“Ban” Hickey had never gone to school. He was 94 and going blind, when he decided he should write the history of his pioneer family. Using the “hunt-and-peck” system, on a typewriter, he pecked out a history of his family and of this area when he was a young child growing up near Elliott. What follows are excerpts from his family history as he wrote it.
In the year 1850, the Hickey, brothers arrived in California, They did not seem to have put very much time in the gold mines. But drifted into agriculture, Uncle John Hurd Hickey, worked for a man named Edward Bryant, who had taken up Government land on the Mokelumne river, and later married Bryants sister Minnie Bryant, Uncle John, later took up a quarter section of land located on Dry Creek, West of the so called Lockeford road, Which was later increased to 480 acres…
There was a man named Hawkins, who took up the South East quarter section where the Lockeford, and so called Liberty roads cross, Hawkins, started a store on the corner and called it Hawks Corner, Uncle John, later bought the Hawkins, land which joined his land on the south, And the store, was moved one half mile West and on the south side of the Liberty road. My father at this time was running a Tomb-stone and marble shop, in Woodbridge, My father and a man Named Frank Johnson, bought the Hawks Corner, store, (I, do not know if before or after the store was moved) it was still called Hawks Corner, but when they tried to get a Postoffice, they found that they could not get it under the name of Hawks Corner, So the name of Elliott, was adopted, (I, do not know where they got the name Elliott,).
A man by the name of Norman Misner, a blacksmith, started a blacksmith shop, in Elliott, Misner, some time later got his right wrist broken and could not work at blacksmithing any more. He sold the Black-smith shop, to two men named Coleman, and Mc Colough, Coleman was a blacksmith, and Mc Colough, was what was called a wheel-wright, who built wagons, and did wood work. Mc Colough, had a little boy, named Willie, Mc Colough, made him about the nicest little wagon I, have ever saw. Willie, died some years later, and my father bought the wagon for us kids, Misner, and uncle John, bought out Frank Johnson, and enough of William S. Hickey’s half too make each one third owner. And Misner took over the management of the store, Frank Johnson, left the Elliott, vicinity and started a store, in Valley-Springs, where he lived till he died. Elliott, became quite a village, With a Store, Blacksmith-shop, Saloon, Barley Mill, run by a man named Millton Bouvard, and a Boarding House, run by a widow named Mrs. Pinkerton. Bouvard, also run a stationary thrashing outfit. In 1865, my mother who was twenty five years old, and a cousin of mothers, named Mary Sumersville, left Pittsburg, for California, by way of New York, and Panama, and ship to San Francisco, On the ship from New York, they met and got well acquainted, with a man and his wife, named Nathaniel Mactucker, Mactucker had come to California, in 1849, He did not take too the gold mining as a business, but saw a good outlook for horses… Mactucker, had taken up the South West quarter section of land, where the Lockeford, and Liberty roads cross. If it had not been for meeting Mactucker, I, doubt very much that my mother and her cousin, would ever have landed in Elliott, country…
My earliest memory when about two and one half years old, we were living in Elliott, And father was home only on week ends. Uncle Will Proudfit, had worked at cabinet making, and I, remember well him making mother a bookcase and desk combined, a kitchen safe, and a flour chest, in the blacksmith shop, of Coleman, and Mac Colough, And he did a very fine job on them…
Rail-Road travel in those days was rather primitive, It took us about three weeks on the trip to California, The locomotives, burned wood and they stopped about every 75 or 100 miles to take on wood and water. The passenger cars were rather small, compared with to-days cars. They had a stove in one end, that the women, cooked on, and it also heated the car, the Railroad had slats that were fastened together with cords, that you laid between two seats, and made your bed on. you furnished your own bedding…
In 1886 or 1887, my father and five other Stockton, men, went into partner-ship, and bought 6,000 acres of land in the Yolo basin, about nine miles from Dixon, At this time very little of the land from a few miles West of Stockton, and Lodi, had been reclaimed, The remainder was just a sea of water to the Golden Gate, And covered with tulles, and puly flags. The Yolo Basin, was very much the same, except, the Basin, only filled with water when the rivers got high in the winter, and in the summer when the snow was melting, At this time there was no power machinery for scraping, or building levees, It all had to be done with horses, and man power, labor. They tried to levy the land for grain farming. But then the Basin, filled with water, The waves caused by the wind would wash the levees, down, and the land would be flooded. So after four years of trying, and never getting a crop, They gave it up as a complete failure… At this time the farming land in the Sacramento Valley, and some of the San Joaquin, Valley, in the winter time, would be just swarming with ducks, and geese, and some sand-hill cranes. The farmers had to hire men just to shoot and keep the geese, and ducks off the grain, or they would not let the grain get a start, to grow. As an example, or the number of ducks, and geese, Some of the market hunters, reported killing as many as 350 ducks in a single day. While I, am in one wild bird line, I, will say that father had a sheep range, along the foot hills, to the East of the valley, I, have saw in the evening before sun-down, when the valley quail, would come out of the brush into the open land to feed, two or three acres, would be just black with the quail. There was just thousand’s of them. The valley quail were wiped out mostly from stock raising, and farming, as they nested in the open land, and the nests, were destroyed I, have in cutting forty acres of hay land, run into several quail nests, when we went to the mountains in 1884, there was a great quantity of mountain quail, You might say thousand’s of them. Now you hardly see one. (the mountain quail is one of the finest wild birds in California,) Their disappearance is a mystery to me. They seemed to nest mostly in the sage brush in Nevada, Men that have wintered in the high mountains (mostly trappers) have told me that the mountain quail would string out by the hundred’s all going East. I, never saw them on the way East, out in the fall of the year, I have saw the quail about half grown all coming west. by the hundred’s. The mountain quail, nested in the brush on the ground.
Things continued to run along very smoothly until 1892, The year of the great Rail Road, strike. I, believe that every Rail Road, in the United States, was tied up. I, do not remember just how long the strike, lasted. But is seems to me about six week or two months. I, do not remember just how the strike, was settled. But the men got back to work. But just as fast as the Rail roads, could break in new men, the strikers, were out of a job. And were blackballed, and could not get a job on any Rail road, in the U.S. So in the next three or four years, the country was flooded with Rail Road, men. I, got to know quite a lot of them and they were a very sorry lot, of men. I, do not know if the Rail Road, strike, had very much too do with it, but in 1896, The bottom fell out of prices, just for about every thing. And in the next year or so, you could buy most anything at your own price. My father, bought about forty head of unbroken horses, for thirteen Dollars a head. (as a contrast in 1882, he bought ten head of mules, for $ 2,000 dollars.) Cattle were about the same, he sold about 130 head of cows for fifteen Dollars a head and throwed the calves in. sheep were around $ 1.00 to $ 2.50, a head. Hogs two and one quarter cents a pound and prices in the stores were just about on a par, with farm prices, You could buy work shirts for fifty cents, each, Levi Strass, overalls, for fifty cents a pair the best whisky, was $ 4.00 Dollars gallon. And all the other commodities sold about the same. I, should have mentioned the grain prices, Wheat was about $1.25 a sack, and the sack cost eight & nine cents each, barley was $ ,75, cents a sack if you could sell it. My father, used to have from three to five hundred sacks of barley, rolled at one time to feed the horses. (there was a man Peter Fitsgerald who went around to the farms with his barley crusher and rolled barley for the farmers.) We traded quite a lot of wheat, to the flour Mills, for flour, midlings, and shorts. At this time there was four Flour Mills, in Stockton, the Sperry, mill, the Crown Mill, the Union Mill, and the Aurora Mill. The Aurora Mill, was the smallest of the mills, and was located at Weber ave. and Aurora street. The other mills were located on Stockton, chanel, Sperry’s on the south side of Weber street, the others on the channel. They turned out several thousand sacks of flour a day. (the flour was all put in cloth sacks 50,100, and 200, pound sacks) Most of the flour was loaded on the steam boats, and barges. for the San Francisco, market. I, will mention here while I, am on the Stockton, subject, that Gerlach, Wagner, and Finkboner, who run a large slaughter house, out on Cherroke Lane, brought the first Refridgeator system to Stockton…
