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History of Oregon (Bancroft)/Volume 1/Chapter 22

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Chapter 21
History of Oregon, Volume 1
by Frances Fuller Victor, edited by Hubert Howe Bancroft
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
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3049328History of Oregon, Volume 1 — Chapter 22Hubert Howe BancroftFrances Fuller Victor
​

CHAPTER XXII.

POLITICS AND PROGRESS.

1846–1847.

Waiting for a Territorial Government—The Question of a Delegate to Washington—Attempts to Provide for the Ejectment of British Subjects from their Land—Legislative Proceedings—Memorial to Congress—Public Reproof to Trespassers—Reëlection of Abernethy—Douglas' Bill for Establishing a Territory, and its Failure—Action of the People—Private Delegate to Congress—Biographical Notices—The Immigration of 1847.

With the news that the notice bill had been passed, and before it was known that a treaty had been concluded, the subject of sending a delegate at once to Washington to make known to congress the wants of Oregon began to be agitated; for it was not doubted that immediate action would be taken to adopt the colony as a territory, and there were those who were solicitous as to the changes which must follow, and for official positions for themselves or friends. They said that thousands of people had been induced to emigrate to Oregon by a promise of land, which had been selected and located under the land law of the provisional government; and they wanted these claims confirmed as they were, before any United States surveyor should arrive with power to alter their boundaries in conformity to section lines and subdivisions.

They needed a delegate to represent the matter in congress, and to give the cooperation asked for to the scheme of a national railroad to the Pacific; an agent who should go armed with a memorial signed ​by hundreds of men who had travelled the road to Oregon, and could speak intelligently of its facilities for railroad building. This delegate should also promote the mail service to Oregon. It was mentioned with regret that the bill before congress for organizing a territory would allow a delegate to be sent only when there were 5,000 voters or 25,000 inhabitants in the country, and this could not be expected for three or four years. The present population could not afford to wait; they were not numerous, but they were far advanced beyond political infancy, and were in favor of demanding, if need be, the rights of men.[1]

On the 26th of September a public meeting was held at Oregon City to take into consideration matters relating to the interests of the country. At this meeting McCarver offered a resolution in favor of holding primaries in each of the counties, which should send delegates to a general convention to meet at Oregon City, which convention should elect a delegate to congress. The resolution also provided for as many delegates to the convention from each county as the law of apportionment would give them members in the legislature.

In the apportionment of the legislature, Champoeg had five members, or two more than any other county, and would probably secure the election. Therefore the resolution was not cordially received by the citizens of Clackamas County, who chiefly composed the meeting; and it became evident at once that party spirit would be developed in colonial politics as it had never been before. The resolution of McCarver was amended by P. G. Stewart, who wished the delegates instructed to draught a memorial to congress; and Mr T'Vault embodied the several suggestions in one resolution, to the effect that it was the duty of the colonists to petition congress to relieve their wants, and that in order to obtain unanimity, a convention should be held at Oregon City on the 2d of November for the ​purpose of draughting memorials, which should be circulated for the people to sign, and to devise means of forwarding the same, whether by delegate or otherwise; the inhabitants of the several counties being requested to hold meetings therein for that purpose. They then adjourned to the 10th of October.

At the appointed time it was apparent why a delegate to congress was so much desired by certain persons, and what certain other persons would require him to do in their interest. After resolving that Clackamas County should have five delegates in the convention, D. Stewart broached the subject that congress should be asked to make reservations, first of the falls of the Willamette, with the land one mile in extent on every side of this water power; together with Fort Vancouver, Fort Nisqually, Cape Disappointment,[2] and the Cascade Falls of the Columbia; thereby preventing British subjects who held land at these places under the colonial land law, which congress would be asked to approve, from deriving any benefit from their claims. The resolution was so modified, however, as to partially obscure their intention, and congress was requested to reserve all waterfalls, capes, and town sites, the proceeds to be applied to the improvement of the bays, rivers, and roads in the territory; thus making a benefit apparently accrue from it to the country. In this form the resolution was adopted by the meeting; and after discussing the proposal of a delegate, the meeting again adjourned to the 15th.

The subject of this resolution coming up at the meeting of the 15th, it was so amended as to make the proceeds of each town site produce a fund for the benefit of public schools and local improvements, when P. G. Stewart proposed to insert "so far as they can do the same without interfering with private rights," which excited warm discussion. The ​amendment being finally adopted and the resolution put to vote, it was lost by fourteen to twenty-two. Six delegates to the convention were then chosen, and the meeting adjourned amidst excitement and efforts by the minority to obtain a hearing.[3]

When the convention met according to appointment at Oregon City, three counties only were represented, Champoeg by W. J. Bailey, J. Sanders, Joseph Barnaby, and F. Bernia, all from French Prairie; Tualatin by Hugh Burns and Robert Moore, each owners of town sites; Clackamas by Samuel McSwain, Philip Foster, H. Wright, H. M. Knighton, S. S White, and J. McCormick, each wanting a slice at Oregon City. The first resolution offered was by Bailey, and declared that the meeting viewed with indignation and contempt the unwarrantable, unjust, and obnoxious efforts of certain individuals, at a previous meeting in Oregon City, to deprive citizens of their rights, through a memorial to congress to reserve town sites, water-falls, and capes that had been settled for years, and were at that time rapidly advancing in value by improvement.

This was followed by another from Mr Burns, who resolved that the convention had full confidence in the constituted authority, the legislature, as the proper body to memorialize congress on matters touching the wants of the territory, and recommended the legislature to petition the government of the United States to allow the land law to remain under its present form, according to the organic compact of Oregon.

At this stage of the proceedings a motion to adjourn sine die was made by one of the Oregon City delegates, which was rejected, and Robert Moore offered a resolution declaring that it was the sense of the convention that it was highly improper to meddle with the rights ​or locations of the inhabitants of the territory, such interference being detrimental to the growth, prosperity, and interests of the country. Bailey followed with another, recommending the legislature to embody in its memorial that claim-jumpers, or persons interfering with the rights of others touching land claims, should be debarred from receiving any land or donation in the territory.

Once more one of the Oregon City delegation made a motion to adjourn, which was rejected; and Moore again resolved that the convention considered it unnecessary to obey the mandates of the agitators of the late movement to memorialize congress, or to send a delegate or messenger to that body; after which Burns moved that the proceedings of the convention be signed by the president and secretary, and published in the Spectator, the motion being carried.[4] The adoption of each of these resolutions, so opposite to the intention of the movers of the convention, was effected by the delegates of the other counties voting solidly against the Oregon City delegates, whose number, six, was reduced to five by making one of themselves, P. Foster, chairman of the convention. Thus ingloriously ended the first attempt to devise means to evict British claimants under the organic law. Two days later came the news of the settlement of the boundary question, in anticipation of which these measures had been taken, but the full tenor of which was unknown for several months afterward.

In the mean while the legislature met,[5] and ​congress was memorialized, the governor having left it to the members of the legislature whether, in view of the probability that the laws of the United States would soon be extended over the territory, they should attempt legislation any further than to confirm appointments, fill vacancies, and make necessary appropriations.[6] They preferred to continue the regular business of the session, during which they passed several important laws. Among others, one reorganizing the judicial system, by which the several counties were formed into one circuit that should be presided over by a judge commissioned by the governor, and who should hold his office two years, with a salary of eight hundred dollars, to be paid quarterly out of the territorial treasury. These circuit courts were given original jurisdiction of civil suits of whatever nature, and of criminal cases occurring in their respective counties, and were to exercise the same control over all matters of law and equity that the county courts had done; the criminal court was abolished; county judges were to be elected by the people, the appointing power being taken away from the governor, except in case of vacancies; a probate court was provided for the several counties, to be presided over by the president of the county courts; and several minor changes effected.

The committee on judiciary consisted of T'Vault, Tolmie, and Looney. Tolmie was opposed to altering the judiciary organization, in view of the expected change in territorial affairs, but was overruled by the legislature, which was not to be deprived of the glory of making laws to govern, even for a brief period, the conduct of colonial affairs, nor was their work less creditable than that of their predecessors.[7] A. A. Skinner, an immigrant of 1845, was elected circuit judge by the legislature; and the office of territorial secretary, vacated by the death of John E. Long, was ​filled by Frederick Prigg; H. M. Knighton was elected marshal; John H. Couch, treasurer;[8] George W. Bell, auditor; and Theophilus McGruder, territorial recorder. The organic law concerning partnerships in land of "two or more persons" was amended by repealing the words "or more;" a measure which had been much discussed previously, as a means of breaking the monopoly of the fur company and the missions, as well as of other speculators. By an act regulating weights and measures the imperial bushel of the Hudson's Bay Company, so much complained of, was abolished.

All these acts, though good and proper, did not interest the people as did the memorial, about which so much had been said. The committee first chosen by the legislature to frame this important document was composed of Hall, Peers, Summers, McDonald, and Boone. Their joint production was placed in the hands of a revisory committee consisting of T'Vault, Summers, and Peers; and finally was remodelled by Peers, who was a man of good parts, and a writer of considerable ability, whose verses sometimes graced the columns of the Spectator, so that at the last the American petition to the congress of the United States was penned by a British subject.[9] That the colonists' interests were not less happily represented the memorial shows for itself.

After respectfully soliciting the attention of congress to their wants, the proud position which Oregon would soon occupy before the world was briefly mentioned, and reference made to the flattering report of the congressional committee on post-offices and roads for 1846, in which the climate, soil, and other advantages of the country west of the Rocky Mountains were said to be correctly set forth; from which it would seem that Oregon was "destined soon to become a central point of commerce and happiness." ​Proceeding to the expression of their wants, the statement was made that bread-stuffs could on short notice be supplied to the amount of five thousand barrels of flour, and should a demand arise, salt beef and pork could be furnished to the amount of two thousand barrels—low estimates, it was declared, especially with regard to flour, which, were a market opened, could be greatly increased in quantity. Lumber could be furnished in abundance; and tar and pitch manufactured if required. Flax and hemp had been successfully cultivated in small quantities, and could be made articles of export.

This paragraph was a bid for contracts to furnish the vessels of the United States, and all American vessels in the Pacific; the purchasing of supplies at Vancouver by the commander of the Shark having been a subject of complaint on the part of the colonists, who thought it the duty of the government to patronize and encourage Oregon industry, in spite of the fact that American merchants required twelve per cent more for their goods than British merchants.

Congress was next deferentially reminded that the settlers of Oregon had been induced to make the difficult journey to Oregon and cultivate its fertile fields by the promise of the government that their homes should be secured to them; and they therefore thought they had a right to expect a grant of land; and not only they, but those who should come after them for the next few years. Their claims already taken were made under the organic law of the territory, and provided that any person might hold six hundred and forty acres of land. These claims they asked to have confirmed to them, in the same shape in which they were located.

They asked also that the insurmountable barriers which in new countries always presented themselves to the general diffusion of education, upon which were founded the principles of the republican government of the United States (whose extension over ​themselves they prayerfully awaited), might be in part removed by the liberality and wisdom of the government in making grants of land for that purpose.

The navigation of the Columbia and the risk to merchant vessels in crossing the bar were next alluded to, and congress was petitioned for a steam tow-boat which would remove these difficulties and dangers, at all seasons of the year; and of information on the subject of the intricacies of the river-channels, the prevailing winds, and strength of the current and tides, it was politely presumed that congress was informed, though that was far enough from the truth.

And finally an expression of wonder and admiration was indulged in, that a project so grand as that of the national railroad to the Pacific should have been proposed to congress. That such a road should be built they declared was obvious, particularly to those who had travelled from the United States to Oregon. And although it might be years before the great highway would be completed, yet they would look with anxiety for its commencement.

These subjects, the memorial declared, were the most important to the well-being of Oregon, and they prayed that congress would meet their wishes in a manner which should redound to the peace and prosperity of all interested, and the furtherance of an attachment to the government of the United States which should cease only with their existence.[10]

In this rather tame but perfectly proper manner was congress memorialized by its chosen representatives. They wanted a market, a donation of land, a tug-boat, schools, and a highway to the Pacific; and solicited the help of the government to procure these things. No provision was made for sending a delegate to congress; but the address was prepared in triplicate, one copy to be sent to California and one to the Islands by the bark Toulon, to await the first opportunity of being forwarded to Washington, while ​the third was reserved to be carried overland in the spring by W. Finley, who was returning to the States.


