Statewide County NV Archives History - Books .....Chapter V County Organization And Records 1853-54 1881 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nv/nvfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com June 5, 2007, 3:15 pm Book Title: History Of Nevada CHAPTER V. COUNTY ORGANIZATION AND RECORDS. 1853-54. First County Organization-First Land Claim-First Toll-Road Grant-Deep Snow and Floods in Carson Valley-1853- First Lawsuit-Fifth Meeting of Citizens-What Mrs. Dit-tenrieder Remembers of 1853--First Marriage and Divorce- The First Dance-1854-Permanent Overland Stations on the Carson River-An Indian Killed by a Boy-Sunday Events-Marriage Contract-Sixth Meeting of Citizens-Land Claims Recorded in 1854-Carson County Created-A Mail Route Established. FIRST COUNTY ORGANIZATION. ON the third of March, 1852, Utah, by an Act of the Legislature, created several new counties and defined their boundaries. In what is now Nevada there were seven in number, their west line being California, their east limits all terminating in what still remains Utah, while their north and south boundaries were parallel lines running east and west. The farthermost division north was named Weber County, then came Deseret, next to which, on the south, lay Tooele, the three including about 156 miles of the north end of Nevada. The south line of Tooele was not far from the present north line of Washoe County. The next division was about thirty-six miles wide and included the most of what is now Washoe, all of Storey County, and was given the name of Juab. The next strip south was named Millard. It was about fifty miles wide, and included most of Walker's Lake and the present counties of Ormsby and Douglas. The balance of the Territory was divided into about two equal parts, and named Iron and Washington Counties, the latter bounded on the south by the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude, which was also the south line of Utah at that time.* *See compilation of 1855, pages 225,226, of Utah laws. On the seventh of February of that year the Territorial Legislature elected for counties as above, the following-named persons as Judges for a four years' term:- For Weber and Deseret Counties, Isaac Clark. For Tooele County, Alfred Lee. For Juab County, George Bradley. For Millard County, Anson Call. For Iron and Washington Counties, Chapman Duncon. This early book of records, already mentioned, was not only used to preserve the annals of that which was done during the several meetings of the settlers, but was also utilized for the entry of land claims, court proceedings, Sheriff's minutes, in fact, for the noting of all transactions of a public nature. In it is found the THE FIRST LAND CLAIM. On the first of December, 1852, John Reese recorded a one-fourth section claim extending from Mormon Station south to a lone tree, including all between the mountain base and Carson River- and on the same day E. L. Barnard, S. A. Kinsey, James C. Fain, J. Brown, and W. Byrnes recorded locations, claiming in succession as their names appear, a one-fourth section each, to the north of Reese, J. H. Scott & Bro. recording on the same day a one-half section on the south of Reese, and no other claims were entered upon the records in 1852. FIRST TOLL-ROAD GRANT. The same day, however, John Reese and Israel Mott applied for the privilege of putting a toll-bridge on the Carson River, and to repair the road up the mountain as a part of the enterprise, and to have the franchise for five years, which was granted on condition that they expend $1,000 on the same before the first of July, and collect the following tolls: Wagon, one dollar; horned cattle per head, ten cents; sheep per head, two and one-half cents; horses or mules per head, twenty-five cents. In May, 1852, Israel Mott, the founder of Mottsville, with his wife, left Salt Lake for Mormon Station with a train that was bound for California. Upon their first arrival in Carson Valley, Mr. Mott located four miles up from the station, and later in the fall built a house out of wagon-beds one-half mile farther up the overland road. He made a window-sash with a jack-knife, and paid seventy-five cents a light for seven-by-nine inch glass to put into it. Mrs. Mott was the first permanent lady settler in Carson Valley, and as the wife of Mr. A. M. Taylor, is still living there. On the twenty-fourth of December, 1852, it commenced to snow in Carson Valley; in two days three feet of it was lying over the whole face of the country, and six days later the ground was bare. The sudden melting of this vast field of snow caused a greater flood in the Carson River to usher in the year 1853 than has since occurred. In 1852, the Halls and partners ran the Eagle Station, mined a little, and became, to a limited extent, packers of goods from California, traders with overland emigrants, and helped to grade a road up Kings Canon, with a view of inducing the overland travel to pass that way. During that year a number of emigrants went that way, but it was a bad road, and was soon abandoned, except by pack-trains. At the place where James Woods now