Class \~ Sg3 Bnnlr ,WfcL^ Copyrights? __ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. ' 'l0^UOsf r £^/££^ HISTORY OF THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY, BEING A Description of the Valley and its Resources, with an account of its Discovery and Settlement by White Men, and its Subsequent History-, TOGETHER WITH Personal Reminiscences of its Early Pioneers. Edited by H. O. LANG. Published bt Himes & Lang. <£>%«« SHT. n *Jj MAR 27 1885 I S~ 1~ f ~7 ~~~ PORTLAND, OREGON: Geo. H. Himes, Book and Job Printer. 1885. NOTE. This work is written and published for the purpose of arranging and preserv- ing, in useful and compact form, the scattered records and recollections of this por- tion of Oregon. It will be found to contain a considerable amount of matter which seems properly to belong to a history of the State at large, and which has been incorporated into this volume because, as is well understood, the Willamette Valley contains the greater part of the population of the commonwealth, and has, since the earliest settlement of Oregon, constituted by far the most important section, although its area only amounts to one-seventh of the present State. Much of the contents of this volume has never before appeared in print, and except for its pub- lication herein would never have appeared, as it consists largely in personal recol- lections which, by the laborious method pursued, have been gathered up and pre- served herein. In this connection the publishers desire to express their thanks to all who have, without asking remuneration, contributed information or otherwise favored the progress of this work. Their gratitude is particularly due to John Minto, S. A. Clarke, D. D. Prettyman and C. Uzafovage, of Salem; Dr. J. L. Hill, of Albany; J. M. Bates, of Jefferson, the first of the living pioneers; and S. A. Moreland, of Portland, the author of the treatise upon the railways of the Valley, which is included. The newspapers of the Valley have, almost without exception, devoted their columns generously to the needs of the new publication. The valu- able collections of the Portland Library Association have been of such use that an acknowledgment is suitable. Having completed the work with whatever of indus- try and ability the compilers have been enabled to expend upon it, it is now sub- mitted to the criticisms of those to whom its contents may have interest. By criti- cism is meant that fair and profound discussion which intelligence inspires. Such criticism invariably is of value, and in this instance will prove doubly so, as the present work is but one of a series of historical compositions, whose later issues will rectify the possible errors of their predecessors. v .w £2- _ v COPYRIGHT, 1885, BY GEO. H. HIMES AND H. O. LANG. \ \ /6* TO THE pioneers ok Oregon THIS WORK Is dedicated as a token of re- spect and reverence for their character and their actions Amid constant and arduous trials and privations, and in the frequent presence of danger, they transplanted from the distant lands of their nativity the civilization which has converted this once trackless wilderness into the flourishing Com- monwealth whose history is the theme of these pages; and their story — oft told before, and now imperfectly repeated here — will bear a charmed interest as long as patriotism exists, or courage and fortitude are admired. i i CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. America in the Sixteenth Century.— Spain's Foothold in the New World— The Age of Romance and Adventure— The Method and Succes- sive Stages of Conquest — Discovery of the South Sea, or Pacific Ocean, by Balboa and Magellan — Conquest of Mexico and Peru — First Attempt to Colonize the Peninsula of Lower California — Efforts of Portugal, Eng- land and France 17 CHAPTER II. The Fabulous Straits of Anian. — Cortereal Discovers the Straits of Lab- rador — Imagines he has passed through Novus Mundus — Vasco de Gama reaches India by doubling the Cape of Good Hope — Naming of the Straits of Anian by Cortereal— Magellan's Discovery of a Southwest Passage Confirms the Belief in a Northwest one— Explorations of Cortes in the Pacific— Voyage of Francisco de Ulloa — Mendoza Dispatches Alarcon and Coronado in Search of Cibola and Quivira — Voyage of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo— His Death — Ferrelo Continues the Voyage to Latitude 43° or 44° — Spain Abandons the Search for the Straits of Anian and Turns her At- tention to the Indies — Spanish Commerce Supreme in the Pacific — Her Claim of Exclusive Domain — The Buccaneers, or Freebooters of the Span- ish Main, Invade the Pacific — Piratical Voyage of Sir Francis Drake — He Searches for the Straits of Anian — Dispute among Historians as to the Extent of his Voyage — Drake Lands his Pilot in Oregon — Drake's Bay not the Bay of San Francisco — Drake Takes Possession of New Albion — Romances of Chaplain Fletcher — Drake's Success Excites the Emulation of other Adventurers — Fraudulent Claims of Discovery of a Northwest Passage— Maldonado's Pretended Voyage through the Straits of Anian — His Memorial a Sham 21 CHAPTER III. The Straits of Juan de Fuca and the River of Kings.— Narrative of Michael Lock, the Elder — Story of Juan de Fuca, as told by Lock — de- scription of the Straits of Fuca — Controversy among Historians over Fuca' a alleged Voyage — Both Sides Carefully Considered — Probably a Myth — Admiral Fonte's alleged Voyage — The River of Kings — Its Ab- surdity Pointed Out 37 CHAPTER IV. Voyages and Events of the Seventeenth Century. — Philip orders a Voyage along the Pacific Coast — Reasons Assigned by Torquemada and Venegas— Viscaino sent out by the Viceroy in 1596 — Viscaino's second Voyage in 1602 — Ravages of the Scurvy— He Enters Monterey — Argu- ment of the Claim that he Entered San Francisco Bay— Earliest Positive VI CONTENTS. Knowledge of that Harbor — Viscaino goes to Latitude 42° and returns ; but Aguilar reaches 43° — Cape Blanco and the River of Aguilar— Califor- nia Supposed to be an Island— Viscaino dies a'fter Obtaining a Royal Mandate to occupy Monterey — Spain Ceases all Explorations of the Coast- 45 CHAPTER V. Hudson's Bay, Cape Horn, and Behring's Straits.— Discovery of Davis' Straits— Henry Hudson, William Baffin, and other Explorers in the North-Atlantic — Dutch Navigators Discover the Passage around Cape Horn — Buccaneers Swarm into the Pacific by the New Route— Otondo attempts to Colonize Lower California — The Hudson's Bay Company Char- tered, in 1669, to Discover the Straits of Anian — Privileges Granted by the Charter — The Company Heads off all efforts at Exploration— Russians cross Siberia and Explore the Pacific — Plans of Peter the Great — Dis- covery of Behring's Straits and Alaska— Voyage of Tchirikof— Behring Discovers Mount St. Elias and Dies on Behring's Isle— The Early Fur Trade of the North Pacific— Benyowsky Takes a Cargo of Furs to Canton and thus Reveals the Magnitude of the Pacific Ocean— Russian Idea of Alaskan Geography 52 CHAPTER VI. From Captain Carver to Captain Cook.— The Jesuits Colonize Lower Cal- ifornia — The Franciscans Enter California — Discovery of San Francisco Bay — Early French Explorers— The River of the West — Verendrye Ex- plores the Rocky Mountains — France Sells Louisiana to Spain and Loses Canada to England by Conquest— Journey of Captain Carver— He calls the River of the West "Oregon" — Argument upon the Origin of the Word "Oregon"— The Generally Accepted Spanish Theory does not Stand the Light of Investigation — The Hudson's Bay Company's Policy of Keeping the World Ignorant of the Geography of the Country Occu- pied by Them— Samuel Hearne Discovers Great Slave Lake, Coppermine River and the Arctic Ocean — Russia's Activity in Alaska Incites Spain to Renew her Explorations — Voyage of Perez and Martinez — Perez enters Port San Lorenzo, or Nootka Sound— Martinez Claims to have Observed the Straits of Fuca— Voyage of Heceta and Bodega y Quadra — Bellin's Wonderful Chart— Discovery of Trinidad Bay— Isla de Dolores, or Destruc- tion Island— Heceta Attempts to Enter the Columbia — Spanish and En- glish Methods of Exploration Compared— Bodega and Maurelle Discover Mount San Jacinto, or Edgecumb — They Land and Take Possession for the King of Spain — They Reach Latitude 58° and Return— England, in Alarm at the Progress Made by Spain and Russia, Sends Captain Cook to the Pacific— His Particular Instructions— Cook Names the Sandwich Islands, Cape Flattery and Nootka Sound, and Searches for the Straits of Fuca, River of Kings and Straits of Anian — He Passes Through Beh- ring's Straits and Around the Northwestern Extremity of Alaska — . Winters in the Sandwich Islands and is killed by the Natives— The Ex- pedition Again Visits the Arctic, Takes a Cargo of Furs to Canton and Returns to England— The Record of the Voyage Pigeon-holed Until the War is Over— Enterprise of John Ledyard— Arteaga, Bodega and Maurelle Follow Cook's Route Up the Coast 63 CHAPTER VII. Spain's Supremacy in the FACiFrc Overthrown.— The Russian- American Trading Company — France sends La Perouse to the Pacific— James CONTENTS. VI 1 Hanna makes the First Voyage in the Fur Trade from England— Eng- land's Short-sighted Policy of Granting Monopoly Charters— The East India Company and South Sea Company — Their Conflicting Interests • Lead to the Organization of the King George's Sound Company — Belief that North America above Latitude 49° was an Archipelago of Huge Islands— First Voyage of Captain Meares — His Terrible Winter on ttie Alaskan Coast— Captain Barclay Discovers the Straits of Fuca— Meares Engages in the Fur Trade under the Portuguese Flag— He Builds the .Schooner " Northwest America " at Nootka Sound— Explores the Straits of Fuca — His Unsuccessful Search for the Rio de San Roque — Deception Bay and Cape Disappointment — The United States Enters the Contest for the Control of the Pacific Coast— The "Columbia Rediviva " and " Lady Washington "—The Latter Attacked by Indians, and the Former Supplies Spain with an Opportunity to Promulgate her Doctrine of Ex- clusive Rights in the Pacific — Martinez sent to Explore the Coast and In- vestigate the Russians — His Report of Russian Operations Causes Spain to Send a Remonstrance to the Empress— Martinez Fortifies Nootka and Takes Possession in the Name of the King of Spain— He Seizes the "Iphi- genia" and " Northwest America "— Colnett and Hudson arrive in the •'Argonaut" and "Princess Royal" — Are made Prisoners by Martinez and sent to Mexico — The Prisoners Released and Vessels Restored— Con- troversy between England and Spain Terminated by the Nootka Conven- tion — Stipulations of the Treaty Displease both Parties 92 CHAPTER VIII. ' Puokt Sound and Columbia River Discovered.— Explorations of Lieuten- ant Quimper in the Straits of Fuca — He takes Formal Possession for Spain — Elisa Explores the Straits of Fuca and Gulf of Georgia — Malaspina and Bustamante Search for the Straits of Anian — Kendrick Again Visits the Coast and Buys Land from the Indians — Gray Arrives in the Columbia and Winters at Clayoquot — Events of 1792 — Spain makes a Last Effort to Explore the Disputed Region— Arrival of Vancouver's Expedition — He Examines the Oregon Coast— Searches in Vain for the Rio de San Roque —He Records his Unqualified Disbelief in such a River — Gray Builds the 'Adventure" at Clayoquot— He Discovers the Columbia River — Vancou- ver Explores Puget Sound and Falls in with the Spaniards — He Examines the Coast Carefully— Meets Quadra at Nootka— Finds Him Prepared with Proofs to Sustain the Cause of Spain— They Fail to Agree on Terms— They Bestow their Names upon the Island of Vancouver and Quadra— Broughton Explores the Columbia— Vancouver Finishes His Explorations and Returns to England— The Nootka Question Settled and the Port Abandoned . 118 CHAPTER IX. Ovebland JOURNEYS TO THE Pacific— Organization of the Northwest Com- pany of Montreal— Mackenzie's Journey to the Arctic Ocean— His Trip to the Pacific in 1792— Discovery and Naming of Eraser River— Treaty of 1794 Opens a Western Field for American Traders— Conflicting Claims of Various Nations at the Beginning of the Present Century— Spain Recon- veys Loui«,iana to France in 1800- Thomas Jefferson's Efforts to have the Unknown Region Explored— Louisiana Purchased by the United States — The Lewis and Clarke Expedition — They Winter with the Mandan Indians— Ascend the Missouri— Cross to Clarke's Fork— Reach the Nex Perces — Descend Clearwater, Lewis (Snake) and Columbia Rivers to the vm CONTENTS. Pacific— Winter at Fort Clatsop— The Multnomah, or Willamette, River —The Walla Walla, Cayuse and Nez Perce Indians— Lewis and Clarke Descend the Yellowstone and Missouri — Effect of their Great Journey — Anxiety of Great Britain— Fort Fraser Established in New Caledonia — Fort Henry Built on Snake River 130 CHAPTER X. Astoria and the Joint Occupation Treaty. — The Pacific Fur Trade at the Beginning of the Present Century— Americans in the Lead — Their Plan oi Operations— Russia Complains of the Sale of Fire-Arms to the Indians — John Jacob Astor's Plans — The Pacific Fur Company Organized — Astor's Alien Partners— The "Tonquin" Sails from New York — Dissen- sions on the Voyage— Dangers of the Columbia Bar— Astoria Founded — Sad Fate of the " Tonquin " and Her Crew— Appearance at Astoria of an Agent of the Northwest Company — Fort Okinagan— Launch of the "Dolly " — Sufferings of Wilson Price Hunt's Party— Operations along the Columbia— Astoria Sold to the Northwest Company— Captured by the English and Named "Fort George "—Unsuccessful Efforts of Mr. Astor to Regain Possession — Negotiations under the Treaty of Ghent — Conflict- ing Claims to Oregon Advanced by England and the United States — Technical Surrender of Fort George— Joint Occupation Agreed Upon — The Florida Treaty 147 CHAPTER XI. The Rival Fur Companies. — Growth and Power of the Northwest Company — Rivalry between it and the Hudson's Bay Company — The Red River War — Barrows' Description of the Hudson's Bay Company— The Cana- dian Voyageurs— Fort Vancouver Founded — Dunn's Description of the Fort and the Methods of the Hudson's Bay Company in Oregon 169 CHAPTER XII. Diplomacy Again Ends in Joint Occupation.— Claim of the United States to the Columbia River — Spasmodic Consideration of the Oregon Question in Congress— The Russian Ukase — The Monroe Doctrine — Negotiations in 1824 — Claims of the United States Advanced by Mr. Rush— The Opposing Claims of Great Britain — Reply of Mr. Rush and the English Commis- sioners to Each Other — England Rejects America's Offer of the Fifty-first Parallel, and Proposes the Forty-ninth and Columbia River— Rush Offers the Forty-ninth to the Ocean— Rejected and the Negotiations Terminate —Mr. Gallatin Sent to London in 1826— Offer of the Columbia again made by England and Rejected— The Doctrine of Contiguity— The Spanish Title as Modified by the Nootka Convention— Trading Posts Declared not to be Settlements by Mr. Gallatin, a Declaration which Becomes a Boom- erang — The Period of Joint Occupation Indefinitely Extended 179 CHAPTER XIII. Failure of all Attempts at Joint Occupation by the Americans.— Outlook for Joint Occupation — Comparison of the Advantages of the Eng- lish and American Traders— Character of the American Trappers— The Hudson's Bay Company's Methods and Servants— Growth of the Ameri- can Fur Trade — The American Fur Company — The Missouri Fur Com- pany — Ashley, of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, Penetrates the Rocky Mountains— Method of Conducting Trapping Enterprises — The Annual Rendezvous— Jedediah S. Smith's First Overland Journey — His Second Journey Fraught with Disaster— His Adventures in California— CONTENTS. IX His party Massacred on the Umpqua— The Hudson's Bay Company Re- cover Smith's Furs and Pay him for Them— Gray's Version of this Affair —The Subject Discussed— Bostons and King George's Men— Dr. Mc- Loughlin's Account of this Episode— McLeod's Unfortunate Expedition — Ogden's Expedition to the Humboldt and California— Death of Smith —Major Pilcher and Ewing Young— Hudson's Bay Company Establish Fort Umpqua and a Headquarters in California— Bonneville's Trading Ventures— Two Efforts of Nathaniel J. Wyeth to Trade in Oregon Result Disastrously— McLoughlin's Remarks on Wyeth— Abandonment of Ore- gon by American Trappers 186 CHAPTER XIV. Foundation and Progress of the Missions. — Missionaries Introduce a New Element into the Oregon Question — The Flatheads send Messengers to St. Louis to Procure a Bible— Jason Lee and others sent by the Meth- odist Board of Missions— They Locate in the Willamette Valley— Their Plan of Operations— Sickness at the Mission and Hostility of the Indians —Parker and Whitman sent by the American Board— Parker's Triumphal March— He Returns Home and Publishes a Book— Mr. and Mrs. Whit- man—Whitman Takes a Cart as Far as Fort Boise— Missions Founded at Waiilatpu and Lapwai— Progress of the Missions of the American Board — Mission Founded at The Dalles — Advent of the Catholics — A Religious War at Once Begins — A Few Sample Incidents — Effects of the Two Forms of Worship upon the Natives 207 CHAPTER XV. American Emigrants Organize a Provisional Government. — Early Advocates of Oregon Emigration —Efforts of Hall J. Kelley — The Ameri- can Society for the Settlement of Oregon Territory — It Memorializes Con- gress and Advertises for Emigrants — Wyeth, Kelley and Ewing Young come to Oregon— Earliest American Settlers — McLoughlin's Account of Settlement of French Prairie — The Willamette Cattle Company — Popula- tion of Oregon in 1840— First Effort at a Government — Settlement at Wil- lamette Falls — Radical Change in the Policy of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany as Regards Settlers — The Company's Deep Laid Plan — Attitude of the Company and its Chief Representative — Dr. McLoughlin Considered —Reasons for the Bitter Feeling Entertained by some Americans— Dr. McLoughlin's Statement of His Conduct and the Treatment Received from both English and Americans— A Bad Showing, for the Gratitude of some Americans — Classification of the Population as Regards Interests — Reasons for Desiring a Government — A Petition Sent to Congress in 1840 — First Meeting to Form a Government— Death of Ewing Young Leads to the Organization of a Government— The Officers Elected — Failure to Form a Constitution— The Wilkes Expedition— The Wolf Meeting— The First Legislative Committee — Organization of the Provisional Govern- ment—The First Officers— Condition of the Missions— Antagonism of the Indians to American Settlers— Dr. White Induces the Nez Perces, Was- copums and Cay uses to Adopt a Code of Laws 222 CHAPTER XVI. Dr. Whitman and the Emigration of 1843.— What Induced the Emigra- tion of 1843 — Steps Taken to Organize the Movement — Dr. Whitman's Character— His Anxiety to Americanize Oregon — The Ashburton Treaty and the Cod Fishery— Whitman's Decision to Visit Washington— The Waiilatpu Meeting — The Unfortunate Controversy over the Services of X CONTENTS. Dr. Whitman— Gray's Walla Walla Romance— Its Absurdity Pointed Out —The Facts— Whitman and Lovejoy's Journey— Extent of Whitman's Influence in Inducing Emigration — His Visit to Washington and Boston —Organization and Journey of the Emigrants— List of Emigrants and Population of Oregon in 1843— Fremont's Exploring Party 260 CHAPTER XVII. 1844 to 1849.— Indian Difficulty at Oregon City— First Military Company— Methodist Missions Abandoned— Increase of the Catholic Workers— Elec- tion of 1844— Abstract of Votes— Proceedings of the Legislative Commit- tee—Emigration of 1844— List of Emigrants— Election of 1845— George Abernethy Chosen First Governor of Oregon --Abstract of Votes— Oath of Office — Dr. White and the Memorial to Congress— Wheat a Legal Tender — Census of 1845— Emigration of 1845— Meek Takes the Emigrants by a New Route and Loses Them in the Mountains — The Eventful Year of 1846— Mr. Blaine's Account of the Settlement of the Oregon Question —Election of 1846— Emigration of 1846— The Applegate Trail— Flags of the Schooner "Shark" — Emigration of 1847— The Traveling Nursery — Elections of 1847 and 1848— Emigration of 1848 279 CHAPTER XVIII. The Whitman Massacre and the Cayuse War.— Condition of Protestant and Catholic Missions in 1847 — Situation of Affairs at Waiilatpu — Tom Hill and Joe Lewis— Whitman Buys The Dalles Mission and Prepares to Abandon Waiilatpu— Catholics Establish a Mission on the Umatilla— Sickness among the Cayuses — Joe Lewis' Poison Story— Evidence of Colonel Craig and the Whitman Indians— Details of the Massacre- Charges Against the Catholics — Ransom of the Captives — Action of the Provisional Government — Oregon Rifles take Possession of The Dalles— A Regiment Organized— Campaign in the Cayuse Country— End of the War — Five Cayuses Executed at Oregon City 305 CHAPTER XIX. Oregon Becomes an Organized Territory.— News Brought by Emigrants in 1847 very Disheartening — Letter of Senator Benton— J. Quinn Thorn- ton Sent to Washington to Urge Legislation— Incidents of his Journey — Joseph L. Meek Sent to Washington after the Whitman Massacre — His Mid- Winter Journey — Interesting Account of the Contest in the Senate over the Oregon Bill— General Joseph Lane Appointed Governor— His Trip Overland— Organization of the Government— Officers of the Old and New Governments— Census of 1849— Discovery of Gold in California- Beaver Money 319 CHAPTER XX. Oregon as a Territory.— Organization of the Territorial Government- First Legislature— Towns in Oregon in 1850— A Military Episode— John P. Gaines Succeeds General Lane as Governor — Inharmony between Demo- cratic Legislature and Whig Officers— Three Newspapers Enter the Field —The Steamer " Lot Whitcomb "—Oregon City and Salem Contest for the Capital— Wreck of the "General Warren "—Indian Troubles in 1851- 52-53— George L. Curry becomes Governor— Efforts to Form a State Con- stitution— Colville Mines— Indian War of 1855-56— Political Complica- tions— Fraser River Excitement— Oregon Admitted to the Union 332 CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER XXI. Indian Wars of 1853 and 1854.— Outrages Committed in Rogue River Valley — Volunteer Companies Organized— General Lane Takes Command — De- feat of Lieutenant Griffin and of Lieutenant Ely— Indians Defeated at Battle Creek— Armistice of Seven Days— The Table Rock Treaty— Inci- dents of the ''Peace Talk"— The Grave Creek Massacre— Captain Miller Sent to Escort Emigrants through the Modoc Country— Expenses of the War Paid by the Government— Events of 1854 — The Snake River Massacre —Expedition of Major Haller to Fort Boise 353 CHAPTER XXII. The Great Outbreak of 1855.— Inability of Indians to form a Coherent Com- bination—Rogue River, Puget Sound and the Columbia Hostilities Dis- tinct and Separate — Relation of Whites and Indians in Rogue River Val- ley—Controversy between General Wool and the Citizens— Incidents be- fore the Outbreak— The Lupton Affair— Quick Revenge of the Indians — Massacre of October 9th— Heroic Defense of Mrs. Harris— Great Excite- ment Prevails — A Review of the Situation — Causes which Led to the War on the Columbia — Indian Treaties made by Stevens and Palmer—They Mislead the People by Publishing Incorrect Statements of what they have Accomplished — Discovery of Gold in the Colville Region — Sauce for the Goose not Sauce for the Gander— Murder of Mattice— Hegira from Colville and Walla Walla — Murder of Indian Agent Bolan — Regulars Invade the Yakima Country— Defeat of Major Haller— Major Raines Calls for Volun- teers—Governor Curry Calls for Ten Companies— General Wool's opinion of Governor Curry's Conduct— Auother Cause Assigned for the War — Excitement in Willamette Valley— The "Oregonian" and " Statesman" — Wars and Rumors of Wars Alarm the People 365 CHAPTER XXIII. The Fall Campaigns in the South.— Governor Curry Calls for Two Bat- talions of Volunteers— Siege of Galice Creek — Battle of Hungry Hill — A Poor Commissariat, and Jealousy between Regulars and Volunteers Cause Disaster — Organization of the Two Battalions— They Arrange with the Regulars for a Joint Campaign— The First Meadows Campaign — Invasion of the Rice Settlement — Massacre of Peaceable Umpquas in Looking-Glass Valley — Attack on the Camps of Jake and John — The Siege on Applegate Creek— Fight on Murphy Creek — Close of the Campaign for the Winter-- 394 CHAPTER XXIV. The Yakima, Walla Walla and Puget Sound Campaigns.— Troops Concentrate at The Dalles— Conflict of authority — An Incident at Van- couver—Block House Built at the Cascades — Efforts to Equip the Volun- teers—Regulars and Volunteers March North from The Dalles — Plan of the Campaign — The Fight on the Banks of the Yakima and at the "Buttes" — Burning of the Catholic Mission Ends the Campaign— Ef- forts to Treat with Peu-peu-mox-mox— Prelude to the Walla Walla Cam- paign—Fort Henrietta — Regulars Refuse their Aid in a Useless Winter Campaign— Unfitness of the Volunteers for such a Campaign— Colonel Kelly Marches Against the Walla Wallas— Capture of Peu-peu-mox-mox Under a Flag of Truce— A Night of Suspense and Excitement — A Fruit- less Ante-Breakfast March— Battle of Walla Walla— Killing of Peu-peu- mox-mox and other Prisoners— Ears and Scalp of the Chief Exhibited in the Willamette Valley — The Situation after the Battle — Killed and Xll CONTENTS. Wounded— Great Excitement in the Willamette when the News is Re- ceived— "Oregonian" Editorials on the Situation — General Wool Con- demned — His Opinion of the War and the People's Opinion of Him — Governor Stevens Prefers Charges Against General Wool — Incidents At- tending the Return of Governor Stevens from the Blackfoot Country — The Charges of the Irate Governor Pigeon-holed — The Situation During the Winter — Unpleasant Experiences of the Volunteers —Reinforcements sent to Walla Walla — Colonel Cornelius Resumes the Offensive — Horse Meat Causes a Mutiny — No Enemy Being Found, the Command Aban- dons the Walla Walla Country — Farewell Courtesies of Kama-i-akun — The Volunteers Disband Without Official Recognition of their Services — . Honors Received from the People — Two Companies Raised to Guard the Columbia — Refrain of the "Horse-fed Volunteer" — The Political and Speculative Aspect of the Campaign — Governor Curry goes to Washing- ton to Counteract the Influence of General Wool, and Secure an Appro- priation to Defray the Expenses of the War 404 CHAPTER XXV. Closing Scenes of the War on Rogue River.— Reorganization of the Vol- unteers — Appointment of General Lamerick — Removal of the Table Rock Band to the Coast Reservation — The Flag of Truce Incident — Battle of Eight-Dollar Mountain— Campaign to Big Meadows— Battle at the Bar- Fort Lamerick Built iu Big Meadows — Massacre at Gold Beach — The Reg- ulars Assume the Offensive — They Chastise the Indians at different Places — Council of Oak Flat — Battle between Chief John and Captain Smith — The Volunteers defeat Limpy and George — All the Hostiles Surrender and are taken to the Coast Reservation 483 CHAPTER XXVI. The Attack on the Cascades. — Colonel Wright Assumes Command of the Regulars— His Instructions from General Wool— He Starts for the Walla Walla Country with a Strong Force— Fears of an Attack on the Cascades —The Attack is Made on the Twenty-Sixth of March, 1856— Details of the Affair — Colonel Wright Comes to the Rescue from The Dalles, and Lieu- tenant Sheridan from Vancouver — Indians Captured and Hanged— List of Killed and Wounded— Intelligence of the Attack Creates Great Excite- ment in Portland and up the Valley— Two Volunteer Companies go to • the Rescue— Panicy Rumors Distract the People— All Quiet on the Sandy 447 CHAPTER XXVII. Campaigns of Colonels Wright, Steptoe and Shaw.— Additional De- fenses at the Cascades— Colonel Wright Invades the Yakima Country- He Fails to Negotiate with Kama-i-akun, and Returns to The Dalles- Plans of Governor Stevens— He sends the Second Regiment into the Walla Walla Country in two Battalions— Composition of the Regiment— Battle of Grand Ronde— Battle of Burnt River— Killed and Wounded— Colonel Shaw Averts a War with the Nez Perces— Colonel Steptoe sent to Walla Walla to Build a Fort — His Proclamation that the Indian Treaties were not yet in Force — Governor Stevens Invites the Tribes to Hold a Council at Walla Walla— The Council an Unfriendly one— Lack of Harmony be- tween Stevens and Steptoe — Stevens Attacked by the Indians and is Res- cued by Steptoe— A Block-House Built and Garrisoned and the Troops Return to The Dalles— Colonel Wright Leads an Expedition to Walla Walla — He holds a Council and Arranges a Peace upon the Grounds of CONTENTS. X1U Mutual Forgiveness for the " Late Unpleasantness " — Governor Stevens' Treaties and his Opinion of Wright's Treaty— Northern Indians Invade Puget Sound— Erection of Fort Walla Walla— Situation of Affairs in the Indian Country— Colonel Steptoe's Defeat in the Palouse Country— His Disastrous Retreat South of Snake River — A Record of Heroism and Cowardice — Colonel Wright Chastises the Indians at Medical Lake — The Spokanes, Yakimas and Palouses Sue for Peace and Surrender Uncondi- tionally—Hostages Taken and Twelve Indians Hung— The Walla Wallns Tamely Submit to the Hanging of Four of their Number 455 CHAPTER XXVIII. Aboriginal Inhabitants. — Character of the Indians of the Valley— De- structive Influences — Sources of Indian History — Extract from Lewis and Clarke's Narrative — Various Tribes Recounted — Their Locations— The Klickitat Invasion— The Chinook Family— Ethnology— Habits and Appearance — Tattooing — Clothing — Habitations — Food — Easy Ways of Life — Salmon Catching — Canoes — Tribal Government — Weapons — Habits of War — Diseases and Treatment — The Vapor Bath — Disposition of Dead Bodies — Influence of the Missions— Antiquities of Linn County — Their Probable Origin — Indian Names of Localities — Good Taste Demands their Perpetuation 478 CHAPTER XXIX. History of Railways.— Primitive Ideas— Pioneer Railway Projects— Elli- ott's Plan of a Railway from Portland to California — Incorporation of the Astoria & Willamette R. R. Co.— Names of the Incorporators — The East Side Railway — Ben Holladay — The Oregon Central R. R. Co. — Anecdote — Need of Railways— The West Side R. R. Co.— A Railroad Boom in Or- egon—Effect of the Introduction of Railways— Public Opinion— Dissolu- tion of the Oregon Central, and Organization of the Oregon and California Company — Officers of the New Company — River Transportation — Holla- day Buys a Newspaper— Its Character— Issue of Bonds of the O. & C. R. R.— Completion of the Railway to Roseburg— Want of Economy— Cessa- tion of Railway Building— Resumption of Work in 1883— Railways Needed in Southern Oregon— The Railroad Leased to the Oregon and Transconti- nental Co.— The West Side Road- Holladay 's Shrewdness— Portland's Princely Gift— Progress of the West Side Road— Two Factions— Exit Hol- laday— Land Grants— The Conqueror Appears— A Giant's Plans— Vil- lard — The Narrow-Gauge Road — The Oregon Pacific — Railroad Lands — Railway Officials— Concluding Remarks 491 CHAPTER XXX. Description of the Willamette Valley.— Boundaries of the Valley— Di- mensions — Streams — Mountains — Cascade Range — Peaks — The Minto Pass — Coast Range — Animal Inhabitants— Trapping and Hunting- Distances — Elevation of Places on the Willamette River— Lands— Prairie and Timbered Lands — Those First Taken Up— Foothill Lands— Their Im- portance and Great Value — Brush Lands— Advantages — Location — Unoc- cupied Lands of Value— Altitude of Vacant Lands— How Brush Lands are Cleared— Railroad and Government Land— Amount of Vacant Land in the Valley— Railroad Grants— Timbered Sections— Catalogue of Forest Trees— Valuable Sorts— Trees Which Grow on Low Lands— Conjectures Regarding the Amount of Timber now Standing — Effect of Denuding the Land of Trees — Injurious Results Predicted— Forest Fires Produce Vast Damage and Should be Prevented 513 XIV CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXI. Climate and Geology. — Peculiarities of Climate — Distinctions of the Seasons — Particular Seasons — Table of Pleasant, Rainy. Stormy and Snowy Days —Averages of Each— Tables of Maximum, Minimum and Mean Tempera- tures and Rainfall for Thirteen Years— Table of Monthly and Annual Mean Temperatures for Nine Localities — Geology — Dynamical Geology — Sandstone the Prevailing Sedimentary Formation — It belongs to the Tertiary Age— Newer Deposits — Erosion of Sandstone Strata — Fossils of Tertiary Mammals— The Volcanic Rocks— Whence They Came— Enor- mous Extent— Composed of Basalt— Volcanic Buttes in the Upper Part of the Valley— Composition of the Cascade Range— Glaciers — Mines— Santiam Gold Mines— Bohemia Districts-Other Minerals— Iron Ore— Im- portant Developments at Oswego — Ore Beds Worked and Furnaces Erected — Sketch of the Operations There— Quality of Product— Soils Considered— Origin of Rich Basalt Soils— Their Constant Renewal— Red Hills — Mixed Soils — Valley Loams the Result of Disintegration and Al- luvial Action 529 CHAPTER XXXII. Grain Products.— Wheat the Staple Production— Its Earliest Cultivation- Impetus Given by Mining — Laxity of the State Government in the Mat- ter of Statistics — Want of a Policy — Flour Successfully Made — Its Quality Never Elsewhere Surpassed — Wheat Crop Never Fails — Wheat the Principal Factor in Commercial Affairs — Why Farmers raise Wheat — Objections Thereto — Persistent Wheat-Raising will Impoverish the Country — Statistics — Productiveness and Endurance of the Soils — Cost per Bushel to Raise Wheat — Influence of the Railways upon Wheat-Grow- ing — Increase of the Business from 1869 — Its Probable Future — Its Possi- ble Production — Varieties Cultivated — Wheat Crop of 1880 — Other Grain Products— Oats a Favorite Crop— Immense Production— Indian Corn not a Success— Barley— Table of Production of Wheat, Oats, Corn and Barley 547 CHAPTER XXXIII. Other Field Products. — Flax— Well Adapted to the Lands of the Willam- ette—Linseed Oil— Table of Flax Production — Quality— Hops a Certain and V aluable Crop — Table— Hay— Clover — Grasses— Vegetables — Potatoes — Market Gardening a Profitable Industry— Table — Fruit — Apples, Pears and Prunes the Principal Varieties— Markets— History of Apple-Raising— William Meek— Present Condition of Orchards— Yield of Apples— Deal- ings with San Francisco— Mode of Culture— Fruit Drying— Importance of the Industry— Prospective Growth— Prunes— Plums— Peaches— Future of Fruit-Growing— Berries— Wild Species— Table Showing the Production of Principal Varieties and Value of Orchard Products— Beet Sugar and Potato Starch 560 CHAPTER XXXIV. Live Stock.— The Earliest Introduction of Cattle— Cattle Brought from Cali- fornia—Herds Brought by Immigrants— Improved Stock— Dairying— Non-progressive Practices of the Farmers— Beef Animals— Table of Cattle and Dairy Products— Statistics of Horses, Etc.— Sheep, Introduction of— Brought from California and the East— Improved Breeds— The Merino- Domestic Animals Uncared For— Woolen Mills— Watts Leads the Way- Mill at Oregon City— Willamette Mill at Salem— Mill at Brownsville— CONTENTS. XV Excellent Quality of Cloths Manufactured —Table of Sheep and Wool Production — Swiue — Peculiar Advantages in Pork-Raising — Animals Neglected— Table Showing Xumber of Hogs and Their Value— Goats 578 CHAPTER XXXV. Statistics.— Scarcity of Reliable Statistical Information— Duty of the State Government — How Performed — Tables of Production of Wheat, Indian Corn, and Oats— Amount in Gross— Amount per Acre— Gross Value, **nd Value per Bushel— Number and Size of Farms at Different Dates— Statis- tics Gathered rrorn the Census Report of 1880 — Xumber of Farms— Of Owners— Valuations— Industrial Establishments— County Valuation and Assessments -__ 583 CHAPTER XXXVI. Review oe Auric ultuke- Essay Necessarily Imperfect— Policy of the Farm- ers — Injurious Effect of Exclusive Devotion to one Crop— Farmers not In- structed in Great Business Affairs— Theory versus Practice— Productions of Small Farms— Size of Farms — Twenty Acres Enough -Mixed Farming — Chances for Improvement— Conclusion 587 CHAPTER XXXVII. History oe Immigration.— Table of Population of Each County in 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 — Comparison of Aggregates — Proportion of Population Be- tween the State and the Willamette Valley — Personal History of Pioneers and Representative Individuals 591 CHAPTER I. AMERICA IX THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Spain's Foothold in the New World — -The Age of Romance and Adven- ture — The Method and Successive Stages of Conquest — Discovery of the South Sea, ur Pacific Ocean, by Balboa and Magellan — Conquest of Mexico and Peru — First Attempt to Colonize the Peninsula of California — F forts of Portugal, England and France. DURING the fifty years immediately following the discovery of America, Spain gained a firm and lasting foothold in the New World. Ferdinand and Isabella, those Christian rulers who sat upon the united throne of Castile and Aragon, and freed their kingdom from the invading Moors, and redeemed it from the faith of Islam, and under whose patronage Columbus sailed upon that voyage which revealed to an astonished world a new continent and a vast unknown ocean, were succeeded in power by the mighty Charles V. Under the reign of this enlightened monarch, the most powerful, wise and enterprising ruler that ever sat upon the throne of Spain, that nation approached the zenith of its power, wealth and importance in the political affairs of Europe. This she reached and passed during the reign of his son and successor, the haughty Philip, whose power and magnificence was supported chiefly from the endless stream of treasure which flowed into the kingdom froin conquered provinces in the New World, or from the commerce of the East. There existed no rival to share with her the riches of the long -sought Indies, save ambitious little Portugal, who had early gained a footing there and established a considerable commerce by the long and tedious route around the southern extremity of Africa. 18 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. While other nations confined themselves to occasional voyages of exploration and spasmodic efforts at planting feeble colonies, Spain was pursuing a vigorous policy of conquest and colonization. That was the halcyon age of romance and adventure, and Spain led the van. The whole nation seemed imbued with a spirit of con- quest. Imagination and romance peopled this vast unknown land with nations of strange civilization and amazing wealth; made it the repository of gold, pearls and precious gems in such fabulous quantity that the greatest riches of the known world seemed but the veriest dross in comparison; gave into its keeping the mystical fountain of youth ; endowed it with all the beauties and wonders of earth, air and water the mind could conceive, and even located within its confines the Terrestrial Paradise from whose gates the angel of the Almighty had driven the great progenitors of mankind with a naming sword of fire. Beyond this was the great South Sea, with its thousands of islands — a region romance had filled with nations of Amazons and enriched with gold and pearls; while still further was the Indies with its known treasures of silk and porcelain; the magnificent Cathay, that land of great cities and hoarded wealth, of which Marco Polo had written; and the marvel- lous Island of Cipango, whose treasures were ready to fall into the lap of him who was bold enough to seek them. Stimulated by avarice, love of adventure and a religious zeal which often approached fanaticism, many of the nobles of Spain embarked upon expeditions of exploration and conquest, accom- panied by bands of equally avaricious, adventuresome and fanatic soldiers, whose reward for their services consisted chiefly of the plunder obtained in their bloody campaigns. Such expeditions were fostered and encouraged by the Spanish monarch, who saw in them a means of extending his power and dominions, and filling his treasury with the supposed wealth of the New World. Whoever discovered and conquered a new country in the name of the king was commissioned governor, or viceroy, of the subdued region, and granted all riches he might thus acquire, save only that which was to be the portion of the crown. In this way America was invaded from Florida to Chili. Briefly summarized, the successive steps by which Spain grasped AMERICA IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 19 the richest portions of the New World were as follows: In 1495, only three years after the memorable voyage of Columbus, the Island of Hayti was conquered and named u Nuevo Hispanola," a name afterwards transferred to Mexico. Here work was begun in the mines, the natives being enslaved to perform the labor. These being found physically unable to endure the hardships imposed upon them, negroes were imported from Guinea for that purpose, thus laying the foundation of African slavery, which the civilization of the nineteenth century has not yet been able fully to abolish. In 1511 the Island of Cuba was invaded by 300 men, and conquered in the name of the king of Spain. In 1513 Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Darien and discovered the great South Sea, of which the natives had so confidently spoken that it had already found a place on the maps of European geogra- phers. Seven years later the great Magellan entered it through the straits that bear his name, and christened it " Pacific. " In 1519 Cortes landed in Mexico, and with an army of 950 soldiers and a great cloud of Indian auxiliaries invaded the ancient kingdom of the Montezumas. In two years he completely subjugated the country, his progress being marked by the blood of the Aztecs poured out like water in the defense. Ten years later the cruel Pizarro, whose only object was conquest and plunder, entered Peru with a thousand men, subdued the country and plundered the king- dom of the Incas of its treasures of gold and silver. In 1535 Men- doza entered Buenos Ayres at the head of 2,000 men and subjugated the country as far as Potosi, whose famous mines of silver were discovered nine years later. In 1537, Cortes 9 seeking further con- quests to the westward of Mexico, landed at Santa Cruz, near the lower extremity of the peninsula of California, but finding neither wealth nor civilized nations, and being unable to subsist his force in such a barren land, soon abandoned his effort at colonization and returned to Mexico. In 1541, Chili was conquered by the restless adventurers of Spain. By the middle of the sixteenth century Spain had conquered and colonized every portion of America inhabited by wealthy and semi -civilized nations, and was enjoying a revenue of almost fabu- lous amount from her provinces in the New World. Portugal alone, of all her rivals, had accomplished anything of a similar nature, 20 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. having planted a colony in Brazil. England and France had suc- ceeded simply in laying a foundation for a claim of dominion in North America, but, unlike their enterprising rival, received as yet no revenue from the New World. Such was the condition of affairs when the first efforts were made to explore the coast of Oregon. CHAPTER II. THE FABULOUS STRAITS OF ANIAN. Cortereal Discovers the Straits of Labrador — Imagines he has passed through Novus Mundus — Vasco de Gama reaches India by dotobling the Cape of Good Hojje — Naming of the Straits of Anian by Cor- tereal — Magellan's Discovery of a Southwest Passage Confirms the Belief in a Northwest one — Explorations of Cortes in the Pacific — Voyage of Francisco de TJlloa — Mendoza Dispatches Alarcon and Coronado in Search of Cibola and Quivira — Voyage of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo — His Death — Ferrelo Continues the Voyage to Latitude Jf3° or IpJf Spain Abandons the Search for the Straits of Anian and Turns her Attention to the Indies— Spanish Commerce Supreme in the Pacific — Her Claim of Exclusive Domain — The Buccaneers, or Freebooters of the Spanish Main, Invade the Pacific — Piratical Voyage of Sir Francis Drake — He Searches for the Straits of Anian — Dispute among Historians as to the Extent of his Voy- age — Drake Lands his Pilot in Oregon — Drakes Bay not the Bay of San Francisco — Drake Takes Possession of New Albion — Romances of Chaplain Fletcher — Drake's Success Excites the Emulation of other Adventurers — Fraudulent Claims of Discovery of a Northwest Passage — Maldonado's Pretended Voyage through the Straits of Anian — His Memorial a Sham. THE immediate cause which led to the discovery and consequent occupation of Oregon was the long and eager search for the mythical Northwest Passage, which continued for nearly three cen- turies, and was participated in by seven of the leading nations of the world, England, France, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Russia and the United States; and since it makes so conspicuous an object in the foreground of Oregon's history, it is worthy an extended descrip- tion. 22 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. One of the most noted of the many explorers attracted to the New World by the great discovery of Columbus, was Gaspar Cor- tereal, a Portuguese. In the year 1500 this great navigator explored the Atlantic coast of North America — then called "NovusMun- dus," and supposed to be a portion of the continent of Asia, extend- ing a long distance to the eastward — and sailing round the coast of Labrador entered the straits which lie in the 60th degree north lat- itude. Through these he passed into Hudson's Bay, supposing he had now entered waters which communicated with the Indian ocean. Absurd as this supposition is in the light of our present knowledge of the earth's surface, it was by no means so when the geogr apical ideas and theories prevailing at that time are considered. It must be remembered that eight years had not yet passed since the voyage of Columbus had compelled the world to accept the theory which he and a few others had for years been enthusiastically advocating — that the earth was round and could be encompassed by traveling either east or west. Though this was now generally admitted, no one had ever actually accomplished the journey, and, in consequence, the distance round the globe was a matter simply of conjecture. That it was more than half the distance it was afterwards found to be, no one at that time imagined ; and this accounts for the belief that Novus Mundus was a portion of Asia, of whose eastern coast geographers had no knowledge whatever, and for the supposition of Cortereal that he had passed through this new land and entered a sea connecting with the Indian Ocean, when, in fact, he was not within ten thousand miles of that great body of water. Two years before, one of these Portuguese navigators, Vasco de Gama, had reached the Indian Ocean by sailing eastward around the Cape of Good Hope, a voyage historians believe to have been frequently accomplished in ancient days by those venturesome mariners, the Phoenicians; and now Cortereal believed that he had found a route into the same waters by passing around the northern extremity of the New World. To the straits through which he had passed he gave the name of " Anian," and the land to the south of them he called Labrador, and these were variously indicated on the subsequent maps as " Straits of Anian," " Straits of Cortereal," " Straits of Labrador," u Land of Cortereal," and " Land of Labrador." The exact sig- THE FABULOUS STRAITS OF ANIAN. 23 nificance of the word " Anian " is generally admitted to be un- known, although it lias been the subject of much dispute. By some it was claimed to have been derived from the Japanese word Ani, meaning " brother,' 1 and to have been applied to these straits because Cortereal believed them to separate Asia and Novus Mundus, which stood on opposite sides in brotherly conjunction; but as Japan was at that time utterly unknown — unless, indeed, it was that wonder- ful Island of Cipango, of whose fabulous riches such extravagant expectations had been created, — Cortereal can hardly be assumed to have been sufficiently familiar with the language to employ it in bestowing names to the exclusion of his native tongue, and especially to the ignoring of that long list of saints which furnished such an inexhaustible supply of names for the devout Spanish and Portuguese explorers, lying as thick upon the map of America as pin holes in an old paper pattern. A few years later the ideas of geographers in regard to the size of the world began to expand, and with the discovery of the South Sea all belief in the proximity of the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean vanished. In 1820, Magellan, another Portuguese mariner, but sailing under the nag of Spain, entered the South Sea through the straits which bear his name, and bestowed the name " Pacific " upon it. The voyage was continued westward until the world had been circumnavigated, and an approximate idea of the distance around it was thus gained by geographers. Belief was immediately revived in the Straits of Anian. It was then supposed that Cortereal's passage led from the Atlantic into the South Sea, of whose immen- sity the world had become deeply impressed, since Magellan had traversed it in its broadest part. If the North American continent narrowed northward as South America had been found to do in the opposite direction, then it must be but a short distance from the Atlantic to the Pacific in the region of Labrador; and since a pas- sage had been found through the land to the south — for in their ignorance of the open sea below South America, geographers believed Magellan's Straits to be simply a narrow waterway piercing the heart of the continent where it was much narrower than elsewhere — it was reasonable to suppose that a similar one existed to the north, especially since Cortereal had reported finding it. To discover this northwest passage was the desire of explorers for many years there- 24 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. after. England, France and Portugal, and Holland in later years, sought it in the Atlantic, while Spain put forth her efforts to attain the same object in the Pacific. To the efforts made in the latter direction this narrative will be chiefly confined, since to them is due the discovery of Oregon and the complete exploration of the Pacific Coast. When Cortez had subjugated Mexico he at once began con- structing vessels on the western coast of Central America for service in the Pacific. He possessed a roving commission from his sover- eign, the powerful Charles V., which granted him almost despotic powers as a ruler in all new countries he might discover and sub- due in the name of the king, the conquests to be made at his own expense and risk, and the expeditions to be fitted out from his own resources. To follow his movements in detail is unnecessary. They resulted in the discovery and temporary colonization of Lower Cal- ifornia, the discovery of the Colorado River, and the knowledge that the Sea of Cortes, or the Vermilion Sea, was a gulf, the one now known as the " Gulf of California." It had been the plan of Cortes to coast northward, westward and southward, along America and Asia, until he reached the Indies, noting the exact position of the Straits of Anian as he passed ; but the vessels he had constructed for that purpose were ordered to be sent in a direct path across the Pacific, and he was compelled to build others. It was with these that his expeditions along the Mexican. Coast and in Lower California were conducted. The first attempt to pass around the southern extremity of the Peninsula of Califor- nia and follow the outer coast northward was made in 1539. On the twenty-ninth of October of that year Francisco de Ulloa, who had been the energetic assistant of the great conquesitador in all his operations on the western coast of Mexico, sailed from the bay of Santa Cruz, the scene of Cortes' disastrous attempt at coloniza- tion in Lower California, and passed around the cape now known as " San Lucas." On the first of February he had proceeded as far north as 28°, when he encountered an island near the coast which he christened " Isle of Cedars." For two months he was baffled by head winds and contended with sickness among his crew, afflicted with that dread malady the scurvy, the scourge of the early mariners, who neither understood its nature nor knew how to prevent or cure THE FABULOUS STRAITS OF ANIAN. 20 it. The sickness unabating' and his stock of provisions beginning to run short, Ulloa abandoned the effort to progress further and returned to Mexico. No immediate attempt was made to continue the explorations thus begun by Ulloa. The fact was that Don Antonio de Mendoza, a Spanish nobleman of high rank, who had succeeded Cortes as Viceroy of New Spain, was deeply interested in exploring the inte- rior to the northward, in search of a mythical country called " Cibola," and another named " Quivira," stories of whose wonder- ful richness had been received from wandering refugees, who claimed to have seen them or been informed of their existence by the Indians. Two expeditions were sent out to accomplish this purpose. One under Fernando de Alarcon ascended the Colorado a distance of 300 miles without observing anything suggestive of civilized nations; while Francisco Vasquez de Caronado was equally unsuccessful in a land journey which took him as far north as 40°, and extended over two years of time. Even before Coronado returned from following the ignis fatuus of Quivira, Mendoza dispatched an expedition by sea to search for the Straits of Anian, and incidentally to discover any of those civ- ilized nations which Indian tradition and Caucasian imagination located further to the northwest. This fleet consisted of two small vessels, commanded by Juan E-odriguez Cabrillo, and sailed in the year 1542. Cabrillo followed the coast as far north as latitude 38°, when he encountered a violent storm which drove him many miles backward. From this he found shelter in a small harbor in the Island of San Bernardino, lying near the coast in latitude 34°, which he christened " Port Possession,' ' being the first point on the California coast of which the Spaniards took possession. While the vessels were lying in this harbor, Cabrillo died, on the third of January, 1543, and the command devolved upon Bartolome Ferrelo, the pilot, as the second in power upon the Spanish vessels was des- ignated at that time. This position was always occupied by an experienced seaman, as it frequently happened that the commander of the expedition was not a practical navigator; and this partially accounts for the fact that but little accurate knowledge was gained by Spanish explorers, who took but few observations and kept exceedingly poor records, so much so, in fact, that after half a dozen 26 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. voyages of exploration they were unable to trace the contour of the coast line upon the map with even an approach to accuracy. Upon assuming command of the expedition, Ferrelo again headed the vessels to the northward. Near latitude 41° he discov- ered a prominent headland on a rocky and forbidding coast, which he named Cabo de For tunas, the " Cape of Perils," and which is probably the one subsequently christened " Mendocino, 1 ' in honor of the Mexican Viceroy, Mendoza, who had dispatched the expedi- tion. On the first of March, 1543, Ferrelo reached the farthest point to the northward, which is given by some authorities as lati- tude 44°, and by others as 43°. Other historians, including Ban- croft, do not accord him even so high a latitude as 43°. The con- flict arises from the careless and meagre records above referred to. However, it makes but little difference, as he progressed as far as Rogue River, and possibly to the Umpqua, and can safely be cred- ited with the discovery of Oregon, so far as sailing along its coast without making a landing, or even drawing a chart of its outline, may be considered to constitute a discovery. Lack of provisions and the ravages of the dreaded scurvy among his crew compelled Ferrelo to abandon the effort to proceed further and return to Mexico. The return of Ferrelo without having discovered the mythical straits or the equally visionary cities and wealthy nations, reports of which had attracted the cupidity of the Spanish adventurers, following close upon Alarcon's fruitless voyage up the Colorado, and Coronado's wild-goose chase in search of Quivira, and com- bined with the report of the survivors of DeSoto's unfortunate expedition to the Mississippi, satisfied the Spanish authorities in the New World that neither wealthy nations nor navigable passages of communication between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, were to be found north of Mexico, unless beyond the 40th parallel of latitude. With this conclusion they abandoned all effort to explore the country to the northward, and turned their attention to more remunerative ventures across the Pacific to the Indies. By this time Portugal had established a large and immensely profitable commerce with the Indies, by following the long route around the Cape of Good Hope. Spain viewed this with jealous eye, notwithstanding the enormous revenue she was already receiv- THE FABULOUS STRAITS OF AX IAN. 21 ing from her possessions in the New World, and put forth great exertions to secure a footing for herself in the Indies. Several mi- successful expeditions were dispatched across the Pacific from Mex- ico, but, finally, in 1564, the Philippine Islands were subdued and taken possession of in the name of the Spanish monarch. In a few years an enormous revenue was derived from this new dependency. Her possessions in America formed not only an intermediate station as a basis of operations, but furnished, also, the gold and silver with which to purchase the silks, porcelain and spices of the Orient. No other nation possessed such facilities for commerce in the Pacific, and no flag but that of Spain fluttered in the trade winds that sweep steadily across that mighty ocean. Not a ship of war cruised on its broad expanse to guard the commerce from hostile fleets. An- nually the galleons sailed from Mexico with gold and silver, and returned laden with the precious products of the East, which were transported across the isthmus to ships waiting to carry them to the mother country. The monarch of that powerful nation was the personification of arrogance. Over all lands even technically dis- covered by his subjects he claimed dominion and the exclusive right of trade, even if no settlement of any kind had been attempted. Foreigners of all nations were prohibited, under pain of death, from having any intercourse whatever with such territories, or from nav- igating the adjacent waters. Spain was frequently involved in hostilities with her European neighbors, the great revenue derived from her possessions in the New AYorld and her commerce with the Indies furnishing her the " sinews of war.'' Much as they desired it, her enemies were unable to attack her in this most vital part. Cargo after cargo crossed the Pacific and not a hostile sail was to be seen on the bosom of the ocean. On the Atlantic side, however, things wore a different aspect. Armed fleets were necessary to protect her merchantmen from the men of war sent out to cut them off in times of national disputes, and from the piratical crafts that infested the West Indies at all seasons. These "freebooters," or "buccanners," plied their pirati- cal calling even in times of peace, with the full knowledge and even encouragement of their sovereigns. They sought diligently for the Northwest Passage. If they could only find some route into the Pacific other than the dangerous one by way of the Straits of Ma- 28. HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE. VALLEY. gellan, they could prey to their hearts' content upon the unprotected commerce of that ocean. They well knew the value of the cargoes carried in the unarmed galleons from the Philippines. At last, unable to find the Straits of Anian, they invaded the Pacific by the dreaded Straits of Magellan, and the security of Spanish shipping in the South Sea vanished forever. The pioneer of this plundering band was Francis Drake, an English seaman of much renown, a daring spirit and expert mari- ner. With three vessels he thus passed into the Pacific upon a mis- sion of plunder. One of these was wrecked soon after passing through the straits, another returned to England, while with his one remaining ship Drake sailed up the coast, scattering terror and devastation among the Spanish shipping, and levying contributions in the defenceless ports. The East India galleon, with its precious cargo, fell into his hands off the California coast, and then, with his vessel loaded with plunder, he sailed northward to search for the Straits of Anian, intending to pass through them into the Atlantic and thus reach England by a new route. By doing this he would avoid a combat with a Spanish fleet which he had every reason to expect would be lying in wait for him at the Straits of Magellan. He failed utterly to find any such passage, though how thoroughly he searched the coast is unknown ; and even the extent of his voyage to the north is a matter of much dispute. By some authorities it is given as latitude 43°, and by others at 48°. To this latter opin- ion all English writers hold, while American historians favor the former, and the reason for adopting their separate opinions is not such an one as should actuate the true historian. If Drake did not proceed beyond latitude 48°, then he made no further progress north than did the Spaniard Ferrelo, thirty-five years before, and was not entitled to the honor of discovering any new region on the Pacific coast. In that event England's claim to Oregon, by right of dis- covery, was without foundation, since prior to any subsequent English voyage along the coast, several Spanish expeditions coasted its whole length as far as Alaska. If he reached latitude 48°, on the contrary ,. England's title by right of discovery was undeniable. Such being the case, and the Spanish title to Oregon having been acquired by the United States by purchase and treaty, the reason for the historians of the two countries espousing different sides, THE FABULOUS STRAITS OF ANIAN. 29 without much reference to the truth of the matter, can be readily perceived. Two accounts of the voyage were published, thus furnishing the foundation for the controversy, and neither of these narratives bears either internal or external evidence of complete reliability. There may well be a difference of opinion, but the fact that this difference is drawn on national lines is suggestive of bias and a lack of those qualities which mark the true historian. One of them was pub- lished by Richard Hakluyt, the celebrated geographer of those times, in a volume embodying the results of all previous voyages of ex- ploration, and is said to be the production of Francis Pretty, one of Drake's crew ; though English authors claim it to have been written by Hakluyt himself from accounts of the voyage related to him some time before, and thus subject to grievous errors. The other account is one which was published by a nephew of Drake, seventy years after the voyage was completed, and long after every soul who had participated in it had passed to his final account; thus there was no living witness who could dispute the wildest and most reckless statement the compiler might be led to make in his eager- ness to establish his relative's position as discoverer of New Albion, the name Drake had bestowed upon California. The notes used in preparing this volume were credited to Rev. Fletcher, the chaplain of the expedition, and it must be said that in some respects he was the most magnificent liar that ever undertook to deceive an audience absolutely ignorant of the subject with which he dealt. The regions visited were entirely unknown, since no information was gained by Ferrelo's voyage, and the world was prepared to believe anything of this region, of which new wonders were constantly being revealed. Rev. Fletcher seems to have realized this, and improved his oppor- tunity ; yet the fact that his notes contain what are known to be willful misstatements, is not proof that in this one instance he was not correct, or that his notes were altered by the compiler to read 48° instead of 43°. This want of veracity is, of course, a presump- tion against his statement in this particular; but it will require something more authentic than the alleged narrative of Francis Pretty to establish their inaccuracy beyond dispute. When the whole matter is reviewed impartially, the mind naturally leans to- ward the theory of 43 degrees, without, however, feeling completely 30 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. satisfied that it is the true one. In the nature of things this con- troversy can never be settled, and Drake and Ferrelo will ever bear the divided honor of the discovery of Oregon. Drake's presence on the coast of Oregon, near the forty- third parallel, is proven by Spanish records, which contain a piece of information not to be found in either of the narratives mentioned above. From this it appears that he had on board a Spanish pilot, named Morera, with whom he felt dissatisfied for some reason, and in the region indicated he ran into a " poor harbor "' and put the offending seaman ashore, leaving him among savages, thirty-five hundred miles from civilization. That he accomplished the journey across that unknown land and reached his countrymen in Mexico is evidenced by the fact that the incident is recorded at all, since other- wise it could never have been known. Having been forced back along the coast by adverse winds, he entered a small bay near lati- tude 38°, where he cast anchor for thirty-six days. It was, until recent times, supposed that this harbor was San Francisco Bay, the name helping to support the idea with the unthinking. Later on it will be seen that the bay was thus named in honor of an entirely different personage. Sir Francis Drake was the reverse of a saint in Spanish eyes, and even had they named it in his honor they would have been certain to associate with his name some title more in harmony with their estimation of his character. Drake was in search of the Straits of Anian, and that he lay thirty -six days in San Francisco Bay without even attempting to explore the connect- ing bays of San Pablo and Suisun, and the great navigable rivers discharging into them, is so manifestly improbable as to be beyond credence. There is no positive testimony to support the idea, and the contrary is proven as nearly as purely negative testimony can prove anything. It is generally conceded by historians that Drake's harbor of refuge was the one lying just north of the Golden Gate and known as " Drake's Bay." It is in speaking of this place that Chaplain Fletcher displays his abilities as a romancer. The time was the month of June, and yet he states that snow covered the hills and that the weather was so cold that meat froze upon being taken from the fire. One familiar with the fact that snow is a rarity there even in winter, and that at no time does it become cold THE FABULOUS STRAITS OF ANIA1*. 31 enough to freeze meat that has never been near a fire, has his confi- dence in the veracity of the chronicler terribly shaken. While lying in the harbor Drake landed and took possession of the country in the name of his sovereign, christening it " New Al- bion," in honor of his native land. Fletcher's narrative states that the natives first mistook them for gods and offered sacrifices to them, and that they removed this impression by themselves publically offering up their devotions to the Creator. Of the incidents of their landing the narrative says: — Our necessarie business being ended, our General, with his companie, travailed up into the countrey to their villiages, where we found heardes of deere by 1,000 in a conipanie, being most large and fat of bodie. We found the whole countrey to be a warren of strange kinde of connies ; their bodies in bigness as be the Barbarie connies, their heads as the heads of ours, the feet of a Want [mole] and the taile of a rat. being of great length ; under her chinne on either side a bagge, into which she gathered her meate, when she hath filled her bellie abroad. The people do eat their bodies, and make accompt for their skinnes, for their King's coat was made out of them. Our General called this countrey Nova Albion, and that for two causes : the one in respect to the white bankes and clifTes which lie toward the sea ; and the other because it might have some arrinitie with our countrey in name which sometimes was so called. There is no part of earth here to be taken up, wherein there is not a reasonable quantitie of gold or silver. Before sailing away, our General set up a monument of our being there, as also of her majestie's right and title to the same, viz.: a plate nailed upon a faire great poste, whereupon was engraved her majestie's name, the day and yeare of our arrival there, with the free giving up of the province and peo- ple into her majestie's hands, together with her highness' picture and arms, in a piece of five pence of current English money under the plate, whereunder was also written the name of our General. What the worthy Chaplain considered a " reasonable quantitie 11 of the precious metals it is impossible to conjecture, but the proba- bilities are that he manufactured this statement from whole cloth. The earliest authentic accounts of the Indians of California do not speak of them as possessing any gold or silver, and it was many years after the Spaniards took possession of the State before gold was discovered and mined. At that time the natives were com- pletely ignorant of the character and value of the substance, and had no traditions on the subject ; from which may reasonably be concluded that Chaplain Fletcher deliberately lied when he made that assertion — the more so, that even to the present time no gold has been discovered in the locality of which he speaks. It will be remembered that a few years before, when America was first dis- covered, it was the general belief that it was speckled with gold 32 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. and silver, and glistened with gems. These extravagant ideas had become modified in Drake's time, though by no means abandoned. The Spaniards had been searching a few years before in this direc- tion for wealthy nations, whose existence was reported to them by the Indians of Mexico, but without success. They still entertained the belief that pearls and the precious metals could be found in abundance in this region, and Fletcher was simply supplying a " long felt want " when he wrote that a " reasonable qiiantitie of gold and silver " existed in every handful of dirt that might be taken up at random on the California coast. His other statements are probably correct, since ground squirrels exist in such abundance there and are so destructive to crops that the state granted a bounty for their extermination, and the early pioneers speak of immense bands of antelope and elk that roamed the valley and foot-hills. Having abandoned the hope of finding a passage into the At- 1 antic, and fearing to attempt to return by the Straits of Magellan, Drake undertook the long voyage across the Pacific, and reached England by weathering the Cape of Good Hope. His return with his vessel loaded with plundered riches of the Spaniards was hailed with joy by his countrymen. The interests of Spain and England were hostile. The latter looked with jealousy and fear upon the power of the Castilian throne, sustained by the enormous revenue derived from America and the Indies, and Queen Elizabeth knighted the daring robber for his services to his country in striking such a severe blow at the resources of her rival. Ten years later, when the grand Philip sent that wonderful Spanish Armada, which was fitted out by revenues derived from this same commerce and was to crush England at a blow, one of the gallant fleets which met and defeated it was commanded by Sir Francis Drake. Other English freebooters, encouraged by the brilliant success of Drake, entered the Pacific in the same manner and preyed upon the Spanish shipping. The first and most successful of these was Thomas Cavendish, who voyaged the coasts of Chili, Peru and Mexico in .1587; sunk and burned nineteen vessels, and captured the galleon Santa Anna off the coast of California. The next year he returned to England by the Cape of Good Hope, having accom- plished the third circumnavigation of the globe, and it is said that THE FABULOUS STRAITS OF ANIAN. 33 his crew were dressed in silks, his sails made of damask, and the topmast covered with cloth of gold. Great exertions were now made by the English and Dutch to find the Northwest Passage, and frequent rumors were spread that the Straits of Anian had actually been discovered, creating much joy in England and Holland, and causing great anxiety in Spain, Spanish America and the Philippines. Many claims were made to having made this discovery by parties who could not substantiate them. This was done for various reasons. Some enjoyed the noto- riety and fame, as a great navigator, such reports brought them; others endeavored to secure a reward for their alleged services to their country, and still others hoped to thus win employment in their business, or receive the command of an expedition to locate definitely the position of the passage. So frequent were these tales, and so much at variance with each other, that they all fell into disrepute, and it is doubtful had such a strait been actually found if geogra- phers could have been brought to believe it. The fiction of this character which attracted the most attention and which had the most influence in dictating the character of expeditions in after years, was one made by Captain Lorenzo Ferrer de Maldonado, a Portu- guese. In 1609 this gentleman presented a petition to the Spanish Council of the Indies — that august body which, sitting in Spain, ruled the Spanish possessions in India and America — asking for a suitable reward for his services, and the command of a Spanish expe- dition to take possession of the straits and fortify them against the passage of ships of any other nation. The voyage upon which Maldonado based his claim he asserted to have been made twenty-one years before, in 1588. By this time it was conceded that the distance from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in the northern regions, was greater than it was formerly supposed to be, and this led Maldonado to locate the Straits of Anian far to the westward of those thus christened by Cortereal. This latter passage he placed as far north as latitude 75°, instead of 60°, their true location as given by Cortereal himself. His narrative asserted that the vessel passed through a long and tortuous channel in the seventy-fifth parallel, into the " North Sea," an entirely unknown body of water at that time, but which corresponds in location to the Arctic Ocean, which, however, has no such passage leading into it, 34 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. and which is utterly unnavigable by reason of its vast fields of ice. Across this North Sea he sailed in a southwesterly direction a dis- tance of 790 leagues (about 3,000 miles), when he came upon the Straits of Anian, leading directly south into the South Sea. This wonderful passage he thus describes: — Having cleared the Strait of Labrador, we began to descend from that latitude, steering west-southwest and southwest, three hundred and fifty leagues, to the 71st degree of latitude, when we perceived a high coast, without being able to tell whether it was part of the continent or an island ; but we remarked that, if it were the continent, it must be opposite the coast of New Spain. From this land we directed our course west-southwest, four hundred and forty leagues, until we came to the 60th degree, in which parallel we discovered the Strait of Anian. * * * * The strait which we discovered in 60°, at the distance of one thousand seven hundred and ten leagues from Spain, appears, according to ancient tradition, to be that named by geographers, in their maps, the Strait of Anian; and, if it be so, it must be a strait having Asia on the one side, and America on the other, which seems to be the case, according to the following narrative:— kt As soon as we had cleared the strait, we coasted along the shores of America for more than one hundred leagues south westward, to the 55th degree of latitude, on which coast there were no inhabitants, or any opening indicating the vicinity of another strait, through which the South Sea, flowing into the North, might insulate that part: and we concluded that all that coast belonged to America, and that continuing along it, we might soon reach the Quivira and Cape Mendocino. We then left this coast and, sailing to- wards the west four days, we discovered a very high land, and continued along the coast, from which we kept at a safe distance, always in the open sea— sailing, at one time, to the northeast, at others towards the north-northeast, and again to the north, whence it seemed to us that the coast ran northeast and southwest. " We were unable to mark any particular points, on account of our distance from land; and we can, therefore, only affirm that it is inhabited, nearly to the entrance of the strait, as we saw smoke rising up in many places. This country, according to the charts, must belong to Tartary, or Cathaia (China), and at a distance of a few leagues from the coast must be the famed city of Cambula, the metropolis of Tar- tary. Finally, having followed the direction of this coast, we found ourselves at the entrance of the same Strait of Anian, which, fifteen days before, we had passed through to the open sea ; this we knew to be the South Sea, where are situated Japan, China, the Mouluccas, India, New Guinea, and the land discovered by Cap- tain Quiros, with all the coast of New Spain and Peru. ***** " The Strait of Anian is fifteen leagues in length, and can easily be passed with a tide lasting six hours, for those tides are very rapid. There are, in this length, six turns, and two entrances, which lie north and south ; that is, bear from each other north and south. The entrance on the north side (through which we passed) is less than half a quarter of a league in width, and on each side are ridges of high rocks ; but the rock on the side of Asia is higher and steeper than on the other, and hangs over, so that nothing falling from the tops can reach its base. The entrance into the South Sea, near the harbor, is more than a quarter of a league in width, and thence the passage runs in an oblique direction, increasing the distance between the two coasts. In the middle of the strait, at the termination of the third turn, is a great rock, and an inlet, formed by a rugged rock, three estadias (about one thou- sand one hundred feet) in height, more or less ; its form is round, and its diameter may be two hundred paces ; its distance from the land of Asia is very little ; but the THE FABULOUS STRAITS OF ANIAN. 35 sea on that side is full of shoals and reefs, and can be only navigated by boats. The distance between this inlet and the continent of America is less than a quarter of a league in width, and, although its channel is so deep that two or even three ships sail abreast through it, two bastions might be built on the banks with little trouble, which would contract the channel to within the reach of a musket shot. "In the harbor in which our ships anchored, at the entrance of the strait, on the south side, we lay from the beginning of April to the middle of June, when a large vessel of eight hundred tons burden came there from the South Sea, in order to pass the strait. Upon this we put ourselves on our guard ; but, having come to an under- standing with her, I found them willing to give us some of their merchandise, the greater part of which consisted of articles similar to those manufactured in China, such as brocades, silks, porcelain, feathers, precious stones, pearls, and gold. These people seemed to be Hanseatics, who inhabit the bay of St. Nicholas, or the port of St. Michael (Archangel, on the White Sea). In order to understand one another we were forced to speak Latin— those of our party who understood that language talking with those on board the ship who were also acquainted with it. They did. not seem to be Catholics, but Lutherans. They said they came from a large city more than one hundred leagues from the strait, and though I can not exactly remember its name, I think they called it Bohr, or some such name, which they said had a good harbor and a navigable river, and was subject to the great khan, as it belonged to Tartary ; and that in that port they left another ship belonging to their country. We could learn no more from them, as they acted with great caution and little con- fidence, being afraid of our company ; wherefore we parted from them near the strait, in the North Sea, and set sail towards Spain." It is barely. possible that a voyage may have been made about the time mentioned in the memorial, during which the vessel entered Hudson's Bay, and that Maldonado was a seaman or sub -officer on board, which would account for his ignorance on such technical points as the degrees of latitude and number of miles sailed, and that two decades later, when his superior officers were dead and he him- self had risen in rank, he desired the command of an expedition to search for these straits in whose existence he firmly believed, and which he claimed to have seen simply to lend weight to his petition. This, however, is improbable, and it is more than likely that the whole narrative was a fabrication. Diligent search among Spanish and Portuguese records of those times has failed to reveal any indi- cation of such a voyage, or any confirmatory evidence whatever, other than the memorial itself. At that time (1588) Spain and England were absorbed in the conflict over the Spanish Armada, yet it is doubtful if that is a sufficient reason for the omission to record in any manner such a voyage as the one thus described by Maldonado. The evidences against the genuineness of the narrative are almost convincing, even when considered without reference to the fact that 36 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. it is now evident no such passage exists. In his narrative, which was unusually precise and careful in its details, Maldonado gave all the geographical ideas of the time in regard to the regions that would naturally be visited ; and this very fact is strongly presumptive evidence that the voyage was a fiction, as these theories, so carefully followed, have nearly all been found to be false. Even the minute- ness of detail is suspicious, since it is chiefly the inaccurate records, clumsy narratives, and u yarns" flowing from the fertile imagina- tion of the sea rovers, to which many of the erroneous, and even ludicrous, ideas of those times are directly chargeable. No such carefulness in statement characterized the narrative of any prior or contemporary voyage, and this was the first one claiming to have accomplished so much, which did not sadly mar the maps of theo- retical geographers. Its ready-made appearance was sufficient to cause its entire rejection by the Council of the Indies. In after years, however, two copies of this memorial, of the ex- istence of which the world was ignorant, were found among ancient records at different places, each one purporting to be the original document. They created great excitement, and, as will be seen later, had much to do with the shaping of explorations for a century thereafter. As late as 1 790, when the heated controversy over the Nootka affair seemed about to plunge England and Spain into war, the question of the authenticity of Maldonado's narrative was gravely discussed, and a last thorough search was made in Spain and Por- tugal for confirmative evidence, which was as fruitless as had been all previous efforts. With the end of that controversy Maldonado's mythical straits disappeared forever from the plane of active history and took its proper place in the domain of romance. CHAPTER III. THE STRAITS OF JUAN DE FUCA AND THE RIVER OF KINGS. * JVarrative of Michael Lock, the Elder — Story of Juan de Fuca, as told by Lock — Description of the Straits of Fuca, — Controversy among Historians over Fuca?§ alleged Voyage — Both Sides Carefully Con- sidered — Probably a Myth — Admiral Fonte's alleged Voyage — The River of Kings — Its Absurdity I^ointed Out. THERE is still another somewhat mythical voyage associated with this search for the Straits of Anian, which has played a most important part in the history of Oregon ; and though it comes entirely through English sources, is utterly repudiated by modern English historians, and even receives but little credence anions: American writers. This is the celebrated voyage of Juan de Fuca, who is claimed to have discovered the Straits of Fuca, that broad channel separating a portion of Washington Territory from Van- cover Island, in British Columbia. There was published in London, in 1625, a celebrated historical and geographical work, edited by Samuel Purchas, which bore the odd title of " The Pilgrims/ 1 Among other things, this volume con- tained " A note by Michael Lock, the elder, touching the Strait of Sea, commonly called Fretum Anian, in the South Sea, through the Northwest Passage of Meta Incognita, 11 The most important por- tion of this alleged document of Mr. Lock is as follows:— When I was in Venice, in April, 1596, haply arrived there an old man, about sixty years of age, called, commonly, Juan de Fuca, but named properly Apostolas Valerianus, of nation a Greek, born in Cephalonia, of profession a mariner, and an ancient pilot of ships. This man, being come lately out of Spain, arrived first at Leghorn, and went thence to Florence, where he found one John Douglas, an En- glishman, a famous mariner, ready coming from Venice, to be pilot of a Venetian 9hip for England, in whose company they came both together to Venice. And John Douglas being acquainted with me before, he gave me knowledge of this 38 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Greek pilot, and brought him to my speech ; and in long talks and conference be- tween us, in presence of John Douglas, this Greek pilot declared, in the Italian and Spanish languages, this much in effect as followeth : First, he said he had been in the West Indies of Spain forty years, and had sailed to and from many places thereof, in the service of the Spaniards. Also, he said that he was in the Spanish ship, which, in returning from the Islands Philippines, towards Nova Spania, was robbed and taken at the Cape California by Captain Candish, Englishnian, whereby he lost 60,000 ducats of his goods. Also, he said that he was pilot of three small ships which the Viceroy of Mexico sent from Mexico, armed with 100 men, under a captain, Spaniards, to discover the Straits of Anian, along the coast of the South Sea, and to fortify in that strait, to resist the passage and proceedings of the English nation, which were forced to pass through those straits into the South Sea; and that, by reason of a mutiny which happened among the soldiers for the misconduct of their captain, that voyage was overthrown, and the ship returned from Califor- nia to Nova Spania, without anything done in that voyage ; and that, after their return, the captain was at Mexico punished by justice. Also, he said that, shortly after the said voyage was so ill-ended, the said Viceroy of Mexico sent him out again, in 1592, with a small caravel and a pinnace, armed with mariners only, to follow the said voyage for the discovery of the Straits of Anian, and the passage thereof into the sea, which they call the North Sea, which is our northwest sea; and that he followed his course, in that voyage, west and northwest in the South Sea, all along the coast.of Nova Spania, and California, and the Indies, now called North America (all which voyage he signified to me in a great map, and a sea-card of my own, which I laid before him), until he came to the latitude of 47 degrees ; and that, there finding that the land trended north and northwest, with a broad inlet of sea, between 47 and 48 degrees of latitude, he entered thereinto, sailing therein more than twenty days, and found that land trending still sometimes north- west, and northeast, and north, and also east and southeastward, and very much broader sea than was at the said entrance, and that he passed by divers islands in that sailing ; and that, at the entrance of this said strait, there is, on the northwest coast thereof, a great headland or island, with an exceeding high pinnacle, or spired rock, like a pillar, thereupon. Also, he said that he went on land in divers places, and that he saw some people on land clad in beasts' skins ; and that the land is very fruitful, and rich of gold, silver, pearls, and other things, like Nova Spania. Also, he said that he being entered thus far into the said strait, and being come into the North Sea already, and finding the sea wide enough everywhere, and to be about thirty or forty leagues wide in the mouth of the straits where he entered, he thought he had now well discharged his office ; and that, not being armed to resist the force of the savage people that might happen, he therefore set sail and returned home- wards again towards Nova Spania, where he arrived at Acapulco, Anno 1592, hop- ing to be rewarded by the Viceroy for this service done in the said voyage. * * * [Here follows an account of his vain endeavors for three years to secure a proper recognition of his services by the Viceroy or the Spanish monarch, and his resolu- tion to return to his native land to die among his countrymen.] Also, he said he thought the cause of his ill reward had of the Spaniards, to be for that they did understand very well that the English nation had now given over all their voyages for discovery of the northwest passage ; wherefore, they need not fear them any more to come that way into the South Sea, and therefore they needed not his ser- vice therein any more. Also, he said that, understanding the noble mind of the Queen of England, and of her wars against the Spaniards, and hoping that her majesty would do him justice for his goods lost by Captain Candish, he would be content to go into England and serve her majesty in that voyage for the discovery perfectly of the northwest passage into the South Sea, if she would furnish him STRAITS OF JUAN DE FUCA AND RIVER OF KINGS. 39 with only one ship of forty tons burden, and a pinnace, and that he would perform it in thirty days' time, from one end to the other of the strait, and he willed me so to write to England. And, from conference had twice with the said Greek pilot, I did write thereof, accordingly, to England, unto the right honorable the old Lord Treasurer Cecil, and to Sir Walter Raleigh, and to Master Richard Hakluyt, that famous cosmographer, certifying them hereof. And I praj^ed them to disburse £100, to bring the said Greek pilot into England, with myself, for that my own purse would not stretch so wide at that time. And I had answer that this action was well liked and greatly desired in England ; but the money was not ready, and therefore this action died at that time, though the said Greek pilot, perchance, liveth still in his own country, in Cephalonia, towards which place he went within a fortnight after this conference had at Venice. There is more of the document, detailing quite a correspondence between Lock and the Greek, from which it appears that the old pilot was alive in 1598, but that in 1602, when Lock had finished his business in Venice and was preparing to return to England, he addressed a letter to Fuca, to which he received no answer, and that a short time afterwards he learned that the Greek was dead. There has been much controversy among historians as to the authenticitv of this document. In the long negotiations between England and the United States in regard to the location of the international boundary line, it was vigorously supported by the Americans and as earnestly combated by the representatives of Great Britain. As in the discussion of Sir Francis Drake's voyage, writers were divided strictly upon national lines, and thus are subject to the charge of bias and prejudice. A fair examination will convince an impartial person that, although it is not impossible the voyage was made, the probabilities are that the letter of Mr. Lock was one com- posed for the purpose of creating a sensation, and no such personage as Juan de Fuca ever existed. The English writers seem to have espoused the better side of the argument, though there is no reason to suppose they would not have as readily advocated the opposite one had the interests of Great Britain required it. The question was long since settled and the boundary established at the forty- ninth parallel and the Straits of Fuca; and now, freed from national prejudice, American writers generally declare their belief that the voyage of the Greek pilot was a myth. Briefly presented, the argu- ments on either side are as follows: — It is maintained by the supporters of the document that the statements therein contained are, many of them, known to be true; that in its geographical descriptions it is more accurate than the 40 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. report of any previous Spanish voyage ; that the fact of his locating the entrance to the passage between latitudes 47 and 48 degrees, instead of 48 and 49 degrees, is not as serious as their opponents assert, since much greater errors in locating well-known objects appear in the accounts of voyages of whose authenticity there is no dispute. The Spaniards were not scientific navigators, and their reports bristle with errors in latitude, while longitude seems to have been entirely beyond them. This lack of accuracy prevented them from making a correct map of the coast line of California, even after they had explored and sailed along it for two centuries. There is, also, a marked absence of those stereotyped descriptions of won- derful cities and strange peoples which seems to have formed such an important part of the accounts of many previous and subsequent voyages. A careful comparison by one who is familiar with the geography of that region will convince him that in the narrative the Straits of Fuca are very accurately described — with the exception of the great rocky pillar on the northwest — especially in the fact that the land north of the straits (Vancouver Island) trends to the northwest. He sailed in the passage twenty days, finding numerous islands and arms of the ocean running in all directions, and finally emerged into the North Sea. What could more accurately describe a voyage through the Straits of Fuca and Gulf of Georgia, between Vancouver Island and the mainland, until the open ocean was again reached on the northwest? It is not claimed that he entered the Atlantic, but the North Sea of Maldonado ; and it must be borne in mind that the Straits of Anian as then understood — that described by Maldonado — was a long passage, leading in a general north and south direction, connecting the South Sea with the supposed North Sea, and that to reach the Atlantic required a long voyage across this North Sea and through the Straits of Labrador. It must be admit- ted, then, that the descriptions given in Lock's account are wonder- fully accurate if they are wholly imaginary; and as to the error in latitude — a matter of only a few miles — aside from the reasons already given, may it not be accounted for by the fact that the nar- rative is written from memory by a second party who had received but an oral account of the voyage? The chief objection to the voyage is, that there is no confirmatory evidence whatever to support it. Neither the royal nor colonial STRAITS OF JUAN DE FUCA AND RIVER OF KINGS. 41 records of Spain contain the faintest allusion to it, although other voyages, and especially some made but a few years later, are recorded at length. The narrative of Lock was not given to the public until a quarter of a century had elapsed, and every one who might have had any personal knowledge of it was probably dead. Richard Hakluyt, one of the three gentlemen to whom it is said Lock wrote in relation to the matter from Venice, was one of the greatest men of liis age. He was an enthusiastic geographer, who spent much time and money in collecting and publishing the accounts of all important voyages made by the representatives of England, or any other nation. It is impossible to believe that he could have been so indifferent to the subject of Lock's letter, since the Straits of Anian were the absorbing geographical enigma of the times, as to have let the matter of £100 prevent him from bringing the Greek pilot to England ; and it is equally strange that no hint of such a voyage is given in any of his works, though he is admitted to have been the most thorough and correct geographer of the sixteenth century. Another objection, and perhaps the strongest one, is the fact that at the very time Juan de Fuca is asserted to have been urging his claim for a reward upon the King of Spain, another Spanish expedition was dispatched in search of the Straits of Anian, and in the letter of instructions, which details at length the reasons for ordering the voyage, no allusion is made to Fuca or his straits. Had © Jo 1 such a voyage as Fuca's actually been made, this second expedition would certainly have availed itself of the knowledge thus gained. Instead of doing so, the record of that voyage conclusively shows that the commander must have been utterly ignorant of Fuca and his alleged voyage ; and this proves, also, that he could have had no secret instructions on the subject. In viewing the matter critically, it must be admitted that the evidences against the authenticity of the voyage, though entirely of a negative character, greatly outweigh the one circumstantial evi- dence in its favor — the fact that a passage much similar to the one described actually exists a few miles to the north of the location fixed in the narrative. Juan de Fuca's voyage was probably a myth. The third and last mythical passage to receive popular credence and engage the attention of geographers and explorers for years, 42 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. was the River of Kings, the Rio de los Reyes of Admiral Fonte. Like the narratives of Maldonado and Fuca, this did not reach the public until many years had elapsed from the time assigned to the voyage, and this fact alone is almost conclusive evidence of its man- ufactured character. Such a voyage as any of these would have been made public soon after its completion, so eager were the learned men of the time to gain all the information possible on these subjects. It was natural for a person inventing such, a tale to assign a date so far back that he need have no fear of a personal contradiction. A magazine entitled Monthly Miscellany \ or Memoires of the Curious, was published in London in 1708, containing a long ac- count of a voyage alleged to have been made in 1640, sixty- eight years previously, from the Pacific to the Atlantic and return, through a system of rivers crossing North America about the fifty-third par- allel. The man who is credited with making this wonderful voyage is Admiral Pedro Bartolome de Fonte, of the Spanish Marine. According to the account given in this magazine, Admiral Fonte was instructed by the Viceroy of Peru to explore the Pacific coast of North America for a passage leading into the Atlantic, and to intercept some Boston vessels which the Viceroy had learned had sailed upon the same errand on the Atlantic coast. He sailed from Callao in April, 1640, with four vessels. At Cape San Lucas he dispatched one of these to explore the Gulf of California, and with the remaining three continued up the coast. In latitude 53 degrees, after sailing a long distance among islands, which he christened the "Archipelago de Lazarus," he observed the mouth of a great river, which he decided to enter. One of his vessels was sent further up the coast, under the command of Captain Bernardo, while with the other two he ascended the stream, whose great proportions won from him the title of " Rio de los Reyes," or " River of Kings." This he followed in a northeasterly direction a long distance, finally reach- ing its source in an immense lake, which he named " Lake Belle." This was the country of a wealthy and civilized nation, whose chief town, on the south shore of the lake, was called Conasset, and who entertained the strangers who had so unexpectedly come among s them in a most hospitable manner. This lake was evidently on the summit of the divide between the waters of the two oceans, for flowing from it in an opposite direction from the river he had STRAITS OF JUAN DE FUCA AND RIVER OF KINGS. 48 ascended was another large stream, which he called " Parmentier." Leaving his vessels at Conasset, he descended the Parmentier until he entered another lake, upon which he bestowed his own name, from which he passed through a narrow strait into the Atlantic ocean. This last passage he named "Strait of Ronquillo," in honor of the captain of one of his vessels. Thus, through a continuous waterway of rivers and lakes, he had passed through the entire con- tinent of North America. When that story was written the author little dreamed that in the latitude assigned to this wonderful passageway the continent was more than five thousand miles in width. Having entered the At- lantic the Admiral soon encountered the Boston vessel which it was feared had designs upon the Spanish possessions in the Pacific. The captain of the colonial craft was Nicholas Shapley, and on board was its owner, one Seymour Gibbons, whom Fonte described as " a fine gentleman, and major-general of the largest colony in New England, called Maltechusetts." Fonte decided to treat these strangers as peaceful traders, and the representatives of these two nations indulged in a series of mutual entertainments which appear to have given the Admiral great satisfaction. He then returned to the Pacific by the route he had come, finding his vessels waiting for him in good condition in Lake Belle, the inhabitants of Conasset having refrained from molesting them. At the mouth of the River of Kings he was joined by Bernardo, who had an equally wonder- ful tale to relate. He, too, had discovered a great river, in latitude 61 degrees, and had ascended it to its source in a large lake. These he called " Rio de Haro," and " Lake Velasco." From the lake he ascended another stream in canoes as high as the seventy -ninth par- allel, but observing the land "still trending north, and the ice rested on the land, he became satisfied that there was no communication out of the Atlantic Sea by Davis' Straits; for the natives had con- ducted one of his seamen to the head of Davis' Strait, which termi- nated in a fresh lake, of about thirty miles in circumference, in the eightieth degree of north latitude, and there were prodigious moun- tains north of it." He, therefore, returned to the Pacific to rejoin his commander. Fonte was satisfied from the report that the Straits of Anian did not exist, and returned to Peru to report that fact, 44 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. and the wonderful river route he had discovered through the con- tinent. This whole story is utterly absurd, in the light of our present knowledge of geography, but was far from being so at the time it was promulgated. Yet it contains enough inconsistencies and pal- pable errors to have even then condemned it in the eyes of a critical reader. The statement that in 1640, only ten years after Boston was founded, the people of that struggling colony were searching for the Straits of Anian is too improbable for belief. This English historian should have known, also, that Massachusetts was governed at the date mentioned by John Winthrop and not by Seymour Gib- bons, whose name does not appear at all in the list of New England governors or " major-generals.'" Not the slightest reference is made to it in the records of Spain or Peru, and it is now generally con- ceded that the story is a creation of James Petiver, an eminent nat- uralist, w^ho w^as a frequent contributor to the magazine in which it first appeared. CHAPTER IV. VOYAGES AND EVENTS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. Philip orders a Voyage along the Pacific Coast — Reasons Assigned by Torquemada and Venegas — Viscaino sent oat by the Viceroy in 1596 — Viscaino' s second Voyage in 1602 — Ravages of the Scurvy — He Enters Monterey — Argument of the Claim that he Entered San Francisco Bay — Earliest Positive Knowledge of that Harbor — Vis- caino goes to Latitude J$° and returns ; but Aguilar reaches lf.3° — Cape Blanco and the River of Aguilar — California Supposed to be an Island — Viscaino dies after Obtaining a Royal Mandate to occupy Monterey- — Spain Ceases all Exploration of the Coast. AS the various romances which have been considered were all published many years after the date ascribed to the voyages of which they speak, it is now necessary to turn back to these times and see what was actually being accomplished. The first thing to be found affecting Oregon is the voyage of Sebastian Viscaino. It has been seen that at the very time when Juan de Fuca was impor- tuning the Spanish monarch for recognition of his services, accord- ing to Lock's letter, that royal personage ordered a survey of the Pacific Coast. The reasons that moved Philip II., in 1595, to issue his royal mandate to the Mexican Viceroy are thus set forth by Torquemada : — His majesty knew that the viceroys of Mexico had endeavored to discover a northern passage, and he had found, among his father's papers, a declaration of certain strangers, to the effect that they had been driven, by violent winds, from the codfish coast on the Atlantic, to the South Sea, through the Strait of Anian, which is beyond Cape Mendocino, and had, on their way, seen a rich and populous city, well fortified, and inhabited by a numerous and civilized nation, who had treated them well; as also many other things worthy to be seen and known. His majesty had also been informed that ships, sailing from China to Mexico, ran great risk;-, particularly near Cape Mendocino, where the storms are most violent, and that it would be advantageous to have that coast surveyed thence to Acapulco, so 46 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. that the ships, mostly belonging to his majesty, should find places for relief and refreshment when needed. Whereupon his majesty ordered the Count de Monte- rey, Viceroy of Mexico, to have those coasts surveyed, at his own expense, with all care and diligence. Half a century later another Spanish historian, Venegas, gave the f ollowing reasons for Spain's anxiety to become better informed of the coast above Cape Mendocino: — That in the meantime the English should find out the so-much-desired passage to the South Sea, by the north of America and above California, which passage is not universally denied, and one day may be found; that they may fortify them- selves on both sides of this passage, and thus extend the English dominion from the north to the south of America, so as to border on our possessions. Should English colonies and garrisons be established along the coast of America on the South Sea beyond Cape Mendocino, or lower down on California itself, England would then, without control, reign mistress of the sea and its commerce, and be able to threaten by land and sea the territories of Spain ; invade them on occasion from the E., W., N. and S., hem them in and press them on all sides. In this is contained no hint of Juan de Fuca; and if the conduct of men can be considered as indicative of their motives, it must be admitted that the King, the Viceroy and the commanders of the vari- ous expeditions, were utterly ignorant of the Greek's, alleged voyage, notwithstanding Lock's letter states that the old pilot had in vain urged the Viceroy and the King to take possession of the Straits of Fuca. The Viceroy of Mexico did not feel an interest in the Straits of Anian, or the California Coast, deep enough to render him eager to explore them at his own expense, as commanded to do by the king; yet he dared not disobey the royal mandate. He made a showing of compliance, by dispatching Sebastian Viscaino from Acapulco, in the spring of 1596, with three vessels. These did not proceed beyond Lower California, where two feeble and unsuccessful efforts were made to plant colonies, leaving the great objects of the expe- dition untouched. The death of the king, in 1598, served as an excuse for ceasing even these feeble efforts, which made extensive drafts upon the Viceroy's revenue. The respite was only temporary, however, for Philip III. followed his father's ideas on the subject, and peremptorily ordered his representative in Mexico to make these explorations without delay. There was nothing now to do but to comply with the King's command, and an expedition was fitted out, composed of two vessels and a small fragata, and entrusted to the command of Viscaino. VOYAGES AND EVENTS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 47 The fleet sailed May 5, 1602, from Acapulco, well supplied with pilots, draughtsmen and priests — the first to navigate the ships, the second to make maps of the coast, and the third to keep an accurate account of the voyage, a literary feat few besides priests were able to accomplish in those days, when the sword was mightier than the pen. The priestly authorship of the records of the voyage is fully attested by the passage in Torquemada, which, in speaking of the head winds which baffled the vessels for a long time, says that they were produced " by the foe of the human race, in order to prevent the advance of the ships, and to delay the discovery of these coun- tries, and the conversion of their inhabitants to the Catholic faith.'' 1 As the fleet advanced scurvy made its appearance among the seamen, and its terrible ravages added to the adverse winds to con- vince the priests that the Evil One was doing his utmost to oppose their progress. In the face of all this the vessels steadily advanced northward, entering successively the ports of San Quentin, San Diego and Monterey. Sixteen of the crew having died and many others being utterly incapacitated for duty by the horrible malady, it was decided at Monterey to send one of the vessels back with the invalids. This ship was commanded by Torebio Gomes de Corvan, and reached Acapulco, with but few of her crew alive, after a voy- age whose horrors have no parallel in the annals of the sea. On the third of January, 1603, the two remaining vessels sailed from Monterey, and were soon afterwards separated by a violent storm, and were not again united. Viscaino, in the larger one, instituted a search for the wreck of a Manila galleon, which had been cast away on this part of the coast eight years before. It was for a long time supposed that he entered San Francisco Harbor, since Torque - mada says: " He anchored behind a point of rocks called La Punta de los Reyes, in the port of San Francisco; " but that idea does not seem consistent with other facts, and is not endorsed by the best authorities. It does not seem possible that an explorer could have passed the Golden Gate and entered the wonderful harbor of San Francisco without making such a record and description of it as would leave no room for error. As in the case of Drake, Viscaino was engaged in the search for something, which, upon entering this beautiful bay, he would have congratulated himself upon discover- ing; and he certainly would have taken as much pains to describe it 48 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. as he did other and comparatively insignificant places. Viscaino was searching for a harbor of refnge, and here, in the most desirable locality possible, was a magnificent harbor that conld hold the fleets of the world; yet upon his return to Mexico he strongly urged the Viceroy to establish stations at the greatly inferior harbors of San Diego and Monterey, and said nothing about San Francisco what- ever. In all probability the port he entered was the same one in which Drake had anchored twenty-five years before. Just when San Francisco Bay was discovered is uncertain. The first time Caucassians are known to have visited it was in 1769, when a party of Spaniards unexpectedly came upon it while search- ing for the Bay of Monterey, and gave it the name it bears. Yet it is almost a matter of certainty that some one must have visited it long before, for in 1742 an English commodore, named Anson, cap- tured an East Indian galleon, and upon a chart found on the vessel appeared, in the latitude of this bay, seven little dots, marked " Los Farallones," and opposite these was indicated a land-locked harbor somewhat resembling San Francisco Bay, but having no name at- tached. It seems probable that the existence of the bay was known to those engaged in the India trade, who kept it a profound secret, and could thus profit by all its advantages as a harbor of refuge, without permitting it to become a rendezvous for the pirates who preyed upon their commerce, or a station for the war ships of hos- tile nations. On the twentieth of January, Viscaino, having been unsuccessful in his search for the wrecked galleon, again sailed northward. He proceeded as far as latitude 42°, where he observed a large white bluff, upon which he bestowed the title of " San Sebastian." Dis- couraged by the unfavorable weather, the terrible sufferings of his crew from scurvy and the apparent loss of the consort, Viscaino turned the prow of the Capitana to the south, and made his way back to Mexico as rapidly as possible. When the storm parted the two vessels off San Francisco Bay, the little fragata, which was under the command of Martin de Aguilar, continued the northern journey, encountering another gale in the vicinity of Cape Mendo- cino, from whose fury it escaped by taking refuge in some sheltered place on that portion of the coast. What this place of refuge was does not appear, but Humboldt Bay and the Bay of Trinidad seem VOYAGES AND EVENTS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 49 to be the only ports in that region capable of sheltering a vessel from a severe storm, and one of these must have been entered by the fragata ; though, if such is the case, it seems strange that a more extended description of it is not given. The subsequent movements of the little craft are thus detailed by Torquemada:— When the wind had become less violent they continued their journey close along the shore, and on the nineteenth of January, the pilot, Antonio Flores, found that they were in the latitude of 43°, where the land formed a cape or point, which was named "Cape Blanco." From that point the coast begins to turn to the northwest, and near it was discovered a rapid and abundant river, with ash trees, willows, brambles, and other trees of Castile and its banks, which they endeavored to enter, but could not from the force of the current. Ensign Martin de Aguilar, the com- mander, and Antonio Flores, the pilot, seeing that they had already reached a higher latitude than was ordered by the Viceroy in his instructions, that the Capi- tana did not appear, and that the number of sick was great, agreed to return to Acapulco. They never performed their agreement, for when the fragata reached Acapulco both the commander and pilot, as well as the greater portion of the crew, had fallen victims to the scurvy and had been consigned to the bosom of the great unknown ocean. It is impossible to realize the dreadful ravages committed by that horrible disease among the explorers of those early times. Every prolonged voyage suffered the impress of its blighting linger. Death took passage in every vessel sent into unknown waters. English mariners seem to have suffered less than did the Spaniards, or, in later times, the Russians. Of the sufferings on board of Aguilar's fated craft Torquemada says: — Nor is the least ease to be expected from change of place, as the slightest motion is attended with such severe pains that they must be very fond of life who would not willingly lay it down on the first appearance of so terrible a distemper. This virulent humor makes such ravages in the body that it is entirely covered with ulcers, and the poor patients are unable to bear the least pressure ; even the very clothes laid on them deprive them of life. Thus they lie groaning and incapable of any relief. For the greatest assistance possible to be given them, if I may be allowed the expression, is not to touch them, nor even the bed clothes. These effects, how- ever melancholy, are not the only ones produced by this pestilential humor. In many, the gums, both of the upper and lower jaws, are pressed both within and without to such a degree, that the teeth can not touch one another, and withal so loose and bare that they shake with the least motion of the head, and some of the patients spit their teeth out with their saliva. Thus they were unable to receive any food but liquid, as gruel, broth, milk of almonds and the like. This gradually brought on so great a weakness that they died while talking to their friends. * * * Some, by way of ease, made loud complaints, others lamented their sins with the deepest contrition, some died talking, some sleeping, some eating, some whilst sitting up in their beds. 50 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Such were the privations and afflictions endured by the early explorers of the coast of Oregon. A fourth geographical enigma was now added to the list of those which perplexed the seekers for a Northwest Passage; though, more properly speaking, this was the first, since knowledge of this voyage was spread abroad several years before Maldonado entertained the Council of the Indies with his clever romance about the Straits of Anian, or Lock's letter gave to the world the dubious tale of Juan de Fuca. According to Torquemada, it was " supposed that this river is one leading to a great city which was discovered by the Dutch when they were driven thither by storms, and that it is the Straits of Anian through which the ship passed in sailing from the North Sea to the South Sea, and that the city called Quivira (the one which led Coronado such a dance sixty years before) is in those parts; and that this higher latitude is the region referred to in the account which his majesty read, and which induced him to order this expedition.' ' There is here a serious discrepancy — an error of as great a magnitude as the one cited as evidence of the mythical character of the alleged voyage of Juan de Fuca, No great river exists in latitude 43°, but a short distance up the coast is the Ump- qua, which, though by no means as great a stream as this one was supposed to be, may be considered of sufficient proportions to do duty as the River of Aguilar. The same may be said of Rogue River, some miles below the point indicated. One can not help noticing here the foundation of the " River of Kings " story after- wards concocted by Petiver. The great river supposed to lead through the continent, and the large city some distance up the stream, both appear here in the original. The idea that this was the Straits of Anian, or anything of a similar nature, did not long obtain. A few years later it was conceived that this and the Colorado rivers were the two ends of a long inland channel, which united in such a manner as to make California an island. This theory found a place upon the maps for a short time, till it was discovered that the Col- orado led off to the northeastward instead of toward the northwest. It was then supposed that this was a vast river flowing from un- known regions in the heart of the continent, such a stream as the Columbia was in later years found to be, and maps thereafter bore upon them an indication of such a river, bearing the name " River VOYAGES AND EVENTS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 51 of Aguilar," and various other titles, which, with the reason for be- stowing them, will appear later on in speaking of the journey of the early explorers of the Rocky Mountains. Viscaino had kept in view the chief object of his voyage — the discovery of a suitable harbor of refuge for vessels in the Manila trade — and immediately upon his return urged upon the Viceroy the desirability of establishing supply stations at San Diego and Monterey, the only suitable harbors he had encountered. He reported that diligent inquiry among the nations had elicited the information that California was extremely fertile and rich in the precious metals. There was one serious objection to so doing, which had great weight with the Viceroy. He had been instructed in the royal decree to accomplish these things at his own expense, and he was much averse to devoting his private revenues, which were, no doubt, very con- siderable, to the accomplishment of public measures. In vain Vis- caino urged, the Viceroy was obdurate, and, at last, the explorer went to Spain to lay the matter before his sovereign. After several years of attendance at court he succeeded, in 1606, in procuring a royal mandate to the Viceroy, directing him to establish a supply station at Monterey. While preparations for doing so were advanc- ing Viscaino died, and the Viceroy seized the opportunity to defeat the projected colony. For a century and one-half thereafter Spain made no further attempt to explore the coast north of California. The East India vessels first sighted land on their home voyage in the vicinity of Cape Mendocino, and then followed the coast south to Mexico; but north of that the Pacific Coast of North America remained a terra incognita for ages. The secret of this apparent apathy was the unwillingness of the viceroys to explore new regions at their own expense. There is a tradition floating about in South- ern Oregon that one of these galleons was driven out of its course and put into the Umpqua Kiver to repair damages. Indian tradi- tions and the old stumps of trees are relied upon as corroborative evidence; thought what the original authority is, or in what year the event is said to have occurred, the writer has been unable to learn. The story is probably an outgrowth of the attempt of Aguilar to enter some river in that region. CHAPTER V. HUDSON'S BAY, CAPE HORN, AND BEHRING'S STRAITS. Discovery of Davis' Straits — Henry Hudson, William Baffin, and other Explorers in the N orth- Atlantic — Dutch Navigators Discover the Passage around Cape Horn — Buccaneers Swarm into the Pacific by the JVew Route — Otondo attempts to Colonize Lower California — The Hudson's Bay Company Chartered, in 1669, to Discover the Straits of Anian — Privileges Granted by the Charter — The Company Heads off all Efforts at Exploration — Russians cross Siberia and Explore the Pacific — Plans of Peter the Great — Discovery of Beh- ring's Straits and Alaska — Voyage of Tchirikof — Behring Discovers Mount St. Elias and Dies on Behring's Isle — The Early Fur Trade of the North Pacific — Benyowsky Takes a Cargo of Furs to Canton and thus Reveals the Magnitude of the Pacific Ocean — -Rus- sian Idea of Alaskan Geography. SEVERAL important voyages were made by English mariners on the Atlantic coast in searching for the Northwest Passage, all of which bear a close relation to the more direct steps taken on the Pacific side in the discovery of Oregon. In 1588, at the time set in Maldonado's romance for his voyage through the Straits of Anian, a celebrated English navigator was actually exploring the seas about the seventy-fifth parallel. This was John Davis. After searching in vain for a passage westward, he finally discovered Davis' Straits, but was compelled to return to England before making a thorough exploration of them, leaving in doubt the question of whether through them, or by some body of water connecting with them, the Pacific might not be reached. About the same time the great freebooter, Thomas Cavendish, returned with his vessel laden with the plunder of the South Sea, and Davis, dazzled by the glittering prospect of great wealth to be gained by plundering the Spanish commerce, urnsox's bay, cape horn, and behking's straits. 58 abandoned his search for the Northwest Passage and sailed with Cavendish upon his second expedition to the Pacific, a voyage which ended in signal disaster. In 1608, Henry Hudson, bent upon the same errand as Davis, explored the North Atlantic coast. He entered Hudson's Bay and partially examined it; and though he bestowed his name upon the bay, as well as the straits leading to it, he was but following the course pursued a century before by Cortereal. William Baffin was the next noted mariner to navigate these seas. In 1616 he sailed north, between America and Greenland, into Baffin's Bay. Other explorers followed in the wake of these more noted ones, and exam- ined the coast carefully as high as the seventy -fifth parallel. It was of no use; the Straits of Anian could not be found. Geographers became satisfied that if discovered at all they would be found lead- ing westward from some arm of Hudson's Bay which had been but partially explored. England soon became convulsed by civil war between the people and the House of Stuart, and America was neg- lected for half a century. Meanwhile, an important discovery was made in an opposite direction, one most disastrous to the Pacific- commerce of Spain. While Baffin was pursuing his search among the icebergs and floes of the Arctic, two Dutch navigators, Van Schouten and Le- niaire, passed south of the Straits of Magellan and discovered the open sea connecting the Atlantic and Pacific. They rounded Cape Horn, which they thus christened — in memory of the place of their nativity, " Holland" — and entered the South Sea without encounter- ing the dangers attending a passage through the Straits of Magellan, or meeting the Spanish ships of war which guarded the entrance to that narrow passageway. Here, now, was a route open to all nations — one which Spain could neither monopolize nor defend. Spain, con- tinually involved in European wars, was now exposed to attack in her most vital part. From America and the Indies came the revenue with which she now made war upon England and France, oppressed the Netherlands and sustained the terrible Inquisition. Privateers of the three hostile nations swarmed into the South Sea and plun- dered her commerce. Buccaneers attacked the Spanish possessions in America from both the Atlantic and Pacific sides. Especially did the Dutch aid in this way the desperate struggle of the Nether- 54 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. lands for Independence from Spanish rale. The Gnlf of California became their rallying place, their special rendezvous being the Bay of Pichilingue, which won for them the title of " Pichilingues," a name both feared and hated by the mariners of Spain. From this retreat they issued to commit their ravages, and often returned with the rich prize of a Manila galleon. The feeble efforts of Spain to dislodge these bold marauders, who were literally drawing the life blood of the nation, were of no avail. Several times she made great preparations to exterminate them, but even if driven out they returned again in greater numbers as soon as the way was open. Finally, in 1683, an effort was made to plant a colony in Lower California, which should serve as a basis for keeping the gulf free from pirates, and of rescuing from threatened attack the annual galleon. Admiral Don Isdro de Otondo was at the head of this expedition, which consisted of soldiers, settlers and Jesuit priests. For three years the effort was sustained in the face of drouth and sterile soil, and then the colony was abandoned; the last act being to rescue and convey safely to port the Manila galleon, whose safety was threatened by the dreaded privateers. When the long fratricidal war in England was over and the son of the murdered king was set upon the throne, attention was once more directed toward America. The belief that the Straits of Anian could be found only in Hudson's Bay was then a general one, and to aid in its discovery, in 1669, Charles the II. granted almost royal privileges in America to a company of his subjects. Such were the relative importance in those days of the rich com- merce of the Indies and the Arctic wilds of unexplored America. Reports of the valuable furs to be obtained from the natives along the coast which were made by the old explorers, and the hope that other and even more valuable articles could be obtained in trade with the Indians, led to the organization of a company to engage in that profitable business. They applied to the King for a royal charter, which was granted in consideration of their agreement to search for the much -desired Straits of Anian. The two -fold object — that of the King and that of the company — was expressed in the charter which created " The Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson's Bay." This object, as expressed, was "for the discovery of a new passage into the South Sea, and for the find- Hudson's hay, cape horn, axd behring's straits. 55 ing of some trade in furs, minerals and other considerable commo- dities/* The company was granted the exclusive right of the "trade and commerce of all those seas, straits and bays, rivers, lakes, creeks and sounds, in whatsoever latitude they shall be, that lie within the entrance of the straits commonly called Hudson's Straits. 1 ' Of this region, which embraced all that vast territory whose water shed is into Hudson's Bay, this company was given absolute control to the exclusion of all persons whomsoever. It was constituted "for all time hereafter, capable in law, to have, purchase, receive, possess, enjoy and retain lands, rents, privileges, liberties, jurisdiction, franchise and hereditaments of what kind, nature or quality soever they be, to them and their successors;" and all persons were forbidden to " visit, hunt, frequent, trade, traffic or adventure " therein without permission of the company. The annual rent of this great empire was "two elks and two black beavers," which the King, if he desired to have it paid, must go upon the land and collect for himself. The company has few rent receipts to exhibit. This is the organization known in history as the Hudson's Bay Company, a name vivid in the memory of Oregon pioneers. AVliat a splendid thing this charter was to the company, and what an obstacle it became in the pathway of England's pro- gress in America, will appear as this narrative unfolds. But for the selfish policy of the Hudson's Bay Company, Oregon would to-day be a province of Great Britain. The company soon learned that their true interests lay, not in finding the Northwest Passage, but in preventing the discovery of it altogether. They were able to accomplish this and to hold the government and every one else not connected with the organization in complete ignorance of the region in which they were doing a business which assumed gigantic proportions in a few years. Thus it happened that no more efforts of consequence were made by England to discover the Straits of Anian for a whole century after the granting of this magnificent charter, the company being able to prevent or bring to grief all expeditions of this character. Such was the soulless conduct of this corporate monopoly to the govern- ment to which it owed its very existence. From the time Aguilar's little vessel conveyed her afflicted crew- back to Mexico in 1603, more than a century passed before another 56 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. voyage was attempted. Not a vessel cast its shadow upon the waters of the North Pacific, nor a Caucasian eye gazed upon the mountain peaks that stand like ancient sentinels along our coast. Suddenly interest in this region was revived, and initial steps were taken by a power previously supposed to have no interest whatever in the American question. The sudden rise of Russia from obliv- ion to a high rank among the powers of the world, a revolution wrought by the genius of the enlightened monarch, Peter the Great, is one of the marvels of history. Gradually he extended his power eastward across the snowy wastes of Siberia until his dominions were washed by the waters of the Pacific beating upon the Penin- sula of Kamtchatka. The fur trade of this vast solitude became a valuable one, and added to the great revenue of the Czar. Hav- ing reached the Pacific he became eager to extend his power still further eastward until it touched the western confines of the de- pendencies of England, France and Spain in America. How far that was, or what was the nature of the region coveted, neither he nor any one else had the faintest glimmering of knowledge. It might be a great ocean of valueless water, a sea filled with islands, a continent of ice, or a land of plenty, " flowing with milk and honey." No one knew; but this powerful autocrat proposed to find out. His first step was to discover a waterway into the Pacific from the Arctic Ocean which washed his dominions on the north- just such a passage as the English mariners had searched for in vain, though he expected to reach it by going east instead of to the west. He ordered vessels to be constructed at Archangel, on the White Sea, for the purpose of coasting in the Arctic eastward along the shores of Siberia until an opening was discovered into the Pa- cific. Other vessels were to be constructed on the coast of Kam- tchatka, which were to take an opposite course and endeavor to pass northward into the Arctic. Peter died before his plans were executed, and the project was held in abeyance for several years. The Empress Catherine was a worthy successor of her noble husband, and when firmly settled upon the throne she turned her attention to completing the work he had begun. In*l728, in ac- cordance with her instructions, vessels were built on the coast of Kamtchatka, which were dispatched in search of the desired pas- sage between the Arctic Ocean and the Pacific. In command of Hudson's bay, cape horn, and behringks straits. 57 the expedition was Vitus Behring, a Danish navigator of skill and experience, in whose charge the former exploration was to have been placed by Peter. Russia was not a maritime nation, and her seamen were in no manner scientific navigators, hence the selection of this skillful Dane for the command of so important an expedi- tion. Behring sailed on the fourteenth of July, and followed the coast northerly in his little vessel until he found it trending steadily to the westward. From this fact he became convinced that he had already entered the Arctic and was sailing along the northern coast of Asia ; and being unprepared for a long voyage, or the possibility of being compelled to spend the winter in the ice, he returned at once to the port of embarkation. The highest point reached was 67° 18/ but the longitude is not given. Neither going nor return- ing through the straits did he espy the coast line of America, foggy and cloudy weather obscuring it from view, and consequently he reported upon his return that a great open sea lay to the eastward of Asia, joining the Pacific Ocean with the Arctic. The next year he endeavored to cross this ocean and reach the shore of America by sailing directly eastward. In this attempt he was baffled by head winds and was driven by a gale into the Gulf of Okotsk. He abandoned the effort .and returned to St. Petersburg to report his discoveries. During the few succeeding years a number of smaller expeditions were made by Russian subjects; one of these being driven upon the Alaskan coast in 1732, when it was discovered that not an open sea but a strait connected the two great oceans. Upon this was bestowed the name of the Danish explorer — the pioneer navigator of the North Pacific. Catherine died, and after the consequent delay, her successor, the Empress Anne, fitted out an expedition for the purpose of exploring on a more extended scale than had previously been done. This consisted of two vessels, Behring being in command of one, and Alexei Tchirikof , a Russian, who had been his lieutenant on the first voyage, of the other. Anne died before the expedition was ready to sail, but Elizabeth, who succeeded to the throne, did not interfere with the plans which had been laid, and the two consorts sailed from the Bay of Avatscha on the fourth of June, 1741. They were soon separated in a gale and were not again united. Tchirikof \s vessel, the St. Pau/, returned on the eighth of October, in a sad 58 HISTOBY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. plight. She had reached a group of islands in latitude 56°, where sixteen of the crew, who landed to make a reconnoisance, were slaughtered by the Indians. Besides these, twenty -one more suc- cumbed to the ravages of the scurvy before the vessel found her way back to port. Sad as were the misfortunes that befel the crew of the St. Paul, they were slight compared with the disasters which crowded upon their comrades on board the St. Peter. Behring steered a south- easterly course for many days, and at last reached latitude 46°, with- out having encountered land. This is the latitude of the Columbia River, but how near the coast of America he approached at that point is not recorded. The mysteries of longitude seem to have been beyond the penetration of the explorers of those days. Captain Cook, nearly fifty years later, is the first explorer who seems to have understood the necessity of locating an object by its longitude as well as its distance from the equator. Behring then turned his prow to the northeast and continued his voyage until he had ascended to the sixtieth degree, when he discovered land, the first thing to meet his gaze being a giant snow- crowned peak. This he named " Mount St. Elias," in honor of the saint whose name appeared in the Rus- sian calendar as patron of the eighteenth of July, the date of the discovery. The St. Peter sailed into a passage leading between the mainland and a large island, when Behring discovered that the water was discolored, as though it had been discharged from a large river, the volume indicating the stream to be the water drain of a land of continental proportions. That this was America no one on board doubted. The subordinate officers desired to explore the coast southward, in the direction of the Spanish colonies, but Behring, who was in ill health, refused to do so, and started upon the return voyage. They made but slow progress among the islands lying to the southwest of the Peninsula of Alaska, and finally, being driven by a severe storm far to the southward, the vessel wandered aimlessly about for two months, the sport of the winds and ocean currents. Horrible were the sufferings of the crew. Scurvy, in its most ghastly form, preyed upon them unchecked. Famine and disease went hand in hand. The surgeon's journal says: "The general distress and mortality increased so fast that not only the sick died, but those who pretended to be healthy, when relieved from their posts, fainted cape horn, Hudson's bay, and behring s straits. 59 and fell down dead; of which the scantiness of water, the want of biscuits and brandy, cold, wet, nakedness, vermin, and terror, were not the least causes." At last these horrors came to an end. On the fifth of November they sighted a small island lying between the Aleutian Archipelago and Kamtchatka, and running the vessel close in they all landed, with the purpose of spending the winter. The island was a small, rocky speck on the bosom of the sea, consisting < >f a few barren granite peaks thrust up from the water, whose sides were continually lashed by a heavy surf and upon which the waves furiously dashed when storms swept across the surface of the ocean. Here they lived upon the flesh of fur- bearing animals which abounded in the water, and upon the fish they were able to catch. Their house was constructed of the timbers of their vessel, which was wrecked upon the rocky coast during a gale immediately after they disembarked, and whose broken pieces were washed up by the surf. Their sufferings did not end with their removal to this new abode. Disease had taken too firm a grasp upon that afflicted crew. Beh- ring died on the eighth of December, and before spring thirty of his followers also found a grave on those water- bound rocks. The skins of slaughtered animals served them for both clothes and bed- ding. Had this island been located at the same latitude in the Atlantic Ocean not one of these enfeebled men could have survived the rigors of winter. Here the great ocean river, known as the Japan Current, imparts its genial warmth to the islands of the Aleutian Archipelago and fringes the icy peaks and glaciers of Alaska with a coast-line of verdure. Owing to this great modify- ing element even floating ice from the frozen Arctic is not seen in Behring's Sea, though on the Atlantic side the ocean is rendered unsafe by floes and icebergs at a much lower latitude. Upon the return of spring the survivors constructed a small vessel from the wreck of the St. Peter, and when that long task was finished, em- barked and sailed directly westward, reaching the Bay of Avatscha in August. That bleak island which had been their winter home, and where were the graves of their commander and many of their comrades, they christened "Behring's Isle," and as such it is known to the present day. Twenty years elapsed before another official exploration was made, and half a century passed ere the full account of this fatal 60 PtISTOKY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. one was published to the world. Accompanying Behring on the St. Peter was a German surgeon and scientist named Steller, and his journal, which was not published until 1795, long after the Alaskan coast had been thoroughly explored by Spanish, Eussian, English and American navigators, is the only record preserved of the adventures and terrible sufferings endured by the discoverers of Alaska. The general features of the voyage, however, were well known in Europe soon after its fatal termination. The skins which the survivors wore when they returned to Avatscha were found to be exceedingly valuable — probably seal and sea -otter — and several private expeditions were fitted out by Russian traders, to visit the islands lying to the eastward, in search of furs. In this way the fur trade of the Pacific began, and before the government was pre- pared for another expedition this trade had reached considerable proportions. Greenhow thus describes the infancy of this great industry: — The trade thus commenced was, for a time, carried on by individual adventurers, each of whom was alternately a seaman, a hunter, and a merchant; at length, however, some capitalists in Siberia employed their funds in the pursuit, and expe- ditions to the islands were, in consequence, made on a more extensive scale, and with greater regularity and efficiency. Trading stations were established at partic- ular points, where the furs were collected by persons left for that object ; and vessels were sent, at stated periods, from the ports of Asiatic Russia, to carry the articles required for the use of the agents and hunters, or for barter with the natives, and to bring away the skins collected. The vessels employed in this commerce were, in all respects, wretched and inse- cure, the planks being merely attached together, without iron, by leathern thongs ; and, as no instruments were used by the traders for determining latitudes and lon- gitudes at sea, their ideas of the relative positions of the places which they visited were vague and incorrect. Their navigation was, indeed, performed in the most simple and unscientific manner possible. A vessel sailing from the Bay of Avatscha, or from Cape Lopatka, the southern extremity of Kamtchatka, could not have gone far eastward, without falling in with one of the Aleutian islands, which would serve as a mark for her course to another ; and thus she might go on from point to point throughout the whole chain. In like manner she would return to Asia, and if her course and rate of sailing were observed with tolerable care, there could seldom be any uncertainty as to whether she were north or south of the line of the islands. Many vessels were, nevertheless, annually lost, in consequence of this want of knowledge of the coast, and want of means to ascertain positions at sea ; and a large number of those engaged in the trade, moreover, fell victims to cold, starvation and' scurvy, and to the enmity of the bold natives of the islands. Even as late as 1806, it was calculated that one-third of these vessels were lost in each year. The history of the Russian trade and establishments in the North Pacific, is a series of details of dreadful disasters and sufferings ; and, whatever opinion may be entertained as to the humanity of the adventurers, or the morality of their pro- cape horn, Hudson's bay, and behring\s straits. 61 ceedings, the courage and perseverance displayed by them, in struggling against such appalling difficulties, must command universal admiration. The furs collected by these means, at Avatscha and Ochotsk, the principal fur- trading points, were carried to Irkutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia, whence some of them were taken to Europe ; the greater portion were, however, sent to Kiakta, a small town just within the Russian frontier, close to the Chinese town of Maimat- chin, through which places all the commerce between these two empires passed, agreeably to a treaty concluded at Kiakta in 1728. In return for the furs, which brought higher prices in China than anywhere else, teas, tobacco, rice, porcelain, and silk and cotton goods, were brought to Irkutsk, where all the most valuable of these articles were sent to Europe. These transportations were effected by land, except in some places where the rivers were used as the channel of conveyance, no commercial exportation having been made from Eastern Russia by sea before 1770 ; and when the immense distances between some of the points above mentioned are considered (Irkutsk to Pekin, 1,300 miles : to Bay of Avatscha, 3,450 miles; to St. Petersburg, 3,760 miles), it becomes evident that none but objects of great value, in comparison with their bulk, at the place of their consumption, could have been thus transported with profit to those engaged in the trade, and that a large portion of the price paid by the consumer must have been absorbed by the expense of trans- portation. A skin was, in fact, worth at Kiakta three times as much as it cost at Ochotsk. For years the furs were conveyed to Pekin and St. Petersburg overland, as described above, China being then, as now, the general fur market of the world. Not until 1771 was a cargo taken directly by sea to Canton, and not until then was it known that the Bay of Avatscha and the Chinese Sea were connected by water. For the first time was realized the immense magnitude of the Pacific; that the same waters which beat upon Behring's Isle washed the shores of the thousand islands of the South Sea, gazed up at the frowning rocks of Cape Horn, and bore the Spanish galleons on their long voyage from Acapulco to the Indies. This innovation was not by an)' means the result of Russian enterprise. A few of the patriotic defenders of Poland, who had been exiled to Siberia bv the Russian Czar, made their escape in a small vessel from a port on the south- west coast of Kamtchatka, under the leadership of a Hungarian exile, Count Maurice de Benyowsky. After much aimless wander- ing among the Aleutian Islands, where they procured from the natives a large quantity of furs, they sailed southward and finally reached Canton, where their cargo found a good market. This was the first vessel from the Russian Possessions of the Pacific to enter the harbor of a foreign nation, and the spreading of the information that rich fur regions at the north were accessible to Canton by sea was «>ne of the greatest factors in the subsequent rapid growth of the fur trade. 62 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. The increasing value of the fur business led the Russian Govern- ment to dispatch other exploring expeditions in 1766 and 1769. They found the coast, wherever they reached the mainland at all, fringed with islands and the sea through which they passed dotted with them. That the land on the east side of Behring's Straits was of considerable proportions was evident. This they called "Alaska," or "Aliaska," and supposed it to be a large island. In 1774 a map was prepared, representing their ideas of the geography of Russian America. Upon this the coast of America was represented as run- ning northwesterly from California to the seventieth degree of lati- tude, which was its extreme northern and western limit. Lying between America and Asia, in that latitude, was a vast sea of islands, of which the largest was Alaska, with only the channel of Behring's Straits separating it from the coast of Asia. With this map was published an account of the last two voyages, the book being enti- tled " Description of the Newly Discovered Islands in the Sea be- tween Asia and America." Such was the Russian idea of a region in which four official explorations had been made, and private enter- prise had engaged in the fur trade for thirty years. It remained for an Englishman, the celebrated Captain Cook, only a few years later, to reveal to them their error. He commanded the first English vessel to visit the North Pacific, and in one voyage straightened out the geographical tangle the Russians had made in Alaska, and reformed the ideas the Spaniards entertained about the coast they had several times explored further to the south. Such was the difference between scientific navigation and haphazard sailing. CHAPTER VI. FROM CAPTAIN CARVER TO CAPTAIN COOK. The Jesuits Colonize Lower California — The Franciscans Enter Califor- nia — Discovery of San Francisco Bay — Early French Explorers — The River of the West — Verendrye Explores the Rocky Mountains — — Fraihce Sells Louisiana to Spain and Looses Canada to England by Conquest — Journey of Captain Carver — He calls the River of the West "Oregon" — Argument upon the Origin of the Word "Ore- gon" — The Generally Accepted Spanish Theory does not Stand the Light of Investigation — The Hudson 's Bay Company's Policy of Keeping the World Ignorant of the Geography of the Country Occu- pied by Them — Samuel Hearne Discovers Great Slave Lake, Cop- permine River and the Arctic Ocean — Russia's Activity in Alaska Incites Spain to Renew her Explorations — Voyage of Perez and Martinez — Perez enters Port San Lorenzo, or Nootka Sound — Mar- tinez Claims t<> have Observed the Straits of Fuca — Voyage of Heceta and Bodega y Quadra — Bellin's Wonderful Chart — Discovery of Trinidad Bay — Isla de Dolores, or Destruction Island — Heceta At- tempts to Enter the Columbia — Spanish and English Methods of Ex- ploration Compared — Bodega and Maurelle Discover Mount San Jacinto, or Edgecumb — They Land and Take Possession for the King of Spain — They Reach Latitude 58° and Return — England, in Alarm at the Progress Made by Spain and Russia, Sends Captain Cook to the Pacific — His Particular Instructions — Cook Names the Sand- >mch Islands, Cape Flattery and Nootka Sound, and Searches for the Straits of Fttca, River of Kings and Straits of Anian — He Passes Through Beh ring's Straits and Around the Northwestern Ex- tremity of Alaska — Winters in the Sandwich Islands and is Killed by the Natives — The Expjedition Again Visits the Arctic, Takes a Cargo of Fwr% to Canton and Returns to England — The Record of the Voyage Pigeonholed Until the War is Over — Enterprise of John 64 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Ledyard — Arteaga, .Bodega and Maurelle Follow CooWs Route Up the Coast. DURING all the long absence of Spain from the North Pacific she was not neglecting her interests still further to the south. With the abandonment of Otondo's colony in Lower California in 1686, a council of chief authorities in Mexico decided that the re- duction of California by means of official colonies and expeditions was impracticable. A few years later the Society of Jesus, whose zealous missionaries had long since carried the cross into the remote frontiers of Mexico, solicited the privilege of planting a colony and founding missions in Lower California; and though this was just the object the government had sought so long to accomplish, it took ten years to obtain the royal warrant, so jealous was the throne of the growing power of the Jesuits. In 1697 the first mis- sion was founded at Loretto, and in 1767, when the Society of Jesus was deprived of all its property in the Spanish dominions and its members thrown into prison upon the order of Charles III., there existed in Lower California sixteen thriving missions and thirty -six villages. This rich inheritance was bestowed upon the Dominicans, while at the same time the Franciscans were granted full and exclusive authority to found missions in Alta California and take possession in the name of the Spanish crown. The first mission in Alta California was founded by Father Junipero Serra at San Diego, July 16, 1769, which was followed by that of San Carlos, at Monterey, August 3, 1770; San Antonio de Padua, July 14, 1771; San Gabriel, near Los Angeles, Septem- ber 8, 1771; San Luis Obispo, in September, 1772; Dolores, at San Francisco, October 10, 1776; and others at later dates, to the total number of twenty-two. The missions became so numerous and powerful that the Mexican government began in 1824 a series of hostile acts which ended in 1845 in their complete secularization, just one year before the country was conquered by the United States. It was in 1769, while Gaspar de Portala, at the head of a party from San Diego, was searching for the Harbor of Monterey, that the Bay of San Francisco was discovered and named. On the thirtieth of October they came upon a bay which "they at once FEOM CAPTALS" CARVEK TO CAPTAIN COOK. 65 recognized," says Father Crespi, the historian who accompanied them. There exists now no record ' of any prior discovery of the great harbor at San Francisco, except the Manila chart previously referred to, and it certainly seems strange that they would spend nearly four months searching for such an inferior port as Monterey at which to found a mission and harbor of refuge, when such a glorious one existed only a few miles further north. They now re- membered that Father Junipero Serra had been grieved because the Visitadore General had neglected St. Francis, the patron saint of the order, in selecting names for their future missions, and that he had said, " If St. Francis wants a mission* let him show you a good port and we will put one there." They believed that their patron had purposely led them to this harbor, and they named it 14 San Francisco," in his honor. It was first entered by a vessel in June, 1775, when the San Carlos sailed through the Golden Gate and cast anchor before the site upon which the pueblo (town ) of Yerba Buena (now San Francisco) was afterward built. Having seen the Spaniards take possession of California, it is necessary to consider the relative claims of the contending nations in North America, in order to fully understand the various acts of each, which led to the discovery and settlement of Oregon. To do this requires a return to the seventeenth century. The Treaty of Byswick was concluded in 1695, in which was a provision defining the boundaries of the colonial possessions of the various rival nations in America. This was definite and positive : but, owing to the crude ideas of American geography which pre- vailed at that time, was imperfect in many respects. Florida, as the Spanish possessions north of Mexico were called, was bordered on the north by the Carolinas, but further west the boundaries were quite indefinite, conflicting with the Louisiana of the French. France claimed as Louisiana all north of the mouth of the Missis- sippi and west of the Alleghanies, the western boundary being in- definite because no one knew how far toward the Occident the con- tinent extended. She also claimed the region of the St. Lawrence and the chain of great lakes under the general title of Canada, these two provinces joining and interlacing without any line of di- vision either expressed or understood. The Hudson's Bay country was also claimed by France, though not with much persistence, and 66 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. it was at that time actually in the possession of England, in the person of the Hudson's Bay Company. The English colonies were east of the Alleghanies, from Main to Georgia. In 1713 France relinquished to England her claim upon the Hudson's Bay region, and turned her attention to strengthening her position in Canada and Louisiana. During the latter part of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth, French explorers and Jesuit missionaries traversed the Mississippi Valley, established a chain of stations be- tween Canada and Louisiana, among them the city of St. Louis, and even penetrated the unknown wilderness lying between the headwaters of the Mississippi and the u Shining Mountains," as they first called the Rocky Mountains, whose snowy sides and lofty spires of rock reflected the bright rays of the sun hundreds of miles to the westward. The most noted of these French pioneers were La Salle, Pere Marquette, Baron La Hontan, Chevalier La Verendrye and his sons, Father Hennepin, Dupratz and Charlevoix. Nearly all of these wrote accounts of their travels, gave descriptions of the country and the native tribes, and from their own observa- tions and the information gleaned from the Indians made maps of that region, embracing a little which they knew and a great deal which they guessed at. These maps, to say the least, are very queer. One of them, drawn in 1710 to show the results of a west- ern journey accomplished by La Hontan, is especially odd. It shows a great river (called the " Long River " ), up which he passed, as entering the Mississippi in the region of Dubuque, Iowa. This was, beyond doubt, the Missouri, though that stream is also repre- sented in its proper place where it unites with the "Father of Waters," and is made to extend almost due west to the mountains. Passing across from the headwaters of the Mississippi and coming upon the Missouri so far to the north, he naturally supposed it to be another stream. Up this he followed, apparently branching off to ascend the Platte. He describes the upper part of the stream as a series of lakes and swamps. Some of his descriptions and the features of his map are very peculiar, so much so that historians have been inclined to doubt the extent of his journey. There is one feature, however, which tells in his favor. The map shows, at some distance to the southwest of the point indicated as the west- FROM CAPTAIX CARVER TO CAPTAIN COOK. 67 era limit of his wanderings, a large lake, which the Indians told him contained bitter water. This was undoubtedly Great Salt Lake, the one which years before the Indians of Mexico had en- deavored to describe to the Spanish explorers. The lakes indicated as existing along the river beyond the point where the journey ended were probably so marked because he misunderstood the In- dians when they spoke of the many large lakes existing in the region to the westward. One feature is very prominent in the reports of nearly all these early French explorers — the fact that beyond the " Shining Moun- tains " was a large river flowing westward to the " Great Water " in the latitude of the headwaters of the Mississippi. This they learned from the Indians with whom they came in contact. Though, with the exception of the Verendryes and their successors in com- mand along the Saskatchewan, probably none of them went further west than the Red River of the North; still the Indians of that region, in the years of peaceful intercourse or bloody hostilities with the tribes beyond the mountains, must have become sufficiently familiar with the geography of the country lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific to know of the existence of such a large stream as the Columbia. When the trappers appeared among the Cheyennes, Crows, Blackfeet, Pawnees, Sioux, and other tribes, early in the present century, they found them to be possessed of quite an intimate knowledge of the topography of the country west of the mountains occupied by the Shoshones, Bannocks, Flatheads and Xez Perces, and there is no reason to suppose that a hundred years earlier their knowledge was not nearly as great. The asser- tion that a great river existed beyond the mountains was not like those tales of the " City of Quivira " and the "Land of Cibola," which led the Spaniards to take such long journeys into the deserts <»f Mexico and Arizona two centuries before. Coming from differ- ent tribes, through sources that were recognized as being totally distinct, it was accepted as a geographical fact that such a river existed, and a stream of that nature was indicated on the maps of the period, bearing the various titles of " River of the West," "River Thegayo, v u Rio de los Reyes" (the mythical stream of Admiral Fonte ), and " Rio de Aguilar " (the one whose mouth Aguilar claimed to have discovered in 1603). The most definite 68 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. published account of this great stream was given by Lepage Dupratz, a French traveler of note, who received it from a Yazoo Indian. It was to the effect that this Indian ascended the Missouri north- westerly to its head, and going still further west came upon another large river flowing to the westward. He passed down the stream until he was compelled to halt because of a war existing between the natives living along its banks and a tribe further west. He participated in the hostilities, during which his friends captured a squaw of the western tribe, and from her he learned that the river flowed many miles until it emptied into a great water where ships had been seen, on which were men with beards and white faces. The geographical statements are so accurate that there is no room to doubt the knowledge of the Yazoo savage of the existence of the Columbia River; but his statement about ships and white men is historically impossible, since no vessel had ever visited the mouth of the Columbia, or even been so far north as that, unless it be admitted that Sir Francis Drake reached latitude 48° and was near enough to the coast to have the faces and beards of his men recognized; but that was a century and a half before, and if his visit was known to the Indians at all it would probably be in the form of a legend about a great white bird that swam in the water, or the canoe of the Great Spirit. That portion of the story was probably a creation of the Indian, or an amplification of the tale, made by Dupratz himself. De L'Isle, geographer of the Academy of Science, Paris, wrote March 15, 1716: "They tell me that among the Scioux of the Mississippi there are always Frenchmen trading; that the course of the Mississippi is from north to west, and from west to south [evi- dently the Mississippi is here confounded with the Missouri], from that it is known that towards the source there is in the highlands a river that leads to the western ocean.'" De LTsle warmly urged the government to explore the far West, in search of this river and the " Western Ocean r into which it flowed, and was seconded in his efforts by a learned priest named Bode. Temporary posts had been established many years before in various parts of Minnesota. Du Luth built one near the head of Lake Superior, in 1678; Per- rot founded another below Lake Pepin, in 1683 ; a stockade was erected above Lake Pepin on Prairie Island, in 1695, and Le Seur FROM CAPTAIN CARTER TO CAPTAIN COOK. 69 had a post in 1700 on the Blue Earth, near the site of Mankato. The importunities of De LTsle and Pere Bode caused the govern- ment to begin an energetic policy of Western exploration and occu- pation in 1717, commencing with the re -establishment of the fort of Da Luth and another further west among the Sioux. Other posts followed in rapid succession. In 1728, Seur de la Verendrye, who was in command of these advanced posts, received such definite information of the " Shining Mountains " from the Indians, and of the great river beyond them which flowed towards the western sea, that he decided to make a systematic exploration of those unknown regions. His application for authority was favorably considered by Charles de Beauharnois, Governor- General of Canada, and orders were given for the fitting out of an expedition. In 1731 two sons of the Chevalier Verendrye left Montreal with a detachment of fifty men, their father not joining them until two years later. They reached Rainey Lake in the fall, and at the foot of the lake built Fort St. Pierre, named in honor of their father, whose baptismal name was Pierre. Next year they established Fort St. Charles, named in honor of the Governor- General, on the southwestern shore of the Lake of the Woods. Further on they built a post on the Assiniboine, five leagues from Lake Winnipeg, and Fort Maurepas, on Winnipeg River. In June, 1736, a party of twenty-six, among whom was the younger son of the Chevalier, were massacred by the Sioux Indians while encamped on a small island in the Lake of the Woods. In October, 1738, the Veren- dryes built Fort La Peine, further west on the Assiniboine, which became their base of operations. In 1742 the two sons of the Chevalier left Fort La Peine with a small party for the purpose of fully exploring the " Shining Mountains. " They followed up Mouse Piver in a southerly direction to the country of the Mandans (called by them " Montanes "), crossed the Missouri a little below the site of Fort Berthold, and ascended the stream to the canyon below Helena, making a portage around the Great Falls, which they described in their report, differing in no essential particular from the description given by Lewis and Clarke sixty-two years later. At this point, now known as the " Gateway of the Moun- tains," they ascended the summit of the range on the 12th day of January, 1743, not far from Bear Tooth Peak, of which they speak 70 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. as a tusk -shaped mountain. They then passed up Deep Creek (Smith River), crossed the mountains to the headwaters of the Musselshell, and thence across to the Yellowstone at the mouth of Pry or River. They followed up this stream to the Stinking Water, and on over the mountains to Wind River. Here their progress was arrested by a fierce war raging between the Snakes and Sans Arc branch of the Sioux; but they were told by the friendly Snakes of the location of Tongue and Green Rivers. They then returned to the Upper Missouri, and raised a monument of stone near the mouth of the Jefferson — in what they called the " Petite Cerise ';' (Choke Cherry country) — as a witness that they took possession of the country in the name of the King of France. This they chris- tened " Beauharnois," and beneath it deposited a leaden plate bear- ing the French coat- of- arms. This ceremony of dedication was per- formed May 19, 1744. They then resumed the homeward journey. North of the Assiniboine they explored the Saskatchewan — called by them " Poskoiac " — as far as the forks, and built two forts, one near Lake Dauphin (Swan Lake) and the other on the " River des Biches." They reached the Lake of the Woods on the 2d of July, and reported the northern route by the Saskatchewan as preferable to the Missouri, because of the absence of danger of meeting Span- iards, whom they feared might be encountered further south. They would not have felt so much solicitude on the subject if they had been aware that the Jesuit missions in the extreme southern portion of the peninsula of Lower California were the farthest north of the Spanish colonies of the Pacific Coast. Before starting upon their two years' journey they had been in- formed by the Indians that the " Shining Mountains " were full of gold. When they reached the mountains they were disappointed to find that it was not gold, but barren rock and snow, which reflected the rays of the sun so brightly, and they changed their name to " Stony, or Rocky, Mountains." The furthest west the information gained by the Verendrye brothers extends is to the Flathead Indians, of whom they speak, living just west of the main chain of the Rockies and within the limits of Oregon, as that territory existed when it was in dispute between the United States and Great Britain, but now in the western extremity of Montana. They encountered a band of Flatheads, who told them of their country west of the FROM CAPTAIN CARVER TO CAPTAIN COOK. 71 mountains, and of the srreat lake from which a river ran. This lake, they understood the Indians to say, was the source of a tribu- tary of the Missouri, but the cause of their error is evident, as Sun River flows from the mountains in that direction. They were also told of the great river running westward to the ocean, but were not able to cross the divide to explore it. The river to which the Indians referred was probably the stream first reached by Lewis and Clarke when they crossed the main divide, and which they named " Clarke's River." The stream is now known at various points along its course as "Deer Lodge," "Hellgate," "Bitter-Root," "Missoula," " Clarke's Fork," and " Pend d'Oreille," though a commendable fidelity to history, and a proper regard for the honor of one of our greatest explorers, demands that the use of every name but that of "Clarke's River" to be at once abandoned. The Chevalier Verendrye was relieved of his command of the frontier soon after this expedition, but was restored a few years later by Galissonere, the successor of Beauharnois. He died December 6, 1749, while planning a tour up the Saskatchewan. His son was deposed by Jonquierre, the next Governor -General, who dispatched two expeditions in search of the Pacific. One of these was com- manded by St. Pierre, an'd was to ascend the Saskatchewan, while the other, headed by Marin, was to go up the Missouri. St. Pierre excited the hostility of the Kinsteneaux Indians, who attempted to kill him; and though they failed in this they succeeded in burning- Fort La Reine. He sent Lieutenant Bouchet de Neville to establish a post at the head of the Saskatchewan. This effort proved a failure because of sickness, but in 1753 some of the men established Fort Jonquierre in the Rocky Mountains. In 1754 St. Pierre was relieved by De la Crone, and the following year fell in the battle before Fort St. George. The proposed expedition of Marin up the Mis- souri was a complete failure. The explorations of these French travelers ended with the war between England and France, which was participated in by their respective colonies in America, and which is known on this side of the Atlantic as the " French and Indian War." As that struggle drew toward its close, and France realized that her possessions in America were about to fall into the grasp of her immemorial enemy, she secretly conveyed to Spain her province of Louisiana. When HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. the gallant Wolfe died upon the Plains of Abraham in the very moment of triumph, one of the prizes to be gained by this crown- ing victory of the war had already passed into the keeping of an- other. Louisana belonged to Spain. The treaty of Paris, in 1763, conveyed Canada to Great Britain, and thus France was shorn of all her possessions in America. All these frontier posts were aban- doned, and the Rocky Mountains again became the undisputed home of the aborigine. We now approach the memorable journey of the none too vera- cious Captain Carver, the man who stands sponsor for the word " Oregon." This has led, by reason of the superficiality of many historical writers, to the bestowing upon him of all the credit of making known to the world the existence of the Columbia River, when the fact is that it was known long before his doubtful journey, and his account of it, so far from being written upon original infor- mation, was but the re-publication of facts made known by the French explorers above mentioned, many years before. Jonathan Carver was a native of Connecticut, and served with gallantry as a captain of the English colonial army in the war with France, wilich was terminated by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. He then conceived the idea of exploring the western portion of England's new posses- sions. In 1766 he left Boston, and going by the way of Detroit and Fort Michilimacinac, reached the headwaters of the Mississippi. Thus far historians admit that he traveled, probably to the Lake Park region of Minnesota, where rise streams flowing into the Mis- sissippi, the Missouri and the Red River of the North. Carver's claim to extensive traveling west of the headwaters of the Missis- sippi, covering a period of five months, is a very doubtful one; since his descriptions of the names, manners and customs of the Indian tribes of that region are but the translations into English of the works of the earlier French explorers. His object, as stated in the introduction to his book was, " after gaining a knowledge of the manners, customs, languages, soil and natural productions of the different nations that inhabit the back of the Mississippi, to ascer- tain the breadth of the vast continent which extends from the At- lantic to the Pacific Ocean, in its broadest part, between the forty- third and forty -sixth degrees of north latitude. Had I been able to accomplish this, I intended to have proposed to the government to FROM CAPTAIN CARVER TO CAPTAIN COOK. 73 establish a post in some of those parts, about the Straits of Anian, which, having been discovered by Sir Francis Drake, of course be- longs to the English. 1 ' The captain exposes his want of fitness as a geographer or historian by asserting that Drake discovered the Straits of Anian. The circumstances of Drake's voyage were more w r idely known than those of any other navigator, and in neither of the two accounts published was there a statement that the great robber had discovered those mythical straits, or any other passage leading inland from the Pacific. Carver did not seem to consider his adventures or discoveries worthy of publication until twenty years later, at a time when unusual interest was felt in England in the discovery of the Northwest Passage, to find which the celebrated Captain Cook had just been dispatched on a voyage of exploration to the North Pacific. Carver was at that time living in London in much financial distress, and his friends advised him to take advan- tage of the public interest to publish a book. He consequently wrote one, evidently compiled in a large measure from the narratives before alluded to, large portions of them being translated literally into English. He died in 1780 in extreme penury. The only interest this work or its author can have to modern historians, is the appearance therein of the word " Oregon," the first use of that term which has anywhere been discovered. It appears in the fol- lowing connection : From these natives, together with my own observations, I have learned that the four most capital rivers on the continent of North America, viz.: — the St. Lawrence? the Mississippi, the River Bourbon (Red River of the North), and the Oregon, or River of the West— have their sources in the same neighborhood. The waters of the three former are within thirty miles of each other ; [this is practically correct, and this point, somewhere in Western Minnesota, is probably the limit of his west- ward journey,] the latter, however, is rather further west. This shows that these parts are the highest in North America ; and it is an instance not to be paralleled in the other three-quarters of the world, that four rivers of such magnitude should take their rise together, and each, after running separate courses, discharge their waters into different oceans, at the distance of two thousand miles from their sources, for in their passage from this spot to the Bay of St. Lawrence, east, to the Bay of Mexico, south, to Hudson's Bay, north, and to the Bay at the Straits of Anian, west, each of these traverse upwards of two thousand miles. In this statement Carver does not claim to have visited the head- waters of the River Oregon, or even to know their exact location. He expressly observes that he derived his information chiefly "from 74 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. these natives," and it is possible that even from them it reached him through the medium of his French predecessors. Whence Carver derived his authority for calling the River of the West "Oregon" has been a matter of much discussion. Though it is now generally admitted that the word originated with Carver himself , or was supposed by him to be the name of the stream from some half-understood words uttered by the Indians in referring to it; yet there are many who are not content unless they can build up some theory founded upon a similarity of sound, and plausible only to those who are ignorant of the details of the early explorations in the Pacific. Of these the one most generally accepted 1 in Oregon is the following from the pen of Archbishop Blanchet, speaking of himself in the third person: — Jonathan Carver, an English captain in the wars by which Canada came into the possession of Great Britain, after the peace, left Boston, June 6, 1766, crossed the continent to the Pacific, and returned October, 1768. In relation to his travels, which were published in 1774, and republished in 1778, he is the first who makes use of the word " Oregon." The origin of that word has never been discovered in the country. The first Catholic missionaries — Father Demers, now Bishop of Van- couver Island, and Father Blanchet, now Bishop of Oregon City — arrived in Oregon in 1838. They traveled through it for many years, from south to north, from west to east, visiting and teaching the numerous tribes of Oregon, Washington Territory and British possessions. But in all their various excursions among the Indians they never succeeded in finding the origin of the word " Oregon." Now it appears that what could not be found in Oregon has been discovered by Archbishop Blan- chet in Bolivia, when he visited that country, Chile and Peru in 1855 and 1857. The word " Oregon," in his opinion, most undoubtedly has its root in the Spanish word oreja (ear), and came from the qualifying word orejon (big ear). For it is probable that the Spaniards, who .first discovered and visited the country, when they saw the Indians with big ears, enlarged by the load of ornaments, were natur- ally inclined to call them orejon (big ears). That nickname, first given to the In- dians, became also the name of the country. This explains how Captain Carver got it and first made use of it. But the travelers, perhaps Carver himself, not knowing the Spanish language, nor the peculiar pronunciation of the j in Spanish, for facility sake would have written it and pronounced it Oregon, instead of Orejon, in changing j to g. Such, in all probability, must be the origin of the word " Ore- gon." It comes from the Spanish word Orejon. This is certainly a scientific explanation, and were it only sus- tained by facts would be a satisfactory one; it will not, however, stand for a moment the light of investigation. At the time Carver made his journey no Spanish explorer had set foot in Oregon nor had the least communication with its native inhabitants ; they were not even familiar enough with the coast line to be aware of the existence of the Columbia River. The only expeditions had been FROM CAPTAIN CARVER TO CAPTAIN COOK. 75 those of Ferrelo and Aguilar, and neither of these had even made an attempt to land. Consequently they had not and could not apply the title Orejon to its inhabitants — people whom they had never seen and of whom they knew nothing. No allusion is made to the natives of this unknown land in the record of any Spanish explorer previous to that date, and the Bishop's supposition that they " discovered and visited this country," shows how unfamiliar he was with the history of Spanish explorations on the Pacific Coast. His assertion that Carver crossed the continent to the Pacific is equally at variance with the facts. The word " Oregon " was un- known to the Indians until after the country was visited by trap- pers, and the Bishop himself bears testimony to the fact that in all their extensive travels among the natives he and his missionary associates were unable to find authority for its use. Thus we see that the Spaniards had not visited Oregon, and knowing nothing of its inhabitants could not have called them u big ears"; that Carver did not visit the Columbia; that the word "Oregon" was unknown by the Indians, and, therefore, could not have been conveyed by them from tribe to tribe until it reached Carver's ears; therefore, the Bishop's theory is untenable. Equally so is the idea that Oregon was the Indian name of the Columbia, since if such were the case the early settlers of this region would have learned the name from the natives, instead of having to teach it to them. The same objections are valid to the theory that the early Spanish explorers bestowed the name because of the wild ma j oram (origanurn) found along the coast, since we have seen that the Spaniards had never set foot on the coast of Oregon, and that the name nowhere appears in Spanish records. If euphony of sound is to be relied upon, combined with the popular but errone- ous idea that Oregon was explored in early times by the Spaniards, then the writer desires to announce that he, also, has a theory — that in sailing along the coast some romantic Spaniard conceived a resemblance between the graceful summits of the Coast Range and the blue hills of his native Aragon, and bestowed that name upon this new land. To support this he calls attention to the fact that the Spaniards named Mexico "New Spain"; the Dutch called their settlement on the Atlantic coast " New Amsterdam," it being sub- sequently christened "New York" by the English; the region set- 76 history of Willamette valley. tied by the Puritans and the Massachusetts Colony was named "New England"; and the French at one time called Canada "New France." Instances of this kind might be easily multiplied, though, perhaps, the nearest and most convincing is the bestowal of the title " New Albion " upon California by Sir Francis Drake, because of the chalky bluffs he had observed along the coast. Profound and brilliant as the writer conceives this theory to be, he feels compelled to give place to the Irishman, who believed Oregon to be named in honor of his royal ancestors, the O'Regons. There we have not only euphony of sound, but correct orthography, combined with a proper degree of ignorance upon the subject. The traditionary policy of the Hudson's Bay Company to head off, or render nugatory, all attempts by the government to explore its chartered domains in search of the Straits of Anian, or some other passage into the Pacific Ocean from the North Atlantic, was strictly adhered to during the eighteenth century. They did not want the government itself nor the people to have any knowledge whatever of the regions lying contiguous to Hudson's Bay. To that end they kept to themselves all geographical knowledge gained year by year by their representatives in the course of business trans- actions, or when sent upon special journeys of exploration by the company.* In 1745 Parliament offered a reward of j£ 20,000 to any one discovering a passage into the Pacific from Hudson's Bay, but no one made a serious effort to earn the money. The company was powerful enough to prevent it. Nearly thirty years later, however, having become satisfied from information gathered by their employees that no such passage existed, they dispatched Samuel Hearne in search of a copper mine, of which much had been said by the Indians, and which was to be found on the bank of a stream called by the natives the " Far-off Metal River." That they might have the credit of exerting themselves in searching for the passage whose discovery had ostensibly been one of the leading objects in organizing the company, they instructed Hearne to keep his weather eye open for the Straits of Anian, and permitted it to be understood that this was the chief aim of his journey. The first object of note discovered by Hearne was Great Slave Lake, and he followed this and the connecting system of lakes and the Copper- mine River to the point of its discharge into the Arctic Ocean. FROM CAPTAIN CARVER TO CAPTAIN COOK. 7Y The Coppermine he believed to be the stream to which the Indians referred, but he found the proverbial enchantment of distance was alone responsible for the stories of its great richness in copper, and that, so far as minerals were concerned, his journey and sufferings — for he endured many hardships and privations — had been in vain. The Arctic he conceived to be an inland sea, similar to Hudson's Bay, and such he reported it upon his return to the company's headquarters ; also that no water passage connected the two great bodies of water. Though the journal kept by Hearne was not published for twenty years, the company immediately communi- cated to the admiralty the failure of Hearne to discover any North- west Passage. This seemed to end all hope of finding such a waterway leading out of Hudson's Bay; but the discovery of the new sea opened the door to new hopes. There might be a means of communication between it and Baffin's Bay, and from it might possibly be found the long -sought Straits of Anian, leading into the Pacific. It certainly resembled Maldonado's " North Sea." The rapidity with which Russia was extending her outposts in Alaska began to cause serious alarm in Spain. Inactivity and apparent apathy had marked the conduct of that nation for a century and a half, so far as the region lying north of California was concerned. This, however, was not caused by lack of interest, but by circumstances easily understood. All voyages of exploration had to be made at the expense of the Viceroy's treasury, and this the chief executive in the New World objected to. As long as Spain was not threatened with the loss of exclusive dominion on the Pacific Coast, there was nothing to arouse the government to action; nor was there anything in those unknown regions which was sufficiently tempting to induce the Viceroy to undergo the expense of a voyage of exploration unless stimulated by the positive orders of the crown. Now, however, affairs presented a different aspect. The extent of Russian exploration and occupation of the North Pacific were unknown; no definite information had been received ; the report of none of the Russian voyages had been pub- lished; yet that Russia was making quite extensive discoveries in that region was well known in Europe, and it caused much anxiety in Spain. She was aroused to the display of great activity, apparently combined with a purpose of discovering and taking 78 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. possession of all the coast not already occupied by the Muscovites. The first movement made by Spain was the colonizing of Cali- fornia, previously spoken of. The next was a series of explorations by sea. January 25, 1774, the corvette Santiago sailed from San Bias, commanded by Juan Perez, and piloted by Estivan Martinez. Perez was instructed to proceed as far north as the sixtieth degree of latitude, and then to return slowly along the coast, landing at sundry accessible points to take possession in the name of the King. The Santiago touched at San Diego and Monterey. He sailed from the latter port on the sixteenth of June, and sighted land again thirty- two days later, in latitude 54°, off the coast of Queen Charlotte Islands. Warned by the appearance of the dreaded scurvy among his crew that the voyage could not be prolonged, Perez turned about and coasted along to the southward. For a hundred miles he thus followed the coast, enjoying a highly profit- able trade in furs with the natives, who came out to the vessel in great canoes and exchanged sea otter and other valuable skins for merest trifles. A storm then drove the Santiago seaward, and she did not again make the land until the ninth of August, when she anchored at the entrance of a deep water bay in latitude 49° and 30'. In the direction of nomenclature the Spaniards were never at a loss, provided not more than one name was required per day. Whenever an object was discovered of sufficient impor- tance to require christening, the devout Catholic turned to his Roman calendar, and whatever saint was found to have been declared by the Church to be worthy of special honor upon that day, the name of that canonized mortal was bestowed upon it. Following this rule Perez discovered that the proper name of this harbor was " San Lorenzo," and that name he entered upon his journal and chart. This harbor was afterward re -christened by the English, and is now known as "King George's Sound," or "Nootka Sound." It lies on the west coast of Vancouver Island, and was a few years later the scene of an interesting episode which nearly precipitated a bloody conflict between Great Britain and Spain. Perez stopped for a few days to trade with the natives, of whose intelligence and light complexion he makes special mention, and then continued southward. He observed Mount Olympus, in latitude 47° and 47', which he christened " Santa Rosalia." A few days later he sighted FROM CAPTAIX" CARVER TO CAPTAIN COOK. 79 Cape Mendocino, whose exact latitude he ascertained, and in due time arrived at Monterey, having by his superficial method added but little to geographical knowledge. Manv years afterward, when the Straits of Fnca had been discovered by an English captain, and Spain was eager to prove a prior discovery, Martinez, the pilot of the Santiago, declared that he had observed a broad opening in the coast line between latitudes 48° and 49°, and that he had be- stowed his own name upon the point of land at its entrance on the south. Though there was nothing recorded in the journal of the voyage, Spanish geographers accepted this questionable state- ment as worthy of credence, and designated upon their maps as " Cape Martinez" the headland now known as "Cape Flattery." A second expedition was dispatched the following year, with in- structions to proceed as far north as the sixty -iifth parallel. This was composed of two vessels, the Santiago \ commanded by Bruno Heceta, and piloted by Perez, its former captain; and the Sonora, under Juan de Ayala, whose pilot was Antonio Maurelle. A French geographer named Bellin had prepared a chart of the Pacific, founded upon printed reports and rumored discoveries made by various nations, a chart which was " wonderfully and fearfully made. 1 '' It is difficult to conceive how such a map could have been produced ; certainly nothing but the phosphorescent intellect of a Frenchman could have evolved such a geographical monstrosity. With BelhVs chart, the latest issued, the explorers were supplied, and it is a fact far from creditable that Spaniards had made so long a voyage the year before without being able to correct any of its excentricities. The Santiago and Sonora, accompanied by the San Carlos, sailed from San Bias, March 15, 1775, and proceeded to Monterey. There Ayala was transferred to the San Carlos, Lieutenant Juan Fran- cisco de la Bodega y Quadra succeeding to the command of the Sonora. The latter vessel and the Santiago then sailed from Mon- terey on their voyage of discovery. On the ninth of June they anchored in an open roadstead some distance north of Cape Men- docino, calling it Port Trinidad for the all -satisfying reason that the day mentioned was dedicated in the calendar to the Holy Trinity. This is the same Bay of Trinidad which caused so much excitement among the gold hunters in 1850, and the following year became the landing place for the devotees of tw Gold Bluff. 1 ' Having spent nine 80 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. days at Trinidad, the vessels again put to sea, and did not sight land again till in latitude 48° and 27', according to their somewhat faulty reckoning, being almost at the entrance of the Straits of Fuca. The Greek pilot had located his passageway between latitudes 47° and 48° ; and it being thus indicated on Bellin's chart, the ex- plorers turned to the southward to search for what was almost within the horizon line on the north. Of course they found nothing. The only adventure worthy of note in that region, was the killing of seven of the Sonords crew by the Indians. This occurred on the mainland near a small island in latitude 47°, which was named "Isla de Dolores" (Island of Sorrows), the title, as usual, being dictated by the calendar. It was afterward christened " Destruction Island " by an English captain who lost a boat's crew near that point in precisely the same manner. Here Heceta became alarmed at the ravages the dreaded scurvy was committing, and desired to return before his crews entirely succumbed to the scourge. He was persuaded to continue the voyage, but a few days later a storm separated the two consorts, and Heceta at once headed his vessel for Monterey. He observed land in latitude 50°, being the southwest portion of Vancouver Island, but overlooked the Port San Lorenzo of Perez, and the Straits of Fuca, beginning again the search for the latter in latitude 48°. He made a great discovery on the fifteenth of August, 1775, being no less than the entrance to the Columbia River. While sailing quietly along the coast he suddenly noticed an open- ing in the land from which flowed a stream of water with great force. He endeavored to enter, but the current was too strong, and for a whole day he was thus baffled in his efforts to explore what he was satisfied was the channel of a great river, perhaps the Rio de Aguilar, or, possibly, the Straits of Fuca, for which he had been so diligently searching. He at last abandoned the effort and sailed again toward Monterey, observing, for the first time, the coast of Oregon with sufficient carefulness to enter upon his journal quite accurate descriptions. This was the first time the coast of Oregon was actually explored by the Spaniards, or any other nation, being a year later than the' first publication of Carver's book containing the word " Oregon," and nineteen years after the journey of which the volume treated. It is plainly evident that the name was not FROM CAPTAIN CARVER TO CAPTAIN COOK. 81 bestowed by the Spaniards. Upon bis chart Heceta entered the river he had discovered not »as a river, since he had not proved it to be such, but as an inlet, calling it " Ensenada de Asuncion." This name was bestowed for the all-sufficient reason, to a Spaniard, that the fifteenth of August was the day of the Assumption. The sixteenth was devoted by the calendar to the glorification of Saint Roc, and he therefore called the promontory on the north " Cabo de San Roque." The calendar having been exhausted he was compelled to bestow a more sensible title upon the low point of land on the south, which he christened " Cabo de Frondoso " (Leafy Cape). Maps made by the Spaniards thereafter had in- dicated upon them an indentation in the shore line at this point, variously marked " Ensenada de Heceta " and " Rio de San Roque," according as the map-maker believed it to be a river or simply an inlet. While Heceta was making these discoveries Bodega and Mau- relle were still sailing northward in the little Sonora, endeavoring to obey their instructions. It was, apparently, the policy of Span- ish explorers to give the land as wide a berth as possible. English navigators always kept as close in shore as circumstances would permit, carefully examining every bay and inlet, making frequent observations and copious entries upon their journals. When their voyage was completed they were prepared to make an approximately correct map of the coast, accompanied by long and careful descrip- tions. Not so with the Spaniards. They kept well out to sea, sighting land here and there, and when they returned were utterly unable to report anything save that they had sailed to a certain lat- itude and had seen land several times during the voyage. Whether the laud observed was an island or a portion of the continent, or whether the coast line was continuous, or was much indented with 1 >ays and inlets, they could not tell. This is why the Spaniards, even after the voyages of Perez, Heceta and Bodega, were utterly unable to prepare a map of the coast which was the least approach to the original. It was now they began to appreciate the beauties of Bellin's Chart, which had been prepared partly from the worth- less reports of their predecessors, partly from the reports of equally superficial Russian explorers, and partly from imagination. On the sixteenth of August, when the chart assured them they were one 82 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. hundred and thirty-five leagues distant from the American shore — and it is difficult to understand how they could natter themselves that they were exploring a coast line which was one hundred and thirty -five leagues distant — they suddenly discovered land both to the north and east of them. They were then above the fifty-sixth parallel, in the vicinity of a huge snow -mantled peak, rising abruptly from a headland on the coast, which they christened "Mount San Jacinto. r This is the one named " Mount Edgecumb " by Captain Cook, and stands on the chief island of King George III.'s Archi- pelago. Supposing it to be a portion of the main land, the Span- iards landed to take possession in the name of their, sovereign. They planted a cross, with appropriate ceremonies, and were busily engaged in procuring a supply of fish and fresh water, when they were suddenly interrupted by the native proprietors. The cross was uprooted in scorn and those who had erected it were given to understand that a hasty departure would be agreeable, though they were not permitted to make so much haste that payment for the fish and water was neglected. Thus ended the first effort of Spain to take possession of the coast north of California. They then continued their northward journey as far as latitude 58°, when Bodego decided to begin the homeward voyage and explore the coast line more thoroughly. They searched carefully for the Rio de los Reyes as far south as latitude 54°, but did not find it; nor would they have found it had it been in existence, since Admiral Fonte located his wonderful stream under the fifty -third parallel. They landed again on the twenty-fourth of August, in a little harbor on the west coast of Prince of Wales Island, where they took pos- session without interference from the Indians, and named the place " Port Bueareli," in honor of the Viceroy under whose directions they were acting, and whose proud privilege it was to pay the ex- penses of the voyage. Occasionally observing the coast south of this point, they began again, in latitude 45°, to scrutinize the Oregon shore in search of Aguilar's River, and though they ob- served several streams of water entering the sea, they were not of sufficient magnitude to indicate a large stream, such as Aguilar re- ported having seen near the forty -third parallel in 1603. They did, however, observe a prominent headland answering Aguilar's description of Cape Blanco. Their next stopping place was in a bay FEOM CAPTAIN CARVER TO CAPTAIN COOK. 83 which the Sonora entered on the third of October, and which Bo- dega supposed was the Bay of San Francisco. He learned later that it was a much smaller one lying a little further north, and this has ever since been known as Bodega Bay. These three voyages justly entitled Spain to a claim to the entire coast from Cape Mendocino to Mount San Jacinto by title of explo- ration. If that title was of any value, it belonged to Spain ; but in these modern times, possession is a far stronger title than simple discovery, and the United States found the claim acquired from Spain hard to defend against England's actual possession of the soil. In fact, had she depended upon it at all Oregon would now be a province of Great Britain. Accounts of these important voyages did not reach the public through the medium of the press; yet the fact that the Spaniards had made several important voyages in the Pacific, and were evidently seeking to take possession of the entire coast, soon became known in England, and created great uneasi- ness. She could not stand supinely by and see her ancient enemy secure a territory which she had coveted for years, ever since the marauding expedition of Sir Francis Drake two centuries before, but which, as yet, she had made no direct effort to reach from the Pacific side. This year, 1776, saw England involved in war with her colonies on the Atlantic Coast, yet she was none the less eager to plant new ones at the other extremity of the continent. Her passion for acquiring broad territorial dependencies could not be checked by her unpleasant experiences with the confederate colonies who had just declared themselves free and independent. It is this policy of colonial aggrandizement, systematically maintained through long series of years, which has made her the center of an empire upon which the sun never sets, and in which her "morning drum beat follows the course of the sun in one continuous roll around the world." Parliament at once renewed her offer made in 1745, of a reward of £20,000 for the discovery of the Northwest Pa -sage, though not limiting it to exploration in Hudson's Bay. The reward was offered to any vessel, sailing in any direction, through any straits connecting the Atlantic with the distant Pacific, north of latitude 52°. This was inimical to the business interests of the Hudson's Bay ( "lnpany, and consequently was productive of no greater results 84 HISTOKY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. than the former one. The Admiralty had by this time become satisfied that it was useless to seek for the passage on the Atlantic side, since all their efforts were in some manner rendered abortive; and they decided to dispatch an expedition to the Pacific to search for the passage on that side, and to learn, if possible, the extent of Spanish and Russian occupation. For this important task the most renowned navigator of his time was selected, Captain James Cook, whose recent extensive explorations in the South Sea and Indian Ocean, extending into the Antarctic regions, had been so thoroughly and intelligently conducted that little was left for his successors to accomplish in the same field. It was vitally necessary that this means of entering the Pacific be discovered if England woilld plant colonies in this region, for communication with them by way of the Horn or Cape of Good Hope would be too long and uncertain. The public gaze was centered upon Captain Cook, and during the four years that passed between the departure and return of his vessels, the gallant navigator and his mission were not forgotten, even amid the exciting incidents of the conflict in America and the graver political complications in Europe. The expedition was com- posed of two vessels — the Resolution, a craft which had just taken Cook around the world, and a consort named the Discovery, com- manded by Captain Charles Clerke. In every particular the vessels were fitted for the work expected of them. Charts were pre- pared, embracing all the geographical knowledge of the time, except that recently gained by the Spaniards, the details of which had not yet been received in England. This left a comparative blank in the Pacific between latitudes 43°, the northern limit of Aguilar's voyage, and 56°, the most southerly point on the coast reached by the Russian explorers. In this were indicated three important objects — the great river supposed to exist some- where within those limits, the Straits of Fuca and the River of Kings. Cook's instructions were very minute and particular. England was involved in war with her American colonies, while her old enemies, France and Spain, seemed about to add material aid to the -open encouragement they gave the struggling rebels. It was incumbent upon her to do nothing whatever to incur the open hostility of these warlike nations, or to even give them a plausible excuse for declaring a war which they seemed more than willing to FROM CAPTAIN CARVER TO CAPTAIN COOK. 85 embark in. To thus send an expedition into waters which Spain had for centuries looked upon as her own special inheritance, and to explore a coast line which she had just visited and formally taken possession of, was a delicate matter, and Captain Cook was relied upon to do nothing to offend the Spaniards or antagonize the Russians, whom he was expected to encounter on the coast of Alaska. He was instructed to first reach the coast of New Albion, for such the English still called California, in latitude 45°, and was " strictly enjoined on his way thither, not to touch upon any part of the Spanish dominions on the western continent of America, unless driven to it by some unavoidable accident; in which case he should stay no longer than should be absolutely necessary, and to be very careful not to give any umbrage or offense to any of the inhabitants or subjects of his Catholic majesty. And if, in his further progress northward, he should meet any subjects of any European prince or state (referring to the Russians), upon any part of the coast which he might think proper to visit, he was not to disturb them or give them just cause of offense, but, on the con- trary, to treat them with civility and friendship. 