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Italian Swiss Settlement Of Plumas County S^PX^^-.\A/ ^ 1860-1920

2£*£fe«*- ITALIAN-SWISS SETTLEMENT IN PLUMAS COUNTY

1860 to 1920

by Jacqueline and JoEllen Hall

Winning Essay in the First Annual A.N.C.R.R.-Fabrics West

Contest in Local History, 1973

With an Introduction by

W. H. Hutchinson

Association for Northern California Records and Research

Chico, California

Research Paper No. 1 Copyright 1973 by Jacqueline and JoEllen Hall Published 1973 by the Association for Northern California Records and Research; Printed by California State University, Chico, and Brock's Printers, Chico, California 95926

Second Printing, May, 1975

ANCRR Publications are available from:

Association for Northern California Records and Research P. 0. Box 3074 Chico, California 95926 CONTENTS

Introduction v

I. Scope and Location of Italian-Swiss Immigration to California 1 II. Description of Typical Immigrant and Influences on Immigration 2 III. History of Swiss Immigration Stressing Economic Reasons For Immigration 6 IV. Italian-Swiss Immigration to Plumas County Focusing on the Dual Attractions of Gold and Land 13

V. Italian-Swiss Settlement in Plumas County 20

VI. Pattern of Land Acquisition and Land Occupancy 26

VII. Development of a Sense of Community Through Group Migration, Partnerships and Marriage Within the National Group ..... 32 VIII. Significance ot the Italian-Swiss Immigrant in Plumas County as Revealed by the Dottas, the Ramellis and the Guidicis ... 38

IX. Contributing Factors to Successful Settlement 46

Appendix A

Italian-Swiss Family Names in Plumas County 49

Bibliography 51

Maps Map of Canton Ticino, Switzerland 16 Map of Plumas County, California 18 Map of Nine Townships, Plumas County 48

m

„ "The Switzers in this Valley, as a rule, are hard workers, good butter makers, good citizens, and are making money."

Sierra Valley Leader November 1, 1889

IV Con Raz6n

Existence of the Italian-Swiss enclave in the intramontane fast­

nesses of Plumas and Sierra counties first impinged forcefully upon my

consciousness during the summer of 1952 when I was implicated, and the word is used advisedly, in the affairs of the annual Plumas County Fair at Quincy. I was not surprised at all to find what then to me were

Italianate names among the agriculture and home economics exhibits. I was surprised to find these same names among the exhibitors of range cattle, and I was taken aback to announce these same names among the contestants in the riding and roping events of the two-day rodeo that was and remains a feature of the Fair.

How and why the sturdy emigrants from the mountain valleys of Canton

Ticino made their ways to similar valleys nestled in the jointure of the

Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges is one topic of this skillfully written and amply documented study. How and why they made the transition in their new homeland from the generally tranquil pursuits of dairying and agriculture to the Theseus-in-leather-leggings role of the American cow­ boy is an unexpected addition to the history of human adaptability in the American West.

Its authors bring to this work a combination rare in these or any other times. They know the land and the people of whom they write from first-hand exposure and experience. They know, too, the vagaries of livestock, weather, feed prices, land costs and governmental follies from similar experience. To these experiential conditionings they have added sound scholarly training and practice which makes them as much at home in the pursuit of documents and historical evidence as they are in the saddle. It is this rare and happily blended combination that has prompted

the Association for Northern California Records and Research to make

"Italian-Swiss Settlement in Plumas County, 1860-1920" its first publi­

cation, a fact made possible by a grant of funds from Fabrics West, Inc., of Chico. It is the sincere hope of the Association that the example set by the work of Jacqueline and JoEllen Hall will stimulate others to undertake similar investigations in the fertile and virtually untapped field of Northern California's regional history in all its forms.

W. H. Hutchinson

California State University, Chico July 14, 1973

VI I. Scope and Location . . .

One of the most interesting aspects of North European migration to the United States after the Civil War was the large number of Swiss who came West. By 1870 there were 2,927 in California; twenty years later this figure had tripled to 9,743, and by 1920, 16,097 Swiss had settled there. A major contribution to this figure was the large number of

Italian-Swiss who migrated to California from Canton Ticino. Of the

27,000 Ticionese who left Switzerland in the years 1350-1947, 20,000 2 came to California. The majority of these Italian7speaking Swiss set­ tled in San Francisco, the Coast Ranges, or the Central Valley. Some, however, came to the Sierra Nevada, primarily the Sierra Valley-Beckwith area of Plumas County*

Though M. E. Perret has made an extensive study of the Ticino na- 3 tives in California, he did not concentrate on the miners and dairy ranchers of Plumas County. Furthermore, his book, written in French and published in Switzerland in 1950, is not readily available. For these reasons, and because certain of Perret's conclusions need to be re­ examined, we have made a new study of Italian-Swiss immigration to and

John Paul Von Grueningen, editor, The Swiss In The United States (Madison, Wisconsin, 1940), p. 45. ? H. F. Raup , "The Italian Swiss in California," California Historical Society Quarterly, 30 (December, 1951), 308. (Essay is a review and analysis of M. E. Perret's Les Colonies Tessinoises En Californie). 3 M. E. Perret, Les Colonies Tessinoises En Californie (Lausanne, Switzerland, 19507. settlement in Plumas County between 1860-1920. But before the history of Swiss immigration is summarized, and before particular Plumas County settlers can be studied, it would be helpful to look at a composite pic­ ture of a typical Italian-Swiss immigrant.

II. A Typical Immigrant . . .

Such a Plumas County immigrant was usually a young man between the ages of fifteen and thirty-five'' who had left a farm in Val Leventina or Val Maggia to come to another rural area such as Seneca to mine or

Vinton to ranch. According to Perret, this immigrant usually traveled in a group to the United States and once there remained in "colonies."^

He had just enough money to pay for his steerage ticket from Le Havre to New York or San Francisco (approximately $40^ for a ten-day trip in the 1880's) and seldom had learned a trade that would be useful in the

West. Unless he turned to mining, he thus began as a milker or laborer on a dairy ranch for food, board, and monthly wages of ten to fifteen o dollars. One such immigrant was Vincent Ponci who, in April, 1.901, arrived at New York from Le Havre after a seven-day voyage. From there, he traveled by rail to Reno and was met by his sister. He returned

Franklin D. Scott, Emigration And Immigration (Washington, 1963), p. 4. c Ruth E. Baugh, "Swiss In California," Association of American Geographers: Annals, XLI (1951), 264.

6Andrew F. Rolle, The Immigrant Upraised (Norman, 1968), p. 276.

^Scott, p. 31.

8Raup, p. 312. with her to Sierra Valley where he went to work as a milker for his 9 brother-in-law, Lodovico Dotta.

If he had expected greater opportunity, higher wages, and "free

land" it was partly due to the efforts of railroad companies and state

immigration agencies, of steam ship lines and land companies whose pro­

paganda had reached him both through newspapers, books and pamphlets, and through touring agents. Swiss newspapers such as Per Auslander carried letters from abroad, fiction and poetry about America, and ad­ vertising by land and travel agencies. These companies also published guidebooks such as California (San Francisco, 1882) which were partial 12 and reflected the economic interests of the publisher. Depending upon the region it advertised, such a guide emphasized good climate, abundant water, rich soil , and the long growing season of

its area. It suggested that the Homestead Act guaranteed free land or

land at little cost, and it hinted that modern labor-saving devices would make cultivation of this land a simple task. High wages would be

paid the emigrant so that his property could be more quickly purchased

Q Jesse Walton Wooldridge, History of The Sacramento Valley (Chicago, 1931), III, 224-225.

Merle Curti and Kendall Birr, "The Immigrant and The American Image In Europe, 1860-1914," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XXXVII (September, 1950), 205-211.

Marcus Lee Hansen, The Immigrant in American History (Cambridge, 1948), pp. 214-215. 1? Elizabeth Cometti , "Swiss Immigration to West Virginia 1864-1884: A Case Study," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 47 (June, 1960), 68. and low taxes would not diminish his profits. Often, before and after 13 pictures of a prosperous American homestead completed the report.

One of the more honest features of promotional literature like 14 California was the idea that an immigrant had a variety of jobs to 15 choose from and could move easily from one job to another. Perhans this freedom of choice and movement was even more convincing than "free land" to the immigrant; especially when he was also told that in America he was free from compulsory military duty, free to worship as he pleased, able to give his child a free public education, and able (after five years of residence) to become a citizen.

It was the individual agents themselves, however, with their lec­ tures and displays of American wheat, corn and prairie grass, who were particularly effective. Migration from a specific Swiss canton in­ creased in direct proportion to the number of these agents operating there. In Basel-Stadt, for example, there was a yearly migration of

7.5% with twelve agents as compared to Canton Vaud with only five agents and 1% immigration. But these organized methods of persuasion were not as effective as the 'America Letter,' a postal money order from the Far

West, or the successful immigrant home on a visit.

13Curti and Birr, pp. 215-217.

Cometti, p. 68. A more truthful guide was The Emigrants Friend, pub­ lished in London in 1880.

15Curti and Birr, p. 220.

16Curti and Birr, pp. 223-225.

17Cometti, p. 69. The letter home was influential especially if it contained a steer­ age ticket for the recipient. And since it was passed from family to 18 family in a small village, all the townspeople could learn how a fel­ low Italian-Swiss had struck it rich at Caribou or had purchased five cows from the dairy owner for whom he milked. Postal money orders home were even more believable proof of the wealth in America: post office statistics indicate that emigration from an area increased according to 19 the amount of money it received in postal orders.

