Colusa County
Biographies
LEVI FOSS MOULTON
The generation of the early days of Colusa County, which, by its perseverance, vigor and tireless energy has done so much to advance this county to the front among California’s banner counties of development, is rapidly passing away. From among those who still survive there are few more noteworthy or who have filled a larger space in public esteem than Levi Foss Moulton. His life has been peculiarly typical of the early home-builders of this State, and that, too, in its period of industrial and social transition, when self-reliance developed so remarkably that originality of plan and resource which is now so distinctly carved in the great monument of our Statehood.
Mr. Moulton was born in Leeds, Kennebeck County, Maine, February 6, 1829. His father having been a tiller of the soil, the son was brought up in the same laborious and honorable vocation. At fifteen years of age, the subject of this sketch went to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he found employment in his uncle’s store for a twelve-month. Determined to acquire a trade, he now entered a carriage shop as apprentice, and before the time had expired for which he was indentured, he purchased his time from his employer and began business for himself in the same line. With a trade acquired and in business for himself before yet reaching his majority; with his ambition now full-fledged and on wing, Mr. Moulton did not confine himself to mere money-making alone. The education he had received on the farm was scant enough, and feeling this, he set himself to remedy it under that best of tutors – self-help. For this purpose, while engaged in his uncle’s store or in the carriage shop, though a mere boy, he found time to conduct a course of reading, studying diligently before the day’s work began and utilizing with miserly economy every spare moment he could snatch at the noon hour or at night. The result is that to this course of self-imposed mental discipline he owes his present proficiency in the principles of hygiene, ancient and modern history, and political economy, besides being thoroughly versed in agricultural and horticultural matters and completely equipped as a civil engineer.
His studious turn of mind led him away from the pardonable frivolities of youth. He encouraged the young associates around him to seek knowledge likewise, and his efforts in this direction resulted in the organization of a debating club in New Bedford. The formation of a small library followed. It grew apace and was then presented to the city, thus forming the nucleus of what is now one of the largest free libraries in the East. Surely the chore-boy of the country store and the carriage maker’s apprentice builded better than he knew.
It was in the winter of 1851 that young Moulton, now in his twenty-second year, sought a broader and newer field for his enterprise, and for this purpose, in company with nine companions, of whom he had been chosen leader, he set out for California via Nicaragua. He arrived in San Francisco on March 22 following, and at once set out for the mines, going to Nevada City, where, among others, he worked in the mines with Colonel Dibble and Senator George Hearst. His capital on arriving in this new El Dorado was $1,500, and this was almost entirely expended in “prospects,” which proving to be far from remunerative, he concluded that as a gold-hunter, Fortune “had not marked him for her own,” and so, with a willingness to be occupied with anything honorable, he turned himself undismayed to other employments, the chief of which was carpentering, at which he worked for several months on the Yuba River.
In the winter of 1852-53, Mr. Moulton determined to devote himself to some more permanent vocation, and for this purpose he came to Colusa County, and, having purchased land near his present abode, nine miles north of Colusa, he settled down to farming. The wisdom of this resolution he has certainly had no reason to regret, since his industry and intelligence therein have so combined to prosper him that, making new purchases of land as fast as his means would permit him, he is now the owner of eighteen thousand acres, unequaled for productiveness.
On this vast estate, an American principality in itself, Mr. Moulton has erected a stately home of peculiar architecture, an illustration of which will be found elsewhere. The Moulton homestead is a model one, in its fields of grain, in its extensive vineyards and orchards, where, side by side, in many instances deciduous fruits grow and ripen in wondrous abundance with semi-tropical productions.
But the care and supervision of so large a ranch have not absorbed all of its proprietor’s time. He has found or made leisure to render him one of the most active men in the State on matters of public policy. His counsel has been heeded from the rostrum and through the press. A man of a well-stored practical mind, using vigorous English in reflecting it, keenly observant and intrepid in his independence of party dictation, he could not well be silent on great local or economic questions.
In politics Colonel Moulton (as he is termed by his friends) can be classed as an independent Republican, though his connection with the early Republican party is now historic, since he, in connection with Hon. John Kasson, a former Congressman from Iow and Minister to Austria, first organized the Free Soil party, which was to all intents and purposes the Republican organization in its formative period, though under another name.
