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    Hammonton and Marigold
    Hammonton and Marigold
    Hammonton and Marigold
    Ebook172 pages51 minutes

    Hammonton and Marigold

    By Robert Criddle and Ruth Criddle

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    About this ebook

    This is the story of one community and two towns: Hammonton and Marigold, companyowned dredger towns located 10 miles east of Marysville, California. Their founding was a direct result of the gold rush of 1849 and the subsequent hydraulic mining that followed. The towns history was wrought by the families who inhabited them and the many men and women who would build their community together through the years. In Hammonton and Marigold, there was no upper or lower class; the people were all working for dredging companies and considered equals. Although the company towns were shut down and the families all displaced, in 1957, the community itself carried on to the present day, holding annual reunions and even publishing a quarterly newsletter.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateJun 20, 2007
    ISBN9781439618288
    Hammonton and Marigold
    Author

    Robert Criddle

    Robert �Bob� Criddle Jr. is a thirdgeneration product of two sets of grandparents who settled in the two towns. The towns� unofficial historian, he has received thousands of photographs and conducted hundreds of oral history interviews with former residents. Bob�s wife and coauthor, Ruth Criddle, plays an integral role in the publication of these interviews and has authored a local ethnic cookbook herself. Together they are ensuring that the story of Hammonton and Marigold�s community lives on for future generations.

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      Book preview

      Hammonton and Marigold - Robert Criddle

      know.

      INTRODUCTION

      Author Bob Criddle was born in 1937 to two second-generation goldfield families. His mother’s parents, the Martins, came to Hammonton in 1930 from Healdsburg, California, and Criddle’s grandfather worked in the carpenter shop for the gold-dredging company in Hammonton. Criddle’s father’s parents, Elizabeth and Charles Criddle, came to Marigold in 1906 from Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Criddle’s grandfather began work for the Marysville Dredging Company as a teamster and then became a winch man and occasionally a dredge master. Criddle lived in both towns during his childhood and was fortunate to have many childhood friends who are still close friends today. His formal education began at Goldfield Grammar School (until the eighth grade), continued with Marysville High School, Yuba College, and Chico State University (B.A.), and ended with graduate studies at U.C. Davis.

      It is not often that one can pinpoint an exact year for the beginning and ending of a town, but with Hammonton and Marigold, this can be done with accuracy due to extensive records. Hammonton and Marigold were gold-mining, company-owned dredger towns located 10 miles east of Marysville, California, and were developed about the same time. There were also several little settlements that were located within one mile of one another, next to Hammonton: Rag Hill, Northside, Jungletown, and Mechanics Row. Today, if you travel to where the two towns thrived, all you can see are massive rock piles, a few ponds that cover the land, and a few office buildings that have recently been built, as other dredging operations are still going on. There are no residents today, but for the fortunate people who lived there between 1905 and 1957, their lives have been enriched in ways that large towns cannot provide nor even begin to understand.

      Hammonton was owned by W. P. Hammon and his partners, who drilled for core samples in 1902 and formed the town in 1903. Marigold was begun in 1904 by the Marysville Gold Dredging Company, was located one mile from Hammonton, and was also managed by W. P. Hammon. In 1925, Hammon and his partners bought out Marigold and merged the two companies, closing the post office, the school, and the pool in Marigold. This company would be known as Yuba Consolidated Gold Fields.

      The company owned all of the houses in Hammonton and Marigold, and the occupants were the families of the men who worked in some aspect of gold-dredging operations. They paid between $2 and $5 per month in rent, and that included water, sewerage, garbage collection, and electricity. The well-built houses each had two to four bedrooms (two had five bedrooms), a living room, dining room, and kitchen. In the early years, the bathrooms were outdoor units located in the back yards. Everyone had neat front yards, and many had vegetable gardens in their back yards; they took great pride in making their towns attractive. The houses were well maintained by the company, which mended fences, repaired gates, re-shingled roofs, and painted houses as needed. In the early days, there was a livery stable for horses and buggies, and in later years, garages were built for cars.

      Marigold had a fine hotel and dining room, whose Chinese chefs prepared meals that were celebrated by the whole town. It also had a post office, school, pool, tennis courts, and a club room. The town was close to the Hammonton-Smartsville Road, east of Marysville and north of Beale Air Force Base (formerly known as Camp Beale Army Base).

      Hammonton was located closer to the Yuba River. It had a boardinghouse, a dining room, and a store with, on the second floor, a large social hall complete with a kitchen, which was used for all sorts of gatherings, including dances, school plays, graduations, and Masonic meetings. Behind the store, there was a garage that repaired the company’s trucks, sold gas, and provided other services to the residents. There was a two-story apartment house that could accommodate four families. Located on Main Street, the company office was a two-story building with a green lawn shaded by palms and other trees. Behind the office was a building called the Gold Room, where amalgam was converted to gold bars, then taken to Marysville. These two buildings were off limits to the children. Going to the post office was a daily social event where everyone caught up on the local news, as there were no televisions and few telephones and radios in the early days.

      It was an era and a place where people took pride in their work and their homes and yards. They did their best work for the company, and they knew that while they did their best, their jobs were secure, but there was always someone in Marysville waiting to take their place if they slacked off. Many families became close, and many of the children would grow up and marry each other, so that several generations later, it is amazing to learn just how who is related to whom; everyone became extended family.

      In 1957, the company had determined that the town was sitting on profitable land that needed to be dredged. So the houses of both towns were sold to the occupants for $1 each, and most of

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