Tehama County, California: History
Tehama County was formed from parts of Butte, Colusa, and Shasta Counties in 1856.
The first permanent non-indigenous settlers in the area that is now Tehama County were Robert Hasty Thomes, Albert Gallatin Toomes, William George Chard, and Job Francis Dye. The four men were each given land grants by the government of Mexico in 1844. Thomes received Rancho Saucos, Toomes received Rancho Rio de los Molinos, Chard received Rancho Las Flores, and Dye received Rancho Primer Cañon o Rio de Los Berrendos. Later in the same year Josiah Belden received Rancho Barranca Colorado.
Famous early figures include Kit Carson, who took part in a fight that gave name to Bloody Island and Battle Creek, Jedediah Smith, John C. Fremont, and William B. Ide, the first and only president of the California Republic.
The history of Tehama County includes multiple Chinatowns with some of its most distinguishable townsmen attending annual Chinese and American banquets, that merged the two cultures together. The deep bonds formed would culminate into a powerful petition by 20 influential leaders in support of the Chew family, who were detained at Angel Island in 1916, proving that Tehama County valued the Chinese community. This single act of kindness set the stage for a 20th-century Chinese American pioneer to be born, Dr. Kenneth Kendall Chew, and his research in aquaculture would change the world. Historically, Red Bluff has been plagued with tunnel and expulsion folklore including untrue incidents such as an 1886 torching of Red Bluff's Chinatown by alleged anti-Coolie league arsonists. The January 29, 1886, edition of The Daily Alta detailed 'The Anti-Coolie Move' held a meeting that was convened in the town of Tehama, and due to prominent White merchants, they deemed the movement as a public nuisance and as a result avoided any of its Chinese residence from being forced to relocate, which was an estimated 2,000 Chinese people in and around Vina. Secret daily anti-Chinese caucuses continued their failed attempts in Red Bluff until their agitations died down.