Collection: Books and Periodicals

About This Item:

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  

HISTORY OF NORTHERN OALIFORNIA , 181 wheat sometimes runs as high as 400,000 tons. These warehouses are 2,300 feet in length along the shores of the Straits of Carquinez, by 150 to 800 feet wide. Below them, at Port Costa, are the great warehouses belonging to D. G. W. McNear, completed in 1881, and the pioneer in the business at this point. They are only second in size to those already described, having the same water frontage of 2,300 feet. Next below there come the warehouses of the Granger Association, with a water frontage of 1,000 feet. Balfour Guthrie & Co’s warehouse adjoins the Grangers’, and is also large. From these warehouses ‘the great bulk of the wheat crop of California is put on board ship. At a bend on the road, at a station called Crockett, looms up the mammoth flouring-mill of the “Starr Company,” six stories high and very large, having also large wharves and warehouses. The capacity of this mill is 9,000 barrele of flour per day, when rnn at full power. Adjoining the Starr mill is the machine works of J. L. Heald, one of the most extensive manufacturers of wine-making machinery, irrigating pumps and steam threshing-engines in the State. One mile further west are the large wharfs of the Port Costa Lumber Company, comprising 3,000 feet of water front. Another large lumber company is now engaged in building wharves adjoining. Below this again, at Vallejo Junction are the Selby Smelting Works, the most extensive gold and silver refining works on the coast, having an annual output of the precious metals of about $25,000,000. At Powning, a short distance further along, are the works of the Safety Nitro Powder Company, engaged chiefly in the manufacture of dynamite. At Pinole Point, near by, are the California Powder Works, which makes the Hercules powder, also a dynamite, and is a large establishment. Near Sobrante are the works of the Vulcan Powder Company. At Stege station the California Cap Company make blasting caps, bombs, rockets, etc. At Pinole are also now being constructed buildings to be utilized us meat packing and canning works, toward which Eastern capitalists have subscribed a capital of $2,500,000. They have purchased 1,400 acres of land at the point and are apparently determined to command an extensive business. DEL NORTE COUNTY. This is a small section in the extreme northwestern corner of the State, which was set off trom Klamath County (now extinct) March 2, 1858. The name literally signities “to the north.” Efforts were made in the Legislature to give it the names of Buchanan, Alta, Altissima and Rincon. James Buchanan was then President of the United States, but it was claimed that the plan was to give all the counties names of local significance. <‘ Alta” means upper, and “ altissima” uppermost. The first settlement in this county was made in 1851, when a party of prospectors, consisting of Captain S. R. Tompkins, Robert S. Williams, Captain McDermott, Charles Moore, Thomas J. Roach, Charles Wilson, Charles Southard, two brothers named Swain, Mr. Taggart, George Wood, W. T. Stevens, B. Ray, William Rumley, W. A. J. Moore, Jerry Lane, John Cox, J. W. Burke, James Buck and a Mr. Penny, and several others, located in this part of the State. The Indians treacherously undertook to persuade them to move further up the river than where they first located. Three of the young men went ap, and two of them were murdered outright and one mortally wounded. The rest of the party then went up the river, found the village of the Indians and put a majority of them to death. Two or three weeks after this the pioneers moved from Wingate’s Bar to a camp higher up the stream, to which place they gave the name of Happy Camp. The next settlements were made at Trinidad and at the mouth of the Klamath, and the town of Crescent City on the south side of Puint St. George was located. The year 1852 was the date of the earliest permanent settlement, although several vessels, including the Para-