WILLIAM B. SMITH (1859-1917)

Above: William B. Smith pans for gold along a rocky creek in the Sunny Hill mining district. From the collection of Jeremy Tuggle.

William B. Smith was born to Gottlieb George Kaylor Smith and Elizabeth Jane (Lamberson) Smith, at Eagle Creek (now Ono) on May 10, 1859, and during the following year the Smith’s settled their family at Horsetown. He was the fourth of ten children born to his parents. William was educated at the Eagle Creek schoolhouse in Eagle Creek.

William grew up to be a life-long miner. He also married Elizabeth Rester at Igo on March 12, 1890, the bride was the daughter of John Rester, and his wife Annie. Their wedding was performed by the Reverend William S. Kidder. To this union there were eight children born to them:

1.  Anna Smith

2. Esther May Smith

3. Louisa Bella Smith

4. Gladys Smith

5. Willie B. Smith

6. Earl Douglas Smith 

7. Ruth Elizabeth Smith

8. Howard Smith

William and his wife Elizabeth purchased a residence at Sunny Hill, a few miles from the town of Ono. This is where most of his mining was done in the boundaries of the Sunny Hill mining district of Shasta County. He was a family man and he was a mining partner of Valentine Doll, who was also his brother-in-law, and married to William’s sister, Harriett.

By December of 1897, William B. Smith and Valentine Doll issued advertising Proof Of Labor notices in the local media for the Manzanita and Honeycomb Quartz Mines in the Sunny Hill mining district. There is a real estate transfer in April of 1898, stating the following:

"W.B. Smith and Elizabeth Smith to V. Doll and Hattie E. Doll, F. Barlow. H.A. Root and D.E. Alexander - Bond for deed $3,800 Honcycomb Mine, extension of Honeycomb Mine with mill right, ditch, and water right at Jerusalem Creek, Sec. T.30 N., R., 8., W., also two placer claims included."

William died on November 27, 1917, at Sunny Hill due to an illness of the stomach. There was no doctor present at the time of his death so the coroner was called in from Redding to perform a coroners investigation on his body. William B. Smith is buried at the Redding Cemetery (now Redding Memorial Park) next to his son Willie B. Smith.

William’s wife Elizabeth (Rester) Smith survived her husband by six years. She died on October 14, 1923, she is buried in the same cemetery as her husband. 

Note: Gottlieb George Kaylor Smith and Elizabeth Jane (Lamberson) Smith are the author’s great-great-great-great maternal grandparents, and William B. Smith is my great-great-great maternal uncle. I descend through his sister Harriett Emma (Smith) Doll.

Above: the headstone of William B. Smith at the Redding Memorial Park, in Redding. This photograph was taken by Jeremy Tuggle on January 10, 2021.

Resources:

1860 U.S. Census

1870 U.S. Census

1880 U.S. Census

Married - The Searchlight newspaper of Redding, March 22, 1890

Proof Of Labor - The Daily Free Press newspaper of Redding, December 1, 1897

Bond For A Deed - The Daily Free Press newspaper of Redding, April 16, 1898

Proof Of Labor - Honeycomb and Manzanita Quartz mines dated December 27, 1899

1900 U.S. Census

Proof Of Labor - Honeycomb and Manzanita Quartz mines dated January 8, 1901

The Searchlight newspaper of Redding, August 30, 1908

1910 U.S. Census

William B. Smith Dies At Sunny Hill - The Searchlight newspaper of Redding, November 28, 1917

Resident Of Ono, Shasta County, Dies - The Sacramento Union newspaper of Sacramento, November 29, 1917

1920 U.S. Census

Calvin Jefferson Smith, Mining Man written by Thelma Phillips Smith, The 1986 Covered Wagon, published annually by Shasta Historical Society, pages 42-45.

Valentine Doll written by Jeremy M. Tuggle, The 2011 Covered Wagon, published annually by Shasta Historical Society, pages 43-49. 

SP-037.1 Smith, Gottlieb George Kaylor, Pioneer Plaque File available at the Shasta Historical Society.

A Celebrated Producer of Gold: The Washington Mine

Miners working the vein of the Washington mine on the Washington mine property, date unknown. Courtesy of Shasta Historical Society.

Located about 2.4 miles north west of French Gulch in the French Gulch mining district is the Washington mine. The mine was located in 1852 by prospectors John Souter and John Syme. Together the original locators began working it as a placer mine. Through exploration work they discovered a decomposed oxidized outcropping vein of gold; they dubbed it the North-South vein. This vein became one of the two principal veins on the property and they began sluicing it.

This vein's yield was so tremendous that the owners began driving adits on the mining property and formed a major quartz mining operation. The Washington mine became the first gold quartz mine in Shasta County, as well as the first patented mine. Souter and Syme were quite pleased with the progress they were making; the two prospectors established the Washington Quartz Company and shares of stocks were split up between the partners that included: Emanuel Lewin, W.B. Stoddard, S.C. Snouch, Henry Warner, William Watson and additional parties.

