# The Centennial History of Oregon, 1811–1912/Volume 1/Chapter 10

CHAPTER X
1834—1844.
OREGON IGNORED BY U. S. GOVERNMENT—TREATY OF NON-OCCUPATION—NO MAN'S LAND THE OREGON TRAIL—OREGON IN CONGRESS FOR THE FIRST TIME ROUTE OF TRAIL LOCATED BY HUNT AND STUART—WHITMAN WITH THE FIRST WAGON ON THE TRAIL—IMMIGRATION OF 1843—PREPARATION FOR STARTING ON THE TRAIL CHARACTER OF THE IMMIGRANTS—BENEFITS OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT—THE RESULTS OF THE MISSIONS.
It will be seen from the preceding Chapter that there was nobody in the Oregon country inviting settlement; no real estate agents; no boom towns; no get-rich-quick schemes; no colonization schemes, and no government agents of any kind. The country was two thousand miles from the nearest American settlement on the Missouri river; and separated from it by thousands of miles of trackless plains, rugged mountains, inhospitable deserts, and savage tribes of Indians. Why should any American citizen with a family go to such a country as that? About all that anybody knew about Oregon that could be relied on before the emigration started, was to be found in the following brief notice of the country, in Mitchell's Common School Geography, of 1842, as follows:
"Oregon Territory is the most western part of the United States. It extends from the Rocky Jlountains to the Pacific Ocean, and contains an area greater than that of the whole southern states. Though claimed by the United States, the territory is at present actually in possession of Great Britain. The Hudson 's Bay Company have established forts at various points and exercise an unlimited control over the native Indians reckoned to amount to a population of eighty thousand."
Woodbridge's Geography, published by Oliver Cook and Co. of Hartford, Conn., in 1829, has no mention of Oregon; but classes the territory of Old Oregon in with and as a part of "Missouri Territory."
The emigration to Oregon actually commencing in the year 1843, was one of the most remarkable movements in all history. Neither the pioneers who wrought the great work, or their descendants who have lived to see its great results, have ever comprehended the full force of the great achievement. Moved by an impulse which they did not detect the origin of, and over which they seemed to have had no control or ability to foresee its possible failure or success, the pioneers of 1843 accomplished a result equal to the founding of ancient Rome or the colonization of the Atlantic coast by the Puritans of the North and the Cavaliers of the South. The goal to be obtained was neither wealth, power, selfish isolation, a new faith, cult, government, or destruction of enemies. And neither time, toils, distance, hardships, savage tribes and enemies, or deadly pestilence could stay or defeat it. The poet ​Whittier has immortalized the pioneers from the Ohio valley states who rushed to Kansas to make that free territory; but they suffered no hardships to be compared with those who came to Oregon fifteen years before the battles in Kansas. The immigrants to Kansas traveled through a settled country, and could sleep in a comfortable farm house every night if they chose. B^^t the Oregon pioneers trudged alongside their oxen for two thousand miles through trackless plains, burning deserts and frowning mountains without a single friendly roof to protect them or their wives and little children. The colonizers of Kansas are not to be mentioned in the same generation with the pioneers of Oregon; and the glowing lines of Whittier belong to the Oregonians, for they, indeed, and in truth
Their fathers crossed the sea;
To make the "West, as they the East,
The homestead of the free."
WHAT STARTED THE IMMIGRATION TO OREGON?
The first known and recorded tangible effort to induce immigration to Oregon started in the year 1817; and the author of it was Hall Jackson Kelley of Boston, Mass., a digger into unusual and out-of-the-Avay places for knowledge and information on many subjects. Kelley will appear in several places in this History as he well deserves to appear. At that date (1817) Wilson Price Hunt, Ramsay Crooks and Russell Parnham, of Astor's unfortunate venture to Astoria, had all got safely back to the States and given their experiences to the public. To Kelley 's fruitful imagination their accounts of Oregon was like the discovery of a new world; and he at once plunged into the "Oregon Question" with his whole soul. He- read everything on the subject; and then organized a society in 1829, and had it incorporated by the legislature of the state of Massachusetts as "The American Society for the settlement of the Oregon Territory." And through this organization, and as Secretary and manager of it, Kelley carried on his work of promoting the interests of Oregon. He was in truth and fact the first great Oregon promoter. Kelley was indefatigable in promoting his grand scheme; and in 1831, after gathering all the information obtainable, he drafted and presented to Congress in the name of his society, a memorial reciting that the society was "engaged in the work of opening to a civilized and virtuous population that part of Western America called Oregon." And among other statements in the memorial is, that they, the memorialists, "are convinced that if the country should be settled under the auspices of the United States from such of her worthy sons who have drunk the spirit of those civil and religious institutions which constitute the living fountain and the very perennial source of her national prosperity, great benefits must result to mankind. They believe that there, the skillful and persevering hand of industry might be employed with unparalleled advantage; that there science and the arts, the invaluable privilege of a free and liberal government, and the refinement and ordinances of Christianity, diffusing each its blessing, would harmoniously unite in ameliorating the moral condition of the Indians, in promoting the comfort and happiness of the settlers, and in augmenting the wealth and power of the Republic. * * * The country in question is the most valuable of all the ​unoccupied portions of the earth, and designed by Providenee to be the resilience of a people whose singular advantages will give them unexampled power and prosperity. * * * That these things have settled in the policy of the British nation the determined purpose of possessing and enjoying the country as their own, and which has induced their parliament to confer on the Hudson's Bay Company authority to settle and occupy the fertile banks of the Columbia."
Hero was an appeal for settlers a long ways ahead of the boom literature to sell sage brush and town lots in Oregon, Washington or Idaho in the year 1912; — ahead, because the promoters are not planning to make money for themselves, but to save Oregon to the United States.
Kelley followed up this appeal to Congress with circulars and pamphlets circulated all over the New England states to create a public sentiment that might influence the action of Congress. But nothing was effected in that direction beyond filling senators and congressmen up with material to make buncombe speeches on the Oregon question. One of Kelley 's circulars was entitled "A general circular to all persons of good character who wish to emigrate to the Oregon Territory, enbracing some account of the character and advantages of the country; the right and the means and operations by which it is to be settled, and all necessary directions for becoming an emigrant. Hall J. Kelley, general agent." That this work did start the first commercial expedition to Oregon, after the disastrous failures of Winship and Astor, there can be no doubt. Nathaniel J. Wyeth's expedition overland to Oregon in 1832, was, as "Wyeth says in his account of it, '"roused to it by the writings of Hall J. Kelley." In addition to this, the information that Kelley had gathered up was the basis on which Methodist and American Board churches acted when they decided to send missionaries to Oregon to convert the heathen. Kelley's information about Oregon, and his appeal for settlers to come here had been before the churches, and before everybody in the New England states for ten years before the churches took steps to send missionaries to Oregon. But when the four Indian chiefs went from Oregon to St. Louis to find the "White Man's Book of Heaven" in 1831, it was such a pathetic appeal and dramatic incident that it caught the attention and inspired the action of the churches immediately. And although Kelley was then on his way to Oregon across Mexico, his old pamphlets and circulars were hunted up for information about Oregon and as a result the first missionary party to Oregon (The Methodist) composed of Jason Lee, his cousin, Daniel Lee, Cyrus Shepard and P. L. Edwards came out with Wyeth on his second expedition in 1834. he (Wyeth) having been made a convert to Oregon colonization by Hall J. Kelley. Along with Wyeth came a large party of employees, and some of them settled in the country. Hall J. Kelley came himself in 1834, coming through Mexico and California. The Rev. Samuel Parker as advance agent of the American Board missions came out in 1835. Dr. Marcus Whitman and wife, Rev. H. H. Spalding and wife, and W. H. Gray came out as American Board missionaries in 1836. Stragglers came in after this from time to time. The Catholic missionaries Blanchet and Demers came in 1838. Employees of the Hudson's Bay Co., and independent trappers came in annually, but none of these could be considered a part of the emigration to Oregon that settled the status of the country.
​At the close of 1837, the independent population of Oregon consisted of forty- nine souls, about equally divided between missionary attaches and settlers. With but few exceptions the arrivals during the next two years were solely of persons connected with the various missions, whose advent has already been noted. Those coming in 1839 were. Rev. J. S. Griffin and wife, and Mr. Asahel Munger and wife, who made an unsuccessful effort to found an independent mission on Snake river, and Rev. Ben. Wright, Robert Shortess, Sidnej^ Smith, Lawson, Keizer, Geiger, and John Edmunds Pickernell. By adding the following list oC arrivals in 1840, to those previously mentioned, the population of Oregon at that time will be quite accurately listed. Mr. Gray thus summarizes the arrivals of that season : —
"In 1840 — Methodist Episcopal Protestant Mission — Mrs. Lee, second wife of Rev. Jason Lee ; Rev. J. H. Frost and wife ; Rev. A. F. Waller, wife and two children ; Rev. W. W. Kone and wife ; Rev. Gustavus Hines, wife and sister ; Rev. L. H. Judson, wife and two children ; Rev. J. L. Parrish, wife and three children ; Rev. J. P. Richmond, wife and three children ; Rev. A. P. Olley and wife. Lay men — Mr. Geo. Abernethy, wife and two children ; Mr. Hamilton Campbell, wife and one child ; Mr. W. W. Raymond and wife ; Mr. H. B. Brewer and wife ; Dr. Ira L. Babcock, wife and one child ; Miss Maria T. Ware, jMiss Orpha Lankton, Miss Almira Phelps, and Miss E. Phillips. Independent Protestant Missions — Rev. Harvey Clark and wife ; Rev. P. B. Littlejohn and wife ; Robert Moore, James Cook, and James (Travers according to Judge Deady) Fletcher, settlers. Jesuit Priests — P. J. De Smet, Flathead Mission. Rocky mountain men with native wives — ^William Craig, Doctor Robert Newell, Joseph L. Meek, George W. Eb- berts, William M. Doughty, John Larison, George Wilkinson, a Mr. Nicholson, and Mr. Algear, and William Johnson, author of the novel, "Leni Leoti, or The Prairie Flower." The subject was first written and read before the Lyceum at Oregon City, in 1843.
Gray classifies the population as follows : American settlers, twenty-five of them with Indian wives, 36 ; American women, 33 ; children, 32 ; lay members, Protestant Missions, 13 ; Methodist Ministers, 13 ; Congregational, 6 ; American Physicians, 3 ; English Physicians, 1 ; Jesuit priests, including De Smet, 3 ; Canadian French, 60. Total Americ<ins, 137 ; total Canadians, including priests, 63 ; total population, not including Hudson 's Bay Company operatives, within what is now all of Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and a part of Montana, was 200.
In 1842 an addition of about fifty Americans over the age of eighteen came in of which a complete list will be given hereafter in this chapter.
The condition of the valley and the settlers, when these emigrants arrived, is thus described by Medorem Crawford : —
"On the fifth day of October our little party, tired, ragged and hungry, ar- rived at the Palls, now Oregon City, where we found the first habitations west of the Cascade mountains. Here several members of the Methodist Mission were located, and a saw mill was being erected on the island. Our gratification on ar- riving safely after so long and perilous a journey , was shared by these hospitable people, each of whom seemed anxious to give us a hearty welcome and render us every assistance in their power. From the Falls to Vancouver was a trackless wilderness, communication being only by the river in small boats and canoes.
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plains, where a few settlors, mostly from Red River, had loeated. Within the present limits of- Yamhill County, the only settlers I can remember were Sidney Smith, Amos Cook. Francis Fletfher, James O'Neil, Joseph McLoughlin, — Williams, Louis La Bonte, and George Gay.