Finally, the future immigrant might be persuaded by the return of an earlier irmiigrant. The decade frofft 1900-1910 saw 30% of the irnni- 20 grants return home either to visit, to marry or to stay permanently. The Alessandro Guidici family from Sierra Valley, for example, visited

Giornico, Ticino in 1900 after twenty-eight years ranching in Plumas 21 County, * and G. Cahomca returned to Switzerland with his daughter,

Daisy, for a three-month visit in 1905.

But all these factors of encouragement whether professional or per­ sonal , whether sponsored by the Great Northern Railroad or by a miner in

Seneca, Plumas County, could only influence or hasten the decision to emigrate. Conditions in Ticino, or anywhere in Switzerland, had to be extremely bad before a Swiss would come West. It has been noted that,

18Scott, pp. 21-22.

19Curti and Birr, p. 218.

6UCurti and Birr, p. 213.

21 Frances Guidici Bony, "Alessandro Guidici Sr.," Plumas Memories, No. 12, (September 12, 1965), p. 30. 'The German . . . emigrates when he can . . . the Switzer only when he must. ,22

III. History of Swiss Immigration . . .

The first Swiss who believed that they "must" come to the United

States were religious groups such as the Mennonites and the Moravians.

Their reports, sent home to Germany and Switzerland in the 1730's and 23 1740's were favorable. This information encouraged other Swiss to consider national settlements in America, but they lacked the earlier dedication and organization of the religious sects. Since immigration policy was formulated, not by the Swiss government, but by individual cantons, there was no national financial support for group immigration 24 in the years 1740-1840. Thus, without government encouragement or protection, only a few Swiss (the Baptists and Methodists of the 1330's 25 who came to escape Pietism are one example) dared to immigrate prior to 1840. After 1840, however, the motives for immigration changed.

Now the German Swiss came to America not from religious conviction, but from economic necessity.

Switzerland in the 1840's was suffering from a growing rural popu- lation, inefficient agricultural reforms, crop shortages and failures.

22 Cometti, p. 67. ?3 Marcus Lee Hansen, The Atlantic Migration (Cambridge, 1940), p. 51. 24 Hansen, The Atlantic Migration, pp. 95-96.

Hansen, The Atlantic Migration, pp. 140-141.

Hansen, The Atlantic Migration, p. 295. She shared these difficulties with other North European countries, but she also had to cope with a decline in trade, an increase in prices and 27 an overproduction of manufactured goods. Out of necessity then, the

Swiss government began to take an active part in immigration. In 1844, the Tennessee-Colonization Company was welcomed, and five families--"men whose interests were for the most part agricultural"--were selected as settlers by the government. Moreover, it was the government that bar­ gained about the price of land in Grundy County, Tennessee; it was the government that arranged the rate of payment; and it was the government that stipulated the conditions for the journey, the place of embarkation 28 (Antwerp) and the place of landing (New Orleans or Charleston). Such government aid, coupled with canton subsidies to poorer Swiss, 29 led to an upsurge in Swiss miqration--40,000 from 1850 to 1860. An­ other rise in immigration, coming from all Northwestern Europe, followed the Civil War and continued until the 1890's. After 1890, there was a shift both in motive and in geography: the "new immigrants" came to the

United States mainly as industrial workers, not as farmers; and they 30 came largely from Southern and Eastern Europe, not from Northern Europe.

West Virginia is an obvious example of this trend away from farmers to­ ward laborers.

27 Grace Stone, "Tennessee: Social and Economic Laboratory," Sewanee Review, 46 (January, 1930), p. 39.

28Stone, pp. 39-41.

29 Hansen, The Atlantic Migration, p. 280. 30 Scott, p. 26. In 1869 a group of German-Swiss farmers had bought land in Randolph

County, naming their community, "New Helvetia." Despite West Virginia's

"southern" loyalties and confused land records, other Swiss settled near­ by land until , by 1880, there were six Swiss farming communities in 31 Randolph County. But, with the exploitation of West Virginia's coal industry after 1900, the farming population of the New Helvetia area de- 32 clined. Now the need was for laborers, not settlers.

A more successful "New Helvetia" had been established by the German-

Swiss, John Sutter, in 1839. His 50,000 acres of California land lay near the junction of the Sacramento and American Rivers; more important, it lay on the major route of overland migration. One of the first Swiss immigrants to use this route (1846) was Heinrich Lienhard who became a 33 close friend and business partner of Sutter. Besides serving as the

Fort's supervisor at one time (1846}* Lienhard also held the same jobs- farming, mining, sheep herding—that many of the Italian-Swiss would have who came after gold was discovered.

The first two Italian-Swiss immigrants to California--Giannini and 35

Delmonica--came to New Helvetia in 1849. Like the majority of Italian-

Swiss immigrants, they were from Ticino. Glaciers and mountain valleys make up this canton's 1,085 square miles, part of which serves as a

31Cometti, pp. 72-76.

32Cometti, p. 87.

Von Grueningen, p. 71.

14 Von Grueningen, p. 81,

OJVon Grueningen, p. 93. boundary between Switzerland and Italy. Ticino's two major farm dis- tricts--Val Leventina and Val Maggia—were the principal source of mi­ gration from this area between 1850 and 1930. It is estimated that between 1850 and 1930, 40% of Val Maggia's population immigrated.

And between 1851-1861, families, as well as individuals, began to come to California from Val Leventina. They included doctors, bankers, res- 37 taurant owners, and hotel keepers, but especially dairymen.

An example of the success of these dairymen is Louis Juri. He oper­ ated a dairy near the San Francisco Presidio in 1856 and sold milk for 38 fifty cents a gallon. But before an immigrant could buy dairy or farm land, he usually had to work first as a "hand" or a milker. In Marin

County he might work on El Rancho Corral de Piedra which had 1 ,400 cows 39 and was only the second largest dairy in the state.

California, then, offered opportunity to both the miner and the dairy rancher. This dual appeal is expressed by a German-Swiss , Carl

Meyer, in 1870. Of the two large gold countries, Australia and California, we Swiss, at least, should undoubtedly choose the last. The climate of California is agreeable to us and it has a government similar to ours. In addition to gold as a source of income, we will find there the most complete personal freedom and the strongest protection of life and property.40

36Rolle, p. 272. 37 Von Grueningen, pp. 93-94. 30 Von Grueningen, p. 95.

39 Rolle, p. 272.

Doris Marion WWrighti , "The Making of Cosmopolitan California," California Historical Society Quarterly, 20 (March, 1941), p. 70.

r 10

So, despite the fact that Ticino did not grant subsidies to her prospec- 41 tive emigrants, 20,000 Ticionese immigrated to California. Besides

their desire for gold, why did they come?

The most obvious answer is that they came because they were allowed

to come. The Swiss Republic did not forbid all immigration as Russia and Japan did at one time. In fact not until complaints against immigra­ tion agencies became numerous, did she attempt to legislate immigration at all. This was accomplished through the Swiss Federal Laws of

December 24, 1880, and March 22, 1888. These laws also restricted the 42 migration of the aged, the underaged, the sick and the destitute. In

1855, Ticino had passed a law against contract labor for the price of transportation, but she did not hinder the self-sufficient and able- 43 bodied from immigrating though she did not subsidize their doing so.

The United States, for her part, strongly supported immigration, especially in the twenty-year period from 1860-1880. Only after 1880 44 did a reaction against immigration occur. It lasted until about 1897 when America became concerned with imperialism and the possibilities of 45 a war. This restriction movement came about due to a combination of factors: first, reformers blamed immigrants for the slum lords and par­ ty bosses who controlled the cities; second, America disliked the "new

Cometti, p. 68.

Cometti, p. 68.

43Cometti, p. 68.

4 John Higham, "Origins of Immigration Restriction, 1882-1897: A Social Analysis," Mississippi Valley Historical Review,, XXXIX (June, 1952), p. 77.

45Higham, p. 87. 11

immigrants" from Italy, Russia, the Balkans, Austria-Hungary; third, 46

anti-Catholic feeling encompassed those immigrants who were Catholic;

and, most important, economic factors such as the decrease of the public

domain and social factors such as the Haymarket Riot added to this move- 47 ment.

The only concrete laws which came out of these fifteen years were

the 1882 law which provided for federal control over immigration and the

1885 law which forbade contract labor. At least for Italian-Swiss coming

to California these laws did not make much difference.

A second reason for their willingness to come West may have been the

Italians' habit of migration. As temporary immigrants they moved in and out of France, Austria-Hungary, Germany and Switzerland following tourist seasons, crop harvests, and military actions. Northern Italians usually went to Ticino since for them it was closer than central Italy or other 49 parts of Europe. By 1861, 14,000 had settled there and others had moved 50 further on into the French and German speaking areas of Switzerland.

After the 1870's, railroad construction, mine work, and factory jobs at­

tracted Italians north into Ticino.

46Higham, pp. 77-79.

47Higham, pp. 85-87.

48 Von Grueningen, p. 45. Italian-Swiss immigration to California tripled in the years 1870-1890 and doubled between 1890-1900.

Robert Foerster, The Italian Emigration of Our Times (New York: 1969), p. 9.

Foerster, p. 5. 12

Between 1901-1905 Italian out-miqration was particularly heavy;

54,000 temporary workers and settlers came to Switzerland yearly and like numbers went to France, Germany and Austria-Hungary. This extremely large Italian settlement in Switzerland caused many Italian partisans, 52 especially during World War I, to ask that Ticino be annexed to Italy.

But many of these immigrants' children apparently felt little attachment to either Switzerland or Italy: where their parents had only crossed borders, the second generation was willing to cross an ocean to reach

California.

