History of Benton County, Oregon, Part 38

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

USA > Oregon > Benton County > History of Benton County, Oregon > Part 38

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August following, inviting enlistments for the term of three months. Some sixty or seventy men responded, whose names, with the officers they elected, are annexed : Captain, Jesse Walker; Lieutenants, C. Westfeldt, Isaac Miller ; Sergeants, William G. Hill, R. E. Miller, Andrew J. Long; Privates, Benj. Antum, John Bormonler, David Breen, William Bybee, T. C. Banning, O. C. Beeson, Newton Ball, J. H. Clifton, R. S. A. Caldwell, Hugh C. Clauson, J. J. Coffer, W. W. Cose, David Dorsey, Henry C. Eldridge, W. M. D. Foster, T. V. Henderson, Jesse Huggens, J. B. Henit, J. M. Holloway, J. H. Hoffman, James Hathaway, John Head, John Halleck, John Hawkins, David W. Houston, Samuel Hink, William H. Jaquette, Eli Judd, J. P. Jones, L. W. Jones, John F. Linden, Peter Mowry, John Martin, Greenville Matthews, John M. Malone, B. McDaniel, James McLinden, John Pritchett, J. B. Patterson, Warren Pratt, Sylvester Pase, J. A. Pinney, George Ritchy, W. M. Rise, R. M. Robertson, E. A. Rice, Thomas Swank, Seth Sackett, J. R. Smith, N. D. Schooler, John Smith, John Shookman, Silas R. Smith, Marion Snow, Vincent Tullis, John Thompson, David Thompson, Peter H. Vanslyke, Samuel Wilks, Lafayette Witt, Squire Williams, Elijah Walker, George W. Wilson, M. Wolverton, James Wilks, Thomas P. Walker, James W. Walker, H. Wright.

Colonel Ross' instructions to the officers before their departure, were to proceed immediately to some suitable point near Clear lake, in the vicinity of Bloody Point, and protect the trains. These instructions concluded: "Your treatment of the Indians must in a great measure be left to your own discretion. If possible, cultivate their friendship; but, if necessary for the safety of the lives and property of the immi- gration, whip and drive them from the road." Simultaneously with their starting, a small party of Yreka people also set out with the same object. These were only fifteen in number, but included, also, some very experienced Indian fighters. While traveling along the north shore of Tule lake, they were greeted by a shower of arrows from the tules. They retired to await the Oregon company. When Captain Walker arrived, he sent forty men of his company with five Californians to attack the Indian village, which was situated in the marsh three hundred yards from where the attack had been made. This was destroyed without resistance, and all the men returned to camp at the mouth of the Lost river. The permanent rendezvous was made at Clear lake; and here both companies established their headquarters. Lieutenant Westfeldt, with a mixed detachment of Oregonians and Californians, went eastward on the trail as far as the big bend of the Humboldt, to meet the coming immigrants. Trains were made up of the scattered wagons, and being furnished with small escorts, were sent on westward. The Californians soon returning home, Captain Walker set out to punish the Piutes, who had stolen stock from the immigrants. On October third he started with sixteen men, traveling northward from Goose lake, when meeting a band of Indians, he chased them forty miles, coming the second day upon them where they were forti- fied on the top of an immense rock, named by him Warner's rock, in remembrance of Captain Warner, killed there in 1849. The small party made a furious attack upon the stronghold, but was repulsed with one man, John Low, wounded. Returning to Goose lake, they met and killed two Indians. Setting out again with twenty-five men, the determined captain again headed for Warner's rock, and by traveling in the night, reached it without being suspected by the savages, who, it was found, had gone down

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from the rock, and were living on the bank of a creek. The men rode up to the camp, and formed a semi-circle about it. At daydreak they began firing, and drove the Indians pell-mell into the brush, killing many. The only white man injured was Sergeant William Hill, who was severely wounded in the arm and cheek by a bullet from the gun of one of his companions. Returning now to Goose lake and then home- ward, they were mustered out of service at Jacksonville on November 6, 1854.