The emigration to Oregon had not yet started. These few men could only be considered the "scouts" looking out a country in the hands of their enemies. And according to the well settled English belief at that time the country never could be settled by the ox team fellows. John Dunn, a clerk in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company, wrote a book about Oregon at that time in which he says : ' ' None but the wild and fearless tree-trapers can clamber over those moun- tain precipices and tread these deserts with security. It is true that there have liceii published more favorable accounts within the last year or two by parties who have made the joiirney safely, and who encourage others to make a similar ex- periment, but these accounts are mere bravado." In 1843, the Edinburgh Re- view (British) said: "However the political question between England and the United States, as to the owaiership of Oregon may be decided, Oregon will never be colonized overland from the United States. The world must assume a new phase before the American wagons will make plain the road to Columbia, as they have done to the Ohio." And at the same time the British were ridiculing the efforts to get American settlers into Oregon, a precious little squad of United States senators were burning up the country in the halls of Congress. Says Senator Dayton, of New Jersey :
"I trust I may be pardoned here for reading an extract from a western paper of recent date — Louisville Journal — republished in the National Intelligencer, of this city. Here it is : "What there is in the territory of Oregon to tempt our national cupidity, no one can tell. Of all the countries on the face of the earth, it is one of the least favored of heaven. It is the mere riddling of creation. It is almost as barren as the desert of Africa, and quite as unhealthy as the Cam- pania of Italy. To leave the fertile and salubrious lands on this side of the Rocky mountains and to go beyond their snowy summits a thousand miles, to be exiled from law and society, and to endeavor to extort food from the unwilling sand heaps which are there called earth, is the maddest enterprise that has ever deluded foolish men. We would not be subjcted to the innumei-able and indescrib- able torture of a journey to Oi-egon for all the soil its savage hunters ever wan- dered over. The journey thither, from all accounts, is horrible enough, but it is paradise when contrasted with the wasting miseries which beset the wretched emigrant when he has reached a point where he fancied his unutterable woes were to cease, but where he finds they are to be increased beyond all endurance. Of the last party of emigrants that left Missouri for Oregon, eight died of star- vation before reaching Fort Hall, which is half-way to the country that is reckoned inhabitable by those who are af39icted with the Oregon mania.
"All the writers and travelers agree in representing Oregon as a vast extent of mountains and valleys of sand dotted over with green and cultivable spots. This is the representation given by Cox, Bonneville, Farnham and Hinds. Now that such a wretched territory should excite the hopes and the cupidity of citizens of the United States, inducing them to leave comfortable homes for the heaps of ​
sand is, indeed, passing strange. Russia has her Siberia, and England has her Botany Bay, and if the United States should ever use a country to which to banish its rogues and scoundrels, the utility of such a region as Oregon will be demon- strated. ' ' Mr. Dayton said : " I read the extract without adopting the sentiments as to the character of the country in the full extent; but this description in a paper of the west so widely circulated as the Louisville Journal, is evident to my mind that public sentiment there in behalf of the settlement of Oregon is not so universal as some gentlemen have presented it. "
In the face of all this the emigration did start for Oregon. And it will be a most interesting question to find out if we can what it was that induced the pioneers to undertake so long, so toilsome, and so dangerous a pilgrimage.
It would be a mistake to conclude that the people of the western states in the years of 1842, 3 and 4 did not know anything about Oregon because there was no mail route to Oregon in those days, and no telegraph lines anywhere, and no boom land companies or daily papers to scatter the news. What little news that did get back to the States from the missionaries and straggling adventurers once in a year, came as if from ' ' wonderland ' ' and was read and passed from house to house and printed in all the western pioneer papers. The writer of this book remembers reading in the county paper in 1844 a letter from Oregon, that every- body else read and talked about, because there was a statement by the writer of the letter that the air in the Willamette valley was so pure and clear that he had seen distinctly a tree at a distance of twenty-five miles. Few, if any, believed the tree story ; but that same reader of that letter after coming to Oregon fifty years ago verified the truth of that letter by seeing himself that same tree distinctly at a distance of twenty-five miles — the tree being on the top of the ridge east of the town of Amity and the observer (along with Ben. Branson) being on the high bare hill in the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation. This is mentioned to show how facts about Oregon took hold of the imagination of the people of the western states and fixed their attention upon this country.
The effort of Congressman John Floyd, of Virginia, to secure action of our government in Oregon has already been referred to on the subject of the Title. But there is another aspect to Floyd 's work. To move the government to act on the title to the country, Floyd must show Congress that Oregon was worth fight- ing for. The history of Floyd's labors for this country shows that he was a far- seeing statesman. He originated problems then that have been verified by time. Floyd argued that the country was worth saving to the nation because of the rich trade that could be developed out of the furs and fisheries ; and out of the wealth of timber, citing the fact that at that early day a cargo of spars had been shipped from the Columbia river to Valparaiso. That was probably the first shipment of timber or lumber from Oregon. Floyd went on in his report to show that by settling this country we could control the trade to China, Japan and the Orient; and that a whaling fishery station at the mouth of the Columbia river would con- trol the whale fisheries off the Pacific which would increase the trade of the country a million dollars a year. Floyd's bill to carry out his patriotic efforts for Oregon finally came to a vote in 1829, and was defeated in the House of Rep- resentatives — yeas seventy-five, nays, ninety-nine. But Floyd's agitation brought to the surface several private schemes. Three thousand persons in Massachu- setts, members of Hall J. Kelley's Company, had petitioned Congress for grants ​
of land ; Albert Town and others in the State of Ohio had asked for a large tract to settle upon; and John M. Bradford and others of Louisiana had asked for a grant of one million and twenty-four thousand acres of Oregon land in which to found a colony. These propositions were all voted down by Congress as being incompatible ■with Republican principles to make special grants to anybody. Floyd's term expired in 1829, and thus ended the efforts of Oregon's first friend in Congress to help this country.
Nothing more is heard in Congress about the settlement of Oregon until Sen- ator Lewis F. Linn, introduces his first bill in 1838 ; which proposed to organize "The Oregon Territory;" occupy the Columbia Valley; erect a fort on the Co- lumbia river with a military force ; establish a port of entry ; and hold the coun- try for the United States.
In his report to support his proposition Linn advanced all the arguments put forth by Floyd ten years before, and then added another which shows he was just about seventy-five years ahead of the statesmen of our day. lie dwelt on the importance of a harbor on the northwest coast of America where the whaling fleet of the Pacific might refit, .iust as Floyd had, and then prophesied "That direct communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific would soon be opened by a canal across the isthmus of Darien, by which the whole trade of the Eastern Hemisphere would be changed in its course, which would be then toward the shores of North America." But the Congress of the United States was not yet awake and Linn's bill was defeated in the Senate. But Linn's work had brought before the country a mass of information about Oregon, which was readily picked up by ambitious and adventurous men throughout the west who saw visions and dreamed dreams of founding an empire on the Pacific as their forefathei's had on the Atlantic. And about this same time Caleb Cushing, a very able and dis- tinguished man in his time and a member of Congress from Massachusetts, as the chairman of the committee on foreign affairs, to which had been referred the Jason Lee Memorial of 1839, and other documents about Oregon, made a lengthy and exhaustive report on the Oregon question, of which report ten thousand copies were printed in addition to five thousand copies of Senator Linn's speech, and all scattered over the country. It is said that this report educated the people to an exalted idea of the value of Oregon, and at the same time incited a hatred of the British traders who had kept the Americans out of the fur trade in that country. Here then is found the foundation of the wide spread interest in Old Oregon which prevailed throughtout the Eastern States, and specially in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. Only one thing more was necessai-y to fire the train, and set it in mo'tion towards Oregon. And we soon find that.
On the 31st of March, 1840, Senator Linn reported back to the Senate a sub- stitute for his former proposition, asserting the title of the United States to Oregon, authorizing the President to take such measures as was necessary to pro- tect the persons and property of Am'erican citizens in Oregon, to erect a line of military posts from the Missouri river to the Rocky Mountains, and granting to each white male inhabitant over eighteen years of age one thousand acres of land. This proposition was followed up by a petition from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, a.«king Congress to plant a colony in Oregon and give the colonists lands ; and by another petition from forty-four citizens from Indiana asking for a grant of lands within a strip of ten miles on each side of the Willamette River, so the settlers ​
could have the benefit of free transportation on the river, and in the same peti- tion they protested against cutting the Isthmus canal, evidently thinking it a short job that might be slipped through before they could stop it. And while they opposed the canal, they wanted Congress to build "a great national road to the Pacific." Another memorial came from the Missouri asking for a grant of lands to settlers in Oregon. But one thing more was necessary, and Senator Linn soon supplied that in a new bill he introduced into the Senate on December 16, 1841, in which it was declared most emphatically that the United States would never give up Oregon to the British, that Joint Occupancy must be terminated at once, and measures taken to occupy and settle the country under the laws of the United States — and that six hundred and forty acres of, land must be given to every white American settler over eighteen years of age who would go to Oregon and settle and stay on the land for five years.
WHY DID THE MISSOURIANS COME TO OREGON ?
Here, then, is found in the reports of Cushing and Linn, the three motives that put the Missourians and other westerners on the Trail to Oregon : First, That Oregon was the best country in the world ; second, that the British were trying to steal it from the lawful owners — The Americans; and third, a gift of a square mile of land to each settler. The Oregonians of 1912 cannot comprehend the in- fluences that so powerfully aifected their forefathers. There were yet in 1840 throughout the west, old Revolutionary soldiers, bent with age, but full of the fire that carried them through the seven years war to achieve American Inde- pendence. There were also the heroes, all through the west, who had fought with Jackson, at New Orleans and hurled back the British red coats in the most decisive battle ever fought on the American continent. The sons and daughters of these old soldiers had inherited their courage and their ambition to strike a blow at "Old England" whenever the excuse could be found. The gift of 640 acres of rich land — that was the wonder. Up to that time every settler in the west had bought his land from the Government and paid for it in hard cash ; the only exception being the lands given to the revolutionary soldiers for military services, and the land warrants to the soldiers in the war of 1812. The home- stead law giving 160 acres to actual settlers for five years settlement and cultiva- tion was not passed by Congress until twenty years after the great rush to Oregon. The free land and the chance to drive the British out of Oregon were the moving causes that settled Oregon before the title to it was settled.. It is said that Jesse Applegate declared in starting to Oregon in 1843, "That he was going to Oregon to drive out the British. ' ' It may be that ' ' Uncle Jesse ' ' never said that. But if he did say it, he knew he was only voicing the wishes of all the people in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. It has been suggested by some historians, that the great financial panic of 1837 which broke all the banks in the west and financially ruined many thousands of men, was the cause of many persons coming to Oregon. This supposition is not entitled to any credit. For while that financial trouble compelled thoiisands of good men to make a new start in life, and gave them the opportunity to go anywhere to do so, it could hardly have sent many to Oregon. There were plenty of opportunities in the new territories of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Kansas next door to Missouri, with land just as good as any in ​
Oregon. The Oregon field offered adventure, the gratifieation of a national i)re- .liuiice. and free land, and set on foot one of the most unique and t'ar-reaeliing in inflnencc iiiovomcnts of popidation the world has seen since the discovery of America.
AVJIAT SORT OK PEOPLE STARTED FOR OREGON ?
