Quincy, located approximately 1 1/2 miles east of here off Mule Creek, was one of the cities within the boundaries of Rancho Arroyo, or the grant, that suddenly appeared in the early 1850's.
Don Andreas Pico purchased the grant from Teodosio Yorba in 1844 with 500 head of longhorn cattle.
Before its destruction, Quincy was quite large. According to the "Quincy Prospector," it rivaled Sacramento in its best days (copies on file in the state archives).
Quincy was built by the settlers coming to California during and before the "Gold Rush" of 1849. The people of Quincy were shocked and astonished when Pico and his vaqueros rode in from Mission San Jose to inform them to vacate, as they were trespassing. Pico was entirely within his rights.
Years of bloodshed followed. This loosely organized war of murder and ambush diminished with the arrival of a battalion of infantry, a battery of field artillery and a troop of cavalry from the Presidio of San Francisco. They garrisoned the area well after 1865.
This came too late, however, for Pico's wife, murdered during this period. Her grave was located 6 miles south of Quincy, near the Miwok town of Uoo-Poo-Soo-Ne. Finally, the settlers were given the choice of Ione or Quincy. With Ione the winner, Quincy was evacuated, burned and dynamited to the ground in two weeks.
After all this time and destruction, aerial photographs still show the four lane main street with parking, and its many large side streets revealed by the short grass cover of the streets against the longer grasses inside the old foundations.
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