Early Oregon: jottings of personal recollections of a pioneer of 1850
By George E. Cole
Dedicated to the Pioneers whose courage, energy and perseverance made it possible for Oregon to Become American states.
The contents of this book, with a few
alterations, first appeared in a series of articles in the Sunday Oregonian of
1901.
This is not a history or a chronicle, but the recollections of incidents that
came under my personal observation, which, at this time, may be of interest,
both to the pioneers who are left and to the new comers. G.E.C.
Chapter I
During the month of October, 1850, there were fitted out in
San Francisco three brigs, suitable for carrying passengers, which were
advertised for sailing during that month to the mouth of the Umpqua river. No
American vessel had ever entered that port before. The mines had been discovered
in northern California, and a company had been organized in San Francisco to
locate townsites on the Umpqua river. The townsite at the mouth of the river was
called Umpqua City. Up the river at the head of navigation was Scottsburg;
farther up, near the site of the post of the Hudson Bay Company, was Elkton, and
still farther up, on the trail from Oregon to California, was Winchester. This
route was intended to reach the northern California mines. Flaming hand-bills
were posted showing the advantages of the route and advertising the cities as
before named. Plats of these new cities were made out, and lots were offered for
sale at public auction at real estate offices in San Francisco, The names of
these three brigs were the Bos-tonian, the Kate Heath and the Reindeer. The two
former having sailed, the brig Reindeer left San Francisco on the 24th of
October with about seventy passengers, part for Umpqua, among whom were Bush
Wilson, Phillip Ritz and myself; and the rest for Portland. Ritz and I had
crossed the plains together during the preceding summer, and had formed Wilson's
acquaintance in San Francisco. Wilson located in Benton county, and held the
office of county auditor for about thirty years. He died a few years ago. Ritz
first located in Benton county, and in 1862 removed to Walla Walla county, where
he had a big nursery. He was a prominent and public spirited citizen. He was an
early advocate of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and made several trips to
Washington, D. C. in the interest of that road. He obtained from the company six
or seven sections of land near where Ritzville is now located, and which was
named for him. He died in Walla Walla a few years since.
Meeting with adverse winds after passing out of the Golden
Gate, we were driven far to the south-westward, and did not reach our
destination until the 8th of November. Arriving opposite the mouth of the river
as nearly as could be ascertained, as we had no chart and there was no one on
board who had ever been at the harbor, we fired signal guns, and getting no
response, started for the entrance. Arriving at the bar, we found that the
Bostonian was a wreck, lying just outside of the channel on the north side.
Thereupon we lowered anchor, discovering a ship's boatload of sailors coming
down to meet us. It proved to be from the Kate Heath, commanded by Captain
Tichenor, who was at that time mate of the Kate Heath. Coming alongside of our
brig, and running up the ladder, he sang out in a shrill voice, "Weigh anchor
and hoist sail, or you will go to h—1 in five minutes."
We took hold in assisting the crew in getting the brig under
sail, arriving inside of the harbor in a short time, where we anchored in
safety. As we were anxious to get up to Scottsburg, we three, Wilson, Ritz and
myself, purchased a small canoe from Indians who came aboard, and together with
a Frenchman named Brobant and a Canadian, whose name I do not now recall, got
into the canoe, having been supplied from the ship with a piece of salt "junk"
and some hard biscuit, and rowed up the river. The tide setting against us, by
dark we had reached within four or five miles of Scottsburg and camped.
Soon a raft of logs came down the river, having a sail and
one man on it. We all agreed we would like to have that sail, as it had
commenced raining, to protect us from the rain. So Wilson sang out to the man on
the raft and told him to come ashore and stop with us over night. The man
replied that if we would take his line he would do so. Having landed his raft,
he proved to be an old acquaintance of Wilson's, from the Kennebec river in
Maine, so there was a very agreeable reunion of the two Maine men, in which the
others took no particular part, but were nearly as glad as they in getting the
sail as a tent for the night, as it was now raining quite hard.
Early the following morning we got into our canoe and went up
to Scottsburg, which consisted of several tents and a log cabin built up to the
square. Having no more salt "junk" or hard bread left, we applied for a
breakfast, but found that no one was provided with the means there of getting us
one. But the lone lady there, whose husband, named Fisk, was the proprietor of
the cabin, sold us five pounds of flour and a pound of butter and loaned us the
use of her stove, on which we cooked our own breakfast.
As the batteau which was to bring our luggage would not be
there for several hours, the Frenchman and myself started on foot for Ft.
