LETTERS OF CHARLES STEVENS
Edited by E. Ruth Rockwood
(Part II)
Milwaukie 24th Jan. 1853.
Brother Levi
... I believe I have not given you an account of the products of the country, and perhaps I may be able to fill this letter in this way, and I see that Lydia wishes for me to send an account of all the fruit that grows here. I can say nothing about it from my own knowledge, unless it is by judging from the signs that appear in the timber. People tell us that there is any quantity of Blackberries & Rastberries here. The Blackberries are not like those that grow in Illinois, but they are of the kind that grow in the New England states, called Dew Berries. They are said to be very large and nice. The timber, or the ground in the timber, is all covered with them. The leaves on them are all green now. Rasburies also appear to be abundent. Strawberries grow large and of an excellent flaver, they flower in March and come to maturity in the fore part of June, and continue for a large part of the summer. Whortleberries & Cramberries grow here in abundence. We saw thousands of the latter in the fall. It is thought there is no native grapes here, but there is a kind of fruit that grows here that they call the Oregon Grape, but it grows on a bush instead of a vine, are of a plesant tast, and make excelent preserves. Crab Apples grow here in some places. There is no nuts here but Hazle Nuts, or filberts, they are of an excellent kind and grow all about in the timber. I know of no fruit that grows in Illinois but will grow equally well here, especially the Peach Apples Grapes, Plumbs Quinces etc. in fact they say that they excell the states by a long ways. I never saw such vegetables in states as I have here. The Potatoes are as much larger than yours generly are, as yours are larger than marbles, and they are sound and good. Turnips Cabages and all kinds of garden stuff are the largest
The first instalment of these letters was printed in the Oregon Historical Quarterly, June, 1936, pages 137-159. Stevens had crossed the plains in 1852, and wrote back to members of his family describing conditions in Oregon and Washington.—Editor.
