CLAUDE CHANA: OBSCURE PIONEER MAY HAVE OUT-GUMPED FORREST

He kneels, larger than life, along Interstate 80 in Auburn. A high school in the city is named after him as well as a street. Claude Chana is one of the most famous figures in Gold Rush history, celebrated in the statue as the man who found gold May 16, 1848, in the Auburn Ravine five months after James Marshall's famed discovery in Coloma. The Auburn discovery, the second major gold strike in California, expanded the Gold Rush region and helped convince fortune-seekers that the foothills were full of gold.

Although larger strikes were made later along the Yuba River, the discovery of gold in Auburn Ravine spawned the settlement that eventually became the city of Auburn. And how do we know Chana, who died 113 years ago this week, is the man who found gold? We don't, says an author of a book about Auburn at least not as well as we know other California history. Published nearly a decade ago, Mary Gilberg's "Auburn: A California Mining Camp Comes of Age" prompted her innocent hunt for primary sources letters or diaries to support the account of the gold find. She didn't set out to disprove Chana's discovery, just to find primary historical evidence of it.

She turned up nothing. "I just couldn't substantiate it," said Gilberg, who has since moved to Washington state. "I went to primary resources wherever I possibly could. It may have been I couldn't find anything other than myths and legends about the man. I was not prepared to go along with what had been said." Her book says "local tradition has him discovering gold." "I was kind of left with the feeling that tradition, myths and stories are really important to the community," said Gilberg.

Karri Samson, who works at the Auburn-Placer library and has written about Placer County history, said Gilberg did her homework when it came to local history. "She was a really good historian," said Samson. Most area historians, including Samson, say they still think Chana discovered gold in Auburn Ravine 147 years ago, but they agree that the historical evidence is understandably limited. Gold Rush California, said today's historians, was a young territory without newspapers or a government to record documents, and it was populated by people more interested in getting rich than becoming famous.

"Nothing in history is absolute," said Duke Davis, who has written nearly a dozen books on Placer County and Sierra foothills history. But Davis, who wrote his master's thesis on Placer County in the years 1848-1852, said, "I've never heard anything to discount the Chana story."

Gilberg's simple show-me inquiry the first step of any serious inquiry into history about the Auburn gold discovery does lead to some interesting dead-ends and cul-de-sacs. An issue of the weekly Placer Herald printed after Chana's death in 1882 carries a single paragraph on the subject that makes no mention of an Auburn gold find. A Bear River News story about Chana's life published the year before likewise says nothing of a gold discovery.

Kenneth Owens, a professor of history at California State University, Sacramento, and editor of a book about John Sutter, isn't surprised that contemporary accounts often overlooked Chana's discovery. James Marshall and John Sutter weren't celebrated until the 1880s, Owens said. That was when the Native Sons of the Golden West began to create a kind of cult of key Gold Rush-era figures, he said. The effort was spurred partly by anti-immigration forces angry at what they saw as the potential disappearance amid the arrival of new residents from Asia and elsewhere of a California dominated by white Northern Europeans, said Owens. "You have this sort of history as a mechanism of cultural warfare over what place California really is," he said. Celebrations in 1898 marking the 50th anniversary of the Gold Rush gave a big push, Owens said, to what he called "the cult of the Anglo-American pioneer" promoted by people "we would today call racists."

Does it matter really, in the mix of things, whether Chana discovered gold in Auburn? Juanita Neyens, a former mayor and now city councilwoman in Wheatland who wrote a history of the town, said Auburn thought it mattered a great deal several decades ago when officials wanted to move Chana's grave from Wheatland to Auburn.
"There was quite a bit of furor in town," recalled Neyens. "We said no. We wouldn't give him up. We said we were going to keep him."

Bill Wilson, who worked for The Sacramento Bee and now writes a column on Placer history for the Auburn Sentinel, said he thinks Chana is properly credited with the Auburn Ravine gold find. "There's nothing that says anything to the contrary," he said.

Jack Steed, who with his son Richard wrote "The Donner Party Rescue Site: Johnson's Ranch on the Bear River," agrees. "I am inclined to believe it," he said of Chana's gold find. Noting that Chana later bought a vast ranch along the Bear River, Steed said the most likely source of his wealth was gold. "He got money from somewhere," said Steed, who is president of the Sacramento County Historical Society.

Wheatland resident Neyens cited the same reason for believing that Chana found gold in the Auburn Ravine. "I've never questioned it," Neyens said. "The man had to have money from some place." And she's not comfortable with the inquiry into the historical record on Chana's role. "To me it's unfair," Neyens said. "Unless somebody can say he definitely did not he should keep the credit."

Auburn resident Donna Howell, who has written extensively about Placer County, said no newspapers or government records existed when Chana made his discovery and helped start the 1849 stampede to California that spawned newspapers and led to statehood. "I think he did it," said Howell, who once traveled to a Southern California library to establish the origin of Auburn's name.

Credit for Chana's discovery rests on an 1882 history of Placer County published by Thompson and West of Oakland. If one reads an account of Chana's life and his gold find in the Auburn Ravine, inevitably the source is the Thompson and West county history.

For people who like their history free of jarring revisions, the good news is that the Oakland publisher gets high marks for its research, and the Placer book is praised specifically. It is a respected account of the Sierra foothills whose sources include Claude Chana.

"It's the Placer County bible," Foresthill resident and area historian Norman McLeod said of the book, which at 461 pages the size of a telephone book seems almost as big as the Bible. It is a richly detailed and illustrated account of the county, recently republished and often used for historical reference.

