History of Roseville

When Roseville incorporated in April 1909, the City Council was known as the "Board of Trustees" and the Mayor as the "Chairman of the Board." It was not until August 1927 that the present titles of City Council and Mayor were adopted.

Prior to 2019, the Roseville City Charter called for at-large elections, with the highest vote-getter becoming the next vice mayor for two years, then the mayor for two years. In 2020, Roseville voters approved several changes to the City charter, including having the role of mayor rotated among the districts.

Roseville Mayors:
William Sawtelle (1909 – 1911)

Robert F. Theile (1911 – 1912)

Dr. Bradford Woodbridge (1912 – 1922)

Walter M. Turner (1922 – 1923)

George W. Guptil (1923 – 1924)

Dr. Bradford Woodbridge (1924 – 1928)

Walter Hanisch (1928 – 1930)

Dr. Bradford Woodbridge (1930 – 1932)

H.T. Miller (1932 – 1934)

R. J. Rolufs (1934 – 1938)

L.C. Anderson (5/17/1938 – 5/24/1938)

Charles Cope (1938 – 1942)

Harold T. “Bizz” Johnson (1942 – 1944)

Andrew Weber (4/1944 – 11/1944)

Harold T. “Bizz” Johnson (1944 – 1950)

William Finger Jr. (1950 – 1952)

L. Harold Wentworth (1952 – 1954)

Paul J. Lunardi (1954 – 1956)

George Campbell (1956 – 1958)

Paul J. Lunardi (1958 – 1959)

George Buljan (1959 – 1960)

George Campbell (1960 – 1962)

Robert Mahan (1962 – 1964)

Willard Dietrich (1964 – 1966)

George Buljan (1966 – 1968)

Willard Dietrich (1968 – 1970)

Baron Reed (1970 – 1972) - Roseville's youngest Mayor, elected at age 28

George Buljan (1972 – 1974)

Kenneth Royer (1974 – 1976)

George Buljan (1976 – 1978)

June Wanish (1978 – 1980) - Roseville's first woman Councilmember & Mayor

Harry Crabb Jr. (1980 – 1982)

Richard Roccucci (1982 – 1984)

Harry Crabb Jr. (1984 – 1985)

Alan V. Pineschi (1985 – 1986)

Jim Ross (1986 – 1987)

Phil Ozenick (4/1987 – 11/1987)

Bill Santucci (1987 – 1989)

Pauline Roccucci (1989 – 1991)

Bill Santucci (1991 – 1993)

Mel Hamel (1993 – 1995)

Harry Crabb Jr. (1995 – 1996)

Claudia Gamar (1996 – 1998)

Harry Crabb Jr. (1998 – 2000)

Claudia Gamar (2000 – 2002)

F.C. “Rocky” Rockholm (2002 – 2004)

Gina Garbolino (2004 – 2006)

F.C. “Rocky” Rockholm (12/2006 – 1/2007)

Jim Gray (2007 – 2008)

Gina Garbolino (2008 – 2010)

Pauline Roccucci (2010 - 2012)

Susan Rohan (2012 - 2014)

Carol Garcia (2014 - 2016)

Susan Rohan (2016 - 2018)

Bonnie Gore (2018)

John B. Allard II (2019 - 2020)

Krista Bernasconi (2020 - 2022)

Bruce Houdesheldt (2022-2024)

Krista Bernasconi (2024-present)

Roseville City Managers:
David Koester (1947 - 1969)

Robert Hutchison (1969 – 1988)

Allen Johnson (1988 – 2003)

Craig Robinson (2003 – 2009)

Mike Shellito (2009 – 2010)

Ray Kerridge (2010 - 2015)

Rob Jensen (2015 - 2018)

Dominick Casey (2018 - present)

The following history of Roseville was written by Leonard "Duke" Davis, considered by many the foremost authority on the history of Roseville.

Davis was a founding member of the Roseville Historical Society and instrumental in documenting Roseville history through the many books he authored. He partnered with the historical society on several projects about the history of Roseville.

A Roseville native and lifelong resident, Davis taught for more than 40 years at the junior high school, senior high school and community college level.

Davis partnered with the City on "The Story of Roseville, California: Milestones and Memories 1850-2000" for the city's 90th anniversary. The book was updated in 2009 for the city's centennial.

"His contributions to the preservation of Roseville's unique history as well as the reverence he felt for the city's history cannot be overstated," said the Roseville Historical Society in tribute.  Mr. Davis passed away in October 2014.

Long before there was a railroad or a Roseville, there was the land, encompassing mile after mile of waving grasslands. Towering over this sea of grass were thick groves of valley oaks, which provided protective canopies for carpets of wild flowers. Golden poppies, buttercups, lilies and monkey flowers blended with the darker hues of brodiaeas, lupine and purple owl's clover that blanketed the plains.

