USA > Oregon > Benton County > History of Benton County, Oregon > Part 23
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The Dalles, Rev. Jason Lee started East to procure financial aid, accompanied by P, L. Edwards, F. Y. Ewing and two Indian boys. During his absence his wife died, also Cyrus Shepard, who was teaching the school at the Willamette mission.
In 1838 a new element was introduced into Oregon in the form of a delegation of Catholic missionaries ; and immediately upon their arrival was begun anew that same sectarian rivalry, that battle of religious creeds, which has caused so much of blood- shed, horror and misery in the world. Intolerance and bigotry were displayed as much by the one side as the other, and responsibility for the terrible results which followed their contest for spiritual control of the Indians rests equally upon the shoulders of both. Revs. Francis N. Blanchet and Modest Demers reached Vancouver on the twenty-fourth of November, having come overland from Montreal, and having bap- tized fifty-three persons during their passage down the Columbia. The Congregational missions were extended during the year by the establishing of a new one among the Spokane Indians by Revs. Cushing Eells and E. Walker.
During the following year but little advancement was made, either in missionary work or settlements. The Catholics traveled extensively among the tribes, while the Protestants confined their attention to their various stations. The Indians learned that the white man had two ways of going to heaven, and naturally were themselves divided in opinion as to which was the better one; or, as they themselves expressed it, all their bad feelings towards each were stirred up, and those quarreled who had be- fore been friends. A printing press was presented in 1839 to the Protestant mission- aries, by their co-laborers in the Sandwich islands ; and it was taken to Lapwai with its accompanying material, and there E. O. Hall and Messrs. Spalding and Rogers used it to print portions of the New Testament in the Nez Perce tongue. This was the first appearance of the typographic art on the Pacific coast of North America.
In the latter part of 1839 A. B. Smith located among Ellis' band of Nez Perces and began missionary work. The next year he undertook to cultivate a small patch of ground, when he was ordered by Ellis to desist upon pain of death. Smith not only abandoned his potato patch but his mission as well, and departed for the Sand- wich islands. The failure of this effort gave great satisfaction to the Catholics, as is indicated by the published writings of Father P. J. DeSmet, who had located a mis- sion among the Flatheads the same year.
In June, 1840, Jason Lee returned with a party of forty-eight, of whom eight were clergymen and nineteen ladies. The names of the new arrivals in 1839 were Rev. J. S. Griffin and wife and Mr. Mungar and wife, who had intended to found a mission on Snake river but had not succeeded, Ben Wright, Lawson, Keiser, Geiger, Sidney Smith, Robert Shortess and Blair, a blacksmith. In 1840 the arrivals were more numerous. They are thus named and summarized by Gray :
"In 1840, Mrs. Lee, second wife of Rev. Jason Lee; Rev. J. H. Frost and wife ; Rev. A. F. Waller, wife and two children; Rev. W. W. Kone and wife; Rev. G. Hines, wife and sister ; Rev. L. H. Judson, wife and two children ; Rev. J. L. Parish, wife and three children; Rev. G. P. Richards, wife and three children; Rev. A. P. Olley and wife. Laymen-Mr. George Abernethy, wife and two children ; Mr. H. Campbell wife and one child; Mr. W. W. Raymond and wife; Mr. H. B. Brewer and wife; Dr. J. L. Babcock, wife and one child; Mrs. Daniel Lee; Mrs. David Carter; Mrs.
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Joseph Holman ; Miss E. Phillips. Methodist Episcopal Protestant mission-Rev. Harvy Clark and wife ; P. B. Littlejohn and wife. Independent Protestant mission- Robert Moore, James Cook and James Fletcher, settlers. Jesuit priests-P. J. DeSmet, Flathead mission. Rocky mountain men with native wives: William Craig, Doctor Robert Newell, Jos. L. Meek, Geo. Ebbert, William M. Dougherty, John Larison, George Wilkinson, a Mr. Nicholson, and Mr. Algear and William Johnson, author of the novel, 'Leni Leoti; or, the Prairie Flower.' The subject was first written and read before the Lyceum at Oregon City, in 1843." He classifies the population as follows : American settlers, twenty-five of them with Indian wives, 36; American women, 33; children 32; lay members, Protestant missions 13; Methodist ministers 13; Congrega- tional 6; American physicians 3; English physicians 1; Jesuit priests, including DeSmet, 3; Canadian French, 60; total Americans, 137; total Canadians, including priests, 63; total population, not including Hudson's Bay Company operatives, within what now is a portion of Montana and all of Idaho, Washington and Oregon, 200.
