent class, and are imbued with a
spirit of improvement to an extent that all obstacles will be surmounted that,
lay in the way of building up their place. Persons in search of permanent homes
could not do better than pay Dover a visit and examine the country dependent
upon it for a shipping point. The State affords but few localities preferable to
it for settlement, and we are pleased to see the attention of the people
arriving in the country directed to it."

   In the issue of September 12 the editor calls attention to "our Tuolumne City
advertisements." He also has this to say on the subject of fires:

   "Fire.—As usual during the dry season, this summer has witnessed many
conflagrations that have rendered houseless and homeless many who were in good
circumstances, and reduced them to a condition of want. . . ." The editor
recommends care about fire; his successors have learned to make their similar
recommendations at the beginning of summer.

   September 19: Under the head "New Post Master," we are informed that Samuel
Shears, Esq., has been made post master at Snelling, and that John S. Williams,
his predecessor, remains deputy.

   Going back to September 12: "Navigation Closed.—The navigation on the
Tuolumne River above Tuolumne City has now closed for the season, leaving that
place the head of navigation. We were informed while at Paradise this week, that
J. D. Peters, of Stockton, was transporting his grain overland to Stockton by
teams, paying seven dollars per ton freight. Bad for Peters, but good for the
teamsters."

   There is a good deal about Paradise and Tuolumne City in the Herald and its
successor, the Argus, along in the late sixties and early seventies. Paradise
was about three miles below the present highway bridge across the Tuolumne at
Modesto, and Tuolumne City about nine miles—both on the Tuolumne. There is quite
an exchange of journalistic compliments, in the good old manner, between Steele,
of the Herald and Argus, and the editor of the Tuolumne City News. One of the
matters which occasioned an exchange of shots was the case of Peter Henderson,
referred to in the chapter of county boundaries. When the courts had finally
decided that seven miles down the San Joaquin from the mouth of the Merced meant
that distance measured along the meanders and not in a straight line, Steele had
placed himself in a position where he was badly exposed to the News man's guns,
and he saves himself from a complete rout only by attacking the enemy vigorously
on an entirely different subject.

   The issue of September 26 affords this reminiscence of still earlier times,
from an exchange, the Amador Ledger:

   "Four Grizzlies Killed.—Last Sunday night, four grizzly bears were killed at
Bear Valley, on the road between Silver Mountain and the Big Trees."

   The issue of October 3, 1868, contains another story of immigrants, of
especial interest because it appears to have been the party which included
County Recorder J. C. Ivers' family, and the county recorder himself, at a very
tender age, They came, not from the East, but from Napa County. This is the story:

   "They Come.—A friend from Bear Creek, who is himself a new settler in that
locality, informed us on Tuesday last that fifteen families had arrived there
from Napa County and formed a settlement upon that rich body of1 land the day
previous. We are pleased to welcome them to our county, and hope they will be
followed by a sufficient number of hardy industrious farmers to occupy and
cultivate every acre of land in the county. We regard the settlement of those
people in this county as an excellent recommendation to our county for the
richness of its soil, as they come from a county noted for the production of
large quantities of grain, and the inference is that those who have migrated
hither from that county are experienced farmers and capable of judging of the
capabilities of our soil for the production of the California cereals. And too
they will probably introduce among us improved methods of farming that have not
heretofore been adopted by our people, and thus add still more to the prosperity
of this section of the State. In this country muscle is capital, and therefore
population is wealth, and we regard the acquisition of population now going on
as so much added to the wealth of our county."

   Richard Ivers, Michael Dugan, Joseph Sullivan, and Patrick Carroll took a
section of land each, the four lying in a square two miles on a side. The
compact shape was a convenience for the purpose of patrolling it to drive off
the herds of wild horses and half wild cattle which roamed over the plains. This
is the first instance we have found of that considerable settlement by Irish
people which took place in the early grain days. Quite a number of families now
extremely well known on the East Side came in about that time. Robert Sheehy was
at that time in the grain business, both growing and shipping, in the country
from Napa to Vallejo, and he was instrumental in sending a number of Irish
families here; and others of these came from the Napa vicinity. The Rahilly
family came from that section. County Clerk P. J. Thornton's father came here
also in the late sixties, and before the railroad was built he hauled from
Stockton, out across the San Joaquin, up the West Side, and. back across again
at Dover, the lumber of which the oldest part of the house on the Alfarata Ranch
was built. The route is instructive as to transportation routes and difficulties
at that time. The tributaries of the San Joaquin River from the Sierra Nevadas
were of course the reason for going over to the West Side; and clear from the
time of Fremont's trip in 1844 down to the time when the railroad bridged these
streams in 1872, they continued to offer obstacles, with their currents and the
marshy areas that border them, that were very difficult to pass.

