RANCHO RIO DE LOS PUTOS By duane davis - RANCHO RIO DE LOS PUTOS .>..' DAVIS BOOKS • 8682 Pleasants Valley Road Winters, C3Ufomla 95694 Copyright 1996 Text and compUatlon by Duane Davis, Primary Illustration Resource Vacaville Heritage Council volunteers; Photographic preparation by Robert ADen and Jerry Bowen. ~ert Historical Resources. Hughes and staff• This material Is Intended for educational usage. Additional Information on 'Rio de los putos' or the Woffsklll Family may be obtained from the Vacaville Heritage CouncB . E. Main Street VacavUIe, California 95638. Initial printing by Mal Boxes Etc. 965 Alamo Dr. VacavUIe, CA 95687. Special thanks to Logan WUDams. ILLUSTRATIONS· PLATE 1 SOUTHERN PATWIN BEADS -w Found near and within Rio De Los Putos Land Grant boundaries (Courtesy Solano County Park Collection) 2 OBSIDIAN PROJECTILE POINTS"" Found near and within Rio De Los Putos Land Grant boundaries (Courtesy of Solano County Park Collection) 3 MAP of California Native American Tribes 4 Photocopy of DESENO or map of Ri.o De Los Putos presented by William Wolf skill with PETITION: WILLIAM WOLFSKILL VS UNITED STATES 5 Photocopy of DESENO or map of Rio De Los Putos presented by Willia~ Wolfskill with PETITION: WILLIAM WOLFSKILL VS UNITED STATES 6 Photograph of JOHN REED WOLFSKILL(1804-1897) -w circa 1890 (Courtesy of Vacaville Heritage Council) 7 Photograph ofWILLIAM WOLFSKILL(1798-1866) -- aka Guillermo Guisquiel (Courtesy of Vacaville Heritage council) '. 8 Photograph ofWOLFSKILL STONEHOUSE(1864-1892) -w John R. Wolfskill and family standing on porch. (Courtesy of Vacaville Heritage Council) PLATE 9 Photograph of MATHIAS WOLFSKILL(1810-1876) "W (Courtesy ofVacaville Heritage Council) 10 Photograph of MRS. MATHIAS(Permelia Ashcroft) WOLFSKILL --: (Courtesy of Vacaville Heritage Council) " 11 Photograph ofWOLFSKILL FAMILY,.. Left side is Milton(1819-1906) and wife .-_"..: Anna(Sweany) Wolfskill. Right side is John R. and wife Susan(Cooper) Wolf skill. (Courtesy of Vacaville Heritage Council) 12 Photograph of STONEHOUSE ~ After earthquake"' of 1892. (Courtesy of Vacaville Heritage Council) 13 Photograph of SARSHELL WOLFSKILL HOME(1892-1948) ,.. Built after Earth quake of 1892 and burned down in 1948 by fire. (Courtesy of Vacaville Heri tage Council) 14 Photograph ofWOLFSKILL GRANT PLAQUE ~ State Historical Landmark No. 804. (Courtesy ofVacaville heritage Council) 15 Photocopy ofJOHN R. WOLFSKILL DEATH CERTIFICATE ~ (Solano County Archives) 16 Photocopy of 1996 WOLFSKILL FESTIVAL flyer. An annaul1800's dress-up event held at Lake Solano County Park. (Courtesy of Solano County Regional Parks) PLATE'1 SOUTHERN PATWIN INDIAN BEADS,.., Found near and within Rio De Los utos Land Grant boundaries. (Courtesy Solano County Park Collection) .•"t~' PLATE 2 OBSIDIAN PROJECTILE POINTS,.. Found near and within Rio De Los Putos Land Grant boundaries. (Courtesy of Solano County Park Collection) THE STORY OF THE RIO DE away. LOS PUTOS LAND GRANT This booklet will mainly focus on their acquisition and settlement of the Rancho De Los On Nov. 17th and 18th 1995, Putos Land Grant It will also show The Lake Solano County Park Wolf­ some of the accomplishments they skill Festival was organize~ near made and the legacy they left. Winters, California to commemorate the original pioneer family that settled there and the RIO DE LOS . FIRST PEOPLE PUTOS Land Grant. After the festival I felt a need Before I talk about the first to further explore the rich historic European settlers on the land, I legacy of the region and it's people. must briefly mention an earlier Late at night, as I sifted people. These first people lived on through my research material look­ and around the Land Grant for ing for brief mentions or extended' thousands of years prior to the prose on members of the Wolfskill European influence. family. I often found myself walking The True First People were outside my body and entering into the Native Americans of California. another dimension in time. A time, I As late as 1837, the Southern hate to admit, that looked a hell of a" Patwin Indians of the Wintun Un­ lot more challenging and rewarding guistic Group i"habited the region. than my own. A time when there "Patwin is the native word for was unexplored and unsettled 'people' and was used by several lands. When one could cross a river tribelets in reference to them­ or mountain range and enter into a ~elves." (0) lifelong adventurous quest, with the "Southern Patwin in turn promise of free land for crops and were divided into tribelets ~ the houses. Ululatos"(Vacaville), Labaytos The life quests of the pioneer (Putah Creek), Malacas (Lagoon brothers you will read about, went Valley), Tolenas (Upper Suisun beyond the norm. Their mere sur­ Valley), C!.nd Suisunes ('Suisun vival from birth in the untamed Plain). The actual number of South­ Kentucky wilderness and their ern Patwin will probably never be emigrant grandparents centered known. The most recent modern their path to greatness. estimates place.them in the range of They grew up with Daniel three to five thousand....The South­ Boone's sons and Kit Carson. Life ern Patwin congregated in villages was hard and dangerous with un­ of about 100 people." (1) friendly Indians, wild animals and There was a Lab.aytos village lo­ disease testing their mere survival. cated near the present day town of And yet they pushed the known Winters, within the Rio De Los limits of their own worlds and Putos Grant Boundaries. reached for a new existence far 'The Patwin had a primitive, 0- "CAUFORNIA : Volume S" (S88 bibliography) 1978, pp "~50. 