Yolo County CA Archives History - Books .....Mapping The Tule County 1913
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Book Title: History Of Yolo County

CHAPTER XI
MAPPING THE TULE COUNTY

    The first legislature of California met December 15, 1849, at San Jose, with
Governor Peter H. Burnett, Independent Democrat in politics, presiding; John
McDougall, lieutenant-governor; George W. Wright and Edward Gilbert,
representatives in Congress. A part of the business of the session was staking
off the first batch of counties, and then Yolo—or Yola, the first legislators
called her— got an official title. About all they knew of that locality was of
its vast spread of tules growing along the western shore of the big central
river, and "tule" was the English version of the Spanish word "tulare," or
"tular," and the Indians, trying to imitate the white people, sounded it like
"Yolar." Of course, it can be seen that Yolo and Tulare counties gather their
titles from the same bunch of water-plants.

THE SQUAW SCRATCHERS

    Colusa, another county mapped out by this busy body of legislators, owes its
name, according to the late Will S. Green, to a peculiar and interesting custom.
In accordance with a tribal custom a bride had the sacred privilege of
scratching her new husband's face, and it seems that the young squaws availed
themselves so enthusiastically of the pleasure that the buck-hubbies were easily
identified by the deep scratches, and afterward by the scars on their faces. The
tribe among the Indians became known as the "scratchers," or in their tongue,"
the "Colusas," proving that even among the stolid California Diggers there could
be found a living sense of fitness if not humor.

FREMONT THE COUNTY SEAT

    Fremont, the only town or any place in the county, was made the county seat.
Yolo was in the eighth judicial district, which was composed of this county,
Sutter and Yuba, and September 2, 1850, Judge W. E. Turner held court at
Fremont. An act passed by the legislature in 1850 divided the state into
senatorial districts, and making Yolo, Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Solano, Mendocino,
Colusa and Trinity, the eleventh district. Another act (March 2, 1850) provided
for the election of county officers, and P. A. Marguam was chosen county judge,
and B. Frank Brown, county clerk. The act also provided for a court of sessions
composed of the county judge and two justices of the peace, the latter officers
in Yolo being Ferdinand Woodward and L. B. Austin. At the August term of this
court of sessions held in Fremont the salary of the county judge was fixed at
$4000 per annum.

  The famous pioneer period of '49 and '50 brought to Yolo her share of the
immigration, notwithstanding the visiting correspondent of a New York journal
had ranked this county "among the barren, worthless sections of the state;" it
was then believed that no considerable portion of California could be made
available for agricultural purposes. Among these early citizens were W. J.
Frierson and A. Griffith, who landed on Cache creek; "Uncle" John Morris, a
Kentuckian, though "from Missouri," housed his family in a log cabin on the
since historic stream above the log home of Thomas Cochran; next year Morris
relocated himself on the site of the present county seat. Thomas Adams
established himself and family below Cacheville, and the wedding of his daughter
Jane to J. M. Harbin during the early part of 1850 was the first marriage in the
county. Harbin and Archibald Jesse lived about one mile southeast of the
Woodland site. Knight's Landing, which was then trying to be something under the
burdensome name of "Baltimore," was accumulating a small population, while
Washington, afterwards renamed Broderick, was coming into being. J. C. Davis and
J. B. and Kit Chiles had established a rope ferry between the place and
Sacramento and this gave people an opportunity to cross and re-cross, and the
tariff was $6 per man and team. Peter McGregor, Frederick Babel, Col. J. H.
Lewis, Presley Welch, J. N. Peck, J. M. Kelley and Archie McDowell were a part
of the citizenry of Washington. The one hundred and sixty-acre tracts along the
river were being rapidly taken up and the claimants were chopping wood and
selling it to the steamers at $10 a cord.

EARLY ELECTION CAMPAIGNS

    Mention has been made in these pages of the appointment of officers after
the counties were formed. The records of those early selections are incomplete
or vague, but there is no doubt that the elections were orderly, lawful and
"straight." It appears that George W. Tyler, afterwards member of the
legislature from Alameda, and a prominent attorney in that portion of the state,
was the first sheriff of Yolo county. Tyler's election and subsequent
resignation are characteristic incidents of the time. He started in the campaign
as a candidate for county clerk, and James H. Allen, afterwards adjutant general
under Governor Haight, was running for sheriff. The two candidates were making
the campaign together, swapping confidences, until Tyler learned that Allen was
secretly supporting another man for the clerkship, and this report made him so
furious that he jumped the clerkship race and announced himself a candidate for
sheriff. He made such an active campaign that he beat Allen at the polls.
Sheriff Tyler had the satisfaction of defeating his faithless friend, but the
office brought him little profit. He served a few months and quit, heading for
the mines. The trouble, according to his own statement, tersely made, was "there
were more cattle-thieves than there was gold dust to pay for hunting them." The
county was moneyless and his salary was so far in arrears that it was long out
of sight. In 1861 Tyler was county judge of San Joaquin county.

