Minnesota (later referred to as Minnesota Flat) was located above the Middle Yuba on the south facing side of Lafayette Ridge. The longer-lived town of Chips Flat was located on the opposite side of the ridge above Kanaka Creek. According to the Annals, in the 1850s, Chip reasoned that the NW-SE trending gold-bearing gravels at Minnesota must go through the ridge and he staked claims accordingly. There he came into even richer gravels than in Minnesota. The boomtown that sprang up bore his name “Chip’s Flat”. The town is long gone, but the mark of the hydraulic diggings there can still be seen from Alleghany. According to the late historian Bill Fuller, in its early days, Sierra County was divided into seven townships. Township 7 (commonly referred to as “South Sierra”) included the towns of Alleghany, Cumberland, Chips Flat, Forest City, Minnesota, Pike City and Smith’s Flat. (Cumberland and Smith’s Flat are now part of Alleghany proper). Based upon his extensive research, Fuller believed that the population of Township 7 peaked around 1859 with over 3,000 people residing here. The 1860 census recorded a population of 2,116 for the township. This was the first official record of the young mining camp’s populations, but by then the exodus had already begun. According to Fuller, the 1860 census recorded only 79 people living in the town of Minnesota, with close to 200 at nearby Chip’s Flat. The Kuhfeld family would have been one of the remaining families in Minnesota during the 1860 census, for Frederick Jr. was born there in 1868. Frederick Jr’s. parents were Frederick Wilhelm Kuhfeld (Sr.) and Katherine Massier. The following information was compiled by Frederick Jr.’s daughter, Florence Alberta (Kuhfeld) Gould. “Frederick Sr. was born in Merklinberg Germany on February 28, 1832. At the age of twenty, he migrated to the United States (Illinois). In 1858 he was drawn west by the lure of the heavy metal. He came to California by the plains route, driving a team of oxen. His train was the first to come through after the mountain meadow massacre. He settled at Minnesota, Sierra County. Minnesota lies three air miles southeast of the town of Alleghany. The section of an ancient riverbed that occurs at Minnesota was discovered in 1851 by some surface miners in Taylor’s Ravine. They followed up this lead until it ran out and then they hunted along the side of the mountain. The resulting diggings proved very rich and made Minnesota one of the greatest placer operations in all of Sierra County. As early as 1854 there were an estimated four hundred men at work in the many mines, with many of the earliest arrivals having come from Berks County Pennsylvania. Katherine Massier was born in Frankfort [sic] Germany in 1848. At the age of 8 she came to the United States with her parents. They came to California from the eastern U.S. by way of the Cape Horn Route (a 6-month trip). They also settled in Minnesota, Sierra County. Frederick and Katherine married in 1865. Nothing is known of Katherine’s side of the family other than the following: she had two sisters and one brother. Her youngest sister had a son named Leland Post who lived in Alleghany. This was from a letter written to Mable Davies from her Aunt Minnie Hayes dated February 16, 1945. The letter is [was] in the safekeeping by Mrs. Lois Bruning of Quincy.” To be continued About the author: As a kid in 1975, Rae Bell (aka Pauline) moved with her family to the Ruby Mine area located between Alleghany and Downieville. She and her husband have lived in Alleghany proper since 1992. If you have news or suggestions to share, please send an email to: raebell44@gmail.com, or mail to: PO Box 919, Alleghany, CA 95910.
Town of Minnesota in the 1850s. Mary Hope collection, courtesy of Underground Gold Miners Museum.Minnesota California ~ Continued from last week: Wayne Brooks and family are in a class of their own, having an ancestor born in the short-lived town of Minnesota. For this week’s article, I did some research on the town. The “Early Annals of Downieville and Vicinity” first published in 1860, in the Tuolumne Courier state that: “It was Joe Taylor, Chips, and Mike Savage who discovered the rich hill diggings at Minnesota in 1852” [paraphrased]. The population of Minnesota exploded after the discovery then declined rapidly as the gravel channel played out.
Florence Kuhfeld, born Forest City, 1904