In 1863, Arkansas native, George Washington Long came to Lassen County. His brothers, Arthur and William had already settled there, and a fourth brother, John would follow.

George  first settled on Atlas Fredonyer’s abandoned ranch in Mountain Meadows. Three years later, he located to Devil’s Corral and shortly thereafter married Ermina Wright. In the fall of 1869, Long along with his brother-in-law, Carson Wright, John W. Tuttle and Roscoe F. Gates filed land claims to Dixie Valley, in the northwestern portion of Lassen County, and were the first people to do so. The following year, Long sold his Devil’s Corral property to Morgan and William Williams for $2,300.  In 1872, Long sold his Dixie Valley holdings for $5,350 and relocated to Susanville.*

Back in Susanville, Long operated a butcher/meat market among other things. He dabbled in some real estate matters and invested in some mining ventures on Diamond Mountain. All these ventures paid off well for Long and his family were enjoying the “finer things in life.”  In March 1894, Long experienced some major health issues and it was finally determined that a psoas abscess had developed in his lower back.  This required constant care and the administering of various drugs to offset the pain. Within a short time frame he was dead.

In the findings of the coroner’s inquest of March 16, 1894: “We find that the remote cause of death resulted from a psoas abscess and the immediate cause of death appear to be clouded in mystery and we recommend the proper authorities to make a rigid investigation.” Within a month’s time, his widow, Ermina was charged with  murder of poisoning her husband. She was acquitted. After everything was done, she sold all her husband’s properties and moved to San Francisco never to return to Susanville. She died in 1905.

*The Williams Brothers will be featured in upcoming. post.

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This title should grab a few reader’s attention. While Lassen judges did sentence criminal murder defendants to a death sentence, those people were sent to a state prison facility where the execution was done. There were two instances in 1800s where vigilantes took matters into their own hands. I do recall personally an instance on the other extreme, whereby a justice court judge. instead of sentencing a misdemeanor criminal charged,  used the sunset clause. Those not familiar, the said person instead going to jail, was told to leave the county by sun down and never return.

Actually, this is post is about how the Lassen County Superior Court Judge’s portraits came to be. First, it should be noted that in 1879, California voters approved a new state constitution that revamped many governments functions. The District Court system was abolished and replaced with the Superior Court we have today.

In 1936, Ben V. Curler was elected Lassen County Superior Judge, a position he held until he retired on September 14, 1964. A side line project of Curler’s was to locate photographs of the previous superior court judges dating back to J.W. Hendrick who served as the first judge in 1880. At Curler’s own expense he had prints made, framed and then hung in the courtroom–however Judge Masillon Marstellar’s portrait was elusive. (Marstellar served from 1884-1890). As the story goes when the courtroom was repainted during the late 1960s, the portraits were carefully wrapped, stored in the basement and forgotten.

Enter Nataqua Parlor #152 of the Native Daughters of the Golden West. For the United States 1976 Bicentennial project Native Daughters, with Elberta Fraley at the helm, took on the task to have the portraits restored, rehung and updated to include portraits of Ben Curler, Judge Stanley Arnold and Judge Arthur Anderson. In 1978, a portrait of Judge Marstellar was located and subsequently added.

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While there are no longer grizzly bears in Lassen County, locally the name was a applied to a World War I infantry unit, and the Lassen High School adopted the grizzly as its mascot in 1929.

On April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany and marked its entry into World War I. It was something that President Woodrow Wilson had attempted to avoid for two years. An all effort began seeking volunteers to fight in the war. On August 10, 1917, sixty-five men from Lassen, Modoc and Plumas Counties gathered at Susanville’s Methodist Church for roll call as members of Battery F, Second Light Artillery Division. Afterwards, Susanville’s businesses closed in observance, and the volunteers marched down Main Street, and onwards to the railroad depot on Richmond Road. It was in many ways a solemn occasion. This initial group were dubbed the “grizzlies,” who originated the monicker is not known.

Tim