Collection: Books and Periodicals > Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins

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Title: Volume 001-5 - December 1948 Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Collection Name: Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins # of Pages: 2 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

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Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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December 6, 1948 The newly elected officers of the Nevada County Historical Society for 1949, will announce the January meeting in the local newspapers later. CEATZRAIAL EDITION 100 YEARS AGO IN NEVADA COUNTY FIRST SETTLEMENT IN NEVADA COUNTY, SPRING OF 1849 John Rose built a cattle corral at Pleasant Valley, between Bridgeport and the Anthony House. Later he established a trading post there, and built a small adobe house. He supplied the mines with meat, and his cattle roamed the grassy plains from Bear River to the Honcut. FIRST NEVADA COUNTY STORES OPENED IN SUMMER OF 1849 A man named Findley, from Oregon, opened a store on Bear River near the mouth of Greenhorn Creek. Dr. A. B: Caldwell opened a store at Beckville, on Deer Creek, four miles below the present site of Nevada City FIRST SETTLEMENT IN GRASS VALLEY, AUGUST, 1849 The first settlement in Grass Valley was made by a party of five emigrants who crossed the plains and built a cabin on Badger Hill, near the east line of the corporation. The party consisted of Benjamin Taylor, Dr. Saunders, Captain Broughten, and his two sons, Greenbury and Alexander, Zenas H. Denman arrived August 12, and remained in the city nearly twenty years. John Little, John Barry and the Fowler Brothers also built a cabin in the same vicinity. The Rhode Island Co, built the Providence Store on the surnmit of Main Street. All these, with a few. others, some twenty in all, spent the winter in Grass Valley and formed the nucleus of the city. ROUGH AND READY SETTLED SEPTEMBER, 1849 The leader of the Rough and Ready Company was Captain A. A. Townsend, of Iowa, who had served under General Taylor in the Winnebago War, and for this reason the company was styled Rough and Ready and it is from them the town derived its name. The Randolph Company arrived shortly afterwards, and located on Randolph Flat, claimed by the Rough and Ready group. This threatened to result in difficulty between the two companies, but a compromise was effected, and the two parties divided the ravine between them. The Randolph Company built two cabins at thé head of the Flat. BOSTON COMPANY ARRIVED IN BOSTON RAVINE, SEPTEMBER 23, 1849 Rev, H. Cummings was president of this company. They built four cabins on the south side of the ravine, which they named after their company, and spent the winter there The cabins remained may years. A number of others settled: in Boston Ravine that fall, and in December, Jules Rossiere opened a store, and laid the foundation for a flourishing trade. FIRST CHRISTIAN BURIAL IN NEVADA COUNTY, September 28, 1849 On Saturday, September 28th, the first Christian burial in Nevada County took place in Boston Ravine, Rev, H. Cummings officiating. An emigrant who had toiled across the plains, only to die on the threshold of his destination, was buried on the south side of the ravine. . TRADING POST NEAR ROUGH AND READY OPENED SEPTEMBER, 1849 David Bovyer established a trading post at White Oak Springs, in the Rough and Ready Township, where he traded with the Indians who dwelt there in large numbers, and who had learned to collect gold dust. Ignorant of the value of the dust or of beads, they were at first willing to exchange measure for measure and then weight for weight. Trading with them on such terms was a profitable business. FIRST SETTLEMENT IN NEVADA CITY, SEPTEMBER 1849 Captain John Pennington, Thomas Cross and William McCaig, who prospected on Gold Run, built a log cabin at the forks of Gold Run and Deer Creek. FIRST STORE IN NEVADA CITY, OCTOBER, 1849 Dr. A. B. Caldwell, who had previously kept a store at Beckville, four miles down Deer Creek, erected a cabin on Nevada Street, where the Trinity Episcopal Church now stands. Here he opened a store from which he supplied goods to the miners who had begun to settle in the vicinity. The locality became known as Caldwell’s Upper Store. FIRST FAMILIES IN NEVADA CITY, OCTOBER, 1849 A Mr, Stamps, with a family consisting of his wife, her sister, and several children, came to Nevada City and built a cabin on the forks of the ravine back of Coyote Street near the present site of the Nevada City Sanitarium. Madame Penn was another woman who came in the latter part of October. She was in indefatigable worker, taking het turn with her husband in carrying dirt and agitating the rocker. In the spring of 1850, she opened the first boarding house on the site now occupied by the Union Hotel, FIRST HOUSE ON BROAD STREET, NEVADA CITY, OCTOBER, 1849 John Truesdale built a log cabin on Broad Street’ on ‘the present site of the Alpha Hardware Store. FIRST MINING IN LITTLE YORK, FALL OF 1849 Little York lies on the old emigrant trail by the Truckee route, Emigrants in 1849 knew that the gold regions lay on the western slope of the Sierras, and when they crossed the summit and reached Bear River, they naturally began prospecting. Gold was found, but not in quantities to suit the éxalted ideas they entertained of the fabulous richness of California, so they passed on. A few settled there, and made that point their headquarters,.among them were Joseph Gardner, J. E. Squire, and John S. Dunn The favorite mining place was a ravine extending from the town ‘to Bear River afterwards named © .Scott’s Ravine Here they mined occasionally to secure means for prospecting in other localities.JEFFERSON AND WASHINGTON SETTLED, FALL OF 1849 A company’ from Indiana arrived at the present site of Washington, and decided to remain through the winter. The place of their location was called Indiana Camp, The winter was a severe one, and the snow lay on the grtourid to such a depth that but little work or prospecting could be done, and they amused themselves and supplied their larder with bear steak and venison by hunting the bears and deer that the severity of the winter had driven down the mountains from the higher altitudes,