In May 1857, Reuben F. Mastin purchased this valley from L.N. Breed and George Lathrop for $150. That was a bargain, even back then. It was Mastin who named this beautiful valley, Elysian, located a short distance from Janesville. Later that year, or to be precise, on November 19, Mastin sold out to Richard D. Bass for $1,000 and Bass would reside there for the next forty-six years. A portion of the original family ranch remained in the Bass family ownership until 1981.
This being Election Day, I thought I pass along some local election folklore. One of which that at one time, Hayden Hill was in contention to become the county seat. Only once was there was some rumbling of moving the county seat from Susanville. In 1893, after the town’s business district was destroyed by fire, there was some talk to relocate the county seat to Amedee.
In 1864, when the election was held to organize Lassen County, the county seat question was on the ballot—Janesville or Susanville. That was a tricky election and it took some time to count the ballots. After all, the county had a polling precinct at Fort Crook (Shasta County) and one for all of Surprise Valley (Siskiyou County). Those votes were finally rejected and Susanville won the county seat by seventy-one votes.
With Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano in the news, I thought we take a look back during Lassen Peak’s numerous eruptions that spewed ash everywhere. On May 22, 1915, when Lassen had its most historic eruption that sent a mushroom like cloud four miles into the atmosphere. The prevailing winds carried volcanic ash all the way to Winnemucca, Nevada. Susanville resident, an avid fisherman, Med Arnold, was at Eagle Lake that day and reported that the area was covered in like a fine alkali dust, and that enough fell from the sky to muddy the water of the lake. The eruptions continued for several years, and with the west to east prevailing winds, Susanville and the Honey Lake Valley experienced sporadic falls of volcanic ash. In 1917, Janesville resident, Gordon Rice commented, Lassen Peak is good to Lassen County, volcanic ash is a splendid fertilizer.
With the pending arrival of the Fernley & Lassen Railroad there was a movement to change many names of communities in the Honey Lake Valley. It was deemed there were too many towns ending with “ville.” Some thought the suffix carried a stigma of a small village. While the movement to change the name of Susanville failed, Janesville did not fare so well. On July 2, 1914, the post office there was renamed Lassen. This did not set well with many of the town’s residents. A petition was sent to the Postmaster General to restore the name, but it was denied. It led to confusion since the town was known as Janesville, but its mail designation was Lassen . In 1923, the residents once again petition the postal authorities to restore the name. It was granted and on September 22, 1923, the Lassen postal designation was dropped.
Recently, Ken Doran of Wisconsin inquired as to whether Janesville, Wisconsin and Janesville, California were named for the same person. Doran stated that Janesville, Wisconsin was named for Henry Janes who settled there in 1836. A local legend in Wisconsin is that when Henry Janes came West that he founded other Janesvilles. A 1905 publication credits the naming of Janesville, Lassen County to Henry Janes.
Alas, that is not the case. Janesville, California was named for Jane Bankhead, wife of Malcom Bankhead, who was the town’s first postmaster when the post office was established there on December 19, 1861.
In January 1915, the residents of Calneva, a Western Pacific Railroad station in eastern Honey Lake Valley desired the break away from the Fairview School District and form their own. In their petition, they stated nineteen scholars resided in the proposed district. Their request was granted on February 2, 1915 by the Lassen County Board of Supervisors. The new district was named Fort Sage. The school was located in a small one-room building on the Harry Hill homestead. It was later moved to the Aldrich House, a larger building, located in the center of the district. In the summer of 1918, the school was on the verge of being suspended, as enrollment declined to four. The trustees persuaded County Superintendent of Schools, Julia A. Norwood, to keep the school open, as they promised an additional four students would attend in September. The request was granted. The school’s existence was brief and it was closed in 1924. In 1926, the furniture from the school was purchased by the Janesville School District.
“Real estate in Honey Lake Valley for the past week has been decidedly shaky, and when things are to get settled down to a firm and reliable basis it is hard to determine. Since last Friday night there have been no doubt at least 50 shocks of earthquakes felt in the valley. Today something like a dozen have been felt here in town. One at seven o’clock this morning was quite lively. The shocks seem to be more frequent and harder around Janesville. It is a well established fact that below Buntingville, crossing the Epley Ranch, is a place that “sounds hollow” when being crossed and at intervals rumbling sounds are heard traveling along this place. The sounds seem to come from the mountains to the west and travel toward the lake. Horses when plowing over this place have become frightened at the sounds beneath their feet. This has been repeated for years. The occurrence of so many earthquakes in this locality seems remarkable and how ad when they will cease seems to be a hard conundrum to answer just now.
“Not the earthquakes alone but the weather is phenomenal. Yesterday the thermometer reached 68 degrees in the shade, while for a week or more there has been no frosts at night. Last night and today we had quite heavy showers of rain and the snow is fast disappearing from the mountains.”
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Way before gasoline taxes were introduced as a funding mechanism to maintain roads, there was a $2 a year road tax applied to all males over the age of 21. Sometimes, it was confused with the Poll tax, for often one would pay the tax when one voted.
However, one could opt of the road tax and provide labor in an exchange. Each county supervisor would appoint a road district overseer, who in turn would perform the work on in their respective districts, usually with the volunteer labor of those who did not pay the tax. Not the best system, especially in a large rural county like Lassen, but nevertheless it got the job done.
*To the far left is Satch Whitten, road overseer. The long time Janesville resident was married to Carrie DeWitt.