Day: June 10, 2014

Yorkville The village of Yorkville is situated on a narrow ridge running down between First and Second Brushy Canons, about one mile and a half north-east of Yankee Jim’s. At this place there are both tunnel and hydraulic diggings, some of which are very rich and have yielded immense sums of gold. The place has an average voting population of about ninety. The diggings were first discovered in 1853, by Ben. Moss, Frank Emmens and Henry Ewer, who sunk a shaft from the surface to the bed-rock on top of the ridge just below where the village now stands. The … Read more

Gold was first discovered at Yankee Jim’s by Yankee Jim, a Sydneyite, who built a corral in 1849 upon the fiat or bench of land where the town afterwards was located, and now stands. The name, Yankee Jim’s, has often caused the town to be mistaken for the locality known to early pioneers as “Yankee Jim’s Dry Diggings,” which latter place is a gulch which heads at the Forest Shades Hotel and empties into the Middle Fork of the American River. A few logs of the old cabin in which Yankee Jim lived during the winter of ’49, may yet … Read more

Wisconsin Hill and Elizabethtown are situated on the southerly side of Indian Canon and about two miles from Iowa Hill. The two places are about three-fourths of a mile apart, and, were it not for a deep ravine which separates them, and the two different appellations which distinguish them, they might be considered as one village. Elizabethtown was settled by miners early in the fall of 1850, and took its name from the wife of one of the early settlers, who moved with his family to the place and opened a boarding house, his wife, Elizabeth, being the first white … Read more

A sketch of this enterprising mining town cannot be written in detail without re-stating many similar points described in the sketch of Gold Hill. Both towns being contemporaneous in time of discovery and settlement, a history of one is almost essentially a history of the other. The parallel goes still further; many of the earliest settlers prospected and worked in both towns at about the same time. Virginia was opened to mining in the year 1852, by the discovery of gold on the adjoining hills and ravines. The want of water during the dry season retarded the work of miners … Read more

Todd’s Valley was first settled by Dr. Todd, who built a log house for a store and hotel, on the site of his present residence, at his ranch in the lower suburbs of the town, in June, 1849. The location at that time was the most eligible one to be found north of the Middle Fork of the American, and was the proper distance from the river to catch all the travel from the old diggings in El Dorado county to the new placers at Stony Bar,- Horse-shoe Bar and Rester’s Bar. The doctor also built a corral near his … Read more

In our general statistics of the county, we purposely omitted giving any notice of this branch of the mechanical pursuits of the people of the county, as we intended to give the only tanyard in the county more than a passing notice. Observing that saw mills, water ditches, turnpike roads, toll bridges, quartz mills, etc., formed the main feature of the report of the County Assessor of this county, and no mention whatever was made of this important branch of industry, we think it worthy of more than a passing notice. The Iowa Hill Tanyard is situated upon Indian Canon, … Read more

Virginia Temple Of Honor, No.15 was organized in Gold Hill, on the 12th day of April 1855, by Ben. E. S. Ely, D. G. W. T., with 16 charter members. The present officers are: J. A. Bond – W. C. T. Wm. Hilton – W. V. T. H. W. Starr – W. R. H. Green – W. A. R. J. Morris – W. F. R. I. J. Underwood – W. T. L. E. Harris – W. W W. M. Witters – W. D. W. E. Ross – W. G. A. P. Hendon – W. S. Whole number of members 24. … Read more

The village of Rattlesnake is situated on a beautiful flat, on the North Fork of the American River, about seven miles below Auburn. It is located near Manhattan, Horseshoe and Rattlesnake Bars. The mines in the channel, banks and bars of the river were worked in 1849, and were exceedingly rich; and large numbers of miners flocked to that portion of the river to work during the summer and fall seasons, but left again as soon as the winter rains set in, and no permanent settlements were made until after the discovery of the rich diggings in the flat on … Read more

May 26th, 1851 County Judge.– Hugh Fitz Simmons, 1261; James S. Christy, 722; H. Davenport, 763 District Attorney.–R. D. Hopkins, 1474; W. B: Greer, 889; P. J. Hopper, 292. County Clerk.–Wm. M. Jordan, 395; James S. Stewart, 1118; Hiram R. Hawkins, 961; John McNally, 219. Sheriff-Sam’1 C. Astin, 1280; A. B. Hall, 1059; Win. Kenniston, 453. County Surveyor.–Sam’l B. Wyman, 1624; Lisbon Applegate, 129. County Assessor.–Wm. E. Miller, 587; Alfred Lewis, 1073; E. T. Menhall, 139. County Treasurer.–Douglas Bingham, (died in 1851, and Abram Bronk appointed to fill vacancy,) 1151; Hiram Jacobs, 679; Abram Bronk, 818. County Coroner.–John C. Montgomery, … Read more

The first settlements in Placer County were made at an early period of the golden era, and many places became famous for the rich gold deposits discovered in their vicinity. In the summer of 1848, the principal tributaries of the American River were explored by a company of Oregonians, and rich prospects obtained upon almost every bar, as far up the Middle and North Forks as they proceeded. At this time the bars were generally explored as high up the Middle Fork as Rector’s Bar, which, proving as rich as any diggings the explorers expected to find, and it being … Read more