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The Town of Clarksville
Many El Dorado
County residents may be unaware of a significant part the area’s
history. Long before there was an El Dorado Hills, the town of
Clarksville boasted a population of 17,000 residents and a prominent
role in the area’s cultural history. Many of Clarksville’s former
residents who still live in the area attend annual reunions in El Dorado
Hills, and the yearly get-togethers provide an opportunity for
Clarksville’s former inhabitants to reminisce about the town and their
lives together. Clarksville was founded as a mining camp shortly after
gold was discovered in Coloma. In its early years, the town was known as
Clarkson’s or Clarkson Town. After a brief period as a mining camp and a
weigh-station, the town became a trading center that was bounded on the
north by Green Valley Road, on the south by Deer Creek, on the east by
Cameron Park Drive, and on the west by the Sacramento-El Dorado county
line. Ranching, farming, mining, and working in nearby lime kilns were
among the town’s common occupations, and settlers of Irish, Swiss,
French, and English descent inhabited the burgeoning community. Madeline
Petersen Mosely, who organizes the reunions, moved to Clarksville from
San Francisco in 1938 with her father, Arthur, and her mother, Delores,
after a doctor told the family their daughter’s respiratory ailments
(like asthma and bronchitis) would worsen if they remained in San
Francisco. Arthur Petersen learned from a family friend about a
combination general store/service station for sale in Clarksville, a
town none of the Petersens knew anything about. When the family visited
Clarksville to see the store, Petersen Mosely said her mother, who was
used to living in the city, was not overly impressed. Despite this
hesitation, the family decided to buy the store for $4,000, after
selling their San Francisco home for the same price. Petersen Mosely
moved away from Clarksville in 1948 after her family lost their home,
cabin, and business in a series of fires. When asked why Clarksville no
longer exists, she answers "water," or, more specifically, the scarcity
of water that characterizes life in the Sacramento Valley. Back when
Petersen Mosely lived in Clarksville, she and all the other residents
had to rely on wells for all their water. When the wells all ran dry,
the town’s future also dried up, since the residents, especially
ranchers and farmers, no longer had water for their fields and
livestock. This shortage of water also made fighting fires nearly
impossible, as evidenced by the fiery ends of the Petersen family’s
home, business, and cabin. The Petersen home, which had been built in
the 1850s during the Gold Rush, proved to be one of the nicest, most
modern homes in Clarksville when the family bought it, since it boasted
amenities like indoor lighting and running water. The property also had
a 12-foot-deep well which lasted the entire time the family inhabited
the home, but water from the well, however, could do little to combat
the fire that consumed the house. Petersen Mosely said the blaze was
started by a spark from a fire that was lit to heat water for a bath.
She recalls reporting the fire to the fire department, which was
stationed at Mt. Danaher, 25 miles east, near Camino, at 4 p.m. For
whatever reason, firefighters did not arrive, however, until 8 p.m., and
by that time, only ashes and embers remained. Petersen Mosely recalls a
firefighter asking her father "Do you want us to put out the ashes?" She
also recalls her father’s understandably terse response, "Get off my
property." While it was operational, the Petersen’s business, Foothills
Service Station, was one of two such facilities in Clarksville. Petersen
Mosely recalls her father being up by 6 a.m. to open the store, which
featured three gasoline pumps. The store also sold beer and wine. The
store, she said, would remain open until the final customers of the day
left, but she remembers many times when the arrival of overnight
travelers would mean the store would open unexpectedly. Petersen Mosely
was one of three students in the final graduating class of Clarksville’s
school, which was known as "United School." The one-room schoolhouse
served the town’s first- through eighth-graders until closing in 1941
when the school’s students relocated to schools in Folsom and
Placerville. Petersen Mosely said she and the two other members of the
final graduating class were not too sorry to see the school close,
however, since they knew they were moving on to high school the
following year. As the years pass, attendance at the annual Clarksville
reunions declines. Petersen Mosely said this year’s gathering, the 17th
such reunion, drew about 30 people. Many attendees, she said, were new
to the reunion, including one man whose grandmother is buried in the old
Clarksville Cemetery south of Highway 50. Along with these new faces,
Petersen Mosely said, is a shrinking core group of former Clarksville
residents who attend each year’s reunion to remember the days when
Clarksville was the prominent town in El Dorado County. [Placerville
Mountain Democrat, Saturday, 5-25-2002. Submitted by KKM]
Georgia Slide Once a Busy
Community
“GEORGIA SLIDE -
Numerous and extensive are the preparations now being made by the
different mining companies holding claims on the above Slide.
Inconsequence of the scarcity of water during the past five or six
months, many of those owning claims in that region have been compelled
to abandon them. The rainy season, however, being about to commence, the
honest miner has again gone to work with that indomitable perseverance
only known and experienced among the golden mountains of California. We
are informed that several hydraulics are now being erected and the Slide
presents a lively appearance.” From the Empire County Argus, Nov. 22,
1855. One of El Dorado County’s biggest hydraulic mining operations was
at Georgia Slide, located about a mile and a half north of Georgetown.
Nestled on a small ridge along Canyon Creek was a small community of
about a dozen families which included the names of Morgan, Stanton,
Murphy, Flynn, Barklage, Presby, Reinhart, Green, Beattie, Rau, Kenna,
Bowman, Buchler, and Kinney. In 1971 Kathleen Flynn, who was born and
raised at Georgia Slide, was interviewed by George Paul in the
Georgetown Gazette. She recalled that, “Mr. Barklage had a general store
and saloon, and a large warehouse. He hauled freight and logs with a
large team of horses, usually eight or 10, pulling a two-wagon hookup.
The team was driven with a jerk line, and the driver rode one of the
wheel horses. An interesting sight was to see that large team of horses
driven down by the warehouse and make the sharp turn around a large
tree, and circle back. There was very little room, and the driver would
shout commands to the horses, and they would step over the lines, and
turn that way, very close together. The two wagons together made it even
more difficult, but the well trained horses made it appear easy.’’ In
another article written in 1963, Flynn recalled that, “Because of the
steepness of the road down to Georgia Slide, to hold the heavy wagons
and teams from slipping, logs were dragged behind on chains or ropes
tied from the wagon and hitched around a tree to ease it down the
steepest spots. The teams of horses had bells and the drivers always
rode on one of the horses nearest the wagon.’’ The conception of this
hamlet came in the fall of 1849 when a small party of Georgia miners
staked off ground there to be worked the following spring. By1850 there
was a lively mining camp with a general store. Large amounts of placer
gold was surface mined here, followed by a number of tunnels. But it was
the hydraulic mining that really added to the estimated $3.5 million
that were taken from the slide. The Beattie is among the best known of
the Georgia Slide mines. First opened in 1852, it ran continuously until
1895. After the cessation of hydraulic mining, only small amounts of ore
were treated in the several stamp mills that had been erected on the
property. Reports in 1915 show that there was still a 10-stamp mill in
operation running samples from the tailings. As late as 1916 the Beattie
still employed over 50 men with an estimated payroll of $9,000. Georgia
Slide was famous for more than gold. Throughout El Dorado County and
beyond, the Georgia Slide Brass Band was in constant demand for
weddings, dances, balls, July 4th celebrations, and even funerals.
Joseph Reinhart was the member in charge. When Reinhart died on March
22, 1891, the Georgia Slide band played a funeral march all the way to
the Georgetown Cemetery, and as Reinhart had requested before his death,
the band played a lively tune all the way home. And also at his request,
they stopped to have a drink together in his memory. “Three ditches
served the community,’’ recalled Kathleen Flynn, “primarily for the
mines, and drinking water, etc. Of particular interest, was another use
for the ditches, usually just for the winter, in supplying firewood for
the residents. One day was planned for wood gathering. The wood cutters
fell the trees and cut the wood into pieces and put them into the ditch
or flume that carried water to the mines, floated down to where the
miners stood in the flumes to catch the logs and remove them as they
came by. The children lined up along the flumes with hoes and helped
catch the smaller ones. The community turned out to `harvest’ the wood.
This was an all-day thing, and a party was held that night to celebrate
the wood-gathering. The men’s reward for their labor was liquor or port
wine, and the children received cookies and candy. Everyone joined in to
get the town’s wood supply for winter... and everyone joined in the
festivities.’’ Miss Flynn recalled that, “Along with the changes over
the years, Georgia Slide slowly became less active and some of the
families moved into Georgetown, even taking apart their homes and moving
them into Georgetown and rebuilding at a new site.’’ Almost all activity
had halted at Georgia Slide by1920. The remaining homes eventually fell
apart, fell down, and the rotting boards were swallowed up in the
chaparral.
