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  

HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. 187 ’ Next, Peter Lassen settled at the head of the celebrated Lassen’s Ranch, on Deer Creek, in Tehama Couniy. It was in December, 1843, that this old pioneer started from Sutter’s Fort and reached the place which he chose for his settlement in February following, having encamped several weeks at the Marysville Buttes. This was the first settlement north of Marysville, where Theodore Cordna was then living. Associated with Lassen was a Russian Pole namned [sadore Meyerwitz. It is probable that these two men were the first to set foot within the presert limits of Plumas Connty. They were here at least as early as 1848, and probably earlier. From 1850 to 1854 all the Feather River region was attached to Butte County; meanwhile no law existed here but that of the miners. March 18, 1854, the act organizing the county of Plumas was passed, and the first officers elected were: William T. Ward, Judge; Thomas Cox, District Attorney; John Harbison, Clerk; George W. Sharpe, Sheriff; Daniel R. Cate, Treasurer; John R. Buckbee, Assessor; and Jacob T. Taylor, Surveyor. William V. Kingsbury was the opponent of Sharpe, and it is thought would have been elected in a fair contest. Buckbee’s opponent was Christopher ‘Porter, and for them the vote was a tie. They were persuaded tu decide the matter by a game of seven-up, in which Porter was badly beaten! A merry drinking crowd of course attended the play. After considerable lively discussion the towu of La Porte and vicinity was taken from Sierra County and annexed to Plumas, by the Legislature, March 31, 1866. The first District Court for Plumas County was held June 19, 1854, by Judge Joseph W. McCorkle, at American Valley, the temporary county-seat named in the organizing act. The only business of the court was to discharge the venire of jurors whom the sheriff had summoned, and admit attorneys to practice. McCorkle came to Califurnia from Ohio in 1849, and in 1850 was elected the first district atturney for Butte and Shasta counties. In 1851 he served in the Legislature, and that fall went to Washington to represent his district in the lower house of Congress. Upon his return in 1853 the Governor appointed him Judge of the Ninth Judicial District, which then included Butte County, to fill the vacancy caused by the decease of George Adams Smith. He was occupying this office when Plumas County was created and attached to this district. In 1863 he moved to Virginia City, in 1868 to San Francisco, and later to Washington, District of Columbia, chiefly to prosecute claims before the Mexican claims commission. William T. Ward, the first County Judge of Plumas County, was born in Massachusetts iu 1802, and vame from Wisconsin to California in 1853; from 1857 to 1861 he was a farmer; from 1861 to 1865 he was the proprietor of the Genesee mine; then he was a resident of Susanville until 1875, during a part of which time he was postinaster, and then he moved to Quincy, where he resided until his death, April 21, 1878. In 1864 the county of Lassen was cut off, taking territory that contained, in 1860, a population of 476. Financially, although there have been several defalcations iu the treasury, Plumas County has _kept up its good credit, so that its six per cent. bonds bear a premium in the market. Both Plumas and Sierra counties have a “gold lake” in tradition; but the exact “gold lake” concerning which a curious man named Stoddard raised a great excitement in 1849-60, can not now be identified, even if it ever was ascertained. There are several interpretations of Stoddard’s story, which was to the effect that he found a large number of lumps of pure gold ou the edge of the pond where he got down upon his hands and knees to drink. When he started out with a company to rediscover the place, nearly a thousand others followed cloeely, and he either went off the trail purposely to keep the place a secret, or he lost his way. It is a secret to this day. The result of the Stoddard gold-lake excite-