tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post473477523210471206..comments2024-03-11T05:03:14.020-07:00Comments on Ernie's Place: A soldiers tale of the Eel RiverErnie Branscombhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06391160783604462511noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-47372866107720654582009-08-26T22:36:38.683-07:002009-08-26T22:36:38.683-07:00Anyone wishing to follow the story of James Wood&#...Anyone wishing to follow the story of James Wood's oldest son, Wilson Wood, and his marriage into the Jewett family can find that info <a href="http://www.biofiles.us/ca-files/Humb.964-985.htm" rel="nofollow">here</a>.Oldmanrivernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-84033551944896522462009-08-16T17:36:31.967-07:002009-08-16T17:36:31.967-07:00Historical footnote: The Leonard Dodge, father of ...Historical footnote: The Leonard Dodge, father of John Dodge, is on Kate Mayo's list of original Long Valley settlers.<br /><br />(Pioneering in the Shadow of Cahto Mountain, pg. 2)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-59381419741834367042009-08-15T20:08:04.643-07:002009-08-15T20:08:04.643-07:00A Glance Back, not Glances Back..sorry.A Glance Back, not Glances Back..sorry.omrnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-87211499628903128742009-08-15T17:45:00.929-07:002009-08-15T17:45:00.929-07:00"The 1st Branscomb settler in Humboldt county..."The 1st Branscomb settler in Humboldt county"<br /><br />'Glances Back' provides us with a little Branscomb history as well. The Smith diaries are a source of information about the Mudgett murder in the Piercy area in 1896<br />As the story goes... young John Dodge (and Ida(Noble)Dodge), mixed blood son of Leonard Dodge and his wife Susan Duncan Dodge, and reputed to be a ne'er-do-well, shot, and burned the bachelor Mudgett in his home.<br />segueing back in time...<br /><br />In 1876, Charles A Ward of Sonoma county went to work in northern Mendocino at the Simpson and White ranch in Cahto. "At that time wages were $1.00 a day, and in the winter time Charles often worked for bed and board on a ranch."(pg 120)<br />In '84 he went into the livery business with George Stevenson in Westport. In 1885 he married <i>Elizabeth Branscomb</i>, born in Sonoma. In '86 he got the contract to build the road between Usal and Kenny. After his marriage, he and his father-in-law, B.F. Branscomb, contracted to build the road from Laytonville over to Dos Rios. In 1897 they bought the Mudgett Ranch at an auction. The Ward family carried their possessions on a spring wagon as far as they could from Westport, then packed them onto horses to make it to the South Fork of the Eel and the 920 acre homestead. Because of the aforementioned fire, they lived in a woodshed with their two children until they made their hand split redwood home. There is a picture of Elizabeth Branscomb Ward in her homestead garden on pg 121. They left the homestead in 1910 for Ukiah.<br /><br />Elizabeth Branscomb Ward, was one of the ten children of Benjamin F. Branscomb and Jane Taylor, making her Ernie's great aunt?<br /><br />Happy oldtimers party today Ernie!Omrnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-27237154026768752232009-08-13T22:18:48.878-07:002009-08-13T22:18:48.878-07:00Reference to there being a band of Indian living i...Reference to there being a band of Indian living in the the Sprowl Creek area in 1863 is found in the history of Samuel Piercy. Diane Hawk's A GLANCE BACK is the source for the story of Samuel Piercy taking in an Indian woman fleeing from a settler over in the Red Mountain area. She was on her way back to here Sprowel Creek family tribelet, but the rains and high waters made it too dangerous to cross the South Fork. Discovering her to be pregnant he took her in and foster parented the first child, Mary "Mollie" Piercy (born in Dec 1863), and had a subsequent child, Elizabeth Piercy, in 1867. <br /> In 1866 the Piercy family took care of one of James Wood's children, born of an Indian mother who died. When James Wood remarried, the child, Wilson Wood, returned to the Wood family to be raised with 17 half brothers and sisters.<br /> Elizabeth Piercy went on to marry Jose "Chandler" Smith, a pioneer since 1861 whose home six miles south of Garberville was on the route of the old highway, just north of the Bigfoot Burl, and south of the Smith Point Bridge. <br /><br />Again, all this was taken from Margarite Cook and Diane Hawk's A GLANCE BACK, Northern Mendocino County History and to them must go the credit.olmanrivernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-17284018636972413762009-08-11T22:52:15.531-07:002009-08-11T22:52:15.531-07:00All... I have long admired the wonderful ability L...All... I have long admired the wonderful ability Lt. Lynn had as a writer. He does not appear again in the War of the Rebellion. (at least I don't recall him.) The other officers were much more pedestrian. Military men seemed to be the only literate folks in early SoHum and these records are invaluable.