[Placerville Mountain Democrat, 9-27-2000.
Submitted by KKM]
Georgetown
History Book Released by Locals
GEORGETOWN - It’s
a town with more ghost stories than people. It’s also a town where a
rumor can make a full circuit in five hours, according to Maria Capraun,
owner of Maria’s Kitchen in Georgetown’s Growlersburg Village. From the
Georgetown Hotel to the Corner Kitchen everyone knows everyone, and a
strange face is a suspicious sight. But once the people start talking,
the welcome is unrelenting and the town’s pride is phenomenal. Maria’s
Kitchen - a bakery, one-menu-item-per-day restaurant and coffee shop, is
a hub of gossip where locals congregate at lunch time to discuss their
lives and the lives of everyone else. Georgetown’s carefree character is
blatantly present in this small cafe that seats about 12 people. This
150-year-old town’s, attitude, history and pride are now recorded in the
book, “Georgetown and the Divide, El Dorado County Historic Places of
Interest, Myths and Legends, Volume two,’’ written by Sheryl Rambeau –
former editor and owner of the Georgetown Gazette and local historian -
and Halmar Moser-Flynn - dramatist and composer. The book was published
by the Heritage Association of El Dorado County in celebration of the
California Sesquicentennial. It is the second in a continuing series on
the history of El Dorado County. “The book creates an atmosphere and
attitude of the people who lived in those times,’’ said Moser-Flynn, who
will be 80 years old in March and has lived in El Dorado County for 40
years. “The impetus behind the writing of these books is that unless
history is caught while there are still people who remember it, it will
disappear.’’ It took two-and-a-half years of labor by volunteers and the
collection of over135 photographs to tell the history of Georgetown and
the communities on the Divide, said Moser-Flynn, who wrote most of the
accounts of the small communities surrounding Georgetown and the history
of the Georgia Slide mining area. The 90-page book shows pictures and
viewpoints that have never been presented to the public, said Larry
Anderson, a local Georgetown historian and member of the Georgetown
Historical Society. Anderson, 45, said many photographs were taken from
his own collection – which dates back to 1852 when his family moved to
Georgetown - and from other families’ collections. “A lot of these
pictures have never been seen,’’ he said. “They are pictures that were
stashed away in boxes.’’ One of the most interesting chapters in the
book, according to Anderson, describes the life of the Flynn family -
which was one of the first families to mine Georgia Slide. The Flynn
family arrived in 1850 from Ireland. Moser-Flynn’s husband, Joe, and his
brother, Robert - a local historian – are direct descendants of the
Flynn family and they supplied the photographs from family archives,
said Moser-Flynn. Also in the book are the histories of buildings such
as the Georgetown Hotel and the American Hotel - now the American River
Inn. Both buildings - rebuilt but with their old style intact - still
exist on Georgetown’s Main Street. They were each rebuilt at least once
after five fires - between July 1852 and May 1869 - burnt down virtually
the entire town. The American River Inn - a three-story bed and
breakfast inn - has one of the more compelling ghost myths associated
with the area, which is retold in the book.
This whole town is full of ghost stories, said Capraun. The ghost myths
and the history blend to create a beautiful story because of the
community’s ties to the discovery of gold, said Moser-Flynn. “It’s a
romance of gold that gives it a special quality that other places don’t
have,’’ she said. “Georgetown and the Divide’’ can be purchased for
$14.95 plus tax at the Placerville News Co., the El Dorado County
Museum, Drums of Time Book Shop, County Color Lab, through the
Historical Association or through Moser-Flynn’s website at
www.spectragold.com.
[Placerville Mountain Democrat, Tuesday,
9-12-2000. Submitted by KKM]
What Is in a Name
As one of the major
gold rush towns on one of the important immigrant trails into
California, Placerville rapidly grew. Other towns soon sprung up around
it to serve the increasing number of people arriving to seek their
fortune. These first settlers gave the names to these communities, many
of which have existed until today. The name Placerville, as has been
mentioned before, is named for placer mining. Its previous names of Dry
Diggings and “Hangtown’’ are reflections of its history. To the
immediate east of Placerville is Smith Flat, also known as Smith’s Flat
or Smithflat. It is believed to have been named after a pioneer farmer
or rancher named Jeb Smith, who was the first person to settle there,
although there is little evidence to support that fact. There is another
Jebediah Smith who was an early explorer of California who may also have
been the source for the name. To the west of Placerville was an early
mining camp known as Missouri Flat. It was located north of what is now
Highway 50, along today’s Missouri Flat Road. Records of its existence
go back as far as 1856. Since the primary settlers in Diamond Springs
were from Missouri, it is reasonable to believe that it got its name
from them. To the south of Placerville, near Highway 49 on Weber Creek
was Weberville, a town first settled and named by an early pioneer,
Charles M. Weber. A native of Germany, Weber came into California with
the Bartleson party in 1841, mined, and then went on to create the City
of Stockton. Due to later hydraulic mining in the area, there is almost
nothing left of Weberville. South of Weberville, where the road from
Placerville meets the Carson Immigrant Trail, is Diamond Spring or
Springs. It was named for the crystal clear spring(s) where the
immigrants watered their livestock before heading towards the Northern
or Southern mines. Postal officials made the name officially Diamond
Springs in 1958. To the east of Diamond Springs, along the immigrant
trail, were many small communities, most of which are now only spots on
maps. A short distance from Diamond Springs was the Sacramento Hotel,
which was run by a Frenchman named John Schneider Sr. The surrounding
community was often referred to as “Pollywog Settlement’’ because of the
large number of French settlers there. East of that was the community of
Ringgold, most likely named for an early explorer of the Sacramento
Valley, Lt. Cmdr. Cadwalader Ringgold. From the late 1890s until 1954,
Ringgold School was located on the property that is now Diamond Manor
Mobilehome Park. A short distance east of Ringgold was Tiger Lily, a
small community named for the beautiful orange and black native lilies,
more often called Leopard Lilies. Just east of Tiger Lily is Oak Hill
Road, which got its name because of a schoolhouse that was moved there.
The area known as Oak Hill is located on the north side of Pleasant
Valley Road, just to the east of Hank’s Exchange (named for Captain
Hanks, one source says) and is identified by the Oak Hill Cemetery which
still exists. The Oak Hill School was organized in 1858, but around 1896
was moved west to a point east of what is now Oak Hill Road, about 1 1/2
miles south of Pleasant Valley Road. Although the road was more than a
mile from Oak Hill, it soon became known as Oak Hill Road because of the
school. Use of the school stopped in the mid-1950s. Beyond the turn-off
to Buck’s Bar and Somerset, is Pleasant Valley, the place where a large
group of the Mormon Battalion gathered in early 1848 before blazing what
would become the Carson Emigrant Trail over the Sierra Nevada. One of
the early scouts sent to find the route was James C. Sly after whom Sly
Park is named. Just north of Pleasant Valley at the location of one of
the Mormon’s corrals is Newtown. The Mormons had done some exploration
here while waiting to cross the mountains, however, the next year some
of them would return, find more gold, and start a “new town.’’ To the
west of Diamond Springs was Mud Springs, which would become the town of
El Dorado. The name Mud Springs was given to this town because the
thousands of immigrants traveling through here watered their livestock
at the once clear springs that flowed, muddying the surrounding land and
the water itself. To the south of El Dorado, near the Cosumnes River,
were several small communities. The place we now know as Nashville was
once just one of a group of mining towns (Quartzville, Quartzburg, and
Tennessee Bar) along the main road running between the northern mines
and the southern mines (now Highway49). South of Nashville were
Pittsburg Bar and Yeomet (also known as Saratoga, Yornet and Huse
Bridge), small communities located on flat pieces of land downstream
from the confluence of the Middle and South Forks of the Cosumnes River,
an area known as the “Forks of the Cosumnes.’’ The origin of most of
these names is obvious, being based on communities where the miners had
previously lived or the type of mining (quartz, placer, etc.). The name
Yeomet comes a location about a 1/2 mile downstream called Yomet or
“sounding rock’’ by the Native Americans. The Post Office would later
change the name to Yornet. Huse Bridge is named for the bridge builder,
S. E. Huse. Yeomet and Huse Bridge are now in Amador County as a result
of a shift in the El Dorado and Amador County line.
