El Dorado County History Historical Souvenir of El Dorado County California with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Prominentmen and Pioneers. Oakland 1883. Paolo Sioli, Publisher. Compiled by P. Sioli. Transcribed by Peggy Hooper, Oct 2009. This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter. All persons donating to this site retain the rights to their own work. CHAPTER XXIII. FARMING INDUSTRY AND STATISTICS. The Resources of El Dorado county are of various kinds, and each one is contributing largely to the support of the others ; but were it not for the home market, created and supported by the mines, agriculture would never have been so fully developed or so successfully maintained. This being a mining county and without a railroad, the farmers of the county have been thrown chiefly upon the ??ome (hard to read) demand to furnish a market for their produce, which will be regulated by the mining industry, where it is mainly dependent from. An attempt has always been made to secure and supply the market of that part of the State of Nevada, adjoining the county, in opposition to the railroad. The first experiment to plant potatoes and other vegetables in large patches were made as early as 1849 and 1850, in the vicinity of Union Bar and Coloma, on Greenwood creek ; the men who undertook this first trial were three brothers, Hodges. At Garden valley also vegetable gardening on a more business like scale had been commenced in early days, and the place derived its name from this vocation. These experiments turned out in the most satisfactory way, and soon other localities with equal facilities followed the given example. An experiment also was that first attempt at grain raising made in the Spring of 1851, by Wm. Crone, of Greenwood valley, when he sowed the first barley on land now belonging to the ranch owned by I. E. Terry, of said township. This has to be looked at as the first trial of grain raising not only of the Northern part of the county but of the whole of it. A. J. Bayley, of Pilot Hill, started in general farming on a large scale in 1851 or 1852, and he was the first man in the county who made use of such farming machinery as reaper and mower, threshing machine etc.; the first mower that was delivered at Pilot Hill, arrived there the whole taken apart, for easier shipment, but there was no one around who had ever seen a mower and some difficulty arose in putting it together and bring it in working order. All other parts came together very well but the sicklebar did not join in to work satisfactorily, and Mr. Bayley had to send the machine back to Sacramento to have it done right. Some years later he bought the first threshing machine that was worked in the county, the railroad then was just completed from Sacramento up to Auburn, it was delivered for him at the latter station. He went over with his teams to bring it home, and on the trip he more than one time was asked if he was going in the circus business, or if a circus was coming, the people not familiar with its sight took the machine for a band-wagon. For planting fruit trees, within this county, Coloma has to be considered as the starting point, just as well as it always was the leading place. Among the first who engaged in general fruit growing must be named A. A. Van Guelder and E. Woodruff; others followed, and the Coloma basin has become the most famous district in fruit-growing. Coloma fruit commands a higher market price than fruit from other places. The principal fruit growers of Coloma district at the present time are : Henry Mahler, Robert Chalmers' widow, J. Crocker, B. F. Edmonds, W. D. Othick, Frank Nicholls, N. Mansfield, S. Rasmussen's widow, W. H. Valentine, G. W. Ramsey, Wm. White, Ernest Mortensen, G. D. Enters, Albert Mosely and others. The Gold Hill district has long been famous for its fruit, not only in this State, but far over the eastern limits ; great quantities of the fruit raised here are going over the mountains every year and find a ready market in the mining camps and towns in the State of Nevada. The leading growers of the district are : Messrs. Veerkamp, Kesselring, Tinney, Annabel, Sweeny, O'Brien and McKay. In the Mud Spring district the principal orchardists are ; J. M. B. Wetherwax, Jacob Knisely and L. Davis. Missouri Flat also belongs to the great fruit producing sections of the county; quite an amount of fruit is grown by Samuel Miller, N. S. Miller, Walter Miles, J. M. Bryan, Frank Fisher and others, who all make fruit-growing a specialty. At and around Diamond Springs are C. G. Carpenter, Tom. Stapleton, Bart. Koch's widow, Kramp Bros., Nicholas Theison, C. D. Bruck and Henry Larkin, engaged in the fruit and grape-raising business. The basin around PlacerviUe is one continuous orchard, while the surrounding hills have to produce their share also. Mr. Hardy, on Cedar Hill, is doing a great business in fruit and grape-growing. On French creek is another quite important fruitgrowing district of the county; the farms here are not continuous, but scattered over the whole extent of the canyon. The principal fruit-growers here may be called Captain G. Worth, Z. L. Brandon and G. Barette. Mr. Jacob Zentgraf, on Sweetwater creek. Green Valley, keeps one of the oldest vineyards in the county, which he has endeavored to enlarge and improve