“Peter Van Matre

Note: At this point I [Joseph M. Van Matre] am especially indebted to Anita Van Matre Shuford and Loda Van Matre Foster, who have written the following story about their grandfather, Peter Van Matre, and allowed me to quote it verbatim.

Peter Van Matre was born to John J. and Mary Matthews Van Matre on February 25, 1825. From Ohio the John J. Van Matre family moved to Wisconsin in 1836.

Ir was in Iowas County, Wisconsin, that Peter married our grandmother, Almira Heath. To Peter and Almira were born two sons while they lived in Wisconsin. George waa born April 9, 1847 and Morris (Mart) was born November 25, 1848. Their third child was to be born 5 years later, February 25 1853, in Weaverville, California. This child was named Fanny and enjoyed the distinction of being the second white girl born in Weaverville. Later, on the Van Matre Ranch at Minersville, eight more children were born to Peter and Almira swelling their number to eleven in all — six boys and five girls. At Minersville were born Fordyce (who died in infancy) in May, 1854, Judson, November 10, 1856, Caroline, February 7, 1858, John Chandler (our father), May 28, 1859, Walter, April 20, 1861, Almira (Pop), January 1, 1863, Lue. August 2, 1865, and Minnie, a renowned beauty, July 28,1868.

Our grandmother, Almira Heath Van Matre, was born in New Hampshire on the 30th of January 1829. Her ancestors, too, were early Americans, her grandfather having served in the Revolutionery War under General George Washington. Another ancestor was an educator who endowed Dartmouth College. Her family left New England and moved westward to make their home in Wisconsin, having received a land grant there. It was in Wisconsin that she met and married Peter van Matre, our grandfather.

In 1849, three years after his marriage, Peter made his first trip across the plains over the Platte River route. At Townsend was their wagon captain. They had forty four horse teams and each wagon was marked with R & R which stood for Rough and Ready. This wagon company settled in the Mother Lode and gave to their settlement the name Rough and Ready, naming it after the wagon company. Their stock wintered at Knights’ Landing and during that winter of 1849-50 Peter mined, averaging about $33.00 per day.

In the summer of 1850, Peter returned to Wisconsin. Early in 1851 he made a second trip to California, this time starting out with some very fine horses which they herded. Near the Platte River, the buffalo stampeded the horses and all were lost excepting the saddle horses. Undaunted they continued on in spite of their loss. We know that one of his cross-country trips was made with Kit Carson as guide and we believe it was this one in which they lost the prized horses. He returned to Wisconsin again that year, this time to make plans to bring his family to California.

Evidently he thought the trip across the plains would be too rugged for the family so the family went to New York embarking from there for the Isthmus of Panama. Our Uncle George often told what he could remember of the trip. He remembered the natives diving for coins which were thrown over board by the passengers on the boat. He said it took 27 days to make the trip across the Isthmus on mule back.

After completing the Isthmus crossing, they took another boat to San Francisco, from there a smaller boat up the Sacramento River to Red Bluff to Lewiston where they arrived August 8, 1852. They spent the night in Lewiston then continued on to Weaverville the next day where they were to live a short time prior to establishing their home in Minersville. While in Weaverville they built a log cabin to house the family. There were reportedly only five families living in Weaverville at this time: the Newmans, the Todds, the Ewens, the Van Matres and one other.

The Peter Van Matres moved to Minersville in July 1853 living first on Digger Creek where they mined recovering $1,700.00 of gold from a twelve foot cut. Later that year, Grandpa (Peter Van Matre) and Fordyce Bates bought a ranch from Harry Seeman. Very shortly Bates sold out to Van Matre and since that time up until 1960 this ranch was known as the Van Matre Ranch.

Immediately upon moving to the ranch, they built a two story cabin forty feet long. As all the pioneers did, they planted an orchard of some three hundred trees. The big flood of 1861-62 took out a great many of them. Some of these trees were still bearing fruit when they were covered by the waters of the Trinity Lake n 1960.

Trouble seldom comes singly and shortly after the flood of 1861-62 their log cabin burned. They were able to purchase some lumber and salvage from ex-governor Challis who had at that time decided to quit operating the grist mill at Sebastapol across the East Fork of Stuart’s Fork from the Van Matre Ranch. With this lumber, they were able to rebuild this time building a larger home.

There were few white people in the area when the Van Matres first came to Minersville. Our Uncle George told us many things about the Indians who were his only playmates. He often entertained us by doing war dances he had learned from them and he was an expert at giving their bloodcurdling war whoops. He could make your hair stand on end! He was also able to speak fluently the language of this neighboring tribe.

The Indians were not always friendly. The folks kept their oxen in one end of their log cabin for safety as these beasts of burden were invaluable for plowing, hauling, etc. One night the Indians stole these oxen despite precautions and in the morning they were tracked to Bowerman Ridge where the oxen were found dead. It was a great loss.

