La Grange, California and Gold in Stanislaus County by Zina Abbott

Gold was first discovered along the Tuolumne River in Stanislaus County, California, in about 1850 by a group of men from France. They named their camp French Bar since they found the gold on a sandbar in the middle of the river.

 

Historic Louie's Place

 

After a series of destructive floods along the river during 1851 and 1852, they moved about one mile upstream to get away from the flood plains. Their new community was founded in 1852. In 1856, the name of the town was changed to La Grange. One source says this was in honor of Lafayette's country home. Another source said it was in honor of General La Grange of France. (Joseph Burton Vasche) The name is French and means "the barn" or "the farm". The town prospered as both a mining and agricultural community.

Hammond and Bates Store

By 1854, there were over 100 buildings in La Grange. For a time Bret Harte taught school here.

La Grange Stagecoach Stop-iron doors typical of 1850s

 

 

Historic La Grange School

 

La Grange became the county seat of Stanislaus County in 1856. Aside from its French population, the community included a significant Chinatown in its early years. At its height, the community had thousands of residents, but it was a largely lawless town. As the gold mining declined, so did the population. In 1862, Knights Ferry became the county seat.

Kingen Hotel

 

On June 3, 1869, John Muir departed Le Grange (French Bar) with a sheep herder and a flock of sheep and headed for the headwaters of the Merced and Tuolumne rivers. He writes the folloiwing in his book "My First Summer in the Sierra". In chapter one, Muir describes leaving French bar and moving with the flock into the hills near Coulterville. "This morning provisions, camp-kettles, blankets, plant-press, etc., were packed on two horses, the flock headed for the tawny foothills, and away we sauntered in a cloud of dust: Mr. Delaney, bony and tall, with sharply hacked profile like Don Quixote, leading the pack-horses, Billy, the proud shepherd, a Chinaman and a Digger Indian to assist in driving for the first few days in the brushy foothills, and myself with notebook tied to my belt. The home ranch from which we set out is on the south side of the Tuolumne River near French Bar, where the foothills of metamorphic gold-bearing slates dip below the stratified deposits of the Central Valley". In Many ways, this experience moves him so much, that he writes eloquently of the Yosemite area. His books are read by Americans including President Theodore Roosevelt. Muir becomes the face of a new conservation movement to save the Yosemite and creation of Yosemite National Park. [Source: "My First Summer In The Sierra", by John Muir - HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 1917]

Tuolumne Gold Dredge west of La Grange

 

By 1880, mining had ceased with the exception of gold dredgers which continued to operate until the early 1950s. The dredging field extends westward from the town of La Grange along the Tuolumne River for nine miles. This district also includes a dredging field two miles to the south, on an older river channel, and surface "diggings" to the north.

The above is a photograph of the Tuolumne Gold Dredge, also known as the "Gray Goose", in La Grange, California, taken in 1980 just before it was shipped to the Alaska gold fields.

St. Paul's Catholic Church

 

La Grange is now a registered California Historical Landmark historic district. Today, a post office, a supermarket, an elementary school (as of fall, 2015, after a brief stint as a charter school, the public school was closed), and a High School (Don Pedro High School) still operate in La Grange. Also functioning is the oldest church in Stanislaus County, St. Louis Roman Catholic Church, with a cemetery containing tombstones dating to the mid-1800s. As of 2008 it has a population of 345.

What was a common occurrence in California counties held true for Stanislaus County. Its first county seat was Adamsville, a community along the Tuolumne River near where it joins the San Joaquin River, but it was shortly moved to La Grange in the eastern part of the county—the gold fields. The county seat was next moved a little farther west to Knights Ferry, also near where gold was found in Stanislaus county. In 1871, it was moved away from the gold-rich foothills to the brand new railroad town of Modesto in the valley. By then, the focus had turned from gold to agriculture. Modesto is still the county seat today.

In 1869, the year in which my novel, Cole, is set, both La Grange and Knights Ferry were active and well-known towns. Modesto did not exist. However, a secondary plot in this book is the struggle over who will be the power behind the railroad coming to this part of California.

To find the book description and purchase link for Cole, book 8 in the Cupids and Cowboys series, please CLICK HERE.

