Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-09-04

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dollars to be expendended by political
agents without accountability to anybody.
DIR. WHITMAN'S RIDE.
HOW OREGON WAS SNATCHED FROM THE
HUDSON BAY COMPANY
In 1886 DR.. Marcus Whitman and his part
ner, Spaulding, with their wives, saysa Wri-
ter in the Chicago Inter- Ocean,, went to Ore
gon, under the auspices of the American
Board. It was a bri dial tour, begun in May,
and ended at the gates of Fort Walla Walla
in September. A curious feature of the trip
was an old wagon, known in history as
"Whitman's wagon" He was determined
to get it through to demonstrate the feast
bility of immigration. The Hudson Bay
Company discouraged every roll of its old
wheels, and threw every obstacle in the
way. It was dismembered, dragged by
pieces, ingloriously dwindled to the dimen-
sions of cart; but, through the indomita-
bic will of its owner, it kept rolling toward
the Pacific.
| Prior to 1912, the United States and Eng
land were in joint occupation of the Oregon
region. It was generally understood that
the country would be English or American,
according to the tide of immigration. One
day in October, 1912, DR.. Whitman was
called on professional errand at Fort
Walla Walla, twenty-five miles from his
home. 1t was trading post of the Hudson
Bay Company, and was quite jubulant just
at this time over the annual line of goods.
Tables were spread for the feast, at which
the doctor found himself a solitary Ameri-
can. The festivities were at flood tide,
when an express courier rushed into the
fort and shouted that an English colony of
14O persons was on its way up the Colum-
bia. In the excitement of the moment a
young Englishman jumped to his feet and
exclaimed: "Hurrah for Oregon! America
| is too late! we have got the country" The
doctor excused himself at the earliest posi-
BILE moment, and in two hours pulled up
his foam-fecked pony at the cabin door,
made known the English plot before dis
| for Washington and return the next summer
with caravan of emigrants. None could
dissuade him he hemustgo; the eWebster-Ash-
burton treaty was pending the Oregon ques-
tion must be settled before Congress adjourn
ed on the 4th of March; Oregon must be
saved!
In less than twenty-four hours he was in
the saddle, galloping for "Washington and
Webster" Home and wife behind him,
Winter and 1900 miles before him! With
Amos L. Lovejoy and a guide, he bounded
over the trail, through Fort Hall, whose
Jealous commandant would have been glad
to have detained him had he not shown
"pass" from Lewis Cass, Secretary of War.
setting in, and has already frozen the rivers
to rapid current, impossible? Not to the
doctor and his errand of life or death to
Oregon! He rides his horse to the edge,
and then horse and rider are pushed into
the angry current; out of sight there they
are floating far down to the other side a. jump
to the ice; good fire and dry clothes again.
Lost in the snow; wandering; freezing;
dying; almost buried; hope entirely gone;
every avenue of escape cut off-saved by
mules ear! His Mexican rider noticed
the aurcular appendages, as if their owner
| was cogitating a scheme In little while
the animal, left to himself, led them to the
slumbering embers of their morning fire.
Precious time lost Seven days to Fort
Wintee for another guide; an extra ride for
Whitman 10 avoid hostile Indians he
makes a sharp DETECTION to the south at
Fort Hall, to 60 by Salt Lake, and thence to
| Bent's Fort on the Arkansas and follow up
the Sante Fe trail. Here he is at branch
| of the Arkansas; no material for fire only
on the other side thin ice; rapid current /;
Whitman lays flat on his back-"wriggles"
| himself acrOss-secures wood and pushes
back over the thin ice.
Bent's Fort half way three months in
the saddle his companion broken down
and left new outfit. After resting four
days the wiry doctor takes the spur again,
and scatters rumors of an immense emigra-
ton to Oregon ! "Meet US at Westport on
| the Missouri, next June ~ "GOOd wagon
road !" AS he came flying up the trail he
distributed circulars, setting out the advan-
tages and resources of this wonderful ri
Dorado. "NeXt June we will meet you !"
In such enthusiasm he arrived at St. Louis;
though nipped in his nose, toes, hands and
face, he could talk of but one business the
fs 'ats the ofr coagfry passabie % Passable w
we can imagine him replying, 'look at me:
l have come through in the dead Of Win
ter J" One look would have forever i'm
pressed upon memory; buffalo overcoat and
ments and vest fur leggings; boot mocca-
sins face SCARED with the bitter frosts;
'meet US in June," and he is off for Wash
| ingtOn, where he arrives March 3, the last
day of the session, and just five months from
the day when he spurred down the valley
from Fort Walla Walla.
But what of the treaty? 1t had been
signed and proclaimed as the law of the land
two months before he had set out, and rati-
| fed while he was lost in the mountains.
Four thousand miles and Oregon left out.
Will this weather beaten, frost-bitten man
have galloped to Washington for nothing?
Not he. He rides through Washington
about as he had done over the mountains
and up the southern trail "Early in June
you will meet me-" From department to
department, to the White House, every
where, rumors are flying fast of a great Ore
gon emigration. President and secretaries
become infected with his enthusiasm. The
British Premier proposed to hold Oregon for
English emigrants. If Marcus Whitman
could get his emigrants there, Daniel Web
ster proposed likewise to stand by them.
No "meet" for chase was ever called
which had in itsuch magnetic charm as that
June "meet" on the banks of the Missouri.
| Whitman was there, overseeing, organizing,
electrifying People were gathering from
the North, East and South. One man came
from Texas, having received one Of Whit
mans flying circulars at home. The last
wagon was packed and the canvas stretched
over the great hoops. What a proud mo-
ment it must have been for the doctor to
have seen 200 wagons wheel into line with
876 emigrants and 1900 head of cattle head
ed for the distant "half mythical" Oregon.
No train ever had more elements of
strength, none q better commander The