USA > Oregon > Benton County > History of Benton County, Oregon > Part 43
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85
Digitized by Google
271
INDIAN WARS.
Here resided the To-to-tin, a numerous people, related to the Rogue Rivers and Klamaths. Their northern limits were at Coos bay ; toward the south they reached Chetco. They were divided into twelve bands, of whom eight lived along the coast, being the Vasomah, at the mouth of the Coquille ; the Quah-to-mah, on Flores creek ; Sixes (first called Shix) river and Port Orford; the Co-sut-hen-tan, near the Three Sisters ; the Eu-qu-ach-ees, along the coast from Port Orford to Rogue river ; the Tah- shutes, southward of the river ; next the Chet-less-un-tun, or Pistol Rivers, about the mouth of that stream ; the Wish-te-not-ins south of the Pistol Rivers, and north of the Chetcoes (Che-at-tee), who were the southernmost tribe. On Rogue river were the To-to-tins, who gave their name to the whole tribe; the Mack-a-no-tins lived above, and the Shista-koos-tees still higher up stream, or about the mouth of the Illinois. At the forks of the Coquille dwelt the Cho-cre-ten-tan band. All these divisions were small ; the Chetcoes, the most numerous, numbering but 242 in the sum- mer of 1854, while the total number of Coast Indians was 1230, of whom 448 were men.
.
On the resignation of Judge Skinner in 1853, Samuel H. Culver became Indian agent for Southern Oregon, and resided for a part of the time at Port Orford. The government had decided upon the removal of the To-to-tin tribe to a reservation, but with the usual delay of governmental matters this was not carried out in time to avoid the great catastrophe. In 1854 Isaiah L. Parrish became agent and made the enumer- ation of the Coast Indians, whence the above statistics are taken. There is nothing distinctive or peculiar about the intercourse of these people with the whites who came into the country ; they received the usual treatment accorded the Indian by the Cau- casian. With rather more than ordinary patience and humility they endured the encroachments of the higher civilization, and lived on calmly in their smoky hovels, spearing the salmon and gathering mussels, until their outbreak in 1856. From a long list the following incidents have been extracted, to show whatever they may of the situation of affairs along the coast previous to that date. The report of the com- missioner of Indian affairs for 1854, states that on or about the fifteenth of February, 1854, one Miller, with several accomplices from Smith river, killed fifteen Chetcoes, residing at the mouth of the river of that name, because these Indians interfered with the profits of a ferry which he was running. They transferred white passengers in their canoes, thus competing in a manner unacceptable to Miller. By another source we are told that Miller was subsequently indicted for the killing and sentenced to two years in the penitentiary. But this assertion is too wildly improbable for belief. It had no precedent, and has no subsequent counterpart. The only case in our knowl- edge that bears a resemblance was that of a white man named Thompson, who was indicted for murdering an Indian on Galice creek some time in 1854. The defendant made his escape before his case came to trial and left the country.
On a previous page in this book the "Coquille massacre" was referred to. This was the work of forty miners and others living near the mouth of the Coquille, who killed sixteen Indians who were accused of having become "insolent" to the whites, and specifically of having said " God damn American" in the presence and contrary to the dignity of a white citizen of this great republic-of having fired a shot at a crowd of whites-of cutting a ferry-boat rope-of riding a white man's horse without
Digitized by Google
272
INDIAN WARS.
permission-and finally, of having refused to explain these insolent actions. On page 272 and following, of the Indian commissioner's report for 1854, may be found descriptions of the subsequent proceedings of the whites, wherein they demolished an Indian village, killed sixteen persons, including a squaw and an infant, and wounded several more. These statements having been given by Abbott, leader of the whites, no room is left for cavil.