Months passed away after the first news of the treaty without bringing any message from the government of the United States to eagerly expectant Oregon. In February the Spectator gave expression to the disappointment of the people, who it said had "expected and expected until they were heart-sick." There was indeed a feverish state of anxiety, for which there was no very justifiable cause, which arose chiefly from the desire of every man to receive some direct benefit from the change so long desired. There was now no fear of 'war with England; California was secured,[11] and was already seeking supplies from Oregon;[12] the crop of 1846 had been abundant, and there was promise of still greater abundance in the coming harvest. The health of the colony was excellent, and improvements were being made on every side with encouraging rapidity. But many persons were dissatisfied at the tardiness of the government in furnishing them with titles to their land claims; many were covetous of the possessions of others, and some had trouble to defend their rights against aggression, for there were those holding themselves in readiness to seize the lands of the Hudson's Bay and Puget Sound companies as soon as the terms of the treaty should be made known.

When the terms became known, what a falling of high hopes was there! The government confirmed the company in their possessory rights; there was no need to memorialize congress to reserve town sites and ​water-falls now; their disappointment was complete; the indignation of the schemers knew no bounds. And then began an ill-suppressed rebellion which vaunted itself in threats of an independent empire to be made out of California and Oregon,[13] which never could be more than idle threats—for opposed to them was always the wise and loyal majority.

And while all this seething discontent arose from not being able to get rid of the possessory rights of the British companies, the Canadian settlers of the Cowlitz Valley, to the disturbance of good discipline, were imitating the ways of loyal Americans and praying to be made citizens of the United States, for by this means only they could secure their claims.[14] On the 23d of March, while the Modeste was still in the river, the Canadians of Lewis County raised the American flag, made by Canadian women, at a public meeting, and resolutions were passed declaring their joy at being permitted to fling to the breeze the star-spangled banner of their adopted country, which they promised to protect from harm as long as they should live, and to gladly perform any service which the United States might require of good naturalized citizens.[15]

Finding themselves prevented by the treaty from invading the lands of the two British corporations, the disaffected made themselves amends by trespassing upon the private claim of McLoughlin, who brought suit in the circuit court of Clackamas County against the corporation of Oregon City, and published a notice forbidding trespassers upon his land. Much excitement grew out of the proceedings, and a public meeting was held at this place to denounce the ​practice of claim-jumping, as this form of trespass was popularly designated, at which over a hundred and fifty persons signed a strong protest. The resolutions declared that the meeting regarded any action calculated to prejudice the claim of any cititzen who had complied with the laws, as a violation of the good faith of the community and deserving the reprobation of all honorable men; that the organic compact, though it might be avoided by some technicality, was made to secure the rights of every citizen "not incompatible or incongruous with the rights of reservation of the United States government;" that every man engaged in the movement assailing the rights of citizens was to be regarded as a disorganizer, whose conduct weakened the golden bond of society, and gave occasion to mob violence; that all persons who, upon small points, advised trespassing, should be held equally guilty with the offenders; that in view of the approaching jurisdiction of the United States they pledged themselves to maintain the supremacy of the existing laws until that time; and that they would vote for no man for any public office who should be directly or indirectly connected with the form of trespass called claim-jumping.

Other meetings followed, at which speeches were made against trespass, and more names appended to the pledge, both in Oregon City and elsewhere. Among others, Lewis County sent over fifty names. To the ordinary judgment appearances indicated that the spirit as well as the letter of the law was to be observed, and that no one's rights would be infringed. But the cunning brain framing the resolutions had saved his honor by the introduction of the innocent-looking proviso which promised not to interfere with the right of the government to reserve.


Notwithstanding the expected territorial organization, canvassing for the different candidates for offices under the provisional government went on with more ​than ordinary spirit. Abernethy and Lovejoy were the popular candidates for governor.[16]

The June election came round, and still no news from the United States except a few excerpts from newspapers copied first into the Polynesian, and from that into the Spectator. Congress had evidently forgotten them, or was treating them with silent contempt. They would go on with their own affairs as if congress did not exist. The contest for the gubernatorial office was close. In the Willamette Valley Lovejoy had a small majority, but when the returns from Lewis County came in, Abernethy had sixteen votes over his opponent, and was really elected by the Canadian voters.[17]

Governor Abernethy was a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, though reared under American institutions. He has been called a good governor by men of all parties; and so far as being discreet, temperate in speech, and careful not to offend the popular opinion, whether religious or political, he is deserving of this judgment. Perhaps it was impossible to avoid censure in exciting times without being secretive and designing; Abernethy was both. The most odious word that could be applied to a Protestant in those days was that of Jesuit; yet Protestant and Methodist Abernethy possessed all the traits usually ascribed by a Protestant to a Jesuit. He was courteous, smooth, ​and silent, but implacable. He could treat with seeming openness a man who differed from him in opinion, or who competed with him for the public money or favor, while scheming against him, and entertaining for him a holy hatred. Withal he hated Catholics; and it was through these combined qualities that he was reëlected, while the majority of American voters preferred Lovejoy.

Abernethy was nominally the head of the American party as it had been when there was a Hudson's Bay party. No such association as the latter now existed, because the British inhabitants were politically fused with the Americans, and most of them were only waiting for an opportunity to become citizens of the United States. But the real American party was now, what it had been in the first days of the provisional government, opposed both to the foreign corporations and the Methodist Mission. That he could be elected, entertaining sentiments adverse to the free American as well as the foreign corporations, was owing to the qualities named. From this time for several years, the only parties in Oregon were the American and missionary, the governor belonging to the latter.

The summer rolled round, and September came—more than a year after the settlement of the boundary—before any information was received of the doings of the national legislature in the matter of Oregon's establishment as a territory, and then it was only to inflict further disappointment. The president had indeed recommended the establishment of a territorial government in Oregon, and a bill had been reported by Douglas of Illinois in December, which had passed the house the 16th of January; but there southern jealousy of free soil nipped it.

Other rumors reached Oregon City of the intentions of congress and the president. Private advices gave it as certain that an Oregon regiment of mounted riflemen was being raised; a splendid regiment, it ​was said, commanded by Persifer F. Smith of New Orleans.[18] The only definite intelligence was that an act had been passed establishing certain post-routes, including one from Oregon City by way of Fort Vancouver and Fort Nisqually to the mouth of Admiralty Inlet, and another from Oregon City up the Willamette Valley to the Klamath River, said routes to go into operation on the 1st of July, 1847, or sooner if practicable, or if any one could be found to contract for transporting the mails over these routes for the revenues to be derived from them. As the greater portion of both routes lay through an uninhabited country, and as the correspondence of the savages was not great, the matter rested. The postmaster-general was empowered to contract for transporting a mail from Charleston, South Carolina, touching at St Augustine, Key West, and Havana, across the Isthmus of Panamá to Astoria; the mail to be carried each way once in two months, or oftener should the public interest require it, provided the expenditure should not exceed $100,000 per annum. In case of the route being put in operation he could establish a post-office at Astoria, and such other places on the Pacific coast as might be required by public necessity. The same act fixed the postage on letters from Oregon or California to the States at forty cents.

In accordance with this act, post-offices were established at Astoria and Oregon City. Cornelius Gilliam was appointed superintendent of postal matters in Oregon, David Hill postmaster at Oregon City, and John M. Shively postmaster at Astoria.[19] An Indian agent had also been appointed, namely, Charles E. Pickett, a man ill suited to any office, if the Spectator may be believed. "Who can credit the appointment," ​it asked, "or believe that the United States government could have made its appearance in such a shape?" At a time, too, when the Indians were becoming alarmingly insolent, requiring the utmost wisdom to deal with or restrain them.[20] In what way had the people of Oregon displeased the president that he should afflict them thus?

The people of Oregon found it indeed difficult to perceive any benefit that they had received from congress, or the presidential appointments. They were still without a proper government; they had no troops, no shipping, no light-houses, no pilot-boats, no appropriations—nothing,[21] if they excepted two post-routes to places where there were no settlers, and two post-offices—the distributing office being at the mouth of the Columbia, a hundred and twenty miles from Oregon City, with no other conveyance for the mails between the two places than Indian canoes. To add to their indignation, a leading eastern paper congratulated its readers that nothing had been done for Oregon, because it was a saving of expense at a time when the government was overburdened by the Mexican war,[22] and regretted that congress had not establised a port of entry at the mouth of the Columbia, and appointed a collector to increase the revenue from the imports of the British fur company, adding insult to injury by complimenting the inhabitants of the territory on their good sense, good order, and good laws.

​Somewhat ashamed of it all, Secretary Buchanan wrote Shively, on his departure for Oregon, expressing the sympathy of the president, and his regret at the failure of the Oregon bill.[23] He assured the people of Oregon that the president would reiterate his recommendations to congress in regard to Oregon, and assured him there could be no doubt of a near relief.

He referred to the act establishing post routes and offices, and the act of the 19th of May, 1846, providing for a regiment of mounted riflemen, to protect travellers[24] on the road to Oregon. Strong assurance was given that the United States would never abandon or prove unmindful of the welfare of Oregon, but that everything possible should be done for the welfare of that country.[25] Thomas H. Benton also wrote a letter of condolence.[26]

​According to eastern journals, the president had in readiness a full register of officials in case the Oregon bill passed the senate.[27] But there were those in Oregon who thought the colony too far advanced in self-government to be treated like a new territory, and that they were entitled to select their own officers. A convention at Lafayette was proposed for the purpose of memorializing the president as to appointing Oregon men to offices in the territory; but local jealousies defeated the scheme. However, the convention appointed a committee, consisting of Burnett, George L. Curry, then editor of the Spectator, and L. A. Rice, to draught a memorial to congress upon the wants of Oregon, to be submitted to the people for their signatures. The memorialists complained of neglect. They declared that they did not leave their homes to traverse, with wives and children, uninhabited wastes to reach their present abode from ignoble motives; they had been animated by a desire not only to benefit themselves and their children, but to aid their common country in sustaining her rights on the Pacific, and to bring to a satisfactory close the long and harassing controversy with a foreign rival; ​as also to extend the area of freedom and Christianity, by which they hoped to confer a lasting benefit upon mankind.

Neither did they intend to expatriate themselves by emigrating to Oregon. But when they had reached this distant country they found themselves in embarrassing circumstances—in the midst of a jealous and predatory Indian population, among the subjects of Great Britain in the height of the excitement over the boundary question; without law or protection, except as they governed and defended themselves, which they had done amid many trials; it being much more difficult to administer temporary laws than a fixed system of government.

While their means were slender, their taxes were high, owing to the necessity of improving the country, opening roads, building bridges, and erecting schoolhouses and churches. They could not raise money to pay the members of their legislature for more than two weeks' service at a time, and were compelled to adopt the laws of Iowa, modified by a few local acts. They had no printing-press, and no books on law to refer to; nor any means of making the laws known to the people until the Spectator was established, in whose columns only the local laws were published.

The memorialists declared that they had been grieved at being debarred from enjoying the protection which the subjects of Great Britain received in their very midst; but comforted themselves that the omission of their government to afford it was out of regard to the sacredness of treaty obligations; but that when the boundary question was settled they could see no reason for the studied neglect of congress. They had acted under the conviction that the duties of citizens and government were mutual. "Our forefathers," said they, "complained that they were oppressed by the mother country, and they had a just right to complain. We do not complain of oppression, but of neglect. Even the tyrant has his ​moments of relaxation and kindness, but neglect never wears a smile."

The particular injuries of which mention was made as arising from the condition of affairs were aside from the discomfort of uncertainty, of suspension of enterprise, and the inability of the colonial government to treat with the surrounding natives, who were every day becoming more aggressive, owing to the non-fulfilment of promises of payment for their lands. They could not tell when war would be upon them, and the coming of their friends to Oregon cut off. Their position with regard to criminals was equally embarrassing. They had no prison[28] and no money, nor means of punishing offences without returning to the branding-iron, cropping-knife, and whipping-post.

The conclusion of the whole matter was the usual reference to the donation of land which the settlers expected from congress, and which they insisted they had justly earned in the aid they had given the government in settling the vexed question of title. "We think we merit the respectful consideration of our government. It is with our country, whether she will hear us or not." With this parting note of warning the address concluded. It was the threat so often covertly, and sometimes openly, made, that loyal as were the settlers of Oregon, they were independent enough to disregard a government which had no care for them.