Of course, a heritage of migration could not be the primary cause for emigration out of Ticino. Once again, unfavorable political and eco­ nomic conditions at home, coupled with favorable economic conditions a- broad, led to immigration. This combination of factors is seen as early as 1853-56 when Austria and Italy's political conflicts kept needed goods out of Ticino.

At the same time, news of the California gold discovery was stir­ ring Ticino's rural areas. Perhaps the Ticionese most interested in such news were those who had been expelled from Venice and Lombardy and 53 forced by Austria to return to their over-populated communities. Thus, only when the Austrian blockade was lifted in 1855 did immigration de- 54 cline. Then in 1868 immigration increased again after destructive

51Scott, p. 50.

52Foerster, p. 500.

53"Les Colonies Tessinoises en California," The Geographical Review, XLII (1952), p. 162. (A Review of M. E. Perret's Study)'

54 Raup, p. 306. 13

floods occurred in the Val Maggia area, and again in 1888, 1889 and 1924 55 after serious flooding destroyed Ticino's crops and cattle.

IV. Italian-Swiss Immigration to Plumas County . . .

Destruction at home could be left behind when promise abroad seemed

bright. Though politics and weather changed yearly for the Ticionese,

one motivation—besides gold—remained constant: land in the West was 56 "cheap", easy to cultivate and uncrowded; land in Switzerland was ex­ pensive, crowded, and too steep or snow-covered for successful cultiva­ tion.57

People emigrate from Switzerland today [1862] . . . neither for religious or political reasons ... an emigrant leaves the fatherland today in disgust be­ cause he cannot own there enough soil to live rea­ sonably well.58

Once in California, where did the Italian-Swiss look for land?

The first Ticionese settlements were in San Francisco, Marin, and 59 Sonoma Counties in the 1840!s and 1850's. When land for farms, dair­ ies and vineyards ran out in these counties, the Italian-Swiss moved south into Monterey, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara Counties, north into Humbolt County and inland to the Stanislaus and Napa regions.

55Raup, pp. 307-308.

56Wright, p. 169.

57 Edith Abbott, Historical Aspects of the Immigration Problem (New York, 1969), p. 152. By 1862, there were 59 persons per kilometer in

Switzerland.

58Abbott, p. 152.

59Von Grueningen, pp. 94-95. Von Grueningen, p. 97.

, 14

This concentration on coastal settlement by dairymen is seen in the 1930

Census of Ticino natives and descendants.

Of the 19,645 Ticionese in California, 6,075 were in the Southern

Coast Range and 5,110 in the Northern Coast Range. San Francisco County had 2,550 Italian-Swiss and the Central Valley area had 3,570.61 Of the

CO remaining 2,340, 119 were in Plumas County in that year. They had be­ gun to come to this county after the discovery of gold; but they remained through the 1880's and 1890's to ranch and to run dairies; and the child­ ren of their children live in the area today.

The Italian-Swiss immigration into Plumas County, whether directly or after residence somewhere else, did not differ except in volume from

Italian-Swiss immigration into other areas of California. The place of origin, the flow of immigration, the reasons for leaving Switzerland were all comparable. In 1870, there were 854 Canton Ticino natives and their

American-born descendants in California; one-fourth this number, 253, CO were in the Sierra Nevada.

The relatively high percentage of Italian-Swiss in the Sierras was a direct result of the immigrant's interest in mining. But as mining declined in importance, old immigrants left the Sierra Nevada and new immigrants chose to settle in other parts of the state. By 1930, the majority of California's Italian-Swiss population were concentrated in the Coast Ranges north and south of San Francisco, in San Francisco it- 64 self, and in the Central Valley.

61 Raup, p. 309.

62Vo n Grueningen, p. 44.

63Raup , p. 309.

64Raup , p. 309, 15

This Italian-Swiss out migration coupled with reduced immigration

into the Sierras reflected the widespread population loss in the Sierra

Nevada by the end of the gold mining period. Plumas County, for exam­ ple, experienced a population decrease of over 1,000 between 1880 and 65 1890. But Plumas County, even with this general population loss, seems to have maintained a significant Italian-Swiss population. Our study of

Plumas County records between 1860 and 1930 revealed over 80 I tali an-Swiss cc family names. The only explanation for this divergence from pattern in

Plumas County is geography.

The initial attraction in Plumas County may have been gold, but the major and lasting attraction was available land. Mot -only was there such land in Plumas County, but it was land like home. Most of the Italian-

Swiss immigrants to this area came from the mountain valleys of Canton

Ticino. Of the three mountain valleys of Ticino wnicn contributed the most immigrants to California--Val Leventina, Val Maggia and Val Verzasca-- it was the former which sent the most Italian-Swiss into Plumas County.

The Ticino River rises in the north of the canton and runs almost two-thirds of its length before it empties into Lago Maggiore. The first one-half of this passage is through Val Leventina; here, along the river, are located the home towns of many of the Plumas County immigrants.

California Blue Book, p. 362.

66See Appendix A.

The Appendix was compiled from information in the Plumas County Archives, Quincy, California. All material dealing with family histories, proper­ ty holdings, periods of immigration, estimates of emigration volume, un­ less otherwise noted, comes from this source. A complete list of county records consulted and used appears in the Bibliography. OrX 17

Lumino and Fontana which lie 1n the extreme northern end of the valley had representatves in Sierra Valley. In the central river valley are the towns of Faido , Chironico and Giornico.

Emigrants from Faido settled in Chilcoot (Sunmit on early Plumas

County maps) and Vinton; other Vinton residents came from Chironico. The town most often mentioned as an emigrant's birthplace in the Citizenship and Death Records is Giornico, the most southerly of the three towns.

One of the most important families to emigrate from Giornico was the

Guidici family who bought land in Sierra Valley as early as 1875.

Below the confluence of the Brenno and Ticino Rivers lie four towns, each of which has added to the population of Plumas County: Iragna sent

John Battista Scudelatti to Chilcoot; Osogna sent Lorenzo Guimelli to

Beckwith (Beckwourth) in 1888; Henry Marioni left Claro to come to

Portola in 1902 and the Gognuda family emigrated from Lodrino to Beckwith in 1902. These nine towns lie close to the Ticino River, but towns throughout Val Leventina such as Nante, the home of the Ramellis, Sobrio,

Pessonico, Pollegio and Bidogno were sources of immigration to Plumas

County.

Though the majority of Italian-Swiss irmiigrants to Plumas came from

Val Leventina, some, such as the Faure brothers, of Beckwith, came from outside Canton Ticino. But Pascal and Jaspar Faure were an exception: most Plumas County Italian-Swiss, like their countrymen throughout

California, came from Ticino. The similarity between the immigration into Plumas County and that which occurred in the rest of California does not end with the source area. The flow of Italian-Swiss immigration is also comparable. PJLVUMA^, AND PART OF I,A$S$N& SIERRA. COUNTIES, CAL. BY ). ARTHUR W.KFDDIE.CE.

I./TK By TAKlSS &SMITH. 19

The first Italian-Swiss in Plumas County was Antone Dotta who ar­ rived at Caribou (Cariboo) on the North Fork of the Feather River in 1856.

Dotta, in company with most Italian-Swiss immigrants who came to

California in the 1850's, was interested at first primarily in mining.

Mining remained a major factor in immigration at least through the 1860's in Plumas County.

Though there is little detailed information on Plumas County set­ tlers for the period 1860-1870, the few Italian-Swiss that were studied could be divided fairly evenly between ranchers and miners. By 1870, however, ranching or farming had become the primary occupation of the

Italian-Swiss in Plumas County, just as it had for a majority of Italian-

Swiss in California. In that year, 62.8% of the Ticino Swiss were en- 68 gaged in agriculture; only 21.1% were involved in mining.

During the 1870's reports from emigrants replaced gold as the chief factor in encouraging immigration. Between one-fifth and one-fourth of the Italian-Swiss emigrants studied who entered Plumas County between

1870-1880 shared the family name of emigrants who had come in the previous 69 ten years. The pattern of family influence on immigration is just as

Our study of Birth and Death Records, Citizenship Records, and Deeds in the county archives plus information from Plumas County Historical Society publications would indicate that Antone Dotta was the first Italian-Swiss emigrant. But it should be noted that Italian-Swiss could have been in the area before county organization. Moreover, county records did not and could not include all emigrants; emigrants may have left the area before applying for citizenship; they may never have married, had children, pur­ chased or sold land and may have died in another county.

68Raup, pp. 307-308.

69 These figures pertain to Italian-Swiss emigrants about whom we have sufficient information to draw conclusions. Had the census records been examined, undoubtedly more Italian-Swiss could have been included in these figures. But the family name estimate would not be greatly changed. 20 apparent in the 1880's when over two-fifths of the new Italian-Swiss emigrants siiared the family names of Ticionese already established in

Plumas County.

After 1892, perhaps as a reaction to the Panic of 1893, Italian-

Swiss immigration to California declined, only to pick up slightly after

1901. This statewide decline and increase after a ten-year period is not reflected in Plumas County where immigration volume remained con­ stant between 1890 and 1910, and only began to decline in the 1920's.

With the exception noted above and one other--relatively minor Italian-

Swiss population loss in comparison with the rest of the Sierra Nevada--

Plumas County fits comfortably into the pattern of Ticionese immigration into California.

V. Italian-Swiss Settlement in Plumas County . . .

But the Italian-Swiss settlement in Plumas County may differ in_ some respects from that in other areas of California--most obviously the rest of the Sierra Nevada. For example, Perret claimed that

Italian-Swiss immigrants left the Sierra after the early interest in gold declined. But in Plumas County it would appear that immigrants drawn to the mines stayed in the area in related jobs or became farm workers and eventually land owners in the mountain valleys such as Big

Meadows, Humbug, or Sierra Valley.

