Period of new spain

    ¹²Ibid. A19, April 13, 1858.

    ¹³Los Angeles Star Weekly, May 22, 1858.

    ¹⁴Possessory Claim Book: A21, June 17, 1858.

    ¹⁵Los Angeles Star Weekly, March 20, 1858.

    ¹⁶Ibid. February 13, 1858.

    ¹⁷Ibid. May 22nd.

    ¹⁸Ibid. January 23rd, 1858.

    ¹⁹Harold O. Weight, "We Found a Mighty River," Westways, Vol. 57, No. 10, October, 1965. Los Angeles Star Weekly, January 16, 1858; September 12, 1858.

    ²⁰Ibid. January 16, 1858.

    ²¹Ibid. There is something about strong young men getting wives, "now that the Elders are out of the picture." Maybe it was precaution; maybe it was for added strength; maybe it was Time.

    ²²F. M. Lyman Biography, p. 39, says Col. Kane went through with his train February 1 - March, 1858.

    ²³Quotes from the Deseret Magazine, in Los Angeles Star Weekly, May 1st, June 20th.

    ²⁴Who, in September, 1857, filed Possessory Claim on the SW 1/4 of the s 1/2 of the NW 1/4 of Section 25, T2S, R1W (Highland Springs), A1.

    ²⁵Los Angeles Star Weekly, July 17th (Dr. Wozencraft has treated two for arrow wounds).

    ²⁶Ibid. September 19th.

    ²⁷Los Angeles Star Weekly, September 19, 1858.

    ²⁸Ibid. July 17th (two men got slit throats).

    ²⁹Burr Belden, History in the Making, San Bernardino Sun, November 25, 1961; December 16, 1951.

    ³⁰Los Angeles Star Weekly, October 9th, 1858.

    ³¹Deed B254, December 8, 1857 (A89 was the original deed, granted by Micheltoreno April 29, 1843; twice since, parts have sold for pennies).

    ³²Deed D128, November 9, 1858 @ $3,300.

    ³³Los Angeles Star Weekly, November 16, 1858.

    ³⁴Alta Californian, January 6, 1859, quoting from the Salt Lake Valley Sun of December 17, 1858.

    ³⁵Alta Californian, January 6, 1859.

    ³⁶Ibid. April 18, 1859.

    ³⁷Deed D244 @ $4,400.

    ³⁸Mortgage B48; Mortgage B65.

    ³⁹Agreement A20, July 26, 1859.

    ⁴⁰Los Angeles Star Weekly, August 13, 1859.

    ⁴¹Mortgage B101, June 30, 1859.

    ⁴²Huldah James Mecham, herself (the first of three mountain births).

    ⁴³Memoirs of Sidney P. Waite, mail carrier (later San Bernardino County Clerk); Excerpts in Big Bear Panorama, 1934 booklet published by Big Bear High School, edited by Bea Peddar, pp. 28-30. Quotes are from Boyd and Brown, History, pp. 284-285.

    ⁴⁴Wm. Elliott, History of San Bernardino County, 1883, p. 142.

    ⁴⁵Newmark, My Sixty Years, p. 247.

    ⁴⁶Alta Californian, April - May, 1859; see also note 19.

    ⁴⁷October 22nd. A sixteen-day trip, it was said, at one-third the cost of steamer service.

PART 2, CHAPTER 4

"PROSPECTING DAYS"

    Sidney Waite Memoirs, Big Bear Panorama, p. 28.

    ²Per a Holcomb daughter. February 20, 1860.

    ³From Gold, Sliver, and History, master thesis of Laurance A. Jacobs, UCLA 1962, deposited with the Bear Valley Ranger Station. His source is the Los Angeles Star Weekly, January 7, 1860.

    ⁴Los Angeles Star Weekly, January 7, 1860.

    ⁵Ibid. April 14, 1860.

    ⁶Miscellaneous Records A______, April 30, 1860.

