In the fall of 1851, three young men, trailing a wounded elk, walked out on the rocky point above the spot where Boonville now stands, and looked with delighted eyes at the prospect of a home below. To the west, dark forest covered the hills; the sunny eastern slopes, more open, were marked with shadowed ravines. Across the level valley floor, two small streams flowed, to meet and form a creek which moved out of sight down the valley.
Descending, the youths crossed the level to the western foothills and made a camp near what was later the Tom Ornbaun home. Here they lingered several days, exploring the vicinity, and becoming more enchanted with the place by the hour. A thick turf of dry grass carpeted the meadows. The level land where the Fairgrounds lies today was covered with manzanita bushes, their berries hanging in rich clusters; clumps of black oak, resplendent in their lacquered autumn leaves, cast pleasant shade, as did the madrone, doubly colorful with its Indian-red bark and brilliant berries. Deer roamed as sheep were to do later; bears feasted on huckleberries in the woods; elk bands came out of the timber to graze; small animals abounded.
The young men reluctantly broke camp, returning to Lake County. To the head of their family party, Mr. Walter Anderson, they reported that they had found a “big meadow, and it was like a Garden of Eden.”
The first white family to settle in Anderson Valley was composed of Mr. Walter Anderson, his wife, two of her three children by a former marriage, three of his by a former marriage, and the couple's own three children.
The facts that we have been able to gather concerning “The Pioneer Woman of Anderson Valley” and her family are as follows:
Rhoda Crouch was born in Kentucky in 1805, and in 1826 she married Isaac Beeson. Three children were born to them: Martha (year unknown); Henry, Nov. 3, 1828 in Hopkins County, Kentucky (one reliable source gives it 1829); and Isaac, born Sept. 15, 1833. The family came west to Boonville, Missouri, where Mr. Beeson died. Mr. Beeson’s widow, in 1840, married Mr. Walter Anderson, who had seven children by a previous marriage, as follows:
Nancy, born in Indiana in 1812
Robert, born in Indiana in 1816
Luciana, born in Illinois in 1818
Joseph, born in Arkansas in 1822
‘Pinky,’ born in Arkansas in 1825
William, born in Arkansas in 1827
Chloe Ann, born in Arkansas in 1830
Of these, we are concerned only with “Pinky,” William, and Chloe Ann, as the others either had remained in the East or stayed on in Missouri. This is also true of Mrs. (Beeson) Anderson's only daughter by her first husband Martha, who was married to a Mr. Stevens and did not come to Califomia until 1862, when she came with the same wagon train as the Comelius Prather family.
While in Missouni, two children were born to the Anderson-Beeson couple. The first was Artemesia Jane, born in 1841. (A clipping from the “San Jose Mercury,” dated March 16, 1891, giving facts of her death, gave her birth year as 1843: but family papers seem to substantiate the date of 1841.) The second was Washington, born in December 1843.
In 1845 the Anderson-Beeson family left Missouri and came to California. Mr. Henry Beeson (son of Mrs. Beeson-Anderson) has left this statement: “We crossed the plains with Mr. McChristian, with a train of 100 wagons, from Indian Nation to what is now Sacramento.”
Henry, a sixteen-year-old boy, drove his mother’s ox team and she rode with him. We find that the party settled about 16 miles north of Sutter's Fort. Here in 1847 was born the little Rhoda, named for her mother. Descendants say that she was the first white child born in the vicinity of Sutter's Fort, and her advent proved of great interest to everyone nearby, even the Indians.
The family evidently moved by stages, to Sonoma, to Petaluma, and possibly to Dry Creek Valley. Accounts vary, but while near Sonoma, young Henry Beeson was caught in the excitement attendant on the expedition of John Fremont. The latter, after receiving a secret communication from Washington, had suddenly stopped his foray into the north, and camped near the mouth of the Feather River. From here, though without “formal” orders from Fremont, the party was organized and rode to Sonoma, collecting men as it went. Among them was Henry Beeson, who helped to raise the Bear Flag, June 14, 1846. In his last years, Mr. Beeson was honored as the last survivor of the Bear Flag Incident (aka the Bear Flag Rebellion).
We next hear of the family in Lake County in 1848. Here they were settled near Lower Lake. Mr. Mauldin, Lake County Historian for their Centennial of 1962, states that without a doubt, Mrs. Anderson was the first white woman to settle in Lake County.