<br />The names of the Indian Island/South Beach/Eel River/Rio Dell raiders were well known at the time. Bledsoe comments that the leader died a few years previous to the publication of his "Indian Wars...." One excellent candidate for that job would be Steven Fleming of Eel Rock, Ft. Seward, Hettenshaw and Ohman Creek. He appears several times as a guide and militia leader and was called "Captain Fleming" at times. The raiders were said to start from Hydesville then splitting up to attack the Eel River, South Bay and Indian Island camps, Rio Dell was attacked on the way back, some say. The motive was the strongly held idea that the "tame" Indians were supplying the rebellious ones in the back country where many of these men had holdings and livestock, Larrabee and Fleming among them. Fleming died in San Francisco just before Bledsoe's book was published. Jim Baker has done some excellent work on the Masonic Lodges as possible centers for the planners. It is important to understand that these Indian camps were working for the ranchers and farmers of the area. Though there must have been considerable resentment, these Indians felt they were at peace with the whites. The term "tame" Indians or "pet" Indians was a polite way of saying indentures or slaves. <br />Spruce Grove was the first hill south of the Harris/Alderpoint Rd junction. The Indians used it as a summer camp for centuries as there are two large springs there almost on the ridge. I have heard that the first store in the area was a cabin at this site. <br />The Sproul boys do seem to have survived the attack. In "Last of the West", Frank Asbill has them killed and Mrs. Bowman attacked the same year. The attack on Mrs. Bowman happened five or six years later and was possibly the work of some Whilkut renegades who also attacked Indian villages.<br />I do love seeing The War of the Rebellion on the net. My copy is only the local correspondence laboriously xeroxed at HSU. Thanks OMR!Bennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-28419363456786682682009-08-08T22:27:43.487-07:002009-08-08T22:27:43.487-07:00Thanks Jim, My beer machine ran dry, but the beer ...Thanks Jim, My beer machine ran dry, but the beer guy made me a deal on some Guiness Taps. As soon as I get it hooked up I'll let you know.<br /><br />I know about the having to make a living while conflicting with the fun local history. This blog has taken the place of many of the other hobbies that I used to have. I find it very rewarding, but it focuses me into one dimension. I have found things about my family that I never knew before. Some that make me swell with pride, and other that make me hang my head it shame. I've found it best to follow the advice that I've given many other people. “You can't change history, the best you can do is understand it, and use that knowledge to make the world a better place.”Ernie Branscombhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06391160783604462511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-14623869568626871942009-08-08T21:29:30.863-07:002009-08-08T21:29:30.863-07:00Olmanriver - We're all amateurs here. Very few...Olmanriver - We're all amateurs here. Very few professional local historians, if that means making a living at it. Ask Ray Rafael, who had to branch out to the American Revolution to survive. For most of us it's a compulsion at best, and very likely an addiction. You and Ernie are creeping into that category - be careful. Ask Ben and Lynette M., two of the best local history researchers in the County, but neither making a dime on it last I heard. Lt Lynn in Dearborn County, Indiana at the age of 13 on the 1850 census, also in Dearborn County 30 years later on the 1880 census, per Ancestry.com. If you can spend the time to dig up his ancestors, please do so. I have a feeling there is a chest with momentos from his life in someone's attic right now that might shed some light on the year he spent as a 2nd lieutenant in Humboldt county.His entire military file would be available from the Natl archives if you have the moola to order it. That's where I would go next.