# Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 37/Letters of Charles Stevens, part 2

The first instalment of these letters was printed in the Oregon Historical Quarterly, June, 1936, pages 137–159. Stevens had crossed the plains in 1852, and wrote back to members of his family describing conditions in Oregon and Washington.—Editor. [from the original] See also part 3 of this series, and subsequent installments in Volume 38.
LETTERS OF CHARLES STEVENS
Edited by E. Ruth Rockwood
(Part II)
Milwaukie 24th Jan. 1853.
Brother Levi
... I believe I have not given you an account of the products of the country, and perhaps I may be able to fill this letter in this way, and I see that Lydia wishes for me to send an account of all the fruit that grows here. I can say nothing about it from my own knowledge, unless it is by judging from the signs that appear in the timber. People tell us that there is any quantity of Blackberries & Rastberries here. The Blackberries are not like those that grow in Illinois, but they are of the kind that grow in the New England states, called Dew Berries. They are said to be very large and nice. The timber, or the ground in the timber, is all covered with them. The leaves on them are all green now. Rasburies also appear to be abundent. Strawberries grow large and of an excellent flaver, they flower in March and come to maturity in the fore part of June, and continue for a large part of the summer. Whortleberries & Cramberries grow here in abundence. We saw thousands of the latter in the fall. It is thought there is no native grapes here, but there is a kind of fruit that grows here that they call the Oregon Grape, but it grows on a bush instead of a vine, are of a plesant tast, and make excelent preserves. Crab Apples grow here in some places. There is no nuts here but Hazle Nuts, or filberts, they are of an excellent kind and grow all about in the timber. I know of no fruit that grows in Illinois but will grow equally well here, especially the Peach Apples Grapes, Plumbs Quinces etc. in fact they say that they excell the states by a long ways. I never saw such vegetables in states as I have here. The Potatoes are as much larger than yours generly are, as yours are larger than marbles, and they are sound and good. Turnips Cabages and all kinds of garden stuff are the largest ​that I ever saw before. One man raised onions that were larger than a Tea Saucer, or so large that a man could not get them in his pockets and he had a number of hundred bushels, and they are worth from $4 to 5 dollars pr bushel. All that he did to them was to plough the ground, sow the seed, and scratch it in. They sow wheat here once in two or three years only, and it is alltogether beyond any that I ever saw in the States, in quality. They rais the white wheat. Oats grow first rate here, and sel for about $2.50 pr bushel. The Potatoes for breakfast are on the table now, and there is not one of them but what is as large as my fist. Tomatoes, Mellons, Pumpkins Squashes Cucumbers, &c all grow first rate here, better, a great deal better than they do in Illinois. But what you have heard about the timber is about correct, so far as the fir, pine & ceder is concerned, but the oak is miserable stuf, and but a very little of it. There is not enough of it to last the inhabitants ten years, but the fir, it grows just as straight as anything you ever see, tapering gradually to the very top, seldom less than two hundred feet, with small limbs from about half way to the top, and alwais topt out with the main stem. The waters produce abundently. There is about six diferent kinds of Salmon the Red, the White, the Black the spring the fall, and the speckle Salmon. These are a salt-water fish, and come up into the rivers in the time of freshets, and when they come to any fall of water, (a mill dam for instance where the water is runing over,) they will congregate there and have a time of their own in trying to jump up over the dam. I have seen thousands of them in such places, they will jump from one to six feet out of the water. At such times they are easily taken with a large hook made for the purpos, and put upon the end of a long poll. I ​caught about a dozen in a short time, in one of these places, we salted down all we could, and they lasted us until about 3 week since. They never bite a hook, though they have the bigest kind of a mouth, and I never have been able to learn what they live upon, for there is nothing to be found in them. They have more meet according to their size than any other fish that I ever saw. There is other kinds of fish but I have learned but little about them. The rivers have a large number of Seals in them, Swans, Geese, & Ducks are plenty especially of the latter there being more kinds here than in the states. There is no Wild Turkies here, only such as have run wild since they have begun to settle the country. Prairia Chickens live the east side of the Cascades, on to the Rockey Mountains, east of the last, and along the Sweet Water you will find the Sage Hen, which I think is a little larger than your tame Hens. We have the phesant, or patridge and many other kind of birds, some of the same species, yet with a diferent plumage. Flies abound here as well as in the states, especially if there is any puetrid substance about. I have seen but two or three Muskeetoes since we crossed the Rocky Mountains. The day that we got to Portland we heard it thunder at a distance north of us, but have heard nothing of the kind since, though it has been warm enough and a plenty of rainy weather. We have had one of the hardest winters, so every old settlers say, that they ever knew, and I am inclined to believe them. Since my last letter was written, we have had the finest, the nicest, and the plesentest weather that I ever knew for the time of year, yet the people say that it is colder than it usually is. If this wether should continue you may depend upon it that we shall all fall in love with the country. In fact, I dont think any of them regret coming. All I want is to get through this winter and be able to fit out for a trip to the Cascades or Dalls, and I am not concerned but what I shall be worth as much next January, 1854, as I was in January 1852.