    ⁷The story is that told by Wm. Francis Holcomb, himself, in a "Journal of Holcomb Valley" (compiled in 1888). Quoted often by centennial newspapers (San Bernardino Sun, October 1948) and by Big Bear Panorama, p. 26. In 1930 a novel of the flag incident was dramatized by the community as "Nevertheless, Old Glory," San Bernardino Sun, July 4, 1930.

    ⁸W. F. Holcomb, "Journal of Holcomb Valley," p. 13.

    ⁹Los Angeles Star Weekly, June 30, 1860.

    ¹⁰Ibid. July 7, 1860.

    ¹¹Ibid. August 29th.

    ¹²Possessory Claims A29, July 18, 1860.

    ¹³Semi-Weekly Southern News, July 6, 1860.

    ¹⁴"Cerf" is the width of wood taken out by the saw.

    ¹⁵Huldah James Mecham Memoirs.

    ¹⁶J. J. Willis' bookkeeping shows every tobacco purchase or other advance against their wages. Jonathan James Mill Ledgers.

    ¹⁷Board of Supervisors' Minutes, August 6, 1860 - A82.

    ¹⁸Los Angeles Star Weekly, August 29, 1860. (He invested in Dr. Wozencraft's Greenlead Mine.)

    ¹⁹Perhaps Silas Cox's burro-stops here have left a name. No early possessory claim or patent or lease has been found for this grassy, spring-fed meadow.

    ²⁰As seen by a later Brown-Tucker-Willis agreement, A24.

    ²¹This dramatic account (p. 96 in a book of local history researched by Victor Valley College) gives form to a story current in many pioneer memoirs: Mohave (1966).

    ²²Los Angeles Star Weekly, September 1, 1860. (William Caley's Journal (Belden, 1951) reported 300 men voting.)

    ²³Supervisors' Minutes, October 20, 1860, p. 94; November 12, 1860, p. 109.

    ²⁴Holcomb Journal.

    ²⁵Ibid.

    ²⁶Possessory Claim Book A, pages 30-34, November 17, 1860. Per a San Bernardino Guardian of March, 1867: ". . . argentiferous galena and lead which they know of no way to profitably extract."

    ²⁷Los Angeles Star Weekly, April 20, 1861, said to be "on the eastern slope bordering on the desert." (Probably near the Permanente Plant in a spot still called Cushenbury Grade.)

    ²⁸Agreement Book A24, January 4, 1861; Brown agrees to furnish $231 for each of his partners and take it from the first tolls.

    ²⁹Possessory Book A31-32.

    ³⁰Miscellaneous Records (as all the first mining records were), A37.

    ³¹Hayes, Pioneer Notes, p. 212, January 9, 1861. (Word of the Secession had, I believe, been received December 29th, 1860.)

    ³²Los Angeles Star Weekly, January 21, 1861.

    ³³Ibid. Ogier Mine has persisted a century. By a 1953 Division of Mines Report it was located in Section 30, T3N, Range 1 East, on John Bull Flat, and noted as having the "most extensive lode work of the area."

    ³⁴Miscellaneous Records, A35, A36, A46, S. S. Smith. A37, A44², A45, A45², March 9, 1861 through April.

    ³⁵Miscellaneous Records A37, May 20, 1861. (30 years later this will be the area of Rose Mine and Morongo King.)

    ³⁶Agreement A22, August 26, 1861.

    ³⁷Miscellaneous Records A34, March 16, 1861, as Holcomb Creek could rightfully be called. Its headwaters would be below the old Hitchcock Ranch headquarters.

    ³⁸Water Records A40, April 1861.

    ³⁹W. D. Frazee, Climate and Resource of San Bernardino County, p. 79.

    ⁴⁰Los Angeles Star Weekly, April 13, 1861.

    ⁴¹Los Angeles Star Weekly, April 13, 1861. Advertisement

JOEL SCRANTON

Holcomb Valley

EXPRESS
    ⁴²Ibid.