What were the (lualifieations of person or property which selected or limited the emigrants to Oregon ? The movement was not a land speculation, although every family expected to get free land as a homestead. There was no corpora- tion, capital or investment at the bottom of or back of the movement. There were no rich men in the caravan, and no helpless poor. In those days on the pioneer border the distinctions of wealth or social position had no place. Some men had more personal gear in horses and oxen than others, but very few had any money. There might have been a few, yet there is no evidence that there was, men wiio were burdened with debts they could not pay. One of the most honored of the pioneers, and who. after serving Oregon most acceptably in its pioneer govern- ment, became govei-nor of California, frankly stated that he went to the California gold mines to get the means to pay his debts, and which he did pay to the utmost farthing. He had left Missouri with the consent and approval of creditors who wished him well in his venture to Oregon. So far as wealth was concerned, the pioneers were practically all on the same level. Some of them had to sell every- thing to s(iuare with the world before they could make the move. Mr. G. C. Rob- bins, for a long time, a prominent citizen in Oregon and Idaho gives the case of his father and the pathetic parting with faithful servants as follows :
"The Black Hawk Indian war ruined my father's trade, a merchant, which was mostly with the Indians. My father was in debt and was compelled to sell his property to pay his debts. Most of his property consisted of his negro slaves. Aunt Morning, her husband. Uncle Dave, and their daughter. Charity, who were our house servants, were taken with our field hands and placed on the block in front of the court house in St. Louis, and auctioned off to the highest bidder. This was my first knowledge of the darker side of slavery, and when I saw Aunt Morning, whom I loved as much as I did my mother, sold under the hammer, and then taken to the slave pen, I was inconsolable. I hung around the slave pen all day peeking through the palings to get a glimpse of Aunt Morning and Uncle Dave. Finally the pen-keeper warned me to stay away, and when I returned, he struck at me with his long black-snake, and Aunt Morning begged me not to come back. When I saw her vdth the rest of our servants and about fifty other slaves, handcuffed to a chain and marched, in charge of a guard armed with guns and whips, aboard a steamer bound for New Orleans and con- signed to a speculator to be sold to the sugar planters, my cup of woe was full and I took a dislike for slavery which I never was able to overcome.
Inasmuch as there has been a great deal of discussion in time past about where the early settlers of Oregon were born the following statement is made by George H. Himes, secretary of the Oregon Pioneer Association for twenty- eight years, and assistant secretary of the Oregon Historical Society since its organization in December, 1898: From infonnation secured in person from pioneers of Oregon during the past twenty-eight yeai-s. and now checked up for the first time. I find that out of 7.444 pioneers who came to Ore ​gon before
1859, ninety-five per cent of whom came before 185-4, fifty-six i^er cent were born in tlie northern states, thirty-three per cent in the southern states, and eleven per cent in twenty-one foreign countries. It is my belief that the above ratio will hold good, substantially, in respect to the population of 52,465 which Oregon is credited with by the U. S. census of 1860. It is true that more persons came from Missouri to Oregon than .from any other one state, but a large proportion of them were born in other states, and began moving west- ward by easy stages, until at length Missouri was reached, and then final prepara- tions were made to cover the last stretch of territory that must be crossed before reaching the Pacific ocean.
The emigrants were nearly all from pioneer farms ; they knew how to ' ' rough it," knew how to make the best and the most of what little of this world's goods they possessed. And they were not miserable and unhappy because they were not rich. They were hopeful, cheerful, and happy in the prospect of better things, and full of courage to make the herculean effort to get to Oregon. They were also a hardy, vigorous lot of men and women, with children that could ride horses, run races, and take a part in the strenuous life of a pioneer settlement. The great labor, trial and long continued exertion for a two thousand mile trip which must face exhausting toil day after day for six months, that must submit to thirst, heat, dust, sleep in the open and push ahead every day and all day rain or shine, naturally and efl:ectually debarred the weak, infirm or diseased from attempt- ing the trip. They all had more or less of the three R's of a log school house edu- cation — "Reading, 'Riting and 'Rithmetic."
What they lacked in book learning was made up in strong common sense and practical experience in life. The first big train of emigrants contained one lawyer, one surveyor, and one doctor, and half a dozen country exhorterS and preachers. The schoolmaster was conspicuous by his absence. It was now force, power, push, courage, endurance to the last — or wretched failure. The pioneers on the Oregon trail risked everything — and won. One of them, only a boy that witnessed the motley throng, later in life sketched those heroic figures in forceful lines :
"What strong, uncommon men were these —
These settlers hewing to the seas !
Great hornj'-handed men, and tan —
Their wretchedness held in the van.
Yet every man among them stood
Alone, along that sounding wood.
And every man — somehow a Man,
They pushed the matted wood aside,
They tossed the forest like a toy ;
That grand, forgotten race of men —
The boldest band that yet has been
Together, since the siege of Troy !
WHAT WAS THE OUTFIT?
The following were the requirements of emigrants who came to Oregon in 1843, driving ox teams, as specified by Peter H. Burnett, one of the men who
​"The wagons for this trip should be two-horse wagons, plain yankee beds, the running gear made of good materials, and fine workmanship, with falling tongues; and all in a state of good repair. A few extra iron bolts, linch pins, skeins, paint bands, for the axle, one cold chisel, a .few pounds of wrought nails, assorted, several papers of cut tacks, and some hoop iron, and a punch for making holes in the hoop iron, a few chisels, handsaw, drawing knife, axes, and tools generally; it would be well to bring, especially, augers, as they may be needed on the way for repairing. All light tools that a man has, that do not weigh too much, he ought to bring. Palling tongues are greatly superior to others, though both will do. You frequently pass across hollows that have very steep, but short banks, where falling tongues are preferable, and there are no trees on the way to break them. The wagon sheets should be double and not painted, as that makes them break. The wagon bows should be well made and strong, and it is best to have sideboards, and have the upper edge of the wagon body beveled outward, so that the water running down the wagon sheet, when it strikes the body, may run down on the outside; and it is well to have the bottom of the bed beveled in the same way, that the water may not run inside the wagon. Having your wagons well prepared, they are as secure, almost, as a house. Tents and wagon sheets are best made of heavy brown cotton drilling, and will last well all the way.
"Beware of heavy wagons, as they break down your teams for no purpose, and you will not need them. Light wagons will carry all you want, as there is nothing to break them down, no logs, no stumps, no rock, until you get more than half way, when your load is so much reduced, that there is then no danger. You see no stumps on the road until you get to Burnt River, and very few there, no rock until you get into the Black Hills, and only there for a short distance, and not bad, and then you see none until you reach the Great Soda Spring, on Bear River — at least none of any consequence. If an individual should have several wagons, some good and some ordinary, he might start with all of them; and his ordinary wagons will go to the mountains, where his load will be so reduced that his other wagons will do. It is not necessary to bring along an extra axletree, as you will rarely break one. A few pieces of well seasoned hickory, for the wedges and the like, you ought to bring.
"Teams:— The best teams for this trip are ox teams. Let the oxen be from three to five years old, well set and compactly built; just such oxen as are best for uses at home. They should not be too heavy; as their feet will not bear the trip so well; but oxen six, seven and eight years old, some of them very large, stood the trip last year very well, but not so well in general as the younger and lighter ones. Young cows make just as good a team as any. It is the travel and not the pulling that tires your team, until after you reach Fort Hall. If you have cows for a team, it requires more of them in bad roads, but they stand the trip equally as well, if not better, than oxen. We fully tested the ox and mule teams, and we found the ox teams greatly superior. One ox will pull as much as two mules, and, in mud, as much as four. They are more easily managed, are not so subject to be lost or broken down on the way, cost less at the start; and are worth about four times as much here. The ox is a most noble animal, patient, thrifty, durable, gentle, and easily driven, and does not run off. Those who come to this country will be in love with their oxen by the time they reach here. The ox will ​
Vol. I— 16
plunge through the mud, swim over streams, dive into thickets, and climb moun- tains to get at the grass, and he will eat almost anything.
"Milch cows on the road are exceedingly useful, as they give an abundance of milk all the way, though less toward the close of it. By making what is called thickened milk on the way, a great saving of flour is effected, and it is a most rich and delicious food, especially for the children.
"Provisions: — One hundred and forty pounds of flour, forty pounds of bacon to each person. Besides this, as much dried fruit, rice, corn meal, parched corn, meal, and raw corn, peas, sugar, tea, eofi'ee, and such like articles as you can well bring. Flour will keep sweet the whole trip, corn meal to the mountains, and parched corn meal all the way. The flour and meal ought to be put in sacks or light barrels; and what they call shorts are just as good as the finest flour, and will perhaps keep better ; but I do not remember of any flour being spoiled on the way. The parched corn meal is excellent to make soup. Dried fruit is excellent. A few beef cattle to kill on the way, or fat calves, are very useful, as you need fresh meat.
"The loading should consist mostly of provisions. Emigrants should not burden themselves with furniture, or many beds ; and a few light trunks, or very light boxes, might be brought to pack clothes in. Trunks are best, but they should be light. All heavy articles should be left, except a few cooking vessels, one shovel, and a pair of pot hooks. Clothes enough to last a year, and several pair of strong, heavy shoes to each person, it will be well to bring. If you are heavily loaded let the quantity of sugar and coffee be small, as milk is preferable and does not have to be hauled. You should have a water keg, and a tin canister made like a powder canister to hold your milk in ; a few tin cups, tin plates, tin saucers, and butcher knives ; and there should be a small grindstone in company, as the tools become dull on the way. Many other articles may be useful. Rifles and shot- guns, pistols, powder, lead and shot, I need hardly say are useful, and some of them necessary on the road, and sell well here. A rifle that would cost $20.00 in the States is worth $50.00 here, and shotguns in proportion.
"Companies of from forty to fifty wagons are large enough. Americans are prone to differ in opinion, and large companies become unwieldy, and the stock become more troublesome. In driving stock to this country, about one in ten is lost, not more. Having started, the best way to save the teams is to drive a rea- sonable distance every day, and stop about an hour befoi-e sundown. This gives time for arranging the camp, and for the teams to rest and eat before it is dark. About eight hours' drive is long days — resting one hour at noon — I think is enough. Never drive irregularly, if you can avoid it. On Platte River, Bear River, and Boise River, and in many other places, you can camp at any point you please ; but at other places on the way you will be compelled to drive hard some days to get water and range. Wlien you reach the buffalo country never stop your wagons to hunt, as you will eat up more provisions than you wall save. It is true, you can kill buffalo, but they are always far from camp, and the weather is too warm to save much of it. When you reach the country of game, those who have good horses can keep the company in fresh meat. If an individual wishes to have great amusement hunting the buffalo, he had better have an extra horse, and not use him until he reaches the buffalo region. Buffalo hunting is very hard upon horses, and emigrants had better be cautious how they unnecessarily break ​
THE CENTENNIAL HISTORYV OKKUON 24:j
down tliuir horses. A prudent t'iirc should be taUeii oL' horses, teams and pro- visions, from the start. Nothing should be wasted or thrown away that ean be eaten. li" a prudent course is taken, the trip can be made, in ordinary seasons, in four months. It took ns longer; but we lost a great deal of lime on llie road, and had the way to break. ' '
A mountain man known to travelers as Major Harris, and to the plainsmen as "Black Harris" in company with another :Missouri warrior known to fame as Major Adams, gives the following list for an outfit to Oregon :
"Every man should be provided at least with a good rifle, six pounds of I)owder and twelve pounds of lead. The best size bore for a rifle is forty to the pound. This size will easily kill buffalo, but a smaller calibre will be better suited for the game west of the mountains. Each person should have at least one hun- dred and forty pounds of bacon, one hundred and fifty pounds of flour, ten pounds of salt, twenty pounds coil'ee, twenty pounds sugar. It would do well for several persons to constitute a mess, each mess to be provided with a small tent and cook- ing utensils. Mules are much better to endure this trip than horses, though a horse is very useful in running buffalo. A horse, to be of use in hunting, might be kept for that express purpose."