By common consent the subject of a delegate seems to have been avoided, for it was well known that no choice could be made wholly satisfactory to all parties; and since as yet they had no right to one, for any clique to insist on sending a man of their choice to represent the colony would only lead to protests and confusion. The memorial, after being circulated for ​signatures, was placed in the mail of the bark Whiton, Captain Galston, to sail on the 19th of October for San Francisco and Panamá, in the expectation that it would be received and read in congress in time to influence the legislation for Oregon at the session of 1847–8.[29]

But the power in Oregon behind the throne had settled the matter of a delegate without consulting the people; and when the Whiton sailed, it carried J. Quinn Thornton, a resident of Oregon City, to represent in a general way the wants of the territory, but in a more particular manner the views of the Methodist missionaries with regard to those sections in the Oregon treaty which related to the possessory rights of British subjects.[30]

Thornton endeavors to explain away the odium attaching to his position as a delegate not chosen by the people, by implying that the general desire for office was likely to frustrate the wishes and wants of the community; therefore, he took it upon him to become the savior of the people by appropriating the best paying position for himself; but professes to have feared that letters would be written to Washington in revenge, which would damage his power with the government. This becomes the logical reason of his secret departure, his going on board the Whiton at night after the bark had already weighed her anchor, and the general mystery surrounding the transaction.

He succeeded in getting to sea without any interruption, and arrived in San Francisco on the 10th ​of November, where the bark remained till the 12th of December. While at this port, where the progressive American was making a great stir and business was extremely brisk, Thornton disposed of a quantity of flour which constituted a part of the cargo of the Whiton, loaned to him by Noyes Smith, one of those who came in 1844,[31] as a means of raising money for his expenses. He had received from Rev. George Gary a draft on the treasury of the Methodist society in the east, and from Abernethy whatever more it required to furnish him with means for his journey.

At San José in Lower California was found the sloop of war Portsmouth, Captain J. B. Montgomery, to which Thornton was transferred on invitation of the commander, and was carried to Boston, where he arrived May 5, 1848.[32]


When the legislature met in December, a set of resolutions were introduced in the house by Nesmith, remonstrating against the appointment of Thornton to any office in the territory, which were at first adopted, afterward reconsidered, and finally lost by the speaker's vote.[33] It is but just to Thornton, ​whose position was sufficiently odious, to remind the reader that the author of the resolutions was a son-in-law of David Goff, whom Thornton had mercilessly abused in the Spectator for his share in inducing the immigration to take the southern route. For the same reason, however, the selection of Thornton for the position of delegate was an unfortunate one. For allowing the resolutions to be printed in the Spectator the directors of the printing association dismissed Curry from the editorship.[34]

Trusting to time's obliteration of the evidences of intrigue, Thornton says in his manuscript History of Oregon, that he was "sent by the provisional government of Oregon" to Washington; in which case the governor, and not the legislature, was the government. He also says in an address before the pioneer association of 1874, that he obeyed the desire of Whitman, who in the spring of 1847 urged him to yield to the solicitations he had received to go to Washington on behalf of the people and the provisional government. There were some persons besides the governor who were willing Thornton should go to Washington; and there were strong reasons why Whitman should be one of them, in the yearly increasing danger of his situation among the Cayuses, which nothing could avert but the sword or the purse of the United States.

Of this fact the authors of the memorial were well advised when they said that they did not know how soon they might be involved in an Indian war. For reasons connected with the speedy settlement of Oregon by a population which would entitle them to elect a delegate, and to enjoy other privileges dependent on numbers, they had touched but lightly upon those facts which if known in the States might retard ​immigration, the still existing hardships of the journey, and the threatening attitude of the Indians.


Owing to the settlement of the boundary question, and the prospect that a donation law would soon be passed, between four and five thousand persons came to Oregon in 1847, most of them people of comfortable means.[35] They commenced arriving at the Dalles as early as the 22d of August, and continued to arrive until November, when two hundred wagons were still on the eastern side of the mountains.

Every expedition by wagon had been attended by suffering and loss; nor was this one an exception. Its number was the principal cause of its misfortunes; the foremost companies exhausting the grass, compelling the rear to delay in order to recruit their cattle, which brought them in late, with great loss and in a starving condition. For the same cause, sickness attacked the trains, an epidemic called the black measles prevailing, from which many died on the latter part of the journey or after arrival. The caravan of wagons was also a cause of hostility on the part of the savages, from the Blue Mountains to the Dalles, who attacked several small companies, robbing the wagons, and in some instances tearing the clothing from the persons of the women, leaving them naked in the wilderness, and committing other outrages.

There being now two routes opened, there should have been a division of the travel; but this was prevented by the efforts of some who had met with losses ​on the new route, by others interested in having the travellers brought to the Dalles and Oregon City, and by the owners of the Mount Hood road. Letters were sent to Green River to meet them, in which they were counselled to starve, whip, and even kill any person advising them to take the southern road. A circular was distributed containing an exaggerated account of the calamities suffered the previous year, and recommending the Barlow road. As the circular made no mention of the hardships and losses of travellers by the Mount Hood pass of the Cascade Mountains, and as it was signed by the govenor, all but forty-five of the wagons took the route by way of the Snake and Columbia rivers, with the results before mentioned.[36]

From a manuscript narrative of the overland journey called the Southern Route, by Thomas L. Davidson,[37] it appears that the natives on the Humboldt and about the lake county of southern Oregon were troublesome, shooting cattle, and wounding a herder named Henry Williamson. They soon after attacked a train as it was passing under a rocky point on the border of Modoc or Tule Lake, which was saved by a dash of two savage dogs putting the natives to flight.[38]

One of the men who accompanied Levi Scott to and from Fort Hall, named Garrison, was killed near Granite Ridge, and Scott himself was wounded, but with one arm pinned to his side by an arrow, shot one Indian, and put another to flight. Had this been the ​worst consequence of the large number[39] this year pouring into and through the Indian country, disregarding ​the jealous opposition of the natives to the settlement of white people upon the unbought lands of the ​Oregon Territory, the mischief which followed might have been sooner repaired, if not altogether averted.

​The immigration of 1847 from its numbers and general competency materially assisted in the ​development of the country; and by greatly increasing the ​populataion rendered possible the introduction of ​country schools, though they were still supported by ​private means. To this addition more than to any ​previous one the colony was indebted for improvements ​in stock and farm products, and particularly in ​raising. The men of 1847 were not like those of 1843 ​and 1844 animated by a romantic idea of founding a ​Pacific state. They realized that this had already ​been done, and came to gather whatever advantage was to flow from it to their generation.

  1. ↑ Or. Spectator, Sept. 17, 1846.
  2. ↑ The land at Cape Disappointment was owned by Ogden, who purchased it of a previous claimant in February 1846. Or. Spectator, Feb. 19, 1840.
  3. ↑ As nearly as can be gathered from the resolutions and amendments offered at these several meetings in Oregon City, D. Stewart, James Taylor, S. S. White, and M. M. McCarver were responsible for the resolution concerning government reservations, though how much they were influenced can only be conjectured. P. G. Stewart earnestly resisted the movement.
  4. ↑ Or. Spectator, Nov. 26, 1846.
  5. ↑ The members of the house of representatives for 1846 were, for Clackamas, A. L. Lovejoy, W. G. T'Vault, Hiram Straight; Tualatin, Joseph L. Meek, D. H. Lownsdale, Lawrence Hall; Yamhill, A. J. Hembree; Clatsop, George Summers; Vancouver, Henry N. Peers; Lewis, W. F. Tolmie; Champoeg, Angus McDonald, Jesse Looney, A. Chamberlain, Robert Newell; Polk, Boone, Williams. There were several of the name of Boone or Boon in the territory, and I can find nothing to guide me in determining which of either family this was, for his name is spelled without the final e in the house journal, and with it in the Spectator, and in neither place are the initials given. The same concerning Williams, to whose identity there is no clew. Tolmie was from Fort Nisqually, and Peers from Vancouver. Angus McDonald was another British subject. A. L. Lovejoy was elected speaker.
  6. ↑ Grover's Or. Archives, 159.
  7. ↑ Or. Spectator, Dec. 24, 1846.
  8. ↑ Couch soon resigned and W. K. Kilborn was appointed.
  9. ↑ Or. Spectator, Dec. 24, 1846.
  10. ↑ Or. Spectator, Dec. 24, 1846.
  11. ↑ About 50 persons emigrated from Oregon to California in the spring of 1847, and among them James Marshall, the discoverer of gold in 1848, Captain Charles Bennett, who also worked with him at Sutter's mill, and Stephen Staats. Bennett and Staats returned to Oregon. Or. Spectator, June 10, 1847.
  12. ↑ C. E. Pickett wrote from California to Burnett, McCarver, Ford, and Waldo, that 20,000 barrels of flour and several thousand bushels of seed-wheat, besides lumber, potatoes, and butter, were wanted in that country, all of which would bring high prices; lumber $50 per M.; butter 50 c. to 62 c. per lb.; potatoes $2.50 per bushel, and flour $15 to $17 per barrel. Id.
  13. ↑ Home Missionary, xx. 20.
  14. ↑ Roberts complains of the demoralizing effect on the Canadians of the donation law, both in fact and in expectancy. It made the servants of the company restless and independent, and destroyed their former systematic obedience. This, he says, with the duties on imported goods, and the discovery of gold, ruined the company's business in Oregon long before the expiration of their charter. Recollections, MS., 81.
  15. ↑ Or. Spectator, April 1, 1847.
  16. ↑ Dr Presley Welch announced himself as a candidate, but received no votes.
  17. ↑ The representatives elected were: from Clackamas, J. M. Wair, S. S. White; Champoeg, Robert Newell, A. Chamberlain, W. H. Rees, W. H. Rector, Anderson Cox; Tualatin, Ralph Wilcox, J. L. Meek, David Hill; Yamhill, L. A. Rice, Lewis Rogers, A. J. Hembree; Polk, J. W. Nesmith, M. A. Ford, St Clair; Vancouver, Henry N. Peers; Lewis County, S. Plomondon; Clatsop, John Robinson. Justices of the peace elected in the several counties south of the Columbia were: Joseph Hull, Columbus Wheeler, F. X. Matthieu, Morgan Keyes, Rice Dunbar, Barton Lee, D. T. Lennox, C. D. Smith, John Rowland, William Dawson, D. D. Bailey, John Rounds, James Howard, James Taylor, David Ingalls, A. H. Thompson; north of the Columbia: Richard Lane, R. R. Thompson, John White, Jacob Wooley, S. B. Crockett, J. R. Jackson. County assessors: E. B. Comfort, S. C. Morris, Thomas Leggett, John W. Champ, William Ryan, M. Brock. County treasurers: John H. Couch, David Waldo, Amos Harvey, N. Ford, R. W. Morrison, A. L. Lewis, James Birnie. Or. Spectator, July 22, 1847.
  18. ↑ Or. Spectator, July 22, 1847.
  19. ↑ 'Mr Shively,' says Burnett, 'is an engineer, a plain, unassuming man, but possessed of much greater genuine ability than most people supposed. Justice has never been done him. He was in Washington in the winter of 1845–6, and was the originator of the project of a steamship line from New York to this coast, by way of Panamá.' Recol., 141.
  20. ↑ A writer in the Spectator, Sept. 2, 1847, says that Pickett was not in Oregon, but was absent at the Islands; and alleges that he had advised emigrants on the road to California to 'kill all the Indians you may find from Oregon to California.' What Pickett did say was: 'Treat the Indians kindly along the road, but trust them not. After you get to the Siskiyou Mountains, use your pleasure in spilling blood, but were I travelling with you, from this on to the first sight of the Sacramento Valley my only communication with these treacherous, cowardly, untamable rascals would be through my rifle. The character of their country precludes the idea of making peace with them, or ever maintaining treaties if made; so that philanthropy must be set aside in cases of necessity, while self-preservation here dictates these savages being killed off as soon as possible.' Spectator, April 29, 1847.
  21. ↑ The citizens of Clatsop County, becoming impatient, in November started a subscription for a temporary light-house to be erected on Cape reappointment; but it was never established.
  22. ↑ New York Tribune, Aug. 26, 1846.
  23. ↑ 'It failed in the senate, not, as I am firmly convinced, from any want of disposition on the part of the majority to provide a government for that interesting portion of the republic, but because other urgent and important business connected with the Mexican war did not allow the necessary time, before the close of their short discussion, to discuss and perfect its details.' Or. Spectator, Extra, Sept. 8, 1847.
  24. ↑ It was asking a good deal of the Oregon people to appreciate that act, since the regiment was no sooner raised than it was sent to Mexico. Steele's Rifle Regt., MS., 1.
  25. ↑ Cong. Globe, App. 1847–8, 40.
  26. ↑ He said: 'The house of representatives, as early as the middle of January, passed a bill to give you a territorial government, and in that bill had sanctioned and legalized your provisional organic act, one of the clauses of which forever prohibited the existence of slavery in Oregon. An amendment from the senate's committee, to which this bill was referred, proposed to abrogate that prohibition; and in the delays and vexations to which that amendment gave rise, the whole bill was laid upon the table and lost for the session. This will be a great disappointment to you, and a real calamity; already 5 years without law or legal institution for the protection of life, liberty, and property, and now doomed to wait a year longer. This is a strange and anomalous condition, almost incredible to contemplate, and most critical to endure, a colony of freemen 4,000 miles from the metropolitan government, and without law or government to preserve them. But do not be alarmed or desperate. You will not be outlawed for not admitting slavery. Your fundamental act against that institution, copied from the ordinance of 1787, the work of the great men of the south in the great day of the south, prohibiting slavery in a territory far less northern than yours, will not be abrogated, nor is that the intention of the prime mover of the amendment. Upon the record of the judiciary committee of the senate is the author of that amendment; but not so the fact. It is only midwife to it. Its author, Mr Calhoun, is the same mind that "generated the firebrand" resolutions, of which I send you a copy, and of which the amendment is the legitimate derivation. Oregon is not the object. The most rabid propagandist of slavery cannot expect to plant it on the shores of the Pacific, in the latitude of Wisconsin and the Lake of the Woods. A home agitation for election and disunion purposes is all that is intended by thrusting this firebrand question into your bill, and at the next session, when it is thrust in again, we will scourge it out, and pass your bill as it ought to be. I promise you this in the name of the south as well as of the north; and the event will not deceive me. In the mean time the president will give you all the protection which existing laws and detachments of the army and navy can enable him to extend to you; and until congress has time to act, your friends must rely upon you to govern yourselves as you have heretofore done, under the provisions of your own voluntary compact, and with the justice, harmony, and moderation which is due to your own character and to the honor of the American name.' The letter concluded with the assurance that the writer was the same friend to Oregon that he had been for 30 years, that he was when he opposed the joint occupation treaty in 1818, and that he was when he wrote his articles on the grand destiny of that country, which he hoped to live long enough to witness Or. Spectator, Sept. 8, 1847; Cony. Globe, 1845–6, 921–2; Or. Argus, March 28, 1857; St Louis Republican, April 1847; Oregon Archives, MS., 61; Niles' Reg., lxxii. 148. His letter is preserved in the archives of the state of Oregon. Tuthill, in his Hist. Cal., 254, remarks that it was said of Douglas that he had a special mission to give California a government. The same might be said of Benton concerning Oregon from 1842–8.
  27. ↑ Judge Semple of Illinois was mentioned by some as the future governor. Rowan of Kentucky was said to be the president's choice; and Richard M. Johnson was recommended by the Tribune of Aug. 20, 1846.
  28. ↑ The jail erected at Oregon City with funds from the estate of Ewing Young in 1844 was burned by an incendiary in August 1846. Or. Spectator, Sept. 3, 1846.
  29. ↑ Thornton erroneously says the memorial was addressed to Thomas H. Benton. He also says that 'it was proposed to elect a delegate, but that it was decided to be impracticable.' Or. and Cal., ii. 37–8.
  30. ↑ That the discovery of Abernethy's action in this matter resulted in unfavorable comment may be gathered from Curry's remarks in the Spectator, which, though an Abernethy organ, was not taken into the secret of the private delegate. Some will have honors, said the editor, whether or no, and we understand that one of our distinguished functionaries has gone to the States, that another started in the height of desperation in a Chinook canoe to go around along the coast in order to head off the first one, and that one of the members of the late Yamhill convention intends crossing the mountains on snow-shoes to be in at the death, etc. Or. Spectator, Nov. 11, 1847; Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 3–4.
  31. ↑ The career of Noyes Smith is given as follows: 'Over a quarter of a century since, the world was astonished at hearing of the defalcation and disappearance of an Albany bank officer. Having made the circuit of the world, he some years afterwards appeared in Oregon under this name, became a merchant's clerk, then himself a merchant, and was rich and prospering when he was recognized by an officer of the U. S. army. Exposure drove him to dissipation and ruin. His friends at the east seem to have finally compromised his case, and his family sent for him to return home, which he did to find his children grown up, and everything much changed during his long absence.' S. A. Clarke, in Overland Monthly, x. 410–15. Noye's real name was said to be Egbert Olcott. Buck's Enterprises, MS., 13.
  32. ↑ Thornton's Or. and Cal., ii. 247–8. I think it not unlikely that the Whiton was looking for a vessel of the U. S. navy for this very purpose; since Benton in his letter to the people of Oregon had assured them that detachments of the army and navy should give them all the assistance in their power, while waiting the action of the government; on which hint the governor seems promptly to have acted.
  33. ↑ Or. Spectator, Dec. 25, 1847; Grover's Or. Archives, 232, 242. So well had the secret of Thornton's agency been kept that the preamble to the resolutions declares only that it is 'generally believed' that Thornton had been secretly despatched to Washington City with recommendations, petitions, and memorials for the purpose of obtaining for himself and friends the most important offices in the territory.
  34. ↑ In his remarks on his dismissal, Curry referred bitterly to the attempt to muzzle the press, on the part of George Abernethy, Rev. W. Roberts, J. R. Robb, and Robert Newell, 'who constitute a bare majority of the board of directors.' Or. Spectator, Jan. 6 and 20, 1848; Honolulu Polynesian, iv. 206; Friend, vi. 47–68; Pickett's Paris Exposition, 10.
  35. ↑ It was said that not one wagon was bound for California this year; an evident mistake, as is shown by the account of the 'Wiggins party,' which attempted to pass through the mountains on the head waters of the Sacramento, and failing, turned back to the southern Oregon road. This party arrived in California in the spring of 1848, by the brig Henry. S. F. Californian, April 19, 1848. A correspondent of the Polynesian, iv. 123, 137, writing from California, says that 1,000 wagons were destined for that country, but that Oregon agents met them on the road and turned them to the Willamette Valley, by representations of the disordered state of California, and the insecurity of property and life. Expositor, Independence, Mo., May 17, 1847; Niles' Reg., lxxiii. 6; Johnson's Cal. and Or., 202–3; Findlay's Statement, MS., 2; Victor's River of the West, 394.
  36. ↑ Levi Scott, in Or. Spectator, Nov. 11, 1847; Ross' Nar., MS., 4–8; Grim's Emigrant Anecdotes, MS., 1–6; Or. Spectator, Nov. 25, 1847.
  37. ↑ T. L. Davidson, son of James Davidson, sen., was born in Illinois in 1833. When he was 12 years old his brothers Albert and James went to Oregon. In 1848 Albert returned to the States, and by his enthusiastic discriptions of the Oregon country induced his father and many persons in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri to emigrate. Southern Route, MS., 1, 2. Davidson mentions the death in the Klamath country of Mrs Benj. F. Burch, of consumption. She was going to join her husband.
  38. ↑ In Ind. Aff. Rept., 1873, mention is made of a massacre at this place in 1847, which is an error. No massacre was effected at this pass until after the year 1850.
  39. ↑ Of the 5,000 persons added to the population of the country at this juncture few names have been preserved. These are subjoined, and with them some biographical notes showing the character of the settlers.

