History of Oregon (Bancroft)/Volume 1/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III.
SETTLEMENT OF OREGON.
1832–1834.
About the year 1832 four native chiefs from the region round the head waters of the Columbia appeared at St Louis asking for Mr Clarke, of the Lewis and Clarke expedition, then resident Indian agent at that place. Their fathers had told them of his visit to their nation. From various sources, from the praise of pious travellers and the oaths of impious trappers, they had learned of the white man's God, and the book which he had given. And now, would the great white chief grant their prayer and send religious men to point their people the way to heaven? It was promised them according to their request. Soon after two of them sickened and died; of the other two, one met death during his return, and the other reached his people and reported.[1]
This incident, heralded through the press, elaborated in the pulpit, and wrought into divine and spiritual forms by fervid religionists, who saw in it the finger of God pointing westward, awakened general interest in that direction. Moved by inspiration, they said, and in obedience to the order of a council of chiefs, these messengers had come from beyond the Rocky Mountains, travelling thousands of miles, and undergoing many hardships and dangers; and in the accomplishment of this sacred work they had yielded up their lives. Among others the Missionary Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church was importuned to establish forthwith a mission among the Flatheads. The voice of "Wilbur Fisk was heard rousing the churches.[2] And to no one more than to Hall J Kelley, the Oregon enthusiast and the religious fanatic, did this curiosity of the simple savages appear as the immediate work of the Almighty, and the incident greatly aided his efforts. His schemes multiplied; his pen worked with new vigor; he urged the preachers of the Word not to confine their efforts to the mountains, but to descend the broad River of the West to the Canaan there awaiting them, and unite earthly empire with heavenly enlightenment.[3]
In answer to the call appeared before the Methodist board two men, sometime from Stanstead, Canada, first Jason Lee, and afterward his nephew, Daniel Lee, offering themselves as laborers in this western field, and were accepted. They were formed of good material for pioneer missionary work; the former had been engaged in similar labors in the British provinces, and he presented striking characteristics, carrying them on the surface; qualities pronounced, which made the presence of the possessor felt in any society in which he happened to be placed. He was now, in 1833, made member of the Methodist conference, and ordained deacon, and later, elder.
At the time of his appointment to a position destined to be more conspicuous in Oregon's history than at that time he could have surmised, Jason Lee was about thirty years of age, tall, and powerfully built, slightly stooping, and rather slow and awkward in his movements; of light complexion, thin lips closely shut, prominent nose, and rather massive jaws; eyes of superlative spiritualistic blue, high, retreating forehead, carrying mind within; somewhat long hair, pushed back, and giving to the not too stern but positively marked features a slightly puritanical aspect; and withal a stomach like that of an ostrich, which would digest anything. In attainments there was the broad open pasture of possibilities rather than a well-cultivated field of orchard, grain, and vine land. He believed in the tenets of his church; indeed, whatever may become of him, howsoever he may behave under those varied and untried conditions which providence or fortune hold in store, we may be sure that at this beginning, though not devoid of worldly ambition, he was sincere and sound to the core. Strong in his possession of himself, there was nothing intrusive in his nature. Though talking was a part of his profession, his skill was exhibited as much in what he left unsaid as in his most studied utterances. Frank and affable in his intercourse with men, he inspired confidence in those with whom he had dealings, and was a general favorite. If his intellect was not as broad and bright as Burke's, there was at least no danger of the heart hardening through the head, as with Robespierre and St Just. Unquestionably he was a little outside of the ordinary minister of the period. Some would have said he lacked refinement; others that his brusque straightforwardness was but simple honesty, unalloyed with clerical cant, and stripped of university gown and sectarian straitlace. We shall find him later delighting in his manhood; and while he would not so darkly sin as to quibble over his creed, forest freedom proved a relief from the prison walls of prescribed forms.
The nephew, Daniel, was quite a different character, less missionary or man complete than supplement to the uncle. Like Boswell beside Johnson, measured beside his colleague, the form and character of Daniel assume larger proportions than they are really entitled to; he was in truth a desiccated Dominie Sampson, that later stood as a butt before the wits of Fort Vancouver; a thin, bony form, surmounted by thin, bony features beaming in happy, good-natured unconsciousness of his lack of knowledge, particularly of knowledge of the things of this world. He was a pious Pierrot, a man in stature, but a child in mind and manners. Yet this personage had his admirers, to whom the faults of mind and body beside the more finished forms of the ungodly were but the graces of awkwardness; just as the constrained motions of the hero, who having lost a limb in battle now hobbles on crutches, appear to the worshippers of war the poetry of motion as compared with the amblings of the effeminate city fop.
Together at this outset they were well enough mated, though when they talked religion in company their discourse was as interesting and instructive as would be the witnessing of an interview between Father Tom and the Pope. Often sensitiveness is the enemy of success; bravery in brass wins where polish fails. Not that Jason lacks bravery; for as courage was needed it came to him with high resolve and all attendant sacrifice, over which there was no thick covering of ass's hide. But in both, tensely strung, were expectation, will, and conscience; and there were thousands who of each with Cicero would say, "Homo sine fuco et fallaciis."
A missionary meeting was held in New York the 10th of October, 1833, to arrange for the early departure of the volunteers; and six days after, the sum of three thousand dollars for an outfit was voted by the board. It was then further decided that two laymen should be selected to attend and assist the missionaries; and the latter were to begin their work at once by travelling and raising funds, preaching the crusade as far south as Washington, then working west to join some company of fur-traders for the Flathead country the following spring.
Frequent and fervid meetings were thus held in every quarter, and on the 20th of November there was a farewell gathering at the Forsyth-street church, New York, Bishop Hedding presiding. Though Methodist in attendance and tone, it is well to note here, as showing the general feeling, that the meeting was addressed by Doctor McAuley of the Presbyterian church, and by others of different denominations.