    ⁴³" . . . worst between Burnt Valley and Holcomb," they said.

    ⁴⁴The Harold Goldbrandsens of Victorville researched the route in connection with Victor Valley's historical publication.

    ⁴⁵Los Angeles Star Weekly, from a correspondent signing himself as Selma.

    ⁴⁶Sidney Waite Memoirs.

    ⁴⁷Los Angeles Star Weekly, June 3, 1861. In a Civis letter from Holcomb Valley.

    ⁴⁸Austin Drake, Big Bear Valley History, Legends, and Tales (Grizzly Press, 1949 Centennial Edition, Big Bear Lake), p. 64, has a charming tale about a stage-load of "dance-hall girls" who danced under the stars at the foot of Snubbing Post Grade during a breakdown. (His source I have not seen.)

    ⁴⁹Sidney Waite Memoirs.

    ⁵⁰Los Angeles Star Weekly, June 3, 1861. Selma letter.

    ⁵¹Ibid. April 20, 1861.

    ⁵²Ibid. June 1st.

    ⁵³Sold by Lewis Marjoni to James C. Udell in Agreement A33, November 4, 1861.

    ⁵⁴Drake, Bear Valley History, p. 76. They may have named it for the popular Round House, made over into an Octagon House, which Harris Newmark describes as Los Angeles' favorite beer garden of the era (My Sixty Years, p. 192, p. 476). This may have been Sylvester's building next to Mellus Mill.

    ⁵⁵Holcomb Valley owners listed on the 1862 Assessor's Roll.

    ⁵⁶Ibid.

    ⁵⁷Ibid.

    ⁵⁸Agreement A32, November 12, 1861 (near Julian Co. in Lower Holcomb).

    ⁵⁹Los Angeles Star Weekly, June 27, 1861, Holcomb Valley correspondent, J. A. Talbot, later Unionist editor of the Star.

    ⁶⁰Editor Sherman's letter is quoted in Major Carleton's classified report on San Bernardino to the War Department. Rebellion Records, pp. 552-553.

    ⁶¹Los Angeles Star Weekly, June 27th, Talbot letter.

    ⁶²Ibid.

    ⁶³Ibid. July 23rd, Selma letter.

    ⁶⁴Hayes, Pioneer Notes, p. 257. Entries for July 6th, August 8th.

    ⁶⁵Duly sent to Secretary of State Seward. Rebellion Records, p. 629.

    ⁶⁶Arrival June 24th; program, Sept. 11th Los Angeles Star Weekly; also Rebellion Records, p. 567.

    ⁶⁷Maybe also from the San Gabriel Mines. Men are there from "the upper country." Los Angeles Star Weekly, March 4, 1861; Rebellion Records I, p. 43.

    ⁶⁸Showalter had fought a too-successful duel with San Bernardino's Assemblyman Piercy on May 25, 1861.

    ⁶⁹The only Visalia man mentioned was a Dr. Snell who came to assay in Holcomb Valley. Women and children hiding in the half-finished Catholic Church should date Showalter's passage west of town. Mrs. E. P. R. Crafts, Pioneer Days.

    ⁷⁰Los Angeles Star Weekly, July 19th; Civis letter.

    ⁷¹Not far east of the grove of Holcomb Campground, facing Caribou Creek, is a junkyard of rusting machinery. It could date from 1861, or as late as 1925.

    ⁷²Los Angeles Star Weekly, August 17th. (No possessory claim shows until 1867.)

    ⁷³See map of Patent A132 in Book A, August 27, 1872, and on the Olio, etc. Also maps in Surveyor's office for 1876.

    ⁷⁴Los Angeles Star Weekly, September 1, 1861. God and Union correspondent, Holcomb.

    ⁷⁵Semi-Weekly Southern News, September 13th.

    ⁷⁶Los Angeles Star, September 7th.