[Placerville Mountain Democrat, Tuesday,
9-12-2000. Submitted by KKM]
Caldor Originally called
Dogtown
Caldor was a company
town, originally called Dogtown, about seven miles east of Grizzly Flat.
It was built along Dogtown Creek, a tributary of the Consumnes River,
during the gold rush by the Doe brothers, Bartlett and John. A third
brother, Charles, joined them later. They established the California
Door Co. and created a lumber business that lasted for a hundred years.
The town, essentially a logging camp, was never big enough for a post
office, and the lumber company eventually changed the name to Caldor. It
also had a school at one time, but at the end of a year, the school was
closed and the students were sent to Grizzly Flat for educating. The
Does mined the forest for timber, especially ponderosa and sugar pine,
especially good for doors, windows, and blinds. The company ultimately
acquired 30,000 acres of timberland. Nine logging camps dotted the
region. Fifty square miles of forest were harvested, and over 100 miles
of narrow gauge railroad hauled logs to the mill site. Sixty-three
trestles supported the rights of way, and a 97-foot long steel bridge
was built across the Consumnes River. Caldor was to southeastern El
Dorado County what Pino Grande to northeastern El Dorado. The company
built a mill at Caldor, using the water from Dogtown Creek to drive the
saw. Lumber was hauled by mule teams and later steam tractors to Diamond
Springs 35 miles to the west where the company built a planning mill and
a box factory. Later a narrow gauge railroad was built to haul lumber
and logs to the facilities at Diamond Springs, where lumber was shipped
to the company’s huge factory in Oakland. It was called the Diamond and
Caldor Railway. It also transported passengers between Caldor and
Diamond Springs. Tickets to ride cost $2; kids rode free. Coles Station
was a stop along the way. In 1923 the Caldor sawmill was destroyed by
fire, and a new saw mill was built at Diamond Springs. The railroad then
hauled the logs from Caldor. By 1953 diesel trucks had replaced the
train for hauling logs from the timberland at Caldor. Ten years later
the company closed its doors. Logging continued at Caldor until the
1970s when the mill at Diamond Springs was closed and the business
liquidated. In 1990 the company’s old shay locomotive was put on display
at the El Dorado County Museum, and the Forest Service dedicated the
mill site at Caldor for a historical interpretive center. With
uncharacteristic articulation, the Forest Service brochure on Caldor
describes what visitors will find there now: “Today, only foundations
and a scatter of boards and tin cans remind us of Caldor in his heyday.
The train tracks are gone, and cars now pass by on roads where trains
once traveled. The forest has grown over the stumps of past logging, and
ashes are all that remain of the old mill site. The Caldor Company and
the D&C Railway are no more — gone, abandoned, faded away, but not
forgotten.” The Caldor center is about an hour drive from Placerville.
Grizzly-Caldor Road off Grizzly Flat Road takes visitors to the old mill
site and logging grounds. The road is not all paved, however. Remains of
the old mill site are available for inspection, and old railroad rights
of way have been converted into trails for hikers.
[Placerville
Mountain Democrat, Friday, 8-17-2001. Submitted by KKM]
Coloma's History
Is Wrapped in Gold, Part 1
Some ask why it
turned out that Coloma was the site of the California gold discovery.
After all, there were many, many places in the Mother Lode where such an
occurrence could have easily taken place. Gold was in streams and rivers
everywhere along the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. But there were
several reasons, including luck, that it was Coloma that would have the
destiny to become the site of this discovery that would immediately
change the world. Coloma lies on the South Fork of the American River, a
place with sufficient water power for a sawmill, a place with great
stands of timber and a place only a short distance upriver from John
Sutter's fort, which lay to the west at a place he called New Helvetia
(now Sacramento), in honor of his Swiss heritage. It was for these
reasons that John Sutter and James Marshall selected this site for
Sutter's sawmill and in doing so, established the first real permanent
camp in the foothills of the Sierra. That is what set the stage for the
discovery of gold in the Mother Lode to take place at this location. For
the first few years after James Wilson Marshall's famed discovery of
gold, Coloma was where everyone headed. They might end up somewhere else
but Coloma, "Sutter's Mill" or just "The Mill," was their original
destination. People arrived from all over the world. Most came up the
river to Sutter's Fort and then headed to Coloma through what is now
Folsom, Rescue and Lotus. And later, many came over the Sierra Nevada by
wagon, from points east. Even though the river and creeks of the Coloma
valley were rich in gold, soon the population just became too big and
men set out to search for similar riches in the surrounding lands. But
many miners stayed there and this large a population needed supplies to
continue their quest. As the number of miners grew, businesses like
Capt. Shannon and Cady's store and place of entertainment, the New York
Store, S.S. Brook's store, Warner, Sherman and Bestor, and, across the
river, John Little's Emporium, sprung up, peddling their often
high-priced wares. Capt. Shannon would be the first Alcalde (a kind of
justice of the peace) of the township, and John Little its first
postmaster (with a business on the other side of the river, Little would
also start the first ferry operation). Under the care of Little, and
later a Mr. Brooks, Coloma would become the busiest post office in
California with men on horseback carrying the mail to the miners and
collecting one dollar for each delivery. The first hotel, the Winter's
Hotel, was built by Winters and Cromwell, who hired A. J. (Alcander
John) Bayley, later of Pilot Hill, as a bartender and then manager. In
1850 Bayley resigned his position at the Winter's Hotel and set about
building his own hotel in Pilot Hill, the Oak Valley House. A huge
structure, it was the site of many well-attended, annual balls which
continued through October of 1860. On May 16, 1861, not unlike many
other Gold Rush structures, the Oak Valley House, and all of its
contents, was completely destroyed by fire. Under the false belief that
the Transcontinental Railroad would be routed through Pilot Hill, Bayley
immediately started construction on an even larger hotel, manufacturing
300,000 bricks for the job. This palatial, three story building would
serve as the home for he, his wife and their four children and still
exists as the Bayley House. Soon Bayley would become the proprietor of
the Grand Central Hotel at Lake Bigler (Tahoe). In 1871 he would serve a
term in the California Assembly and his son, Alonzo A. Bayley, born
April 24, 1851, would be the first native born El Doradoan to serve as a
county supervisor (1881-1882). In December of 1848, for $6000 in cash
and promises, Sutter sold his share in the mill to Winters, the hotel
owner, and another Bayley, Alden G. Bayley. It would be they, in
partnership with Marshall, who would complete the saw mill in 1849 and
use it to saw lumber until around 1853. At that point in time the mill
was abandoned and began to deteriorate. Much of the original mill's
timbers ended up as souvenirs, such as the gold topped cane made from
the mill's headblock that was presented to David E. Buel, the second
Sheriff of El Dorado County, in 1854. As the miners moved away from the
river and found gold in the dry soil that was once an old riverbed,
there became a need for pressurized water in order to efficiently was
away the unwanted material. This need was taken care of when a group of
men got together to build the six mile El Dorado Canal to serve Coloma.
This canal proved to be a good investment, so soon other ditches were
dug, including the Holingsworth and Co's, the Coloma Canal, the Shanghai
Ditch, the Williams Ditch, and the Greenhorn Ditch. In the spring of
1850 Edward T. Raun built the first bridge across the South Fork of the
American river in Coloma. Five years later it was damaged by floods and
rebuilt, but the high water of 1862 completely swept it away and Raun
decided he'd had enough. To be continued.