Myron Angel, the author of the Thompson and West book, was an early resident of Placer County who helped settle what became Colfax and discovered Rich Bar on the north fork of the American River. Angel certainly brought a historical perspective to the Sierra foothills. Newspapers, he wrote, are very interesting while fresh, regarded as useless rubbish in a week or month and as a sacred relic when years have dimmed their color.

Although county histories are not always a reliable source, Owens said they can be "sort of halfway between a reliable primary account and unreliable folk history" the Thompson and West series rates high on the historical scale. "More often than not they turn out to be correct," he said.

Chana, an old-timer by the early 1880s and a bachelor, was no doubt happy to share what he knew. The Bear River News account in 1881 noted that he was "bowed, toothless and decrepit and has scarcely the wherewithal to keep the wolf from his door. Notwithstanding his misfortunes though," the paper noted, "Claude is the same genial whole-souled fellow that he was years ago, and nothing pleases him better than to have friends call upon him to recount the times of long ago over again."

If some newspapers omitted Chana's Auburn gold find, his May 25, 1882, obituary in the Marysville Daily Appeal includes a reference to the discovery. Yet a Wheatland newspaper in 1875 referred to Chana when arguing against the view that pioneers came to California to mine and not to farm a debate spurred by the battle between farmers and hydraulic miners over the effect of mining debris on California agriculture.

"Claude Chana, one of the old pioneers that settled on Bear River near Wheatland is yet with us," wrote the Wheatland Free Press on Oct. 2, 1875. "He knows that he came for agricultural purposes and did not dream of anything like gold mining. He has followed an agricultural life on the ranch where he settled in 1846, up to the winter before last when the sediment destroyed what was left of his once fine farm."

Perhaps it was a case of a newspaper using a man's life to advance an editorial argument but still a curious role for a man now credited with such an important gold discovery. One is easily drawn to the Chana that emerges from history. Born into a peasant family in France, he came to the United States at age 29 in search of the same opportunities that lured waves of immigrants. He lived in New Orleans for a few years, then moved to Missouri, at that time the outpost of the frontier. Lured by accounts of rich land and mild weather he came to California, the newest frontier of the Americas.

Within a few years, Chana found gold in the Auburn Ravine, moved up to the Yuba River soon after and found more, but was more interested in farming than mining and used his riches to buy land, accounts say. His ranch near the Bear River was his private paradise, land that reminded him of his native France. Chana raised fruits, winning an award at the first State Fair, and produced wine. Debris washed down by hydraulic mining, however, eventually overran his farm and Chana was forced to sell the site at auction for only $500. He spent his final years in Wheatland, just over the border from Placer, making wine. He is buried in a grave marked simply "Pioneer."

Several facts seem unarguable about Claude Chana: He lived close enough to the site now known as Auburn to have discovered gold, he knew John Sutter, and he made enough money in gold to buy considerable land not far from Auburn. Arguably, Chana also displayed a Forest Gump-like ability to experience crucial moments in early California history. He said the California Company, with which he traveled to California in 1846, rode briefly with the Donner Party before Chana and others went their own way. Chana said the California Company made it over the summit just two weeks before the early snows that trapped the Donner Party in the winter of 1846. And Chana, according to his brief 1882 obituary in an Auburn paper, was the first to greet the Forlorn Hope, an advance group of the Donner Party that crossed the summit and reached Johnson's Ranch early in 1847. Chana did indeed arrive in California in 1846 the same year the Donner Party was trapped in the Truckee basin. If he was the first at Johnson's Ranch to greet the Forlorn Hope of the Donner Party that struggled over the summit, it's curious that no other account of that most famous pioneer tragedy mentions Chana's role.

Something does seem uncertain about his life which may be only the unsurprising outcome of an era when historical records were few and their significance clear only years later. Is it Chana's fault that his French name was variously spelled as Chana, Chanon, Chano and Charnay in California?

Some perplexities remain in this matter of Placer history. The book printed nearest the time of the 1848 Auburn Ravine gold discovery, the Placer County Directory of 1861, says "no reliable account exists" as to who discovered gold Auburn Ravine. "That just throws coals on the fire for discussion," Dave Tucker, director of Placer County museums, said of the directory's conclusion.

However, historian Owens doesn't see the earlier history as particularly damning to the case for Chana's gold discovery. "The 1861 account I'm not going to put a whole lot of weight on that," said Owens, who is the director of the Capital Public History Program on the CSUS campus. "I don't know how hard they looked or where they looked." Placer historian Davis agrees. The 1861 directory was "kind of a spur of the moment thing," Davis said. "It seemed that was a rush-up job," he said, a way to sell advertising.

Turning to the diary kept by John Sutter, whose fort near what is today downtown Sacramento was the center of early Northern California, doesn't shed much light on the Auburn gold discovery discussion. The diary refers to Chana's stops at the fort and tantalizingly enough, Sutter refers to Chana's return May 8 to Bear Creek. That puts Chana where he could begin his planned trip to Coloma to hunt for gold. But no "smoking gun" of history is to be found in Sutter's diary to settle with any authority the question of who was responsible for Auburn's first gold find. The diary ends in May 1848, the same month Chana is supposed to have discovered the ore. Given the communications of the era, it would have taken at least a month for word of the find to reach Sutter.

Hubert Howe Bancroft's series on California history, the single richest source of Gold Rush history, contains only a brief mention of Chana. As a source of history, Chana seems to get a mixed reading. Thompson and West, which published the Placer County history, also printed a history of Yuba County. The Yuba history notes that Chana cited the account of an Indian woman in his employ who survived an 1833 malaria epidemic that killed many California Indians in the region that became known as the Sacramento Valley. Modern historians still point to the epidemic as an early example of the effect settlers had upon the native people.

