History of Benton County, Oregon, Part 24

Author: David D. Fagan
Publication date: 1885
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > Oregon > Benton County > History of Benton County, Oregon > Part 24

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changed and he proceeded by the way of Fort Hall to the States. He received his education at Fairfield, N. Y., where Whitman himself had attended school. This in- cident reveals the Doctor's abiding faith in the destiny of Oregon. Gifted with a philosophical mind and keen perceptive faculties, he gathered from the visit of Gov- ernor Simpson and the arrival of Red river immigrants in 1841, an inkling of the plans of the company for acquiring Oregon. His mind dwelt on the subject during the following spring and summer, and when the American immigrants arrived that fall with intelligence that negotiations were in progress between the United States and Great Britain to settle definitely the boundary line, he realized the deep-laid plan of the company. With A. Lawrence Lovejoy, one of the immigrants who had stopped near the mission to recruit, he often conversed about the situation, and one day asked if he would accompany him on a journey back to the States. Though the winter season was just coming on, Lovejoy consented to thus aid him in his effort to save Ore- gon to the United States. Whitman summoned his associates from Lapwai and the Tshimakain mission among the Spokane Indians, to consult in regard to the matter. Spalding, Gray, Eells and Walker soon assembled at Waiilatpu, and when the Doctor laid before them his plan for saving Oregon, they unanimously opposed it, on the ground that missionary work and politics should not be confused with each other. To this Whitman replied that his first duty was to his country, and if his mission inter- fered with the discharge of it he would resign. Knowing his inflexible character and deep convictions of duty, they dared no longer oppose him for fear of losing the master spirit of their mission, and gave a reluctant assent. That he might have official authority to leave his charge and that the real object of his journey might not be known by the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, they delegated him to proceed to Boston to transact certain business in the interest of the missions. The day of his departure was set for the fifth of October, and the several members departed to their fields of labor to prepare reports of their missions for him to take to Boston. The pro- ceedings of this meeting were recorded in a book, which was lost at the time of the Whitman massacre. The papers having arrived, and all being in readiness for the journey, Whitman went to Fort Walla Walla, some authorities say to administer to a sick person, while Dr. Geiger, whom Whitman left in charge of Waiilatpu during his absence, says that it was to interview Mckinlay in regard to the situation. At all events, his conversation with Mckinlay whetted his anxiety to depart, and he re- solved to start at once. Twenty-four hours later he and his traveling companion turned their backs upon Oregon and entered boldly upon a journey they knew would be attended with hardships and suffering such as they had never before experienced. The only record of that memorable journey is a letter written by Mr. Lovejoy, and the only accounts of what Whitman did and where he went come from those who con - versed with him on the subject and several who saw him at different places in the East including the emigrants with whom he returned to Oregon. From the noble martyr himself there comes no word, save a letter written while at St. Louis the following spring, yet these are enough to place him first on the list of those whose names should be linked with Oregon so long as history shall last. Of that memorable journey Love- joy says

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" We left Waiilatpu October 3, 1842, traveled rapidly, reached Fort Hall in eleven days, remained two days to recruit and make a few purchases. The Doctor engaged a guide and we left for Fort Wintee. We changed from a direct route to one more southern, through the Spanish country via Salt Lake, Taos and Santa Fè. On our way from Fort Hall to Fort Wintee we had terribly severe weather. The snows retarded our progress and blinded the trail so we lost much time. After arriving at Fort Wintee and making some purchases for our trip, we took a new guide and started for Fort Uncumpagra, situated on the waters of Grand river, in the Spanish country. Here our stay was very short. We took a new guide and started for Taos. After being out some four or five days we encountered a terrific snow storm, which forced us to take shelter in a deep ravine, where we remained snowed in for four days, at which time the storm had somewhat abated, and we attempted to make our way out upon the high lands, but the snow was so deep and the winds so piercing and cold we were compelled to return to camp and wait a few days for a change of weather. Our next effort to reach the high lands was more successful; but after spending several days wandering around in the snow without making much headway, our guide told us that the deep snow had so changed the face of the country that he was completely lost and could take us no further. This was a terrible blow to the Doctor but he was determined not to give it up without another effort. We at once agreed that the Doctor should take the guide and return to Fort Uncumpagra and get a new guide, and I remain in camp with the animals until he could return ; which he did in seven days with our new guide, and we were now on our route again. Nothing of much import occurred but hard and slow traveling through deep snow until we reached Grand river, which was frozen on either side about one-third across. Although so intensely cold, the current was so very rapid about one-third of the river in the center was not frozen. Our guide thought it would be dangerous to attempt to cross the river in its present condition, but the Doctor, nothing daunted, was the first to take the water. He mounted his horse- the guide and myself shoved the Doctor and his horse off the ice into the foaming stream. Away he went completely under water, horse and all, but directly came up, and after buffeting the rapid, foaming current he reached the ice on the opposite shore a long way down the stream. He leaped from his horse upon the ice and soon had his noble animal by his side. The guide and myself forced in the pack animals and followed the Doctor's example, and were soon on the opposite shore drying our frozen clothes by a comfortable fire. We reached Taos in about thirty days, suffered greatly from cold and scarcity of provisions. We were compelled to use mule meat, dogs, and such other animals as came in our reach. We remained at Taos a few days only, and started for Bent's and Savery's Fort, on the head waters of the Arkansas river. When we had been out some 15 or 20 days, we met George Bent, a brother of Gov. Bent, on his way to Taos. He told us that a party of mountain men would leave Bent's Fort in a few days for St. Louis, but said we would not reach the fort with our pack ani- mals in time to join the party. The Doctor being very anxious to join the party so he could push on as rapidly as possible to Washington, concluded to leave myself and guide with the animals, and he himself taking the best animal with some bedding and a small allowance of provision, started alone, hoping by rapid travel to reach the fort in time to join the St. Louis party, but to do so he would have to travel on the Sab-

