Collection: Books and Periodicals > Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins

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Title: Volume 046-1 - January 1992 Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Collection Name: Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins # of Pages: 8 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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am, a Unionville: The Town That Ne ever Was by Michel Janicot This is the story of a town that existed only on paper, and which never saw its inception. Surveyed in April of 1863, Unionville was a proposed settlement of 195 lots, and was to be situated in Rose’s Bar Township at the northeast end of Yuba County, although five of its 35 blocks were in Nevada County, adjacent to the county line, a few hundred feet from the present Mooney Flat Road. The history of the Union Ranch (from which the name Unionville is derived) began in the spring of 1851, when John Craig, A. Stewart, and Philip O’Brien arrived on the scene. They kept a public house and “teamed and butchered” for a period of two years. In 1850 and 1851 stages traveling between Sacramento and Nevada City stopped at the Union and Empire ranches. The Empire Ranch was owned by Thomas Mooney and Michael Riley, who had settled nearby in March 1851, after spending two years in Sacramento, where they had operated a livery stable since their arrival in California in 1849. They founded the Empire Ranch by buying out a Mr. Berry and his wife, who kept a bar and restaurant in a little log house the Berrys had _-built during the winter of 1849. Mooney established a trading post and kept a hotel which was the “rallying point” for miners and Indians for miles around. At some time in the early 1850s the Union Ranch was purchased by Francis and Margaret Chapman. On December 11, 1856 they sold a portion of the Union Ranch lying “south of the two oak trees marked EXC” to the Excelsior Canal Company for $2,600. The water concern was also granted the right to dig and run water in ditches over any and all parts of the Union Ranch. Four years later the Chapmans sold the remainder of the Union Ranch property to Augustus A. Jennings, a former Marysville shoe store proprietor, for $8,500. On October 1, 1861 Jennings placed a notice in the Marysville Appeal advertising a ball and social party to be held at the Union Ranch, “three miles above Timbuctoo.” On December 27, 1862 Jennings sold the Union Ranch to Robert J. Murray for $5,500. At the same time he sold a parcel for $90 to Samuel Davis, who had built a house on the land. Murray was a somewhat wealthy entrepreneur who in 1851 had erected the Western Hotel, a wooden structure on the corner of D and Second streets in we Marysville. After it was destroyed by fire in May 1854, Murray rebuilt the edifice, this time from bricks, and reopened for business in November of the same year. Cost for the new “fireproof” building was placed at $30,000, and the Murray House, as it was sometimes referred to, soon was “a profitable institution.” Murray owned several other valuable land holdings between First and Fourth streets, adjacent to the Yuba River, and also was involved in other real estate transactions with the famed Frenchman, Charles Covillaud, the original founder and proprietor of Marysville. Almost immediately after purchasing the Union Ranch, Murray set to work to subdivide the property. In four months the survey was completed. Because the proposed 700-acre town encompassed both Yuba and Nevada counties, the plat map was registered and filed in both Marysville and Nevada City by May 1863. The settlement was to have a total of 12 streets: Jackson, Mount, Washington, Jefferson, Broadway, Madison, Westmorland, Clay, Sackville, Duke, and Grafton. The main thoroughfare, through which two stage coach lines passed, was named Union Street. (That thoroughfare later became known as the Nevada Highway, and is now known as the Smartsville or Hammonton-Smartsville road, leading to Beale Air Force Base and Marysville. It is not the same as State Highway 20.) After leaving the Union Ranch, the stage coach routes split in two: the northeast line went on to Mooney Flat, Anthony House (now the site of Lake Wildwood), Bridgeport, French Corral, Birchville, North San Juan, and Camptonville. The eastern line led to Penn Valley, Rough and Ready, Grass Valley, and Nevada City. The Union Hotel and three water reservoirs (with interconnecting ditches) also appear on the map. Adjacent to the settlement on the northwest was an existing land enclave with a house belonging to Samuel Davis. Nearby, Thomas Mooney had also established himself. Why did Unionville fail to become a town? Our research in the recorders’ archives of Yuba and Nevada counties did not lead us to any verifiable conclusion, but we surmise that Mr. Murray, a wealthy entrepreneur, somehow could not convince any investors or speculators of the practicality of the proposed venture. Also, since the proposition occurred in 1863, during the days of the Civil War, when California was shipping most of its gold to the Union forces, it is assumed that capital for the development of such a town simply was far from being a priority. A third hypothesis might be that Mr. Murray believed a rich strike in the nearby diggings would have required the formation of a town to furnish needed supplies, services, and housing. Whatever his reasons