The Civil War in Humboldt

A photograph of the members of the Grand Army of the Republic, a Civil War veterans group. This photo was taken in Eureka on Decoration Day in 1918.

 It may seem that Humboldt County would have been as far away as one could get from the events around the Civil War, but in fact we were very much involved. Though California was officially a Union State, the great move West during the Gold Rush and beyond brought easterners from the South as well as the North.

News reached our coast with some delay through unreliable wire service or newspapers delivered by ship, but people watched it avidly. When the war broke out, supporters of the Confederacy were vocal here, leading occasionally to hot confrontations. Some “copperheads” were driven into hiding or driven out altogether while some voluntarily returned to the South to support the Confederacy.

Among the soldiers stationed at Fort Humboldt, those from the South were allowed to resign if they wished to return home and fight for their states. And for the locals supporting the Union, the fact that Ulysses S. Grant had once been stationed at Fort Humboldt greatly inflated their pride.

But Humboldt had another unusual tie with the Civil War era. It had to do with John Brown, the militant abolitionist, whose abortive 1859 raid on the military arsenal at Harper’s Ferry was one of the catalysts for the war. After Brown was captured and executed, he became a martyr for the Northern cause. The popular song “John Brown’s Body” was soon rewritten as the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”.

Brown’s execution left his second wife, Mary Ann Brown, a widow. Two of their older sons fought with their father at Harper’s Ferry and died there. Destitute and hearing from an uncle of the golden opportunities out west, Mary and her four remaining children and in-laws joined a California bound wagon train. It was a long arduous trip, the Browns’ notoriety leading to support and harassment along the way.

The family initially settled in Red Bluff where again they were both welcomed and derided. Supporters raised funds to build Mary a house, and she worked providing nursing and midwifing to the community. Two daughters became teachers, young Annie volunteering to teach in a school for Negro children saying “Am I not John Brown’s daughter?” Son Salmon took up farming and raising the merino sheep he had brought with him from the east.

The climate, both physical and political, caused the family to move west again, and in 1870 the Browns settled in Rohnerville. There the family prospered. Mary Brown becoming a grandmother many times over and Salmon raised sheep on large ranches near Bridgeville and Petrolia.  The house where Mary lived, though heavily remodeled, still stands in Fortuna today.

So, although at times we may seem isolated here in Humboldt County, we are apparently never isolated from history.