lives in Eagle Valley, a family located that summer, named Bowen, who raised a crop and left in the fall. Jacob H. Rose located near where Samuel Nevers now resides, and Dr. B. L. King at the month of the canon, which received his name, both of these parties came in 1852, and were the only residents remaining in Eagle Valley in 1854. In the south end of Washoe Valley, a ranch was taken up that year by one Clark, who was forced to abandon it because of the killing of a Washoe Indian near there by Gaines, in the following winter. A MAIL ROUTE ESTABLISHED. In 1852, a mail route was established by the Government between Salt Lake City, Utah, and San Bernardino, in southern California. The contract for carrying the mail over it was awarded to the Mormons, for whose benefit it had been called into existence. For the purpose of facilitating the carrying upon this route and to gain a supply station near the Potosi lead mine, that they proposed to work, a post was established by Brigham Young at the Los Vegas Spring, in the south end of what is now Nevada, on what was known as the Old Spanish trail between San Bernardino and the Rocky Mountain country. The Mormons continued to occupy this post until after the Mountain Meadow massacre, in September, 1857, when it was abandoned. THE FIRST LAWSUIT. From the events making up the history of 1853 but little has been saved from the wreck of forgetfulness, which at best presents but here and there a foot-print that the drifting sands of time have left uncovered. Of these the earliest-as appears from that ancient little book of records-was the first lawsuit in western Utah, which was commenced at Mormon Station on the fourteenth of March that year. John Reese was plaintiff; George Chorpenning, the surviving partner of the firm of Woodward & Co., was defendant. The claim was for $675, for supplies furnished Woodward & Co., while carrying the mails from Salt Lake to California, and E. L. Barnard was the Magistrate before whom the suit was brought. Reese filed his bonds, an attachment issued, and J. P. Barnard as Constable made the following entry upon the returns: "I have levied upon four mules, one anvil, two pair of tongs, one broken vise, two hammers, one cold chisel, one bellows, one sledge, one compass, chain and surveyor's instruments, also all their claim to the old Mormon Station, and one revolver." From the entry it appears that Woodward & Co. had become part owners in Mormon Station. On the sixteenth of the same month judgment was entered against defendant for the amount claimed, and twenty-five dollars in costs being added, made the demand an even $700. Eleven days later the Constable sold the defendant's effects, and made the following entry in regard thereto:- One mule to J. Reese $ 91 One mule to J. Reese 61 One mule to J. Reese 61 One mule to J. Reese 86 Compass and chain to J. Reese 40 Blacksmith tools to J. Reese 30 Mormon Station to J. Reese 130 Total $499 FIFTH MEETING OF CITIZENS. On March 21st occurred another meeting of the citizens, on which occasion J. H. Scott presided, and F. G. Barnard acted as Secretary, when the laws or rules previously published were amended in the following particulars: "No one to have a right to hold land unless they first file a notice of claim with the Recorder; and then put, within sixty days, $100 in improvements on the same. Occupancy by principal or agent necessary to title. Absence of thirty days vitiated it. A man of family might claim 640 acres, and a single person one-half that amount. All differences regarding land to be settled by arbitration or a jury of actual settlers. Fees to Recorder reduced to five dollars. The following land entries were made in 1853:- April 11th-J. H. Scott and Charles Ferguson; J. H. Haynes and David Barry; Thomas and E. H. Knott. May 12th-Charles A. Daggett. May 17th-E. T. Hawkins, in Jack's Valley. July 22d-L. M. Young and James Greene. September 30th-L. Olds and John Olds. October 5th-John L. Cary and Thos. Knott sell a farm to W. B. Thorrington for $600. October 6th-Four-sixths of the Eagle Ranch sold by F. and W. L. Hall to E. L. Barnard; two-sixths having been purchased by them from A. J. Rollins and George Follensbee. October 28th-J. W. Murphy and W. Smith. WHAT MRS. DITTENRIEDER REMEMBERS OF 1853. On the ninth of June James B. Ellis and his wife, Laura M., arrived at the mouth of Gold Canon. They took up a ranch that fall about one and one-half miles below where Dayton now stands, and built a substantial log-house. On the fourth of October 1854, Mr. Ellis was killed by the accidental discharge of his gun; and his wife, later married to George Dittenrieder, now lives a widow at Virginia City. She kept a journal during all those early years, and to her the historian is under obligations for many important facts. When she arrived at Gold Canon, Spafford Hall, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, was keeping the station and trading-post, being assisted by James McMarlin and wife as employees, the latter receiving sixty dollars per month as housekeeper. The station was standing on what is now Mine Street, and across