Another incident of importance has a termination somewhat different from the ordinary tale, but is itself very lamentable in its results. On August 26, 1855, James Buford, a miner living at the mouth of Rogue river, became involved in a quarrel with an Indian, and was shot by the latter, the bullet taking effect in Buford's shoul- der. The native was arrested and brought before a justice of the peace, and after a partial examination it was resolved to remove him for the night to the council ground, and afterwards to Port Orford. There being a considerable number of Indians there- abouts, a squad of United States troops was detailed for the service of guarding the prisoner, who was taken in a large canoe with his guard. Shortly, another canoe ran alongside in the semi-darkness, and from it Buford and two friends, Hawkins and O'Brien, fired and killed the prisoner and an Indian who was paddling. Instantly the soldiers returned the fire, killing two and mortally wounding the other assailant, who retained only sufficient strength to swim ashore, where he died upon the bank. This incident, we need not add, created a great deal of excitement, and resulted in a war of words against the army which could so quickly take the side of the savages, and leave unavenged the wrongs they committed upon the whites. Nevertheless, the army was, from the nature of things, opposed to the whites, although they could not be said to favor the Indians. Departmental instructions leave the officer commanding a military post no option regarding the treatment of either savage or civilized persons, but require him to interpose to restrain, on the one hand, the violence of the nation's aboriginal wards, and on the other to resist the action of the whites who may interfere unlawfully with them. After the uprising of the Interior Indians under John, Limpy and other chiefs, the Coast Indians were solicited to join in the warfare against the whites, but the sentiment of the larger portion was for peace, and the overtures of those chiefs were rejected. The Buford affair may be allowed to have contributed somewhat to produce the hostilities which followed in the spring of 1856, but still greater weight is probably to be attached to the success of the malcontents on the river above in resist- ing the efforts of their opponents who sought to conquer them. During the early part of the winter of 1855-6 symptoms of increasing discontent were noticed among the natives, and the condition of affairs was pronounced grave enough to warrant immedi- ate measures being taken to preserve peace. An Indian agent for the locality at the mouth of the river was considered indispensible, and Ben Wright, the celebrated Indian fighter, who had gained a vast experience in the management of the savages, and who had sustained intimate domestic relations with various tribes, was, at the solicitation of certain people of Yreka and elsewhere, appointed to that post as suc- cessor to Mr. Parrish, by Joel Palmer, superintendent of Indian affairs for Oregon. Wright began his ministrations under favorable auspices and for a time everything promised security for the whites, whose fears were not of the most serious cast. The military arm was present in the person of Brevet-Major Reynolds, U. S. A., who, with
Digitized by Google
1
273
INDIAN WARS.
his company of the third artillery, was stationed at Port Orford, the post bearing the official designation of Fort Orford. This force, though too small to be of much service in time of a real outbreak, still served to maintain order as between the whites and natives, and was much relied upon by the infant colony so far away from effective help, and so completely at the mercy of the savages. The settlers, of course, were atmost entirely men in the prime of life; very few women and children had yet arrived in the country-a peculiarly fortunate circumstance as we shall see. Only two or three white families were to be found at the settlement at the mouth of the river, called Gold Beach, but many miners abode in small cabins scattered along the banks of that stream for several miles upwards from the mouth, and along the sea-coast north and south, but mainly located near the present site of Ellensburg. Three miles up the river was Big Flat, where a considerable settlement had been formed, and some land brought under cultivation.
Something had been done in the way of protection against possible outbreaks by the formation of a small company of volunteers who were under the command of Cap- tain Poland. This company numbered thirty-three men and had been called out by the agent and stationed at the Big Bend, some fifteen miles up the river, where they served to separate the hostiles above from the peaceful Indians below. Here they had a strongly fortified post and were deemed secure from defeat or capture. These troops maintained their station until about the first of February, 1856, when they abandoned it and joined the main body of citizens at Gold Beach. Wright, observing the growing discontent of the natives at this time, put forth every effort to induce them to go peace- ably on to the temporary reservation at Port Orford, where they would be safe from the attack of ill-disposed whites and the solicitations of hostile Indians. It was still thought, notwithstanding hints of an outbreak, that the Indians about the mouth of the river would be induced to submit to the authority of the superintendent and would eventu- ally, without trouble or bloodshed, be removed to some distant reservation. It has always been supposed that it was owing to the intriguing of one man that this effect was not brought about. This man was an Indian of some eastern tribe-Canadian, it was said-and had been with Fremont on his last expedition ten years before. He pos- sessed great experience of savage warfare and savage craft and duplicity, of which latter qualities he was certainly a master. Enos, called by the Indians Acnes, had become a confident of Wright's to the extent of knowing, it is said, all his plans for the peaceful subjugation of the Indians. We must confess Ben Wright changed from what fact and tradition have described him, if instead of meditating a mighty coup-de-main to destroy them, he relied upon negotiations, squaws' enticements and the persuasions of an Indian renegrade to accomplish what his arms alone had been want to do. Enos, nominally for Wright, constantly entered the Indian camps, in one of which his wife dwelt; and laid with the braves of these coast tribes a far-reaching plan to destroy utterly and beyond regeneration the small colony of whites; and this done, to join the bands of savages who were waging war along the upper reaches of the Rogue, and at one fell swoop to defeat and drive from the country the invaders who so harrowed the Indian soul. Thus large they say his plan was; but not larger, doubtless, than those of other savages, but more nearly being executed than most others, because laid by a brain that could contrive and a disposition that made bloody deeds and violence like 38
Digitized by Google
274
INDIAN WARS.
balm to his feelings. Many a dangerous and rough enemy the whites had in Southern Oregon, but none more dangerous nor capable than this planning and contriving, smil- ing and hating foreign Indian, whose treachery cost the sea-cost colony many valuable lives and nearly its whole material wealth.