In Chana's account, the Indian woman said the Hudson Bay Company of trappers introduced the disease to get Indians out of the valley because they interfered with trapping. To accomplish that, the trappers sent the Indians clothing infected with the disease, Chana recalled the Indian woman saying. According to Thompson and West's Yuba County history, Chana said trappers he met in Missouri before coming to California verified the Indian woman's account. And Chana said it was the prevailing explanation among Indians and early setters as to the epidemic's origin.

"This theory does not seem credible," the Yuba County history noted, "as such inhumanity could hardly exist among members of an organization so fair and honorable in all its dealings as was the Hudson Bay Company." It was likely, said Thompson and West, that Indians "in their ignorance and superstition" ascribed the disease's origin to the trading company because of their jealousy and rivalry with the foreign trappers.

Modern history is far less generous to interests like trading companies and far more respectful of the Indians. Was Chana just ahead of his time in believing the Indian woman? Whether he was representative of his era in his treatment of the Indians or a rare exception is hard to establish. The party with which Chana set out for Coloma in May 1848 was made up of some two dozen Indians and three white men, including Chana.

A letter from Chana to Thompson and West on a separate matter, the discovery of gold on the Yuba River, suggests his interest in determining the truth. When the publishers ask him who found gold, Chana suggests they talk to another man whom he said was among the first to work the river and thus might have a more accurate account.

Some episodes in Chana's life read so well they seem almost story-like. That's how the Yuba County history introduced his account of how he came to plant almonds along the Bear River after coming to California in 1846. Chana, the book says, relates the following story: Before leaving Missouri for California, friends gave a farewell dinner where almonds were served at the table. He stowed some in his trunk to eat on the way to California and forgot about them, only to discover them upon his arrival. A friend suggested planting some of the almonds, which Chana said bore fruit in 1854 and won the premium at the first State Fair in 1858.

Can it all be true? The pioneer who traveled with the Donner Party, avoided the group's mountain entrapment by only two weeks, was the first at Johnson's Ranch to meet the advance group of the Donner Party, went on to discover gold in Auburn, found more gold along the Yuba River, got rich, bought land, and was ruined by hydraulic mining debris years later? Yes, it can. Much of the Chana story is supported by contemporary accounts, and the historical documents that lack them such as those involving the Donner Party and the gold discovery occurred before any forum such as newspapers was around to record them.

The 1875 auction of Chana's ranch was advertised in the Wheatland Free Press, and an article about the sale referred to the "far-famed Claude Chana ranch." An Auburn newspaper listed him as one of the wealthiest men in the county. "Maybe he didn't do it personally," Foresthill resident McLeod said of Chana's role in the Auburn Ravine gold discovery, "but someone in his party did. Somebody had to do it. It might as well be Chana."

A SHRINE TO THE PAST IN PLACER HILLS

(J Parker Whitney)

Between two well-groomed holes at the Whitney Oaks golf course in Stanford Ranch is an unkempt acre of tall grass, poison oak, and gnarled trees. Among the trees is an oddity not well-known outside the immediate area. It is a 20-foot granite pyramid, overgrown with moss. The pyramid was built 85 years ago, when today's Rocklin subdivisions were grazing lands and oak-dotted, stream-cut valleys.
Its history goes back even further. It is the final resting place for J. Parker Whitney, who arrived in California in 1852 with gold mining dreams and made a fortune without prospecting a single nugget.

Whitney once owned more than 20,000 acres in Placer County, including a ranch with 80 miles of roads and a mansion known as "The Oaks." His legacy is recognized today in the names of two golf courses. Whitney Oaks carries his name directly, while Twelve Bridges refers to the 12 granite bridges that once stood on his ranch. Only three remain.

Like many other Argonauts of the Gold Rush, Joel Parker Whitney came to California virtually penniless. In fact, he had just 10 cents when he arrived here from Massachusetts at the age of 17, according to historical accounts. His brothers had come west earlier and, when he arrived by ship in San Francisco, they tried to dissuade him from heading to the goldfields. Whitney set out anyway, taking a boat to Sacramento and heading on foot to Auburn's mining camps. On the way, he passed through an idyllic area and swore to himself he would settle there if he could. When he got to Auburn, he saw that the gold camps were filled with outlaws and decided against mining. He felt he could use a gun in better ways than defending a gold claim. He returned to the Bay area and began hunting wild game to sell to merchants.

When he had earned a big enough stake, he went back to Boston. There, he purchased all the supplies he knew miners needed - and would pay high prices for. He sent the supplies by ship around the Horn and met them in San Francisco. That was how Whitney made the fortune to buy land in Placer County stretching from Rocklin nearly to Lincoln. The last lots purchased between 1868 and 1873 were 30 homesteader properties costing $3 to $4.75 per acre.

Whitney was once on a boat on a river crossing Central America when the boat ran aground, stranding passengers for days. After a while, the only fresh food was native fruits, and Whitney discovered the soup served to passengers was made by recycling the meat bones repeatedly. "(It) satisfied me to be content with the nutritive qualities of the banana," he wrote, according to Richard A. Miller's biography, "Fortune Built With a Gun: The Joel Parker Whitney Story."

Many such facts are known because Whitney was a constant journal writer and his papers were discovered on his ranch in 1935, 22 years after his death. "He kept a daily diary for years and years and years," said Eric Heuermann, Whitney's great-grandson. Heuermann, 70, lives in Sacramento.

