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HISTORY
El
Dorado County, California.
LOCAL
HISTORY.
MOSQUITO
VALLEY.
NEWTOWN.
A flourishing settlement, exists in
Mosquito Valley, about six miles southeast from Garden Valley, or nine
miles east from Placerville, having nearly the altitude of Georgetown. The
visitor is astonished to find in this hidden place so many enterprising
and well-to-do farmers, as may be seen without inquiry, observing the fine
dwellings, large barns and thrifty fields of grain and clover ; the
numerous cattle, sheep and hogs, and fine looking orchards. As early as
1849, mines were discovered in Mosquito canyon and the placers worked ;
the population of early days settled in two different places or villages ;
one called Nelsonville, and the other known as the Big House or Lower
town, the latter was built and inhabited by Spaniards principally. At
Nelsonville two or three stores had a good trade, and one of them was kept
by John D. Skinner until later years, when it burned out. The mining paid
well here in early days, and especially Little Mosquito was noted for
chunks of gold found there of from 2 oz. up to 100 dollars weight, by Mr.
Dickinson and others. At the present day quartz mining is going on to some
extent. To provide the canyon with a stream of water a ditch had been
built in 1853 or '54, at an expense of above $20,000 owned by the Mosquito
Ditch Co., now the property of James Summerfield ; it is 16 miles in
length and takes its water out of Slab creek. The water now is used to a
great deal for irrigation of orchards and gardens. The first farm work in
this district was done by Brown and Palmer, who grew the first crop of
potatoes : this however, was only a first trial, but Mr. Dickinson in
company with Peter Robinson took it up and to them is due the claim of
being the first actual settlers and cultivators of garden and orchard ;
their first attempt in agricultural work was made in 1853. And it is a
well known fact that all standard fruits are doing very well in this
canyon ; only a light snow is falling here in the winter. A saw-mill was
built here in One Eye canyon,--named after the first man engaged there
being one-eyed,--in 1851 or '52, by Benjamin Summerfield and John Bennett.
The first school in the settlement was
opened in 1862, by Oliver Chubb; he taught school first in a granary owned
by John Cobb, on the place now owned by James Summerfield. A Public School
dist5rict was established here together with a Postoffice in 1881 ; the
latter with Mrs. Dickinson as postmistress. Mr. John Agnews from Sidney,
Australia, was the first white woman in the canyon, and the first marriage
was that of Waldo. Mosquito has always carried the name of being a quiet
peaceful settlement, the record of crimes is very short, but
notwithstanding it includes one case of Lynch law : A white man getting
out shakes, in early days, had been killed by the Indians, one of the
Indians was caught and hung by the excited population.
Mosquito is connected with Placerville by a
good wagon-road and a suspension bridge across the South Fork of the
American river, a trail is running in the direction of Kelsey, the
township center. Dixon Summerfield, Adam Melchior, Christopher Finnan,
John Selleck, and Mrs. Couchlen and John Markel are the present
inhabitants.
NEWTON.
In the summer of 1848 a party of Mormons,
with a large number of horses and cattle, left California, en route for
Salt Lake. Some of them had been mining for gold at Mormon Island, in the
American river. they traveled up the dividing ridge between the waters of
Weber creek and the Consumes river, about sixty-five miles from Sutter's
Fort, to a valley lying north and south, about two miles long by one mile
wide. This they called "Pleasant Valley." At the north end of
the valley a part of them built a large corral for their stock, while the
remaining part of the company went north over a low ridge, half a mile on
to the south branch of Weber creek, and built another stock corral. The
grass being good, they gave their stock the benefit of it, having
discovered gold in small ravine near their camp on the creek ; but
being not provided with good tools, they made but slow progress in digging
and washing the gold. After a stop of about three weeks, they crossed the
Weber creek, and, taking up a spur of the ridge north to the divide
between the waters of Weber creek and the American river, they traveled
east to Carson Valley. Five of the party returned to Hangtown in February,
1849, and one of them spoke to a friend of their discoveries, giving the
landmarks by which to find the place ; and in April, '49, O. Russell, with
a party of six, started for the new diggings, taking their tools and four
or five days' rations. Leaving Hangtown at midnight, they had no trouble
finding the place. The Mormons had dug a cut about three hundred feet
long, four feet wide and an average of two feet deep. In this place it was
found that a man could average about eight dollars a day with a pan.
Several ravines were prospected ; in all of them was found more or less
gold. On the third day after the arrival of the party they were joined by
thirty more prospectors from Hangtown, who had followed the trail of the
first party. After prospecting a day or more, all came to the conclusion
that the diggings here were not so good as those they had left, and all
returned to Hangtown. Sometime in May some of the party procured animals
to pack their grub and tools, and returned to the Mormon diggings, where
they worked successfully until July, when the emigration came teaming down
the Mormon trail by the hundred, scores of them stopping at the diggings.
Some went to digging in the water about the small springs ; others went to
building log cabins, while others with teams went to Sacramento to buy
goods and supplies and return. A cluster of cabins were erected on the low
divide between the Weber creeks. This was called "Iowaville."
Another cluster of cabins was erected on the creek, at the Mormon corral.
This place some wag christened "Dog Town," name which
stuck to it to the day of its death. A store was started here by a man
named Smith, which afterwards was kept by Samuel Snow.
In 1852 to '53 three ditches were
constructed to convey water to the diggings--one from North Weber, four
miles long; another from South Weber, about the same distance, and a third
from the north branches of the Cosumnes river, ten miles long--by the
"Eureka Company." In the meantime a saw-mill was put in
operation near Pleasant Valley. In anticipation of these improvements,
some parties started a town on the bench, half mile southwest of Dog
Town and one hundred feet above the creek. Israel Clapp put up a store;
Lewis Foster put up another; W. F. Leon started a hotel ; then
butcher shop, a brewery, blacksmith shops, a post office, a tenpin alley.
Billiard saloons and drinking shops followed simultaneously. Miners'
cabins were thickly scattered about the diggings. The ditch companies sold
their water for less than half the price demanded for the same about at
Placerville. The water generally lasted from November to July. Water for
domestic purposes was obtained from wells dug twenty five or thirty feet
deep. Water for the brewery was brought in wooden pipes from a spring on
the mountain side. In 1854 a wagon road was made directly from Placerville
to Newtown, which was at that time a full-fledged California mining town,
with all its appliances, even to a dance house in the suburbs.
On October 12th, 1872, a fire which had
started in the brewery and spread over the village so rapidly that but
very little could be saved by the inhabitants, leaving some entirely
destitute, laid this whole town in ashes. The losses were considerable,
and the principal losers: Louis Rafetti & Co., merchants, loss $15,000
to $20,000 ; J. F. Kaler, brewer, $4,000 ; Frank Giurdicci, saloon-keeper,
$4,000.
In this locality is old "Fort
Jim" located.
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