Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 4/The Upper Calapooia
THE UPPER CALAPOOIA.
By Geo. O. Goodall.
The early history of the white man in the Upper Calapooia was a quiet and uneventful one. The travelers coming in from their long trip across the Plains, pushed up the Willamette Valley, and, attracted by the beautiful and fertile Calapooia Valley, with its abundance of grass on its surrounding hills, and plentiful supply of water, settled there to live the peaceful life of farmers or stock raisers, with very little trouble of any kind to disturb them in their occupation of home-making. In those early days the hills, most of which are now heavily wooded, were free from timber and covered with beautiful grass. One old settler said: "You can not imagine the beauty of this country when we first came here." The Indians had kept the brush burned down, burning over the hills each year. The white man neglected to do this, and now in many places the grass has given way to moss and timber.
According to the best information I could get, the first settlers came to the Calapooia in 1846. T. A. Riggs, who came in 1847, and whose statement is appended below, says that when he came there were three or four settlers near where Brownsville now stands, and one, R. C. Finley, six miles up stream. This man Finley was the settler farthest up the stream till Riggs and his partner, Asa Moore, took up donation claims two or three miles above Finley on Brush Creek, a tributary of the Calapooia. From this time on more settlers came every year and settled all along the Calapooia Valley and on streams tributary. The settlement here preceded that in the upper Willamette to some extent, because out in the valley there was less timber, water was less plentiful, and the soil was not considered as good as in the Calapooia.
Most of the settlers who came were farmers. R. C. Finley, however, was a millwright, and in 1849[1] built a flouring mill, which still stands, six miles above Brownsville. In 1850 Templeton built a sawmill; in 1852 Finley built one, and in 1854 P. V. Crawford built one near the present site of Holley. The first settlers had gone to Oregon City for flour, and later to Salem. After Finley's mill was built people came from as far away as the Umpqua Valley to get flour there.
Schools were founded at an early date, the first being taught by Rev. H. H. Spalding in a log house one mile above where Brownsville now stands, in the summer of 1849. This was a subscription school. The first district was organized on the Calapooia in 1853, being the third district in Linn County. The first school after the district was organized was taught by Robert Moore in the summer of 1853. The churches commenced work very soon and several denominations were represented. Joab Powell, the celebrated Baptist evangelist, used to preach there, and gave it as his opinion that "Thar was some mighty big sinners on the head of the Calapooia." Dr. J. N. Perkins preached for the Christians, and Rev. H. H. Spalding for the Presbyterians.
P. V. Crawford, for whom Crawfordsville is named, was the first regularly appointed postmaster on the Calapooia. Previous to his appointment in 1870 there had been a supplied post office at William Heisler's store, where Crawfordsville now is. There was never any great number of manufacturing enterprises in the Calapooia country. A flouring mill, a sawmill or two, and the woolen mill at Brownsville, built about 1862, constitute the sum of such enterprises. The chief production is still from the farm—live stock and farm produce. The range is now greatly curtailed through growth of brush, close pasturage, and taking up of land.
There were in this region several men who were public spirited and prominent in Oregon affairs in early times. Foremost of all was Delazon Smith, who lived down toward Albany, on the Albany prairie, but was well known and claimed by all the Linn County section. Smith was a preacher when he first lived in Oregon. On one occasion he was heard to say, when preaching at Brownsville, that he had been urged to give up preaching and go into law, but that he would not give up what religion he had for all the wealth of the world. Strange to say, however, that was really the last sermon he ever preached. Soon after he is said to have been offered a fee of $1,000 to defend a man in a criminal case, and from that time on he followed law and politics. He was a member of the constitutional convention, was in the legislature, and stumped the state with Col. E. D. Baker in the race for United States senator. Hugh Brown, founder of Brownsville, was also prominent in politics and was a member of the constitutional convention. J. N. Rice and Robert Glass were in the legislature in early times, and R. C. Finley, though not so prominent politically, was a wealthy, liberal, public spirited man, who wielded considerable influence.
