History of El Dorado County, 1883
Paolo Sioli

Excerpts about Folsom

(Note to the reader: this text is taken verbatim, including any misspellings, long sentences or paragraphs, and unusual choice of words. We wish to preserve the flavor of the writing style along with the actual content.)

NEGRO HILL
The first mining work done in the vicinity of Negro Hill was on the east side, adjoining the river, by a company of Mormons, in the year 1848, soon after, but in the same year, a company of Spaniards went to work on the south side of the hill, in Spanish Ravine, from a strip of ground about a thousand feet in length by one and a-half feet in width, and three feet in depth they took out over seven thousand dollars. The next work was in a deep sand bank just at the mouth of Spanish Ravine, in the fall of 1849, by August B. Newhall, from Lynn, Mass., a Negro by the name of Kelsey, a Methodist preacher, and other Negroes; this locality was called Little Negro Hill, it being located between the river and the present Negro Hill. The gravel in said sand bank paid three hundred dollars and upwards, per day, to a company of five men. Little Negro Hill was discovered by Cornelius Van Noy, George Denett, Thomas Burns, Platt Southard, M. Fogety, John Farley and John Donelly; the whole hill paid from two to three ounces per day to the hand, the dirt being carted to the river and washed through a long tom. About this time (fall of 1849) three men, Messrs. Vosey, Long and French started a store and boarding house, the house being known as the Civil Usage House, and a good business was done here. Soon after Mr. Fish built another store in the vicinity and did good business up to 1852.

In the spring of 1852, Conrad Benniger, Harvey Smith and Darius Clark sunk holes on the second bench back from the river, and found good dirt, it being a large flat. In one week after, there was every foot claimed and staked off for mining, and two Negroes from Massachusetts started a store and boarding house, around which quite a Negro village sprung up, and was called Big Negro Hill. On another portion of the flat the white men built quite a town, representing the present Negro Hill. Here Thos. Jenkins and Richard Rickard built a store, and Thomas Bennett and Wm. Trengove built a boarding house, being each the first one in town. The same year (1852) Dewitt Stanford, a brother of Leland Stanford, built a grocery store at Negro Hill, as did Horace and Frank Barton. Another store was built about the same time by Ben. Avery, our late minister to China, he opened with a lot of drugs, Yankee notions, etc. A short time later, about the fall of 1852 or spring of 1853, the Chinese began to flock in the camp, and built on another portion of the flat. So that by the end of 1853, the town could boast of a thousand or twelve hundred inhabitants, with stores of every description, saloons and dance houses by the dozen, and all seemed to do a thriving business.

In the year 1853, Leander Jennings and Alexander Fraser built a ditch from Salmon Falls to Negro Hills, a distance of eight miles, which carried about 300 inches of water, sold at $1.00 per inch, by which nearly the whole of the top of the hill has been sluiced off, and paid well. In 1855, Messrs. Clark, Boyd, Richards and Eastman built another ditch from near Salmon Falls, running it to Negro Hill, Growlers Flat, Jenny Lind Flat, Massachusetts Flat, Chile Hill, Condemned Bar and Long Bar, all of which are in a circuit of three miles; so as a matter of course all the miners came to Negro Hill to buy their goods, and the result was, that business men did well for five or six years. After that the mines fell gradually in the hands of the Chinese and business rapidly declined. All the white men who remained in the district, with the exception of two or three, are now engaged in farming. There is plenty of mining ground in this district yet untouched, but the ditches are not high enough to carry water to it. A preliminary survey for a ditch from near Auburn to Negro Hill has recently been made, and reported upon favorably. When such a ditch is constructed much treasure will be unearthed in this section.

We have to refer to a visit of Judge Lynch at this place in the time when Thomas Jenkins and Richard Rickard were building their store in 1852; a Negro claiming the illustrious name of Andrew Jackson, stole a specimen worth about $10.00, and some clothing from the residence of Mr. Keith, the blacksmith, for which he was hung to a tree, near the Negro quarters, by a mob, before noon.

In 1855 a lot of drunken white fellows on Negro Hill attacked the Negro quarters and in the fight one Negro was killed, for which Mr. Drew and others were arrested and tried at Coloma but were acquitted. 