[Placerville
Mountain Democrat, Friday, 4-8-2005. Submitted by KKM]
Coloma Part 2: Coloma Vies for County Seat - Placerville Named After the
1856 Ballot Review
There are obviously
many tales that can be told about early Coloma and its citizens. After
all, as a former publisher of the Mountain Democrat aptly put it,
"Civilization here was young and the reign of law, a fiction." One of
the most intriguing stories involves its bid to retain the county seat
of El Dorado County. When El Dorado County was organized by an act of
the legislature on February 18, 1850, Coloma was the largest town at
that time and, with the number of voters it had, it was easily chosen as
the County seat. Four years later, when the center of population had
shifted, a number of towns jealously showed a desire to replace it as
the county seat. Thus in 1854 another election was held with the
following results: Coloma, 4,601; Placerville, 3,745; Diamond Springs,
2,073; Mud Springs (El Dorado), 685; Greenwood Valley, 441. This did not
set well with the citizens of the new city of Placerville and they
started an unfruitful movement to divide the county (around that time
many of the original 27 counties were being divided and, in fact in 1854
Amador County was created from portions of Calaveras and El Dorado
counties). Subsequently, the Board of Supervisors ordered another
election to move the county seat to be held on May 17, 1856. The results
were very interesting, to say the least. In this election, the official
returns gave Coloma 7,413 votes and Placerville, the only other
candidate, 5,895 votes. Because of the results of the 1854 election, the
citizens of Placerville had feared the possibility of fraud and thus
obtained returns at the close of the polls, prior to the "official
returns." These showed that Coloma had received only 5,280 votes, some
600 less than Placerville. It was also noted that there had been 2,038
votes cast in the town site of Coloma alone, over a thousand more than
had been cast in the previous presidential election and, some say, far
more that the number of eligible voters. Quite a fuss resulted and,
finally tired of the antics of the local citizens, in January of 1857
the state legislature permanently solved the problem and firmly
established the county seat at the city of Placerville, where it has
remained since. We often forget that the miners, although young and
obviously rambunctious, were very literate. In fact, no time in history
before had there been such a migration of literate people, which is why
we have so much first handwritten history of the Gold Rush. Seizing on
this and the desire of the miners to know what was going on elsewhere in
the world and in "the States," several newspapers began publication in
the Coloma valley. The first newspaper east of Sacramento was the El
Dorado News (Whig), published in Coloma in June of 1851 by Thomas
Springer. A few months later the paper was moved to Placerville and in
June of 1853, the name was changed to the El Dorado Republican (this
paper would ultimately become the Mountain Democrat). That newspaper was
followed shortly by the Miner's Advocate, which began publication in
Coloma in the summer of 1851. The publisher was James R. Pile & Co. and
its editor was D. W. Gelwicks (later Gelwicks would become the publisher
of the Mountain Democrat). This paper would also move to Placerville,
and then Diamond Springs as the county's population center moved away
from Coloma. As indicated by the moving of the newspapers, only three or
four years after the first discovery of gold, surface mining in and
around Coloma waned, and the valley began to take on a more quiet,
serene atmosphere. Orchards and vineyards, many started by the miners
themselves, dotted the landscape as far up as irrigation water could
reach. In an article in the Virginia City, Nevada Enterprise, a Dr.
Holmes described Coloma after much of the mining had ceased: "It is now
a place of orchards and vineyards. Snow seldom falls there. They grow
fig and almond trees, and flowers bloom every month in the year. The
people live in vine-embowered cottages, giving no thought to the
treasure vaults beneath." James Wilson Marshall, the discoverer of gold
in the millrace at Coloma would ultimately lose everything, including
his land on which he had only a squatter’s right - a right which was
unrecognized by either Mexican or American law. He would move from his
cabin in the Coloma Valley to one in Kelsey where he did odd jobs and
ran a blacksmith's shop. On August 10, 1885 he died alone in his cabin
at the age of 74 years and 10 months. A few years later a statue of him
would be erected on a monument over his grave on a hill above Coloma. As
a permanent reminder of his discovery, one arm of his statue is
outstretched and it points slightly down, towards the place on the river
where he picked up those first few flakes of gold and changed history
forever. Fortunately for all of us, early last century the State of
California started purchasing the land surrounding the site of Sutter's
Mill and has established the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic
Park, preserving for all of us this important place in our history.
Sources for this story include: "History of California", by Theodore
Hittell (1897); "California Gold Camps", by Erwin Gudde (1975);
"California Place Names", by Erwin Gudde, 3rd Edition (1974); "Mother
Lode of Learning - One Room Schools of El Dorado County" by Retired
Teachers Association of El Dorado County (1990); "I Remember..., Stories
and pictures of El Dorado County pioneer families", researched and
written by Betty Yohalem (1977); "Mines and Mineral Resources of El
Dorado County, California", California Division of Mines (1956); "Narrow
Gauge Nostalgia" by George Turner (1965); "History of El Dorado County",
by Paolo Sioli (1883), reprinted and indexed by the El Dorado Friends of
the Library (1998); the archives of the Mountain Democrat
(1854-Present); and the wonderful people at the reference desk of the El
Dorado County Main Library. [Placerville Mountain Democrat, Friday,
4-15-2005. Submitted by KKM]
Smith
Flat : A Community with a History of Surviving
Located just 3 miles
east of downtown Placerville, the town known at various times as Smith's
Flat, Smith Flat, and Smithflat was not only an important stop along the
Placerville wagon and stage road, but also a mining town of some renown.
It is believed to have been named after a pioneer farmer or rancher
named Jeb Smith, who was the first person to settle there, although
there is little evidence to support that fact. The first hint of the
richness of the diggings in the area of Smith Flat occurred in 1849 when
a miner searching for new diggings leaned over and picked up a nugget or
two. Hearing of this new find, flocks of miners rushed to the area
rapidly staking out their claims. Since this led to conflicts between
miners, mining laws were soon drawn up for what had become the Smith's
Flat mining district. As in other districts, these laws specified the
size of the claims, the number of claims one miner could hold (two, one
by location and one by purchase or two by purchase), and provided
numerous rules on staking, recording and working claims. To reduce the
possibility of fights among the miners, the mining laws even outlined
the means by which a jury of miners would be selected to settle any
difficulties. As was usual in these mining camps, for the first few
months or so the gold was easy to find, and many miners "struck it
rich." However, soon these surface deposits were depleted and most
miners left for new diggings, with a few staying to form partnerships.
These partnerships, or "companies" as they were more commonly known,
provided the manpower needed to start serious exploration into the
ground. Using a mining method called drift mining, they drove tunnels
into the ground following gold bearing deposits known as leads
(pronounced "leeds"). Soon, they discovered that much of the area was
underlain by an ancient (Tertiary) riverbed - rich in gold. One such
deposit known as the Deep Blue Lead, a major tributary of the ancient
American River, was traced from White Rock Canyon, south through Smith's
Flat and then further southwest to Cedar Ravine. The gravels at White
Rock yielded $5,000,000 in gold and just one mine south of Smith's Flat,
the Lyon's Mine, yielded $1,400,000. From 1888-96 and 1916-19, one
Smith's Flat mine, the Rogers Gravel Mine (later called the Benfeldt
Mine), was very active, having been developed by a 750 foot inclined
shaft with drifts. The cemented gravel was brought to the surface and
put through a 10-stamp mill and then a 150 foot sluice. Once the gold
was removed, the remaining gravel was lifted by a 44 foot diameter
tailings wheel and piled off to the side. These ancient river deposits,
consisting of the Blue Lead and Gray Lead channels, would continue to be
mined up through the 1930s, if not later, at several locations in the
area. These included the Hook-and-Ladder (Toll House Mine), Carpender
and Kumfa (Kum Fa) mines, among others. Being on the Placerville wagon
and stage road, Smith's Flat was the perfect location for a hotel and
toll station (the road being privately owned and maintained until taken
over by the County of El Dorado in 1886 and later the state). At this
location, in 1853, was built the Three Mile House, now known as the
Smith Flat House, probably the best preserved frame building of its size
in the Mother Lode (unfortunately, the nearby toll house building was
razed by the state, when U.S. 50 was realigned). Built over the entrance
of the Blue Lead Mine, the Smith Flat House originally consisted of a
general store, post office, bedroom, dining room and dance floor, all
downstairs, with more bedrooms above. There was also a barn that could
stable 40 horses for the many teamsters and travelers that passed this
way. Just as the number of California emigrants passing through Smith's
Flat began to decrease, silver was discovered near Virginia City in
Nevada. Immediately the traffic reversed and the road became the most
crowded road in the state as thousands of freight wagons carrying
supplies and equipment passed by on their way over the Sierra Nevada to
the mines. Because of this traffic, in 1863 a blacksmith's shop was
added next to the Smith Flat House, followed in the 1890s by additional
improvements to the building including a kitchen, pantry, laundry, more
bedrooms and a saloon and card room. Over the years, the Smith Flat
House had many owners and many uses. It became the community center in
which a post office was established on Jan. 31, 1876, with George B.
Raffetto serving as the first postmaster. On Sept. 7, 1895, the post
office would change the name of Smith's Flat to one word, Smithflat, to
avoid confusion with several other "Smith" towns in California. Because
early postmasters were politically appointees, the post office probably
moved around a bit with the party changes in Washington, D.C. However,
it ended up spending most of its last years in the Smith Flat House.