Before closing this account of the events of 1854, there is mention to be made of two murders committed by Indians, the one of - Stewart, an immigrant, while proceeding westward on the wagon trail, in September; the other that of Edward Phillips. The latter homicide occurred on the Applegate, about the middle of April. It was supposed to have been the deed of certain Indians residing thereabouts, but which was laid to the charge of the tribe on Rogue river. Captain Smith detailed a detachment to inquire into the matter, whose commanding officer reported that the man had been killed in his own cabin, and evidently for the purpose of robbery, as his gun, ammunition and tools had been taken.

As we have seen, the greater part of the difficulties which occurred during the year 1854, were outside of the Rogue river valley, but they were still near enough to keep a portion of its inhabitants in a state of alarm.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

CAUSES OF THE WAR OF 1855-6.

Character of the Events of 1855-Public Opinion-Situation of the Indians-The Speculative Class-Murder of Hill-Of Philpot-Of Dyer and McCue-The Humbug War-Invasion of Jackson County-Resolutions- The Invaders Retire-Death of Keene-Murder of Fields and Cunningham-Reflections-The Lupton Affair.

The latter portion of the history of Southern Oregon's Indian wars possesses a peculiar distinction. It describes exclusively the strong} struggles of a single tribe against extermination ; it tells their slow and gradual yielding, and finally the last act of their existence which bears interest to us; namely, their exile from the land of their birth. The subject which we took up lightly at the year 1827 has assumed a weightier character. Year by year the irrepressible conflict of races has taken on more alarming symptoms. The unavoidable termination as it approached, bore to the people a more serious import. We can imagine the situation as after a lapse of nearly three decades we philosophize upon the subject. The Indians toward the end of 1855 are growing restless, even desperate. The have long felt and now recognize the tight- ening bands of an adverse civilization strangling them. The white men who came

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with fair promises, who brought trifling presents, and who broke their words as twigs are broken, outnumbered them by far. In the minds of the whites distrust increases. There has also crept in a new element and an influential one. Speculative gentlemen mused upon the profits of an Indian war, and took note how surely government reim- bursed the contractors, the packers, the soldiers, of previous wars. Being without other means of accumulating wealth, why should they not keep an eye open to the chance of a war against the Indians. "A good crop pays well, but a good lively cam- paign is vastly more lucrative." These few schemers were ready to take advantage of a war, and doubly ready with their little bills; bills that the government found so exhorbitant that it took alarm -- imagined a grand conspiracy to bring on a war and by such means to defraud the treasury ; and, finally, would pay no bills, not even those of honest volunteers who had periled life and limb in the country's need. Years after, there came J. Ross Browne, as treasury agent, who looked into the matter and found therein nothing but the traces of shrewd contractors and unscrupulous purveyors, and he bore evidence to the honesty and uprightness of the people, and to the legitimacy of the war. But this is a digression from our topic. The events of 1855 are easily susceptible of arrangement in historical form. Those which precede the beginning of hostilities (which took place October eighth), we are enabled to arrange in three series with reference to their locality, date of occurrence, and cause.

We are informed that on May 8, 1855, - Hill was attacked and killed on Indian creek, in Siskiyou county, California. Primarily this information is obtained from the official list of white persons killed by Indians, referred to as the work of a legislative committee. The next entry is to the effect that " Jerome Dyar and Daniel McKew" were killed on the first of June, on the road from Jacksonville to the Illinois valley, and that, as in the former case, the killing was done by Rogue River Indians. On June second, says the report, Philpot was killed by the same Indians, in Deer creek valley. These constitute a chain of events to which particular attention should be paid in order to ascertain the comparative trustworthiness of the publication quoted from.

From a careful comparison of accounts, oral as well as printed, it appears that a party of Illinois Indians, belonging possibly to Limpy's band, but more likely being the remnant of those active and formidable savages who so boldly resisted the attacks both of the regulars and the miners, as described in foregoing pages, went over to the Klamath river about Happy Camp, and robbed some miners' cabins, and then proceed- ing to Indian creek, killed a man named Hill-sometimes spelled Hull-and precip- itately returning, stole some cattle from Hay's ranch (afterwards Thornton's), and took their booty to the hills at the head of Slate creek. On the day following, Samuel Frye set out from Hay's ranch with a force of eight men, and following the Indians into the hills, came upon them and killed or mortally wounded three of them, as the whites reported. The latter retired and probably were followed, as on the next day, while returning with re-inforcements, it was found that the Indians had gone to Deer creek and murdered Philpot and seriously wounded James Mills. The neighboring settlers and others moved immediately to Yarnall's stockade for safety, while Frye, with his military company, now increased to twenty men, were active in protecting them, and seeking the Indians. News was sent to Fort Lane, and Lieutenant Switzer with a force

