Laura Dakin's Organizing Continues

Side/back of the Dakin Home

Criswell continues: There is much more to a well-rounded education than learning the 3Rs, so the ladies turned their attention to a new crusade. The morality of Knights Ferry's population had been neglected. Without a spiritual guide and an adequate church building, the community was like a ship without a rudder at the end. Drunkenness and rowdyism was running rampant.

As a rest stop, Knights Ferry was without rival. As one stage driver put it, "the Ferry sure knows how to take care of a hungry and tired man." And when he was cleaned up, fed and rested, there were others ready to entertain him. There were as many, perhaps more, saloons and card rooms in town than in Angels Camp, Columbia or any other Moder Lode community.

Something needed to be done, so the Ladies Literary Guild took up the challenge. Sporadic services had been held by visiting clergyman on occasion, but no real effort had been expanded to get a permanent church and pastor. The ladies went to work. they solicited funds and volunteer labor. there were to be no excuses. Knights Ferry was going to have a church.

Under the guidance of Laura Dakin, success was assured. Her tireless efforts paid off so that in 1867 lad was purchased at the northeast corner of Ellen and Shurl Streets for the permanent home of Knights Ferry's first church.

The building was erected the very next year. It was a multipurpose structure housing the church, Sunday School and parsonage. Mothers pledged their children's attendance. The Reverend C. Anderson was persuaded to move to town and assume a rather big job of bringing religion and sobriety to its inhabitants.

Ladies of the Guild met regularly at the Dakin home to plan strategy for contacting every resident of Knights Ferry. with their enthusiasm, religion picked up rapidly so that in a few short months there were 28 members of the church and 25 scholars attending Sunday School.

Meanwhile, the Dakins were becoming famous for their garden parties held on the spacious lawns front and back of the house. Hundreds of swaying candlelit Japanese lanterns added a festive note and music was provided by the Knights Ferry band. The colorful evening gatherings were among the town's top social events. The guest list always included the men and women who made up the main driving force that propelled the Ferry to prominence in this part of the state.

Dakins Arrive in Knight's Ferry

Isaac & Laura Dakin's house on the northeast corner of Vantine & Dean Streets, Knight's Ferry, CA (Photo: 1993)

Isaac lost no time carrying out his/their plan. After asking directions, he climed down from his wagon and Laura from hers and they headed toward they headed toward the home of Lewis Bent who owned nearly all the land around town. He was impressed with the Dakins' enthusiasm, so a deal was quickly struck transferring ownership of a plot of ground 100 x 170' at the northeast corner of Vantine and Dean streets where the Dakins intended to build their home. According to Irene Paden (Big Oak Flat Road), her father Wilbur Dakin remembered that their home "had a spring in the cellar and could have withstood a seige" by those from the original occupiers of the land (though they would not have called themselves owners). This strategy was useful in the chaos of central California in the 1840's and 1850's.

In the 1840s, there were virtually no permanent settlements east of the San Juaquin River. Jose Jesus grew up at the San Jose Mission, "but had fallen from grace and was now extremely unrepentant and a leader of the "Horsethief Indians." He hated the Mexican Californians and his tribe was dreaded for unprovoked (at least in the immediate sense) raids on outlying ranchos.

In November, 1847, there was only one wooden house in the settlement, then appropriately known as Tuleburgh (later Stockton). Discovery of gold in the spring of 1848 again upset the balance of power in California. Events then moved with frightening and unbelievable speed. The acuisition of California by the U.S. at the end of the Mexican War terminated all talk of a separate republic of California (though it was retained on the state flag).

Some of the Mexican Californians were angry and uneasy; some thought it would be better in the long run to be part of the United States than of Mexico, as long as the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo guaranteed the continued ownership of their land-grants. (Big Oak Flat Road) This was the emerging frontier 10 years before the Dakins arrived.

A deal was also made for Isaac to build a blacksmith shop on a pacel of land directly across Main Street from the new general store. Within a few hours of their arrival in town, the Dakins had already put down roots. Laura and Isaac had spent a lot of time already talking about the design of their new home and had committed that design to paper before they had left Tuleburgh. Now they swung into action. Work on both the home and the blacksmith shop began immediately.

By the first of July (1853-Criswell and about 1860 by family recollection), the Dakins were already moving inhto their very own home and the smithy was opened for business. It is important to note here that Isaac and Laura were also met by family in Knight's Ferry. Mary Jamison Locke, sister of Laura and wife of David Locke) was already living there. She had married David (in 1852?) and came with him to the banks of the Stanislaus River.

Before the dry season of '49 had saddened into winter mud, David Morrell Locke traveled in the first wheeled vehicle ever to pass along this sketchy road as far as Knight's Ferry; the change from pack mule to freight wagon had begun and, from then on, was never allowed to lapse. Soon the goods transported yearly to the Ferry amounted to thousands of tons. D.M. Locke wrote in his journal on August 16, 1849: "We reached Knight's at 10 o'clock A.M. Took breakfast pork & beans, hard bread & coffee $1.50 each. Went and saw them digging gold for the first time."

The Miners' and Business Mens' Directory for the year commensing January 1, 1956, bore, under the caption, "Knight's Ferry," this item: Some 300 yards above the Ferry is located the Flouring and Saw Mills of Messrs Locke and Company..."

By August, 1858, the substantial Locke bridge was in operation and at the end of five months a formal report showed the net profits of the Stanislaus Bridge and Ferry Company for that period was something over $4700.