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History of
Butte
County
Until the magic wand of gold was waved o'er the
land, drawing hither in a wild, tumultuous rush
thousands and tens of thousands of eager
adventurers from the four corners of the earth,
that portion of California now under our
consideration was but little known, save to the
rude natives who had called it their home for
ages. A few land grants and settlements had been
made in the valley, but the mountains that
bordered it, robed in green and crowned with
snow, were as yet trackless, and as perfect as
when they were issued from the great workshop of
nature.
Capt. Louis A. Arguello, by order of the
governor of California, explored this region in
1820, passing up the Sacramento river and
penetrating to Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia
river. He was, beyond a doubt, the first
Caucasian to enter the limits of
Butte
county.
As has been seen elsewhere [see article on the
Great Fur Companies], trappers penetrated this
region at least as early as 1828. The party of
Jedediah S. Smith, in 1827, passed up the valley
to its head, then over the mountains to the
coast, and thence to
Oregon,
though it is by no means certain they were
within the limits of this county. The next
winter a party under McLeod, trapped the upper
Sacramento and its tributaries, including, no
doubt, the Feather river and Butte creek, and
came near perishing on the McLeod (McCloud)
river that winter, which stream then received,
and has since borne the name of that unfortunate
leader. It is, then, extremely probable that the
first representatives of English-speaking
nations to view the flower-carpeted valley and
pine-covered mountains of Butte county, were a
party of American trappers, led by Jedediah S.
Smith, or a party of Hudson Bay Company men,
under the leadership of
Alexander Roderick McLeod, in the winter of
1827- 8.
From that time till 1845, when the Hudson Bay
Company withdrew beyond the Columbia river,
scarcely a year passed by without
representatives of that vast corporation, or
parties of American trappers setting their traps
in the streams of this region, camping beneath
its noble oaks, and hunting the antelope, elk
and deer that thronged the valley and mountains.
In the year 1838, the
United States
government sent out a fleet of vessels, under
the command of Com. Charles Wilkes, on an
extended voyage of exploration that lasted five
years. In the month of September, 1841, a
detachment of the expedition started on an
overland trip from Vancouver to Yerba Buena (San
Francisco), passing down the Hudson Bay trail
and the Sacramento river. The party consisted
of:- Lieut. George F. Emmons in command, Past
Midshipman Henry Eld, Past Midshipman George W.
Colvocoressis, Assistant Surgeon J. S. Whittle ;
Seamen, Doughty, Sutton, Waltham and Merzer;
Sergeant Steams, Corporal Hughes, Privates Marsh
and Smith ; T. R. Peale, naturalist; W. Eich,
botanist ; James D. Dana, geologist; A. T.
Agate, artist; J. D. Breckenridge, assistant
botanist ; Baptiste Guardipii, guide ; Tibbats,
Black, Warfields, Wood, Molair and Inass,
mountaineers.
All this, however, tended not to develop the
valley, nor to make it other than it then was,
save by the interest created in the eastern
.haunts of the trappers by their tales of the
loveliness of the great Sacramento valley, the
fertility of its soil and the mildness of its
climate. How these stories induced emigration,
the settlement at
Sacramento,
from which radiated others, and the final
settlement of the whole valley, has already been
related. [See Settlement of the
Sacramento
Valley.]
It is at that point, then, that the history of
Butte
county properly commences.
In the month of July, 1843, some emigrants
started from the neighborhood of
Sacramento
to go overland by the
Hudson Bay
trail to
Oregon.
At the same time they disappeared from view,
also vanished some animals belonging to Capt.
John A. Sutter, and the coincidence was so
striking that John Bidwell, Peter Lassen, James
Bruheim and an Indian associated the two events
together in their minds and searched for the
missing animals in the direction the party had
taken, with the hope of finding them. The party
was overtaken at Red Bluff, and the hope fully
realized. This was the first trip any of the
settlers about the junction of the American and
Sacramento rivers had made to the upper end of
the valley, and so pleased was Mr. Bidwell with
the appearance of the country that he made an
outline
map of it upon his return
to Sutter's Fort, upon which were marked the
principal streams, with the names that nearly
all of them now bear. From this map, a number of
selections of land were made for the purpose of
applying for land grants from the Mexican
government.
The first grant made in this region was that to
Peter Lassen, on Deer creek, lying partly in
this county, but chiefly in Tehama. He settled
upon it at the celebrated Lassen's ranch in the
early spring of 1844. In the month of July,
1844, Edward A. Farwell and Thomas Fallen
settled on the Farwell grant, the east line of
which runs through the town of
Chico.
This was the first settlement within the present
limits of
Butte
county, and the little habitation of these two
men was the pioneer of the many fine mansions
and happy homes to be seen on every side.
Later in the same year, Samuel Neal and David
Dutton settled on the Esquon grant, on
Butte
creek, seven miles south of
Chico.
In 1845, William Dickey, Sanders and Yates
located on the Dickey grant, now the property of
Hon. John Bidwell, and known as the Rancho
Arroyo
Chico.
Also James W. Marshall, the discoverer of gold
in 1848, and Northgrave located on the grant to
S. J. Hensley. That year, also, Charles Roether,
familiarly known as Dutch Charley, settled on
the Huber grant, on the north side of Honcut
creek.
The discovery of gold on
Feather river,
in March, 1848, by John Bidwell, but two months
after the discovery by
Marshall
at Coloma, was the beginning of a new era for
this region. In the great rush of incoming
gold-hunters in 1849,
Feather river
received its share, and soon every bar, ravine
and gulch had its quota of industrious miners,
while the smoke from their rude cabins, frail
tents, and hastily-constructed brush shanties
marked the river's course for miles. On the more
important bars, mining-camps of considerable
size sprang suddenly into existence, some of
them becoming quite populous towns full of life
and business, and containing many substantial
buildings. Of these but few traces can now be
found, save the one or two that have absorbed
the others and prospered by the law of " the
survival of the fittest." Their history, such as
can now be traced, is given elsewhere in this
volume.
Source:
The History of
Butte
County
California
- Volume II
by Harry L Wells & W L
Chambers -
547 Clay Street,
San Francisco
1882
Transcribed by: Martha A Crosley Graham
Help Wanted:
Historical News Articles, Deaths &
Obituaries
This Project will be ongoing as historical News
Articles, Death Notices & Obituaries are found
online. The articles will be transcribed and
uploaded to a Web Site yet to be created. I have
a subscription to Genealogy Bank and will find
the articles. I will also find information on
the California Digital Newspaper Site. The pdf
files or jpegs will be uploaded to a drop box,
the Transcriber will type out the article and
then send it to me as an attachment.
Requirements:
Decent Internet Connection, DropBox, Word or
other similar software & Adobe Reader.
Contact
Martha for Details
Search California Mission Records!
The Huntington Library along with Sponsors
support the "Early California Population
Project"
Included in this Project are the Records from
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The Databases are free but you do have to
register to use them.
Butte County,
California
1850 Census
The Transcriptions are finished! The proofing has turned out
to be a nightmare! The handwriting on the images
is very difficult to read at times: So we are
going to let Researchers make their own
decisions. Please use the index as a guide and
access the images.
This file is a fully searchable pdf.
The transcribed data includes: Name, Age,
Page Number and Notes. The images have been
uploaded so that you can access the rest of the
information.
The Images can be accessed Here.
Thank You Lyle, a job well done!
"The Fine Print"
Copyright © 1996-2012: by The Butte County
Coordinator: All materials, images, sounds and
data contained herein can be copied or down
loaded for purposes of personal research only.
This web page is maintained on behalf of the
California
portion of The USGenWeb Project and is paid for
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Supporters.
Although believed to be correct as presented, we
ask that if you have corrections, changes,
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contact the
webmaster
for prompt attention to the matter.
Site Updated: 2 February 2012
Martha A Crosley Graham
Rights Reserved: 2012
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