70Raup, p. 308. 21

Perret also concluded that the descendants of the Italian-Swiss did

not remain in Plumas County and are today widely dispersed. Our study

indicates that at least for second-generation Italian-Swiss this general­

ization is untrue. The children of the emigrants stayed on the land,

married within the national group and, as late as 1912, owned a signifi­

cant amount of land in Plumas County.

The Italian-Swiss who came to Plumas County to mine for gold did not

arrive until the early placers had been exhausted. So, from the first,

the Italian-Swiss miner worked as part of a group, either as a partner

or member of a company or as a mine worker for the large corporations

needed in quartz mining. One group of Ticionese, who came to the North

Fork of the Feather River, included the Baccalas and Baptista Piazzoni.

Piazzoni's mining venture on Owl Creek was a success and by 1874 his mine at Seneca employed twelve men. Whether these twelve were Italian- 72

Swiss is not known, but Piazzoni called his operation "The Swiss Mine."

It is certain that the Baccalas were not in his employ, for by 1870 they

had purchased land in Big Meadows. The Baccalas, like Antone Dotta earlier, are an excellent example of Italian-Swiss who made a rapid transition from mining to ranching. And immigrants such as Piazzoni, the mine owner, and Lapulino Papa and Gaetano Ruffa, who were lifelong miners, are the exception rather than the rule.

In his discussion of Perret's study, Raup said that a few Swiss remain in Sierra County's portion of Sierra Valley. Either Perret or Raup, or both, may have overlooked and underestimated the sizable Italian-Swiss settlement in the half of Sierra Valley which lies in Plumas County.

7? The Swiss Mine," Plumas Memories, Plumas County Historical Society, 25 (June, 1967), 28." 22 The Sierra Nevada was not only rich in gold, but rich in fertile mountain valleys: between Mt. Lassen on the West and Long Valley in the

East lay Big Meadows, Mountain Meadows, Humbug, Indian Valley, American

Valley, Grizzly, Red Clover Valley, Last Chance Valley and, largest of all, Sierra Valley.

These valleys drew the Italian-Swiss in the same fashion they had drawn the Anglo settler earlier. But the choice between the valleys of­ ten depended on where a man had mined. For example, Caribou, where

Antone Dotta first came as an immigrant in 1856, was at most a two days' ride from Humbug Valley where Dotta established "Butte Creek Ranch."

When Dotta decided on Humbug as a home, he was surely influenced by its proximity to Caribou. Indeed, Humbug may have been the first mountain valley Dotta saw after his arrival in California.

The relationship between mining and ranching as occupations suggests another relationship—one established between the ranchers and miners of

Storey and Washoe Counties and the ranchers of Plumas County. Before coming into Plumas County, Italian-Swiss immigrants would often go first to Reno or Virginia City because of their proximity to the gold and sil­ ver mines. Such was the case for Giovanni Dotta who was mining near

Virginia City in 1864. That year he bought a dance house in another mining community—Jamison City, Plumas County. In 1874, Dotta purchased a 320 acre ranch near Beckwith (about thirty-six miles from Jamison City) and moved to California permanently.

Two other immigrants who came first to Virginia City were the

Guidici brothers, Alessandro and Mauricilio. Both brothers came to visit their father, John an ore hauler and property owner on the Geiger Grade.

Alessandro immigrated first. In 1872, he arrived at his father's 23

property, "Five Mile House," and stayed briefly. Then he came to Red

Clover Valley, northwest of Sierra Valley, to work on the John Crow

Ranch. Later he would buy ranch land in partnership with his father's 73 brother, Frank.

In 1877, Mauricilio also came to Nevada to visit his father and then

followed Alessandro into Plumas County. He worked on the Tom Peter Ranch

in Indian Valley and on his Uncle Frank's ranch in Sierra Valley until he 74 was able to buy land adjoining his brother's.

Two other Virginia City families, the Guscettis and the Canonicas,

settled in Plumas County after 1890. Angelo Guscetti brought his family

to Sierra Valley in 1892 when he could no longer tolerate the extreme 75 heat in the mines. He, and his three oldest sons, then began dairy

ranching near Loyal ton.

The Canonicas, too, were forced to come to Plumas County because of

the mines. In the 1870's Joseph Canonica had run a hotel in Virginia

City. But after the price of silver dropped drastically, and the Comstock

Mines began to peter out in the 1890's, Joseph and his brother moved their

families to California. By 1898, Joseph's new hotel at Vinton was "pre­

pared to accomodate the traveling public with first-class meals and

beds."76

73 Frances Guidici Bony, p. 29, Mrs. M. Guidici, "Mauricilio Guidici," Plumas Memories , 12 (September 12, 1965), 31.

75Wooldridge, p. 323.

76"Vinton Notes--1898," Plumas Memories , 30 (September 15, 1968), 5. 24

Alfonso Ramelli is an example of a rancher from Nevada who later came to California. Alfonso had lived near Reno more than twenty years 77 before he settled in Beckwith with other members of the Ramelli family.

However, he maintained contact with Reno by sending his daughter, Jennie, to school there and by retaining his Washoe County property. On the other hand, Nevada ranchers sometimes ran their stock in Sierra Valley and often owned property there. Filipe E. Guidici of Virginia City bought 160 acres north of Vinton in 1881; by 1912 some of his land was in

Alessandro's possession.

Alessandro's brother, Mauricilio, reveals a further connection be­ tween the two areas. Italian-Swiss from Plumas County often married

Italian-Swiss from Reno or Virginia City. In 1886, Mauricilio Guidici married Julie Paymal from Virginia City. Her parents had come to Nevada from Giornico. Canton Ticino--the same town that the Guidicis wsrp from.

In addition, many of the marriage ceremonies of the Plumas County

Italian-Swiss took place at the Catholic Church in Reno. It was there, for example, that Alessandro married Sophia Maggiere in 1887.

Finally, and most important, Plumas County dairymen sold much of their produce to Reno and Virginia City: in 1889 Clover Valley rancher

Charles Laffranchini sold 600 pounds of butter weekly at twenty-four cents per pound in Reno; throughout the 1890's, the Dottas and Ramellis transported cheese and kegs of butter to Virginia City from Vinton and

"Beckwith Breezes," reprinted from Plumas National Bulletin, Plumas Memories, 30 (September 15, 1968), 23.

78Mrs. M. Guidici, p. 31.

79Sierra Valley Leader, June 14, 1889, p. 3. 25

80 their summer ranches at Frenchmen's Creek. Frequent trips such as these added to family visits and trips to conduct legal business at Reno or to check on property holdings, all preserved the close connection be­ tween the three counties. Frank Guscetti, writing to his brother, Louis, in 1907, mentions the many friends he saw on a trip to Reno:

I had quite a time finding a room for less than a dollar a night, but finally got a bed in C. Ramelli's Swiss American House for 25<£ [C. Ramelli is probably related to Alfonso Ramelli], but it was not ^ery good. When the barkeeper--a certain Lombardi--[per­ haps a member of the Lombardi family who ran a dairy at Loyal ton] found out who I was he had me sleep in his bed-a very good one-he is a friend of father. I believe I saw L. E. M. but she didn't see me. She looked better than the picture I saw at Corecco's. [ranchers at Chilcoot] I returned by the N.C.T.O. direct to Claireville, Charley Laffranchini [Beckwith farmer] was with me from Boca to Reno and Vic Dotta [Lodovico Dotta, Vinton dairyman] was with me from Reno to Vinton. All in alio-, it was a fair trip though disagreeable in some things.81

So despite the fact that the Italian-Swiss in either Storey or Washoe 82 Counties never numbered 100 until after 1900, strong social and eco­ nomic ties joined them to their Plumas County neighbors.

Because Sierra Valley was ideally located as a crossroads between the three counties, its position strengthened these ties even further.

By the early 1880's "hundreds of immigrants from Val Leventina settled

Mrs. Frank Dotta, "The Swiss Immigrants," Plumas Memories , 20 (September 12, 1965), 26.

81 Frank Guscetti, Unpublished Letter to His Brother Louis at Loyalton, California, May 10, 1907. 82 Von Grueningen, pp. 65-66. 26

83 in the Sierra Valley near the Nevada line. The question which should be asked about this Italian-Swiss settlement and those throughout the mountain valley chain is—were these settlements long-lived, or were the

Italian-Swiss in Plumas County only sojourners. VI. Pattern of Land Acquisition . . .

One way to evaluate the permanency of the Italian-Swiss settlement is to compare the number of Italian-Swiss who became land owners with the number who remained laborers. Of thirty Italian-Swiss who came to Plumas

County between 1870-1880, twenty or two-thirds became land owners and ranchers, four worked as common laborers, one was a miner, and five had undetermined occupations.

The next twenty years, 1880-1890, do not reveal drastic change. An examination of the occupations of forty-four new immigrants shows nineteen ranchers or land owners, three farm or "common" laborers, one miner, one hotel owner, one post master. Although no information was available on the remaining nineteen immigrants, their occupational breakdown was probably 84 similar, but with land owners a minority. Farm laborers, especially milkers on dairy ranches, railroad workers, day laborers and shop clerks probably predominated.

