Many of us try to trace our ancestry. It is exciting to us in ways that none of us fully understand. We have this innate desire to know where we came from. Why? is difficult to understand, we are who we are, nothing will change our ancestry. Maybe we look for great heroes, and we all fear that we are going to run across that monstrous great villain. We wonder what kind of blood courses in our veins. We wonder what “Stuff” we are made of. Could we kill somebody in order to survive? Would we lay down our lives to insure that out children would survive? We look for clues as to who we might really be in our ancestry. Many of us are made to be proud of our ancestry, and others ashamed. But in any family history there are great heroes and great villains. We are here because our ancestors survived long enough to plant the seeds of their future, and we are their progeny.
In history many people were killed over religion. The inquisitions basically asked if a person was a Christian. If the answer was no, the person was killed. Not only were they killed, any record of them having ever existed was expunged. No more record. Godless or heathen people were not even thought of as people.
The Indian people did not even know about the white God, let alone Christ, so they were not thought of as people. The fact that the Indian people were out numbered and outgunned bode poorly on their existence. They were in the way of the White intruders. They were almost completely eliminated before human outrage stopped the slaughter. I can’t really call anybody innocent back in the last half of the 1800’s. Some of the Indian people would have eliminated the White if they had the chance. It was an age of slaughter and of brutality. Thankfully that is all in our past. (Yeah, right…)
The thing that has struck me, many times, is that the record of ancestry among the Indian people was handed down orally. The white people have the great advantage of the church having kept records of when we were born, and when we died, who we married, whether or not we paid our taxes and tithing. Ships kept logs of passengers, the government kept track of land sales. Many records were kept in writing.
Many of us have Indian ancestry. And those records were kept orally back before the 1900’s. With slim few of the Indian people left, many of the records are gone. My family has had many stories that have been passed on orally, that were not written down. I remember some of the stories vividly, and others vaguely. So much of my families own history has been lost to the oral tradition, but sometimes I will run into somebody that knows some of my family stories, and I will be reminded. I am deeply moved on such occasions. I know some stories about where precious artifacts are that I will share only with those that I trust. Some history is going to die with me, as well it should.
So I am touched when somebody comes to me with a request for lost family history and asks me what I know. The following is some email that I recently received:
Hi Ernie
My name is Rebecca Haydon relative to the Haydon's in Covelo, Willits and Ukiah. I have been doing my families history for years and just bought the book "killing for land." I was reading your website which is very informative by the way. However, I do have a couple of questions for you.
1.) Who did the Eel River Rangers consist of?? Were you able to find how many men were in that group and who they were???
2.) Do you have any history on Weaverville? If so, how can I find it??
Here is my lineage:
Weaverville: Great grandmother was named LuBertha Post. She was a teacher for many years at the Red Schoolhouse in Weaverville. Her father (John Storm) ended up marrying LuBertha's mother who was full indian saving her from being killed or captured. She was Wintu Indian.
My great grandmother and her father traveled a lot and in those times they ended up shacking up at different people's houses along the way. They ended up at the Travis Ranch in Covelo where all the Haydon's were living. She then married my great grandfather Frank Haydon.
Frank Haydon's father, Tom Haydon, was quite the feisty one. hahahaha. Not funny but it is. Apparently in Genocide and Vendetta, he actually killed a 14 yr old boy over some land and killed him. I'm assuming it was true due to the fact that Tom Haydon was in San Quentin prison and died there.
Speaking of Genocide and Vendetta. I have a relative that was telling me that book was pulled due to the book not being true and was never approved by families involved. Luckily I just found out my sister has a copy of it. Very expensive. Years ago her and her and my uncle visited Estelle, one of the authors. Anyhow, as I reading Killing for Land, they seem to go back to that book. Your thoughts???
I guess my point is I don't have a whole lot of information on the Wintu indians and Weaverville and wondered if you did or even where I could find the info. I, however, do have the book on Round Valley families and Killing for land.
Thank you so much for reading this email. I look forward to hearing from you.
Rebecca Haydon
Becky
I'm sorry that I took so long to get back to you. I kept thinking that I would run into some folks that has some of that history, but I haven't, so I thought that I would write back to you asking your permission to put your letter up as a post.
I know a young Wintu lady that works in Garberville, but I won't be seeing her until after the second or third of May. She is from up north, but I think that she said she was from Redding.
I have another friend who's (4G?) Grandfather was an Eel River Ranger by the last name of Cole. She is horribly ashamed of her Grandfather, but she has a lot of information, and I'm sure she would be willing to share with you.
My family has always had great good history with the Indian people, so I always been very proud of that fact. But the other day I discovered that my (5G) Grandfather was possibly the Captain of a slave ship that he sunk off of the east coast full of slaves so he wouldn't get caught in the blockade. I've always said that we don't have to look very far back in history before we find someone that we just as soon not have known about. Tom Haydon had a lot of good company, a lot of people were mean and tough back then. They were the survivors!
If I put your letter up as a post, I'm sure you will get a lot of replies. If you don't want to post it, I'll ask around and see if I can find some history for you.
Thanks for writing.
Ernie
Ernie-
You absolutely have my permission. I would love to see if anyone has any information. My cousin worked for the Dept of Education and had to take a trip to Weaverville in regards to some funding reasons. She ended up running into a woman who mother was taught by my great grandmother. But before my cousin and I could make the trip back up there and talk to her, she had passed away.
Thank you so much for responding,
Rebecca
Many of the posts that we have done here have gathered history that was out there that I didn't know about, and we have generated some great history with but a few small leads. Maybe this can be another. Do you know anyone who knows anyone who can tel us some history / ancestry for Rebecca?
A good book to read if you want to get a feeling of how people were in the pioneer days is "The Last of the West" by Frank Asbill (son of Pierce Asbill, nephew of Frank the older Asbill)
ReplyDeleteI reflects the swagger and the exageration of the people that lived back then. It has great place descriptions, and tall tales about the people. If you read it, don't try to pick it apart, but assume most things are "glorified".
Reading the book is like taking a deep sniff in the barnyard. You have to remember that even a good ranch smells that way. Then try to get the feeling of the time.
Chapter 17 of William Secrest's "When the Great Spirit Died" is on Jarboe.
ReplyDeleteAlthough he asked for forty men, this chapter refers to Ranger war parties of 17-20 involved in the ethnic cleansing.
"They called themselves the "Eel River Rangers", and seventeen men were recorded being members. Included were H.L. Hall, W.J. Hildreth, Charles Bourne, Bill Robertson, and others who had been active in the campaigning" (pg 299).
That is what Secrist has to say.
Secrest!
ReplyDeleteHa, thanks to a link from Kym's research:
ReplyDelete"Jarboe’s commission was approved by Weller and volunteers were organized as “The Eel River Rangers”, consisting of 20 men: James E. Mead - H. G. Hall – William I. Hildreth - William Robertson - E. M. Heard - William M. Pool - William O. Robertson - S. G. Danney - William M Cole - William Wall - T. S. Stout - Jonathan W. Heacker - John D. Aeaskins - Antonio Garoillo - J. W. Graham - William Daley - James P. Watters - William Scott B. S. Berch - J. Alexander. This company became a paid state agency.
Governor Weller orders Jarboe to muster troops to fight Indians between the North and South Forks of Eel River and Long and Eden Valleys."
I knew that Kym had researched that, but I couldn't remember where to find that. Thanks Kym, and Thanks OMR!
ReplyDeleteBack in the sixties I had read copies of Asbills original manuscript. The manuscript was pretty rough reading. There were lots of misspellings and there was a lot of racial bigotry. I'm sorry that they left out a lot of what he said, because it was very indicative of the times. I understand that Chico State University ended up with those writings, and they are available to the public. I have not at this time figured out how to access them.
Kym emailed me earlier and I just found this, sorry Kym. From Kym:
ReplyDeleteErnie, Damn Blogspot has eaten my comment 5 times Luckily I saved some of it. Here, you try and post the thing before I smash something!
Tom Hayden (note spelling change) was found guilty June 1911 of killing 17 year old Harris Norgard and sentenced to 20 years in San Quentin but was said to be" very weak" and reported that he would probably not live long in prison. He died June 1913 at his home in Round valley after an operation performed in San Francisco. he was allowed to come home and died June 12th 1913 I believe.
By Aug 18th 1911 The Haydon and Norgard families had reached an agreement to stop a long term feud between the families. The Haydon's would take over the Norgard's ranges (presumably cattle) paying a "satisfactory price" and the Norgards will leave the country and "not engage in business again in Southern Trinity or Northern mendocino county within 10 miles of the Southerng boundry of Trinity."
