California Biographies

Source:
History of Napa and Lake Counties
San Francisco, Slocum, Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1881

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper 2011

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


GEORGE C. YOUNT.  The subject of this sketch, whose portrait we take great pleasure in presenting to 
our readers in the body of this work, was born in North Carolina in the year 1794, and, with his father's 
family, emigrated to Missouri in 1804. From Missouri he went to Santa Fe and engaged in the business 
of distilling, and made money very fast there, but owing to the dishonesty of his partner he lost all. 
There are men living yet in that place who remember him very well. Mr. Henry Fowler saw and 
conversed with one such man during his visit to that place during the summer of 1881. From thence he 
set out for California, where he arrived in February, 1831. He justly ranks among the earliest pioneers 
of civilization on the Pacific Coast, being at the time of his arrival, and for some time after, the only 
white man to be found from the Mission of Sonoma to the quarters of the Hudson Bay Company. He 
found the country overrun by numerous tribes of savage Indians.  there being at that time not less 
than ten or twelve thousand ranging the country from Napa to Clear Lake. They were composed of 
various tribes, which, perhaps, accounts in some degree for their sudden and almost total 
disappearance, as they frequently made war upon and destroyed each other. Grizzly bears were also 
found in great numbers. To use the words of the venerable pioneer," They were everywhere.  upon 
the plains, in the valleys, and on the mountains, venturing even within the camping-grounds, so that I 
have often killed as many as five or six in one day, and it was not unusual to see fifty or sixty within the 
twenty-four hours." The only traces of civilization to be found in the country at the time of Mr. Yount's 
arrival, were the Missions which had been founded by the old Padres, who were sent from Spain for 
the purpose of civilizing the Indians, which object they accomplished by attacking small parties of 
Indians, taking them prisoners, and driving them into the Mission, where they were put through such 
a course of instruction as best fitted them for the duties they might be expected to perform. Each 
Mission was supplied with five or six Spanish soldiers, and when one band of Indians became 
somewhat tame, they were sent out, under the command of the Spanish soldiers, to attack and drive 
in more Indians who, in their turn, had to go through a course of instruction or civilization. The soldiers 
wore coats made by pasting one deer-skin upon another, to the number of seven, which admirably 
served the purpose of coats of mail, as no arrow could possibly penetrate them. As soon as one 
Mission was well filled, the Padres would take some of the most civilized Indians and, selecting 
another station, start a new Mission. In this way the various Missions were established, beginning at 
San Diego, and extending until every important point had its Mission. In the fall of 1833 the cholera 
broke out in California, and raged with terrible violence among the Indians. So great was the mortality 
that they were unable either to burn or bury the dead, and the air was filled with the stench of 
decomposing humanity. A traveler, who passed up the Sacramento Valley at this time, relates that on 
his way up he passed a place where there were about three hundred Indians, with women and 
children, encamped; when he returned, after an absence of three or four days, the ground was 
literally strewed with dead bodies, all having died except one little Indian girl; she occupied the camp 
alone, while around her lay the festering bodies of her dead companions, and the air was rendered 
noxious by the disgusting stench arising from the dead bodies which, not alone in this camp, but 
everywhere throughout the valley, strewed the ground. After Mr. Yount's arrival in California, he 
continued his occupation of hunting and trapping, together with catching sea-otter, up to the year 
1834. He then spent two years in traveling from place to place, engaging sometimes in one occupation, 
and again in another. At this time he frequently took charge of the Sonoma Mission, while the Padre 
went to San Rafael to look after affairs there. In 1836 he came to Napa Valley, for the purpose of 
settling upon a large tract of land which had been granted him by the Mexican Government. Here the 
same spirit of enterprise which had prompted him to stray so far from the land of his fathers, began to 
show itself in the way of improvements, and, in the fall of 1836, he built the first log-house ever 
erected on the Pacific Coast, and raised the first chimney in California, from which ascended the blue 
smoke to heaven. The Spanish Padres, when they saw the cheerful fire blazing on the hearth, 
exclaimed in alarm, "Yount! it will make you grow old to have a fire in the house!" And the savage 
Indians looked on in wonder and amazement, then, shrugging their shoulders, retired to ponder over 
the wonderful works of the "white man." The house was constructed somewhat after the fashion of a 
block-house or fort, with one room below about eighteen feet square, while above, the walls 
extended so as to make a room twenty or twenty-two feet square; where the roof extended, port-
holes were made for the purpose of protection against numerous hostile tribes of Indians, and 
through which Mr. Yount was often called upon to defend himself, by firing many a deadly shot upon 
the savages, who from time to time came down from the mountains to make war upon him. At this 
time his only companion was an old Frenchman, who had served in the war with Bonaparte, and his 
only neighbors five or six families of friendly Indians, who had taken up their abode near by. With 
these exceptions, there were no neighbors nearer than the Sonoma Mission on the one side, and the 
Hudson Bay Company on the other. At one time the Indians of Sonoma made a great feast and dance. 
The Indians on Mr. Yount's place took it into their heads to go to the feast; so a young Indian came 
forward and asked Mr. Yount if he might go, at the same time signifying that five or six more of the 
tribe would also like to attend. Mr. Yount readily gave his consent; hut the young Indian became 
depressed in spirit, seemed moody and sad, and finally declared he would not go to the dance, and no 
persuasion of his companions could induce him to change his mind, so they departed without him. The 
air was still and calm, and the night wore quietly away until just before day-break, when suddenly 