Umpqua, leaving the others to look after the baggage when it arrived. We were
not able to reach that point before darkness set in, having to climb a mountain
while packing our blankets besides a bundle, so we camped for the night. As the
woods were inhabited by large numbers of wild animals, particularly bear, the
grizzly, the brown and the black bear, we kindled a fire and took turns in
keeping it alive, more for protection against the wild beasts than anything
else, while the others slept, until daylight.
In the morning we discovered that we were about two miles
from Ft. Umpqua. A cabin had been built at the new city of Elkton. We reached
this cabin early in the morning, which was Sunday. Having had very little to eat
for a long time, we were provided with a sumptuous breakfast, consisting of the
meat of a bear, which had been killed the day before, potatoes, which had been
brought up from the settlement on the Willamet and baked in the stove, and very
fine biscuits and coffee, all provided by Mrs. Wells, the wife of Dr. Wells, who
owned and lived in the cabin, and who had moved from the Willamet that summer.
The lady was some time preparing the meal, we were very hungry, and as our cook
was neatly dressed, was young, and to us, who had not seen ladies for a long
time, seemed very beautiful, we patiently waited, dividing our time between the
cook and the breakfast preparing, until it was ready for the table, which proved
to be indeed a very sumptuous meal.
After breakfast our Frenchman was very anxious to get to Ft.
Umpqua, having heard there was a Frenchman named Garnier in command at the
Hudson Bay Company's post. Of course he and our Frenchman had volumes to talk,
while I sat by, not being able to understand a word. Suggesting to Brobant that
we had better move forward, our host insisted that we stay with him over night.
To this Brobant readily acquiesced, but after partaking of a luncheon consisting
of tea and hard bread I took my blankets on my back and started for the
settlement, some fifteen or twenty miles distant. The trail lay up Elk creek,
crossing and recrossing the same a great number of times. Reaching the outskirts
of the settlement about dusk, I found a camp there of men who had come up on the
Kate Heath, and who had been up in the valley and procured animals with which
they were returning to Scottsburg to get their luggage and provisions, intending
to pack to the new Eldorado in northern California.
On my inquiring the distance to a house, one man with an
Irish brogue told me that I must stay with them over night, that they had some
fine venison that they had just killed and plenty of bacon, and that he would
get me up a meal, as they had just eaten. Every time he spoke I thought he must
be an old acquaintance, like our friend Wilson's from the Kennebec. Getting in a
position where the light shone on his face, I tried to decipher his features,
but could not bring to my memory a recollection of them. Finally as he handled
the dough in such manner as showed that he was probably an old camper, I
inquired of him what his business was, and he said, "I've been a baker all my
life." This gave me a key to recollection. I said, "Where are you from?" He
said, "I'm from Covington, Kentucky." I had an acquaintance there by the name of
Silas Rockwell, with whom I had stopped a week in April, '49. I asked him if he
knew Silas Rockwell. He said, "Yes, I know him well; I've furnished him bread
many a time." Having one night at my friend Rockwell's been requested by him to
go down to the baker's and order some bread, as the firemen, who had just
succeeded in quenching a fire, had come to his restaurant to get a luncheon,
telling me that I would find where the bakery was and that I would find it
closed, but to go to the rear end, in which the baker lived, rap on the door and
call him and give him the order and see that it was sent immediately,—the inmate
replied, "Ay, ay, sir; tell Mr. Rockwell I will be there in a minute." This was
the same voice that I now recognized. So, telling him I was the young fellow who
called him up, we soon became boon companions, and on the return of his
companions, who had been looking after the horses, he hastened to tell them he
had found an "ould acquaintance."
I remained there until morning. Getting breakfast, I started
on for the Umpqua valley. In a short distance I met a man on horseback with a
compass and a chain, and in conversation soon found that this was Jesse
Applegate, who informed me that he was out surveying and would be gone for a day
and a night, that his house was only three or four miles from us, and he was
very sorry he could not be at home to look after and entertain me. But he told
me to go to the house of Charles Applegate, his brother, which I did, and stayed
over night. These two with their brother Lindsay had emigrated from Missouri in
a large emigration from that state in 1843, and located in the Willamet valley,
but the year before had removed to the Umpqua valley, this portion of it being
called Yoncalla, a beautiful spot, in which they had selected each a section of
land and had built improvements.
There were no grist mills at that time nearer than Rickreall,
in Polk county, more than one hundred miles distant; so, having used up the
amount with which they had provided themselves, they used instead boiled wheat,
which was more palatable than one would suppose and answered all purposes of
bread.
At this place I found a copy of the New York Weekly Tribune,
to which the Applegates, being Whigs, were subscribers, and which reached them,
via Panama, San Francisco and Portland, once a month.
