Italian Swiss Settlement of Plumas County 1860-1920
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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.