   The remaining fifteen families which came in this party Mr. Ivers does not
remember. They did not settle in the immediate neighborhood of the four
mentioned. Charles S. Rogers, whose father, Nathaniel Sheffield Rogers, came to
this same neighborhood with a party largely from San Joaquin County somewhere
not far from this time, tells some interesting things about life there in the
early days. N. S. Rogers settled about where Mr. Doty now lives. Job Wheat at
that time was in the sheep business. He had a cabin about where Mr. Beutel now
lives, in 1868, when the Rogers family arrived. He also had a sheep cabin on the
high land known as "the Bluff," this side of Amsterdam, on what is now part of
Bert Crane's cattle range. The cabin by day, and the light in it by night, were
visible for miles; and the cabin was called "the Lighthouse." It was a useful
landmark for laying a course across the largely uncharted plains between Bear
Creek and the Merced River.

   A man named Oliver and N. S. Rogers heard of this country and came here
together. Oliver owned the land, or some of it, on which the town of Merced was
afterwards built, and he lived about where the Mercy Hospital now is. J. F.
Goodale lived a little further dowp Bear Creek and on the other side, along in
the vicinity of Dr. Thomas' place and the Santa Fe crossing. This place about
the Santa Fe crossing is a piece of high land where the Indians, and the
Mexicans after them, used to gather, Mr. Rogers says; he has in his collection
one of those flat stones, somewhat like a mortar, used by the Indians in
grinding acorns, which was dug up at this place.

   Mr. Rogers tells two little stories of early days that help us to realize
what life on the plains was like then. Some Americans had a bunch of horses in a
corral at the Goodale place and left them without a guard for a short time. When
they returned they found that Mexicans had come in and roped and thrown them,
and shaved the mane and tail of every horse but one, to get the hair for hair
ropes, riatas, and bridles.

   Ned Clark, a Canadian who came here with N. S. Rogers and Oliver, lived in a
cabin near a little new house of Mr. Beutel's just a mile or two out the British
Colony Road. There were great numbers of cattle roaming over the plains, and
among them there was an old bull belonging to J. M. Montgomery. This bull made
itself a particular nuisance to the newly arrived farmers in their agricultural
operations, and it came to be one of their favorite outdoor sports to put a
charge of shot or two into the old bull's tough hide. Clark was among the most
enthusiastic of the bull-shooters. One day Clark was away from his cabin, and
someone must have used shot that was too coarse, or fired at too short a range,
for when Clark returned home he found that the bull, determined to the end, had
come up to his cabin door and fallen dead across the threshold right into the
cabin. This picturesque little story illustrates what soon grew to be one of the
big problems of the times. There were cattle men who had been accustomed to let
their stock run at will, there was stock which was not to be deterred from
running at will, and now there were farmers whose farming could not be carried
on if the stock was to be permitted to run over their crops. There could not
help but be a lot of friction; and there was, as we shall see.

   On October 3, 1868, we run across this: "Paradise City.—We are informed that
the handsome and growing little town of Paradise City, situated on the north
bank of the Tuolumne River, still continues to improve rapidly, the new
buildings being brick, showing that the people have confidence in the permanence
of the place. Mr. Charles S. Peck, one of our townsmen, is the contractor and
builder of brick buildings there, and is now engaged in the erection of a three
story brick hotel. . . . He has also closed a contract for ... a large two story
brick school house. The buildings erected in Paradise City by Mr. Peck this
season would of themselves make quite a town. It will at no distant day become a
large and important town and a convenient shipping point for a large scope of
country. We also find in the same column a reader calling attention to the "ad"
of "The Paradise Flouring Mills," elsewhere in the issue. They were run by
"Messrs. Herron & Co.," and "These mills are located in the center of a section
of country noted for raising the best article of wheat grown on the Pacific
coast." We are assured that they are erected to make the "best article of flour
that human skill, aided by the best of machinery, can produce."

