Sierra County CA Archives History - Books .....Organization Of Sierra 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@gmail.com January 18, 2006, 10:17 pm Book Title: Illustrated History Of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties ORGANIZATION OF SIERRA COUNTY. The territory now embraced by Sierra county became a part of Yuba county under the act of February 18, 1850, dividing the state into twenty-seven counties. Great difficulty was experienced by the first legislature in making a proper assignment of territory, the population being so shifting that sections then unoccupied were liable in a few months to become populated with thousands of eager miners, or perhaps they might never have sufficient inhabitants to demand a county organization. The courses of the rivers and the character of the mountains were almost unknown, and thus many queer boundaries were given to counties of a most ungainly shape. Yuba county extended from the Sacramento river to the eastern boundary of the state, embracing Sierra, Nevada, and a portion of Placer counties, together with its present territory. Five townships then composed Sierra county; viz., Goodyear's bar, Downieville, Durgan Flat, Rose Bar, and another not named. Owing to the little knowledge then had of the nature of the country, none of the boundaries of these townships can be definitely ascertained. The lines designated were generally of a fictitious nature, and it is impossible to trace them out, were it at all necessary to do so. We have no record of there being more than two justices of the peace at a time in all of them, many of the localities clinging to the alcalde system promulgated by Governor Bennett Reily, in 1849, in this state. The disadvantages of belonging to Yuba county were early felt; Marysville was too distant, and a county government located at that place was to the citizens here as useless as one in Kamtchatka. The trouble, expense, and time required to send criminals to Marysville were so great that many escaped the just punishment for their acts, while others were severely dealt with by Judge Lynch. No protection whatever was afforded by the Yuba government, and no benefit whatever was derived from it; in fact, the only official who at all interested himself, and paid a visit to this region, was the tax collecter, who failed not to scrape together all that he could. The two justices alluded to were stationed at Downieville. Richard Galloway was the first who administered legal justice, but was succeeded in 1851 by Thomas Graham. Graham was a tall, dignified man, wearing a long blue coat with brass buttons, all buttoned down before, like the time-honored Old Grimes, deceased. He had a thorough consciousness of his official importance in the community, and was very rigid in exacting the utmost obeisance from the frequenters of his court. William C. Lemmon was Graham's judicial contemporary. But notwithstanding the exceedingly small number of those authorized in the regular way to dispense justice, and the great number of people resident here, these courts were not overburdened with business. The miners' courts, organized in nearly every community, settled most of the litigation, and tried a very large majority of the criminal cases, whether the most intricate problems as to the right of possession, or whether human life or liberty depended on their decisions. Nothing was shirked. The limited jurisdiction of the justices' courts made this seeming extravagant assumption of authority absolutely necessary, because of the great difficulty in reaching the higher seats of justice at all seasons of the year over the mountain trails, and more especially in winter, when the snow lay in great depth on the intervening ridges. For several months of the year Sierra county was entirely cut off from the remainder of the county. As the constantly increasing population rendered a separate county government more and more necessary, the matter was considerably discussed in the latter part of 1851, and a bill for the segregation of Sierra county from Yuba was introduced in the legislature of that winter. The passage was easily effected, and the bill became a law by the signature of the governor on the sixteenth of April, 1852. The boundaries, as defined by the act, were as follows : "Beginning at a point in the middle of the middle branch of Yuba river, ten miles from its mouth, running thence in a north-westerly direction to a point on the north branch of Yuba river, known as Cut Eye Foster's bar; thence westerly to a point on the dividing ridge between the waters of Feather and Yuba rivers, known as the Lexington house, leaving said house in Yuba county; thence northerly, following out said ridge; thence easterly in a straight line to the boundary line of the state; thence south along said boundary line to a point east of the middle branch of Yuba river and the north-east corner of Nevada county; thence west, following the northerly line of Nevada county, to the place of beginning. The seat of justice shall be at Downieville." A slight effort was made by the inhabitants of Goodyear's bar, then a formidable rival of Downieville, to get that place named in the act as the county seat, but it failed on account of the apathy and indifference shown by the miners to the advancement of their town, considering themselves only temporary sojourners among the mountains, and not caring at all for the glory of county-seatship. The indebtedness of Yuba county at the time of division was thirty-six thousand nine hundred and one dollars, the proportion of debt to which the new county fell heir being nine thousand two hundred and twenty-five dollars. An election was ordered to be held on the second Monday of June, 1852, for the selection of a county judge, a district attorney, a county clerk, a sheriff, a surveyor, an assessor, a coroner, and a treasurer. A committee, empowered with discretionary powers as to the apportionment of election precincts and the canvassing of the returns, was appointed, consisting of Francis Anderson, John Craycroft, John C. James, C. E. Smith, and T. M. Ramsdell. The election occurred on the fourteenth of June, and the following persons were elected to positions of trust in the county : Office Name. Party. Majority. County Judge Ferdinand J. McCann Democrat 452 District Attorney Thaddeus Purdy Democrat 488 Sheriff William J. Ford Democrat 555 County Clerk J. Webb Nicholson Whig 84 County Treasurer T. M. Ramsdell Democrat 485 Assessor E. Frazer Democrat 567 Coroner Cyrus D. Aiken Democrat 453 Surveyor William G. Still Democrat 495 The officers entered upon their several duties a few days after the election, and the county machinery was soon put in motion. The county boundaries as established at this time have, with one exception, remained substantially unchanged to the present time. Disputes have at various times arisen about different renderings of the words employed in the statutes, owing principally to the ambiguity of the landmarks established by the surveys. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties San Francisco: Fariss & Smith (1882) File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/sierra/history/1882/illustra/organiza284ms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/cafiles/ File size: 7.9 Kb