Growler's Flat was opened in 1852, by Henry Down, an English sailor, who was always growling, hence the name.

Jenny Lind Flat was opened by Nathaniel Sutton and others 1852.

Massachusetts Flat was opened in 1854, by Dr. Townsend. All paid well. At Jenny Lind Flat one night in 1853, a young man borrowed blankets to sleep in, the next morning he had forgotten about this fact, and walked off with the blankets; a crowd went after him and brought him back, flogged him until the blood trickled down his heels; they then took up a subscription in money and gave it to him with the advice never to steal again.

Of late an agent of a Baltimore firm was here examining a chrome iron mine, the lead is ten or twelve feet across, and picks very free, it can be traced from the North to the South fork of the American river, a distance of twelve miles. The result of said examination has been the letting of a contract for a ship cargo of chrome iron, to be delivered at Folsom at $6.50. There is iron enough in the mountains to supply the whole United States.

SALMON FALLS
Located on the banks of the South Fork of the American river, at the mouth of Sweetwater creek. The name of the town was derived from the cataract in the American river near the site of the town, whither the Indians used to come down from the mountains to catch salmon, of which the river abounded. Early in 1849 very rich diggings had been discovered by Mormons at Higgins' Point, about a quarter of a mile below town, close to the river, and called after Higgins, the first person who settled here with his family--sometime during 1848 -- coming from Australia to California, and he consequently opened the first store. R. K. Berry, from New York, arrived here in September, 1849, in company with H. Passmore, Thomas Brown, H. Williams, Larraway Benham and ______ Barlow. O. Smith, who afterwards kept the first store at Uniontown, and one Haskell were arrivals of that year also. Up to this time it had been only a Mormon settlement, but Mr. Berry's idea was not satisfied with such things. With great energy, in the spring of 1850, he want on to take out a possessory claim of the land, laying out a town there, which was surveyed and platted by P. N. Madegan in May, 1850. The streets were laid out after a regular square network. Those running parallel with the river were named : Water, State, Government and Washington streets. Across the Sweetwater creek was Sacramento street, and those running across, up from the river, were called High, Polk, Taylor, Clay, Brower and El Dorado streets. The population during the summer of 1850 was growing fast, and plenty of town lots were sold. among the purchasers we find the names of Riely, Fradion, Berry, Bowls, Cramer, Smith, Hunnewell, Coon, Plumb, Downs, Higgins, Burk, Beasly, Cooledge, Kelsey, Haskell, Miller & Ford, Brooks, Richards, Asbeel, Van Chausse, Whipple, Boyd, Gifford, Rice, Fulberton, Brownell, Kelley & Tate, Packwood, later of Pilot Hill; Friedschlager, Lamarre, who struck the first digging on the flat; Ramsey, Markham, Spong, Walls, Brown, Dr. McMeans, Hayes and Otis. 

Berry opened another store in the spring of 1850, located on the bank of Sweetwater creek, and got the appointment as the first alcalde of the district. Crug kept the first hotel in town, but he sold out to Berry and went east; the first physicians in town were Dr. McMeans and Dr. Hook. Mrs. Higgins was the first white woman in the community, and kept on so for quite a while until Mrs. Berry and her sister arrived from the East, in the fall of 1852. A Post office was established here as early as 1851, with T. R. Brown postmaster, and a regular stage line to Sacramento passed here since 1851. School was first taught by Miss Charlotte A. Phelps, now Mrs. Ed. T. Raun of San Francisco, then of Coloma, who owned the bridges at Coloma, Spanish Bar, Kelsey and Salmon Falls. The first bridge across the American river here was built in 1853, this was washed away and another one was put up; the bridge property being a very well paying business, this being the main road from Sacramento to all those mining camps in the northern part of this county to all the river bars on the Middle and North Forks of the American river, and to all the mines beyond there in Placer county. In 1856, Mr. Raun sold out his interest in all those bridges to Richards and Pearish, and later Mr. Richards was the sole owner of this bridge. The railroad, however, which took away the t4ravel from this road and the giving out of the river bars, did not give a profitable outlook, and since the high-water washed away the bridge for the second time it has not been rebuilt.

The town that in a short time did grow from a few Mormon huts to a community of some note, with a population of about 3,000, with many stores, and other pertainings of a mining town, that could make some show with three well built up streets, with good paying mines, on the flat as well as on the river bar, is gone. All that is left is a store, the school house and Mrs. Berry's residence and hotel; the latter was partly erected in 1850, this had been shipped around Cape Horn from the East, and was bought by Mr. Berry to make some debt good. The trees in front of it were set out in the fall of 1854, and January, 1855.

There were some mining camps in this township around which some little towns had been built up; their fate, however, was similar to that of Salmon Falls; only a few scattered roofs remind one of the location of the town site. One of them was Pinchem gut, or Pinchem tight, located at the junction of Pinchem ravine and Weber creek, near an old saw-mill. A man by the name of Ebbert kept a store and saloon there, and taking out his pay for drink or goods in gold dust, used to pinch the gold dust so tight in order to get as much as possible. He was a shoemaker by trade, and a German by nationality. The first school in the district was taught be a Frenchman in the house of Mr. Etzel, another storekeeper, and Miss Van Doran succeeded him. Near by was another town, Jayhawk, named after the Missourians, who first settled down on the place. On the Coloma road there was Green Springs, once the location of Green valley Post office, which is now located about four miles farther east close on to Rose Springs, so called from the abundance of wild roses growing there around the springs. There was a store kept on the place till 1868, also a saloon and a blacksmith shop. Wing's Store, the place where polls are kept now, in this precinct, used to be a store in former years. McDowell Hill on the South Fork, below Salmon Falls, once had a population of about 100 miners with four stores. 

CRIMINAL ANNALS
Jim, and Jim Patterson, Indians, indicted for the murder of Charles Gay, on June 26th, 1861, near Salmon Falls, found guilty of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to suffer the extreme penalty of the law. Their execution took place on November 1st, in the jail yard. Their bodies were permitted to hang twenty minutes, when they were cut down, placed in coffins and delivered to some Indians, who conveyed them to Gold Hill to Captain John, Chief of the tribe, who burnt them in due form.

James K. Page was executed at 8:15 A. M. , on August 10th, 1883, in the jail-yard at Placerville, for the murder of an unknown man in New York ravine, near Folsom, May 10th, 1883.

Stage Accident - a Stage Driver Drowned.
On the morning of March 27th, 1861, the stage from Placerville to Folsom met with a very serious accident, at the crossing of Deer creek, on the Placerville and Sacramento stage road. Leander or "John" White, driving the forward stage, Mr. Crowder the second, and on reaching the crossing of Deer creek, White found the flood running and the bridge washed away. He hesitated a moment, and meantime the second coach came near. Crowder seeing what was going on advised him not to attempt to cross; this warned the passengers to get out; White, however, thought he could go over easily enough and let his horses plunge into the deep and rapid water. But no sooner had the coach entered the water, then it was swung round and overturned, uncoupling the forward running gear and enabling the horses to escape. The driver, though, fastened by means of the drawn-up leather apron, was floated out, rose two or three times in making efforts to gain the bank, but was taken away by the swift current, and he disappeared under the water. His body was found in some driftwood at an old dam, and in the endeavor to get it Mr. Shed came near enough drowning also. Mr. Leander White was one of the earliest inhabitants of El Dorado county, and one of the pioneer stage drivers. He left California late in 1855, going east and to Canada, from where he returned accompanied by his wife, who was left with two helpless children at Sacramento to mourn his sudden death.

Chrome Iron.
East of Negro Hill, near the foot of the Georgetown divide, is an extensive mine of chrome iron, owned by the Mitchell Bros. It has been traced from the South to the North Fork of the American river but whether it can be profitably operated for the entire distance of twelve miles, is not yet known. The ore is worth $6.50 per ton at Folsom, and it costs $2.50 per ton for hauling, the balance goes between labor and profit.  About a dozen men are employed at the mine, part stoping out ore, the rest in prospecting for spots on the ledge, and from six to ten tons can be delivered daily at Folsom. Its use in the manufacture of paints renders its extraction profitable, while common iron ore would not be worth touching; it is shipped to San Francisco, and from there carried all the way to Baltimore or England for its manipulation. Still another chrome iron mine exists near Garden Valley, the ore from here has to be hauled to Auburn station, and is shipped further on, to Boston.

More History - History of Sacramento County, 1880