At this juncture, and before the missionaries had left New York, tidings were received of the arrival at Boston of Nathaniel J. Wyeth from his first attempt to establish a trading post on the lower Columbia.[4] With him were two Indian boys from beyond the mountains, to whom now attached more than ordinary interest by reason of the leaven working in the community. By orders of the board Jason Lee at once visited Wyeth and obtained information concerning western parts, particularly in regard to fields for missionary enterprise. Lee's attention was thus directed to the natives of the Lower Columbia, as well as to those of the upper country; and since the Columbia River Company, as Wyeth and his associates styled themselves, was about sending a vessel round Cape Horn, Wyeth himself proceeding across the mountains in the spring to meet it, opportunity was thus offered the missionary men, not only to forward their supplies by water, but to secure the necessary escort for their proposed overland journey.
The two laymen finally chosen to accompany the Lees were Cyrus Shepard of Lynn, Massachusetts, thirty-five years of age, and Philip L. Edwards, a Kentuckian by birth, lately of Richmond, Missouri. Courtney M. Walker, also of the place last mentioned, was engaged for a year, for pecuniary consideration, to assist in establishing the mission. Edwards was a young man, not yet twenty-three, of rather more than ordinary attainments, and a lover of order and refinement. His constitution was delicate, his temperament nervous, and his disposition amiable. He loved good company, and enjoyed the ludicrous, but his good sense prevented him from becoming an example of it, like Daniel Lee. A frontier man, he knew how to conform to the crudities of pioneer life, for which by nature he was not very well adapted. While possessed of a high moral sense, he was not religiously inclined, nor did he ever consider himself in that sense a member of the mission. Cyrus Shepard, on the other hand, was devoted to religion and a missionary at heart. He was a little older than the elder Lee, tall, and fine looking, yet of a scrofulous tendency and feeble health. The other member of the mission party, Walker, was still less than Edwards a missionary, being business agent. Like Edwards, he was young, of good antecedents, but of greater physical powers; he was the only one of the party who became a permanent settler in the country.[5]
Leaving New York early in March 1834, Jason Lee proceeded west, lecturing by the way. Daniel followed him on the 19th, and was joined by Shepard at Pittsburg. As they approached St Louis Shepard hastened forward, took charge of the mountain outfit, and proceeded by boat up the river to Independence, the rendezvous. The Lees made the journey from St Louis on horseback, meeting Edwards and Walker at Independence. Wyeth was there before them, and before setting out they were joined by Sublette. There were present also two scientists, Townsend and Nuttall.
The expedition, as it filed westward the 28th of April, consisted of three distinct parties, numbering in all seventy men, with two hundred and fifty horses. First were Wyeth and Sublette, with their respective retainers, and in the rear the missionaries, with their horses and horned cattle. Proceeding slowly they crossed the Kansas River, then by the forks of the Platte and the Laramie, past Independence Rock, arriving at Green River and the rendezvous at the end of two months.
On the way the elder Lee conducted himself so as to command the respect of all, religious and irreligious. The character of the man unfolded in beauty and fragrance under the stimulating prairie sun. No discipline of lecture-room, general ministration, or other experience could have been so valuable a preparation for the duties awaiting him at his destination as the rude routine of these overland days. It seemed to him as if his theological sea had suddenly become boundless, and he might sail unquestioned whithersoever the winds should carry him. It was delightful, this cutting loose from conventionalisms, for even Methodist preachers are men. Not that there was present any inclination toward a relaxation of principles, as is the case with so many on leaving home and all its healthful restraints; on the contrary, he felt himself more than ever the chosen of God, as he was thus brought nearer him in nature, where he was sustained and guarded by day, and at night infolded in his starry covering. Fires, both physical and mental, blazed brightly, and he was not one whit behind the most efficient of this company in willingness, ability, and courage.[6] Nor were his associates broad-collared, long-haired, puritanical prayermongers, but wide-awake, hearty, and sympathetic men, bent on saving souls and having a good time.
An incident characteristic of the man was told of Jason Lee by eye-witnesses: Noticing on one occasion that a cow belonging to his herd was suffering from the burden she carried, he stopped to milk her, and in so doing fell behind the company. The cry of 'Indians!' was raised. "Mr Lee! Mr Lee! They will be on you!" his men shouted. Jason turned his eyes in the direction of the rising dust which marked the approach of the savages, then slowly said, "Unless the Lord will it otherwise this cow moves not until her load is lightened," and continued his milking till the arrival of the band, which proved to be friendly Nez Percés instead of terrible Blackfoot. So all through the journey, which was pleasant and profitable, mentally, to the missionaries, Mr Lee stood ever as ready to minister to the comfort of his dumb beasts, and to the bodily necessities of his men, as to hold forth in abstract spiritual propositions, though he did not fail to preach as occasion offered.
For example, service was held at Fort Hall on Sunday, the 27th of July, which was not only attended by Wyeth's men, but by the fur-hunters of the vicinity, and notably by a body of Hudson's Bay Company people, half-breeds and Indians under Thomas McKay, who, owing to the Sunday training at the forts, were exceptionally devotional. It was a grand and solemn sight, these rough and reckless children of the forest, gathered from widely remote quarters, with varied tongues and customs, here in the heart of this mighty wilderness, the eternal hills their temple-walls, and for roof the sky, standing, kneeling, with heads uncovered, their souls bowed in adoration before their one creator and governor. What these same devout worshippers were doing an hour afterward, drinking, trafficking, swearing, and stabbing, it is needless to detail. Man is oft an irrational animal, and we are least of all to look for reason in religion.
The following Wednesday the missionaries continued their westward way, driving with them their cattle, which must needs have time and travel leisurely, while Wyeth remained to complete the fort which he was building, that is to say, Fort Hall. With the Lees were now Stuart, an English captain travelling in the Rocky Mountains, and McKay, who sent some Indians forward with them to Walla Walla, where they were again joined by Wyeth. Leaving there the cattle, they were transported by barge to the Dalles, where they took canoes, most of which were demolished at the Cascades. The greater portion of their effects were by this time lost; and in a bedraggled condition, in advance of the others, Jason Lee presented himself at Fort Vancouver. When the remainder of his party arrived, the 16th of September, he stood at the landing beside McLoughlin to receive them.