Frank Haydon was "arrested, charged with assault to commit murder of another Norgard boy "While the witnesses were returning from the trial of Tom Hayden in Trinity county, Frank and young Norgard met on the trail, and Hayden tried to lash the boy with a quirt but Norgard was riding a thoroughbred horse and got away". This charge will now probably be dismissed as Norgard will likely refuse to appear as a prosecuting witness." Oakland Tribune Jan 1, 1911 page 20 has most of this info (and it has a full account by a witness!). With some from the Ukiah Dispatch and another newspaper that I forgot to write down in Ukiah called the Redwood something.
The Eel River Rangers were headed by Jarboe and here is a partial list of members The Eel River Rangers”, consisting of 20 men: James E. Mead - H. G. Hall – William I. Hildreth - William Robertson - E. M. Heard - William M. Pool - William O. Robertson - S. G. Danney - William M Cole - William Wall - T. S. Stout - Jonathan W. Heacker - John D. Aeaskins - Antonio Garoillo - J. W. Graham - William Daley - James P. Watters - William Scott B. S. Berch - J. Alexander.
See also
Reports of Cases Determined in the District Courts of Appeal of the State page 543 on for about 20 pages
and The Pacific Reporter (google books) I believe starting page 1102 and going on for about 20 pages but just search haydon and the pages will pop up.
She has a lot of info about the case right there online. (it is pretty interesting if I had more time I would research it for fun. but this is all she gets for free;>)
Kym thank-you. I know your time is valuable. But this is a real start.
ReplyDeleteGreat work Kym.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a good book to have...
ReplyDeleteA Pictorial History of Round Valley,
1864 to 1938
by local authors Elmer Bauer and Floyd Barney
"This 352 page book contains over 1400 photographs as well as unique stories and selected newspaper articles from the time period. An extensive index and cemetery record will aid readers in researching past generations of families- a must for historians and geneologists!"
And it benefits the Covelo library.
i have owned the book for ten years now.lots of good pictures and good reading!!!!on page #204 i get to see my dad when he was a toe head!!!LOL
ReplyDeleteSpyrock (if you're still out there)
ReplyDeleteI found the following from "Mountaigrrl" on the post about Some geneology about Laytonville'Spyrock'.
You said above that you're looking to get in touch with an 80 year old woman named Crabtree.
I know her.
Why might you want to talk to her?
i don't know where mountaingrrl is reading your blog but i put a note back in the march post. i have a copy of the little red school house which was written by mrs crabtree and my aunt ruth simmerly was one of the contributors. i am the grandson of grace nye and the great grandson of john and laura kauble simmerly. laura's youngest brother robert was adopted by the applegates and i believe he is related to the crabtrees. i would like to know if she knows how john kauble died. he died in 1872 and was a justice of the peace in laytonville/cahto. he lived across the street from the old cemetery and the red fox casino. also, anything she remembers about the simmerlys.
ReplyDeletehere it is. robert henry kauble or applegate born august 1872 married elizabeth crabtree. so if your mrs. crabtree has an ancestor named elizabeth, then we are related.
ReplyDeletemary ann or molly simmerly, my great grandpa john's younger sister married john haydon. fred simmerly, john's older brother who was 10 years older than mollie married sarah hagler.
ReplyDeletethere is a picture of fred with a ben haydon in families. they look about the same age. so ben was probably johns brother because bens sons were named harry and ted and there were some lovell boys in his family which josie simmerly married into. harry haydon won a match race on the 4th of july in 1924 and ben had his own racehorse which won a race in eureka in 1906. there's a picture of ben's havester which was pulled by 32 horses. there's a picture of ben with his bear and cat hunting dogs.
there's also a picture of tom and frank haydon on the same page but it doesn't say how they are related. according to fred simmerly's obit. john and mollie haydon moved to santa rosa. fred simmerly died in campbell and was regarded as one of the best citizens in mendocino county according to the paper. he had moved to covelo in 1870 with the family when he was 13 years old. so i may have some distant haydon relatives out there. but no matter what they did, i'm sure they were all upstanding citizens of mendocino county at the time.
I seem to remember a place called Haydon Roughs out past the Travis ranch. That was the Weaverville trail and Red Mtn. House was near the place where Jack Littlefield was killed. Tom Haydon was one of the men tried in Weaverville for the killing. The topic made me drag out my xerox of Genocide and Vendetta and go to the George White chapter where there are Haydons and Crabtrees in abundance. Fortunately, Carranco did not rely on Asbill's "Last of the West" to any great degree and the chapter is riveting.I'm reading, I'm reading. Tom Keter has recent pictures of the Littlefield grave. What a story.
ReplyDeletewhat Ben is reading:
ReplyDeleteHaydon, Tom 267, 269, 281, 288-93, 295, 298-99, 301-303
The historical references to the folks mentioned in Genocide and Vendetta is found here.
i've got a book on the wintu but its up in the mountains at dove's house. it was written by a man from uc berkeley who interviewed some of the elders before they passed on. it was written quite a while ago. i'll post about it next time i go up there.
ReplyDeletedidn't tom haydon marry jane fonda. one of the chicago 7. maybe he's related.
ReplyDeleteWhew... I had not read that chapter in many years. Now I'll try reading the George White stuff in Last of the West to see how much Carranco used.
ReplyDeleteMs. Haydon asks about Weaverville history and the tragedy there is that the Courthouse with all the records burned. The Library is a great reference. They are very helpful. I'm sure the Historical Society has put out some work. The Hayfork records are very important to this area. Many of the earliest hunters and settlers came from the Hayfork area rather than Eureka. Many were from Missouri and Mexican War veterans.
Spyrock has great Laytonville information. The Militia in the Garberville area was headed by a fellow from Eel Rock named Steven Fleming. His widow had a considerable ranch up Ohman Creek at Phillipsville. He may have been the organizer of the raids that included the Indian Island massacre. Like many of the unlettered settlers, he sent his children to college and had three sons in medical fields. I can tell a few stories but they are quite disturbing so I won't.
Rebecca... There is a nice little book on the Wintu called "The Wintu Indians of California" by Peter M. Knudtson. He does a fine and sensitive job of introducing the group. Wintu people covered a large area of the northern Central Valley as well as the Weaverville area and the upper Sacramento and McCloud rivers. If you want to read further the Wintu Ethnography and Wintu Myths by Cora DuBois and Dorothy Dimitricopolou are the primary works. You might get information from the old census rolls. Another good book is "A Bag of Bones" Wintu stories from the Upper Sacramento. It's hard to find information specific to the Weaverville area as the gold hunters were very hard on the Indians in that area.
ReplyDeleteWhew, I've been busier than a one legged Refrigeration man in a paper hanging race... Or one of the metaphors.
ReplyDeleteI emailed Becky Haydon a link to this site, maybe she will check in.
Does anyboby know what happened to mountain girl?
It's always exciting to me to take a new direction. For years I followed the "Branscomb family" history, and only recently I started tracing other direct ancestry.
It's interesting to run into relatives of these old legends.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAlright anon, I know that you are probably one of my Redneck friends making a big joke, but when you say things like that it upsets people and they hide. It stops the conversation. Soo, ha ha I get it, now Quit it!
ReplyDeletethe book ben is talking about is the one i read about the wintu. the lady i am looking for is jean crabtree. so is this jean crabtree you are talking about.
ReplyDeletelet me know.
Spy,
ReplyDeleteYou say John Kauble lived across from the old cemetery. I assume you mean the Laytonville cemetery on Branscomb Rd. but there is also a cemetery on the Rancheria, both in close proximity to the casino. Can you tell me which one you refer to?
Just to add to the confusion, there are several "Little Red Schoolhouses"
ReplyDeleteHey I want to play too... here is an Annie Crabtree: "Walter Scott Clark and three other brothers went to the Round Valley Reservation in Mendicino County California in the 1890's to secure their portion of the Round Valley Reservation. But only Walter stayed to make a claim. It was to remote from the boys parents for the others to stay.But before leaving the Reservation Benjamin Franklin Clark met and married a half breed indian girl, Annie Crabtree whom he brought back to Yankee Hill with him."
ReplyDeleteHi everyone
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the information. I am going to the library this morning to look up the books. You all have been very helpful.
I thought my gr gr grandfather had died in SQ prison and they sent his body back. I have a copy of the envelope and letter Tom Haydon wrote to his wife while he was in court. One of the Carner men attended his trial and close to our family.
Again, thanks for the information as I will keep you up to date and ask any questions if that is ok?? lol
Hi Ernie
ReplyDeleteAs I was looking that up, I saw that. This Red schoolhouse was in Weaverville. Not sure back then how many they had within the town of weaverville, but my gr gr grandmother taught there for years.
OMR, Thanks for the info about Secrests book. I ordered it! Great stuff.
ReplyDeleteErnie, this post is FULL of information. I love it.
Actually, Thank-YOU Kym. Youv'e provided more than your share!
ReplyDeleteOMR, you have done some great research and provided some great links, Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWell thanks to everyone else!..I do have my eye teeth into this a bit, but mostly I am re-offering, or filling in around the edges what most you all have already covered in your own researches. I hope there is some benefit to pulling all this together, in pieces, for others. I really liked your opening to this post Ernie.