considerably every year. Among other extensive grape growers of the same section have to be mentioned James Skinner, of Green Valley, David Bennett, near Shingle Springs. The finest display of beautiful growing vineyards, covering many hundreds of acres of ground in close connection, and one that will stand comparison with any in any other part of the State, may be found lower down in the county, near Mormon Island. The principal vineyards here are Henry Mette's, next is the Bugbee place, Mrs. Stroup's, H. T. Hart's, Powell Hart's, and across the river G. M. Wobbena's ; most all of them connected with large vinefies. The views of Henry Mette's and H. T. Hart's vieneyards, which will be found at some other part of the book, give an idea of the grape industry on the rolling hills below the Natoma ditch, in this section of El Dorado county. The most extensive operations in the way of fruitraising in this county, however, is conducted by the � California Fruit Growing Association." Their ranch of 1,700 acres of land is located in the foot-hill region about five miles south of Placerville, and in the line of location as well as for the soil, is perfectly adapted for fruit-growing, being placed between the Park Canal and Mining Company's ditch and the Cosumnes river. The work of this association dates back to 1874, and will assume mammoth proportions. When they acquired possession of the place there was three-fourths of an acre planted with apple trees, and up to January 1st, 1881, 140 acres of thrifty orchard, with 4,000 peach trees, 8,000 prune trees and 5,000 plum trees, were giving proof of the spirit of the enterprise. Mosquito canyon, also, belongs to the fruit-growing districts of the county; though general farming is considered the principal line of business in the valley, there may be found large and tine looking orchards producing excellent fruit of the harder varieties. Most excellent fruit, furthermore, is raised in the northern part of the county, at Alabama Flat, by D. W. Fox ; at Garden Valley, by F. Lagerson and others ; at Peru, by H. Hackamoller, and in the vicinity of Georgetown, by E. C. Day and Son, R. Demuth and others. Sometime about the middle of the year 1868, Mr. T. H. Schnell, a German by birth but for long years a resident of Japan, came from the latter country to California with the intention to settle, and after looking around for awhile, all over the country, he made a purchase of some tracts of land at Gold Hill, which location seemed to answer best his purpose of engaging in the culture of the tea plant, the oil plant, the wax tree and the mulberry tree, which eventually was to be connected with the raising of the silk worm and the manufacturing of silk. To realize this purpose he went on to establish a JAPANESE, COLONY, to be conducted on the co-operative labor system. The colony was started with a number of Japanese laborers in the same year, and sixteen new arriving Jap's were added to it in the Spring of 1869, and some vigorous attempts were made towards planting and general improving of the place. He imported from Japan a new variety of silkworm, called the aman, which is much hardier and feeds on the leaves of the black oak tree, then he went on to build a cocoonery for the raising and breeding of these silkworms. By that time, in the Spring of 1870, he had imported and set out 150,000 tea plants, and from those plants that had been set out the year before a crop was expected already that same year, as well as other improvements promised to bring some return. But he became embarrassed in different trouble, first with the miners who jumped in his place and commenced to work out the ground, which caused much annoyance and damage to the ground as well as to the growing crop; then with his plants, not being sufficient expert, he had been cheated in the quality of the plants he had imported for good money; and last but not least, his financial affairs began to bother him, and the result was that he failed and returned to Japan, whether with the intention to raise new funds to meet his obligations, or to simply get out of the way of all these difficulties which he did not like to face, this has never been unraveled, on account that he never came back, but the news arrived here that he had been killed in Japan. This was the end of the Japanese Colony. The ground and premises then came in the possession of Mr. Fr. Veerkamp. STOCK RAISING. This most primitive occupation of man naturally has received a good deal of attention here. Principally this business is divided among cattle, sheep and goats, while comparatively few horses are raised in the county. The assessment roll of 1880 shows 2,868, horses and colts, with a value of $114,055, but only 116 jacks, jennies and mules, with a valuation of $4,415. Considering the well known hardiness and adaptability of the mule for all kinds of work, this seems to be singular, but it is a fact that there can hardly be found another part of California where so few mules tread the road than in El Dorado county. Of sheep the report gives 22,999, valued at $34,500. A large percentage of the sheep summered in the higher mountains of this county is owned in Sacramento or other counties, and notwithstanding the Spring clip is taken before they are sent above and the greater part of the Fall clip, after