The brig May Dacre, Wyeth's vessel, on which were the tools and goods of the missionaries, had fortunately arrived and was lying, as before mentioned, at Wapato Island. The immediate consideration was to locate a mission. Jason and Daniel Lee had strictly observed the upper country as they passed through it, and had conversed freely with its inhabitants. Meanwhile, among other places, they had heard much of the valley of the Willamette, and entertained a strong desire to behold it before establishing themselves. Therefore, after a brief rest, leaving the three laymen at Fort Vancouver, they proceeded thither, McLoughlin kindly furnishing them horses, provisions, and men to accompany them. The route taken was the one then common to trappers, by canoe to Thomas McKay's farm, situated a little way up a small creek that fell into the Multnomah, and from this place with horses, passing over a high ridge, several miles in extent, to the Tualatin Plains, through a series of gently rolling prairies, divided by groves of fir and oak. Beyond the plains was found what they describe as a delightful hilly tract, several miles in extent, thinly wooded at intervals, otherwise open and covered with grass. From these hills they descended by a gentle grade into the Chehalem Valley, that stretches away east to the Willamette. On reaching the river at this place they swam their horses, and crossed to the east side, where settlement had been begun. Along the river they found about a dozen families, mostly French Canadians, who had been hunters in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, or free trappers, and had very lately left that occupation for farming, so as to obtain surer support and greater security for themselves and families. They seemed prosperous and happy, and gave the missionaries a polite and generous welcome. One night Joseph Gervais, a leading personage thereabout, set up their tent in his garden, among melons and cucumbers. It reminded them of the passage in holy writ, "a lodge in a garden of cucumbers."[7]
It was all quite different from what those might be led to expect who undertake to carry the gospel to an unknown wilderness, among unknown savage tribes. The fascinations of the place were too strong to be resisted; so without more delay, about two miles above the farm of Gervais, on the east side of the river, sixty miles from its mouth, they chose their location, upon a broad sweep of low alluvial plain, whose rich grassy meadows, bordered by oak, fir, cotton-wood, white maple, and white ash, lay invitingly ready for the plough.[8]
Returning to Fort Vancouver, the Lees proceeded to remove their men and effects to the site chosen. Again they found McLoughlin ready to tender them every assistance. A boat and crew were placed at their disposal to transport the mission goods from the May Dacre. Horses were given in exchange for others that had been left at Fort Walla Walla. Seven oxen were loaned with which to haul timber for building, and eight cows with their calves were furnished, and one bull, in place of the two cows that had been driven from the Missouri to the Columbia River and left in the upper country.
The labor attending the driving of the cattle and of transporting the goods, which required carriage round the falls and reloading in the canoes, was considerable, and occupied several days; but by the 6th of October stock and effects were safely placed on the bank of the Willamette, ready for consecration and use.
The causes governing the selection of a site are obvious. Jason Lee was a man; although a servant of the Lord, he was already the master of men. How far the thought of empire had hitherto mingled with his missionary plans probably he himself could scarcely tell. He could not but see that human possibilities were broader, mightier, in the fertile valley of the Willamette, open through its Columbia avenue to the sea, than the inaccessible so-called Flathead country. Were he altogether missionary, and not man, he might have felt that, though the possibilities for man were here greater, with God all things are possible, and so have remained in the rock-bound region of mid-continent. But being full of human ambition as well as of human sympathy, it was not difficult to make the interests of God indentical with his own.[9]
The incipient attempts of the French Canadians in the valley of the Willamette can scarcely be called the beginning of Oregon settlement, although they did so begin and effect permanent work. The object of such a movement must be considered, no less than the result; the object, and the action taken toward its consummation. The organization of a commonwealth, or the establishing of empire, was not among the purposes of the fur company's servants; they desired simply retirement, with ease and plenty. And by reason of continued debt and close intercourse, they were almost as much serfs of the lords paramount at Fort Vancouver when in the Valley Willamette as when on the River Columbia.[10]
On the other hand, among those who laid the foundations of Oregon's present institutions, of Oregon's present society and prosperity, I should mention first of all the Boston school-master, the enthusiast, the schemer, Hall J. Kelley, though he never was a settler in the country, though he remained there but a short time, under inauspicious circumstances, and departed without making any apparent mark. It was he who, more than any other, by gathering information since 1815 and spreading it before the people, kept alive an intelligent interest in Oregon; it was he who originated schemes of emigration, beginning with one from St Louis in 1828, which, though it failed and led to another futile attempt by sea in 1832, was the father of several expeditions, notably that of Wyeth,[11] and was the immediate cause of the settlement of many prominent pioneers; it was he, this fanatic, who stimulated senators to speak for Oregon on the floor of congress, and even shaped the presidential policy. I am not prepared to give Mr Kelley all he claims, but I am prepared to give him his due. With regard to the missionary brothers Lee, who arrived in the country before him, he maintains that they too received their first knowledge of Oregon through him, and that he was the first person to advocate the christianizing of the natives. That he did impress upon the new commonwealth some portion of his ideas, that he did influence its destinies, there is no question, though we have on means of weighing that influence with any degree of exactness. Regarding settlement his writings contain some practical suggestions; indeed, without clear discrimination between design and necessity, and read by the light of subsequent events, some of them might be pronounced prophetic.[12] For a sketch of the life of this remarkable man, with an account of his visit to Oregon in 1834, and an analysis of his character, I must refer the reader to my History of the Northwest Coast, where also may be found an account of Wyeth's expeditions, and of those persons arriving in the Oregon territory prior to the opening date of this volume, whose names are not herein given. There was one in particular among Kelley's companions, Ewing Young, who remained, and of whom I shall have much to say. As previously shown, Wyeth's purpose was not settlement, but traffic; his occupation at Wapato Island was fishing and trade in furs with the natives. As this did not suit the gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company, who were strong in the land and desired the continuance of their monopoly, but who were without the political right to drive out the people of the United States while entertaining them hospitably, as a rule, at Fort Vancouver, they so circumscribed and defeated their business efforts in this quarter that Wyeth among others was finally forced to sell to them and retire from the field. With the subsequent affairs of this history the expeditions heretofore given have little to do, except in connection with those of their number who remained to settle.
