History of Placer County (Excerpt from)(1882) (6 pages)

360 HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. the larva of various insects, and the tender young clover of spring was devoured by them with . child rests in his last sleep at Georgetown, El Dorado immense gusto. The eggs of ants they gathered by . County; the three Egbert brothers are all living— bushels; and the maggots found in wasp’s nests were an apparent delicacy. To find these they sometimes caught a yellow-jacket and attached to it a spider's web two or three feet long to the loose end of which was fastened a picce of down. This done, the insect would be chased and driven by a troop of yelping urchins until it sought the nest, generally in the ground, whereupon it was dug out and the coveted morsel roasted and eaten. THE CAMP RECEIVES !ITS NAME. How the name Illinoistown stuck to the little settlement is past comprehension. Any of the other names which it bore were more euphoneous. Pierson’s store was the place where the “boys” most did congregate and where “speculation” in cards was a predominating feature. Here a meeting was held in December, 1549, and the name fastened upon the locality, though there were probably not to exceed a half-dozen emigrant residents from the State of Illinois. Fully fifty men claimed it as their winter home, and with the opening spring of 1850, came hundreds of men seeking for diggings upon the adjacent streams and the ridges both upon that and the Iowa Hill divides, and it assumed a business importance second only to Auburn, which it maintained for fully fifteen years, or until the completion of the Central Pacific Railroad to Colfax, which place has now completely absorbed it in a commercial point of view. THE PIONEER FAMILY. Mrs. Mendenhall was the only lady who spent the Of the other old-timers of Illinoistown David Fairone, Robert S8., in Oakland, Alameda County; Oliver, at Rio Vista, Solano County, and John B., at his old home east of the Rocky Mountains; Horatio Hoskins and M. D. Fairchild, are yet in California. The old stgre at the lower end of the valley passed from the possession of the Messrs. Fairchild in the spring of 1850, having been purchased by Messrs. Furst & . Morris, who later the same year sold it to Ed. Brickell. Mr. B. soon had his wife and sister-in-law with him; Mrs. Keck came there the same summer (and is still living on the old Mendenhall place), and Illinoistown began to boast of its superior society. FIRST FRUIT CULTURE. E. T. Mendenhall was the pioneer mountain fruit culturist of Placer County, if not the State. Following closely after him, Col. Wm. McClure, of Yankee Jim’s, came next; then the Applegates and others. Had not the old Sigard Ranch, belonging to Claude Chana, been floated by change of boundaries into Placer County, doubtless to Mendenhall would have belonged the honor of having set out the first orchard of fruit trees in the present limits of the county. At that early period it was thought that the black and mucky soil, always wet, of the little mountain valleys was the kind, if any, most suited for «fruit trees, as well as all other kinds of vegetation, and it was upon one of those—the old Alder Grove—where the maiden efforts of the pioneer were made. A thrifty orchard to-day marks the spot where Mendenhal) set out his young trees, brought with great espouse Ltola the nursery a Lewellyn, A Cregot. memorable winter of 1849 at Illinoistown, and she still resides at Colfax, almost in sight of the scene of those eatly expettences. She le at Louored wOone mother of Placer County, and it is with pleasant memories that the historian commemorates her name upon the pages of this book. Elvira Ellen, her eldest daughter, now wife of Mr. Angwin, of Lajot Ranch, Howell Mountain, Napa County, was the infant in her arms, about four months old, when she reached Alder Grove in August, 1849. George W. Mendenhall, her eldest son, was the first white child born in Illinoistown, which event happened in 1851. Following these the living children born at Illinoistown are Jennie, wife of A. D. Bowley of Iowa Hill; Sylvester Jacob; Silvinia, now Mrs. Benvie of Reading, Shasta County; Thomas Dick Mendenhall, now a conductor on the Nevada County NarrowGauge Railroad, who was born while the family were temporarily residing at Sacramento, and Lydia Ann, born at Illinoistown. The old pioneer, E. T. Mendenhall, and the eldest son have large landed interests in San Diego County; and remain there, while the others of the family, as a rule, linger near the old birthplace in Placer. CHIVALROUS PIONEERS. The erroneous impression to some extent obtains that the majority of men who pursued the vocation of mining in 1849 were a rough and dangerous class. During a residence now of thirty-three years in a mining region, it is the evidence of Mrs. Mendenhall that the men of the earlier years of California’s settlement were less rude and more cultured than those of a later period; for in all her experiertce of pioneer lite, she asserts that the only white man she feared was Jack Allen, when drunk, who is spoken of in another page. He never offered insult to her, and would doubtless have been her bravest defender in case of necessity; it was his manner while in an intoxicated condition that appalled. HOUSES OF ENTERTAINMENT. Every house, nearly, at Illinoistown became a public stopping-place for wandering miners at the approach of spring, and from the middle of February there were but few nights when they were not all crowded to the utmost capacity. One dollar and a half a meal was cheerfully paid for the pork, beans and bread set before the wayfarer, and at times a dollar would be given for the privilege of spreading

