A Forgotten Woodfords Pioneer . . . .
There aren’t many traces left of old Charlie Merk except his name on a street sign. Cruise up Woodfords’ Crystal Springs Road and you’ll spot “Merk Creek Court” near the end. Pull out a map, and you might find Merk Canyon in the same vicinity, the cleft in the mountain down which Merk Creek tumbles.
But Old Charlie himself? Sadly, his story has completely vanished from local memory.
His real name was Wendelin Merk (occasionally spelled ‘Merck’). And when the census-takers stopped by in 1870 and 1880, they spelled it ‘Vandeline’ or ‘Vendeline’ – likely a phoentic version of how the old German pronounced it. But here in Alpine, he was known simply as Old Charlie.
Wendelin “Charlie” Merk was born about 1826 in the Grand Duchy of Baden – a region not yet part of a unified Germany. Just how and when Charlie emigrated to America isn’t clear, but Baden became the center of a revolutionary movement in 1848-49 — a turbulent period in which many Germans moved abroad and the same era that the Gold Rush first began. So it’s possible that push-pull combination drew Merk to the States as well.
Merk may have been attracted to Alpine during its own mining frenzy; by 1863 he was residing at Monitor, one of 174 men who signed a petition asking the (then-Amador County) Supervisors to recognize a new Monitor/Great Mogul township. He filed a Declaration of Intent to become a citizen in 1867, and the (now) Alpine County District court granted his petition for citizenship two years later, on October 7, 1869.
Merk worked as a humble laborer, but by 1870 he’d managed to accumulate $150 worth of real property and some $200 in personal property. Like many miners, however, he suffered whenever his employers hit financial trouble. Court records show him suing both the Globe and the Advance mines for unpaid wages in 1872-1877. He moved from Monitor to Markleeville about 1873, still working as a laborer.
On January 15, 1880, Merk made the purchase that would eventually etch his name on local maps: he bought almost 300 acres in the Crystal Springs area from the Eldorado Wood and Flume Company. The price: $180, equivalent to about $6,300 today. It was a huge expense for a definitely-not-wealthy guy, and in its own way, a huge gamble. But it gave Merk land he could farm. The 1880 census-taker found Merk residing on his new property, now proudly listing his occupation as “Farmer.”
In the decade that followed, Merk’s name appears in two court cases. In 1881, he swore out a complaint charging Indian Bill with pointing a loaded rifle at him. Criminal charges for “Assault With a Deadly Weapon” were duly filed, though Indian Bill was acquitted by the jury at trial. About seven years later, Merk sued Diamond Valley rancher Charles Dudley, claiming Dudley failed to pay tolls for passing over Merk’s “toll road” through his property – although that road was, by now, a public highway.
In 1884, the Carson Daily Appeal hailed Merk as a hero for helping to rescue a family trapped inside a nearby cabin by an avalanche. It was an astonishing, heart-warming tale, and press all across the country reprinted the story. It was also a piece of complete fiction. Editor Sam Davis would later confess to having made up the whole Mark Twain-esque yarn.
Merk earned genuine praise from his neighbors in 1885, however, for his generous assistance after the Great Fire burned a good bit of Markleeville. As the Alpine Argus noted, Charlie charitably sent up a “liberal supply of green corn and beans” from his Woodfords ranch, “to be distributed among the sufferers from the fire.”
| In addition to growing corn, beans, and potatoes, Merk also raised apples on his Woodfords ranch. Kit Woodford hauled a wagonload of apples to Bodie for him in 1893. But by the early 1890s the old German farmer was apparently falling on hard times. He borrowed $100 from rancher W.W. Harvey in late 1892, and another $45 from Peter Curtz in January 1895. Merk fell ill in May, 1896. A friend named Peter Dolling spent four days caring for the old man, and finally dispatched Bennie James to Genoa to fetch a doctor. |
Dr. Eliza Cook made the journey from Genoa to Merk’s bedside on May 27. She administered medicine, but it didn’t help. Charlie passed away the following day, May 28, 1896. He was roughly seventy years old.
T.P. Hawkins acquired lumber and made a coffin, trimming the inside with sateen, black lace, and braid, then hauled the body and coffin in his wagon to its final resting place at the Merrill cemetery. Indian Dutchy dug his grave. Charlie Merk was laid to rest there on May 29.
H.F. Musser was named Special Administrator for the estate, and probate proceedings dragged on for six more long years. Although initial estimates suggested a value of $1,000 in real estate and $165 in personal property, claims related to the proceedings kept trickling in. Merk had owed money to several merchants for items purchased on account, and he still owed Curtz and Harvey for the cash he’d borrowed.
A sale of Merk’s personal assets was set for November 7, 1896, “at the late residence of the deceased, about one mile from Woodfords.” There were a lot of them, but they weren’t terribly valuable. Included were 3-1/2 tons of baled hay, one ton of loose hay, a hay press and mowing machine, wagon, one “old horse,” two chickens, three sacks of potatoes, some blacksmith and carpentry tools, and one muzzle-loading gun and powder flask. Merk also owned some books; neighbor D. Heimsoth was paid $1 by the estate for “translating certain books from German to English at the request of [Administrator] Musser.”
The first attempt to sell Merk’s real property produced no bidders. The probate dragged on. Another sale was finally set for July 28, 1902, “in front of Merrill’s store at Woodfords.” Mary Merrill and Ernest Scossa were the high bidders on the two parcels of land.
With assistance from the Consulate in San Francisco, a pair of relatives back in Germany managed to file claims with the probate court to be recognized as heirs. But when all the creditors’ claims were satisfied, court costs paid, and debts satisfied, Merk’s sister (Maria Agatha Hasenfratz) and niece (Franziska Merk) wound up with just $282.91.
Long-time Woodfords resident Harry Hawkins later filled in a few more details about “old Charlie Merk” and his time in Woodfords. Hawkins noted that Charlie once ran the old Bryant Hotel at the upper end of town, keeping a trout pond there where visitors could fish. Charlie also had a shaggy dog named Almy, Hawkins says, who he’d trained carry in firewood for him, one stick at a time, whenever he called out, “Almy, no wood.”
Despite the few traces left of Merk’s years in Woodfords, there’s a charming bit of confirmation about his canine friend: Merk’s itemized taxable property in Alpine’s 1895 Assessment Roll included “one dog.” I’m betting that was Almy.
