Lassen County, California
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Lassen County was created on April 1, 1864 from Shasta County and Plumas County. Lassen County lost territory to no other county. The County has had three Boundary Changes:

Territory was in Shasta County from 1850 to 1864 when it was moved to Lassen County.
Territory in Butte County from 1850 to 1854 was in Plumas County from 1854 to 1864 when it was moved to Lassen County.
Territory in Butte County from 1850 to 1854 was in Plumas County from 1854 to 1872 when it was added to Lassen County.

The County name was derived from Mount Lassen, which was named for Peter Lassen, one of General Fremont's guides and a famous trapper, frontiersman and Indian fighter. He was killed by the Paiutes at the base of the mountain in 1859. The County Seat is Susanville . See also County History for more historical details.

Counties adjacent to Lassen County are Sierra County (southeast), Plumas County (south), Shasta County (west), Modoc County (north), Washoe County, Nevada (east).

Lassen County Cities Include Susanville. CDPs (A census-designated place (CDP) is a type of place or area identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes) Include Westwood. Unincorporated Communities Include Bieber, Doyle, Herlong, Janesville, Ravendale, Termo

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Extended History

Lassen County Courthouse
Completed 1917

The first settlers of what was then known as Honey Lake Valley presumed that they were part of the Nevada Territory, though officials of Plumas County insisted that the valley belonged to California. After tensions on jurisdiction and taxation culminated in a shootout in February 1863, a survey of state boundaries determined that the valley was indeed part of California, and Lassen County was established. The Masonic Lodge and the Magnolia Saloon served as courthouses until a two-story wooden building was constructed in 1867. In 1915, residents approved a bond measure for a new courthouse built of native stone. It remains in use and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places

This is one of California's trans-Sierra counties, being situated wholly to the east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The western third of Lassen, reaching at some points the summit of the Sierra, is elevated and rugged, the remainder consisting of valleys, alkali flats, and sage plains, over which are scattered numerous short mountain chains, straggling hills, and isolated buttes. Although much of the soil is sandy and barren, or rendered unproductive through the presence of alkaline deposits, the most of it is naturally rich, and can be made to produce good crops of grain and the hardier fruits, by the aid of irrigation. Without this, however, these products cannot be matured, owing to the shortness of the warm season, the elevation of this region ranging from four to eight thousand feet. While fruit, vegetables, and the cereals are grown here to some extent, stock-raising forms the principal business of the inhabitants. There are heavy forests of pine and spruce on the mountains to the west, but the rest of the county contains only a very sparse growth of pine and juniper, fit only for fuel. Lassen, as a whole, is but poorly watered. Pit River, making a violent detour from its regular course, dips into the northwestern angle of the county. This river is said to have been named after the numerous pits dug along its borders by Indians. Aside from this, Clear Creek, a southerly branch of Pit River, Pine Creek, running south into Eagle Lake, and Susan River, rising in the Sierra and flowing southeast into Honey Lake, constitute the principal streams in this county. Many small creeks, issuing from the mountains, affording on their way means for much irrigation, are swallowed up after making their way a short distance out into the arid plains. Although there are a number of small lakes in the high Sierra, the only bodies of water of any size in the county are Eagle and Honey lakes, each, when full, covering an area of about fifty square miles. The former is very deep, but the latter is shallow, and sometimes nearly dries up.

The most prominent peak in California is Lassen's, on which are found many curious and interesting features. There are four distinct summits, the highest of which is 10,577 feet above sea level. Between these apical points is an extinct crater. The mountain is easy of ascent.

The principal valley in this county is that of Honey Lake, 20 x 40 miles in extent. This, with Elysian and Long valleys, were the most important section of the county until within a few years. At first they were in Plumas, the parent county. Honey Lake and Honey Lake Valley were named from the honey-dew found on the grass and shrubbery, of which the Indians are very fond, and from which they made a sort of molasses for their food. This honeydew is a deposit of two species of plant lice.

James P. Beckwourth was probably the first white man to visit Honey Lake Valley, so far as we have any definite account.

Eagle Lake is a beautiful sheet of cold water having an area of about sixty square miles, in the extreme north end of Honey Lake Valley.