    R. S. Allen, Samuel Athouse, Ephraim Adams, Charles Adams, A. J. Adams, James Anderson, John W. Allen, Samuel Allen, T. B. Allen, Henry L. Aikin, William Allphin, Arim, D. Averson, Thomas Allphin, John Aikin, Robert Alexander, Richard Andrews, John T. Apperson, James Aikin, Thos. N. Aubrey, Elias Buell, C. B. Bellinger, John Bolton, William Beekman, John P. Brooks, Benjamin J. Burch, Wilson Blain, Elias Brown, Damascus Brown, J. Henry Brown, J. H. Bellinger, Bradshaw, William Barey, Stephen Bonser, William S. Barker, J. C. Braly, John Brisby, Daniel Bushinel, Oliver Bushinel, John W. Bewley, Isaac W. Bewley, Crockett Bewley, James F. Bewley, Leander Burkhart, C. D. Burkart, Albert Briggs, Hilt. Bonser, John Bouser, Nathaniel Bowman, Benjamin Bratton, William Berry, James Bachan, J. Butler, A. C. Brown, T. M. Buckner, A. M. Baxter, Jackson Beattie, D. D. Burroughs, Charles Blair, T. R. Blair, Henry Blacker, J. H. Blankenship, James A. Brown, E. Bidwell, John Bird, L. A. Bird, William Brisbane, Burpee, Glen O. Burnett, Samuel T. Burch, Horace Burnett, William H. Bennett, J. A. Baker, William Blackstone, Rollin L. Belknap, Belknap, John Blain, R. A. Barker, Hiram Buffum, William S. W. Brooks, John Baum, Thomas Carter, Lafayette Carter, Jefferson Carter, C. M. Carter, Edward Cartwright, John C. Cartwright, Henry W. Coe, Stephen Cummings, C. M. Cook, W. W. Chapman, Joseph Chamberlain, W. D. Canfield, Robert Canfield, Thomas Cox, Joseph Cox, William Cox, Thomas H. Cox, Hugh Cosgrove, Churchill, Turner Crump, C. B. Crosby, Stephen Coffin, Peter W. Crawford, John Davis Crawford, George Cline, Joseph Cline, Lewis Cline, Jason S. Clark, G. A. Cone, O. H. Cone, J. H. Crain, Chandler Cooper, Luther Collins, Nebuzarden Coffey, Jacob Comegys, Robert Cowan, J. T. Crooks, Finice Caruthers, James Coleman, George W. Carey, Core, Caywood, A. R. Dimick, William H. Dillon, J. T. Dillon, Eli Davis, Albert G. Davis, Leander L. Davis, C. Davis, Henry W. Davis, John C. Danforth, C. H. Devendorf, John Dise, John N. Donnie, Manly Danforth, James Dickson, D. D. Dostins, S. T. Duffield, Dunbar, Thomas L. Davidson, Green G. Davidson, James Davidson, Albert Davidson, Doane, Dyer, John Downing, J. S. Dunlap, R. Douglas, Joseph W. Downee, H. H. Everts, Abel Endy, W. W. Eng, J. L. Eoff, George Eoff, Rev. St M. Fackler, Samuel Fackler, Franklin, James Fulton, James Fields, Fox, Samuel Fields, William Fellows, Albert H. Fish, Rezin D. Foster, John Foster, Isaac W. Foster, Wallace Foster, George Z. Frazer, John Feat, Edward F. Folger, John Farley, James R. Friedley, John Fisher, Ford, William Glover, Cal. Geer, L. C. Geer, John W. Grim, Ralph C. Geer, George T. Geer, Joseph Carey Geer, William Graham, G. W. Graves, Bernard Genoise, Isaac Gillilland, John G. Gibson, Samuel Gethard, J. N. Green, G. N. Gilbert, Daniel O. Garland, Andrew Gribble, J. J. Garrish, Jacob Gracer, James A. Graham, Leonard Goff, B. B. Griffin, Peter Gill, S. H. Goodhue, S. J. Gardner, Dr D. Gardner, Albert Gaines, E. Gendis, Samuel Gordney, Benjamin Gordon, Harvey Gordon, John G. Holgate, H. D. Huntington, Hoffman, John Hiner, Robert Houston, M. F. Muekey, Frank D. Holman, D. Harper, S. A. Holcomb, John P. Hibbler, Joseph Hull, Richmond Hayes, Charles Hubbard, Hugh Harrison, Horace Hart, Goalman Hubbard, William Hawkins, William Hock, G. H. Hughes, Joseph E. Hurford, James Harpole, King L. Hibbard, G. W Hunt, John S. Hunt, Theophilus Howell, J. M. Hendricks, T. G. Hendricks, Harford, Jesse M. Hedges, A. L. Humphrey, Samuel Headrick, T. H. Hunsaker, J. T. Hunsaker, Henry Hill, Zacharias Hawkins, John Hudson, Haun, D. R. Hodges, Nelson Hoyt, H. S. Jory, Hiram A. Johnson, B. Jennings, A. L. Johnson, R. A. Jack, S. A. Jackson, Judson, Jacob Johnson, Rufus Johnson, H. Johnson, George I. Johnson, Rev. Hezekiah Johnson, James Johnson, Joseph Jeffers, Jolly, John W. Jackson, William A. Jackson, B. Jennings, Noah Jobe, Isaac M. Johns, Thomas Justin, John Jewett, Robert C. Kinney, Samuel Kinney, Jehial Kendall, Kimball, Clinton Kelley, Penumbra Kelly, A. Kinsey, Eason Kinsey, Thomas S. Kinsey, John Kinsey, A. Kennedy, S. B. Knox, Elias Kearney, James Killingworth, J. Keller, Joseph Kelly, John Kelly, Kent, J. Kestor, A. N. Locke, Samuel Laughlin, D. O. Lownsdale, Lockwood Little, A. C. Little, H. Levalley, Larogue, Philemon Lee, Phelaster Lee, J. W. Lingenfelter, John Lousingnet, Oliver Lowden, James H. Lewis, J. H. Laughlin, Davis Lator, A. Luelling, Leonard, Henderson Luelling, William Meek, Dr James McBride, Rev. Thomas McBride, Israel Mitchell, Lucius Marsh, William P. Martin, George H. March, S. D. Maxon, H. J. G. Maxon, John Morely, Frederick McCormick, William McKinney, Alexander McQuinn, Sylvanus Moon, John McCoy, Joseph Merrill, Thomas Monteith, Walter Monteith, Samuel T. McKean, J. Magone, Joel McKee, J. W. Morgan, J. H. McMillan, George Moore, Gilbert Mondon, William Milbern, Marshall Martin, Horace Martin, Isaac Morgan, John Miller, N. G. McDonnell, Madison McCulley, James M. Morris, William Moulton, W. T. Matlock, Samuel Miller, Richard Miller, W. G. Maley, William McGunigale, Henry Marland, William McAlphin, R. Mendenhall, Daniel Mosier, Elias Mosier, Mills, John Marks, Johnson Mulkey, George Merrill, McPherson, O. C. Motley, T. F. McElroy, C. Mulligan, J. C. Nelson, Josiah Osborne, James Officer, John W. Owen, O. Pravillot, Lewis Pettyjohn, R. Patton, Aaron Payne, Dr Perry Prettyman, Ira Patterson, Joel Palmer, William Patterson, Miriam Poe, William Parker, Joseph B. Proctor, Thomas Purvis, John B. Price, Richard Pollard, Frederick Paul, Henry Pollet, Thomas P. Powers, Peter Polley, J. R. Payne, Aaron Purdy, William P. Pugh, Dr John P. Ponjade, J. H. Pruett, L. H. Ponjade, Matthew Patton, Rev. William Robinson, John E. Ross, Edward Robson, J. C. Robinson, Jeremiah R. Ralston, Reason Read, David Read, John Rodgers, Talmon H. Rolfe, B. B. Rogers, Saul Richards, Frederick Ramsey, James O. Raynor, A. E. Robinson, A. A. Robinson, Richard Richards, George Richies, Rolan, A. M. Rainwater, Randolph, John W. Shively, Amos Short, Joseph Smith, R. V. Short, Aaron Stanton, Alfred Stanton, Peter Scholl, Benj. E. Stewart, Jonas Spect, J. W. Schrum, Thomas Schrum, Henry Schrum, Cyrus Smith, David Stone, Alamander Stone, Nathaniel Stone, Switzler, Andrew J. Simmons, Spear, Wesley Shannon, Morgan L. Savage, Luther Savage, John Savage, Charles Sanborn, Sanborn, Christopher Shuck, Beverly Simpson, C. W. Savage, Lewis Savage, L. W. Saunders, Shepperd Sales, Dr Henry Saffarans, Dr Snyder, Israel Shaw, Robert Shaw, Thomas Shaw, Rev. John Spenser, Hiram Simpkms, Sturgess, Samuel R. Thurston, Christopher Taylor, William Turpin, James Terwilliger, Timmons, Tulliston, R. C. Tainey, W. S. Torrance, A. J. Thomas, O. Tupper, R. S. Tupper, Tallantine, John F. Taylor, Truesdale, Luke Taylor, W. H. Tappan, Isaac Thompson, Ira S. Townsend, David D. Tompkins, L. L. Thomas, J. W. Townsend, Van Vource, William Vanderwalker, John Vaughn, G. W. Walling, Henry Warren, Charles E. Warren, William Whitney, James Whitney, Robert Whitney, John Whitney, Jason Wheeler, A. J. Welch, T. C. Waller, Samuel Whitely, Jacob Wooley, Columbus Wheeler, Richard E. Wiley, Robert Willis, Benjamin Woods, Caleb Woods, George L. Woods, James C. Woods, David Weston, John Wilson, Darius Wheeler, Joseph Williams, Leander Wallace, Isaac Walgamouts, Jacob Witchey, George Westley, Andrew Wise, George Weston, Solomon Wheeler, W. W. Walters, A. Williams, W. Williams, A. S. Welton, E. West, Luther White, Elijah Weeks, Rev. White, Dr Thomas White, Watson, Lot Whitcomb, John Warnock, Winchester, R. Yarbrough, Elam Young, Daniel Young, John Young, James Young. There arrived by sea this year Thomas Brown, Edward Folger, D. H. Good, J. M. Goeway, Mrs W. K. Kilborne and children, G. W. Lawton, B. R. Marcellus, D. Markwood, Rev. P. J. McCormick, G. B. Post, Rev. William Roberts, wife and two children, S. C. Reeves, C. C. Shaw, J. M. Stanley, H. Swasey and wife, Rev. J. H. Wilbur, wife and daughter, George Whitlock, J. F. Winckley.

    Dr Perry Prettyman was born March 20, 1790, in Newcastle Co., Del. He married Elizabeth H. Vessels, Dec. 25, 1825, and began the study of medicine in 1828, at the botanic medical school in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1839 he moved to Mo., and 7 years later to Oregon. He settled in 1849 on a farm near East Portland, where he remained till his death, March 27, 1872. Portland Advocate, April 4, 1872. Mrs Prettyman died Dec. 26, 1874, in the 71st year of her age. She was born in Lewiston, Del., in 1803. She was the mother of 10 children, only 4 of whom survived her. Id., Jan. 7, 1875.

    John Marks, born in Virginia Jan. 10, 1795, removed when a boy to Ky., and in 1818 married Fanny Forrester, in 1838 moved to Johnson Co., Mo., and in 1847 to Oregon, and settling in Clackamas Co., where he resided until his death, Jan. 5, 1874. He was a soldier of the war of 1812, and received in his declining years a pension from the government.

    Thomas N. Aubrey was born in Va., in 1791, and moved westward with the ever-advancing line of the frontier until he settled on the shore of the Pacific. He was the oldest mason in Oregon, except Orrin Kellogg. Eugene City Guard, May 31, 1879.

    Rev. William Robinson left Missouri in 1847. Mrs Susannah Robinson, his wife, was born in Pa. in 1793; married in Ohio, and in 1833 removed to Indiana, thence to Platte Co., Mo., and finally to Polk Co., Oregon. She outlived her husband, dying at the home of her daughter, Mrs Cannon, near Cottage Grove in Lane Co., Sept. 30, 1870. Portland Adv., Oct. 15, 1870.

    Mrs Alice Claget Mosier, born in New York, May 31, 1794, removed with her parents to Indiana, where she married Daniel Mosier in 1830, with whom she came to Clackamas Co., Oregon. She spent the last years of her life with her son Elias, her husband having died before her. Her death occurred July 2, 1870. Id., Sept. 10, 1870.

    Mrs Polly Grimes Patton was born Sept. 23, 1810, in Frederick Co., Md. She was the daughter of Joshua and Ellen Grimes, and removed with them to Adams Co., Ohio, where she was married to Matthew Patton in April 1830, who soon after removed with her to La Fayette, Indiana, and in 1839 to Davis Co., Mo., whence they went to Oregon and settled in Portland. She died January 7, 1808. Id., Jan. 11, 1868.

    James Johnson was born April 4, 1809, in Tenn. He moved to Ohio in 1841, and thence to Oregon in 1847, settling in the Tualatin plains, and died August 20, 1870. Id., Sept. 3, 1870.

    Mrs Anna Clark was born in Dearborn Co., Ind., February 26, 1823. At the age of 16 she married Jason S. Clark, with whom she came to Oregon. She was the mother of 7 children. In 1865 they removed to White River Valley, in Washington, where Mrs Clark died Aug. 13, 1807. Id., Sept. 7, 1807.

    Mrs Susan Bowles White was born in Frederick Co., Md., Sept. 18, 1793. She was the daughter of Rev. Jacob Bowles of the Methodist church. She married Dr Thomas White, and eventually settled at French Prairie, where she died Aug. 13, 1867.

    Chandler Cooper, born 1823, was a native of Vt. He moved with his parents to Ind. when a boy, and at the age of 24 to Oregon. Settling in Yamhill, he married Alvira Frye, by whom he had 3 children. He died March 24, 1865, at his home in Yamhill. Id., April 29, 1865.

    Peter Scholl was born in Clark Co., Ky., in 1809, when young went to Ill., and thence to Oregon. He settled at Scholl's Ferry in Washington Co. He died November 23, 1872. Id., Nov. 28, 1872.

    Elias Buell, born July 20, 1797, in the state of New York. At the age of 19 he removed with his parents to Ind., where he married Sarah Hammond, Oct. 15, 1817. In 1835 he went west as far as Louisa Co., Iowa, where he resided until 1847, when he came to Oregon and settled in Polk Co., in the Spring of 1848, where he lived till his death, November 14, 1871. Id., Nov. 30, 1871.

    Mrs Emmeline Buell Blair, wife of T. R. Blair, and daughter of Elias Buell, was born in Tippecanoe Co., Ind., Feb. 29, 1829. She married Mr Blair in Oregon in 1850; and died July 6, 1877, leaving several children. Id., Aug. 9, 1877.

    Mrs Margaret McBride Woods, born May 27, 1809, in Tenn., was a daughter of Elder Thomas and Nancy McBride. The family removed to Missouri in 1816, where Margaret was married to Caleb Woods in 1828, and emigrated with him to Oregon, in company with her brother Dr James McBride and his family. The sons of this marriage were two, George Lemuel Woods, who was governor of Oregon for one term, and James C. Woods, merchant. She died at her home in Polk Co., Jan. 27, 1871. Caleb Woods has since resided at Columbia City on the Columbia river. Id., Feb. 25, 1871.

    Benjamin E. Stewart, youngest of 11 children, was born near Newark, Ohio, April 18, 1815. He was apprenticed to a saddler, and engaged in this business at Findley, Hancock Co., where he married Ann Crumbacker, September 28, 1837. Before coming to Oregon he lived for several years in Putnam Co., Ohio. He settled finally in Yamhill Co., on a farm, where he died of injuries received by a fall, on the 18th of Aug., 1877, leaving a wife and 3 sons and 3 daughters. Id., Sept. 6, 1877.

    Susanna T. Hurford, wife of Joseph E. Hurford, born in Va., died at Portland in the 58th year of her age, Aug. 19, 1877. Id., Aug. 23, 1877.

    Joseph Jeffers was born in Washington, D. C., October 17, 1807, removed to Wheeling, Va., in 1825, and was married to Sarah Crawford of that place, November 19, 1829. He moved to Burlington, Iowa, in 1837, where he became a licensed exhorter of the Methodist church. On going to Oregon he resided 3 years at Oregon City, after which he made Clatsop Co. his home. His family consisted of 11 children, only 3 of whom survived him. He died in Portland, Jan. 2, 1876. Id., Jan. 27, 1876.