<br />Ernie - I will bring maps of various dates down to show you next time I'm in town (what good is a surveyor without maps) to show the changes in the main trails, place names and stopover places from 1860 to 1886. Yes, loggers largely responsible for opening up new roads on ranch lands, but you know as well as I do that if you turned a catskinner loose anywhere in the 1950's, you ended up with a road of some kind. If you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail. For a catskinner, every patch of untouched ground looked like it needed some work. We have wised up and are more careful now - thank some of the more knowledgeable "newcomers" for pushing us in that direction, whether we like it or not. My last entry on this post - I have to make a living.Jim Bakernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-57770318936498491322009-08-08T19:40:37.170-07:002009-08-08T19:40:37.170-07:00I always thought that "Spruce Grove" was...I always thought that "Spruce Grove" was Old Harris. There is several great springs at Old Harris. The old stories and Manuscripts described Harris fairly well, but called it Spruce Grove. They must have called fir trees spruce back then. The original pony soldier trail took the Old Harris route around the middle of the hill. The Alderpoint road that comes down from the top of the hill was an old ranch road and my fathers logging company opened it up for logging in the 1950's. It became a popular road between Alderpoint and Garberville. The county eventually took over the maintenance of it. The same with the Eel Rock road.<br /><br />One of the biggest problems that the old loggers had with the rancher that they logged their timber from, was they wanted their whole ranch to be accessible by road. It was always a negotiation; all the loggers wanted was the timber. The rancher wanted the roads. Roads increased the value of their ranches tremendously.Ernie Branscombhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06391160783604462511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-71495208286837581172009-08-08T19:05:52.370-07:002009-08-08T19:05:52.370-07:00Great post Ernie, and how I love having Mr. Baker ...Great post Ernie, and how I love having Mr. Baker add on and give his perspective. This is history heaven for an amateur like myself. Thanks fellas.<br />ps. May I ask which town in Indiana Lt. Lynn hailed from?Olmanrivernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-23544755541427664172009-08-08T18:13:04.498-07:002009-08-08T18:13:04.498-07:00Misc addendums - Spruce Grove in March of 1861 was...Misc addendums - Spruce Grove in March of 1861 was simply a good camping spot with an ample water supply on the main ridge trail when Lynn and his detail stopped there, as noted in the daily journal and sketch of his movements which accompanied his report. By the early 1870's the government survey notes in the area noted a structure on the site, and on an 1886 map the present site of Old Harris was designated as "Spruce Grove" and the site which Lynn had camped at was called "Old Spruce Grove". By 1886, the main traffic north had been diverted to a new road passing through Alderpoint and Blocksburg - probably the reason for the main overnight stopping place moving south from the old Spruce Grove location to the new one at what later was called "Harris". Lynn's vague reference to the "Red Woods" probably referred to the common contemporary term for Indians as "red men" and the fact that when being pursued, Indians often retreated to the redwood country because it was easier to hide and more difficult for the army cavalry to negotiate the terrain among the many huge fallen trees which then littered the forest floor.Jim Bakernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-9147459704407472232009-08-08T12:20:51.704-07:002009-08-08T12:20:51.704-07:00Hello Lynette- Good to see you are still around an...Hello Lynette- Good to see you are still around and still interested. Daniel D. Lynn, from Indiana, enlisted in the 6th infantry Jan 7, 1860 as a 2nd Lt at the age of about 23, so had been in the regular army about a year when he wrote the report Ernie cites. Interesting to note that the date of his foray into S. Humboldt in March 1861 was only about 3 weeks before Ft. Sumter was bombarded and the Civil War began. As you know, immediately afterwards the regulars went east to fight in that war, and Ft Humboldt was manned by Calif volunteers, including Henry Larrabee and other local cattlemen, frontiersmen and hide hunters (referred to by Lynn as the “buckskin gentry”) whose main goal had been to “solve the Indian problem” by force. This was basically allowing the fox into the henhouse and signaled the start of an all-out campaign by local volunteers to drive Indians from the cattle lands or kill the ones who would not remain on the reservations to which they were taken. The Indian Island and other massacres of Wiyots in Feb, 1860 had taken place under the noses of the regulars in Ft Humboldt, and Larrabee’s ranch had been burned and his cook killed almost exactly a year later. The Indian attack on Larrabee’s ranch, the Sprouls and other settlers in the winter and early spring of 1861 signaled an increasing Indian resistance by Wailakis and other Southern Athabascan Indians to incursion onto their