Several sparkling streams meandered through this beautiful countryside and along their shady banks grew wild roses with their delicate shades adding to the mosaic of color. Wild game such as deer, antelope, Tule elk and California grizzlies roamed over the lush grasslands, while California quail and other game birds frequented the thickets and brush lands. Today, only a few signs of this wonderland remain.

Other accounts were not so complimentary, particularly during summer months when green grasses turned brown under the relentless California sun. This was quite different from lands east of the Mississippi River where summer rains brought rich harvests. In contrast, the broad plains of California’s inland valleys were seared and cracked by summer droughts and 100 degree heat. The myth of the California desert, for many, would persist for some time.

Long before the first Europeans invaded this unspoiled wonderland, native civilizations had existed here for thousands of years. Over 300,000 people, divided into seven linguistic families encompassing 64-80 different languages, inhabited California. One of these groupings was the Maidu, whose territory embraced the vast valley region which extended from the Sacramento River to the edge of the Sierras. The southern Maidu, also called Nisenan or Nishinam, held the entire American, Bear and Yuba rivers’ drainage systems.

The abundance of plants and animals encouraged the development of numerous Maidu towns in the Roseville region. One important Maidu center of activity was along the banks of Strap Ravine, east of downtown Roseville, on lands which later became part of Johnson Ranch. Evidence of their existence can still be seen in the bedrock mortars where they ground acorns with stone pestles. Petroglyphs (ceremonial markings) may still be seen on the large boulders found in the Maidu Historic Site.

Another Maidu town in the Roseville area centered along Dry Creek adjacent to the old Enwood gravel pit, which extended downstream to where the Lincoln Estates subdivision is now located. Considerable excitement occurred around 1964 when contractors uncovered traces of Maidu culture. Amateur and professional archaeologists alike rushed here in large numbers searching for ancient artifacts.

Community leaders Myron and Dorothy McIntyre, who had previously donated creekside lands for today’s Lincoln Estates Park, donated an additional 15 acres in 1998. Four of those acres are to be used for an extension of Lincoln Estates Park and 11 are to be preserved in perpetuity as a “passive” open park area.

A third major Maidu area, which was concentrated along Dry Creek west of present day Riverside Avenue, extended to today’s railroad tracks. Thomas Dudley, one of the area’s earliest white settlers, recalled paying the chief of a nearby tribe a 50 pound sack of flour for relinquishing his claims to lands staked out here.

The Maidu actively managed the landscape to create an Eden-like setting with floral and faunal abundance supporting a large Maidu population. Most of their homes were simple brush covered conical shaped huts – of the single family type. Their most important structure was an earthen-covered ceremonial Roundhouse - a rounded structure 30 to 40 feet in diameter, made of timber, brush and earth, built over and around a four or five foot deep depression. In the center of the Roundhouse was a fire. The Roundhouse served as the spiritual and healing center for the community.

Many oak trees grew in the area, providing acorns, a Maidu food staple. The acorns would be ground, leached to get rid of their bitter taste, cooked in a water-tight basket and eaten plain or mixed with berries, grasshoppers or dried salmon. Roots, seeds, nuts, leaves and shoots were gathered and stored for year-round use for food, medicines and material goods. Rabbits, ground squirrels, quail, ducks, geese, fish from area streams and other small wildlife were also part of the Maidu diet.

Disease, miners and settlers killed or forcibly removed many of the Maidu from their traditional homelands. Today, Maidu descendants still live in Placer County and celebrate their heritage and traditions that helped them withstand this cultural onslaught.

Most miners who flocked to California following James Marshall’s historic discovery in 1848 had little thought of staying. They intended to get rich and return home by fall. Consequently, the rich agricultural region of southwestern Placer County was largely ignored during the early years of the gold rush. This “plains” region as it was called by forty-niners, although rich in agricultural opportunities, was thought to be devoid of gold.

The story of Roseville had its beginnings in the aftermath of the fabled California Gold Rush when discouraged gold seekers left the mineral regions to take up farming along those rich creek bottom lands earlier ignored. These intrepid pioneers, many of whose descendants still reside in the area, formed the nucleus of what was to become the “first families” of Roseville. One of the first sections of southwestern Placer County to be settled was the rich lands of the Dry Creek District.

Among the pioneer settlers of the Dry Creek District was Martin A. Schellhous who came to California with his wife and acquired a 240-acre ranch. Having brought a number of cattle with him from Michigan, Schellhous turned his attention to stock raising.

