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  

18 HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. one having an orchard. At Kostromitinof rancho, house, farm buildings, corral, and boat for crossing the river Slavianka. At Khlebnikof rancho, adobe house, farm buildings, bath, mill, corral. At Tschernich, or Don Jorge’s rancho, house, store, fences, etc. At Bodega, warehouse 30x60 feet, three small houses, bath, ovens, corrals, As this list of improvements was made out by Russian hands it may be accepted as a true statement of the conditions at and in the neighborhood of Ross in the last year of Russian occupation there. The only omission of consequence seems to have been the orchard some distance back of the fort, on the hillside, and a vineyard of 2,000 vines at what is designated ‘Don Jorge’s rancho.’ In reference to this rancho, Belcher in his notes of travel in 1837, mentioned a rancho between Ross and Bodega claimed by a cé-devant Englishman (D. Gorgy), yielding 3,000 bushels of grain in good years.” Governor Alvarado as well as Vallejoevidently thought that they had Kostromitinof in a corner so far as his ability to sell the Ross property was concerned, and their only real fear was that he would make a bonfire of the buildings rather than leave them for Mexican occupation. But in this they were mistaken, for a purchaser was tound in Captain John A. Sutter. In reference to the sale thus consummated Bancroft says: “Sutter, like Vallejo, had at first wished to purchase the live-stock only; but he would perhaps have bought anything at any price if it could be obtained on credit; at any rate, after a brief hesitation a bargain was made in September. The formal contract was signed by Kostromitinof and Sutter in the office of the sub-prefect at San Francisco, with Vioget and Leese as witnesses, December 13. By its terins Sutter was put in possession of all the property at Ross and Bodega, except the land, as specified in the inventory, and he was to pay for it in four yearly installments, beginning September 1, 1842. The first and second payments were to be $5,000 each, and the others of $10,000; the first three were to be in produce, chiefly wheat, delivered at San Francisco free of duties and tonnage; and the fourth was to be in money. The establishment at New Helvetia and the property at Bodega and the two ranchos of Khlebnikof and Tschernich, which property was to be left intact in possession of the company’s agents, were pledged as guarantees for the payment. It would seem that Alvarado, while insisting that the land did not belong to the company and could not be sold, had yielded his point about the buildings, perhaps in the belief that no purchaser could be found; for the Russians say that the contract was approved by the California government, and it is certain that there was no official disapproval of its terms.” It will be borne in mind that Kostromitinof, who executed this contract with Captain Sutter, was the head ofticer of the Alaska governmént while, at the time, Rotchef was manager at Ross. When it came to a delivery of the property ’ Sutter seems to have induced Manager Rotchef to give him a writing ante-dating the contract above referred to one day, in which Rotchef certitied that the lands held by the company for twenty-nine years was included in the sale to M. Le Capitaine Sutter of the other effects of the company for the sum of $30,000. It was npon the shadowy title to land thus acquired by certiticvate of a subordinate ofticer who had uo power to confirm any such sale, tuat Russian title to land along the coast became a stalking spectacle among American settlers in after years. Previous to this sale of the Ross and Bodega property to Sutter, a portion of the former vccupants there had been transferred to Alaska stations. Manager Rotchef, together with the remaining employés of the company, took their departure from Ross in the late days of 1841 or early in January of 1842, on board the Constantine, bound for Alaska. While all of them, doubtless, had cherished associations and memories of tne land to which they returned, we imagine that it was not without sore and sad hearts many of them watched the receding outlines of Fort Ross and the evergreen forests