they return home, the present clip actually belonging to El Dorado county would be sufficient to run a first class woolen manufactory here where the water-power is considerable cheap, and convenient in any one of a half a dozen localities ; while rents , labor and all incidental expenses are below those of Sacramento, San Francisco etc. But the California people still prefer paying freight both ways, giving the Eastern factory owners and the transportation companies the profit, which might just as well be distributed at home, benefiting this country. The stock raising and dairying business of this county is carried on to a greater extent than most of its residents even are aware of There are hundreds of thousands of acres within this county of little or no value for any other purpose but this. Most all the land from Latrobe and Clarksville toward the line of Sacramento county, in a body having a beautiful appearance, but only here and there is a tract suitable for cultivation, on account of the bed-rock coming too near to the surface, the soil above cannot give sufficient nourishment during our dry summers. Mr. J. H. Miller, of Latrobe, who has upwards of 6,000 acres of land, and 3500 of it under fence, divided by crossfences, upon this he is pasturing 6,500 head of sheep, besides some 50 horses and cattle ; and by his system of changing his stock from field to field, he is improving the pasture gradually. Hogs do not seem popular, there were 2,730 assessed at a value of $13,355, which figure is hardly large enough to cover the smaller part of the home consume, and farmers, like city folks, have to buy their bacon just as they have to buy their sugar and coffee, while there are tracts of land easy to irrigate and grow alfalfa, on which hogs could be raised. Passing from the farming industries our attention will be drawn next to the timber supply of the great forests. In this respect the county certainly is not behind any part of the State, if we except the redwood forests of the Coast Range, which monopolize with their product the market of San, Francisco. The demands of the miners have practically divested the western half of the county of the timber for the manufacture of lumber, but there is no limit to the supply for fuel anywhere, while the new growth will soon cover the vacant lands with all the timber required for any purpose. Further east, excepting the highest peaks of the Sierra Nevada, the country is covered with a dense growth of the finest timber in the world. We believe we are safe in saying that El Dorado county has, to-day, not less than 600 square miles of virgin forests. This consists principally of cedar, spruce, fir, several varieties of yellow pine, and the magnificent sugar pine. In the higher altitudes, tamarack is found in large quantities, while an occasional hemlock puts in an appearance. Along the shores of Lake Bigler, and far back toward the mountain tops, the timber is being rapidly cleared away, to supply the Virginia mines and the Nevada towns in general. What the annual cut in that region is, we are unable to state. It is run into the lake and towed in rafts by steamers to Glenbrook, whence a narrow-gauge railroad has been built to carry it over the mountains. It is more than probable, that the demand for forest products, east and west from this county, will sooner or later result in restoring the county to her place on the great thoroughfare from ocean to ocean. The local demand, adding all that can be profitably hauled away with teams, will hardly make an impression on the supply for generations to come. The business of shake-making is a serious detriment to the forests, and especially destructive to the sugar pine, which is principally used for that purpose. Thousands of splendid trees have been cut down and left to rot, because, on trial, the timber was found to rive not exactly to the taste of the fastidious shakemaker. The quantity thus left to decay annually is greater than that worked into shakes. It is a business which ought to be discouraged on this account, and the government should protect the public lands from such vandalism. During the time when all the freight from Nevada went over the Carson road, teams, on the return trip, loaded with lumber at the mills along that great thoroughfare, for the valleys below. At the present day little is being done in this direction. Complete the Sacramento Railroad to Placerville, and the E. D. W. & D. G. M. Co. will at once find it to their interest to build a V flume from Sportsman's Hall to Placerville. The Main Trunk canal has been constructed with special reference to the transportation of lumber. The following are the saw-mills in El Dorado county; they are all worked by steam with the exception of one or two : The California Water company owns two mills ; one of them is worked only for supplying the company with what is required for the renewal of the flumes, etc.; the other, near Georgetown, sells large quantities of lumber for transportation to Folsom and ,below. D. W. C. Benjamin's mill on Bear creek, and R. Noble's mill on Rock creek, supply the local demand of the Georgetown divide. J. & J. Blair own three mills � the Elkhorn mill, the Sportsman's Hall mill, and the Cedar Rock mill ; they keep a lumberyard at Placerville, and this city and the surrounding country