SOME ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Steadman, Agnes, and Jean Minasian (co-editors)
1976 Oroville: Legacy of a Gold Town. Friends of the Parks of Oroville, Oroville.
Pages 3, 5, 6, and 8. A tent town was established (1849) on the Feather River at about Downer Street. By 1850 it was a conglomeration of tents and shanties called “Ophir”. A rich strike at White Rocks (1852), four miles up the river, emptied the town except for a few Chinese miners and a handful of white miners both keeping the camp alive. The Feather River and Ophir Water Company completed a ditch into the settlement in 1856, thus stimulating mining activities in the vast areas of dry diggings. The population of the camp soared. Late that same year, Ophir was the fifth largest town in the state with a population of about 4,000. In the late 1850s the place called “Bagdad” two miles below Oroville had hundreds if not thousands of Chinese miners digging for gold. (In the 1870s the Lava Beds excitement south of Oroville near “Bagdad” had a population of Chinese miners upwards of 6000 to 7000 in the summer mining season). Miners began to exit Ophir settlement in 1857, though, seeking gold in other locations in different areas and different countries. At this time the city applied to the Legislature to allow it to disincorporate. The police force was dismissed and fire fighting equipment was stored away. The community experienced a period of lawlessness and arson fires all but wiped it off the map. However, the Chinese stayed on and continued to find gold in the mines that other miners had abandoned and slowly their community expanded into one of of the largest and earliest Chinatowns. Other events contributing to the growth of the town was the birth of the lumber industry; the foothills swarmed with lumberjacks. Eastern farmers came and began buying and using the rich soil south and west of the city for orchards and row crops. Employment for the Chinese expanded.
_1891 Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California. The Lewis Publishing Company. Chicago.
Page 112. The first county hospital was the Western Hotel at Lynchburg, bought for that purpose in 1857. Dr. T. J. Jenkins was the first resident physician. In 1877-78 the hospital was abandoned and a two story brick structure was erected in Oroville. It was legally called the “County Infirmary.” Construction costs for the new hospital was $16,000. Page 118 states that the Infirmary was situated in the midst of an orange grove in 1891.
Page 113. In the fall of 1853, it was reported, that Indians killed ten Chinese men on West Branch of Feather River. A company of 30 whites and 30 Chinese went after the Indians and killed 40 to 60 of them. (There is no corroborating evidence of any of this).
Page 114. The year of 1850 saw mining as the first interest in the area, but by 1891 mining had dropped to third or fourth place. Mining methods were still placer, quartz and hydraulic, and the up and coming gold dredging. Many of the regions soil had been transformed into alfalfa and grain fields and orchards. Along the foothills where the mines had been in 1850-1860 now were small farms, orchards and vineyards. Large lumber mills were situated further up in the mountains. By the 1870s Sierra Lumber Company and many others had found great markets for Douglas fir and white pine the eastern United States. Fruit growing in the decade from 1880 to 1890 had become the leading industry. Around Oroville and along the Feather River, adjacent to Biggs and Gridley, extensive orchards were being planted orchards, then row crops. Stock raisers were selecting world wide varieties of horses and cattle and using scientific breeding.
Page 116-17. The California and Oregon Railroad is running through the county in 1891. There is also telegraph and telephone lines.
Page 117. The Long Brothers opened a store two miles above the present site of Oroville at Long Bar (October 1849). J. M. Bart opened at second store in November of that same year. This town was originally called Ophir City until 1855 when the name was changed to Oroville. The year 1858 saw two or three disastrous fires, which nearly consumed the entire place. Mac Minn, George R.
1941 The Theater of the Golden Era in California. The Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho
Page 497. One of the theater companies was the Hook Tong Company. (We do not know if this one came to Oroville, several did over time).
Page 498. On a true Chinese stage all the actors were men, no women were allowed.
Page 499. Most of the speeches in the drama were chanted or sung to the accompaniment of monotonous music provided by “humming, banging, scraping and screeching of Chinese pipes, cymbals, and gongs.” Truly a hateful description).
Page 503. Throughout the later 1850s Chinese theatrical performances were given regularly in San Francisco for a considerable portion of the year. The troupe would also be likely to move on to Sacramento and then up into the mining regions including Oroville.
Page 507. Chinese theaters usually had common benches for the male audience and a small gallery for female spectators. When the character died, he just walked off. When not engaged, the actors sat at the rear of the bare stage, eating or smoking. The orchestra consisted of five or six instruments, chiefly gong, drum and Chinese fiddle. The musicians sat just behind the actors. There was usually no expression on the faces of the performers and the audience alike. McLeod, Alexander
1947 Pigtails and Gold Dust. The Caxton Printes, Caldwell, Idaho
This book is mostly about the San Francisco Chinatown. However, it has a chapter on theater (no notes were taken on this)
Page 45. There were antidotal stories. When a Chinese arrived at the gold diggings, his first purchase was a pair of heavy mining boots (worn by all miners). He would pick out the largest boots he could find for his money. We are not sure why.
Page 62. The Chinese were allowed to appear as a witness in our courts (1861). (We will need to follow this thread).-Testimony would be allowed after the Chinese took an oath known as the “Confucius formula.” A slip with the oath inscribed in Chinese characters, signed by the witness, was set on fire. The witness took the slip of paper in his left hand to waft the spirit of the oath to the gods, raised his right hand, and repeated the oath, calling on heaven to crush him in case he failed to speak the truth, and declaring that in testimony of the promise made he offered the burning vapor for the perusal of the imperial heaven.
Page 62. Chief Justice Murray of the California Supreme Court ruled that all Asiatics were Indians. Constitution only mentioned whites, blacks, and indigenous people. Chinese ending up with no rights. That added to the misery of both groups; Chinese and indigenous people.
Page 63. In 1852, 18,400 Chinese men immigrated to California.
Page 65. The Foreign Miner’s License Tax. Twenty dollars a month was originally intended to exclude Spanish-Americans and Australians, and Chileans but it was finally directed specifically against the Chinese.
Page 66. The tax collectors made the Chinese pay though they might not even be mining. They included transient visitors, invalids, cripples, cooks and traders. Lots of legends about this behavior comes from newspapers and tall tales. Thomas, Ed (editor)
1995 In Focus: A Pictorial History of Southern Butte County, California. The Oroville Mercury-register. This book contains several pictures of Chinese parades. (It was designed poorly and did not contain new information. Dunn, Forrest
1977 A Collection of Places in Butte County, California. Association for Northern California Records & Research, Chico.
Page 65. One example; we chose Lynchburgh from Dunn’s book. Shown on 1862 county map. Located SW 1/4 of the SE 1/4 of Section 17, T19N, R4E. Named for George Lynch who first settled here in winter of 1854-55. School established in 1860, but it was closed and annexed to Oroville in 1862. Settlement was located at the present site of Oro Vista Addition of South Oroville.
Dunn’s publication is a solid piece of published research. His labor opened up a large dataset; magnificently assisting researchers wanting to know place names in Butte County especially early gold mining areas, early towns, place names and good explanatory descriptions using township and range on contemporary maps.
Orovillechicochinese 