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diff --git a/78187-0.txt b/78187-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c3702b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/78187-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2788 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78187 *** + + + + + THE QUARTERLY + OF THE + OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY. + VOLUME 1 + DECEMBER, 1900 + NUMBER 4 + OREGON TRAIL NUMBER. + +[Illustration: Seal of the Oregon Historical Society showing crossed +tools and a handshake, with the words 'Peace and Friendship' and +'Incorporated December 17, 1898.'] + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + _F. G. Young_—THE OREGON TRAIL 339 + _Jesse Applegate_—A DAY WITH THE COW COLUMN IN 1843 371 + COL. GEORGE L. CURREY’S TRIBUTE TO THE OX WHIP 384 + _Sam L. Simpson_—THE CAMP FIRES OF THE PIONEERS 385 + _Joaquin Miller_—PILGRIMS OF THE PLAINS 395 + _Joaquin Miller_—PIONEERS OF THE PACIFIC 397 + DOCUMENTS—The Oregon Emigrants, 1843 398 + + + PRICE: THIRTY-FIVE CENTS PER NUMBER, ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR + + + + + THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY + + ORGANIZED DECEMBER 17, 1898 + + + H. W. SCOTT PRESIDENT + C. B. BELLINGER VICE-PRESIDENT + F. G. YOUNG SECRETARY + CHARLES E. LADD TREASURER + GEORGE H. HIMES, Assistant + Secretary. + + + DIRECTORS + + THE GOVERNOR OF OREGON, _ex officio_. + THE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, _ex officio_. + + Term Expires at Annual Meeting in December, 1901, + F. G. YOUNG, L. B. COX. + + Term Expires at Annual Meeting in December, 1902, + JAMES R. ROBERTSON, JOSEPH R. WILSON. + + Term Expires at Annual Meeting in December, 1903, + C. B. BELLINGER, MRS. MARIA L. MYRICK. + + Term Expires at Annual Meeting in December, 1901, + H. W. SCOTT, MRS. HARRIET K. McARTHUR. + +_The Quarterly_ is sent free to all members of the Society. The annual +dues are two dollars. The fee for life membership is twenty-five +dollars. + +Contributions to _The Quarterly_ and correspondence relative to +historical materials, or pertaining to the affairs of this Society, +should be addressed to + + F. G. YOUNG, + _Secretary_. + + EUGENE, OREGON. + +Subscriptions for _The Quarterly_, or for the other publications of the +Society, should be sent to + + GEORGE H. HIMES, + _Assistant Secretary_. + + CITY HALL, PORTLAND, OREGON. + +[Illustration: Faint hand-drawn map of Oregon showing early trail routes +and transportation lines across the state, with rivers and small place +labels.] + + + + + VOLUME I] DECEMBER, 1900 [NUMBER 4 + + THE QUARTERLY + + OF THE + + OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY. + + + + + THE OREGON TRAIL. + + +The early Oregon pioneers not only gained the first secure foothold for +the American people on the Pacific Coast, but their movement opened the +way to American occupation and in itself counted as an occupation of +that realm for American civilization. They moved across the continent at +an auspicious time, and so were able to influence, if not to shape, the +course of great events touching the widening of the American dominion on +the Pacific. It was all done so quietly, so efficiently, at so +comparatively small cost and without any shock of harrowing disaster, +that the world has yet to connect the momentous results with a cause +seemingly so inadequate. + +As the American people come to realize that their distinctively national +achievement so far, next to that of maintaining a national integrity, +has been that of preempting and subduing an adequate dominion and home +for a civilization they will revere the services of those who made the +transcontinental migrations in the thirties, forties and fifties. The +glory that belongs to the participants in those migrations is the +peculiar birthright of the patriotic Oregonian. The passage from the +Atlantic slope to the Pacific of these first American households bearing +the best embers of western civilization must ever stand as a momentous +event in the annals of time. + +For twenty-eight years, now, surviving participants in this world event +have annually assembled to recount the incidents of their coming to +Oregon, to live over that trying but hallowed time, to rekindle old +flames of friendship and form new ties on the basis of their common +experiences. At these meetings of the Oregon pioneers there was always +an “occasional address” in which the reminiscences of the immigration of +some particular year were given. As the journal of the association puts +it, the object of the association “should be to collect reminiscences +relating to pioneers and the early history of the territory; to promote +social intercourse, and cultivate the life-enduring friendships that in +many instances had been formed while making the long, perilous journey +of the wide, wild plains, which separated the western boundary of +civilization thirty years ago from the land which they had resolved to +reclaim.” The biographical notices contained in the transactions of +their association all mark this coming to Oregon as a dividing event in +the lives of their subjects. That generation of Oregonians suffered +something like a transfiguration through this movement, which also +widened the nation’s outlook—in making it face a greater sea. These +transforming influences wrought their effects during the summer season +that each successive immigration spent on the Oregon trail, while +journeying in canvas-topped oxen-drawn wagons from the banks of the +Missouri to those of the Willamette. The greatest epochal expansion of +the nation was insured through these migrations at the same time that +the participants were translating their lives to a new sphere. + +[Illustration: + + 1.—Near the site of Fort Kearney on the Platte. (Part of pontoon + bridge is used as road fence.) +] + +For engaging and vivid detail of experiences in this movement, recourse +must be had to the transactions of the Oregon Pioneer Association, and +to journals kept on the way across the plains. These will ever have an +interest for the heart of man as they show life under heroic impulse and +in trying conditions long sustained. The whole movement Oregonward has +an epic unity, and when its significance has become fully manifest will +challenge the powers of the national poet. + +But the movement has not yet, even in its outward aspects, been viewed +as a whole. To mark off its limits in time, in routes taken, in numbers +and population elements involved; to note the main motives, the forms of +characteristic experiences; in a word to make, as it were, a composite +view with relation to national history as a background,—would seem to be +the first step for realizing the due appreciation of the significance of +the work of the Oregon pioneers. A sketch of the outlines of the +movement in its more salient features, then, is what is attempted here, +with the hope that such setting forth of the movement as a whole, with +outlines more or less closely defined, will lead to its being brought +fully into relation with the general course of events of American +history. Until the story of the Oregon movement is thus set forth, the +historians of our national life cannot weave it into its proper +conspicuous relations in their narratives. It has no doubt been largely +due to this lack if the story of this pioneer achievement in available +form that a somewhat undue estimate of Doctor Whitman’s services and the +acceptance of mythical accretions to them have come about. The Whitman +story was early available and was made to do service in accounting for a +larger outcome than facts warranted. + +The Oregon migrations effected at one sweep a two thousand mile +extension of the Aryan movement westward in the occupation of the north +temperate zone—“a far-flung” outpost of occupation and settlement. To +appreciate the boldness, intrepidity and consummate effectiveness of +such pioneering we have but to note that no previous extension had +compassed one-fourth this distance. Nor were the conditions in this +instance easy. One continuous stretch of Indian country infested with +most formidable predatory tribes had to be passed through. Conditions +approximating those of a desert had to be faced during a large part of +the migration. There were swift rivers to ford or ferry, and three +mountain ranges to scale. Only one form of the usual difficulties of +pioneer road-making did not appear. There were no extensive forests to +penetrate except on the ridges of the Blue and the Cascade Mountains. + +The settlements of the blue grass region of Kentucky, and the Nashville +district, in Western Tennessee, were, when first made, the most isolated +from the main body of the American people. Yet, these had less than a +four-hundred mile stretch between them and the settled region of the +Atlantic slope. No other outward movement of Aryan people ever covered +anything like the distance made by the Oregon pioneers on the Oregon +trail. Measured by the sea voyage, the Oregon settlements were a leap of +seventeen thousand miles. + +[Illustration: + + 2.—“LONE OR COURT HOUSE ROCK.” +] + +Though the Oregon pioneers traced the first trail across the continent, +adapting for sections of it the lines of travel of fur trading +expeditions; yet, were it not for the title of Francis Parkman’s +narrative (which, however, has only the slightest references to anything +pertaining to its title), I am not sure but that the very name would +have been lost to all except Oregonians. The meagerness of Parkman’s +presentation of the transcontinental movement is easily accounted for. +He did not take his trip of roughing it to Fort Laramie and the Black +Hills, in 1846, to see the Oregon pioneers. His plans to write the +history of the new France in America tended to narrow his interest +strictly to aspects of Indian life as they were with the Indian in his +original state. He was concerned solely during his life on the plains to +get that insight into Indian character and customs that he might +interpret the records of the relations of the French with them, and give +his narrative in his great life work truth, life, and color. Had he been +inclined to associate himself with the westward moving trains, and to +enter into their life and thought, his “Oregon Trail” would naturally +have been a final characterization of the migrations up to the stage +they had assumed at that time. There are, however, indications in some +of his references to the pioneers that their necessarily _deshabille_ +condition while en route, and the astounding and almost reckless +character of their undertaking were by him set in contrast with the +steady comfortable ways of the New England folk from which he hailed and +the Oregonians correspondingly disparaged. In this he would be bringing +a pioneer phase of civilization into comparison with a more finished +form. The wayfaring pioneers were still marking out wider and more +natural limits for the national home, while the New Englanders were +advancing the arts of life on the original nucleus of national +territory. But who can say to which the nation in its destiny owes the +more? + +Two years ago there appeared a book of five hundred and twenty-nine +pages written by Colonels Henry Inman and William F. Cody, bearing the +title, “The Great Salt Lake Trail.” In its preface there is to be +found the following comment on its title: “Over this historical +highway the Mormons made their lonely hegira. * * * Over this route, +also, were made those world renowned expeditions by Fremont, +Stansbury, Lander, and others of lesser fame, to the heart of the +Rocky Mountains, and beyond, to the blue shores of the Pacific Ocean. +Over the same trackless waste the pony express executed those +marvelous feats in annihilating distance, and the once famous overland +stage lumbered along through the seemingly interminable desert of sage +brush and alkali dust—_avant-courieres_ of the telegraph and the +railroad.” + +The body of the book touches upon topics ranging in time from Jonathan +Carver’s explorations in 1766-’68 to the building of the Union Pacific +Railroad. Its map lays “The Old Salt Lake Trail” exactly on the route of +the Oregon trail as far as Fort Bridger, in Southwestern Wyoming. But +the Oregon migrations are not hinted at by a single word in the body of +the book. The authors’ account of them could not have been crowded out +by more weighty matters, as all the disjointed fragments of Indian +hunting and fighting and drunken carousal, whether happening on the line +of the trail or not, are crowded in. Either the story of the Oregon +movement during the thirties, forties and fifties was absolutely unknown +to Colonels Inman and Cody, or, if known, thought worthy of relegation +to oblivion by them. + +In interviews last summer with people living along the line of the +trail, only those whose experiences extended back to the time of the +Oregon migrations recognized the trail as the Oregon trail. It was +always the “California trail” or the “Mormon trail.” + +[Illustration: + + 3.—The North Fork of Platte—its sandy bottom exposed. +] + +It is, of course, to be conceded that more people traveled this road to +California than to Oregon. But the Oregon movement was first in time. By +it the feasibility of the route was demonstrated, and people susceptible +to the western fever were accustomed to think of the trip across the +plains in a way that brought them when the cry of California gold was +raised, or when as Mormon converts they were longing for a refuge from +molestation. Then, too, the Oregon pioneers not only led the way; they +decided our destiny Pacificward. It is time that history was conferring +its award of justice to them. The highway they opened to the greater +sea, and which their march made glorious, should take its name from them +and thus help to commemorate unto coming generations the momentous +import of their achievement for all the future of mankind. + +The transcontinental movement as a march of civilization to the west +shore of the continent was in its incipiency a missionary enterprise. +There is hardly any doubt, however, but that the home-seeking pioneer +would have been on the way just as soon without the initiative of the +missionary heroes and heroines. It is, nevertheless, the lasting glory +of the Presbyterian and Congregational denominations that under the +auspices of their missionary board the first American families +successfully made the passage that was to sweep such a marvelous +movement into its train. The Methodist Episcopal missionary enterprise +antedated all others and played a conspicuous role in the political +organization of the Oregon community, but it was not first in setting up +the American home. So long as it lacked that it could not bear an +American civilization, which was the crucial matter. It was Whitman who +demonstrated the possibility of taking households across the plains, and +this achievement, too, was a decisive initiative. + +But how did the impulse to make this dangerous and arduous journey to +the then far-off wilderness of Oregon originate with the missionary and +the home-seeking pioneers? The inception of the Oregon movement in both +its missionary and its pioneering aspects is best understood when viewed +as outbursts of missionary zeal and energy and pioneer daring and +restlessness from vast stores of potential missionary and pioneer spirit +existing in this country in the thirties. Missionary activity in the +direction of Oregon was liberated by something like a spark, or, to +change the metaphor, by a “long-distance” “Macedonian cry.” A delegation +of four Nez Perces Indians from the upper waters of the Columbia arrived +in St. Louis in 1832 in search of “the white man’s Book of Heaven.” An +account of this singularly unique mission was published in the +newspapers of the time. The story was made all the more effective and +thrilling, with those of deep religious sensibilities, through its +including what purported to be a verbatim report of a most pathetic +farewell address made in General Clark’s office by one of the two +surviving members of this mission. + +The closing passage of the speech, as it has been handed down, is as +follows: + +“We are going back the long, sad trail to our people. When we tell them, +after one more snow, in the big council that we did not bring the Book, +no word will be spoken by our old men, nor by our young braves. One by +one they will rise up and go out in silence. Our people will die in +darkness, and they will go on the long path to other hunting grounds. No +white man will go with them, and no Book of Heaven to make the way +plain. We have no more words.” + +The missionary boards of several Protestant denominations were already +establishing foreign missions in Africa, India, and among the western +North American Indians. Hall J. Kelley had been agitating the cause of +the Oregon Indians for half-a-generation. An appeal for missionary help +so pathetic, so unheard of, and withal shedding such luster on those +from whom it came, as was that of the Nez Perces delegation to St. +Louis, could not fail to bring forth a missionary movement towards +Oregon. + +[Illustration: + + 4.—“CHIMNEY ROCK.” +] + +The spirit that materialized in the Oregon pioneer movement was not +kindled by any special spark like that which called forth the missionary +enterprises. Nor was it aroused by anything like the cry of gold that +brought on the mad rush to California in ’49 and the early fifties. The +Oregon migrations were the outcome of cool, calm, reasoned +determination. This characterized the movement collectively as well as +individually. + +In a sense, the Oregon movement was in preparation from the time when in +1636 Puritan congregations were led by Hooker and others from the +vicinity of Boston westward through the forests to the banks of the +Connecticut. This initial western movement was communicated along the +Atlantic coast settlements by the Scotch-Irish crossing the Blue Ridge +Mountains in Pennsylvania, and by the Virginians penetrating to the +Shenandoah Valley. Some would say that an instinct to move west has been +growing in strength among civilized peoples since about 1000 B. C., when +the Phœnicians moved west on the Mediterranean to found Carthage, and +the Greeks to plant colonies in southern Italy and at Marseilles. + +So largely had pioneering been the mode of life of those who were living +in the western zone of settlement in the United States in 1840 that it +was almost a cult with them. The traditions of each family led through +the Cumberland Gap or west to Pittsburg and down the Ohio, or along the +line of the Great Lakes. Hon. W. Lair Hill, in his “Annual Address” +before the Pioneer Association in 1883, fitly characterizes the people +among whom the Oregon movement took its rise. “The greater number of +them were pioneers by nature and occupation, as their fathers had been +before them. In childhood the story of their ancestors’ migrations from +the east to the west, and then to the newer west was their handbook of +history. Homer or Virgil, of whom few of them had ever heard, could have +rehearsed no epic half so thrilling to their ears as the narratives of +daring adventure and hairbreadth escapes, which, half true and half +false, ever form the thread of frontier history. They knew nothing of +Hector and Achilles, but they knew of Daniel Boone, who, Lord Byron +said, ‘was happiest among mortals anywhere,’ whom civilization drove out +of Pennsylvania by destroying the red deer and black bear, and who, +after some years of solid comfort in his log cabin amid the wilds of +Kentucky, was again pursued and overtaken by the same relentless enemy +and compelled to retire into the Missouri wilderness, beyond the +Mississippi; and who, even in that distant retreat, was soon forced to +say to his friend and companion, according to current anecdote, ‘I was +compelled to leave Kentucky because people came and settled so close +around me I had no room to breathe. I thought when I came out here I +should be allowed to live in peace; but this is all over now. A man has +taken up a farm right over there, within twenty-five miles of my door.’ +Of Boone, and such as Boone, most of them who founded the commonwealth +of Oregon, knew much more than of the great names of literature, +statesmanship, or arms, and their minds dwelt fondly on the exploits of +the frontiersman, whether in the contests with the savages or the chase. +More familiar with the log cabin than with the palace, with the rifle +than with the spindle and loom, with saddle than with the railway, they +felt cramped when the progress of empire in its westward way put +restraint upon those habits of life to which they were accustomed.” + +[Illustration: + + 5.—“CASTLE AND STEAMBOAT ROCKS.” +] + +Knowledge of a “new country” was sure to create in them an almost +irrepressible longing to move on. Such natures as these furnished the +best culture conditions in which to develop an Oregon movement with the +reports explorers and travelers brought from the far Pacific Coast +region. Such Oregon material had early been disseminated among these +susceptible people. The journal of the Lewis and Clark expedition was +published in 1814 and distributed far and wide as a government document. +Pioneers speak of reading it as boys and of becoming permanently +interested in the Oregon Country. The journal of Patrick Gass, a +sergeant in the company of Lewis and Clark, fell into the hands of +others and stirred their imaginations. From 1817 on until 1832 Hall J. +Kelley, a Boston schoolmaster, was compiling and distributing +information designed to awaken a desire to join in a movement to +establish a civilized community in Oregon. His society is said to have +had thirty-seven agents scattered through the union. An Oregon question +became a subject of negotiation between Great Britain and the United +States in 1818. These negotiations were renewed in 1824, 1827 and 1842. +The occupation of Oregon was proposed in congress in 1821. The subject +was kept before congress almost continuously until 1827, and again from +1837 on. The proposed legislation elicited exhaustive reports and warm +discussions, which were published in the newspapers of the land. The +bill of Dr. Lewis F. Linn, senator from Missouri, introduced in 1842, +with its provision for a grant of six hundred and forty acres of land to +every actual male settler, was naturally a most potent cause of +resolutions to go to Oregon. The fact that during all these years Great +Britain disputed our right to claim the whole of the Oregon Country only +added to the ardor of some who thought of going thither. + +Soon sources of fresh information brought direct from Oregon became +available. St. Louis was the winter rendezvous of representatives of fur +companies and independent trappers who were operating in the Rocky +Mountains. These came in contact with officers and employees of the +Hudson’s Bay Company, and from them secured much information about +Oregon. Nathaniel J. Wyeth conducted two expeditions overland to the +Lower Columbia between 1832 and 1836. Mr. William N. Slacum, who had +been commissioned by President Jackson to visit the North Pacific Coast +to conduct explorations and investigations among the inhabitants of that +region, reported in 1837. Irving’s Astoria was brought out in 1836, and +his Adventures of Captain Bonneville in 1837. In 1838 Jason Lee, the +Methodist missionary, returned to the States, and talked Oregon wherever +he went. His lecture on Oregon in Peoria, Illinois, that year netted an +expedition of thirteen or fourteen persons for Oregon the next. The +leader of this party, Thomas J. Farnham, returned to the East, and in +1841 published a book of travels, which had a wide circulation. Dr. +Elijah White, for several years associated with the Methodist mission +enterprise, but who had returned to his home in New York, received an +appointment in 1842 as sub-Indian agent for Oregon. He immediately began +a canvass for immigrants to Oregon. His party, made up mainly of those +found on the Missouri border ready to start, added one hundred and +twenty-seven to the American population in Oregon. During this same year +Commodore Wilkes’ naval exploring expedition to Oregon returned and +reported. Early in this year, too, Fremont’s overland party was +organized, and was on the trail a short distance in the rear of Doctor +White’s pioneer party. On February 1, 1843, the Linn bill passed the +senate. All the missionaries were sending back letters giving glowing +accounts of the attractions of Oregon. The famous winter ride of Doctor +Whitman from Oregon to Missouri was made in the winter of 1842–3. He did +go to Washington and he urged the importance of American interests in +Oregon upon President Tyler and some of the members of his cabinet. +Returning west in the spring of 1843, he was at the Shawnee mission +school, near Westport, Missouri, while the great migration of 1843 was +forming and filing by. The sight reassured him that Oregon was to be +occupied by American citizens. His thought seemed no longer mainly +concerned with the pioneers getting to Oregon. There would be no trouble +about that. His plans reached forward to include the conditions of a +stable and progressive civilization there. His letters at this time, +after mentioning the number of emigrants, turn to matters that would +determine their condition as proposed settlers. He says: “A great many +cattle are going, but no sheep, from a mistake of what I said in +passing.” And again: “Sheep and cattle, but especially sheep, are +indispensable for Oregon. * * * I mean to impress the Secretary of War +that sheep are more to Oregon’s interests than soldiers.” Doctor +Whitman’s influence had probably not been decisive with many of the +pioneers, possibly not with any, in getting them started, but all the +leaders of that great immigration testify that his services as pilot and +counsellor were most valuable in getting them through. + +[Illustration: + + 6.—“SCOTT’S BLUFF.” +] + +The facts so far marshalled on the origin of the pioneer movement to +Oregon disclose the existence of a people in the Mississippi Valley +competent for the undertaking, and on general principles not disinclined +towards it, whose thought, moreover, had been arrested by some unique +advantages claimed for the Oregon country. But the Oregon movement, like +most migrations, has most light thrown on its origin and motive by an +inquiry into the conditions that made the old home undesirable, and in +some cases even unbearable. + +Not a few came from Missouri, Kentucky and other border slave states +because they were not in sympathy with the institution of slavery. Their +aversion to slave owning placed them at a great disadvantage in those +states. Their families were not recognized as socially the equals of the +more influential portion of society. They were accustomed to labor, and +slavery brought a stigma upon labor. In the cultivation of tobacco and +hemp, the main articles of export, the owner of slave labor had a +decided advantage. The employer of free labor found it exceedingly +difficult to make ends meet. Snubbed in a social way, worsted in +industrial competition, in individual cases they were even mobbed when +they tried to express their anti-slavery sentiments at the polls. Some +of the more nervous of the slave-owning population, too, were impelled +to seek relief in the same movement from the constant dread of a negro +insurrection. + +The “fever and ague” was a dread visitant to very many engaged in +turning over the virgin soil of the Mississippi Valley. In Oregon they +would be free from this curse, so the “fever and ague,” with not a few, +brought on the “Oregon fever.” The frequent recurrence of the awful +scourge of the cholera in the towns of the middle west in the late +forties and early fifties made many, in the hope of safety, more than +willing to brave the dangers and hardships of the journey to Oregon. The +warning signals of approaching old age no doubt were the deciding +influence with some who set out as modern Ponce de Leons in search of +fountains of renewed youth in Oregon. + +[Illustration: + + 7.—“OLD BEDLAM”—SITE OF FORT LARAMIE. +] + +Monetary disturbances had made business stagnant all over the country +from 1837 to 1841. Many had gone to the wall, and had been compelled to +see their homes turned over to others. The hard times were felt keenest +in the then farthest west. They were so far inland that commercial +intercourse with the rest of the world was almost totally cut off. What +traffic they had was carried on by slow, laborious and expensive +processes. Railroad building had not progressed so as to give a hope, +hardly even an intimation, of its wonderful solution of the problem of +maintaining a high civilization far inland. By going to Oregon they +would, as they thought of it, again be on the open shores of the greater +sea, within easy reach of the highway of the civilizations of the world. +Not often, perhaps, were their motives formulated. These were allowed to +rest in their minds in the most naive form of impulse. Col. Geo. B. +Currey, in his “Occasional Address” before the Pioneer Association, in +1887, endorses the following as the best reason he ever got. It was, as +he says, “from a genuine westerner,” who said he came “because the thing +wasn’t fenced in, and nobody dared to keep him out.” + +The western border of Missouri was the natural jumping off place for the +plunge into the wilderness. The settlements there had extended out like +a plank beyond the line of the border elsewhere. The Ohio and the +Missouri, with a short stretch of the Mississippi, had furnished the +line of least resistance to the westward movement. + +Each recurring spring tide from 1842 on witnessed the gathering of hosts +at points on the Missouri, from Independence, near the confluence of the +Kansas with the Missouri, north to what is now Council Bluffs. They were +enamored with one idea, that of making homes in far away Oregon. This +part of the border was also the starting line for the California and the +Mormon migrations. The California movement was only sporadic until 1849. +This was seven years after the Oregon movement had become regular. The +Mormons first struck across the continent in 1847. + +Independence and Westport, just south of the Missouri’s great bend to +the east, were the gateway of the earliest regular travel and traffic +across the plains. These towns are now the suburbs of Kansas City. The +Oregon migrations of 1842 and 1843 were formed exclusively in this +vicinity. The old Santa Fe trail led by these settlements. From these +points, too, the fur trading companies conducted expeditions annually to +the upper waters of the Green River beyond the Rocky Mountains. The +route was up the south side of the Kansas River some fifty miles, then +turning to the right, the river was forded or ferried and a general +northwest course adhered to, more direct for Oregon. + +Beginning in 1844 Saint Joseph, then a thriving border town, situated on +the river some fifty miles to the north of the first jumping off places, +became an important fitting out place. Those who took steamboat passage +to the border would naturally wish to make as much of the distance to +Oregon in that way as possible. The vicinity of Saint Joseph seemed to +furnish excellent facilities for securing the necessary ox teams and +other needs for the trip. The Saint Joseph route, too, was a more direct +one for those coming across the country from Iowa, Illinois and Indiana. +After 1850 the Council Bluffs’ route had the largest transcontinental +travel. Weston and old Fort Kearney, the present Nebraska City, both on +the Missouri, the former between Independence and Saint Joseph and the +latter between Saint Joseph and Council Bluffs were minor points of +departure. Smaller companies would cross the river wherever there was a +ferry. + +[Illustration: + + 8.