Humboldt County Historical Society
A Bell Rang in Uniontown
By Gayle Karshner
An unusual history, A Bell Rang in Uniontown interweaves
the story of Arcata, California and its Methodist Church with major events and the lives
of some notable personalities. Both the town and the church began in 1850, the year
Humboldt Bay was rediscovered by white gold seekers in America’s last contiguous
frontier, the land of the 2,000-year-old giant coastal redwoods. You’ll meet colorful
characters and dramatic adventures: first, the church’s founder, Asa White, his wife
Kate, and 12 children who led a train of 120 wagons west on the Oregon Trail in 1847.
White founded churches in Oregon City and San Francisco before coming to Arcata.
For 100 years following White, the succession of ministers arrived,
some brave, some timid, and a few who left a lasting mark on the church and the town. Then
there was Josiah Gregg, a learned scientist and writer who discovered Humboldt Bay from
inland and later died of starvation gathering scientific data in the wilderness. A
companion, L.K. Wood, was permanently crippled from an encounter with a grizzly bear
before settling in Arcata.
Young Bret Harte, whose stories of the old West earned him a place in
American literature, appears in Arcata’s story as the idealistic young reporter
outraged by the white man’s massacre of the Wiyot natives. Another dark episode is
the evacuation of all Chinese from the county.
There is a parade of names: the long-time church members; the town
characters; the humorous human stories that are part of the fabric of any small town. The
appendix lists pastors, baptisms and marriages. Major events and changing customs are also
part of the story. Outstanding old photographs and maps give a real sense of what it was
like in the last half of the 1800s and the first half of the 1900s.