CAMP FAR WEST CEMETERY AND CANTONMENT

Wheatland Historical Society

CAMP FAR WEST CEMETERY AND CANTONMENT

Entrance to Camp Far West Cemetery

Click on picture for information about the site

Historic cemeteries should be preserved.

For Pictures of the some

of the people of Camp Far

West go to: http://pweb.jps.net/~ghd/id3.html


Monument at Camp Far West Cemetery Camp Far West In honor of the known Military buried here: Pvt. George Eckweller Co. F, 2^nd Inf. 1849 Pvt. John Stevenson Co. F, 2^nd Inf. 1849 Pvt. Newton Barnes Co. F, 2^nd Inf. 1849 Pvt. Baldwin Co. E, 2^nd Inf. 1850 By Ernest Elmer Sowell 1959 CAMP FAR WEST – U.S. HISTORICAL LANDMARK CAMP FAR WEST, earliest United States Army outpost in Superior California, is located about four miles east of Wheatland, near the Bear River, Yuba County, California. In World Was II the site became a part of Camp Beale Reservation (Now Camp Beale Air Force Base in 1959). A government order issued about 1943 rescued this Yuba County site from near oblivion, including the burial ground dating back over 100 years to 1844, when it was used by settlers traveling the Emigrant Trail, and those who stopped at nearby Johnson’s Crossing, or Rancho (the only crossing at the time on the Bear River), first California objective of PIONEERS moving west by way of Salt Lake and Truckee Summit. It will be protected as one of the OLD WEST’S HISTORICAL LANDMARKS. USED AS TRAINING In World War II vehicles of modern war moved over the old parade ground where those early troops marched. Bear River adjoining was used for scores of problems in military training. And tons and tons of gold bearing gravel from the river bed used to surface Beale streets and training area. In about the early 1900’s dredge mining along the river, first by floating barges with continuous chain-bucket –type dredge. Two RISDON dredges began operating in July, 1900 and two more in 1902. The dredges were still working at Camp Far West in 1906, and then followed by the draglines, long ago removed the land upon which the military buildings stood. The author when a boy of eight years of age was there with his older brother, John A. Sowell, who lived about one mile from Camp Far West. At that time (1887) none of the old buildings or rock piles were to be seen. The DREDGE OPERATIONS came later. Desolate piles of tailings, as shown in the picture, now surround the little OLD CEMETERY on three sides. It is occupied by 18 nameless graves, mostly soldier victims of Indian raids and disease, according to surviving records. However, prior to the establishment of the Military Post Camp Far West, in 1849, this spot had been used for burial of civilian dead, situated near the military post. When death claimed some of the soldiers, they wee buried there, just how many is not known. AIR OF MYSTERY Thus an air of mystery surrounds the small plot of ground. The existence of this camp has been something of an enigma to historians, no group of them being in complete agreement about the place. MONUMENT STANDS GUARD One little girl, Betsy Parker, occupies a brick-marked grave in a corner of the plot. All graves are without headstones and lost to memory except for a monument erected in the center of CAMP FAR WEST CEMETERY, which is a 30 foot area, by the Grand Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West and the Wheatland Rainbow Parlor No. 40 of the Native Sons of the Golden West in 1911. The rock wall enclosure of the cemetery was erected by and through the efforts of Camp Far West Parlor No. 218, Native Daughters of the Golden West, of Wheatland, Californian. It was dedicated by them May 6, 1950. The monument marks the spot of Camp Far West which Yuba County records list as a Military Reservation erected in 1849 for the protection of American settlers in that region. Two companies of soldiers were stationed there under the command of Captain Hannibal Day. Just exactly when the post was abandoned is questionable, but the liquidation took place somewhere between 1852 and 1856. It is supposed the abandonment took place because the protection no longer was needed. Brigadier General E.R. S. Canby, later to become famed for his part in the Modoc Wars and other Pacific Northwest Indian battles, was Captain Day’s commanding officer. History records the Camp was made up of a log fort, barracks and officers quarters, Today, not a trace remains of any of those OLD buildings. Mr. Ray Manwell, former District Attorney of Yuba County, by letter to this writer, says that his father, Edmund Tecumseh Manwell, son of G.W. Manwell, Justice of Peace of Wheatland, was born in a LOG CABIN AT CAMP FAR WEST, August 19, 1868. Mr. Edmund Tecumseh Manwell was Principal of Wheatland Public Schools, 1892-to 1898 and 1899. Supt. of the Yuba County Schools 1907- 1910 and Assemblyman for Yuba and Sutter County for term, 1905 and 1906. He was District Attorney of Yuba County from 1910 to the time of his death in the Wheatland Hop Riot, Sunday August 3, 1913. Mr. E.T. Manwell, son of Ray Manwell, and Grandson of Edmund T. Manwell is Municipal Judge (1952 to 1959 – at this time.) of the City of Marysville, Yuba County. Mr. Edmund Tecumseh Manwell, Sr., was the writer’s teacher in the Wheatland Public Schools in the 1890’s. HE WAS THE BEST and MOST UNSELFISH TEACHER that I ever went to school to. Ernest Elmer Sowell From "Early California Vignettes" 1966

