HISTORY OF YUBA  COUNTY  CALIFORNIA 

by Thompson & West, 1879, with illustrations

Chapter XXVIII - Long Bar Township

By the first subdivision of the county into townships made by the Court of Sessions, August 24, 1850, the town of Long Bar was made to embrace all the region between a line twelve miles east of the Feather river to the mouth of South Yuba, and from the Yuba river to the county line.  At the next division, made August 7, 1851, there was no town of Long Bar formed.  Part of this territory was included in the town of Dry Creek, which extended from the mouth of Dry creek to the mouth of Deer creek, and from Yuba river to the Butte county line;  all west of the mouth of Dry creek was in Marysville township.  At the next subdivision, made October 7, 1852, the town of Long Bar was given the following boundaries: - Commencing at the mouth of Dry creek, thence up the Yuba to the lower end of the Grizzly claim;  thence northeasterly to the Oregon House, including the same;  thence north to Honcut creek;  thence down said creek to a point due north of the mouth of Dry creek;  thence south to the place of beginning.  This included all of the present township east of the mouth of Dry creek;  all west of that point was put in Marysville township.  October 10, 1856 the Board of Supervisors made a new subdivision of the county, and the township of Long Bar was given the boundaries which it has today.  The present boundaries are: - Commencing in the middle of the Yuba river where it is intersected by the east line of Township No. 16 N., R.4E.; thence up the middle of said river to the intersection with the east line of Township No. 16 N., R.5E.;  thence north on said line twelve miles to the northeast corner of section 24, Township No. 18 N., R.5 E.;  thence west to the Honcut creek;  thence down the middle of said stream to its intersection with the east line of Township No. 17 N., R. 4 E.;  thence south of said line to the place of beginning.

LONG BAR

This was the longest bar on the river, and derived its name from that fact.  It was developed about the first of October, 1849, by a company consisting of H.B. Cartwright, James LaFone, Henry Irwood, W.S. Pearson, David C. Pearson, Edward Pearson, Oliver Smith, Smith Baldwin, and Henry Bleeker.  At Benicia the company met Major Cooper, the pioneer of Parks Bar in June, 1848, and he advised them to "go to the Yuba river, about sixteen miles above the Covillaud ranch, or Adobe ranch, about three miles above a broad stream that has water in it in the winter, but none in the summer".  After a hard journey they arrived at the place they supposed to be the one they had been directed to, but which was instead, Long Bar, only fourteen miles above Marysville.  Cartwright, Smith, and Baldwin arrived ahead of the others of the party, who were with the wagon.  The latter two went back to assist in bringing up the wagon and Cartwright went across the river, and hired out to some men who were working on the upper end of Kennebec Bar.  About the first of October the others arrived, and they all went to work on Long Bar.  A family by the name of Nash came that fall, the first at the bar.  There were three girls in the family and they were the recipients of the attention of many young miners, who oftentimes came miles to see them.

Mrs. J.V. Berry, now residing in Smartsville, relates an amusing incident in connection with the charming Misses Nash.  Mrs. Berry was living at Saw Mill Bar with her husband in the fall of 1849.  There was also a young lawyer from Tennessee, named Wiley H. Peck, a handsome man, six feet five inches tall.  In the rough camp life of the mines, fine clothes were scarce, and facilities for making an elegant toilet few indeed.  One Sunday morning, Mr. Peck asked Mrs. Perry to lend him a white towel that was hanging on the line.  She readily assented, thinking he desired it to use in making his toilet.  After a little while he presented himself before the astonished lady for her approval of his tout ensemble, as he was about to pay a state visit to the Nash girls.  He was faultlessly arrayed in a suit of broadcloth that he had brought across the plains.  The lady, commencing at his carefully combed locks, could detect not a flaw in his "get up" until she came to his feet, when, lo! what a sight!  Having nothing with which to encase his pedal extremities except heavy miner's boots, and being ashamed to make a call with those unsightly things on his feet, he had decorated his bare feet with blacking to represent boots.  The towel also, instead of being used in making his toilet, had been placed in his pocket, with the end protruding, to represent a white handkerchief.  Thus arrayed he had sallied forth "to conquer or die".

Claims on the bar were taken up so rapidly that by the spring of 1850, there were one thousand people there.  Several hotels, stores, saloons, bakeries, etc., were started that fall and winter, and more were opened the next year.  A ferry was established between Long Bar and Kennebec Bar in 1851.  In 1856, a bridge was built across Dry creek, on the road to Long Bar.  A postoffice was established here in 1850.  The bar was one of the largest and most thriving in the county.  In 1850, there were a half-dozen stores, eight or ten saloons and gambling houses, six or eight hotels and boarding houses, and about three or four hundred people.  This was in the summer, when the miners were scattered along the river.  In winter the  population of the town was much larger.  Work here continued later than at many other of the mining camps, although the place was not so rich as its two great rivals, Parks and Rose Bars.  In 1858, work was still progressing on a large scale, while most of the other bars were nearly deserted.  At this time there were still five stores there.  Water was supplied by the Long Bar, Morris, and Yuba ditches.  The place is now entirely deserted, and is covered several feet deep with mining debris.  The river flows over and around the site of the old mining camp, forming part of it into an immense sand and willow island.