360 HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. the larva of various insects, and the tender young clover of spring was devoured by them with . child rests in his last sleep at Georgetown, El Dorado immense gusto. The eggs of ants they gathered by . County; the three Egbert brothers are all living— bushels; and the maggots found in wasp’s nests were an apparent delicacy. To find these they sometimes caught a yellow-jacket and attached to it a spider's web two or three feet long to the loose end of which was fastened a picce of down. This done, the insect would be chased and driven by a troop of yelping urchins until it sought the nest, generally in the ground, whereupon it was dug out and the coveted morsel roasted and eaten. THE CAMP RECEIVES !ITS NAME. How the name Illinoistown stuck to the little settlement is past comprehension. Any of the other names which it bore were more euphoneous. Pierson’s store was the place where the “boys” most did congregate and where “speculation” in cards was a predominating feature. Here a meeting was held in December, 1549, and the name fastened upon the locality, though there were probably not to exceed a half-dozen emigrant residents from the State of Illinois. Fully fifty men claimed it as their winter home, and with the opening spring of 1850, came hundreds of men seeking for diggings upon the adjacent streams and the ridges both upon that and the Iowa Hill divides, and it assumed a business importance second only to Auburn, which it maintained for fully fifteen years, or until the completion of the Central Pacific Railroad to Colfax, which place has now completely absorbed it in a commercial point of view. THE PIONEER FAMILY. Mrs. Mendenhall was the only lady who spent the Of the other old-timers of Illinoistown David Fairone, Robert S8., in Oakland, Alameda County; Oliver, at Rio Vista, Solano County, and John B., at his old home east of the Rocky Mountains; Horatio Hoskins and M. D. Fairchild, are yet in California. The old stgre at the lower end of the valley passed from the possession of the Messrs. Fairchild in the spring of 1850, having been purchased by Messrs. Furst & . Morris, who later the same year sold it to Ed. Brickell. Mr. B. soon had his wife and sister-in-law with him; Mrs. Keck came there the same summer (and is still living on the old Mendenhall place), and Illinoistown began to boast of its superior society. FIRST FRUIT CULTURE. E. T. Mendenhall was the pioneer mountain fruit culturist of Placer County, if not the State. Following closely after him, Col. Wm. McClure, of Yankee Jim’s, came next; then the Applegates and others. Had not the old Sigard Ranch, belonging to Claude Chana, been floated by change of boundaries into Placer County, doubtless to Mendenhall would have belonged the honor of having set out the first orchard of fruit trees in the present limits of the county. At that early period it was thought that the black and mucky soil, always wet, of the little mountain valleys was the kind, if any, most suited for «fruit

trees, as well as all other kinds of vegetation, and it was upon one of those—the old Alder Grove—where the maiden efforts of the pioneer were made. A thrifty orchard to-day marks the spot where Mendenhal) set out his young trees, brought with great espouse Ltola the nursery a Lewellyn, A Cregot. memorable winter of 1849 at Illinoistown, and she still resides at Colfax, almost in sight of the scene of those eatly expettences. She le at Louored wOone mother of Placer County, and it is with pleasant memories that the historian commemorates her name upon the pages of this book. Elvira Ellen, her eldest daughter, now wife of Mr. Angwin, of Lajot Ranch, Howell Mountain, Napa County, was the infant in her arms, about four months old, when she reached Alder Grove in August, 1849. George W. Mendenhall, her eldest son, was the first white child born in Illinoistown, which event happened in 1851. Following these the living children born at Illinoistown are Jennie, wife of A. D. Bowley of Iowa Hill; Sylvester Jacob; Silvinia, now Mrs. Benvie of Reading, Shasta County; Thomas Dick Mendenhall, now a conductor on the Nevada County NarrowGauge Railroad, who was born while the family were temporarily residing at Sacramento, and Lydia Ann, born at Illinoistown. The old pioneer, E. T. Mendenhall, and the eldest son have large landed interests in San Diego County; and remain there, while the others of the family, as a rule, linger near the old birthplace in Placer. CHIVALROUS PIONEERS. The erroneous impression to some extent obtains that the majority of men who pursued the vocation of mining in 1849 were a rough and dangerous class. During a residence now of thirty-three years in a mining region, it is the evidence of Mrs. Mendenhall that the men of the earlier years of California’s settlement were less rude and more cultured than those of a later period; for in all her experiertce of pioneer lite, she asserts that the only white man she feared was Jack Allen, when drunk, who is spoken of in another page. He never offered insult to her, and would doubtless have been her bravest defender in case of necessity; it was his manner while in an intoxicated condition that appalled. HOUSES OF ENTERTAINMENT. Every house, nearly, at Illinoistown became a public stopping-place for wandering miners at the approach of spring, and from the middle of February there were but few nights when they were not all crowded to the utmost capacity. One dollar and a half a meal was cheerfully paid for the pork, beans and bread set before the wayfarer, and at times a dollar would be given for the privilege of spreading