I concluded there that I did not want to see any more of the
Umpqua valley until after I had seen the Willamet, and started in the morning
retracing my steps northward, reaching a man by the name of Goodall at Elk
creek, the site of the present town of Drain, and, learning that some of my
comrades of the ship had stayed over night there the night previous and had
pressed on to the Willamet, I disposed of my blankets to make my pack lighter
and started on up the Pass Creek trail over the Calliapooia mountains, reaching
Martin's, a bachelor, who lived in the Siuslaw, at which place I overtook my
companions, reaching there late at night.
The next day we started on, reaching at the head of the Long
Tom, a settler by the name of Mart Brown, who had married a daughter of one of
the four Richardson brothers, three of whom lived farther down the Long Tom. Two
of his wife's brothers, or cousins, were there on a visit to stay over night,
having with them a violin, or, as they called it, a fiddle, and we made a jovial
night of it by getting up a dance, in which, there being but one lady, the wife
of our host, three of our party personated ladies by tying a handkerchief on the
arm. We had a very enjoyable time, dancing for hours on the puncheon floor, and
I made myself very popular with the party by calling the "country dances," money
musk, Virginia reel, etc.
These young men were very anxious that we should stop at
their house the next night. They told us we would pass Uncle Ben Richardson's
about noon and get our dinner, and before sundown reach the house of Gideon
Richardson.
The next day we started for Marysville, now Corvallis. About
eight or ten miles below we crossed the Long Tom to the west bank on a ferry
which was operated by "Doc" Richardson, who was the chief of the Richardson
family. He took us across the stream and cordially invited us to remain with
him, but we excused ourselves and pushed on, taking dinner at Winkle's Butte,
and arrived at Marysville in the middle of the afternoon.
The first house belonged to J. C. Avery, the proprietor of
the town, who also had a little store near by. Finding him absent, I went on
down to what was called the lower town, built on the edge of a claim of James F.
Dickson, at which was a log school house, and a store belonging to Hartless &
St. Clair.
As I was anxious for information, learning that there was a
young man by the name of A. G. Hovey teaching there, I called on him as soon as
school hours were over and made his acquaintance. I found he was from Ohio and
had reached Oregon that year overland. I also learned from Hovey that a man
named Jacob Martin, who lived out about six miles in the foot hills, was in town
and was going out in the morning to his claim, that there was a quantity of
vacant land in that neighborhood, and that there was a school house near him
which was not as yet provided with a teacher. So, staying over night with
Dickson, I returned in the morning to the store, at which Hovey was a clerk as
well, and made the acquaintance of Jacob Martin, who was a large specimen of
humanity from the Monongahela river district, in Pennsylvania.
Uncle Jake, as he was familiarly called, held out great
inducements for me to accompany him to his home, in the forks of the Muddy and
Marys rivers. Loaded with a large quantity of provisions for the family, he
struck out with long strides, and I, not being able to keep up on the walk, had
to make a trot to keep near enough to him to talk with him. We crossed the Marys
river, wading it, about three miles distant from the town, and passed the house
of Solomon K. Brown, an old settler, and then reached the home of Nicholas Ownby,
or Uncle Nick, as he was known, who was a principal settler in that district.
Reaching Ownby's about sundown, having remained in Marysville
most of the day, Martin informed me that it would be good policy for me to
remain over night with Ownby, who would most certainly invite me to do so. He
was the most influential man in the neighborhood and had a family of four or
five children that he wished to send to school for the winter, and also telling
me that if I made a good impression upon the old Missourian, as he called him,
between Ownby and myself I could be located on some unclaimed land, which I
could take up as a donation.
I found Uncle Nick to be a fine specimen of man, about sixty
years of age, born and raised in Kentucky, having married there and moved to
Missouri and purchased land on what was known as the Platte purchase, and
settling down on which, he reared his family. In 1845, finding he did not have
land enough and could not get land cheaply on which to locate his children, he
fitted out for Oregon. He brought with him the entire family, except the oldest
boy, who was then married; a fine lot of cattle, some blooded horses, also
sheep, pigs, chickens and, of course, dogs and cats, and his entire household
outfit, except such things as were made of wood, which would be cumbersome to
carry, and could be made by himself and boys in Oregon.
After learning from me, in answer to questions, that I had
taught school, and that I was hunting a piece of land on which to locate, he
said that if I would listen to him I could get a piece of good land and could
get a situation to teach school for the winter, commencing at once.