—The Trail leading down to bottom lands of the Sweetwater. +] + +Steamboating on the treacherous Missouri during those spring seasons +while the tide of emigration was strongly westward set is given a lurid +hue in the journals of the emigrants. The river route was the natural +one for all coming from Ohio and the states to the east, also for many +coming from Indiana. + +One entry made during this part of the trip in 1852 reads as follows: +“We have a bar on our boat, too, and that is visited about as often as +any other place I know of. A son of temperance is a strange animal on +this river, I can assure you. I think there are three or four sons on +the boat, and the rest, about five hundred people, like a dram as often +as I would like to drink a little water. * * * We get a little scared +sometimes, for we hear of so many boats blowing up. There was another +boat blown up at Lexington last Saturday and killed one hundred and +fifty persons, the most of which were emigrants for California and +Oregon. These things make us feel pretty squally, I can assure you, but +it is not the way to be scared beforehand. So we boost our spirits up +and push on. * * * Got to Lexington at 12 o’clock. There we found the +wrecks of the boat that blew up five days ago. There were about two +hundred people aboard, and the nearest we could learn about forty +persons escaped unhurt, about forty were wounded and the balance were +killed.” + +The man who kept this journal fitted out with a company at Saint Joseph. +The company planned to drive up the east side of the Missouri and cross +at old Fort Kearney. But, finding the roads too bad on that route, they +made for a ferry ten miles north of Saint Joseph. I quote from his +account of their experiences in getting across the river: “Went up to +the ferry. Mr. H—‘s and Mr. S—’s wagons went over safe. Then Mr. S—’s +family wagon and five yoke of cattle and all of Mr. S—’s family except +two boys went on the ferry boat, and when they were about one-half way +across the boat began to sink. They tried to drive the cattle off, but +could not in time to save the boat from sinking. My family are still on +the east side and I—S— with his teams. We witnessed the scene and could +do nothing. Mrs. S— and the baby and next youngest were all under water, +but the men of the boat got into the river and took them out, and the +rest of the family got upon the wagon cover and saved themselves from +drowning. A Mr. R— jumped overboard and thought he could swim to shore, +but was drowned. He was one of Mr. S—’s hired hands. By the assistance +of one of the other boats the rest were saved, but we thought from where +we were that it was impossible that they could all be saved. Well, I +paid a man fifteen cents for taking my wife and little children across +in a skiff. They have no skiff at the ferry, but they have three good +ferryboats that they work by hand. But the people here are as near +heathens as they can be, and they go for shaving the emigrants, and then +they spend it for whiskey and get drunk and roll in it. But we are all +over on the west shore of the Missouri and in Indian territory.” + +For those congregated hosts, encamped each early spring at different +points along the banks of the Missouri, and intent as soon as grass had +grown to be sufficient for their stock to sally forth on a two thousand +mile passage to the Valley of the Willamette, the natural features of +the continent pointed out just one general route to travel. This road, +so clearly marked out by the configuration of the country for all using +their mode of conveyance, lay up the Valley of the Platte; its +tributary, the Sweetwater; through South Pass; across to the Valley of +the Snake, the tributary of the Columbia; following down the course of +the Snake to its great bend to the north; across to the Columbia; down +the Columbia to their destination. + +[Illustration: + + 9.—“INDEPENDENCE ROCK.” +] + +Those sections of the trail which constitute connecting links, as it +were, to the grander portions, can be accounted for almost as clearly as +the main sections can. Forage and water must be regularly available to +those traveling with horses, mules or oxen. These must be found in great +abundance by those who are driving considerable droves over long +stretches of arid wastes. In summer months, on the unsettled parched +plains, these resources were insured only along river or creek bottoms. +So in striking out from Independence or Saint Joseph for the Valley of +the Platte to the north, to economize in the distance traveled to the +Oregon goal, and insure supplies of the prime requisites—good water and +grass—their course would be such as to bring them to nightly camps on +the banks of one of the numerous streams flowing into the Kansas. +Passing one they would make for a higher point on the next to the west +so as to keep in a more direct line for Oregon. Fuel, so necessary for +preparing their meals, was in that region found only on the banks of +these streams. Along the Platte, the North Fork, and the Sweetwater +“buffalo chips” sufficed fairly well the need of fuel, except the night +was wet. In moving from the South Pass to the basin of the Columbia, +mountainous country made a direct route impracticable. In the detour to +the southwest the valleys of the tributaries of the Upper Green were +utilized, and particularly the most convenient northwest course of the +Bear River. The details of the course in this detour were determined by +the stepping stones, as it were, of water, grass and wood. These were +found in that desert region, too, only in the river and creek bottoms. +On issuing from the South Pass, then, the valleys of the Little Sandy, +Big Sandy, and the Green itself, had to be followed, with such crossings +from one to the other as were feasible, and were in the interests of +economy in distance, until they struck a tributary coming in from the +west, up which a passage could be made and the divide crossed, bringing +them into the Valley of the Bear, a part of the Great Salt Lake Basin. +The Valley of the Bear has a general northwest direction of some +seventy-five miles from where they usually entered it. It was in every +way a natural road to them to the point where it makes its bend to the +south. At this bend was the first fork made in early times by the +California trail’s turning off to the south. The divide at this point +between the Basin of the Great Salt Lake and the Valley of the Snake was +comparatively easy. The Snake River Valley, with its barren wastes, deep +precipitous canyons, sharp lava rocks, made a trying portion of the +route. There were several optional routes. None so acceptable as the +Platte Valley had furnished. To follow the Snake in its long bend to the +north would have led them far out of their way, so they took the +available valleys of the Burnt and Powder rivers that led them farthest +on their way towards the westerly flowing Umatilla, a tributary of the +Columbia. They thus not only kept on in a comparatively direct line +towards the Valley of the Willamette, but were also afforded water, +grass and wood so necessary for further endurance of the now well fagged +transcontinental wayfarers. But the Blue Mountains lay across this short +cut and gave them their first real experience in climbing steep mountain +sides. From the crest of these mountains the way to their goal lay down +hill, except they chose a road across the Cascade Mountains. But whether +they took the Barlow Road or dared the dangers of the gorge of the +Columbia, the darkest, sternest trials were yet to be faced by the now +weak and famished pioneers. They were, however, veterans now, and if +succored with fresh supplies from settlers in the Willamette Valley and +the strength of their cattle sufficed, no difficulties, however +stupendous, could daunt them. + +[Illustration: + + 10.—WEST END OF INDEPENDENCE ROCK. +] + +On the whole, those home-seeking pioneers, as they lay encamped on the +banks of the Missouri, could congratulate themselves that no specially +stupendous natural obstacles had been interposed in that immense stretch +that lay between them and their destination. There was only the +interminableness of it, and the facts that it was to be entered upon +while the fierce pelting spring storms of wind, rain and hail were +liable to be of daily and nightly occurrence; that muddy sloughs would +cause breakdowns, and freshet-swollen streams would be fraught with +danger; that there would then be four months in which the fierce +burning, blistering sun would have them at its mercy, and a dense, +stifling dust would enhance their misery during the midday hours to the +point of wretchedness, and no bathroom in the evening in which to find +relief; that in the later and almost final days of the journey they +would probably be exposed in approximate nakedness to the searching +blasts of the oncoming winter, fortunate if they were not caught and +held fast in mountain snows. Withal, they knew it would be a lumbering +trudge with ox teams that would take them all summer and far into the +autumn. + +Each recurring spring season family or neighborhood groups who had +determined to try their fortunes in Oregon would move out to one of the +points of departure on the Missouri border. They would soon find +themselves a part of a larger aggregation. Generally there was no more +prearrangement for this meeting than there is among birds that flock for +a migration. All who constituted the company from any one point had +simply selected the same jumping off place. + +When the grass had grown abundant enough to furnish subsistence for +their stock and draft animals, those who were ready with their outfit +would begin to file out on the prairie trails converging upon the main +Oregon road. After having traveled a day or two a halt was called by +those in advance to await the coming up of others who proposed to +undertake the same trip with themselves. The American instinct for +organization would then assert itself, and there was occasion for its +activity. They were in an Indian country. It was not wise to tempt the +predatory propensities of the savages by too much straggling in their +traveling or by too much unwariness in guarding their cattle and horses. +In order to avoid molestation by prowling bands of Pawnees, Otoes, +Cheyennes and Sioux, through whose ranges the trail east of the Rockies +passed, it was necessary to travel in companies of some size and with +such discipline as to be able to establish an effective guard at night +and to make some demonstration of force when encountering considerable +bands of Indian warriors. + +There was much economy, too, in bunching their several droves of loose +stock into a single herd, in having a single lookout for selecting +camping places, in the help that each would receive in case of accidents +that all were liable to. Very essential, too, were organization and +discipline when they came to a bank of a large stream across which their +trail led. With the earlier migrations before printed guide books were +available, organization was necessary to secure the services of a pilot. + +[Illustration: + + 11.—“DEVIL’S GATE,” + + Showing dam for leading out an irrigating ditch. +] + +The first large migrations—those of 1843 and 1844, and even of +1845—erred in attempting to go as one compact body. The difficulty of +securing adequate grazing was much enhanced as the company increased in +size. From this fact and the further fact that in case of a hitch or +accident of any kind in a large company, many would be delayed who could +be of no service in getting things fixed up for a fresh start, it +resulted that twenty or thirty wagons were the maximum limit to the size +of companies that did not chafe under their organization. In later years +six or eight wagons were a normal number for a company. Even in the +earlier migrations, when the Upper Sweetwater was reached and the danger +from the Indians was measurably past, the large companies would divide +up into sections. The earlier migrations, too, took precautions that no +person attached himself to the train unless he was furnished with such +resources as to rations and transportation that he would not likely +become a common burden. + +The records of the migrations give ample corroboration to the truth of +the adage, “Uneasy lies the head, etc.,” and yet these privately penned +diaries disclose comparatively little bickering or unwholesome feeling, +notwithstanding the severe strain human nature was under in the +conditions of this four, five, and sometimes six months’ passage. +Whenever conditions developed making advisable a division of the body +into two or more, the division was made, and all was smooth again. The +documentary material printed in this number of the Quarterly throws +light on this phase of their experience and depicts the unique +proceedings of the pioneers of 1843 in effecting an organization. + +The type of the transcontinental pioneer changed materially after the +gold-seeker was in the majority. From 1849 on the diarist’s account is +not devoid of the tragical. “These plains try and tell all the dark +spots in men,” says Rev. Jesse Moreland in his journal of the trip from +Tennessee to Oregon in 1852. He describes evidence of three executions +for murder by hanging. He says: “As they had nothing to make a gallows +out of, they took two wagon tongues, put them point to point and set a +chair in the middle, and the man stood on the chair till the rope was +tied, and then the chair was taken from under him. This is the third we +have heard of being hanged.” + +Before 1849, while the Oregon movement still constituted the great part +of the transcontinental travel, and a fierce commercial spirit was not +yet dominant, the humanity of the pioneers seemed to stand remarkably +well the strain incident to the experiences on the plains. Their +journals do not reveal half the irritation and demoralization that the +accounts of Parkman and of Coke do in companies that had vastly better +outfits and were passing over the same routes. + +The average company of immigrants in pulling through the miry sloughs of +the Missouri bottom lands in early spring, with only partly broken ox +teams, would break a wagon tongue, an axle tree, or a wheel, and suffer +more or less exasperating delay. The fierce spring storms of rain and +hail would play havoc with their tent coverings, and drench and pelt all +who must stand outside to prevent the teams and stock from stampeding. +These freshets would make impassable, for the time being, the numerous +streams of the Kansas and Nebraska prairies. With the feeling that they +must not over-exert their teams mere trifles even were allowed to delay +them during the first four or five hundred miles of the journey. + +Except they had some one like a Doctor Whitman with them to persistently +urge them to “travel, travel,” as the only condition of getting through, +there would be too much loitering in the early stages of the journey. +Those who entered upon the trip in later years had more nearly an +adequate sense of the vastness of the distance they must cover, and +wasted no time in the initial stages. + +[Illustration: + + 12.—Gap just south of Devil’s Gate—used for the Trail. +] + +Especially the migration of 1849, and to some degree those of 1850 and +1852, were in deepest dismay over the presence among them of the +dreadful scourge of cholera. The trail was lined in places along the +south side of the Platte through the width of rods with mounds of +freshly made graves after these migrations had passed. + +The Hon. F. A. Chenoweth, in his “Occasional Address” before the Oregon +Pioneer Association, in 1882, gives the following account of the ravages +of the cholera among the trains of 1849: + +“But the incidents of hardship which I have noticed were the merest +trifles compared to the terrible calamity that marked with sadness and +trailed in deep desolation over that ill-fated emigration. Very soon +after the assembled throng took up its march over the plains the +terrible wave of cholera struck them in a way to carry utmost terror and +dismay into all parts of the moving mass. + +The number of fatally stricken, after the smoke and dust were cleared +away, was not numerically so frightful as appeared to those who were in +the midst of it. But the name “cholera” in a multitude unorganized and +unnumbered is like a leak in the bottom of a ship whose decks are +thronged with passengers. The disturbed waters of the ocean, the angry +elements of nature, when aroused to fury, are but faint illustrations of +the terror-stricken mass of humanity, when in their midst are falling +with great rapidity their comrades—the strong, the young and the old—the +strength and vigor of youth melting away before an unseen foe. All this +filled our ranks with the utmost terror and gloom. This terrible malady +seemed to spend its most deadly force on the flat prairie east of and +about Fort Laramie. + +One of the appalling effects of this disease was to cause the most +devoted friends to desert, in case of attack, the fallen one. Many a +stout and powerful man fought the last battle alone on the prairie. When +the rough hand of the cholera was laid upon families they rarely had +either the assistance or the sympathy of their neighbors or traveling +companions. + +There was one feature mixed with all this terror that afforded some +degree of relief, and that was that there was no case of lingering +suffering. When attacked, a single day ordinarily ended the strife in +death or recovery. A vast amount of wagons, with beds and blankets, were +left by the roadside, which no man, not even an Indian, would approach +or touch through fear of the unknown, unseen destroyer. + +While there were sad instances of comrades deserting comrades in this +hour of extreme trial, I can not pass this point of my story without +stating that there were many instances of heroic devotion to the sick, +when such attention was regarded as almost equivalent to the offering up +of the well and healthy for the mere hope of saving the sick and dying.” + +Not a few who had purposed to go to California that year turned off on +the Oregon road to escape the contagion which the dense crowd seemed to +afford this disease. Excepting in these cholera years and in 1847 there +were only infrequent cases of mountain fever and forms of dysentery that +were developed in the alkali regions of the mountains. + +[Illustration: + + 13.—“DEVIL’S GATE,” AS SEEN FROM ABOVE. +] + +A train of pioneers with sensible outfit emerging into the valley of the +Platte in a season free from the cholera affliction could almost make it +for a time a grand pleasure excursion. The heat was not yet oppressive, +the roads good, the air exhilarating, the boundless expanse of green +undulating prairie under crystal skies filled them with a sense of +freedom. The exciting buffalo hunt was soon on and afforded them a +welcome addition to a diet exceedingly unvaried at best. After the usual +trudge during the day amid a panorama not yet monotonous the wagons +would be driven to form approximately a circle—the end of the tongue or +the front wheel of one lapping the hind wheel of the wagon in front, +according as a more or less spacious corral was desired. The oxen would +be unyoked and taken to water and then to the selected grazing spot. +Fires would be kindled alongside each wagon outside of the corral for +preparing the evening meal. After it was partaken of there would be an +hour or two before darkness settled down upon them. Then the cattle +would be brought within the corral, if there was the least apprehension +of danger, and all except the guards for the first watch and possibly +the matrons with multitudinous family cares would quickly surrender +themselves to sleep. But congenial groups of young people would +generally have a social hour or two. A blanket or extra wagon covering +was thrown on the ground beside the wagon, and, when rain threatened, +spread under the wagon. (Most were probably without tents other than the +canvas tops of their wagons.) This with something for a covering +sufficed for the beds of the young men and boys. In the morning at a +given signal all were astir—and, if the cattle had not strayed during +the night or been stampeded by Indians, breakfast over, everything was +soon in readiness for falling in, each in his appointed place, and +taking up the march that should bring them a day nearer to their Oregon +home. But this idyllic succession of days very soon developed a very +seamy side. + +The sun’s rays became more and more scorching in their fierceness, the +plains assumed a dull, leaden grayish aspect. The sagebrush and cactus +took the place of the waving grass. The burning sand and stifling dust +became deeper. These the west wind would raise into a cloud continuous +from morning until night. This cloud of sand and dust particles beating +against them at a terrific velocity they had to face all day. Soon eyes +and lips were sore. To relieve the uncomfortable feeling that the +parching air gave the lips they would unwisely be moistened and the +soreness thus extended and deepened. Soon everything was obdurately +begrimed. Rags then were in evidence. Shoes worn so as to no longer +protect the feet. In the dry, scorching air the wagons would develop +loose joints and lose their tires. + +The monotony was relieved by lying by a day now and then during which +the women would wash and mend the clothes and the men repair wagons and +hunt buffalo, the meat of which would be jerked to furnish a supply +after they had passed beyond the limits of the buffalo country. The +buffalo did not commonly range west of the Lower Sweetwater. + +The experiences which the buffalo gave them were not limited to the fine +sport of hunting him and the delicious feasts his steaks afforded. His +presence seemed to kindle into life the old ancestral wildness of the ox +and the horse. Without the least warning some sedate member of a team +would raise his head and give the old racial snort of freedom. This +would kindle the same spark in every animal of the train, and away they +would stampede with wagons, inmates and all, and not to be stopped until +utterly exhausted. In these stampedes people would be run over, bones +would be broken, oxen dehorned, their legs broken, and things demolished +generally. The simple-minded pioneer with any tendency to personify +could not help but believe that the devil had gotten into his hitherto +always tractable animals. I quote a pioneer’s account of a stampede, +though he does not ascribe it to the presence or influence of the +buffalo, as is almost always done: “After passing Devil’s Gate, a +beautiful stretch of road lay before us. All at once the teams broke +into a run—something started them, no one seemed to know what. It was a +regular stampede as to our team. Father and mother were walking; I was +walking also, and some of the children were in the wagon. Away the team +went, the hardest and the wildest running I ever saw. When they stopped +and we caught up with them, we found the children were not hurt, but the +two wheelers were down and one of them dead. It took our team a long +time to get over the scare.” + +[Illustration: + + 14.—“DEVIL’S GATE,” FROM SOME DISTANCE ABOVE. +] + +There was still another condition in which the spirit of the buffalo +made the pioneer show deference to it. This happened when a great horde +of buffalo was on a stampede bearing down upon an emigrant train that +happened to be passing across its trail. The moment was almost enough to +bring dismay to the pioneer. Either the teams of the train were urged +into something of a stampede to get out of line of the horde’s advance, +or a corral was formed and volleys fired into the impending mass to +divide it so as to leave the corral a safe island between a destructive +flood rolling by on either hand. + +Distressing accidents must almost of necessity befall them from their +carrying their loaded guns commingled with household goods on their +wagons. It is not strange that at least half of the journals should have +records of fatalities thus caused. Under the law of mathematical +probabilities, with the frequent occasion there was to remove gun or +blanket thus intermixed, while the members of the family were standing +around the wagon, accidents must occur. The small boy of the family +during this four or five months’ trip had very many occasions to clamber +out of and into the wagon while it was in motion. He, too, would come to +grief with a broken leg. Any ordinary fracture, however, even though +there were no surgeon at hand, would be attended to, so that no +deformity resulted. If the case was one seeming to require an amputation +“a butcher knife and an old dull hand saw” were improvised as surgical +instruments. But I have not found that a patient survived such an +operation and got well. The other great epochal events of family life, +marriages and births, were not infrequent on the trail, and seemed to +cause little distraction. + +The experiences of the pioneers in crossing the rivers in the line of +the trail were very diverse. It is reported of one of the migrations +that they were not compelled to ferry until they reached the Des Chutes +in Oregon. But the migration of 1844 had a serious time even with the +Black Vermillion and Big Blue, tributaries of the Kansas. Where logs +were available they were hollowed out and catamaran rafts made so as to +fit the wheels of a wagon. Sometimes the best wagon boxes would be +selected and caulked and used as flatboats. Where buffalo skins were +plentiful they would be stretched around the wagon box to make it +water-tight. In later stages of the journey, after their teams were more +reliable, it was a common practice to raise the wagon beds several +inches above the bolsters, if the depth of the stream required it, +couple several teams into a train with the most reliable in front on a +lead-rope, and drivers along the down-stream side of the other teams. +They would then ford as trains. After the rush in 1849 ferries were +established at the more important crossings, whose owners reaped rich +harvests. + +[Illustration: + + 15.—The deeply worn Trail along the Sweetwater. +] + +Their route had no rich diversity of scenic grandeur. There are most +impressive natural features along the line of it, but with their slow +mode of travel one phase became exceedingly monotonous before another +was reached. There were the vastness and solitude of the prairies and +plains, the transparency of the atmosphere that gave magnificent sweep +of view. Along the North Fork of the Platte stood great sentinel rocks +with interesting sculptured proportions. Among these are the Lone or +Court House Rock, Chimney Rock, Castle Rock, Steamboat Rock, and Scott’s +Bluff. Farther along on their journey they come to Independence Rock and +Devil’s Gate on the Sweetwater, one a huge basaltic mound upon which +with tar or with iron chisels they would register their names; the other +a most unique breach in a granitic range with sides two hundred feet +high, through which the Sweetwater flows. A week or two later they would +have the exhilarating sense of standing on the backbone of the continent +in South Pass, with the towering Wind River Mountains to their right and +the Oregon buttes to their left. A few miles on they would drink from +the Pacific springs and know they were in what was then called Oregon. +Scenery most unique was still before them on their way. Some of it, like +the panorama from the divide between the Green and the Bear rivers and +the Soda Springs, they would enjoy. But their march from the South Pass +on was a retreat. Oxen would fall helpless in their yokes, wagons would +become rickety beyond repair. The trail was strewn with wreckage, and +the stench from the dead cattle was appalling. The watering places along +the Snake were contaminated by the stock that had perished. As soon as +they reached the Blue Mountains their stock was safe from starvation, +but the exertion required of their way-worn and weak oxen on the steep +grades now before them was the last straw often that these creatures now +could not bear. They could not let them recruit; the season was far +advanced towards winter; they must press on. + +Data for determining the numbers that came across the plains to Oregon +during the successive years are as yet very unsatisfactory. The +estimates given below for 1842 and 1843 are well founded, but the +others, especially from 1847 on, are from no very tangible basis. + +At the close of 1841 the Americans in Oregon numbered possibly four +hundred. + + The immigration of 1842 estimated from 105 to 137 + The immigration of 1843 estimated from 875 to 1,000 + The immigration of 1844 estimated about 700 + The immigration of 1845 estimated about 3,000 + The immigration of 1846 estimated about 1,350 + +The above figures are taken quite closely from those given by Elwood +Evans in his address before the Pioneer Association in 1877. I make the +immigration of 1844, however, seven hundred, instead of four hundred and +seventy-five, as he gives it. + + The immigration of 1847 between 4,000 and 5,000 + The immigration of 1848 about 700 + The immigration of 1849 about 400 + The immigration of 1850 about 2,000 + The immigration of 1851 about 1,500 + The immigration of 1852 about 2,500 + +No doubt this one summer on the plains was an ordeal under which some +sensitive natures were strained and weakened for life. It may be, too, +that living for five or six months, as families, on the simplest, barest +necessities of life, fixed standards of living lower than they otherwise +would have been. The effect, however, on strong, resourceful natures of +these months on the plains could not have been other than salutary. The +pioneers, when they started, were most distinctively American in their +characteristics. As such they needed to be socialized. No better school +could have been devised than the organization and regimen of the trip +across the plains for socializing their natures. + + F. G. YOUNG. + +[Illustration: + + 16.—The “Three Crossings” of the Sweetwater. +] + + + + + A DAY WITH THE COW COLUMN IN 1843. + + By JESSE APPLEGATE. + + (Read before the Oregon Pioneer Association in 1876; reprinted from + transactions of that society.) + + +The migration of a large body of men, women and children across the +continent to Oregon was, in the year 1843, strictly an experiment; not +only in respect to the members, but to the outfit of the migrating +party. Before that date, two or three missionaries had performed the +journey on horseback, driving a few cows with them, three or four wagons +drawn by oxen had reached Fort Hall, on Snake River, but it was the +honest opinion of the most of those who had traveled the route down +Snake River, that no large number of cattle could be subsisted on its +scanty pasturage, or wagons taken over a country so rugged and +mountainous. + +The emigrants were also assured that the Sioux would be much opposed to +the passage of so large a body through their country, and would probably +resist it on account of the emigrants’ destroying and frightening away +the buffaloes, which were then diminishing in numbers. + +The migrating body numbered over one thousand souls, with about one +hundred and twenty wagons, drawn by six-ox teams, averaging about six +yokes to the team, and several thousand loose horses and cattle. + +The emigrants first organized and attempted to travel in one body, but +it was soon found that no progress could be made with a body so +cumbrous, and as yet so averse to all discipline. And at the crossing of +the “Big Blue” it divided into two columns, which traveled in supporting +distance of each other as far as Independence Rock on the Sweetwater. + +From this point, all danger from Indians being over, the emigrants +separated into small parties better suited to the narrow mountain paths +and small pastures in their front. + +Before the division on the Blue River there was some just cause for +discontent in respect to loose cattle. Some of the emigrants had only +their teams, while others had large herds in addition, which must share +the pasture and be guarded and driven by the whole body. This discontent +had its effect in the division on the Blue. Those not encumbered with or +having but few loose cattle attached themselves to the light column; +those having more than four or five cows had of necessity to join the +heavy or cow column. Hence the cow column, being much larger than the +other and much encumbered with its large herds, had to use greater +exertion and observe a more rigid discipline to keep pace with the more +agile consort. It is with the cow column that I propose to journey with +the reader for a single day. + +It is four o’clock A. M.; the sentinels on duty have discharged their +rifles—the signal that the hours of sleep are over—and every wagon and +tent is pouring forth its night tenants, and slow-kindling smokes begin +largely to rise and float away in the morning air. Sixty men start from +the corral, spreading as they make through the vast herd of cattle and +horses that make a semicircle around the encampment, the most distant +perhaps two miles away. + +[Illustration: + + 17.