Medorem Crawford who came aci-oss the plains in 1842, and was one of the men who formed the Provisional Government, gives a list of goods and trinkets he brought along to trade with the Indians as follows :
P.\CK NO. 1
Pr. Blankets, Tobacco, 1 Bunch Glass Beads, 1 Bunch Fancy White, 1 Bunch Garnishing White, 2 Doz. Butcher Knives, 1 Bunch Blue Agate lieads, 1 Bunch Garnishing Blue, 1 Bunch Fish Hooks, 1 Piece Blue Cloth, Tobacco, Powder, Glass Beads. Fancy White B. Garnishing, B. White, Butcher Knives, Blue Agate Beads, 1 Blue Garnishing Beads, Fish Hooks, Blue Cloth, Crawford's Clothes, 2 Bunch Bells, Rice, Flints, 2 Gross Rings, 2 Doz. Looking Glasses, 1 Blue Garnishing Beads, Crocker's Clothes, Red Cloth, Lead.
PACK NO. 2
Crawford's Clothes, Crocker's Clothes, 1 Blanket, 2 Bunches Bells, Rice and Flints, 2 Gross Rings, 2 Doz. Looking Glasses, 1 Doz. Garnishing Beads, 1 Piece Red Cloth, Bar Lead.
S. M. Gilmore, who came across in 1843, and after the experience of that trip wrote back to friends in Missouri from Vancouver under date of November 11th, 1843, his advice to those planning to move to Oregon, as follows:
"Your wagons should be light, yet substantial and strong, and a plenty of good oxen. Though I wrote while on the Sweetwater that mules were preferable, but after seeing them thoroughly tried I have become convinced that oxen are more preferable— they are the least trouble and stand traveling much the best — are worth a great deal more when here. Load your wagons light and put one-third more team to them than is necessary to pull the load. Bring nothing with you ex- cept provisions and a plenty of clothes to do you for one year from the time you leave. They can all be had on as good terms as in Missouri, and even better; ​
bring but few bedclothes, for they will be worn out when they arrive here — they can be had here on good terms. Your oxen will not require shoeing. Bring a plenty of loose cattle, cows, and heifers, particularly, as they are but little trouble, and are worth a great deal. Bring mules to drive your loose stock. Bring a few good American mares, but use them very tenderly, or you will not get them here. American horses are worth considerable in this country. Horses can not get here except they are well used, and you should have two or three pairs of shoes and nails for them and your mules. You should bring 200 pounds of flour, 100 pounds of bacon, for every member of the family that can eat, besides other provisions. Make no calculntion on getting buffalo or other wild meat, for you are only wast- ing time and killing horses and mules to get it. Have your wagon beds made in such a manner that they can be used for boats ; you will find them of great service in crossing streams — have your wagons well covered, so that they will not leak, or your provisions and clothes will spoil. Have your tents made water tight ; start as early as possible ; let your teams and stock all be in good order. Start as soon as your stock can get grass enough to travel on, for the grass will be getting better every day until you arrive at Port Hall ; after that you will find the grass bad in places until you get to the Blue Mountains. You will find plenty of grass from there to the Willamette Valley. Our cattle are in better order than they were one month ago. Large flintlock guns are good to traffic with the Snake Indians. Bring a plenty of cheap cotton shirts to trade to the Indians on this side of the mountains. You might start with calves and kill them on the way, before they get poor for fresh eating. You will find some beans, rice, and dried fruit of great use on the road. You should travel in companies of forty wagons, and continue to- gether the whole route. You will find some ship biscuit to be of great use at times when you can not find fuel sufficient to cook with.
' ' Be sure and bring nothing except what will be of material use to you on your journey, for, depend upon it, if you overload you will lose your team, wagon and goods. You will find good, stout, young cows to answer in place of oxen, in case you should not have sufficient ; let them be about middle size ; let them be good, sound oxen, that have never been injured. I am satisfied from the products of the country that a man can live easier here than he can in any part of the United States. If he raises any produce he is sure of getting a good price for it in any- thing he may call for, money excepted. There is very little money in this country, though it is very little use when a man can get anything he wants without it. The merchants here will sell their goods cheaper for produce or labor than they will sell for cash, because they make a profit on the commodities they purchase, while there is no profit on cash. In fact, business is done here altogether by exchanging commodities. We can purchase anything of the Hudson 's Bay Company cheaper by promising wheat next year than we can for cash in hand. Cows are worth (that is, American), from $30.00 to $50.00; American horses from $60.00 to $100.00; oxen $60.00 to $80.00; wheat, $1.00 per bushel; oats, 40 cents; potatoes, 40 cents ; peas the same ; beef, 6 cents ; pork, 10 cents ; butter, 20 cents ; common labor, $1.50; mechanics, $2.00 to $3.00.
' ' The next emigration will get their cattle and wagons through quite easy, if they will start early and travel constantly, though slow; they must not push."
"all aboard FOU OREGON"
The followiug notice was printed in the Western (Missouri) Journal, iMareh 15, 1845 :
"Mr. Editor: I wish to give notice, through your paper, to all those parties who intend to emigrate to Oregon, that ai-rangements have been made to cross the Missouri river at two diti'erent points, the one in Andrew, the other in Bu- chanan county. Some of the citizens of Andrew have made arrangements with the Sac Indians for the privilege of range, wood and water, opposite Elizabeth- town.
' ' They have promised the Indians six two-year-old beeves, to be jiaid by that portion of the Oregon company which may cross at Elizabethtown. This point is very suitable for ci-ossing the Missouri river. The rates are only about half what is usual at the common ferries on the Missouri.
"The company expect to rendezvous in the Indian country opposite Eliza- bethtovFn, between the first and tenth of April. A number of excellent citizens expect to cross at this place. This is the point from which a portion of the Ore- gon company started last spring. Taking all things into consideration, this is probably the best route to cross the Missouri at Elizabethtown (where there is an excellent large ferry-boat) and fall on the Platte, opposite the Pawnee village, and thence pass along up the south side of the Platte river.
' ' A Member of the Oregon Company ' '
THE rendezvous
Col. James W. Nesmith has given an account of the gathering of the clans at Fitzhugh's mill near Independence, Missouri, and this is copied as the best des- cription possible.
"Without orders from any quarter, and without preconcert, promptly as the grass began to start, the emigrants began to assemble near Independence, at a place called Fitzhugh's Mill. On the seventeenth day of May, 1843, notices were circulated through the ditt'erent encampments that on the succeeding day, those who contemplated emigrating to Oregon, would meet at a designated point to organize. Promptly at the appointed hour the motley groups assembled. They consisted of people from all the States and Tei'ritories, and nearly all nation- alities; the most, however, from Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa, and all strangers to one another, but impressed with some crude idea that there existed an imperative necessity for some kind of an organization for mutual protection against the hostile Indians inhabiting the great unknown wilderness stretching away to the shores of the Pacific, and which they were about to traverse, with their wives and children, household goods, and all their earthly possessions.
]Many of the emigrants were from the western tier of counties of .Missouri, known as the Platte Purchase, and among them was Peter II. Purnett, a former merchant wdio had abandoned the yard-stick and become a lawyer of some celeb- rity for his ability as a smooth-tongued advocate. He subsequently emigrated to California, and was elected the first governor of the Golden State, was after- ward chief justice and still an honored resident of that State. ^w. Burnett, or as he was familiarly designated "Pete," w-as called upon for a speech. ​Mount-
ing a log, the glib-tongued orator delivered a glowing, florid address. He com- meuced bj' showing his audience that the then western tier of states and terri- tories was over-crowded with a redundant population, who had not sufficient elbow room for the expansion of their enterprise and genius, and it was a duty they owed to themselves and posterity to strike out in search of a more expanded field and more genial climate, where the soil yielded the richest return for the slightest amount of cultivation, where the trees were loaded with perennial fruit, and where a good substitute for bread, called lacamas, grew in the ground, salmon and other fish crowded the streams, and where the principal labor of the settler would be confined to keeping their gardens free from the inroads of buffalo, elk, deer, and wild turkeys. He appealed to our patriotism by pictur- ing forth the glorious empire we would establish on the shores of the Paciiic. How, with our trusty rifles, we would drive out the British usurpers who claimed the soil, and defend the country from the avarice and pretensions of the British lion, and how posterity would honor us for placing the fairest portion of our land under the dominion of the Stars and Stripes. He concluded with a slight allusion to the trials and hardships incident to the trip, and dangers to be en- countered from hostile Indians, on the route, and those inhabiting the country whither we were bound. He furthermore intimated a desire to look upon the tribe of noble "red men" that the valiant and well-armed crowd around could not vanquish in a single encounter.
Other speeches were made, full of glowing descriptions of the fair land of promise, the far-away-Oregon, which no one in the assemblage had even seen, and of which not more than half a dozen had ever read any account. After the election of Mr. Burnett as captain, and other necessary officers, the meeting, as motley and primitive as one ever assembled, adjourned, with "three cheers" for Captain Burnett and Oregon. On the 20th day of May, 1843, after a pretty thor- ough military organization, we took up our line of march; with Captain John Gantt, an old arm.y officer, who combined the ' character of trapper and moun- taineer, as our guide. Gantt had in his wanderings been as far as Green River, and assured us of the practicability of a wagon road thus far. Green River, the extent of our guide's knowledge in that direction, was not half-way to the Wil- lamette valley, the then only inhabited portion of Oregon. Beyond that we had not the slightest conjecture of the condition of the country. We went forth trusting to the future, and would doubtless have encountered more difficulties than we experienced had not Dr. Whitman overtaken us before we reached the terminus of our guide's knowledge. He was familiar with the whole route and was confident that wagons could pass through the canyons and gorges of Snake River and over the Blue Mountains, which the mountaineers in the vicinity of Fort Hall declared to be a physical impossibility.
"Captain Grant, then in charge of the Hudson's Bay Company, at Fort Hall, endeavored to dissuade us from proceeding further with our wagons, and showed us the wagons that the emigrants of the preceding year had abandoned as an evidence of the impracticability of our determination. Dr. Whitman was per- sistent in his assertions that wagons could proceed as far as the Grand Dalles of the Columbia River, from which point he asserted they could be taken down by rafts or batteaux to the Willamette Valley, while our stock could be driven
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Whitman's advice prevailed, and a large number of the wagons with a portion of the stock, did reach Walhi Walla and The Dalles, from which points they were taken to the Willamette the following year. Had we followed Grant's ad- vice and abandoned the cattle and wagons at Fort Hall, much suffering must have ensued, as a sufficient number of horses to carry the women and children of the party could not have been obtained, besides wagons, and cattle were in- dispensable to men expecting to live by farming in a country destitute of such articles.
"At Fort Hall we fell in with some Cayuse and Nez Perce Indians re- turning from the buffalo country, and as it was necessary for Dr. Whitman to precede us to Walla Walla, he recommended to us a guide in the person of an old Cayuse Indian called "Sticcus. " He was a faithful old fellow, perfectly familiar with all the trails and topography of the country from Fort Hall to The Dalles, and although not speaking a word of English, and no one in our party a word of Cayuse, he succeeded by pantomime in taking us over the roughest wagon route I ever saw. ' '
THE CARAVAN STARTS
There is no account of the work of the Pioneers so satisfactory as that of those who took part in it, the actual witnesses of the movement. Jesse Apple- gate, affectionately styled "Uncle Jesse," has written an account of the Immi- grant Train of 1843, of which he was a member, that is remarkable for its force and brevity. And from that account is taken the following extract :
"The migrating body numbered over one thousimd souls, with about V20 wagons, drawn by six ox teams averaging about six yokes (12 oxen) to the team, and sevei'al thousand loose horses and cattle. The emigrants first organized and attempted to travel in one body, but it was soon found that no progress could be made with a body so cumbrous, and as yet so avei"se to all discipline. At the crossing of the Big Blue River (in Kansas) the train divided into two columns, traveling within supporting distance of each other, in case of an attack by In- dians. * * *
"It is four o'clock A. M., the sentinels on duty have discharged their rifles — the signal that the houi-s of sleep are over — and every wagon and tent is pour- ing forth its night tenants, and slow-kindling smokes begin largely to rise and float away in the morning air. Sixty men start from the corral, spreading as the.y make through the vast herd of cattle antl horses, that form a semicircle around the encampment, the most distant perhaps two miles away.