On October 11, 1882, the Republican joint convention of Colusa and Tehama Counties place Colonel Moulton on its ticket for State Senator. This honor was unsought by him, he being away at the time attending a meeting of the farmers at Stockton and of the anti-monopolists at San Francisco, endeavoring to make these parties understand the overshadowing importance of preserving their homes and lands from destruction by hydraulic mining debris. No time being left him to stump his district, he issued a circular letter to the voters thereof, which fairly bristled with Mr. Moulton’s individuality. He showed how he had previously served his county in an unofficial capacity; how in 1862 Colusa County was deeply in debt and her script selling for thirty-five cents on the dollar, when he, with others, matured a funding bill and worked it through the Legislature against great opposition, the result being that the county was soon out of debt, her rate of taxation as low as any other county, while her scrip has been at par ever since. Colonel Moulton closes this letter to the voters in the following straight-from-the-shoulder remarks, which are characteristic of the man: “The Legislature is the place where this fight against hydraulic mining devastation has to be made. I will be in that fight whether elected to the Senate or not, but if the voters of the district shall honor me with a seat in the Senate, I shall not be far behind the foremost in the contest. I shall work hard for the future prosperity and glory of the State, for, old-line Republican as I am, and accepting as I do the party nomination, I place the prosperity of my district far above party considerations and shall not work in leading-strings when its interests are in question.” Colonel Moulton was defeated, though running ahead of his ticket by a very flattering vote.
Mr. Moulton has never been his party’s servile henchman. He has kicked over the party traces when his conscience suggested that course. He went off with the so-called Dolly Varden party, whose brief but earnest career gave evidences of a promising vitality in the election of Newton Booth as Governor of the State. The activity with which he has thrown himself into public affairs is quite remarkable. In the anti-debris controversy no man in the State was more pronounced or more indefatigable in his hostility to the encroachment of slickens. He spent freely of his time and money and was at all times the unselfish champion of the agricultural interests, and he will be borne in happy memory in time to come for his services therein, even as his efforts are now deeply appreciated by his contemporaries. As an instance of the earnestness with which he takes hold of matters in hand, he, at his own expense, sent thousands of illustrated documents and printed data through the mails, setting forth the manner in which the agricultural interests of Northern California were menaced by hydraulic mining, even going so far at one time as to furnish a large folio paper replete with engravings and fervent in argument and presentation of facts as a supplement to sixty-seven journals in the State.
At the Legislature he has been well recognized, and he was always sure to be present at some period of its proceedings as an irrepressible worker for county and State. To his credit be it said he had no logs of his own to roll, no private ax to grind and no selfish motive to advance in using his private means and time, which could be spent in elegant leisure at his home, in thus counseling with the representatives of the people. He opposed with an iron will and with some vehemence the passage of the Parks brush dam bill for nearly six weeks with next to no backing from the county, and, bad as the bill was considered by many, it was first shorn of its worst features by Colonel Moulton, and out of his stubborn resistance thereto came a thorough arousing of the people of the State. The final outcome of his opposition was a decision by the lower courts and afterwards by the Supreme Court, strictly in accordance with the views of the Colonel.
During all this period of pronounced activity, Mr. Moulton was developing the resources of his immense ranch, superintending all its operations, introducing new varieties of fruit trees, vines and shrubs, building bridges, laying out roads, reclaiming overflowed lands or protecting them from overflow. Assuredly, few individuals in the serene evening of their days can stir the pulses of memory with so many solacing recollections of a busy life, the events of which are nearly all inseparable from the gratification which their success and affirmed wisdom must necessarily impart.
As a patriotic American and warm champion of the Monroe doctrine, as well as an implacable foe of railroad monopoly, Mr. Moulton was most assiduous in presenting the merits of the Eads ship railway. He looked upon it as a great international necessity, particularly for the people of this coast, concluding that it would operate as a political regulator of transcontinental rail rates, thereby making it impossible for them to be in a position of dictatorial control. For this purpose he wrote and caused to be introduced into the State Senate a concurrent resolution urging Congress to assist the Eads ship railroad project. So persistent was he in his support of the measure that he labored for three years to bring to this coast Captain Eads, the greatest engineer of his time, who, at the same time, examined the water-ways of California. Nor did he stop here; at his own expense he sent illustrated documents and data to thousands of people throughout the State explanatory of the ship railway scheme. His purpose was to educate the people hereon, and so deeply were they becoming interested that, in response to an invitation of the Geographical Society of the Pacific, Colonel Moulton, March 12, 1886, delivered a lengthy address on the Eads ship railway plan before that organization, which met with a hearty resolution of indorsement from the society.
Mr. Moulton at his hospitable home, when aloof from the excitement engendered by the earnestness of discussion on local or economic questions, is peculiarly happy in his domestic relations. He married in 1861, and three children are the pride of his household. They are: Oralee, a daughter, aged eighteen, now attending Mills Seminary; Levi Everett, sixteen years of age, and Herbert, aged four years.
“Colusa County” – by Justus H. Rogers – Orland, CA – 1891 – pp 362-366