When the Santa Fe Railway in the summer of
1898 made its preliminary survey through this part of Contra Costa County
the town of Knightsen was founded. In the fall of the same year the road-bed
was graded, and late in 1899 the company began to lay its track. In the
spring of 1900 passenger and freight trains began to run. The first building
erected in the new town was the company's section-house, and this was soon
followed by the railroad station, with a pumping plant to supply the
locomotive with water.
In the winter of 1899-1900 I received my
commission as post-master, and immediately proceeded to put up a building to
be occupied by the new post-office and grocery, the first store in Knightsen.
The post-office is still in the same building. I continued as postmaster for
thirteen years.
The shipment of milk by the dairy farmers
of this section is considerable. The daily average since the advent of the
railroad is about twenty-five hundred gallons. Stone Brothers were the first
to engage in this industry to any extent. At present there are five other
dairies shipping through this station - those of Fox, Bridgford, Burrows,
Emerson, and Hotchkiss - and it is likely that in the near future the milk
output at this point will be greatly increased.
Knightsen being an inland town grows
slowly, but new improvements are being added from time to time. In 1913
electric lights were installed, which gave a decided addition to the town's
importance. New dwellings are being constructed. A general merchandise
store, a black-smith shop, a garage, and a saloon comprise the business
district.
It is said that the local Santa Fe station
has shown a wonderful record in recent months, especially in December, 1916,
its business at that time being larger than any other period in the history
of Knightsen. This is greatly due to the shipping of celery and general farm
produce. This section has advanced rapidly in this line recently.
Knightsen is situated in a rich
agricultural district, and doubtless will be an important shipping point in
the future.
In the early days several extensive
experiments in sericulture were made in this county. That the mulberry will
grow here, and that the worm will do well, admit of no question. The trees
made a wonderful growth, and the silk produced was of superior quality.
Many years ago Mr. Sellers, near Iron
House Landing, planted a large field in mulberry-trees, which made a fine
growth and produced a great quantity of leaves for feeding. A place was
fitted up for a feeding-room for the worms, and the business was carried on
quite successfully. At the county fair in 1878 Mrs. Sellers exhibited
cocoons and silkworms that attracted much attention from visitors.
The silkworm is a very delicate animal,
and it is subject in Europe to many diseases, most of them directly
traceable to climatic influences from which this state is exempt. Climate is
a matter of vast importance to the breeder of the silkworm, and nowhere is
it more favorable than in Contra Costa County. The worms are exceedingly
healthy and prolific, the cocoons large, the fiber strong and fine, the
mulberry luxuriant in growth and hardy. The colds of forty-five degrees, the
heats of one hundred degrees, the thunder-storms, and the summer rains,
which frequently prove fatal in France and Italy, are almost unknown in our
coast valleys. In Europe, even when there is no rain, there are many damp,
cloudy days that prevent the evaporation of the dew, and if there is any
moisture on the leaves the worms sicken and die. It is customary in Europe
to feed three or four times a day, with leaves plucked off separately; but
in California, they may be fed but twice, or even once, with sprouts, each
cut having a number of leaves on it. They increase at the rate of a
hundred-fold at each generation. The female generally lays from two hundred
to three hundred eggs, and it may be assumed that two hundred worms will
survive and make cocoons; and as the females are about half, the total
number may be multiplied by one hundred, to represent the increase.
Two crops of cocoons are raised in the
year, in May and July, a season during which the atmosphere of California is
almost free from clouds, there being neither thunder-storms nor wet, cold
spells, to check the progress of the cocoons or to injure the mulberry leaf,
such vicissitudes being not only destructive of the health of the worms, but
fatal to the quality of silk they produce.
Some years ago the State of California,
with the view of establishing the business of silk-making as one of its
fixed pursuits, offered a premium of two hundred and fifty dollars for every
five thousand mulberry trees, to be paid when they were two years old, and a
premium of three hundred dollars for every one hundred thousand cocoons. The
business, for various reasons, has not proved profitable, largely for the
want of energetic capital to engage in the manufacture.