"The herdei's pass to the extreme verge and carefully examine for trails be- yond, to see that none of the animals have strayed or been stolen during the night. This morning no trails led beyond the outside animals in sight, and by 5 o'clock the herders begin to contract the great moving circle, and the well- trained animals move slowly towards camp, clipping here and there a thistle or a tempting bunch of grass on the way. In about an hour five thousand ani- mals are close up to the encampment, and the teamsters are busy selecting their teams and driving them inside the corral to be yoked. The corral is a circle one hundred yards deep, formed with wagons connected strongly with each other; the wagon in the rear being connected with the wagon in front by ​its tongue and
ox chains. It is a strong barrier that the most vicious ox cannot break, and in case of an attack of the Sioux would be no contemptible entrenchment.
' ' From 6 to 7 'clock is a busy time ; breakfast is to be eaten, the tents stnick, the wagons loaded and the teams yoked and brought up in readiness to be at- tached to their respective wagons. All know when, at 7 o'clock, the signal to march sounds, that those not ready to take their proper places in the line of march, must fall into the dusty rear for the day.
"There are sixty wagons. They have been divided into fifteen divisions or platoons of four wagons each, and each platoon is entitled to lead in its turn. The leading platoon today will be the rear one tomorrow, and will bring up the rear unless some teamster, through indolence or negligence, has lost his place in the line, and is condemned to that uncomfortable post. It is within ten min- utes of seven, the corral but now a strong barricade is everywhere broken, the teams being attached to the wagons. The women and children have taken their places in them. The pilot (a borderer who has passed his life on the verge of civilization and has been chosen to the post of leader from his knowledge of the savage and his experience in travel through roadless wastes), stands ready in the midst of his pioneers and aids, to mount and lead the way. Ten or fifteen young men, not today on duty, form another cluster. They are ready to start on a buffalo hunt, are well mounted and well armed, as they need be, for the un- friendly Sioux have driven the buffalo out of the Platte, and the hunters must ride fifteen or twenty miles to reach them. The cow drivers are hastening, as they get ready, to the rear of their charges, to collect and prepare them for the day's march.
"It is on the stroke of seven ; the rush to and fro, the cracking of whips, the loud command to oxen, and what seemed to be the inextricable confusion of the last ten minutes, has ceased. Fortunately every one has been found and every teamster is at his post. The clear notes of a trumpet sound in the front ; the pilot and his guards mount their horses ; the leading division of the wagons move out of the encampment, and take up the line of march ; the rest fall into their places with the precision of clock work, until the spot so lately full of life sinks back into that solitude that seems to reign over the broad plain and rushing river as the caravan draws its lazy length towards the distant El Dorado. * * *
"They (the wagons) form a line three-quarters of a mile in length; some of the teamsters ride upon the front of their wagons ; some march beside their teams ; scattered along the line companies of women and children are taking exer- cise on foot ; they gather bouquets of rare and beautiful flowers that line the way ; near them stalks a stately greyhound, or an Irish wolf dog, apparently proud of keeping watch and ward over his master's wife and children. Next comes a band of horses ; two or three men or boys follow them, the docile and sagacious animals scarce needing this attention, for they have learned to follow in the rear of the the wagons, and know that at noon they will be allowed to graze and rest. Their knowledge of time seems as accurate as of the place they are to occupy in the line, and even a full-blown thistle will scarce tempt to straggle or halt until the dinner hour has arrived. Not so with the large herd of horned beasts that bring up the rear; lazy, selfish and unsocial, it has been a task to get them in motion, the strong always ready to domineer over the weak, halt in the front and forbid the weak to pass them. They seem to move onlj' in the fear of the ​
THE (CENTENNIAL IllSTOKY OF OKECiON 249
Jrivor's wliiji; lliougli in tlu' iiKiniing'. lull to repletion, they have not been driven an hour before their hunger and thirst seem to indicate a fast of days' duration. Thi-ough all the long day their greed is never sated, nor their thirst quenched; nor is there a inomeuf of relaxation of the tedious and vexa- tious labors of their drivers, although to all others the uaareh furnishes some season of relaxation or enjoyment. For the cow-drivers there is none. « * *
"But the picture in its granduer, its wonderful mingling colors and dis- tinctness of detail, is forgotten in contemplation of the singular people who give it life aiul animation. No other race of men with the means at their com- mand would undertake so great a journey, none save these could successfully perform it, with no previous preparation, relying only on the fertility of their invention to devise the means to overcome each danger and difficulty as it arose. They had undertaken to perform with slow-moving oxen a journey two thousand miles. The way lies over trackless wastes, wide and deep rivers, rugged and lofty mountains, and is beset with hostile savages. Yet, whether it were a deep river with no tree upon its banks, a rugged defile where even a loose horse could not pass, a hill too steep for him to climb, or a threatened attack of an enemy, they are always found ready and equal to the occasion, and always conquerors. May we not call them men of destiny? They are people changed in no essential particulars from their ancestors, who have followed closelj' on the footsteps of the receding savage, from the Atlantic seaboard to the great valley of the Mississippi."
Of the Emigration in 1852, Ezra Meeker (The Trail Marker) who, with his family was a part of that long train, gives the following account:
"There were hundreds of noble men trudging up the Platte valley at that time in an army Over Five Hundred Miles Long, many of whom 'laid down' a sacrifice to duty, or maybe to inherent weakness of body. While it is true that such an experience brings out the worst features of individual characters, yet it is also true that the shining virtues come to the front likewise. ' '
This great movement which was to save Oregon to the Nation, and which was started primarily by a few religious enthusiasts to convert the Indians to Christianity, was regarded by the educated and well to do classes of the eastern states as the height of folly. Horace Greeley was the personification of the Western states "booster," continually urging young men to "Go west and grow up with the country." But of the movement to Oregon, this modern Ben. Franklin, and in the New York Tribune of July 22, 1843, gives the Emigrants the following notice :
"For what do they brave the desert, the wilderness, the savages, the snowy precipices of the Kocky Mountains, the weary summer march, the storm-drenched bivouac, and the gnawing of famine? This emigration of more than one thou- sand persons in one body to Orei^on wears an aspect of insanity."
And that is what it did look like to the great mass of the people of the United States.
THE HEROIC PIONEER WOMAN
"Of the fortitude of the women one can not say too much. Embarrassed at the start by the follies of fashion (and long dresses which were quickly discarded and the bloomer donned), they .soon rose to the occasion and cast fals ​e modesty
aside. Could we but have had the camera (of coui-se not then in existence) on one of those typical camps, what a picture there would be. Elderly matrons dressed almost as like the little sprite miss of tender years of today. The younger women more shy of accepting the inevitable, but finally fell into the procession, and we had a community of women wearing bloomers without invidious comment, or in fact of any comment at all. Some of them soon went barefoot, partly from choice and in other cases from necessity. The same could be said of the men, as shoe leather began to grind out from the sand and dry heat. Of all the fan- tastic costumes it is safe to say the like before was never seen nor equaled. The scene beggars description. Patches became visible upon the clothing of preachers as well as laymen; the situation brooked no respect of persons. The grand- mother's cap was soon displaced by a handkerchief or perhaps a bit of cloth. Grandfather's high crowned hat disappeared as if by magic. Hatless and boot- less men became a common sight. Bonnetless women were to be seen on all sides They wore what they had left or could get without question of the fitness of things. Rich dresses were worn by some ladies because they had no others left ; the gentle- men drew on their wardrobes till scarcely a fine unsoiled suit was left.
HARDSHIPS
' ' The dust has been spoken of as intolerable. The word hardly expresses the situation; in fact, I can not say the English language contains the word to de- fine it. Here was a moving mass of humanity and dumb brutes at times mixed in inextricable confusion a hundred feet wide or more. At times two columns of wagons traveling on parallel lines and near each other served as a barrier to prevent loose stock from crossing, but usually there would be an almost inex- tricable mass of cows, young cattle, horses, and footmen moving along the out- skirts. Here and there would be drivers of loose stock, some on foot and some on horseback; a young girl may be riding astride with a younger child, going here and there after an intractable cow, while the mother could be seen in confusion lending a helping hand. As in a thronged city street, no one seemed to look to the right or to the left, or pay much if any attention to others, bent alone on accomplishment of their task in hand. Over all, in calm weather at times, the dust would settle so thick that the lead team of oxen could not be seen from the wagon ; like a London fog, so thick one might almost cut it. Then again, that steady flow of wind up to and through the South Pass would hurl the dust and sand in one's face sometimes with force enough to sting from the impact upon the face and hands.
THE GREAT CHOLERA PANIC
' ' The scourge of cholera on the Platte in 1852 is far beyond my power of de- scription. In later years I have witnessed panics on shipboard ; have experienced the horrors of the flight of a whole population from the gi-asp of the Indians, but never before nor since such scenes as those in the thickest of the ravages of cholera. It did seem that people lost all control of themselves and of others. Whole trains could be seen contending for the mastery of the road by day, and
All sorts of incidents of human life break the monotony of the march. Suddenly a wagon is seen to pull out of the train and off to the wayside. The only doctor in the train (Marcus Whitman) goes off with it. Many are the inquiries of the unusual event; and grave fears expressed of the danger of leaving a lone wagon behind in an Indian country. The lumbering caravan moves slowly on, passes behind the bluffs and out of sight, and the anxiety and fears for the lone wagon left behind increase. The train halts for the night, forms its defensive circle, fires are lighted for the evening meal and the shadows of the night are creeping down upon the camp—when, behold, the lone wagon rolls into camp, the doctor smiling and happy—it was a newborn boy—mother and child all right and ready for the continued journey."
Applegate, in the article mentioned, speaking of Dr. Whitman, who had been over the trail once before, says his constant advice was "travel, travel, travel; nothing else will take you to the end of your journey; nothing is wise that does not help you along; nothing is good for you that causes a moment's delay." And Applegate adds his testimonial as follows: "It is no disparagement to others to say that to no other individual are the emigrants of 1843 so much indebted for the successful conclusion of their journey as to Dr. Whitman."
The watch for the night is set; the flute and violin have ceased their soothing notes, the enamored swain has whispered his last good night, or stolen the last kiss from his blushing sweetheart, and all is hushed in the slumber of the camp of one thousand persons in the heart of the great mountains a thousand miles from any white man's habitation, with savage Indians in all directions. What a picture of American ideas, push, enterprise, courage and empire building. Risking everything, braving every danger, and conquering every difficulty and obstruction. We are a vain, conceited, bumptious people, boasting of our good deeds and utterly ignoring our bad ones. But where is the people ​that have accomplished such work as these Missourians and their neighbors from Iowa, did in literally picking up a commonwealth in pieces, on the other side of the continent and transporting it two thousand miles to the Pacific coast and setting it down here around and about this "Willamette valley, and starting it off in good working order at Champoeg, with all the state machinery to protect life and property and promote the peace and happiness of all concerned, and all others who might join in the society. It is something to be proud of.