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bath, something we had not done before. Myself and guide traveled on slowly and reached the fort in four days, but imagine our astonishment when on making inquiry about the Doctor we were told that he had not arrived nor had he been heard of. I learned that the party for St. Louis was camped at the Big Cottonwood, forty miles from the fort, and at my request Mr. Savery sent an express, telling the party not to proceed any further until we learned something of Dr. Whitman's whereabouts, as he wished to accompany them to St. Louis. Being furnished by the gentlemen of the fort with a suitable guide I started in search of the Doctor, and traveled up the river about one hundred miles. I learned from the Indians that a man had been there who was lost and was trying to find Bent's Fort. They said they had directed him to go down the river and how to find the fort. I knew from their description it was the Doctor. I returned to the fort as rapidly as possible, but the Doctor had not arrived. We had all become very anxious about him. Late in the afternoon he came in very much fatigued and desponding; said that he knew that God had bewildered him to punish him for traveling on the Sabbath. During the whole trip he was very regular in his morning and evening devotions, and that was the only time I ever knew him to travel on the Sabbath."

He at once pushed on with the mountaineers, leaving Lovejoy at Bent's Fort, and reached St. Louis in February. There he inquired eagerly about the status of ne- gotiations on the Oregon question, and learned that the Ashburton-Webster treaty had been signed on the ninth of the preceding August, been ratified by the senate, and had been proclaimed by the president on the tenth of November. He was too late by more than three months to have prevented the treaty ; but his journey was not in vain, for the Oregon boundary had not been included in the treaty, had not even been discussed, in fact, as appears from Mr. Webster's speeches and correspondence. This intelligence brought relief to the Doctor's overwrought feelings. There was still an opportunity for him to accomplish his purpose. He found great preparations being made all along the frontier to emigrate to the Willamette valley, notwithstanding the prevailing opinion that wagons could not proceed beyond Fort Hall. He immediately wrote a small pamphlet describing Oregon and the nature of the route thither, urging people to em- igrate and assuring them that wagons could go through, and that he would join them and be their pilot. This pamphlet and his earnest personal appeals were efficacious in adding somewhat to the number of emigrants, though it is a fact that probably the greater portion of those who started from the border of Missouri in May never heard of Dr. Whitman until he joined them on the route ; for the emigration was chiefly the result of the reports of Oregon received from trappers, letters written to friends in Missouri by Robert Shortess, who came out in 1839, and debates in congress the year before. That Whitman's efforts added somewhat to the number of emigrants is true, but that he initiated the movement or even contributed largely to it does not appear. He was too late for that ; the movement was well under way before his arrival.

After writing his pamphlet his next anxiety was to reach Washington before con- gress adjourned, so that he might have an opportunity to meet congressmen and urge upon them the claims of Oregon. He did not undertake to change his apparel, which is thus described by Dr. William Barrows, who met him in St. Louis : "The Doctor was in coarse fur garments and vesting, and buckskin breeches. He wore a buffalo

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coat, with a head-hood for emergencies in taking a storm, or a bivouac nap. What with heavy fur leggings and boot moccasins, his legs filled up well his Mexican stirrups. With all this warmth and almost burden of skin and fur clothing, he bore the marks of the irresistible cold and merciless storms of his journey. His fingers, ears, nose and feet had been frost-bitten, and were giving him much trouble." Such was Whit- man when in St. Louis, such was he still when on the third of March he appeared in Washington, having been to Ithica, New York, to ask for the co-operation of Dr. Samuel Parker, his first missionary associate, and such was he still later in Boston, where he treated the rebukes of the officers of the American Board with a quiet con- tempt that astonished and disarmed them.