Peter Lassen, after whom the county and other objects in this region are named, was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, August 7, 1800; learned the blacksmith's trade in 1829, and emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, and then to Missouri. In 1839 he came to Oregon and within a year or so came down into California, first to Sutter's Fort and then to San José, etc. In 1841 he built a saw-mill near Santa Cruz, and early in 1843 sold it to Graham. It was in 1843, while in the service of Captain Sutter, that he, in company with John Bidwell and John Bruheim, pursued a party of immigrants on their way to Oregon, overtaking them at Red Bluff and recovering some stolen animals. Lassen, admiring the northern end of the Sacramento Valley, resolved to revisit it with a view of making it his permanent home. Accordingly he obtained a grant of land from Governor Micheltorena. He left Sutter's in December, 1843, for his new home; but high water stopped him in the neighborhood of the Marysville Buttes, where he wintered until February, when he completed his journey, and built the first civilized habitation north of Marysville; was naturalized in 1844 and obtained his land grant of Bosquejo on Deer Creek in Tehama County. In 1850 he sold half his rancho and stock and engaged in an unfortunate steamboat speculation at Sacramento, which ruined him financially. In 1851 he settled in Indian Valley, Plumas County, and in 1855 in Honey Lake Valley, Lassen County, where he was a miner and farmer. April 29, 1859, while on a prospecting tour north of Pyramid Lake, he was killed by the Piute Indians or by white men disguised as such; he was then fifty-nine years old. The grant referred to lies now in Tehama County, on Deer Creek. Thenceforward for a long time Lassen's ranch was the most important point in northeastern California. It was from this place that Fremont started on his journey from the valley to Oregon, in the spring of 1846, and it was Peter himself who guided .Lieutenant Gillespie, a few days later, in search of the Pathfinder, and overtook him one memorable night on the banks of Klamath Lake.

"Lassen's Cut-off" is a route through the deserts and mountains discovered by Lassen and Paul Richeson in 1848.

Early in the spring of 1851 a prospecting party of eighty men, headed by a man named Noble and now known as Noble's party, after crossing the Indian Valley, passed through the mountains to Honey Lake Valley. They soon returned and disbanded, but Noble, who was impressed with the value of the pass, went on to Shasta then the chief town in the extreme northern portion of the State, and made known his discovery to the enterprising business men there. The pass was subsequently known as Noble's Pass. The business men there hired Noble to go to the Humboldt Valley in order to persuade immigrants to come by way of the new route and so on to Shasta. Noble went but found much opposition and even a menace of violence if he persisted in persuading immigrants to leave the old and well known trail. But a few consented to try the new route, and, following the Lassen or Oregon trail as far as Black Rock, struck across the desert twenty-five miles to Granite Creek, thence sixteen miles to Buffalo Springs, thence nine miles to Mud Springs, then seventeen miles to Honey Lake Valley, which they crossed at the present site of Susanville, and crossed the summit of the Sierra by Noble's Pass, following the course of Deer Creek to its mouth. As soon as it became demonstrated that this route possessed superior advantages in the matter of food and water, as well as having a shorter distance than any other, agents were kept stationed at the intersection with the overland trail for the purpose of turning the immigration over this route to the northern mines. That year and for a number of years thereafter this route was traveled a great deal. In 1853 it was shortened and still further improved.

After cutting twenty tons of wild hay for his stock, for fear the snows might be too deep for forage, Lassen built a long, low log cabin, fifty feet long, sixteen feet wide and only six logs high, and covered it with a shake roof. At each end was a room 16 x 20, one of which was used as a store-room. The openings to the outside world were a door and a window three-feet square, over which barley sacks were nailed to keep out the cold. A small room in the center was his sleeping department, and here he was said also to have kept an extra bed for a traveler or a friend. In this rude hut the pioneers of Lassen County found their temporary dwelling place for a quarter of a century.

In 1853 Isaac Roop took up a mile square at the head of Honey Lake Valley; in 1855 Moses Mason took 400 acres adjoining him, but did not remain long.

NATAQUA.

This word, Indian for woman, was the name of the " Territory of Honey Lake Valley." It lay east of the summit of the Sierra and within the great Nevada Basin. The people of this region in 1855—'56 began to feel the need of a systematic civil government. They seemed to be beyond the limits of California. Accordingly, April 26, 1856, they met at the Roop House (the "Old Fort"), elected Lassen to the chair and Isaac Roop secretary. They proceeded in regular order to organize an independent territory, by drawing up such regulations as they felt the most need of. They were substantially the laws which the miners generally adopted. The territory supposed to be covered by this government was about 50,000 square miles,—almost as large as the State of Illinois. It reached eastward half way across the State of Nevada and comprised several counties within the State of California.

It is amusing now to think of these twenty men meeting together and forming a territory of such vast dimensions, especially when we call to mind the fact that in Washoe, Eagle and Carson valleys and Gold Cañon there were people enough to outnumber them ten to one, who were not consulted in this disposition of themselves; and further, not one of this corps of law-makers lived within the boundaries they themselves set for the new territory.

