376 Transactions of the 



sion. It will not be long, however, before a county like this will have 

 a railroad. 



HISTORICAL GLANCE. 



A history of the county appeared in the Colusa Sun of January third, 

 eighteen hundred and seventy-three, from which we compile as follows: 

 The Town of Colusa is older than the county. Dr. Semple, who came 

 to California in eighteen hundred and forty-six, visited this section in 

 eighteen hundred and forty-eight, there being then in the Colusa region 

 but two houses. One was that of Thomas O. Larkin, where John Boggs 

 now resides; the other, on Stony Creek, owned and occupied by Swift & 

 Lewis. Semple,* in that year, rafted down the Sacramento. As he 

 viewed the magnificent land, as he floated along, he foresaw its value 

 and advantages, and then predicted a city would grow up at Colus Ean- 

 cheria, then on the present site of Colusa. 



In eighteen hundred and forty-nine, his brother, Charles D. Semple, 

 came to California, and he advised him to buy a grant of land claimed 

 by John Bidwell. This he did, January twenty-second, eighteen hun- 

 dred and fifty, and in April he came up in the steamer Martha Jane, 

 landing at the Seven-Mile House, where he found a branch rancheria of 

 Colus Indians, having passed the original rancheria without seeing it. 

 He laid out a town at his landing and called it Colusa, adding an a to the 

 Indian tribal name. He built a fine steamer in eighteen hundred and 

 fifty — the Colusa — and she ran up to the new town, but her engines were 

 unfit, and she was over a week getting up. The town site was seen to 

 be an error, and in August the present town was located and a map 

 made after surveys. 



THE NAME " COLUSA " 



Is derived from an Indian tribal name, " Colus," which the Indians pro- 

 nounced somewhat like " Coru," accenting the last syllable. The signi- 

 fication of the word is "Scratch," and the Indians were known as the 

 "Scratch Indians." For a long time the county name was spelled 

 " Colusi." This manner of spelling was insisted upon by General M. 

 G. Vallejo in the Legislature. 



There was from the first a rivalry between Colusa and Monroeville, 

 located on the mouth of Stony Creek, and the Monroe partisans stuck 

 to the "i" because it provoked the Colusa partisans. Monroe was 

 willing enough to have the town spelled with the "a," and he insisted 

 that there was aud should be a difference between the town and county. 



THE COUNTY 



"Was created in eighteen hundred and fifty, and attached to Butte for 

 'judicial purposes. In the Fall of eighteen hundred and fifty, on peti- 

 tion made, an election for county officers was ordered for January 

 tenth, eighteen hundred and fifty-one, under an Act providing for the 

 organization of the county. The county was organized under this Act, 

 and the county seat fixed at Monroe's Ranch, which was at the mouth 

 of Stony Creek, without any further authority than the order of Judge 

 Bean directing the first election to be held there. After two Acts of 

 the Legislature on the subject, and two elections, the county seat was, 

 finally, in eighteen hundred and fifty-four, located at Colusa. For the 

 first three years Judge William B. Ide filled all the offices of the county 



