Christian Bohna Narrative
Christian Bohna was born in Germany on January 28, 1805. He went to school until he was fourteen, became an apprentice to a blacksmith until eighteen and then joined the army. He served three years in the army. He was married at twenty-one to Polly. They traveled to New York City. He saved his money while he worked as a blacksmith.
Christian Bohna was an adventurous person and liked to travel. He decided to cross the plains to go west because he wanted to see this great country of ours. At this time, a city like Chicago was only a cluster of log cabins
He traveled through Ohio, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas. During these years five children were born to the Bohnas. Mrs. Bohna and the youngest child died before they reached California. Mr. Bohna remarried and had seven more children,
In 1853 the Bohnas made their first trip across the plains to California. Christian Bohna was the captain of the wagon train, which included several covered wagons.
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Blacksmith shop
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Christian Bohna landed in Calaveras County, California where he set up a blacksmith shop. He invested the money he made in the local mines. When Christian left for California, he took only two of his sons, Edward and Thomas. His wife and other children remained in Arkansas.
In late 1856 he returned to Arkansas. His wife had died and his children were staying with neighbors. He gathered up his family and settled in Pikes County, Arkansas to farm. Soon gold fever hit him again and he wanted to return west. He sold the farm and traveled with his children and grandchildren west by way of the Santa Fe Trail.
Traveling by wagon was often dangerous. The trip took nine months.
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Oxen team
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This time the family traveled alone in a wagon pulled by one ox. All of their possessions were packed in the wagon. The family walked along side the wagon and ox. If the ox had died, the family would have perished, too. They met Indians along the way. The Indians they met were usually curious and friendly, and would ask for tobacco, whiskey, and coffee. The Indians did not bother the Bohna family. The Indians were traveling to fight other tribes.
The Bohna children often traded pieces of bread and calico material for Indian beads and baskets. The Bohna. children loved being on the Santa Fe Trail. They saw many new and different things. They even saw dusty horned toads along the trail. A granddaughter died of whooping cough on the way and had to be buried along the trail. The children were still excited about the stories they heard as they ran into other travelers, stories about California's riches, especially the gold. They were eager to reach California.
They finally arrived in the area called Kern Island (now known as Bakersfield) on February 1, 1860. Now, Christian Bohna had planned to come to California to search for gold, but saw the rich unclaimed lands of Kern County and decided to farm instead. He staked out a ranch under the Homestead Act and so did several of his sons in-laws and sons.
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1st house in Bakersfield
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They lived in Thomas Fitzgerald's abandoned hunting hut while they built a permanent house. Christian Bohna built the first house on present day 24th and P Streets in Bakersfield. He built his house halfway up a small hill and set his corncribs under the cottonwood tree. The house was of upright willow logs woven with tules under a tule roof. The corncribs were small log cabins. Each year Mr. Bohna would clear more land and plant more crops. His corn crops produced more than I 10 bushels per acre. His corncribs were always full. Other settlers soon joined the Bohna family. They settled wherever they pleased, and if they didn't like that spot, they tried somewhere else. The Bohnas' land was rich for the crops, but unhealthy for people. The family was constantly getting sick. Malaria carrying mosquitoes plagued the area.
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Flood of 1893
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Due to heavy rains in the spring of 1893, the water level of the river began to rise and the people had to flee from their homes. They went to the Bohnas' house that was still above the water level. The men built a raft of the available logs and tied them with rawhide strips. They tied the raft to a cottonwood tree with the log chains from the wagon.
By now the river was rising closer to the Bohna home. Men were putting their possessions on to the raft. The dam had broken and the water came rushing down taking all their possessions. Six months later, Christian Bohna and his malaria stricken family forfeited or gave-up their land claims and left. Their lands were filled with decaying fish from the flood. Nearly everything had been washed away.
A stranger named Colonel Thomas Baker offered $200 for the house and the 160 acres. Most of the family moved to Oregon. Three of Mr. Bohna's grown daughters and their husbands decided to stay. One of Mr. Bohna's daughters, Sarah, had married Dr. Sparrel Woody and settled in Woody, California. Mr. Bohna mined and fanned in Oregon and Idaho and eventually returned to Kern County. He died on September 16, 1872 at the home of his daughter Hannah Bohna Maltby. He is buried in Linns' Valley Cemetery near Glennville, California.
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