Great Republic of Rough and Ready
Great Republic of Rough and Ready Rough and Ready Republic | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1850–1850 | |||||||||||||
 Flag | |||||||||||||
| Status | Unrecognized state | ||||||||||||
| Capital | Rough and Ready | ||||||||||||
| Common languages | English | ||||||||||||
| Government | Republic | ||||||||||||
• 1850 | Captain A. A. Townsend | ||||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||||
• Secession | April 7 1850 | ||||||||||||
• Rejoined the Union | July 4 1850 | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Rough and Ready is a census-designated place in Nevada County, California, United States.[1] It is located west of Grass Valley, California, approximately 62 miles (100 km) from Sacramento. The population was 963 at the 2010 census. It has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names.[2]
History
The first established settlement in Rough and Ready was made in the fall of 1849 by a mining company from Wisconsin, known as the Rough and Ready Company, during the California Gold Rush.[3] Their leader, Captain A. A. Townsend, named the company after General Zachary Taylor (nicknamed "Old Rough and Ready") who had recently been elected the 12th President of the United States. Captain Townsend had served under Taylor when he commanded the American Forces during the Black Hawk War (1832). California had three towns so named of which this one survives.[4]
The town declared its secession from the Union as The Great Republic of Rough and Ready on 7 April 1850, largely to avoid mining taxes, but voted to rejoin the Union less than three months later on 4 July.[5] The old republic is celebrated annually as a way to attract tourism and as a point of local pride.
- ↑ Template:Gnis
- ↑ Template:Cite magazine
- ↑ Gallant, Frank K. (May 17, 2012). A Place Called Peculiar: Stories About Unusual American Place-Names. Courier Dover Publications. pp. 30. ISBN 9780486483603. https://books.google.com/books?id=yzk9g9TuMNYC&q=fleatown+ohio&pg=PA29.
- ↑ Gudde, Erwin G. (1998). California place names : the origin and etymology of current geographical names (4th ed., rev. and enl. ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 322. ISBN 0520213165. https://archive.org/details/californiaplacen00gudd/page/322.
- ↑ "The Great Republic of Rough and Ready, by Arthur Winfield Knight [secession, California, CA]". theava.com. Retrieved 19 April 2018.