goldfields

The water tower — isn’t she a beauty!

Today I was lucky enough to get a tour of the M & T Ranch to the west of Chico. The tour was arranged by April Morehead Pryor for her OLLI Butte County history class. The tour was led by Les Heringer, the ranch manager. He gave us quite a lot of information, both historical and current.

M & T Ranch comprises 8500 acres bounded on the north by Big Chico Creek and on the west by the Sacramento River. It is part of the original Farwell Grant of 22,000 acres, or five Spanish square leagues. That ranch was granted to Edward Farwell in 1844, but he was not to enjoy it long. In 1845 he sold the northern half (on which the M & T sits) to the Williams brothers, James and John, and going back east for an eye operation, there died. John Bidwell administered his estate and sold the southern half of the ranch to John Potter.

The handsome water tower which you see above was built by David Reavis sometime in the 1860s after he acquired the ranch. Although no longer used to store water, it is carefully maintained by Les and his crew.

Reavis grew wheat and bred horses. From the top of the tower he could watch his horses being exercised. and get a bird’s-eye view of races at the ranch’s nearby racetrack.

In his diary, John Bidwell records in December 3, 1872, that “D.M. Reavis paid me $25 towards recording Farwell patent.”

Reavis went bankrupt in 1878 and the ranch was sold. I am not sure who acquired it at that time, but sometime around 1900 it was bought by James D. Phelan, the mayor of San Francisco, who had it until his death in 1930. It was bought by partners from San Francisco — M and T — whose names I can’t remember. Their name has remained on the ranch, although it is now owned by PacTrust of Portland, Oregon.

Along the Sacramento River

The 8500-acre M & T Ranch has some 6000 acres in production. More than half of the acreage in is walnuts, and it seems as if there are walnut trees as far as the eye can see. They also grow almonds, prunes, and a little rice. A large portion of the land along the Sacramento River is a riparian reserve.

If anyone knows more about the history of that beautiful water tower, please feel free to contribute a comment.

The following unattributed poem appeared in the Butte Record on November 12, 1853.

I WOULD NOT DIE AT ALL

I would not die in Springtime,
When worms begin to crawl;
When cabbage plants are shooting up,
And frogs begin to squall;
‘Tis then the girls are full of charms,
And smile upon the men;
When lamb and peas are in their prime.
I would not perish then.

I would not die in Summer,
When trees are filled with fruit –
And every sportsman has a gun,
The little birds to shoot.
The girls then wear the Bloomer dress,
And half distract the men;
It is the time to swear it out –
I would not perish then.

I would not die in autumn,
When new-mown hay smells sweet,
And little pigs are rooting round
For something nice to eat.

The Bloomer Costume, by Nathaniel Currier

‘Tis then the huntsman’s wild halloo
Is heard along the glen,
And oysters ‘gin to fatten up –
I would not perish then.

I would not die in winter –
For one might freeze to death
When blustering Boreas sweeps around,
And takes away one’s breath;
When sleigh-bells jingle, horses snort,
And buckwheat cakes are tall;
In fact, this is a right good world,
I would not die at all.

According to the editor of the Butte Record, Sundays in Oroville were wild and raucous. Other cities in the state had progressed in civilization, but not Oroville. No quiet, peaceful Sabbath in this city — the streets were crowded, the bars and theaters full, and the entertainments abundant. The spirit of ’49 still thrived, even after seven years.

Butte Record, October 11, 1856

How do you catch the reader’s eye in an old-time newspaper?

If you were a miner reading the Butte Record at Bidwell Bar in 1855, there’s one advertisement that would stand out, especially if you were hungry or thirsty. (Especially if you were thirsty.)

In the Butte Record you would see advertisements for a variety of businesses.

There were drug stores and hotels:

Tobacco stores:

  Every town had at least one livery stable, where you could rent a horse or a carriage for any occasion.

But– “Look at this!” — here is the one that would surely catch your attention. Ale, porter, and wines of all kinds, whiskey, chewing tobacco and cigars, and food of some sort — “coarse fodder” — which looks like it was mostly beans. “Oh, what Beans!”

Just one question: Where was “Mother Cooper’s side hill”?

Last Saturday I went to the Chico Museum to hear David Little, recently retired editor of the Chico Enterprise-Record, speak on the history of our hometown newspaper.

The Butte Record, published at Bidwell Bar, was the first newspaper in Butte County. C.W. Stiles saw the need for a local newspaper, gathered financial support, and purchased a printing press. Stiles, however, had no experience editing or printing a paper. He hired Harry De Courcey, previously of the Calaveras Chronicle, to edit the paper, and L.P. Hall to run the press.

Their tenure was short-lived. In the very first issue of the Butte Record, the following item appeared:

Butte Record, November 12, 1853

De Courcey was forced to give up the editor’s chair. His resignation notice appeared in the same issue.

So it was an argument over politics that brought out the Bowie knife. Lively times in frontier journalism!

The Sacramento Daily Union reported the incident and said

Mr. Stiles has been compelled to take up the pen editorial, which he acknowledges to be foreign to his vocation. His first efforts, however, are highly creditable to his abilities.

But Stiles soon found a more lasting editor. George Crosette, who was managing a hotel in Oroville, had grown up in the printing business and took over as editor. He bought the paper from Stiles and continued as editor for many years. In 1864 the paper moved to Oroville and in 1873 Crosette moved it to Chico, where it became the Chico Record.