THE COUNTY GROWS APACE

    That the county was growing, the assessment rolls of 1850 on country
property alone, show as follows:

Gordon's Grant, two leagues                $11,000
Hardy Grant, six leagues                    33,330
Capay Grant, nine leagues                   49,994
Heirs of William Knight, three leagues      16,660
Matthews and Bashman, five leagues          26,975
Chiles and Baldridge                         1,600
                                          ________
                                          $139,659
Improvements of same                         3,510
Personal property                          159,862
                                          ________
Total property assessed                   $303,031
The state tax was                         $1348.51
State poll tax, at $5 per head              375.00
                                          ________
Total state tax                           $1723.51
County tax assessed                        $674.26
County poll tax, at $2.50 per head          187.50
                                           _______
Total county tax                           $861.76

   An old record of county treasurer's receipts of that time gives the following:

    For retail licenses, $327.09; merchants' licenses, $35; ferry licenses,
$500; fines, $500; taxes, $432.23; total, $1,794.42. By this it may be seen that
ferry-boats and law-breakers contributed considerable "dust" to the earnings of
the county.

ON THE EARLY TAX ROLLS

    One hundred names from the ancient tax rolls will tend to show who-was-who,
or at least who-was-there in Yolo during that "spring of 1850," though the
assessments run from $1.00 to $1.50. Jasper O'Farrell, the pioneer surveyor of
the territory, is the heaviest taxpayer, being down for $312.46 1/2, and
Woodward & Brooks, seventy-five cents. The list is as follows:

Levi B. Austin, 
Austin & Co., 
J. L. Armstrong, 
Albert Augustine, 
E. S. Anderson. 
James Allen, 
William Baldridge, 
William Brown, 
S. W. Brown, 
Gabriel Brown, 
B. F. Brown, 
J. E. Braly, 
D. T. Bird, 
W. Bryant, 
William Brooks, 
M. T. Coon, 
Campbell & Wood, 
Matthew Wood, 
J. Callahan, 
Francis Clark, 
Captain Churchill, 
J. G. Crow & Co., 
C. F. Collins, 
G. W. Crane, 
John Carter, 
Chiles & Baldridge, 
Thomas Cochran, 
George Chappel, 
Lewis Duval, 
George Durrant, 
Benjamin Devoe, 
J. C. Davis, 
D. W. Edson, 
Abel Endy, 
W. J. Frierson, 
Fall, Anderson & Co., 
W. Gordon, 
William Hammond, 
Elias Hibbs, 
Edward Hopkins, O. W. Homes, 
C. P. Hester, 
John Howard, 
James Heath, 
I. D. Hoppe, 
H. H. Hartley, 
J. M. Harbin, 
H. & R. Haines, 
Willis Jenkins, 
Johnson & Shannon, 
S. M. Johnson, 
William Knight Estate, 
Nathan Lord, 
T. W. Latham, 
I. H. Lewis, 
I. H. Lippard & Co., 
A. R. Lovel, 
Patrick McGill, 
A. McInnis, 
Orin Miles, 
William Malloway, 
James Moore, 
W. Matheney, 
Robert McIlwain, 
Matthews & Bashman, 
P. A. Marquam,
John Morris, 
Samuel Newhall, 
Jasper O'Farrell, 
Seabury Pierce, 
J. N. Peck, 
C. F. Reed, 
J. Richardson, 
Jonas Spect, 
William Scott, 
U. H. Stewart, 
Abel Stewart, 
Charles Stewart, 
Charles Smith, 
William Spurk, 
G. D. Stevens, 
Samuel Tristin, 
J. L. Woods, 
S. C. Woods, 
J. J. Walton, 
H. A. Weeks, 
Woodward & Brooks, 
Ferdinand Woodward, 
M. M. Wombough and 
Dunbar Wheatley.

    The total taxes of these, property people was $2,585. There were at that
time many persons in the county whose names do not appear on this list, and it
is given here only as a record of some of the early residenters.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY CALIFORNIA
WITH
Biographical Sketches
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
TOM GREGORY
AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS
ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA [1913]


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