That's not all Whitney kept. When his papers were discovered in the 1930s, they included a letter from Theodore Roosevelt, an 1889 bill for Christmas candy ($109) and news clippings of the scandal that resulted when his daughter Beryl ran off with a Harvard football player against her parents' wishes. In 1906, Beryl Whitney also made the cover of Sunset magazine, showing off some of the fruit grown on the ranch. In the late 1800s, her father was renowned for demonstrating that superior citrus could be grown in Northern California. It is said that the first shipment of raisins from California came from his ranch.

Parker Whitney died in 1913 in Monterey, where he had been living in the Del Monte Hotel. He was 77. He was entombed in the pyramidical, marble-lined granite mausoleum built on his land, near where he had built a rough granite play castle for Whitney children. "The kids used to play in it," Heuermann said. "They called it "The Fort.' "

It was a beautiful setting - even famed photographer Ansel Adams was attracted by it - but the ranch was ultimately broken up and developed into neighborhoods, golf courses, and shopping centers.
"It used to be (beautiful) when you didn't have all the development," Heuermann said. "It's still a pretty area."

In 1944, one acre surrounding the pyramid was dedicated to the family in perpetuity. The fenced acre is surrounded by undeveloped neighborhood open space and the bucolic golf course. Neighbors walk the area and marvel at the structure. Teens occasionally party there. And someone, possibly a family member, leaves flowers from time to time. Vandals also harmed the tomb's interior. About 10 years ago, after one particularly disturbing incident, family members had the entrance sealed with granite. Now it stands closed, quiet, and undamaged. Family members will visit the site again in May for a picnic reunion. ( More reading in the next article)

Rattlesnake Dick's deeds exaggerated - but colorful

In an earlier column, I mentioned that the list of notorious outlaws from this region included, among others, the infamous Rattlesnake Dick. That elicited a quick response from Barbara Heyward of Loomis. "From odds and ends that I have read and asked about," Heyward said, "I have pieced together a story about Rattlesnake Dick to entertain my young grandchildren from Manhattan. Truthfully, I've told the story so many times I can barely remember which parts I made up!" Such is often the case with these legendary bad boys of history. The legends and tall tales typically begin during the guy's lifetime, and multiply after his death.

Dick Barter, the son of an English colonel, was born in Quebec about 1833. He moved West with family members about 1850, first to Oregon, then to California. Before turning to a life of crime, he was an honest gold miner at Rattlesnake Bar, a small mining camp next to Horseshoe Bar on the north fork of the American River.

Heyward, an active member of the Loomis Basin Horsemen's Association, rides in that area, which is now part of the Folsom Lake State Recreation Area. She tells her grandkids about the railroad built up Auburn-Folsom Road to the stone house - then a toll station - at King Road, where it stopped. "Rattlesnake Dick supposedly robbed the train and buried the gold somewhere nearby," she says, "which is why we always check deep in the holes that my black Lab digs, to see if we can find the gold."

Barter got his dubious nickname not because of encounters with snakes, but because of the tenaciousness with which he kept mining at Rattlesnake Bar. Older miners at the saloons would sneer, "There goes Rattlesnake Dick." He developed a bad reputation after being falsely accused of stealing at least twice. (I found differing accounts that said he was accused of stealing a horse, a mule, cattle or cloth from a Jewish merchant, or more than one of the above.)

Though he was at first defended and acquitted by respected Judge Benjamin F. Myers, Barter was unable to escape the stain of having been unfairly branded as a thief. He relocated to the boomtown of Shasta, and changed his name to Dick Woods in an attempt to clear his reputation. He was doing fine until a traveler from the Auburn area recognized him. "Rattlesnake Dick" returned to Auburn for revenge. Depressed about his failed reputation, he held up someone for $400. He went on to form gangs and terrorize the Sierra foothills from Nevada City to Folsom between 1856 and 1859, using the more romantic pseudonym "Pirate of the Placers."

Barter developed a feud with and a hatred for Constable - later Sheriff - John C. Boggs. He became adept at breaking out of jails and committed a number of bold stagecoach robberies, becoming more defiant with each crime. His biggest ambition was to rob the mule pack train that came down from Yreka in Siskiyou County each month with $80,000 in gold bullion. Dick and his gang were only partially successful with the heist. He and another accomplice were caught stealing mules to transport the gold, with the others left holding the (heavy) bag. One legend says his partners buried Dick's unclaimed share of the gold in the hills near Redding (as opposed to your back yard, Mrs. Heyward!)

On the night of July 11, 1859, Rattlesnake Dick met his Waterloo when he and an accomplice rode boldly through Auburn. He had a confrontation with a posse on Illinoistown Road near the future site of the Martin Park Fire Station. The station is named for deputy tax collector George Martin, the posse member killed in the infamous gunfight that night. Barter evidently was hit by gunfire during the shootout, but escaped on horseback with his accomplice. A posse hunted all night but couldn't find him. The next morning, the Iowa Hill stage found Dick's body with three bullet holes in it along the road near Junction House - now Foresthill Road and Lincoln Way. The two shots through his body may not have proved fatal, but it appears that the third shot, through his head, was inflicted by either himself or his companion. On the body were found a note from Dick and a touching letter from his sister. The note expressed Dick's hope that John Boggs also was in the shootout. Some think Boggs or Charles King were among the posse members, but I tend to believe the 1882 Thompson and West account that lists the three posse members as Martin, who was killed, Undersheriff George Johnston, who was injured by gunfire, and Deputy Sheriff W. M. Crutcher. Sheriff Lathrop Bullock, who had replaced King the month before, had the body taken to Auburn and put on display. Sam Whitmarsh, a prominent citizen who was running for county supervisor, angrily kicked Dick's corpse in the face. The townsfolk resented the gesture, and Whitmarsh lost the election badly a year later because of it.