CHAPTER XVII.
OREGON FOR THE UNITED STATES.
First Efforts at Government-Petition to Congress in 1840-Plans of the Hudson's Bay Company-Unfounded . Charges against the Company-Unsuccessful Attempt to Organize in 1841-Visit of Commodore Wilkes- The Hudson's Bay Company Imports Settlers from Red River-Visit of Governor Simpson -- Whitman's Win- ter Journey -- The Ashburton Treaty- - Emigrants and Wagons for Oregon --- Names of Oregon Residents in 1843-A Provisional Government Organized -Treaty of 1846 Gives Oregon to the United States.
In 1839 was made the first attempt at any form of government, other than the enforced rules of the Hudson's Bay Company. The Methodist missionaries in the Willamette valley selected two persons to act as magistrates, and though this was done without the co-operation of the settlers the action was acquiesced in and their authority respected. The most important case before this tribunal was that of T. J. Hubbard, who was tried for murder before Rev. David Leslie, having killed a man who was at- tempting to enter his house through the window. The jury acquitted the prisoner on the grounds of justifiable homicide. In 1840, soon after this event, a petition was forwarded to congress, asking the establishment of a territorial government in Oregon, which had the effect of drawing attention to this country and of reminding those who had formerly thought the Willamette valley a desirable spot for a home that now was a good time to emigrate.
There was still another and more important effect produced by this petition and the apparent determination of the American settlers to have a government of their
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own, and that was to arouse the Hudson's Bay Company to a realization of the pre- carious condition of its authority in Oregon. It began to recognize the fact that as a company it could not control these new-comers nor could it prevent the influx of others who were inimical to its interests. This conviction wrought a change in policy, and with it was made a bold stroke to gain possession of the prize. It has been stated that the company was opposed to settlements of any kind, preferring that the country should remain uninhabited by all save the natives and actual servants of the corpora- tion. It had even gone so far as to send to Canada at its own expense employees whose terms of service had expired, to prevent them from settling here. It is to this policy, wise if all that was desired was to keep this region as a fur-bearing wil- derness, but very unwise if it was the expectation to gain possession of it for Great Britain, that England can charge the loss to her of the disputed territory. Had the company from the first planted colonies in the Willamette like those of Lord Selkirk at Winnipeg, or had it even encouraged the settlement of its discharged employees, there would now have been enough British subjects to have controlled local affairs and laid a foundation for a claim of permanent ownership. During the past few years the company had been gradually realizing the unpleasant fact that it could not hope to exclude settlers, and had therefore withdrawn its objection to the location of permanent homes here by its old servants, and, preferring them to the Americans, had even encouraged them in so doing; but now it realized that it must adopt a more comprehensive and aggressive policy, it must colonize Oregon with subjects of Great Britain or submit to being itself expelled from the country. A deep plan was laid, which, but for the fore- sight and energetic patriotism of Dr. Marcus Whitman, would have been completely successful ; and this plan was to bring a large emigration from the Red River settle- ments to overwhelm the Americans, and at the same time to open negotiations between the home governments for a final settlement of the mooted question of title, in which . the preponderance of English subjects here was to be urged as a reason why Great Britain's claim to the country should be conceded.
There was nothing criminal nor even dishonorable in this; and yet some Ameri- can writers speak of this and other steps of the company to obtain or retain possession of Oregon as though they were the most heinous of crimes. The subjects of Great Britain certainly had as much right to make an effort for possession as had citizens of the United States ; and the actual fact is that they were less active, less aggressive than were the Americans, to which is due in a large measure their defeat in the contest. Because they made these efforts, parties who were equally active on the other side, looking at the matter through their party-colored spectacles, have charged the com- pany's officers with the commission of grave crimes, not the least of which was the inciting of Indians to murder American settlers. These charges rest upon evidence which is entirely inferential and circumstantial, and even of this kind of testimony the greater portion is favorable to the company. There is no evidence to prove that the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company were guilty of any acts that would not be looked upon in any country and by any people as proper and necessary for the pro- tection of their interests could they have been placed in the same position. It is certainly questionable if some of those gentlemen, whose bitter enmity caused them to make these charges, had possessed the great power of the company, whether they
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would have used it as honorably and conscientiously as did Dr. Mclaughlin and his associates. It is certain that these narrow-minded views were not entertained by the master mind of them all, the martyred Whitman. His brain was large enough to keep personality and politics separate, and he honored and respected these men and en- joyed their personal friendship even while doing his utmost to defeat their plans. It was the active part taken in the struggle by the Protestant missionaries which had lost them the support of the company, and caused that organization to encourage and aid the Catholics, who, as subjects of Great Britain, could be counted upon to further the company's interests. It was this union of interest and action which was the true cause of the bitter enmity of the Protestant historians to the company. The mutual intolerance of the two creeds, and the especially bitter spirit engendered by the contest for control of the Indians, sufficiently explain why those whose minds were thus edu- cated to believe their Catholic opponents could be guilty of fiendish acts, should extend their prejudices to the company which supported them. It is time these un- founded charges were dropped and prejudice give way to reason. The workings of the company's new plan will be unfolded as this narrative progresses, as will also the circumstances which have called out these precautionary remarks.
Although so few white people resided in Oregon at this time, still the objects which brought them here had resulted in their division into four classes, with interests to a greater or less extent adverse to each other. The Hudson's Bay Company, the Catholics, the Protestant missionaries, and the independent settlers, constituted the four interests, and they were elements not easy to harmonize. The first two seemed to have but the one opinion, though there were a few members of the Catholic church who were favorable to American rule. The Methodist mission had served as a rallying point for settlers, who cared nothing for the religious creed it represented, their object in seeking homes in the Willamette having been to better their worldly condition. Such favored the mission influence to the extent only that it served their purpose of settling in the country. In February, 1841, Ewing Young died, leaving considerable property and no heirs. This naturally raised the question of what was to be done with his estate and who was to take charge of it. He was neither a Catholic, a Protestant, nor a Hudson's Bay Company employee; he had only been an American citizen, was dead in Oregon, and what was to be done? Had he been one of the company's em- ployees it would have attended to the property ; if he had belonged to the Catholic family the priests would have taken charge; if a Methodist, the mission could have administered ; but, as he was an outsider, and as no one had the color of right to officiate, it became a matter in which all were interested and a cause for public action. His funeral occurred on the seventeenth, and after the burial an impromptu meeting was held, at which it was determined to organize a civil government over Oregon, not including the portion lying north of the Columbia river. A Committee was to constitute the legislative branch of the government; a governor, a supreme judge with probate powers, three justices of the peace, three constables, three road commis- sioners, an attorney-general, a clerk of the courts and public recorder, one treasurer and two overseers of the poor were to constitute its official machinery. Gentlemen were put in nomination for all of these offices and the meeting adjourned until the
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next day, at which time, citizens of the valley were notified to be present at the Amer- ican mission house to elect officers, and to perfect the governmental organization.