Later diversifying and expanding his agricultural pursuits, he planted vineyards, orchards and fields of grain on his property. His youngest son Earl recalled before his death in 1960, that their apple orchard and vineyards were among the first in western Placer County.

Martin Schellhous died in September 1873, at the age of 54. His wife survived him by 33 years, passing away in 1906. Their children divided up the ranch and continued to farm the family property. Earl Schellhous, the last of the surviving Schellhous boys, ran cattle on the old home ranch until shortly before his death, thus making the Schellhous ranch one of the oldest continuously operated ranches in the area at the time.

Six generations of the Schellhous family have lived, and continue to live, in the Roseville area.


About the time Martin Schellhous located in the Dry Creek District, Thomas S. Dudley was engaged in business in Sacramento. While in Sacramento, he married Eleanor Stuart in 1850 and pursued the hog raising business. Facing steep competition from other markets, Dudley and his wife moved to the Dry Creek District where land could be acquired cheaply.

Due to an abundance of acorns, hogs could be sold profitably for 25 cents a pound that other competing shipping businesses could not match. In the Dry Creek District, Dudley purchased Gifford Poor’s squatter claim for $200 and received a government grant for an additional 320 acres; by 1878, the ranch totaled 710 acres. It was in a little barn on the Dudley ranch in 1865 that Roseville’s first school came into being.

The family home, however, burned to the ground in 1879 followed shortly thereafter with Dudley’s death. The ranch lying adjacent to Dry Creek continued on in the hands of two of his sons-in-laws: Robert Theile and Alvah J. Sprague.

Another pioneer rancher of the Dry Creek District was Josiah G. Gould, who headed north to the Dry Creek District in the early 1850s and eventually settled on a ranch extending through what would later be bounded by Dry Creek and present P.F.E and Walerga Roads.

Having established title to his original ranch properties, Gould brought his family from Pennsylvania to California in 1854 via the overland route and began an uninterrupted 125 years of occupancy. Grain and livestock proved to be mainstays for the ranches of the period before wide-scale irrigation allowed for grapes and other fruits.

Large scale farming however is no longer practiced on the Gould lands for most of their once extensive holdings have been sold off and today are sites of modern subdivisions. The last Gould to actively farm the ancestral lands was Arthur V. Gould, born on the family ranch in 1881 and died there on Nov. 11, 1976.

He worked as a rancher and gardener continually for more than 70 years up to a few short months before his death. Today, numerous members of the Gould family reside in and about the Roseville area.

The year following Josiah Gould’s arrival in Roseville (1855), Tobias S. Grider acquired 640 acres of government owned land where Roseville’s railroad switching facilities would later be located. Grider sold his properties to the California Central Railroad in 1859 when it was in the process of extending the iron rails from Folsom to Lincoln. After moving to North San Juan, Nevada County for a period of time, Grider returned to the local area in 1861. However, he soon left for southern California in 1862 where he spent most of his remaining years. He died at Downey on June 29, 1886.

Northwest of Roseville is the fertile land along Pleasant Grove Creek. Surviving records show that this district was populated as early as 1854. One of the pioneer settlers of the Pleasant Grove District was a man named Leet, who settled on 10,500 acres of land with government script. Leet was subsequently bought out by Stephen A. Boutwell, who commenced ranching in the Pleasant Grove region in 1856.

Young Walter F. Fiddyment, in company with his widowed mother Elizabeth Jane Crawford Fiddyment, arrived in the Roseville area in 1856.From that time on, the Fiddyment name has played a prominent role in local agricultural interests.

Elizabeth Fiddyment arrived in California in 1854 and initially settled in the Elk Grove section of Sacramento County with a sister and a brother-in-law. She reunited with another sister near present day Roseville two years later along with her new husband George Hill, whom she had married in 1854, and their children.

She entered into farming with her sisters and their husbands in the Pleasant Grove District and later obtained her own parcel of land from one of her brother-in-laws in payment for a debt. The couple expanded their already extensive land holdings; however, tragedy struck and Hill died in 1861, leaving Elizabeth Fiddyment to run the ranch and care for the children.

Despite her ranching responsibilities, she still found time to play an active role in the creation of the informal Pleasant Grove School on the family ranch and even served as its first teacher. Her presence in the community was keenly felt as she cared for the sick and the infirm at any hour of the day.

In 1869 she married for a third time to Ashby Jones Atkinson. When it became evident that Roseville was destined to become more than just another shipping station along the railroad line, Elizabeth Fiddyment purchased much of the unsold portions of the original town site.

In 1906, part of her land holdings were subdivided into what became the Atkinson Tract in present day Roseville Heights. Atkinson Street perpetuates the memory of this pioneer rancher, business woman, humanitarian and mother who so much typified the spirit of western womanhood during the nineteenth century. She passed away on June 19, 1906 and is buried in the Fiddyment family plot in the Roseville cemetery.