No serious Indian troubles ever came upon the settlers on the Calapooia. T. A. Riggs tells how the Indians used to steal from the whites, and describes a little difficulty he and a neighbor had with them over the stealing of an ox, but the Indians of this section never attempted to make war on the whites. At a later time, 1856, there was a fear that the Indians on the other side of the Cascades, who were then on the warpath, might come over and fall upon the settlers along the Calapooia. At Fern Ridge a fort was built in anticipation of such a contingency, but results proved their fears groundless, and that they had perhaps given the eastern Indians credit for more energy than they possessed.
During war times there was considerable feeling in this region. The people were many of them from Missouri, and many were Douglas democrats. When the war commenced a considerable number of Douglas democrats turned Republicans. A party composed of Union men and Douglas democrats put out a county ticket in 1862 in Linn County. It was called the Cayuse ticket. Both Union and non-Union men formed secret societies. The democrats organized a secret society known as the Knights of the Golden Circle, one of its objects being to prevent a draft. George Helm was the leading democrat at this time in this section, and was called the "Lion of Linn." The Union men formed the Union League, the chief object of which was to watch the democrats. It was thought at one time that the Knights of the Golden Circle would attempt to capture the fort at Vancouver, but no such attempt was ever made.
As I have before stated, the course of settlement and development in the Calapooia country was quiet and uneventful. The settlers were at first all poor, all subject to the hardships incident to living in a new country, shut off from many conveniences of an older community, and obliged to ascertain by experiment what crops paid best and how they were best handled. Currency was scarce in the settlement and wheat served to a large extent as a medium of exchange. When the men who had been drawn to the gold mines to seek their fortunes began to return with their gold dust there was a rapid advance in business and prosperity.
The first newspaper of this locality was printed by George Dyson; the name and date I can not now give. The second was the Informant, printed, like the first, at Brownsville, and by a man named Stein. This was in 1886. In 1887 the Express-Advance was started with the Informant's plant and continued two years. The Brownsville Times was started June 15, 1889, by McDonald & Cavendish. With several changes of editors this paper is still printed, the present proprietors being F. M. Brown and A. B. Cavender.
The question as to why the first settlers came to Oregon is difficult to determine. It seems, however, from the very limited amount of direct testimony I have been able to get, that there were two forces which at least had a powerful influence, and these were, first, curiosity to see this great western country; and, secondly, the desire to pick out a good piece of land from the thousands of acres open to settlement here.
Albany, Oregon, September 21, 1901.
Mr. Geo. O. Goodall, Eugene, Oregon—
Dear Sir: In compliance with your request I will write a short account of the early settlement of the upper Calapooia Valley and some of the annoyances with which the first settlers had to contend, and as I have to depend entirely on memory, I am aware that my account will be very imperfect and the more so as I am almost alone as one of the first settlers, and I believe the only one above Brownsville.
I crossed the plains in 1846, stopping near Oregon City till the next fall, when I settled in Brush Creek Valley, Brush Creek being the south fork of the Calapooia. When I came here I found Alexander Kirk, W. R. Kirk, James Blakely, Hugh L. Brown, and Jonathan Keeney, all living in the vicinity of where Brownsville now is, they all having crossed the plains in 1846 and come on up the valley to the Calapooia. I also found R. C. Finley some six miles farther up the stream, who also crossed the plains the same year, but settled on the Calapooia in the spring of 1847. Mrs. Agnes B. Courtnay, who came to Oregon in 1845, and whose husband had been killed near Oregon City by a falling tree, made up the settlers on the Calapooia at that time. I will state here that Mr. Finley had settled at the falls of the Calapooia where he contemplated building, and did in 1848 build a flouring mill, being the first mill south of Salem. In the fall of 1847, as before stated, I and Asa Moore settled in Brush Creek Valley above Mr. Finley, he being the upper settler up to that time, and at the same time James McHargue and Robert Montgomery, who crossed the plains that season, settled below Mr. Finley and Thomas Fields several miles farther up the stream. Wm. T. Templeton, William Robnett, William McCaw, John Findlay, John A. Dunlap, and Thomas S. Woodfin all crossed the plains in 1847 and subsequently settled on the Calapooia, but after the annoyance with the Indians had ceased.
