The First Visitors to The Delta of Yuba and Feather Rivers and The Struggle of Settlement

By Henry Delamere

One of the first known visitors from the eastern U.S. To Northern California's interior Valley was an American explorer- Fur Trade. He was Jedediah Strong Smith who came here over land to Spanish speaking California.

There had been others who had come near the site of the future Marysville before Smith but not any closer to the Junction of the Feather and Yuba Rivers than Five miles. An entry in Smith's diary dated March 16, 1828 shows Smith and his party moving Their camp across to a point of land between the Yuba and Feather Rivers. Smith and his men stayed Ten days trapping beavers.

These trappers were used to the primitive conditions they found. They were a handy bunch. Not so were some of the later wagon trains that crossed the Plains. Most of them were farmers, store keepers and women and children. Hardship in gross terms befell these later groups we are all familiar with George Donner and his bunch. Bartteson party which crossed the Plains and the Sierra before the Donner's in May of 1841.

Permanent settlement at the site of the future Marysville was the result of John Sutter's Policy of encouraging people to settle and exploit parts of his grant. The first men to do this were two guys from Germany – Charles W. Flugge and Theodor Cordua. Flugge had come to California with the Batleson group over land from Missouri in 1841 and worked for Sutter when Cordua came in 1842. These two Germans leased land which included the site of Marysville from Sutter. They developed the first ranches on the Yuba in the fall of 1842. After a few months Flugge quit the partnership. Cordua the struggled to establish his old world economic system at the conference of the Feather and Yuba Rivers. He arrived at this junction of the two rivers (Nova Helvetia) in 1842. Cordua developed a great disliking for Sutter and wanted nothing to do with him.

Cordua had brought with him a lot of merchandise to sell and sold $8000 worth of goods to Sutter in exchange of domestic cattle and horses. As a place to keep animals, Cordua was to have the use of land north of the Yuba and east of the Feather for nine years. If Cordua left after the nine years, Sutter was to pay for the buildings left behind . Thus it seems Cordua's merchandise paid for the land use and the animals which were supplied by the Mexican government and the retiring Russian colony at Bodega and Fort Ross. This meant a profit for Cordua.

It appears Flugge had no direct dealing with Sutter and as Cordua's partner was to share half of the profits. When he quit the partnership Cordua was left with the animals and the Indian laborers and had complete control of all the land east of the Feather and north of the Yuba and the Honcut creek.

Cordua's fight to overcome the primitive environment is a bit heroic. The first three years were spent in establishing his farming enterprise. He had to learn to talk with the native people who had been here a very long time and teach them to do the most simple tasks. With their help Cordua built adobe houses, barns and storage buildings. They put up fences for cattle corals, gardens and field crops. Eating wild hog and growing grains became an active industry.

At the end of the first three years he had spent $15,000 on his ranch and had 200 cows and steers. In 1846 Cordua celebrated his first anniversary by slaughtering 200 cattle.

On January 17, 1848 The U.S. Government asked for bids for 180 tons of hay to be delivered on the Shore of San Francisco Bay. Cordua won the bid and got a contract to furnish the hay for $16.50 per ton. Then the gold rush started and most of his hired men at his ranch left for the mines leaving Cordua with not enough labor to harvest the crops. Much grain was ruined by the mismanaged cattle trampling it. Some animals were lost wandering away.

By October 1848 Cordua despairing of working the ranch by himself took Charles Covillaud in as his partner. Between the two men the idea of developing the land for a city at the junction of the Yuba and Feather Rivers seemed a good idea. They took in two other men in on the idea – John Sampson and Jose Ramirez who had money and laid out a city plan and Marysville was born.