On the following day, Sunday, we took horses and rode up to
the log school house, about a mile distant, which proved to be on the vacant
land referred to, and Uncle Nick suggested that that would be a good place to
stay over night occasionally and hold down my claim. A mile farther on we found
Uncle Jake Martin again. The two men made arrangements for the campaign of
getting up the school, and started out over the district settlements, the cabins
not being closer than a mile of each other. A sufficient number of subscribers
was obtained, and notice was given that school would commence on Monday, the
next day. Reporting their success, Uncle Nick and I returned to his cabin. He
said he had not seen all of them, and had not got all the pupils they required,
twenty-five, at six dollars each for the quarter of thirteen weeks, but whatever
it lacked in number he would sign additional ones, more than his actual number
of children, to make out the amount.
So the school commenced at once. In order to make up the
number, the distance to the homes of some of the boys and girls was six or eight
miles. They all came on horseback, brought their dinners in dinner pails, and
returned as the school was dismissed at night. Quite a number of the pupils were
men and women grown, but had never had the benefit of a common school education,
and of course were but beginners. They were very anxious to learn and gave me
little trouble.
The only thing which was noticeable was the attitude of the
younger men to the girls for part of them having a section of land as a donation
claim was, under the law, required by the 25th of September of the coming year
to marry in order to get a patent to more than half a section, married men being
given a section and unmarried men a half section. And the law allowed only one
year from the time the act was passed for the bachelors to marry, so that their
wives could also hold half a section. Hence, a good business in the matrimonial
line that season, and indications that were not unpleasing to me were shown in
the attitude to each other of the marriageable ones of the sexes.
Chapter II
On Christmas day "Doc" Richardson, who lived outside of the
district, about twelve miles from the schoolhouse, gave a Thurston Christmas
dinner, in honor of Samuel R. Thurston, the first delegate to Congress from
Oregon, who was then in Washington, and whom he wished to honor for having
secured the passage of the donation act, which not only allowed the settler a
section of land but also to take it in such form as he laid out his claim, so
that it was compact. But it was not required to be in legal subdivisions, as the
land was unsurveyed, or to conform to the cardinal points of the compass.
The Richardson relatives as far as Yamhill county (Clayton
Richardson, a younger brother, and his wife and children) came, and as far as
the head of the Long Tom in the other direction. Mart Brown, whose wife, it will
be remembered, was a daughter of one of the Richardsons, and their collateral
relatives, and other friends were in attendance at the Christmas dinner.
The dinner was given outdoors, for the day was pleasant. The
men all sat down to dinner first, and the women (the wives and daughters) waited
upon them until all had eaten before they sat down and were served.
After the dinner was over, dancing commenced in the double
cabin, the furniture having been removed. Two sets, one in each cabin, were able
to form; and, as my fame had preceded me on my trip down through the valley, I
was put in requisition at once to call off the cotillions, which were formed,
one in each room, on the puncheon floor.
Old "Doc" provided himself with two cases of whiskey, which
he had packed from Brownsville, a distance of twenty odd miles.
This was not a dress occasion as the term is usually known or
usually applied, but some of the dresses were unique indeed. The girls and their
mothers were neat and clean and, I must say, not only healthy but pretty. Old
"Doc," who reminded me of an old feudal baron, of course had charge of the whole
ceremony, and he was dressed in buckskin trousers, moccasins and a blue flannel
shirt. His long white hair was in great abundance. He had waded the streams in
his buckskin trousers, and they had shrunk to such an extent that they reached
half way to his knees, his bare legs showing from there on down to the
moccasins. He wore no stockings.
When the positions were taken ready for the dance, Old "Doc"
came around with a bucket of water on one arm, in which there was a gourd, and a
bottle of whiskey in his hand, and after taking a drink from the bottle and
water from the gourd he passed around to all the dancers, boys and girls
indiscriminately, and when all had been served he sang out to me, "All ready, go
ahead."
After several hours' dancing, the whiskey having given out
apparently, he lay down in the corner of the cabin near the fire, putting his
legs over an improvised bench, which was made by halving a small sapling, in
which holes had been bored and four legs inserted, which was the usual bench
used in the cabins in those days, his feet near the fire, and was soon snoring.
But the dance went on. After a while he woke up, and, bidding me let the dance
go on without me for a while, took me to a large fir tree some distance from the
cabin, and, pointing to an elevation in the mountains of the Coast Range, he
asked, "Do you see that p'int in the mountains? Now fifteen steps from here I
hid a bottle." Stepping off that distance in the wet grass, he felt around with
his feet, but was unable to find it. ' He went back to the tree again, and said,
pointing to another elevation, "I reckon I made a mistake. I reckon it was that
p'int." He repeated his former performance, with the same result, which greatly
surprised him. He was equal to the emergency, however, and said, "I'll roll for
it," which he did and found the prize. Taking it to a tree, he knocked off the
neck of the bottle as squarely as if cut with a diamond. I said to him, "Why
didn't you put that bottle at the foot of the tree?" He answered, "I'm too old
for that; the boys would have found it long ago, and you and I would have gone
dry."