There was I suppose thousands of cattle left at the Dalles to ​be kept through the winter, and word has come here that nearly all are dead. One Colonal More, from Danville in Illinois, in the east part of the state, left about one hundred head of cattle and a dozen or twenty horses, at the Dalles, and every one of them are dead, and another that I knew on the road has lost every one that he has, or had. Those that get their cattle into the vally have lost but few, some not any.
We are still in favor of going north of the Columbia, and we find that there is a great many that have not made their claims yet, are intending to go that way. The people in that part of the teretory are trying to get the teritory divided making the Columbia the south line. There is a paper printed at Olympia on Pugets Sound. Shoal Water Bay, is said to be one of the best harbors on the coast, it being 12 miles wide at the mouth, that is north to south, 12 miles from the mouth, or west side to the east side, and 35 miles north and south in land, or something like this draft. I do not know the names of the streams that flow into it, but the one that comes in on the North east side is said to be the largest, and is navagable about 40 miles up, they catch the largest Oysters here of any place on the cost. It is said that vessels can run into it at any time without a pilot. But when I see it then I can tell you better about it, which I hope will be in a few weeks. I am engaged here with the singing school so that it will take some 4 or five weeks longer, perhaps, unless I can get off from it. I have received about $26.00 towards it, which is a great help to me, by the way, we got a stove the last of Nov. that only cost $50.00 I paid 20 down and sixteen more today. ...
We are about to get a boat to run to the cascades with next fall to bring down emegrants. The Lot Whitcomb is a float ​again but not runing yet, the river has fallen about 20 or 25 feet, it is near its usual level. ...
Affectionately yours, Charles Stevens
Milwaukie Jan 29th/53
Brother Levi
... I saw a notice in the paper today about the cattle that have died the east side of the Cascade Mountains. If I remember right it stated that about 19-20th of the cattle have died that were left, or kept at the Dalles, but farther east, there has not as many died. On the De Shoots River there was less than at the Dalles, on John Days River, less than at the De Shoots, on the Umatila, less than on John Days, etc. It snowed at the Dalles between 3 & 4 weeks every day, and the snow was two feet or more deep, and the thermometer was two degrees below zero, but farther east there was but a very little snow. The Dalles recollect are just under the Mountains, so you will see that it was much colder there than it was here. Those emegrants that got their cattle this side of the Mountains saved a most of them. People are looking up their claims now, and moving on them. Three or four families left town to day for the Chehaly River, day after tomorrow there will a number leave for Shole Water Bay, and was it not for my Doctors bill and the balance I owe for our stoves, I would start with them. It is a most time to put in garden seeds and we are anxious to get ours in, tho we intend haveing a garding here. I want to go to a part of the country where I can make the nurcery business pay. It is the best business in the country. There is a nursery here & ​one at Oregon Citty," and they sell trees for from one to two dollars each, I visited one today. They have had three or four grafting all winter, they will probably set eighty or one hundred thousand grafts this winter. This man brought his trees from the states, acrost the plains, about 3 years ago, and he has made a fortune at it. Chehale River, or Shole Water, I think will be a first rate places for that business. Garden sauce pays as well as amost anything. I paid so cts for two Cabbages today, one weighted about 14 lbs. It had stood out all winter.
Two or three vessels were wrecked at the mouth of the Columbia, owing to their not being able to get a pilot. The engine and boiler for a steam mill at Portland was on one of them. Flour is getting to be plenty at San Francisco and is worth $16. in Portland, and $20. here. It is thought there is a plenty of wheat in the country to do the people until the next harvist, and there is thousands of it in the ground, we have heard of one man's having over three hundred acres in, and has people all the time putting in more.
I have thought of sending a barrel of Salmon to you if you would pay the freight on it, but I know not but it will cost you more than it will be worth to you however, if you want one, I will send you one next spring if you say so.
I see it stated in a paper yesterday that there is twenty thousand people intending to cross the plains for Oregon next season. I wish you would let me know the truth of it. Ann wants me to tell Emma that she washes for seven men now. The Steam​er Flint was wrecked last fall going to the Cascades, by running on to a ledge of rocks, she has been got off this winter and is now at Portland, and is expected to commence runing on the river in a few days. The Whitcomb is expected here tomorrow to commence runing again. The Whitcomb is the largest boat that runs on the river, and the Eagle, the smallest, being a propella, and about 25 feet long.