Under this regime a large number of locations of land claims were recorded that season. By the close of the year 36,840 acres had been taken up and recorded, being about 14,000 more than is now actually cultivated. In 1857 the board of supervisors of Plumas County organized Honey Lake Township, including the central portion of this territory, and the citizens there met and demonstrated in a stately document, protesting that they had doubts of being within the limits of the State of California, etc.; and this year they appointed Judge James M. Crane as a delegate to Congress and urge the organization of a territory in Western Utah.

Crane went to Washington, and February 18, 1858 wrote to his constituents that a bill to organize a new territory would assuredly pass both Houses of Congress. Congress failing to recognize the importance of this movement, the people again met and adopted a code of laws to serve until they were organized into a territory by the national Congress. In 1859 they adopted a constitution, elected Crane as a delegate for Congress, and Isaac M. Roop as Governor. For the election of delegates a total of 817 votes were cast. The president of the convention, in his certificate of the election of Governor Roop, said that he was elected Governor of said territory "by a large majority." Crane died, and J. J. Musser, the president of the convention, was elected to fill the vacancy.

In 1860 a Government census was taken, when 476 persons were found to be resident within the valley, and the next year the people began local government under the auspices of Plumas County and State of California. Historians have had considerable sport in quoting literatim et punctuatim their ungrammatical documents, which exhibited considerable ignorance mixed up with some knowledge.

March 2, 1861, Congress established the Territory of Nevada, including the Honey Lake region. The Nevada Government undertook, in 1862, to rule this section, and organized the County of Hoop. In a little over a year California, which had been rather slow, finally took possession of this tract, and accordingly Judge Mott came to Susanville and administered the oath of office to the county officials January 20, 1863.

THE SAGE BRUSH WAR.

The action of the Nevada authorities soon precipitated a conflict between the officials of Roop and Plumas counties to maintain their jurisdiction over the disputed territory. The first gun was fired by Hon. John S. Ward, Probate Judge of Roop County, who issued an injunction restraining William J. Young, a justice of the peace elected for Plumas County, from performing his official functions. The justice failed to respect the mandate of Judge Ward, and was fined $100 for contempt of court. The next step was an order from the County Court of Plumas restraining Ward and W. H. Naileigh (sheriff) from exercising jurisdiction in any way in Honey Lake Valley. These officials refused to obey the order, and Judge Hogan issued warrants for their arrest. The Plumes County sheriff, E. H. Pierce, and his deputy, James Byers, went to Susanville and arrested the refractory judge and sheriff and started to convey them to Quincy. Travel was difficult, and before they could complete their duty an armed mob of seventy-five or one hundred men collected at the old Roop cabin; now called "Fort Defiance," prepared for war. The sheriff with forty men took possession of a barn 200 yards distant. He sent out five men to bring in a stick of hewn timber for the purpose of better fortifying his place. The fort fired on the men, seriously wounding one. The barn returned fire, and this fire was kept up for about four hours. A consultation was had late in the afternoon, under a flag of truce, with no result.

As acquisitions were constantly made to the "mob" at the fort, a deputation of citizens persuaded Sheriff Pierce to suspend operations until both the Governors of Nevada and California could be consulted. Governor Stanford appointed Robert Robinson to visit Governor Clemens of Nevada and consult with him what to do. It was finally agreed that each State appoint a representative to run the boundary line; and until that was completed Plumas County should have jurisdiction as far east as the eastern end of Honey Lake; and several minor conditions were stipulated. The Surveyor General, by request of the California Legislature April 27, 1863, directed a survey of the east line of the State of California. John F. Kidder was appointed by a surveyor general to do the work, and Governor Clemens appointed Butler Ives on the part of Nevada Territory to accompany him in the work. The work was accordingly done, throwing Aurora, which was also in the disputed district, seven miles into Nevada. The remainder of the line was completed in 1865. The survey made by Von Schmidt, in 1876 threw the eastern line of California from Lake Tahoe north a few miles further east.

Of course it was a hardship for the people of the Honey Lake Valley to be subject to a county-seat so far west as Quincy and over the summit of the mountains; and for their relief the new county of Lassen was formed, from the northeastern portion of Plumas and eastern portion of Shasta County, April 1, 1864. Officers were elected and local, government began to run smoothly. When the County of Modoc was organized, with great difficulty and after a hard struggle by its citizens, Lassen County maintained the integrity of its territory. About the time Lassen County was formed settlers began to enter the extreme eastern end of Siskiyou County. Stock-raising was the first and is still the leading industry.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Lassen County was created by act of the Legislature, April 1, 1864, from the eastern parts of Shasta and Plumas counties, there having been included within its boundaries a strip of territory that prior to 1862 had been claimed by the Territory of Nevada, constituting the western half of Roop County, in that Territory. From a portion of it and the counties south, an effort was made in the Legislature of 1872 to create the county of "Donner," but in vain.

In the fall of 1871 the people of Surprise Valley petitioned the Legislature to create a new county from the north end of Plumas and eastern portion of Siskiyou. A counter petition was presented by those residing in Big Valley and the settlements along Pit River, as the proposed county-seat was as far away as the one they had. The measure failed in the Legislature. In 1874 a bill was introduced in that body for the creation of that territory under the name of Canby, in honor of the brave and faithful general who was killed by the Modoc Indians under a flag of truce. The measure was again defeated, and another bill was immediately introduced for the formation of the county of Summit, out of the eastern end of Siskiyou alone. This bill passed and became a law February 14, 1874, and the name of the county changed to Modoc.

The northeastern portion of California has been the scene of innumerable depredations by the Indians. They have been made by three tribes,—the Washoe or Wasso, the Pah-Ute (variously spelled) and the Pit River,—the latter being the worst. The first principal outbreak was in 1857. The troubles of this season are generally referred to as the Potato war, owing to the cause of the difficulties. The troublesome savages were of the Pit River tribe, and a company of settlers, under Captain William Weatherbow [Weatherlow], and accompanied by Winnemucca and a band of his Pah-Ute braves, went out against the savages and punished them severely. They, however, continued to annoy the settlers for the next three years, when they were chastised by General Crook.

January 13, 1860, Dexter E. Demming was killed by the Smoky Creek band of the PahUtes, and the citizens petitioned Governor Roop to follow up and chastise the Indians on the border. Roop asked the Department of the Pacific for aid, but in vain. In the meantime a number of white men were killed by the savages. Aid was sent from California, and the Washoe Regiment, composed of volunteers from California and Nevada, was organized at Virginia City and marched out 544 strong, under Colonel Jack Hays. They were joined by 207 United States troops, under Captain J. M. Stewart. June 2 they had a stubborn battle with the Pah-Utes near Pyramid Lake, routing them. Soon afterward another Indian panic occurred and Captain Weatherbow [Weatherlow] again drove them away.

The Pioneer Society for Lassen County was organized in 1882, residence prior to July 1, 1860, being the condition of membership.

The Sage Brush, is the title of the first newspaper in Lassen County, started July 1, 1865, by A. C. Longmore, an Englishman who had traveled extensively in tropical countries. August 10, 1867, he was succeeded by A. T. Bruce. September 5, 1868, John C. Partridge bought it and changed the name to Lassen Sage Brush; afterward it was changed to the Lassen Advocate. D. C. Slater started the Modoc Independent, the first newspaper in that county.

Lying on the north and west of Honey Lake is a tract of 20,000 acres of tule swamp land. Until 1861 this was known as the Schaefer ranch, but at the outbreak of the Rebellion the majority of the settlers were sympathizers with the Southern cause, and the name " Tule Confederacy" was conferred upon it by the neighbors. The present settlers are a well-educated and prosperous class of farmers.

Susanville, the county-seat of Lassen County, was named in honor of Susan, the daughter of its first settler, Isaac N. Roop. She married A. T. Arnold. The town is very beautifully situated. In the spring of 1856 L. N. Breed brought a stock of goods from Elizabethtown, Plumas County, which he sold in a log house built by him about twenty rods from Peter Lassen's. In September he moved to the city of Susanville and opened his store in a brush shanty near Fort Defiance. As winter set in he returned to Butte County.

Lassen County has been represented in the State Assembly by Thomas A. Roseberry in 1885, and W. D. Morris in 1887, and by others from adjoining counties.

Although Lassen County looks desert-like upon our maps, much of the land when irrigated is as good as any in the State, and some of it indeed is very fertile even without irrigation. Bunch grass grows in great profusion, and thousands of cattle graze upon it. Beef, butter and cheese are produced for the market. Hay and the small grains also do well, and agriculture and dairy industries are increasing in importance. The large fruits here are of as fine a quality as in the East, which is far better than in the Sacramento Valley. Mineral and hot springs abound, and plenty of pure, good water is also to be had.

Lassen County, California
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

County Court Courthouse Records

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County Vital Records

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County Census Records

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County Maps & Atlases

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County Military Records

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County Tax Records

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County Genealogical Addresses

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County Church & Cemeteries

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Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Extended History

Lassen County, California History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

County Court Courthouse Records

See Also California Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

County Vital Records

See Also Vital Records in California

County Census Records

See Also Research In Census Records & Statewide Records that exist for California

County Maps & Atlases

See Also Research In State Map Collections

County Military Records

See Also Military Records in California

County Tax Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other California Genealogical Addresses

County Church & Cemeteries

See Also Church & Cemetery Records in California

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Extended History

Lassen County, California
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy