Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1903-06-19

paign, Governor Dunmore would
meet them and together they would
march upon and destroy the Native
towns of the Ohio. Governor Dun
more failed to keep his appoint
ment, and General Lewis received
an order to join him at one of the
strongest Native towns just az
Cornstalk at the head of chosen
force of chiefs and warriors was
discovered near in equal numbers
to his command. He had Just
time to order his plan Of battle,
when he was attacked, and the
battle of Pleasant Point was fought
with great loss on both sides, but
with greatest proportionate loss of
Lewis officers as compared with
the Indian chiefs who fell. But
the Indians were so thoroughly
cowed that they withdrew; and
Cornstalk, himself unconquered,
unable to animate them to further
resistance TO the "long Knives" as
the Virginia frontiersmen were then
called by the Indians, was COM
PEELED to sign a treaty much the
same as Chief John of the Rogue
Rivers signed in the Spring of
1855, which virtually ended the
race war begun at jamestown,
Virginia, in 1910.
The good faith of Governor Dun
more in this affair was suspected,
if not by General Lewis, certainly
by many Of his command, and it
is yet in question in all the country
near the scene of this battle, which
is deemed there the first battle of
the American Revolution. Both
the leader and his soldiers were of
the plain people Of the, then,
frontier.
Many of Lewis army who sur
vived the battle, for instance, the
Crocketts, Boones, Bufords, Flem-
ings, Jones's, and others, were
prominentamong the early pioneers
to Oregon. Not only family names
but those Of Lewis, Clark Boone
and Crockett were often used as
Christian names among those l
travelled with to Oregon, and,
whether they were blood kin, or OF
kindred spirit, or both as seems
likely, these paid for the lands
they got in the Valley of the Ohio
with bullets; and, from the date of
the battle of Pleasant Point past
the winning of the North by George
Rogers Clark, and later by Jack
son in Florida, and Harrison at.
the Thames, bullets have held the
Mississippi Valley and foiled Brit
ish power tits efforts to circumvent
or check the expansion of this
Nation.
So it was on the Pacific Slope of
our country. Plain American from
tiersmen organizing a provisional
government in 1843, so modified it
that in 1845 it became the protector
Of the property of rich and power
full British corporation, thus fore
stalling the intent Of the British
warships arriving a few weeks later,
and foiling the intent to use the
800 soldiers who were brought to
the Red River settlement to await
orders to proceed to Oregon. Thus
the plan of the great Jefferson to
plant 10000 rifles in the Valley of
the Columbia was long ago realized,
and we live in amity with Great
Britain and are educating the
children of the Native race. The
pioneers who first settled the Valley |
Of the LaCreole (Rickreall) bore
worthy part in this consummation.
7. MINTO.
NoTE: Much of the historical
allusion l have made in the fore
going is derived from the West
Virginia Historical Magazine for
October and January last, the
writer's being Miss L. K. Poage, of
KY, and E. 0. Randall,
secretary of the Ohio Historical
Society.
JIM.