Plumas County, CA History Transcribed by Sally Kaleta Jul 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. Illustrated History of PLUMAS, LASSEN & SIERRA Counties with CALIFORNIA from 1513 to 1850, Farriss & Smith , 1882, San Francisco. INDIAN VALLEY Indian township, containing in 1880, a population of 1,680, is, in respect to the number of its inhabitants and in many other particulars, the most important in the county. Three towns, Taylorville, Greenville, and Crescent, lie within its borders, and many valuable mines and fertile farms give occupation to its people and reward for their labors. During the summer of 1850, when prospecting parties were scouring the county in all directions, Indian valley was frequently visited, and still more frequently observed from some distant elevation, by these little bands of gold-hunters. They were in search of gold, not land; and they came and went, leaving the valley as quiet and undisturbed as before. To Peter Lassen, the old pioneer of Tehama county, and Isadore Meyerwitz, is ascribed the honor of first visiting the valley with the intention of making a settlement. They were here for a brief while in the summer or fall of 1850, and bestowed the name of Cache valley upon the place where they decided to establish themselves. In 1851 Lassen and a man named Burton built the square of a log cabin, covered it with brush, and opened a trading post. Prospecting parties were frequently passing through, the mountains to the south and west were full of miners working claims or seeking new diggings, and the little trading post did quite a business during the summer. One of the parties passing through the valley in April, 1851, bestowed the name of "Indian" upon it, because of the large number of natives they observed when first entering it from the mountains. This name soon became the most common one, and it was not long before "Cache" disappeared entirely. Eighty men composed this company, which was known as Noble's party. No settlement was made in the valley that year, except by Lassen and his companions. On the twelfth of February, 1852, Jobe T. Taylor and Warren Meeker came to the valley from Nelson creek, and posted up a notice claiming the land now occupied by Taylorville and the Taylor ranch. To this notice were affixed the names of Jobe T, Taylor, Warren Meeker, Jonathan Meeker, R. D. Smyth, Albert Galbreath, Barnardott Littel, ___ Powell, and George Tilly. They moved upon the land in March, leaving Jonathan Meeker and George Tilly on Nelson creek. There was no one living in the valley at that time, but in about three weeks Peter Lassen, Isadore Meyerwitz, and George Edward St. Felix came in and took possession of their old location again. This place was what is now called the Hickerson ranch, about three miles north of Greenville. That spring they replaced the brush covering of their log house with a good roof, and the first house in Indian valley then stood completed. The settlers at the Taylor ranch also built a house that summer. No other settlements were made in the valley until the fall, when a number of emigrants made locations and put up cabins. These emigrants, for the most part accompanied by their families, came in by the way of Beckwourth pass and American valley. Meyerwitz was drowned in Honey Lake in 1856, and Lassen was killed in the mountains north of Pyramid Lake in 1859, his death being laid at the door of Indians, though donated by some. The first attempt at cultivation had been made the year before by Lassen and his companions at their settlement on the Hickerson place. They raised turnips, beets, lettuce, and other vegetables, products which were in great demand, and brought exceedingly high prices from the miners, who were seldom able to procure such luxuries. In the summer of 1852, also, Lassen, Meyerwitz, and St. Felix raised a great quantity of vegetables, having a larger assortment than the season before. None were raised by Taylor and his associates, but they purchased potatoes, turnips, cabbages, beets, etc., from the others at a uniform price of fifteen cents per pound, to which they also added their own labor in harvesting the crop. Mr. Taylor, prior to his death, wrote the following incident of that harvesting time: "An emigrant name to where we were sacking turnips, and said to his little girl, 'Give your money to Mr. Taylor and get some turnips.' She gave me ten cents, and I told her to go to the sack and help herself. She took one that weighed at least eight pounds, and which had cost us $1.20, the emigrant no doubt thinking at the same time that ten cents was a big price for one turnip." During the fall of 1852 a great many immigrants came through Beckwourth pass, and a number of them stopped in Indian valley and took up land claims. That fall a voting precinct was established at Taylor's house. and the people of the valley were permitted to participate in the presidential election. In August, 1852. Mrs. Dr. Cory gave birth to a little girl, the first white child born in the valley. They were simply residing here temporarily, and departed before the child was named. In February 1853, Jobe L. Chipman was born. He is now a resident of San Jose, and has held the position there of superintendent of public schools. The winter of 1852-53 was a most severe one, and the new emmigrants, especially those with families, suffered severely for want of food, but all survived. In the spring of 1853 Taylor, Meeker, and the others built a frame barn on their place, the first frame building in the county, except the saw-mill at Rich Bar on the east branch. The building is still standing. They also put in a crop of wheat and barley, the first ever raised in the valley. During the year 1853, and for the next few years thereafter, the emigration was quite large, and Indian valley became settled up, and a large portion of it began to be cultivated. A saw-mill was built in 1855, and a grist-mill a year later, both by Mr. Taylor. A private school was taught in 1859 by a Mr. Partridge, and the first public school in 1863 by G. W. Meylert. By energy and industry, the settlers of Indian valley have improved their farms, and brought the land, a large portion of which was swampy and required draining, under a high state of cultivation. There are half a hundred farms in the valley, with a total area of some 14,000 acres, of which 10,000 acres are good tillable land. Of this, some 3,000 acres are sowed to grain, while the remainder are used for pasture and hay, dairying being one of the leading industries of the valley. Many more acres of land lying among the hills adjacent to the valley are used for stock-ranges, and are quite valuable. Quartz mining near Greenville and Crescent is a great industry, and furnishes a good home market for farm produce. Up Indian creek, east of Taylorville, lies Genesee valley, in which are several good ranches, school, and post-office, and through which runs the road to Reno, passing Flournoy's ranch and through Red Clover valley. The manner in which the settlers of Indian valley dealt with the native proprietors of the soil has been related on another page, to which the reader is referred. The first marriage occurred in the spring of 1853. There being no minister or magistrate, the two contracting parties, Robert Boss and Mrs. Catherine Deitch, solemnly declared themselves to be man and wife, in the presence of witnesses. They then removed to Rush creek, where they were informed that their marriage was illegal, and where a ceremony was performed by John R. Buckbee, after which a grand jubilee was held. Buckbee was simply a lawyer and miner, and the couple were soon convinced that their road of true love was not yet smooth. Thomas D. Bonner, the perambulating justice, happening to visit this region from his seat of dominion and power in Onion valley, the much-married couple had another ceremony performed by that gentleman. This was the third and last time, and was followed by a season of relaxation by the boys.