These figures would indicate two things: Italian-Swiss immigration continued after the early interest in gold declined; resulting settlement was not temporary or transient in nature. In fact, the Italian-Swiss were often the settlers who helped create stable and lasting communities. They were not the pioneers, but rather "fillers-in"; men who bought or

83 Von Grueningen, p. 98. 84 If a man's occupation is not known, it is probable that he was not a land owner or rancher since more records are available for this group than any other. 27 took up the land of settlers wanting to move on. In 1872, Floriana Dotta bought the Abbot Ranch near Prattville. The ranch owner, Joshua C. Abbot, had pioneered settlement in Big Meadows, but he was seventy-five, time was getting short, and as he said, he 'wanted to grow up with the country.

With Dotta's $1,780 purchase price in his pocket, he went north to Goose

Lake on the California-Oregon border.

That the Italian-Swiss immigrant was not a pioneer is also apparent in the way he acquired land. With the exception of Antone Dotta, the first Italian-Swiss did not buy or homestead government land: they bought established farms and ranches when they could afford them and 160 or 320 acre homestead parcels when they had limited funds. The Abbot

Ranch, for example, contained 160 acres made up to two 80 acre parcels from adjoining sections. Charles Dotta went into partnership with his brother when he obtained one-half interest in the Abbot property and an additional 160 acres in 1873. Six years later, Charles and Floriana, now operating as the "Dotta Bros.," added to their holdings in Big Meadows by purchasing 160 acres from M. J. Self. This land cost $1 ,200.

This technique of putting together parcels of land to form larger acreages was in contrast to the method used by Pioni Pedrini and David

Ramelli when they bought land in Sierra Valley in 1885. Pedrini and

Ramelli had enough money, $12,000, to buy a large amount of land (2,040 acres all at one time.

A third way the Italian-Swiss were able to obtain sufficiently large acreages was to buy neighboring lands held by different owners.

This might take some years to achieve: Frank, Bernardo, and Peter

Guidici bought the 320 acre Stephen Ede Ranch in >875, but Frank did not

85 Fariss and Smith, History of Plumas, Lassen and Sierra Counties: 1882, re-issued by Howell-North BooFs with an introduction by W. H. Hutchinson (Berkeley, 1971), p. 294. 28

8fi acquire the B. F. Bobo property, part of which lay nearby, until one

partnership was dissolved and a new one formed five years later.

What these three methods had in common was their basis in the part­

nership. Family partnerships were useful because they allowed the

Italian-Swiss settler to buy larger amounts of land than he could were he operating alone. Partnerships also allowed the Italian-Swiss settlers to control larger areas of land and to obtain contiguous land holdings.

Land held jointly could also be traded or divided if for some reason the partnerships had to be. dissolved. For example, on October 14, 1882, when

Bernardo Guidici sold his one-half interest in the Ede Ranch to Frank

Guidici for $300, Frank, in turn, sold Bernardo 120 acres of land for

$300.

A final advantage in this kind of land ownership was its protection of family interests. When Frank; Bernardo, and Peter Guidici purchased

the Ede Ranch it had cost $4,500; the 520 acre Bobo property had cost the

Alex and Frank Guidici partnership $19,250. Mauricilio Guidici was able

to buy the two ranches (less only 160 acres) from his uncle Frank for

$12,000. What had cost the uncle $23,750 cost the nephew just over half that.

Surely Frank Guidici could have made a better deal had he sold his land at full value to someone outside his family. But he was returning to Canton Ticino and he simply may have wished to leave his ranch in ca­ pable, Italian-Swiss hands. Or from a practical point of view, he may have been repaying his nephew for working on the ranch. At any rate, the

This Bobo property was divided into two pieces: one lay to the extreme northwest of Vinton; the other to the northeast. This Bobo Ranch should not be confused with the Bobo land owned by the Ramelli, Dotta partner­ ship in 1883, which lay north and south of Vinton and quite near the town itself. 29

Frank Guidici-Mauricilio Guidici transaction does reveal one way in which the young Italian-Swiss emigrants became landowners.

According to Perret and his interpreters, the traditional road to land ownership for the Italian-Swiss involved three stages—milker, 87 tenant farmer, landowner. This pattern does not take into account the role of family relationships, and thus, is most applicable to the Italian-

Swiss who came first into Plumas County. Some of these immigrants, such as Giovanni Dotta, had tried mining, but they soon turned to farm work.

Giovanni Dotta worked on the Evans ranch in Long Valley before he could 88 afford to buy land, and Frank Guidici worked as a milker on the E. D. 89 Hosselkus ranch during the 1860's, taking his pay out in cows. It is not known whether these two Italian-Swiss worked as tenant farmers, but when they first bought land it was as a member of a partner­ ship. So while they may have avoided the middle stage of Ferret's land ownership pattern, they still needed an intermediary step between worker and full-fledged land owner. Just as the pattern of land acquisition differed between the earliest immigrants and those that came after, so too did the pattern of land occupancy differ.

The first Italian-Swiss immigrants, those who came in the Sixties and Seventies, converged on the mountain valleys of the county from two directions and concentrated their settlement in two areas: Big Meadows in the West and Sierra Valley in the East. These areas were settled

"Les Colonies Tessinoises En Californie," p. 163.

^Mrs. Frank Dotta, p. 26.

89 "The Magnificent Ranch of E. D. Hosselkus," Plumas Memories 7 (April 8, 1962), p. 9. 30 first because gold miners who were unsuccessful or unhappy on the North

Fork of the Feather River went into the Big Meadows, Soldier Meadows,

Humbug Valley triangle; Italian-Swiss who disliked work in the silver mines of Virginia City filtered into Sierra Valley. Only in the late

1880's did the Italian-Swiss begin to buy land in the interior valleys:

Henry Vanetti bought the old Oliver Farra ranch in Indian Valley in 1886, and Florin Dotta purchased town lots in Greenville in the Spring of 1888.

Antone Dotta's ranch on Butte Creek in Humbug, the Baccala ranch at Soldier Meadows (southwest of Big Meadows), the Floriana and Charles

Dotta land holdings near Prattville and the Ruffa Ranch on the old

Humboldt Road created a nucleus of Italian-Swiss settlement in the north western section of the county. Prattville, where the Dotta Brothers, 90 Charles and Floriana, had a general merchandise store in the 1880's, was the social and business center of this Italian-Swiss settlement.

Big Meadows (about twenty-five miles long and six miles wide) provided ideal land for the Italian-Swiss dairy farmers as did Humbug. Only

Soldier Meadows and the Ruffa Ranch could not have supported further

Italian-Swiss settlement.

90 The brothers had begun to operate this store at least as early as 1879 when this notice appeared in the PI umas National of November 15.

"...we Floriana Dotta, residing in the town of Prattville, County of Plumas, and Charles Dotta residing in the town of Prattville, County of PI urnas, State of California, do hereby certify and declare that we have organized and formed ourselves into a co-partnership, and we covenant and agree each with the other, to be co-partners for the pur­ pose of carrying and conducting the business of merchandising in the town of Prattville, County of Plumas, State of California, under the name and style of Dotta Brothers...." 31

The possible longevity of Italian-Swiss occupation in Big Meadows

cannot be estimated because by 1908 the land was covered by Lake Almanor.

Humbug Valley was not altered, but Italian-Swiss settlement there did not

outlast the Antone Dotta family. Only at Soldier Meadows and Ruffas did

Italian-Swiss maintain ranches into the present era.

Sierra Valley, Big Meadows' counterpart on the south eastern edge

of the county is a better example of the permanence of Italian-Swiss

settlement. Sierra Valley lies partly in Sierra County and partly in

Plumas--the Plumas half is approximately eighteen miles long and twelve

miles wide. Italian-Swiss had penetrated into this part of the valley

as early as 1860; by buying land from previous settlers such as the Edes

and Bobos they had, by 1912, significantly expanded their holdings. This

settlement was concentrated in the northern half of Plumas' share of the

valley and included the borders of Last Chance Valley, Three towns which

provide useful points of reference in discussing this area are Chilcoot

(Summit), Vinton (west of Chilcoot) and Beckworth (Beckwith).

An examination of Keddie's Plumas County map for 1912 reveals the 91 most extensive land holdings by Italian-Swiss to be in nine townships.

Of these nine, the two in which Italian-Swiss held the most land were

TS23NR16E and TS24NR16E. The township in which Chilcoot lay, TS22NR16E,

also supported a significant Italian-Swiss population as did the neigh­

boring township to the west, TS22NR15E. In these four townships, con­

taining 92,160 acres of land, twenty-two Italian-Swiss had major land

holdings.

91 The township sketch maps which follow the text are derived from A. W. Keddie's official county map for 1912. Only Italian-Swiss landholdings were included so that the pattern of land ownership could be more effec­ tively demonstrated. 32

Further Italian-Swiss property was held near Beckwith in TS23NR14E

by Alfonso Ramelli and his brother, David; south of Beckwith in TS22NR14E

by M. Tognazini and in the township north of Beckwith, TS24NR14E, by

L. Guidici and Angelo Dotta. The two remaining townships (TS24NR15E and

TS23NR15E) had less Italian-Swiss settlement with only the Ramellis,

Laffranchinis and Scolaris represented.

Keddie's map is valuable because it shows clearly how the Italian-

Swiss put their land holdings together so that family land holdings ad­ joined and overlapped and Italian-Swiss land holdings bordered one an­ other. The Italian-Swiss were not the major land holders in Sierra

Valley, even in 1912, but they were the major national group. The twenty- eight Italian-Swiss whose names appear on the nine township maps were able to establish a pattern of land ownership and through that a sense of community.