   In the issue of October 10 is an editorial starting out, "Wine is a mocker
and strong drink is raging," inspired by the fact that a bottle of the mocker
from the cellar of J. B. Cocanour has been left at the Herald office. Steele
gives us to understand that he tried it only on some visitors and the printer's
devil, and says the visitors, "who claim to be judges," pronounced it "equal to
the best quality produced in Sonoma and Los Angeles," and adds, "As an article
of commerce we desire to see the production of wine fostered and encouraged."

   In the same issue is an announcement that Judge Talbott will address the
people of Hopeton on the political issues of the day. About this time the name
Forlorn Hope seems to have been dropped; it could not hope to survive with the
booster abroad in the land. There is also an election proclamation by the
Governor, in an even-numbered year.

   In the next issue we note several advertisements from Tuolumne City; in fact
Tuolumne City advertises to an extent which throws all the other towns that
appear as advertisers decidedly into the shade. There are the Covert House, Mrs.
Jane Goodrich, late proprietress of the Granite House, Chinese Camp (one of the
straws indicating the movement away from the mining country) ; Robert Phillips,
general store, Front Street, on the levee; George H. French, Main Street, stoves
and tin ware, wood and willow ware, Douglas lift pumps, tin, copper, and sheet
iron work; Dudley's Hotel and Restaurant, corner Main and Covert Streets, Albert
A. Dudley; and the Pioneer Hotel, Front Street, R. B. Robinson, proprietor.
There are news stories— meaning of course the little essays characteristic of
the newspapers of the times, compounded half of news, half of comment—on the
railroad, Republican speaking, supervisors' election; and lower down, J. B.
Cocanour's announcement that he is a candidate for reelection.

   On October 24 there is a communication to the effect that someone offers to
open a high school if $100 a month can be raised for it, and that J. M.
Montgomery, Dr. G. M. Summers, and Silas March are named as trustees. And there
is the news that there is a scarcity of teams, because so many of them have been
taken off the roads onto the farms. Also in this and the next issue we learn
that there has been an earthquake.   Earthquake stories occur every now and then.

   Along through the winter we read, in November, that Cocanour was reelected,
that they are growing cotton down on the Kings River, that many of the new
settlers are without shelter, especially around Dover (due partly to lack of
transporattion for building materials), that Dr. J. W. Fitzhugh has resumed
practice, that R. Simpson is a merchant and Mr. Jolly justice of the peace at
Dover, and that Wigginton & Howell have a real estate office functioning (the
first bank in Merced seems afterwards to have grown from it). In December there
is a Christmas ball at Paradise, and editorials appear on a proposed new mail
route across from the San Luis Ranch by way of Dover and Hill's Ferry, the
railroad, smallpox in the State, a new pork-packing business by J. M.
Montgomery, and a new road and ferry at Dover. There is a Christmas story, "The
Old Slave," by Mrs. Rowena Granice Steele. Surveyor General Bost is home for
Christmas, and Howard and Brother have returned from a prolonged absence. In
January there is something about a "Sycamore Bend & Tejon Railroad," an item
that men are wanted by the farmers, an "ad." of H. Shaw, Blacksmith, Dover, a
story that navigation has reopened on the Stanislaus and the Tuolumne, an
incidental mention of "quite a village of Chinese" in Snelling, a considerable
write-up of the San Joaquin Valley from the San Francisco Call, some Millerton
correspondence, and a story about some blooded cattle which J. M. Montgomery has
bought. We learn there are two boats a week to Dover, anel that a deer has been
killed near Snelling. Along in February appear a discussion of "Bridges Needed,"
paper items all local on account of the rain, and comment on mail failures,
overflow of the Merced, "our hunters" killing 213 quail, and the town improving.

   In March, we find mention of the Stockton & Tulare Railroad, spring plowing
(this was on the uplands north of Snelling), and that Cole Fitzhugh is home from
an extended hunt in the Coast Range, where he shot a grizzly; and there is an
editorial on "Preparing to Live," about permanent improvements in Snelling, and
another on "Our Woolen Mills."

   On April 3 we read of more improvements in Dover, and there is a story about
quite a brisk business having been done during the past two weeks by our people
in locating lands, mostly north of the Merced. "The best lands of the county
have all been entered," we are told, which statement we must not permit to lead
us into drawing any mental picture of these best lands as actually settled. This
was about the time when Isaac Friedlander and William S. Chapman, and some
smaller fry, had "entered" thousands and thousands of acres in this valley. One
gets the impression from the records of the late sixties and early seventies
that they owned nearly the whole country. Friedlander is referred to in
connection with the building of the first canal on the West Side, a little later
than this. He was a Jew, a grain-shipper of San Francisco, and apparently
aspired to own a grain-raising empire in the San Joaquin Valley. Chapman &
Montgomery we see referred to as owners of the Chowchilla Ranch, and Chapman
owned a lot of land in the Plainsburg vicinity, and a lot more further north and
west, plains on both sides of the lower Merced. In a notice of an application
for new roads out across the plains towards Dover and Bear Creek, we see the
name of J. W. Mitchell as one of the owners of the land to be passed over.

   The land was being "entered," but there was still a lot of elbow room. O. H.
Terrell relates that as a newcomer in Snelling in January, 1870, he went to work
for J. M. Montgomery, and Mr. Montgomery sent him on horseback down to J. K.
Mears on Mariposa Island with a letter about the purchase of some sheep, and
that he passed through the country between the present sites of Atwater and
Buhach. There were no fences; and there were no towns, and no railroads, or
roads in the way. When he had got Mears's answer, he carried it up Bear Creek to
Montgomery's ranch about ten miles above where Merced is now; and the only signs
of habitation he passed along the way on this journey were the old adobe house
at Robla and M. Goldman's new store down towards the Meadowbrook Farm. Where
Merced now stands he rode through tall weeds, up to his waist as he sat on his
horse. Montomery and Cocanour, and perhaps a few others, had a few small pieces
of land taken up along Bear Creek where there were water-holes, usually a forty
in a place. Montgomery had six forties where Merced now is, patented in 1862.
There was a lot of land patented before 1870, however, and it is obvious that
Terrell must have passed within no such great distance of some settlers, as for
example Ivers, Carroll, Dugan, Sullivan, Rogers, et al., out British Colony way,
but apparently the country wasn't badly crowded. When he reached Montgomery's
ranch, and Montgomery had come up from the Chowchilla, Terrell returned to
Mariposa Island and Mears sent a man with him, and they drove the sheep across
through Sandy Mush to the Chowchilla Ranch; and the only man they encountered on
the way was Silas Bowman, who had a little shack out in that country.

   Returning to the Herald, we read on April 17, 1869, that Captain J. G.
Morrison, a newcomer of a year, and Samuel H. P. Ross are candidates for the
Assembly, George Turner and W. S. Weed for treasurer, and Samuel Shears for
sheriff. In the same issue:

   "The Railroad Line.—A corps of engineers passed through our county this week,
making a preliminary or experimental survey of routes for a railroad. We are not
informed whether it is the Western Pacific or the Stockton and Tulare Railroad
Company that is making the survey, but from the silence of the Stockton papers
on the subject, we judge . . . the former. . . . The farmers along the route are
very much encouraged at the prospect of soon having increased mail and
transportation facilities."

   On May 1 we read that the farmers of the county are stocking up with farming
machinery. Also that a day has been fixed for the meeting of the Union and
Central Pacific at Pomontory Point. On the 15th, the Millerton correspondent,
writing under date of May 10, says Converse's Ferry on the San Joaquin River has
become entirely ruined and it is almost impossible to run the ferry boat. "At
the present time it is impossible to cross teams," he writes, "and travel is at
a standstill at that point."

   On the 22nd: "Improvements.—Our town is now beginning to show signs of
improvement. Mr. J. M. Montgomery has in course of erection a brick building,
designed for a family residence, which when completed will be the largest, most
substantial and costly building in the county. Mr. Leeson is engaged in removing
his buildings from Coulterville, and will soon have them put up on the vacant
lot on the south side of Lewis Street, adjoining Anderson's livery stable. A
contract is about being let for the Odd Fellows' Hall, which is designed to be a
magnificent structure, on the vacant lot adjoining the Gait House. We observe
that large bills of lumber are being ordered by Mr. Anderson, to be sawed at the
mills above Coulterville, for which Mr. A. is agent. These facts may be taken as
signs that the era of the prosperity of our town is approaching. Surrounded as
we are by a rich and rapidly improving farming country, the growth of the town
may be considered permanent, and every year will add to its business prosperity
and the number of its inhabitants."

   Under the title "Haying," we read that the farmers are cutting large
quantities, and that they are using modern mowers and rakes.