At the time and place specified, nearly all the male population south of the Colum- bia congregated, the several factions in full force. Most prominent among these was the Methodist mission ; second, the Catholics as allies of the Hudson's Bay Company ; and third, the independent settlers whose interests were not specially identified with either. The proceedings of the previous day were not fully indorsed. Two were added to the legislative committee, and the following gentlemen were chosen to serve in that capacity : Revs. F. N. Blanchet, Jason Lee, Gustavus Hines, Josiah L. Parrish, and Messrs. D. Donpierre, M. Charlevo, Robert Moore, E. Lucia, and William Johnson. The main point at issue seemed to be, as to which faction should secure the governor- ship. Revs. Leslie and Hines, and Dr. J. L. Babcock were the Methodist mission candidates and were liable to divide the vote sufficiently to secure the selection of Dr. Bailey, a man of strong English prejudices, who was opposed to religion generally, but could secure the French Catholics, and a majority of the settlers' votes. He drove the latter portion of his support into the opposition ranks, however, by his want of modesty in nominating himself for that position. It was finally determined to have no gover- nor, and Dr. J. L. Babcock having been chosen supreme judge, was instructed to ren- der decisions in matters coming before him in accordance with the New York code. This was an order easy to give, but difficult to fulfill, as there was not a New York statute book in Oregon at the time. The Methodists having secured the bench, and prevented the adverse interests from securing the executive branch of the embryo government, the Catholic influence was given a representation in Geo. LeBreton, who was made clerk of the court and recorder. Wm. Johnson was chosen from the English element for the office of high sheriff, and the following named gentlemen were elected constables : Havier Laderant, Pierre Billique, and Wm. McCarty. The offices of justice of the peace, road commissioner, attorney general, treasurer and overseer of the poor, were not filled. After the transaction of this business, and the issuance of an order for the legislative committee to draft a constitution and code of laws, the meeting adjourned until the following June.
On the first of June, the people assembled at the new building near the Catholic church in the Willamette, and learned that the committee had failed to either form laws, or even meet for that purpose. Rev. F. N. Blanchet withdrew as a member of it, and Dr. Bailey was chosen to fill the vacancy. The committee was then ordered to, "Confer with the commodore of the American squadron and John Mclaughlin, chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, with regard to forming a constitution and code of laws for this community." The meeting then adjourned until the following October. In 1838 the United States Government sent out a fleet of vessels, under the command of Commodore Charles Wilkes, on an extensive voyage of exploration which lasted five years. Wilkes was now in Oregon with the purpose as much of ascertaining the actual state of affairs as of gathering geographical and scientific information. The committee applied to him for advice, and after visiting the Catholic and Protestant missions and consulting with Dr. Mclaughlin, the missionaries and settlers, he ascertained that though all had participated in the meetings, but a minority, chiefly connected with the Methodist missions, were in favor of an organization. He therefore advised them to
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MORNING & GROVES CARDING MILL
OPRR.
A. G. Walling, Lith. Portland, Or.
FARM AND RESIDENCE OF F. A. HORNING. 1 1-2 Miles West of Corvallis, Benton County, Oregon.
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wait until they were stronger and until the " government of the United States should throw its mantle over them." The committee accepted his advice, the adjourned meet- ing never convened, and the attempt at organization was abandoned.
During 1841 the first regular emigration from the East arrived, consisting of 111 persons, and these came without wagons, since it was the general belief both in England and the United States, that wagons could not cross the continent to Oregon. This idea was industriously supported by English authors, several of whom published books on Oregon about this time, and was strongly urged as a reason why Oregon should be given up to the British. As our statesmen derived their information on this subject chiefly from English sources, they held the same views about the inpracticability of overland emigration from the United States to Oregon. Sir George Simpson, governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, visited the country the same year, crossing overland from Montreal. Just east of the Rocky mountains he passed the emigrants the com- pany was importing from Red river, consisting of "twenty-three families, the heads being generally young and active." They reached Oregon in September, and spent the winter on the Cowlitz. During 1841, also, there was the greatest clash yet experienced between the rival religions. The Catholics went among the Cascade Indians, who had been under the influence of the Methodist mission at The Dalles, and induced them to renounce the Protestant for the Catholic creed. This served to intensify the bitterness existing between the religious factions. The Catholic missions were rapidly growing in power and influence, the Methodist were as rapidly retrograding, while the Congre- gational missions in the interior were progressing but slowly.
There was quite an immigration in 1842. Seventeen families started from Inde- pendence in March, with Stephen H. Meek as a guide. At Green river they were overtaken by Fitzpatrick's brigade of trappers on the way to Fort Hall, and several of the families cut up their wagons and made pack saddles, and packing their effects on their animals, accompanied the brigade. The remainder of the wagons Meek conducted safely through Sublette's cut-off, reaching Fort Hall the same day as the others, much to their surprise. Here, owing to the positive assertions of the company's officers that it was impossible to take wagons any further, they were abandoned, and the party pro- ceeded without them, passing down Snake river, across the Blue mountains, down the Umatilla and Columbia to The Dalles, and by the Mount Hood trail to Oregon City, which town was laid out that fall by L. W. Hastings, one of the new emigrants, as agent for Dr. McLaughlin. The greater portion of this party, being dissatisfied with the rainy winter, were guided to California in the spring by Meek. Among these emigrants was Dr. Elijah White, who had authority to act as Indian agent, being the first official of the United States government to enter Oregon.
We now approach the turning point in the long struggle for possession of this region, and as in the most popular accounts truth and fiction have been sadly mixed, the fiction will be given first and the reality afterwards. Gray's History of Oregon says: "In September, 1842, Dr. Whitman was called to visit a patient at old Fort Walla Walla. While there a number of boats of the Hudson's Bay Company, with several chief traders and Jesuit priests, on their way to the interior of the country, ar- rived. While at dinner, the overland express from Canada arrived, bringing news that the emigration from the Red river settlement was at Colville. This news excited 18
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unusual joy among the guests. One of them-a young priest-sang out : 'Hurrah for Oregon, America is too late; we have got the country.' 'Now the Americans may whistle ; the country is ours!' said another. Whitman learned that the company had arranged for these Red river English settlers to come on to settle in Oregon, and at the same time Governor Simpson was to go to Washington and secure the settlement of the question as to the boundaries, on the ground of the most numerous and permanent settlement in the country. The Doctor was taunted with the idea that no power could prevent this result, as no information could reach Washington in time to prevent it. ' It shall be prevented,' said the Doctor, 'if I have to go to Washington myself.' 'But you cannot go there to do it,' was the taunting reply of the Briton. 'I will see,' was the Doctor's reply. The reader is sufficiently acquainted with the history of this man's toil and labor in bringing his first wagon through to Fort Boise, to understand what he meant when he said, 'I will sec.' Two hours after this conversation at the fort, he dis- mounted from his horse at his door at Waiilatpu. I saw in a moment that he was fixed on some important object or errand. He soon explained that a special effort must be made to save the country from becoming British territory. Everything was in the best of order about the station, and there seemed to be no important reason why he should not go. A. L. Lovejoy, Esq., had a few days before arrived with the immigra- tion. It was proposed that he should accompany the Doctor, which he consented to do, and in twenty-four hours' time they were well mounted and on their way to the States."
Such is the fiction upon which has been founded a most extended controversy, the result of which has been to show that Dr. Whitman was moved to take this journey by a deep and gradually formed resolution and that long and thoughtful consideration and not the sudden impulse ascribed by Gray had led him to form the resolution. That this scene depicted by Gray is a pure fiction is evident for several reasons :- First, be- cause the Red river immigration was all in and reached the Cowlitz in September, 1841, as surviving members testify, and there was no emigration from there in 1842; second, because Archibald Mckinlay, who was in charge of the fort and was a warm personal friend of Dr. Whitman, says that at the time of the visit spoken of there was no one at Walla Walla but the half dozen regular attaches of the fort, and that the Montreal express did not arrive until two weeks after Whitman had departed for the East, during which time Mrs. Whitman remained his guest and then proceeded down the river under its protection; third, because the question of such a journey had been discussed by Whitman and his associates at a special meeting for that purpose several weeks before and the journey agreed upon and a day set for the departure. Let us pass from the realm of fiction to the domain of facts.
Dr. Whitman was a true American, an enthusiastic patriot and lover of his country's institutions. From the time he first set foot in Oregon to the hour of his death, the Americanization of this fair land was one of his proudest hopes. Dr. Wil- liam C. Mckay, son of Thomas Mckay, says that in 1838 his father, who was then in charge of Fort Hall, decided to send him to Scotland to be educated. When they reached Waiilatpu, where they were to separate, William to go by the Manitoba route and his father to Fort Hall, Dr. Whitman strongly urged Mckay to send his son to the United States to be educated, and "make an American of him," since Oregon would surely belong to the Americans. Mckay was convinced, William's destination was
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