the road opposite to it was a blacksmith shop, built from wagon-beds. The only women in western Utah at the time out of Carson Valley were Mrs. McMarlin, Mrs. Cosser, her little twelve-year old girl, and the wife of the blacksmith who worked in the shop just mentioned until fall, and then returned to California. There were a number of miners in the canon, none of them working at the time as far up as where Johntown was afterwards started. Later that fall another family moved in there, among whom were several ladies. One of them was eventually married to Lute Olds, another to Al. Squires, and both of those gentlemen now live in Carson Valley. Reese & Co., who raised ten acres of turnips and about seven of small grain in 1852, at Mormon Station, had increased the quantity in 1853, and were malting their effort at farming a financial success, because of the ready sale of products to emigrants, who would pay a dollar for a small bunch of turnips. In the fall, Reese & Co. purchased Eagle Ranch from the Halls, October 6th, who returned to California; and Frederick Bishop took charge of the station for the company. In the fall or winter of 1853 Walter Cosser started in the mercantile line at the place which later became known as Johntown, and it was the first establishment of any kind at that point. Thomas Knott commenced, on the twenty-seventh of March, to build for John Cary a saw-mill at the head of Carson valley; that was completed, and the first plank sawed by it on the twenty-sixth of July. The lumber from this, the first-saw-mill in western Utah, sold for $100 per thousand. FIRST MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. That summer, an emigrant stopped for a time at Gold Canon whose name was Powell. He was seeking a home for his motherless family, among whom was a girl about fourteen years of age named Mary. Mr. Powell left his children at the diggings, and went up the valleys in search of a favorable point to locate, and, while he was gone, a young man named Benjamin Cole, a native of Missouri, induced this child to marry him, Captain Parker, now living on the Humboldt, being a Justice of the Peace, performed the ceremony. The bride immediately thereafter was taken to the cabin of Mother Cosser, to remain until a habitation could be built by the husband. The kind heart of this Scottish lady warmed towards the child-wife, and she advised her not to go with the husband until the father's return, and the advice was accepted. A considerable feeling was awakened because of this, and the miners took sides, some declaring for Cole, while the more sober-minded and reflective sustained the Cosser's and the girl, whom the husband would have taken possession of by force, but for the certainty of swift vengeance from the hands of the sturdy son of this mother in Israel. Mr. Powell soon returned, and finding what had transpired in his absence, with tearful eyes thanked this pioneer mother for her watchful care of his little brood, and immediately started with them for California. The husband soon followed in pursuit, with the avowed purpose of abduction, accompanied by a number of friends, and hot upon their trail, Walter Cosser rode, with several others, on such horses as could be hastily gathered, to prevent, by a pitched battle if necessary, the declared object of the husband. Mr. Powell was overtaken, and the matter was finally compromised by all parties agreeing to let the girl decide whether to go on or return with Cole, and she concluded to remain with her father. Mr. Powell moved on towards California, and the husband returned to Gold Canon, while Walter Cosser and friends lingered on the road to prevent the consummation of an ulterior design, if any was contemplated by Cole. They met no more, that bride and groom of an hour, and thus was accomplished the first ceremony of marriage in Nevada, followed by a swift-winged and effectual divorce. THE FIRST DANCE. On the night of the last day of the year 1853, there was a dance in the log building over Spafford Hall's store, at the mouth of Gold Canon. There were nine females, including little girls, that attended the party, and this number constituted three-fourths of all the fair sex in western Utah at the time, Mrs. Cosser, old Mrs. Mott, now deceased, and a lady in Gold Canon, remaining at home. The miners, ranchers, and station-keepers, from all over the country, numbering possibly one hundred and fifty men, were there, in or about the station; and while everybody was enjoying themselves, the Washoe Indians came and drove off their horses. The next day the stolen stock was all recovered by the owners except two, that had been killed by the Indians for eating, at a general barbecue at Chalk Hill, near where now is located Mound Station, on the Virginia and Trackee [sic] Railroad. OVERLAND STATIONS ON THE CARSON. Early in 1854, Spafford Hall, while hunting, was severely wounded by the accidental discharge of his gun, which caused him to sell the station to James McMarlin, who up to this time had been in his employ, and he started for his Indiana home as soon as the mountains could be crossed in the spring. McMarlin sent for his brother John to join in the enterprise, who did so, and was killed by Indians at Slippery Ford, in the mountains, a few years later. Asa Kenyon permanently located at Ragtown that year, where the overland road first reached the Carson River, and started a station there. Previous to this, traders had been in the habit of going to that point, putting up a tent, trafficking with emigrants through the summer, and then leaving in the fall for California. About four miles up the stream from Ragtown, at the place known as The Willows, Thomas Pitt, who had been the blacksmith at Hall's Station in 1853, started a station. Two brothers, named James and Harvey Hughes, from Missouri, established one on the river about four miles up from where the massacre by Indians occurred in 1860, at the place known as Williams, or Honey Lake Smith's, Station. In the fall of the year, John Smith purchased the post on the Carbon at the western terminus of the twenty-six-mile desert, from a California trader. The place is now known as Coonie's Ranch. The same year George Brown established a station on the river about three miles up from where now stands the ruins of Fort Churchill. All of these parties were considered and became settlers of the country. Other stations along the route were mere summer ones, being abandoned as the fall approached by their California keepers. S. A. Kinsey recollects that the famous Ben. Holliday, joined by one Warner, opened a store and station on the road about three miles down the river from Mormon Station in 1854, and Cosser, who was the pioneer merchant at Johntown, remembers that in 1854 opposition was established there by J. S. Child and by Moses Job. The latter started a store in 1854 at the place now known as Sheridan, in Carson Valley, near the base of the mountain named in honor of him. Mr. Child afterwards became one of the most prominent characters in the early history of Nevada. SUNDRy EVENTS. It has been previously noted that Clark, who had taken up a ranch in the south end of Washoe Valley in 1852, had been forced to leave it because an Indian had been killed there. In the latter part of 1853 a young man coming from over the plains, where his mother had been buried, settled upon the deserted ranch, with a little sister and brother, but three of them in all. The little boy was about thirteen years of age, and the sister still younger. One day in the absence of the elder brother a Washoe Indian came to the cabin and demanded food, and finding them alone told the children that unless they turned over to him whatever he wanted about the place he would kill both of them. The scared little ones ran into the house, the boy seized his brother's rifle and as the pursuing Washoe was crossing the threshold a ball through the heart from that trusty weapon stretched him lifeless in the door, where the returning brother found him several hours later, stiff and cold. Again that ranch became tenantless, for the young man sold the claim to J. H. Rose, of Eagle Valley, and started without delay to place his brother and sister beyond the possibility of another such thrilling peril. In 1854, on the first of May, the first white child was born in western Utah of parents living in the Territory. It was named James Brimmel Ellis, and died in Virginia City in January, 1869. On the first of July, 1854, Charles H. Albrecht and family, of St. Louis, Missouri, en route for California, was camped at the Ellis Ranch below Gold Canon, and his unmarried sister, Rachel F., was a member of his household. One of the miners named James Dover became fascinated by the namesake of that ancient gleaner, and desired to marry her. Rachel was willing, but there was neither magistrate nor minister in that country to tie the Gordian knot, and the lovers-at-sight were in a sad dilemma. It was finally decided to call upon Mrs. Laura M. Ellis-now Dittenrieder-for advice, and she solved the problem by drawing up a triplicate contract of marriage on the fourth of July, which each signed, the papers being duly witnessed, the two were pronounced to have to all intents and purposes consummated a matrimonial alliance, and they were declared man and wife without further ceremony. The following is a copy of that MARRIAGE CONTRACT. CARSON RIVER, July 4,1854. By these presents we hereby certify, in the presence of witnesses, that we will from this time henceforth, to the end of our lives, live together as man and wife, obeying all the laws of the United States as married persons. In witness, we set our hands and seals, this fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four. (Signed) JAMES DOVER, RACHEL F. ALBRECHT. Witnesses: James B. Ellis, Charles H. Albrecht, Augustus C. Albrecht. Published in the Mountain Democrat July 29, 1854. For eight years they lived together, when she left him and joined her brother at Placerville, California. Eventually, Mrs. Bowers, the "Washoe Seeress," gave her the money to defray the expense of getting a divorce, which she procured in the courts of California, and has since married again. Thomas Knott built at Mormon Station, for the Reese Company, a grist and saw-mill in 1854, that was not paid for because of the failure of Barnard to return with the money received from the sale of the company's cattle in California. A stationary threshing-machine was added to the mill, that was run with little satisfaction that fall, and then dismantled. Henry Van Sickle, now living in Carson Valley, made the cylinder. To have warranted them in building that mill, there must have been considerable grain raised by the various farmers along the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. A number of new farm locations were made during that year, as exhibited by the following transcript from the Pioneer Record Book. LAND CLAIMS RECORDED IN 1854. February 28ih-J. C. Fain. February 28th-E. L. Barnard. March 28th- ____ Post and the H. Van Sickle place. April 2d-R. De Frost. April 2d-Fred. Bishop. April 6th-John Stephens. April 21st-Suit by Henry McCalla vs. Thos. Knott. Judgment $113.43. May 18th-Joseph Williams. May 27th-A. C. Stewart & A. Clark. May 27th-C. D. Daggett. SIXTH MEETING OF CITIZENS. May 27, 1854, the residents had another meeting with J. L. Cary as Chairman, and M. G. Lewis, Secretary, when they resolved that in the use of water no settler should be deprived of sufficient for household purposes; that it should not be diverted from its original channels, and when two or more lived on the same stream they should share water according to the number of acres cultivated, each using for alternate days when it was scarce. LAND CLAIMS CONTINUED. October 30th-George Lambe. November 29th-Julius Peltier sells one-half of ranch in Jack's Valley to George Fogle for $300, same formerly owned by Sam. Blackford. December 4th-Nicholas Johnson. December 13th-Sale of Brown's farm by Constable for §787.32 to plaintiff, S. Blackford. December 7th-G. B. Parker sells to E. Sides and Eolland Abernathey the Clear Creek Ranch, firBt taken up by George Mires and C. Phillipps, who kept the trading-post where Barnard was killed. December 20th-R. Sides, B. Abernathey, and J. M.. Baldwin. December 26th-Joseph Brown records deed of land sale to Rufus Adams made in 1853. In the winter of 1854, Walter Cosser paid George Pierce one dollar per pound for packing over from Placerville to Gold Canon on snow-shoes some rubber goods. Rubber boots sold at the time for twenty-five dollars per pair. Prices for merchandise that winter in western Utah were- For Satinet Pants $5 00 to $ 6 00 Cassimere Pants 7 00 " 10 00 Woolen Shirts 3 00 " 4 00 Boots 5 00 " 14 00 Bacon (per pound) 40 " 50 Tea " " 1 25 " 1 50 Tobacco " " 1 50 Coffee " " 45 Sugar " " 45 A Panama hat... 5 00 The first school in western Utah was kept by Mrs. Allen, at the residence of Israel Mott, during the winter of 1854-55. CARSON COUNTY CREATED. The following Act was passed by the Territorial Legislature of Utah, on the seventeenth of January, 1854:- SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Governor and Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah; That all that portion of country bounded north by Deseret County; east by the parallel of longitude 118°; south by the boundary line of the Territory; and west by California, is hereby included within the limits of Carson County, and until organized is attached to Millard County for Election, Revenue and Judicial purposes. SEC. 2. The Governor is hereby authorized to appoint a Probate Judge for said county, when he shall deem it expedient; and said Probate Judge, when appointed, shall proceed to organize said county, by dividing the county into precincts, and causing an election to be held according to law, to fill the various county and precinct offices, and locate the county seat thereof. Occasionally citizens from Carson Valley visited Placerville, in California, in those early years, for the purpose of trade, and the editor of the Mountain Democrat, Daniel W. Gelwicks, would interview them and publish the results. From the files of that paper it appears that in 1854 Colonel Reese, accompanied by a Sergeant and three men, pioneered a new, farther south, and shorter route, from Salt Lake to Carson Valley, than had heretofore been traveled, and the Sergeant proposed to recommend the passage of the United States troops over it that proposed to pass through under Colonel Steptoe. In April the mail carrier, Dritt, reported that some one had found a pound gold nugget at Gold Canon, and that nuggets were not unfrequently met with there valued at from ten to twenty dollars; also, that George Smith was keeping a station at Lake Valley. James B. Ellis, of Gold Canon, took notes in 1854, up to July 1st, of the arrivals at that point of California-bound emigrants, with the following results: 213 wagons, 360 horses and mules, 7,528 cattle, and 7,150 sheep. Additional Comments: Extracted from: History of Nevada with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers Oakland, Cal.: Thompson & West 1881 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nv/statewide/history/1881/historyo/chapterv8gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/nvfiles/ File size: 26.4 Kb