Hysterical Journey To Historic Places

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KNIGHTS FERRY



John Dent came out to California from Ohio during the Gold Rush. He quickly discovered that mining was hard work and decided to settle down in a place called Knights Ferry and operate a road house on the Stockton/Sonora Road. William Knight was a cantankerous old man who built a dock on the Sacramento River to pull in river commerce. He called it Knights Landing. The dock idea wasn’t as lucrative as he had hoped so he left it behind with good wishes and found a likely crossing on the Stanislaus River. He built a trading post there put in a ferry that was just a whaling boat that he towed back and forth by rope. He was charging travelers $200 a load for a crossing the river, and one day towards the end of 1849 a guy took umbrage and shot him dead as a hammer. Dent then acquired an interest in the ferry from Knight’s former partner, James Vantine. They improved it, and only charged two dollars to cross hoping to increase traffic through the area and patronage at their roadhouse and store. The ferry was doing fine, but a good stout bridge would be even better. John Dent had a sister, Julia, back in Ohio who had married a young army officer. The army officer was posted on an unaccompanied assignment to California and when he got lonely for his little bride he would visit her brother. During one such visit the topic of the bridge came up and he agreed to design it. All West Point graduates had taken a few engineering classes and could easily design a bridge. Dent and Vantine began buying supplies to build the bridge, but the project stalled when Vantine sold out and moved back east in 1852. More income was needed so when David and Eldridge Locke showed up looking for a site to build a gristmill John Dent agreed to finance construction of it. The mill prospered and in 1854 the Lockes bought the ferry for twenty-six thousand dollars, the price included lumber for the bridge. The bridge was completed in 1857 at the mill site and the ferry was dismantled. In January of 1862 the river flooded and the bridge, the mill and most of the town were both swept clean away. A new bridge was built on the same design, but on higher ground. It was completed in May of 1864 and is still standing. The army officer who designed it was named Ulysses S. Grant.

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Comments

[The Wife]

Surprise!!
Good story ( as usual) and a very good ending. I didn't know Grant did anything besides drink.

[DoubleBarreledBob]

He liked to smoke cigars too.