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of twelve men came down and entered upon the search, only to find that the Indians had murdered Jerome Dyer and Daniel McCue, on the Applegate, where they had gone on their supposed way to the Klamath lakes. A day or so later the Indians, finding their way blocked for escape to the eastward, surrendered to the troops and were taken to the Fort for safe keeping, as there were no regularly constituted author- ities to receive them, and if once allowed to go out of the power of the soldiers would infallibly have been killed by the citizens, as indeed they well deserved. The Indians, fourteen in number were brought up to the reserve, but Chief Sam put in forcible objections against their being allowed to come among his people, saying that some whites were endeavoring to raise disturbances among the latter, and their own good name would suffer, etc. To this Captain Smith and Agent Ambrose assented, and pro- vided a place for the Indians at Fort Lane, where they were kept under guard, as much to prevent whites from killing them as to discourage them from running away.

The next sequence of events that deserves notice, constitutes the " Humbug War," well known by that name in Northern California. The whole matter, which at one time threatened to assume serious proportions, grew out of a plain case of drunk. Two Indians-whether Shastas, Klamaths, or Rogue Rivers there is no evidence to show, but presumably from the locality of the former tribe-procured liquor and became intoxicated, and while passing along Humbug creek in California, were met by one Peterson, who foolishly meddled with them. Becoming enraged, one of the Indians shot him, inflicting a mortal wound; as he fell he drew his own revolver and shot his opponent in the abdomen. The Indians started for the Klamath river at full speed, while the alarm was given. Two companies of men were instantly formed and sent out to arrest the perpetrators. The information that an Indian had shot a white man was enough to arouse the whole community, and no punishment would have been deemed severe enough for the culprit if he had been taken. The citizens found on the next day a party of Indians who refused to answer their questions as they wished, so they arrested three of them and set out for Humbug with them. While on the road, two of the three escaped, the other one was taken to Humbug, examined before a justice of the peace and for want of evidence discharged. When the two escaped prisoners returned to their camp, it was the signal for a massacre of whites. That night (July 28) the Indians of that band passed down the Klamath, killing all but three of the men work- ing between Little Humbug and Horse creeks. Eleven met their death at that time, being William Hennessy, Edward Parish, Austin W. Gay, Peter Hignight, John Pol- lock, four Frenchmen and two Mexicans. Excitement knew no bounds; every man constituted himself an exterminator of Indians, and a great many of that unfortunate race were killed, without the least reference to their possible guilt or innocence. Many miserable captives were deliberately shot, hanged or knocked into abandoned prospect holes to die. Over twenty-five natives, mostly those who had always been friendly, were thus disposed of. Even infancy and old age were not safe from these " avengers," who were composed chiefly of the rowdy or " sporting " class.

Meantime some had said that the Indians who had committed the massacre had gone north. On the dissemination of this report, preparations for a pursuit were rapidly made, and about the first of August five companies of volunteers started for the north side of the Klamath. These were commanded by Captains Hale, Lynch,

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Martin, Kelly and Ream-the latter's men being mounted, while the others were on foot. The total force amounted to about two hundred. The Indians were found to have fled beyond the Klamath, and the volunteers, finding their trail, followed it closely. The pursued were carrying the man whom Peterson wounded, and had gone over the summit of the Siskiyou range, and down into the valley of the Applegate, and made for the reservation at Fort Lane. When the five companies reached Sterling creek, they camped, finding the Indians had escaped them and gone to the reservation. Here they held a meeting, and like all Americans in seasons of public anxiety, passed resolutions. Those were of the following tenor:

STERLING, Oregon, August 5, 1855.

At a meeting of the volunteer companies of Siskiyou county, State of California, who have been organized for the purpose of apprehending and punishing certain Indians who have committed depredations in our county, E. S. Mowry, Esq., was elected chairman, Dr. D. Ream, secretary, and the following resolutions were unanimously adopted :

WHEREAS, Certain Indians, composed of the Klamath, Horse Creek, and a portion of the Rogue River tribe, on or about the twenty-seventh or twenty-eighth of July, 1855, came upon the Klamath river, and there ruthlessly and without provocation. murdered eleven or more of our fellow-citizens and friends, a portion of whom we know to have escaped into the reservation near Fort Lane, Rogue river valley, Oregon territory, from the fact of having tracked them into said valley and from testimony of certain responsible and reliable witnesses ; it is, therefore,

Resolved, That a committee of five men, one from each company now present, be chosen to present these resolutions to Captain Smith, U. S. A., commandant at Fort Lane, and Mr. Palmer, the Indian agent for Oregon territory. We would respectfully request Captain Smith, U. S. A., and Mr. Palmer, Indian agent, that they would, if in their power, deliver up to us the fugitive Indians who have fled to the reservation, in three days from this date, and if at the end of this time they are not delivered to us, together with all the stock and property, we would most respect- fully beg of Captain Smith, U. S. A., and the Indian agent full permission to apprehend the fugi- tive Indians, and take the property wherever it may be found.

Resolved, That if at the expiration of three days the Indians and property are not delivered to us, and the permission to seek for them is not granted, then we will, on our own responsibility, go and take them where they may be found, at all and every hazard.

Resolved, That the following-named gentlemen compose the committee :

E. S. MOWRY, J. X. HALE, A D. LAKE, WILLIAM PARRISH, A. HAWKINS, · Committee.

E. S. MOWRY, Chairman.

DR. D. REAM, Secretary.

The committee went to Fort Lane and found that some of the stock stolen by the Indians was there, and that two Rogue River Indians who had been concerned in the massacre were then in the guard house. The committee waited upon Captain Smith, presented their credentials, and demanded the surrender of the stock and criminals. The Captain said that the animals would be delivered up on proof of ownership, but that the Indians could on no account be surrendered, except to the properly constituted authorities. Lieutenant Mowry then told him plainly that they came after the Indians and proposed to have them, if it was necessary to take them by force. This was too much for hot-tempered Captain Smith to endure. Threats from a citizen to a regular army officer were unheard-of in his experience. He stormed furiously, declined to submit to dictation, and invited the bold Californians to put their threats in execution. They left, declaring that if the Indians were not forthcoming in three days they would

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take the fort by storm. The camp was then removed to a point within three or four miles of the fort, and the volunteers began to mature plans for its capture. Captain Smith made arrangements to repel attacks, placing his artillery (two or three small cannon) in position, loaded and trained upon the approaches, and suspended the visits of troops to the surrounding camps. The invaders evolved a plan for making the soldiers drunk, whereby they might enter the fort, but this fell through on account of communications being sundered ; and within a day or two they left for their homes, feeling that a war against the government might terminate injuriously to them.

After the war of 1855-6 closed, the Indian criminals in question, two in number, were surrendered to the sheriff of Siskiyou, upon a warrant charging them with mur- der. They were taken to Yreka, and kept in jail until the grand jury met, and no indictment being found, they were released. But it happened that a number of men in that town had determined that the savages should die. As they walked forth from the jail these men locked arms with them, led them out of town, shot them and tum- bled their bodies into an old mining shaft where their bones yet lie.

Years later appropriations were made by congress for the pay of the men belong- ing to the five companies, and about 1870 a number of them actually received compen- sation for their services in this expedition.

On the second of September an affray occurred in the upper part of Bear creek valley, Jackson county, which resulted in the death of a white man and the wounding of two others. A few days previously, some Indians, by some supposed to belong to the gang which committed the eleven murders on the Klamath, stole some horses from B. Alberding. The owner summoned his neighbors to assist in recovering them, and a very small company set out on the quest. Following the trail, they walked into an ambuscade of savages, and were fired upon. Granville Keene was killed, Alberding was wounded by a ball that struck him above the eye, J. Q. Faber was shot through the arm, and another man received a wound in the hand. The party hastily retired, leaving the body of Keene where it fell. On the following day a detachment of troops from Fort Lane proceeded to the scene of conflict and obtained the much mutilated remains, but the Indians, of course, were gone. The savages who were concerned in this diabolism were said by different accounts to number from five to thirty.