—“Oregon Buttes,”—taken from South Pass. +] + +The herders pass to the extreme verge and carefully examine for trails +beyond, to see that none of the animals have strayed or been stolen +during the night. This morning no trails led beyond the outside animals +in sight, and by 5 o’clock the herders begin to contract the great, +moving circle, and the well-trained animals move slowly towards camp, +clipping here and there a thistle or a tempting bunch of grass on the +way. In about an hour five thousand animals are close up to the +encampment, and the teamsters are busy selecting their teams and driving +them inside the corral to be yoked. The corral is a circle one hundred +yards deep, formed with wagons connected strongly with each other; the +wagon in the rear being connected with the wagon in front by its tongue +and ox chains. It is a strong barrier that the most vicious ox cannot +break, and in case of an attack of the Sioux would be no contemptible +intrenchment. + +From 6 to 7 o’clock is a busy time; breakfast is to be eaten, the tents +struck, the wagons loaded and the teams yoked and brought up in +readiness to be attached to their respective wagons. All know when, at 7 +o’clock, the signal to march sounds, that those not ready to take their +proper places in the line of march must fall into the dusty rear for the +day. + +There are sixty wagons. They have been divided into fifteen divisions or +platoons of four wagons each, and each platoon is entitled to lead in +its turn. The leading platoon today will be the rear one tomorrow, and +will bring up the rear unless some teamster, through indolence or +negligence, has lost his place in the line, and is condemned to that +uncomfortable post. It is within ten minutes of seven; the corral but +now a strong barricade is everywhere broken, the teams being attached to +the wagons. The women and children have taken their places in them. The +pilot (a borderer who has passed his life on the verge of civilization +and has been chosen to the post of leader from his knowledge of the +savage and his experience in travel through roadless wastes), stands +ready, in the midst of his pioneers and aids, to mount and lead the way. +Ten or fifteen young men, not today on duty, form another cluster. They +are ready to start on a buffalo hunt, are well mounted and well armed, +as they need be, for the unfriendly Sioux have driven the buffalo out of +the Platte, and the hunters must ride fifteen or twenty miles to reach +them. The cow drivers are hastening, as they get ready, to the rear of +their charge, to collect and prepare them for the day’s march. + +It is on the stroke of seven; the rush to and fro, the cracking of +whips, the loud command to oxen, and what seemed to be the inextricable +confusion of the last ten minutes has ceased. Fortunately every one has +been found and every teamster is at his post. The clear notes of a +trumpet sound in the front; the pilot and his guards mount their horses; +the leading divisions of the wagons move out of the encampment, and take +up the line of march; the rest fall into their places with the precision +of clock work, until the spot so lately full of life sinks back into +that solitude that seems to reign over the broad plain and rushing river +as the caravan draws its lazy length towards the distant El Dorado. It +is with the hunters we shall briskly canter towards the bold but smooth +and grassy bluffs that bound the broad valley, for we are not yet in +sight of the grander but less beautiful scenery (of Chimney Rock, Court +House and other bluffs, so nearly resembling giant castles and palaces), +made by the passage of the Platte through the highlands near Laramie. We +have been traveling briskly for more than an hour. We have reached the +top of the bluff, and now have turned to view the wonderful panorama +spread before us. To those who have not been on the Platte, my powers of +description are wholly inadequate to convey an idea of the vast extent +and grandeur of the picture, and the rare beauty and distinctness of the +detail. No haze or fog obscures objects in the pure and transparent +atmosphere of this lofty region. To those accustomed only to the murky +air of the seaboard, no correct judgment of distance can be formed by +sight, and objects which they think they can reach in a two hours’ walk +may be a day’s travel away; and though the evening air is a better +conductor of sound, on the high plain during the day the report of the +loudest rifle sounds little louder than the bursting of a cap; and while +the report can be heard but a few hundred yards, the smoke of the +discharge may be seen for miles. So extended is the view from the bluff +on which the hunters stand, that the broad river glowing under the +morning sun like a sheet of silver, and the broader emerald valley that +borders it, stretch away in the distance until they narrow at almost two +points in the horizon, and when first seen, the vast pile of the Wind +River Mountains though hundreds of miles away, looks clear and distinct +as a white cottage on the plain. + +[Illustration: + + 18.—“STEAMBOAT SPRING” ON THE BANKS OF THE BEAR RIVER. +] + +We are full six miles away from the line of march; though everything is +dwarfed by distance, it is seen distinctly. The caravan has been about +two hours in motion and is now as widely extended as a prudent regard +for safety will permit. First, near the bank of the shining river is a +company of horsemen; they seem to have found an obstruction, for the +main body has halted while three or four ride rapidly along the bank of +the creek or slough. They are hunting a favorable crossing for the +wagons; while we look they have succeeded; it has apparently required no +work to make it passable, for all but one of the party have passed on, +and he has raised a flag, no doubt a signal to the wagons to steer their +course to where he stands. The leading teamster sees him, though he is +yet two miles off, and steers his course directly towards him, all the +wagons following in his track. They (the wagons) form a line +three-quarters of a mile in length; some of the teamsters ride upon the +front of their wagons, some march beside their teams; scattered along +the line companies of women are taking exercise on foot; they gather +bouquets of rare and beautiful flowers that line the way; near them +stalks a stately greyhound, or an Irish wolf dog, apparently proud of +keeping watch and ward over his master’s wife and children. Next comes a +band of horses; two or three men or boys follow them, the docile and +sagacious animals scarce needing this attention, for they have learned +to follow in the rear of the wagons, and know that at noon they will be +allowed to graze and rest. Their knowledge of time seems as accurate as +of the place they are to occupy in the line, and even a full-blown +thistle will scarce tempt them to straggle or halt until the dinner hour +has arrived. Not so with the large herd of horned beasts that bring up +the rear; lazy, selfish and unsocial, it has been a task to get them in +motion, the strong always ready to domineer over the weak, halt in the +front and forbid the weak to pass them. They seem to move only in the +fear of the driver’s whip; though in the morning, full to repletion, +they have not been driven an hour before their hunger and thirst seem to +indicate a fast of days’ duration. Through all the long day their greed +is never satisfied, nor their thirst quenched, nor is there a moment of +relaxation of the tedious and vexatious labors of their drivers, +although to all others the march furnishes some season of relaxation or +enjoyment. For the cow drivers there is none. + +But from the standpoint of the hunters, the vexations are not apparent; +the crack of whips and loud objurgation are lost in the distance. +Nothing of the moving panorama, smooth and orderly as it appears, has +more attractions for the eye than that vast square column in which all +colors are mingled, moving here slowly and there briskly, as impelled by +horsemen riding furiously in front and rear. + +[Illustration: + + 19.—“AMERICAN FALLS.” + + Railroad bridge of the “Oregon Short Line.” +] + +But the picture in its grandeur, its wonderful mingling of colors and +distinctness of detail, is forgotten in contemplation of the singular +people who give it life and animation. No other race of men with the +means at their command would undertake so great a journey, none save +these could successfully perform it, with no previous preparation, +relying only on the fertility of their own invention to devise the means +to overcome each danger and difficulty as it arose. They have undertaken +to perform with slow-moving oxen a journey of two thousand miles. The +way lies over trackless wastes, wide and deep rivers, ragged and lofty +mountains, and is beset with hostile savages. Yet, whether it were a +deep river with no tree upon its banks, a rugged defile where even a +loose horse could not pass, a hill too steep for him to climb, or a +threatened attack of an enemy, they are always found ready and equal to +the occasion, and always conquerors. May we not call them men of +destiny? They are people changed in no essential particulars from their +ancestors, who have followed closely on the footsteps of the receding +savage, from the Atlantic seaboard to the great Valley of the +Mississippi. + +But while we have been gazing at the picture in the valley, the hunters +have been examining the high plain in the other direction. Some dark +moving objects have been discovered in the distance, and all are closely +watching them to discover what they are, for in the atmosphere of the +plains a flock of crows marching miles away, or a band of buffaloes or +Indians at ten times the distance look alike, and many ludicrous +mistakes occur. But these are buffaloes, for two have struck their heads +together and are, alternately, pushing each other back. The hunters +mount and away in pursuit, and I, a poor cow-driver, must hurry back to +my daily toil, and take a scolding from my fellow herders for so long +playing truant. + +The pilot, by measuring the ground and timing the speed of the wagons +and the walk of his horses, has determined the rate of each, so as to +enable him to select the nooning place, as nearly as the requisite grass +and water can be had at the end of five hours’ travel of the wagons. +Today, the ground being favorable, little time has been lost in +preparing the road, so that he and his pioneers are at the nooning place +an hour in advance of the wagons, which time is spent in preparing +convenient watering places for the animals, and digging little wells +near the bank of the Platte, as the teams are not unyoked, but simply +turned loose from the wagons, a corral is not formed at noon, but the +wagons are drawn up in columns, four abreast, the leading wagon of each +platoon on the left, the platoons being formed with that in view. This +brings friends together at noon as well as at night. + +[Illustration: + + 20.—Near summit of Blue Mountains—Meacham Station of O. R. & N. R. R. + on the Trail, and site of “Lee Encampment.” +] + +Today an extra session of the council is being held, to settle a dispute +that does not admit of delay, between a proprietor and a young man who +has undertaken to do a man’s service on the journey for bed and board. +Many such engagements exist, and much interest is taken in the manner in +which this high court, from which there is no appeal, will define the +rights of each party in such engagements. The council was a high court +in the most exalted sense. It was a senate composed of the ablest and +most respected fathers of the emigration. It exercised both legislative +and judicial powers, and its laws and decisions proved it equal and +worthy of the high trust reposed in it. Its sessions were usually held +on days when the caravan was not moving. It first took the state of the +little commonwealth into consideration; revised or repealed rules +defective or obsolete, and enacted such others as the exigencies seemed +to require. The common weal being cared for, it next resolved itself +into a court to hear and settle private disputes and grievances. The +offender and the aggrieved appeared before it; witnesses were examined, +and the parties were heard by themselves and sometimes by counsel. The +judges being thus made fully acquainted with the case, and being in no +way influenced or cramped by technicalities, decided all cases according +to their merits. There was but little use for lawyers before this court, +for no plea was entertained which was calculated to hinder or defeat the +ends of justice. Many of these judges have since won honors in higher +spheres. They have aided to establish on the broad basis of right and +universal liberty two pillars of our great Republic in the Occident. +Some of the young men who appeared before them as advocates have +themselves sat upon the highest judicial tribunals, commanded armies, +been governors of states and taken high position in the senate of the +nation. + +It is now one o’clock; the bugle has sounded and the caravan has resumed +its westward journey. It is in the same order, but the evening is far +less animated than the morning march; a drowsiness has fallen apparently +on man and beast; teamsters drop asleep on their perches and even when +walking by their teams, and the words of command are now addressed to +the slowly creeping oxen in the soft tenor of women or the piping treble +of children, while the snores of the teamsters make a droning +accompaniment. But a little incident breaks the monotony of the march. +An emigrant’s wife, whose state of health has caused Doctor Whitman to +travel near the wagon for the day, is now taken with violent illness. +The Doctor has had the wagon driven out of the line, a tent pitched and +a fire kindled. Many conjectures are hazarded in regard to this +mysterious proceeding, and as to why this lone wagon is to be left +behind. And we too must leave it, hasten to the front and note the +proceedings, for the sun is now getting low in the west and at length +the painstaking pilot is standing ready to conduct the train in the +circle which he has previously measured and marked out, which is to form +the invariable fortification for the night. The leading wagons follow +him so nearly around the circle that but a wagon length separates them. +Each wagon follows in its track, the rear closing on the front, until +its tongue and ox chains will perfectly reach from one to the other, and +so accurate the measure and perfect the practice, that the hindmost +wagon of the train always precisely closes the gateway, as each wagon is +brought into position. It is dropped from its team (the teams being +inside the circle), the team unyoked and the yokes and chains are used +to connect the wagon strongly with that in its front. Within ten minutes +from the time the leading wagon halted, the barricade is formed, the +teams unyoked and driven out to pasture. Every one is busy preparing +fires of buffalo chips to cook the evening meal, pitching tents and +otherwise preparing for the night. There are anxious watchers for the +absent wagon, for there are many matrons who may be afflicted like its +inmate before the journey is over; and they fear the strange and +startling practice of this Oregon doctor will be dangerous. But as the +sun goes down the absent wagon rolls into camp, the bright, speaking +face and cheery look of the doctor, who rides in advance, declare +without words that all is well, and both mother and child are +comfortable. I would fain now and here pay a passing tribute to that +noble and devoted man, Doctor Whitman. I will obtrude no other name upon +the reader, nor would I his were he of our party or even living, but his +stay with us was transient, though the good he did was permanent, and he +has long since died at his post. + +[Illustration: + + 21.