Colusa Biographical Sketches.
CHAPTER XII.
JONAS SPECT.
The subject of this brief biography is a native of Berks County, Pennsylvania, born March 21, 1817. His grandfather on the father's side was a soldier of the Revolution and participated in the battles of Trenton, Brandywine, Princeton, and in the siege of Yorktown. When young Jonas was but ten years old, his family removed to Pickaway County, Ohio, then a wilderness. After maturity, he carried on farming till 1846, when he concluded to visit Missouri, which was then the extreme frontier of settlement. On arriving in the State, he heard much of the advantages of distant Oregon and some meager accounts of California, and, resolving to see these new countries for himself, he left the Missouri line in a company of forty persons, men, women, and children, driving an ox-team for Isaac Bailey.
Travel was necessarily slow, too slow for the impetuous Jonas, and on arriving at the foot of the Cascade Mountains, a halt being called for a long delay, owing to the depth of the snow, Spect left the train, alone and on foot, after the first crossing of Snake River, and traveled safely to the Willamette, a distance of over six hundred miles, a feat never before performed by white man. He only remained in Oregon a couple of months, when he found his way to San Francisco. During his stay here, gold was discovered at Sutter's Mills, but it then created no excitement. Spect was so delighted with the country that he had actually set out to return to the States and bring back his family, but, on account of the mining excitement, he could find no companions for the journey, and was thus forced to fall in with the others and go prospecting.
On June 2, 1848, he discovered gold in paying quantities on the Yuba, it being the first discovery of gold north of the American River. Shortly afterwards he established a trading-post on this river and dealt largely with the Indians, who paid for their purchases in gold-dust.
He left the mines in November, 1848, and opened a store in Sacramento City. Five months later he settled opposite the mouth of Feather River. Here he opened a general-store business, laid out the town of Fremont, and established the first public ferry in California. At the same time he was conducting a store business on Rose Bar. In visiting this place in April, 1849, he found the miners disputing about claims. A meeting was called and a committee selected to draft rules for this government. Spect was one of the committee, and drafted the first mining laws, as far as then known, in California. These laws were afterwards legalized by statute.
In the summer of 1849 Spect was elected a delegate to the first Constitutional Convention, but did not attend, owing to a pressure of business. He was elected to the State Senate of the first Legislature from Sonoma County and took his seat in 1850. Shortly after the session opened, returns came from the Trinity mines which gave the seat to General Vallejo. It was afterward discovered that no election had been held on the Trinity River, the returns having been manufactured at Benicia.
In the summer of 1850 Spect traveled in what is now Colusa County, and was so well pleased with the county that he determined some day in the future to make his home there. It was not, however, till 1868 that circumstances so shaped his movements as to permit him to locate there. He located in Colusa and began erecting tenement houses. Previously he had been harassed by conflicting titles and lost much by the confirmation of Spanish grants. He determined to stear clear of trouble. He accordingly bought three lots from Colonel Hagan. Everybody was buying them and his title seemed perfect. But he was destined to disappointment, and the result was that Spect was embroiled for many years in the meshes of lawsuits over the title to property as well as of other investments.
He died July 3, 1883, leaving a wife and four children. Mr. Spect was a man of firm intrepidity of character. He was of the earnest, rugged type of our best pioneers. He took a lively interest in public affairs, in which his pen displayed a facility and grace of expression which must have been a natural gift to one who had had little or no opportunities for education in his youth.
COLUSA COUNTY
ITS
HISTORY TRACED FROM A STATE OF NATURE
THROUGH THE EARLY PERIOD OF SET-
TLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT,
TO THE PRESENT DAY
WITH A
DESCRIPTION OF ITS RESOURCES, STATISTICAL
TABLES, ETC.
ALSO
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PIONEERS AND
PROMINENT RESIDENTS
by Justus H. Rogers
Orland, California
1891
Page 343-465
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 6/25/2009
Colusa County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
Copyright © 1996-2011; This Web page is sponsored by Supporters on behalf of the California portion of The USGenWeb Project by The Administrative Team of the CAGW. Although believed to be correct as presented, if you note any corrections, changes, additions, or find that any links provided on this page are not functioning properly please contact the Archive Coordinator for prompt attention to the matter.