ReplyDeleteI am a sophomore at this, Ben and Spyrock and Ernie and Kym and Penny and Ross have done the most reading, kudos to a team effort!
As suz would say huggles.
But back on topic, that original list of twenty of the Rangers changed. For the record, William Scott (of Scott's Valley)left the endeavor early on in disgust.
Later: "William T. Scott of Scott Valley, told the committee he had never had any trouble with the Indians. He said that Jarboe's orders were to kill all Indians seen. "I went with Jarboe once and came across two bucks collecting acorns in Eden Valley. We killed one, but the other got away." In the statement Scott made, March 2, 1860 he said he had always treated the Indians kindly and never had any cattle killed by them."
At the bottom of the above link are depositions from Hildreth that he ran the company and didn't kill any Indians.
There are references to where the Rangers had tried twice to retrieve a letter to the governor asking for Jarboe's dismissal as company commander. Two days later, Jarboe disbands the troop. Wonder what the dissension was about that ended his tour of slaughter?
'Asked if he was bitter about the past, he said, "No man is my enemy. The country then was like a young buck shaking his horns and seeing fight everywhere. And everybody wanted the land, the ones that were here and the ones that came in. What was right? If you have to say what was right and what was wrong, then you have to think who was right and who was wrong. I don't like that. I like people to be the way they are."
ReplyDelete--From an interview with "Uncle Jim", born December 25, 1862'--- from that pictorial history book.
spyrock... "Kauble, John S. CA Mendocino Little Lake T 1860 835"
ReplyDeletefrom a 1860 censusIs this a reference to your great grandfather before he moved to Laytonville?
The Little Lake Township is "Willits".
ReplyDeleteOMR,
Please don't take this like I am trying to flatter you, but you are one of the very, very few people to come into this country and simply try to find the facts, see the history, and make the connections. Most people come here with opinions, like who did what wrong and why, and try to change things, and blame descendants. It is refreshing to meet someone like you. You are just starting to enjoy the tales we have told in the South Fork of the Eel River Valley for five generations. At least in my case, some are eight generations.
Just like us, sometimes you are struck by the horror of what happened. But I feel that you may have a glimmer of understanding when I say, “These people did what they had to do to survive”. It is true that some were probably more brutal than most, and probably more brutal than they needed to be. But who can really say who would have survived, and who might not have if those pioneers hadn’t been tough, mean, brutal people.
It wasn’t only Indians that were killed. Many white settlers “disappeared” for showing up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe they were a little too meek or maybe they tried to hard to, simply negotiate. Most people, before they moved out here, realized that this was a place to kill or be killed, and it was survival of the meanest. There was no law. Killing Indians might have just been practice for some of these folks. It was not uncommon back in the pioneer days for a man to brag about how mean and ruthless that he was. A lot of what they did was done to dissuade anybody from crossing them. They didn’t want anybody to challenge what was their’s. If anyone did challenge them, they had to back it up or die. That simple.
Looking through today’s eyes, we can see how it could have been done a little better. Hindsight is 20-20. The one thing that I know, is if you look back in your own history, you won’t have to look too far to find a real monster. The fact that you have a monster in you history doesn’t mean that should be proud of it, but it gives you pause to ponder, that if your ancestor was not a monster, you might not be here. I take great comfort in realizing that it does no good to place blame or shame. What happened won’t change. To let the horror and the blame go, makes us better students, and less likely to repeat bad history.
It has been great fun sharing stories with you. As you might have suspected, some of us have stories that will never be shared. (Not me, I tell everything! Well… almost) I have put stories out there that I have heard, that I know to be complete “Bullshistory”, and later find out that the story holds more truth than fiction. This blog makes me miss the old family gatherings that we would do on an almost weekly schedule. Where we could talk about anything that we wanted to talk about, make a statement or ask a question with out being ridiculed.
Anyway OMR, I appreciate your non-judgmental input. Because after having seen the little bit of the Eel River history, you have seen a lot that you could have been judgmental about, but nothing that you could have changed. It’s good knowing you! Welcome to the South Fork of the Eel! You’re doing your share.(And more)
Darn you OMR!
ReplyDeleteI just got through thanking you, and then you post that damn census report from the 1860's. On it are two Taylors from Ukiah. ( Taylor Charles C. & Taylor S.W.)
My 4G Grandfather, Benjamin Taylor, was a Wagon Train Master bringing pioneers into California. He owned a ranch near Sebastopol CA. His daughter, Jane (Taylor) Branscomb, was my 3G Grandmother. My 3G Grandfather and Jane were married on that ranch in 1859. Ben and Jane lived in the Sonoma area before moving to Branscomb CA. in 1880. The brothers may have moved north to Ukiah. Now I have to know! Damn, damn, damn….
Thanks!
Thanks Ernie, I will probably have to switch to my larger hat sizes for a few days.
ReplyDeleteThere is no rest for the OCD genealogist.
Spyrock, I thought I had your Constable Kauble death notice located because I found his wife's notice: 'Long Valley, Dec. 21, 1872, Mrs. Elizabeth, wife of the late John S. KAUBLE, aged 43y, native of Ky.' at this Russian River Flag
site. So I went back through the rest of the year here to no avail. Damn. There were two deaths in August in Long Valley.. "At Long Valley, Aug. 6, 1872, I.C. GRIME.
At Long Valley, Aug. 19, 1872, Clement BEATTIE, aged 52y."
In Healdsburg, June 20, 1872, Wm. H. MIDDLETON, aged 56y. Is this death one of yourn Ernie?
my grandfather came to the ROUND VALLEY area about 1895.think he was just trying to make an honest living,in gods country.
ReplyDeletethe kaubles are buried in the laytonville cemetery. we stopped there but we didn't see their graves. you can see the lake across the road through the trees. but in 1860 there was no such town as laytonville. cahto was the town in those days. laytonville wasn't a town until 1874. the people from cahto called it "lick skillet and spat out" cahto means swamp land in indian and that's what it was. the lake was named kauble lake for awhile and they call it cahto lake now. it was drained for farming and redammed. there are a bunch of houses around it today.
ReplyDeletecahto in 1880 was known throughout the county as the place to go for horse and chariot races. also horse breaking and steer riding. the indians at that time lived across rancheria creek at the base of cahto mountain. they moved to the laytonville rancheria in 1908.
laytonville was first placed in the little lake township but in 1882 it was separated and put in the long valley township. the kaubles arrived in 1852 which is when jackson farley arrived. the town of cahto was established in 1856. so the kaubles only lived there 22 years before they died.
OMR... That Kon Kow site is great! I now understand the Clarks were Concow as well as Wailaki descendants of Lucy Young. Two different Clark families. Thanks. Lieutenant Tassin wrote some pieces for the Overland Monthly that are quoted in the Amelia Sussman paper on Round Valley. I'd like to read the articles. Maybe HSU library. We're copying the Sussman now.
ReplyDeleteErnie.. The point of history is to know what really happened and to teach our children so that they can have a history as well. I have noticed that many young people have no interest in their family background these days. It disturbs me as I grew up with a mother who made sure I knew who my ancestors were and it is strange to me that kids would be uninterested. This community has not been willing to take a close look at the virtual elimination of native people that was seen as necessary for white settlement. My Indiana ancestors felt the same way and brought about a similar result. There are no Indians in southern Indiana despite the name of the state. The horror we feel when we look back on these events is a good thing. If we were not repelled, it would indicate we had learned little in the last 150 years. I always remember to pay attention to the fact that the research I do can easily descend into a sort of subconscious sense of the feeling of victory I felt as a kid when the soldiers wiped out the treacherous indians on TV. We depersonalize the victims in a sort of general "they got killed" answer to the real question of "what happened to the Indians?" When the story is personalized as in Lucy Young's story, we find ourselves truly moved and we feel the loss of an entire culture. You do all of us a great service with your willingness to talk about these events from the view of a descendant of the pioneer families. As you know, there has been a great deal of public silence for a long time.
thanks river for the research.
ReplyDeleteelizabeth catherine windom kauble.
john died in 1872 according to katie mayo. so just before xmas. that's always a sad time when you've lost a loved one.
the youngest son robert who was born in august of 1872 was adopted by an aunt named applegate. applegate is also the name of one of the leader of the civilians or soldiers who were trying to get the modocs to go back to the klamath indian reservation. it's been some time since i read about the applegates role in chasing the modocs. but the modocs were the ones out killing people that year. because he had done that kind of work in his role as sherrif. it's logical to think that he may have been one to volunteer. this is all just intuition on my part. but my intuition has been known to be right sometimes.
Spyrock... I noticed that this Laytonville and Laytonville Rancheriacemetery list doesn't show the exact dates of your kaubles passing.
ReplyDeletei pretty much feel the same way ben does about this stuff. but i asked my cousin sharon not long ago if she knew the name of the indians that lived at spyrock and she said "diggers" so for most of us, not much has changed.