Richard "Rattlesnake Dick" Barter, 26, was buried at the county's expense in the Old Auburn Cemetery on East Street. His body was moved to the cemetery off Fulweiler Avenue in Auburn in 1893. His legend lives on, often exaggerated, in tales told by local old-timers. David Rosenaur and Karen Fox, owners of the Horseshoe Bar Grill in Loomis, are expanding onto adjacent property owned since 1912 by the great-great-grandson of William Barter, Dick's cousin. Their new full liquor bar - with upscale Belgian-style brew made on site - on the property will be named and dedicated Rattlesnake Dick's. A 21st century saloon: the perfect place to swap tall tales about one of the area's most notorious characters.

[Sacramento Bee, Sunday, October 6, 2002. Submitted by Kathie Kloss Marynik.]

City pays tribute to pioneers - Eight new Rocklin parks are named for early-day residents.

Rocklin's eight new parks will be named after 10 pioneer and early-day families who were instrumental in the development of the city. Mayor Peter Hill and Councilman Ken Yorde formed a committee that studied, evaluated, and recommended the names. The plan won the City Council's backing Tuesday night. "The families had been a part of Rocklin's history and they all (contributed) differently," Hill said.

The new neighborhood parks are: Bolton, Brigham-Hawes, Corral-Alva, Gayaldo, Pernu, Whitney, Wickman, and Willard. Six of the parks will be in the new Whitney Ranch development, which is being built between Stanford Ranch and the Lincoln city limits. A bronze plaque will be installed at each park with a short history of the family that is the park's namesake.

Six of the families still have members living in Rocklin, Hill said. "I think it's wonderful that the city is honoring the older generation that did a lot for Rocklin when it was just a small, little city," said Candy Donnell, granddaughter of Adolph Pernu. Pernu was one of the most important quarry operators during Rocklin's quarry heyday. He was the spokesman and salesman for Rocklin granite in California and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In 1910, he built the building that is now Rocklin City Hall.

Other families' relatives also were pleased. "I'm just so happy, I can't believe it," said Barbara Alva Corral, a longtime Rocklin resident and Rocklin Museum librarian. Her father was Telesforo Alva. The Corral and Alva families have been active in Rocklin since 1920. They came from Spain by way of Hawaii and bought land across from what is now Sierra College. Alva Corral remembers helping her father clear the land and pick strawberries when she was a child. Corral-Alva Neighborhood Park will be on the site of the original 1922 Corral family ranch house.

Connie Gayaldo, widow of Hank Gayaldo, said she wishes her husband was alive to witness the naming of Gayaldo Neighborhood Park. "I'm really excited about it," she said. "I think it's perfect. He worked hard for Rocklin." Hank Gayaldo was a member of the City Council for 17 years and served as mayor. The Gayaldos were members of Spanish families who came to Rocklin after the turn of the century. They erected buildings and operated businesses on Pacific Street, including Gayaldo's White Spot Cafe for many years. Connie Gayaldo was active in Rocklin schools and the Chamber of Commerce.

Whitney Community Park will honor after Joel Parker Whitney, a Rocklin pioneer and landowner who owned nearly 27,000 acres around what is now Rocklin and Lincoln. He was a farmer, hunter, and entrepreneur.

Bolton Neighborhood Park recognizes James Bolton, a Rocklin pioneer who designed and laid out the original town site for Rocklin.

Brigham-Hawes Neighborhood Park honors Charles Brigham and Elisha Hawes, who opened the first granite quarry in Rocklin in 1864.

Willard Neighborhood Park honors members of the Willard family who have been Rocklin residents since 1886. Family members have included a Rocklin constable, a Placer County game warden and the first employee of city of Rocklin. Family members continue to volunteer in the community.

Wickman Neighborhood Park recognizes brothers Anders Oscar Wickman and Victor Wickman, who were in the granite business. They grew up in Finland and later came to America. Anders Wickman was a granite quarry operator in Rocklin for 27 years. He also served on the Rocklin City Council for 22 years and was mayor for six years.

[Sacramento Bee, Thursday, April 21, 2005 . Submitted by Kathie Kloss Marynik.]

The Way of Clay: A Brief History of Gladding, McBean

On May 1, 1875, the kilns of Gladding, McBean began a journey that now spans more than a century. Firing up in a large, cavernous building on the edge of Lincoln, the factory began producing vitrified sewer pipe to feed the voracious needs of the first California building boom. A chance discovery of premium clay deposits in Lincoln had led founders Charles Gladding, Peter McGill McBean, and George Chambers to invest a mere $12000 in the venture. It was a wise business decision, as the factory still creates and ships sewer pipe and more throughout California and far beyond. By the 1890s the factory had expanded its offerings to include fire brick, roof tile, enamel brick, and garden pottery, such as huge decorative urns, statuary, drinking and decorative fountains, bird baths, benches, and tables. As art deco became popular, the factory expanded its product line again, offering sensuous statuary in the genre. Its early pieces have become popular collector’s items, selling for large amounts at auction and in upscale antique stores. Dishware, which was also made at the factory for a few years, is also collectable. Architectural terra cotta came next, and it is these works of art that have made Gladding, McBean popular.

Lincoln itself reveals the factory’s impact. Many plant workers’ homes display urns from the factory, and the ceramic fountain in Beermann Plaza, said to be built at the exact center of Lincoln, is a product of GMB. The fountain is such a part of Lincoln that, when the city sought a logo to use on its stationery, promotional items, and website, a stylized version of the fountain was chosen. Many buildings in town also carry the factory stamp including: the baseball stadium, the Carnegie Library, City Hall, and the McBean Park Pavilion. Outside Lincoln, examples of GMB’s work can be seen at: Stanford University in Palo Alto; the Mid-Continental Tower in Tulsa, OK; the Waikiki Beach Hotel in Hawaii; the Mitsubishi building in Tokyo; the Wrigley building in Chicago; the Opera House in San Francisco; and hundreds of other locations worldwide.

