History of Oregon (Bancroft)/Volume 2/Chapter 13

by Frances Fuller Victor

CHAPTER XIII.

LEGISLATION, MINING, AND SETTLEMENT.

1853–1854.

John W. Davis as Governor—Legislative Proceedings—Appropriations by Congress—Oregon Acts and Resolutions—Affairs of the Umpqua—Light-house Building—Beach Mining—Indian Disturbances—Palmer's Superintendence—Settlement of Coos Bay—Explorations and Mountain-climbing—Politics of the Period—The Question of State Organization—The People not Ready—Hard Times—Decadence of the Gold Epoch—Rise of Farming Interest—Some First Things—Agricultural Societies—Woolen Mills—Telegraphs—River and Ocean Shipping Interest and Disasters—Ward Massacre—Military Situation.

 

Late in October 1853 intelligence was received in Oregon of the appointment of John W. Davis of Indiana as governor of the territory.^[1] He arrived very opportunely at Salem, on the 2d of December, just as the legislative assembly was about to convene. He brought with him the forty thousand dollars appropriated by congress for the erection of a capitol and penitentiary, which the legislature had been anxiously awaiting to apply to these purposes. Whether or not he was aware of the jealousy with which the lawmaking body of Oregon had excluded Governor Gaines from participating in legislative affairs, he prudently refrained from overstepping the limits assigned him by the organic law. When informed by a joint resolution of the assembly that they had completed their organization,^[2] he simply replied that it would afford him pleasure to communicate from time to time from the archives any information they might require. This was a satisfactory beginning, and indicated a policy from which the fourth gubernatorial appointee found no occasion to depart during his administration.

The money being on hand, the next thing was to spend it as quickly as possible,^[3] which the commissioners had already begun to do, but which the legislature was compelled to check^[4] by appointing a new penitentiary board, and altering the plans for the capitol building. A bill introduced at this session to relocate the seat of government may have had some influence in determining the action of the assembly with regard to the character of the edifice already in process of construction. It was the entering wedge for another location war, more bitter and furious than the first, and which did not culminate until 1855–6. The university had not made so much advancement as the state house and penitentiary, the appropriations for the former being in land, which had to be converted into money.^[5]

 

Remembering the experiences of the past three years, the legislative assembly enacted a militia law constituting Oregon a military district, and requiring the appointment by the governor of a brigadier-general, who should hold office for three years, unless sooner removed; and the choice at the annual election in each council district of one colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, and one major, who should meet at a convenient place, within three months, and lay off their regimental district into company districts, to contain as nearly as possible one hundred white male adults between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years capable of bearing arms, and who should appoint captains and lieutenants to each company district, the captains to appoint sergeants and corporals. Commissions were to issue from the governor to all officers except sergeants and corporals, the term of office to be two years, unless prevented by unsoundness of mind or body, each officer to rank according to the date of his commission, the usual rules of military organization and government being incorporated into the act.^[6] In compliance with this law, Governor Davis appointed, in April 1854, J. W. Nesmith, brigadier-general; E. M. Barnum, adjutant-general; M. M. McCarver, commissary-general; and S. C. Drew, quartermaster-general.^[7] An act was also passed providing for taking the will of the people at the June election, concerning a constitutional convention, and the delegate was instructed to secure from congress an act enabling them to form a state government.^[8] But the people very sensibly concluded that they did not want to be a state at present, a majority of 869 being against the measure; nor did congress think well of it, the slavery question as usual exercising its influence, and although Lane said that Oregon had 60,000 population, which was an exaggeration.

The doings of the alcaldes of Jackson county as justices of the peace were legalized; for up to the time of the appearance of a United States judge in that county the administration of justice had been irregular, and often extraordinary, making the persons engaged in it liable to prosecution for illegal proceedings, and the judgments of the miners' courts void.^[9] The business of the session, taken all in all, was unimportant.^[10] Worthy of remark was the chartering of four railroad companies, only one of which took any steps toward carrying out the declared intentions of the company. In the case of the Willamette Valley Railroad Company, the commissioners held one meeting at Thorp's mills, in Polk county, and appointed days for receiving subscriptions in each of the counties. But the time was not yet ripe for railroads, and this temporary enthusiasm seems to have been aroused by the Pacific railroad survey, then in progress in the north-west territory of the United States.^[11]

The success of the Oregon delegates in securing appropriations led the assembly to ask for money from the general government for "every conceivable purpose," as their mentor, the Statesman, reminded them, and for which it reproved them. Yet the greater part of these applications found favor with congress, either through their own merits or the address of the delegate in advocating them. The principal appropriations now obtained were the sum before mentioned for paying the expenses of the Rogue River war; $10,000 to continue the military road from Myrtle Creek to Scottsburg; and $10,000 in addition to a former appropriation of $15,000 to construct a light-house at the mouth of the Umpqua, with a proportionate part of a general appropriation of $59,000 to be used in the construction of light-houses on the coasts of California and Oregon.^[12]

Next to the payment of the war debt was the demand for a more efficient mail service. The people of the Willamette Valley still complained that their mails were left at Astoria, and that at the best they had no more than two a month. In southern Oregon it was still worse; and again the citizens of Umpqua memorialized congress on this vexatious subject. It was represented that the valleys of southern Oregon and northern California contained some 30,000 inhabitants, who obtained their merchandise from Umpqua harbor, and that it was imperatively necessary that mail communication should be established between San Francisco and these valleys. Their petition was so brought before congress that an act was passed providing for the delivery of the mails at all the ports along the coast, from Humboldt Bay to Port Townsend and Olympia, and $125,000 appropriated for the service.^[13] Houses were built, a newspaper^[14] was established, and hope beat high. But again in the summer of 1854, as after the efforts of Thurston, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company made a spasmodic pretence of keeping their contract, which was soon again abandoned out of fear of the Umpqua bar,^[15] and this abandonment, together with the successful rivalry of the road from Crescent City to the Rogue River Valley, and the final destruction of the Scottsburg road by the extraordinary storms of 1861–2, terminated in a few years the business of the Umpqua, except such lumbering and fishing as were afterward carried on below Scottsburg.

The history of beach mining for gold began in the spring of 1853, the discovery of gold in the sand of the sea-beach leading to one of those sudden migrations of the mining population expressively termed a 'rush.' The first discovery was made by some half-breeds in 1852 at the mouth of a creek a few miles north of the Coquille, near where Randolph appears on the map.^[16] The gold was exceedingly fine, the use of a microscope being often necessary to detect it; yet when saved, by amalgamation with mercury, was found to be in paying quantities. The sand in which it was found existed not only on the modern beach, but on the upper Coquille, forty miles in the interior, at a place known as Johnson Diggings; but the principal deposits were from the Coquille River south along the recent beach to the California line.^[17]

A mining town called Elizabeth sprung up during the summer about thirty miles south of Port Orford, and another seven miles north of the Coquille, called Randolph City.^[18] The latter name may still be found on the maps, but the town has passed out of existence with hundreds of others. For, although the returns from certain localities were at first flattering, the irregular value of the deposits, and the difficulty of disposing of the gold on account of expense of separation, soon sent most of the miners back to the placer diggings of the interior, leaving a few of the less impatient to further but still futile efforts.