First organized April 8, 1858, the Smith's Flat School continued to
serve the local students until July 1, 1951, when it was consolidated
with the Placerville Elementary School to become Placerville Union
School District. The list of graduates from this school read like a
who's who of the Smith's Flat area, including names like Fossati, Rupley,
Ferrari, Lyon, Carpender, Benfeldt, Stancil, Jacquier, Cola and many
more. When the new Highway 50 was built in the 1960s, Smith Flat Road
was no longer part of the main road to South Lake Tahoe and traffic
along it nearly ceased. Thus, there was no longer a real need for a
hotel, or for that matter most other businesses, in Smith's Flat. Many
buildings fell into disrepair and some were abandoned. The Smith Flat
House, with its basement saloon, became a restaurant under a series of
operators until it closed. For a while the city of Placerville
considered the annexation of Smith's Flat into its incorporated
boundary. What the future will bring for Smith's Flat, no one knows for
sure. But, the town and the Smith Flat House have a history of surviving
and should continue to do so.
Sources for this story include: "History of California," by Theodore
Hittell (1897); "California Gold Camps," by Erwin Gudde (1975);
"California Place Names," by Erwin Gudde, 3rd Edition (1974); "Mother
Lode of Learning - One Room Schools of El Dorado County," by Retired
Teachers Association of El Dorado County (1990); "I Remember..., Stories
and pictures of El Dorado County pioneer families," researched and
written by Betty Yohalem (1977); "Mines and Mineral Resources of El
Dorado County, California," California Division of Mines (1956);
"History of El Dorado County," by Paolo Sioli (1883), reprinted and
indexed by the El Dorado Friends of the Library (1998); and the
wonderful people at the reference desk of the El Dorado County Main
Library.
[Placerville
Mountain Democrat, Friday, 12-30-2005. Submitted by KKM]
Time Capsule
Surfaces in Rescue Community
RESCUE - On Dec. 19,
a cornerstone capsule filled with papers dating back to 1896 from the
Rose Springs Literary Society surfaced in Rescue. The bottle has aged to
light green and the cork has crumbled to bits, but the papers inside,
though ripped in places, are still legible. Now the heart of Rescue,
Rose Springs was located at the intersection of Green Valley and Deer
Valley roads. The area was named for the wild roses that grew around the
springs and lent their name to Rose Springs School, Rose Springs
Literary Society and Hall and Rose Springs Cemetery. The Rose Springs
Literary Society Hall was built in 1896 and is in the midst of being
upgraded and remodeled, a project that started a year ago. "There was an
old shack kitchen, an afterthought. We tore it down so a new kitchen
could be put up. A construction crew was digging the foundation and
found the bottle. They gave the bottle to the Rescue Fire Department
captain, Tom Keating, who called me," said Francis Carpenter, 80, of the
Rescue Historical Society Inc. and a Rescue Fire Department board
member. Volunteer firefighter and Rescue Historical Society secretary
Cheryl Yee indicated that sheer good luck was partly responsible for the
bottle's unearthing. "The construction crew could have overlooked or
broken the bottle," Yee said. The bottle was found at the southeast
corner of the hall, approximately 2 feet in under the building from each
direction. Carpenter said a construction worker actually had to crawl
under the building to retrieve the bottle. The documents are not
earth-shattering in their importance but they are fun, a bit of history
brought to life. One document states, "Rose Springs Literary Society
Cornerstone laid Aug. 31, 1896 at 4:30 P.M." This document is signed by
"Leonard Wing, Euell Gray, Guy Lemknes, Wm. Rust, James Wing, George J.
Kipp and Inez May Gray (Builders)." Their feat is impressive because
their labor was donated, and the hall is a large, two-story building.
Another document is dated Sept. 5, 1896, and reads in part: "Below will
be found the names of the Officers, Trustees, and Members of The Rose
Springs Literary Society. It was through there (sic) untiring effort
that we are able to start to erect this stately edifice, in this Corner
Stone of which we place this manuscript, to be found in the future and
treasured in the memory of the finder." Rose Springs was a small and
very rural community in the 19th century. Yet the school, the literary
society, the hall, and the cemetery provided residents with vital
aspects of society like education and entertainment as well as a place
to bury their dead. Ila M. Wing Brazil in "History of the Rose Springs
Literary Society Hall" provided by Mountain Democrat columnist Doug
Noble wrote that the Rose Springs Literary Society "began in 1894 or
early 1895 when a civic minded group of pioneers of the vicinity decided
to form a club." Club members met in the one-room Rose Springs School
House and named the society after the school. The membership grew, and
"club members decided to build a hall of their own. Mr. and Mrs. George
Skinner, Sr. donated the plot of land," wrote Brazil. George Wing traded
hay for lumber for the building, and George Kipp was the head carpenter
and only paid worker. The balance of labor was done by the volunteer
builders whose names were preserved in the time capsule. They
constructed a large, two-story building completed in July 1896. Then
everyone partied. Brazil wrote, "On July 4th, a picnic and celebration
was held on the George Skinner ranch in the day time, and that night,
the first dance and dedication was held in the hall. A ticket for two
was $2.50, which included midnight supper and the caring for their horse
or horses. Five hundred dollars was collected at the dance." Carpenter
explained that the society raised money to construct its hall primarily
by holding dances. "It was the only social event in town, and everybody
showed up," said Carpenter. Literary societies dotted the foothill
landscape from the mid-1800s through the early part of the 1900s. They
provided an opportunity for farm people to gather and have fun through
discussion and debate, music, dancing and dramatic presentations. Brazil
wrote that the hall hosted basket socials and oyster soup suppers as
well. Carpenter said the debating society was known for being rowdy.
"They took their debating seriously back then," he said. By the 1930s,
literary society action was beginning to wane in Rose Springs. At that
point, the United Rescue Grange was organized, and needing a meeting
place, the Grange rented the hall. "Once again the old hall rang with
music and laughter as dances were given and everyone for miles around
came to the dances," Brazil wrote. In addition, the hall hosted
programs, showers, weddings, and receptions. In 1962 the Rescue Post
Office needed a place to exist and moved into a room downstairs in the
hall. At the time, Brazil was acting postmaster. She was officially
appointed on Oct. 23, 1963, according to a news clipping provided by
Noble. The Post Office is still in occupation, a 21st century presence
in a 19th century hall. Not long after, Rescue Union School needed a
kindergarten room, and teacher Anna Lyons and her young students found
yet another use for the old hall. By the 1970s, impetus to preserve the
historical hall was fairly exhausted, and it was put up for sale. An
offer was received for $30,000, but before the deal progressed too far,
Rose Springs Literary Society members "heard that the Rescue Fire
Department was looking for a piece of ground on which to build their
fire house," Brazil wrote. According to Brazil, the society approached
the Fire Department with a deal almost too good to be true. The society
would donate the hall and the land to the Fire Department. The
department accepted and moved in, installing the business offices
downstairs next door to the Post Office. The Rescue Fire Department
dedication ceremony took place on July 9, 1977. Brazil was invited to be
the speaker, prompting her to research and prepare the "History of the
Rose Springs Literary Society Hall." In the summer of 2009, the Fire
Department business offices were remodeled and modernized. The
second-floor dance hall with a stage is currently dilapidated and
awaiting restoration. Carpenter said he hopes to see community dances
taking place once again in the dance hall. The first postmaster in
Rescue was Merritt Hunter, Carpenter's grandfather, who also owned the
building the Post Office was in at the time. Carpenter said the area
around Rose Springs was originally called Green Valley. "The U.S. Post
Office Department decided that there were already too many towns with
that name in California," according to the news clip. Hunter was asked
to submit a list of one-word names for the town to the Postal
Department, effectively barring the two-word name of Rose Springs from
consideration. Andrew Hare submitted the winning entry of Rescue after
his nearby mining claim, the Rescue Claim. Hare explained that he had
named his claim Rescue because it had rescued him from poverty. Rose
Springs and Green Valley became Rescue when the Rescue Post Office
opened on June 12, 1895. Community assets included the Kelly Creek Store
and the Kelly Creek Slaughter House and Cabin, states the Historical
Society flier. Although the slaughter house served very different needs
from the literary society, it probably ranked as high on the community
asset list. Rescue/ Rose Springs /Green Valley was not only known by a
variety of names at one time, but also over the years the history of the
place became indelibly intertwined with the Rescue Post Office and the
Rescue Fire Department. Carpenter, called Carp by his friends, is linked
to all three. For 20 years he served as Rescue Fire captain and is
currently the keeper of Rescue's historical artifacts. His wife Joy was
1997 El Dorado Rose. The families of both his parents have been in the
area since Gold Rush days, and his father attended Rose Springs School.