Factory artists often are called upon to replicate portions of their handiwork following natural disasters or other types of damage. Gladding, McBean – or “the Pottery” as it is affectionately known by locals – has employed generations of residents. The original employees were Italian and German craftsmen who immigrated to this country to work in the factory. Many of their families still live in the area – some working at the same place their great-grandfathers did. As the world celebrated the new millennium, Gladding, McBean celebrated its own milestone, throwing a birthday bash in the park to mark its 125^th anniversary. Hundreds of current and former workers gathered to reminisce. In 2001, artisans from the factory were honored as Master Craftsmen in a ceremony in Washington, DC.

The factory has changed hands, expanded, and modernized. Fuel had changed from wood to cleaner-burning natural gas, but many of the old methods are still employed. Each spring, for the last 22 years, GMB has partnered with Lincoln Arts to put on Feats of Clary – a cutting edge ceramic exhibition which is held within the factory walls. The show became international in 2007. According to Claudia Renati, Lincoln Arts Executive Director, as many people take the tours for the historic significance of the factory, as come to enjoy the artwork displayed.

[Sacramento Bee, Thursday, April 15, 2010 . Submitted by Kathie Kloss Marynik.]

The Lincoln Pottery

( Charles Gladding)

Charles Gladding, Esq., one of the proprietors of the Lincoln Pottery, paid the Argus office a visit last week, and from him we glean some facts of general interest in regard to this important enterprise. Mr. Gladding is an old hand at the business, having been engaged in the manufacture and laying of sewer pipe in Ohio twenty years ago and of late years being an extensive dealer in Chicago. He was attracted to this coast by the fact that there was at that time no manufacturing establishment of the kind in the state, and after an examination of the ground, he selected Lincoln in this county on account of its exhaustless beds of excellent clay, cheap fuel, and railroad communications with the San Francisco and other markets. A large amount of capital has been invested, and the work of manufacturing vitrified sewer pipe of all dimensions has been entered upon with energy and upon a large scale. The capacity of the works is about fifteen tons of clay per day. The building at first erected was 150 feet long. To this, an addition of fifty feet was made a year ago, and this fall another addition of sixty feet more is being made. Notwithstanding the usual discouragements attending the establishment of a new manufacturing business, the Pottery has been a success from the start, and the demand for its wares is steadily increasing. Nothing has been attempted so far but the making of sewer pipe, and this will continue the principal if not the only business for some time as the demand for that article is beyond the capacity of the works to supply. We are glad to be able to state that the proprietors are possessed of ample capital and the requisite energy and experience to make the business a complete success. The important of the establishment to Lincoln and Placer County cannot be overestimated. One manufacturing establishment, successfully in operation, brings others in its train, and the material wealth they bring into the county by furnishing employment and supplying a home market is incalculable.

They Honor Old Joe

FORESTHILL, Calif.—Folks along the Foresthill Divide still remember Old Joe, one of the last heroes of gold rush days. Joe was the lead horse on the Foresthill stage. He died from the blast of a highwayman’s shotgun July 3, 1901. The holdup man was never caught in spite of a local wave of revulsion over his crime. But even so, in 1901, the robber was about 35 years too late. The last big gold shipments from the Foresthill mines had dwindled out long before, and the robbery netted only $70. The stage was on an uphill grade when the robber stepped from behind a manzanita bush and ordered the driver, Henry Crockett, to stop. Crockett shook his head and whipped up the horses. The bandit fired at the team. Old Joe dropped in his tracks. The big horse was cut from the traces and buried along the road with a crude stone slab to mark the spot. John de Maria remembers that as long as the stage line operated, one of the drivers would stop every July 4 to put a flag on Old Joe’s grave. In the last few years, the job has been taken over by the Placer County Historical Society. About 250 persons still live at Foresthill, 53 miles east of Sacramento in the Sierra.

Prominent Pioneers of Roseville

MR. AND MRS. A. B. McRAE

A. B. McRae, only son of Alexander and Elizabeth McRae, was born in Ontario, Canada, June 16, 1852, of Scotch parents, and came to California in 1873. Mrs. McRae, also of Scotch antecedents, was born in New Brunswick, Canada, January 17, 1856, was the daughter of Alexander and Elizabeth Kerr. She came to California with her parents in 1868, by way of the Isthmus of Panama route. They arrived in San Francisco on Thanksgiving Day and came directly to Roseville, joining a brother of Mrs. McRae’s mother, who had a home here and land which later became a part of the city. Alexander Bell McRae and Miss Elizabeth Kerr were married in Sacramento in the old manse of the Westminster Presbyterian Church January 28, 1876, by Rev. H. H. Rice. They were attended by Miss Elizabeth McRae, cousin of the groom, and by Thomas McBride of Antelope, father of Arthur T. McBride of Antelope. They have resided in Roseville ever since their marriage, living in a house on the site of the McRae block on the corner of Lincoln and Main streets for over thirty years, moving then into their beautiful new home on the corner of Jones and Grove streets, erected in 1918. The McRae home was ever open to their many friends. Hospitality ever reigned supreme there. Filled with happiness among themselves, they scattered it freely with others in loving words, kindly deeds and charity. Their efforts and interests have ever been for the up building of Roseville, being affiliated with the churches, Odd Fellows, and Rebekah lodges, and many other things too numerous to mention. They did with their might any good their hands found to do. The Roseville public library stands on lots donated by Mr. and Mrs. McRae, and recently Mr. McRae has donated a furnace for the new Women’s Improvement club house under course of construction. Mr. and Mrs. McRae celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary January 28, 1926, in which the entire city of Roseville joined in congratulating the happy couple. All their children and grandchildren, with the exception of their beloved son Russell who passed away in 1919, were present at the anniversary, as follows: Mr. and Mrs. Louis Engler and daughter and son Muriel and Keith of Berkeley; Mr. and Mrs. Clarence A. McRae and son Kenneth of Roseville; Mr. and Mrs. Lester A. McRae and daughter Margaret of Roseville; Mrs. Russell McRae and son Douglas of Sacramento; Mr. and Mrs. Cecil R. McRae and sons Duane and Russell of Roseville.