The next event of the sort is a still more serious one, which occurred on the twenty-fifth of. September, and involved the death of two persons. On the previous day Harrison B. Oatman and Daniel P. Brittain, of Phoenix, and Calvin M. Fields, started from Phoenix, each driving an ox-team loaded with flour destined for Yreka. Camping the first night near the foot of the Siskiyou mountains, the train started up the ascent the next morning, doubling their teams frequently as was made necessary by the steepness of the road. When within three hundred yards of the summit, Oat- man and Fields advancing with two teams and one wagon, while Brittain remained with two wagons and one team, the latter heard five shots fired in the vicinity of the men in advance. Hurrying up the rise he quickly came in sight of the teams, which were standing still, while an Indian was apparently engaged in stripping a fallen man. Turning back, Brittain ran down the mountain, followed by a bullet from the Indian's rifle, but made his way unhurt to the Mountain House, three miles from the scene of the attack. Six men hastily mounted and returned to the summit. Oatman, mean-

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while had escaped, and got to Hughes' house (now Byron Cole's) on the California side, and obtained help. He reported that at the time the attack began, a youth named Cunningham, who was returning from Yreka with a team, was passing Oatman and Fields when the attack was made, and that he was wounded at the instant Fields fell dead. The latter's body was lying in the road, stripped, but Cunningham was only found the next day, lying dead by a tree behind which he had taken refuge. The exact spot where the catastrophe occurred-says Mr. Brittain, who still resides at Phoenix-is where the railroad tunnel enters from the Oregon side. It is the gentle- man's opinion that about fifteen Indians were concerned in the attack. The date mentioned, September twenty-fifth, is taken from Mr. Robinson's diary, although Mr. Brittain is of the opinion that it took place three days later. Newspaper accounts give the twenty-fourth as the proper date. On the following day Samuel Warner was murdered on Cottonwood creek, not far from the scene of the other tragedy, and most likely by the same Indians. At nearly the same time, two men, Charles Scott and Thomas Snow, were killed on the trail between Yreka and Scott Bar. These repeated killings (whose details are not now known) produced a very considerable degree of alarm, but no military measures of importance were taken, except by the officials at Fort Lane, who sent forty mounted troops to the various scenes of bloodshed, but these returned without having effected anything.

Our account now approaches the beginning of the war of 1855-6, by some thought to have been the result of the incidents above recounted. It is truly difficult at this time to accord these circumstances their proper influence in the acts which followed. It is evident that the people of Rogue river valley toward the end of the summer of 1855, must have felt an additional degree of insecurity, but that it was wholly in con- sequence of the murders which had previously taken place does not seem probable, inasmuch as these murders were committed outside the valley. Their legitimate results could hardly have been sufficient to stir up a general war against the Indians, so we are left to conjecture the growth of a public sentiment determined upon war. The vast majority of settlers, wearied of constant anxiety, heartily and unaffectedly believed that the removal of the Indians was desirable and necessary. Whatever may have been the exact status of the war party, and whatever the influence of the speculative branch of it, it is clear there was no outspoken opposition such as would have been created by a general sentiment in favor of peaceful methods. Almost the only out- spoken advocate of Indians' rights was compelled to leave the country of his adoption from fear of personal violence. Whoever doubts the acerbity of public sentiment at that date, will do well to pause here and digest that statement, comparing with it the tenor of the editorial remarks to be found in the Sentinel at that time. If that paper were a truthful exponent of public opinion, and we believe it was, there must have existed a condition of feeling analogous to that in the southern states in the months preceding the rebellion. If such publications may be trusted to gauge public senti- ment, the feeling of absolute enmity against the natives must have increased ten-fold since the signing of the Lane treaty. And as there was nothing in the conduct of the Indians to fully warrant this, we shall not, probably, be far out of the way in assign- ing much of it to the influence of those who, for various reasons, desired war. Un- doubtedly this view will fail to please those whose belief as to the cause of the war of 32

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History of Benton County, Oregon, Part 38

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

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