1- "SOLA'NO: The Crossroads Count~H (See blbllo~ra~h~'! 1989,' pp9. \ -J \ i '-.... \ " \ \ / -1 _!'~_16.....P_\"...?--..I~iUIo-""" ~ 0 ""'- PLATE 3 MAP of California Native Arnerlcan. Tribes 2 simple and natural relation to the unmissionized Patwins remained in land, vegetation and animal found the region. there. Living South of Cache Creek (in what was later 'to be Yolo County), the Southern Patwin gath­ JOHN REED WOLFSKILL ered in small villages along valley floors of the foothills and valleys John Wolfskill (1804 - 1897) extending south to Suisun Bay. was born in Boonesborough, Madi­ These villages were permanent son County, Kentucky with seven concentrations of perhaps two other children of Joseph and Sarah hundred or more men, women and Wolfskill. They were William (first children and they typically grew up born), Mathus, Margaret, Stephen, around buildings designed to sat­ EI~abeth~Suzanna,Joshua,and isfy two different needs: shelter and then John Reed. society.' (2) Later Joseph and Sarah The Patwin were hunters and moved to Boone's Lick, Howard's gatherers. The staple of their diet County, Missouri where four more was acorns. Deer, antelope, elk, children; Sarchet, Mary, Milton and bears, small mammals, birds and Smith, were born. Boone's Lick was insects were hunted. A variety of a small, area on the border of the roots, fruits, nuts, berries and seeds frontier. It was named after natural were gathered in their natural salt springs(licks) and settled by kitchen per the season. Fish were , Daniel Boone. taken from Putah Creek. Joseph Wolfskill and neigh­ The European Influence bors Benjamin Cooper and Lindsey around Putah Creek started with the Carson were fully convinced that Patwins first contact with Spaniards the surrounding Indians were mak­ around 1810. The Spanish removed ing preparations to attack the settle­ and relocated the Patwins from the ments along the Missouri River. Putah Creek area to various mis~ The believed their best defense was sions, including Mission Sonoma. in the construction Cooper's Fort. The influence ended with a The Wolfskill children grew Small Pox epidemic lasting from up in Coopers Fort and survived the 1837 to 1839. The disease killed off Indian Wars of 1812 alongside large amounts of unvaccinated Daniel Boone's children, Kit Carson, Patwins living outside the Missions George Yount and other frontier from Sonoma to Putah Creek (Putah families. They were taught well Creek is the prehistoric creek that what was needed to survive in the runs through the land grant area). wilderness. They learned all the The epidemic was the last basic skills; farming, hunting, trap­ European influence on the Patwins ping, carpentry an~ were even sent +0 rt-"'h""'~ "rF hi,.har IA~rni",. ~~ which nearly eliminated all of the It ~"I UUI~ UI I "Y'I~' I~al 11I1\f a~ Patwins. By the 1840's and 1850's they got older. From the oversettled when the first European settlers lands of the North Eastern United arrived, only a handful of States, these families struggled to 2- "VACAVILLE: The heritage of a California Community" (See blbHography) pp 5-6. .. " : • ~ -.,-_ ... _.- ---_. ---r-----~-·--- 1 --.-- - -=::-.:.-- J- ---- ._ j' .~~. , . fJ '. ~ ; ~ I .~ . , y .,.....~.J . - -., -~~ . J . t·"": __-.r_-=--:r=-:- ....- . r---r----pt.ATE-4· .... Photocopy of "Desefio" or map of Rio De Los Putos presented by William Wolfskill with his "Petition:" WILLIAM WOLFSKILL vs. UNITED STATES 3 exist on the 0 rims of their civilized RIO DE LOS PUlOS worlds. A few brave ones like John and William Wolfskill (1798 • 1866), A promise to California, left their civilized worlds and adven­ Or inland to the greatpastoral Plains, and tured far into the untamed frontier. onto Puget Sound and Oregon; Sojourning east a while longer, soon I travel Some, as the family I've been towardyou, to remain, to teach robust tracking, excel into proprietors of American love, vast land masses for brief ticks of For I know very well that I and robust love the historic time clock. I can leave belong among you, inland, and along the these white and black pages of Western sea; For these States tend inland and toward the squiggly lines and leap into my Western sea, and I will also.