Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-08-11
Settlement of Oregon.
L. 40.

R"vs Harvey G arke, Asa T.
Smith and y Il Ll,tltjohn. with
Their wives. (Cougre ationali>ts)
came Us missionaries upon the s"lf
supporting plan. Their intended
fell If inh)r ~iI III the interior.
Meeting with ~ success among the
Indians, thc> became settlers III the
Wailauet valley.
This year Robert Moore, Amos
Cock nni Francis Fletcher, came
dir. ct from tie States, to make set
tl.mcnt IL farmers III the WalllnIet
\ number OF prominent Rocky
Mountain men settled in the Wal
l.net. Among them were DIR. Rob-
ert Newell, Col. JOS. l.. Meek,
William Craig, George ". Ebbett,
William VI. D)ty M Caleb Wilkins.
TO DIR. Robert Newell must be as
crlbed the credit of bringing the
first wagon from Fort Hall TO Fort
Walla Wailn, thereby establishing
the practcnbility of wagon travel
from the Western frontier of Ms
souri, via the Rocky Mountains t.
the Columbia river.
The party cunsis' ed Of D. New
ell and family, Col. joseph L.
Meek aud .mtly, Caleb Wilkins aud
Fr~drlc Ematin9er, Chief Ira Ter il
the HAd,ons Bay Company. 1t hri
been regarded as sheer madness, t.
attempt to travel with wagons from
Fort Hail, through the Snlke river
county TO the Columbia. The mis-
slonalies. CLARK. Smith and Little
johu) bad accompanied tho annual
caravan of the American Fur Com
pany to Green river Rendezvous, from
thence hal employed DR.. Newell as
pilot to Fort Hall. On reaching
that point the missionary party
found their animals SO reduced, that
they resolved to abandon their two
wagons, and DR.. Newell accepted
them i'll compensation for his Ser
vices.
In letter to the author, DR.. New
ell writes: At tie time | took the
wagons | had no idea of uudertak-
ing to bring them into this country
| exchanged fat horses to the mis-
sionarles for their animals, and after
they had been gone u monti. or more
for Wallamet, and the American Fur
! Company had abandoned the coun-
try for good, concluded to hitch up
and try the much dreaded job of
taking wagon to Oregon. | sold
one OF those wagons to Mr.. Ematin-
Ter, at Fort Hall. On the 18th of
August, 1910, We put out With three
wagons. Joseph l.. Meek drove my
wagon. In few days we began to
realize the difficult task before us,
and found that the continued crash
ing of the sage under our wagons,
which was in many places higher
than the mules backs, was no joke.
Seeing our animals begin to fail, we
began to tighten up, finally threw
away our wagon beds aud were quite
sorry we had undertaken the Job.
All the consolation we had was that
We broke the first sage on the road
and were too proud to eat anything
but dried salmon skins after our
provisions had become exhausted.
In rather rough and reduced state,
we arrived at DR.. Whitman S mission
station in the Walla Walla valley,
where We were met by that hospit-
able man and kindly made welcome
and Toasted accordingly. On hear
ing me regret that had unde rtaken
to bring wagons, the doctor said, " q
you will never regret it; you have
broken the ice, and when others see
that Wagons have passed, they too
Will pass, and IN few years the val
ley will be full of our people" The
Doctor shook me heartily by the
hand; Mrs. Whitman, too, welcomed
us, and the Indians walked around
the wagons, or what they called
horse Canoes aud seemed to give
it up. We spent n day or SO with
the doctor and then went to Fort
Waila Walla, where we were kindly
received by Mr.. Z. G. Pembram
chief Trader Hudson's Bay Co,
Superintendent of that Post. On
the lst of October, we took leave
OF those kind people. Tearing or
iragonS and taking the river trail,
but we proceeded slowly. Our party
consisted of Joseph l.. Meek and
myself, also our families, and u
Snakel Indian whom l brought to
Oregon where he died year after
our arrival. The party did not ar
rive at the Wallumet Falls Oregon
City, till December, subsisting for
weeks upon dried salmon, and upon
several occasions were compelled ia
swim their stock, aero s the Columbia
and Wallamet.
Such were the privations and
hardshlps of reaching Oregon over
land, as detailed by Rocky noun
tain man who had been enured to
such travel during his whole life.
Such was the heroic task to be as
sumed by the American pioneers.
The brig Maryland, Capt. John
II. Couch, from Newburyport,
! Mass, arrived in Columbia river.
She belonged to the father of Caleb
Gushing, the able champion of the
American title to Oregon in the Con-
sress of United States, and so inter-
ested i'll Pacific Coast development.
She was the pioneer of a fleet OF
vessels i'll that trade. 4 few years
later the genial Couch abandoned
the sea and settled near Portland.
He inaugurated the first successful
attempt at independent mercantile
operations in Oregon. The pre-
sence in the Columbia liver in the
previous year, of the British survey
ing expedition commanded by Sir Ed
ward Belcher, r. n, was the pretext
for the urgent petition of 1910, to
| the Congress- of the United States