photo taken 3/11/2007 rap

Camp Far West Cantonment

Painting by Frederich G. Dowane 1886

"I caused stakes to be driven at every furlong, with a board strongly nailed upon each, and legibly marked 'United States reserve.'" Lieutenant George Horatio Derby September 29, 1849

1849

“In September, the United States Government established a Military Post called Camp Far West, on the north side of Bear River, eight miles below the Nevada County line. It was occupied by a detachment of the Second United States Infantry. Usually one Company, although frequently three or four companies were there. The post was under the command of Captain Day, an old army officer. Major Mckinstry and Captain (afterwards General Lyon, who was killed at the battle of Wilson’s Creek, Missouri, in 1861, occasionally visited the place.” Thompson and West 1879

"Log houses were built for barracks and officers' quarters. There was also a log fort."

Thompson and West 1879

“The place was abandoned in May 1852, and the troops numbering about 40 men of Company E. First Infantry, under the Command of Lieutenant Davis, were ordered to set out for the upper Sacramento….A public sale was held on the first day of May, of the extra stores. Mr. Chana states that many of the soldiers were dishcharged." Thompson and West 1879

1850

“Placer Times January 19, 1850

Notice

“the new town of Marysville…Persons desirous of visiting this place, will find a road passable at all seasons of the year from Sacramento city, by way of Norris Johnson’s old ranch (now Gillespie’s thence to the town…Chas. Covillard & Co., Proprietors

Marysville, January 8, 1850”

Thompson and West 1879

“Placer Times Feb 2, 1850

Court held for the District of Sacramento, at Marysville, upon the Yuba…in conducting the administration of justice, when necessary, the Court is authorized to call upon the Commandant of the United States troops stationed at Johnson’s ranch.

Stephen J. Field

Clerk of said Court

And Alcade of Marysville”

Thompson and West 1879

(Stephen J. Field, future Justice United States Supreme Court)

Stephen J. Field

Early Days in California

1877 (Printed in 1893)

But the case which made the greatest impression upon the people, and did more to confirm my authority than anything else, was the following: There was a military encampment of United States soldiers on the Bear River, about fifteen miles from Marysville, known as “Camp Far West.” One day an application was made to me to issue a warrant for the arrest of one of the soldiers for a larceny he had committed. It was stated that a complaint had been laid before the local alcalde near the camp; but that the officer in charge had refused to give up the soldier unless a warrant for that purpose were issued by me, it being the general impression that I was the only duly commissioned alcalde in the district above Sacramento. On this knowing I issued my warrant, and a lieutenant of the army brought the soldier over. The soldier was indicted, tried, convicted, and sentenced to be publicly whipped with the usual number of lashes, and the officer stood by and saw the punishment inflicted. He then took the soldier back to camp, where it was afterwards reported that he received an additional punishment. But before the lieutenant left me that day, and while we were dining together, he took occasion to say that, if at any time I had any trouble in enforcing the law, I had but to send him word and he would order out a company of troops to support me. This offer I permitted to become known through the town; and people said- and with what effect may be imagined- “Why here is an Alcalde that has the troops of the United States at his back.”

DERBY TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES 1849

DERBY SURVEY OF CAMP FAR WEST

Camp Far West sat view 2007 (based on Derby map)

Camp Far West cantonment; one square mile

To Preserve, Protect, and Defend the History of the Wheatland Area