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HISTORY
El
Dorado County, California.
LOCAL
HISTORY.
NEGRO
HILL
The first mining work done in the vicinity of Negro Hill
was on the east side, adjoining the river, by a company of Mormons, in the
year 1848, soon after, but in the same year, a company of Spaniards went
to work on the south side of the hill, in Spanish Ravine, from a strip of
ground about a thousand feet in length by one and a-half feet in width,
and three feet in depth they took out over seven thousand dollars. The
next work was in a deep sand bank just at the mouth of Spanish Ravine, in
the fall of 1849, by August B. Newhall, from Lynn, Mass., a Negro by the
name of Kelsey, a Methodist preacher, and other Negroes ; this locality
was called Little Negro Hill, it being located between the river and the
present Negro Hill. The gravel in said sand bank paid three hundred
dollars and upwards, per day, to a company of five men. Little Negro Hill
was discovered by Cornelius Van Noy, George Denett, Thomas Burns, Platt
Southard, M. Fogety, John Farley and John Donelly ; the whole hill paid
from two to three ounces per day to the hand, the dirt being carted to the
river and washed through a long tom. About this time (fall of 1849) three
men, Messrs. Vosey, Long and French started a store and boarding house,
the house being known as the Civil Usage House, and a good business was
done here. Soon after Mr. Fish built another store in the vicinity and did
good business up to 1852. In the spring of 1852,
Conrad Benniger, Harvey Smith and Darius Clark sunk holes on the second
bench back from the river, and found good dirt, it being a large flat. In
one week after, there was every foot claimed and staked off for mining,
and two Negroes from Massachusetts started a store and boarding house,
around which quite a Negro village sprung up, and was called Big Negro
Hill. On another portion of the flat the white men built quite a town,
representing the present Negro Hill. Here Thos. Jenkins and Richard
Rickard built a store, and Thomas Bennett and Wm. Trengove built a
boarding house, being each the first one in town. The same year (1852)
Dewitt Stanford, a brother of Leland Stanford, built a grocery store at
Negro Hill, as did Horace and Frank Barton. Another store was built about
the same time by Ben. Avery, our late minister to China, he opened with a
lot of drugs, Yankee notions, etc. A short time later, about the fall of
1852 or spring of 1853, the Chinese began to flock in the camp, and built
on another portion of the flat. So that by the end of 1853, the town could
boast of a thousand or twelve hundred inhabitants, with stores of every
description, saloons and dance houses by the dozen, and all seemed to do a
thriving business. In the year 1853, Leander
Jennings and Alexander Fraser built a ditch from Salmon Falls to
Negro Hills, a distance of eight miles, which carried about 300 inches of
water, sold at $1.00 per inch, by which nearly the whole of the top of the
hill has been sluiced off, and paid well. In 1855, Messrs. Clark, Boyd,
Richards and Eastman built another ditch from near Salmon Falls, running
it to Negro Hill, Growlers Flat, Jenny Lind Flat, Massachusetts Flat,
Chile Hill, Condemned Bar and Long Bar, all of which are in a circuit of
three miles ; so as a matter of course all the miners came to Negro Hill
to buy their goods, and the result was, that business men did well for
five or six years. After that the mines fell gradually in the hands of the
Chinese and business rapidly declined. All the white men who remained in
the district, with the exception of two or three, are now engaged in
farming. There is plenty of mining ground in this district yet untouched,
but the ditches are not high enough to carry water to it. A preliminary
survey for a ditch from near Auburn to Negro Hill has recently been made,
and reported upon favorably. When such a ditch is constructed much
treasure will be unearthed in this section. We
have to refer to a visit of Judge Lynch at this place in the time when
Thomas Jenkins and Richard Rickard were building their store in 1852 ; a
Negro claiming the illustrious name of Andrew Jackson, stole a specimen
worth about $10.00, and some clothing from the residence of Mr. Keith, the
blacksmith, for which he was hung to a tree, near the Negro quarters, by a
mob, before noon. In 1855 a lot of drunken white
fellows on Negro Hill attacked the Negro quarters and in the fight one
Negro was killed, for which Mr. Drew and others were arrested and tried at
Coloma but were acquited*. Growler's Flat
was opened in 1852, by Henry Down, an English sailor, who was always
growling, hence the name. Jenny Lind Flat was
opened by Nathaniel Sutton and others 1852. Massachusetts
Flat was opened in 1854, by Dr. Townsend. All paid well. At Jenny Lind
Flat one night in 1853, a young man borrowed blankets to sleep in, the
next morning he had forgotten about this fact, and walked off with the
blankets ; a crowd went after him and brought him back, flogged him until
the blood trickled down his heels ; they then took up a subscription in
money and gave it to him with the advice never to steal again. Of
late an agent of a Baltimore firm was here examining a chrome iron mine,
the lead is ten or twelve feet across, and picks very free, it can be
traced from the North to the South fork of the American river, a distance
of twelve miles. The result of said examination has been the letting of a
contract for a ship cargo of chrome iron, to be delivered at Folsom at
$6.50. There is iron enough in the mountains to supply the whole United
States.
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