Everybody present was given an opportunity, and nearly
everybody, young and old, took part in the dance. I well recollect one person
who was there, quite a young man. He was teaching the neighborhood school. He
had arrived there about the time I did. He was younger than I, though not much,
and he is now living in an adjoining county, known as Judge N. T. Caton, whose
acquaintance I have kept up ever since. I have frequently been taken for him,
and he informs me he has frequently been called by my name. We had a joke that
whenever one of us was thus designated the person making the mistake was given a
dollar, but afterwards concluded we could not keep it up, as the dollars on both
sides ran out.
I lived principally with Uncle Nick Ownby. His family
consisted of his wife, who was a comely woman, a Kentuckian, somewhat along in
years, like her husband, but the two people were patterns of what married people
should do to assist each other, particularly in a frontier settlement. He
assisted her in various ways, and she did not only the house work but frequently
went out into the garden and dug potatoes, onions and turnips and got out a head
of cabbage for dinner, which in the winter season was served in the evening
after return from school. What struck me as very peculiar was that the winter
was so mild that, although it rained some, but not much until the 20th of March,
they were able to get their vegetables fresh from the garden as they cooked them
every day.
When school closed, I assisted them in running out their land
claims, as a surveyor general had been appointed, who would soon commence
surveying the land, sectionizing it, and it was necessary for them to show their
lines so that they could make their applications for the lands they wished to
obtain.
On the 20th of March, Judge Irving, who lived in Missouri,
but who had come in to see the country the year before, John Ownby, the oldest
boy, Isaac Auxier, and myself, loading up three or four packs, started for the
mines in northern California. It had rained but little during the winter. So
pleasant in fact was the weather that the plowing and the seeding had been done
in February. But we had scarcely started on our journey when it commenced to
rain, and rained continually until we reached Deer creek, where Roseburg now
stands. Having been poisoned with poison oak, so that I was completely blind,
the others advised me to return, which I did, they going on their journey after
Deer creek had sufficiently fallen so they could ford it.
I soon recovered from the poison and was able to commence
rail hauling from the timber for building a fence and also to put me up a little
cabin.
In the whole country everybody was looking forward to the
return of their delegate, Samuel R. Thurston, who left New York on steamer by
way of Panama immediately after adjournment of Congress. The steamer from San
Francisco to Portland in April was expected to bring him, instead of which it
brought the news of his death, which occurred aboard steamer after leaving
Panama. His body was buried at Acupulco, a seaport on the western coast of
Mexico, and subsequently removed to Oregon. General Lane, who was the first
governor, having been appointed by James K. Polk, had been superseded by the
Whig administration in the appointment of John P. Gaines. Turning his office
over to his successor, Lane went to California to mine for gold, but returned to
Oregon before the news of Thurston's death was received, and we had a talk about
the propriety of his running against Thurston. This was at Marysville. I told
him how they all felt toward Thurston, and he assured me that under such
circumstances he would not run. But after reaching Oregon City, and the steamer
arriving bringing the news of Thurston's death, he concluded at once to make the
race.
There was no party organization, but of course he was known
to be a Democrat and ran as such, but without nomination by any convention. Some
were opposed to him because his interests were in Oregon City, the former
capital, and, feeling that he would, if elected, use his influence at Washington
to effect a relocation of the capital there instead of Salem, they brought out
Dr. Wilson, a resident and the proprietor of Salem, to run against Lane. He was
also a Democrat. At that time Whigs were very scarce in Oregon, and of course
there was no such thing as a Republican party.
Lane had made a tour of the country, speaking, among other
places, at Marysville. But learning after leaving Marysville that there was
considerable opposition to him on account of the location question, the same act
that located the capital at Salem having also located the university at
Marysville and the penitentiary at Portland, he returned to Marysville on Sunday
before election day, in June, and on the morning of the election made a speech
to the people of Benton county, they all having come in, word having been
received by them, to hear him. At that time voters could vote at any precinct in
the county. There were four of them besides Marysville, but no polls were open
in any one of them.
After Lane's speech, A. L. Humphrey, who lived in Lane county
and was a joint councilman for Lane and Benton counties, and J. C. Avery, who
lived at Marysville and was running for the legislature, and had been a member
of the previous legislature, were called upon to speak, which they did.