Southeast of present day Roseville, in Sacramento County, is an agricultural region originally known as the San Juan Grant. A pioneer settler of this area was Peter Van Maren, who took up residence there around 1850.At the time of Van Maren’s death in 1876, he had acquired 787 acres of land valued at $23,000.

Zachariah Astill, a native of England, also settled near the Dry Creek District with his land straddling the Placer and Sacramento counties. After residing in St. Louis for three years, his large party of friends and family joined a wagon train headed for California via the Great Salt Lake route. Many members of the Astill family stayed in Salt Lake while Astill, wife Ann and young son James pushed on to California in 1852 and took one of the first land grants in the area southwest of Roseville.

Besides farming, Zachariah Astill operated a small blacksmith shop providing services for other ranchers and farmers in the area. The tools Zachariah Astill brought with him from England are still in the hands of the family and are treasured possessions. Zachariah Astill and many other local settlers provided their ox teams and horses to aid in the building of the Central Pacific Railroad through the area.

This pioneer agriculturalist died on Nov. 19, 1874 followed by his wife Ann on Aug. 15, 1877. Both are buried in the pioneer cemetery at the corner of Broadway Street and Riverside Boulevard in Sacramento. After the death of his father, James Astill continued to farm the vast tract of land. When the state highway was rerouted through Sylvan Corners on a direct line to Roseville in 1912, Astill provided the land for the direct approach into town.

A charter member of the Methodist Church in Roseville, he assisted in building and maintaining the church. At the time of his death on May 24, 1923, Astill was considered one of Roseville’s leading citizens and the owner of numerous rental properties in town. The old Astill family home, located along what later became known as P.F.E. Road, burned to the ground in 1950.

Although having long since disposed of most of their once vast land holdings, numerous descendants of Zachariah and Ann Astill still live, work and raise their families in and about Roseville.

J.F. Cross settled near Antelope in 1854 or 1855, and at about the same time John Aiston commenced farming the area between the southeastern corner of Sylvan Corners to the vicinity of where the San Juan High School now stands on Greenback Lane.

Surviving records show that John R. Dyer, born in Missouri in 1833, located here sometime between 1854 and 1857 subsequently becoming one of the pioneer settlers of the Center Joint District (west of Roseville extending to the Sacramento River). An active member of the embryo town of Roseville, Dyer was one of the earliest members of Roseville Lodge No. 203, I.O.O.F. and for a time (1870s-1880s) associated with J.D. Pratt in the operation of the Pratt & Dyer brick kiln on Dry Creek at the foot of Taylor Street. His wife, Julia Agnes Dyer, died on May 22, 1896 and Dyer himself lived until Aug. 19, 1913. His son continued operating the ranch until 1956 when it was sold to Mr. Ross Riolo.

Northeast of Roseville between the present towns of Roseville, Rocklin and Lincoln lies the famous Spring Valley Ranch – founded by George Whitney in 1855. When Whitney commenced raising sheep there, the entire region was unfenced and open to settlement. Whitney retired in 1868, turning over his interests at that time to his sons, Joel Parker Whitney and F.L. Whitney and later died in 1913.

F.L. Whitney disposed of his interests to Joel Whitney in 1872, who continued to operate the historic old ranch. By 1882, there were some 4,000 acres under cultivation on the Spring Valley Ranch and it reached an outstanding total of 21,764 acres ten years later. Joel Whitney continued to operate his vast land holdings until his death on July 23, 1924.

Members of the Whitney family occupied the famed “Oaks” mansion until 1946 when the ranch was purchased by a Washington State lumberman. In May 1960, the Spring Valley Ranch was acquired by the Sunset City Corporation and plans were announced for the development of a completely integrated industrial-commercial residential community. Work on the initial phases of this undertaking began in the spring of 1962.

Pioneer ranchers of southwestern Placer County were not primarily interested in crop agriculture. Prior to the coming of the railroads, stock raising was their principal source of income. Several reasons led ranchers to this option.

First, there was an abundance of good grazing land, and many preferred to engage in stock raising rather than the more laborious work of tilling the soil.

Secondly, before the arrival of the railroads, there was no way of getting perishable commodities to market except by slow, plodding ox teams. And lastly, little water was available for irrigating this dry portion of the county until ditches were brought into the region by such organizations as the North Fork Ditch Company. With the advent of the railroads, wheat, hay and other grains particularly adaptable to dry soil were grown. Still later viticulture and horticulture were developed.

