Humboldt County
History
History of Humboldt County California - Historic Record Co., Los Angeles, 1915
CHAPTER XI.
Russians in Northern California.
It will be recalled that the good ship Ocean visited Humboldt bay early in the nineteenth century. Its coming was at the time when sea-otter hunting was attracting a large number of Russians to the northern shores of California. It is interesting in this connection to digress for a moment and consider the status of California with regard to the world at large during those early years of silence and comparative isolation.
Though the Spanish did not visit Humboldt county, they regarded it as under their protecting wings. Mexico consulted Madrid concerning everything pertaining to the rights of nations in what was known as Alta California. There was a time when the northern part of California was the subject of parleying and negotiations between St. Petersburg and Madrid. Russia wanted to buy it or lease it for a long term of years. What would have become of Humboldt county if the Czar of Russia had bought Northern California? This interrogation carries us far from the current of history, but it is worth a moment's reflection.
It should be borne in mind that under the Spanish rule commerce with the great world outside was strictly forbidden, but many ambitious navigators from other countries began, early in the nineteenth century, to direct their ships toward the Pacific coast with a view to getting a foothold in the new world, of which they were hearing a great many glowing stories. La Perouse was probably the first foreign visitor. He arrived in 1786, and in 1792 Vancouver saw the Pacific coast. In 1796, however, the Otter, a Boston ship, appeared at Monterey.
One of the most remarkable visits from a foreigner was that in 1806, at which time a Russian ship came from Sitka, Alaska, and anchored in the bay of San Francisco under the command of Rezanof, an officer of high degree. He remained in the state for some time and made himself popular by reason of his learning and courteous manner. Incidentally, the sad story of Rezanof furnished Bret Harte with material for one of his most beautiful poems, which is known as "Dona Concepcion." It deals with the love affairs and the romantic ending of the courtship between Rezanof and Dona Concepcion Arguello, daughter of an illustrious Spanish commander. Rezanof became betrothed to the daughter of Arguello, who was then comandante of the Presidio, and this close relation enabled him to do a great deal of trading with the people, under a suspension of the old rule against such traffic, which had long been prohibited.
Rezanof, or Razanoff, as it is often spelled, went to Russia on a mission of state, also to obtain the consent of the Czar to his marriage to Miss Arguello. He promised to return and lead the beautiful and trusting girl to the altar, but he died on his way across Siberia, perishing in a lonely hut to which he had been carried, after injuries received by being thrown from a horse. He arose from his bed too soon, being eager to join his bride, suffered a relapse, and soon died alone and far away. Miss Arguello waited for many years, but the lover of course could not return, nor did she receive news of his death until the roses had faded from her cheeks and her eyes had often been wet with tears. Harte's poem shows how the maiden watched and waited throughout the lonely years, hearing in happy dreams the footsteps of his return. And when the shadow at last fell across her life—when she heard that her faithful lover had died without being able to send her even a whisper—she became heart-broken and took no further interest in the affairs of the world. It was then that she became a nun in the Roman Catholic Church. She died in a convent, at Benicia, in 1857, having long served as one of the Sisters of Visitacion.
Thus it will be seen that the ancient drama of the human heart had a beautiful setting in those far away times of adventure. It was the old grand passion that unlocked the gates of San Francisco to the Russians, the same drama that broke the heart of the trusting young woman. It seems that Rezanof fell in love with the comandante's beautiful daughter as soon as he saw her, but when he left her it was forever. Harte thus refers to the patient waiting of the disappointed Concepcion:
Long beside the deep embrasures where the brazen cannon are,
Did she wait her promised bridegroom and the answer of the Czar ;
Watched the harbor-head with longing, half in faith and half in doubt,
Every day some hope was kindled, flickered, faded, and went out.
Rezanof's visit was followed, in 1812, by the coming of a number of Russian pioneers, whose purpose was trading rather than settling the country. All produce that the Russians either raised or traded for was sent to northern Russian stations. The population, always under strict military government, amounted to about three hundred in 1840. It consisted of Aleutians, Indians, and Russians.