Mr. Beeson’s notes state that they were there when threats of an Indian uprising were heard. Prolonged cruel treatment of the Indians by early cattlemen had engendered smoldering hatred, and this threatened danger sent the Beeson brothers, Henry and Isaac, and their step-brother, William Anderson, seeking a safer home. As they hunted for food on the way, they came upon the little valley among the Coast ranges which has since been named for Walter Anderson. On their retum to Lake County, they were met with tragic news. Mr. Beeson’s notes read, “Kelsey was killed by the Indians and we hurriedly left for Anderson Valley.”
Mr. Anderson, Sr., was anxious to accomplish the trip before the rains set in, so they made all haste back to what is now called “Oat Valley,” near Cloverdale, where the Indian trail led North. It was hazardous going, with wagons, but to people who had crossed the Rockies and worked their way over the Sierras, nothing seemed insurmountable. At the base of the Cloverdale grade, near the “Alder Glen” sign of today, my Grandfather Prather once pointed out the trail, which was on the opposite side of the gulch from the present highway.
On reaching the valley in the fall of 1851, the pioneer group, ten in all, set about building a cabin of logs; but despair must have seized them when Indians appeared, and with threatening signs made it known that the whites must leave at once. What tragedy for that tired mother, who had thought at last she could call a spot “home,” only to find that she must retrace the difficult way back to safety. Mrs. Anderson's granddaughter, Mrs. Birtie May (Murray) Adcock, highlights this poignant moment by relating that her grandmother, in her frightened haste, was forced to leave her spinning wheel.
Mrs. Anderson evidently told and retold this story to the little Rhoda in later years, who in turn passed it on to her daughter who is now Mrs. Adcock. Rhoda herself, four years of age, evidently kept a deep impression of the fear and haste of the departure.
Back the family traveled, but no details of the trip have been found. It is probable that they spent the winter somewhere in Dry Creek Valley, west of the present town of Healdsburg, because the history of Mendocino County tells us that Mr. Walter Anderson and family left Dry Creek and came to Anderson Valley in 1852, becoming the first white settlers. No mention is made of that earlier trip.
Mrs. Adcock raises here an interesting question, quoting her mother as saying that by the spring of 1852, the family had found “others” who would come with them, thus making it safer to return and settle. Who the “others” were would distinctly add to this story. But no mention of them is made in the “History,” leaving the impression that they were alone.
However, Mr. Anderson's desire for good land made him resolve to return. So the family in the spring of 1852 came again in sight of the chosen spot. Mr. John McAbee, a very early settler, is quoted as saying that he remembered Anderson telling him that he and his wife, each with a child behind the saddle, rode first into the valley.
The spot chosen for a home was one mile west of Boonville, at the foot of the hill just beyond the site where the present high school was later built. A log house, with earth floor and “clay and sticks chimney” (described to me by Clara Lawson and Jessie McCarty), was erected — the first house in Anderson Valley.
Mr. Anderson dealt in horses and cattle. Petaluma was his nearest market, and stock for sale had to be driven there. He was evidently a hardy man, as tales of his longevity are numerous. A grandson of his says that his mother, Rhoda (Anderson) Murray, showed him the tree where the old man killed his last bear, and she said, “And he was 108 years old at the time.” He never wore glasses, according to others, but was an excellent shot with a rifle, even in his later years.
The wife was not so robust, her death occurring in 1857 when she was but 52 years of age. Hardships had taken their toll. She was buried on the hill across the road from their home, on land owned by her son Henry. On the weathered stone is inscribed: “Rhoda Crouch, a Native of Kentucky, Born 1805 Died 1859. Married Isaac Beeson 1826. Married Waltr anderson 1840. The Pioneer Woman of Anderson Valley, 1852.”
Mr. Anderson, who at one time was considered quite prosperous, owning land and stock, seems to have lost everything. In 1858 he traded his land to Mr. Joseph Rawles for 80 head of horses. This is the last record we can find of Mr. Anderson. Where he went, what happened to his sons, William, “Pinky,” and Washington, and where he died are questions we cannot answer.
Later an article in the Pacific Rural Press of March 17, 1888 by T.J. McGimsey of Boonville (kindness of George Lawson) states that old Mr. Anderson spent his last years in Ukiah with his daughter and son-in-law, Artemisia and Joe Lamar, and is buried there.
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