ReplyDeleteaccording to the norcal indians i have met in my life, i'm related to quite a few indians. i look just like someone they know personally. that's their story which was a surprize to me. so after learning this history, i;m saying all my relations these days.
this all started for me in 2005 when i visited the covelo cemetery and parked right next to the samuel and charlotte simmerly monument next to the parking lot. i could feel things coming at me out of the trees and wind calling to me. they've been calling me ever since. right after that i had a reading with santina at her home high above lake tahoe. she hooked me up with my ancestors from way back.
so i know they want people to know this stuff and that's why its coming out. how we are connected. how we are related. how they experienced first contact with an indiginous people who had lived the same way for 1000's of years. stuff that has long been lost and forgotten.
how to live in and not destroy paradise. my mendocino grandparents knew how to live that way and my whole world changed when they died. so it's easy for me to see that what i dream of in the future has already happened in the past. when you've got all the bases covered, things manifest.
I believe the official name of "Cahto Lake" is "Ahmann Lake" as it belongs to Clare Ahmann.
ReplyDeleteMy grandparents owned property & a house (& even operated a grocery store for awhile), on property across Branscomb Rd. from the L'ville Cemetery. That's fairly recent history, though... my husband & I were married there in 1974.
Okay, Some more bullshistory about "Cahto Lake". Occording to the Old-Timers that I know, and knew, Cahto Lake was in the little valley at the top of the hill going toward the coast from Ben Mast mill. Also the town of Cahto, and Winchester flat, was located there, and May Winchester lived there with her loaded gun.
ReplyDeleteCahto lake was drained and never refilled. The lake was more of a vernal pond, and swampy area, than a lake. Similar to the one in Willits.
The lake next to the Cemetery was drained and refilled, it served as the mill pond for the Lakeside Lumber company for years The bar with the Moosehead on the front was located at the turnoff on the Branscomb road to the area that the locals called “Lakeside”. We called that road Lakeside Road. (I’m not sure what it is really called.) Just up that road and next to the Lake was “The Lakeside Lumber Company”. If you followed the road all the way around the lake, it came back onto the Branscomb road. In the 50’s, the dump was located North of the Branscomb road, across from the disastrous land fill of "The Laytonville dump disaster" that was located west of the reservation, and south of the Branscomb road. As far as the name of the lake we always just called it “The Lake”, because that was the only lake that we called “The Lake”. I know that probably doesn’t make sense to anybody not from Laytonville, but it make perfect sense to us , and we all knew what we were talking about when we called it “The Lake”.
On the Branscomb road across from the Laytonville Cemetery, in the area we all called “Lakeside” was a little store called “Sheppard’s”. Robin could probably tell you all about that place.
Robin, will you please correct my lies and misperceptions?
side question---i noticed a martini springs on the north edge of round valley... anyone know if that is a mineral springs?
ReplyDeleteI think you're right about Cahto Lake, Ernie, but I have heard Ahmann Lake called Cahto Lake, too. Maybe Penny can clarify this. But, as you said, everyone did (& does) just called it The Lake & the area around the lake was/is known as Around The Lake. I used to live Around The Lake on what you call Lakeside which is now named North Rd.
ReplyDeleteNorth Rd. runs from the Moosehead west past Lyons' place, around the corner to the fork, up the hill in front of Rowland's old place & on around past Ohler's old place on what we used to call The Dump Rd. & on out to Branscomb Rd.
Back at the fork near Rowland's old place, the road turns into Lakeside Dr. & continues around past Fortner's old place, past Minkler's old place, past Bowman's & Christy's old places & out to Branscomb Rd. across from the Rancheria.
If you take North Rd. around to Lakeview Dr. onto Branscomb Rd., you can circle back around to Moosehead/North Rd. & you have gone Around The Lake!
My paternal grandparents lived on a little piece of property across from the cemetery on Branscomb Rd. where my grandmother, Clara Shepard, operated a little grocery store called Shepard's Grocery while my grandpa Bill worked in the woods.
My parents & I lived Across The Lake from them on Lakeside in a duplex we owned next door to Ben & Gladys Christy. We later moved to the house my mom & dad built further Around The Lake on North Rd. next door to Les Shepard & across from the Braskets.
Back at Shepard's Grocery & the cemetery, if you follow Branscomb Rd. toward town, there is a road just past Reilly's & Ahmann's old places that runs west toward The Lake past Ashes' & Casey's old places & dead ends at the old mill yard. That road is called Lakeview which never made any sense to me because there is no view of The Lake from that road. I never knew the names of any of the roads until the green street signs went up in the late 1960s. Most of the signs & names were ignored until the "newcomers" outnumbered the "old timers".
This probably makes absolutely no sense to anyone but me & you, Ernie (& maybe Penny) but, hey, you asked for it!
LOL!
P.S. I think I already told you the story about my dad & Jimmy Nyhen roping the moose head off the door of The Moosehead Bar one Halloween night... but did I tell you about my dad riding his horse on The Lake the year it froze? Story goes that The Lake froze solid one unusually cold winter in the 1950s & my dad rode his horse across the ice that covered The Lake. That's it. Nothing harrowing. No close call... though I'm sure his parents weren't very happy to hear about it.
I knew all of those people and all of those places. Like you said we're just talking each other here, because the newcomers renamed everything.
ReplyDeleteThe last time that I saw Ben and Gladys Christy, was at that house that you described. I went out there with Roy Goforth (Millie Masts Brother) so that tells you how long ago it has been since I saw the Christies.
Yep! I always called him Uncle Ben & he used to give me huge blackberries over the back fence. I was also fascinated by the fact that he had a wooden leg! They were real nice people.
ReplyDeleteI listed all those names because I thought you would know most of them.
Minkler used to drive truck & he had a habit of honking his horn right in front of our house on his way to work every morning before daylight. My dad used to say he wished Minkler would just kiss his wife goodbye in the mornings instead of honking at her!
I also remember watching the county road crew pave those roads Around The Lake. And I used to hate to go to Branscomb because the road was so rough! Seemed like it took forever to get there!
according to katie, early in the thirties what was known as kauble lake was redammed by emil and omar ahmann and has been referred to as ahmann or cahto lake ever since. so the ahmann brothers recreated the lake which had been drained to use as farmland. katie also says that the kaubles settled near the cemetery. so i'm pretty sure that's the one. when i asked an indian at the casino if she knew where cahto lake was. she said she never heard of a cahto lake before. so if the cahto indians don't know, it seems reasonable that no one else would know either. it looked like a big pond to me. something i could put waterlilies and koi into.
ReplyDeleteEmil & Omar may have been father & son, Spy. Omar's widow, Clare, still lives on The Lake.
ReplyDeleteIt is sweet to hear you locals connect over shared memories and locales.
ReplyDeleteI am plodding through the Sonoma newspapers of that time and have seen two references to marriages in the early 1860's, one at the 'Cahto Rancho', and one at 'Cahto Ranch'.
Was that someone's ranch, or an early name of Cahto?
I have a couple of ideas of where this might be, OMR. Who got married? Names might help. Or, Penny might know immediately.
ReplyDeleteMarried at Cahto Ranch, Mendocino co., Aug. 1, 1860, R. WHITE to Laura A. SIMPSON.
ReplyDeleteMarried June 22d, 1864, at the Cahto Rancho, Mendocino Co., at the residence of the bride's parents, Isaac P. SMITH, Esq. of Ukiah, to Adelia U. SIMPSON
Robin, that's amazing that you would mention Ben Christie's wooden leg. I used to be fascinated with wooden legs when I was a kid. One fellow that came to our house had a wooden leg and he would show it to us kids. I remember that it was made out of something like Masonite. He would bang on it, and it would thump like wood. If he pulled his sock down, it had a couple of little holes in it, and you could see that it was hollow inside. Otherwise it was shaped just like a real leg.
ReplyDeleteMarried...Round Valley, May 11, 1873, Milo PATTON, to Sarah M.S. KAUBLE.
ReplyDeletenotice in a paper...any relative of yours spyrock...maybe she is related to the ukiah 1860 census kauble.
spyrock...this for you?
ReplyDelete"One day last week, Chris. Winsaint, who was supposed to be insane, was detected setting fire to a hay stack in Round Valley. He succeeded in burning one stack; and it is suspected it was he who set fire to SIMMERLEY'S barn. He was afterward found dead in the brush, where he had hidden." Aug. 26, 1875 issue Russian River Flag
I received the following from OMR, and I thought that I would put it up here for cousin Penny.
ReplyDeleteQuote OMR:
hi ernie, your obsessive compulsive bullshistorian is back...
i am a bit cross-eyed from all my newspaper scanning but here is some family names to sort through.... i had forgotten the taylors in your past when i was going through the fifties in the sonoma/russian river papers...
as there are no doubt a number of middletons and taylors, i don't know if these are kin:
At Little Lake, Jan. 7, 1872, T. C. GRIME to Silvia L. MIDDLETON.
died In Healdsburg, June 20, 1872, Wm. H. MIDDLETON, aged 56y.
Married in Petaluma, J.P. WALKER, Sebastopol to Mrs. Eveline MIDDLETON.
William MIDDLETON, of Vallejo, was kicked in the head, last Friday, by a colt and so seriously injured that his recovery is despaired for.
In Healdsburg, June 20, 1872, Wm. H. MIDDLETON, aged 56y.
7/7/64
Married in Petaluma, June 1, 1864, at the residence of John TAYLOR; Edward C. HENSHAW to Lou TAYLOR
7/21/64
July 21, 1864 edition:
On Tuesday morning last, Miss HALL, a young lady about 16y, residing with her parents in Petaluma, was severely, if not fatally, burned. We understand that she was cleaning a coal-oil lamp near the stove, when the fire was communicated in some way to the oil, causing an explosion and setting her clothes on fire. The poor girl, frightened almost to death, ran out in the yard and continued in a circle until Mr. John TAYLOR, who had two fences to climb and a vacant lot to cross, caught her and extinguished the flames by wrapping his coat around her. Mr. TAYLOR displayed rare presence of mind and probably saved the life of the young lady. She is yet in a very critical condition - her mother is also sick and her father away from home.
San Francisco, Oct. 28, 1872, Henry M. TAYLOR, of Healdsburg, to Annie F. GILMORE, S.F.
TAYLOR - HAGGART, in Round Valley, Mendocino co., Dec. 15, 1874 - Mr. Edward TAYLOR and Miss H.E. HAGGART.
for kym --
COLE, near Ukiah, Dec. 19th 1874, to Wm. M. COLE and wife, a son.
I am up to 1875 now. having fun, david
Yes OMR those names are all familiar. but I can't really connect them without some research on my own. Grime is also a family name. I knew Fred Grime, who I think was their son. But at this point it is mere conjecture.
ReplyDeleteOk, well don't feel like you have to explain them, just tossed em along to see if there was any new stuff for the family genealogist.
ReplyDeleteI also saved all the births, deaths, and marriages for long valley, cahto, jackson valley (l mention) which I could pass along if there is interest. There isn't much. Give her my address if she wants the newspaper mentions. Each of the citations for your family can be tracked back by going to that month and date in the newspaper archive page given above.
I went to the library and they had Genocide and Vendetta as a reference book. I read Bag of Bones as well. Thank you all for the advice and information.
ReplyDeleteDid you google Tom Hayden and norgard? The case notes are fascinating. I keep having to slap my fingers and stick to my own stuff.
ReplyDeleteOMR, I had missed that reference and we didn't know about that child. He must have died! Those abstracts are an amazing resource. I just spent another half an hour tracking down little pieces.
Wonderful stuff, Ernie!
spyrockperson...
ReplyDeleteThis may not be your Nye, as it sounds like it was someone nearer the cities...but it is a fun sales ad from the 1880's:
"Bill NYE advertises as follows: Owing to ill health I will sell at my residence in town 29, range 18 west, according to the government survey, one crushed raspberry colored cow, aged 6yrs. She is a good milkster and is not afraid of cars - or anything else. She is a cow of undaunted courage and gives milk frequently. To a man who does not fear death in any form, she would be a great boon. She is very much attached to home at present, by means of a trace-chain, but she will be sold to anyone who will agree to treat her right. She is 1/4 shorthorn and 3/4 hyena. Purchaser need not be indentified. I will also throw in a double-barrel shotgun, which goes with her. In May she generally goes away somewhere for a week or two and returns with a tall, red calf with long wobbly legs. Her name is Rose, and I would prefer to sell her to a non-resident."
Here is how the Sacramento Union described the case : "Wednesday, May 31, 1911
ReplyDeleteBOY WILL TELL OF BROTHER'S MURDER
Attorney in Hayden Case Tells of Lawlessness in Region Where Crime Committed
12 MURDERED IN 20 YEARS
Say This is First Time Any of Offenders in Cattle War Brought to Trial
WEAVERVILLE (Trinity Co.), May 30 - Tomorrow, Ceverra NORGARD, 13-year-old brother of Harris Norgard, who was killed by Thomas HAYDEN last December on Long Ridge, and the only eye-witness of the shooting will take the stand in behalf of the prosecution in the trial of Hayden for murder.
He is the second witness to be called in the case, having taken the stand a short time yesterday after the testimony of County Surveyor MONTGOMERY, who submitted as evidence, maps of the country where the crime took place. There are about 80 other witnesses in town most of whom will testify, it is declared, that Hayden and the Norgard boy were both crack rifle shots and had threatened each other.
In his opening statement to the jury yesterday, District Attorney GIVEN referred to the murder of Norgard as the last stand of the cattlemen who believed in the open mountain ranges, against the invasion of the men who fenced in ranges and farms. He declared that the Long Ridge and Round Valley regions of Trinity county offered retreat from the railroads and also from the law, and that within the last twenty years twelve men had been shot down while fencing stock pastures, none of which murders have resulted in prosecution, and in many instanced the assailant not being known.
District Attorney Robert DUNCAN of Mendocino county and Special Prosecution ROGRS of San Francisco are assisting District Attorney Given in the prosecution. D.J. HALL is chief counsel for the defense."
Kym and Omr
ReplyDeleteThank you soo much. You two find the best information. Im new at this and I completely appreciate your time in posting that. This weekend, I am spending lots of time in the library. Again, thank you sooooo much.
Small note that may give you all a chuckle.
ReplyDeleteOne of Tom's friends was there during the whole trial supporting Tom. He wrote a short letter during a trial to his wife stating what was happening and be sure that she feeds the pigs. lol lol Not I love you, not kiss the kids, not anything loving........just be sure the pigs are fed. Maybe that was a code for "i love you." lol lol
OMR... Bill Nye was a well known humor writer and justifiably so by this piece.
ReplyDeletebill was his spyrock name. his real name was lewis victor nye. plus he was british from brighton via south africa and he never really spoke very much. they had raised hereford cattle on their farm in england which was still about 800 acres when his cousins sold it in the 70s. his brother brought a hereford bull named domino from england and for a long time back in the 50s they had about 10 of those bulls on their irrigated pasture at their ranch in stinson beach. they used to weigh them and show them off to people who would come to visit or buy them. he tried to raise cattle at spyrock but left so my mom could go to highschool. so he bought a dairy but his cows got hoof and mouth twice, so archie invited him to take over the old stinson ranch.
ReplyDeletehe used to get water from the creeks and store it in tanks and he was one of the first people to irrigate pasture in marin county.
yes, there's bill nye the science guy too, no relation either way.
that was my great grandma laura's oldest sister who married milo patton. that part about their barn burning is great. really some prize info. john would have been 10 years old in 1875 but frederick, his older brother would have been about 18, samuel the dad, died 4 years later in 1879. joe simmerly, the oldest would have been 24 and been the head of the family after that. when joe died in 1895 is about when fred and john moved to spyrock. joe only lived 42 years. samuel was only 51 when he died. people didn't seem to live very long in covelo back then. the land takes its toll even later. howard simmerly died in his burning mobile home after the old house at spyrock had burned down. the family rumor was that his wife did it to get the land and sell it and spend the money which is exactly what she did. and none of the girls in the family got any of the land. so nobody in uncle guy's family likes each other very much nor do they see much of each other. grandma nye loved them all anyway and they wound up on a big ranch of their own anyway. but most of my cousins have tried to find out if they still had any rights to the land up there. mostly just to go hunting, not to live. i just wanted to do a soul retrieval at shell rock creek and go swim in the eel in front of spyrock the rock.
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome blog!!! Thank you everyone :0)
ReplyDeleteThe Grimes and Middleton families are our relatives, Ern. Mom and Karen just bought headstones (8-9)for some of them. Cicero Grimes is and Don Juan Grimes are some of the stones. They were unmarked graves at the Laytonville Cemetery near the little road just off the family site, facing the Middleton family graves.
The Cahto rancheria they are speaking of is now Cahto (Winchester Flat) Branscomb Road. The Smith - Simpsons written in this post were from Cahto; buried in Laytonville Cemetery. (they came to Cahto from Fort Bragg and began a town during the time of the reservation which was there long before Long Valley township (Laytonville). Photos are all in Vol. I of the Elder books.
My mother cleaned Smith and Simpsons large headstones last summer; they are now readable and gorgeous. If anyone has been to the cemetery in the last 3 years, Ern's aunt Roberta, my mother, was the person responsible for cleaning it up and scrubbing all of the stones, there. She is 85.