The Indians in these early days were in the habit of stealing horses and cattle from the settlers and butchering them, and the settlers would trail them up and if able to catch them would flog them severely, but the Indians seemed to care about as much as a cur for such treatment and would laugh about it as if it was all a huge joke. Some time during the summer of 1847 Isaac B. Courtnay was hunting in Brush Creek Valley, being above the settlement at that time, when he met with a few Indians, who took his gun and ammunition and allowed him to go home. During the fall and winter of 1847 the Indians annoyed Mr. Fields so much that he finally moved down to my place on Brush Creek and stayed until the spring of 1848.
In the fall of 1847 when I and Mr. Moore came into Brush Creek Valley we were not aware that there were any Indians near there and selected a place to build a cabin in which to spend the winter, we being single men, were going to batch through the winter, when I intended to bring my mother to live with me, my father having died soon after starting for Oregon. When we commenced cutting logs for our cabin two or three Indians appeared on the scene and inquired what we were doing there, and on being told we were going to settle there they demanded pay for the land, and we finally made a bargain with them agreeing to pay them in wheat and pease after the next harvest, this being the way in which many of the early settlers bargained with them.
During the fall and early winter when an Indian happened to be present at mealtime we gave him something to eat, but it soon became apparent that if we kept this up we would run out of provisions before spring, as there were one or more Indians there nearly every meal, so we were obliged to quit feeding them, when they demanded pay for their land again we told them, however, that we would pay them according to contract. Soon after this they moved away, and we saw no more of them on Brush Creek.
As Mr. Finley was contemplating the building of a mill the next summer he traded for a fat ox which I had brought with me, intending to butcher him when he commenced work, but soon after the Indians left the ox disappeared also. When we missed him from the other cattle Mr. Finley and I took a circuit around the range of the cattle and struck his trail going toward the Santiam, and after tracking him a mile or two we came across the same Indians, where they were camped and were drying the beef, having killed the ox. When we turned toward the camp Mr. Finley said if that Indian runs I'll shoot him. When they saw us coming they broke for the brush and Mr. Finley fired at one of them, they in their hurry leaving everything in camp, including the only gun they had.
After selecting such things as we could carry that would be of any value we made a bonfire of the rest, burning everything they had. When we started away I saw an Indian head come up by the side of a log in the timber and took a shot at him, it was a long shot, and I think the ball struck the log, but the head disappeared very suddenly. Another Indian started to run from behind a tree when Mr. Finley fired, aiming, as he said, to break a leg, wounding the Indian above the knee, but not disabling him. This caused quite an excitement in the settlement, the Indians and many of the settlers fearing it would cause an outbreak among the Indians, arguing that we ought not have shot at them, but should have treated them as others had done. However, Mr. Finley and I told them that if they didn't want to be shot at they must not steal from us, as we would shoot every time and that to kill. This put a stop to their stealing in this part of the country and we were not annoyed after that by the natives, and they never called for the pay for their land.
The Rev. H. H. Spalding taught a neighborhood school in a log schoolhouse one mile above where Brownsville now stands in the summer of 1849, there being no public schools in the country at that time. The first school district on the Calapooia, being the third in Linn County, was organized, I think, in the spring of 1853; but many of the early records of the county were burned in the courthouse, and I am unable to give the precise date. The first school was taught in the district in the summer of 1853 by Robert Moore.
As to the motive for coming to the Willamette Valley at that early date I hardly know how to answer, unless it was love of adventure, as the question of sovereignty had not been settled between the United States and England when I came here. True, the United States senate had been discussing the matter of giving each settler in Oregon six hundred and forty acres of land, and we rather expected that would be done, but we had no real assurance that such would be the case.
Among the early county officers of Linn County, after its organization under the Territorial Government, quite a number were living on the Calapooia, Alexander Kirk being elected county judge, N. D. Jack assessor, John A. Dunlap representative, and William McCaw clerk in 1849, and in 1850 several men who were elected to county officers went to the mines and failed to qualify, among them the county treasurer, and at a special election I was elected to that office and received and disbursed the first taxes ever collected in Linn County.
In 1851 I was elected assessor and was the second man to assess the county. In 1856 I served as second lieutenant in the Rogue-river war. In 1862 was elected sheriff for two years.
Yours truly,T. A. RIGGS.
- ↑ Riggs says 1848; several old settlers say 1849.