hubert howe bancroft - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History ...

440 POLITICAL HISTORY.
the counties, exclusive of San Francisco, was $5,621 >-
212, and the floating indebtedness $1,992,932. Taxation
for county purposes amounted to $3,486,818, and
Shasta is a corruption of the French chaste, pronounced shas-t, and was
first applied to the mountain of that name, spelled Chesta or Chasta, by earl/
American travellers. Mr Walthell, assemblyman, of the delegation from
Sacramento district, proposed the name to the legislature. Its boundary
was not established until 1852. The seat of justice was fixed at Reading's
rancho in 1850, and at Shasta city in 1851, where it has remained.
Trinity was named from the bay, which received its appellation from
having been discovered on the 11th of June, 1775, the festival of the trinity,
trinidad, by a Spanish expedition in command of Bruno Heceta and Juan
de la Quadra y Bodega. It was in that region called by the English navigators
New Albion. Gold was discovered there in 1850. The county was
attached to Shasta for judicial purposes, but in 1851 the legislature appointed
commissioners G. O. McMullin, David Buck, W. L. Bianchard, C. S. Ricks,
and B, Kelsey, who ordered an election for county seat in 1852, which was
established at Weaverville. The county boundaries were changed in 1855.
Calaveras signifies skulls, and was applied to the region embraced in this
county by the Spanish captain Moraga, who found the ground covered with
them. The natives related to him that the tribes who formerly lived on the
Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers made war on the tribes of the sierra that
came to fish in these waters. In a great battle fought on Calaveras creek,
3,000 were killed—hence the skulls and the name. The first county seat
was Pleasant Valley, changed in 1851 to Double Springs, later to Mokelumne,
and finally to San Andreas. The pop. in 1850 was 15,000, mostly miners.
San Joaquin was a name given by Moraga in 1813 to a rivulet issuing
from the Sierra Nevada, and emptying into lake Buena Vista. The name
was carried down to the river, and finally adopted for the county traversed
by it. The county seat has been from the first at Stockton, which as early
as 1850 had 2,500 inhabitants. The city was named in honor of Com.
Stockton. The boundaries of the county have several times been changed
by the creation of new counties.
Tuolumne is a corruption of the Indian word tahmalanwe, signifying a
cluster of stone wigwams. It was suggested as a name for this county py
Benj. S. Lippincott, senator from San Joaquin district. The seat of justice
was established at Sonorian camp, alias Stewart. In 1851 it was altered to
Sonpra—probably the same place—where it has remained.
Mariposa, signifying butterfly, derived its name from the abundance of
this insect in the country at the head of the San Joaquin, a tributary being
thus named in 1807 by a hunting party. The name being beautiful in sound
and significance, was adopted for this famous district. Agua Fria, cold
water, was first named as the county seat, but in 1852 it was changed by
election to the town of Mariposa, adjoining Agua Fria.
Three counties were created in 1851, first, Placer, named from the
gold placers on the American river. The county seat was established at
Auburn, where it has remained. The first com'rs were Joseph Walkup,
William Gwynn, H. M. Hann, and Jonathan Roberta. Nevada, named from
the snowy sierra on the east, county seat at Nevada City, where it remains
—first com'rs Henry Miller, J. N. Turner, J. R. Crandall, J. S. Allen, and
Amos T. Laird, the boundary being changed in 1856; and Klamath, named
from the Klamath—formerly spelled Tlamath—river, which was named from
the tribe inhabiting its headwaters. Its county seat was first Trinidad, but
was changed to Crescent City in 1854. The first com'rs were Robert A.
Parker, W. W. Hawks, Edward Fletcher, Smyth Clark, and B. W. Bullitt
There is now no co. of that name.
Three counties were created in 1852, namely; Sierra, mountain range,