Plumas County, CA History

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta Jul 2009

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Illustrated History of PLUMAS, LASSEN & SIERRA Counties
with CALIFORNIA from 1513 to 1850, Farriss & Smith , 1882, San Francisco.

Historical Reminiscences



FREDONYER'S TALK AGAINST TIME 
  
  
           Atlas Fredonyer was indicted May 7, 1862, for an incestuous and 
criminal assault upon the person of his own daughter. His case came to trial May 
12, before the court of sessions, Judge E. T. Hogan presiding. Patrick O. 
Hundley, being then district attorney, prosecuted the case; while the prisoner 
volunteered to conduct his own defense. The evidence was conclusive and damning. 
Mr. Hundley made a strange argument, which carried conviction to the mind or 
every juror. Fredonyer then opened his case, and by subterfuge and windy 
argument, endeavored to prolong the trial and gain time. All this while a young 
man from Honey Lake valley, who was confined in Fredonyer's cell for 
horse-stealing, was making a laborious effort for liberty. Fredonyer held the 
court for four days, while the young man sank a shaft and tunnel under the floor 
of the jail. Just as he got the avenue of escape completed, and while Fredonyer 
was still talking against time in the court-room, three other prisoners, 
confined in different cells, told the sheriff that a fresh, earthy smell came 
from Fredonyer's apartment. An examination proved the correctness of their 
impressions, and the plot was frustrated just in the nick of time, for the birds 
would have flown that night. When the matter was related in the court-room 
Fredonyer closed his argument very suddenly, and for his pains received a 
sentence of six years  in the state prison. Subsequently, James Duesler, always 
interceding for the good, bad, or indifferent, started a petition, and had 
Fredonyer pardoned; but he never returned to Plumas county. The jail used at the 
time of the trial was the old log house standing at the head of Bradlestreet in 
Quincy, which was built in 1855.