In my neighborhood there lived a family of Kentuckians, who
had emigrated to southwestern Missouri, and in 1850 had again emigrated to
Oregon, the father, daughter and five sons, all six feet and more in height, all
unmarried except the oldest son, Ike, who lived in the neighborhood. This
family, Bailey by name, were looking for a location out more on the border,
intending to remain in my neighborhood until spring, and in the spring look up a
location farther to the southward. Very few of the people could read or write,
so it was one of my duties to do the reading and to a great extent the
correspondence of the neighborhood.
Congressmen from Kentucky and Missouri sent their speeches to
their old neighbors and supporters living then in Oregon, and whenever a speech
was received I was called upon and informed that by the next Sunday they would
expect me at their places to read it for them, and I accommodated them with
pleasure. Sitting around on the fence about the cabin would be a group of
fifteen or twenty men and sometimes half that number of women, if the day was
pleasant, while the speech was read. Of course I was not at all backward in
making as much display of my ability as possible, as, being the teacher, I was
expected to accomplish the speech with honor to myself and the district.
Ike Bailey was a very remarkable man. Long and gaunt, with a
chew of tobacco in his mouth, he would comment from time to time upon the
speech; and so enthused did he become at the end of a speech of a Kentuckian by
the name of Jones, whom he knew when a boy, that he declared that, although
Jones was a "peart" man, the teacher had read the speech better than Jones could
speak it, and said that the teacher would surely go to Congress.
On the election day to which reference has been made, partly
perhaps through the influence of Bailey, and partly through the friendship and
support of "Doc" Richardson, I was called upon to get upon the platform, which
was a farm wagon, and run for representative to the legislature, two members of
which were to be elected. It was conceded that J. C. Avery, the present
representative, would be re-elected. Immediately after this was over they took
me on their shoulders and carried me into the log school house, and polls were
declared open. In an hour and a half 141 votes of the county were in, and it
being announced that there were three who were not to be present because they
could not leave their homes, the polls were declared closed, and after counting
the votes, it was found that Avery and myself were elected.
Chapter III
Marysville was now an incorporated city and
the county seat. The long-looked-for donation act had passed, and the people
were happy. A Fourth of July celebration was projected, and most
enthusiastically taken up by the citizens, whose numbers had greatly increased,
many new buildings being in course of construction. The settlers of the
surrounding country joined in the festivities. A bullock was roasted whole, and
a great feast was spread. The Declaration of Independence was read by A. G.
Hovey, and the writer delivered the oration. The day was very generally observed
through the valley. Some of the older towns, as Champoeg, Oregon City and Salem,
indicated by the toasts that were proposed, the rivalry existing among them. I
recall that Dr. Newell, an old and prominent citizen of Champoeg, gave the
following:
"Champoeg for beauty,
Salem for pride; If it hadn't been for salmon, Oregon City would have died."
But a small area was sown in wheat in this part of Oregon at
this time. Every farmer had a few acres. Ownby having forty acres, which was
much larger than most of the farmers had, as wheat was worth but seventy-five
cents a bushel, and harvest hands were four dollars per day and difficult to
obtain at that, as many of the men were still in California digging gold. Small
as the acreage was, much of the wheat was left uncut, except what could be cut
with one's own help. Ownby offered his son John and myself half of the crop if
we could cut it and thresh it, which we undertook to do. There was no harvesting
machinery, except hand cradles, with which a man could cut two or three acres a
day. Ownby furnished us a truck (an improvised wagon), and horses, and younger
boys to haul the grain to a dumping ground in the corner of the field. A
circular corral was built, and a band of horses were driven in and threshed out
the grain by tramping on it. It was cleaned by carrying it up ten or twelve feet
onto a raised platform and letting it fall onto blankets on the ground, being
winnowed by the sea breeze, which at this time of the year could be relied upon
every afternoon. This was quite different from the mode in vogue in our day, and
I give this instance that the reader may learn that farm machinery for
harvesting and for threshing was unknown in those days in Oregon, and, however
important it is regarded now, was not actually needed. The wheat yielded about
forty bushels to the acre, and we made good wages in the transaction.
The legislature met on the first Monday of December, a
decided majority of the members going to Salem, the new capital, and holding the
session. One member of the council, however, from north of the Columbia river,
and two members of the house from that section, joined by two from the south
side of the river, met at Oregon City, and the governor and secretary being
there, and the court having held that was the proper location, they met and
adjourned from day to day, and adjourned finally. They were provided with
stationery and other conveniences and paid their per diem, while those at Salem
were not provided with any place to meet nor anything for incidental expenses.
The citizens of Salem, however, furnished whatever was required, giving them the
old Methodist Institute in which to hold their sessions.