Mrs. Victor, in her work on the Indian Wars of Oregon, sums up the trials and sufferings of the emigrants of 1844-45.
"The immigration of 1845 numbered about three thousand persons and almost doubled the white population of Oregon; that of 1844 having been about, seven hundred and fifty. But if their numbers were small, their patriotism was large, and they made no secret of the fact that some of them had come all the way from Missouri to burn Fort Vancouver. So many threats of a similar nature had found utterance ever since the first large party of 1843, that the officers of the British company had thought it only prudent to strengthen their defenses and keep a sloop of war lying in the Columbia. What the company simply did for defense the settlers constructed into offense, and both parties were on the alert for the first overt act."
The passage down the Columbia was one of excessive hardship and danger, each immigration having endured incredible suffering, and also loss, in coming from The Dalles to the Willamette valley; families and wagons being shipped on rafts to the Cascades, where a portage had to be made of several miles, and whence another voyage had to be undertaken in such poor craft as could be constructed or hired, taking weeks to complete this portion of the long journey from the states, in the late and rainy months of the year; the oxen and herds being driven down to Vancouver on the north side of the river, or being left in the upper country to be herded by the Indians. The rear of the immigration of 1844, remained at Whitman's mission over the winter, and several families at The Dalles. The larger body of 1845 divided, some coming down the river and others crossing the Cascade mountains by two routes, but each enduring the extreme of misery. John Minto, then a young man, says of 1844: "I found men in the prime of life lying among the rocks (at the Cascades) seeming ready to die. I found there mothers with their families, whose husbands were snowbound in the Cascade mountains without provisions, and obliged to kill and eat their game dogs. * * * There was scarcely a dry day, and the snow line was nearly down to the river." The scenes were repeated in 1845 with a greater number of sufferers, one wing of the long column taking a cut-off by following which they became lost, and had all but perished in a desert country. "Despair settled upon the people; old men and children wept together, and the strongest could not speak hopefully." "Only the women," says one narrator, "continued to show firmness and courage."
there were many otlicrs, even women, who crossed the mountains late in the year of 1845 on pack horses, barely escaping starvation through the exertions of I^arlow and Hector in getting through to Oregon City and forwarding to them a pack-train with provisions. The wagons, which it was impossible to move be- yond Rock creek, were abandoned, the goods cached, except such necessaries as could be packed on half starved oxen, the men walking in the snow and all often soaked with rain. Children with feet almost bare endured this terrible journey, the like of which can never again occur on this continent.
Some of the more thoughful men of the colony, taking into consideration the peculiar inaceessibilty of western Oregon from the east and the possibility of war with England, asked themselves how United States troops were to come to their assistance in such a ease. The natural obstacles of the Columbia river pass were so great as to be almost positively exclusive in the absence of the usual means of transportation, and the stationing of but a small force of a single battery, at the Cascades, would effectually exclude an army.
The colonists were still expecting the passage of Linn's bill, and with it the long promised military protection ; but there was the possibility that the very moment of greatest need, they might be left at the mercy of an invading foe, and its savage allies, while the troops sent to their relief were fenced out and left to starve east of the mountains, or to die exhausted with their long march and the effort to force the passage of. the Cascades.
And such were the hardships of the brave men and women who came to Oregon with ox teams; who blazed the way for civilization and everything that goes with it ; who made it possible for their descendants, and 1912 immi- grants, to ride to Oregon in palace cars, with dining cars, comfortable couches, and colored servants; and greater than all other things — saved Oregon to the United States.
HOW MANY CAME BY THE OX TEAM TRAIN?
Professor P. G. Young, secretary of the Oregon Historical Society, and ]\Ir. Elwood Evans, author of the "History of the Northwest," substantially agree on the following estimates :
The estimate given below for 1842 and 1843, are well founded, but the others, especially from 1847 on, are from no very tangible basis.
At the close of 1841, the Americans in Oregon numbered possibly four hun- dred.
The Immigration of 1842 estimated from 105 to 137
The Immigration of 1843 estimated from 875 to 1000
The Immigration of 1844 estimated about 700
The Immigration of 1845 estimated about 3000
The Immigration of 1846 estimated about 1350
The above figures are taken quite closely from those given by Elwood Evans in his address before the Pioneer Association in 1877. I (Young) make the Im- migration of 1844, however, seven hundred, instead of four hundred and sev- enty-five as he gives it.
The Immigration of 1 847 between 4000 and 5000
The Immigration of 1848 ab ​out 700
The Immigration of 1849 about 400
The Immigration of 1850 about 2000
The Immigration of 1851 about 1500
The Immigration of 1852 about 2500
Making a total of about twenty thousand persons in ten years."
THE GREAT TRAIL
The Oregon trail, or as the Indians termed it — -"The Big Medicine Road" — is entitled to consideration in this connection. The great mass of people not familiar with Oregon history have the idea that the Lewis and Clark Expedi- tion of 1805 opened the trail to Oregon. As a matter of fact and history, that expedition did not locate any part of the Oregon trail. Lewis and Clark pro- ceeded west on the proposition of ascending the Missouri river as far as possi- ble with boats and canoes, and then crossing over the Rocky mountains to the nearest branch of the Columbia river, and then descending that branch in canoes to the ocean. That plan carried them to a crossing of the mountains three hundred miles north of the route pursued by the Hunt party six years later. The Hunt party went as far north as they dared to for fear of trouble with the Blaekfeet Indians; and did not commence to locate any part of the Oregon trail until they reached "Fort Henry" on the south branch or Henry branch of Snake river. But from that point on to the Columbia river the route of the Trail was located by Hunt and members of his party. The reader wiU remember that in describing Hunt's troubles in the Snake river valley that after he found the Snake river was not navigable he sent out three parties — MeKenzie to go north and find another branch of the Columbia river; Crooks to go down the west side of the Snake river, and Hunt, himself, with the balance of the party, to go down the east side of the Snake river. These parties determined the fact that the Snake river could not be navigated through its great canyon, nor traveled on land through that canyon. This discovery forced Hunt and Crooks to return to the route which nature had made through the Blue moun- tains, where Baker and La Grande are now located, and where the Indian guide piloted them through to the LTmatilla river. That experience selected the route of the Trail that far. Then, in five months after Hunt reached Astoria in January, 1812, he dispatched a party under the lead of Robert Stuart to carry a report back to Astor as to the condition of affairs at Astoria. Stuart had six men and on this return trip had the benefit of the experience and observa- tions of Hunt on his trip form the Missouri to the Columbia.
And profiting by such experience and advice crossed the Rocky mountains going eastward through the celebrated "South Pass." From that point to the Missouri river, down the Platte valley, it was plain sailing, for that part of the route had been traveled by trappers for years. It is historicaaly correct to say that the route of the Oregon Trail was located by Wilson Price Hunt and Robert Stuart. But they traveled with Indian ponies and left few marks or traces of their route except at camping places.
They found and followed the route marked out by the maker of rivers, plains and mountains. ​
TTIK FIKST WACON ON T 1 1 K TUML
Fiudiug a prac) iraMc route I'or a wayoii way is one tliiiif;, but, {j;i'ttiiig the first wagon over thai route is another matter, and making a higliway for thou- sands oi" wagons a still greater. To Marcus Whitman lielongs the honor of at- tempting the first wagon haul from Missouri to Oregon. If one could transfer their personality back seventy-six years to the ^lay morning in 1836, when Dr. Whitman and his young l)ride, Rev. Spalding and his bride, the invincible W. H. Gray and the two Nez Perce Indian boys, all and each with light hearts and high hopes, seated themselves in that tlrst wagon to test all the unknown and unforseeable toils and dangers of a two-thousand-mile ride over plains, deserts, mountains and unbroken forests, they might get some idea of the courage, hero- ism and self-sacrifice which animated that first wagon party on its holy mission to Oregon. These two cultured women were the first white women to attempt that uncqualed exploit in the history of mankind. And these two women have been well named "The Real Pioneers of Civilization in the Oregon Territory." The American Board of Jlissions provided for Whitman a generous outfit — blacksmith tools, plows, seed grain, clothing for two years and other necessaries, pack animals, riding horses, sixteen cows and two wagons, making in itself quite a train, and which was driven and managed by W. H. Gray and the two Indian boys. Soon after starting, the Whitman party overtook the Fitzpatrick fur traders with their carts, and then making up altogether a caravan of nineteen carts, one light wagon and two heavy wagons. On reaching Fort Laramie, at the junction of the North Platte and Laramie rivers, in what is now Laramie county, Wyoming, the fur traders' carts stopped, that being as far as it was then deemed practicable for wheeled vehicles, but on account of the enfeebled condition of Mrs. Spalding, Whitman decided to retain the lighter of his two wag- ons and leave the others behind. In this way Mrs. Spalding was carried on safely and comfortably through the South Pass of the Rocky mountains, following a natural highway. At Green river. Whitman met the annual rendezvous of the fur traders, and also Captain Wyeth, returinig from his second expedition to Oregon. Here both the fur traders and Wyeth united in advising Whitman not to attempt to go on with his wagon, which they assured him would not only give him great trouble, but dangerously delay his trip. Nevertheless, the courageous Whitman resolved to take his wagon along, and did so successfully, reaching Fort Hall in what is now Bingham county, Idaho, July 24, 1836. Here Whitman and his party had to stop for rest and repairs, and here he was again warned that he could not travel through that country with his wagon. Loth to give up the w-agon entei*prise, the Doctor resolved on a compromise — he would convert the wagon into a cart, proceeding with the front axle, fore wheels and tongue, and put the hind axle and wheels on top as cargo ; and in that shape the wagon was drawn down through the Snake river valley, over lava rocks, sand plains and sage brush a distance of two hundred and fifty miles to old Fort Boise. And there the old historical wagon — the first to pass the Rocky mountains — was left because the horses and the whole party had become so tired out with the labor of the long journey, it was not safe to try to drag it through to the Columbia river. But Whitman's wagon did not make a wagon road. It had followed the route found by Hunt and Stuart, and had blazed the way, and that was honor ​enough. Three years later, Dr. Robert Newell and others concluding to leave the Rocky mountain region and come to Oregon, came through by Fort Boise, and picked up the remains of Whitman's wagon, and brought it safely through with their wagons, and delivered it up to the Doctor at "Wailatpu Mission.
The experience of Dr. Whitman showed that it was not an impossible under- taking to bring wagons from the Missouri river through the South Pass of the Eocky mountains to Fort Hall. And six years later, that party of emigrants coming into Oregon with Dr. White, United States Indian agent, brought nine- teen wagons as far as Fort Hall and then traded or sold them to the agent of The Hudson's Bay Company, and came on to Oregon with horses. That was a very valuable addition to the population of Oregon, bringing in some very good men who were active in organizing the provisional government.
Their names are as follows: Thos. Boggs, Gabriel Brown, Wm. Brown, James Brown, Hugh Burns, G. W. Bellamy, Barnum, Winston, Bennett, Vandeman Bennett, Bailey, Bridges, Nathaniel Crocker, Nathan Coombs, Patrick Clark, Alex- ander Copeland, Medorem Crawford, A. N. Coats, Jas. Coats, John Dearum, John Daubenbiss, Samuel Davis, Allen Davie, John Force, Jas. Force, Foster, Jos. Gibbs, Girtman, Lansford W. Hastings, John Hofstetter, J. M. Hudspeth, Hardin Jones, Columbia Lancaster, Reuben Allen, A. L. Lovejoy, S. W. Moss, J. L. Morrison, John McKay, Alexander McKay, Dutch Paul, Walter Pomeroy, J. H. Perry, Dwight Pomeroy, J. R. Robb, T. J. Shadden, Owen Sumner, An- drew Smith, A. D. Smith, Darling Smith, A. Towner, Joel Turnham, David Wes- ton, Elijah White. Of these, ten had families, as follows : Gabriel Brown, Mr. Bennett. Jas. Force, Mr. Girtman, Columbia Lancaster, Walter Pomeroy, J. W. Perry, T. J. Shadden, Owen Sumner and Andrew Smith. But Hastings gives the force of armed men as eighty, and Fremont as sixty-four. Crawford says the whole number of emigrants was one hundred and five. The largest number given by any authority is one hundred and sixty. Lovejoy says about seventy were able to stand guard. White's statement that there were one hundred and twelve persons in the company when it organized, and that this number was augmented on the road until it reached one hundred and twenty-five, is probably the most reliable, and agreed with the account given in Lee and Frost's Oregon.
Now the "Trail is made, and Whitman made the Trail;" but there is yet no wagon road. The emigration of 1843 made the wagon road, now immortalized by the travelers thereon, and by its great results as "The Oregon Trail." When the wagon train of 1843 pulled out from Fitzhugh's Mill, near Independence, Missouri, the members of that train soon found that there must be an advance guard to clear the way. Then at the next camp they organized a party of fifteen or twenty men varying from day to day as needed, who were placed under the lead and command of a captain. These men rode horseback ahead of the train, each armed with a rifle and carrying axes, picks and shovels, to fight Indians if necessary, but to be sure to make a road the ox teams could draw the wagons over. This party of men made the road — The Oregon Trail — from day to day; and they were "The Royal Sappers and Miners" that made the way across the two thousand miles of plains, deserts, sage, brush and mountains from the Missouri to the Columbia. And when the grand caravan of ox teams, loose cattle, horses and wagons passed over it, they left behind them a great wide road that all subsequent travelers and emigrations followed for more than twenty years ​ ​and until the Union Pacific Railroad was opened. And that grand highway of enterprise, heroism and civilization left its impress wide and deep, not only on the soil, the rocks and the mountains, but on all the institutions of men to make mankind better, and extend and exalt the principles and glory of the great Re- public.
The following list contains the names of every male member of that great train over the age of sixteen years. It was prepared by J. W. Nesmith when the train was organized, and was preserved among his papers for a third century before given for publication. All reached the Willamette valley except a few, the exceptions being designated by marks and foot notes:
Applegate, Clias.
Applegate, Jesse.
Applegate, Lindsey.
Athey, James.
Athey, William.
Atkinson, John.
Arthur, David.
Arthur, Robert.
Arthur, William.
Baker, Andrew.
Baker, John G.
Baker, William.
Baldridge, Wm.
Bane, Layton.
Beadle, George.
Beagle, William.
Beale, George.
Biddle, Nicholas.
Bird, David.
Black, J. P.
Blcvins, Alexander.
Boardmau, — .
Boyd, Levi.
Braidy, James.
Brooke, George.
Brooks, John P.
Brown, Martin.
Brown, Orus.
Brown, Thos. A.
Burnett, Peter H.
Butler, Amon.
Campbell, John G.
Cary, Miles.
Cason, F. C.
Cason, James.
Caton, J. H.
Champ, Jacob.
Chapman, — .
Chapman, William.
Chappel, Alfred.
Chase, James.
Childers, Moses.
Childs, Joseph.
Clymour, L.
Coch)-an, Thomas.
Cone, James.
Constable, Benedict.
Cooper, L. C.
Copenhaver, John.
Cox, John.
Cozine, Samuel.
Cronin, Daniel.
Dailey, George.
Davis, Burrell.
Davis, J. H.
Davis, Thomas.
Dawson, — .
Day, William.
Delany, Daniel.
Dclany, Daniel, Jr.
Delany, Wm.
Dement, Wm. C.
Dohert.y, John.
Dodd, Solomon.
Doke, Wm.
Dorin, Jacob.
Dougherty, W. P.
Duncan, James.
Eaker, John W.
East, John W. Eaton, Chas.
Eaton, Nathan.
Edson, E. G.
Emerick, Solomon.
Etchell, Jas.
Everman, Ninian.
Eyres, Miles.
Fairly, Stephen.
Fendall, Charles.
Ford, Ephraim.
Ford, John.
Ford, Nimrod.
Ford, Nineveh.
Fowler, Henry.
Fowler, Wm.
Fowler, Wm. J.
Francis, Alexander.
Frazier, Abner.
Frazier, Wm.
Gantt, John.
Gardner, Samuel.
Gardner, Wm.
Garrison, Enoch.
Garrison, J. W.
Garrison, W. J.
Gilmore, Matthew C.
Gilpin, Major.
Goodman, Richard.
Gray, Chiley B.
Gray, — .
Haggard, B.
Hall, Samuel B.
Hargrove, Wm.
Harrigas, B.
Haun, Jacob.
Hays, James.
Hembree, Andrew.
Hembree, A. J.
Hembree, James.
Hembree, J. J.
Hendricks, Abijah.
Hensley, Thos. J.
Hess, Joseph.
Hewett, Henry.
Hide, H. H.
Hill, Almoran.
Hill, Henry.
Hill, William.
Hobson, Wm.
Hobson, John.
Holderuess, S. M.
Hoiley, B.
Holman, Daniel.
Holman, John.
Holmes, Riley A.
Holmes, Wm.
Houk, James.
Howell, G. W.
Howell, John.
Howell. Thos. E.
Howell, Wesley.
Howell, Wm.
Hoyt, A.
Hughes, Wm. P.
Hunt, Henry.
Husted, A.
Hutchins, Isaac.
Jackson, John B.
James, Calvin.
Johnson, Overton.
Jones, John.
Keizur, J. B.
Keizur, Pleasant.
Keizur, Thomas D.
Kelley, — .
Kelsey, — .
Laswell, Isaac.
Lauderdale, John.
Layson, Aaron.
Lee, H. A. 6.
Lenox, David.
Lenox, E.
Linebarger, John.
Linebarger, Lew.
Little, Milton.
Long, John E.
Looney, Jesse.
Loughborough, J.
Lovejoy, A. L.
Lugur, F.
Luther, — .
Malone, Madison.
Manning, James.
Manning, John.
Martin, James.
Martin, Julius.
Martin, Wm. J.
Mastire, A. J.
Matheny, Adam.
Matheny, Daniel.
Matheny, Henry.
Matheny, Josiah.
Matheny, J. N.
Matney, W. J.
Mauzee, William.
Mays, William.
McCarver, M. M.
McClelland, F.
McClelland, — .
McCorkle, George.
McDaniel, William.
McGarey, G. W.
McGee, — .
McHaley, John.
Mclntire, John.
McKissic, D.
Millican, Elijah.
Mills, Isaac.
Mills, John D.
Mills, Owen.
Mills, Wm. A.
]\Iondon, Gilbert.
Moore, Jackson.
Myers, Jacob.
Naylor, Thomas.
Nesmith, J. W.
Newby, W. T.
Newman, Noah.
O'Brien, Thomas A.
'Bryant, Hugh D.
dinger, A.
O'Neill, dinger.
Osborn, Neil.
Otie, E. W.
Otie, M. B.
Owen, Thomas.
Paine, Clayborn.
Parker, Jesse.
Parker, William.
Patterson, J. R.
Paynter, Samuel.
Pennington, J. B.
Pickett, Chas. E.
Poe, R. H.
Prigg, Frederick.
Reading, P. B.
Reid, Jacob.
Rice, G. W.
Richardson, Daniel.
Richardson, John.
Ricord, John.
Rivers, Thomas.
Roberts, Emseley.
Roberts, James.
Roberts, Solomon.
Rodgers, G. W.
Rodgers, S. P.
Roe, John.
Rossin, Joseph.
Ruby, Philip.
Russell, William.
Sewell, Henry.
Sharp, C.
Sheldon, William.
Shirley, Samuel.
Shively, John M.
Smith, Ahi.
Smith, Anderson.
Smith, Eli.
Smith, Isaac W.
Smith, Robert.
Smith, Thomas.
Smith, Thomas H.
Spencer, Chauncey.
Sterling, George.
Stevenson, — .
Stewart, P. G.
Stimmerman, C.
Story, James.
Stoughton, Alexander.
Stout, Henry.
Stout, — .
Straight, Hiram.
Stringer, Cornelius.
Stringer, C. W.
Summers, George.
Summers, W. C.
Sutton, Nathaniel.
Swift, — .
Tarbox, Stephen.
Teller, Jeremiah.
Tharp, Lindsey.
Thompson, John.
Trainor, D.
Umnicker, John.
Vance, Samuel.
Vauglian, William.
Vernon, George.
Wagoner, John.
Wair, J. W.
Waldo, Daniel.
Waldo, David.
Waldo, William.
Ward, T. B.
Waters, James.
Watson, Jno. (Betty)
Wheeler, II.
White, James.
Williams, Benjamin.
Williams, David.
Williams, Edward.
Williams, Isaac.
Williams, James.
Williams, John.
Williams, Squire.
Wilmont, James.
Wilson, Wm.
Wilson, W^m. H.
Winkle, Archibald.
Winter, Wm.
Zaehary, Alexander.
Zachary, John.
There were in Oregon at the time the train arrived, the following individuals, few names, possibly, having been omitted from the list :
Armstrong, Pleasant.
Bailey, Dr. William J.
Baldra, — .
Balis, James.
Black, J. M.
Brainard, — .
Brown, — .
Brown, — .
Brown, William.
Burns, Hugli.
Campbell, Jack.
Campbell, Samuel.
Cannon, William.
Carter, David.
Connor, — .
Cook, Aaron.
Cook, Amos.
Craig, Wm.
Crawford, ]Medoi'em.
Davy, Allen.
Doughty, William.
Eakin, Richard.
Ebbetts, George W.
Edwards, John.
Fletcher, Francis.
Force, James.
Force, John.
Foster, Philip.
Gale, Joseph.
Gay, George.
Girtman, — .
Hall, David.
Hatch, Peter H.
Hathaw-ay, Felix.
Hauxhurst, Webly.
Hewitt, Adam.
Holman, Joseph.
Horegon, Jeremiah.
Hubbard, Thomas J.
Hutchinson, — .
Johnson, William.
Kelsey, — .
King, — .
Larrison, Jack.
Le Breton, G. W.
Lewis, Reuben.
Mack, J. W.
Matthieu, P. X.
McCarthy, William.
ilcClure, John.
McFadden, — .
McKay, Charles.
McKay, Thomas.
McKay, William C.
Meek, Joseph L.
Moore, Robert.
Morrison, J. L.
Moss, S. W.
Newbanks, — .
Newell. Robert.
O'Neill, James A.
Perry, — .
Pettygrove, F. W.
Pomeroy, Dwight.
Pomeroy, Walter.
Rimmick, — .
Robb, J. R.
Russell, Osborn.
Sailor, Jack.
Shortess, Robert.
Smith, Alvin T.
Smith, Andrew.
Smith, Andrew, Jr.
Smith, Dai-ling.
Smith, Sidney.
Spence, — .
Taylor, Hiram.
Tibbetts, Calvin.
Trask, — .
Turner, John.
Turnham, Joel.
Walker, C. M.
Warner, Jack.
Wilkins, Caleb.
Williains, B.
Wilson, A. E.
Winslow, David.
Wood, Henry.
various Protestant Missions :
Abernethy, George. Gray, W. H. Raymond, W. W.
Babcock, Dr. Ira L. Hines, Gustavus. Spalding, H. H.
Beers, Alanson. Judson, L. H. Walker, E.
Brewer, H. B. Lee, Jason. Waller, A. P.
Campbell, Hamilton. Leslie, David. White, Dr. Elijah.
Clarke, Harvey. Parrish, J. L. Whitman, Dr. M.
Eells, Cushing. Perkins, H. K. W. Willson, Wm. H.
In addition to these were some fifty former employees of the Hudson's Bay Company, nearly all of whom had settled on French Prairie, and a number of priests, connected with the Catholic mission, making a total male population at the close of the year 1843 of about four hundred and thirty, exclusive of the officers and actual servants of the Hudson's Bay Company.
THE VALUE OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT
And now is seen the great value of the Provisional Government. The great body of the emigration of 1843 reached the Oregon City terminus about the last days of October of that year. Suppose, then, that there had been no government, no person or authority to give direction to affairs, to give information, or maintain the orderly progress of society or the public peace? They all came for land ; and suddenly without notice, 320 families are dropped down at Oregon City. They know nothing of the country, nothing of what land has been claimed, or where they can go to get a homestead, without trespassing on' the rights of a prior locator. In such a case if there had not been anarchy, confusion, and violence, it would have been a wonder. If anarchy and violence had resulted from indiscriminate land grabbing, or land claim jumping, where there could be no United States or English title promised, the Hudson's Bay Company by its Cana- dian officials, would have been compelled to interpose to maintain peace and order; and that interposition would have set up and put in operation a British, instead of an American Government, in Oregon. That would have made the country British in fact and deed; and there would not have been one chance in a hundred for the United States to have ever recovered any part of Oregon. But the heroes of Champoeg had wisely forestalled such a calamity by the organization of May 2, 1843. And when the great caravan reached Oregon City six months afterwards, it found an American Government in operation, with officials to give directions, with records of lands already taken up, and with laws authorizing the new-comers to go out and select their homesites and have them duly recorded and protected. The infant Provisional Government was literally a god-send to the settlers, the incoming immigrants, and to the Canadians as well; and too much honor can never be given the men who organized that government.
And what was the position of the Hudson 's Bay Company all this time ? All of its interests lay in the direction of an unsettled country. It was here to trap
THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OP' OREGON 261
the country settled by either Americans or any other people. As long as there were no settlers, the Indians would obey their orders and would be happy and content in the forests with their ways of living. To bring settlers that wouW convert the country into farms, build towns, start saw mills and establish herds of domestic animals, would desti-oy the business of the fur company and drive it out. It was but natural that the company should oppose emigration and settlements. And in doing so, it became the ally of the first American settlers. "Whether consciously or unconsciously, cannot now be determined. With its power and influence with the Indians, its wealth and organization, and its knowledge of the country and means for bringing colonists from either Canada or the home country, it could have quickly and easily throttled all attempts to establish American settlements by an organization devoted to the support of the British claim to the country. But to do so would have put in jeopardy the profits and future existence of the company as a business paying institution. The managers of the company in England undoubtedly expected and relied upon Chief Factor, John McLoughlin and others to discourage settlements in Oregon; believing that without business support and encouragement The Ameri- cans Would Be Starved Out. Fortunate for the Americans, John McLoughlin was not built on the narrow gauge pattern of his employers in London. His great heart and humane sympathies would not permit him to view with cold blooded indifference the suffering and destitution of men and women who had risked their lives and everything else in the great struggle to reach Oregon. He helped them as much as he could, and not be unceremoniously kicked out before the first few Americans had secured a foothold in the Willamette valley. As it was, for this open-handed aid to the Americans, he lost his position and a sal- ary of twelve thousand dollars a year. With the most hopeful view of the case the Americans had the narrowest chance in the world to secure a foothold and establish an American settlement. Had they not succeeded Oregon would cer- tainly have become a British province. With McLoughlin 's opposition exerted against them, as his British employers desired it to be exerted, the Americans unsupported by Congress as they were, might not have succeeded. The tacit support of John McLoughlin given in the name of humanity, undou1)tedly greatly aided in deciding the fate of Oregon in favor of the American settlers.
THE COLONUL PERIOD
Assuming that the Colonial Period commenced with the innuigration of 1842, in which none of the Missions had any part or parcel, and continued down to 1848 when the United States organized a territorial governnient, an idea can be formed of the respective influences which conspired to mould the for- tunes and character of the Oregon settlers.
Of the missionary forces, Jason Lee, Daniel Lee, Cyrus Shepard, and B. L. Edwards of the Methodist church came overland to Oregon in 1834, and founded the mission in the Willamette valley. Rev. Samuel Parker on behalf of American Board missions, came overland to Oregon in 1835, but not to labor as a missionary but as an agent of the Missionary Board to examine the country and locate mis.sionary stations. And next year, 1836, in pursuance of Parker's plans and locations. Dr. JMarcus Whitman, and Rev. II. H. Spalding, with their ​
wives, and Wm. H. Gray, came out and commenced work in Eastern Oregon among the Nez Perces and Cayuse Indians. And it may be remarked liere that Whitman did not select the location among the Cayuse who afterward massacred himself, family and attendants. If he had been left to his own judgment he would most likely have located among the Flatheads who had appealed to the Eastern States Christians for the "Book of Heaven." Rev. Asa B. Smith, and wife, also on behalf of the Presbyterians came overland and settled among the Nez Perces, at a station on the Clearwater river in 1839, and which he was compelled to abandon on account of the hostility of the Indians in 1841. Mr. Smith was the first person to make up a vocabulary and grammar of the Nez Perce language.
Revs. Elkanah Walker and Gushing Eells, with their wives, missionaries of the American Board, came overland in 1838, and established a mission on the Chemakane branch of the Spokane river, and there taught and labored among the Indians for ten years, having served in that work longer than any other mis- sionary to the Oregon Indians, except Dr. Whitman. Rev. John S. Griffin and wife and Asahel Hunger and wife, independent Congregational missionaries, came overland in 1839, and after making two efforts to establish schools and missions among the Snake Indians, both came on down to the Willamette valley, Griffin and wife settling on a donation claim on Tualatin Plains, and Munger and wife going to Salem and working for the Methodists until his mind failed and where he put an end to his life. To Mrs. Griffin belongs the honor of being the first white woman to teach school west of the Rocky Mountains. In 1840 came another missionary party overland of the Congregational church, com- posed of Rev. Harvey Clarke, Rev. P. B. Littlejohn, and Rev. A. T. Smith, each with his wife. These people came out independent of the Board of Missions, intending to support themselves by their own eiJorts ; and after spending a year in the Indian mission field in Eastern Oregon, came on down to the Willamette valley and settled on Tualatin Plains, teaching and preaching to the white people. And with this Clarke party came out from the States the first family of avowed immigrants of American settlers that came to Oregon — Joel P. Walker, wife and five children.
And in all human probability the great-hearted Harvey Clarke and wife are entitled to much credit in bringing in close after them, two men who were not missionaries, but who made a large figure in the future of Oregon; and for this Clark should have credit here. At Fort Hall, Rev. Clark made the acquaintances of Joseph L. Meek, Robert Newell, C. M. Walker, William Craig, Caleb Wilkins, William M. Doughty and John Larison, who were each and all stranded at Port Hall, and penniless on account of the American Pur Company abandoning the fur trade on the Pacific to the Hudson's Bay Com- pany. These men, like all mountain men, were of improvident habits, and had saved nothing. They were destitute and without occupation. They must go somewhere and do something or starve ; and they decided to follow Clarke. Their combined stock of worldly goods was the clothes on their backs, two wagons which Clarke had given Newell for guiding him from Green river to Port Hall, and another wagon abandoned by Joel Walker. Prank Er- matinger (The H. B. Co. Agt. at Port Hall) took an interest in the unfor- tunates and purchased one of Newell 's wagons. This gave them bread and
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then I'ollowod up Clarke and finally lauded at Wailatpu, briugiug in and deliver- iug up to Dr. Whitman the wheels and running gears of the historical wagon lie had left at Fort Boise. That Clarke influenced these men to come and settle in Oregon, the author of this book has the testimony of Doughtj', IMeek and Wilkins, who were his neighbors in Washington county for years, and gave him an account of this trip.
The same j'ear that the Clarke party reached the Nez Perces country the ship Lausanne arrived in the Columbia river with the great missionary party of fifty-three persons which included seven preachers, and five teachers, farmers, mechanics, etc., sent out by the Board of Methodist Missions. Now in addi- tion to these Protestant mission laborers, the Catholic Church of Canada had sent out four priests under the control of Vicar General Blanchet; and all these preachers and teachers were here in this country to teach and convert the heathen Indians; no intention ever having been held to teach or preach to Amei'ican citizens, as none were expected to ever come here. Here was an evangelizing force of twenty preachers and priests and a dozen teachers; all intent on converting and educating the native Indians. But what was the outcome? The Methodists kept up a failing effort to teach the Indians at the Willamette Mission for a few years and until the first large immigration came from the states. Then the Indians abandoned the Willamette valley and took their children with them. The effort was continued in a desultory way at the mission at The Dalles until the Whitman jMassacre in 1847. That ended all efforts to teach or convert the Indians under the regime of the missionaries. And whatever of influence or benefit had been thus far exerted by the mission- aries over the Indians was by that appalling murder of Whitman practically dissipated forever. With the coming of the vigorous assertive immigration of 1843 the missionaries were practically rediiced, so far as influences on the colony was concerned, to the common level with all other citizens. They had lost the distinction of leadership in the little community ; but they did not lose their identity as a vital force. To Jason Lee more than to any other one per.son, was due the movement to organize the Provisional Government. He inspired the plan, Gray and GrifiEin did the proselyting to support it and called out the reserves to put the column in motion, while Meek and his moun- taineers led the assault. But not only did the missionaries inspire the organi- zation of civil government, they followed that up by laying the foundation for education. The "Oregon Institute," which developed into "The Willam- ette University," was organized by the Methodist missionaries in 1842 for the purpose of educating white children; and the first Board of Trustees were, Jason Lee, David Leslie, Gustavus Hines, J. L. Parrish, L. H. Judson, George Abernethy, Alanson Beers, Hamilton Campbell, and J. L. Babcock. For the Congregationalists, Rev. Harvey Clarke did a similar work in giving his time, labor and land to lay the foundations of the Pacific University at Forest Grove. And while McMinnville does not trace its foundation to missionaries, or to the missionai-y era, yet it can go back to AVilliam T. Newby, who came overland in 1843, and find in him the enterprise and forethought to devote his first property in Oregon to the foundation of a noble institution that rep- resents the missionary spirt and the conservative teaching of "John the Bap- lizer," greatest of the twelve disciples. And while the religious teaching of ​the Indians was greatly dissipated by the wars between whites and Indians, yet the seed planted by the missionaries survived not only that bitter and bloody strife and the corruption of and robbery of the Indians by a whole generation, of rascally thieving Indian agents, but lived to bear good fruit in later times under the leadership of native preachers and honest government agents. The Eastern Missionary Boards of former times, as well as the immigrants to Oregon of recent years, have never comprehended or appreciated the value of the labors of Lee, Whitman, Walker, Eells, and their associates. The eastern men looked only at the expenditure of money; and the new-comers to Oregon could not see any Indian converts. But the priceless services of the early missionaries to Oregon is not to be measured by dollars and cents or tolled off by church membership. The Rev. Wm Warren, in his little book on Indian missions, tersely states the case for Oregon.
"Indian missions brought the first white women overland to Oregon, opened the first immigrant road to the Columbia river; gave the first governor to the territory; established the first permanent American settlement; and aided essentially in the establishment of the Provisional Government, five years before the United States formed a Territorial Government; brought the first American cattle to the Willamette valley, and saved the country, or at least an important part of it, to the United States.