The natives living at the mouth of the Coquille questioned the right of the white men to occupy that region, and added to insolence robbery and murder. Therefore, on the 28th of January, a party of forty, led by George H. Abbott, went to their village, killed fifteen men, and took prisoners the women and children. Seeing which, the chiefs of other villages were glad to make peace on any terms, and keep it until driven again to desperation.^[19]

Superintendent Palmer, in the spring of 1854, began a round of visits to his savage wards, going by the way of the Rogue River Valley and Crescent City, and proceeding up the coast to Yaquina Bay. Finding the Indians on the southern coast shy and unapproachable, he left at Port Orford Sub-agent Parrish with presents to effect a conciliation.^[20]

 

Prominent among matters growing out of beach mining, next after the Indian difficulties, was the more perfect exploration of the Coos Bay country, which resulted from the passing back and forth of supply trains between the Umpqua and the Coquille rivers. In May 1853, Perry B. Marple,^[21] after having examined the valley of the Coquille, and found what he believed to be a practicable route from Coos Bay to the interior,^[22] formed an association of twenty men called the Coos Bay Company, with stock to be divided into one hundred shares, five shares to each joint proprietor,^[23] and each proprietor being bound to proceed without delay to locate in a legal form all the land necessary to secure town sites, coal mines, and all important points whatsoever to the company. If upon due consideration any one wished to withdraw from the undertaking he was bound to hold his claim until a substitute could be provided. Each person remaining in the company agreed to pay the sum of five hundred dollars to the founder, from whom he would receive a certificate entitling him to one twentieth of the whole interest, subject to the regulations of the company, the projector of the enterprise being bound on his part to reveal to the company all the advantageous positions upon the bay or on Coquille river, and throughout the country, and to relinquish to the company his selections of land, the treasures he had discovered, both upon the earth or in it, and especially the stone-coal deposits by him found.^[24]

The members of the company seemed satisfied with the project, and lost no time in seizing upon the various positions supposed to be valuable. Empire City was taken up as a town site about the time the company was formed,^[25] and later Marshfield,^[26] and the affairs of the company prospered. In January 1854, the ship Demar's Cove from San Francisco entered Coos Bay with a stock of goods, bringing also some settlers and miners, and in the same month the Louisiana, Captain Williams, from Portland took a cargo into Coos Bay for Northup & Simonds of that town, who established a branch business at Empire City,^[27] Northup accompanying the cargo and settling at that place.^[28]

Coal was first shipped from the Newport mine in April 1855,^[29] and in 1856 a steam-vessel called the Newport, the first to enter this harbor, was employed in carrying cargoes to San Francisco,^[30] and the same year two steam saw-mills were in operation with from three to five vessels loading at a time with lumber and coal, since which period coal-mining, lumbering, and ship-building have been carried on at this point without interruption. Railroads were early projected, and many who first engaged in the development of coal mines became wealthy, and resided here till their death.^[31]

Some also were unfortunate, one of the shareholders, Henry A. Stark, being drowned in the spring of 1854, while attempting with five others to go out in a small boat to some vessels lying off the bar.^[32] Several of the Umpqua company, after the failure of that enterprise, settled at Coos Bay, prominent among whom was S. S. Mann, author of a pamphlet on the early settlement of that region, embellished with anecdotes of the pioneers, which will be of interest to their descendants.^[33]

Any new discovery stimulated the competitive spirit of search in other directions. Siuslaw River was explored with a view to determining whether the course of the river was such that a practicable communication could be obtained between it and the Umpqua through Smith River,^[34] a northern branch of the Siuslaw. The exploration was conducted by N. Schofield. The object of the opening of the proposed route was to make a road from the Willamette Valley to the Umpqua, over which the products of the valley might be brought to Scottsburg, at the same time avoiding the most difficult portion of the mountains. But nature had interposed so many obstacles; the streams were so rapid and rocky; the mountains so rough and heavily timbered; the valleys, though rich, so narrow, and filled with tangled growths of tough vine-maple and other shrubby trees, that any road from the coast to the interior could not but be costly to build and keep in repair. The Siuslaw exploration, therefore, resulted in nothing more beneficial than the acquisition of additional knowledge of the resources of the country in timber, water-power, and soil, all of which were excellent in the valley of the Siuslaw.

Other explorations were at the same time being carried on. A trail was opened across the mountains from Rogue River Valley to Crescent City, which competed with the Scottsburg road for the business of the interior, and became the route used by the government troops in getting from the seaboard to Fort Lane.^[35] Gold-hunting was at the same time prosecuted in every part of the territory with varying success, of which I shall speak in another place.^[36]

 

The politics of 1854 turned mainly on the question of a state constitution, though the election in June revealed the fact that the democracy, while still in the ascendant, were losing a little ground to the whigs, and chiefly in the southern portion of the territory. Of the three prosecuting attorneys elected, one, P. P. Prim,^[37] was a whig, and was chosen in the 3d district by a majority of seven over the democratic candidate, R. E. Stratton,^[38] former incumbent. R. P. Boisé was elected prosecuting attorney for the 1st or middle district, and N. Huber of the 2d or northern district.

The democratic leaders were those most in favor of assuming state dignities, while the whigs held up before their following the bill of cost; though none objected to securing the 500,000 acres of land, which on the day of Oregon's admission as a state would be hers, to be applied to internal improvements,^[39] and other grants which might reasonably be expected, and which might amount to millions of acres with which to build railroads and improve navigation.

Judge Pratt, who had strongly advocated state admission, and to whom Oregon owed much, was put forward for the United States senate and his cause advocated by the Democratic Standard with marked ability. Pratt was strongly opposed by the Statesman, whose influence was great throughout the state, and which carried its points so far as electing its candidates, except in a few instances, against the whigs, and also against the prohibitionists, or Maine-law party.^[40] But the majority against a state constitution was about one hundred and fifty, a majority so small, however, as to show that, as the democrats had intimated, it would be reduced to nothing by a year or two more of effort in that direction.

 

In the spring of 1854 there were complaints of hard times in Oregon, which were to be accounted for partly by the Indian disturbances, but chiefly by reason of neglect of the farming interests and a falling-off in the yield of the mines. The great reaction was at hand throughout the coast. Business was prostrated in California, and Oregon felt it, just as Oregon had felt California's first flush on finding gold. To counteract the evil, agricultural societies began to be formed in the older counties.^[41] The lumbering interest had greatly declined also, after the erection of mills in California, and lumber and flour being no longer so much sought after, caused a sensible lessening of the income of Oregon. But the people of Oregon well knew that their immense agricultural resources would bring them out of all their troubles if they would only apply themselves in the right direction and in the right way.

The counties which led in this industrial revival were Washington, Yamhill, Marion, and Polk. The first county fair held was in Yamhill on the 7th of October, 1854, followed by Marion on the 11th, and Polk on the 12th. The exhibit of horses, cattle, and fruit was fairly good, of sheep, grain, and domestic manufactures almost nothing;^[42] but it was a beginning from which steadily grew a stronger competitive interest in farm affairs, until in 1861 a state agricultural society was formed, whose annual meeting is the principal event of each year in farming districts.^[43]

The first step toward manufacturing woollen fabrics was also taken in 1854, when a carding machine was erected at Albany by E. L. Perham & Co. Farmers who had neglected sheep-raising now purchased sheep of the Hudson's Bay Company.^[44] Early in the spring of 1855 Barber and Thorpe of Polk county erected machinery for spinning, weaving, dying, and dressing woollen cloths.^[45] In 1856 a company was organized at Salem to erect a woollen-mill at that place, the first important woollen manufactory on the Pacific coast. It was followed by the large establishment at Oregon City and several smaller ones in the course of a few years.^[46]

The first proposal to establish a telegraph line between California and Oregon was made in October of 1854. Hitherto, no more rapid means of communication had existed than that afforded by express companies, of which there were several. The practice of sending letters by express, which prevailed all over the Pacific coast at this time, and for many years thereafter, arose from the absence or the irregularity in the carriage of mails by the government. As soon as a mining camp was established, an express became necessary; and though the service was attended with many hardships and no small amount of danger, there were always to be found men who were eager to engage in it for the sake of the gains, which were great.^[47] The business of the country did not require telegraphic correspondence, and its growth was delayed for almost another decade.^[48]

Steam navigation increased rapidly in proportion to other business, the principal trade being confined to the Willamette River, although about this time there began to be some traffic on the Columbia, above as well as below the mouth of the Willamette.^[49] Ocean navigation, too, was increasing, but not without its drawbacks and losses.^[50] In the midst of all, the young and vigorous community grew daily stronger, and more able to bear the misfortunes incident to rapid progress.

In July 1854 there was a raid in Rogue River Valley by the Shastas; unattended, however, by serious damage. The treaty Indians of Rogue River sickened in the reservation, and the agent permitted them to roam a little in search of health. Some of them being shot by white men, their chiefs demanded that the murderers be brought to justice, as had been promised them, but it was not done. Few of such cases ever came into the courts,^[51] and it was as rare an occurrence for an Indian to be tried by process of law.^[52]

So great had been their wrongs during the past five years, so unbearable the outrages of the white race, that desperation seized the savages of the Klamath, Scott, and Shasta valleys, who now took the war-path toward the country of the Modocs, to join with them in a general butchery of immigrants and settlers.

In the absence of a regular military force, that at Fort Jones, consisting of only seventy men, wholly insufficient to guard two hundred miles of immigrant road, the governor was requested to call into service volunteers, which was done. Governor Davis also wrote to General Wool for troops. Meanwhile a company was sent out under Jesse Walker, who kept the savages at bay, and on its return received the commendations of Governor Curry, Davis having in the mean time resigned.

This expedition was used by the dominant party for many years to browbeat the influential whigs of southern Oregon. The Statesman facetiously named it the "expedition to fight the emigrants;" and in plainer language denounced the quartermaster-general and others as thieves, because the expedition cost forty-five thousand dollars.^[53]

Drew in his report seemed to apologize for the great cost, and pointed out that the prices were not so high as in 1853, and that many expenses then incurred had been avoided; but he could not prevent the turning into political capital of so large a claim against the government, though it was the merchants of Yreka and not of Jacksonville who overcharged, if overcharging there was.^[54] The attacks made on the whigs of southern Oregon led to the accumulation of a mass of evidence as to prices, and to years of delay in the settlement of accounts. On the side of the democrats in this struggle was General Wool, then in command of the division of the Pacific, who wrote to Adjutant-general Thomas at New York that the governor of Oregon had mustered into service a company of volunteers, but that Captain Smith was of opinion that they were not needed, and that it was done on the representations of speculators who were expecting to be benefited by furnishing supplies.^[55]

There was a massacre of immigrants near Fort Boisé in August, that caused much excitement on the Willamette. The party was known as Ward's train, being led by Alexander Ward of Kentucky, and consisting of twenty-one persons, most of whom were slain.^[56] Not only was the outrage one that could not be overlooked, or adequately punished by civil or military courts, but it was cause for alarm such as was expressed in the report of Quartermaster Drew, that a general Indian war was about to be precipitated upon the country, an apprehension strengthened by reports from many sources.

In order to make plain all that followed the events recorded in this chapter, it is necessary to revert to statements contained in the correspondence of the war department. That which most concerned this particular period is contained in a document transmitted to the senate, at the request of that body, by President Pierce, at the second session of the thirty-third congress. In this document is a communication of General Wool to General Cooper at Washington City, in which is mentioned the correspondence of the former with Major Rains of the 4th infantry, in command of Fort Dalles, and of Major Alvord, U. S. paymaster at Vancouver, who had each written him on the subject of Indian relations. As the report of Rains has been mentioned in another place, it is not necessary to repeat it here. Colonel George Wright had contributed his opinion concerning the "outrages of the lawless whites" in northern California, and to strengthen the impression, had quoted from the report of Indian Agent Culver concerning the conduct of a party of miners on Illinois River, who had, as he averred, wantonly attacked an Indian encampment and brutally murdered two Indians and wounded others.^[57] The facts were presented to Wool, and by Wool to headquarters at Washington. The general wrote, that to prevent as far as possible the recurrence of further outrages against the Indians, he had sent a detachment of about fifty men to reënforce Smith at Fort Lane; but that to keep the peace and protect the Indians against the white people, the force in California and Oregon must be increased. This letter was written in March 1854.

On the 31st of March, Wool again wrote General Scott, at New York, that the difficulty of preserving peace, owing to the increase of immigration and the encroachments of the white people upon the Indians, which deprived them of their improvements, was continually increasing. There were, he said, less than a thousand men to guard California, Oregon, Washington, and Utah, and more were wanted. The request was referred by Scott to the secretary of war, and refused.

In May, Wool sent Inspector-general J. K. F. Mansfield to make a tour of the Pacific department, and see if the posts established there should be made permanent; but expressed the opinion that those in northern California could be dispensed with, notwithstanding that the commanders of forts Reading and Jones were every few weeks sending reports filled with accounts of collisions between the white population and the Indians.

At this point I observe certain anomalies. Congress had invited settlers to the Pacific coast for political reasons. These settlers had been promised protection from the savages. That protection had never to any practical extent been rendered; but gradually the usual race conflict had begun and strengthened until it assumed alarming proportions. The few officers of the military department of the government, sent here ostensibly to protect its citizens, had found it necessary to devote themselves to protecting the Indians. Over and over they asserted that the white men were alone to blame for the disturbances.

Writing to the head of the department at New York, General Wool said that the emigration to California and Oregon would soon render unnecessary a number of posts which had been established at a great expense, and that if it were left to his discretion, he should abolish forts Reading and Miller in California, and establish a temporary post in the Pit River country; also break up one or two posts in northern California and Oregon, which could only mean forts Jones and Lane, and establish another on Puget Sound, and, if possible, one in the Boisé country; though his preference would be given to a company of dragoons to traverse the Snake River country in the summer and return to The Dalles in the winter.

Governor Curry, on learning that the expedition under Haller had accomplished nothing, and that the whole command numbered only sixty men, and thinking it too small to accomplish anything in the Snake River country should the Indians combine to make war on the immigration, on the 18th of September issued a proclamation calling for two companies of volunteers, of sixty men each, to serve for six months, unless sooner discharged, and to furnish their own horses, equipments, arms, and ammunition; the companies to choose their own officers, and report to Brigadier General Nesmith on the 25th, one company to rendezvous at Salem and the other at Oregon City.

Commissions were issued to George K. Shell, assistant adjutant-general, John McCracken, assistant quartermaster-general, and Victor Trevitt, commissary and quartermaster. A request was despatched to Vancouver, to Bonneville, to ask from the United States arms, ammunition, and stores with which to supply the volunteer companies, which Bonneville refused, saying that in his opinion a winter campaign was neither necessary nor practicable. Nesmith being of like opinion, the governor withdrew his call for volunteers.

When the legislative assembly convened, the governor placed before them all the information he possessed on Indian affairs, whereupon a joint committee was appointed to consider the question. Lane had already been informed of the occurrences in the Boisé country, but a resolution was adopted instructing the governor to correspond with General Wool and Colonel Bonneville in relation to the means available for an expedition against the Shoshones. The total force then in the Pacific department was 1,200, dragoons, artillery, and infantry; of which nine companies of infantry, 335 strong, were stationed in Oregon and Washington, and others were under orders for the Pacific.

Governor Davis had written Wool of anticipated difficulties in the south; whereupon the latter instructed Captain Smith to reënforce his squadron with the detachment of horse lately under command of Colonel Wright, and with them to proceed to Klamath Lake to render such assistance as the immigration should require. About a month later he reported to General Thomas that he had called Smith's attention to the matter, and that he was informed that all necessary measures had been taken to prevent disturbances on the emigrant road.