Samuel Parker, joint senator from Marion and Klackimas
counties, was made president of the council, and seven other councilmen were
with him. He was a native of Virginia, and had had large experience in frontier
life in legislative matters,
having been an early settler in the territory of Iowa, was a member of the
convention which framed the constitution for that state, and made a very good
presiding officer. When a point of order was raised by any member of the
council, he would proceed to decide the same by stating that the "cheer are of
opinion that the p'int of order is well taken," or is not well taken, as the
case might be. Notwithstanding this peculiar wording of his decisions, they were
generally considered to be right.
William M. King, a resident of Portland, then in Washington
county, and a native of St. Lawrence county, in northern New York, was speaker
of the house. He was a good parliamentarian and also a man of education, and his
language was quite in contrast with that of the president of the council.
There were other members of both the council and the house
who afterwards became conspicuous in the territory and state of Oregon. M. P.
Deady, from Yamhill county, was a member of the council. He afterwards became
United States Judge of the territory, and when the territory became a state, in
1859, he was made United States District Judge for Oregon, and held the office
until he died, a few years ago. John A. Anderson, a native Kentuckian,
represented Clatsop county in the house. He was a bright and affable young man,
and when the civil war broke out went into the Confederate service. Ben Harding,
who was afterwards United States senator, was clerk of the house. Dr. J. W. Drew
was there from Umpqua county, now a part of Douglas county, and was a very
efficient and prominent member. George L. Curry, from Klackimas county, was
afterwards territorial governor. Quite a number of others were for a long time
prominent in various positions in the territory and afterwards state.
Thurston county was formed during this session of the
legislature. Colonel Mike Simmons, who lived at Tumwater, representing the
people of that locality, wished Olympia made the county seat, while J. B.
Chapman, a lawyer living at Steilacoom, desired that town to be made the county
seat. The committee on counties sided with Chapman, but Simmons, being a popular
man, a good mixer and an old pioneer at that time, succeeded in winning the
fight. The next legislature formed Pierce county and made Steilacoom its county
seat.
I went to this legislature with the firm determination to do
all the good in my power for the territory, but, contrary to my expectations,
while there were some others who felt the same way, perhaps the majority of the
legislature, the control passed largely into the Hands of members who were there
for the purpose of promoting their individual interests. They had ferry charters
to look after for themselves and their friends, and county seats to locate, and
one had a wagon road project across the Cascade mountains, and they combined and
assisted each other in what was called "log rolling," forming a very formidable
party, which some of us designated as the "local interest" party.
Asahel Bush, the publisher of the Oregon Statesman, located
at Oregon City, moved a printing office to Salem and did the printing for the
legislature, leaving his paper at Oregon City, the former capital, until the
location question should be finally settled. His paper was the mouthpiece of the
legislature, which Governor Gaines and the other federal officials designated as
revolutionary. The Oregonian, published and edited by Thomas J. Dryer at
Portland, was the organ of the federal officials, being a Whig paper. The war of
words between these two organs was bitter and quite acrimonious.
Judge Pratt, the Democrat member of the supreme court, came
by invitation to Salem and read to the legislature a dissenting opinion, which,
he being a learned man, was calculated to strengthen the position of the members
at Salem in their acting in contempt of the decision of the supreme court. A
memorial to Congress, setting forth our position in the matter and asking the
action of Congress, was passed, and, it being supported by our delegate, General
Lane, an act of Congress was passed confirming the location of the capital at
Salem.
The hotel accommodations were very limited at Salem, and
members of the legislature had to secure places to stop at private houses. John
Anderson and myself were very fortunate in securing a room jointly and board at
the home of Dr. Belt, father of Judge George W. Belt. We were probably more
readily received and accommodated because of the fact that Dr. Belt was a native
Kentuckian, as was also my associate, Anderson.
On the following June, 1852, the issue on which the people
were divided was for and against the actions of the two legislatures, in which
the voters sustained the so-called revolutionary party, after Congress had
affirmed the act of the legislature, and the governor and secretary and the
judges of the supreme court moved their offices to Salem. Gov¬ernor Gaines
issued a proclamation convening the legislature in August, for the purpose, as
he said, of enacting laws at the now proper place, claiming that those passed
before the action of Congress in the matter were invalid. The legislature met at
Salem, and after three days session adjourned sine die, affirming that no
legislation was necessary until the regular session in December.
At this special session M. P. Deady was elected president of
the council, and Ben Harding speaker of the house, and when the December session
convened they continued in those positions respectively.
While the Democrats were in a decided majority, Whigs having
been elected from Washington county, and Democrats who had sustained the
governor, from Klackimas county, in which was located Oregon City, there was
passed a resolution in the Democratic caucus setting forth that, "Whereas, the
legislature had been convened by order of one John P. Gaines," a minority of the
Democrats dissented from the wording, although agreeing to what followed in the
resolution, and it failed to pass until in place of the phrase "one John P.
Gaines" there was substituted "His Excellency, John P. Gaines," and in that
shape it passed.
Having come in from the mines in Jackson county to attend the
special session, and having returned there in the interests that I was pursuing
in that locality, I again came back to the Willamet valley, arriving at Salem on
the first day of the regular session commencing in December.
Colonel I. N. Ebey, from Island county, on the north side of
the Columbia river, and F. A. Chenoweth, from Clarke county, desired to pass a
memorial to Congress for the division of the territory. Accordingly a committee
of three was appointed, consisting of those two, being the entire number of
members from the north side of the Columbia river, and myself, from the south
side. A memorial was drawn up and passed in accordance with the desires of the
people on the north side of the Columbia river as represented by them, making
the present boundary line between Oregon and Washington the dividing line
between the two territories, and asking that the new territory be called
Columbia. General Lane, favoring the petition, succeeded in getting through
Congress an act granting the prayer of the memorialists in all except the name,
which was changed to Washington.
Pierce having been elected president, Democrats were
appointed to fill the various offices in the territory of Oregon, among whom was
George H. Williams, supreme court judge, who, having previously been on the
bench in Iowa, was a man of experience and ability. He was afterwards United
States senator from Oregon and also attorney general under President Grant.
General Lane was again commissioned as governor, but he decided instead of
accepting, to' run again for delegate, and so, keeping, it is said, his
commission in his pocket, without disclosing it to the public, he was elected
delegate in June, 1853. George L. Curry was appointed secretary of the territory
of Oregon, J. W. Davis of Indiana was appointed governor, and General Joel
Palmer was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs.
Among the best known characters of Oregon whom I met at Salem
during the session of the supreme court was United States Marshal Joe Meek, an
early settler of Oregon. When Polk was President he went to Washington and did
good service in securing the passage of the act organizing the territorial
government. He was a tall, fine-looking man as one would meet in many a long
day, and as there were many anecdotes connected with his name, he excited in me
much interest. He was a cousin of President Polk, from whom he received his
appointment as marshal, and he told me many interesting stories of his trip to
Washington, and his visits to "Cousin Jeems" in the White House. He said that he
arrived at Willard's Hotel in a buckskin suit and moccasins, and asked the clerk
for accommodations. When he was handed a pen with which to register he pretended
not to be able to write, and asked the clerk to register for him, saying:
"I am Joseph L. Meek, Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy
Extraordinary from all Oregon to the United States of America."
At the first session of the court Meek had no funds, and
jurors and witnesses coming to subsequent terms were clamorous for their fees,
but he was compelled to put them off. Hearing that he had received some $15,000,
they called his attention to the fact, and demanded their money. He replied,
"Oh, that is 'bar'ly' enough for the officers."
He was fond of entertaining the judges, lawyers and visitors
from the east with stories of years gone by when Oregon was in its infancy. He
said that he came to Oregon when Mt. Hood was a hole in the ground. He delighted
to tell jokes on himself. He said he once took a party of volunteers out in the
Burnt river country, in eastern Oregon, to protect incoming immigrants, and that
his soldiers suddenly met a body of Indians. They had just crossed a river, but
they decided to cross back again, and they did so without any orders. His mount
was a bucking mule that would budge for neither whip nor spur, and in
consequence he was left alone while his comrades were making off down the river
for a ford. He called out to them lustily, "Come back and fight the Indians,
there's not more than a dozen of 'em. We can whip 'em," but they proceeded to go
up the opposite river bank in full retreat. Suddenly an arrow struck his mule,
which forthwith plunged down the river bank, forded the stream, and struck the
trail far ahead of his companions, who were looking back to find him. Shouting,
"Come on, boys, you can't whip them; there's more than a thousand of them," "he
led the way to the rear.
He was as brave a man as ever lived, but like all successful
Indian fighters, he was wary and cautious. The boys apologized for having left
him, but he had to tell them that it was his mule and not he who made the stand,
pleading with them not to inform on him when he reached the valley.
The summer of 1852 brought a large immigration into the
territory. The winter following was very severe. The raising of wheat had been
neglected since the discovery of gold in California, farm hands being impossible
to find, even at high wages. Wheat became so scarce that flour was imported from
Chile, and sold at $16 a cwt, while seed wheat brought $4 or $5 a bushel.
©Shauna Williams