As their terms of contract expired, the Hudson's Bay Company began to retire its servants, giving them choice lands not too far removed from its benign rule. This was the origin of the French Canadian settlements in the beautiful Valley Willamette. And there were those continuing in the service of the company who gave their names to localities—instance Cox, the Eumæus of Fort Vancouver and Sauvé, who kept the dairies on Wapato Island, afterward Sauvé Island.[13]
French Prairie, the tract where the servants of the fur company began their planting in the Willamette Valley, extended from the great westward bend of that river south to Lac La Biche about twenty-five miles. It had the Willamette to the west and Pudding River[14] on the east. Between it and the Willamette was a belt of low wooded land. It was beautified by groves of fir and oak at frequent intervals, and watered by numerous small streams. East of Pudding River rose the foothills of the Cascade Range, and towering beyond and over them the shaggy heights of those grand mountains, overtopped here and there by a snowy peak.
The entrance to this lovely region from the north was, as already intimated, opposite the mouth of the Chehalem, a small stream flowing into the Willamette from the west, and famous for the charming features of its little valley.[15]
The landing at the crossing of the Willamette on the east side was known as Campement du Sable, being a sandy bluff and an encampment at the point of arrival or departure for French Prairie. Two miles above this point was Champoeg,[16] the first settlement.
Among those who were living on French Prairie at the time of the arrival of the Lees were some who had come with the Astor expeditions, some who hinted at having been left behind by Lewis and Clarke; and to these were later joined the remnants of the expeditions of Wyeth and Kelley.
Louis Pichette left Canada in 1817, with a company of 25 trappers, and wintered on the plains, losing seven of the number, and arriving at Astoria in 1818. Pichette roamed about in California and Oregon for twelve years in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1832 he settled on a farm in the Willamette Valley, where he resided for over 40 years. He died November 20, 1876, aged 78 years. Portland Standard, December 22, 1876; Salem Willamette Farmer, Dec. 22, 1876; Salem Statesman, Dec. 22 1876. Other Canadians whose names appear among the early settlers are Francis Quesnel, who died in 1844, aged 65 years; Louis Shaugarette, who died in 1835; besides Payette, Bilake, Roudeau, Pournaffe, Chamberlain, and probably others. Andre La Chapelle was probably of Pichette's party. He was born in Montreal, August 14, 1781, and left Canada for Oregon in 1817, to join the service of the Northwest Company. In 1819 he was ordered to take a party up the Columbia as far as Boat Encampment, or the 'big bend' of that river, in latitude nearly 52° north, to meet the express from Canada. That year was noted for a great flood on the Columbia, and encampment could be made in few places. There were ten feet of water over the prairie where the town of Vancouver now stands. When headquarters were removed from Astoria to Vancouver, La Chapelle went to Fort Vancouver to reside, and remained in the company's service as a 'leader' until 1841, when he retired and settled with the other Canadians in the Willamette Valley. For 40 years he lived on his farm at Champoeg, and died June 11, 1881, having attained to within two months of 100 years. Portland Oregonian, June 21, 1881; San Francisco Chronicle June 30, 1881. Francis Dupré, another of the French settlers in the Willamette Valley, died in 1858 at the age of 99 years. These quiet, obedient simple-hearted people, Arcadians all, were remarkable for their longevity. All had Indian or half-breed wives, and numerous children. Louis Pichette had 21 offspring. I find mentioned the name of Andrew Dubois, and his wife Margaret, who were living on French Prairie in 1840, and had probably been in Oregon several years. Sawyer's Rept. of Cases, ii. 435.
With the overland Astor expedition under Hunt came, with others, Joseph Gervais, always prominent in the French Canadian settlement. After serving the Hudson's Bay Company, and acting for ten years as an independent trapper, he took a farm on the prairie. Another noted man was Michel La Framboise, the leader of the southern annual trapping parties to California, who was so attentive to Kelley when sick. He settled on the west side of the Willamette. Another was Louis La Bonté, who settled on the west side of the river in 1833, in what is now Yamhill. Étienne Lucier, also of Hunt's party, remained to serve the British Company, and afterward settled in the Willamette Valley, where in the autumn of 1829 he took a farm on the Willamette where East Portland now stands. He afterward removed to French Prairie. Lucier, according to McLoughlin, was the first settler. La Bonté died in 1860, aged 80 years. Lucier died in 1853, and Gervais in 1861, the age of the latter being 84 years. William Cannon, a Virginian, and a soldier from Fort Mackinaw, settled on the west side of the Willamette River, opposite the falls, and lived to the age of 99 years, dying in 1854. Still another of the arrivals of 1812 was one Montoure, who is always mentioned by his surname. He selected for a farm that rich prairie where Samuel Brown subsequently had an extensive farming establishment, and where the town of Gervais now stands. Montoure sold his improvements to Pierre Depuis, who remained on the farm till 1850, when it was sold to Mr Brown. Simon Plumondeau is said by Dunn, in his Oregon Territory, 236, with another Canadian, Fancault, to have been the first Frenchman to settle in the Willamette Valley, by which he may have meant French Prairie. Plumondeau had served as cockswain to General Cass in an expedition to the northwest territory, and was a very skilful and reliable boatman and woodsman, and served several Americans in the Oregon territory, among others Lieutenant Wilkes, in 1841. U.S. Ex. Ex., iv. 338. Among the remnants of Hunt's party in Oregon were Madame Dorion and her son; the woman was still living in the Willamette Valley in 1850.
John B. Wyeth, Oregon, 51, names ten men who in 1832 continued their journey with his brother to the Columbia: G. Sargent, W. Breck, S. Burditt, C. Tibbits, G. Trumbull, J. Woodman Smith, John Ball, Whittier, St Clair, and Abbot. As a matter of fact, there were eleven, the other probably being Solomon H. Smith, who came to Oregon in that year. Robert Campbell of St Louis, originally of the number, does not appear to have reached western Oregon. Abbot, who remained to trap on Salmon River, was, with one of his companions, killed by the Bannack Indians. Townsend's Nar., 225. Gray adds two names, for which I find no authority—Moore and Greely—the former killed by Indians, the latter not accounted for. He makes no mention of John Ball, reputed the first American farmer in the Willamette Valley. Sargent died in 1836, of dissipation. According to Gray, Hist. Or., 191, Whittier was given a passage to the Sandwich Islands by the Hudson's Bay Company, and Trumbull killed himself by overeating at Fort Vancouver.
On the 1st of January, 1833, John Ball was installed as teacher of the half-breed children at Fort Vancouver. From spring till autumn he engaged in farming with Calvin Tibbets in the Willamette Valley. As no American settlers arrived, and disliking the controlling power of the Hudson's Bay Company, he embarked on a whaling vessel for South America. Ultimately he settled at Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mr Tibbets remained in Oregon, and is one of the founders of American settlement in the Willamette Valley. He removed to Clatsop, near the mouth of the Columbia River. Mr Solomon H. Smith succeeded Mr Ball as pedagogue from the 1st of March, remained long enough to fall in love with the Indian wife of the baker, ran away with her and her children, and established a school at the house of Joseph Gervais. Roberts' Recollections, MS., 36; Portland Herald, March 16, 1872; Oregon Spectator Nov. 1, 1849. After the missionaries arrived and began preaching, Smith met with a change of heart, according to Daniel Lee, though he never returned the baker's wife. Lee and Frost's Ten Years in Or., 269. He proved a good citizen of Oregon, finally settling among his wife's relatives at Clatsop, where he became a thriving farmer, and died at an advanced age. In his worldly affairs his Clatsop wife, to whom he was formally married, was of material benefit to him. Tolmie's Puget Sound MS., 2. Of those who accompanied Wyeth in 1834, about twenty reached the lower Columbia; but few of their names have been preserved. We know of James H. O'Neil, Thomas Jefferson Hubbard, Richard McCrary, Paul Richardson, Sansbury, Thornburg, and Courtney M. Walker. Thornburg was killed by Hubbard in a quarrel about an Indian woman in 1835. Thornburg being the assailant, Hubbard was allowed to go free. Townsend's Nar., 223–4. Hubbard continued to reside in Oregon, unmolested if not very respectable, settling on a farm two or three miles north of Lafayette. He was active in the affairs of the early American settlement. When the gold discovery in California drew nearly the whole adult male population from Oregon, he built a boat at Oregon City, loaded it with flour, and in it safely sailed to San Francisco, where he sold both cargo and vessel. He also built a saw-mill in the Willamette Valley, and was one of the first to export cattle to California. In 1857 he removed to eastern Oregon, and died at the Umatilla reservation April 24, 1877, aged 78 years. Oregon City Enterprise, May 3, 1877; Portland Standard, May 4, 1877. Richard McCrary, meeting with unpleasant adventures as a trapper among the Blackfoot Indians, abandoned fur-hunting, took a Nez Percé wife, and settled on a farm five miles below the mouth of the Willamette. Hine's Hist. Or., 132–3.
O'Neil settled in Polk County, where he died in September 1874, aged 74 years. Salem Record, Sept. 16, 1874; Salem Willamette Farmer, Sept. 18, 1874. Paul Richardson did not remain in Oregon, having accompanied the Wyeth expedition only as guide. He was a man of note in his way. Born in Vermont about the year 1793, he removed to Pennsylvania, where he married, but unhappily, and abandoned his wife to seek forgetfulness in the wilderness beyond the Missouri, where he became a solitary and fearless explorer. In 1828, according to his own account, he reached the head waters of Fraser River. He crossed the continent a number of times and had countless adventures, which he seldom related. He died in California in 1857, poor and alone, as he had lived. Hayes' Col. Cal. Notes, ii. 292. Besides these few Americans whose antecedents are to some extent known, the names of J. Edmunds and Charles Roe appear in the writings of the Methodist missionaries of that date; they probably belonged to Wyeth's last expedition. These, so far as known, were the only persons in the country in the autumn of 1834 not connected with the Hudson's Bay Company. See, further, Portland Oregonian, March 9 and 16, 1872; May 4, 1872; July 8, 1876; W. H. Rees, in Oregon Statesman, June 20, 1879; Trans. Or. Pioneer Asso., 1875, 56; McLoughlin's Private Papers, MS., passim; Blanchet's Cath. Church in Or., 7–8; S. F. Alta California, April 22, 1853; Portland Herald, March 5, 1872; Salem Statesman, June 20, 1879; S. F. Bulletin, July 25, 1877.
The party accompanying Kelley and Young, on arriving at the Columbia River, consisted of the following persons: John McCarty, Webley John Hauxhurst, Joseph Gale, John Howard, Lawrence Carmichael, Brandywine, Kilborn, and George Winslow (colored). Gray's Hist. Or., 191. This number corresponds with McLoughlin's account, and is probably correct as to names, though Daniel Lee thought there were 'about a dozen,' and gives the name of Elisha Ezekiel, found only in one other place, namely, in U. S. Gov. Doc, 3d Sess., 25th Cong., H. Rept., No. 101. Ezekiel was employed at the mission, which explains the omission from the count at Fort Vancouver. Let Ezekiel have praise for something; he made the first cart-wheel in the Willamette Valley. See Lee and Frost's Ten Years in Or., 129. Joseph Gale was a man of education, but had spent many years in the mountains with the fur companies. He settled in Oregon, and took active part in affairs until the American element acquired ascendency. He farmed, went to California as master of the first vessel built in Oregon by American settlers, mined in California, returned to Oregon, and subsequently settled east of the Cascade Mountains, first in the Walla Walla Valley, and afterward in Eagle Creek Valley, on the eastern confines of the state of Oregon, where he died December 23, 1881 aged 92 years. Fond of exploring, he joined several expeditions in search of new mines during the excitement of 1862–7, but finally engaged in farming. A few months before his death he sold $2,000 worth of produce raised on sixteen acres of ground on Eagle Creek. Through all his life in Oregon he enjoyed the respect of his neighbors.