—Falls of the Willamette—the objective point of the pioneers. +] + +From the time he joined us on the Platte until he left us at Fort Hall, +his great experience and indomitable energy were of priceless value to +the migrating column. His constant advice, which we knew was based upon +a knowledge of the road before us, was, “Travel, _travel_, TRAVEL; +nothing else will take you to the end of your journey; nothing is wise +that does not help you along; nothing is good for you that causes a +moment’s delay.” His great authority as a physician and complete success +in the case above referred to, saved us many prolonged and perhaps +ruinous delays from similar causes, and it is no disparagement to others +to say that to no other individual are the emigrants of 1843 so much +indebted for the successful conclusion of their journey as to Dr. Marcus +Whitman. + +All able to bear arms in the party have been formed into three +companies, and each of these into four watches; every third night it is +the duty of one of these companies to keep watch and ward over the camp, +and it is so arranged that each watch takes its turn of guard duty +through the different watches of the night. Those forming the first +watch tonight will be second on duty, then third and fourth, which +brings them through all the watches of the night. They begin at 8 +o’clock P. M., and end at 4 o’clock A. M. + +It is not yet 8 o’clock when the first watch is to be set; the evening +meal is just over, and the corral now free from the intrusion of cattle +or horses, groups of children are scattered over it. The larger are +taking a game of romps; “the wee toddling things” are being taught that +great achievement that distinguishes man from the lower animals. Before +a tent near the river a violin makes lively music, and some youths and +maidens have improvised a dance upon the green; in another quarter a +flute gives its mellow and melancholy notes to the still night air, +which, as they float away over the quiet river, seem a lament for the +past rather than a hope for the future. It has been a prosperous day; +more than twenty miles have been accomplished of the great journey. The +encampment is a good one; one of the causes that threatened much future +delay has just been removed by the skill and energy of that “good angel” +of the emigrants, Doctor Whitman, and it has lifted a load from the +hearts of the elders. Many of these are assembled around the good doctor +at the tent of the pilot (which is his home for the time being), and are +giving grave attention to his wise and energetic counsel. The care-worn +pilot sits aloof, quietly smoking his pipe, for he knows the brave +doctor is “strengthening his hands.” + +[Illustration: + + 22.—The Union Pacific Building, Omaha,—site of one of the “jumping + off” points for Oregon. +] + +But time passes; the watch is set for the night; the council of old men +has been broken up, and each has returned to his own quarter; the flute +has whispered its last lament to the deepening night; the violin is +silent, and the dancers have dispersed; enamored youth have whispered a +tender “good night” in the ear of blushing maidens, or stolen a kiss +from the lips of some future bride—for Cupid here, as elsewhere, has +been busy bringing together congenial hearts, and among these simple +people he alone is consulted in forming the marriage tie. Even the +doctor and the pilot have finished their confidential interview and have +separated for the night. All is hushed and repose from the fatigues of +the day, save the vigilant guard and the wakeful leader, who still has +cares upon his mind that forbid sleep. He hears the 10 o’clock relief +taking post and the “all well” report of the returned guard; the night +deepens, yet he seeks not the needed repose. At length a sentinel +hurries to him with the welcome report that a party is approaching—as +yet too far away for its character to be determined, and he instantly +hurries out in the direction in which it was seen. This he does both +from inclination and duty, for in times past the camp had been +unnecessarily alarmed by timid or inexperienced sentinels, causing much +confusion and fright amongst women and children, and it had been a rule +that all extraordinary incidents of the night should be reported +directly to the pilot, who alone had the authority to call out the +military strength of the column, or of so much of it as was in his +judgment necessary to prevent a stampede or repel an enemy. Tonight he +is at no loss to determine that the approaching party are our missing +hunters, and that they have met with success, and he only waits until by +some further signal he can know that no ill has happened to them. This +is not long wanting. He does not even await their arrival, but the last +care of the day being removed, and the last duty performed, he too seeks +the rest that will enable him to go through the same routine tomorrow. +But here I leave him, for my task is also done, and unlike his, it is to +be repeated no more. + + +NOTE—A CORRECTION—Col. George B. Currey was the author of “The Tribute +to the Ox Whip,” not Col. George L. Curry, as printed in this number. + + + + + COL. GEORGE L. CURRY’S TRIBUTE TO THE OX WHIP. + + (Reprinted from Transactions of the Oregon Pioneer Association.) + + +My task is to call from dust and dark forgetfulness that advance banner +of Americanism and progress—the ox whip. Its crack was the command +“Forward to the nation.” Its sharp, keen accent proclaimed that +obstacles to prayers must be overcome. It waved aloft on the prairies of +the “Old West,” and pointing to the new, a vast throng took up the +westward march, which, keeping step to the music of destiny, dashed +across the broad Missouri, rolled a living tide up the grassy slope of +the Platte, scaled the imperial heights of the Rocky Mountains, and with +“the tread of a giant and shout of a conquerer” defied the heat, dust, +thirst and hunger, the desert heart of the continent, leaped the Blue +Mountains, paused but quailed not on the banks of the deep, wide +Columbia, where again the potential crack is heard and the mighty, +“rock-ribbed” walls of the Cascades are stormed, and as the line rolls +bravely over the giddy summit the exultant driver gives a grand +triumphant crack into the stolid face of grand old Hood, the storm-clad +sentinel of the mountain fastness. The people have reached their goal. +The spell is broken. The errand has lost its magic, its mission has been +accomplished. A state, with freedom’s diadem effulgent on its brow +salutes the eye, and dipping its young hand in the Pacific completes the +baptism of human liberty and proclaims an “ocean-bound republic.” All +hail and honor to the ox whip, the symbol of the grand, achieving force +of its age. + +[Illustration: + + 23.—Street, Oregon City,—about where the pioneers broke ranks. +] + + + + + THE CAMP FIRES OF THE PIONEERS. + + + _VINCERE EST VIVERE!_ + + By SAM L. SIMPSON. + + [Reprinted from Transactions of Pioneer Association.] + + Striking at ease his epic lyre, + The laureled Mantuan has sung + Beleagured Troy’s illustrious pyre— + The daring sail Æneas flung + To wayward gales, the voyage long + That tracks the silver wave of song; + Until the worn and weary oar + Has kissed the far Lavinian shore; + The Argo’s classic pennon streams + Along sweet horizons of dreams,— + The Mayflower has furled her wings, + And restfully at anchor swings— + Columbia chants to columned seas + The triumph of the Genoese, + And yet, stout hearts, no fitting meed + Of panegyric crowns your deed + From which a stately empire springs. + + The minions of a perfumed age + Already crowd upon the stage,— + The massive manhood of the past + In many a graceful mould is cast; + And yet with calm and kindly eyes + You view the feast for others spread, + And hail the blue benignant skies + Resigned and grandly comforted. + It was for this you broke the way + Before the sunset gates of day— + For this, with godlike faith endued, + You scaled the misty crags of fate, + And, with resounding labors, hewed + The Doric pillars of the state. + + There is no task for you to do— + Your tents are furled, the bugle blown— + But yet another day, and you + Will live in clustered fame alone. + The fir will chant a song of rue, + The pine will drop a wreath, may be, + And o’er the dim Cascades the stars + Will nightly roll the gleaming cars + You followed well from sea to sea. + Before your scarred battalion’s wheel + Into the mystic realm of shade, + And on your grizzled brows the seal + Of mystery is softly laid, + Once more around your old campfires, + That smoulder like fulfilled desires, + Rehearse the story of your toils + Display the hero crowned with spoils— + The glimmer of triumphant steel, + Beneath the garland and the braid. + + O, further than the legions bore + The eagles of Imperial Rome— + Three thousand miles, a weary march, + You followed Hesper’s golden torch, + Until it stooped on this green shore, + And lit the rosy fires of home. + It was a solemn morn you turned + And quenched the sacred flames that burned + On hearths endeared for years and years; + It seemed your very souls grew dark + With those sweet fires—the latest spark + Was drowned in bitter, bitter tears. + A softer, sweeter sunlight wrapt + The forms of all familiar things, + And as each cord of feeling snapt + Another angel furled its wings: + The lights and shadows in the lane, + The oak beside the foot-worn stile + Whose wheeling shades a weary while + Had told the hours of joy and pain— + The vine that clambered o’er the door + And many a purple cluster bore— + The vestal flowers of household love— + The sloping roof that wore the stain + Of summer sun and winter rain, + And smoky chimney tops above— + The beauty of the orchard trees, + Bedecked with blossoms, glad with bees— + The brook that all the livelong day + Had many things to sing and say— + All these upon your vision dwell + And weave the sorrow of farewell. + + And now the last good-bye is said— + Good-bye! the living and the dead + In those sad words together speak, + And all your chosen ways are bleak! + Forward! The cracking lashes send + A thrill of action down the train,— + Their brawny necks the oxen bend + With creaking yoke and clanking chain; + The horsemen gallop down the line, + And swerve around the lowing kine + That straggle loosely on the plain— + And lift glad hands to babes that laugh + And dash the buttercups like chaff. + Hurrah! the skies are jewel blue— + In tasseled green and braided gold + The robes of April are enrolled, + + And hopes are high and hearts are true! + Hurrah! hurrah! the bold, the free— + The sudden sweep of ecstacy + That lifts the soul on wings of fire, + When fears consume and doubts expire, + And life, in one red torrent, leaps + To join the march of boundless deeps! + + And now the sun is dropping down + And lights and shadows, red and brown + Are weaving sunset’s purple spell: + The teams are freed, the fires are made, + Like scarlet night flow’rs in the shade, + And pleasant groups before, between, + Are thronging in the fitful sheen— + The day is done, and “all is well.” + + So pass the days, so fall the nights; + A banquet of renewed delights; + The old horizons lift and pass + In magic changes like a dream, + And in the heavens’ azure glass + Tomorrow’s jasper arches gleam— + With many a vale and mountain mass, + And many a singing, shining stream. + The post is dead and daisied now— + In shadow fades from heart and brow— + The air is incense, and the breeze + Is sweet with siren melodies, + And all the castled hills before + In blooming vistas sweep and soar + Like silver lace, the clouds are strewn + Along the distant, dreamy zone; + It is a happy, happy time, + As wayward as a poet’s rhyme, + And ever as the sun goes down + The west is shut with rosy bars, + And Night puts on her golden crown + And fills the vases of the stars. + + · · · · · + + A hundred nights, a hundred days, + Nor folded cloud nor silken haze + Mellow the sun’s midsummer blaze. + Along a brown and barren plain + In silence drags the wasted train; + The dust starts up beneath your tread, + Like angry ashes of the dead, + To blind you with a choking cloud + And wrap you in a yellow shroud. + There are no birds to sing your joy, + You have no joy for birds to sing,— + A hundred fangs your hearts destroy— + A thousand troubles fret and sting. + The desert mocks you all the while + With that dry shimmer of a smile + That dazzles on a bleaching skull,— + + The bloom is withered on your cheek + You slowly move and lowly speak, + And every eye is dim and dull. + Alas, it is a lonesome land + Of bitter sage and barren sand + Under a bitter, barren sky + That never heard the robin sing, + Nor kissed the larks’s exultant wing, + Nor breathed a rose’s fragrant sigh! + A weary land—alas! alas! + The shadows of the vultures pass— + A spectral sign across your path; + The gaunt, gray wolf, with head askance + Throws back at you a scowlling glance + Of cringing hate and coward wrath. + And like a wraith accursed and banned + Fades out before your lifted hand; + A dim, sad land, forgot, forsworn + By all bright life that may not mourn— + Acrazed with glist’ning ghosts of seas + In broideries of flower and trees, + And rivers, blue and cool, that seem + To ripple as in fevered dream— + Only to taunt the thirst, and fly + From withered lips and lurid eye. + + A hundred days, a hundred nights— + The goal is farther than before, + And all the changing shades and lights + Are wrought in fancy’s woof no more. + The sun is weary overhead, + And pallid deserts round you spread + A sorrowful eternity; + And if some grisly mountain here + Confront your march with forms of fear, + You turn aside and pass them by. + And all are overworn—the flesh + Is now a frayed and faded mesh + That will not mask the inward flame; + There is no longer any care + To round the speech, or speak men fair, + Or any gentle sense of shame; + The hearts of all are shifted through— + The grain drops through the windy husks + And false lights flick’ring round the true + Are quenched at last in dews and dusk. + And some are silent, some are loud + And rage like beasts among the crowd,— + And some are mild, and some are sharp + In word and deed, and snarl and carp, + And fret the camp with petty broils; + And some of temper, sweet and bland, + Do seem to bear a magic wand + That wins the secret of their toils— + Rare souls that waste like sandal-wood + In many a fragrant deed and mood; + And some invoke the wrath of God, + + Or feign to kiss the burning rod,— + And some, may be, with better prayers, + Stand up in all their griefs and cares + And clinch their teeth, and do and die + Without a whine, a curse or cry. + And so the dust and grit and stain + Of travel wears into the grain; + And so the hearts and souls of men + Were darkly tried and tested then + That, in the happy after years, + When rainbows gild remembered tears, + Should any friend inquire of you + If such or such an one you knew— + I hear the answer, terse and grim, + “Ah, yes; I crossed the plains with him!” + + And, lo! a moaning phantom stands, + To greet you in the lonely lands, + Among all lesser shadows, dight + With spoils of death; his meager hands + Salute you as you pass, and claim + The sacrifice that feeds his flame. + The march has broken into flight, + And wreck and ruin strew the road + The flaming phantom has bestrode; + The ox lies gasping in his yoke + Beside the wagon that he drew— + Where the forsaken campfires smoke + To hopeless skies of tawny blue; + And here are straight, still mounds that mark + The flight of life’s delusive spark— + The somber points of pause that lie + So thick in human destiny. + And oh, so dark on this bleak page + Of drifting sand and dreary sage! + The sultry levels of the day, + The night with weird enchantment fills, + And frowning forests stretch away + Along the slopes of shadow hills; + And in the solemn stillness breaks + The wild-wolf music of the plain, + As if a deeper sorrow wakes + The dreary dead in that refrain + That swells and gathers like a wail + Of woe from Pluto’s ebon pale, + And sinks in pulseless calm again. + + A change at last!