Under the initiative of a large fur company they founded a trading station some nineteen miles north of Bodega bay, built a fort that has always been known as Fort Ross, although its Russian name is said to have been another word which sounds like the word Ross, and carried on a thriving trade with the simple aborigines, as well as with a number of Spaniards. The station was established in 1812 and did fairly well until 1841, when it was abandoned. Long before this time, however, it was in evidence that the Russians would not try to colonize either Humboldt or Mendocino county, being satisfied to remain at Fort Ross and do their trapping and fishing from there. It should be said that the Spaniards and Mexicans had always looked upon that fort and the Russian settlements around it with disfavor.
When the Czar of Russia decided to abandon his fort he sold the Russian holdings to Capt. John A. Sutter, an enterprising and successful Swiss pioneer, who played an important part in the later history of California, and on whose properties the famous James W. Marshall discovered gold in 1848. It should be remembered, however, that the going away of the Russians from Fort Ross did not mean that Russians and other foreigners were to be seen no more in northern California in those times. The Columbia and North American fur companies pooled their interests, and thereafter it was very common to see trappers, hunters and fur traders throughout the northern part of the state, some of them visiting Humboldt county. It should be understood that not only the Spanish, but many of the others of those early times regarded the coming of foreigners with disgust, looking upon them with suspicion and regarding them as intruders.
From time to time the Mexican Congress passed stringent laws against foreigners from every nation, not desiring them to gain a foothold in the territory. In spite of these measures, however, the influx of people from every part of the United States and from outside nations increased quite rapidly. Not many years had passed before Americans, English and French were actually in control of the bulk of mercantile pursuits. In this connection Soule tells us in his remarkable volume called "The Annals of San Francisco," that runaway seamen and stragglers, as well as settlers from Columbia and Missouri, largely swelled the number of white settlers. He tells us that the indolent Spanish stupidly looked on while the prestige of their name, wealth, and influence passed into stronger hands.
With the relaxation of the Spanish severity in the southern portions of the state there was naturally a large growth of outside population in every community, and several hundred of these worked their way into Humboldt county. It should be remembered that those who came to Humboldt county were largely from Nova Scotia and the New England States. They gave character to the population and the influence of their sturdy careers is felt unto this day.
Tom Gregory, the poet, sage, and historian of Sonoma county, sheds light on the Fort Ross situation, which he has studied with much patience. He tells us that in 1811 Alexander Kuskoff sailed into Yerba Buena, but he did not appreciate or enjoy the reception he found waiting for him from the Spanish and local authorities, so he hurriedly departed in high dudgeon. As he went toward Bodega bay he saw a river flowing into the ocean, and promptly named it Slavianki. The name did not last long, for General Vallejo christened it Russian river, which name it has always borne.
Kuskoff halted at Bodega bay, still feeling highly insulted. While smarting keenly under that feeling he tried to annex the whole territory in that part of California to the Russian possessions, and threatened to go as far north as the Oregon line. He called the territory Roumiantzof. He thought he was doing wonders in his efforts thus to slice a large piece from the Spanish dominion. Russian surveyors at once began work, and before long had run their lines throughout Sonoma county and the Russian River valley. They ascended Mount St. Helena, leaving a copper-plate on the summit of that grand landmark, the same being inscribed with the date of the visit; and what is more important, the name of Princess Helena, wife of Count Rotscheff, commanding officer of Fort Ross. That the grant they bought was within the area now known as Bodega township, with or without other townships added, old records dimly show. Gregory says : "However—and another credit to the Slavonians—this is the only instance where the original owners of Californian lands were ever paid anything. The price gladly accepted by the Indians was three pairs of breeches, three hoes, two axes, four strings of beads. Certainly this valuation was not a boom figure, but it must be remembered that California soil was then figuratively and literally rated as dirt cheap, preceding the arrival of the more modern real estate man with his florid literature."