He found in Washington that the prevalent ideas of Oregon were far different from those along the frontier. Public men possessed but little knowledge of the terri- tory west of the Rocky mountains, and deemed it of but little value because of its sup- posed sterile soil and inhospitable climate. Such had been the prevailing idea since Lewis and Clarke had subsisted on dog meat and Hunt's party had experienced such terrible privations in passing through it; such, also, was the idea fostered by the Hud- son's Bay Company and urged by England. It was the Great American Desert, fit only for the abode of Indians and trappers. A year later in a congressional debate it was asserted that : "With the exception of the land alongt he Willamette and strips along a few of the water courses, the whole country is among the most irreclaimable barren wastes of which we have read, except the desert of Sahara. Nor is this the worst of it. The climate is so unfriendly to human life that the native population has dwindled away under the ravages of its malaria to a degree which defies all history to furnish a parallel in so wide a range of country."

To prove the contrary of this and to demonstrate that Oregon could be settled by emigration from the States was Whitman's task. He had interviews with Secretary Webster, President Tyler and many members of congress, in which he urged the im- portance of securing for the United States as much of the indefinite region known as Oregon as possible, asserting that its agricultural and timber resources were unbounded. He told them of the large emigration preparing to start thither, and declared that he would accompany them and show them a route by which they could take wagons clear to the Willamette. His earnest protestations made a deep impression upon many, especially President Tyler, and he was assured that if he could demonstrate these things it would have a powerful effect upon the solution of the Oregon question.

Whitman then visited Boston to discharge the official object of his journey, and was severely censured for leaving his mission upon so trivial a pretext. Then, after spending a few days at home, he hastened to the frontier to join the emigrants, some of whom had already started and were not overtaken by him till they had reached the Platte. His appearance among them was the first time the majority of them knew of the existence of such a man ; yet even these universally acknowledge that his services as guide and advisor on the route were almost indispensable. Reaching Fort Hall the earnest representations made by the official in charge that wagons could not cross the mountains between that post and the Columbia had a most demoralizing effect. Had it not been for Whitman many would have changed their destination to California, while the remainder, leaving their wagons, plows and implements behind, would have

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continued the journey to Oregon with only what they could pack upon their animals. Earnestly he pleaded with them, assured them that he would guide them safely through, that they had found his counsel good in the past and should trust him for the future. They did trust him; the wagons passed on, and after surmounting every obstacle he led them to the open plain in front of the mission at Waiilatpu. He had won the day for his country.

This great train of hardy pioneers who had come to Americanize Oregon, con- tained 875 persons, of whom 295 were men over sixteen years of age. A complete roll of names was taken at the time by J. W. Nesmith, and is as follows :