The first step in Enos' portentious plan was to slaughter Wright and the settlers along the coast. On the evening of February 22, having completed his arrangements, Enos with a sufficient force of his Indians fell upon the scattered settlement at the south side of the mouth of the river, and finding Agent Wright alone in his cabin, entered it seen but unsuspected by him, and with an axe or club slaughtered this hero of a hundred bloody fights. So died perhaps the greatest of the Indian fighters whom this coast ever knew. Concluding this villainy the Indians sought new victims, and during the night killed mercilessly, with shot or blows, twenty-four or twenty-five persons, of whom the list is here presented, as given by various authorities: Captain Ben Wright, Captain John Poland, John Geisel and three children, Joseph Seroc and two children, J. H. Braun, E. W. Howe, Barney Castle, George McClusky, Patrick McCollough, Samuel Hendrick, W. R. Tullus, Joseph Wagoner, Seaman, Lorenzo Warner, George Reed, John Idles, Martin Reed, Henry Lawrence Guy C. Holcomb and Joseph Wilkinson. Three prisoners they took-Mrs. Geisel and her remaining children Mary and Annie, the three of whom, after suffering the worst hardships at the hands of the Indians, were delivered from them at a later date, and now live to recount with tears the story of their bereavement and captivity.
A large portion of the inhabitants thereabouts had gathered on that fateful night at the Big Flat to attend a dance given there, and so failed of death; and on the morrow these set out for the ransacked village, and arriving there found that the Indians had gone, leaving the fearful remains of the butchery. The corpses were buried ; and the remaining population, numbering perhaps 130 men, scantily supplied with fire-arms and provisions, hastened to the north bank of the river, and sought protection in a fort, so-called, which quite providentially stood there, having been con- structed previously by some whites in anticipation of such need. Here the survivors gathered and for a time sustained a state of siege with the added horrors of an immi- nent death by starvation. Their only communication from without was by means of two small coasting schooners which made occasional trips to Port Orford or Crescent City. At the former place lay Major Reynolds with a force scarcely suffi- cient to maintain order ; and when the messengers from Gold Beach arrived and told their direful tale, the citizens of the post with their families and most valuable goods took refuge at the barracks, whence the commander refused to move. He advised an entire abandonment of the settlement at Gold Beach, but as the Indians surrounded it and commanded all approaches by land, it was obviously impossible for the beleaguered citizens to escape, unless by sea, and that recourse was also cut off. Meantime the now aroused savages were not idle. Every dwelling and every piece of property of whatever description that fire could touch was destroyed. The country was devastated utterly, and only the station of Port Orford remained inhab- ited, if we except the fort at the mouth of the river. The buildings at Gold Beach were all burned, and an estimate of the property destroyed along the coast fixes the damage at $125,000. Subsequent to the first attack a number of other persons were
Digitized by Google
275
INDIAN WARS.
killed by the Indians, these being Henry Bullen, L. W. Oliver, Daniel Richardson, Adolf Schmoldt, Oliver Cantwell, Stephen Taylor, and George Trickey. By an unhappy chance H. I. Gerow, merchant ; John O'Brien, miner; Sylvester Long, farmer; William Thompson and Richard Gay, boatmen, and Felix McCue, were drowned in the breakers opposite the fort, while bringing aid and provisions from Port Orford.
At the same time the messenger proceeded to Port Orford application was made to Captain Jones of the regular army, who was stationed at Crescent City, and this officer offered the services of twenty-five troops, and except for General Wool's com- mands, would have instantly taken the field with that small force and marched to the assistance of the besieged citizens. But as we shall see a concerted movement against the Indians was about to be made wherein the scattered companies of regulars were each to bear a part. The citizens of Crescent City quickly organized a company of men, of whom G. H. Abbott was chosen captain ; T. Crook, first lieutenant, and C. Tuttle, second lieutenant; and these made preparations for a campaign against the Indians and were of much use in the hostilities which followed. The Crescent City people appealed to the troops in arms in Jackson county, and then mostly lying inac- tive at Vannoys', Fort Hays, Forest Dale, and other places, for assistance in putting down this new uprising and saving the lives of the coast people, but without effect, since the officers feared the consequences that might follow a withdrawal of any troops from the valley.