East of the San Juan Grant near the juncture of today’s South Cirby Way and Old Auburn Road was the Half Way House, a popular stage and express stop on the Sacramento-Auburn Road. Numerous stock ranches were located in the vicinity of this busy way station, situated midway between Sacramento and Auburn.

The Half Way House was also known as the 18 Mile House. In the days before automobile odometers, the only way the traveling public could gauge distances was by these numbered houses; some public inns, others private residences. Today, only the 12 Mile House (now empty and boarded up) and the 14 Mile House (still a private residence) remain from the bygone era of slow moving teamster wagons and crowded stagecoaches winding their way laboriously over the Sacramento-Auburn Road. The Half Way House remained a busy stage and teamster stop until the advent of the railroad.

Work began in 1855 on what became California’s first railroad, the Sacramento Valley Railroad, which extended 22 miles between Sacramento and its terminal at Folsom. This pioneer line was completed in February of 1856. At Folsom, numerous connecting stage and express lines met trains for transfer of freight and mail to stagecoach and express wagons delivering to up-country locations.

Residents of southwestern Placer County and the mining country lying to the north, however, were far removed from Folsom and benefited little from the Sacramento Valley Railroad and continued pressuring for an extension of that line to meet their needs.

In the spring of 1857, The California Central Railroad Company was formed in Sacramento to extend the Sacramento Valley Railroad from Folsom to Marysville, gateway to the Northern mines.

Charles Lincoln Wilson, who had been a leading force behind the Sacramento Valley Railroad, was the key figure in promoting the California Central. Work began on surveying land between Folsom and Marysville in June 1857, after which rights-of-way were purchased from land owners along the proposed route.

One of these land owners was Tobias S. Grider, whose ranch lay directly along the proposed route. Grider, well aware of the increased value of his lands by the coming of the railroad, sold a strip of land six rods wide for $1. The deed of sale also provided for purchase of additional lands, if deemed necessary, for a depot, side tracks and other necessities. Grider’s belief that passage of the railroad through his property would increase its value proved to be correct.

Two years later (November, 1859), he sold his ranch totaling 374.62 acres to Tabb Mitchell, editor and publisher of Auburn’s Placer Herald, and George L. Anderson for $1,500 and left the area. Work started on the first division of five miles in November, 1858. By March, 1859, a work force of 150 laborers had completed grading from Folsom to the Half Way House.

Within a few short years, railroads began to inch their way through the area. January of 1860 saw grading completed over the entire length of the California Central, followed by laying of track and by April of 1860, rails reached the Half Way House.

At this point, work stopped as the always financially strapped company had run out of money. It would not be until the summer of 1861 that Charles Wilson was able to raise sufficient funds to continue work. To cut expenses, the labor force was reduced from 150 to 90. Many laborers were Chinese who would also work for considerably less money than their white counterparts.

Wilson’s idea of using Chinese labor was later adopted by Charles Crocker when the Central Pacific Railroad was built across the foreboding Sierra Nevada Mountains. Laying rails to the town site of Lincoln took place on Oct. 21, 1861, when once again money ran out. Construction was not able to begin again until December, 1866. In the interim, Lincoln, named for Charles Lincoln Wilson, would develop as a busy railroad terminal for the Central.

While work was slowly progressing on the California Central in 1858, Theodore D. Judah surveyed a route for a proposed Auburn Branch Railroad. He also made a preliminary survey of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, which convinced him that a practical route for a transcontinental railroad across this thought-to-be-impossible barrier could be accomplished.

Three years later, Judah’s dream of a transcontinental railroad was realized with organization of the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California. A railroad bill, passing through Congress in July, 1862, led to a contract for the first eighteen miles of track with Crocker & Company on Dec. 27, 1863.

Work commenced on the bank of the Sacramento River at the foot of K Street on Feb. 22, 1864. The route of the first eighteen miles of Central Pacific track would terminate at Tobias S. Grider’s old ranch where a new railroad town called Roseville would soon rise. Crossing the American River by a specially built railroad trestle, the Central Pacific entered Placer County via the “12 Mile Tangent” to Dry Creek which was spanned by four 55-foot bridge sections.

At Grider’s, the Central Pacific intersected with the California Central on Jan. 29, 1864. During this period, many local ranchers, including Henry Holt, James Astill and John Doyle, were engaged in teaming, or hauling materials, and making ties for the railroad. The place where the two railroads crossed was then appropriately designated as “Junction” on railroad maps.

The new tracks were quickly put into use. On April 6, 1864, the locomotive Governor Stanford, with a number of passengers, left the foot of J Street for the eighteen mile trip to “Junction”. This unheralded trip was the pioneer run of the railroad which was destined to become the nation’s first transcontinental line.

By April 26, 1864, trains began running daily from Sacramento to the Junction.

Between that date and April 30, 1868, a total of 298 passengers paid $354.23 to travel Central Pacific rails over the 18-mile route. This sum represented the very first passenger revenues earned by the railroad company. By the end of December, revenue earned on this short run totaled $103,357.

At Junction, the traveling public could transfer to trains on the California Central, with which the Central Pacific intersected on its way from Folsom to Lincoln and later Marysville. Passengers from Lincoln and Marysville could likewise catch the Central Pacific trains here back to the capital city. Completion of the Central Pacific Railroad to Junction on January 29, 1864, rendered that portion of the Central between Folsom and Junction obsolete and it gradually fell into disuse.

In 1869, the Central Pacific acquired California Central holdings. Shortly thereafter, the tracks between Folsom and Junction were taken up and moved to Rocklin for use as spur lines between granite quarries there and the Central Pacific main line. Today, only a few traces of the California Central remain—a small section of road bed on the floodplain near Warren T. Eich Intermediate School and the old railroad cut on today’s Folsom Road between Dry Creek and Atlantic Street.

The Central Pacific was absorbed by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company in 1887 and more recently (1996) by the Union Pacific. The historic wood-burning locomotive Governor Stanford has survived the passage of time and is now on permanent display at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento as a treasured symbol of our living heritage.

With completion of the Central Pacific Railroad through southwestern Placer County, a marked change occurred in that region. Towns sprang up; settlers came in rapidly; and a new era of prosperity was inaugurated. The region saw the arrival of many new faces that would later play an important role in its development.

George Kirk Cirby, a Roseville pioneer of the 1860s, was born in Pennsylvania in 1826. He crossed the plains to California in 1849 and located in Sacramento in 1850 where he engaged in freighting operations to the mining regions. After his marriage to Mary Jane Newinglam in 1858, Cirby gave up the life of a teamster and moved to Roseville to become a farmer, eventually acquiring 800 acres of land (High Sierra View Ranch) south of town, extending on to the old DeKay place on what is now Sunrise Boulevard.

With his wife and fourteen children, Cirby farmed extensively and at one point owned a large dairy business. He was a charter member of Roseville Lodge No. 203, I.O.O.F. and also served as a trustee for the local elementary school district in the 1880s and 1890s and for several years served as clerk of the board. Cirby died on Feb. 8, 1895 while his wife died twelve years later.

The old Cirby ranch has remained in the hands of the Cirby family until most of it was sold to various real estate developers. Today, the ranch site is largely taken up by modern housing tracts and the sprawling campus of Oakmont High School. Cirby Way and George K. Cirby Elementary School perpetuate the memory of still another Roseville pioneer family.

John Doyle came to California in the 1860s and engaged in stock raising and farming on his ranch which extended from the area where Roseville Square is today. Doyle married Clara Mertes in 1874 and had two children. The family lived on the ranch until 1893 when Doyle purchased the fine two-story brick residence on Church Street built by William Sawtelle.

While many other prominent names were selling their land and leaving town during the bad times of the 1890s, Doyle was content on buying up their land at cheap prices; he believed in the area’s potential for growth. One such acquisition was the bottom portion of the Odd Fellows Building on Pacific Street which he purchased from J.D. Pratt for ten dollars in 1896.

Doyle would not live to see the town he had so much faith in boom, for he died on Feb. 11, 1910. In 1960, part of the Doyle ranch was sold to for the construction of the city’s first shopping center, Roseville Square.

In 1863, James William Kaseberg gave up the freighting business and went into business with Stephen A. Boutwell and William Dunlap raising sheep in the area northeast of present day Roseville. Kaseberg later bought out his partners and through additional purchases and leases created a ranch expanding an impressive 50,000 acres.

His Diamond K Ranch was at one time the largest tract of land acquired in the Sacramento Valley, not based on Mexican land grants. Kaseberg died in 1905. His son, William, donated the land for the Kaseberg Elementary School, Roseville Union High School baseball diamond and Roseville’s Sierra View Country Club. The Kaseberg mansion now serves as the club hall for the Diamond K Mobile Home development.

The junction, located in the heart of a potentially rich agricultural area, was particularly well suited for one of the eagerly sought after freight stations springing up along the Central Pacific’s right of way. This fact did not go unnoticed by Sacramento entrepreneur O.D. Lambard who on August 13, 1864, laid out a new, but largely paper, city with numbered blocks arranged on both sides of the railroad – names were given only to Pacific, Atlantic, Washington, Vernon and Lincoln Streets.

There were no commercial buildings, no private residences, and no man-made improvements. But Lambard was convinced the location of his city would soon attract investors. These investors, he reasoned, would build a prosperous community that, in turn, would attract still more investors, and he would make a great deal of money selling choice lots and blocks. Lambard’s reasoning was sound, at least at the beginning, and gradually a “real” town began to develop.

