Oregon: Her history, her great men, her literature/Preface

by John B. Horner

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This volume was written largely from first sources, the author having been personally familiar with the Oregon Country for more than a half century. His gratitude is due, however, to the following members of the Oregon Historical Society: Curator George H. Himes, Hon. Binger Herman, Hon. John Gill, Mr. Leslie M. Scott, Mr. Frederick V. Holman, Mr. T. C. Elliott, and Capt. O. C. Applegate, for valuable suggestions, and to other authorities freely consulted in the preparation of this book. These are mentioned later with more data than can appear in the preface. All have wisely interpreted their observations and have commendably performed their part in preserving and exalting the history of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Hence with the encouragement and aid offered by these and others, the task of preparing this publication has been hopefully pursued with one advantage over its predecessors — the opportunity of gleaning the choicest from all of them.

The reader will observe that the volume is offered essentially as a history of Oregon with only such reference to the story of the Pacific Northwest as may be indispensable in the introductory chapters.

Approximately five hundred events relative to the historical importance of Oregon have occurred since she avowed her purpose to "fly with her own wings" in a glorious ascent to American statehood. This volume, therefore, is designed to give such a condensed, authentic account of these activities as will instruct the reader, create a love for Oregon, and arouse patriotic respect for her laws and institutions.

OREGON

The Oregon Country was the first territory the United States acquired on the Pacific Coast of America. It comprised the region bordering the Pacific Ocean from California on the south to British America on the north, and extending as far east as the summit of the Rocky Mountains — an area equal to all the first thirteen states, Georgia excepted.

From this vast domain were carved the states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho with a part of Wyoming and Montana. There are 96,699 square miles in the State of Oregon, which is more territory than the combined area of

AREA OF OREGON—96,699 Square Miles

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New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Ver- mont, New Hampshire, Delaware, Maryland, with several other states each of which would be the size of Rhode Island. So great are the distances and so wide the area of Oregon that Massachusetts could easily nestle in the Willamette Valley. Massachusetts and Rhode Island together have less area than either Harney County or Malheur County. Any one of sixteen Oregon counties is larger than the state of Delaware, and any one of twenty-four counties is larger than Rhode Island.

England, with about thirty-five million people, comprises only three-fifths as much area as Oregon, Were England as large as Oregon, she could support more than half

OREGON COMPARED IN AREA WITH GREAT BRITAIN

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the present population of the United States. Yet the total population of the State of Oregon is less than one million.

The white settlers who came, when Oregon statehood was a mere Utopian dream, were strong of intellect and heroic of heart. Many of them were the descendants of the Pilgrims and the Cavaliers; and the others were like them. True to their traditions, they took up the westward journey of their ancestors, and traveled 3,000 miles, which is one of the longest pilgrimages mentioned in history. Their hardships were so severe that every mile of the long journey could have been marked with graves of those who fell along the way. Truly the Oregon emigrants^[1] were no less Pilgrims and Cavaliers than were the colonists of Plymouth and Jamestown.

OREGON COUNTIES COMPARED IN AREA WITH MASSACHUSETTS AND RHODE ISLAND

Harney County, 9,933 sq. m.	Malheur County, 9,883 sq. m.

Upon their arrival in Oregon, they found themselves among Indians whose language was strange and whose habits were devilish. But despite the atrocities committed by the natives, the forests were converted into homes, school houses, churches and cities; the prairies, unscathed by plow since creation's morn, were transformed into fields, gardens and orchards; and the treacherous Indian was taught to worship the God of our fathers. Under the white man's touch the hunting ground became the scene of a harvest home, the tepee a college, and the battlefield a sanctuary.

As the result of changes ordained by the sterling men and women who had come on the serious business of home making. Oregon produced more standard literature in fifty years than the original Thirteen Colonies produced in the same length of time; and according to area and population there can scarce be found in the Union, more universities, colleges, academies, high schools, churches and other refining forces than there are withm the 1 30 miles lying between Eugene and Portland.

As Massachusetts is the mother of New England, so is Oregon the mother of the Pacific Northwest. But while Massachusetts requires her historic achievements thoroughly taught in schools, Oregon has not yet made a similar demand regarding her own. It has, therefore, become the patriotic duty of the schools, the press, the pulpit, and social and literary clubs insistently to encourage and actively to promote historical research concerning Oregon until the long neglected story of her development is taught with the same enthusiasm, skill and interest as is the history of Massachusetts or that of any other State in the Union.

EPOCHS OF OREGON HISTORY

The History of Oregon is divided into five epochs:

First Epoch. Early Explorations. This epoch treats of the explorations that led to the discovery of Oregon, first from the sea, (1792), then by land, (1805). It begins in 1502, with the effort of Columbus to find a passage through Panama to India, and ends in 1805, when Lewis and Clark completed their overland expedition to Astoria. Also under Epoch I are selections from Indian folk-lore as told to the earliest white explorers and settlers.