Jesse Applegate, Charles Applegate, Lindsay Applegate, James Athey, William Athey, John Atkinson, William Arthur, Robert Arthur, David Arthur, Amon But- ler, George Brooke, Peter H. Burnett, David Bird, Thomas A. Brown, Alexander Blevins, John P. Brooks, Martin Brown, Oris Brown, J. P. Black, Layton Bane, Andrew Baker, John G. Baker, William Beagle, Levi Boyd, William Baker, Nich- olas Biddle, George Beale, James Braidy, George Beadle, - Boardman, William Baldridge, F. C. C'ason, James Cason, William Chapman, John Cox, Jacob Champ, L. C. Cooper, James Cone, Moses Childers, Miles Carey, Thomas Cochran, L. Clymour, John Copenhaver, J. H. Caton, Alfred Chappel, Daniel Cronin, Samuel Cozine, Benedict Costable, Joseph Childs, Ransom Clark, John G. Campbell, - Chap- man, James Chase, Solomon Dodd, William C. Dement, W. P. Dougherty, William Day, James Duncan, Jacob Dorin, Thomas Davis, Daniel Delaney, Daniel Delaney, Jr., William Delaney, William Doke, J. H. Davis, Burrell Davis, George Dailey, John Doherty, - Dawson, Charles Eaton, Nathan Eaton, James Etchell, Solomon Emerick, John W. Eaker, E. G. Edson, Miles Eyres, John W. East, Niniwon Everman, Ninevah Ford, Ephram Ford, Nimrod Ford, John Ford, Alex. Francis, Abner Frazier, William Frazier, William Fowler, William J. Fowler, Henry Fowler, Stephen Fairly, Charles Fendall, John Gantt, Chiley B. Gray, Enoch Garrison, J. W. Garrison, W. J. Garrison, William Gardner, Samuel Gardner, Mat. Gilmore, Richard Goodman, Major Gilpin, - Gray, B. Haggard, H. H. Hide, William Holmes, Riley A. Holmes, John Hobson, William Hobson, J. J. Hembre, James Hembree, Andrew Hembre, A. J. Hembre, Samuel B. Hall, James Houk, William P. Hughes, Abijah Hendrick, James Hays, Thomas J. Hensley, B. Holley, Henry Hunt, S. M. Holderness, Isaac Hutchins, A. Husted, Joseph Hess, Jacob Hann, John Howell, William Howell, Wesley Howell, W. G. Howell, Thomas E. Howell, Henry Hill, William Hill, Almoran Hill, Henry Hewett, William Hargrove, A. Hoyt, John Holman, Daniel Holman, B. Harrigas, Calvin James, John B. Jack- son, John Jones, Overton Johnson, Thomas Keyser, J. B. Keyser, Pleasant Keyser, - Kelley, - Kelsey, A. L. Lovejoy, Edward Lenox, E. Lenox, Aaron Layson, Jesse Looney, John E. Long, H. A. G. Lee, F. Lugur, Lew Linebarger, John Linebarger, Isaac Laswell, J. Loughborough, Milton Little, - Luther, John Lau- derdale, - McGee, William J. Martin, James Martin, Julius Martin, - Mc- Clelland, F. McClelland, John B. Mills, Isaac Mills, William A. Mills, Owen Mills, G. W. McGarey, Gilbert Mondon, Daniel Matheny, Adam Matheny, J. N. Matheny, Josiah Matheny, Henry Matheny, A. J. Mastire, John McHaley, Jacob Myers, John Manning, James Manning, M. M. McCarver, George McCorcle, Wil-

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liam Mays, Elijah Millican, William McDaniel, D. McKissic, Madison Malone, John B. McClane, William Mauzee, John McIntire, John Moore, W. J. Matney, J.W. Nesmith, W. T. Newby, Noah Newman, Thomas Nayler, Neil Osborn, Hugh D. O'Brien, Humphrey O'Brien, Thomas A. Owen, Thomas Owen, E. W. Otie, M. B. Otie, Bennett ()'Neil, A. Olinger, Jesse Parker, William Parker, J. B. Pennington, R. H. Poe, Samuel Painter J. R. Patterson, Charles E. Pickett, Frederick Prigg, Clayborn Paine, P. B. Reading, S. P. Rodgers, G. W. Rodgers, William Russell, James Roberts, G. W. Rice, John Richardson, Daniel Richardson, Philip Ruby, John Ricord, Jacob Reid, John Roe, Solomon Roberts, Emseley Roberts, Joseph Rossin, Thomas Rives, Thomas H. Smith, Thomas Smith, Isaac W. Smith, Anderson Smith, Ahi Smith, Robert Smith, Eli Smith, William Sheldon, P. G. Stewart, Dr. Nathaniel Sutton, C. Stimmer- man, C. Sharp, W. C. Summers, Henry Sewell, Henry Stout, George Sterling, Stout, - Stevenson, James Story, - Swift, John M. Shively, Samuel Shirley, Alexander Stoughton, Chauncey Spencer, Hiram Strait, George Summers, Cornelius Stringer, C. W. Stringer, Lindsey Tharp, John Thompson, D. Trainor, Jeremiah Teller, Stephen Tarbox, John Umnicker, Samuel Vance, William Vaughn, George Vernon, James Wilmont, William H. Wilson, J. W. Wair, Archibald Winkle, Edward Williams, H. Wheeler, John Wagoner, Benjamin Williams, David Williams, William Wilson, John Williams, James Williams, Squire Williams, Isaac Williams, T. B. Ward, James White, John ( Betty ) Watson, James Waters, William Winter, Daniel Waldo, David Waldo, William Waldo, Alexander Zachary, John Zachary.

Add to these the following settlers residing here when the others arrived : Pleasant Armstrong, Hugh Burns, - - Brown, William Brown, -- Brown, J. M. Black, William Baldra, James Balis, Dr. W. J. Bailey, - Brainard, Medo- rem Crawford, David Carter, Samuel Campbell, Jack Campbell, William Craig, Amos Cook, Aaron Cook, - Conner, William Cannon, Allen Davy, William Doty, .Richard Eakin, Squire Ebbert, John Edwards, Philip Foster, John Force, James Force, Francis Fletcher, George Gay, Joseph Gale, - Girtman, Felix Hathaway, Peter H. Hatch, Thomas Hubbard, Adam Hewitt, Jeremiah Horegon, Joseph Holman, David Hill, Weberly Hauxhurst, - Hutchinson, William Johnson, - King, Kelsey, Reuben Lewis, G. W. LeBreton, Jack Larrison, Joseph L. Meek, F. X. Mathieu, John McClure, S. W. Moss, Robert Moore, -- McFadden, William McCarty, Charles Mckay, Thomas Mckay, - Morrison, J. W. Mack, - Newbanks, Robert Newell, James A. O'Neil, F. W. Pettygrove, Dwight Pomeroy, .Walter Pomeroy, - Perry, - Rimmick, Osborn Russell, J. R. Robb, Robert Shortess, Sidney Smith, - Smith, Andrew Smith, Andrew Smith, Jr., Darling Smith, - Spence, Jack Sailor, Joel Turnham, - Turner, Hiram Taylor, Cal- vin Tibbetts, - - Trask, C. M. Walker, Jack Warner, A. E. Wilson, David Winslow, Caleb Wilkins, Henry Wood, B. Williams.

Also add the following members of Protestant missions :

Dr. Marcus Whitman, A. F. Waller, David Leslie, Hamilton Campbell, George Abernethy, William H. Wilson, L. H. Judson, W. H. Gray, E. Walker, Cushing Eells, Alanson Beers, Jason Lee, Gustavus Hines, H. K. W. Perkins, M. H. B. Brewer, Dr. J. L. Babcock, Dr. Elijah White, Harvey Clark, H. H. Spalding, J. L. Parrish, H. W. Raymond.

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The above list includes nearly every male resident of Oregon in 1843, exclusive of the ex-employees of the Hudson's Bay Company and those still in its service.

On the heels of the emigrant train, came the exploring party of Lieutenant John C. Fremont, who had explored the Rocky mountains the year before. After spending a few days at Vancouver, he passed south, crossed the Cascades to Eastern Oregon, continued south into Nevada, and then with much labor and suffering, crossed the snow- bound Sierra Nevada to Sutter's Fort in the Sacramento valley. Though he earned the title of Pathfinder, he found his way to Oregon clearly marked by the wheels of the wagons that had preceded him.

Early in 1843 the effort to organize a provisional government was renewed by the American settlers, who were unaware of the great reinforcements already on the way to join them. Even the missionaries were not trusted in the primitive councils and operations of the organizers. The known hostility of every interest in Oregon to a government not under control of such interest, caused the settlers to plan with great caution and execute with extreme care. It became necessary for them to deceive every, one, except a select few, in regard to their designs, in order to obtain a meeting of the settlers under circumstances that would not arouse the suspicion of those adverse to such action, and array them in active hostility. The number and influence of such were sufficient, when combined, to strangle the movement at its birth, A singular de- vice was resorted to. Wild animals had been destroying the young stock, and those who were wealthiest suffered most from such depredations. The Methodist mission- aries and Hudson's Bay Company were consequently more anxious than the other settlers to be relieved of this scourge. There was but one sentiment, every one wished the depredators exterminated, and to do it necessitated a united action, an assembling of the people, and an organized movement.

The conspirators circulated a notice calling upon residents to meet for this pur- pose at the house of W. H. Gray on the second of February, 1843. The meeting took place and a committee of six was chosen to perfect a plan for exterminating wolves- bears and panthers, and then call a general meeting of the settlers to whom their con- clusions were to be submitted. That committee consisted of W. H. Gray, William H. Wilson, Alanson Beers, Joseph Gervais, a Rocky mountain hunter named Barnaby, and a Frenchman named - Lucie, who had formerly been a member of Astor's expedition. With the appointment of this committee, and a general ex- change of views upon the subject of wolves, bears, panthers, and the best way to get rid of their destructive raids upon stock, the meeting adjourned till the first Monday in March, when the people were to meet at the house of Joseph Gervais. At the ad- journed meeting, after the organization had been completed, one of the gentlemen present addressed the settlers, stating that no one would question for a moment the rightfulness of the proceedings just completed ; it was a just, natural action taken by the people to protect their live stock from being destroyed by wild animals ; but while they were so solicitous about their stock, would it not be a wise thing to take steps for the protection of themselves and their families. The result of this speech was the ap- pointment of J. L. Babcock, Elijah White, James A. O'Neil, Robert Shortess, Robert Newell, - Lucie, Joseph Gervais, Thomas Hubbard, C. McRoy, W. H. Gray,

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History of Benton County, Oregon, Part 24

Author: David D. Fagan Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: David D. Fagan
Publication date: 1885
Publisher:
Number of Pages: