Calaveras Heritage Council

Close behind the prospectors and miners came the agriculturalists, families from the eastern states and Europe who saw opportunities for stock-raising and truck garden operations on the open grasslands. Following the decline of placer deposits in the Mother Lode after ca. 1860, ranching became more important to the foothill economy. Settlers established farms in the area where they grew hay, alfalfa, and wheat and planted orchards, Most families practiced a mixed agricultural economy, raising cattle, sheep, hogs, and poultry, which supplied them with a steady supply of foodstuffs augmented by vegetable gardens and orchards.

Livestock, however, has always provided the backbone of the agricultural industry, with the practice of transhumance opening up the high country to cow and sheep camps. Upland grazing of cattle, sheep, and goats was an important early historical land use, beginning as early as 1849, with livestock herds annually moved to the mountains during the hot summers, returning to the valleys below before winter. Most of the geographic names in the high country were derived from the summer pasturing of the foothill ranching families, i.e. Tryon Peak, Hiram Meadow, Adams Camp, Wheat’s Meadow, and many others.

Some families established vineyards and produced wines and brandies for personal use and for sale, while others bottled the clear, fresh waters of local springs and sold them commercially. Hops were grown and baked in kilns for breweries that produced local beers and ales. Olive trees were planted and the olives cured or made into oil, in both family and commercial orchards. Commercial winemaking began in 1851, with 1,000 vines set out on the Calaveras River. Mokelumne Hill was another center of wine production, but vineyards were also planted in virtually every community in the early years.

Nineteenth-century impetus for agricultural development came from disenchanted county boosters who blamed mining for Calaveras’ socioeconomic problems and perceived farming as a panacea. A host of problems plagued the county’s agricultural development, not the least of which was the public perception of the foothills as mining territory incapable of fostering anything better than infertile “bedrock ranches.” Local farming never developed beyond a subsistence level and gradually gave way to livestock operations. As the mining economy declined, however, farming gained importance as a family enterprise which helped to establish more permanence and stability in the society.

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Close behind the prospectors and miners came the agriculturalists, families from the eastern states and Europe who saw opportunities for stock-raising and truck garden operations on the open grasslands. Following the decline of placer deposits in the Mother Lode after ca. 1860, farming gained importance as a family enterprise, which helped to establish more permanence and stability in the society. Settlers established farms growing hay, alfalfa, and wheat, and planted orchards and truck gardens. Most families practiced a mixed agricultural economy, raising cattle, sheep, hogs, and poultry, which supplied them with a steady supply of foodstuffs augmented by vegetable gardens and orchards. Livestock, however, has always been the backbone of the agricultural industry, with the practice of transhumance (taking livestock to the high country to pasture during the summer and returning in the fall to their foothill ranches) opening up the high country to cow and sheep camps.

Commercial winemaking began in the county in 1851, with 1,000 vines set out on the Calaveras River. Mokelumne Hill was another center of wine production, but vineyards were also planted in virtually every community in the early years. Hops were grown and baked in kilns for breweries that produced local beers and ales. Olive trees were planted and the olives cured or made into oil in both family and commercial orchards. Local farming, however, never developed beyond a subsistence level and gradually gave way to livestock operations.

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Most of the long-term settlers in the community came from Wales and Italy. The Welsh included the Roberts, Evans, Williams, Prothero, Thomas, and other families, with the Italians being represented by the Malatestas, Arratas, Malespinas, Copellos, Sanguinettis, Valentes, Lavagninos, Gagliardos, Grenittas, Bertattas, and others. Most of the men mined and farmed, especially the Italians.

It was not long before Douglas Camp was transformed into a community. By 1854 the miners had built a small building to serve as a church and town hall, and it soon served as a school as well, as more and more families settled in the area. The following year three merchants, a hotel keeper, a printer, a “ranchero”, and seven miners were listed as residing in Douglas Flat (Heckendorn & Wilson 1856:98) (Figure Store).

As the mines waxed and waned, it was the ranchers and farmers who supported the town. In the late 1850s the County Assessor noted more than 20 ranches on the flat and along Coyote Creek, ranging in size from 15 to 360 acres. By the 1880s, most of the smaller ventures had been absorbed into larger ranches by settlers who remained in the area for many years, some of whose descendents still farm the land (Calaveras County Assessment Rolls, various). The farm of Ansil Davis was described as a successful place of 40 acres, with 3,000 trees of all varieties of fruit. Included were apples, pears, peaches, and plums, as well as 3,000 grapevines of select varieties (Elliott 1885:92) (Figure DavisRanch).

By this time the Malespina, Bertatta, Raffetto, Copello, Sanguinetti, and other Italian families had established cattle operations on their ranches, practicing transhumance (Figure JoeBertatta).

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Flowers Ranch, encompassing more than 3,000 acres southwest of Copperopolis in Calaveras County, was pieced together from more than 24 separate land patents, mostly granted during the 1870s and 1880s. Over the ensuing years, Nathan M. Flower and his descendants patented or purchased the parcels so that by about 1905 all of the land in the project area was under the ownership of members of the Flower family.

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Some of the lands in the Flowers Ranch area near Copperopolis were taken up in the 1850s, with farms and dwellings located on the ferry roads and along Littlejohns Creek. These farms tended to encompass large acreages, with livestock grazing the primary occupation. Shortly after the discovery of copper at Quail Hill, Napoleon City, and Copperopolis in 1860, however, more settlers moved to the area. The rush for gold that had begun with such enthusiasm in 1848 had ended by the mid-1850s, and unemployed miners and merchants were looking elsewhere for their livelihood. The copper discoveries, coupled with the unprecedented need for copper for shell casings for the Northern cause in the Civil War, created a boom that brought miners, laborers, merchants, saloon keepers, hotel keepers, and trades people to the burgeoning Copperopolis community.

An outgrowth of this boom was the settlement of the surrounding lands for agricultural purposes, as farmers scrambled to produce livestock, grain crops, fruit, and vegetables to provide foodstuffs for the hungry hordes. It is interesting to note that many of the early settlers in the Flowers Ranch area were natives of Ireland, perhaps drawn to the area by Thomas McCarty, proprietor of the nearby Log Cabin Ranch and Store, which provided provisions for both local miners and travelers on the Shirley Road to Angels Camp and the Stanislaus River ferries. In addition to farming, however, all of the landowners mined at one time or another ₁.

1. Charlie Stone (Copperopolis native and local historian) Interview of 1992. Notes on file, Foothill Resources, Ltd., Murphys,CA

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The first person to be assessed for the lands on Baker’s Flat was Joseph Lewis in 1858. That year, his assessment noted ownership of 320 acres, 300 enclosed under fence, located 2 miles south of the Log Cabin Ranch and 5 miles northwest of Scorpion Gulch, which included a residence, a barn, wagon, horses, cows, and hogs, and was valued at $1,000. The ranch was situated on the Salt Spring Valley–Knights Ferry Road, with the dwelling on the east side of Littlejohns Creek. Although the description simply noted the ranch as bounded northwest by McCarty’s Log Cabin Ranch and south by Peachy’s (in the northwestern quarter of Section 27, T1N, R12E and along Littlejohns Creek in the Grant), it appears likely that the residence and barn were located on the flat, the only large level area in the territory.

In 1860, Joseph P. Lewis, and his wife, Mary, both age 55, were listed as farmers residing with their son Jenkins, age 22; all were born in Kentucky. Sometime about 1864, Joseph sold the southern half of his property, also noted as on Littlejohns Creek, to his son Jenkins. By 1867, Jenkins was assessed for the entire 320 acres. In July 1869, Jenkins sold the ranch to Thomas Gatzman for $500, noting that it was bounded on the north by McDonald’s Ranch, on the south by the north line of the Grant, and on the east by Smith’s Ranch (formerly Clott’s), which would place it on Baker’s Flat and southerly along the creek to the Grant. That same year, Gatzman was assessed for 40 head of cattle and 10 hogs, as well as a house, a barn, and a fence.

Two homesteads were depicted on the 1870 GLO plat: “Gatesman’s” (Gatzman’s) (located in the southern half of Section 16, T1N, R12E) and McDonald’s field, just westerly. That same year, Gatzman, listed as a 45-year-old farmer and native of Baden, Germany, was noted as a farmer and residing on the property with his wife, E.; and children, Flora, Lizzie, Emma, Edward, and Albert. His real estate was valued at $400, and his personal estate was valued at $1,975. By 1880, Gatzman and his family were residing in Empire in Stanislaus County, where he was listed as a farmer still.

In 1873, R. Patterson, a nonresident, was assessed for the Gatzman property in the Flowers Ranch area, with a house, a barn, and a fence, as well as 960 sheep and 400 lambs. By 1881, the land and a small house were assessed to William Davies, along with furniture, firearms, sewing machine, wagons, a harness, farming utensils, seven horses, three cows, five calves, poultry, 28 hogs, and a dog. By 1884, David Clinton Baker and his wife, Elizabeth, had purchased the land (still known as Baker’s Flat today) and patented the entire Section 16 that same year. Baker registered to vote in 1888, stating that he was 34, was born in Iowa, and was working as a stock raiser, but by then he was residing northeast of the project area.

By 1887 Nathan Flower was assessed for all of the Baker lands in the Flowers Ranch (Section 16, T1N, R12E), as well as lands in Sections 20, 21, and 28. His assessment noted a house, two barns, a fence, an orchard, furniture, farming utensils, three wagons, three old horses, three colts, 50 calves, 70 stock cattle, and 6 tons of hay. When Nathan and his son John Clary registered to vote in 1888, they listed themselves as stock raisers ₁. The use of the land had shifted from sheep to cattle grazing.

Nathan and Mary resided on their lands until they moved to the Gwin Mine near Paloma in the late 1890s ₂. Over the next few years they resided in the Valley Springs area, and then they moved to Stockton, where Nathan died in 1919. The Flower family continued to be assessed for a house, a barn, and a fence on the Lewis/Gatzman/Davies/Baker land until the mid-1920s (noted as an old house in 1921); after that time, only a barn and a fence were listed on the assessment rolls.

Some of the parcels purchased by Nathan Flower evidently were patented by friends or employees, in order to sell them to him immediately upon them being proven. Others, however, were taken up by farming families that built dwellings, barns, and outbuildings and raised livestock. Most of the farmers who resided in the area in the 1880s and 1890s were assessed for the same types of property: a watch, furniture, firearms, a sewing machine, farming equipment, a harness, wagons, horses, colts, cows, hogs, poultry, and varying amounts of stock cattle. Only Patterson on Baker’s Flat and the Callahans in Sections 9 and 10 raised any amount of sheep. These “bedrock ranches” appeared to be subsistence farms, raising enough foodstuffs to supply family members, and enough grain and livestock to market for some small income.

1. Great Register of Voters 1888
2. Calaveras County Deed Book 41:28

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The lands taken up by members of the Callahan family from the 1870s through the 1890s may have been occupied by others in the 1850s and 1860s, but no deeds were located. By 1870, Thomas Harris and Elvira Callahan and their family of six children were residing on their ranch in the northwesterly portion of the Flowers Ranch (southwestern quarter of Section 10, T1N, R12E). That year, Thomas, a native of Ireland, was listed as a 44-year-old farmer with $200 in real estate and $1,475 in personal estate. In addition to Thomas, the household consisted of his wife, Elvira/Ellen, age 42; his blind brother-in-law “McGowan” (McCuon), age 37; and his children, Robert, Susan, George, Ellen, Austin, and Thomas. Callahan was naturalized in Calaveras County the following year and registered to vote at that same time.

Thomas Callahan’s assessment in 1873 noted a house, a barn, a fence, and a stone corral, with a wagon, a horse, a colt, 26 cattle, two goats, five sheep, and poultry. Thomas patented the land in 1885, and Ella M. Callahan (Elvira/Ellen) had patented the northwestern quarter two years previously. Thomas Harris Callahan was listed as a “cloth furnisher” in the 1880 census but as a farmer in the 1888 Great Register. In 1880, he was 56 and residing on the property with his wife, Elvira, a native of Kentucky, age 52; while all the children were born in California: Robert, 26, a rancher; George W., 21, a laborer; and Austin, 15, and Thomas Jr., 14, sheep herders. Daughters Susan, 24, and Ellen, 18, were keeping house with their mother.

By 1887, Thomas was assessed for the 160 acres with a house, a barn, and a fence, as well as furniture, a sewing machine, farming utensils, a buggy, a harness, two cows, two stock cattle, four dozen poultry, and a dog. After his death in 1895, the property, which had been increased to 640 acres, was conveyed to William Bruskey and then to John Manuel, who sold to N.M. Flower in 1897 ₁. In 1900, Elvira Callahan and her daughter Ellen and son-in-law Jefferson D. Boxall and their two children were residing in Copperopolis.

Thomas and Elvira’s son George patented the southeastern quarter of Section 10 in 1888, and their son Austin patented the northeastern quarter of Section 15 in 1891 ₂. George sold his land, which had been assessed for only a corral and a fence, to William Bruskey in March 1902 for $30 (Deed Book 11:423), and Austin sold his acreage to Nathan Flower in April 1894 for $550 (Deed Book 24:245). Apparently, no structures were on the land, and it was used for agricultural purposes in conjunction with the main Callahan Ranch.

1. Calaveras County Deed Book 30:120
2. Calaveras County Land Patent Maps

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