no Coast Range of mountains then; but they have been reared to their present position since that period, for nowhere upon their summits can we find the stiriations and grooving that are found upon the Sierra. Since the uplifting of the Coast Range, the Sacramento Valley has been filled to its present level with sediment from the surrounding mountains, and covered with a rich and productive soil, thus fitting it for the habitation of civilized man.

The result of all these changes gives to Butte county varying topographical features. The western portion, from the Sacramento river to the base of the foot-hills, varies from eight to twenty miles, and is an almost level plain, having an average altitude of 200 feet above the ocean. Leaving the foot-hills, the country commences to ascend with a very evenly-distributed ascent, averaging about 200 feet to the mile, and attaining an altitude of 7,000 feet at the summit of the Sierra. This slope, though uniform, is by no means unbroken. Crossing it at various angles are cañons and ravines, some 3,000 feet in depth, many of which have perpendicular walls of lava near their edges from 20 to 300 feet. Fine examples of this may be seen along Butte creek, from the Butte Mills to Helltown, and along Chico creek, from the old dump to Harris' place; also on Dry Creek, along the Magalia and Oroville road. These ravines and gorges give shape to the course of travel and commerce through the eastern portion of the county. All the roads and stage-lines cross the mountains on ridges that are flanked by these ravines. To cross at right angles to the streams would be a physical impossibility.

Thus in brief we have only glanced at the successive changes that have taken place in our county during vast ages of the past.

HISTORY OF BUTTE COUNTY SCHOOLS.

BY JESSE WOOD, SUPERINTENDENT.

In November, 1851, when Butte county embraced all the territory now included in Butte and Plumas, and a portion of Lassen, Tehama, Colusa and Sutter, Warren T. Sexton, being then the county clerk and ex officio superintendent of schools, wrote to State Superintendent Moulder as follows: answer to your communication, I can only say there is not one school in the county. It being almost entirely a mining county, the number of children between the ages of four and eighteen is comparatively small. From the means I have of judging, I should think there were not more than fifty."

In the state superintendent's report, in 1853, we find a report, which seems to have been furnished by the county assessor. It is dated November 30, 1852, and says: "I have failed to divide the county into school districts, for the reason that at the time I was assessing the county, there were not children enough to form a school. The number at this time is about 120. These are scattered over so large a portion of the territory it is doubtful whether a sufficient number could be assembled to form a school." By the assessor, as we presume from the foregoing report, during the year 1853, the county was divided into districts, named as follows: Bidwell, Ophir, Mt. Spring, Oro, Oregon, Chico and Hamilton. Wyandotte was afterwards set off from Ophir and Oro; Kimshew and Concow from Oregon; Dayton from Chico, and Gridley from Hamilton. The townships were each declared to be a school district.

During the year 1853, three schools were organized, named respectively Bidwell, Ophir and Oro, but which of these has the best claim to be here named as the first, we are not able to determine with certainty. The honor is claimed for each. The claim of Bidwell rests securely on the following recorded document:

"Nov. 15, 1853. Bidwell Township District No. 1. Report of Commissioners of common schools to County Superintendent :

"Number of children between the age of five and eighteen, forty-five. No. of boys, thirty-four. No. of girls, twenty-one. Amount raised by subscription, twenty-five dollars per month. Mrs. E. A. Brook, teacher; primary grade; time of service, three months. Salary paid teacher per month, fifty dollars. No. of pupils taught, thirty-two; daily average attendance, thirteen. Nothing expended for school library; nothing for building or repairing school-house. Total amount expended on account of schools, one hundred and fifty dollars. "N. M. MEAdor,

"In the summer of 1853, John Casad, H. B. Shepherd and W. T. Bliss were appointed commissioners to organize Ophir township into school districts. (Ophir township then included the present township of Wyandotte.) The commissioners reported that they found children enough to justify a school at only one place, to-wit, at Wyandotte; and that they had organized one school district, embracing the whole of Ophir township, under the name and title of Wyandotte school district. The same persons were appointed trustees of the district. The board appointed one of their own number, W. T. Bliss, school marshal. The number of children between five and eighteen, reported by the marshal for 1853, is believed to be 78. The first term of school was taught by W. T. Bliss, in 1853." In a letter to Superintendent McDermott, in 1877, Mr. Bliss says: "I taught in 1853, '4, and '5. I was the first teacher employed by a board of trustees. I had taught six years before coming to California." In an article on the history of our schools, published in Butte County Illustrations, and written by Mr. S. S. Boynton, it is stated that "Miss S. A. Lord, from Benicia, taught the first school in the county." In an address delivered before the county institute in Chico, during the fall of 1877, Superintendent McDermott refers to the early history of the schools, and says: "The first districts reported to the state superintendent were Bidwell, Eureka, Ophir and Oro. The first teachers were Tuyfield Farrar, Almira Davidson (sister of Mr. Jack Bean) and W. T. Bliss." We can find no teacher mentioned for Oro district for 1853. It is probable that the district was organized but no school kept that year. must therefore accord to W. T. Bliss and Mrs. E. A. Brooks, the former at Wyandotte, and the latter at Bidwell's bar, the honor of having been the first teachers of public schools in Butte county. But which was the very first cannot now be decided. As the former is a veteran bachelor, as well as the veteran schoolmaster, we suppose he will courteously yield to the lady.

We

In addition to these public schools there were probably several private schools. Concerning one of these, Mr. O. E. Swain, now principal of the school at Cherokee, writes us: "The first school organized in the southeastern part of Butte county was at a point about half a mile east of where J. M. Wilson now lives, towards what was then called the Lincoln house. It was held in a cabin about ten by twelve feet square, three sides of which were of logs, while the other was made of sluice-boxes piled upon one another. The cabin was without windows, unless you choose to so call a couple of holes eighteen inches square, cut in the sides. It had a dirt floor, had but one door, and had not the least article of school furniture or apparatus. An old greasy table in the middle of the room for the teacher, and a few benches for the scholars, constituted furniture. The school, numbering some ten or twelve, was taught by a tall, lank, one-eyed man, by the name of Steele, whose only redeeming qualification was his ability to chastise the erring juveniles."

Miles Chapin became superintendent of schools in 1854, and his entries are distinct and businesslike. He records ninety-five census children in Ophir township, with a three-months' school taught by John Gates forty-three in Bidwell, with Miss Susan A. Lord teacher for two months, and R. T. Buell

for two months, at the end of which the school-house burned down; sixty-seven in Oro township, with a three months' school by Thomas H. Steele. We find also an entry of the appointment of J. L. Henshaw, John D. Chester and M. Davis as common-school commissioners for Hamilton township, in October, 1854; and these are the entire record for that year. The report to the state superintendent named these three districts; and, in the following January, from the state school fund came an apportionment of moneys to Butte county, naming those three districts as follows: Bidwell district, $96; Ophir district, $194.04 Oro, 136.85. The first assessment for a county-school fund was also made in 1854, being placed at three cents on the hundred dollars of taxable property.

The entries in the records for the year 1855 are all made by Miles Chapin as superintendent. At the general election in September, A. E. Griffiths was elected to the office; but he seems to have declined the honor. November 10, shortly after the election, we find J. J. Kleine appointed superintendent by the board of supervisors. He served during the next year and was re-appointed. Mr. Chapin's records are first his acceptance of the resignation of W. Henshaw as commissioner for Chico township. He drew five warrants on the treasurer during the year. They were in favor of S. E. Hedges, for $150, for teaching in Oro township, March 16, 1855; John F. Gates for $150, for teaching in Ophir township, at Wyandotte, dated February 14, 1855, and unquestionably for teaching the three month's term already reported during 1854; W. T. Bliss, for teaching in Ophir township, dated June 4, 1855; S. E. Hammond for $100, in Oro township, for the year prior to October; Miss Tryphena Farrar for $225, in Bidwell township, from May 7, 1855, for three months.

On the second of April of this year, L. R. French, F. C. Thomas and Wm. Anderson were appointed commissioners for Eureka township, and at once proceeded to open a school in the village of New Philadelphia, known at the present day as Thompson's flat. The district, however, and the school took the name of the township, and were called Eureka. November 15, 1855, these faithful first trustees were able to make, to their honor, a formal report in writing, signed by all three, showing the following condition: Children between five and eighteen, nine; boys, five; girls, four. Amount raised by subscription and paid to teacher, $125; name of teacher, Miss Almira Davidson; grade of school, primary. Time of service of teacher, from April 30, 1855, to July 30, 1855; daily average attendance, seven; total amount of all expenses, $295.

August 13, 1856, the board of supervisors divided Ophir township into three school districts, the first being Wyandotte township, as it is now and was soon after called; the second, or No. 2, as the districts were then named, being what is now the Oroville district, and all the southern end of the township called district No. 3. In his report, dated November 4, 1856, superintendent Kleine states financial matters as follows: "Apportioned during the year to first district Oro township, $500; warrants drawn, $500; first district Bidwell township, $485.28; warrants drawn, $485.28; first district Eureka township, $70.36; warrants, none; first district Ophir, at Wyandotte, $1,173.211; warrants drawn, $723.50." In the same report Mr. Kleine mentions the new school districts formed, namely: District No. 1 of Hamilton township; No. 2 of Ophir, and No. 1 of Oregon. The first of these was for the purpose of a school near the town of Hamilton, the former county-seat, now embraced in the territory of the River district. The second was Oroville as it now stands, but afterwards formed into two districts, known as Oroville and Lynchburg. The third was the school near the present Messila valley. The house stood some distance in the rear of the present Pence's-ranch hotel.

On the sixth of May, 1857, the board of supervisors set off in Wyandotte township school districts No. 2 and No. 3, forming what are now Bangor and Salem districts, leaving Wyandotte as No. 1. During the summer of 1857, the people of Wyandotte built what was probably the first school-house in