    Mrs Mary Watson, one of the arrivals in 1847, died at King's Valley, Benton Co., February 11, 1873, aged 64 years. Id., Feb. 27, 1873.

    Henry W. Davis, known as the Hillsboro Hermit, was born in London, Eng., whence he emigrated to Canada, where he participated in the patriot war of 1837–8, having commanded a gun in one of the battles, and is said to have been a colonel. After the insurrection he fled to the United States to escape arrest. He was employed in a flouring mill at Cincinnati for some time, and when he went to Oregon took with him a set of mill-stones. He erected a flouring mill on Dairy Creek, near Hillsboro, Washington Co., which was in operation for several years. Davis lived alone, dressed in rags, and avoided his fellow-men. He was once tried by a commission of lunacy, who decided him sane, but eccentric. He died alone in his cabin in the summer of 1878, leaving considerable real estate and several thousand dollars in money, which went to a nephew by the name of Tremble. Portland Bee, Aug. 30, 1878.

    J. H. Bellinger was born in the state of New York in 1791, served in the war of 1812, and built the first canal-boat for the Erie canal. He settled in Marion County, and his family have been much noted in state politics. He died of paralysis Nov. 13, 1878. Portland Bee, Nov. 14, 1878; Corvallis Gazette, Nov. 22, 1878.

    Jesse Monroe Hodges was born in Melburne Co., S. C., Dec. 18, 1788. In 1811 he married Catherine Stanley of N. C. He served in the war of 1812, and fought under General Jackson at Horse Shoe Bend. In 1817 he moved to Tenn., thence to Ind., and thence in 1839 to Mo., making his last remove to Oregon in 1847, and settling in Benton County. He died at the residence of his son, D. R. Hodges, March 28, 1877. His mental condition was sound up to his latest moments, though over 88 years of age. Albany Democrat, April 6, 1877.

    J. H. Crain, born in Warren Co., Ohio, in 1831. He removed with his parents, in 1837 to Fountain Co., Ind., and thence to Oregon. He remained in and about Portland till 1852, when he went to the mines of southern Oregon, finally settling in the Rogue River Valley. He served as a volunteer in the Indian war of 1855–6, after which he married and followed the occupation of farming. In 1876 he still resided in Jackson County. Ashland Tidings, Oct. 14, 1876.

    John Baum, born in Richland County, Ohio, August 12, 1823, removed with his parents to Porter Co., Ind., in 1835, and came to Oregon when 24 years of age. He located at Salem, but the gold discovery of 1848 drew him to Cal. Here he mined for a few months, but finding his trade of carpentering more attractive, and also profitable, he followed it for a season. In 1850 he drifted back to Oregon from the Shasta mines, and in July 1851 married Phœbe S. Tieters, who died in July 1873, leaving 8 living children, 3 of whom were sons, namely, James T., John N., and Edgar C. Sonoma Co. Hist., 631.

    Jonas Spect, another who went to the California mines, was born in Pa., and had lived in Ohio and Mo. He settled in Cal., to which state his biography properly belongs. See Sutter Co. Hist., 24, and Yuba Co. Hist., 36.

    James Davidson, father of T. L., James, jun., and Albert Davidson, died at Salem, September 1876, in the 85th year of his age. Olympia (W. T.) Transcript, Sept. 3, 1876.

    Morgan Lewis Savage was born in 1816; came to Oregon in 1847; died in Oregon February 9, 1880. He was twice married, and left a widow and 6 children. Lute Savage, as he was familiarly called, was a favorite among the pioneers of the Pacific coast. He served in the Cayuse war in the battalion raised in the spring of 1848, and was elected to the senate after Oregon became a state. 'As a citizen, soldier, legislator, husband, father, friend, he did his whole duty.' Nesmith, in Or. Pioneer Assoc., Trans., 1879, 54–5.

    Rev. St M. Fackler, a native of Staunton, Virginia, removed to Missouri, and thence to Oregon in 1847. He conducted the first Episcopal services in Portland, and continued faithfully in his profession in that city till 1864, when he removed to Idaho to establish the church in that territory. He never took part in politics or money speculations, but kept an eye single to the promotion of religion. His first wife dying, he married a daughter of Jonn B. Wands of New Scotland, N. Y. In 1867, being on the steamer San Francisco bound east to meet his wife and child, he met his death about the 7th of January from unintermitting attentions to others on board suffering by an epidemic. S. F. Alta, Jan. 16, 1867; La Grande Blue Mountain Times, Aug. 1, 1868.

    Thomas Cox was by birth a Virginian. When but a small child he removed with his parents to Ross Co., Ohio. In 1811 he married Martha Cox, who though of the same name was not a relative. He removed with his family of three children and their mother to Bartholomew Co., where he built the first grist and carding mills in that place. He afterward removed to the Wabash River country, and there also erected flour and carding mills at the mouth of the Shawnee River. He also manufactured guns and gunpowder, and carried on a general blacksmithing business. In 1834 he made another remove, this time to Illinois, where he settled in Will County, and laid out the town of Winchester, the name of which was afterward changed to Wilmington, and where he again erected mills for flouring and carding, and opened a general merchandise business. During the period of land speculation and 'wild-cat' banks, Cox resisted the gambling spirit, and managed to save his property, while others were ruined. In 1846 he made preparations for emigrating to Oregon, in company with his married son Joseph, and two sons-in-law, Elias Brown and Peter Polley. Elias Brown, father of J. Henry Brown, died on the way; and Mr Cox, in company with Damascus Brown, as before related, brought the family through to Salem, where he set up a store, with goods he had brought across the plains and mountains to Oregon. He purchased the land claim of Walter Helm and placed upon it Mr Polley. When gold was discovered in California his son William went to the mines, and being successful, purchased a large stock of goods in San Francisco, and returned with them to Salem, where his father retired from the merchantile business, leaving it in the hands of William and Mr Turner Crump. Thomas Cox then engaged in farming, raising choice fruits from seeds which he imported in 1847. 'Cox's goldencling' has been called the finest yellow peach on the coast. The fruit business proved remunerative, Cox's first apples selling readily at $6 a bushel and peaches at $10 and $12. Mr Cox died at Salem October 3, 1862, having always possessed the esteem of those who knew him. Or. Literary Vidette, April 1879.

    Joseph Cox, son of Thomas Cox, was born in Ohio in 1811, and removed with his parents to Indiana, where, in 1832, he married, and two years afterward went to Ill., settling at Wilmington, whence he removed to St Joseph, Missouri, and remained there till 1847, when he joined the emigration to Oregon. He was a member of the convention that framed the present state constitution. Without being a public speaker, he wielded considerable influence. Of an upright nature and practical judgment, his opinions were generally accepted as sound. 'A good man in any community, Oregon was the gainer by his becoming a citizen.' He died in 1876. Or. Pioneer Assoc., Trans., 1876, 67. Thomas H. Cox, born in Willington, Illinois, was a son of Joseph Cox. He died at Salem, of paralysis of the heart, Sept. 25, 1878. Salem Statesman, Sept. 25, 1878.

    R. C. Tainey was one of the founders of Muscatine, Iowa, and served, after coming to Oregon, in the state legislature. He was engaged in the flouring business, being principal owner in the largest mill in Oregon. Died March 2, 1875, at Salem. Sac. Record–Union, March 31, 1875.

    Albert Briggs, a native of Vermont, with a number of others, joined a company of 115 wagons at St Joseph, Mo., commanded by Lot Whitcomb. He arrived at Portland October 14th, and went to Oregon City, where he remained till 1852, when he removed to Port Townsend. Further mention of Mr Briggs will be found in the history of Washington.

    Aaron Payne was a pioneer of Putnam County, Illinois. He was elected first coroner, then county commissioner, and afterward delegate to the state convention which was held at Rushville, Schuyler County. He was a ranger under Gen. Harrison, was also in the Black Hawk war of 1832, and was severely wounded at the battle of Bad Axe. At the age of 3 3, when the country was under the excitement of war, he longed to take up arms tor the flag. He came to Oregon in 1847, and settled in Yamhill County. Oregon Argus, March 28, 1863.

    John C. Holgate was identified with the early histories of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. He was killed in a mining difficulty at Owyhee in March 1868. Sacramento Reporter, April 10, 1868.

    John F. Farley came to California in 1846–7 with the New York volunteers. While in California he belonged to the veteran association, soldiers of the Mexican war. He was one of the original members of the Washington guard of Portland, in which place he died, Feb. 16, 1869. Portland Oregonian, Feb. 18, 1869.

    Dr James McBride, a Tennesseean by birth, but brought up in Missouri, was a leading man in his community both in Missouri and Oregon. A friend of Senator Linn, he discussed with him the features of his famous bill of 1841–2, and early took an interest in Oregon matters. He emigrated with his family to the new west in 1847, and settled in Yamhill County, where for many years he lived, a useful and honored citizen. He was the friend of education and temperance. Early in the history of the territorial government he was elected to the council; and in the political excitement of the civil war of 1861–5, was an ardent supporter of the administration. In 1863, while his eldest son, John R. McBride, was in congress, Dr McBride received the appointment of U. S. commissioner to the Sandwich Islands, which position he held for several years. He died at St Helen, Oregon, in Dec. 1875, aged 73, leaving a numerous family of useful and respected sons and daughters. Portland Oregonian, Dec. 25, 1875. His wife Mahala, a woman of marked talent, survived him 2 years, dying February 23, 1877, at St Helen. Olympia Transcript, March 3, 1877.

    Jeremiah Ralston in 1847 removed from Tennessee, where he was born in 1798. He laid out the town of Lebanon, Marion County, on his land claim. He died Aug. 1877, leaving a large property, a wife, and 7 children, namely, Joseph Ralston, Tacoma; William Ralston, Albany, Or.; Charles and John Ralston, Lebanon; Mrs Moist, Albany; Mrs D. C. Rowland, Salem, Or.; and Mrs John Hamilton, Corvallis, Or. Seattle Tribune, Aug. 17, 1877.

    Luther Collins came to Oregon in 1847, residing there until 1850, when he went to Puget Sound, and was the first to take up a claim in what is now King County. He was drowned in the Upper Columbia in 1852. His widow, a native of New York, died in July 1876, leaving 2 children, Stephen Collins and Mrs Lucinda Fares. Seattle Intelligencer, July 8, 1876.

    Andrew J. Simmons in Oregon in 1847, and settled in Cowlitz prairie. He died Feb. 12, 1872, in Lewis County, of which he was sheriff, at the age of 45. Seattle Intelligencer, Feb. 12, 1872; Olympia Standard, March 2, 1872.

    Mr and Mrs Everest located in 1847 near Newburg in Yamhill County, where they permanently settled. They were both born in Eng. in 1792, on the 8th of March, being of equal age. They reared a large family, most of whom married and had also large families, nearly all living on the same section of land. Olympia Courier, Aug. 9, 1873.

    Mrs Agnes Tallentine, mother of Mr Thomas Tallentine, died at Olympia, April 13, 1876. She was born at Harrisburg, Pa., in 1820, crossed the plains in 1847, and settled in the Puget Sound country in 1851. She left 2 children, a son and a daughter. Olympia Transcript, April 15, 1876.

    Samuel Fackler, a native of Md., in 1847 came from Ill. to Oregon, and died at Bethany, Marion County, Feb. 22, 1867, aged 81 years. Salem American Unionist, March 11, 1867.

    John Davis Crawford, born in Onondaga Co., N. Y., Aug. 16, 1824, was by trade a printed; thence he came to Milan, Ohio, where he studied law; but repeated solicitations by brother Medorum Crawford, finally induced him to come to Oregon in 1847. In the Cayuse war he was appointed in the commissary department under General Palmer. When Geo. L. Curry established the Free Press, Crawford was for a time employed upon that paper as printed; but when the California gold excitement came, he joined the exodus to the mines, returning soon to Oregon with some of the precious metals, with which he purchased in 1851 a half-ownership in the Hoosier, the first steamboat that ran on the Willamette River, between Oregon City, Portland, and Vancouver; and afterward on the upper Willamette and Yamhill rivers. In 1852 he went into mercantile business with Robert Newell in Champoeg, where he continued to reside till the flood of 1861 swept the town away. Mr Crawford was a member of the state legislature in 1872. He was a mason, a member of the state grange, and of the Oregon pioneer association. He died in Clackamas County in the summer of 1877. Or. Pioneer Assoc., Trans., 1877, 66–7.