—an opal mist + Along the faint horizon’s rim + Is banked against the amethyst + Of summer sky—so far, so dim, + You shade your eyes, and gaze and gaze, + Until there wavers into sight + A swinging, swaying strand of white, + And then the sapphire walls and towns + That breaks the light in quiv’ring showers + And float and fade in diamond haze;— + It is the mountains!—grand and calm + As God upon his awful throne; + They build you strength and breathe you balm, + For all their templed might of stone + Is our eternal sculptured psalm! + And now your western course is led + Where grassy pampas spread and spread + The pastures of the buffalo; + And like the sudden lash of foam + When tropic tempest smite the sea + And masts are stript to ward the blow— + A ragged whirl of dust described + Upon the prairie’s sloping side + Portends a storm as swift and free,— + And lo, the herds—they come! they come! + A sweeping thunder cloud of life + Loud as Niagara, and grand + As they who rode with plume and brand + On Waterloo’s red slope of strife; + Wild as the rush of tidal waves, + That roar among the crags and caves, + The trampling besom hurls along— + A black and bounding, fiery mass + That withers, as with flame, the grass— + O! terrible—ten thousand strong! + Meanwhile, the dusty teams are stopt, + The wagon tongues are deftly dropt, + And drivers by their oxen stand + And soothe them with soft speech and hand. + And yet, with horns tossed free, and eyes + Ablaze with purple depths of ire, + A thousand servile years expire + And flashes of old nature rise, + As if a sudden spirit woke + That would not brook the chain and yoke,— + And then, the stormy pageant past, + They bow their callous necks at last, + And with a heavy stride and slow, + The dreams of liberty forego. + + Alas! it is a land of shades. + And mystic visions, swift alarms; + The fretted spirit flames and fades + With clanging calls to prayers or arms. + * * * The day is dying, and the sun + Hangs like a jewel rich with fire + In the deep west of your desire. + And o’er the wide plateau is rolled + A surge of crinkled sunset gold, + Bordered with shadows gray and dun. + A horseman with loose, waving hair, + Black as the blackest of despair, + Wheels into sight and gives you heed, + And on its haunches reins his steed, + All quivering like a river reed, + And sits him like a statue there,— + Transfigured in the sunset sea— + A bronze, bare sphynx of mystery! + A moment thus, in wonder lost, + His eagle plumes all backward tossed, + Then wheels again, as swift as wind, + The wild hair floating free behind. + And sunset’s crinkled surges pour + Along an empty waste once more! + But you, since that fantastic shade + Across your desert path has played, + Distrust the very ground you tread, + And shiver with a nameless dread + Till stars drop crimson, and the sky + Is wan with heartless treachery. + + · · · · · + + For many days a form of white + Has flashed and faded in your sight + In fleeting glimpses, as of wings, + Our God’s bright palm in beckonings. + It is a secret nursed of each— + You dare not give the thought in speech, + So wierdly solemn is the sign— + As if, upon the western stairs, + The angels of a thousand prayers + Were come with sacred bread and wine. + Again, the still, enchanted hour + Of sunset burns in crimson flower, + And purple-hearted shadows sleep + Like clustered pansies, warm and deep, + Eastward of wreathen crag and wall. + The road that wound and wound all day + In many a dark and devious way + At last with one swift curve ascends + A rolling plain that breaks and bends + Westward, till rosy curtains fall + O’er mountains massed and magical. + Resplendent as a pearly tent + Upon the fir-fringed battlement— + Serene in sunset gold and rose, + A pyramid of splendor glows, + So vast and calm and bright your dream + Is dust and ashes in its gleam. + A maiden speaks—“He led us far— + It is the golden western star!” + And then a youth—“Our goal is won— + ’Tis the pavilion of the sun.” + A gray sage, then, in undertone— + “It must be Hood, so grand and lone— + The shining citadel and throne + Of Terminus, that Roman god + Who marked the line that legions trod, + And set the limits of the world + Where Cæsar’s battle flags were furled! + Oh, for the days of dark-eyed prophetess + Who sang in Syrian wilderness + The gilded chariots’ overthrow, + To lead us for the cymbaled song + To him, the beautiful and strong, + Who dashed the brimming cup of woe + And was our cloud and flame so long!” + + Forward! the crested mountains kneel + To patient tolls of fire and steel— + A way is hewn and you emerge + Upon the Cascades’ battled verge;— + And far beneath you and away + To ocean’s shining fringe of foam + And summer vail of floating spray, + Behold the land of your emprise, + Serene as tender twilight skies + When day is swooning into gloam! + It is the morning twilight now + That wraps the valley’s misted brow; + The bourgeoning and blooming dawn— + The reveille of Oregon. + + How brightly on your vision, first + The pictured vales and woodlands burst,— + The lakelets set like twinkling gems + Along the prairies’ pleated hems,— + The silver crooks and rippled sweeps + Of happy rivers here and there, + And many a waterfall that leaps + In rainbow garlands through the air,— + The skirted maples and the groves + Of oak the mild home-spirit loves— + Enameled plains and crenelled hills + And tangled skeins of brooks and rills,— + Imperial forests of the fir, + All redolent of musk and myrrh, + That fling and furl their banners old, + And still their gloomy secret hold + As Time his cloudy censer fills. + + · · · · · + + Where the foothills are wedded to the meadow + In the dimples that dally and pass + And the oak swings an indolent shadow + On the daisies that dial the grass.— + In the crescents of rivers; in hollows + Red-lipped in the strawberry time, + And the slope where the forests half follows, + A brooklet’s melodious rhyme,— + On the sun-rippled knolls, and the prairies, + Beloved of the wandering kine— + In the skirts of the woodland the fairies + Embroidered with rose and with vine— + There’s a tent, and a smoke that is curling + Above in the beautiful dome, + Like a guardian spirit unfurling + Soft wings o’er the temple of home. + And the ax of the woodman is ringing + All day in sylvestrian halls, + Where the chipmunk is playfully springing + And the blue-jay discordantly calls; + And the red chips are fitfully flying + On the asters that sprinkle the moss; + Where the beauty of summer is dying, + And the sun lances glimmer across; + There’s a bird that is spectrally knocking, + On a pine that is withered and bare, + For the fir-top is trembling and rocking, + In the blue of the clear upper air— + There’s a crackling of fiber—the crashing + Of a century crushed at a blow, + And the fir-trees are wringing and lashing + Their hands in a frenzy of woe! + + A pheasant whirs up from the thicket + In the hush that comes after the fall, + And the squirrel retires to his wicket, + And the bluebird renounces his call; + And the panther lies crouched by the bowlder + In the gloom of the canyon anear, + And the brown bear looks over his shoulder, + And the buck blows a signal of fear; + But there’s never a pause in your duty, + And the echoing ax is not still + As you waste with the green temples of beauty + For the puncheon and rafter and sill + That are wrought in a cabin so lowly + The trees will clasp hands over head, + But the heart calls it home, and the holy + Love-lights on its hearthstone are shed. + + It is staunch and rough-hewn, and the ceiling + Of the fragrant red cedar is made, + With an edging of silver revealing + A picture of sunlight and shade. + And the Word has its place, not a trifle + Obscured in a pageant of books, + And above the broad mantle your rifle + Is hung on accessible hooks. + Oh, the freshness of hope and of fancy + That illumines the home and the heart, + With the grace of a bright necromancy + That excels the adorning of art! + And you rise and look forth and the glory + Of Hood is before you again, + And the sun weaves a gold-threaded story + In the purple of mountain and glen. + + · · · · · + + Stand up, and look out from the mansion + That adorns the old scene of the past + On the fruitage of hope—the expansion + Of the fruits of your vigils forecast! + While the shadows of Hood have been wheeling + Away from the face of the sun, + What a glamour of change has been stealing + On the fields that you painfully won! + Like the castles that fade at cock-crowing + The enchantments arise and advance + Where the cities of commerce are glowing + Like pearls in the braids of romance; + For a state, in the shimmering armor + Of the Pallas Athena has come, + And her ægis is fringed with the warmer + Refulgence that circles our home. + + As for you, you are gray, and the thunder + Of the battle has smitten each brow + Where the freshness of youth was turned under + By Time’s immemorial plow; + But the pictures of memory linger, + Like the shadows that turn to the East, + And will point with a tremulous finger + To the things that are perished and ceased; + For the trail and the foot-log have vanished, + The canoe is a song and a tale, + And flickering church spire has banished + The uncanny red man from the vale; + The cayuse is no longer in fashion— + He is gone—with a flutter of heels, + And the old wars are dead, and their passions + In the crystal of culture congeals; + And the wavering flare of the pitch light + That illumines your banquets no more, + Will return like a wandering witch-light + And uncrimson the fancies of yore— + When you dance the “Old Arkansaw” gaily + In brogans that had followed the bear, + And quaffed the delight of Castaly + From the fiddle that wailed like despair; + And so lightly you wrought with the hammer, + And so truly with ax and with plow— + And you blazed your own trails through the grammar, + As the record must fairly allow; + But you builded a state in whose arches + Shall be carven the deed and the name, + And posterity lengthens its marches + In the golden starlight of your fame! + + + + + PILGRIMS OF THE PLAINS. + + By JOAQUIN MILLER. + + + A tale half told and hardly understood; + The talk of bearded men that chanced to meet, + That lean’d on long quaint rifles in the wood, + That look’d in fellow faces, spoke discreet + And low, as half in doubt and in defeat + Of hope; a tale it was of lands of gold + That lay toward the sun. Wild wing’d and fleet + It spread among the swift Missouri’s bold + Unbridled men, and reach’d to where Ohio roll’d. + + Then long chain’d lines of yoked and patient steers; + Then long white trains that pointed to the west; + Beyond the savage west; the hopes and fears + Of blunt, untutor’d men, who hardly guess’d + Their course; the brave and silent women, dress’d + In homely spun attire, the boys in bands, + The cheery babes that laughed at all and bless’d + The doubting hearts with laughing lifted hands— + What exodus for far untraversed lands! + + The Plains! The shouting drivers at the wheel; + The crash of leather whips; the crush and roll + Of wheels; the groan of yokes and grinding steel + And iron chain, and lo! at last the whole + Vast line, that reached as if to touch the goal, + Began to stretch and stream away and wind + Toward the west, as if with one control: + Then hope loom’d fair, and home lay far behind; + Before, the boundless plain, and fiercest of their kind. + + At first the way lay green and fresh as seas, + And far away as any reach of wave; + The sunny streams went by in belt of trees; + And here and there the tassell’d tawny brave + Swept by on horse, looked back, stretched forth and gave + A yell of hell, and then did wheel and rein + Awhile and point away, dark-brow’d and grave, + Into the far and dim and distant plain + With signs and prophecies, and then plunged on again. + + Some hills at last began to lift and break; + Some streams began to fail of wood and tide, + The somber plain began betime to take + A hue of weary brown, and wild and wide + It stretch’d its naked breast on every side. + A babe was heard at last to cry for bread + Amid the deserts; cattle low’d and died, + And dying men went by with broken tread, + And left a long black serpent line of wreck and dead. + + Strange hunger’d birds, black-wing’d and still as death, + And crown’d of red and hooked beaks, flew low + And close about till we could touch their breath— + Strange unnamed birds, that seem’d to come and go + In circles now, and now direct and slow, + Continual, yet never touch the earth; + Slim foxes shied and shuttled to and fro + At times across the dusty weary dearth + Of life, looked back, then sank like crickets in a hearth. + + Then dust arose, a long dim line like smoke + From out of riven earth. The wheels went groaning by, + The thousand feet in harness, and in yoke, + They tore the ways of ashen alkali, + And desert winds blew sudden, swift, and dry. + The dust! It sat upon and fill’d the train. + It seem’d to fret and fill the very sky. + Lo! dust upon the beasts, the tent, the plain, + And dust, alas! on breasts that rose not up again. + + They sat in desolation and in dust + By dried-up desert streams; the mother’s hands + Hid all her bended face; the cattle thrust + Their tongues and faintly called across the lands. + The babes that knew not what the way through sands + Could mean, did ask if it would end today. + The panting wolves slid by, red-eyed, in bands + To pools beyond. The men look’d far away, + And silent deemed that all a boundless desert lay. + + They rose by night, they struggl’d on and on + As thin and still as ghosts; then here and there + Beside the dusty way before the dawn, + Men silent laid them down in their despair, + And died. But woman! Woman, frail as fair! + May man have strength to give to you your due; + You falter’d not nor murmur’d anywhere, + You held your babes, held to your course, and you + Bore on through burning hell your double burdens through. + + Men stood at last, the decimated few, + Above a land of running streams, and they? + They pushed aside the boughs, and peering through + Beheld afar the cool refreshing bay; + Then some did curse, and some bend hands to pray; + But some looked back upon the desert wide + And desolate with death, then all the day + They mourned. But one, with nothing left beside + His dog to love, crept down among the ferns and died. + + + + + PIONEERS OF THE PACIFIC + + BY JOAQUIN MILLER. + + + · · · · · + + The wild man’s yell, the groaning wheel, + The train moved like drifting barge; + The dust rose up like a cloud, + Like smoke of distant battle loud! Loud + The great whips rang like shot, and steel + Flashed back as in some battle charge. + + They sought, yea, they did find their rest + Along that long and lonesome way, + Those brave men buffeting the West + With lifted faces. Full they were + Of great endeavor. + + · · · · · + + When + Adown the shining iron track + We sweep, and fields of corn flash back, + And herds of lowing steers move by, + I turn to other days, to men + Who made a pathway with their dust. + + + + + DOCUMENT. + + +The following is one of a set of documents giving contemporary evidence +on a most important epoch of Oregon history. It was secured by Principal +J. R. Wilson. + + (From the New Orleans Picayune, November 21, 1848.) + + + PRAIRIE AND MOUNTAIN LIFE—THE OREGON EMIGRANTS. + +During our detention among the upper settlements, before starting out, a +constant source of interest to us was the gathering of people bound to +Oregon. One Sunday morning, about the usual church hour in a larger +place, five or six wagons passed through the town of Westport, and one +old man with silver hair was with the party. Women and children were +walking, fathers and brothers were driving loose cattle or managing the +heavy teams, and keen-eyed youngsters, with their chins yet smooth and +rifles on their shoulders, kept in advance of the wagons with long +strides, looking as if they were already watching around the corners of +the streets for game. There was one striking feature about the party +which leads us to name it more particularly. Though traveling on the +Sabbath and