Colusa County
Biographies
VINCENT CORDER CLEEK
Vincent Corder Cleek, son of Andrew S. C. and Mary V. Cleek, was born in Marion County, Missouri, October 27, 1844. When five years of age, young Cleek accompanied his parents across the plains in an ox-train, arriving at Sacramento August 1, 1850. From Sacramento the family made their way to what is now known as the Montgomery ranch, in the northeast corner of this county. Here the elder Cleek opened a store and hotel, to accommodate the travel up and down the river. Shortly after this, his grandfather, Vincent Corder, was taken sick with a disease which resembled cholera, and died. Other members of the family were also taken sick. This caused the senior Cleek to think the place very unhealthy, and he sent his wife and two children, including Vincent, back to their old home in Missouri, via Panama. Following the departure of his family, the senior Cleek formed a partnership with M. A. Reager, and continued the store and hotel, besides raising stock and doing some farming. In 1852 he joined his family in Missouri, and ten years later the family again crossed the plains for California, going to the Montgomery ranch, where the elder Cleek carried on farming. Andrew S. C. Cleek served the county efficiently as supervisor, from 1869 to 1876. July 2, 1880, he died.
Young Cleek worked on his father’s farm until a grown man, when, November 20, 1871, he was married to Miss Julia Richelieu. He began farming for himself on land southeast of Orland three miles, where he has a comfortable home and a farm of about five hundred acres of rich, productive land. He takes an active interest in public affairs, and is a leading Democrat. April 26 last he was nominated by his party for Supervisor, and was elected to that office by a large majority. He is the father of six children, one daughter and five sons.
“Colusa County” – by Justus H. Rogers – Orland, CA – 1891 – pp 369-370
JONAS SPECT
The subject of this brief biography is a native of Berks County, Pennsylvania, born March 21, 1817. His grandfather on the father’s side was a soldier of the Revolution and participated in the battles of Trenton, Brandywine, Princeton, and in the siege of Yorktown. When young Jonas was but ten years old, his family removed to Pickaway County, Ohio, then a wilderness. After maturity, he carried on farming till 1846, when he concluded to visit Missouri, which was then the extreme frontier of settlement. On arriving in the State, he heard much of the advantages of distant Oregon and some meager accounts of California, and, resolving to see these new countries for himself, he left the Missouri line in a company of forty persons, men, women, and children, driving an ox-team for Isaac Bailey.
Travel was necessarily slow, too slow for the impetuous Jonas, and on arriving at the foot of the Cascade Mountains, a halt being called for a long delay, owing to the depth of the snow, Spect left the train, alone and on foot, after the first crossing of Snake River, and traveled safely to the Willamette, a distance of over six hundred miles, a feat never before performed by a white man. He only remained in Oregon a couple of months, when he found his way to San Francisco. During his stay here, gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mills, but it then created no excitement. Spect was so delighted with the country that he had actually set out to return to the States and bring back his family, but, on account of the mining excitement, he could find no companions for the journey, and was thus forced to fall in with the others and go prospecting.
On June 2, 1848, he discovered gold in paying quantities on the Yuba, it being the first discovery of gold north of the American River. Shortly afterwards he established a trading-post on this river and dealt largely with the Indians, who paid for their purchases in gold-dust.
He left the mines in November, 1848, and opened a store in Sacramento City. Five months later he settled opposite the mouth of Feather River. Here he opened a general-store business, laid out the town of Fremont, and established the first public ferry in California. At the same time he was conducting a store business on Rose Bar. In visiting this place in April, 1849, he found the miners disputing about claims. A meeting was called and a committee selected to draft rules for this government. Spect was one of the committee, and drafted the first mining laws, as far as then known, in California. These laws were afterwards legalized by statute.
In the summer of 1849 Spect was elected a delegate to the first Constitutional Convention, but did not attend, owing to a pressure of business. He was elected to the State Senate of the first Legislature from Sonoma County and took his seat in 1850. Shortly after the session opened, returns came from the Trinity mines which gave the seat to General Vallejo. It was afterward discovered that no election had been held on the Trinity River, the returns having been manufactured at Benicia.
In the summer of 1850 Spect traveled in what is now Colusa County, and was so well pleased with the county that he determined some day in the future to make his home there. It was not, however, till 1868 that circumstances so shaped his movements as to permit him to locate there. He located in Colusa and began erecting tenement houses. Previously he had been harassed by conflicting titles and lost much by the confirmation of Spanish grants. He determined to steer clear of trouble. He accordingly bought three lots from Colonel Hagan. Everybody was buying them and his title seemed perfect. But he was destined to disappointment, and the result was that Spect was embroiled for many years in the meshes of lawsuits over the title to property as well as of other investments.
He died July 3, 1883, leaving a wife and four children. Mr. Spect was a man of firm intrepidity of character. He was of the earnest, rugged type of our best pioneers. He took a lively interest in public affairs, in which his pen displayed a facility and grace of expression which must have been a natural gift to one who had had little or no opportunities for education in his youth.
“Colusa County” – by Justus H. Rogers – Orland, CA – 1891 – pp 370-371