   "Mariposa Creek.—We hear from this locality, so peculiarly favored by nature,
that the early sown crops look splendidly, and are now so far advanced towards
maturity that there can scarcely be a doubt but that they will turn out well at
harvest. The same may be said of Bear Creek; and on this river, the prospect was
never better, the season suiting the most of our grain lands exactly."

   "Cattle.—We observed several large droves of cattle being crossed at the ford
just above this place, the past week, on their way to market, having been
purchased by professional drovers of our citizens. Cattle bring paying prices
now, and each drove that moves northward brings thousands of dollars into our
county."

   On May 29 we read that a Major Rowen has been hurt in an accident while
mowing for Mr. Adam Kahl on Mariposa Creek.

   "Bear Creek.—The crops on Bear Creek, since the late rains, have improved
greatly, and the farmers are in better spirits. Most of the.grain crops were
somewhat late. . . ."

   "The San Joaquin and Lower Merced.—The crops in the above section of the
country, so we are informed, . . . have come out amazingly since the late rains.
Many of the fields were planted late in the season, and those which have not
been fed down by the large bands of cattle and horses which rove about over the
adjoining plains will yet make pretty fair crops. Though the season has been
unfavorable to those just beginning to farm upon the plains, none are
discouraged.  . . ."

   June 5, 1869: "Sandy Mush is the euphonious name of a new settlement formed
near the San Joaquin River between the Chowchilla River and Mariposa Creek. In
the settlement are about forty voters, all of whom located there last winter and
planted crops. All are pleased with their location, and though they planted late
and have been considerably troubled by the cattle and other stock running at
large on the plains, they will reap an abundance of grain to supply the incoming
immigration to that section. The wheat and barley growing in the new section
will not come up to the average of older settlements where lands were
summerfallowed, but having proved their lands to be productive they consider
themselves permanently located, and are at work building them good homes. Of the
forty-two voters in the settlement, who will vote at the Lone Tree precinct, not
one of them will vote the negro and Chinese suffrage ticket."

   What looked most important in 1869 does not look so now. Probably most of
these forty-two, sound Democrats as they seem to have been, were within about
three years to vote to move the county seat away from Snelling over to Merced.
But Merced had not yet come into existence; a little later the editor tells of
discovering it, in its very early youth.

   "Hopeton.—Our sister town, down in the 'Big Bottom,' gives signs of progress
and improvement. The Messrs. Eagleson are doing a lively business in their
mercantile establishment, and we are informed that a blacksmith and
wagon-maker's shop will be started there on a large scale the coming week.
Besides the store of the Messrs. Eagleson, whose advertisement can be found in
our columns, there is another store, two schools, two churches, and a collection
of neat dwelling and farm houses. The crops in the neighborhood—as they always
have been—are excellent, and the people are prosperous. It is, in fact, the most
wealthy locality in our county, and is daily receiving accessions to its
population."

   "Preaching.—The Rev. Mr. Culp, of the Methodist Church, South, will preach at
the Court House in this place tomorrow (Sunday) evening. Services to commence at
early candle light."

   "Thresher For Sale.—See the advertisement of R. Simpson—of Dover—of a
thresher and horsepower for sale. The season for harvesting the ripening grain
is now upon us, and a first rate opportunity is thus offered for any one in the
county desiring such a machine to purchase." The "ad.": "One Sweepstakes
Thresher!! With Pitts' Ten-Horse-Power. For Sale by R. Simpson, Dover."

   There is a column "ad." by Wigginton & Howell, Real Estate Agents, who
habitually run a column. They offer, in this particular "ad.", an 800-acre farm
on the Tuolumne at $10 an acre; a first-class bottom farm on the Merced River a
few miles below Snellings, 210 acres all best farming land, well improved, with
good fence and buildings, at a bargain and on easy terms; another of 550 acres
on the Merced, 400 acres fenced, 300 acres in wheat and barley, first-class
buildings and orchard, well stocked with horses, cows, and farming implements,
including a header, all for $3000 cash if sold by the 20th day of June. "A rare
bargain; $8,000 is not two-thirds of its value."

   On June 12, there is a brief account of the assassination of Judge George G.
Belt:

   "The Dennis-Belt Homicide.—On Friday evening last, Judge George G. Belt, one
of our citizens, . . . was assassinated in cold blood by a Mr. Dennis, a man who
formerly resided in this county." Belt, according to the story, was shot from
behind, on the streets of Stockton. He left a wife, four boys, and five girls.

   There is a paragraph about crops in Fresno—excellent crops reported from the
Mississippi settlement on the San Joaquin, fifty bushels of wheat, and barley
proportionally more; also from the farms on Big Dry Creek and the Kings River.

   June 19, 1869: "Heavy Grain.—Samples from Neil McSwain's farm on Bear Creek
about fifteen miles south of this place, . . . heads of barley five inches long,
heads of wheat from seven to eight. Heads of wheat from Mr. Kahl's farm from
eight to eight and one-half inches, barley equally as good." "Short crops will
be considered a myth in this section in future years under our improved system
of farming."

   "The First Fruits of the Season." Under this title the editor acknowledges
his thanks for some apples and apricots from L. D. Durgin, on the Scott Ranch.

   "Beyond the Joaquin.—Several of our citizens have visited that portion of our
county lying west .of the San Joaquin River this week, and all agree in
pronouncing the prospect there the most lovely and promising that the eye of man
ever beheld. The wheat crops are yielding, as well as can be ascertained, from
thirty to fifty bushels to the acre, and the scene is as lively as the most
stirring business man could wish."

   "Fire on the Plains.—We learn from a gentleman just in from the Chowchilla
River, that there was considerable excitement among the people in that section
of the country about fire on the plains. He saw several persons who had been
engaged in 'fighting' the all-devouring element, but being a stranger, could not
tell us the exact locality in which it was raging."

   "Grasshoppers.—Considerable complaint is made by our river valley farmers of
a destructive raid now in progress by these pests. . . ." On June 26, we read
that complaints of their ravages are on the increase, and that G. W. Halstead,
Sr., has cut his corn crop for fodder to save it. The small grain, says the
story, is ripe and safe from the grasshoppers.

   In the issue of the 26th we read that the woolen mill at Merced Falls is
almost shut down for want of labor. Superintendent Nelson has discharged forty
Chinese the week before and sent to San Francisco for more. Also, there is a new
store of Simon & Davis at Dover, and another of Sensabaugh & Silverberg at
Merced Falls. There is a Masonic "In Memoriam" resolution for Brother J. T.
Stockird. Mark Howell, J. G. Morrison, and I. N. Ward, are the committee who
drafted it. There is an announcement that there will be a Fourth of July
celebration at Paradise City.

   On July 3 an editorial "To Our Patrons," asks that back bills be paid up, and
announces plans for a new press and a larger paper. It says the county has
doubled in population and increased fifty per cent in wealth in the past twelve
months. The new paper appeared in August—The San Joaquin Valley Argus.

   On July 10 we read that the farmers are now threshing grain, and that the
yield is up to the expectations of the most sanguine. "From the west side of the
San Joaquin the reports are of extraordinary yield. That portion of our county,
which one year ago was a wilderness, has raised this year at a fair estimate not
less than 50,000 acres of grain, not to be estimated at a yield of less than 30
bushels to the acre. . . . Preparations are already being made for the next
year's crop and the indications are that the yield of grain in Merced County for
1870, should the season prove favorable, will be fully five times that of 1869.
It would be difficult to find a people who enjoy a greater degree of prosperity
than do the people of Merced County."

   Also in this issue the world is informed that Mr. Stubbs of Dover has opened
a saloon there, formerly Flannigan's Saloon, opposite the steamboat landing.

   In the issue of July 17 there is this interesting and instructive account of
a journey of the editor through "The Country to the West," as follows:

   "We this week paid a business visit to the country to the westward of us,
passing on our way down through the new farms on the high plains at the foot of
the hills lying between the Merced and the Tuolumne rivers, and returning by way
of the lower plains near the San Joaquin, crossing the Merced River at Turner's
Ferry, and by the town of Dover. The first place of note on our route was Empire
City, which we found considerably improved since our last visit six months ago.
The village now consists of the large mercantile establishment of Messrs.
Giddings & Ward, a drug store, a hotel, and a blacksmith's shop, a large
warehouse, and a handsome and neat-looking saloon kept by 'Elder' Purday, whose
ministrations have delighted the thirsty of the neighborhood for months past. We
were pleased to observe that Messrs. Giddings & Ward are doing an extensive
business. They receive their supplies of merchandise by the boat load, and ship
in return wheat, large quantities of which are accumulating upon the banks of
the Tuolumne at the Empire landing. The shipments of new wheat the present
season, by Messrs. Giddings & Ward, amount to seven hundred and seventy-to tons,
and there arc on the bank about three hundred and fifty tons, most of which will
have to be stored. The enterprising merchants (Messrs. G. & W.), are building an
addition to their large warehouse, which will increase its capacity to about
twelve hundred tons, and have engaged wheat for storage sufficient to fill it.
The other towns on the Tuolumne, Westport, Berryville, Paradise, and Tuolumne
City, wear their usual appearance, except the latter, which in consequence of
navigation having closed to ports above, presents a more lively appearance than
for ten months past. The landing and streets are thronged with teams from
morning until night delivering grain for shipment, and the merchants and
business men of the town seem encouraged by the impetus thereby given to
business transactions.

   "On our return we tarried for the night at Dover, where we found quite a stir
among the people of the place, notwithstanding the fact that every available man
has been drawn from the town to assist in harvesting the grain crop in the
surrounding country, and that the shipping season had not commenced, owing to
the fact that harvesting commenced much later in that vicinity than in older
settled sections. The crops are reported good, and except where damage was done
by cattle and other stock, an average yield will be the result, notwithstanding
the fact that much of the grain was planted as late as March."

   The Millerton correspondent writes that the cable and boat of Converse's
Ferry have been sold at private sale for $2000 and moved thirty miles down the
river. Landrum & Co. were the purchasers. A company is to be oranized to
establish a new ferry at Millerton.

   A man named Johnson S. Weese was killed by being caught in the cylinder of a
threshing machine on William H. Hartley's ranch on Bear Creek about fifteen
miles from Snelling. There is a report of the coroner's inquest, with a verdict
of accidental death.

   July 31, 1869: "The San Joaquin.—The San Joaquin River is yet navigable for
the larger sized craft in the up-river trade, and the farmers on the plains are
rushing their grain to the bank at all available points for shipment before the
season closes. The Tuolumne is yet navigable to Tuolumne City, and there is
unusual activity displayed in the shipment of grain from that point. While there
in the early part of the present week, we noticed that the town was thronged
with teams from the country, bringing to the landing hundreds of tons of grain
which was daily being shipped by steamer to Stockton. For the benefit of the
farming community we hope the water in the rivers will keep up a few weeks
longer, and thus enable them to get their products to market."

   Of course the rivers did not accede to the editor's wish. On September 25, in
the Argus, which had before that time replaced the Herald, are these two
paragraphs:

   "Dover.—We learn that much more grain is being stored at Dover for shipment
than was expected, the farmers being compelled to haul their crops there for
storage for want of granaries at home. At present there is no safe landing for
steamers at any point but Dover above the mouth of the Merced River on the east
side of the stream for forty or fifty miles, giving that place the advantage of
the trade of a vast area of territory that will produce grain in great abundance
next year. Mr. Simpson is doing a thriving business, as he richly deserves to do."

   "Large Warehouse.—We are informed that a warehouse 100x80 feet has been built
and is now being filled with grain, at Hill's Ferry. The sacks of wheat are
being stored in tiers twenty-four high, which makes the capacity of this
warehouse about 22,000 tons. It is said that the entire capacity of the building
has been engaged, and yet more warehouse must be built to accommodate the
farmers who will ship their grain from that point. Verily the yield of grain
must have been abundant on the farms beyond the Joaquin the present year."
Having thus taken a glimpse a little way ahead at the check which was due to
come to the first year's boom, we drop back to July 17 again. In the Herald of
that date is an "ad." of Wigginton & Howell to the effect that they have over
250,000 acres of unimproved lands in Stanislaus, Merced, Fresno, and Tulare
Counties at from $2.50 to $10 per acre. Those desirous of settling in this part
of the State cannot fail to be suited in quantity, quality, and location of
lands, and on such terms as will be satisfactory.

   July 31: "Our Town.—Improvements are still progressing in Snelling, every man
who can handle a hammer or trowel being engaged upon the various buildings in
process of erection. This fall will witness a large addition to the number of
our business houses and a corresponding increase in the population of the town
and vicinity. We see no reason why Snelling should not become one of the large
towns of the State, situated as it is in one of the richest and most pleasant
and healthy localities in all the San Joaquin Valley."

   "Harvesters.—These machines are being used in the lower valley, and we are
informed are doing good work. Mr. Daniel Whitmore has two of them on his farm
near Empire City, with which he cuts, threshes and sacks forty acres per day
with the labor of eight men and twenty-eight horses."