    Walter Monteith, with his brother Thomas Monteith, came to Oregon in 1847. They were natives of Fulton County, New York, but when little more than 20 removed to Wilmington, Illinois, emigrating from that place to Oregon. The brothers purchased and settled upon that section of land where the town of Albany now stands, and laid it out in town lots in 1848. The result was an abundant return upon their investments. Like many others, they visited the California gold mines, and returned with some money which assisted them in starting in business. The first house in Albany, then the finest residence in Oregon, was built by the brothers at the corner of Washington and Second streets. In 1850 they organized a company of which they were the principal members, and erected the Magnolia Mills, near the mouth of the Calapooya Creek, and have always been most active in all enterprises which have contributed to the prosperity of Albany. Walter Monteith died June 11, 1876. He had married in 1858 Margaret Smith. Three sons were the fruit of this union. State Rights Democrat, June 16 and 23, 1876.

    Henry Warren was one of the young men who came from Missouri to Oregon to help build a state. He had not been long married, and brought a wife and babe to the new land. The young people settled in Yamhill County, where they remained for several years, until Mr Warren was appointed receiver of the land-office at Oregon City. His eldest son, Charles E. Warren, was carefully educated and studied law, in which profession he graduated with credit. When about 26 he married a daughter of Dr Henry Saffarans, of Oregon City; but in his 28th year died, much lamented, disappointing the hopes of his family and the community. Salem Mercury, April 3, 1874.

    Mrs Jane L. Waller, born in Fayette County, Kentucky, in 1792, was married to Thomas C. Waller in 1815, and went with him to Illinois, where he died, leaving her with a family of several young children, whom she reared and educated, and with whom she removed to Oregon, settling in Polk County in 1847. She lived a useful life, respected by all, and died full of years and honor Nov. 23, 1869, being 77 years old on the day of her death. Dallas Times, Dec. 4, 1869; Salem Statesman, Dec. 10, 1869.

    James Davidson was born in Barren County, Ky., Aug. 30, 1792. Like most western men of his time, he was self-educated; but his talents being above the average, he became a leader among his fellows. When a youth he took part in the war of 1812, and was in the battle of the Thames, where Tecumseh was killed. He married in 1817, and lived at Nashville, Tennessee, from 1823 to 1829, at St Louis in 1830, and in Greene County, Illinois, from 1831 to 1836. He then removed to the Black Hawk purchase, Iowa, and lived in Burlington until 1847, when he came to Oregon, and settled in Salem. Mr Davidson has represented his county in the legislature, and in all respects enjoyed the confidence and esteem of his neighbors. Nine children blessed the union. His sons, Albert and Thomas, were among the most enterprising agriculturists in Oregon. Albert, the elder, first came to Oregon in 1845, and returning, induced the family, and many others, to return with him. They took the southern route. Salem Record, Aug. 29, 1874; Salem Statesman, Oct. 13, 1876.

    Nebuzardan Coffey, born in North Carolina in 1790, moved to Kentucky, where in 1810 he married Miss Easley, 14 days older than himself. He removed to Illinois in 1831, and came to Oregon in 1847. He died at his home in Marion County on the 20th of January, 1867, leaving his wife, who with him had borne the vicissitudes of 57 years on the frontier. Salem Unionist, Feb. 11, 1867.

    Samuel Headrick, born in Pettis Co., Mo., Nov. 13, 1836, came to Oregon with his father when a boy. Like most boys who crossed the plains, he early learned self-reliance. In Marion County where he resided Headrick was esteemed the soul of honor and the defender of the right. He was 4 years sheriff of his county, and 2 years treasurer just previous to his death, which occurred March 26, 1869. Salem Unionist, March 27, 1869.

    Dr John P. Ponjade died at his residence at Gervais, in July 1875. He was born in France in 1790, and was a surgeon in the army of Napoleon 1812. He came to Oregon in 1847. His son, T. C. Ponjade, resided in Salem. Salem Record, July 9, 1875.

    Robert Crouch Kinney was born July 4, 1813, in St Clair Co., Ill. At 20 years of age he married Eliza Bigelow, and shortly afterward removed to Muscatine, Iowa, of which city he was one of the principal founders. Engaging in milling business, he remained 15 years at Muscatine, when the tide of Oregon emigration bore him to the shores of the Pacific. Settling in Yamhill County, he farmed for 10 years, save a short interval when he was absent at the gold mines of California. He served in the territorial legislature, and was a member of the state constitutional convention. After 1857 he returned to his old business of milling, and with his sons owned large flouring mills at Salem, where he died March 2, 1875. Mr Kinney had 8 children. Mrs Mary Jane Kinney Smith, wife of J. H. Smith of Harrisburg in Lane County, was born December 16, 1839, at Muscatine. Albert William Kinney, who married Virginia Newby, daughter of W. T. Newby, was born at Muscatine, Oct. 3, 1843 and resided at Salem. Augustus Crouch Kinney, who married Jane Welch was born July 26, 1845, at Muscatine; studied medicine and lived at Salem. Marshall Johnson Kinney, born at Muscatine, January 31, 1847, resided in San Francisco. Alfred Coleman Kinney, born in the Chehalem Valley, Yamhill County, January 30, 1850, graduated at Bellevue Medical College New York; residence, Portland. Josephine Elarena Kinney Walker, wife of James S. Walker of San Francisco, was born January 14, 1852, in the Chehalem Valley. William Sylvester and Eliza Lee Kinney were born at Chehalem in 1854 and 1858. Robert C. Kinney was a son of Samuel Kinney, who in 1800 settled on Horse Prairie, west of the Kaskaskia River, Illinois, and Samuel Kinney was son of Joseph Kinney, who in 1799 resided near Louisville, Ky., and had a family of 7 sons and 4 daughters. One of his sons, William, drove the first wagon over the road from the Ohio River to the new home of the family in Illinois, of which state he was afterward lieutenant-governor Robert had a brother named Samuel who settled in West Chehalem and who died October 20, 1875. His other brothers and sisters remained in the States. Salem Farmer, March 12, 1875; Or. Statesman, March 6, 1870; Salem Mercury, March 5, 1875.

    Robert Cowan, a native of Scotland, emigrated to Missouri, where he married, and joined the Oregon companies of 1847. In the following year he settled in the Umpqua Valley, Yoncalla Precinct, and with the exception of Levi Scott and sons, was the first white settler in Douglas County. 'His cabin stood near the old trail which the pioneer gold-seekers of 1848 and 1849 travelled, and is remembered by many as the last mark of civilization north of the Sacramento Valley.' He was killed by a splinter from a tree which he was felling March 9, 1865. Or. Statesman, March 20, 1865.

    Samuel Allen settled on the Abiqua, in Marion County.

    Joseph Hunsaker settled 10 miles south of Salem.

    J. H. Pruett resided at McMinnville in Yamhill County.

    Jacob Comegys, of Hagerstown, Md., born 1798, came to Oregon in 1847; removed to San José, Cal., in 1856, where he died in 1870.

    Charles Sanborn was drowned in the Willamette River near Eugene City, Oct. 1875.

    John F. Taylor never had a home, but lived among the old settlers, dying at the age of 78, and buried at public charge, an exception generally in his habits to his old companions.

    J. C. Crooks, of Marion County.

    Samuel Whitley resided on the southern border of Marion County—a native of Virginia—and died September 1868, aged 80 years.

    William S. Barker, a cabinet-maker, settled at Salem, where he died July 2, 1869, having been a respected citizen of Oregon for 22 years.

    William Whitney, a native of Sately, Huntingdonshire, England, born in 1808, at the age of 19 married Elizabeth Taylor of Bourn, Lincolnshire, and moved to the United States in 1832. Their first residence was in Pennsylvania; from there they removed to Indiana, and in 1847 joined the emigration to Oregon, having at this time a family of 6 children. Whitney settled in Marion County, and in 1848 went to the California mines and met with good success. He died at Butteville June 1, 1878, 3 years after his wife, who died April 4, 1875.

    Rev. P. J. McCormick, who came to Oregon m the ship L'Étoile du Matin, before mentioned, was a man of very plain parts, and of an Irish family of not the very best blood. On arriving at Oregon City he was stationed there for some time, where he was compelled to perform every menial service, even to washing his linen, though a man of accomplishments. Falling ill from this cheerless way of living, he was ordered to the uplands of Chili, where he resided 20 years; thence returning to Oregon, he resided there until his death in 1874, well known for his talents and virtues. Portland Bulletin, Dec. 14, 1874.

    William McKinney was born in Howard County, Missouri, Aug. 20, 1820. In April 1847 he married Matilda Darby, and started with the emigration for Oregon, settling in Marion County. He died Oct. 20, 1875, leaving a family of 11 children, to whose welfare he was truly devoted. In losing him the community lost a good citizen. Portland Oregonian, Nov. 6, 1875.

    James Fulton, born at Paoli, Orange County, Ind., in 1816, emigrated to Missouri in 1840 and to Oregon in 1847. His father laid out the town of Paoli, and with Blackstone, Hallowell, Lindley, and Hopper, built the Half-Moon Fort at that place in Gen. Harrison's campaign. Settled in Yamhill County, where he remained for 10 years, when he removed to the Dalles, his present residence. Mr Fulton's Dalles and Eastern Oregon, MS., contains some instructive matter concerning the changes which have taken place since the settlement of the country, in the character of the soil and also in the climate. It furnishes, besides, some facts of importance concerning the title to the Dalles town site, which has been long in litigation.

    Ephraim Adams, born in New Jersey in 1799, removed in 1830 to Ohio, in 1839 to Missouri, and thence to Oregon with his family. Located in Yamhill County, he spent the remainder of a long life in Oregon, dying January 15, 1876, at McMinnville, respected and regretted by his acquaintances of 29 years. Or. Statesman, Jan. 22, 1876.

    H. L. Aikin, born in England in 1818, emigrated with his parents to the United States in his childhood. At the age of 29 he left Illinois, where his father was settled, to go to Oregon. He chose a residence in Clatsop County, where he lived a man of note in his community, dying at Astoria in April 1875, leaving 3 immediate descendants, a son and 2 daughters, his wife having died before him. Portland Oregonian, April 24, 1875; Or. City Enterprise, April 23, 1875.

    Isaac W. Bewley began the westward movement by leaving Indiana for Missouri in 1837, and thence on to Oregon. He is a brother of John W. Bewley, of Lafayette, Ind., and of Rev. Anthony Bewley, who was hanged by a southern mob in Texas, at the breaking-out of the rebellion for his fearless advocacy of human rights. Mr I. W. Bewley settled on a farm in Tillamook County, Oregon, about as near sunset as any spot in the United State. Lafayette (Ind.) Bee, in Portland Oregonian, Oct. 31, 1874.

    Tollman H. Rolfe, a printer, joined the Oregon immigration of 1847, but proceeded in the spring of 1848 to California, where he was engaged on the Star. Tuthill's Hist. Cal., 215. He was elected alcalde of Yuba County, and afterward, in 1853, went to Nevada City, where he was employed on the Journal, and afterward started the Nevada Democrat, which he edited in company with his brother, I. J. Rolfe. When Austin was founded Rolfe went to that place, and for a time edited the Reveille, but returned to Nevada City, and edited the Gazette. He several times filled the office of city trustee, and about 1870 was elected justice of the peace, which office he held until failing health drove him to San Bernardino, where he died in 1872.

    William Allphin, a native of Kentucky, was born Nov. 17, 1777. On becoming of age he removed to Indiana, settled at Indianapolis, and engaged in the manufacture of brick, furnishing the material for the walls of the state-house in that city. In 1837 he removed to Illinois, and 10 years later to Oregon, where he located in Linn County, 8 miles east of Albany. He was twice a member of the territorial legislature, and held several other offices to which he was elected by the people. He died October 1876, within 13 months of the age of 100 years, leaving a memory revered. Corvallis Gazette, Oct. 13, 1876; Albany Weekly Register, Dec. 11, 1876; Salem Statesman, Oct. 13, 1876.