In congress the passage of the army bill failed this year, though a section was smuggled into the appropriation bill adding two regiments of infantry and two of cavalry to the existing force, and authorizing the president, by the consent of the senate, to appoint one brigadier general. It was further provided that arms should be distributed to the militia of the territories, under regulations prescribed by the president, according to the act of 1808 arming the militia of the states. No special provision was made for the protection of the north-west coast, and Oregon was left to meet the impending conflict as best it might.

1. Davis was a native of Pennsylvania, where he studied medicine. He subsequently settled in Indiana, served in the legislature of that state, being speaker of the lower house, and was three times elected to congress, serving from 1835 to 1837, from 1839 to 1841, and from 1843 to 1847. He was once speaker of the house of representatives, and twice president of the national democratic convention. During Polk's administration he was commissioner to China. He died in 1859. Or. Statesman, Oct. 25, 1853; Id., Oct. 11, 1859; Or. Argus, Oct. 15, 1859.
2. The members of the council elected for 1853–4 were L. P. Powers, of Clatsop; Ralph Wilcox, of Washington; J. K. Kelly, of Clackamas; Benj. Simpson, of Marion; John Richardson, of Yamhill; J. M. Fulkerson, of Polk. Those holding over were L. W. Phelps, A. L. Humphry, and Levi Scott. The house of representatives consisted of J. W. Moffit, Z. C. Bishop, Robert Thompson, F. C. Cason, L. F. Carter, B. B. Jackson, L. F. Grover, J. C. Peebles, E. F. Colby, Orlando Humason, Andrew Shuck, A. B. Westerfield, R. P. Boise, W. S. Gilliam, I. N. Smith, Luther Elkins, J. A. Bennett, Benj. A. Chapman, H. G. Hadley, Wm J. Martin, George H. Ambrose, John F. Miller, A. A. Durham, L. S. Thompson, S. Goff, Chauncey Nye. There was but one whig in the council, and four in the house. Or. Statesman, June 28, 1853. Ralph Wilcox was elected president of the council; Samuel B. Garrett, of Benton, chief clerk; and A. B. P. Wood, of Polk, assistant clerk; John K. Delashmutt, sergeant-at-arms. The house was organized by electing Z. C. Bishop, speaker; John McCracken, chief clerk; C. P. Crandell, enrolling clerk; G. D. R. Boyd, assistant clerk; G. D. Russell, sergeant-at-arms, and Joseph Hunsaker, doorkeeper. Or. Jour. Council, 1853–4, p. 4, 5.
3. Half of the $20,000 appropriated for a state house, according to the commissioners' report, was already expended on the foundations, the architect's plan being to make an elegant building of stone, costing, at his estimate, $75,000. The land on which the foundation was laid was block 84 in the town of Salem, and was donated by W. H. Willson and wife, from the land which they succeeded in alienating from the methodist university lands, this being one way of enhancing the value of the remainder. The legislature ordered the superstructure to be made of wood.
4. The penitentiary commissioners had selected two blocks of land in Portland, and had made some slight progress, expending $5,600 of the $20,000 appropriated. William M. King, president of the board, charged $10 per day as commissioner, and $5 more as acting commissioner. He speculated in lots, paying Lownsdale $150 each for four lots, on condition that two lots should be given to him, for which he received $300. 'In this way,' says the Oregonian of Feb. 4, 1854, 'King has pocketed $925, Lownsdale $600, and Frush $2,800, of the penitentiary fund. Add to this between $1,100 and $1,200 for his invaluable services for letting all the prisoners run away, and we have a fair exhibit of financiering under democratic misrule in Oregon.'
5. The legislature of 1852–3 had authorized the commissioners to construct the university building 'at the town of Marysville, in the county of Benton, on such land as shall be donated for that purpose by Joseph P. Friedly,' unless some better or more eligible situation should be offered. Or. Statesman, Feb. 5, 1853. The commissioners to select the two townships had only just completed their work.
6. Or. Jour. Council, 1853–4, 113, 118, 128; Laws of Or., in Or. Statesman, Feb. 21, 1854; Or. Jour. Council, 1854–5, app. 12, 15, 17.
7. At the June election, Washington county chose J. L. Meek col, R. M. Porter lieut-col, John Pool maj.; Yamhill, J. W. Moffit col, W. Starr lieut-col, J. A. Campbell maj.; Marion, George K. Sheil col, John McCracken lieut-col, J. C. Geer maj.; Clackamas, W. A. Cason col, Thos Waterbury lieut-col, W. B. Magers maj.; Linn, L. S. Helm col, N. G. McDonald lieut-col, Isaac N. Smith maj.; Douglas, W. J. Martin col, J. S. Lane lieut-col, D. Barnes maj.; Coos, Stephen Davis col, C. Gunning lieut-col, Hugh O'Neil maj. Or. Statesman, June 13, 20, 27, 1854. Polk and Tillamook counties elected J. K. Delashmutt col, B. F. McLench lieut-col, B. F. Burch maj.; Benton and Lane, J. Kendall col, Jacob Allen lieut-col, William Gird maj.; Jackson, John E. Ross col, Wm J. Newton lieut-col, James H. Russell maj. Or. Statesman, July 1, 1854. Or. Jour. Council, 1857–8, App. 57.
8. Laws of Or., in Or. Statesman, Feb. 7, 1854; Cong. Globe, vol. 28, pt ii. 1117–8, 33d cong. 1st sess.
9. Or. Jour. Council, 1853–4, 50; Or. Statesman, Jan. 17, 1854. The former alcaldes were John A. Hardin, U. S. Hayden, Chauncey Nye, Clark Rogers, and W. W. Fowler. Laws of Oregon, in Or. Statesman, Jan. 17, 1854. And this, notwithstanding Fowler had sentenced one Brown to be hanged for murder. Prim's Judicial Anecdotes, MS., 10. The first term of the U. S. district court held by Judge Deady began Sept. 5, 1853.
10. Coos, Columbia, and Wasco counties were established. The name of Marysville was changed to Corvallis. Rogue River had its name changed to Gold River, and Grave Creek to Leland Creek; but such is the force of custom, these changes were not regarded, and the next legislature changed the name of Gold River back to Rogue River. The methodists incorporated Santiam Academy at Lebanon, in Linn county, Portland Academy and Female Seminary at Portland, and Corvallis Academy at Corvallis. The presbyterians incorporated Union Academy at Union Point. The congregationalists incorporated Tualatin Academy and Pacific University at Forest Grove; and the citizens of Polk county the Rickreal Academy, on the land claim of one Lovelady—Rickreal being the corruption of La Creolé, in common use with the early settlers. Albany had its name changed to Tekanah, but it was changed back again next session. Thirty wagon roads were petitioned for, and many granted, and the Umpqua Navigation and Manufacturing Company was incorporated at this session, the object of which was to improve the navigation of the river at the head of tide-water, and utilize the water-power at the falls for mills and manufactories. The company consisted of Robert J. Ladd, J. W. Drew, R. E. Stratton, Benjamin Brattan, and F. W. Merritt; but nothing came of it, the navigation of the river being impracticable. None of the plans for making Scottsburg a manufacturing town at this time, or down to the present, succeeded. An appropriation for the improvement of the river above that place was indeed secured from congress and applied to that purpose a few years later, so far that a small steamer built for a low stage of water made one trip to Winchester. The Umpqua above the falls at Scottsburg is a succession of rapids over rocky ledges which form the bottom of the stream. The water in summer is shallow, and in winter often a rushing torrent. In the winter of 1861–2 it carried away the mills and most of the valuable improvements at the lower town, which were not rebuilt.
11. The Willamette Valley railroad was to have been built on the west side of the valley. The commissioners were Fred. Waymire, John Thorp, and Martin L. Barber. Or. Statesman, April 25, 1854. The first railroad projected in Oregon was from St Helen, on the Columbia, to Lafayette, the idea being put forth by H. M. Knighton, original owner of the former place, and Crosby and Smith, owners of Milton town site. See Or. Spectator, April 17, 1851.