    ⁷⁷Alta Californian, September 9, 1861. The societies would have been "Knights of the Golden Circle."

    ⁷⁸Ibid.

    ⁷⁹Los Angeles Star Weekly, September 14, 1861. Selma letter.

    ⁸⁰Ibid. God and Union letter, . . . of young Rowland searching for stock.

    ⁸¹Ibid. Editorial comment on "a Johnson who ordered $15 worth of clothing, the receipt for same, and $5 cash . . . at gunpoint."

    ⁸²Los Angeles Star Weekly, September 14, 1861. Selma letter.

    ⁸³Hayes, Pioneer Notes, p. 257.

    ⁸⁴Rebellion Records, pp. 597-615, August 31st - September 5th.

    ⁸⁵ Los Angeles Star Weekly, September 11, 1861, Correspondent Selma.

    ⁸⁶Misc. Records, A48 (Udell to Thomas Bisset), September 6, 1861 @ $1,000 (payable at $40 a week).

    ⁸⁷McCoy, @ $211 (A49) and $500 (A51) respectively.

    ⁸⁸Los Angeles Star Weekly, September 14, 1861.

    ⁸⁹Los Angeles Star Weekly, September 14, 1861. Van Leuven, Waters, Rowland, Wilson, Wolfskill and Stearns lost horses.

    ⁹⁰Hayes, Pioneer Notes, p. 259 (September 22, 1861); Belden, History in the Making, San Bernardino Sun-Telegram, June 6, 1952. Showalter escaped after five months and made his way to the Confederate lines.

    ⁹¹Los Angeles Star Weekly, September 16th. Letter from San Bernardino.

    ⁹²Ten Salt Lake men who kept stolen horses in a mountain valley were sent to San Quentin. (Los Angeles Star Weekly, November 9, 1861.)

    ⁹³Los Angeles Star Weekly, October 9, 1861. Civis letter.

    ⁹⁴Ibid. October 5th.

    ⁹⁵Ibid. October 19th.

    ⁹⁶Ibid. December 21, 1861.

    ⁹⁷F. M. Edgar, Possessory Claim Book A35, April 23, 1861.

    ⁹⁸Note: A projection from Huldah James Mecham's memoirs, from this year when Sam was fifteen.

PART 2, CHAPTER 5

"IGNORING THE WAR"

    ²Hayes, Pioneer Notes, p. 265. He did almost strip himself of cattle and hay, which he sold to the Union troops to get enough money to restore the Turnpike. See above, pp. 260-261.

    ³Los Angeles Star Weekly, January 22, 1862; Hayes interviews, February.

    ⁴Hayes, Pioneer Notes, pp. 270-271: February 6th talk with the Trujillos in their open-air ramuda.

    ⁵Huldah James Mecham Memoirs. For the interest of feminine readers, doctors, devotees of the "good olde days," she was never "right." She was killed at sixteen in a buggy wreck.

    ⁶Huldah James Mecham Memoirs.

    ⁷Los Angeles Star Weekly, February 6, 1862. Letter of Acting-Coroner A. J. Beard.

    ⁸Mortgage Book B146.

    ⁹Ibid. The Tibbetts Mortgage and the Pierson Mortgage were listed together, both here and on exemption for taxes.

    ¹⁰Per 1857 original Survey Map of Township 2 North, Range 4 West, shown at the end of the Mormon Lumbering section.

    ¹¹Assessor's Yearbooks, 1862, p. 3.

    ¹²Ibid. p. 3.

    ¹³Written by W. B. Coombs from pioneer and family remembrances, 1937.

    ¹⁴Assessor's Yearbooks, 1862, 1863, 1864.

    ¹⁵Ibid.

    ¹⁶Ibid.

    ¹⁷The Strongs were on the wagon train which Frank Talmadge joined en route to California. Mr. Strong was, even then, an invalid.

    ¹⁸Eugene Caley article in January 13, 1939, San Bernardino Daily Sun.