In 1896, a great depression hit the United States, Wages were so very low that you could get all the help you wanted for seventy five cents a day, and twenty Dollars a month. As for the store prices, they were just about the same. As the wages. My father, used to buy tobaco, by the box. (it came in oak boxes 15 and 25 pounds,) it seemed as if the men just about all chewed tobacco in those days, And just about every time you went to town, several of them would want tobacco…
I, also should have mentioned in the Hickey, account that my father, in 1886, bought a gold minning clame of fifty eight acres, near Indian Diggins, This was a very good mine. (I, have several nuggets that came out of this mine), In 1889, he put some men to work in the mine, But it so happened that the winter of 1889 and 1890, was one of the wetest winters in the history of California. As an excample, of the winter, Where we lived East of Fiddle Town, we wintered there that winter, we usually had about two to four feet of snow, scattered through the winter, In the 1889 and 1890, winter, we had twenty four feet and six inches. And never saw the ground for more than three months. This extremely wet winter started a landslide, that brought the whole side of the mountain, trees, and brush, down on the Hickey, mine, and buried it completely. And the mine could not be worked only by hydrolic. After father, died mother sold all the land in Eldorado County, and I, do not know what become of the mine…
I believe that I, should have mentioned that the winter of 1889 and 1890, caused the Rail Road, to build more than forty miles of snow sheds, over the Siera Nevada, mountains. At that time the Rail Roads, had a wedge shaped snow plow that pushed the snow off the track. The falling and drifting snow in 1889 and 90, would fill up the trench faster than they could open it some times the trains were held up a week or more. The Rail Roads, developed a machine that they called a rotary snow plow, that throwed the snow a good ways out and was an improvement on the wedge plow. But this came to late in the winter too do much good.
Cannot close this account of the past, that has happened in my time. With out mention the horse, and mule, teams that hauled the freight and machinery, to the town, and mines along the Mother Lode, and up and down the Sacramento, and San Jaquin, valleys. These teams, were from four to sixteen horses, or mules. A man named Robert Pounds, and his two sons, Mat, and Bob, (I, was well acquainted with the Pound’s men, as they worked for my father quite a lot), They had three ten horse teams, said to be the finest in the State. The teams were, one team of all dappled iron greys, one of all bays, and one of all blacks. Very few people today know what team bells were. They consisted of a bow that sliped into eyeletts on the names of the harness, Each bow had five bells, of three sizes, one large bell in the center, with the smallest bell on the out side. The bells were fastened solid to the bow. And the motion of the horse kept the bells ringing. There were to kinds of bells, A brass or bronze bell, and a nickle bell. I, have never saw the bells used on four horse teams, and not always on six horse teams. But on eight to sixteen horse teams, they were very seldom without bells. The different size bells made quite a lot of music, At any rate the teamsters, thought the bells kept the horses and mules, in a better humor or frame of mind. The bells were put on all the horses, except the so called near wheeler, which the teamster rode. These teams were all handled, with a single line, called a gerk line. The teamster (or some times called a mule skinner), equipment consisted of what was called a black-snake, and a wire cutter that could be carried in his pocket, for cutting the wire on baled hay. The black-snakes, were of two kinds. A cheap kind had a round stick about twenty inches long inserted in the but or hand hold, of the snake. The other kind, was called a loaded black-snake, Whitch had from twenty to twenty four inches of fine bird shot placed in the but or hand hold, and cost from seven fifty to ten Dollars. The real teamsters would only use the loaded snake, and always carried it hung arround his neck. The teamsters, mostly the ones that owned their own outfits, took a lot of pride in their teams. The Pounds, men, were especialy proud of their teams. The harness shops had quite a number of different sized celluoid rings and different collers, of the rings. The harness shops also got cow tails from the slaughter houses washed and combed them out and dyed them different colors, The ceiiuloid rings were placed on the harness too suit the fancy of the teamster, or driver, The cow tails, were generally hung on the outside of the horses bridles, The, Pounds, men just about had their horses covered with diferent colored celluoid rings. I, will give the