Excerpt from: "Prose for Posterity"
by Donna Howell
In 1854, Captain Starbuck, a sailor, started a sawmill here he named New England Mills for his home back east. (Another version is that the area already had this name. ) In 1861, the mill was still in operation. This was a steam powered circular saw that cut 1,200,000 feet of timber a year and was valued in $1,000. John B. Starbuck was the only son of Elisha and Winifred both natives of Nantucket, Mass. John was born there March 23, 1821. He became a sailor early and came to the Pacific Coast on the schooner Ferdinand, from Baltimore, Maryland to San Francisco in September 1849. He mined for gold in the Auburn area until 1854 when he started his ill, retiring in 1874. In December 1879, he married Lena Matthias.
According to the book "Gold Camps of the Mother Lode Gold Belt", on the North Fork of the American River near here there were three arastras and five stamp mills in 1854.
New England Mills was a stop on the Central :Pacific Railroad. All Wells Fargo agent, E. Vore was assigned here from 1887 to 1918. (All Wells Fargo offices closed in 1918.)
. . .The second school was included in the consolidation of Placer Hills School District in 1949.
Their school house was located on New England Mills Road now the Weimar Cutoff road at the top of the hill on the south side of the road next to the big pine tree. It burned January21, 1948 just before it was consolidated and the pupils missed a year and had to wait for the combined classes to start the fall of 1949 to return to school.
The name was changed to Weimar after the Indian Chief Weimar. The chief’s area went north to the South Fork of the Yuba River, east to the Sierra, south to Bear Rivera and west to Johnson’s Crossing. His tribe camped near Chicago Park in 1853. In David Comstock’s book, "Gold diggers and Camp Followers" and his sequel, "Brides of the Gold Rush", he includes Chief Weimar (his spelling Wema) and a photo of him. The chief was relocated to the Nome Cult reservation near Clear Lake in 1857. . .
For further information this book is available at the Placer County Museum Gift Shop. (Address in the book section)