1 "' He was also instructed to examine the coast thoroughly, and " with the consent of the natives, to take possession in the name of the King of Great Britain, of convenient stations in such countries as he might dis- cover that had not been already discovered or visited by any other Ettropean power, and to distribute among the inhabitants such things as would remain as traces of his having been there; but if he should find the countries so discovered to be uninhabited, he was to take possession of them for his sovereign, by setting up proper marks and descriptions, as first discoverers and possessor-." A literal adherence to these instructions would have barred Cook from the whole coast, since Spanish explorers had visited and taken formal possession at various points but the year before. It was generally supposed that the ocean ilearne had discovered at the mouth of the Coppermine River was identical with the Pacific, and that as progression was made northward the coast would be found trending sharply to the east, the region occupied by the Russians being a sea of islands lying much to the westward of the main land of America. Beginning when he first espied land, he was to search for Aguilar's River, or the Great River of the West, then in latitude 86 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 48°, to look for the Straits of Fuca, and near the fifty -third parallel to hunt for Fonte's Rio de los Reyes. Upon reaching the sixty -fifth parallel he was expected to find the coast trending rapidly northeastward towards the mouth of the Coppermine ; and from that point he was to explore carefully "such rivers or inlets as might appear to be of considerable extent and pointing toward Hudson's or Baffin's bays." Through all such he was to endeavor to pass, either in his large vessels or in smaller ones to be constructed for that purpose from materials taken with him for that emergency. If, however, he discovered that the Pacific and North Sea were not identical, and that the coast line turned westward or held a north- ward course, he was to continue on to the Russian settlements at Kamtchatka, and from that point sailed northward " in further search for a northeast or northwest passage from the Pacific Ocean into the Atlantic or North Sea." Cook certainly had a gigantic task before him. On the twelfth of July, 1776, eight days after the bell of In- dependence Hall had rung out to the world the glad tidings that a free people had pledged " their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor" in the cause of liberty, Cook sailed from Plymouth on his mission. He rounded the Cape of Good Hope and spent nearly a year in exploring the coast of Van Dieman's Land, New Zea- land, and the Friendly and Society groups of islands. It was not until the eighteenth of January, 1778, that he encountered the Hawaiian group of islands, making thus one of the most important discoveries in the Pacific. Upon these he bestowed the name of " Sandwich Islands," in courtesy to the First Lord of the Admiralty. After a brief stay at this mid -ocean refuge, he resumed his course eastward, and on the seventh of March espied the coast of New Albion, near the forty -fourth parallel. This was the coast of Oregon in the vicinity of the Umpqua River. After being forced by headwinds as far south as Rogue River, he sailed a northerly course well out to sea, and did not again see land until he reached latitude 48°. To the prominent headland he then saw he gave the name u Cape Flattery," because of the encouraging condition of affairs. Immediately north of Cape Flattery lay the Straits of Fuca, but on his chart the passage supposed to have been discovered by the old Greek pilot was indicated as lying south of the forty -eighth par- FROM CAPTAIN CARVER TO CAPTAIN COOK. 87 allel ; and so he coasted southward to find it, little imagining that what he sought was within a few miles of him, and that he was deliber- ately turning his back upon it. Naturally he was unsuccessful in his search, and concluded that no such passage existed. He then sailed north, passing directly by the entrance to the straits without observing them, and cast anchor in Nootka Sound, unaware that it was the one which Perez had entered a few years before and named " Port San Lorenzo 11 ; in fact, he was unacquainted with any of the particulars of the recent Spanish voyages. This port he at first called " St. George's Sound, 11 but soon changed the name to "Noot- ka." the proper Indian title. The natives were very intelligent, possessed copper, iron and brass, and were familiar with the methods of working them. They were extremely friendly and bartered val- uable furs for trinkets of any kind, preferring metal to anything else. The vessels were constantly surrounded by a fleet of canoes, whose occupants had come for many mile? along the coast for the purpose of seeing the white strangers and trading with them. Here he lay nearly a month, repairing his vessels and permitting the sea- men to recover from the effects of their long voyage. About the first of April he resumed his northward course. In the vicinity of the fifty-third parallel he intended to search for Admiral Fonte's River of Kings, but was driven to sea by a gale and did not again see land until considerably north of that point. This did not appear to him in the light of a disaster, for his journal says: "For my own part I gave m> credit to such vague and improbable stories, that convey their own confutation along with them ; nevertheless. I was very desirous of keeping the American coast aboard, in order to clear up this point beyond dispute." From the fifty-fifth parallel, where he again saw land, he continued north, in full view of the coast, observing the peak called u San Jacinto 1 ' by Bodega, but which he named "Edgecumb"; discovering and naming Mount Fair- weather, and on the fourth of May reaching an immense snow peak, standing near the water's edge, which he at once recognized as the Mount St. Elias discovered by Behring. The sharp westward trend of the coast from this point led Cook to begin there a careful search for the Straits of Anian, which he hoped to find leading northward into the North Sea, the existence of which Hearne had verified, or eastward into Hudson's or Baffin's 88 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Bay. The Russian charts showed this to be the end of the Ameri- can continent, all to the westward being a vast sea of islands; con- sequently he had good reasons for expecting to find a passage into the North Sea. He began a diligent search, exploring carefully all bays and inlets along the coast. Prince William's Sound and Cook's Inlet received special attention, and on his map are very accurately laid down. The latter he at first supposed to be a river, and called it " Cook's River," but the error was soon discov- ered. Unsuccessful in finding the desired passage in either of these favorable localities, he continued westward, and soon found the coast trending toward the southwest. His careful explorations con- vinced him that this region was by no means a sea of islands, but that the American continent " extended much further to the west than, from the modern most reputable charts, he had reason to expect," and that the Russians had been extremely superficial in their explorations. He determined to abandon his present effort and to follow the coast line to its termination, and then to enter Behring's Straits. On the nineteeenth of June he fell in with the Schumagim Islands, where he saw the first tokens of Russian pres- ence in that region. One of the many natives who swarmed about the vessel possessed a piece of paper, upon which was writing which he conceived to be in the Russian language. When he had passed the Aleutian Islands, he sailed around them to the north, and then returned eastward, soon reaching the large island of Ounalaska, where he remained five days without encountering any Russians, though he knew this to be an important station in the fur trade. On the second of July he resumed his search for an east- ward passage, sailing northerly along the west coast of the Alaskan Peninsula. He reached a point on the ninth of August which he properly concluded was the extreme northwestern corner of America, since the coast beyond trended steadily to the eastward. This he named "Cape Prince of Wales." He then crossed Behring's Strait and followed the Asiatic Coast on the Arctic side as far as Cape North, in latitude 68° and 56 / '. Returning to the American side, he proceeded beyond Cape Prince of Wales until his progress was arrested by the ice in latitude 70° and 29'. This point he named " Icy Cape," and then returned to Ounalaska, where he found a few Russian fur traders who were greatly surprised to learn how FROM CAPTAIN CARVER TO CAPTAIN COOK. 89 erroneous had been the opinions they entertained of the geography of the North Pacific. From Ounalaska he sailed directly to the Sandwich Islands, where he spent the winter. On the sixteenth of February, 1779, while preparing to renew his voyage, he was slain in an unfortunate encounter with the natives of Hawaii, and notwithstanding the fact that every museum in England and America has on exhibition "the club that killed Captain Cook," it is a well authenticated fact that he was slain with a spear. The command now devolved upon Captain Clerke, whose ill health seriously affected the future movements of the expedition. The loss cf Cook was a calamity. Clerke sailed in March, with the design of pushing still further eastward in the North Sea, and, if possible, passing by that route into the Atlantic. On his way he entered the Bay of Avatscha, and cast anchor in the Harbor of Petropaulovski, the chief settlement of Kamtchatka. The Russian officials received the visitors with great courtesy, being glad of an opportunity to learn of the geographical discoveries the English- men had made. The voyage was then resumed, but ignorance of the climatic peculiarities of the Arctic region had led him to under- take the passage too early in the Spring. The consequence was that he was prevented by ice from progressing even as far as the season before, and returned to Petropaulovski with the conviction that no northern passage existed between the Atlantic and Pa- cific oceans. Being in ill health, Clerke lay at anchor in the Russian harbor until the twenty-second of August, when he died. The command of the expedition then devolved upon Lieutenant John Gore, who sailed at once for England by the way of Canton and the Cape of Good Hope, deeming his vessels unfit to encounter another season in the Arctic. The object of going to Canton was to dispose of a large collec- tion of furs both the men and officers had made, chiefly by trading for them with the natives of Nootka Sound. They had not been purchased for market, nor had they been selected according to their commercial value, and many had been rendered unsalable by being used for clothing and beds. It was only when the Russians offered a large price for them that they realized the value of what they possessed; but as the traders had inadvertently told them what great profits they made by shipping furs to Canton, they declined 90 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. to sell, preferring to take them to the better market. For this miscellaneous collection of furs the Chinese paid them $10,000. The men became excited at the prospect. The thought of return- ing to England without engaging for a time in the fur trade made them rebellious, notwithstanding they had been afloat over three years. As the narrative of the voyage says, they became " possessed with a rage to return to the northern coast, and, by another cargo of skins, to make their fortunes, which was, at one time, not far from mutiny.' ' The rebellious crew was reduced to subordination, and the homeward voyage was resumed. It was early in October, 1780, that the Resolution and Discovery reached England, after an absence of four years and three months, during which time the country had been engaged in war with her American colonies and her two immemorial enemies across the chan- nel. Cook and his expedition had almost become forgotten in the excitement of current events, and the return of the vessels with in- telligence of the death of the two senior commanders and of the geographical discoveries which had been made, was an unexpected surprise. Until the complications of war were removed, England had neither time nor inclination to attempt further discoveries or plant new colonies, and so the Lords of Admiralty pigeon-holed the official record of the voyage, to be published after the conclusion of peace. They could not seal the li£s of the seamen, who scattered about the story of their adventures, and the wonderful profits to be gained in buying furs for nothing from the Indians on the American side of the Pacific, and selling them for a great deal to the Chinese on the Asiatic side. One of these seamen, John Ledyard, an Amer- ican, endeavored to influence American and French capitalists in a fur enterprise, but unsuccessfully. He then conceived the idea of traveling around the world by way of Russia, Siberia, the Pacific and America. Having secured a passport from the Empress of Russia, he traveled as far as Irkutsk, when he was arrested, con- ducted to the Polish frontier and released upon the condition that he never again enter the empire. This arbitrary act is ascribed to the influence of the Russian fur monopoly, which did not relish the idea of foreigners prying into their business. While Cook's vessels were lying at Hawaii, and only nine days before the famous commander was killed, another Spanish expedi- FROM CAPTAIN CARVER TO CAPTAIN COOK. 91 tion sailed on a voyage of discovery in the North Pacific. This was not caused by Cook's movements, for the Spanish authorities were unaware of his presence in the Pacific, but was the result of the government's desire to examine the northern regions more criti- cally than Bodega and Heceta had done. After three years of preparation the Princess and Favor it a sailed — the former com- manded by Ignacio Arteaga and the latter by Bodega and Maurelle. The route of the vessels was much the same as that traversed by Bodega and Cook, and nothing of importance was noticed which had not been seen by those explorers. When they observed the coast -line beyond Mount St. Elias to trend westward, they began searching for the Straits of Anian, as had Cook the year before, but were by no means as thorough as the English navigator had been. Arteaga lacked the quality of perseverance under disappointment and hardships which is so necessary to the successful explorer, and discouraged by his want of success, and frightened by the appear- ance of scurvy symptoms among his crew, ordered the vessels back to San Bias. Instead of being reprimanded for the superficial nature of his explorations, his faulty observations and useless charts, he and his associates were rewarded by promotion. Spain was now well satisfied of the extent and value of the coast to the north, but being involved in war was compelled to postpone any effort at coloniza- tion until her foreign complications were at an end. CHAPTER VII. SPAIN'S SUPREMACY IN THE PACIFIC OVERTHROWN. The Russian- American Trading Company — France sends La Perouse to the Pacific — James Hanna makes the First Voyage in the Pur Trade from England — England 's Short-sighted Policy of Granting Monopoly Charters — The East India Company and South Sea Com- pany — Their Conflicting Interests Leads to the Organization of the King George's Sound Company — Belief that North America above latitude Jf.9 was an Archipelago of Huge Islands — First Voyage of Captain Meares — His Terrible Winter on the Alaskan Coast — Cap- tain Barclay Discovers the Straits of Fuca — Meares Engages in the Fur Trade under the Portuguese Flag — He Builds the Schooner "Northwest America" at Nootka Sound — Explores the Straits of Fuca — His Unsuccessful Search for the Rio de San Rogue — Decep- tion Bay and Cape Disappointment — The United States Enters the Contest for Control of the Pacific Coast — The "Columbia Rediviva" and "Lady Washington " — The Latter Attacked by Indians, and the Former Supplies Spain with an Opportunity to Promulgate her Doc- trine of Exclusive Rights in the Pacific- Martinez sent to Explore the Coast and Investigate the Russians — His Report of Russian Operations Causes Spain to Send a Remonstrance to the Empress — Martinez Fortifies Nootka and Takes Possession in the Name of the King of Spain — He Seizes the "Iphigenia " and "Northwest Ameri- ca " — Colnett and Hudson arrive in the "Argonaut " and "Princess Royal" — Are made Prisoners by Martinez and sent to Mexico — The Prisoners Released and Vessels Restored — Controversy between England and Spain Terminated by the Nootka Convention — Stipu- lations of the Treaty Displease both Parties. THE first to avail themselves of the discoveries made by Cook were the Russians They were not embroiled in war with any nation contending for supremacy in America, nor with any other spain's supremacy in the pacific overthrown. 93 power which could attack their Pacific possessions. Cook's voyage opened their eyes to the nature and value of the fur regions, and they resolved to enter deeply into that which they had been simply skimming for forty years. The Russian- American Trading Com- pany was organized in 1781. Two years later three vessels were sent from Petropaulovski, to establish stations on the islands and main land as far east as Prince William's Sound. Three years were consumed in this work. The hold Russia then took upon Alaska was not relaxed until that region was purchased by the United States nearly a century later (in 1867) for $7,200,000. The first official voyage made by the contending nations, after the Treaty of Ghent was signed, was sent out by France, In the winter of 1784-5 Cook's journal was published, and though the " yarns " of his sailors had been freely circulated, this was a reve- lation to the people, and caused much eagerness to be displayed to take advantage of the golden opportunity therein pointed out. The French government immediately dispatched a skillful and scientific navigator, named La Perouse, with instructions to " explore the parts of the northwestern coast of America which had not been examined by Cook, and of which the Russian accounts gave no idea, in order to obtain information respecting the fur trade, and also to learn whether, in those unknown parts, some river or internal sea might not be found communicating with Hudson's Bay, or Baffin's Bay." La Perouse sailed in 1785, and on the twenty -third of June, 1786, reached the American Coast in the vicinity of Mount Fairweather. After remaining several weeks at anchor, he proceeded slowly south- ward, minutely examining the coast, and discovering that the places where the English and Spanish explorers had formerly landed were not on the main land, but on a long range of islands which fringe the coast. For this important discovery he received no credit, as his vessels were wrecked in the New Hebrides on the return voyage, and his journal was not published for ten years, long after other explorers had discovered the same facts and made them known to the world. The first successful venture in the fur trade was made by James Hanna, an Englishman, who sailed from the Portuguese East India port of Macao, in 1785, secured a load of furs at Nootka Sound, and disposed of them in China for $20,000. The next year he 94 HI8T0KY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. repeated tlie voyage, but found that other traders had arrived, whose competition prevented the securing of a good cargo; also, that the Chinese market was glutted with this avalanche of furs. There was no profit in the business that year. England adopted an extremely short-sighted policy in her treatment of the Pacific question, and surrendered her claims into the hands of private monopolies. A century before, eager to discover the long- sought Northwest Passage, she chartered the Hudson's Bay Company, granting it almost royal power, and conferring upon it absolute dominion in that vast region whose waters fall into Hudson's Bay. Two centuries have gone by and it is still a wilderness. In her anxiety to command the commerce of the Pacific, and plant her foot on the western shore of America, she again committed the fatal error of delegating her powers to private and selfish monopolies. At that time the East India Company was already firmly established in India, and had laid well the foundation of that power which has since added the title of "Empress of the Indies*' to the crown of England. To this gigantic corporation was granted the monopoly of all trade with the ports of Asia and adjacent islands — all other subjects of Great Britain being prohib- ited from trading under severe penalties. A new association, called the " South Sea Company," was chartered, upon which was conferred the exclusive privilege of trade on the American Coast. Thus was the whole commerce of the Pacific, so far as England was concerned, given into the hands of two corporations, and all other subjects of Great Britain, no matter how eager they might be to embark in the fur trade and explore the unknown mysteries of the great South Sea, were debarred from so doing. No English ships could pass around Cape Horn save those of the South Sea Company, while the ensign of the powerful East India Company must fly at the mast-head of every British vessel that doubled the Cape of Good Hope. It was of course the supposition that these two corporations, being rich and powerful, would at once embark in the fur trade on an extensive scale, and, as the representatives of the British crown, would lay as broad and deep a foundation for English power on the American Coast and the Islands of the Pacific, as one of them had already done in the land of the Brah- mins. Such was not the case, owing primarily to the conflicting Spain's supremacy in the pacific overthrown. 95 interests of the two companies. The great fur market was China, but from the ports of that company the ships of the South Sea Company were debarred by the exclusive trade privileges of the rival association. Nor was the East India Company more happily situated; with complete control of England's commerce in Asiatic ports, it was excluded from the fur-producing coast of America. One controlled the source of supply and the other the market, and neither could accomplish anything. The chasm between the rival companies was bridged by the organization of a third one — the King George's Sound Company. This association was formed in 1 785, and was granted special permits from both monopolies, enabling it to embark in the Pacific fur trade under favorable auspices. Two vessels were dispatched by this company, the King George and Queen Charlotte, commanded by Captains Portlock and Dixon. They traded two years without paying expenses, the Chinese market having been flooded by this sudden shower of fur. Two other vessels sent the next year by the same company, and which reached Xootka in 1787, prior to the return of Portlock and Dixon to England, were equally unsuccessful, and the South Sea Company suddenly collapsed. Shares in the company, which it had formally taken fortunes to purchase, were thrown into the street, and the projectors of the enterprise barely escaped the rude clutches of a mob. The South Sea Bubble was completely bursted. These traders, in passing up and down the coast, learned what La Perouse had discovered two years before — that all points north of Xootka yet visited by traders and explorers, were but islands and not portions of the main land. The former Russian idea of the region occupied by them was revived, and extended to embrace the whole northern portion of America. It was conceived that not a continent, but an immense archipelago of islands occupied that re- gion, and that through the channels separating them it was possible to reach the Atlantic. This idea was also supported two years later by Caj:>tain Meares, who assigned as one of his reasons for hold- ing the belief, that "the channels of this archipelago were found to be wide and capacious, with near two hundred fathoms deep of water, and huge promontories stretching out into the sea, where whales and sea-< >tter> were seen in incredible abundance. In some of these channels there are islands of ice, which we ma} 7 venture to 96 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. say could never have formed on the western side of America, which possesses a mild and moderate climate; so that their existence can not be reconciled to any other idea, than that they received their formation in the eastern seas, and have been drifted by the tides and currents through the passage for whose existence we are con- tending.'' 1 He was not aware that the Alaska glaciers were con- stantly dropping frozen offerings into the sea. A few years later Captain Vancouver demonstrated the fallacy of this theory, and gave us the first correct idea of the American continent with its coast fringe of islands. In 1786 the great East India Company, either having made some commercial arrangement with the South Sea Company, or purposely infringing upon the chartered rights of the rival organization, dis- patched two small vessels to the American Coast for<£urs. They met with sufficient success to encourage the company to engage in the business on a larger scale; consequently, two vessels were fitted out, the Nootka and Sea-Otter, in 1787, and dispatched to Nootka Sound, which was then the objective point of all fur traders. The former was under the command of Captain John Meares, a former lieutenant of the royal navy, and the latter by Lieutenant Walter Tipping. The Sea-Otter followed the Japan Current until she reached the Aleutian Islands, and then coasting along eastward arrived at Prince William's Sound. Thus far was she traced by her consort, but be- yond that point her movements never were known, nor was she ever heard from again. She was probably swamped in mid ocean, for had she been wrecked on the coast some traces of her would have been discovered by the natives and reported to the traders. The Nootka followed the same general course, and came to anchor in Prince William's Sound about the first of October, Captain Meares designing to spend the winter in that port and resume the voyage along the coast in the spring. Unacquainted with the climatic con- ditions, he had selected a place sufficiently removed from the path of the Japan Current and its branches to be practically beyond its influences; and thus a place where all the rigors of an Arctic winter prevailed. During October, November and even December, the climate was generally pleasant and always endurable, but there sud- denly came a change. All the chilling winds of the Borean cave Spain's supremacy in the pacific overthrown. 97 were unchained, and howled about the vessel, which was soon bound in icy fetters and buried beneath the -drifting snow. The migratory Indians disappeared in search of a more agreeable abode, and were quickly followed by all animal and aquatic life. The sun hid its face, save for a few moments at midday, when it seemed to raise its head above the horizon to cast a derisive glance upon the suffer ers, and then quickly disappeared. Meares' journal says : " Tremendous mountains forbade almost a sight of the sky, and cast their noctur- nal shadows over the ship in the midst of day." Deprived of proper food and exercise, the imprisoned crew were quickly attacked with scurvy, whose horrible ravages it was impossible to check. Twenty- three died during the four months of their imprisonment, while the others were rendered so feeble as to be unfit to perform duty. At last, in May, the ice released the vessel from its confining grasp; animals and birds returned, the natives again appeared, and won to health and strength by fresh food and the invigorating rays of the sun, the afflicted crew were soon ready to resume the voyage. Dis- heartened by his terrible experience, and rendered short-handed by the death of so many of his seamen, Mears sailed in June for the Sandwich Islands, and from there proceeded to China. Discouraged by these two disastrous voyages, the East India Company abandoned the Pacific fur trade and confined its attention to the enormous com- merce of India. Another vessel was engaged in the fur trade in 1787, the Impe- rial Eagle, belonging to the Austrian East India Company, and commanded by Captain Barclay, or Berkeley, an Englishman whose name is perpetuated in Barclay Sound, on the west coast of Van- couver Island. Nothing is remarkable in connection with this voy- age but the discovery of what was then believed to be the much sought and generally uncredited Straits of Fuca, only a few miles north of the location assigned by the old Greek pilot to the passage he claimed to have entered. This Barclay observed while passing southward across the entrance; but he made no effort to explore it, simply entering its location upon his chart. He continued his course, and at the mouth of a small river just above the Isla de Dolores, where Bodega had lost a portion of his crew a few years before at the hands of the natives, sent a boat's crew ashore, who met a similar fate to that which had befallen their Spanish prede- 98 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. cessors. In commemoration of the sad event he christened the ill- fated place " Destruction River, 71 a title which was later, by one of those errors incident to map making, transferred to the adjacent island. When Captain Meares returned to China from his unfortunate winter in Prince William's Sound, he did not, like the East India Company, abandon the fur trade; on the contrary, he entered into it on his own responsibility. In order to avoid the restriction placed upon British subjects by the charters Parliament had granted the two great monopolies, he entered into a commercial arrangement with Juan Cavallo, a Portuguese merchant of Macao, a port near Canton belonging to the crown of Portugal. Two vessels were fitted out and commissioned by the Portuguese Governor of Macao, nominally belonging to Senor Cavallo, and having Portuguese cap- tains named in their shipping papers. Nominally, Meares went in the ship Felice Adventurer as supercargo, though actually in com- mand; and William Douglas occupied the same position in the Iphigenia Nubiana. A double purpose was served by thus cloth- ing the enterprise with Portuguese apparel, as special privileges were enjoyed by the subjects of that nation in the ports of China. Just what interest Cavallo and the two nominal captains had in the enterprise is uncertain; for Meares, as long as his interests lay in that direction, asserted that the undertaking was purely a Portuguese one, but when circumstances placed the balance of interest on the other side, as strenuously asserted that he alone was the owner and manager of the enterprise. The Iphigenia sailed for Cook's Inlet, where she was to begin operations, and trade southward along the coast until she reached Nootka Sound and united with her consort. "The Felice headed for Nootka direct, where she arrived early in the spring of 1788. Immediately upon reaching that general rendez- vous of the fur trade, Meares began the construction of a small schooner for the purpose of coasting along the shore to trade with the Indians. He secured from Maquinna, the chief, permission to erect a small house to shelter his men while at work upon the craft, the consideration for this privilege being a brace of pistols and the house and contents when he should finally depart from that region. Leaving his builders at work, the house having been erected and encompassed by a rampart of earth, from which frowned the rusted Spain's supremacy in the pacific overthrown. 99 mouth of a diminutive cannon, Meares sailed down the coast in search of the passage reported by Barclay as having been seen by him the year before. June 29, 1788, he observed a broad inlet in latitude 48° 39'. Though in the introduction to his narrative he states that the observations of Captain Barclay were known to him, in the journal itself he takes the full credit of the discovery, saying: — " The coast along which we were now sailing had not been seen by Captain Cook, and we know of no other navigator said to have been this way except Maurelle." He continues: "From the mast- head it was observed to stretch to the east by the north, and a clear and unbounded horizon was seen in this direction as far as the eye could reach. The strongest curiosity impelled us to enter this strait, which we shall call by the name of its original discoverer, John de Fuca." The mate of the Felice, John Duffin, was dispatched with a boat's crew of thirteen men and a month's provisions, to explore the strait. In a week they returned, all of them having been wounded in a conflict with the natives. Ten miles up the passage (according to Duffin's statement, but thirty as given by Meares), they were fiercely attacked by Indians, who fought with great des- peration and seemed not to be intimidated by either the noise or deadly effect of the guns. Their weapons were clubs, arrows, stone bludgeons, spears and slings, all of which they handled with great skill. So fierce was then onslaught and so effectively did they use their weapons that only to the protection afforded the seamen by the boat's awning was due their escape with their lives. Having found Fuca's Strait, or one which he believed to be the passage spoken of by Lock, he sailed southward in search of the Eio de San Roque of the Spaniard Heceta. On the sixth of July he discovered a promontory which he believed to be the one Heceta had named " Cabo de San Roque." He describes his subsequent movements as follows: After we had rounded the promontory a large bay, as we had imagined, opened to our view, that bore a very promising appearance, and into it we steered with every encouraging expectation. The high land that formed the boundaries of the bay was at a great distance, and a flat, level country occupied the intervening space ; the bay itself took rather a westerly direction. As we steered in, the water shoaled to nine, eight and seven fathoms, when breakers were seen from the deck right ahead, and, from the mast-head, they were observed to extend across the bay ; we therefore hauled out, and directed our course to the opposite shore, to see if there was any channel, or if we could discover any point. The name of " Cape Disappoint- 100 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. nient " was given to the promontory (Cape Hancock), and the bay obtained the title of "Deception Bay." * * * We can now with safety assert that there is no such river as that of St. Roc exists, as laid down in the Spanish charts. To those of Maurelle ( Bodega's pilot) we made continual reference, but without deriving any information or assistance from them. We now reached the opposite side of the bay, where disappointment continued to accompany us, and, being almost certain that there we should obtain no place of shelter for the ship, we bore for a distant head- land, keeping our course within two miles of the shore. The distant headland lie named " Cape Lookout," it being the one called " Cape Falcon " by the Spaniards, and now known as u Tillamook Head." Meares then returned to Nootka, having, as he expressed it, u traced every part of the coast which unfavorable weather had pre- vented Captain Cook from approaching." The Iphigenia soon arrived from the north with a large cargo of furs. The little schooner being now completed, she was launched and christened the Northwest America. She was the first vessel constructed on the Pacific Coast north of Mexico. About this time appeared two American vessels, the Columbia Rediviva, commanded by Captain John Kendrick, and the Lady Washington, by Captain Robert Gray. The new-born republic of the United States, as soon as a treaty of peace was signed, began at once to resume those maritime commer- cial ventures which the war with England had suspended. Ameri- can vessels visited the ports of every country, and the whale fishing around Cape Horn, which had been abruptly terminated, was resumed. In 1784 an American vessel entered the harbor of Canton, and in 1787 five vessels were engaged in the China trade. Untram- meled with the commercial restrictions which Parliament had imposed upon British subjects, they could engage in the fur trade with every prospect of success. It was for this purpose the Colum- bia Rediviva and Lady Washington, two names now so intimately associated with this region, had started from Boston with a load of Indian goods, and had come to anchor in Nootka Sound. Their voyage thither had not been unattended with adventure. In Jan- uary, soon after passing Cape Horn, a severe storm separated the two consorts. The Washington continued the voyage and reached the Oregon Coast in August, where, near the forty-sixth parallel, Captain Gray ran his vessel aground in attempting to enter an opening in the land, which he had explored in a boat and believed / s SPAIN^S SUPREMACY IN THE PACIFIC OVERTHROWN. 101 to be the entrance to the great River of the West. While in this position the ship was attacked by Indians, and in repelling them and getting the craft into deep water again, one man was killed and the mate wounded. This place he called " Murderer's Harbor," and is considered by Greenhow to have been the mouth of the Columbia, and by Bancroft as Tillamook Bay. Captain Gray then proceeded to Nootka Sound, where lay the three vessels belonging to Meares, his appearance being a great surprise to the Englishmen. The Columbia was damaged by the storm which had driven the two vessels apart near Cape Horn, and entered the Spanish port on the Island of Juan Fernandez to repair damages. The commandant, Don Bias Gonzales, treated Captain Kendrick with great courtesy and hospitality, for which he was promptly cashiered by the Cap- tain-General of Chile, and this action was approved by the Viceroy of Peru. From the position taken by Spain in the sixteenth cen- tury, she had never in the least degree receded. She still claimed complete dominion of the west coast of America, and the sole right of trade with all regions approachable by the way of Cape Horn. In 1692, nearly a century before, a royal ordinance had been pro- mulgated, decreeing that foreign vessels of every nation, irrespective of the relations existing between those nations and Spain, should be seized wherever found in Pacific waters, unless they possessed a trad- ing license from the government of Spain. The commandant at Juan Fernandez was informed that he should have enforced this ordinance and seized the Columbia, and the authorities of all the Spanish Pacific ports were then specially instructed to carry out the decree to the letter. Not only w^as this done, but the Viceroy dis- patched a cruiser from Callao to overtake and capture the Columbia. In this it was unsuccessful, and Captain Kendrick reached Nootka unmolested. Soon after the arrival of the two American vessels, Captain Meares loaded all his furs upon the Felice and sailed for China; the Iphigenia and Northwest America soon after departing for the Sandwich Islands to spend the winter. The Columbia and Washington remained at anchor in Nootka Sound until spring. The sight of these English and American vessels venturing into the Pacific — and those spoken of above were by no means the only ones, since several exploring expeditions traversed the South Pacific whose work had no particular bearing upon the history of this 102 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. region — admonished Spain that if she wonld maintain her supremacy she must be up and doing. While she, in her sluggish nature, had been content with an occasional superficial exploration, productive of little information of value to her or the rest of the world, these foreigners were boldly infringing her prerogative and skimming the rich cream of the fur trade. The northern limit of actual Span- ish occupation was then at the Bay of San Francisco, and the authorities determined to extend it still further without delay. This resulted in the dispatching of an expedition for the purpose of selecting suitable locations for several Spanish colonies, as well as to ascertain the extent and character of the Russian settlements in the extreme north. The fleet consisted of the Princesa, com- manded by Estivan Martinez, former pilot of Juan Perez, and the San Carlos, under the command of Lieutenant Gronzalo Haro. On the eighth of March, 1788, the fleet sailed from San Bias and cast anchor in Prince William's Sound on the twenty-fifth of May. There they lay inactive for nearly a month. The Spanish idea of exploration was very peculiar. While the English officers examined carefully every bay and inlet, took frequent observations and sound- ings, and prepared careful charts of their course and discoveries, the representatives of Spain seem to have been satisfied with an occa- sional sight of the coast, and their map making consisted of the drawing of a straight line on a piece of paper, with an occasional cape or bay marked upon it. Their maps of this region were cer- tainly very peculiar. In June the San Carlos sailed towards the southwest, and encountering a Russian trading post upon the Island of Kodiak, Haro interrogated the man in charge as to the number and condition of the Russian settlements in America. With the information thus obtained he sailed again to Prince William's Sound to join his superior. Meanwhile Martinez had made a few super- ficial explorations of the Sound, to drive away the ennui. The two vessels then proceeded to Ounalaska and their officers were hospit- ably entertained by the Russian traders for an extended period. With the -knowledge thus acquired of the Russian settlements, Mar- tinez returned with his fleet to San Bias. He reported that there were eight settlements in Alaska, all of them west of Prince Wil- liam's Sound, while another was about to be established in the vicinity of the Sound itself. These were chiefly occupied by natives Spain's sfpremacy in the pacific overthrown. 103 of Siberia and Kamtchatka, all subjects of the Russian Crown. He also reported that he had been informed of two Russian, vessels which had 1 >een sent to effect a settlement at Nootka, and of two others under construction at Ochotsk to be used for a similar pur- pose. . The information thus gained by Martinez was forwarded to Madrid, and the Spanish Court was much agitated by the disclosure of Russian encroachment upon what were considered the dominions of Spain. Her settlements were already sufficiently extensive to give her undisputed title to Alaska, and she was now threatening to extend her colonies far to the southward. The infringement of English and American fur traders upon the commercial rights of Spain was annoying enough, but here was a positive and imminent danger of being supplanted entirely. The government determined to take a firm stand, to meet the crisis and ward off the impending blow. A remonstrance was sent to the Empress of Russia, calling attention to the encroachments of her subjects upon the dominions of Spain in the Pacific, to which the Empress responded that her subjects were acting in accordance with her express instructions not to invade the territory of other powers. As neither communication stated what the corresponding powers considered the limit of their claims in America, the diplomatic interchange settled neither the question nor the intent of the two sovereign powers. Meanwhile active operations were undertaken by the Mexican Viceroy. Early in 1789 Martinez and Haro were ordered to sail for No'otka in the Princesa and San Carlos, and to take possession of that port in the name of Spain. Their instructions were to treat foreigners courteously, but at all hazards to maintain the right and authority of Spain in this region. On the sixth of May the Prin- cesa reached her destination, finding two vessels lying there at anchor, the Columbia and Iphigenia. Only a few days before, the Iphigenia, Captain Douglas, and the little Northwest America, Cap- tain Robert Funter, had arrived from their winter's sojourn at the Sandwich Islands, still carrying the Portuguese flag at their mast- heads. They reached port in a condition of exhaustion, so far as supplies were concerned. From the natives and the American ves- sels enough supplies and articles of barter were procured to enable the little schooner to leave port upon a cruise along the coast in 104 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLET. search of furs, and she accordingly took her departure. Captain Gray also started out upon a similar errand in the Lady Washing- ton, meeting the Princesa just without the harbor. Immediately upon entering the port, Martinez informed Captains Douglas and Kendrick that he had come to take possession in the name of his sovereign, examined their papers, and then landed and began ti^e erection of fortifications on Hog Island, a commanding position in the bay, calling the port " Santa Cruz de Nootka." No objections were made either by the Americans or the English officers of the quasi Portuguese vessel, and everything appeared satisfactory and harmonious. Apparently it was the intention of the Spanish com- mandant to seize the Iphigenia, as subsequent events indicate, but his action was delayed for prudential reasons. On the thirteenth, Haro arrived in the San Carlos, and the next day, deeming his force now sufficiently strong, he summoned Douglas and Viana, the actual and nominal captains of the Iphigenia, on board the Princesa, to have their papers again inspected. This time the documents were not as satisfactory as he had previously found them. He took ex- ceptions to the clause in their instructions requiring the officers to capture any Spanish vessels which might interfere with them, and carry their crews to Macao, to be tried for piracy. He considered a vessel sailing under such instructions a lawful prize as soon as she entered a Spanish port. In vain it was urged that the instructions were only to apply to such vessels as might unjustifiably attack them, and were purely defensive in their nature ; the Spanish officer refused to view the matter in that light, and put them under* arrest, sending a force, to take possession of the brig and raise the Spanish flag. Twelve days later, having had plenty of time to reflect and becoming convinced that the objectionable clause was not of as hostile a nature as he had at first assumed to believe it, and fearing that he had overstepped the bounds of prudence, he released the brig and restored his prisoners to their liberty. He also furnished all the supplies needed for a voyage to the Sandwich Islands, taking in exchange drafts upon Juan Cavallo, the nominal Portuguese owner of the vessel. He also secured the signatures of Douglas and Viana to a certificate that he had found the vessel in distress, had furnished her with necessary supplies, and had not interfered with her voyage. This certificate Douglas afterwards claimed to be un- Spain's supremacy in the pacific overthrown. 105 true; that he had signed it uuder duress, at the urgent solicitation of his men, in order to secure the release of his vessel, and that the brig had been plundered by her captors. That this was not the case was attested by a letter signed by Captain Gray and Joseph Ingrahani, mate of the Columbia, and, further, by the fact that, although ostensibly bound for the Sandwich Islands, Douglas turned northward as soon as he was out of sight, and engaged in a season of highly profitable traffic along the coast. The certificate was not the only paper Douglas signed to procure his release and supplies. He entered into a written agreement to restore the Iphigenia or pay her value, in case the Viceroy of Mexico should decide the capture to have been lawful. Martinez desired to possess the little schooner, and having her value appraised by the Americans, requested Douglas to sell her at that price. He was told that no one there had the authority to dispose of the vessel, but he insisted. Douglas therefore gave him a letter to Captain Funter, which Martinez supposed to be an order for her delivery, but which was simply a note informing the commander of the little craft of the Spanish officer's wishes, and intimating that he might follow his own inclinations. He then set sail at once, fearful his duplicity would be discovered, and made the voyage previously alluded to. When the Northwest America arrived on the ninth of June, Martinez seized her, claiming to do so by right of his agreement with Captain Douglas. Meanwhile, two other vessels were on their way to Nootka. Meares, when he reached China the fall before, succeeded in mak- ing a pooling arrangement with the representative of the King George's Sound Company; and as that company possessed trading licenses from both the East India Company and South Sea Com- pany, there was no necessity for longer maintaining the Portuguese subterfuge. The two vessels of the company were combined with the three belonging to Meares. The Prince of Wales had been sent to England, leaving the Princess Royal still in China. This vessel was placed under the command of Captain Thomas Hudson, and the Felice having been sold and the Argonaut purchased, Cap- tain Colnett assumed command of the latter. The last named gentleman was given charge of the expedition, since Meares remained in China, and was instructed to establish a permanent station on 106 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. the American Coast, to be called "Fort Pitt." A small vessel, to be launched upon arrival and used for the coasting trade, formed part of the cargo, and seventy Chinamen were taken along to be employed at the new settlement. According to Spanish authority, the Chinese passengers claimed they had embarked for Bengal, and not America. What became of them after the subsequent troubles there is no evidence to indicate. The two vessels sailed from China, one in April and the other in May — the Princess Royal being the first. She cast anchor in Nootka Sound just live days after the seizure of the Northwest America. As she brought intelligence of the bankruptcy of Cavallo, the reputed owner of the little schooner, Martinez decided to retain personal possession of the craft to indemnify himself for the unpaid bills drawn upon the insolvent Portuguese by Captain Douglas. He accordingly changed her name to Gertrudis, and placing her in charge of David Coolidge, mate of the Lady Wash- ington, sent her out on a trading cruise on the joint account of him- self and the Americans, with whom he had been on the most friendly terms. The furs which had been collected were turned over to Captain Hudson, with whom he did not interfere. By this time the Americans had decided to send one of their vessels to China with the furs which had been collected, and from there .to Boston to report the condition of affairs. Accordingly, Captains Gray and Kendrick exchanged vessels, the former sailing for China in the Columbia. Martinez availed himself of this opportunity, and placed the crew of the captured schooner on board and sent them to China. On the second of July the Princess Royal sailed on a trading voyage; the next day passing the Argonaut just outside the harbor without communicating with her. Captain Colnett was informed of what had happened by parties who had gone out to meet him in a boat, and decided to anchor outside. Martinez came out and in the most friendly manner invited him to enter the harbor, assuring him of perfect security, and as Colnett afterward stated in a narra- tive of his voyages, urgently solicited him to do so for the purpose of supplying provisions and other necessaries to the Spaniards, who were in great distress. Won by the cordial appearance of the invi- tation, Colnett assented, and the Argonaut was towed into port by Spaniards. There is no reason to suppose that it was not the in ten- spaik's supremacy in the pacific overthrown. 107 tion of Martinez to treat the Argonaut with the same courtesy he had shown to the Princess Royal, when he invited Colnett to enter port, but his conduct underwent a rapid transformation when he learned from that officer that he was instructed to. found a fortified English colony. He at once informed the English Captain that he had already taken possession of the country in the name of the King of Spain, and could not permit any such proceeding. The next day Colnett went on board the Princesa and requested permis- sion to sail immediately, which was refused, since the Spanish commandant feared it was the Englishman's purpose to seek some other port in which to establish himself, and his duty to his govern- ment required that he prevent such a consummation at all hazards. He asked Colnett to exhibit his papers, and the Englishman returned to his vessel, arrayed himself in full uniform, sword included, and then again presented himself in the cabin of the Princesa, with the papers in his hand. The papers were examined, and Colnett was informed that he would not be permitted to sail just yet, whereat he fell into a passion and a quarrel ensued, re- sulting in the arrest of the captain and the seizure of his vessel. Ten days later the Princess Royal returned, her commander being ignorant of what had happened during his brief absence, and was at once seized by the Spaniards. A portion of the furs cap tured were given to Captain Gray to pay the passage to China of the crew of the Northwest America. The officers and men of the Argonaut and Princess Royal were placed on board the former and sent to San Bias. In September, Martinez and Haro, in obedience to instructions from Mexico, dismantled the fortifications and departed from Nootka; and as the Lady Washington was away upon a coasting voyage, that bone of contention was left without a claimant. So prostrated was Captain Colnett with the severity and sud- denness of his misfortunes that he became temporarily insane, recov- ering, however, before he reached San Bias. The commandant at that port was the well known explorer Bodega y Quadra, and he received the two captains with the greatest of courtesy, sending them to Mexico to lay their case before the Viceroy, Re villa- Gigedo. After considerable delay it was officially decided that Martinez, though only following his special instructions and the royal 108 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. decrees, had overstepped the bounds of prudence. The prisoners were accordingly released, and were paid the regular wages of the Spanish navy for the whole time of their captivity. The Argonaut, which, with the other two prizes, had been maintained in active service, was restored to Colnett, rather the worse for wear. He sailed in her for Nootka in the spring of 1790, and not finding his other vessel there, set out in search of her, not obtaining possession till a year later at the Sandwich Islands. During all these occur- rences the Americans were on the most friendly terms with the Spaniards, so much so that they were accused of co-operating with them against the English. The facts are that they were inactive, though not entirely disinterested spectators, since it naturally pleased them to see their rivals so summarily disposed of; and it is not impossible that they occasionally dropped a hint into the com- mandant's ear. Captain Kendrick remained on the coast till fall, collecting a large cargo of furs, and then sailed for Boston by the way of China. It is claimed by some historians that before leaving he sailed clear around Vancouver Island, and Meares' chart bears an indication of the route pursued. This chart is of itself evidence that the maker of it was ignorant of- the nature of the inland chan- nel, and the probabilities are that Meares misunderstood Kendrick's account of the movements of the Lady Washington while under the command of Captain Gray, and confusing them with Kendrick's assertion that there was a channel back of Nootka, a piece of infor- mation gleaned from the Indians, supposed that such a voyage had been made. Although it is possible that he did circumnavigate the island, yet it seems improbable, and Kendrick never laid claim to such distinction in after years. If he did, then an American vessel w.as the first to enter the Straits of Fuca and explore that wonder- ful inland sea, the Gulf of Georgia; if not, then the honor belongs to Spain, as will be shown later on. So much for the events at Nootka; but there was a greater field of action on which these differences were decided — Europe. The Viceroy of New Spain made haste to notify the home government of the important events which had happened in the far-off Pacific. It took a long time for news to travel in those days, when there were no telegraphs and no regular routes of intelligence between these distant shores and Europe; consequently Spain, which was Spain's supremacy in the pacific overthrow x. 109 in the most intimate connection with the Pacific Coast, received the news lone before it reached England. The first intelligence received by the British Cabinet was an arrogant and very undiplomatic note from Spain, on the tenth of February, 1790, notifying the King that certain of his subjects had been trespassing upon the Pacific possessions of Spain, and that in consequence of this the ship Ar- gonaut had been seized as a prize and her crew made prisoners. The note closed with an assertion of that exclusive right of Pacific traffic which Spain had proclaimed for a century, and the enforce- ment of which had led to the present complications ; in pursuance of that idea the punishment of the offenders was demanded, and an earnest protest made against the King permitting any of his subjects to make settlements, or engage in fishing, or trade with the natives on the American Coast of the Pacific. To such haughty language the King of England was entirely unaccustomed. Great Britain never had even constructively admitted any of the exclusive privi- leges claimed by Spain, and she was not now likely to tamely sub- mit to them when they were so arrogantly promulgated in justifica- tion of an outrage committed upon her subjects. The response was prompt and characteristic of that nation, whose vigilant guardian- ship of her citizens extends to the remotest corners of the earth. The Court of Madrid was notified that since it was evident from the Spanish protest that English subjects had been imprisoned and their property confiscated, full reparation must be made and satis- faction for the insult given, before the merits of the controversy would be considered at all. Spain, England and France were just beginning to recuperate from the effect of the struggles in which they had been engaged, and each of them was anxious to avoid further hostilities ; yet the dignity of England required her to take a bold stand in defense of her subjects. The belligerent tone of her response set Spain at once to preparing for war, to avoid which she modified her demands considerably, notifying His Majesty that the restoration had already been made and the matter would be allowed to drop, if he would promise in future to keep his subjects away from the Spanish possessions. This was the status of affairs in April, when Meares arrived from China. When the Columbia reached Canton, in the fall of 1789, with intelligence of the Nootka proceedings, Meares armed himself 110 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. with, documents and depositions and embarked for London, to lay his grievances before the King. On the thirtieth of May he addressed a memorial to his sovereign, detailing the affair from his standpoint, and though it was full of misrepresentations, as has since been con- clusively shown, it was adopted as the correct version by the gov- ernment. From this report it seemed that three vessels had been seized, instead of one, and that Englishmen had taken possession of Nootka before the Spaniards, since Meares declared that the North- west America was an English vessel, and that when he built her he had established a permanent settlement on land purchased from the Nootk'a Chief, Maquinna. He did not inform the King that the little schooner had never flaunted any flag but that of Portugal, and that when the vessel was finished the building in which the work- men had lived was turned over to Maquinna in payment for the privilege of temporary occupation of the land, as had been agreed upon in the beginning. England, on the fifth of May, sent a reply to the second note from Spain, asserting that she w^as not prepared to admit the exclusive privileges claimed by Spain, but that she was prepared to protect her subjects, and would not consider the ques- tion at all until proper satisfaction had been given. On the six- teenth of May, England made a formal demand upon Spain for restitution of the captured vessels, indemnity for losses sustained (estimated by Meares at $653,433), and full acknowledgement of the right of English subjects to trade in the Pacific, and to establish settlements at any points not already occupied by Spain. On the twenty-fifth the whole correspondence was laid by the King before Parliament, which had before been ignorant of it, and he was warmly applauded for his conduct and assured of support. Spain's position was an exceedingly humiliating one. Even in her decline she had maintained the haughty spirit and arrogant assumption of superiority and exclusive rights which had first been asserted by those potent monarchs, Charles and Philip, but which now, with her fast waning power, she was not able to support by force of arms. England's vigorous preparations for war seriously alarmed her. She had too many unprotected colonies, dependencies from which she derived great revenues, to risk a war with a power- ful maritime nation, whose operations, of course, would be chiefly directed against those vulnerable points. In the long negotiations Spain's supremacy in the pacific overthrown. Ill which followed she again modified her position, stating that she had no desire to claim any territory not justly hers, that the vessels had already been restored, and that she was willing to pay any damages which might be assessed against her by arbitrators to whom the case should be submitted. England was proud and overbearing, and putting aside equity, acted throughout as her interests seemed to indicate, conscious of her superior power. She assembled the greatest armament the nation had ever prepared, and was ready at a day's notice to make a descent upon the Spanish settlements in America. She even formed an alliance with Sweden and the [Netherlands, in anticipation of the co-operation of France and Spain against her. It was a well-known fact that there existed a compact of mutual defense between the monarchs of France and Spain, both members of the Bourbon family, and it was natural for England to expect it to be fulfilled. The King of Spain formally called upon Louis XVI., of France, for the promised aid, and was assured that it would be given; but when the matter came before the Na- tional Assembly that body refused to sanction any increase of the military forces, and the King was powerless, for the spirit of that bloody revolution which broke out three years later had already banished absoluteism from the kingdom. The Assembly examined the treaty between England and Spain, investigated the question of Pacific discoveries, especially the alleged voyage of Juan de Fuca, of which no evidence could be found, and finally decided that the nation would stand on the defensive with Spain, but could not be relied upon for offensive operations. The national armament was therefore largely increased. It was now England's turn to come down from her high horse. She saw that France would be drawn into the war, and finding her new allies unreliable and that she could not well afford the enormous expense of a war, the prepara- tions for which had already depleted her treasury, she adopted a more conciliatory tone, and her plenipotentiary submitted a propo- sition which was accepted by the representative of Spain. This was signed on the twenty-eighth of October, 1790, and is known as the "Nootka Convention." By this treaty it was stipulated that all buildings and tracts of land on the northwest coast of America of which Spanish officers had dispos-ein- petent person to explore the country lying between the Mississippi 134 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. River and Pacific Ocean, " by ascending the Missouri, crossing the Stony Mountains, and descending the nearest river to the Pacific. " His suggestion was acted upon, and the position having been eagerly solicited by Lieutenant Meriwether Lewis, a Virginian, that gentle- man was selected at the recommendation of Mr. Jefferson. His traveling companion was Mr. Andre Michaux, a distinguished French botanist, then living in the United States in the employ of his government. When they had proceeded as far as Kentucky, Mr. Michaux was recalled by the French Minister, and the expedi- tion was abandoned. Soon after France again acquired title to Louisiana, Napoleon recognized the fact that it would only be a source of annoyance and expense to the nation. His ambitious designs in Europe arrayed England and other powerful nations in hostility to France, and to avoid the necessity of having to provide for the protection of vast territorial possessions, as well as to place in the field an active and now powerful rival to England, he opened secret negotiations for the transfer of the whole Province to the United States. Mr. Jef- ferson was then President, and grasped eagerly the opportunity to realize his long- cherished desire, and by so doing render his admin- istration one to be forever remembered by his countrymen. Even before the treaty was concluded, he began to put his plan of oper- ations into effect; and on the eighteenth of January, 1803, he sub- mitted to Congress a special message on the Indian question, in which he incorporated a suggestion that an official expedition be dispatched upon the same journey as the private one would have accomplished ten years before, had it not been abandoned. Con- gress approved the idea and made an ample appropriation to carry it into effect. Lewis was then acting in the capacity of private sec- retary to the President, and once more solicited the direction of the enterprise. In this he was again successful. He held at that time the rank of captain, and having selected William Clarke as his asso- ciate, that gentleman also received a captain's commission. In the instructions drawn up for the guidance of the party, the President says: "The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, and such principal streams of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado, or any other river, may offer the OVERLAND JOURNEYS TO THE PACIFIC. 1 35 most direct and practicable water communication across the conti- nent, for the purposes of commerce." They were directed to ac- quire as intimate a knowledge as possible of the extent and number of Indian tribes, their manners, customs and degree of civilization, and to report fully upon the topography, the character of the soil, the natural products, the animal life and minerals, as well as to as- certain by scientific observations and inquiry as much as possible about the climate, and to inquire especially into the fur trade and the needs of commerce. Since Louisiana had not yet been formally conveyed to the United States, the instructions contained a para- graph saying: " Your mission has been communicated to the min- isters here from France, Spain and Great Britain, and through them to their governments; and such assurances given them as to its ob- jects, as we trust will satisfy them. The country of Louisiana hav- ing been ceded by Spain to France, the passport you have from the minister of France, the representative of the present sovereign of the country, will be a protection with all its subjects; and that from the minister of England will entitle you to the friendly aid of any traders of that allegiance with whom you may happen to meet." The French passport was rendered needless by the receipt of the joyful intelligence a few days before they started that Louisiana had been formally ceded to the United States. Lewis left Washington on the fifth of July, 1803, and was. joined by Clarke at Louisville. Having selected the men to compose their party, they went into camp near St. Louis and remained until spring. The final start was made on the fourteenth of May, 1804, the party consisting of Captain Meriwether Lewis, Captain William Clarke, nine young men from Kentucky, fourteen soldiers, two French Canadian water- men, of the class called " voyageurs " among the fur traders, an in- terpreter and hunter and a negro servant of Captain Clarke. There were, also, a number of assistants who accompanied the party as far as the Mandan country. The Missouri river was ascended as far as the region occupied by the Mandan Indians, with whom they remained all winter, learning much from their hosts of the geogra- phy of the surrounding country as well as its native inhabitants. While there they negotiated a treaty of peace and friendship between the Mandans and Ricarees, between whom hostilities had existed for a long time. L36 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. The westward journey was resumed in the spring of 1805. They still followed up the Missouri, of whose course, tributaries and the great falls they had received very minute and accurate information from their Mandan friends. Passing the mouth of the Yellowstone, which name they record as being but a translation of "Roche Jaune," the title given it by the French-Canadian trappers who had already visited it, they continued up the Missouri, passed the castellated rocks and the great falls and cascades, ascended through the mighty canyon, and reached the headwaters of the stream, crossed the Rocky Mountain divide and came upon the stream variously known along its course as "Deer Lodge," "Hellgate," " Bitterroot," "Clarke's Fork of the Columbia" and"Pend d'Oreille." Upon this they bestowed the name " Clarke's River," and so it should be called from its source in the Rocky Mountains to where it unites with the main stream in British Columbia. From this river the advance party under Clarke crossed the Bitterroot Mountains by the Lolo trail, suffering intensely from cold and hunger, and on the twentieth of September reached a village of Nez Perce Indians, situated on a plain about fifteen miles from the south fork of Clearwater River, where they were received With great hospitality. This first passage of the mountains by representatives of the United States and their warm reception by the Indians contrast strongly with a scene witnessed by this same Lolo trail seventy -two years later when Howard's army hotly pursued Chief Joseph and his little band of hostile Nez Perces, who were fleeing before the avengers from the scene of their many bloody massacres. The almost famished men partook of such quantities of the food liberally provided by their savage hosts that many of them became ill, among them being Captain Clarke, who was unable to continue the journey until the second day. He then went to the village of Twisted-hair, the chief, situated on an island in the stream men- tioned. To the river he gave the name u Koos-koos-kee," errone- ously supposing it to be its Indian title. The probabilities are that the Nez Perces, in trying to inform Captain Clarke that this river flowed into a still larger one, the one variously known as " Lewis," "Sahaptin" or " Snake," used the words " Koots-koots-kee," mean- ing " This is the smaller," and were understood to have meant that as the name of the stream. The Nez Perce name is " Kaih-kaih- OVERLAND JOURNEYS TO THE PACIFIC. 137 koosh," signifying " Clearwater,,' 1 the title it is generally known by. Having been united, the two parties a few days later journeyed on down the Clearwater. Concerning their deplorable condition and their method of traveling the journal says: " Captain Lewis and two of the men were taken very ill last evening, and to-day he could scarcely sit on his horse, while others were obliged to be put on horseback, and some, from extreme weakness and pain, were forced to lie down alongside of the road. * * * The weather was very hot and oppressive to the party, most of whom are now complaining of sickness. Oar situation, indeed, rendered it neces- sary to husband our remaining strength, and it was determined to proceed down the river in canoes. Captain Clarke, therefore, set out with Twisted -hair, and two young men, in quest of timber for canoes. * * * Having resolved to go down to some spot calculated for building canoes, we set out early this morning and proceeded five miles, and encamped on the low ground on the south, opposite the forks of the river." The canoes being constructed, they embarked, in the month of October, on their journey down the Clear- water and connecting streams, for the Pacific, leaving what remained of their horses in charge of the friendly Nez Perces. They had for some time been subsisting upon roots, fish, horse -meat and an occa- sional deer, crow, or wolf, but having left their horses behind them, their resort, when out of other food, now became the wolfish dogs they purchased from the Indians. Upon reaching Snake River, which was named in honor of Captain Lewis, the canoes were turned down that stream, which they followed to the Columbia, naming the Tukannon River "Kim- so-emhn," a title derived from the Indians, and upon the Palouse bestowing the name "Drewyer," in honor of the hunter of the party. They then followed down the Columbia, passing a number < >f rapids, and arrived at the Cascades on the twenty-first of October. A portage was made of all their effects and a portion of the canoes, the remainder making the perilous descent of the Cascades in safety. The mouth of the Willamette was passed without the addition of so large a stream being noticed. Cape Disappointment was reached November fifteenth, and the eyes of the weary travelers were gladdened with a sight of the great ocean which had been their goal for more than a year. The season of winter rains having set in, 138 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. they were soon driven by high water from the low land on the north bank of the stream, eleven miles above the cape, which they had selected for their winter residence. They then left the Chin- ooks, crossed the river, and built a habitation on the high land on the south side of the stream, which they called "Fort Clatsop, 77 in honor of the Indians which inhabited that region. Here they spent the winter, making occasional short excursions along the coast. The departure for home was delayed with the hope that some trading vessel might appear, from which sadly-needed supplies could be obtained, but being disappointed in this they loaded their canoes, and on March 23, 1806, took final leave of Fort Clatsop. Before going they presented the chiefs of the Chinooks and Clatsops with certificates of kind and hospitable treatment, and circulated among the natives several papers, posting a copy on the wall of the abandoned fort, which read as follows: "The object of this last is,. that through the medium of some civilized person, who may see the same, it may be made known to the world, that the party, con- sisting of the persons whose names are hereunto annexed, and who were sent out by the Government of the United States to explore the interior of the continent of North America, did penetrate the same by the way of the Missouri and Columbia rivers, to the dis- charge of the latter into the Pacific Ocean, where they arrived on the fourteenth day of November, 1805, and departed the twenty - third day of March, 1806, on their return to the United States by the same route by which they had come out." To this was appended a list of the members of the expedition. One of these copies was handed by an Indian the following year to Captain Hall, an Ameri- can fur trader, whose vessel, the Lydia, had entered the Columbia, by whom it was taken to China and thence to the United States; thus, even had the party perished on the return journey, evidence of the completion of their task was not wanting. Upon taking an invoice of their possessions before starting upon the return, they found that their goods available for traffic with the Indians consisted of six blue robes, one scarlet robe, one United States artillery hat and coat, iive robes made from the national ensign, and a few old clothes trimmed with ribbon. Upon these must they depend for purchasing provisions and horses, and for winning the hearts of stubborn chiefs. They proceeded up the OVERLAND JOURNEYS TO THE PACIFIC. 139 south bank of the stream, until they came unexpectedly upon a large river flowing into it from the south. On an island near its mouth, known to the early trappers as "Wapatoo," and now called ik Sauvie's Island, 1 ' they came upon an Indian village, where they were refused a supply of food. To impress them with his power, Captain Clarke entered one of their habitations and cast a few sulphur matches into the tire. The savages were frightened at the blue flame, and looked upon the strange visitor as a great medicine man. They implored him to extinguish the " evil fire," and brought all the food he desired. The name of the Indian village was " Mult- nomah," but Captain Clarke understood the name to apply to the river, of whose course he made careful inquiry. Upon the map of this expedition the "Multnomah" is indicated as extending south- ward and eastward into California and Nevada, and the Indians who resided along the streams that flow from southeastern Oregon into the Snake, are represented as living on the upper branches of the Multnomah. The true Indian name of the river and valley is "Wallamet," which has been corrupted to "Willamette" by those who conceived the idea that it was of French origin. The confusion between Indian, French and English names in this region has resulted in many very peculiar and ridiculous appellations. At the mouth of the Lapage River, the stream later named u John Day," in memory of the bold hunter of the Astor party, who met such a tragic fate, the canoes were abandoned, and the party proceeded up the Columbia on foot, packing their baggage upon the backs of a few horses purchased from the natives. Cross- ing the Umatilla, which they called " You-ma-lolam," they arrived at the mouth of the Walla Walla on the twenty -seventh of April. Yellept, the Walla Walla chief, was a man of unusual capacity and power, and extended to them the most cordial and bountiful hospi- tality they had enjoyed since leaving the abodes of civilization. How different would have been the reception extended them could the old chief have gazed into the future with prophetic eye, and seen his great successor, Peo-peo-mux-mux, killed while unjustly a prisoner by members of the same race and tribe to which these white guests belonged! It is related of Yellept that in after years, having seen the last of Hve noble sons perish in battle or by the hand of disease, he called together the tribe, and throwing himself 140 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. upon the body of his last son, sternly bade them bury him with his dead. With loud lamentations and heart-broken sobs they did as he commanded, and buried alive the great chief they both loved and feared. This was the man who extended his hospitalities to Lewis and Clarke, and because of the important part the Walla Wallas and Cayuses played in the after history of this region, the following account given by those gentlemen of their entertainers is presented. Their journal says: — Immediately upon our arrival, Yellept, who proved to be a man of much influ- ence, not only in his own, but in the neighboring nations, collected the inhabitants and, after having made a harangue, the purport of which was to induce the nations to treat us hospitably, set them an example, by bringing himself an armful of wood and a platter containing three roasted mullets. They immediately assented to one part, at least, of the recommendation, by furnishing us with an abundance of the only sort of fuel they employ, the stems of shrubs growing in the plains. We then purchased four dogs, on which we supped heartily, having been on short allowance for two days past. When we were disposed to sleep, the Indians retired imme- diately on our request, and, indeed, uniformly conducted themselves with great propriety. These people live on roots, which are very abundant in the plains, and catch a few salmon-trout; but at present they seem to subsist chiefly on a species of mullet, weighing from one to three pounds. * * * Monday, twenty-eighth, we purchased ten dogs. While this trade was carrying on by our men, Yellept brought a fine white horse and presented him to Captain Clarke, expressing at the same time a wish to have a kettle ; but on being informed that we had already dis- posed of the last kettle we could spare, he said he would be content with any pres- ent we should make in return. Captain Clarke, therefore, gave his sword, for which the chief had before expressed a desire, adding one hundred balls, some pow- der, and other small articles, with which he appeared perfectly satisfied. We were now anxious to depart, and requested Yellept to lend us canoes for the purpose of crossing the river. But he would not listen to any proposal of leaving the village. He wished us to remain two or three days ; but would not let us go to-day, for he had already sent to invite his neighbors, the Chimnapoos (Cayuses), to come down this evening and join his people in a dance for our amusement. We urged, in vain, that by setting out sooner we would the earlier return with the articles they desired ; for a day, he observed, would make but little difference. We at length mentioned that, as there was no wind, it was now the best time to cross the river, and would merely take the horses over and return to sleep at their village. To this he assented, and then we crossed with our horses, and having hobbled them, returned to their camp. Fortunately there was among these Wollawollahs a prisoner, belonging to a tribe of Shoshonee or Snake Indians, residing to the south of the Multnomah, and visiting occasionally the heads of the Wollawollah creek. Our Shoshonee woman, Sacajaweah, though she belonged to a tribe near the Missouri, spoke the same language as this prisoner, and by their means we were able to explain our- selves to the Indians, and answer all their inquiries with respect to ourselves and the object of our journey. Our conversation inspired them with much confidence, and they soon brought several sick persons for whom they requested our assistance. We splintered the broken arm of one, gave some relief to another, whose knee was contracted by rheumatism, and administered what we thought beneficial for ulcers and eruptions of the skin, on various parts of the body, which are very common disorders among them. But our most valuable medicine was eye-water, which we OVERLAND JOURNEYS TO THE PACIFIC. 141 distributed, and which, indeed, they required very much ; the complaint of the eyes, occasioned by living on the water, and increased by the fine sand of the plains, being now universal. A little before sunset, the Chimnapoos, amounting to one hundred men and a few women, came to the village, and joining the Wollawollahs, who were about the same number of men, formed themselves in a circle round our camp, and waited very patiently till our men were disposed to dance, which they did for about an hour, to the tune of the violin. They then requested to see the Indians dance. With this they readily complied, and the whole assemblage, amounting, with the women and children of the village, to several hundred, stood up, and sang and danced at the same time. The exercise was not, indeed, very graceful, for the greater part of them were formed into a solid column, round a kind of hollow square, stood on the same place, and merely jumped up at intervals, to keep time to the music. Some, however, of the more active warriors entered the square and danced round it sidewise, and some of our men joined in the dance, to the great satisfaction of the Indians. The dance continued till ten o'clock the next morning. In the course of the day we gave small medals to two inferior chiefs, each of whom made us a present of a fine horse. We were in a poor condition to make an adequate acknowledgement for this kindness, but gave several articles, among which was a pistol, with some hundred rounds of ammunition. We have, indeed, been treated by these people with an unusual degree of kindness and civility. * * * We may, indeed, justly affirm that of all the Indians whom we have met since leaving the United States, the Wollawollahs were the most hospitable, honest and sincere. Bidding adieu to these hospitable people, they left the Colum- bia on the twenty -ninth of April and followed eastward what is known as the "Nez Perce Trail." They went up the Touchet, called by them " White Stallion," because of the present Yellept had made to Captain Clarke, the Patet and Pataha and down the Alpowa to Snake river, which they crossed and followed up the north side of Clearwater until they reached the village of Twisted - hair, where had been left their horses the fall before. The Lolo trail was not yet free from snow, and for six weeks they resided among the Nez Perces, a tribe closely woven into the history of this region. Of them and the intercourse held with them the fall before, the journal says: — The Chopunnish, or Pierce-nosed, "nation, who reside on the Kooskooske and Lewis' Rivers, are in person stout, portly, well-looking men ; the women are small, with good features, and generally handsome, though the complexion of both sexes is darker than that of the Tushepaws. In dress they resemble that nation, being fond of displaying their ornaments. The buffalo or elk skin robe decorated with beads, sea-shells (chiefly mother-of-pearl), attached to an otter-skin collar, and hung in the hair, which falls in front in two queues ; feathers, paint of different kinds (principally white, green and light blue), all of which they find in their own country ; these are the chief ornaments they use. In winter they wear a short shirt of dressed skins, long painted leggings and moccasins, and a plait of twisted grass around the neck, The dress of the women is more simple, consisting of a long shirt of argalia or ibex skin, reaching down to the ankles without a girdle ; to this are tied little pieces of brass and shells, and other small articles ; but the head is not at 142 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. all ornamented. The dress of the female is, indeed, more modest, and more studi- ously so, than any we have observed, though the other sex is careless of the inde- licacy of exposure. The Chopunnish have very few amusements, for their life is painful and laborious ; and all their exertions are necessary to earn even their pre- carious subsistence. During the summer and autumn they are busily occupied in fishing for salmon, and collecting their winter store of roots. In the winter they hunt the deer on snow-shoes over the plains, and towards spring cross the moun- tains to the Missouri, for the purpose of trafficing for buffalo robes. The incon- veniences of that comfortless life are increased by frequent encounters with their enemies from the west, who drive them over the mountains with the loss of their horses, and sometimes the lives of many of the nation. Though originally the same people, their dialect varies very perceptibly from that of the Tushepaws ; their treatment of us differed much from the kind and disinterested services of the Shoshonees (Snakes) ; they are indeed selfish and avaricious; they part very reluc- tantly with every article of food or clothing ; and while they expect a recompense for every service, however small, do not concern themselves about reciprocating any presents we may give them. They are generally healthy — the only disorders, which we have had occasion to remark, being of a scrofulous kind, and for these, as well as for the amusement of those who are in good health, hot and cold bathing is very commonly used. The soil of these prairies is of a light yellow clay, inter- mixed with small, smooth grass ; it is barren, and produces little more than a bearded grass about three inches high, and a prickly pear, of which we now found three species. It is very evident that these gentlemen were not acquainted with the attributes' of the succulent bunch grass, nor of the soil, for those prairies constitute the now celebrated wheat lands of Eastern Ore- gon and Washington and Northern Idaho. They made an unsuccessful attempt to cross the Bitterroot Mountains on the fifteenth of June, but found the trails blocked with snow. On the thirtieth, however, they safely crossed. On the fourth of July it was decided to pursue two routes for a dis- tance; accordingly, Captain Lewis, with a portion of the party, crossed the Rocky Mountains to the Missouri, and followed down the main stream, exploring the larger tributaries and learning much of the geography of Montana. With the remainder of the party Clarke crossed to the Yellowstone, and descended that stream to its mouth, uniting again with Captain Lewis some distance below that point on the twelfth of August. There stands to the present day on the south bank of the Yellowstone, between the cities of Miles City and Billings, a monument to commemorate the visit of this expedition. It is known as " Pompey's Pillar," and consists of a detached body of yellow sandstone, which rises abruptly on three sides to the height of four hundred feet. On the north side, at a place which can be reached by clambering over the heavy blocks OVERLAND JOURNEYS TO THE PACIFIC. 143 of sandstone broken down from the body of the cliff, in a place sheltered from the elements by an overhanging wall of rock, the leader carved his autograph ; and the characters, " William Clarke, July 25, 1806,'' can be still distinctly traced. When again united, the party continued their journey down the Missouri, and reached St. Louis September 25, 1806, having been absent nearly two and one -half years. The return of Lewis and Clarke was the cause of great rejoicing in the United States. Mr. Jefferson says: " Never did a similar event excite more joy throughout the United States. The humblest of its citizens had taken a lively interest in the issue of this journey, and looked forward with impatience to the information it would furnish. Their anxieties, too, for the safety of the corps had been kept in a state of excitement by lugubrious rumors, circulated from time to time on uncertain authorities, and uncontradicted by letters, or other direct information, from the time they had left the Manclan towns, on their ascent up the river in April of the preceding year, 1805, until their actual return to St. Louis." Captain Lewis was, soon after his return, appointed Governor of Louisiana, with which his journey had rendered him more familiar than any other man except his associate ; and Captain Clarke was appointed General of Militia of the same Territory, and agent for Indian affairs in that vast region he had explored. During a period of temporary mental derangement, Captain Lewis died by his own hand, in September, 1809, before he had fully completed his narrative of the journey. The history of the expedition was prepared from his manuscript under the direction of Captain Clarke, and was first published in 1814. The general details, however, were spread throughout the country immediately upon their return, especially on the frontier. During their absence other exploring parties were traversing Louis- iana in various directions in search of information for the govern- ment. Lieutenant Pike ascended the Mississippi to its headwaters in 1805, and the following year journeyed south westward from the mouth of the Missouri to the sources of the Arkansas, Red and Rio Bravo del Norte. At the same time Dunbar, Hunter and Sibley explored Red River and its companion streams. These explorations served to greatly stimulate the fur trade carried on 144 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. from St. Louis and Mackinaw, as well as to strengthen the govern- ment in its purpose of adhering to its right to Louisiana. When Great Britain received the official notification mentioned by President Jefferson in his letter of instructions to Captain Lewis, which was quickly followed by intelligence that the region to which it referred had been ceded by France to the United States, much anxiety was felt by the Government and such of its subjects as were personally interested in the country under consideration. Espec-* ially were the Northwest and Hudson's Bay Companies anxious for the future of their interests in that region, more particularly the former, whose hunters were operating further south and west than those of the rival company. The French claim to Louisiana, founded solely upon technical grounds, had not been a source of much uneasiness; but now that it had been transferred to a nation both able and anxious to make an effort to perfect the title by re- ducing the country to actual possession, the matter presented an en- tirely different aspect. Naturally, the technical title was not recog- nized in its entirety ; that is, there was a vast region lying north of i the forty -second parallel and west of the Rocky Mountains, known a few years later as " Oregon," and embracing the watershed of the Columbia River, which might be held by the United States under the Louisiana title and the discovery right of Captain Gray, pro- vided these claims were perfected by actual occupation; similar oc- cupation might entitle Great Britain to its possession as a perfec- tion of her technical title, claimed by discovery through Captain Francis Drake, and exploration by Captain Cook, Captain Vancou- ver and Alexander Mackenzie. Both nations having color of title, possession became the decisive issue. The Northwest Company im- mediately sent a party to establish trading posts on the Columbia, under command of a trusted agent named Laroque. He started in 1804, but failed to progress farther than the Mandan country, and the Columbia stations were not established. Simon Fraser, another agent of the company, left Fort Chipewyan in 1805, and followed the route pursued formerly by Mackenzie until he reached Fraser River. At Fraser Lake, a few miles west of the point where the river turns to the southward, he established a trading post, bestow- ing the name "New Caledonia" upon that region. As the Fraser was then considered identical with the Columbia, it was supposed OVERLAND JOURNEYS TO THE PACIFIC. 145 that this post was on the great stream for the possession of which England and America were contending. Though this idea was subsequently learned to be erroneous, the fact remained true that the post was the first establishment made by the subjects of either nation west of the Rocky Mountains. The Americans were uot far behind, for the Missouri Fur Company was organized in 1808, with headquarters at St. Louis. The same year trading posts were es- tablished on the affluents of the Mississippi and Missouri, and one of the agents of the company, named Henry, crossed the Rocky Mountains, and founded Fort Henry, on the headwaters of Lewis, or Snake, River, the first American establishment, and, as it proved, the first of any kind on a tributary of the Columbia. The next was made nearer the mouth of the stream in 1810, by an American whose name has been variously given by superficial historians as " Smith," U T. Winship" and "Nathaniel Winship," none of which are cor- rect. Early in 1809 a partnership was formed in Boston between Abiel Winship, Jonathan Winship, Nathan Winship, Benjamin P. Homer and a few others, for the purpose of founding a settle- ment on the Columbia as a base of trading operations, the settle- ment to be a permanent one. With everything necessary to the suc- cess of the project, Nathan Winship sailed in the Albatross in July, William Smith being his chief mate. He carried written instruc- tions, by which it appears that the projectors of the enterprise were wise enough to believe that Indian character was the same on the Pacific as it had been found to be on the Atlantic. It was the de- sign to buy the land from the natives; to erect a two-story log house with port-holes for cannon and loop-holes for rifles; the second story to be the arsenal where all the arms and ammunition were to be stored, and to which no Indian was to be admitted upon any consideration, entrance to be effected by means of a trap door and ladder ; agriculture to be carried on under the guns of the fort, which was always to be guarded by a sufficient force. William A. Gale kept a journal, which gives the details of the expedition. When the Albatross reached the Sandwich Islands, Winship found a letter there from his brother Jonathan, who was in command of the trading vessel G Cain, advising him to make haste, as the Russians had designs on the Columbia. It was the twenty-sixth of May, 1810, that the Albatross entered the river and began sounding it to locate 146 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. the channel, gradually ascending the stream. On the first of June Winship and Smith selected a point on the south bank of the stream some forty miles above its mouth, which they called " Oak Point," because they observed there four oak trees, the first they had seen since entering the river. The place now known as " Oak Point " is on the opposite side of the river, a fact which has led some writers into the error of stating that this first American settlement on the Columbia was made in Washington Territory. They at once began preparations in accordance with their plans, such as hewing logs for the fort and clearing a patch of the fertile tract for a garden; but they were soon initiated into the mysteries of the " June Rise," for the annual freshets of that season covered their building site and garden patch to the depth of several feet long before they had the fort erected. A patch of higher ground five hundred yards further down the stream was selected, and the logs floated down to it, but as the natives had begun to exhibit symptoms of hostility, Winship decided to abandon the effort. On the seventeenth of June he dropped down to the mouth of the river, learning on the way that only his vigilance had prevented the capture of his vessel by the Chinooks. He then sailed on a trading voyage, expecting to return the next year and found a settlement, but in this he was forestalled by the Astor party. The Albatross had quite a string of adven- tures before again reaching Boston, being seized once on the Cali- fornia coast, and once blockaded by British men of war at the Hawaiian Islands. Thus were the first two settlements on the river made by Americans, and it will be seen that the third and most important was also made by them. CHAPTER X. ASTORIA AND THE JOINT OCCUPATION TREATY. The Pacific Fur Trade at the Beginning of the Present Century — Ameri- cans in the Lead — Their Plan of Operations — Russia Complains of the Sale of Fire-Arms to the Indians — John Jacob Astor's Plans — The Pacific Fur Company Organized — Aster's Alien Partners — The "Tonquin" Sails from New York — Dissensions on the Voyage — Dan- gers of the Columbia Bar — Astoria Founded — Sad Fate of the " Ton- quin " and Her Crew — Appearance at Astoria of an Agent of the Northwest Company — Fort Ohinagan — Launch of the " Dolly " — Sufferings of Wilson Price Hunt's Party — Operations along the Columbia — Astoria Sold to the Northwest Company — Captured by the English and Named u Fort George" — Unsuccessful Efforts of Mr. Astor to Regain Possession — Negotiations under the Treaty of Ghent — Conflicting Claims to Oregon Advanced by England and the United States — Technical Surrender of Fort George — Joint Occu- pation Agreed Upon — The Florida Treaty. DURING the first ten years of the present century, Americans took the lead in the fishing and fur trade of the Pacific, though the vessels of other nations were not an unfrequent sight to the waters of our coast. The reasons for this were simple. Russians did not enjoy the privilege of entering the few Chinese ports open to the commerce of more favored nations, and therefore did their trading by land from Kamtchatka, as previously described; the English independent traders were excluded from the Pacific by the monopoly grants of the East India Company and South Sea Com- pany. Naturally this usurpation of the fur trade by Americans was distasteful to rival nations, and especially to the English, who did not then, and, in fact, seldom do now, recognize the enterprise and commercial spirit of the "Yankees 1 ' as commendable, or admit 148 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. their superiority, or even equality, in anything. Though often the representatives of wealthy and long- established business houses, these traders were classed by them as "adventurers," and very slightingly spoken of, while their skill as navigators and judgment as traders were not recognized as deserving of praise. Archibald Campbell gives the following contemptuous review of the "Yan- kee" method of conducting the fur trade: — These adventurers set out on the voyage with a few trinkets of very little value. In the Southern Pacific, they pick up a few seal skins, and perhaps a few butts of oil; at the Gallipagos, they lay in turtle, of which they preserve the shells; at Val- paraiso, they raise a few dollars in exchange for European articles ; at Nootka, and other parts of the Northwest Coast, they traffic with the natives for furs, which, when winter commences, they carry to the Sandwich Islands, to dry and preserve from vermin; here they leave their own people to take care of them, and, in the spring, embark, in lieu, the natives of the islands, to assist in navigating to the Northwest Coast in search of more skins. The remainder of the cargo is then made up of sandal, which grows abundantly in the woods of Atooi and Owyhee (Hawaii), of tortoise shells, shark's fins, and pearls of an inferior kind, all of which are accept- able in the Chinese market ; and with these and their dollars they purchase cargoes of teas, silks and nankins, and thus complete their voyage in the course of two or three years. With the exception of the assertion that their outward cargo consisted solely of a "few trinkets," this may be called a correct statement of the Yankee method, and, so far from proving them to have been mere adventurers, shows that their voyages were con- ducted with a clear idea of the nature of the Chinese trade and the only successful method of conducting it. Had the traders of rival nations shown the same good judgment and managed their enter- prises in the same systematic manner, they would have met with a greater measure of success. Tne vessels were generally large ones, dispatched by wealthy merchants, and besides the trinkets, carried valuable cargoes of English and American manufactured goods, with which they supplied the Kussian and Spanish settlements on the Coast. The Eussians in particular were dependent upon the American traders for ammunition, sugar, spirits, and manufactured articles generally. The " trinkets " spoken of were used in the Indian trade, as has been the custom from time immemorial with civilized nations in their dealings with inferior races. Commer- cially of little value, they were highly prized by the natives, who would give for them more furs than they would offer for some object worth ten times the amount, but which did not strike their fancy, ASTORIA AXD THE JOINT OCCUPATION TREATY. 149 or was of no use to thera in their manner of living. This method of trading with the Indians was practiced as much by the Hudson's Bay Company and Northwest Company as by the Americans; nor was it coniined to English-speaking nations, for the Russians also bartered beads and cheap ornaments for valuable furs. Such arti- cles have always been considered a " valuable consideration " by every nation in dealing with uncivilized races. Certain of these traders were guilty of improper and impolitic conduct, however, and this was the chief cause of bringing them into disrepute. They used whisky and fire-arms as articles of mer- chandise, reaping present profit, but sowing the seeds of decay which have swept away the native inhabitants of the Coast likes flies by an October frost. It would, at the first glance, seem that the pos- session of fire-arms by the Indians would enable them to hunt more successfully, and thus, by rendering the supply of furs more abun- dant, add to the profit of the traders; but there was another face to the matter. Irving says: "In this way several fierce tribes in the vicinity of the Russian posts, or within range of their trading excur- sions, were furnished with deadly means of warfare, and rendered troublesome and dangerous neighbors." The Russians were ex- tremely harsh and illiberal in their dealings with the aborigines, winning their hostility instead of good will, and they naturally objected to the placing of the defrauded tribes on an equality with themselves in the matter of weapons of war. Complaint was made by the Russian Government to the State Department; but as the American traders were violating no law or treaty, the Government could not interfere directly. It did, however, use its influence to effect a remedy. John Jacob Astor was then the central figure of the American fur trade, being engaged extensively in that business in the region of the great lakes and headwaters of the Mississippi, and was the leading merchant of New York City. His attention was called to the matter and he soon devised an effectual remedy. His idea was to concentrate the trade in the hands of a company which would conduct it properly, and one of the means of doing this was to supply the Russian posts by contract, and thus cut off one of the most profitable elements of the Pacific trade from the independent traders. His plan was to establish a permanent post at the mouth of the Columbia, which would be the headquarters for 150 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. a large trade with the interior and along the coast, and to supply this post and the Russian settlements by means of a vessel sent an- nually from New York, which should also convey the furs to China and take home from there a cargo of silk, tea, etc. The independ- ent traders would thus be superseded by a company which would establish posts along the Columbia, a thing earnestly desired by the Government, and the cause of irritation to Russia would be removed. The scheme was heartily endorsed by the President and Cabinet. As has been shown, President Jefferson had been for years a warm advocate of American supremacy along the Columbia, and in a let- ter written to Mr. Astor in later years, said of his opinion at that time: "I considered, as a great public acquisition, the commence- ment of a settlement in that part of the western coast of America, and looked forward with gratification to the time when its descend- ants had spread themselves through the whole length of the coast, covering it with free and independent Americans, unconnected with us but by the ties of blood and interest, and enjoying like us the lights of self-government." How vastly grander is the actual than even this grand conception of one of the greatest statesmen America has produced! Mr. Astor organized the Pacific Fur Company, himself supply- ing the capital and owning a half interest. To manage operations in the field, he selected competent men of much experience in the fur trade, and to bind them to his interests he gave them the other half share in the enterprise, divided in equal proportions. Wisdom and prudence marked every step taken, with the exception of the selection of partners. Among these were several men who had formerly belonged to, or were employed by, the Northwest Com- pany. They were of alien birth and sympathies. When they united with Mr. Astor it was simply as a commercial venture, by which they hoped to better themselves financially. His purpose of founding an American settlement on the Columbia, so that the United States might dominate this region, was not in harmony with their national sentiments. They were British in thought and sym- pathy, even- as partners in an American enterprise, and could not be relied upon to support the interests of the United States when they came in conflict in the disputed territory with those of Great Britain, as represented by the great company in which they had ASTORIA AND THE JOINT OCCUPATION TREATY. 1 5 1 received their training and to which they were attached by the strongest ties which time and association can weave. In an enter- prise so purely American and of such deep political significance, Washington's injunction to " Put none but Americans on guard " should have been wisely heeded ; and the failure so to do was most disastrous in its consequences. These men were Alexander McKay (father of the well known Tom. McKay and grandfather of Dr. William C. McKay, of Pendleton, Oregon ), who had accompanied Mackenzie on both of his great journeys, Duncan McDougal, David and Eobert Stuart, and Donald McKenzie. So far from undertak- ing to Americanize themselves, these gentlemen took, the precaution before leaving Canada to provide themselves with proofs of their British citizenship, to be used for their protection in case of future difficulties between the two nations. Had this been known to Mr. Astor it would doubtless have put a sudden termination to their connection with the enterprise. Only one American, Wilson Price Hunt, of New Jersey, was an interested partner from the first, and to him was entrusted the management of the enterprise on the Pacific Coast. The first movement was made on the second of August, 1810, when the ship Tonquin sailed from New York for the mouth of the Columbia, commanded by Captain Jonathan Thorn, a Lieuten- ant of the United States Navy, on leave of absence. She mounted ten guns, had a crew of twenty men, and carried a large cargo of supplies for the company, and merchandise for trading with the natives, as well as implements and seeds for cultivating the soil, and the fame of a small schooner for use in trading along the coast. She carried, as passengers, McKay, McDougal, the two Stuarts, twelve clerks (among them Tom McKay), several artisans, and thirteen Canadian voyageurs. The voyage was uneventful, except as regards the dissensions that arose between the American Captain and the Scotch partners. Captain Thorn was a strict disciplinarian. He possessed great respect for himself as an officer of the Ameri- can Navy, and had inherited from Revolutionary sires a lasting contempt for "Britishers." He considered the authority of a com- mander on the deck of his vessel as supreme, even to the point of autocracy, and he made the Scotchmen understand this idea the first time they undertook to exercise any of the authority they conceived 152 HISTOKY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. themselves to be possessed of as partners in the company. He informed them that when they were on shore they could do as they pleased, but when they were on board of his vessel they must do as he pleased or be put in irons. He held himself responsible in his management of the Tonquin solely to Mr. Astor, from whom he had received his instructions, and would brook no interference what- ever from the lesser partners, whom he considered as simply pas- sengers. It may well be imagined that when the ship reached the Columbia Bar, on the twenty- second of the following March, after a voyage of nearly eight months, the snubbed partners were delighted at the prospect of soon setting foot on shore, where they could exercise a little of that authority which had been so com- pletely bottled up; while Captain Thorn was equally pleased to be rid of his passengers, who had been a continual source of annoy- ance during the voyage. When the Tonquin arrived off the bar the weather was stormy and the breakers rolled high. He feared to take his vessel across an unknown bar in such a rough sea. This fear was not a personal one, for he was as brave as he was headstrong, but was solely in reference to the safety of his vessel, to secure which he would have forfeited his own life and those of his entire crew, had it been nec- essary to do so. He accordingly ordered Mr. Fox, the first mate, to take a whale boat, with a crew of one seaman and three Cana- dians, and explore the channel. Although it was almost certain death to make the attempt, Mr. Fox expressed a willingness to undertake it if he were provided with a crew of seamen instead of the green Canadians; but the willful captain insisted upon the exe- cution of his order as originally given. The surging billows soon engulfed the boat and its brave crew, and they were seen no more. The next day another boat was sent on the same errand, and was swept out to sea by the tide and current, and only one of its occu- pants finally reached land in safety. Just as darkness closed down upon the scene, on the second day, the Tonquin succeeded in cross- ing, and anchored just within the bar, where the wind and ebbing tide threatened to sweep her from her precarious hold upon the sands and swamp her amid the rolling breakers. The night was an anxious and distressful one. Irving says: u The wind whistled, the sea roared, the gloom was only broken by the ghastly glare of the ASTORIA AND THE JOINT OCCUPATION TREATY. 153 foaming breakers, the minds of the seamen were full of dreary apprehensions, and some of them fancied they heard the cries of their lost comrades mingling with the uproar of the elements.'" In the morning the Tonquin passed safely in and came to anchor in a good harbor. On the twelfth of April the partners began the erection of a fort on the south side of the river, on a point which Lieutenant Brough- ton had named " Point George. 1 ' This was christened " Astoria," in honor of the founder and chief promoter of the enterprise, a name now borne by a thriving commercial city, which marks the spot where America first planted her foot squarely upon the dis- puted territory of Oregon. After much delay and continued wrang- ling over their respective authority, a store-house was built and the supplies landed; and on the fifth of June, before the fort was com- pleted, Captain Thorn sailed northward to engage in trade with the Indians, and to open that friendly communication with the Russian settlements which formed such an inrportant feature of Mr. Astor's plan. "With him went Alexander McKay, the only partner who had possessed the good sense to refrain from wrangling with the irascible captain. He came to anchor in one of the harbors on the west coast of Vancouver Island, and Mr. McKay went ashore. During his ab- sence the vessel was surrounded by a host of savages in their ca- noes, who soon swarmed upon the decks. They were eager to trade, but had evidently had considerable experience in dealing with the whites and were well posted upon the value of their furs, for they resolutely demanded a higher price than Captain Thorn was will- ing to pay. Provoked beyond measure at their stubbornness, Thorn refused to deal with them, whereupon they became exceedingly inso- lent. The Captain at last completely lost his temper, and seizing the old chief, Nookamis, who was following him about and taunting him with his stinginess, rubbed in his face an otter skin he had been endeavoring to sell. He then ordered the whole band to leave the ship, and added blows to enforce his command. The tragic ending of this adventure is thus related by Irving: — When Mr. McKay returned on board, the interpreter related what had passed, and begged him to prevail upon the Captain to make sail, as, from his knowledge of the temper and pride of the people of the place, he was sure they would resent the indignity offered to one of their chiefs. Mr. McKay, who himself possessed 154 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. some experience of Indian character, went to the Captain, who was still pacing the deck in moody humor, represented the danger to which his hasty act had exposed the vessel, and urged upon him to weigh anchor. The Captain made light of his counsels, and pointed to his cannon and fire-arms as a sufficient safeguard against naked savages. Further remonstrance only provoked taunting replies and sharp altercations. The day passed away without any signs of hostility, and at night the Captain retired, as usual, to his cabin, taking no more than usual precautions. On the following morning, at daybreak, while the Captain and Mr. McKay were yet asleep, a canoe came alongside in which were twenty Indians, commanded by young Shewish. They were unarmed, their aspect and demeanor friendly, and they held up otter skins, and made signs indicative of a wish to trade. The caution enjoined by Mr. Astor in respect to the admission of Indians on board of the ship, had been neglected for some time past, and the officer of the watch, perceiv- ing those in the canoes to be without weapons, and having received no orders to the contrary, readily permitted them to mount the deck. Another canoe soon suc- ceeded, the crew of which was likewise admitted. In a little while other canoes came off, and Indians were soon clambering into the vessel on all sides. The officer of the watch now felt alarmed, and called to Captain Thorn and Mr. McKay. By the time they came on deck, it was thronged with Indians. The interpreter noticed to Mr. McKay that many of the natives wore short mantles .of skins, and intimated a suspicion that they were secretly armed. Mr. McKay urged the Captain to clear the ship and get under way. He again made light of the advice ; but the augmented swarm of canoes about the ship, and the numbers still putting off from the shore, at length awakened his distrust, and he ordered some of the crew to weigh anchor, while some were sent aloft to make sail. The Indians now offered to trade with the Captain on his own terms, prompted, apparently, by the approaching departure of the ship. Accordingly, a hurried trade was commenced. The main articles sought by the savages in barter, were knives ; as fast as some were supplied they moved off and others succeeded. By degrees they were thus distributed about the deck, and all with weapons. The an- chor was now nearly up, the sails were loose, and the Captain, in a loud and pre- emptory tone, ordered the ship to be cleared. In an instant a signal yell was given ; it was echoed on every side, knives and war clubs were brandished in every direc- tion, and the savages rushed upon their marked victims. The first that fell was Mr. Lewis, the ship's clerk. He was leaning, with folded arms, over a bale of blankets, engaged in bargaining, when he received a deadly stab in the back, and fell down the companionway. Mr. McKay, who was seated on the taffrail, sprang to his feet, but was instantly knocked down with a war-club and flung backwards into the sea, where he was dispatched by the women in the canoes. In the meantime, Captain Thorn made desperate fight against fearful odds. He was a powerful as well as resolute man, but he came upon deck without weapons. Shewish, the young chief, singled him out as his peculiar prey, and rushed upon him at the first outbreak. The Captain had barely time to draw a clasp-knife, with one blow of which he laid the young savage dead at his feet. Sev- eral of the stoutest followers of Shewish now set upon him. He defended himself vigorously, dealing crippling blows to right and left, and strewing the quarterdeck with the slain and wounded. His object was to fight his way to the cabin, where there were fire-arms ; but he was hemmed in with foes, covered with wounds, and faint with loss of blood. For an instant he leaned upon the tiller wheel, when a blow from behind, with a war-club, felled him to the deck, where he was dis- patched with knives and thrown overboard. While this was transacting upon the quarterdeck, a chance medley was going on throughout the ship. The crew fought desperately with knives, handspikes ASTORIA AND THE JOINT OCCUPATION TREATY. 155 and whatever weapons they could seize upon in the moment of surprise. They were soon, however, overpowered by numbers and mercilessly butchered. As to the seven who had been sent aloft to make sail, they contemplated with horror the carnage that was going on below. Being destitute of weapons, they let themselves down by the running rigging, in hopes of getting between decks. One fell in the attempt, and was instantly dispatched ; another received a death-blow in the back as he was descending ; a third, Stephen Weeks, the armorer, was mortally wounded as he was getting down the hatchway. The remaining four made good their re- treat into the cabin, where they found Mr. Lewis still alive, though mortally wounded. Barricading the cabin door, they broke holes through the companion- way, and, with muskets and ammunition which were at hand, opened a brisk fire that soon cleared the deck. Thus far the Indian interpreter, from whom these particulars are derived, had been an eye-witness of the deadly conflict. He had taken no part in it and had been spared by the natives as being of their race. In the confusion of the moment he took refuge with the rest, in the canoes. The sur- vivors of the crew now sallied forth and discharged some of the deck guus, which did great execution among the canoes and drove all the savages to shore. For the remainder of the day no one ventured to put off to the ship, deterred by the effects of the fire-arms. The night passed away without any further attempt on the part of the natives. When day dawned the Tonquin still lay at anchor in the bay, her sails all loose and flapping in the wind, and no one apparently on board of her. After a time, some of the canoes ventured forth to reconnoitre, taking with them the interpreter. They paddled about her, keeping cautiously at a distance, but growing more and more emboldened at seeing her quiet and lifeless. One man at length made his appearance on the deck and was recognized by the interpreter as Mr. Lewis. He made friendly signs and invited them on board. It was long before they ventured to comply. Those who mounted the deck met with no oppo- sition ; no one was to be seen on board, for Mr. Lewis, after inviting them, had dis- appeared. Other canoes now pressed forward to board the prize ; the decks were soon crowded and the sides covered with clambering savages, all intent on plunder. In the midst of their eagerness and exultation, the ship blew up with a tremendous explosion. Arms, legs and mutilated bodies were blown into the air, and dreadful havoc was made in the surrounding canoes. The interpreter was in the maiu chains at the time of the explosion, and was thrown unhurt into the water, where he succeeded in getting into one of the canoes. According to his statement the bay presented an awful spectacle after the catastrophe. The ship had disappeared, but the bay was covered with fragments of the wreck, with shattered canoes, and Indians swimming for their lives or struggling in the agonies of death ; while those who had escaped the danger remained aghast and stupified, or made with frantic panic for the shore. Upwards of a hundred savages were destroyed by the explo- sion, many more were shockingly mutilated, and for days afterwards the limbs and bodies of the slain were thrown upon the beach. The inhabitants of Xeweetee were overwhelmed with consternation at this astounding calamity which had burst upon them in the very moment of triumph. The warriors sat mute and mournful, while the women filled the air with loud lam- entations. Their weeping and wailing, however, was suddenly changed into yells of fury at the sight of four unfortunate white men brought captive into the village. They had been driven on shore in one of the ship's boats, and taken at some dis- tance along the coast. The interpreter was permitted to converse with them. They proved to be the four brave fellows who had made such desperate defense from the cabin. The interpreter gathered from them some of the particulars already related. They told him further that, after they had beaten off the enemy, and cleared the ship, Lewis advised that they should slip the cable and endeavor to get to sea. 156 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. They declined to take his advice, alleging that the wind set too strongly into the bay, and would drive them on shore. They resolved, as soon as it was dark, to put off quietly in the ship's boat, which they would be able to do unperceived, and to coast along back to Astoria. They put their resolution into effect ; but Lewis re- fused to accompany them, being disabled by his wound, hopeless of escape and determined on a terrible revenge. On the voyage out he had frequently expressed a presentiment that he should die by his own hands— thinking it highly probable that he should be engaged in some contests with the natives, and being resolved, in case of extremity, to commit suicide rather than be made a prisoner. He now de- clared his intention to remain on the ship until daylight, to decoy as many of the savages on board as possible, then to set fire to the powder magazine and terminate his life by a single act of vengeance. How well he succeeded has been shown. His companions bade him a melancholy adieu and set off on their precarious expe- dition. They strove with might and main to get out of the bay, but found it im- possible to weather a point of land, and were at length compelled to take shelter in a small cove, where they hoped to remain concealed until the wind should be more favorable. Exhausted by fatigue and watching, they fell into a sound sleep, and in that state were surprised by the savages. Better had it been for those un- fortunate men had they remained with Lewis and shared his heroic death ; as it was, they perished in a more painful and protracted manner, being sacrificed by the natives to the manes of their friends with all the lingering tortures of savage cruelty. Some time after their death the interpreter, who had remained a kind of prisoner at large, effected his escape and brought the tragical tidings to Astoria. While this sad tragedy was being enacted, affairs progressed rapidly at Astoria. The fort was completed and everything was placed in readiness for an opening of the expected large trade with the natives of the Columbia. On the fifteenth of July a canoe, manned by nine white men, was observed descending the river, and when they landed at the fort they were found to be a party of em- ployees of the powerful Northwest Company, headed by David Thompson, a partner in that great organization. He had been dis- patched from Montreal the year before, for the purpose of taking possession of the mouth of the Columbia before the Astor party should arrive. He had experienced much hardship, disappointment and delay ; had been deserted by nearly all his party, and now, with but a few faithful ones, he arrived too late to accomplish his mis- sion. The Americans wpre in possession. The Northwest Com- pany held a warm place in McDougal's heart, and as that gentle- man was in charge at Astoria, Thompson received a cordial wel- come, and was bountifully supplied with provisions and necessaries for his return journey, notwithstanding the fact that he was but a spy upon his hosts. When he set out upon his return, eight days later, he was entrusted with a letter to Mr. Astor, giving the presi- dent of the company information of the safe arrival of the Tonquin, ASTORIA AND THE JOINT OCCUPATION TREATY. 157 the founding of Astoria, and the absence of the vessel upon a trad- ing voyage to the north, for the destruction of the ship and tragic death of the crew were as yet unknown at the fort. With Thomp- son went David Stuart, at the head of a party of nine men, with instructions to establish a post on the Upper Columbia. This he accomplished by founding Fort Okinagan, near the mouth of the Okinagan River. In the fall Stuart sent half his men back to Astoria, not having sufficient provisions to subsist them all through the winter. The schooner whose frame had been brought out in the Tonquin, was constructed during the summer, and was launched on the second of October, receiving the name of Dolly. She was the third craft constructed on the upper coast, and the first built along the Columbia River. While these steps were being taken by the party which reached Astoria by sea, the other one which attempted the overland journey was suffering terrible hardships. The land party was under the command of Wilson Price Hunt, and was composed of McKenzie and three new partners, Ramsey Crooks, Joseph Miller and Robert McLellan; also, John Day, a noted Kentucky hunter; Pierre Dorion, a French half-breed inter- preter, and enough trappers, voyageurs, etc., to make a total of sixty people. They reached Fort Henry, on Snake River, October 8, 1811. Small detachments were, from time to time, sent out in the Rocky Mountains to trap, who were to use Fort Henry as a base of supplies and a depot for furs. The remainder of the party continued the journey down Snake River and met with a continuous succession of disasters. Antoine Clappin was drowned in passing a rapid, and soon after famine reduced them to a pitiable condition. They were finally forced to separate into small detachments, one party going under Crooks, another under McKenzie, and a third under Hunt, with the hope that by such a division their chances for reaching the mouth of the Col- umbia would be increased. Once the parties under Crooks and Hunt camped with only the narrow, turbulent waters of Snake River separating them. The Hunt party had killed a horse and were cooking it, while their starving companions on the opposite side of the stream, with no means of crossing it, were forced to look on as they dined. Not a man in Mr. Hunt's camp would make an effort to send them food, until the arrival of Mr. Crooks, who, discovering 158 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. the condition of his men on the opposite side, called to the forlorn band to start fires for cooking, that no time might be lost, while he constructed a canoe out of skins in which to take the meat across to them. In vain he tried to shame the more fortunate into helping to succor their famishing companions, but "A vague and almost superstitious terror," says Irving, " had infected the minds of Mr. Hunt's followers, enfeebled and rendered imaginative of horrors by the dismal scenes and sufferings through which they had passed. They regarded the haggard crew, hovering like spectres of famine on the opposite bank, with indefinite feelings of awe and apprehension, as if something desperate and dangerous was to be feared from them." When the canoe was finished, Mr. Crooks attempted to navigate the impetuous stream with it, but found his strength unequal to the task, and failing to reach his companions on the opposite bank, made another appeal to Hunt's men. Finally, a Kentuckian, named Ben. Jones, undertook and made the passage, conveying meat to them and then came back. Irving, in describing the sad scene, says : — A poor Canadian, however, named Jean Baptiste Prevost, whom famine had rendered wild and desperate, ran frantically about the banks, after Jones had re- turned, crying out to Mr. Hunt to send the canoe for him, and take him from that horrible region of famine, declaring that otherwise he would never march another step, but would lie down there and die. The canoe was shortly sent over again, under the management of Joseph Delaunay, with further supplies. Prevost imme- diately pressed forward to embark. Delaunay refused to admit him, telling him that there was now a sufficient supply of meat on his side of the river. He replied that it was not cooked, and he should starve before it was ready ; he implored, there- fore, to be taken where he could get something to appease his hunger immediately. Finding the canoe putting off without him, he forced himself aboard. As he drew near the opposite shore, and beheld meat roasting before the fire, he jumped up, shouted, clapped his hands, and danced in a delirium of joy, until he upset the canoe. The poor wretch was swept away by the current and drowned, and it was with extreme difficulty that Delaunay reached the shore. Mr. Hunt now sent all his men forward excepting two or three. In the evening, he caused another horse to be killed, and a canoe to be made out of the skin, in which he sent over a further supply of meat to the opposite party. The canoe brought back John Day, the Ken- tucky hunter, who came to join his former commander and employer, Mr. Crooks. Poor Day, once so active and vigorous, was now reduced to a condition even more feeble and emaciated than his companions. Mr. Crooks had such a value for the man, on account of his past services and faithful character, that he determined not to quit him; he exhorted Mr. Hunt, however, to proceed forward and join the party, as his presence was all important to the conduct of the expedition. One of the Canadians, Jean Baptiste Dubreuil, likewise remained with Mr. Crooks. The occurrences at this starvation camp were on the twentieth of ASTORIA AND THE JOINT OCCUPATION TREATY. 159 December, 1811, both parties being on their way np Snake River after having found the descent of that stream impossible. It was now their intention to strike across the country for the Colimibia, as soon as it was practicable to do so. On the twenty - third of December, Mr Hunt's followers crossed to the west side of the stream, where they were joined by Crook's men, who were already there. The two parties, when united, numbered thirty-six souls, and on the next day they turned from the river into a track- less country; but, before starting, three more of their number had concluded to remain among the savages rather than face the hard- ships and trials that lay before them. December 28, 1811, the head waters of Grand Ronde River were reached, and the last day of that year found them encamped in the valley of that name. Through all their perils and wanderings since leaving St. Louis, one woman, the Indian wife of Pierre Dorion, a guide, interpreter and trapper, had accompanied them, bringing with her two children, and, as the party entered the Grand Ronde Valley, she gave birth to another. The next day she continued the journey on horseback as though nothing had happened, but the little stranger only lived six days. Mr. Hunt, after halting one or two days to enable his followers to celebrate, in their forlorn way, the advent of a new year that had presented to them the Grand Ronde Valley, a kind of winter para- dise in the mountains, continued his course to the west. The Blue Mountain ridge was passed, and January 8, 1812, an Indian village on the Umatilla River close to the mountains was reached, where they were hospitably received. From there their route was down this stream to the Columbia River, thence to the mouth of the latter, arriving at Astoria February 15, 1812. Since leaving Fort Henry, October 19, 1811, out of Mr. Hunt's party, two men had been drowned on Snake River, and poor Michael Carriere, when exhausted, had straggled behind in Grand Ronde Valley, and was never heard from afterwards. Ramsey Crooks, John Day and four Canadian voyageurs had been left half dead on Snake River, to remain in the Indian country, die, or reach the Co- lumbia as best thev could. Eleven men, among whom were Donald McKenzie, Robert McLellan and the unfortunate John Reed, had been detached on Snake River, and following that stream until its waters mingled with the Columbia, had reached Astoria a 160 HISTOKY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. month in advance of Mr. Hunt. Mr. Stuart, when returning from his post on the Okinagan, during the first days of April, found Mr. Crooks and John Day on the banks of the Columbia River, without weapons, nearly starved, and as naked as when born, having been robbed and stripped by the Dalles Indians. They had wintered in the Blue Mountains about Grand Ronde Valley, and in the spring had reached the Walla Wallas, who had fed, succored them, and sent them ou their way rejoicing down the river. When found, they were making their way back to these early friends of the Americans, who never failed to assist our people when in trouble. At length all but three of those starting from the head waters of the Snake River for Astoria had reached that place, except the four voyageurs, and later they, too, were found by a return party. On the ninth of May, the ship Beaver, with reinforcements and supplies, anchored at Astoria, and the Pacific Fur Company was in condition to enter upon a vigorous fur -gathering campaign. Mr. Hunt, who was at the head of affairs, set out in July for Alaska to fulfill the mission upon which the ill-fated Tonquin had sailed, and his departure left Duncan McDougal in charge. Prior to this, however, the various expeditions to trap waters and trade with natives between the Rocky and Cascade Mountains had started, sixty-two strong, up the* Columbia. Among the number was the unfortunate John Day, and, as the party approached the scenes of his former sufferings, his mind became delirious, and the mere sight of an Indian would throw him into a frenzy of passion. He finally attempted his own life, but was prevented from taking it, after which a constant guard was kept over him. It was at length de- termined to send him back to Astoria, and being placed in charge of two Indians, he was delivered by them at the fort, where he died in less than a year. His old compeers and staunch friends, who had shared perils and privations with him, were forced to continue their journey with a sad memory of this companion, whose brain had been shattered by his many misfortunes. The stream which had witnessed his sufferings still bears the heroic trapper's name. The arrival of trappers at the present site of Wallula, on the twenty- eighth of July, 1812, was the signal for general rejoicing among the friendly Walla Wallas, who greeted them with bonfires and a night dance, in which they sang the praises of their white friends. Here ASTORIA AND THE JOINT OCCUPATION TREATY. 161 the four expeditions were to separate, Robert Stuart to cross the continent by Hunt's route; David Stuart to go up the Columbia to Okinagan ; Donald McKenzie to establish a post in the Nez Perce country; and John Clarke to locate one among the Spokane Indians. Of these several expeditions, Robert Stuart, with his party, includ- ing Crooks and McLellan, reached St. Louis eleven months later, bearing news to Mr. Astor of his enterprise on the Pacific Coast. McKenzie's operations were a failure; David Stuart's success was equal to his most sanguine hopes, and Mr. Clarke's efforts resulted second only to those of Mr. Stuart. On the twenty-fifth of May, 1813, Mr. Clarke started from his post on the Spokane to reach the Walla Walla, the place agreed upon as a general rendezvous, where the different expeditions were to meet and return to Astoria with the furs obtained in their ope- rations during the past season. On his way up, Mr. Clarke had left his canoes in charge of a Palouse chief, living; at the mouth of the river of 'that name, with whom he found them on his return. He had twenty-eight horse packs of furs, and all his men were in high spirits because of the success that had attended their year's work. While stopping at the mouth of this stream to repair their canoes, in which to embark upon the river, an incident happened that can not well be passed in silence. Mr. Clarke was a strong disciplinarian, something of an aristocrat, and disposed to impress those with whom he came in contact with the dignity of his pres- ence and person. He was in the habit of carrying a silver goblet to drink from, and the glittering object carefully guarded by its possessor, had a strange fascination for the superstitious Indians. In all their land, no such wondrous device had been seen before. They talked to each other concerning it, watched its appearance, and the care with which the lucky possessor laid it away after using. They believed it to be a great medicine, like the spotted shirt and the white quilt among the Coeur d'Alenes, a powerful talisman to shield its owner from harm. One night it disappeared, and Mr. Clarke was enraged. He threatened to hang the first In- dian detected in stealing, and the next night an unfortunate one was caught in the act. A hasty trial followed, and the prisoner was condemned to die, when Mr. Clarke made the assembled sav- ages a speech. He recounted the numerous gifts that had been be- 162 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. stowed, the benefit the white man's presence had been to their peo- ple, and then, upbraiding them for thefts, told the Indians that he should kill the thief he had captured with pilfered goods. The old chief and his followers besought him not to do this. They were willing that he should be punished severely, and then let go, but the trapper was inexorable, and the poor groveling wretch was dragged to a temporary scaffold, constructed from oars, and was launched into eternity. The other partners of the Pacific Fur Com- pany were unanimous in condemning this act, and Gabriel Fran- chere, who was one of the company clerks, wrote concerning the killing of the unfortunate John Reed and his party by Indians dur- ing the ensuing winter: " We had no doubt that his massacre was an act of vengeance, on the part of the natives, in retaliation for the death of one of their people, whom Mr. John Clarke had hanged for theft the spring before." * Immediately after this hanging the party embarked for the mouth of the Walla Walla, where Stuart and McKenzie were waiting, and from this point they all continued their way down the river, arriving at Astoria, June 12, 1813* Upon re -assembling at head quarters, the return expeditions found that, upon the whole, it had been a successful year's labor; that the peltry brought in, amounting to one hundred and fifty -seven packs, if sold at market rates in Canton, would pay well for the time spent, and reimburse them for local losses. In addition to this, they had become well established in the fur-producing regions, and the outlook was very encouraging except for one thing. War had been raging between Great Britain and the United States for over a year, and they had recently become aware of the fact. On their arrival at Astoria, J. G. McTavish, with nineteen men, was found camped near by, awaiting the appearance of a vessel called the Isaac Todd, sent by the Northwest Company with stores for them, and bearing letters of marque, and instructions from the British Govern- ment to destroy everything American found on the Pacific Coast. This latter fact was unknown at Astoria at the time, however, but the non-arrival of supplies by sea, combined with the unfavorable news of British success in arms, led the partners to fear that none whatever would reach them. They, consequently, determined to * This is undoubtedly incorrect, as Reed's party was killed near Fort Henry, several hundred miles distant, and by a totally distinct tribe of Indians. ASTORIA AND THE JOINT OCCUPATION TREATY. 163 abandon the country and start on their return overland the ensuing year, if their misgivings proved well founded. They sold their Spokane fort to McTavish for $848, and then furnished that gentle- man with provisions to enable him to return to the upper country, and, in July, they visited the interior themselves, to gather what furs they could before taking final leave of the country. Three months later, McTavish returned to Astoria with a force of seventy - five men, for the purpose of meeting the vessel that had caused his former visit, bringing, also, the news that her coming to the Colum- bia was for the purpose of capturing Astoria, and to assist the Northwest Company in gaining ascendency on the coast. He offered to buy the furs of the Astorians, and, on the sixteenth of October, 1813, a transfer of the entire stock, worth at least $100,000, was made for less than $40,000. Two months later, on December 12th, the fort was surrendered to the English under command of a naval officer, Captain Black of the Raccoon, when the American flag was lowered to give the British colors place, and the name of Astoria was changed to " Fort George." An amusing incident of this trans- fer is related by John Ross Cox: — The Indians, at the mouth of the Columbia, knew well that Great Britian and America were distinct nations, and that they were then at war, but were ignorant of the arrangement made between Messrs. McDougal and McTavish, the former of whom still continued as nominal chief at the fort. On the arrival of the Raccoon which they quickly discovered to be one of "King George's fighting ships," they repaired, armed, to the fort, and requested an audience of Mr. McDougal. He was somewhat surprised at their numbers and warlike appearance, and demanded the object of such an unusual visit. Concomly, the principal chief of the Chinooks (whose daughter McDougal had married), thereupon addressed him in a long speech, in the course of which he said that King George had sent a ship full of warriors, and loaded with nothing but big guns, to take the Americans and make them all slaves, and that, as they (the Americans) were the first white men who settled in their country, and treated the Indians like good relations, they had resolved to defend them from King George's warriors, and were now ready to conceal them- selves in the woods close to the wharf, from whence they would be able, with their guns and arrows, to shoot all the men that should attempt to land from the English boats, while the people in the fort could fire at them with their big guns and rifles. This proposition was uttered with an earnestness of manner that admitted no doubt of its sincerity. Two armed boats from the Raccoon were approaching, and, had the people in the fort felt disposed to accede to the wishes of the Indians, every man in them would have been destroyed by an invisible enemy. Mr. McDougal thanked them for their friendly offer, but added, that, notwithstanding the nations were at war, the people in the boats would not injure him or any of his people, and therefore requested them to throw by their war shirts and arms, and receive the strangers as their friends. They at first seemed astonished at this answer; but, on assuring them, in the most positive manner, that he was under no apprehension, they con- 164 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. sented to give up their weapons for a few days. They afterwards declared they were sorry for having complied with Mr. McDougal's wishes, for when they ob- served Captain Black, surrounded by his officers and marines, break the bottle of port on the flag-staff, and hoist the British ensign, after changing the name of the fort, they remarked that however he might wish to conceal the fact, the Americans were undoubtedly made slaves. Seventy- eight days after the surrender of Astoria to the British, Mr. Hunt arrived at that fort in the brig Pedlar, and judge of his astonishment to learn that McDougal was no longer a partner of the Pacific, but of the Northwest, Company; that he held posses- sion, not under the American, but under the British, flag ; and that all in which Mr. Hunt was interested on this coast had passed, without a struggle, through treachery, into the hands of his country's enemies. Mr. Hunt, Anally, secured the papers pertaining to busi- ness transactions of the Pacific Fur Company from McDougal, and then sailed, April 3, 1814, from the shore that had seemed to yield only misfortune and disaster in return for the efforts of himself, and those with whom he was associated. The next day, David Stuart McKenzie, John Clarke and eighty -five other members and employees of the Pacific Fur Company, started up the Columbia River in their boats on their way across the continent, and while passing Wallula, learned from the widow of Pierre Dorion, of the massacre of John Reed and his eight associates, among the Snake Indians near Fort Henry. Thus matters remained until the war of 1812 was terminated by the Treaty of Grhent, by which it was stipulated that " all territory, places and possessions, whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the war, or which may be taken after the signing of this treaty, shall be restored without delay." The commissioners could not agree upon a line of division between the possessions of England and the United States west of the Lake of the Woods, so the Oregon question was left for further discussion, and the Colum- bia remained disputed territory. Mr. Astor at once applied to the President for restitution of his property under the terms of the treaty, as he not only desired to recover his losses, but to resume operations on the Columbia and carry out the plan of American occupation which had been so well begun. Accordingly, in July, 1815, the government notified the British Minister at Washington that it would immediately reoccupy the captured fort at the mouth of ASTORIA AND THE JOINT OCCUPATION TREATY. 165 the Columbia; but the notification elicited no official response from Great Britain. For two years no active measures were taken, and, filially, in September, 1817, the sloop of war Ontario was dispatched to the Columbia, commanded by Captain J. Biddle, who, with J. B. Prevost, who went as a passenger, constituted a commission to accomplish the purpose declared. They were instructed to assert the claim of the United States to sovereignty over the region of the Columbia, but to do so in an inoffensive manner. This step compelled Great Britain to define her position. Her representative at Washington officially inquired of Secretary Adams the destination and object of the Ontario, and with the information he received in response to his query was the intimation, that since England had paid no attention to the notice given her two years before, it had been assumed that she had no intention of claiming any sovereign rights along the Columbia. In answer to this the British Minister stated that the post at the mouth of the Columbia was the private property of the Northwest Company, having been purchased by its agent from a partner of Mr. Astor; furthermore, that it was situated in a region long occupied by that company, (referring, presumably, to the establishment on Fraser River, many hundred miles to the north), and was consequently considered a portion of His Majesty's dominions. Quite a spirited correspond- ence was maintained for some time, involving on each side the ques- tions of abstract rights by discovery and absolute rights by posses- sion, both parties to the controversy basing a claim upon each of these foundations. As the claims then put forward remained prac- tically the same until the question was settled in 1846 — with a modification only in the direction of additional settlements made between these periods — it is well to define here the position assumed by the contending parties. The United States claimed Oregon under four distinct titles: First, as a portion of Louisiana, purchased from France in 1803; second, by right of discovery by the Spanish explorers — Ferrelo, Aguilar, Perez, Heceta, Bodega y Quadra, and others — the benefit of whose discoveries accrued to the United States by the Florida purchase made in 1819, denying at the same time that Sir Francis Drake proceeded north of the forty-third degree, a point claimed to have been previously reached by Ferrelo [The Spanish title was not 166 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. asserted, of course, until after the purchase, being subsequent to the first temporary settlement of the question] ; third, by reason of the discovery of the Columbia by Captain Gray, claiming that Heceta, Meares and Vancouver had all declared that no river existed there, and that Broughton had simply entered it subsequent to its discov- ery by Gray, and explored it a few miles further up; fourth, by reason of the explorations of Captains Lewis and Clarke, and the establishment of posts at Astoria, Okinagan and Spokane by the Pacific Fur Company, denying that the sale of those posts, effected under the duress of threatened capture by a man-of-war, was such as to affect the right of the United States to the benefits to be de- rived from settlements made by her subjects, especially in view of the terms of the treaty of peace. On the part of Great Britain it was claimed that the country was originally discovered by Sir Francis Drake, and its coast thoroughly explored by Captain Cook and Captain Vancouver; that the discovery of the Columbia had been a progressive one, the successive steps having been taken by Heceta, Meares, Vancouver, Gray and Broughton, claiming that Gray had not entered the river proper, but simply the estuary at its mouth, and that Broughton was the first to actually enter and explore the Columbia, and denying that Gray, who was simply a trader, could acquire discovery rights for his government ; and, finally, that she held the country by right of exploration and possession, since McKenzie had made an overland journey prior to that of Lewis and Clarke, Fraser had built a fort on Fraser Lake before Astoria was founded, and the Northwest Company, having purchased at private sale the property of the Pacific Fur Company, then held possession of the Columbia region by means of settlements at Astoria and other points along the river. Such were the claims advanced by the two nations for possession of Oregon, there being many undeniable rights and equities on either side. A temporary agreement was affected in a few months, by which it was decided that Astoria and the other posts should remain the actual property of the Northwest Company, but that nominal possession should be given to the United States as a nation, the question of title being deferred for future negotiation. This decision was a severe blow to the hopes of Mr. Astor, who had looked to the Government to place him in possession of the prop- ASTORIA AM) THE JOINT OCCUPATION TREATY. L6*? erty which he had lost through the fortunes of war and the treachery of one of his partners. So firmly intrenched was the Northwest Company that he did not deem it advisable to found a rival estab- lishment, and lie abandoned his effort to engage in the fur trade in the Pacific. By thus failing to support its citizens who had under- taken to plant the flag of the United States firmly on the soil of Oregon, the Government jeopardized, almost to total annihilation, its chances for future possession of this region. AVhile these negotiations were in progress, the Ontario was ful- filling her mission. She arrived at Valparaiso in February, 1818, and Mr. Prevost debarked, having an official mission to the Chilean Government. Captain Biddle continued northward, and entered the Columbia in August, taking formal possession of the country in the name of the United States. He then sailed to other portions of the Pacific. Meanwhile, the controversy having been temporarily settled upon the terms outlined above, the British Government delegated Captain Sheriff, of the navy, as commissioner to execute formal trans- fer of Fort George. The agent of the Northwest Company, Mr. Keith, was also notified by his superior officers of what was about to be done, the orders going overland with the annual Montreal express, and enjoined to offer no opposition to the formal transfer. Captain Sheriff sailed in the frigate Blossom, and meeting Mr. Prevost in Chile, offered him passage to the Columbia in his vessel, which courtesy was accepted. The Blossom cast anchor at Astoria early in October, and Mr. Keith surrendered formal possession of the property, retaining, of course, actual possession and ownership. A certificate was given Mr. Prevost, stating that Fort George, on the Columbia, had been duly surrendered to him as representative of the United States; and he gave the officers a written acceptance of the transfer. These formal preliminaries having been concluded, the British standard was lowered and the stars and stripes were temporarily displayed upon the walls of the fort, while the guns of the Blossom roared a noisy salute. The American ensign was then lowered, and the farce was over. The United States was thus again nominally in possession of Oregon, while the actual possessor- were the agents of the Northwest Company, subjects of Great Britain. Fort George in 1818 was a far different structure from Astoria 168 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. as it existed when surrendered to the Northwest Company in 1813. A stockade of pine logs, rising twelve feet above the ground, en- compassed a parallelogram 150x250 feet in dimensions. Within this were dwellings, storehouses, magazines, shops, etc. The walls mounted two eighteen -pounders, six six-pounders, four four-pound carronades, two six -pound cohorns and seven swivels, an armament sufficient to render it a strong fort in those days. These remained after the surrender, and Fort George was, practically, as much of a British post as before. The two governments still continued to negotiate on the main point at issue — title to Oregon. Neither would recede from the positions assumed at the beginning of the controversy, and to avoid an open rupture, and with the hope that time would inject a new element into the question, a treaty of procrastination was signed. By this convention it was agreed that all territories and their waters, west of the Rocky Mountains, should be free and open to the vessels and to the use and occupation of the citizens and subjects of both nations for the period of ten years, that no claim of either party should in any manner be prejudiced by this action, and that neither should gain any right of dominion by su^h use or occupation during the specified term. This treaty of joint occupation remained in force, by extension with mutual consent, until the question was definitely settled in 1846. On the twenty-second of February, 1819, the State Department consummated negotiations which had been in progress for some time, completing the title of the United States as defined in a previous paragraph. This was the signing of a treaty with Spain, by which the Province of Florida was con- veyed to the United States, including all the rights, claims and pre- tensions of Spain to any territories north and east of a line drawn from the source of the Arkansas, north to the forty-second parallel, and thence to the Pacific. This remained the boundary between the United States and Mexico, and between the disputed land of Oregon and the Mexican possessions west of the Rocky Mountains. It still continues to be the southern boundary of Oregon, but ceased to divide the United States from Mexico when California, New Mexico and Arizona were conquered or purchased. CHAPTER XI. THE RIVAL FUR COMPANIES. Growth and Power of the Northwest Company — Rivalry between it and the Hudson's Bay Company — The Red River War — Barrows' 1 De- scription of the Hudson } s Bay Company — The Canadian Voya- geurs — Fort Vancouver .Founded — Dunn's Description of the Fort and the Methods of the Hudson's Bay Company in Oregon. THE Northwest Company had now full control of Oregon, but a fierce and bloody struggle was going on between it and the older Hudson's Bay Company, for possession of the fur regions of America. The companies had grown too large to be tolerant of each other; one must go the wall. When first organized the old company, enjoying chartered privileges and supreme monopoly of a vast extent of territory, laughed with derision at the idea that a few independent traders could so combine as to become dangerous rivals; but that such was the fact was quickly demonstrated. The Northwest Company began operations on a thorough system, by which it was soon developed into a powerful and wealthy corpora- tion. All its managing agents were interested partners, who natur- ally did their utmost to swell the receipts. In the plenitude of its power it gave employment to two thousand voyageurs, while its agents penetrated the wilderness in all directions in search of furs. It was the pioneer of the Northwest. While the chartered monor> oly clung like a burr to its granted limits, the new organization was exploring and taking possession of that vast region lying between Lake Superior and the Pacific, from the Missouri to the Arctic Ocean. It has been shown how Mackenzie made a journey to the Arctic and another to the Pacific, and how his footsteps were fol- lowed \>y Fraser and a post established in the extreme west. While the old company was sluggishly awaiting the advent of Indians at 170 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. the few posts it had established in central locations, the rival organ- ization sent its agents ont to trade with the tribes far and near. The result was that all the tribes, except those in the immediate vicinity of the Hudson's Bay Company forts, were gradually won to an alliance with the younger and more vigorous organization. The collection of furs was so over -stimulated that a complete extinction of fur -bearing animals was threatened. A systematic effort was being made to drive the old company from the most valuable beaver country, and to so cripple it that a surrender of its charter would become necessary. The result of this aggressive policy was to arouse the Hudson's Bay Company to a realizing sense of the precarious condition of affairs, and the necessity of taking energetic steps to recover the lost ground. Its efforts to do this soon resulted in hostile collisions between its representatives and agents of the rival company, lead- ing to a state of war between them. The first act of actual hostility, other than mere trade rivalry, was committed in 1806, when a trader of the Hudson's Bay Company was forcibly deprived of four hundred and eighty packs of beaver skins, and a few months later of fifty more. The same year another trader was attacked and robbed of valuable furs by servants of the Northwest Company, and received similar treatment again the following spring. These acts of plun- dering were numerous, and since no law but the law of might existed in the wilderness, there was no redress for the despoiled company nor punishment for the offenders, since the latter were Canadians and their victims citizens of England and not possessed of facilities for securing redress in the courts of Canada. In twelve years but one case was brought to trial, in 1809, when a Hudson's Bay Com- pany man was convicted of manslaughter for killing an agent of the other company who was making an attack upon him with a sword; and this result was accomplished by the powerful influence of the Northwest Company in Montreal. In 1812, having received a grant of fertile land from the Hud- son's Bay Company, Lord Selkirk, a man of energy and an enthusi- ast on the subject of colonial emigration, commenced a settlement on Red River near its junction with the Assiniboine, south of Lake Winnipeg. No sooner was this accomplished than the rival com- pany expressed a determination to destroy the settlement, and in THE RIVAL FUK COMPANIES. 171 the autumn of 1814 fitted out an expedition for that purpose at its chief establishment, Fort William, on the shore of Lake Superior. After harassing the settlement for some months, an attack was made upon it in June, 1815, which was repulsed. Artillery having been brought up, the buildings of Fort Gibraltar, the stronghold of the settlement, were battered down and the place captured. The governor was sent to Montreal a prisoner, the remainder of the set- tlers were expelled from the country, the cattle were slaughtered and the buildings demolished. In the fall, however, the colonists returned with a great accession to their numbers and again estab- lished themselves under the leadership of Colin Robertson, being accompanied by Robert Semple, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company territories. In the spring of 1816, Alexander McDon- nell, a partner of the Northwest Company, collected a strong force with the design of crushing the settlement completely. After cap- turing the supply train on its way to Red River, the invading force came upon Governor Semple and a force of thirty men all of whom they killed, except one who was made a prisoner and four who es- caped. The settlers still remaining in the fort, seeing the hopeless- ness of resistance, surrendered, and to the number of two hundred were sent in canoes to Hudson's Bay. They were chiefly Scotch, as were also the attacking party ; but the love of gain was stronger than the ties of blood. In 1821 parliament put an end to this bloody feud and ruinous competition by consolidating the rival companies under the name of The Honorable Hudson's Bay Company, by which was created an organization far more powerful than had either been before, and England gained a united and potent agent for the advancement of her interests in America. The settlements on the Red, Assiniboine and Saskatchewan rivers were renewed, and Winnipeg became in a few years the center of a prosperous community. The new com- pany took possession of Fort George and other posts along the Co- lumbia, and as it thereafter became closely woven into the history of this region, a brief description of its founding, growth and meth- ods becomes necessary to a full understanding of subsequent events. Dr. William Barrows gives the following description of that pow- erful corporation: Its two objects, as set forth in its charter, were " for the discovery of a new pas- 172 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. sage into the South Sea, and for the finding of some trade for furs, minerals and other considerable commodities." It may well be suspected that the first was the face and the second the soul of the charter, which grants to the company the ex- clusive right of the " trade and commerce of all those seas, straits and bays, rivers, lakes, creeks, and sounds, in whatsoever latitude they shall be, that lie within the entrance of the straits commonly called Hudson Straits," and of all lands bordering them not under any other civilized government. This covered all territory within that immense basin from rim to rim, one edge dipping into the Atlantic and the other looking into the Pacific. Through this vast extent the company was made for "all time hereafter, capable in law, to have, purchase, receive, possess, enjoy, and retain lands, rents, privileges, liberties, jurisdiction, franchise, and heredita- ments of what kind, nature, or quality soever they be, to them and their succes- sors." The company held that region as a man holds his farm, or as the great bulk of real estate in England is now held. They could legislate over and govern it, bound only by the tenor and spirit of English law, and make war and peace within it; and all persons outside the company could be forbidden to "visit, hunt, fre- quent, trade, traffic, or adventure" therein. For all this, and as a confession of allegiance to the crown as a dependent colony and province, they were to pay an- nually as rent "two elks and two black beavers." Cheap rent that, especially since the king or his agent must collect it on the ground of the company. To dwell in the territory or even go across it would be as really a trespass as if it were done on the lawn of a private gentleman in Middlesex county, England. Such were the chartered rights of a monopoly that, growing bolder and more grasping, became at last continental in sweep, irresistible in power, and inexorable in spirit. In 1821 the crown granted to this and the Northwest Company united, and for a term of twenty-one years, the exclusive right to trade with all Indians in British North America, north and west of the United States, and not included in the first charter. This granted only trade, not ownership in the soil. Thus, while the chartered territory was imperial, it grew, by granted monopoly of trade, to be continental. By degrees the trappers and traders went over the rim of the Hudson basin, till they reached the Arctic seas along the outlet of the Coppermine and the Mackenzie. They set beaver traps on Yukon and Fraser rivers, around the Ath- abasca, Slave and Bear Lakes, and on the heads of the Columbia. From the ad- jacent Pacific shore they lined their treasury with the soft coats' of the fur seal and the sea-otter. They were the pioneers of this traffic, and pressed this monopoly of fur on the sources, not only of the Mississippi and Missouri, but down into the Salt Lake basin of modern Utah. What minor and rival companies stood in the way they bought in, or crushed by underselling to the Indians. Individual en- terprise in the fur trade, from New Foundland to Vancouver, and from the head waters of the Yellowstone to the mouth of the Mackenzie, was at their mercy. They practically controlled the introduction of supplies and the outgoing of furs and peltries from all the immense region between those four points. Within the Canadas and the other provinces they held the Indian and the Eu- ropean equally at bay, while within all this vast unorganized wilderness, their hand over red and white man was absolute. At first the company could govern as it pleased, and was autocratic and irresponsible. By additional legislation in 1803, the civil and criminal government of the Canadas was made to follow the com- pany into lands outside their first charter, commonly called Indian countries. The Governor of Lower Canada had the appointing power of officials within those countries— but he did not send in special men ; he appointed those connected with the company and on the ground. The company, therefore, had the administration in those outside districts in its own hands. Thus the commercial life of the Can- adas was so dependent upon the Hudson's Bay Company that the government could THE RIVAL FUR COMPANIES. 173 be counted on to promote the wishes of the company. In brief, the government of British America was practically the Hudson's Bay Company, and for all the privi- lege and monopoly which it enjoyed, without seeming to demand it, there was an annual payment, if called for, of " two elks and two black beavers." This company thus became a powerful organization. It had no rival to share the field, or waste the profits in litigation, or in bloody feuds beyond the region of law. [Except the contest between it and the Northwest Company prior to their consolidation.] It extended its lines, multiplied its posts and agents, systematized communication through the immense hunting grounds, economized time and funds by increased expedition, made many of its factories really fortifications, and so put the whole northern interior under British rule, and yet without a soldier. Rivers, lakes, mountains and prairies were covered by its agents and trappers. The white and the red men were on most friendly terms, and the birch canoe and the pirogue were seen carrying, in mixed company, both races, and, what was more, their mixed progeny. The extent of territory under this company seems almost fabulous. It was one-third larger than all Europe ; it was larger than the United States of to-day, Alaska included, by half a million of square miles. From the Ameri- can headquarters at Montreal to the post at Vancouver was a distance of twenty- five hundred miles ; to Fort Selkirk on the Yukon, or to the one on Great Bear Lake, it was three thousand miles, and it was still further to the rich fur seal and sea-otter on the tide waters of the Mackenzie. James Bay and Red River at Win- nipeg seem near to Montreal in comparison. These distances would compare well with air-line routes from Washington to Dublin, or Gibraltar or Quito. One contemplates this power with awe and fear, when he regards the even mo- tion and solemn silence and unvarying sameness with which it has done its work through that dreary animal country. It has been said that a hundred years has not changed its bill of goods ordered from London. The company wants the same muskrat and beaver and seal ; the Indian hunter, unimproved, and the half-breed European, deteriorating, want the same cotton goods, and flint-lock guns, and tobacco and gew-gaws. To-day, as a hundred years ago, the dog sled runs out from Winnipeg for its solitary drive of five hundred, or two thousand, or even three thousand miles. It glides, silent as a spectre, over these snow fields, and through the solemn, still forests, painfully wanting in animal life. Fifty, seventy, an hun- dred days it speeds along, and as many nights it camps without fire, and looks up to the same cold stars. At the intervening posts the sledge makes a pause, as a ship, having rounded Cape Horn, heaves to before some lone Pacific island. It is the same at the trader's hut or factory as when the sledgeman's grandfather drove up, the same dogs, the same half-breeds, or voyageurs, to welcome him, the same foul, lounging Indians, and the same mink skin in exchange for the same trinkets. The fur animal and its purchaser and hunter, as the landscape, seem to be alike under the same immutable, unprogressive law of nature, " A land where all things always seem the same," as among the lotus-eaters. Human progress and Indian civilization have made scarcely more improvement than that central, silent partner in the Hudson's Bay Company — the beaver. One feels towards the power of this company, moving thus with evenness and immutability through a hundred years, much as one does towards a law of nature. At Fort Selkirk, for example, the fifty-two numbers of the weekly London Times came in on the last sledge arrival. The first number is already three years old, by its tedious voyage from the Thames. Now one number only a week is read, that the lone trader there may have fresh news weekly until the next annual dog-mail arrives, and each successive number is three years behind time when it is opened ! In this 174 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. day of steamers and telegraphs and telephones, does it seem possible that any human, white habitation can be so outside of the geography and chronology of the world? The goods of the company, packed and shipped in Fenchurch Street, leave London, and at the end of the third year they are delivered at Fort Confidence on Great Bear Lake, or at any other extreme factory of the company; and at the end of three years more the return furs go up the Thames and into Fenchurch Street again. So in cycles of six years, and from age to age, like a planet, the shares in the Hudson's Bay Company make their orbit and dividends. A run of three months and the London ship drops anchor in Hudson's Bay. "For one year,'' says Butler in his " Great Lone Land," "the stores that she has brought in lie in the warehouse at York Factory ; twelve months later they reach Red River ; twelve months later they reach Fort Simpson on the Mackenzie." The original stock of this company was $50,820. In fifty years it was tripled twice by profits only, and went up to $457,380, while not one new dollar was paid in. In 1821 the company absorbed the Northwest Company of Montreal, on a basis of value equal to its own. The consolidated stock then was $1,916,000, of which $1,780,866 was from profits. Yet, meanwhile, there had been an annual payment of ten per cent, to stockholders. In 1836 one of the company's ships left Fort George for London, with a cargo of furs valued at $380,000. * * * When the English Government, in 1846, conceded the claims of the United States to Oregon, property of the Hudson's Bay Company was found within Oregon for which that company claimed $4,990,036.67. One can not but admire the foresight, compass, policy, and ability with which those English fur traders moved to gain possession, and then keep in wilderness for fur-bearing, so much of North America. * * * Travelers tell us of an oppressive, painful silence through all that weird northland. Quadruped life, and the scanty little there is of bird life, is not vocal, much less musical. This company has partaken of the silence of its domain. It makes but little noise for so great an organization. It says but few things, and only the necessary ones, and even those with an obscurity often, that only the interested and initiated understand. The statements of its works and results are mostly in the passive voice. The voyageurs, so often spoken of in connections with the fur companies, were a special outgrowth of the fur trade, and are deserving of more than a passing notice. Irving thus describes them : — The voyageurs may be said to have sprung up out of the fur trade, having origin- ally been employed by the early French merchants in their trading expeditions through the labyrinth of rivers and lakes of the boundless interior. In the inter- vals of their long, arduous ahd laborious expeditions, they were wont to pass their time in idleness and revelry about the trading posts or settlements ; squandering their hard earnings in heedless conviviality, and rivalling their neighbors, the Indians, in indolent indulgence and imprudent disregard of the morrow. When Canada passed under British domination, and the old French trading houses were broken up, the voyageurs were for a time disheartened and disconsolate, and with difficulty could reconcile themselves to the service of the new comers, so different in habits, manners and language from their former employers. By degrees, how- ever, they became accustomed to the change, and at length came to consider the British fur traders, and especially the members of the Northwest Company, as the legitimate lords of creation. The dress of these people is generally half civilized, half savage. They wear a capot or surcoat, made of a blanket, a striped cotton shirt, cloth trowsers, or leathern leggings, moccasins of deer skin, and a belt of variegated THE RIVAL FUR COMPANIES. 175 worsted, from which are suspended the knife, tobacco pouch, and other implements. Their language is of the same piebald character, being a French patois, embroidered with Indian and English words and phrases. The lives of the voyageurs are passed in wild and extensive rovings. They are generally of French descent and inherit much of the gaietj' and lightness of heart of their ancestors, being full of anecdote and song, and ever ready for the dance. Their natural good will is probably height- ened by a community of adventure and hardship in their precarious and wandering life. Thev are dexterous boatmen, vigorous and adroit with the oar and paddle, and will row from morning until night without a murmur. The steersman often sings an old traditionary French song, with some regular burden in which they all join, keeping time with their oars. In the course of years they will gradually dis- appear; their songs will die away like the echoes they once awakened, and the Can- adian voyageurs will become a forgotten race, or remembered among the poetical images of past times, and as themes for local and romantic associations. The Northwest Company, in 1821, prior to the consolidation, established a post on the north bank of the Columbia, several miles above the mouth of the Willamette. As this was on the point named "Vancouver" by Lieutenant Broughton, in 1792, the post was christened " Fort Vancouver." In 1823, soon after the con- solidation, the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company was removed from Fort George to Fort Vancouver, because it possessed the desirable features of such an establishment more fully than any other in this whole region. It was near the mouth of the Willamette and therefore the center and natural converging point of trapping parties coming down the Columbia from the vast wilderness to the east, or with the annual overland express from Montreal; from the rich trapping grounds to the south, or from the upper coast and Puget Sound. Agriculturally, the surroundings were all that could be desired, to raise the large crops of grain and vegetables required at all the Company's posts, and to furnish pasturage for the beef and dairy cattle. It was easily approachable by deep-water vessels of large draft, and presented excellent natural facilities for loading and discharging cargo. The vessels that came at stated periods to bring supplies and carry away the accumulated furs, could spare the few days 1 of extra time required to ascend the river, better than the employees of the company could spare it in passing to and from headquarters in the transaction of business. Vancouver was the most eligible site on the Columbia for the chief trading post, and remained the company's headquarters until it abandoned this region entirely, in 1858. During the next four years the company spread out in all directions, from California to Alaska, and from the Pacific 176 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. to the Rocky Mountains. Some idea can be gained of its power and methods in Oregon from the following description given by John Dunn, for seven years a clerk and trader of the company: — Fort Vancouver is the grand mart and rendezvous for the company's trade and servants on the Pacific. Thither all the furs and other articles of trade collected west of the Rocky Mountains, from California to the Russian territories, are brought from the several other forts and stations ; and from thence they are shipped to England. Thither, too, all the goods brought from England for traffic — the various articles in woolens and cottons, in grocery, in hardware, ready-made clothes, oils and paints, ship stores, etc. — are landed, and from thence they are distributed to the various posts of the interior, and along the northern "shores by sailing vessels, or by boats, or pack-horses, as the several routes permit ; for distribution and traffic among the natives, or for the supply of the company's servants. In a word, Fort Vancouver is the grand emporium of the company's trade, west of the Rocky Moun- tains ; as well within the Oregon territory as beyond it, from California to Earns- tchatka. , The fort is in the shape of a parallelogram, about two hundred and fifty yards long, by one hundred and fifty broad ; enclosed by a sort of wooden wall, made of pickets, or large beams, fixed firmly in the ground and closely fitted together, twenty feet high, and strongly secured on the inside by buttresses. At each angle there is a bastion, mounting two twelve-pounders, and, in the center there are some eighteen-pounders ; but from the subdued and pacific character of the natives, and the long absence of all apprehension, these cannon have become useless. The area within is divided into two courts, around which are arranged about forty neat, strong wooden buildings, one story high, designed for various purposes — such as offices, apartments for the clerks and other officers, warehouses for furs, English goods and other commodities ; workshops for the different mechanics — carpenters, blacksmiths, coopers, wheelwrights, tinners, etc. — in all of which there is the most diligent and unceasing activity and industry. There is also a school-house and chapel, and a powder magazine built of brick and stone. In the center stands the governor's residence, which is two stories high, the dining hall, and the public sitting room. All the clerks and officers, including the chaplain and physician, dine together in the hall, the governor presiding. The dinner is of the most substantial kind, consisting of several courses. Wine is fre- quently allowed, but no spirituous liquors. After grace has been said the company break up ; then most of the party retire to the public sitting room, called " Bachelor's Hall," or the smoking room, to amuse themselves as they please, either in smoking, reading, or telling and listening to stories of their own and others' curious advent- ures. Sometimes there is a great influx of company, consisting of the chief traders from the outposts, who arrive at the fort on business, and the commanders of vessels. These are gala times after dinner, and there is a great deal of amusement, but always kept under strict discipline and regulated by the strictest propriety. There is, on no occasion, cause for ennui, or a lack of anecdote or interesting narrative ; or, indeed, of any intellectual amusement ; for if smoking and story-telling be irksome, then there is the horse ready to mount, and the rifle prepared. The voy- ageur and the trapper, who have traversed thousands of miles through wild and unfrequented regions, and the mariner, who has circumnavigated the globe, may be found grouped together, smoking, joking, si aging and story-telling, and in every way banishing dull care, till the period of their again setting out for their respective destinations arrives. The smoking room, or "Bachelor's Hall," presents the appearance of an armory and a museum. All sorts of weapons, and dresses, and THE RIVAL FUR COMPANIES. 177 curiosities of civilized and savage life, and of the various implements for the prose- cution of the trade, might be seen there. The mechanics, and other servants of the establishment, do not dine in the hall, or go to the smoking room. The school is for the benefit of the half-breed children of the officers and servants of the company, and of many orphan children of Indians who have been in the company's employment. They are taught English (sometimes French), writing, arithmetic and geography ; and are subsequently either apprenticed to traders in Canada, or kept in the company's service. The front square is the place where the Indians and trappers deposit their furs and other articles, and make their sales, etc. There may be seen, too, great numbers of men sortiDg and packing the various goods, and scores of Canadians beating and cleaning the furs from the dust and ver- min, and coarse hairs, previous to exportation. Six hundred yards below the fort, and on the bank of the river, there is a neat village of about sixty well-built wooden houses, generally constructed like those within the fort, in which the mechanics and other servants of the company, who are, in general, Canadians and Scotchmen, reside with their families. They are built in rows, and present the appearance of small streets. They are kept in a neat and orderly manner. Here there is an hos- pital, in which the invalided servants of the company, and, indeed, others who may wish to avail themselves of it, are treated with the utmost care. Many of the officers of the company marry half-breed women. They discharge the several duties of wife and mother with fidelity, cleverness and attention. They are, in general, good housewives ; and are remarkably ingenious as needlewomen. Many of them, besides possessing a knowledge of English, speak French correctly, and possess other accomplishments; and they sometimes atteud their husbands on their distant and tedious journeys and voyages. These half-breed women are of. a superior class ; being the daughters of chief traders and factors, and other persons, high in the company's service, by Indian women of a superior descent or of superior personal attractions. Though they generally dress after the English fashion, according as they see it used by the English wives of the superior officers, yet they retain one peculiarity — the leggin or gaiter, which is made (now that the tanned deer skin has been superseded) of the finest and most gaudy coloured cloth, beauti- fully ornamented with beads. The lower classes of the company's servants marry native women, from the tribes of the upper country, where the women are round- headed and beautiful. These, too, generally speaking, soon learn the art of useful housewivery with great adroitness and readiness ; and they are encouraged and rewarded in every way by the company, in their efforts to acquire domestic economy and comfort. These, too, imitate, in costume the dress of the officer's wives, as much as they can ; and from their necessities of position, which exposes them more to wet and drudgery, they retain the moccasin, in place of adopting the low- quartered shoe. Attached to the fort there is a magnificent farm, consisting of about three thousand acres, of which fifteen hundred acres have already been brought to the highest state of tillage. It stretches behind the fort, and on both sides, along the banks of the river. It is fenced into beautiful corn fields, vegetable fields, orchards, garden and pasture fields, which are interspersed with dairy houses, shepherds' and herdsmen's cottages. It is placed under the most judicious management; and neither expense nor labour has been spared to bring it to the most perfect cultiva- tion. There is a large grist mill, and'a threshing mill, which are worked by horse- power, and a saw mill worked by water-power. All kinds of grains and vegetables, and many species of fruits, are produced there in abundance and of superior qual- ity. The grain crops are produced without manure ; and the wheat crop, espec- ially, is represented by practical farmers to be wonderful. Besides this farm, which they are every day extending, they have commenced 178 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. farming on a large scale on the Cowlitz, to the north, Umpqua, to the south, and in other parts of the territory, where they have established posts, the produce of all of which they use for exportation both to the Russia stations in Kamstchatka (as they entered into a contract with the Russians, in 1839, to supply their posts in those regions with provisions at fixed prices), and to the islands of the Southern Pacific, and to British and American whalers and to other merchant ships. They also keep scores of wood-cutters employed to fell timber, which is sawed up in large quantities, three thousand feet a day, and regularly shipped for the Sandwich Islands and other foreign ports. And as they can afford to sell the goods purchased in England under a contract of old standing, together with the productions of the territory and their own farms, fish, beef, mutton, pork, timber, etc., at nearly half the American price, they are likely to engross the whole trade of the Pacific, as they do already the trade of the Oregon, especially since they command all the ports and safe inlets of the country. This the Americans feel and declare ; and it is this which whets their cupidity and excites their jealousy and hatred. Trapping parties leaving Vancouver are some weeks preparing for the mountains and prairies. The blacksmiths are busily engaged making beaver-traps for the trappers, the store-keepers making up articles for trade and equipping the men, the clerk in charge of the provision store packing up provisions for them, to last until they get into hunting ground, the clerk in charge of the farm providing horses and other requisite articles. The party generally consists of about fifty or sixty men, most of them the company's servants, others free hunters. The servants have a stated salary, while the freemen receive so much per skin. Previous to leaving the fort for the arduous adventure, they are allowed a small quantity of rum per man ; and they generally enjoy a grand holiday and feast the night previous to starting. Each man has a certain number of horses, sufficient to carry his equipment. The free trappers generally provide their own animals. Both the company's servants and the freemen frequently take their wives and families with them. The women are very useful on the expedition, in preparing meals and other necessaries for their husbands during their absence from the camp. In summer and winter, whether they have a sort of traveling camp or a fixed residence, t they select the localities that most abound in fur-bearing animals. Though a party may be obliged, from a variety of circumstances, to winter in the plain, or in the recesses of the mountains, or on the borders of lakes and rivers, some numbers of it return to the fort in the fall, with the produce of the season's hunt, and report progress, and return to the camp with a reinforcement of necessary supplies. Thus the company are enabled to acquire a minute knowledge of the country and natives, and extend their power and authority over both." CHAPTEE XII DIPLOMACY AGAIN ENDS IN JOINT OCCUPATION. Claim of the United States to the Columbia River — Spasmodic Consid- eration of the Oregon Question in Congress — The Russian Ukase — The Monroe Doctrine — Negotiations in 18% % — Claims of the United States Advanced by Mr. Rush — The Opposing Claims of Great Brit- ain — Reply of Mr. Rush and the English Commissioners to Each Other — England Rejects America's Offer of the Fifty-first Parallel, and Proposes the Forty -ninth and Columbia River — Rush Offers the Forty-ninth to the Ocean — Rejected and the Negotiations Terminate — Mr. Gallatin Sent to London in 1826 — Offer of the Columbia again made by England and Rejected — The Doctrine of Contiguity — The Spanish Title as Modified by the Nootka Convention — Trading Posts Declared not to be Settlements by Mr. Gallatin, a Declaration which Becomes a Boomerang- — The Period of Joint Occupation Indefinitely Extended. DURING all these years the Oregon question was not neglected in Congress. It was spasmodically discussed, and much cor- respondence was had between the two governments on the subject; but though many things were proposed at various times, nothing was actually done to promote American interests in Oregon, unless the leave of absence granted Captain Bonneville be considered as an effort in that direction. During these diplomatic negotiations the United States firmly maintained her claim to all the rights, of any nature whatsoever, which Spain may have possessed prior to the Florida Treaty. She also urged that the mouth of the Colum- bia was hers by the dual right of discovery and settlement; and, therefore, following the general rule which had been observed by European nations in colonizing America, all the country tributary to that river, and its confluents, was also subject to her dominion. 180 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. As the Columbia sweeps northward to the fifty-first parallel, it was urged that, by this title alone, the government had indisputable right to the whole region lying between the forty-second and fifty-first degrees of latitude. In 1820, a committee was appointed by the House of Represent- atives, to inquire into the condition of the settlements on the Pacific Ocean, and the expediency of occupying the Columbia River. This resulted in the reporting of a bill " for the occupation of the Colum- bia, and the regulation of the trade with the Indians in the territo- ries of the United States''; but, though much discussed, both then and the ensuing year, the measure was never passed. There were several plans advocated, among them being one to send a body of troops overland to occupy the disputed territory, and another to construct a chain of forts across the continent, which should form a basis of supplies and protection for emigrants. The great draw- back was the lack of emigrants to be supplied and protected. The Mississippi Valley was still but sparsely settled, and no one thought of moving two thousand miles across what was supposed to be a region of nearly impassable mountains and almost interminable deserts, when the rich lands of Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa were inviting them to make their home in the domain of the " Father of Waters." Russia stepped in as a disturbing element, by the publication, on the sixteenth of September, 1821, of an imperial ukase, by which exclusive title was asserted on the coast as far south as latitude 51°, and all foreign vessels were prohibited from approaching within one hundred miles of said coast, under penalty of confiscation. Pro- tests were instantly entered by both Great Britain and the United States, Russia replying that her claim was based upon discovery, exploration and unquestioned occupation for a period of fifty years. Separate negotiations were opened with Russia by the two contend- ing powers. It was at this juncture that the celebrated Monroe Doc- trine was first enunciated in an official document. In his message to Congress, dated December 2, 1823, President Monroe declared that the a American continents, by the free and independent condi- tion which they had assumed, were henceforth not to be considered as subjects for colonization by any European power.' 1 This elicited a formal protest from both England and Russia. Another docu- DIPLOMACY AGAIN ENDS IN JOINT OCCUPATION. 181 nient, which was peculiarly offensive to England, was a paper sub- mitted to the House, on the sixteenth of February, 1824, by Gen- eral Jessup, in which it was proposed to establish a chain of forts from Council Bluffs to the Pacific, by which " present protection would be afforded to our traders ; and at the expiration of the priv- ilege granted to British subjects to trade on the waters of the Columbia, we should be enabled to remove them from our territory, and to secure the whole trade to our citizens.' ' This suggestion of a preparation to expel her subjects from Oregon by force of arms was exceedingly, and properly so, distasteful to Great Britain, and did much to complicate the negotiations which had been already entered into. The ten years 1 limit of joint occupation had now more than half expired, and it became necessary to appoint commissioners to again endeavor to affect a settlement. Mr. Rush, the American commissioner, who had been an associate with Mr. Gallatin in arranging the treaty of 1818, asserted that by the Louisiana title the United States had undisputed claim as far north as the forty - ninth parallel, since that had been recognized by the Treaty of Utrecht as the boundary line between the possessions of France and England, and should properly be extended to the Pacific. He also claimed, under the Spanish title, as far north as the sixtieth parallel, the acknowledged limit of the Russian possessions, and he declared " the rights thus acquired from Spain were regarded by the Government of the United States as surpassing the rights of all other European powers on that coast." A third claim was the one outlined in a previous paragraph, based upon the discovery, explora- tion and occupation of the Columbia. Asserting these three distinct titles, he made the proposition that no future settlements be made by subjects of Great Britain south of the fifty -first degree, nor by citi- zens of the United States north of that parallel. Mr. Rush was, however, authorized to make a considerable modification of that proposal, since his letter of instructions contained the following words: "As, however, the line already runs in latitude 49° to the Stony Mountains, should it be earnestly insisted upon by Great Britain, we wall consent to carry it in continuance on the same parallel to the sea.' 1 The plenipotentiaries of Great Britain not only declined the 182 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. proposals, but denied in toto the principles upon which it had been offered, especially the idea that no future colonization in America should be attempted by European nations. They declared that all unoccupied portions of America were subjects of colonization, including the region on the Pacific Coast lying between the forty - second and fifty-first parallel. They declared that Great Britain could not concede to the United States, as the successor of Spain, those exclusive rights which she had successfully resisted when they had been advanced by Spain herself, and which the Nootka Conven- tion, in 1790, declared should not be admitted. They also denied the title by right of discovery, claiming that the discovery of the Columbia was a progressive one, participated in more conspicuously by British subjects than by Americans; that even admitting the discovery by Gray, he, being a private citizen, could not, merely by entering the mouth of a river, gain title for his Government to the whole coast for hundreds of miles above and below that point, especially since the coast had been explored prior to that time by an official expedition (Captain Cook's) of Great Britain, and a British subject (Sir Francis Drake) had purchased land from the natives only a few degrees south; that the settlement at Astoria was subsequent, or, at the best, only coeval, to similar settlements made by British subjects upon that stream, or upon rivers flowing into it (erroneously referring, perhaps, to the establishment on Fraser Lake). To this the United States embassador replied at length, asserting that Gray sailed under the flag and protection of the Federal Gov- ernment, whose rights followed him ; that he was unaware, and could not admit the fact, of any prior or contemporaneous settlement by British subjects on the Columbia; that Cook had been preceded by Perez, Heceta and Quadra, in his exploration of the coast; and closed by saying that " in the opinion of my government, the title of the United States to the whole of that coast, from latitude forty- two degrees to as far north as latitude sixty degrees, was, therefore, superior to that of Great Britain, or any other power: first, through the proper claim of the United States by discovery and settlement, and secondly, as now standing in the place of Spain, and holding in their hands all her title." The British reply was a renewal of the former objections, especially to the Spanish title, special stress being DIPLOMACY AGAIN ENDS IN JOINT OCCUPATION. 183 laid on the fact that England never had admitted the exclusive rights claimed by Spain on the Pacific Coast of America, and had specifi- cally denied and combatted them in the Nootka controversy; the voyage of Sir Francis Drake was urged as giving England the dis- covery rights prior, even, to the earliest claimed by Spain, the forty - eighth degree being placed as the northern limit of his voyage. It was also denied that Spain could acquire title by simply sailing along the coast, and not following up her discoveries by genuine acts of possession and settlement. The response of Mr. Rush, was a denial that Drake proceeded beyond the forty-third parallel, and a reminder to the English plenipotentiaries that, even if all they claimed for Drake were true, England was debarred from claiming title through him by the rule laid down by them in the matter of Spanish explorers, since the title thus acquired had not been per- fected by acts of possession and settlement. By these successive statements and answers both sides to the question having been plainly set forth, the representatives of En- gland, rejecting Mr. Rush's proposition, made another proposal — that the boundary line follow the forty-ninth parallel till it struck the Columbia, and then follow down the main channel of that stream to the ocean, navigation of the river to be open to both nations. This was submitted, they said, in a spirit of compromise, though they considered that in so doing they were departing largely from the full extent of Great Britain's rights. Mr. Bush declared his utter inability to accept such a proposition, but that, actuated by the same strong desire to effect a compromise, he would agree to the forty-ninth parallel clear through to the ocean, stating that this was the extreme limit of his authority. This was declined, and as neither party would make further concessions the negotiations came to an end. In 1826, the attempt to settle this important question was renewed, and Mr. Gallatin was sent to London, with full powers to resume the discussion. The offer of the forty-ninth parallel and the Columbia River was again made by the British Commissioners, with a sop in the shape of a slice of Washington Territory south of Gray's Harbor and Hood's Canal thrown in. Mr. Gallatin renewed Mr. Rush's offer of the forty -ninth parallel, adding free navigation 184 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. to the sea from all branches of the Columbia lying north of that line. The complete claims and offered compromises of the two na- tions were submitted in written statements, and were published in full in the message of President Adams, of December 12, 1827. There was no essential difference in the claims made by the con- tending parties from those set forth above ; they were simply urged in different language and with a better understanding of the sub- ject. The Louisiana title was made a prominent feature by Mr. Gallatin; but the insufficiency of this was clearly shown by the representatives of Great Britain, who also claimed that the titles of the United States and Spain, when taken separately, were imperfect, and when taken together destroyed each other. Mr. Gallatin also advanced the doctrine of contiguity, asserting that the populous settlements in the valley of the Mississippi constituted a strong claim to the extension of their authority " over the contiguous vacant ter- ritory, and to the occupation and sovereignty of the country as far as the Pacific Ocean." This was asserted by the British Commis- sioners to be the doctrine of "might makes right," and to be wholly repulsive to the principles of international law. It was maintained, and with much justness, by the English ne- gotiators that, since the Nootka Convention especially declared the right of both England and Spain to either of them settle upon and take possession of any portion of the coast now in dispute which had not been previously settled upon by the other, the previous rights of both nations acquired by discovery were thus expressly waived, and future titles were made to depend entirely upon acts of possession and settlement; therefore, in succeeding to the Spanish title, the United States had acquired nothing but the right pos- sessed by Spain to settle upon and occupy any portion of the coast not already in the actual possession of Great Britain. Mr. Gallatin denied that mere fur trading factories, or posts, could be considered settlements such as were necessary to perfect title of a nation to an extended region; but by doing this he dis- credited the title claimed by his own Government by reason of the establishment by the Pacific Fur Company of a post at Astoria; also, by a simple process of reasoning, of the discovery title claimed through Captain Gray, since that gentleman was simply a fur trader, and was not engaged in a voyage \)f exploration or discovery. DIPLOMACY AGAIN ENDS IN JOINT CONVENTION, 185 Not being able to come to any understanding upon the main question at issue — a definite boundary line — the negotiations were brought to a close in 1827 by the signing of an agreement indefi- nitely extending the period of joint occupation, making it termin- able by either party upon giving twelve months' notice to that effect. Thus was the aid of time again invoked to furnish a solution of this vexatious problem. CHAPTER XIII. FAILURE OF ALL ATTEMPTS AT JOINT OCCUPATION BY THE AMERICANS. Outlook for Joint Occupation — Comparison of the Advantages of the English and American Traders — Character of the American Trap- pers — The Hudson- } s Bay Company's Methods and Servants — Growth of the American Fur Trade — The American Fur Company — The Missouri Fur Company — Ashley, of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, Penetrates the Rocky Mountains — Method of Conducting Trapping Enterprises — The Annual Rendezvous — Jedediah S. Smith's First Overland Journey — His Second Journey Fraught with Disaster — His Adventures in California — His Party Massacred on the TJmpqua — The Hudson's Bay Company Recover Smith's Furs and Pay him for Them — Gray's Version of this Affair — The Subject Discussed — Boston's and King George's Men — Dr. McLaughlin's Account of this Episode — McLeod's Unfortunate Expedition — Ogden's Expedition to the Humboldt and California — Death of Smith — Major Pitcher and Ewing Young — Hudson's Bay Company Establish Fort Umpqua and a Headquarters in California — Bonne- ville's Trading Ventures — Two Efforts of Nathaniel J. Wyeth to Trade in Oregon Result Disastrously — McLaughlin's Remarks on Wyeth — Abandonment of Oregon by American Trappers. THE great power and firm foothold secured in Oregon by' the Hudson's Bay Company has been thus minutely described in order that an adequate idea can be had of the herculean task which lay before any American company which might seek to compete with it in its chosen field. Joint occupation, as contemplated in the treaties of 1818 and 1826 was only possible, on the principle of the lion and the lamb. Americans cculd live in Oregon if they would permit themselves to be swallowed by the Hudson's Bay Company — not otherwise. The chief difficulty which lay in the FAILURE AT JOINT OCCUPATION BY THE AMERICANS. 187 pathway of American traders in their efforts to compete with the great English corporation, was a lack of unity of purpose and com- bination of capital and effort. The Americans were all inde- pendent traders, operating alone or in limited partnerships. Sepa- rately they had not the capital to carry on the business in the sys- tematic and comprehensive manner in which the Hudson's Bay Company operated. There was an utter lack of system, unity of action or wise provision for the future. The trade was not care- fully fostered for future advantage, since none of them cared to build up a business for some one else to enjoy, but each sought to make all the immediate profit possible. The competition amoDg them was ruinous to all, and in a few years the whole trade, so far as Americans were concerned, was ruined. In their competition with the English monopoly they were at a fatal disadvantage. One unsuccessful season with them was often financially disastrous, while to the great corporation, covering such a vast scope of country, dealing with so many tribes and handling such varied classes of furs, such a thing as a completely unsuccessful year was impossible. Gains in one section compensated for any losses in another. For this reason, whenever two trapping parties met in open competition for the trade of any tribe of Indians, the Americans were at a dis- astrous disadvantage, and, except in the few instances when they outwitted the rival trader, were forced to the wall. The agent had full authority to use his own discretion in such cases, his only in- structions being to crush his rival at all hazards. No spectre of bankruptcy shook his bony finger in his face; no vision of an angry and distrustful partner rose up before him. He could give away every dollar's worth of goods he had, and receive the approval of his superiors, provided, that by doing so, he defeated the rival traders. On the contrary, the American, his entire fortune invested in this single venture, could neither afford to give away his goods nor to lose the opportunity to trade ; for often it was the only one of the season, and to miss it meant ruin. In 1815, Congress, in order to aid the struggling traders, passed an act expelling foreign trappers from the territories of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains; but it remained a dead letter, since brigades of the En- glish trappers continued to roam through the country along the Missouri and its tributaries. 188 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Candor compels the confession that there were other reasons for the success of the English and utter failure of the American traders ; and these were the great difference in their methods of treating the natives and the character of the men engaged in the business. The American trappers were, to a large extent, made up of a class of wild, reckless and brutal men, many of them fugitives from justice. With them might made right, and Indian fighting was one of their chief accomplishments. A perpetual state of hostilities existed between them and the Blackfeet and other warlike tribes. They cared nothing for the interests of their employers, were insubordi- nate and quarrelsome, and the histories of their lives and adventures, written for the glorification of the few of the most noted of them, convince us that, as a whole, they composed the lowest stratum of American society. Irving, in one of many similar passages, thus speaks of one phase of their character: "The arrival of the sup- plies gave the regular finish to the annual revel. A grand outbreak of wild debauch ensued among the mountaineers; drinking, danc- ing, swaggering, gambling, quarreling and fighting. Alcohol, which, from its portable qualities, containing the greatest quantity of fiery spirit in the smallest compass, is the only liquor carried across the mountains, is the inflammatory beverage at these carousals, and is dealt out to the trappers at four dollars a pint. When inflamed by this fiery beverage, they cut all kinds of mad pranks and gam- bols, and sometimes burn all their "clothes in their drunken brava- does. A camp, recovering from one of these riotous revels, presents a serio-comic spectacle; black eyes, broken heads, lack lustre vis- ages." Alcohol was a leading article of merchandise, and the annual assemblage at the points of rendezvous and the meetings with Indians for the purposes of trade, were invariably the scenes of drunken debauchery like the one described. Many impositions were practiced on the Indians, and the men, being irresponsible and without restraint, were guilty of many acts of injustice. The Indians learned neither uprightness nor morality from contact with them, and had respect only for their bravery. The reverse was the case with the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, who were men, chiefly half-breeds and descendants of the French settlers of Canada — the agents and factors being gener- ally of Scotch nativity — who had been reared to the business, as FAILTTKE AT JOINT OCCUPATION BY THE AMERICANS. 189 had been their fathers before them, and cheerfully submitted to the rigid discipline maintained by the company. It was the company's policy to avoid all trouble with the natives, to whom they gave no liquor whatever. It was by pandering to the Indian's proverbial thirst for "fire-water" that the Americans occasionally defeated their opponents in competition for the trade of a tribe; still, it sometimes happened that after the noble red man had been hilari- ously and even pugnaciously drunk for a week on American alcohol, they sobered up sufficiently to sell their furs to the English trader, who could offer them such a greater quantity of goods in exchange, and left their bibulous friends to mourn. By just and generous treatment the company sought to bind the Indians to them by a community of interest; yet an act of bad faith or treachery was never permitted to go unrebuked. By this means it obtained an influence among the tribes covering a region over a thousand miles square, which amounted almost to the authority of govern- ment; and this influence was sufficiently powerful to cause the Indians of some tribes to not only refuse to trade with Americans, but to decline selling them provisions when in the greatest distress. Bonneville found this to be the case when he undertook the experi- ment of joint occupation, and sought to do business in Oregon, the chosen field of the great monopoly. The rise and growth of the Hudson's Bay and Northwest Com- panies have been traced till they united and spread like an octopus over the whole West. Let us also trace the growth of American fur enterprise until it began to enter Oregon in competition with the united rivals. In 1762 the Governor of Louisiana, then a Province of France, chartered a far company under the title of " Pierre Legueste Laclede, Antoine Maxan & Co." The following year Laclede established Fort St. Louis, where now the great city of that name stands, and this became the headquarters of the fur trade as carried on by the French of Louisiana. At that time the Canadian representatives of France had their general headquarters at Macki- naw and Montreal; but Canada becoming a British Province the following year, subjects of Great Britain, chiefly Scotchmen, suc- ceeded to the fur trade of that region. After the United States became a nation, American traders engaged in the fur trade along and west of the great lakes, Mackinaw becoming their general head- 190 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. quarters. These men were chiefly New York merchants, the lead- ing spirit being John Jacob Astor, whose ill-fated attempt to found an establishment at the mouth of the Columbia has been related. The trade as then carried on ran in four great belts. To the north was the Hudson's Bay Company; next came the young and ag- gressive Northwest Company; south of them the independent American traders operated; and still further south was the field oc- cupied by the French. How the two English companies became consolidated and spread out over the whole region north of the Missouri and gained complete possession of Oregon, has been fully set forth. The next step was the substitution of Americans for Frenchmen at St. Louis, the natural result of the purchase of Louisiana by the United States. Immediately following this event St. Louis became the goal of thousands of young men who loved the excitement and adventures of a frontier life, and of as many more of all ages who preferred the obscurity of the frontier to the seclusion of a state's prison or the notoriety of a public execution. To say the least, the society of that frontier city was far from choice. It was not long before the Americans began to be in a majority in the various brigades of trappers which roamed the plains as far west as the base of the Rocky Mountains, while the direction of these enter- prises fell almost entirely into their hands. The French trappers, however, never entirely disappeared, for their names are found fre- quently mentioned in all narratives concerning the trapping frater- nity. They have generally been confounded with the voyageurs and trappers of French descent who formed the bulk of the ordinary servants of the Hudson's Bay Company; but this is an error, since the latter were the Canadian French, who had transferred their allegiance to the British conquerors and successors of their old em- ployers, while the former were the descendants of the French of Louisiana, and, consequently, were Americans. The act of Congress in 1815, expelling British subjects from the territories east of the Rocky Mountains, served to stimulate the American traders. The American Fur Company, at the head of which was Mr. Astor, then operating in the lake region from Mack- inaw, began to send trapping parties farther west, reaching the headwaters of the Mississippi and Missouri. Other American FAILURE AT JOINT OCCUPATION BY THE AMERICANS. 191 traders opened an important trade between St. Louis and Santa Fe, the latter becoming headquarters for the fur business in the region of New Mexico, then a Province of Mexico. Up to this time the operations of American trappers had not extended beyond the base of the Rocky Mountains, except in the instance previously men- tioned, that of the Missouri Fur Company. This was a company organized at St, Louis in 1808, stimulated by the reports of the Columbia region brought in by Lewis and Clarke, and was headed by Manuel Lisa, a Spaniard. Mr. Henry, a partner, established Fort Henry the same year, on Lewis, or Snake, River, just west of the summit of the mountains, and other posts were founded on the Upper Missouri. Two years later, however, these were abandoned, owing to a failure of supplies and the hostility of the natives. The next effort was made by General W. H. Ashley, who had long been the leading spirit in such enterprises at St. Louis, and was the senior partner of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. In 1823 he led a party of trappers up the Platte to the Sweetwater, followed up the latter stream to its source, discovered the famous South Pass (the one Fremont endeavored to appropriate to himself twenty years later), explored the headwaters of the Colorado, or Green, River, and returned to St. Louis in the fall. The next year he again entered the mountains and discovered Great Salt Lake and Lake Ashley. On the later he established Fort Ashley, and leaving one hundred men at that post, returned to St. Louis. From that time the Rocky Mountains were the favorite trapping grounds of the Americans. Their method of doing business was by no means sys- tematic. Each company, when there were rivals, organized several brigades of trappers, sufficiently strong to protect themselves from hostile Indians, and sent them out in various directions, generally under the leadership of an interested partner. Once a year these parties assembled at a previously designated rendezvous, generally on Green River, where a settlement was made. There they met the partner who was the connecting link between them and civilization, such as it was, at St. Louis. He had come up with a train of sup- plies and packs of goods for the Indian trade, and turning these over to his partners, he loaded his train with the accumulated furs and conveyed them to market at St. Louis. Often furs were sent down the Missouri in a nondescript boat, made of buffalo skins — a 192 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. craft of eccentric unreliability. With the supplies was invariably a liberal quantity of alcohol. Whisky was too bulky to carry, and as the palates of the trappers and Indians were none too refined, sour mash and bourbon were omitted from the wine list. There was plenty of water at hand and the spirits could be easily diluted to any strength required, though there were not a few who scorned to spoil their drink by putting water in it. Frequently two or three rival bands of trappers assembled at the same rendezvous, and it was not unseldom that a thousand white men and two or three thousand Indians were in camp at tone time. The appearance of the train from St. Louis was invariably followed by one of those wild debauches described above by Irving, the greatest excesses being committed by the free trappers, those who had been the longest in the business and had abandoned all thought of any other existence than the free and untrammeled life of the mountains. These men worked for themselves, receiving a stipulated price for all the furs taken by them. In return for a contract given by them to sell all their furs to the company, they were allowed almost unlimited credit, which they exercised as freely as it was offered. Their heaviest expenditures were for spirits, horse, gun, traps, clothing, and gaudy adornments of every kind for their Indian women, of whom each possessed at least one. It not infrequently happened that in a few days their reckless excesses and their heedless gener- osity to their fair ones not only exhausted their balance with the company, but ran up such an enormous bill of credit that their labor for a year was pledged in advance. When it is known that some of these men, when employed on a salary, received as high as two thousand dollars a year, the full extent of their extravagance will be better understood. That is a large sum to expend in two or three weeks for spirits and gewgaws. In 1825 the Rocky Mountain Fur Company dispatched Jede- diah S. Smith into the country? west of Great Salt Lake, with a party of forty men. He discovered Humboldt River, which he named " Mary's River "■ in honor of his Indian wife, so the old trappers testify, and following down that stream crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains, arriving in the Sacramento Valley in July. This was undoubtedly the first overland journey to California, not- withstanding that Cronise speaks of American trappers appearing FAILURE AT JOINT OCCUPATION BY THE AMERICANS. 193 there as early as 1820. He gives no authority for the statement, and there is no record of any other party having penetrated so far west; the context, also, shows that he confounded these supposi- tious early trappers with a portion of Smith's company which he left behind him when he returned. Smith had good success, and leav- ing the majority of his company to continue their operations, he returned to the general rendezvous on Green River. He crossed the mountains on his homeward journey in the vicinity of Mono Lake, discovering large deposits of placer gold in that region, spec- imens of which he took with him to exhibit to his employers on Green River. General Ashlev, having made a fortune, was then ready to retire from active participation in the business. He there- fore sold his interests in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company to William Sublette, Jedediah S. Smith and David Jackson. Smith again started for California in the spring of 1826, to rejoin the party he had left there, of whose success he and his partners enter- tained high hopes. It was his purpose to = make a thorough inspec- tion of the gold placers, trap through the Sacramento Valley, and with his whole party return to Green River to participate in the. annual meeting the following summer. In his journey he passed as far south as the Colorado River, and, at some point on that stream, his party was attacked by Indians, who killed all except Smith, Turner and Galbraith. Those three escaped to Mission San Ga- briel, and, notwithstanding their forlorn and distressed condition, were arrested as filibusters by the panicy Mexicans and sent to San Diego. At that point there happened to be several American ves- sels, whose officers signed a certificate that Smith was simply a peaceful trader and possessed a passport from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs of the United States. The certificate bears date of December 20, 1826, and was potential to procure the release of the prisoners. He then proceeded to hunt for the men he had left the year before, and found them in camp on the American River, in the vicinity of Folsom, their residence there leading to the bestowal of that title upon the stream. It was his purpose to return by way of the Columbia River, but that season was one of unusual snows and floods, and he was unable for a long time to leave the valley. His movements are somewhat uncertain, but are partially revealed in the following letter, written by him to Father Duran. The 194 HISTOKY OF WILLAMETTE VALLET. Mexicans were uneasy about the intentions of this party of armed Americans, and the worthy Father wrote him a letter asking for information. Smith replied: — Reverend Father.— I understand, through the medium of some of your Chris- tian Indians, that you are anxious to know who we are, as some of the Indians have been at the mission and informed you that there were certain white people in the country. We are Americans on our journey to the River Columbia ; we were in at the Mission San Gabriel in January last. I went to San Diego and saw the general, and got a passport from him to pass on to that place. I have made several efforts to cross the mountains, but the snows being so deep, I could not succeed in getting over. I returned to this place (it being the only point to kill meat), to wait a few weeks until the snow melts so that I can go on ; the Indians here also being friendly, I consider it the most safe point for me to remain, until such time as I can cross the mountains with my horses, having lost a great many in attempting to cross ten or fifteen days since. I am a long ways from home, and am anxious to get there as soon as the nature of the case will admit. Our situation is quite unpleasant, being destitute of clothing and most of the necessaries of life, wild meat being our principal subsistence. I am, Reverend Father, your strange but real friend and Christian brother. J. S. SMITH. May 19th, 1827. Soon after this correspondence Smith started northward, crossing to the coast in the vicinity of Russian River. He continued along the coast to the Umpqua, and while ferrying his effects across the stream on a rudely constructed raft, his party was attacked by Indians, with whom they were holding friendly intercourse, and all but three were slain. Smith, Daniel Prior and one of the Indians were on the raft at the time of the attack, and when the signal yell was given the savage sprang into the water with Smith's gun in his hand; but he never lived to enjoy his prize, for Smith seized his companion's rifle and buried a bullet in the Indian's brain the in- stant his head appeared above water. The two men landed on the opposite side of the stream and succeeded in making their way to Vancouver, where they received a warm and sympathetic welcome. The officers of the Hudson's Bay Company would have done their utmost to have ruined his business had he come into their field with a band of trappers ; but one in his pitiable condition — his followers massacred and his furs and accoutrements plundered — could only excite their deepest sympathy. A few days later a third man made his appearance, more forlorn, if possible, than the others. This was Richard Laughlin, who was in camp at the time of the attack, and had seized a burning brand from the fire, with which he rained FAILUEE AT JOINT OCCUPATION BY THE AMERICANS. 195 scorching blows upon the naked bodies of his assailants until he cleared a passage for himself and escaped. It was deemed necessary by the officers of the company to chas- tise the Indians who had been guilty of this unprovoked outrage, as a warning to other tribes who might feel encouraged to pounce down upon unwary bands of trappers; besides, the furs stolen were exceedingly valuable and ought to be recovered. It happened that Governor Simpson was at Fort Vancouver at the time Smith arrived in such a forlorn condition, and he sent out a party under Thomas McKay, to punish the Indians and recover the captured property, both as a necessary step to maintain the company's authority and as an act of courtesy to the despoiled trader. Accounts vary as to the degree of punishment inflicted, but at all events the furs were recovered and conveyed to Vancouver, and since he could not carry them, having no means, and since the company, from a business point of view, could not afford to provide him with facilities for carrying on opposition to it, he sold the whole lot to the company for $40,000. They were, to be sure, worth more in St. Louis, but under the circumstances, this was a fair * price for them on the Columbia. The most detailed account of this incident is given by Rev. Gustavus Hines, who received the facts from Dr. McLoughlin in person. Gray's History of Oregon, a rabid . anti-Hudson's Bay Company volume, seriously questions the correctness of these state- ments. It says: — The property was recovered from the Indians by giving them presents of blank- ets and powder, and such things as the Indians wished, as stated to us by a French- man, a servant of the company, who was one of McKay's party that went to get the furs. They found no bodies to bury, and had no fight with the Indians about the property, as stated by Mr. Smith, also. But, as the Hudson's Bay Company tells the story, through Mr. Hines, they spread terror through the tribes. * * * Mr. Hines says his Umpqua party returned in triumph to Vancouver/ And well they might, for they had made the best season's hunt they ever made in getting those furs and the property of Smith, which paid them well for the expedition, as there was no market for Smith, except in London, through the hypocritical kind- ness of Mr. Simpson. By this time Mr. Smith had learned all he wished to of this company. He preferred giving them his furs at their own price to being under further obligations to them. Mr. Sublette, Mr. Smith's partner, did not speak as though he felt under much obligation to Mr. Simpson or the Hudson's Bay Com- pany, which was not long after the transaction referred to. I do not know how the company regard these statements of Mr. Hines, yet I regard them as true so far as Mr. Hines is concerned, but utterly false as regards the company. * * * According to the testimony given in the case of the Hudson's Bay Company v. United States, the amount of furs seized by the company at that time was forty 196 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. packs, worth at the time $1,000 each, besides the animals and equipments belonging to the party, a large portion of which was given to the Indians to compensate them for the services rendered the company in destroying Smith's expedition and killing his men." It is a sufficient refutation of the above to state that the author is a monomaniac on the subject of the Hudson's Bay Company and the Catholics, resulting from the religious struggle between rival missionary establishments, with one of which he was connected. No sin is too black or crime too heinous for him to charge to the score of his old opponents. It is true that it was the company's policy to overbear all opposition; that all Indians over whom they exercised control were strictly enjoined from dealing with in- dependent traders or selling them supplies; that their agents were instructed never to supply such parties with food or ammunition, unless the dictates of pure humanity required it, as in the case under consideration; but that it ever encouraged the thought among the natives that it would be pleased by the murder of Americans, is not susceptible of proof, and the idea is inconsistent with the character of the men who administered its affairs on the Pacific Coast, especially the kind and benevolent Dr. John McLoughlin, Chief Factor at Vancouver. Smith's party was the first band of American trappers to invade the company's field in Oregon, and as their presence was unsuspected, since the company had not yet begun to operate in Southern Oregon and California, it is impossible that these Indians could have been encouraged to attack them. Gener- ally speaking, the Indians of this region, save those at the mouth of the Columbia, did not at that time understand the difference in na- tionality of white men, though but a few years later the appearance of Americans along the Columbia taught them all the difference between " Bostons " and " King George's Men," a distinction which was carefully impressed upon them by the representatives of the Hudson's Bay Company, and which, in their eyes, was a most im- portant one, as subsequent events plainly indicate. To show that the company did not encourage a general spirit of hostility against Americans, though admitting, or, rather, not denying, that the tribes were urged to hold no communication whatever with Ameri- can traders, Dunn relates the following incident, occurring, proba- bly, subsequent to 1830: — FAILURE AT JOINT OCCUPATION BY THE AMERICANS. 197 On one occasion an American vessel, Captain Thompson, was in the Columbia, trading for furs and salmon. The vessel had got aground in the upper part of the river, and the Indians, from various quarters, mustered with the intent of cutting the Americans off, thinking that they had an opportunity of revenge, and would thus escape the censure of the company. Dr. M'Loughlin, the governor of Fort Vancouver, hearing of their intention, immediately dispatched a party to their ren- dezvous, and informed them that if they injured one American, it would be just the same offense as if they had injured one of his servants, and they would be treated equally as enemies. This stunned them, and they relinquished their purpose and all retired to their respective homes. Had not this come to the governor's ears the Americans must have perished. Such conduct is characteristic of the kind -hearted Chief Factor, and it is probable that he would have thus acted had he been im- plicitly enjoined to the contrary by his superior officers. One thing is certain — in after years he lost the favor of the Governor by not withholding from American settlers the aid their necessities required, though he well knew that by so doing he was violating the well- defined policy of the company of discouraging American immigra- tion. Just when the title "Bostons" was first bestowed upon Americans, to distinguish them from the English, or "King George's Men,'* is a matter of uncertainty; but it was probably done in 1832, when a Boston merchant, Nathaniel J. Wyeth, entered Oregon to engage in the fur trade, as will appear subsequently. In after years all white people became known as " Bostons,'* with the exception of the soldiers and the priests, and this classification exists at the present day. Dr. McLoughlin died on the third of September, 1857, at the age of seventy -three, and a stone marks his last resting place in the Catholic churchyard at Oregon City. Among his papers was found a quite lengthy manuscript, in his own handwriting, detailing at length his acts in connection with many events, and showing how his efforts to be just, kind and generous to the settlers had not only failed to win him the good will of many of them, or justice from the Government, but had lost him the friendship of his former fellow - officers of the Hudson's Bay Company. It details quite minutely the incident which is now under consideration, and it will be ob- served that the Doctor's version differs somewhat from that of Hines or Gray in several particulars, especially in regard to the quantity and value of the furs recovered. This posthumous paper lias been published in full in the " Transactions of the Oregon Pioneer Asso- 198 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. ciation," and will be frequently quoted from in the succeeding pages. That portion referring to the Umpqua massacre is as follows: — One night in August, 1828, I was surprised by the Indians making a great noise at the gate of the fort, saying they had brought an American. The gate was opened, the man came in, but was so affected he could not speak. After sitting down some minutes to recover himself, he told he was, he thought, the only survivor of eighteen (18) men, conducted by the late Jedediah Smith. All the rest, he thought, were murdered. The party left San Francisco bound to their rendezvous at the Salt Lake. They ascended the Sacramento Valley, but finding no opening to cross the mountains to go east, they bent their course to the coast, which they reached at the mouth of Rogue River, then came along the beach to the Umpqua, where the Indians stole their ax, and as it was the only ax they had, and which they absolutely required to make rafts to cross rivers, they took the chief prisoner and their ax was returned. Early the following morning, Smith started in a canoe with two (2) men and an Indian, and left orders, as usual, to allow no Indians to come into camp. But to gratify their passion for women, the men neglected to follow the order, allowed the Indians to come into camp, and at an Indian yell five or six Indians fell upon each white man. At tfre time, the narrator, Black, was out of the crowd, and had just finished cleaning and loading his rifle; three (3) Indians jumped on him, but he shook them off, and seeing all his comrades struggling on the ground and the Indians stabbing them, he fired on the crowd and rushed to the woods pursued by the Indians, but fortunately escaped ; swam across the Umpqua and [went] northward in the hopes of reaching the Colum- bia, where he knew we were. But broken down by hunger and misery, as he had no food but a few wild berries which he found on the beach, he determined to give himself up to the Killimour, a tribe on the coast at Cape Lookout, who treated him with great humanity, relieved his wants and brought him to the Fort, for which, in case whites might again fall in their power, and to induce them to act kindly to them, I rewarded them most liberally. But thinking Smith and his two men might have escaped, we made no search for them at break of day the next morning. I sent Indian runners with tobacco to the Willamette chiefs, to tell them to send their people in search of Smith and his two men, and if they found them to bring them to the fort and I would pay them ; and also told them if any Indians hurt these men we would punish them, and immediately equipped a strong party of forty (40) well armed men. But as the men were embarking, to out great joy, Smith and his two men arrived. I then arranged as strong a party as I could make to recover all we could of Smith's property. I divulged my plan to none, but gave written instructions to the officer, to be opened only when he got to the Umpqua, because if known before they got there, the officers would talk of it among themselves, the men Would hear it and from them it would go to their Indian wives, who were spies on us, and my plan would be defeated. The plan was that the officer was, as usual, to invite the Indians to bring their furs to trade, j ust as if nothing had happened. Count the furs, but as the American trappers mark all their skins, keep these all separate, give them to Mr. Smith and not pay the Indians for them, telling them that they belonged to him; that they got them by murdering Smith's people. They denied having murdered Smith's people, but admitted they bought them of the murderers. The officers told them they must look to the murderers for the payment, which they did ; and as the murderers would not restore the property they had received, a war was kindled among them, and the murderers were pun- ished more severely than we could have done, and which Mr. Smith himself admitted, and to be much preferable to going to war on them, as we could not dis- FAILURE AT JOINT OCCUPATION BY THE AMERICANS. 199 tinguish the innocent from the guilty, who, if they chose, might fly to the mount- ains, where we could not find them. In this way we recovered property for Mr. Smith to the amount of three thousand two hundred dollars, without any expense to him, and which was done from a principle of Christian duty, and as a lesson to the Indians to show them they could not wrong the whites with impunity. Smith's report of the excellence of the region to the south as a trapping ground aroused the company to the importance of reaping the benefit of the American trader's enterprise. Accordingly, two expeditions were sent out in different directions to trap over the held Smith had explored. It has been said that the service of guides to these new beaver streams was part of the price paid by him for the recovery of his furs and traps; but a positive statement on that point is impossible. One party, consisting of forty men, completely equipped for a year's absence, started southward, led by Alexander Roderick jVIcLeod, and guided by Turner. Among them were some of the men who had come out to Astoria with the Pacific Fur Com- pany, and had remained here in the employ of the Northwest Com- pany and its successor. These were Etinne Lucier, Joseph Gervais, both well known to the early pioneers, Alexander McCarty, William Canning and Thos. McKay, whose father perished in the Tonquin. On then journey southward they bestowed several of the familiar names of Southern Oregon, such as "Jump-off- Joe," "Rogue River," and " Siskiyou Mountain." The first was so named because of an adventure which happened to Joe McLoughlin, son of the Chief Fac- tor. The second was called "La Rivier de Caqucain," because the Indians stole some of their traps and horses, and gave them much trouble. The last received its title because an old white, bobtailed horse, belonging to Jean Baptiste Pairroult, was stolen while they were camped on the mountain, " Siskiyou " meaning " bobtail " in the patois French of the Canadian trappers. McLeod's party met with considerable success; but they were snowed in, early in the winter, on the banks of a tributary of the Sacramento, lost their horses, and were unable to get out of the mountains with the large packs of furs and traps. In this emergency, McKay, McLoughlin and Pairroult started on foot for Vancouver, to procure horses, and after much hardship and suffering reached headquarters. McLeod, however, unable to procure food for his men, did not wait for the expected relief, but cached his furs and traps, and also made his toilsome way to Vancouver. The cache was made near the eastern 200 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. base of Mount Shasta, which they called " Mt. McLoughlin." When the relief party arrived at the deserted camp, the following spring, it was found that the snow and rains had caused the river to flood its banks, and the furs had become wet and spoiled. The stream was ever afterwards known among the trappers as " McLeod River," the name it still bears in pronunciation, though the orthography has been changed to "McCloud." The reason for this is, that in sound the two names are very similar, and that Ross McCloud, a very worthy and well-known gentleman, resided on the stream in an early day, though not for a quarter of a century after it received its baptism of "McLeod." Care should be taken by all map makers, historians, and writers generally, to adhere to the original orthography. The other party referred to was led by Peter Skeen Ogden, and was accompanied by Smith. They passed up the Columbia and Lewis, or Snake, rivers, to the source of the latter, where Smith left them and proceeded to the general rendezvous of his company on Green River. Ogden continued southward until he reached the Hum- boldt. That stream of many titles was known among the American trappers as "Mary's River," and among the Hudson's Bay people as " Ogden's River," its present name having been bestowed upon it by Fremont, who had sought through that region in vain for the fabulous " Buena Ventura." Ogden passed down the stream to the " Sink," and then crossed the Sierra Nevada to Sacramento Valley through Walker's Pass. He trapped along the Sacramento, and continued northward until he reached Vancouver, sometime in the summer of 1829, with a valuable lot of furs. When Smith appeared at the Green River rendezvous with the tale of his manifold fortunes, he was as one risen from the dead, as his partners, having received no tidings of him for two years, supposed him to have perished. In 1830 he disposed of his interest in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, and the following year was treacherously killed by In- dians, while digging for water in the dry bed of the Cimeron River, near Taos, New Mexico, and was buried there by his companions. The second party of American trappers to enter Oregon was that of Major Pilcher. They left Green River in 1828, and passed along the western base of the Rocky Mountains to Flathead Lake, where they wintered. In the spring they descended Clarke's Fork and the FAILURE AT JOINT OCCUPATION BY THE AMERICANS. 201 main Columbia to Colville River, up which they ascended to its source and started on their return eastward. Gray says: "This party of Major Pilcher's were all cut off but two men, besides him- self ; his furs, as stated by himself to the writer, found their way into the forts of the Hudson's Bay Company." The writer, though not stating it positively, intends to convey the impression that these men were murdered at the instigation of the Hudson's Bay Company, or, at least, with its sanction. That the captured furs were sold to the company is true, but as that was the only market open to the In- dians, it is a very small foundation upon which to lay a charge of murder against the purchasers. The next band of American trap- pers was that of Ewing Young, who had been for years a leader of trapping parties from Santa Fe to the headwaters of the Del Norte, Rio Grande and Colorado rivers. He entered California through Walker's Pass, in 1829, and returned the next year. In 1832 he again entered California and followed Smith's route into Oregon as far as the Umpqua, when he turned eastward, crossed the moun- tains to the tributary streams of the Columbia and Snake rivers, entered Sacramento Valley again from the north, and finally crossed out by the Tejon Pass, having been absent from Santa Fe two years. Mr. Young soon returned, and became one of the first and most energetic of the American settlers in Oregon, his death a few years later leading to the organization of the Provisional Government. While in the Sacramento Valley, in 1832, Young encountered a brigade of Hudson's Bay trappers, led by Michael Laframbois. The company had made this one of their fields of operation, and had the year before established Fort Umpqua, at the confluence of Elk Creek and Umpqua River, as a base of supplies for Southern Ore- gon and California. In 1833 an agency was established at Yerba Buena (San Francisco), and trapping headquarters in Yolo and San Joaquin counties, both places becoming known to the early Ameri- can settlers as " French Camp." J. Alexander Forbes, the first English historian of California, and W. G. Ray, represented the company at Yerba Buena until it withdrew from California in 1845. William Sublette and David Jackson retired from the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in 1830, at the same time as Smith, the new proprietors being Milton Sublette, James Bridger, Robert Campbell, 202 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Thomas Fitzpatrick, Frapp and Jarvis. In 1831 the old American Fur Company, which had been managed so long by Mr. Astor but was now directed by Ramsey Crooks, one of Mr. Astor's partners in the Astoria ventuie, began to push into the trapping grounds of the other company. Great rivalry sprang up between them, which was the following year intensified by the appearance of two other competitors in the persons of Captain B. L. E. Bonneville and Na- thaniel J. Wyeth. Captain Bonneville was a United States army officer, who had been given permission to lead a party of trappers into the fur regions of the Northwest, the expedition being counte- nanced by the Government only to the extent of this permit. It was supposed, that, by such an undertaking, sufficient additional information of the region explored would be obtained to warrant authorizing an officer to engage in a private venture. The Captain first reached the Rocky Mountains in 1832. In 1833 he sent Joseph Walker with forty men to California over the route formerly pur- sued by Smith, and on Christmas of the same year started with three companions from his camp on Portneuf River, upon an expedition to Fort Walla Walla. His object, as given by Irving, was: "To make himself acquainted with the country, and the Indian tribes; it being one part of his scheme to establish a trading post some- where on the lower part of the river, so as to participate in the trade lost to the United States by the capture of Astoria." He reached Powder River on the twelfth of January, 1834, whence his journey was continued down Snake River and by the Nez Perce trail to Fort Walla Walla, where he arrived March 4, 1834. This journey, in mid- winter, was attended with its accompany- ing detail of hardships incident to the season, including the absence of game and presence of snow in the mountains. At one time they had wandered among the Blue Mountains, lost amid its canyons and defiles east of the Grand Ronde Valley, for twenty days, nearly frozen and constantly starved until they were at the verge of despair. At length a Nez Perce chief was met who invited them to his lodge some twelve miles further along the trail they were traveling, and then galloped away. So great had been the strain upon the Captain's system in sustaining these successive days of unnatural exertion, that when the chief disappeared he sank upon the ground and lay there like one dead. His companions tried in FAILURE AT JOINT OCCUPATION BY THE AMERICANS. 203 vain to arouse iiim. It was a useless effort, and the)' were forced to camp by the trail until he awoke from his trance the next day and was enabled to move on. They had hardly resumed their tedious journey when some dozen Nez Perces rode up with fresh horses and carried them in triumph to their village. Everywhere after this they were kindly received by this hospitable people — fed, cared for and guided on their way bv them. Bonneville and his two companions were kindly received at Fort Walla Walla by Mr. P. C. Pambrun, who, with five or six men, was in charge of that station at the mouth of the Walla Walla River. This Hudson's Bay Company's representative was a courte- ous, affable host, but when asked to sell the Captain supplies that would enable his return to the Rocky Mountains, said: "That worthy superintendent, who had extended all the genial rights of hospitality, now suddenly assumed a withered-up aspect and demeanor, and observed that, however he might feel disposed to serve him personally, he felt bound by his duty to the Hudson's Bay Company to do nothing which should facilitate or encourage the visits of other traders among the Indians in that part of the country.'" Bonneville remained at the fort but two days longer, for his desti- tute condition, combined with the lateness in the season, rendered it necessary for him to return immediately; and he started on the back trail with his Xez Perce guide, and finally reached the point of general rendezvous for his various expeditions. This is a true state- ment of the position assumed by the Hudson's Bay Company; its agents would not themselves, nor would they permit the Indians under their control to deal with or in any manner assist opposition traders ; but that Bonneville traversed the country in safety with but three companions, after the company was aware of his intention to return and found a rival establishment on the Columbia, is convinc- ing evidence that assassination was not one of its methods of over- coming competition, however much such charges may be reiterated by its enemies. In July, 1834, Bonneville started on a second expedition to the Columbia, with a formidable number of trappers and mountain men, well equipped, and with an extensive stock of goods to traffic with Indians. He still contemplated a restoration of American trade in this country, and designed establishing a post for that purpose in 204 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. the Willamette Valley. This time he passed the Blue Mountains by way of Grand Eonde Valley and the Umatilla River, and upon his arrival at the mouth of that stream, was surprised to find the natives shunning him. They ran from his men, hid themselves, and when intercepted, refused to have anything to do with the Ameri- cans. Not a skin, a horse, a dog, or a fish, could be obtained from them, having been warned by the Hudson's Bay Company not to traffic with these new comers, It now seemed a question of imme- diate evacuation or starvation, and Bonneville decided to abandon his attempt at joint occupancy. Once more he turned his back upon the Columbia and left the English company in undisputed possession of the field. A contemporaneous effort was made by Nathaniel J. Wyeth, a Boston merchant. With eleven men who knew nothing of trapper- life, he crossed the plains to Humboldt River, with Milton Sublette, in 1832. From this point the twelve pushed north to Snake River, and by way of that stream to Fort Vancouver, where they arrived on the twenty -ninth of October. Mr. Wyeth had his whole fortune invested in his enterprise, and had brought with him a large stock of goods, such as were used in the Indian trade. He was received with great hospitality by Dr. McLoughlin. The next spring he left for the East, a financial bankrupt, only two of his followers accompanying him. It does not appear that the company's officers contributed in any way to produce this result; but if they did not, it was simply because it was unnecessary to do so. Had not natural causes, the chief of which were the wrecking of his supply ship which had been sent around Cape Horn, and his utter ignorance of the business of fur trading, led to his failure, the company would undoubtedly have protected its interests as it did upon his next venture two years later. Arriving in Boston, Mr. Wyeth organized " The Columbia River Fishing and Trading Company," with a view of continuing operations on the Pacific Coast under the same general plan that had been outlined by Astor, adding, however, salmon fish- ing to the fur trade. He dispatched the brig Mary Dacres for the mouth of the Columbia, loaded with supplies and implements needed in his proposed undertaking. She had on board also supplies for the Methodist Mission, to be spoken of hereafter. With sixty ex- perienced men, Mr. Wyeth himself started overland in 1834. Near FAILURE AT JOINT OCCUPATION BY THE AMERICANS. 205 the headwaters of Snake River he built Fort Hall, as an interior trading post, the name being that of one of his partners. Here he left twelve men and a stock of goods. He then pushed forward to the Columbia and erected a fort on Sauvie's Island, at the mouth of the Willamette River, which he called t% Fort Williams," in honor of another partner; and again the American Hag waved over soil west of the Rocky Mountains. The officers of the company again received him with much hospitality, and though they continued to treat him with courtesy, this did not prevent them from taking the steps necessary to protect the company's interests. Fort Boise was established as an opposition to Fort Hall, and drew the bulk of the trade of the Indians of Snake River. On the Columbia, \Yyeth found that the natives were so completely under the control of the company that he could establish no business relations with them whatever. In two years he was compelled to sell all his possessions, including Fort Hall, to the rival company, and abandon this second effort at joint occujjation. To this result the American Fur Com- pany and Rocky Mountain Fur Company largely contributed by conduct towards Mr. Wyeth that was neither generous nor honor- able, and it was finally, with a sense of gratification, that he sold Fort Hall to the British Company, and thus gave them an impor- tant post in the very heart of the trapping grounds of his unpatriotic and unscrupulous countrymen. Dr. McLoughlims account of Mr. Wyeth's venture, as given in the document previously spoken of, is as follows: — In 1832, Mr. Nathaniel Wyeth, of Cambridge, near Boston, came across land with a party of men, but as the vessel he expected to meet here with supplies was wrecked on the way. he returned to the East with three (3) men. The remainder joined the Willamette settlement and got supplies and were assisted by the Hud- son's Bay Company's servants, and to be paid the same price for their wheat — that is, three shillings sterling per bushel, and purchase their supplies at fifty per cent, on prime cost. In 1834, Mr. Wyeth returned with a fresh party, and met the vessel with supplies here, and started with a large outfit for Fort Hall, which he had built on his way, and in 1836, he abandoned the business and returned to the States, and those of his men that remained in the country joined the settlements and were assisted as the others on the same terms as the Hudson's Bay Company's servants, and in justice to Mr. Wyeth, I have great pleasure to be able to state that as a rival in trade, I always found him open, manly, frank and fair, and in short, in all his contracts, a perfect gentleman and an honest man, doing all he could to support morality and encouraging industry in the settlement. 206 HISTOET OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. In 1835 the two rival American companies were consolidated as " The American Fur Company," Bridger, Fontenelle and Dripps being the leaders. The retirement of Bonneville, and the sale of Fort Hall by Mr. Wyeth, left only the consolidated company and a few "lone traders" to compete with the English corporation. For a few years longer the struggle was maintained, but gradually the Hudson's Bay Company absorbed the trade until the American trappers, so far as organized effort was concerned, abandoned the field. CHAPTER XIV. FOUNDATION AND PROGRESS OF THE MISSIONS. Missionaries Introduce a New Element into the Oregon Question — The Flatheads send Messengers to St. Louis to Procure a Bible — Jason Lee and others sent by the Methodist Board of Missions — They Locate in the Willamette Valley — Their Plan of Operations — Sickness at the Mission and Hostility of the Indians — Parker and Whitman sent by the American Board — Parker's Triumphal March — He Re- turns Home and Publishes a Book — Mr. and Mrs. Whitman — Whit- man Takes a Cart as Far as Fort Boise — Missions Founded at Waiilatpu and Lapwai — Progress of the Missions of the American Board — Mission Founded at The Dalles — Advent of the Catholics — A Religious War at Once Begins — A Few Sample Incidents — Ef- fects of the Two Forms of Worship upon the Natives. THE opening wedge for American settlement and occupation of Oregon, which was the new and decisive factor time intro- duced into the Oregon Question, was the Protestant Missionaries. In despair of coming to an amicable agreement, the plenipotentiaries of England and the United States, in 1827, had continued indefi- nitely the treaty of joint occupation, hoping that something would turn up to put a new phase upon the question ; and in less than ten years their expectations were fully realized, but in a manner little dreamed of by the most astute of them all. Military posts were thought of, emigrants were thought of, fur traders were thought of; but no one seemed to have thought of the earnest and self-abnegat- ing missionary — that is no one but the aborigines, whose rights and preferences had not been considered by either party to this long controversy. From Lewis and Clarke the Indians of the Columbia first learned of the white man's God. They were told that the Great Spirit wor- 208 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. shiped by their visitors had made of them a powerful nation, given them books, guns, clothing, and a thousand things the red man did not possess. Other white men who came later whetted their already keen desire to learn about this powerful God, and possess that won- derful book which he had given to these strange people. One tribe was presented by some irreverent trappers with a well-thumbed pack of cards, with the assurance that they were the bible for which they longed; but the deception was a brief one. Finally, in 1832, four (some authorities say five) Flathead Indians were delegated by their tribe to proceed to St. Louis, which they believed to be the great center of the white man's power, and procure this all- powerful book and some one to teach them its contents. It was a strange quest, and a stranger place in which to make it, for St. Louis then overflowed with that turbulent and ungodly class that in those early times swarmed along the western border of civiliza- tion. The messengers were laughed at by the few to whom they applied ; and after two of their number had died in the city, the others set out sorrowfully on their return, without having procured the great book, and with their faith in its efiicacy for good sadly shaken by the scenes they had witnessed. One of them died on the way, yet their journey was not wholly fruitless; for their lamentations were overheard one day by one who immediately wrote to the missionary societies in the East that there was a wide and ripe field for their labors in Oregon. The matter was taken in hand by two organizations, the Methodist Board of Missions, and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, a society supported by the Congregational, Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed denominations. The Methodists were the first to take the field. Rev. Jason Lee was given direction of the work. Mr. Lee was born in Canada, of American parents, and was ordained to the ministry in the United States; yet his American citizenship has been questioned by secta- rian writers, who imagine that by doing so they gain for themselves certain pioneer honors that are justly his due. His associates were Rev. Daniel -Lee, Cyrus Shepard and P. L. Edwards. When Na- thaniel Wyeth made his second journey to the Columbia, in 1834, as already related, this missionary party accompanied him. When Wyeth stopped to build Fort Hall the missionaries left him and FOUNDATION AND PKOGKESS OF THE MISSIONS. 209 continued their journey with a brigade of Hudson's Bay Company trappers, under A. R. McLeod and Thomas McKay. On the first of September they reached Fort Walla Walla, a post the Hudson's Bay Company had established on the Columbia at the mouth of Walla Walla River, where the town of Wallula now stands. On the fifteenth they landed from boats at the company's headquarters at Vancouver. They were most cordially welcomed by Dr. Mc- Loughlin, who entertained them with the greatest hospitality. It had been their intention to locate east of the mountains, but the Chief Factor persuaded them to found their establishment in the Willamette Valley. It has been charged that his reasons for desir- ing them to choose the latter place were that he might secure the services of one of them as teacher to children at the fort. If such was the case his motive was far from being an unworthy one ; and he did the Indians no wrong, since those on one side of the mountains were as much in need of missionary labors as those on the opposite- It was a fortunate thing for the United States that he did so, for the mission became the center about which American settlers rallied a few years later, and it became an important factor in wresting Oregon from the grasp of Great Britain. On this subject McLough- lin's document says: — In 1834, Messrs. Jason and Daniel Lee, and Messrs. Walker and P. L. Edwards came with Mr. Wyeth to establish a mission in the Flathead country. I observed to them that it was too dangerous for them to establish a mission ; that to do good to the Indians, they must establish themselves where they could collect them around them ; teach them to cultivate the ground and live more comfortably than they do by hunting, and as they do this, teach them religion ; that the Willamette afforded them a fine field, and that they ought to go there, and they would get the same assistance as the settlers. They followed my advice and went to the Willamette, and it is but justice to these pioneers to say that no men, in my opinion, could exert themselves more zealously than they did till 1840, when they received a large rein- forcement of forty (40) or more persons ; then the new-comers began to neglect their duties, discord sprang up among them and the mission broke up. The location chosen was on the banks of the Willamette, some sixty miles above its mouth and ten below the site of the present city of Salem. They began the erection of a log house, 32x18 feet, and so eager were they to begin their labors that they took posses- sion of it on the third of November in an uncompleted condition, and received Indian pupils before the roof was finished. Their re- lations with the people at Vancouver were the most friendly and 210 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. cordial. Twenty- one persons were baptized at the fort by Jason, Lee on the fourteenth of December, seventeen of them children; and he received a donation of twenty dollars to aid in his mission- ary work. They were viewed by the officers of the company solely in their character as missionaries, their nationality and creed not being considered; and as such they received hospitable treatment and hearty encouragement in a work which was deemed beneficial. They proposed not only to teach religion to the Indians, bnt to teach them to till the soil and to do other useful and productive labor, by means of which their moral, mental and physical condi- tion might be elevated. Realizing that the plastic mind of youth is the easiest moulded, they opened a school for children, and fur- nished them a house, where they conld learn to read, worship God and till the soil. To do this required food for their support; and it became necessary for them to embark in farming in order to pro- duce it. This they began the following spring, and their first harvest consisted of two hundred and fifty bushels of potatoes and a quantity of wheat, barley, oats and peas. To this they added six barrels of salmon, procured from the Indians. In September, one year after their arrival, the first of a series of misfortunes overtook them. An intermittent fever became prevalent, and four of the children died. The Indians had been watching their movements with considerable interest, and these sad occurrences had a powerful effect upon their superstitious natures, causing them to view with distrust the place where the Great Spirit was displaying his disap- proval by causing the death of their children. One Indian, who had lost a little brother, paid the mission a visit with the avowed intention of killing Daniel Lee and Cyrus Shepard, but was dis- suaded from doing so by a companion. He gave vent to his wrath against the " white medicines V by crossing the river and killing several of his own race, presumably his wife's relations. During the fall an addition, 16x32 feet, was built to the mission house, and the close of the year found them comfortably housed, with a suffi- cient supply of provisions and only ten pupils under their charge, while the Indians generally entertained serious doubts of the ad- vantage of having them there at all. The American Board dispatched Rev. Samuel Parker and Dr. Marcus Whitman in the spring of 1835, as a pioneer committee to FOUNDATION AND PROGRESS OF THE MISSIONS. 21 1 examine the field and select suitable locations for missionary work. They joined a party of the American Fur Company, and ac- companied them to the grand rendezvous on Green River, where they encountered a band of Nez Perce Indians who had come across the mountains to trade with the trappers, with whom the tribe was on terms of warmest friendship. Among the Nez Perces was a young chief who was a most ardent friend of the Americans. He possessed great eloquence in debate, and was named "Lawyer" by the whites, because of his forensic efforts. With this chief the missionaries had a consultation, and resolved to establish at least two missions. Accordingly it was agreed that Dr. Parker would continue the journey across the continent for the purpose of explora- tion, so that suitable locations might be selected; he was then to leave a letter of advice with the Nez Perces to be given to Whit- man the next year, and return home by sea. This was decided upon because the peculiar characteristics of the two men were such as to prevent cordial co-operation. Dr. Whitman was the very soul of energy and devotion to duty, caring nothing for appearances or the opinion of others if they stood between him and the object to which he had devoted his life; while Dr. Parker seems to have been a self-important man to whom a little notoriety was extremely soothing. Dr. Whitman, accompanied by two young Nez Perces, returned to the East to procure the necessary assistance for the two missions to be founded. Dr. Parker resumed his journey westward on the twenty-second of August, and when he entered the Nez Perce country received such an ovation from the delighted Indians as must have gratified his vanity in the highest degree. No white man before or since was ever received by the natives of the Columbia with such cordial- ity and ceremonious distinction as greeted Mr. Parker on his way to Fort Walla Walla. His approach to an Indian village was the occasion of general display of savage grandeur and hospitality. Here was one who had come to tell them of that unseen and myste- rious power which had done so man}' wonderful things for the white man; and they hoped now to learn how to worship that Great Spirit of whom they had heard their first white visitors speak, and who, they hoped, might smile upon them and make them wise and powerful. With this thought they received the missionary every- 212 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. where with outstretched arms and demonstrations of unbounded joy. He held religious services in several places, and to a degree inducted his eager neophytes into the mysteries of the white man's religion. He reached Fort Walla Walla on the fifth of October, receiving a cordial welcome from P. C. Pambrun, the gentleman in charge. A few days later he passed down the Columbia in a boat, and during the winter enjoyed the hospitalities of Dr. McLoughlin at Vancouver. In the spring he returned east of the mountains and made a journey through the ISTez Perce, Spokane and Colville countries, after which he embarked from Vancouver for the Sand- wich Islands, and thence for home, arriving in 1837. He soon after published an account of his travels, which was of special value at that time because of the deep interest the people were beginning to take in the Oregon Question. Dr. Whitman, with his two Indian companions, reached Rush- ville, N. Y., his home, late on Saturday night, and his presence there, instead of in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, was first known when he walked quietly into church the next morning with his copper-hued friends, his mother starting up with a cry of as- tonishment and joy. During the winter all his arrangements were made, including his marriage in February, 1836, with Miss Nar- cissa Prentiss, daughter of Stephen H. Prentiss. Mrs. Whitman was a woman of refined nature, rare accomplishments of voice and manner, of commanding presence, firm in purpose and an enthu- siast in the line of her accepted duty. In this cause her deepest sympathies had been enlisted, and she cheerfully yielded all her fair prospects among friends and kindred, and devoted her life to isolation in a country so far away that the very name conveyed to the mind a sense of loneliness and mystery,,; and where a martyr's grave was awaiting her. She was born at PAtsburg, N. Y., March 14, 1808, and was therefore but thirty -nine years of age when merciless and ingrate hands crowned with her death the sacrifice of her life. Marcus Whitman, M. D., was born September 4, 1802, at Rushville, N. Y., and at the age of forty -five offered up his life on the altar of duty. These two, accompanied by Rev. H. H. Spalding and wife, a lady of much firmness of character and devo- tion to duty, and W. H. Gray, set out on their westward journey under the escort of a party of the American Fur Company. With FOUNDATION AND PROGRESS OF THE MISSIONS. 213 the party were Major Pilcher, an independent trader previously alluded to, and Sir William Druinniond, an English nobleman traveling under the alias of " Captain Stewart " and accompanied by a companion and three servants. The missionary party took with them three wagons, eight mules, twelve horses and sixteen cows, besides farming utensils, blacksmith and carpenter tools, seeds, clothing, etc., to enable them to become self-supporting. At Fort Laramie all the wagons but one were abandoned, but Whitman in- sisted upon taking this one for the ladies to ride in ; the trappers also concluded to try the experiment of wheels in the mountains, and safely took a small cart to the grand rendezvous on Green River. Here the missionaries met Nathaniel J. Wyeth on his return home from his second unfortunate effort to test the virtues of joint occu- pation in Oregon, and they were by him introduced to McKay and McLeod, the two Hudson's Bay Company agents who had escorted Jason Lee two years before, and who were about to return to Van- couver from a trapping and trading tour. Notwithstanding the urgent objection of the trappers and their assurances that it was impossible for a wagon to pass through the mountains, Whitman insisted upon taking the vehicle along; but when he reached Fort Hall he was compelled to reduce it to two wheels, and at Fort Boise they insisted upon an entire abandonment of it. Nevertheless, he had demonstrated that wagons could cross the Rocky Mountains, and was satisfied that the remainder of the route presented no more formidable obstacles. They were met on the route by a band of Nez Perces who had been informed in the spring by Dr. Parker of their expected coming, and their reception was only less impressive than had been that of their herald, whose failure to do anything for them had served somewhat to cool the ardor which his appearance had raised to fever heat. Mr. Pambrun gave them a hearty wel- come to Fort Walla Walla on the second of September, which was repeated by Dr. McLoughlin a few days later when they landed from the company's boats at Fort Vancouver. Leaving the ladies to enjoy the hospitalities of the fort, the three gentlemen returned to AValla Walla, and, with the aid of Mr. Pam- brun, sought for suitable locations for their proposed missions. It was decided to locate one among the Cay uses and the other among the Nez Perces. The former was located at Waiilatpu, on the 214 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Walla Walla River, six miles west of the present city of Walla Walla, and was taken charge of by Mr. and Mrs. Whitman. This was known as the " Waiilatpu," or " Whitman, Mission," the former name signifying "the people," being the proper title of the Cayuse tribe. Mr. and Mrs. Spalding founded the " Lapwai Mission " among the Nez Perces, at a place on the Clearwater River a few miles from the site of Lewiston, Idaho. Mr. Gray rendered material aid in constructing the two posts, and assisted the two principals in their missionary labors. The next year, it being deemed advisable to extend the field of their operations, Mr. Gray returned East, to procure the necessary means and additional aid to accomplish that purpose. He was accompanied by four Nez Perces, who took a large band of horses with them, the price of which they intended to contribute to the Mission fund. On the Platte River the party was attacked by Sioux Indians, their horses stolen and the four Nez Perces killed, Mr. Gray barely escaping with his life. He returned in 1838, with Rev. E. Walker and wife, Rev. Gushing Eells and wife, Rev. A. B. Smith, Mrs. Gray, and Cornelius Rogers. With the party came Captain John A. Sutter, the honored pioneer of the Sacramento Valley. They brought with them fourteen cows of a superior breed, but at Fort Hall were persuaded to leave them and accept in their place an order for a similar number to be delivered them by the agent of the Hudson's Bay Company when they reached their destination. They failed to fully appreciate the beauties of this transaction until after their arrival at the Whitman Mission in September, and wit- nessed the efforts of an expert vaquero to catch some of the wild heifers roaming with the herds belonging to the company. The following brief and accurate account of the Missions of the American Board is taken from Rev. Myron Eells' book, entitled " Indian Missions," and carries them up to the time when the Amer- ican settlers organized a government in Oregon, from which time they will only be considered in connection with concurrent events. Mr. Eells says: — On the arrival of this mission reinforcement, Mr. Gray was associated with Mr. Spalding. Mr. Smith was first stationed with Dr. Whitman, but the next year he opened a new station at Kamiah, sixty miles from Lapwai, among the Nez Perces, and Messrs. Walker and Eells likewise began another station among the Spokanes, at Tshimakain, six miles north of the Spokane River, in the spring of 1839. The FOUNDATION AND PROGRESS OF THE SCISSIONS. 215 first few years of the mission were quite encouraging. Owing partly to the novelty, the Indians seemed very anxious to labor, to learn at school, and to receive religious instruction. In 1887, as soon as a school was opened at Lapwai, Mr. Spalding wrote that a hundred, both old and young, were in attendance. As soon as one had learned something more than the others, they would gather around him, while he would become their teacher. In 1839 one hundred and fifty children, and as many more adults, were in school. Similar interest was shown in religious instruction. They sometimes spent whole nights in repeating over and over what they had but partly learned at a religious service. Two years later 1,000 to 2,000 gathered for religious instruction. Then 2,000 made a public confession of sin, and promised to serve God. Many of them evidently did so with imperfect ideas of what they were doing, yet not a few were believed to give evidence of conversion. Among the Cayuses, also, more were ready to attend school than the mission family could sup- ply with books, or had ability to teach. Morning and evening worship was main- tained in all the principal lodges, and a confession of sin was made somewhat similar to that among the Xez Perces. For a time, when Dr. Whitman or Mr. Spalding traveled through the country, they were followed by hundreds of Indians, eager to see them and hear Bible truths at night. They had a strong desire for hoes and other agricultural implements, and were willing to part with any property they had. in order to obtain them, even bringing their rifles to be manufactured into such articles. From eighty to one hundred families planted fields near Mr. Spald- ing, and many near Dr. Whitman raised enough provisions for a comfortable sup- ply for their families. In 183S Mr. Spalding reported that his field produced 2,000 bushels of potatoes, besides wheat and other articles. In the year 1841 a saw and grist mill were erected among the Xez Perces. and a grist mill among the Cayuses. At Kamiah a large part of the Indians gave up their roving habits for a time, and remained most of the year at home, and the Spokanes received Messrs. Walker and Eells with glad- ness. In 1837 a church was organized, and in September, 1838, the first Indian was received into it ; though, in July previous, two Indian girls, who afterwards died in Mr, Spalding's family, gave evidence of conversion, and were baptized as the first fruits of the work. In November, 1839, Joseph and Timothy, Nez Perces Indians, were admitted to the church. In 1840 Mr. Eells reported a school of eighty scholars. In 1839 the mission received a donation from Rev. H. Bingham's church, at Hono- lulu, Sandwich Islands, of a small printing press, with types, furniture, paper, and other things, of the value of $450. The same church had, the year before, sent eighty dollars in money and ten bushels of salt to the Oregon mission. Mr. E. O. Hall, a printer at the Sandwich Islands, on account of the health of his wife, came with the press, and the first book printed west of the Rocky Mountains, so far un- known, was issued that fall in the Nez Perces language. This added new interest to the school, and other books in the same language, and one in that of the Spo- kanes, followed. Mr. and Mrs. Hall remained until the spring of 1840, when they returned to the Sandwich Islands. * * * -* But the novelty gradually wore off, and discouragements began. The natural heart naturally resisted the truths of the Bible, and some of the Spokane chiefs led in the opposition. In 1838 two Roman Catholic priests arrived, spoke against the missionaries, and persuaded some of the Cayuses to be baptized by them. Others afterwards came, established a mission among them, and one of the Roman Catholic- Indians instigated some others of the tribe to treat Dr. Whitman and Mr. Gray with much insolence and abuse, to destroy some property, and to demand payment for the land, timber, fuel and water which had been used. But by moderation and firmness, and with the aid of the Hudson's Bay Company, the Indians afterwards 216 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. admitted their guilt, and peace was apparently restored. In 1841, Mr. Smith, after suffering no little annoyance from the savage manners of the Nez Perces, on account of the failure of his own and his wife's health [he had located among Ellis' band of Nez Perces in 1839, and the following year was prevented from cultivating any ground under pain of death, at the command of Ellis himself] , left that mission and Oregon, and joined the mission at the Sandwich Islands. He subsequently returned to the Eastern States. In his opinion the Indians were pharisaical, and desired to make money out of the missionaries. B3 7 February, 1842, affairs seemed so discouraging that the Board of Missions concluded to give up the stations among the Cayuses and Nez Perces, and Bev. J. D. Paris and Mr. W. H. Bice, who had been sent to the mission by the way of Cape Horn and the Sandwich Islands, having reached the latter place, were induced to remain there temporarily, an arrangement which was afterwards made permanent by the Board at Boston. The roving habits of the Indians, and the decrease in the attendance on the schools, increased the trials. Hence, Messrs. Spalding and Gray were to return East, and Dr. Whitman was to join the Spokane Mission. In the fall of 1842, however, affairs took a more favorable turn : the Spokane Indians showed more thoughtfulness and conscientiousness ; the school at Lapwai increased to an average of eighty, and afterwards to over 200; 1,000 Nez Perces attended a series of meetings for nine or ten days, seven of whom were examined for admission to the church ; the Cayuse Sabbath congregations varied in the spring from 200 to 400, in the fall from 50 to 200, and less during the rest of the year. The two Nez Perces received into the church four years previous, and some others of whom hope was entertained, stood well as Christian workers ; and there was abundant evidence that the truth was exerting a restraining influence over most of the Indians. Some of them were becoming more settled, so that 50 Cayuse and 150 Nez Perces families cultivated from a quarter of an acre to five acres each ; one Nez Perces chief raised 176 bushels of peas, 100 of corn, and 300 of potatoes. Mrs. Spalding had taught a few of the Nez Perces women to knit, card, spin, and weave, and a large number to sew. ****** It was also becoming evident that more Americans were soon to come into the territory, and they would need something other than Boman Catholic preaching. All these things determined the missionaries in the fall of 1842, to continue all the stations, notwithstanding the instructions received from the Board at Boston, until the matter could again be reconsidered. These, and other considerations relating to the possession of the country, to which reference will afterwards be made, rendered it expedient, in the opinion of the mission, for Dr. Whitman to return East. He did so, leaving Walla Walla October 3d, 1842, and reaching Boston March 30th, 1843. He made such representations that the Board ratified the action of the mis- sion, in continuing all the stations. After transacting important business at Wash- ington, and visiting his friends, he returned to Oregon. He left the western frontiers of Missouri, May 31st, and after a short time overtook a company of about 875 emigrants, some of whom, when he was in the East, he had promised to aid, should they determine to go to Oregon. This journey was successfully made, and the first train of emigrant wagons rolled through to the Columbia Biver. The Methodist mission, founded by Jason Lee in the Willamette Valley, and which had met with such misfortune by sickness, was reinforced by Elijah White and wife, Alanson Beers and wife, W. H. Willson, Annie M. Pitman, Susan Downing and Elvira Johnson, FOUNDATION AND PROGRESS OF THE MISSIONS. 217 who sailed from Boston in July, 1836, and reached their destination the following May. The scourge of fever still afflicted the mission, and it consequently bore ill repute among the Indians of the Wil- lamette, in spite of the most earnest and conscientious efforts of Mr. Lee and his associates to win the £ood will of those for whose ben- efit they had made so great a sacrifice. In the fall of 1837 Rev. David Leslie, Rev. H. K. W. Perkins and Margaret Smith were added to their force of missionary laborers. Their field of opera- tions was enlarged in the spring of 1838 by the establishment of a mission at The Dalles, under the charge of Daniel Lee and H. K. W. Perkins. To do this required money, if they would continue their plan of operations. The Protestant method of working em- braced the instruction of the Indian in the methods of procuring food and clothing by his own intelligent effort, so that he might not experience those alternate seasons of feasting and famine to which he was subjected when relying solely upon the products of nature. They sought, also, to destroy his roving habits by trans- forming him from a hunter to a farmer. Jason Lee accordingly started East to procure the necessary financial aid, accompanied by P. L. Edwards, F. Y. Ewing and two Indian boys. During his absence Mrs. Lee died, also Cyrus Shepard, who was teaching school at the Willamette Mission. Mr. Lee returned in 1840 with a party of forty -eight persons, eight of them being clergymen, and nineteen ladies. From this time the history of the missions be- comes so closely interwoven with that of the settlements, that no further effort will be made to keep it distinct. A new element was introduced into the mission field in 1838, in the form of two zealous Catholic priests. Rev. Francis N". Blanchet and Rev. Modest Demers came overland from Montreal with the regular express of the Hudson's Bay Company, reaching Vancouver on the twenty-fourth of November, 1838, and having baptized fifty- three persons while voyaging down the Columbia. They came pre- pared to stay, and not without having received a cordial invitation. The servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, such, at least, as were of Canadian descent, had a natural leaning toward the Catholic church, which had been the one to administer to the religious wants of them- selves and parents, whenever they had been fortunate enough to come within the radius of Christian worship. When the Protestant mis- 218 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. sionaries appeared it caused them to long for the presence of the pious fathers; not with that insatiable longing which has its source in the deepest fountains of our nature; they simply preferred, in case they were to enjoy religious privileges at all, to have those with which they most naturally sympathized. Not only did they feel thus themselves, but they told the Indians that there were other and better missionaries than those who had settled amongst them, men who wore long black gowns and who would teach them the true religion. This created a natural desire among the tribes to have these holy men come among them, a desire shared by the officers of the company, who naturally preferred that religion which would meet with the most favor among their servants and the In- dians, and which was taught by subjects of Great Britain. This w r as the reason why the society of Montreal sent out Fathers Blan- chet and Demers, and why the advent of the " Black Gowns," as they were called by the Indians to distinguish them from the Prot- estants, was not unexpected by the natives. The coming of Catholics was the signal for the commencement of a contest for spiritual control of the Indians, whose terrible results will be seen as this narrative progresses. For this both parties to the controversy were to blame. They were all firmly set in their religious convictions, and intolerant of opposing or differing opinions to the highest degree. Embued by the loftiest of motives themselves, they did not possess sufficient charity or liberality to ascribe equally exalted purposes to their opponents. This spirit is exhibited to the present day in the rancorous writings of certain participants on either .side, in which they do not hesitate to charge upon their adversaries crimes for which the scaffold and peniten- tiary are the only adequate penalty; or motives and conduct, which, being proven, would cause them to be shunned and despised by every honorable man. It is but a continuation of that sectarian rivalry, that battle of religious creeds, which has existed since first primitive man began to worship his shadow as a manifestation of some intangible and mysterious power, and which has caused so much bloodshed, misery and horror in the world, and will not end until man judges his fellow man more by his motives and deeds, and less by his purely religious opinions. A few instances will suffice to show the existence of this spirit FOUNDATION AND PROGRESS OF THE MISSIONS. 219 on both sides — a determination to impress upon the Indians the fact that their particular creed and form of worship were the only true and potent ones, and that all others were both false and harmful. The Catholics were the chief aggressors in this respect, the more energetic and crafty in undermining their opponents, but it was not entirely lacking with the other side ; and it must be admitted that in the matter of subsequent acrimonious writings, the Protestants lead the van. The first gun was fired and the nature of the cam- paign outlined by Dr. Parker when he first entered the country, and long before the Catholics appeared in the field. At the mouth of the Alpowa Creek, on Snake Kiver, he came upon a burial party of the Nez Perces, who "had prepared a cross to set up at the grave, 11 and because the symbol of the crucifixion offended his sight, and he feared it would make, as he expresses it, " a stepping-stone to idol- atry,' 7 he took " the cross the Indians had prepared and broke it in pieces." As the Catholics had not yet appeared in the field, they consequently "didn't know they were hit"; and this incident is of interest only to show the spirit of religious intolerance which held possession of Dr. Parker, and which subsequent events proved to also pervade his successors. When the Catholics appeared they found the Protestants well entrenched, and they had either to attack them there or enter new fields. They did both. Their plan of operations is outlined by Father Blanchet, who, in after years, wrote thus of the duties of the missionary priests : — They were to warn their flocks against the dangers of seduction, to destroy the false impression already received, to enlighten and confirm the faith of the waver- ing and deceived consciences, to bring back to the practice of religion and virtue all of them who had forsaken them for long years, or who, raised in infidelity, had never known nor practiced any of them. * * * In a word, they were to run after the sheep when they were in danger. Hence their passing so often from one post to another — for neither the white people nor the Indians claimed their assist- ance in vain. And it was enough for them to hear that some false prophet (mean- ing a Protestant missionary) had penetrated into a place, or intended visiting some locality, to induce the missionaries to go there immediately, to defend the faith and prevent error from propagating itself. Here is a direct statement from the Archbishop at the head of the church, that it was the Catholic plan to counteract the influence of the Protestants where they had already located missions, as well as to hasten to any new point they might select in order to prevent the founding of others. The first overt act of this kind was com- 220 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. mitted at Nesqually, only a few months after their arrival. Rev. Blanchet says: — The first mission to Nesqually was niade by Father Demers, who celebrated the first mass in the fort on April 22, [1839], the day after he arrived. His visit at such a time was forced upon him by the establishment of a Methodist mission for the Indians. * * * After having given orders to build a chapel, and said mass out- side of the fort, he parted with them, blessing the Lord for the success of his mis- sion among the whites and Indians, and reached Cowlitz on Monday, the thirtieth, with the conviction that his mission at Nesqually had left a very feeble chance for a Methodist mission there. The priests introduced a novelty in the shape of a picture by some ingenious artist. It was a representation of a large tree, with many branches, and the different Protestant sects were shown as ascending the trunk and going out upon the various branches, from which they dropped into a fire, the blaze being fed by a priest with the heretical books of his roasting victims. This tickled the Indians immensely, and among the Nez Perces it seemed about to capture the whole tribe. As an offset to this, Mr. Spalding had his wife paint a number of illustrations of prominent Bible events, and this colored panorama soon crowded the Catholic cartoon from the field. Thus was the contest waged for several years. In 1841, the Cas- cades Indians were won away from the The Dalles Mission in spite of Mr. Waller's strenuous efforts to hold them. This same Mr. Waller gave expression to his feelings on doctrinal points by cutting down a cross erected by the Catholics at Clackamas village. There was one thing which gave the Catholics a decided advan- tage among the natives — the use of symbols and ceremonies. Mr. Blanchet says: "The sight of the altar, vestments, sacred vessels, and great ceremonies, were drawing their attention a great deal more than the cold, unavailable and long lay services of Brother Waller." These were more akin to their own ideas of religion than the simple services of the Protestants. The mystery was fascinating to them, and they preferred to see the priests "make medicine" to hearing so much u wa-wa" from the ministers. By thus working upon the superstitious nature of the savages, and making no effort to suddenly change their old habits and time-honqred customs, the Catholics gained a firm hold upon them, and were thus able, gradually, to bring about the desired change. The Protestants, on the contrary, endeavored to accomplish too much at once, and having no censers FOUNDATION AND PEOGEESS OF THE MISSIONS. 221 to swing, or imposing vestments to wear, could gain but slight influence over the natives when their opponents were about. There was also another distinction the Indians recognized, and one which gradually led them to entertain a spirit of bitterness and hos- tility against the Protestants. This was their affiliation with the American settlers, whose presence was highly distasteful to the Indians, the reasons for which will be developed as the narrative progresses. CHAPTER XV. AMERICAN EMIGRANTS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. Early Advocates of Oregon Emigration — Efforts of Hall J. Kelley — The American Society for the Settlement of Oregon Territory — It Memorializes Congress and Advertises fur Emigrants — Wyeth, Kelley and Eiving Young come to Oregon — Earliest American Settlers — McLoughlin's Account of Settlement of French Prairie — The Wil- lamette Cattle Company — Population of Oregon in 181fi — First Effort at a Government — Settlement at Willamette Falls — Radical Change in the Policy of the Hudson's Bay Company as Regards Set- tlers — The Company' 's Deep Laid Plan — Attitude of the Company and its Chief Representative — Dr. McLoughlin Considered — Reasons for the Bitter Feelings Entertained by some Americans — Dr. Mc- Loughlin's Statement of His Conduct and the Treatment Received from both English and Americans — A bad Showing for the Grati- tude of some Americans — Classification of the Population as Regards Interests — Reasons for Desiring a Government — A Petition Sent to Congress in 18^0 — First Meeting to Form a Government — Death of Ewing Young Leads to the Organization of a Government — The Officers Elected — Failure to Form a Constitution — The Wilkes Ex- pedition — The Wolf Meeting — The First Legislative Committee — Organization of the Provisional Government — The First Officers — ■ Condition of the Missions — Antagonism of the Indians to Ameri- can Settlers — Dr. White Induces the Nez Perces, Wascopums and Cayuses to Adopt a Code of Laws. TO the missionaries belongs the credit of opening the route to Oregon and encouraging that large emigration of hardy pio- neers of the Mississippi Valley which was the element to finally decide the Oregon Question in favor of the United States. This was not their object when they left their Eastern homes, but was simply the natural sequence of events. Emigration to Oregon was AMERICANS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 223 considered and advocated long before there was any thought of founding missions, but it was deemed impracticable, and remained to be so considered until the missionaries and their wives demonstrated that the intervening mountains and deserts presented no barrier which miodit not be overcome even by delicate ladies. It then be- came but a matter of time, not a question of possibility, when emi- grants should beat a well-worn trail to Oregon. The first recorded instance of an effort to induce emigration to seek the far distant coast of Oregon, was in 1817, when Hall J. Kelley, of Boston, advocated the immediate occupation of the coun- try in dispute by American settlers. At that time the United States was making her first genuine effort to regain possession of the Col- umbia, and was negotiating with Great Britain on the question of the restoration of Fort George, or Astoria. Mr. Kelley became an enthusiast upon the subject, and continued his exertions throughout the subsequent years of diplomatic negotiation. In 1829 he organ- ized a company which was incorporated by the Legislature of Mas- sachusetts as " The American Society for the settlement of the Oregon Territory." This society presented a memorial to Congress in 1831, setting forth that they were " engaged in the work of opening to a civilized and virtuous population that part of Western America called Oregon. 11 Among other statements, the memorialists said: " They are convinced that if the country should be settled under the auspices of the United States of America, from such of her worthy sons who have drunk the spirit of those civil and religious institu- tions which constitute the living fountain and the very perennial source of her national prosperity, great benefits must result to man- kind. They believe that there the skillful and persevering hand of industry might be employed with unparalleled advantage; that there science and the arts, the invaluable privilege of a free and liberal government, and the refinement and ordinances of Chris- tianity, diffusing each its blessing, would harmoniously unite in ameliorating the moral condition of the Indians, in promoting the comfort and happiness of the settlers, and in augmenting the wealth and power of the Republic." They further stated "that the coun- try in question is the most valuable of all the unoccupied portions of the earth." and they believed Providence designed it "to be the residence of a people whose singular advantages will give them un- 224 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. exampled power and prosperity." They continued: "That these things * * * have settled in the policy of the British nation the determined purpose of possessing and enjoying the country as their own, and have induced their Parliament to confer on the Hudson's Bay Company chartered privileges for occupying with their settlements the fertile banks of the Columbia. * * * Already have they nourishing towns, strong fortifications and culti- vated fields. * Their largest town is Vancouver, which is situated on a beautiful plain, in the region of tide water, on the northern bank of the Columbia. * * * Every- thing, either in the organization of the government, or in the busy and various operations of the settlements of this place, at Walla Walla, at Fort Colville and at DeFuca, indicate the intention of the English to colonize the country. Now, therefore, your memorial- ists, in behalf of a large number of the citizens of the United States, would respectfully ask Congress to aid them in carrying into opera- tion the great purposes of their institution; to grant them troops, artillery, military arms and munitions of war for the security of the contemplated settlement; to incorporate their society with the power to extinguish the Indian title to such tracts and extent of territory, at the mouth of the Columbia and the junction of the Multnomah with the Columbia, as may be adequate to the lauda- ble objects and pursuits of the settlers; and with such other powers, rights and immunities as may be at least equal and concurrent to those given by Parliament to the Hudson's Bay Company; and such as are not repugnant to the stipulations of the convention, made between Great Britain and the United States, wherein it was agreed that any country on the Northwest coast of America, to be westward of the Rocky Mountains, should be free and open to the citizens and subjects of the two powers, for a term of years; and to grant them such other rights and privileges as may contribute to the means of establishing a respectable and prosperous community." Congress did not see fit to encourage this scheme of coloniza- tion; and it may well be said that, had Congress been relied upon, Oregon would inevitably have become a dependency of Great Brit- ain. That body of concentrated national wisdom lagged several years in the rear of the line of progress, and it was only by constant effort that through it the people were enabled to have their victories AMERICANS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. '22.) finally recognized and ratified. This halting and dilatory conduct of the national legislature placed the acquisition of Oregon in con- stant jeopardy. The society, however, which had constituted Mr. Kelley its general agent, continued its efforts despite the supineness of Congress. In 1831 a pamphlet was published entitled — " A general circular to all persons of good character who wish to emi- grate to Oregon Territory." The region covered by that designa- tion is defined in the head lines and opening paragraph, which read: " Oregon Settlement. — To be commenced in the spring of 1832 on the delightful and fertile banks of the Columbia River. It has been for many years in serious contemplation to settle with a free and enlightened but redundant population from the Amer- ican Republic that portion of her territory, called Oregon, bound- ing on the Pacific Ocean and lying between the forty-second and forty -ninth parallels of N. latitude." It was well known by every intelligent man that the United States claimed as far north as the Russian boundary at fifty -four-forty, but that forty-nine had been offered as a compromise line; and it is probable that the society thus defined Oregon within the limits generally believed at that time it would eventually assume. The cry, " fifty -four -forty -or - fight," had not then been heard, nor had the people as yet been aroused to such a pitch of interest in this subject. That was re- served for the time when negotiations were again resumed, prior to the settlement of the question in 1846. The pamphlet gave the names of thirty -seven agents of the society, to whom persons de- siring to emigrate should make application for proper certificates and full information; and these agents were located at various points throughout the Union. One of these was Nathaniel J. Wy- etib, whose unfortunate fur and salmon ventures on the Columbia have been related. It was arranged for the expedition to start from St. Louis in March, 1 832, with a train of wagons and a good supply of stock. A town was to be laid out at the junction of the Co- lumbia and Multnomah, and each emigrant was to receive a town lot and a farm, also, a lot in a town at the mouth of the Columbia, these places being already platted on paper. The failure of Con- gress to take any action in the matter ended the colonization scheme for that year. Mr. Wyeth, it will be remembered, crossed the country with a small party of Boston men, and returned the next 22G HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. year. He again visited the Columbia in 1834, accompanied by Ja- son Lee's party of missionaries. Mr. Kelley had undertaken to send a ship loaded with supplies to the Columbia, but unsuccess- fully. He then endeavored to open a route of trade through Mex- ico; but in that country the revenue officers pounced upon his goods and confiscated the greater portion of them. He still perse- vered, and falling in with Ewing Young, the independent trader whose operations on the coast have been related, persuaded him and several others to accompany him to Oregon. They reached Vancouver October 15, 1834. Mr. Kelley's health failed him, and he departed for home the following March, having lost $30,000 in his efforts to colonize Oregon. Mr. Young, and others who had come with Mr. Kelley, or with Wyeth's party, remained after the departure of those gentlemen — among them were James A. O'Neil, T. J. Hubbard, Courtney M. Walker and Solomon Smith. There were also two men of French descent — Joseph Gervais and Etinne Lucier — who had come out with Wilson G. Hunt's party, and whose sympathies were Ameri- can. All told, aside from the missionaries, there were about twenty- five men in Oregon who were favorable to the United States, most of them being mountaineers with Indian wives. Four of the inde- pendent settlers were John Turner, George Gay, John Woodworth and Dr. Bailey, the survivors of a party of nine, which left Califor- nia in the summer of 1835 for Oregon. The others were Daniel Miller, Saunders, an Irishman called " Big Tom," a man whose name is unknown, and a squaw. Turner was one of the survivors of the Unrpqua massacre of 1828. The incidents attending their arrival are thus related by Hon. J. W. Kesmith, who had them from the lips of the survivors: — The party had forty-seven head of good horses and a complete outfit for trapping. About the middle of June, 1835, the party encamped for the night near a place known as "The Point of Rocks," on the south bank of Rogue River. Early the next morning the Indians commenced dropping into camp, a few at a time. Gay was on guard, and not liking the appearance of the Indians, awoke Turner, who was the leader of the party, and the latter conversed with the savages through his squaw, who spoke Chinook. Turner concluded that there was no harm to be apprehended from their dusky visitors, and, forgetting the fearful massacre which he so narrowly escaped with Smith's party seven years before, near the Umpqua, the party became careless. In the meantime, some four or five hundred Indians had assembled in and about the camp of the little party, and at a signal, furiously attacked the white men with clubs, bows and arrows and knives. The AMERICANS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 2*27 attack was so sudden and unexpected that the Indians obtained three of the eight guns with which Turner and his party were armed. The struggle of the trappers for life was desperate and against fearful odds. The eight men seized whatever they could lay their hands on for defense. Some of them discharged their rifles in the bosom of their assailants and then clubbed their guns and laid about them with the barrels. Turner, who was a herculean Kentucky giant, not being able to reach his rifle, seized a big fir limb from the camp fire and laid about him lustily, knocking his assailants right and left. At one time the savages had Gay down and were pounding him, but they were crowded so thick as to impede the force of their blows. Old Turner, seeing Gay's peril, made a few vigorous blows with his limb which released him, and the latter, springing to his feet, dealt fearful cuts, thrusts, slashes and stabs with his long, sharp sheath-knife upon the naked carcasses of the dusky crowd. The other men, following Turner's and Gay's example fought with the energy of despair and drove the Indians from their camp. Dan Miller and another trapper were killed upon the spot, while the six survivors of the melee were all more or less seriously wounded. While the fight was going on, the squaws drove off the herd of horses and carried off all of the baggage and camp-equipage, together with three rifles. Three of the remaining guns were rendered useless by having their stocks broken off in the clubbing process. The six badly wounded survivors took to the brush and kept the Indians at bay with their two remaining rifles. By traveling in the night-time and hiding in the brush in the day-time, they man- aged to elude the Indians, but suffered terribly from their wounds and for want of provisions and clothing. Dr. Bailey had received a fearful wound from a toma- hawk, which sj>lit his lower jaw from the point of the chin to the throat. From want of proper treatment, the parts never properly united, and many old pioneers will recollect the unsightly scar that disfigured his face for life. Saunders' wounds disabled him from traveling, and he was left on the South Umpqua, and "Big Tom" was left on t}ie North Umpqua. The Indians subsequently reported to Dr. Mc- Loughlin that both men had died of their wounds where they were left. Turner, Gay, Woodworth and Dr. Bailey, after reaching the head of the Willamette Valley, differed about the route. Turner mistook the Willamette for the Columbia. Gay, in his sea voyages, had seen a map or chart showing that the Columbia ran west, and determined to strike due north in search of the great river, upon the banks of which he expected to find Hudson's Bay trappers and traders. Turner, Bailey and Wood- worth followed down the Willamette River until, in a famishing condition, they struck the Methodist mission below Salem. Gay kept along the foot-hills on the west side of the valley and crossed the Rickreal about where Dallas now stands, and crossed the Yamhill River at the falls near Lafayette, passing along on the west side of Wapatoo Lake, and crossing the Tualatin Plains, reached Wyeth's trading post on Sauvie's Island some time in August. Before separating from his compan- ions, Gay had cut up his buckskin breeches to make moccasins for the party, and made the most of the journey in a naked condition, with the exception of the tattered remnants of an old shirt. The mosquitoes nearly devoured him in the Columbia bottoms. This perilous trip of nearly 500 miles was made nearly fifty years ago, and was a terrible test of the endurance of a naked, wounded, and starv- ing man. There were, however, other settlers than the Americans. In 1 *28, Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, who was then on an official visit to Fort Vancouver, took possession of the Willamette Falls, for the purpose, as expressed by him, <>f 228 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. locating there a colony of their retired servants. It had previously been the policy of the company not to permit settlements to be made by their servants whose term of contract had expired, since they deemed them detrimental to the preservation of this region as a fur- producing Wilderness. They wanted no settlements here whatever, neither British nor American. This move at Willamette Falls was not persisted in, but a few years later some of their ex -servants located about Champoeg, or French Prairie, in Marion county, and became quite a flourishing colony; and there their descendants live to the present day, useful and industrious citizens. On the subject of the first settlements in the valley, Dr. McLough- lin's posthumous manuscript has much to say. The Etinne Lucier, spoken of by him, is the one mentioned above. He first settled on the east side of the Willamette, opposite the city of Portland, where he lived several years before removing to French Prairie. The Doctor says : — In 1824 I came to this country to superintend the management of the Hudson's Bay Company's trade on the coast, and we came to the determination to abandon Astoria, and go to Fort Vancouver, as it was a place where we could cultivate the soil and raise our own provisions. In March, 1825, we moved there and that spring planted potatoes and sowed two bushels of peas, the only grain we had, and*all we had. In the fall I received from New York Factory a bushel spring wheat, a bushel oats, a bushel barley, a bushel Indian corn and a quart of timothy, and all of which was sown in proper time, and which produce well except the Indian corn, for which the ground was too poor and the nights rather cool, and continued extending our im- provements. In 1828, the crop was sufficient to enable us to dispense with the im- portation of flour, etc. In 1825, from what I had seen of the country, I formed the conclusion from the mildness and salubrity of the climate, that this was the finest portion of North America that I had seen for the residence of civilized man, and as the farmers could not cultivate the ground without cattle, and as the Hudson's Bay Company had only twenty-seven (27) head, bigand small, andas I saw at the time no possibility of getting cattle by sea, and that was too expensive, I determined that no cattle should be killed at Vancouver except one bull calf every year for rennet to make cheese, till we had an ample stock to meet all our demands, and to assist settlers, a resolution to which I strictly adhered, and the first animal killed for beef was in 1838 ; till that time we had lived on fresh and salt venison and wild fowl. From morality and policy I stopped the sale and issue of spiritous liquor to the Indians, but to do this effectually I had to stop the sale of liquor to all whites. In 1834, when Mr. Wyeth, of Boston, came, he began by selling liquor, but on my assuring him that the Hud- son's Bay Company sold no liquor to whites or Indians, he immediately adopted the same rule. * * * * * -* In 1828, Etinne Lucier, a Willamette trapper, asked me if I thought this would become a settled country. I told him wherever wheat grew, he might depend it would become a farming country. He asked me what assistance I would afford AMERICANS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 229 him to settle as a farmer. I told him I would loan him seed to sow and wheat to feed himself and family, to be returned from the produce of his farm, and sell him such implements as were in the Hudson's Bay Company's store, at fifty per cent, on prime cost. But a few daj T s after he came back and told me he thought there was too remote a prospect of this becoming a civilized country, and as there were no clergymen in the country, he asked me a passage for his family in the Hudson's Bay Company's boats, to which I acceded. He started in September to meet the boats at the mountain ; the express came in too late and he had to return, and went to hunt for the winter. In 1829 he again applied to begin to farm. I told him that since he had spoken to me I heard that several trappers would apply for assistance to begin to farm, and that it was necessary for me to come to a distinct understanding with him to serve as a rule for those who might follow. That the Hudson's Bav Company were bound under heavy penalties to discharge none of their servants in the Indian country, and bound to return them to the place wmere they engaged them. That this was done to prevent vagabonds being let loose among the Indians and incite them to hostility to the whites. But as I knew he was a good, honest man, and none but such need apply, and as if he went to Canada and unfortunately died before his children could provide for themselves they would become objects of pity and a burthen to others. For these reasons I would assist him to settle. But I must keep him and all the Hudson's Bay Company's servants whom I allowed to settle, on the Hudson's Bay Company's books as servants, so as not to expose the Hudson's Bay Company and me to a fine, but they could work for themselves, and no service would be exacted from them. Many of the Canadians objected to go to the Willamette, because it was to become American Territory, which I told them it would, as the Hudson's Bay Company in 1825 officially informed that on no event could the British Government claim extend south of the Columbia, and that they were afraid they would not have the same advantages as American citizens. I told them from the fertility of the soil, the extent of prairie and the easy access from the sea, that the Willamette (they must admit) was the best and only place adapted to form a settlement which would have a beneficial effect on the whole country north of San Francisco, where we could assist and protect them from the Indians in case of difficulty, and as to advantages I did not know what they would have, but this I knew, that the American Govern- ment and people knew only two classes of persons, rogues and honest men, that they punished the first and protected the last, and it depended only upon them- selves to what class they would belong. Others wanted to go and live with the relatives of their wives, but as their chil- dren would be brought up with the sympathies and feelings of Indians, and as the half-breeds are in general leaders among Indians, and they would be a thorn in the side of the whites, I insisted they should go to the Willamette, where their children could be brought up as whites and Christians, and brought to cultivate the ground and imbued with the feelings and sympathies of whites, and where they and their mothers would serve as hostages for the good behavior of their relatives in the interior. As Indians judge of whites by themselves, and I think if they injure whites on their lands, the whites would revenge it by murdering their Indian rela- tives among them, and as the settlement increased by the addition of Indian women half-breeds, the turbulence of the Indian tribes would diminish; and certainly the Cayuse war would not have been quelled so easily as it was if other half-breeds bad not joined the Americans; and I have great pleasure to be able to say, what must be admitted by all who know them, that the Canadian trappers and half-breeds who have settled as farmers, are as peaceable, orderly, neighborly and industrious a set of men as any in the settlement ; and that so far the Canadian settlement has -')<> HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. produced and supplied three-fourths of the grain that has been exported. [Every pioneer will heartily endorse this eulogy of the people of French Prairie.] ****** I made it a rule that none of the Hudson's Bay Company's servants should be allowed to join the settlements unless he had fifty pounds sterling before him, as he required that sum to supply him with clothing and implements. He that begins business on credit is seldom so careful and industrious as he who does business on his own means. By this I effected two objects — I made the men more saving and industrious, and attached them to their farms. If I had not done so, they would have abandoned on the least difficulty. But having their means invested on their improvements, they saw if they abandoned the loss would be theirs, they therefore persisted and succeeded. When the settlement was formed, though the American trappers had no means, they were assisted on credit, and all in three years paid up from the produce of their farms. The presence of American settlers was extremely distasteful to the company ; not simply because they were Americans, but because they were American settlers. The officers of the company were instructed not to encourage them in any way. It stood ready to sell to the settlers at a high price, but not to purchase from them anything whatever. They were without cattle, except a few rented to them by the company, and until they possessed them could not be or feel independent of the overshadowing corporation. To remedy this evil, Young and Jason Lee (who never let the fact that he came to Oregon simply as a missionary prevent him from advanc- ing American interests whenever possible), set on foot a scheme to procure a supply of cattle from the vast herds grazing about the Spanish Missions in California. The effort was opposed by the company, but with the aid of Lieutenant William A. Slocum, an officer of the United States Navy, who advanced money and gave a free passage to California in his vessel to those who went after the cattle, it was completely successful, and "The Willamette Cattle Company v was organized. The party which went to California was under the leadership of Mr. Young, and was composed of P. L. Edwards (who kept a diary of the expedition, which is now pre- served in the State Library at Sacramento and numbered 23,989), Hawchurst, Carmichael, Bailey, Erequette, DesPau, Williams, Tib- betts, George Gray, Wood, Camp, Turner, and enough others to make a company of about twenty men, all inured to the dangers and privations of mountain life. They collected a band of seven hundred cattle, at three dollars per head, and, with much labor and difficulty, succeeded in bringing six hundred of them into the valley. They AMERICANS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 231 bad much trouble with the Indians on Siskiyou Mountain and along Rogue River, and Gay, without any foundation, charges the com- pany with stirring up the Indians to cut them off. The fact is, as Edwards 1 diary plainly shows, the trouble grew out of the unpro- voked murder by one of the party of an Indian who visited their camp on Klamath River. Turner, Gay and Bailey were three of four survivors of the American trapping party which had been attacked on Rogue River two years before, and shot this Indian in a spirit of revenge. It is certainly difficult to trace any agency of the company in this affair, or to assign any other cause than wanton murder for their trouble with the Indians. The arrival of the cat- tle was hailed with joy by the settlers, as it guaranteed them com- plete independence of the company, and demonstrated that Ameri- cans could settle in the Willamette Valley with an assurance of being self-supporting. Such is the version of the cattle question, as it comes from Amer- ican sources. Dr. McLoughlin gives quite another tone to it. His document says: — Every settler had as much wheat on loan as he wanted to begin with, and I lent them each two cows, as in 1825 we had only twenty-seven head, big and small, old and young. If I sold they would of course be entitled to the increase, and I would not have the means to assist the new settlers, and the settlement would be retarded, as those purchasers who offered me two hundred dollars for a cow would put such a price on the increase as would put it out of the power of poor settlers to buy. This would prevent industrious men from settling. For these reasons I would not sell, but loaned, as I say, two cows to each settler, and in case the increase of settlers might be greater than we could afford to supply with cattle, I reserved the right to take any cattle I required (above his two cows) from any settlers to assist new settlers. To the Methodist Mission, as it was a public institution, I lent seven oxen, one bull and eight cows with their calves. In the beginning, several settlers lost cattle, poisoned by eating water hemlock. It has been said by the late Mr* Thurston, Delegate from Oregon, on the floor of Congress, that settlers paid for dead cattle. This is a wanton falsehood, as it is well known to all old settlers that no settler paid a cent for dead cattle. It was a loss to the company. In 1836 we found means of forming a company to go to California for cattle. I took half the stock for the Hudson's Bay Company, so that by purchasing a large number (as the expense of driving five hundred or a thousand was the same) as it would make the cattle cheaper. Those of the settlers that had means put it in the stock ; those that had none, engaged as drivers at one dollar per day, to be paid in cattle at their actual cost. Mr. Slocum, who came here in a chartered vessel, gave them a passage gratis from this place to San Francisco. Mr. Ewing Young was se- lected to conduct the party. Mr. P. L. Edwards, who came with Messrs. Lee, of the Methodist Mission, but now a lawyer in California, was appointed Treasurer. They brought, I think, about seven hundred head of cattle, which cost eight dollars per head rendered. In the Willamette, the settlers kept the tame and broken-in *Jo*J HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. oxen they had belonging to the Hudson I&ay Company, and gave their California wild cattle in the place, so that they found themselves stocked with tame cattle which cost them only eight dollars per head, and the Hudson's Bay Company, to favor the settlers, took calves in place of grown-up cattle, because the Hudson's Bay Company wanted them for beef. These calves would grow up before they were re- quired. At the close of 1837, the independent population of Oregon con- sisted of forty-nine souls, about equally divided between missionary attaches and settlers. With but few exceptions the arrivals during the next two years were solely of persons connected with the various missions, whose advent has already been noted. Those coming in 1839 were, Rev. J. S. Griffin and wife, and Mr. Munger and -wife, who had made an unsuccessful effort to found an independent mis- sion on Snake River, and Ben Wright, Robert Shortess, Sidney Smith, Lawson, Keiser, Geiger, and Blair, a blacksmith. By add- ing the following list of arrivals in 1840, to those previously men- tioned, the population of Oregon at that time will be quite accu- rately listed. Mr. Gray thus summarizes the arrivals of that sea- son: — In 1840 — Methodist Episcopal Protestant Mission— Mrs. Lee, second wife of Rev. Jason Lee ; Rev. J. H. Frost and wife ; Rev. A. F. Waller, wife and two children ; Rev. W. W. Kone and wife; Rev. G. Hines, wife and sister; Rev. L. H. Judson, wife and two children ; Rev. J. L. Parish, wife and three children ; Rev. G. P. Richards, wife and three children ; Rev. A. P. Olley and wife. Laymen — Mr. Geo. Abernethy, wife and two children ; Mr. H. Campbell, wife and one child ; Mr. W. W. Raymond and wife; Mr. H. B. Brewer and wife ; Dr. J. L. Babcock, wife and one child ; Mrs. Daniel Lee ; Mrs. David Carter ; Mrs. Joseph Holman ; Miss E. Phillips. Independent Protestant Mission — Rev. Harvey Clarke and wife ; P. B. Littlejohn and wife ; Robert Moore, James Cook, and James [Travers, according to Judge Deady,] Fletcher, settlers. Jesuit Priests — P. J. DeSmet, Flathead Mission. Rocky Mountain men with native wives— William Craig, Doctor Robert Newell, Joseph L. Meek, George Ebbert, William M. Dougherty, John Larison, Geo. Wil- kinson, a Mr. Nicholson, and Mr. Algear, and William Johnson, author of the novel, "Leni Leoti, or, The Prairie Flower." The subject was first written and read before the Lyceum at Oregon City, in 1843. He classifies the population as follows: American settlers, twenty -five of them with Indian wives, 36; American women, 33; children, 32; lay members, Protestant Missions, 13; Methodist Min- isters, 13; Congregational, 6; American Physicians, 3; English Phy- sicians, 1 ; Jesuit Priests, including DeSmet, 3 ; Canadian French, 60. Total Americans, 137; total Canadians, including Priests, 63; total population, not including Hudson's Bay Company operatives, AMERICANS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 233 within what now is a portion of Montana, and all of Idaho, Wash- ington and Oregon, 200. Up to 1839 the only law or government administered in this region was the rules of the Hudson's Bay Company ; but that year, deeming that there must be some authority which the settlers would respect, the Methodist missionaries designated two persons to act as magistrates. This was done entirely without the co-operation of the settlers, hut the action received their endorsement, or, at least, was generally acquiesced in. Several cases came before these officers for adjudication, the most important being the trial of T. J. Hub- bard for murder, he having shot a man who was attempting to enter his cabin through the window. The magistrate was Rev. David Leslie. The prisoner was acquitted by the jury. Settlements were made at this time with reference to the possi- ble division of the country on the line of the Columbia Eiver, all Americans locating south of the stream, and none but British sub- jects north of it. Cook, Fletcher and Moore settled on the banks of the TTillainette, near the falls, the last named locating directly opposite the cataract, on the west bank. He purchased a section of land of the Indians, a transaction which, of course 1 , had no legal force, and named his place "KobiVs Xest." Dr. McLoughlin claimed the opposite end of the falls, and, later, when he resigned from the Hudson's Bay Company, located there and became as good an American as any of them. He thus relates some of the diffi- culties he experienced with this claim: — In 1840, as I already stated, the Methodist Mission received a large reinforce- ment. I had selected for a claim, Oregon City, in 1829, made improvements on it and had a large quantity of timber squared. The Superintendent applied to me for a loan of some of it to build a mission house. I lent them the timber and had a place pointed out to them upon which to build. In 1840 the Methodist Mission formed a milling association and jumped part of my claim and began to build a saw and grist mill. They assumed the right to judge of my rights, and said that I could not hold it as part of my claim, though the stream that separates the islet from the main land is not more than forty feet wide in summer. This island is what is called "Abernethy Island," and is about three or four acres in extent. In 1842, Mr. Walker, the resident missionary in the house, to build which I lent timber, which they never returned, and gave the ground upon which to build, set up a claim to Oregon City in opposition to me, but after some difficulty, I paid them $500 and he gave it up. I preferred to do this and have done with it rather than here- after trouble Government with it. It has been remarked that the policy of the Hudson's Bay Com- 334 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. pany was to discourage any settlements whatever, preferring that the country should remain uninhabited by all save the Indians and the actual servants of the company. It had even gone to the ex- pense of sending to Canada those employees whose terms of service expired. Had they but themselves and employees to deal with, the policy was a wise one for the purpose of effecting the end aimed at — the preservation of the country in its primeval state — but with the complication of independent American settlers it was the re- verse. Had the company from the beginning colonized Oregon with its discharged servants, as it had previously done the Red River region, there would now have been such a flourishing colony as would have completely overshadowed the Americans, if, indeed, it did not prevent their coming altogether. Failure to do this lost Great Britain her only hope of acquiring Oregon. The company's eyes were fully opened to the danger when the Wallamet Cattle Company w r as organized in 1837. It resolved then upon a radical and immediate change of policy — to colonize the country with sub- jects of Great Britain as rapidly as possible. Accordingly, the Puget Sound Agricultural Company was organized in 1837 as an associate of the company, which it was to supply with its products as well as carry on a trade with the Sandwich Islands and Alaska. The company, for reasons previously stated, selected a location on the north side of the Columbia, at Cowlitz and Nesqually. It took several years to carry the scheme into effect, since it was necessary to bring a large emigration from the company's older colony on Red River. The settlement on French Prairie has been mentioned; this consisted of about twenty-five families at the time Father Blan- chet arrived in 1838, and located there the Mission of St. Paul, where a school and church have ever since been maintained. The plan of the company was to thus overwhelm the American settlers in point of numbers, and at the same time to open negotiations be- tween the home governments for a final settlement of the mooted question of title, in which the great preponderance of English sub- jects should be urged as a reason why Great Britain's claim to the country should be conceded. To the defeat of this deep-laid plan the United States is indebted largely to Dr. Marcus Whitman's per- spicacity, determination and patriotism, as will appear later on. The company's plans embraced, also, a studied and persistent AMERICANS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 235 misrepresentation of the agricultural resources of the country. The idea was industriously impressed upon every one that Oregon was a barren waste, of no earthly value except as a fur region. By this means it was hoped not only to discourage emigration, but to im- press upon American statesmen the idea that a country of such little value for colonization was not worth contending for, and some of the speeches made in Congress by several of the foremost men of the nation show how well the plan succeeded. That England, and Englishmen generally, became embued with the same idea was of no consequence, since the company did not desire English settlers other than such as, in a measure, belonged to it; and England could be relied upon to do her best to secure it as a perpetual trapping ground for this great corporation, which was her powerful repre- sentative in the extreme West. Not only was the region decried, but it was asserted with great positiveness that it was absolutely impossible for wagons to cross the mountains, and that emigrants could not pass overland from the Mississippi Valley. Every book of English origin laid great stress upon these facts, and they were echoed by the magazines and newspapers. Said John Dunn, a former clerk of the company, in his work on Oregon: "None but the wild and fearless free -trappers can clamber over these precipices and tread these deserts with security. It is true that there have been published more favorable accounts, within the last year or two, by parties who have made the journey safely, and who encourage others to make a similar experiment, but these accounts are mere bravado." In 1843, the Edinburg Review said: "However the political question between England and the United States, as to the ownership of Oregon, may be decided, Oregon will never be colo- nized overland from the United States. The world must assume a new phase before the American wagons will make plain the road to the Columbia, as they have done to the Ohio.' 1 These extracts are sufficient to show the general tenor of them all. In this there was nothing either criminal or dishonest, nothing which Americans would not have done under the same circum- stances; and yet certain writers speak of this and other steps of the company to obtain, or retain, possession of Oregon, as constituting a heinous crime. In looking at this matter one should divest him- self of all national and religious prejudice or bigotry. Both na- 236 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. tions having well-founded claims to the country, the subjects of Great Britain certainly were as fully justified in making an effort for possession as were the citizens of the United States ; and the actual fact is that they were less active, less aggressive than were the Americans, to which is largely due their defeat in the contest upon which they entered with every advantage. Because they made these efforts, parties who were equally active on the other side have charged the company with grave crimes, not the least of which was the inciting of the natives to murder American settlers and mission- aries. These charges rest solely upon the most flimsy circumstan- tial evidence, which is outweighed by the conduct and character of the officers who administered the company's affairs in Oregon. It is not the purpose of the writer to engage in a general defense of the Hudson's Bay Company, or acquit ifc of all censure; for he be- lieves its policy to have been harsh and cruel, though natural and human. He would, however, desire to defend the name of good Dr. McLoughlin from the aspersions of men who were not worthy to untie the latchet of his shoes; who possessed neither his large and liberal mind, nor his warm and generous heart. He must be dis- associated entirely from the company whose chief representative he was, since he failed utterly to carry out its policy. He was ever the sympathizing friend of the needy pioneer, and liberally aided him in distress; and when called to account, in 1844, for not enforcing the company's orders to withhold from American settlers all assist- ance whatever, resigned his position and became nearly penniless because of being held personally responsible for the debts he had permitted many distressed emigrants to contract for necessary sup- plies, which debts, it may be stated, many never had the honor or gratitude to discharge. Aside from this order to withhold assistance, which, had it been enforced by Dr. McLoughlin, would have caused great distress, and which, of course, not being present to witness it, the chief officers of the company could not fully appreciate, there was nothing in the conduct of the company which would not be looked upon in any country and by any people as proper and nec- essary for the protection of their interests, could they be placed in a similar position. It is questionable if the gentlemen entertaining such bitter feelings had possessed the great power of the company, whether they would have used it as honorably and conscientiously AMERICANS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 287 as did Dr. McLoughlin and his associates. These narrow-minded views were not entertained by Dr. Whitman, the Nestor of them all. He had a brain sufficiently large, and a nature sufficiently honor- able, to divorce politics and personality, and he honored and respected some of these men, and enjoyed their warmest friendship, while do- ing more than any other man to counteract and defeat their plans. The active part taken politically by the Protestant missionaries lost them the support* they at first received from the company, which was transferred to the Catholics, who, as subjects of Great Britain, could be counted upon to further its interests. It was this support of their religious adversaries which caused the bitter enmity of cer- tain Protestant historians to the company. The mutual intolerance of adherents of the two creeds, and the especially bitter spirit en- gendered by the contest for spiritual control of the Indians, suffi- ciently explain why those whose minds were thus wrought up to a belief in the commission of fiendish acts by their Catholic opponents, should extend their prejudices to the company which aided in their defeat. Dr. McLoughlin treats the subject of his attitude and conduct towards American settlers at great length, and justice to him requires that his words be given in full. He says: — In 1843, about 800 emigrants arrived from the States. I saw by the looks of the Indians that they were excited, and I watched them. As the first stragglers were arriving at Vancouver in canoes, I was standing on the bank. Nearer the water there was a group of ten or twelve Indians. One of them bawled out to his com- panions, *' It is good for us to kill these Bostons ! " Struck with the excitement I had seen in the countenances of the Indians since they had heard the report of the immigration coming, I felt certain they were inclined to mischief, and that he spoke thus loud as a feeler to sound me, and take their measures accordingly. I imme- diately rushed on them with my cane, calling out at the same time, "Who is the dog that says it is a good thing to kill these Bostons!" The fellow, trembling, excused himself, " I spoke without meaning harm, but the Dalles Indians say so." " Well," said I, " the Dalles Indians are dogs for saying so, and you also," and left him, as, if I had remained longer, it would have had a bad effect. I had done enough to convince them I would not allow them to do wrong to the immigrants with impunity. From this Indian saying, in the way he did, that the Dalles Indians said it was good to kill the Bostons, I felt it my duty to do all I could to avert so horrid a deed. Mr. P. L. Edwards, whom I mentioned, came in 1834, with Messrs. Lee, and left in 1838, sent me a letter by Gen. McCarver, stating he had given a letter of in- troduction to me to P. H. Burnett, Esq. I immediately formed my plan and kept my knowledge of the horrid design of the Indians secret, as I felt certain that if Americans knew it, these men acting independent of each other, would be at once for fighting, which would lead to their total destruction, and I sent two (2) boats 238 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. with provisions to meet them ; sent provisions to Mr. Burnett, and a large quantity of provisions for sale to those who would purchase, and to be given to those who had not the means, being confident that the fright I had given (as already stated) the Indians who said it was a good thing to kill the Bostons was known at the Dalles before our boats were there, and that with the presence of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany people, and the assistance they afforded the immigrants, would deter the Indians from doing them any wrong, and I am happy to be able to say I entirely succeeded. At first I thought these Indians were excited by some of the Iroquois Indians in the Hudson's Bay Company's service, and tried to find if so, but found nothing to enlighten me on the subject. About a month after Dr. Whitman, from his mission Walla Walla to Vancou- ver, as the Dalles was on his way, and as he had seen the principal men there, it occurred to me that he might have heard of it, and told him what I heard the Indian say, and how I had alarmed him, what I had done to deter them and my suspicion that all this sprung from some of our rascally Iroquois, and that I was anxious to find that rascal out to punish him as an example to deter others. " Oh," says the Doctor, " I know all about it." " You do, Doctor," says I. " Yes," said the Doctor, "and I have known it for two years." "You have known it for two years and you told me nothing! Pray tell me his name." The Doctor, seeing I was on the wrong scent, said, "His name is Thomas Hill." After thinking for some time, I replied, the Hudson's Bay Company had no man of that name in their service. "Oh," says the Doctor, " Tom Hill the Shawnee." This Indian, it is said, had been educated at Dartmouth College in the States, had told the Indians that a few Americans had come to settle on their land ; that the Shawnees allowed them, but when the Americans were strong enough they drove the Shawnees off and now the Shawnees have no lands, and had urged the Indians to allow no Americans to settle on their lands, which advice the Indians about Walla Walla say the Cayuses are following to this day, and the Indians are inclined to follow by killing the immi- grants who first came, and which I believe they would have done but for the decided and cautious manner that I acted. And the reason the Indian made use of the ex- pression he did, was because I punished the murderers of the Smith party, and be- fore acting they wanted to know how I would treat them, and most certainly if I had not been most anxious for the safety of the immigrants and to discharge to them the duties of a Christian, my ear would not have caught so quickly the words, " it is a good thing to kill these Bostons," and acted as I did. In fact, if the immi- grants had all been my brothers and sisters, I could not have done more for them. I fed the hungry, caused the sick to be attended to and nursed, furnished them every assistance so long as they required it, and which some have not paid to this day, though abundantly able, and for which, if they do not pay, I am answerable to the Hudson's Bay Company. It may be said, and has been said, that I was too liberal in making these advances. It is not so, but was done judiciously and prudently. When the immigration of 1842 came, we had enough of breadstuff's in the country for one year, but as the immigrants reported that next season there would be a greater immigration, it was evident if there was not a proportionate increase of seed sown in 1843 and 1844, there would be a famine in the country in 1845, which would lead to trouble, as those that had families, to save them from starvation, would be obliged to have recourse to violence to get food for them. To avert this I freely sup- plied the immigrants of 1843 and 1844 with the necessary articles to open farms, and by these means avoided the evils. In short I afforded every assistance to the immi- grants so long as they required it, and by management I kept peace in the country, and in some cases had to put up with a great deal ; for instance, when the milling company jumped part of my claim, the island upon which they built a mill, and AMERICANS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 239 which subsequently Abernethy purchased, and when Williamson jumped part of Fort Vancouver, as may be seen by my correspondence with the provisional govern- ment on the subject, and which occurred in the presence of several American citizens, who I am happy to say strongly expressed their disapprobation of William- son's conduct, and which I am induced to believe made him desist, and it will be seen, to their credit, that Messrs , the Executive Committee, acted in a straightforward, manly and correct manner, and it was by such conduct on the part of respectable American citizens, that peace and order were maintained in the country. It is true, several thought I was too for- bearing ; but when I saw how much the good on both sides would suffer if I acted differently, and that a war between Great Britain and the United States might be caused by it, I considered it my duty to act as I did, and by which I think I may have prevented a war between the United States and Great Britain. And how have I been treated by both ? By British demagogues I have been represented as a traitor. For what? Because I acted as a Christian ; saved American citizens, men, women and children from the Indian tomahawk, and enabled them to make farms to support their families. American demagogues have been base enough to assert that I had caused American citizens to be massacred by hundreds by the savages. I, who saved all I could. I have been represented by the delegate from Oregon, the late S. R. Thurston, as doing all I could to prevent the settling, while it was well known to every Ameri- can settler who is acquainted with the history of the Territory, that this is a down- right falsehood, and most, certainly will say, that they most firmly believe that I did all I could to promote its settlement, and that I could not have done more for the settlers if they had been my brothers and sisters, and after being the first person to take a claim in the country and assisting the immigrants as I have, my claim is reserved, after having expended all the means I had to improve it, while every other settler in the country gets his. But as I felt convinced that any disturbance between us here might lead to a war between Great Britain and the States, I felt it my bounden duty as a Christian, to act as I did, and which I think averted the evil, and which was so displeasing to some English demagogues that they repre- sented me to the British Government as a person so partial to American interests as selling the Hudson's Bay Company goods in my charge cheaper to American than I did to British subjects. On the other hand, though, if the American immigrants had been my brothers and sisters, I could not have done more for them ; yet, after acting as I have, spending my means and doing my utmost to settle the country, my claim is reserved, while every other settler in the country gets his; and how much this has injured me, is daily injuring me, it is needless to say, and certainly it is a treatment I do not deserve and which I did not expect. To be brief, I founded this settlement and prevented a war between the United States and Great Britain, and for doing this peaceably and quietly, I was treated by the British in such a manner that from self respect I resigned my situation in the Hudson's Bay Com- pany's service, by which I sacrificed $12,000 per annum, and the "Oregon Land Bill " shows the treatment I received from the Americans. It is a pleasure to state that all liberal-minded pioneers regard the good Doctor as one of the grandest and most noble characters with whom they ever came in contact. The population of Oregon may be classified, in 1840, into four distinct divisions — the Hudson's Bay Company; the Catholic mis- sionaries and their French proteges; the Protestant missionaries; 240 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. and the independent settlers. The first two generally acted together, though there were a few members of the Catholic church who favored American rule. Though not always in full accord, and occasionally opposing each other, the settlers and missionaries, as a rule, acted together, the missions serving as a rallying point for the settlers. These latter cared nothing for the religious creed the missionaries represented, their sole object in securing homes in the Willamette Valley being to better their wordly condition, yet they favored the mission to the extent that it served their purpose of settling in the country. • The missions of the American Board located east of the mountains, cut no figure at first in the organization of a government, that movement being confined to the settlers in the Willamette Val- ley. The motives which actuated them are thus set forth by J. Quinn Thornton: — Distant from the land of their birth, surrounded by restless tribes of Indians, who clamorously and insolently demanded of the immigrants pay for lands which the immigrants had neither the means nor the right to purchase; still ardently de- siring to have their names and their destiny connected with that of the republic, and yet, often pierced to the heart by the thought, which would sometimes, unbid- den, obtrude itself upon the mind, that they were the victims of their country's neglect and injustice, and suffering all the inconveniences and embarrassments w hich are necessarily felt by a resident and civilized community, without a system of laws for the conservation of peace and order, they were at length compelled to or- ganize a provisional government. Their first step was taken March 16, 1838, when J. L. Whit- comb and thirty -five other settlers prepared a memorial, which was presented to Congress January 28, 1839, by Senator Linn. This document set forth the resources and condition of the country, and contained the following paragraph: — We are anxious when we imagine what will be, what must be, the condition of so mixed a community, free from all legal restraint and superior to that moral influ- ence which has hitherto been the pledge of our safety. We flatter ourselves that we are the germ of a great State and are anxious to give an early tone to the moral and intellectual character of our citizens — the destinies of our posterity will be intimately affected by the character of those who immigrate. The territory must populate — the Congress of the United States must say by whom. The natural resources of the country, with a well-judged civil code, will invite a good community? but a good community will hardly emigrate to a country which promises no pro- tection to life or property. * * * We can boast of no civil code. We can promise no protection but the ulterior resort of self-defense. * * * We have thus briefly shown that the security of our persons and our property, the hopes and destinies of our children, are involved in the subject of our petition. We do not presume to suggest the manner in which the country should be occupied by the Government, nor the extent to which our settlement should be encouraged. AMERICANS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 241 We confide in the wisdom of our national legislators, and leave the subject to their candid deliberations. This petition was read, laid on the table, and neglected. In June, 1840, Senator Linn again presented a memorial, signed by seventy citizens of Oregon : — Your petitioners represent that they are residents in Oregon Territory, and citi- zens of the United States, or persons desirous of becoming such. They further rep- resent that they have settled themselves in said Territory, under the belief that it was a portion of the public domain of the United States, and that they might rely upon the government thereof for the blessings of free institutions and the protec- tion of its arms. But your petitioners further represent, that they are uninformed of any acts of said Government by which its institutions and protection are ex- tended to them; in consequence whereof, themselves and families are exposed to be destroyed by the savages and others that would do them. harm. And your petition- ers would further represent that they have no means of protecting their own and the lives of their families, other than self-constituted tribunals, organized and sus- tained by the power of an ill-instructed public opinion, and the resort to force and arms. And your petitioners represent these means of safety to be an insufficient safeguard of life and property. * * * * Your petitioners wherefore pray the Congress of the United States of America, to establish, as soon as may be, a territorial government in Oregon Territory. The phrase which is italicized in the above memorial undoubt- edly refers to the Hudson's Bay Company, which, so some of the settlers then believed and a few still affect to believe, designed their destruction. The absurdity of this has already been pointed out by calling attention to the character of the company's officers in Ore- gon, and to the very patent fact that had such been their intention it would have been carried out, since nothing could have been easier of accomplishment. That the company succeeded in ''freezing out " opposition traders, by exerting its authority to prevent the Indians form trading with its rivals, and by refusing to sell such men sup- plies when in business distress, is an undisputed fact; and that it sought to " starve out " all American settlers, or, at least, keep them in practical subjection, is equally undisputable, and would probably have been as fully successful had another than Dr. Mc- Loughlin been in charge at Vancouver ; but that it sought to achieve these ends by murder and inciting the Indians to slaughter them, lacks proof of any kind. Its domination over the Indiaus was so complete that a simple hint that the company desired the Americans killed would have been sufficient to have accomplished that end. The simple fact that these petitioners lived for many years exposed 242 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. to attack and never once received it, is evidence enough to show that the fears expressed in the memorial were ungrounded. Having thus provided for making known the situation of affairs to Congress, and being well aware that one, and possibly two, years must roll around before they could even know that their petition had been presented, they addressed themselves to the task of pro- viding such government as was absolutely required for the security of their families and the proper conservation of the peace. The principal settlement was at Champoeg, and there a meeting was held on the seventh of February, 1841, the record of which shows that it was " a meeting of some of the inhabitants * * * for the purpose of consulting upon steps necessary to be taken for the formation of laws, and the election of officers to execute them." Eev. Jason Lee was called to the chair, and requested to express his opinion of what was necessary to be done. In a brief speech, which indicates that he had given considerable thought to the subject, he advised the appointment of a committee to draft a constitution and by-laws for the government of that portion of the territory lying south of the Columbia. The people were also recommended to con- sidered the question of a governor and other officers. Here the matter rested temporarily; but an event happened a few days later which revived it with greater vigor. This was the death of that able and energetic leader, Ewing Young, on the fifteenth of Feb- ruary. His funeral, which was held two days later, was attended .by nearly every settler in the valley. Mr. Young possessed con- siderable property, and left no visible heirs to claim it and no one to administer upon the estate. Had he been a servant, or even an employee of the company, the officers would have taken charge of the effects; or had he been associated with one of the missions, there would have been no doubt about the disposition of his property ; but he was simply an independent settler, and no one had any color of authority to act in the premises. After the funeral ceremonies were concluded, the people organized a u meeting of some of the inhabit- ants of the.Wallamet Valley, for consultation concerning the steps necessary to be taken for the formation of laws, and the election of officers to execute the same, and for the better preservation of peace and good order.'' 7 Rev. Jason Lee was chosen Chairman, and Rev. (xustavus Hines Secretary. It was determined to institute a civil gov- AMERICANS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 243 ernment south of the Columbia, to the protection of which any per- son living north of that stream and not connected with the company, might be admitted upon application. The form of government decided upon was a legislative committee, a governor, a supreme judge with probate powers, three justices of the peace, three con- stables, three road commissioners, an attorney -general, a clerk of the courts and public recorder, a treasurer, and two overseers of the poor. Names of gentlemen to occupy the various offices were sug- gested, and then the meeting adjourned to assemble the next day at the Methodist Mission, and elect officers. Nearly all the male pop- ulation south of the Columbia assembled at the time and place specified. There were three distinct factions — the Methodist mis- sionaries and their associates, the independent settlers, and the Catholics as allies of the Hudson's Bay Company. The first busi- ness was the choice of a committee to draft a constitution and code of laws, the following gentlemen being selected: Rev. F. N. Blan- chet, representing the Catholics; Rev. Jason Lee, Rev. Gustavus Hines and Rev. Josiah L. Parrish, representing the Methodist Mis- sion; D. Donpierre and M. Charlevo, representing the French Can- adian settlers; Robert Moore and Etinne Lucier, representing the American settlers; William Johnson, representing the purely English element. The main point at issue between the factions seemed to be the position of governor; Revs. Leslie and Hines and Dr. J. L. Babcock were the mission candidates, and seemed liable to divide the vote sufficiently to ensure the election of Dr. Bailey, a man of strong English prejudices, who was opposed to religion generally. He could secure the French Catholics and a majority of the settlers' votes, but the latter element he alienated by his extreme immodesty in nominating himself. It was finally decided to dispense with a governor, the duties of that office being discharged by the supreme judge, to which position Dr. J. L. Babcock was elected. He was instructed to render decisions in cases which mijrfit come before him. in accordance with the New York code ; but as there was not a New York statute book west of the Rocky Mountains, it would have been difficult to determine whether he complied or not. The committee being divided between the different interests, and the bench having fallen to the Methodists, the Catholics were given the recorder in the person of George W, LeBreton, who had come out in the brig 244 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Maryland, and was a young man of good education. Later, he affiliated entirely with the settlers, and is spoken of by the priests at the time of his death, which will be subsequently noted, as being an apostate. The English element was represented by William Johnson, as high sheriff. Joseph Gervais, Hadier Laderaut (Zania Ladaroot), Pierre Billique and William McCarty were chosen con- stables. The other offices designated were not filled; to have done so would have required nearly every prominent man in the settle- ments. The meeting then adjourned to assemble on the first Tues- day in June, at the new building near the Catholic church. Dr. Babcock administered upon the estate of Mr. Young, and as no heirs appeared to claim it, the property was devoted to the build- ing, two years later, of a jail at Oregon City, the first of its kind west of the Rocky Mountains. A score of years later the Oregon Legislature refunded the value of the estate to Joaquin Young, of New Mexico, who proved himself to be a son of the deceased pioneer. Upon the day appointed in June the people again assembled, and learned that the committee had not framed a constitution, nor had they even met for that purpose. Rev. F. N. Blanchet resigned, and after choosing Dr. Bailey to fill the vacancy, the meeting in- structed the committee to "confer with the Commodore of the American squadron and John McLoughlin, Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, with regard to forming a constitution and code of laws for this community." The meeting then adjourned till the following October. The naval officer alluded to was Com- modore Charles Wilkes, who had been despatched by the United States Government, in 1838, with a fleet of vessels, on an extended voyage of exploration, continuing live years. Wilkes was then in Oregon with the double purpose of obtaining geographical and sci- entific information and learning the exact situation of affairs. Per- sonally, he enjoyed the hospitality of Dr. McLoughlin during his brief stay, several expeditions being sent out from Vancouver, one going to Puget Sound, one to the missions east of the mountains, and a third, under Lieutenant Emmons, passing up the Willamette Valley and going overland to the Bay of San Francisco, whither the squadron proceeded by sea. Having visited the various mis- sions, talked with the settlers, and consulted with the worthy Chief AMERrCANS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 245 Factor, he learned that only a minority were in favor of a govern- ment, chiefly those associated with the Methodist Mission. It seemed to be the prevailing opinion that the settlement was not strong enough to sustain a government and not large enough to absolutely require it. Accordingly, Wilkes advised the com- mittee which waited upon him, to wait until they were stronger before attempting a government, until the " Government of the United States should throw its mantle over them.''' This advice was accepted, and the adjourned meeting never convened. This ended the first effort to organize a local government. The first regular emigration from the East arrived in 1841, be- ginning that steady stream of young and vigorous life which has annually flowed into Oregon for over forty years; and the end will not be seen for many years to come. There were deep and moving causes for this living stream to force its way through the rocky bar- riers and alkali deserts and cut a deep channel to Oregon. Trap- pers who had visited the Pacific Coast sang the praises of the lovely and fertile valleys of the Willamette and Sacramento, where winter was unknown and the grass remained green the year round. The western frontiersmen caught up the refrain as it passed from cabin to cabin ; and in a few years the tale was an old one with the hardy pioneers of the West. The publication of Dr. Parker's book, Liv- ing's "Astoria' 1 and "Bonneville," John Dunn's work on Oregon, a letter written by Robert Shortess, who had come out in 1839, combined with a general financial depression in the. Western States, caused much attention to be directed towards Oregon, California then being a province of Mexico and, consequently, less attractive to American citizens. The two steadfast friends of Oregon in Congress were the senators from Missouri, Thomas H. Benton and Lewis F. Linn, whose names are borne by two of the oldest and best counties in the Willamette Valley. They never ceased to urge upon the Government the necessity of taking some decisive step to perfect its title to the region of the Columbia, and to extend the jurisdic- tion of the law over this disputed country for the protection of American citizens who were making, and might in the future make, their homes in the far-off Occident. It was Senator Linn who pre- sented the two memorials before alluded to, and who, at the same time, introduced bills for the extension of the jurisdiction of the 246 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. United States laws over Oregon, urging them warmly upon the consideration of Congress. Early in 1842 he introduced a bill granting donations of the public lands to all who might settle in Oregon, his idea being that a liberal emigration alone could be re- lied upon to win the Columbia for the United States, and that special inducements should be offered to those brave and hardy people who must be relied upon to thus constitute the line of battle on the frontier. With all earnestness he supported this measure in the Senate, ably seconded by his eminent colleague, but his sudden death on the 3d of October, 1843, suspended, for the time, the vi- tality of these measures; yet, in the donation laws passed by Con- gress a few years later, the pioneers of Oregon reaped the benefit of his unselfish exertions, and received the fulfillment of that im- plied promise which had induced many of them to undertake the toilsome and dangerous journey. In his eulogy upon his distin- guished colleague, delivered in the Senate, Mr. Benton said: "In the character of such a man, so exuberant in all that is grand and beautiful in human nature, it is difficult to particularize excellen- cies, or pick out any one quality or circumstance which could claim pre-eminence over all others. If I should attempt it, I should point among his measures for the benefit of the whole Union, to the Or- egon bills." The emigration of 1841 consisted of one hundred and eleven persons, who, owing to the supposed impossibility of crossing the country with wagons, made no attempt to bring vehicles with them. That such was not an impossibility had been demonstrated in two instances — when Dr. Whitman took his cart to Fort Boise in 1836, and again in 1840 by Dr. Robert Newell, an old mountaineer, who took a prominent and honorable part in the early affairs of Oregon. He was one of the arrivals of 1840 previously noted. Newell had served as guide to the Methodist missionaries from Green River to Fort Hall, where, as compensation for his services, he received the two wagons belonging to the missionaries, which they had decided to abandon at that point. The wagon party consisted of Dr. Rob- ert Newell and family, Joseph L. Meek, Caleb Wilkins and Francis Ermatinger, a Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company. The inci- dent is thus related by Dr. Newell: — At the time I took the wagons, I had no idea of undertaking to bring them into AMERICANS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 247 this country. I exchanged fat horses to these missionaries for their animals, and after they had been gone a month or more for Wallamet, and the American Fur Company had abandoned the country for good, I concluded to hitch up and try the much-dreaded job of bringing a wagon to Oregon. I sold one of these wagons to Mr. Ermatinger, at Fort Hall. Mr. Caleb Wilkins had a small wagon which Joel Walker had left at Fort Hall. On the fifth of August, 1840, we put out with three wagons. Joseph L. Meek drove my wagon. In a few days we began to realize the difficult task before us, and found that the continual crashing of the sage under our wagons, which was in many places higher than the mule's backs, was no joke. Seeing our animals begin to fail, we began to light up, finally threw away our wagon-beds and were quite sorry we had undertaken the job. All the consolation we had was that we broke the first sage on that road, and were too proud to eat anything but dried salmon skins after our provisions had become exhausted. In a rather rough and reduced state we arrived at Dr. Whitman's mission station in the Walla Walla Valley, where we were met by that hospitable man and kindly made welcome and feasted accordingly. On hearing me regret that I had undertaken to bring wagons, the Doctor said, "Oh, you will never regret it. You have broken the ice, and when others see that wagons have passed, they too will pass, and in a few years the valley will be full of our people." The Doctor shook me heartily by the hand ; Mrs. Whitman, too, welcomed us, and the Indians walked around our wagons, or what they called "horse canoes," and seemed to give it up. We spent a day or so with the Doctor, and then went to Fort Walla Walla, where we were kindly received by Mr. P. C. Pambrun, Chief Trader of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany, Superintendent of that post. On the first of October, we took leave of those kind people, leaving our wagons and taking the river trail — but we proceeded slowly. Our party consisted of Joseph L. Meek and myself, also our families, and a Snake Indian whom I brought to Oregon, where he died a year after our arrival. The party did not arrive at the Wallamet Falls till December, subsisting for weeks upon dried salmon, and upon several occasions compelled to swim their stock across the Columbia and Wallamet. The emigrants from the Red River colonies which were brought to Oregon in pursuance of the plan of the Hudson's Bay Company set forth above, arrived in the fall of 1841. Sir Greorge Simpson, governor of the company, visited Vancouver the same year, crossing overland from Montreal. Just east of the Rocky Mountains he passed this train of emigrants, which he records as consisting of tk twenty-three families, the heads being generally young and active. 1 " They reached Oregon in September and were located north of the Columbia, in the vicinity of the Cowlitz farm of the Puget Sound Agricultural Company. A number of them relocated the next year in the Willamette Valley. The emigration of 1842 consisted of one hundred and nine people, fifty-five of them over eighteen years of age. They started from Independence on the sixteenth of May, with sixteen wagons and a number of cattle. In the train was Dr. Elijah White, who had spent three years in Oregon in connection with the Methodist 248 IITSTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Mission. He had now secured an appointment as Indian Agent for the region west of the Rocky Mountains, and was on his way back to the scene of his missionary labors. Alexander and John McKay, sons of Tom. McKay, were also with the party, being homeward bound from a few years of attendance at school in New York State. These three had lived in Oregon, but were not acquainted with the route thither. Judge Columbia Lancaster and his family accompa- nied them as far as the Kansas River, but he was compelled by the sickness of his wife to abandon the journey and return. A few years later he was more successful and his name is now indelibly stamped upon the pages of Oregon history. Stephen H. Meek, an experienced mountaineer and brother of Col. Jo. Meek, served as guide and general advisor, having trapped for years through the mountains and been in Oregon several times, first with Bonneville and afterwards as an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company. F. X. Matthieu, well known in the State, joined the train at Fort Lara- mie, with three Frenchmen whose names are unknown. Thomas Fitzpatrick, a former partner in the Rocky Mountain Fur Com- pany, and one of the most experienced of mountain men, was en- countered at Fort Laramie and engaged for $500 to pilot the train to Fort Hall. At Independence Rock a young man named Bailey was killed by the accidental discharge of a rifle; and L. W. Hast- ings and A. L. Lovejoy, two names prominent in Oregon history, were captured by Sioux Indians while engaged in carving their names on the face of the rock. They were ransomed by making their captors a present of a few trinkets and pieces of tobacco; and this was what gave rise to the story in after years that Hastings had been bought for a plug of tobacco. At Green River one -half of the wagons were dismantled and used to make pack saddles, since it was deemed too slow and difficult a task to take the whole train further. This event and the subsequent incidents of the journey are thus related by Hon. Medorum Crawford, one of the party: — Horses, mules and oxen were packed with such clothing, utensils and provisions as were indispensable for our daily wants, and with heavy hearts many articles of comfort and convenience, which had been carefully carried and cared for on the long journey, were left behind. About the middle of August we arrived at Fort Hall, then an important trading post belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company. From Captain Grant, his officers and employees, we received such favors and assist- ance as can only be appreciated by worn-out and destitute emigrants. Here the remaining wagons were left, and our company, no longer attempting to keep up an AMERICANS OKGAXIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 249 organization, divided into small parties, each traveling as fast as their circumstances would permit, following the well-beaten trail of the Hudson's Bay Company to Fort Walla Walla, now Wallula. The small party to which I was attached was one month traveling from Fort Hall to Dr. Whitman's, where we were most hos- pitably received and supplied with flour and vegetables in abundance, a very acceptable change after subsisting almost entirely on buffalo meat from Laramie to Fort Hall, and on salmon from Fort Hall to Whitman's. In fact there had not been in my mess a mouthful of bread since leaving Laramie. * * * From Walla Walla Dr. White and some others took passage down the Columbia River in the Hudson's Bay Company's boats. Others pursued the journey by land to The Dalles, and there embarked in boats or canoes, and still others, and the larger por- tion of the emigrants, crossed the Cascade Mountains on the old Indian trail. From Fort Hall to the Willamette no precaution was taken against, or the slightest appreheusion felt of Indian hostility, nor were we in any instance molested by them : on the contrary, they furnished us with salmon and game, and rendered us valuable assistance for very trifling rewards. From Walla Walla to the Willamette Falls occupied about twenty days, and all things considered, was the hardest part of the entire journey — what with the drifting sands, rocky cliffs, and rapid streams along the Columbia River, and the gorges, torrents, and thickets of the Cascade Mountains, it seems incredible how, with our worn-out and emaciated animals, we ever reached our destination. The members of that little train of 1842, such as were then over eighteen years of age, are thus enumerated by Mr. Crawford: — The following named men over eighteen years of age composed the emigration of 1842: C. T. Arendell, James Brown, William Brown, Gabriel Brown, Barnum, Hugh Burns, Geo. W. Bellamy, Bennett, Bennett, Jr., Bailey (killed), Nathaniel Crocker, Nathan Coombs, Patrick Clark, Alexander Copeland, A. X. Coates, Medorum Crawford, Allen Davy, John Dearnn, John Dobbinbess, Samuel Davis, Foster, John Force. James Force, Girtman, Gibbs, L. W. Hastings, J. M. Hudspeath, John Hofstetter, Hardin Jones, A. L. Lovejoy, Reuben Lewis, F. X. Matthieu, S. W. Moss, J. L. Morrison, Stephen Meek, Alex. McKay, John McKay, Walter Pomeroy. Dwight Pomeroy, J. W. Perry, Dutch Paul, J. R. Robb, Owen Summer, T. J. Shadden, Andrew Smith, A. D. Smith, Darling Smith, Adam Storn, Aaron Towner, Joel Turnham, Elijah White, David Weston, Three Frenchmen. The condition of the valley and the settlers, when these emigrants arrived, is thus delineated by Mr. Crawford: — On the fifth day of October our little party, tired, ragged and hungry, arrived at the Falls, now Oregon City, where we found the first habitations west of the Cas- cade Mountains. Here several members of the Methodist Mission were located, and a saw mill was being erected on the island. Our gratification on arriving safely after so long and perilous a journey, was shared by these hospitable people, each of whom seemed anxious to give us hearty welcome and render us every assist- ance in their power. From the Falls to Vancouver was a trackless wilderness, communication being only by the river in small boats and canoes. Toward Salem no sign of civilization existed until we reached the French Prairie, where a few farms near the river were cultivated by former employees of the Hudson's Bay Company. West of the Falls some fifteen miles was Tualitan Plains, where a few settlers, mostly from Red River, had located. Within the present limits of Yamhill County, the only settlers I can remember were Sidney Smith, Amos Cook, Francis Fletcher, James O'Xeil, Joseph McLaughlin, Williams, Louis LaBoute and 250 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. George Gay. There may have been one or two more, but I think not. South of George Gay's on the west end of Salem, on the east side of the Willamette River, there were no settlements in the territory. There were in the valley some twelve or fifteen Methodist Missionaries, most of them having families, under the general superintendence of Rev. Jason Lee. Some of them were living at the Falls, some at Salem, and some at the Mission farm, ten miles below Salem, opposite the place now known as Wheatland. At these places, especially at the Falls and Salem, many improvements were being made, and em- ployment w r as given at fair wages to all who desired work. Payment was made in lumber and flour from their mills at Salem, cattle and horses from their herds, and orders on the mission stores at the Falls, kept by Hon. George Abernethy. There was no money in the country, and in fact I do not remember seeing a piece of money of any description for more than a year after my arrival. A man's financial condition was based upon his cattle, horses, and credit on the Hudson's Bay Com- pany's or Abernethy's books. With these he could procure everything that was purchaseable in the country. All kinds of tools and implements were scarce and generally of the most primitive character. There were no wagons in the country. Carts of the rudest manufacture were in general use, which among the French were frequently ironed with raw-hide. Ground was plowed with wooden mould- boards, grain was threshed in rail pens by the tramping of horses and cleaned by winnowing in the wind, and transported in canoes and bateaux to Fort Vancouver to market. Most of our clothing came from the Hudson's Bay Company, was all of one size, and said to have been made to fit Dr. McLoughlin, who was a very large man. Boots and shoes were more difficult to be obtained than any other article of clothing ; as for myself I had no covering for my feet for two years, either summer or winter, but buckskin moccasins, still I never enjoyed better health in my life. * * * * * ■* A number of our company, probably one-third, dissatisfied with the winter and not willing to wait and see what the summer would bring forth — acting on their migratory instincts — determined early in the spring of 1843 to go to California. It was said of some of those that they never remained in one place longer than to obtain the means to travel ; and of one family in particular, that they had prac- tically lived in the wagon for more than twenty years, only remaining in one locality long enough to make a crop, which they had done in every State and Ter- ritory in the Mississippi Valley. Accordingly, under the lead of L. W. Hastings, they set out as soon as the weather would permit, and, after encountering some difficulty with the Indians, they reached Sacramento Valley. Among this party was Hon. Nathan Coombs, then a mere boy, who afterwards became a large land owner and stock raiser in Napa Valley, and founder of the city of that name. Uncle Tommy Shadden, who is here to-day, was also of that party. In the spring of 1843 those of our party who remained in the country generally located claims in different sections of the Willamette Valley, and laid the foundations for homes they had traveled so far to obtain. These claims were by common consent recog- nized and respected without other protection than public opinion until the pro- visional government was established, which provided that non-residents could hold claims by having them recorded and paying five dollars annually into the terri- torial treasury. It was in 1842 that the first regular educational institution in Oregon was founded, one which has done noble work for the youth of the coast, and which still flourishes under the management of its founders, the Methodist Episcopal Church. On the seventeenth of AMERICANS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 251 January, 1842, at the call of Kev. Jason Lee, the people assembled at Chemeketa, now North Salem, to consider the question of es- tablishing an educational institution capable of meeting the wants of the growing community. A committee was appointed and the meet- ing adjourned till the first of February, when it convened in the old mission building which had been erected in 1834. The Oregon Institute was then founded with the following board of trustees: Kev. Jason Lee, Rev. David Leslie, Rev. Gustavus Hines, Rev. J. L. Parrish, Rev. L. H. Judson, Hon. George Abernethy, Alanson Beers, H. Campbell and Dr. J. L. Babcock. A location on French Prairie was first selected, but that place being deficient in pure water, the institute was finally located on Wallace Prairie, two and one -half miles below the present City of Salem. A constitution was- adopted on the fifteenth of March, and on the twenty-sixth of October the school was formally placed under the charge of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The emigration of 1842, small though it was and diminished by the migration of several families to California, served to materially strengthen the independent American element. Those who were desirous of organizing a government began again to canvass the subject, the leading spirit being W. H. Gray, who had left his associates — Whitman, Spalding, Eells and Walker — and settled in the Willamette Valley. He gathered a few of the trusty ones at his house to consult upon the best means of getting the people together so as to get a spontaneous action from them before oppos- ing influences could have time to work upon them. A simple but effective plan was devised — one which worked to a charm. Many domestic animals had been destroyed by wild beasts, decimating the small herds of the settlers, and how to prevent such ravages had become a serious question with every settler. It was decided to call a meeting for the ostensible purpose of devising some means for the protection of cattle from the ravages of wild beasts, and notice was accordingly sent throughout the valley for every settler to attend such a meeting at the Oregon Institute on the second day of February, 1843. The attendance was very large, Dr. Babcock occupying the chair. The presiding officer was unaware of the secondary object of the meeting, to the principle of which he was unfavorable. A committee of six was appointed to submit a plan 252 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. of operations to an adjourned meeting to be held on the first Mon- day in March, at the cabin of Joseph Gervais. These two gather- ings are generally known among the pioneers as " Wolf meetings." Prior to the second meeting LeBreton and a Mr. Smith quietly can- vassed the sentiment of the people on the subject of a more com- plete government, finding that quite a diversity of opinions prevailed. There was a lyceum which met occasionally at Willamette Falls, before which this question was introduced, and was discussed with great animation. The decision there reached was that a government at that time was inexpedient. A government was advocated by Dr. McLoughlin — one which would be entirely independent of the tw T o nations claiming Oregon. L. W. Hastings, as attorney for the Doctor, introduced the resolution, "That it is expedient for the settlers of the coast to establish an Independent Government," and this was the basis of the discussion. The negative side was taken by George Abernethy and other Americans, the former introducing another resolution for discussion the following week. This was as follows: " Resolved, That if the United States extends its jurisdic- tion over this country within the next four years, it will not be ex- pedient to form an Independent Government." After much earnest discussion this was adopted, and the question was placed at rest, apparently. Dr. White, the Indian Agent, advocated a government, provided he were placed at its head; but the adoption of the last resolution did not seem to offer him a certainty of such a happy consummation. By these discussions the public mind was some- what prepared for a step of some kind to be taken beyond that of mere protection from wild beasts, and the consequence was that the attendance at the second wolf meeting was even larger than it w r ould otherwise have been. James A. O'Neil, who had been quietly notified of the ulterior purpose of the meeting, was called to the chair, and he carried the proceedings as rapidly as possible over the nominal object of the gathering, full provision being made for the protection of the herds. William H. Gray then arose and made the assembled settlers a little speech. He said that no one would for a moment question the propriety and judiciousness of their action. It was just and natural to thus seek to protect their animals from the ravages of wolves, bears and panthers. Contin- uing, he said: — AMERICANS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 253 How is it, fellow citizens, with you and me, and our wives and children? Have we any organization on which we can rely for mutual protection ? Is there any power or influence in the country sufficient to protect us and all we hold dear from the worse than wild beasts that threaten and occasionally destroy our cattle? Who in our midst is authorized to call us together to protect our own and the lives of our families? True, the alarm may be given, as in a recent case, and we may run who feel alarmed, and shoot off our guns, while our enemy may be robbing our property, ravishing our wives, and burning our houses over our defenseless families. Com- mon sense, prudence and justice to ourselves demand that we act consistent with the principles that we have commenced. We have mutually and unitedly agreed to defend and protect our cattle and domestic animals; now, fellow citizens, I sub- mit and move the adoption of the two following resolutions, that we may have pro- tection for our person and lives, as well as our cattle and herds: Resolved, That a committee be appointed to take into consideration the propriety of taking measures for the civil and military protection of this colony. Resolved, That said committee consist of twelve persons. The resolutions were unanimously adopted, and Dr. Babcock, Dr. \Yhite, O'Xeil, Shortess, Newell, Lucier, Gray, Gervais, Hub- bard, M'Roy, Smith and Gay, were appointed to serve on the com- mittee. About two weeks later the committee assembled at the Falls, many other gentlemen being present and participating in their deliberations. Rev. Jason Lee and George Abernethy, as rep- resentatives of the Methodist Mission sentiment, made speeches in opposition to the proposed action. Unable to come to a definite decision, the committee called a general meeting to be held at Cham- poeg on the second of May, and then adjourned. A document op- posing the proposed action, and styled " An address of the Canadian citizens of Oregon to the meeting at Chanipoeg," was prepared by the anti- American element, and circulated among the Canadian French population for signatures. This element held four meet- ings to organize an opposition to the movement — one at Vancouver, one at the Falls, and two at Chanipoeg. The Canadians were drilled to vote "No" on all questions, and LeBreton, whose previous affili- ation with the Catholic element gave him an opportunity to learn of these plans, advised that some measure be introduced upon which they should properly vote "Yea," to thus throw them into confu- sion and expose their tactics. The settlers assembled at Champoeg in force on the second day of May, and considerable skirmishing was indulged in, the Canadians invariably voting "No" on all questions without reference to the bearing they had upon the in- terests they represented and becoming much demoralized in conse- quence. LeBreton, who had made a careful canvass of those in 254 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. attendance, finally exclaimed, "We can risk it, let us divide and count!" Gray shouted, "I second the motion!" Jo. Meek then stepped quickly out of the crowd, and raising his voice to a high pitch, shouted, " Who's for a divide? All for the report of the com- mittee and organization, follow me?" The Americans quickly ranged themselves on his side, and a count developed the fact that fifty-two stood in line with him and only fifty on the opposing side. "Three cheers for our side!" exclaimed Meek, and as the responsive cheers rose in the air, the defeated Canadians withdrew and grad- ually left the victors to conduct the remainder of the proceedings to suit themselves. The Committee of Twelve then reported in favor of the selec- tion of a Legislative Committee, and this plan was adopted. Messrs. Hill, Shortess, Newell, Beers, Hubbard, Gray, O'Neil, Moore and Dougherty, were selected for the committee, and were instructed to report a plan of government to a meeting to be held at Champoeg on the fifth of July. Their session was limited to six days, and their per diem was fixed at $1.25, which was at once contributed to the Government by the members. Beers, Parrish and Babcock volunteered to provide gratuitously for the board of the committee, and the Mission tendered the free use of its old granary for a council chamber. The committee assembled at the Falls on the tenth of May, in the building mentioned, certainly a most unpretentious structure for the deliberations of a legislature. It was a frame building, 16x30 feet, and one and one-half stories high, the upper portion being used as a sleeping apartment and storage room. The lower story was divided into two compartments, one of them doing duty as a school room and church, and the other as a warehouse for the [storage of wheat. Such were the accommodations enjoyed by the first Legislature of Oregon. It was a plain, serviceable struc- ture, and they were plain, matter-of-fact men who had met there to deliberate for the public good. The Legislature opened its session by choosing Robert Moore for Chairman, and George W. LeBreton for Secretary. The question of an executive head for the govern- ment was first considered; and this was a matter of considerable delicacy. The interests represented by the various inhabitants of Oregon, as has been shown, were quite distinct, and in some re- spects, were inclined to clash with each other. To choose an exec- AMERICANS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 255 utive from any one of these was calculated to array the others in either open or covert hostility to the Government. It was finally decided that it would, under the circumstances, be judicious to re- pose that authority in an Executive Committee of three persons, who should represent the strongest and most desirable interests among the various classes to be included in their jurisdiction. The Legislature adjourned after a session of three days. On the fifth of July the people again assembled at Champoeg to hear the report of the Legislative Committee, the meeting being presided over by Rev. Gustavus Hines. The Canadian citizens who signed the address spoken of above were present in force at the meeting on the second of May and participated in the proceedings, voting against organization, as has been related. Their address was not then presented, but later was placed in the hands of a sub- committee of three to whom the Legislative Committee had dele- gated the task of arranging the laws passed by them for submission to the meeting now under discussion. After examining it the com- mittee returned it to the Secretary, with instructions to file it among the public documents, as a record of the interests and persons op- posed to the organization of a government. At the meeting now being considered many of them were present and took part, ex- pressing themselves as favorably disposed towards the object sought to be obtained by the Americans. Others, however, declined to attend, and asserted that they would not submit to the authority of any government which might be organized. This was also the po- sition assumed by the Catholic Missionaries and the representatives of the Hudson's Bay Company, the latter even addressing a com- munication to the leaders of the organization movement, stating that they felt abundantly able to defend both themselves and their po- litical rights. This was the status of affairs when Mr. Hines an- nounced the meeting as prepared to hear the report of the com- mittee. The report of the committee was presented by Chairman Moore and read by the Secretary, Mr. LeBreton. The debate which fol- lowed was exceedingly animated, Mr. Hines vigorously opposing the three-fold executive head proposed by the committee. Dr. Bab- cock also opposed it on the ground that it looked too much like a permanent form of government, instead of the temporary makeshift 256 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. which he supposed was the object of the gathering. O'Neil and Shortess sustained the report, and Mr. Gray made a forcible, and, as it appears, a convincing, argument in its favor, using the follow- ing language: — Mr. President and Fellow Citizens :— The speech which we have just listened to, from our presiding officer (G. H. Hines) is in the main correct. It is true that the Legislative Committee were not instructed to bring before you an executive department in the law and government you proposed to form, when you appointed your committee to prepare these laws. It is also true that when that committee met they found that they could not advance one step in accomplishing the work you instructed them to perform, without some supervising influence some- where ; in short, without a head. Their instructions being against a governor, they have provided an Executive Committee in place of a single man for governor. The executive head is to act in place of a senate council and governor. This pro- vision is before you for your approval or rejection. With the Executive Committee our organization is complete; without it, we have no head; no one to see that our laws are executed, and no one to grant a reprieve or pardon in case the law should be enforced against the life or property of any one for the violation of any law, no matter what the circumstances connected with the real or supposed violation might be. ****** Now, fellow citizens, let us look calmly at our true situation. We are two thou- sand five hundred miles from any point from which we can receive the least assist- ance by land, and seventeen thousand miles by water. A portion of our community are organized and ready to protect themselves, and to defend all their rights and interests. Another organization of a religious character is in our midst — I should say, two. They each have a head or executive. How is it with us ? Who is our head in all that pertains to our civil liberty, rights and property? It is possible the gentleman may wish us to remain as unprotected, as helpless and exposed to all the dangers that surround us on every hand as we have heretofore been. If he does, you, fellow citizens, I am sure do not wish to add to his feebleness by destroying the organization you have commenced, .because he is afraid of what some Cassar did in Rome. We are acting for ourselves and those immediately dependent upon us for protection. In union there is strength. I believe you are fully satisfied your committee acted honorably, and, as they thought, for the good of all they repre- sented. If such is the case, you will approve of their acts, and our organization will be complete as they have prepared it for this meeting. A vote was then taken, which resulted in an almost unanimous adoption of the report. The next thing in order was the election of the necessary officers. Alanson Beers, David Hill and Joseph Gale were chosen for the Executive Committee, and thus the first regular government in Oregon was provided. That this was a movement purely American, and the government of a temporary character only, is attested by the preamble to the laws adopted, which states that: — We, the people of Oregon Territory, for the purpose of mutual protection, and to secure peace and prosperity among ourselves, agree to adopt the following laws AMERICANS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 257 and regulations, until such time as the United States of America extend their ju- risdiction over us. The following certificate was issued to the Executive Committee as a warrant of office: — This certifies that David Hill, Alanson Beers and Joseph Gale, were chosen the Executive Committee of the Territory of Oregon, by the people of said Territory, and have taken the oath for the faithful performance of the duties of their offices, as required by law. GEORGE W. LeBRETON, Becorder. Wallamet, Oregon Territory, July 5, 1843. Says Mr. Thornton, in speaking of the place where these pro- ceedings were taken: — It may not be quite uninteresting to say that the State House in which all this was done was in several respects different from that in which laws are made at Washington City. The Oregon State House was built with posts set upright, one end set in the ground, grooved on two sides, and filled in with poles and split tim- ber, such as would be suitable for fence rails, with plates and poles across the top. Rafters and horizontal poles, instead of iron ribs, held the cedar bark which was used instead of thick copper for roofing. It was twenty by forty feet, and did not therefore cover three acres and a half. At one end some puncheons were put up for a platform for the President ; some poles and slabs were placed around for seats ; three planks about one foot wide and twelve feet long, placed upon a sort of stake platform for a table, were all that was believed to be necessary for the use of the Legislative Committee and the clerks. It is due to the people who met to approve or disapprove of the acts of that committee, to say that perfect order and decorum characterized all the proceedings of July oth, 1843. The following officers, chosen at the meeting on the second of May, were continued in office until the election of their successors on the second Tuesday in May, 1844, at which time, also, a Legis- lative Committee of nine was to be chosen: A. E. Wilson, Supreme Judge; G. W. LeBreton, Clerk and Recorder; J. L. Meek, Sheriff; W. H. Willson, Treasurer; A. B. Smith, Compo, L. H. Jud- son and Hugh Burns, Magistrates; Squire Ebbetts, F. X. Matthieu and Reuben Lewis, Constables; John Howard, Major; S. Smith, C. McRoy and William McCarty, Captains. Having thus related the steps taken for the organization of a government, it is in order to consider the great immigration of 1843, which arrived a few weeks later, and created such a pre- ponderance of American sentiment that the stability of the Pro- visional Government was assured. There were, however, a few in- cidents which occurred prior to that great era in Oregon history, whose effect upon the subsequent events was extremely marked, and thus renders them of comparative importance. These relate to in- 258 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. cidents growing out of the intense competition of the opposing mis- sionaries for spiritual control of the natives. In 1841 the Catholics made proselytes of the Cascades Indians, who had formerly been under the influence of the Methodist Mission at The Dalles, com- pletely winning them away from Mr. Waller. This greatly in- tensified the existing bitterness between the religious factions. The Catholics were rapidly growing in power and influence, the Method- ists were as rapidly declining, and the missions of the American Board were making but feeble progress. Aside from the ascen- dency gradually being acquired by the Catholics, there was one peculiar reason why the Protestant missionaries lost favor with the Indians; and this was their affiliation with the American settlers, who were regarded by the natives as intruders. They did not want white people to settle here and take possession of the land over which they and their fathers had ruled for years. This feeling led the Nez Perce chief Ellis, in 1840, to forbid A. B. Smith to cultivate a patch of ground on the Alpowa. The Hudson's Bay Company en- couraged the idea among the Indians that the missions were but stepping-stones to American occupation, and this idea was supported by the conduct of those in charge , of the Methodist mission in the Willamette, which had become the general headquarters for Amer- ican settlers, as well as the energetic and prominent part taken by Dr. Whitman in bringing immigrants into Oregon. The fur com- pany had been here for years, and had not only not taken their lands, but had supplied them with a market for their furs and horses; yet the Americans, who were but newcomers, were already taking away their lands, and more arrived yearly. The outgrowth of this was a feeling of bitterness against the Americans and the Protestant missionaries, in which neither the Hudson's Bay Com- pany nor the Catholics were included; and this feeling intensified from year to year. It was manifested in 1841 by insulting and threatening conduct towards the missionaries both at Waiilatpu and Lapwai, and in 1842 this became so threatening that an effort was made to check it. Dr. Elijah White, whose arrival that fall with authority as an Indian Agent has been noted, paid a visit to the Nez Perces in November, accompanied by Thomas McKay and Mr. Archibald McKinlay, agent at Fort Walla Walla. A treaty was concluded, and the tribe adopted a system of laws, in which the AMERICANS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 259 general principles of right and justice were embodied in a form suit- able to their customs and condition. The same laws were adopted by the Wascopums, at The Dalles, but nothing was accomplished with the Cayuses. The next year Baptiste Dorion, a half-breed in- terpreter for the Hudson's Bay Company, upon his own responsibil- ity, circulated the story that the Americans were coining up in the summer to take their lands. This created great excitement anions; the tribes along the base of the Blue Mountains, and the young braves wanted to go to the Willamette at once and exterminate the settlers. They were held in check by the older ones, while Peo-peo-mux- mux, the great Walla Walla chief, went to Vancouver to investi- gate. He was informed by Dr. McLoughlin that he did not believe the Americans entertained such an idea, and his report to the tribes allayed the excitement to a certain extent. Dr. White went up in April to hold a council with the Cayuses, and they adopted the Nez Perce laws, electing Five Crows, who lived on the Umatilla not far from the site of Pendleton, as head chief. The result of this was to restore the feeling of security for a time. Several French Canadians were to have accompanied Dr. White, but were advised to remain at home by Dr. McLoughlin. This action of the Chief Factor has been severely censured and has served as an argument to prove that the Hudson's Bay Company was stirring up the Indians to drive the Americans from the country. The Amer- ican settlers had but a few days before unanimously signed a memorial to Congress, in which Dr. McLoughlin was severely cen- sured. About this time, also, Father Deiners arrived from the in- terior and informed him that the Indians were only incensed against the Boston people, and had nothing against the French and King George people; but they were determined the Bostons should not have their lands and take away their liberties. Learning that his people were in no danger, and smarting under the undeserved charges in the memorial, it is not at all unnatural that he should say: " Let the Americans take care of themselves. 1 ' It was thus matters stood when the great immigration of 1843 arrived, demon- strating to the Indians that their fears were far from groundless. CHAPTER XVI. DR. WHITMAN AND THE EMIGRATION OF 1843. What Induced the m Emigration of 181^3 — Steps Taken to Organize the Movement — Dr. Whitmans Character — His anxiety to Americanize Oregon — The Ashhurton Treaty and the Cod Fishery — Whitman's Decision to Visit Washington — The Waiilaptu Meeting — The Un- fortunate Controversy over the Services of Dr. Whitman — Gray's Walla Walla Romance — Its Absurdity Pointed Out — The Facts — Whitman and Lovejoy's Journey — Extent of Whitman's Influence in Inducing Emigration — His Visit to Washington and Boston — Organization and Journey of the Emigrants — List of Emigrants and Population of Oregon in 18^3 — Fremont's Exploring Party. IN nearly all previous writings upon this subject the emigra- tion of 1843 has been considered from the wrong end — from the Oregon end — the destination of the emigrants, instead of the Mississippi Valley, their starting point. It should be viewed from the place where the movement had its inception, to obtain a correct and adequate understanding of the subject. The great emigra- tion to Oregon that year was the result of causes which had been at work for a number of years, and was not a hasty and ill-consid- ered action of people suddenly aroused by the voice of one man, as it has too often been represented. With the diplomatic negotiations which terminated in a treaty of joint occupation; with the efforts of Hall J. Kelley and others to induce emigration to Oregon, and with the struggle made by Bon- neville, Wyeth and others to enjoy practically the theoretical bene- fits of the compromise treaty, the previous pages have dealt at length. All these had a tendency to turn the attention of the peo- ple towards this far-off land, and especially of those hardy, self-re- liant and adventuresome men who were then building up those DR. WHITMAN AND THE EMIGRATION OF FORTY-THREE. 261 powerful States which lie in the Valley of the Mississippi. They received better, more direct and more reliable information of the character and accessibility of Oregon than did the residents of the Atlantic slope, whose ideas of this region were largely formed from the depreciatory writings of English authors. As has before been said, Irving's "Astoria" and " Bonne v ill e, v Dr. Parkeifs book, the letter written in 1839 by Robert Shortess, Congressional reports and debates, and other brief publications had given those who cared to read them pretty correct ideas of Oregon. The trappers who had in person visited this region in some of their numerous journeys through the mountainous West, or had learned them from the lips of such of their companions as had done so, sang the praises of Oregon's mild climate and the beautiful Valley of the Willamette, along the whole frontier. Oregon became a familiar word in St. Louis and throughout the region bordering on the Mis- sissippi and tributary to that great center of the fur trade. The " Oregon Bills "' introduced into Congress in the fall of 1842 by Senator Linn, of Missouri, have been referred to, as well as their consignment to temporary oblivion by his death the following year. These attracted much attention along the frontier, and hundreds who had previously been deterred from following their inclination to emigrate to this land of dispute, becoming convinced that it was the intention of the Government to assert in earnest its claim to this region, and that the bill donating to each emigrant one section of land would be passed, resolved to make the hazardous journey. Said one of these, Gen. E. L. Applegate, in a recent speech: — This proposition deeply touched the heart of the western pioneer. He had probably crossed the Blue Ridge or the Cumberland Mountains when a boy, and was now in his prime. Rugged, hardy and powerful of frame, he was full to over- flowing with the love of adventure, and animated by a brave soul that scorned the very idea of fear. All had heard of the perpetually green hills and plains of West- ern Oregon, and how that the warm breath of the vast Pacific tempered the air to the genial degree and drove winter far back towards the north. Many of them contrasted in the imagination the open stretch of a mile square of rich, green and grassy land, where the strawberry plant bloomed through every winter month, with their circumscribed clearings in the Missouri Bottom. Of long winter evenings neighbors visited each other, and before the big shell-bark hickory fire, the seasoned walnut fire, the dry black jack fire, or the roaring dead elm fire, they talked these things over; and, as a natural consequence, under these favorable circumstances, the spirit of emigration warmed up ; and the "Oregon fever" became as a house- hold expression. Thus originated the vast cavalcade, or emigrant train, stretch- ing its serpentine length for miles, enveloped in the vast pillars of dust, patiently 262 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. wending its toilsome way across the American Continent. How familiar these scenes and experiences with the old pioneers ! The vast plains ; the uncountable herds of buffalo ; the swift-footed antelope; the bands of mounted, painted warriors; the rugged snow-capped mountain ranges ; the deep, swift and dangerous rivers ; the lonesome howl of the wild wolf; the midnight yell of the assaulting savage; the awful panic and stampede; the solemn and silent funeral at the dead hour of night, and the lonely and hidden graves of departed friends— what memories are associated with the "plains across ! " The first united effort was a meeting held in Alton, 111., on the eighth of November, 1842, at which were passed resolutions urging the importance of a speedy occupation of Oregon. These resolu- tions were introduced by General Semple, a prominent citizen of that State who had taken great interest in this region, and were supported by him in an eloquent speech. Another meeting was held at Springfield, the State Capital, on the fifth of the following February, which was participated in by many distinguished men of Illinois, and similar resolutions were passed. One of those present was the gifted and eloquent Col. E. D. Baker, who after- wards became a United States Senator from Oregon, and, strange to say, he was one of two gentlemen who spoke in opposition to the resolutions. The following July, several weeks after the emigra- tion had taken up its toilsome march, " a Convention of Delegates from the States and Territories of the West and Southwest" as- sembled in Cincinnati, and passed resolutions urging Congress to assei't the claim of the ' United States as far north as " fifty-four - forty "" immediately. How this became a political question the fol- lowing year, will be made clear in the next chapter. In these various ways quite an interest was stirred up in the Mississippi States, during the winter, and it became generally un- derstood, and was so announced by the few papers printed along the border, that a large emigration would start for Oregon the fol- lowing spring, rendezvousing at Independence, Missouri. It is now that Dr. Whitman appears upon the scene, and to ex- plain his sudden entre it is necessary to relate incidents occurring in Oregon the summer and fall previous. Although, for geographical reasons, he did not participate in the various efforts of the settlers in the Willamette Valley to form a Provisional Government, his heart was in the movement. He was the most keenly alive to the necessities of the hour, and more watchful of the true interests of the Americans than even the most prominent actors in the govern- DR. WHITMAN AND THE EMIGRATION OF FORTY-THREE. 263 mental agitation. He was a true American, jealous of his country's honor and zealous to promote her interests. His faith in the future — the American future — of Oregon was unbounded, and his mind penetrated the misty veil with prophetic power. As early as 1838 an incident occurred which revealed his abiding faith in the destiny of Oregon. Dr. William C. McKay relates an anecdote which is of importance to show Whitman's ideas on this subject at that early day. His father, Thomas McKay, decided to send him to Scotland to be educated, and with this end in view they started up the Columbia. Whitman and McKay being w r arm friends, they decided to spend a few days at Waiilatpu, where they were to separate, William to accompany the annual Montreal express by the Manitoba route, and his father to proceed to Fort Hall, where he was the company's agent. Dr. Whitman urged McKay to send his son to the United States to be educated. "Make an American of him," said he, "for this country will surely belong to the Ameri- cans." McKay was convinced, and William's route was changed from Manitoba to the Fcrt Hall trail. He went to Fairfield, N. Y., and entered the same school at which Dr. Whitman was edu- cated, returning to Oregon a few years later as a medical practi- tioner. Several other incidents, the details of which it is needless to relate, confirm the statement that the Doctor was a true, zealous, watchful and energetic guardian of American interests in Oregon. When Governor Simpson visited this region in the fall of 1841, followed a few days later by the immigrants from Red River, whose arrival has been previously noted, Dr. Whitman, with his acute per- ceptive qualities, in a measure defined the intentions of the company. He realized with the convincing force of a revelation, that nothing but a great and unexpected influx of American immigrants could thwart the deep-laid plans of the great corporation. He became restless and anxious. It seemed to him that it was necessary for some one to return to the States and arouse the people and the Government to the exigencies of the hour. Procrastination was dangerous and supine inaction was fatal; yet his missionary work was a charge upon his mind which could not be lightly shaken off. When the immigration of 1842 arrived, as has been related, many of them camped for a time in the vicinity of the mission. Among these was A. Lawrence Lovejoy, with whom Whitman frequently 264 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. and earnestly conversed on the subject of Oregon and events and opinions in the East affecting it. He learned that Lord Ashburton, an embassador of Great Britain, was even then in Washington ne- gotiating for a settlement of the boundary line between Canada and the United States; and naturally supposing that in this the Oregon Question was involved, he became convinced that it was his duty to proceed to Washington with all dispatch possible, and enlighten the Government upon the subject, knowing full well that the value of this magnificent region was not in the least realized by the author- ities or the people generally. It has been frequently stated that the Government was considering a proposition made by Lord Ashbur- ton to abandon all claim to Oregon, in consideration of certain fish- ing privileges on the Atlantic coast of British America, and that this intelligence was conveyed to Whitman by Love joy. How this took its rise it is impossible to ascertain, as all efforts to trace it to a source have been futile. Lovejoy does not say so in his account of these events; no one has testified that Whitman ever made such an asser- tion, and it seems utterly without foundation. The records of the State Department do not disclose any such negotiations; they were publically and emphatically denied by Daniel Webster, through whom, as Secretary of State, the negotiations were conducted, and, finally, the Oregon Question was not included in the negotiations at all, which had sole reference to the unsettled boundary line further east. To be sure it is now claimed — and it was not so at first — that this portion of the negotiations was secret and confiden- tial; but if such was the case it becomes still more incumbent upon those who make the assertion to produce some kind of evidence which will weigh against the positive denial of one of the principal actors. No such evidence has ever been produced, and it rests solely upon unsupported assertion. It is evident that the cod fishery episode, with all the changes that have been rung upon it by dra- matically disposed writers and enthusiastic speakers, is utterly with- out foundation. As it was, however, Whitman decided that his duty to his country was paramount to his duty to the American Board, and he determined to return East. About this time, probably at the hands of the emigrants, Whitman received notice from the Board that it had decided to discontinue the missions, which were very expensive DR. WHITMAN AND THE EMIGRATION OF FORTY-THREE. 265 and were making unsatisfactory progress, and though this, proba- bly, had something to do with his determination to go East, his conduct while there shows this consideration to have been a second- ary one. He summoned his associates from the Lapwai and Tshiin- akain missions, to consult in regard to the matter. Spalding, Gray, Eells and Walker promptly responded to the call, and when the Doctor laid before them the plan he had formed, they opposed it unanimously. To their objection that politics should not be per- mitted to interfere with missionary work, he replied that his first duty was to his country, and if necessary to choose between the two he would resign his mission. Knowing his inflexible character and deep convictions of duty, they dared no longer oppose him for fear of losing the master spirit of then mission. Says Mr. Eells: "We yielded only when it became evident that he would go, even if he had to become disconnected with the mission in order to do so." Whitman was accordingly officially delegated to proceed to Boston to transact business pertaining to the missions, and the various mis- sionaries departed to their several stations to prepare reports and letters for him to take, the date of his departure being fixed at the fifth of October. This was done in order to conceal the real object of such an unprecedented undertaking — a winter journey across the mountains. An official record of this meeting was kept, upon the face of which appeared only the proceedings which had reference to missionary work. This was destroyed at the time of the Whitman Massacre, but its loss is immaterial, except that it would determine the date of the meeting. As to the nature of the proceedings, there is sufficient reliable oral testimony to settle that beyond dispute. Mr. Eells, whose word no one who knew him would ever question, says the meeting was held in September. He adds: "After an extended discussion, it was voted unanimouslv that Dr. Whitman have the approval of the mission to attempt to make the journey as hereinbefore indicated. The controlling object was to make a des- perate attempt to save the country to the United States. It was also expected that the opportunity would be improved for the transaction of business relating to the mission. The fifth of the the following October was set as the day on which Dr. Whitman would start. Letters were to be prepared and forwarded accord- 266 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. ingly. Probably events transpiring in the intervening time hastened his departure, so that he left on the third of October." This feature of Oregon history has been the subject of much lit- erary controversy. No one can have read the preceding pages with- out having become convinced of the sterling integrity, firmness of purpose and energy of action of Dr. Whitman. His character and services to the American cause entitle him to the first place among those whose memory the citizens of Oregon should ever revere, and whom all true Americans should honor; yet zealous friends have in their eagerness to place laurels on his brow, claimed for him more than he ever would have sanctioned or permitted had he not fallen before the treacherous blows of ungrateful savages. In their zeal they have allowed their imaginations to take too lofty flights and have wandered too far into the realms of romance. That most of these have been absolutely sincere, their sympathies, perhaps, being somewhat too deeply stirred by denominational influences, is beyond question; yet so much can not be said of the author of the ques- tionable story upon which has been laid the foundation of their claims, who, apparently, was actuated by the desire to shine in the reflected light which would naturally fall upon him as an asso- ciate with the martyred missionary in his early labors among the Indians. In this he overshot the mark, and drew down upon him- self the vigorous criticism of those who, wishing not to in the least detract from the just merits of Dr. Whitman, earnestly desired that the actual facts only should find a place in recorded history. It is to be regretted that certain writers have been led by their disbelief in this romance to take the negative throughout, and not only deny Dr. Whitman any honor whatever, but even accuse him of deceit- ful, treacherous and selfish conduct. Such writers are open to the same charge of prejudice and unfairness which they lay at the door of the author of this unfortunate controversy. Well might Dr. Whitman exclaim — with others whose reputation has been jeopard- ized by mistaken zeal — "Save me from my friends!" The contro- versy has not been without its benefits. It has settled beyond dispute in the minds of those who have given the subject a just and careful consideration, the permanent and exalted position Dr. Whitman must ever occupy in the annals of Oregon. To establish this the romance was unnecessary, yet as it has been widely circulated, and DR. WHITMAN AND THE EMIGRATION OF FORTY-THREE. 267 finds a place in a number of historical sketches and ostensible histories of Oregon, it becomes necessary to relate it, together with the few simple, undeniable facts which refute it. This ro- mance was not the production of Mr. Eells. That gentleman never unchained his fancy when relating facts. He would not un- dertake the hazardous feat of reproducing the exact language used by several people in a conversation occurring thirty years before, at which he was not present, and with the bare substance of which he could alone be acquainted. That such was attempted indicates how little the necessity of adhering to the exact facts weighed upon the mind of the author of the romance. It was first given to the world in Gray's " History of Oregon," published a number of years ago by William H. Gray, whose intense Americanism and bitter antagonism to the Hudson's Bay Company led him to take the prominent and leading part we have just seen he acted in the or- ganization of the Provisional Government, and which, becoming in- tensified and more firmly settled as the years rolled by, rendered him incompetent to form an unprejudiced opinion or do justice to those to whom he was instinctively opposed. The work referred to contains the following paragraph: — In September, 1842, Dr. Whitman was called to visit a patient at old Fort Walla Walla. While there a number of boats of the Hudson's Bay Company, with sev- eral chief traders and Jesuit priests, on their way to the interior of the country, arrived. While at dinner, the overland express from Canada arrived, bringing news that the emigration from the Red River settlement was at Colville. This news excited universal joy among the guests. One of them, a young priest, sang out: "Hurrah for Oregon, America is too late; we have got the country !" "Now the Americans may whistle; the country is ours!" said another. Whitman learned that the company had arranged for these Red River English settlers to £onie on to settle in Oregon, and at the same time Governor Simpson was to go to Washington and secure the settlement of the question as to the boundaries, on the ground of the most numerous and permanent settlement in the country. The Doctor was taunted with the idea that no power could prevent this result, as no information could reach Washington in time to prevent it. " It shall be prevented, 11 said the Doctor, "if I have to go to Washington myself." " But you can not go there to do it," was the taunting reply of the Briton. ''I will see, 11 was the Doctor's reply. The reader is sufficiently acquainted with the history of this man's toil and labor in bringing his first wagon through to Fort Boise, to understand what he meant when he said, "I will see. 11 Two hours after this conversation at, the fort, he dismounted from his horse at Lis door at Waiilatpu. I saw in a moment that he was fixed on some im- portant object or errand. He soon explained that a special effort must be made to save the country from becoming British territory. Everything was in the best of order about the station, and there seemed to be no important reason why he should not go. A. L. Lovejoy, Esq., had a few days before arrived with the immigration. 268 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. It was proposed that he should accompany the Doctor, which he consented to do, and in twenty-four hours' time they were well mounted and on their way to the States. Though its melodramatic style at once stamps it as a piece of fiction, it is as well to point out the certain evidences of its inac- curacy. First — The Red 'River emigration came in the year be- fore, as has already been related, and there were no emigrants from that region in 1842. Second — Archibald McKinlay, the gentleman in charge of Fort Walla Walla and a warm personal friend of Dr. Whitman, not only indignantly denies the imputation that he would permit him to be thus insulted while his guest, but states that there was no one at the fort at the time of the visit referred to except the half dozen regular attaches, and that the Montreal express did not arrive until two weeks after Whitman's departure for the East, during which time Mrs. Whitman was a guest at the fort, proceed- ing to Vancouver under the protection of the express brigade. Third — Whitman's resolution to go East, as has been amply shown above, was not a suddenly conceived one, as Gray asserts, but was the result of long consideration and deliberate decision, the exact day having been fixed for his departure prior to this visit to Walla Walla, as Gray must have known, since he had participated in the meeting at Waiilaptu. No news had come overland from the East except such as the American emigrants had brought, and of this Whitman was thoroughly informed before he went to Walla Walla. To meet this objection the adherents to Gray's version have of late dropped the Canada express, and put the intelligence which created such a scene of joy in the mouths of the brigade referred to as going up the river; but they omit to state from what source this party derived its gratifying information. Some of them are also equally as reckless as the author of the fiction in the line of attempting to relate the exact language employed by Whitman and the enthusi- siastic Briton. It is needless to remark that they all succeed in placing different words in the mouths of the principal actors in the scene portrayed. Let us return to the domain of facts. Whitman did pay a visit to Fort Walla Walla, his object in doing so being variously stated by persons then at Waiilatpu. Some say that he went as a physician to render professional service to a sick person; but Dr. Geiger, who, at the request of Whitman, had consented to DR. WHITMAN AND THE EMIGRATION OF FORTY-THREE. 269 remain in charge of the mission during the Doctor's absence in the East, states that it was to interview his friend McKinlay in regard to the situation. Nothing remarkable occurred, but the visit whet- ted Whitman's anxiety to depart, and as the papers from Lapwai and Tshimikain had been received, he decided to start at once and not wait until the day previously decided upon, thus saving two days at the beginning of his journey. On the third of October, 1842, Whitman and Lovejoy turned their backs upon Oregon and entered boldly upon a journey they knew would be attended with hardships and suffering such as they had never before experienced. The only records of this memorable journey are a letter by Mr. Love- joy detailing the incidents of the trip across the mountains, and de- tached and fragmentary statements by several gentlemen who claim to have conversed with Whitman on the subject, by emigrants who saw him in the train in 1843, and by several parties who saw him in the East, at St. Louis, Washington and Boston. From the noble martyr himself there comes no word, save a letter written while at St. Louis the following spring, which incontestably establishes the fact that he was doing his utmost to promote a large emigration and to be of personal assistance to the emigrants. From these are gleaned the following facts, ones which no reasonable person will dispute. Of that memorable journey Lovejoy's letter says: — We left Waiilatpu October 3, 1842, traveled rapidly, reached Fort Hall in eleven days, remained two days to recruit and make a few purchases. The Doctor engaged a guide and we left for Fort Wintee. We changed from a direct route to one more southern, through the Spanish country via Salt Lake, Taos and Santa Fe. On our way from Fort Hall to Fort Wintee we had terribly severe weather. The snows retarded our progress and blinded the trail so we lost much time. After arriving at Fort Wintee and making some purchases for our trip, we took a new guide and started for Fort Uncumpagra, situated on the waters of Grand River, in the Spanish country. Here our stay was very short. We took a new guide and started for Taos. After being out some four or five days we encountered a terrific snow storm, which forced us to take shelter in a deep ravine, where we remained snowed in for four days, at which time the storm had somewhat abated, and we attempted to make our way out upon high lands, but the snow was so deep and the winds so piercing and cold we were compelled to return to camp and wait a few days for a change of weather. Our next effort to reach the high lands was more successful ; but after spending several days wandering around in the snow without making much head- way, our guide told us that the deep snow had so changed the face of the country that he was completely lost and could take us no further. This was a terrible blow to the Doctor, but he was determined not to give it up without another effort. We at once agreed that the Doctor should take the guide and return to Fort Uncumpagra and get a new guide, and I remain in camp with the animals until he could return ; which he did in seven days with our new guide, and we were now on our route 270 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. again. Nothing of much import occurred but hard and slow traveling through deep snow until we reached Grand River, which was frozen on either side about one-third across. Although so intensely cold, the current was so very rapid about one-third of the river in the center was not frozen. Our guide thought it would be dangorous to attempt to cross the river in its present condition, but the Doctor, nothing daunted, was the first to take the water. He mounted his horse; the guide and myself shoved the Doctor and his horse off the ice into the foaming stream. Away he went, completely under water, horse and all, but directly came up, and after buffeting the rapid, foaming current, he reached the ice on the opposite shore, a long way down the stream. He leaped from his horse upon the ice and soon had his noble animal by his side. The guide and myself forced in the pack animals and followed the Doctor's example, and were soon on the opposite shore drying our frozen clothes by a comfortable fire. We reached Taos in about thirty days, suffering greatly from cold and scarcity of provisions. We were compelled to use mule meat, dogs, and such other animals as came in our reach. We remained at Taos a few days only, and started for Bent's and Savery's Fort, on the head waters of the Arkansas River. When we had been out some fifteen or twenty days, we met George Bent, a brother of Governor Bent, on his way to Taos. He told us that a party of mountain men would leave Bent's Fort in a few days for St. Louis, but said we would not reach the fort with our pack animals in time to join the party. The Doctor being very anxious to join the party so he could push on as rapidly as possible to Washington, concluded to leave myself and the guide with the animals, and he himself takjpg the best animal with some bedding and a small allowance of provisions, started alone, hoping by rapid traveling to reach the fort in time to join the St. Louis party, but to do so he would have to travel on the Sabbath, some- thing he had not done before. Myself and the guide traveled on slowly, and reached the fort in four days, but imagine our astonishment when on making inquiry about the Doctor we were told that he had not arrived nor had he been heard of. I learned that the party for St. Louis was camped at the Big Cottonwood, forty miles from the fort, and at my request Mr. Savery sent an express, telling the party not to proceed any further until we learned something of Dr. Whitman's whereabouts, as he wished to accompany them to St. Louis. Being furnished by the gentlemen of the fort with a suitable guide, I started in search of the Doctor, and traveled up the river about one hundred miles. I learned from the Indians that a man had been there who was lost and was trying to find Bent's Fort. They said they had directed him to go down the river and how to find the fort. I knew fronl their description it was the Doctor. I returned to the fort as rapidly as possible, but the Doctor had not arrived. We had all become very anxious about him. Late in the afternoon he came in very much fatigued and desponding; said that he knew that God had bewildered him to punish him for traveling on the Sabbath. During the whole trip he was very regular in his morning and evening devotions, and that was the only time I ever knew him to travel on the Sabbath. Whitman at once pushed on with the mountaineers, leaving Lovejoy at Bent's Fort, and reached St. Louis in February. There he inquired eagerly about the status of negotiations on the Oregon Question, and learned that the Ash burton- Webster treaty had been signed on the ninth of the preceding August, been ratified by the Senate, and had been proclaimed by the President on the tenth of November. He was too late by more than three months to have prevented the treaty; but his journey was not in vain, for the DR. WHITMAN AND THE EMIGRATION OF FORTY-THREE. 27l Oregon boundary had not been included in the treaty, had not even been discussed, in fact, as appears from Mr. Webster's speeches and correspondence. This intelligence brought relief to the Doctor's overwrought feelings. There was still an opportunity for him to accomplish his purpose He found great preparations being made all along the frontier to emigrate to the Willamette Valley, as has been previously shown, notwithstanding the prevailing opinion that wagons could not proceed beyond Fort Hall. He immediately wrote a small pamphlet describing Oregon and the nature of the route thither, urging the people to emigrate and assuring them that wagons could o-o through, and that he would ioin them and be their pilot. This pamphlet and his earnest personal appeals were effica- cious in adding somewhat to the number of emigrants, though it is a fact that probably the greater portion of those who started from the border of Missouri in May never heard of Dr. Whitman until he joined them on the route. That Whitman's efforts added some- what to the number of emigrants is true, but that he initiated the movement, or even contributed largely to it, does not appear. He was too late for that ; the movement w r as well under way before his arrival. After writing, his pamphlet his next anxiety was to reach Wash- ington before Congress adjourned, so that he might have an oppor- tunity to meet Congressmen and urge upon them the claims of Oregon. He did not undertake to change his apparel, which is thus described by Dr. William Barrows, who met him in St. Louis: " The Doctor was in coarse fur garments and vesting, and buckskin breeches. He wore a buffalo coat, with a head-hood for emergen- cies in taking a storm or a bivouac nap. What with heavy fur leggins and boot moccasins, his legs filled up well his Mexican stir- rups. With all this warmth and almost burden of skin and fur clothing, he bore the marks of the irresistible cold and merciless storms of his journey. His fingers, ears, nose and feet had been frost-bitten, and were giving him much trouble." Such was Whitman in St. Louis, and such was he on the third of March when he appeared in Washington, having previously visited Ithica, New York, to obtain the co-operation of Dr. Samuel Parker, his first missionary associate, and still later in Boston, where he treated the rebukes of the officials of the American Board with 272 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. a quiet contempt that astonished them. He found the ideas of Oregon prevailing at Washington to be far different from those ex- isting on the frontier. Public men possessed but a faint idea of the extent and nature of the vast area beyond the Rocky Mountains, deeming it a region of sterile soil and inhospitable climate. Since Lewis and Clarke had subsisted upon dog meat, and Hunt's party had endured such terrible privations in passing through it, the country lying between the Cascades and Rocky Mountains had been known as the " Great American Desert," and deemed fit only for the abode of migratory trappers and famine -afflicted savages. A year later, during a discussion of the Oregon Question in Congress, a speaker advanced this idea in the following language: "With the exception of the land along the Willamette and along a few of the water courses, the whole country is among the most irreclaima- ble, barren wastes of which we have read, except the desert of Sa- hara. Nor is this the worst of it — the climate is so unfriendly to human life that the native population has dwindled away under the ravages of its malaria to a degree which defies all history to furnish a parallel in so wide a range of country." To demonstrate the error of this idea, and that Oregon could be populated by emi- gration from the East, was Whitman's task. He had numerous in- terviews with public men, including President Tyler and Secretary Webster, in which he urged upon them the importance of securing as much of that indefinite region known as " Oregon " as possible, declaring that, so far was it from being a sterile waste, its agricul- tural and timber resources were unbounded. He called their atten- tion to the large emigration already preparing, and confidently de- clared that he was able to, and would, guide them through by a route over which wagons could travel to the Willamette. His earnest protestations made a deep impression upon many, especially President Tyler, and he was assured that if he could thus demon- strate the practicability of colonizing Oregon by emigration across the Rocky Mountains, it would have a powerful effect upon the solution of the vexed Oregon Question. The same writers, whose tendency toward romancing has been pointed out above, have allowed their imaginations too much liberty in their relation of the incidents connected with Whitman's visit to Washington. Nothing more is known of what occurred there than the crude facts just re- DR. WHITMAN AND THE EMIGRATION OF FORTY- THREE. 273 lated ; and yet these writers undertake to state the exact language employed by Dr. Whitman, President Tyler, Secretary Webster, and others. Those words were never recorded, nor do these writers lay claim to direct information from the men who uttered them, and common regard for the purity of historical statements should cause them to refrain from any such clairvoyant efforts. When Whitman had accomplished the main object of his journey at Washington, he proceeded to Boston to attend to the official business which had been the ostensible cause of his visit. This was so unimportant that the officers of the Board rebuked him for leav- ing his mission upon such a trivial pretext; but he shamed them into silence by treating their officious chidings with lofty contempt. He then proceeded to his home, and, after spending a few days there, hastened to the frontier to join the emigrants, some of whom had already started and whom he did not overtake until they had reached the Platte, his appearance among them at that time being the first knowledge a majority of them had that such a man as Dr. Whitman was in existence. The circumstances attending the final starting of the emigrants, are thus related by Gen. J. W. Nesmith: — Without orders from any quarter, and without preconcert, promptly as the grass began to start, the emigrants began to assemble near Independence, at a place called Fitzhugh's Mill. On the seventeenth day of May, 1843. notices were circulated through the different encampments that on the succeeding day, those who contem- plated emigrating to Oregon, would meet at a designated point to organize. Promptly at the appointed hour the motley groups assembled. They consisted of peo- ple from all the States and Territories, and nearly all nationalities ; the most, how- ever, from Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, and all strangers to one another, but impressed with some crude idea that there existed an imperative necessity for some kind of an organization for mutual protection against the hostile Indians inhabiting the great unknown wilderness stretching away to the shores of the Pacific, and which they were about to traverse with their wives and children, household goods, and all their earthly possessions. Many of the emigrants were from the western tier of counties of Missouri, known as the Platte Purchase, and among them was Peter H. Burnett, a former merchant, who had abandoned the yard-stick and become a lawyer of some celeb- rity for his ability as a smooth-tongued advocate. He subsequently emigrated to California, and was elected the first Governor of the Golden State, was afterward Chief Justice, and still an honored resident of that State. Mr. Burnett, or as he was familiarly designated, "Pete," was called upon for a speech. Mounting a log, the glib-tongued orator delivered a glowing, florid address. He commenced by showing his audience that the then western tier of States and Territories was over- crowded with a redundant population, who had not sufficient elbow room for the expansion of their enterprise and genius, and it was a duty they owed to them- selves and posterity to strike out in search of a more expanded field and more genial climate, where the soil yielded the richest return for the slightest amount of 274 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. cultivation, where the trees were loaded with perennial fruit, and where a good sub- stitute for bread, called La Camash, grew in the ground, salmon and other fish crowded the streams, and where the principal labor of the settler would be confined to keeping their gardens free from the inroads of buffalo, elk, deer and wild turkeys. He appealed to our patriotism by picturing forth the glorious empire we would establish on the shores of the Pacific. How, with our trusty rifles, we would drive out the British usurpers who claimed the soil, and defend the country from the avarice and pretensions of the British lion, and how posterity would honor us for placing the fairest portion of our land under the dominion of the stars and stripes. He concluded with a slight allusion to the trials and hardships incident to the trip, and dangers to be encountered from hostile Indians on the route, and those inhabit- ing the country whither we were bound. He furthermore intimated a desire to look upon the tribe of noble "red men" that the valiant and well-armed crowd around him could not vanquish in a single encounter. Other speeches were made, full of glowing descriptions of the fair land of prom- ise, the far-away Oregon, which no one in the assemblage had ever seen, and of which not more than half a dozen had ever read any account. After the election of Mr. Burnett as captain, and other necessary officers, the meeting, as motley and primitive a one as ever assembled, adjourned, with "three cheers" for Captain Burnett and Oregon. On the 20th day of May, 1843, after a pretty thorough mili- tary organization, we took up our line of march, with Captain John Gantt, an old army officer, who combined the character of trapper and mountaineer, as our guide. Gantt had in his wanderings been as far as Green River, and assured us of the practicability of a wagon road thus far. Green River, the extent of our guide's knowledge in that direction, was not half-way to the Willamette Valley, the then only inhabited portion of Oregon. Beyond that we had not the slightest conject- ure of the condition of the country. We went forth trusting to the future, and would doubtless have encountered more difficulties than we experienced had not Dr. Whitman overtaken us before we reached the terminus of our guide's knowl- edge. He was familiar with the whole route and was confident that wagons could pass through the canyons and gorges of Snake River and over the Blue Mountains, which the mountaineers in the vicinity of Fort Hall declared to be a physical impossibility. Captain Grant, then in charge of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Hall, endeavored to dissuade us from proceeding further with our wagons, and showed us the wagons that the emigrants of the preceding year had abandoned, as an evi- dence of the impracticability of our determination. Dr. Whitman was persistent in his assertions that wagons could proceed as far as the Grand Dalles of the Colum- bia River, from which point he asserted they could be taken down by rafts or batteaux to the Willamette Valley, while our stock could be driven by an Indian trail over the Cascade Mountains, near Mount Hood. Happily Whitman's ad- vice prevailed, and a large number of the wagons with a portion of the stock, did reach Walla Walla and The Dalles, from which points they were taken to the Willamette the following year. Had we followed Grant's advice and abandoned the cattle and wagons at Fort Hall, much suffering must have ensued, as a sufficient number of horses to carry the women and children of the party could not have been obtained, besides wagons and cattle were indispensable to men expecting to live by farming in a country destitute of such articles. At Fort Hall we fell in with some Cayuse and Nez Perce Indians returning from the buffalo country, and as it was necessary for Dr. Whitman to precede us to Walla Walla, he recommended to us a guide in the person of an old Cayuse Indian called " Sticcus." He was a faithful old fellow, perfectly familiar with all the trails and topography of the country from Fort Hall to The Dalles, and although not DR. WHITMAN AND THE EMIGKATION OF FORTY -THREE. 275 speaking a word of English, and no one in our party a word of Cayuse, he suc- ceeded by pantomime in taking us over the roughest wagon route I ever saw. This is a glowing tribute to the energy, determination and patri- otic zeal of the one man to whom is due the honor of clearly demon- strating to the world the often -denied fact that there was a practicable route into Oregon for the white -topped wagon of the emigrant. A score of other intelligent gentlemen have testified to the same effect, but it is obviously unnecessary to give more than a bare mention of the fact. The following list contains the names of every male member of that great train over the age of sixteen years. It was prepared by J. W. Nesmith when the train was organized, and was preserved among his papers for a third of a century before given for publica- tion. All reached the Willamette Valley, except a few, the excep- tions being designated by marks and foot notes: — Applegate, Jesse Applegate, Charles Applegate, Lindsay Athey, James Athey, William Atkinson, John* Arthur, Wm. Arthur, Robert Arthur, David Butler, Anion Brooke, George Burnett. Peter H. Bird, David Brown, Thomas A. Blevins, Alexander Brooks, John P. Brown, Martin Brawn. Oris Black, J. P. Bane, Lay ton Baker, Andrew Baker, John G. Beagle, William Boyd, Levy Baker, William Biddle, Nicholasj Beale, George Braidy, James Beadle, George Boardman, * Baldridge, Wm. Cason, F. C. Cason, James Chapman, Wm. Cox, John Champ, Jacob Cooper, L. C. Cone, James Childers, Moses Carey, Miles Cochran, Thomas Clymour, L. Copenhaver, John Caton, J. H. Chappel, Alfred Cronin, Daniel Cozine, Samuel Costable, Benedict Childs, Joseph* Clark, Ransom Campbell, John G. Chapman, Chase, James Dodd, Solomon Dement, Wm. C. Dougherty, W. P. Day, Williamf Duncan, James Dorin, Jacob Davis, Thomas Delany, Daniel Delany, Daniel, Jr. Delany, William Doke, W T illiarn Davis, J. H. Davis, Burrell Dailey, George Doherty, John Dawson, * Eaton, Charles Eaton, Nathan Etchell, James Emerick, Solomon Eaker, John W. Edson, E. G. Eyres, Milesf East, John W. Evermah, Niniwon Ford, Nineveh Ford, Ephriam Ford, Nimrod Ford, John Francis, Alexander} Frazier, Abner Frazier, Wm. Fowler, Wm. Fowler, Wm. J. Fowler, Henry Fairly, Stephen Fendall, Charles Gantt, John* Gray, Chiley B. Garrison, Enoch Garrison, J. W. Garrison, W. J. Gardner, Samuel Gardner, Wm. Gilmore, Mat, Goodman, Richard. Gilpin, Major J* Gray, i* Haggard, B. Hide, H. H. Holmes, Wm. Holmes, Riley A. Hobson, John Hobson, Wm. Hembree, Andrew Hembree, J. J. Hembree, James Hembree, A. J. Hall, Samuel B. Houk, James Hughes, Wm. P. Hendrick, Abijah Hays, James * Turned off at Fort Hall and went to California. t Died on the route. J Turned back at the Platte. 276 HISTOET OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Hensley, Thomas J. Holley, B. Hunt, Henry Holderness, S. M. Hutchins, Isaac Husted, A. Hess, Joseph Haun, Jacob Howell, John Howell, Wm. Howell, Wesley Howell, G. W. Howell, Thomas E. Hill, Henry Hill, William Hill, Almoran Hewett Henry Hargrove, Wm. Hoyt, A. Holman, John Holman, Daniel Harrigas, B. James, Calvin Jackson, John B. Jones, John Johnson, Overton Keyser, Thomas Keyser, J. B. Keyser, Plasant Kelley, Kelsey, Lovejoy, A. L. Lenox, Edward Lenox, E. Layson, Aaron Looney, Jesse Long, John E. Lee, H. A. G. Lugur, F.J Linebarger, Lew Linebarger, John Las well, Isaac Loughborough, J.J Little, Milton* Luther, *Lauderdale, John McGee, * Martin, Wm. J.* Martin, James Martin, Julius* McClelland, — * McClelland, F * Mills, John B. Mills, Isaac Mills, Wm. A. Mills, Owen McGarey, G. W. Mondon, Gilbert Matheny, Daniel Matheny, Adam Matheny, J. N. Matheny, Josiah Matheny, Henry Mastire, A. J. McHaley, John Myers, Jacob Manning, John Manning, James McCarver, M. M. McCorcle, George Mays, William Millican, Elijah McDaniel, William McKissic, D. Malone, Madison McClane, John B. Mauzee, William Mclntire, John* Moore, JacksonJ Matney, W. J. Nesmith, J. W. Newby, W. T. Newman, Noah Naylor, Thomas Osborn, Neil O'Brien, Hugh D. O'Brien, Humphrey Owen, Thomas A. Owen, Thomas Otie, E. W. Otie, M. B. O'Neil, Bennett dinger, A. Parker, Jesse Parker, William Pennington, J. B. Poe, R H. Paynter, Samuel Patterson, J. R. Pickett, Charles E. Prigg, Frederick Paine, Claybornf Reading, P. B.* Rodgers, S. P. Rodgers, G. W. Russell, William Roberts, James Rice, G. W. Richardson, John Stevenson, Story, James Swift, _ _ Shively, John M. Shirly, Samuel Stoughton, Alex. Spencer, Chancey Strait, Hiram Summers, George Stringer, Cornelius Stringer, C. W.f Tharp, Lindsey Thompson, John Trainor, D. Teller, Jeremiah Tar box, Stephen Umnicker, John Vance, Samuel Vaughn, William Richardson, Danielf Vernon, George Ruby, Philip Ricord, John Reid, Jacob Roe, John Roberts, Solomon Roberts, Emseley Rossin, Joseph Rivers, Thomas Smith, Thomas H. Smith, Thomas Smith, Isaac W. Smith, Anderson Smith, Ahi Smith, Robert Smith, Eli Sheldon, William Stewart, P. G. Wilmont, James Wilson, Wm. H. Wair, J. W. Winkle, Archibald Williams, Edward Wheeler, H. Wagoner, John Williams, Benjamin Williams, David Wilson, Wm. Williams, John* Williams, James* Williams, Squire* Williams, Isaac* Ward, T. B. White, James Watson, Jno. (Betty) Sutton, Dr. Nathan '1 Waters, James Stimmerman, C. Sharp, C. Summers, W. C. Sewell, Henry Stout, Henry Sterling, George Stout, Winter, Wm. Waldo, Daniel Waldo, David Waldo, William Zachary, Alexander Zachary, John There were in Oregon at the time the train arrived, the follow- ing individuals, a few names, possibly, having been omitted from the list: — * Turned off at Fort Hall and went to California. f Died on the route. i Turned back at the Platte. AMERICANS ORGANIZE A PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 277 Armstrong, Pleasant Burns, Hugh Brown, Brown, William Brown, Black, J. M. Baldro, Balis, James Bailey, Dr. Brainard, Crawford, Medorem Carter, David Campbell, Samuel Campbell, Jack Craig, Wni. Cook, Amos Cook, Aaron Connor, Cannon, William Davy, Allen Doty, William Eakin, Richard Ebbetts, Squire Edwards, John Foster, Philip Force, John Force, James Fletcher, Francis Gay, George Gale Joseph Girtman, Hathaway, Felix Hatch, Peter H. Hubbard, Thomas J Hewitt, Adam Horegon, Jeremiah Holman, Joseph Hall, David Hoxhurst, Weberly Hutchinson, Johnson, William King, Kelsey, Lewis, Reuben LeBreton, G, W. Larrison, Jack Meek, Joseph L. Matthieu, F. X. McClure, John Moss, S. W. Moore, Robert McFadden, McCarty, William McKay, Charles McKay, Thomas McKay, William C Morrison, Mack, J. W. Newbanks, Newell, Robert O'Xeil, James A. Pettygrove, F. W. Pomeroy, Dwight Pomeroy, Walter Perry, Rimmick, Russell, Osborn Robb, J. R. Shortess, Robert Smith, Sidney Smith, Smith, Andrew Smith, Andrew, Jr. Smith, Darling Spence, Sailor, Jack Turnham, Joel Turner, John Taylor, Hiram Tibbetts, Calvin Trask, Walker, C. M. Warner, Jack Wilson, A. E. Winslow, David Wilkins, Caleb Wood, Henry Williams, B. In addition to the above were the following gentlemen con- nected with the various Protestant missions: — Abernethy, George Babcock, Dr. J. L. Beers, Alanson Brewer, Eells, C. Gray, W. H. Hines, Gustavus Judson, L. H. Leslie, David Parrish, J. L. Perkins, H. K. W. Raymond, H. W. Spalding, W. H. Waller, A. F. Walker, E. Whitman, Dr. M. White, Dr. Elijah W T illson, Wm. H. Campbell, Hamilton Lee, Jason Clark, Harvey In addition to these were some fifty former employees of the Hudson's Bay Company, nearly all of whom had settled on French Prairie, and a number of priests connected with the Catholic mission, making a total male population at the close of the year 1843 of about four hundred and thirty, exclusive of the officers and actual servants of the Hudson's Bay Company. Following in the wake of the emigrants came the party of Lieu- tenant John C. Fremont, who had explored the Rocky Mountains the year before, and who had been this season dispatched by the Government upon an official tour of exploration to the Pacific. After spending a few days at Vancouver, he passed south, crossed the Cascades to Eastern Oregon, continued south into Nevada, and in January, 1844, crossed the snowy summit of the Sierra Nevadas to Sutter's Fort in Sacramento Valley. The title of u Pathfinder " was bestowed upon him, though he was guided nearly everywhere 278 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. by mountain men who were familiar with the country, and found the route to Oregon plainly marked by the emigrants' wagon wheels. On this subject Mr. Nesmith says: — In the Eastern States, I have often been asked how long it was after Fremont discovered Oregon that I emigrated there. It is true that in the year 1843, Fre- mont, then a Lieutenant in the Engineer Corps, did cross the plains, and brought his party to The Dalles, and visited Vancouver to procure supplies. I saw him on the plains, though he reached The Dalles in the rear of our emigration. His outfit contained all of the conveniences and luxuries that a Government appropriation could procure, while he "roughed it " in a covered carriage, surrounded by servants paid from the public purse. He returned to the States and was afterward rewarded with a Presidential nomination as the " Pathfinder." The path he found was made by the hardy frontiersmen who preceded him to the Pacific, and who stood by their rifles here and held the country against hostile Indians and British threats, without Government aid or recognition until 1849, when the first Government troops came to our relief. Yet Fremont, with many people, has the credit of "finding" every- thing west of the Rocky Mountains, and I suppose his pretensions will be recog- nized by the future historian, while the deserving men who made the path, unaided by Government, will be forgotten. "And such is history." Thus close the events of 1843, leaving Oregon with a Provisional Government and a population of intelligent, earnest, hardy Ameri- can pioneers sufficiently great to determine its future as a party of the great Kepublic whose institutions they had thus planted in these remote regions. CHAPTER XVII. 1844 TO 1849. Indian Difficulty at Oregon City — First Military Company — Methodist Missions Abandoned — Increase of the Catholic Workers — Election of 18Jf.lt — Abstract of Votes — Proceedings of the Legislative Com- mittee — Emigration of 181+1+ — List of Emigrants — Election of 181+5 — George Abernethy Chosen First Governor of Oregon — Abstract of Votes — Oath of Office — Br. White and the Memorial to Congress — Wheat a Legal Tender — Census of 181+5 — Emigration of 181+5 — Meek Takes the Emigrants by a New Route and Loses Them in the Mountains — The Eventful Year of 183+6 — Mr. Blaine's Account of the Settlement of the Oregon Question — Election of 181+6 — Emigra- tion of 181+6 — The Applegate Trail — Flags of the Schooner u Shark " — Emigration of 181+7 — The Traveling Nursery — Elections of 181+1 and 181+8 — Emigration of 181+8. THERE was trouble in the Willamette Valley in 1844, which served to still more embitter the Indians against the Americans. There was a sub-chief of the Molallas named " Cockstock," a man of independent nature and belligerent disposition. He had a few followers who partook somewhat of his spirit, and they were gen- erally the prime movers in such small hostile acts as the natives of the Willamette indulged in. He was rebellious of restraint, and not friendly to the encroachment of the white settlers. A relative of his having mistreated Mr. Perkins at The Dalles Mission, was sentenced by the Wasco tribe to be punished according to Dr. White's laws. The sub -chief was enraged at the whipping his kinsman had received, and set out to revenge the insult upon the 280 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Indian Agent. Reaching the Agent's Willamette home during his absence, he proceeded to break every window-pane in the house. He was pursued, but not caught, and became an object of terror to the Doctor. All depredations committed in the country were charged to this chief, and it finally resulted in the offer by Dr. White of one hundred dollars' reward for the arrest of the formid- able Indian. Learning that he was being accused of acts commit- ted by others, the chief visited Oregon City March 4, accompanied by four of his band, with the avowed purpose of having a talk with the whites for the purpose of exculpating himself. He entered the town, staid for about an hour, and then crossed the river to visit an Indian village to procure an Indian interpreter. He then re- crossed the Willamette, when several men undertook to arrest him, and a desperate fight ensued. Cockstock was killed, and his followers, after fighting valiantly until the odds became too great, made good their escape. On the other side George W. LeBreton was killed by Cockstock, and Mr. Rogers, who was working quietly near by, was wounded in the arm by a poisoned arrow, which caused his death. It has been asserted that the Molalla chief attacked the town, but it requires too much credulity to believe that five Indians would in broad daylight attack a town containing ten times their number. The whole affair is chargeable to the rash conduct of a few men who were too eager to gain the paltry reward offered by Dr. White, one of whom paid for his cupidity with his life. Fear- ing that trouble might follow, the Executive Committee of the Provisional Government issued a proclamation for the organization of a military company. A company was organized on the tenth of March by citizens who assembled " at Champoeg. Nineteen names were enrolled ; T. D. Keizer being elected Captain, and J. L. Morrison and Mr. F. C. (or James) Cason, Lieutenants. Their services were not required. In May, 1844, Rev. George Gary arrived by sea to supersede Jason Lee in charge of the Methodist missions, the latter being already on his way East. The mission property was immediately sold and the missionary work, which had amounted to little for several years, so far as accomplishments were concerned, was dis- continued, except at The Dalles. While the Methodists were thus withdrawing from the field, the Catholics were largely increasing WILLAMETTE FALLS AT OREGON CITY. EIGHTEEN FORTY-FOUR TO EIGHTEEN FORTY-NINE. 281 their force. Among other arrivals for that purpose were six sisters of the order of Notre Dame, who came to found a convent in the Willamette. Father P. J. DeSmet, who had previously founded a mission among the Flatheads, brought the sisters to Oregon by sea, being also accompanied by four priests and several laymen. Three other priests came overland from St. Louis. As Father Blanchet expresses it : " The schemes of the Protestant ministers had been fought and nearly annihilated, especially at Nesqually, Vancouver, Cascades, Clackamas and Willamette Falls, so that a visitor came in 1844 and disbanded the whole Methodist Mission, and sold its property." On the fourteenth of May, 1844, an election was held for officers of the Provisional Government, at which some two hundred votes were cast. P. G. Stewart, Osborn Eussell and W. J. Bailey were chosen Executive Committee ; Dr. J. L. Babcock, Supreme Judge ; Dr. John E. Long, Clerk and Recorder ; Philip Foster, Treasurer ; Joseph L. Meek, Sheriff. The Territory had been partitioned into three Legislative Districts. Tualatin District included what is now Washington, Multnomah, Columbia, Clatsop, Tillamook, Yamhill and Polk Counties. Champoeg District has since been divided into Linn, Marion, Lane, Josephine, Coos, Curry, Benton, Douglas and Jackson Counties. In the Clackamas District were Clackamas County and the eastern part of Oregon, a portion of Montana, and all of Idaho and Washington Territories. On the following page are the tabulated returns of this first popular election held in Oregon : — 282 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. ELECTION OF MAY 14, 1844. DISTRICTS. CLACKAMAS. TUALATIN. CIAMPOEG. TOTALS. Executive Committee. P G Stewart* - - 41 40 21 11 10 6 6 3 3 2 2 I 15 22 10 84 182 18 140 Osborn Russell* - -- - 244 Alanson Beers - _ - 49 Jesse Applegate - - - 11 Peter H. Burnett _ 10 Hugh Burns - - 6 David Hill- — 6 W. J. Bailey*- _ _ 67 70 William Dougherty __ __ 23 26 A. Lawrence Lovejoy _. 2 Robert Newell _ _ _ 10 12 A. J. Hembree _ 1 William Geiger _ 7 7 26 7 Spencer. _ _ _ _ 7 Territorial Recorder or Clerk. Dr. John E. Long* _ _ __ 33 24 8 1 14 73 O. Johnson __ __ __ ~ 24 C. M. Walker 8 J. G. Campbell 1 A.E.Wilson __ _. __ 2 2 F. X. Matthieu _ _ 65 88 65 Supreme Court Judge. James L. Babcock f * 88 J. W. Nesmith .. 39 16 2 4 39 Peter H. Burnett __ 16 P. G. Stewart 2 Osborn Russell _ 1 2 5 O. Johnson _ _ 2 Territorial Treasurer. Phil. Foster* :_ _ 40 4 4 2 1 1 64 2 1 8 48 Nineveh Ford - __ 6 10 P. H. Hatch 4 A. E. Wilson 2 John E. Long 1 W. C: Remick 1 Territorial Sheriff. Joseph L. Meek* 79 143 B. Harragus _ 2 William Holmes . _ __ _ 1 Legislative Committee. M. Gilmore* _ ______ 27 32 24 20 8 27 Peter H. Burnett* — 32 David Hill* _ __ __ 24 M. M. McCarver*— _ 20 W.T.Perry _ _ 8 T. D. Reiser* . 67 75 75 20 11 18 67 Daniel Waldo* 75 Robert Newell* 75 W. H. Gray __ ___ 20 W.J.Bailey 11 F. C. Cason . 18 A. Lawrence Lovejoy J * Elected. f Resigned November 11, 1844. X Elected from Clackamas District. EIGHTEEN FORTY-FOUR TO EIGHTEEN FORTY-NINE. 283 The Legislative Committee elected met at Willamette Falls, in the house of Felix Hathaway, June 18, 1844, and chose M. M. McCarver Speaker. A nine days' session followed, when they ad- journed until December of the same year. On the sixteenth of December the Legislative Committee met again, this time at the house of J. E. Long, in Oregon City, when a message was submitted to them from the Executive Committee, in which an amendment of the organic law was recommended. A seven days' session followed, during which an act was passed calling for a committee to frame a constitution. Several acts were framed requiring submission to a popular vote to render them valid, among which was a change from the triumvirate to gubernatorial executive, and from a Legislative Committee to a Legislature, which was adopted by the people. The emigration of 1844 was nearly as great as that of the pre- vious year, adding some eight hundred to the American population, two hundred and thirty-four of them able-bodied men. " They were," says Hon. John Minto, "self-reliant, determined men; devoted, loyal, bravely- enduring women. They started from different points under different leaders, and never united, but, on the contrary, divided up still more as they traveled, a single man sometimes separating himself from an entire company, under the settled con- viction that they were all too contrary for him to keep company with any longer." The main companies had three starting points — one from Independence, one from near the mouth of the Platte, and one from Caplers Landing, twelve miles above St. Joseph. The last was commanded by Cornelius Gilliam, the first by Nathan- iel Ford, and the other by Major Thorp. The following nearly correct list was made in later years by Joseph Watt, Willard H. Eees, William M. Case and J. Henry Brown, and read by John Minto in his address before the Pioneer Association in 1877: — Alderman, Bird, Buzzard, Nathan Burch, Charles Boyd, Robert Black, William Blakely, Bush, George W. Boggs, Thomas Bowman, Wm., Sr. Bowman, Wm., Jr. Bowman, Ira Bunton, Elijah Bunton, Joseph Bunton, Wm. Buich, Charles Bennett, Capt. C. Bordran, Francis Bartrough, Joseph Bray, Wm. Bayard, Nathan Brown, Adam Bonnin, Peter Crawford, David Crawford, Lewis Clark, Daniel Clark, Dennis Clemens, Cave, James Crisman, Joel Crisman, Gabriel Crisman, Wm. Chamberlain, Aaron Conner, Patrick Crockett, Samuel B ■ Case, Wm. M. Clemens, Wm. Dougherty, Doty, Davenport, James 284 HISTOKY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Dagon, Dr. Durbin, Daniel Dupuis, Edward Emery, C. Edes, Moses Everman, C. Eades, John Eades, Abr. Eades, Henry Eades, Clark Eades, Solomon Evans, David Evans, N. D. Eddy, Robert Ellick, John Fleming, John Ford, Nathaniel Ford, Mark Fruit, James Fruit, "Doc." Fuller, Jenny Gilbert, I. N. Goff, David Gotf, Samuel Goff, Marion Grant, David Gilliam, Mitchell Gilliam, Cornelius Gilliam, Smith Gilliam, William Gilliam, Porter Gage, William Gage, Jesse Goodwin, W. H. Gillespie, Gerrish, James Gerrish, John Gillahan, Martin Gillahan, William Gilmore, Charles Hinman, Alanson Hedges, A. F. Hutton, Jacob Hill, Fleming Hawley, J. C. Hoover, Jacob Holt, T. Harper, James - Holman, Joseph Howard, John Hunt, James Humphrey, Norris Hammer, Jacob Higgins, Herman Higgins Williams Hibler, George Inyard, John Inyard, Abr. Inyard, Peter Johnson, William Johnson, James Johnson, David Johnson, Daniel Johnson, James Jackson, John Jenkins, David Jenkins, William Jenkins, Henry Kindred, David Kindred, Bart Kindred, John Kinney, Daniel Lee, Barton Lousenaute, John Lewis, Charles Morgan, William McGruder, Theo. McGruder, Ed. Minto, John McDaniel, Joshua McDaniel, Elisha McDaniel, Mrs. McMahan, Martin, Nehemiah McSwain, Samuel McAllister, James Morrison, R. W. Moore, Michael Neal, Calvin Neal, Robert Neal, Alex. Neal, Peter Nelson, George Nelson, Cyrus Nichols, John Nichols, Frank Nichols, Benjamin Owless, Ruel Owens, Henry Owens, James Owens, John Owens, John Perkins, Joel, Sr. Perkins, Joel, Jr. Perkins, John Parker, David Priest, Parrot, Joseph Packwood, S. Packwood, T. Payne, R. K. Prather, William Prather, Theodore Pettie, Eaben Pettie, Amab Rowland, J. Smith, William Smith, Noyes Smith, Texas Saffron, Henry Sis, Big Stewart, James Saunders, William Shaw, Joshua Shaw,A.C.R.(Sheep) Shaw, Wash. Shaw, Thomas Shaw, B. F. Shaw, Capt. Wm. Stephens, James Sager, , died on the way at Green River. Saxton, Charles Snelling, Vincent Snelling, Benjamin Snooks, Teller, Jerry Thornton, Sebrin Thomas, O. S. Thorp, John Thorp, Alvin Thorp, Theodore Thorp, Mortimer Robinson, E.(Moun- Thorp, Milton tain.) Trues, Cooper Y. Robinson, T.G. (Fat- Tucker, Benjamin ty.) Robinson, Ben Rees, Willard H. Rice, Parton Rice, Mac Rice, (Old Man.) Ramsey, Ramsdell, Marshall, James, the Sears, Franklin discoverer of gold Shelton, Jackson at Sutter's Mill. Sebring, William Moreland, Lafe Mulky, Westley Mulkey, Luke Murray, Mudgett, Neal, George Neal, Attey Scott, John Scott, Levi Simmons, M. T. Springer, Smith, J. S. Smith, Charles Smith, Peter Tucker, Long Vance, Thos., died on the Platte. Waunch, George Williams, Poe Williams, Wright, Harrison Woodcock, Richard Welsh, James Walker, James, Sr. Walker, James, Jr. Walker, Robert Williamson, Henry Watt, Joseph Warmbough, Werner, Thomas The following turned off and went to California : — Calvin, Foster, Joseph Greenwood, G. Hitchcock, Flomboy, John Greenwood, John Greenwood, Britain son. and EIGHTEEN FORTY-FOUR TO EIGHTEEN FORTY -NINE. 285 Jackson, Montgomery, Allen Schallenberger, M. Townsend, Dr. Martin, Patrick Montgomery, James Stephens, Captain Scott and Bobbin, Martin, Dennis Murphy, Martin, and Sullivan, John, and colored men with Martin, William five sons. brother. Col. Ford. Miller, James Mrs. Win. M. Case furnishes the following list of ladies who came in Major Thorp's company : — Case, Mrs. Wni. M. Higgins, Mrs. Her- Snelling, Mrs. Vin- Horace Holden and Eliza, a mulatto girl man cent May, his wife, ar- Hammer, Mrs. Jac'b Johnson, Mrs. D. Tucker, Mrs. Benj. rived in April of Hannah, Aunt, ane- Shaw, Mrs. Joshua Thorp,Miss Amanda this year from the gress Snelling, Miss Eliza Sandwich Islands. Of this emigration Michael T. Simmons and a few others located on Puget Sound, making the first American settlement north of the Columbia. GENERAL ELECTION, JUNE 3, 1845. The first annual election was held on the third of June, 1845. The following tabular statement will prove interesting and of historical value :— C-A^SraiZD-ATIES - Governor. George Abernethy* Osborn Russell William J. Bailey A. Lawrence Lovejoy Total vote cast Secretary. John E. Long 1* Noyes Smith Treasurer. Phil. Foster Francis Ermatinger 2* Judge. J. W. Nesmith 3* District- A ttorney. Marcus Ford 4* Assessor. S. W. Moss* Jacob Reed Sheriff, j Joseph L. Meek 5* A. J. Hembree DISTRICTS. 46 22 2 44 114 65 48 62 51 111 100 53 52 59 42 58 54 6 5 123 70 47 49 50 115 78 39 48 77 43 o 1 O 51 47 60 9 167 117 53 47 118 166 168 119 48 111 54 22 23 6 12 1 12 17 10 51 7 7 12 77 25 35 38 20 64 53 5 56 15 61 228 130 75 71 504 283 195 197 251 473 409 216 204 267 215 * Officers 6lect6cl. 1. Deceased. Frederick Prigg appointed to fill vacancy June 26, 1846. 2. Resigned. John H. Couch appointed to vacancy March 4, 1846. 3. Succeeded by Alonzo A. Skinner. , , .,«.__« M 4. Resigned February 4, l>,4t>, W. G. T'Vault appointed to vacancy; he resigned March 10, 1816, and was succeeded by A. L. Lovejoy. 5. Resigned, and was succeeded by H. M. Knighton. 286 HISTOKY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. GENERAL ELECTION, JUNE 3, 1855- Continued. C-A-^sTIDIID-A-TES- Representa tives. H. A. J. Lee* Hiram Straight* W. H. Gray* C. E. Pickett N. Ford M. M. McCarver* D. Lenox D. Hill* C. Satton V. W. Dawson Joseph Gale J. W. Smith* C. M. Walker J. M. Garrison* M. G. Foiry* Joseph Gervais Barton Lee* W. H. Willson- . Robert Newell* A. Chamberlain F. X. Mathieu John McClure*---! George Simmons Jesse Applegate* A. Hendrick* S. Smith J. Richardson R. Clark Convention (to frame constitution) __. No Convention (to frame constitution' DISTRICTS. 99 82 54 50 23 51 39 53 2R 22 43 51 47 bo o & I 128 131 68 90 49 79 74 14 -1-3 3 11 10 38 34 31 29 10 82 54 50 23 51 39 53 28 22 43 51 47 128 131 68 90 49 79 74 14 11 10 38 34 31 29 10 190 283 * Officers elected. Note— Theophilus McGruder was appointed Recorder December 8, 1846. Wm. G. T'Vault was appointed Postmaster-General of Oregon in December, 1816. G. W. Bell was ap- pointed Auditor. Two new districts — Yamhill and Clatsop — had been formed out of Tualatin, making five in all. In most of these were held nomi- nating conventions, where, also, were chosen delegates to a general convention at Champoeg. A. L. Lovejoy was the successful aspi- rant for the gubernatorial nomination, defeating Dr. William J. Bailey, Osborn Russell and George Abernethy. The convention was not satisfactory, and all these gentlemen appeared before the people as candidates. By a combination of the friends of Russell and Abernethy, the latter, who was then in the Sandwich Islands, was elected. EIGHTEEN FOETT-FOUE TO EIGHTEEN FOETT-NINE. 287 The Legislature chosen assembled at Oregon City, June 24th, elected M. M. McCarver Speaker, and remained in session two weeks. The following oath of office was proposed by Jesse Apple- gate, in view of the character of the people and their divided alle- giance, and was administered to the members: — Oath of Office— I do solemnly swear that I will support the organic laws of the Provisional Government of Oregon, so far as the said organic laws are consist- ent with my duties as a citizen of the United States, or a subject of Great Britain, and faithfully demean nryself in office. So help me God. The most important business transacted was the drafting of a memorial to Congress, asking for a territorial government, and the framing of a new organic law. On the twenty -eighth of June the memorial was signed by Russell and Stewart, of the Executive Com- mittee (Abernethy not having yet returned), Judge Nesmith, and members of the Legislature. Dr. Elijah White was delegated all the to convey the memorial to Washington. The Legislature then ad- journed to await the result of the constitutional election, which was held on the twenty-fifth of July. This resulted in two hundred and fifty-five votes for the new law and only fifty-two for the old. The Legislature again assembled, according to the provisions of the new law, on the fifth of August. It was then that the memorial was placed in the hands of Dr. White for transmission to Congress. After he had departed they became dissatisfied with their messenger, deeming that he intended using it for his personal advancement at Washington, and they sent a courier to overtake him and demand its return. The Doctor received the demand coolly and refused to comply. His answer, which showed how correct was their opinion that he proposed making the memorial serve his personal ends, was as follows: — August 17, 1845. To the Hon., Etc.: Gentlemen — Being on my way, and having but a moment to reflect, I have been at much of a loss which of your two resolutions most to respect, or which to obey; but at length have become satisfied that the first was taken most soberly, and as it answers my purpose best, I x>ledge myself to adhere strictly to that. Sincerely wishing you good luck in legislating, I am, dear sirs, very respectfully yours, E. WHITE. This letter, with a statement of the circumstances surrounding it, was sent by another messenger to Washington, and arrived just in time to foil the scheming Doctor's chances for an important 288 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. appointment which he was about to receive. Among other acts the Legislature passed a law making wheat a legal tender at market price, owing to the scarcity of a circulating medium. The body adjourned sine die on the twentieth of August. On the second of December, the day set for the assembling of the Legislature by the new law, and no election having been held, the same gentlemen again assembled, and organized by electing Robert Newell Speaker. A session of seventeen days was then held, during which Polk and Lewis counties were created, the latter embracing all of Washing- ton Territory west of the Cascades. This had been designated " Vancouver District " the year before, but had not sent a repre- sentative to the Legislature. Sheriff Meek, in pursuance of an act of the Legislature, took a census of the population. This did not include those living north of the Columbia or east of the mount- ains, consequently, except the ninety-one reported for Clatsop, represents only the population of the Willamette "Valley. The table, which does not include the immigration of 1845, is as follows : — CENSUS RETURNS OF OREGON IN 1845. i ft o 0> "oS B ft 53 114 8 90 57 322 02 O 15 42 4 26 23 110 02 § ft 7 18 1 6 9 41 02 234 02 a ft i— i ft O $ o Clackamas - _ 18 24 17 14 16 89 57 85 29 127 109 405 69 142 14 115 79 419 54 136 18 109 65 382 12 45 1 28 31 117 15 37 3 24 24 103 136 171 42 142 124 615 129 361 Champoeg - 400 305 705 Clatsop _ _ 61 309 257 1259 30 91 Tualatin - - - 229 538 Yamhill 158 415 Total 851 2110 The immigration of 1845 consisted of some three thousand souls, about one-third of whom, under William B. Ide, of Bear Flag notoriety, and guided by Greenwood, the trapper, turned off at Fort Hall and went to California. There has never been prepared a register of the half dozen trains into which it was divided, and it is impossible to give a list of the pioneers of 1845. A few might be mentioned — names familiar in Oregon annals — such as Col. W. G. T'Vault, J. C. Avery, John Waymire, Frederick Waymire, John Flemming, Captain English, James B. Riggs, Rufus A. Riggs, EIGHTEEN FOKTY-FOTTR TO EIGHTEEN FORTY-NINE. 289 Stephen Staats, John Durbin, William J. Herren, General Joel Palmer, Simeon Smith, David Carson, John M. Forrest, Dr. Ralph Wilcox, Solomon Fetherous, James Allen. They brought the cheering intelligence that James K. Polk had been elected Presi- dent of the United States on the party cry of " Fifty-four-forty, or fight," and had been duly inaugurated, and that the prospects for an immediate favorable settlement of the mooted Oregon Question were favorable. Their numbers, too, added so materially to the strength of the American element that they then outnumbered the representatives of Great Britain ten to one. When the emigrants reached Fort Boise, Stephen H. Meek, the same man who had served as guide in 1842, offered to show a shorter and easier route across the Blue and Cascade mountains — one to the south of the old trail. A great many of them followed him, while others refused to depart from the regular route. Meek had never passed through the country he was now entering, but had heard of it from others when he had, as a free American trapper, been for a time in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany. The route had never been used, but it was known that the country through what is now Southeastern Oregon, was less mount- ainous than that further north, and Meek naturally expected to find a passable route and a good pass through the Cascades. In this he failed, and as soon as the emigrants became satisfied that he was traveling by guess, they became so indignant that he only saved his neck by using his feet. They then undertook to pass down John Day Biver, and finally reached the Columbia after almost superhuman exertion. Had they trusted to Meek it is possible, and even probable, that he would, by taking them further south, have found them a comparatively easy route. This episode is thus described by Hon. Stephen Staats, one of the immigrants of that year : — When nearing Fort Boise, much discussion was had relative to the route to be followed after leaving that point. Stephen Meek had met the emigrants and pro- posed to pilot them over a new route by which to bring them into the valley, assert- ing that it was much shorter and better than the route to The Dalles. I recollect one old gentleman, John M. Forrest by name, who, when the subject was warmly discussed, declared he would follow the old route, even if he had to travel alone. Says he: "When I left the States, after reading the letters of Burnett and others from Oregon, I determined I would not be led off on any new route claimed to have been discovered by any adventurer, but would travel where others had traveled, 290 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. and thus be sure of arriving at the desired point to which we are all looking." But now the time had come for action. One morning, after a night spent in spirited discussion, Mr. Forrest broke camp and started on the old trail; others, with much warmth, attempted to restrain him, but he persisted, and about twenty-five other wagons followed his; others, under the leadership of Meek, struck off' on the route declared by him the best and shortest ; but well would it have been for all those so doing, had they persevered in following the old route, for experience proved to them that had they so done, much suffering, in almost every conceivable form, would have been avoided, and that they would have arrived at their destination much sooner and their condition more hopeful as to future resources to provide for their wants during the approaching winter. It was but a few days after Meek left Fort Boise, that he became hopelessly lost, and had it not been for the good judgment and determined energy of some of the emigrants, and their hiring an Indian to pilot them through to The Dalles, many would have perished and suffered a most torturing death, that now survive and to-day can recount the many sad incidents and afflictive events of their wearisome travel to that point. It has been positively asserted that while Meek was thus lost, he suffered to such an extent for the want of water to satisfy his thirst, that he opened a vein in the neck of his mule, and thus, in all probability, secured his own life by quaffing the life blood of that most noble and docile quadruped. But be that as it may, whether true or not, there were moments when the sufferings of husband, wife and children, became so unbearable, and so intensely torturing to the mental vision of those having others depending upon them for support and pro_ tection, that had be who counseled them to take an unknown and trackless route when almost out of provisions, and energies already nearly exhausted, made his appearance among them, he might have been made a sacrifice to appease the angry passions with which they were inflamed. The anti-Hudson's Bay Company fanatics absurdly charge that Meek was employed by the company to lead this train of emigrants to their destruction in the mountains, the only evidence being the fact that Meek — as did also a number of Americans who were known as " free trappers," men who were somewhat independent of the fur traders — had engaged himself for two or three seasons to the company. The charge is too ridiculous to be considered. The year 1846 was a momentous one for the United States. It saw the settling of the Oregon Question, which confirmed to the United States all that portion of Montana lying west of the Eocky Mountains, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. It saw, also, the beginning of the Mexican War, which gave us Texas, and the wresting of California from Mexican rule by Lieutenant Fremont and Commodores Sloat and Stockton. It was an exciting period, and the country was held in suspense for months over the contro- versy with England, during which war with that great power seemed almost unavoidable. The incidents attending the settlement of this great question are clearly and graphically described by EIGHTEEN FORTY-FOUK TO EIGHTEEN FORTY -NINE. 291 James G. Blaine in his " Twenty Years of Congress," in which he displays a profundity of knowledge of the political intricacies of that period which carries the weight of authority with his language. To improve upon it would be impossible, and to epitomize it would destroy its force and perspicuity ; nothing but a complete and liberal quotation will suffice. Mr. Blaine says: — The convention which nominated Mr. Polk took bold ground lor the immediate re-annexation of Texas and re-occupation of Oregon. This peculiar form of ex- pression was used to indicate that Texas had already belonged to us under the Louisiana purchase, and that Oregon had been wholly ours prior to the treaty of joint occupancy with Great Britain. It further declared, that our title to the whole of Oregon, up to 54° 40' north latitude, was "clear and indisputable"; thus carry- ing our claim to the borders of the Russian possessions, and utterly denying and defying the pretension of Great Britain to the ownership of any territory bordering on the Pacific. ****** The election of Mr. Polk was an unquestionable verdict from the people in favor of the annexation of Texas. Mr. Clay and Mr. Van Buren had been able to defeat the treaty negotiated by Mr. Calhoun ; but the popular vote overruled them, and pronounced in favor of the Democratic position after full and fair hearing. Mr. Tyler was anxious that the scheme so energetically initiated by him should be fully accomplished during his term. The short method of joint resolution was therefore devised by the ever fertile brain of Mr. Calhoun, and its passage through Cougress intrusted to the skillful management of Robert J. Walker, then a senator from Mississippi, and already indicated for the portfolio of the Treasury in the new administration. Mr. Polk was in consultation with Mr. Tyler during the closing weeks of the latter's administration, and the annexation by joint resolution had his full concurrence. It was passed in season to receive the approval of President Tyler on the first day of March, three days before the eventful administration of Mr. Polk was installed in power. Its terms were promptly accepted by Texas, and at the next session of Congress, beginning December, 1845, the constitution of the new State was approved. Historic interest attached to the appearance of Sam Houston and Thomas J. Rusk as the first senators from the great State which they had torn from Mexico and added to the Union. ****** The policy of maintaining an equality of slave States with free States was to be pursued, as it had already been from the foundation of the government, with un- ceasing vigilance and untiring energy. The balancing of forces between new States added to the Union had been so skillfully arranged, that for a long period two States were admitted at nearly the same time— one from the South, and one from the North. Thus Kentucky and Vermont, Tennessee and Ohio, Mississippi and Indiana, Alabama and Illinois, Missouri and Maine, Arkansas and Michigan, Florida and Iowa, came into the Union in pairs, not indeed at precisely the same moment in every case, but always with reference each to the other in the order named. On the admission of Florida and Iowa, Colonel Benton remarked that "it seemed strange that two territories so different in age, so distant from each other, so antagonistic in natural features and political institutions, should ripen into States at the same time, and come into the Union by a single Act; but these very antagonisms — that is, the antagonistic provisions on the subject of slavery- made the conjunction, and gave to the two young States an inseparable admission." 292 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. During the entire period from the formation of the Federal Government to the inauguration of Mr. Polk, the only variation from this twin birth of States— the one free, the other slave — was in the case of Louisiana, which was admitted in 1812, with no corresponding State from the North. Of the original Thirteen States, seven had become free, and six maintained slavery. Of the fifteen that were added to the Union, prior to the annexation of Texas, eight were slave, and seven were free; so that when Mr. Polk took the oath of office, the Union consisted of twenty- eight States, equally divided between slave-holding. and free. So nice an adjust- ment had certainly required constant watchfulness and the closest calculation of political forces. It was in pursuit of this adjustment that the admission of Louisiana was secured, as an evident compensation for the loss which had accrued to the slave-holding interests in the uuequal though voluntary partition of the Old Thir- teen between North and South. ■K * * # •* * Looking into the future, the Southern men took alarm lest the equality of their section should be lost in the Senate, and their long control of the Federal Govern- ment ended. Even with Texas added to the Union, this equality was barely main- tained, for Wisconsin was already seeking admission ; and the clause in the articles of annexation providing that four new States might be carved out of the territory of Texas whenever she asked it, gave no promise of speedy help to the South. Its operation would, in any event, be distant, and subject to contingencies which could not be accurately measured. There was not another foot of territory south of 36° 30', save that which was devoted to the Indians by solemn compact, from which another slave State could be formed. North of 36° 30' the Missouri Compromise had dedi- cated the entire country to freedom. In extent it was, to the Southern view, alarm- ingly great, including at least a million square miles of territory. Except along its river boundaries it was little known. Its value was underrated, and a large portion was designated upon our maps as the Great American Desert. At the time Texas was annexed, and for several years afterwards, not a single foot of that vast area was organized under any form of civil government. Had the Southern statesmen foreseen the immense wealth, population, and value of this imperial domain in the five great States and four territories into which it is to-day divided, they would have abandoned the struggle for equality. But the most that was hoped, even in the North, within any near period, was one State north of Iowa, one west of Mis- souri, and one from the Oregon country. The remainder, in the popular judgment, was divided among mountain gorges, the arid plains of the middle, and the unin- viting region in the north, which the French voyageurs had classed under the com- prehensive and significant title of mauvaises terres. With only three States anticipated from the great area in the north-west, it was the evident expectation of the Southern men who then had control of the government, that, if war with Mexico should ensue, the result would inevitably be the acquisition of sufficient territory to form slave States south of the line of the Missouri Compromise as rap- idly as free States could be formed north of it ; and that in this way the ancient equality between North and South could be maintained. The Oregon Question, which now became associated, if not complicated, with the Texas Question, originated many years before. By our treaty with Spain in 1819, the southern boundary of our possessions on the Pacific had been accurately defined. Our northern boundary was still unadjusted, and had been matter of dis- pute with Great Britain ever since we acquired the country. By the treaty of Octo- ber 20, 1818, the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude was established as the bound- ary between the United States and British America, from the Lake of the Woods to the Stony Mountains, as the Rocky Mountains were then termed. In the same EIGHTEEN FORTY-FOUR TO EIGHTEEN FORTY-NINE. 293 treaty it was agreed that any country claimed by either the United States or Great Britain westward of the Stony Mountains should, with its harbors, bays, and rivers, be open for the term of ten years to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of either power. This agreement was entered into solely for the purpose of preventing disputes pending final settlement, and was not to be construed to the prejudice of either party. This was the beginning of the joint occupancy of the Oregon country, England having with prompt and characteristic enterprise forced her way across the continent after she had acquired Canada in 1763. Stimulated by certain alleged discoveries of her navigators on the north-west coast, Great Britain urged and main- tained her title to a frontage on the Pacific, and made a bold claim to sovereignty as far south as the mouth of the Columbia River, nearly, indeed, to the northern border of California. Xothing had been done towards an adjustment during the ten years of joint occupancy, and when the term was about to expire, the arrangement was renewed by special convention in 1827, for an indefinite period — each power reserving the right to terminate the convention by giving twelve-months' notice to the other. The President, John Quincy Adams, made the briefest possible reference to the subject in his message to Congress, December, 1827 ; speaking of it as a temporary compromise of the respective rights and claims of Great Britain and the United States to territory westward of the Rocky Mountains. For many years thereafter, the subject, though languidly pursued in our diplomatic correspondence, was not alluded to in a President's message, or discussed in Congress. The contracting parties rested content with the power to join issue and try titles at any time by simply giving the required notice. The subject was also overshadowed by more urgent disputes between Great Britain and the United States, especially that relat- ing to the Xorth-eastern boundary, and that touching the suppression of the African slave-trade. The latter involved the old question of the right of search. The two governments came to an agreement on these differences in 1842 by the negotiation of the convention known as the Ashburton Treaty. In transmitting the treaty to Congress, President Tyler made, for the first time since the agreement for a joint occupancy was renewed in 1827, a specific reference to the Oregon Question. He informed Congress, that the territory of the United States commonly called the Oregon country was beginning to attract the attention of our fellow-citizens, and that "the tide of our population, having reclaimed from the wilderness the more contiguous regions, was preparing to flow over those vast districts which stretch from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean ;" that Great Britain "laid claim to a portion of the country and that the question could not be well included in the recent treaty without postponing other more pressing matters." He significantly added, that though the difficulty might not for several years involve the peace of the two countries, yet he should urge upon Great Britain the importance of its early settlement. As this paragraph was undoubtedly suggested and probably written by Mr. Webster, it attracted wide attention on both sides of the Atlantic ; and from that moment, in varying degrees of interest and urgency, the Oregon Question became an active political issue. Before the next annual meeting of Congress, Mr. Upshur had succeeded Mr. Webster in the State Department ; and the message of the Presi- dent took still more advanced ground respecting Oregon. For political reasons, there was an obvious desire to keep the action of the government on this issue well abreast of its aggressive movements in the matter of acquiring Texas. Emboldened by Mr. Webster's position of the preceding year, Mr. Upshur, with younger blood, and with more reason for a demonstrative course, was evidently disposed to force the discussion of the question with British Government. Under his influence and advice, President Tyler declared, in his message of December, 1843, that "after the 294 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. most rigid, and, as far as practicable, unbiased, examination of the subject, the United States have always contended that their rights appertain to the entire region of country lying on the Pacific, and embraced between latitude 42° and 54° 40V Mr. Edward Everett, at that time our minister in London, was instructed to present these views to the British Government. Before the President could send another annual message to Congress, Mr. Cal- houn had been for several months at the head of the State Department, engaged in promoting, with singular skill and ability, his scheme for the annexation of Texas. With his quick perception, he discerned that if the policy apparently indicated by Mr. Webster and aggressively proclaimed by Mr. Upshur, on the Oregon Question? should be followed, and that issue sharply pressed upon Great Britain, complications of a most embarrassing nature might arise, involving in their sweep the plans, already well matured, for acquiring Texas. In order to avert all danger of that kind, Mr. Calhoun opened a negotiation with the British minister in Washington, conducting it himself, for the settlement of the Oregon Question ; and at the very moment when the Democratic National Convention which nominated Mr. Polk was declaring our title to the whole of Oregon as far as 54° 40' to be "clear and un- questionable," the Democratic Secretary of State was proposing to Her Majesty's representative to settle the entire controversy by the adoption of the forty-ninth parallel as the boundary ! The negotiation was very nearly completed, and was suspended only by some dispute in regard to the right of navigating the Columbia River. It is not improb- able that Mr. Calhoun, after disclosing to the British Government his willingness to accept the forty-ninth parallel as our northern boundary, was anxious; to have the negotiation temporarily postponed. If the treaty had been concluded at that time, it would have seriously interfered with the success of Mr. Polk's candidacy by destroying the prestige of the " Fifty-four forties," as Colonel Benton termed them. In Mr. Polk's election, Mr.' Calhoun was deeply and indeed doubly interested : first, because of his earnest desire to defeat Mr. Clay, with whom he was at swords' points on all public issues ; and again, because having assumed the responsibility of defeating the nomination of Mr. Van Buren, he was naturally desirous that his judgment should be vindicated by the election of the candidate whom his Southern friends had put forward. Urgently solicitous for the annexation of Texas, those friends were indifferent to the fate of the Oregon Question, though willing that it should be made a leading issue in the North, where it was presented with popular effect. The patriotic spirit of the country was appealed to, and to a considerable extent aroused and inflamed by the ardent and energetic declaration of our title to the whole of Oregon. " Fifty-four forty or fight " became a Democratic watchword ; and the Whigs who attempted to argue against the extravagance or inexpediency of the claim continually lost ground, and were branded as cowards who were awed into silence by the fear of British power. All the prejudice against the British Government which had descended from the Revolution and from the war of 1812 was successfully evoked by the Democratic party, and they gained immeasurably by keeping a measure before the people which many of their leaders knew would be abandoned when the pressure of actual negotiation should be felt by our gov- ernment. Mr. Polk, however, in his Inaugural address, carefully re-affirmed the position respecting Oregon which his party had taken in the national canvass, and quoted part of the phrase used in the platform put forth by the convention which nomi- nated him- The issue had been made so broadly, that it must be squarely met, and finally adjusted. The Democrats in their eagerness had left no road for honorable retreat, and had cut themselves off from the resources and convenient postpone- ments of diplomacy. Dangerous as it was to the new administration to coniront EIGHTEEN FORTY-FOUR TO EIGHTEEN FORTY-NINE. 295 the issue, it would have been still more dangerous to attempt to avoid it. The decisive step, in the policy to which the administration was committed, was to give formal notice to Great Britain that the joint occupation of the Oregon country under the treaty of 1827 must cease. A certain degree of moral strength was unex- pectedly imparted to the Democratic position by the fact that the venerable John Quincy Adams was decidedly in favor of the notice, and ably supported, in a unique and powerful speech in the House of Representatives, our title to the country up to 54° 40'. The first convention for joint occupancy had been negotiated while Mr. Adams was Secretary of State, and the second while he was President ; so that, in addition to the weight of authority with which he always spoke, his words seemed entitled to special confidence on a question with which he was necessarily so famil- iar. His great influence brought many Whigs to the support of the resolution ; and on the 9th of February, 1S46, the House, by the large vote of 163 to 54, declared in favor of giving the treaty notice to Great Britain. The country at once became alarmed by the growing rumors that the resolution of the House was a direct challenge to Great Britain for a trial of strength as to the superior title to the Oregon country, and it was soon apparent that the Senate would proceed with more circumspection and conservatism. Events were rapidly tending towards hostilities with Mexico, and the aggrandizement of territory likely to result from a war with that country was not viewed with a friendly eye, either by Great Britain or France. Indeed, the annexation of Texas, which had been accomplished the preceding year, was known to be distasteful to those governments. They de- sired that Texas might remain an independent republic, under more liberal trade relations than could be secured from the United States with its steady policy of fostering and advancing its own manufacturing interests. The directors of the administration saw therefore more and more clearly that, if a war with Mexico were impending, it would be sheer madness to open a quarrel with Great Britain, and force her into an alliance against us. Mr. Adams and those who voted with him did not believe that the notice to the British Government would provoke a war, but that firmness on our part, in the negotiation which should ensue, would induce England to yield her pretensions to any part of Oregon ; to which Mr. Adams maintained, with elaboration of argument and demonstration, she had no shadow of right. Mr. Adams was opposed to war with Mexico, and therefore did not draw his conclusions from the premises laid down by those who were charged with the policy of the administration. They naturally argued that a war with Great Britain might end in our losing the whole of Oregon, without acquiring any territory on our south-western border. The bare possibility of such a result would defeat the policy which they were seeking to uphold, and would at the same time destroy their party. In short, it became apparent that what might be termed the Texas policy of the administration, and what might be termed its Oregon policy, could not both be carried out. It required no prophet to foresee which would be maintained and which would be abandoned. "Fifty-four forty or fight," had been a good cry for the political campaign; but, when the fight was to be with Great Britain, the issue became too serious to be settled by such international law as is dispensed on the stump. A very bitter controversy over the question began in the Senate as soon as the House resolution was received. But from the outset it was apparent that those who adhered to the 54° 40" policy, on which Mr. Polk had been elected, were in a small minority. That minority was led by General Cass; but its most brilliant advocate in debate was Edward A. Hannegan, Democatic Senator from Indiana, who angrily reproached his party for playing false to the pledges on which it had won a victory over the greatest political leader of the country. He measured the situation 296 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. accurately, read with discrimination the motives which underlay the change of policy on the part of the administration and its Southern supporters, and stated the whole case in a quick and curt reply to an interruption from a pro-slavery Senator, — "If Oregon were good for the production of sugar and cotton, it would not have encountered this opposition. Its possession would have been at once secured." The change in the Democratic position was greatly aided by the attitude of the Whig senators, who almost unanimously opposed the resolution of notice to Great Britain as passed by the House. Mr. Webster, for the first if not the only time in his sena- torial career, read a carefully prepared speech, in which he did not argue the ques- tion of rightful boundary, but urged that a settlement on the forty-ninth parallel would be honorable to both countries, would avert hostile feeling, and restore amity and harmony. Mr. Berrien of Georgia made an exhaustive speech, inquiring into the rightfulness of title, and urged the line of 49°. Mr. Crittenden followed in the same vein, and in a reply to Senator William Allen of Ohio, chairman of Foreign Affairs, made a speech abounding in sarcasm and ridicule. The Whigs having in the campaign taken no part in the boastful demand for 54° 40', were not subjected to the humiliation of retracing imprudent steps and retracting unwise declarations. Under the influences at work in the Senate, events developed rapidly. The House resolution of notice was defeated ; and the Senate passed a substitute of a less aggressive type, in which the House, through the instrumentality of a confer- ence committee, substantially concurred. The resolution as finally adopted author- ized the President "at his discretion" to give the notice for the termination of the treaty to Great Britain. The preamble further softened the action of Congress by declaring that the notice was given in order that "the attention of the governments of both countries may be the more earnestly directed to the adoption of all proper measures for a speedy and amicable adjustment of the differences and disputes in regard to said territory." The Southern Democrats in the House receded from their action, and the modi- fied resolution was carried by nearly as large a vote as had been the previous one for decided and peremptory notice. In short, the great mass of the Southern Demo- crats in both Houses precipitately threw the Oregon issue aside. They had not failed to perceive that the hesitation in the administration in forcing an issue with Mexico was due to the apprehension of trouble with Great Britain, and they made haste to promote schemes of territorial acquisition in the South-West by withdraw- ing the pretensions so imprudently put forth in regard to our claims in the North- west. Only forty-six votes were given in the House against what was termed a disgraceful surrender. These were almost entirely from Northern Democrats, though a few Southern Democrats refused to recede. Among those who thus remained firm were Andrew Johnson, Stephen A. Douglas, Howell Cobb, Preston King, and Allen G. Thurman. The passage of the modified and friendly resolution of notice dispelled all danger of trouble with Great Britain, and restored a sense of security in the United States. Immediately after its adoption, Mr. Buchanan, Secretary of State, under direction of the President, concluded a treaty with the British minister on the basis discussed by Mr. Calhoun two years before. The forty-ninth parallel was agreed upon as the boundary between the two countries, with certain concessions for a defined period, touching the rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, and the navigation of the Columbia River by the British. This treaty was promptly con- firmed by the Senate, and the long controversy over the Oregon Question was at rest. It had created a deep and wide-spread excitement in the country, and came very near precipitating hostilities with Great Britain. There is no doubt whatever that the English Government would have gone to war rather than surrender the territory north of the forty-ninth parallel. This fact had made the winter and early EIGHTEEN FORTY-FOUR TO EIGHTEEN FORTY-NINE. 297 spring of 1846 one of profound anxiety to all the people of the United States, and more especially those who were interested in the large mercantile marine which sailed under the American flag. Iu simple truth, the country was not prepared to go to war with Great Britain in support of "our clear and unquestionable title" to the whole of Oregon. With her strong naval force on the Pacific, and her military force in Australasia, Great Britain could more readily and more easily take possession of the country in dispute than could the United States. We had no way of reaching Oregon except by doubling Cape Horn, and making a dangerous sea-voyage of many thousand miles. We could communicate across the continent only by the emigrant trail over rugged mountains and almost trackless plains. Our railway system was in its infancy in 1846. New York City did not have a continuous road to Buffalo. Philadelphia was not connected with Pittsburg. Baltimore's projected line to the Ohio had only reached Cumberland, among the eastern foot-hills of the Alleghanies. The entire Union had but five thousand miles of railway. There was scarcely a spot on the globe, outside of the United Kingdom, where we could not have fought England with greater advantage than on the north-west coast of America at that time. The war-cry of the Presidential campaign of 1844 was, therefore, in any event, absurd ; and it proved to be mischievous. It is not improbable, that, if the Oregon Question had been allowed to rest for the time under the provisions of the treaty of 1827, the whole country would ultimately have fallen into our hands, and the American flag might to-day be waving over British Columbia. The course of events and the lapse of time were working steadily to our advantage. In 1826 Great Britain de- clined to accept the forty-ninth parallel, but demanded the Columbia River as the boundary. Twenty years afterwards* she accepted the line previously rejected. American settlers had forced her back. W T ith the sweep of our emigration and civilization to the Pacific Coast two years after the the treaty of 1846, when gold was discovered in California, the tendency would have been still more strongly in our favor. Time, as Mr. Calhoun said, " would have effected every thing for us" if we could only have been patient and peaceful. Taking the question, however, as it stood in 1846, the settlement must, upon full consideration and review, be adjudged honorable to both countries. Wise statesmen of that day felt, as wise statesmen of subsequent years have more and more realized, that a war between Great Britain and the United States would not only be a terrible calamity to both nations, but that it would stay the progress of civilization throughout the world. Future generations would hold the governing power in both countries guilty of a crime if war should ever be permitted except upon the failure of every other arbitrament. The harmless laugh of one political party at the expense of another forty years ago, the somewhat awkward receding from pretensions which could not be maintained by the Executive of the nation, have passed into oblivion. But a striking and useful lesson would be lost if it should be forgotten that the country was brought to the verge of war by the proclamation of a policy w T hich could not be, and was not intended to be, enforced. It was originated as a cry to catch votes; and except with the ignorant, and the few whose judgment was carried away by enthusiasm, it was from the first thoroughly insincere. If the punishment could have fallen only upon those who raised the cry, perfect justice would have been done. But the entire country suf- fered, and probably endured a serious and permanent loss, from the false step taken by men who claimed what they could not defend and what they did not mean to defend. The emigration of 1846 consisted of some two thousand souls, bringing with them four hundred and seventy wagons, and one 298 HIST0KY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. thousand and fifty cattle. At Fort Hall about one-half turned off and followed the Humboldt River route to California, among whom were the Donner Party, whose dreadful sufferings in the Sierra Nevada Mountains form one of the saddest pages of Pacific Coast history. The emigration was divided into a number of independ- ent trains, each having its own leader and guide. Of those whose destination was the Willamette Valley, the greater portion pursued the old route down Snake River, and reached Oregon City without any unusual incident. Not so with all of them, for one hundred and fifty people, with forty-two wagons, were induced at Fort Hall to attempt a new route. At Fort Hall, Fort Boise and Fort Walla Walla, the Hudson's Bay Company was doing a thriving trade with the immigrants, selling them supplies and buying for a song their worn-out cattle, or giving in exchange for them an order on the Chief Factor at Vancouver for a like number of the wild cattle belonging to the company. The general feeling against the com- pany was very bitter, and in the spring of 1846 a number of men who had settled in the extreme southern end of the valley, decided to explore for a new route that would miss the company's posts and present less obstacles to the passage of wagons than the old one down Snake River. They believed that further south it was less mountainous, and that Meek's idea of the year before was correct, his error consisting in not keeping far enough to the south. If this new route could be found they would accomplish the two -fold object of drawing the immigrants away from the trading posts and bringing them first into the upper end of the valley, where, prob- ably, the majority of them would settle — a result earnestly desired by the few who had already made their homes in that region. These men have been charged with having the latter result as their sole object, and that to accomplish it they deceived the immigrants as to the character of the route; but the allegation requires to sus- tain it far more proof than has yet been adduced, especially when made against such men as the Applegates. The road party was composed of Captain Levi Scott, Jesse and Lindsay Applegate, John Jones, John Owens, Henry Boggus, Wil- liam Sportsman, Samuel Goodhue, Robert Smith, Moses Harris, John Scott, William G. Parker, David Goff, and Benjamin F. Burch. They passed through Umpqua Valley and Rogue River EIGHTEEN FORTY-FOUR TO EIGHTEEN FORTY-NINE. 299 Valley, crossed the Cascades to Klamath, Tule and Goose lakes, and thence over the arid hills and valleys of Nevada to Fort Hall. They found the route to present far less obstacles to the passage of wagons than the old one, and were of the opinion that water and grass existed at sufficiently short intervals to render it a practicable one for emigrant trains. In this latter opinion they were not cor- rect, though a few years later, the route having been remodeled and new watering places found, it was quite extensively used by emi- grants to Northern California and Southern Oregon. The trouble lay chiefly in the fact that they were mounted, and traveled much more rapidly than the slow- moving emigrant wagon, and were thus easily led into a mistake in judgment. The consequence was, that those who were led by their representations at Fort Hall to try the new route, found it almost devoid of water and grass until Goose Lake was reached. They suffered severely, and their cattle became so feeble that they could scarcely pull the wagons along, many of them lying down in the endless sea of sage brush to die. From Goose Lake to L^mpqua Canyon, water and grass were plentiful, but the work kept the cattle from recuperating fully, so that they reached the canyon in very poor condition. Here was reached the climax. The feeble cattle, such of them as remained alive, were unequal to the task of }:>ulling the wagons through. Added to this their great loss of time had caused the exhaustion of their s applies, which they had not the opportunity to replenish offered by the trading posts along the old route. Their hardships were great ; and many of them, abandoning everything in the canyon, reached the valley in a deplorable condition. Among these were Hon. J. Quinn Thornton and wife, who experienced exceptionally severe hardships. The impression then received by Mr. Thornton, that those who had induced him to depart from the old route had done so by means of willful falsehood and for unworthy and selfish motives, has never faded away. It has given rise to much acrimonious discus- sion and bitter feeling, and is the more to be regretted because the two leaders of the controversy — Mr. Thornton and Jesse Applegate — are both gentlemen of great natural and acquired attainments, of sterling integrity, and receive the universal respect and honor of their fellow pioneers. A roster of the emigrant trains of 1846 has never been prepared. 300 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. The immigrants brought with them intelligence that the bound- ary question was again being negotiated, and was in a fair way to be settled, giving the country, as far north, at least, as the forty- ninth parallel, to the United States ; and this had a most cheering effect upon this small self-governed community. The annual elec- tion for representatives and county officers occurred June 4, 1846. The following gentlemen were chosen members of the Legislature : Hiram Straight, A. L. Lovejoy, W. G. T'Vault, from Clackamas ; J. L. Meek, Lawrence Hall, D. H. Lownsdale, from Tualatin; Jesse Looney, Angus McDonald, Robert Newell, A. Chamberlain^ from Champoeg; Governor Simmons, from Clatsop; Thomas Jeffreys, A. J. Hembree, from Yamhill; J. E. Williams, John D. Boon, from Polk; Henry Peers, from Vancouver; W. F. Tolmie, from Lewis. Lewis had been cut from Vancouver (now Clarke) by the previous Legislature, both lying on the north side of the Columbia. Another event of 1846 was the founding of the Oregon Spectator at Oregon City, printed upon the press brought in 1839 from the Sandwich Islands. The first number was issued in February, and it was the first newspaper upon the Pacific Coast, since the initial number of the Californian was not printed at Monterey until the fifteenth of the following August. On the tenth of September the United States schooner Shark was lost on the bar of the Columbia while endeavoring to put to sea, and her stand of colors was a 1 ! the crew saved from the wreck. Lieutenant Howison, her com- mander, enjoyed the hospitalities of the pioneers for several months, and upon taking his departure presented the colors to the people through Governor Abernethy, accompanied by the following letter: — One of the few articles preserved from the ship-wreck of the late United States schooner Shark, was her stand of colors. To display the national emblem, and cheer our citizens in this distant territory by its presence, was a principal object of the Shark's visit to the Columbia ; and it appears to me, therefore, highly proper that it should henceforth remain with you, as a memento of parental regard from the General Government. With the fullest confidence that it will be received and duly appreciated as such by our countrymen here, I do myself the honor of transmitting the flags (an Ensign and Union Jack) to your address ; nor can I omit the occasion to express my gratification and pride that this relic of my late command should be emphatically the first United States flag to wave over the undisputed and purely American territory of Oregon. The flags still, on proper occasions, flutter in the Oregon breezes. Lieutenant Howison, upon his return, wrote a report of Oregon EIGHTEEN FOETY-FOUR TO EIGHTEEN FORTY-NINE. 301 and the struggles of her loyal citizens, which did much to open the eyes of the Government to the condition of this region and the necessity of doing something for the protection of those hardy people who had carried the picket line of republican institutions so far into the wilderness. The immigration of 1847 has been estimated at five thousand souls, fully two-thirds of whom came to Oregon, the remainder adding their strength to the Americans who were struggling to hold possession of California against the defeated Mexicans, from whose grasp it had been wrested. Many most valuable things were brought by them, things which added largely to the means the people possessed to increase their comfort and wealth. As one of them (Hon. Ralph C. Greer) expressed it in a recent speech, they " brought everything nearly, from a paper of pins to a four-foot buhr." The mill-stones were brought by a Mr. Haun, a Missouri miller of considerable notoriety. Another important item was a herd of pure Durham cattle, brought by John Wilson, of Illinois, who also had among his effects some splendid brood mares. Cap- tain Benser and J. C. Geer, Sr., also brought some fine cattle, and M. L. Savage, the well known race horse " Old George.'' In a few years the cattle and horses of the Willamette Valley showed the effects of this introduction of blooded stock among them. Mr. Fields contributed a flock of fine sheep from Missouri, whose descendants have always been held in high esteem by the farmers of the valley. " Uncle " Headrick, William Turpin, Johnson Mulkey and R. Patton also brought flocks of fine sheep. Thomas and Wil- liam Cox brought a stock of goods and opened at Salem the first store south of Champoeg. They also brought peach pits and planted them. A. R. Dimick brought potato seeds, which he planted in the northern part of Marion County, raising the famous " Dimick " potatoes. Mr. Geer brought a bushel of apple seeds and a half bushel of pear seeds, which went far toward supplying the coast with fruit trees. But by far the most important under- taking of all is thus related by Mr. Geer: — But the greatest undertaking, and one that was crowned with success, and one that contributed the most to the name and fame of Oregon, was the "Traveling Nursery," brought across the plains by the late Henderson Luelling, in 1847. If a man is a benefactor to his race who makes two spears of grass grow where only one grew before, what is he to his State who makes luscious pears, cherries, plums and 302 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. apples grow, where only poor seedlings, or none, grew before ! Mr. Henderson Luelling, by bringing that splendid assortment of apples, pears, plums, cherries, quinces, grapes, berries and flowers in his "Traveling Nursery" to Oregon in 1847, gave to Oregon the name of "God's Country, or the Land of Big Red Apples," a name that every pioneer of Oregon feels proud of. I never thought Mr. Luelling received the reward that his enterprise merited. I have dealt with him to the extent of thousands of dollars, from one dollar to two thousand dollar transactions, and always found him honest. Being honest himself he trusted too much, and consequently was victimized to a fearful extent. The conception and carrying out of that enterprise was not the sudden conviction as to the importance of the fruit business, but was the result of a train of circumstances, the most controlling of which was his long and successful engagement in the nursery business. In the fall of 1845 he began to prepare to start to Oregon, but could not dispose of his land in time to start until it would be quite late, so he concluded to wait another year and bring the "Traveling Nursery." He planted his nursery thus: He made two boxes twelve inches deep, and just wide and long enough to fill the wagon bed, and filled them with a compost consisting principally of charcoal and earth, into which he planted about seven hundred trees and shrubs, from twenty inches to four feet high, and protected them from the stock by a light though strong frame fastened to the wagon bed. He left the Missouri River the seventeenth of May. On the Platte Mr. Luelling took charge of the nursery wagon and team to bring it through in his own way and time, for it was already pronounced by some of his friends as a very hazardous undertaking to draw such a heavy load all the way over the Rocky Mountains; but every discouraging proposition he invariably answered, that so long as he could take it without endangering the safety of his family, he would stick to it. The last time that any one tried to discourage him about the nursery wagon was on the North Platte. Rev. Mr. White suggested that he had better leave it, as the cattle were becoming weary and foot-sore, and that owing to the continued weight of that load, it would kill all his cattle and prevent his getting through ; but his answer was such an emphatic "no," that he was allowed to follow his own course after that without remonstrance. The nursery reached The Dalles about the first of October, and the trees were there taken out of the boxes and securely wrapped in cloths to protect them from frosty nights and the various handlings that they had to undergo in the transit down the Columbia. That load of trees contained health, wealth and comfort for the old pioneers of Oregon. It was the mother of all our early nurseries and orchards, and gave Oregon a name and fame that she never would have had with- out it. The load of living trees and shrubs brought more wealth to Oregon than any ship that ever entered the Columbia River. Then I say hail, all hail, to the " Traveling Nursery " that crossed the plains in 1847! Besides those already mentioned the immigration of 1847 con- tained many who subsequently became prominent in the political, professional and industrial life of Oregon, one of them being Hon. Samuel R. Thurston, who first represented the Territory in Con- gress, and in whose honor Thurston County, now in Washington Territory, was named. A portion of the immigration of 1847 came down the Humboldt and over the Applegate trail to Southern Oregon, the route which EIGHTEEN FORTY-FOUR TO EIGHTEEN FORTY-NINE. 303 had been found such a disastrous one the year before. They were guided by Captain Levi Scott, the man who had been the leader of the road exploring party, and who accompanied the first of the four trains which this year followed that route. They experienced no un- usual difficulty, and accomplished the whole distance from Snake River, at the mouth of Raft River, to the head of Willamette Val- ley, in sixty-three days, a much shorter time than it took the unfortu- nate party with Mr. Thornton. One of them, Hon. Thomas Smith, says: "We got through ' the Canyon ' with but little trouble, although it was such a bug-a-boo to the emigration the year before." The easy passage of these trains in 1847 is conclusive evidence that the disasters of 1846 can not be wholly charged up to the unfavorable character of the route, and that the gentlemen who persuaded the immigrants to attempt its passage were not guilty of so much mis- representation of it as has been charged against them. Of the members of these trains — one of which attempted to reach the Sac- ramento Valley from near Lost River, but failed and came to Ore- gon — Mr. Smith remembers the following, many of whom still re- side in the State : John Grimsby, wife and six children ; Abraham Coryell and two grown sons, Lewis and George; Benjamin Davis, wife and six children; Ira Wells, wife and one child; David Wells and wife; William Wyatt, wife and two or three children; William Aldrich, Sr., and wife; William Aldrich, Jr., and wife; Andrew Welsh, wife and two or three children ; William Johnson ; William Risk; John Benson; David Cook; Thomas Smith; Mr. Davidson; John Lebo; David D. Davis and family; Briggs, Sr., and wife; Briggs, Jr., and wife; Prior F. Blair and family; James Frederick and family; John Aiken and family; James Chapin; Cornelius Hills; Charnell Mulligan; Wilkeson Gouldy; Joseph Downer; John Gilliam; George Gilliam. On the third of June, 1847, was held the annual election for of- ficers, both territorial and county. There were 1,074 votes cast, of which George Abernethy received 536, A. Lawrence Lovejoy 520, A. Husted 11, and scattering 7; thus continuing Mr. Abernethy as the Chief Executive of the Provisional Government. The follow- ing gentlemen were chosen members of the Legislature : Medorum Crawford, J. W. Wair, S. S. White, from Clackamas; Ralph Wil- cox, Joseph L. Meek, David Hill, from Tualatin ; Willard H. Rees, 304 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. A. Chamberlain, Robert Newell, Anderson Cox, W. H. Rector, from Champoeg; L. A. Rice, Lewis Rogers, A. J. Hembree, from Yamhill; J. W. Nesmith, N. A. Ford, W. St. Clare, from Polk; Henry Peers, William Ryan, from Vancouver; S. Plamonden, from Lewis; J. Robinson, from Clatsop. The next and last election under the Provisional Government was held June 12, 1848. The usual county officers were chosen and the following members of the Legislature: A. L. Lovejoy,* George L. Curry, J. S. Snook,* from Clackamas; William J. Bailey, Robert Newell, A. Gaines, William Portius, from Champoeg; Ralph Wilcox, Samuel R. Thurston, Peter H. Burnett, from Tual- atin; William Martin, A. J. Hembree, L. A. Rice, from Yamhill; H. Linnville, J. W. Nesmith, Osborn Russell, from Polk. The emigration of 1848 was quite large, though statistics in re- lation to it have never been gathered. Many who had originally started for Oregon changed their destination for California when learning while en route of the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill. * Resigned, and Medorum Crawford and A. F. Hedges chosen at special election Nov. 27, 1848. CHAPTER XVIII. THE WHITMAN MASSACRE AND THE CAYUSE WAR. Condition of Protestant and Catholic Missions in 181^7 — Situation of Affairs at Waiilatjpu — Tom Hill and Joe Lewis — Whitman Buys The Dalles Mission and Prepares to Abandon Waiilatpu — Catholics Establish a Mission on the Umatilla — Sickness among the Cayuses — Joe Lewis' Poison Story — Evidence of Colonel Craig and the Whitman Indians — Details of the Massacre — Charges Against the Catholics — Ransom of the Captives — Action of the Provisional Government — Oregon Rifles Take Possession of The Dalles — A Regi- ment Organized — Campaign in the Cay use Country — End of the War — Five Cayuses Executed at Oregon City. THE condition of the various missions has been noted from time to time, showing that the Catholics were making rapid pro- gress, the missions of the American Board east of the mountains advancing but slowly, and the Methodists losing ground so rapidly that work was discontinued everywhere but at The Dalles in 1844. The mission property at that point was sold to Dr. Whitman in the fall of 1847. The Catholics at that time numbered in their con- gregations fifteen hundred whites and half-breeds of Canadian descent, and six thousand Indian neophytes. Bishop F. N. Blanchet was at the head of the diocese, which included not only Oregon, Washington, Idaho and . Montana, but British Columbia, then known as u New Caledonia.'' Bishop Blanchet was in personal charge of the field west of the Cascades, Father A. M. A. Blanchet east of the mountains, and Father Modest Demers in New Caledonia. There were twenty-six clergymen employed, among whom were Fathers Michael Occolti, Peter J. DeSmet, Peter DeVos, Audrian Hoecken, Joseph Joset, Gregory Mengarini, John Nobili, Nicholas 306 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Point, Anthony Kavalli, Aloysius Vercruysse, Anthony Sandlois, John Baptist Balduc. In the Willamette Valley there had been built St. Paul's Cathedral, St. Mary's Convent, St. Francis Xave- rius' Chapel, St. John's, in Oregon City, and a new church in French Prairie; there were also churches at Vancouver, Cowlitz and Whidby in Western Washington, four in New Caledonia, St. Mary's among the Flat Heads, Sacred Heart at Cceur d'Alene, St. Ignatius at Lake Pend d'Oreille, and St. Paul near Fort Colville. There were also half a dozen other stations where chapels or churches were contemplated. In the way of institutions of learning St. Paul's College and an academy for girls had been founded in the Willamette Valley, and other schools were maintained at some of the older missions. This array of strength is a startling comparison with the feebleness of the Protestant Missions. The leading causes have been pointed out— T the powerful influence of the Hudson's Bay Company, the methods, ceremonies and discipline of the Catholic Church, and the fact that they were not, like the Protest- ants, held responsible by the Indians for the great influx of Ameri- can settlers. Of the missions of the American Board, that at Lapwai was making slight progress, Tshimikain was holding its own, and Waiilatpu was retrograding. At each station there were a few who seemed to be in full accord with the missionaries, but the majority were indifferent, and some were even hostile. At Waiilatpu things had been going wrong for some time. From the time Whitman first went among them there was a small portion of the Cayuses who were opposed to him and his work, Tam-su-ky, an influential chief who resided on the Walla Walla, being at the head of this turbulent faction. When Whitman returned with the great train of emigrants in 1843, these Indians pointed to it as an evidence that his missionary pretensions were but a cloak to cover his design upon their liberties, that he was bringing Americans into the country to take away their lands. This feeling of hostility spread from year to year* , especially among the Cayuses, through whose country the emigrants nearly all passed, and who were thus better able than the other tribes to see in what great numbers they came and what a cordial welcome they received from Dr. Whitman and his associates. In 1845 a Delaware Indian, called a Tom Hill," THE WHITMAN MASSACRE AND THE CAYUSE WAR. 307 lived among the Nez Perces and told them how American mission- aries visited his people to teach them religion, and were soon fol- lowed by other Americans who took away their lands; and he warned them to drive Mr. Spalding away, unless they would invite a similar misfortune. This Indian visited Whitman's Mission and related to the Cayuses the story of the ruin of his tribe which had followed the advent of American missionaries among them. In the latter part of 1847 another Indian came among the Cay- uses, about whose pedigree there has been so much dispute that it is as well to pass it by. He had spent much time among the whites, and being serviceable as an interpreter, and being possessed of much intelligence, the doctor gave him employment about the mission. He seemed to be possessed of a fiendish disposition and to harbor a special malignity against the Americans. Joe Lewis, for such was his name, reaffirmed the statements of Tom Hill, and said that it was the American plan to first send missionaries, and then a few settlers every year, until they had taken all the land and made the Indians slaves. Tam-su-ky and his followers were now triumphant, and boasted of their superior wisdom in opposing the mission from the first. Besides this faction there were now many who desired to exchange to the Catholic religion, of which they heard favorable reports from other tribes. The long black gowns and imposing ceremonies had captured them. Whitman was warned of the danger he ran by Um-howlish and Stick -us, but though he per- ceived the gathering storm he thought it could be averted. Thomas McKay, between whom and the doctor there existed a warm friend- ship, also warned him that it was. unsafe to live longer among the Cayuses, and Whitman offered to sell the property to him, an offer which he agreed to accept if he could dispose of his claim in the Willamette Valley. With this sale in view, Whitman went to The Dalles in the fall of 1847, and purchased the disused Methodist Mission, and placing his nephew, P. B. Whitman, in charge, re- turned to spend the winter at Waiilatpu, preparatory to moving to his new location in the spring. This was the condition of affairs when the Catholics decided to take advantage of the desire of a number of the Cayuses to embrace that faith and establish a mission among them. On September 5, 1847, Father A. M. A. Blanchet reached Walla Walla with three associate priests, and the fort be- 308 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. came their headquarters for a number of weeks while they were seek- ing a place suitable for a permanent location. There Whitman found them upon his return from The Dalles, and quite a stormy interview ensued, though it must be confessed that the storming was chiefly done by the indignant doctor; and no wonder. He had just made arrangements to abandon all he had accomplished by eleven years of self-denial and labor, and here he found those to whom he attributed his misfortunes ready to take his place even before he had left it. He made known his displeasure in strong terms, but his rebuke was received with an unruffled coolness that served but to increase his aggravation. They finally located on the Umatilla at the home of Five Crows, the head chief, two days before the massacre, Father J. B. A. Brouillet being in charge. That year immigrants from the States brought with them dysen- tery and the measles, which soon became epidemic among the Cay- uses. Many Indians died in spite of the remedies administered by the doctor and the careful attention of his noble wife. This was Joe Lewis' opportunity. He told the Cayuses that Whitman intended to kill them all; that for this purpose he had sent home for poison two years before, but they had not forwarded a good kind; this year the immigrants had brought him some good poison, and he was now using it to kill off the Cayuses; that when they were all dead the Americans would come and take their lands. He even went so far as to declare that he overheard a conversation between Mr. Spalding and Doctor and Mrs. Whitman, in which the former complained because the doctor was not killing them fast enough, and then the trio began to count up the wealth they would acquire when the Indians were all disposed of. He also asserted that the priest (Father Brouillet) had told him the Doctor was giv- ing them poison. A number of years before an American trapper and renegade had purposely spread small-pox among the Blackfeet, and killed hundreds of that tribe. This was well known by all the Indian tribes from the Cascades to the Missouri, and had its effect in leading the Cayuses to believe the Doctor was poisoning them. These statements are made upon the authority of the written statement of Colonel William Craig, a well-known American trapper and trader, who happened to be at Lapwai when a Cayuse messenger arrived there nine days after the massacre, for the purpose of THE WHITMAN MASSACRE AND THE CAYTJSE WAR. 309 informing the powerful Nez Perces of what had taken place and securing their support. Colonel Craig was present at the council, and heard these reasons given by the Cayuse courier. They are also based upon an interview held by the writer with three of these Indians at Pendleton, one of them, Um-howlish, being a chief at the time of the massacre and a warm supporter of Whitman, and still an adherent of the simple faith 'taught him by the Doctor. On the point of the priest telling that Whitman was giving them poison, they unanimously agreed that they never heard him say so, but that Joe Lewis had told them the priest said it; that it was gener- ally believed at the time that the priest had thus stated, but after- wards, in canvassing the question among themselves, no one could be found to whom the priest had said anything of the kind, and that it all came through Joe Lewis. One thing the Roman mis- sionary did say, and this helped to confirm them in the belief that he had said the other — that Dr. Whitman was a bad man, and if they believed what he told them they would all go to hell, for he was telling them lies. Even such a statement as that, coming from such a source, and made to unreasoning and passionate savages, already unduly excited by the loss of so many of their number, was enough, in case they believed it true, to have caused the bloody scene which followed, even had not the poison theory been so* industriously circulated by the scheming Lewis. Without knowing of the perfidious conduct of Joe Lewis, Whitman recognized the impending danger, and requested McKay to spend the winter with him ; but he was unable to comply. The followers of Tani-su-ky determined to put the poison theory to a practical test. The wife of that chief was sick; and they agreed among themselves that they would get some medicine from the Doctor and give it to her; if she recovered, good; if not, then they would kill the missionaries. They made the experiment, and the woman died. Waiilatpu was centrally located, since the Cay- uses occupied the country from the Umatilla to the Tukannon. Every Sunday large numbers gathered at the Mission, some of them to actually participate in the services, and others because of the large crowd they knew would be assembled. On week days, how- ever, it was seldom that a dozen could be found there at a time. For this reason Tam-su-ky and his followers chose a week day for 310 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. their bloody deed — a time when they thought none of the Whitman Indians would be present to interfere. They were careful to con- ceal their designs from the Christian Indians and from Five Crows, for fear its execution would be prevented. On November 29, 1847 7 about fifty Indians assembled at the Mission, chiefly the relatives and friends of Tani-su-ky. Of these, only five actually participated in the bloody work, the others simply looking on and preventing the interference of any outsiders, and especially of the one or two Whitman Indians who happened to be present. The horrible de- tails of the massacre it is needless to relate. Mr. Spalding has given them with a minuteness that is strongly suggestive of a liberal use of the imagination, yet his narrative is, in the main, probably as correct as could be gathered from the incoherent stories of fright- ened women and children. It is only when he carries the melodra- matic too far, and when he is endeavoring to make it appear that the massacre was committed at the instigation of Father Brouillet, and was sanctioned by the Hudson's Bay Company, that his state- ments become positively unreliable; though throughout the whole account they closely border upon the line of uncertainty and doubt- ful authenticity, and the deductions drawn are often extremely un- charitable and illogical. He uses such expressions as " multitudes •of Indians," "cutting down their victims everywhere," "the roar of guns,' 7 " crash of warclubs and tomahawks" "shocks like terrific peals of thunder " (referring to the desultory discharge of a few guns), " crash of the clubs and the knives" and yet, when the whole is summed up, but thirteen were killed in all — nine that day, two the next, and two eight days later. He is equally reckless in his language when making charges against Father Brouillet, whom he accuses of coming up from the Umatilla the day after the mas- sacre and " baptizing the murderers." The facts are, that he came upon an invitation given him by the Missionary several days before, only learning of the horrible tragedy upon his arrival; and the " murderers " whom he baptized were three sick children, two of whom expired immediately after the ceremony. He also accuses him of pretending to find the poison and burying it so that it could have no more influence. On this point the Whitman Indians state positively that this performance was done by Joe Lewis, and not the Priest. The only interference the Priest dared to make openly THE WHITMAN MASSACRE AND THE CAYUSE WAR. 311 was when he successfully interposed to save Spalding's life, and gave him food upon which to subsist during his flight to Lapwai. The bloody excesses into which religious zealots were led in times past suggest the possibility of the truth of these charges, yet they are entirely unsupported by evidence which would appeal to the intelligence of any one unbiased by denominational prejudice; and common charity should demand convincing proof to sustain such an accusation. The Catholics can not, however, escape a large measure of moral responsibility. Thev went among the Cayuses for the purpose of driving Whitman away and obtaining control of the tribe; and to accomplish this they told the Indians that Doctor Whitman was a bad man and was telling them lies, and if they did as he said they would surely go to hell. Father Brouillet ought by that time to have become sufficiently acquainted with the Indian character to know that such assertions, if they were credited, were calculated to bring about just such a tragedy as was enacted. The massacre was the result of four distinct causes — the dislike of Americans, the ravages of the epidemic, the poison intrigue of Joe Lewis, and the Priest's denunciation of Doctor Whitman, and where the responsibility for one of these rests is easily seen. The victims of Cayuse ignorance and passion were: Doctor Marcus Whitman, Mrs. Xarcissa Whitman, John Sager, Francis Sager, Crocket Bewley, Mr. Eogers, Mr. Kimball, Mr. Sales, Mr. Marsh, Mr. Saunders, James Young, Jr., Mr. Hoffman and Isaac Gillen. Intelligence of the massacre reached Fort Vancouver by special messenger from William McBean to James Douglas, the Chief Factor. The courier did not warn the people at The Dalles of their danger as he passed, and when questioned about his conduct replied that he obeyed the instructions of Mr. McBean. This and McBean's conduct at Fort Walla Walla in displaying an unwilling- ness to give shelter to fugitives from Waiilatpu, have been cited as conclusive evidence that the Hudson's Bay Company connived at the massacre; but nothing in the conduct of other officers of the company sustains such an opinion, while much is to the contrary, and it simply shows that McBean, knowing the general feeling of the Indians against the Americans, was afraid he would compro- mise the company by defending them. He had not soul enough to rise to the emergency. Mr. Douglas sent a messenger to Governor 312 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Abernethy, apprising him of what had taken place; and without waiting to see what steps the Americans would take, Peter Skeen Ogden, an old and influential factor of the company, departed from Vancouver with an armed force to the scene of the tragedy. He held a council with the Cayuses at Fort Walla Walla, and offered to ransom the captives, assuring the Indians that the company was exceedingly displeased with their conduct, and they would much regret it if they provoked the Americans to war. The conference resulted in the surrender of forty-seven prisoners, chiefly women and children, and on January 1, fifty Nez Perces arrived with Mr. Spalding and ten others, who were also ransomed. On the tenth they all reached Oregon City, and great was the joy of the people. For his humane conduct and prompt action Peter Ogden should always occupy a warm place in the heart of Americans; yet there are those who ungratefully accuse him of attempting to arm the Cayuses against the Americans, simply because a few guns and a little ammunition formed a portion of the ransom paid to deliver these helpless women from a captivity which was worse than death. The pen fails utterly to depict the terrible sufferings inflicted upon them, including even girls of a tender age, bordering upon infancy. No ransom was too great for their release. The first intelligence received by the settlers in the Willamette Valley of the tragedy at Waiilatpu, was the note sent to Governor Abernethy by Dr. McLoughlin. The Governor immediately com- municated it to the Legislature, then in session, and called for vol- unteers. A public meeting was held in Oregon City that night, the eighth of December, and a company was organized for the purpose of taking possession of The Dalles. As winter had set in, there was no danger of an invasion from east of the mountains except by way of The Dalles. How much of a combination there was among the Cayuses and their neighbors was not known. Con- sequently it was necessary to provide against the worst that might be expected. It w^as evident that a force at The Dalles was neces- sary as a protection to the settlements in the valley. Of this com- pany Henry A. G. Lee was elected Captain, and Joseph Magone and John E. Koss Lieutenants. The credit of the Provisional Government was pledged by the Legislature to secure equipments for the command, but the committee which visited Vancouver found THE WHITMAN MASSACRE, AND THE CATUSE WAR. 313 that the Chief Factor preferred their individual responsibility. Upon giving this, arms were issued to the " Oregon Rifles," who reached Vancouver on the tenth to receive them. On the twenty - first they reached The Dalles and went into camp. In the mean- time the Legislature entered with energy upon a series of resolutions and enactments with a view to a military organization of magnitude sufficient to chastise the Indians, and the citizens by subscriptions and enlistments seconded cordially the efforts of their Provisional Government. Many were for pushing forward into the enemy's country at once with a formidable force, but wiser counsels pre- vailed, and nothing was done likely to prevent the Indians from surrendering their white captives to Mr. Ogden. In pursuance of the act of December 9, a regiment of fourteen companies of volunteers was raised and equipped upon the credit of the Provisional Government. It speaks volumes for the brave pio- neers of the Willamette that they thus responded to the call of duty, supplying, in most cases, their own arms, equipments and horses, without a mercenary thought entering their minds. It was no specu- lation either by the volunteers or the men who furnished supplies — something which can not be said of certain subsequent campaigns. The following is a roster of the officers: — FIELD AND STAFF OFFICERS. Colonel, Cornelius Gilliam (accidentally killed). Lieutenant-Colonel, James Waters (promoted to Colonel). Major, H. A. G. Lee. Adjutant, B. F. Burch. Surgeon, W. M. Carpenter. Assistant Surgeons, F. Snider and H. SafTarans. Commissary, Joel Palmer. Quartermaster, B. Jennings. Paymaster, L. B. Knox. Judge Advocate, Jacob S. Rinearson. LIXE OFFICERS. Company A— 55 men— Captain, Lawrence Hall; First Lieutenant, H. D. O'Bryant; Second Lieutenant, John Engent. Company B— 43 men— Captain, John W. Owens; First Lieutenant, A. F. Rogers; Second Lieutenant, T. C. Shaw. Company C— 84 men— Captain, H. J. G. Maxon; First Lieutenant, I. X. Gilbert; Second Lieutenant, Wm. P. Pugh. Company D— 36 men— Captain, Thomas McKay; First Lieutenant, Charles McKay; Second Lieutenant, Alex. McKay. 314 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Company D— 52 men— Captain, Phil. F. Thompson ; First Lieutenant, *Jas. Brown; Second Lieutenant, J. M. Garrison. Company E— 44 men— Captain, Levi N. English ; First Lieutenant, Wm. Shaw ; Second Lieutenant, F. M. Munkers. Company E— 36 men— Captain, William Martin ; First Lieutenant, A. E. Garrison ; Second Lieutenant, David Waters. Company E— 63 men— Captain, W. P. Pugh ; First Lieutenant, N. B. Doty ; Second Lieutenant, M. Ramsely. Company G — 66 men — Captain, James W. Nesmith; First Lieutenant, J. S. Snook? Second Lieutenant, M. Gilliam. Company H — 49 men— Captain, George W. Bennett; First Lieutenant, J. R. Bevin; Second Lieutenant, J. R. Payne. fCompany 1—36 men— Captain, William Shaw ; First Lieutenant, D. Crawford ; Second Lieutenant, B. Dario. Company No. 7—27 men— Captain, J. M. Garrison; First Lieutenant, A. E. Garri- son ; Second Lieutenant, John Hersen. F. S. Water's Guard— 57 men— Captain, Wm. Martin ; First Lieutenant, D. Wes- ton; Second Lieutenant, B. Taylor. Reorganized Company— Captain, John E. Ross; First Lieutenant, D. P. Barnes; Second Lieutenant, W. W. Porter. Colonel Gilliam reached The Dalles on the twenty -third of February, with fifty men, followed a few days later by the re- mainder of the regiment. On the twenty -seventh he moved to the Des Chutes with one hundred and thirty men, crossed to the east bank, and sent Major Lee up that stream about twenty miles on a reconnoisance, where he found the enemy, engaged them, killed one, lost some of his horses and returned to report progress. On the twenty-ninth Colonel Gilliam moved up the Des Chutes to Meek's Crossing, at the mouth of the cay on in which Major Lee had met the Indians. The next morning, on entering the canyon, a skirmish followed, in which were captured from the hostiles, forty horses, four head of cattle and $300 worth of personal property, all of which was sold by the Quartermaster for $1^400. The loss of the Indians in killed and wounded was not known. There was one white man wounded. The result was a treaty of peace with the Des Chutes Indians. The command pushed immediately for- ward to the Walla Walla country and reached the Mission prior to March 4. On the way to that place a battle occurred at Sand Hollows, on the emigrant road, eight miles east of the Well Springs. It commenced on the plain where washes in the sand make natural hiding places for a foe, and lasted until towards night. The volun- " * Died at Vancouver, February 30, 1848. f Organized at Walla Walla, June 7, 1848; mustered out September 28, 1848. Companies E and No. 7 Were consolidated as Company K, April 17, 1848. THE WHITMAN MASSACRE AND THE CAYUSE WAR. 315 teer force was arranged with the train in the road, protected by Captain Hall's company. The companies of Captains Thompson and Maxon, forming the left flank, were on the north side of the road, and those of Captains English and McKay, as the right flank, were on the south or right of the command. Upon McKay's com- pany at the extreme right the first demonstration was made. Five Crows, the head chief of the Cayuses, made some pretensions to the possession of wizard powers, and declared to his people that no ball from the white man's mm could kill him. Another chief of that tribe named "War Eagle," or "Swallow Ball," made similar pro- fessions, and stated that he could swallow all the bullets from the guns of the invading army if they were fired at him. The two chiefs promised their people that Gilliam's command should never reach the Umatilla River, and to demonstrate their invulnerability and power as medicine chiefs, they dashed out from concealment, rode down close to the volunteers and shot a little dog that came out to bark at them. Captain McKay, although the order was not to fire, could hold back no longer, and bringing his rifle to bear, took deliberate aim and shot War Eagle through the head, killing him instantly. Lieutenant Charles McKay brought his shot gun down to the hollow of his arm, and firing without sighting it, so severely wounded Five Crows that he gave up the command of his warriors. This was a serious, chilling opening for the Indians — two chiefs gone at the first onset and their medicine proved worth- less — but they continued the battle in a skirmishing way, making dashing attacks and masterly retreats until late in the afternoon. At one time during the engagement, Captain Maxon's company followed the enemy so far that it was surrounded, and a sharp en- counter followed, in which a number of volunteers were disabled. In fact, eight of the eleven soldiers wounded that day were of Maxon's company. Two Indians were known to have been killed, but the enemy's loss could not be known as they removed all of their wounded and dead except two. That night the regiment camped on the battlefield without water, and the Indians built large and numerous fires along the bluffs, or high lands, some two miles in advance. The next day Colonel Gilliam moved on, and without incident worthy of note, reached Whitman's Mission the third day after the battle. The 316 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. main body of Indians fell back towards Snake River, and a fruit- less attempt followed to induce them to give up the parties who had committed the murders at Waiilatpu. Colonel Gilliam at last determined upon making a raid into the Snake River country, and in carrying out this programme surprised a camp of Cayuses near that stream, among whom were some of the murderers. The cap- tured camp professed friendship, however, and pointed out the horses of Indians on the hill, which, they said, belonged to the parties whom the Colonel was anxious to kill or capture, stating that their owners were on the north side of Snake River, and be- yond reach. So well was their part acted that the officers believed their statements, proceeded to drive off the stock indicated, and started on their return. They soon found that a grievous error had been committed in releasing the village, whose male population were soon mounted upon war horses, and assailed the volunteers on all sides, forcing them to fight their way as they fell back to the Touchet River. Through the whole day and even into the night after their arrival at the latter stream, the contest was maintained — a constant, harassing skirmish. The soldiers drove the Indians back again and again, but as soon as the retreat was resumed, the enemy were upon them once more. Finally, after going into camp on the Touchet, Colonel Gilliam ordered the captured stock turned loose; and when the Indians got possession of it, they returned to Snake River without molesting the command any further. In the struggle on the Touchet, when the retreating soldiers first reached that stream, William Taylor was mortally wounded by an Indian, who sprang up in the bushes by the stream and fired with but a few yards between them. Nathan Olney, afterwards Indian Agent, seeing the act, rushed upon the savage, snatched from his hand a war club in which was fastened a piece of iron, and dealt him a blow on the head with it with such force as to cause the iron to split the club, and yet failed to kill him. He then closed with his antagonist in a hand-to-hand struggle, and soon ended the contest with a knife. There were no other casualties reported. Colonel Gilliam started from the Mission on the twentieth of March, with a small force destined to return from The Dalles with supplies, while he was to continue to the Willamette and report to the Governor. While camped at Well Springs he was killed by THE WHITMAN MASSACRE AND THE CAYUSE WAR. 317 an accidental discharge of a gun, and his remains were taken to his friends west of the Cascades by Major Lee. This officer soon re- turned to his regiment with a commission as Colonel, but finding Lieutenant -Colonel Waters had been elected by the regiment to that position in his absence, he resigned and filled a subordinate office for the remainder of his term of enlistment. The attempt by commissioners, who had been sent with the volunteers, as requested by the Indians in a memorial to the Americans at the time the captives were ransomed, to negotiate a peaceful solution of the difficult problem, failed. They wanted the Indians to deliver up for execution all those who had imbued their hands in blood at Waiilatpu ; they wished the Cayuses to pay all damages to emi- grants caused by their being robbed or attacked while passing through the Cayuse country. The Indians wished nothing of the kind. They wanted peace and to be let alone; for the Americans to call the account balanced and drop the matter. The failure to agree had resulted in two or three skirmishes, one of them at least a severe test of strength, in which the Indians had received the worst of it, and in the other the volunteers had accomplished noth- ing that could be counted a success. The Cayuses, finding that no compromise could be effected, abandoned their country, and most of them passed east of the Rocky Mountains. Nothing was left for the volunteers but to leave the country also, which they did, and the Cayuse War had practically ended. The Cayuses, as a tribe, had no heart in the war. Joe Lewis told them immediately after the massacre that now they must fight, and advised them to send him to Salt Lake with a band of horses, to trade for ammunition with the Mormons. He started with a select band of animals, accompanied by two young braves; and a few days later one of them returned with the intelligence that Joe Lewis had killed his companion and decamped with the horses; and this was the last the Cavuses saw of the scheming villain. Thus matters stood until the spring of 1850, when the Cayuses were given to understand that peace could be procured by delivering up the murderers for punishment. At that time Tam-su-ky and his sup- porter's, including many relatives who had not in any manner par- ticipated in the massacre, were hiding in the mountains at the head of John Day River. The Indians who desired peace went after 318 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. them, and a fight ensued, ending in the capture of nearly all of the outlawed band. In this fight " Cutmouth John," an Indian well known in Umatilla, while endeavoring to capture one of the mur- derers, received the wound which gave rise to his peculiar appella- tion. Only one of the five actually engaged in the bloody work at Waiilatpu (so the Whitman Indians assert) was captured, and he was Ta-ma-has, an ugly villain whom his countrymen called " The Murderer." It was he who commenced the work of death at Waiilatpu by burying a hatchet in Dr. Whitman's brain. Taking him and four others, several of the older men and chiefs went to Oregon City to deliver them up as hostages. They were at once thrown into prison, condemned and executed at Oregon City on June 3, 1850; and even the ones who had escorted them, in view of this summary proceeding, congratulated themselves upon their safe return. They believed that Ta-ma-has should have been hanged, but not the others; and to this opinion the few survivors of the tribe cling to the present day. CHAPTER XIX. OREGON BECOMES AX ORGANIZED TERRITORY. News Brought by Emigrants in 184-7 very Disheartening — Letter of Senator Benton — J. Quinn Thornton Sent to Washington to Urge Legislation — Incidents of his Journey — Joseph L. Meek sent to Washington after the Whitman Massacre — His Mid- Winter Journey ■ — Interesting Account of the Contest in the Senate over the Oregon Bill — General Joseph Lane Appointed Governor — His Trip Over- land — Organization of the Goverment — Officers of the Old and New Governments — Census of 18^9 — Discovery of Gold in California — Beaver Money. ALTHOUGH the treaty settling the boundary line was signed and proclaimed in the summer of 1846, Congress, the follow- ing winter, failed to pass any act creating a government for the people of Oregon, notwithstanding the fact that more than ten thousand Americans were thus denied the protection of the General Government. An appropriation, however, was made for mail ser- vice to Oregon via Panama; an Indian Agent was appointed, also a postmaster each for Astoria and Oregon City. One of these officials, Mr. Shively, brought with him two letters for the people of Oregon. One was from James Buchannan, Secretary of State, expressing the deep regret of President Polk that Congress had neglected them, and assuring them that he would do all in his power to aid them, including occasional visits from vessels of war and the presence of a regiment of dragoons to protect the emigrants. The other was from Thomas H. Benton, explaining the situation of affairs at Washington, where it was dated in March, 1847. Senator Benton's letter ran as follows: — 320 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Washington City, March, 1847. My friends (for such I may call many of you from personal acquaintance, all of you from my thirty years' devotion to the interests of your country) — I think it right to make this communication to you at the present moment when the adjourn- ment of Congress, without passing the bill for your government and protection, seems to have left you in a state of abandonment by your mother country. But such is not the case. You are not abandoned ! Nor will you be denied protection unless you agree to admit slavery. I, a man of the South, and a slaveholder, tell you this. The House of Representatives, as early as the middle of January, had passed the bill to give you a territorial government ; and in that bill had sanctioned and legalized your Provisional Organic Act, one of the clauses of which forever pro- hibited the existence of slavery in Oregon. An amendment from the Senate's committee, to which this bill was referred, proposed to abrogate that prohibition ; and in the delays and vexations to which that amendment gave rise, the whole bill was laid upon the table and lost for the session. This will be a great disappointment to you and a real calamity, already five years without law or legal institutions for the protection of life, liberty and property, and now doomed to wait a year longer. - This is a strange and anomalous condition, almost incredible to contemplate, and most critical to endure! A colony of free men, four thousand miles from the metropolitan government to preserve them! But do not be alarmed or desperate. You will not be outlawed for not ad- mitting slavery. Your fundamental act against that institution, copied from the Ordinance of 1787 (the work of the great men of the South, in the great day of the South, pro- hibiting slavery in a territory far less northern than yours), will not be abrogated! Nor is that the intention of the prime mover of the amendment. Upon the record of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate is the author of that amendment, but not so the fact. It is only midwife to it. Its author is the same mind that generated the "Fire Brand Resolutions," of which I send you a copy, and of which the amendment is the legitimate derivation. Oregon is not the object. The most rabid propagandist of slavery can not expect to plant it on the shores of the Pacific in the latitude of Wisconsin and the Lake of the Woods. A home agitation for election and disunion purposes, is all that is intended by thrusting this fire brand question into your bill as it ought to be. I promise you this in the name of the South, as well as of the North ; and the event will not deceive me. In the meantime, the President will give you all the protection which existing laws can enable him to extend to you, and until Congress has time to act, your friends must rely upon you to continue to govern yourselves as you have heretofore done under the provisions of your own voluntary compact, and with the justice, harmony and moderation which is due to your own character and to the honor of the American name. I send you, by Mr. Shively, a copy of the bill of the late session, both as it passed the House of Representatives and as proposed to be amended in the Senate, with the Senate's vote upon laying it on the table, and a copy of Mr. Calhoun's resolutions (posterior in date to the amendment, but nevertheless its father) ; also a copy of your own Provisional Organic Act, printed by order of the Senate ; all of which will put you completely in possession of the proceedings of Congress on your petition for a territorial government, and for the protection and security of your rights. In conclusion, I have to assure you that the same spirit which has made me the friend of Oregon for thirty years — which led me to denounce the joint occupation treaty the day it was made, and to oppose its renewal in 1828, and to labor for its abrogation until it was terminated; the same spirit which led me to reveal the OREGON BECOMES AN ORGANIZED TERRITORY. 321 grand destiny of Oregon in articles written in 1818, and to support every measure for her benefit since — the same spirit still animates me and will continue to do so while I live — which I hope will be long enough to see an emporium of Asiatic com- merce at the mouth of your river and a stream of Asiatic trade pouring into the valley of the Mississippi through the channel of Oregon. Your friend and fellow-citizen, THOMAS H. BENTON. The assurance contained in these letters that powerful friends were laboring in their interests, was a cheering thought amidst the disappointment of the unfavorable intelligence. It was felt that a representative direct from Oregon would be able to accomplish much, and Hon. J. Quinn Thornton, Supreme Judge of the Pro- visional Government, had been, during the past year, frequently urged by influential men, to proceed to Washington and labor with Congress in behalf of Oregon. In particular had the lamented Dr. Whitman requested him to do so, asserting that only the estab- lishment of a strong Territorial Government, one that the Indians would recognize as powerful, would " save him and his mission from falling under the murderous hands of savages." Mr. Thornton recog- nized the importance of such a delegate, and solicited Hon. Peter H. JBurnett, subsequently the first Governor of California, to undertake the mission, but without success. The news of the state of affairs at Washington brought by Mr. Shively, decided Mr. Thornton, and on the eighteenth of October, 1847, having resigned his judicial office, he departed on his arduous mission, armed with a letter from Governor Abernethy to President Polk. Mr. Thornton was by no means a regularly constituted delegate, since Oregon was not authorized to accredit such an official to Congress, but simply went as a private individual, representing in an unofficial manner the Gov- ernor and many of the prominent citizens of Oregon. In fact the Legislature, deeming its functions infringed upon by this action of the Governor, passed resolutions embodying their idea of the harm done the colony by the officiousness of "secret factions.'" There was not ready money enough in the treasury to have paid the pas- sage of Mr. Thornton, even had it been at his disposal. A collec- tion was taken up, contributions being made partly in coin but chiefly in flour, clothing, and any thing that could be of service or was convertible into money. A contract was made with Captain Roland Gelston, of the bark Whitton, to convey Mr. Thornton to 322 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Panama,, and the vessel sailed at once for San Francisco, and thence to San Juan, on the coast of Lower California. Here the Captain informed his passenger that he must decline to fulfill his contract, as he desired to engage in the coasting trade. From the perplex- ing dilemma he was extricated by Captain Montgomery, command- ing the United States sloop of war Portsmouth, then lying at anchor in the harbor. This gentleman deemed the mission of Mr. Thornton of sufficient importance to the Government to justify him in leaving his station and returning with his vessel to the Atlantic Coast. He accordingly tendered the delegate the hospitalities of his cabin, and set sail as soon as preparations could be made for the voyage. The Portsmouth arrived in Boston Harbor on the second of May, 1848, and Mr. Thornton at once hastened to Wash- ington to consult with President Polk and Senators Benton and Douglas, those warm champions of Oregon, as to the proper course to pursue. By them he was advised to prepare a memorial to be presented to Congress, setting forth the condition and needs of the people whom he represented. This he did, and the document was presented to the Senate by Mr Benton and was printed for the use of both branches of Congress. There was still another representative of the people of Oregon at Washington that session of Congress — one with even better credentials than Mr. Thornton. This was Joseph L. Meek, the mountaineer and trapper, who had taken such a prominent part in organizing the Provisional Government. When, about six weeks after the departure of Judge Thornton, the massacre of Whitman at Waiilatpu plunged the settlers into a state of mingled grief and alarm, it was thought necessary to dispatch a messenger at once to Washington to impart the intelligence, impress the authorities with the precarious situation of the colony, and appeal for protection. Winter had set in with all its rigors in the mountains. The terrible journey made at that season six years before by Dr. Whitman, on his patriotic mission, the same person whose martyrdom now ren- dered a second journey necessary, was fresh in the ininds of all, and appalled the stoutest heart. Mr. Thornton had taken the longer, but safer, route by sea, but time was too precious, too much was at stake, to admit of the delay such a journey would impose, even if the vessel were at hand to afford the .means. -Nothing but OREGON BECOMES AN ORGANIZED TERRITORY. 323 a trip across the thousands of miles of snow-bound mountains, plains and deserts, would be of any avail. In the emergency all turned to Joseph L. Meek as the one man in their midst whose intrepid courage, great powers of physical endurance, long experience in mountain life and familiarity with the routes of travel and Indian tribes to be encountered, rendered him capable of undertaking the task with a good prospect of success. Unhesitatingly he accepted the mission, resigned his seat in the Legislature, received his cre- dentials as a delegate from that body, and set out on the fourth of January for Washington, accompanied by John Owens and George Ebbetts, who decided to go with him and avail themselves of his services as guide and director. At The Dalles they were forced to delay several weeks until the arrival of the Oregon volunteers rendered it safe for them to proceed, since the whole upper country was overrun by hostile Indians. They accompanied the troops to Waiilatpu, where Meek had the mournful satisfaction of assisting in the burial of the victims of Cay- use treachery, among whom was his own daughter, and then were escorted by a company of troops to the base of the Blue Mountains, where they finally entered upon their long and solitary journey. By avoiding the Indians as much as possible, and whenever encountered by them representing themselves as Hudson's Bay Company men, they reached Fort Boise in safety. Here two of four new volunteers for the journey became discouraged and de- cided to remain. The other five travelers pushed on to Fort Hall, saving themselves from the clutches of the Bannacks only by Meek's experience in dealing with savages. It is needless to recount the many hardships they endured, the sleepless nights and dinner - days, the accidents, dangers, fatigues, narrow escapes from hostile Indians and the thousand discomforts and misadventures to which they were subjected. It is sufficient to say through all these they passed in safety, never forgetting for an instant the impera- tive necessity for haste, and never flinching from the trials that lay in their pathway. The hearty invitation to spend a few weeks here or there in the few places where they encountered friends and com- fortable quarters, was resolutely declined, and with only such delay as was absolutely required, they plunged again into the snowy mountain passes with their faces resolutely set towards the rising 324 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. sun. They reached St. Joseph in but little more than two months after leaving the Willamette Valley, having made the quickest trip across the continent that had yet been accomplished at any season of the year. Meek was now reduced to most embarassing straits. Dressed in buckskin and blanket clothes and wolf skin cap, ragged and dirty in the extreme, beard and hair long and unkempt, with- out money or friends, how to get to Washington or how to conduct himself when there, were perplexing questions. He decided that the best way to accomplish his purpose was to be "Jo Meek." By assuming an air of great importance at one time, making a clown of himself at another, and generally interesting every one he met in himself and his mission, he succeeding in reaching Washington only a week or two later than Judge Thornton, though his news from Oregon was three months fresher. Meek was a relative of the President, and was well cared for during his stay in the Capital City. The intelligence brought by him, as well as his individual efforts, did much to aid Mr. Thornton and the friends of Oregon in Congress in securing the desired legislation. In addition to the memorial, Judge Thornton drafted a bill for organizing a Territorial Government, which was introduced and placed upon its passage. This bill contained a clause prohibiting slavery, and for this reason was as objectionable to the slaveholding force in Congress as had been the previous one. Under the lead of Senators Jefferson Davis and John C. Calhoun, this wing of the National Legislature made a vigorous onslaught upon the bill, and fought its progress step by step with unabated determination, resorting to all the legislative tactics known, to so delay its consid- eration that it could not be finally passed by the hour of noon on the fourteenth of August, the time fixed by joint resolution for the close of that session of Congress. The contest during the last two days of the session was exciting in the extreme, and the feeling in- tense throughout the Union. The friends of the bill had decided upon a policy of "masterly inactivity," refraining entirely from debate and yielding the floor absolutely to the "filibusters," who were therefore . much distressed for means to consume the slowly passing hours. Though silent in speech they were constantly present in force to prevent the opposition from gaining time by an adjournment. The bill was then on its second passage in the Sen- OEEGOJST BECOMES AN ORGANIZED TERRITORY. 325 ate, for the purpose of concurrence with amendments which had been added by the House. On Saturday morning, August 12, the managers of the bill decided to prevent an adjournment until it had been disposed of, having a sufficient majority to pass it. The story of that memorable contest is thus told by Mr. Thornton, who sat throughout the scene an earnest spectator : — I re-entered the Senate Chamber with the deepest feelings of solicitude, and yet hopeful because of the assurances which had been given to me by the gentleman I have named [Douglas, Benton and Hale.] I soon saw, however, that Calhoun and Butler, of South Carolina ; Davis and Foote, of Mississippi ; and Hunter and Mason, of Virginia, as leaders of the opposition, had girded up their loins and buckled on their armor for the battle. When I explain a little the reader will not be surprised that I felt very nervous. The bill had previously been in the Senate and having passed went down to the House where it was amended, and now it had come back for concurrence. The debate when the bill was first in the Senate was one of thrilling interest. " There were giants in those days," and the field on which they fought and measured strength with each other was oue in which no man could be at a loss to find a foe- man worthy of his steel, since here might be encountered such mighty men as Douglas and Benton, Webster, Calhoun and Corwin. The last named gentleman having gotten the floor in the debate on the Oregon bill, the Senate adjourned. In this manner it became known at once throughout the city that Mr. Corwin would on the next day, after the preliminary business of the morning hour had been disposed of, address the Senate on that bill — the provision in it taken from the ordinance of 1787, prohibiting slavery being the point of his departure, and human rights the subject of his address. At an early hour the gallery was literally packed full of the elite and beauty of the capital, most of them being brought hither by an unconquer- able desire to witness the triumph of right over wrong and of reason over passion which they felt sure would be achieved by their favorite orator's burning words consuming to ashes the sophisms relied upon by the advocates of slavery to defend the most gigantic evil that ever cursed a nation or stained its escutcheon. On the floor of the Senate were diplomatic representatives from every Court in Europe, already impatient to drink in the inspiration of the wonderful eloquence of an orator who had no equal in some respects and no superior in any. The preliminary business of the morning hour having been hurried through, Mr. Corwin, of Ohio, rose to his feet ; and during two hours commencing with his saying "Mr. President," and ending with the close of his wonderful address, no other sound was heard save occasionally that of one who seemed to catch at his breath, and no movement could be seen save in the varying muscles of the faces of the listening hearers as the orator's matchless manner, melodious voice, and ready command of most apt language alternately melted the heart into pity or kindled it into resentment, while, with inimitable skill and unequaled power, he portrayed " the sum of all villainies." This description of the effects of the address does not of course apply to such of his hearers as were the advocates of "the patriarchal institution." The faces of these seemed at times to be as much blanched with fear as would that of a nervous woman on being suddenly confronted by a death's head. At other times the face was equally white, yet the compressed lips, and the flashing eye and a peculiar ex- pression of the countenance as clearly as language could speak, showed that the heart was a burning volcano of the most fiery passions in the throes of a terrible eruption. 326 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. When Mr. Cor win closed his memorable speech, there seemed to be quite an in- terval before those who heard gained their self-recollection, and a motion was made for the adjournment of the Senate. As, with others, I was slowly and thoughtfully- retiring, Father Richie, the most venerable journalist in the United States, a life- long advocate of slavery, and at that time editor of the government organ, nervously laid his hand upon my shoulder, and with lips as white as paper and quivering with emotion, he said: "A few speeches such as that would sever the bonds of this Union!" With such a scene as this fresh in my memory, the reader will not be surprised if on Saturday morning, the 12th of August, 1848, I felt, after my interview with Mr. Benton, Mr. Douglas and Mr. Hale, anxious for the results of the day's pro- ceedings on the bill returned for concurrence in the amendments made in the House. The friends of the bill, led by Mr. Benton, having taken their position, waited calmly for the onset of their adversaries, who spent Saturday until the usual hour of adjournment in skirmishing in force, as if feeling the strength of their oppo- nents. When the motion was made at the usual time in the afternoon for adjourn- ment, the friends of the bill came pouring out of the retiring rooms, and on coming inside the bar they voted No with very marked emphasis. I ought, perhaps to ex- plain that when many of the friends of the Oregon bill went into this room to rest upon lounges, and to smoke and chat and tell anecdotes, they left behind a trusty corps to observe the movements of the enemy, and through a vigilant page stationed at the door to give notice when it was necessary, to rise and rush inside the bar to vote No on all motions for adjournment. This state of affairs continued until after night when Judge Butler, of South Carolina, being the colleague of Mr. Calhoun, resorted to a sort of legislative fili- bustering with a view to thrusting aside the Oregon bill, under a motion to go into executive session for the purpose of enquiring into the conduct of Mr. Benton, who, he alleged, had communicated to Dr. Wallace, the reporter of the New York Herald, some things that had been said and done in secret session. During his remarks, Judge Butler characterized Mr. Benton's conduct as oeing "dishonorable." This word had only been pronounced when Mr. Benton sprang to his feet in great anger, and advancing rapidly toward Judge Butler with his clenched fist and violently gesticulating, said : "You lie, sir ! You lie ! ! I cram the lie down your throat ! ! ! " Both men wore long hair that age had made as white as wool, and yet they were only kept from violence on the floor of the Senate Chamber by Gen. Dix, of New York, Mason, of Virginia, and others, who, by placing themselves between the venerable Senators, prevented them from coming to blows. Thus restrained, Judge Butler said to Mr. Benton in a very loud and angry tone, " I will see you, sir, at another time and place." Mr. Benton immediately rejoined in great heat, "Yes, sir, you can see me at any other time and in any other place ; but you and your friends will take notice that when I fight, I fight for a funeral." Order being at length restored, the vote was taken on Judge Butler's motion to go into executive session, and the real object of the motion being seen to be the de- feat of the Oregon bill through the consumption of time, it was lost. Gen. Foote, the colleague of Jeff. Davis, then arose and in a drawling tone, as- sumed for the occasion, said his powers of endurance he believed would enable him to continue his address to the Senate until Monday, 12 o'clock M., and although he could not promise to say much on the subject of the Oregon bill, he could not doubt that he would be able to interest and greatly edify distinguished Senators. The friends of the bill, seeing what was before them, posted a page in the doorway open- ing into one of the retiring rooms, and then, after detailing a few of their number to keep watch and ward on the floor of the Senate, withdrew into the room of which OKEGON BECOMES AN OEGANIZED TEKKITOKY. 327 I have spoken to chat and tell anecdotes and to drink wine, or, perhaps, something even much stronger, and thus to wear away the slowly and heavily passing hours of that memorable Saturday night. Soon great clouds of smoke filled the room, and from it issued the sound of the chink of glasses and of loud conversation, almost drowning the eloquence of the Mississippi Senator as he repeated the Bible story of the cosmogony of the world, the creation of man, the taking from his side the rib from which Eve was made, her talking with the " snake," as he called the Evil One, the fall of man, etc., etc. The galleries were soon deserted. Many of the aged Senators prostrated themselves upon the sofas in one of the retiring rooms, and slumbered soundly, while " thoughts that breathed and words that burned " fell in glowing eloquence from the lips of the Mississippi Senator, as he continued thus to instruct and edify the few watching friends of the bill, who, notwithstanding the weight of seventy winters pressed heavily upon some of them, were as wide awake as the youngest, and they sat firm and erect in their seats, watching with lynx eyes every movement of the adversaries of the bill. At intervals of about one hour, the speaker would yield the floor to a motion for adjournment, coming from the opposition. Then the sentinel page at the door would give notice to the waking Senators in the retiring room, and these would im- mediately arouse the slumbering Senators, and all would then rush pell-mell through the doorway, and when the inside of the bar was reached, would vote No with a thundering emphasis. It happened, however, on more occasions than one, that a sleeping Senator, not yet quite awake, even after getting inside the bar, voted " aye," then "nay," and then "aye," and finally " nay " again, to the great amusement of those who were sufficiently wide awake to see where the laugh came in. Occasionally southern Senators toward Sunday morning relieved Gen. Foote by short, dull speeches,' to which the friends of the bill vouchsafed no answer ; so that Mr. Calhoun and his pro-slavery subordinates had things for the most part all their own way until Sabbath morning, August 13th, 1848, at about 8 o'clock, when the leading opponents of the bill collected together in a knot, and after conversing together a short time in an under tone, the Mississippi Senator, who had been so very edifying and entertaining during the night, said that no further opposition would be made to taking a vote on the bill. The ayes and nayes were then called and the bill passed. President Polk affixed his signature to the bill within a few hours after its passage. To have the Territorial Government fully organized before the expiration of his term of office on the fourth of the succeeding March, was earnestly desired by him, in view of the circumstances attending his election. He appointed Meek the United States Marshal of the new Territory, and delegated him to convey the Governor's commission to General Joseph Lane, then residing in Indiana and unaware of the duty about to be imposed upon him, for such, under the circumstances, it really was. With that promptness of decision and energy of action so characteristic of him — qualities which won him the title of the " Marion of the Mexican War 11 — General Lane accepted the commission without hesitation, and in three days had disposed of his property, wound 328 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. up his business affairs, and begun his journey to the far-off wilds of Oregon. A small detachment of troops escorted the Governor and Marshal, and after a journey of six months, by the way of Mexico and Arizona, seven only of them reached San Francisco, two hav- ing died and the others succumbed to the allurements of the new gold fields of the Sierras. These seven were Governor Lane, Marshal Meek, Lieutenant Hawkins, Surgeon Hayden, and three enlisted men. At San Francisco they took passage on the schooner Jeannette, and reached the Columbia after a rough passage of eighteen days. Ascending the Columbia and Willamette in small boats, a distance of one hundred and twenty miles, they debarked at Oregon City on the second of March, 1849. The following day Governor Lane issued a proclamation and assumed the duties of his office, having succeeded in instituting the Government just one day prior to the close of President Polk's administration. Other officers of the Territory did not arrive till several months later. The fol- lowing is a roster of the first officers of the Territorial Government, and those of the Provisional Government at the time of its dissolu- tion : — PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. Governor, George Abernethy ; Secretary, S. M. Holderness ; Treasurer, John H. Couch ; Auditor, Geo. W. Bell (Public Ac- counts), Theophilus McGruder (Territorial); Supreme Judge, J. Quinn Thornton ; Circuit Judge, Alonzo A. Skinner ; Marshal, H. M. Knighton. TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT. Governor, Joseph Lane; Secretary, Kintzing Pritchett; Treasurer, *James Taylor ; Auditor, *B. Gervais ; Chief Justice, William C. Bryant ; Associate Justices, O. C. Pratt, P. H. Burnett ; Marshal, Joseph Meek ; Superintendent of Schools, *Jas. McBride; Librarian, *W. T. Matlock ; Territorial Printer, *Wilson Blain ; Commis- sioner of Cayuse War Claims, *Alonzo A. Skinner. One of the first acts of Governor Lane was to appoint marshals to take the census, as provided in the organic act. The following table shows the population as thus ascertained : — ♦Appointed by Legislature, September 20, 1849. OREGON BECOMES AN ORGANIZED TERRITORY. 320 55 . en cs 1* 00 E "3 o . JSSP o3 a Foreigners. «M o u o . .Q 02 S N as o Eh O u . CD 02 _Q m £ a 03 ,C -M ^5 > 0D O ^03 o CD be 5 =3 Q) 03 fen "3 O Clackamas 401 346 465 49 394 337 39 295 271 4 390 293 458 100 402 327 33 269 229 22 585 468 647 75 557 509 37 359 370 20 4 5 3 1 2 12 23 94 3 8 1 31 39 5 8 13 4 4 12 1376 1107 1570' 224 1353 1173 109 923 870 80 17 35 112 3 15 1 36 79 1393 Tualatin 1142 Champoeg 1682 Clatsop 227 Yamhill 1368 Polk 1174 Lewis 145 Linn 923 Benton 870 Vancouver 159 Total 2601 2523 3627 15 211 46 8795 298 8083 While Thornton and Meek were representing the people at Washington, an event occurred that in a few years wrought a marvelous change on the Pacific Coast. Captain John A. Sutter, a Swiss, had come to Oregon in 1838 and the following year gone to California, where he founded a settlement on the site of the present City of Sacramento, which he named " New Helvetia," though it was known far and wide as "Sutter's Fort." In the Oregon immi- gration of 1844 was James W. Marshall, who went to California the following year and entered the employ of Captain Sutter. In the fall of 1847 Marshall and Sutter entered into a partnership to do a saw-mill business, and Marshall went up into the Sierra Nevada Mountains and selected a location for the mill at Coloma, a place on the South Fork of the American River. It was on the nineteenth of January, 1848, that Marshall discovered gold in the tail race of the mill. As soon as this news was spread throughout California, nearly every able-bodied man hastened to Coloma, work of every kind being abandoned and much property sacrificed. The excitement was intense. The news of Marshall's wonderful dis- covery was carried East by the various routes of travel, and hun- dreds of emigrants learned of it while slowly plodding along on the Oregon trail, and were thus induced to change their destination to California. For several years thereafter overland emigration was almost exclusively to the gold fields of California. The intelli- gence did not reach Oregon till August, seven months after the discovery. There were then no regular means of communication 330 HISTOKY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. between the Sacramento Valley and the Willamette. Every year a few people followed the old Hudson's Bay Company trail, some one way and some the other, and occasionally coasting or other vessels came to the Columbia from San Francisco; but the excite- ment of the gold discovery prevented the news from reaching Oregon by either of these routes, until it was finally brought by a vessel which came for a cargo of supplies for the San Francisco market. The effect produced upon such an adventurous class as were the early pioneers, can well be imagined. There was at once a rush for California, chiefly overland, as vessels were scarce, and it seemed as though Oregon would become depopulated. But this was only temporary. Family and business ties were strong enough to hold back many and to hasten the return of others. Not only was Oregon not depopulated, but she found in California the first outside market for her products she had ever enjoyed. It was for her the beginning of actual prosperity. Besides the gold dust brought back by returning miners, California gold poured into Ore- gon in a perfect stream, in exchange for grain, flour, vegetables, beef, bacon, and food products of all kinds. Miners pushed further north every year, until, in 1851, they crossed the line into Southern Ore- gon, and discovered rich diggings. After the first excitement sub- sided, emigration again turned in the direction of Oregon, while great numbers, abandoning the gold fields, came north to settle in the beautiful valley of the Willamette. The scarcity of money had always been a serious evil, increasing yearly with the population. When, in the winter of 1848-9, gold dust began to arrive from California, the material for such a medium was at hand; but, though the gold dust was worth from sixteen to eighteen dollars an ounce, returning miners could obtain but eleven dollars for it, while much of it was 'lost in passing from hand to hand. The Legislature promptly passed an act for the " assaying, melting and coining of gold," but the termination of the Provisional Government by the arrival, of Governor Lane, rendered the statute nugatory. Private enterprise stepped to the front and supplied the. want by issuing what is known as " beaver money," somewhat after the manner in which the "gold slugs" of Califor- nia were issued. These coins were of five and ten dollar denomi- nations, bearing on the obverse side the figure of a beaver, above OREGON BECOMES A\ ORGANISED TERRITORY. S31 Which were the letters "K. M. T. A. W. K. C. S.,' 1 and beneath u O. T., 1849." On the reverse side was "Oregon Exchange Com- pany, L30 (irains Native Gold, 5 D," or " 10 pwts., 20 grains, 10 D." The initial letters were those of the gentlemen composing the company— Kilbourn, Magruder, Taylor, Abernethy, Wilson, Rec- tor, Campbell and Smith. The workmanship on the coin was quite creditable. The dies were made by Hamilton Campbell, and the press and rolling machinery by William Rector. When money be- came more plentiful, the beaver coins quickly disappeared from cir- culation, since they contained about eight per cent, more gold than the national coins, and are now only to be found as mementoes in the possession of pioneers, in cabinets or among the collections of nuniisniatologists. No one w r as ever prosecuted for this infringe- ment of the constitutional prohibition of the coining of money by State Governments or individuals. CHAPTER XX. OREGON AS A TERRITORY. Organization of the Territorial Government — First Legislature — Towns in Oregon in 1850 — A Military Episode — John P. Gaines Succeeds General Lane as Governor — Lnharmony between Democratic Legisla- ture and Whig Officers — Three Newspapers Enter the Field — The, Steamer "Lot Whitcomb" — Oregon City and Salem Contest for the Capital — Wreck of the "General Warren" — Indian Troubles in ^1851-2-3 — George L. Curry becomes Governor — Efforts to Form a State Constitution — Colville Mines — Indian War of 1855-6 — Polit- ical Complications — Eraser River Excitement — Oregon Admitted to the Union. OREGON remained in the Territorial state for ten years, suffer- ing all the evils of partisan government and political strife. The people early aspired to the rights and dignity of statehood, and the question of framing a constitution was ever present in pol- itics. The adjoining State of California was admitted into the Union under phenomenal conditions, without passing through the Territorial stage, and this did much to render the people of Oregon discontented with a Territorial government. But the most prolific cause of discontent was the length of time required to communicate with the seat of government at Washington. All laws passed by the Legislature were subject to disapproval by Congress, and it took several months to learn whether an act would not be thus rendered void. The same delay occurred in filling official vacancies, in im- parting instructions for the guidance of officers, and in transacting all business requiring communication between the Territorial author- ities and those at Washington. It was certainly an unwieldy and cumbersome form of government, and the people necessarily found it irksome and repulsive. OREGON AS A TERRITORY. 383 Governor Lane called an election for the sixth of June, 1849, to choose a Delegate to Congress and members of the Territorial Leg- islature. The total vote cast for Delegate was 943, of which Sam- uel R. Thurston received 470; Columbia Lancaster, 321; James W. Nesmith, 104; Joseph L. Meek, 40; J. S. Griffin, 8. The appor- tionment of Councilmen and Representatives was made by the Gov- ernor in his proclamation. The names of the gentlemen elected to the iirst Territorial Legislature were as follows: Council — W. Blaiu, Tualatin; W. W. Buck, Clackamas; S. Parker, Clackamas and Champoeg; W. Shannon, Champoeg; S. F. McKean, Clatsop, Lewis and Vancouver; J. B. Graves, Yamhill; W. Maley, Linn; N. Ford, Polk; L. A. Humphrey, Benton. Representatives — D. Hill and W. M. King, Tualatin; A. L. Lovejoy, J. D. Holman and Gabriel Walliug, Clackamas; J. W. Grim, W. W. Chapman and W. T. Matlock, Champoeg; A. J. Hembree, R. C. Kinney and J. B. Walling, Yamhill; J. Dunlap and J. Conser, Linn; H. N. V. Holmes and S. Burch, Polk; M. T. Simmons, Lewis, Vancouver aud Clatsop; J. L. Mulkey and G. B. Smith, Benton. The Legislature assembled at Oregon City, July 16, 1849, and held a brief session, in which they apportioned their future mem- bership; changed the names of Champoeg, Tualatin and Vancouver counties to "Marion," "Washington," and "Clarke," respectively; decided what officers the various counties should have, and provided for their election the following October, and divided the Territory into three judicial districts. In October the county elections were held and the officers chosen qualified immediately. This was the last step in the complete organization of the government under the Oregon Bill. The year 1850 opened auspiciously for Oregon. A custom house had been established at Astoria, and regular steamer commu- nication opened between the accessible ports on the Willamette and San Francisco. Oregon contained then a dozen aspiring towns — Astoria, St. Helens, Milton (one and one- half miles above St. Helens), Portland, Milwaukie, Oregon City, Champoeg, Syra- cuse, Albany, Marysville (Corvallis), Cincinnati, Hillsboro, Lafay- ette, Salem, Lexington (on Clatsop Plains). Between Milwaukie and Portland there was much rivalry, each aspiring to be the head of permanent navigation for ocean steamers; and this was shared 334 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. at times by St. Helens, as well as other ambitious points which never acquired much greater dignity than a mere name. It was found that navigation to Milwaukie was not practicable in low-water season, and even Portland was considered as too far up at one time, owing to the troublesome bar at Swan Island. The steamship com- pany decided to make St. Helens, or Columbia City (a new town below the mouth of the Willamette), the terminus, but were quickly brought back to Portland by a movement on the part of the mer- chants of that city to establish an opposition line. Since then, with but one exception, the ocean steamship terminus has remained con- stantly at the city of Portland. The military headquarters were at Oregon City in 1849-50, and at that point the greater portion of the First Mounted Rifles were stationed, the remainder taking post at Vancouver, Astoria and on Puget Sound. The regiment was commanded by Colonel Loring, afterwards General, who achieved a reputation in Egypt, as Loring Pasha. Early in the spring of 1850, a majority of the men suc- cumbed to the seductive influence of the gold excitement and deserted. Fully four hundred of them started for the California mines, and at Eugene City fortified themselves so that the soldiers and citizens who pursued them could not effect their capture. They then started south in small bands. Governor Lane was appealed to by the commanding officer, and hastily collecting a company of volun- teers he pursued and overtook a body of them in Rogue River Val- ley, who surrendered to him without resistance. Of the four hundred deserters, two hundred and sixty were thus captured, the remainder succeeding in reaching California and losing themselves among the miners. In April, 1850, Governor Lane received notification that he had been removed by the Whig President, Taylor, and Major John P. Gaines appointed in his place on the second of the previous October. On the twenty -seventh of May, he wrote to the Secretary of War that he was about to start for Rogue River, to make a treaty with the Indians of that region, which he hoped, to conclude by the eighteenth of June, and this date he fixed as the termination of his official duties. The new Governor had not yet arrived, and Gov. Lane set out immediately. He came to an amicable understanding with this turbulent tribe, and then passed into California to try his OREGON AS A TERRITORY. 