When Fort Ross was sold, after a long delay, and its far away day in court, it was purchased by Capt. John A. Sutter for $30,000, and finally sold to William Muldrew for about one-fifth of that amount, and for years it clouded the land titles from Tomales bay to Cape Mendocino.
It should be remembered that Kuskoff's agriculturists around Bodega did very well. They put considerable grain land under cultivation and built a farm house. On his return from Sitka with a rich cargo of skins and glowing accounts of the mild summers, Count Baranof, the Russian chamberlain, was persuaded to establish a permanent settlement on the California coast. Gregory tells us that Russia and Spain were then as much at peace with each other as was possible in those stormy days, and it is quite possible that the Russian officer was acting under secret instructions from St. Petersburg.
Baranof went nineteen miles north of Bodega bay to a place which the Indians called Madshuinuie. The Russians called it Kostromitinof. This hopelessly tangled the Spanish tongue, says Gregory, so they called the settlement Fuerte de los Rusos, and this finally became Fort Russ, later Ross, by the natural corruption of the tongue. The Russians built a high stockade overlooking the ocean. At one of the angles of the wall they set aside a space for the Greek Catholic chapel. Finally about twenty guns commanded the town and the sea. On September 10, 1812, by our calendar, the Russians celebrated the founding of their fort with the firing of guns, the celebration of the mass, and a period of feasting.
The comandante at San Francisco notified Governor Arrillaga of the invasion of the Spanish territory by the Russians. The case went up to Madrid, but meantime the Indians and the Aleutians employed by the Russians went on with their work every day, the Russians making desperate efforts to intrench themselves firmly in the agricultural line. They laughed at the very thought of anything like war. Many of the Russian soldiers married Indian women, a soldier officer performing the ceremony when the chaplain of the church was absent.
The Russians would have been splendid farmers for the rough regions of Humboldt county if they had carried out their original intention of coming farther north, judging by their efficiency in Sonoma county. Few persons understand that the Russians had gained considerable of a foothold in Sonoma county, or begin to appreciate the magnitude and importance of this first Russian colony which planted the standard of its civilization there. Large amounts of butter and beef, lumber and fish, as well as all the products of the soil were sent to Sitka and the Hawaiian Islands. The colony was well supplied with horses, mules, cattle, swine, and poultry, and with a fruitful continent on one side and an equally fruitful ocean on the other they were lords of the manor. Gregory tells us that while the Fort Ross garrison could have marched from Sonoma to San Diego at any time between 1825 and 1841 without much interference from the Spanish or Mexicans, the Russians began to show a disposition to leave California.
The seal-poaching along the coast was giving out and driving the Russian hunters of Ross more and more inland to the farms—and farming as a means of wealth was somewhat beyond the desires of those then in charge.
Governor Wrangell, of Alaska, the head of the fur company, realized that the Russians should control more territory than that immediately around Fort Ross, if they were to do anything. Therefore he approached the Spanish for the purchase of all of the country north of San Francisco, and west of the Sacramento river. This was getting pretty close to Humboldt county, as will be seen. There was a strong proposition made to the Spanish but it would seem that the officials of California had suddenly undergone a change of heart, as they were afraid to act. They submitted the offer to the authorities in Mexico.
It is believed that the presence of the North Americans who were coming over the Nevada mountains in strong bands and planting themselves with all the airs of welcome visitors along the coast had much to do with Governor Alvarado's toleration of the Russians.
The Californian, whether a subject of Spain or Mexico, feared and disliked the Americans, who had no fear, neither great love or respect for the greaser.
It is worth while to bear in mind that the contract by which General Sutter acquired Fort Ross was signed on December 13, 1841, by Sutter and Kostromitinof in the office of the sub-prefect at San Francisco, this transaction being thus legalized. Thus ended the power of Russia in California.
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.