from Salt Lake came to assist the floods in breaking up the colony."

17

North of Stockton Dr J. C. Isbel settled on the Calaveras, and Turner Elder on the Mokelumne, together with Smith and Edward Robinson.18 The latter, on Dry Creek tributary, has for a neighbor Thomas Rhoads, three of whose daughters married T. Elder, William Daylor an English sailor, and Jared Sheldon. The last two occupy their grants on the north bank of the Cosumnes, well stocked, and supporting a grist-mill. Along the south bank extend the grants of Hartnell and San 'Jon' de los Moquelumnes, occupied by Martin Murphy, Jr, and Anastasio Chaboila. South of them lies the Rancho Dry Creek, where Arroyo Seco of T. Yorba, on William Hicks holds a stock-range. The radiating point for all these settlements of the Great Valley, south and north, is Sutter's Fort, founded as its first settlement, in 1839, by the enterprising Swiss, John A. Sutter. It stands on a small hill, skirted by a creek which runs into the American River near its junction with the Sacramento, and overlooking a vast extent of ditch-enclosed fields and park stock-ranges, broken by groves and belts of timber. At this time and for three months to come there is no sign of town or habitation around what is now Sacramento, except this fortress, and one old adobe, called the hospital, east of the fort. A garden

19

11 Stout, the leader, had given dissatisfaction. Buckland, the last to leave, moved to Stockton. The place is also called Stanislaus City. Bigler, Diary, MS., 48-9, speaks of a Mormon settlement on the Merced, meaning the above.

18 The former on Dry Creek, near the present Liberty, which he transferred to Robinson, married to his aunt, and removed to the Mokelumne, where twins were born in November 1847; he then proceeded to Daylor's. Thomas Pyle settled near Lockeford, but transferred his place to Smith.

19 The Chabolla, Hartnell, Sheldon-Daylor, and Yorba grants were 8, 6, 5, and 11 leagues in extent, respectively. The claims of E. Rufus and E. Pratt, north of the Cosumnes, failed to be confirmed. Cal. Star, Oct. 23, 1847, alludes to the flouring mill on Sheldon's rancho. See Sutter's Pers. Rem., MS., 162, in which Taylor and Chamberlain are said to live on the Cosumnes. In the San Joaquin district were three eleven-league and one eight-league grants claimed by José Castro, John Rowland, B. S. Lippincott, and A. B. Thompson, all rejected except the last.

SACRAMENTO VALLEY.

13

of eight or ten acres was attached to the fort, laid out with taste and skill, where flourished all kinds of vegetables, grapes, apples, peaches, pears, olives, figs, and almonds. Horses, cattle, and sheep cover the surrounding plains; boats lie at the embarcadero.

The fort is a parallelogram of adobe walls, 500 feet long by 150 in breadth, with loop-holes and bastions at the angles, mounted with a dozen cannon that sweep the curtains. Within is a collection of granaries and warehouses, shops and stores, dwellings and outhouses, extending near and along the walls round the central building occupied by the Swiss potentate, who holds sway as patriarch and priest, judge and father. The interior of the houses is rough, with rafters and unpanelled walls, with benches and deal tables, the exception being the audience-room and private apartments of the owner, who has obtained from the Russians a clumsy set of California laurel furniture.20 In front of the main building, on the small square, is a brass gun, guarded by the sentinel, whose measured tramp, lost in the hum of day, marks the stillness of the night, and stops alone beneath the belfry-post to chime the passing hour.

Throughout the day the enclosure presents an animated scene of work and trafficking, by bustling laborers, diligent mechanics, and eager traders, all to the chorus clang of the smithy and reverberating strokes of the carpenters. Horsemen dash to and fro at the bidding of duty and pleasure, and an occasional wagon creaks along upon the gravelly road-bed, sure to pause for recuperating purposes before the trading store, where confused voices mingle with laughter and the sometimes discordant strains of drunken

21

20 The first made in the country, he says, and strikingly superior to the crude furniture of the Californians, with rawhide and bullock-head chairs and bed-stretchers. Sutter's Pers. Rem., MS., 164, et seq. Bryant describes the dining-room as having merely benches and deal table, yet displaying silver spoons and China bowls, the latter serving for dishes as well as cups. What I Saw, 269-70.

21 One kept by Smith and Brannan. Prices at this time were $1 a foot for horse-shoeing, $1 a bushel for wheat, peas $1.50, unbolted flour $8 a 100 lbs.

singers. Such is the capital of the vast interior valley, pregnant with approaching importance. In December 1847 Sutter reported a white population of 289 in the district, with 16 half-breeds, Hawaiians, and negroes, 479 tame Indians, and a large number of gentiles, estimated with not very great precision at 21,873 for the valley, including the region above the Buttes.22 There are 60 houses in or near the fort, and six mills and one tannery in the district; 14,000 fanegas of wheat were raised during the season, and 40,000 expected during the following year, besides other crops. Sutter owns 12,000 cattle, 2,000 horses and mules, from 10,000 to 15,000 sheep, and 1,000 hogs. 23 John Sinclair figures as alcalde, and George McKinstry as sheriff.

The greater portion of the people round the fort depend upon Sutter as permanent or temporary employés, the latter embracing immigrants preparing to settle, and Mormons intent on presently proceeding to Great Salt Lake. As a class they present a hardy, backwoods type of rough exterior, relieved here and there by bits of Hispano-Californian attire, in bright sashes, wide sombreros, and jingling spurs. The natives appear probably to better advantage here than elsewhere in California, in the body of half a hundred well-clothed soldiers trained by Sutter, and among his staff of steady servants and helpers, who have acquired both skill and neatness. A horde of subdued

savages, engaged as herders, tillers, and laborers, are conspicuous by their half-naked, swarthy bodies; and others may be seen moving about, bent on gossip or trade, stalking along, shrouded in the all-shielding blanket, which the winter chill has obliged them to put on. Head and neck, however, bear evidence to their love of finery, in gaudy kerchiefs, strings of beads, and other ornaments.

12 McKinstry Pap., MS., 28.

23 There were 30 ploughs in operation. Sutter's Pers. Rem., MS., 43. The version reproduced in Sac. Co. Hist., 31, differs somewhat.

SUTTER'S FORT.

24

15

The fort is evidently reserved for a manor-seat, despite its bustle; for early in 1846 Sutter had laid out the town of Sutterville, three miles below on the Sacramento. This has now several houses, having received a great impulse from the location there, in 1847, of two companies of troops under Major Kingsbury. It shares in the traffic regularly maintained with San Francisco by means of a twenty-ton sloop, the Amelia, belonging to Sutter and manned by half a dozen savages. It is supported during the busy season by two other vessels, which make trips far up the Sacramento and San Joaquin. The ferry at the fort landing is merely a canoe handled by an Indian, but a large boat is a-building.25

Six miles up the American River, so called by Sutter as the pathway for American immigration, the Mormons are constructing a flour-mill for him,26 and another party are in like manner engaged on a sawmill building and race at Coloma Valley, forty miles above, on the south fork. Opposite Sutter's Fort, on the north bank of the American, John Sinclair, the alcalde, holds the large El Paso rancho,27 and above him stretches the San Juan rancho of Joel P. Dedmond, facing the Leidesdorff grant on the southern bank.28 There is more land than men; instead of 100 acres, the neighbors do not regard 100,000 acres as out of the way. Sutter's confirmed grant of eleven leagues in due time is scattered in different directions, owing to documentary and other irregularities. A portion is made to cover Hock Farm on Feather

24 Sutter built the first house, Hadel and Zins followed the example, Zins' being the first real brick building erected in the country. Morse, Hist. Sac., places the founding in 1844.

23 As well as one for Montezuma. Cal. Star, Oct. 23, 1847; Gregson's Stat., MS., 7.

With four pairs of stones, which was fast approaching completion. A dam had been constructed, with a four-mile race. Description and progress in Id.; Bigler's Diary, MS., 56-7; Sutter's Pers. Rem., MS., 159. Brighton has now risen on the site.

27 Of some 44,000 acres, chiefly for his Hawaiian patron, E. Grimes.

28 Of 35,500 acres; Dedmond's was 20,000. Leidesdorff had erected a house in 1846, at the present Routier's.

29

30

River, his chief stock-range, and also embracing fine plantations. On the east side of this region lies the tract of Nicolaus Altgeier,31 and along the north bank of Bear River, Sebastian Keyser and the family of William Johnson have located themselves; opposite are two Frenchmen, Theodore Sicard and Claude Chanon. The south bank of the Yuba is occupied by Michael C. Nye, John Smith, and George Patterson.33 Facing them, along Feather River, Theodore Cordua had settled in 1842, and established a trading post, owning some 12,000 head of stock. 34 Charles Roether had in 1845 located himself on Honcut Creek, and near him are now Edward A. Farwell and Thomas Fallon.35 The lands of Samuel Neal and David Dutton are on Butte Creek; William Northgrave's place is on Little Butte; W. Dickey, Sanders, and Yates had in 1845 taken up the tract on Chico Creek which John Bidwell is at this time entering upon. Peter Lassen, the famous Danish trapper, had settled on Deer Creek, and erected a mill and smithy,37 granting a league to Daniel Sill, Sen. Moon's rancho is held by W. C. Moon and Merritt. A. G. Toomes occupies a tract north of the creek which bears his

36

29 A name applied by Sutter from the feather ornaments of the natives. 30 It was founded in 1841, and managed successively by Bidwell, Benitz, S. J. Hensley, and Kanaka Jim. It had 5,000 head of cattle and 1,200 horses. 31 Who settled on the present site of Nicolaus. North of Hock Farm, C. W. Flügge had obtained a grant which was transferred to Consul Larkin.

32 On the five-league rancho given to P. Gutierrez, deceased, by Sutter, who made several grants in the valley, by authority. They bought land and cattle and divided.

33 Smith, who came first, in 1845, sold a part of his tract to Patterson. The first two had nearly 2,000 head of stock.

3 This rancho, on the site of the present Marysville, he called New Mecklenburg, in honor of his native German state. Chas Covillaud was manager; trade relations were had with San Francisco.

35 The former on a grant claimed by Huber; the two latter on Farwell's rancho.

36 Northgrave was a settler on the tract claimed by S. J. Hensley, but disallowed afterward. James W. Marshall had abandoned his holding on the same tract. The confirmed grants were Fernandez, 4 leagues; Arroyo Chico of Bidwell, 5 leagues; Agua Fria of Pratt, 6 leagues; Llano Seco of Parrott, 4 leagues; Bosquejo of Lassen, 5 leagues; Boga of Larkin, 5 leagues; Esquon of Neal, 5 leagues. The claims of Cambuston, Huber, Hensley, Nye, and others were rejected.

37 Bidwell's Cal. 1841-8, MS., 231-2.