At Cahto (Winchester Flat) there was a large lake and it was drained.All of the local elders remember this. Information is written in Vol. I Elder book. (books will again be available the end of May)
Penny
Hey spyrock... i found a 1928 Mendocino census and there are a few Crabtrees listed there, Annie Fulwider Crabtree, Cecilia Crabtree, Tom Crabtree, and maybe? your Jean Crabtree's parents..Jim (James C) and five children. Just speculating.
ReplyDeletePenny- I am so eager to see vol. I!
Little error here. Don Juan was a Middleton not a Grimes 1850-1913. TC Grimes married Silvia L. Middleton, G Grandfather Lafayette Middleton's sister. Their parents were John Middleton 1822-1903 and Suzanna Shinn 1826-1901. Their parents: John C.Middleton and Nancy States (Staats). John 1795 - 1884 Nancy 1795 - ?
ReplyDeleteRegarding the lake at Cahto (Winchester Flat) I don't really know if they called it the Cahto Cabo or Kato lake, but it was a swamp land that covered a huge area. White and Simpson from Cahto drained it by using a plow to ditch it according to Kate Mayo who wrote, "In the Shadow of Cahto Mountain." It's out of print now, and Kate is passed away.
Lotsa' talk about Crabtrees with the Pinches oldtimers. I think you might check in Willits.I believe that I heard the name Crabtree in connection to some of the OLD school photos. I'll have to ask Elizabeth Ferguson. She has a fantastic memory.
Penny
This repository of Indian Wars documents mentions petitions from the citizens of Long Valley asking for protection from the Indians. Woodman is a frequent voice. There is a lot of politicking for extra men for Jarboe. At one point he says he requires 40 men to expand and protect Long Valley. Later, Woodman infers that Jarboe has driven the Indians north out of Eden and Round valley into Long Valley and thus they need protection. Frazier doesn't wait and leads some locals against the Indians. As has been mentioned elsewhere, his company officers send a request to relieve him of his command and then begged twice to retrieve the petition that they had sent in haste. The citizens of Round Valley sent a petition to relieve Jarboe due to incom-petence. The governor disbands his group with faint praise.
ReplyDeleteSecrest mentions that the partici-pants were scamming the government with inflated claims from losses with which to bill the government. The local Military Commander, Lt. Dillon sent numerous letters deflating the stories of white settler's losses in the Round Valley, revealing the real motivations are land grabbing and racial extinction. His repeated refusals to aid the Rangers and Indian haters of the area was a heroic stand. The Round Valley area was a bastion of Southern sympathizers, many from Missouri, as Mr. Kirby noted. One reference mentioned there were only four non-seccessionist families in Round Valley at one point in the 1850-60 (my memory is vague on the exact date). There is a report of the soldiers at Fort Wright(in Round Valley) taking measures to protect the armaments from a rumored seccessionist attack. Such a strong pro-slavery prescence was surely a factor in the ease of what happened with the harvesting of Indian slaves.
As you can see on the previous site, Jarboe was drafted to head up the rangers by the settlers of Eden Valley where Judge Hastings was the big boss.
Since a question about the Eel River Rangers started Ms. Haydon's enquiry, I thought I would pull more of the story together.
From my reading of the info on that site, it would seem that there was an increase in white/Indian encounters in Long Valley from Jarboe and others depradations further south, as the Indians fled north.
Anon
ReplyDeleteThank you. Some family member were telling me that the Haydon's were apart of the Eel River Rangers. I am not seeing that they were.
Penny, you say Cahto "rancheria" but I wonder if you meant "ranch"? I'm just clarifying because I associate "rancheria" with "reservation" & I want to be sure we're talking about the same thing here.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering how big the Simpson's Cahto Ranch was & if it took in any of the Clark or 101 Ranches & if it included what is now Bradley's place.
Thanks!
I found confirmation about the Ranch/Rancho/Rancheria issue that Penny answered. I found a reference in Killing for Land (pg 116) to a few surviving Indians being taken temporarily to the White/Simpson Rancho where there were friendly Indians to take care of them.
ReplyDeleteThe influence of Southern sympathizers in the state of California during the Civil War is highlighted here:
ReplyDelete"Californians always seemed to be in the thick of the fighting and suffered a high rate of casualties, This is all the more surprising because California was, in many ways, a border state. Southerners residing in California accounted for a substantial portion of the population. In 1860 California had a population of some 430,000. About 130,000 were voters. Of them 50,000 were Northern born, 30,000 Southern born, and another 50,000 were foreign born, mostly Irish, British, and German. Thus, Southerners, most of whom were Confederate sympathizers, exercise a good deal of influence in the state. Furthermore, California was not a Republican state in 1860, both the California State Senate and the State Assembly were decidedly Democrat. Moreover, the governor, John Downey, was a Democrat. The governor, though, was a staunch Union man and he was able to stop the pro-Southern Democrats from winning control of his party.
With the Democrats split, Lincoln was able to carry California in the November 1860 election, although he won only 3 of every 8 votes. Early in 1861, in response to Lincoln's victory, pro-Southern Democrats issued a call for the secession of California and the creation of an independent Pacific Republic that would include Oregon and Washington, and possibly Now Mexico and Utah. Pro-Union Democrats responded with a huge rally in San Francisco. Some 15,000 participated, a figure equal to the number of voters in the city."
Hey Robin.
ReplyDeleteI was calling the Indian (village or camp on Winchester Flat) the rancheria, but it wasn't a government run camp. Pg.10 Vol 1 Elder Book shows the photo. In the background is the Simpson Hotel (location, slightly behind May Winchester's house) During the time White/Simpson had their homes and hotel it was probably called a Rancho. Little twist in words there. I don't know if it was an abreviation for rancheria. According to the Poes and Ed Downing the Indians and residents of Cahto had a huge garden and the Indians and Whites traded goods which were occassionally hauled by wagon from Westport. pg. 17 shows closeup of Simpson Hotel, pgs 18-19show Cahto as a town. Remember that the road used to turn right by what was recently Sagehorn's place, closer to Bradley's. The old stage barn and part of their house are from the Cahto days. The road now goes by the Trout Farm; Ben Mast's old Mill site. Pg.8 shows Bill Ray (very important man to the Cahto Tribe)standing on a porch at the camp in Cahto.
Robin, did you just ask one question? LOL
Penny
I saw a Crabtree name in the Willits News today at the dentist's office. April 11th edition, I think. Sounds like family resides in Willits.
ReplyDeletePenny
I don't know the extent of the area of Cahto, but the actual town was in the flat. As a crow flies it's very near the Sizemore property, West.
ReplyDeleteStrong Mountain Road ran through the Clarke Ranch. That was the main road into Cahto, Branscomb, the coast. I visited there about 3 years ago and the road was pointed out to me at that time. Part of the fence/gate were pointed out to me by Norma Branson.
Penny
Thanks for the Vol 1 info Penny!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to getting that one. I started reading Pioneering in the Shadow of Cahto Mountain today. A very kind friend bought me a copy!
That should help me keep more of the story straight...so glad you are our authority.
I would guess that "rancho" is "ranch" due to the Spanish/Mexican influence in CA at the time.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info, Penny. Do you know if the county has any maps on file from that time? Now I've asked TWO questions! 0:=
I was just downloading maps before I checked here, so here is an 1885 Mendocino County Map.
ReplyDeleteThanks, omr! You're a neat guy!
ReplyDeleteRobin. I think you're right about the Spanish/Mexican influence. Same as Rancho Primero where the Rathjens, Ern's family lived and his mother was born. That property is north of Laytonville as you turn onto Huntsman Way.
ReplyDeleteThe county should have old maps of Cahto, because I believe they also have copies of the old deeds. In fact, John Bradley once told me he had some information on the layout of Cahto or something like that; I should call him. I was too busy at the time then forgot about it.
Penny
Belaborin' a point on a rainy day:
ReplyDeleteI think we are correct that there was a common usage of the word Rancho for ranch or homestead. I found reference to a different Rancho in the valley in 1872 as well. Given that two Simpsons were married on the Rancho, I would assume that was the name of the ranch proper and not the rancheria across the way. Rancheria was a common whiteman term for the Indian villages. Later, Rancherias became synonymous with reservations.
Trying to keep it all straight.
This Wonderful Pomo Ethnographic site mentions that the trail to the Mendecino Reservation went through the Cahto area:
ReplyDelete"The Nome Cult Indian Farm was established, also in 1856, in Round valley in the northern part of Mendocino county. This farm was at first maintained as, in a way, a sub-station of the Nome Lackee reservation, situated about sixty miles to the north-east, and about twenty miles west of Tehama. At the Nome Cult Farm were assembled, according to reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in addition to about three thousand Yuki of the vicinity, Indians from various parts of the Sacramento valley. While the establishment was maintained as a part of the Nome Lackee reservation, it would seem that some of the meat supply of the Mendocino reservation came from this farm, the live stock being driven out over a trail which led through the valley where Cahto now stands."
I think that I can trace that trail to the west, but could someone please inform me where the cattle/Indian trail between Round Valley was located?
pardon... between Round Valley and Cahto.