12. Cong. Globe, 1853–4, 2249. This work, which had been commenced on the Oregon coast in 1853, was delayed by the loss of the bark Oriole of Baltimore, Captain Lentz, wrecked on the bar of the Columbia the 19th of Sept., just as she had arrived inside, with material and men to erect the light-house at Cape Disappointment. The wind failing, on the ebb of the tide the Oriole drifted among the breakers, and on account of the stone and other heavy cargo in her hold, was quickly broken up. The crew and twenty workman, with the contractor, F. X. Kelley, and the bar-pilot, Capt. Flavel, escaped into the boats, and after twelve hours' work to keep them from being carried out to sea, were picked up by the pilot-boat and taken to Astoria. Thus ended the first attempt to build the much needed light-house at the mouth of the Columbia. In 1854 Lieut George H. Derby was appointed superintendent of light-houses in Cal. and Or. Additional appropriations were asked for in 1854. In 1856 the light-house at Cape Disappointment was completed. Its first keeper was John Boyd, a native of Maine, who came to Or. in 1853, and was injured in the explosion of the Gazelle. He married Miss Olivia A. Johnson, also of Maine, in 1859. They had four children. Boyd died Sept. 10, 1865, at the Cape. Portland Oregonian, Sept. 18, 1865. The accounting officer of the treasury was authorized to adjust the expenses of the commissioners appointed by the ter. assembly to prepare a code of laws, and of collecting and printing the laws and archives of the prov. govt. U. S. House Jour., 725, 33d cong. 1st sess; Cong. Globe, 1853–4, app. 2322. The laws and archives of the provisional government, compiled by L. F. Grover, were printed at Salem by Asahel Bush. The code was sent to New York to be printed. The salaries of the ter. judges and the sec. were increased $500 each, and the services of Geo. L. Curry, while acting governor, were computed the same as if he had been governor. The legislative and other contingent expenses of the ter. amounted to $32,000, besides those of the surv.-gen. office, Ind. dep., mil. dep., and mail service. The expenses of the govt, not included in those paid by the U. S., amounted for the fiscal year ending Dec. 1853 to only $3,359.54; and the public debt to no more than $855.37. Or. Statesman, Dec. 20, 1853; Or. Journal Council, 1853–4, p. 143–5; Portland Oregonian, Jan. 27, 1854. Two new districts for the collection of customs were established at the 2d sess. of the 33d cong., viz., Cape Perpetua, and Port Orford, with collectors drawing salaries of $2,000 each, who might employ each a clerk at $1,500; and a deputy at each port of delivery at $1,000 a year; besides ganger, weigher, and measurer, at $6 a day, and an inspector at $4. Cong. Globe, vol. 31, app. 384, 33d cong. 2d sess. The port of entry for the district of Cape Perpetua was fixed at Gardiner, on the Umpqua River. More vessels entered the Columbia than all the other ports together. From Sept. 1, 1853, to July 13, 1854, inclusive, there were 179 arrivals at the port of Astoria, all from S. F. except one from Coos Bay, two from New York, and one from London. The London vessel brought goods for the Hudson's Bay Company, the only foreign vessel entering Oregon during that time. The departures from the Columbia numbered 184, all for S. F. except one for Coos Bay, two for Callao, one for Australia, and one for the S. I. Most of these vessels carried lumber, the number of feet exported being 22,567,000. Or. Statesman, Aug. 1, 1854. The direct appropriations asked for and obtained at the 2d sess. of this cong. were for the creation of a new land district in southern Or. called the Umpqua district, to distinguish it from the Willamette district, with an office at such point as the president might direct, Zabriskie Land Laws, 636; Cong. Globe, vol. 31, app. 380, 33d cong. 2d sess., the appropriation of $40,000 to complete the penitentiary at Portland, $27,000 to complete the state house at Salem, and $30,000 to construct the military road from Salem to Astoria, marked out in 1850 by Samuel Culver and Lieut Wood of the mounted rifles. Or. Statesman, Oct. 3, 1850. The military road to Astoria was partly constructed in 1855, under the direction of Lieut Derby. Money failing, a further appropriation of $15,000 was applied, and still the road remained practically useless. The appropriation of $30,000 for a light-house at the Umpqua was also expended by government officers in 1857. The tower was 105 feet high, but being built on a sandy foundation, it fell over into the sea in 1870. It does not appear that the money bestowed upon Oregon by congress in territorial times accomplished the purposes for which it was designed. Not one of the military roads was better than a mule trail, every road that could be travelled by wagons being opened by the people at their own expense.
13. U. S. H. Jour., 237, 388, 411, 516, 536, 963, 33d cong. 1st sess.; U. S. H. Ex. Doc., i. pt ii. 615, 624, 701, 33d cong. 2d sess.
14. By D. J. Lyon, at Scottsburg, called the Umpqua Gazette. It was first issued in April 1854, and its printer was William J. Beggs. In Nov. 1854, G. D. R. Boyd purchased a half-interest, and later removed the material to Jacksonville where the publication of the Table Rock Sentinel was begun in Nov. 1855, by W. G. T'Vault, Taylor, and Blakesly, with Beggs as printer. Or. Statesman, Dec. 8, 1855; Or. Argus, Dec. 8, 1855. The name was changed to that of Oregon Sentinel in 1857. Id., July 25, 1857. D. J. Lyons was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1813, his family being in the middle rank of life, and connected with the political troubles of 1798. His father emigrated to Kentucky in 1818. Young Lyons lost his sight in his boyhood, but was well educated by tutors, and being of a musical and literary turn of mind, wrote songs fashionable in the circle in which George D. Prentice, Edmund Flagg, and Amelia Welby were prominent. Lyons was connected with several light literary publications before coming to Oregon. He had married Virginia A. Putnam, daughter of Joseph Putnam of Lexington, with whom he emigrated to Oregon in 1853, settling at Scottsburg, where he resided nearly 30 years, removing afterward to Marshfield, on Coos Bay. Beggs was a brilliant writer on politics, but of dissipated habits. He married a Miss Beebe of Salem, and deserted her. He ran a brief career, dying in misery in New York City.
15. The whole coast was little understood, and unimproved as to harbors. The Anita was lost at Port Orford in Oct. 1852. Three vessels, the J. Merithew, Mendora, and Vandalia, were wrecked at the mouth of the Columbia in Jan. 1853. Capt. E. H. Beard of the Vandalia, who was from Baltimore, Md., was drowned.
16. S. S. Mann says that the half-breeds sold their claim to McNamara Brothers for $20,000. Settlement of Coos Bay, MS., 14. Armstrong, in his Oregon, 66, claims that his brother discovered gold on the beach at the Coquille in 1842, being driven in there in a schooner by a storm, while on his way to San Francisco.
17. 'The deposit where the gold was found is an ancient beach, 1½ miles east or back of the present beach. The mines are 180 feet above the level of the ocean, which has evidently receded to that extent. The depth of the gold varies from one to twelve feet, there being 12 feet on the ocean side to one foot on what was formerly the shore side. The breadth is from 300 to 500 feet, which is covered with white sand to a depth of 40 feet. The surface is overgrown with a dense forest, and trees of great size are found in the black sand, in a good state of preservation, which proves that there the beach was at no remote period. Iron is a large component of this black sand, and it would probably pay to work it for that metal now.' Gale's Resources of Coos County, 31. See also Van Tramp's Adventures, 154–5; Armstrong's Or., 64–5, 57–9; Davidson's Coast Pilot, 119; Harper's Monthly, xiii. 594–5; S. F. Com. Advertiser, Feb. 23, 1854; Taylor's Spec. Press, 584; Cram's Top. Mem., 37. W. P. Blake, in Silliman's Journal, vol. 20, 74, says: 'Gold is found in the beach sand from the surface to the depth of 6 feet or more; it is in very small thin scales, and separates from the black sand with difficulty. Platinum and the associate metals, iridosmine, etc., are found with the gold in large quantities, and as they cannot be separated from the gold by washing, its value in the market is considerably lessened.'
18. Parrish, in Ind. Aff. Rept, 1854, 268–75; S. F. Alta, June 5, 6, July 15, and Aug. 16, 1854.
19. Indian Agent F. M. Smith, after due investigation, pronounced the killing an unjustifiable massacre. U. S. H. Ex. Doc. 76, 268–71, 34th cong. 3d sess.
20. See Parrish's Or. Anecdotes, MS., passim; Ind. Aff. Rept, 1854, 254–66.