Hauxhurst, a native of Long Island, also stood well in the territory, especially with the missionaries, by whom he was converted in 1837. He built the first grist-mill in the Willamette Valley. McCarty and Carmichael were strongly opposed to the Hudson's Bay Company. None of the others appear to have been conspicuous in any direction, except George Winslow, the negro, who took an Indian wife and settled with her in a cabin on Clackamas Prairie, six miles below Oregon City, and raised a family of black red-skins. George assumed to be a doctor, and complained to subsequent emigrants to Oregon that the advent of Doctor Barclay of the Hudson's Bay Company had 'bust out' his business. He also sometimes repudiated his antecedents, and related how he came to Oregon in 1811 as cook to John Jacob Astor! Moss' Pioneer Times, MS., 13–16. Truth was never a conspicuous ingredient of his character, and in his large stories he sometimes seemed almost to forget his name; as ten years after his arrival in Oregon I find a negro calling himself Winslow Anderson living near Oregon City, and having some trouble with the Indians. Jean Baptiste Deportes McKay came with Astor's company, and settled at Champoeg in 1831.- ↑ Such is the story, simplified from many conflicting statements, and presented in the form of reason and probability. There is no doubt in my mind as to the truth of the matter in the main, though it has been denied by some. As to the date and general incidents, Shea, Cath. Miss., 467 — see also White, in Oregon Spectator, Nov. 12, 1846 — states that since 1820 the Flatheads and Nez Percés had been Christian at heart, the result of instructions in the Catholic faith by certain educated Iroquois who found their way to them. The Flathead chiefs were in the habit of assembling every year at the Bitter Root River, whence in 1831 a deputation of five chiefs was sent to St Louis to obtain priests. None of the five reached their destination, and others were sent; but the bishop had no priests to spare. John W. York of Corvallis, in a private communication dated April 25, 1876, to J. Quinn Thornton, which is embodied in Thornton's Hist. Or., MS., makes the number five, and the date of their arrival at St Louis Sept. 17, 1830. All other authorities place the number at four, and the date at about 1830 or 1831, Evans, Hist. Or., MS., 209, and Atkinson, Spalding, and others, make the date 1832. The messengers were generally called Flatheads; though some say Nez Percés; and Smith, in the Boston Missionary Herald, Aug. 1840, intimates that they were Spokanes, and that six started, two turning back. Thornton, Or. and Cal., ii. 21, states that 'two natives were permitted to pass in company with a party of Capt. Sublette's trappers, from the Rocky Mountains to the Indian agency of the late Major Pilcher, and thence to St Louis.' Pilcher himself asserts, if we may believe Kelley, Settlements of Oregon, 63, that 'four thoughtless and sottish Indians accompanied Capt. Sublette's party of hunters to his, Pilcher's, agency. They seemed to have no particular object in travelling. Sublette refused to let them proceed farther in his company, unless they would there obtain a passport, showing a good reason for a visit into the States. Mr Pilcher furnished the Indians with a reason and excuse for their visit to St Louis. Whatsoever the truth of all this, the Catholics claim to have been the first teachers of the natives of that region. John W. York, himself a Methodist elder, asserts in the letter just quoted that he was summoned, in company with two brother Methodists, McAllister and Edmundson, to an interview with Clarke in relation to the Indian delegation just then arrived. York, whose statement I take with some degree of allowance, says that on that occasion Clarke assured him 'that he was a Roman Catholic, but that the Methodist travelling preachers were the most indefatigable laborers, and made the greatest sacrifices of any men in the world.' He further remarked that Catholic priests could teach the mysteries of religion, but Methodist ministers taught practical piety and husbandry, and the two united would be the best arrangement he could think of. 'From Clarke's house we went to the conference room and reported the interview. With closed doors the conference accepted the general's proposition, and resolved, if possible, to send a missionary to Oregon.' As to the fate of their messengers some say that all died, two at St Louis and the others on their way back.
- ↑ So declared the missionaries themselves. See Lee and Frost's Ten Years in Or., 109–13; Hines' Oregon Hist., 9. A highly wrought account appeared in March 1833, in the New York Christian Advocate and Journal, then the leading organ of the Methodists.
- ↑ Indeed, if Mr Thornton, Or. and Cal., ii. 21, is correct, 'as early as the year 1831, the Methodist Board of Missions had been induced by Mr Kelley to determine upon sending Messrs Spalding and Wilson as missionaries to the Indians of Oregon, but the expedition which they proposed to accompany having been broken up, they changed their destination, and went to Liberia.' And Kelley himself says: 'In the year 1832, I published several articles in the Zion's Herald'—see affidavit of the editor, W. B. Brown, Jan. 30, 1843—'calling for missionaries to accompany the expedition, and two years after, Jason and Daniel Lee were sent to commence missionary labors on the Wallamet.'
- ↑ For full accounts of Wyeth's first and second expeditions and efforts, see Hist. Northwest Coast, this series.
- ↑ Townsend speaks of them as 'three younger men, of respectable standing in society, who have arrayed themselves under the missionary banner chiefly for the gratification of seeing a new country, and participating in strange adventures.'
- ↑ 'Looks as though he were well calculated to buffet difficulties in a wild country.' The horses stampede and some one must go for them. 'This party was headed by Mr Lee, our missionary, who with his usual promptitude volunteered his services.' Townsend's Nar., 24, 37.
- ↑ This by the missionaries themselves. Lee and Frost, Ten Years in Or., 124.
- ↑ Daniel Lee is very enthusiastic in his description of the Willamette Valley throughout, although he calls Kelley's idea thereof extravagant.
- ↑ Daniel Lee says that in the occasion which originated the idea of the Flathead mission the claim of the Flatheads to the first missionary efforts had been overrated, and that subsequent inquiries had furnished reasons for believing they would not be justified in attempting to open their mission work among that tribe. These reasons were, the difficulties of obtaining food and of transporting building material and implements a distance of 600 miles; the small number of the Flatheads, whose perpetual wars with the Blackfoot Indians prevented their increase; the fact that the latter were as much the enemies of white men as of the neighboring tribes, and would cherish besides additional hostility toward any who should become allied with them, either white or red; and the desire the missionaries had for a larger field of usefulness than that offered by a single tribe. They took into account, he said, the wants of the whole country, present and Prospective and hoped to meet those wants in the progress of their work They chose the Willamette station as a starting-point and centre of a wide field of proposed benevolent action, where unlimited supplies could be produced as required; hence they here struck the first blow for the Oregon missions, and here began the arduous toil of elevating the heathen. This will do very well for Daniel, though his reasoning is not all of the soundest. White, Ten Years in Or., 125, says that 'Lee's object seemed principally to introduce a better state of things among the white settlers… He had originally been sent out to labor among the Flathead Indians, and passing through the country leaving them far to the right, went on to the Willamette, intending to spend there a winter before proceeding to his destination. He found the mild equable climate, and society, though small, of whites, more congenial to his habits than anything he could expect in the section to which he had been sent. Thinking that he discovered signs of the colony becoming an extensive and valuable field of usefulness, and that, for various reasons, the Flatheads had less claim upon missionary efforts than had been supposed, he determined to assume the responsibility and commence a mission on the Willamette.' It is but fair to state in this connection that at the time this paragraph was written and printed White and Janson Lee were not on the best of terms. Gray, Hist. Or., 157, finds a reason in the selfish report of the Hudson's Bay Company, which led them 'to believe that the Flathead tribe, who had sent their messengers for teachers, were not only a small, but a very distant tribe, and very disadvantageously situated for the establishment and support of a missionary,' and which induced them to turn their attention to the lower Columbia. This is only partially true. McLoughlin did advise the Lees to settle in the Willamette Valley, but not for the reason named. I shall have occasion to refer again to McLoughlin's views upon this subject in a subsequent chapter. The fact must be taken into account that Daniel Lee wrote after nine years of Oregon life. It is easy to see that when he talks of the wants of the whole country, present and prospective, he must have had more than two or three weeks' experience of it; and it must have been better known to him than it could have been by a voyage down the Columbia and a ride of 60 miles afterward through a wilderness. It can hardly be doubted that when Jason Lee came to see, as he did in his journey across the continent, how much less interesting a being was the real Indian than the one pictured upon the warm imagination of the missionary society, his intuitions came into play, and his fund of good sense and reason made it apparent to him that the task he had undertaken was of too large proportions for even his strength to accomplish. He was on the ground, however, on Oregon territory, and he would do the best he could to fulfil the intentions of those who had sent him, without entirely sacrificing himself and his associates. There were Indians enough, not to mention half-breeds and white men, in the Willamette Valley, who needed the teachings of the gospel; and here he would remain, within reach of civilized society and the protection of the friendly fort.
- ↑ According to a statement of McLoughlin, the beginning of the French settlement happened in this wise: Etienne Lucier, whose time had expired in 1828, asked McLoughlin if he believed the Willamette Valley would ever be occupied by settlers, to which the latter replied that wherever wheat grew there would be a farming community. Lucier then asked what assistance would be given him should he settle as a farmer. The Hudson's Bay Company were bound under heavy penalties not to discharge their servants in the Indian country, but to return them to the place where they were engaged. But McLoughlin offered a plan and rules for settlement to Lucier which were accepted and afterward became general. First, to avoid the penalty, the men must remain on the company's books as servants, but they might work for themselves, and no service would be required of them. Second, they must all settle together, and not scatter about amongst the Indians, with whom their half-breed children would be taught by their mothers to sympathize, making them dangerous neighbors; while by keeping their Indian wives among themselves exclusively, these women would serve as hostages for the good conduct of their relatives in the interior. Third, each settler must have fifty pounds sterling due him, to supply himself with clothing and implements, which rule was designed to make them saving and industrious, and by making their farms cost them something, attach them to their homes. Fourth, seed for sowing and wheat to feed their families would be loaned them for the first year, and two cows each for an indefinite period. These were the terms which secured only the better class of Canadians as settlers, and kept the idle and dissolute from becoming incorporated with them. The American trappers, having no credit on the company's books, were nevertheless assisted in the same way and to the same extent, as the best means of making of them good citizens instead of roving firebrands among the Indians. At the end of the first three years all the settlers, French and American, were out of debt. This interesting account was only recently discovered among the private papers of Dr McLoughlin, and by consent of Mrs Harvey, his daughter, was printed among the archives of the Oregon Pioneer Association, under the title of Copy of a Document, in Or. Pioneer Association Trans. 1880, p. 50.
- ↑ 'This novel expedition was not, however, the original or spontaneous motion of Mr Nathaniel J. Wyeth, nor was it entirely owing to the publications of Lewis and Clarke, or Mackenzie. . .They were roused to it by the writings of Mr Hall J. Kelley.' Wyeth's Oregon, 3.
- ↑ Take, for example, what he says about the designs duties, and probabilities of settlement in his unrealized scheme, entitled, A General Circular to all Persons of Good Character who wish to migrate to the Oregon Territory, embracing some Account of the Character and Advantages of the Country; The Right and the Means and Operations by which it is to be settled;—and all necessary directions for becoming an Emigrant. Hall J. Kelley, General Agent. By Order of the American Society for Encouraging the Settlement of the Oregon Territory. Instituted in Boston, A. D. 1829. It is a plan of 'Oregon settlement, to be commenced in the spring of 1832, on the delightful and fertile banks of the Columbia River.' Among the first results of inquiry is a 'clear conviction that the time is near at hand, and advancing in the ordinary course of Providence, when the Oregon country shall be occupied by an enlightened people, skilled in the various improvements of science and art. A people, thus enlightened and skilled, and enjoying the advantages of a climate, soil, and markets as good in their kind as the earth affords; and other natural means, which mostly contribute to the comforts and convenience of life; energized and blessed by the mild and vital principles of the American republic, and the sacred ordinances of the Christan religion'—must be made prosperous and happy. 'The settlement, carrying on a trade with the islands of the Pacific and with the people about the shores of that ocean commensurate with its wants, must advance in prosperity and power unexampled in the history of nations. From the plentitude of its own resources, it will soon be enabled to sustain its own operations, and will hasten on to its own majesty to a proud rank on the earth.' Then he goes on at length to speak of what should be done to secure these results. 'Measures will be adopted for building on Gray's Bay and at the mouth of the river commercial towns… This bay opens into the northern bank of the Columbia, about eleven miles from its mouth,' he says. Five miles square of territory at this place will be laid out into the necessary configuration and divisions for a seaport town.' Streets of convenient width will run from the water, bisecting other streets at right angles. At distances of two squares is to be an area of ten acres for parade or pleasure ground, which is forever to remain open and unoccupied with buildings. The centre of the main street or thoroughfare, of the width of
Kelley's Plan of an Oregon City.
100 feet, is to be devoted to the purpose of a public market. The valley of the Multnomah is to be chiefly occupied for commercial, agricultural and manufacturing operations. The metropolis of the country is designed to be at the falls. Portions of the outlands adjoining the towns will be put into lots 40 by 160 rods, or 40 acres each; making the number of their divisions equal to the whole number of emigrants over fourteen years of age, not including married women. Next to these will be other lots of 100 acres each, making up the complement of 200 acres to each emigrant. Roads as far as practicable are to be laid out in right lines, intersecting each other at right angles. It is desirable that all topographical surveys and divisions of farming lands be made by the method which two years ago was suggested to congress and which was examined, approved of, and recommended by General Bernard, then at the head of the corps of civil engineers. For purposes of religion, a fund was to be set apart for proselytism and missionaries were urged to embark in the work of general conversion. These and many other things relating to the proposed adventure were printed in pamphlet form, and the newspaper press throughout the country solicited to give the contents further circulation through their columns, to the promotion of individual happiness and the prosperity of the country. The settlers were to carry with them their own government, as it should be formulated for them by congress. Special attention should be paid to schools, morals, and religion. No drones or vicious persons should be accepted by the society, and all proposing to emigrate must bring certificates of good character. The society would supply most of the expenses of emigration, and on arrival the emigrant was to receive town lots and land worth from $2,000 to $10,000. The person proposing to emigrate must deposit twenty dollars with the society, and swear obedience to all just regulations which at first were to be military. The route should be from St Louis up the Platte, through South Pass, and down the Columbia, and the expedition should take its departure the last of March. The funds of the society were to consist of $200,000, subscribed stock, divided into shares of $100, each share entitling the holder to 160 acres of land, besides deposit money and such donations as should be obtained from public-spirited men and the governor. Ten years after Kelley had left Oregon, hoping yet to return and realize his dreams of establishing upon the shores of the Pacific a virgin state which should grow into an empire in the progress of time and events, most of the formative ideas set forth in his circular were actually being carried out by emigrants from the United States.
- ↑ The curious elements out of which new countries are colonized, and the varied character of the recipients of the Hudson's Bay Company's protection, are well illustrated by this same swineherd, whose name is given to Cox Plain, two miles below Fort Vancouver, where among the oaks that skirt the Columbia he lived with his herd. Cox was a native of the Hawaiian Islands, and had witnessed the death of Captain Cook. He afterward went to England with the island king, and as a guard presented arms to George III., and was rather lionized in London. He came at last to be the swineherd of the chiefs at Fort Vancouver, where he lived and died amongst his oaks. Anderson's Hist. Northwest Coast, MS., 89–90. An Englishman named Felix Hathaway, saved from the wreck of the Hudson's Bay Company's vessel William and Ann in 1828, became a resident of Oregon. Another sailor who came to Oregon in 1829 was James M. Bates. He is claimed by some to be the first American settler in Oregon, as he remained in the country and cultivated a piece of land on Scappoose Bay, an estuary of the Columbia, south of and below Sauvé Island. He was still living in Oregon in 1872.
- ↑ The nomenclature of the various posts whose history is presented in these volumes will be given in their natural order as the work progresses. The name Willamette and its orthography are discussed in the History of the Northwest Coast, to which the reader is referred. Pudding River received its name from the circumstance of a trapping party which had become bewildered and out of food; there they ate a pudding made from the blood of a mule which they killed. White's Ten Years in Or., 70. Lac La Biche, or Deer Lake, took its name from the abundance of game in its vicinity in the period of the early settlement of French Prairie.
- ↑ Chehalem is an Indian name, whose signification is not clear. Parrish, in his Oregon Anecdotes, MS., 15, attempts to show that the prefix che which occurs so frequently in the Indian dialect meant town or 'ville,' and cites Chemeketa, Chenoway, Cheamhill, and other names. He fails to make evident the analogy, as these were not names of villages, but rather of valleys or localities. Cheamhill, now corrupted into Yamhill, signifies a beautiful view of a range of grassy hills near the ford of the Yamhill River. Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 76; Victor's Or., 195.
- ↑ Lee and Frost spell this word Chumpoeg, and say that it is identical as to location with Campement du Sable. Champoeg, is said to be an Indian word, though it might have come from the French champeaux, or plains, without as much change as many names have undergone.