ReplyDeleteomr.
ReplyDeleteThe old fellas tell me that the Indians walked from Round Valley by way of the Dos Rios Road in Laytonville. They camped in Laytonville (Long Valley) on their way to the coast or to the rancheria at Cahto. Remember, about 30 plus small villages dotted this area at that time. All since grown over with brush. Many on Cahto Mountain and through Streeter Creek near the Hog Farm, and Woodman Canyon areas. Long Valley was a popular stop for travel connecting with the trail that later became Strong Mountain Road which was slightly southwest of Cahto. They could easily travel to Sherwood or the coast from there.
I believe that one of the trails for which they moved the cattle was a trail that came through Poonkinney, near Dos Rios on the river.(Longvale - Covelo Road wasn't in existance then) but the Poonkinney trail connected with the Dos Rios Road (the road that begins in Long Valley at the crossroad of Branscomb Road and 101) I remember Millie Mast telling me about the Indians at Poonkinney. Frank Sagehorn told me that his family drove both sheep and cattle over that trail when he was a young boy. I'm sure there were many other trails, but this is one for the record.
Penny
Thanks for the answer Penny!
ReplyDeleteWhen they set up the Indian Reservation on the Noyo in '56, there seem to have been substations along that route to the west of Cahto with employees at each. In '56, the Simpson and White were listed as employees of the Mendocino reservation.
When you say villages, do you mean groups of whites or Indians? Sorry.
Ms. Haydon, if you are still with us...there is a book called Thunder Up the Creek by Herk Shriner about the Bridge Gulch Massacre. It is a remarkable book from a small publisher, Ruin River Publishing, which I want to mention on this thread as it has a good account of the Hayfork and Weaverville areas in the mid-1800's. Found it at Northtown books in Arcata.
ReplyDeleteThere was a survivor of that massacre but she wasn't the kin you spoke of.
omr.
ReplyDeleteI say villages, but in reality probably just a few teepees here and there made of bark or slag. No Whites, just Indians from what I've been told, and I can't remember who told me about finding them. I think, Lee Wilson. When you get Vol. I it shows a great pix of the type teepee they lived near the Simpson Rancho.
Penny
I drove the Branscomb road over to the coast and back today for the first time. Such a beautiful area, whew...I can see why you locals and past locals have such a love for the area! I wish I had grown up around there.
ReplyDeleteWent to a bookstore and hit another rich vein of local/regional history books. There was a thin book on the history of the Mendecino Reservation that has a missing part of our picture...for future posts.
I wanted to get a quote from May Clarke Winchester out on the Ranch subject... "The Indians had what was commonly known as a rancheree...(discusses the Indians at Simpson and Whites, their dying off and leaving and the gov'g building them a reservation)....
We always called it a Rancheree over there. But they called it a reservation..." from Volume II of Mendocino County Remembered, An Oral History.
Calling Ms. Haydon back to the post!
ReplyDelete.... on page 98 of the MCR oral history volume 1 is Mabel Brown or Ben Haydon's daughter's recollections: "My father, Benjamin Haydon, came in a covered wagon across the plains from Missouri. He located in Hulls Valley. He has a rock named after him out there where he raised cattle south of the valley. Haydon Rock. And they spelled it right, for a wonder. There was an English breed of Haydons and he said that that was the only things he had to be ashamed of. He didn't like the Englishmen. He said they were too stubborn. He wanted to raise caliber horses and I guess he thought this was a good place".
There are a few pages of her memories, and a pic of Round Valley circa 1900 with a large harvester in use on the Ben Haydon Ranch pulled by over twenty horses.
If you want me to photocopy these pages for you, send Ernie your address and I will mail them to you. Do keep checking here as I will use this thread for updates o your family.
Omr,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for that information. I have read on Benjamin Haydon. His brother was my great grandfather, Tom. The Haydon clan came from Missouri threw Sacramento to Potter Valley where William Haydon is buried (tom and james' father). This rock was named after the whole Haydon clan from what I was told by older family members and not just one particular one.
Becky
Thank you for the information, btw. I appreciate it. Can I call them and get a copy of that???
ReplyDeleteThank you again,
Becky
**note** I forgot my name and password so I posted anon. Sorry
Glad to hear from you Ms. Haydon, if you want me to photocopy the few pages of the Brown/Haydon story and send them to you, send ernie your address or get mine from him and I will do that.
ReplyDeleteThe entire book, both volumes are the best historical reading I have read...so if you are a history buff you might want to buy them both.
Let us know if we can help further...
Becky, the name tht you used was "rhaydon", if you can remember your password you will have Bogger I.D. back.
ReplyDeleteIf either of you will give me permission I can put you in touch with one another. But, can you send me any postable photo's?
Yes, you do have my permission. Thank you so much for the info. Do you have the name of that only survivor in the Weaverville massacre???
ReplyDeleteBecky
I am glad you asked that because I found a more authoritative source which lists more survivors than the baby who grew up to be the unmarried local nanny Ellen Clifford. Pages 237-8 of Thunder Up the Creek tell us:
ReplyDelete"In the Old Settlers Papers, 1891, members of the posse wrote their remembrances of the event. Those accounts contradict each other as to the ages and number of survivors. I.G. Messec wrote that one girl survivor was 13 or 14 and the other 5 years old. Also, the 13year old married a miner named Woodward at age 16, but later died at New River. Darius Dirlan (Judge) wrote the scout heard the planning in the Indian camp at Bridge Gulch and that one girl survivor was 13 years old, another girl 11-15 months of age and surviving male, 9 years old. He also notes that the baby was given to Mrs. Ewing. R.B. Wells noted that 80 Indians were killed and that a 10 year old boy later named Bob survived and lived upriver from Douglas City. J. Bass, wounded in the breastbone, noted a 13 year old girl and 1 year old girl survived the attack, and were taken to Weaverville.
Isaac Cox noted that the 13 year old survivor was sold auction, but later died. Historian J.J. Jackson, in his writings of the massacre, noted that a known surviving baby was Ellen Clifford who died September 15, 1927.
There were at least four more survivors of the attack than noted in the book including Gracie McKibbons's uncle, another baby, a young girl name Kate, and a boy named Bob, referred to by Judge Theodore Jones, in his reminiscences. Generations of Kate's and Bob's separate families live today."
Hope that helps.
Calling Ms. Haydon back to the post.
ReplyDeleteIn Ray Schultz's 1980 "Valleys of Mendocino County" Summit Valley is named as the source of the Littlefield murder: "Summit Valley has a lot of history connected with it. One of the most bizarre murders in the history of Trinity County happened to be festered in Summit Valley at the home of Tom Hayden, according to the stories that are written about that murder and hanging. The writings that I have read do not fully prove that murder was plotted at the Tom Hayden house. Just supposition. It made good reading if you like that kind of reading, where they shot Jack Littlefield twice in the body and then after that, they hung him to a limb on a tree and shot him at the bottom of his ear with six-shooter. The hair and whiskers were powder-burned along with the rope around his neck. The old saying, deadmen don't tell any tales, was their motto.
It was neer told why this man Littlefield was killed. He was just an ordinary cowboy who rode for different cattlemen. He was supposed to have shot a man and was being taken to Weaverville by a constable of Trinity County when he was killed by these men. .....
The time of most of the cattle stealing and murders was in the 1880's or '90's. It was a time for the meek to keep out of that part of Mendocino County, according to what has geen written.
Hull Valley is also mentioned in this story. It seems the trail that was mentioned was down in Hulls Valley where the Hull Creek crossing was close to the plaace the men waited for the constable to come by with Littlefield"
Ooops. Sorry. That's Spyrock who was looking for Mrs. Crabtree.
ReplyDeleteSo, if Spyrock could email me with his addy, then Ernie delete these posts...
Thanks!
Mtngrrl
dear mountain girl...i am sending spyrock an email to give him a heads up in case he doesnt check here.
ReplyDeleteMountaingrrl,
ReplyDeleteI deleted your email address, but I put your comment back up here to preserve continuity, and so Spyrock might see that you are trying to contact him.
If Jean Crabtree has anything that would add to our collection of history, I would dearly love for her to post it here in a comment. If it is personal, she can contact Spyrock directly.
If Spyrock and Jean Crabtree will email me privately I will put them in touch with each other.
My email is: ernie@branscombcenter.com
Mountaingrrl said:
"Ernie,
Sorry for disappearing on you, but there's lot to do up here on the hill.
I just emailed Jean Crabtree and passed along links to your blog. I don't know if she'll try to get in touch, but have discovered that it's Very Difficult to email you off-blog.
If you could please send me your private email addy, I can forward it to her and make it easier for the two of you to get in touch, if she so chooses. She has some fascinating stories. My email is xxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxxx I'd appreciate it if you'd delete this post after emailing me as I don't much want my email addy out there floating about. *shrugs* Thanks"
i got the email for mountaingrrl and i see its already deleted. so i emailed her my email. but i posted my email on here a long time ago for anyone with spyrock history to share. i think i have jean crabtree's phone number somewhere. i got it from marvin pinchess or bud bownman. but i don't know where that paper is. it's in my family records, but i believe jean and i are related through the kaubels. thanks ernie and river for getting this email to me.
ReplyDeletewhen wylackie john died, joe gregory sort of took his place as the main hitman for george white. littlefield was quite a man and a legend in his own time for winning a horserace among other things. haydon was involved because that's where they ambushed them. genocide and vendetta has more about this. the really neat part was the trial in weaverville where the town people and the mountain people traveled all that way for the trial and in the middle of the trial there was a fire in the catholic church and both sides helped put it out. george white and his enemies, ves palmer and the mountain men of long ridge township fighting side by side to put out the fire. this must have been in last of the west as frank asbil said he was 15 boarding with my relatives, the pattons on their ranch near the extreme south end of hayfork valley. also, littlefield and gregory had been friends when they worked for george white, but when they wound up liking the same girl. littlefield beat gregory in a fist fight and gregory hated him after that intensly. white and gregory had accused ves palmer of stealing white's cattle 5 times and they said that littlefield stole white's white face mule. ves and littlefield weren't afraid of anyone and were a thorn in george white's side
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing more of the story to us, spyrock.
ReplyDeletePardon my not knowing, but I assume Tom Haydon was found not guilty?
I just found a post-1914 reference to Tom Haydon shooting a few Norgards as tol in a Valleys of Mendocino book published in 1976 by Ray Schultz.
If there is interest from Ms. Haydon I will post the story here.
My bad, Kym already told us T. Haydon died in 1913. The 1914reference is to Schultz knowing the Norgards after they moved to the Ukiah Valley in 1914, honoring their agreement to leave the Round Valley area.
ReplyDelete"Cervera Norgard had a wicked-looking scar on his left forearm, and I asked him about it. He told me it was from a 30-30 bullet, but never said anymore. It wasn't until I came to Round Valley and Judge Robert Redwine, one of the orchardists I was receiving pears from, told me how he got the scar.
He told me of the Norgard family and their boys. He told of one of the boys, Harris, who was a wizard with a lasso. Round Valley was a stock-raising area and a rope was man's main stand-by. Redwine said the boy used a fifty foot lasso, where most men could only handle a thirty foot and catch a steer on the end of it....Redwind said people got in in for those two boys because they were catching all the wild cattle in the area.
The US Government had brought in some cattle for the Indians on the reservation years before, and some of the cattle went wild. The Government paid a bounty on all the wild cattle that were brought in. Well, those two boys were cut-catching the grown men in the valley and they did not like it. Redwine said someone cut Tom Haydon's fence and blamed or made it look like Harris and Cervera had done it.
Well, in cow country you just don't cut a man's fence and get away with it. Tom told the boys that if he caught them on his place he would shoot them for cutting his fence. The people who knew old Tom knew that what he said is what he meant. So, someone cut Tom's fence again, and while Tome was mending his fence, Harris and Cervera came riding by. Old Tom kept his word. He shot Harris and Cervera got away with just a bullet through the left arm."
Another bullshistory account for our thread.
Hi all!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this. I have had internet problems and have been busy.
I have heard the same from family member about Tom Haydon killing that guy over fence line. Not too many stories about Tom except for that one (from family members) Our family reunions are at the end of July every year and no one seems to have a lot of info. Alot of the older generation has passed away. No one really wants to talk about it.
Spyrock-My grandfather, James, had a house and property in spyrock past the third gate. Not sure if you know where that is at. My gr uncle henry bought that property and then sold it to someone else. Would of loved to have kept that house in the family.
Becky Haydon
Welcome back Becky. Yes computer problems have been pandemic lately. It's worse than the swine flu!
ReplyDeletehi becky, mary ann (mollie simmerly married john haydon. she was born in 1866 in marysville so they probably got married in the 1880's. there's a picture of fred simmerly with ben haydon plus there are individual hunting poses of both of them. are these haydons related to you and how are they related to tom haydon the one living at summit valley. there is a picture of your great grandpa as a little boy, james haydon at the round valley school. all these pictures are in families of round valley. mollie died in willits in 1940. i've never got past the 1st gate. but when i used to go back in the 50's there was no one living back there but us. its just not the same. it hadn't even been logged yet. i already know who owns the property that howard and ben lived on. maybe when they have wine tastings back there, i'll buy a pass for $15.
ReplyDeleteactually, the killing of white homesteaders was going on right after they killed almost all the indians. fred simmerly married sarah catherine hagler in 1876. sarah was the daughter of elizabeth susan ferguson who had crossed the plains with her family in 1849 and married a hagler the family met near marysville before they came west to the anderson valley. her husband had a daughter from a previous marriage living in north carolina and she came out west with her uncle. she married a man named mcpherson who wound up being the constable in round valley around 1875 to 1879. both of these people wound up dead due to the intrigues of wylackie john, basically because mcpherson knew too much and he had to be gotten rid of. can anyone tell me this story. i've got sarah's step sisters ancestor still living in north carolina who found out an amazing story with various versions. sort of like the haydon stories, lots of versions, but will we ever know the truth of any of this.
ReplyDeletewhen john and laura simmerly were married they moved to a rented ranch up in the yolly bolly. while in town for xmas, a blizzard hit and the great snow storm of 1890 wiped out all their animals. that's when they moved to spyrock. i'd like to know where that rented ranch was. also, josie was married to kenneth lovell and then dan english. elizabeth married lucien willis and then harry lewis
and lottie married james duncan. so if anyone out there is related to these people, i would love to hear from you.
There was a clan of Haydon's that came over from Missouri. The stopped in Sacramento and then Potter Valley. That is where William Haydon died. William was the father to Ben, Tom, Harry, and a few others. I think Ted Haydon was a cousin. Not too sure. But to answer your question, yes, Ben is related to us. We don't talk to any of Tom's brothers relatives and/or children. Im not sure who John is. I do have a great uncle John but he was born in 1910 or so. Not sure who the other John Haydon is except that he may be one of Toms brothers.
ReplyDeleteBecky Haydon
**I have seen pics in the Round Valley families of my grandfather, James, in elementary school pic.***
thanks, becky
ReplyDeletei think you're right that john was one of ben haydon's sons. fred was 10 years older than mary or mollie simmerly. and ben looks older than fred in the picture. thanks for clearing that up for me. his full name was john david t. haydon. they were married in 1882. so john was born in 1862 or something close to that.
Im sorry I messed up there. I need clear something up, We do not talk to any of Ben's relatives or kids. Tom Haydon line is the only ones we talk to.
ReplyDeleteBecky
probably the john david t. haydon t stands for tom. i didn't know there were 10 simmerly kids either. i've met some of their decendants at a family reunion in montague, ca but nobody explained whose kid they were. i was just struck by all the resemblance and all the snow white hair and pale blue eyes. the thing is with the internet, is that you meet people who you are remotely related to. some of whom know nothing about their family history. so its nice to meet you cuz even though we are only indirectly related.
ReplyDeletehahaha!! Nice. you too.
ReplyDeleteBecky
As we have covered Tom Haydon's "ornery" side, I think it is only fair to add a quote about him from that Families pictorial
ReplyDeletebook. This is the voice of Judson Liftchild with his Memories of Round Valley section, pg 27:
(Mention is made of Tom being the last to be convicted( it is wrongly mentioned that he died in jail)
"No one would have suspectd Tom of being a bad man, as he was the jolliest, best natured man in all that county. He was a mighty hunter and scores of panthers and bears fell to his unerring rifle. No one was his equal at big game hunting with the exception of his brother Ben who lived in Covelo."
There are 19 different Haydons with page references in the back of that book.
My next ride into the hills, I want to check out Hull's Valley and Summit Valley.
My name is Toni Olson. I am the grandaughter of Frank O. Simmerley from Spyrock Birdie Simmerley was my grandmother. Although I am not well versed in Spyrock history, i have enjoyed reading Ernie's Place. I am also related to the Morgan family from Spyrock. Thanks for your fabulous site!
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have any informaion on yuki billy johns and Cicelia John who married frank logan? Clarence Johns , Cicelia and Billy's son who moved to Indiana .
ReplyDeleteTHESE ARE QUESTIONS FOR REBECCA HAYDON, MY FRIEND MICHAEL O'FERRAL IS THE GREAT GRANDSON OF TOM HAYDON, GRANDSON OF FRANK AND SON OF GRACE ELEANOR HAYDON O'FERRAL. HOW ARE YOU RELATED TO HIM? WHO IS YOUR GRANDFATHER AND FATHER? DID YOU KNOW THE CLEO O'FERRALL FAMILY? WHO IS MICHAEL O'FERRALL'S DAD.
ReplyDelete