VII. Development of a Sense of Community ...

Even before the Italian-Swiss immigrant reached the Sierras, he had

begun to build a sense of community about him. This was accomplished through the group, rather than individual, immigration. An early exam­ ple is the Battista Baccala—Baptista Piazzoni group which arrived at

Seneca about 1868. Besides these two men, the party probably included 92 Battista's brothers, Victor and Guiseppi, and possibly Charles Dotta and Irvin Pattani. Piazzoni turned to mining near Seneca, but the

Baccalas moved west to Big Meadows where, in 1870, Battista Baccala and

Charles Dotta bought the Chamberlain Ranch.

92"The Swiss Mine," p. 28, 33

Another group migration occurred in the spring of 1877 when

Mauricilio Guidici and eight or ten other Swiss reached the United 93 States. None of Mauricilio's fellow travelers can be identified, 94 though it is known that Frederick Rodoni (a Johnsville store owner) and Gaetano Ruffa (a Seneca miner) also immigrated in that year.

Upon arrival, these young immigrants sometimes worked for relatives before buying their own land, or marrying. As was pointed out earlier,

Mauricilio Guidici worked on his Uncle Frank's ranch in his first months after coming from Virginia City. Another example is that of Claudina 95 Ponci who came to Vinton in 1896 to help at her aunt's hotel; she worked at the Joseph Canonica hotel for sixteen months before she quit to marry Lodovico Dotta. A more permanent feeling of community was a- chieved in business partnerships often made between family members- especial ly brothers, ouch partnerships were found between miners (the

Piazzonis) and between craftsmen (the Faure brothers who were black­ smiths), but it was most evident between brothers who were landowners.

In the Big Meadows-Prattville area there were three prominent part­ nerships comprised of brothers. Beginning in 1870, the three Baccala brothers ran beef and dairy cattle in their Soldier Meadow pastures.

Their neighbors, the Dotta Brothers, were also large land owners in Big

Meadows in the 1870's and 1880's. The third partnership was the Ruffa

Brothers—Charles and Louis--who ran their LB cattle in the Humboldt

Summit area after 1890.

93Mrs. M. Guidici, p. 31.

94 Fariss and Smith, p. 246,

95Mrs. Frank Dotta, p. 27. 34

Sierra Valley also had three sets of brothers who owned land in partnership. The earliest of these were Bernard E. and Peter E. Guidici who, with Frank Guidici, bought their first property together in 1875.

Though they later dissolved their partnership, they continued to buy land from each other, and to buy and sell land to other relatives.

In contrast, Giacomo and Ferdinand Fillipini remained partners until they sold out to J. R. Sullivan in 1919. Horses, hay, harness, land, wagons, cattle and even the Fillipini brand—FB—were purchased by

Sullivan. A last set of brothers were Roland and Clarence Guidici who ranched near the Fillipini Brothers in 1912. As two of Mauricilio's four sons, Roland and Clarence represent partnerships in the second generation of Italian-Swiss immigrants.

A sister and brother, Lucy and Angelo Dotta, reveal another type of partnership: Lucy bought their ranches (first in Clover Valley and then in Mohawk Valley) and Angelo managed them. Sometimes, too, there were partnerships between two generations. Frank Guidici bought one of the

Bobo ranches in partnership with his nephew, Alessandro, in 1880; ten years later Cesare Dotta had a six-way partnership with his five sons —

Antone E., Daniel D., Leon, Albert, and Cesar Jr.

Some Italian-Swiss partnerships were made between men who were not related either by blood or by marriage. The agreement between A. D.

Agostini , Giovanni Dotta and Carlo Trosi begun in 1874 is a good example of such a partnership. Their first land was 320 acres in Sierra Valley purchased from B. F. Bobo for $6,000 gold coin. At this time, they had a fourth partner—Giovanni Trosi —but he sold back his share of their joint holdings a year later. In 1876 the three partners bought approxi­ mately 160 acres near Vinton from Antonio Togni , and in 1881 they added

120 acres from a third Trosi—Camilo. 35

In 1882 they made three major purchases: $6,000 worth of ranch land from. William Nelson; a $700.00 purchase from Samuel Leonard and another

160 acre parcel from Sanford Sanderson. All this new land lay near

Vinton. Six months after their last purchase, in May, 1882, the three partners broke up their joint holdings. Trosi sold his interest in the

Bobo ranch and the Togni property to Agostini and Dotta for $1.00. In turn, these two men sold the Bobo Ranch to their two nephews, Emilio

Ramelli and Lodovico Dotta, November 24, 1883. They also sold their holdings near Vinton, and land north and northwest of Vinton. The cost, which also included all cattle, and horses branded 17, all tools, wagons, plows, reapers, and all "dairy fixings" was $16,000.

These transferrals of property from two uncles to two nephews ini­ tiated a new partnership which was to last for thirteen years. Between

1883 and 1896, Ramelli and Dotta did not make any large land purchases of their own, since their uncles had already done that for them. In fact, the first significant land transaction came only when the two part­ ners decided to dissolve their agreement because Dotta wished to marry.

Emilio Ramelli's daughter-in-law described how the partners divided their lands: At that time [1896] they staked off the land of both ranches into two equal parts. One portion had the ranch houses and barns and it was decided that the other ranch would get new houses and barns. They drew straws, [and] Mr. Dotta drew the ranch that would have the new house.96

Specifically, Lodovico Dotta retained part of the Bobo ranch which his uncle and Agostini had bought and also parts of five other sections

Qfi Nellie Ramelli, "Emilio Ramelli Ranch," Plumas Memories, 20 (September 12, 1965), p. 28. 36 which lay north of Vinton. This division allowed both men to have ranches whose land was contiguous. If marriage could dissolve a partnership, it

could also create one. For example, Antone Dotta married Josephine

Guscetti in the 1860's. By 1887, he and his father-in-law, Peter Guscetti,

were buying land in Big Meadows together. Marriage itself, however,

proved to be a more lasting partnership.

Still some Italian-Swiss, for whatever reason, never entered such

a partnership. Miners like Gaetano Ruffa and Batista Piazzoni worked

fifty years in California and never married. This was also true of

Dave Grassetti who was in the United States fifty-eight years, Michael

Deri who was a laborer on a Vinton Ranch for thirty years, and Fortunate

Euzebio who lived in Plumas County almost twenty years. Even David

Ramelli, a land owner who would be expected to settle down, never married.

David, however, is an exception. For the most part, land owners married;

and when they did they almost always chose Italian-Swiss women.

Marriage records for Plumas County cannot be considered complete for

the Italian-Swiss community since some of the immigrants married in Butte

County, some in Washoe County and some in other areas of Italian-Swiss

settlement. Still, by studying only those men who married after coming

to California, it was determined that five-sixths (twenty-five out of

thirty) of the Immigrants married women born in Switzerland or daughters

of other Italian-Swiss immigrants.

Marriage between first generation immigrants often united two pro­ minent land owning families. This happened when Angelo Agostini married

Ernesta Guidici, when Clemente Roberti married Mary Guidici, when Sam

Bonta married Rose Laffranchini and when Pompeo Lombardi married Emilio

Ramelli's sister, Angelina. A merger between families was even more 37 evident when a first generation immigrant married the daughter of another first generation immigrant. Four examples of such unions were: Riziero

Canonica's marriage to Alessandro Guidici's daughter, Irene (in 1914);

Isaac Martinetti's marriage to Alessandro's oldest daughter, Delia (in

1913); Arthur Toscani's marriage to Morris Ambrogini's daughter, Mary (in

1910); and Attilio Deini's marriage to Lodovico Dotta's daughter, Anita

(in 1921).

In the second generation of Italian-Swiss this pattern of inter­ marriage continues. The available Plumas County records list the marriages of eleven sons and eleven daughters of known Italian-Swiss immigrants.

Eight of the eleven sons married daughters of the first-generation immigrants, and nine of the eleven girls married first-generation immi­ grants' sons. The Alessandro Guidici family which was united to the

Canonica family by Irene's marriage was also united to the Sobrics through Chester's marriage to Lina Sobrio. And when Josephine Dotta married Alfred Roberti, their parents (Lodovico Dotta and Floriano

Roberti) became relatives as well as neighbors. Another connection be­ tween Sierra Valley families was established when Floriano's daughter married Pietro Scolari's son, Oliver.

Two final examples of second generation marriages were those between the Tognaldi Sisters, Amelia and Mary, and the Ramelli cousins, Attilio and Charles. This three-way marriage pattern—between first-generation immigrants, between first and second generation immigrants, and between second generation immigrants—kept the families on the land and the land in the families. This permanence of settlement can be seen in the num­ ber of sons who later ranched on the land their fathers had bought in the 1870's, 1880's and 1890's. 38

The Baccalas of Big Meadows are an obvious example of land passage from father to son, and then from that son to his son. In the Beckwith-

Vinton area, Pietro Scolari and his son demonstrate this father to son transition. At Loyalton, Alfonso Ramelli, whose son Guido was running the ranch in 1919, is a good illustration. But perhaps the best repre­ sentatives of this settlement pattern are the two partners, Emilio

Ramelli and Lodovico Dotta. After Emilio's death, his wife, Adeline

Ramelli , ran the ranches near Vinton. But by 1913, their only son, 97 Rudolph, had taken over management of the Ramelli ranches.

Lodovico Dotta, on the other hand, had three sons who might have inherited his Vinton property. But his first son, Rinaldo, died from a hunting accident in 1914 and his second son, Lodovico Jr., moved to the

Bay Area to live. In 1928 he sold his interest in the ranches to his mother who had been leasing the land from him. Finally, in 1934,

Lodovico's youngest son, Frank, re-purchased the home ranch at Vinton;"^ today his family still owns and works this property. The township maps following the text show both the permanence of these Italian-Swiss set­ tlements and their proximity to each other. VIII. Significance of the Italian-Swiss Immigrant . . .