The Shasta Courier newspaper, reported the following about the Washington Qaurtz Company on Saturday, April 16, 1853: “WASHINGTON QUARTZ COMPANY – The vein owned by this company has been yielding the most satisfactory results ever since it has been opened. Indeed we have sufficient evidence to justify the belief that this vein is not surpassed by richness in the State, and we are informed by Mr. Fehley that the vein cannot be worked out for years. We believe there is none of this company’s stock for sale. The company is composed of practical miners-men who do their own work, and consequently they have no more stampers employed than just a sufficient to keep a dozen or two of men profitably employed. They intend during the summer, however, to increase the extent of their operations, and take out the ore in still greater amounts. At present, all of the stockholders, if we are not much mistaken, are very quietly getting rich fast. Well, they are a good set of fellows, and deserve just such luck.”

By May of 1853, the mine produced a grand total of $2,181, and on September 17, 1853, the Shasta Courier reported, “A BIG LUMP – Mr. Swartz of the Washington Quartz Company, brought into our office the other day, a lump of amalgam weighing 20 lbs., and worth $3,864, the product of less than a week’s worth of work. He also exhibited to us several of the richest specimens of gold bearing quartz, taken from their vein, that it has ever been our privilege to behold. A short time since this company lost the track of their lead, but are now upon it again, and at present find it more productive than here to fore.”

Another principal vein on the mining property was the East-West vein, both veins were assayed at $600 per ton in gold, and up until 1854, the mine yielded an astonishing production total of $53,232. Further enhancements were made on the property during 1855 consisting of three shallow shafts and additional tunnel work. Their stamp mill continued crushing the ore of the mine on a regular basis. On March 18, 1868 a storm blew through the area and flooded the creeks above the mine causing severe damage to the mill located below. The stamp mill had to be rebuilt and the following year additional stamps were added making it a twenty-two stamp mill. That year the output reached $45,722 in gold. At the same time Syme became Superintendent and held that title until 1875.

The Washington Quartz Mining Company had a large pay roll of employees including Reverend William S. Kidder, a pioneer Baptist minister. A terrible incident on March 25, 1871 lead to the death of one of those employees. William J. Christopher was mining in a tunnel with his partner James Sinclair and fell down a 110 foot shaft. The company sent for Dr. Benjamin Shurtleff of Shasta and Dr. Thompson Plumb of French Gulch to examine him. Unfortunately Christopher died as a result of the fall. Accidental deaths and additional severe injuries would occur at the mine. Despite the dangers of the job, by the end of the year in 1871, the mine’s output reached a remarkable $31,153 in gold.

After 1872 the mine produced such staggering results that additional tunneling work was neccessay. Mining at the site continued well into the 1880’s. Souter and Syme retained ownership of the mine and the shareholders of the Washington Quartz Mining Company created a Board of Directors. In 1890, Shasta County mining reports estimated the mines production total between $500,000 to $600,000. Mining operations eventually became dormant at the mine. In 1891 further exploration work was being conducted. According to an excerpt from a state mineralogist report on the Washington mine, printed by the Shasta Courier newspaper on February 21, 1891: “The mine was opened by driving tunnels, five in number and are known as follows:No. 1 - 500 feetNo. 2 - 700 feetNo. 3 1/2 - 300 feetNo. 4 - 1,100 feetOriginal Crosscut - 1,380 feetThe cost of running the tunnels has varied from $3.50 to $13.50 per foot. The greatest vertical depth reached in the mine is four hundred and eighty feet. The length of ore shoot as far as known is four hundred feet."

By the date of the newpaper article the company cut and graded a fifteen mile road to and from the mine. During March of 1898, a miner named William Blagrave made a lucrative strike inside the Washington mine. He located a pocket which was reported to be assayed at $20,000, and the news of this strike was heralded across California.

According to the Sacramento Daily Union newspaper the mine was sold on March 9, 1907 to Farley & Mitchell for a total of $150,000. Work continued under the new ownership and in 1912 the production at the mine totaled between one and two million dollars of gold. The ore was treated by a pan-amalgamation and the results of this operation were favorable.

The Washington mine, date unknown. Courtesy of Shasta Historical Society.

Work at the mine was steady up until 1920. The Great Depression had a major impact on the mine and it experienced another period of dormancy. However, on March 15, 1922, interest in the mine developed and eventually a five stamp mill began crushing the ore of the mine, sporadically. Sporadic mining activity continued from 1942 through 1969. Between the 1970’s and 1990 the Washington mine was controlled by several different owners including Harry Feutrier and Tom Neal.

