# Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 37/Letters of Charles Stevens, part 3

See part 1, part 2, as well as further editions in Volume 38.
LETTERS OF CHARLES STEVENS
Edited by E. Ruth Rockwood
(Part III)
Milwaukie O. T. June 27th 1853
Dear Sister & Brother Levi
I have written a conciderable to you about Washington Teritory and perhaps I might say some more about it, and some of my reasons for going there. Perhaps I have hinted at them before, but no mater, I will try it again.
You have undoubtedly received the letter that I forwarded to you on my return from Shoal Water, if so, you have I think a good discription of that part of the country, yet, either Grays Harbour, Shoal-water Bay or the mouth of the Columbia River is to be the great outlet for this country to the sea. In consequence of the Teritory's being divided, Grays Harbour or Shoal Water will probably be the outlet for that territory, and the Columbia for Oregon, yet there is one thing that we think is certain to come about, and that is that there will be a railroad from the south point of Pugets Sound to run in a south west direction to the Chelalees River, or the upper point of Grays Harbour, and perhaps on to Shoal Water, it will save some over two hundred miles sailing besides a conciderable time in getting to the sound. If such a road should be built and (judgeing from the situations of the country all round, and from what I can learn from those that pretend to have wise heads,) I believe it will some time, it will run through what I believe to be, and what Lot Whitcomb says is the very best part of this western country. But perhaps I shall know more, about it soon, for If possible, I shall start next week to see it. I gave you the best information that I could get last winter, and I have not learnt anything yet to make me alter my opinion. I do not know but we shall move down to Bakers Bay, that is at the mouth of the Columbia this summer, to stay a year or two. A Mr. Brown ​was after me some time ago to go down and take some Cows and Horses to keep for another man, he offers half the increase and two thirds of the Butter & Cheese. If he could get the place for us he was to let us know immediately, and in that case we should move down when I go. I expect to spend the summer on the coast some where, in looking at the country and in fishing. While I have been laid up I have been helping to make some fish nets, to catch Salmon in. There is a plenty of people that is ready to furnish us with Salt and Barrels to put them in. It is said to be as good business as there is in Oregon.
It is our intention to go and get us a claim on, or near the salt water, if we can get prairia there, and I intend to look out enough for you, if you should want it when you come, (for we think you will,) Levi must not think there is no prairias in this country, for I have seen a very little, and Frances has been up the country to live, and returned about a week since, she says there is beautiful prairias up where she has been, yet the most of the country is covered with heavy timber, and there is many a man here, that has been here for years that has not more than 10 or 15 acres under cultivation, that is in the timber.
There is one thing that I have always wanted to mention, but it has alwais slip my mind, and if you ever come to Oregon you must not make any calculations on keeping Bees, for they cannot be raised here, the winters are not cold enough to keep them in, they come out of the hive to fly about, and a little shower of rain will catch them and in that way the whole swarm will soon be distroyed.
About the rain in the summer, I cant say anything about the last part of the summer, but so far, we have had a dry spell for some 4 or 5 weeks until within the last week we have had a little shower every day or two, in the first place it did not rain enough for a number of days to lay the dust, but day befor yesterday we had a very fine shower, and when we got up this morning, it was raining very gently, without either thunder, ​lightning or wind, for there is not wind enough now to moove a leaf on a maple tree in front of the house. ...
The Cedar of this country is not like the eastern Cedar, but I believe is equally as good for lumber, or timber, and just about as good for fire wood. Fir is very much like pine only heavyer, and very coarse grained, the leaf is only about an inch long, the wood burns well, but cannot keep fire over night with it. I have seen no water in the country yet but Salt, and Soft water, either river, spring or well water is all soft. There is 3 or 4 wells in town they are something like 20 or 25 feet deep. But people in the country generally build their houses near some spring, which they think is better than wells, and they generally find a plenty of them. I have alwais said that this was the greatest ague hole in Oregon and I suppose it is. I have seen some three or four with it, ... Corn grows here, though perhaps not as well as in Illinois. A Mr Foster, that lives about 15 miles east, nearly under the mountains, has put in about 15 acres, so I have been told, and many others have put in more or less corn this year. We have all the seed planted that we could get, and it looks very well. I cannot tell you what hogs are fatted on, unless it is potatoes, pumpkins, or such things. The Indians have not troubled us any, for there is but a very few here, last fall there was about 60 of the Clackamas Indians, and about 30 died last winter, if they continue to waste away as they have for a few years back, there will not be one in the country in five years.