The three families which best illustrate the permanence of the

Italian-Swiss community and its effect on Plumas County are the Dottas , the Ramellis, and the Guidicis. Their individual histories indicate the significance of the Italian-Swiss immigrant in Plumas County be­ tween 1860 and 1920.

97Nell1e Ramelli , p. 28. y Mrs. Frank Dotta, p. 27. 39

Since Antone Dotta was the first recorded Italian-Swiss in the county it is fair to begin with his family. Dotta came to Caribou in

1856 to mine. Sometime later he homesteaded 520 acres at Longville

(now Humbug) which came to be called "Butte Creek Ranch." In 1867, he became a citizen and in 1869 brought his wife, Josephine Guscetti , to the ranch where she would live fifty-two years. Only one of their child­ ren outlived her parents; the other four, Frank, Josephine, Nilda, and 99 Chiara, died from diptheria between 1870 and 1877. In 1887, Antone and his father-in-law purchased 320 acres of Big Meadows land from Peter

Olsen.

Other Dottas buying property in the Big Meadows-Prattville area in the 1870's and 1880's were Charles and Floriana Dotta (Dotta Bros.). It is not known whether they were Antone's younger brothers, nor is it known whether Francisco Dotta was related to any of the three. Some relation­ ship could be possible, since he came to the same area (Prattville) at the same time (1870's) as the others did, but such relationships are difficult to prove. Another difficulty is the confusion of names—was

Florin Dotta who purchased lots in Greenville in 1888 the same Floriana

Dotta who had bought the Abbot Ranch in 1872?

Such problems of identification are also seen in the Dotta family which settled in Sierra Valley. The obvious question is how are these two families with the same surname related? The answer is that it is not known if they even are related. The earliest known member of this fam­ ily was Giovanni (John) Dotta whose mining activities in Virginia City and his land dealings in partnership with the Trosis and A. D. Agostini

""Cemeteries of the Area," Plumas Memories, 9 (July 15, 1962), 9. 40 have already been discussed. His importance lies in the fact that he sold his holdings to his nephew, Lodovico, before returning to

Switzerland in 1883.

Lodovico had come to California from a northern Ticino town (Fontana) in 1879. For thirteen years he and his partner, Emilio Ramelli , opera­ ted their dairies together until Dotta married Claudina Ponci. The actual date of this marriage cannot be determined because family records contradict historical records and no legal document of the marriage was available. At any rate, the couple had seven children beginning with

Josephine in 1899.

It would be tempting to say that this daughter was named after

Antone's wife and thereby prove a family relationship. But since

Lodovico's mother was named Josephine Lombardi this probably explains the daughter's name. His youngest son. Frank, however, could be named after the Frank Dotta in Prattville.

Lodovico's half brother, Angelo, came to California in 1890 and settled at Johnsville. Though he never married, it would appear that he intended to remain in Plumas County: in 1901, he purchased 1,440 acres from his brother's old partner, Emilio Ramelli , and in 1902 he became a citizen; in 1918 according to county records he committed suicide.

Henry Dotta, who came to Sierra Valley after 1900, was another half brother of Lodovico's and Angelo's. Like "these older brothers whom he never knew," Henry Dotta ran a dairy and beef ranch specializing in regis­ tered Durham bulls. A cousin of these three brothers, Raffaelo Dotta, had come to the United States in 1882. He worked on his Uncle John's

100Wooldridge, pp. 223-224. 41

ranch (the one Lodovico would purchase in 1883) and other dairy and beef • ranches for eight years. By 1892, Raffaelo was able to buy a 1 ,160 acre

dairy and beef ranch. Later he helped establish the Loyal ton Cooperative

Creamery and the Bank of Loyal ton—two vital economic forces in the

valley.

Equally as successful was Cesare Dotta who had immigrated with his

wife to Sierra Valley in company with Raffaelo. After Cesare's death

in 1929, his five sons ran the dairy and beef herds their father had

built up. The eldest, Antone E. (named after his grandfather and his

father's cousin in Big Meadows) expanded Cesare Dotta & Sons, Inc., to

include copper mining interests, the supplying of poultry, eggs, beef

and hogs to San Francisco markets, and the ownership of two local meat 102 markets. Thus the Dotta families of Big Meadows and of Sierra Valley

are important because they show how members of three generations

(Giovanni Dotta in 1874, Lodovico in 1894, Frank in 1934-1973) held the

same land. Moreover, they reveal how family members lived close enough

to build a sense of community.

These two aspects of Italian-Swiss life in Plumas County are also

revealed by the Ramelli families. Once more there are two distinct

families—one at Vinton and one at Beckwith. Emilio Ramelli was born the

same year (1856) that Antone Dotta reached California, and he immigra­

ted to California in the same year, 1879, that Lodovico had come. After

five years of work, he and Lodovico were able to purchase their uncles'

101 Wooldridge, pp. 164-165.

102Wooldridge, pp. 315-316. 42 property and begin their partnership at Vinton. Emilio did not pay all his half share ($8,500) at once, but gradually paid it off. By 1906, his 1 03 holdings were worth between fifteen and forty dollars an acre. 104 In 1886 he had married Adeline Guscetti who had come from

Virginia City with her family a year earlier. Four of their children-

Mary, Addie, Rudolph and Jessie Emma—reached adulthood. After his fa­ ther's death, Rudolph continued dairy ranching at Vinton. He and his wife, Nellie Williams (a school teacher from Chico), raised five child­ ren at the home ranch. Other Ramellis were ranching near Vinton as early as 1887 when Matteo Ramelli sold property to Emilio and Lodovico Dotta.

Alessio and Marvin Ramelli also owned land in the area; all, or any of the three, could have been Emilio's brothers.

It is known that one of them married, because a son (Attilio Ramelli, born in 1893 and identified as a Beckwith rancher) named his first son,

Marvin Matteo. Attilio and Charles Ramelli (perhaps a cousin) married the Tognaldi sisters—Amelia and Mary. A second Ramelli family, also ranching in the 1880's, were the Ramellis at Loyalton. Little is known about them except their names: Martin Ramelli, his wife Mary and a son,

Ceasar. Family histories mention that Ceasar married Jennie Ramelli from Beckwith, so perhaps the Loyalton Ramellis are not related (except by marriage) to the other two Ramelli families.

James Miller Guinn, History of The State of California and^ Biographical Records of The Sierras in California County and Regional Histories, 1906, microfilm reel, 33.

It is not known if Adeline was any relation to Peter Guscetti and Josephine Guscetti Dotta in Big Meadows. 43

A third Ramelli family began ranching near Beckwith as early as

1884 when David Ramelli from Nante, Ticino came to California. The next year, he and Pioni Pedrini bought 2,040 acres from the Pietro

Scolari Cattle Co. for $12,000. David's brother, Alfonso, was also a rancher but his property lay near Reno; he did not come to Beckwith until

1893. He and his wife, Carmella, had four children—Jennie , Guido,

Silvio, and Ida—and the oldest, Guido, took over his father's Beckwith ranch in 1919."^ One of Daivd and Alfonso's brothers remained in Nante,

Ticino; and it was left for his son, Silvio, to immigrate to California in 1912.

Here he managed J. W. Thompson's "Illinois Ranch" east of Quincy until he was able to buy it in 1920. He and his wife, Josephine (the daughter of Leopold Guidici) had their first son, David, in 1922. Three utnci k-ili lulcii, iivu uauyii oci j aiiu a JUII, IUI IUOCU uj I rtCT;. /-\u uiiut u unc,

Silvio Ramelli was described as a "shipper of cream," but today the

Ramelli Ranch in Quincy, operated by David and his son, runs beef cattle.

This change from dairy cattle to beef cattle is a common theme in the history of Italian-Swiss ranches in Plumas County.

The third family, the Guidicis, has at least three separate divi­ sions. Because the first generation Guidicis all emigrated from one town (Giornico) and all but two (who settled in Virginia City) came to the Beckwith-Vinton area, it was first believed that they were all

105 "Beckwith Breezes," p. 23. 1 f\f\ Frances Card, "The Illinois Ranch," Plumas Memories, 25 (June, 1967), 12, 44 members of one family. Guidici descendants, however, stress that they are related to each other only by marriage. According to Alessandro's daughter, Frances, one family of Guidicis always used the middle name,

Eini , to distinguish themselves from other Sierra Valley residents with this surname.

The Eini Guidici family consisted of four brothers: three lived near Vinton, and one, Filipe E., owned 320 acres in Sierra Valley, but lived in Virginia City. Two of his brothers—Bernard E. and Peter E.

Guidici—bought the Stephen Ede property in partnership with Frank

Guidici in 1875. In 1882, Bernard sold back his interest in the Ede

Ranch to Frank, but kept the FG brand. George Eini, a fourth brother, began ranching in the valley in 1887. The second Guidici family, like the first, had a representative in Virginia City.

Family records note that Giovanni (John) Guidici was an ore hauler in Virginia City when his oldest son, Alessandro, came to visit him there in 1872. Between 1872 and 1877 when his son, Mauricilio, came to

Virginia City, Giovanni purchased property on the Geiger Grade and 160 acres in Woodland, Washoe County. The year that Giovanni bought the

Washoe land, his brother Frank—with Bernard E. and Peter E. Guidici-- bought the Ede Ranch northeast of Vinton. Frank Guidici had come to

California in the late 1860's and had worked on the E. D. Hosselkus

Ranch before buying property of his own. Though Frank and his wife re­ turned to Switzerland in 1883, two of their nephews (Alessandro and

Mauricilio) remained in the valley.