reason for all this operation of hauling with teams. This was the greatest hauling by horse power that the world ever saw. The discovery of gold, in California, was realy the cause of the teaming operation. To start with there was only two bases of supply. Stockton, and Sacramento. The land had not been surveyed yet, So there was no lines to follow. So naturaly the roads headed in the general direction, of the main locations of operation, And they were made where they could be made the easyest, This caused the roads to leave Stockton, and Sacramento, on the East side (To the West of Stockton, and Lodi, was all water and tules and cat-tail flags) West of Sacramento, was the Yolo Basin, that filled with water when the rivers got high), All this made the roads leave Stockton, and Sacramento, at various angles, Some what like the spokes of a wheel. When the roads reached the foot-hills, and mountains, They followed the best locations they could find. But when the road had to go over ridges and up mountains, some of the grades were so steep that the teamsters, had to drop one of the wagons. And pull them up one at a time. The big teams all were of two wagons. (A so called front wagon and traler), I, will mention here that the main stage, and freight, road, From Sacramento, to Mariposa, and the southern gold mines, run on an angle through the Burton, place that my father, bought. The road was just about 150 feet West of the house. After the Central Pacific, Rail road, was built, Every thing had to be hauled from, and to the stations. And still from Stockton, and Sacramento. As farming developed, The grain was mostly hauled to Stockton, and Sacramento, The freight rates were so high that the grain could be hauled cheper, if the distance ws not to long. I, my self got into quite a lot of grain hauling. We used two and sometimes three wagons. We put seventy or eighty sacks on the front wagon, 45 or 50 on the second wagon, and 25 or 30 on the third wagon. I, always liked teaming, and working with horses, as I, have been with and worked with horses, all my life…
This kind of business has all disapeared and gone into the past, history of the minning industry. Along with the Quartz Mines. Also went a very large farming industry, As the horses and mules, ate a lot of hay and grain. Some parts of the country along the Mother Lode, and towns, were almost deserted. I, am going to mention some of the contrasts in working hours, and wages. The teamsters or drivers, got a flat rate of seventy five Dollars a month. This is two and one half Dolars per day. Some of the so called labor unions, get morethan three times this per hour. The teamster, put in not less than twelve, and some times as much as twenty hours a day. If he had some bad luck on his trip. Some of the larger teams, had what was called a swamper, (or helper) The log and lumber, haulers had to have a man to help load the logs. As it was a two man job, to load logs. The teams had regular trips and stoping places, But a little trouble would make them very late some times. A teamster, did not have very much use for a bed. About two thirty, A.M. was the regular hour for rising, I, have been told by some of Culbert’s drivers, that some-times they did not take the harness, off the mules, at night. And they (the driver) just laid down in the hay and went too sleep.
This will close my History and Accounts, of the Hickeys, in California, Also the changes, and operations, that have happened in my time. And I, hope that I, have recounted, some things that will be of interest to the person reading it. My father, had some rather pecular ideas, My brother John, and I, never went to public school, One single day in our lives. Father, said that the kids, learned more meanness, than good. Mother, took a hand with Will. And the girls, And sent them to school. Isabelle, and Florence, were sent to high school, and Normal school, And graduated as teachers. Isabeblle, taught school for thirtysix years, Florence, did not like teaching, and after three or four years, quit teaching, and went to Business Colledge, and took up stenography, And went into office work. As I, am no expert on the type-writer, The reader will have to make allowance for poor typing, poor spelling, bad grammer, and poor punctiation. I, have found that writing this account is a difficult and agrivating, job. The events do not come to mind in the proper order or sequense, So they are some-what mixed up.
This account was started in October 1967, and finnished in may 1968, when I, reached ninety five years of age.
Written by James B. Hickey. A native of California
The Galt Area Historical Society offers a book of our local history called Tapestry. Click here for more information.
Last edited 27 February, 2005
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