    A. N. Locke, born in Virginia in 1810, moved to Mo. in 1820, and to Oregon in 1847. He was among the late arrivals of that year, 'having suffered incredible hardships.' He settled in Benton County a few miles north of Corvallis. There he lived for many years, and raised a large and interesting family. He was several times sheriff and county judge, filling these positions in an honorable manner, and enjoying the confidence and esteem of the county he served. He died on the 14th of October, 1872. Corvallis Gazette, Oct. 18, 1872.

    Robert Houston, born in Madison County, Kentucky, February 1793, removed to Shelby County, Ohio, in 1805, and resided there until 1847. In 1827 he married Miss Mary Brown, having by her 6 children. While residing in Ohio, he served as associate justice for 7 years, and filled other stations of trust with credit. On reaching Oregon in September 1847, he selected a farm in Linn County, where he resided till his death in September 1876, surrounded by his children and grandchildren, and esteemed by all. He lived long in the enjoyment of the simple pleasures of country life, as he had desired. Albany State Rights Democrat, Sept. 15, 1876.

    Leander C. Burkhart was born in Hawkins County, East Tennessee, Nov. 14, 1823. Emigrating to Oregon in 1847, he settled in Linn County, in company with his father and a numerous relationship, amassing a large fortune without losing his high reputation for integrity, being possessed of a sterling worth acknowledged by all men. He died at his residence half a mile east of Albany, November 3, 1875.

    Samuel Laughlin was born in South Carolina in 1791, removed to Missouri in 1823, where he resided until 1847, being twice married, and having 7 children by each wife, an equal number of boys and girls.

    Mrs Asenath M. Luelling Bozarth, daughter of Henderson Luelling, came with her parents to Oregon from Indiana in 1847. She was the mother of 11 children, 4 sons and 7 daughters, 10 of whom survived her. She died at the home of her husband, John S. Bozarth, on Lewis River, Cowlitz County, where she had resided 22 years, on the 30th of November, 1874, aged 40 years. Vancouver Register, Dec. 25, 1874.

    Charles Hubbard settled in what is now Hubbard Station, in Marion County, in the spring of 1848. Mrs Margaret Hubbard died at her home in that place December 7, 1879, aged 68 years. She was a native of Ky., but married Mr Hubbard in Mo. After marriage she resided in Pike County, Ill. Had she lived a few days longer, her golden wedding would have been celebrated. She was the mother of 4 sons and 3 daughters. Portland Oregonian, Dec. 13, 1879.

    Hugh Harrison was born in Harrison Co., Ky., which county was named after his grandfather. He was for several years in the Rocky Mountains with Kit Carson, but settled in South Salem in 1847, where he died at the age of 76 years, May 27, 1877. Portland Standard, June 1, 1877.

    Joseph Merrill, born in Ross Co., Ohio, Nov. 15, 1818, removed with his parents to Ill. at the age of 10 years, returned to Ohio when he attained his majority, and married the next year a Miss Freeman of Chillicothe, the ceremony being performed by Justice of the Peace Thurman, afterward U. S. senator from Ohio. Merrill subsequently returned to Ill., where he resided until 1847. In the spring of 1848 he settled in Columbia County, Oregon. He died at his home May 6, 1879, regretted by the community in which he lived. Portland Standard, May 13, 1879.

    Mrs John Fisher lost her husband at the crossing of the Platte River, June 6, 1847; and on Snake River she buried her little girl 2 years of age. She arrived late in the autumn at Tualatin plains, where during the winter she met W. A. Mills, who had arrived in 1843. He proposed marriage, and they were united in 1848, continuing to reside near Hillsboro. Mrs Mills had 5 children, 2 sons and 3 daughters. She was born in Wayne County, Ind., April 20, 1822, and died December 11, 1869. Salem Farmer, March 26, 1870.

    William Glover settled in Marion County. Mrs Jane Jett Graves Glover was born in Pittsylvania Co., Va., in 1827, removed with her parents to Missouri in 1830, and was married to William Glover in 1843, with whom she came to Oregon in 1847. She died December 31, 1876. Id., Jan. 12, 1877.

    Leander L. Davis was born in Belmont Co., Ohio, and crossed the plains in 1847, settling in Marion Co. He served in the state legislature in 1866. He died June 29, 1874, at Silverton, aged 48 years. Id., July 4, 1874.

    Mrs Olive Warren Chamberlain was born in Covington, New York, Feb. 12, 1822. While she was a child, her father, an itinerant Methodist preacher, removed with her to Michigan, where in 1843 she married Joseph Chamberlain, and came to Oregon. She was the mother of 10 children, 8 of whom survive her. She died October 27, 1874, at Salem. Salem, Or., Statesman, Nov. 7, 1874.

    Mrs R. A. Ford, who settled with her husband in Marion County in 1847, after becoming a widow studied medicine, and practised in Salem, educating a son for the profession. She died in March 1880, in the city of Portland. Portland Standard, April 2, 1880.

    T. S. Kinsey died at Cornelius, in Washington County, November 15, 1877.

    John Jewett died January 25, 1880.

    William H. Dillon was a native of Kent Co., Del., from which he removed when a child to the Scioto Valley in Ohio. When a young man he removed again to Indiana, and thence to Oregon. Dillon lived one year on Sauvé Island, when he went to the California gold mines, returning in a few months with a competency, and settling near Vancouver.

    Samuel T. McKean was from Delaware County, New York, where he married a Miss Hicks in 1817, and removed to Richmond, Ohio, from which place many years later he again removed to Illinois, where he founded the town of Chillicothe, naming it after the old Indian village of that name in Ohio. When he came to Oregon he had a family of 6 children. In the autumn of 1848 the family settled at Astoria, remaining there till 1863, when they removed to San José, Cal. During his residence in Oregon McKean held several places of trust and honor, as member of the legislative assembly, clerk of the district court of Clatsop County, and afterward as county judge, and president of the board of trustees of the town of Astoria. He died at San José in 1873, and his wife followed him in 1877, leaving many descendants. San José Pioneer, April 28, 1877.

    John W. Grim was born in Ohio in 1820. He settled on French Prairie near Butteville. I have a valuable manuscript by him entitled Emigrant Anecdotes, which treats in an easy conversational style of the events of the journey overland, his settlement in Oregon, the Cayuse war, the Canadian French, etc.

    George La Rocque, a native of Canada, was born near Montreal in 1820. At the age of 16 he entered the United States, and like most Canadians, soon sought employment of the fur companies. Being energetic and intelligent, he became useful to the American Fur Company, with whom he remained 8 years, finally leaving the service and settling in Oregon, near his former friend, F. X. Matthieu, on French Prairie. When the gold discoveries attracted nearly the whole adult male population of Oregon to Cal., he joined in the exodus, returning soon with $12,000. This capital invested in business at Butteville and Oregon City made him a fortune He died at Oakland, Cal., Feb. 23, 1877. Oregon City Enterprise, March 8, 1877.

    Ashbel Merrill died at Fort Hall, his wife, Mrs Susannah Sigler Merrill, and children pursuing their way to Oregon. Mrs Merrill was born in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, March 20, 1800. She was married to Ashbel Merrill April 23, 1823, in Ross Co., Ohio, and moved to Illinois, and thence in 1847 to Oregon. Their children were William, George, Mary A., Emerit, Lyman, Electa, Alvin, and Lyda. Six of these resided in Oregon, chiefly in Columbia Co., and had numerous families. Mrs Merrill has celebrated her 82d birthday. St. Helen Columbian, March 31, 1881.

    Joseph Carey Geer went from Windom, Conn., to Ohio, in 1816. The family removed to Ill., and from there to Oregon. The founder of the Oregon family of Geer was born in 1795. He settled m Yamhill county in 1847, and in the number of his descendants has outdone the Canadians, there being of his line 164 on the Pacific coast, all honorable men and virtuous women, besides being physically people of weight. Portland West Shore, Feb. 1880.

    Ralph C. Geer was the pioneer nurseryman of Marion County. He also taught the first public school in the section where he settled, having 30 pupils in 1848, all but 4 of whom were living 30 years afterward—a proof that the climate had nothing to do with the fatal character of the diseases which carried off the natives in early times. Geer planted apple and pear seeds to start his nursery in the red soil of the Waldo hills, which he found to be excellent for his purpose. His father also put an equal amount of apple and pear seeds in the black soil of the Clackamas bottoms, but was disappointed in the returns, which were not equal to the Waldo hills, where R. C. Geer has had a fruit farm and nursery for more than 30 years.

    Henderson Luelling and William Meek, immigrants of 1847, took to Oregon a 'travelling nursery,' which was begun in 1845, by planting trees and shrubs in boxes 12 inches deep, and just long and wide enough to fill the bed of a wagon. In this way, protected by a frame to prevent cattle from browsing them, 700 young trees were safely carried across 2,000 miles of land, and set out at a place called Milwaukee, on the Willamette River, below Oregon City, having been taken out of the boxes at the Dalles, and carefully wrapped in cloths to protect them from frost or injury by handling during the transit from the Dalles to their destination by boat. The experiment was successful, and Meek and Luelling were the first great nurseryman of Oregon, and afterward of Cal.

    John Wilson drove to the Willamette Valley a number of choice Durham cattle, from Henry Clay's herd, at Blue Grass Grove, Ill., and also some fine horses, greatly to the improvement of the stock in the valley. J. C. Geer also drove a fine cow from this herd.

    Stephen Bonser, who settled on Sauvé Island, drove a herd of choice cattle, which improved the stock on the Columbia River bottoms.

    Luther Savage took to the Willamette Valley a blood race-horse called George, whose descendants are numerons and valuable.

    A Mr Fields drove a flock of fine sheep from Missouri, which he took to the Waldo hills. Before getting settled he and his wife both died under a large fir-tree, with the measles. The sheep were sold at auction in small lots; and being superior, the Fields sheep are still a favorite breed in Oregon. Headrick, Turpin, and Mulkey took a flock of fine sheep. Turpin's were Saxony. This lot stocked Howell Prairie. R. Patton took a large flock to Yamhill County.

    Mr. Haun of Haun's Mills, Mo., carried a pair of mill buhr-stones across the plains to Oregon.

    A. R. Dimick carried the seeds of the 'early,' or 'shaker blue,' potato from Mich., planting them on his farm in the north part of Marion Co. From these seeds sprung the famous Dimick potato, the best raised in Oregon.

    Mr Watson of King's Valley, Benton Co., drove some short-horn stock to Oregon. The above notes are taken from Geer's Blooded Cattle, MS., a valuble contribution on the origin of stock in the Willamette Valley. See also his address before the pioneer association for 1879, on the immigration of 1847; see also Salem Or. Statesman, June 20, 1879.

    John E. Ross was born in Madison Co., Ohio, Feb. 15, 1818. Emigrated with his parents to Ind. when 10 years of age, and to Ill. when 16 years old. At the age of 29 he started for Or., and was capt. of his train of forty wagons. In the Cayuse war which broke out soon after he arrived in Or. he served as lieut. and capt. He resided for some time at Oregon City, engaged in various pursuits. When gold was discovered in Cal. he went to the Feather River mines, and in 1850, after having returned to Oregon, explored in the southern valleys and in northern Cal. for gold, discovering several rich placers, known as Yankee Jim's, Wambo Bar, Jacksonville, etc. For a numbers of years he was almost constantly engaged either in mining or selling supplies to miners; and in 1852 again commanded a company who went out to fight the Indians on the southern route. In the winter of 1852–3 he was married to Elizabeth Hopewood, of Jacksonville, theirs being the first wedding solemnized in that place. They have 9 children, 5 girls and 4 boys. When the Rogue River war broke out, in 1853, Ross was elected col., and again in 1855 was elected col. of the 9th reg., and commissioned by Gov. Davis. He was a member of the ter. council in the same year; and in 1866 was elected to the state leg. When the Modoc war broke out, in 1872, he was commissioned by Gov. Grover as brig.-gen. in command of the state troops. In 1878 he was a member of the state senate from the county of Jackson, where he has resided for many years. The Salem Statesman, in remarking upon the personal appearance of Ross, describes him as having a well-shaped head, pleasant face, and a reserved but agreeable manner. Ashland Tidings, Dec. 13, 1878. One whole night I spent with Ross at Jacksonville, writing down his experiences; and when at early dawn my driver summoned me, I resumed my journey under a sickening sensation from the tales of bloody butcheries in which the gallant colonel had so gloriously participated.

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