Collection: Books and Periodicals

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Title: A Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California (1891) Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Publisher: Lewis Publishing Company Published: 1891 Copyright: In the public domain or published before 1925 Source(s): Google Books # of Pages: 713 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-07-22 00:25:09 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:11:29 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 06:30:36

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

Page: of 713  

112 HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. SSS apain to Bidwell’s Bar, and the final decree so removing it was made August 3, 1853, by the Court of Sessions. In the winter of 1855-’66 an act was again passed in the Legislature providing for an election in Butte County to permanently fix the county seat. The election was held April 19, 1856, and Ophir, since called Oroville, was chosen. Since then, in 1875, an attempt has been made to remove the county. seat to Chico, but without success. In the first organization of the counties, the territory was so little known that many queer boundary lines were decreed. From the Sacramento River to the eastern line of the State was a frequent and most absurd boundary, thus cutting up the valley into little patches and tacking each patch to the tail of a long strip of mountainous country, and, curiously enough, making the tail wag the dog by locating the county-seat in the valley portion and generally at the extreme end. A little stream that scarcely floated a feather during the summer. as the Honcut, between the Yuba and Butte, would separate the contiguous and easily accessible sections of valley land, while within the limits of the county to which each belonged were to be found high mountains whose deep snows almost severed the one part from the other for months at a time. Butte County was among those that were awkwardly carved out by the Legislature in the first act organizing the counties. It was at first a parallelogram about the size of the States of Vermont and Delaware combined, and Colusa County was attached to it for judicial purposes. By what was claimed as a mistake the three Buttes were placed within the limits of Butte County in 1852, and they were restored to Sutter County in 1854. In the latter year also Plumas County was carved ont of Butte, taking fully two-thirds of their territory; and Plumas then included the southern portion of Lassen. The northern portion of Lassen and ull of Modoc and Siskiyou were originally a portion of Shasta County. Butte is a French word, signifying hill or mound. The Marysville Buttes were named by a party of Hudeon Bay trappers under Michael La Frambeau, who visited the country in 1829. The county was named after the peaks, which it was then eupposed to contain, but which are really in Sutter Connty. The first court-honse was erected at a cost of $14,000, and in June, 1876, an addition was made at an expense of nearly $14,000 more. The first county hospital was the Western Hotel at Lynchburg, bought for the purpose in 1857, and Dr. T. J. Jenkins was the first resident physician. In 1877-78 the old institution was abandoned and a fine new two-story brick structure was erected at Oroville for the “County Infirmary,” as the legal term became. The cost of this was $16,000. Bean, the first county judge, opened the first court at Chico, the disputed county-seat, July 17, 1850, but only to adjourn to Bidwell’s Bar. Bean had an overweaning consciousness of power and dignity. At a session of his court a question came up similar to one which had been decided by the superior court adversely to his decision, on appeal. An attorney reminding him of the fact, he ran his fingers through his hair and exclaimed, “ Well, I know it; but if the superior courts of this State see proper want to make fools of themselves that is no reason that this court should. Mr. Clerk, enter up Judgment.” In 1860 Butte County issued $200,000 in bonds in aid of the California Northern Railroad. Judge W.S. Sherwood died at Alleghany, Sierra County, June 26, 1870. He was a resident of Butte County until 1854, when he removed to San Francisco, where he practiced law for a time, and in 1868 removed to Sierra County. Judge Warren T. Sexton, an early-day county clerk and district attorney, was a native of New Jersey, educated at Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the State University. Hedied April 11, 1878.