21. He was an eccentric genius, a great talker, of whom his comrades used to say that he 'came within an ace of being a Patrick Henry, but just missing it, missed it entirely.' He was a man of mark, however, in his county, which he represented in the constitutional convention—a bad mark, in some respects, judging from Deady's observations on disbarring him: 'I have long since ceased to regard anything you assert. All your acts show a degree of mental and moral obliquity which renders you incapable of discriminating between truth and falsehood or right and wrong. You have no capacity for the practice of law, and in that profession you will ever prove a curse to yourself and to the community. For these reasons, and altogether overlooking the present allegations of unprofessional conduct, it would be an act of mercy to strike your name from the roll of attorneys.' Marple went to the Florence mines in eastern Oregon on the outbreak of the excitement of 1861, and there died of consumption in the autumn of 1862. Or. Statesman, Dec. 8, 1862, and Jan. 12, 1868.
22. The first settlement was made on Coos Bay in the summer of 1853, and a packer named Sherman took a provision train over the mountains from Grave Creek by a practicable route. He reported discoveries of coal. Or. Statesman, June 28, 1853.
23. The proprietors were Perry B. Marple, James C. Tolman, Rollin L. Belknap, Solomon Bowermaster, Joseph H. McVay, J. A. J. McVay, Wm H. Harris, F. G. Lockhart, C. W. Johnson, A. P. Gaskell, W. H. Jackson, Presly G. Wilhite, A. P. De Cuis, David Rohren, Charles Pearce, Matthias M. Learn, Henry A. Stark, Charles H. Haskell, Joseph Lane, S. K. Temple. Articles of Indenture of the Coos Bay Company, in Oregonian, Jan. 7, 1854; Gibbs' Notes on Or. Hist., MS., 15.
24. Articles of Indenture of the Coos Bay Company, in Oregonian, Jan. 7, 1854. See S. F. Alta, Jan. 3, 1854.
25. Empire City had (in 1855) some thirty board houses, and a half-finished wharf. Van Tramp's Adventures, 160.
26. I am informed by old residents of Marshfield that this was the claim of J. C. Tolman, who was associated in it with A. J. Davis. The usual confusion as to titles ensued. Tolman was forced to leave the place on account of his wife's health, and put a man named Chapman in charge. Davis, having to go away, put a man named Warwick in charge of his half of the town site. Subsequently Davis bought one half of Tolman's half, but having another claim, allowed Warwick to enter the Marshfield claim for him, in his own name, though according to the land law he could not enter land for town-site purposes. Warwick, however, in some way obtained a patent, and sold the claim to H. H. Luce, whose title was disputed because the patent was fraudulently obtained. A long contest over titles resulted, others claiming the right to enter it, because Davis had lost his right, and Warwick had never had any. Luce held possession, however. The remaining portion of Tolman's half of the town site was sold to a man named Hatch, whose claim is not disputed.
27. In a letter written by Northup to his partner, and published in the Oregonian of April 22, 1854, he tells of the progress of affairs. They had sounded the bay and found from 12 to 30 feet of water. The land was level and timbered, but not hard to clear. The Coquille was 'one of the prettiest rivers' ever seen. Mr Davis of S. F. was forming a company to build a railroad from the branch of the bay to the Coquille, the travel going that way to the Randolph mines. Machinery for a steamer was also coming. The whole of southern Oregon was to be connected with Coos Bay. The miners were doing well, and business was good.
28. 'Nelson Northup, a pioneer of Portland, who came to the place in 1851, and soon after formed the firm of Northup & Simonds, well known merchants of those days. In 1854 they disposed of their business to E. J. Northup and J. M. Blossom, and removed to Coos Bay, taking into that port the second vessel from Portland. Northup remained at Coos Bay several years, and in the mean time opened up, at great expense, the first coal mines in that locality, now so famed in that respect. He died at the residence of his son E. J. Northup, in the 65th year of his age, on the 3d of July, 1874.' Portland Oregonian, July 4, 1874.
29. S. F. Alta, May 4, 6, 12, June 28, and Oct. 7, 1854; Or. Statesman, May 12, 1854.
30. She was a small craft, formerly the Hartford. Her engines were afterward transferred to a small teak-wood schooner, which was christened The Fearless, and was the first and for many years the only tug-boat on the bay. She was finally lost near Coos Head. A story has been told to this effect: By one of the early trips of the Newport an order was sent to Estell, her owner, to forward a few laborers for the Newport mine. Estell had charge of the California state prison, and took an interest, it was said, in its occupants, so far as to let them slip occasionally. On the return of the Newport, a crowd of forty hard cases appeared upon her deck. A few only were required at the mine, and the remainder dropped ashore at Empire City. The unsuspecting citizens scanned them curiously, and then retired to their domiciles. But consternation soon prevailed. Hen-roosts were despoiled and clothes-lines stripped of gracefully pendent garments. Anything and everything of value began to disappear in a mysterious manner. The people began to suspect, and to 'go for' the strangers, who were strongly urged to emigrate. The touching recollections connected with this gang led the citizens always after to speak of them as the Forty Thieves. Coos Bay Settlement, 10, 11.
31. P. Flanagan was one of the earliest of the early settlers. At Randolph his pack-train and store were the pioneers of trade. Then at Johnson's and on The Sixes in a similar way. Later, he became associated in the partnership of the Newport coal mine, where his skill and experience added largely to its success.
32. Stark was a native of New York, emigrated to Cal. in 1849, thence to Or. in 1850. He was a land claimant for the company at Coos Bay, as well as a shareholder. John Duhy, a native of New York, emigrated to the S. I. in 1840, thence to Cal. in 1848, going to Yreka in 1851, and thence to Coos Bay at its settlement in 1853. John Robertson was a native of Nova Scotia, and a sailor. John Winters was born in Penn., and came to Or. through Cal. Alvin Brooks, born in Vt, came to Or. in 1851. John Mitchell of New York, a sailor, came to Or. in 1851. Portland Oregonian, March 25, 1854; S. F. Alta, March 22, 1854.
33. Coos Bay Settlement, 18. This pamphlet of 25 pages is made up of scraps of pioneer history written for the Coos Bay Mail, by S. S. Mann, afterward republished in this form by the Mail publishers. Mann, being one of the earliest of the pioneers, was enabled to give correct information, and to his writings and correspondence I am much indebted for the facts here set down. Mann mentions the names of T. D. Winchester, H. H. Luse, A. M. Simpson, John Pershbaker, James Aiken, Dr Foley, Curtis Noble, A. J. Davis, P. Flanagan, Amos and Anson Rogers, H. P. Whitney, W. D. L. F. Smith, David Holland, I. Hacker, R. F. Ross, Yokam, Landreth, Hodson, Collver, Bogue, Miller, McKnight, Dryden, Hirst, Kenyon, Nasburg, Coon, Morse, Cammann, Buckhorn, and De Cussans, not already mentioned among the original proprietors of the Coos Bay Company; and also the names of Perry, Leghnherr, Rowell, Dement, Harris, Schroeder, Grant, and Hamblock, among the early settlers of Coquille Valley.
34. This is the stream where Jedediah Smith had his adventure with the Indians who massacred his party in 1828, as related in my History of the Northwest Coast.
35. Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 25.
36. Mount Hood, Indian name Wiyeast, was ascended in August 1854, for the first time, by a party consisting of T. J. Dryer of the Oregonian, G. O. Haller, Olney, Wells Lake, and Travillot, a French seaman. Dryer ascended Mount St Helen, Loowit Letkla, the previous summer, and promised to climb Mounts Jefferson, Phato, and the Three Sisters at some future time. He ascertained the fact that Hood and St Helen were expiring volcanoes, which still emitted smoke and ashes from vents near their summits. Oregonian, Feb. 25 and Aug. 19, 1854. The first ascent of Mount Jefferson was made by P. Loony, John Allphin, William Tullbright, John Walker, and E. L. Massey, July 11, 1854, a party prospecting for gold in the Cascade Mountains. Or. Statesman, Aug. 22, 1854. Mt Adams was called by the Indians Klickilat, and Mt Rainier, Takoma. Gold-hunting in the Cascade Mountains, passim.