arose upon the air the fearful warwhoop! Louder and louder it sounded, as if the very fiends incarnate 
had been set loose; and Mr. Yount, grasping his rifle, sprang from his couch to find his house 
surrounded by a band of savages, who had come down from the mountains for the purpose of war 
and plunder. Thick flew the arrows, and the first one to fall was the young Indian who but the day 
before had refused to leave Mr. Yount. The Frenchman guarded the room below, while Mr. Yount 
fired from the port-holes above, killing many of the invaders, so that they were glad to retreat, 
carrying their dead and wounded with them. During the skirmish a little circumstance occurred, which 
serves to show the disposition of the brave settler. The friendly Indian women rushed to the door of 
Mr. Yount's cabin, for the purpose of obtaining protection from the flying arrows of the wild Indians; 
but the Frenchman had the door strongly barricaded, and refused to open it At length their piteous 
screams reached the ears of Mr. Yount, and in a voice like thunder he exclaimed, "Open the door, you 
old rascal, and let those women and children in, or I will come down and put you out among the 
Indians!" It is needless to say the door was opened immediately, and the women and children given 
such protection as the house afforded. The man who could ride right up to the face of a grizzly bear, 
and fight the red-skins with furious and unerring aim, whose courage in the midst of most imminent 
danger never faltered, could not listen to the pleading voice of the helpless Indian women and their 
babes, but ordered the door opened, even though by so doing he risked his own life and the life of his 
only companion, his trusty Frenchman. At another time Mr. Yount and his friendly Indians had had a 
fight with some savage tribes, and whipped them. But revenge still burned within the breasts of the 
savages, and they determined to make another attack. Mr. Yount heard of their approach, and taking 
twenty-five picked braves from the Sonoma Mission, went out to meet them. They met in Pope 
Valley a company of five or six hundred wild savages, and a terrible battle was the result. The arrows 
flew thick as hail, yet the little party of braves, led on by Mr. Yount, stimulated by his example, and 
encouraged by his voice, fought like heroes, and after a desperate encounter, which lasted until the 
morning began to break, succeeded in putting the enemy to flight, having taken forty prisoners, and 
killed and wounded many more, while they suffered comparatively small loss. During the 
engagement, Mr. Yount, who was foremost in the fight, had a silk handkerchief shot off his head by an 
arrow, yet he remained unhurt. When we consider what a little handful of men went out to meet 
hundreds of a warlike race, and yet returned victorious, we realize the power of him who "giveth not 
the battle to the strong, nor the race to the fleet," and also the fact that knowledge is power, and that 
it is destined by the all-wise Ruler to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. As civilization 
advanced, his fights with the grizzlies and wild Indiana became less and less frequent, but new and 
more formidable enemies appeared in the land commissioners, squatters, and lawyers. Mr. Yount's 
history, in this respect, is but a repetition of that of almost every one of the early settlers of the 
country. The land which their own daring, energy and courage rescued from the grizzly and wild 
Indian, they had to contend for in our courts of law. This is not as it should be. They are all men well 
advanced in years; their thin locks are white with the frosts of many winters. They have played a noble 
part in the history of our country, and it ill becomes our Government to allow them to dwell in 
insecurity, uncertainty, and anxiety, now. They have earned their repose, and should be allowed to sit 
in the shade of their own vine and fig-tree, in their declining years, with none to dispute their right. 
Notwithstanding all he had to contend against, Mr. Yount resided in Napa Valley, on the very place 
which had been to him the scene of so many trials and adventures, every foot of which he contended 
for with the grizzly bears and wild Indians, until the day of his death. Strange to say, he was never 
wounded in any of his conflicts, and bore upon his person no scars as mementoes of the past. He 
retained much of the energy and firmness of his youth, and preserved his memory to a remarkable 
degree to the last, relating incidents which happened years ago as if they occurred but yesterday, 
even giving the day of the week and month, without the least reference to notes. He was 
unostentatious and simple in his manner, narrating incidents of the most startling and thrilling nature 
in which he played a conspicuous part, without betraying arrogance, egotism, or vanity, and fascinated 
the listener by his easy and simple statement of facts. Such a man was Mr. Yount.  a fair 
representative of a class of people who seemed by nature fitted for trying times, and whose courage 
was at all times equal to any emergency. The more desperate the circumstances, the more calm and 
collected the mind, the more deadly the aim. To use the words of the venerable patriarch, "the tighter 
the place the surer the shot." He looked with a keen insight into human nature. It was to him no 
sealed book, but one with which he was perfectly familiar, and with which he was so well acquainted 
that no garb of deception could long be worn in his presence; his sharp eye and quick perception 
would penetrate and rend it into fragments. So while the crafty and designing could make but little 
headway with him, the honest and worthy might approach fearlessly, sure of ready sympathy and that 
benevolence which is ever the accompaniment of a noble nature. He died in October, 1865, at the age 
of seventy-one years, and his body is resting in the cemetery near the beautiful village which bears his 
name, and in the heart of the lovely valley in which he was the first white man that ever set foot upon 
its virgin soil, and within sight of where he spent over a third of a century. A large monument has been 
erected to his memory. On one side of it is inscribed, "George C. Yount, born in North Carolina May, 
1794; died October, 1865; age, 71 years." On the next side is a medal representing a hunter with a rifle, 
and a dead grizzly at his feet, with the inscription, "Arrived in California February, 1831." On the third 
side is a medalion representing Plenty, with a sheaf of wheat, grapes, horses, and men plowing, and 
the words, "Received his grant of land February, 1836;" while on the fourth side is Death with his 
scythe.