    ¹⁹Told in a WPA Writers' Project, The Old West, Pioneer Tales of San Bernardino County, Native Sons (Sun Company, San Bernardino, 1940), p. 49. Susan Strong (Caley), who would have been 12 and whose tales I use, reversed the fates of the two bears as given by the Native Sons. Cf. 18.

    ²⁰Los Angeles Star Weekly, March 1, 1862.

    ²¹Ibid. April 5th, "buying $2,000 - $3,000 a month;" May 22nd, "a $12,000 shipment, the largest yet."

    ²²Also Newmark, My Sixty Years, p. 313.

    ²³Los Angeles Star Weekly, February 8th-15th, etc.

    ²⁴Ibid. April 19th.

    ²⁵Miscellaneous Records, A58.

    ²⁶A Star correspondent of September, 1861, had said, "a $20,000 investment."

    ²⁷See advertisements of Sheriff's Sale, Los Angeles Star Weekly.

    ²⁸Kelley, Wozencraft, Henderson, Sylvester, Bellamy, Wm. Osborn, Lewis Marjoni, Tom Valencia, James Davis, John B. Cook, George Hamilton, Sydney Waite, . . . doubtless, others.

    ²⁹Judge Ogier's death took place in Holcomb Valley, May 1861, per Newmark, My Sixty Years, p. 54.

    ³⁰Judge W. D. Frazee, Climate and Resources of San Bernardino County, pp. 56-57. An 1881 Editor, boosting Valley Gold Co. possibilities, quotes Wells-Fargo as authority.

    ³¹Los Angeles Star Weekly, September 20, 1862.

    ³²Miscellaneous Records, A60, A61, A64.

    ³³Ibid. A75, November 1, 1862.

    ³⁴The division of the Salt Lake Trail from the Government Road.

    ³⁵Los Angeles Star Weekly, April 19, 1862, February 13, 1864.

    ³⁶Ibid. July 26, 1862.

    ³⁷The new editor was the same J. A. Talbott who had corresponded from Holcomb Valley.

    ³⁸Forecast in the Los Angeles Star Weekly, November 8, 1862. (Not really carried out until January 2, 1863.)

    ³⁹Los Angeles Star Weekly, January 3, 1863.

    ⁴⁰Ibid. February 21st.

    ⁴¹Ibid. August 19th.

    ⁴²Ibid. May 12th, Civis letter from San Bernardino.

    ⁴³Ibid. March 1, 1863.

    ⁴⁴Los Angeles Star Weekly of that date. Both Mrs. Sanford and her daughter, Mrs. Banning, were aboard.

    ⁴⁵Miscellaneous Records, A75; April, 1863, to James Walsh & Co.

    ⁴⁶The name on the Assessor's Rolls.

    ⁴⁷According to the San Bernardino Guardian, March 9, 1867, he installed a 35 hp engine, a centrifugal crusher, and shaking tables.

    ⁴⁸Miscellaneous Records, A67, May 8, 1863. There must have been some copper ore involved if he named it, as he said, for a "green stain."

    ⁴⁹See Deed F296, November 3, 1863.

    ⁵⁰Miscellaneous Records, A92, October 13, 1863.

    ⁵¹Ibid. A73, September 24, 1863; Prieta was from Agua Mansa; once Caballeria spoke of him as a poet.

    ⁵²Assessor's Rolls 1863-64. Taxes $366.

    ⁵⁴Deed A66, April 10, 1863. One of his working associates was Juan Flores. One wonders if this might have led to the later ranch name. Governor Pico had made the name fashionable.

    ⁵⁵Beattie, Heritage of the Valley, pp. 92-94, whether one league or seven leagues.

    ⁵⁶Evidence of his work and cattle are seen on 1864 tax rolls.

    ⁵⁷Possessory Claims A46, A47, A49, February 14, 1863.

    ⁵⁸1863 Tax Rolls.

    ⁵⁹James Mill Account Ledgers, kept by J. J. Willis.