As for Snakes, I have never seen but one kind and that resembles the garter snake in the east in everything but the stripes, and there is plenty of them. I do not recollect of seeing any Lizzards or toads, though I presume there is a plenty of them. ​I do not know as they have any particular kind of diseas here or fevers any more than the fever and ague. ...
A Carpet is a very good thing to bring acrost the country, to lay down in the tent to keep things out of the dirt, especially your victuals, if you have team enough to bring it, but unless you have you had better throw it into the river, or give it to some person that needs it, rather than to bring it half way and kill off your team, and then be obliged to throw it away, it is better to start with half a load, than to have ten pounds to much. ...
Affectionately Yours Charles Stevens
Milwaukie O. T. 3d July, 1853
Brother Levi
... I expect to go down the Columbia to Bakers Bay, which is at the mouth of the river and opposit to Fort George, or lower Astoria, in a flatboat with a Mr. Allen, and some 3 or 4 other men. We have a Salmon nett, and we expect to fish a short time then cross over into Shoal Water Bay, run down that bay in a skiff, then run out into the Ocean and around into Grays Harbour, look about that, and up the Chehalees River, and if we can find us claims to suit us, we intend to take some, and here let me say that in case you should come to this country I wish you to let me know which part of the country you would prefer, from what you know of the country. I intend to get me some prairia, and I have intended to select a place so that you need not be under the necessity of clearing up a farm, for it cannot be denied but it is hard clearing farms, unless we can get a place in what they call "openings" in that case the farm can be easily cleared. Large trees are burned down, not cut, and generally burned up. In case I find nothing to suit me on this trip, I shall look up the country, either south east of this, or south, and perhaps as far as the Umqua. In that case I shall not settle for some time yet. (that is if we go the Umqua) But I know nothing of the accounts you have received of the Pugets Sound country, neither do I know any thing farther than what I have told you. But it is ​said by all that that part of the country is to be the great business part.
Seamen that come up this river say that of the vessels that sail from San Francisco this way nine tenths go to Pugets Sound, and the Sound is just one great harbour of itself, and can be entered at any time without a Pilot. If then there is a place, a decent place for a Citty on the banks of the sound, there the Citty will be built. I can tell you one thing that you might do on the sound now if you were here, that is to set a small Steam Boat running on the sound. You can make more money at it in one year than you can make in Illinois in ten. Now I have no doubt but you will think I am yarning it, but here is the reasons for it. There is no boats running on the sound now, of any kind but small boats & canoes, and I have heard from quite a number of individuals that a Steam Boat or some kind of sailing craft was very much needed there. There is a small iron Propella that runs from Portland to Oregon Citty, it is only about 30 feet long, and the smallest boat by two thirds of any that runs here, that I have been told, cleared ten thousand dollars last fall and winter. But one thing is certain, her owners have made enough to build an iron steamer 90 feet long this summer, and intend to have it running in a short time now, so you can judge of the worth of such boats in this country, or what it would be on the sound. It is my opinion that Oregon and Washington does furnish more natural advantages for manufacturing than any other place in the states or territories, for water power is abundant a most every where, and the seasons, ​or climate is far better for manufacturing woolen goods, and cotton, and I think a most every other kind, but it will be a long time before any such business is started here. I presume there is as much water runs over the falls at Oregon Citty, as goes down the falls at the Bellows falls on the Connecticut. There is a number of Tin shops in Portland and they are all doing the best kind of business. I wish Samuel could go to Olimpia, he could make a fortune in a short time if he would. And so can any boddy if they can once get a start. I know of no man in the country that has been any ways industrious and been here for two or three years, but what is in good circumstances.
I was up to Oregon Citty last Wednesday, and saw the town and the great falls. The town I was disappointed in, for it is in one of the most uneven places they could find it appears to me, yet I do think it will some day be a large place, but probably not until manufacturing get started more in the place for there is an abundance of water power, and they are improving the falls, so that they can use the water for anything they wish, and to any extent. There is a very high ledge of rocks immediately back of the upper part of the town, which will prevent them from building in that direction unless they build on top of this ledge. I cannot say what the chance is in the latter place, but it looks as though it would make a very pretty place to live. I should think it is about as high from the river as Peru, tho if either way it is less in hight. There is a second bluff back of this. ...
If you should come to this country by land, you ought to come with mules, and a plenty of them, and a plenty of light wagons, and then you ought to have men enough come with you to do all of your work, for it will be enough for you to come through without work, and you must have men that will stick to you all of the way, and that understands taking charge of teams, and that will use them well. Hundreds of cattle were killed with abuse last year. You must also get something to ​keep the dust out of your eyes & nose & mouth. You will not have any of any account until you get this side of Fort Hall, but if you should have mules, and be among the first teams you would have but little dust all of the way.