[Roseville Tribune and Register, 5-2-1928. Submitted by Kathie Marynik]

ANNIE C. KING

Annie Catherine (Hellar) King was born in Hayward, Alameda County, California in 1862. Her parents were Thomas and Eliza (Knock) Hellar. She was united in marriage to Lewis Leroy King in 1880. Four children were born to this union: Elva M. McBride of Antelope, Lelia E. Keehner of Roseville, Lewis Leroy King of Roseville, and the late Earl Elisha King. Thirteen grandchildren as follows: Kenneth, Wesley, Cathrine, Donald and Arthur Thomas Jr. McBride, all of Antelope, California; Llewellyn, Esther, Irene, Dorothy, Malcolm and Eleanor Keehner of Roseville; Kathryn Mae and Jacqueline Dorothy King of Roseville. After being in the orchard business at San Lorenzo for ten years, Mr. and Mrs. King came to Roseville in 1890. Mr. King planted eleven thousand fruit trees on the eighty acres now known as Cherry Glen. In a few years time, the trees and vines were bearing luscious fruit and required from fifteen to twenty girls to pack and from twelve to twenty men to pick. Mr. and Mrs. King watched the population of Roseville grow from about three hundred and fifty to its present size. They labored and helped in many ways for the growth and prosperity of Roseville. Mr. King passed away in 1914. Mrs. King still lives on the old home place. She has been a faithful helper in the Roseville churches since 1890 and is a member and still sings in the choir of the Methodist Church of Roseville. She is a member of Minerva Rebekah Lodge, and a member of Rose Chapter Order of Eastern Star of Roseville, and at present is president of the Women’s Improvement Club, a charter member joined when it was organized in 1910.

[Roseville Tribune and Register, 5-2-1928. Submitted by Kathie Marynik]

MRS. EMMA McBRIDE

Mrs. Emma McBride was born in Auburn, Lincoln County, Missouri, in 1856. She came to California with her parents, Andrew and Caroline Finley. In 1870 she went to Salinas for a short time, then moved to Santa Ana, Orange County, in the fall of 1878. She married Thomas McBride in 1879 and moved to their ranch of six hundred and forty acres of farming land in Antelope, Sacramento County, where their children were born. Mr. McBride passed away in 1892. Mrs. McBride courageously reared their children to maturity, the oldest son Arthur assisting his mother faithfully through many trying years. Four children were born to the late Thomas and Emma McBride as follows: Arthur T. McBride of Antelope and five children, Kenneth, Wesley, Catherine, Donald, and Arthur Thomas Jr.; Mrs. Agnes Sprague of Santa Ana and two children Clarence and Weston; John Leslie McBride of Santa Ana and three children Elma, John and Maxwell; and Miss Bernice McBride, a teacher in Los Angeles. Mrs. McBride belonged and was a great worker in the United Presbyterian Church of Roseville, which was built about 1882 and in 1888 it was changed to the Roseville Presbyterian Church. Mrs. McBride is still a member of the church and Ladies’ Aid Society, although the last few years some of her time is spent in Santa Ana, her interest still lives in the Roseville Presbyterian Church.

[Roseville Tribune and Register, 5-2-1928. Submitted by Kathie Marynik]

MR. AND MRS. CHARLES KEEHNER

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Keehner are among the oldest pioneers of Roseville. Mr. Keehner came to Roseville on July 1, 1870, when there was but one store with the post office in it. The late Lee Thomas owned and managed it. Mr. Keehner owned a blacksmith shop on the corner of Vernon and Lincoln streets, which he ran for forty years. Charles Keehner was born at Auerbach in Germany, November 6, 1847, the son of George and Margaret Keechner. In 1867 he crossed the ocean to America. Mrs. Keehner was born May 8, 1857, on the Atlantic Ocean while the parents, Gottfried and Johanna Zeh, were coming to America. She was reared to young womanhood at the old Zeh home, three miles south of Roseville, where she was united in marriage to Charles Keehner on August 29, 1874. They celebrated their golden wedding anniversary at their home, 120 South Lincoln Street, Roseville, in 1924, surrounded by their five sons and daughters and families as follows: Charles Keehner, wife and children, Evelyn, Carol and Alice of Berkeley; Mr. and Mrs. A. S. Teal and daughter Mary of Roseville; Mr. and Mrs. Edward Keehner and children, Elizabeth, Barbara and Huston of Sacramento; Mr. and Mrs. William C. Keehner and children, Lewellyn, Esther, Irene, Dorothy, Malcolm and Eleanor of Roseville; and Mr. and Mrs. Frank L. King of Roseville. Mr. and Mrs. Keehner have watched the growth of Roseville from its infancy to the large city it now is, with the greatest of interest.