The operations of the regular army which resulted in freeing Curry county from the presence of hostile Indians, are thus alluded to by Captain Cram. On the ninth of November, 1855, General John E. Wool, in command of the military department of the Pacific, while on his way to the Yakima country where war had broken out, arrived at Crescent City, and there learned of the existence of hostilities in Southern Oregon, of the formation of the "southern army" of volunteers, and of the fight at Hungry hill. Deeming the volunteers, with the assistance of the few regulars at Forts Lane and Jones, sufficient for the occasion, and there being no regular troops available for service in this district, General Wool gave himself no further concern about the matter, being averse to winter campaigns. General Wool's presence in Southern Oregon, says Captain Cram, was exceedingly opportune. He was enabled to judge of the measures necessary to be taken by his own command, and acting upon the basis of humanity for the Indians and with a due regard for the safety of the settle- ments, he instructed commanders of posts to receive and protect such friendly Indians as chose to come in and remain at the military posts. These were the precautions taken in consequence of "a due regard for the safety of the settlements:" Captain Jones, who was posted with his company of fifty men at Fort Humboldt, received orders some time during the war to proceed to Crescent City and "protect all supplies and public property, also to guard the friendly Indians gathered there by the superin- tendent of Indian affairs in Oregon;" and Major Reynolds with his company of just twenty-six artillerymen was ordered to remain at Fort Orford, ninety miles above Crescent City and thirty miles from Gold Beach, the spot where the Indians' blows must soonest fall, and only distant some forty or less miles from the common rendez- vous of all the hostiles. It would require no generalship to ascertain the unprotected
Digitized by Google
276
INDIAN WARS.
state of the settlements along the coast. Absolutely no protection, military or natural, existed for the community at Gold Beach, excepting that these people had raised, as before mentioned, a small company, part of whom were stationed at the big bend of Rogue river, some fifteen miles above its mouth and a strategic point, where they acted as a guard to prevent the hostiles commanded by John, Limpy and other chiefs from communicating with or annoying the Indians of Gold Beach district, as before men- tioned. Had those indomitable warriors been disposed to attack the coast people, there was absolutely no power at hand capable of making a successful resistance. The garrison at Big Bend would have been crushed, the friendly Indians scattered, and scenes of blood enacted similar to those we have recounted. Why the hostile Indians made no such attempt is a subject for speculation; certainly the regular army did nothing to prevent it. When spring came, General Wool, "being previously well advised as to the topography of the district and of the probable positions of the Indians," and having been informed of the imminent danger of the coast settlements, proceeded, leisurely enough, to "put in effect a plan for terminating the Rogue river war by United States troops." Which war he proposed to terminate thus is not known; but it is plain that two separate wars had gone on during the weeks succeed- ing the "Ben Wright Massacre"-the one being by the Coast Indians against the coast colony, the other by John and Limpy and their bands against the volunteers of the southern army. From and after the arrival of the United States troops at the mouth of the Rogue, we can only recognize a single contest, the exigencies of war having brought about an alliance of the savages, and the mutual though reluctant co-opera- tion of the regulars and volunteers.
The general's plan is thus outlined in reports of the war department: A detach- ment of one hundred men had been sent from Fort Lane to guard Sam's band to the coast reservation, which left a very small number there for offensive operations. Cap- tain Augur's company of the fourth infantry was ordered down from Vancouver to Fort Orford to reinforce Major Reynolds, which "would afford troops enough to pro- tect the friendly Indians and public stores collected there, and leave another small force disposable for the field." Captain Ord's company of the third artillery, stationed at Benicia, California, was ordered to be in readiness to embark on the steamer for Oregon. Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Buchanan, major in the fourth infantry, was selected to take charge of the field operations. On March fifth the general embarked at San Francisco with Ord's company, Lieutenant-Colonel Buchanan, Captain Cram, Lieutenants Bonnycastle and Arnold, and Assistant-Surgeon Milhau, for the seat of war. On the eighth of March Lieutenant-Colonel Buchanan landed at Crescent City with Ord's company, and united with Jones' regulars and Abbott's volunteers in a vigorous prosecution of the war. General Wool's plan consisted of the conjoined action of the troops from Crescent City with those from Port Orford and those of Cap- tain Smith, to whom orders had been sent to descend the Rogue river in time to co-operate in the work. Captain Abbott, setting out from Crescent City before the regulars were ready, encountered the Pistol River and Chetco bands and fought them for a day, losing several men who were wounded and Private Miller killed, and ulti- mately being surrounded and forced to take refuge behind logs upon the beach. A night was spent thus when the regulars, 112 in number, under Captains Jones and
Digitized by Google
277
INDIAN WARS.
Ord (E. O. C. Ord, late a major-general in the United States service, deceased in 1883), who charged and drove the savages away. Tarrying in the vicinity a few days for the purpose of inflicting a severe lesson on these hostiles, their camp was taken by the volunteers and the fleeing inmates were met and severely chastised by the regulars.
On the twentieth of March Lieutenant-Colonel Buchanan, with the regulars from Crescent City, arrived at the mouth of Rogue river, having left Captain Abbott at Pistol river to keep open communications with Crescent City, the base of supplies. Operations on the lower Rogue began by an assault upon the Makanootenai rancheria, about ten miles up-stream and four or six below Big Bend. Captains Ord and Jones took the town, killing several Indians and driving the rest to their canoes. One man, