# Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 19/Early History of Southern Oregon

EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTHERN OREGON.
By Binger Hermann.
Four score years and more have already passed away in the revolving circle of time since the beginning of American settlement west of the Rocky mountains.
First came the American missionary, and with him came the trader and commercial adventurer, although these latter had long before made fruitless endeavors here. Soon there followed by sea and by land, the homebuilder, the settler and empire founder. These brought that characteristic American spirit for civil government, by consent of the governed, which began with a Provisional Government, expanding into a Territorial government, after the acquisition of national title, and thence into statehood Feb. 14, 1859, the close of our pioneer history. Though marvelous have been these evolutions in the conquest of the wilderness and comparatively remote the time, yet there are those still living who remember seeing, and perhaps standing, on the very site of the present magnificent metropolis and city of Portland! in which this historic body is now assembled. It was then a dense, primeval forest, unclaimed and uninhabited by the white man.
Perhaps a fair object lesson in the progress of events may be that in the present change of quarters of the Oregon Historical Society from their long tenanted, obscure and insufficient offices to these modern and capacious rooms in this palatial auditorium.
This all reminds us that we are in a new West—a new age—and that the old pioneer West is past and gone—a thing of splendid history and instructive memories. No portion of the national domain is so fortunate as Oregon in the fullness and accuracy of its historic record.
Beginning with Lewis and Clark, Hall J. Kelley, Washington Irving, Gray's, Hines' and Bancroft's histories, with the ​valuable memoirs of McLoughlin, Nesmith, Applegate, Deady and other eminent pioneer writers, our libraries and this association are stored with a wealth, rich beyond computation.
To one who has the honor of addressing this valued association, the mind first reverts to the distinguished men and revered pioneers who have preceded 1 him in the discharge of the same duty. The contributions they have made to our pioneer history are a precious legacy to those who shall succeed us.
They were themselves all actors in the great drama of empire building, and have placed on record the parts they each have played. They have enabled us to see as in a moving picture the events long since past and the men and women who shaped them in the discovery, the conquest, and development of the vast empire of which we are a part.
Though the actors themselves have nearly all gone and those that remain are old and gray, yet their memories are embalmed in these reminiscences and in the grateful remembrance they have left behind them.
Lastly, let us not forget what we owe to the conservators and zealous keepers of these cherished records, for if it were not for them the accumulation we now possess in our pioneer library would not have been contributed, or would have been lost in the mutilations of time.
To this end let us weave a chaplet of thanksgiving and appreciation though in words far too poor, to one more than all the rest and while he still lives your honored curator, George H. Himes.
In other addresses more thought has been given to our pioneer history as a whole, or to some special event or individual relators composing a part of it. To me as a pioneer of the Territorial days and one who has made Southern Oregon his home and his study for much over half a century, the pleasant task has been assigned to address you upon that subject alone.
It was Caesar in his opening "Commentaries" without preface and very abruptly, who says: "Gaul is divided into three parts." So we may say of Oregon, that it too is really divided into three parts. All that portion east of the Cascade ​Mountains is one; that portion north of the waters of the Umpqua is another, while all that south is the third, and may be said to embrace Southern Oregon.
Of all the parts, indeed of all the Pacific Northwest, or of the entire Pacific Coast states, none has contributed so complete a history in stirring details of the desperate struggle and daring adventure and varied developments in industrial progress as Southern Oregon.
In no other portion have the aborigines so stubbornly and so savagely resisted the white man's invasion of their abode. In no other portion was the advancing civilization so remote and so dependent upon the lone efforts of the explorer and home builder. Long following the days of Captain Gray, the Lewis and Clark, and the Astorian sea and! land expeditions, the Columbia was the Mecca of the sailor and the fur hunter, and yet then and later upon the waters of the lower Columbia and Willamete, the natives were far less hostile and received the oncoming whites with more welcome than in the Southern Oregon country after its exploration. Even the Hudson's Bay Company had their friendship.
Tidewater navigation has ever been the most potent agency in the civilization and development of all countries and quickly overcame the hostility of the original inhabitants. It became the easy and attractive highway of most all mankind.
Southern Oregon until a later day was without this great auxiliary, and! portions of it never became directly accessible by water. It also followed as a sequence that the more remote and inaccessible a region, the more inhospitable and irreconcilable were the native inhabitants to the white man's entrance. They were also noted as more brave, more savage, and unconquerable than those nearer the Coast. Their approach was by Indian trail with its tortuous windings over the mountains, through hidden canyons and across impassable streams; and not by the easy current of the ebb and flow of the sea. In the settlement of all new countries the boat first came before the wagon.
For long years and until gold discoveries, Southern Oregon ​suffered the lack of a local market with long and costly outlet to that more remote, while the Willamette and lower Columbian settlements had the early ship arrivals with the steady demand of a Hudson's Bay Company. Later on and in 1843. greater facilities opened up there to increased population by the old Emigrant Road from Fort Hall. Lewis and Clark believed the Multnomah the Willamette now "watered the vast extent of country as far perhaps," they say, "as the waters of the Gulf of California." Vigilant explorers they were, yet to them it was the terra incognito, or "dark Continent."
"Nor dint of hoof nor print of foot Lay in the wild and arid soil;
No sign of travel, none of toil.
The very air was mute."
The first white man's voice from that benighted region was in a cry of distress. This was in 1828, when Jedediah Smith, that intrepid American explorer and trapper, suffered an Indian massacre of most of his party when crossing the lower Umpqua river en route from California up the Coast heavily laden with furs valued at $40,000.
He with two others safely reached Vancouver. He was .a most remarkable man, and the first white man to lead a party across the Rocky Mountains to California.
Two years later the Hudson's Bay Company established their first trading post in Southern Oregon upon the Umpqua River opposite Elk Creek and named it Fort Umpqua.
Other trappers from the Willamette visited the country in 1832, and later, but it was not until 1837 that Ewing Young, a name afterwards noted in Oregon pioneer annals, with a party of other settlers from the Willamette, traveled through the country for purposes in aid of civilization. They were traveling to California to purchase cattle for Willamette settlers, and though they later returned over the same trail with a large herd of cattle, they were several times attacked by hostile Indians on the Klamath and Rogue Rivers, but more severely at Rock Point, on the latter river in September, where one of the whites was killed 1 and two others wounded, who ​later died on reaching the Umpqua Valley. These attacks de- terred other whites from traveling there for some time.
A few years after this tragedy, another visit for a peaceable purpose in the Christianizing of the Indians, was that by Jason Lee and Gustavus Hines, the pioneer Methodist Missionaries, who sought to establish a mission among the Umpqua River Indians. This was in 1840. The outlook they found was too discouraging and the Indians too treacherous to hazard a mis- sion there. These Indians were the same tribe that twelve years before had massacred the first coming of the white men under Jedediah Smith.
The first most public attraction to the country since then was in 1846, when it was believed 1 that a shorter and easier route for the incoming immigration than others had already traveled down the waters of the Snake and Columbia Rivers and the Barlow Pass, was by the Southern Pass from Fort Hall by the Humboldt, the Modoc and Klamath countries, and thence by the Rogue River and through the almost impassable Umpqua Canyon. This route was attempted with a caravan of nearly 100 wagons carrying immigrants and supplies. These Argonauts were sustained with the spirit of hope and con- fidence as they mentally chanted the pioneer refrain :
By incredible effort and much suffering and property loss, the way was opened. The next year many again traveled it to avoid the hostile Cayuse Indians on the upper Columbia. But with all this travel through Southern Oregon, none re- mained to settle it.