   The editor himself prepared to expand along with the town and the country,
and actually did so. In the issue of August 7, there is a little editorial, "by
the head devil," entitled "Gone Below," in which we are informed that Mr. Steele
has gone to San Francisco to buy a new press and new materials for Volume II of
the paper. Evidently the editor hadn't yet planned, or at least the "head devil"
did not yet know, that it was to be, not Volume II of the Herald, but Volume I
of the San Joaquin Valley Argus. On the 14th there is an announcement of "our
new office," on the north side of Lewis Street. There is also a news story that
the Western Pacific Railroad is now completed from Sacramento to Stockton. And a
little earlier, Wigginton & Howell have added an abstract office to their real
estate establishment.

   On August 28 the editor of the Tuolumne City News is quoted as saying that
"there are at present near fourteen hundred names on the great register of
Stanislaus County." In another article in the same paper, the Herald points out,
he (the News man) sums up the Democratic strength in Merced County as 272, and
in Stanislaus as 642. Steele points out that the News man must certainly be
wrong (he usually was, according to the Argus), for this would make a Republican
majority of nearly 150 in Stanislaus—which of course was not to be thought of.

   This paper of August 28 is the first issue of the new Argus. Steele writes in
that issue, in part: "Our Paper.—Two weeks ago today the Merced Herald died by
termination of contract, and today we present to the people of this portion of
the State the San Joaquin Valley Argus in its stead." This valley-wide point of
view, shown in the name of the new paper, in such matters as Wigginton &
Howell's over 250,000 acres of unimproved land in four counties, and in a good
many other ways, was the point of view of a budding metropolis, conscious of a
destiny which was shortly to be sidetracked at a town not yet in existence on
Bear Creek. The Argus of January 1, 1870, voices this point of view thus:

   "Town Improvements.—Building still goes on at a rapid rate in our town. On
every side we see new buildings rearing up, and the sound of the carpenter's
hammer and saw hums merrily as we write. Within the past two weeks a block of
wooden buildings has been erected on the ground directly north of our office,
and still the demand is for more houses. People are coming in so rapidly that it
would be impossible to furnish house room for them as fast as required, with the
present facilities for obtaining lumber. One or two years' growth more to our
town, at the same ratio of increase as that of 1869, and Snelling will have a
larger population than any town in the adjacent counties excepting only San
Joaquin. The little river cities of Paradise Valley are already left in the
background, and we rank with the largest mountain and valley towns in both
population and the amount of business done. Our county, generally, also keeps
pace with the county seat in improvement, large sections of country embraced
within its limits, which one year ago could not boast of a single inhabitant of
the human race, now being densely populated, and the wild virgin soil being put
in cultivation with a fair prospect for a heavy yield of grain the coming harvest."

   Because it is a small instance it is a very clear one of how the cities are
full of pride, and also of how they will insist on regarding themselves as the
kite instead of the tail. On December 11, 1869, we read something more about the
real kite, the immigrants who had heard afar of the rich grain lands to be had
here, and whose sense of porportion was so warped that they did not even suspect
they were tributary to the county seat, which they heard of more or less
incidentally, over on the Merced River, or which was at most a station on the
way to where they were going:

   "The Immigration.—We learn that since the rain commenced in this valley very
large accessions have been made to our population. In the Lone Tree (Sandy Mush)
district, Mr. Smythe informs us, there is a house erected upon almost every
quarter section. . . . New settlers are also flowing into the portion of our
county lying between Bear Creek and Mariposa Creek, and are building up one of
the most flourishing settlements to be found anywhere in our valley. They are
all practical farmers and bring with them means sufficient to farm on a large
scale, using the most approved machinery. There is yet room and good location
for thousands more. . . ."

  In the issue of January 22, 1870, is the following, which may serve to close
this chapter:

   "Navigation Resumed.—We see by the Stockton papers that navigation on the San
Joaquin River has been resumed, which will have a tendency to relieve the
farmers who have been suffering for want of money, many of them having their
entire crop of last year stored on the banks of the river awaiting shipment to
market. We may now look for brisk times throughout this valley until navigation
closes. The past six months' experience has proved the necessity of one or two
railroads through the valley east of the river, and the people hope soon to see
movements made for building them."



Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF
MERCED COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
WITH A
Biographical Review
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development
from the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
JOHN OUTCALT

ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1925


File at: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ca/merced/history/1925/historyo/settleme327ms.txt

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