Afectionately Yours Charles Stevens
Milwaukie 10th April/53
Brother Levi
... I believe I stated to you in a former letter that it was my intention to start out the first of Feb. or there abouts to look at the country, but was not able to start at that time. Mr. Shoudy the young man that has been boarding with us since we have been here, joined me in making a skiff to go down the Columbia with, but when we finished it, we found a man in Portland that wanted to go just where we did, and he had a boat four times larger than ours so we fited up in his boat and on the 7 of March started on our journey. We were bound for Shoal water Bay, In passing down the Columbia, we landed in places where we thought it looked like making a settlement, and in the towns along the river.
I believe I gave you a kind of discription of the lower part of the Wellammit, but it was from information gathered in a very dark night, and I found I was far being right about it. All the country above & below the mouth of this river is verry level, for a good distance back, but much of it overflows in the summer & winter. There is an island in the mouth of the Willammit an Columbia, (that is, two sides of it are washed by the Willammit the other by the Columbia), it is about 18 miles long and I cannot say how wide. This is level, and I am told ​that there is many pond holds all over it. One branch of this river joins the Columbia about 20 miles below the other, at a little town called St. Hellen. This place is founded upon a rock, on the south side of the river, and perhaps will some day make a place of some importance. It is in sight of the ever snow covered mountain of the same name. From this point the banks of the river rise much higher and in many places with a steep rockey wall, gradually increasing in hight as we approach the mouth of the river. These rocky bluffs, only show themselves in now and then a place, until we get near its mouth, where both sides are more or less bound by them. We found no places on the river that was vacant that we felt like taking up, and but very few below this river that are occupied, that we would be obliged to live upon. The land is all covered with heavy timber, and thick bushes, so that it is with the greatest dificulty that any person is able to go more than two or three rods among them, or from the shore. We saw many places that appeared very pleasant from the river & in fact were, or would make very handsom situations, but on going back a few rods we found the ground very low & wet, and in some places we found ponds and deep marshes. In a most every instance, or with but one on two exceptions there bottoms were very narrow, few of them fernishing more than from ten to twenty or thirty acres at most for cultivation. There is a large number of islands in the river, some of them for cultivation. There is a large number of islands in the river, some of them very large, but there is but few of them that is high enough for cultivation. We arived at Astoria late saturday night, the 12th and camped on the beach. We might have been in Bakers Bay, had they done as I wish them for we got into Grays bay, and they would have that Bakers Bay, and had it not been for this difference of opinions, we should not have run over to town. The river here is about
6 miles wide, Astoria is built on a side hill with very heavy timber back without roads or streets, and with only about a dozen ​houses. Fort George is about one mile below, has perhaps two or three more houses than Astoria, but possesses no more natural advantages, nor artificial, unless it is in having the soldiers stationed there, and having the custom house there. The Clatsop plains below this, lying below Lewis & Clarks Bay, and above Point Adams, which runs out into the sea. These plains are very level, and very productive, in every thing but wheat. Potatoes appears to be the great crop with the people along the coast. One man told me at Fort George, that he raised fifteen hundred bushels last year, and he crossed the plains in /50,) which he sold at $2.50 pr bushel, and he put up 90 lbs of Salmon.
On the opposite side of the river from Fort George, is Chenook, a sand beach formed on a point of high land. Inside of this point and Cape Disappointment is Baker Bay. This bay is very roughf most of the time, owing to the heavy swells that roll across the bar, and the large sand bars in it. We landed on this beach, halled our boat upon some logs, rolled up our things, and left a few of them at the post Office, took the rest on our backs, and packed them about five miles down a very pretty sand beach, to Chenook River then got an Indian to take us up the river in a canoe, one mile, then loaded up again and packed over the portage which is 2 & a half miles, here we come upon Bear River, a place where a Mr Wilson has made a claim this spring. This is four miles from the bay. We arived here the 15th and the next day went down to the head of the bay, gathered a few Oisters, and looked at the country a little, and returned. We staid here about a week, worked about three days on a scow that they were building, then got a large canoe, one that would carry about 3 or 4 tons, and in company with two other men (making five in all) started down the bay.
Judging from the appearance of the country, Bear River must rise on the southwest side of a range of mountains, (runing southeast & northwest,) and runs nearly paralell with the mountains, and unites with the bay at its southeast corner. This ​river is deep enough for large vessels to run up as far as Wilsons, but not wide enough for them to turn round and run out again. There is a conciderable bottom land on the sides of this river, (and so there is on all the rivers about the bay) that is very rich, and now reddy for the plough, there being but now an then a tree on it, and near the bay there is none. It is what they call tide land, in consequence of its being covered with water in the winter at the time of high tides, and some of it I saw covered on the Willowpar. This land is covered with good grass and would keep stock very well through the winter but it is badly cut up by ditches of every size runing through it, or them, in every direction varying from one to eight feet deep. Near the mouth of this river (and so it is with all the rest,) there is places where there is large mud flats, that must make very disagreable places in the warm seasons of the year, to live near, and almost impossible to cross, in consequence of the depth of the mud, at the time of low water.