There are several versions of the manner in which Roseville acquired its name. One states that the town was named for nearby Rose Springs or the ranch of the same name. A second story maintains that the name was bestowed in honor of Rose Maberry, who supposedly was born on the site of Roseville.

Still another version claims that the name was due to a dispute between railroad men over the charms of a pretty waitress called Rose. A fourth account was suggested by Walter F. Fiddyment, a pioneer of 1856. According to Fiddyment, (who admittedly was not present when the name was chosen) the people of the immediate area got together at a picnic to select a better name than Junction. After discussing the matter at some length, it was decided to name the town after the most beautiful girl present – a girl named Rose.

However, the most acceptable explanation seems to be the one offered by Mrs. Cassie Tomer Hill, one of the town’s earliest residents. According to Hill, the name was chosen because of the many wild roses which grew profusely in ravines in and around town. Support for this version may be found in early newspaper comments which refer to the preponderance of wild flowers in the vicinity of Roseville.

The first mention of Roseville in the newspapers by that name appeared during the presidential race of 1864. In November of that year it was disclosed that the people of Roseville and vicinity had cast 29 votes for the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln, while the Democratic nominee, General George McClellan received 17 votes.

The first building to be erected at Roseville Junction was a crude, unpainted shed used as a depot and freight shipping station by Cyrus W. Taylor, who usually is referred to as Roseville’s first resident. It was located in the “Y” formed at the junction of the north and east bound lines of the Central Pacific Railroad. This pioneer edifice was the first building of any kind to be constructed by the Central Pacific Company and ranchers soon began utilizing its shipping facilities. No photographs of Roseville’s first structure have survived the passage of time.

Shortly after the establishment of the freight depot at Roseville Junction, Daniel Van Treese purchased lots in 1864 and the small building he constructed became Roseville’s first hotel. Van Treese stayed in Roseville less than a year before selling his properties to William Alexander Thomas and moving to Rocklin upon hearing that it was to be the division point for the Central Pacific Railroad.

Roseville’s pioneer store was opened in 1865 by W.A. Thomas, who for the previous 16 years had operated the 15 Mile House near today’s Sylvan-Corners.

After the arrival of the railroad, which drastically reduced the teamster traffic to the 15 Mile House, Thomas sold the property and moved to the Roseville Junction in 1865 and opened The Old Thomas Store on the corner of Atlantic and Lincoln Streets.

Besides the typical services of a pioneer store, Thomas’ store for a time provided the town’s post office and the second floor of the store offered rooms for rent.

Thomas also acted as a buyer for the surrounding grain farmers as well as operating a wagon and carriage shop. His son Lee Dignis Thomas entered the mercantile business in 1870 and for many years the firm of W.A. Thomas & Son was one of Roseville’s three leading business establishments.

In February of 1869, Jonathan D. Pratt took over the Thomas store while Thomas retained control of the hotel which he had operated in conjunction with his general merchandising business. Less than a month had passed before an announcement in the Placer Herald revealed that Thomas had re-entered the mercantile field at the same old stand.

Pratt then commenced construction of a fine wooden building on the corner of Pacific and Lincoln Streets, and Roseville’s second store was officially dedicated on May 20, 1870 with a ball described as being “one of the largest and most pleasant ever given in the County.”

While Roseville was going about the business of building a town, the community began to lay the foundation of its social structure. Prior to 1865, Roseville had no school of its own, but on October 16 of that year, classes were held regularly in a barn on the Dudley Ranch. A. Nash was the teacher of this pioneer school, receiving for his services a monthly stipend of $55 and board.

By 1867, V.E. Bangs replaced A. Nash as school master. The town still had no school house of its own, but since school exhibitions were held at a building called Union Hall, it is not unlikely that classes moved there from Dudley’s Ranch.

School enrollment by 1869 had increased to forty children. Under the existing state law, when an area had fifteen children, a school district could be formed. Roseville, which until then was included within the limits of the Dry Creek District, made full use of its rights under the law, and a signed petition was presented to the Board of Supervisors requesting the formation of a local school district.

The petition was approved and on May 3, 1869, the Roseville School District was created. With the creation of the Roseville School District, the need for a more permanent school became clearly evident. Talk circulated freely throughout the community about the possibility of erecting a good substantial school, which could also be used as a place of worship since the town had no established church.

Elder Woodruff served as the town’s spiritual leader at the time. Roseville’s first recorded marriage ceremony took place on Oct. 6, 1869, when Elder Woodruff joined Daniel and Melinda Baxter in holy wedlock. It is quite likely that Elder Woodruff also presided over graveyard services at the local cemetery, which was situated at what is now the corner of Douglas Boulevard and Folsom Road (site of the Roseville Square shopping center).