 

 

 

Sources:

La Grange Historical Plaque, State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with Morada Parlor No. 199, Native Daughters of the Golden West, October 13, 1984

Display regarding La Grange and Gold Mining in Stanislaus County at McHenry Museum, Stanislaus County, California

https://westernmininghistory.com/towns/california/la_grange/

http://www.stancounty.com/board/unincorporated-cities/la-grange.shtm

Wikipedia, La Grange, California

 

Hodgepodge of Author's Notes from My Book, Cole by Zina Abbott

 I recently completed Cole, part of the Cupids & Cowboys series. The following are taken from the Author’s Notes in the back of the book:

 

CP Huntington Locomotive after restoration

 

Beginning in 1869, the Central Pacific Railroad began either leasing other lines, or buying them out. What I did learn was that, for decades, former California governor, Leland Stanford, and the other officers of the Central Pacific ended up having their hand in almost all the railroad business in the state. By 1885, the C.P.R.R. was leased to the Southern Pacific Railroad and later consolidated with that line to become Southern Pacific Railroad.

Santa Fe train southeast of Merced 1994, before the line became the BNSF

 

One exception to C.P.R.R. involvement was the Santa Fe Railroad that built a line in the San Joaquin Valley. Although that company has changed names several times and is currently known as the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway, the Santa Fe tracks pass within a mile of my house.

 

Portion of 1871 Bancroft Map, notations added

Unfortunately, Leland Stanford, et al, got into a snit with Stockton and basically went to war against the city. Instead of having Stockton as one of its major stations on the San Joaquin Valley Railroad, the company created the town of Lathrop, named after Stanford’s brother-in-law, to serve that role. The location was originally known as Wilson’s Station. This line, the San Joaquin Valley Railroad line, started at Lathrop, which connected to the Western Pacific line. The first Western Pacific Railroad company failed and was absorbed by the Central Pacific Railroad in 1870. For twelve years, every effort was made to bypass Stockton by transporting travelers and shipping freight to San Francisco first before it would be taken to or from Stockton. Stockton was not printed on the railroad maps of the time.

Eventually, the connection was made with Stockton, and the San Joaquin Valley Railroad became part of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Its tracks are about three miles from my home. As a rural letter carrier, I used to deliver mail along S.P. Avenue built next to the tracks.

One of the financial difficulties railroads ran into throughout California was that so much of the land was tied up in Mexican land grants. Largely due to the support the United States received during the 1846-48 war with Mexico from many of the Californios—those Mexican citizens who lived in Alta California—the United States recognized ownership of land originally granted by the Mexican government. Although proving such land claims was not always easy and is a different topic for a different discussion, one of the repercussions for railroads was that said land was not considered federal territory. [I found it difficult to find public domain maps of Mexican land grants, but you might get some ideas of where they were located and how they might have affected the building the railroad by CLICKING HERE and by CLICKING HERE.]

[This book by Attorney Henry Beard is titled The lands granted to and withdrawn for the benefit of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company of California, and was published in 1877. It is in the public domain.]

[Mexican grant land] did not qualify as land that railroads would be granted to be sold for profit. Since the sale of land along qualifying rail line right-of-ways was how many railroads made their profit, many railroads that built in California ran into financial difficulty. That is one of the reasons behind the failure of the first Western Pacific Railroad that built mostly along the coast. Most of the land was Mexican land grant land, and had to be purchased.

It was also due to the number of Mexican Land Grants in California that there was not a lot of land available for homesteading, particularly on the coast or in the central valley (Sacramento Valley and San Joaquin Valley).

Regarding land ownership and women, California is one of the few community property states in the United States. The ability of women to own land was established in the first state constitution in 1850. Married women were allowed to own land separate from their husbands. Land owned by women before their marriage remained their sole property and could not be claimed by a husband after marriage. Likewise, land owned by men prior to marriage remained their sole property.

Land and other assets gained by the couple after marriage was community property to which the wife had a claim. For most of the 1800s, women could inherit up to one-half of the estate of her deceased husband, but she could not will or devise her half away from her husband. Upon her death, one hundred percent of the estate was inherited by the husband.

California community property laws, which were influenced by Mexican property laws, were the standard used by other community property states to develop their laws.

Several years ago, under my real name, I put together a presentation on California laws and how they affected women. My synopsis for that is still available on my Robyn Echols website HERE.

 

 

Cole, book 8 in the Cupids & Cowboys series is currently on preorder and will be released April 1st. Please CLICK HERE to find the book description and purchase link,

 

 

 

 

Sources:

http://daytonology.blogspot.com/2008/07/mexican-land-grant-to-us-state-capital.html

https://web.stanford.edu/group/spatialhistory/cgi-bin/site/pub.php?id=15

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_lands_granted_to_and_withdrawn_for_the_benefit_of_the_Southern_Pacific_Railroad_Company_of_California_(IA_landsgrantedtowi00bearrich).pdf

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~cagha/history/sanjoaquin/sanjoa-1923-244.txt