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MOUNT SAINT HELENS
From this place we passed to the Island before mentioned and camped for the night. We saw but one place up the Elelam river, that really presented an inviting appearance, and that was about 4 miles up the river on the right bank, as we decended, but this was ocupied by the indian above mentioned, he had a house, was making garden, which with his kindness to us made all of us feel unwilling to disturb him. There is a large quantity of tide land on this river, with the usual quantity of mud flats. On the north side of the river is a range of high hill, or mountains which runs paralell with the river, gradually declining, as we run up the stream. All the mountains or hills are much higher near the bay than they are up the rivers. There is one place at the mouth of this stream, or jus below the mouth, that it appears to me might be sufficiently large for a town, or for a good number of claims, and has the best landing that I know of on the bay. If we go there, I think of making a claim there.
Lydia, On the opposite side of this I have drawed a little sketch of Mount St. Hellen, as it appears way down in the mouth of the Columbia River, it is not correct, but it will let you see how these mountains look. Where I drew the sketch, is about two hundred miles from the mountains, and I suppose it might be seen one hundred miles out at sea.
The little black spot near the top is a hole, where the fire and smoke comes out. It runs way up above the clouds, as you will see the spots near the bottom looks like black lava. Mount Hoods shape is nearly the shape of this. The river in the picture is the Columbia.
The river comes in from the right though it looks as though it did not go any farther. The whole of this mountain is covered with the whitest snow way down below where you can see it. They are the grandest, the most beautiful sights it appears to me, that a person can look upon. they are so high that no one can go half way to the top.
​The girls went out in the timber the 2d day of this month an got there hands full of flowers, birds have been singing about for this six weeks, and little red humming birds have been flying around for this long time. The first of this month the girls say they had greens, and they might have had them along time before. The wether is so pleasant that Ann says she would not go back for all of Illinois.
Esther got Philipeen on the mate of the Lot Whitcomb, and he gave her a pencil worth $5. it is said to be gold...
There has 4 vessels loaded here since the first of March, and two more came in yesterday to load, and the company have some 5 or 6 loads on hand now. The snow in the mountains has commenced melting and the water in the Columbia is rising, which backs the water up in this river, so that it is tolerable high now.
Flour is worth $8.50 pr hundred. Butter 75 cts pr pound, Potatoes $3.50 pr bushel, fresh beef 25 cts pr pound and Oisters 6 to 8 dollers pr bushel.
The children eat nothing but oisters while they lasted, and I dont know as they would if they had 40 bushels, for the more they eat, the more they wanted.
Irving has got him two chickens, one is now setting, the other lays, eggs are worth 75 cts pr doz. & Chickens from 50 to 75 each, he has got a pig, so we think we have a little chance for raising stock one of these days. . .
Affectionately Yours Chas. Stevens
Milwaukie O. T. 13th May 1853
Brother Levi & Sister Emma
... Since my return from Shoal water, I have been engaged at diferent kinds of work. I have helped load one large vessel with lumber, worked some on a flat boat that I expect to run on the river in the summer & fall, made a trip to Fort Vancouver & back, &c.
Fort Vancouver is one of the pretiest places for a town or Citty that I ever see. The river must be near a mile wide, and excelent landing, the bank just about high enough to be out of the reach of the high water and runs back so that it has two benches, and I know not but three. Uncle Sam has his building ​back on the first which is about half a mile from the river, and the pleasentest place you ever see. The Hudson Bay Com. claim 30 miles square, and have petitions Congress to give it to them. The man that votes for any such petition, or bill, I hope will be kicked home, and kick after he gets home by every one of his constituants, and then if the President signs any such bill, I hope Congres, or that pers[on] that does know anything, will convict him for fanaticism, and send him home.
When I discribe places hereafter I will state the directions. I do not know of anything now that I have written about but what you can get a correct idea about, unless it is the directions of the rivers &c, and I think if you will get a good map you will sea it all plain before you. The Willamette runs near direct North from here to the Columbia, and the Columbia nearly the same directions until it reaches the Cowlectz, and then turns more west. There has been a survey made this last winter of the coast of Oregon and Washington Teretories, and it is now printed, and if I can rais money enough, any time to get one, I will do so and send it to you, it embraces all of the country west of the Cascade Mountains and will give you a good idea of the country, with a little explanation.
About this country's looking better than it really is, is not exactly what I had supposed, for the country about here certainly has no beauty about it, for there is not grass enough here to keep a grasshopper alive over two weeks, but last Monday I was in a place where we could cut two tons of wild oats on the acre, and where they were up to my shoulders, but where the timber grows thick, you need not look for grass, but the country looks very pleasant to me, so much so that I have no wish to go back, for one of your good strong N.W. winds is worse than all the wind we have had here put together. . .
But of all the poor mean miserable good for nothing country, that ever lay out of doors is the country that lies betwene the ​American Falls on Snake River and Burnt River, just east of the Blue Mountains. You ask if Oregon is anything near as good as Illinois or Iowa, but dont ask in what particular. But there is not one tenth part as much farming land, or plough land here as there is in Illinois, perhaps, for as I have said before, so I say now, the country is divided up by low ranges of mountains, or high hills, so far as I have seen, though I am told that up about Salem there is a plenty of good level prairies, and still better up on the Chehaly and also on the Tualatin Plains. The country is new even to the old settlers, for there has not been one half of it explored yet by the whites. But the soil where I have been is splended it is far ahead of New England, and has not one quarter of the stone in it, perhaps there will be though when it comes to be tilled but I think not.
I know of no reason why a man cannot live as easy in Oregon as he can in Illinois, there is business enough. A man can farm it, and not lift his finger to work if he chooses. A man can make money and just rais stock, for the market, make butter cheese and furnish the market with eggs and chickens. A Saw Mill will keep a man very well, Shipping lumber or timber, Fishing is as good business as any in the country, Steam Boating. A man can make an independent fortune with just a flat boat on Pugets Sound, so I have been told, for they have no way of getting about there only in Indian Canoes. Mercantile business is as good here as anything else, but loaning money at fifty pr cent I think would not shine very well. ...
It is said that the Indians in the country of the Blue mountains are intending to stop the emegrants this year, and have commenced blocking up the road.
While I was at Vancouver the other day there was about 75 of Uncle Sams men went up to the Cascades on the steamer Multnomah, to go with the soldiers from that place, and the ​soldiers at the Dalles, to assis the emegrants. We fear there will be trouble, and suffering, on the road.
I think I shall visit the Sound country in 4 or 5 weeks. One of the men that went to Shoal Water with me has made him a clame on the Chehales.
Gen. Lane arived in Portland this morning in the steamer, they have been haveing a jollyfication there to night I should think, for they were fireing guns all the evening...
Strawberries have been ripe for some time, and if you will come out here in the summer after some blackberries, I will treat you to the best mess of Oisters and Salmon you ever eat-you need not be concerned about the quantity of fruit, for there will be a plenty of it,-I have said in another part of this letter that there is no grass here, but there is some, enough so that stock gets enough to make them look well— ..
They are intending to improve the river, and water power at Oregon Citty this summer, they intend putting in two or three dozen saws in one mill and four run of stone and all to be carried by one wheel, so I was told yesterday. The water is rising in the river very fast, it is backed up by the high water in the Columbia. . .
Affectionately Yours Charles Stevens
Milwaukie, 28th May / 53
Dear Brother & Sister ......
A week ago yester morning I met with quite a mishap for me, rather worse than at any other time in my life, and it came in about as bad a time as it could. I had been helping a Mr. Allen to build a Flat Boat to go down to Bakers Bay in and to run on the Columbia in, in the forepart of the fall, and on the morning of the day above mentioned, we got it into the water, and then went after some stone with another boat to help turn it with. In the act of lifting a very large stone from a rock that was about breast high, it came in too and about two thirds of it fell on to my 4 toes on my right foot, smashed the bones in my big toe, and badly bruised the other three, and the end of my foot, so that I have only just got able to hobble around the house on crutches. But what makes it worse for me just (illegible text) ​is the probability of its throwing me out of the chance of helping to bring the imegrants from the Cascades in the fall, and perhaps the chance of going up on the Chehalis River, or to Pugets Sound to get a claim this summer. I was just getting into good employment, such as stubshoting lumber, for shipping, for which I could get my $4.00 pr day. The support of the family has mostly come from Anns labour, since we have been here, in consequence of my not being able to get employment one fourth of the time. She has earned over ten dollars this week and has now gone to Portland with Irving & Frances in a Skiff. This though has been an extry week with her, for she seldom earns more than half that much.
Times are very dull now, the water in the Willamette is very high and is still rising very fast. It is owing to the high water in the Columbia which backs the water up in this river. The rise in the Columbia is owing to the melting of the snow in the mountains, in the eastern part of the Teritory, but it appears to be coming earlyer this year than usual, or else we shall have a larger freshet, for the highest water usually comes about the 10th of June, and it is about as high now as it generally is.
The first monday in June is the annual election, when there will be one delegate to Congress elected, the members of our next Legislature & County and Precint officers. A man by the name of Skinner from the Rogue River country (or there abouts) and Gen. Jo. Lane are candidates. Lane went up the River one week ago last sunday morning on the Steamer Multnomah with a band of music playing. He stoped her, but there was but a very few people went to see him so he stayed but a few moments. People here thought none the better of him for it, and as near as I can judge, the people in these parts will not trouble him in the way of going to Washington again. I hear but a very little ​said about the election anyway, tho I believe there is to be some kind of a political meeting in town this afternoon.
There is to be a breakwater or a dam built at Oregon Citty a very large mill I was told that it was to run 36 saws, and 6 run of stone, and I understood the man to say that the whole machinery was to be carried with one wheel. Another object is to make a canall to the foot of the rappids, so that goods can be taken from boats below the falls and put onto boats above the falls at the same place, which will save half or three fourths of a mile's portage. There is to be two Steam Boats built at Canema a little town just above the falls, one at Oregon Citty and two at Linn Citty. At the first named place, Im told they are paying $7. pr day for carpenters, and at the other places from 4 to 6.
We have two gardens planted with a few things mostly Potatoes & Cabbages, we have about two hundred plants set out, but dont know how they look. Our Peas, Beans, Onions, Corn &s were up long ago, but all that we have is very late, for the season here. Strawberries have been ripe for this 3 or 4 weeks, and I should think from appearances, they would hold on all summer. I heard a man say a few days since that he pick one or two last January. The boys went out yesterday morning and got 3 or 4 quarts, and sold two quarts for one dollar, and are now offered 75 cts pr quart for all they will get. I believe I could get a half a bushel any day. I suppose it is time for the Salmon Berries to be ripe but I think there is but a very few if ​any about here but down on the Columbia and around on the coast there is thousands of them. To judge from present appearance there will hardly be an end to blackberries & rasberries.
The political meeting is out I heard one whole speach and the parts of 2 or 3 others. if they are all elected I think we shall have wise legislatures.
27th. A man that lived in town last winter, came down from Champoeg a little town about 30 miles up the river, yesterday and wanted frances to go with him and live with a gentleman & lady of his acquaintance and go to school, he would not be satisfied without her, so she packed up an put out, with about 15 minutes notice, she had hardly got home from Portland.
The school teachers name is a Miss Stevens, she taught here last winter and was very much liked, there is others of her acquaintance there so I think she will not be lonesom.
28th.... We have the finest kind of weather here, the days are warm, with a light breeze, and cool nights. Twilight lasts until near 10 o'clock which makes the evenings very pleasant. We have had no rain for a week or so but it looks like it tonight. There has been 2 or 3 thunder showers here this spring or not exactly here, but up in the mountains, but so light that you can hardly call them thunder showers. . .
The water is still rising in the river but it is very low above the falls, at Oregon Citty. There has been ten vessels loaded with lumber at this place since the first of March, and there is one now loading...
The report about the Indians that I sent in my last is said to be fals, yet they intend to place soldiers along the rode.
Love to all Affectionately Yours Charles Stevens
Milwaukie O. T. 10th June /53
Sister Emma
... It is with much sorrow that we learn that you cannot come to Oregon, but I feel as though you ought not to blame me for it, for in giveing you a discription of the country, I have in​tended to give it as it appeared to me at the time of writing, and the winter season I intended to make it appear full as bad as it was, so that if you should ever come here and then be dissatisfied, that you could not say that I did not tell you how bad it was. But this last winter was an exception, for the oldest setlers said then, and they say now that it was the hardest winter that they ever knew. In fact, I know if they were common, the people would prepare for them better than they do. I do not know of but two cellars in the teritory which shows very well that garden sauce is preserved without being shut up in an air tight cellar. Cabbages stood out in the gardens all winter without being hurt, for I pulled them in Feb. The ground did not freeze an inch deep, and potatoes that were not gathered last fall in my garden have come up all over it. But to take the whole time since the snow went off, and became some what settled, it has been far more pleasant than I expected to find it, so much so, that we have been perfectly delighted with it. We have set with the doors open amost all day through the month of March, and of course have since that time. The wind has never blown so as to bother us at any time for I do believe that if you could put all the wind that we have had since we have been here together and sent it a whizzing off in one gust, it would not compare with one of your N. W. blows. In fact, all the wind we have is just a gentle breeze and that we have a most every day, consequently we have no dust blowing about in our eyes and mouth and in every part of the house. The Oregon mud is not like Illinois mud, at least, it did not bother us or trouble us any last winter. To tell you the truth about Oregon, so far as we are concerned I would not, nor do I know of any one of the family that would go back to Illinois and live for the best fortune in the state. I am far better satisfied than I expected to be when we left Princeton. And if I can get well, an have the prospect that I had before I got hurt, I can make more money here in six months than I could make in Illinois in two years. The reasons why I have earned so little since we have been here are,—when we come here it was found out that I was a tailor so they wanted me to work, the merchant in town said he was to have a lot of goods on from San Francisco and that he would give me a job to make it up, so I held on & have done ​something like a dozen dollars worth of work, and that is all, and the goods have not come yet. But you must not think that I am sick of the country, or anything of the kind, for I wish you to understand that I like the country. I believe it to be as good farming country as any you have east of the Rockey Mountains, anywhere. I have seen better garden sauce, of every kind and better wheat, far better than I ever seen in any part of the east. I will just tell you of one man that I heard of to day, and I can hear of such a most any time, and might tell you of lots of such instances if I wished. But I know you will take them to be some big yarns of mine or some ones else. This case was of a man that had tended six acres of land for the last three years, and he has cleared two thousand dollars from the six acres, each year, and then cleared nearly as much more in trading in diferent parts of the country, for it only took him a small part of his time to attend to his place. The country as a general thing is hilly like N. England, but the soil is far better. There is prairias in diferent parts of the country and some of them I am told are as handsom as any in Illinois, and especially upon the Chehales River. But you wish to know how far the Bay is from the sound. I do not know as I can tell correctly, but from Cape Disappointment, on the north side of the mouth of the Columbia, to the mouth of Shoal Water Bay I believe is 28 miles, acrost the mouth of the bay is from 8 to 10 miles, from there around on the beach to Grays Harbor is 15 miles, you then go up this harbor some distance, or to the river, and I believe it is some 30 or 40 miles over to Olympa.
The country that I have spoken of so much, lies betwene the Chehales, and the Sound. But you have probably got my discription of the Bay before this, so you will be able to form a very good idea of it from that. Levi must not think that the Oisters that are caught in these waters are good for nothing, for I doubt whether he or any one can get any better, in the N. England waters. They sell in San Francisco for $10 and $12 per bushel, ​and in the Bay, where they are gathered, they are worth $3 pr bushel, and cannot get them half fast enough at that. If I go with Mr. Allen, I shall probably start in two or three weeks, and when I return you will know all, or as soon as I can get the news to you. But I cannot help thinking that you will come to this country yet. . .
Irving made $5 or 6 dollars last in gathering Strawberries and selling them one day he sold $2.50 worth, and did not work near all day. He had a pig given him while I was on the Bay, and he has two hens and three chickens. We have no cow nor I dont expect to get one untill fall, and not then unless I can get it of some of the imegrants, and if I go to the Cascades in the fall, I shall try to get some. ...
Any one that intends coming next spring ought to have his wagons made this summer, and run them six months before they start, and then have them well repaired, just as they start, and by all means get mules, unless you wish to bring cattle along, if so then get cattle, not over six years old, my best ones wer only 4. and as good as any on the road, they halled one wagon from Big Sandy to Fort Boysse, and get those that have hard feet, and that step perfectly true, or that does not twist there feet on the ground, and get drivers that know how to use cattle, and will use them well, and you can come safely with them...
The election is over, but it will be a long time before we know who is elected, though Skinner is ahead of Lane as far as heard from...
It is thought that there is rich gold mines in the Cascade Mountains east of this place......
Just heard that Lane is ahead.
Affectionately Yours Charles Stevens
(To be continued)
* ↑ The varieties of salmon listed seem to correspond to the five species given in J. N. Cobb's Salmon Fisheries of the Pacific Coast (U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Document no. 751), as follows: (1) Oncorhynchus tschawytscha, quinnat, tyee, chinook, spring, or king salmon; (2) Oncorhynchus nerka, blueback, red, sukkegh, or sockeye salmon; (3) Oncorhynchus kisutch, silver, coho, or white salmon; (4) Oncorhynchus keta, dog or chum salmon; and (5) Oncorhynchus gorbuscha, humpback or pink salmon. The sixth may be the steelhead trout (Salmo gairdneri) commonly classed as one of the salmon by the fishermen of the Pacific coast.
* ↑ Probably the whistling swan (Olor columbianus) which winters from British Columbia southward; Bailey, Handbook of Birds of the Western United States; W. A. Eliot, Birds of the Pacific Coast, 177.
* ↑ The first movement for a new territory was July 4, 1851. A convention was held at Cowlitz, August 29, 1851, and one at Monticello, October 25, 1852. Lane presented a resolution in congress and in March, 1853, the bill was passed creating Washington Territory; Bancroft, Washington, Idaho and Montana, 48.
* ↑ The Columbian, a weekly newspaper, published by J. W. Wiley and T. F. McElroy, first issued September 11, 1852.
* ↑ Probably Willapa River.
* ↑ In the Oregonian, October 16, 1892, Seth Luelling gives an account of this nursery: "Horticulture in Oregon began in Salem, Henry County, Iowa, when my brother, Henderson Luelling, planted an assortment of the principal fruits, apples, pears, peaches, plums and cherries, loaded them into two wagons and started (1847) with them across the plains ... He transplanted his nursery almost immediately from the boxes to the land now owned by Mr. J. H. Lambert [now the site of the Waverly Country Club] between Milwaukie and Sellwood, what was then the Meek donation claim ... My brother quit the business and left Oregon in 1853, and in 1857 (?) William Meek quit, leaving me the sole owner of the Milwaukie nurseries."
* ↑ Possibly that of George Settlemier, who arrived by way of California in 1850, with a good supply of fruit-tree seed, which he planted on Green Point [a part of Oregon City]; Cardwell, "First Fruits of the Land," in Oregon Historical Quarterly, VII, 36. The obituary notice of Settlemier in the Oregonian, April 29, 1896, says that he stopped during the summer of 1850 in Oregon City, later removing to a donation land claim where Mount Angel is now located.
* ↑ The brig Vandalia, Captain E. N. Beard, was driven ashore five miles north of Cape Disappointment, January 9, 1853; the Merithew was wrecked January 12, near the same place; and on the same day the Mindoro went ashore near Sand Island. These may be the wrecks alluded to.
* ↑ The James P. Flint was built at the Cascades to run to The Dalles. The following season she was taken below the Cascades, and in September was wrecked opposite Multnomah Falls; abandoned until 1853, she was then taken to Vancouver and renamed the Fashion; Lewis and Dryden, Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, 35.
* ↑ Sauvie Island.
* ↑ Saint Helens was competing for the advantage of being the seaport of Oregon. It was on the land claim of H. M. Knighton, an immigrant of 1845. Gray, a Dane, was the chief founder. Bancroft, Oregon, II, 251.
* ↑ Probably James Wilson. Swan, in Three Years on the Northwest Coast, 64, says he had settled at the portage, and afforded assistance to travelers, going or coming to the bay.
* ↑ Willapa.
* ↑ "In the spring innumerable shoals of herring visit the bay, and are readily caught by the Indians, either with nets, or in weirs and traps, rudely constructed of twigs and brush;" Swan, 27.
* ↑ A controversy in which the Catholic church, the Hudson's Bay Company and the United States were involved as claimants of 640 acres of land; see Report of Isaac N. Ebey to Governor Stevens in 33rd Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Executive Document 37, 1855.)
* ↑ Probably the United States coast survey under George Davidson.
* ↑ In the following letter he says that this was a false report. There seems to have been some reason for the rumor, however, as in the Oregon Statesman, May 28, 1853, and in the Oregonian, May 14, 1853, is an order from Major Alvord warning immigrants not to settle in the Indian country east of the Cascades until permitted by treaty with the tribes there. An advertisement for the steamer Allan in the Oregonian, June 11, 1853, and later issues, is headed "Indian Difficulty Settled, Cascades and Dalles."
* ↑ Alonzo A. Skinner came to Oregon in 1845; was a judge under the provisional government; was a candidate for congressional delegate against Lane in 1853; judge of the second judicial district of Oregon, 1869-70; died April 30, 1877; Scott, History of the Oregon Country, V, 254.
* ↑ "Governor Lane, with a large party of his admirers, left here on the steamer Multnomah, on Sunday morning last, with a band of music and much noise and confusion, on his way to Salem;" Oregonian, May 21, 1853.
* ↑ "Mr. Ferguson, a member of the company [Willamette Falls Canal, Milling and Transportation Company] incorporated for the purpose of constructing a canal and breakwater on the west side of the river, opposite this city [Oregon City], arrived from California on the last steamer, prepared for the immediate prosecution of his enterprise. The company design to erect extensive flouring and lumber mills. A number of 'gang saws' are to be introduced into the latter;" Oregon Statesman, March 28, 1853. The law incorporating the company is in Special Laws, 1852-53.
* ↑ The Oregonian, March 5, 1853, speaks of the Georgiana to be built for the Portland-Oregon City route; that of May 7, 1853, of the Shoalwater for the upper Willamette. The paper for July 9, 1853, says that the Portland was launched July 2; that of August 13, that the Canemah was launched August 11, and that for August 20, that Belle of Oregon was launched August 18, at Oregon City. These may be the steamers meant. There is also a note of the completion of the steamboat Petona in the Oregonian, September 17, 1853.
* ↑ The first oysters in the San Francisco market were taken there from Astoria in 1851, by Charles J. W. Russell, of Pacific City. In the fall of the same year Captain Fieldsted took from Shoalwater Bay the first load of oysters to San Francisco; Swan, 25.
* ↑ The papers speak of gold mining in various places in the Cascades, near the base of Mount Hood and at the headwaters of the Santiam; Oregonian, June 18, August 13, 1853.