When this pioneer cemetery came into existence is not known, but it is very possible that the cemetery was used by the settlers of the Dry Creek District and surrounding areas as far back as the 1850s.

Maintenance of law and order for the embryo town was under the direct supervision of township officers. James Hovey and R. Fletcher, who served the Roseville area in 1865, were probably the town’s first township officers. By 1869, township officers for Township No. 1, which included Roseville and Allen’s District, were R. A. Woodruff, voting inspector; B. W. Neff, judge; Thomas Dudley, judge; C. W. Schellhouse, first alternate; R. J. Fletcher, second alternate; and Daniel Coleman, third alternate. These township officers were the forerunners of hundreds who would follow in ensuing years.

The first crime to be recorded in the vicinity of the newly established town of Roseville occurred in January of 1869, when Mr. Cross, proprietor of the nearby 15 Mile House, reported being robbed of $100, his watch, some jewelry and other miscellaneous items. Law enforcement for the most part, however, proved to be relatively simple, for Roseville was inclined to be a peaceful community.

However in an era when there was a great deal of free, unfenced government land to be had for the asking, and boundaries not clearly defined, conflicting land claims were the rule, rather than the exception. Several cases of “jumping ranches” were reported in the vicinity of Roseville in 1868-1869. One writer reported three claims in his immediate neighborhood that had no less than six people claiming ownership.

Increased agricultural development in 1869, coupled with an accompanying increase in business activity for Roseville’s pioneer merchants, stimulated a wave of new business development for the town. Roseville displayed signs of becoming an important shipping center for a rapidly growing agricultural district. Among the more prominent businesses to be established in 1869 were the Roseville Hotel and Charles Keehner’s blacksmith shop.

Established by Daniel S. Neff in 1869, the Roseville Hotel served as one of Roseville’s two leading hostelries throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century. Neff operated the Roseville Hotel until 1878, at which time he sold out to J.B.R. Davis. The year 1869 also saw the establishment of a blacksmith shop on the corner of Vernon and Lincoln Streets by B.W. Neff, which later became widely known under the name of Charlie Keehner’s Blacksmith Shop.

After two years of working for Neff, Keehener bought out his former employer. For 30 years, Keehner operated the blacksmith and systematically bought up business lots along Vernon Street, which he later sold when the railroad shops were being moved to Roseville from Rocklin in 1907.

Of all the new towns cropping up along the railroad, Roseville’s future seemed brightest. Located at the junction of two railroads with plenty of open land for future expansion, Roseville appeared to be ideally situated for a major railroad center replete with roundhouses and other facilities. This was Theodore Judah’s view point when he ran his survey through the area.

O.D. Lambard expected this too when he purchased the site for a town. Businessmen like Thomas and Van Treese also believed in Roseville’s potential when they moved their places of business to the new town. Numerous investors who bought up choice lots and, on occasion, entire blocks for investment purposes likewise had high hopes for Roseville’s future.

It came as a shock then when Rocklin, not Roseville, was selected as the site for the major railroad facility in Placer County. On Nov. 2, 1863, Theodore Judah, chief engineer of the Central Pacific Railroad died in New York as a result of fever contracted while crossing the Isthmus of Panama. His successors, the “Big 4” of railroad fame (Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, Charles Crocker, and C.P. Huntington) ignored Judah’s recommendation in favor of Rocklin.

As a result of this fateful decision, Rocklin would develop as Placer County’s major railroad center and a city of importance second only to Auburn. Roseville, on the other hand, would find its growth severely curtailed, limited primarily to being just another one of the ubiquitous railroad shipping stations along the railroad’s right-of-way.

The question then arises, “Why did the railroad locate its roundhouse and other terminal facilities at the less desirable Rocklin site, some four miles distant from the junction, instead of at the more logical Roseville site?” The reasonable conclusion is that Rocklin was chosen because the foothills begin there, where helper engines were attached to trains for the long haul over the Sierras’ summit.

Major consideration was also given to the fact that Rocklin’s extensive granite deposits, largely untapped before the arrival of the railroad, could provide considerable revenue for the then financially strapped railroad. From the beginning, however, it was obvious the “Granite City” was far from being an ideal location.

But it was not until 1906 that a two-year transfer of terminal facilities from Rocklin to Roseville began, thus putting Roseville on track to becoming the major rail center Judah had prophesied some 43 years earlier. Fate sometimes has a strange way of affecting history. Judah’s premature death kept Roseville from becoming one of the most important railroad centers on the West Coast for nearly half a century.