Plumas County CA Archives History - Books .....Seneca Township 1882
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com January 12, 2006, 12:44 pm

Book Title: Illustrated History Of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties

SENECA TOWNSHIP.

   Since the organization of the county and first division into townships, that
section lying to the north of the north fork and east branch and west of Indian
valley has been designated Seneca township. Alterations have from time to time
been made in its boundary lines, which have been fully detailed in the official
history on a previous page. The population was given by the official census of
1880 as 535, of which 86 were Chinese and 137 Indians. Prattviile is the only
place within its limits that reaches the dignity of a town. Along the north fork
and tributary streams some mining is being carried on by both whites and
Chinese. The chief industry is dairying, which is centered in Big Meadows, the
fine mountain valley through which the Chico and Susanville road passes, and
where are some of the best dairy farms in California. It was through this valley
that the old Lassen road passed, over which so many emigrants came in the early
days. Another valley a little to the south, called Humbug, is also occupied in
the same way, and has been since B. K. Ervine and W. B. Long first held it as a
stock-range in 1855. Mines were discovered in the valley in 1857. Allen Wood and
W. B. Long built a hotel in 1858, which was burned the next year. Another built
in 1860 was destroyed by fire in 1871. In 1858 Jones & Wallack built a saw-mill
in the valley. Butt valley is another small vale where dairying is being
followed. Samuel Knight and Ned St. Felix were early pioneers of the township,
and built the first bridge across the north fork, now the Bid well place, and
received a license to collect tolls thereon in 1854.

   BIG MEADOWS AND PRATTVILLE.—The village of Prattviile is located on the
south-west of the Big Meadows, near the center of the valley, and about two
miles from the mountains. The valley is about twenty-five miles long, and six in
breadth, while the meadows stretch out twenty miles in length, by three in
breadth. The meadows are watered by the west branch of the north fork of Feather
river, which heads around the base of Lassen Butte. The altitude of the valley
at Doctor Pratt's hotel is 4,500 feet. The town receives its name from Dr.
Pratt, who established the first post-office here under the name of Big Meadows;
but as the locality was popularly known as Prattville, the name was finally
adopted in the postal department.

   Dr. Willard Pratt was born at Canton, Pennsylvania, March 12, 1826. His
father was a physician at Canton, and Willard followed in his footsteps. At the
age of twenty-two he graduated as a physician from the Pennsylvania University,
Philadelphia, and emigrated to Grant county, Wisconsin, residing at Fennimore,
and practicing medicine. He was married June 14 1848, in Marshal, Wisconsin, to
Miss Sarah H. Hart, daughter of Thomas Hart, and born in Huntingdonshire,
England, February 15, 1825. Dr. Pratt removed to Dubuque, Iowa, in 1850, and
practiced until 1853, when he crossed the plains to the Pacific coast. He spent
four years in Placerville, then Hangtown, after which he went to Colusa, where
he remained until 1860. Then he settled in Butte county, near Chico. Here his
health began to fail, and having a call to visit Thomas Bidwell at the Big
Springs hotel, his attention was called to the beauties of Big Meadows. He spent
two summers there, and in 1867, having decided to make it a permanent home, he
erected a residence and hotel, the first one in Prattville, or the neighborhood.
He went to the centennial exposition at Philadelphia, and while there his
property was destroyed by fire. He came back to find no home; but in 1877 he
built his present house, which cost $10,000, and is one of the best in the
mountains. It has twenty-six sleeping rooms, besides parlors, family rooms,
etc., and is crowded with guests every summer. Mr. and Mrs. Pratt have six
children, as follows: Emily Charlotte, born April 17, 1849; Anna E., June 21,
1851; Willie K, April 21, 1853; Thomas E., March 5, 1860; Mattie J., July 5,
1862; Marion N., December 17, 1866.

   At the time the doctor came to Prattville there was one log cabin belonging
to a man named Houck, now of Quincy, whom he bought out. The inhabitants of Big
Meadows were Mrs. Lee, now Mrs. Bunnell, the Holmes family, Henry Bidwell at
Bidwell's bridge, Henry Landt at Big springs, John Hamilton, R. Stover and
brother, Thad and the Benner family, Peter Olsen, and Burt Johnson. The first
school was taught at Mrs. Lee's, by Miss May Ella Blunt, now Mrs. Samuel Moore
of San Francisco. The first store in the town was kept by the Benner brothers,
and the first blacksmith shop by David Fields. There are now three general
merchandise stores, one wagon shop, a blacksmith shop, saloon, resident
physician, Dr. Pratt, and a first-class hotel. The stores are kept by Doty
Brothers, H. B. Abbott, and Benner Brothers. The town is thirty miles from
Lassen peak, on a good road that extends two-thirds of the distance, from the
terminus of which a horse-trail leads ten miles towards the mountain, and the
traveler must then proceed on foot a mile and a half to the top. Big Meadows is
visited every summer by large numbers of people who come for their health, and
to enjoy the many advantages that the neighborhood affords for recreation and
amusement. Bunnell's summer resort is one of the finest to be found in the
mountains. The house is large and well furnished, and Mrs. Bunnell sets a table
that challenges the appetite of the most ravenous tourist. During the summer of
1881 fully two thousand people were visiting in the valley.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties

San Francisco: Fariss & Smith
(1882)

File at: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ca/plumas/history/1882/illustra/senecato275ms.txt

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