With Memorial Day or with the older generation, Decoration Day, around the corner, there are a dozen or so graves throughout the county where the person for a variety reasons, were buried on their property where they died. This was of course, prior to 1900, and prior to laws enacted where burials were required to be placed in a cemetery. Some of these graves are well marked and others are not. From time to time, we will explore these graves.

For the inaugural, we start with Jacob Murrer, who happens to be my great-great-grandfather. On July 1, 1876, Jacob Murrer, at the age of 49, dropped dead while tending J.P. Wallace’s livestock at Round Valley. The family brought Jacob’s body back to Willow Creek Valley for burial on the land he claimed. It was a simple matter of economics to bury him on the ranch, rather than bringing the body to Susanville for a formal service. The family had little means, and it did not help that Wallace owed Murrer $253 for back wages and other services. While the family’s financial improved over the years, a formal marker was never placed. His grandson, Alfred Murrer, always placed a salt lick there for many years as an impromptu marker.

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The far west was certainly not immune to the various political/social impacts of the nation’s Civil War.

Take for instance, there was once a district in the region known in the Honey Lake Valley as the Tule Confederacy.  So name by a land surveyor, in the early 1860s,  as he noted there was a large contingent of settlers who were southern sympathizers. Yet, by 1900, the term had been shortened to the Tules. In the last few generations this term, too, has faded away. Some may also heard the region known as the latter term of Seven Bridges.

It should be noted, the Skedaddle Mountains was so named by a term southerners used in the Civil War used to “flee.”

Tim

Awhile back I had an inquiry about 100 North Roop Street. While I am tardy to answer that, but as a bonus I will have a few more observations to add. The older houses on the street, are actually located in the 200 block and beyond. At the moment, I am still overwhelmed of the first round of boxes of the move containing  a vast assortment of research material. However, there is still a pickup load of boxes still to arrive. I am understand that event may be Sunday, to avoid another month of storage fees. Please be patient during this transition process.

Tim

another month in storage fees.

Tim

Car dealerships and car styles are constantly evolving. For a brief time, Susanville had its own Edsel Dealership though it did not last long. In 1957 it was housed in a brand new building at 80 North Roop Street.  Of course, Ford’s Edsel automobile was a failure and the model soon abandoned. Many seasoned residents will recall this building housed the California Department of Motor Vehicles for many years. It is now the home to Lasco and Rooptown Bicycles.

Tim

On August 1, 1869 the first Mass to be held in Lassen County was at the home of Ned Mulroney near Susanville, with the 27-year-old Father Charles Lynch officiating. Since a circuit priest had to cover a large territory in Northeastern California and Nevada, Mass in many instances was only held once a year when the priest made his rounds.

In the 1880s with a larger Catholic population, and the Diocese territory smaller, Mass was held in the Lassen County area twice a  year. There was also a movement to have their own house of worship instead of the courtroom in the Lassen County Courthouse or the hall in the Steward House Hotel.

In the spring of 1892, when William Cain, a non-Catholic, donated a parcel land across the Susan River on Richmond Road, the current site of Poulsen’s Welding. In May construction began, the labor from church volunteers. As Father Thomas Horgan later recalled the driving force for the church came from three families—Bantley, Neuhaus, and Mulroney.

The new church had a seating capacity of 120, quite ample for their being about 100 parishioners. On June 26, 1898 Bishop Thomas Grace dedicated the Susanville church as the Church of the Sacred Heart.

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This is a little known reservoir east of the Madeline Plains. When the  fishing is good, it is worth the trip

In 1889, Albert L. Shinn formed the Union Land & Stock Company. Shinn proposed that the water from Red Rock Creek could provide irrigation for the entire eastern Madeline Plains. The reservoir was originally named Lake Lockett, for the Company’s Civil Engineer, H.M. Lockett. In the early 1890s, the Union Land & Stock Company started the irrigation project but eventually construction ceased because of lack of funds and other problems. On December 9, 1907, Henry C. Dodge acquired an option to buy the Union Land & Stock Company’s failed Red Rock irrigation system. In 1909, Dodge formed the Madeline Valley Land & Irrigation Company to undertake this enterprise. In the fall of 1909, the Company contracted with August and Alfred Anderson to build the system. In December 1909, Dodge Reservoir was completed. In 1912, Henry C. Dodge died during an altercation in Reno, Nevada. Dodge’s two sons, Carl and Dana, continued with the family enterprise on the eastern Madeline Plains. On January 14, 1949, Bernys M. Dodge, the agent for the Dodge Brothers, sold the Dodge Ranch and Reservoir to George and Jean Smith.

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