There were two or more points of departure from the Missouri frontier this year; and there were many companies Two divisions rendezvoused at Independence; one with twenty-five wagons, under Presley Welch, with Joel Palmer and Samuel K. Barlow as aids and one commanded by Samuel Hancock, consisting of forty wagons. Hancock, with Bacon and others of this immigration, have contributed liberally to my historical archives.[1]
A third company, with fifty-two wagons, left St Joseph under the command of Hackleman, to which belonged W. W. Buck of Oregon City,[2] well known in his adopted country. A fourth company of sixty-one wagons and three hundred persons, starting from St Joseph also, was commanded by W. G. T'Vault, with John Waymire as lieutenant, and James Allen as sergeant. There was another company of sixty-six wagons, and about the same number of persons, under Solomon Tetherow. Here, as elsewhere in human
- ↑ Hancock settled on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound. He has written a large manuscript volume, entitled Thirteen Years' Residence on the Northwest Coast, narrating the incidents of the immigration and many of his adventures on the Pacific coast. J. M. Bacon, of Barlow's division, has also written on the sublet Bacon was a native of Buffalo. Love of adventure induced him to go to Oregon. Engaging in various mercantile pursuits, he eventually settled permanently in Oregon City. His Mercantile Life at Oregon City, MS., is a running commentary on the business and business men of the country.
- ↑ W. W. Buck was born in New York in 1804, but emigrated from Ohio. He was a saddle and harness maker, a man of intelligence and enterprise, and his manuscript gives the history of several of the first manufactories of the country, in which he was interested, under the name of Enterprises at Oregon City, MS.
Indians on the western shore of the Missouri River, and inappropriately calling it our western frontier. But the pioneers of 1843 and 1844 broke over the barrier, passed the red men of the forest, and established themselves in their new homes in Oregon and California. In this mighty movement we see human nature waking in her might from the slumber of centuries, girding herself for the conflict, and overcoming every obstacle, going forth to assert her inalienable rights and the equality of men throughout the American continent.' Or. Ter., 23-4. Niles' Reg., lxviii. 339-40, has some remarks on the thoughtless and aimless rush of well-conditioned people to seek poverty and hardships. Polynesian, Jan. 31, 1846; McKinlay, in H. B. Co. Ev., H. B. Co. Claims, 100. Saxton's pamphlet on Oregon Territory appears to have been first published in Washington, and afterward reproduced in Oregon City by George Abernethy. It contains the laws of Oregon, with an account of the political condition of the country, its resources, soil, climate, productions, and progress in education, with facts and figures concerning population, and other matters, enlivened by some eloquent passages, original and quoted, of a patriotic nature.