    ⁶⁰1863 Tax Rolls, April.

    ⁶¹George Momyer interview with George Miller, San Bernardino County Museum Association Quarterly, Winter, 1962.

    ⁶²Los Angeles Star Weekly, July 11th, 1863.

    ⁶³Ibid. October 3, 1863.

    ⁶⁴Ibid. October 31, 1863.

    ⁶⁵Miscellaneous Records, A87: "1-1/4 miles northwest of Holcomb Valley" - forerunner of the "Alpine District" and Arctic Canyon.

    ⁶⁶Assessor's Rolls, 1864. A66 was Lawler's Possessory Claim. Hamilton may have been the original owner of Hamilton Hotel in Lower Holcomb.

    ⁶⁷Miscellaneous Records A91.

    ⁶⁸Deed F221.

    ⁶⁹Possessory Claims A65, June 17, 1864 (Cox Rancha).

    ⁷⁰Miscellaneous Records A97, May 27, 1864.

    ⁷¹Tri-Weekly News, February 10, 1864.

    ⁷²Ibid. April 18th, April 29th.

    ⁷³Los Angeles Star Weekly, February 6, 1864.

    ⁷⁴Ibid. September 3, 1864.

    ⁷⁵Ibid. February 13, 1864.

    ⁷⁶Ibid. June 11th. "70-80 head of beef are on the road to Hardyville."

    ⁷⁷1864 Assessor's Rolls.

    ⁷⁸Miscellaneous Records A106, October 13, 1864.

    ⁷⁹Los Angeles Star Weekly, July 2, 1864; apparently Abbott, the original locator, objected to the man his partner sold out to.

    ⁸⁰Miscellaneous Records A105.

    ⁸¹Los Angeles Star Weekly, April 2, 1864.

    ⁸²Newmark, My Sixty Years, p. 329.

    ⁸³According to the 1864 Tax Rolls: on "ranch and carpentry tools, and $160 improvements on the Agua Caliente."

    ⁸⁴Momyer interview with George Miller, p. 77, San Bernardino County Museum Association Quarterly, Winter, 1962.

    ⁸⁶Assessor's Rolls, 1864-65 Fiscal Year, p. 147.

    ⁸⁷Miscellaneous Records A112: Debts $559, $200, $300, which is not, of course, its whole value, either to Mellus or to his assignees. Thus the mill ownership was fragmented.

    ⁸⁸The San Bernardino Guardian, March 9, 1867, giving Green Lead history, said: "a Ryerson amalgamator," and there was a Mr. Ryerson in the company.

    ⁸⁹In March, 1865, there would be a $1,000 steam quartz-mill listed on the Assessor's rolls.

    ⁹⁰Los Angeles Tri-Weekly News, October 1, 1864.

    ⁹¹Ibid. December 10, 1864.

    ⁹²Bruce Catton, This Hallowed Ground, New York, 1956.

    ⁹³Tri-Weekly News, November 12, 1864. San Bernardino County: Lincoln 231, McClellan ___.

    ⁹⁴Tri-Weekly News of December 10, 1864, had said it would be ready January 1st, and hauling would be $30 a ton cheaper.

    ⁹⁵Tri-Weekly News, February 7, 1865; Superintendent Nichols' account.

    ⁹⁶Assessor's Rolls 1864-65.

    ⁹⁷Ibid.

    ⁹⁸Ibid.

PART 2, CHAPTER 6

"QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT"

    ²Perhaps that Dark Canyon one spoken of by George Miller as where he cut off his finger. San Bernardino County Museum Association Quarterly, Winter, 1962.

    ³Possessory Claim A79; May 26, 1865. He also stated, which must have been a compass error, that he was "6 1/2 miles nearly North from Huston's new mill," later proved on Section 19, T2N, R3W.

    ⁴Between Masonic Hall and the Twin Peaks Church.

    ⁵Miscellaneous Records A119.