During 1990 a large strike occurred in the Washington mine in a vein which was dubbed as the Lucky 7. In 2004 the French Gulch Nevada Gold Mining Corporation purchased this celebrated mining property; a subsidiary company owned by the Bullion River Gold Corporation of Reno, Nevada. The mine is currently an active mining site under new ownership and mining operations on the property continue to yield rich deposits.

RESOURCES:

Place Names of Shasta County by Gertrude A. Steger revision by Helen Hinckley Jones, ©1966 by La Siesta Press, Glendale, California

Mines and Mineral Resources of Shasta County, California – County Report 6 – by Philip A. Lydon and J.C. O’ Brien ©1974 by California Division of Mines and Geology

Shasta Gold Corporation Website

A Celebrated Producer of Gold: the Washington Mine by Jeremy Tuggle - The Record Searchlight newspaper of Redding, November 11, 2016

KIMBALL PLAINS

Above: Major Gorham G. Kimball a co-owner of the Cone & Kimball Company of Red Bluff, Tehama County, California. From the Red Bluff Daily News newspaper edition of Red Bluff, December 22, 1904.

Kimball Plains was one of the smaller settlements of the Bald Hills in western Shasta County, which was located seven miles west of Cottonwood. Business partners, Joseph S. Cone and Major Gorham G. Kimball, of Tehama County, were the first owners of the tract of land which the community was developed on. Originally, the settlement started as a stock range for grazing purposes. This settlement was possibly named after their flock tender, William Kimball, no relation to Major Gorham G. Kimball.

Cone & Kimball soon discovered their land to be extremely valuable to new settlers who wanted to purchase the land for farming purposes. After many offers, the land was sold to a number of newcomers during the latter part of the 1870s. The first residence was located on the south side of Gas Point Road about one mile west of Dry Creek. At this location a water well from that first family still existed when local historian, Myrtle McNamar, published her book Way Back When in 1952.

Three or four families with young children settled, early on, at Kimball Plains which helped the residents establish the Kimball School District on August 5, 1879. Eventually, a one-room schoolhouse was erected in the area. It’s first teacher was A.R. Eldridge. Later, a Baptist congregation was formed in the area and they met inside the Kimball schoolhouse on Sunday morning's. This church was led by my paternal great-great-great grandfather, the Reverend William S. Kidder, a resident of Eagle Creek (now Ono).

Kimball Plains lacked a post office to send and receive mail. The nearest post office to this settlement was located at Gas Point. The mail was delivered from there by their postmaster to the local residents of this community. Then in 1882, Major Gorham G. Kimball and a man named J.C. Tyler sold 640 acres of land to woman named Mary Wright who bought the land for grazing purposes. The following year, A.R. Eldridge was still the teacher of this community who enrolled thirty-seven students at that time into his class.

In April of 1885, the agricultural scene at Kimball Plains changed a little when the discovery of a quartz ledge was made at Kimball's stock range, and the Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, reprinted the following article from the Red Bluff Sentinel newspaper of Red Bluff:

"New Discovery - Major Kimball and Will Lunning returned last evening from the Bald Hills country, where they have been for several days surveying the outside lines of the Major's  stock ranch, preparatory to fencing the entire tract. While surveying they ran across a quartz ledge, and knocked off some rock, which they brought with them to be examined by experts and possibly sent to San Francisco  to be assayed. For outside, surface rock, it looks very good, and in fact, native silver can be detected with the naked eye. The rock looks like croppings that come from the Bully Choop mines. The Major further states that frost cooked the leaves on oak trees, and great damage was done to fruits of all kinds. - Red Bluff Sentinel."

Kimball Plains wasn't known as a mining community, but mainly it was settled for agricultural purposes, and when the assessments of the ore returned the ore wasn't as lucrative as Kimball & Lunning hoped for. The mining excitement ceased and it did not create a new boom to the area. During the 1890s, Franz Venzke, a native of Germany, settled at Kimball Plains as a farmer with his wife Sally (Alberg) Venzke.

Then in September of 1894, the Kimball Plains Schoolhouse caught fire and burned down. After the fire, the students were transferred to the Cottonwood school to advance their education. In February of 1901, this excerpt of an article from the Red Bluff Daily News newspaper of Red Bluff reported the following news:

"Within the past few days parties representing two large oil companies from the East, one from Massachusetts the other of Pennsylvania have been trying to secure the sheep range of Major G.G. Kimball, located about thirty miles north-west of this place in what is known as the Bald Hills of Shasta County, and comprising of something like 5500 to 6000 acres for the purpose of boring oil. Their proposition to him, as it was learned, was to sink wells on the place at their own expense and offering him large inducements for the privilege, believing from their experts' opinions that a gusher will be unearthed on these lands."

Just like the earlier mining excitement, this discovery ceased action as well. The Bald Hills didn't produce a lucrative oil strike as it was originally opined by the experts. Major Gorham G. Kimball held onto his land, and there was no new boom to the area of Kimball Plains. During that same year, local resident Franz Venzke was remarried to Mary Rockhold. Then in 1912, Venzke's eldest daughter was married at the home of the bride's father at Kimball Plains to William B. Moore. Beside's being a farmer, Franz Venzke, was also a land owner who kept buying numerous pieces of land in the area.

The Kimball School District was re-established on November 14, 1916, after a new schoolhouse was erected for their community that year. This school was located on the north side of Gas Point Road just east of Dry Creek and it was their second and last schoolhouse. In 1920, Mrs. Gertrude Carter was the teacher of the Kimball schoolhouse.

By February of 1920, Franz Venzke had purchased an additional eight hundred acres of land near Gas Point which gave him a total of 2,000 acres in that section of the county. There is also a story which was heralded by the Blue Lake Advocate newspaper of Blue Lake, California about the Kimball school and it describes the following account:

"Borrowed Children Keep Shasta School Alive - Redding (Shasta Co.) Jan. 26., Kimball Plains School District, four miles west of Cottonwood has a $1,500 school house but no children of school age within its boarders. Mrs. Alice Stone, teacher, keeps up the school and saves the district by "borrowing" school children from neighboring districts and taking them to school every day in her automobile. There is a fresh crop of children now under school age, coming up in Kimball Plains district and there will be no trouble another year to maintain the school with the district product." (SIC)

Franz Venzke lived in the area until his death in November of 1946. He is buried in the Cottonwood Cemetery. Two years later, the Kimball schoolhouse closed down due to poor attendance. Today, not much is left of this early settlement. However, Kimball Plains Road just off Gas Point Road retains the name of this former community.

The Kimball Plains schoolhouse at Kimball Plains. Teacher: Inez (Moore) Ruddy with her students, circa 1945. Courtesy of Shasta Historical Society.

RESOURCES:

The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, December 31, 1881

Our Schools - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, March 3, 1883

New Discovery - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, April 25, 1885

The Red Bluff Daily News newspaper of Red Bluff, September 29, 1894

Eastern Oil Companies Looking This Way - The Red Bluff Daily News newspaper of Red Bluff, February 22, 1901

Sheep Feed Burned Out - The Red Bluff Daily News newspaper of Red Bluff, July 19, 1901

Major Kimball Answers Summons - The Red Bluff Daily News newspaper of Red Bluff, December 22, 1904

Shasta Couple Marry - The Sacramento Union newspaper of Sacramento, June 25, 1912

Shasta County Ranch Sold - The Sacramento Union newspaper of Sacramento, February 18, 1920

Cottonwood School Ends Spring Term - The Red Bluff Daily News newspaper of Red Bluff, April 20, 1920

Borrowed Children Keep Shasta School Alive - The Blue Lake Advocate newspaper of Blue Lake, January 31, 1931

Way Back When - Myrtle McNamar, published by C.A.T. Publishing of Redding, California, 1952. 282 pages.

School Districts of Shasta County 1853-1955 compiled by Veronica Satorius

History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento Valley, California. An Historical Story of the State's Marvelous from its earliest settlement to the Present Time. By Prof. J.M. Guinn, A.M. The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill. © 1906

Franz Venzke: Find A Grave Memorial

U.S., Appointments of U.S. Postmasters, 1832-1971

A Journey Through Time: Ono and the Bald Hills by Jeremy M. Tuggle, with an introduction by Al M. Rocca; copyright 2008, published by Preserving Memories, in Charlotte, North Carolina. ISBN Number: 978-0-9742576-8-6

History of the office of Shasta County Assessor, 1852-1994

Timeline:

 1851-1853 - Thomas T. Cabaniss

 1853-1854 - Samuel E. Jack

 1854-1856 - William S. Hughes

 1856-1857 - James C. Hayburn

 1857-1858 - R.B. Snee

 1858-1860 - William H. Angel

 1860-1862 - B. Gartland

 1862-1864 - Caleb Watkins

 1864-1872 - A.P. Ladd

 1872-1876 - D.O. Osborn

 1876-1880 - Quintius N. Atkins

 1880-1886 - William S. Kidder

1886-1890 - Quintius N. Atkins

 1890-1894 - Thomas B. Smith

 1894-1902 - Alexander Ludwig

 1902-1906 - Richard E. Collins

 1906-1922 - M. Dempse Lack

 1922-1934 - Louis L. Garrecht

 1934-1952 - John L. Klukkert

 1952-1960 - Myron R. Harrison

 1960-1974 - Robert O. McMillen

 1974-1978 - James T. Hull

 1978-1994 - Virginia A. Loftus

 1994 - A. Cris Andrews

Compiled from listings available at Shasta Historical Society in Redding.