through the little town that was all quiet and resting from +business in reverence of the day, there was that in the appearance of +the people that banished at once even the remotest idea of profanation. +They were all clean, and evidently appareled in their best Sunday gear. +Their countenances were sedate, and the women wore that mild composure +of visage—so pleasantly resigned, so eloquent of a calm spirit, so ready +to kindle up into smiles—that is seen more often among churchgoers, +perhaps, than in ballroom or boudoir. Some of the women carried books, +and the prettiest girl carried hers open before her as she stepped a +little coquettishly through the dust of the road. Whether she was +reading, or trying, or pretending to read, was hard to tell, but the +action had a naive effect, and as she passed she was, no doubt, much +astonished at a strange young gentleman who audibly addressed her with, +“Nymph, in thy orisons, be all my sins remembered.” + +Many other small bodies of these adventurous travelers crossed our +notice at Independence, Westport, and at encampments made in the +vicinity of these and other towns, but in their largest force we saw +them just after crossing the Kansas River about the first of June. The +Oregonians were assembled here to the number of six or eight hundred, +and when we passed their encampment they were engaged in the business of +electing officers to regulate and conduct their proceedings. It was a +curious and unaccountable spectacle to us as we approached. We saw a +large body of men wheeling and marching about the prairie, describing +evolutions neither recognizable as savage, civic or military. We soon +knew they were not Indians, and were not long in setting them down for +the emigrants, but what in the name of mystery they were about our best +guessing could not reduce to anything in the shape of a mathematical +probability. + +On arriving among them, however, we found they were only going on with +their elections in a manner perhaps old enough, but very new and +quizzical to us. The candidates stood up in a row behind the +constituents, and at a given signal they wheeled about and marched off, +while the general mass broke after them “lick-a-ty-split”, each man +forming in behind his favorite so that every candidate flourished a sort +of a tail of his own, and the man with the longest tail was elected! +These proceedings were continued until a captain and a council of ten +were elected; and, indeed, if the scene can be conceived, it must appear +as a curious mingling of the whimsical with the wild. Here was a +congregation of rough, bold, and adventurous men, gathered from distant +and opposite points of the Union, just forming an acquaintance with each +other, to last, in all probability, through good or ill fortune, through +the rest of their days. Few of them expected, or thought, of ever +returning to the states again. They had with them their wives and +children, and aged, depending relatives. They were going with stout and +determined hearts to traverse a wild and desolate region, and take +possession of a far corner of their country destined to prove a new and +strong arm of a mighty nation. These men were running about the prairie, +in long strings; the leaders,—in sport and for the purpose of puzzling +the judges, doubling and winding in the drollest fashion; so that, the +all-important business of forming a government seemed very much like the +merry schoolboy game of “snapping the whip.” It was really very funny to +see the candidates for the solemn council of ten, run several hundred +yards away, to show off the length of their tails, and then cut a half +circle, so as to turn and admire their longitudinal popularity _in +extenso_ themselves. “Running for office” is certainly performed in more +literal fashion on the prairie than we see the same sort of business +performed in town. To change the order of a town election, though for +once, it might prove an edifying exhibition to see a mayor and aldermen +start from the town pump and run around the court house square, the +voters falling in behind and the rival ticket running the other way, +while a band in the middle might tune up for both parties, playing “O, +What a Long Tail Our Cat’s Got;” which we surmise some popular composer +may have arranged for such an occasion. + +After passing them here, we never saw the Oregonians again. They elected +a young lawyer of some eminence as we were told, named Burnett, as their +captain, and engaged an old mountaineer, known as Captain Gant, as their +guide through the mountains to Fort Hall. Several enactments were made +and agreed to, one of which was called up to be rescinded, and something +of an excitement arose in regard to it. The law made was that no family +should drive along more than three head of loose stock for each member +composing it, and this bore hard on families that had brought with them +cattle in large numbers. The dispute resulted in a split of the large +body into two or three divisions; and so they moved on, making distinct +encampments all the way. Captain Gant was to receive $1.00 a head from +the company, numbering about a thousand souls, for his services as +guide. But a few more such expeditions following in the same trail will +soon imprint such a highway through the wilderness to Oregon that +emigrants may hereafter travel without such assistance. + +We left them here about the last of May and encountered no sign of them +again until returning in September, when we struck their trail on the +Sweetwater, near the south pass of the mountains. They had followed in +our own trail as far as this point and had here turned off, our course +lying in another direction. From here, all the way to Fort Laramie, we +found the now deeply worn road strewn with indications of their recent +presence. Scaffolds for drying meat, broken utensils thrown away, chips +showing where wagons had been repaired, and remnants of children’s +shoes, frocks, etc., met our notice at every deserted encampment. + +But one death seemed to have occurred among them, and this was far out +under the mountains. Here the loose riders of our moving camp gathered +one morning to examine a rude pyramid of stones by the roadside. The +stones had been planted firmly in the earth, and those on top were +substantially placed, so that the wolves, whose marks were evident about +the pile, had not been able to disinter the dead. On one stone, larger +than the rest, and with a flat side, was rudely engraved: + + J. HEMBREE. + +And we place it here as perhaps the only memento those who knew him in +the States may ever receive of him. How he died, we of course cannot +surmise, but there he sleeps among the rocks of the West as soundly as +if chiseled marble was built above his bones. + +On returning to Rock Independence, a point about nine hundred miles from +the settlements, we were astonished at finding that the Oregonians had +reached and passed it only four days behind us. We had confidently +supposed them four weeks in our rear, and their rapid progress augurs +well for the success of their enterprise. On the rock we found printed: + + “THE OREGON CO. + arrived + July 26, 1843.” + +At Fort Laramie we were told that they were still well provisioned when +passing there, and could even afford to trade away flour, coffee, etc., +for necessaries of other kinds. But it was droll to hear how the Sioux +stared at the great caravans. Some of them on seeing the great number of +wagons, and particularly white women and children, for the first time, +began to think of coming down here, having seen, as they supposed, “the +whole white village” move up the mountains. + + + + + INDEX. + + + + + TOPICAL INDEX. + + ADAMS— + Proposals on the Oregon Question, 220 + + ASTORIA— + Settlement of, 10 + Restitution of, to U. S., 214 + + + BAYLIES— + Speeches of, on Oregon, 21 + + BENTON— + Oregon policy of, 13, 16, 50, 52 + + + CALHOUN— + Opposition of, to Oregon bill, 235 + + CALIFORNIA— + Contract labor in mines of, 281 + + CARVER— + Use of word Oregon by, 112, 166 + + CHAMPOEG— + Origin of name, 88 + Early life in, 88, 89 + Early settlement near, 173 + Early manners of, 172, 176 + + CHOLERA— + Ravages of, among immigrants to Oregon, 363 + + CLAY— + On the Oregon Question, 221 + + COLUMBIA RIVER— + Discovery of, 113 + Proposed as boundary, 215 + + + DOUGLAS— + Interest in Oregon Question, 40 + + + ENGLAND— + Rivalry of, in Oregon Country, 6 + + EDUCATION— + Appropriation of public land for in Oregon, 148 + + + FLOYD— + Oregon policy of, 13–17, 218 + + FREMONT— + Work of, in Oregon, 330 + + + GOVERNMENT— + Lack of in early Oregon, 9, 10 + First exercise of, 10, 11 + + GOLD— + Effect of early discoveries of, 103 + + GRAY— + Explorations of, 113 + + + INDIANS— + Customs of, 77 + Behavior toward white women, 82 + Matthieu’s recollections of, 99 + Religious customs of, 179 + Legends of the, 183 + Request of, for missionaries, 225, 346 + First estimate of, in Oregon Country, 296 + Position of women among the Oregon, 296 + Funeral customs of, 300 + Poor food supply of, 302 + Estimate and census of Oregon Indians, 314 + Language, peculiarities of, 317 + + + JACKSON— + Effort of, to acquire San Francisco Bay, 228 + + + KELLEY, HALL J.— + Visit to Oregon in 1834, 195 + Work in Oregon, 224 + Work of, 349 + + + LEE— + Petition of, to Congress, 28, 29 + + LINN— + Oregon policy of, 26, 230, 235 + + LANDS— + Cession of state claims to western, 136 + + LANE— + Arrival in Oregon, 52 + + LEDYARD— + Plan of, for exploring Oregon, 115 + + LEWIS AND CLARK— + Plan for the expedition of, 120 + Grant of land to, 144 + + LOUISIANA— + Purchase of, by U. S., 147 + + + McLOUGHLIN— + Influence of, 11, 12 + Notes on, 95, 96 + Treatment of American settlers, 105 + Domestic life of, 158 + Trouble with American immigrants, 201 + Hospital work of, 308 + + MISSIONARIES— + Early settlements of, in Oregon, 194, 196, 225 + + MONEY IN EARLY OREGON, 102 + + + NOOTKA— + Convention of, 125 + + + OREGON— + Original extent of, 4, 111 + Primitive isolation of, 6 + Territorial admission of, 52 + Motives for statehood in, 53 + Opposition to statehood in, 54 + Constitutional Convention of, 55 + Admission of, as a state, 58 + Dangers of pioneer travel to, 61, 62 + Characters of pioneers in, 63, 64 + First use of the name, 112, 166 + Spanish claims to, 122 + Southern boundary of, fixed, 127 + Russian claims to, 128 + Northern boundary of, fixed, 127 + School lands of, 154 + Early American visitors to, 193 + Early immigration to, 198 + Dispute over northern boundary of, 215 + Discussion over occupation of, 218 + Character of early settlement in, 224 + Fifty-four deg. 40 min. boundary of, 243 + Settlement of northern boundary of, 251 + Estimate and census of Indians in, 314 + Condition of, in 1842, 327 + Fur trade in, 329, 335 + Motives for movement to, 352 + Summary of negotiations for, 349 + Difficulties of route to, 359 + Estimate of immigrations to, 370 + Character of immigrants to, 398 + + + PARKMAN— + Estimate of work of, on Oregon Trail, 342 + + POLK— + Inaugural address on Oregon, 46 + Message of, 1845 on Oregon, 47 + Message of, 1847, 49 + + POPULATION MOVEMENT— + Effect on Oregon, 8 + + PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT— + Notices for, 32, 33 + First steps toward, 33 + Objections to, 34, 35 + Plan of, 36 + Changes in, 37, 38 + Effectiveness of, 39 + Indian attitude toward, 40 + Lane’s verdict on, 52 + Notes on organization of, 91 + + + SAUVIE’S ISLAND— + Indian population of, 310 + + SLACUM— + Visit of, to Oregon Country, 228 + + SLAVERY— + Influence of, on admission of Oregon Territory, 48, 50, 51, 147 + In Constitutional Convention, 56 + In early Oregon, 101 + + SOVEREIGNTY— + Occupation the test of, 123 + + + TEXAS— + Influence of, on Oregon Question, 288 + + TYLER— + Message of, 1842 on Oregon, 41, 234 + Message of, 1843, 44 + Message of, 1844, 45 + + + WASHINGTON— + Territorial formation of, 53 + + WEBSTER— + Opinion of, on Oregon Question, 239 + + WHITE— + Appointment of, as sub-Indian agent, 31 + Settlement of, in Oregon, 241 + + WHITMAN— + Character and aims of, 41, 42 + Work of, 42, 241 + Character of, 61 + Matthieu’s estimate of, 85 + Views of, on Oregon’s needs, 351 + Influence of, 381 + + WILKES— + Work of, in Oregon, 333 + + WYETH— + Visits of, to Oregon, 194 + Settlement in Oregon, 223 + + + + + PUBLICATIONS + OF THE + OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY + + + SOURCES OF THE HISTORY OF OREGON + + VOLUME I + +NUMBER 1.—JOURNAL OF MEDOREM CRAWFORD—AN ACCOUNT OF HIS TRIP ACROSS THE +PLAINS IN 1842. PRICE, 25 CENTS. + +NUMBER 2.—THE INDIAN COUNCIL AT WALLA WALLA, MAY AND JUNE, 1855, BY COL. +LAWRENCE KIP—A JOURNAL. PRICE, 25 CENTS. + +NUMBERS 3 TO 6 INCLUSIVE.—THE CORRESPONDENCE AND JOURNALS OF CAPTAIN +NATHANIEL J. WYETH, 1831–6.—A RECORD OF TWO EXPEDITIONS, FOR THE +OCCUPATION OF THE OREGON COUNTRY, WITH MAPS, INTRODUCTION AND INDEX. +PRICE, $1.10. + +THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY FOR 1898–9, INCLUDING +PAPER BY SILAS B. SMITH, ON “BEGINNINGS IN OREGON,” 97 PAGES. PRICE, 25 +CENTS. + +THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY FOR 1899–1900. +INCLUDING TWO HISTORICAL PAPERS, 120 PAGES. PRICE, 25 CENTS. + + + QUARTERLY OF THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY. + + NO. 2, VOL. I, JUNE, 1900. + _Joseph R. Wilson_—THE OREGON QUESTION 111 + _Frances F. Victor_—OUR PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM AND ITS RELATION TO + EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES 132 + _Mrs. William Markland Molson_—GLIMPSES OF LIFE IN EARLY OREGON 158 + _H. W. Scott_—NOT MARJORAM.—THE SPANISH WORD “OREGANO” NOT THE + ORIGINAL OF OREGON 165 + _H. S. Lyman_—REMINISCENCES OF LOUIS LABONTE 169 + _Frances F. Victor_—DR. ELLIOTT COUES 189 + DOCUMENT.—A Narrative of Events In Early Oregon ascribed to Dr. + John McLoughlin 193 + REVIEWS OF BOOKS.—_Eva Emery Dye’s_ “McLoughlin and Old Oregon” 207 + _H. K. Hines’_ “Missionary History of the Pacific Northwest” 210 + NOTE.—A Correction 212 + ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── + NO. 3, VOL. I, SEPTEMBER, 1900. + _Joseph R. Wilson_—THE OREGON QUESTION II. 213 + _H. S. Lyman_—REMINISCENCES OF HUGH COSGROVE 253 + _H. S. Lyman_—REMINISCENCES OF WM. M. CASE 269 + _John Minto_—THE NUMBER AND CONDITION OF THE NATIVE RACE IN OREGON + WHEN FIRST SEEN BY WHITE MEN 296 + _H. S. Lyman_—INDIAN NAMES 316 + DOCUMENTS—Oregon articles reprinted from a file of the N. Y. + _Tribune_, 1842. 327 + Letter by William Plumer, Senator from N. H. 336 + + + PRICE: THIRTY-FIVE CENTS PER NUMBER, ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR. + + + + + UNIVERSITY OF OREGON. + + +_THE GRADUATE SCHOOL confers the degrees of Master of Arts, (and in +prospect, of Doctor of Philosophy,) Civil and Sanitary Engineer (C. E.), +Electrical Engineer (E. E.), Chemical Engineer (Ch.E.), and Mining +Engineer (Min. E.)_ + +_THE COLLEGE OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND THE ARTS confers the degree of +Bachelor of Arts on graduates from the following groups: (1) General +Classical; (2) General Literary; (3) General Scientific; (4) +Civic-Historical. It offers Collegiate Courses not leading to a degree +as follows: (1) Preparatory to Law or Journalism; (2) Course for +Teachers._ + +_THE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING._— + + _A.—The School of Applied Science confers the degree of Bachelor of + Science on graduates from the following groups; (1) General + Science; (2) Chemistry; (3) Physics; (4) Biology; (5) Geology and + Mineralogy. It offers a Course Preparatory to Medicine._ + + _B.—The School of Engineering: (1) Civil and Sanitary; (2) Electrical; + (3) Chemical._ + + _THE SCHOOL OF MINES AND MINING._ + _THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE at Portland._ + _THE SCHOOL OF LAW at Portland._ + _THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC._ + _THE UNIVERSITY ACADEMY._ + + _Address_ + THE PRESIDENT, + EUGENE, OREGON. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES + + + ● Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. + ● Enclosed bold or blackletter font in =equals=. + ● Images without captions use HTML alt text. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78187 *** |