The town of Lincoln has had many beginnings and its share of predicted endings. The major letdown was when railroad builders Theodore Judah and Colonel Charles Lincoln Wilson in the late 1850's envisioned the town as a main depot for a rail route from San Francisco across the Sierra. Lincoln did become a major hub of transportation, but the railroad ended up going north and south.
The tracks were extended a few miles east of Lincoln toward Auburn, but the project for an east-west railroad route died when Wilson, one of the leading entrepreneurs of his time, was unable to secure additional financing from capitalists in New York and Boston.
Wilson, who came to California in 1849 had built the first plank road on Kearney and Mission streets in San Francisco in 1850. He was the promoter and builder of the first railroad in California and became president of the Sacramento Valley Railroad that had been progressive in constructing a rail line to Folsom.
Hundreds of opportunists poured into Lincoln, when the word spread that the town was to become a major railhead after the California Central Railroad reached the town on October 31, 1861. . . But Lincoln became the terminus of the railroad for eight years, and although it was built to Marysville in 1869 under the name of the Yuba Railroad Company, the plans of Judah and Wilson ended after the Central Pacific Railroad line was completed to Roseville in 1863. . . .it still had become the transportation hub of Northern California. Some eight to 10 stagecoaches were rolling from gold towns through the town and freight wagons traveling through the Central Valley poured into town, adding to the economy of the area.
. . .later a flour mill became the major employer before it burned .
Six years later, coal was discovered 60 feet below the surface. . .there were predictions Lincoln would become the “Pittsburgh of the Pacific”. Wilson developed hoisting works and soon an average of nine carloads a day were shipped to Sacramento. Although the coal was reported to be of high quality, it did not compare to the hard coal produced back East and soon the demand for the coal
subsided
. .
In August 1874, while I. M. Scott a San Francisco businessman explored the ground for another bed of coal three-fourths of a mile north of Lincoln, he discovered a bed of lignite. . .and two beds of potters’ clay. . .
About the same time, the straightening of a county road a mile north of Lincoln resulted in the discovery of other rich kaolin clay deposits, reported to equal the best Chinese clay. These clay mines were on the property of Ed Towle, a cousin of the Alta and Dutch Flat lumber pioneer Towle brothers who brought work oxen to the Lincoln area to pasture during the winter months.
Charles Gladding, of Chicago (Ed note:see Pioneers of Placer County for a biography of Mr. Gladding) . . .hurriedly made a trip to the town, to obtain clay samples and returned to Chicago.
. . .on May 1, 1875 along with Peter G. McBean and George Chamber, he organized the Gladding, McBean and Company.
. . . Two months later after McBean set up an office and a storage yard in San Francisco, the first carload of sewer pipe was delivered to the Bay city. In 1883, the company began manufacturing architectural terra cotta for buildings. . .
The Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco ordered four huge clay urns for the hotel roof and the state Capitol also is resplendent with the firm’s clay artistic works. . . .At its peak production period around the turn of the century the company had more than 1,500 employees including two hotels that housed Italian and Greek immigrant workers.
While the “pottery”. . .provided the economic and work base for the town, agriculture remained its oldest and most stable industry. . .
One of the first productive ranches was developed in 1851 east of the town along the Auburn Ravine by Joseph Walkup, who became state lieutenant governor later and S. B. Wyman, who was associated with Walkup as merchants in Auburn. They were the first to harvest wheat in the county and in 1853 reported they produced 1,600 bushels of wheat and 1,100 bushels of barley.
When Stephen D. Burdge settled along Doty’s Ravine four miles east of Lincoln in the early 1850's, he made wine from grapes grown on General Sutter’s Hock Farm. . . . with cutting from the Hock Farm, he established the Lincoln Winery in 1880. Within two years, he was producing some 30,000 gallons of wine.
Lincoln’s history also was affected by the assassination of President Lincoln. The late President had advised his close associate, Col. E. D. Baker, who spoke on behalf of Lincoln in Foresthill and Yankee Jims . . . the President wanted to visit Placer County and the town of Lincoln, mistaking ly believing the town was named to honor him.
Most of the town’s residents never knew about the great man’s plans, nor another disappointment they would have faced.