Second Epoch. The Settlement of Oregon. This epoch extends from 1805 to 1843. It treats of the settlement of the Oregon Country by the British and Canadians, who came as trappers and traders; and by the American emigrants, who settled the country in true colonial fashion.

Third Epoch. Oregon Under the Provisional Government. This epoch begins in 1843, at which time the settlers provided for themselves a govenment independent of the Hudson's Bay Company; it ends March 3, 1849, when Governor Joseph Lane proclaimed the territorial government in Oregon. It is the story of Oregon under the Provisional Government.

Fourth Epoch. Oregon Under the Territorial Government. This epoch extends from 1849 to 1859. It is the history of Oregon from Governor Lane's proclamation of April 3, 1849, to February 14, 1839, when Oregon was admitted to statehood.

Fifth Epoch. The State of Oregon. This epoch extending from 1859 to the present, is the history of Oregon as a state, in the union of states under the federal constitution. Also under this epoch appears Section XIV which treats of the Literature of Oregon, the most of which was written during her statehood.

THE CASCADE RANGE EMERGING FROM THE OCEAN

THE EARLIEST ACCOUNT OF OREGON

The earliest account of Oregon was recorded in the great Book of Stone which lay buried under mountain and valley, prairie and seashore, to be opened and read, with the aid of pick-axe, microscope and retort. The stories in the book are full of meaning. They are illustrated with pictures printed, life size; and pressed between the flinty leaves are the perfectly-preserved evidences of life in earth and sea and air.

DR. THOMAS CONDON

Among the first to open that part of the book which gives an account of Oregon, was the late Doctor Thomas Condon, professor of geology in three universities and at one time state geologist of Oregon. The stories he read from its pages were so interesting and instructive that he published them in a volume entitled "The Two Islands," later republished under the title of "Oregon Geology." In one of the stories Doctor Condon describes the first appearance of our greatest mountains as they might have been viewed from some elevation—possibly that ancient sea-bank, which we now call the Oregon Coast Range. He says:

"A colossal sea-dyke was slowly rising from the bed of the ocean, extending from what we call Lower California, through what is now Oregon and Washington, to the Aleutian Islands—a mere sea-dyke for a long time, only a barrier between continuous waters; then through other ages a ridge of elevated hills; then later one of the world's mountain wonders, the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Range."

THE NAME "OREGON"

Jonathan Carver applied the name "Oregon" to the "River of the West" as early as 1778—two years after the Declaration of Independence. He said he had heard the river called that name in 1766, by Indians living near the east slope of the Rocky Mountains.

At least six explanations have been offered regarding the meaning and derivation of the word, "Oregon":

1. Various authors ascribe the word Oregon to the "Origanum," a wild plant said to have been found growing in abundance along the Pacific Coast.
2. Hall J. Kelley, who wrote pamphlets concerning the Oregon country as early as 1829, claimed to have traced "'Oregon,' the name of this river to a large river called 'Orjon,' in Chinese Tartary."
3. William G. Steel, who published a booklet on Oregon names, and who was the first president of the Oregon Geographic Board, says it is claimed that "Oregon" came from "Oyerun-gon," a Shoshone word, meaning "a place of plenty."
4. Bishop Blanchet, connected with the Catholic Missionary movement in Washington and Oregon, decided that "Oregon" is a form of "Orejon," (plural Orejones) meaning "big ears"—a term applied by the Spaniards to Indian tribes whose ears were enlarged by loads of ornaments.
5. The poet, Joaquin Miller, who affectionately called Oregon the Emerald State, referred to the derivation of its name as "from the Spanish words 'aura agua,' meaning gently falling waters, a poetic reference to the rains for which the sea coast of Oregon is famed."
   

   CARVER'S MAP OF THE RIVER OF THE WEST, 1778

6. "The Popular History of Oregon" tells us that "Oregon" is a form of the name "Aragon," which in Spain is pronounced very much like "Oregon," with the accent strongly on the last syllable as most Americans pronounced the word fifty years ago. In support of this theory it may be suggested that the name might have been given to the new country by Spanish missionaries as a mark of courtesy to Ferdinand of Aragon, Prince Consort of Isabella, who offered to pledge her jewels to make possible the voyage which resulted in the discovery of America.

Although "Oregon" probably came from one or more of these words, it could have other derivation. But while we are not certain as to its derivation we do know that it is a peculiar name introduced by Jonathan Carver and made famous in literature by the poet Bryant, in his poem, Thanatopsis; that it was applied to the river now called the Columbia, then to the entire region drained by that river, then restricted to the territory which later became the thirty-third state of the Union.

1. In the history of the Northwest the terms 'emigrants' and 'emigration' have commonly been used instead of 'immigrants' and 'immigration'."—History of the Pacific Northwest.