37. Payne P. Prim was born in Tenn. in 1822, emigrated to Or. in 1851, and went to the mines in Rogue River Valley the following year. His election as prosecuting attorney of the southern district brought him into notice, and on the division of the state of Oregon into four judicial districts, and when Deady, chosen judge of the supreme court from that district, was appointed U. S. dist. judge, the gov. appointed Prim to fill the vacancy from the 1st district for the remainder of the term, to which office he was subsequently elected, holding it for many years. A valuable manuscript, entitled Prim's Judicial Anecdotes, has furnished me very vivid reminiscences of the manner of administering justice in the early mining camps, and first organized courts, to which I have occasion to refer frequently in this work. See Popular Tribunals, passim, this series.
38. Riley E. Stratton was a native of Penn., born in 1821. He was taught the trade of a millwright, but afterward took a collegiate course, and graduated at Marietta, Ohio, with the intention of becoming a minister; his plans being changed, he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Madison, Ind., coming to Or. by way of Cape Horn in 1852, his father, C. P. Stratton, emigrating overland in the same year. C. P. Stratton was born in New York Dec. 30, 1799. He removed to Penn. in his boyhood, and again to Ind. in 1836. He had twelve children, of whom C. C. Stratton is a minister of the methodist church, and president of the University of the Pacific in California. He settled in the Umpqua Valley, but subsequently removed to Salem, where he died Feb. 26, 1873. Riley E. Stratton settled at Scottsburg. He was elected prosecuting attorney of the southern district by the legislative assembly in 1853–4; but beaten by Prim at the election by the people, as stated above. When Oregon became a state he was elected judge of the 2d judicial district, and reëlected in 1864. He married Sarah Dearborn in Madison, Indiana. He left the democratic party to support the union on the breaking-out of the rebellion. He was an affable, honorable, and popular man. His death occurred in Dec. 1866. Eugene State Journal, Dec. 29, 1863; Or. Reports, vol. ii. 195–9; Deady's Scrap Book, 77, 170.
39. See the 8th section of an act of congress in relation thereto, passed in 1841.
40. The Maine-law candidates for seats in the legislature were Elisha Strong and 0. Jacobs of Marion; S. Nelson, P. H. Hatch, and E. D. Shattuck of Clackamas; D. W. Ballard of Linn; Ladd and Gilliam of Polk; J. H. D. Henderson and G. W. Burnett of Yamhill.
41. The constitution of the Yamhill Agricultural Society, F. Martin, president, A. S. Watt, secretary, was published July 25, 1854, in the Or. Statesman.
42. Or. Statesman, Oct. 17, 1854. Mrs R. C. Geer entered two skeins of yarn, the first exhibited and probably the first made in Oregon. The address was delivered to the Marion county society, which met at Salem, by Mr Woodsides. L. F. Grover, in his Pub. Life in Or., MS., says he delivered the first Marion county address, but he is mistaken. He followed in 1855.
43. Brown's Salem Directory, 1871, 37–77.
44. Or. Stat., May 23 and Oct. 10, 1854; Tolmie's Puget Sound, MS., 24.
45. Or. Statesman, March 20, 1855. R. A. Gessner received a premium in 1855 from the Marion county society for the 'best jeans.'
46. Grover, Pub. Life in Or., MS., 68–9, was one of the first directors in the Salem mill. See also Watt's First Things, MS., 8–10.
47. The first express company operating in Oregon was Todd & Co., followed very soon by Gregory & Co., both beginning in 1851. Todd & Co. sold out to Newell & Co. in 1852. The same year Dugan & Co., a branch of Adams & Co., began running in Oregon; also T'Vault's Oregon and Shasta express, and McClaine & Co.'s Oregon and Shasta express. In the latter part of 1852 Adams & Co. began business in Oregon; but about the beginning of 1853, with other companies, retired and left the field to Wells, Fargo & Co., improved mail communication gradually rendering the services of the companies, except for the carrying of treasure and other packages, superfluous. The price fell from fifty cents on a letter in a gradually declining scale to ten cents, where it remained for many years, and at last to five cents; and packages to some extent in proportion. Besides the regular companies, from 1849 to 1852 there were many private express riders who picked up considerable money in the mountain camps.
48. Charles F. Johnson, an agent of the Alta California Telegraph Company, first agitated the subject of a telegraph line to connect Portland with the cities of California, and so far succeeded as to have organized a company to construct such a line from Portland to Corvallis, which was to be extended in time to meet one from Marysville, California, to Yreka on the border. The Oregon line was to run to Oregon City, Lafayette, Dayton, Salem, and Corvallis. It was finished to Oregon City Nov. 15, 1855, the first message being sent over the wires on the 16th, and the line reached Salem by Sept. 1856, but it was of so little use that it was never completed nor kept in repair. Neither the interests of the people nor their habits made it requisite. In 1868 the California company had completed their line to Yreka, for which during the period of the civil war, the Oregonians had reason to be thankful, and having taken some long strides in progress during the half-dozen years between 1855 and 1861, they eagerly subscribed to build a line to Yreka from Portland, on being solicited by J. E. Strong, former president of the same company. Of the Oregon company, W. S. Ladd was elected president; S. G. Reed, secretary; H. W. Corbett, treasurer; John McCracken, superintendent; W. S. Ladd, D. F. Bradford, A. G. Richardson, C. N. Terry, and A. L. Lovejoy, directors. Strong, contractor, owned considerable stock in it, which he sold to the California State Telegraph Company in 1863, the line being completed in March. In 1868 a line of telegraph was extended to The Dalles, and eastward to Boisé City, by the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, in 1869. A new line to the east was erected in 1876, which was extended to S. F., and a line to Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia.
49. The Gazelle was a side-wheel boat built for the upper Willamette in 1853 by the company which constructed the basin and hoisting works at the falls, and began to run in March 1854, but in April exploded her boiler while lying at her wharf, causing the most serious calamity which ever occurred on Oregon waters. She had on board about 50 persons, 22 of whom were killed outright and many others injured, some of whom died soon after. Among the victims were some of the principal persons in the territory: Daniel D. Page, superintendent of the company owning the Gazelle, whose wife and daughter were killed by the explosion of the Jenny Lind in San Francisco Bay April 11, 1853; Rev. James P. Miller, father of Mrs E. M. Wilson of The Dalles; David Woodhull, and Joseph Hunt of Michigan; Judge Burch, David Fuller, C. Woodworth, James White, Daniel Lowe, John Clemens, J. M. Fudge, Blanchet, Hill, Morgan, John Blaimer, John Daly, John K. Miller, Michael Hatch, Michael McGee, Charles Knaust, David McLane, Piaut, and an unknown Spanish youth. Or. Statesman, April 18, 1854; Armstrong's Or., 14; Brown's Salem Directory, 1871, 35. Among the wounded were Mrs Miller, Charles Gardiner, son of the surveyor-general, Robert Pentland, Miss Pell, C. Dobbins, Robert Shortess, B. F. Newby, Captain Hereford of the Gazelle, John Boyd, mate, and James Partlow, pilot. The chief engineer, Tonie, who was charged with the responsibility of the accident, escaped and fled the territory. Portland Oregonian, Jan. 29, 1870. The Oregon, another of the company's boats, was sunk and lost the same season. The wreck of the Gazelle was run over the falls, after being sold to Murray, Hoyt, and Wells, who refitted her and named her the Señorita, after which she was employed to carry troops, horses, and army stores from Portland to Vancouver and the Cascades. In 1857 the machinery of this boat was put into the new steamer Hassaloe, while the Señorita was provided with a more powerful engine, and commanded by L. Hoyt, brother of Richard Hoyt. In 1854 the pioneer steamboat men of the upper Willamette, captains A. F. Hedges and Charles Bennett, sold their entire interests and retired from the river.

