partner, W. H. Ferris, who is lying, very severely wounded, resides on Linden street, near Cherry, Temescal. Ferris says he fell a distance of forty feet, and the fire jumped from the main building to the dry room instantaneously, and no chance for escape was given. Dr. W. Hilton, a physician of East Berkeley, went to the scene of the disaster and attended to the wounded men. Other physicians came from Oakland as soon as carriages could take them. The boarding-house of the Vulcan Powder Company has been transformed into a temporary hospital. Koch, Dales and Schofer are lying on pallets made on the floor; Ferris is lying on a cot in the office of the Tonite Powder Company, which is separated from the works of the Vulcan Powder Company by about one hundred yards. O. B. Hardy, the Superintendent of the works, was not present at the time the fire began, but returned in twenty minutes. Men in adjoining works rushed to the rescue as soon as the fire began, and removed the wounded men as best they could. The fire was terribly hot, and it was almost impossible to approach the burning buildings. Whether the engineer and Chinamen were burned to death, or killed by concussion, or by falling timbers is not known.

No one can tell the cause of the fire. It is a mystery. The most probable explanation offered thus far is that the friction at the jig in the granulation was too great, and caused such heat as to ignite the powder which was being worked at the time.

The Vulcan Powder Works Company is an incorporation, of which Sol. Heydenfeldt is President, and Julius Baum is the principal owner. The Superintendent is O. B. Hardy. The loss to the Company will be probably covered by twenty-five thousand dollars, and the works are situated in Contra Costa county, about nine miles from Oakland. They occupy a charming site near the water, on the slope from the hills to the bay. The Stege Station is on the Overland Railroad line, very near the works, to the east of the Vulcan Works, and separated by but a short distance are the Tonite Works. On the west side are the Eureka Works. No damage was done to any of the adjacent mills. The debris from the buildings was not thrown any distance, and the bodies of the men lay where they fell. The explosion, when the fire reached the powder, therefore, could not have been severe. The Coroner of Contra Costa county was notified by telegraph of the terrible event, and took charge of the bodies of the five white and six Mongolian victims of the disaster.

Every man who was at work at the mills at the time of the fire, was either killed or wounded. Not one escaped the fury of the powder. Dales, the foreman of the "BB" works, was burned in the face, and it is very likely that his eyesight is destroyed.

TOWNSHIP NUMBER TWO.

Geography.-Township Number Two is bounded on the north by Townships One, Three, Four and Five; on the east, by Townships Three, Four and Five, and south and west by Alameda county.

Topography. -The topography of this township possesses all the varied scenery of fertile valley, undulating slopes, and high mountains. It embraces the productive vales of San Ramon, Tassajara, Green, Moraga and Lafayette, all of which are enclosed by hills that rise to a considerable altitude, whose slopes are well wooded and sheltered.

Soil. The soil of this township is not a whit behind that of any other portion of the county, the rich alluvial lands of the level country possessing wonderful properties in the production of grain, while the higher lands afford ample pasturage for stock of every kind.

Products.--The produce of this district is entirely in keeping with those of other portions of the county. Grain is grown in large quantities, the harvest each year apparently increasing; dairying is carried on to some extent; while there is scarcely a house without an orchard, large or small.

Timber. Before the settlement of the country by Americans, the valleys were covered to a greater extent than they are to-day, with different kinds of trees, such as white and live-oaks, sycamores, besides chemisal and a dense jungle of undergrowth; with the advance of years, many of these prime trees have fallen victims to the woodman's ax, while indomitable perseverance has cleared away the brushwood, and left a park-like landscape, dotted with umbrageous boughs.

Climate. The climate of the entire township cannot be described as anything but pure; warm days occur as they should, in their proper season; the same may be said of the colder weather. Being within ken of the Bay of San Francisco, the general influence of the sea-breezes, without the strong trade-winds, is felt, while there is hardly any time of the year, from April till October, that out-door labor may not be conducted with profit to pocket and person alike.

Early Settlement.-Township number two has the honor of claiming the second oldest settler in Contra Costa county. In the year 1847 the Hon. Elam Brown, who had gone to the San Antonio redwoods from Santa Clara,

learned that the Rancho Acalanes was in the hands of Wm. A. Leidesdorff, of Yerba Buena (San Francisco), for sale, the Spanish proprietor, Valencia, being in his debt. In due course the purchase of the grant was consummated, and on February 7, 1848, he brought up his family through the Moraga valley, and took formal possession; that same evening, while Mrs. Brown was engaged in preparing the meal, the men were hard at work erecting a temporary covering, fashioned after the most approved pioneer method. With Mr. Brown came his son Clarence, Josiah Allen (a son of Mrs. Brown by a former marriage), Melissa Allen, and Elizabeth Jane Allen, Before this, however, Mr. Brown had disposed of one-tenth of his newlyacquired property for the insignificant sum of one hundred dollars, to Nathaniel Jones, who, about the same time, moved on to the tract.

As we first saw this beautiful locality the young grain had not yet put forth its heads, but all was a magnificent vista of never-ending emerald, from the depths of the valley to the summits of the adjacent hills. Everywhere proclaimed a rare fertility, and promise of large returns. How different, however, must the picture have been that first greeted the eyes of these strangers. The country was rugged in the extreme; wild oats overran both hill and dale, through which indistinct trails found their way in perplexing confusion; traveling was more or less dangerous, for beasts of prey were plentiful, while all around bore evidence of an almost impossible fertility; the most that was looked for was unlimited pasturage for horses sheep, and cattle.

We have, so far, only spoken of the earliest American settler in the township; the original locators, however, were José Maria Amador, who obtained the San Ramon Rancho in 1826, but who had his habitation without the present precincts of this county, in Alameda, and Valencia (mentioned above), who, in the year 1828, was granted and occupied the Acalanes Rancho (at Lafayette), and Moraga, the Laguna Palos Colorados, or Redwood Rancho. About the same time Juana Pacheco, a widow residing at San José, made application for the San Miguel Rancho, whither she sent her nephew, Ygnacio Sibrian, who built an adobe near Walnut Creek, on land now owned by William Rice, and resided in it.

These, therefore, were the original settlers in what we now know as Supervisor Township Number Two. Later, in 1832, Mariano Castro and Bartolo Pacheco made application for the San Ramon Rancho, and occupied a place near where Leo Norris now lives, while, about the same time, a Scotchman named William Welch applied for that tract of land known as the Welch Rancho, and established his homestead near Walnut Creek.

It was thus that the district now under notice was occupied in 1847 when Mr. Brown acquired the Rancho Acalanes. On taking possession, his first care was the construction of a more substantial home than that mentioned above, for which purpose he had brought with him lumber already

cut and fit for use. This building he first placed about two miles from the present hamlet of Lafayette, on land now occupied by Thomas W. Bradley, but the supply of water failing here, he was compelled to move to some more advantageous site, yet it was not until after the third transference that the place on which Mr. Brown now lives was selected. At the same period Nathaniel Jones was engaged in the construction of his residence, and these were evidently the two first frame buildings erected in the township. Here, then, were these two pioneer families, located far away from the world, but safely ensconced in a beautiful valley, with every promise of a bright future. Of course, the ordinary commodities of the household had to be procured from a distance, the nearest point being San José on the one hand, and Yerba Buena on the other. The first was a journey by land and the more readily undertaken, to reach the last the Bay intervened and acted as a determent. To the first named place the trip was by ox-team, but more often on horse-back, through the San Ramon valley, past the residence of José Maria Amador, and out at the point where the town of Haywards now stands, and thence on by the Mission San José to the Pueblo, where Dr Stokes, and a year or two later Charles M. Weber, had well-stocked stores. With the establishment of a household, Mr. Brown, now true to his instincts, commenced to test the capabilities of the ground for farming purposes. In the Spring of 1848, he sowed some acres of wheat and barleythe Spaniards had before this sowed some very small quantities-all of which he had to transport to Sainsevain's mill at San José to have turned into flour. Mr. Brown, in the year 1849, bought a horse-power mill at Benicia, and erected it near his house on the land now occupied by Mr. Bradley, and thus saved this journey. In the Spring of this year, too, Mr. Jones commenced the artificial beautifying of his home, by planting those fine, large locust trees which now give the name of Locust Farm to his place of residence. These are the product of seed brought to the country by Major Stephen Cooper, of Benicia, in 1846, and subsequently presented to Mr. Jones.

From the foregoing it will be acknowledged that the pioneer families of Township Number Two were those of Hon. Elam Brown, and Nathaniel Jones. The country in its general aspect has been greatly changed since their arrival, especially in the matter of ditches, many of these which now are of considerable magnitude, being then mere drains. The prime cause of this we believe to have been the breaking of the upper crust of the soil by the tramping of stock, which increased in numbers year by year and consequently caused the greater damage as their hundreds were changed into thousands.

Here then were these gentlemen left "monarchs of all they surveyed," until the discovery of gold. At this period that vast horde of immigrants, who had left their homes in the Atlantic and other States to the potent

shibboleth of gold, commenced to find their way into the fertile valleys and metal-producing gorges of California. Nearly all took a turn at the mines, some to amass wealth, others to be plunged into irretrievable ruin of mind and body. Happily, among all these, there were some with home instincts still left in their bosoms, who sought out the valleys pregnant, too, with wealth, but of a different nature, and fixed their abodes in what was then a solitude, but which by their own industry, and the unremitting labor of others, has, to-day, become a fruitful and populous country, still holding out promise of yet greater productiveness.

First among these to settle in Township Number Two were Leo Norris and William Lynch, in the Fall of the year 1850. They came to the San Ramon valley, and took up the land now occupied by them. Here they found a branch of the Soto family residing in an adobe house then standing about a hundred and fifty yards from the site of Mr. Norris' present residence, and which they occupied by permission of the Amadors. They only remained, however, for a month or two after the arrival of Mr. Norris. In the month of September, 1850, Messrs. Norris and Lynch erected the house now occupied by the former, which was the first frame building put up in the valley, the lumber for which was brought from the redwoods of San Antonio. As there were no roads, its transport from there to San Ramon by way of Mission San José, Suñol valley, and the spot where now the village of Dublin is planted, was a tedious undertaking, but all was surmounted, and the dwelling completed in time to be occupied before the Winter had set in. In the Spring of 1851, these energetic pioneers put in the first crop in the valley, on land now owned by Mr. Lynch-about twelve acres of barley which yielded one hundred and ten bushels to the acre. That same season a field was fenced by them with willows procured from the banks of the adjacent creek, the saplings, some of which were never removed, having in the intervening years become handsome trees of goodly proportions. These may be seen still standing to the rear of Mr. Lynch's house lot. In the same year, but later, a Mr. Russell located near the head of the valley, on land that has since been divided up, but a portion of which is now occupied by Elisha Harlan. In a conversation with David Glass, who occupies a handsome dwelling near the head of the valley, we were informed that in the month of November, 1850, he settled about a half a mile from where the town of Walnut Creek now stands, on land at present in the possession of A. D. Briggs. At that time a man named William Slusher lived in a little cabin near where the Walnut Creek House has since been erected, while Alexander Boss resided where now dwells William Rice, and there cultivated some vegetables. The Francisco Garcia family lived near the present residence of Col. Stone, in the vicinity of Alamo, while not far from there were other Spaniards dwelling, who were interested in the San Ramon Grant.