Alessandro came to California five years earlier than did his half brother. Before he married Sophia Maggiere in 1887, Alessandro

107 Frances Guidici Bony, p. 29. 45

worked on different ranches and owned various parcels of land. For a

time, he worked on the John Crow Ranch in Red Clover Valley and ulti­

mately bought land there in partnership with two other ranchers. Next

he sold back his one-third share and came to work on the Bobo property

northeast of Vinton. In 1880, he and Uncle Frank bought this land in

partnership. When Mauricilio was able to purchase a portion of this

ranch and the adjoining Ede acreage in 1883, the two brothers owned

land in twelve sections.

Alessandro and Sophia had three sons (Alex, Fred, Chester) and three

daughters (Frances, Irena, Delia) by 1903. The youngest son, Chester, was operating a dairy ranch in Chilcoot when his first child was born

in 1923. Mauricilio had married a girl from his home town in Canton

Ticino in 1886. He and his wife, Julie, had four sons who reached adulthood; twins, a boy and a girl, died as infants, in the winter of

1898. Roland and Clarence owned property west of their father's ranch

in 1912.

The last two Guidicis, Leopold and Louis Attio, are cousins (by marriage) to Alessandro Guidici. Beginning in 1881, Leopold ranched for forty-eight years in the Beckwith-Ouincy area. He registered his

EVG brand at Beckwith in 1885, and by 1886 his personal property (a wagon, harness, three horses and twenty-five cows) was assessed at

$1,000. He and his wife, Carmelina, had nine children—Si 1 vio , Dan,

James , William, Josephine, Ida, Emma, Tilly and Lena.

Louis Attio came to California about ten years after Leopold. By

1911, he had a dairy ranch in Sierra Valley where his first child,

Rachel Sincere, was born. The three Guidici families not only repeat the theme of permanent settlement and adaptation (today beef rather 46 than dairy cattle graze on the Guidici Ranch east of Greenville), but are the best examples of families living close enough to offer jobs to new arrivals, to share expenses for land, and to provide a feeling of community and companionship.

IX. Contributing Factors to Successful Settlement

It is these three themes, especially evident in the Dotta, Ramelli and Guidici families, which led to the success of the Italian-Swiss immigrants in Plumas County. First, they saw their new ranches as per­ manent homes. No longer must they wander from Northern Italy to Ticino, and from Ticino north to the German and French speaking districts of

Switzerland. With few exceptions these immigrants became citizens as soon as five years residency had been fulfilled. They married, usually within the national nroup, and raised children who often married other

Italian-Swiss ranchers or succeeded their fathers as dairymen and farm­ ers.

Two factors were present which made such settlement possible. The first of these was the immigrant's willingness to adapt himself to whatever economic situation confronted him. When his mining claim ran out or his gold interest flagged, he was able to start again as a day laborer on a dairy ranch. With the help of his immediate family and the larger family of his countrymen, he was often able to buy the land on which he had once worked. Moreover, if he found the market for his butter, cheese and milk disappearing, he could convert his dairy ranch

into a beef operation.

Besides his ability to adapt, the Italian-Swiss cpuld rely on his community's support and protection. Families were united by marriages 47 and business partnerships and above all by their physical nearness to one another. This willingness to change, then, reinforced by a strong sense of community helped the Italian-Swiss in Plumas County made per­ manent, and therefore, successful settlements. R14E R15E R16E

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Appendix A

Italian-Swiss Family Names in Plumas County

Where more than one spelling of a name is provided, research has shown that the several spellings were commonly used for one family name or that the spelling changed over a period of time.

Abacherli Deri

Agostini Dotta

Albertini Euzebio

Ambrogini Faure

Baccala Fillippini , Fillipini

Beffa Fontelli

Biaggi Fumagalli

Bognuda Galeppi, Galippi

Bonta Garette

Borsini Genasci

Bottini Genetelli

Caligari Giadoni

Canonica Gilardoni

Capezzoli Grassetti

Capornica Guggua

Chi ri Guidici

Conta Gui nielli

Defanti, Defanty Guscetti > Gusetti

De Gottardi, Gottardi Laffranchi ni

Deini Legni

De Maria Lombardi" 50

Appendix A

Continued

Lompa Ruffa

Maddalena Salvi

Maggoli Scalari

Marioni Scgni

Martinetti Scudelatti

Merlini Sobrio

Mistro Solari, Soleri , Sollarii

Nicolini Stabeli

Papa Taddei

Pattani Tognaldo, Tognalda, Tognaldi

Pedrini Tognazini, Tognazzini

Pelanda Toscani, Toscanni

Pensa Trosi

Piazzoni Uhlinghi, Uslenghi

Pirazzi Vanetti

Ponci Vanzini

Pradelli Vincenzo

Ramelli

Regusci

Roberti

Robertini

Rodoni

Rossetti 51 BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS:

Abbott, Edith. Historical Aspects of the Immigration Problem. New York: Arno Press and The New York Times, 1969.

California Blue Book. Sacramento, California, 1903.

Fariss and Smith. History of Plumas, Lassen and Sierra Counties: 1882. Berkeley, California: Howell-North Books, 1971.

Foerster, Robert. The Italian Immigration of Our Times. New York: Arno Press and The New York Times, 1969.

Guinn, James Miller. History of the State of California and Biographical Records of the Sierras in California County and Regional Histories, 1906, microfilm, reel 33.

Hansen, Marcus Lee. The Atlantic Migration. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1940.

The Immigrant in American History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1948.

Rolle, Andrew F. The Immigrant Upraised. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968.

Von Grueningen, John Paul, editor. The Swiss In the United States. Madison, Wisconsin: Swiss American Historical Society, 1940.

Wooldridge, Jesse Walton. History of the Sacramento Valley. Chicago: The Pioneer Historical Publishing Company, 1931, Vol. III. 52

PERIODICALS AND PAMPHLETS:

Baugh, Ruth E. "Swiss In California." Association of American Geographers: Annals, XLI (1951), 264-65. (A review of Perret's Les Colonies Tessinoises En Californie)

"Beckwith Breezes." Reprinted from Plumas National Bulletin in Plumas Memories. Plumas County Historical Society, No. 30 (1968). 21-24.

Bony, Frances Guidici. "Alessandro Guidici Sr." Plumas Memories. Plumas County Historical Society, No. 20 (1965), 29-30.

"Cemeteries of the Area." Plumas Memories. Plumas County Historical Society, No. 9 (July 15, 1962), 17-18.

"Les Colonies Tessinoises En Californie." The Geographical Review, XLII (1952), 162-163.

Cometti, Elizabeth. "Swiss Immigration to West Virginia 1864-1884: A Case Study." Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 47 (June, 1960), 66-87.

Curti, Merle and Kendall Birr. "The Immigrant and the American Image In Europe, 1860-1914." Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XXXVII (September, 1950), 203-230.

Dotta, Mrs. Frank. "The Swiss Immigrants." Plumas Memories. Plumas County Historical Society, No. 20 (1965), 26-27.

Gard, Frances. "The Illinois Ranch." Plumas Memories. Plumas County Historical Society, No. 25 (June, 1967), 11-12.

Guidici, Mrs. M. "Mauricilio Guidici." Plumas Memories. Plumas County Historical Society, No. 20 (1965), 31.

Higham, John. "Origin of Immigration Restriction, 1882-1897: A Social Analysis." Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 39 (June, 1952), 77-88. 53

"The Magnificent Farm of E. D. Hosselkus." Plumas Memories. Plumas County Historical Society, No. 7 (April 8, 1962), 9.

Ramelli, Nellie. "Emilio Ramelli Ranch." Plumas Memories. Plumas County Historical Society, 20 (September 12, 1965), 28.

Raup, H. F. "The Italian-Swiss in California." California Historical Society Quarterly, 30 (December, 1951), 305-314.

Scott, Franklin D. Emigration And Immigration. Washington: Service Center For Teachers of History, No. 51, 1963.

Stone, Grace. "Tennesee: Social and Economic Laboratory." Sewanee Review. 46 (January, 1938), 36-44.

"The Swiss Mine." Plumas Memories. Plumas County Historical Society, No. 25 (June, 1967)", 28.

Wright, Doris Marion. "The Making of Cosmopolitan California." California Historical Society Quarterly, 20 (March, 1941), 65-79.

LETTERS AND INTERVIEWS:

Guscetti, Frank. Unpublished letter to Louis Guscetti at Loyalton, California, May 10, 1907.

Lombardi, Alvin. Unpublished letter to JoEllen Hall at Chico, California, June 4, 1973.

Steele, Winnie. Personal Interview, Quincy, California. May 8, 1973, with the authors. 54

NEWSPAPERS:

Feather River Bulletin, 1901-1909, 1916-1917.

Plumas Independent, 1917-1918.

Plumas National, 1870-1888.

Sier-a Valley Leader, 1888-1893.

All of the above held on microfilm at CSUC Library, Chico, California. 55

Records Consulted From The Plumas County Archives, Plumas County Court House, Quincy, California:

Office of the Clerk

Miscellaneous Records:

Declaration of Intention, Record of, 1871-1906

Citizenship, Record of, 1880-1903

Naturalized Citizens Index, 1856-1901

Office of the Recorder:

Bill of Sale and Agreements, 1854-1941

Births, Register of, 1873-1932

Deaths, Register of, 1873-1932

Deeds, 1854-1888

Homesteads, 1860-1916

Maps, official county maps compiled by A. W. Keddie in 1892 and 1912

Marks and Brands, 1854-1917

Marriages, Record of, 1854-1917

V