[Roseville Tribune and Register, 5-2-1928. Submitted by Kathie Marynik]

MRS. ELIZABETH MORGAN

Mrs. Elizabeth Morgan was one of our beloved pioneer women. She passed away December 21, 1927, at the age of 79 years. Her mind was active and bright up to the time of her last illness. She gave the following sketch of her life to the writer and although she has gone to her heavenly home, I felt that this sketch would be treasured by her children, friends, and relatives for the lovely character she bore and her wonderful acts of kindness to every one connected or associated with her. Mother Morgan, as she was familiarly called by young and old, was loved by all who knew her. Up to the time of her illness, she was an active member of Minerva Rebekah Lodge of Roseville, taking part in the drill team and active in the sewing club recently organized by that Lodge. Elizabeth Helen Harris was born in Indiana October 4^th, 1848. On the spring of 1851 she came with her parents by the way of the Isthmus of Panama to California. They settled on a large tract of land near Greenwood, El Dorado County, where she grew to young womanhood. At 18 years of age was married to J. W. Fairchild. They went to Austin, Nevada, where Mr. Fairchild edited a paper called the Reese River Revelry. When her oldest son was 21 months old, her husband died. She then made her home at Pilot Hill, El Dorado County. In May 1873 she married William Morgan, and they took up their residence in Georgetown. February 1874 their daughter, Mrs. J. E. Beckwith of Roseville, was born. They later settled on a ranch in the Penobscot District where three other children were born; Mrs. Hattie Dietrich of Roseville, Mrs. Nellie Cooper of Port Richmond and the late Jesse E. Morgan. Mr. Morgan died 1889. Mrs. Morgan came to Roseville September 1894. Mrs. Morgan was the first woman to cross the wire suspension bridge between Placer and El Dorado counties on the road between Auburn and Georgetown. She remembered distinctly the first railroad train that came into Auburn and Placerville. Mrs. Morgan had four sisters and two brothers: the late Mrs. Adelia Terry, Mrs. Emma Glines, and Joseph and Charles Harris, one sister, Mrs. Josephine Goodpastor, still resides in Roseville, and Mrs. Hattie Heindell of Georgetown. Mrs. Morgan had ten grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.

[Roseville Tribune and Register, 5-2-1928. Submitted by Kathie Marynik]

F. W. CROWDER

F. W. Crowder was born March 1^st, 1852, in Windsor, England, the son of Frederick and Anna (Rich) Crowder. In 1873 at Slough, he married Miss Annie Cox, a daughter of John Josiah and Jane (Smith) Cox. Soon after their marriage, they came to America with a group of Englishmen and went to work at a smelter in the Salt Lake Valley for an English firm. After spending six years in that part of the country, the Crowders came to California. Part of their time was spent in San Francisco, Sacramento, and other places, wherever Mr. Crowder could obtain work. In September 1882 they moved on their present home place about one mile and a half west of Roseville. They owned about fifty acres set out in a fine vineyard and orchard. Mr. Crowder is prominent not only in horticultural circles but also as a financier, he being an organizer and director in the Farmers and Mechanics. The Dry Creek precinct voting place has been located on his ranch, and he has served on the election board for years. Thirteen children have come to bless the lives of this worthy couple. Those living are Francis John Crowder, a rancher near Roseville; Alice Jane Emerson of Antelope; Frederic George Crowder, a rancher near Roseville; Bertram Ralph Crowder, a rancher near Roseville; Lewis, an employee of the Southern Pacific and resides at Roseville; Thomas A., on a fruit ranch and he served in the world war and resides near Roseville; Daisy, wife of Harry C. Smith, a railroad man who resides near Roseville; Lillian, wife of D. Mariani, a rancher near Roseville; and the late Earnest and William Henry Crowder and Nellie M. Benson. Mr. and Mrs. Crowder have twenty-two grandchildren. The golden wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Crowder was celebrated at their home on January 12, 1923, and all of their children and grandchildren were present on that happy occasion.

[Roseville Tribune and Register, 5-2-1928. Submitted by Kathie Marynik]

90^th Birthday of John Holt Recalls Early Placer Days

The very earliest days of Placer County history were recalled here Monday when John Holt, who settled in this section in 1858, celebrated his ninetieth birthday at his home at 118 Pleasant Street. A large group of friends attended the gathering. Mr. Holt came to America from England when a lad of 18, working in the mines of Michigan Bluff from 1858 till 1864. He entered the cattle business and prospered, becoming known as one of the leading shippers of the state. His cattle grazed over a large acreage known as the San Juan Grant. That portion of Roseville known as Sierra Vista and Los Cerritos was owned by him before it was subdivided and settled. Leland Stanford, who conducted a store at Michigan Bluff in those days, induced Mr. Holt and his brothers to settle in the Sacramento Valley. When the Central Pacific Railroad was built, he made ties for the company. In 1897 he was married to Elizabeth LeMaistre in Sacramento. A huge birthday cake decorated with candles was presented Mr. Holt by Mrs. Harold Bywater of Loomis. Mr. Holt cut and served the cake. Despite his years, he is hale and hearty and proclaims his intention to celebrate at least ten more birthdays. Among the guests of the evening were Mrs. Alice Richart, Mrs. L. Ketcham, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence McRae, Mr. and Mrs. J. Stoffels, Mr. and Mrs. Nicora, Mrs. Harold Bywater, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Blair, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Boston, Miss Verna Bywater, Master Roy Bywater, Miss Delphine Shaffer, Master Francis Stoffels, Mr. and Mrs. O. Prideaux, James McCune, Misses Maud and Louise Slater. Mrs. Joseph Bywater of Loomis, who had been with Mr. and Mrs. Holt for several months, assisted as hostess.

[Roseville Tribune and Register, Wednesday, 8-21-1929. Submitted by K. Marynik]

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