Downieville

Downieville is a census-designated place in and the county seat of Sierra County, California, United States. Downieville is on the North Fork of the Yuba River, at an elevation of 2966ft. The 2010 United States census reported Downieville's population was 282.HistoryGold was discovered by Francis Anderson on 14 Sept. 1849, at the location where the town now stands. Anderson had joined Phil A. Haven that same year along the North Yuba River.Downieville was founded in late 1849 during the California Gold Rush, in the Northern Mines area. It was first known as "The Forks" for its geographical location at the confluence of the Downie River and North Fork of the Yuba River.It was soon renamed after Major William Downie (1820-1893), the town's founder. Downie was a Scotsman who had led an expedition of nine miners, seven of them African American men, up the North Fork of the Yuba River in the Autumn of 1849. At the present site of the town they struck rich gold, built a log cabin, and settled in to wait out the winter. By 1850, Downieville already had 15 hotels, 4 bakeries, 4 butcher shops, and numerous saloons.Downieville is the location of the first hanging of a woman in California. Josefa Segovia, a young and pregnant Californio resident of the town, was lynched by a mob on 5 July 1851. The lynch mob held a mock trial, and accused her of killing an American miner that had harassed and attempted to assault her for several days. The mock trial quickly led to hanging her from the Jersey Bridge in town. Josefa Segovia remains the only pregnant woman hanged in the history of California.