The record-union., 1892-02-13
THIRTY YEARS AGO.
Something About the 0Id-Time Town
of MitchviIle.
Another Town That Never Material
tzed-The Great Flood of '62-Mc-
Kean Buchanan Up Tree.

Kean buchanan Up a Tree.
How many persons are there now in
Sacramento who remember the ancient
town Of Mitchville? But there was such
place thirty-odd years ago. It was To-
Gated on the bank of the American River,
about five miles from its mouth and a
short distance beyond where Hoboken
was situated in 1852. Mitchville was
named in honor of Wyman McMitchell,
who was then (and up to the time of his
death in 1890 freight agent for the Steam
Navigation Company.
The town consisted of two saloons a
shanty used as a freight office, and small
warehouse. The steamer Sam Soule
made two regular trips each day between
Sacramento and Mitchville, carrying a
large amount of freight, which was
hauled from there to the mines A re-
porter who visited the town thus de-
scribed it in February, 1862:
'Mitchville presents rather primitive
appearance, and the indications are that
It will not, for a few years TO come, out
rival Sacramento, to which it owes its
origin. The artistic portion of the town
consists of two signs, on one of which is
inscribed Steamboat Office. n. B.
Boarders taken in here The other sign
bears the name of the town, 'Mitchville,'
and two elaborate paintings. One of these
represents two distressed-looking gentle
men in the act of partaking of glasses of
3oaming lager, and the other is a picture
of a man destitute of clothing of any de-
scription, and is supposed to indicate the
lack of accommodations afforded by the
new city.''
Mitchville disappeared with the reced-
ing waters, the railroad relieving the
steamboats, Of freight-carrying in that di-
rection.
........Newspaper were conducted very
differently IN those days from the GUS
toms of the present day. The newspaper
methods OF thirty years ago, if revived,
could not survive a week against the
progressive journalism OF the present
day. For instance, there was com
mittee' of citizens (Freeholders) then
engaged in preparing the present charter
of fSacramento and all the public knew
of their work was contained in the fol-
lowing item in the old UNION:
''It was rumored on the street yester-
day that the committee appointed a short
time since to draft plan for the future
government of the city had completed
the same, and sent copy to the Legisla-
ture for its approval"
Had the people been kept regularly in
formed as to what the charter makers
we're doing there might now be no neces-
sity for new charter.
..On the Odd of January. 1862. the
slewly-constructed levee at RabeFs tan
merry, short distance beyond Agricult-
ural Park, gave way and let an additional
volume of water from the American
River in upon the city.
On the following day the steamer Gem.
Captain Page, LETT the city front with
forty tons of freight and a large number
of passengers for PatterSon'S Station be-
tween here and Folsom. When she ar
rived at the crevaSSe at Rabel's tannerv
she was carried broadside through it, and
finally deposited at Twenty third and B
streets. Her passengers and freight were
taken OFF IN small boats, and no lives
We're lost.
-........T There have been times when the
waters Of the rivers exceeded in hight the
Hoods Of 1862, but never has such damage
been done as then. In the country be-
tween the Stanislaus and San joaquin
-AtIvers the rush of the water was so fierce
that fields We're stripped of their oak
trees.
The story is told of hoteI-keeper on
the Placerville road, that he was one day
congratulating himself that he did not
live down in the valley, when a landslide
came down, demolished his hotel, and
left him stranded in mud-puddle.
.........When the flood of January, 1862,
began to subside the bodies of five
drowned persons were found one day
near II. NJ. LaRue's residence, on the
Norris Grant. People who had been liv-
ing on ranches along the river were daily
reported missing. In one instance an en-
lire family living about nine miles below
the city, on the Yolo side, started from
their home in boat, but Were lost.
during the high-water period of
1862 Mexican Buchanan and his company
were making q tour of the State. One
day, when IN hotel at Smelling, Merced
County, the house was swamped and
they had to climb a tree until a boat was
sent to their relief. Mac" didn't mind
1t much, as he was well supplied with
brandy, but the ladies of the company
suffered severely.
THE serious state of affairs caused
by the second flood of January, 1862, on
the 2lst of that month, did not prevent the
newspaper humorlSt from getting in his
work. An item in the UNION read:
The barber-shops of the city were all
Hooded out yesterday, except that of the
steamer Chrysopolis, which. for some
reason or other, the water failed to reach"
........ The Government revenue cutter
Shubrick visited Sacramento in the latter
part of January, 1862. She made trip
out over the Yolo ocean that rolled at
that time over the country west of this
city, and rescued the families of many
farmers whose homes had been par
TALLY submerged.
....On the 9th of February, 1862. the
steamer Nevada, while on her way to San
-trancisco, sprung a leak and was run
ashore about a mile this side of Rio
Vista, where she partially sank The
Chrysopolis took off her two hundred
passengers and mails.
On the 2Sth of January Mike
Brannigan, the notorious hackman. was
sentenced by Judge Robinson to ten
years in the State Prison for a criminal
assault upon Edith Mitchell, the actress
who had accepted an invitation to ride in
one of his carriages.
.... Thirty years ago people cured
whooping cough by giving their children
a teaspoonful and half of strong coffee,
sweetened, three times a day. But it was
real coffee, not burnt beans ground up.
New Sacramento" was thenane
given by Samuel Norris to new town
laid out by him on the high ground north
OF the American River. The site is there
yet, but the town never materialized.
One night in the latter part of Jan
uary, 1862, the shop of Henry McCann, the
tailor (who is still in the city, was en-
tered and robbed of goods to the value of
$1,000.
BALL AND BAT.
Good Prospect for an Exciting Game
Tomorrow.
looo.I,ol1