    In 1855 a new class of steamboats was put upon the Willamette above the falls, stern-wheels being introduced, which soon displaced the side-wheel boats. This change was effected by Archibald Jamieson, A. S. Murray, Amory Holbrook, and John Torrence, who formed a company and built the Enterprise, a small stern-wheel boat commanded by Jamieson. This boat ran for 3 years on the Willamette, and was sold during the mining rush of 1858, taken over the falls and to Fraser River by Thomas Wright. She finished her career on the Chehalis River. Her first captain, Jameison, was one of a family of five steamboat men, who were doomed to death by a fatality sad and remarkable. Arthur Jamieson was in command of the steamer Portland, which was carried over the falls of the Willamette in March 1857; another brother died of a quick consumption from a cold contracted on the river; another by the explosion of the steamer Yale on the Fraser River; and finally Archibald and another brother by the blowing up of the Cariboo at Victoria.

    Another company, consisting of captains Cochrane, Gibson, and Cassady, formed in 1856, built the James Clinton and Surprise, two fine stern-wheel boats. In 1857 the Elk was built for the Yamhill River trade by Switzler, Moore, and Marshall; and in 1858 the first owners of the Enterprise built the Onward, the largest steamboat at that time on the upper river.

    In 1860 another company was incorporated, under the name of People's Transportation Company, composed of A. A. McCully, S. T. Church, E. N. Cook, D. W. Burnside, and captains John Cochrane, George A. Pease, Joseph Kellogg, and E. W. Baughman, which controlled the Willamette River trade till 1871. This company built the Dayton, Reliance, Echo, E. D. Baker, Iris, Albany, Shoo Fly, Fannie Patton, and Alice, and owned the Rival, Senator, Alert, and Active. It ran its boats on the Columbia as well as the Willamette until 1863, when a compromise was made with the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, then in existence, to confine its trade to the Willamette River above Portland. In 1865 this company expended $100,000 in building a dam and basin above the falls, which enabled them to do away with a portage, by simply transferring passengers and freight from one boat to another through a warehouse at the lower end of the basin. The P. T. Co. sold out in 1871 to Ben Holladay, having made handsome fortunes in 11 years for all its principal members. In the next two years the canal and locks were built around the west side of the falls at Oregon City, but the P. T. Co. under Holladay's management refused to use them, and continued to reship at Ore gon City. This led to the formation of the Willamette Locks and Transportation Company, composed of Joseph Teal, B. Goldsmith, Frank T. Dodge, and others, who commenced opposition in 1873, and pressed the P. T. Co. so hard that Holladay sold out to the Oregon Nav. Co., which thus was enabled to resume operations on the Willamette above Portland, with the boats purchased and others which were built, and became a powerful competitor for the trade. The Locks and Transportation Co. built the Willamette Chief expressly to outrun the boats of the P. T. Co., but found it ruinous work; and in 1876 a consolidation was effected, under the name of Willamette Transportation and Locks Company, capital $1,000,000. Its property consisted of the locks at Oregon City, the water front at Astoria belonging formerly to the O. S. N. Co., and the Farmers' warehouse at that place, and the steamboats Willamette Chief, Gov. Grover, Beaver, Annie Stewart, Orient, Occident, with the barges Autocrat, Columbia, and Columbia's Chief. This secured complete monopoly by doing away with competition on either river, except from independent lines. Salem Will. Farmer, Jan. 7, 1876; Adams' Or., 37–8.

50. The steam-tug Fire-Fly was lost by springing aleak on the bar in Feb. 1854. Thomas Hawks, captain, L. H. Swaney, Van Dyke, Wisenthral, and other persons unknown were drowned. At the close of the year the steamship Southerner, Capt. F. A. Sampson, was wrecked on the Washington coast. The steamer America, bound to Oregon and Washington ports, was burned in the harbor of Crescent City the following summer.

    The steamships engaged in the carrying trade to Oregon from 1850 to 1855 were the Carolina, which I think made but one trip, the Seagull, Panama, Oregon, Gold Hunter, Columbia, Quickstep, General Warren, Frémont, America, Peytonia, Southerner, and Republic. Three of these had been wrecked, the Seagull, General Warren, and Southerner, in as many years. Others survived unexpectedly.

51. In Judge Deady's court the following year a white man was convicted of manslaughter of an Indian, and was sentenced to two years in the penitentiary. Or. Statesman, June 2, 1855.
52. The slayers of Edward Wills and Kyle, and those chastised by Major Kearney in 1851, are the only Indians ever punished for crime by either civil or military authorities in southern Oregon. U. S. H. Misc. Doc. 47, 58, 35th cong. 2d sess.
53. Grasshoppers had destroyed vegetation almost entirely in the southern valleys this year, which led to a great expense for forage.
54. The merchants and traders of Jacksonville, who were unable to furnish the necessary supplies, which were drawn from Yreka, testified as to prices. U. S. H. Misc. Doc. 47, 32–5, 35th cong. 2d sess.
55. Message of President Pierce, with correspondence of General Wool, in U. S. Sen. Ex. Doc. 16, 33d cong. 2d sess.
56. For particulars see California Inter Pocula, this series, passim.
57. U. S. Sen. Ex. Doc. 16, 14–15, 33d cong. 2d sess. Lieut J. C. Bonnycastle, commanding Fort Jones, in relating the attack on some of the Shastas whom he was endeavoring to protect, and whom Captain Goodall was escorting to Scott's Valley to place in his hands, says: 'Most of the Indians having escaped into the adjacent chapparal, where they lay concealed, the whites began a search for them, during which an Indian from behind his bush fortunately shot and killed a white man named McKaney.' In the same report he gives the names of the men who had fired on the Indians, the list not including the name of McKaney. U. S. Sen. Ex. Doc. 16, p. 81, 33d cong. 2d sess.; U. S. H. Ex. Doc. 1, 446–66, vol. i. pt i., 33d cong. 2d sess.