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 CALIFORNIA. 245 been the following: W. D. Aylett. 1854; J. R. Cook, 1880; W. T. Cressler, 187374; E. J. Curtis, 1855-"56; John Daggett, 1881; John A. Fairchild, 1867-68; G. F. Harris, 1875-76; Wm. Irwin, 1862-’63: J. K. Jobnson, 1885; W. J. Little, 1871-’72; S. L. Littlefield, 186364; J. K. Luttrell, 1865-66, 1871-72; R. M. Martin, 1869-'70; J. W. McBride, 187374; Charles McDermit, 1860; Peter Peterson, 1883; W. G. Procter, 1853; P. C. Robertson, 1877-78; K.C. Scott, 1863— 64; Wm. Shores, 1869-70; F. Sorrell, 1861; Elijah Steele, 1867-68; Thomas H. Steele, 1865-66; Caleb N. Thornbury, 1862; B. F. Varney, 1857, 1863; A. B. Walker, 1858; Wm. F. Watkins, 1859. Three companies served from Siskiyou County during the Rebellion, all of whom were used on the frontier and in the Indian wars on the cuast. Charles McDermit, Juseph Smith and Robert Baird were the first captains. The first newspaper in this county was the Mountain Herald, issued June 11, 1853, by Thornbury & Co., the proprietors being C. N. Thornbury, W. D. Slade and S. F. Van Choate. It was a four-page, sixteen-culumn paper, the pages being only 9x16 inches in size. Small us it was, it was a great achievement for a little town over a hundred miles up in the muuntains. In 1855 the Know-nothing party took posseseion ot the paper and renamed it the Yreka Union, but this regime continued but a short time. Mining is still the leading industry in this county, but agriculture is gaining upon it. MINERALOGICAL, Tlie following paragraphs are from the State report: Siskiyou County lies between the parallels 41° and 42° north latitude, and 121° and 124° weet longitude. It is the central of the three most northerly counties of the State, bounded on the east by Modoc County, on the eouth by Humboldt, Trinity and Shasta counties, on the weet by Humboldt and Del Norte counties, and ou the north by the State of Oregon. It contains within its boundary lines 3,040 square miles of territory, a very small portion of which is arable. A large area, comprising thirty-four townships, designated on the maps as the Lava Bed Road District, and situated in the extreme northeastern portion of the county, adjoining Modoc, is, as its name implies, covered with lava and unfit for cultivation. The remainder, about two-thirds of the whole, ia mineral land, and here the various kinds of gold mining—quartz, placer, drift, and river— that exist in California, are prosecuted. This corner of the county includes a small portion of the Jacustrine system of the State; and the areas of water designated as the Lower Klamath and a portion of Tule Lake, with several of smaller dimensions, in the aggregate cover 100 square miles of surface. This county is suz generis. It has no counterpart on the Pacitie Slope. Within its borders are found valleys and plains of arable Jand atan elevation of from 2,500 to 4,000 feet, surrounded by beetling cliffs and serrated ridges that rise from 500 to 900 feet above sea level. Scott Valley is situated near the central portion of the county at an eievation uf 3,000 feet. Twenty miles from Mount Shasta this valley is furty miles long by six miles in width, or about 240 sqnare miles in all, Etna, its principal town, is at the head of the ‘ wagon-rvad navigation.” From this point supplies are sent by pack animals to the Salmon and Klamath regions. A short line (six miles) of railroad is in progress of construction from Montague Station, on the line of the California and Oregon Railroad, to Yreka, the county-seat, which, when completed, will be the terminus of the railroad eystem in this county. Volcanic cones are marked features in the landscape of Siskiyou. In this county, particularly in the Klamath, Salmon, and Scott Ranges, mountains lose their smoothly-rounded summits. Table Jands are seldom seen; sharp, serrated ridges have replaced them, with deep gorges and precipitous cafions. An important change is to be noted in the topographical features of this county. The Coast and Sierra Nevada Ranges are here merged into one. The strike, or trend, of the stratification has been changed trom west of north to north twenty degrees east. The formation and metalliferous belts of Siskiyou are not so clearly defined as in the middle and suuthern counties of the State, where they are easily traced for long distances.