335 fortune in the mines. It was during this time that the Cayuse hos- tages were tried and executed at Oregon City, the uncertainty as to whether he was still in Oregon or not preventing the Secretary from assuming any authority. The general election for county officers and members of the Leg- islature was held in June. The new Territorial officers arrived in August, September, October and November — Governor Gaines assuming his duties on the nineteenth of September, being careful, however, to draw his salary from the date of his appointment, nearly a year before. The other new officials were: Edward Hamilton, Secretary; John McLean and William Strong, Judges; Amory Hol- brook, United States Attorney; John Adair, Collector of Customs; Henry H. Spalding, Indian Agent; Joseph L. Meek retained the office of Marshal. The Legislature assembled in December; being strongly Democratic in its composition, a want of harmony was at once developed between it and the Whig Territorial officers. In some respects this was the most important legislative session ever held in Oregon. But little had been accomplished the previous year, and it devolved upon this session to give Oregon a code of Liavs, and legislate for the radically new state of affairs brought about by a Territorial form of government, and the great increase in population and the sudden commercial awakening. It was com- posed of the leading and representative men of the Territory, and ably performed its function. Three newspapers sprang into being in the winter of 1850-51. On the twenty-ninth of November, 1850, the first number of the Western Star appeared at Milwaukie, then a formidable rival of Portland for metropolitan honors. Lot Whitcomb was the pub- lisher, John Orvis Waterman the editor, and Waterman and W. D. Carter the printers. On the fourth of December, Thomas J. Dryer began the publication of the Oregonian at Portland. A prospectus for a paper at Oregon City had been issued by Russell the fall before, also by Asahel Bush, but as they had no material they were compelled to delay publication. Mr. Bush was elected Public Printer by the Legislature, notwithstanding the fact that he was utterly without facilities for discharging the duties of the office, while the Star and Orc had adjourned without the House passing the enabling act which had passed the Senate early in May, and that Oregon must 352 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. remain a Territory until the next session. For some time the proper course to pursue was warmly discussed. There were two full sets of officers and two forms of government. Gradually it became the general opinion that the State officers should remain quiet and per- mit the Territorial Government to proceed unembarrassed. Under the constitution the State Legislature should have met in September, but at the appointed time only nine representatives and two sena- tors made their appearance in Salem, and these adjourned after two useless meetings. On the sixth of December the Territorial Legis- lature again assembled and held its regular session. Soon after its adjournment news was received that Oregon had been admitted into the Union. Senator Smith and Representative Grover had gone to Washington the fall before, and when Congress assembled had joined with Delegate Lane (Senator elect) in urging the passage of an enabling act for Oregon. It early passed the Senate, but met with bitter opposition in the House, being supported by the Demo- crats and opposed by the Republicans. Finally, on the twelfth of February, 1859, it was passed by a strict party vote. It then received the signature of President Buchanan, and Oregon Territory was a thing of the past. The following are the signatures of the Delegates to the Consti- tutional Convention held in Salem, September 18, 1857: — /%^ C^a^/Our^C -^^^o<^ yl^J^^i GL^d^^gst*/! <^»V^ /9vx ^ ^, *%, /u~ Co. sent an agent to examine them, and his report was to the effect that the mining ground was very extensive, but the gold so fine that it could not be panned or cradled to advantage; sluices and quicksilver would be required; also that the water in the river was too high for successful mining at that season Exaggerated re- ports, however, continued to find their way into print, and, in a few weeks, travel to the Colville Mines became quite extensive. Parties from the Willamette Valley went by way of The Dalles and Simcoe Valley at first, and later through Walla Walla and the Palouse Country ; while those from the Sound crossed the mountains by the Natchess Pass, and headed direct for the mines. In the frame of mind in which the Indians then were, this was more than they could stand. The treaties had not been ratified and were not yet in force; every inch of the country belonged to the native proprie- tors as completely as before the signing of the compact. Not a plow nor a hoe, not a cow nor a dollar of money, had they received ; and yet the whites were streaming through their country and talk- ing and acting as though the Indians had no rights in the matter whatever. General Wool charged these men as interfering with the Indian women, and thus precipitating hostilities; but that charge was never sustained, though such conduct as that has been one of the most fruitful causes of trouble between the two races. It is not necessary, however, to account for the war in that manner, since there was ample cause without. The ideas the Indians enter- tained on the subject of white occupation, have been explained. The Yakima tribes, under the leadership of Kama-i-akun, now de- THE GREAT OUTBREAK OF EIGHTEEN FIFTY-FIVE. 385 termined that no white men should reside in, or pass through, their country until the treaties had been ratified and the purchase price of their lands been paid. This determination they made known on several occasions. About the middle of July a man named Mc- Cormick, who had a claim on Klickitat River at a point known as " St. Charles City," was driven from his place, and spent a day and night in a treetop on the bank of the Columbia, when the steamer Mary came along and took him aboard. The Indians sent word that whites would not be permitted to settle on their lands until they had been paid for. About the same time Pierre Jerome, chief of the Indians of Kettle Falls, refused to permit A. F. Wilson, the man whom Wells, Fargo & Co. had sent to inspect the mines, to go from Colville to Pend d'Oreille River, saying that Americans would not be permitted to pass through or mine in the county until the land was paid for by the Government; also that all the tribes named would hold a "big talk" in August on the subject. This great council was never held, but that, in some way, the various tribes along the Columbia arrived at a mutual under- standing of what they would do in certain events, was made evident by their conduct a few months later. The people, as has been shown, had not been notified that, as yet, the treaties were not in force, and that they had thereby ac- quired no rights they did not previously enjoy. On the contrary, they looked upon the hostile position assumed by the Indians as utterly unjustifiable, and in direct violation of rights conferred by treaty. This idea appears prominently in all contemporaneous writings and in subsequent discussions of the war and its causes, especially in those evoked by the unfavorable reports and comments of General Wool. Looking at it from this stand-point, they were much excited in August when the Statesman published a rumor that seventy men had been killed in the Colville country, though this was promptly contradicted. A few days later, when the news of the murder of Mattice was received, they became still more so, and charged the Indians with violating treaty obligations. Mr. Mattice was a resident of Olympia, and with Judge Yantis and others, crossed the mountains in August on his way to the mines. When near the Columbia, Mattice became separated from his com- panions and soon fell in with a Spokane Indian, who traveled 386 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. with liim. Not long afterwards four Isle de Pere Indians overtook them and shot Mattice, boasting to his companion that they had already killed three Bostons that day. News of the tragedy was taken to Colville by the Spokane and did not reach the Willamette Valley until late in September. Much apprehension was felt for the safety of a score of others from Puget Sound, who were known to be passing through the hostile country. The agent of the Hud- son's Bay Company at Fort Colville, Mr. McDonald, on the twenty- sixth of August, sent a messenger to the mines notifying the Amer- icans of the death of Mattice and that the Indians were combining, and advising them to leave the mines unless they were prepared to defend themselves against large numbers. Many had previously started upon their return, disgusted with the mines, and now nearly all of the remainder took McDonald's advice and returned fyy the way of Walla Walla, reporting the Indians along the route as being very surly and threatening in their conduct. W^hitney, at McKay's place on the Umatilla, was warned by Stick-as and Umhowlish, two Cay use chiefs, that it was unsafe for him to remain, and was told that they had given Dr. Whitman a similar warning before his death. He hastened with his family to The Dalles, and the few other Americans in that region did the same, or took refuge with the friendly Nez Perces. The French and half-breed settlers re- mained, being considered Hudson's Bay Company men, and some of the later arrivals from Colville, among whom were McKay and Vic. Trevitt, only passed safely through by representing themselves as employees of the company. In the absence of Governor Stevens, the Secretary, C. H. Mason, discharged the duties of executive. On the twenty-second of Sep- tember he addressed a communication to Major Q. J. Raines, com- mandant at Fort Vancouver, informing him of the murder of Mr. Mattice and the reported death of a number of others, and request- ing him to dispatch a military force to the Yakima country to punish the aggressors and protect the small parties of miners travel- ing through that region. A. J. Bolan, Indian Agent for Washing- ton Territory, a man who had great influence among the Yakimas and for whom they entertained great respect, started for that region from The Dalles as soon as he heard of the first hostile acts, and as no word was received from him for a number of days it was feared THE GREAT OUTBREAK OF EIGHTEEN FIFTY-FIVE. 387 he had been killed by his wards. Governor Mason had hardly dispatched his letter before intelligence was received at Olympia that two citizens of that place — Walker and Jamison — had been killed near the Natchess Pass. He at once made a requisition upon Captain M. Maloney, commanding Fort Steilacoom, for a detach- ment of regulars to proceed to the Yakima country and punish the perpetrators of these murders and protect the straggling parties passing through. Lieutenant W. A. Slaughter was detailed for this duty with forty men; and departed on the twenty -seventh of September with forty days' rations. Mason addressed a second letter to Major Kaines on the twenty -sixth, informing him of the new developments, and requesting him to send a military force to co-operate with Lieutenant Slaughter. To this Major Raines re- plied as follows: — Governor— Your letter by Mr. Pearson I have the honor to acknowledge, and have ordered into the field a company of eighty-four men from Fort Dalles, O. T., all mounted, and with provisions on pack mules for one month, to proceed without delay and sweep through the Yakima country to the points you indicated, co-oper- ating with the force from Steilacoom ; also, to inquire into the safety of Agent Bolan, who has now been absent an unusual length of time ; a respectful attention to whose views are enjoined— if alive— for there are grounds to fear otherwise. I shall approve of the action of the commanding officer at Fort Steilacoom in the premises, and only regret that the forty men under Lieutenant Slaughter were not a full company. I have also located an officer and twenty men at the Cascades. This expedition was placed under the command of Major G. O. Haller, a brave and experienced officer who had just returned from a successful campaign in Southwestern Idaho against the Snake Indians who had murdered the Ward family the fall before. Pre- vious to his departure the fate of Agent Bolan was settled. Nathan Olney, Sub-agent in Oregon, had dispatched from The Dalles a trusty Indian to bring him intelligence of the missing man. He re- turned with the startling report that seventeen men had been killed (never substantiated), and that Bolan had been murdered. The Agent had threatened the Indians with punishment by the troops unless they refrained from molesting the whites who passed through their country. When he left to return he was followed by several of them, and a son of Show-ah-way, an influential chief, shot him. His throat was then cut, and the murderers shot his horse and burned the two bodies together. About the same time, Werbannahan, a Cascades chief, came into the settlement there and reported that 388 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. five hundred Yakimas and Klickitats were within fifteen miles of White Salmon, and at once the military detachment located there embarked on the steamer Wasco and proceeded to the mouth of that river, only to find their presence there useless, and at once returned. On the third of October, Major Haller's force, consisting of one hundred and seven, rank and file, started north from The Dalles, dragging with them a mountain howitzer. News of this movement, of the death of Bolan, and the White Salmon canard, reached Port- land at the same time and created much excitement throughout the Valley. This force marched north, and on the sixth encountered a strong body of Indians on Simcoe Creek. By a dashing charge the savages were dislodged from the brush along the stream, but the fortunes of battle soon turned, and the troops were forced to take refuge on the crest of a neighboring hill, where they were imme- diately surrounded by the enemy, whose number was estimated at one thousand warriors. A courier succeeded in slipping through the environing savages, and after two days of fatigue and danger, reached The Dalles with intelligence of the precarious position of the troops. Lieutenant Day at once started to their relief with forty-five men and a howitzer, but soon met the troops in full re- treat. Unable to maintain their position, they had forced a passage through the enemy's lines and fought their way out of the country, losing, in the whole fight, five of their number killed and seventeen wounded. On the ninth Major Raines made a requisition upon Governor Mason for two companies of volunteers, and addressed a communi- cation to Governor George L. Curry, of Oregon, containing the following language: — As commanding officer, I have ordered all the United States disposable force in this district into the field immediately, and shall take the command. As this force is questionable to subdue these Indians — the Yakimas, Klickitats, and may be some other smaller bands — I have the honor to call upon you for four companies of vol- unteers, composed, according to our present organization, of one captain, one first lieutenant, one second lieutenant, four sergeants, four corporals, two musicians, and seventy-four privates. This number of companies is just enough for a major's command, and would authorize that officer also. We have only arms enough at this post for two companies, so it is advisable to have two of the four companies come armed with rifles, or such arms as can best be obtained. We have plenty of ammunition, however. As celerity is the word, we want as many of the volunteers as can be immediately obtained, to rendezvous at this post, and proceed with the troops to Fort Dalles. They can be mustered here. THE GREAT OUTBREAK OF EIGHTEEN E1FTY-EIVE. 389 Governor Mason at once issued a proclamation for two com- panies, which were speedily filled. Governor Curry did better. Instead of four companies tie called for eight — one each from Mult- nomah, Clackamas, Washington, Marion, Polk, Yamhill, Lane and Wasco — and a few days later added a company from Benton and another from French Settlement, in Marion County ; the last being designed for scout and guide duty. Just why this was done is not perfectly clear, but it was charged at the time that he proposed to render the regulars auxiliary to the militia instead of the reverse, and therefore desired companies enough to require a colonel, who would outrank Major Raines. It was also charged that speculation was an important factor here as well as in Southern Oregon, and that ever since the glorious trip of the year before " to fight the emigrants," the powers that were, and their friends, looked upon an Indian war as a bonanza of considerable proportions. This may be doing the memory of the executive and his advisers an injustice, but certain it is, even if that element was not then present, it cropped out later, and with sufficient prominence to give color to the suspi- cion of its existence from the very beginning. It is proper here to give another version of the cause of hostili- ties and the reason for this rather wholesale calling to arms by Governor Curry. General Wool, in a letter to the National Intel- ligencer, under date of April 2, 1856, detailed the situation in Oregon from his stand -point. This is one of the letters which drew down upon his devoted head such a storm of indignation, which will be more fully referred to in its proper place. In it he says:-- It is said that the Yakimas having become dissatisfied with the treaty made with them the summer before by Governor Stevens, determined on war. This was hastened, as it would seem, by some miners forcibly carrying away and ill treating some Yakima squaws. The Yakimas, according to their own story, complained of this wrong to A. J. Bolan, Sub-Indian Agent, who was at that time in the Indian country, and demanded redress. An altercation took place, when the Indians threatened revenge. The agent, in turn, threatened to send against them troops of the United States. It was under such circumstances that the agent and the Indians separated. The former, however, was followed and overtaken by the Yakimas, when they demanded to know if he intended to send the troops of the United States against them. On answering them in the affirmative, as the Indians say, they killed him, and afterwards, as reported, some miners on their way to the Col- ville mines. * * * The Major, however, partaking somewhat of the alarm pervading the country, increased and stimulated by political demagogues, called upon Acting-Governor Mason for two companies of volunteers, which was* 390 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. promptly and favorably responded to ; and upon Governor Curry, of Oregon, for four companies, which he refused, because, as he said, the Oregonians would no* serve under United States officers. At the same time he called into the Territorial service two mounted regiments — one to serve against the Indians of Washington Territory, and the other against the Indians in Southern Oregon. Of the former, no part of it, in any sense of the term, was necessary to defend the inhabitants of Oregon against the Indians in Washington Territory, east of the Cascade Mountains, from whom they had no danger whatever to apprehend. * * * Such have been the results of one of the most unwise, unnecessary and extravagant expedi- tions ever fitted out in the United States, and for no other reason than to plunder the treasury of the United States and to make political capital for somebody. It could not have been projected for the defense of the inhabitants of Oregon, nor for the protection of Oregonians in Washington Territory, for none resided there. What, then, could have been the object? Nothing but a crusade against the Indians, and a long war to enrich the country. If such was not the object,, Govern or Curry, instead of sending his troops against the Indians of Washington Territory and beyond his own jurisdiction, would have sent them all to Southern Oregon, where the war raged, and no where else in his territory. The Oregonians say that the war is a Godsend to the country. * * * It is said by intelligent men that the expenses of Governor Curry's army will amount, in scrip, to three or four millions of dollars. If Congress should foot the bill, some Governor of another Territory will make a bill of ten millions. I do not know how the question will be con- sidered. One thing, however, is certain, that it is an example which, if counte- nanced by the United States Government, may, when least expected, lead to no less embarrassing than disastrous results. In the "River of the West, 1 ' the author, who evidently was in- spired by the communications and reports of General Wool, thus speaks upon this subject: — But when at last the call to arms was made in Oregon, it was an opportunity sought and not an alternative forced upon them by the politicians of that Territory. The occasion was simply this: A party of lawless wretches from the Sound Country passing over the Cascade Mountains into the Yakima Valley, on their way to the Upper Columbia mines, found some Yakima women digging roots in a lonely place and abused them. The women fled to their village and told their chiefs of the outrage, and a party followed the guilty whites and killed several of them in a light. Mr. Bolan, the Indian Sub-Agent for Washington, went to the Yakima vil- age, and, instead of judging the case impartially, made use of threats in the name of the United States Government, saying that an army should be sent to punish them for killing his people. On his return home, Mr. Bolan was followed and murdered. The murder of an Indian Agent was an act which could not be overlooked. Very properly the case should have been taken notice of in a manner to convince the Indians that murder must be punished. But, tempted by an opportunity for gain, and encouraged by the somewhat reasonable fears of the white population of Wash- ington and Oregon, Governor G. L. Curry, of the latter, at once proclaimed war, and issued a call for volunteers, without waiting for the sanction or assistance of the General Government. Though the camas incident may have occurred, it has not been established by proof; and even if an actual occurrence it was but an incident and not a sole cause of trouble. For this contracted THE GREAT OUTBREAK OF EIGHTEEN FIFTY-FIVE. 391 and superficial view, General Wool, who was a stranger and un- familiar with the relations the whites and Indians had previously sustained toward each other, may, perhaps, be considered excusable. He probably acted " to the best of his knowledge and belief." His course was certainly better than the other extreme adopted by Governor Curry. The excitement and panic created in the Willamette Valley can hardly be appreciated at this distant day. News of the terrible straits to which Major Haller was reduced, and of Major Raines' call for aid, was followed two days later by intelligence of the ter- rible massacre in the Rogue River Valley, already described. It was at once asserted, and generally believed, that all the Indians in Oregon and Washington had combined to wage a war of extermina- tion against the settlements. The Oregonian especially was a panicy paper, filling its columns with all the absurd rumors which menda- cious schemers or timid idiots might invent or conceive. Other papers seconded the hot-headed Dryer in his efforts to create a war feeling among the people, with the exception of the Statesman', and this exception was caused by the simple fact that Bush, its editor, always espoused the negative of any question upon which Dryer had pronounced in the affirmative. It was somewhat anomalous and paradoxical in this case, since the Statesman was the apostle of Democracy, and the Territorial" Government was completely in the hands of that party, which would, consequently, control all appoint- ments and the letting of all contracts — as subsequent events proved that it did. On the contrary the Oregonian, as the organ of the \Vhio-, or American, party, could hope for no benefit for itself or friends, save such as might come indirectly, because the " war was a Godsend to Oregon/ 1 By warmly advocating the war, and then as hotly criticising its management by the Democratic officials and con- tractors, while not forgetting at the same time to bestow unlimited praise upon " the brave men in the field/ 1 the Oregonian made itself extremely popular. This was an astute piece of journalism, and it may be said that the Oregonian here laid the foundation for its subsequent greatness and prosperity. To enumerate the various rumors which flew about the V alley, racking the nerves of the timid and rousing the martial ardor of the more warlike, would be impossible. The same evening the start- 392 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. ling intelligence was brought into Portland that Major Haller was defeated, a rumor was spread that the Cascades was threatened and that six hundred Indians were opposite St. Helens. Hastily a meet- ing was called, excited and warlike speeches made, a committee of safety appointed a to keep an eye on the Indians in and about the city," and another to enroll the names of volunteers. Quite a com- pany was raised before the canard was exploded. Throughout the whole valley there was a general preparation for defense, extending from the simple inspection of fire-arms to the building of stockades, according as the panic took deep or shallow hold upon the in- dividual. The Methodists of Tualatin Plains, in Washington County ? apparently more exposed to annihilation by lightning than attack by Indians, constructed a stockade around .their church, and pre- pared for a defense of their families within the protecting wall of pickets. The following extract from an editorial in the Statesman of October 25, two weeks after the excitement began, throws much light upon the subject: — * * * The idea that Indians are going to attack the Willamette towns or settlements is groundless and silly in the extreme, and it requires more patience than we possess to treat it soberly and without ridicule. * * * Upon what are all these "dread alarums " based ? Upon silly rumors, dreams, and crazy imagina- tions of excited and half-crazy brains. And how rapidly have they all been exploded in their order ! First, The Dalles and Cascades were to be immediately attacked ; next, St. Helens ; then Major Haller was about to be cut off; Lieutenant Slaughter's command was, without doubt, murdered; and also Governor Mason, who followed, with Stuart, Trevitt, Barnhart and McKay, and several others, too numerous to mention, who had not been heard of for twenty-four hours or so. They have all finally turned up unharmed, except Haller's command, which, sustained a loss of five men. * * * Upon the heels of the above list of rumors followed some other members of that innumerable family to the effect that three or fou r hundred Klamaths were at the head of the Santiam, armed, and threatening an attack upon the neighborhood, Salem, Albany, and probably Corvallis. No Indians could be found there ; and then rumor located a still larger and more dreadful band on the Calapooia, with the intention of sweeping the country and burning Eugene City. But nary Indian was found there, and we heard nothing of madam rumor for two or three hours, when she came in breathless and reported the Tillamook Indians as being in an awful fiz, and about to blow out Lafayette and Yamhill. A party started over to Tillamook to surprise the red rascals and head off their dire in- tentions; in due time they returned, without any scalps, and not very much fright- ened for their lives. They probably conveyed to those Indians the first intelligence they had of the combination of all the tribes against the whites. *'".*'* Now, nothing remains of the rumors from that quarter (the north) but the report of a combination of tribes, and a purpose of giving battle to the whites. We have noticed that in times past, upon the occurrence of Indian hostilities, it is at once re- ported that there is a combination of all the tribes in the section where the dis- turbance exists ; and we have noticed, also, that when it was over and the facts THE GREAT OUTBREAK OF EIGHTEEN FIFTY -FIVE. 393 obtainable, that there was no general combination, and do preconcerted purpose of war. There may be a general combination of tribes north of us. We hope not; and we have seen no evidence that such is the case, and do not believe that it is. The troops under the command of Major Raines were portions of the -ith Infantry. Immediately upon receiving the Major's re- port of the condition of affairs on the Columbia, as well as intelli- gence of the Rogue River complications, Major General Wool, com- mandant of the Military Division of the Pacific, with headquarters at San Francisco, forwarded all the troops at his disposal, together with stores, ammunition, etc. He also made a requisition upon the Government for reinforcements, in response to which the 9th Infantry was sent to the Coast; but owing to the insufficient means of com- munication and travel, the regiment did not arrive until the follow- ing spring. CHAPTER XXIII. THE FALL CAMPAIGNS IN THE SOUTH. Governor Gurry Galls for Two Battalions of Volunteers — Siege of Galiee Creek — Battle of Hungry Hill — A Poor Commissariat, and Jealousy between Regulars and Volunteers Cause Disaster — Organi- zation of the Two Battalions — They Arrange with the Regulars for a Joint Campaign — The First Meadows Campaign — Invasion of the Rice Settlement — Massacre of Peaceable Umpquas in Looking- Glass Valley — Attack on the Camps of Jake and John — The Siege on Applegate Creek — Fight on Murphy Creek — Close of the Cam- paign for the Winter. THE narrative now turns back to the Rogue River Valley, whose stirring events will be considered while Major Raines and Governor Curry's troops are preparing for their expedition against the Yakimas. Upon the news being received at Corvallis, the tem- porary seat of Government, that the flame of war had burst out afresh in Southern Oregon, Governor Curry, immediately after his proclamation for troops to fight the Northern Indians, issued a second call for volunteers to quell the uprising in the South. He called for two battalions, to be designated as the " Northern Bat- talion " and "Southern Battalion." The former was to consist of i\ve companies, two from Lane County, and one each from Douglas, Linn and Umpqua, and was to rendezvous at Roseburg and elect a Major to command it. The latter was to consist of four compa- nies, all from Jackson County, to assemble at Jacksonville, and also choose a Major as commander. While the work of organizing the forces was going on, the Indian marauders retired to the neighborhood of Grave Creek, Cow Creek and Galiee Creek, on each of which were important settlements. On the morning of the seventeenth of October the united bands of THE FALL CAMPAIGNS IN THE SOUTH. 395 Lirnpy, George, John and Tenas Tyee made an attack on the head- quarters of the volunteers on Galice Creek, and the fight ensued which has been celebrated as the " Siege of Galice Creek. 1 ' Cap- tain William B. Lewis, in command of a company of about thirty - five men, was stationed at the creek. On the day mentioned Ser- geant Adams was fired upon by hostiles, who appeared in strong force on the hill overlooking the houses used as headquarters. Several volunteers who were standing near were also fired upon, and Private J. W. Pickett was mortally wounded by a shot through the body, and died during the day. The headquarters consisted of two board houses, situated some twenty yards apart, and about an equal distance from the stream. Some four or five men took a position in a ditch which had been cut for defensive purposes ; others took shelter within a log corral adjoining one of the houses, while within the latter the remainder were installed. The enemy were hidden behind natural obstructions in all directions from the de- fenses. Very soon the men were driven from the ditch, and took refuge in the houses. While retreating toward the house, Private Israel D. Adams was shot and fell, mortally injured, near the house, being assisted into it by Private Allen Evans, who, while thus en- gaged, received a severe wound in the jaw. The Indians imme- diately occupied the ditch to the number of twenty or more, and kept up a fire on the houses, within which the volunteers were erect- ing defences by digging up floors, piling up blankets, etc. Umpqua Joe, a friendly Indian who was taking part with the whites, had the misfortune to be wounded; and a bullet penetrated the thin walls of the house and struck Private Samuel Sanders in the head, killing him instantly. Several attempts were made by the enemy to set fire to the house-, and Chief George particularly distinguished himself by attempting to throw burning faggots upon the roofs. The en- gagement lasted nearly all day, the Indians at nightfall retiring from the scene. When they had disappeared, the volunteers went to work to strengthen their defences by extending their ditch, at which they occupied themselves nearly all night. In the morning some Indians appeared, and seeing from the preparations that the whites were ready to receive them, fired their guns, retreated, and were not again seen on Galice Creek. Besides those mentioned, Benjamin Tufts, severely wounded, died on the twenty-eighth of November 396 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. following. Captain Lewis, First Lieutenant W. A. Moore, and Privates John Erixson, Louis Dunois, and Milton Blacklidge were wounded. How great the Indian loss was could not be determined, but common opinion was that it was about equal to that of the whites. A few T days subsequently, and while the whereabouts of the Indians was unknown, an opportune circumstance revealed their place of abode. Lieutenant (since General) A. V. Kautz, of the regular army, set out from Port Orford with a guard of ten soldiers to explore the country lying between that place and Fort Lane. Leaving the river near the mouth of Grave Creek, he ascended the neighboring hills, and, much to his surprise, came upon a very large band of Indians. As they proved hostile, there was no re- source but to run for it, and losing one man by the savages' fire, the men escaped to Fort Lane. Having now been made aware of the Indians 7 exact whereabouts, Colonel Ross and Captain Smith, combining forces as well as the mutual jealousies of regulars and volunteers would permit, began to plan an active campaign. All the disposable troops at Fort Lane consisted of eighty -five men and four officers. These set out on the twenty -seventh of October, and on arriving at the Grave Creek House were joined by Colonel Ross' command, of about two hundred and ninety men, besides a portion of Major Martin's force from Deer Creek. From this point the combined forces moved, on October thirtieth, to the Indian camp, arriving at daybreak at a point where Captains Harris and Bruce were deployed to the left, while Captain Smith, with the regulars, took the ridge to the right, with the expectation of arriving in the rear of. the position. Captains Williams and Rinearson followed in Captain Smith's tracks. The country not being perfectly known by the whites, several mistakes followed in consequence, and Harris and Bruce came directly upon the Indian encampment, and were in full view of the savages, before any strategic movement could be made, and no opportunity for surprising the enemy offered itself. The time was sunrise, and Captain Smith had gained his rear posi- tion and had built fires for his men's refreshment, at the place where Lieutenant Kautz had been attacked. By these fires the Indians were warned of the party in their rear, and prepared themselves accordingly. The regulars descended into a deep gorge, climbed THE FALL CAMPAIGNS IN THE SOUTH. 897 up the other side and directly were engaged with the Indians, who advanced to meet them. From the crest of the hill for a mile or more in the rear of the Indians, was a dense thicket; on the right and left were precipitous descents into a gorge filled with pines and undergrowth, in which the natives concealed themselves almost per- fectly from the view of the whites, who possessed no resources suffi- cient to dislodge them. The ridge being bare on top, the men were necessarily exposed, and some casualties resulted. Movements were made to get in the rear of this new position, but such attempts were futile. Several charges were made by the regulars, but ineffectually, although the men were for considerable periods within ten or twenty yards of the hostiles. The latter fought bravely and steadily, pick- ing off the whites by a regular fire from their rifles, which were pitted against the inferior weapons of the troops, or at least of the regulars, two -thirds of whom had only the " musketoon," a short, smooth-bore weapon, discharging inaccurately a heavy round bullet, whose range was necessarily slight. About sunset the commanders concluded to retire from the field, and encamped for the night at Bloody Spring, as it was then named, some distance down the hill. On the following morning Lieutenant Gibson, of the regulars, with ten men, proceeded up the hill to the battlefield, to secure the dead body of a private of his detachment, and when returning with it was pursued by the savages, who came down and attacked the camp in force. No damage was done except the wounding of Lieu- tenant Gibson, and after a time the savages were driven off. No further attempt against the Indians was made, and after advising with their officers, the two commanders decided to remove their troops from the vicinity. The total loss was thirty- one, of whom nine were killed, and twenty -two wounded. Several of the latter died of their injuries. The volunteers killed were Privates Jacob W. Miller, James Pearcy and Henry Pearl, of Rinearson's company; John Winters, of Williams'; and Jonathan A. Pedigo, of Harris'. The wounded were Privates William H. Crouch, Enoch Miller and Ephraim Tager, of Rinearson's; Thomas Ryan and William Stamms, of Williams'; L. P. Allen, John Goldsby, Thomas Gill, C. B. Hin- ton, William M. Hand, William I. Mayfield, William Purnell and William White, of Harris'; C. C. Goodwin, of Bruce's; and John Kennedy, of Welton'.s. The latter died on the seventh of Novem- 398 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. ber, and C. B. Hinton, in endeavoring to make his way alone to the Grave Creek House, lost his road and perished from exposure. This fight is known by the several names of the " Battle of Bloody Springs," "Battle of Hungry Hill," and " Battle in the Grave Creek Hills," and was practically a defeat. Inclemency of the weather and inadequate clothing and accoutre- ments are ascribed as reasons for the failure of this campaign ; but more especially an utter failure of the commissariat. The commis- sary and quartermaster departments were at fault, nor do they ap- pear to have been efficiently administered at any time during the war, although their expenses (duly charged to the United States) were preposterously great. Figures are at hand to show that the expense of the latter department exceeded, for a time, eight hundred dollars per day! And this for transportation alone. A large number of Mexicans were borne on the rolls as packers, whose daily pay was six dollars, and who had the care and management of about one hundred and fifty pack animals, which were used in carrying supplies from Jacksonville or Crescent City to the seat of war. They belonged to the volunteer service, and were entirely distinct from the trains by which the regulars at Fort Lane were supplied. It was to this mismanagement the failure of the cam- paign was attributed, and apparently with considerable justice. As was customary at that date, a great deal of blame was cast upon the volunteers for their alleged failure to properly second the efforts of the Government troops. This charge is retorted upon Captain Smith's soldiers by counter -charges of similar tenor; and as neither side in the controversy is supported by any but interested evidence, we can not, at this date, satisfactorily discuss the question. The matter, however, is connected with the invariable tendency to an- tagonism, which shows itself on every similar occasion. These preliminary engagements were followed by a complete organization of the hastily collected companies as designated in the proclamation of Governor Curry. John K. Lamerick was appointed Acting Adjutant General for the Southern Battalion, and reached Jacksonville a few days subsequent to the battle of Hungry Hill. About a dozen companies, of from twenty to eighty men each, ap- plied to be mustered. Of these four — Bruce, Williams, Wilkin- son, and Alcorn's — were mustered at Vannoy's Ferry on the tenth of THE FALL CAMPAIGNS IN THE SOUTH. 399 November, the others being disbanded. The battalion elected James Bruce Major, his only competitor being Captain R. L. Williams. The Northern Battalion perfected its organization some- what earlier at Roseburg, electing William J. Martin Major on the twentieth of October. M. M. McCarver, who had been appointed Quartermaster General, established his headquarters at Roseburg. Major Martin's force consisted of five companies of one hundred and ten men each, considerably in excess of the number assigned in the proclamation. The company from Douglas County was com- manded by Samuel Gordon; Jonathan Keeney was in command of the one from Linn, W. W. Chapman was Captain of the Umpqua company, and Joseph Bailey and Buoy of the two from Lane. Major Martin established headquarters at Camp Leland, seven miles north of Grave Creek, and stationed detachments of his men at suit- able points for the general protection of the whole region north of Rogue River — in Cow Creek Valley, Camas Valley, the Canyon, North Umpqua, and at Scottsburg. Detachments of the Southern Battalion were stationed at Evans' Ferry, Bowdeu's, on Grave Creek, and other points. This disposition of the troops effectually prevented the Indians from reaching the more important settlements, and the savages, find- ing all avenues closed to the eastward, left Bloody Springs and passed down Rogue River, taking refuge in a region almost inac- cessible because of its steep mountains, deep gorges and dense underbrush. The two battalions were mutually independent, though expected to co-operate. Their commanders arranged with Captain Smith for a joint campaign againt the Indians, whose location on Rogue River had been discovered. Major Fitzgerald and his com- pany of dragoons had been ordered to report for duty at Vancou- ver, much reducing the force of regulars at Fort Lane. Captain Judah, who was stationed at Fort Jones, was sent, by Captain Smith, to accompany the volunteers with all the troops which could be spared from those two posts. Here was the most unmilitary spectacle of three separate and distinct commands starting out upon a campaign, with no commander-in-chief and no definitely outlined plan of operations. The line of march was taken up by Major Martin, Major Bruce, and Captain Judah on the twentieth of November, the latter taking 400 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. with him, with infinite difficulty, a clumsy mountain howitzer. A day or two later they encamped at the mouth of Whiskey Creek, and found traces of Indians. Proceeding down the river the next morning, keeping along the high lands back a mile or two from the stream, they found the Indians in strong force in the woods border- ing the river. It was deemed proper to cross to the south side of the stream, and for this purpose Major Bruce proceeded with his battalion down the river, being then near the mouth of Jackass Creek, and attempted to cross. There was no discipline whatever. The commands were but newly organized, and each private con- sidered his judgment as good as that of his officers. The men were scattered out over the bar, some engaged in constructing rafts and others in prospecting for gold. No effort was made to keep them in order by their officers, though they were almost in the presence of the enemy. The consequence was that when the Indians began firing upon them from out of the dense thicket on the opposite bank, the men made a wild rush for shelter in the forest above the bar. Although some of the officers made a vain effort to halt them and form a line, they preferred to take the advice of a fleeing Lieu- tenant and " break for the brush." While this was being done the commands of Martin and Judah lay upon the hill above and several miles distant, while the latter trained his piece in the direction of the enemy and awoke the echoes with its harmless bang. After con- tinuing this amusement for some time the martial toy was strapped upon the back of a lusty mule, and the three commands marched back to their camps at Vannoy's Ferry, Fort Lane and Camp Le- land. Thus ended the First Meadows Campaign. William Lewis, of Kenney's company, was killed, five other volunteers were wounded, and one Indian scalp was taken home by the retiring troops. The various companies were now detailed for guard duty at the more exposed places, and no regular campaign was again under- taken until spring. Though comparatively inactive, they served as a bulwark of safety to the settlements along Rogue River and the Umpqua. There were, however, a few war-like incidents before the close of the year, which served to show that the Indians were still hostile, and that the spirit of promiscuous extermination had not forsaken the whites. The first of these was the descent of some twenty or thirty Indians upon the Rice Settlement, at the mouth of THE FALL CAMPAIGNS IN THE SOUTH. 401 Looking Glass Creek, eight miles south of Roseburg. The hostiles burned Rice's house, captured some fire-arms, and did other damage. A small company of men, commanded by J. P. Day, went from Deer Creek to the scene and engaged and defeated the Indians on the second of December, killing three. The stolen guns, horses, etc., were re-captured. Castleman, a member of the company, was slightly wounded. The Indians were probably Cow Creeks who had not formally joined the forces of Limpy and George on the banks of Rogue River. Some few of the peaceable Umpquas resided in and around the pleasant vale of Looking Glass. When war broke out on Rogue River, these inoffensive people were gath- ered in Looking Glass Valley, occupying a rancheria on the creek^ where they lived at peace with all the world, and ignorant and careless of everything outside of their own little sphere. In an evil hour certain white people of that vicinity, who imagined that they were dangerous neighbors, organized themselves into a company, and fell suddenly upon the helpless little community, and scattered them to the four winds. Several men and an old squaw were killed. The people on Butte Creek, in Jackson County, had, with the first alarm of war, sought safety in a camp of log houses on Felix O'Neal's donation claim. Alcorn's company was recruited among the hardy settlers thereabouts, and subsequent to their return from the First Meadows Campaign, were posted in part at this fortified camp. Jake, a well-known chief of a small band of Indians, with his braves, had long inhabited that portion of the country and had refused to go on the reservation. On the night of December twen- ty-fourth Captain Alcorn marched to their rancheria and camped within a mile of it, in the cold and snow. At daybreak the next morning the troops moved within rifle range, and began to shoot. This they kept up until the natives were killed or dispersed, their loss being eight "bucks " killed, and the remainder wounded. One squaw was wounded in the jaw, and two men were captured. A similar affair, similarly managed, occurred at the same date between a detachment of Captain Rice's company and the Indians of a ranch- eria four miles north of Rogue River, and just below the mouth of Big Butte Creek. The Indians were taken by surprise, and after several hours' fighting, eighteen males were killed, twenty squaws 402 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. and children captured and the rancheria burned. On the same day twenty men of Bushey's company set out on a scouting tour to the neighborhood of Williams' Creek, where a portion of Old John's band were busying themselves in many a hostile way, much raised in self-esteem by the partial success of their bold leader since the war began. On the fourth day a detachment of seven men came upon the camp, and immediately attacked it, killing three braves and putting the others to flight. Toward the last of December some scouts, near the forks of the Applegate, discovered that a body of Indians had taken possession of two deserted miners' cabins, and had gone into winter quarters there, preparing themselves for a state of siege by excavating the floors and piling the dirt against the walls. A body of sixty or more from Sterling went immediately to watch the cabins and prevent the Indians from escaping, while word was sent to various military companies. Captain Bushey arrived, and finding the position too strong for his small force, awaited the arrival of others. Capt. Smith sent Lieutenants Hagen and Underwood with twenty-five regulars and the inevitable howitzer; but the mule carrying the ammunition was so heedless as to fall into a deep creek and be killed, while the powder was ruined. More ammu- nition was sent for, and Lieutenant Switzer, with sixteen regulars, brought it on a mule. The regulars then fired a shell, which passed into or through a cabin and killed, as the records say, two savages. Before the howitzer's arrival the Indians had killed one man and wounded five. After the shell was fired, the regulars postponed further operations until the morrow, as night was near. When they arose the next morning the birds had flown and their cages were empty. A much regretted event occurred during the day ; this was the killing of Martin Angell, of Jacksonville, who set out to accompany the regulars to the scene of the siege. When two and a half miles from Jacksonville, Angell and Walker, who were about two hundred and fifty yards in advance, were fired on by Indians concealed in the brush beside the road. Angell was killed instantly, four balls passing through his head and neck. On the same day (January 2) Charles W. Hull was hunting on the divide between Jackson and Jackass creeks, and becoming sepa- rated from his friends, was waylaid and murdered by Indians. THE FALL CAMPAIGNS IN THE SOUTH. 403 After it was found that the Indians had made their escape from the cabins, the regulars returned to the seclusion of Fort Lane, while Major Bruce, who had arrived upon the field, set out a few days later, with a portion of Rice, Williamson and Alcorn's com- panies, to follow the trail of the fleeing Indians to the west. The scouts came suddenly upon a single brave, who ran at the top of his speed directly to his camp. The savages, warned by the shout- ing of the pursued, prepared for a fight, and for quite a while re- sisted that part of Bruce's command which came into action, killing one man, Wiley Cash, of Alcorn's company, and seriously wound- ing Private Richardson, of O'Neal's company. Some ten or twelve horses, left unguarded by the whites, were taken by the Indians, and several more were shot. This fight occurred on the twenty- first of January, the locality being Murphy's Creek, tributary to the Applegate. Only twenty-five men participated at first, but Lieu- tenant Armstrong came up with a small reinforcement, and after a most plucky fight succeeded in saving the lives of the detachment. The total number of Indians engaged, under the leadership of John, was probably about fifty. No further active campaign was made until spring. CHAPTER XXIV. THE YAKIMA, WALLA WALLA AND PUGET SOUND CAMPAIGNS. Troops Concentrate at The Dalles — Conflict of Authority — An Incident at Vancouver — Block House Built at The Cascades — Efforts to Equip the Volunteers — -Regulars and Volunteers March North from The Dalles — -Plan of the Campaign — The Fight on the Banks of the Yakima and at the " Buttes " — Burning of the Catholic Mission Ends the Campaign — Efforts to Treat with Peu-peu-mox-mox — Pre- lude to the Walla Walla Campaign — Fort Henrietta — Regulars Refuse their Aid in a Useless Winter Campaign — Unfitness of the Volunteers for such a Campaign — Colonel Kelly Marches Against the Walla Wallas — Capture of Peu-peu-mox-mox Under a Flag of Truce — A Night of Suspense and Excitement — A Fruitless Ante- Breakfast March — Battle of Walla Walla — Killing of Peu-peu- mox-mox and other Prisoners — Ears and Scalp of the Chief Ex- hibited in the Willamette Valley — The Situation after the Battle- Killed and Wounded — Great Excitement in the Willamette when the News is Received — Oregonian Editorials on the Situation — General Wool Condemned — His Opinion of the War and the People's Opinion of Him — Governor Stevens Prefers Charges Against General Wool- — Incidents Attending the Return of Governor Stevens from the Black- foot Country — The Charges of the Prate Governor Pigeon-holed — The Situation During the Winter — Unpleasant Experiences of the Volunteers — Reinforcements sent to Walla Walla— Colonel Cornelius Resumes the Offensive — Horse Meat Causes a Mutiny — No Enemy Being Found, the Command Abandons the Walla Walla Country — Farewell Courtesies of Kama-i-akun — The Volunteers Disband Without Official Recognition of their Services — Honors Received YAKIMA, WALLA WALLA AND PUGET SOUND CAMPAIGNS. 405 from the People — Two Companies mixed to Guard the Columbia— Refrain of the " Horse-fed Volunteer" — The Political and Specula- tor, Aspect <>f the Campaign — Governor Curry goes to Washington to Counteract the Influence of General Wool, and Secure an Appropri- ation to Defray the Expenses of the War. THE ten companies called for by Governor Curry for service in the north were quickly recruited, and hastened to the general rendezvous at The Dalles, Colonel J. W. ISFesmith in command. The regulars also concentrated there, commanded by Major G. J. Raines, of the 4th United States Infantry. The conflict of authority began at once. Major Raines notified Governor Curry that he stood ready to muster four companies into the United States service, to be commanded by officers of their own selection. This was the number he had requested. He said that he could not take the re- sponsibility of enlisting a larger force, deeming it not required, nor could he arm and equip any of them unless regularly mustered into the service. His proposition was rejected, and the effort to place the volunteers on a war footing was continued. The two companies called for by Governor Mason were quickly raised, one at Vancouver and one at Olympia. Both were mustered into the regular service, the former under the command of William Strong and the latter of Gilmore Hays. The acting executive of Washington Territory pursued an opposite course to that taken by Governor Curry, and sought in every way to sustain and aid the regular army officers, instead of opposing them and endeavoring to conduct an independ- ent campaign. To offset the supposed superiority of rank of the commander of the Oregon regiment, he commissioned Major Raines as Brigadier- General of Militia in Washington Territory. This conflict of rank, however, cut but a small figure, the two commands acting entirely independently, though co-operating, to a degree, in the first campaign. While these preparations were progressing, an incident occurred at Vancouver which called for the services of Captain Strong's company. There was a village of a branch band of the Klickitat tribe at the mouth of Lewis River, opposite St. Helens, which was a source of apprehension to the people. A number of the warriors 406 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. were known to have crossed the mountains to join the hostile Yakimas; and as a precautionary measure, a party of thirty men from Vancouver went to the rancheria and escorted the thirty remaining warriors and their families back to that city, where they were disarmed and instructed to remain in peace. This party was headed by T. H. Smith, Special Indian Agent. On the eighth of November the captives, to the number of one hundred and fifty, stampeded for the Yakima country, and were pursued by Captain Strong's company and a few regulars. In about ten days they were all brought back, except Umtux, the chief, who had been killed in some mysterious way, no one being able to tell " how it happened." At the same time a block-house was built at the Cas- cades by Captain Wallan, who mounted upon it a six-pound cannon and garrisoned it with a detachment of ten men from his company. Colonel Nesmith had command of the Oregon volunteers by virtue of his rank as Brigadier General of Militia; but soon after the companies reached The Dalles an election was held for line offi- cers, in accordance with instructions from Governor Curry. This resulted in the choice of J. W. Nesmith, Colonel; J. K. Kelly, Lieutenant- Colonel; A. N. Armstrong, First Major; M. A. Chinn, Second Major. Colonel Nesmith's election was almost unanimous — the vote standing five hundred and eighty- three to forty -one — and undoubtedly his equal could not have been found in the Territory. With infinite difficulty and persevering energy he secured arms, ammunition, horses, supplies, etc., and was prepared to move al- most as soon as the regulars, who encountered no such difficulties. An application to Major Raines for arms and equipments was re- fused, on the ground that he was not authorized to issue them to any but troops in the United States service. Major Raines was, however, very anxious that something should be accomplished, and partially supplied them under the militia law of the country, which entitled every Territory to draw a certain amount of arms and am- munition from the Government. Still they were not ready to take the field. Major Raines, as a last effort at a compromise, offered to muster the whole force into the regular service, with Colonel Nes- mith in command as Major, and equip them from the Government stores, but the offer was declined. He then began his march into the Yakima country with the regulars, informing Colonel Nesmith YAKIMA, WALT. A WALLA AND PUGET SOUND CAMPAIGNS. 407 that if his command was defeated by reason of its inferior numbers, the blame would rest with the volunteers, who, by refusing to be mustered into the service, prevented themselves from being equipped and taking part in the campaign. A few days later Colonel Nes- mith was so far prepared with a portion of his command as to feel justiiied in taking the field for a short campaign. He accordingly hastened to overtake Major Raines with some four hundred men, leaving the remainder at The Dalles under command of Major Chinn. The volunteers and regulars were united on the third of November, and continued the march together. The plan of the campaign embraced an invasion from two di- rections. Besides the force marching north from The Dalles, Cap- tain Maloney was instructed to enter the Yakima country by way of the Natchess Pass with his company of the 4th Infantry and Captain Hays' company of volunteers, and to form a junction with Major Raines. The movements of Captain Maloney 's command will be detailed later. It is sufficient to say that this force did not participate in the Yakima campaign, though its supposed move- ments served to complicate matters considerably, and caused much needless anxiety. As the united forces passed through the Indian country they found and destroyed, or used, about ten thousand pounds of provisions the enemy had secreted, chiefly dried salmon and camas. On the morning of the eighth of November Captain Cornelius, with seventy men, made a detour to the left from the night's camp on Simcoe Creek. Towards evening the main body reached the Yakima and went into camp, the regulars some two miles in advance. Major Raines soon discovered Indians in the bushes on the opposite bank of the stream, and opened upon them, at the same time dispatching a courier to Colonel Nesmith. The latter dashed away to the front at the head of sixty men, where he found the regulars and Indians passing leaden compliments with the river flowing between them. He at once commenced searching for a ford, found it, crossed the stream, and dislodging the savages, followed them ineffectually until they took refuge in the direction of the " Buttes " to the northeast. He then withdrew and went into camp. Lieutenant Phil. Sheridan, at the head of some twenty United States dragoons followed the force under Colonel Nesmith across the river, and gallantly joined the successful advance. That 408 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. evening Captain Cornelius reached Nesmith's camp, having been engaged during the greater part of the afternoon with a large body of Indians, in which three of his men and several horses had re- ceived wounds. On the morning of November 9, the entire force moved in the direction of a gap in the hills through which flows the Yakima River, at a point known as the "Two Buttes." The advance guard consisted of companies commanded by Captains Cornelius, Hem- bree and Bennett. These drove the Indians from their lurking places in the bushes along the river until all — some three hundred — had fallen back and taken possession of their rude fortifications upon the " Buttes." At first a howitzer was tried, but, for want of sufficient elevation, it failed to reach the enemy. Then Major Hal- ler and Captain (now General) Augur with their commands, aided by a force of volunteers, charged up the rugged, broken face of the mountain, the Indians fleeing down the opposite side. The savages had made no resistance ; consequently no one was hurt. That night the whites camped at the base of the u Buttes," and the Indians re- occupied the abandoned heights; but in the morning they were again dislodged with a loss of two killed. The capture of their entire force at this time only failed through the misconception of orders by Lieutenant D. B. Hannah. The Indians at once aban- doned that section of country, and there was no more fighting, save a little skirmishing with a few straggling bands in the valley. At night the troops bivouacked by the Atahnum River, some two miles east of the Catholic Mission. Up to this time no communication had been received from Cap- tain Maloney, and fears were entertained that the entire force of Indians had gone in the direction of the Natchess Pass for the pur- pose of overwhelming him by numbers. Colonel Nesmith, with two hundred and fifty men, among whom were Phil. Sheridan and his dragoons, started on the morning of November 11, with a view of rendering assistance to Captain Maloney if he needed it, or at least to open communication with him. A violent snow storm set- ting in, he w r as forced to return; and, after an absence of three days, his tents were pitched at the old Catholic Mission, where the main force under Major Raines had preceded him. While stationed there the troops " accidentally " burned the mission building, a rude YAKIMA, WALLA WALLA AND PUGET SOUND CAMPAIGNS. 409 structure formed of poles and mud. On the fifteenth a council of war decided unanimously that the reduced commissary supplies warranted an immediate return to The Dalles, and the line of march was at once taken up. Thus ended the Yakima campaign. While the troops were first assembling at The Dalles an effort had been made to placate the great and influential chief of the Walla Wallas, whose signature to the treaty had been secured only after great concessions to him individually, and whose former friendship for Americans had been changed to hatred by the un- provoked murder of his son at Sutter's Fort, in California, a few years before. The chief cause of anxiety was the small party of Governor Stevens, which, in the event of the joining of the Walla Wallas and Cayuses in the war, would be cut off from any avenue of' return which did not lead through a hostile country. It is doubtful, however, if he would have been molested had the subse- quent campaign in that region not been undertaken. To accom- plish the desired end Xathan Olney, the Indian Agent, started from The Dalles with ^ve hundred dollars in silver and some presents of goods to pay Peu-peu-mox-mox the first installment due him under the treaty. He was accompanied on the journey only by Ta-be-bo, a half-breed, and A. P. Woodard. On their arrival, October 12, at Old Fort Walla Walla, near the mouth of the river of that name, they were cordially received by James Sinclair, who, with three or four men, had charge of the fort as representative of the Hudson's Bay Company. Peu-peu-mox-mox was sent for and told that the promised money and goods awaited him, but he returned a sullen and defiant reply. He repudiated the treaty; said he would accept neither presents nor money from the Government, and wanted the whites to leave his country. A council between the Agent and Sinclair resulted in a determination to abandon the fort. The sur- plus ammunition, stored there by the Hudson's Bay Company, was taken out in a boat and dumped in the Columbia River, to prevent its falling into the hands of Indians. Then the settlers, the Hud- son's Bay men, and a number of miners who had reached this point from Colville, started for The Dalles, leaving the hostile country east of the Cascade Mountains untenanted, save by a few old em- ployees of the company who were married to Indian women. Nar- cisse Remond, who enjoyed immunity from molestation because of 410 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. his former connection with the Hudson's Bay Company, was com- missioned by Mr. Olney to remain and report upon the conduct of the suspected tribes. This wholesale abandonment of the country was accepted by the Indians as an invitation to do as they pleased with what had been left behind. They burned the Umatilla Mis- sion, in which had been stored a quantity of supplies by Governor Stevens, plundered McKay's house and other places, drove the cattle of Brooke, Bumford and Noble away from Waiilatpu, and took possession of and pillaged Fort Walla Walla. This was done by Yakima and Palouse Indians, assisted by certain factions of the Walla Wallas, Cayuses and Umatillas. Howlish-Wampoo, head chief of the Cayuses, endeavored in vain to prevent the Yakimas and Palouses from driving the cattle away from Waiilatpu. The Walla Walla affair was the work of Peu-peu-mox-mox and his fol- lowers. On the whole these acts can hardly be considered as a sufficient cause for an invasion of their country by the forces of Governor Curry, at an expense of millions of dollars to the Gen- eral Government. If protection of the settlers in the Willamette, along the lower Columbia and on Puget Sound, was desired, that object could have been more effectually accomplished by guarding the lines of approach. By leaving these open and invading the Indian country, they not only invited the danger they apprehended, but showed that on the part of the leaders, at least, the war was an offensive, and not a defensive, one. Even if an invasion were in any event to be feared, it certainly could not be made until spring, the routes through the mountains being, with the aid of a few troops, sufficiently guarded from approach by the icy hand of winter. Furthermore, this conduct on the part of the Indians was not known until after the campaign had been decided upon and a force dispatched from The Dalles to begin its execution. The rescue of Governor Stevens from possible attack by the disaffected Walla Wallas or Cayuses, then, could be the only excuse for send- ing an armed force into the Walla Walla country; but this object in itself by no means required so long a campaign — continuing some months after the Governor's return — nor the employment of so large an army at such an enormous outlay. The safe return of His Excellency could have been accomplished at a comparatively trifling expense. YAKIMA, WALLA WALLA AND PUGET SOUND CAMPAIGNS. 411 Without waiting for the information expected from Mr. Remond, Governor Curry decided to invade the AValla Walla country in force. He dispatched two companies on the seventh of November to reinforce Colonel Nesmith in the Yakima country, and at the same time sending orders for him to proceed directly to Fort Walla Walla, where he would be joined by one hundred and fifty men from The Dalles. The reinforcements lost their way, and failed to reach Colonel Nesmith until they met him on the seventeenth in the Simcoe Mountains, on his way back to The Dalles. It was then impossible to obey the Governor's instructions, and Colonel Nesmith continued his homeward march to The Dalles. Mean- while, on the twelfth, Major Chinn started with two companies for Fort Walla Walla, along the south bank of the Columbia. On the night of the seventeenth they encamped at Well Springs, where they were joined by two couriers from Narcisse Remond with intel- ligence from the Walla Walla country, the substance of which has been previously given. This information caused Major Chinn to abandon the march for Fort Walla Walla, and to proceed to the site of the burned Catholic Mission on the Umatilla, to await rein- forcements, for which he dispatched a courier. He there erected defensive works, and on the twenty-first sent another courier asking for two more companies and some artillery. He thus describes Fort Henrietta: "We have an abundance of timber and water, and tolerable grass for stock. We have picketed in with large split timber one hundred feet square of ground, and erected two bastions, of round logs, on two of the angles; and from the rails found here made two corrals for the horses and cattle. This, as a defence, is good against any body of Indians." Considerable excitement was created at The Dalles by the intel- ligence brought in from Major Chinn. It was at once assumed that his command was in a perilous situation, and must be immediately reinforced to preserve it from disaster. The companies of Captains Munson, Wilson and Cornoye'r, consisting of some one hundred and seventy-five men, were at once sent forward, accompanied by Lieu- tenant-Colonel James K. Kelly, who was to take command of the whole battalion. Application was made by Colonel Nesmith to Major Raines for two howitzers and artillerymen to man them, stating that he had preferred a similar request to General Wool, at 412 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Vancouver, but could not delay action for a reply. In this letter he quoted, with telling effect, a few lines which had been addressed to him by Major Kaines, as he started upon the Yakima campaign, reproaching him for obstructing the movements of his allies and permitting them to encounter the enemy unaided. General Wool had arrived from San Francisco a few days before, bringing sixty regulars, two thousand stand of arms, and three hundred tons of stores and ammunition. He was in ill -health, and did not visit the seat of operations at The Dalles, but remained at headquarters in Vancouver. He received the reports of his subordinates as to the cause of hostilities and the present situation, and came to the con- clusion that there was no necessity for a war and no need of a win- ter campaign. With the regular troops to occupy the Columbia there was no danger of invasion of the Willamette, and all that was required to end the war was for the volunteers to return home and disband. Such was the opinion of the commander of the depart- ment, and it must be confessed that he was, in the main, correct. Such a line of conduct would have saved the lives of a score of brave volunteers and the Government many thousands of dollars, though, to be sure, not so profitable to the contractor and those whose patriotism was confined to questionable dealings with the commissary department. With troops stationed at The Dalles, Cascades, Vancouver, and suitable points on Puget Sound, no attack need be feared from the Eastern Indians until spring, even assum- ing that they were disposed to risk an invasion of the settlements at all. A whole regiment of regulars was on the way and would arrive in ample time to participate in a campaign in the spring, if one should prove to be necessary. It was certainly the duty of Governor Curry to recall Major Chinn and disband the volunteer army, or, at least, the greater portion of it. If necessary, the safe re- turn of Governor Stevens could have been provided for by sending him an armed escort to accompany him home after he had reached the friendly Nez Perces. General Wool, consequently, refused to furnish howitzers, or to participate in the proposed campaign in any way, and withdrew his forces to winter quarters at Vancouver, including the Washington Territory volunteers. The absurdity of undertaking a winter campaign so far away from the base of supplies becomes still more apparent by the fol- YAKIMA, WALLA WALLA AND PUGET SOUND CAMPAIGNS. 413 lowing quotation from the report of Colonel Nesmith of the condi- tion of his command upon their return from only three weeks' cam- paigning in the Yakima country: Maiiy of the men were frost-bitten on the late expedition, and can hardly be said to be fit for duty. An inspection of horses has been had at camp, and about one-fourth of the whole number were found fitted for present duty. About one- half of the men composing the whole command desire their discharge. I have given a few discharges upon the written report of the surgeon, stating that the men were unfit for duty. I have, also, granted furloughs to a few of the men who have urgent business requiring their personal attention for short periods ; and am now anxiously awaiting orders for the disposition of the remainder of the command. * * * * The right column, which was under my immediate command, suffered intensely during the campaign, for want of tents to protect them from the inclemency of the weather. My requisition for tents is still unfilled. There is much justifiable complaint on the part of the men, by reason of their exposed con- dition. On the twenty -eighth he forwarded to Colonel Kelly the com- panies of Captains Bennett and Cornelius, increasing the force in the held to four hundred and seventy-five men, besides two com- panies under Major Armstrong, in the vicinity of the Des Chutes and John Day rivers. He then started for the Willamette Valley for a temporary absence, leaving Captain Farrar in command at The Dalles, but soon after reaching Portland resigned his commis- sion and retired to private life. While preparations were being made for this campaign the Oregonian editorially commented upon the selfishness, greed and want of patriotism on the part of the people, who demanded enormous prices for everything furnished for the use of the troops. Colonel Kelly reached Fort Henrietta on the twenty-ninth of November, and learning that the Indians were in force in the vicinity of Fort Walla Walla, determined to march upon them without delay. His command moved on the fifth of December in two divisions. Major Chinn, with one hundred and fifty men and all the baggage, proceeded to the mouth of the Touchet River, while Colonel Kelly, with two hundred men, unincumbered, moved up the stream for the purpose, as his subsequent report declares, " of attacking the Walla Wallas," who were supposed to be en- camped there. As they proceeded up the Touchet, Captain Cornoyer and a few of his company of scouts marched a long distance in ad- vance. Suddenly, while approaching the summit of a hill, several Indians appeared in his immediate front, advancing from the oppo- 414 HIST0KY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. site side of the crest. In an instant the Captain's gun was leveled upon the one in advance, but, before he could fire, a flag of truce was discovered in the hand of the savage; and the Captain's com- panions cried out, "Don't shoot! don't shoot! it's Peu-peu-niox- niox! " A parley followed; but, while it was going on, the Captain discovered a band of about one hundred and fifty Indians on horse- back, advancing in the direction from which the chief had come. In a twinkling his gun again covered Peu-peu-mox-mox, who was told that if his followers continued to approach, his own life would pay the forfeit; and, at a signal accompanied by a peculiar cry, the advancing party halted as if by magic, every one of whom dis- mounted and stood by his horse. The Chief asked if Nathan Olney? the Indian Agent, was with the soldiers; and on being told that he was, expressed a desire to see him. He stated that he wanted no fighting; that he had determined at first to make war on the whites, but, after reflection, had concluded that it was not policy for his people to do so; that he was willing to make all amends that lay in his power for what his tribe had done; and was anxious to se- cure a permanent peace. The Captain sent one of his men back to report, asking Colonel Kelly to come with Olney and meet the flag of truce party. Accordingly, the volunteers were halted in plain sight of the little squad on the hill, while the parties indicated, with John McBean for interpreter, went forward to meet the redoubtable chief. Considerable time was consumed in the conference; and, as it passed, gradually the main body of both Indians and volunteers approached the central group until all were together, the soldiers surrounding the flag party with the main force of Indians on the outside. Finally, the entire body moved toward the Indian village, until it was discovered that the trail they were following passed through a dangerous canyon, when another halt was made. A portion of the troops had already entered the canyon, among whom was Captain Cornoyer, who, on turning back to learn what caused the delay, found that fears were entertained by some of the officers that treachery was intended by Peu-peu-mox-mox. Captains Cor- noyer, Bennett, and others were of a different opinion ; they said treachery on his part would cost him his life, and he knew it. " Put him in my charge," said Captain Cornoyer, " he will then know that YAKIMA, WALLA WALLA AND PTTGET SOUND CAMPAIGNS. 415 the first gun fired upon our ranks will be a signal of his own death, and there will he no danger. Let us go to their village to-night, and the peace he promises will be a certainty, for we will have them all in our power." This advice was not taken. Colonel Kelly and Nathan Olney insisted that if his professions were in good faith, they could be carried out the next day just as well as to run the risk of a dangerous pass that evening; and it was determined to move back on the trail a short distance and camp, supperless, for the night. The fla^ of truce Indians were taken with them, under close guard, as disarmed prisoners, held as hostages for the good conduct of the others until the next day, the chief being informed that he must so remain with them or his village would at once be attacked. That night the camp and its vicinity were the scene of stormy councils and of stormy elements. The volunteers were tired, hun- gry and dissatisfied, while the inhospitable elements, shedding their fleecy carpet of snow upon the ground for the soldiers to lie upon , made them angry and almost mutinous, in their belief that it was the prisoner's fault that had placed them in their disagreeable position. " Shoot the damned Indians I" was a cry frequently heard from different parts of the camp, and the captives became restless and ill at ease, believing that their lives were in danger. The chief requested to be given his freedom, and some of the officers were in favor of permitting him to go, while others were not. Finally, an Indian appeared on an adjacent hill who desired to talk with the chief, but would not come in ; and Captain Cornoyer went out to talk with him, accompanied by several, among whom was John McBean, the interpreter. The interview was unsatisfactory, as the Indian seemed only desirous of being heard by the captive chief, and talked in a very loud voice. What he said was not made clear to the Captain and his associates, and, concluding that all was not right, they took the loud-voiced messenger back with them a prisoner into camp. At different times in the night In- dians came around upon the hills and shouted communications to the chief, who told his captors that his people were becoming frightened for their own safety and his. Morning revealed the fact that the camp had been surrounded during the night by a cordon of mounted Indians, who evidently had listened to the 416 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. threats, dissensions, and unfriendly talk in the volunteer camp, which was enough, in combination with the fact that their chief was a prisoner, to make them fear treachery on the part of the whites. All existing evidence goes to prove that this great Walla Walla leader came to sue for peace in good faith ; that his ad- vances were received with mistrust ; that he was taken prisoner while under a nag of truce, to make sure that he would do what he affirmed a willingness to do ; and that the actions and talk in camp that night made both him and his followers fear treachery from the whites, which caused the Indians to alter their plans. This change in policy was evidently made known to Peu-peumox-mox by those who shouted messages to him from the surrounding hills. In doing this they used the Cayuse tongue, a language unknown to the interpreter, and one not in general use, even by the Cayuse tribe themselves, Nez Perce being the common language of all these Indians. The next morning the captive chief, in pursuance of the new plans, secured a delay in moving, by urging that his people needed time to prepare breakfast for so many men. Shortly before noon the march was taken up, the dangerous canyon passed, and the village reached ; but no smoking repast or cordial welcome awaited them. The village was deserted, and as the hungry and disappointed men gathered around the still smoldering camp-fires, they knew that a battle must be fought. Straggling Indians could be seen on the surrounding hills, and three of them, one a son of the captive chief, came within speaking distance and demanded to see the prisoner. The son was persuaded to enter the camp, upon assurance of safety, and when he did so the father told him he wanted his people all to come in and make peace. The young man went away saying that he would do as requested, but nothing fur- ther was heard from him ; and, finally, Colonel Kelly proceeded to march his hungry command u to the mouth of the Touchet, with a view of going from thence to some spot near Whitman's Station, where I had intended to form a permanent camp for the winter." His report continues thus : "On the morning of the seventh, com- panies H and K crossed the Touchet, leading the column on the route to Whitman's Valley, and when formed on the plain were joined by Company B. A few persons in front were driving our YAKIMA, WALLA WALLA AND PTTGET SOUND CAMPAIGNS. 417 cattle, and a few were on the flanks of the companies and near the foot of the hills that extend along the river. These persons, as well as I can ascertain, were fired on by the Indians." It is as- serted, however, by members of Company B, that one of the flank- ers of that company, a man called " Jont," fired the first shot, which was returned by the savages. Companies A and F were detailed to guard the baggage, and the remainder of the command made an immediate attack upon the enemy. The Indians were pursued a distance of seven miles across the hills and up the Walla Walla River, a running fight being kept up, until they made a temporary stand on Dry Creek. They again fled ; but four miles beyond Dry Creek they made a determined stand, near the cabin of a French Canadian named "La Rocque," where a desperate battle occurred. Their line extended from the hills across the flat to the river. Along the stream was a thick growth of cotton wood and under- brush, while the flat was covered with sage brush and sand knolls. These all furnished a good screen for Indians on foot, while mounted ones lined the hillsides. The report says : — When the volunteers reached this point there were not more than forty or fifty- men, being those mounted upon the fleetest horses. Upon these the Indians poured a murderous fire from the brushwood and willows along the river, and from the sage bushes along the plain, wounding a number of the volunteers. The men fell back. The moment was critical. They were commanded to cross the fence which surrounds La Rocque's field and charge upon the Indians in the brush. In execut- ing this order Lieutenant Burrows, of Company H, was killed, and Captain Mun- son, of Company I, Isaac Miller, Sergeant-Major, and G. W. Smith, of Company B, were wounded. A dispatch having been sent to Captain Wilson, of Company A, to come forward, he and his company came up on a gallop, dismounted at a slough, and with fixed bayonets pushed on through the brush. In the course of half an hour Captain Bennett was on the ground with Company F, and with this accession the enemy were steadily driven forward for two miles, when they took possession of a farm house and close fence (Tellier's), in attempting to carry which Captain Bennett, of Company F, and Privute Kelso, of Company A, were killed. A howit- zer found at Fort Walla W 7 alla, under charge of Captain Wilson, by this time was brought to bear upon the enemy. Four rounds were fired when the piece bursted, wounding Captain Wilson. The Indians then gave way at all points ; the house and fence were seized and held by the volunteers and the bodies of our men were recovered. These positions were held by us until nightfall, when the volunteers fell slowly back and returned unmolested, to camp around the cabin of La Rocque during the night. While the battle was progressing, there was enacted a scene which furnished General Wool with material for one of the most telling of his reflections upon the spirit evinced by the people in 418 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. the conduct of the war. This was the killing of Peu-peu-inox-mox while a prisoner, held in duress in defiance of the rules of civilized war which guarantee the sanctity of a flag of truce. The details of this affair, as related by several eye-witnesses and participants, were as follows: The surgeons had decided to use LaBocque's cabin, where the Indians had made their first stand, as a hospital for the wounded. Near it the unfortunate Lieutenant J. M. Burrows lay dead, and several wounded were being attended to. The combatants had passed on up the valley, and the distant detonation of their guns could be heard. The flag of truce prisoners were there under guard, and every one seemed electrified with suppressed excitement. A wounded man came in with his shattered arm dangling at his side, and reported Captain Bennett killed at the front. This added to the excitement, and the attention of all was more or less attracted to the wounded man, when some one said, " Look out, or the Indi- ans will get away!" At this, seemingly, every one yelled, "Shoot 'em! Shoot "em!" and on the instant there was a rattle of musketry on all sides. It was over in a minute, and three of the five pris- oners lay dead, another was rendered insensible by a blow, but re- covering in a few moments was shot to end his misery ; the fifth, being a Nez Perce, was spared, and the fact that they were able to control their excitement sufficiently to make this nice discrimination shows there was a " method in their madness. 17 Some of the wit- nesses say the shooting was caused by an attempt on the part of the prisoners to escape, but the greater number state that a refusal by Peu-peu-mox-mox to be tied led to a struggle which ended as above. The men were angry and preferred the excitement of the fight to the unpleasant duty of guarding Indians, and took the first good opportunity which offered to rid themselves of their incum- brances. Only one had an opportunity given him to fight for his life. This was a Willamette Indian named " Jim " or " Wolf Skin," who had a knife upon his person. Drawing this he fought des- perately until he was laid low with a blow on the head from a musket in the hands of a soldier who had approached him from behind. The dead prisoners were scalped in true barbaric style. This was not the end ; the scalp and ears of the great " Yellow Bird " were taken to the Willamette Valley as trophies of war, though at this late date it is difficult to conceive how the ears of a YAKIMA, WALLA WALLA AND PUGET SOUND CAMPAIGNS. 419 slain prisoner, who had been captured under a flag of truce, could be looked upon in the light of honorable trophies of war. There is no question about this fact, and there are living in Oregon to-day many before whose eyes these trophies were displayed. The Ore- gonian of January 5, 1856, records the fact that on the thirty-first of December Dr. Shaw, Assistant Surgeon O. M. V., arrived in Portland, having in his possession the ears of Peu-peu-mox-mox, accompanied by Mr. Story, of Company A, who displayed the same chief's scalp. It can well be imagined with what telling effect General Wool related this incident in his official report, his various newspaper communications and private letters. The battle was renewed the following day and lasted four days longer. The incidents, as reported by Colonel Kelly, were as follows : — Early on the morning of the eighth the Indians appeared with increased forces, amounting to fully six hundred warriors. They were posted as usual in the thick brush by the river — among the sage bushes and sand knolls, and on the surround- ing hills. This day Lieutenant Pillow with Company A, and Lieutenant Hannon with Company H, were ordered to take and hold the brush skirting the river and sage bushes on the plain. Lieutenant Fellows with Company F was directed to take and keep the possession of the point at the foot of the hill. Lieutenant Jef- fries with Company B, Lieutenant Hand with Company I, and Captain Cornoyer with Company K, were posted on three several points on the hills with orders to maintain them and to assail the enemy on other points of the same hills. As usual, the Indians were driven from their position, although they fought with skill and bravery. On the ninth they did not make their appearance until about ten o'clock in the morning, and then in somewhat diminished numbers. As I had sent to Fort Henrietta for Companies D and E, and expected them on the tenth, I thought it best to act on the defensive and hold our positions which were the same as on the eighth, until we could get an accession to our forces sufficient to enable us to assail their rear and cut of! their retreat. An attack was made during the day on Companies A and H in the brushwood, and upon B on the hill, both of which were repulsed with great gallantry by those companies, and with considerable loss to the enemy. Companies F, I and K also did great honor to themselves in repelling all approaches to their positions, although in doing so one man in Company F and one in Company I were severely wounded. Darkness as usual closed the combat, by the enemy withdrawing from the field. Owing to the inclemency of the night the companies on the hill were withdrawn from their several positions, Company B abandoning its rifle pits which were made by the men of that company for its pro- tection. At early dawn on the next day the Indians were observed from our camp to be in possession of all points held by us on the preceding day. Upon seeing them Lieutenant McAuliff of Company B gallantly observed that his company had dujr those holes and after breakfast they would have them again, and well was his declaration fulfilled, for in less than half an hour, the enemy was driven from the pits and fled to an adjoining hill which they had occupied the day before. This position was at once assailed. Captain Cornoyer with Company K, and a portion of Company I, being mounted, gallantly charged the enemy on his right flank, 420 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. while Lieutenant McAuliff with Company B dismounted, rushed up the hill in face of a heavy fire and scattered them in all directions. They at once fled in all directions to return to this battlefield no more, and thus ended our long contested fight. The bravery of the volunteers and their gallant conduct in charging and dispersing the enemy time after time, is worthy the highest praise. Veteran troops could not have done better service. The report says that it was learned from friendly Indians that the battle was participated in by Walla Wallas, Umatillas, Cayuses, Palouses, and Stock Whitley's band of Des Chutes ; and that after their defeat some of them went to Grand Ronde and others crossed to the north side of Snake River, while Stock Whitley, disgusted with the manner in which the others had fought, took his band to the Yakima country to join Kama-i-akun. The Indians were pur- sued a distance towards Snake River, and much provisions and cattle were captured. Narcisse Remond and the other French Canadians on the Walla Walla, appealed for protection, and were escorted to the temporary camp where they were exempt from danger of molestation. The report concludes : — We have now the undisputed possession of the country south of Snake River, and I would suggest the propriety of retaining this possession until such time as it can be occupied by the regular troops ; * * * \y n i j WO uld suggest the propriety of following up the Indians with all possible speed, now that their hopes are blighted and their spirits broken. Unless this is done they will perhaps rally again. I must earnestly ask that supplies may be sent forward to us without delay. For the last three days none of the volunteers, except the two companies from Fort Henrietta, have had any flour. None is here, and but little at that post. We are now living on beef and potatoes, which are found en cache, and the men are be- coming much discontented with this mode of living. Clothing for the men is much needed as the winter approaches. To-morrow we will remove to a more suitable point, where grass can be obtained in greater abundance for our worn-out horses. A place has been selected about two miles above Whitman Station, on the same (north) side of the Walla Walla, consequently I will abandon this fort, named in honor of Captain Bennett of Company F, who now sleeps beneath its stockade, and whose career of usefulness and bravery was here so sadly but nobly closed. The losses sustained by the volunteers in the five days' conflict were comparatively slight, only twenty being injured in any way*. The list is as follows : Killed, Captain Charles Bennett, Company F ; Lieutenant J. M. Burrows, Company H ; Private S. S. Van Hagerman, Company I. Mortally wounded, Privates Kelso and Joseph Flemming, Company A ; Henry Crow, Company H ; Joseph Sturdevant, Company B. Wounded, Captain Lyman B. Monson, Company I ; Captain A. V. Wilson, Company A ; Captain Davis YAKIMA, WALLA WALLA AND PUGET SOUND, CAMPAIGNS. 421 Lavton, Company H ; Privates Casper Snook, T. J. Payne, F. Crabtree, Nathan Fry, Isaac Miller and A. M. Addington, Com- pany H ; J. B. Gervais, Company K ; G. W. Smith, Company B ; Franklin Duval, Company A ; and Sergeant Major Isaac Miller. The loss of the Indians was placed by Colonel Kelly at about seventy-five, his report stating that thirty -nine bodies had been found by the volunteers. It is difficult to understand the reason for such a marked contrast in the losses sustained by the two sides, especially since the volunteers acted on the offensive and the In- dians only fought when protected by natural defenses. The ten- dency to over-estimate the loss of the defeated enemy is not confined to Oregon ; it is as widespread as the earth's green carpet. The total footing of the estimated loss of the enemy reported by the commanders of the opposing forces during the Rebellion, was far in Excess of the actual number of killed, wounded and captured in both the Confederate and Union armies, including the deaths from disease, to which can be charged fully fifty per cent, of the mortality of war. News of the battle of Walla Walla reached The Dalles at the time General Wool was removing the regulars to Vancouver. The courier who brought the first intelligence had left the scene of con- flict while the fight of the second day was raging, and, consequently, could only say that a great battle was in progress, several volun- teers had been killed, and the result was yet in doubt. Adhering to his determination to let the volunteers conduct their operations — needless, in his opinion — unaided by the regular troops, the com- mander apparently paid no attention to the startling intelligence of the courier, who took passage from The Dalles upon the very boat which conveyed the troops to Vancouver. Not so the people. Ex- citement was raised to a high pitch, and many uncomplimentary remarks were made about the indifferent conduct of the troops. The Oregonian was especially bitter in its denunciations, calling attention to the circumstances of the courier and troops being upon the same steamer, in the following language: — It looks bad, to say the least, that a steamer should be loaded with U. S. troops coming out of the Indian country at the same time that news was being brought down of a severe and bloody conflict of five days' duration, between the volunteers and a large body of Indians ; particularly so when the volunteers were nearly out of provisions, short of ammunition, and entirely destitute of other necessary articles 422 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. to carry out the war; and, withal, far in the Indian country, and, for aught any- body knew, surrounded by the enemy and in danger of being cut off' entirely. Are the people, the civilians, to protect themselves and defend the country from barba- rian marauders, while those who have contracted for that service remain idle and listless in their winter quarters, eating, drinking, and making merry? Also appeared the following remarks on the state of the war: — How goes on the war? We answer, that the IT. S. troops, who are paid for fight- ing, and who have been sent here at the expense of the General Government to pro- tect the people, are all housed up in good winter quarters, eating, drinking, and making merry, while a few bare-footed, half-starved volunteers, who came here at their own expense, are in the field fighting the battles of their country. In every fight north, they came out first best. Thus goes the war. Volunteers can go bare- footed, can sleep without blankets, eat their horses, if need be, while the " carpet knights" [he would have called them "Dudes" in this age of more ample epithet- ical vocabularly] of the regular service must be well fed, well shod, and well blanketed, and have howitzers, withal, or they can not take the field. The car- casses of one hundred and fifty dead Indians at Walla Walla plains show how goes on the war. Mr. Dryer, thinking Colonel Kelly's estimate of the number of " good Indians," made at AValla Walla, too modest, multiplied it by two. It was a little reckless under the circumstances, but such was the style of that paper when under that enthusiastic gentle- man's management. These uncomplimentary remarks were brought to the attention of General Wool, and the old veteran replied to the effect that he professed to do his duty as he understood it ; that the people of Oregon might say what they pleased, it was not the first time he had had dogs barking at his heels. This was too much for the Oregonian; it smote General Wool hip and thigh; said he was in his dotage, was an old woman, had insulted the people and called them dogs. The object of these fierce tirades made no reply, yet it may well be imagined that they only served to make him more set in his purpose to pay no attention whatever to the movements of Governor Curry's army, but to act entirely upon his own responsibility at his own chosen time. He had decided to occupy the Indian country with a strong force in the spring, and was awaiting the arrival of the 9th regiment to enable him to do so. In January he ordered Captain (now General) Ord's company of dragoons to San Francisco, and was abused for send- ing troops out of the country and depriving the people of the pro- tection they had a right to expect from the Government. These complaints were soon silenced by the arrival of the 9th regiment, six Jiundred of whom were landed at Vancouver the last week in January YAKIMA, WAI.f.A WALLA AND PUGET SOUND CAMPAIGNS. 423 by the steamers Oregon and Republic, two hundred more being sent to the Sound. The San Francisco papers published interviews with the General, who had returned to that city, in which he was made to state that the troubles in Oregon were caused in both cases by the whites, and that alone the Columbia there was no war other than that created by tin 1 unwarranted conduct of Governor Curry in sending Oregon troops into Washington Territory, at great expense to the Government, to attack Indians from whom the people of Oregon had no reason to apprehend any danger to themselves whatever. This drew out two columns of the " Oregon style " from the exasperated editor of the Oregonian, was severely com- mented upon by the other papers, and caused much indignation among the people generally. It was at this time General Wool wrote the letter to the National Intelligencer, which has been referred to, giving a history of the cause and progress of the war, and laying particular stress upon the killing and mutilation of Peu-peu-rnox-mox. It was several months before a copy of this reached Oregon, but when it did another baptism of wrath was showered upon the gray hairs of the Mexican hero. On the ninth of February the Oregon Legislature addressed a memorial to the President, requesting the removal of General Wool from command of this department. iVbout the same time, Governor Stevens, who had returned in safety, addressed a long communication to the Sec- retary of War, stating his personal grievances and preferring charges against General Wool. He made it appear that his immediate and safe return was the great question of the hour, and in neglecting, or refusing, to provide for this the commanding officer had been guilt}' of a most heinous crime. General W T ool had taken the view that Governor Stevens 1 party was able to look out for itself ; that if tin- executive of Washington Territory did not return to the seat of Government for six months, the material interests of the Terri- tory would not be in the least jeopardized ; at least the necessity of his immediate return was not great enough to justify him in making an invasion of the Indian country in the dead of winter. Governor Stevens' opinion of his own importance seems to have been somewhat greater than this. From this letter of the Governor are gleaned the incidents attending his return journey. At the Hellgate he was met by fourteen Nez Perces, among whom were 424 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Spotted Eagle, Looking Glass and Three Feathers, who, after a brief council, invited him to go to their country, where a large force of braves would escort him to The Dalles. They united with his party, and all crossed the Bitterroot Mountains on the fourteenth of November, passing through three feet of snow, and reached the Cceur d'Alene Mission on the twenty-fifth. Here he heard con- tradictory and vague rumors of the events happening below, and of the condition of affairs, nothing appearing certain except the fact that the Walla Wallas, Cayuses and Umatillas cherished a hostile spirit, rendering it dangerous for him to attempt to pass through that region without a strong escort. He pushed on to the Spokane country, where he held a council with the three tribes of Spokanes, Cceur d'Alenes and Colvilles, Mr. McDonald, Hudson's Bay Com- pany agent at Fort Colville, and the Jesuit Fathers stationed at that point, being present. The Indians were much excited and were wavering between peace and war. " After a stormy council of several days,'' so says the communication, "the Spokanes, Cceur d'Alenes and Cclvilles were entirely conciliated, and promised they would reject all overtures of the hostile Indians, and continue the firm friends of the whites." He augmented his party, and made a forced march to the Clearwater, at Lapwai, where the Nez Perces were assembled. He was there informed that the Walla Walla country was occupied by hostile Indians, and it would be unsafe to attempt a passage through unguarded. While nego- tiations were in progress for a body guard of one hundred and fifty braves to escort him to The Dalles, news was received that the hostiles had been driven out of the country by the volunteers ; and the next day he started with sixty -nine well armed Nez Perces, and reached Walla Walla without encountering any opposition. There he found the Oregon volunteers encamped, also the French settlers before alluded to, the friendly Indians, and B. F. Shaw, Colonel of Washington Territory Militia and Special Indian Agent. The Governor placed him in command, with instructions to fortify and maintain his ground in case the Oregon troops should return home. He then disbanded his Nez Perce auxiliaries, and continued his journey to the seat of government at Olympia. The communica- tion concludes with the following specific charges : — YAKIMA, WALLA WALLA AND PTTGET SOtJKD CAMPAIGNS. 425 Mr. Secretary— Major General Wool, commanding the Pacific Division, neg- lected and refused to send a force to the relief of myself and party, when known to be in imminent danger, and believed by those who were not ltss capable of judging, to be coming on to certain death, and this when he had at his command an ifticitnt force of regular troops. He refused to sanction the agreement made between Gov- ernor Mason and Major Raines for troops to be sent to my assistance, and ordered them to disband. It was reserved for the Oregon troops to rescue us. The only demonstration made by Major Raines resulted in showing his utter incapacity to command in the field. As has heretofore been said, his expedition against the Yak i mas effected nothing but driving the Indians into the very country through which I must pass to reach the settlements. I therefore prefer charges against General Wool. I accuse him of utter and signal incapacity, of criminal neglect of my safety. I ask for an investigation into the matter, and for his removal from command. Until this epistle saw the light, it was the general opinion that Major Raines and Colonel Nesmith had accomplished consid- erable when they invaded the Yakima country and compelled the hostile bands of Kama-i-akun to evacuate it; but Governor Stevens, viewing it simply in the light of the effect it had upon him personally, and not with regard to the punishment of the In- dians or the safety of the people generally, charged Major Raines with "utter incapacity, 1 ' because he drove " the Indians into the very country through which I must pass." He also accused General Wool of u utter and signal incapacity,' 1 because of a "criminal neg- lect of my safety. 11 It is no wonder that neither the President nor the Secretary of War paid the least attention to such frivolous charges so gravely made. Nor did a memorial voted by the Ore- gon Legislature on the ninth of February, asking the removal of General Wool, receive any better treatment. The condition of affairs up to this time had been much compli- cated by the hostile attitude of Indians living along Puget Sound. When Major Haller started from The Dalles upon his unfortunate invasion of the Yakima country, it will be remembered that Lieu- tenant W. A. Slaughter undertook to go from Ft. Steilacoom through the Natchess Pass with forty men, and form a junction with him. Haller was defeated and Slaughter fell back to White River, where he was joined by Captain M. Maloney with seventy- five men. On the twenty-fourth of October Captain Gil more Hays joined him with a company of volunteers from Olympia, and the whole force took up its march for the Natchess Pass, expecting to co-operate with Major Raines and Colonel Nesmith. who were about to invade the Yakima country in force. A few days later, having 426 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. been informed by courier that Major Raines would not start for some weeks, his provisions beginning to run low, and the lateness of the season threatening soon to blockade the mountains with snow, he deemed it judicious to return to Ft. Steilacoorn, especially as the Sound Indians were evincing a hostile spirit, and the invasion of warlike tribes from British Columbia was feared. These North- ern Indians, like the Saxons, Danes and Norsemen of old, were ac- customed to make long coasting voyages in their immense war ca- noes, and iDvade whatever region they might see fit. Puget Sound Indians and, after its settlement, the whites, were frequent sufferers from these plundering raids. While returning, Maloney and Hays were attacked by Indians on White River, and a severe engage- ment followed, resulting, as reported, in the death of one regular, the wounding of one volunteer, and the killing of forty Indians. The force continued its retreat to Ft. Steilacoom. The greatest alarm prevailed among the settlers of that region. They hastened to points of safety with their families, and built stockades and block-houses for their protection. Many of the abandoned cabins were destroyed by the Indians. This was the condition in which Governor Stevens found things when he reached Olympia on the nineteenth of January. Three days later he issued a call for six companies of volunteers to serve on the Sound, and three companies to be recruited along the Co- lumbia for service east of the mountains. He also made arrange- ments with Captain Gansevoort, of the United States steamer Active, to cruise on the Sound below Seattle, on the lookout for Northern Indians; and requested Governor Douglas, of the Hudson's Bay Company, to keep a vessel cruising in the vicinity of Victoria, and warn him of the approach of war canoes. A few days later the Indians attacked Seattle, burned and destroyed everything in King County, except Seattle itself, and the little settlement of Alki. About this time the force under Colonel Wright arrived from San Francisco, and Lieutenant- Colonel Casey was sent to Puget Sound with two hundred men. The organized forces on the Sound were divided into three battalions — " Northern," " Central " and " South- ern" — which established separate headquarters, and constructed a chain of block-houses from Yelm Prairie to Bellingham Bay. The central position of the regulars was at Muckleshoot Prairie. The YAKIMA, WALLA WALLA AND PUGET SOUND CAMPAIGNS. 427 naval forces were stationed at Seattle, and were commanded at this time by Captain Swartwout. Thus was the Sound guarded while Governor Stevens was making preparations for an invasion of the country east of the mountains. A return to the Oregon volunteers left in winter camp at Walla Walla is now necessary. The Oregon troops held possession of the Walla Walla country during the winter, occasionally moving, for convenience, to a new camping ground. Though the route to The Dalles was open and comparatively free from danger of attack upon trains of supplies, but limited quantities of those necessaries reached the front. The troops depended chiefly upon meat, procured by killing captured stock, and, at times, being reduced to an uninviting fare of horse meat. The officers of the commissary department were too busy running up big bills of expense for the Government to pay, to give much attention to the suffering men in the field. Warmly clad and bountifully fed at The Dalles, how could they be expected to ap- preciate the necessities of the ragged and half-starved volunteers, bravely enduring the rigors of winter in the enemy's country? Soon after the battle of Walla Walla, Lieutenant-Colonel Kelly proceeded to the Willamette Valley temporarily, and during his absence an election occurred to fill the vacancies caused by the res- ignation of Colonel Nesmith and Major Armstrong, in pursuance of instructions from headquarters. This resulted in the choice of Captain Thomas R. Cornelius, Colonel, and Captain N. A. Cor- noyer, Major. About the middle of January Governor Curry issued a proclamation calling for five companies — one each from Linn, Marion, Polk, Yamhill, and Clackamas — to take the place of those disbanded, also forty men to recruit Cornoyer's company of scouts from French Prairie. These were in due time recruited, mustered in, and marched to the camp at Walla Walla. The French settlers and friendly Indians were sent to The Dalles, and on the tenth of March Colonel Cornelius marched with his entire command in search of the enemy. In two days they reached Snake River at Fish-hook Bend. On the opposite side was an Indian village, whose inhabi- tants, thinking the stream could not be crossed, were very insulting and defiant, until the most demonstrative one was laid low with a bullet. At the same time the volunteers launched the boats they had prepared, and the savages fled in terror. They were pursued 428 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. by scouting parties, who overtook them as they were about cross- ing the Columbia near the mouth of the Yakima, and succeeded in killing one of them and capturing some horses. On the fourteenth the entire command moved up Palouse and Snake rivers, and en- camped three miles above the falls. Here they remained several days and were reduced to the necessity of subsisting upon horse meat. So poorly was the commissary department administered, that even in their winter camp they had been for weeks at a time without receiving supplies ; and now that they were on the move their chances for being fed upon regular rations were much less. A few days of Cayuse diet were all the fresh levies could stand. They had heard of some of the privations, including the equine provender, which the men at the front had endured; but it was as a " tale that is told," and made slight impression upon their minds. Here, however, was the actual reality experienced in their own proper persons, and the impression was on their stomach and more vivid and lasting. They mutinied, and declared an intention to march back to The Dalles at once. They were told of the disgrace of turning back in the face of the enemy, of the hardships of cold and hunger the veterans had endured, and were promised a remod- eling of the bill of fare as quickly as possible. They finally con- sented to give the commissary department one day of grace, and be- fore that time expired provisions arrived and the mutiny was at an end. The command marched to "White Bluffs, on the Columbia, without encountering any Indians. On the sixth of April they crossed to the west side of the river at the mouth of the Yakima, and followed the stream down to a point opposite Fort Walla Walla. Here a limited amount of supplies was received, and the homeward march to The Dalles was taken up by way of the Yakima country, About the sixteenth of April, the force reached the mouth of Satas Creek on the Yakima River, and went into camp. A divid- ing ridge only shut out from them a view of the valley of the reser- vation, where they had found plenty of cattle the fall before. Since leaving the -Palouse Falls, one-half their subsistence had been upon horse meat and they yearned for the fresh meat of the Yakimas. In the morning Captain Hembree, with five or six men, crossed the creek, and commenced ascending the bluffs to the north. YAKIMA, WALLA WALLA AND PUGET SOUND CAMPAIGNS. 429 He was going a short distance to see if any beef cattle could be discovered, and, while passing to the right of a hill, the volunteers in camp discovered some forty loose horses galloping around the opposite side of it towards him. Suddenly, as those horses reached a point between the camp and the Captain, every one of them was found to have an Indian rider ; and the next instant, with a savage yell, the Yakimas charged upon the little squad of whites. Cap- tain Hembree fell from his horse, and in a minute was scalped and lifeless. Two of the assailants were shot by him in the brief struggle, and another was killed by one of the soldiers, all of whom broke through the lines and escaped. The Indians carried off their dead, but afterwards acknowledged the loss of two braves in the death struggle with the white chief. Upon the instant that the attack was discovered the alarm was given in camp, and Major Cornoyer, with a few hastily gathered men, dashed across to the rescue. They had hardly started when firing was commenced on the south side of the creek by the Indians, who were making a general move to stampede the soldiers' horses. Captain Hembree was found stretched upon the ground, naked, mutilated, dead. The effort to stampede the horses failed, and the Indians disappeared as suddenly as they had come. That day Major Cornoyer, in com- mand of several companies of the regiment, followed the enemy, and an engagement ensued that resulted in driving the Indians from their fortified stronghold, and the killing of six of them with no loss to the whites. The ensuing day saw the line of march for The Dalles resumed by the entire force, bearing with them the body of the gallant Hembree. Without incident, other than the killing of two Indians who were met in the trail, the volunteers reached Klickitat Valley, and camped to recruit their stock, and received orders for mustering out of service. While occupying this camp, April 28th, a band of some fifty hostiles made a dash upon the grazing stock of the command, and stampeding them, captured three hundred and ninety head of horses, which left the Oregon volunteers dismounted. The regulars at The Dalles came to their assistance, but having no orders to pursue the enemy, Kama-i-akun was left to fall back slowly to the north unmolested. Thus ended the campaign, and the volunteers who had so gallantly fought in the field and endured uncomplainingly so 430 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. many unnecessary privations, were mustered out, with the excep- tion of the company from Clackamas, and found their way home- ward without even a word of thanks from the Governor, at whose call they had left their homes and business. They were poorer in purse, poorer in flesh and poorer still in their faith in humanity, but they had gained a vast fund of experience. The people, however, were more generous in their conduct. The citizens of Yamhill gave a grand banquet to the volunteers from that county, at Lafayette, on xhe fifteenth of May ; and the Washington county troops were entertained at Hillsboro on the thirty-first. Governor Curry called for two companies to guard the south side of the Columbia, and on this subject the Oregonian remarked : — None of those in the field were willing to volunteer for the required service, showing too plainly that their previous hardships had taken from them all desire to run any risk by a second campaign. Colonel Cornelius and his command have done all that it was possible to do ; they nobly responded to the call ; they left home when their services were needed ; they endured the exposure and fatigue of a cold, inclement winter; they were left (by somebody) to provision themselves. * * * They are left to thank themselves for the important services rendered the country. No executive official is present to welcome them back, and, in the name of the people, thank them for having so nobly done their duty. They arrive and are mustered out like so many heathen. The two companies were raised and left Portland on the four- teenth of June for The Dalles, commanded by Captains Wilson and Wilbur. The mal- administration of affairs in the commissary department was the subject of much controversy at the end of the campaign. Frequent complaints had been made during the winter, but the fol- lowing somewhat disconnected and incoherent, but easily compre- hended, communication, sent to the Oregonian from The Dalles on the twenty-first of April and signed u A Horse-fed Volunteer," was the signal for a war of words and printer's ink: — It has become my painful duty to announce, through your paper, to the citizens of the Willamette, the treatment the volunteers have received, and their apprecia- tion of the same. Six months ago they volunteered in good faith, to fight their country's foe. They expected to meet with ordinary hardships and privations, but they did not expect to starve, to eat poor old mares and colts. * * * Our business has been neglected, on account of which we have sustained heavy losses, our property has been sold to pay taxes, and all by the well-wishers of the Willam- ette; and now, when discharges are called for, the Governor says, "The country must be protected," and that, too, by us. If we had been treated as we should have been, we would willingly remain in the field till the close of the war. But since the congregated wisdom of Oregon Territory convened at Salem, decreed that a YAKIMA, WALLA WALLA AND PUGET SOUND CAMPAIGNS. 431 Cayuse horse was worth as much as a volunteer and should receive the same pay ; notwithstanding, the pack masters, last winter, would load them down to the guards, one-half with oats and the other half with whisky, neither of which ever reached the half-clad, half starved volunteers, and the quartermaster politely prom- ises to pay to a transcendentally patriotic Jew S24.00 per dozen for hickory shirts, which cost that noble man from $3.50 to $4.00; the volunteers to pay $2 00 for each shirt. Now there are boys here who have the blood of '76 coursing through their veins with railroad velocity, who say. the country must and shall be protected, but they can not, and will not, endure such treatment; that they will come home and take the desperate chances with the citizens, at least till they can settle their ac- counts and outfit themselves for a new campaign, not being willing to trust to the Departments for the same. The discussion was very warm and was conducted on a political basis. Early in the campaign, the previous November, the acute sense of propriety possessed by Mr. Bush, editor of the Statesman, and other leaders of the Democracy, was shocked by the knowledge that a few Whigs and Know-nothings held positions in the army. There was a loud outcry at this infringement of the undisputed right of the party in possession of the government to hold all the offices and enjoy all the emoluments and perquisites. Spirited communications appeared in the Statesman, in which the motto, " To the victors belong the spoils,'' was frequently quoted as hav- ing the authority of law and the gospel. A. M. Belt, Surgeon General, was specially singled out for attack, and the Governor was informed that competent surgeons were to be found in the Demo- cratic ranks. Finally, a petition was circulated through the Valley, which received so many signatures that the Governor did not dare to longer remain unmindful of the wishes of his political support- ers. A clean sweep was made in every office occupied by a Whig where the executive possessed the appointing power, from the ob- noxious Surgeon to the officers and clerks in the commissary de- partment, contractors, and mule drivers, and a good Democrat given the position. This done, they deeply lamented the fact that many of the commissioned officers in the field were Whigs, but, being elected to their positions, could not be removed except for cause. Too much attention was paid to politics and securing the spoils, to provide for the wants of the men in the field. When the contro- versy arose the officers at The Dalles reported to the Governor that there had always been an ample supply of provisions on hand, but. that they could get no escorts for their safe transportation to the front. This Colonel Cornelius denied, and demanded a court of 432 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. inquiry, which Governor Curry declined to order, taking care in his letter of refusal to state that the failure of supplies could not be attributed to any fault or carelessness of Colonel Cornelius, and to highly compliment him for his conduct during the campaign. Thus the officer was mollified and the dangerous breakers of an investi- gation were avoided. Governor Curry then sailed for the East to look after an appropriation by Congress to defray the expenses of his war. The subject had already come up, and General Wool's report, the character of which can be surmised from his previous conduct and expressed opinions, had caused the National Legisla- ture to refuse to appropriate anything whatever. CHAPTER XXV. CLOSING SCENES OF THE WAR ON ROGUE RIVER. Reorganization of the Volunteers — Appointment of General Lamerick — Removal of the Table Rock Band to the Coast Reservation, — The Flag SHAW. 468 tlieni pcarc if they would abandon the Sound. They refused to accept the terms, and insultingly challenged the marines to fight. Lieutenant Young returned on board, and Captain Swartwout de- termined to attack them in the morning. During the night the ship was moved in shore, and anchored with her broadside bearing upon the camp, only six hundred yards distant. Tn the morning Lieutenant Semmes went in the first cutter to the consort Steamer Traveller, which was anchored above the camp so that it could be raked by the held pieces on board. From there he landed with Lieutenant Forest and twentv-nine sailors and marines, wading waist deep to reach the shore and carrying a howitzer in their arms. Witt them went the interpreter to carry a final proposition of peace. Instead of being daunted by the formidable preparations for their subjugation, the Indians refused to accept the terms offered, and taking shelter behind trees and logs pointed their guns at the little party on the beach. The Traveller at once opened fire upon them from her held guns, the first discharge being simultaneous with the first volley fired by the savages. Instantly the ship poured a broad- side of round shot and grape into the camp and woods where they were concealed, while the howitzer on the beach also sent in its compliments. Under cover of the guns, the little party made a bold charge and drove the Indians from their camp into the woods. < ►wing to the density of underbrush and fallen timber, it was im- possible to follow them, and, after destroying the camp and prop- erty of the marauders and disabling all but one of their canoes, Lieutenants Semmes and Forest returned on board. During the day tlie guns played upon the woods wherever an Indian could be seen, and it was thought the execution was considerable. On the part of the assailants, one man was killed and another wounded. The next day the Indians sent two of their chiefs on board to beg for mercy and offer to surrender unconditionally. They said that they had lost twenty-seven of their number, besides many wounded, that their property and canoe- were destroyed and they had been with- out food two days. They were all supplied with food, taken on board the e. to somewhat intimidate the assailants. By charging then], the enemy were cleared away, and the retreat was resumed with the pack train in the van, the flanks and rear being covered. Lieu- tenant James Wheeler was on the right, Lieutenant William Gaston on the left, and Captain O. H. P. Taylor guarded the rear, each with a company. Charge after charge of the enemy was repulsed, men falling continually and being left to the tender mercy of the savages in many cases where it was impossible to carry them away. At last many of Lieutenant Gaston's men used their last round of 472 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. ammunition, and he sent an orderly to Colonel Steptoe, who was with the train in the van, asking that the command be halted until more could be issued; but the request was not granted. Captain Taylor's company next fired its last shot, and this fact, as well as the fall of Gaston, was communicated to the superior officer. He then ordered a halt. The contest in the rear was now a desperate hand to haud struggle. Both Gaston and Taylor lay on the ground, their men fighting stubbornly for possession of their bodies. Among them was a private named DeMay, who had been an officer in the French army in Algiers and the Crimea, and was an excellent swordsman. Clubbing his musket he made a furious onslaught upon the assailing savages, and as he was borne down by numbers he cried, " Mon Dieu, Mon Dieu, mine saber!" At last the Indians were driven back and the body of Captain Taylor was rescued. So demoralized had become the main body of the troops, that the call of Lieutenant Gregg for volunteers to go to the assistance of the hard-pressed rear guard, was answered by only ten men. He then led a charge, but soon found himself alone and rode back with- out uttering a word. To save the retreat from becoming a com- plete rout, which would have resulted in the utter annihilation of the force, Colonel Steptoe went into camp and threw out a strong line of pickets. The Indians encamped near by, apparently will- ing to bide their time, feeling certain of their victims. Every avenue of escape was guarded but one, and that one was a difficult pass which they supposed the soldiers could not travel. The Nez Perce chief was then their savior. When the night was well ad- vanced, having cached the howitzers and left their surplus stores to engage the attention of the savages, so as to delay pursuit in the morning, the troops mounted and followed Timothy in single file, as he led them through the unguarded pass. The wounded of each company were placed in charge of some of their comrades, a few of them being so badly hurt as to be utterly helpless. These were tied upon pack animals. Two of them, Sergeant Williams and Private McCrosson, suffered such ex- cruciating agony from the motion of the animals, that they begged to be killed, to be given poison, or a pistol with which to end their misery. Both of them succeeded in wriggling off from the animals they rode in different places ; and their comrades, cutting them CAMPAIGNS OF roLONELS WRIGHT, STEPTOE AND SHAW. 473 free from the lashings, left them lying on the ground, and rode away into the darkness unmindful of their pleadings for something with which to end their misery and save themselves from the tor- tures of their cruel pursuers. One by one the wounded, such as could not take care of themselves, were left behind, and the men hastened forward, intent only upon putting the swift current of Snake River between themselves and the cruel enemy in their rear. Seventy miles were traversed in twenty-four hours, when they reached the river near the mouth of the Alpowa, where lived Timothy's band of Nez Perces. Summoning his people, the chief placed the warriors on guard in the rear, while the women ferried the exhausted soldiers, with their animals and effects, across the stream. It took a day to accomplish this task, and then they moved on to the Pataha, where they were met by Captain Dent, with supplies and reinforcements. Here, also, they were overtaken by a war party of Nez Perces under Lawyer, who desired them to return and give the Indians battle ; but they desired no more fight- ing for the present, and the march to Walla Walla was continued. Two officers and sixteen men were left upon the field or along the Hue of the retreat, while more than a score of those who found safety by crossing Snake River, were severely wounded. Intelligence of this disaster was conveyed to General Clark, successor of General Wool in command of the department, and he ordered all available troops on the Coast to assemble at Walla Walla, for the purpose of administering to the Indians such a castigation as would teach them the power of the Government. This force was placed under the command of Colonel Wright. A base of operations, named " Fort Taylor," was established on the south side of Snake River, near the Tukannon, and on the twenty-seventh of August Colonel Wright moved forward with six hundred and eighty soldiers, thirty Nez Perce allies, and two hundred packers, herders, etc. On the first of September he en- countered the hostiles near Medical Lake, and whipped them severely. They were driven from the timber and hills by the howitzers, and a charge by the troojDS, and attempting to make a stand on the open plain, were mowed down by the fire of the steadily advancing troops, who were armed with long range guns for the first time in their encounter with Indians. When they 1 J 474 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. broke, two hundred dragoons, under the command of Major AYilliam N. Grier, swooped down upon them, and they fled in a panic, the companies of the dead Taylor and Gaston taking grim revenge upon the fleeing savages who had slain their commanders. How many were killed is not known, as all but those who fell during the last charge were carried from the field. Seventeen bodies were left upon the ground, which was strewn with blankets, robes, guns and the miscellaneous paraphernalia of Indian war- riors. Not a soldier was killed in the battle. Four days later the command reached Spokane River, six miles below the falls, having driven the hostiles before them for fourteen miles, killing many of them. This was the end ; the Indians fled in terror, and dared not again offer battle to such a terrible foe. Colonel Wright pushed on toward the Coeur d'Alene Mission, and was met by Gearry, chief of the Spokanes, who asked for peace. The stern avenger told the suppliant chief that he came to fight, not to make peace ; that he had force enough to whip the com- bined tribes of that whole region ; that he offered no terms of peace, the Indians, men, women .and children, must come in and trust to his mercy ; otherwise he would exterminate the tribe. On the eighth Wright captured nine hundred and eighty-six horses from the Palouses, and, knowing how vital they were in Indian warfare, he ordered every one of them to be shot! This was more than they could endure, and the concurrent appearance of a brilliant comet in the heavens, made them think Colonel Wright was a scourge sent by the Great Spirit, who hung his flaming sword in the sky as a sign of his anger. They sued for peace. Councils were held with the various tribes, at which, upon the demand of Colonel Wright, the men who had commenced the attack upon Colonel Step toe were delivered up for punishment, and hos- tages were given for their future good conduct. Twelve of the guilty ones were hanged, among whom was Qualchien, who had killed Agent Bolan in 1855. His father, Owhi, second chief of the Yakimas, was a prisoner, and attempting to escape near Fort Taylor, was killed by the guard. On the seventh of October the bones of those who fell in Steptoe's battle were buried at Fort Walla W T alla, and Wright then held a council with the Walla Walla tribe. So great had become the fear of him, that when he called CAMPAIGNS OK COLONELS WRIGHT, STEPTOE AND SHAW. 475 for all those who had taken part in the battle to stand up, thirty - five warriors promptly rose to their feet. Four of these were selected for execution, and their hanging was witnessed by their people with fear and trembling. This was the end, and until chief Joseph and his small band of Nez Perces broke out twenty years later, not an Indian of all those tribes went again upon the war path against the whites. Colonel Wright was promoted during the civil war to the rank of Brigadier, and commanded the Department of the Pacific. His energy, watchfulness, and sterling patriotism kept down the ever- rising flame of treason, and held the Coast loyal to the Government throughout the bloody struggle. He became very dear to the peo- ple who had so long relied upon him for protection, and it was a day of mourning when the sad news came that he had found a watery grave. With his family and staff he was engulfed in the stormy waters of the Pacific, when, off Crescent City on the thir- tieth of July, 1855, the Brother Jonathan carried her human cargo to a resting place beneath the billows. The financial history of these Indian Wars presents considerable of importance to interest the reader. It has been mentioned that the demands of the war of 1853 were paid in full two years later, through the action of General Lane and others. The accounts growing out of the Walker expedition in 1854, " To fight the emi- grants," as some facetious ones have termed it, were paid subse- quent to the War of the Rebellion. The act of Congress which au- thorized their payment, was based upon a previous act approved July 17, 1854, entitled "An act to authorize the Secretary of War to settle and adjust the expenses of the Rogue River War [of 1853]," which was extended to cover the case of Captain Walker's company. The claims growing out of the last Indian war achieved quite a history. In the summer of 1856 the matter of these claims was brought before Congress by the Oregon Delegate, General Lane, and being referred to the Committee on Military Affairs, a recommendation was made favorable to the payment of the ex- penses of the wars in Oregon and Washington, the two sets of claims — arising from the Rogue River and the Yakima wars — be- coming mingled in all Congressional and official reports. In con- sequence of this recommendation Congress, on the eighteenth of 476 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. August, passed an act, one of whose provisions is: " Be in enacted. That the Secretary of War be directed to examine into the amount of expenses necessarily incurred in the suppression of hostilities in the late Indian war in Oregon and Washington by the Territorial Governments in the maintenance of the volunteer forces engaged, in- cluding pay of volunteers, and he may, if he deem it necessary, direct a commission of three to report these expenses to him," etc. In consequence a commission, consisting of Captain Andrew J. Smith, previously many times mentioned in the account of the wars, Captain Rufus Ingalls, now General, and Lafayette Grover, of Sa- lem, Oregon, was appointed to make the examination. They began work in October, 1856, and after spending more than a year in a careful investigation of these claims, "traveling over the whole field of operations occupied by the volunteers, during hostilities, and becoming thoroughly conversant with the matter," made their report to the Secretary of War. According to their examination the sum of $4,449,949.33 was due as the expenses on the part of Oregon. The muster-rolls of companies represented an indebted- ness, after deducting stoppages for clothing, etc., of $1,409,644.53; while scrip had been issued to the extent of $3,040,344.80 in payment of supplies, etc., furnished. This aggregate was exclusive of claims for spoliation by Indians, and included only what were thought to be the legitimate expenses of maintaining the volunteer force in the field. The report and accompanying documents were transmitted to Congress, and on the eighth of February, 1859, a resolution paesed the House of Representatives, providing that it should be the duty of the Third Auditor of the Treasury to exam- ine the vouchers and papers connected with the subject, and make a report in the December following of the amount due each indi- vidual engaged in the military service of the two Territories during the war. The resolution also provided that he should allow the volunteers no higher pay than was received by the officers and sol- diers of like grade in the regular army, including the extra pay of two dollars per month conferred by act of Congress of 1852 on troops serving on the Pacific Coast; that he was to recognize no company or individual as entitled to pay except such as had been duly called into service by the Territorial authorities; that in au- diting claims for supplies, transportation, etc., he was directed to CAMPAIGNS OF COLONELS WRIGHT, STEPTOE AND SHAW. 477 have a due regard to the number of troops, to their period of ser- vice and to the prices which were current at the time and place. On February 7, 1860, R. J. Atkinson, Third Auditor, made his report. It was an exhaustive and voluminous document, and it reduced the grand total of the claims of various sorts, acted on by the three commissioners, from $6,011,457.36 to §2,714,808.55, a reduction of about fifty -five per cent. This estimate w T as taken as a basis for these claims, and by a subsequent act of Congress a sum of money to correspond was appropriated to pay them, the greater portion of which has been disbursed. CHAPTEE XXVIII. ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. Character of the Indians of the Valley — Destructive I?ifluences — Sources of Indian History — Extract from Lewis and Clarke's Narratwe — Various Tribes Recounted — Their Locations — The Klickitat Inva- sion — The Chinook Family — Ethnology — Habits and Appearance \ — Tattooing — Clothing — Habitations — Food — Easy Ways of Life — Salmon Catching — Canoes — Tribal Government — Weapons — Habits of War — Diseases and Treatment — The Vapor Bath — Disposition of Dead Bodies — Influence of the Missions — Antiquities of Linn County — Their Probable Origin — Indian Names of Localities — Good Taste Demands their Perpetuation. THE subject of the aboriginal inhabitants of the Willamette Valley presents little of interest or importance. When the early white explorers arrived, they found the banks of the streams thinly populated with savages, who were generally the most peace- ful of their kind and a world different from the sanguinary red- skins of the plains. With these Indians the whites held agreeable enough relations, except the occurrence of a few slight jars, and there is little thereof to chronicle. The most pertinent fact of which we have to make note, is that the Indians speedily died out, and to-day scarcely a hundred individuals exist, the relics of once numer- ous tribes. The causes of that circumstance are neither lamentable nor difficult to ascertain. Fire-water, restriction within narrow bounds, loss of freedom, the prevalence of diseases, u the influence of civilization," each of these, probably, had its weight. The same causes have acted in the extinction of hundreds of other Indian tribes who have died and left no sign. The principal evidence on the subject of aborigines, is derived from the following works : Lewis and Clarke's Travels, Parker's ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 479 Exploring Tour, Stuart's Annates des Voyages, Morse's Reports, Hunter's Captivity. Schoolcraft's Archeology, Wilkes' United States Exploring Expedition, Ross' Adventures, Domenech's Deserts, Mo- fras 1 Explorations, Gass' Journal, and 77/? London Geographical Society s Journal. The recollections of various old settlers have also been made use of. Of the Willamette Valley nations. Lewis and Clarke, wrote thus : ki The nations who inhabit this fertile neighborhood are very numerous. The Wappatoo inlet extends three hundred yards wide, for ten or twelve miles, as far as the hills, from which it re- ceives the waters of a small creek, whose sources are not far from tho the Clackamas, are the falls of the Multnomah. At this place are the permanent residences <>f the Cushooks and Chaheowahs, two tribes who are attracted to that place bj the 480 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. fish, and by the conveniences of trading across the mountains and down the Killainuck River, with the nation of Killamucks, from whom they procure train-oil. These falls are occasioned by the passage of a high range of mountains, beyond which the country stretches into a high level plain, wholly destitute of timber. As far as the Indians, with whom we conversed, had ever penetrated that country, it was inhabited by a nation called Calahpoewah, a very numerous people, whose villages, nearly forty in number, are scattered along each side of the Multnomah, which furnishes them with their chief subsistence — fish, and the roots along its banks." In Schoolcraft's Archaeology the names are subjected to a slightly different spelling : Calapooyas, Clackamas. The former tribe " live in the Upper Willamette Valley." According to Stuart's Annates des Voyages, the Cathlacamaps lived at the mouth of the Oullammat ; the Cathlapoutles opposite ; the Cathlanaminimins on an island a little higher up ; the Mathlanobes [Multnomahs] on the upper part of the same island ; the Cathlapouyeas just above the falls ; the Cathlacklas on the eastern branch higher up ; and still higher, the Chochonis. According to Morse's Reports, the Cathlathlas lived u sixty miles above the mouth of the Wallaumut," while the Multnomahs or Mathlanobs at the upper end of the island, m the mouth of the Wallaumut. Morse speaks of the Nemalquinners, on the northeast side of the Wallaumut. By numerous early writers we are told of the Calapooias' residence on the Upper Willamette, and the name is spelt with all imaginable variations. Some have it Kalapuyas ; others Vule Puyas, Kalapooyahs, Callipooyas, Calapooah, Callawpohyeaas, and Callapohyeaass. The Calapooias are divided by one writer into the Wacomeapp, Naumooit, Chillychandize, Shookany, Coupe, Shehee, Long- tongue- buff, Lamalle, and Pecyou tribes. The Clackamas, on Clackamas river, are variously spoken of as the Clackemas, Clakamus, Klakamus and Clarkamees. Of nine sub- divisions, the Katlawewallas [Clough-e- wallas] lived at the Falls of the Wallamet. The " Nemskees extend eastward of the head- waters of the Multnomah toward a large lake." The Leeshteelosh occupied the headwater of the Multnomah. The Cloughewallhah lived a little below the falls. Yhe Yamkallies [Yoneallas | dwelt be- yond the sources of the Wallamut River, in the beautiful valley now ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 481 known by this name. The Yamhills lived in the county of that name. Their cognomen is corrupted from Che-um-il, a ford, we are told. The Mol alias resided not far from Oregon City, and in the region now known as Marion and Clackamas counties. They are described as having been of different extraction and habits fro.m the neighboring nations, and are said to have been an offshoot from the Cayuse tribe of Eastern Oregon. For purposes of war or trade some Cayuses had removed temporarily to the west of the Cascades, and were unable to return, owing to the hostility of the tribes of the Des Chutes, by whom they were cut off from their own country. They settled in the valley and remained there until overtaken for the most part by the fate which met their neighbors. In person they were larger and more prepossessing than the Chinook peoples. A small number of them settled in the eastern part of Douglas County at some period within the memory of white men, and their descendants, to the number of a dozen or so, live there yet, in the possession of farms, which they cultivate with quite as much industry and judgment as their white neighbors. This fact argues an extraction many grades higher than the com- mon run of Indians, and far beyond the capacity of the Chinook tribes. At a time, subsequent to the arrival of the whites, and before their numbers and influence became overpowering, the Klickitats, a restless and enterprising tribe, whose home is on the north side of the Columbia, emigrated from the broad plains of that region, and settled in the Willamette Valley. Some say that they conquered the peaceful and inoffensive Calapooias, and made vassals of them ; but this is uncertain. It is more likely that they merely settled among them. The characteristics of the invaders, according to some, entitle them to the name of the Jews of the Northwest, for their peculiarities are seen more in barter and commerce than in aught else. As for their warlike tastes it is related that upon the breaking out of the first Indian war in Southern Oregon, a band of Klickitats offered their services to the Territorial Government, pro- posing to serve against the Rogue River tribes, and there were many who were of opinion that they would have been able to bring the latter to subjection very quickly. This, however, is only 482 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. supposition, as these tribes knew nothing of each other, being always separated by hundreds of miles. Toward the whites the Klickitats ever maintained a peaceful attitude, though numerous enough to have occasioned infinite trouble. Their forbearance was ill appreciated ; and this fine tribe, after occupying a part of the valley for several years, was, at last, compelled to withdraw, owing to the aggressions of the incoming white settlers. They were, at one time, in a fair way to become permanent cultivators of the soil, and had, in many cases, taken up land, acquiring it by trade from the Calapooias, its previous possessors. About 1854 they returned to their own country in the north. According to Bancroft the Indians of the Willamette Valley possessed analogies to those of the Lower Columbia River in general, and he has erected them into a group, which he styles the Chinook family. Originally the name Chinook was restricted to a small tribe living on the north bank of the Columbia, near its mouth. The Indians of the Chinook family once formed numerous and powerful communities, but are now represented by a few squalid and miserable survivors, especially where the country has been oc- cupied thickly by whites, as in this valley. " Whole tribes have been exterminated by war and disease, and in the few miserable remnants collected on reservations or straggling about Oregon towns, no trace is present of the independent, easy-living bands of the not remote past. It is, however, to be noted that at no time since this region has been known to Europeans has the Indian pop- ulation been at all in proportion to the supporting capacity of the land while yet in a state of nature, with its fertile soil and well stocked streams and forests." In stature the Indians of the Valley rarely exceeded five feet, six inches, while the females were scarcely above five feet. Both sexes were strongly built, but loosely. They were said to have improved physically in proportion to their distance from the Columbia and its fisheries, which is a consequence of the often observed fact that the fish -eaters were, and always are, inferior to hunting tribes. The Calapooias on • the Upper Willamette were thought to have been the finest in physique. Some observers have noticed a similarity between the Chinook and the Mongolian visages, in the matter of the broad and flat noses, and the eyes turned obliquely upward at ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 483 the outer corners. The Chinook nostrils were large, the month wide and thick-lipped, the teeth irregular and frequently much worn, the eyes black, dull and expressionless, though some have credited them with possessing bright eyes and an aspect of liveliness. Their features, though in general coarse, were sometimes regular, and not disagreeable, especially among the women, who have often been credited, in individual cases, with at least ordinary charms. The Chinook family generally conformed to the habit of flattening the heads of young children, which unique custom extended as far southward as the Falls of the Willamette. The subject is referred to in Bancroft's incomparable ethnological work, the Native Races of the Pacific Coast, but he declares himself ignorant of the origin of this strange freak, but supposes it to spring from the innate love of ornamentation. (See vol. I, pages 226-7.) Another hideous custom, and a more general one, was that of slitting their noses and wearing; a string; of beads or shells therein. Tattooing is said not to have been practiced universally as in the more southern tribes, but was frequent, especially among the fe- males. It usually consisted of lines of clots pricked into the limbs and cheeks with pulverized charcoal. The women were fond of daubing the body with bright colored earths and the juice of ber- ries, and grease was extensively applied. The hair was worn long and was a great source of filth. The women wore it braided in two tails. As is customary with Indians, they preferred to go as nearly naked as the weather would permit. However, females wore nearly always a skirt of cedar bark-fibre, hanging to the knees. Other garments were composed of the skins of beasts sown together and sometimes ornamented with fringes or paints. The houses of the Chinooks were usually taken down each year and re-erected to get rid of vermin. They were built of wood; often of the bark of trees, or, in some cases, of cedar planks, though this degree of advancement was not possessed by many. The planks were fastened by strings of bark, by which they were tied to upright posts forming a frame. The ordinary dimensions of these houses were, length, twenty-five to seventy-five feet; width, fif- teen to twenty- five feet. The door was just large enough to admit the body, and there was no window nor chimney; for convenience of fire there were fire-places sunk in the dirt floor, and the smoke 484 HISTOKY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. fouud its way out through the cracks in the sides of the roof. Several families occupied each house ordinarily, sleeping in raised berths along the sides of the building. These structures were the houses of the permanently located and more wealthy classes. The very poor Indians lived in huts built of sticks and mud, or of sticks covered with mats, bark, rushes or skins. " The interior and ex- terior of all dwellings were in a state of chronic filth." Lewis and Clarke saw a house in the Willamette Valley which was two hun- dred and twenty-six feet long, divided into two ranges of apart- ments, separated by an alley four feet wide. It should be recollected that these Indians remained habitually in one location instead of, like the nomadic tribes of the interior, changing their habitation frequently. The Indians of the valley raised corn, beans and squashes. Nuts, berries, wild fruits and roots were in much use as food. Wild fowl were snared or shot, and elk and deer were killed with arrows or caught in pit-falls. The wapato, a bulbous roct which grows in shallow ponds, was much relied on by them for food, and was gathered by the squaws, who sought it with their feet as they waded. Fish formed a very important part of the Indian diet. The enor- mous abundance of salmon supplied them with a very nutritious and easily procured aliment, upon which they lived for a great part of the year. Those of the tribes who lived about the mouth of the Willamette, were expert fishers and followed that pursuit more closely than further removed tribes on the upper river. It is well understood that the Columbia was, and is, the greatest natural de- pot of salmon in the known world. It is an apparently inexhaus- tible store-house for that noble fish, and the natives made such use of it as their desires prompted. They had, in the season, fresh salmon upon which they feasted with delight, and were provident enough to cure and put aside a sufficient quantity to serve as their support until the next "run." They caught them with nets, or, perhaps more frequently, by spearing. The Falls of the Willamette was a very celebrated place for salmon catching, and in the neigh- borhood there resided a large number of natives. There they speared them by standing on rocks or on scaffolds, and watching their attempted ascent of the falls, or they scooped them up in small dip-nets, or caught them with large fish-hooks used as gaffs. Such ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 485 fish as were killed by accident — and there are always a great many such — were gathered up from the rocks whereon they had fallen in their efforts to pass the obstructions, and added to their store. Such is the abundance of these fish that the rudest means are sufficient to secure an unlimited quantity at the season of their runs. When taken, the fish were cut open by the women — the universal drudges — dried in the sun, and smoked in the lodges. They were some- times powdered finely after being dried, and packed away in mats for winter use. The sturgeon was caught by the Lower Willamette Indians, as also were other varieties. It will be seen that no other country on earth possessed such resources for the support of a savage population, and considered as beings whose utmost desires were an easy living, we shall have to admit that the Willamette tribes were fortunately located. They were somewhat expert in the management of canoes, of which they possessed a great number. These vessels were always dug out of a single log of fir, cedar or pine, and varied in length from ten to fifty feet, and were often made with much skill. The Willamette tribes, however, were less expert in the management of their boats than the Coast Indians, and their vessels vvere less skill- fully constructed, as they were only in use for navigating the placid waters of the interior streams. The government of the tribes was by the usual institution of chiefs, of whom there was one to each village. At one time, we are told, there were four principal chiefs in the valley, holding au- thority over the nine tribes which then existed. The chiefships were sometimes hereditary, though probably more often selected because of wealth and consequent influence. Offenses against tribal regulations were generally expiated by a fine or by the pay- ment of pecuniary recompense to the party injured. Slavery existed, as among all the west coast tribes, the slaves being obtained by purchase from other tribes. Like all North American Indians, those of the Willamette were fond of strong drink, and indulged inordinately in it whenever it was procurable. They gambled as a steady habit, and sacrificed their property, their wives and children, and their own liberty in order to satisfy their devotion to that vice. 486 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. The aboriginal weapons were those in common use among the North American tribes, being the bow and arrow. The former was from two and a half to four feet long, and usually made of cedar. The arrow heads were composed of bone, flint, chert or copper, and were of the usual forms of fabrication. Bancroft regards it as very doubtful if they ever used either spears, tomahawks or scalping knives, though many travelers and settlers have spoken confi- dently of seeing such. They, however, commonly used a wooden sword, double-edged and two or three feet long. They were in the habit of wearing in time of war a thick arrow-proof armor of elk - skin or of short sticks bound together with grass. Their quarrels were frequent but not blood-thirsty. They never, in time of war, resorted to night attacks, surprise, or the massacre of children and w^omen. They never approached near enough for hand-to-hand fighting, and as their clothes were arrow-proof, they were subject to no great casualties. The principal diseases among these Indians were consumption, various fevers, liver complaint and ophthalmia. Their treatment of such was simple; it consisted of sweat baths followed by a plunge into a running stream — a method of doubtful utility in any case and almost uniformly fatal in the treatment of fever. This custom is common to a great many of the tribes of the Pacific Coast, ex- tending as far as the frontiers of Mexico to the south, and to an unknown distance toward the north. The sweat house — a struc- ture devoted to the vapor bath — was seen in nearly every village, the whole population of which were accustomed to avail themselves of it at frequent intervals, though not at all for the purposes of cleanliness. As among most, if not all other tribes in America, there were medicine men, whose functions were divination, the cure of diseases, etc.; and singing, the beating of sticks and pressure and kneading of the patient's body, made up the principal medical treatment. These doctors, if unsuccessful in their ministrations, were sometimes subjected to beatings and even put to death. About the mouth of the Willamette the Indians were in the habit of burying their dead in canoes, the deceased's property being placed in the vessel with him and the whole being placed in a tree top, or upon an eminence. Several rocky bluffs along the Colum- bia were favorite places for the bestowal of the remains, and such ABOEIGINAL INHABITANTS. 487 have received names to denote that use. At other places a kind of vault was made of planks and earth, and the deceased, tied up in mats, placed therein. The Calapooias buried their dead in regular graves, erecting over them a head -board. In regard to the Indians' susceptibility for civilization, we can hardly form an opinion, as the poor creatures did not live long enough to give it a fair trial. In 1834 the Methodist Missionaries founded a mission near Salem, as narrated in another part of this work, and began giving instruction. It appears that the natives took kindly to the matter, and several of them became apt pupils. The teachers were much encouraged, but the institution was not fully the success that had been expected. Several causes con- tributed to this, and, in spite of the ardor with which the mission- aries labored, but a few years elapsed before the supply of pupils ran out, and the self-denying ministrations of the good missionaries was changed to other directions. The Indians 1 numbers decreased frightfully in the years immediately succeeding the comiug of the whites, and of the Calapooias, who were thought to number eight thousand in 1836, only six hundred could be found in 1840. It is probable that the Kev. Mr. Perkins, who made the former computation was in error ; but it is a well- attested fact that there was a very serious diminution in their numbers between the years mentioned, and also for each succeeding year until their final ex- tinction, which may be said to be about accomplished now. The number existing at present is thought not to exceed one hundred persons, and these are mainly, if not all, of mixed blood. Some interesting discoveries of antique remains, presumably of Indian origin, were made in the early months of 1884, by Dr. J. L. Hill, of Albany. Seven miles southwest of that town, and also in Linn County, exist some artificial mounds of earth, which, until then, had never been examined. Quite a number of mounds, of a nearly uniform size and shape, are said to exist in that locality, the one selected for examination being two hundred feet long, by one hundred wide, the height not being stated. Within this mound there was found four skeletons, which had been buried therein with care, and were accompanied with various implements, which, in the life-time of their owners, had probably been objects of great value. As given in Dr. Hill's account, these objects were as fol- 488 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. lows : flints, rudimentary arrowheads, beaver tusks, awls com- posed of " bones about three inches long and tapering to a point ;*' a pipe three and one-half inches long, one and one-half inches wide at top, and one inch at bottom ; spoon of wood or bone, necklace of copper rolls (tubes), white beads, matting, solid copper rings encircling the arm ; "ugly green glass beads," stone beads, flat headed, square brass nails with sharp points ; curiously formed bone implements for weaving, bone spatula like a paper knife, and minute brass bells for ornament. The skeletons found were in a good state of preservation, and would seem to be somewhat unlike the framework of the ordinary Indian of to-day, being with- out the frontal ridge, and having a peculiarly receding forehead. The explorer seems inclined to the belief that the remains belonged to some tribe which inhabited the region anterior to the Calapooias, but the relics would not seem to warrant such a belief, as they may have been derived from recent sources, and, indeed, are familiar to the ethnologist as articles of esteemed value and com- mon occurrence among the Indians of to-day. It is worthy of re- mark that these burial mounds have been found at various points on the Northwest Coast. There are thousands of them at Tenino, near Olympia, on the Northern Pacific Railway, which, for a time, formed a great puzzle to the antiquary, but are now satisfactorily settled to be nothing more nor less than burial places, most probably constructed by the ancestors of the present race of In- dians. To such an origin it would seem proper to assign the mounds of Linn County. Quite a large number of geographical names constitute the only legacy of the aborigines to the present population of the valley. Willamette is the corruption of the former designation, Wallamet, by which the earlier explorers and settlers knew this river and val- ley. The name, in its corrupted form, is now universally known, and the task of restoring its more characteristic, suitable and manly spelling is, doubtless, impossible. In conformity with general usage this volume retains the spurious orthography, although its com- pilers are perfectly sensible of the superior fitness of the former style. The name is thought to have been derived from the tribe of Indians who lived near the Falls, and who are mentioned herein as the Clough-e-walhahs ; the name being supposed to be taken COFFIN ROCK-INDIAN BURIAL PLACE. -See Page 486. ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 489 from the latter syllables. As this tribe have long since perished, and their language with them, the efforts of etymologists are di- rected in vain to the perfect solution of the question, but enough is known to make this hypothesis the only tenable one. We owe the Frenchified form of the name to the ill-judgment of Wilkes, who was the first, as far as is known, to adopt the present spelling. The Willamette, or more properly speaking, the Wallamet River, was once known to some few as the McKay River, but this desig- nation did not long adhere. It is said that this name was given by D. McKenzie. The uncertainty of tracing etymological derivations is, in these instances, largely increased by the fact of the purely arbitrary spelling necessarily employed to represent the sound of Indian words. To this difficulty must be added that produced by the habitually indistinct tones of an Indian's voice, and the almost impossibility of representing those tones by means of combinations of the twenty-six letters of our alphabet. Perfect rendition of their tones cannot be achieved, and the task of approximation is no easy one. Under such circumstances, nothing of value has been re- tained of the extinct languages of these tribes, and the names which have been perpetuated are, probably, in no case, more than a loose approximation to the original sound. No two observers, hearing the Indian designation of a place, will spell the sound in the same way. This is proved by the multiplicity of forms which the spelling of geographical words has taken, such as Calapooia, for example. Long Tom is the name of a stream in the upper end of the valley. It is supposed, by most people, to be a name of American extraction, but, in reality, is the modification of its Indian name, Lung - turn- lev. Notwithstanding the uncertainty of meaning and pronunciation of these aboriginal terms, good taste demands their perpetuation. They are preferable, in all respects, to the hackneyed and com- monplace names which are so generally bestowed upon geographical localities. It is greatly to be deplored that the authorities have seen fit to change the appropriate and mellifluous Indian designa- tions to worn and every-day terms. Salem was formerly called Che-mek-e-te, which, we are told, meant gravelly. The legislature in 1854 made Ta-ke-nah into Albany, and, by universal usage, the 490 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. river Han-chi-u-ke degenerated into Pudding ! The lofty snow- clad summits of the Cascades have mostly the names of dis- tinguished white men, and, like the level lands of the Northwest, are thickly sown with Washingtons, Jeffersons, Adamses and Jacksons. This lack of taste and fitness wdll be bewailed more and more with the flight of time, but the objectionable names will then have become immovably fixed, and posterity can never revenge itself. CHAPTER XXIX. HISTORY OF RAILWAYS. Primitive Ideas — Pioneer Railway Projects — Elliott's Plan of a Rail- way from Portland to California — incorporation of the Astoria <& Willamette R. R. Co. — .Names of the Incorporators — The East Side Railway — Ben Ilolladay — The Oregon Central R. R. Co. — Anecdote — Need of Railways — The West Side R. R. Co. — A Railroad Boom in Oregon — Effect of the Introduction of Railways — Public Opinion — Dissolution of the Oregon Central and Organization of the Oregon and California Company — Officers of the New Company — River Transportation — Ilolladay Bays a Newspaper — Its Character — Issue of Boiids of the 0. dfc C. R. R. — Completion of the Railway to Roseburg — Want of Economy — Cessation of Railway Building — Resumption of Work in 1883 — Railways Needed in Southern Oregon - — The Railroad leased to the Oregon and Transcontinental Co. — The West Side Road — Ilolladay ] s Shrewdness — Portland's Princely Gift — Progress of the West Side Road — Two Pactions — Exit Ilolladay — Land Grants — The Conguerer Appears — A Giants Plans — Vil- lard — The Narrow-Gauge Road — The Oregon Pacific — Railroad Lands — Railway Officials — Concluding Remarks. THE railroad and telegraph are now everywhere recognized as necessary accompaniments in the grand procession in which the world is marching onward toward a perfected state of social and commercial relations. Without these adjuncts the growth of any country, when growth is possible, is slow, enterprise hindered, and prosperity comes on with sluggish steps and the most toilsome efforts of the people. As the old process by which the scribes in ancient times wrote a single book in years of constant labor, and a duplicate could only be had by a repetition of the task, compares with the method by which thousands of volumes can now be made in a single day, so the means of communication and travel possessed 492 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. for the first quarter of a century by the people who settled the Willamette Valley compare with the facilities which now enable a resident of Portland to reach Chicago in less time than it would have taken him to go to Jacksonville, in our own state, twenty years ago. All the people of the Willamette Valley now have daily communication with the commercial centers, and ready trans- portation, at reasonable rates, for their various products. For some time after the great resources of Oregon were pretty generally known by the civilized world, but few of her people were sanguine enough to entertain a hope that they would live to see the completion of a railroad connecting this part of the Pacific Coast, by a continuous line, with the Atlantic Seaboard. Twenty-five years ago, however, it was thought that the commercial relations of the Southern and Northern Coast would ultimately necessitate the construction of a railway from San Francisco to tide water on the Columbia. But little happened, however, at that early period to encourage this idea, and in the unsettled condition of financial af- fairs throughout the country, consequent upon the civil war then going on, no enterprise of the kind made any headway. However, men who foreseen the necessity were agitaxing the question, and in November, 1863, a meeting was held in Eugene City at which, per- haps, the first decided expression of opinion was set forth. There were present quite a number of prominent citizens of Oregon, among whom were Col. W. W. Chapman, Jesse Applegate, Judge A. J. Thayer, and others. The Oregon and California line was dis- tinctly contemplated in the discussion which took place, and resolu- tions were passed favoring and supporting that project. The pro- vision, however, was included that Oregon directors were to have a voice in the distribution of the proceeds of public lands given by Congress to aid the enterprise, and that the work of construction should begin simultaneously at Portland and Sacramento, or some other point in California. In December of the same year (1863) S. G. Elliott made public a report of a survey of a route from Marvsville, California, to Port- land, Oregon, a distance of six hundred and thirty-five and one-half miles, the estimated cost of construction being $30,472,000, or an average of about $48,000 per mile; the most expensive por- tion of the route lying within this State being the twelve miles HISTORY OF RAILWAYS. 493 just south of Canyonville, in Douglas County, to cost $100,000 per mile, and the least expensive the one hundred and fifty miles from the head of the Willamette Valley to Portland, which could be built for §35,000 per mile. Under these estimates the total cost of the road from Roseburg to Portland would have been a little less than 87,000,000. What it cost under the Holladay regime will be seen further on. This survey was the first step in railroad enterprises in the Wil- lamette Valley which culminated in actual effort at construction and ultimately in tangible results, though agitation of the question was rife several years previous and some corporations had been formed with glaring prospectuses and millions of money on paper. In 1858 an act was passed incorporating the Astoria and Willam- ette Valley Railroad Company. Among the incorporators Avere the following named gentlemen, some of whom have been quite prominently identified with other and more permanent enterprises of the kind in the country: John Adair, John McClure, J. Im- brie, Wm. Wilson, James Taylor, J. Welch, C. Boelling, W. W. Parker, P. Wilkes, W. R. Bassett, T. R. Cornelius, Chas. McKay, M. Wolf, R. C. Kinney, Jo. Meek, R. Bean, W. T. Newby, Andy Shuck, Edward Shiel, J. D. Boon, J. H. Moores, W. C. Griswold, S. Parker, Jacob Conser, Jos. Holman, AV. H. Rector, L. Westa- cott, L. F. Grover, E. F. Skinner, E. Bristow, G. Humphrey, Jos. Teal, I. R. Moores, P. Brattain, A. A. Smith, W. C. Gallagher, B. F. Whitson, Thos. Kendall, W. Blair, Chas. Drain, R. Newell, J. H. Stevens, J. D. Crawford, H. N. V. Holmes, A. C. R. Shaw, J. H. Lewis, B. F. Burch, H. Linville, J. Thorp, J. C. Avery, J. Barnhart, I. N. Smith, Jno. Kelsay, A. J. Thayer, W T m. Gird, I. Moore, J. Dohse, Leonard & Green, Ladd & Co., Thos. Pritch- ard, Job McNamee, Thos. Carter, D. H. Lownsdale, J. S. Rinear- son, S. W. Moss, Geo. Abernethy, W. C. Bowring, Thos. H. Smfth and H. Stevens. These men were all well known in Oregon at that day and their names as incorporators gave an air of responsi- bility to the enterprise that was regarded by many as an augury of success. But many of them, though possessing much knowledge of frontier life and good talent for the ordinary business of the country in that day, had not even a faint idea of the expense or difficulty of building railroads. The capital stock was fixed at first 494 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. at $5,000,000 and was afterwards increased to $10,000,000, and the proposed road was to run from Astoria to Salem and thence to Eu- gene City; work of construction to begin in two years and the road, to be built in ten years. But further than securing its charter and exciting some hopes in the breasts of sanguine people, the company did nothing. Dying in a few months, it "left no sign" that it had ever existed. Other corporations were formed to build other roads to run from and to almost every prominent point in the valley, with no greater results and except the short lines built, owned and run by the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, on the portages at the Cascades and The Dalles, Oregon had not a foot of railway until the East Side road was built, ground being broken for that enterprise on the sixteenth day of April, 1868, though the work of construction progressed very slowly for a year or two. The first rails were laid in October of the following year when twenty-three miles were ready for the iron and the road was finished to the Molalla River on the third of July, 1870, and the first train arrived at Salem in the latter part of October the same year. About the middle of December the line was completed to Al- bany, and an excursion was given to that place from Portland, upon which occasion there was a good deal of enthusiasm and some ag- gravations of the ill-feeling which had been engendered against Ben Holladay by the active part which he had taken in political affairs. Hon. Geo. R. Helm, a prominent lawyer of Linn county, had been selected by the citizens of Albany as one of the speakers on the occasion, and on arriving there Holladay gave him an un- deserved snubbing in the presence of a number of distinguished guests, to which Mr. Helm retaliated fittingly, and for a time there was much less shouting than swearing. The occurrence, in one way, forcibly illustrated Holladay 's character. He would brook no opposition. Imperious as Caesar, his very friends were com- pelled to accept his policy or submit to his denunciations, which were not generally delivered in language or manner that at all co- incided with Chesterfieldian rules. With power irrevocably in his hands he would have been a great tyrant, but in a republican community he used the necessary policy more to fortify his own prominent position and to clinch his hold on the country, than be- cause he set any great store on the will of the people in the abstract. HISTORY OF RAILWAYS. 495 While, lie was for such reasons, disliked as a man, he was, in many respects, well fitted to pioneer the enterprise of which he was the head. Many obstacles were in his way, many conflicting interests had to be reconciled. While there was a universal popular desire to see the road built, there were various antagonistic influences tending to hinder and obstruct the work in its very incipiency. Four or five corporations were in existence when Mr. Holladay first turned his attention to the State, having been formed to take ad- vantage of any National or State aid that might be given to railroads, but none of these corporations had the influence to secure such aid, the energy to begin the work, or the means, financially, to carry it on. They were all sickly, moneyless institutions, existing only on paper, the members themselves having little or no knowledge of railroad building and little or no intention of ever undertaking the real work. These corporations, though utterly powerless to do anything themselves, stood much in the way of any enterprise giv- ing promise of actual, tangible results, and Holladay's first object was necessarily to secure control of some one of these corporations, remodel it and place it upon a substantial basis. As presenting the best nucleus, the Oregon Central Railroad Company was se- lected. It had been organized some time, but had done nothing looking to the accomplishment of the ostensible object of its form- ation. Its Directors were George L. Woods, I. R. Moores, E. N. Cooke, J. H. Douthit, J. H. Moores, T. McF. Patton, Jacob Con- ser, A. M. Loryea, H. Boyd, A. L. Lovejoy, Phil. Wasserman, F. A. Chenoweth, S. Ellsworth, S. F. Chadwick, J. P. Russ, S. A. Clarke, J. H. D. Henderson, Jno. F. Miller, A. F. Hedges and S. B. Parrish. The board was officered as follows: President, I. R. Moores; Vice President, A. M. Loryea; Treasurer, E. N. Cooke; Secretary, S. A. Clarke. Holladay took hold of this organization in 1868 and at once infused it with some life and vigor; proposing to build the line from Portland, through the valley on the east side of the Willamette River and on to the southern boundary of the State, where it was to connect with the California and Oregon Road coming northward from San Francisco. Operations were soon be- gun. Ground was broken with much eclat, at East Portland on the sixteenth of April, 1868, in the presence of five thousand in- terested spectators, addresses being made by Hons. J. H. Mitchell, 496 history of Willamette valley. John F. Caples, Rev. J. L. Parrish, and others. Mr. Parrish threw the first earth with a shovel made of Oregon silver. The capital stock of the company was $7,250,000, of which it was proposed to raise $4,800,000 on the first mortgage bonds, and the company promised to raise $450,000 in cash. With this financial basis, actual work was begun and pushed ahead with a good deal of vigor. Some embarrassments were created by the demands of the land owners along the line of the road for the right of way. Exorbitant prices were asked in many cases. Geo. E. Cole was authorized to negotiate for the right of way, and Hon. C. A. Dolph accompanied him most of the time as attorney for the company. On their return they related some very amusing anecdotes of their adventures and encounters with the Oregon pioneers, some of which forcibly illustrate the idea which people then had of the operations of railroad builders. They believed that the company had such an enormous quantity of money, that they would as soon give a thousand dollars for the right of way across a tract of land as to give a hundred. But when they met the company's agent they soon found their mistake, for while he was willing to pay all that was reasonable, he positively refused to accede to the extravagant demands made by many of the land owners along the route. A rancher in Clackamas County, whose claim of three hundred and twenty acres was, as improved, worth not to exceed $2,000, asked $3,000 for a strip through it, containing about fifteen acres. " What," said Mr. Cole, u that is more than the value of your entire claim. I will give you $300." " No, sir," replied the rancher, " we will never take it, will we wife," appeal- ing to his better half, who was present. " No, sir," she responded, " we'll law 'em till doomsday before we'll take it." After further consultation, the man and his wife fixed their very lowest price at $1,500, but the agent had made up his mind before he saw them, what he was going to give, and felt pretty sure, when they began to come down, that they would, at last, come to his figures. It took a good deal of talk, and the land owner and his wife argued long and earnestly to get the agent to raise his figures to $500, and seemed determined to stand by that sum, even to the extent of a law suit. Mr. Cole opened his grip sack, filled with $20 pieces, and counting out fifteen of them, tendered the man the $300, ask- HISTORY OF RAILWAYS. 497 ing him and his wife to sign the deed of the right of way, which the attorney had all ready. It was refused, and the agent and lawyer started for their conveyance, which stood at the gate. As they reached the door, the man, seeing that business was meant, recalled them, and, with a good deal of seeming reluctance, con- sented to accept what was about four times as much for his land as he could have got for it, from any one else in the world. His claim is now worth $30 an acre, an increase in value largely attributable to the fact that the road was built across it, an event which he so strenuously endeavored to prevent. A great many others exhibited the same spirit, and had all the demands of the land owners along the line been complied with, the entire capital stock would scarcely have been sufficient to purchase the right of way. There were, however, some who were liberal to the com-, pany, beyond expectation, and gave every encouragement to the enterprise which was in their power. Lands for stations, side tracks, etc., were often secured at almost nominal rates. The people generally were anxious for the road, and if its completion has not filled their expectations of the benefits to be derived from it, every one who views the matter in its proper* light admits that those who opposed and hampered it in its incipiency, opposed the true interests of the country. And while there may be some who occasionally long for the return to muddy roads and ox teams, almost al) are willing to admit that the railroad era in Oregon was the great impetus, if not the begin- ning of its prosperity. The Willamette Valley alone contains over three million acres of agricultural land, of which, at least, one million is well adapted to the production of grain, and, in ordinary years, with proper cultivation, will produce an average of twenty bushels to the acre of wheat or barley, or thirty bushels of oats. Other products, equal in quantity, are possible, with the mild climate and prolific soil, and this valley alone, did the markets of the world furnish the demand, would yield fifty million tons of food products. With such a possible capacity and such a climate, the future of the Willamette can not be said to be doubtful. Without extremes of heat or cold, free from violent storms, earthquakes or other interruptions of nature's even course, no floods nor drouths, where 498 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. good crops are the almost unexceptional rule, the products possible being almost everything growing any where in the tem- perate zone, a dense and prosperous population is certain in the future to mate this valley the garden spot of the country, unexcelled in its producing power by any region of the same size on the face of the earth. Hence, it was no short-sighted policy, or failure to predict the future, that led to the investment of capital in enter- prises looking toward doing the carrying trade of such a country. With the country sparsely settled, as it then was, and isolated by the vast distances from the densely -peopled countries of the world, it required a full comprehension of the advantages which Oregon offered to induce the undertaking, with years of efforts to be cer- tainly a necessity before paying returns could be expected. But those who undertook the task " built wisely," for they calculated upon a future which was almost assured. With two lines of rail- way from tide water, one on each side of the river, to the head of the valley, and feeders out into the tributary sections, a business will, in the not very distant future, be built up, that in magnitude ought to exceed that of any other system, of the same extent, in the world, and, as large quantities make cheap rates, the people of this valley ought then to enjoy a freedom from everything savoring of burdensome freight charges. The enthusiasm with which ground was broken for the East Side road had not abated when, with similar demonstrations, the same ceremony was gone through with on this side the river, with reference to the beginning of the West Side road. The commence- ment of these two roads at Portland, both in the same week, created the first real railroad boom which Portland enjoyed or suffered — the reader, if a Portlander, will take whichever of the terms suits him, according to the ultimate effects of the boom upon his indi- vidual financial interests. Other booms, from similar causes, have been experienced since. They come to every town to or through which a railroad is being built, their aggregate effects being some- what like those of the waves of the ocean upon the beach. If the mariner who is trying to reach the land strikes the wave right at its flood, he is carried to the firm shore, but coming upon it at its ebb, he is most probably carried back into the billows, and, without un- usual^effort, or extreme good fortune, engulfed and lost. In the HISTORY OF RAILWAYS. 499 booms which Portland and Oregon have experienced in times of railroad or mining excitement, a few men have been fortunate enough to be landed by the wave upon financial terra fir ma, but a great many others have struck the boom at the wrong end and have been swept back into the yawning gulf of poverty by the tide which they expected would carry them to the golden shore of competence, if not of substantial wealth. The advantages which a country gets from the construction and operation of railways are not to be meas- ured by these temporary excitements in which business of all kinds is inflated beyond the ordinary demand or exigencies of the times, or what the actual bedrock facts of the situation require. These booms are, it is true, generally regarded as prosperous times, but they are not so much so as the surface of things indicate, and every good business man knows that the prosperity which they excite is of the mushroom character, and that the part of wisdom is to be pre- pared for the reactionary period which is sure to follow. Upon the beginning of railroad work in Oregon the usual effect was everywhere observable. The expenditure of large sums by the company was anticipated by the enlargement of investments in business of other kinds. Supplies of all commodities, which men buy a»d sell, were increased. Augmented facilities were added ; larger stores, and more of them, were demanded, rents went up, and real estate doubled or trebled in value, or rather in prices. Speculation was rife in everything, and, more especially, in land. Money was, or seemed to be, plenty, and many men engaged in business, apparently with the idea that this state of affairs would continue. Debts were incurred, upon the supposition that when they became due, the means to liquidate would be as easily obtainable as when they were contracted. Men paid high prices for things, of which they had no real need, and out of which no immediate profit could be expected, calculating upon a long con- tinued advance in values, not regarding the fact that values were fictitious, or, that when the public pulse began to indicate a de- cline of the fever, the vitality of speculation would suddenly weaken, and many enterprises possessed of much seeming vigor, would greatly relax, or totally collapse. Many, who then looked only at the shining side of the subject, now see their mistake, and regret that railroads were ever introduced into Oregon. But all 500 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. who have been guided by their better judgment, who, in the times of excitement and inflation, kept in mind the fact that all former experience was to the effect that reaction would most certainly come, and regulated their affairs accordingly, now admit the great advantage which the country has derived from the work of those who first seriously undertook these great enterprises in the North- west. They see that the benefit was not the flush times or era of undue speculation, incident to the building of the roads, but in the gradual and permanent development of the country, which would follow upon the revolution of the transportation business, the in- creased facilities for intercourse and trade, and the impetus given to the general progress of the people toward what is regarded as the highest state of civilization. The greatest prosperity is not that which gives the speculator the largest returns on his venture, but that in which the whole people are inspired with confidence in the business situation, and feel a reasonable degree of assurance in the success of obtaining the united returns for the labor they per- form and the capital they invest in legitimate enterprises. Infla- tion and fluctuation of values always militate against that safe and permanent condition of affairs in which public confidence is most prevalent. The " greatest good," which the building of railways through a country, gives to the greatest number, is realized not in the era of speculation incident to the work of construction, but afterward, when the operation of such roads is the means by which the business pulse of the country is quickened, and a healthy busi- ness activity brought about. Such, notwithstanding the murmurs of the croakers, has been the effect of railroad enterprises in Oregon, and with a continuance of that fairness which has characterized their operations under the present management, the time will come when none will be found to regret that the days of pack trains and ox wagons, over long, rough and muddy roads in Oregon, have forever passed away. At the time ground was broken on the east side of the river, the company was known as the Oregon Central Railroad Company of Salem, the late I. R. Moores being President andS. A. Clarke, Sec- retary, but the leading spirits were Ben Holladay and C. Temple Emmett, and the company remained in existence and continued work under the old name until March, 1870, when The Oregon HISTORY OF RAILWAYS. 501 Central was dissolved and The Oregon & California was organized with a new board of directors, as follows: Ben Holladay, W. L. Halsey, C. Temple Emmett, Geo. W. Weidler, I. R. Moores, C. H. Lewis, J. C. HaAvthorne and Medorem Crawford. Ben Holladay was chosen President, W. L. Halsey, Vice President, and A. G. Cunningham, the Secretary. The capital stock was fixed at $20,- 000,000. This company also proposed to build the road on the east side of the river, extending it south through the Umpqua and Rogue River valleys to the California line. In the meantime the road had been finished to Albany, a distance of eighty miles from Portland. The company then owned six passenger cars, one Pres- ident's car, one hundred and thirty flats and box cars and seven locomotives. The steam ferry between Portland and East Port- land had also been built, and was launched in December, 1870. The road was, of course, accepted by the Government Commissioners, as all sorts of roads are, but much of the work was poorly done and soon needed repairs. Notably, the bridge across the Clacka- mas River was at once condemned by every one who had any knowl- edge of such things, as a piece of work most wretchedly designed and executed. It was used for some time, however, but when Hol- laday went out of railroading in Oregon, it was at once abandoned and a new one built. The rolling stock, however, was of a sub- stantial character, and the people found no fault with the road it- self though, then as now, there were plenty of men who began to be dissatisfied with its management and especially the attempt of Mr. Holladay, not only to be a railroad king, but also a political dictator. While the. company only had a short line of road, eighty miles in length, the head w T as cursed as a "grinding monopolist," whose aim was to get the whole country under his iron heel and crush out every enterprise that in any way interfered with his ob- jects. While this view of his character was, to a considerable ex- tent, exaggerated, there was some good ground for the hostility manifested toward him in this respect. As an example, he organized a local transfer company in Portland and, in connection with his railroad, river and ocean steamers and ferry, made such discrimina- tions as to drive almost every one in the business of transferring freight in the city out of it entirely, by imposing such burdens upon them as to make any profit in the business impossible. Charges for 502 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. freights upon the road were quite high, and while the river was still open to the people, and some efforts were made to furnish transportation by that means at moderate rates by outside parties, Holladay got control of the principal fleet of boats on the Willam- ette, and by charging high figures for transportation by rail and very low rates by steamer, was able to crush out all opposition and at the same time save himself from actual loss in the aggregate. The criticisms of the press of the State upon his course induced him to undertake, at great expense, the enterprise of publishing a newspaper. He purchased a large plant and started the Portland Daily and Weekly Bulletin. Sparing no expense in the matter of obtaining news, and employing some of " the brightest, wisest and meanest" writers on the coast, he issued a journal that was at once a credit and a disgrace to the country. By persistent en- ergy on the part of the management of this paper, it obtained quite an extensive patronage, but never got much hold on the public confidence, and being the organ of one man, when he failed it soon followed suit. Reverting to the work proper of the railroad company, construc- tion south of Albany was vigorously pushed forward. Holladay had plenty of energy and succeeded in obtaining a large amount of money which he expended with a lavish hand. He went east in 1872 and negotiated $10,950,000 of mortgage bonds at prices that netted about six and a half million dollars, and with this the road was completed to Roseburg and other enterprises embraced in the Holladay regime set on foot. These bonds sold by Holladay were never worth more in the market than he got for them, and in a few months after were quoted down to thirty-five cents on the dollar, a decline as much due to the way the road and its construction were managed as to aught else, though there have at no time yet been circumstances or good reasons why the road should be considered a good paying piece of property. Reaching Roseburg, two hundred miles south of Portland, in 1872, work was entirely suspended, means for further construction being exhausted, though, with a rea- sonable degree of economy, it has been asserted that the money which had been expended by Holladay would have finished and equipped it to the California line. When it reached the Calapooia Mountains it was confidently predicted that in eighteen months HISTORY OF RAILWAYS. 503 more Portland would be connected by a continuous line with San Francisco and the east; the eastern connection has been made, but by another route and by other men than those thought of by the peo- ple, who had an idea formed on Holladay's liberal, if not extrava- gant, disbursement, that his resources were illimitable. But, though Holladay failed, he had accomplished a great work, and Western Oregon had her first railroad built through a country unsurpassed in fertility of soil or variety in all the resources the pos- session of which go to support convenience and prosperity of a peo- ple. The southern section of the road was generally of a very good character, and in ten or twelve years' operation has required only rea- sonable outlays for renewals and repairs. The rolling stock, though not extensive, was sufficient for the business offering and has gener- ally been kept up to the demands of the times. In point of time many other railroads in Oregon were projected and some of them carried to the extent of partial construction, be- fore, under other auspices, the Oregon and California line was again taken up and built to a point further south by one hundred and forty miles, reaching the town of Ashland, in Jackson County. This work was done in 1883-84 under the Villard management, the road having been leased to the Transcontinental Company by the bondholders, who took it in charge upon the failure of Holla- day. The country tapped by this extension embraces the Rogue River Valley, one of the finest sections of land in Oregon, and one long settled and peculiarly in need of railroad facilities, being with- out navigable streams and so remote from commercial centers of the Coast. The freight on supplies for the growing population of that region was oppressive to an extreme on consumers, while producers had no market for their products, except the local demand. Noth- ing could be shipped abroad except at a loss. On account of these high freights the Rogue River Valley was made as nearly self-sup- porting as possible, but twenty years ago the people of Jackson County alone were paying annual freight charges amounting to over 8100,000. Further development of that region, and the large population certain to fill it in a few years, will demonstrate the wisdom of the enterprise which extended the road into that section. The lease by the bondholders to the Oregon Transcontinental Company, however, was soon terminated, its validity being con- 504 HISTOKY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. tested in the courts, and successfully impeached. The manage- ment, therefore, reverted to the Oregon & California Company, Mr. Koehler, Manager, the source of authority being the German bondholders, but the company retaining its old name. Under this management the road is now operated in a manner quite satisfac- tory to the public. It runs through the best portions of Clackamas, Marion, Linn, Lane, Douglas and Jackson counties, and, by careful management, is paying a small interest on the investment. The construction of the Oregon and California Road naturally stimulated the desire of the people on the west side of the Willamette River for a line of railway through the counties of Washington, Yamhill, Polk and Benton, on this side. These counties contain about one-half of the arable land of the Willam- ette Valley, and, with the development of their resources, will, one day, furnish a large and paying business to the roads now in operation through them, as well as to other branches yet to be built. Various projects for securing a road on the west side of the river had been broached, and some organizations, with a show of apparent strength, had been formed for the purpose of construct- ing such a road. But none of them did very much to advance the work which Holladay, who had control of a corporation known as the Oregon Central Railroad Company, evinced a disposition to undertake. It is not strictly within the scope of this article to put on record the history of the various organizations that were formed and that issued prospectuses, and made pretensions to the public as railroad companies, or volumes might be filled with the narration concerning corporations formed years ago with great flourish, but which, long ago, ceased to exist, having never accom- plished any part of the gigantic schemes set forth on paper. In those days almost everybody was talking in favor of railroads. The people who are often liable to go to extremes, were then as far from acting on the old maxim u the middle ground is the safest," as are those of the present time, who are unsparing in their denunciation of all railway corporations as monopolies and sub- versive of public prosperity. Those were willing to concede too much, these are unwilling to grant what is just. Men who gave hundreds of dollars to Ben Holladay to build the road on Fourth HISTORY OF RAILWAYS. 505 Street, in Portland, a year or two afterwards expressed a willing- ness to give thousands if the track could be removed. But Holla- day, who had a clever way of eliciting contributions from the people, persuaded Port landers to believe that unless a large sub- sidy was given him, his road would be carried across the river, at a point five or six miles above their city. The fear that he would do this was, of course, not the most reasonable, but it answered the purpose, and the people made him the magnificent gift of one hundred thousand dollars to do something, the privilege to do which was worth more than that sum. For, by it, he obtained a direct and easy entrance into the heart of the city, whence his road was to secure most of its business, and it is doubtful if Ben Holla- day doesn't yet sometimes " laugh in his sleeve " at the way in which this princely donation was obtained. -But it taught the people of Portland a lesson, and they would not now, probably, donate a dollar for a station and side track on a line from the Elysian fields to Paradise. "With the hold he had upon the situation in Oregon, Holladay had not much trouble in getting control of the most promising organization on the west side of the river, and, having secured im- portant aid from Washington and Yamhill counties, in the way of guaranteed interest on bonds, in addition to the gift from Port- land, work was undertaken on the west side in 1870-71, with a good deal of energy. Some heavy grading and expensive bridging on the first few miles out from Portland made the work slow, and in the fall of 1871 only fourteen miles of iron had been laid. The next year, however, the road was finished to St. Joe, on the Yam- hill River, a distance, from Portland, of about thirty-five miles. This terminated Holladay 's work at building railroads in Oregon, and his decline, much less brilliant than his rising, began. He had done much for the State, and the people had done much for him, so that the honors w T ere about even, and the maledictions that were heaped on him were, in a measure, unjust. Where he left the west side road, it stood for some years, passing out of his hands in about the same way as did the east side division. It was, however, steadily operated, and did a fair business for a line of its length. He maintained a hold on the roads, however, for two or three years longer, and as late as May, 1875, waged a bitter fight 506 niSTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. against a faction of the stockholders, with Jos. Gaston at the head, for the absolute control of the road. At a meeting, held in Port- land, May 27th, Stephen Coffin, W. T. Newby, Henry Bagster, Robt. Imbrie, D. C. Lewis, O. H. Kimball and Jos. Gaston, were elected a board of directors ; and on the same day the Holladay faction chose as directors Ben. Holladay, W. L. Halsey, J. N. Dolph, Geo. W. Weidler, H. W. Scott, M. Crawford and Jos. Gaston. Each of these factions claimed to be entitled to control the road, and to the possession of the company's office in Portland, over which, at one time, a small riot seemed imminent, the police of the city being called on to protect the Holladay men, who were in actual possession. Litigation long and vexatious ensued, which was finally terminated by a compromise, in which, it was said, some parties, who began with nothing, came out with fair-sized fortunes. The Holladay side came out victorious, at considerable expense, which so weakened the company, of which he was the head, that but a short time elapsed ere he gave up all control of Oregon railroads, and left the State, it is said, a good deal poorer than when he came into it. The West Side road, as it is usually called, received a very consid- erable amount of aid in the way of subsidies and land grants, more, proportionately, than any other road in Oregon. Congress gave twenty sections of land per mile, Portland gave $100,000 outright, Yamhill County guaranteed interest on bonds to the amount of $75,000, and Washington County, we believe, to the amount of $50,000. The people, also, individually were liberal in their treat- ment of the enterprise, and grounds for stations, side-tracks, right of way, etc., was secured with comparatively small outlay. But only the fifty miles between Portland and St. Jo. were built with all this help, and the people of the southwest quarter of the valley were compelled to wait several years longer before they obtained any railway communication with the balance of the State. After the failure of Holladay another and more powerful than he turned his attention to railroad matters in Oregon. The eyes of Wall Street were directed to the Northwest, and Henry Villard came hither to take a closer survey of the advantages which the situation presented. He was a man in some respects like Holladay, but in others the exact opposite. His views were broader, his manner polished and HISTORY OF RAILWAYS. 507 his methods far more systematic. His movements were altogether upon a larger scale. Holladay's plan was to control the commerce of the Northwest Coast; VillarcTs to form it as a part of the great commercial system of the whole country of the United States. Hol- laday would become an important tributary; Villard assumed to be a co-equal branch. Holladay failed because of his lack of economy; Villard rather missed success by reason of financial stringency, then beginning to be felt throughout the country and which has since become so general and engulfed such a vast number of men and so many stupendous enterprises. Both did a great work for Oregon, and for much that they did deserve the gratitude of the people. Both failed, and while both are remembered, the kinder feelings of the people are doubtless for the one whom disaster over- took rather than for the one who brought it on himself. Mr. Villard, possessed of and representing vast capital, saw the resources of this region with the eye of a prophet, took hold of the work with the hand of a giant and conducted it with the policy of a diplomat. He interested all and repulsed none. Grasping con- trol of railroad matters with a firm hand and imbued with an en- thusiasm and an ambition to accomplish a great work, he called to his aid all the elements within his reach. He awoke an interest in the people and brought into fuller recognition the possibilities of the country. His grand idea of a direct road across the continent, taken up where the crash of 1873 and the failure of Jay Cooke had left it, at once resolved itself into practical form, and the stupendous work at once begun. With the vigor of his own mind it was pushed forward, and, while he gave it all his strength and fortune, he lived, financially, to see the fruition of his hope in its comple- tion ; but weakened by the supreme effort, was compelled to yield his position among the moneyed magnates and commercial kings of the world. To Mr. Villard's influence and work is not only due the grati- tude of the people of the Xorthwest, for the two thousand miles of road which connect us with the East, but throughout the State monuments of his enterprise may be found to remind all portions, of his day.- The branch road from Albany to Lebanon in Linn county, the extension from St. Jo. to Corvallis, and from Roseburg to Ashland, are all the result of his efforts, and bring the AYillam- 508 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. ette Valley system about up to the demands of the times. The line to Paget Sound, though finished after his retirement from the con- trol, is a part of his great plan and the result of his efforts, as is also the branch from Umatilla to Baker City. These various roads, forming a partially completed system, that will give the Northw.est almost perfect facilities for transportation and intercourse, certainly constitute a monument to the ability, enterprise and energy of their projectors and builders, that will be as enduring as the hills which they pierce, and keep the memory of Oregon's pioneer railroad men green as the valleys they traverse. What is known as the narrow-gauge roads, built by the Orego- nian Kailway Company (limited), William Reid, President, have hardly fulfilled the expectations of the projectors, though had the original design been carried out, they would have formed a very important part of the transportation system of the Willamette Val- ley. The plan of Mr. Reid was to connect these roads with Port- land, and the grading was done to a point within ten miles of the city, but a failure to secure certain privileges within the city limits caused a stoppage of the work which has not yet been renewed. Construction was begun in 1879 and carried steadily forward for two years, the road being finished to Dallas in Polk county, in May, 1880, and to Silverton in Marion county, in July of the same year, the former being on the west side and the latter on the east side of the river. The point of commencement was at Ray's Landing on the Willamette, about forty miles above Portland, where it was designed to construct a bridge, thus connecting the two lines at that point. Though these roads have not been finished, nor the bridge built, they have done an important business, tapping, as they do, large sections of the best agricultural lands in the State, the western branch having been extended to Airlie in Polk county, and the eastern to Coburg in Linn county. They have been used to quite an extent as feeders to the transportation business done by steamers on the Willamette River, but the passenger traffic has never been large. Some steps are now being taken, looking to- ward the extension of these roads so as to render them more avail- able as outlets for the country they were designed to serve. They were, at one time, in a state of active operation which induced a feeling of rivalry with the Oregon and California lines, but the HISTORY OF RAILWAYS. 509 latter very easily overcome what opposition the narrow-gauge roads offered and ultimately obtained control of them. The Oregon Pacific Railroad Company deserves more than a passing notice, because of the work which it has mapped out and the energy which has been displayed, in the face of great difficulty, in carrying it forward. In 1875 the question of the construction of a railway from Yaquina Bay to Corvallis, which had long been agitated, assumed a definite form, and the people of Benton and Linn counties were asked to aid the enterprise, which they did by very liberal subscriptions. Work was shortly begun at Yaquina Bay, but has been delayed by various causes, and now the com- pleted portion of the road is just nearing Corvallis. The design is to carry it on through the upper valley across the Cascade Mountains and Eastern Oregon, to a junction with the Central or Union Pacific. At least, it bids fair to be the first railroad in Oregon to connect the Willamette Valley with the Pacific Ocean, and when the harbor at Yaquina is improved, as it should be, by the General Government, this line will do a large business, and form an important part of the transportation system of the State. Mr. T. Egerton Hogg, who is at the head of the enterprise, though, perhaps, not representing as much capital as either Villard or Holladay, has staid with the work with commendable perseverance, and has seen the downfall of both these powerful magnates, while he has held his own, or gone steadily, though slowly, forward. Of the roads doing the local business of the Willamette Valley, only two have been aided by land grants, and these have not been the sources of revenue that most people imagine. The east side division of the Oregon and California has earned, under the acts of Congress, one million seven hundred and eighteen thousand four hundred and seventy-eight acres, and the west side division two hundred and thirty-seven thousand. Of the latter portion eleven thousand eight hundred and forty-two acres had been sold by the Oregon Central Company before its consolidation in 1880 with the O. & C. Since the consolidation, there were sold, up to May, 1882, one hundred and forty-six thousand one hundred and forty- seven acres, leaving a balance undisposed of, at that time, of over one and three-quarter million acres. The sales, during the two years past, have not proportionately increased, and all the sales 510 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. that have been made would probably not have paid the expenses of repairs on the roads for any one year of their operation. The assistance which the people of the State gave to these roads has been of more actual money value to them, as yet, than the land grants, though, when the lands still held by them, come into de- mand, very considerable sums may yet be realized from them. The various individuals who have been prominent in railway matters in this valley, mainly came from abroad to confer the ben- efits of their experience upon the State, and quite a number of them are of foreign birth. This State has not as yet bred any distin- guished financiers, although quite a number of her adopted citizens have manifested sufficient intelligence and enterprise to have at- tained a reputation even in so arduous a work as railway construc- tion and operation. During its existence the Oregon and California Railroad has served to test the judgment, perseverance and energy of its builders and operators as strenuously as any line in America; and, beyond a doubt, those who have conducted it have found their task a most trying one. Of late years the control and management of this road has fallen exclusively into the hands of Mr. R. Koehler, and the financial and other difficulties which have beset the com- pany are on the road to a happy solution. Mr. Koehler, by his familiarity with the road and its needs, has made himself a most capable and indispensable manager, and in the ten years or more of his connection with it, has seen it grow from the nucleus formed by Ben Holladay, into the extensive system which the Oregon and California Railroad Company own and maintain to-day. The intimate connection which the necessities of traffic foster between an important railroad and the inhabitants of the country through which it passes, requires that the management of such a road shall partake of qualities of perseverance and judgment in a marked and extraordinary degree. It has been pointed out how Ben Holladay failed partly through his autocratic behavior, and partly through the system of wasteful expenditure fostered during his regime. On the accession of Mr. Koehler, who, as agent of the German bondholders, whose purses sustain this, the principal railway of Oregon, the injurious policy of his predecessor was in- stantly abandoned, and a careful and conscientious mode of pro- cedure took its place. Instead of the overbearing, tyrannical and HISTORY OF RAILWAYS. oil cowboyish behavior of the first epoch, the gentlemanly and cour- teous methods of the polished business world came in vogue and still remains. It has been well said that " Mr. Koehler brings to bear, in the handling of the road, an experience and judgment that are extremely valuable. He is an affable, courteous gentleman, enjoying the confidence and respect of the owners of the road, as well as all who come in contact with him. His official conduct is marked by an enlightened regard for the true interests of the country through which the road passes." The principal officers of the Oregon and California Road at the beginning of the year 1885, were, H. Villard, President ; C. E. Bretherton and Donald Macleay, Vice-Presidents ; R. Koehler, General Manager ; E. P. Rogers, General Freight and Passenger Agent ; and J. Brandt, Superintendent. The Oregon Railway and Navigation Company's affairs in the valley are administered by Elijah Smith, President ; C. H. Prescott, Vice-President and Manager ; Dr. P. T. Keene, Assistant Manager ; and A. L. Stokes, General Freight and Traffic Agent. Messrs. Prescott, Keene and Stokes reside in Portland, while the stock of the road is mostly held in the East, and the President resides there. The Northern Pacific Railway officials resident in Portland are A. D. Charlton, General Western Passenger Agent ; and P. Schulze, Land Agent. Robert Harris, of New York, is thePresident, and T. F. Oakes, Vice-President. To conclude, it may be said that Oregon has obtained fair rail- road facilities, with as little trouble and actual expense to the people as any other State in proportion to her population, and though there have been instances when the complaints of the people had good foundation, there never has been a moiety of the cause for the denunciation of railroads, that has time and again been furnished by the relentless monopolies that control the carry- ing trade of our sister State on the south. Generally, the manage- ment of the roads has been mingled with a degree of fairness that has made their exactions bearable, if not satisfactory to the public. Rates of transportation have, it is true, been tolerably high, but those who comprehend the great expense of building and operating the roads, see the necessity, in a country comparatively sparsely settled, of higher rates than could be justified when by reason of 512 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. the greater population, the business is by so much increased. Ex- tremists on the subject of monopolies are seldom right, and legisla- tion upon it ought to be begun with careful scrutiny of probable re- sults upon the commercial interests of the country. While such legislation ought to go to the constitutional limit in guarding the rights and furnishing adequates remedies for the wrongs of the people at large, it ought not to cripple this all -important part of our commercial system by unjust or useless restrictions. Properly controlled and regulated, the railroad enterprises become a most powerful factor in promoting the general prosperity of the country, but when by a persistent opposition to the maintainance of their legal rights by the people, or when by extortion and oppression by the roads, war springs up between them and the public, it results in evil only, to both sides. There are now in operation in Oregon less than one thousand miles of railroad, all told, to furnish transportation for the products of a tract of country capable of sustaining a population of more than two million people, and of furnishing the world's markets with millions of tons of staple food products. Hundreds of miles of road are yet needed or will be in a few years when the population increases, as it will. The four roads leading out of Portland will be fed by branches coming from the various sections of. the Willamette Valley and from the plains of Eastern Oregon and from Washington Territory, constituting one grand system and doing the business of a region greater in extent, richer in products and better adapted to the support of a large pop- ulation than any one of several states, each of which now have five times the facilities in this respect possessed by Oregon. With mod- eration in the laws affecting- this important interest, so that the peo- ple will be treated with fairness, the rights of persons and property protected, we may, with confidence, look forward to a supply of the demand of the country for further improvements of the kind, and the time when Oregon shall rank with the older states in the facil- ities enjoyed for the intercourse of her people and the business of the times; — a time when every home in our State shall be closely connected with every other by the iron band, and the iron horse shall wake the echoes in every green valley and on every hillside in our fair State. CHAPTER XXX. DESCRIPTION OF THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Boundaries of the Valley — Dimensions — Streams — Mountains — Cas- cade Range — Peaks — The Minto Pass — Coast Range — Animal In- habitants — Trapping and Hunting — Distances — Elevation of Places on the Willamette River — Lands — Prairie and Timbered Lands — Those First Taken Up — Foothill Lands — Their Importance and Great Value — Brush Lands — Advantages — Location — Unoccupied Lands of Value — Altitude of Vacant Lands — How Brush Lands are Cleared — Railroad and Government Land — Amount of Vacant Land in the Valley — Railroad Grants — Timbered Sections — Catalogue of Forest Trees — Valuable Sorts — Trees Which Grow on Low Lands — Conjectures Regarding the Amount of Timber now Standing — Effect of Denuding the Land of Trees — Injurious Results Predicted — Forest Fires Produce Vast Damage and Should be Prevented. THE Willamette Valley constitutes the most valuable portion of the State of Oregon, and, in fact, of the Pacific Northwest; while in point of fertility it is inferior to no locality in the United States. It lies on both sides of the Willamette River — whence its name — and extends to the ranges of mountains which enclose it upon either side. To avoid ambiguity we will, in the following pages, consider that the valley embraces not only the flat or nearly flat land be- tween the base of the mountains, but includes the inner slopes of the mountains which are drained by the river, namely, the eastern slope of the Coast Range, and the western slope of the Cascades. To the north the valley terminates at the Columbia River, whereto the Willamette River flows, while on the south its boundary is the Calapooia Mountains, which form the watershed separating the Willamette from the Umpqua valley. Thus the dimensions of the valley are about one hundred and thirty miles in length, by one 514 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. hundred in average breadth ; whence the area is computed to be thirteen thousand square miles, or nearly one-seventh of the whole State of Oregon. There are several remarkable geographical facts in this connection, which it is suitable to point out. If the reader will provide himself with a map of the Northwestern portion of America, he will have his attention directed to the unique system of parallelism of the rivers, mountain ranges and coast lines of this part of the world. Notice the north and south line which the Coast Range and Cascades pursue, and their close parallelism with the course of the Pacific shore. Of necessity the Willamette flows in the same direction and discharges into the Columbia at a point about one hundred miles from the ocean. Observe the numerous affluents of the Willamette, and compare their number with the comparative dearth of living streams in the eastern portion of this State and the adjacent Territories. There are the Tualatin, Cheha- lem, Yamhill, La Creole, Luckiamute, Mary's River, Long Tom, Coast Fork, McKenzie, Calapooia, Santiam, Mill Creek, Putin (miscalled " Pudding "), Molalla, and Clackamas, all streams of note and importance in every sense. Some of these are navigable; and all flow from their elevated source in the mountains, through heavy, dense forests, then enter upon a slower course through fertile bottom lands, and finally reach their destination in the Willamette. The observing student of geography will doubtless cast his eye upon the page where is indicated the station of the mighty range which stands forever on guard to the eastward. Far out of sight to the north, among the Alaskan wilds, are Mts. St. Elias and Fair- weather — the former named for a Russian saint, and the only lofty mountain so far from the Equator. Southward are Mts. Brown (16,000 feet high) and Hooker (15,700); both are in the British Possessions. Just within the American boundary is Baker, a redoubtable volcano, still active, and ten thousand eight hundred and fourteen feet high, although a large portion of its top fell in or off in October, 1864. Next comes Rainier, or Tacoma, fourteen thousand and four hundred feet high and one of the loftiest moun- tains in the United States, and regarding its height above its own base, one of the highest in the world. It rises from a compara- tively lew situation. St. Helens, south of Rainier, is nine thousand seven hundred and fifty feet in altitude, if we may believe the to- DESCRIPTION OF THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 515 pographical surveyors, and Adams is somewhat less, though the latter was once supposed to have been just thirteen thousand two hundred and fifty -eight feet. South of the Columbia, Hood towers aloft to a height of eleven thousand two hundred and' twenty-five feet, and is the most noticeable peak of the whole chain. Its fame is great; and when its height became a matter of speculation, there were men who said it was twenty thousand feet high, and these figures went down on maps. Later they fixed on eighteen thousand as a good round, majestic-sounding number, and clung to that until the military surveys of Colonel Williamson in 1867 proved to the sorrow of Oregon that the peak was but eleven thousand two hun- dred and twenty-five feet high above sea-level. It has been as- cended many times and the trip is not dangerous nor particularly fatiguing. The ascent has been made, in at least two instances, by ladies. Mount Jefferson (9,000 feet high) and the Three Sis- ters are also snow peaks, but of less than Hood's altitude. The former is east by south of Salem, the latter are at the head of Mc- Kenzie Fork. At the head of the main branch of the Willamette is Diamond Peak, marked ^ve thousand and five hundred feet alti- tude in most maps, but undoubtedly through mistake, for the moun- tain can not be much less than nine thousand feet, according to the judgment of capable mountaineers and travelers. The main range of the Cascades, aside from the prominent peaks named, is supposed to average about seven thousand feet high, with some few " passes ■" at lower levels, notably, the Minto Pass at the head of the North Santiam, five thousand iive hundred and thirty- six feet in altitude by barometrical determinations, and another near by, six hundred and twenty-five feet less. By those a railroad could be built over the range, whose average grade from Salem to the summit would be but fifty feet per mile. Such a road has long been proposed, and lacks only the ripeness of time to become a re- ality. A number of valley people have been more or less wrapped up in the idea of railway connection with Eastern Oregon by way of the Minto Pass, and its necessity, if it exists, will doubtless be decided in the not distant future. The discovery of the Minto Pass is by Mr. Minto ascribed to the Canadian trappers and settlers in Marion county, who, about 1844 and earlier, were in the habit of crossing over from the Willamette to the DesChutes River to trap 516 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. and hunt. Bat this fact was not generally known. Stephen Hall Meek, brother of Joseph Meek, had, however, ascertained the fact, and deeming it likely that the route would be practicable for im- migrants he, in 1845, undertook to lead a party to the Willamette from Fort Hall by the new route. They proceeded up the Malheur River and got safely to the east slope of the Cascades, but could not find the trail of the trappers. Their condition becoming des- perate, they were about to do violence to their guide, when he fled from their wrath. They, finally, after severe suffering, got safely to the Willamette via The Dalles. Mr. Minto is of the opinion that The Dalles route should have crossed the Cascades at the head of the Santiam River (Minto Pass), instead of the circuitous and dif- ficult route it took. The Coast Range presents fewer points of interest than the Cas- cades, inasmuch as it is less lofty, does not separate the valley from any extensive country beyond, and hence is not such a barrier to maukind as the more notable range. It is, however, u very beau- tiful and picturesque chain of mountains, and except by being over- shadowed by its mighty rival, would be exceedingly prominent and important. Its maximum height does not rise to the snow line, and, indeed, is scarcely more than i\ve thousand feet. The highest summits are in Benton county, and are of little prominence, ex- cepting Mary's Peak, near Corvallis. Within the forests which cover the flanks of the great ranges roam many species of wild animals, some of them valuable for food or their fur. The elk is one of them, although this magnifi- cent game animal has become almost extinct in this part of Oregon, and now is to be found in small numbers only about the head of the Nehalem River, while a very few specimens inhabit the Cascades about Mount Jefferson, where they live in compara- tive securitv, far from the haunts of men. The black-tail deer is very plenty, and under the protection of a good game lavv, vigi- lantly enforced, will, no doubt, continue so. The black bear finds ample stores of food in the roots and berries of this favored region, and is able, on occasion, to tempt his omnivorous appetite with the flesh of such of the lesser animals as he may capture by surprise. Though his strength is great, the bear is a timid animal, and, under ordinary circumstances, not dangerous. Along with DESCRIPTION OF THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 51 7 the bear, and, occupying, like him, the densely wooded canyons and slopes, the puma is found. He is distinctly carnivorous, is very powerful and active, and is known by the names of Oregon lion, mountain lion, cougar, and panther. He is, in appearance, like a great, fawn -colored cat ; is seven, or even eight feet in ex- treme length, including a tail which measures thirty inches, and is thought to weigh as much as two hundred pounds. His consti- tutional cautiousness prevents him from being dangerous to man, and he is merely a troublesome neighbor, prone to destroy young stock. Of lesser animals there are the coyote, the wild cat, and the other ordinary forest inhabitants of this latitude. The skins of some of these animals have been sought for, and, in past years, have furnished a portion of the resources of the country. Now, the fur-bearing animals are nearly extinct, and their pursuit is not followed except by a few who, through the winter, brave the isolation and the cold, trapping the remnant of the former forest inhabitants. Though the most valuable fur-bearing animals have long since disappeared from the forests and rivers, there are a great many game animals, which furnish such sport for the hunter as few localities can equal. The streams, too, are full of trout, and, in their season, salmon and salmon trout, and the combination of fish and game and scenery, makes Western Oregon an exceptionally favorable sphere for the pleasure seeker's exertions. Travelers have spoken in terms of admiration of the magnificent scenery of the Cascades, with the gigantic snow peaks, standing at measured distances, as if guarding the land they overlook ; the grand evergreen forests, almost endless in extent; the numerous lakes with which the region is clotted ; the valley to the west, with the dark back-ground of the Coast Range, bounding the extensive prospect. No finer views exist in any land. With very many considerations affecting it, it is a fact that no country in the world possesses more attractions, inviting the tourist and the pleasure seeker, than this portion of Oregon. To enumerate these attrac- tions is to recall the glories of a delightful summer and a moderate and even winter climate ; to describe and compare the changing phases of gorgeous and sublime scenery ; to expatiate upon the luxuriance of rich vegetable productions ; and to realize the hospi- tality and kindliness of a generous public. 518 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. The Willamette flows, as has been stated, parallel with the coast, from which it is distant, in the mean, about fifty miles. From Eugene City the distance to the nearest point on the coast is fifty miles; from Corvallis, forty-two miles; Albany, forty-eight; Salem, fifty-one; Oregon City, sixty-six; Portland, sixty-two; all these towns lie upon the river. The summits of the Coast Range are at distances varying from twenty to thirty-eight miles from the sea, while the mean distance of the Cascade Range from the Pacific may be set down as one hundred and ten miles. The mouth of the Wil- lamette is in latitude 45° 32' north; longitude 122° 45' west of Greenwich. The southern extremity of the valley is approximately in 43° 40' north latitude. The States of Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, and Massachusetts are in nearly the same latitude. The central portion of the valley lies at an elevation of from seventy to four hundred feet above tide water, as the figures follow- ing will show: The heights are referred to the level of the " basin " below the Willamette Falls. Baker's Prairie, near Oregon City, is one hundred and thirty-five feet above said level; Molalla Prai- rie, one hundred and thirty-seven; Barlow's, forty-nine and a half; the surface of Pudding River (formerly known as Putin, of which "Pudding" is a clumsy imitation), thirty-seven; French Prairie, one hundred and thirty-eight; Lake La Biche, ninety-seven; Salem (corner of Commercial and State Streets), one hundred and thirteen; Jefferson, one hundred and seventy-three; Albany, one hundred and sixty-one; Corvallis, one hundred and fifty; Eugene City, three hundred and seventy -three. To these elevations must be added a constant quantity representing the height of the " basin " above sea-level, which, for ordinary purposes, may be assumed as twenty feet. On the arrival of the earlier settlers in the valley, the lands were found to consist of two sorts — forest and " prairie " — the latter bare of vegetation other than the rank grasses which then grew luxuri- antly upon every open spot. The prairie extended on both sides of the river from the vicinity of the Falls of the Willamette southward to the Calapooias. Nearly all the elevations of land were timbered, but hardly to their present extent. The Indians, it is said, were in the habit of burning the brush upon the hills to serve some aborig- inal purpose, and this custom perishing with the natives, the hills DESCRIPTION OF THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 519 now are covered with brush and young trees which are said to have made their growth since the cessation of that custom. Ex- cepting for the marks of tillage on cultivated fields, and the evi- dences of civilization, the valley remains, as regards its salient features, about as the first explorers found it. There are the broad and fertile prairies separated by streams, shaded by strips of wood- land, and the heavy forests of timber trees, covering the mountains and hilly slopes as with a garment. The first acts of the earlier settlers were to select the most avail- able tracts of prairie as the sites of the future homes. Some, with a more skilled prescience than the majority, laid claim to such tracts as in the nature of things would become most valuable. Thus the lands in the vicinity of boat landings and water-powers were soon taken. There was a sufficiency of land for all, though the Donation Land Act, passed by Congress for the exclusive benefit of Oregon, gave to each married settler the generous subsidy of six hundred and forty acres of land of his own selection, and to the single person three hundred and twenty acres. With such inducements immi- grants came in rapidly, and in due process of time the valley be- came, as to its prairie, covered by the claims of permanent settlers. The level open land was nearly all occupied thirty years since, and the settlements extended to the edges of the great forests which clothe the flanks of the inclosing ranges. The later increase in population has been co-incident with the divisions of the original donation claims, and to a less extent the settlement of waste spaces or partially wooded tracts. Outside of the level prairies there is a belt of rolling land verg- ing into hills and mountains in the higher portions, which extends almost entirely around the valley and constitutes a very valuable part of the country. The soil is mainly basaltic and sandstone, and of great general fertility. Its products are more diversified than those of the lower lands and frequently exceed them in quality. These rolling or hill lands are usually covered with brush and re- quire to be cleared before cultivation is possible. The principal advantages of these brushy tracts are good soil, natural drainage, good water, a climate beyond the reach of malaria, an ample and general supply of wood for fuel and building purposes, and com- parative freedom from early frosts. The latter consideration has 520 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. not yet received due attention, but it is probable that a moderate elevation secures here the same advantages as are known to exist in the hilly regions of California and elsewhere. The subject, how- ever, requires further investigation. The tract now being described does not by any means embrace all the so-called brush lands of the valley, but includes the greater portion. There are comparatively small tracts of bushes and young trees in nearly every section, but they are isolated by stretches of prairie. The foot-hill lands, as we may with propriety term them, lie at an elevation of from five hundred to two thousand feet, roughly speaking, and vary greatly in width between those bound- aries. At present it is only to stock-growers that these lands pre- sent encouragement. To them, the excellent water, green grass and freedom from burrs that injure wool, are superior inducements. When cleared, the brush lands will be as productive as any that exist. Such special occupations as bee-keeping, the raising of goats, the fattening of cattle for the shambles, and the raising of most va- rieties of fruit and vegetables, will doubtless find, a better location there than elsewhere. Large quantities of these desirable lands, mostly wooded, lie about the upper courses of nearly every one of the tributaries of the Willamette, and only await the hand of the energetic settler to produce abundantly. Such lands have the advantage of drying earlier in the year than valley lands, whereby it becomes possible to cultivate the soil to better advantage. The cause is that the water runs quickly off these sloping surfaces, whereas it remains for a time on the level plains, and is only removed, usually, by the slow process of evaporation. A greater variety of farm products can be raised in the hills, and their quality is choicer. The greater extent of valuable hill lands exists in Lane and other southern counties where, on the large affluents of the Willamette, room for many hundred settlers is easily found. Of these streams, the McKenzie, the Coast Fork and the main Willamette, are the principal. The second named is, by way of example, a fine stream, flowing northward over a rocky bottom, through narrow channels and entering the main river not far from Eugene city. Fifteen miles above its mouth three lovely valleys join, of which the prin- cipal one is twenty -five miles long and three wide. Through it the DESCRIPTION OF THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 521 Oregon & California Railroad runs, and it is settled well, contain- ing fine farms and a flourishing community. Other branches of the Coast Fork rise in the dense evergreen forest that clothes the Calapooias, sixty miles above Eugene. For forty miles of the course of the Coast Fork, settlements have been made, but the re- maining length is mostly unoccupied. The valley land along the stream is said to be held at from five to thirty dollars per acre. The McKenzie flows through large tracts of unclaimed timber and rail- road lands, where settlement might be profitably made. They are accessible by means of a good road. Much good agricultural land lies as high as two thousand, five hundred feet, being in small, isolated valleys, and difficult of access. The quality of soil is said to be high, producing with un- failing regularity the crops possible to the latitude. They are par- ticularly adapted to stock-raising, and are partially occupied for that purpose. Still, there are many thousands of acres yet subject to settlement. As for the mode of clearing brush lands, it is recommended to slash down the bushes in June; by September they will be dry and may be burned. The larger poles are used oftentimes for fencing or for fuel. The growth usually consists of oak grubs, young fir, maple, hazel, etc. None of these trees reach much size except in age, and hence may be easily handled and removed from the soil. The fern is a far more troublesome growth, requiring much labor, time and patience for its extirpation. It grows in many fields, both in the prairies and in the hills, and gives a vast deal of trouble by its presence. It lives at almost any altitude and is found growing high up on the Cascades. The Chinese are most frequently em- ployed for clearing brush land, for which their charges are about ten dollars per acre for felling and burning the growth, and eighty- five cents per cord for chopping the sticks into cord wood. The lands uncleared are supposed to be worth at present about five dol- lars per acre. A great many rails are made from the fir saplings which grow in such profusion, and the newly-cleared fields are usually fenced with them. There are, approximately, two millions of acres of brush lands lying unclaimed, a large proportion of it in the central portion of the valley, the remainder verging into the great timber belts. Wheat grown in the new fields is free from all 522 history of Willamette valley. injurious seeds — that is, it is clean. Commonly enough, the farm- ers slash and barn the brash at the proper season and then sow wheat which they brush into the ashes by dragging a clump of bashes over it, no plowing or harrowing being done. The result usually is a crop of wheat of twenty to thirty bushels per acre, which frequently pays all the expenses of bringing the soil into cultivation. The stumps of fir and hardwood trees rot quickly and disappear from the husbandman's track, and more enduring sorts are usually left alone until time compasses their destruction. The vacant lands of the Willamette Valley, or those open to settlement, are of four kinds — United States Government, State, Railroad and Wagon Koad grants, and School and University lands. As elsewhere, the Government lands are held at the price of one dollar and twenty -five cents per acre, or in case of lands within the limits of railroad grants, at double this rate. The railroad lands are subject to a price which varies according to location, being from one dollar and twenty-five cents to seven dollars per acre. They are, moreover, to be had on favorable terms as to time and modes of payment. Generally speaking, ten years 1 credit is given, or less, ac- cording to the requirements of the purchaser. The Oregon & Cal- ifornia Railway has yet a large portion of its grant in its possession, and the character of their land compares, of course, favorably with that of the adjoining Government or private holdings. It is chiefly hill land, covered more or less thickly with brush, often bearing an immense amount of the finest timber, but sometimes is open prairie, suitable for cultivation and grazing. In respect to the cost of clear- ing, it is the same as the adjacent tracts. It is well for intending purchasers to bear in mind that the lands spoken of as vacant are so because they require to be cleared before they will be of any use. As for their productiveness, they are not generally a whit behind the best valley lands, and they have, as before pointed out, very great advantages over any valley land. As to the total -quantity of unoccupied or untilled lands suitable for settlement along the edges of the valley, there can not be much less than two million acres, making proper deductions for tracts which are worthless because too rocky or too steep. This amount would be, in the present con- dition of affairs in Oregon, capable of supporting from fifty thousand to one hundred thousand persons; and a greater number, of course, DESCRIPTION OF THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 523 when the condition of trade, and particularly of agriculture, shall have advanced. At present, such tracts yield no income to any person, excepting the few who graze cattle or sheep in the more open spots. All the land of Oregon became the property of the United States Government, and no part of it is or was subjected to any foreign grant. The Government gave three million three hundred and seventy-five thousand acres to the State for educational pur- poses, and i\ve hundred thousand for public buildings ; reserved one million and forty thousand acres for the Indians, and granted one million eight hundred and thirteen thousand acres to aid in the con- struction of wagon roads ; four million Hve hundred thousand acres to the Oregon and California Railroad ; and three million two hun- dred thousand acres to the Northern Pacific Railway. A portion of each of these grants lies in the Willamette Valley. The Oregon and California Railway grant extends through the center of the valley, from the Columbia to the Calapooias, and passes thence through the Umpqua and Rogue River valleys, to the California state line. The grant is of great value. It consists of the alter- nate sections of unsold land on either side of the road for thirty miles, and embraces the greatest variety of prairie, timber and brush lands. The wagon road grants extend from Eugene City, by way of the Middle Fork of the Willamette, more commonly called the main Willamette, to the eastern bound- ary of the State ; from Corvallis to Yaquina Bay ; from Albany, by way of Canyon City, to the boundary of Idaho. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to add that the unoccupied lands, of which we have been speaking, belong, indifferently, to each of these classes, and whatever be the present ownership, may be had on nearly the same terms as to price, with some distinction in favor of the rail- way lands, as far as terms of payment are concerned. The timber lands lie mainly upon the interior slopes of the enclosing mountains. The extent of the forests is prodigious, but, as yet, only the vaguest statements can be given as to the available quantity. Speaking generally, there is a belt of timber trees upon the western slope of the Cascades that is twenty or more miles wide, and extending north and south the whole length of the range. A great portion of it is inaccessible at present, and will so remain 524 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. for many years. The limited present demand has caused the building of a few small mills for the supply of isolated localities, while a considerable amount is annually floated down the Wil- lamette, or its tributaries, and sawed into lumber at convenient mills. The locality of the forest extends from the snow line downwards nearly to the plains, but may be said to terminate in the brushy lands. There are some detached bodies of evergreen trees, particularly firs, growing clown in the valley, which are large 'enough for use as saw logs. The trees attain their greatest development at a considerable altitude. Their maximum sizes, varieties, etc., may be ascertained from the accompanying table, which is given on the authority of Professor Collier, of the Univer- sity of Oregon.: — I-* ui FOREST TREES OF THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY. *i£ Js§ tea S|"3 Acer cercinatum. Vine maple 25 8 " macro-phyltum. Large-leaved maple 70 43 Abies amabilis. Lovely fir. (Habitat from 3,000 to 5,000 feet eleva- tion) 100 36 44 concolor. Called white fir in California 100 36 " douglassii 300 144 " mertensiani. Hemlock 150 41) 41 nobllis. Noble tir-3, (100 to 5,000 feet 200 72 44 sub-alpina. From 3, 0.'O to 6,030 feet 60 24 Alnus rhomb i folia. Alder.- 83 36 Amelanehia Canadensis. Service berry 20 4 Arbutus menziesii. Madrone___ 50 36 Arctostaphylos pungens. Manzanita 20 Betula occid mtalis. Birch. (Eastern Oregon) Castanopsis chrysophylla. Chincapin 60 12 Comas nuttallii. Dogwood 50 10 Crataegus douglassii. Black haw 2) 44 rioalaris 20 Cupressus Nootkaensis. Sitka cedar. Found at base of Mt. Hood___ 80 24 Fraxinus Oregona. Oregon ash 60 25 Librocedrus decurrens. Thick-barked cedar. (From Santiam south- wards) 153 48 Negundo Califor/nca Nuttallia cerasiformis. Squaw berry — seam berry 20 3 Pinus contorta. Black pine— jack pine. (Near summits of Cascade range) . 70 36 44 lambertiana. Sugar pine 2~>0 100 " monticola. Silver pine 15J 4) 44 ponderosa. Common valley pine 175 60 Pirusrivularis. Crab apple 30 7 44 sambucifolia. Mountain ash Prunus (aerasus) emarginata. Wild cherry 50 8 44 4 ' > demisa. Choke cherry 35 7 Populus tremuloides. Quaking asp 33 8 44 triehoaarpa. Balm CO 72 Quercus garryana. White Oak 93 40 44 kelloggii. Black oak (Junction City southwards) 93 48 Rhamnus purshiana. Chittim wood— bear berry 40 8 Sambrlous glauca. Elder 40 2) SiUx lasiandra. Willow 50 13 TiHiym yijantea. Common cedar— thin or smooth-barked cedar 175 60 DESCRIPTION OF THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 525 Of these varieties, the one most valuable for ordinary uses is Abies Doiiglassii, the Douglass fir, which yields great quantities of the best lumber, and is the main reliance of the lumbermen. This noble tree grows to the height of three hundred feet, with a perfectly straight trunk, and is frequently one hundred feet high to the lowest limbs. It is generally sound, and produces very tough, strong lumber, which is very much in demand for ordinary build- ing purposes. This species is called yellow or red fir, and its lum- ber is known in California as " Oregon pine" — a decided misnomer. It is shipped largely to that State and to the Pacific ports generally. Ocean and river vessels of various sorts have been constructed of this wood, and it has proved very well adapted for that purpose, possessing, as it does, strength, toughness and durability beyond most varieties; and with the additional advantage of being procu- rable in planks and spars of any desirable length — even a hundred or more feet. The large-leaved maple, acer macro -phy Hum, is an extremely beautiful tree, exactly suited for purposes of shade and ornament. It grows throughout the level lands of the valley and has been planted extensively in cities and towns. Its seeds have come to form quite an article of export. Mr. W. H. Leininger, of Salem, has entered upon the business of gathering and selling them in the Eastern States, where the size of the leaves is esteemed almost incredible. His exports amount to many tons of seeds an- nually. Of the timbered lands, the best trees are found at medium ele- vations, and are accessible by ordinary logging roads. They have a value depending upon their nearness to market, or to streams of sufficient size to float the logs. The land is worth, for the trees alone, from iive to fifty dollars per acre, depending upon the size and the number of the trees. " Stumpage," or the price of standing timber, is usually one dollar or one dollar and a half per thousand feet, board measure. The principal trees found on low T lands, are the fir, pine, yew, ash, oak, maple, balm, and alder; on the hills, there are scattering oaks and firs, while in the mountain regions grow the firs, pine, spruce, hemlock, cedar, larch, and madrone, with more or less undergrowth, depending on the altitude. - No one has yet ventured to make an estimate of the quantity of timber yet standing on all the borders of the Willamette Valley, 526 niSTOKY of Willamette valley. for the data for such a calculation has yet to be supplied. Speak- ing without regard to exactness, the total area from the crest of one range to the other must be composed of five-sixths forest, to one- sixth prairie or cleared land. Hence, there are rather more than ten thousand square miles of brush land, timber land and elevated waste tracts. This corresponds to six million four hundred thousand acres, from which, if the two million acres of brush land be sub- tracted, there is left four million four hundred thousand acres of timber and waste land, the proportion of the former being, by a not extravagant estimate, nine-tenths of the whole, or nearly four mil- lions of acres. What amount of lumber au average acre would yield, is, of course, undetermined. Some mill men have set it at twenty thousand feet, but the calculation embraces too many ele- ments of uncertainty. Few people have ever concerned themselves with the matter, and all that is known at present of the vast stores of timber upon the east and west is that the total must run into billions of feet, or enough, in the ordinary process of events, to sup- ply the valley with lumber for many centuries, providing the forest fires, which are so recklessly and wantonly set out, do not destroy this munificent legacy of nature to humanity. Doubtless it is only a question of a few score years when the enormous forests that now surround the Willamette Valley will have been cleared off and converted into lumber, or burned where they fell ; for the lumberman in search of trees, and the farmer seeking to enlarge the productive capacity of his farm, are moved by no considerations of sentiment. There is, however, a utilitarian consideration of importance, enough to cause even the industrious timber cutter to pause. It is certainly demonstrated that the loss of her forests lays a country open to destructive inundations. This fact has been shown in too many localities to admit of doubt. Nor are the evil affects confined to freshets ; the rainfall becomes ex- cessively capricious, now exceeding, now falling far below the normal quantity, as if the controlling influence which once main- tained a happy medium had lost its power, and the apparatus of the heavens was left, as a steam engine, to the operations of change. So far has the evil of forest denudation progressed, that certain governments — notably some European ones, and the State of New York — have legislated in favor of the retention of forests,' and DESCRIPTION OF THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 527 others have had their attention drawn to the matter. The United Slates Government has instituted a tentative measure, designed to originate forest culture in the western States and Territories ; but the effort made seems thus far to be abortive. Whatever sort of legislation — whether imposing a penalty for the destruction of woods, oi* promising a reward for the planting of trees — shall pre- vail, it will certainly have to be urged with vigor and carried out with determination. No one can doubt that the extensive forests of Western Oregon have a vast influence upon the climate, par- ticularly on the rainfall, but there will be found many who will scoff at the idea that the clearing of land, carried on through any ordinary period of time, could possibly make any difference with the climate of this region. The subject is one that demands, in the opinion of some, the illuminations of subsequent time, when the matter shall have reached an experimental stage. Every timber tree, suited by its species and size to produce lumber, is worth saving. It has been, and still is, the custom to cut down and burn them, without regard to their increased value. Of course the idea of clearing lands is incompatible with that of preserving the forests, but in many cases the best trees might be left, while the worthless underbrush — generally abundant in these woods — is cleared out. It happens, however, that the aggregate damage, resulting from the operations of lumbermen and the in- tentioned destruction wrought try farmers, is nothing in comparison to the loss from geueral forest fires on vacant land. The habit of setting out fires in dry seasons is responsible for the most universal destruction of woods and timber ever recorded. There have been calculations made, showing that the average damage by extensive forest fires amounts to between one million and two millions of dollars annually. All this loss is sustained through the careless- ness of farmers in allowing the fires, kindled upon their own lands, to get beyond their control, and to sweep over large tracts of Government timber land. 'The most destructive fires have occurred on the west slope of the Coast Range, sometimes extending to the eastern slope. The effect of such conflagrations is not only to destroy every tree, shrub and living plant, but to actually consume the soil to some depth. This phenomenon arises from the fact that the ground is covered with a considerable thickness of organic 528 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. matter, consisting of the leaves and roots of plants, in a state of decay, which mixture is usually combustible, and as it constitutes the larger part of the soil, that, too, appears to burn. This destruction of the soil is an evil of no small magnitude, inasmuch as it can not be replaced until the vegetation shall again cover the ground, to be in turn decomposed. CHAPTEE XXXI. CLIMATE AND GEOLOGY. Peculiarities of Climate — Distinctions of the Seasons — Particular Sea- sons — Table of Pleasant, Rainy, Stormy and Snowy Days — Averages of Each — Tables of Maximum, Minimum and Mean Temperatures and Rainfall for Thirteen Years — Table of Monthly and Annual Mean Temperatures for Nine Localities — Geology — Dynamical Geol- ogy — Sandstone the Prevailing Sedimentary Formation — It Belongs to the Tertiary Age — Newer Deposits — Erosion of Sandstone Strata — Fossils of Tertiary Mammals — The Volcanic Rocks — Whence They Came — Enormous Extent — Composed of Basalt — Volcanic Buttes in the Upper Part of the Valley — Composition of the Cascade Range — Glaciers — Mines — Santiam Gold Mines — Bohemia District — Other Minerals — Iron Ore — Important Developments at Oswego — Ore Beds Worked and Furnaces Erected — Sketch of the Operations there — Quality of Product — Soils Considered — Origin of Rich Basalt Soils — Their Constant Renewal — Red Hills — Mixed Soils — Valley loams the Result of Disintegration and Alluvial Action. THE climate of Western Oregon is extremely peculiar in some respects. It is as if nature had struck a medium between the climate of California, with its alternations of wet and dry seasons, and that of the Eastern States, with their shifting and uncertain changes. In the summer the torrid heat of California is not ex- perienced, nor in the winter is there any but gentle reminders of Eastern snows. The influences at work have given the Willamette Valley a climate that is esteemed perfectly adapted to the needs of humanity. No sudden or wide variations of temperature take place; no extreme or long- continued heated terms are known; the cold of winter is less than the most favored Eastern States and European countries feel. The trade- winds of the Pacific moderate the heat W! 530 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. and cold, and with the great Japanese Ocean current, serve as a regulator of temperature. The thermometer rarely rises above ninety degrees, in summer, in the hottest days, and scarcely ever sinks below twenty in winter. So the most active out-door labor may be performed throughout the year. Strictly speaking, the distinction of the seasons does not exist in Western Oregon as in the Eastern States, nor is the application of the terms dry and wet season en- tirely suitable. The rains, beginning in September or October, fall with increasing frequency in the succeeding months, reaching their maximum in any one of the winter months. Diminishing then in intensity, they continue until June, July or August, falling then semi- occasionally and exerting no ill- effect, excepting in case that the grain crop may suffer if far enough advanced. The rain- fall during a summer month may amount to two inches, or it may be nothing. Only twice in forty years have the grain crops been injured by untimely rains, for the season of harvesting is pre-emi- nently the dry time. The summer of 1883 was exceptionally dry; Jess than one-fifth of an inch of rain fell in June, July and August, and it was not until the last of September that the rain fell in suffi- cient quantities to extinguish the forest fires and clear the atmos- phere of smoke which had for months obscured the country. Not- withstanding the lack of rain and the uncommonly warm season, no loss occurred to the farmers, but a very profitable crop was harvested. Drouth is never known in the Willamette Valley. Western Oregon is exempt from hurricanes, cyclones, and strong winds of all description. Such have been known here, but in only few instances of a force sufficient to do damage. Hail storms and thunder storms are likewise innocuous, and hardly known. Earthquakes, it may be observed, are never felt with any degree of violence. There is, however, a peculiarity worthy of note. The occurrence of " cold snaps " of considerable severity, at intervals of ten or twenty years, constitutes an evil, which, although of no consequence, in comparison with the extremes of other climates, is yet sufficiently remarkable to be noticed. These storms have only occurred, with severity, twice, or, at most, three times, since the advent of white men. They are characterized by the depression of the thermometer nearly, or quite to zero, and more particularly by strong and long continued^north or east CLIMATE AND GEOLOGY.^ 531 winds, accompanied by a fall of snow. They are, in fact, "blizzards," tempered by the position of the valley and its current of wind from the Pacific. Concerning individual seasons, it is recorded that the winter of 1852-3 was not severely cold, but on Christmas morning the snow stood two feet deep on Salem Prairie, and stock suffered much from the consequent deprivation of food. The coldest day in 1854 was January 19th, when the mercury stood at two degrees below zero, Fahrenheit. On December 28, 1855, it was at fourteen above ; and during the winter the Willamette was frozen over below the Falls at Oregon City. The winters succeeding, until 1861-62, were mild, and no figures of temperature are at hand. The season last mentioned was exceptional for its severity. Snow fell profusely, and staid on the ground for fifty-two successive days. The thermometer on January 30th reached a minimum of ten degrees below zero. The Lower Columbia was blocked with ice, rendering the passage to Portland impossible for ocean and river steamers — a phenomenon repeated several times since. The Wil- lamette was frozen, and men crossed on foot. Snow disappeared by the tenth of March. The season of 1863-64 was a mild one as regards temperature. The maximum cold of the year 1864 was twelve degrees above zero, occurring on January 12th. On Decem- ber 13th, of the following year, the mercury reached its minimum for the year at sixteen degrees above zero. The year 1866 was a mild one. The coldest day of 1867 was January 11th, three de- grees above zero. January 10, 1868, saw the thermometer at four degrees below zero, and steamer traffic on the Willamette and Columbia was suspended. These rivers had likewise been closed in 1864-65. The winters of 1868-69, 1869-70 and 1870-71, were not marked by severe weather, and the lowest temperature recorded was twenty degrees above zero. On December 25, 1871, it was sixteen degrees above zero. In 1872 it descended to twenty -two degrees above zero, and in 1873 to twenty-five degrees. On January 13, 1875, it stood at three degrees above zero, and on January 21st following, it was at twelve above. In 1876 it went no lower than twenty degrees above, and in 1877 its lowest was twenty-five degrees above zero. The year 1878 was mild, and only eighteen above zero was felt. The following year saw some 532 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. sharp weather, namely : three degrees above zero in December. A year later the mercury descended as low as nineteen degrees above zero. In 1881 it was once at twenty -four degrees above zero. In 1882 it registered eighteen degrees above, and in 1883, seven above. The annexed table shows the relative proportion of " pleasant," "rainy," "shower and sunshine" and "snowy" days in the years 1859 to 1868 inclusive:— Shower and Pleasant. Rainy. Sunshine. Snowy. 1859 228 73 47 17 1860 232 72 57 5 1861 224 20 61 10 1862 .. 250 47 52 16 1863 220 82 55 8 1864 252 60 47 7 1865 - 227 65 63 10 1866 230 73 59 3 1867 244 65 49 7 1868 272' 30 55 9 2379 637 545 92 Dividing those totals by ten, the number of years during which the observations were taken, we have an average, disregarding frac- tions, of two hundred and thirty-seven "pleasant" days, sixty- three " rainy " days, fifty-four of alternate " shower and sunshine," and nine "snowy" days. Thus there are, roughly speaking, sixty- five per cent, of " pleasant" days during which the sun shines with undisturbed serenity. The meteorological observations, taken at the Signal Service Station, in Portland, in the years 1872 — 1884, serve to set forth the peculiarities of the climate more fully than could be done otherwise, and also afford the only practicable basis of comparison with the climates of other localities. Observations taken in other parts of the valley show that the rainfall at Portland somewhat exceeds the average in the valley, but this excess has not yet been determined. For the purposes of comparison, it is allowable to assume that the rainfall and temperature at the station is the aver- age of the valley, and on that assumption we proceed to give, in tabulated form, the principal observations there taken: The meteorological tables show the temperature and rainfall at the Portland station since its establishment. The maximum and CLIMATE AND GEOLOGY. 533 minimum temperature (taken only since June, 1874) are useful as showing the extreme range of the thermometer. Every reliance may be placed upon these figures, the determinations having been made with the utmost system and regularity by skilled observers accustomed to more than military promptness and accuracy. The table of monthly mean temperature includes nine separate stations, taken for the purpose of comparison with localities with which such a comparison seems most interesting and useful. The means represent in the strongest light the advantages of the Oregon climate as regards evenness of temperature over every other locality in the catalogue. This is a characteristic of the Pacific Coast. We find the annual mean temperature to be below that of Washington, Memphis, Sacramento, Umatilla, Chicago and Albany; and we see that the summer months are a great deal cooler than in either of those places, while beginning with November the contrary is the case, the average winter temperature being higher with us than in the other places named, excepting Sacramento. As the season progresses the comparison becomes still more favorable to the Willamette Valley, for, with two exceptions, the Portland climate is warmest in December and January. February shows less favor- able; March and April present a fair average; while the sudden rise of temperature which heralds the spring in the Eastern States, is mellowed, as it were, and in the Willamette the temperature of winter shades into summer heat with a scarcely perceptible but very pleasant progression. Regarding the rainfall, it appears that notwithstanding the oft- repeated assertions and gibes concerning the superabundance of Oregon moisture, the average supply is not in excess of what falls in Memphis, New Haven, and other places not distinguished for extreme dampness. It appears that the main characteristic of the Western Oregon climate is not that it rains overmuch, but that it threatens too much. The depressing effect of fogs, clouds and light drizzling rains is truly felt deeper than the heavy downpouring to which the land is often subjected. It has been said that " It always rains in the Webfoot country, or is always going to." We may con- clude that the continuous threatening and lowering aspect of the heavens has a great deal to do with the prevailing reputation of the climate, even more than the quantity of rain that actually falls, which, as the tables show, is not really excessive: 534 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. ! 00 t> co rH u CD ■P 03 £ o £ cd H 1 c35oeoifli^eoooTj|C3^H«?3 »HCN(»H^pHlOlCNCOU5 CD * tlololocococo^loti T< o S3 c, 1 oooooooooooo s oo'co'— ■'cqdT'dr^ddcqd •^ 1 —icccococoTiT>TiTicccocq H oooooooooooo d oo d tj" d r- in" i~-' d o' cm' d o 00 o> +H 0) o £ CD 43 H cqr^rHcqcqcq ' i-h co d cn id CO o s 1 N^NNOiOCSCOOOCqcNH eq do cq io~iso<& d co o'co' I'-i-ioioiococcoiOiO'q-T ro . 1 : Si i oooooooooooo r-- ic <-! lo oo -** h- oc d — i cq' d Cq-..--4COCOCOTITlTlCOCOCC:N 11 i «3 oooooooooooo oo cn oo oo'o'd i-" o» oo'co' oq ©q' io so co r— i^ oo os .o -jo i^ cd co CO t> 00 H u CD 03 s s 5H CD At! EH PS i 4.08 7.05 9.12 5.34 1.88 2.35 0.96 0.56 1.09 10.53 10.03 0.88 o OS -H OS LO LO ^H LO rH OS CD OO Cq , rH oo*io-»r'dddd'*©qr-'dd co' M"*'J'iOiO»SOCL'5'T^ 1 LO 1 58.020.0 59.0 32.0 59.0 3^.0 67.0 33.0 82.0 36.0 99 0-15.0 90 49.0 84.0 43.0 90.0 44.0 79.0 42.0 63.0 34.0 56.0 24.0 id L> 00 H rl 03 a c £ 03 A3 1 cs^-HONio^orricor 1 Tpi-lasesioicN!-" " 'ddco' oo o s Min J Mean 3.0 30.3 24.0 40.5 34.044.1 28.0 56.2 40.0 56.1 39.0 62.2 46.0 71.8 46.0 67.7 44.0 63.8 36.0 58.1 28.0 44.6 33.047.8 .>..J53.6 1 H.I ©oooooloooooo « dTidcodcqiooc'dddcq' w 1 COiOQONOOC»XCOl>.CO» ili l> 00 rH CD CD £ o CD -a Eh 1 CDOOLOOOOOOOOSCOOCDOlTi TticsirHCDCoccr-Hooi^eocNCN os' ■*' io co' cq cq' d d i-I d d d 1^ d !=l | »NH35NWMr-^HM® « cq'cc'dcod©d<^'rHddcq' S 1 Tr-t-TLOLOCCCOCDCOLOTITt* o el 1 : : : : :° . < ^ oc ^ . . s 1 : : : : • -r io -r t co cq co H ^ M 1 : : : : :ooo>oo©o « : : : : :c^o6-^o6t^cot^ ** \ 30 OO OO OC I> CO LO ili CO t» 00 rH u CD ♦3 CD £ o £ "3 OSOOCOLOOCCOCNl-rOCOLOLO ^iON^HCSOQOO»lOH oodcq'cqcqcqi-H ' *eo'-*'d : i cq : «o g TfiCOrHCOOSlOOt^OSOSTi© ■<*" o oo' — ' d — i oc r-»' — • as' h- h- T Ti -r LO CD CD CO CO t T CO ». 1 ; s? 1 is a i> 00 rH CD +3 CD £ o £ CD A H 1 § 6.56 11.83 6.28 3.13 .92 1.52 .19 .13 1.26 1.80 4.67 9.30 "5 d oioco«DTfir^rHcqicirjr--os | **; oocq'dddcq'dTi'o'cq'-H-H rj' CO Ti rf< T io CD CD CD LO lO tp Tfi ' 1(5 a s lliiiiliiltili H ■4 iiiliiiiMMll January February 1 April June August October December i CD a q 3 H r^oOLCi>-+icqocoLO-HTt*cq ococnlOco-^oococniocnlo co^ticqcoi— (>-ii-HO'*TTicot^ t>o X- C£5 rJHOOOt-LOOt^Cqi^O ocq: K3N: o-*OLCcqoooo i os oV- oo' — i d co "# cq CO-f-P-rCOTlCOCO— l Mt-NCDOOK(M^CCMCO r^co ■ Locq's •OOCOOOCD Tj- coo do' iP_oj "coos"' CO CO ocq d^' oooin. o'^ood- rfi i* tti tt - :OLQCq 'coco'cq ooooocqo-* (OOO— 1|>0 cocNi-LocooocqotocDOoo ''ti'do'io'io oooo-*ooooolco oo oo' d <—< cd oo' os" ■<*■ os" t--' oo -H cq— 'CqcocoT-T"^cococqco cqiccoooic-^ooooso lo cq os oc i » oa OS JO' oocoi^eoi-icq>-icqcqcocDco cq-^rHT^rtiot^cocqoiTtio os d d-* do co ©q o: as co q" cq I CO -f -r LO lC CO CD CO LO - p ^f ^i LO_| co -oocq OOOOOS r)i co' — < d d d d do cj oiai cqcNcoTtico-TTriTiTcocqcq ©o.OLoas^ lOLOococqocoooLocDCDrH dnn dcq'do'dddcq" co d CO TI Tfl LO lO CD CO. O CD LO - the fertile, though contracted valleys of Southern Oregon, were taken up by an incoming tide of people from the border States, who instantly discovered the adaptability of the soil of that region for raising immense crops of wheat, and very shortly the abnormal demand of the miners was met 'by supplies of flour made from grain grown upon the banks of the streams from whose bed their active hands were washing the precious metals. The new and promising industry which had been so favorably inaugurated in the valley of the Willamette was not, however, suffered to languish. San Francisco, then in the years of her energetic youth ; the Pacific ports, in every zone ; and the great empires of China and Japan, became customers, and bought the wheat and flour of this favored State in quantities greater than any mining region could ever hope to control. Statistics of the production of subsequent years are scarce. The most important pursuit that Oregon has ever engaged in has seemed not to be thought of sufficient importance to justify the systematic preservation of the few and easily procured facts that would enable the history of Oregon agriculture to be written. Indeed, we may say, with entire truth, that no facts whatever, concerning the his- tory and resources of this State, have ever been preserved by State enactment. Oregon has never appropriated a single dollar to. pre- serve the record of what her people have done. What is more to the purpose, the State Government has not made a single efficient effort to attract settlers to the State. When the United States are receiving accessions of half a million European immigrants each year, worth to the country, economists say, not less than $1,000 each, the State of Oregon, calmly contemptuous of her proper destiny, sits in lonely grandeur by the sounding Pacific shore, and GRAIN PRODUCTS. 549 only aspires to be let alone. In this behavior she is unique; — no other State or Territory manifests a like spirit. Some of the lesser States, whose natural resources would be no perceptible addition to these of the Willamette Valley, could they be joined to hers, exert the machinery of their Governments to encourage immigra- tion, and, invariably, with healthful effects. Such is the moral in- fluence of immigration that the arrival of one thousand families of steady and industrious Americans in this valley, would be more beneficial, immediately and remotely, than the harvesting of the heaviest wheat crop. Such a policy as is manifested by the State Government of Oregon, is detrimental to what political economists and practical men of every profession would esteem the best in- terests of a State or community, and is defensible on no rational grounds. There should, by all means, be some means provided for procuring statistical information, and publishing it. The welfare of the State is concerned in it, notwithstanding its small apparent importance, and to further neglect a matter of the kind is to render the collection of this sort of information more difficult with each recurring year. Returning to the subject of wheat, we find that that crop early assumed the most important position among agricultural produc- tions — a position that it has held with constantly increasing im- portance until now. The causes of this are obvious, and hence hardly to be considered. The foreign demand for wheat during the first twenty years amounted to nothing ; yet there were scatter- ing mining populations to be fed, and the very considerable home demand to be met. The art of flour making grew apace, and when in the 'sixties, the shipping of wheat attained prominence, the quality of flour made in Oregon was of the best. The small mills of that date have, as regards flour for export, given way to the massive structures known and celebrated over wide areas for the excellence of their brands. At Oregon City, Salem, Albany, and elsewhere, large flour mills have long been in operation ; and the Albina flour mill, erected in 1883, and having a capacity of a thousand barrels per day, has been added to the number. There has never been any question raised as to the adaptability of the soil for wheat raising. The experience of forty years, with- out a failure of the crop, has proved that. In quantity and quality 550 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. the Oregon product is undoubtedly distinctly superior to that of any other section. A great part of the excessively high reputation of California in this regard was, doubtless, built up upon the merits of Oregon wheat in the days when the surplus of the latter State was always sent to San Francisco, and then re-shipped to European ports as first-class California wheat. From the first, the grain was found to be heavier, per bushel, than ordinary, and there were no insect depredators to injure the crop. Nor was rust known. Drouth, as we have said, never troubled the farmer of Western Oregon, for one sure dependence he has ever had — the copious rains of heaven, which, however, have thrice, in forty years, injured his crop by falling untimely. The yield, per acre, has been various, oscillating between moderately narrow extremes. Wheat, then, being so important a factor in the affairs of the valley, the general prosperity of the people has depended upon its successful and profitable production. When wheat is high, every- body has money, and when it is low, times are hard and poverty becomes, as it were, a present circumstance. It is always saleable at some price or other, and the ready cash can be commanded for it. In this respect it is the best crop to raise, for the market for it, which includes the whole world, is reliable, and extensive enough to satisfy the most cautious fanner. Being easily raised and quickly sold, for cash, without the necessity of barter, it has become the favorite crop ; but it has obvious drawbacks. It has to be sold at the minimum price in the whole world ; for such is the state of the wheat market that every civilized and semi -civilized w T heat-producing country comes into competition, and the wheat of India, Southern Russia, England, and elsewhere, seeks for a sale at the expense of Oregon grain. Any surplus beyond the wants of the farmers here is thrown into competition with the grain, per- haps, of the antipodes, and with it awaits the consumer. Having now sold his wheat at a price, regulated in Liverpool or London, and received for it the price that rules there, less com- missions to middle- men and brokers, and the cost of transportation from the home farm to whatever port it may be destined, the farmer draws his pay, and pays it over for articles, which, in a majority of cases, are of eastern or foreign manufacture, and which he has to pay for at the highest price for which they are sold in GRAIN PRODUCTS. 551 any civilized country. His wants are varied ; the Oregon farmer, despite his pioneer training, is not particularly simple in his tastes, nor ultra -economical. Consequently, he is a ready purchaser, and quickly expends the proceeds of his wheat sold at a minimum price, for manufactured goods bought at a maximum price. So apparent are these evils, and so many other ones exist, that people of intelligence have seriously questioned whether the culture of the one great staple should not cease, and mixed husbandry take its place. It has become almost an axiom with political economists that agricultural communities, devoted to the culture of any one great staple, in preference to the culture of several or many products, become impoverished ; and they have endeavored to account for it on the supposition that the soil is robbed of its valuable elements, or else that a class of middle-men spring up and fasten themselves like barnacles upon the industry, and by absorbing the profits, ruin the farmers. These are evils, doubtless, but both insufficient and both unavoidable. It seems that the real reason for the decay and impoverishment of a country so circumstanced is to be sought for on other grounds. The impoverishment arises from the loss of the labor of the farming class. Wheat-raising demands the active energies of men for but a limited part of the year. In plowing, seeding and harvesting the wheat -grower is, undoubtedly, urged to his utmost ; but for more than two-thirds of the year his exertions are confined to the routine work about the farm-house, with short and irregular spasms of fence -building, etc. And the inevitable result of an exclusive devotion to wheat -growing, or other special employment, is to cause the farmer to slight all other necessary work. Hence, there arises a class of skilled and efficient specialists in agriculture, but whose exertions only extend over a fraction of the year, and who esteem all other pursuits trivial and unworthy beside the one to which they are devoted. It is, undoubtedly, the loss of labor that prevents a wheat or cotton -growing country from attaining opulence. One of the direct consequences of such habits would be the general air of untidiness about the farm — -the fences down, the fields full of weeds, hogs rooting in the door-yard, and the other familiar signs of unthrift and decadence. And these, it is often said, are the rule in agricultural communities devoted to 552 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. a single staple, while the closest observers fail to detect their general application to regions where mixed farming prevails. There are some peculiar features connected with the wheat in- dustry in Oregon that deserve mention. In the first place, wheat commands a price lower by many per cent, in Oregon than in the United States, at large, and lower than in any other State or Terri- tory. The average price throughout the State in 1878 was ninety- two cents per bushel ; in the United States it was seventy-eight cents, and in no other recorded year have these figures approached so closely. In 1881 the Oregon price averaged eighty-eight cents ; the average price in the United States, one dollar and nineteen cents. In the former year the wheat production, per acre, in Oregon, averaged twenty -one bushels per acre ; in the United States, eight bushels, three pecks. In 1881 these numbers were seventeen bushels and two -tenths, and ten bushels and two -tenths. Taken throughout, the average wheat product, per acre, in Oregon, is about twice that of the country at large, but this difference is partly compensated by the lowness of the price in Oregon. Ap- proximately, the Oregon farmer receives about twenty per cent, more for the product of an acre than does the average American wheat -raiser. His disadvantage consists, finally, in the greater depletion of his soil, which must yield annually a very large quantity of its fertile elements to produce over twenty bushels of wheat, with a corresponding amount of straw. It is likely that a comparison of soils wonld likewise redound to the credit of the Willamette Valley, for instances of almost ex- haustless fertility are connected with nearly every farm. Con- tinuous wheat-cropping for thirty years has been followed at certain places in Marion County, with unimpaired production. Cer- tain soils in the French Prairie, have been devoted to wheat for that time, and still raise a good crop. Such results are unheard of in other States, and would seem highly improbable in the Missis- sippi States, where a much less test has reduced the average of wdiole States from twenty or more bushels to less than ten. One well-attested case illustrating the singular strength of Willamette Valley land is that of the farm of William Ruble, near Eola, Polk County, who tilled a portion of red hill land, and for fifteen, and even nineteen years, raised crops usually exceeding thirty bushels GRAIN PRODUCTS. 553 per acre, without the addition of any fertilizer — such being un- known in Oregon — and without the least perceptible impairment of the soil. How this apparently paradoxical result can take place are discussed in another connection, where the characteristics of the soil and its constant renewal on a gigantic scale are treated of. In 1875 it was said that the average production of wheat in the valley was nineteen and a half bushels per acre. Elaborate calcu- lation of the cost of raising wheat and its comparative profits were set on foot at that time. To raise a ton of wheat required about two acres of land, to plow and seed which cost four dollars per acre ; the seed wheat for the two acres was worth two dollars and fifty cents ; cutting and binding, two dollars ; threshing, at four- teen cents per bushel (the price has receded one-half since then), and boarding hands, iive dollars and forty-six cents ; hauling an average distance of six miles to warehouse, four dollars ; wear and tear of machinery and depreciation of land, three dollars ; taxes on land, seventy -five cents ; interest on value of land, four dollars. Total, twenty-nine dollars and seventy-one cents. Under these, meant to denote ordinary conditions, the cost per bushel would be seventy-six cents. Wheat raised in this valley, in that year, brought one dollar and fifty- eight cents in Liverpool, while its cost to the farmer and shipper in freights and cost of production was eight cents more than the quoted price. In San Francisco the price was one dollar, which was nineteen cents less than the price should have been to pay expenses. The same sort of wheat was selling in Portland for eighty cents ; in Albany for sixty cents. It is usually taken for granted, and is, indeed, pretty well substantiated, that under the ordinary circumstances that rule in the valley, one dollar per bushel for wheat, in the field, makes farming fairly profitable. When the railway fever struck Oregon, the prospect of cheap and rapid freights for agricultural products gave a great impetus to wh( at-growing, which it still feels. With railroad transporta- tion to Portland, that culture assumed a very advanced stand, and wheat became a very important article of export. In 1867 the surplus of wheat was very large, and a better market began to be demanded. This surplus was estimated at two millions of bushels, all of which had to be moved by the Willamette Kiver steamers. The price in that year was seventy cents per bushel, as late as the 554 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. first of September, but a sudden rise took place, and on October 20th, the quotation was one dollar and ten cents. The amounts of wheat and flour received in Portland in that year were one hundred and four thousand seven hundred and forty -one barrels of flour, and fifty-five thousand three hundred and sixty-eight sacks, of one hundred and twenty pounds each, of wheat. This was practically all exported to San Francisco by vessel. In 1866 the exports had been twenty-nine thousand eight hundred and fifteen barrels of flour, and a very small quantity of wheat. Walla Walla and Eastern Oregon and Washington did not figure in these statistics. Their day came later. The exports of 1869, to the same port, were forty-one thousand six hundred and fifty-nine sacks of wheat, and one hundred and thirty -five thousand five hundred and thirty-nine barrels of flour. The wheat product of the valley was roughly estimated at one million five hundred thousand bushels, valued at $1,750,000. In 1870 the corresponding figures are forty-five thousand and sixty sacks of wheat, and one hundred and forty thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight barrels of flour. The wheat product increased very considerably over the preceding year, for the estimated crop was one million seven hundred and ninety-four thousand bushels spring wheat, and five hundred and forty-six thousand bushels fall wheat ; making a total of two million three hundred and forty thousand bushels. Rendered into centals, etc., the accounts are thus : For the fiscal year 1868-69, the amounts shipped to San Francisco were, wheat, thirty -four thousand eight hundred and forty centals ; flour, eighty-two thousand five hundred and eighty one barrels ; being the equivalent of fourteen thousand one hundred and twenty-nine tons of wheat. For 1869-70, the year in which direct shipment to Europe began : To Europe, eleven thousand two hundred and sixty-seven centals wheat ; to San Francisco, fifty-one thousand eight hundred and forty-two centals wheat, and one hundred and sixty-four thousand Hve hundred and seventy-four barrels flour. Total, the equivalent of twenty-seven thousand eight hundred and forty-one tons wheat. In 1870-71 : To Europe, one hundred and eighty thousand nine hundred and twenty-four centals wheat ; to San Francisco, thirty-six thousand two hundred and seventy- one centals wheat, and one hundred and sixty-four thousand six GRAIN PRODUCTS. 555 hundred and seventy -eight barrels flour ; to Bio, five thousand four hundred and thirty -six barrels flour ; to China ten thousand barrels flour. Total, the equivalent of thirty-seven thousand eight hundred and seventy-six tons wheat. In 1871-72 : To Europe, two hundred and forty-two thousand four hundred and fifty-seven centals wheat ; to San Francisco, two hundred and sixty -two thousand six hundred and sixty-three centals wheat, one hundred and thirty -eight thousand and fifty-five barrels flour. Total, forty-five thousand nine hundred and sixty-four tons wheat. In 1872-73 : To Europe, live hundred and sixteen thousand and seventy -three centals wheat ; to San Francisco, fifty-five thousand four hundred and ninety-four centals wheat, ninety-six thousand Hive hundred and sixty-eight barrels flour ; to China, ten thousand four hundred and forty -eight barrels flour. Total, forty -four thousand and thirty tons wheat. In 1873-74 : To Europe, eight hundred and seventy- one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine centals wheat, sixty thousand one hundred and ninety -six barrels flour ; to San Fran- cisco, three hundred and forty-six thousand three hundred and sixty-three centals wheat, ninety-two thousand nine hundred and twenty -five barrels flour. Total, the equivalent of eighty -three thousand eight hundred and seventy-five tons, or about two million eight hundred thousand bushels. There is no exact means of determining the corresponding numbers for the succeeding years, for the product of Eastern Oregon and Washington became a great factor in the total, and the proportions furnished by those regions enter to an undetermined extent into the figures of exports. The tables included herewith will give a sufllcient idea of the produc- tion of the valley. As to the possible and probable expansion of wheat- growing, a great deal has been said. It seems, from a study of the surveys of the valley counties, that the total amount of land suitable for wheat culture is two million seven hundred and fifty thousand acres ; or at least these figures were put forth in 1875 as a fact. At the average of twenty-five bushels of wheat per acre, this amount would produce sixty- eight millions seven hundred and fifty thousand bushels annually, which would, mostly, be exported, as the quantity required for domestic use could be bat a small fraction of the production. Roughly speaking, that amount repre- 556 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. sents ten times the present crop, whereby we discover that the average acreage at present must be about two hundred and seventy- five thousand, which is abont correct. Probably the time will never come when such an amount of wheat is cultivated, and there are many who do not look for any further expansion of the present wheat fields. Other calculations, giving each county its possible production, have been published. The Willamette Farmer, in December, 1873, gave the following estimate of possible wheat production, allowing twenty bushels per acre as the average crop. Marion County, whose total area is one million one hundred and nine thousand seven hundred and sixty acres, of which seven- eighths is arable land, could produce ten million seven hundred thousand bushels ; Linn County, containing a total area of one million eight hundred and twenty-four thousand acres, fifteen million nine hundred and eighty thousand bushels ; Lane County, three million one hundred and seventy-one thousand eight hundred and forty acres area, one-half arable, ten million nine hundred thousand bushels ; Benton, seven hundred and ten thousand acres area, three million Sive hundred thousand bushels ; Polk, three hundred and ninety -nine thousand three hundred and sixty acres, of which seven-eighths are supposed to be arable, two million seven hundred thousand bushels. The remaining counties of Yamhill, Washington and Clackamas, it was thought, could together, on occasion, produce twelve million bushels. Total possible produc- tion, after making the necessary deduction for territory required for other necessary crops and pasturage, fifty -five million seven hundred and eighty thousand bushels. The average yield, per bushel, was taken at twenty bushels per acre, it appears, because the production throughout the valley was at that rate during the year in which the calculation was made, that is, in 1873. In that year the acreage, in wheat, was thought to have been two hundred thousand, and the total product four million bushels. The exports from Portland during the year ending July 1, 1874, were eighty- three thousand tons of wheat, or its equivalent, corresponding to two million six hundred and fifty-six thousand bushels. The quantity required for home consumption then, was in the neigh- borhood of one million three hundred and forty thousand bushels. That quantity has since kept pace with the increase in population and bears a regular proportion thereto, as might be expected. GRAIN PRODUCTS. 557 The following summary is introduced to show the effect of the introduction of railways upon wheat-growing. The total exports of wheat and flour (the latter rendered in its equivalent of wheat) from the port of Portland were : — In 1870, 6 cargoes, aggregating 4,379 tons. " 1871, 11 " " 9,274 " " 1872, 17 " " 15,215 " " 1873, 39 " " 38,344 " The exportation of wheat has continued mainly in the hands of several influential firms in Portland, but occasionally some exten- sive farmer or warehouseman, impatient of the ordinary modes of business, charters a ship, and loads her on his own account, and often realizes well on the sale of her cargo in Europe. The most satisfactory example of the kind was that of W. A. Wells, of Cor- vallis, who sent a cargo of grain around the Horn, and realized, from the venture, a very handsome profit, the proper reward of so much enterprise and commcn sense. Many varieties of wheat have been introduced, and it is believed that all have been successfully grown. Of the sorts in common use, the White Chili Club has been regarded as the best spring wheat. It threshes easily, yields heavily, and makes the best of flour. It succeeds best on high, dry ground. One bushel and three pecks, or two bushels, are usually sown on an acre. The Little Club is a good variety, with shorter straw, darker and smaller grain than the other, but making as good flour. This also is suited to dry soil, and should be sown between the middle of February and the middle of April. The former variety should be sown between New Year's and March first. The Australian is also an excellent kind. For wet land, Sonora wheat is, probably, the best variety. It is more apt to lodge than those named, and its flour is nofr so good. Its chaff is red, its grain white. The kinds most in repute for winter wheat are the common white wheat and White Velvet wheat. Some farmers are of opinion that the latter is the best variety grown or known in Oregon. It has the largest grain and makes the finest flour, but does not yield the best. The common white wheat yields very heavily, and makes good flour. It is sown from October 15th to February 15th. 558 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. The average yield, per acre, of the crop of 1880, was fifteen and three -tenths bushel. The value per bushel in Portland, in that year, varied from $1.41 to $1.92 per bushel. The value of the crop, per acre, without taking into account the cost of transportation to Portland, assuming the average price to be $1.67, would have been $26. The total value of the crop at Portland prices was $8,836,825. Concerning soil products of the second rank, oats are found to stand next to wheat. The climate is exceedingly well adapted to their culture, and the crop is certain. They are raised generally throughout the valley. The crop of the nine counties aggregated three million one hundred and forty-one thousand eight hundred and eighty bushels in the year 1880, according to the census re- turns. Of this amount the two counties of Marion and Linn produced nearly half, their proportions being six hundred and ninety -three thousand six hundred and thirty bushels, and six hundred and seventeen thousand one hundred and sixty-four bushels respectively. The value, per bushel, has, of late years, averaged about forty-one cents throughout the State, and some- what less in the valley. The great value of the crop consists in its certainty, as well as in the slight amount of labor attending its cultivation. The yield, per acre, is supposed to average thirty-four bushels ; but three times that quantity have, at times, been raised on an acre. The standard weight, per bushel, is thirty-six pounds ; but they frequently weigh as high as forty pounds per bushel, and even forty-three. For additional facts relating to this valuable product, see the statistical tables annexed. Indian corn is found not to succeed well in the valley. It re- quires a comparatively warm and dry climate, with an exceptionally high temperature during its growing period, which the climate of Western Oregon does not perfectly furnish. Hence the product is very inconsiderable, as shown in the tables. The average price ruling in Oregon in 1878 was ninety-two cents per bushel ; in 1879, ninety-three cents ; in 1880, eighty-two cents, and in 1881, eighty cents. Barley, from its comparatively limited demand, has not become a crop of much importance, but appears fairly well adapted to the soil and climate. The lead in the culture of this cereal is taken by GRAIN PRODUCTS. 559 Linn County, whose product exceeds that of any other. In 1880 her yield was fifty thousand one hundred and seventeen bushels ; the other counties following in this order : Lane, Polk, Yamhill, Marion, Clackamas, Benton, Washington and Multnomah. The total product of the valley, for the year, amounted to one hundred and fifty -six thousand and sixty -six bushels. PRODUCTION OF WHEAT, OATS, CORN AND BARLEY IN 1880. County. Wheat, Bushels. 33 © © si CD % o 2 © o Indian Corn, Bushels. g in % pq i © PQ Benton Clackamas — Lane Linn Marion Multnomah-- Polk 485,561 217,508 507,038 831,593 1,055,886 11,554 830,214 375,813 957,929 30,511 13,592 39,662 75,109 62,922 599 52,342 20,103 52,008 257,794 215,003 286,216 629,164 693,630 23,809 343,705 315,489 379,033 8,853 8,339 11,727 25,764 23,901 850 11,882 9,226 12,335 779 2,736 8,249 4.911 4,067 1,029 1,000 1,956 2,032 21 127 260 148 134 28 60 68 73 5,172 5,449 43,629 50.117 9,996 1,189 25,037 3,277 12,195 155 179 1,830 2,221 368 48 957 Washington - Yamhill 121 571 Totals-— 5,302,096 346,848 3,143,840 112,877 26,759 919 157,061 6,450 CHAPTER XXXIII. OTHER FIELD PRODUCTS. Flax — Well Adapted to the Lands of the Willamette — Linseed Oil — Table of Flax Production — Quality — Hops a Certain and Valuable Crop — Table — Hay — Clover — Grasses— Vegetables — Potatoes — Mar- ket Gardening a Profitable Industry — Table — Fruit — Apples, Pears and Prune* the Principal Varieties — Markets — History of Apple- Raising — William Meek — Present Condition of Orchards — Yield of Apples — Dealings with San Francisco — Mode of Culture — Fruit Prying — Importance of the Industry — Prospective Growth — Prunes — Plums — Peaches — Future of Fruit- Growing — Berries — Wild Species — Table Showing the Production of Principal Varieties and Value of Orchard Products — Beet Sugar and Potato Starch. FLAX has been a promising crop in the valley, and except for the discouragements incident to the introduction of a new agricultural product, doubtless, would have become a staple of still greater importance. Something like twenty years have elapsed since the first attempts were made to raise the plant ; and in that time a valuable fund of experience has been acquired, and, in some cases, considerable success achieved. In the first place, flax grows exceptionally well in Oregon. Its fibre is strong and valuable, and worth more, for manufacturing purposes, than any grown in the Eastern States. So say good judges. It is generally known that two valuable products are realized from the growth of flax, one being the fibre itself, the other, and secondary one, the seed, from which linseed oil is expressed. A bushel of seed yields two and a half gallons of oil. To obtain this oil, machinery is ne- cessary ; and after the flax culture came to demand it, a mill was built at Salem, since called the Pioneer Oil Works. The proprietors purchased the seed from the farmers of Marion and OTHER FIELD PRODUCTS. 561 Linn, where the new industry had taken root, and started work on December 21, 1867, and have continued with success ever since. They had ten thousand six hundred bushels of seed the first year, and made one hundred gallons of oil daily at first. Quite a num- ber of the farmers of the east side became interested in flax-raising, and in 1875 Walter Huston had eighty acres in flax. Joseph Holman and R. C. Geer and many others have also been identified with the industry. The farmers of only three counties have en- gaged largely in flax -raising. TABLE OF FLAX PRODUCTION IN 1880. County. Acres. Bushels Seed. Tons Straw. Pounds Fibre. Lane 837 _ 7,187 — 121- Linn - 1,479 _ . 13,759 33 28,176 Marion _ . _ 17 130 _ _ 2_ Totals 2.333 21.076 156 28.176- — Quantities of flax exported to New York and Great Britain have been pronounced of excellent quality and a really superior article. It has brought from $300 to $500 per ton. The yield per acre varies from four to eight hundred pounds of clean lint. There has been talk of starting a factory somewhere in the Willamette Valley for the purpose of manufacturing thread, twine, and linen goods from the flax. As for the esteem in which the product is held abroad, it may be noted that samples of Oregon flax were exhibited at the Centennial Exposition, and received diplomas and medals for very fine quality, extraordinary length, strength, good color, superior gloss and silky softness. The oil made at Salem was pronounced of superior quality, being clear, fine and free from sediment, of ex- cellent body and high merit. Hops have proved a very successful crop, nothing lacking to their vigorous growth and advance to full perfection. In several seasons, however, untimely rains have set in and retarded the pick- ing of the ripened and matured crop. Some loss has been felt from this account, but nothing serious. The regions mainly devoted to 562 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. hop -raising are in Lane, Marion and Linn counties, whose produc- tions stand, as regards amount, in the order named, whereof the former produced in 1880, the census year, ninety-two thousand two hundred and ninety -eight pounds of hops. The statistics con- cerning the crop of that year are annexed. The home, par ex- cellence, of the hop is on the McKenzie River, in Lane County, where the largest and most productive plantations are found. That portion of the valley has been celebrated for hop-culture ever since the pioneer of the industry, J. W. Kunoff, began his experi- ments. Speaking in general terms, hops grow luxuriantly and yield heavily in the valley. Messrs. Beckett and Hodson, of Eola, raised in 1876 one thousand seven hundred pounds per acre, and in the same year George E. May, of Lane County, secured three thousand two hundred and ninety pounds from an acre. Other instances show a yield of from one thousand three hundred to two thousand nine hundred pounds, the former number, doubtless, recurring oftenest. The following table exhibits the production of hops in 1880, in the whole valley : — County. Acres. Pounds. Average per Acre. Lane _ __ _ __ __- 131 - _ 92,798 708 _ Linn - -— 32 _ 25,830 - 807 Marion 41 67,080 - 1,636 Multnomah 2_ _ 1,425 _ 712 _ Polk _ _ ,__ - 35 _ 17,020 486 _ _ Washington - 4 — 3,540 - _ 885 _ YamhilL _ _ _ 14 6,150 _ _ 439 - Totals 259 213,843 825 The hay crop of the valley is not excessive, as the demand for prepared stock feed is necessarily small. The natural grasses of the State are very abundant and nutritious, and it has not been found necessary to replace them by cultivated varieties, as has been done in the Eastern States. In the open spots in the moun- OTHER FIELD PRODUCTS. 563 tains the grasses, green for the greater part of the year, grow thickly, and are generally covered and shaded by fern. These grasses form the principal sustenance of the cattle and sheep which may chance to be in the neighborhood. The wild peavine grows there also, and is one of the most valuable forage plants. In these isolated places, oases, as it were, many thousand sheep and cattle pasture, high up in the mountains, and far above the settled localities. They are removed thence on the failure of feed or the approach of cold weather. Bunch grass is a main depend- ence of the nomadic cattle men, and is, indeed, of inestimable value. The cultivated grasses are numerous. Timothy, otherwise called herdVgrass, is the principal variety, and is the staple for hay production. It grows extremely well. Red and white clover are esteemed of great worth, and their culture is practiced to consider- able extent. Three, and even five tons of cured clover hay, the product of a single acre, in one year, are not uncommon yields. This fact alone is enough to prove the adaptability of Western Oregon to dairying, for clover hay and clover pasturage are well known to be extremely valuable in that pursuit. A very good sod results from seeding with clover or herdVgrass, and the open hilly lands, it is thought, could, very quickly, be reduced to first-rate pasturage of this sort. There is not the least danger, usually, that the lack of rain in summer will prove fatal to the rootlets. It will be seen by the tables of hay production in 1880 that the average yield was one and six-tenths tons, or three thousand two hundred pounds per acre. It has been well said that superior vegetables of all species com- mon in the temperate zone, grow to profusion in Western Oregon. Potatoes, cabbage, onions, turnips, squashes, beets, carrots, par- snips, cucumbers, melons, lettuce, celery, tomatoes and other varieties, are always abundant and good and none of them afflicted with disease. Enormous crops are the order of the day. P. M. Rinearson, of Clackamas, raised four hundred and twelve bushels of onions on one-half acre, one thousand one hundred and thirty- three bushels of carrots per acre, and forty-one tons two hundred and sixty pounds of rata baga turnips per acre. These immense crops were harvested in the same year. The potato remains free from disease and insect parasites, and forms an important product. 564 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Its average production, per acre, in 1880, throughout the valley, was one hundred and thirty -three bushels. In spite of the almost spontaneous growth of the best-flavored vegetables and garden produce, there is not a sufficient quantity raised by the American farmers to supply the demand, and the larger towns and cities have to depend for their supply mainly on the Chinese market gardens,* or on the produce of California gar- dens, brought by the steamship line from San Francisco. No considerable class of white market gardeners has yet made its ap- pearance in Oregon, although representatives of that class have achieved notable success in their pursuit in Portland, Salem and elsewhere, and not one has failed to make money. At the prices that are cheerfully paid for " garden truck " there is an ample margin for profit, and industrious men never fail to realize money from such pursuits. PRODUCTION OF POTATOES AND HAY IN 1880. County. Is 1 °Q 02 o GO o M Benton _ _ _ __ _. 32,932 208,810 52,795 72,235 153,355 203,730 21,724 115,013 63,406 214 1,525 412 10,638 9,196 IS.ftKS 6,339 Clackamas — Lane _ _► _ - 5,403 9 593 Liinn 709 lfl onn 13 107 Marion - 1,131 1,560 177 762 460 13,474 9,655 14,351 9,623 12,347 8 322 Multnomah - - - 5,655 Polk 8,479 7,623 Washington _ _ - Yamhill 6,706 TOTAL _ 924,000 6,950 114,244 71,227 The subjects of fruit and fruit -raising, by their relative impor- tance, deserve the deepest consideration, and the profoundest treat- ment. Much has been said concerning the qualities and varieties of Oregon -grown fruits, but whoever would inform himself upon what has been said would be astonished at the inconsequential character of it all. The literature of fruit- raising appears to con- sist mainly in repetitions of what some one or other originally re- marked ; and the utmost depth of men's investigations is the dis- covery that the fruit of Western Oregon is superior to that of every other region. The best essay on the subject of the resources OTHEfc FIELD PRODUCTS. 565 of Oregon, which has heretofore appeared, is a small pamphlet issued by the railroad people in 1878, entitled " Oregon, Facts Re- garding its Climate, iSoil and Agricultural Resources ;" written and published with a design of attracting immigration. Its judg- ment on fruit is in the following words : — Western Oregon excels as a fruit country. No finer fruit, of the kinds raised there, is produced in any quarter of the globe. Fruit trees will grow from six to eight feet the first year ; bear fruit the second, third and fourth years, according to variety. They thrive in the valleys, as weU as on the foot-hills, and up to a con- siderable height in the mountains, but especially in dry, sheltered soil. Yearling prune, peach and plum trees, eight feet high, and yearling cherry trees seven feet high have been exhibited. Apple trees commence bearing very young, sometimes producing fine fruit the second year after grafting ; and, if properly cultivated, are always in bearing when four or five years old. The fruit is large, highly-colored and of the most delicious flavor. It is free from the apple worm and the bitter rot, and keeps remarkably well, many varieties lasting through the whole year. Pears also grow in great perfection. The trees begin to bear when remarkably young, and are exceedingly healthy and vigorous, and being entirely free from diseases, will live to a great age. The trees are very productive and the fruit highly-flavored, Pears have been grown, weighing over three pounds. Oregon is the very Eden for cherries, plums and prunes. The trees are perfectly healthy, grow vigorously and bear much earlier than in the States east of the Rocky Mountains ; and for size, beauty and excellence of flavor, the fruit is unsurpassed in any part of the globe. The plum and prune are entirely free from the attack of the curculio. Plums and prunes, especially the latter, are found to be so profitable for drying, that orchards are being planted for that purpose. Not less than two hundred thousand trees have been planted within twenty or thirty miles of Portland in the last three or four years. Trees of all varieties of apple, pear, plum, prune, cherry, etc., known in the best catalogues can be obtained in the nurseries near Portland, at reasonable prices. Strawberries, currants, raspberries and gooseberries, of a fine quality, are raised in abundance. Several of the hardier varieties of grapes are successfully cultivated. The summer nights are too cool for the successful cultivation of peaches. Fruit-raising in Western Oregon already constitutes a considerable busi- ness, and promises excellent returns. In 1875 establishments were erected at various points for drying fruits, which are of the best quality, and find a ready market in San Francisco, as well as in New York, China, Japan, South America, Australia, and other localities. Much of the fresh fruit is exported to California and the adjacent territories. The Oregon apples, in particular, find a ready market in California, where only a much inferior article is raised. This is a very fair review of an important industry, which is apparently destined to become of prime consequence to the people of Western Oregon. The aspect of the question has not materially changed since 1878, the date of publication of the words above quoted, and they still remain applicable to the condition of affairs. There are, however, certain statements that require explanation and enlargement. 566 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. The first apple orchard in the Willamette Valley was grown from trees brought across the plains by William Meek and H. Lewelling (see page 301). They were planted at Milwaukie, six miles south of Portland. The firm of Lewelling & Meek came in time to possess, at that place, the largest orchard and nursery in Oregon. They sent apples in 1852, and subsequent years, to California, where they were sold, at enormous prices, to miners and others. The sales of fruit and grafts and young trees brought wealth to the enterprising proprietors. In 1860 Mr. Meek removed to Cali- fornia, settled at San Lorenzo, near Oakland, and, in the pursuits of horticulture, acquired celebrity and great wealth. He died several years since. Many orchards were set out by the pioneer immigrants, and some of the trees planted at that early period are still in vigorous bearing. Fruit -culture, especially of the apple, proved very profitable ; the limited product of thirty years ago selling at fancy prices. Several people attained considerable wealth, though few adopted fruit-raising as an exclusive pursuit. The high prices of the early years gave a great impetus to orchard planting, and when those came into full bearing, the increase of the supply brought prices down rajridly. The demand has not been great, nor has it materially increased of late ; but the supply is immense. Nearly every farm in the valley has its orchard of fruit trees, mainly apples, and not one -tenth of the crop is or could be sold. The waste of good fruit is invariably great. The prices, of late years, have been extremely low ; good apples are to be had in any quantity at twenty cents per bushel, and cider apples, of a poorer quality, and taken without sorting, can be bought for slightly less. The inevitable result of such prices is seen in the ill-kept condition of the orchards, which, in most cases, are un- pruned, unploughed and uncared for generally, with moss on every trunk, and brush and weeds upon the ground and in the fence corners. A great falling off in the quantity and quality of fruit results from such carelessness. The yield, throughout the valley, has been judged to average one million three hundred thousand bushels, besides which a large amount has annually rotted upon the ground, or been eaten by hogs. There are enough trees already planted to supply any probable extension of the present demand, although that demand OTHER FIELD PRODUCTS. 56Y has been increased within a season or two, by the completion of the overland railways, and, doubtless, will keep pace with the increase of population in the territories to the eastward. As long ago as 1865, the value of Oregon apples shipped to San Francisco, amounted, in one twelve -month, to about $100,000. The following year the sales declined to half that. They sold sometimes at the rate of one dollar and seventy -five cents per box, or nearly four and a half cents per pound, and were said by the Californians to be "better apples, of a better color, and of better keeping qualities than California fruit." The average price received in San Francisco has been about one dollar per box, or two and a half cents per pound. We notice a gradual decline in the price from the earliest times, when the price reached, in isolated examples, its maximum of a dollar per apple, which was sometimes paid. On the export California -wards depends the greater part of the prosperity of the fruit -raisers. There has always been a sufficient amount of green fruit shipped there to form a very con- siderable item in the State's exports, and it appears that that de- mand is not likely to be much increased, or, at least, not immedi- ately. Fruit trees, in Western Oregon, may be planted either in spring or fall, whenever the ground is in proper condition, and apple trees are set from eighteen to twenty-four feet apart, or with seventy-eight to one hundred and thirty -five trees to the acre. Sometimes they are properly attended to, cultivated, freed from insects and en- croaching weeds ; but more often are left untended and subject to the attacks of parasites, animal and vegetable, the moss accumulated upon their stems, and before its full growth, or while it is in a scarcely mature age, the tree presents an aspect of decrepitude and decay. Frequently the ground included in the orchard is seeded to wheat or other grain crop ; and the soil, which should have been left for the exclusive sustenance of the trees, becomes sapped of its fertility, its strength going to increase the contents of the farmer's grain bins. The industry of drying fruit for home consumption, and sale to distant markets, has engaged some few Oregonians for a lengthened period of years. It seems to present assurances of positive present gain, with every chance of increased usefulness. Since the intro- duction of improved apparatus and processes of curing, very much 568 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. increased attention has been called to the subject. By the aid of the Alden, or any one of the several patent dryers, apples, pears, prunes, and other fruits, are cured and prepared for shipment to market at very cheap rates. The art of curing fruit, little under- stood until within the last two decades, has advanced with giant strides, and promises a competence to everybody who can command sufficient means to buy a dryer and a quantity of fruit. Previously it has often been remarked that the sun-dried Oregon fruit was badly prepared, oftentimes being infested with insects and present- ing an uninviting appearance generally, owing to its dark color, etc. The objections which once gave Oregon dried fruit a bad reputation and materially injured its sale, have now been removed, and the machine- cured apples, prunes, etc., find ready sale, at prices which are usually very remunerative. Many people have embarked in the business, some of them with success. The ex- pected pecuniary results have not, in all cases, been realized, partly because of a decline in prices ; but sufficient experience has been had to place the business in a condition of permanency, and to guarantee it as one of the occupations upon which the State will, in future, depend for her prosperity. It is highly probable that Western Oregon can, and does pro- duce more and better prunes than any other section of the United States. It would seem that this valley is exactly suited for their culture, by reason of its soil, temperature and circumstances generally. The varieties mostly cultivated are the Fellenberg, Gros Prune d'Agen, Petit Prune d'Agen, and some others. They produce, at six years old, one hundred, or more pounds of fruit, if cultivated carefully, and at twelve years they reach three hundred or five hundred pounds. The fruit begins to ripen in the last of August, and will remain sound while yet hanging upon the trees for two months or more. The division of prunes into German and Italian is of some importance to fruit-growers, who discriminate between them to the prejudice of the one or the other. One hundred pounds of the green fruit will make thirty pounds when dried, without considering the weight of the pits, and the dried fruit sells, usually, at from twenty -five to thirty cents per pound, without pits, and about thirteen cents with. The green fruit costs, at the dryers, about two or two and a half cents per pound, and OTHER FIELD PRODUCTS. 569 the buyers, usually, have not the slightest difficulty in procuring all they want. Plums are of equally luxuriant growth and excellent flavor, with the prunes, and are found in greater variety. It has been the custom for the orchard owners to set out in each a few plum trees, sufficient for the home demands. The sorts mostly planted are the Washington, Columbia, Eeine Claude de Bavay. General Hand, Ickworth Imperatrice. Green Gage. Jefferson. Coe's late Eed (will hang on the tree until January), Coe's Golden Drop (a mammoth plum). Egg Plums, and other sorts numerous beyond mention. The Royal Hattine is a great bearer, ripening in July. The Quackenboss is large, suited for table use. Plums are in comparatively small demand in the markets, and, consequently, are very cheap. The most excellent fruit can often be purchased for twenty -five cents per bushel, at which rate their culture is not profitable. They are considered of less value than prunes for drying. Of other fruits, etc., there is less to say. The peach is not very successfully cultivated, by reason of the peculiarities of climate. The few that are raised are of fair size and o-ood flavor. Exhaustive experiments have been made with good prospect of finding a variety suited to the climate. A few were raised, in early years, which were sold in 1^55, in Portland, for five dollars per bushel. Pears lack nothing of full perfection, when grown in the valley, taking a place second only to the apple and the prune. All the commoner and more esteemed varieties are cultivated with entire success, among others, the well known Bartlett and Duchess pears, etc. Their fruit is dealt in at the Portland and other markets, where it attains a price corresponding to that of apples and prunes. Under the circumstances in which the people of Oregon are placed, as to transportation, climate, soil, etc., it seems that no de- mand for fresh or dried fruits, such as grow in this latitude, could arise beyond the power of the Willamette valley to supply. The existing demand is of a constant nature, and is subject to a slight but certain increase. The home demand is, of course, fixed and unwavering, but does not enter into commercial calculations. It is probable that a considerable movement of green fruit toward the 570 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. East will take place, because the apples, pears, and fruits of that sort, are not grown in plenty, or of sufficiently good quality, in the districts with which the railways connect us. It is much the same with dried fruit, and men of judgment are confidently expecting an immense increase to the present considerable production. The exportation of dried fruit, from Portland, in the twelve months ending July 31, 1883, amounted to $53,707. The testimony of travelers and botanists shows, beyond cavil, that there is no country in the known world where wild berries are so common as in Oregon. In the woods and prairies of this part of the State, no less than eighteen varieties of edible berries, some of them equal in flavor to cultivated sorts, exist, abundant, large and delicious, mostly unknown or little appreciated by man, but furnishing a large part of the diet of the numerous wild birds and beasts of the forest and field. The kinds best known are the blackberry, strawberry, huckleberry, salmon-berry, sallal, Oregon grape, squawberry, and others. The Indians of the valley once derived a large part of their subsistence from various berries, gathered and dried, and eaten with dried salmon. The enormous quantities of wild blackberries, growing in the woods, are of im- portance to the cuisine of many white families who repair in July, to favorite localities, where they engage in picking them for future consumption. They grow in almost unlimited quantities, only approached in that respect by the huckleberries, which have a more contracted habitat, being confined to the mountain regions, where whole townships are covered by their bushes. Their fruit is of some use, as food for human beings, and plays a very im- portant part in the dietary of many wild animals, particularly bears, which grow fat on them. The sallal is a delicious berry, which is peculiar to Oregon, and is, by some, ignorantly supposed to be poisonous. It is found widely extended over the Coast and Cascade Ranges, but each plant (two to three feet high) bears but a few berries, the size of small pistol balls. The salmon -berry grows upon usually high bushes beside running streams ; its berry is red or yellow, and, in structure, like a raspberry, but more insipid. It is not highly regarded as food, and possesses a com- paratively short season, whereas the blackberry, huckleberry and sallal remain upon the bushes, in a state of ripeness, for weeks, and even months. OTHER FIELD PRODUCTS. 571 FRUIT PRODUCTION IN 1880. County. QD CD 0) EH I— 1 ft m ll < 02 aS u A* o a> Ph CD 1 « a> as ^£ 03 Value of Orchard Products. Benton 4,154 165,428 85,304 155,777 191,221 58,219 117,685 64,744 118,557 58,976 130,136 121,712 199,185 213,416 34,893 164,286 73,540 216,147 254 2,185 599 473 436 1.141 ' 36 15 290 101 832 490 787 22 51 $14,167 Clackamas 32,995 Lane - - 37,144 Linn 65,768 Marion Multnomah Polk 54,448 26,268 28,814 Washington Yamhill 36 40 19,472 52,054 Total 961,095 1,212,288 5,429 2,359 $331,130 This chapter would be incomplete without a reference to the introduction of the sugar beet, which has been advocated with such a setting forth of the merits and profits of this culture, that its value to the State would seem enormous. It is well known that this plant is the source of the greater part of the sugar consumed on the continent of Europe, and, that it has been successfully applied to sugar-making in the United States. The soil of the Willamette Valley has been found to be very well adapted to its growth, and the seasons are sufficiently long to admit of the fullest development of the contained sugar. The extraction of the sweetening product is a simple art, but sufficiently detailed and complicated to give employment to many men for quite a prolonged period. Beet sugar works then would have a double advantage to this country, m being the means of furnishing a very important article of consumption, which, at present, has to be imported from foreign lands, and second, in furnishing work to a class of desirable citizens. No great degree of skill is necessary in this art, or, at least, the greater .number of the operatives in beet sugar refineries are unskilled. It is worth while for intelligent experimenters to examine further into the availability of this region for beet culture. The line of experiments would embrace a determination of the sugar riches of various approved varieties of beets, the proportion of un crystal lizable syrup, the percentage of alkaline ingredients in the ash of the beet, the area of land suitable for the crop, and the relative profit of the culture, as compared with other products. 572 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Potatoes having been found to grow so successfully, it is highly possible that the manufacture of starch from that source will, one day, be an industry of consequence. In certain districts in the East, particularly in Maine and New Hampshire, potato starch- making has become the chief manufacture, and contributes largely to the resources of those States. Starch is there made at a profit, when potatoes bring twenty -five or thirty cents a bushel — a price that enables them to be raised, but not very profitably. What conditions would surround the culture of potatoes for starch - making in Oregon can only be surmised. It is probable that it would prove a great benefit to the more retired districts, but would hardly assume a leading position among the occupations of a com- mon character. Like beet sugar -making, it would afford lucrative employment for a considerable number of persons, who, by the way, need not be of exceptional skill as operatives. CHAPTER XXXIV. LIVE STOCK. The Earliest Introduction of Cattle — Cattle brought from California — Herds brought by Immigrants — Improved Stock — Dairying — Non- progressive Practices of the Farmers — Beef Animals — Table of Cattle and Dairy, Products — Statistics of Horses, Etc. — Sheep Introduction of — Brought from California and the East — Improved Breeds — The Merino — Domestic Animals Uncared For — Woolen Mills — Watts Leads the Way— Mill at Oregon City — Willamette Mill at Salem — Mill at Brownsville — Excellent Quality of Cloths Manufactured — Table of Sheep, and Wool Production — Swine — Peculiar Advantages in Pork-raising — Animals Neglected — Table Showing Ntimber of Hogs and Their Value — Goats. THE earliest introduction of cattle into Oregon was accom- plished by the Hudson's Bay Company, who, as a measure of expediency, brought a few horned animals to Vancouver, sometime in 1835. These animals, probably, came from the Sandwich Islands. Their practice was to retain exclusive ownership of every animal, with the offspring of the cows, although they, at times, leased the cows to American and other settlers, exacting the return of the beasts, with their calves, if any were born during the term of hire. Consequent upon this severe condition, no progress could be made in stock-raising, until, in 1837, the first Spanish cattle were imported from California, being brought overland by individuals who went to that country for the purpose of obtaining stock for the use of American settlers in the Willamette Valley. Ewing Young and Rev. Jason Lee organized the plan, and six hundred head were successfully brought overland, through the valleys of the Sacramento, Rogue and Umpqua, to the fertile and grass-covered plains of the Willamette. (See page 230). These 574 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. cattle cost three dollars per head, in California, and were of the genuine long-horned Mexican breed, and of no great value for stock purposes, except as being the only animals to be had. The cattle monopoly was now broken, and the few settlers were each enabled to go into cattle -raising at their option. The extensive plains of the Willamette, covered with the most nutritious of native grasses, afforded abundant pasturage throughout the year. The cattle increased satisfactorily, and their numbers were further added to by the arrival of herds driven across the plains. These were of better blood than the raw-boned and ferocious Mexican breed, and from them the herds of to-day are, in part, descended. The number of head brought across the plains can hardly be told, but for the year 1853 it is known to have approached fifteen thousand five hundred, of which number nine thousand were oxen and six thousand Hve hundred cows and calves. The large number of importations speedily stocked the country with animals of tolerable breeds and of value and usefulness. By 1850 the number of cattle in the valley was so great that a considerable number were returned to California to furnish beef for the northern mines, and the miners of Southern Oregon were indebted to the same source in 1852, and subsequent years, for their own supply of beef. Ac- cording to Hon. John Minto, the ordinary route of travel for those driving cattle across the plains, was via Fort Hall to The Dalles, thence along the south bank of the Columbia to a point about four miles from Hood River, where the cattle were made to swim across to the north side of the great river, thence following down to a point below the mouth of Sandy River, where they were swum back to the south side, being then near their destination. There was, at that time, an Indian trail across the Cascades, by way of the north side of Mount Hood, but the gentleman mentioned as authority, is of the opinion that it, probably, never was used to bring cattle over. This refers to the earlier years ; in 1846 the Barlow Road, the first wagon road across the Cascades, was opened, and was made generally useful. In the same year the Applegates and others opened the Southern Route. Fine imported stock and graded animals have been introduced, until they are no rarity in Oregon. The effect of the introduction has been to raise the average value of neat stock for breeding and LIVE STOCK. 575 for milking purposes very materially. None of the original traits of the Mexican pioneer cattle exist in Oregon, but on the other hand the tine points of Jersey, Alderney, Ayrshire, Shorthorn, or other valuable breeds, are to be noted in almost every herd. The Willamette Valley, doubtless, possesses as good stock as any portion of the Union. S. G. Reed's exertions were directed to the im- provement of Oregon stock, and, at the Reedville farm of S. G. Reed and W. S. Ladd, in Washington County, not far from Port- land, a large number of costly imported animals are kept. Among them are. or have been, the Shorthorn Durhams, Ayrshires. and other horned animals, and horses, sheep and hogs of the most ap- proved breeds. Mr. Reed's example has been of priceless value to the State. Recently, Mr. J. L. Hallett, a celebrated railway con- tractor, has embarked in stock-farming in a very extensive way. at his estate, near Dilley, Washington Connty, and the outcome of his projects is awaited with a great deal of interest. He proposes to introduce select breeds of farm animals, and racing stock and valuable varieties of farm productions. Such projects are always the best means of educating the farming population, as they l«ad the way to higher and more useful results than are ever attained by ordinary farming, even were that followed for centuries. Butter and cheese -making are followed to an extent sufficient to supply the home demand, but the processes are, even for such simple and unprogressive arts, often exceedingly crude, and the product usually unsatisfactory. The stranger, in his first view of the valley counties, is apt to conclude that the facilities for dairying must be excellent, even unsurpassed, by reason of the almost per- petually green grass, the pure water, the abundant shelter ; and, to a close observer, it seems extraordinary that the ample opportuni- ties for that industry are not taken advantage of. The dairying interests, like that of fruit-growing, are capable of indefinite exten- sion : and the supply of butter and cheese might be made equal to any demand. Cows can be kept alive all the winter, sustained solely by the natural grasses, and a slight addition to their food will keep them in excellent condition. In no case is it necessary to resort t<> the expensive stall-feeding, practiced with dairy cows in the East, for. with far less care and attention, the Oregon cow equals the Eastern animal in quality and How of milk. Hence, the 576 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. dairyman, as regards the expense of keeping cows, stands at an ad- vantage in Oregon. Dairying has been the subject of several experiments on a very large scale. The Ankeny farm, on the Santiam, some ten miles southeast of Salem, has been the scene of the most important, and, withal, the most successful attempt yet made. Some two hundred cows have been kept there, and butter and cheese manufactured with patent appliances of the most approved style. The results are such as to justify the erection of " creameries," like those of New York. There, we are told, the farmers of a neighborhood, each a possessor of a few cows, carry their milk to an establishment called a creamery, fitted up for butter, or, more frequently, for cheese-making, and the milk being measured, is paid for at the average rate of twelve cents per gallon, and converted into butter or cheese, which is invariably of a high class, and brings a cor- responding price. New York creamery cheese has achieved a great reputation, international in its extent, and has become a large article of export to England. The annual yield of a New York cow is averaged at four hundred and fifty gallons, which, at the price mentioned, is equal to a yearly sum of fifty-four dollars. Ten pounds of milk make one pound of cheese, and twenty-seven pounds make one of butter. Considering the natural advantages that Western Oregon possesses, dairying should be one of the most prominent occupations, as it would certainly be one of the most remunerative of all agricultural arts. Raising horned cattle for beef has long been an important occupation in Western Oregon. At first it was the exclusive occupation of the greater number of settlers, and has only yielded the first place to wheat-raising since the level lands became too valuable for pasturage. The soil, climate, grasses and natural ad- vantages generally favored cattle -raising beyond most other pursuits, and the business is still a favorite one. The sphere of operations of the stock man has now been removed from the Willamette region, and has passed beyond the Cascades. The almost limitless pastures of Eastern Oregon, and the fields, once occupied by his herds, are now given over to grain crops. The great herds have been subdivided, their pasture grounds contracted, and, although the number of cattle in the valley counties has much increased, LIVE STOCK, 577 cattle -raising, as an exclusive pursuit, has dropped from the prominence it once had. TABLE SHOWING THE NUMBER OF HORNED CATTLE IN 1880 AND 1883, AND THE PRODUCT OF BUTTER AND CHEESE IN 1880. 1880. 1883. 1880. County. 00 o *° o 1 IS o n CD P ^ P > co i ^ I P a> o P M CO co o Q Benton - _ 2,197 3,252 5,300 5,000 4,348 2,735 2,340 2,614 2,756 3,796 6,884 7,873 7,542 6,168 1,512 4,244 3,428 5,204 5,993 10,136 13,173 12,542 10,516 4,247 6,584 6,042 7,760 6,657 6,206 13,088 8,072 3,643 4,616 5,950 6,892 $115,188 42,196 228,749 160,444 154,237 47,965 73,990 88,450 86,945 85,547 148,490 185 323 8,625 Clackamas 450 Lane 24.900 Linn- 292,434 | 3,453 224,019 ; 15,784 226,673 42,160 92,844 60 151,982 I 2,930 136,749 360 Marion _ Multnomah Polk Washington Yamhill Total 30,542 46,651 76,993 i 55,124 $998,164 1,544,061 j 98,722 STATISTICS SHOWING THE NUMBER OF HORSES, ETC. 1880. 1883. County. s g o ,— CO P ss co<^ 1— 1 p P . og CO CO i— I CO »_ 6 ^P > Benton - 3,326 2,561 5,988 7,827 5,734 1,2-53 4,774 2,720 4,464 83 136 118 129 222 35 52 81 173 2,940 2,165 6,040 $165,438 119,581 318,404 375,595 374,178 120,900 205,755 169,365 229,872 Clackamas Lane _ Linn __ __ Marion - 6,013 2,178 3,782 3,240 4,791 Multnomah Polk— Washington _ Yamhill Total 38,647 1,029 31,149 $2,077,088 The Hon. John Minto, of Marion County, an early pioneer, and an authority in matters of fact, writes that the first sheep ever seen in Oregon were brought from California by a man named Lease, an American, who had nine hundred head in the Sacramento Valley in 1837. Ewing Young and Hubbard, while importing 578 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. cattle, as already mentioned, met Lease and advised him to take his flock to the Willamette country. He, accordingly, drove one- half his flock through in the year in which cattle were first driven from California. These sheep were sold, mostly, to the Hudson's Bay Company's retired trappers, and to the Puget Sound Agricul- tural Company, at Msqually. Lease is thought to have brought a second drove through in 1 842, for some four or five hundred sheep came in that year from California. In 1844, the first sheep that ever came to Oregon from the Eastern States, were brought by Joshua Shaw and his son, A. C. R. Shaw. In 1847, a fine flock — the property of one Fields — was driven across the plains by H. Vaughan. Fields settled in Marion Countv, but died soon after, and his sheep were scattered among various owners, and became the foundation of many excellent flocks. In 1848 Joseph Watt brought three hundred head across the plains, and during subse- quent years a great many were brought, so that by 1851, sheep were so numerous that, like cattle, they were driven to the Cali- fornia mines for food. Improved breeds began to be introduced about the time of the civil war, and every sheep-raiser paid attention to the condition of his flock, and, in due time, the native sheep, of ordinary aspect, were replaced by graded and mixed breeds of very high quality, so that now the sheep of Oregon, like the cattle, are equal to any in the world. Those breeds have been introduced which seemed most adapted to the conditions existing in this State. The merino has been the favorite, and more flocks of 'this race are found than of any or perhaps all others. Extraordinary pains have been taken in the matter, and the most useful results achieved. The consequence is, that the Willamette Valley wool is esteemed the very best grown in America, and commands a price higher by from four to six cents a pound than the product of California and other States. It is strong, even, free from burrs, of a fine texture and much sought after by manufacturers. It is a noticeable ad- vantage, or is so esteemed, that the sheep do not, or are supposed to not, require any protection through the winter; nor are they habitually fed during that time, their only subsistence being what they can pick up. Although it is a fact that the cattle and other domestic animals of this part of Oregon do not, in general, receive LIVE STOCK. 579 the least care during winter ; and although the season is not sufficiently severe and long- continued to make feeding and pro- tection absolutely essential, yet it would seem that self-interest — to Bay nothing of humanity — would sometime suggest a different treatment of these faithful and enduring domestic animals, which are man's best and most indispensable friends. There are many farmers who think that feed and shelter would result in improving the condition of stock animals, and the implanting of stronger consti- tutions ; and it is certain that increased production would result from better treatment of dairy animals. The rapid multiplication of sheep in Oregon, and the costliness and scarcity of woolen fabrics, was the cause of the construction of the first woolen mill. This was built in Salem in 1857, and was the first on the Pacific Coast. Watt, the originator of the idea, had evolved it as early as 1853, and by persistent agitation brought it to a realization at the time mentioned. The mill was called the Willamette Woolen Mill, and its machinery was run by the power of water brought in a ditch from the Santiam River. The concern was quite extensive, and used four hundred thousand pounds of wool annually, and paid out $100,000 per annum for the wages of operatives. It prospered for many years, but was most un- fortunately burned, on the third of May, 1876. The large woolen mill at Oregon City was built in 1865, the company having been organized in February, 1864, with a capital of $60,000, increased soon to $100,000. It was begun as a three-set mill, but by 1873 had increased its size to seven sets, with two thousand three hundred spindles and twenty -four broad looms. Its yearly consumption of wool is in the neighborhood of half a million pounds, and its output averages one hundred and thirty thousand yards of cassi- meres and one hundred and twenty thousand yards of flannels and blankets, valued at perhaps $300,000. It has employed about one hundred hands usually, who earn about $60,000 per annum. These figures refer to its work in 1873. The mill was destroyed by fire November 23, 1872, with a loss of $250,000, but immedi- ately rebuilt. The third mill in importance, and also in the order of its establishment, was the Eagle mill, at Brownsville, Linn County, called now the Brownsville Woolen Mill. It was built in 1866, 580 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. at a time when the wool crop of the whole State of Oregon was only about seven hundred thousand pounds, of which more than half was used at the local mills at Salem and Oregon City. It was a one-set mill. It has been run with various degrees of success, by several individuals and companies, and is still active. Its goods have an excellent reputation. Another mil] was in action at Dallas, in Polk County, for a time. At present (1885) two mills, those of Oregon City and Browns- ville, are manufacturing. Their products are highly esteemed, and, in some respects, are unequaled elsewhere in the wx>rld. The former mill uses in preference, wool from mixed Southdown and Merino sheep, which is most useful for average wants. With this it makes a class of goods superior to any others known. There was a notable increase in wool production in the decade commencing with 1865, and toward the end of that term the in- crease was nearly thirty per cent, per year. The total crop for the whole State in 1876 was three million one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. STATISTICS OF SHEEP IN 1880 AND 1883. County. Number of Sheep. Value of Sheep 1880. 1883. in 1883. Benton - - 28,812 14,180 40,561 55,820 35,230 2,771 24,177 11,537 23,447 17,167 9,424 44,520 $32,044 13,267 74,638 76,511 69,301 1,715 Clackamas Lane Linn Marion _ . _ 43,060 1,642 19,100 7,823 15,064 Multnomah _ Polk — 37,451 Washington 8,295 20,171 Yamhill _ . Total. 236,535 157,800 $333,393 The rearing of hogs for food purposes has never become more than a subordinate, incidental matter, a part of the business of nearly every farmer, whose exertions only led to the production of enough pork for the wants of his family, leaving but a small quantity for exportation. The pork of the Willamette Valley has long been commended for its good quality, its firmness and solidity, and flavor. Although Indian corn can not be successfully grown, LIVE STOCK. 581 and the swine lack this important fattening food, its place is partly, or perhaps fully supplied by the abundant waste fruit, with roots, peas, and in some seasons, wheat and oats. Generally speaking, wheat is held as too valuable for feeding to hogs, more especially since the railroads were built. Oregon hams have a very high reputation, and in point of fact are unsurpassed. There are evidently very substantial profits in hog-raising for those whose judgment and experience are sufficient for that pursuit, for the prices of pork, on foot or cured, are always high, and the outside demand is always great and steady, although the local markets are unreliable, weak and easily glutted. At times the demand is ex- ceedingly active, and the possessors of fat or stock hogs realize handsomely. So frequently do the extreme high prices prevail that the judicious pork-raiser ought to make as much money as anybody, and far more than grain -raisers. Wheat has been fed to hogs with such good results as to pay back one dollar per bushel. This was the experience of I. T. Day, of Turner. But as the general rule of hog-raising in Oregon provides only uncooked food, and not enough of it, no shelter even in the roughest weather, and no attention to the comfort or condition of domestic animals, such successes as Mr. Day's are few and far between. NUMBER AND VALUE OF SWINE. County. 1880. 1883. No. Hogs. No. Hogs. Value. Benton. _ _ 5,467 9,222 10,978 12,690 18,808 3,345 4 10,433 8,597 10,733 5,212 5,654 11,444 $11,951 11 863 Clackamas Lane 24 540 Linn 15 997 Marion - 9,481 1,785 7,098 6,620 9,407 22,858 4,645 15 312 Multnomah ... _. Polk Washington __ . 16 005 Yamhill 18,468 Total 85,273 56,701 $141,639 The quantity of wild grasses and herbage generally, which are found in the hills and mountains surrounding the valley, is such that thousands of goats might on occasion find ample sustenance. That animal, as is well known, thrives beet on a coarse diet of 582 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. leaves, grass and the tender shoots of young plants. A vast amount of rough land is capitally adapted to such uses, and goat- keeping could, and probably will, become an important industry. The few experiments thus far made have been very successful. The stock has usually been the Angora breed, which are usually regarded as the most valuable. The income from them is said to average three times that of the same number of sheep. The fleeces have commanded as high as one dollar per pound, the flesh is said to be as good as mutton, and the animal is much hardier than the sheep and less subject to disease. Dr. Carpenter owned a herd of one hundred and fifty Angoras, and by his experience substantiated the above statements. Still, people's experience can not, in average instances, equal his, for if it did, the business of raising goats would long since have attained greater proportions. CHAPTER XXXV. STATISTICS. Scarcity of Reliable Statistical Information — Duty of the State Govern- ment—How Performed — Tables of Production of Wheat, Indian Corn, and Oats — Amount in Gross — Amount per Acre — Gross Value, and Value per Bushel — Number and Size of Farms at Different Dates — Statistics Gathered from the Census Report of 1880 — Number of Farms — Of Owners — Valuations — Industrial Estab- lishments — County Valuation and Assessments. RELIABLE statistical information is extremely rare in Oregon. The State has made no effective provision for gathering in- formation of the sort, and private individuals, corporations and associations find themselves unable to collect it, owing to inherent difficulties. Probably there is no State in the Lnion, and scarcely a Territory, where there is so little active interest taken and so little done in these matters. Oregon is half a century behind the age — not in the one respect of gathering statistics, but in all related subjects. The only official statistics gathered are those published by Lion. R. P. Earhart, Secretary of State, who, as a task outside of the specified duties of his office, and at much trouble and private expense, prints biennially, in tabular form, figures showing the most important facts relating to the counties of this State, such facts being ascertained by the assessors of the several counties and forwarded to the Secretary of Stat< j . as a part of the duties of the assessor V office. And the summary, printed on one side of a sheet of paper, ten by eighteen inches in size, at private expense, is all that the great State of Oregon has to show the world concerning her boundless resources, her present prosperity, or her prospective wealth. Xo State in America has done so little to attract immi- 584 II [STORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. gration, or to inform her own citizens of the condition of their own commonwealth. Were it only out of curiosity to know these things, far better provision should have been made. Many little com- munities — counties, towns, cities — struggling to build themselves up, have, in this matter of collecting and publishing statistics and descriptions, made exertion besides which the indolent apathy of the Oregon Legislature and people seem lamentably short- sighted. Statistical matter is usually gathered for the purpose of inform- ing the public of the condition of the State, city, county or what- ever civil division they may reside in ; or of informing strangers of matters which may induce them to become settlers. Statistics have also a higher value, separate from these functions. Without their industrious collection the most reliable and important part of history itself would be impossible. Says Buckle : "The study of statistics has thrown more light upon the laws of human nature and human progress than all the sciences put together." Every cultured — yes, every civilized — community, owes much to the culti- vation of statistics, and for a State to neglect such evidences of civilization is itself an evidence of non -progression, perhaps even of retrogression, The statistics which find a place in this chapter relate to the material possessions of the people of the valley. They should be studied in conjunction with those already given concerning special crops, live-stock, etc. These tables were mainly compiled from the United States Agricultural Reports, the Tenth Census, and Secretary Earhart's excellent and meritorious, though brief, com- pendium, dated January, 1884. The latter publication refers to the assessment of the preceding year, 1883. The following table shows the aggregate production of wheat, Indian corn, and oats, for the State of Oregon, together with the yield, per acre, the price per bushel in Oregon, and the total value of the crop: — STATISTICS. 585 CD ^ 5 < Yield per Acre in Bushels. 5h !£ ft CO > Total Values. 1878— Wheat - 7,665,000 166,000 2,790,000 21 33J 31 $ .92 .92 .50 $7,051,800 152,720 1,395,000 Indian Corn Oats - - 1879— Wheat- 8,188,000 142,000 2,916,000 16 32 36 .98 .93 .44 8,024,240 132,060 1,283,040 Indian Corn Oats - 1 880— Wheat 11,734,000 113,000 4,754,000 17 23.3 31.2 .78 .82 .40 9,152,520 Indian Corn Oats 92,660 1,901,600 1881— Wheat — 12,673,000 101,000 5,278,000 17.2 20.2 34.6 .88 .75 .43 11,152,240 75,075 2,269,540 Indian Corn Oats NUMBER AND SIZE OF FARMS AT VARIOUS DATES, THROUGHOUT THE STATE. Date- 1850. 1860. 1870. 1880. # Number Farms - 1,164 432,000 132,000 372 203 5,806 2,060,000 896,000 355 199 7,587 2,389,000 1,116,000 315 153 16,209 Extent in Acres Improved Land— Acres- Average Size— Acres Average Size in U. S 4,214,000 2,198,000 265 134 CENSUS OF 1880. County. Benton Clackamas -. Lane Linn Marion Multnomah Polk Washington Yamhill 03 2 W 606 1,374 1,067 1,532 1,452 507 789 935 1,008 02 u * 2 CP - a* so Total | 9,270 502 1,197 1,050 1,123 1,210 434 582 808 780 7,686 66,070 35,687 93,580 174,119 159,264 10,584 101,104 46,540 100,857 ^ w is &c $3,171,495 2,817,544 4,789,330 4,052,022 7,867,303 2,279,280 2,534,719 3,231,703 5,181,735 787,805 j $35,925,131 $149,095 126,576 253,161 371.143 322,898 65,549 194,685 143,695 241,563 $415,871 365,177 616,609 896,161 740,870 186,445 546,049 382,519 551,754 $1,878,365 $4,701,455 586 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. INDUSTRIAL ESTABLISHMENTS County. s F— l 50 T3 S3 > Benton Clackamas _ 56 62 54 110 85 152 ' 46 $ 158,985 692,600 250,669 456,900 527,250 1,345,325 122,810 112,200 268,123 200 853 246 306 378 1,732 161 170 301 $ 35,622 114,473 60,200 99,648 126,952 593,469 39,848 26,871 42,815 $ 207,530 1,159,540 297,410 Lane Linn - 854,060 1,265,991 2,602,544 233,931 Marion Multnomah Polk Washington Yamhill _ . 33 95 434,940 494,720 Total 1 693 $1,934,862 4,347 $1,139,898 $7,550,666 FROM STATE RECORDS OF 1883. County. Acres of Land Tax'd P > o Gross Value of all Prop- erty. Benton Clackamas Lane-- -_ - 281,280 326,549 425,929 $ 2,130,829 2,118,365 2,484,030 5,131,520 4,289,823 2,307,845 2,140,427 2,307,255 2,635,295 $ 395,293 317,540 433,755 738,297 1,191,793 7,274,915 66,139 191,275 57,303 $ 4,284,151 3,844,146 5,827,814 8,646,793 9,800,294 24,545,850 4,412,214 Linn Marion Multnomah 338,847 150,624 229,350 261,805 385,142 Polk - Washington 4,205,905 5,768,781 Yamhill Total _. - 2,399,526 $25,545,389 $10,666,310 $71,335,948 CHAPTER XXXVI. REVIEW OF AGRICULTURE. Essay Necessarily Imperfect — Policy of the Farmers — Injurious Effect of Exclusive Devotion to one Crop — Farmers not Instructed in Great Business Affairs — Theory versus Practice — -Productions of Small Farms — Size of Farms — Twenty Acres Enough — Mixed Farm ing — Chances for Improvement — Conclusion . THE preceding chapters contain facts which are intended to show the material progress which has been made in this part of Oregon since the coming of white men, and especially American farmers. The facts are not as numerous and complete as could be wished, but for reasons which have been alluded to they can not at present be bettered. Several industries of minor importance are disregarded, not from a conviction of their slight consequence, but because no connected or intelligible data could be procured con- cerning them. As regards the position which agriculture has already attained in this State, it may be said that while it is not so exalted as might with the almost matchless opportunities have been achieved, yet it presents no reason for repining. Progress has been slow : but the community have attained the position of a self-supporting- people, relying on themselves only for the great bulk of the necessities of life and some of its luxuries. The export ations are the leading necessities of life, and hence indispensable to the recipients. It is customary for writers, in speaking of the favorite products of the valley, to express surprise that their culture is not much more widely extended. Wheat, they say, might be raised in ten- fold its present quantity, and as for fruit the world itself might be supplied with apples, pears and prunes, were the vast tracts of 588 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. hillside and other available lands planted as orchards. All this is possible, and is perhaps demonstrable. But it is impracticable to enter so largely upon any special branches of culture while the present condition of labor and the markets continues. Farmers do not plant vvhole sections and square miles with fruit trees because labor can not be hired advantageously to harvest and dry such amounts of fruit. The management and direction of a hundred or half hundred men is beyond the capacity of most individuals, and inexperienced farmers would find the care of large numbers of employees with attendant complications arising from their pay, provision, etc., entirely beyond their skill, and entailing vastly more annoyance and trouble than most of them, easy-going to a degree, would submit to. These remarks are called forth because every one, newspaper writers and all, have adopted a tone of querulousness and fault-finding because the farmers of the Wil- lamette Valley have not seen fit to convert their extensive pastures into immense orchards or wheat fields, and thereby enrich them- selves beyond the wildest dreams of avarice. To follow such ad- vice, were it practicable, which it is not, would be to place the State on the high road to impoverishment. The opposite course, namely, the cultivation of a variety of crops, or as it is called, diversified farming is, in the opinion of practical men, the surest road to independence, and this has already been carried out in a notable scale in the valley, although the future gives promise of far better results. The farmers, aided by the various manufactur- ing crafts, were enabled, in a single month, to supply Portland with consignments of the following articles : — Flour, wheat, oats, dried apples, potatoes, lard, horse-feed, mid- dlings, woolen cloths, hides, furs, linseed oil and oil cake, pig iron, buckwheat, fowls, skins, earthenware, apples, bacon, pork, beef, butter, eggs, salmon, hams, cider, pears, beans, barley, hogs, tobacco, peas, woolen sacks, hoop-poles, staves, lumber, dried peaches and prunes, bran, cheese, fire -wood, hay, leather, straw, fiax, flax seed, onions, sheep, and dressed mutton. If the reader asks, Whence came the greater number of these various field products, he is answered, From the smaller farms, and from the gardens and orchards of the small landholders, the proprietors of a few acres, whose land is tilled as if he expected to REVIEW OF AGRICULTURE. 589 live upon its proceeds for his life- time, and leave it to his children with its fertility unimpaired. Tlie real farmers of the valley are few : but they are numerous enough to have pointed out the way to prosperity and wealth. The reader will find included herein a table showing the average size of Oregon farms in the census years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. He will notice their gradual diminu- tion, from three hundred and seventy-two acres in the former year, to two hundred and sixty-five in the latter, whence, it appears, that if the latest rate of decrease holds out until 1890, they will then average but little more than two hundred acres, and in A. D. 1900, rather less than one hundred and seventy. This is satisfac- tory improvement, but even at the latter date the farms will be still three times too large. That is, taking it for granted, as it is presumed most readers will, that the holding of land in large tracts is an evil. It has also been taken for granted by some that in times past, and even at the present, a small holding, say of twenty acres, did not furnish means for the subsistence of a family. That country must be very singularly circumstanced as to its wants, where- in the produce of twenty acres, in one form or another, could not be sold for enough to maintain even the largest of families, providing that its product was properly and sensibly selected, raised and sold. Of this there are few instances, but enough to prove the assertion that twenty well chosen acres will support a family if carefully tilled. If sowed in wheat, for which a moderately good price be had, that amount of land may yield a crop worth from four hundred to eight hundred dollars. If planted with fruit trees, berry bushes, etc. it may. in exceptional cases, yield ten times that amount, and furnish, besides, interesting, useful and lucrative employment for several people of either sex or any age. The stimulation of the intellect by the pursuit of mixed or small farming is not the least of its advantages over wheat-farming and stock-raising. Small and mixed farming — interchangeable terms — are the tendency <»f the day. and in their progress point to the decline of wheat-raising, because by their pursuit the land becomes gradually too valuable to devote to a crop which is liable to return its raiser only ten or twelve dollars per acre. More lucrative pursuits will fcake it- place, and these will be equally well adapted to the climate and -oil, but will require much labor for their proper 590 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. production, and with the expected ordinary reduction of the size of donation and other claims by forced sales, etc., will, in due time, have changed the character of the Willamette Valley from a wheat -growing and grazing country to a purely agricultural region of a high grade — or rather will have completed a change which is already auspiciously begun and well under way. It is now about forty years since agriculture existed in Oregon as the crudest beginnings of that noble art — merely the raising of inferior horses and cattle, and enough of vegetables to vary the settler's otherwise exclusively meat diet. At this fortieth milestone we can halt and consider what may be in store for the farmer of forty years hence. The good result of a state of affairs wherein the present large and unmanageable tracts of land have been subdivided into small holdings, will probably be most noticeable. The present country roads, which are only called roads through a mistaken sense of courtesy, will be improved by an application of the abundant means which nature has so lavishly provided. Schools, now mostly inefficient and wretchedly managed, because of inadequate State provision, will attain a character equal to those of other en- lightened regions. Social life then will take on a new aspect, in accordance with the new advantages, and the blessings of educa- tion, taste and refinement will follow closely upon material prosperity. The splendid examples of the settlers of the Mohawk, the Genessee and the Connecticut valleys should not be in vain. With her invigorating climate, her ample rainfall, her freedom from whirlwinds, cyclones, hurricanes, earthquakes ; the absence of in- fectious diseases, her ample expanse of the richest soils, her navigable rivers, abundant water-power ; her profusion of natural products ; her advantageous commercial location ; and innumerable other advantages difficult to enumerate, Oregon, and particularly the Willamette Valley, should, and doubtless will, in the natural sequence of things, become the chosen abode of a numerous, prosperous and intelligent people. CHAPTER XXXVII. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. Table of Population of Each County in 1850, I860, 1870 and 1880— Comparison of Aggregates — Proportion of Population Between the State and the Willamette Valley — Personal History of Pioneers and Eepresentative Individuals. THE annexed table is derived from the United States Census Report of 1880. It gives the population of each county of the Willamette Valley in 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880, together with the total population of the Valley and of the State at those dates. POPULATION OF THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY. COT T NTY. 1850. 1860. 1870. 1880. Benton -- - 814 1,850 3,074 3,466 4,789 6,772 7,088 4,150 3,623 2,801 3,245 39,008 4,584 5,993 6,426 8,717 9,965 11,510 4,710 4,261 5,012 6,354 9,287 9,376 12,711 14,811 29,092 Clackamas. - - Lane - Linn _- -- ___ 994 2,749 Marion Multnomah _ - Polk - - - - 1.051 2,652 1,512 6,513 7,091 7,950 Washington - _ _ _ Yamhill -_ - The Willamette Valley 11,622 61,178 103,385 The State 13,294 52,465 90,923 174,768 Comparing the population of the valley with that of the State, we find the former to have been in 1850, eighty-seven per cent, of that of the whole State; in I860 it had fallen to seventy-five per rent.: in 1870 to sixty-seven, and to fifty-nine in 1880. This rate of decrease in tin- relative population of the valley has continued since the last census, if the current estimates of population be reliable. The Ore^onian newspaper, basing its conclusions upon 592 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. the vote in the presidential election of November, 1884, estimated the population of Oregon at two hundred and twenty-five thousand. The proportion residing in the Willamette Valley would have been one hundred and twenty-five thousand, or about fifty-seven per cent. If this rate be continued until the year 1895, it is possible that the people residing in the valley will amount to about one- half of the State's total population. But inasmuch as the valley is capable of supporting a permanent population as large or larger than all the remainder of the State, it is probable that its popula- tion will never be much less than half that of the State. There is also the consideration that it is likely to contain the largest cities of Oregon, which will further increase its proportionate population. The following series of brief sketches relate principally to the pioneers of this State, in the meaning of the term pioneer, which has of late been restricted more or less clcsely to the people who arrived before 1855. The information upon which these sketches has been based is reliable and is believed to be perfectly accurate. It is in all respects worthy of preservation, both on account of the past or present importance of the individuals treated of, but also for the future importance of them or their descendants. The in- troduction of this species of matter needs no apology ; it has long been deemed valuable and suitable for publication in local histories, and becomes more so with each succeeding social advance. The individuals herein mentioned have, almost without exception, con- tributed their life energies to the up -building of civilization upon this coast, and the names of many have become household words. To select the most notable from among the meritorious many would be an invidious task ; and all procurable sketches are in- serted, having in view no qualification save that of useful citizen- ship. They will be found to be arranged according to the year of the subject's arrival, and to include a large proportion of the early permanent settlers of the Willamette Valley. 1817. LACHAPELLE, ANDRE. Born in Montreal, Canada, Aug. 14, 1781 ; left home in 1817, having hired to the Hudson's Bay Company for three years ; came to Oregon in the same year, arriving at Fort George (Astoria). Worked for two years as blacksmith. Spent several succeeding HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 593 years at the same place, until in 1824 Dr. McLoughlin arrived and ordered the removal of the station to Vancouver. There Lacha- pelle remained until 1833. In that year he traveled eastward with the design of going home ; but arriving on the Saskatchewan he gave up his intention and hired again to the powerful fur com- pany, and came again to Vancouver. He staid until 1836, when being again taken with the idea of going home, he made a second trip to the " Great Lone Land," and again returned at Dr. Mc- Loughlin's solicitation. In 1841, being superannuated, he was allowed or encouraged to go, with sundry other Canadians, to the Willamette, where they engaged in farming. He married and settled on a farm in French Prairie, and remained there for forty years. He died on June 11, 1881, at St. Vincent's Hospital, Portland. He was undoubtedly the oldest pioneer of Oregon. 1824. HARVEY, ELOISA, (McLOUGHLIN). Born in Fort William, on the northern shore of Lake Superior, Feb. 13, 1817. Her father was Dr. John McLoughlin, then physician at her birthplace, which was a post of the Northwest Fur Company. Her mother was the widow of Alexander McKay, John Jacob Astor's partner in the Pacific Fur Company. Father and daughter came overland to Oregon in 1824, the latter having been, undoubtedly, the first female to cross the continent. In 1838 Miss McLoughlin married at Vancouver, William Glen Eae, an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company, and lived with him at various trading posts until 1845, when he died at San Francisco. Their children were three, of whom Mrs. Theodore Wygant and Mrs. Joseph Myrick, of Portland, survive. She returned to Oregon and lived with her father until 1850, when she married Daniel Harvey, by whom she had three children — Daniel Harvey, James W. McLoughlin Harvey, and Mrs. D. F. Leahy, all residents of Portland. Daniel Harvey, Sr., died in 1868, and his widow died in the fall of 1884, at her residence in Portland. McLOUGHLIN, JOHN, M.D. Scotch by birth, and was employed as a physician by the Northwest Fur Company in the first quarter of this century, and 594 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. was stationed for a time at their posts in Canada. On the con- solidation of the two rival companies, Dr. McLoughlin was ap- pointed, in 1823, chief factor on the west side of the Rocky Mountains, with headquarters at Vancouver, and came overland in 1824, bringing his family and a retinue of the Company's servants. He served his employers with marked fidelity and an accurate and broad appreciation of his duties as a Christian. His conduct to the early American settlers was admirably humane, and showed that the claims of humanity outweighed mere business considera- tions of every degree. Americans of every stripe came to think well of him and to discriminate between his course of frankness and generosity, and the mercenary and heartless policy of his em- ployers. When the directors of the Hudson's Bay Company rebuked him for his sympathy with, and toleration of the Americans, he resigned his position, and retiring to his land near Oregon City, died there in 1857. His opportunities for doing good were very great', and he made the most of them. In his place an ignorant or a bad man could have worked an infinity of mis- chief ; and it is to his credit that in spite of ingratitude from those he benefited, his life was full of good deeds. His kindness was ill -requited ; and he lived to be a witness of the classical maxim that republics are ungrateful, for the Government of Oregon de- prived him of the valuable claim which he occupied at Oregon City. The life of Br. McLoughlin, abounded with such incidents as form attractive reading ; and his connection with and participa- tion in the affairs of the great fur companies, and the new states and territories of the west, increase the importance of his actions. The story of his life has never been written, but no doubt it will some time be fully told. 1829. BATES, JAMES M. Born in Washington, D. C, in 1809 ; went to sea in 1827, and during the next year found his way to the Pacific Ocean, coming in a vessel owned in Boston. When the ship arrived on this coast an accident compelled it to put into Gray's Harbor to refit. This was in 1829. The ship's crew went in boats up the Chehalis River, and after putting to sea again they coasted southward, and wintered at Scappoose, where they "raised vegetables." In the HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 595 spring of 1830 they coasted north to Sitka, and returning, entered the straits of Fuca. Took a load of horses to the Sandwich Islands, and sold them, and Mr. Bates proceeded on another ship to China, and thence home via the Cape of Good Hope. In 1837, still a sailor, Mr. Bates came to Oregon in the ship Don Quixote, and landing, joined the Missionaries as "blacksmith, and has been in this valley ever since. Located at Jefferson, Marion County, in 1847, his present home. Was married in that year to Mrs. Mar- garet Caldwell, and has had one child — Julia, by name, now the wife of Eli Vaughn, of Jefferson. Mrs. Bates died in 1882. Mr. Bates is, beyond a doubt, the earliest living pioneer of Oregon, if we consider his first coming to have constituted him a pioneer ; and considering that he spent a considerable part of a year in Oregon, his claim to have become then a pioneer is well founded. Solomon Smith, who resided at Clatsop Plains, in 1872, claimed to have come to Oregon in 1832 with Wyeth ; but this date was several years subsequent to Mr. Bates' arrival, so Smith could not be considered as the earliest living pioneer, which claim was put forth by some one on his behalf several years since. 1833. EBBERTS, GEORGE W. Born in Bracken County, Kentucky, in 1810; went to the Rocky Mountains in 1829 in the employ of the American Fur Company. Visited Oregon first in 1833 and again in 1839. Lived for a year in Marion County, but removed then to his present residence in Washington County, near Hillsboro. Married in 1838. Children — John, Anna and Alfred. 1835. GAY, GEORGE. Born in Gloucestershire, England, in 1810; at the age of eleven years he was apprenticed as a sailor and followed the sea for twelve years, and in 1833 found himself at the port of Monterey, in Cali- fornia. Here he deserted his ship and joined Ewing Young in a trapping expedition northward. In 1835 he came overland to the Willamette Valley with John Turner, Dr. Bailey, and one or two others. The next year he returned to California again, to bring up 596 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. a band of cattle, whose increase soon made him rich. He occupied a great and undefined tract of land in Yamhi He died near Wheatland on October 7, 1882. a great and undefined tract of land in Yamhill and Polk counties WILKINS, CALEB. Resides four and a half miles northeast of Hillsboro, and is a farmer by occupation. He was born in Ohio in 1810; was for ten years a trapper in the Rocky Mountains in the employ of the American Fur Company, and one of the earliest pioneers of Oregon. His first settlement in the State was in Benton County; has held office as county treasurer of Washington County for two years. He married Marian Stevens in 1852, and their children are — William Lloyd, Alfred C, and Florence. 1837. LEE, ANN MARIA (PITMAN). Sailed from New York in July, 1836 ; landed in Oregon, June, 1837 ; married July 16th, to Rev. Jason Lee, and died June 26, 1838 ; died when her first-born child was ten days old, and is buried with it in the Lee Cemetery, at Salem. The headstone of their grave bears the inscription : " Beneath this sod, the first broken in Oregon for the reception of white mother and child, lie the remains of Ann Maria Pitman Lee." LESLIE, DAVID. Born in New Hampshire in 1797. Was a descendant of Rev. Geo. Leslie, of Puritan stock. In 1837, crossed the plains to Oregon as a Missionary, commissioned by the Methodist Church. He took up his residence ten miles below the present site of Salem, but in 1843 came to Salem, then Chemekete. Subsequently he- performed a term of ministerial service at Oregon City. Was one of the founders of the Willamette Universitv, and was President of its Board of Trustees for twenty-five consecutive years. Mr. Leslie was married to Miss Mary A. Kinney, and by her had six children. The wife died in 1841, and he was again married in 1844, to Mrs. A. (Judson) Alley, by whom he had two children, both deceased. One of his children is buried in the East ; one in tropical lands ; two daughters and a son were carried over the Willamette Falls in the dreadful accident related by Dr. White ; three daughters and TIISTOTCY OF IMMIGRATION. 597 the first Mrs. Leslie sleep in Oregon graves, while the second wife and one daughter — Helen Leslie — now live in Salem. SMITH, SIDNEY. Bora in Fulton County, N. Y., in 1809; the son of a Revolu- tionary captain and the grand nephew of Ethan Allen of Ticonder- oga fame. He lived through the earlier years in his native State, and in 1838 found himself in Ohio. Set out for Oregon in the spring of 1837, in company with fifteen friends — Oakley, Farnham, Wood, Cook. Fletcher, and others — who made their way overland with great difficulties and hardships, most of which arose from their ignorance of the proper route. They lived on such game as the country afforded, eking out an often insufficient supply with roots and the flesh of dogs which they bought of the Indians. Their horse> were stolen by the Sioux, and it was only by the cool courage of Smith and Oakley that they were recaptured. Smith was wounded by the accidental discharge of his own rifle, but would allow no delay or change of plans on his account, and the cavalcade in time reached The Dalles, arriving there on October 2, 1837. In the succeeding years, while the strife as to the possession of Oregon waxed warm. Smith then, as afterwards, a resident of the Willam- ette Valley, bore his part in favor of our government and nation. In 1846 he married Miss Miranda Bailey, by whom he had eight children, of whoin five are now living. They are — Irene C, born 1847, and now the wife of Dr. J. F. Calbreath, of Lafayette; Mary Almira, horn in 184V), and now married to A. M. Hurley, of Lafay- ette: Miranda M., born in 1851, now Mrs. D. L. Kimberlain, of West Chehalem; Dr. G. H. Smith (born 1861), and John Bayley Smith (horn 1868). Sidney Smith passed most of his life on his farm in West Chehalem, purchased by him from the estate of Ewing ^ oung. FoAen years, however, he was engaged in mercantile pursuits at Lafayette (1856-1866, probably). Died September 18, 1880. 1 838. MEEK, JOSEPH L. Born in Washington County. Virginia, in 1810; left home at the age of eighteen and went westward to Louisville and St. Louis, and joined Sublette's hunting party, and set out in March, 1829, 598 HISTOKY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. upon the plains, and for many years thereafter led the life of a hunter and trapper. (For particulars of his life in the mountains and subsequently, see "River of the West.") In 1841 Meek settled in the Tualatin Plains, in Washington County, and made that his home until his death on the 20th of June, 1875. MEEK, COURTNEY. Born in Oregon in 1838, the son of Joe Meek. Is a farmer, and resides three miles north of Hillsboro. He married Delia Newton in 1878, and their children's names are — George and Josie. WALKER, MARY RICHARDSON. This venerable lady, who is unquestionably the leader of all living female immigrants to the region west of the Rocky Mountains, resides at present at Forest Grove, in the enjoyment of all her mental and most of her physical faculties. Like so many of the honored and venerated pioneers of this coast, Mrs. Walker was born in the State of Maine. The place of her nativity was the town of Baldwin, and the date was 1811. She became the wife of Rev. Elkanah Walker, and with him set out for the Pacific Slope, and after the usual adventures, hardships and misfortunes incident to the trip across the plains arrived, in the year 1838, on the Columbia. For nearly ten years Mr. and Mrs. Walker con- tinued to reside at the Mission, a short distance below Fort Colville, and here some of their children were born. During all this time their existence was almost wholly with the Indians, no white people living within hundreds of miles, excepting Rev. C. Eells and family, who shared with the Walker family the discomforts of their life and lot. To the people of to-day it must seem wonder- ful and altogether inexplicable, how human beings as tenderly nurtured as the Walker and Eells families were, cou^ld live at all amid such surroundings, and the wonder increases when it is learned that ten years did not serve to dampen the ardor of these pious missionary people. Leaving Walker's Claims, as the locality of the mission was called, the Walker family removed in 1848, to the Willamette Valley, and have since made Washington County their home. Mr. Walker died in 1877. The children's names are, Cyrus H., Abigail B., Marcus W., Joseph E., John R., Levi C. and Samuel T. HISTORY <>F [MMIGRATION. 599 1839. BALDRA, WILLIAM. Born in England in 1810; came to America in 1836, and lived three years on Red River in Manitoba ; came then to Oregon and settled on the Tualatin Plains, locating in 184*2 three miles north- west of the site of Hillsboro. Had married Maria Callaby in Eng- land in 1835. Their children are, Thomas W. and Richard C, and a daughter, now Mrs. R. E. Wiley, the later having been the first white child born in Washington County. Her birth took place August 1, 1840. Mr. Baldra was an employee of the Hud- son's Bay Company in the earlier years of his residence in America. He speaks of the Indians in Washington County in the " forties " as having been numerous, but not troublesome except by their thieving. GEIGER, WM, M. D. Doctor Wm. Geiger, one of the oldest and best known of the pioneers, was born in 1816 in Alleghany County, New York, but in the year 1833 had settled in Illinois. The American Board of Foreign Missions being at that time concerned for the welfare of the Indians of the Columbia basin, Mr. Geiger offered his services and was appointed missionary teacher, with instructions to proceed to the Pacific Coast and engage in the work of proselytizing. It happened, however, that the funds of the association ran low, and the new plans were defeated. Dr. Geiger, however, did not relin- quish his intention of engaging in missionary work, but set out on his own account to cross the continent in company with quite a number of kindred spirits, whose names are set forth in another connection. The cavalcade came on horseback, paying their own expenses, and got safely to Oregon in 1839. In the winter follow- ing his arrival, the doctor taught school at the old mission not far from Wheatland. The station was long since deserted and now re- tains no signs of its former use, the buildings being completely gone. The next spring he set out for California with the design of meet- ing a party of his friends who were to rendezvous at Sutlers Fort; but, going by sea to Monterey, he was forbidden to travel in the interior without a passport, which was not procurable short of the Sandwich Islands. Proceeding there he spent some months, pro- 600 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. cured the necessary papers and returning to California went to Sutter's Fort. The date of his arrival was 1841. There he stayed a year surveying for the proprietor, and eventually formed the intention of going East by way of Fort Hall. Exchanging his property for mules and horses, lie set out, but, arriving at the last mentioned place, found it impossible to proceed, owing to the hos- tility of the Indians along the route. The result was that he came back to Oregon, and has since remained on this coast. In the winter of 1842-43 Dr. Geiger occupied Dr. Whitman's place as mis- sionary, that individual being on his famous trip to the East, the re- sults of which are supposed to have proved so momentous to the peo- ple of this country. On Whitman's return, Dr. Geiger came to the Willamette Valley and located, November, 1843, on a tract of land near the town of Cornelius, in Washington County, which he has held ever since. A year or two previous he had begun practice as a physician, having studied the healing art in the Eastern States, and has continued in his profession until the present. Beginning as a " regular " of the blood-letting, fever -starving sort, he has of late become a convert to the virtues of the homoeopathic cult, and follows its teachings. Of public offices Dr. Geiger has held several, being county clerk, county surveyor, etc. The Doctor relates that on his arrival in the valley the only practicing physicians were Doctors White and Bailey. Doctors Whitman and Gray were in the habit of treating the natives who fell under their care, but their professional skill was not of ten called upon by white people. Two medical men attached to the Hudson's Bay Company attended the sick at Vancouver, and made extended trips into the interior when- ever their services were asked in behalf of the higher servants of that company. Dr. Geiger was married in 1847 to the daughter of Rev. J. A. C. Cornwall, who arrived in the valley during the early part of that year. The reverend gentleman, with his family, had crossed the continent with the immigration of 1846, but entering Oregon by Applegate's southern route had been compelled to halt in the Umpqua Valley, by reason of their utter lack of transporta- tion facilities. The rainy season coming on, these unfortunates had to abandon their property and make their way to the settlements. But the Rev. Cornwall, unwilling to leave his beloved books, chose to abide in the valley during the rough and inclement season ap- HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 601 proaching. They safely wintered; and in the spring Dr. Geiger proceeded to their assistance and aided them on their way to the Willamette. Settling here, the minister occupied himself in reli- gious ministrations until 1865, mainly at different points in the valley. Removing from the State in that year, he died in San Buenaventura, Southern California, in 1879. Mrs. Cornwall and her daughter, Mrs. Geiger, now reside at Forest Grove. GRIFFIN, JOHN SMITH. The reverend gentleman whose name heads this article has attained and preserved in the course of a long and eventful life of over three-fourths of a century, a wide reputation as a man of action and integrity and strong convictions. His name has been on the tongues of the people for very many years ; his opinions and his character have always been influential ; and his professions of sanctity and integrity have not exceeded his performances. He has lived up to principles as commendable in theory as they have proved unique in practice. The strength, earnestness and out- spokenness of his convictions has raised up enemies ; but even these enemies have borne testimony to the uprightness of his principles. Rev. J. S. Griffin- was born in Castleton, Vermont, in November, 1807. His ancestors were of English descent. The son was educated for the ministry, acquiring the groundwork of extensive learning in various schools and seminaries in New Eng- land, Vermont and Ohio. Finishing at Oberlin, he was ordained as a Congregationalist minister, and was selected to perform evangelical work among the Indians of the west. It was in the winter of 1838-39 that he was outfitted as a missionary by the Congregational church of Litchfield County, Connecticut, and in February, 1839, he left that State with the intention of crossing the plains to Oregon. He traveled in a light wagon to Oberlin, Ohio, and there took in Asahel Munger and wife, destined for missionary work, as Mr. Griffin's assistants. In St. Louis, Mr. Griffin, feeling the need of a help-meet, married a young lady, Miss Desire C. Smith, of Boston, Massachusetts, who being educated in the eastern towns, had magnanimously devoted the pleasant years of her youth to teaching the children of the western settlers, and for that purpose had moved to Illinois. While in such employ- 602 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. ment she met Mr. Griffin, and their marriage followed in a few days. Of the lady's life, the following details are communicated by her husband : Born in Boston in June, 1805 ; in 1834 was one of the first to answer the call for lady teachers to go to the then frontier ; was married to Rev. Mr. Griffin in St. Louis, on April 10, 1839 ; on her bridal tour crossed the American continent in the summer of 1839 ; taught the first Indian school west of the Rocky Mountains (1839-40), and was the first white woman in the settlement of the Tualatin Plains, Oregon ; still lives (July 1, 1884,) in the first building erected in that settlement. Mr. and Mrs. Griffin crossed the plains on horseback, in company with some emigrants and trappers, and stopped at Rev. H. H. Spald- ing's mission among the Nez Perces, at Lapwai. In March, 1840, Mr. Griffin set about the establishment of a mission among the Snake Indians, in Idaho, but was unsuccessful in two attempts. Later, he became chaplain at Fort Vancouver, but in 1841 he proceeded to the Tualatin Plains and began that settlement in a locality admirably suited for the purposes of a colony. Here, when a sufficient number of neighbors had been drawn around him, he assumed the function of pastor, which he still, though at an advanced age, carries on. "Rocky Mountain Retreat" is the fanciful name which was bestowed upon his place ; and here he has since remained, taken up with his agricultural and other occu- pations, but entering with vigor into the political affairs of the State and country. His acts are elsewhere alluded to, and his career may be profitably studied by those who would understand the peculiarities of the puritanic Yankee type, softened and ameliorated by the stanchest patriotism and magnanimity. HOLMAN, JOSEPH. Born in Devonshire, England, in 1815; came to America when nineteen years of age, and, after hearing a lecture on Oregon by the Rev. Jason Lee, he joined a company of emigrants for Oregon. They arrived . the following spring after suffering many hardships and privations, and only four of the eighteen who started came through; the others becoming dissatisfied, dropped out of the com- pany and went to New Mexico. Mr. Holman being a carpenter by trade, was immediately employed as mission carpenter. In 1843 HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 603 he took a claim and farmed until 1849; then followed the mercan- tile business in Salem until 1853. In 1872 he was appointed one of three commissioners on the new penitentiary and was also super- intendent of the State capitol; he built the Chemekete Hotel in Salem. Married a missionary, Miss Almira Phelps, and had four children, two of whom now live — George P., of Portland, and Mrs. J. H. Albert, of Salem. Mr. Holman was the founder of the Pioneer Oil MilJs of Salem. In 1875 he was married to Miss Libbie Buss. He died June 25, 1880. 1840. ABERNETHY, GEORGE. Born in New York City, in 1807, and resided there until 1839. Set out for Oregon and arrived in May, 1840. For many years he lived on the banks of the Willamette below Oregon City. He was instrumental in bringing about the Provisional Government of Ore- gon, and was chosen the first Governor, holding the position until in 1849, when the Territorial Government was organized. Subse- quently he became interested in large mercantile enterprises, nota- bly in the large mills at Linn City (falls of the Willamette). Re- sided in Portland for the last sixteen years of his life, dying in May, 1877. CLARKE, EMELINE. Born in Lowville, New York ; married Rev. Harvey Clarke in Independence, Missouri, in 1838. They set out for Oregon two years later, to do missionary work among the Indians. They stopped at Waiilatpu, upon their arrival in August, until the next year, when the}' located at Tualatin, and eventually at Forest Grove. Here they lived the most of their lives, excepting one year spent in teaching at the Methodist Mission below Salem. Mr. Clarke died in 1858; Mrs. Clarke, August 1, 1866. COUCH, JOHN H. Born in Xewburyport, Mass., February 21, 1811; became a sailor and made many voyages during the years preceding 1839. Entered the Columbia River in the spring of 1840 on board the brig Maryland. Arrived again in the Willamette in 1843 in com- mand of the brig Chenamus, of Boston. Remained in this country 604 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. and kept a store in Oregon City until 1845, in that year removing to Portland and taking np a land claim which forms a large part of that city. Was appointed treasurer of the Provisional Govern- ment of Oregon, but went to the Eastern States in 1847. In August, 1849, he arrived at Portland again in the bark Madonna, of New York. Locating permanently in Portland, he filled the positions of county treasurer, county commissioner, pilot commissioner, port warden, and U. S. inspector of hulls. Became very widely known in the State. Died January 19, 1870. JUDSON, LEONARD B. Mr. Judson was one of the Methodist missionaries who came to Oregon in 1840 in the ship Lausanne. He was born in New York State. He now resides in Salem. To use his own words: "I saw the Willamette Valley when it was a wilderness, peopled only by wild Indians and the Hudson's Bay Company subjects; witnessed the first Provisional Government in the new territory; saw Port- land when its site was a dense body of timber; saw Oregon City when only the log cabin of a single trader was there; saw Salem when only two buildings were up, and the whole valley above was but a trackless wilderness, roamed over by the red man ; lived the first year on boiled wheat slicked over with Hudson's Bay molasses, strong enough to go alone, with an occasional cake made of flour ground in the coffee mill." NAYLOR, T. G. Born in Virginia in 1814; he was one of the oldest pioneers of Oregon, and one of the earliest settlers of Forest Grove, Washing- ton County, where he farmed for an occupation. He married Catharine Storey in 1853, and their children number six, four sons and two daughters. Mr. Naylor died in 1872. PARRISH, JOSIAH L. Of all the old settlers of Oregon none commands a greater share of respect than the subject of this sketch, nor has any individual accumulated a greater amount of experience and knowledge of this State. Mr. Parrish came to Oregon as an assistant to the Methodist Missionary Board, and continued the work of evangeliz- ing the Indians for nearly twenty years. He was born in Onon- HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 605 daga County, New York, in 1806, and is of Dutch and English extraction. He was taught the blacksmith's trade, and being a member of the Methodist Church, and gifted with a desire to proselytize, he became local preacher for that sect in Alleghany County, New York. The Methodist Missionary Board, as will be seen by a reference to previous pages, was intent upon forming an establishment in Oregon, and in 1839 Mr. Parrish volunteered his services, and set out for Oregon with the missionary family organized by the Rev. Jason Lee, and set sail for Oregon in 1839, in the ship Lausanne, Captain Josiah Spaulcling. The missionary force consisted of the following persons : Rev. Jason Lee and wife ; Rev. J. H. Frost, wife and child ; Rev. Gustavus Hines, wife and child ; Rev. William Kone and wife ; Rev. Alvan F. Waller, wife and two children ; Dr. J. F. Richmond, wife and four children ; Dr. Ira F. Babcock, wife and child ; George Abernethy (mission steward), wife and two children ; W. W. Raymond (farmer) and wife ; Henry B. Brewer (farmer) and wife ; Lewis H. Judson (cabinet-maker), wife and three children ; Josiah L. Parrish (blacksmith), wife and three children ; James Alley (carpenter) ; Hamilton Campbell (carpenter), wife and child ; Misses Maria T. Ware, Chloe A. Clark, Elmira Phillips and Almira Phelps, (teachers); Orpha Lankton (stewardess), and Thomas Adams (Indian boy). The above came safely around Cape Horn and located first at the old mission near the present town of Wheat- land. There, for three years, Mr. Parrish performed the black- smithing, and was then appointed missionary to the Indians at the Clatsop Plains, and staid there three years. Then returning to the valley he became preacher to the circuit which extended from Portland to Corvallis, performing these duties in conjunction with Rev. David Leslie and Dr. W. H. Willson. In 1847 and succeed- ing years he preached in the west side circuit, and for a time in Portland. In-lS49 he received the appointment of sub-Indian agent from President Taylor, and served for five years, or until 1 *54. He was thus the first regularly appointed Indian agent in Oregon, the circle of his duties extending to all parts of the then Oregon. In LS54 President Pierce extended his appointment, but owing to ill-health lie was compelled to resign. In 1855 he be- came a missionary among the Indians, and visited many tribes, 606 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. ministering particularly at the Grand Ronde Agency. For three or four subsequent years he rode a circuit and preached, in widely varying localities ; but owing to ill -health he was compelled to retire from active duties, and settled at Salem, his present home, Mr. Parrish is regarded as one of the best informed individuals, as regards Oregon history, that is to be found ; and his statements in all things reflect the candid and straightforward mind of an honest gentleman. His recollections cover an interesting and extended period in the State's history, and his evidence is indis- pensable to any one who would seek to obtain an accurate knowl- edge of the events of early years. SMITH, ALVIN T. Mr. Smith was born in Connecticut in 1802, and now, at the age of four -score and two years, is still a hale man, living out the latter years of a long and varied life in the town of Forest Grove. Mr. Smith left Illinois for Oregon in 1840, the year of his marriage. His principal occupation has been farming, at which he has been very successful and has accumulated wealth. 1841. BUXTON, HENRY. Born on the Red River, British North America, six miles north of the United States line, in October, 1829. He arrived in Oregon in 1841, coming with the famous Red River immigration of that year. He now lives at Forest Grove and cultivates a farm. Has eleven children, and has been a resident of Washington county for forty -two years. The political significance of the Red River immi- gration has been elsewhere touched upon, but Mr. Buxton has con- tributed the following facts as to its actual experiences : The parties composing the expedition numbered some sixty, and were mostly of mixed blood — English, Indian, Scotch, and French. The leader was James Sinclair. They set out under an agreement with the Hudson's Bay Company to remove from their habitations in British North America to Puget Sound, there to engage in agricultural pursuits upon land to be set apart for them, and they were to have houses specially prepared against their arrival. They came by way of Fort Pitt and the Saskatchewan valley to Forts Carlton and HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. C>07 Edmonton, crossing the Saskatchewan and Assiniboine, and sur- mounting the Rocky Mountains at Devil's Pass, so-called, at the head of Red Deer River. These were routes never before traveled, and of course abounded in difficulties. They had set out with carts drawn by animals, but abandoned these and resorted to packing when at the eastern foot of the Rockies. Coming by way of Lake Pend d'Oreille and crossing the rivers Flat Bow, Spokane and Snake f at Riparia), they struck the Columbia near Fort Walla Walla, and proceeded down it to near their objective point. The colony, however, did not succeed. The lands were found to be unsuitable, and quite disadvantageous in comparison with the fruitful plains of the Wil- lamette: so, while a portion of the colony tried faithfully to carry out their agreement, the most of them drifted off to other sections, mostly choosing the Willamette valley as their abode, where a few survivors may yet be found, amalgamated with the American pop- ulation, and identified with them by community of tastes and interests. JOHNSON, WILLIAM. Born in Washington Territory in 1839; is of English parentage. Came with his parents to Oregon when two years of age. Is a farmer, and a resident of Glencoe, Washington County. He mar- ried Miss Xancy Smith, a native of Oregon, in 1866, and they have eight children. WILLIAMS, SAMUEL. Resides one mile east of Hillsboro, and is a farmer by occupa- tion, lie was born in Missouri in 1833; came to Oregon at a very early day and settled in Washington county on the place where he still lives. He married Ann E. Jolly in 1856, and their children are Eliza J., Amanda M., William W., and Frank. 1842. CRAWFORD, MEDOREM. Born in Orange County, New York, June 24, 1819. In early life was apprenticed to a farmer in Seneca County, with whom he lived from his thirteenth to his sixteenth year. Left his home in Havana, Schuyler County, on March 17, 1842, bound for Oregon. Hi- route of travel led through Seneca Lake Lake Erie, Pittsburg, 608 HISTOBY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Cincinnati, St. Louis and Independence, and the trip is well described in his Occasional Address to the Association of Pioneers, delivered on June 15, 1881. On his arrival in Oregon, the young traveler located at Salem, and taught the Mission School for nine months. In the following year he married Miss Brown, and pur- chased an interest in James A. O'Neil's claim, covering the present town of Wheatland, where he resided until the fall of 1844. At the Wheatland farm, in January, 1844, his oldest son was born, being the first male child of American parentage born on the west side of the Willamette Eiver. In April, 1845, he removed to Oregon City, where he resided for seven years, engaged in trans- porting merchandise and produce around the Willamette Falls. He was a member of the Provisional Legislature in 1847, during which session the Whitman massacre occurred, and again, in 1849, the last session under the Provisional government. In 1852 he removed to the mouth of the Yamhill river, and settled permanently on the " Joe McLoughlin claim," one of the earliest settled farms in the valley, to which he subsequently acquired a patent under the Donation Law. He was elected to the first State Legislature, but was counted out by partisan opponents; was again elected in 1860, and took an active part in the election of Oregon's first Republican Senator, Col. E. D. Baker. He visited his father in New York, in 1861, and on returning westward, across the plains, was taken into government service and made assistant to Captain Maynadier, U. S. A., who commanded the emigrant escort. In the following year he went East again, and received from President Lincoln the appoint- ment of assistant quartermaster, with the rank of captain, and was ordered west, to organize, arm and equip one hundred men, and to proceed westward, across the Rocky Mouutains for the purpose of assisting and protecting the emigrants. The company performed that duty throughout the season, and were disbanded at W 7 alla Walla in October, 1862. Returning East again, in 1863, he, for the third time, crossed the plains westward in charge of emigrants, and in the next year resigned his commission. President Lincoln then conferred upon him the appointment of collector of internal revenue, which Captain Crawford held for Hve years. In 1871 he was appointed by President Grant appraiser of merchandise for the port of Portland. This office he administered also for about five HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 609 years, retiring, in 1876, to his farm on the Yamhill, where he has since resided. Mrs. Crawford died, May 20, 1879, and in the fol- lowing year he married Mrs. E. Burrows. His children, all of whom are by the first wife, are: Medorem, Frederick A., Mary E. (Mrs. H. C. Stevens), John M., Albert, and Henrietta. Medorem, Jr. (who, as before mentioned, was born at Wheatland), was, in 1862, appointed by President Lincoln to West Point, and without other educational advantages than the then primitive schools of Oregon afforded, passed his examination and was admitted as a cadet. Graduating with honor, in 1867, he took rank as lieutenant in the Second Artillery, where he still remains. HOLMAN, GEORGE P. Born in Salem, Oregon, in 1842, being the fourth white person born in the State. Represented Marion County in the Legislature in 1870. LOVEJOY, ASA L. Born in Massachusetts, March 14, 1808; came to Oregon in 1842; was an attorney by occupation; died at Portland, September 11, 1882. Wife's previous name, Elizabeth McGary. Children — Ada M. (deceased), Amos L., Elizabeth M., Nellie, and William R. McKAY, CHARLES. Was born at sea of Scotch parents in 1808; lived at Winnipeg where he was married to Letitia Bird in 1827; in 1841 went to Washington Territory, remaining at Steilacoom one year; then came to Oregon and settled at Glencoe, Washington County, where his family yet reside, farmers by occupation. His children's names are — Charles, Mrs. Elliott and Mrs. Plumey. Mr. McKay is de- ceased. MATTHIEU, FRANCIS XAVIER. Born in Canada in 1818 and removed to New York in 1838 from political reasons, having been one of the insurrectionary party in 1837-38. He became clerk for the American Fur Company, and made two trips to the Rocky Mountains in 1840-41. He entered Oregon in 1842 and settled among the Canadian -French inhabitants of the northern part of Marion County. His presence among them 610 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. was useful to the American cause, for his influence was thrown in favor of republican principles and movements. Contemporary writers have spoken of F. X. Matthieu in terms of gratitude and re- spect. He was, doubtless, the most influential of the people of that nativity in Oregon. He served in the State Legislature in 1874 and 1878; and in the Cayuse war was deputy quartermaster. Resides now on his original donation claim one and a half miles south of Butteville. Married, in 1844, Rosa Ossang, who bore him seven sons and seven daughters. His occupations have been farming and merchandising, and for twenty years he was in trade at Butteville. MOSS, SIDNEY W. Born in Bourbon County, Kentucky. Came to Oregon in September, 1842. Residence, Oregon City, and occupation, stone- cutter. Mr. Moss' flrst wife's name was Rebecca Taylor, and the second, Dorcas Richardson. Their children were — Sarah E., Catharine M., Alfred, William H. H., Sidney, John M., Walter S., Henrie Lenora, Volney (X, and Charles P. — of whom the first five, and the last named, are deceased. WESTON, DAVID. Born in Indiana, July 4, 1820 ; removed to Arkansas in 1836 ; set out for Oregon in 1841, but had to winter in Missouri, and during the next year arrived in this State. Mr. Weston was a blacksmith, and after his arrival worked at that trade for T. J. Hubbard, in the Willamette Valley, who had come here with Captain Wyeth. He took up a land claim adjoining Dr. Newell's, on the Willamette, where his family yet reside. In 1847 he be- came a soldier in the Cayuse war, attaining the rank of lieutenant. 1843. APPLEGATE, CHARLES. Born in Henry County, Kentucky, January 24, 1806 ; removed to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1820. Married in 1829 to Miss Melinda Miller. Set out with his brothers, Jesse and Lindsay, for Oregon in the memorable year 1843. Settled in Polk County, and re- mained there until 1860, when he removed to Yoncalla, Douglas County, and resided there until his death, August 9, 1879. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 611 APPLEGATE, JESSE A. Born in Missouri in 1835 ; came to Oregon with the world- famous party led by his relatives, Charles, Jesse and Lindsay Applegate, in 1843. Has lived at various points in the valley. Studied law with the firm of Wilson & Harding, at Salem, and was admitted to the bar in 1864. Was married in 1863 to Virginia Watson. Their children are — Glendower, McClellan and Erie. Mr. Applegate was superintendent of schools for Polk County in 1863-64, and member of the Legislature in 1865-66. Residence, Salem. APPLEGATE, LINDSAY. Born in Henry County, Kentucky, September 18, 1808 ; his family settled near St. Louis, Missouri, in 1820, and about three years later he joined General Ashby's far company, and participated in an expedition into the country of the hostile Indians. Return- ing to St. Louis he was married in 1831 to Elizabeth Miller. He served in the Black Hawk war. Set out for Oregon in May, 1843, and settled in Polk County. The expedition of the above year was, probably, the most important of all the movements of that sort whose direction was to this State, and Lindsay Applegate, with his brothers, Charles and Jesse, were the moving spirits therein. Its details are elsewhere set forth. In 1844 Lindsay Applegate served as a member of the first organized company of soldiers designed to protect the infant settlements from the invasion of hostile Indians. In 1846 he, with Jesse Applegate, sought out the Southern Immigrant Route, by which, in that year, a con- siderable number of pioneers entered this State. In 1848 he went to California by land, and returned during the same year by water. In 1850 he joined General Lane in pursuit of the deserting regulars from Vancouver. In the same year he served as special Indian agent under Gen. Palmer. Commanded, in 1853, a com- pany of volunteers who enlisted to combat the Rogue River tribes, but was not in action. In 1859 he purchased the toll road leading from Northern California to Southern Oregon, and went to reside on the Siskiyou Mountains. In 1861 he was chosen captain of a volunteer company, whose object was to protect incoming immi- grants, and set out to patrol the southern route from Klamath 612 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. eastward. Was a member of the Legislature of Oregon in 1862, and was likewise special Indian agent. Served at Klamath, as such, until 1869. Resides at Ashland, Jackson County. ARTHUR, DAVID. Born m Kentucky, in 1843 ; lived mainly in Missouri, and joined the emigration of 1843, with his parents, William and Millie Arthur, to cross the continent with the Applegate party. Settled in Yamhill County, near McMinnville. Lived afterwards in Lane County. Married, in 1846, Mary J. Malone. Has family of four living children — Sophronia GL, Abbie E., Arcelia A., and Eugene L. Mrs. Arthur, who also belonged to the aforesaid party, died in 1879. The family now reside in Salem. BAKER, ANDREW J. Born in North Carolina in 1820 ; went to Tennessee at the age of twelve, and staid there three years ; spent the next six years- in Missouri ; came to Oregon in the memorable year 1843, and settled in Yamhill County. In 1846 he made a trip to California, but returned in 1849, having participated in the hostilities between the Americans and Mexicans. Mr. Baker's present address is Lafayette, and his occupation is farming. Was married in 1857 to Miss Mary Lake, by whom he has had Charles, Annie, Rosa, Alsa and Lina. BAKER, JOHN G. Born in Hopkins County, Kentucky, in 1818. At the age of nineteen he emigrated to Missouri. Two years later he married Catherine Blevins, the mother of his present family of four children — William D., Morgan A., Mary A., and Aville L. He set out with his family for Oregon along with the important immigration of 1843. With the party were one hundred and twelve wagons drawn by oxen, making a very imposing train, which was six months on the way, and obtained all the usual experiences attend- ant upon that long and arduous journey. Arriving in Oregon, Mr. Baker became the first settler between " the two Yamhills." In the early years of his residence he was troubled somewhat by the dep- redations of mischievous Indians, who killed his stock and made themselves detested and feared. Mr. Baker, unwilling to endure HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 613 sucli ills, raised a company of volunteers and pursuing the ravagers gained a decisive victory over thern, killing two of the miscreants and removing from the others any further desire to brave the white man's wrath. Mr. B. became sheriff of Yamhill County under the Provisional Government. This position he held for four years, and when the Territorial Government was organized by General Lane, his appointment was continued for an additional term of two years. While performing the duties of sheriff in the new and unorganized region, he gained many unique experiences. For example: He narrates how, when in charge of the first jury impanelled at Lafay- ette, lie asked instructions of the presiding judge as to where he should take them to deliberate, the judge replied with a touch of humor born of much experience with domestic animals, "Stake out the foreman, and I guess the others will stay around.' 1 This learned judge was A. A. Skinner, a very useful and careful judge and, withal, an exemplary citizen, who became Indian agent at a later date, and was for a time settled in Rogue River Valley on the first donation claim ever taken in that beautiful region. In 1852 one McCormack was tried, found guilty and sentenced to three years 1 imprisonment for an infamous crime. The trial occurred at Lafay- ette, and from lack of either a county jail or a State penitentiary, the judge remanded the convict to the care of the sheriff, to be kept until the county commissioners could meet and make provision for his imprisonment. Private instructions were given that in case the commissioners did not act, that the prisoner should be allowed to take French leave. This course was followed and the guilty man escaped. Such was the course of justice in the early days, where the absence of courts and the machinery of the law made it impos- sible t<> properly punish crime. Mr. Baker now resides at McMinn- ville. lie i> the proprietor of a square mile of valuable land, in the immediate vicinity of the town, of the richest and most produc- tive quality. BROWN, ORUS. Born in 1800; came from Missouri to Oregon. Located a donation land claim a mile north of Forest Grove. Returned to Missouri in 1845, and brought his family to Oregon in 1846. Resided in Washington County for twenty years, then removing to Salem, and lived there until 1874. Died May 5, 1874. 614 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. CARY, CYRENE B. (TAYLOR). Was born in Richmond City, Virginia, July 24, 1815. "My parents moved to Christian County, Kentucky, when I was three years old. There I married Miles Cary in 1831, and moved to Missouri in 1834, where we remained until 1843, when we started to Oregon. We started with plenty of provisions and took in three men on the plains that had been turned off by others, but still we had plenty. Had no trouble, only sickness and the death of a little daughter three years old, at Fort Bridger. Had a false Indian alarm, when Fremont came up with the American flag. Some of the men were without bullets. While the men corralled the cattle, Mrs. Andrew Hembree and myself run bullets. Mr. Gray came to our wagon to borrow a gun. My husband told him he could have mine; I said, 'No you can not have my gun, for I am going to fight for my little ones and need my gun.' My husband said I had better get in the wagon and put the feather beds around the children and myself so the arrows would not hit us ; I told him I could not do that, for we had better be killed than taken prisoners. But just as we were ready for battle, the word came that it was Fremont's company. When we arrived at the Hudson's Bay post on the Columbia River, we left our cattle in the care of a man there, until the next summer. My husband worked for Dr. McLonghlin, at Oregon City, until the next June, when we moved up to Yamhill County, and took up a claim and began farming. For a new country that was inhabited by Indians, and so few white people, we fared exceedingly well. The first winter there were but three settlers on the north side of the Yamhill river; two of them were bachelors — Dr. Sitton and Mr. Paul. A negro girl I brought with me and myself were the only women on that side of the river, and no way to cross only foot logs. We sent for our cattle, bought some pigs and chickens from a man on Sauvie's Island, in the Willamette River. We then made plenty of butter and cheese. We had to go to Oregon City for our flour, and groceries. Some wore moccasins for lack of shoes. The men wore buckskin pants. The women could get clothing from Vancouver or Oregon City by paying for it. We had no more trouble with the Indians than we could expect; I was frightened worse than hurt many times; but I look back now HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 515 and wonder how we ever escaped a> we did. It was a higher power than ours that protected ns. You asked me what our provisions consisted of. We bad beef, venison and elk. sugar, coffee, butter, cheese and bread. There were no fruits here at that time. T have been a widow since 1858. My husband died on September 26th of that year. I have three children living — J. J. Cary, W. B. Gary and Bff. Ettie Gary. I live in Lafayette. Yamhill County:* CASON, ADONIRAM J. Born in Richmond, Virginia, November 27. 18*29: came to Oregon in 1843. Occupation, farmer: residence, Oregon City. Wife's previous name, Eliza J. Glover. Children, Katie E., Honor J.. George L.. Wilhelmina (deceased). Ada J., and Charles L. CASON, FENDAL C. Born near Richmond, Virginia. Was a farmer by occupation, and died near Oregon City in 1860. Wife's previous name was Rebecca R. Holliday. Children — Francis C. (deceased). Rebecca R. (deeea-ed), William A. (deceased), Adoniram J., James P., John L. (deceased). Joseph H. (deceased), and Benjamin F. (deceased). CAVE, REV. JAMES. Came to Oregon in l84o: he had entered the ministry when <[iiite young, and preached forty years. lie died in Washington County in 1863. CAVE, RILEY. B«»rn in Missouri in 1841; came with his parents to Oregon. Was educated "at the Pacific University. Has served fourteen years as justice <»f the peace at Hillsboro, his present residence. Is now a dealer in hardware, also practices the hlacksmith^ trade. Mar- ried Mis> Malinda Boyd in 1866, and by her has four children — Lillie \L, .fame- W.. Charles ML, and Lottie B. COZINE, SAMUEL. Born in Kentucky in 1821 : came across the plains to Oregon. After his arrival he lived in Oregon City two years; then moved t<> Yamhill Countv and settled on the land where the McMinnville Col- 616 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. lege now stands; he still owns part of the claim. Married Miss Mahala Arthur in 1845, and has had eight children, ^ve of whom are deceased. The living are — Lucretia, Pleasant, and Auburn L. Mr. Cozine is a blacksmith by occupation, and lives at McMinnville. Owns one hundred and seventy-five acres of land and city property. EMERICK, SOLOMON. Born in Montgomery County, Ohio, November 30, 1821. Came across the plains with Peter H. Burnett's company. With James Hayes went over the Cascade Falls in a thirty -foot canoe. In No- vember, 1843, came into what was known as Tualatin County, now Washington County, and has resided there since, farming most of the time, and still owns a donation claim at Cornelius; was a vol- unteer in the Cayuse war. Was married in June, 1845, to Miss Luceta Zachary; has five children living and six deceased. The living are — Thomas, John, David, Ellen, and Charles. HEMBREE, W. C. Is a farmer and merchant of McMinnville, Yamhill County. He was born in Warren County, Tennessee, in 1829; moved to Mis- souri in 1837; came to Oregon in 1843 and settled at Lafayette, Yamhill County. Married Nancy A. Garrison in Yamhill County in 1861, and their children's names are — Oscar L., Minnie E., Rosa L., Carrie I., Walter L., Clark P., Nellie D., Eva G., and Maud. HILL, ALMERAN. Born in Chariton County, Missouri, in 1822; when he arrived in Oregon he settled on what is now called " Spring Hill Farm," near Dilly; two years later took a donation claim near Gaston, Washington County, on which he still lives. Mr. Hill has had the rough experience known only to the earliest pioneers of Oregon, and can relate many instances regarding life among the Indians, and the manners and customs of pioneer life, that are both startling and amusing. He married Sarah J. Reed in 1841, and their children's names are — Deantha, Frank M., Mrs. M. Campbell, Mrs. T. Mooney, Mrs. H. Cowles, Mrs. S. J. Brisbine, and A. L. Hill. HOLMAN, DANIEL S. Born in Lincoln County, Tennessee, November 15, 1822. In 1829 went to Clay County, Missouri. In 1843 came to Oregon HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. <>1 7 and settled at Forest Grove. His present residence is Bellevue, Yamhill County, and occupation, farming. He married Martha E. Burnett in Polk County, August 21, 1847, and their children's names are — William D., Woodford P., Glen O., Lucretia M., Wil- lis M. (deceased). Mary E.. Charlie W., John E., Powell L., and Walter B. HOLMES, WILLIAM L. Born near Nashville, Tennessee, May 30, 1807; came to Oregon in Xoveniber, 1843: occupation, farmer. Was elected sheriff of Clackamas County in 1811, and served eleven years. Married Mary A. L. C. Williams, and had by her the following children — Elizabeth J. (deceased), Minnie G., Samuel D. (deceased), Frances E. (deceased), Mary L., William X. B. (deceased), Ermina A. (deceased), and Theodore E. Mr. Holmes died in 1879, at his at his residence, Pose Farm, near Oregon City. HUCK, JAMES. Mr. Huck was born in Ohio, in 1819; left that State twenty years after, and located in Iowa; started overland to Oregon, with the emigration of 1813, crossing the plains with Colonel Xesmith and party. Two years' residence in Oregon being ended, he went to California, and then to Mexico, and took part in the war of 1816. After a variety of experiences he returned in 1857 to Ohio and married Miss Mary Jones, who, however, died a year later. Mr. Huck's second wife was Miss Frances E. Albert. He returned to Oregon again in 1875, and now resides in McMinnville. Mr. Huck's life has been remarkable for its multiplicity of adventures and incidents. His travels have been wide, and his experiences remarkable. LENNOX, DAVID T. Born in Xew York in 1801 ; removed to Kentucky, and thence in 1837 t<:> Missouri. Settled in the Tualatin Plains, Washington County, Oregon, and resided there for many years. Lived subse- quently in Portland, and Umatilla County, dying there on October 19, 1871. AVas a deacon in the Baptist church for more than forty years. 618 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY, LENNOX, LOUISE. Born in in 1808; came to Oregon with her husband, Judge Lennox, and settled on a farm in Washington County. She became the mother of nineteen children. She died on November 16, 1879, having outlived her husband by several years. McCARVER, MORTON M. Born in Kentucky in 1807; after coming to Oregon was com- missary general in the Rogue River war, and held a number of other public positions. His first wife's previous name was Mary A. Jennings, and that of the second, Julia Backalow; his children were — Thomas J., Mary A., Jennie, Elizabeth, Julia, Dollie and Naomi. Of these, Thomas J., Julia and Dollie are deceased. McCLANE, J.B. Is a native of Pennsylvania, and was born in 1820. He left his home in 1842 and went to Texas, and shortly after to Iowa, and in 1843 set out for Oregon with the Applegate-Nesmith party. In early days Mr. McClane was engaged in fiour milling and lumber producing, and owned mills in North Salem, which were among the first of their kind. His occupation, also, included merchandis- ing. He took part in the Cayuse war, was the first postmaster of Salem, holding the office for several years preceding 1861; was county treasurer of Marion County in 1850-51, and has been prom- inent in a variety of ways. Of all the living male residents of Salem, Mr. McClane came earliest. He married, in 1846, Miss Helen C. Judson. There have been nine children, namely — George F., Isabella, Louie (deceased), Eva, Charles, James, Helen, Harold, and John. MAUZEY, WILLIAM. Resides iive miles northwest of Hillsboro, Washington County, where he settled in 1845; is a farmer by occupation. He was born in Fleming County, Kentucky, in 1819; married Eleanor Evans in 1847, and their children are — Lucinda J., Thomas A., Maria, Anna, and Mary. NESMITH, J. W. Of all the early pioneers of Oregon, none have become more widely known, and none have done more to deserve celebrity, than HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 619 Mr. Nesniith. Through more than forty years his name and his person have been familiar to the people of Oregon, who have come in the lapse of time to regard his fame and that of the State as one and the same. From the time of his arrival here, coming as he did with the Applegate party in 1843, he has been a leader in enter- prises and deeds demanding vigor of mind and body, and determin- ation of spirit. He was the adjutant of the emigration of 1843, and the list given in these pages of the names of his party was com- piled by him in the pursuit of his official duties. His birthplace was New Hampshire, and his ancestry of Scotch -English type. He took a valiant part in the Cayuse war, as narrated elsewhere. Some- what later Captain Nesmith, as he was then called, led an explor- ing band southward through the dangerous Indian country of South- ern Oregon, seeking for a practicable route to California. In the Yakima war he served the country, having previously led a com- pany of volunteers from the Willamette to the Rogue, in defence of the settlers of Southern Oregon, and was present at the- Lane treaty of peace, in September, 1853. At a later date he entered upon political life. He had, however, been judge of Oregon in 1845 under the Provisional Government. Subsequently, he held many high offices, culminating in his election as IT. S. Senator, his col- league being E. D. Baker, who fell at Ball's Bluff, in Virginia. His conduct during the trying times of the civil war, when he stood up manfully for the Union, is his best passport to fame. It is impos- sible to give within the brief limits of a sketch like this, the names and dates of all the offices he held, or all the services he rendered to the people of the Northwest; but, to sum up all in a sentence, it seems clear and indisputable that he has done more for Oregon than any other Oregonian, and that he has attained an equal posi- tion among the three greatest of them. Gen. Nesmith's residence for many years was at Deny, Polk County, where he farmed on a large scale and kept house in the old style of hospitality and wel- come. As for his qualities of mind, he will be longest remembered for his wit and strong sense of humor. He is of a border type of mankind — not refined, but masculine, forceful and strong in art and expression. His stories and sayings gained a world-wide celebrity, and rivaled Lincoln's in their appositeness and wit. (320 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. NEWBY, W. T. Born in McMinnville, Warren County, Tennessee, March 25, 1820; moved to Missouri in 1839, and came to Oregon in 1843. Lived for a short time at Oregon City. Founded the town of McMinnville, Yamhill County, in 1855, naming it after his old home. There were six settlers in that part of the valley on his arrival in 1844. Some difficulty was experienced with the Indians, who made raids upon the cattle. In 1853 Mr. Newby built a grist-mill, and in 1854, a store. He held the office of assessor in 1848, and in 1870 that of State Senator. Married Miss Sarah J. Gray, in 1841, having by her eight children — Luther A., Virginia, Harrison C, Ollie, Emma, Martha A., Eosa Lee, and James B. (deceased). Mr. Newby died October 22, 1884. OWENS, THOMAS. Born in Wales, July 4, 1813; in 1833, came to New York; in 1836, moved to Ohio, and in 1841, to Missouri. Two years later, came to Oregon and settled at Lafayette, Yamhill County. His present residence is at McMinnville, and occupation, farming and stock-raising. He married Emiline Young, in Portland, Oregon, December 25, 1850, and they have eight children — Catharine K., Ellen E., James R., Thomas L., George, Evan, Mary E., and Annie J. SHADDEN, THOMAS. Lives in McMinnville; was born in Tennessee; lived in Ar- kansas and Missouri prior to coming to Oregon. He arrived in the Willamette Valley, October 3, 1843. Was with Fremont in the Mexican war; afterwards engaged in farming and stock-raising. Married Miss Martha Sumner in 1832; has had twelve children, three of whom are living. SITTON, N. R. Born in Missouri in 1825. Mr. Sitton came to Oregon in 1843, by way of Fort Hall. Soon after, taking up a residence in Yamhill County, where he has since remained. His post-office address is Carlton. Mr. Sitton was married in 1847 to Miss P. Rogers, by whom he had Charles E., Wilbur, Hubert, Fred., and Elbridge. The lady dying about 1870, he afterwards married HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 621 Mrs. Mary Laughlin, by whom he had issue. Ward, Pratt, and Minnie. STRAIGHT, HIRAM A. Born in Washington County, New York, in 1814; arrived in ( )regon in December, 1 843. ( >ecupation, farmer ; present residence, Oregon City. Wife's previous name, Susan Lasswell. His chil- dren are — Cyrus B.. Mary, Jane, John, Hiram, and Julia. WALDO, WILLIAM. Born in Gasconade County, Missouri, in 1832, and removing with his parents to Oregon, settled in Marion County. His father, Daniel Waldo, attained great prominence in this State. He was educated in part at the Willamette University, and studied law at Salem under L. F. Grover, in I860, and was admitted to the bar in 1863, was fleeted State Senator in 1880, and again in 1882, and President of the Senate in 1885. Resides in Salem. WALLER, O. A. Is a resident of Salem. He was born in Oregon City, in 1843, and is a son of the Reverend A. F. Waller, celebrated in the history of the State. Salem has been his place of residence for many years, the town consisting of a very few houses on his arrival. His education was received at the Willamette University; he is now a gunsmith by occupation. In 1864, he was married to Miss Mary Chamberlain, by whom he has live children — Charlie A., Alpha, Riley C, Albert B., and George C. 1844. CASE, WILLIAM M. Born in Randolph County, Indiana, in 1820. Set out for Oregon with his family in 1842, but being compelled to delay his progre-s. arrived here in December, 1844, having crossed the plains with ox -teams in the ordinary manner of that date. He settled with hie family on a donation claim of six hundred and forty acres, three miles south of Champoeg, Marion County, where he -till resides. He went to the California mines in 1849, remain- ing one summer. Held the office of county commissioner of Marion County for eighl years. Married Sarah A. Potter in 1841. 622 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Children — Mrs. Fanny Moreland, John N., Mrs. M. E. Felt, Mrs. Alice Borthwick, Mrs. Annie Hoyt, Mrs. Jane E. Croghan, Geo. W., Elenora, and Ida Bell. Mrs. Case was born near Mount Holly, New Jersey, January 17, 1822, but was reared to woman- hood in Wayne County, Indiana. She died March 30, 1877. EMBREE, C. D., Of Dallas, Polk County, was born in Clark County, Kentucky, in February, 1806; in 1820 moved to Missouri; in 1844 started across the plains with a party of emigrants, with Colonel Ford, his brother-in-law, as captain. The party arrived at The Dalles late in the fall of that year; in 1845 Mr. Embree took up a claim in Polk County, upon which he now lives: his house was the second built on La Creole Creek. He sat on the first grand jury held in Polk County, the jury holding their consultation in the brush on the creek. In 1846 he was elected sheriff and served 'over one term of court and then resigned. In 1834, and while in Missouri, he married Miss Lucinda Fowler; they had six children, all of whom are yet alive. Their names are — Thomas V. B., now a physician in Corvallis, Mary L, Marcus A., Benton, Alice I., and John B. Mrs. Embree died May 7, 1881, from injuries received in a fall. FORD, NATHANIEL. Born in Virginia in 1795; reared in Kentucky; in 1844 came to Oregon across the plains, and held the position of captain of the emigrant train which he accompanied. He settled in Polk County in 1845, and that county continued to be his home until his death. In early times he was engaged in surveying, and at the time of the Indian outbreak in 1855 was examining a line between California and Oregon. Col. Ford held public offices in Missouri and served several terms in both houses of the Legislature of Oregon. Mar- ried Miss Lucinda Embree in Missouri in 1820, and ten children were born to .them, only two of whom are now alive, namely — r Josephine, who was the wife of James Boyle; and Sarah Burch, both of whom live near Dixie, Polk County. Col. Ford died in 1870, and his wife in 1874. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 623 HAWLEY, J. H. Born in Canada in 1834, but was taken to Michigan at an early age. He removed subsequently to Iowa and Missouri. His parents came to Yamhill County, Oregon, in 1844, and their son worked upon his father's farm until 1857, when he removed to Polk County and entered upon merchandising at Bethel. Was justice of the peace from 1862 to 1868. Was Representative in the Legislature of 1882. Married Miss Eliza Mulkey in 1857. Their children are — Horace G., May, William H., Curtis, Constance, Luke, and Maud. Mr. Hawley is now occupied in farming, and is also a grain dealer. HINMAN, ALANSON. Mr. Hinman also belongs to the band of immigrants known as the Ford company, who crossed the plains in 1844. He had then reached the age of twenty-two years, and was a native of Chenango County, New York. His earliest work in Oregon was teaching school in the Salem Institute, the precursor of the Willamette University. He stayed here two years, and in 1847 went to The Dalles and took charge of the missionary station there as secular agent, that being an outpost of Whitman's station at Waiilatpu. This was shortly before the Whitman massacre. The occurrence of that dreadful tragedy was unknown to Mr. Hinman, whose first intimation of what had occurred was given him on a row-boat in which he was proceeding to Vancouver. The messenger who carried the tidings had accompanied him, and on the way disclosed his secret. Mr. Hinman returned from Vancouver as quickly as possible to the assistance of his wife, but, fortunately, found mat- ters at The Dalles in the same condition as he left them. The situation, however, was critical. The Wascoes, who inhabited the country round about, were not to be depended on to protect the white occupants, who were few and unable to protect themselves. The Indians refused to assist in the departure of Mr. Hinman and his friends, until he hit upon the ruse of telling them that the white people of Oregon would hold them responsible for any harm that might result from an invasion by the hostile Cayuses. Upon this the W ascoes, in alarm, offered their services to assist the mission party away, and the whites immediately left the dangerous 624 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. locality. The names of the white occupants of The Dalles station were, Mr. Hinman, wife and children; Mrs. McKinney, Miss War- ren (sister of Henry Warren, of Yamhill, and afterwards married to Mr. White), and Perrin Whitman, nephew of Dr. Marcus Whit- man. Soon after these occurrences, Mr. Hinman moved with his family to what is now Washington County, and located on a claim nine miles from Forest Grove, and stayed thereupon until about 1855, when he removed to Forest Grove, and has since remained there. His occupations have been farming, dealing in live-stock, and merchandising. For six years he served as collector of customs at Astoria. Has been a member of the State assembly. Is now a merchant in Forest Grove. Has a family of six children. Mrs. Hinman (born Miss Gerrish) came with the Gilliam immigra- tion in 1844. HOLDEN, HORACE. Born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, July 10, 1810. Ee- sided in various localities in early life; followed the sea for a time; turned sugar planter in the Sandwich Islands. After many adven- tures, came to Oregon in April, 1844. (See page 285.) Resides now three miles north of Salem on an extensive farm. He was married in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1836. His childen are — Horace, Eugene, Ellen, Isabelle, and Theodore. HOOVER, JACOB. Born in Green County, Kentucky, in 1814; lived in Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri prior to his arrival in Oregon. His first place of residence in this State was near Glencoe, Washington County. His present residence is one mile south of Glencoe, and occupation farmer. He has been a constant resident of Washington County for forty years, and, with the exception of four years spent as county treasurer, has remained on his farm. He married Malinda Cave in 1843, and their children's names are — Thomas, Jackson, Jacob, Harriet, and Lucretia. JOHNSON, DANIEL. Born in Massachusetts in 1812; moved to New York and after- wards to Indiana; left then in 1844, and coming to Oregon brought cattle with him and located in Yamhill County and began farming. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 625 Has spent the subsequent years in the same pursuit with good re- sults. Has always been one of the principal farmers of the West Side. Married in 1844 to Elsina Perkins, and has had Hall, Me- lissa, Anna, Lilian, J. P., Erne, G. D., Jennie Gr., and Minnie Maud. Residence, Lafayette. JOHNSON, DAVID. Lives in Independence, Polk County, and is a farmer. Was born in North Carolina in 1815; came to Oregon from Missouri in an early day and settled in Polk County; took a donation claim. He was married in 1840 to Miss Araminta Thorp; by her had two children — Angelina, and Richard M. She died in 1849, and in 1854 he married Mrs. L. Webb; by her he had two children — Anna and John — both now deceased. JOHNSON, JAMES. Born in Massachusetts in 1814; moved to New York and resided there until twenty -two; lived in Indiana six years. Married Juliet Perkes in 1839, and they have the following children— Burr, Juliana, Wright W., Viola, Julia, James K., Augustus, Ellen, and Clara. Resides in Lafayette, having retired from his occupation of farming, but is still a large land owner, possessing several hundred acres in Yamhill County besides town lots. McDANIEL, ELISHA P. Born on the Cumberland River, in Kentucky, in January, 1824; reared to manhood in that State and Illinois, and set out for the Pacific Coast in 1844. Settled first in Yamhill, but removed in 1 845 to Polk County, where he still remains, at his residence near Independence. Married in 1846 to Miss L. J. Carmack, a native of Tennessee. Their children numbered nine, named William, Joseph, Lane, John, Elisha, S. J., J. D., Robert E., and S. P. Mr. Mc-Daniel's occupations have included farming and stock-raising, which latter pursuit he carries on in Yakima County, W. T. He saw rough service in the Cayuse war, and on the discovery of gold in California visited that country twice. MINTO, JOHN. Born in Wylam, Northumberland, England, in October, 1822; came to Oregon " with Americans and as an American " across the ww 6*26 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. plains, in 1844, and settled at the old mission, near Wheatland. On July 7, 1847, he married Martha Ann Morrison, a native of Montgomery County, Missouri, born December 17, 1831, the daughter of R. W. Morrison, also an emigrant of 1844. Mr. Morri- son was one of the captains in Gilliam's overland trains, and served in the Cay use war, and afterwards represented Clatsop, Tillamook, and Yamhill in the Legislature. Mr. and Mrs. Minto reside now live miles south of Salem. Their children were — John Wilson, Mary Ellen, Robert Burns, William Jasper, Irwin, Douglas, Harry Percy, and May. Of these, Robert Burns, Irwin, and May, are de- ceased. Mr. Minto's services to the State have been very great, and his standing as an old pioneer is hardly second to any one. He has always been regarded as an authority on Oregon's history. He has held several civil offices of importance. MOORE, M. Born in Ohio in 1820; moved to Indiana when eight years old; and later to Illinois. In 1844 left for Oregon, coming by ox-train, and landed in Tualatin County. Occupation, farmer and black- smith, residing in Hillsboro, Washington County. Was married in 1847 to Mary McWilliams. Their children's names are — Sarah J., Robert S., William E., Lucy E., Edward W., Ralph A., and John M. NEAL, OLDAY. Born in Tennessee in 1802, and married at the age of twenty- one, to Jane Adams, by whom he had two children — Robert and William. He came to Oregon in 1844, crossing the plains, and some time after purchased a farm of six hundred acres in Marion County. He married his second wife while in this State. Their children were — Elvira, Phoebe, Melinda, Moses, and Jesse. Mr. Neal possesses property in Montana Territory and resides there 'a part of the time. NELSON, GEORGE S. Born in Cox County, Tennessee, July 20, 1801. Mr. Nelson left that State in his eighteenth year for Missouri and there re- mained until 1844, when he set out for Oregon, accompanied by a large concourse of fellow travelers, whose effects were carried in HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 627 seventy wagons. He went immediately to Yamhill County and there remained until 1848, when he proceeded to California, but soon returned to Oregon. Mr. Nelson was married in 1825 to Miss Margaret Crawford. They have three children now living — Josiah C, Cornelius G., and Thomas B. Three died — two boys and a girl. Mr. Nelson resided for the closing years of his life in Lafayette, dying there in January, 1885. NELSON, J. C. Born in Jackson County, Missouri, in 1827. Came to Oregon in 1844, going direct to Yamhill County, and remaining there ever since. He secured a donation claim of five hundred acres, it being yet in his possession. Mr. Nelson was a volunteer in the Cay use war; and was afterwards elected to the first State Legislature. In 1882 he was again a member of the Legislature, and was re-elected in 1884. Was prominent in Lafayette as a merchant, in partner- ship with Mr. Bird, and married Miss Mary E. Bird in 1850, by whom two children were born to him — Nancy Jane (Mrs. Belcher) and William W. Mrs. Nelson died in 1856, and in 1860 Mr. Nelson married Sarah Cummings, who has brought him Hive children, named Cora A. (deceased), Cornelia M. (Mrs. Fletcher), Mary Estella, Maggie L., and Walter H. NICHOLS, BENJAMIN F. Born in Clay County, Missouri, in 1825. Coming to Oregon in 1844 he wintered first at Waiilatpu, Dr. Whitman's station, and re- moved the next year to Oregon City and soon after to Dallas. Here he resided until 1877, farming. Was sheriff of Polk County under the Provisional Government, and again after the territory was or- ganized. Studied law and became an attorney, and was clerk of Polk County for one term. Married Miss Sarah Ann Gilliam in 1850. Mr. Nichols now resides in Wasco County, which he has represented in the Legislature. PRATHER, WILLIAM B. Mr. Prather came with the immigrants of 1844. He was a Virginian by birth, born in 1818; being bred to the life of an agriculturist, he took a claim in the Luckiamute Valley; now 628 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. resides at Buena Vista. His wife was formerly Miss Clara Barbra, whom he married in Polk County, in 1848. Their children were — Perry W., Martha, James M., Eliza Jane, Martin V. B., Miles, and Ruth. REES, WILLARD H. Mr. Rees is a native of the State of Delaware, and was born in Dover, the capital of the State, in 1819. He was taken to Cincin- nati, Ohio, in 1826, and fifteen years later moved to Illinois. He came very early to Oregon, arriving with the immigration of 1844, and settled on the Willamette near Butteville, taking a donation claim, which he still possesses. His occupation is farming, and in this patriarchal pursuit he has been very successful. He served in the Provisional Legislature in 1847 and 1848. Went overland to California in 1848, during the gold excitement, and returned the next year. In 1850 he officially took a census of Marion County. He married in 1847, Amanda Hall, by whom he has had five sons and seven daughters. ROWLAND, JEREMIAH. Born in North Carolina in 1805 ; removed to Tennessee, and thence, in 1844, to Oregon. Settling in Yamhill County, he was appointed by Governor Abernethy probate judge of that county, serving seven consecutive years. Occupation, farmer. Married in Tennessee in 1830 to Miss Lucy Butler. He died in 1880, leaving a large family, of whom Dr. L. L. Rowland, of Salem, is one. ROWLAND, L. L. Born in Tennessee in 1831; came to this State with his father, Jeremiah Rowland, and settled in Yamhill County. Was dis- tinguished as a student in his youth, and acquired, mostly without aid, a very unusual amount of knowledge. Went to Virginia and graduated from Bethany College in 1856. Taught school for a time, studied medicine, and, eventually, in 1859, returned to Oregon. Teaching for a while in Polk County, he became in due time su- perintendent of schools for that county. This occurred in 1860. During his term of office he organized the first teachers' institute ever held in the State. For a time he was president of the Chris- tian College at Monmouth. Removing to Salem in 1870, he held a HISTORY OK IMMIGRATION. 629 professorship in the medical department of the Willamette Univer- sity for eight years, and was made an emeritus professor from long service. AY as elected State Superintendent of schools in 1874, and served ooe term. The doctor, in addition to his professional de- grees, has recived the honorary degree of LL. D., and signs himself, also, as member of the Royal Society of Great Britain, an honor held by few but Englishmen. Dr. Rowland is , now engaged in practice in Salem, and is president of the State Insurance Society, one of the most meritorious and substantial business institutions in ( )regon. He was married in 1859 to Miss Emma Sanders, and has had five children, of whom but one — Livia — is alive. SCOGGIN, W.G. Born in Missouri in 1830; came to Oregon and settled in Wash- ington County, and now lives in the same county near Dilley, and is a farmer by occupation. He married Amanda Grubb in 1852, and their children's names are — Mary I., Thompson, James W., Woodson V., Thomas G., Lizzie J., John F., Avara G., Alonzo J., and Eva K. SHAW, B. F. Born in Missouri in 1829; came to Oregon in 1844. Now lives at Vancouver. Is a dealer in live-stock. SHAW, THOMAS C. Born in Missouri, February 23, 1823, and was raised on a farm. Came with his parents to Oregon in 1844. Served in the Cay use war, and became second lieutenant of a company. Took up a farm on Howell Prairie, Marion County, about 1851, where he still lives. Was elected county commissioner in 1864, holding that office four years. Was county assessor from 1870 until 1874, in the latter year being elected sheriff. Became county judge in 1880. Married Miss Josephine Headrick, November 28, 1850. SUVER, JOSEPH W. Born in Berkeley County, Virginia, in 1814; came to Oregon in 1844, and settled at Luckiamute Valley, where he still lives, engaged in the occupation of farming. He married Delia Pyburn in Polk County. Oregon, in 1851, and their children's names were Caroline, Marshall, and Green B. : ^mM 630 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. WATT, JOSEPH. Born in Knox County, Ohio, December 17, 1817; at the age of twenty he went west as far as Missouri, where he lived two years engaged at the carpenter's trade. Started for Oregon in 1843, but did not arrive until the following year. Returned east in 1847 and accompanied his father's family to Oregon in 1848, who came direct to Yamhill County and settled there. Mr. Watt shipped the first load of wheat around Cape Horn from Oregon in 1868; is now a farmer and stock grower and owner of three thousand six hun- dred and forty acres of land. On his return to Oregon in 1848 he brought a carding machine, the first on the Pacific Coast. Married Miss L. A. Lyons, daughter of Hon. Lemuel Lyons, consul to Japan under President Grant, the marriage taking place in 1860. The children by that union are — John L., Maria L. (deceased), Arling- ton B., Earl B., and Mary C. Mr. Watt's residence and address are Amity, Yamhill County. WARRENER, THOMAS. Born in Virginia, July 30, 1809; moved to Kentucky with his parents in 1815; to Sangamon County, Illinois, in 1834, and to Missouri in 1839. In 1841 married Miss Lucy McFall. In 1844 came with Colonel Gilliam to Oregon. Served in Captain Maxon's company during the Cayuse war. Resides on a farm near Zena, Polk County. WHEELER, SOLOMON. Is a farmer living at Harris Bridge, Washington County. He was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1809; settled in Clackamas County on his arrival in the State, in 1844. He married Melissa Foster in Missouri, and their children numbered twelve, nine of whom are now living. WILLIAMS, J. J. Born in Tennessee, January 5, 1830; came to Oregon in 1844; settled on the Luckiamute Biver, in Polk County, in 1845; was occupied in farming until 1874, then being elected sheriff, and in 1876 was re-elected. Owns now five hundred acres of land and city property in Dallas. Married Miss Sarah A. English in 1852, and their family consists of ten children, namely — Susan, James F. HISTORY OF [MMIGRATION. fi31 Mary A., Jennie, Clara, Otho, Ethel, Ralph, Hattie, and Walter. Mr. Williams is the son of J. E. Williams, who was a member of the first Legislature of Oregon under the Provisional Government. 1845. BABER, G. H. Born in Bedford County, Virginia, February 14. 1817; came to Oregon in 1845, and remained in Oregon City until the following year. vhen he moved to what is now Linn County. The gold excitement in California called him to that State in 1848; he mined three months with great success, on the American River. Returned to Oregon in 1849; in 1851 was elected county judge of Linn County, and served one term; lived in Napa County, Cali- fornia, in the year 1868, but again returned to Oregon, and is now a resident of Forest Grove, Washington County. The judge has been married twice; first, in 1843, to Miss Elizabeth J. Knox, who died in 1874; and in 1875, to Miss Minnie Krauss. He has one child — Livern Hay ward. BACON, J. M. Born in Buffalo, New York, October '27. 18 '2 2; came to Oregon in 1845. Occupation, postmaster and merchant at Oregon City. Wife's previous name, Rachel Newman. Children — Robert D., Theodore A., Ella L, James J., May A., Laura E., Lennie E., Elmer J., Oscar J., Grant C, Herbert B., and Claude M., five of whom are deceased. BAILEY, CAROLINE E. Born in Ohio in 1827; came to Oregon with her parents; was married first to Mr. Dorris, by whom she had — George P., Alice S.. James T., and Sidney S. In 1872 she married Dr. J. W. Watts. Resides now at Lafayette, Yamhill County. BARLOW, JOHN L. Born in Marion County, Indiana, May 25, 1828; came to Ore- gon in December. 1845. Merchant by occupation. Died at Oregon City, March 8, 1879. Wife's previous name, Mary E. Miller. Chil- dren — Margaret J., Samuel (deceased), James W., Frank T., Ada (^deceased^), and Netta X. 632 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. BOON, H. D. Was born in Iowa in 1840; came to Oregon with his father, J. D. Boon; resides in Salem, Marion County, and is a dealer in books, stationery, etc. Married Miss Duenna Jones in 1869, and has five children — Emmett R., Daisy, Cora, Shelby, and an infant. BOON, J. D. Born and reared in Ohio ; then came to Oregon and settled in the Willamette Valley, where he farmed for some time, after which he went into the mercantile business in Salem, and carried it on for several years. Was elected to a territorial office, and when Oregon became a State, was chosen the first State Treasurer. Married Miss Martha J. Hawkins, by whom he had seven children. BOYLE, JAMES W., M.D. Born in Virginia in 1815; studied medicine in St. Louis, and graduated from the medical college there. In 1845 he crossed the plains to Oregon, and practiced in this State until his death, which occurred in 1864. In Polk County, in 1846, he was married to Miss Josephine Ford, daughter of Col. Nat. Ford; by that marriage there are five children living, namely, Hannah, Rena, James, William, and Charles. The family still reside on their old dona- tion claim near Dixie, Polk County. BUCK, WILLIAM W. Born in Cayuga County, New York, January 19, 1804; came to Oregon in 1845. Is now a retired merchant and resides at Oregon City. He was married tw x ice; his first wife's previous name was Olive Charles, and that of his second, Jane Hurd. His children's names are — R. E., Hannah S. (deceased), Marion E., Charlotte L., and Fannie H. BUFFUM, WILLIAM G., Is a resident of Amity, Yamhill County, and a farmer by occu- pation. Born in Vermont, June 25, 1804; moved to Ohio at eleven years of age and resided there until 1825; then went to Illinois, and from thence to Missouri in 1841; four years later came to Oregon. Married, in 1828, Miss Caroline Thurman. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 633 BURCH, BENJAMIN F. Born in Chariton County, Missouri, May 2, 1825. Crossed the plains to Oregon when twenty years old, and the next year assisted in opening the Applegate route to incoming settlers. In the Cayuse war he served as adjutant, and in the Yakima war com- manded a company of volunteer troops. In 1857 he had a seat in the Constitutional Convention; was a member of the first State Legislature, and was State Senator in 1868, 1870, and 1884, being president of that body in the former year. Married Miss Eliza A. Davidson, September 6, 1848, the daughter of Hezekiah Davidson, and herself a pioneer of 1847. The pair have had two children, of whom one, Benjamin F. Burch, Jr., is now living. BURTON, J. J. Born in in ; came to Oregon in 1845 and set- tled on a farm upon the North Yamhill River; resided there until a few months before his death, which took place in Portland, Sep- tember 15, 1879. He built the Burton House in that city. BUTLER, ISAAC. Born in Alabama in 1820; came to Oregon and settled near Hillsboro, Washington County, which is his present place of resi- dence, and farming is his occupation. He married Tabitha J. Tucker in 1845, and fifteen children are the fruits of this marriage. BUTT, JOHN. Born in Virginia in 1810, and lived there until 1836. He was married in 1836. In 1845 he started for Oregon and his wife died while on the way, and he came on to Washington County, Oregon, witli his children. His principal occupation since arriving in this State has been farming. He held the office of county treasurer two years. At present he lives with his sou Wilcox, at Forest Grove. CHAMBERS, ROLAND. Born in Madison County, Ohio, in 1813, and coming to Oregon in 1845. settled at King's Valley. He built the King's Valley mill in the summer of 1854. His occupation was milling and farming. He married Sarah King, in 1841, who died September 3, 1845; married Lovisa King in 1846. Children^ — Martha, 634 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Margaret, James, William, Jackson, John, Franklin, Henry, Ordelia, Samuel, Lydia, Rebecca, Julia, Lincoln, Anna, and Alice. COOLEY, E. C. Born in Missouri in 1812; crossed the plains in 1845 and located in Oregon City, but eventually removed to Woodburn, Marion County. Was married in 1849 to Lydia Bonney. Their children were — B. F., Laura E., and Mary E. CORNELIUS, JESSE. Born in Howard County, Missouri, in 1829; is a farmer by occupation, and lives four miles northwest of Hillsboro, where he has resided since his arrival in the State. He married Julia Mills in 1854, and Caroline Freeman in 1868; his children are — John W., Thomas E., Rachel A., Eliza J., Julia A., Edwin C, Margaret E., Benjamin P., Hettie, and Jesse. CORNELIUS, T. R. Born in Missouri in 1827; is the son of Benjamin Cornelius. He came with his parents to Oregon, and three years later entered the Cayuse war as a volunteer and was in all the actions with the Indians during that war. In 1855 he enlisted in the Yakima war and served as captain of a company three months when Col. Nes- mith resigned and he was elected to fill the vacancy, and held that position during the remainder of the war. In 1856 was elected to the Territorial Council, and served until the State was admitted; was then sent into the State Senate and elected to every session of the Legislature until 1876, but was out one term during the war, when himself and two others were authorized by President Lincoln to raise a cavalry regiment for the United States service. He was elected colonel of the regiment. The regular troops being ordered east, Col. Cornelius was placed in command of the post at Walla Walla in 1862; during the summer he resigned and returned to his home. He has twice served as President of the Senate. In 1876 he resigned public duties and returned to private life. In 1872 he had removed from his farm to the town of Cornelius, in Washing- ton County, it having been laid out the preceding year and named for the colonel. A large warehouse had been built in 1871 and the railroad was built through the town in 1872. The colonel HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 635 opened a store there in 1872, which is now conducted by his son, Thomas S., and his son-in-law, G. H. Shaw. The colonel was married in 1850 to Miss Florentine Wilkes, by whom he had six children; she died in 1864; he married again in 1866 to Miss Mis- souri A. Smith. The colonel is now a resident of Cornelius; owns three farms aggregating eleven hundred and forty -eight acres, and two unimproved farms of three hundred and sixty acres, a saw mill, warehouse, and store. CRABTREE, JOHN J., Is a resident of Scio, Linn County, and a farmer by occupation. Born in Lee County, Virginia, June 20, 1800; married in 1825, Melinda Geary, a native of Kentucky, born in 1808; their children were — George, Peggy, Job, William, Hiram, Isaac, James, Polly, Betsy, Becky, Jasper and Newton (twins), Phoebe, Virginia, and Martha. Twelve of them are yet alive, and Mr. Crabtree has a long list of grandchildren. Since 1846, he has resided on his farm at Scio; he is of English extraction and of old Revolutionary stock. DAVIS, MRS. NANCY. Born in Saratoga, New York, in 1799. She married John L. Northrop in Onondaga County, in that State, in 1821, her family name being Baird. She came with him to Oregon and they settled at Glencoe, Washington County. Their children are — Perrin, Harvey, Sarah, and Charlotte. Mrs. Northrop married Thomas Davis at Glencoe, in 1870, with whom she is still living, at Mountain Dale, Washington County. DOVE, BETHUEL. Born in Ohio in 1814; married in 1842 to Eachel Story; their children are— E. P., Elizabeth, C. J., John, Andrew, David, and Bethuel C. Came to Oregon and settled in Polk County. Mr. Dove has a fine farm and cultivates it. Post-office address, Salem. ELKINS, J. E. Born in Virginia in 1822; came to Oregon and settled in the Luckiamute Valley. His present residence is Monmouth, and occupation, farming. He married Lucy J. Zumwalt in 1851, and their children's names are — John, William D., Anna, Eliza, Lorenzo, and Laura E. 636 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. FIELDS, HUGH. Lives at Brownsville, Linn County, engaged in farming and stock -growing. Was born in Grayson County, Virginia, December 28, 1828, and was married May 10, 1855, to Miss Sidney Younger. Their children — Annie and Emma — are both deceased. HALE, MILTON. Born in Mercer County, Kentucky, September 6, 1821. Was the first settler in Linn County, on the Santiam Biver, and built the first ferry on that stream — said ferry being now owned by Ashby Pierce. He is now a farmer by occupation, and lives near Albany. Married Miss Susanna Brown in 1843, by whom he has had eleven children, only four of whom are alive. HARRITT, JESSE. Born in Indiana in 1818. Started for Oregon in 1844, went as far west as the Mississippi Biver and laid over until the next year, when he completed his travels. Went to Polk County the year of his arrival. Made an excursion to California in 1 848 but returned to Oregon in the succeeding year. Has resided in Polk County ever since. Occupation, farming. Lives two miles from Salem on his old donation claim. Married Miss Julia F. Lewis in 1846. Chil- dren — John W., Caroline A., Byron W., and Elmer E. HARVEY, AMOS. Born in Pennsylvania, March 29, 1799; was of Quaker extrac- tion, and was reared in the State of his nativity. Came to Oregon and settled on the present site of Portland, but afterwards removed to Yamhill and then to Polk County, where he took a donation land claim. Married in Pennsylvania to Jane Ramage, by whom he had a large family, four children still surviving. These are — Eleanor (Mrs. Denny), James (now in Eastern Oregon), Mary (Mrs. Bobbins), and Jane (Mrs. Kelty). The mother died in 1866, and Mr. Harvey followed her in 1877. HELMICK, HENRY. Born in Pennsylvania in 1832; came to Oregon and settled in Washington County. Present residence, Monmouth, Polk County, and occupation farming and stock-raising. He married Sarah HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 637 Steepson in Iowa in 1845, and their children's names are — Lewis, James, Harmon, Mary C, and William H. When Mr. Helmick arrived in Oregon, he, with a company of others, came down the Columbia River on a raft, which also contained all their goods. The raft was wrecked at the Cascades and one man was drowned and all their property lost. HERREN, DOSHA (ROBBINS). Born in Henry County, Kentucky, in May, 1804; married to John Herren, in June, 1822; removed to Indiana and settled in Decatur County, in 1838, but went to Piatt County, Missouri, and there resided until 1845, when they came across the plains to Oregon. Located first near Wheatland, but in February, 1846, settled in Marion County, where they continued to reside until their respective deaths. Mr. Herren died March 2, 1864, Mrs. Herren September 15, 1881. Their family included thirteen chil- dren — seven sons and six daughters — ten of whom survived their mother. HERREN, W.J. Born in Henry County, Kentucky, January 17, 1824; came to Oregon in 1845, settling in Marion County. Present residence, Salem; occupation, manager of the Salem flouring mill company. Married, in 1847, Evelina Hall, by whom he had — David, Bertha (deceased) , Albert, George, Willard, and Edward. Mr. Herren, in 1875, built the Farmers' Warehouse and managed it until 1882 when it was sold to the present flouring mill company. He has held several public offices, and has been a man of note for many years. HILTIBRAND, PAUL. Born in Adams County, Ohio June 7, 1823; moved to Kentucky in 1832, to Missouri in 1842. Then came to Oregon and settled in Luckiamute Valley, where he still lives, and his occupation is farming and stock-raising. He married Evaline Tetherow, in Polk County, Oregon, in 1846, and their children's names are Lavenia, Iba E., James, and John W. HIASHAW, SANDFORD. Born in Warren County, Indiana. 1841; came to Oregon from Missouri and settled in Luckiamute Valley. Present residence, 638 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Mill Creek, Polk County, and occupation, farming. He married Elma C. Childers in Dallas, Polk County, in 1878, and their chil- dren's names are — Isaac, Emma, and Stella. HOSFORD, E. F. Born in Green County, New York, in 1820; came from Indiana to Oregon and lived until the following year in Yamhill County; then, in 1846, went to California and volunteered in the Mexican Avar. Returned to Oregon in 1849, and settled in Polk. County, near Salem, on a farm, and still resides there. Married Miss Mary Emmett in 1857, by whom he has had seven children — Lucia, Walter S., Olive, William, Stella (deceased), Minnie, and Ethel. HOWLAND, JOHN S. Lives at Oregon City and is a farmer by occupation; he was born in Kent, England, in 1809; married Elizabeth Howe and their children are — Cornelia, Charles, Henry E., Lenora, Alfred T., Mary E., Levina, John, Maggie and May (twins), and Edward. The first three named are deceased. JOHNSON, HEZEKIAH. Born in Maryland in 1798. He was sent as a missionary to the Pacific Coast by the Baptist denomination, and died at Oregon City in 1866. His wife's previous name was Eliza Shepherd. Children — Martha (deceased), Mary E., Olive, William C, Tappan (deceased), Franklin, Julia A., Hugh (deceased), Charlotte, Hugh (deceased), Lucetta (deceased), Amy, Albert (deceased), Hezekiah, and Noble S. (deceased). JOHNSON, W. CAREY. Was the son of the Reverend Hezekiah Johnson (q. v.). He was born in Frankfort, Ohio, October, 1833; was employed in Oregon City, first as clerk in a store, and afterwards as compositor in the printing offices of the Spectator and Argus newspapers. He studied law in 1855, and was admitted to the bar in the following year; in 1857 he ran on the Republican ticket for the Legislature. Subsequently he held the offices of city attorney, recorder, and treasurer of Oregon City, which has been his home for nearly forty years. Was elected district attorney in 1862, and HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 639 State Senator four years after. Is a strong advocate for schools, and equally active in forwarding religious enterprises. His time is mainly taken up with the profession of the law. Mr. Johnson married Josephine Devore, December 25, 1868, and they have four children — Balfe D., Nello D., M. D., and an infant boy. LEWIS, WILLIAM H. Born in Marion County, Oregon, in 1845; lived in that county until 1863; served three years in the First Oregon Cavalry. Since then has lived in California, Oregon, and Washington Territory. His present place of residence is Dundee, Yamhill County, and oc- cupation, railroad foreman. He married Maria S. Dibble in 1876, and their children's names are — Mark T., and Rex W. LOWNSDALE, DANIEL H. Born in Marion County, Kentucky, April 8, 1803. Married, at the age of twenty-three, Miss Ruth Overfield, and removed to (lib- son County, Indiana. Here his wife died in 1830, leaving three children — a boy (J. P. O. Lownsdale, of Portland), and two girls. After traveling in the south and in Europe, he set out for Oregon in 1845; arriving late in the year, he immediately took a land claim near the site of Portland, then a wilderness and untrodden by whites. This claim is now known as the Amos King claim, and adjoined that of Lovejoy and Pettygrove. In 1848 he purchased the site of Portland from F. W. Pettygrove, paying five thousand dollars — doubtless then an extravagant price. In 1850 he married Mrs. Nancy Gillihan and had by her two children — M. O. Lowns- dale, now of Portland, and Mrs. Ruth Hoyt, of Columbia County. Mr. Lownsdale held several public positions, among them that of U. S. Postal Agent in Fillmore's administration, and he also had a seat in the Legislature. Died May 4, 1862. McBRIDE, JAMES. Born in Tennessee about the year 1801; resided for a time in Springfield, Missouri; emigrated to Oregon in 1845; settled upon a farm in Yamhill County, but about 1870 removed to St. Helens, Columbia County. He was a physician, but did not practice much in the latter half of his life. Was United States Minister to the Hawaiian Kingdom from 1863 to 1866. Was the father of four- 640 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. teen children, some of whom have attained distinction. Died in St. Helens, December 18, 1875. The doctor was one of the most prominent and useful men of the early days, and left a large fund of endearing recollections to posterity. McKINNEY, CHARLES. Born in Indiana in 1830; left that State eight years later, went to Iowa and remained there until 1845, when he came to Oregon, traveling by way of Meek's celebrated cut-off. His occupation is farming, and he possesses real estate in Hillsboro, Washington County, his present residence and post-office address. McKINNEY, J. N. Born in Iowa in 1838; his first place of residence in Oregon was in Washington County, and his present residence is at Hillsboro, in that county, where he keeps a feed and livery stable. He married Miss Cornelius in 1866 and they have live children. McNARY, ALEXANDER. Born in Kentucky in 1800; moved to Indiana and thence to Illinois, and from there to Oregon; settled in Polk County and set out the first peach orchard in that county. While in Illinois he married Miss L. Stockton, by whom he had five children. Those now living are — Sarah, Hugh M., and Alexander W; and the de- ceased are — Nancy C, and Davis. McNARY, ALEXANDER W. Born in Illinois in 1833; is the son of the preceding, and came with his father to Oregon. Lived in Polk County, engaged in stock-raising and farming. Served in the Yakima war as a volunteer under Captain B. F. Burch. Married Miss Seatta Grubbs in 1857, and by her had two children — Elizabeth and Ella. That lady died in 1862, and in 1874 Mr. McNary married Mrs. E. J. Miller, and by her has one child, named Archie A. Mr. McNary lives at Eola, and is the oldest settler of that place. That village was first settled by William Durand about 1849, was laid out in 1851, and called Cincinnati, and was once proposed as the State Capital. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 641 McNARY, HUGH M. Born in Illinois in 1827; removed to Missouri, and later crossed the plains to Oregon. Went direct to Polk County with his father, Alexander McNary, and took a donation claim near Eola. His oc- cupations have been stock-raising and farming. In the interest of the former pursuit he spent seventeen years following 1859 in East- ern Oregon and Washington Territory, returning to Polk County in 1876. Was county commissioner of Klickitat County for four years. Married, in April, 1854, Miss Catherine Frizzell. Children — Sarah, Lena, Anna, Lillie, Angelo, Lawrence, Hugh, and Wilson. McNEMEE, JOB. Settled on the site of Portland in 1845, and after the foundation of that city attempted to acquire title to the land as a donation claim ; was unsuccessful after carrying the matter through several courts. Died in Portland October 1, 1872. MELDRUM, JOHN. Born in Kentucky, March 27, 1808. His ancestors were of Scotch descent, and are traceable back to the times of Robert the Bruce and William Wallace. Rev. Wm. Meldrum, the father of John, originated the American line, he coming to the United States in 1804, and settling in Kentucky. John Meldrum lived subsequently in various western States, and on December 11, 1834, married Susanna Depew Cox, in Green County, Illinois. The pair celebrated their golden wedding — the fiftieth anniversary — in Oregon City in 1884. Their children have been — Margaret Octavia (Mrs. W. S. Moore, of Klamath County, Oregon), George McDonald (deceased), John William, Mary Relief (Mrs. D. P. Thompson, of Portland), Sarah Mabry (Mrs. F. O. McCown, of Oregon City), Charles Westley ("deceased), Edwin O. (deceased), Henry, Susan Frances (deceased), and Helena. The five first-named were born before the family removed to Oregon, the others subsequently. They came with the emigration of 1845, and soon after settled at Oregon City. Mr. Meldrum's occupation was farming. MELDRUM, JOHN W. Born near Burlington, Iowa, December 17, 1839; and came to Oregon with his parents in 1845. Resides near Oregon City, and 642 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. is a farmer and deputy U. S. surveyor. Married Miss Georgia Pope, and there were born to them — Charles E., Willie (deceased), Eva S., and D. Thompson. MILLER, WIL-LIAM P. Born in Missouri, March 12, 1836, of parents who were farmers. The family came to Oregon and settled at first in Washington County, removing to Sauvie's (Sauveur's) Island a year later. From thence they went, in 1855, to Jackson County, and W. P. served in the war against the Indians in that year. Col. Miller led the band of prospectors who discovered the placers of John Day, Powder, and Burnt rivers in 1861. He lived in the Yakima Coun- try from 1869 until 1877, returning then to The Dalles. He was appointed warden of the State prison in 1878. Married Miss Sarah E. Kaffety September 21, 1864. PALMER, JOEL. Born in Canada, in 1810, of parents who were residents of New York; moved in early life to Indiana, and resided there for many years, becoming in 1844 a member of the State Legislature. In the spring of 1845 he set out for Oregon, arriving in the fall of the year. His errand was to view the country ; and so well was he pleased, that in the following year he returned home, proposing to bring out his family. In 1847 the Palmer emigration took place accordingly, which derives its name from his leadership, which he attained from his knowledge of the way. A large num- ber of people constituted the party, among whom were Messrs. Geer and Grim, of Marion County, the Grahams and Collards, and Christopher Taylor, of Yamhill, and others. Arriving again in Oregon, General Palmer took up a donation claim upon the Yamhill River, and laid out the town of Dayton. When the Whitman massacre occurred he joined the volunteer forces and was chosen quartermaster and commissary general, and served throughout the Cayuse war, thus earning the title of general. Subsequently' he held the position of Superintendent of Indian Affairs. For several terms he was a member of the Legislature, and in 1870 was Republican candidate for Governor of Oregon, but was defeated. He was twice married, and his second wife and HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 643 seven of their children survived him. Gen. Palmer died June 9, 1881. PENTLAND, ROBERT. Born in Newcastle, England, in 1820; came to the United States in 1844 and joined the Oregon immigration of the succeeding year. Arriving on the Willamette, he took charge of a grist mill at Ore- gon City belonging to George Abernethy, and continued therewith until 1849, when he paid a visit to California. Settled next on a donation claim near Albany, and engaged in flour milling and mer- chandising at that place. In 1855 he become a partner with Aber- nethy and Leander Holmes in the purchase of the Linn City property at the Willamette Falls. They erected the largest flouring mill in Oregon ; at the same time Mr. Pentland owned an interest in the Portland water works with Stephen Coffin. In 1860 the Linn City improvements were destroyed by fire, and as soon as the transpor- tation works were renewed by Mr. Pentland in company with Colonel Kelly, the great flood of 1861-62 washed all away. Mr. Pentland then removed to The Dalles and engaged in business for fifteen years, building, among other structures, two flouring mills. In 1878 he purchased the flouring mill at Scio, Linn County, and now runs it besides a sash and door and furniture factory. Married Miss Jane Law at Newcastle, England, in 1841. She died in 1875, and the next year he wedded Mrs. Eliza E. Reynolds, a native of Maine. Has two children living — Mrs. S. L. Brooks, of The Dalles, and E. C. Pentland, of Alkali, Wasco County. PETERSON, ASA H., Is an Eclectic physician and dentist, residing in Lebanon, Linn County. Born in Lewis County, West Virginia, April 12, 1822; came overland to Oregon, and in the year following his arrival, settled in Linn County, on the north side of Peterson's Butte, so named for his family. He was a descendant of John Paul Jones, of Revolutionary fame. Our subject is coroner of Linn County, his name having been placed on both the Republican and Democratic tickets. Married Susanna Johnson, a native of Ken- tucky; born November 16, 1826; and their children are — David H., Lawson J., Melissa J., and Walter C. 644 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. PETERSON, HENRY J. Born in Virginia; came from Iowa to Oregon and settled in Linn County; took a donation claim and became a farmer; was elected to the Territorial Legislature in 1848 and served one term. He was a descendant of John Paul Jones, of revolutionary fame. Died in 1864. PETERSON, W. A. Lives in Albany ; has been a farmer ; was born in Virginia in 1828; married, in 1852, Miss Eliza Smelser, who died in 1867; by her he had ^ve children. PHILLIPS, JOHN. Born in Wiltshire, England, in 1814; came to America in 1834 Resided for a time in Florida, and was in government employ during the Seminole war. Lived in New Orleans and St. Louis successively, and came to Oregon in 1845. Settled on a donation claim in Spring Valley, Polk County, where he now lives. Married Miss Elizabeth Hibbard, in New Orleans, in 1839, and had eleven children, of whom the following are alive, namely — John E., Charles, Samuel, Hannah, Amelia (now Mrs. Basey, of Salem); Mary J. (now Mrs. Martin, of Weston) ; Elizabeth J. (now Mrs. McCurly, of Umatilla); Cornelia (now Mrs. Claggett, of Inde- pendence). RIDGEWAY, WILLIAM. Born in Buchanan County, Missouri, September 3, 1842; came to Oregon and settled at Mill Creek, Polk County, which is still his place of residence; he is a farmer by occupation. In 1878 he married Matilda J. Blair, and they have one child — Mary C. RINEARSON, PETER M. Born in Butler County, Ohio, February 6, 1819. Came to Ore- gon in November, 1845. Resides now at Oregon City and is a farmer by occupation. Married twice — to Rebecca Cornelius, and to Isabelle McDonald. Children's names — Cornelius (deceased), Sarah, Abraham B., Isaac V., Peter M., Jacob (deceased), Cicero, Emma, George, Edward, and Jacob S. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 645 RISLEY, JACOB S. Lives near Oregon City, and is a farmer by occupation; he was born in Columbus County, Ohio, in 183-2; married Miss Mary S. Scholl, and their children are — Charles W., Orville (deceased), John F., Arthur B. (deceased), Elmer S. (deceased), Mary A., and Ralph E. RISLEY, ORVILLE, Lives in Portland, but is a farmer by occupation ; he was born in Xew York, in 1803, and was twice married; first to Miss Mary Ball, and second to Miss Amelia Snyder. His children are — Jacob >.. and Charles M. The latter is deceased. RITNER, S. B. Born in Switzerland in 1815; came to Oregon and settled in Luckiamute Valley, Polk County. Occupation, farming. He mar- ried Sarah Weeding, and their children's names are — John, Louis, Sophronia, and Franklin. ROBINSON, JAMES B. Born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in 1824. He came to Oregon and settled near where Hillsboro now stands, in Washington County, and engaged in farming. He married Melissa H. Warner in 1842, and their children's names are — Francis M., and George A. Mr. Robinson is deceased, but his wife and chil- dren still reside on the old homestead in Washington County. ROGERS, JAMES W. Lives near McMinnville, Yamhill County, and is a farmer by occupation. He was born in Indiana, April 13, 1821; moved to Iowa in 1839; six years later came to Oregon and settled at McMinnville. He married Mary E. Henderson in 1849. She died in 1869, and in 1878 he married Mary A. Small. Their children's names are — James O., June A.. Priscilla E., Lewis J., Thomas H. Cora B., and Frank. SAPPINGTON, GEORGE W., Son of J. M. Sappington; was born in 1841, and came across the plains with his parents. Since 1846 has lived in Yamhill Count\ ; ha> been a farmer and butcher, and is now a merchant in 646 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. partnership with James Roberts. Was postmaster four years, but has now resigned. Married Mary F. Laughlin in 1864, who died in 1868, leaving one child. In 1870, he married Miss Mary E. Robinson, and by her has had five children. Residence, North Yamhill. SAPPINGTON, JAMES M. Was a native of Kentucky, and a farmer by occupation. Mar- ried Miss Mary A. Anderson, of Kentucky, who died, leaving four children, namely — John W., George W., Eliza F., and Sarah P. Mr. Sappington died on the Tualatin Plains in 1846. SAPPINGTON, JOHN A. Born in Montgomery County, Kentucky, in 1837; the son of James M. Sappington; after his arrival in Oregon, settled in Yam- hill County; now lives three miles east of Gaston; is a farmer by occupation. He married Lucinda Laughlin in 1857, and their chil- dren's names are — I. M., E. B., Rosa E., W. D., Fanny, Nancy, and Henry H. Mr. Sappington served as justice of the peace in 1880, and was elected to the Legislature in 1882, and served one term. He also served in the Yakima war. SAVAGE, WILLIAM. Born in Oswego County, New York, in 1826; in 1842 moved to Hancock County, Ohio; came to Oregon across the plains, and drove the third wagon of the first train that crossed the Cascade Range, in July, 1846. He settled in Yamhill County; now lives on the Yamhill River, in Polk County, near Sheridan, and his % occupation is that of farming and stock-raising. He married Sarah Brown in 1854, and Mary C. Lady in 1883. Their children are — Edison, Gibson, James, Laura, William, Sarah, Austin, and Irving (deceased). Mr. Savage was a member of the Oregon Legislature from Polk County in 1880. SIMPSON, ISAAC N. Born in Georgia in 1813; moved to Tennessee in 1815, and to Arkansas in 1833. Came overland to Oregon, arriving here with no property but three cows, a mule and a pony, and eight dollars in cash. Settled in the Luckiamute Valley, where he still resides. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. <>4 7 Occupation, farming and stock-raising. Married Martha Jackson in Arkansas, in 1885. Children — Amos C, Marshall W., Eliza, and Isaac X. SKINNER, ALONZO A. Born in Huron County, Ohio; studied law and was admitted to the bar. Came to Oregon in company with Orville Risley and others, in 1845. In the year after his arrival he was made Circuit Judge of Oregon under the Provisional Government. The salary of this office was originally fixed at $200, but it is said that it was raised to $800 to induce Judge Skinner to accept the place. Peter H. Burnett, afterward Governor of California, was Supreme Judge of Oregon, but resigned because Judge Skinner received the largest salary. Skinner was a Whig originally, but became a Republican on the formation of that party. From 1851 to 1853 he was Indian Agent, and was located in the Rogue River Valley, where he took up the first donation land claim recorded in that section. In 1853 he was candidate for Delegate to Congress, against Joseph Lane, by whom he was badly beaten. From 1862 to 1864 he was clerk of Lane County. He was esteemed a well-read lawyer, modest and unassuming, and of good morals and fine feelings. SMITH, HIRAM. Born in Dunnville, New York, and grew to manhood there; re- moved to Ohio, and in 1845 organized an expedition for Oregon. Subsequently he crossed the plains six times. In 1862 he went out upon the plains to protect and guide the immigrants of that year. 1 [e resided mainly in Portland and accumulated a fortune. Was very widely known, and was a man of great usefulness and strength of character. Old pioneers will remember him best by his nick- name of "Red Shirt Smith." He died in San Francisco, January 17,1870. IIi> widow still lives. Her residence is in the city of Portland. SMITH, JOSEPH S. Born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, June 20, 1824. In the fall of 1844 he started for Oregon Territory, reaching Oregon City in the spring of the following year. He began the study of law, and while he was acquiring knowledge supported himself by manual 648 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. labor, such as sawing logs and splitting rails. One of his early jobs of work was helping to build a warehouse for ex- Senator JNesmith at Canemah. In July, 1849, he was married in Salem to Miss Julia A. Carter, who survives him. Before this he had been ad- mitted to the bar. In 1853, Mr. Smith moved to Puget Sound and served some time as prosecuting attorney for the third district of Oregon Territory. In 1854 or 1855 he was elected to the Territorial Legislature, and was unanimously chosen Speaker of the house. Subsequently he was appointed by President Buchanan United States district attorney for the territory. In 1858 he returned to 'Salem, where he resided until 1870, when he removed to Portland. He was a member of the law firm of Grover, Smith & Page for a number of years. In 1860 he became manager and financial agent of the Willamette Woolen Mills at Salem, the oldest industry of the kind on the Pacific Coast. In 1867 Mr. Smith went with his family to Europe, his health necessitating a change of climate. Upon his return in the following year he was nominated by the Democracy for Congress, and was elected, defeat- ing David Logan by 1200 majority — the first Democratic Con- gressman sent from Oregon in eight years. After his term in Con- gress had expired Mr. Smith came to Portland, and lived there continuously until his death, though he spent a great deal of time in travel, principally in the Southern States, whose mild climate suited his weak constitution. In 1882 he was nominated for Governor on the Democratic ticket, but was defeated by the Re- publican nominee, Governor Z. F. Moody. He made judicious in- vestments in real estate in Portland in early days and died wealthy. His decease took place on the twenty-eighth of September, 1884. Mr. Smith left three children— Walter V. Smith, Mrs. H. Y. Thompson, and Preston C. Smith. STAATS, ISAAC. Born in Albany, New York, in 1814; came to Oregon and set- tled at Luckiamute Valley, where he still resides. Occupation, farming and stock-raising. He married Orlena M. Williams in Oregon in 1846, and their children's names are — James M., Henry D., John O., Isaac W., Clarence E., Asa C, and Mary I. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 649 STAATS, STEPHEN. Born in Albany, New York, July 16, 1821; removed succes- sively to Kansas (1835), Missouri (1837), and to Oregon (1845). Married Miss Cordelia C. Forrest March 29, 1846, in Polk County, the marriage being the first that ever took place in that county, and, probably, the first on the West Side. Went overland to Cali- fornia in the spring of 1847, taking his family along, the mode of travel being by horse or mule back. Spent some months in that State acting as clerk for Sam Brannan, but returned to Oregon in the fall of 1848, coming in the Sabine, a sailing vessel. Subse- qently, Mr. Staats was elected to the Legislature of Oregon. His residence is in Monmouth, Polk County, and occupation, farmer and stock-raiser. The names of his children are — John H. (died March 29, 1871), Elizbeth A., Cordelia J., Clara A., Mary C, Cordelia C, Stephen A. D. (died January 21, 1884), William H., Charles S., and Lillie F. STUMP, DAVID. Born in Ohio in the year 1819; lived for a time in Iowa, and arrived in Oregon in 1845. He settled in Polk County, and took a donation claim of six hundred and forty acres, which he still owns. In 1850 went on a prospecting expedition in Rogue Biver Valley. In 1874 was elected to serve in the legislature. He has worked as surveyor at times. He was married to Elizabeth Cham- berlain in 1850, and has four children — Mary A., Joseph S., Kath- erine B. and John B. TETHEROW, THOMAS B. Born in Platte County, Missouri, in 1838; came to Oregon and settled in Polk County. Present residence, Monmouth, and occu- pation, farming and stock-raising. He married Martha A. Mc- Loughlin in Buena Vista, November 18, 1858, and their children's names are — Joseph A., and Minnie E. THOMAS, FREDERICK. Was a soldier in the war of 1812; came overland to Oregon at a very early day and settled in the forks of the Santiam River. Was the first settler on Thomas Creek. Children — Sally E., Jesse B., John S., George C, Susan W., Thomas A., Charles M., and J. W. 650 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. WALKER, C. C. Born in Virginia in 1819; removed with parents to Missouri in 1829, and crossed the plains to Oregon sixteen years later. In 1849 he went to California, accompanied by his brother, W. P. Walker, also an immigrant of 1845, and labored in the mines for a short time. Took a donation claim in Spring Valley, Polk County, on which he still resides. Occupation, farming and fruit - raising ; address, Zena, Polk County. Was married July 4, 1850, to Miss Louisa Pur vine, an immigrant of 1848. WALKER, JOHN H. Resides three miles southeast of Gaston, Washington County, and is a farmer by occupation. He was born in Jefferson County, Indiana, in 1819; came to Oregon and settled near Forest Grove. He married Lucinda Wilkes in 1841, and they have five children — William B., Winfield S., Leonard E., Mrs. Louisa Gahey, and Mrs. Lucinda Johnson. WAYMIRE, JOHN. Born in Ohio in 1813, and after living at various times in Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, and serving as a volunteer in the Black Hawk war, came to Oregon in 1845. Worked in Portland in 1846, and built the first wharf there. Afterward, moved to Dallas and worked as carpenter. Still resides there. Mr. Way- mire has been married three times and has eleven children. WHITE, EDWARD NEWTON. Born April 27, 1828, in Illinois. Settled m Linn County, Ore- gon. Married July, 1848, Miss Catharine J. Burhart. They had three children — Cynthia L., Adalia A., and M. T. Mrs. White died in 1859, and Anna Woodsides became his second wife. Eight children were born to this union, seven being now alive — Jane, Eudocia, Grant, Aaron, Bertha, Eleanor, and Edward. Mr. White resides mainly at Prineville, Crook County, being engaged in the stock business. WILCOX, RALPH. Born in Cattaraugus County, New York, in July, 1818, the son of a physician, with whom he studied medicine. Removed to HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 651 Missouri and practiced. Married Miss Fickels. Removed to Oregon, and in 1846-47 was a member of the Provisional Legisla- ture. In 1851 was a member of the Territorial Legislature and Speaker of the House. From 1856 to 1859 was Register of the Oregon City Land Office. From 1859 to 1869 was judge of Washington County. Served a term in the State Legislature in 186 *2, and in the next year became clerk of the United States Dis- trict Court at Portland. Shot himself, and died on April 18, 1877. WILEY, RICHARD E. Born in Hamilton County, Ohio, in 1823; came to Oregon in 1845; married to Jane Baldra; children — Wilbur D., Annie M., William V., Dora A., Ella F., and Benemma. Mr. Wiley's pres- ent residence is Hillsboro, Washington County, and his occupation is dealing in wines, liquors and cigars. WILLIAMS, P. w. Born in East Tennessee in 1832. Coming to Oregon he settled in the Luckiamute Valley, and has resided there since. Is a car- penter and farmer. He married Emma Snelling in Benton County. Children — Dora, Minerva, George, Thomas, and Richard. WOOLEY, JACOB. Born in New Jersey ; from there he went to Ohio, then came to Oregon and settled on the Tualatin Plains, where he resided until his death, which occurred in 1868. His wife's previous name was Miss Ellen Rose, by whom he had four children. zumwalt, c. P. Born in Calloway County, Missouri, August 12, 1827. Settled first in Yamhill County. Resides now on his farm at Perrydale, Polk County. Married Irene Goodrich in 1849. Children — John T., C. A., Henry O., May E., Sarah M., Glenn B., William B., Guilford L., Frank, Tamine (deceased), and Fred (deceased). 1846. ALDERMAN, A. L., Lives in Dayton, Yamhill County; has been a farmer and fruit- grower, and at one time owned the largest orchard in the State. 652 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. He was born in New York in 1820; married in 1850 to Miss Mary J. Burns, who died in 1863. In 1867, he married Miss Charlotte Odell. Has four children by the first wife and five by the second. BLAKELY, JAMES, Lives near Brownsville, Linn County, engaged in stock-growing and farming. He was born in Knox County, Tennessee, in 1812; in 1835 he married Miss Sarah Dick, and their children are — Ellen, Catherine, William, Caroline (deceased), Harriet, Henry, Margaret, James, Joseph, Sarah, and George. BONNEY, JAIRUS. Jairus Bonney, with his wife Jane, and their six children, crossed the plains from Illinois to California in 1845, and in the following year came to Oregon. The survivors of the family are the mother, Jane Bonney, who is aged seventy -five years; Martha (Bonney) Rhodes, aged forty-eight; B. F. Bonney, aged forty-six; Emily (Bonney) Broyles, of Wasco County; and Ellen (Bonney) Bidwell, aged thirty-eight, of Drain, Douglas County. The latter is said to have been the first child born in California of parents who were American citizens. The mother and her two first named children live in Clackamas County. BOUNDS, JOHN. Born and raised in Tennessee; settled in Polk County. Occupa- tion, farming. Married Miss Elizabeth Lovelady. Children — Nancy (deceased), Margaret (Mrs. Tharp), Thomas, Jane (Mrs. A. V. Mc- Carty), Jesse, Amanda (Mrs. E. W. McCarty), John, Ann (deceased), Sarah (deceased), and James S. BROCK, EUNICE. Born in Wood County, Ohio, in 1839; came to Oregon and settled near Forest Grove ; now lives at Gaston and conducts a hotel. She married George Brock in 1857, and their children's names are — James W., Mrs. Florence Bryant, and Wilson E. BURNETT, GEORGE W. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1811; lived, the first year of his residence in Oregon, on Tualatin Plains. In 1847 moved to Yamhill County; was a farmer. Served during the Cayuse war HISTOKY OF IMMIGRATION*. 653 as captain of the company organized in Yamhill and Washington counties. Returned to Yamhill County after the war, where he spent the remainder of his life. He served one term in the Legis- lature. Married Miss Sidney Younger in 1831, and seven chil- dren were born to them, four of whom now live — Anna Mary, Lncretia, Emily J., and George H. Mrs. Burnett lives in McMinn- ville. Mr. Burnett died in . CARLIN, JOHN. Born in Massachusetts in December, 1820; came across the plains in an immigrant train, of which Captain William Martin was the leader; lived in Yamhill County two years. In 1849 went to Cal- ifornia in the first schooner ever built in Oregon. Returned to Yamhill County, Oregon, the following year and settled on a farm three miles from McMinnville. Moved to McMinnville in 1884 and now lives there, but still owns five hundred acres of land. Mar- ried Miss Martha E. Garrison in 1850, and has four children living — George D., Henry W., Mary O., and Wayne — and two deceased — James W., and Martha E. COLLINS, F. M. Born in Missouri, in 1834, the son of Smith Collins; came to Oregon in 1846. His father settled in Polk County, and took a donation claim in 1847, on which he lived until his death. The subject of this sketch has traded in stock, and kept a meat market for some time. Served as deputy under Sheriffs Smith and S. T. Birch. In 1859 he married Miss Martha E. Blake, daughter of the Colonel Gilliam who was killed in the Cayuse war. Mr. Collins has two children — Henrietta Blanche and Anna Bertha. He is now a resident of Dallas. COLLINS, JAMES L. Born in Warren County, Missouri, May 9, 1833. Came to Ore- gon with his father, Smith Collins, in 1846, by way of the "South Road,' 1 or Applegate's cut-off, his company being the first that came that way. Settled in Polk County; went to California in 1 853, and remained for a time; served in the Yakima war; was admitted to the bar in 1859. Married Miss Mary Whiteaker in 1861, who died in 1865, leaving one child. In 1867 married Miss 654 HISTOKY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Mary E. Kimes. Was appointed county judge of Polk County in 1869. COLLINS, SMITH. Born in Virginia in 1804; came to Oregon and settled in the Luckiamute Valley, Polk County, where he still lives. He is a farmer. He married Emily Wyatt, in Missouri, in 1836. Children — - Elizabeth T., James L., Frank M., Eliza M., Douglass W., William W., George W., David C, Alexander H., Emily A., Samuel A., and Mary. COLLINS, WILLIAM W. Born in Warren County, Missouri, in 1843 (the son of Smith Collins), and was taken to Oregon with the emigration of 1846. Located in Luckiamute Valley, and is a farmer. He married Letitia Fuqua, in this State, in 1870. Children — Mary J., Laura E., Joseph W., and Ralph L. CURRY, GEORGE L. Born in , in 1820; came to Oregon in 1846, and soon after became editor of the Oregon Spectator, the earliest and then only newspaper of the Northwest. In 1854 President Pierce ap- pointed him Governor of the Territory, and he held that position until the organization of the State government in 1857. Died in Portland, July 28, 1878, aged 58 years. Davidson, Andrew. Born in Tennessee in 1812; came to Oregon in 1846. Lives at Ballston, Polk County, and is a farmer. He married Mrs. Rachel Owens in 1845. Children — Mary J., Nancy, Sabrina, Margaret, Joseph, Ellen, Martha, Rachel, H. D., Dollie, and James. DAVIS, A. C. Born in Wood County, Ohio, March 4, 1838; was taken to Missouri in the same year, and to Oregon ten years later. He set- tled in Washington County, but later removed to McMinnville, Yamhill County, where he still resides engaged in farming and stock-raising. He married Pauline Beman in Yamhill County, November 29, 1874, and their children's names are — John B., Lizzie E., Rosley A., and Lelah B. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 655 DAVIS, JOSEPH. Born in New Jersey. August 3, 181 '2. He came to Oregon and settled at what is now known as Dilley; his occupation was farm- ing. He married Lucy Carpenter January 31, 1836, and their chil- dren numbered six. only two of whom are living, namely — Mrs. Eunice Brock, and Mrs. Henderson. Mr. Davis died in 1877. DAVIS, LEVI T. Born in Andrew County, Missouri, March 28, 1838; came to Or- egon and settled in Washington County. In 1866, Mr. Levi Davis and his brother invented a combined header and thresher; it was patented in 1867, and sold in 1883. He and his father, Samuel Davis, were the incorporators of the Blue Mountain wagon road, which was built in 1865. In Marion County, June 17, 1873, he was married to Margaret A. Hunsaker, and their children's names were — Mary E., and Earnest T\ ., both deceased. Mr. Davis is now a farmer and stock -raiser, and lives at McMinnville, Yamhill County. DAWSON, WILLIAM. Born in Scotland, December 31, 1816, and left that country for America in 1838. Proceeded to Missouri and followed the occupa- tion of farmer in that State until 1843, when he started for Oregon and arrived on the Pacific coast 1846, and settled on a farm in Yamhill County. In 1876 he moved to Monmouth, where he has since been engaged in the business of grocer, and druggist. Mr. Dawson served as county commissioner of Yamhill County before and after < Oregon was organized as a State, and was United States commissioner of that county seven years. He was married to Miss Mary E. Searcy in 1843, and six children were the fruits of this union, namely — Phcebe E., Ann, Margaret. Amanda, Ella, and Lou. Hi- wife- dying, he married again in 1864, and one other child was born to him. named William. DESKINS, DANIEL. Born in Kentucky in 1820; on his arrival in Oregon he settled at North Yamhill : was a farmer. He married Miss Shuck in 1854, and their children's names are— Ellen, Caroline, Emma, and Edith. Mr. Deskins died in 187:;. 656 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. DICE, E. C. Was born in Adair County, Kentucky, January 4, 1816. Ke- sided in that State until 1841, when he went to Illinois, and the same year to Missouri. In 1846 he came across the plains to Oregon, and was met at Fort Hall by Jesse Applegate, and came with him across the mountains by the Applegate route. During the Cayuse war he was one of a company of sixteen to take dis- patches to California, but the deep snow in the Siskiyous prevented them from crossing, and they were obliged to return to the valley. They then enlisted in a volunteer company, and after considerable hard traveling in pursuit of the Whitman murderers returned to Oregon City, and were discharged in June, 1848. Mr. Dice then returned to his claim in Polk County. Since then he has resided at various times in California and Walla Walla. He now owns a farm of two hundred acres near Independence and also city property. Was married to Miss Minerva A. Steward, September 27, 1848, and to them the following named children have been born — Frances M., Mary E., Orlena E., and Benjamin C. EDGAR, RANKIN. Born in Boone County, Indiana, December 18, 1844; came with his parents to Oregon in 1846. Besides now at Camp Polk, Crook County, Eastern Oregon. Is a prominent stock- raiser. Married Elizabeth A. Tracy, and has three children — Effie, Elizabeth E., and Wayne. ELLIOTT, WILLIAM. Born in Vincennes, Indiana, September 14, 1815. Occupation, farmer. Postoffice address, Oregon City. Wife's previous name, Nancy Sconce. Children — Annie M., John W., Robert H. (de- ceased), Eliza C, and Ella L. FAULCONER, A. B. Born in Kentucky in 1816; came from Missouri to Oregon; set- tled in the Willamette Valley and took up a claim near Sheridan, on which he still lives. In 1840 he married Miss Mary Graves, and by her had four children, two of whom, James and Anna, are liv- ing. Mrs. Faulconer died and he was married again to Mrs. Mary A. Cutting; has six children by her — Mary, Estella, Hattie, Thomas, Edward, and Sheridan. HISTOEY OF IMMIGRATION. 657 GARRISON, JOHN M., A.M. Born in Atchison County, Missouri, in 1845, and brought to Yamhill County, Oregon, the next year. His father settled near Amity, and was a farmer. The son was educated at the Willamette University. Salem, graduating in 1866. Is now a teacher of pen- manship. Married Miss Mary Blank, of Forest Grove, in January, 1876. GEER, F. W. Born in Connecticut in 1817; came to Oregon and settled in Clackamas County. Present residence on the banks of the Wil- lamette, opposite Butteville, and occupation hop-farming. He married Mary A. Prentis, of Rochester. New York, July 17. 1811, and their children are three sons and four daughters. GOOD, D. H. Born in Pennsylvania in 1818; came across the plains to Oregon and settled in Clackamas County, where he died in 1871. Married in 1847 to Miss Mary E. Dunbar, and had nine children, six of whom now live. GRAVES, CHARLES B. Born in Kentucky, in January, 182-1; was the son of James B. and Diana Graves: parents removed to Missouri eight years later, and in 1846 the son left that State for Oregon, crossing the plains. Settled in Yamhill, but now lives in Polk County, where he has resided since 1864. Is a farmer by occupation; was married in Polk County, in 1851, to Miss Mary H. Burnett. Their children numbered thirteen, of whom the eight folio win g still live — Emma S., Thomas J., Gleun O., James, Mary F., Nellie, Xettie, and Daisy. GUTHRIE, DAVID M. Born in Boone County. Missouri, May 28, 1824. Started over- land to Oregon in May, 1846, and arrived in December. Being a farmer, he settled in Polk County, taking up a land claim. His residence is four miles south of Dallas. Here he has a fine farm, with excellent improvements, and lives thereon in comfort, with his large family. A part <>f his attention is given to stock-raising, at which ht- is regarded as yerj successful. Be married Mary Ellen 658 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Davidson, September 21, 1851, in Polk County. She died October 23, 1860, leaving five children— -Harvey Elias, Aaron, James Thomas, Sarah Margaret, and Henry. Mr. Guthrie was married to Martha Emeline Miller, in Polk County, October 18, 1868. By her he has had — David A., George H., Jonathan F., Odis M., Joseph L., Mary E., Laton A., Forest L., Martha T., and Lillie M. HALL, EDWARD C. Born in Illinois in 1841, the son of Reason B. Hall. Has resided in Polk County since coming across the plains with his father in 1846. Now lives in Buena Vista, and is a farmer; was for nine years a vvagon -maker. Married Miss Margaret L. Leasure, and has seven children — George S., Josephine E., John E., Henry R., Charles C, Ralph, and James C. HALL, REASON B. Born in Georgia in 1794; was taken to Kentucky by his father and reared there. Served in the war of 1812 and in the Black Hawk war. Married in 1823, while in Indiana, Miss Martha Wright, by whom he had ten children, eight of whom still survive — Mary (Mrs. H. Croisan), Sarah (Mrs. Joseph Smith), Lawrence M., Edward C, Reuben and William (twins, born on the plains), Andrew Jackson, and Benjamin F. Mr. Hall brought his family across the plains in 1846, and in the next year settled permanently on a donation claim where Buena Vista now stands. This town he laid out in 1861, and named it from the celebrated battle field in Mexico. Mr. Hall died December 13, 1870. HALL, REUBEN P. Born in 1846, upon the plains, while his parents were en route for Oregon. Son of R. B. Hall. Was raised in Polk County, which has been his home ever since. Resides in Buena Vista, and conducts the livery stable of that place. Married Miss Fannie Bevens in 1869, and has had seven children, five of whom are living — Mary B., Nettie, Pearl A., Rupert, and Grace E. HAYES, SARAH A. Born Sarah A. Finlay, in Missouri in 1843, and came with her parents to Oregon. Mrs. Hayes has been twice married, her first HISTOET OF IMMIGRATION. 659 husband having been a Mr. Yawter, and by whom she had two children — W. J. and Ira Vawter. Her second husband was S. W. Hayes, who was murdered in Halsey in 1876. (See Seth Hayes). Mrs. Hayes 1 present residence is Halsey. HENDERSON, J. J. Born in Buchanan County, Missouri, April 16, 1842; when four years of age he came to Oregon and lived in Yamhill County, and now resides in Bellevue, that county, occupied in farming. He married Lucinda Van Buskirk in Yamhill County, February 19, 1865, and they have one child, named Lloyd B. HOLMAN, JAMES D. Born in Woodford County, Kentucky, August 18, 1814; was married in 1840 to Miss Rachel Summers; came to Oregon six years afterwards, and settled in Pacific County, AY. T. Represented that district in the first legislative session under the Provisional Govern- ment. Went to California in 1848; returned in 1850, and founded Pacific City, on Baker's Bay, at the mouth of the Columbia. Moved to Portland in 1856, and resided there until his death, on the 20th of December, 1882. He was one of the first directors of the pub- lic schools of Portland, and was also identified with the affairs of the First Presbyterian Church, of which he was a member. His wife survives him, as also four of their children — Fannie A., Kate S., Fred. Y., and George F. IMBRIE, JAMES. Mr. Imbrie's native State was Ohio, where he was born in 1818. Coming to Oregon, he settled in Washington County, and is now a resident of Hillsboro. His occupation is farming and stock-raising. He married Miss Mary Cornelius in 1851. Children — James J., Lizzie, Josephine, Thomas, William C, and Nellie. JONES, WILLIAM T. Born in Dorsetshire, England, September 15, 1819; came to the Pacific Coast in 1846, and lived in California a short time prior to coming to Oregon. On his arrival here he settled at Muddy Creek, Yamhill County. His present place of residence is at McMinn- ville, and occupation, farming and stock-raising. He married Eliza- 660 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. beth Meader, a native of England, in Yamhill County, July 14, 1857, and they have seven children, viz. — Eliza J., John W., Mary E., Charlotte A., Thomas A., Esther E., and Walter H. KINSEY, ANSON. Born in Howard County, Missouri, February 6, 1824. Located in Yamhill County in 1846; went to the California mines in 1849, returning in 1852. Since then has resided in Polk County. Oc- cupation, farming; address, Deny. Married Miss Elizabeth Beatty in 1853. Children — Nancy J., and Willard H. Mrs. Kinsey died in March, 1882. LANCEFIELD, ALBERT J. Born in Kent, England, March 12, 1817; came to New York in 1832, to Missouri in 1837, and to Oregon nine years later. He set- tled at Amity, Yamhill County, and still resides there. He is a farmer. He married Sarah Henderson in Canada in 1835, who died in 1849; married Sarah Mulkey in Oregon in 1850, deceased December 5, 1855; married Eliza Allen in Oregon in 1863. Chil- dren — Robert W., and Mary E. LINVILLE, HARRISON. Born in Campbell County, Tennessee, September 22, 1813; removed when seven years old, to Missouri. In 1836 married Nancy Bounds, and in 1846 came to Oregon with his family. Settled on a farm at what was known as Bloomington, Polk County, and remained there until 1865, when he removed to Buena Vista, and subsequently to Parker's Station, on the West Side railroad, and in 1884 to Independence, where he still lives. Mr. Linville was elected a member of the Territorial Legislature in 1848, and was the first county judge of Polk County. For a time he was United States Indian Agent at the Malheur Agency. The first Mrs. Linville died in 1855; and two years later Mr. Linville married Mrs. Clara L. Frederick. His children by his first wife were — Mary E., Harriet L, Cordelia, Joan, Hannah J., Julettie, Willard S., Granville, and Clara. Of these, Joan, Julettie, and Granville are dead. By his second wife he has had Joseph A. and Viola H., both now living. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 661 LOVELADY, T. J. Born in Tennessee, March 19, 1806; in 1832 went to Missouri and served there as justice of the peace for eight years. In 1846 came to Oregon and took a donation claim in Polk County, two miles east of where Dallas now stands. Was county judge under the low a statute in 1848, and the county court was held in his house for some time. Was county commissioner until 1856. Moved to Dallas in 1858, and built a hotel, which he kept until 1867. Married Miss Mary Bounds in 1827, and ten children were the fruits of this marriage, five of whom are now dead. The living- are Thomas B., Margaret, Eliza A., Andrew J., and Mary F. Two sons were in the Indian war. Mr. Lovelady is still a resident of Dallas. POMEROY, F. F. AYas a native of New York; came to Oregon in 1846, then went to California, and was murdered in 1849, for money in his possession. He had been married to Miss Mary Catching, who died in 1852, and left a family of four children. SHELTON, J. W. Born in Franklin County, Missouri, in 1833; came to Oregon in 1N46, and settled at Lafayette, Yamhill County. Occupation, farmer, and residence Carlton, Yamhill County. Married Miss Mary J. Burford, in 1853, and their children's names are — Mattie, C. M., Lucy, Arthur, Bertie, Ward, and Lena, SIMPSON, BEN. Born in Tennessee in 1818, but taken by his parents to Missouri in 1820, where he resided until 1846. Was married in 1839 to Miss Wisdom, who died two years after. In 1843 he married Miss Nancy Cooper; came to Oregon in 1846, bringing his family, con- sisting of his wife and three sons, John Thomas, Sylvester C, and Samuel L. Settled on French Prairie in 1847. Served in the Cayuse war. Was a member of the second Territorial Legislature. Made a voyage to California in 1849, and sold a cargo of timber. Has represented, at various times, Clackamas, Benton and Polk counties, in the legislature; was Indian agent at the Siletz reserva- 662 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. tion for eight years; was in the J umbering business at Clackamas City, Parkersville, Yaquina Bay and Santiam City; was surveyor- general of Oregon from 1872 to 1876. SMITH, B. F. Born in Cedar County, Missouri, in 1840; his first home in Ore- gon was in the Luckiamute Valley; his present residence is Louis- ville, Polk County, and occupation that of a farmer and merchant. He married Rachel M. Burns in Polk County in 1864, and their children's names are — William W., and Mary E. SMITH, ELIZABETH M. (WRIGHT). Born in Clarke County, Kentucky, in 1812. She married James Smith in Missouri in 1831. Their children were — John H., Henry S., Minerva J., Maria, Eliza A., Margaret E., James D., Benjamin F., George W., L. D., and Cornelia C. Mr. and Mrs. Smith came to Oregon and settled in the Luckiamute Valley, where the lady still lives. Her husband died March 22, 1872. SMITH, J. D. Born in Missouri, January 5, 1839, and came with his parents to Oregon in 1846. They settled in Polk County and took a dona- tion claim near Louisville, which is still owned by the heirs and is the present home of the mother. The subject of this sketch lived on the farm until 1877, when he removed to Dallas and has since held the office of postmaster, and was elected county commissioner in 1874. Married Miss L. P. Sheldon in 1856, and they have one child — Otis C. Mr. Smith owns a farm of one hundred and seventy acres near Louisville. SMITH, LUCIUS S. Born in Iowa, October 6, 1841; came to Oregon in 1846. His father, William Smith, died on the plains, while on his way to Or- egon. Mr. Smith is a livery stable keeper, and stage contractor; resides at Turner. Wife's previous name, Sarah E. Snodderly. Children— Mary A., Addie, William C, and Walter E. WHEELER, JAMES. Born in East Tennessee in 18 20. On his arrival in Oregon he settled in Luckiamute Valley, where he still resides, engaged in HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 663 farming. In Oregon, in 1850, he married Mary E. Hawkins, who died in 1869. In 1870, he married Eliza J. Miller, who is also deceased: she died in 1879. His children's names are — Sarelia, Mansel, Wilbur, Ida, Zillah, Alonzo, Johanna, Ellis, and E. J. WHEELER, JOHN. Lives in Hillsboro, Washington County; was born in Oregon in 1846, and is the son of Solomon Wheeler who crossed the plains in 1845. He was reared on a farm near Oregon City, Clackamas County. ZUMWALT, ISAAC. Born in St. Charles Countv, Missouri, in 1815. He married Sarah Crow in 1837, and in 1846 left that State for Oregon. Settled in Washington Comity, but now resides in the Luckiamnte Valley, where he carries on the business of farming, and is also a millwright. His children are — William H., Matilda J., Commo- dore, Lewis S., Andrew J., Nancy A., Benjamin F., Melinda C. Mary E., Charles N., George W., and Amelia C. 1847. ADAMS, E. M. Was born in New Jersey ; came to Oregon from Missouri ; farmed in Yamhill County. Died in 1877, and left two children. ALDERMAN, ORLANDO. Born in Ohio in 1833; went to Illinois when young, and crossed the plains when fourteen years of age, accompanying his mother, who was then a widow. Resided at first in Linn, but a few years later located at Dallas. Later still (in 1 865) he went to his present farm in Spring Valley, Polk County. Was married in 1851 to Miss Isabella Baker, a pioneer of 1845. Her father, George M. Baker, now lives at Shoalwater Bay, W. T. The Aldermans have eleven children — Charles L., John W., Sarah A. (Mrs. Parrish), Nancy E. (Mrs. Wesley), Mary M. (Mrs. Lewis), George L., William J., Henry N., Ira ()., Rosa A., and Albert E. APPERSON, j. T. Captain Apperson was born near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in 1834; was taken by his parents to Missouri, and lived there until 664 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 1847, when they started to Oregon. His father died on the plains, but his mother brought him across and settled near where Portland now stands. He lived in California from 1849 to 1855, returning in the latter year. In 1858 he entered upon river steamboating and in the course of years achieved success. He served in the United States army throughout the years of the war, returning to the command of a Willamette river boat at its end. In 1870 he became a representative in the State legislature; in 1874 he was elected sheriff of Clackamas County, and at the close of the term became State senator. In 1882 he was defeated for that office. He is a successful farmer and stock-raiser, and is President of the State Agricultural Society, and likewise President of the Oregon Pioneer Association. Resides at Oregon City. Wife's previous name, Mary A. Elliott. BEDWELL, E. Was born in Missouri in 1 819, and was reared on a farm in that State. He came to Oregon, settled in Yamhill County, and took a donation claim, and lived on it twenty -fiVe years. Moved to Polk County in 1874, and now lives on a farm near Monmouth. In 1850 he was married to Miss A. M. Shelton, and ten children have been born to them, only five of whom are now alive, namely — Mary, Mildred, Barbara, Edward B., and Loring. BELLINGER, J. H. Born in New York State in 1791 ; served in the war of 1812, Built the first canal boat used in New York. Emigrated to Oregon in 1847, and later became a farmer in Marion County. Died near Salem, in November, 1878. BEWLEY, T. R. Born in East Tennessee in 1834; moved to Indiana in 1836. Settled first at Oregon City. Lives now at Sheridan, Yamhill County; occupation, farming and stock-raising. Married Elizabeth E. Patty, in September, 1859. The lady is a native of East Tennessee, and. was born September 8, 1841. BIRD, JOHN. Bom in Kentucky in 1819; went to Illinois when nineteen years old, and became a farmer. Served in the Black Hawk war. Mar- HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 665 ried Mrs. Bland, and had four children — two sons and two daughters, the later being now dead. The sons' names are James M., and Robert P. In 1847 Mr. Bird brought his farnity to Oregon by the route across the plains, and went to Clackamas County. Made a visit to California during the time of the gold excitement, but stayed only four months. Returned to Oregon and settled in Yam- hill County, where he has since lived. He was a volunteer in Captain Ankeny's company in the Yakima war. He has filled several civil offices, among them that of county treasurer. Resides at Lafayette. BRIDGEFARMER, D. Born in Missouri in 1837; arrived in Oregon at an early day and settled near Vancouver; now lives two and a half miles north of Gaston, and is a farmer by occupation. He married Sarah J. Archer in 1867, and their children's names are — John W., William S., Mary E., and Julia A. Mr. Bridgefarmer served three years in the war of the rebellion in the 1st Oregon Cavalry; also in the Indian war of this State. BROWN, GEORGE. Born in Kentucky in 1823; moved to Indiana in 1825, and to Missouri in 1831. From there, came to Oregon and settled in Polk County, and he now lives near Dallas where he has a farm. He married Martha O. Hines in Yamhill County, in May, 1850, and their children are — William N., June E., James M., Emma E. (deceased), Thomas M. (deceased), Lillian M., Nettie B., Edgar M., Alvin R., and George F. BROWN, ALVIN CLARK, Of Forest Grove, was born in Warren County, Missouri, in 1829, and in 1847 came to Oregon and settled near his present location. His occupation is farmer. His wife's name was Sarah E. Ross, whom he married in 1854. Their children are — Elma M., A. Victor, Ernest C, Mary T., Emma Q., and Elizabeth. A. C. Brown's father, Orus Brown, crossed from Missouri to Oregon in 1843, and after quite a series of adventures, returned and brought his family out in the year mentioned. The old gentleman was born in Massachusetts in the year 1800, and after an active 666 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. and useful life, died in this State in 1874. He held claim to the land upon which Forest Grove now stands, but sold his right to Harvey Clark for five hundred bushels of wheat. BROWN, W. C. Born in Ohio in 1824, and came to Oregon and settled near where Albany now stands, but moved the following year to Dallas. Carried a chain in the first survey of Albany, also of Dallas. Built the first brick building of old Dallas. Erected the second building intended for business purposes in old Dallas, and the first in the present town. Was engaged in the mercantile business nearly thirty years, and at present owns a half interest in a hardware store in Dallas. Mr. Brown is the owner of two thousand acres of land in Polk County. He served in the Legislature in 1874. "Married Miss Martha J. Townsend in 1848, and has five children — John G., Joseph L., Alonzo, Henry, and Ann, all of whom are married. BRUSH, JOHN. Lives in Albany, Linn County; is proprietor of the Oregon Wire Works. Born in New York in 1822; married in 1854 to Miss Almira Brewster; children — Sarah (deceased), Charles L., Emma, and Ida. BUTLER, GEORGE W. Born in Washington County, Oregon, in 1847. Is a salesman and surveyor by occupation, and resides at Salem. Mr. Butler is remarkable as having been one of the first white children born in Oregon. CAUFIELD, ROBERT. Born in County Antrim, Ireland, May 5, 1805. Came to the United States in 1832, and lived in Cincinnati until 1837. In that year he was married to Miss Jane Burnside. Came to Oregon and settled in Oregon City, where he still lives. In 1850 he was elected treasurer of Clackamas County, and re-elected the following term. In 1852 was elected Probate Judge, and served two terms. Was the first County Judge of Clackamas County after the admission of Oregon as a State. The names of his children were — John (de- ceased), Mary J. (deceased), Robert F., David, Clarinda, Charles H., Edwin Gr., and Elizabeth (deceased). HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 6ti7 CAREY, JOHN. Born in Philadelphia in 1802; came to Oregon in 1847, settling in Yamhill County. He removed later to Polk County, and died there in 1880. Was postmaster of Dayton, and justice of the peace; had a seat in the legislature for a term. Mr. Cary possessed poet- ical gifts of a noticeable order, and produced several creditable poems. He married Ruth Odell in 1826, and had by her Sarah, John W., Joseph D., George W., Amanda E., Alfred M., and Car- oline E. CHAPMAN, M. N. Born in Illinois in 1845; is the son of W. Chapman (deceased), and came with his parents to Oregon. Is now a resident of Salem and clerk of Marion County, elected in 1882; has served as deputy clerk, at different times, for twelve years. Married Miss Jennie Thatcher in 1868. Children — Lorie, May, Nina (deceased), and Oda. CHAPMAN, W. Born in South Carolina in 1814; came from Illinois to Oregon; settled in Marion County in 1848; served as Representative in the Lower House of the Territorial Legislature; held offices in Salem for many years. Married Miss R. Farmer in 1833, who died in 1847; by her he had five children. Married again in 1850 Miss Ellen Matlock, by whom he had three children. He died in Clack- amas County in 1884. CHAPMAN, WILLIAM W. Born at Clarksburg, Virginia, August 8, 1808. Studied law and was admitted to practice. Married Margaret Ingram in 1832. Moved in succession to Ohio, Illinois and Iowa. AVas United States attorney for Wisconsin, and was the first Territorial Delegate to Congress from Iowa. Was a member of Iowa's Constitutional Con- vention, and sat in the Legislature of the new State. Came to Oregon with his family in 1847. Visited California in 1849. Was several times a member of the Legislature under the Provisional, Territorial and State governments. Participated in the Rogue River Indian war of 1855-56. (See pages 433-438.) Rose to the rank of lieutenant -colonel. In 1849 he acquired a third interest in 668 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. the town site of Portland, and devoted himself thenceforward to building up that city. Has always been enterprising in a high de- gree, doing a great deal for the introduction of railways, steamship lines, and everything progressive. (See page 492.) CHAPMAN, WILLIAM. Born in New York, September 16, 1824; in 1843 went to Michigan, but returned to New York in 1846; came from New York to Oregon. He immediately enlisted in the Cayuse war, and was in all the fights which followed. In 1848 he went to the mines in California; returned to Oregon in 1849. In 1852 took a donation claim near where Sheridan now stands, and which is still his place of residence, and employed in farming. Married Miss Esther L. Bewley in 1849. Miss Bewley had been captured by the Indians at the Whitman massacre, and was their prisoner three weeks, and a brother, Crocket Bewley, was killed. (See page 311.) Ten children were born to them, namely — John M., Catherine, Eusebia J. (deceased), Leonora, Mary, Charles (deceased), Frank, Nettie, Charles, and Fred. COCHRAN, WILLIAM. Born in Madison County, Kentucky, November 20, 1813; he is a stock -grower, and resides in Brownsville, Linn County; has lived in that county since 1849. He married Miss Mary Johnson, and his children are — Nelson, Robert, William, Sarah E., Nancy E., and Mehala. COFFIN, STEPHEN. Born in Ohio, in ; came to Oregon, bringing his family. Settled at Oregon City, but two years later purchased a half -interest in the town-site of Portland, it being the Lownsdale claim, now covered by that portion of the city between the Willamette river and Sixteenth street, and A and Caruthers streets. He grew rich by the sale of lots, and manifested immense enterprise in the vari- ous projects for building up the city of Portland. Steamship com- panies, roads and railroads, felt his influence, and the city owes much to his sagacity. General Coffin, as he was commonly known, helped organize the People's Transportation Company in 1860, which, for many years, controlled the traffic on the Willamette, and HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 669 carried on a fierce battle with the O. S. N. Co. for the control of that of the Columbia. Previously he had. in company with his part- ners, Lownsdale and Chapman, purchased a controlling interest in the steamer Gold Hunter, which was to run between San Franciscd and Portland, in opposition to the vessels of the Pacific Mail Com- pany, which was opposed to Portland and strove to build up St. Helens in opposition to it. The project of the Gold Hunter -proved unsuccessful. In 1851 he organized a company to build a plank road to connect the rising metropolis with the towns of the " west side. 11 The project was only partially successful. In 1860 he was contractor for the bridge work of the Oregon Central Railroad, west side division. Stephen Coffin died at Dayton, Yamhill County, in March, 1883. COLEMAN, JAMES. Born in Ohio in 1831; came to Oregon and settled in Yamhill County. Present residence, St. Paul, Marion County, and occupa- tion, farmer. He married Fanny Murray, of Iowa, in 1845, and they have eleven children. COLLARD, E. B., Of Lafayette, was born in Illinois, in 1838; came with his parents to Oregon in 1847. His father, F. A. Collard, was a member of the Legislature of Oregon for three terms. The subject of this sketch worked at various times in Idaho and Eastern Oregon before settling in Yamhill County, which he did in 1874. Since coming to that county he was in the grain business at Dayton until 1882, in which year he was elected sheriff, and was re-elected in 1884. He is a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellow's Orders. Married Miss Isaphenea Waldron in I860, and their family con- sists of eight children — Frank A., Agnes A., Lyman, Roy L., Ella Maud. Mabel, Samuel, and an infant unnamed. CONKLIN, CHARLES. Born in Ohio in 1818; on arriving in Oregon he settled one mile northeast of Glencoe, and was a farmer by occupation. He married Margaret A. Beach nee Dobbin, in 1851, and their chil- dren's names are — Ann Louisa, Catharine, Charles T., Ada, and Sarah. Mr. Conklin died in 1882. 670 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. CONNER, NATHAN. Born in Preston County, Missouri, in 1821. Came to Oregon and settled in Polk County, and resides there still. Is a farmer by occupation. He married Miss E. Buell (born in Louisa County, Iowa), and they have had eight children. CONNOR, J. Born in Darke County, Ohio, and came to Oregon in 1847. Settled at Ballston and engaged in the pursuits of agriculture. He married Miss P. A. Biggs in 1853. Children— B. 8., T. E., C. J., L., B., M. L., and N. A. COSGROVE, HUGH. Born in Ireland in 1811; arrived in Canada in 1820; came to Oregon and settled two and a half miles south of Champoeg on a farm and still resides there. Married Mary Bossiter in 1831, who is now dead. Children — Mrs. A. Eldridge, Mrs. Mary Jackson, Mrs. E. Murphy, Mrs. C. Vantine, Susan Cosgrove, and Mrs. E. Wagner. CYRUS, WILLIAM, Is engaged in farming and stock-growing at Scio, Linn County. He was born of Scotch and English parents in Granger County, Tennessee, on the seventeenth of December, 1820; came overland to Oregon and has lived for a great number of years on his farm in Linn County. Was elected a State Senator from that county in 1866, and in 1872 was elected county commissioner. His farm at Scio consists of eleven hundred acres of land. He was married three times; his first wife's previous name was Mary A. Deakins, a native of Indiana. By her his children are — Bebecca J., Enoch, Bachel, Hepsibah, Henry, Charlotte, Mary E., Nancy C, Chris - tiancy M., and John E. . By his second wife, Jane Brisco, of In- diana, his children are — Owen B., Jane, and Warren. His third wife was Margaret H. Charlton, of Virginia. In 1884 there were photographed on Mr. Cyrus' farm, his family, consisting of sixty- four children and grandchildren. DAVIDSON, J. E., M.D. Born in Barron County, Kentucky, November 17, 1823. Mov- ing in 1829 to Illinois, he resided there until he came to Oregon, HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 671 and took up a claim to the land whereon Independence now stands. In 1850 he erected there the first business house of that place, in company with Burbanks. Two years preceding he had spent in the California gold mines. When the Cayuse war ensued, Dr. Davidson joined Nesmith's command and served against the Indians. The Doctor has practised medicine since 1853, but secured his di- ploma in 1868, at the Willamette University. He was married in 1850 to Mary Davis. Is in medical practice at Independence. DAVIDSON, JAMES O. Born in Warren County, Kentucky, in October, 1825, and was taken to Illinois two years later. He came to Oregon in 1847, and settled at Monmouth, Polk County, but now resides at Buena Vista. Is a farmer and stock-raiser. He married Mary E. Linville in 1850, in Polk County, and their children are — Annette, Lida, Or- ville P., Ellis, Mary B., James L., and Ralph L. DORRIS, J. J. Born in Nodaway County, Missouri, April, 1841; set out with his parents f or Oregon when six years old ; the father died on the journey, and the family, destitute and unprotected, settled on the La Creole in Polk County. Subsequently the widow married Alvis Kinsey, w T ho lived four miles south of Dayton, Yamhill County; but he dying in 1858, the Dorrises, with their mother, removed to Linn County, where J. J. Dorris has continuously resided since, ex- cepting Hve years which he spent in California. He married Mary E. Shields in 1860, and they have had twelve children, of whom ten are now living. Address, Scio, Linn County. DURHAM, GEORGE H. Born in Springfield, Illinois, December 4, 1843. His parents settled in Clackamas County, Oregon, in 1847. He was educated in the Willamette University and the Pacific University, graduating from the latter in 1866. Was a member of the First Oregon Cav- alry. Studied law and was admitted to practice in 1869. Was elected district attorney of the Fourth Judicial District of Oregon, in 1872. Is in legal practice at Portland. Married Miss S. E. Clarke, daughter of Rev. Harvey Clarke. 672 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. FREDERICKS, JAMES M. Born in Ohio in 1814; went thence to Illinois and Iowa, coming to Oregon in 1847, and settling in Polk County. Bought the Applegate farm and cultivated it. Married Clara L. Downer, in 1837. Children — Martha J., Irene, Judith E., and Jacob W. Mr. Fredericks died in 1856. FULKERSON, JAMES W. Born in Virginia, August 28, 1803; in 1807 his family moved to Tennessee, and in 1817 to Missouri. In the spring of 1847 he set out for Oregon, and arrived in Polk County in October of that year. He made that locality his home until his death, May 31, 1884. Served several terms in the Territorial Legislature. Was married in 1823 to Miss Mary Fuller, by whom he had eleven children, six of whom still live. These are — Elizabeth (Mrs. Willis Gaines), Sarah (Mrs. A. Cain), Virginia (Mrs. J. McDaniel), Margaret (Mrs. Caleb Curl), Hannah (Mrs. S. Crowley), and William H. Mrs. Fulkerson died on the plains, and in 1848 he married Mrs. Catharine Crowley, mother of the Miss Leland Crowley, whose death and burial at Grave Creek form such a romantic episode in the history of Southern Oregon. The lady was a pioneer of 1846. FULKERSON, WILLIAM H. Born in Missouri in 1840; the son of the preceding. Came with his parents to Oregon when seven years of age, and has lived in Polk County ever since. Is a farmer by occupation, his farm being in Polk County, near Salem. Married Miss Sarah J. Craven in 1867. They have had five children — Frederick (deceased), Albert N., Pearly P., James M. (deceased), and Lois F. GEER, JOSEPH C, Sr. Born in Windham County, Connecticut, February 5, 1795; served in the war of 1812, for which, many years after, he obtained a pension. In 1815 married Mary Johnston, a native of Khode Island, and three years after moved to Madison County, Ohio, and was a farmer for twenty-two years. In 1840 he moved westward again, settling in western Illinois. In 1847 he set out for Oregon. He located in Clackamas County, opposite Butteville, and died HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 673 there of old age, August 27, 1881. He left an aged widow, seven sons and four daughters. His lineal descendants, all residing on this coast, number one hundred and fifty persons. He was the oldest member of the Pioneer Association. GIBSON, W. O. Born in Tennessee in 1810; crossed the plains with a family of six children and his mother. The year following his arrival in Oregon he settled in Washington County — then Tualatin County — and took a donation claim near Forest Grove, on which he lived twelve years. He has resided in Hillsboro since 1875; owns city property and some land. In 1830 married Miss M. Burgin, and has four living children and six dead. The living are — James W., Elizabeth, Eliza J., and Jacob. GILLIAM, ANDREW J. Was born in Carrol County, Missouri, in 1818; came to Oregon and settled in Polk County. His present residence is Dallas, and occupation, farming. He married Sarah T. Clay in Missouri in 1839, by whom he has eleven children. GRAVES, G. W. Born in Warren County, Missouri, in 1833, the son of the succeeding. Coming to Oregon, he settled at Sheridan, near which town he still resides, occupying himself in the pursuits of agricul- ture. He married Miss Ellen McCanein October, 1855. Children — Walter, Lucy E., James F., Ezra C, J. O., Cora B., and C. C. GRAVES, JAMES B. Born in Virginia in 1797; moved to Kentucky in an early day, and was married to Diana Newton in 1823. Moved next to Mis- souri, and from there to Oregon in 1847. Settled near what is now Sheridan, in Yamhill County. Was a member of the Territorial Legislature one term. Had a family of nine children, of whom eight grew up. Six of these still live. Their names are — Charles B., Helen M., Thomas N., George W., Lacy, and Harrison T. Mr. Graves died in 1882. GRAVES, THOMAS NEWTON. Born in Missouri in 1831; came to Oregon in 1847, and settled in Yamhill County, where he still reside. Is a farmer. Marrird 074 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Miss Miranda 1ST. Bewley in 1862. Children — Henry H., Eugene M., Charles, Walter P., Edward B., L. C, Nellie E., Louis J., Christine M., Wilbur and Bertha. GREEN, JAMES. Mr. Green came to Oregon in 1847. His birth took place in Pennsylvania, in 1817; he resided throughout his early years in that State, New York, and Illinois; started for Oregon in 1847, and settled in Yamhill County. His occupation has been farming, and his present residence is at Lafayette. GRIMM, j. w. Judge Grimm was born in Ohio, June 16, 1820. He removed to Illinois at the age of ten years, and in 1847 joined the noted and important immigration of that year, and came to Oregon by the usual route across the plains. He settled in Marion County, and still resides there. His home is on a farm two miles west of Aurora. The Judge has been prominently connected with the growth and progress of the State, and has held various important offices. In 1849 he was a member of the first Territorial Legisla- ture; in 1850 he became county commissioner and ex officio probate judge, and was re-elected two years later. Was chosen State Senator in 1858, and served until 1866. Again, from 1878 until 1882 he held the same position. His acceptance of the latter office was only at the solicitation of the celebrated Colonel and Senator, E. D. Baker. Judge Grimm is a prominent member of the Pioneer Association. He married in 1843, Miss Frances E. Geer, by whom he has had twelve children, whose names are — Byron J., Martha (Mrs. Schneur), William, Thurston, Isaiah, Edgar, Edwin, John W., Mary E., Jacob C, Ralph and Alice. HACKLEMAN, A. Born in Indiana; came to Oregon and took a donation claim, on which a part of the city of Albany now stands. Owns a farm of five hundred acres near Albany. Married Miss Eleanor B. Davis, by whom he has had five children, namely — Pauline, Thurs- ton P., Josephine (deceased), Denver D., and Frank. HARRIS, REUBEN. Born in Tennessee in 1820, and removed, when young, to Illi- nois; and afterwards to Iowa and Missouri. Married Miss Clarinda HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 675 Buck, by whom he has had — John E., Lafayette T., Sultana, Al- zada, Mehala, Mary, W. E., and Thomas J. Crossed the plains by ox-team in 1847, and halted in Washington County. Spent a year in California. Farmed in Yamhill County. Is partner with John Haney in the boot and shoe business at Lafayette. HEMBREE, J. M. Born in Oregon in 1847; farmer until 1879. Married, in 1874, to Miss Mary Perkins; family includes two children — Clinton E., and Dora; residence, Lafayette. HILL, HENRY. Born in Jefferson County, New York, in 1820; moved to Ohio in 1831; to Illinois in 1840; and seven years later left Illinois for Oregon; arrived in Polk County and became the founder of Inde- pendence in 1868, which town is still his place of residence, and oc- cupation, farming. He married Martha A. Virgin in 1851, and their children's names are — Roseltha, Clarinda, Ladue, Mary E., Lucy V., Nellie M., Homer V., Yerdie, and one other. HOLMAN, HARDY. The son of James S. Holman, was born in Missouri in 1840, and came with his parents to Polk County, Oregon, in 1847. He en- gaged in farming, and now possesses considerable real estate. He was in the mercantile business at Buena Vista for eight years. Was also in the stock business in Eastern Oregon. Was elected sheriff of Polk County in 1882, having previously been deputy for his father. Married Miss Margaret E. Allen in 1861, and they have seven children — James M., Mary E., Eva H., Nathaniel A., Addie E., Alice, and Meda. HOLMAN, JAMES S. Born in Tennessee in 1813; emigrated to Missouri when young, and while there married Miss Mary Bowman in 1832. Came across the plains to Oregon and settled in Polk County. Became a mem- ber of the Territorial Legislature and of the Constitutional Conven- tion ; was sheriff of Polk County seven years, and held that office at the time that Oregon was admitted to the Union. Was a member of the Legislature two terms after the State was organized. He was 6?6 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. an active member of the Baptist Church, and one of the founders of the college at McMinnville. His children numbered seven when he came to the State of Oregon, namely — Hardy, John, Preston, Nathaniel, Amos H., Nancy, and Mary H. Three of them, John, Nancy, and Mary H., are now deceased. Mr. Holman died Janu- ary 13, 1881. HOLMAN, NATHANIEL. Born in Platte County, Missouri, in 1846, son of James S. Holman; came when an infant to Oregon, and now lives at Dallas, Polk County. His occupation is that of a farmer and livery stable keeper. He married Martha A. Waters, in Polk County, in 1868, and their children's names are — William H., Nettie J., John D., and James N. HOLMAN, PRESTON. Lives in Dallas, Polk County. He was born in Missouri in 1844, the son of James S. Holman, and came with his parents to Oregon when three years of age; received his education at the Baptist College, McMinnville, and entered the ministry at twenty - five years of age, and now, in connection with ministerial duties, is engaged in a tannery, in partnership with Charles McDonald. Was in the war in 1864-67. Married Miss L E. Hubbard in 1866. Children — Frank, Mollie E., Nellie M. (deceased), Fred J., and Juanita P. HUBBARD, G. Born in Pike County, Missouri, in 1830; came from Illinois to Oregon and settled in Polk County. His present residence is Dixie, and occupation farming. He married Nancy J. Smith, in Polk County, in 1858, and their children's names are — Laura, Samuel H., McClellan, David R., Hannah H., Nettie A., John V., Thomas G., James I., Charles A., Jemima E., Grace J., Joseph C, Lee F., and Metzler. HUMPHREYS, THOMAS DABNEY. Born in Indiana in 1822; spent his early life in the Mississippi States, and taught school on reaching sufficient age. Left St. Jo., Missouri, May 5, 1847, for Oregon, and arrived at Oregon City on HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 677 September 15tli of that year. Mined on Feather River, California, in the early days, but returned in less than a year, settled on a donation claim in Washington County, and engaged in farming. His first location, made in 1847, was on the Tualatin, nine miles from Hillsboro, but about 1868 he removed to that town, and has lived there since. Was probate judge in old times, and since has been United States assessor, county clerk, and* county judge, and now (1885) acts in the latter capacity. Married in 1849 to Miss Elizabeth A. Taylor, and their children, eight in number, were all born in Oregon. Their names are — S. H., Mrs. J. D. Morgan, Mrs. Bruce Wolverton, John H., Thomas J.. Araminta E., Arthur, and Samuel. HUNT, G. W. Born in Wayne County, Indiana, in 1830; set out for Oregon at the age of seventeen, and arrived in October. Is now a resident of Whiteaker, Oregon, dealing in general merchandise. Imports Shropshire and Leicester sheep and Essex swine, and has done much to improve the breeds of domestic animals in this valley. HUNT, JOHN A. Born in Union County, Indiana, in 1836. Removed to Oregon and settled ten miles east of Salem. Visited California during the gold excitement. Removed to Douglas County. Represented that section in the Legislature of 1882. Married in 1860 to Miss Ellen Ammen. ILER. W. E. Born in Missouri in 1845; came to Oregon in 1847 and settled at Oregon City. Present residence two miles east of Butteville; and occupation farmer. He married Loulie Stevens in 1870, and their children's names are — Emma R., Arthur, Birdie, and Ettie. JENNINGS, BERRYMAN. Born in Jessamine County, Kentucky, June 16, 1807; resides near Oregon City, and is a farmer by occupation. Has been mar- ried twice, tlie first wife's name having been M. White, the second, Martha Pope. The children were — Edward T., Charles H., Ella A.. Ada ('.. William B., May E., John F., and Lillie M. 678 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLET. JOHNSON, H. A. Born in New York in 1819; moved to Illinois when twenty -one; married Miss Elizabeth Whitley the next year; in 1847 set out for Oregon, and settled in Marion County; went next year to the California mines for a short stay; in 1862 went into mercantile business, and so occupied himself for five years. Mr. Johnson re- sides at Salem with his family, which includes seven children — J. C, W. G., W. W., H. A., Jr., S. T., F. M., and Rachel C. JOLLY, W. B. Born in Knox County, Illinois, May 26, 1843, and was brought by his parents to Oregon in 1847. Married, November 9, 1865, a daughter of Rev. J. S. Griffin; she died on October 25, 1877, and on April 10, 1879, he married Miss Hattie E. Woodworth, of Howell's Prairie, Marion County. Mr. Jolly resides near Hillsboro, Washington County, and is a farmer. JORY, HUGH S. Born in St. John's, New Brunswick, in November, 1833; present residence, South Salem. Occupation, wagon and carriage maker. Married in 1857 to Miss Mary Budd, who came to Oregon in that year. Their children were — Charles, Oliver, Allie, and Ralph. The two latter were drowned in the Willamette in 1879. KENNEDY, BARNEY. Born in Ireland in 1811; came to Oregon and settled on a farm two and a half miles south of Champoeg. Occupation, farming. Married Arah Underwood in 1839, and they had John, William, Mary, and Sarah. Mr. Kennedy died in 1865. Mrs. Kennedy still resides near Champoeg. KETCHUM, W. M. Lives in Albany, Linn County, engaged in a planing mill and sash and door factory. He was born in New York in 1820; mar- ried in 1851 to Miss Laura Patterson; have four children — Emma, Ella, Frank, and Alva. KINNEY, ROBERT CROUCH. Born near Summerville, Illinois, July 4, 1813; married Miss Eliza Bigelow in 1833; founded the town of Muscatine, Iowa; par- BISTORT OF LMMICrKATIoX. I'm'- 1 ticipated in the Black Hawk war; came to Oregon with his family and his brother Samuel, in Palmer's company; the brothers settled in the Chehalem Valley, Yamhill County, and became successful farmers, Robert removed to McMinnville in 1857, to be near school; bought the McMinnville flouring mill; in 1863 bought the Brooklyn flour mill opposite Portland: removed to Salem in 1867 and in- vested in the woolen manufacturing company, and afterwards en- tered upon Hour milling with great success, handling one-fourth of tlie < Oregon wheat crop, and shipping great quantities of flour and grain to Europe. Mr. Kinney died in February, 1875. He had held several public offices, having been a member of the Constitu- tional Convention and Territorial Legislature. His children were — Mary Jane, wife of J. H. Smith, of Harrisburg: Albert William, of Salem (died January 1. 1881): Augustus C, a physician; Mar- dial J., of San Francisco; Alfred C, a physician; Josephine E.. of San Francisco: William S.. and Eliza L. KINSEY, JAMES. Born in Virginia in 1784* settled eventually in Missouri after considerable wandering, and was county judge of Holt County for several years. Came to Oregon, and settled in Polk County. His residence was near Dixie. Occupation, farming. Married Miss Hannah MeCracken. Children — Edson, Benjamin, and Anson. Mr. Kinsey died in 1861, and his widow two years later. KNIGHTEN, THOMAS. Born in Missouri in 1831; came to Oregon, and his first settle- ment in thi- State was made near Gales' Peak. Washington Count}. He now lives three miles west of Forest Grove, engaged in farm- ing, lie married Nancy Ranes in !>.")"). and they now have six children. LAROQUE, GEORGE. Born near Montreal, Canada, in 1 >>-!<>: came to the United States in 1836, and three years later entered the service of the American Fur Company, and set out to the Rocky Mountain country. Il»- continued in the wild plains life for several year-, and in ls47 settled in the Willamette Valley. In the fall of 1848 he went to California on the brig Henry, and spent several months 680 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. prospecting for gold. In one year he took out $12,000 in gold, and returned to Oregon. In 1851 he became a member of the firm of F. X. Mathieu &> Co., at Butte ville, and remained therewith for several years. He afterwards embarked in the wheat trade and milling business at Oregon City, and so remained until his death at Oakland, California, February 23, 1877. Left a wife, daughter, and three sons. LAUGHLIN, LEE. Born in Missouri in 1833; came to Oregon when fourteen years of age; was in the Yakima war in 1856, and served until its close. He took a donation claim when he became of age. Commenced mercantile business in 1866 at North Yamhill, and is still engaged therein. In 1860 was elected assessor; was elected to the Legisla- ture in 1870, and re-elected in 1874. Was' a candidate for a seat in the State Senate in 1884, which is now being contested. Mar- ried Miss Emma Stewart in 1856. LAUGHLIN, SAMUEL, SR. Born in Pendleton County, S. C, December 2, 1792; removed to Kentucky in 1803, and to Missouri in 1815; came to Oregon in 1847 and settled in Yamhill County. In 1868 the members of the Laughlin family residing in Yamhill numbered one hundred and eleven persons. Mr. Laughlin died in 1869. LEE, NICHOLAS. Born in Pike County, Ohio, in February, 1818; learned the trade of cooper; married in 1840 to Miss Sarah Hopper, a native of Virginia. They moved westward in the following year, and stopped for a time in Iowa, but in 1847 came overland to Oregon by the southern route. In the following spring they moved to Polk County, and one year later settled on the Lee homestead, two and a half miles south of Dallas. Mr. Lee tilled the soil and raised stock until 1862, when he established a business house in Dallas and con- ducted it until 1876, when he disposed of it and retired to the old homestead. He died on July 11, 1879, and Mrs. Lee survived him for eighteen months, dying on the eleventh of January, 1881. Mr. Lee was instrumental in founding the LaCreole Academy and was one of the first trustees. He was licensed as a local preacher of the iiistoky ov immigration. 68<1 M. E. Church in 1854. Of their children, Joseph D., E. Jennie Smith and George W. Lee live in Polk County; Mrs. Martha A. Odell, in Yamhill County; Miss Sarah L. Lee, and Mrs. V. A. Gwynn, in Benton County, and Mrs. Mary A. Butler in Whitman Countv, Washington Territory. LEE, PHILANDER. Lives at Canby, Clackamas County, and is a farmer by occupa- tion: was born in New York in 1802; married Miss Annie Green, by whom his children were — Emily A. (deceased), Edwin T. (deceased"), Heman A., Elvira, Oren (deceased), Caroline, Jason R. (deceased), and Albert H. MARVIN, LUCINDA (COFFIN). Born in Indiana in 1839, the daughter of General Stephen Coffin (q. v.); came with her parents to Oregon in 1847; lived mainly at Oregon City and Portland, and married, first, C. A. Reed, and, second, Albert M. Marvin. Residence, Salem. MAY, HARVEY B. Born in Shelby County, Kentucky, in September, 1833; came to Oregon in October, 1847. Resides now at Canemah, and is a carpenter by trade. Married ISTarcissa A. Morris, and their chil- dren are — Albion W., Emma A., Minnie E., Eugenia, Franklin M., Lawrence, Lake A., Elvin S., and Fred O. MAY, THOMAS W. Born in North Carolina in 1812; was a farmer by occupation; married Caroline McXealey, and their children were — Harvey B., AYilev W., Sophia, Delilah, and Stephen L. (deceased). Mr. May died near Oregon City in 1880. McBRIDE, T. A. Born in Yamhill County in 1847, the son of Dr. James McBride, a well known pioneer. He was educated at McMinnville, and was admitted to the bar in 1870, and has practiced law ever since. Was a member of the Legislature from Columbia County, and later, prosecuting attorney for the Fifth Judicial District. 682 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. McCAIN, PARIS. Born in Butler County, Ohio, in 1824; came to Oregon in 1847, settling in Polk County, where he still resides. Mr. McCain is a farmer, and his address is Sheridan, Yamhill County. He married Miss Frances J. Story in 1857, and they have six children, whose names are as follows — Ollie, Flor, James L., Orville, Charles and Esther. Mccarty, e. w. Born in Jackson County, Missouri, in 1827; came to Oregon overland at the age of twenty, and settled in Polk County; still re- sides in that county, near Buena Vista, and is a farmer. He mar- ried Miss Amanda Bounds in Buena Yista in 1850, and they have — Mary, Alexander, Parmeas B., Josephine, Leroy, Charles, and Eddie. McKAY, JAMES. Born in Ireland in 1819, and came to America in 1842. Came to Oregon and settled at St. Paul, Marion County. Resides upon his farm three miles east of that place. Is proprietor of a mill, the successor of one which was constructed in 1844 by the St. Paul mission, and sold to Mr. McKay in 1850. The present structure was built by him in 1861. Mr. McKay married Cecelia Lawson in 1840, who died June 13, 1871. Their children are — William, Kate (Mrs. Mc-Cormack), Cecelia (Mrs. Kirk), Mary, and John N. McKINNEY, WILLIAM, Is a farmer, merchant and miller, and lives at Turner, Marion County. Born in Missouri in 1820; married Matilda Darby, and their children are — Edwin E., Martha E., Anna E., Henri ette Y., John W., Mary E., Fanny O., Alice N., M., E., and Oneatia. Mr. McKinney built the first mill in Marion County north of Salem. MONTEITH, THOMAS. Born in New York in 1824; lived in Illinois for six years; came to Oregon in 1847 across the plains; located in Linn County, and with his brother Walter, laid out the town of Albany in 1848, upon their own claim of six hundred and forty acres. He paid a visit to California in 1848, but soon returned. Part of his time HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 683 has been devoted to trade and the manufacture of flour. The Albany City Flouring Mills, owned by Monteith & Son, have a capacity of one hundred and sixty barrels daily. Mr. Montieth married Christine M. Dunbar, and their children are — Archibald, Lotta, Thomas, and Christine. Residence, Albany. MONTGOMERY, JOHN A., Is a farmer, residing at Scio, Linn County; was born in Hick- man County, Tennessee, January 8, 1826; came overland to Oregon, and in the same year participated in the Indian troubles. Married Eliza E. Hester, and their children's names are — George S., Thomas J., and William. MONTGOMERY, WILLIAM. Lives in Scio, Linn County, and is a farmer by occupation ; born in Kentucky; married Mary L. Cusick, and their children are — Amanda L, Anna M., Eliza J., Martha O., William O., Roger S., Howard, George S., Elva M., Lena J., Mary I., and Frank. MULKEY, MARION F. Born in Johnson County, Missouri, November 14, 1836. Came to Oregon with his father, Johnson Mulkey, in 1847, and settled in Benton County, on a donation claim. Was educated in Yale College, graduating in 1862. Bead law, and in 1864 was admitted to the bar. Became prosecuting attorney of the fourth judicial district in 1866, and next year a member of the city council of Portland, his place of residence. In 1872 and 1873 he was city attorney of that town. Married Miss Mary E. Porter in 1862. MYER, HENRY. Born in Hanover, Germany, November 30, 1818. Went to Illinois in 1833, moving thence overland to Oregon in 1847. Settled in Polk County, and now resides at Smithneld, in the same county. He is a farmer and stock -raiser. He married Elizabeth J. Shankline in Cass County, Illinois, October 26, 1842. Children— William H., William T., John H., George W., Sarah E., Amanda J., Mary A. H., James W., A. E., and Frank I. PENNINGTON, STEWART M. Born in Monroe County, Kentucky, in 1824; came overland to Oregon, part of the way with a train, partly on horseback and with 684 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. but four companions. Reached Oregon City in September, and worked for a while in George Abernethy's sawmill. Farmed on the Tualatin Plains. Went to California in 1849 and mined for two years. Returning, he located in Linn County, and married Miss Abigail E. Cooper and took a donation claim of six hundred and forty acres. Removed to Umatilla County in 1871 and engaged in stock-raising. Resides at Pendleton. Was chosen State Senator in 1878 and 1880. Has seven children and several grandchildren. PIERCE, ASHLEY. Born in Harrison County, Indiana, June 30, 1821; came to Oregon and settled in Linn County, and was one of the active men who aided in forming that county; was the first delegate from that county to take fruit to the horticultural society. Is now a ferryman by occupation, and resides at Albany. Married, in 1860, Miss Susan Read. POUJADE, L. H. Born in Ohio in 1829, and moved thence to Louisiana. In 1847 set out by ox-team for Oregon and located at Gervais, Marion County, and has remained there ever since. There were only three houses there on his arrival, and no English-speaking family for eight miles. His occupation was farming. In 1853 he married Catherine Simmons, who bore him, Henry B., Mary E., Anna, Louisa M., and Joseph, and died in 1867. Three years later he wedded Mary Ann Barnes, and has had — T. D., Agnes, Evelina, and Franklin, by her. Mr. Poujade was assessor in 1853, and since 1862 has been justice of the peace. POWELL, L. J., A. M. Born in Kentucky in May, 1834; the son of David and Almedia Powell, who emigrated first to Missouri (1837), and to Oregon (1847). They settled at a point seven miles east of Portland. The son went to California in 1849, and remained a year. Served in the Yakima war. Was educated in the Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, class of 1861, and in the same year married Miss Martha Ransom, of Yamhill County. Held the chair of mathe- matics in the Willamette University for fourteen years (1862-1876). Was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1878. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 685 At the close of his term he became president of the University of Washington Territory, at Seattle, where he now resides. PRETTYMAN, DAVID D. Birthplace, Delaware; date, 183*2; moved to Missouri in 1839, and to Oregon in 1847. In 1849 went to farming, three miles from Portland, and remained there until 18G1 ; then went to Polk County and settled upon a farm of one hundred and fifty acres, near Salem. Mr. Prettvman was married in 1850, to Miss Sarah A. Riggs, and they have two children. He has distinguished himself in agricul- tural pursuits, and at the Centennial Exposition, in Philadelphia, took prizes for his tine wheat exhibits. His residence now is Salem. Dr. Prettvman, father of the gentleman spoken of, was a physician of eminence in Oregon, and did much to develop the State's resources. PUTNAM, D. B. Born in Kentucky, in 1810, and came to Oregon in 1847, settling, in the following year, in Linn County. In 185G he removed to Amity, Yamhill County, and has lived there ever since. He is propri- etor of a large farm, and property in the town mentioned. He married Isabella Finley in Illinois, in 1830. Children — Martha, Mahala, David H., John, James, and Mary. Mrs. Putnam dying, Mr. P. married, in 1851, Mrs. Rebecca Landingham, by whom he has had the following children — Sarah (Mrs. Levi Walker, of Forest Grove), Joseph J., Robert B., Daniel B., Nancy A. (Mrs. J. Durant, of Ainsworth, W. T.), Frances (Mrs. E. Conner), and Rebecca (Mrs. E. Henderson). RAMSEY, DAVID. Resides at Xewburg, Yamhill County, and is both -farmer and miller by occupation. He was born in Indiana in 1815; married Miss Susan Shuck in 1838, and by her had live sons and five daughters. RAMSEY, WILLIAM M. Born in Monroe County, Iowa, December 25, 1846; present residence, Salem. Occupation, attorney at law. Was county judge of Yamhill County from 1870 to 1874. Was married in 1870 to Mahala A. Harris. They have children— Nellie, Fred A., Horace M.. and Mary E. 686 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. RICHARDSON, NATHANIEL C, Is a farmer, and lives three miles south of Hillsboro, his home since 1852. His first place of residence in this State was near Oregon City, in Clackamas County. He was born in Madison County, Illinois, in 1808; married to Anna H. Bushnel in 1829, and their children's names are — John A., Elizabeth, George W., Frances M., Lois Ann, Cornelia, and Peter. Mr. Richardson married Mrs. C. L. Cox in 1873. ROTH, CHARLES. Born in Baden, Germany, in 1818; came to Oregon and settled near Harrisburg, in Linn County. He learned the trade of wood turner and chair maker, when young; is now a farmer by occupa- tion. Was married to Miss Martha Conovert in 1867. ROWELL, JAMES M. Lives in Eola, Polk County; was born in New Hampshire in 1809; moved from there to Vermont and then to Illinois. Next came to Oregon and located in Washington County, but moved to Polk in 1857; his occupations have been farming, gardening, and teaching school. Was in the Cayuse war. SHELTON, HAMAN. Born in Andrew County, Missouri, November 1, 1843; is a farmer, and resides in Scio, Linn County; married Ollie Holman, and has one child — Vardemon E. Shelton. SHELTON, HARVEY. Born in Virginia in 1822; came overland to Oregon and took a donation claim in Linn County, near Scio, which is still his place of residence. He was elected a member of the State Legislature in 1872, and re-elected in 1874, 1880, and 1884. Married Caroline Thomas, a native of Missouri, and who came to Oregon in 1852. Their children are — Riley, Mary C, Henry, George, Isabel, Melvin H., and Enoch. Mr. Shelton was a volunteer in the Cayuse war of 1847-48. SHUCK, ANDREW. Lives in McMinnville. Was born in Indiana in 1815; went to Iowa in 1835, and lived there until coming to Oregon; after Lis HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 687 arrival in this State he settled in Yamhill County on a donation claim. Moved to McMinnville a few years since. He was ap- pointed sheriff by Governor Lane during the Territorial Govern- ment, and was elected for two terms afterwards, and has served six sessions in the Legislature. Married Miss Mary Conway in 1838, and lias seven children. STEWART, BENJAMIN E. Horn in Ohio in 1815; came to Oregon and settled at North Yamhill, Yamhill County, on a donation claim, where he resided until his death, which occurred in 1877. His occupation was that of a farmer and stock- raiser. He married .Vim Cruinbaker in 1836, and their children's names are — Emeline, David C, Ermin- ger, James Y., Orville, Montgomery, Fanny A., and Emma. TAYLOR, CHRISTOPHER. Born in Germantown, Ohio, in 1822, and in 1847 crossed the plains with General Joel Palmer. In the Caynse war he was em- ployed in the commissary's department. Afterwards became a clerk for Petty grove, who owned the only store in Portland, at that time. Went to California during the gold excitement. Settled at Dayton, Yamhill County, in 1850, and began general merchan- dising. Married December 31, 1850, to Miss Sarah A. Williams. They have one child — Ella E. — now Mrs. G. E. Detmering. Colonel Taylor has borne an important part in the organization of the Oregon State Militia. On August 26, 1864, he was com- missioned Assistant Adjutant- General on the staff of Major-General Palmer, by Governor Gibbs; and on May 24, 1883, he received at the hands of Governor Moody, the commission of Major-General of the State Militia. TOWNSEND, J. M. Born in Fulton County, Illinois, in 1834; came to Oregon and settled at Dallas. Present residence, King's Valley, and occupation, farming. Me married Sophronia Price at Salt Creek, Polk County, in I860, and their children's names are — John M., and W. L. TOWNSEND, IRA S. Born in Jackson County, Missouri in 182 ( ,». and lived in that State and [llinois until 1847, in which year he crossed the plains to 688 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Oregon. Took up a donation claim near Perrydale, in Polk County, where lie still resides. Visited the California mines in 1848. Was first lieutenant in Captain Hayden's company in the Yakima war. Has served two terms in the Legislature, in 1868 and 1878. Was married inl853 to Miss B. F. Smith, and has two sons — James H., an attorney at Dallas, and George N. WAIT, AARON. Born in Whately, Massachusetts, December 26, 1813. After two years passed in the study of law, he was admitted to the bar in Michigan in 1841. On his arrival in Oregon he settled at Oregon City and commenced practice. In the Cayuse war he acted as assistant commissary general, and at the same time edited the Oregon Spectator, newspaper. After the admission of Oregon as a State, he was elected one of the three judges of the supreme court, and acted as chief justice of the same for four years. In 1873 he moved with his family to Canby, Clackamas County; owns about six hundred acres of land near Canby, and over three thousand acres elsewhere in Oregon and Washington Territory. He was first married to Mary N. Springer, and next to Catharine Quivey; his children are — Columbia L. (deceased), Charles N., Mary C. (deceased), Annie E., Katie C. (deceased), and Mary L. (deceased). WALLER, G. T. Born in Morgan County, Illinois, September 24, 1830, and came across the plains in 1847 to Oregon and settled in Polk County, where he has since resided. For six years after his arrival he gave his attention to stock-raising, but in 1854 began the mercantile business in Eola. Went to Monmouth in 1876, and October 17, 1882, the present mercantile association, of which he is a member, was formed. This gentleman was married to Mary J. Doty, June 25, 1857, and their children are — Oliver F., Emma C, Larin W., Ada A., Minnie, Lula, Allan J., and Allie (deceased). WALLER, H. M. Lives in Monmouth, Polk County; was born in Indiana, September 9, 1817; entered the ministry while quite young and taught school at the same time; has been a resident of Polk County since his arrival in Oregon ; assisted to organize the first HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 689 church of the Disciples of Christ on the Pacific Coast, and is still actively engaged in the ministry. Owns farm and city property. On August 18, 1850, he was married to Miss Mary E. Davidsou. Six children — Melissa J. (deceased), Mary J., Melissa Ann, Thomas C, Etta M., and Ida, WALLING, JESSE D. Born in Ohio in 1816; moved to Illinois and thence to Iowa, where he was residing in 1847. Came across the plains in that year in a large company led by Captain Davidson. On Christmas of the same year settled in Spring Valley, Polk County, taking a donation claim, which is still possessed by his family. In 1849 Mr. Walling went to California and mined for a short time. Was married in Illinois in 1839, to Miss Eliza A. Wise, a native of New York. The children resulting from this union numbered fourteen, of whom thirteen survive. Mr. Walling; died in 1870. His widow resides on the donation claim in Spring Valley. WALLING, NELSON. Born in Fulton County, Illinois, February 13, 1832, and came with his father, Gabriel Walling, to Oregon in 1847, settling near Oswego, in Clackamas County. Nelson Walling died at his home, a mile east of Amity, December 3, 1884. WARREN, HENRY. Born in Nova Scotia in 1817, of English -Scotch parentage. Mr. Warren left home at a very early age, and thenceforward sustained himself by his unaided exertions. He found his way to Baffalo, and afterwards resided for a time in Illinois and Missouri. He left the latter State in 1847 bound for Oregon, and came by ox-team to this coast. In 1848 he settled in Yamhill County. Mr. Warren was married in Missouri to Miss Nancy Palmer, who died m 1859 leaving five children. He pursued farming until 1857, when he was chosen sheriff of Yamhill, and held that office seven years. Since that time he has been successively a member of the Lower House of the State Legislature, receiver of the land office at Oregon City, in which he remained ten years, recorder and mayor of Mc- Minnville, and, finally, State Senator. Mr. Warren was married a second time, in IS65 to Mrs. Nellie Schrader. 690 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. WATSON, JAMES M. Born in Illinois in 1839. On his arrival in Oregon, he settled, in King's Valley, where he still resides, engaged in farming. He mar- ried Mary M. Bryant in 1874, and their children's names are — James E., and Mary A. WATTS, FRANCIS AUSTIN. Born November 17, 1846, in Sangamon County, Illinois; was brought to Oregon by his parents the next year, who settled at Peoria, Linn County. Was married in June, 1872, to Emma Gil- bert. Children — Linnie M., and Lawrence R. Was a merchant in Shedd until late in 1884. WHEELER, JASON. Born in Ohio in 1823; resided for a time in New York, leaving that State in 1844, and living for the three subsequent years in Michigan. In 1847 came to Oregon across the plains. Served in the Cayuse war under General Gilliam, and took part in various conflicts with the Indians, especially at Wells 1 Springs, where he received a wound in the thigh. Settling in Linn County, Mr. Wheeler be- came sheriff in 1848. The next year he went to California and mined for a time, but returning to Oregon by sea, the vessel was wrecked at the mouth of Rogue River, and it was with difficulty that the survivors were enabled to find their way overland to a place of safety. In 1850 Mr. Wheeler married Eliza D. Claypoole. Their family contained five children — Melissa J., Ellen N., Delia A., Frank P., and Mary F. Mr. Wheeler was a member of the Legislature in 1878-79. His occupation is farming, and his residence is at Albany. WHEELER, LEONARD M. Born in Cayuga County, New York, February 7, 1826, and came across the plains to Oregon when twenty -one years of age. Resides at Lebanon, Linn County, and is a farmer. Married Isabel Miller, and their children are — George F., James M., Nettie, Douglas M.,- and A. C. WHITE, LUTHER, Is a farmer and stock-grower, residing at Brownsville, Linn County; was born in Ohio, January 20, 1815; settled near HISTOKY OF IMMIGRATION. 091 Browiisville iinrnediately on his arrival in Oregon. In 1843 he was married to Miss Martha A. Mansfield, and their children are — Rosa B., Margaret, and Robert, and eight others deceased. Mr. White was a member of the Legislature in 1851-52. WHITNEY, WILLIAM. Born in England in 1808; came to America when twenty-two, and resided in turn in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Indiana, and crossed the plains to Oregon in 1847. Located at Butte ville and died there June 1, 1878. WILCOX, GEORGE WASHINGTON. Born in Putnam County, Ohio, and came to Oregon in 1847, settling at Salem. Lives now at Ballston, and is a farmer. He married Miss Mary E. Dixon in 1856. Children — Alice M., W. T., Sarah E., Jacob H., Hubert T., I. C, and Felix M. WILCOX, SANFORD E. Born in New York in 1827; came to Oregon and settled near Wapatoo Lake, Washington County, where he still has his resi- dence, on a donation claim; his occupation is farming. He mar- ried Mary A. Butts in 1852, and their children's names are — John, Louis, Dudley, Olive, Melva, and Mary. Mr. Wilcox is county commissioner of Washington County. WOODS, GEORGE L. Caleb Woods, the father of Governor Woods, is a native of Madison County, Kentucky, and was born in 1806. He came to Oregon in 1847, bringing his family. Resides mainly in Yamhill County. His wife was a Miss McBride, a native of Tennessee. Mrs. Woods died in 1871, and two of their four sons are also dead. Of the survivors, George L. Woods has attained distinction, becom- ing Governor of Oregon and earning celebrity in law and politics. He was born in Boone County, Missouri, in 1831 or 1832, and after accompanying his parents to this State lived on his father's donation claim at North Yamhill. He was educated in the schools of Doctor Hudson and L. L. Rowland, both excellent teachers, and studied law by himself. He was quickly admitted to the bar, and Bhowing great aptitude for his profession, he speedily attained a 692 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. leading place among the professional men of the State. Being a ready and fluent talker and cogent debater, he was enabled to exert much influence upon political affairs, and took an important part in the discussion of public questions. For a time he practiced at Walla Walla and The Dalles, and was elected Governor of Oregon, and served four years. Upon the conclusion of his term of office he was appointed by President Grant Governor of Utah Territory, and held this position also for four years. He is now (1885) practicing law in San Francisco. Governor Woods is a forcible speaker, whose qualities as an ex tempore debater have been his principal distinction. YOCUM, THOMAS J. Born in Illinois, November 2, 1828 ; came to Oregon and settled at Deer Creek, Yamhill County. Resides now at Bellevue, in the same county. Married. Elizabeth Tharp, in Polk County, January 16, 1851. Children — Sarah J., Mary Ann, Emily, Malvina, Samuel, Rebecca, and Albert J. 1848. BALL, ISAAC. Born in Staffordshire, England, in 1812. Coming to Oregon, he settled in Polk County. His residence is at Ballston, a station of the Oregonian Railway, which received its name from him. Mr. Ball served two terms as county commissioner. He owns several hundred acres of the finest and best soil in the county. He married Miss A. Howland in January, 1838. Children — William H., Samuel H., Isaac J., Thomas M., Mary J., Lavinia, Margaret A., Anna P. M., and Lida. BAUER, ANDREW. Born in Germany in 1810; settled in Ohio in 1834, and in Marion County, Oregon, in 1848. Occupation, farming. Died January 24, 1884. Married Theresa Smeltzer in 1837. Children — John, Ferdinand, Eliza (Mrs. Busky), and Mrs. W. T. Chambers. Mrs. Bauer died in 1869. BENNETT, LEVI. Born in Carroll County, Illinois, March 19, 1834; came to Ore- gon and settled in Yamhill County, residing now at Amity. He is HTSTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 693 a farmer. August 15, 1855, he married Mary M. Stephens, who was born in Indiana, October 12, 1840. Their children are — Cyrus ST., John H., Lillian R., R. J., and Marietta (deceased). BLAIN, L. E., A son of Wilson Blain, was born in Indiana in 1842. He re- ceived a common school education, and on coming of age engaged in merchandising at Albany, in partnership with S. E. Young. In 1872 he went into business for himself in a clothing store, which he still carries on. Married, in 1865, Miss Mary Miller. BLAIN, WILSON. Born in Ohio in 1813; graduated from Missouri University, and afterwards studied theology, and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1838. Came to Oregon as missionary. Became editor of the Spectator newspaper, and served, also, three years in the Legislative Council. Located at Union Point, Linn County, in 1850, and organized a church, of which he was pastor, and likewise taught the pupils of an Academy at the same place. Was married to Elizabeth Wilson, by whom he had six children — three sons and three daughters. The sons now live in Albany. Mr. Blain died February 22, 1861. BRANSON, BENJAMIN B. Born in De Witt County, Illinois, September 4, 1830. His first place of residence in Oregon was at Grande Ronde, Polk County; he now lives at Mill Creek, in the same county, and is a farmer and Btock-grower. He married Eliza E. Dickey, in Yamhill County, September 15, 1854, and their children's names are — Sarah A., Jo- sephine, Evanda, Eliza J., Ephraim N., Elnora S., Ida M., Benja- min B., ( >rby N., Susie G., Lena T., and Gertrude. BRISTOW, W. W. Born in Kentucky; came to Oregon in 1848 with his parents, brothers and sisters, and settled in Lane County. Was a member of the Constitutional Convention, and served the people in a variety of other positions. Was elected State Senator in 1872. Died, December 9, 1874. 694 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. BURNS, DAVID N., Is part proprietor of a livery stable at Dallas, Polk County, where lie resides. He was born in Kendall County, Illinois, in 1835, and came to Oregon at thirteen years of age, and settled in Yamhill County. He married Martha J. Tetherow in Polk County, January 1, 1865. BURNS, JOHN. Born in Tazewell County, Illinois, in 1833. Coming to Oregon, he settled in Polk County. Resides now in the Luckiamute Valley, and is a farmer and stock-raiser. He married Susan Hicklin in Washington County, Oregon, in 1853. She died January 15, 1875. Married Cornelia Crichton in Polk County, October 30, 1878. Children— Eliza E., Clarinda E., Emma F., Arthur L., John, Milton M., Columbus, Rachel, Alice, and Ruby M. BURNS, W. E. Born in Illinois in 1840; came to Oregon and settled in Yamhill County; present residence, Luckiamute Valley, and occupation, farming and stock-raising. He married Drusilla M. Johnson, in Oregon, in 1866, and their children's names are — William J., Myta J., and Ada F. CYRUS, HENRY. Born in Linn County, Oregon, August 22, 1848; the son of William Cyrus, of Scio. Resides on his farm twelve miles east of Albany. Is agent for the Jefferson warehouse company. Was elected a member of the House in 1882, and was returned in 1884. Married in 1872 to Miss Sarah J. Beard, who died in 1877, leaving one child — Minnie Florence. Married again in June, 1880, to Miss Mary C. Crabtree, by whom he has had three children — Chloe, Amy, and an infant. GRAHAM, GEORGE. Born in Ohio in 1822; is a farmer by occupation, and lives near Oregon City. Married Miss S. Larkins, and by her had one child — James K. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION*. 695 GRAHAM, JAMES K. Born in Morgan County, Illinois in 1847; the son of George Graham ; is a farmer by occupation, and lives near Oregon City. Married Hannah M. Wingfield, and their children are — George K., Horton X., Clara A., and Hardin W. HAGEY, MATTHIAS. Born in North Carolina in 1822. Came to Oregon and settled at French Prairie, Marion County. Present residence, Suvers, Polk County, and occupation, farming. He married Sarah A. DeHaven in Iowa in 1845, and their children's names are — Eliza A., Andrew TV\, Sarah C, Peter H., Mary E., George D., Alice, and Joseph. HAGOOD, HENRY. Born in Virginia, May 15, 1815. Lived in Missouri prior to coming to Oregon, which he did in 1848. Lived in Washington County until 1853, then removed to Polk County, and has lived there since. His occupation has been principally farming, and now owns three hundred acres of land. Also owns a house known as the " Traveler's Best." Married in 1842 to Miss Mary Stone. Has now seven living children and one deceased. His residence and post-office address are Dallas. HENDRICKS, THOMAS G. Born in Henderson County, Illinois, in 1848, and was brought by his parents to Oregon in the same year. They settled in Lane County, and both survived until 1878. The son lived on the home farm until he was twenty-two years of age, when he removed to Eugene City, and was employed at first as clerk, but eventually succeeded his employers in their business, which he now carries on. Is a member of the board of regents of the State L T niversity. Served three years as county superintendent of schools. Was elected State Senator in 1880. HESS, DANIEL. Born in Kentucky in L829; came to the Pacific coast in 1845, and lived in California until coming to Oregon. He then settled at Ea>t Chebalem, Washington County, and was employed as a 696 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. farmer and mechanic until his death, which occurred in 1878. He married Catherine Lee in 1853, and she now lives at Dundee, Yam- hill County. Their children's names are — Samuel, Mrs. L. Hess, Eugene L., John F., William F., Mrs. P. I. Martin, Alice and AdaF. HOOKER, D. D. Born in Illinois in 1826; came to Oregon and settled in Luckia- mute Valley, where he still resides. Occupation, farming and stock- raising. He married Annie N. Lewis, in Oregon in 1861, and their children's names are — Mary M., Olive O., Cyrus D., Annie A., Emily E., Darius D., Ira J., Jennie, and Myrtle I. JONES, SAMUEL T. Is a farmer and lives at Miller's, Linn County. Owns four hun- dred and eighty acres of land. Born in Kentucky, June 2, 1826. For his first wife he married Miss Nancy Miller ; his second wife was Sarah J. Holman. His children are — Mary B., and Joseph A. KELLY, PENUMBRA. Born in Kentucky in 1845, and when three years old was brought to Oregon by his parents, who located at East Portland the next year. He married Miss Mary E. Marquarn. Besides two miles from East Portland. Has been in politics, representing Multnomah County three or more times in the Legislature, and is now United States Marshal. LEE, JOSEPH D. Born in Polk County, Oregon, July 27, 1848. Was educated at the LaCreole Academy, but the greater part of his boyhood was spent on a farm, or as clerk in his father's store at Dallas. In 1870, he was admitted as partner in the store, which partnership continued until 1876, when he purchased his father's interest and has since had entire control, and is now one of the leading mer- chants of Dallas. In 1878, he was elected a member of the lower house of the Legislature on the Bepublican ticket, the rest of the ticket being defeated. In 1880, he was elected State Senator from Polk County, and 1884, joint State Senator from Benton and Polk counties. Mr. Lee is a member of the Methodist Church, and of HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. ' 697 the Masonic and Odd Fellows Lodges. He is also a member of the board of trustees of LaCreole Academy and the Willamette University. Was married May 19, 1872, to Miss Eliza A. Witter, and they have four children — Lyman H., Annie Lorene, Joseph K,., and Althea E. LEWIS, ISAAC. Lives in Dallas, Polk County, and is a farmer by occupation; he was born in Illinois in 1822; came across the plains to Oregon and settled in Polk County; went to California in 1849, but re- turned in 1850, and bought a place at Dallas, where he still lives. In 1850 he was married to Miss Eleanor S. Whiteaker. They have two children — Mary A. and Lucy E. McKINNEY, EDWARD E. Born in Marion County, Oregon, in 1848; occupation, merchant; place of residence, Turner. Wife's previous name, Virginia Condit. POMEROY, FRANK F., Jr. Born in Oregon in 1848; now resides at Cornelius, Washington County, and near the place of his birth. Owns a farm of 160 acres and tills it. He married Miss Rebecca Jake, in 1871, and has six children — Elmer, John, Ida, Lulu, Edgar, and an infant. PORTER, WILLIAM. Born in Lincoln County, Missouri, iu 1812; moved to Illinois in 1836; thence to Oregon in 1848, with his wife, Sarah, daughter of K Coffey, and four children — W. G., Elizabeth N., John H.,and Syd- ney E. W. Gr. Porter was born in Pike County, Illinois, 1841 ; died in Marion County, Oregon, in 1880. The other children were also born in Pike County, and are married and live in Marion County, Oregon. Sarah, their mother, died soon after arriving in Oregon, in the fall of 1848. The father married her sister, Martha, in the fall of 1849, by whom he has three grown children — Henry C, Sarah L., and Mary Jane. All are now living in Marion County, Oregon. Henry C. is married, and has a five-year-old daughter. . purvine, A. j. Born in Illinois in 1833, and crossed the plains with his parents in 1848. They settled in Marion County. Mr. Purvine has been a 698 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. resident of Polk County since 1862, and cultivates his farm near Zena. He married Miss Mary J. Dougherty in 1857, by whom he had three children — Jordan, Cyrus, and Charles. Mrs. Purvine died in 1864, and he married Miss Pauline Staiger, in 1873, by whom he has had — Ida, Albert, Emma, Gertie, Monroe, and Fred- PURVINE, j. L. Born in Illinois in 1842; the son of John Purvine. Crossed the plains in 1848, and settled in Marion County. Is a farmer, and resides at Zena, Polk County. Married in Polk County, November 24, 1864, to Miss Mary V. Walker, who has borne him four chil- dren — Elma, Dudley, Frank, and Lynn. SHELLEY, ROSWELL. Mr. Shelley was born in Iowa in the year 1846, and came with his parents to Oregon in 1848. His first home in Oregon was in Lane County, where he lived until 1857 when he moved to Polk County, and that has continued to be his home with the exception of a few years spent in Wasco County. Dealt in merchandise for several years. In 1882 was elected county clerk, and was placed in nomination again in 1884 for the second term bat was defeated. Owns city property in Dallas. Married Miss Mary L. Tatom in 1878, and has two children — Ealph D., and Hugh T. SWEGLE, CHARLES. Born in New Jersey in 1821; moved in 1828 to Illinois; came to Oregon twenty years after. Married in 1847 to Lucy D. Robin- son. Children — George, Nancy, Oliva, Marion, and Albert J. In 1860 located in Marion County; occupation, farmer, owning several farms in that county. Lives at present at the Whitman mission at Waiilatpu, Washington Territory. Is one of the foremost wheat growers in the Territory. WALKER, W. W. Born in Virginia, July 23, 1814; removed with his parents to Missouri in 1829, and remained there until 1848, when he settled in Spring Valley, Polk County. This pleasant and fruitful locality was so named by Mr. Walker in 1852. The gentleman derives his title of Major from the circumstance of having held a commission HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 699 in the Missouri state militia. In this country he held offices as fol- lows: Was commissioner of Polk County in 1849, and was a mem- ber of the Territorial Legislature in 1856. Was married in Mis- souri, in 1843, to Miss Jane Mackey. They have five children — Mary V. (wife of J. L. Purvine), Susan M. (wife of Dr. Jeffreys), Nancy (wife of H. G. Henry), L. (wife of J. K. Sears), and Dora. Major Walker's occupation is farming; his address is Zena, Polk County. WATT, JOHN. Born in Pennsylvania in 1792; served in the war of 1812; came to Oregon and settled at Amity, Yamhill County. He practiced the trade of carpenter to some extent, but gave his attention to farming. He died in 1854. Was married in 1816, to Mary Scott, by whom he had fourteen children, those now living being — J. V., A. S., Adeline (Mrs. Fullquartz), Elizabeth (Mrs. Wren), Isabelle (Mrs. Breyman, of Salem), iVurora (Mrs. Bowman, of Portland), and Clara (Mrs. Morton). WHITEAKER, BENJAMIN. Born in North Carolina in 1796, and removed to Virginia at an early age. Went to Illinois in 1836, and crossed the plains to Oregon in 1848; settled in Polk County. His occupation was farming. He married Miss Mary Hayter in 1823. Their children numbered eleven, of whom David J., Rachel, Ellen, Benjamin, Maria, and George survive. Mr. Whiteaker died . WHITEAKER, DAVID J. Born in West Virginia, October 29, 1824; removed with his parents to Illinois in 1836, and came with his father, Benjamin Whiteaker, to Oregon, twelve years after. Went to the California mines in 1*49, and returned in 1850. In 1851 and 1852 was in the Rogue River country. Served in the Yakima war. In 1859 went to the Upper Columbia region, and lived many years, return- ing to the valley in 1878, and settling in Polk County. Resides now on a farm near Independence. Married Miss Lucy L. Titus in 1871. 700 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 1849. BACKENSTOS, EDWIN D. Born in Springfield, Illinois, in 1844; the eldest son of Colonel J. B. Backenstos, U. S. A. Came with his parents to Oregon in 1849. Resided subsequently in Portland, and held several public offices, especially that of city treasurer. Died April 23, 1876. BOOTHBY, R. R. Born in Brown County, Ohio, May 15, 1812. After reaching man's estate he traveled over a number of States before settling, and spent several years as engineer of steamboats on the Ohio and Illinois rivers. He then settled in Illinois and engaged in the mer- cantile and milling business until 1845, when he went to Texas and for a time continued in the latter occupation. Joined the Texas Rangers and fought the Indians. In 1848 he returned to Illinois and in the following year started for Oregon across the plains. Settled in Polk County, but several years later moved to Salem. Was married in 1835 to Miss Mary A. Waller, and has ten children, all of whom are alive — Jane C, Harrison B., Emily C, Mary E., Caroline C, Pamelia A., William W. and Maria (twins), George T., and Reason R. Mrs. Boothby died at Seattle, May 21, 1863, and in 1877 he was married to Mrs. Margaret McFadden. Mr. Boothby is at present a resident of Monmouth. Has thirty- seven living grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. BUTLER, J. B. V. Born in New Hampshire in 1809, and after extensive traveling in various parts of the United States — his marriage to Miss Eliza- beth Engles taking place meanwhile — -he crossed the plains to Ore- gon in 1849. He lived for a short time in Oregon City; then went to Portland, where he was a merchant until 1855, and from there moved to Polk County, and opened a store at Eola, which he kept four years. In 1859, he went to Monmouth, and died in October, 1879. BUTLER, N. L. Residence and address, Dallas; occupation, attorney. Born in Pike County, Missouri, August 27, 1844. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 701 CAMPBELL, HECTOR. Born in Chester, Hampden County, Massachusetts, July 11, 1793. Joined the Baptist denomination in 1831, together with his wife who was of the same age. They came to Oregon in 1849. Mr. Campbell had been twice a member of the Legislature of hie native State, and belonged to the Oregon Territorial Legislature in 1850. Was a member of the Constitutional Convention of Oregon. Died in Clackamas County, June 15, 1873. CAPLES, LAFAYETTE, Is a farmer, and lives two miles west of Forest Grove. He was born in Ohio in 1844; came to Oregon at an early age and lived near Portland. He married Charlotte Noland in 1864, and Lenora Baines in 1880. He has five children. CHENOWETH, F. A. Born in Ohio in 1819; moved to Grant County, Wisconsin, and was admitted to the bar in 1842. Came to Oregon and settled on the banks of the Columbia River. Was speaker of the House of Representatives in Washington Territory in 1854, and was ap- pointed Judge of the Supreme Court of the Territory in the same year by President Pierce, and held the office four years. Was a member of the Oregon Legislature in 1866, and speaker of the house. Was district attorney of Benton County. Present resi- dence, King's Valley, Benton County, and occupation, lawyer. Married Hannah Logan in 1842, and for his second wife, Elizabeth A. Finley, in Oregon City, in 1850. Children — Somerville, Heber L., Mary L., Ross, Lindus B., Ella, and Lloyd. CORNELIUS, OLIVER H. P. Born in Oregon in 1849; his parents came to the State in 1845. He is a druggist by occupation, and resides at Turner, Marion County. Wife's previous name was Viola Howe. Children — George L., and Arthur. DEADY, MATTHEW P. Born in Talbot County, Maryland, May 12, 1824. Removed to Ohio in L 837, and lived on a farm for several years, afterwards working as blacksmith and attending an academy at the same time. 702 HISTOKY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Began the study of law in 1845, and in 1847 was admitted to the Ohio bar. Crossed the plains in 1849, located in Yamhill County, and began to practice law. In 1850 he was elected a member of the lower house of the Legislature. In 1851 he defeated David Logan in the election for the Territorial Council, of which he was the presiding officer for two sessions. He held the position of As- sociate Justice of the Supreme Court of Oregon from 1853 until 1859. About 1854 he removed to Douglas County, and took up a donation claim near Winchester. Here he settled and occupied himself in agriculture as well as his legal pursuits. The people of that part of the country, his former neighbors, still have recollec- tions of his studiousness and his entire devotion to the higher prin- ciples of his profession. Judge Deady was chosen a delegate from Douglas County to the Constitutional Convention, of which he was elected president. Upon the organization of the State, he was elected, without opposition, one of the justices of the Supreme ' Court, but being at nearly the same time appointed Judge of the United States District Court, he chose the latter position, and im- mediately removing to Portland, he assumed its duties, which he has ever since discharged with great and increasing reputation. His services to this State have been great and arduous. In 1862 he prepared the present code of civil procedure, and later the code of criminal procedure, both of which are now in force. He has given much time to the organization and support of educational and other useful institutions. He is president of the Portland Library Asso- ciation, and president of the Board of Regents of the University of Oregon, at Eugene City. He has done much excellent and valuable literary work, outside of the preparation of his legal de- cisions, which are unsurpassed in clearness and value. Many his- torical subjects, principally relating to this State, have been adorned by his pen. All his acts have honored and benefited his adopted State, and he stands, to-day, Oregon's first citizen. DENNY, ROBERT. Born in Indiana in 1825; came to Oregon when twenty-four years of age and settled in Washington County. Later on he resided for a time in Yamhill County; then, in 1879, he removed to his residence in Polk County. Married Miss Eleanor, daughter of HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 703 Amos Harvey, in 1856. They had five children, namely — Austin, Amos, Lucy, Robert (deceased), and Edith. Mr. Denny died in 1884. FIELDS, AMBROSE. Born in Kentucky, February 2, 1792; was a farmer by occupa- tion, and died at Oregon City, March 17, 1872. His wife's previous name was Annie Nour. Children — Mary A. (deceased), Nelson (deceased), William S. (deceased), Mary J., Minerva L., Catherine E., Joseph A. (deceased), Sarah 1ST., and Thomas R. GIBSON, DAVIESS. Born in Missouri in 1812; the son of Samuel Gibson. The fath- er's birth took place in South Carolina about 1780, and he served in the war of 1812. The son left home when twenty-one, went to Illinois and lived there nineteen years. Crossed the plains to Ore- gon and then went to the California mines in 1849. Returned to the "States," via Panama, the next year, and in 1852 organized a company of emigrants, of whom his father was one, and set out for Oregon. The old gentleman died on the way, aged 72. Daviess Gibson settled in Polk County, and has remained on his original claim ever since. Has been assessor of his county (1860). Married Sophronia Ingalls in 1839. Children — George D. (three years a Union soldier), Albert B., Almira B., Cass, Mary D. (deceased), Lyman I)., and Sarah. The Gibson farm is in Polk County, five miles northwest of Salem. HARDING, BENJAMIN F. Born in Wyoming, Pennsylvania; came to Oregon about Christ- mas, 1849, having mined a little previously in California, which he left on account of sickness. In 1 850-51 he served in the Territorial Legislature at Oregon City, and subsequently became District Attor- ney, and Territorial Secretary until the State organization. Still later he became auditor of the claims growing out of the Cayuse war, and finally, in 1862, he was chosen United States Senator, and held that position three sessions. Soon after Mr. Harding abruptly quit politics and -ought retirement upon his farm. He now resides in the suburbs of Salem, and devotes his time mainly to tilling the 704 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. soil and to reading. His services to the State have been very great, and hardly excelled by those of any living man. HAYDEN, BENJAMIN B. Born in Logan County, Kentucky, September 11, 1822; married to Hulda Gibson, who was born in Lincoln County, Missouri, in 1832. Their children are — Dora, Estella, William, Benjamin N., George B., and Samuel Lee. HEMBREE, J. J., Is now proprietor of the livery -stable at Lafayette. He was born in this State in 1849, and becoming a printer, worked fifteen years at the case. He served in the United States army from 1864 to 1866. Was married in 1877 to Miss Emma Perkins, and they have one child — George A. Mr. Hembree edited and published the Lafayette Courier from 1873 until 1879. LANE, JOSEPH. Born in North Carolina, December 14, 1801. Lived in his earlier years in Kentucky. Married Polly Hart in 1821, and set- tled in Vanderburg County, Indiana, and for twenty- five years led the life of a farmer, representing his county in the Legislature for many sessions. When the Mexican war began, he was chosen colonel of the second regiment of Indiana Volunteers, and was com- missioned as brigadier -general. He took part in General Taylor's campaigns, and in the battle of Buena Vista achieved distinction, and received a severe wound. Subsequently, while commanding independently a corps of men destined to reinforce General Scott, he defeated the Mexicans in several engagements. Before the war closed he had become major-general of volunteers. He returned to Indiana, but receiving the appointment of governor of the new Ter- ritory of Oregon, he set out immediately for the Pacific shore. (See pages 327, 328.) He came to California by way of Santa Fe and the Colorado Kiver, accompanied by a military escort, and arriving in San Francisco in February, 1849, then taking passage to the Columbia on a sailing vessel, and arrived at Oregon City on the evening of the second of March, 1849. (See page 328.) The duties of his office were discharged with uncommon tact and justice until August of the same year when, a new administration having HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 705 come into power, his successor, Governor Gaines, was appointed. General Lane now spent some time as a miner in Northern Califor- nia. In 1851 he was chosen Delegate to Congress. In 1853 he distinguished himself in the Rogue River war, and received a severe wound at the battle of Evans' Creek. (See pages 353-360.) The subsequent treaty with the Indians at Table Rock was brought about largely through his influence with the hqstiles. Until the admission of Oregon to the Union, General Lane served with fidelity as Dele- gate to Congress, and on the admission he was chosen United States Senator. In 1860 the Democratic National Committee at Balti- more, nominated him for the office of Vice-President, on the ticket with John C. Breckenridge. The details of the ensuing canvass are not yet forgotten, terminating, as they did, in the election of Lincoln, and the grand tragedy of the civil war. General Lane threw his influence at first in favor of the South, but refrained from taking an active part in the attempt to disrupt the Union. He re- tired to his home near Roseburg, in Southern Oregon, and never again entered political life. The remaining years of his existence were spent peacefully on his farm and in the bosom of his family. He died in April, 1881. LINVILLE, WILLARD S. Born in Polk County, Oregon, May 19, 1849, at Bloom - ington, now called Parker's Station, son of Harrison Linville. He was raised on a farm until he reached the age of fifteen, when he entered his father's store as clerk, and has con- tinued in the mercantile business ever since. He was Govern- ment clerk on the Malheur Reservation in 1873-74. In 1878 he was Republican candidate for clerk, and in a Democratic county lacked only a few votes of election. Was a candidate again in 1880. Resides in Independence. Was married to Miss Hannah C. Nash, January 8, 1871, and they have had five children — Clara (deceased), Mildred, Albert B., Mabel C. (deceased), and Ethel E. Mrs. Linville died March 14, 1884, of intermittent fever. LYMAN, HORACE. Professor Lyman was born in Massachusetts in 1815, the descendant of a long line of Puritan ancestors, from whom have 706 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. sprung many distinguished persons who have made themselves famous in various walks of life, and among whom a marked tendency to the ministerial profession is discoverable. Professor Lyman was educated at Williams College, class of 1842, and after- wards attended the theological school at Andover, Massachusetts. He came to Oregon in 1849, and located first at Portland, estab- lishing its first Congregational Church, on the site of the present church of that denomination. Concluding his work in Portland, he went to Dallas, in Polk County, and continued his ministration in connection with teaching. To him belongs the honor of having originated the since well-known La Creole Academy, which owes its establishment to the efforts of the Professor, assisted by certain citizens. Removing from Dallas, Professor Lyman located in Forest Grove, and became professor of mathematics in the Tualatin Academy, and continued in that chair for fifteen or sixteen years, at the expiration being appointed to that of history and rhetoric. This he resigned in 1879, and retiring permanently from the arduous occupation of teaching, he has since lived at his home in Forest Grove. Professor Lyman is a worthy representative of the class of educated, refined New Englanders, who, reared in comfort and amid peaceful surroundings, have, with a self-devotion rare as it is praiseworthy, devoted themselves to the arduous and well-nigh thankless task of instructing, Christianizing and refining the chil- dren of the border. Their influence cannot be over-rated. It ex- tends to all classes of society. They are foremost in every Christian and moral work. They teach the youth ; they throw the restraints of religion about the young and the old. As mission- aries they have penetrated to the noisome abodes of savages; as teachers they have chosen penury and a residence among the hard- ships and privations of pioneer life in preference to all the com- forts and amenities of civilization. Their rewards have been ill-proportioned to such sacrifices; but their own strong and en- during religious convictions point to a higher and better reward than any earthly lot, however bright and glorious. MENES, FRANCOIS. Captain Menes, commanding the French bark L Etoile du Matin (Morning Star), with a miscellaneous cargo, and ten priests, seven HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 70 7 nuns and three lay brothers, consigned to Archbishop Blanchet, at Portland, left Havre in December, 1848, and arrived off the mouth of the Columbia about the middle of July, 1849. No pilot ap- peared and the Morning Star attempted to cross the bar without one. She caught on the sands and remained in the greatest danger for nine hours, but finally got off and ran into Baker's Bay, with the loss of one seaman. Captain Menes went to sea no more, but settling at Oregon City, and afterwards at French Prairie, he finally died, December 25, 1867. MORRIS, H. TAYLOR. Born in Oregon in 1849; in 1863 enlisted in the First Oregon Volunteers and served two years, being in several engagements with the Indians. Married, 1871, Miss Annie Wessinger. Children two — Daisy V., and Ivy L. Mr. Morris' occupation is farming; is posses- sor of a valuable farm, two miles east of Lafayette, Yamhill County, which is his postoffice address. REED, W. H. Born in Iowa in 1836, and came to Oregon when thirteen years of age. Participated in the Indian war of 1855-6. Married, in 1859, Miss P. Parrish. They have two children — Gr. A., and Nellie F. Besides in Lebanon, and is engaged in merchandising. TETHEROW, G. A. Born in Ohio in 1828; moved to Illinois in 1839, and came to Oregon in 1849. He settled in the Luckiamute Valley, where he still resides, engaged in farming and stock-raising. He was married twice, his wives' previous names being L. Zumwalt, and Sarah Nichols. Their children's names are — Josephine, James M., Willard T., and Albert, THOMPSON, D. M. Born in Indiana in 1830; moved to Iowa and thence to Oregon, settling in Linn County. Married Miss Louisa Burkhart in 1855; they have two children — Hattie, the wife of C. B. Templeton, D.D.S., of Portland; and Edward G., lately in partnership with his father in harness-making and saddlery at Albany, but who now carries on the business alone, the father having died in 1879. Edward mar- ried, m 1884, Miss Amanda Irwin, of Albany. 708 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. WALLER, T. O. * Born in Morgan County, Illinois, November 20, 1823; came to Oregon in 1 849 and settled in Polk County on a donation claim. The first store in Eola was built by him in 1856. From there he went to Dixie where he remained one year, and thence went to Eastern Oregon, in 1874, and lived there four years. He then moved to Amity, but left that town in 1880 for Monmouth, his present place of residence. His business at present is with the Farmers 7 Mercantile Association, which includes Messrs. Butler, Stump, Bidwell, and two Messrs. Waller. He was married to Miss Maria Livermore, March 9, 1847, and five children were born to them, two of whom are now living — Clarence, and Henry D. Mrs. Waller died March 2, 1862, and he married in July 5, 1879, Mrs. Rachel Atterbury, daughter of Luke Mulkey, of Monmouth. WHITLOCK, WILLIAM, Sr. Born in Kentish Town, England; occupation, merchant. Wife's previous name, Honor M. Smith. Children — William, and Edward H. Mr. Whitlock died in Oregon City, June 18, 1884. WHITLOCK, WILLIAM, Jr. Born in Victoria, July 21, 1849. He is now county clerk of Clackamas County, and resides at Oregon City. Wife's previous name was Anna H. Miller. Children — Edward B.., and Grace A. 1850. ALFORD, ALBERT. Born in Chariton County, Missouri, in 1833; came to Oregon with his parents, who located in Linn County. He resided in that county until 1869, when he removed to Jackson County, and still remains there. Is commissioner of that county. Was married to Miss Catharine Brinker, by whom he has four children — Russell A., M. L., Alice, and Amanda. ALLEN, JOHN C. Born in Missouri in October, 1825; crossed the plains to Cali- fornia in 1846, having set out for Oregon, but coming to the forks of the trail the caravan changed their mind and went to California. Mr. Allen's father, Isaac Allen, died on the Humboldt, in Nevada. HISTOBT OF IMMKrHATIdX. 709 He was a native of East Tennessee. His widow married Eli Brown, and died in January, 1884, aged 89 years. In 1846 J. C. Allen served in a military company acting as a home guard during the Mexican war. He mined for gold, and assisted in the organization of Contra Costa County. California. In 1S50 he came to ( >regon, and took a donation claim in Polk County, and lives now on an adjoining farm. His principal occupation in Oregon has been farming, but lie has traveled to Eastern Oregon and to the Salmon Kiver mine-. Married in 1851, Miss Catharine McNary, and by her had four children — William W. (deceased). Isaac A.. John W., and James D. Mrs. Allen died in 1861, and in 1864 he married Miss Miriam Harris. Children — Lena, Roy. Kate, El-ie. Charles, and Hugh. Mr. Allen is a Republican, and has held seats in both houses of the State Legislature. • BAUGHMAN, J. H. Born and reared in Illinois: settled in Marion County on coming to Oregon, and still resides there. Has been a member of the legis- lature. BELT, ALFRED M. Born in Flemingsl>urg. Kentucky. July. 1804. His father. Major Joseph Belt, was a native of Maryland, and a soldier of the war of 1^12. In 1 840, Alfred Belt moved to Platte County, Missouri. and ten years later crossed the plain- t<> < )regon. He settled in Salem, resided thereuntil Lsm>. then removed to Independence, and died there. August I s . L881. Was a physician by profession, edu- cated by a private tutor, and belonged to the State Medical Society of < Oregon. Held the office of Surgeon General during the Indian war of 1855-56, and for several year- was physician to the State Penitentiary. Was a prominent Mason, and the first Grand Master of the State. In 1835 he was married to Mi— Nancy Ward, daugh- ter of Genera] Thompson Ward, of Kentucky. Their children were ten in number. BRIEDWELL, J. W. Born in Ohio in 1829; crossed the plains to California, and spent Ho-hteen month- in the inine>. Took up a claim near King'- Valley, and engaged in the stock business. J< in the same occupa- 710 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. tion now, but lives near Dallas, Polk County, which is his post- office. He owns one thousand one hundred and seventy-four acres of land, part of which he farms. Was married in 1857 to Miss Eliza M. Reynolds, and had five children. Mrs. Briedwell died in 1875, and he married Mrs. Mary H. Ball. By her he has one child living. The names of the six are — Milton J., Mary L., William E., Sarah A., James F., and Elizabeth. BROADWELL, JACOB C. Born near Springfield, Illinois, in March, 1827; went to Cali- fornia in 1850, and in the same year to Oregon. Settled in Oregon City. Removed to Linn County in 1883. Present address, Shedd. Married in 1865 to Miss Mary A. May. Their children are — Charles C«> Ida M., Silas W., Ivan J., Helen L., Mary, Edward, and an infant. BROWN, JAMES H. Born in Washington County, Virginia, in November, 1796. On his arrival in Oregon he settled in Yamhill County. Resided in Willamina, and was a farmer. In 1833 he was married to W. Husey, and their children's names are — Mary E., Sarah, Margaretta J., James H., Joseph E., Nathan A., and Nancy S. Mr. Brown died in Yamhill County, May 30, 1875. BROWN, SAMUEL. Born in York, Pennsylvania in 1821; when seventeen moved to Indiana; spent five years in that State and learned the carpenter trade. Lived a while in Missouri, and came to Oregon by way of Cali- fornia, first spending four years — from 1846 to 1850 — in the search for gold. Was State Senator from 1864 until 1872. Besides in Gervais, Marion County, and farms extensively, having about one thousand acres of land. Was married in 1844 to Elizabeth Allen; their children are — -Columbus, Carrie, G. A., Frank M., Sarah, Albert M., Nellie D., Ernest, Clyde A., Mabel C, Samuel, and Nettie. BUSH, ASAHEL. Born in Massachusetts in 1824; when sixteen years old, he went to Saratoga, New York, thence returning to Massachusetts, HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 711 and finally coming to Oregon in 1850. Read law in Salem and was admitted to the bar, but never practiced. Was clerk of the lowet house of the Legislature in 1850-51. Became a newspaper editor and conducted the Statesman in the period of its greatest celebrity and influence. Was prominent in politics and controlled for a time the destinies of Oregon. Quitting public affairs at a later date he devoted himself to banking, and as a member of the firm of Ladd it Bush added largely to his already considerable wealth. Mr. Bush was the first State Printer of Oregon, and held that office for some twelve years in aU. Resides at Salem. BUTLER, I. M. Born in Illinois in 1831 and was reared there. Came across the plains to Oregon, and in the same year made a trip to California and returned to this State. Went to Illinois in 1851 via the Nicaragua route, and came again to Oregon in 1852. Bought a claim in Polk County, which he still owns. Has resided in Independence since 1868. Was in the grain business there for ten years, retiring in 1881 and investing in an opera house. Mr. Butler served in Captain Haydems company in the Yakima war. Was sheriff of Polk County from 1860 until 1864. Married Miss Sarah A. Webb in 1857, and has two children — Ella (Mrs. E. W. Cooper, of In- dependence), and Bessie May. BUTLER, JUNIUS J. Bom in Iredell County, North Carolina, in October, 1815. In ; moved to Missouri. In 1850 came to Oregon and settled in Yamhill County, and now lives -in Bellevue, same county, engaged rpenter and farmer. He married Melinda Toney, in Yamhill County, in 1873, and their children's names are — Amanda J., Mary 1... and Philip J. CAPLES, J. W. Residence and address. Forest Grove. Born in Ohio, January 18, L840; came to Oregon in 1 850. Was in Washington Territory twelve years jed in general merchandising; went to Forest Grove in the spring of 1883, and formed a partnership with J. C. Woods in the mercantile business. Owns city property in that town. Mar- 712 HISTOKY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. ried Miss Harriet L. Gilson in 1866, and they now have five chil- dren — Conrad, Jesse, John, Arthur and Ora Dell. CARMON, WATERS. Born in Pennsylvania in 1811; removed to Illinois in 1822, and remained there until 1849. Served in the Black Hawk war. In 1835 was married to Lavina Buckman, by whom he had four chil- dren. She died in 1846, and three years later Mr. Carmon went to California, and the next year came to Oregon. In 1852 he married Mrs. Lucretia Gurney, by whom he had four children. Settled on a farm near Oswego, in 1853, and resided there until his death, Sep- tember 29, 1878. CARPENTER, WILLIAM R. Born in Delaware County, Ohio, in 1822; lives near Gaston, and is a farmer. He married Vashti Parsons, in 1851, who died in 1863. CARTER, WILLIAM D. Born in South Barre, Vermont, in 1828. Learned the printer's trade in Montpelier, and came to Oregon in 1850. Was employed on the first number of the Western Star, which was issued at Mil- waukee on November thirteenth of that year, and removed to Port- land in the June following, and called the Oregon Weekly Times, of which he was one of the publishers up to 1857. In 1858, in connection with A. Gr. Walling, he began the publication of the Oregon Farmer, and continued it for about live years. Mr. Carter conducted a job printing office from 1864 to 1869, and has con- tinued to work at his trade ever since. In 1857 he married Miss Louisa A. Uzafovage, and by her has had eleven children, nine of whom are living. CHISHAM, J. M. Lives in Independence, Polk County, and is a wagon -maker by occupation. He was born in Scott County, Kentucky, in 1820. After extensive traveling through various States he finally arrived in Oregon. In 1855-56 was in the Indian war as First Sergeant in Company A, of Benton County. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 713 CLARKE, S. A. Born on the Island of Cuba in 1827; arrived in Oregon in September, 1850, and settled at Portland, and remained there two years; then removed to Salem, where he still resides; he is a journalist by occupation, and gives some attention to fruit -culture. He married Harriet T. Buckingham in 1852, in Portland, and their children's names are — Harriet, Minnie (deceased), Sarah, and Wil- liam J. Mr. Clarke is now editor and proprietor of the Willamette Farmer, the principal agricultural journal of the Northwest. In its conduct he is assisted by his son, William J. Clarke. The publica- tion office is in Salem. Mr. Clarke's journalistic experience has been varied and considerable. He had charge of the Statesman for several years. Mrs. Clarke came to the State in 1851. She is a native of Norwalk, Ohio, and was born in 1832. She crossed the plains with her relative Hiram Smith, a man of much note in early times, and whose life was spent in actively developing and making known the resources of this country. His widow resides in Portland, Oregon, and performs literary work for publication in the Wil- lamette Farmer. COOLEY, B. F. Born in Woodburn, Marion County, in 1850. Became a teacher and followed that vocation for over twelve years. In 1881 opened a store of general merchandise in Woodburn. Is justice of the peace and notary public. Married Priscilla Devoren, in 1873. They have two children — Dora Ann, and Clarence F. DAVIDSON, ELIJAH. Was 1 >orn in North Carolina in 1783. Removed to Kentucky about 1818, and from there to Warren County, Illinois, in 1831, and crossed the plains to Oregon in 1850, and died at Monmouth, Polk County, in 1870, aged eighty-seven years. His first wife was Miss Murphy, by whom he had twelve children. She died in 1864. Second wife the relict of Dr. James McBride. Mr. Davidson was a soldier of the war of 1812. DAVIDSON, ELIJAH B., Son of Elijah Davidson, born in Kentucky in 1819. Removed with parents to Warren County, Illinois, when twelve years of age. 714 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Came to Oregon in 1850, and spent winter near Milwaukie. In 1851 took donation land claim, which is now just outside the East Portland city limits, where he lived until 1855, then removing to Monmouth, Polk County. In 1866 he went to Josephine County, where he now lives. His occupation has always been that of farming. In 1841 he married Miss Saloma Jones, by whom he has had thirteen children as follows — William (deceased), Mary (deceased), Isaac G., John 8., Elijah J., M. Lizzie (deceased), Sarah J., Moses M., Margaret M. (deceased), Carter S., Saloma B., Olivia W., and Jay Ellsworth. DAVIDSON, ISAAC G. Son of Elijah B. Davidson, was born in Warren County, Illinois, in 1845, and came with his parents to Oregon in 1850. Has fol- lowed the occupations of farming, teaching, book-keeping, and for the last five years has been engaged in photographing. In the line of scenic photography he takes the first rank in the State. In 1869 he was married to Miss Sarah O. Biggs, daughter of D. L. Riggs, of Salem, a pioneer of 1853. By her he had six children, five of whom are living. Mrs. Davidson died in 1883. DAVIS, JAMES WARREN. Born at Fort Wayne, Indiana, January 15, 1829; removed to Kansas in 1835, and to Missouri a few years after. In 1855 was appointed clerk of the U. S. District Court at Portland, and so con- tinued until 1859. For a time subsequently he was deputy county clerk of Multnomah County. Died in Portland, January 8, 1873. DEARDORFF, CHRISTIAN. Born in Virginia in 1805; removed in early life to Ohio, and thence to Indiana. Married Miss Matilda Landes. Moved twice toward the west, staying near Burlington, Iowa, from 1838 to 1850. Again removed, this time to Oregon, crossing the plains. Located with his children near Milwaukie, in Clackamas County, and re- mained there until his death, December 16, 1884. DOUGLAS, LEVI. Born in Clinton County, Ohio, July 28, 1832. Came to Oregon in 1850. In 1858 settled near Harrisburg, Linn County, and is HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 715 now proprietor of a planing and feed mill in that town. Was county commissioner in 1880-82. Married Miss Mary A. Curtis, and their children's names are — James T., William S., Etta, and Leonard. DRYER, THOMAS J. Born in New York, January 10, 1808; acquired experience in newspaper work, went to California in 1849, and was employed for a short time upon a San Francisco paper. Came to Oregon, bring- ing printing material, and on the fourth of December, 1850, brought out the first number of the Oregonian, as a weekly newspaper. This paper he conducted until 1860, with success and celebrity. Mr. Dryer was a member of the Territorial Legislature, and also of the Constitutional Convention. On Lincoln's inauguration he be- came minister to the Sandwich Islands. Returning to Portland several years later, he filled the office of justice of the peace for many years. Died, March 30, 1879. FOUTS, WILLIAM. Born in Brook County, Virginia, in 1793; was a carpenter by occupation. Married Lydia Ellis. Their children were — Solomon H., Matilda (deceased), Seneca (deceased), William H. H., Charles and Theodore W. Mr. Fouts died at Canemah in 1877. GAINES, ABNER P. Born in Kentucky in March, 1835; is a farmer by occupation, residing at Scio, Linn County. Married Mary E. Looney and their children are — Archie A., Ida E., John P., Richard L., C. B., Ha/ttie B., and Wilbur W. Mr. Gaines was United States Assessor in 1861-62. GIBBS, ADDISON C. Born in Cattaraugus County, New York, July 9, 1825, and was educated at Griffith Institute, and at the New York State Normal School. He spent several years as a teacher, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1849. Came to Oregon and located on the Umpqua River, a donation claim, where stands the present town of Gardiner. Participated in the Indian disturbances in the Rogue River in 1851. Was a member of the Legislature in 1851-52. 716 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Was code commissioner in 1853, and collector of customs for South- ern Oregon. In 1858 he moved to Portland and opened an office in partnership with George H. Williams. Was nominated as gov- ernor in 1862, and was elected by a very large majority. At the close of his term he was nominated for U. S. Senator by the Re- publicans, but, although coming within one vote of an election, he thought it prudent to withdraw, giving the seat to H. W. Corbett. Governor Gibbs is now engaged in the practice of law in Portland. He married in New York, Miss Margaret M. Watkins, and has six children, one of whom, William W., is his partner in the law. GRIGGS, A. B., Whose residence is Monmouth, and occupation that of butcher, was born in Adams County, Illinois, in the year 1827, and worked at the blacksmithing trade in that State. He came to Oregon in 1850, and settled in Linn County; is owner of a farm six miles from Lebanon in that county. In 1852 mined in Jackson County. Mr. Griggs was married to Miss Sarah J. Morris in 1849, and had by her six children, viz. — Amanda M., Sarah C, Fannie, Mary P., Addie, and John. He was married a second time, to Mrs. R. G. Gard in 1881, and by her has two children — Clara and Lucy. GWIN, JAMES L. Born in Carter County, Tennessee, in 1829; was taken to Indiana in 1835; moved to Illinois in 1840, and to Oregon in 1850, and settled in Yamhill County. His present residence is Monmouth, and occupation, farming and stock-raising. He married Mary Boothby in 1858, and their children's names are — Mary A., Reason L. (deceased), Ulysses S., George L., Albert, Herman, and Frank. HALL, WILLIAM. Born in Ohio in 1822; came to the Pacific coast in 1850; lived in California hrst, but came to Oregon the same year. Married in, 1853 to Mrs. Christian Darrall, by whom he had seven children, six of whom are now living. His place of residence is Beaverton. HOLMES, WILLIAM H. Born in Polk County, in May, 1850, and educated at LaCreole Academy. Bead law and was admitted to practice in 1874. HISTOET OF IMMIGRATION. 717 Located at Salem. Was nominated as representative to the State Legislature in 1880, but was defeated. Was elected prosecuting attorney for the third judicial district in 1882. Married Miss Josephine Lewis, of Polk County, and has two children — Jessie and Clare. JOHNSTON, JOHN. Born in Ireland in 1828; came to America in 1840, settling first in Illinois; came to Oregon in 1850, and located on the French Prairie, in Marion County. Originally, he was a miller by trade, and after his coming, conducted the old Catholic mission mill, called now McKay's mill. His present residence is four and a half miles south of Champoeg. Occupation, farming. Married Mary Kennedy in 1859, and they have six sons and five daughters — Ellen, Mrs. Mary A. Hinkle, Thomas, Eobert E., John, Agnes, William, Eliza, Joseph, Charles, and Cecilia. KEYT, E. C. Born in New York in 1828; his parents removed the same year to Ohio, where the son was raised. Coming to Oregon he settled in Polk County, and has since resided there. Participated in the Yakima war of 1855-6, serving under Captain Hayden. Resides in Perrydale, Polk County. Married Mrs. Amanda Daly, in 1863, by whom he has had eight children — Elizabeth F., David L., Nellie, Hattie, Henry, Edward, Lena, and William. LAFOLLETT, D. H. Born in Kentucky in 1824; lived in the Western States until 1850, when he started for Oregon overland. Two years later he went to South America, but returned the same year. His subse- quent travels have been extensive. Mr. Lafollett resides now at Salem, where he is Master of \he Grange. His occupation is farm- ing. His family consists of his wife (formerly Miss Cynthiana Railsback, to whom he was married in 1843), and five children — Alexander M., Iranda G., Susan, Olive, and Emma. LARGE, FRANCIS. Residence, Forest (hove; was horn in Pennsylvania, on the fifth day of August, 1818; eame from Ohio to the Pacific coast in 1850; 718 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. came from California to Oregon. In 1852 settled in Yamhill County and took a donation claim; moved to Forest Grove in 1883. In July, 1853, married Miss Z. Baily. Children — Elizabeth D., and Charles L. LEISY, ISAAC. Born in Pennsylvania in 1822; lived in Ohio for some years; set out for Oregon in 1850, arriving in the fall. Occupation, farmer, owning a place two miles from Hillsboro, Washington County. Married, in 1854, Esther Marsh. Children — Rosella, Henry W., Netta, Daniel D., Flora, Wealthy, Isaac, Perry, and Douglas. LOGAN, DAVID. Born near Springfield, Illinois; was the son of Judge Stephen T. Logan, once a law partner of Abraham Lincoln; came to Oregon in 1850, and began law practice at Lafayette; achieved great dis- tinction as a criminal lawyer; retired from practice in 1871. Kan for Congress three times as Republican nominee, but was defeated each time. Died near McMinnville, March 27, 1874. MANSFIELD, DOMINIC. Born in Tennessee in 1818; started from Missouri for Oregon with his parents; his father and mother died on the route within ten days of each other. He arrived in Oregon and settled in Linn County; taught school until 1853, then went to farming near Harrisburg. In 1857 was elected assessor of Linn County, and served three years. Moved to Albany in 1860; was elected county clerk in the same year. After the term expired, was in mercantile business, and in 1873, became secretary and manager of the Farmer's Warehouse Company. Married Miss Celia E. Pollard in 1853; has four children — William, Mvra, Anna, and Gertie. MARTIN, J. L., M. D., Is an old resident of Scio, Linn County, having practiced medi- cine there for twenty-five years; was born in Davidson County, Tennessee, July 14, 1822; is a graduate of the Willamette Medical college. Served as assistant surgeon in the Indian war of 1855-56 in Eastern Oregon and Washington Territory, in the command under Colonel Thomas R. Cornelius. Was examining physician for HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 719 pension applicants, and for insurance companies a number of years. Married Fanny Cusick in 1864; her death occurring in 1868, he was married a second time, to Catherine Criggin, nee Brenner. McCORD, JAMES S., Is a resident of Oregon City, and a farmer by occupation ; was born in Orange County, New York, July 15, 1829. Married Olive E. Brown, and their children are — William, J. W., Benjamin C, George S., Catharine (deceased), James B. (deceased), Blanche B., Archibald H., Stella A., and Melvin C. Mccormick, matthew. Born in Ireland in 1825, and came to America when seven years old, settling in Rochester, New York; coming to Oregon he located at Milwaukie, but now resides on his donation claim three miles south of Woodburn, Marion County, and is a farmer. He served in the Fourth Infantry under General Taylor in the Mexican war, but was wounded at Monterey and received his discharge. Married Joanna Clancy, at St. Louis, in 1847. Children — John and Charles. Mcdonald, h. Birthplace, Rhode Island; date of birth, 1825; went to Cali- fornia in 1849. Found employment at first as contractor and builder, and in such capacity built a theatre, and the first Baptist church in San Francisco. In 1850 he came to Oregon and settled in Portland. He was and is a useful citizen. His industry erected many buildings and works, the pioneers of their kinds. The first school-house in Portland was constructed by him; the Willamette was first navigated by a steamboat built by him; and several public buildings and the first water works were created by his ingenuity. Mr. McDonald was married in 1847, in Providence, to Elizabeth M. Sampson. These are the names of their children — William H., Charles H., Ella Frances, Lulu Annette, E. S., John C, and Lily Anna Resides at Forest Grove. McLENCH, B. F. Born in Maine in March, 1 825 ; came to the Pacific coast in 1850. Coming from San Francisco to Oregon he brought up a printing 720 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. press to his brother-in-law, Samuel E. Thurston, upon which the Oregon Statesman was afterward printed. Was made lieutenant- colonel of the Oregon State Militia by the Governor, and attached to the fifth regiment. Resided a year or more in Oregon City, but has spent the greater part of his life in Polk County. Present res- idence, Spring Valley; postoffice, Lincoln; occupation, farmer. Was married in August, 1852, to Miss Mary A. Gray, a native of Vermont, who arrived in Oregon the year preceding. Their family included four children — Frank G., Mary E. (wife of A. E. Watson, of Polk), Alice, and Sarah M. The latter is deceased. MILLER, GEORGE A„ Is a farmer residing at Scio, Linn County. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, April 24, 1831. After reaching America he proceeded overland to Oregon. Married Elizabeth Harris, and their children are- — Malcolm, Martha B., Susanna A., and John M. MILLER, HENRY B., Lives at Miller's, Linn County, and is a trader and general busi- ness man. His place of birth was Mercer County, Illinois; born October 7, 1848, one of a family of twenty-four children. Married Frances Summerville, and their children are — Myrtle, Edna, and Ola. MILLER, ISAAC D. Born in Montgomery County, Indiana, August 26, 1828; was one of a family of twenty-four children. Came overland to Ore- gon and now lives at Miller's, Linn County, engaged in farming and stock -growing. Has held public positions; served as sergeant in the Indian wars of 1855-56. Married Ellen E. Johnson, and their children are — Ida B., K. E., Ned, Eli M., and Isaac D. MILLER, JAMES W. Is a resident of Scio, Linn County, and a farmer by occupation. He was born in Nova Scotia, August 17, 1833. Married Rosa A. Baker, and their children are — Mary J., Lee, Henrietta, Malcolm B., James W,, Katy B., and Rose L. MILLER, JOHN F. Born in Maryland, July 25, 1835; occupation, merchant; place of residence, Oregon City. Wife's previous name, Mary J. Shat- tuck. Children — Albert L., Hattie N., and John E. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 721 MILLER, MALCOLM, Is a farmer residing at Scio, Linn County ; was born in Nova Scotia, September 12, 1835; married Margaret E. Redman, and their children are — James N., Benjamin W., Amanda N., and Nettie E. MILLER, ROBERT B., Is a resident of Scio, Linn County; occupation, farmer. Born in Nova Scotia, July 29, 1843; settled in Linn County immediately on his arrival in Oregon. Married Martha F. Terry. Children — William C, Jeannette F., Sarah A., and Maggie A. MILLER, SAMUEL. Born in Salem County, New Jersey, in September, 1806. Was a millwright by occupation, and died at Oregon City, July 4, 1884. Wife's previous name was Rachel Hart. Children— Mary E., John F., Margaret S., Thomas M., and Henrietta. MUDGE, NATHAN F, Born in Pennsylvania m 1827; came to Oregon and lived in Or- egon City until 1859; then went to Washington Territory, and east of the Cascades, where he was employed on the railroad. Returned to Oregon in 1864. Now owns a farm near Hillsboro. Married in 1853, Miss Elizabeth Whealdon, who came to Oregon in 1847. They have three children — Mary, Sidney W., and Estella. NEALY, NELSON. Born in New York in 1814; came to Oregon and settled at In- dependence, Polk County. Present residence, Luckiamute, and oc- pation, farming. O'DONALD, JONATHAN. Born in Pennsylvania in 1826; came to Oregon when twenty- four years of age; lived mainly in Portland and Salem, and worked at his trade of carpenter and stair-builder. Is a member of the firm of O'Donald in 1833; on his arrival in Oregon he -ettled near Forest Grove, Washington County. His present 736 HISTOKY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. residence is West Chehalein, and occupation, farming. He married in 1871, Miss Pambrun who is a daughter of P. C. Pambrun, who was sent by the Hudson's Bay Company to locate Vancouver as a trading post, in 1825. Mr. Pambrun also had charge of Fort Walla Walla at the time Whitman and the missionaries came there, and Mrs. Harger was born at the latter place in 1837. HICKS, TELITHA (SIMPSON). Mrs. E. P. Hicks nee Miss Telitha Simpson, died at Abiqua, November 1, 1884. She was born on the plains July 3, 1851, reaching Oregon in the latter part of the same year, settling in Marion County, and was subsequently married to E. P. Hicks. Her husband and two children survive her. HICKS, URBAN E. Born in Boone County, Missouri, May 14, 1828 ; served five years' apprenticeship at the printers' trade in Paris, Monroe County, and Hannibal, on the Mississippi river. Married Miss Eliza Jane Lee- dom, in 1850, in Schuyler County; went to St. Louis, and in the spring of 1851 set out for Oregon, overland. Settled at the mouth of the Cowlitz river, taught school, and in 1852, came to Portland; worked a short time at his trade ; located on a claim three miles east of East Portland; moved to Salt Creek, Polk County, and from there to Puget Sound, in 1853, where his wife died, leaving one son, Dr. Frank P., of Astoria. Married Miss India Ann Hartsock in 1855, by whom he has one son living — G. Gwin. Took part in the Indian war of 1855-6, going out as first lieutenant and afterwards promoted to captain; was assessor and county clerk of Thurston County, and assistant clerk of the first Territorial Council of Wash- ington Territory; was at different times elected by the legislature, Territorial Librarian, Territorial Auditor, and Quartermaster Gen- eral; was also deputy U. S. Marshal. Mr. Hicks has had a varied experience in the newspaper business, having, in 1861-62, published the Vancouver Telegraph; in 1864-65, published the Washington Democrat, at Olympia; moved his plant to Salem, Oregon, and in connection with A. Noltner and C. B. Bellinger, in 1865-66, pub- lished the Democratic Review; went to Portland and was city editor of the Daily Oregon Herald; started the East Portland Era in 1871, and in 1874, was engaged as editor of the Vancouver Register. He now resides in Portland. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 737 HIGGINS, S. Born in Connecticut in 1806; was raised in that State and Massa- chusetts, and came to Oregon at the mature age of forty-five. Took up a donation claim in Polk County and still resides thereon. Oc- cupation, farming. Married in Maine in 1849, Miss Susan Mc- Clench. Thev have six children — Sarah L., Susan A., John S., Ephraim C, Ellen A., and Mary Ida. HUMASON, ORLANDO. Born in Trumbull County, Ohio, in 1827, removed to Texas in 1849, and proceeded to California, by way of Mazatlan, in the next year. The following year he came to Oregon and was em- ployed by Asahel Bush, as printer. Settled soon after in Yamhill County and cultivated a farm. Was elected to the Territorial Leg- islature in 1852, and a year later removed to Eastern Oregon where he resided until his death on September 8, 1875. His principal occupation was the practice of the law. HYDE, PERRY. Born in Laurel County, Kentucky, in 1825; came to Oregon and settled in Harrisburg, Linn County; has been in the stock and mer- cantile business most of the time, but has recently retired. Was married to Miss Eliza Tyler, by whom he has six children, namely — Marion, Mary, John, America, Oliver and Caroline. JOHNSON, LEWIS. Born in Ohio in 1815; when nine years old removed to Illinois; lived in succession in that State, Indiana, and Missouri until 1851. Arrived at Portland, Oregon, in that year and remained a twelve- month; pursued merchandising in Washington Territory for the live years following; was in Yamhill County for the ensuing three years, and in 1861 removed to Salem. Married Eachel Youst in 183^. Their children comprised — Jane M. (deceased), C. A. (deceased), Mary E., Henry C, Maria E. (deceased), Angie, A. B. (deceased), Reuben, and Rachel. Mr. Johnson has been a Member of the State Legislature (in 1857), and was justice of the peace while in Washington Territory. He now resides in Salem. KELLY, JAMES K. Born in Center County, Pennsylvania, in 1819, and was reared upon a farm. Was educated in Princeton College, and afterwards 738 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. studied law and was admitted to the bar. Practiced several years, and went to California in 1$49, mined for a time, but came to Oregon soon after, and settled in Oregon City. Was chosen Code Commissioner in 1853, and also belonged to the Territorial Council, being for two sessions president of that body. In the Yakima war he took an active part, and was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Oregon Volunteers. In 1857 he was a member of the Consti- tutional Convention, and in 1860 was State Senator. In 1864 he suffered defeat as nominee for Congress, and two years later was beaten by Geo. L. Woods in the contest for the Governorship. Was elected United States Senator in 1870, and in 1878 became Chief Justice of Oregon. LADD, WILLIAM S. Born in Vermont in 1827. Was a teacher in his youth, and afterwards freight and passenger agent on a railway. Came to Portland in 1851, and soon after obtained a clerkship with a mer- cantile house, rising to the ownership thereof very quickly. In 1859, in partnership with C. E. Tilton, he established the first banking house in Oregon, and has retained control of it ever since, besides entering into many other enterprises, through which he has amassed, perhaps, the greatest fortune in the State. Is, or has been, a mem- ber of the banking firm of Ladd & Bush, of Salem, as well as a director in very many enterprises of importance — such as the Salem Flouring Mills, the Oregon City Woolen Mills, . the Oswego Iron Works, various local railroad companies, wagon road companies, and other concerns. Has been mayor of Portland. Married Miss Caroline A. Elliott in 1854. LAME, JOSEPH H. Born in Jefferson County, Indiana, in 1824; came to Oregon and lived in the neighborhood of Portland for two years. Moved to Linn County in 1853, and has since resided there. His occupa- tion is merchandising and dealing in wheat. Is of the firm of Koontz & Lame. They have a large warehouse and handle from sixty to seventy-five thousand bushels of wheat per year. Mr. Lame married in 1848, Mary Brown. Children — Oryntha, Maria, Viola, Frederick, and Ethel — all living. Mr. L.'s mother, now eighty-four years old, resides with him. HI8T0EY OF IMMIGRATION. 739 MARVIN, ALBERT M. Born in Ohio in 1840; came to Oregon when eleven years of age; lived first in Portland, removing to Salem in 1853, and has lived there ever since. Is at present steward in the Ghemeketa Hotel, Salem. Married in 1873 to Lucinda Coffin. MATTOON, CHARLES H. Born in Madison County, New York, in 1826; in 1851 he came to Oregon and settled on the Tualatin Plains, near Forest Grove. Until about 1870 he followed school teaching and book canvassing. In 1870 was ordained a clergyman of the Baptist Church, and for twenty years served as clerk of the Central Baptist Association — the largest Baptist association north of California — and for two years was statistical secretary of the Baptist Convention of the North Pacific Coast, comprising Oregon, Washington and Idaho. For two years was a professor at McMinnville college. Now re- sides in Corvallis, where he is proprietor of a notion and variety store. In 1860 he married Miss Mary N. Smith, who died in January, 1878. In 1884 he married Miss Ellen E. Folsom. He has three children — Leslie M., Frank S., and Laura E. McCAIN, JAMES. Born in Carroll County, Indiana, March 30, 1842. Lived on his parents' farm in Polk County until 1867, when he studied law, and in 1868 was admitted to practice. Practiced in Dallas, Polk County, removing to Lafayette in 1871. Married Miss E, C. Sulli- van in 1868. MEAD, M. M. Born in West Virginia in 1822; moved to Ohio and afterwards to Missouri; participated in the Mexican war; was married in 1849 to Minerva Greenstreet. Their children are — Ellen, James E., Ol- iver C, and A. W. Residence, Salem. MEAD, JAMES E. Born in Missouri in 1851, and at the age of six months was brought across the plains to this State. Is now a police officer of the city of Salem. 740 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. MILLER, C. M. Born in Lancaster District, South Carolina, February 11, 1818; came to Oregon and lived at various times in Clackamas, Marion, and Lane counties, prior to settling in Harrisburg, where he is now engaged in the hardware business. Was married in 1834, and his wife died in 1874, leaving him one child, named James F. 'He married again, in 1875, to Almira Cummens. MILLER, JOHN F. Born in Harrison County, Kentucky, and reared there. Removed to Missouri in 1841, and on the breaking out of the Mexican war, enlisted in the Chihuahua Bangers, a portion of Doniphan's com- mand. Participated in various tights, and on the conclusion of hos- tilities, returned to Missouri and was married, March 25, 1849, to Miss Zerelda Jackson. Came to Oregon and settled on a donation claim in Jackson County. Commanded a company of volunteers and fought the Indians with vigor in the Indiar war of 18 53, par- ticipating in the battle of Evans 1 Creek, when General Lane was wounded. Did escort duty on the plains later in the year, protect- ing incoming immigrant trains. Captain Miller represented Jack- son County in the legislature in 1853-54, and afterwards became Indian Agent at Grand Bonde Beservation. Moved to Salem in 1862, and was instrumental in building the Willamette Woolen Mills. Was nominated for Governor in that year, against A. C. Gibbs, but was defeated; in 1866 he was beaten by G. H. Williams in the race for U. S. Senator. His family residence is at Salem, but he has stock interests in Klamath County which requires his pres- ence there the most of the time. General Miller commanded the Oregon militia in the Modoc war, being then General -in -chief of the State militia. MOODY, Z. F. Born on May 27, 1832, in Granby, Massachusetts; in 1848 he removed to Chicopee, in the same State, where he remained the en- suing three years. In March, 1851, he started for Oregon via the Isthmus, with a company, among whom was Hon. Samuel B. Thurston, the first Delegate to Congress from Oregon Territory. He came direct to Oregon City, arriving on the twenty-first of April, 1851. From this time until 1853 he was engaged on the HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 741 United States Surveys as one of the tw Freeman Party" — so-called after James E. Freeman, who stuck the first pin in the United States Surveys in Oregon, established the central point of the Willamette Meridian, and extended this meridian to the Canyon Mountains. In 1853 Mr. Moody removed to Brovvnsville, Oregon, where he engaged in the mercantile business. In 1856 he was appointed In- spector of the United States Surveys in California. After com- pleting his duties as such he went to Illinois where he remained four years, during a portion of which time he was the surveyor of Morgan County. He was in Washington, D. C, when Fort Sumter was fired upon in 1861, and enrolled as one of a company formed to protect the city until the arrival of the regular troops. In 1862 lie returned to Oregon and settled at The Dalles where he entered the mercantile business. In 1863 he removed his business to Uma- tilla, continuing there until the fall of 1865. In 1866 he built the steamer Mary Moody, on Pend d'Oreille Lake, and organized the " Oregon and Montana Transportation Company." From 1867 to 18tf ( .> lie was trading at Boise. In the latter year he removed to The Dalles and became agent for Wells, Fargo & Co.'s Express. Resigned in 1878 and secured a contract for carrying the mail be- tween Portland and The Dalles, running a steamboat line between those places. Withdrew therefrom in 1875 and resumed business at The Dalles. Was elected State Senator from Wasco County in 1*7:2 but did not take his seat. In 1880, was elected repre- sentative, and was chosen Speaker of the House. Was nominated for Governor in April, 1882, and elected over his Democratic com- petitor, Joseph S. Smith, by fourteen hundred majority. MULLIGAN, ROBERT. Born in Ireland in 1830; came to America; was in Missouri in 184."); came t<> Oregon and settled in Portland. Lives now in the Grand Ronde, Polk Count}", and is a farmer. Married Mary J. Ward in Idaho. Children — John, Robert, Eddie, Ruth, Carrie. Joseph, Ollie, Grace and Eve. MURPHY, JOHN MILLER. Born in Indiana in L839; came to Portland, Oregon, in 1851, aero— the plains, with Barnes' company of immigrants. Camped three werks in a tent on the Portland levee about where the 742 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Oregonian office stands, awaiting a shipment of " California houses, 11 to obtain a permanent domicile. Succeeding year moved to Olympia, Puget Sound; returned jto Oregon in 1856, and served apprenticeship at printing in the Times and the Standard offices. In June, 1861, started the Vancouver Chronicle, at Vancouver, W. T. In November same year established the Washington Standard, Olympia; in 1862 married to Eliza J. McGuire, in Portland. Still publishes the Standard. Has held office of Territorial Auditor three terms. NICHOLS, MATTHEW. Born in Caroline County, Maryland, in 1821 ; went to Illinois in 1845, and came from there to Oregon. He settled in the Luckia- mute Valley, still resides there, and his occupation is farming and stock-raising. He married Leah Tregoe, and their children's names are — Isaac, Margarette, Leah, George, John, Sarah, Winta, and Lucinda. ODELL, W. H. Bern in Carroll County, Indiana, in 1830, and was raised on a farm. His parents came to Oregon and located in Yamhill County; the son was educated at the Oregon Institute, Salem. Married Mrs. E. F. Thurston. The couple conducted the Santiam Academy for three years (1860-63). From 1864 to 1871 he was deputy U. S. Surveyor, and in the latter year became U. S. Surveyor- General for Oregon, holding that office until 1874; in 1876 was an elector on the Hayes' presidential ticket. Became editor of the Statesman newspaper in 1877, and retained it until 1884; is now (1885) post- master at Salem. OLDS, GEORGE W. Born in Branch County, Michigan, July 16, 1830. Came to Oregon twenty- one years later, and settled in Yamhill County, and now resides at Lafayette, in the same county. Mr. Olds' occupation is that of farmer. Ha married Nancy E. Shuck in Lafayette, on November 10, 1859. Her native State was Iowa, and her birthday Jane 27, 1840. OLDS, JAMES H. Born in Ohio, May 29, 1830; came to Oregon in 1851, but re- turned and came out again next year. First settled in Washington HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 74o County, but after four years, removed to Lafayette, Yamhill Coun- ty. Occupation, farmer and hotel keeper. Married Nancy A. Par- ker, of Ohio. Sept. 13, 1852. Children— E. M., Kate G., D. V., Mis. Delia Klosterman, and Peter P. OLNEY, CYRUS. Horn in Ohio; grew to manhood there and studied law in Cin- cinnati and was admitted to the bar; removed to Iowa and for four year- was circuit judge. Came to Oregon, stopped first at Salem, and then in Portland, where he acquired property. In 1853, was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of Oregon, his colleagues being Judges Deady and Williams. Resigned in 1857 and removed to Clatsop County. Was a member of the Constitutional Conven- tion. Went to the Sandwich Islands, expecting to remain, but returned and took up his residence at Astoria. Was a member of the legislature in 1866 and in 1870. Was twice married and had seven children, but survived them all. Judge Olney died at Astoria December 21, 1870. PATTON, THOMAS McF. Born in Carrolton, Ohio, March 19, 1829. Was admitted to the bar in 1850, the year before his arrival in Oregon. Settled in Sa- lem in 1851, but lived a year or so in Jacksonville, Oregon, where he held the office of county judge. In 1860 and 1866 he was chief clerk of the house of representatives at Salem, and in 1861 was clerk to the Superintendent of Indian Affairs. In lb72, he repre- sented Marion County in the legislature. In 187B he was appointed appraiser of merchandise for the Willamette District, holding that position until ls>>4. when he was appointed United States Consul to Japan, and proceeded to that country. His wife was formerly Mis> Fannie Cooke, daughter of E. X. Cooke. They have three children. PEARCE, THOMAS. Born in England in 1826; came to America in 1845; lived first in Ma^tt>, then moved to Illinois; came to the Pacific coast in 1850 and lived in California until coming to Oregon in the year following. Mas lived in Polk County since, engaged in farming and mechanical work, and for many years has been notary public 744 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. and justice of the peace. Since 1881 has been manager of the Storage and Shipping Company's Warehouse at Eola. Married Miss Naomi Liver more in 1852, and has nine children living — George J., William T., Charles L., Vine W., Lot L., Kichard E., Orville G., Martha N., and Clara E., and one — Sarah E. — deceased. POPE, THOMAS A. Lives in Oregon City and is a merchant by occupation ; he was born in New York City in 1842; married Laura E. Warner, and their children are — George A. (deceased), Etta, and Laura. POWELL, FRANKLIN S. Born in Sangamon County, Illinois, in 1830; crossed the plains with his father, J. A. Powell, in 1851. Settled in Linn County; in 1871 removed to Polk County where he has since resided at his farm, two miles northwest of Monmouth; served as justice of the peace four years; is now a member of the board of trustees of the Normal school and also of the Christian Church. He w T as married in Illinois to Miss Louisa Peeler in 1851, and they have six children — James, a physician of Lebanon, Linn County, John H., a farmer, Marintha, Perry O., Ira C, Jay, and two deceased. POWELL, J. A. Born in Ohio in 1807; removed to Illinois when eighteen years of age. Studied for the ministry, and coming to Oregon, became a pioneer preacher for the Christian Church. Traveled extensively in Western Oregon and Washington Territory. Owned a farm on the Santiam, Linn County. Married in Illinois in 1828 to Miss Savilla Smith, by whom he had ten children, nine now living — Theresa S. (died on the plains), Franklin S., Augustus S., Stephen D., Jemima, Lorena, Mary, Henry Clay, Josephine B., and Sarah A. Mr. Powell died in 1880. RICE, SAMUEL. Born in Connecticut in 1828; removed to Oregon and settled 'in King's Valley, Benton County, where he still resides; occupation, farming and stock-raising. Married Martha J. Miller, in Illinois, in 1849. Children— Sarah A., Albert N., Mary L., Charles E., John E. (deceased), Malinda E., Francis, and a deceased daughter. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 745 RICHARDSON, ENOCH. Born in Illinois in 1816; came to Oregon in 1851. Resides now at Perrydale, Polk County. Is a farmer. Married Miss Jane Mackey in 1838. Children — J., James "VV., Sarah E., Isaac, and Alexander. RICHARDSON, JOHN. Born in Monroe County, Illinois, January 28, 1797. During the war with Great Britain, in 1812, he enlisted, at the age of fourteen years, to return his father from service; for his services he drew a land warrant and received a pension from the government. He also served one year on his own account, during which time he went \vith an expedition to relieve Fort Edwards, in Illinois, which was besieged by the British and Indians. He was married to Orpha Thompson, who was born in 1802; by her his children are — Milton, Thomas J., William W., George W., Louis C, Eliza T., Obadiah W., John W., Andrew J., Enoch N., James W., and Rebecca G. His second wife was Plua Bonney, who is yet living. Mr. Rich- ardson died in Linn County, April 16, 1873; his children, eight of whom are still living, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, num- ber eighty. RICHARDSON, JOHN W. Born in Adams County, Illinois, January 1, 1833; came over- land to Oregon and settled in Scio, Linn County, his present residence, and now owns a farm of three hundred acres. His wife's previous name was Mary A. Conkrite. Their children are — Melvina, Almira, Milessa, Wallace, Wilson, and Truman B. RIGGS, SILAS T. Born in Scott County, Illinois, in 1841. Settled on Salt Creek, Polk County. Is a farmer. Married Miss Sarah J. Bones in 1804, and had Etta. Married again in 1875 Miss Sarah My re, by whom he had Clara May. SMITH, BENJAMIN F. Born in Massachusetts in 1805; adopted a seafaring life, and in 1851 came around the Horn to Portland, in the brig Francisco. Until 1860 he made frequent trips in that vessel along the coast, 746 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. but in that year retired from the sea and settled in Portland. His occupation subsequently was dealing in lime. Died of paralysis at his home on Taylor street, Portland , April 5, 1879. SMITH, DAVID. Born in Ohio. Came to Oregon in 1851, by mule team; went to California in the same year, but soon returned to Oregon, and bought a saw mill in Marion County, where Aurora now stands. In 1853, built a grist mill which was destroyed by lire; built another the same year, but sold it in 1856, and moved to Yamhill County and lived there twenty years. Moved to Forest Grove in 1876. Mr. Smith owns a farm in Yamhill County, and a farm and city property in Washington County. Married Miss Ann M. White, in 1852, and has two children — Milton W., a lawyer at Portland, and Henry Clay, a doctor in that city. The former graduated at the Pacific University, and the latter at New York. Mr. Smith lives at Forest Grove, and has been a member of the city council; was president of it four years. The city was incorporated in 1872, and liquor is prohibited from being sold inside of the city limits. SMITH, WILLIAM P. Born in Kentucky in 1818; in 1841 went to Springfield, Illi- nois, and remained until 1849, when he went to California and worked in the northern mines for two or three years. In the spring of 1851 went into Oregon and mined on Josephine and Canyon creeks in the Illinois Valley. Settled in the Willamette Valley in 1853, remaining at Corvallis for ^ve years. Located at Halsey in 1872 and is residing there still; occupation, druggist. SPERRY, JAMES B. Born in Ohio in 1835, but removed to Iowa in 1840, remaining there until 1851, when he crossed the plains to this valley. Located in Linn County and remained there until 1877 when he removed to Umatilla .County. He took part in the Indian war of 1855-56 on the Kogue Kiver. Was assessor of Linn County from 1870 until 1872, and has been a member of the Legislature. Married Miss Re- becca Rice in 1856, who died in 1875. In 1877 he wedded Miss S. V. Spencer. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 747 STOTT, J. M., Sr. Born in Kentucky in 1812; came to Oregon and settled in Multnomah County. Lives now fourteen miles east of Portland, in the same county. Is a farmer. Married Elizabeth Denny in 1839, and they have had three sons and two daughters. STOTT, RALEIGH. Born in Indiana in 1845 and was brought by his parents to Oregon when six years old. They settled in Washington County, where the father died in 1880. Judge Stott graduated from the Pacific University, class of 1869, and studying law, was admit- ted to the bar in 1870. Practiced in Yamhill County until 1873 when he removed to Portland, his present residence. Was elected to the Legislature in 1874, and two years later became prosecuting attorney for the Fourth Judicial District. In 1880 became Circuit Judge for the same district. Married in 1876, Mrs. Susan C. Stout, widow of Lansing Stout. SUMMERVILLE, HENRY B. Born in Harrison County, Virginia; came to the Pacific Coast in 1849, and lived in California until coming to Oregon in 1851. Assisted in bringing the first boat up the Yamhill River to Dayton. During the Indian war he was in Captain Goif 's company, and Was with I. I. Stevens in his council of 1856. Now has a com- mission store in Sheridan where he resides. VANDUYN, I. Born March 6, 1837, in Adams County, Illinois, and taken, when a child, to Missouri; with his parents came to Oregon in 1851, and his father, Isaac Yanduyn, is now a resident of Lane County. Mr. Yanduyn occupied himself at first with dealing in stock, but in 1866 entered into business with W. H. McCully and John Somerville, in merchandising. The firm dissolved two years later, and Mr. Yanduyn went to Eastern Oregon to spend two years in the cattle trade. Later he returned to Independence and traded for three years, then forming a partnership with S. W. Smith, under the firm name of Vanduyn & Smith, which still exists. 748 HISTOKY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. WAITE, EDWARD M. Born in Springfield, Massachusetts; learned the printers' trade; came to Oregon and procured a "sit" upon the Oregon Statesman, published at Oregon City by Asahel Bush. In 1869 entered upon job printing in Salem. WALTER, RALPH. Born in Connecticut in 1817; parents took him when young to New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. After five years' residence in the later State, he came to Oregon, crossing the plains, and settled in Marion County and has resided there since. Located in Jeffer- son in 1871, and conducts the only hotel at that place. Married in Ohio in 1840 to Miss Catharine Wales. They have nine living children — Eliza Amanda, Mabel J., Alpheus A., Mary B., Rudama, Frances M., Sarah, Estella, and Fred D. WEHRUNG, HENRY. Born in France in 1828; came to America in 1848 in conse- quence of the political troubles of that date. Emigrated to Cali- fornia in 1850 and in 1851 arrived in Oregon and opened the first furniture store in Washington County and is still engaged in that business. Built the Tualatin Hotel at Hillsboro in 1854. Was married in 1856 to Mary C. Emeriek, by whom he has had — Char- lotte E., Mary C, William H., and George A. Mr. Wehrung pos- sesses two stores in Hillsboro and a farm near town. WHITE, EUGENE D. Born in Oregon City in 18.51 and was educated at the Pacific University, Forest Grove, and at a business college in Portland. Was in mercantile affairs for a time, afterwards establishing him- self as agent for various insurance companies. Married Miss Emma Giltner in 1876. Residence, Portland. WHITE, HENRY B. Mr. White, now a prosperous farmer of Yamhill County, was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, April 28, 1811. He removed to Ohio in 1817, to Indiana, in 1835, to Missouri in 1840, and to Oregon in 1851. He settled first in the Waldo Hills, Marion County, but removed since to his present location at White's Station, Yam- HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 749 hill County, the point of junction of the broad and narrow gauge railroads of the West side. Here he farms and conducts a ware- house. He married Miss Charlotte S. Pierson in La Grange, Indi- ana, March 24, 1836. Children — Emily, Anise, John, Margaret and Eliza (twins), Andrew J., Robert, William, Mary W., and Sarah F. WILLIAMS, GEORGE. Major Williams served in the United States army during the civil war and subsequently, and held a variety of military offices. Hi^ military career was highly successful. Since severing his con- nection with the regular army he has occupied himself and his for- tune in financial undertakings of importance. He is at present the senior partner of the well-known firm of Williams 7 and settled in Polk County. Present residence, Luckiamute Val- ley, and occupation, carpenter and farmer. He married Mary Ritner in Oregon in 1856, and tlieir children's names are — Julius, Sarah H., Andrew, Ann, Lewis L., Eva, and Una. HARRIS, WILLIAM H. Born in Adams County, Illinois, in 1832; on coming to Oregon located at Portland. Has been a member of the Legislature of Washington Territory, and was clerk of Multnomah County in 1872. Represented Multnomah County in the Legislature of Ore- gon in 1882. Is a dealer in ice, belonging to the firm of Harris & Salmon. HARREL, DODDRIDGE. Lives at Scio, Linn County, and is a farmer. Was born in Fayette County, Indiana, December 18, 1818; came overland to Oregon ; still owns the farm on which he settled on his arrival ; has served in public offices. Married Miriam Taylor, who was born in Knox County, Tennessee, in 1820. HASTINGS, A. L. Born in Henry County, Tennessee, in 1829; came to Oregon and settled in the Luckiamute Valley, where he still resides ; occupation, farming. HASTINGS, J. C. Born in Henry County, Tennessee, in 1833; came from Arkansas to Oregon, and settled in Luckiamute Valley, where he still lives; he is a farmer by occupation. He married Merica M. Woods in 1857, and their children's names are — Martha J., Henry GL, Burris S., Joseph L., Mary A., John F., and Clara O. HAWKINS, J. S. Born in New Hampshire; came to Oregon in 1852. Residence, Salem, Marion County. HAYES, R. B. Born in Warren County, Tennessee, in 1831, and removed with his parents to Missouri in 1839; crossed the plains to California in 1850, and removed to Oregon two years after. Is a farmer, and 768 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. has resided on his land in Lane County for many years. Has been elected to the House of Representatives four times. Married Miss Lucy Brown in 1858. HAYES, SETH W. Born in Ohio in 1825; came from Iowa to Oregon in 1852, and settled near the present site of Halsey, Linn County, two years later. The town of Halsey was laid out in 1871, by the railroad company, partly upon Mr. Hayes' land, and that gentleman owned property in it. He was murdered, on November 1, 1876, by Kay Neal. The circumstances of the killing were as follows: Mr. Hayes' ardent temperance principles and prominence made him obnoxious to cer- tain ill-disposed liquor dealers and their supporters. The town was incorporated in the centennial year, through the joint efforts of Mr. Hayes, Jacob Thompson, and others, who sought to extirpate the whiskey traffic. JSTeal sought a quarrel with Hayes, and taking him at a disadvantage, stabbed him, there being no eye-witness. The unfortunate victim lived but a few hours. The assassin at- tempted to escape, but was taken and imprisoned. When he was brought to trial his lawyers set up a plea of self-defense, but a ver- dict was rendered, convicting Neal of murder in the first degree. Sentence being pronounced, the murderer was executed at Albany, on the twenty -eighth of January, 1877. This homicide constitutes, probably, the most striking event in the history of the county of Linn. Mr. Hayes Was twice married, and his children numbered six, of whom live are living, viz. — Daniel, S. S., Frank R., Gertrude, and Irving. The second Mrs. Hayes (formerly Miss Finlay) is now residing on a portion of the Hayes' ranch near Halsey. HEDGES, JOSEPH. Resides in Canemah, Clackamas County, and is a carpenter by occupation; he was born in Morgan County, Ohio, in 1827. Married Miss Ellen J. Allen, and his children are — Mary J., John B., William A., Elizabeth A., Arthur E. (deceased), Joseph E., Francis R., Gilbert L., and Frederick R. HENDERSON, THOMAS B. Born in Pennsylvania in 1828; in 1832 was taken to Knox County, Ohio; in 1851 went to Missouri; came from that State to HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 769 Oregon the following year, and settled at Amity, Yamhill County, where he still resides. His occupation is that of a blacksmith and farmer. He married Elizabeth Van Buskirk in Knox County, Ohio, in 1848, and their children's names are — Urbanus (deceased), Sylvia A. (deceased), Elmus U., Sarah E., Miles T., and Mar- garet V. HENRY, ANSON B. Born in Cattaraugus County, New York, in 1836. Settled near Lafayette, in Yamhill County, and tilled the soil. Was superintendent of public schools for a time. Married Eliza Easta- brooks in 1857, and their children's names are — Lavinia E., Phoebe C, Mary E., Milton A., Franklin B., Robinson, Alfred F., Anson B., Nellie I., and Charles C. Mr. Henry died in 1882, and his widow, May 30, 1884. Mrs. Henry was born in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, near Towanda, March 19, 1836. With her parents, three sisters and five brothers, she came to Illinois in 1844; thence to Oregon in 1853, overland. HIRSCH, LEOPOLD. Born in Wurtemburg, Germany, in 1824; came to America in 1845, and to California in 1851. Resides now in Salem. Retired from mercantile business in 1881. Married Lizzie Voltmann in 1858. They have three children — Rosa, Laura, and Sarah. HOLLAND, HOMER B. Born in Augusta, Iowa, May 31, 1827; came to Oregon in Au- gust, 1852; residence, Oregon City, Clackamas County; occupation, book-keeper for the Oregon City Flouring Mill Company. Mr. Hol- land married Viola Phillips, and their family included — James L., Howard W. (deceased), Louisa, and R. V. IRVINE, j. D. Born in Jackson County, Missouri, January 10, 1843, and came with his parents to Marion County, Oregon, in 1852. He was a farmer in the earlier years of his residence in Oregon, but in 1877, he commenced draying in Independence, and continued in that busi- ness seven years. In 1872 he was married to Miss Sarah Fisher, and four children have been born to them, namely — Clara W., 770 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Charlie Gr., Clyde J., and Claude. The two last mentioned died in 1883, of scarlet fever. In 1884, Mr. Irvine bought a grocery store in Independence, in which he is now engaged. He was a member of the city council from 1880 to 1884. JAMES, W. H. Born in Missouri in 1846; came to Oregon and settled in Polk County, where he still resides. Occupation, farming. He married Sarah Hiashaw in Polk County in 1869, and their children's names are — Adelia J., David W., Isabel, and Minnie E. JEFFRIES, F. S. Born in Virginia in 1818; came to Oregon and settled in Marion County. Lives now at Amity. Served in the Mexican war, attaining the rank of orderly sergeant. His occupation is agent for manufacturers of machinery. He married Susan R. Nichols in 1849, and they have one child, Theodore by name. JETTE, A. Born in Canada in 1825; came to Oregon and located in the mines of the Rogue River region. At present is a merchant of Champoeg, Marion County. He married Margaret Leard in 1871' and they have six children. JOHNSON, H. V. V., M.D. Born in New York in 1823, and reared and educated in Ohio; received his medical education in Ohio and New York, after which he practiced in Indianapolis for seven years. Came to Oregon and settled on a farm in Washington County. Was a member of the Territorial Legislature for that county, serving from 1855 to 1858. Moved to McMinnville in 1863, being the only doctor there for several years; now owns a house in town and has a good practice. Married Miss Mary Bushnell in 1850, and has two children — Julia, and Frances Isabella. His wife died in 1867, and in 1868 he mar- ried Mrs. Julia B. Herrick, a sister to his first wife. JOHNSON, Mrs. P. O. Born in Erie County, New York, in 1829; came to Oregon and settled in the Luckiamute Valley, where she still resides. She was HISTOTTF OF IMMIGRATION. 771 married to John Johnson, in Polk County, in 1854, and their chil- dren are named respectively — Alcida, Esther, and Fred. J. Mrs. Johnson is now a widow. JONES, D. M., M.D. Born in Missouri in 1839; came to Oregon with his father, and settled in Marrion County. He was educated at the Willamette University, after which he became a teacher in the public schools; then took the medical course at the Willamette University, graduat- ing in 1868. In 1875, he took the chair of Materia Medica in the Willamette University and held it five years. Moved to Albany in 1870, where he has practiced since, during which time he has been in the lecture field, and also served on the editorial staff of the Albany Herald, in which he was part owner. JONES, JOHN. Born in Kentucky in 1835, and came across the plains to Oregon in 1852, and settled in Oregon City, where he lived for two years; then went to Polk County, working there in a sawmill ten years, and after that period was for a while in Eastern Oregon engaged in the same occupation. He next went into the stock business. In 1880 he drove cattle to Omaha over the same route by which he came to this coast. During his residence in Polk County, and at the time of high water in that county, his property was all destroyed and his stock drowned. Mr. Jones relates that his house floated three miles with himself and family in it. He was married in 1854 to Miss Lydia Retherford, and five children have been born to them, but only one is now alive — William. Resides at Dayton. KELLY, ANDREW. Born in Ireland in 1833; when nineteen years of age came to Oregon, but left in 1854 and went to California, Peru, and Chili, returning to this State in 1861. He is now mayor of the city of Salem, elected in 1882. Is a skilled mechanic in wagon and car- riage making and blacksmithing. Has been a prominent member of the fire department, having filled every office in connection therewith. Married Miss Lydia Hawley, and their children are — George (deceased), Edward (deceased), Olive, and George E. 772 HISTOKY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. KOONTZ, MARTIN V. Born in 1837, in Ohio, of German extraction; lived successively in Illinois and Iowa, and came across the plains to Oregon in 185*2, by the familiar ox -train method, but chiefly on foot, because the Indians stole the horses belonging to the train on arrival at the Platte River. The Koontz family took up a donation claim in Linn County soon after their arrival, but in 1868 the son went to Eastern Oregon and occupied himself in various ways until 1869, when he returned to the Willamette Valley, and went into the employ of Jacob Thompson, in Halsey, as clerk. In 1876 he went into busi- ness on his own account, and three years later organized the firm of Koontz & Lame, dealers in general merchandise and grain, at Hal- sey. Mr. Koontz married Miss Conkwright, and they have two living children — Clyde and Edith. LEE, A. Born in Missouri in 1843, and nine years later crossed the plains to Oregon. He settled at Forest Grove, Washington County, in 1860, and still resides there. Is a machinist of great skill and ex- perience, and finds occupation for those qualities in the service of the firm of Lee . Kline in 1867. " MORELAND, S. A. Born in Jackson County, Tennessee, November 1, 1836; re- moved with his parents to Illinois in 1848, and to Oregon four years after. They settled in Clackamas County. The son studied t ^8 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. law in Portland, where lie afterwards became justice of the peace, city assessor, and police judge, holding the latter office at present. Has been occupied in journalism. Conducted the Evening Tele- gram newspaper in 1882, and edited the Oregonian for a time, in 1880. MOSS, STEPHEN P. Born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1840, and was brought to Oregon by his parents when twelve years old. They settled in Linn County, and the son was reared on their farm. From 1868 to 1872 he was in California. Returning, he settled in Lake County, and raised stock. Was elected county commissioner in 1876, and representa- tive in 1882. Married Sarah E. Robnett in 1861, who died in 1868; married Miss Margaret S. Casteel in 1870. MOYER, J. M. Lives in Brownsville, Linn County, and is proprietor of the Woolen Mills in that town. He was born in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, August 21, 1829, and is married to Elizabeth I). Brown. Their children are — Edward D., Hugh B., and Ethel (de- ceased). MURPHY, JOHN TURNER. Born in Knox County, Illinois, October 27, 1843, and came with his parents to Oregon. The first winter after their arrival was spent in Yamhill County, and in 1853 they moved to Polk County, remaining there a. short time, and going the same year to Washing- ton Territory, where they lived three years. At the expiration of that time they returned to Polk County, locating at Monmouth, where Mr. Murphy has since remained. He now owns a farm two miles from the lovely little town of Monmouth. He was married, March 6, 1870, to Miss Ruth J. Rohrer, and they have four chil- dren, namely — Chester V., George J., Linnie G., and William D. Mr. Murphy has his home in Monmouth, but continues to work his farm. MURPHY, WILLIAM P. Born in Illinois in 1831; came to Oregon when twenty-one years old. Now lives at Salem. Married first Sarah Taylor, and afterwards Sarah E. Stanton. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 7 i 9 MYERS, GEORGE. Born in Tippecanoe County, Ohio, in 1829. On his arrival in Oregon he settled five miles northeast of North Yamhill, where he still resides, on his farm. He married Mary E. Arrnentrcut in 1854, and their children's names are — Levi M., Ardenny L., Mrs. Erne Gnvrson, Leonora, and Albie. NEWBILL, B. H. Born in Missouri in 1843; came to Oregon, and settled in Polk County, where he still resides. Occupation, farming. Married Julia Ellis in Polk County, in 1859. Children — Sarah S., Margaret E., Mary J., Ora E., and Edward Ray. NIXON, JOSEPH. Born in Virginia in 1824, and went to Ohio at an early age. Left Indiana in 1852 for Oregon, and settled in Linn County. Was married in 1846 to H. Parrish. Their children were — James W., Orrilla, J. L., J. H., and Mattie. Mr. Nixon's original occupation was that of blacksmith; but he now owns and conducts the St. Charles Hotel at Lebanon, Linn County. Was county treasurer from 1864 to 1867 inclusive. NOLAND, N. Born in Missouri, in 1842; came to Oregon with his father, J. S. Noland; lived several years in Southern and Eastern Oregon, prior to settling in Washington County; his present residence is Corne- lius, and occupation, hotel keeping. Married Miss Melissa J. Daw- son in 1867. Children — Nettie (deceased), Alice, Emma, John, and Lulu. NORTHRUP, EDWARD J. Born in Albany, New York, July 4, 1834. Was reared to habits of business, and, in 1852, came to Oregon, and became 1 a clerk for his father's firm (Xorthrup & Symonds), succeeding to the concern's business in 1856. Retired about 1878, selling out to Thompson, DeHart & Co. Met his death by a fall, April 9, 1883. He married Miss Frances McNamee in 1856, by whom he had six children, five of whom are now living. 780 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. OLDS, D. G. Born in Ohio in 1823; on his arrival in Oregon he settled at Middleton, and still lives at the same place; he is a blacksmith and wagon maker by occupation. He married Eveline M. Eaton in 1849, and their children's names are — Frank M., Hattie T., Fred E., and Mrs. Rose L. Brooks. OLDS, NANCY (JACOBS). Born in Branch County, Michigan, in 1834; came to Oregon in 1852, and settled at West Chehalem. Her present residence is at Lafayette, and occupation, dressmaking; she was a school teacher formerly. Married H. S. Jacobs in 1855, and has two children — Mrs. Ungerman and Charles N. Jacobs. PARKER, ALLEN. Born in Boss County, Ohio, in 1828; attended school until he was fifteen, when his parents removed to Iowa, and he came to Or- egon when he was twenty -four. Located in Linn County and re- sided there for many years, as a farmer, saw mill and warehouse- man. Was elected sheriff of Linn County in 1872, and mayor of Albany in 1876. Removed to Benton County in 1878, and con- ducts a sav mill. In 1880 the people of that county elected him a representative, and again in 1882. Married Miss Julia A. Umphrey, in 1852. PARRISH, LEWIS M. Born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, June 21, 1830; removed to Missouri in 1832, and to Oregon in 1852, settling in Portland. Served in the Yakima war in Captain Hembree's company. Mined unsuccessfully at Oro Fino in 1861. Began dealing in real estate in 1863. Is now a member of the firm of Parrish, Watkins & Cor- nell. Married Sarah J. Watkins in 1859. Their children are — L. C, Anna J., Mary A., George L., and Lilly M. PARTLOW,. WILLIAM B., Is a resident of Oregon City, and a farmer by occupation; he was born in Indiana, March 8, 1828. Married Miss Frances L. Chase, and their children are— James W., Richard S. (deceased), and Edgar (deceased). HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 781 PEARL, JAMES, The head of the somewhat numerous family of the Pearls of Linn County, who now comprise four living generations, was born in Ohio in 1807. Mr. Pearl moved to Oregon and settled near the present site of Halsey. He still lives, a much -respected old gentle- man, the proprietor of a residence in the tOAvn named, and of a large farm a short distance away. Mr. Pearl was twice married, first to Elizabeth Berry, the second time to Elizabeth Wiseman. The children who accompanied their father to Oregon were — Joseph, John (deceased), Malinda (deceased), Isabella (deceased), and Eliz- abeth A. PEARL, JAMES A. Horn September 10, 1849, in Missouri, the son of Joseph Pearl. Was married in 1873, to Miss S. J. Miller, and his children by her are — Willie E,, Hallie M., and Lulu D. Was again married July 19, 188*2, to Amanda M. Jesse. Residence, Halsey. PEARL, JOSEPH, Son of James Pearl, was born in Ohio in 18'29, and came with his father to Oregon in 1852. Spent the first years of his residence in Linn County in cultivating the soil, but when Halsey was founded, he entered upon commercial pursuits, and in 18 70 be- came a member of the firm of Black, Pearl & Co., and continued so for seven years. He is now a partner with his son James A. Pearl in the planing mill at Halsey. This establishment was set up in 1872 by Allinghain & Connor, but has passed through several changes of ownership. It is a concern of considerable capacity, having a variety of machinery adapted to fill the needs of the neighborhood. It is driven by steam, and lias planing and matching machines, scroll saws, etc. Mr. Joseph Pearl's children are — James A., John R., Orpha J., Silas H., Martha A., Joseph W., Ida C, Alice, Fannie, Olive, and Edmund Cleve. PETTINGILL, WILLARD. Born in New York in 184 s -: went to Illinois in 1851 ; enlisted in the 7th Dlinois Volunteers in the war, was wounded at Stone River and draw- a government pension. Married, in 1872, Miss Mary E. Driggs; their children are — Jennie M., I. J., Eewis AV., and Elmer E. Came to Oregon and settled soon after in Salem, where he is engaged in the upholstering business. 782 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. PHILLIPS, GEORGE W., Lives in Scio, Linn County, and owns and tills a farm of four hundred and forty acres on Thomas Creek. Born in Guilford County, North Carolina, October 24, 1838; married Martha A. Tarpley; children — William M., Sarah F., Emily J., Ida B., and George W. PIERCE, SAMUEL A., Lives in Scio, Linn County, and is a farmer by occupation; born in Ray County, Missouri, in 1830; married Emily J. Turnage, and by her has six children — Dora E., William, Martha A., Riley, Mary E., and Andrew. POMEROY, LYMAN. Is a farmer by occupation, and resides at Scio, Linn County; he was born in Orange County, Vermont, April 22, 1833. Married Sarah A. Breler, who died in 1859; in 1860 he was married again, to A. S. Breler. His children are — Orange S., Oscar E., Dora, Elva C, Amanda, Clara, Emma, Effie, Minnie, Bertie, Eugene H., and Mertia. PORTER, JAMES A. Born in Russell County, Virginia, in 1816. Removed thence to Indiana and remained there until he came to Oregon. In the same year he settled on a donation claim on Muddy Creek, Linn County, on which he remained until his death in 1880. Mr. Porter married, in 1838, Miss Nancy Knott. Their children were — William H., Elizabeth, Melinda, Thomas L., James C, and Ella. POTTER, ROBERT. Born in New York. Present residence, Oregon City; occupa- tion, liveryman and saloon keeper. Wife's previous name Mary G. Patterson. Children — Clara, Belle, Emma, and Gilbert C. POWELL, ABRAHAM THOMAS, Is a farmer and resides at Scio, Linn County. He was born in Jackson County, Missouri, September 1, 1841, and is a son of the Rev. Joab Powell. He married twice; his first wife's previous name being Amanda A. Carl, by whom his children are — Perthana BISTORT OF IMMIGRATION. 783 C, and Iva. His second wife was Eveline , by whom he has one child named Lora. POWELL, W. S. Born in Ohio in 1832, and came to Oregon, settling in Portland where lie remained seventeen years. He enlisted in the army during the Rebellion, being in the First Oregon Infantry, and captain of a company. Was in the service eighteen months, stationed at various times in Eastern Oregon, Washington Territory, and Idaho, at war with the Indians. Mr. Powell is now proprietor of a grain ware- house situated on the Yamhill River, and also has an interest in the Yamhill Lumber Company. He was married to Miss Ellen C. Hill in 1855, six children being the fruits of this union, three of whom are now alive — Mary L., Charles A., and Frankie A. The de- ceased are — Delia M., Harry C, and Anna A. RAYMOND, H. C. Born in New York in 1825; his first residence in Oregon was at Forest Grove; now lives at Gaston and is a merchant by occu- pation and is unmarried. ROBERTSON, R. M. Born in South Carolina, in December, 1830; came to Oregon and settled in Linn County; resides at Halsey; owns a warehouse and deals in grain. Was married in 1861, to Nancy McMicken, a pio- neer of 1851. The}' have two children — Lillie M., and Ina L. ROLAND, DAVID. Born in Harrison County, Kentucky, in December, 1801. Was married to Eliza Barnes, of the same county, in April, 1829. Tn October of that year they moved to Illinois, and lived, until 1850, in Vermilion County. Coming to Oregon, he took up a donation claim of three hundred and twenty acres, one mile east of Jefferson, Marion County; here he resided until his death, on March 9, 1871. Their children numbered nine, of whom eight still live; their names are — C. B., Jacob O. (of Lebanon, dealer in harness and saddlery), David S. (tinsmith, of Portland), Pauline (Mrs. Phillips, of Sprague, W. T.), George W. (a farmer of Lane County), Melvina (wife of J. Warwick, of Portland), Esther, and John \V.: the latter is in part- nership with the first named, keeping ;i -tore in Jefferson. 784 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. ROWLAND, JACOB O. Born in Vermilion County, Illinois, March 17, 1832; is of German and Irish extraction. Came overland to Oregon, and now lives in Lebanon, Linn County; is a saddler by occupation. He married Sarah Ralston, and their children are — Ella, May, and Harry. Married a second time to Laura Noff; by her his children are — - Willie, Fred, Edith, and Clarence. SAMPSON, J. K. Mr. Sampson, now a resident of Lafayette, Yamhill County, came to Oregon in 1852, arriving in Portland on the twentieth of August. He remained but six weeks in that town, leaving it for Yamhill County, in which he has resided nearly all the intervening years. He has been identified with its growth and progress and has built up an estimable name as a citizen. SAYLOR, A. L. Born in Iowa in 1847, and was taken across the plains with his parents in 1852. They lived for a while in Portland, and in 1853 went to Olympia, but returned to Oregon in 1856 and settled in McMinnville, Yamhill County. A. L. Saylor was educated at the Baptist College at McMinnville, and in 1871 became clerk in the store of J. B. Morris .). He is in the hardware and machinery business, in partner- HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 797 slii}) with his brother-in-law, W. S. Peters, trading in agricultural implements. Married in March, 1878, Miss Nannie T. Osburn. They have one child, Leta A. BONHAM, B. F. Born in East Tennessee, October 8, 1828, and removed with his parents to Indiana in 1840. Came to Oregon and settled at French Prairie, Marion County. Removed to Salem in 1854. In 1856 1 he was elected territorial auditor and librarian, and was a member of the last territorial and the first State Legislature. In 1870 became one of the supreme justices of Oregon, and was chief justice for a part of his term. Was admitted to the bar in 1850. Resides at Salem. Was a candidate for the United States Semite in 1885. BRIGGS, W. W. Born in Wayne County, Indiana, in 1832; At present is en- gaged in mercantile business, and is postmaster of Harrisburg, in Linn County. Married Miss Harriet Tompkins in 1858. Their children are — W. Willis, W. Oliver, Lula, Calvert L., and Gertrude. BURBANK, A. R. Born in Ohio in 1817; lived mostly in Illinois until 184 ( .), and then went to California; returned to the States in 1851 and came to Oregon in 1853. He spent some years subsecpiently in Wash- ington Territory, returning finally to Oregon in 1867. Has held various public offices, to wit: Was a member of the Legislature in 1855, and again in 1859, 1860, 1861, and 1862; was deputy col- lector of revenue for three years. Mi*. Burbank was president of the council of Washington Territory in 1861 and 1862. Was married in 1845 to Miss Mary E. Eckles, by whom he had a daughter, who was drowned at Ilwaco. Washington Territory. His present resi- dence is Lafayette, Yamhill County: occupation, capitalist. BURNELL, C. B. Born in Ohio in 1883; came to Oregon and settled near Mil- waukie. Clackamas County. Hi- present residence is six miles southeast of Beaverton, Washington County; and his occupation, farming. He married Louisa Crow in L855, by whom lie had sis 798 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. children; and Lucinda Hickman in 1874, by whom he had four children. Their names are — Arrilla A., John F., James A., Charles Francis, George B., Amanda, Ralph, Wayne, Arena, and an infant. BUTLER, IRA F. M. Born in Kentucky in 1812, and at the age of seventeen went to Illinois and remained there twenty-three years. While in that State he held the office of sheriff of Warren County two years, and was clerk of the circuit court of the same county. Was engaged in the Black Hawk war, under General Whiteside. He came to Oregon in 1853, and has since lived in Polk County, where he owns a farm of six hundred and forty acres. Has served three terms in the Legislature; was speaker of the house in 1857-58, and was elected county judge in 1878, an office which he held four years. Is now notary public at Monmouth. Married Miss Mary A. Davidson in 1835. Eight children have been born to them, five of whom are now living. The living are — Newton H., Asa Douglas, Augustus P., Margaret, and Alice E. The deceased are — Paradine, Cyrus, and Mary E. BUTLER, SANDFORD. Born in Rappahannock County, Virginia, May 3, 1814; was taken to Ohio in 1815; moved to Indiana in 1833, and to Iowa in 1844; came from there to Oregon, and settled at Salt Creek, in Polk County, where he yet resides, engaged in farming. He married Elizabeth Nelson in Iowa, July 19, 1846, and their chil- dren are — William A., Martha J., Sarah E., John S., Joseph E. (deceased), Mary V., Phcebe A. (deceased), Emma O., and Rosa B. BYARS, WILLIAM H. Born in Des Moines County, Iowa, July, 1839; the son of Flem- ing Byars, a Virginian. In 1853 young Byars crossed the plains with his mother and step -father, J. H. Mires, and settled in Ump- qua, now Douglas County. From 1856 to 1858 he carried the mails, on the Oregon and California route, from Oakland to Yreka, and later studied in a private school at Eugene City, Columbia Col- lege, and at Unipqua Academy; taught school and studied by turn, and so became educated, graduating from the latter institution in 1867. Became school superintendent of Douglas County; bought HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 799 the Roseburg Plaindealer in 1873, and conducted it for about ten years as a Republican paper; was elected State Printer in 1882, by a majority of over two thousand four hundred and fifty; purchased the Statesman newspaper of Salem, and in partnership with W. H. Odell, conducted it for a time, disposing of their interests iu the fall of 1884. ' CAMPBELL, JAMES G. Born in Murray County, Tennessee, in 1810; moved to Illinois in 1830, and to Iowa in 184*2: eleven years later came to Oregon and settled in Polk County, near .Dallas, where he is engaged in farming. He married Elizabeth A. Black, in Illinois, in 1833: she died in 1863. In Polk County, in 1869, he was married to Alta A. Armsn-ong, and his family consists of eight children — Thomas J., James M., Elizabeth A., William G.. Eliza, Orpha A., Sarah F., and John B. CAMPBELL, J. M. Born in Illinois in 1 833, and came to Oregon across the plains in 1853. Has lived mostly in Polk County since his arrival. Was in the Yakima war. in Company A, then transfered to Company B. Is now in the sash and door business at Dallas. Married Ann E. Hagood in i860, and by her has live children — Alice J., Mary E., Henry (*., Charles C, and Martha L. CAMPBELL, WILLIAM G. Born in Van Buren County, Iowa, in 1842; came to Oregon settled in Polk County, and still resides there. Occupation, farm- ing. Married Emma DeLashmutt October 4, 18B8. Children — Maggie. Lena. Lydia, Thomas E., and James. CARTWRIGHT, THEODORE. Born in Michigan in 1828; came to Oregon in 1853, settled in Washington County and worked at his trade of carpenter. Had been married two years previously to Sarah Wilder, by whom he had five children — Wilhelmina J., Emma T., Adclie B., J. P., and lva. Is now engaged in stock -raising in Eastern Oregon, and owns large Hock-. 800 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. CHARMAN, THOMAS. Born in Surrey, England, September 8, 1829; came to Oregon in April, 1853. He is a merchant by occupation and resides at Oregon City. Plas been mayor of the city. Wife's previous name was Sophia Diller. Children — Frederick R., Nellie V., Mary J., and Annie L., and one named Arthur D. who is now dead. CLARK, STEPHEN. Born in Connecticut in 1800; removed thence to New York, Illinois, and Oregon. Settled in Marion County, near Butteville, and remained there until his death. Occupation, blacksmith. Married in New York, in 1830, Miss Eunice Rose, by whom he had eight children, only one now surviving, whose name is B. S. Clark, and who now resides in Buena Vista, Polk County. He was born in 1841, in Knox County, Illinois, and was brought to Oregon by his father in 1853. He was in the warehouse business at Butteville for twelve years, and for five years subsequently dealt in merchandise in Champoeg. Located in Buena Vista in 1881. Married Adelaide Sawyer in 1869. Children — Stephen, Eunice, Hettie, Joseph, Frank, and Byron. CONGLE, J. B. Born December 9. 1817, in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Removed to Virginia in 1838, and thence to Missouri and Indiana. Married Miss Ellen H. Gray, of Indiana, May 21, 1844. Went to California in 1849 and returned to Indiana in 1851. Two years later he came to Oregon and settled at Corvallis, then called Marysville. Was the first mayor of that town. Was sheriff of Benton County for a time. Removed to Portland, his present residence, in 1861. Has represented Multnomah County in the State Legislature, and has held municipal offices. In 1874-75 was Grand Master of Masons of Oregon. COOLEY, GEORGE C, Is a merchant of Brownsville, Linn County, his place of residence. He was born in Greyson Qounty, Virginia, July 28, 1831, and was married to Miss Harriet Blakely in 1857, by whom he has six children, namely — William C, Carrie, Etta, Kittie, James, and Emma. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 801 CUSICK, SOLOMON. Is a farmer, living in Seio, Linn County. He was born in New York, December 29, 1814; came to Oregon from Adams County, Illinois. Married Anna M. Hollenbeck. Their children are — Henry, Eliza Jane, John W., William A., Harriet A., George W., Mary L., Martha E., and John Howard. CUSICK, w. A., M.D. Doctor Cusick was born in Illinois in 1847, and was brought to Oregon by his parents at the age of six years. The family settled in Linn County, where some of its members still reside. After several years of study of the various branches of medicine, in the offices and under the charge of the most capable practitioners of the Willamette Valley, Dr. Cusick acquired an excellent professional education and obtained a diploma. For several years succeeding he practiced at Gervais, in company with Dr. M. A. Flinn. At a later date he removed to Salem and located permanently. His prac- tice is very extensive and is justified by his reputation as a physi- cian of great attainments, good judgment and conscientious attitude. With such qualifications he has acquired the respect and good-will of his fellow -citizens, whose appreciation has been shown by his election to the Legislature in 1 884. Dr. Cusick was married in 1869, to Miss M. M. Williams. They have one child — Ethel Elaine. DAVIES, HORACE G. Born in Indiana in 1851; came with parents to Oregon and has lived in Washington County since; owns a farm near Beaverton at present. He followed the lumber business in partnership with his brother. Married, in 1873, Miss Sarah E. Teft. They have two children — Freddie, and an infant. DAVIES, MILES. ^ ; Born in Ohio in 1809. He lived in Indiana before coming to Oregon in 1853; after his arrival on this coast he settled in Wash- ington County, and in 1854 took a donation claim near Scholl's Ferry, and continued in the occupation of farming until 1882. Married Miss Jane Haines, by whom he had nine children, namely — John (deceased), Phoebe, Alfred, Mary J., James W., Francis M. (deceased), Horace G., Rachel (deceased), and Augustus N. 802 HISTOEY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. DEARBORN, RICHARD H. Born in Madison, Indiana, in 1832; came to Oregon and settled in Douglas County. Was the first county clerk of that county. Present residence, Salem; occupation, saddler and harness-maker. Married Helen A. Flint, and has children — Frank, Elizabeth, Eliza, Catherine, and Richard. DECKARD, ANDERSON. Born in Kentucky in 1814; came to Oregon, and settled in Linn County, on a farm eight miles south of Albany ; now owns city property in that town. Has been justice of the peace for two years. Married Miss Lydia Corum, and by her has had eight children, only two of whom are now alive, namely — Stephen A., and Susan. His wife died in 1869, and in 1873 he married Mrs. Elizabeth A. Lincoln. DeLETTS, J. Born in Ohio in 1833; came to Oregon when twenty years of age. The first few years of his residence in this State were spent in Curry and Coos counties. At the commencement of the Indian war of 1855-56 he took his family to Fort Orford for protection from Indians, who destroyed all his property. (See pages 439, 440.) In 1857 he moved to Portland and worked at the black- smithing trade for seven years. Left Portland in 1867 and went to Milwaukie, but moved to Washington County in 1870. Is now a blacksmith by trade, and resides at Beaverton; is notary public and justice of the peace. Married Miss Ida Pike in 1883, and has one child — Maud. DICKEY, I. C. Born in Pennsylvania in 1832; came to Oregon in 1853; for some years worked alternately at cabinet- making and farming;' and served several terms as recorder at Scio ; was mayor of that town in 1877, and in 1878 was elected sheriff of Linn County. In 1881 became mayor of Albany. Is now chief of police at Albany. Mar- ried in 1855, Miss F. Miller, who died in 1869. By her he had four children — Elva J., Ira C. (deceased), Minnie F., and Addie Bell. He contracted a second marriage in 1870 with Miss M. J. Starr, by whom he had three children — Armelda J., Anna B., and HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 803 Frank M. She died in 1879, and in 1881 he married Miss Louisa M. Phillips, and they have one child — Ira Claude. DICKINSON, O. Born in Massachusetts in 1818; moved to Michigan in 1836; came to Oregon by way of Cape Horn; settled in Salem after his arrival, and was pastor in the Congregational Church there for four- teen years after his arrival. He has been engaged in the seed busi- ness since 1865, and kept a nursery for twelve years; has twenty- one acres of land in orchard and garden, and ships seeds to all parts of the Pacific Coast. Married Miss Charlotte Humphrey in 1852, and by her had several children, but one of whom — Cora E. — is now living. Mrs. Perry H. Raymond is his adopted daughter. DODSON, McMINN. Born in McMinn County, Tennessee, in 1823; came to Oregon and settled at Salt Creek, Polk County, which is still his place of residence; occupation, farming. In Tennessee, May 9, 1848, he was married to Sarah D. Cunningham, and their children's names are— Z. T., David D., Henry C, Oliver M., Theodore W., Sarah E., Ellen A., and Schuyler C. FELLER, PETER. Born in France, in 1820. Came to Oregon and settled at Ore- gon City; present residence, two miles south of Butteville, and oc- cupation, farmer. He married Annie Notenure in 1848, and their children are, two sons and four daughters. FICKLE, ABNER. Born in Virginia in 1803, and when twenty -two years old went to Missouri. In 1848 went to Texas, and five years later came to Oregon ; now resides at Buena Vista, and is a farmer. Married Miss Susan Codley, and by her has had eight children, of whom four are living, viz. — Mehala B., Robert C, Mary A., and Mary J. Mrs. Fickle died in 1 870, and in 1873 he married Mrs. S. L. Hawes. FLANNERY, MRS. T. L. Born in Jasper County, Missouri, in 1822, and came to Oregon, settling near Perrydale, in Polk County. Occupation, farming. She married Elijah Flannery in 1840, by whom she had — John, Henry, Joel, and Martha. 804 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. FORD, ROBERT. Born in Illinois in 1832, came to Oregon and located in Wash-, ington County, but afterwards resided in Polk and Benton counties. Was mainly engaged in the stock business. Purchased a livery stable in Dallas. In 1883, in company with J. W. Minto, he bought a livery and feed stable in Salem, and in 1884 purchased his partner's interest. Residence, Salem. Married to Lydia Cahoon, who died in 1859, leaving two children — Thomas J., and Cynthia. Married again in 1860, and has these children — James M., Mary F., Jessie G., John H., Robert R., Milton R,, F. M., Daisy L., and G. L. GOLTRA, W. H. Born in New Jersey in 1833; resided there until 1852; moved thence to Illinois, and after a short stay, set out for Oregon. In the next year he settled on a farm within eight miles of Albany. Was married in 1856 to Miss Sarah E. Denny, and by her has had four children, of whom, three are now living. In order to afford school facilities to his family he settled in Albany in 1874 and en- tered some time after in the agricultural implement trade. Owns a large amount of real estate in Linn County. GROUND, LUTHER. •Born in Warren County, Illinois, March 22, 1842, and came with his parents to the State of Oregon. The family settled in Polk County, and from 1869 to 1873, Mr. Ground was engaged in merchandising. He then changed his occupation to that of a farmer, and is still in that business. Mr. Ground was married February 5, 1868, to Miss Sarah J. -Butler, and the pair have had live children, namely— Lottie, Nettie, Blanche, Mellie (deceased), and l&abel. Mr. Ground now owns a line farm of two hundred acres in the vi- cinity of Monmouth, Polk County. HALEY, P. w. Born in. Warren County, Illinois, in 1847; came to Oregon and settled in Polk County. Present residence, Independence, and occupation, farming. He married Alice V. Parker, in Polk County, Oregon, in 1869, and their children's names are — Orion E., Iva L., David W., Nellie M„ Eula J., and Minerva A. HISTORY OF 1 IMMIGRATION'. 805 HARE, WILLIAM DAVENPORT. Born in Wheeling, Virginia, September 1, 1884. Removed with his parents to Ohio in 1835, and in 1853 came to Oregon. Remained in Portland until 1857, settling then in Washington County. Was elected county clerk in 1858, and held that office four years. Studied law and was admitted to practice in 1863. Has represented his county several times in the Legislature, and was elected State Senator in 1884. From 1873 to 1881 he was collector of customs for the district of Oregon. Was a candidate for the United States Senate to succeed Slater in 1885. Resides at Hillsboro. Married Miss Henrietta Schofield in 1859, and they have seven children — Thomas S., J. C, Francis E., Mattie D., Henrietta, Ruth, and AVilliam Gr. HARRIS, HUGH. Born in Ohio in 1818; removed thence to Indiana and to Illi- nois. Crossed the plains to Oregon in charge of a train of fourteen wagons. Settled in Polk County and has resided there ever since. His occupation is farming, and residence Oak Grove. Married in Illinois in 1 840 to Miss Nancy W. Hodge. Children — William H., (of Colfax, W. T. ), Miriam (Mrs. J. C. Allen, of Polk County), Emma (Mrs. John Hanna, of Linn County), Hugh S. (of Colfax, W. T.), Lizzie (Mrs. A. Hyse), Marietta (Mrs. James Chitwood), Belle (Mrs. W. Putnam, of Eola),* Emerson L., and Andrew J. HENDERSON, J. F. Born in Indiana in 1844; his first residence in Oregon was near Beaverton : his present residence is near Gaston, where he is en- gaged in farming. He married Sarah S. Davis in 1871, and their children's names are — Orla J., Lucy P., and Lily M. HILL, J. LINSEY, M.D. Born in Tennessee in 1845; a\<-is brought to Oregon in 1853; learned the printer's trade in Albany and Salem, and studied med- icine in 1865 and following years, and lias subsequently been steadily in practice of the healing art. He has been president of various medical societies, and has held several civil offices of importance. The doctor's acquirements are uncommon, and have enabled him to take a high stand in the profession. He has written upon various 806 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. scientific topics in a way to command attention, and some of his productions have done much to extend the bounds of science. In another part of this volume may be seen an allusion to his explora- tions of certain artificial mounds in Linn County, which is a subject of great interest. (See page 487.) The doctor holds the rank of Surgeon -General of the Oregon Militia. He married in 1870, Miss Mary E. Pennington. Children — Clyde, Gale, and Emily. Resi- dence, Albany. HIMES, GEORGE H. Born in Troy, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, May 18, 1844, the son of Tyrus and Emeline Himes. His parents removed to Illinois in 1847, remaining in that State until 1853, when they crossed the plains and settled on a farm near Olympia, W. T. They were a part of the first train which came through the Cas- cade mountains by way of the Nachess Pass, making their own roads as they traveled. In 1861 he learned the printer's trade in the Standard office in Olympia, and in 1864 removed to Portland. Has resided there ever since. His occupation has always been that af job printing, with an occasional diversion in the way of publish- ing books and newspapers. In 1873 he published the Commercial Reporter, and was one of the proprietors of the Daily Bee, in 1875. In connection with H. O. Lang, he published the History of the Willamette Valley in 1885. He conducts at present a large job printing ofiice at Nos. 5 and 7 Washington street, Portland. He married Miss Anna F. Biggs, daughter of D. L. Biggs, of Salem, December 24, 1866. They have had eight children, named — Carrie Frances (deceased), Edna Emeline, Sarah Myrtle, Homer Biggs, Mary, Grace Helen, Clarage Holcomb f and Eunice Irene (deceased). HOULT, ENOCH. Born in Monongahela County, West Virginia, April 18, 1820; came to Oregon and settled in Lane County. In 1863, moved to Linn County, and is now a resident of Harrisburg. Mr. Hoult was a member of the Constitutional Convention for Oregon, chosen from Lane County in 1857; was elected to the State Senate from Linn County in 1870, and re-elected in 1882. He has been a zealous laborer in the interest of education. Married Miss Jeanette Somer- FTISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 807 ville in 1842, who died in 1873. Their children were — John (de- ceased), Elisha (deceased), Mary E. (deceased), Man E. S., Elenor, Alice. Isabel, Morgan, Minnie Gr., and Ina B. HULERY, JOHN M. Horn in Ohio in 1827; moved to 'Carroll County, Indiana, and became a cooper. Married Miss Martha Davidson, by whom he had nine children — Mary, John W.. Ida, George W., Frank, Grant, Jessie, Minnie, and Walter. Brought his family overland to Or- egon via " Meek's Gut-off, 11 Mr. H. being the first immigrant to cross the Cascades by the route they took. Their experience was dread- ful to a high degree, and hunger and thirst prevailed. He located in Lane County, hut afterwards removed to Portland. Resides now at McMinnville. Was county commissioner in 1872. Mrs. Hulery died about 1872. HUMPHREYS, T. M. Born in Tennessee, in the year 1800, and assisted in the organiza- tion of the government of his native State. He came to Oregon in 1853, making Linn County his home until 1882, when he moved to Monmouth, Polk County, where he still resides, and owns city property. Married Miss Jane Harrison in 1825, and his descendants comprise eleven children, sixty grandchildren, and thirty great- grandchildren. HUTCHINSON, THOMAS H. Born in Illinois, and educated at xlbingdon College. Coming to ( >regon he settled on the Luckiamute, Polk County. Was cap- tain in the early Indian wars, and subsequently held some civiJ office^: was county clerk at time of his death in 1862. Married Mi>s Elizabeth H. Butler, by whom he had three children — James B. (deceased ). Robert C, and Thomas O. Mrs. Hutchinson died in 1866. ISOM, JOHN. Born in Virginia in 1827; came to Oregon and settled in Linn County, where he took a donation claim, fifteen miles from Albany, which he yet owns. Moved subsequently to Eastern Oregon, but returned shortly to Linn County, and bought a warehouse in Al- bany, which he fitted up for a flour mill, and is' now owned by Isoni, Lanning & Co. Was elected county commissioner in 1882, B08 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. and served one term. Owns city property in Albany, where he resides. In 1848 was married to Miss Elizabeth M. Smith, by whom he has had twelve children, two of whom are deceased. JONES, HARVEY L. Born in Missouri in 1842; in 1847 was taken to Iowa; in 1853 came to Oregon and settled in Bethel, Polk County. Present residence, Bellevue, Yamhill County, and occupation, farming. He married Josephine Van Buskirk, and their children's names are — Rolland, Weldon M., Luella M., and Herbert W. JONES, MADISON L. Born in Indiana in 1849, and came with his parents to Oregon. Was educated in the Willamette University, and afterwards studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1879; was a member of the legis- lature in 1882. Married Miss Emma Hovenden in 1880. KELLY, E. D. Born in New York, May 20, 1833; arrived in Oregon September 29, 1853; occupation, merchant; present residence, Oregon City. Wife's previous name, Lucy Waterous. Children — Maggie, John W., Charles, and Edward (deceased). KELSAY, JOHN. Born in Wayne County, Kentucky, October 23, 1819; moved to Missouri in 1829; was a member of the House of Representa- tives of Missouri in 1844, and began to practice law in 1846. Came to Oregon and settled at Corvallis, where he still lives,, engaged in the practice of the law. Served in the Rogue River In- dian War of 1855-56, and rose to the command of the Second Regi- ment Oregon Mounted Volunteers, and took part in many severe actions. Colonel Kelsay was a member of the Constitutional Con- vention, and in 1868 became Justice of the Supreme Court of Oregon. KENNEDY, M." Born in ; lived in Kentucky and Illinois; located in Polk County in 1853 and took up a farm. Occupation, farming and stock-raising. Residence, Polk County. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 809 KIZER, FRANCIS M. Born in Cedar County, Kentucky, in 1838. Settled in Linn County, Oregon, in 1853, and still resides there. Is a farmer; has been Master of the State Grange. Represented Linn County in the legislature of 1882. Married Miss Mary Wigle in 1859. KNAPP, GEORGE W. Was born in Ohio in 1834; came to Oregon and settled near Dayton, and still lives on his farm at the same place. He married Solendia Howard in 1864, and their children's names are— Lavinia and Frank B. KNIGHT, JOSEPH. Born in Alleghany County, Pennsylvania, in 1799; was a farmer and stone-cutter by occupation; was married twice- — first to Sarah Bates, and second to Catherine Bauer; his children are — Charles, Henry A. (deceased), Adam (deceased), Joseph, Matilda (deceased), Sarah (deceased), William, George, Rachel, Leah (deceased), John, August (deceased), Catherine (deceased), Samuel (deceased), and Mary. knight, p. s. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, October 21, 1836, but was taken to Iowa when six months old. His family removed to Vancouver, W. T., in 1853. He was educated at the Willamette University, studied law and was admitted the bar in 1863. Edited the States- man newspaper, of Salem, for two years — 1863 and 1864. For the next two years he served as pastor of the Congregational Church at Oregon City. From the conclusion of that engagement until the beginning of 1885 he was pastor of the Congregational Church at Salem, resigning then to give his attention more entirely to the affairs of the Deaf and Dumb School at Salem, which he founded in 1870 and has carried on ever since, almost by his un- aided exertions. He has built up a useful and commendable insti- tution, doing a work which the State of Oregon ought to assume, but which the mean parsimony of legislatures relegates to the be- nevolence of private philanthropy. LADY, JOHN T. Born in South Carolina in 1836; was taken to Indiana in the same year, and to Missouri in 1843. Ten years later came to 810 HISTOTCY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Oregon and settled in Yamhill County. His present residence is at Grand Ronde, Polk County, and occupation farming and stock- raising. In Yamhill County, in 1872, he married Leona Dodson, and their children's names are — Gifford W., Perry C, and Clair. LAFOLLETT, CHARLES, Is a practicing attorney at Sheridan, Yamhill County. He was born in Indiana in 1830; came to the Pacific Coast in 1849, and taught school in California at that early day; was also in the lumber business. After his arrival in Oregon he became a teacher of penmanship in the Pacific University. Married Mary A. Snod- grass in 1857; in 1858 moved to Polk County, and lived there until 1879, during which time he was admitted to the bar. Served in the Legislature in 1863, and was appointed captain by Governor Gibbs of a company of Oregon Infantry, who were stationed at Vancouver seven months, and then came to Yamhill, after which he was sent east of the mountains and built Camp Polk. Returned to Dallas, and was appointed Indian Agent at Grand Ronde Agency, by General Grant, in which position he served four years. In 1879 he came to Yamhill County and settled near Sheridan, where he still resides. His children are — Edith, Olive, William G., Byron, and Hettie. LLEWELYN, ALFRED W. Born in Multnomah County, Oregon, in 1853; his parents came to Oregon in 1847. His father, Alfred Llewelyn, became county clerk of Washington County, and our subject served as deputy clerk from 1874 to 1878, when he was elected county clerk, and re-elected in 1880. Studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1883; is now practicing at Hillsboro, his place of residence. Married Miss M. M. McCloud in 1875, and they have one child, named Fred. LONG, A. H. Was born in Virginia in 1827; was reared in Indiana, and came from that State to Oregon. Married Miss Harriet Wilhoit in 1856, by whom he had seven children, one of whom now lives — Phoebe. His wife died in 1870, and in 1884 he contracted a second marriage with Mrs. Lucinda Crank, he being her third husband. She has seven children. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 811 LOUGHARY, L. W. Born in Illinois in 1832; came to Oregon and settled in Polk County. Present residence, Luckiainute Valley; occupation, car- penter and farmer. He married Eliza Simpson in Polk County, Oregon, in 1858, and their children's names are — Bosina, Martha R., Uly, and Frank. MARSH, SYDNEY HARPER, D. D. Born at the Hampden -Sydney College, Virginia, August 29, 1825, the son of Professor Marsh, D. D. His father removed to Vermont a year later to become the President of the University of that State. The son was educated at that institution, graduating in 184^. In 1852 he met the Rev. G. H. Atkinson, who was then in the East soliciting means wherewith to establish the Tualatin Academy at Forest Grove, and was induced to proceed to Oregon and lend his services to the infant establishment. As early as 1848 the academy had been organized by the Congregationalists and Presbyterians, who exerted themselves for many years to place it upon a firm footing. Mr. Marsh had been ordained as a minister, and in 1>^53 he came to Oregon, brinoin^ with him books, funds, etc., to be devoted to the uses of the school, to which it was determined to add a more pretentious department, to be called the Pacific Uni- versity. The institution was re -incorporated in January, 1854, under the name of " Tualatin Academy and Pacific University," and in the following April Mr. Marsh was chosen President, with a salary of *1,200 per year, the amount, as well as most other current expenses being paid by the Society for the Promotion of Collegiate and Theological Education in the West. President Marsh attended solely to the duties of his station until 1858 when he went East upon an errand of solicitation in behalf of his college, and remained for two or three years and obtaining money and books to the value of about $23,000. In 1866 and 1867 he was again in the East on a similar errand, and collected at this time $25,000 and secured the aid of two Eastern teachers, both of whom have been of the greatest use to Oregon — G. H. Collier, now Pro- fessor in the State University, and Joseph W. Marsh, who still re- mains at his post at Forest Grove. A third visit East in 1870 was made, and 820,000 secured. Professor Marsh died at Forest Grove February 2, 1879. His was a life of the largest usefulness to man- 812 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. kind within the comparatively limited sphere which he had chosen for himself. His qualities of head and heart were such as to gain the warmest friendship, and his activity and energy were tempered by the spiritual behavior proper to his religious calling. His work at Forest Grove was very difficult, yet very successful, and raised that educational institution from its condition as a primary board- ing school, distant from population and almost inaccessible and un- known, as it was in 1854, to its present condition of usefulness, in- dependence and liberality. MARTIN, THOMAS J. Born in Kentucky in 1820; came to Oregon and settled in Linn County. Was married to Miss Selena Plow in 1847, and by her had the following named children — John, Jacob, Mary J., Rhoda, James, Lizzie, Alice, Lula, and Eva (deceased). Mr. Martin died, May 6, 1869. MATHIOT, JEAN JACQUES. Born in France, in April, 1804. Married Catherine Vergon in 1827, and came alone to the United States in 1839, bringing his family out three years later. Settled in Ohio; came to Oregon in 1 853, accompanied by his wife and their seven children; settled near Butteville, Marion County, and engaged in grape -raising. Died, April 24, 1876. McFADDEN, OBADIAH B. Born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, in 1817; was a lawyer by profession; was elected to the Legislature of his native State in 1843; was prothonotary in 1845; was appointed associate justice of the supreme court of Oregon in 1853, replacing Judge Deady, but in the following year gave place again to the latter. In 1854 he became associate justice of Washington Territory; and in 1858 chief justice, so remaining until 1861. Represented his district in the legislative council, and continuing to reside in that territory he was elected to Congress in 1872 as delegate. Died in June, 1875: Mclaughlin, Robert. Born in Kentucky in 1810; on his arrival in Oregon he settled at Buena Vista, Polk County, and still resides there in the occupa- HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 813 tion of farming. He married Mary Griffith in Missouri, in 1838, and their children's names are — Joseph A., Martha A., Harriet E., John T., Elizabeth J., Mary E., Louisa C, George W., William N., and Alfred M. MEREDITH, J. W. Born in Oneida County, New York, July 27, 1831. Occupa- tion, dentist; residence, Salem. Married in 1859 to Miss Millie Adams. Children — Frank and Nettie. MILLER, WALTER C. Is a harness -maker and farmer residing at Scio, Linn County. He was born in Onondaga County, New York, May 14, 1834; came from Illinois overland to Oregon. In 1855 he joined Com- pany O, of the 9th regiment of Oregon Volunteers, and served in the Indian war of Southern Oregon. Married Harriet Hamilton, and their children are — Manly W., Nancy D., Charles H., Samuel Grant, Harriet E., Mary, Sophia, Lucretia, William W., and Caro- line Ida J. Mr. Miller owns four hundred and eighty-six acres of land in Linn County. MONTGOMERY, R. M. Born in Indiana in 1836. Coming to Oregon he settled in the Luckiamute Valley, where he still lives and cultivates a farm. Has been twice married, first to Margaret E. Leggett, in 1864, and to Temperance Johnson, in 1875. Children — Ida, Owen, Frank, and Pearl. MORRIS, DANIEL. Born in Warren County, Kentucky, March 4, 1808; came over- land to Oregon; present residence, Scio, Linn County; occupation, farmer. Married Eveline Terry, and their children are — John S. Aurenia, Jane, and Carrol. MORRIS, JOHN S. Born in Benton County, Missouri, July 19, 1842; came overland to Oregon, and now resides at Scio, Linn County, and holds the position of postmaster of that city, having received the appointment in 1*79; is also a druggist by occupation. Married Sarah F. Queener, and their children are— Addie, Kmma, John F., Charles V.. May, Anna, Ollie, Bessie, and Dean. 814 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. ODENEAL, T. B., Crossed the plains in 1853 with the " boy train," whose members were all under the age of twenty-one. Worked for Asahel Bush, proprietor of the Statesman newspaper. Was clerk of the House of Representatives in 1855-56, was clerk of Benton County from 1856 to 1860, and in the latter year was admitted to the bar. Founded the Gazette newspaper, of Corvallis, in 1863 and was its publisher until 1866. Served six years as county judge of Benton County, ending in 1870. Served two years as assistant assessor of internal revenue. In 1872 was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs in Oregon; office abolished in 1873. Became clerk of the Supreme Court of Oregon in August, 1880, and held that position until the fall of 1884, when he resigned. PERCIVAL, R. C. Born in Howard County, Missouri, in 1822; came to California in 1850, and to Oregon three years later, and settled in Douglas County. His present residence is Monmouth, and occupation, farming. He married Elizabeth Davis in 1867, and their children's names are — Sidney D., Nellie M. (deceased), and Camilla E. PERCIVAL, WILLIAM. Now a resident of Monmouth, Polk County; was born in England, August 29, 1815, and came with his parents to America when a child, and lived most of his time, until he became of age, with his parents in Howard County, Missouri. In 1853 he came across the plains to Oregon and lived the winter following his arrival in Yam- hill County, but in 1854 he moved to Polk County, where he now resides on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, a part of a dona- tion claim. On February 4, 1847, he married Miss F. Mulkey, and seven children are the fruits of this union; their names are— Millie J., Millard F., Mary M., Georgia A., William W., Robert M., and Emily H. PFAU, JACOB. Born in Germany, in 1822; came to America in 1847; settled in Illinois; came to the Pacific coast in 1852, and to Oregon the fol- lowing year. Married Nancy J. Stump, in 1866, and has two chil- dren^-Nancy J., and Effie M. Mr. Pfau is a farmer, and lives near Eola, Polk County. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 815 POPPLETON, EDGAR, M.D., Of Lafayette, was born in New York in 183*2, and came to Oregon in 1853. Since arriving in this State he has lived at various times in Columbia, Yamhill, and Multnomah counties. Arrived in Portland in 1858, in which place he remained until 1870, his marriage to Miss Nancy C. Shelton taking place during that time. He moved to his present place of residence in 1871. Dr. Poppleton received his medical education in Cincinnati, and received his diploma in 1860, and has since had a large practice. Has live living children. PORTER, THOMAS L. Born, October, 1850, in Boone . County, Indiana; came to Oregon in 1853, and in October of the same vear settled near Halsey, Linn County. Was a member of the State Legislature in 1876. Occupation, merchant, being a member of the firm of Black, Porter California. Returned in 1852, and the next year came to Oregon, having in the meantime married Miss Amanda Simons (1853). Took a donation claim in Polk County, and resided there- on tin* rost <>f bis life. U\> children were — John W., Hardin H. 1 816 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. (deceased), Mary E. (Mrs. Henry Fawk, of Polk County), James 0., Walter 8., David W., George L., Ralph R., and B. B. Mr. Richards died October 5, 1879, and his widow, March 3, 1883. RICHMOND, T. G. Born in Kentucky in 1826. Came across the plains to Califor- nia in 1850 and mined until 1852; then returned to the States via Panama. Came to Oregon in 1853, crossing the plains as before. Was a volunteer in the Rogue River war, under Captain Applegate. Returned in 1856, and went east of the mountains with cattle. While there he panned out gold on Burnt River, being the first discoverer of gold there. While on his return he encountered the Indians, and had a conflict with them at Klamath Cave. Married Miss Sarah J. Whitney in 1859, and their family now consists of five children — Alice E., Minnie, Mary E., Thomas G., and Edward C. There is one dead, named Nettie. Mr. Richmond is a farmer and owner of sixteen hundred acres of land; has a residence in Dallas. ROWELL, ZIBA M. Was born in Orange County, New Hampshire, in 1798. On his arrival in Oregon he settled at Scholl's Ferry, Washington County; his occupation was farming. He married Frances Sears, of Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1827, and their children's names are — Thomas C, Susan F., Louisa M., Lydia W., John D., James B., and Ziba A. Mr. Rowell died in 1860. SAVAGE, E., Jr. Lives in Hillsboro, Washington County, and is a partner with his brother in an ax- handle factory. He was born in Adams County, Illinois, in 1852; his parents came to Oregon the year fol- lowing and brought him with them. In 1873 he was married to Miss Frances E. Whitmore. They have four children — Anna Mary, Minnie Myrtle, Thomas Rose, and Nettie Lenora. SCHWATKA, FREDERICK. Born in Gralena, Illinois, September, 1849, and was brought by his parents to Oregon when four years of age. The Schwatkas resided chiefly in Salem, of which town the father is still a resident. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 81 7 Frederick Schwatka was appointed to West Point in 1867, and graduated therefrom with the rank of lieutenant in 1871, and was assigned to service with the Third Cavalry, in Arizona. His ser- vices in the field distinguished him considerably, as he was in several engagements with the Indians; but what most contributed to his celebrity was the very remarkable Arctic journey under- taken by him and his command, in connection with the search for traces of the English expedition of Sir John Franklin. Lieutenant Schwatka, at his own request, was detailed to take charge of the expedition, and setting out in 1878, he was occupied until the autumn of 1880 in researches in the extreme northern part of the American Continent, among icebergs and Esquimaux, making sledge journeys with dogs, and subsisting on the flesh of walruses and whales, and enduring the extremest cold; meanwhile they prosecuted their search with activity and success. Since his return to the United States the lieutenant has fully informed the world, by means of lectures and writings, of the circumstances and con- ditions under which his party plied their search, and the greatest credit and a full measure of honor and celebrity have attached to him. Until recently Lieutenant Schwatka was a member of the United States Army, but has now resigned to enter civil service, for which he is well qualified, as he is conversant with several learned professions, including law and medicine. SCOTT, HARVEY W. Born in Tazewell County, Illinois, February 1, 1838; came to Oregon with his parents, who settled in Clackamas County in 1854. Mr. Scott was educated at the Pacific University at Forest Grove, and was the first graduate of that institution, within whose walls he spent five years. His occupation is journalism, and his life-work has been the editing of the Oregonian newspaper of Portland, which he has conducted for nearly twenty years with signal ability and success. Lender his management that publication has advanced immeasurably beyond all competitors, and has achieved a standing among the foremost journals of the United States. The quality of Mr. Scott's work, its amount and the regularity of its performance, stamp hi^ a^ a most extraordinary working intellect. His literary style is mainly distinguished by aptness, force and dignity; and the 818 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. latter quality is the more noticeable and the more appreciated from its extreme infrequency throughout the press of Oregon. Doubtless Mr. Scott lives too closely to the people of the Northwest for his abilities and services to be understood at their full value, but there are two truths which will in time become unmistakably evident to them: these are, first, the thoroughness and usefulness of his work, and, second, its solitariness. SCOTT, THOMAS B. Born in Missouri, in 1835; came to Oregon and went to hotel keeping at Salem. Was married in 1857, to Eliza McMullin, and their children are — Virginia P., Josephine Aramintha, Laura B., Lorena, and Myrtle Maud. Mr. Scott participated in the Indian war of 1855-56, and in 1864, enlisted in the First Oregon Infantry, to serve three years, and became sergeant. Resides at Salem. SCOVELL, L. C. Born in New York in 1835; removed at an early age to Iowa, and remained there until 1853. Mined and drove team in the early years of his residence in this State, and afterwards became driver of the Portland, Oregon City and Salem stage, and held that posi- tion for sixteen years. Married, in 1871, Elizabeth A. Buford. They have two children— Allie and Lolla. Resides in South Salem. SHATTUCK, E. D. Born in Vermont, December 31, 1824, and was educated in the colleges of the State. Taught for a time, and was admitted to the bar in 1852. Came to Oregon the next year, and became Professor of Ancient Languages in the Pacific University at Forest Grove. In 1855 he was elected superintendent of schools for Washington County, and the following year probate judge. Was a delegate to the constitutional convention; following which he resumed the prac- tice of law. Represented Multnomah and Washington counties in the last Territorial Legislature; was one of the organizers of the Portland Library Association; in 1862 was elected judge of the Fourth Judicial District, and again in 1874, holding the office nine years in all. SIMPSON, G. B. Born in Georgia in 1811. On his arrival in Oregon he settled in Luckiamute Valley, and still resides there. Occupation, farming. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 819 He married Nancy Jackson in 1861, and their children's names were — Kufns F., Martha E., John W., Martha A., Wincy D., B. E., and Cerilda. SIPPY, JOHN. Born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, in 1826; moved to Illinois in 1847, to California in 1850, and to Oregon three years later, set- tling in Lane County; in 1864 moved to Linn County. Married twice, first in 1849, to Mrs. J. Holliday, who died in 1850, and next, in 1853, to Mary J. Haskett; has had eight children — Ann J., Marinda, Mary, Samuel, Eliza, Lizzette, Philip, and Verlanda. SMITH, BERRYMAN M. A well-known druggist of Dallas; was born in Warren County, Illinois, in 1846, and came across the plains with his parents in 1853. They settled in Polk County, and became farmers. Mr. Smith, before moving to Dallas, which he did in 1882, was a farmer and stock-raiser. Married Miss Sarah Nealy, in 1866, and their family consists of five children, namely — Ray N., Ralph O., Mar- garet E., Edith C, and Hettie. SMITH, HIRAM. Born in Ray County, Missouri, in 1821 ; lived in that State until thirty-two years of age; then crossed the plains, with ox-teams, to Oregon; he brought with him five wagons, thirty yoke of oxen, two hundred loose cattle, and twelve horses. On arriving in Oregon he settled in Lane County, and followed stock-raising and farming ten years. Moved to Harrisburg in 1863; went into merchandising, and built the present flouring mill in that town; subsequently opened a dry goods store at Junction, and a saw mill at Coburg, conducting all those occupations at the same time. Mr. Smith was a candidate for Congress in 1873; was a delegate to the national Republican convention at Baltimore, in 1864, which nominated Abraham Lincoln; also a delegate to the national convention, in 1872, at Philadelphia, which re-nominated U. S. Grant. Several times Mr. Smith has been nominated for State offices, but has been defeated, as the Republicans in Lane County have always been in the minority. He has owned land to the amount of three thousand acres at one time, and is now proprietor of the Harrisburg saw and 820 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. flouring mills. Was married, in 1848, to Miss Mary E. Fleming, 'of Platte County, Missouri. smith, s. w. Born in Warren County, Illinois, in 1844. His family came to Oregon, and direct to Polk County in 1853, and settled on the Little Luckiamute, that still being his parents' place of residence. He worked with his father until he was eighteen years of age, when he procured a position as clerk in Independence. In 1867 he went into business for himself as partner in the firm of Cooper & Smith, and later, McCord, Smith & Co. In 1877 he formed a partnership with Vanduyn, the firm now being known as Vanduyn & Smith. Mr. Smith was married November 5, 1867, to Miss Esther M. Bar- ney, and of their children, six in number, five now live, namely — Mary Ellen, Ephram H., Otto B., Lenna M., and Millen W. Ralph C. died in infancy. STARR, I. W., M.D., Is a practicing physician of Brownsville, Linn County. He was born in Benton County, Oregon, November 28. 1853, and is mar- ried to Miss Clara Bishop. They have one child — Chester H. STEARNS, LOYAL B. Born in Keene, New Hampshire, in 1853, and brought to Ore- gon in the same year by his parents, who settled at Scottsburg, on the Urnpqua River. He was educated at the Unrpqua Academy and the medical department of the Willamette University. Studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1876. Located in Portland and has practiced in the courts of that city. Held the office of police judge for over three years; was then elected city attorney, and afterwards county judge of Multnomah County. Represented that county in the Legislature in 1878. STEPHENSON, JOHN. Born in Virginia ; was sheriff and clerk of Wood County in that State; settled in Portland in 1853, and had his residence near the Fulton House. Died, October 16, 1871, aged seventy-four years. STEPHENSON, WILLIAM. Born in Parkersburg, Virginia, in September, 1829. Came with his father, John Stephenson, to Oregon in 1853, and resided thence- forth in or near Portland. Died, February 14, 1877. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 821 STEWART, JAMES. Born in Pennsylvania in lbl4; moved, in succession, to Floyd County, Indiana, to Iowa, and to Oregon. Located, in 1853, in Clackamas County, fifteen miles from Oregon City; resides now two and a half miles north of Hillsboro, Washington County, and is a farmer. Married Sophia Richmond, and after her decease, married Catherine J. Lngalls, his present wife. STONE, SAMUEL. Born in England, in 1814; came to America in 1833, and prior to coming to Oregon lived in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky. He settled at Mill Creek, in Polk County, on his arrival in this State, and that is still his place of residence; farming is his occupa- tion. He married Zerilda Carpenter, and their children's names are Thomas B., Sarah J., and John "W. STRATTON, CURTIS P. Born in New York December 31, 1800; came to Oregon in 1853. Wife's previous name, Lavinia Fitch. Children — Riley E. (deceased, formerly chief justice of the State), Batania (deceased), Delia, Carroll C. (now president of the University of the Pacific at Santa Clara, California), Victoria, Horace F., Milton A., Laura M., Augusta J., Julius A. (attorney at law, and at present superin- tendent of the State Penitentiary), and Irene H. Mr. Stratton died at Salem in February, 1874. SWAFFORD, JAMES L. Born in Oregon City, November 15, 1853; is now treasurer of Clackamas County and resides at Oregon City. Wife's previous name was Temperance L. Rands. The names of his children are- George E., and Nellie. SWICK, BENJAMIN F. Born in Michigan in 1848: the son of Minor Swick; came with his parents to Oregon when quite young, and received bis educa- tion at the Willamette University, Commenced the study of dentistry when twenty years of a^e, after which he practiced in various towns of Oregon, finally settling in Salem where he is at present in partnership with Dr. Byrd. Married in 1874 to Miss Martha Flint. He now has two children — Valeria and Fay. J 822 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. SWICK, L., Was born in Michigan in 1840; came to Oregon when quite young and settled at French Prairie. His present place of resi- dence is near Dayton, and occupation farming. Not married. SWICK, MINOR. Born in New York in 1811 ; moved to Michigan and from thence to Oregon; was a farmer until his death. Married Miss Louisa Latourette in 1832, and had five children, namely — T., Louisa (de- ceased), Minor, Lyma, and Benjamin F. THAYER, ANDREW J. Born in New York, and resided there until his departure for Oregon. Settled on a farm near Corvallis, and resided there until his death, April 29, 1873. Was a lawyer and enjoyed a great prac- tice. Became one of the Supreme Justices of Oregon in 1870, suc- ceeding Judge Kelsay. THOMAS, E. N. Born in Ohio in 1829; went to Iowa in 1848, and five years later to Oregon. Settled in Douglas County and resided there until 1862. Participated in the Rogue River Indian war of 1855-56, being a member of Captain Rinearson's company. Located in Jef- ferson, Marion County, in 1862, and still resides there. Has been in the mercantile business for twenty years. Is now in partnership with his son, J. A. Thomas. Married in 1852 to Miss Mary J. Far- rens. They have three children — Joseph A., Florence, and Emma. THOMPSON, JOHN M. Born in Missouri in 1843, and crossed the plains with his parents when ten years old. They settled in Lane County, and he was ed- ucated at the old Columbia College in Eugene City. Married Miss Elizabeth Cooper in 1871, daughter of G. M. Cooper of Eugene City. They had three children. Mr. Thompson's occupation was the law, and he attained distinction. Was elected to the Legislature in 1878 and. was chosen speaker of the house. Was returned in 1880. Died near Prineville, Wasco County, February 10, 1882. VANCE, WILLIAM. Born in Morgan County, Illinois, in 1831 ; came to the Pacific Coast in 1853; in 1867 returned to the States, via Panama, but HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 823 came back to Oregon in 1868 and settled near Tangent, farming there until 1880, when he moved to Albany and has lived there since. Owns city property and nine hundred and twenty acres of land. Married Miss Martha E. Duncan in 1868, by whom he has had two children — named Mary Altha, and Nancy Pearl. WAIT, T. B. Born in Boston in July, 1834, lived for a time in Illinois, came to Oregon in 1853, and settled in Polk County. Participated in the Indian wars of 1855-56, and was lieutenant in a volunteer company. Removed to Salem in 1873 and in 1878 engaged in the hardware business; deals extensively in agricultural implements, etc.; was mayor of Salem in 1879, and has been alderman. Mar- ried Mary Gibson iu 1858 and had two children, Olive and A^nes. Mrs. Wait died in 1866, and in 1872 he married Rachel Morris by whom there are three children — Ennis, Thomas, and Lena. Mr., Wait resides in Salem, but has a ranch of four hundred and eighty acres in Polk County. WALKER, SAMUEL A. Born in Washington County, Oregon, January 2, 1853; is a shoemaker by trade and instructor in that branch of industry in the Indian school at Forest Grove, a position he has held since 1880; owns a residence and other property in that town; married Miss Minnie J. Knighten in 1877, and they have three children — Charles, Pearl, and Raleigh. WARNER, ARTHUR. Is a resident of Oregon City and a farmer by occupation ; was born in Surrey, England, April 17, 1828; came to Oregon in April, 1853; married Elizabeth Kaiser, and their children are — Alfred (deceased), Surrey (deceased), Imogene (deceased), Ernest (de- ceased), Annie, George and Ellen (twins), and Arthur C. Has rep- resented Clackamas County in the Legislature, and was sheriff for one term. WARRINNER, W.C., M. D. Born in Richmond, Virginia, and resided at various times in Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri. Graduated from a medical school, 824 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. and in October, 1853, arrived in Oregon and settled permanently in the vicinity of Salem. Was married in Illinois in 1848, and has a family of six children— Eugenia, Florence, Richard C, John T., May, and Edgar A. Dr. Warrinner relates that on his arrival in Portland in the fall of 1853, that place contained three practicing physicians, Doctors Wilson, Millard and Davenport, the first of whom still resides there, but the latter two are dead. Dr. Daven- port accumulated a splendid competence in the practice of his pro- fession. The regularly graduated physicians in Oregon, says Dr. Warrinner, were Doctors Bartley, of Vancouver, Bailey, of Oregon City, Boyle, of Polk County, and Warrinner, of Salem. Dr. War- rinner belongs to the Christian Church, and was one of the fore- most movers in the organization of the college belonging to that body. This was originally located at Bethel, Polk County, twelve miles from Salem. It was established in 1855, and on July 4th of that year the frame of the school building was raised. The found- ers were G. O. Burnett, Amos Harvey, J. L. Ladd, W. C. Warrin- ner and two or three others. The school flourished, and pupils at- tended from widely separated localities, attracted by the good repute of the teachers. Among the instructors at Bethel were Dr. Na- thaniel Hudson, L. L. Rowland (now of Salem), and J. H. Hall, who were installed as professors on or about 1860. The school re- tained its prestige for some ten or twelve years, but about 1865 was removed to Monmouth. The Bethel school building cost about five thousand dollars and accommodated nearly one hundred and fifty students. Its subsequent history is merged into that of the Mon- mouth College and State Normal School. WATSON, EDWARD B. Born in Clayton County, Iowa, October 7, 1844, and crossed the plains to Oregon nine years later. The family settled in Douglas County in 1854 upon a farm. Edward was educated at the Ump- qua Academy and at the Pacific University at Forest Grove, grad- uating from, the latter in 1866. He read law with J. F. Watson, at Roseburg, and was admitted to the bar in 1868. Made a part- nership with B. F. Do well and practiced in Jacksonville. Was elected county judge of Jackson County in 1872. In 1880 was chosen Supreme Judge of the State of Oregon. Retired from the HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 825 bench in 1884. Judge Watson's first wife, whom he married July 11, 1872, was Miss Mary E. Owen; the second, married May 28, 1879, was Miss Ella C. Kubli. He has two children. WELLS, GEORGE A. Born in Pike County, Missouri; his first place of residence in Oregon was at Mary's River, in Benton County; his present resi- dence is at Buena Vista, and occupation farming. He married Henrietta Turner in Illinois in 1850, and their children are — Rich- ard F., Mary 8., Mary E., William L., Commodore H., George P., Emma, and John. WELLS, RICHARD F. Born* in Pike County, Illinois, in 1850; came to Oregon at an early age, and lived at Philomath, Benton County. His present residence is at Buena Vista, Polk County, and occupation farming. He married Emma A. Collins in Polk County in 1876, and their children are — Samuel B., George W., Mabel, and Frank. WILLIAMS, GEORGE H. Born in Columbia County, New York, March 26, 1823. Studied law and was admitted to the bar of New York in 1844; emigrated to Iowa the same year and began to practice; became district judge in 1847, retaining that position for five years. In 1853 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Territory of Oregon, and imme- diately removed here. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention, and soon after began to practice law^ at Portland. In 1864 he was elected Senator from Oregon, and in the course of his duties as such prepared and introduced into Congress the Recon- struction Bill " for the more efficient government of the Southern States." After his term of office he was appointed one of the Joint High Commissioners to settle the Alabama claims, etc. In December, 1871, he became Attorney -General of the United States, holding that position until 1875, when he resigned. Resides in Portland. WRIGHT, JOHN G. Born in Illinois in 1837; came to Oregon by ox-team when sixteen years of age, settled at Salem, and engaged in merchan- dising. Residence Salem, and occupation retail grocer; has held 826 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. several civil offices, among them the mayoralty of Salem; is now vice- president of the Oregon Agricultural Society, and a member of the board of managers. Married in 1860 to Miss C. M. Cross. Their children are — Ella C, and George S. WOLVERTON, CHARLES E. Born in Iowa in 1851; came with his father, John Wolverton, to Oregon, and was reared on a farm in Polk County, receiving his education at Monmouth, whence he graduated in 1871, delivering the valedictory of his class. He studied law in Lexington, Ken- tucky; returned to Oregon in 1874, and has practiced in Albany since, where, for a while, he was in partnership wkh N. B. Hum- phreys. Was justice of the peace at Albany from 1876 to 1878. In 1884 was nominated for prosecuting attorney. Owns city prop- erty in Albany, and a farm of one hundred and fifty-three acres eight miles from that town. Married Miss Clara E. Price in 1878. WOLVERTON, JOHN. Born in Hamilton County, Ohio, December 4, 1822. He was reared on a farm, and at seventeen years of age went to Illinois, and from there to Iowa; in 1853 came to Polk County, Oregon, and took a donation claim. He now owns a fine residence in Mon- mouth, and a farm of eight hundred acres. Married Miss Mary J. Nealy in 1847. They have seven children — William M., engaged at Spokane Falls in the hardware business; Charles E., a lawyer at Albany; Bruce, a minister of the Christian Church at Seattle; Prince Albert, of Spokane, dealer in agricultural implements ; Josie, wife of Dr. J. C. Byrd, of Salem; Otis A., a farmer in Polk County; and Grant, at Spokane, engaged in the hardware business. Mr. Wolverton lives at Monmouth. YOUNG, ISAAC. Born in Tennessee; lived successively in that State, Ohio, Iowa, and Oregon, arriving in the latter in 1853. He lived with his family one year in Washington County, but settled in Albany in 1853. Here he lived and worked at his trade of carpentering until 1876, when his death took place. He was the father of S. E. Young, of Albany. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 827 1854. BEAN, ROBERT SHARP. Born in Yamhill County, November 28, 1854, but moved with his parents to Lane County at an early age, and has resided there ever since. Graduated from the Christian College at Monmouth, in 1873. Studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1876. In 1877 he entered the State University at Eugene with advanced standing, and graduated the next year. Continued in the practice of law until 1882 when he was elected Judge of the Second Ju- dicial District. BELT, GEORGE W. Born near Salem, Oregon, August 13, 1854, and has resided there almost all the subsequent time. Was educated at the Wil- lamette University, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1879. Removed to Independence, Polk County, in 1881, and engaged in law practice. Married Miss Olive L. Chamberlain, Aug. 1, 1882. They have one child, named George. bevens, J. s. Born in DeKalb County, Missouri ; his first settlement in Oregon was in Yamhill County; his present residence is Buena Vista, and occupation farming. He married C. K. Shelton in Oregon, and their children's names are — Nola J., Minnie A., Prince L., and Josie. bevens, t. o. Born in Missouri in 1842; on his arr.val in Oregon he settled in the Luckiamute Valley, and still lives there. Occupation, farming and stock-raising. In Oregon, in 1864, he married Mary E. Grant, and their children are named respectively — Gilbert J., Hudson J., Permelia, Marquis J., Manley, and Ida. . BEVENS, WILLARD P. Born in DeKalb County, Missouri; on his arrival in Oregon he settled at Luckiamute, Polk County; now resides at Buena Vista en- gaged in farming. He married Mary S. Wells in Oi;egon in 1869, and they have one child — Willard Easton. CONDIT, c. Born in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, January 27, 1827; mar- ried Rebecca J. Rowland in 1857; by her his children are — James P., Silas J., Philip H., Martha J., and Alva O. He married his second wife, Jane Frank, in 1865. 828 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. CONDIT, PHILIP. Born in Pennsylvania in 1801; was married to Nancy Gordon on February 2, 1826. Children — Cyrenus C, Sylvanus, Alva, Samuel J. M., and Mary A. C. Mr. Condit organized Pleasant Grove Presbyterian Church, which was built in 1857-58, the second church constructed by that denomination in Oregon. DEARDORFF, A. G. Born in Douglas County, Oregon, in 1854; the son of W. H. B. Deardorff. t Educated at Umpqua Academy; studied medicine in this State and in Keokuk, Iowa. Returned to Oregon in 1882, having graduated, and locating at Jefferson, Marion County, began practice. Married in 1879 to Miss Elizabeth Harmon. Residence, Jefferson. DIERDORFF, WILLIAM. Born in Pennsylvania July 4, 1815; emigrated to Iowa and two years later married Marianna Ainsworth, sister to J. C. Ainsworth, of Portland. Emigrated to Oregon and settled at Oregon City as a member of the mercantile firm of Ainsworth 5<>. when they returned to Indiana, and in 1864 he entered the Union Army in Company B of the 26th Indiana Volunteers, and was in that service until 1866, being in the linal action of the war at the Spanish Fort, near Mobile. He was mustered out at Yicksburg in 1866, when he returned to Indiana and went into the stock business. In IS 72 he came to Oregon and farmed in Polk County, near Independence, for three years, and at the end of that time purchased a drug store in that town which he owns still. He was married to Miss Ellen Hooper, and their children are the fol- lowing — Loreno C, Alta R., AVilliam J. (deceased). Alice E., and Eottie L. Mr. Robertson is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. ROCK, JOHN. Born in Barnstaple. England, December 5. 1848; came to Ore- gon in IS 72. His former occupation was that of editor of the Oregon City Enterprise. Residence, Oregon City. SHUSTER, H. S., A.M. Lives in Salem, and is a photographer. Born in Xew Jersev in 1830. and was educated at the AVesleyan University in Middleton, Connecticut: graduated in I860, taking afterwards the decree of Master of Arts. Taught in Pennington Seminary. Xew Jersev. two years. Since 1866 has been in the photographer's business: and sinee 1879 in Salem. VAUGHN, J. W. Born in Jefferson County Illinois, May *2n 1848, and was edu- cated to become a teacher, an occupation he followed for some time. He came to Oregon in 1872, stayed a short time in Baker County, going then to Union County, where he lived four years. He then moved to Dallas, Polk County, and was clerk for J. D. Lee, and Wftfl married in 1S78 to Miss Ida Hutton. They have a child, named 874 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Clifford W., and had one other that died in infancy. Mr. Vaughn came to Independence in 1879 and has been employed as clerk ever since. Is a member of the City Council of that place. WAGGENER, R. Born in Indiana in 1842; served three years in the United States army, being attached to the third Indiana Volunteers; was at Shi- loh and all the battles which took place in the West. Is now a member of the Gr. A. R. Came to Oregon and farmed for a time, but in 1881 took charge of the Tualatin Hotel, at Hillsboro, which he still conducts. Was married in 1864 to Anna B. Bailey. They have fiye children — Lura, Adella, Lena, D. B., and Willard. WILCOX, DAVID. Born in Montgomery County, New York, in 1811; went to Can- ada in 1818; in 1842 moved to Wisconsin, and lived there thirty years. Then came to Oregon and settled in Washington County, where he has a farm on the Tualatin River, and property in Cor- nelius, his place of residence. He was married in Canada, in 1834, to Miss Sarah M. Davis. Their children are eight, five of whom live in Oregon and three in the Eastern States. WRIGHTMAN, FRANK T. Born in Erie County, New York, in 1858; came to Oregon in 1872; occupation, farmer; present, residence, Sublimity. 1873. BAKER, L. M. Born in Virginia in 1834; lived mostly in the Western States until 1861, when he enlisted in the U. S. Army, and participated in the battle of Bull Run, and nearly all the other great encounters in Virginia; was severely wounded at Gettysburg, and disabled for life. He now draws a pension therefor. Married in 1869 to Mary McHarter, by whom he has four children — F. O., F. A., Ella May, and E. D. Residence, Salem. CONOVER, READING B. Born in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, in 1836. Came to Oregon in June, 1873, and settled in Salem. Is the publisher of the daily and weekly Talk, an afternoon newspaper, devoted to the news of the day, political affairs, etc., and one of the principal HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 875 papers of the valley. It was established in 1878. Mr. Conover was married in Indiana, and has three children — Frank (assistant publisher of the Talk), Daisy, and Lula. DANIEL, REMUS R. Born in Kentucky. Resided, for various periods, in Minnesota and Washington Territory. Came to Oregon in 1873, and settled in Yamhill County. Married Miss V. V. Williamson in 1878, and has two children — Ivan H., and L. B. Mr. Daniel had acquired experience in flour-making before coming to this valley, and in 1881 he purchased the steam flour mill at Lafayette, in company with Mr. Suiter. They carry on a good business and 'have made an ex- cellent reputation for their products, which they ship to many points in the valley, as w^ell as to Eastern Oregon, Washington Territory, and even to California. They handle fifty thousand bushels of wheat annually. HARBORD, M. G. Born in Illinois in 1837; farmed principally until his departure for Oregon. Was married in 1862, to Jane Price. Their children are— Hetta Esther, born in 1863; Rolla C, born in 1864; Ida Maud, born in 1865; Kittie W., born in 1875; and three others, who died young. Mr. Harbord was deputy United States Marshal in 1882- 1883, and has held the office of city marshal of Salem since 1879. Resides in South Salem. HEMSTOCK, WILLIAM. Born in Nottinghamshire, England, March 17, 1827; in 1832 he went to Canada; in 1837, to Wisconsin. He came to Oregon and settled at McMinnville, where he now resides, engaged in farm- ing and fruit-raising. In 1850, in Racine County, Wisconsin, he married Mary A. Bingham, also a native of England; their children are — George H., Hannah A., Fanny J., and Albert B. HOLMAN, THOMAS. Is a manufacturer of fanning mills and grain separators in Sa- lem. Was born in England in 1849; came to America in 1871, and lived in Canada until coming to Oregon. In 1877 he invented the Western fanning mill and grain cleaner; manufactures and sells annually from two hundred to three hundred mills. Learned the trade of machinist in England and has worked at it since. 876 H1ST0KY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. JOHNSON, W. P. Born in New York in 1846; became a photographer, and has carried on that industry in New York, Wisconsin, and Iowa, previous to his coming to Oregon. Is now located at Salem, Marion County, and still carries on the business of photography. In 1871 he was married to Miss Ella Southwick, by whom he has four children — Frank R, William A., Aylett N., and an infant. MALONEY, HANDLEY S. Born in Green County, Tennessee, in February, 1849; was a private in the Fourth Tennessee Volunteers in 1864; and second lieutenant in the U. S. Infantry in 1867; resigned in 1870. He came to Oregon in 1873, and in 1876 was county surveyor of Uma- tilla County. In 1880-82 was county surveyor of Yamhill County. In 1884 became first lieutenant of Company A, Oregon Cavalry. He now resides at Sheridan, Yamhill County, and is engaged in farming and surveying. He married Mary F. Metzer in Umatilla County in 1873, and their children's names are — Lillie S., Mary L., William C, Minnie S., and Hugh P. Mcelroy, e. b. Born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, September 17, 1842. Was educated in a normal school in that State, and after teaching a while, enlisted (1861) in the first regiment of West Virginia Vol- unteers, and afterwards (1863) in the one hundredth Pennsylvania, and served through the war ; afterwards employed himself as teacher and farmer until his departure for Oregon in 1873. Taught in the public schools of Corvallis until 1875, then assuming a professor- ship in the State Agricultural College. Was three times elected superintendent of schools for Benton County, and in 1882, became State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Resides at Salem, with his wife (formerly Miss Agnes McFadden), and their four children. MENDENHALL, W. F., M.D. Born in Jefferson County, Tennessee, in 1833; graduated in med- icine at Knoxville in 1866; came to Oregon in 1873, and has prac- ticed at Harrisburg, Linn County, since. Married Miss Eleanor Hoult in 1876. They have two children — Frank and Fred. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 877 PHILIPPI, ANTONY. Born in Lewis County, Washington Territory, August 1, 1859. Was reared to a farmer's life, but moving to Portland when four- teen years old, he learned the trade of carriage and sign painter, and was occupied thereat for eight years in that city. Subsequently he resided in Hillsboro, and in March, 1884, removed to Independ- ence, his present abode, and there continues the exercise of his trade. STOLZ, GIDEON. Born in Columbiana County, Ohio, in 1844. In 1873 he arrived in Oregon and settled in Salem, where he has established a cider factory, run by steam power, where he also manufactures fruit but- ter and jellies. In 1884, fifty thousand bushels of apples were used in the mill, and several workmen were employed. Mr. Stolz mar- ried Miss Margaret Whittinger, and their children's names are — Lenta D. and Walter T. TYLER, ASHER. Born in Livingston County, New York, August 6, 1831; went to Wisconsin, at the age of sixteen. Was educated in military affairs, and when twenty-three years of age was commissioned by Governor Harvey, of Wisconsin, first lieutenant of militia. During the Rebellion he was promoted to captain; was taken prisoner at Lexington. ,Was in active service more than four years, and in Government employ seven years. He came to Oregon in 1873, and has since lived in Forest Grove, where for a year he has had charge of the U. S. Military School. This school was established in 1879; in 1880 the munitions of war were sent, first under command of Captain Wilkinson, next Captain Pierce, and then Captain Tyler. A full class comprises fifty-five students in infantry, and twenty- four in light artillery. Their drill is perfect, says their instructor. Captain Tyler was married to Miss Elizabeth Hawley in 1856, by whom he had two children. In 1869 he married Miss H. L. Johnson. Captain Tyler is an able linguist, speaking eight languages. 1874. BAILEY, JOSEPH. Born in Barnesville, Belmont County, Ohio; came to Oregon, arriving on June 10, 1874; settled at Forest Grove. His present 878 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. residence is Greenville, and occupation, blacksmith. He married Miss Ella Hay, January 24, 1883, at Forest Grove, and they have one child — Blanche. BRINK, THOMAS. Born in Indiana in 1830; made two trips to California and re- turned East as often, previous to his arrival in Oregon. Settled in Albany and has lived there since; is a furniture manufacturer. Married Miss Mary E. Vrooman in 1859. They have four children — Margria P., Manfred A., Mason E., and Millard D. CLARK, J. S., Sr. Born in New Hampshire in 1816; went to Illinois in 1837 and learned the brick and mason trade. Came to Oregon and settled in Albany, where he works at his trade ; owns a brick-yard and some city property. Married Miss Harriet Kicharcls in 1843, by whom he has had nine children, namely — Francis A., Mary L., Henry J., Hattie A., Emma B., Rose, Josephine, Joseph S., and Carrie C. HUDSON, WILLIAM S. Mr. Hudson, now a citizen of Forest Grove, was born in New York in 1827, and after many years' residence in Massachusetts and Wisconsin, emigrated to Oregon in 1874. His occupation is that of blacksmith, and being an attache of the Indian school at Forest Grove, he has charge of the youths who learn that branch of industry. Mr. Hudson was married in 1853 to Elizabeth Rogers. They have four children — Charles, Hattie, Harvey, and Paul. HYDE, EDWIN O., M.D. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, on August 2, 1849, and educated at the Peabody High School. Was a member of the fifth regiment, M. V. M., for several years; also librarian of the Peabody Institute. Visited Missouri and Kansas in 1869, and returning east, married E. E. Evans at Tamworth, N. H, October 16, 1873. Set out for Oregon in the following spring via the Isthmus. Taught school in Albany for a time and studied medicine, hearing lectures at the Wil- lamette Medical College. Practiced at Prineville for a year. Is now an inhabitant of Scio, Linn County, practicing his profession. Children — Walter S., Oscar C, Archie M., and Edwin H. history of immigration. 879 Mcpherson, william h. Born in Washington County, Tennessee, November 24, 1848; is a mechanic and resides in Lebanon, Linn County. Married Eliz- abeth Burritt, and their children are — Maud E., Charles, and Delia. Mr. McPherson was a body guaid of Andrew Johnson in 1865. MONTANYE, L. H. Born in Indiana November 8, 1840; of French extraction; served in an Indiana regiment during the Rebellion, and after the close of the war lived in Louisiana until 1874 when he came to Or- egon and has resided since at Albany. Is a lawyer, and studied the profession and was admitted to the bar in Louisiana in 1871. Is still engaged in that pursuit. Was elected to the Oregon Legis- lature in 1884. Is active among the various secret orders. Was married in 1876 to Miss Kate Baynard, and they have two children — George B., and Mary H. NEIBERT, CONRAD. .Born in Calumet County, Wisconsin, in 1848; came to Oregon in 1874; occupation, blacksmith; present residence, Turner; wife's previous name, Rosie Thomas. Children — George A., John P., Edward J., and George W. RANDLE, S. A. Born in Illinois, November 29, 1839. He attended high school in that State, and attended at Asbury University in Indiana until the senior year. Came to Oregon and taught in Salem public schools; in 1881, took the senior year course in the Willamette University, and received the degree of A.M. in 1884; now holds the position of principal of La Creole Academy in Dallas. Mar- ried Miss Ellen Taggart, and has live children, named — Harry C, George, Nellie, Fay, and Maggie. Mr. Randle was in the Union army from 1862 to 1865. TIFFANY, G. W. Born in Barkhamsted, Connecticut, a descendant of English Puritans. Spent seventeen years in mercantile affairs in New York, in the employ of a large firm, and in 1874 came to Oregon. In 1879 moved to Salem; is associated with Beu. Forstner as agents for sew- ing machines and supplies. Mr. Tiffany has traveled very exten- 880 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. sively, visiting every State and Territory in the Union, with hardly an exception. When twenty-three years old he married Mary B. Gardner, of Canandaigua, New York, by whom he had three boys, the two oldest of whom survive. Mrs. Tiffany died in October, 1873. WILSON, ANDREW. Resides in Independence, Polk County. Was born in Perry County, Ohio, in 1842. He entered the army in 1861, as one of the Colorado Cavalry, and took part in the battles of Valverde, Sand Creek, Patch's Canyon, and in a raid into New Mexico. After the war he went to Missouri, but in 1874, left that State and came direct to this coast, and lived for a while in Lane County, before settling in Independence. He was married, in 1867, to Miss Martha Sodders, by whom he had two children — Thomas and Furman. His wife died, June 28, 1873, and he was married again, in 1874, to Mrs. Margaret Crouse, by whom he has one child, named Laura. WOQDIN, A. B. Born in New York, in 1834, his parents removing to Michigan, they being among the pioneers of that State. Mr. Woodin was surveyor of Genessee County, Michigan, and afterwards mined at Pike's Peak, Colorado. Served four years in the Union Army during the civil war. Coming to Oregon he settled at Albany and engaged in milling. Is now a dealer in furniture. Married Miss Eliza Barber in 1868, and has one son, Harry by name. 1875. ABDILL, G. B. Born in Ohio in 1845, and lived at different periods in Ken- tucky, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota. After his arrival in Oregon he lived one year on a farm at Amity, then moved to Dayton and set up business as tinsmith, and is still residing there, engaged at the same occupation and trading agricultural imple- ments. He married Miss Charlotte Gibbon in 1869, and three children have been born to them, two of whom are now alive, named, William and Daniel. Mr. Abdill entered the Union Army in 1865, and served one year. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 881 ALLEN, N. H. Born in Ontario County, New York, in 1837; came to Oregon and entered upon lumbering as an occupation. In company with others he cut a vast amount of timber upon the Calapooia Creek and floated it to the mill at Albany. Selling out in 1882, Mr. Allen engaged in mercantile affairs at Albany and so remains. Married Miss Mary Hanawalt in 1873. They have three children — Edna, Mamie, and Frank. BAKER, A. B. Born in Washington Territory in 1855; came to Oregon and lived for a time in Lafayette, moving thence to McMinnville in 1881. Is recorder of the latter town. Married Miss Phcebe Henry, in 1882. They have one child, Jessie E., by name. Mr. Baker is now a part- ner with J. H. Robinson in the drug and stationery business at McMinnville. CASTO, JOSEPH. Is a resident of New Era, Clackamas County, and proprietor of a general merchandise store ; also postmaster and agent for the O. now pursuing a course in surgery which will be completed in 1885. Married Miss Annie Hawkins in 1878, by whom he has two children — Edna and George. MOORE, PHILIP M. Present residence; McMinnville : birth-place, Illinois ; date of birth, 1855 : came to Oregon in 1880 : is a printer by trade : has no family. 1881. BARNES, FRANK P. Born in Indiana in 1852: emigrated to Washington Territory in 1880, and arrived in Oregon a few months later: was clerk of the Ohemeketa Hotel in Salem for a time. Is now a resident of Salem. TALKINGTON, F. P. Born in Warren County. Illinois. April 25. IS 53. Went to California in 1 S «3 v* . and came to Oregon in 1881. Residence. Sa- lem. Wife's previous name. Carrie J. Schnider. They have one child, named Cora M. 1882. BATCHELOR, JAMES. Born at Great Bend, Pennsylvania. May -1. 1830; was a carpen- ter until 1860 when he went to Illinois and farmed. Enlisted in 1862 in the ninety- third Illinois Infantry and served through the war. Was at Vicksburg, and with Sherman on his "March to the Sea." Draws a pension for disability incurred at Altoona. Married Elizabeth J. Schock in 1873. They have three children — James F.. C. A., and William L. Postoffice address. Knight. Marion County. Occupation, farming. BRIGGS, JAMES J. Captain Briggs, now of Salem. Marion County, was born in W^tinoreland County. Pennsylvania. January 16, 1840. He served with credit in the Union Arniy throughout the civil war, participating in all the battles of the Army of the Potomac. En- tering the service as a private, he rose to the rank of captain and adjutant of hi> regiment. He received a severe wound at the Battle of the Wilderness. Coming to the Pacific Coast after the close of the war, he set foot in Portland in May. 1882, and - after entered into busn rhe proprietor of a large drug >toi e in 892 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Salem, of which he is still at the head. Captain Briggs married Miss Mary E. McCreery, January 16, 1865. Their children are- Anna V., Eichard Coulter, John McCreery, George Curry, and Walter Koscoe. LeMAHIEU, ISAAC. Born in the province of Zealand, Holland, September 13, 1841. Came to Oregon in May, 1882. Present residence, Oregon City; Occupation, Unitarian minister and editor of the , Courier newspaper. SHOBE, LUTHER. Born in Kentucky in 1838; lived in Missouri until 1858; spent the following years, until 1867, in various mining regions; built the first house erected in Virginia City, Nevada. Was married in 1867, to Miranda France; was a resident of Missouri again, from the last mentioned year until 1882, holding some civil offices and carrying on a traffic in general merchandise; came to Oregon in 1882; is now a dealer in musical instruments in McMinnville, with agencies in various parts of the State. STAPLETON, JOHN. Born in Connecticut in 1856; worked for the Union Metallic Cartridge Company for four years; went to the Lake Superior mines and worked two years; traveled extensively in the Eastern States and in Cuba; enlisted in the U. S. Regular Army in 1877, and attained the rank of sergeant ; served five years ; at the end of service- came to Oregon, in 1882, and located at Salem; became guard at the State's prison and holds that place still. ZINNE, GEORGE. Born in Illinois in 1844; removed to Missouri when twelve; en- listed in the 2nd Ohio Cavalry in 1862, and fought in most of the battles in the West. Married in 1865 to Miss Elizabeth Tucker, by whom he had Zina J., and Willis W. Mrs. Zinne died in 1879. He was married next to Flora E. Welch, to whom was born one child — W. T. Residence, Salem. 1883. HOWARD, A. D., M.D. Born in Massachusetts; commenced the study of medicine in 1848, and graduated at Philadelphia in 1852; during the Re- HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 893 bellion was a surgeon in the Union Army. He came to the Pacific Coast in 1882; lived in California a year, then came to Oregon and settled in McMinnville, his present residence. Married Miss Eliza- beth Payne in 1850, and has one child. LADUE, WILLIAM N. Born in Troy, New York in 1838; lived in Michigan from 1847 until 1883, then coming to Oregon. Is now vice-president and manager of the First National Bank, of Salem, which was first opened on the eleventh of June, 1883. The institution possesses a very fine building, one of the handsomest in Oregon. Its capital is $60,000. Mr. Ladue was married in 1867, and has four children — William B., Kate Stuart, George Franklin, and Robert Stuart. Mrs. Ladue is of the Stuart family, two of whose members were partners with John Jacob Astor in the Pacific Fur Company. MULTNER, F. Born in Baden, Germany; came to Oregon in April, 1883, and lived for a short period in Portland. His present place of resi- dence is McMinnville, and occupation, proprietor of the St. Charles Hotel. He was married in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1856, and has one child, F. "W. Multner, born in Oroville. California. PATTERSON, JAMES H. Born in Dutchess County, New York, in 1837. Married Wealthy J. Foster, in Michigan, in 1861. Their children are — Homer J., Earnest F., Elmer M., and Ora R. Mr. Patterson's address is Hills - boro, but he lives at the Jolly Sawmill; his occupations are milling and farming. 1884. HYDE, CLARENCE B. Born in Geauga County, New York, April 4, 1856; the son of Jacob and Marilla Hyde; removed thence, in 1869, to Cass County, Missouri, and from thence to Oregon. Settled in Scio, Linn County, which is his present residence. MASTON, G. W., M.D. Born in Ohio, December 14, 1849; studied medicine and took his diploma at the Cincinnati Medical College. Served as surgeon in the United States Regular Arm)' for several years. Resigned 894 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. therefrom in , and established himself in practice at Waitsburg, Washington Territory. Came to Oregon in 1884 and practices at Albany. Married Miss Nellie O. Canon, daughter of Sylvester Canon, of Linn County, in 1879. They have one child, named Vida M. Mcpherson, matthew s. Born in Washington County, Tennessee, June 13, 1826. Came to Oregon in 1884, and located at Lebanon, Linn County. Mr. McPherson's occupation is that of a carpenter. He married Catharine Brubaker, and their children's names are — William H., Joseph A., George W., and Emma. Unclassified. CHRISMAN, JOEL D. Born in Virginia in 1795; moved to Illinois in 1833, and eleven years later to Oregon. Settled in Yamhill County, and died there in 1875. He was a farmer. Married Polly Sprowl, in Virginia, in 1817, and they had a large family, of whom the following are the survivors — Elizabeth (Mrs. B. Robinson), Gabriel, Eleander (Mrs. Darr), William M. C, and Campbell E. CHRISMAN, WILLIAM M. C. Born in Virginia in 1830; accompanied his parents to Missouri in 1833, and to Oregon in 1844. Served in the Yakima war. He is proprietor of a very large farm at Amity. Married Margaret Parrish in 1853, and they had five children, all of whom are deceased. DAVIS, SAMUEL. Born in New Jersey, December 13, 1804; went to Ohio when young and there married Mary Brocken. Her birth occurred on March 2, 1806. The pair removed to Missouri in 1836, and to Oregon in 1846. They lived a year in Washington County, mov- ing to Yamhill at the expiration of that time. Here Mr. Davis lived until his demise, which happened on the twenty -seventh of February, 1875. His wife's decease took place on the sixth of Jan- uary, 1872. Their children were — J. B., William B., Martha A. (died January 4, 1882), Albertis O, Levi T., Sarah (died August 13, 1873), Elizabeth E. (died July 20, 1879), Rachel A. (died October 20, 1870), and May M. (died May 10, 1868). HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 895 DINSMORE, JAMES M. Born in Maine in 1833; served in the 60th New York Infantry regiment, and was wounded in one of the battles of the Rebellion. Is now a member of Can by Post G. A. R., No. 13. Occupation, lum- bering. Family contains but one child, Isabella by name. Resi- dence, Cornelius, Washington County. GRIFFITH, ELISHA. Born in Pennsylvania in 1803; in 1845 came from Illinois to Oregon, and settled at Oregon City; moved subsequently to Linn County. He superintended the burning of the first kiln of brick ever burned in Oregon City; but subsequently was engaged at shoemaking. He married Elizabeth Finlay in Indiana, and their children were — William N., Sabra J., David, Sarah A., Nancy J., Mary M., John, Delila E., Elisha W., James M., and Lydia M. Mr. Griffith died in Linn County in 1871. HEWITT, HENRY. Born in Huntington County, Pennsylvania, in 18*22; came to Oregon in 1843, settling in Washington County; lives now in Yamhill County, and is a farmer. Was elected county commis- sioner in 1864. Married Miss Elizabeth Matheny in 1841. Chil- dren — Annie E., D. M., Henry, Adam, James, Isaac, Matthew, Jasper, Harry, and L. L. LYONS, h. w. Residence and address, Dallas. Born in Shelby County, Iowa, in 1858. Received his education in LaCreole academy, at Dallas. In 1883, entered the real estate business in connection with H. J. Ellis, under the firm name of Ellis var of 1855-56 -he was in active service as captain of a company of rang- era who helped greatly in protecting the frontier. Afterwards he became a prominent stock -raiser in Eastern Washington, and died in 187". 900 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. EATON, NATHAN. Was born near Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1824. Came to Oregon in Nesmith's company in 1843, and settled near LaFayette, Yam- hill County. Was in the Cayuse war in 1847. Went to Cali- fornia in 1849 to dig gold. Returned in 1850, and removed to what was afterwards known as Thurston County, Washington Territory, that year, and located on a farm twelve miles from Olym- pia. Here he lived until 1882, when he sold out and removed to Elma, Chehalis County, W. T., where he engaged in farming and merchandising. He died in 1883, leaving a wife — formerly Miss Lestina Z. Himes — by whom he had four children — Lestina, Hugh, Mary, and John. Mr. Eaton rendered efficient service to the country during the Indian war of 1855-56. HINES, Rev. GUSTAVUS. Born in Herkimer County, New York, in 1809; entered the itinerant ministry in 1832 in the Genessee Conference; remained there until 1839, when he was appointed missionary to Oregon, and arrived here in 1840; he was an active participant in the for- mation of the provisional government. In 1845 he returned to New York, from whence he returned to Oregon in 1853. He represented the Conference of this State in the General Conference in 1868. He died in 1871 at Oregon City aged sixty -four. He was the author of two works relating to Oregon. HINES, H. K., D.D. Born in Herkimer County, New York, 1828, and was reared upon a farm and educated in the country schools. At the age of nineteen he was made a licensed preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, having already served as a public exhorter for three years. At twenty he began his itinerant ministry in the Genessee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1852 he was transferred to the Oregon Conference, and at the first session of that body was appointed to the city of Portland. He crossed the plains with an ox-team, driving his own oxen, in the summer of 1853, reaching Portland on October 3, and occupying the pulp't of old Taylor Street Church on the following Sunday. In 1856 he organized the first society of his Church at The Dalles, and in 1859 was made presiding elder of the Salem district. In 1865 HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. 901 he was presiding elder of the Puget Sound district; and in 1869 of the Wall a Walla district, which then included all Eastern Oregon, Eastern Washington and a part of Idaho. He was presiding elder of the La Grande and Boise district from 1875 to 1879, during which time he founded and built the Blue Mountain University at La Grande. In 1880 he Avas elected editor of the Pacific Christian Advocate, which place he has filled to the present time. In 188*2 Mr. Hines received the degree of D. D. He has occupied several public positions; served two years as a member and president of the upper house of the Washington Territory Legislature; and one year as chaplain of the House of Representatives. He was for four years representative of the Twelfth General Conference district of his Church, including all the Pacific Coast, Utah, Montana, Wyo- ming, Colorado and Nebraska in the General Missionary and Church Extensions Committees of the Church ; one of the most im- portant representative positions in that bod)-. HIGHFIELD. WILLIAM F. Born in London, England, December 16, 1818; came to Oregon in 1849; occupation, jeweler. Present residence, Oregon City. RIGGS, DANIEL L. Was born in Baskingridge, N. J., in 1815. Learned the car- riage blacksmith trade in Newark. Married Sarah W. Edwards in 1836. Removed to Xew Haven, Connecticut, in 1837, and in 1838 to East Haven, where seven children were born to them — all but Theodore L. and Anna F. (Mrs. Geo. LI. Himes) being de- ceased. In April, 1853, Mr. Biggs came by steamer to Oregon, and built the first steam flouring mill in the Willamette Valley, if not in the State. Returned to Connecticut in 1855, and came back to Oregon in L858, bringing his family and settling at Eola, where he conducted a small machine shop until 1866, when he re- moved to Salem, where he lived until his death in 1883, carrying on the same branch of business. Mr. Riggs was an ingenious man, patenting several inventions, the most notable being that of a pro- - of mending broken bells so as to retain their original tone. In 1876 he made a trip to Philadelphia with a view of mending the old Liberty bell, being inspired by the patriotic desire of hearing it peal forth once more. He had the support of Gen. Hawley and 902 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. other influential men, but the city authorities, who had the custody of the bell, claimed that it had fulfilled its mission, and hence would not permit the repair to be made. ROBERTS, WILLIAM, L.L.D. Born in Burlington, New Jersey, in 1812; was admitted into the Philadelphia Conference of the Methodist Church in 1834. In 1846 he was selected by the Board of Bishops as superintendent of the Oregon mission, and sailed from New York with instruc- tions from the Missionary Board to explore California. He stopped six weeks in that country and organized the first church in San Francisco, visiting San Jose, Monterey and other places, and reached Oregon in Jane, 1847, taking the place of Bev. George Gary as superintendent of the mission work on the Pacific Coast. In 1849, by direction of Bishop Waugh, he organized the Oregon and California Mission Conference, which was under his superin- tendency'four years, when the Oregon Conference was organized. In 1856 he was delegate to the General Conference at Indianapolis. For the next three years he was agent of the American Bible Society for Oregon and Washington Territory, after which he was stationed in Portland, and served as presiding elder of Portland district. He is still in the active ministry, and is stationed at Astoria, Oregon. GENERAL INDEX. A. Abernethy. George, 232, 250, 251, 252, 253, 286, 303, 32>. 60S. Abdill, G. B.. 880. Aborigines of the Willamette Valley. 478, 401. Adams, E. M., Adkins, E.S.,795. Adventure, sloop, 121, 122. Airee, B. C. 700. Agriculture, the rirst beginnings of, 228: consid- ered iu general.. 518 to 500. Aguilar, .Martin de. discovers Cape Blanco, 40. Aiken. A. G., 705. Alarcon, Ferdinand de. 25. Alava, Gen. Jose M. de, Spanish Comm.. 12s. 129. Albany, railway celebration at, 494. Albatross. American ship. 145, 146. Albright, C, 750. Alcorn's Company, deeds of. 4<>1, 402. Alden, Capt. 6. R_ V. S. A., 339, 3.53, 3.54, .;.-,»;, 357. Alderman, A. I.., B51, 652. Alderman. <>.. 663. Allen, J. C, 70S. 709. Allen. N. EL., 881. Allingham, D. W., 751. American Hoard of Commissioners for Foreign Missions 208, 210, 204, 265, 3(»5. American explorations of the Northwest Coast, 100, 101, 114. American Pur < lompany, inn. 202, 206, 212. American traders on the Northwest Coast, 117, et seq. American society for the settlement of Oregon Territory, the, 223. 224. 225. Andrews. David, 854. Angell, Martin, killed by Indians. 402. Anian, straits of. 2 Ankeny Farm, the, 576. Antiquities of the valley, is,. Apperson. .1. T., 663; 664. Applegate Creek, siege of the cabins upon, 402, 403. Applegate, Charles, 275, oil. Applegat. ? Jesse, 275. _'s7. 298, 299, 338, )'»2. .ill. Applegate, Lindsay, 275, (ill, 612. Applegate Route, set Southern Route, Apples, 566, 567. Aramazu, Spanish exploring vessel, 117. Argonaut, English ship, L05, 106, 107, 109, 111. Armstrong, William, S66. Arteaga, [gnacio, explorations of, 91. Arthur. David, 275, on-. Ashburton, Lord. English Ambassador, 264. Ashburton-Webster treaty, 270. Ashland, railway reaches, 503. Ashley, Gen. W.'lL. 191, 193. Astoria founded, and derivation of name, 15'.. 156, 15, : custom house established at, Astoria and Willamette Valley Railroad Com- pany, incorporation of. }0.;. Astor, John Jacob, 164, 166, h>7. Atkinson, Lev. Geo. Ii Augur, Captain < '. C., U. 8. A.. 108. A revill. H. J. C.,751. I J. Babcock. Dr. J. L., 282, 213, 21 J, 261, 281. Baber, G. H.,631. Backenstos, E. D., 700. Bacon, J. M., 631. Bagley, O., 838. Bailey, Caroline E., 631. Bailey, H., murder of, 377. Bailey, Joseph, 877, S78. i Bailey, Captain Joseph, 399. Bailev. Dr. W. J., 220, 243, 244. 281, 280, 304. | Baker, A. B., 881. : Baker, Andrew J., 275, 012. i Baker, L. 51., 874. I Baker, John G., 275, 012, 613. Baker, John W., 796. ■ Baker, Senator E. D., 202. : Baldra. William, 599. ! Ballard, D. W., 751. Ball, Isaac 002. Barger, s. P., 847. Barley, 55s, 559; production of. in 1880, 550. Barlow. John L., 631. Barnes, F. P., 891. Barnum, E. M.. 351. Barrett, N. W., 832. Barrett, Richard A., 700. Basalt, 536, 537, 538. Batchelor, .lames, 891. Bales. .lame- M... .504. 595. Bauer. A.. 692. Baughman. J. H., 700. Bay icy. J. L.. 832. Bean, J.W.,841, Bean, L. S., 827. Bear, the, 516. Beaver, American ship, arrives at Astoria, I6t). Beaver money, 330, 331. Bedwell. E., 664. Beers, Alanson, missionary. 21b, 251. Beet Sugar, 571. Beets, 50!. Behring's discoveries. .VT to 59. Bell, G. G.,727. Bellinger, J. H., 004. Belt, A. M., 700. Belt, B. F., 751. Belt, George \\\. 827. Bennett, Captain, Ids, 413, 114; killed. 41S. 120. Bennett, Levi. 892, 003. Bent ley, L., 866,867. Benton, Thomas H.. services of, to Oregon, 245, 246, 319, 320, 321. 322, 32-5, 32o. See frontispiece. •• Ben Wrighl Massacre," the, 439. Benyowsky, < iounl M. de. escapes from Siberia, 01. Ber-man, M. L.. 886. Berries. 570. Berry. Joseph F., 796. Berry. S. J., 751. Besser, L., 7.52. Bettman, l... 867. Bevens, J. s.. 827. Sevens, T. I >.. 827. Bevens, W. P., 827. Bewley, T. R., 004. Biddle, Captain J., 105, 107. Big Meadows, battle of, 443, 414. Bill, Congressional, establishing territorial gOY- vernment in Oregon, 324, 327. Bills, Cincinnati, 798. Bilyeu, A. J., 752. Bilyeu, J. A., 752. Bilyeu, Peter, 752. 11 HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Bilyeu, William, 752. Bilyeu, W. R„ 848. Bingham, G. G., 871, 872. Bingman, J. K., 727. Bird, John, 664, 665. Black, survivor of the Umpqua Massacre, 198. Black, Captain, R. N., 163. Blain, Jay W., 796, 797. Blain, L E., 693. Blain, Wilson, 328, 333, 693. Blaine, James G., views upon the Oregon Ques- tion, 291-297. Blakeley, James, 652. Blanchard, J. P., 728. Blanchet, A. M. A., missionary, 305, 306, 307. Blanchet, Francois N., missionary, 74, 217, 243, 244, 281, 305. Blossom, English man-of-war, 167. Bodega y Quadra, Lieutenant, explores the Tsorthwest Coast, 79, 80, 82, 107, 124, 125, 128. Bohemia mining district. 531). Boise, R. P., 350, 351, 728. Bolan, A. J., Indian agent, murder of, 386, 3S7. Bonham, B. F., 797. Bonneville, Captain B. L. E., 202-204. Bonney, Jairus, 652. Boon, H. D., 632. Boon, John D., 351, 632. Boothby, R. R., 700. Booth, Robert, 752, 753. Bounds, J., 652. Bowlby, Wilscn,753. Boyle, J. W., 632. Branson, B. B., 693. Branson, E. T., 728. Bridgefarrner, B., 665. Briedwell, George W., 83S. Briedwell, J. W., 709, 710. Briedwell, John W., 753. Briggs, J. J., 891, 892. Briggs, W. W., 797. Brink, Thomas, 878. Bristow, W. W., 693. Broadwell, J. C, 710. Brock, Mrs. Eunice, 652. Bronson, L., 865. Broughton, Lieutenant, second in command to Vancouver, 118, 126. Broughton, W., 753. Brouillet, Father J. B., priest, 308, 310, 311. Brown, A. C, 665, 666. Brown, E. M., 838. Brown, G. M., ,54. Brown, George, 665. Brown, George W., 890. Brown, J. H., 710. Brown, J. Henry, 283. Brown, Orus, 275, 613. Brown, Samuel, 710. Brown, W. C, 666. Brownsville Woolen Mill, 579, 5S0. Bruce, Major James, 396, 398, 399, 400, 403, 433, 434, 437. 438, 442. Brush, J., 666. Brush lands, 519-522. Buccaneers, sketch of, 27, 28. Attack the Span- iards, 53, 54. Buchanan, Lieutenant-Colonel IT. S. A., 440, 441. 442, 443, 444, 445. Buchtel, Joseph, 754. Buckingham, A. L., 835. Buck, W. W., 632. Buffum, W. G., 632. Bulletin newspaper, the, 502. Bump, W., 844. Burbank, A. R., 797. Burch, Benjamin F., 298, 313, 350. 633. Burial mounds, 487, 488. Burkhart, C. G., 832.' Burkhart, C. P., 728. 729. BurKhart, J. H., 729. Burnell. C. B.. 797, 798. Burnett, G. W., 652, 653. Burnett, Peter H., 273, 304, 328. Burns, D. N., 694. Burns, Hugh, magistrate, 257. Burns, John, 694. Burns, W. E., 694. Burrows, Lieutenant, killed, 417, 420. Burrows, Thomas, 854. Burton, J. J., 633. Bush, Asahel, 335, 351, 391, 710, 711. Butler, George W, 666. Butler, Isaac, 633. Butler, Ira F. M., 798. Butler, I. M., 711. Butler, J. B. V., 700. Butler, J. J., 711. Butler, N. L., 700. Butler, Sandford, 798. Butt, John, 633. Buxton, Henry, 606, 607. Byars, W. H, 798. 799. C. Caamano, Lieutenant J., explorations of, 117. Cabrillo, Juan Rodriguez, voyages of, 25, 26, Calapooia Indians, the, 480. Calbreath, J. F., M.D., 597. Caldwell, William, 754. California, discovery of, 24-26. California, Lower, colony planted in, 54. Campbell, George D., 890. Campbell, G. S„ 754. Campbell, Hector, 701. Campbell, H., 251. Campbell, James G., 799. Campbell, J. M., 799. Campbell, W. C, 754. Campbell, W. G., 799. Canon, W. R., 729. Canyon, the Umpqua, its difficulty, 299, 303. Cape Disappointment, seen by Vancouver, 119. Cape Flattery, discovered by Cook, 86. Cape Orford, named by Vancouver, 119. Capital of Oregon, location of 345, 346, 347, 348, 349. Caples, L., 701. Caples, J. W., 711, 712. Carey, John, 667. Carlin, J., 653. Carmichael, — , 230. Carmon, Waters, 712. Carpenter, W. R., 712. Carpenter, Dr., 582. Carriere, Michael, 159. Carrots, 563. Carr, Sumner, 845. Carson, J. C, 729. Carter, W. D., 712. Cartwright, Theodore, 799. Carver, Captain Jonathan, travels of, 72-74. Cary, Cyrene B., 2,5, 614, 615. Cascades, Indians besiege the, 448-453. Cascade Mountains, the, 514, 515, 516, 517. Case, William M., 283, 621, 622. Casey, Colonel, U. S. A., 339, 426, 456. Cason, Adoniram J., 615. Cason, Fendal C, 275, 615. Cason, F. G, or James, 280. Casto, Joseph, 881. Caswell, murder of, by Indians, 116. Cather, Ezra, 890. Catholic Missionaries in Oregon, 74. 217-221, 232, 255; stations of, 280, 281; progress of s., 305, 306; aggravating behavior of m., 307, 308; their connection with the Whitman mas- sacre, 310, 311; influence over Flathead In- dians, 382; they labor to avert war, 470. Catron, Jonathan, 754. Cattle, 573-577; introduction of, 301, 573; im- provement of breeds, 574, 575 ; present status of stock-raising, 575 ; dairying, 575, 576; beef raising, 576; total number of cattle in 1880 and 1883, 577. Caufield, R., 666. Cavallo, Juan, 98. Cave, Rev. James, 283, 615. Cave, Riley, 275, 615. Cavendish, Thomas, adventures of, 32. Cayuse Indians, the, 213, 259; attitude towards missionaries, 306; their murder of Whit- man, 309-311; war against, 312-317; hosta- ges of, executed at Oregon City, 335; treaty with, 381. Cayuse War, the, 312-317 ; organization of troops, 313; fight at Well Springs, 314, 315 ; retreat to the Touchet, 316. Chadwick, S. F., 350, 730. GENERAL INDEX. Ill Chambers, Roland, 633, 634. Chambers, W. N., 730. Chatnpoeg, political meetings at— first, 242; sec- ond, 253; third. Chandler, Mrs. N., 730. Chapman, M. N., tit>7. Chapman, W. W.. 833, 399, 484, 436, 437, 488. 192, 667, 668. Chapman, W., 667. Chapman, Wm.. 668. Charlton, A. D., N. P. R. R. Co., 511. Charlton, J. K., 862. Charman, Frederick, S35, 836. Charman, Thomas, 800. Charman, T. L., 843. Chenamus. brig, 603. Chenoweth, F. A.,701. Cherry, J. G., 838, 839. Chinese, the, 521. Chinn. Major M. A., 406, 407, 411, 412, U3. Chinook, name of Indian family, 482. Chisham. J. M., 712. Chrisman, J D.. 894. Chrisman, W. M. C., 894. ( 'lackamas Indians, the. 479. Clark. General, U. s. A.. 473. Clark. J. C, B67. Clark. J. S., Sr.. 878. Clark. Stephen, 800. Clark T. Y\\, 854. Clarke, Emeline, 603. Clarke, Rev. Harvey, missionary, 232, 603. Clarke, John, 161, 162. Clarke, J. T., 755. Clarke, S. A., 713. Clarke. Captain Wm., 134. Clarke's Fork, 136. Clearwater River, Lewis and Clarke reach the, 136, 137. Clerke. Captain Charles. 84. 89. Cloueh, A. M., 883. Clow, W. C, 884. Coast Range, the, description of, 516. Coast Reservation, Oregon Indians removed to. 440. Cochran, Wm., 668. Cockstock, Indian chief. 279. 280. Coffey, James, 832, 833. Coffin, Stephen, 668, 669. Cole, Chauncey, 755. Coleman, D. C, 730. Coleman, James, 669. Collard, E. B., 669. Collier, Professor G. H., 524, 811. Collins, F. M.. 653. Collins, George, 863. Collins, J. L., 653, 654. Collins, J. X., 881. Collins, Smith, 654. Collins, W. W.. 654. Colnett, Captain, 105-108. Columbia Rediviva, ship, 100, 101, 103. 109, 116, 117. 121, 122. Columbia River, intimations of its existence, 63 , 68 : narrowly missed by Heceta, 80; by Vancouver, 119; discovered by Gray, 122. Columbia River Fishing and Trading Com- pany, 204. Colville, gold mines of, discovered. 382. Comcomly, Indian chief, 163, 164. Com ley, J. B., 833. condit. C, Condit, Ph.. Condit, 8.. 731. Cone, G. A., 731. Congle, J. B., BOO. Congress, its attitude towards Oregon, 224,211; fail- to pass essential laws, 318; delav of, 383. couklin, Charles, 669. connaway, W. P.. 881, Conner, Nathan. 670. Conners, R. By 836. Connett, I., W. L., and J., 755. Connor, J.. Conovcr, R. B., 874, 875. Conser, Jacob, 333. Constitution, State, 3-44, 845. Constitutional convention proposed, 344. 845. 346, 349; meets at Salem, 350, 351. Constitutional election of 1855, 287. Cook, Captain, 62, 82, 84-89; killed in Hawaii, 89 Cook,' L. H., 886. Cook, J. W., 755. Cook, S. M., 755. Cooley, B. F., 718. Cooley, E. C, 634. Cooley, George C, 800. Coombs. Nathan, 249, 250. Cooper, E. W., 850, 851. Cooper, G. W., 884. Cooper, J. R., r56. Cooper, J. S., 854, 855. Corey, G. R., 756. Corker, D. I., 851. * lornelius, Jesse, 634. Cornelius, O. H. P., 701. Cornelius, Thomas R,, 407, 408, 413, 427,430,481, 432, 447, 034, 635. Cornoyer, Captain, 411, 418, 114; elected major, 427, 429. Cornwall, Rev. J. A. ('., (500. 601. Coronado, F. V. de. travels of, 25. Cortereal, Gaspar de, voyage of, 22-24. Corvallis, becomes capital of Oregon, 845, 894. ( 'orwin, Thomas, great speech upon the pa-^a-jr of the Oregon bill, 325, 320. Cosgrove, H., 670. Coshow, O.P.,731. Cosper, David, 756. Cosper, Romeno, 845. Couch, John H., 328, 603, 604. Cougar, the, 517. Cow Creek, war on, 394. Cowls, J. W., 756, 757. Cox, A. M., 757. Cox, E., 757. Cox, Joseph, 350. Cozine, Samuel, 275, 615, 616. Crabtree, John J., 635. Craig, Col. William, trapper, 80s. Cranston, S. B., 781_. Crawford, G. F., ,57. Crawford, J. W., 862. Crawford, Medorem, 248, 249, 250, 808. 607, 608, 609. Crawford, R. H.. 758. Crawford, T. H., 758. Creameries, practicable in Oregon, 576. Croasman, A. B., 855. Crooks, Ramsey, in Hunt's party, 157, 158, 101. Cross, L. D., 758. Crow r ley, Solomon, 758. • Curry county, Indian war in, 438-442. Curry, George L., 304, 344, 345. 363, 388, 389, 390, 891. 394, 405, 411, 427, 431, 432, 456, 6-54. Curtis, J., 758, 759. Cusick, Solomon, 801. Cusick, W. A., 801. Cyrus, Henry, 694. Cyrus, William, 670. D. Daedalus, English store-ship, 124, 12ti. Daniel, R. R., 875. D' Arcy, P. 1 1 Dart, Anson, 338. Davenport, T. W., 782. Davidson, A., 654. Davidson, C. F., 759. Davidson, Elijah, ,18. Davidson, E. B., 713, 714. Davidson, H., 759. Davidson, I. G.. ,1 1. Davidson, I. X., ,59. Davidson, J. K., 670, 671. Davidson, J. ()., 671. Davidson, W. M., 759. Davies, Horace G., 801. Davies, Miles, 801. Davis, A. C, 654. Davis, E. E., 759. Davis, George, 731. Davis, George W.,872. Davis, H. A., 760. Davis, Jefferson, 732. Davis, Captain John, explorations of, 52. Davis, Governor John W. f 344, 345. Davis, J. W.,711. Davis, Joseph, 655. Davis, Levi T., 655. IV HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Davis, Mrs. Nancy, 635. Davis, N., 855. Davis, Samuel, 655, 894. Dawson, William, 655. Day, I. T., 581. Day, John, 157, 160. Day, Lieutenant, 388. Deady, Matthew P., 344, 350, 351, 358, 359, 701, 702. Dearborn, R. H., 802. Deardorff, A. G., 828. Deardorff, C, 714. Deckard, Anderson, 802. Deer, the, 516. DeLashmutt, J. K., 760. De Letts, J., 802. Demers, Rev. Modest, 217, 259. Dempsey, 1. 1., 848. Dennis, P. M., 886, 887. Denny, A. H., 732. Denny, O. N., 760. Denny, Robert, 702, 703. Desertion of United States troops from Oregon City, etc., 334. Deskins, D., 655. De Smet, Father P. J., missionary, 232, 305. Dice, E. C, 656. Dickey, I. C, 802, 803. . Dickinson, O., 803. Dierdorff, William, 828. Dinsmore, J. M., 895. Discovery and Chatham, British ships, 118, 124, 126. Districts, Oregon divided into, 281, 286. Dixon, Jesse, 732. Doane, Rev. N., 899. Dodson, McMinn, 803. Donation Law proposed, 246, 261. Donner Party, the, 298. Dorion, Pierre, 157. Dorris, J. J., 671. Dorsey, G., 769. Douglas, Jas., Hudson's Bay Co. Factor, 311, 312. Douglas fir, the, 524, 525. Douglas, Levi, 714, 715. Douglas, Stephen A., senator, 322. Douglas, Captain William, 98, 101, 103. Douty, Sylvester, 884. Dove, Bethuel, 635. Downing, Susan, missionary* 216. Dowell, B. F., 732, 733. Drain, Charles, 760 761. Drake, B. F., 733. Draksj, Sir Francis, 28; Hakluyt's account of, 29; story of the pilot Moi'era, 30; did not dis- cover San Francisco Bay, 30; names the country "New Albion," 31; returns to Eng- land, 32. Drummond, Sir W., 213. Dryer, T. J., 335, 350, 363, 391, 715. Du Gas, E., 885. Dunn, John, author, 235, 245. Durham, D. O., 7(>J. Durham, G. II., 671. Earhart, R. P., 583, 833. Earnest, W. B., 761. East India Company, engages in the fur trade, 96, 97. Eaton, Chas., 275, 899. Eaton, Nathan, 275, 900. Ebberts, George W., 232, 257, F>91. Eccleston, E., 761. Eccleston, H., 761, 762. Edinburq Review, opinions of, 235. Edwards, J., 733. Edwards, P. L., 208, 217, 230, 337. Eel Is, Reverend Cushing, 214, 265. Eight-Dollar Mountain, battle of, 435, 436. Eilers, G. H., 762. Election of 1844, 281. 282 (table) ; of 1845, 285, 286 ; of 1846, 300; of 1847, 303, 304; of 1849, 333; ol 1850, 335 ; of 1858, 351. Elisa, Lieut. Francisco, voyages of, 114 to 117. Elkins, J. E., 635. Elkins, W. S., 762. Elliott, S. G., proposes a railway to California, 492, 493. Elliott, W., 656. Ellis, M. M., 858. Ellis, Nez Perce chief, 258. Embree, C. D., 284, 622. Emerick, Solomon, 275, 616. Emmons, Lieutenant, U. S. N., 244. England, William, 762. English explorations of the Northwest Coast, 83, et seq. Ennis, A. ,733. Ennis, J. E., 763. Enos, renegade Indian, kills Ben Wright, 439, 446. Epperly, George A., 844. Erb, Ira, 867. n : Ermatinger, Francis, H. B. Co. Factor, 246, 247. Evans' Creek, battle of, 356. Evans, J. G., 855. Everest, E., 890, 891. Ewing, F. Y., 217. F. Failing, J osiah, 733, 734. Farms, average size of, at various dates, 585 ; number of, 585. Faulconer, A. B., 656. Fawk, J., 734. Feller, Peter, 803. Felice Adventurer, ship, 98, 101, 105. Fenton, F. W., 858. Fenton, W. D., 858, 859. Ferguson, H. J., 884. Ferguson, J. L., 763. Ferrelo, Bartolome, successor of Cabrillo, 25, 26; discovers Oregon, 26. Ferrin, W. N., 887. Fickle, Abner, 803. Fidalgo, Salvador, explorations of, 118, 155. Fields and Cunningham, murder of, 370. Fields, A., 703. Fields, Hugh, 636. Fields, Thomas R., 763. Filipino, Spanish ship. See San Carlos. Financial history of Indian wars, 475, 476, 477. Finlayson, J. J., 763. Fishback, J. L., 864. Fisher, C. G., 859. Fitzgerald, J. J., 763. Fitzgerald, Major, U. S. A, 376, 399. Five Crows, Cayuse chief, 259, 308, 315. Flannery, Mrs. T. L., 803. Flathead Indians, romance of, 208. Treaty with , 382. Flax, 560, 561; production of, in 1880, 561. Flickinger, H., 734. Flinn, M. A., 855, 856. Flood of 1852-53, 341, 342. Florida Purchase, 165. Flour, quality of, 541). Fonte, Admiral B. de, romance of, 42-44, 82. Foote, Senator, demagoguery of, 326, 327. Forbes, J. Alexander, 201. Ford, Nathaniel, 2*3, 284, 333, 622. Ford, Robert, 804. Forests of the Willamette Valley, 517, 518, 523- 528 ; list of forest trees, 524. Forest fires, destruction wrought by, 526, 527, 528. Fort Boise, built by Hudson's Bay Co., 205. Fort Chipewyan, 131. Fort Clatsop, 138. Fort Defiance, built at Clayoquot, 116, 121. Fort George, 163 et seq. Fort Hall built by Wyeth, 205, 274. Fort Henrietta, 411. Fort Henry, on Snake R., established, 157, 191. FortUmpqua, established by Laframboise, 201. Fort Walla Walla abandoned, 409. Fort Williams on Sauvie's Island, 205. Fossils, 535. Foster, Philip, 281. Fouts, William, 715. Frazar, Thomas, 734. Fredericks, J. M., 672. PYemont, John O, enters Oregon, 277, 278. French and Indian war, results of, 71, 72. French explorations of the Northwest Coast, 93. French Prairie settled, 228 -230, 234, 249. Frink, W. S., 865. Frizzell, J. P., 763, 764. Frost, Rev. J. H., missionary, 232. Fruit and fruit-raising, 564-570; production in 1880, 571. Fuca, Straits of, 99. GENERAL INDEX. Fulkerson, J. W„ 872. Fulkerson, W. H., 672. Funter, Captain Robert, 103. Fur-bearing animals. 517. Far trade, the, 55, oG, 63, 89, 90, 93-96, 132, 14(5, 186- 194. G. Gaines, A. P., 715. Gaines, Governor J. P., 334, 335, 338, 342, 346, 362. Gale, Joseph, of the Executive Committee, 256. Galena. 539. Galice Creek, 394: battle with the Indians at, 395. Galiano and Valdez, explorations of, 118, 123. Galloway, Charles, 764. Galloway, William, 764. Game. 516, 517. Garrison, J. M., 657. Gary, Rev. George, missionary, 280. Gaston, Joseph, 848. Gay, George, 250, 595, 596. Gearin, J. M., 731. Geary, E. R., 735. Geer, F. W., 657. Geer, J. C, Sr., 672, 673. Geer, Ralph C, 301. 561. Geiger, William, M.D., 239, 599, 600, 601. Geisel family, the, murder of, 439. Geisy, August, 843. Gelston, Captain R., 321 ; duplicity of, 322. General Warren, steamer, wrecked, 339, 340. Geology, 535 to 546. George, M. C, 735. Gervais, Joseph, 199, 226, 244, 252. Gibbs, A. C, 715, 716. Gibson, Daviess, 703. Gibson, S. D., 764. Gibson, W. O., 673. Gilmore, John, 828. Gilmore, J. W., 836. Gilliam, A. J., 073. Gilliam, Cornelius, 283, 313, 317; killed, 316, 317. Glaciers, 538. Gleason, John E., 845. Goats, .581, 582. Godley, H. D., 828, 829. Gold discovered in California, 329, 330. Gold discovery, effect of, on Oregon, 330. Gold and silver veins, 538, .539. Goltra, W. H., 804. Good, D. H., 657. Good, G. E., 765. Goodman, A. J., 765. Gowdy, J. T., 765. Graf, Fred., 833, 834. Graham, George, 694. Graham, James, S87. Graham, J. K., 695. Grand Ronde Valley, battle in, 459-461. Grant, R. J., 765. Grant, Captain, of the Hudson's Bay Co., 274. Grasses, natural and cultivated, 562, 563. Grave Creek, 394; murders at. 359, 3(50. Graves, C. B., 657. Graves, G. W.. 673. Graves, J. B., 333, 673. Graves, Thomas N., 673, 676. Graves, Wesley, 765, 766. Graves, William, 844. Gray, G. W., 766. Gray, Captain Robert, arrives on the Northwest Coast, 100; his discoveries, 116 to 122. Gray, W. H., 251, 252, 254; his history of Oregon, 195; becomes a missionary, 212, 214 ; story of Whitman's mission to Washington, 207, 2(58. Gregg, J. T., 850. Green, James, 674. Green, N. J., 869, 870. Greenwood, trapper, 288. Griffith, Elisha, 895. Griggs, A. B., 710. Griffin, Mrs. Desire, missionary, 232, 001, 602. Griffin, Rev. John Smith, missionary, 232, 388, 601, 602. Grim, J. W., 333, 074. Ground, Luther, 804. Grover, Lafayette, 350, 851, 358, 476. Groves, J. F., 856. Guthrie, D. M., 657, 658. Gwin, J. L., 716. Hackleman, A., 674. Hackleman, T. P., 700. Hadaway, E. C, 766. Hagey, M., 695. Ha good, H., 695. Hakluyt, Richard, the geographer, 41. Hale, G. N., 848. 849. Hale, Milton, 030. Haley, P. W., SOI. Hall, B. F., 735. Hall, C. H., 836. Hall, E. C, 658. Hall, R. B., 658. Hall, R. P., (558. Hall, William, 716. Haller, Major G. P., U. S. A., 362, 363, 364, 388, 391, 392, 408, 425, 448. Hallett, J. L., 575, 870. Hamilton, A. J., 870. Hamilton, Edward, 335. Hanna, James, engages in the fur trade, 93. Haney, John, 882. Hannum, L. L., 766, 767. Harbord, M. G., 875. Harding, B. F., 344, 345, 703, 704. Harding, S. F., 887. Hare, W. D., 805. Harger, L. W., 735, 736. Harmon, C. H., 865. Haro, Lieutenant Gonzalo de, explorations of, 102, et seq. Harrel, D., 767. Harris, Mrs., heroic defense of, 375, 37(5. Harris, Hugh, 805. Harris, James, 862. Harris, Reuben, 674, 675. Harris, W. H., 767. Harritt, Jesse, 630. Hartman, B. F., 843. Harvey, Amos, 636. Harvey, Mrs. E. (McLoughlin), 593. Hastings, A. L., 767. Hastings, J. C, 767. Hastings, L. W., 248, 219, 2,50. Haswell, Robert, diary of, 110; commands the Adventure, 121. Hathaway, Felix, 283. Hawkins, J. S., 767. Hawkins, W. P:., 841. Hawley, J. H., 284, 623. Hawxhurst or Hawchurst, Webley, 230. Hay and grasses, 5(52, 563; production in 1880. 564. Hay, Jerry, 829. Hayden, B. B., 704. Hayes, Mrs. Sarah, 658, 659. Hayes, R. B., 767, 768. Hayes, S. W., 768. Hearn, E. J., 870. Hearne, Samuel, travels in Northwest America, 76, 77. Heceta, Captain Bruno de, explores the North- west Coast, 79, 82 ; fails to explore the Colum- bia, 80, 81. Hedges, Joseph, 768. Helm, George R., 494. Helmick, Henry, 036, 637. Hembree, A. J., 300, 304, 333. 10S; killed, 428, 429. Hembree, J. J., 704. Hembree, J. M., 675. Hembree, W. C, 616. Hemstock, William, 875. Henderson, J. F., 805. j Henderson, J. J., 050. ! Henderson, L., 859. Henderson, T. B., 768, 700. Henderson, W. G., 862. Hendrecson, O. P., 829. Hendrex, J. P., 851 . Hendricks, Thomas G., 095. Henry, A. B., 769. Herren, Dosha R., 037. Herren, W. J., 289, 637. Hess, Daniel, 695, 090. Hewitt, Henry, 895. Hiashaw, S., (537, 638. Hiatt, William, 849. Hicks, Mrs. E. P., 736. Hicks, Urban E., 730. Higgins, S., 737. VI HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Highfield, W. F., 898. Hill, Almeran, 276, 616. Hill, Henry, 675. Hill, Dr. J. L., 487, 488, 805, 806. Hill, Tom, renegade Indian, 306, 307. Hiltibrand, Paul, 637. Himes, George H., 806. Hines, Rev. Gustavus, missionary, 232, 243, 251, 255, 900. Hines, Rev. H. K., 900. Hinman, Alanson, 284, 623, 624. Hirsch, Leopold, 769. Hodgin, W. L., 841, 842. Hogg, Colonel T. Egerton, energy of, 509. Hogs, 580, 581 ; number of, in 1880 and 1SS3, 581. Holden, Horace, 285, 624. Holladay, Ben, 494. 495, et sea. Holland, H. B., 769. Holman, D. S., 276, 616, 617. Holman, George P., 609. Holman, Hardy, 675. Holman, Mrs. Joseph, 232. Holman, Joseph, 561, 602, 008. Holman, J. D., 333, 659. Holman, J. S., 675, 676. Holman, Nathaniel, 676. Holman, Preston, 676. Holman, Thomas, 875. Holmes, H. R., 829. Holmes, W.H., 716, 717. Holmes, William L., 275, 617. Hooker, D. D., 696. Hoover, Jacob, 284, 624. Hope, trading vessel, 122. Hopkins, Henry, 862, 863. Hops, 561, 562; production of, in 1880, 562. Horner, John B., 845. Horses, number of, in 1880 and 1883, 577. Hosford, E. F., 638. v Hosier, W. H., 890. Hoult, Enoch, 350, 806, 807. Howard, A. D., 893, 894. Howard, D. C, 882. Howe, J. M., 851. Howell, Jones, 872. Howison, Lieutenant. See Shark. Howitzer, Captain Judah's, 400. Howland, J. S., 638. Hubbard, G., 676. Hubbard, T. J., 226, 233. Huck, or Houk, James, 275, 617. Hudson's Bay Company, the, 170 to 178, 259, 298, 578; commencement of, 54, 55; powers and privileges of, 55; policy of, 55, 76, 83, 133, 203, 204,233,234,235,241; servants of, 188,189; be- havior toward Americans, 186 to 189, 258; re- lations with Indians, 379. Hudson, Captain Henry, explorations of, 58. Hudson, Captain Thomas, 105. Hudson, W. S., 878. Hulery, J. M., 807. Humason, O., 737. "Humbug war" in California, story of, 371. Humphrey, J. A., 882. Humphreys, George, 859, 860. Humphreys, T. D., 676, 677. Humphreys, T. M., 807. Hungry Hill, battle of, 396 to 398. Hunt, J. A., 677. Hunt, G. W., 677. Hunt, Wilson Price, leads a party to Oregon. 157 to 160, 164. ° ' Hurley, A. M., 597. Huston, Walter, 561. Hutchinson, Thomas H., 807. Hutchinson, T. O., 834. Hyde, E. O., 878. Hyde, H. O., 863. Hyde, Perry, 737. J. Ide, W. B., 288. Her, W. E., 677. Imbrie, James, 659. Immigration of 1841, 245, 246,247, 606, 607 —1842, 247-250, 607-610. —1843; described by J. W. Nesmith, 273-276- list of arrivals, 275, 276, 610-621. —1844 ; lists, 283, 234, 621-631. -1845,288,289,290, 631,651. Immigration of 1846, 297, 298, 651-663. —1847, 301-303, 663, 692. —1848, 692-700. —1849, 700-708. —1850, 708-727. —1851, 727-750. —1852, 340, 341, 750-795. —1853. 795-826. —1854, 827-832. —1855, 832-835. Independent Protestant Missionaries, 232. Indian corn, 558 ; production of, 559, 585. Ingalls, General Rufus, 476. Ingraham, Captain, 124. Inland explorations by Portala, in California, 64, 65; by La Hontan, Marquette, La Salle, and others, 66; by the Verendryes on the upper Missouri, 69-71 ; by Carver, 72, 73 ; by Hearne in British America, 76, 77 ; by Mac- kenzie, 131, 132 ; by Laclede, 189. Iphigenia, ship, 98, 101, 103, 104, 105. Iron and iron smelting, 540-542. Irvine, E. L., 842. Irvine, J. D., 769, 770. Irving, Washington, author, 245. Isaac Todd, English ship, 162. Isom, John, 807, 808. Jackson, David, 193, 201. Jacksonville, troops, muster at, 394. James, W. H., 770. Janney, P., 887. Jarnigan, A. J., 845, 846. Jeannette, schooner, 328. Jefferson, Thomas, opinion of, regarding Ore- gon, 133, 134, 150. Jeffries, F. S., 770. Jennings, B., 677. Jenny, English brig, 126. Jessup, Gen., U. S. A., proposes a chain of forti- fications, 181. Jessup, S. R., 851, 852. Jesuits, the, in Lower California, 64. Jette, A., 770. John, Rogue River Chief, 402, 403, 442, 444, 445, 446. Johnson, Daniel, 284, 624, 625. Johnson, David, 284, 625. Johnson, Elvira, missionary, 216. Johnson, H. A., 678. Johnson, Rev. Hezekiah, 638. Johnson, H. V. V., 770. Johnson, James, 284, 625. Johnson, L., 737. Johnson, Mrs. P. O., 770. 771. Johnson, Walter, 829. Johnson, W. C, 638, 639. - Johnson, William, 243, 244, 607. Johnson, W. P., 876. Johnston, John, 717. Johnston, W. B., 887. Jolly, W. B., 678. Jones, Ben., achievement of, 158. Jones, D. M., 771. Jones, Harvey L., s08. Jones, John, 771. Jones, M. L., 808. Jones, S. T., 696. Jones, W. T., 659, 660. Jory, H. S., 678. Joseph, chief of the Nez Perces, 358, 382. Juan de Fuca, claims to have discovered the Straits of Fuca, 37, 38; discussion of his claims, 39-42. Judah, Captain H. M., 899. Judson, Rev. L., missionary, 232, 251, 257, 604. K. Kama-i-akun, chief of the Yakimas, 380, 381, 429 458. Kautz' Lieutenant A. V., U. S. A., 396. Kay, Thomas, 852. Kearney, Philip H., 338. . Keene, Granville, murder of, 370. Keene, P. T., O. R. & N. Co., 511. Keith, agent Northwest Company, 167. Keizer, T. D., 280. Kelley, Hall J., proposes the occupation of Ore- gon, 223, 225, 226. Kelly, Andrew, 771. GENERAL INDEX. Vll Kelly, E. D., 806. Kelly, J. K.,350,351, 106, ill. U3, 114,415, LL6, 427, 737, 738. Kelly, Penumbra. 696: Kelsay, John, 350, 434, 136, S7, 808. Kendricks, Captain John, arrives on the North- west Coast, KM). LOS. Kennedy. Barney, 678. Kennedy, M., 808. Ketehuin, W. M., 678. Keyt, E. C., 717. Kins: George's Sound i !ompany, 95. Kinney, R. (".. 333. 350, 678, 670. Klnsey, Anson, 660. Kinsey, James, 679. Kizer. P. M., 800. Kliekitats, the, 481, 182. Knapp, George W., 800. Knight, Charles, 867, 868. Knight, Joseph, 809. Knight, Rev. P. S., 809. Knight. William, 852. Knight en, Thomas. 679. Knighton, H. M., 328. Koehler, II.. manager 0. & C. R. R. Co., 504, 510, 511. Kone, Rev. \V. W., missionary, 232. Koontz, M. V., 772. Kriesel. William, 885. Runoff, J. W., 562. Kutch, \V. T., 856. Laehapelle, Andre, 592. Ladd, W. s.. 737. Lady, John T., 809, 810. Larfi/ Washington. American ship, 100, 101 , 107, 108, 115, 116, 118, 120. Lafollett. Charles. 810. Lafollett, D. H.. 717. Laframboise, Michael, 201. Lame, J. H., 737, Lamerick, John K.,339, 398, 134, 436, 137, 442, 445. Lam kin, J. C, 882. Lancaster, ( 'olumbia,_24.S,.. 333. Lancefield. A. J.. 660. Lance, J. W., 852. Land grants to railroads, 500, 510. Lane county, volunteers from, 394. Lane, Joseph. 327. 328, 331. 337. 338,344, 345, 346, 351, 354. 356, 357. :\r^, 359, 360, 475, 704. Lanning, E. J., 887. 888. La Perouse, French navigator, 93. Lapwai. mission at, 214, 306. Large, Francis, 717,_ « 18. Laroque, George, 679, 680. Laughlin, Lee, 680. Laughlin, Samuel, 680. " Laughmiller. J. A., 882, 883. Lava, 536, 537, 538. Lawyer, Nez Perce chid', 211. 382. Lead, 539. Le Breton, George, 243. 252, 254, 255, 257 ; killed at Oregon City, 280. Ledford, G. T., 820, 830. Ledyard, John, proposes to explore Northwest America, 133, 134. Lee, A., 772. Lee, Ann Maria 1'., missionary, 232, 596. Lee. Rev. Daniel, 208, 210. Lee. H. A. G., 312, 313; appointed colonel, 317. Lee, Rev. Jason, 208. 231,242. 213, 250, 251, 573; his attitude upon the question of local govern- ment, 253. Lee, J. D., 697, 698. Lee. Nicholas, 680, 881. Lee, P., 681. Lee, Thomas •!., 846. Leese [Lease], Jacob p., brings the lirst sheep to Oregon, 577, 578. Legislative Committee, meeting of, 283. Legislature, members of, of L84tt, 300; of Is 17, 303, 301: of 1848, 304. Leininger, W. 1L. 852. fsaac, . is. Le Mahieu, Isaac. Lennox, David T., 017. Lennox, Louise, His. Leonard, author, his statement regarding the wheat crop of 1844, 547. Lesley, George, 772. Leslie, Rev. David, missionary, 217, 233, 251, 596. Lewellimr. or Luelling, 566. Lewis and Clarke's expedition, 131 to L43. Lewis, clerk of ship Tonquin, See Tonquin. Lewis. B. P., 772_, ,73. Lewis, Isaac. 697. Lewis, Joe, renegade Cndian, 307,308,309,310; de- serts his friends, 317. Lewis, .1. YW.773. Lewis, Captain Merriwether, L34. Lewis, w. H., 639. Lewis, W. P., 773. Linn countv, volunteers. from, 3! I. Linn, Senator, 240. 241, 245, 216. Linville, 11., 304, 660. Linville, W.S., 705. Literature, early, treating of < >regon ; its effeel . 261. Llewelyn, A. \\'., S10. Logan, David, 350. i IS. Long, A. H., 810. Long, Gabriel, 773. Looking Glass, Nez Perce chief, 382. Loring, Colonel, 334. Lot Whitcomb, steamboat, built at Milwaukie, 336, 337, 341. Loughary, L. W., 811. Loveioy, Asa Lawrence, 248, 249, 263.264, 269, 286, 300,303,304,609; accompanies Dr. Whitman to the East, 269,270. Lovelady, T. J., 661. Lownsdale. D. H., 300. 639. Lucier, Etienne, 199, 226, 22s, 229, 243. Luelling, Henderson, nursery of, 301, 302. Lumber, varieties and amounts of, 525, 526. Lupton, James A., killing of, 372, 373. Lydia, American ship, enters the Columbia, 138. Lyman, Horace, 705, 706. Lyons, H. W., 895. M . Mackenzie, Alexander, discovers Mackenzie's River, 131. Crosses the American continent, 131, 132. Mack, W. O., 773. Madonna, bark, 604. Magers, J. E., 773, 774. Magers, W. B.,774. Magistrates, the first. 233,. Mail service provided by Government, 310. Malaspina, Captain Alejandro, explorer, 115. Maldonado, Captain L. P. de, claims to nave found the Northwest Passage, 33-36. Maloney, H. S., 876. Mammoth, remains of the, 536. Mandan, Indians, 135. Man is, W. R., 774. Mansneld, D., 718. Maquinna, Indian chief of Nootka, 98; grants land to the Americans, 1 hi. Marshall, .1 . W., discovers gold in California, 329. Marsh, Joseph W., 811, 861. Marsh, S. EL, 811, 812. Martinez, Estevan, 78, 79, 102-107. Martin, J. L.. 718, 719. Martin, J. M., 849. Martin, Thomas J., 812. Martin, Thomas, 860. Martin, William J., 396, 399, 133. Martin, W. W., 860. Marvin, A. M., 738. Marvin, Mrs. L., 681. Mary Dacres, American brig, 201. Maryland, American brig, 213, 211, 603. Mary's Peak, 516. Mason, I). ('., 856,857. Mason, I. T., 883. Massacre of October ninth, 1855, 374-376. Massacre, the Ward, 361, 362. Massacre, the Whitman. See Whitman. Mathieu, Francois X., 24S, 210, 256, 609, 610. Mathiot, Jean J., 812. Matt ice, murder of, 385, 886. Mattoon, C. H., 730. Maurelle, Antonio, 79, 81. Mauzey, William, 276, 618. May field, W. I., 774. May, George E., 562. May, H. B., 681. Vlll HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. / May, Thomas W., 681. McAdams, Fred, 872. McAfee, W. E., 830. McBean, Wm., of Fort "Walla Walla, cowardice of, 311. McBride, George W., 830. McBride, James, 328, 639, 640. McBride, John R., 350. McBride, T. A., 681. McCain, J., 739. McCain, Paris, 682. McCarty, E. W., 682. McCarver Morton M., 276, 283, 287, 399, 618. McClain, Daniel, 860. * McClane, John B., 276, 618. McCord, J. S., 719. McCormick. M., 719. McCown, F. O., 774, 775. McCown, William, 775. McCully, A. A., 775. McDaniel, Elisha P., 284, 625. McDonald, H., 719. McDonald, N. G., 895, 896. McDougal, Duncan, 160. See Pacific Fur Co. McDowell, F. D., 834. McElroy, E. B., 876. McFadden, O. B., 812. McGrew, J. W., 849. Mcintosh, J. M., 885. McKay, A. and J., 248. McKay, Alexander, 151, 153. McKay, Charles, 609. McKay, James, 682. McKay, Thomas, 195, 263, 307, 308, 309, 313, 315. McKenzie, Donald, 157. See Pacific Fur Co. McKenzie River, 520, 521, 539, 562. McKinney, Charles, 640. McKinney, E. E., 697. McKinney, J. N., 640. McKinney, William, 682. McKune, Robert, 775. McLaughlin, Robert, 812, 813. McLean, John, 335. McLellan, Robert, in Price's party, 157, 159, 161. McLench, B. F., 719, 720. McLeod, Alexander R., ti'apper, 199, 213. McLeod River named, 200, 213. McLoughlin, Eloisa, 593. McLoughlin, Dr. John, 214, 259, 593, 594; locates at Willamette Falls, 233; character of, 197, 213, 236-239. McLoughlin, Joe, 199, 249. McNary, Alexander, 640. McNary, A. W., 640. McNary, Hugh, 641. McNemee, Job, 641. McPherson, M. S., 894. McPherson, W. H., 879. McTavish, J. G., 162. Meade, N. B., 896. Mead, J. E., 739. Mead, M. M., 739. Meadows campaign, the first, 399, 400; the sec- ond, 436-438. Meares, Capt. John, explorations of, 95, 97-110. Medical Lake, battle of, 473, 474. Meek, Courtney, 598. " Meek's cut-off," 289, 290. Meek, Joseph L., 232, 246, 254, 257, 281, 288. 300, 303, 328, 335, 597, 598 ; delegate to Washington, 322; his journey eastward, 323, 324; return, 328. Meek, Stephen Hall, trapper and guide, 248, 289, 290,516. Meek, William, 566. Meldrum, John, 641. Meldrum, John W., 641, 642. Memorial, Mr. Thornton's, to Congress, 322. Mendenhall, W. F., 876. Menes, Francois, 706, 707. Meredith, J. W., 813. , Merwin, M., 863. Meteorological tables, 534, 535. Methodist Board of Missions, 208 Mexico, conquest of, 19. Michaux, Andre, botanist, 134. Mickels, P., 865, 866. Military company enrolled at Champoeg, 280. Milne, John, 868. Miller, A. H., 839. Miller, C. M., 740. Miller, D. A., 776. Miller, F. M., 839. Miller, F. M., 885. Miller, G. A., 720. Miller, H. B., 720. Miller, J. D., 720. Miller, Captain John F., 354, 356, 360, 740. Miller, J. F., 720. Miller, Joseph, in Hunt's party, 157. Miller, J. P., 776. Miller, J. R., 836. Miller, J. W., 720. Miller, Louis, 834. Miller, M., 720. Miller, R. B., 721. Miller, Samuel, 721. Miller, S. E., 776. Miller, W. C, 813. Miller, William P., 612. Milwaukie, rivalry with Portland, 333 ; orchard at, 566. Minto, John, 284, 515, 574, 577, 625, 626. Minto Pass, the, 515. Missions, 258, 280, 281, 487 ; backward state of, 305 ; missionaries favor a local government, 245; hostility of, to Catholics, 258. Missionaries— the Jesuit, in Lower California,64. —the Dominican, do, 64. —the Franciscan, do, 64, 65. —Methodist, 204, 208-210, 216, 217, 232, 233, 249, 250. —American Board of, 214-216. —Influence of Protestant, 207. Missouri Fur Company, formed, 145. Mitchell, M., 842. Molalla River, mines on, 539. » Molallas, the, 481. Monroe Doctrine, the, 180. Montana explored by the Verendryes in 1743, 69, 70. Montanye, L. H., 879. Monteith, Thomas, 682, 683. Montgomery, Capt., U. S. N., takes Mr. Thorn- ton to Boston, 323. Montgomery, J. A.. 683. Montgomery, R. M., 813. Montgomery, William, 683. Moody, Z. F., 740, 741. Moore, M., 284, 626, Moore, P. M., 891. Moore, Robert, chairman of the first legislature, 254, 2.55. Moores, C. B., 776. Moores, I. R., 350, 776, 777. Moreland, J. C, 777. Moreland, S. A., 777, 778. Morgan, J. W., 857. Morris, Daniel, 813. Morris, H. Tavlor, 707. Morris, John S., 813. Morrison, R. W., 284, 626. Morse, Capt. F., killed by accident, 336. Moss, S. P., 778. Moss, Sydney W., 249, 610. Mount Edgecombe, 82. Mount Fairweather, discovered by Cook, 87. Mount Hood, named by Vancouver, 126; alti- tude of, 515. Mount Jefferson, 515. Mount St. Elias, discovered by Behring, 58; by Cook, 87. Moyer, J. M., 778. Mudge, N. F., 721. Mulkey, J. L., 333. Mulkey, M. F., 683. Mulligan, Robert, 741. Multnomah Indians, the, 479, 480. Multnomah River. See Willamette. Munger, Rev. Asahel, missionary, 232, 601. Munson, Captain, 411, 417. Murphy, J. M., 741, 742. Murphy, J. T., 778. Murphy, W. P., 778. Myer, Henry, 683. Myers, George 779. Myers, David, 837. Narrow- gauge railroad. Company. See Oreg&aian Railway GENERAL INDEX. IX Nathman. r. a.. Nay lor. T. G.,604. Neah Bav, a port of the Spaniards, in, 12SL Neal. Olday or Attey. 2S4. 626. Nealv, Nelson, 721. Neibert. C, i Nelson. George - 27. Nelson. J. - ,284, 27. Nesmith, J. W., 2 . KJ7, 4"s. 411. 118, 42.">. 427. 618, 619. Newbill, B. H.,73 Xewhv. W. T.. 271 Newell, Dr. Robert. 232, 246, - 7, «: 304. New Georgia, name applied by Vancouver, 123. Newman. Alexander. 888. Nez Perees Indians, 141, 1 ■ : i) 1. 213, 214, _ : called Chopunnish, 141, 142. Nichols. B. F., 284, 827. Nichols. M., 742. n. Joseph. Nolan d. N. Nookamis, Indian chief, 153. :a Convention, the. Ill, 112. 12::. ._ Nooka Sonud. discovered by Perez, 78] re-dis- covered by Cook, 87. Nerthrup, E. J.. Xoff . schooner, 100, 101, 103, 105. IP'. Northwe> 'lored by Heceta. -m-s;: by Qnadra. 7'.', 8": by Cook, 86-88; by A Ml ; by Ba Perouse. 93 : by Mearc by K.isa. 114: by Malaspina and Bustam- ente. 115; by Caaman Galianoand Valdez, 11^: by Van Northwest Pa->aue. search for, 21-115; reward for its discover- nish opinion on. Northwest Fur Company formed, 131 : >^rablish stations beyond the Rockies. 144. 14 5 dition to Columbia River, 162, 163, I 109, 17n : consolidated with H. B. Co., 171. Norton. E. I Notre Dame. Bisters of the order of. 281. Noyer. P. 8., Nursery, traveling, bronght in l->47. 301, O. Oak Flat. < "ouncil of. 442. 44:;. < »atman. H. B.. narrow escape of, ;.". < »ats, 558; production of in 18* '» Bryant. H. D.. in cayuse war. O'Connor, Frank. Odell. W. H Odeneal. T. B.. >14. O'Donald, Jonathan. .-\. -en, English Hudson's Bay Co. Factor. 2' - 3 Americans, 312. Olds. J. H„ 7 42. 7 4::. Olds, y Olley. Rev. A. P.. missionar < Uney, Cyrus, ::44. 7 43. y, Nathan, exploit ot. . 2, ,410,414,415. ira, .lames _ _ •: presides at -Wolf meet- ins. Onions . American man-of-war. 165, 107. Ord, CapT. E. O. I .. D M0. . newspaper, established at Portland. 3. tinel, newspaper. lished, 300. -on and California Railroad, the, 192,501,510; land grant, « >rejron central Railroad < o.. organisation of, ->n Pacific Railroad Co., difficulties in iis way. 509. gon Railway and Navigation ' '<>.. 511. • ire^onian Railroad Company. 5 <^. 509. - n— American titles to. 105, 166. —British titles to. 168. —Derivation of nam —Its former boundaries. 144. Oregon Bills, of Senator Finn, 240, 2»i. Oregon City, Indian flght at. 279, 280; execution of five Cayus* in City Woolen .Mills. 'i Fever." the. described, 2 l Institute, .v < Willa I iregon Mining Bureau forjned, -540. s n Question, the. 165, 186, 107. 10S, 179-185, a in Rifles/ 1 militia. 312, sro, iron mines of, >40. Otondo, Admiral Isidro de. " t Uitratres against Indians. 35 Owens, Thomas, 27-:. 62 . Pacific Fur Company, organization of, 150-164, Pacific Telegraph Company. uph. Pacific University, th Palmer, Gen. Joel L., 83, 142. 642, Pambrun, P. _ . . . 247. Panth Parker. All- Parker. Rev. Samuel, 210-212, 213; intolerance Of, 2. Parrish. L. M. Parrish, J. L., missionary, 232, 24;, 251 Partlow, W. B.. " Patterson, F. a.. Patterson, Jerry M.. - .. Thomas McF., Paul, 1 Payne, J. M Pearce, Thomas, .43, 744. Pearl. J. A.. 781. Pearl. James. 781. Pearl. Josei Peck. G. W . American brig, 104. Peebles. Georse A.. - Peeble-. J Pennington, s. M., 683, 684. Pentland. Robei Peo-peo-mox-mox. Indian chief. 259, 381, 40*.t, lit: killed bv whites. 41s. Percival, R. C v 814. Percival. William, B14. Perez. Captain Juan, explorations of, , ■*. ,<>■. dis- covers >re- gon,200,201, 213. Pilsbury. 8. G. Pioneer oil Works. -,.; », 561, Pitman. Anna Maria, 218 Plum~ Point of Rocks. Jicrht at. 220, 227. Polk. President, si>ns Thornton s bill, 327. Pollock. Robert Pomeroy, F. F.. 661. Pomeroy. F. F.. Jr.. Pomeroy, Lyman, 782. Pomeroy Walter, 249. Pope, T. A., 744. Poppleton, Edgar. B15. Population of Oregon— In 1835, - —In 1840, 232. 233. 239. -in a ... _--. —Table of. Porter, J. A Porter, R. M.. 722. HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE TALLEY. Porter, Thomas L., 815. Porter, W. I)., 815. Porter, William, 697. Porterfield, J. E., 723. Port Montgomery, 122. Port Nunez Gaona. See Neah Bay. Portsmouth, American ship-of-war, 322. Potatoes, 563, 564, 572; production of, in 1880, 564. Potato starch, a possible industrial product, 572. Potter, J. M., 810. Potter, Robert, 782. Poujade, L. H., 684. Powell, A. T., 782, 783. Powell, F. S., 744. Powell, J. A., 744. Powell. J. M., 837. Powell, L. J., 684, 085. Powell, W. S., 783. Prairies, 518,519. Prather, W. B., 284, 627, 628. Pratt, L. C, 810. Pratt, O. C, 328. Precious metals, the, 538, 539. Prescott, C. H., manager O. R. & N. Co., 511. Prettyman, D. D., 685. Prevost, J. B., U. S. Coram., 165, 167. Price, Nimrod, 841. Price, W. L., 723. Rrincesa Real, Spanish ship, 102, 103, 107. Princess and Favorita, Spanish ships, 91. Provisional Government, 233, 240-215, 251-257; meetings preliminary to organization, 251- 255 ; election of 1841, 281, 282, 280, 287 ; election of 1847, 303, 304; election of 1848, 304. —The Legislative Committee, 254; first legis- lative session, 254; officers of, 256, 257. —Dissolution of, 328. Prunes, 568. Puget Sound Agricultural Company, organized, 234, 217, 578. Puget Sound, derivation of name, 123; first American settlement at, 285 ; Indian troubles at, 426, 468, 469. Purvine, A. J., 697, 698. Purvine, J. L., 698. Putnam, R. B., 837. Putnam, D. B., 685. <>• Queener, J. P., 857. Q,uick, D. O., 849, 850. Quimper, Lieut. Alferez M., explorations of, 114. Raccoon, English man-of-war, 163. Railways, treatise upon, 491-513. Raines, Major, U. S. A., 362, 386, 391, 393, 405, 406, 407, 408, 411, 412, 425, 426. Rainfall, 526, 530, 533-535. Ralph, Walter, 748. Ramsby, R. C, 723. Ramsey, David, 685. Ramsey, W. M., 685. Randle, S. A., 879. Ranes, J. T., 815. Ray, Charles, 723, 724. Ray's Landing, 508. Raymond, H. C, 783. Reams, H., 868. Redfield, F. M., 888. Redmond, F. W., 885. Red River Immigration, 234, 247, 606, 607. Reed, C. A., 724. Reed, John, 159, 162; killed, 164. Reed, S. G., 575. Reed, W. H., 707. Rees, Willard H., 283, 284, 303, 304. Resolution and Discovery, Capt. Cook's ships, 84, 90. Revilla-Gigedo, Viceroy of Mexico, 107, 115, 127. Rhoades, T. W., 841. ' Rice, J. N., 724. Rice, Samuel, 744. Rice Settlement, descent upon by Indians, 400, 401. Richards, Rev. G. P., missionary, 232. Richards, James, 815, 816. Richardson, A. J., 837. Richardson, E. H., 837. Richardson, Enoch, 745. Richardson, N. C, 686. Richardson, John, 745. Richardson, John W., 745. Richmond, T. G., 816. Rickey, James, 724. Ridgeway, William, 644. Rigbey, Francis, 872, 873. Rigdon, W. T., 724. Riggs, Silas T., 745. Riggs, Daniel L., 898. Riley, J. B., 725. Rinearson, Capt. Jacob, engages in the Rogue River war, 379. Rinearson, P. M., 563, 644. Risley, Jacob S., 645. Risley, Orville, 645. Ritner, S. B., 645. Robertson, L. W., 873. Robertson, R. M., 783. Robinson, B. M., 896. Robinson, J. B., 645. Rock, John, 873. Rockenfield, C. S., 868,869. Rocky Mountain Fur Co., 192, 193, 201, 202. "Rocky Mountain Retreat," 602 Rogers, Cornelius, 214. Rogers, J. L., 843. Rogers, J. W., 645, Rogue River Indian Wars ; war of 1853, 353-360; war of 1855-6, 367-379, 394-404. 433-446. Rogue River Valley, 503. Roland, David, 783. Roork, J. H., 853. Root, L., 896. Roseburg, railway reaches, 502. Ross, George W.. 888. Ross, John E., 312, 339, 356, 357, 358. 361, 378, 396. Roth, Charles, 686. Rowell, J. M., 686. Rowell, Z. M., 816. Rowland, Jeremiah, 284, 628. Rowland, J. O., 784. Rowland, L. L., 628. 629. Ruble, William, 552. Rudder, M. C, 888, 889. Rush, American Commissioner, 181. Russell, Osborn, 281, 286. Russia, her subjects in America, 56; fur trade of, 56-63; explorations, 56-63; activity of, 77 ; treatment of natives, 149. Russian explorations of the Northwest Coast, 92, 93. — Claims to the Northwest Coast, 180. Ryswick, treaty of, 65. S. Salmon, and Salmon fishing, 204, 484, 485 Sampson, J. K., 784. San Carlos, Spanish ship 65, 79, 102. 103, 101. San Francisco, bay of, Drake's proximity to, 30; discovered by Portala, 64, 65. Santiago, Spanish ship, 78, 79. Santiam mines, 539. Sappington. G. W., 645, 646. Sappington, J. A., 646. Sappington, J. M., 646. Savage, E., 816. Savage, H. W., 888. Savage, William, 646. Say lor, A. L., 784. Schieffelin, Clinton, 374. Scheurer, W. R., 830. Schmeer, John, 814. Scholfield, Benjamin, 842, 813, Schooling, J. P., 784, 785. Schwatka, F., 816, 817. Scoggin, W. G., 629. Scott, Harvey W., 817, 818. Scott, John T., 785. Scott, Levi, 298. Scott, L. S., 846, 847. Scott, T. B., 818. Scottsburg, foundation of. 337. Scovell, L. C, 818. Scurvy, description of the, 49. Second Regiment, O. M. V., organization of, 433. Seguin, Louis, 885, 886. Semple, General, speech by, 262. Serra, Father Junipero, 65. Shadden, Thomas J., 249, 250, 620. GENERAL INDEX. XI Shark, schooner, U. S. N., shipwrecked, 300. Shasta, Mt., first named McLoughlin, 200. Shattuck, E. D., 818. Shaw, A. C. R., 578. Shaw, B. F., 284, 629. Shaw, Joshua, 578. Shaw, J. R., 785. Shaw, Thomas C, 284, 629. sheep, 577-580; number of, in 1880 and 1883, 580. Shelley, R., 698. Shelton, Harvey, 686. Shelton, H., 686. Shelton, Isaac, murdered, 374. Shelton, J. W., 661. Shepard, Cyrus, 208, 210, 217. Sheridan, Lieut. Philip, U. S. A., 407, 408. ' Sheriff, Capt., R. N., English Comm., 167. Shields, James, 785. Shively, J. M., U. S. official, 319, 321. Shobe, L., 892. Shuck, Andrew, 686, 687. Shuster, H. S., 873. "Siege of Galice Creek," 395, 396. Simms, H. H., 725. Simpson, Ben., 661, 662. Simpson, G. B., 818, 819. Simpson, Isaac N., 646, 647. Simpson, Sir George, 195, 227, 247. Sippy, John, 819. Sitton, N. R., 620, 621. Skinner, Alonzo A., 328, 339, 344, 647. Slaughter, Lieutenant, 387, 425. Slavery, Oregon's firm stand against, 350, 351. See Bill, Congressional. Sloan, Joseph, 896, 897. Sloan, Mrs. S. A., 847. Slocum, Lieut. W. A., U. S. N., assists Orego- nians, 230. Small, I. H., 830, 831. Smith, Rev. A. B., missionary, 214, 258, 358, 371, Smith, Capt. A. J., 396, 399, 434, 435, 413, 476. Smith, A. T., 606. Smith, Benj. P., 745, 746. Smith, B. F., 662. Smith, B. M., 819. Smith, D. A., 889. Smith, Damon, 785. Smith, David (of Forest Grove), 746. Smith, David (of Lebanon), 785, 786. Smith, Delazon, 350, 351, 786. Smith, Delevan, 786, 787. Smith, Elijah, President O. R. & N. Co., 511. Smith, Mrs. E. M., 662. Smith, G. H., 597. Smith, George N., 869. Smith, Hiram, 647. Smith, Hiram (of Harrisburg), 819, 820. Smith, I. L., 869. Smith, J. D., 662. Smith, Jedediah S., first overland journey by, 192-195; battle on the Umpqua, 194, et sen., 200, 201. Smith, J. S., 647, 648. Smith, John T., 787. Smith, L. S., 662. Smith, S. A., 787. Smith, Solomon, 226. Smith, S. W., 820. Smith, Sydney, 232, 249, 597. Smith, T. C, 871. Smith, Thomas, 303. Smith, \V. P., 746. Snake River Indians, murder by, 164 ; hostilities with, 361-364. Soils, discussion of the, 542-546, 552, 553. Sonora, Spanish ship, 79, 80, 81, 83. Southern Route, explored by the Applegate party, 298, 299; its subsequent use, 302, 303. Southern Oregon, discovery of gold in, 330, 337, 338. South Sea Company, its monopoly, 94; its fall, 95. Spain— Commerce of, 27. —Policy of its government, 17. —Conquests of, in the New World, 17-129 ; in the Philippine Islands 27. —Apathy in making scientific explorations, 77. Spalding, Rev. H. H., missionary, 212, 214, 308, 310, 311, 335. Spanish Voyageurs— Unscientific methods of. SI . — Adventurers in xVmerica, character of, is. —Explorations of Northwest Coast, 102-107. Sperry, T. B., 746. Sportsman, Wm., 298. Springer, B. H., 725. Spring Hill Farm, 870. Staats, Isaac, 648. Staats, Stephen, 649. Staiger, J. F., S53. Staiger, Wm., 853. Stanton, W. G., 787. Stapleton, J., 892. Starkweather, W. A., 725. Starr, I. W., 820. State Election, the first, 351. State House, the first. 257; at Salem, burned, 347. State Insurance Company, 749, 762. Statesman, newspaper, 346. Stearns, L. B., 820. Stephenson, John, 820. Stephenson, William, 820. Steptoe, Col., U. S. A., 4.53, 456, 463, 470, 471. Steptoe's Retreat, 471-473. Stevens, Isaac I., 343, 424, 425, 426, 427, 456, 457, 163. 468; letter by, 464-467 ; attacks Gen. Wool, 423 et seq.; makes treaty with Yakimas, 380, 381, 382, 383; indiscretion of, 382. Stewart, B. E., 687. Stewart, Capt. See Drummond, Sir W. Stewart, Capt., U. S. A., killed on the Rogue River, 338. Stewart, James, 821. Stewart, P. G., 281. St. George Sound. See Nootka Sound. Stillwell, L. L., 831. Stimpson, George W., 834. Stites, T. J., 850. St. Louis (Fort), established, 189. Stock Whitley, chief of the Des Chutes, 420. Stolz, G., 877. Stone? Samuel, 821. Stott, J. M., Sr., 747. Stott, J. M., Jr., 831. Stott, John S., 834, 835. Stott, Raleigh, 747. Strahan, R. S., 857. Straight, Hiram A., 276, 621. Strang, Ben.,787. Stratum, C. P., 821. Stratum, J. A., 831. Stratton, R. E., 351. Strong, J. E., 847. Strong, William, 335. Stuart, David, 161. See American Fur Co. Stuart, Robert, 161. See American Fur Go. Stump, David, 649. Sublette, William, 193, 201. Suiter, L. T., 837, 838. Summerville, H. B., 747. Sutil and Mezicana, Spanish schooners, 117, 123. Sutter, John A„ 829. Suver, Joseph W., 620. Swaflord, Elias W., 787. Swafford, J. L., 821. Swearingen, Isaac S., 787, 7SX. Swegle, Charles, 698. Swick, B. F., 821. Swick, L., 822. Swick, Minor, 822. T. Talkington, F. P., 891. Ta-ma-has, a bad Indian, executed at Oregon City, 318. Tam-su-ky, Indian chief, 306, 309, 317, 318. Tanner, A. H., 885. Taylor, Anderson, 7SS. Taylor, Christopher, 6s7. Telegraph, 317. Territorial Government, petition for, 240, 241; Thornton's bill, 324 ; its passage, 325-327 ; first election, 32S, 329 ; organization of, 333. Tetherow G. A., 707. Tetherow, T. B., fi4«). Thayer, A. J., 492, 822. The Dalles Mission, 217, 220, 258; bought by Whit- man, 805, 307. —Taken possession of by American troops, 312. xn HISTORY OF WILLAMETTE VALLEY. Thomas, D. C., 831. Thomas, E. N., 822. Thomas, F., 649. Thompson, D. M., 707. Thompson, Jacob, 788. Thompson, James I., 843. Thompson, John, 844. Thompson, J. M.. 822. Thompson, T. W., 841. Thorn, Capt. Jonathan. See Tonquin. Thornton, J. Q,uinn, 328; extract from writings of, 2J0; concerning- the Applegate Route, 299; his errand to Washington, 321 ; presents me- morial to Congress, 322. Thorp, Major, 283. Thurston, Samuel R., 302, 304, 333, 387. Tibbetts, , 230. Tiffany, G. W., 879, 880. Tilleson, Ed., 860, 861. Tillotson, George, 788. Tipsu Tyee, Indian chief, 361, 369. Tonquin, American ship, 151, 152; taken by In- dians, 153-156. Townsend, Ira S., 687, 688 Townsend, J. H., 831. Townsend. J. M., 687. Townsend, W. M., 861. Tozier, C. T., 853. Train, S. S., 886. Transcontinental Company, lease the O. & C. R. R., 503, 504. Trappers, American, character of, 188. Traveller, IT. S. steamer, fires upon hostiles, 469. Treaty of Ghent, 164. Trees, forest, list of, 524. Trinidad, Bay of, 79. Truitt, Warren, 871. Tshimikain mission, 306. Tualatin Plains, 249 ; panic of the people of, 392. Tucker, H. B., 788. Tucker, Thomas. 788, 789. Turner, George ft., 789. Turner, John. 199, 226, 227, 230, 231. Turnips, 563. Turpin, D. L., 850. T'Vault, W. G., 300, 339. Tyler, Asher, 877. U. Umatilla Indians, treaty With, 881. Um-how-lish. Cayuse chief, 307. Umpqua massacre, 194. Umpqua River, tradition of galleons in, 51. Underwood, William, 838. Uzafovage, C, 789. V. Vacant lands, 519-528. Van Buskirk, Daniel, 789. Van Buskirk, John, 789. Van Buskirk, Joseph, 789, 790. Van Buskirk, William, 790. Van Buskirk, William, Sr., 790. Vance, William, 822, 823. Vancouver Island, how named, 125. Vancouver (Fort), named and founded, 175 ; de- scription, 176-178. Vancouver, Capt. Geo., R. N., voyage of, 118-128. Vanduyn, I., 747. Van Horn, D., 889. Vaughan, H.. 578. Vaughn, J. W., 873, 874, Vegetables, garden, 563, 564. Venner, J. F., 883. Verendryes, the, explorations of, 68, 69. Villard, Henry, 506, 507, 511. Viscaino, Sebastian, voyage of, 46-49. .W. Waggener, R,, 874. Waiilatpu Mission, 213, 214; condition in 1847, 306, et seq. Wait, Aaron E., 688. Wait, T. B., 823. Waite, E. M., 748. Waldo Hills, soil of the, 541. Waldo, William, 276, 621. Walker, C. C, 650. Walker, Courtney M., 226. Walker, Rev. Elkanah, missionary, 214, 598. Walker, Capt. Jesse, commands emigrant escort, 361. Walker, J. H., 650. Walker and Jamison, murder of, 387. Walker, Louis, 897. Walker, Mrs. Mary, missionary, 214, 298. Walker, S. A., 823. Walker, W. W., 698, 699. Walla Walla, council of, 382; settlers in, in 1856, 379, 380 ; battle of, 417-422. AValla Walla Indians, 139, 140, 141, 160, 259, 409, 413, 415-420 ; kindness of, 160 ; alarm of, at stories of American intentions, 259; treaty with, 381 ; attacked by whites, 413; hostilities with, 413, 420. Wallace, C. A., 790. Waller, A. F., missionary, 232, 897. Waller, G. T., 688. Waller, H. M., 688, 689. Waller, O. A., 621. Waller, T. O., 708. Walling, J. D., 689. Walling, N., 689. Walters, Harry, 853, 854. War Eagle, Cayuse chief, killed, 315. War of 1812, effect of, 162. Warner, Arthur. 823. Warren, A. J., 725, 726. Warren, Henry, 689. Warrener, Thomas, 284, 630. Warrinner, W. C, 823, 824. Washburn, James H., 790. Washington Territory, moves for self-govern- ment, 343; Territory organized, 343, 344. Waterhouse, Warren, 791. Waterman, John Orvis, 335. Waters, Abner W., 726. Waters, James, 313 ; elected colonel, 317. Waters, W. H. H., 791. Watkinds. Wm. H , 791. Watson, E. B., 824, 825. Watt, John, 699. Watt, Joseph, 283, 284, 579, 630. Watts, F. A., 690. Watts, J. W., 791, 792. Watts, M. M., 726. Waymire, John, 650. Weatherford, J. K., 857, 858. Wehrung, H., 748. Well Springs, battle of, 314, 315. Wells, D. R., 869. Wells, G. A., 825. Wells, John C, 792. Wells, R. F., 825. Wells, W. A., 557, 792, 793. Wells, William, 793. Western Star, newspaper, 335, 336, 337. Weston, David, 249, 610. Wheat, 547-559; table of production of, 559, 585. Wheeler, Almon, 854. Wheeler, James, 662, 663. Wheeler, Jason, 690. Wheeler, John, 663. Wheeler, L. M., 690. Wheeler, Solomon, 630. Whitcomb, Lot, 240, 335, 336. Whiteaker, Benj., 699. Whiteaker, D. J., 699. Whiteaker, John, 351, 793. White, Ashley, 889. White, E. D., 748. White, E. N., 650. White, Dr. Elijah, 216, 247, 248, 249, 252, 253, 258, 289; offers reward for Indian depredators, 280, 287: memorial episode of, 287, 288. White H. B., 748, 749. White, J. H., 861. White, L., 690, 691. White, W. L., 726. Whitlock, E. H., 726. Whitlock, W., Sr., 708. Whitlock, W. T., 708. Whitman, Marcus, missionary, 210-214, 234, 246, 247, 249 ; energy in inducing immigration to Oregon, 258, 262, 263-275; estimate of his ser- vices, 266, et seq. ; his journey to Washington, 269,270,271; writes a descriptive pamphlet, 271, 274, 275; affairs of, in 1847, 306, 307, et seq. ; days preceding the massacre of, 308-310; murder of, by Indians, 310, 311. GENERAL INDEX. Xlll Whitman, Perriu B., 307. Whitman, Ch., 889, 890. Whitman, J. J., 861. Whitman, William. 891, Wilcox, David. 874. Wilcox. G. W., 691, Wilcox, Ralph. 650, 651. Wilcox, S. E., 691. Wiley, R. E.. 651. Wiley. Mrs. R. K.. 599. Wilkes, Captain Charles, U. S. X.. 244, 245. Wilkins. Caleb. 246, 217, 596. Willamette Cattle Co., 230, 231. Willamette Falls. 479, 480; settlement proposed at, 227, 228, 233, 230, 252; political meeting at. 253. Willamette River, discovered by Lewis and Clarke. 138, 139: derivation and corruption of its name, 139, 4S8, 189: other names of, 479, 189. Willamette University, 250, 251. Willamette Valley, its extent and boundaries, 518,514; its streams, 514: general description of, 513-547. Willamette Woolen Mills, 579. Williams. C. O. T., 793. Williams, E. C, 898. Williams, George, 749. Williams, George H., 344, 823. Williams, J. J., 284. 680, 631. Williams, L. L... 882. Williams, Robert L., 433, 434. Williams, P. W., 651. Williams, Samuel, 607. Willson, Dr. W. H., 216. 887 : treasurer of Or., 257. Wilmot, R. P., 726, 727. Wilson, Alfred, 727. Wilson, Andrew, 880. • Wilson, A. E., first supreme judge. 257. Wilson, B. W., 727. Wilson, Capt., 411, 417. Wilson, John, importer of stock. 301. Wilson, Joseph G., 794. Wilson, J. q., 794. Winship, Nathan, forms a station at Oak Point, 146. " Wolf Meetings," 251, 252. Wolverton, C. E., 826. Wolverton. John, 826. Wood, Frank D., 865. Woodin, A. B., 880. Woods, George L., 691, 692. Woodworth, C. S., 749. Woodworth, John, 226. Woolev, Jacob, 651. Wool, Gen. John E., 363, 368, 869, 385. 389. 390, 391, 412, 417, 421, 422, 428, 425. Wortman, Jacob, 794. Wortman, John, 794. Wright. Ben. 339. Wright, Col., U. S. A., 426, 447, 453, 454, 4-55, 456, 468, 46- , 473, 474 ; lost at sea, 475. Wright. E. J., 794,795. Wright, .1. G.. 825,826. Wright, W. P., 835. Wrightman, F. T., 874. Wyeth, Nathaniel J., fur trader and explorer. 197, 202, 204-206. 213, 225, 226. Y. Yakima Indians, treaty with, 380, 881. Yakima River, battle at, 407, 408 ; retreat from, 411. Yakima War, the, 38-5-393, 405-432, 447-478. Yamhill Indians, the, 481. Yantis, W. W., 795. Yeaton, A. T., 866. Yellept. Indian chief. See Walla Walla Indian*. Yocum, Franklin, 750. Yocum, H.. 750. Yocum, Thomas J., 692. Young, Ewing, 201, 226, 230, 242', 243, 578, 577. Young, Isaac, 826. Young, S. E., 795. z. Zieber, A., 750. Zinne, George, 892. Zumwalt, C. P., 651. Zumwalt, Isaac, 663. ERRATA. Page 10. line •>, for Nuevo Wspanola, read Hispaniola. Page 24, line 29, for " conquesitador," read conquistador. Page 2S7. lines 14 and 15, for NesmUh and members, read Nesmith and all the members. Same page lines 15 and 16, for delegated all the to convey, read delegated to con Page 264. line 20, for publicalfy, read publicly. 198, line 25, for La Rimer de Caqucain, read La Riviere des Coquins. !48, line 20, for Salem, read Corval/is. Page 358, line 14, for Salvator Boss, read Salvator Rosa. Page 397, line 34, for Tager, read Yager. Page 598, line 32, for Walker's Claims, read Walker's Plains. \ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 017 136 290 8 ■ ■