It was not until 1848, the first white men ventured into the country to make settlement. But these were only a few cour- ageous settlers who settled choice land claims in the Yoncalla and Looking Glass Valleys, though it is believed that as early as 1847 Warren N. Goodell located upon the land now the site of the town of Drain. No earlier settlements than these ​58 BINGER HERMANN were known to have been in entire Southern Oregon. That well remembered man in Oregon history Jesse Applegate settled in 1849 in the Yoncalla Valley and lived there to his death long years after. It remained, however, for California gold discoveries in 1848 to give a new life to Southern Oregon in the passing hosts of gold seekers from the Willamette settlements. The trails were crowded with horses and mules carrying the excited travelers with their packs to the new Eldorado. To these, however, the fertile lands passed over had no attractions. The quest was only for gold. But it was in 1850 the real promise and active influence came toward the most effective future and permanent awakening of Southern Oregon. It came in the exploring party in the ship Samuel Roberts in the early part of that year into the Umpqua River. They came to explore, to invest and to settle. Their primary purpose was to seek a river or bay with a safe and navigable outlet to the high seas, and with a deep tide- water channel into the interior. This they found in the Umpqua. Their further purpose united with this was the opening of a practicable land communication from their sea port to the nearest point in the gold mining regions of North- ern California, over which supplies and miners could be trans- ported more easily, quickly and cheaply than by the long trav- eled route from Portland or San Francisco. For this public convenience, but more for their own investment, sites for towns were to be located at eligible points, and were regularly sur- veyed and laid out as at Umpqua City, at the mouth of the river, Scottsburg at the head of tidewater, Elkton on Elk Creek opposite the old Fort Umpqua, and Winchester on the North Umpqua, where travelers and pack trains were crossing over on their way to the mines. From Scottsburg trails were opened and improved ferries established, and soon a lively traffic ensued from that place to the south. It was to the magnetic attraction of gold in California that these evolutions were due. A still greater attraction was now to have origin within ​EARLY SOUTHERN OREGON 59 Southern Oregon itself and was to do more toward its real settlement and permanent development than all the rest. This was in the accidental discovery of gold within our own bounds by Cluggage and Pool, in 1851, upon the site of the present town of Jacksonville. They were packers, and were passing through the country and 1 when seeking for water at their even- ing camp the shining nuggets came to view. This so stimu- lated prospecting and exploiting in other sections as to un- cover other deposits and soon rich discoveries gave sudden wealth to many seekers in all parts of Southern Oregon. Though thieving and murderous Indians lay in wait and am- bush to rob and to massacre, yet population poured in both from California and from the Willamette settlements. This, therefore, may be said to have been the third most notable event in Southern Oregon history. Scottsburg, Winchester and the newer town of Jacksonville, were given added import- ance by these later developments. Yet to the seekers, it was not all gold that glitters. To the far-seeing and energetic the way places over which they passed presented to view another wealth in that of the fertile lands, the grassy meadows and pure waters. A vision of home and state building arrested their feverish and now more toilsome search for gold. Their packs were opened, their tents spread, and lands selected under the Donation and Pre-emption law, and cabins followed in the wake toward the social and political system of an advanced civilization. One of these wayfarers was Aaron Rose, who on returning from the mines on September 23, 1851, located upon the beauti- ful site, now the city of Roseburg, which he soon platted for a town, and which grew so rapidly as in two years to outrank Winchester, the capital of the county of Douglas created in 1852, and so to absorb its traffic as to require the removal to Roseburg, and to cause its decline, and virtual disappearance. It was in the year 1851 Port Orford upon the sea coast was located, and claimed under the Donation law by Captain William Tichenor, afterwards a noted 1 man in our pioneer his- tory. He was captain of the pioneer steamer Sea Gull which ​60 BINGER HERMANN ran between Portland and San Francisco. He conceived the same idea as that of the Samuel Roberts Umpqua Expedition, to establish a base at Port Orford, from which supplies could be transported more directly over the mountains to the gold mines to the south, and for this purpose the location and con- struction of a trail or roadway. He selected a small com- pany of volunteers at Portland, and located them on June 9th, 1851, at Port Orford, and intended to continue onward to San Francisco and there enlist a larger number as an increased force, and promised to return with them within a short and fixed time. Those left at Port Orford made their camp upon a rocky islet, connected with the main land only at low water. They fortified themselves with the ship's cannon left with them, as from the appearance and character of the Indians there, they deemed such precaution necessary. Soon, as they had feared, they were attacked by a much larger force than themselves, and 1 a severe struggle ensued. The little cannon placed upon the narrow and steep ridge, or approach to the summit, faced the attacking Indians, and with an enfilading fire, swept those in advance into the sea, killing some fifteen of them. The others retreated upon the beach and awaited reinforcements. Not willing to hazard another engagament with their dimin- ished ammunition and confined 1 position, the little band of whites awaited the protection of night, and then stealthily made their escape into the trackless interior. This episode has since been known as the "Siege of Battle Rock," and its full nar- ration would furnish material for a Sir Walter Scott or a Feni- more Cooper. Another attempt was made to continue the proposed road construction by another party under Col. W. G. T'Vault, on August 23, 1851. They were all well armed and mounted, but becoming lost in the mountains, they were reduced to the verge of starvation but found an outlet to the Coast where they were beset by hostile Indians near the mouth of the Coquille river just as they were landing. A murderous con- flict ensued. It was an intended massacre of the whole party. The most of them were slain or severely wounded and the ​EARLY SOUTHERN OREGON 61 survivors escaped after incredible hardships, adding another thrilling story to the long record of Oregon pioneer suffering and sacrifice. The quick requisition of the U. S. troops from California to redress these outrages brought on a campaign against those Indians, and this gave a wide publicity of the country, and the coming of more whites soon after. A portion of the troops were sent by sea in the ship Captain Lincoln in January, 1852, and were wrecked on the beach two miles north of Coos Bay. They were compelled to remain in this isolated portion of the world for four months before a rescue force came to their relief. This narrative alone reads more like fiction. The ship Nassau was brought to Coos Bay, the first ship ever to enter upon its waters, to bring away the wrecked supplies saved from the Lincoln. A garrison post was now established by the Government at Port Orford from which for several years military relief was sent out at different times in the Rogue River Indian War. Some of its officers became eminent in our Nation's history, and 1 were commanders of its armies in the great Civil war. Indeed, Oregon may be said to have been the nursery for our country's greatest generals in that terrible conflict. At this point it may be pertinent to say as our history now verges upon the several Indian wars to follow that the Coast Indians as a whole were naturally friendly to the whites and averse to engaging in hostilities against them, but were in awe and terror of the warring tribes of the Rogue River and Shasta Indians. They were the bandits and outlaws of the tribes. They would visit the Coast from their interior battle grounds and infuse mischief and fear among the more peace- ful natives, and compel them to unite in acts of thievery and massacre. These interior tribes were from the very beginning of the white man's coming his inveterate and most savage foe, and so continued 1 down to the last day of their surrender in 1856. It was in the month of May, 1853, that another event of leading importance in Southern Oregon settlement occurred. ​62 BINGER HERMANN This was in the exploration of the Coos Bay Country by a party of miners from Jacksonville, under their leader, Perry B. Marple. Visiting Indians to the interior gave information of the immense deposits of coal in the Bay Country, of its splen- did harbor and deep sea entrance, of the gigantic timber and of its fisheries, and its gold deposits along the Coquille waters. At a public meeting of citizens at Jacksonville, a company was organized to visit and explore that country, to select and appropriate town sites, mining claims, and timber holdings. This was all done in a manner that makes another rich nar- rative of adventure, and danger, in what is now Oregon's second greatest commercial entrepot. Empire City was the name given the first townsite, and located by Captain Wm. H. Harris ; Marshfield was the second by J. C. Tolman, and North Bend by F. G. Lockhart. Soon thereafter coal mines at West Port were opened by Flanagan and Mann, who were of the Umpqua Exploration of 1850, and ship-building was com- menced by Captain A. M. Simpson at North Bend with a saw- mill beginning by H. H. Luse at Empire City. In January, 1854, the ship Demans Cove was the first vessel ever to enter Coos Bay for purpose of settlement and develop- ment and the second ship after the Nassau. The fertile valley of the Coquille nearby had: been slowly visited by trappers, miners and stockmen from the Bay, until 1858, when my father, Dr. Henry Hermann, brought to it for permanent settlement, a colony of Baltimoreans. At the mouth of that river, still earlier, indeed as early as 1853, and following the Coos Bay Exploration, gold was discovered on the beach a short distance north of the Coquille river, which yielded immense returns of fine gold, washed from the beach sand. It attracted large numbers of miners and traders and soon a town known as Randolph arose with lucrative busi- ness, which continued there for several years until the mines were exhausted and the town disappeared, with all its inhabi- tants. In 1852 another gold discovery was made which opened up to notice and development that portion of Southern Oregon ​EARLY SOUTHERN OREGON 63 now forming a part of Josephine County. It was made by a party of sailors, from which in early days the place was known as Sailors' Diggings, but later on as Waldo. It became a prosperous town, and is still the center of many well known and very rich placer mines. It was not long before other discoveries were made in other parts of the same region, and which have made Josephine one of the richest mining counties in the state. So important in 1852 had the shipping of Scottsburg be- come to Southern Oregon and Northern California that often as many as 500 pack mules in one day awaited supplies for the mines, and the United! States Government in that year was induced to provide for the construction of a Military Wagon Road beginning there and extending through to Camp Stewart, following closely the old trail. Congress appropriated $120,- 000 for the work, and it was placed under the superintendency of Col. Joseph Hooker, afterwards the great Union General in the Civil War, and known as "Fighting Joe Hooker of Look- out Mountain." This further greatly aided in the increase of population and prosperity of entire Southern Oregon. Ashland! was that year located by R. B. Hargadine. Thus far in serial order the finding and material develop- ment of Southern Oregon has been followed by its pioneer history. To review in conclusion the desperate struggles of the aborigines to retain possession of their ancestral inheritance would require space not permitted here. Reference has already been made to occasional hostilities at various times and places prior to 1852, but it was not until 1853, after increased white arrivals were tempted by exploita- tion and gold discoveries and with actual appropriation of the Indian land's for permanent homes, that occasional resistance turned to continuous and aggressive warfare. A compact for this purpose was entered into between the hostiles and including those east of the Cascades. It was to have been a war of extermination. It began in most united ​64 BINGER HERMANN attacks in 1853 upon the whites at Grave Creek, Table Rock, Stewart Creek and Evans Creek, when General Joseph Lane, Captain J. W. Nesmith, Col. John E. Ross, were in command of the volunteer forces and Captain A. J. Smith, Captain Alden and Lieutenant A. V. Kautz of the regulars, against the at- tacking Indians, led mainly by Chiefs Joe, Sam and John. After heroic struggle on both sides, with a number of killed and wounded of whites and Indians, an armistice was entered into with an agreement that a council should be held at Table Rock on September 10, 1853, and a treaty made whereby the Indians should relinquish their claim to the main Rogue River Valley, and go peaceably upon a reservation to be provided for them in the northern part of the state, and with payments of annuities and other benefits to be made the Indians by the U. S. Government. Such a council and such a treaty was had with ceremonies and unexpected treachery that approached the verge of a trag- edy. From that treaty it was hoped that a lasting peace would result. The volunteer military forces were disbanded and re- turned to their homes. The Treaty Indians were temporarily held at Fort Lane until they could be moved to the reserve. The year 1854 passed away with continued assurance that the peace would be permanent. Settlers and miners had returned to their homes and their mines and resumed their avocations with no further apprehensions. But, alas! their hopes were delusive. There were quarrelsome whites as well as hostile Indians. Slight offenses were magnified. In the Klamath Country an Indian uprising- was defeated by the military, with losses on both sides. Still the Treaty Indians refrained from open hostilities, until a most unfortunate and most unprovoked assault by a company of whites was made at dawn of day upon a little band of peaceful Indians quietly encamped on Butte Creek. These Indians were mainly old men, women and children. About 20 of them were killed, consisting mainly of decrepit old men, and a number of children and several squaws. This atrocious massacre was severely condemned by Captain A. J. Smith, in command at Fort Lane nearby. ​EARLY SOUTHERN OREGON 65 It is true that preceding this hostile act, some murderous hostiles had attacked the Harris home, killing him, and then were driven off by the heroic defense of Mrs. Harris. Other offenses were instigated by the more hostile Indians who com- plained at the delay in the observance by the Government of the treaty obligations which was represented as an evidence of treachery and bad faith toward the Treaty Indians, and 1 soon conflicts followed at many places. Mounted volunteer troops were called into action. The Governor issued a proclamation ordering out nine different companies. The battle of Hungry Hill had before been fought with unsatisfactory results. The troops were later met by the hostiles at the Meadows where a severe engagement followed, in which one white was killed and five wounded, with but one Indian wounded. In the midst of this excitement, however, the greater body of the Treaty Indians were kept under guard and were re- moved to the reservation. The last and most eventful year of the war came in 1856 at the Big Meadows on Rogue River near where the hostiles had forted up for a final test. Gen. Lamerick, Col. Kelsay, Col. W. W. Chapman and Major Bruce, were active in command of the volunteers. The battle began but was maintained by the vol- unteers with so little energy and daring that the casualties were small on both sides. It was really a draw. The Whites went into camp and the Indians withdrew. The Government was discouraged 1 with these ineffectual at- tempts to overcome the hostilities, and resolved upon a more determined and decisive prosecution of the war. Regular troops were ordered up from California, in addition to those already in the country. The Indians observing these prep- arations, assembled in their natural fortifications in the moun- tain fastnesses, for defense, along the Rogue river. The mili- tary plan entered upon was for the California troops to move up the Coast and ascend the river, and for those on the upper river to descend 1 and there to concentrate, and between them to crush the hostiles on their own ground. These movements had their influence upon the hostiles, who being communi​66 BINGER HERMANN cated with agreed to a conference with the military authori- ties at a place upon the Illinois river. Lieutenant Colonel Buchanan was in command and most of the regular troops, with throngs of Indians, were present, at the time and place agreed upon. The main body of the as- sembled Indians agreed to remove to the reservation; all except their great Chief John who insisted on remaining upon his own favorite grounds, otherwise he said he would fight. Another council, to meet at Big Meadows on May 26th, was mutually agreed upon, when the removal to the reservation should begin. The Military under Captain A. J. Smith with his 80 dra- goons, were present on the day named, but no Indians came. The wretched weather seemed an excuse. Toward evening two squaws came into camp with a message from Chief George to Captain Smith, warning him to expect an attack. The Captain at once removed his troops to a more elevated and defensive position, and there he prepared to meet the enemy. Early on the 27th he dispatched an aid over the mountains to Col. Buchanan, announcing the expected attack. The aid returned with the Colonel's request to know if reinforcements were desired, to which the Captain explained! the necessity for such. But his messengers becoming lost upon the trails, de- layed the reply for some hours, but when received a company under Captain Augur, afterwards a great General in the Civil War, hurried to Smith's relief, and came suddenly in view just as the savages were making their last assault upon three sides of the beleaguered fort. The troops had fought all day and already nearly one-half had been slain and wounded. They had been cut off from all water and their ammunition was nearly exhausted, while the Indians were being continually reinforced. The loud commanding voice of Chief John could be distinctly heard sending forth his orders, with all the de- liberation and saneness of a military disciplinarian. The onrush of Captain Augur's company was a surprise to the Indians, who now being attacked in the rear, made a hur- ried flight down the hillsides and away into forest cover to ​EARLY SOUTHERN OREGON 67 the Chief's headquarters. The siege was turned and the day saved. This defeat with much loss of life to the Indians, compelled their surrender on May 30th, with Chief John and a few of his renegades still holding out. But by July 1st all had come in, including John, and the Indian Wars of Southern Oregon were forever at an end. The captives were all assembled at Port Orford and they numbered when there 1,300. From there all were removed to the reservation. Of all the Pacific Coast Indians Chief John ranks as the ablest, most heroic and most tactical of chieftains. Our army officers in pursuit, and in fight with him all testify to his re- markable strategy, daring and dash. Of the perils and sacrifices of the early pioneer homeseekers during these hostile conflicts with the Indians, none can sur- pass that of the Geisel family near the mouth of the Rogue River. The settlers were having a dance at Gold Beach on the night of February 22, 1856. Most of them were there, but none of the Geisels. At the midnight hour, their Indian servant returning from his usual visit to the Indian rancherie some miles away, rapped at the door for admission. Geisel opened the door, when to his amazement, a crowd of infuriated savages burst in upon him, and with a blow upon his head, felled him to the floor, but in the midst of this his wife with infant in arms, moved to his rescue as he was falling. Taking her with the infant and her 13-year-old daughter to the outside, into the custody of others of the Indians, those inside awakened the three little boys from their sleep, and one by one they mas- sacred them over the father's body. Then despoiling the dwelling of its most valued contents, they destroyed it by fire, with the bodies inside, and then with the survivors of the family, the Indians marched with their captives to their rancherie in the mountains some miles away. Three years later the writer passed by the ruins of the once happy home, and the ashes, and blackened stones, broken crockery and rusted stove still lay upon the ground, mute witnesses of the terrible conflict there. ​68 BINGER HERMANN The wild grasses and dense briars nearby seemingly refused to encroach upon the accursed spot, and a sense of loneliness and despair pervaded the scene. The escaping settlers all fled to a previously prepared fort on the north side of Rogue River, where for an entire month they were isolated and cut off from rescue. Many besides the Geisels were slain on that night, among them being the Indian Agent, Ben Wright, who was lured to his death. Time and space do not permit the full story of those events, or of the captivity and ransom of the captives, and the rescue of the forted settlers. The career of Chief John, his exploits in war and surrender, his impatience and royal demeanor, when under military cus- tody, on the reserve, his respect for and assumed equality with Lieutenant Phil. Sheridan, his custodian, in command, with the story of his enforced removal by ship to the California prison, and his attempted capture of the ship on the journey when opposite the mouth of Rogue River, all form a narrative of thrilling interest. As a memoir and fitting close to these observations upon the pioneer history of Southern Oregon, a less brief recital should do credit to many persons, men and women who achieved dis- tinction in those pioneer days and became in later years emi- nent in all walks of life, many in the state's history and others in the annals of our nation. And such is but a glimpse of early Southern Oregon. To its departed ones in the stirring scenes we linger in fondest memory and inscribe in tenderest words our thoughts : "Warm summer sun Shine kindly here. Warm southern wind Blow softly here. "Green sod above, Lie light, lie light, Good night, dear hearts; Good night, good night."