Yee also has links to the Fire Department and the historical society, as
does full time firefighter Chris Paper who is current president of the
Rescue Historical Society. Paper unearthed a fourth link on Ancestry.com
- an old edition of the Mountain Democrat not so much reporting major
Rescue news but providing a chatty account of just what Rescue folks and
firms were up to in November 1896. "WC Watson has returned from Byron
Springs much improved in health, we are glad to state," reads one Nov.
12 entry, while another states, "Mrs. Lee has moved to Missouri Flat and
we regret it as it makes a family less in this neighborhood, but no
houses can be obtained here." Another entry reports that Bryant and
Company shipped several carloads of lumber, and yet another states that
the grape season has closed and that 17 carloads of grapes have been
shipped out. A Nov. 10 entry states that the rain was sufficient for the
farmers to plant once the weather modulated. The most cryptic entry
occurs on Nov. 11, however, and reads, "What has become of Sandy? Has he
gone on a Rip Van Winkle tour?" Anyone knowing the answer to that
question should contact Rosemary Revell by e-mailing
rrevell@mtdemocrat.net or phoning (530) 344-5068. [Placerville
Mountain Democrat, Wednesday, 1-20-2010. Submitted by KKM]
Clarksville Also Called Clark’s Town and Clarkson
Clarksville, which
was also called “Clark’s Town” and “Clarkson,” was located just south of
what is now Highway 50 and about two miles from the Sacramento County
line. It was also about three or four miles east of White Rock, which is
just inside Sacramento County at the junction of Peyan Road and White
Rock Road. There was also a White Rock mining camp in El Dorado County
north of Smith’s Flat; the references in Paolo Sioli’s history are to
the El Dorado camp. Although he noted that some quartz mining had gone
on in the Clarksville vicinity, Sioli covered very little of the
region’s history, understandably, because not a great deal of general
historical interest occurred there. What is known of Clarksville and
White Rock comes mainly from local historian John Wilson, who grew up in
Clarksville. Clarksville, White Rock, and Latrobe were the centers of an
active stock raising and dairy ranching community in western El Dorado
County. There wasn’t a great deal of mining going on there during the
Gold Rush, and the soil was not particularly fertile for agriculture and
fruit raising as it was in parts of the county further east in the
western Sierra foothills. White Rock is gone, leaving behind little more
than a road named for it; Clarksville left only a pioneer cemetery at
the end of Joerger Road as a relic of its past existence; and trains
haven’t stopped in Latrobe for over a hundred years. The biggest event
of the year in early Clarksville was the annual stock drive of local
cattle to summer grazing lands high in the Sierra Nevada. This took
place in the spring; and, when snow began to fall in October, the
animals were driven back to their pastures in Clarksville and Latrobe.
Crowded herds of cattle, sheep, and goats no longer roam the soft,
parched, rolling hills of the area; and the land sits there under the
hot valley sun patiently waiting for the arrival of the developers’
massive earth moving machines and carpenters and laborers to come and
fill up the land with tract houses whose inhabitants are willing to
endure the crowded commute to their offices in the Capital City.
Clarksville was the last stop in El Dorado County on the Carson Emigrant
Route for pioneers and prospectors continuing west from Diamond Springs
instead of diverting north to Hangtown during the early years of the
Gold Rush. From Clarksville the route led on to Folsom and Sacramento.
Clarksville went through the typical growing pains during its existence.
People could vote in Clarksville for the heated 1854 election and
express a preference for the location of the county seat. Clarksville
had one of the 17 post offices that were located in El Dorado County on
Jan. 1, 1856, and by the following year 125 students were enrolled in
the White Rock school of the Clarksville school district. Thanks to John
Wilson, some things are known about Clarksville’s early pioneers. Joseph
Joerger was one of them. He was born in Alsace-Lorraine and came to New
York in 1851, coming to Folsom the following year where he mined for
gold for five years. In 1858 he started a dairy ranch near Clarksville,
and each spring he drove his herd over the Donner summit to pasture
lands in Truckee, bringing the animals back to their “winter range” when
the snow started to fall. In 1876 Joerger and his wife acquired a home
about half a mile outside of Clarksville that was called “the Nunnery”
because it had once been occupied by a group of nuns. It’s said the nuns
would sit and meditate all day on a stone bench they carved out of the
rock on a hill overlooking the house. The Nunnery burnt to the ground in
1879, and Joerger bought the Mormon Tavern which had been built in 1848
by a Mormon by the name of Morgan at the beginning of the Tong Toll Road
in what is now El Dorado Hills. John Tong came overland to California
from St. Louis, Mo. in 1857 to settle in Clarksville. His was one of the
earliest families to settle in Clarksville. He bought a hotel called
“Railroad House” in an acquisition that makes one remember poor A.J.
Bayley in Pilot Hill. The place was called Railroad House because the
original owner expected Clarksville to be the first El Dorado County
railroad depot when the Sacramento Valley line was extended east from
Folsom on the route to Shingle Springs. Those expectations were
frustrated when the line was built further south and the terminal
installed at Latrobe. Tong decided to keep the name, however, and the
Railroad House became a popular stop in the 1860s for eastbound
prospectors on their way to Placerville and then on to the gold and
silver mines in Nevada on the Comstock Lode. An earlier Clarksville
pioneer was a redheaded Irishman named Craig. He lived with an Indian
woman and the couple gave birth to an extraordinarily beautiful daughter
they called Maria. As a young adult, Maria became involved in a number
of affairs with prominent Clarksville businessmen, and they in turn
produced two fatherless boys. Maria gave her sons her last name, but, to
the delight of town gossips, she made a point of giving each one the
first name of his respective father. According to John Wilson, who knew
one of the children, “the boys grew to manhood in Clarksville, and of
course everyone knew who had fathered them. Their fathers were much too
prominent for people not to know.” [Placerville Mountain Democrat,
Friday, 4-13-2001. Submitted by KKM]
Newtown Bigger
Than Placerville at the Time
Newtown today,
located near Weber Creek in Pleasant Valley, is little more than an old
stone building and a cemetery near the intersection of Newtown Road and
Fort Jim Road about eight miles southeast of Placerville. Gold mining
began there as early as 1848, however, and Newtown sported a population
of as many as 5,000 miners and merchants at the height of the Gold Rush.
It claimed to be bigger than Placerville at the time. Miners who
prospected there called it their “New Town.” The first prospectors to
mine at Newtown were members of the Mormon Battalion while they waited
for their wagon train to form up for the trip to Utah at the Pleasant
Valley corral. Five of the Mormons returned to California the next year
and told friends in Placerville of mining at Newtown. On the night of
April 6, 1849 six Placerville miners sneaked out of town and traveled to
the digs the Mormons had created the year before at Newtown. The story
couldn’t be contained, however, and the next morning 30 more prospectors
from Placerville joined them. Mining was rich at Newtown. Four miners
working a small ravine near the town in 1849 reportedly extracted
$64,000 worth of gold in a short time. James Marshall was said to have
been a frequent visitor at the camp, which boasted as many as nine
saloons. Prospectors flooded in as the camp was located on the Carson
Emigrant Trail close to its terminus at Diamond Springs. In 1856 a
42-ounce nugget was found in Weber Creek near the town. The town had a
post office as early as 1852; it became an election district by 1854 and
a school district by 1860. The usual collection of stores, shops, hotels
and saloons were quick to follow in the wake of the 1849 strike. On the
outskirts of town, a bowling alley, a dance hall, and a brewery were
added. In 1854 a wagon road was built between Newtown and Placerville.
One of the town’s auxiliary enterprises was the making and selling of
liquor. When the placer mines played out, hydraulic and drift mining
became common in the area. One of the biggest mines was located near the
town at what was called Jim’s Diggings. According to some accounts, the
Army built a log fort at that location as protection against predatory
Indian raids. The story was pure myth. The truth was that a regiment of
the United States infantry had made the location the site of a temporary
encampment while it was in the region for a parade in Placerville in
1858. Some claim that the soldiers bivouacked at Sportsman’s Hall in
what is now Pollock Pines on that occasion. Additional water for mining
was brought to the town and the adjoining areas by the Eureka Canal
Company, which dug ditches bringing water from the North Fork of the
Cosumnes River. At first water was sold at half the market price, but
the cost of water soon escalated beyond what the miners thought was
reasonable. Thus, in 1856 a mass meeting of miners was held at Diamond
Springs protesting against the rising cost of the water. A resolution
was passed suspending all mining operations in the area until the canal
company reduced its prices for water that the miners considered
extortion. The town reached its zenith in 1872. During that year a fire
started in the brewery and quickly spread to the adjoining hotel
building. Before it was out, all the buildings along Main Street were
destroyed. The town never recaptured its previous position as a thriving
mining town. The Gold Rush was winding down in any event. Newtown was
fairly diversified, as were most mining towns, but the population seemed
to support a larger number of Italian immigrants than other camps. Many
of these pioneers stayed in the area and became farmers and ranchers as
the mines played out. At one time county residents referred to the town
as “sunny Italy.” The Italian community in Newtown was rather
homogenous, which fact is reflected in a story told by county historian
Allen de Grange. It seems a disreputable character named Gigio came to
town one day from Italy. He soon caused trouble. While lounging outside
the general store, he accosted an Indian woman sitting on her horse.
When she ignored his rude advances, he grabbed her by the arm and
attempted to pull her from the horse. The woman then struck Gigio across
the face with her whip. Enraged, the reprobate pulled his revolver and
shot her dead. The woman was a member of a tribe of Nevada Indians who
came to the area each year to sell horses they had raised and broken.
The Indians had a reputation as a particularly proud and aggressive
tribe. The townsfolk feared retribution and sent off for John Ringer at
Smith’s Flat Ringer was the justice of the peace. Gigio prayed for
protection from his fellow countrymen, but they ostracized him and
refused his defense. When the Indian woman’s father, the tribe’s chief,
and her eight brothers appeared in town, the Italians ignored Gigio.
While the Indians and Ringer parlayed, Gigio sneaked into the brush
trying to escape to Placerville. A shot rang out, and Gigio’s dead body
was later found in the brush. No one knew who shot him, but the
consensus was it had been the woman’s husband. The Indians quickly made
peace and returned to Nevada. A town favorite was John “Black Jack”
Perkins, one of two African-Americans in the region at the time. The
other was Dr. Porter, a Placerville doctor. As told by Pleasant Valley
chronicler George Peabody, Black Jack’s story was familiar. He started
life as a slave in the South, and like many other African-Americans he
came to California in 1849 with his owner. He was allowed to mine on his
own account, however, and soon accumulated enough money to buy his
freedom. He became a pig farmer near Placerville and was soon popular
with county residents. Each year Black Jack appeared in Newtown for the
Fourth of July celebration. He sang traditional folk songs for the
children accompanying himself with two finished wooden sticks he beat
rhythmically with his fingers. He called them the “old dry bones.” It
was said he knew 50 verses to “0l’ Dan Tucker.” [Placerville Mountain
Democrat, Friday, 6-8-2001. Submitted by KKM]
Somerset Hotel Served as Vital Part of County's History
At the intersection of Mt. Aukum Road (E-16), Grizzly Flat Road and
Buck’s Bar Road is the small town of Somerset. It was first settled in
1856 by some former residents of Somerset, Ohio who probably looked for
gold in the nearby north and middle forks of the Cosumnes River and in
local streams and ravines. Within a few years, there were several
permanent residences in the area and a hotel called the Somerset House.
During its early history, the town was little more than a trading stop
for people going to and from Grizzly Flat, Fair Play, and Indian
Diggings. But this small Gold Rush town became, in 1864, the centerpiece
of an important and oft-told part of El Dorado County’s history. The
Somerset House, owned at the time by the Reynolds family, was to become
the story’s centerpiece. It was between 9 and 10 p.m. on the night of
June 30, 1864, a few miles east of Placerville near a place called
Bullion Bend. Six men leveled guns at the drivers of two Pioneer Stage
Line coaches, Ned Blair and Charlie Watson, who were carrying silver
bullion from the Virginia City mines. Blair’s coach was halted first. He
was told to throw down the Wells Fargo &Company strong box. This wasn’t
on Blair’s stage, the robbers found out, but they did find six bags of
silver bullion while searching the stagecoach. Watson stopped his stage,
thinking Blair was having problems with his team, and was confronted by
the highwaymen. They gave him the same order; The Wells Fargo & Company
strongbox - and two additional bags of silver bullion were on his stage.
They helped themselves to the bullion and the strong box - and then
presented the drivers with a receipt for everything! It stated that the
money was for “out-fitting recruits enlisted in California for the
Confederate Army.’’ The receipt was signed “R. Henry Ingrim, Captain,
Commanding Company C.S.A.’’ The robbers (who were believed to be members
of Quantrell’s Raiders, a much feared band of guerrillas) rode only a
short distance before they cached the bullion. Shortly thereafter, all
but a few coins and a silver bar were recovered by officers of the law.
Nevertheless, for many years people would ignore that fact and search
the area, hoping to find the “hidden bullion.’’ The robbers then struck
out in a southeasterly direction, ending up at the Somerset House.
Between one and two a.m. the following morning, El Dorado County Sheriff
William Rogers dispatched Constable George C. Ranney, acting as a
special deputy sheriff, along with Deputies John Van Eaton and Joseph
Staples, to follow the robbers’ trail. At the same time, Sheriff Rogers
led a posse towards the robbery site at Bullion Bend. Ranney arrived
first at the Somerset House. Suspecting he had found the robbers, he
sent Van Eaton back for reinforcements, then entered the hotel. In one
room he saw men with guns and, acting lost, casually asked for
directions to Grizzly Flat. After being told to ask the proprietor, he
left, but on his way out met Deputy Staples coming in. Ranney tried to
persuade him to wait for Van Eaton and the reinforcements, but Staples
refused, cocked his gun, and ran into the room, demanding their
surrender. Ranney, realizing that Staples was seriously outnumbered by
the robbers, pulled his gun and followed him. The two were met by a
fusillade of bullets. One of the robbers, a fellow by the name of Poole,
was seriously injured by Staples and was out of the battle, but the
robbers’ bullets had found their mark and Staples fell, dying at
Ranney’s feet. Now outnumbered five to one, Ranney turned and ran for
his horse, hoping to ride for help, but was shot at least three times
and, badly injured, dropped to the ground behind some rocks. At that
point, Mrs. Reynolds, the proprietor of the hotel, convinced the robbers
that Ranney was dying - they should be ashamed to shoot a dying man.
They left him alone, but took his, Staples’ and even Poole’s revolvers,
the deputies’ money and their horses, and rode south towards Mt. Aukum.
Less than two months later, on Aug. 21, Under-Sheriff Hume (who had been
a close friend of the unfortunate Staples) and Deputy Van Eaton arrested
Henry Jarbes, George Cross, J. A. Robertson, Wallace Clendenin, Joseph
Gamble, John Ingren, H. Gatley, and Preston Hodges in Santa Clara
County. The men, along with Thomas Poole, were brought back to
Placerville, where they were charged with complicity in the Bullion Bend
hold-up based information given by another robber, Allen P. Glasby, who
turned state’s evidence. Indicted by a grand jury, the men were tried.
On Nov. 22, 1864 Hodges was convicted of second degree murder and
sentenced by Judge Brockway to twenty years of hard labor. Thomas Poole
was sentenced to hang for his part in the crime. The sentence was
carried out on the gallows in Placerville at noon on Sept. 29, 1865. The
remainder of the men were successful in getting a change of venue to
Santa Clara County, where they were tried and acquitted. Deputy Joseph
Staples, the first El Dorado County deputy sheriff killed in the line of
duty, is buried in Placerville’s Union Cemetery on Bee Street in James
B. Hume’s plot, under a plain marble tombstone. On it is inscribed:
“Joseph M. Staples, Deputy Sheriff of El Dorado County; killed in
attempting to arrest the Placerville Stage Robbers, July 1, 1864; aged
38 years.’’ Constable Ranney, the man who was shot attempting to save
Staples’ life, lies buried in Placerville’s Uppertown Cemetery in an
unmarked grave. In spite of all of this excitement, Somerset continued
to grow and in 1878 the River School District was formed and a school
built on property deeded by Charles and Ida Mentz. This school would
close eighty years later when the district became part of the Pioneer
School District. The first post office in the area was established on
March 7, 1924 at Young’s, a vacation resort on the North Fork of the
Cosumnes River, about one mile north of Somerset, with Morgan Young as
the first postmaster. On Aug. 1, 1950, the Young’s Post Office, which at
some point had been moved to Somerset House, would have its name
officially changed to the Somerset Post Office. Although Somerset House
is no longer in existence, today’s Somerset consists of several
commercial buildings and the post office, which still provides mail
services and supplies for local residents and travelers along the roads,
many of whom are visiting the area’s premium wineries. Somerset is
located near the rugged North and Middle Forks of the Cosumnes River.
The area is becoming known for its wines and is a favorite with those
who treasure life away from the hustle and bustle of big towns and
cities. There is nothing left of the original town of Somerset. Today,
the closest you’ll find to a business center is this small cluster at
the corner of Mt. Aukum and Grizzly Flat Roads. [Placerville Mountain
Democrat, Tuesday, 9-12-2000. Submitted by KKM]
The Mining Town of Ringgold
A few miles
southeast of Old Dry Diggins, in the vicinity of today’s junction of
Coon Hollow and Pleasant Valley roads, was the mining town of Ringgold.
By 1850 it could be described as a “sunny village containing about 600
inhabitants,” apparently enough to warrant the creation of the Ringgold
Cemetery. A pioneer Ringgold Ranch had been established as early as
1848. The Ringgold name had a certain flavor to it that appealed to the
early El Dorado County pioneers. Besides the town, cemetery, and ranch
with the Ringgold name, there are also Ringgold Creek, Ringgold Creek
Canyon, and Ringgold Hill. There was even the Ringgold School that laid
a claim to a portion of El Dorado County history for being, it is
thought, the employer of one of the county’s most celebrated educators:
Jeremiah Crane. Jeremiah Crane was an educated gentleman with literary
pretensions from Kentucky, where he had left a wife and family. He is
believed by some to have been the Ringgold School’s first head master.
He also taught penmanship to Susan Newnham, the teenage daughter of the
Ringgold resident with whom Crane boarded. Having loved and seduced
young Susan, Crane bewailed the marital bonds that prevented him from
possessing her completely. A devoted spiritualist, Crane reasoned that
while he couldn’t have Susan in this life, he could certainly have her
in the next one, and, apparently, Susan agreed. In a murder-suicide pact
that went wrong, Crane shot his underage sweetheart in the head; then,
coward that he was, fled the scene. He was soon caught, and after a
trial where his guilt was admitted — he seemed to be under the
impression that the romantic elements of his tragedy would sway the
jurors to his favor — sentenced to be hanged. All of Ringgold turned out
at Coloma for the hanging on the appointed day, and an estimated 6,000
other county residents assembled to see the show. Jeremiah did not
disappoint. From the gallows, he read a poem to Susan he had written
while in the calaboose waiting for the hangman. And he called to Susan
to alert her to his forthcoming just as the sheriff pulled the lever on
the trap door. The man who gave his euphonious name to the geographic
and geologic features of the region south of Old Dry Diggins was
Cadwallader Ringgold, a U.S naval officer. According to local historian,
George Peabody, Ringgold, then a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy,
“explored the foothills of the west slope of today’s El Dorado County
during September 1842.” Ringgold was the first U.S. officer to visit the
area, wrote Peabody, and “he was very probably the first white man of
any record here.” There may be an argument as to whether or not
Cadwallader was the first white man in El Dorado, as most histories
accord that honor to Jedediah Smith, the famous mountain man of the
1820s. And Capt. Fremont marched through the county on one of his
California explorations. It is also not certain Ringgold was actually in
the El Dorado County foothills. A recent detailed biographic essay in
California history puts Ringgold as far east as Sutter’s Fort in 1841
but does not mention any further incursions into the Sierra Nevada
foothills. He was back at sea long before September 1842. Ringgold was a
naval officer, and his mission was to explore San Francisco Bay and the
Sacramento River. An inland exploration of the Sierra foothills might
have exceeded his authority. Ringgold’s arrival at Sutter’s Fort was a
celebrated event, however. The captain put on his uniform to greet
Ringgold’s delta flotilla at the embarcadero, and he hosted a joyous
dinner party that night to honor his presence. Possibly, one of Sutter’s
men who later prospected in El Dorado was sufficiently impressed with
Lt. Commander Ringgold at the Fort that he named the Ringgold village in
his honor. Ringgold had a distinguished career in the navy, and the
county is honored by having his name associated with several of its
geologic features. His father was Gen. Samuel Ringgold, a member of the
House of Representatives and commandant of the Maryland militia.
Ringgold’s great-grandfather, on his mother’s side, was Gen. John
Cadwallader who had fought with distinction for General Washington in
the Revolutionary War. Ringgold’s brother Samuel was a West Point
graduate who fought in the Mexican War as an aide to General Winfield
Scott. Cadwallader, who had an early interest in the Navy, received,
with his father’s help, a warrant as an ensign in the U.S. Navy at the
age of 15. ,In 1838 Ringgold was captain of the USS Porpoise, a
brig-of-war built two years earlier at the Charleston Navy Yard in
Massachusetts. He was assigned to Capt. John Wilkes who was in command
of the United States Surveying and Exploring Expedition whose mission
was to explore and chart portions of the South Pacific and the West
Coast of the American continent. Ringgold was second-in-command of the
expedition. After sailing around the Horn, and exploring Antarctic
waters, the expedition visited the Sandwich Islands, now Hawaii, and
then sailed on to the Fiji Islands, where the seven ships of Wilkes’
squadron were met by hungry Fiji islanders who had eaten 11 crewmen of
the U.S. Brig Charles Dogget seven years prior to Wilkes’ arrival. As a
precaution, Wilkes captured and imprisoned the islanders’ chief, hoping
thereby to secure their good conduct. Apparently, the chief’s life was
not so highly valued, for after his capture the islanders killed two
officers of the Wilkes’ expedition, one of whom was his nephew. Two
punitive expeditions were immediately launched, Ringgold being in charge
of one of them. His brigade burnt two native villages, killed 87 male
warriors, and forced the Fijians to capitulate.
By mid-1841 Wilkes’ expedition was surveying the Pacific Northwest whose
ownership was in dispute with England. Ringgold was detached from the
expedition and sent in command of the Vincinnes, a sloop-of-war, to
explore San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento River in Northern
California. He arrived at the presidio of Yerba Buena on Aug. 14. By
Aug. 23 Ringgold and his men had made their way up the delta to Sutter’s
Fort. They explored the Sacramento River up to the Feather River, then,
after returning to Sutter’s Fort, they made their way back to San
Francisco where they would later rendezvous with Wilkes and the rest of
the expedition to sail back to the United States after visiting the
Philippines and Singapore. The expedition arrived in New York on June
19, 1842. The massive number of specimens Wilkes and Ringgold brought
back with them would provide the basis of the Smithsonian Collection.
The report of the expedition received international attention. Ringgold
returned to San Francisco in August 1849 to conduct a definitive survey
of the Bay region, which included the Sacramento River from San Pablo
Bay to the Bay of Suisun. His work found and marked deep-water channels
for safe transportation between San Francisco and Sacramento. His work
was completed at the end of 1851 and received high praise from the Daily
Alta California newspaper. In July 1854 Ringgold became sick while
conducting an exploration of the western Pacific and Far East. He was
sent home and put on reserve status because of his health. When restored
to health Ringgold conducted a three-year fight with the Navy to be
returned to active duty. He was successful, and in the Civil War was
promoted to captain and put in command of the Sabine, a 44-gun frigate
for blockade duty. Ringgold, who ultimately reached the rank of rear
admiral, retired from the Navy in August 1864. He died in New York in
April 1867. A long cortege of military personnel, including admirals and
generals, escorted his hearse down Broadway to Trinity Church. In its
obituary, the Alta California referred to Ringgold as “a gallant and
efficient officer ... well-known to the state of California, as one of
its earliest friends, and an officer whose scientific explorations have
contributed largely to her interests.” In World War II, a United States
destroyer was named in Capt. Ringgold’s honor.
[Placerville
Mountain Democrat, Friday, 12-21-2001. Submitted by KKM]
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