According to an advertisement in The Trinity Journal dated November 5, 1858, the Bates & Van Matre Ranch sold fresh timothy seed They also sold garden produce and potatoes. Part of their livelihood was derived from the ranch being sued as an early day inn.

Some of Peter’s sons tried their luck at mining in the Minersville vicinity. George was the son who found a real large gold nugget in Mule Creek when he was a young man. It was solid gold just the shape and approximate size of a cow’s tongue. He told us it was valued at $1,900.75 at $19.00 an ounce which was about 900 fine. For safe keeping, Grandma Van hid the nugget in her sugar barrel this seeming to be an unlikely place for a thief to look.

At the time Peter’s sons were mining, the Chinese were also mining in the area and Grandma Van told us of her means of earning a little “pin money”. She would catch mud turtles which at that time abounded in the streams and she would sell them to the Chinese who considered turtle soup a fine delicacy.

Our grandparents had a hard struggle rearing so many children. Grandpa Peter passed away in 1884 at the age of 59 after which our father, John, helped his mother manage the ranch. We do not know when our grandmother sold the ranch to our father, but we think it was about 1900. Grandma, by then, had moved to Weaverville to make her home with her son George who had never married. Her home still stands and is directly across the street from the Trinity County Courthouse now occupied by the Walters.

Grandma Van, as we affectionately called her, lived to be 81 years old passing away in Berkeley on October 10, 1910, but was laid to rest in Weaverville. She was long-lived like her father who had come to live with her in the 70’s. Her father lived to be 96 years old and reportedly could read without glasses when he was well past ninety. Several of Grandma’s children lived to well past ninety.

Peter and Almira’s sons, our uncles, all settled and spent their lives in Trinity and Shasta Counties. Their daughters moved away and married “outsiders”, making their homes in different parts of California. Several of the children chose Weaverville as their final resting place. After Grandma’s death, our Uncle George made his home with us at the Van Matre Ranch until he went to live at the Masonic Home. He continued to return to the Ranch each summer until his death. He, too, is buried in Weaverville.

In 1890, at that time in charge of the Van Matre Ranch, our father, John Chandler Van Matre, married Bertha Denison, a widow with two small children: Henrietta and Lewis. bertha Denison Van Matre was born a Koll in Omega, Nevada County, California on November 28, 163. She came to Trinity County with her parents and one brother, John in 1873. They came to Redding on the first train to make a trip to that place. The Koll family moved to a place on Trinity River exactly where the Trinity Dam now stands. Mother, Bertha Van Matre, was of German parentage and as there was not much opportunity to attend school, she did not learn to speak the English language until she was twelve years old. She married and left home at seventeen but returned to live with her parents after she was widowed and her two small children were taught the German ways of her parents.

After her marriage to our father, she moved to the Van Matre Ranch where she lived until her last illness in 1952. Mother gave birth to eleven more children all of which were born at the Van Matre Ranch and not one of them was attended by a physician at birth. Of the eleven Van Matre children six were girls: May, Irene, Anita, Loda, one who died shortly after birth, and Gertrude. The five boys were Albert, who died from typhoid fever in 1909, Bertrum, who passed away in 1944, Ernest, Walter, Peter, and Judson. Our life was really rugged; those were real horse and buggy days so we feel we also qualify as pioneers.

The Van Matre Ranch was a beautiful place having 320 acres of river loam along the west bank of the Stuart’s Fork of Trinity River and nestled in the shadow of majestic Granite Peak. One 160 acre parcel of the land was the original homestead; the other 160 acres was the homestead of Jim Cummings. (Evidently the Cummings, were early settlers, too, as their property joined ours on the Stuart’s Fork; north, on the opposite side of the creek and which later came to be known as the Cedar Stock Farm.) Our father acquired the ‘Jim Cummings Place as we called it in 1901. It also had a large orchard, a house and several barns. It was in the Cummings barn where the old wooden hay press that is now in the Shasta Museum was kept for many, many years.

In November of 1902, the Van Matre Ranch house was destroyed by fire. Many valuable books, etc. were destroyed which had belonged to our grandfather, he had been quite a scholar. The locusts near the house which had been planted in the 1850’s were severely burned, but survived and thrived until they became victims of the clearing for the Trinity River Project. The lilac bush, and rose bushes which had also been planted in the 50’s survived the fire and were still growing when the clearing crews moved in.

A new home was built in 1903 at the same location. Our mother and father continued to operate the Ranch as had been done before. The Ranch was the stopping place for teams in early days as it was the half way place between Trinity Center and Weaverville. Many teams, coming from Scott’s Valley delivering grain, flour, butter and other things to Weaverville, made their over-night stop at the Ranch. As we remember, when we were small, beds were 50¢, meals 25¢, and horses 50¢ over-night.

