Yolo County - 1850 to 2001
By Dave Rosenberg
Yolo County Supervisor, 4th District
Yolo County traces its origins to 1850 when it was declared to be one of California's original counties. The governance of the county of Yolo has gone through three stages from 1850 to the present.
In the first stage, Yolo County was governed by a court, and "judges". The court was created by an act of the California Legislature of April 13th, 1850. The first court met in the Yolo County town of "Fremont" on June 6, 1850. The presiding Judge was P.A. Marquam, with Ferdinand Woodward and Levy B. Austin as Associates. This court transacted all the business of the county and acted just like a Board of Supervisors. In fact, in reviewing the minutes of the very first meeting of the "court of sessions" as it was called, it appears that the very first motion that was passed was to approve a ferry for a Mr. Gavison P. Hardy. The court was composed of the County Judge who presided and two Associates who were elected yearly by the Justice Court Judges of the county. This court system ran the County of Yolo from 1850 until 1854.
In 1855, Yolo County held its first election for County Supervisors. The first elected Board of Supervisors, however, consisted of only three members, representing three districts. The first Board was composed of 1st District Supervisor J.V. Hoag, 2nd District Supervisor J.D. Stephens, and 3rd District Supervisor D. Lamb. Yolo County was governed by a 3-member Board of Supervisors from 1855 until 1872.
Then in 1873, Yolo County entered the third stage of its governance when it elected a five member Board of Supervisors. The first five member Board consisted of 1st District Supervisor R.W. Megowan (coincidentally, the current representative of the 1st District is Mike McGowan), 2nd District Supervisor Geo. H. Swingle, 3rd District Supervisor J.C. Smith, 4th District J.K. Smith, and 5th District Supervisor S.N. Mering.
There have been a total of 99 County Supervisors who have served Yolo County from 1855 to present, 24 representing the 1st District, 21 representing the 2nd District, 18 representing the 3rd District, 20 representing the 4th District, and 16 representing the 5th District.
As the 20th County Supervisor who has had the privilege to represent the 4th Supervisorial District, I was interested, historically, in the early County Supervisors from that district. Regrettably, the early local history is sketchy. We do know, however, that the first representative of the 4th District, Supervisor J.K. Smith, was elected in 1873 with 348 votes out of 667 cast. In 1875, he was replaced by Supervisor J. H. Harlan who received 426 votes out of 641 cast. The third representative of the 4th District was Supervisor R. H. Newton who was elected in 1878 with 257 out of 526 votes cast. Like most early Californians, the early Supervisors were not California natives. James Smith was born on January 10, 1831 in Richmond, Virginia. In 1850 he came across the plains from Missouri. After eight years in Nevada and Yuba Counties, he located in Yolo County. In addition to serving as a County Supervisor, he also served as Yolo County Clerk and as a member of the California State Assembly. Joseph Harlan, born on May 9, 1821, was a native of Boyle County, Kentucky. He came across the plains to California in 1853. He settled in Colusa County, then Butte County, then Solano County, eventually coming to Yolo County in 1861. Mr. Harlan farmed 3,040 acres while in Yolo County. A conservative Democrat, he served as County Supervisor and then as California State Senator. R.H. Newton was born in New York, but moved to California and became a resident of Woodland in 1866. He was engaged in the lumber business. In 1878, he was elected to the Board of Supervisors.
Most of the Supervisors representing the 4th District served terms ranging from 2 to 8 years. The exceptions were L.E. Hutchings who served 11 years from 1921-1931. J.S. Scott who served 12 years from 1909-1920, T.D. Cummins who served 14 years from 1934-1948, and my predecessor in office, Betsy Marchand, the first woman elected to the Board of Supervisors and, ultimately, the longest-serving member, who was a County Supervisor for 24 years from 1973-1996.