SWISS BAR

This was nine miles above Marysville, and the first mining point above the mouth of the Yuba river.  Work was commenced here in 1850, and has always paid good wages.  Though quite a large mining camp, there was not so much of a town as grew up at Long Bar.  Hotels, saloons, stores, and all the accompaniments of a mining camp existed here during the early days, but when the bar was worked out these all vanished, and the site of the old mining operations is covered with willows and sand.

BROWN'S VALLEY

This little town is situated twelve miles northeast of Marysville, and was once the scene of the most extensive quartz mining operations in Yuba county.  In 1863, there were hundreds of quartz ledges located here and at Prairie Diggings, most of which were abandoned the next year.  A few claims were worked for several years.  The Jefferson mine went down seven hundred and eighty feet from 1863 to 1867, and took out five hundred and thirty-nine thousand dollars, declared dividends to the amount of one hundred and thirty-one thousand six hundred dollars.  They erected a twelve-stamp mill, operated by steam power. The Pennsylvania mine, in 1867, had gone down six hundred feet, and run drifts two hundred feet, but paid no dividends.  They had a sixteen-stamp steam-power mill.  The Donnebroge mine had gone down in 1867, five hundred feet, and drifted two hundred feet. They had an eight-stamp steam-power mill.  In addition to these, considerable work was done on the Daniel Webster, Pacific, Burnside, Paragon, Ophir, Rattlesnake, Sweet Vengeance, Bayerque, Anderson, and other mines.  Several hundred thousand dollars were expended in developing these mines, but they were abandoned on account of the great expense and difficulty experienced in working them;  water in the lower levels being very troublesome.  The ruins of the old mills and buildings are still standing here, indicating the spot where a great deal of money was poured into holes in the ground.

Surface digging was commenced here in the early days, and the locality was quite a mining place before the quartz leads were developed.  There is a little town here now of about one hundred people.  A postoffice is located here, and the mail is brought from Marysville three times a week by the Downieville stage.

HOOKER GUARDS

This was the name of a military company organized here in June, 1863.  During the exciting times of the war, when treason at home was as much to be dreaded as open rebellion at the front, military companies were formed on every side for home protection;  of this character were the Hooker Guards.  The officers were: - L.D. Webb, Captain;  George H. Leland, First Lieutenant;  R.P. Riddle, Second Lieutenant;  C. Sheldon, Third Lieutenant;  Thomas Cook, First Sergeant.

PRAIRIE DIGGINGS

A little ways above Brown's Valley was also a great surface mining locality, called Prairie Diggings.  Mining commenced in 1854, and about a year later a ditch was brought in, and the mines paid well for a few years.  But one white man is there now.  Previous to the past winter a number of Chinamen were working there.

SIXTEEN MILE HOUSE

J. Payne came to the township in 1852 and commenced ranching.  He built a home sixteen miles from Marysville, on the Foster Bar road, and  kept a hotel called the Sixteen Mile House.  He sold to Fennimore and moved to Butte county.

COMSTOCK PLACE

In 1852, a man named Comstock built a hotel in the upper part of the township, called the Comstock Place.  He had a race horse, and made a track were races and lively times were frequent.

GALENA HOUSE

This hotel was opened in 1850 by Mr. Richards.  In 1852, it was rented to Captain Phillips for two hundred dollars per month;  the receipts were sometimes three thousand dollars per month.  The Galena House has been open continuously for nearly 30 years, and is now kept by Mr. Sherback.  It is on the old Foster Bar Turnpike.

PEORIA HOUSE

When Captain Phillips left the Galena House in 1854 he built a hotel less than one mile below that place, and called it Peoria House.  There was considerable trade then, four stages stopping daily.  Captain Phillips had a large safe for the accommodation of travelers, and often had as much as six hundred pounds of gold dust in it.

ZINC HOUSE

This was a zinc hotel put up in 1851, on the Foster Bar Turnpike, and kept by A.D. Andrews.  It was torn down some time ago.  Andrews kept the Eleven Mile House.

STANFIELD HOTEL

William Stanfield opened this hotel just above Galena House in 1856.  At the present time it is kept by Mrs. Landerman.

BOWERS' HOUSE

This hotel was opened in 1866 by Mr. Landerman.  It is still kept as a public house.

There were a number of hotels in the early days and later, such as Freeman's, Empire House, Ten Mile House, Spring Valley House, Prairie House, Payne's Ranch, Yuba County House, Laverty's, and in fact, nearly every settlement along the routes of travel was a public house.  About 1856, Richards and Phillips built a school house near the Peoria House, which was attended by about fifteen scholars.  The house was moved further north, and is called the Peoria School House.  Religious services were held in the school house frequently by the Methodists, and occasionally by ministers of other denominations.

Stock grazing has always been a leading industry, and is largely carried on today.  Mr. Laverty came to the township in 1853, bringing eight hundred and fifteen cattle from Missouri.  Grain, hay and vegetables are the principal farm products.  Grain does not do so well as down in the valley.  Considerable fruit, strawberries and grapes are raised.  The little valleys among the hills were formerly utilized by cattle thieves as hiding places for stolen stock.  They were in the habit of stealing cattle in the counties north of here, and driving them across the Honcut into the hills of this township, where they were well secreted in the little valleys, and thus allowed to rest and recruit before being taken south.  A great many sheep are grazed on the hills in the upper part of the township.

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