ancestral lands, and precipitated Lt Lynn’s foray into the area from Ft Humboldt in March. Violence increased between Indians and volunteers from that time forward, resulting in the inevitable “pacification” of local Indians and loss of their traditional homeland to homesteaders and ranchers. Daniel Lynn fought for the union during the Civil War, rising to the rank of Brevet Major by 1865, went back to his home state of Indiana, married in about 1869 and listed on the 1870 Indiana census as still enlisted as a major. He died in December of 1895.Jim Bakernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-1740386123112688192009-08-08T09:35:14.204-07:002009-08-08T09:35:14.204-07:00Kat Anderson in Tending the Wild tells us on pg 26...Kat Anderson in Tending the Wild tells us on pg 269 that of thirty-one species of native clover, over fifteen were prized as food. Once again, they burned and helped reseed this nitro-fixing plant, which made for even more luxurious crops...much to the delight of Spanish and American settlers and their cattle.<br />Some tribes would literally graze in the fields, another method of eating clover was roll us a ball between the hands, and then put it in the mouth for chewing. Fresh, steamed, dried and stored for winter soups, this was probably one of their more widely eaten green, and a mainstay for many groups.<br />There is an account from Round Valley on pg 89 where a witness sees "a man drowning squaws from a cloverfield inside the reservation, they were picking clover or digging roots; he said he would be damned if he would allow them to dig roots or pick clover, as he wanted it for hay".olmanrivernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-4002537023909565052009-08-08T08:01:52.284-07:002009-08-08T08:01:52.284-07:00Clover is the term used for a number of greens tha...Clover is the term used for a number of greens that were an important food. It was the first fresh veggie available in the early spring after subsisting on winter stores. Large quantities were consumed either raw or steamed. The Wailaki held a Clover Dance each year. If you can get your hands on Environmental History and Cultural Ecology of the North Fork of the Eel River Basin by Thomas S. Keter published by The U.S. Forest Service you have an extraordinary resource.Dave Kirbynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-56786674594797596762009-08-08T06:38:18.866-07:002009-08-08T06:38:18.866-07:00They mention indians picking clover. Anyone know w...They mention indians picking clover. Anyone know what they did with the clover?Fred Mangelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15746646487480850444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-9100053816135736322009-08-07T22:16:56.171-07:002009-08-07T22:16:56.171-07:00I've added some notation to the above story, t...I've added some notation to the above story, to give a little insight into it.Ernie Branscombhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06391160783604462511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-38611357874545062142009-08-07T22:14:30.908-07:002009-08-07T22:14:30.908-07:00Some stories that I have heard say that the Sproul...Some stories that I have heard say that the Sprouls lived. Others say they were killed. I don't know.<br /><br />Sadly, having grown up here, most of the stories that I've heard often conflict. Written history was not as easily accessed as it is today and many of the stories that I have heard are compilations of many tales that have run together and have become confused.Ernie Branscombhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06391160783604462511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-924013241079711992.post-57148285120210041752009-08-07T21:13:58.577-07:002009-08-07T21:13:58.577-07:00It is obvious that some commanding officers embrac...It is obvious that some commanding officers embraced the "war" and others were appalled by what was happening. Anyone know anything about what happened to Lynn, Hubbard or even Rains, who initially refused to give up the natives that came to Fort Humboldt after the massacre on the Island (I think he eventually gave in to community pressure, but he tried)?<br /><br />1860, March 28, (rough version found in Susie Baker Fountain Papers, likely Humboldt Times) Mr. Ross, widely known as trafficker with Indians, was going up the south Fork of Eel river between Mr. Armstrong’s place and that of Messrs. Sprowl. They were overtaken by a small party of bold Indians. Ross killed one as they approached. Sprowl boys appears and took Ross to their home.. Indians attacked Sprowl boys at their house and killed them. Should be a lesson to Sprowls. <br /><br />I'll try to find the original article...Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09196313758601090520noreply@blogger.com