are their principal consumers. Blair Bros, have a box factory connected with their mills, where they manufacture a large quantity of boxes for the fruit trade. The Ashland mill of Jones & Chichester, also keep a lumber-yard at Placerville. Joseph Bryant owns two mills, the Diamond mill close to the Main Trunk canal and the Stonebreaker mill, on the old emigrant road at Lake Springs � the latter has not been running for years. Mr. Bryant keeps a lumber-yard at Diamond Springs, but he sends most of his lumber down below. Cutler's mill, on Park creek, is run by water-power. The Baltic mill, owned by Louis Lepetit, in 1877, made the largest and most valuable cut of the season, of 1,800,000 feet ; more than two-thirds of it was clear sugar pine, cut on contract for the El Dorado Door Factory at Pleasant valley. Two sawmills between Grizzly Flat and Brownsville were owned formerly by Loofbourrow, now by Hoskins, of Grizzly Flat. Tarr Bros, have a large saw-mill on the bank of the Cosumnes river in this county ; their product, however, finds a marked in the neighboring county of Amador ; they have built a railroad to run their sawlogs to the mill. The total product of all the mills in 1877 was about 10,000,000 feet. The El Dorado Door Factory, the only institution of the kind in the county, is owned by Wilson Bros., of San Francisco. They consumed, in the year 1877, about 1,400,000 feet of sugar pine lumber, which was manufactured into 32,000 doors, 6,000 pairs of blinds, and 22,000 pairs of sashes; the freight bill to Shingle Springs shows 800 tons in one year. But the factory has not been worked since. The following shows the complete statistics of El Dorado county, compiled by J. McKnight, of Brownsville, in October, 1855 ; Lands inclosed, 8,000 acres. Land in wheat, 450 acres; yield per acre, 26 bushels. Land in barley, 340 acres ; yield per acre 28 bushels. Land in oats, 387 acres; yield per acre, 25 bushels. Land in hay, 1,750 acres; yield per acre 1 1/4 tons. Fruit Trees� Apple, 1,608; pear, 34; peach, 1,159; plum, 40 ; cherry, 40 ; figs, 1 2 ; apricots, 1 5 ; quince, 25, and grape vines 3,000. Animals� Horses, 907 ; mules, 384 ; asses, 65 ; neat cattle, 1,281; work-oxen, 690; milk-cows, 769; calves, 519; sheep, 654; swine 4,620. Value of animals slaughtered per annum, about $575,000; value of poultry, $5,000. Canals �Twenty principal canals, 16 of which are supplied with water throughout the year. Total length of main trunks, 475 miles ; lateral branches of trunks, 325 miles. Original cost, $1,395,000. Saw-mills � Running by steam, 24, by water, 16; market value of lumber, from $20 to 40 per thousand. Quartz-mills in operation, 7 ; crushing daily 56 tons of rock ; yield per ton from $5. to $75. Other Industries� One flouring-mill, 5 tanneries, 4 breweries, 3 soda factories 2 brickyards, 8 lime-kilns, and 15 toll bridges. Telegraphs � The Alta line has a length of wire in El Dorado county amounting to 75 miles. CENSUS STATISTICS OF 1870. The census returns of El Dorado county show the following figures as to population, wealth, improvements, etc. The number of families in the county is 3,263. White males, 5,453, white females, 3,121; colored males, 1,590; colored females, 136. Of this number 1,514 are Chin.se, 22 Japanese, and 89 of African descent � these last three classes are enumerated as colored. Male citizens of the United States of 21 years and upwards, 3,188. Giving a total population of 10,300, living in 3,758 dwelling houses. Value of real estate in the county, $1,473,394. Value of personal property, $1,745,995. There are 84,507 acres of improved land. There are 27,923 acres of wood land. There are 27,076 acres of other unimproved land. Cash value of farms in the county, $653,465. Value of farming implements and machinery, $32, 104. Amount of wages paid during the year, including board, $94,268. Farm Stock� Value of live stock. $478,866. Horses, 2,258; mules and asses, 142; milk cows, 4,132 ; work oxen, 212 ; other cattle, 5,385 ; sheep 18,137 ; swine, 4, 150. Producing cereals for the year ending June 1st, 1870; Spring wheat 780 bushels. (see chart � Producing Cereals) There are 59 mining ditches, total length 966 miles. Quartz-mills 37, and saw-mills, 25. The census returns of El Dorado county for 1880 give the following figures as to the population of the different townships ; POPULATION OF EL DORADO COUNTY� 1880. (see chart � El Dorado Population) FARMING INDUSTRY AND STATISTICS. The white population has increased 244, the negro decreased 8; the Chinamen decreased 79, and the Indians increased 181. ASSESSMENT ROLL OF EL DORADO COUNTY OF 1880. Real estate $565,665 Improvements 328,960 City and town lots 100,215 Improvements 255,240 Improvements otherwise assessed 60,845 Mining claims 127,550 Improvements 83,845 Telegraph lines 1,050 Railroads 208,413 Mortgages, trust deeds, etc., on real estate 218,990 Mining ditches 169,230 Total value of real estate, mortgages not included , $1,937,233 Total value of personal property 1,067,735 Irrigating ditches 36,220 Total value $3,004,068 Personal property is classified as follows . (see chart � Personal Property) The total railroad bonded indebtedness of the county on November 1st, 1880, represents $211,250. Principal $120,000, coupons $91,250. This embraces the entire bonded indebtedness of the county.