The diarrhea and mountain fever is the two kinds of sickness to be watch, and to be feared, but if you will watch the first closely you need not fear the latter, but in order to avoid the diarrhea every one must use one kind of water all of the way, and by all means avoid water that comes from holes dug in the ground, it is not good and most alwais gives people the diarrhea, but the Platt water is healthy, if it is full of mud. But yet I do think if I was in your place that I would come by water, you can come quicker, I think saffer, and cost in the end, but a little if any more, and can bring more of your goods with you than you can across the plains.
4TH The Lotwhitcomb Steamer went to Van Couver on a pleasure trip today and the mate had given Esther & Frances an invitation to go, but when the boat came down the river the Captain would not land, so they were cheated out of their ride. But they had a dinner here, and the girls and Ann had their dinner with them. I stayed at home, and they kick out their own fun.
They have a flag pole here that is one hundred & ten feet out of the ground, ten inches through at the bot, and as straight as an arrow, an as true a taper as you ever saw, all in one stick. ...
10TH I saw Thomas Mercer day befor yesterday, he has been to Pugets Sound, he likes the country very much, he says he thinks he shall settle about 60 miles north east of Olympa. If they should prefer the northern rout for the great rail road, he thinks it will cross the mountains and come to the sound about there.
Write often,
Affectionately Yours Charles Stevens
Milwaukie O. T. 24th August. 1853
... I returned from my trip down the river a most two weeks ago. ... I did not go as far as I expected, when I left home, for we had to walk from the mouth of Shoal Water to ​Grays Harbor 15 miles, besides a number of other long tramps and my foot was not well enough to do it. But Mr. Allen, and a Mr. Hale, went up about 30 miles up the Chehalees and looked at the country on each side of the river, and the latter gentleman told me on his return that he was well suited with the country. He said that the river was the clearest that he ever saw, that there was a large number of small streams that flowed in the river of the purest water that he ever see, many of them comeing from springs and small lakes that are back in the prairia or timber. Hale said that along the streams was narrow bottoms of very rich soil, generally covered with vine maple, (about the size of your alder) which is very easy cleared, which he says will make the very best of gardens, back of this, on land some 10 or twenty feet above the bottom land, is generally a narrow strip of timber and then back of that is as handsom prairais as he ever see in the east, anywhere. The prairais he says is covered with fern and grass. The soil he says, is first-rate, and all that a man has to do is to take a team brake the ground and put his seed rite in, Hale said that he could not make a place, (if he had the power) to suit him better than many places that he could find on that river. He has a claim up on the Clackamas but think he shall give it up and go there, The great objection to that country now is a market. There is but a few settlers there so there is no vessels goes into the harbor, unless it is by mistake and the people are obliged to go to the Cowletz, Olimpa or into Shoal Water, to get their groceries or what provisions they have to get.
While they were up the Chehalees, I was on Bakers Bay, or up the Walaca river, about two miles. I was very well pleased with this part of the country, it is on a narrow neck of land, betwene Bakers Bay, and Shoal Water Bay. A small river puts in at the North west corner of the bay, called the Walaca, which branches, one coming from the N. east the other from the N. west and west. It was on this last named stream that I stayed while they were gon. I cut a few tons of hay to bring up as we come, it being very plenty there, and very good, for it grows upon the tide land, which makes it a little salt.
The tide land is the best, on this end of the bay of any that I have seen yet, it is high, with but a very few ditches and as ​rich as it can be, for it is all made land. It overflows in the high tides in the winter, but it is said does not in the summer. The people have their gardens on it and some men build their houses on it.
They cannot plant as early as up this way but I must say, that I never see better garden sauce for the time that it had been planted. Potatoes were as large as my fist, yet they were so green that they were hardly fit to eat, and the tops were just in the blossom. I have been told that small grain could not be raised there, but I saw as nice a patch of oats, as I ever saw in Illinois. A stalk of oats was brought up on the boat that was 7 feet long, and it is thought that wheat will grow equally well. The high land I think is good for wheat, or any kind of small grain, and I know of no reason why it should not do well, for wheat I know will grow there for I saw a little in a garden, which was sowed just to try it. The tide land is what they call prairai, but it has a considerable timber on it in places, and in some it is entierly open. I think the land is the highest on the banks of the rivers, anyway, it is dryer land, and it is where they make all of their gardens. The high lands are covered with heavy timber but is not as broken as most of the land that I have seen about the cost. I think there is none of it but what can be cultivated very well, after it is cleared, but it will be one of the jobs to clear it. The weather was generally cool mornings and evenings cloudy, and foggy, with a little rain. I was told that the winter seasons were not as cold as they are up this way, and that the snow lasted only about three days last winter. I must have been misinformed about the cold weather at the mouth of the river last winter, for I could not learn that it was anything like as cold as it was represented.
This is the best place for raising stock of any that I have seen as yet, for there is a great plenty of the very best kind of grass all over this tide land, and stock keeps hog fat all of the time. It is excelent place for making butter, for it is cool and the butter is hard all of the time. There is any quantity of Goosberries on the tide land, many of them grow very large, and some ​very small, but generally larger than those in Illinois and are free from thorns. There is also the Sal-all berries, which are nearly black, a little smaller than the Catawby Grape, and they grow on a stem something like the grape. They are very rich, and good, some think they resemble the peach in tast, but I confess I can see but little resemblance.
There is three kinds of Wherttleberries there, the blue, the red and the winter berry. The Thimble berry is a very large red berry, resembling the rasberry in shape, but is a very different fruit. has a slight tart, and will melt away on the tounge. The Salmon-berry grows here also very large, it resembles the black berry in shape, but is of a bright straw color, many people are fond of them, but I cannot say that I really like them. The day before I started down the river, Mr. Thomas Mercer was at our house on his way to Portland. I only see him about 5 minutes, he told me that he was going up on Pugets sound to live, that he liked the country well, that Mr. Horton was then there and was intending to make a home there. While I was gon Mr. Mercer & Mr. Horton stopt at our house, on there way to the Sound with their families. They left word for us to go up there and no where else, for they thought I should like the country. They say it is a great fruit country a good farming country, and thousands of fish of all kinds, including Oisters, that there is a plenty of good rich prairia and excelent water, which is more than they have at Bakers Bay. Mr. Horton said that the grass was up to his waist when he left. They intend to settle a short distance from a town called Seattle, in Kings County, on or near White river, some 40 or 50 miles down the sound. Mr. Mercer says that Mr. Bagley, Aaron Mercer, and Mr. West have determined to go there, as soon as they can dispose of their property at Salem, and I have sent word to Mr. Mercer that we will go too, so just as soon as we can make a sufficient rais we intend to leave this place. While down at the bay this time a man, that had lived on the sound for three years and had been up and down a number of times, told me that there had been stone Coal found on the head waters of the De ​Vamps, Snow Homes and Still Aguamish rivers which is of the very best kind, and in abundance. These rivers I think are all a little north of white river, He says the country about these rivers is very good, and that it must be a good place for farmers as soon as they begin to work these mines, and he thinks as good as any in the Teretory now. In all of my enquiries about the country or about the health of the country, every one has said that it was perfectly healthy. Mr. Horton had the Ague when he went there but has had but one shake since, and he says that he never was so fleshy, never so strong and never could do as much work as he can now. While I was down the river I saw no one that was sick in fact people go from the Willamitt vally down there to get over the ague and all other billious diseases. When I came home, I found a most all Milwaukie shaking, four of our children were down some every day, and some every other day, they have all had it and Esther has it now. I think it is the June freshit in the Columbia that makes it so unhealthy on the lower Willamette and the Columbia bottoms, for as soon as the water goes down the sickness begins, but back from the river there is but a very little sickness of any kind. ...
Ann says that she has washed 66 shirts, besides undershirts drawers &c &c since a week ago last monday, that is in about 10 days. I wish you had your cows on a place as good as Bakers Bay, you could make your $6 or 8 dollars pr week, for Butter and Cheese are worth 50 cts pr pound. The imigration began to come in about the 15th of July, making the trip quicker than it was ever made before.
Milwaukie O. T. 24th Sept. 1853
... This seasons emigrants are coming in rather slow, we think the emegration will be full as small as your estimate, we have seen no one from Bureau or La Salle yet, tho we have seen people that has seen the Bureau train. The report is that the emegrants have had very good health this season and are getting along remarkably well, with few exceptions. a large amount of stock has died, and we have heard of some loosing ​their entire teams. We heard of one man's loosing one hundred cows out of four hundred, betwene Salmon Falls on Snake, and Fort Boysse,
You ask if Oregon is not hilly like old Connecticut. I do not know that I can answer any better than I have already, for I have not been any distance in the country.
When I write about Oregon I mean all west of the Cascade Mountains. All the country near these mountains I am told is very broken, yet people have settled nearly under them. Betwene the Mountains and the River, so far as I have seen I think is not as hilly as Hartford or New Haven Counties. I have been told by people that have been up the country to look at it, that it was the finest looking country that they ever see in any country befor, especially about French Prairia. Mr. Mercer says that the Tualatin plains is as nice a country as he ever see, and so does a most every one say, it being so well divided with Timber & Prairia land. The southern part of Oregon is a most all mountains, and the vallies that people settle in are very narrow and broken, but the climate is said to be beautiful, healthy and a good stock country. I have traveled the road from here to Portland a number of times, and that is no more uneven than the road from your old place to Homer is, yet I do not know as that is a good specimine. Roads are few and far betwene in this country, there being none, only in the old settle parts of the country, so that when ever we wish to go any where, we generally take to the water. Yet from what I know of the face of the country (and I have taken not a little trouble to find out about it.) I really do not think it as rough as Connecticut, and I do think it is alltogether better land, with less stone or rock, much better for raising small grain, and a long ways ahead of it for raising fruit. There is high mountains here, I know, and there is much of the country taken up with them. The country is all volcanic, from Bear River to the Ocean. The rock in or about Bear River is all volcanic, many holes in the ground where the inward fires have found vent, and where the laver has some day pored red streams over the land.
If the rail-road ran through the Bear valley I would not exchange a section that I could pick out there, for twice that amount in any other country that I was ever in. There is ​springs in that reageon that will be worth forty times what the Saratoga springs have been or ever will be. These with the wild and ruged scenery all around, with its thousands of other curiosities will make it one of the most fashionable resorts that you ever saw or heard of.
25th... We intend to go to Pugets Sound (if we ever get able), and we intend to start a nursery the first thing. We brought seads with us, and we have collected a great many since we have been here. It is the best business in the country, not hard, and will last for years. Mr. Lewelling I presume sold ten thousand Apple Trees or more last winter. They can be transplanted any time in the winter. He has every other kind of fruit that they rais in the states, and more, for he has Almonds and I think Figs. He has raised about five hundred bushels of Peaches, which he sels at SOcts. to $1.50 pr dozen. He has Apples, Peares, Quinces, Cherries, Plums &c &c., all the varieties that they have in the states, and far better. We would like to have you come out here and go into that business for I think it would pleas you, and it would not interfere with your raising stock making butter, Cheese &c., Butter is worth 5 & 6 bits pr pound, Cheese 4 bits, Milk $1. pr gallon, or 1 bit for a tumbler full, Flour is worth $10 pr hundred, Potatoes $1. and 1.25 pr bushel, Fresh Beef is to 22 cts. Pickeled Pork about 25 cts. How long these prices will remain is hard to tell, but I suppose as long as California will furnish gold for them. ...
I will just add here, that I heard a man say that he has seen a Potato that weighed 11 pounds, the same man said also that there is a Rootabaga back of this a mile or two that covers a diameter of 5 feet with its leaves. I have seen Potatoes at Bakers Bay that were full as large as my fist and the tops just beginning to blossom, and the root too green to eat. What they will come to is hard to tell. The Steamer Columbia came in to Portland this morning early, with the mail and the Steamer ​Portland took it on up the river and by it we received your letter of the 12th August, so you see I was just in time with this.
We cannot conceive how you get the idea that Milwaukie is at the mouth of the Willamette, for I was shure I had told you better. It is six miles above Portland, and Portland is 12 miles above the mouth, Oswego is the next town above, then Willamette Citty with 6 large houses and no inhabitance both on the west side of the river, this place is on the east side, Oregon Citty is on this side also, and is 7 miles above, and Lyn Citty opposite, I borrowed two maps of Capt. Whitcomb today for the purpos of drawing a map for you, which I will try to get ready by next mail. One is a map of Oregon & Washington, the other a map of the surveyed part of Oregon.
I have got the Ague and must quit, and finish in the morning. The Sal-lal Berries is a large, dark blue berry, somewhat resembling the wherttleberries, but as large as four of the latter, grows in clusters like grapes, and are rather sweet in tast, very pleasant, the bush they grow on is an evergreen. They grow much larger on the coast than up here. They have an oblong shape,
The way of raising produce does not differ materially from the method adopted in the states some people sow their Cabbage, Onions, Peas &c in the fall, or in the months of Feb. & March.
There is an abundance of springs all over the country and ​good ones, with pure soft water and generally a plenty of it. I presume there is 20 real good springs on this section, there is one where Lot Whitcomb built his house, about half a mile from here, that furnishes water enough for a large tanery, to grind bark &c. The rock of this country is nearly all basaltic, though on Bear River there is a little stone, and a kind of bastard lime stone on long island in Shoal Water. The Basaltic rock has the appearance of having been burnt, and very easy got, If you will get them from the bluffs where they mostly show themselves. I have thought it would be hard work to get stone enough from any peace of land that I have seen yet, to fence it with, as they do in New England. I know of no stone here that would answer very well for fine work, or that would receive much of a polish even for building purposes.
The buildings in towns are generally frame, built in the eastern style, some sealed up on the inside, some nail sheeting on the inside and then paper it on the cloth, but the houses in the country are many of them made of logs.
There is a conciderable shipping done here. Vessels generally come from San Francisco with goods, and return with lumber or timber. I suppose there is some 2 or 3 dozen vessels load here at this place in a year. Those that come here are of a small class, and generally carry from one hundred and twenty five thousand to two hundred thousand feet. There has 2 or 3 barks come from New York to Portland this season. The Santiam is a good sized stream flows into the Willamette about 20 miles above Salem. About 15 miles from its mouth, it forks, having a north and south branch, the north branch heads nearly under Mount Jefferson, the other a few miles south of it. It is about 120 miles, perhaps not more than 100 miles from here to Olympia. I was told last winter that the people at the Sound were intending to open a road from there through the mountains to the agency, on the Umatilla, and I heard that many of the emegrants were going that way this year. The road has been surveyed, but I know no more than what is stated above ​about its being opened. I will try to find out about it, and let you know.
About clearing up a farm Levi you need have no fears about that, for there is thousands of prairia lands here, and even if you had to settle in the timber there is places where you could clear off 10 acres in a week.
We have all had the ague this summer. Ann is now sick with one of her billious spells, but is getting better now we think. We know of no other place, or no place above Oregon Citty, or below Birneys on the Columbia where they have the ague, and even one mile back. I suppose there has not been a single case, unless they got it on the river first. You need not be concerned about the health of the country, especially on the salt water. I had another mishap a few weeks ago, at a raising, a heavy stick of timber, about six feet long fell and struck me on the calf of my right leg, and almost tore the flesh off, but it is about well now, it is hard work to keep my boot on my foot yet. Write often,
Affectionately Yours Charles Stevens
Milwaukie O. T. 5th Dec. 1853
... The old Mail Steamer has had a fit so that it is under the real necessity of stopping at St. Hellen, about 60 miles below Portland. The people in Portland are very indignant about it, held indignation meetings, burned the mail agent in efegy and are intending to get another Steamer on the line to bring freight & passengers, and let the old Columbia whistle. Steam Boats have more than doubled, on this river since we came here, last fall, the Whitcomb, the Multnomah and the ​Eagle, were all that run here, now the latter is halled up and a new boat run in her place, called the Belle, and also the Portland, the Fashion, and Peytona.
A three masted Schooner is taking in a cargo of lumber at Portland for Australia, she is called the "Spray" Portland has grown about one half since I came to the country. There has been three fire proof buildings put up this last season, another is now building, and I am told that there is to be four more put up in the spring. We think of moving to Portland in short time, we think we can get more work there than we can here. I can get nothing to do here only when vessels are loading here, and this place is the most unhealthy of any place I know of on the river, or in the country. ...
The immigration got in, in good season, and in first rate condition, with the exception of about four hundred wagons that took the southern rout from the Malheur River through to the falks of the Willamette. They got lost in the mountains but have finally got through. It is said there is a large number of cattle in the upper part of this valley, and that the price of stock is bound to come down. The money market is getting tight, goods are getting cheaper. Flour is worth $8.00 per hundred, Potatoes are worth from $1. to one fifty pr bushel, Chickens $1. Eggs $1. pr dozen, Butter from 6/- to $1. pr pound. There is lots of farmers in Oregon that has a large number of cows and yet are obliged to buy butter, and some wont even get ​milk enough to put in their tea or coffee. Milk is worth $1. pr gallon.
Last month was very disagreeable, being very rainy and harder winds than we have known since we have been in oregon, but the last week has been very pleasant, with little rain. This morning the Thermometer stood at 54 at sunrise, and we have had our doors open a most of the time for the last 3 or 4 days. ...
As for settleing on the coast in sight of the Ocean, I would say that there is any amount of places of that discription, but I would not like to live on them. Claims can be had a most all of the way from Cape Disappointment to the mouth of Shoal Water bay, but there is any amount of water on them, with Cranberries marshes, &c on them. In the summer season the wind blows from the North all of the time which makes it foggy cold and very damp, but in the winter season it is much warmer than up this way. Bakers Bay faces the Ocean, yet the land all around the Bay is taken up and most of them are in full view of the Ocean, but they are some ten or fifteen miles from the Barr, and the Ocean winds does not effect them so very much. There is a number of bays, south of the Columbia, where it is said good pleasant situations can be had, and a harbor about 20 miles south of Rogue River that is very large with no bar, and that any sized vessel can go in, and that there is a large amount of good land on two rivers that emty into the bay, and that there is Oister beds in the bay, has been lately discovered. The country is said to be large enough to support a very large town, and that they can get a good road to the mining country on Rogue River. If these reports are true, it would be a more desirable situation, We think than on Pugets sound,
It is said that there is good country around Port Orford, and good gold mines there.
Your idea of the face of the country near the rivers generally is correct, so much so that you can make but few settlements near unless it is near the heads of the streams. The prairies are not underlaid with gravel as you suppose, but they are more ​like the Illinois prairia as near as I can learn, without rigdges so you suppose, and large enough for any sized farms you pleas, but up this vally they are nearly all taken up that are good for anything. You speak of prairias east of the mountains, being sandy and destitute of water. If you refer to the country east of the Cascade mountains, you are mistaken about there being sandy, for the soil is a yellow clay coller, and is more like a very fine dust as destitute of grit (illegible text) flour. .....
About coming here. I was talking to a sea Capt. a day or two ago, he said he thought you could get your family landed in Portland for $350, three hundred & fifty, or four hundred dollars, and that it will cost about eighteen dollars ($18.00) pr ton to bring goods here. This is to come around the horn....
We have a half of a bbl of Salmon & Salmon Trout put up for the winter....
The Cohnsey was up here last Sept. and they had a lot of cloths pins so the cook grabed a whole box and gave them to me. This time up he gave Irving two good cloth Coats, one Vest and a pr Pants, and gave Ann a large Chinees wine collored silk Shall worked with silk twist 12 inches deep on all sides, and 36 inches up in each corner, a large silk fringe 9 inches deep and is 66 inches broad exclusive of the fringe. As near as I can find out he must have stole it in San Francisco. It has been worn some, for it is slightly spotted in two or three places. It is however one of the handsomest things that I ever saw of the Shall kind. I saw a lot of Chineese furniture in Portland yesterday that was forty times nicer, neater & handsomer than anything I ever see in the east any where. The pollish and painting is ahead of any thing that can be made in the states. There was also a lot of Chineese Jewelry, a necklace and pin was valued at $450, four hundred & fifty dollars, they were filled with diamonds & pearls, and set in silver. The whole lot was by far the reachest that I ever saw. I believe that the whole lot, furniture and all is to be raffled for the first day of Jan. 1854, Tickets, one dollar....
Milwaukie O. T. 10th Dec. 1853
... The streets in Portland are just mud and water, mixed up into a very good batter. Irving has got to be quite an Indian for he can talk their jargon about as well as they can. The Indian language here is nothing but a mess of stuf made up by the Hudson Bay Company out of the Chenook, French and a mess of other lingos put together, and is not fit to use any where. There is but a very little of it, and can soon be learned. They are very indolent, roving bout from place to place, and live most of the time on fish and roots, and lice. ...
Went to Church today and heard Mr. Lyman Preach from Jeeremiah 8th, 22d, he is settled in Portland. ...
(To be continued)
* ↑ Possibly Joel L. Brown who had a claim on the Palux River where he intended to form a town. He and his associates had cut a wagon road on the portage from Shoalwater Bay to the Columbia, His plans were hardly begun when he died; Swan, Northwest Coast, 64.
* ↑ John Davenport brought a hive of bees to Oregon in 1854; Oregon Statesman, August 1, 1854. For beginning of the bee industry in Oregon see "Bees in Oregon and Washington," by T. T. Eyre, in Oregon Farmer, August 1, 1858.
* ↑ Philip Foster was born at Augusta, Maine, January 29, 1805. He came to Oregon by sea in 1843. During the first four years in Oregon he was in the mercantile business at Oregon City. His farm at Eagle Creek was the first on the Oregon trail in the Willamette Valley, and was for many years a depot of supplies for new settlers. Mr. Foster died in 1884; Scott, Oregon Country, II, 36-37.
* ↑ There had been a great decrease in the Clackamas tribe, as Hodge in his Handbook of American Indians, quotes Lewis and Clark's estimate in 1806 as 1800, and says that their number in 1851 was placed at 88, thus practically agreeing with Mr. Stevens.
* ↑ The movement to Puget Sound from Willamette Valley had been growing for about three years prior to 1854. The Oregonian, December 20, 1851, said that several parties had returned from a tour of examination of the Puget Sound country and reported favorably. Warbass and Townsend advertised, in 1852, bateaux and canoes on Cowlitz River. The Oregonian, March 26, 1853, said that fifteen vessels were loading there at one time, and three sawmills were in operation and fifteen others under construction. This activity spread also to Shoalwater Bay (Willapa), where early in 1853, forty new claims were taken and one sawmill was running; Scott, Oregon Country, II, 244-45.
* ↑ Probably the Eagle, an iron propeller which ran between Portland and Oregon City; Lewis and Dryden, Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, 38.
* ↑ Later writers emphasize the advantages of this climate for manufacturing, especially of textiles, particularly on account of the soft water and the equable climate; see Warren D. Smith, Physical and Economic Geography of Oregon.
* ↑ Swan enumerates and describes the fruits and berries of this region, with their seasons, and use as food; Northwest Coast, 88.
* ↑ Puget Sound coal is spoken of in the Oregonian as early as 1851 and frequently thereafter; Scott, Oregon Country, III, 163.
* ↑ The Duwamish, the Snohomish and the Stilaguamish.
* ↑ The Columbia was built in New York in 1850 for the California and Oregon trade. She was described in her enrollment at the Astoria custom house, as having a “round stern and eagle head;" Lewis and Dryden, Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, 35.
* ↑ A sidewheeler, launched July 2, 1853, for the Oregon City run; continued on this route, with occasional trips to Astoria, until October, 1856, when she was taken above the falls and ran on the upper river; on March 17, 1857, she was swept over the falls at Oregon City; Lewis and Dryden, 44, 67.
* ↑ The following advertisement appears in the Oregonian, December 4, 1850: "Willamette.—The subscribers, proprietors of this Town, situated at the foot of the Clackamas Rapids, on the west side of the Willamette River, having just completed a survey and plan of the place, would call the attention of the public to this location, as one of importance, and possessing undoubted natural advantages as a point for business ... With the prospect of having a Plank Road, or a Rail Road to go by horses to the head of the Falls, they feel confident that persons wishing to take an interest will not be disappointed in its ultimate success. ..."
* ↑ Linn City was founded by Robert Moore, opposite Oregon City, and named in honor of Senator Lewis F. Linn of Missouri. It was destroyed in the flood of 1861; Scott, Oregon Country, II, 76, 231.
* ↑ This was the Naches Pass over the Cascade Range from Yakima to Puget Sound, opened in 1853. Pierre C. Pambrun and Cornelius Rogers are credited with an earlier exploration of the pass; Scott, Oregon Country, II, 252-53.
* ↑ James Birnie was a native of Scotland, he crossed the Rocky Mountains in 1818, as agent of the North West Company. Later he was with the Hudson's Bay Company. He settled at Cathlamet and lived there until his death, December 21, 1864.
* ↑ In 1853 the Pacific Mail Steamship Company built a $40,000 wharf at Saint Helens and refused to allow their steamers to go any further up the river. They were operating two steamers on the San Francisco route, the Columbia and the Fremont, but the Portlanders succeeded in compelling them to reconsider this move by securing an opposition steamship, the Peytonia, which arrived on her first trip in December, and the Pacific Mail Company again extended service to Portland; Lewis and Dryden, 45.
* ↑ The Belle was launched August 18, 1853, at Oregon City. She was intended for the Oregon City trade, but was operated on the Cascade route. In 1853, the Fashion was covering several routes, going to the Cowlitz Monday and Tuesday, Oregon City Wednesday and Thursday, and the rest of the week to Vancouver and the Cascades. The Petonia, a large steam scow, ran between Portland and the Cascades; Lewis and Dryden, 43-45.
* ↑ The schooner Spray, Captain Hull, arrived in the Columbia in 1853. She took the first cargo of lumber sent to Australia from the northwest; Lewis and Dryden, 48.
* ↑ These were W. S. Ladd's building on Front Street, between Washington and Stark, D. C. Coleman's on Front and Oak, and Lucien Snow's on Front, between Oak and Pine streets.
* ↑ Two hundred and seventy-five wagons of the 1853 immigration followed the route of Meek's cut-off and down the Middle Fork of Willamette River; Scott, Oregon Country, III, 230.
* ↑ "On the coast about Port Orford, some miners are doing exceedingly well, but a majority of them are not making anything;" Oregonian, December 10, 1853.
* ↑ The brig Cohansey arrived at Astoria in November, 1853.
* ↑ Reed and Bioren had a wareroom for the sale of Chinese goods. The Oregonian, December 3, 1853, advertised a "mammoth raffle to be drawn on New Year's."
* ↑ Horace Lyman was born in Massachusetts in 1815; came to Oregon in 1849, and in that year taught and preached in a log house at Portland. He founded the First Congregational Church at Portland, 1850. In 1854 he founded La Creole (Rickreall) Academy. Beginning in 1857 he taught at Pacific University, Forest Grove; Scott, Oregon Country, III, 175.