While Grandma Van was proprietress, the Van Matre Ranch attained a good reputation as a stopping place. She was known around the country side as a wonderful cook and continued through our mother despite the great amounts of work that had to be done inside and out with such a large family to care for. As each child grew up, he or she was taught to work. Mother told us she stayed at home seventeen years without leaving when the babies were all small.

We have never known for sure how our Uncles and Aunts attained their ‘learning’ but every one of them had some! In fact, some other girls taught school. Our father attended college in Ashland, Oregon.

Our half-sister and half-brother attended a little school in old Minersville, then later, they had a private teacher, Mrs. Nellie Pattison, who was then Nellie Scott. She also taught the two oldest Van Matre children.

Our schoolhouse was across Trinity River, on the west side, from the fairview mine stamp mill, two miles from our home. There were no busses to pick us up. We had to get to school the best way we knew how which was very often by walking through the rain and snow. When the water was too high, our father would take us in a wagon. When there were six in the family attending school at the same time, we dove to school in a wagon.

Our father inherited his love of horses from his ancestors who had been horse lovers and ranchers. Our Uncles told us that Grandpa’s horses came first. They had plenty of hay and grain although other necessities might be a little short. Our father had several race horse through the years. Although they didn’t win many races he liked to show them off. They were very gentle and all the children loved them. When one of the boys was a very small child he rode Hollywood many times in training.

Our father was a proud, stern good man. Although he owned a saloon for many years, he never drank, neither did he smoke. He did many kindnesses for his neighbors. Our mother was a gentle, timid woman who was loved by all who knew her. Necessity made her an artist in many lines. In early days, the miners and prospectors would look to her for motherly advice. She was banker for many of them. They knew if they brought their money to ‘Mother Van;, it would be there when they needed it. She often had several thousand dollars in her care, tucked away in hiding places in her bedroom.

The years flew by, then, in August 1955 came the fateful news via telephone that Congress had passed the bill authorizing the construction of the Trinity River Project. No one, who has not experience it, can know what heart-breaking news this was to the members of the Van Matre family, young and old alike. Many of them who had not Visited Trinity in years came back for one last look at the old homestead.

Now – came the momentous task of moving the accumulation of 55 years in the house and of nearly 10 years in the barns and outbuildings. Dr. Charles Miller, of Redding, purchased the cow shed and used the hand-hewn timbers for the beams in a new home he was building. The 14 room house was tor down by a stranger for the salvage lumber. Some lumber. Some of the antiques were given to the Trinity County Historical Society, some kept by the family and much just destroyed. Nearly every member of the family had left keepsakes behind when they had moved to homes of their own. One by one they had grown up and moved away until only May remained with Mother. She and one brother, Walter, leased the Ranch from the remainder of the family until the end.

Grandma and Grandpa Van had 27 grandchildren. Still living are: Warren and Vernon Van Matre of San Francisco, children of Judson Van Matre; Mrs. Ed (Delia Van Matre) Petherick of Carmel, daughter of Walter Van Matre; Edna May Browning and Walter Peter Van Matre of Weaverville, Irene Van Matre Vollmers of Delta, Judson Van Matre and Gertrude Van Matre Leaonard of Lafayettte, Ernest Van Matre of Pleasanton, and Anita Van Matre, Shuford and Loda Van Matre Foster of French Gulch, children of John and Bertha Van Matre; Viloet Ellis Murray of San Francisco, Catherine Ellis Dufficy of San Rafael and Henry Ellis of Sacramento, children of Lue Van Matre Ellis; Bellle Hechtman Lowsley of Carmel, Walter Hechtman of Sacramento, children of Caroline van Matre Hechtman; and Alice Glasscock Conti of Santa Cruz, daughter of Almira (Pop) Van Matre Glasscock. There are now living many great and great great grandchildren. Among them were and are doctors, dentists, attorneys merchants, salesmen, teachers, opera singer, radio technicians, florists, electrical engineers, ranchers, building contractor, and just plain laborers. Perhaps there may be a horse thief or two although we don’t know of any.

The last Van Matre to leave the Ranch was Anita Van Matre Shuford. Her sister, Edna May Browning had moved to Weaverville the year previous to make her home and Anita had come to take over the unpleasant task of making final dispositions of what remained at the ranch.

So- after 105 years – ends the saga of the Van Matre Ranch now more than 400 feet under the waters of the Trinity Lake. The clear blue waters of the lake reflect the majesty of Granite Peak which stood through the years as a kind of sentinel watching over the Van Matre Ranch and the Van Matre clan, now an indestructible monument to that which is no more.”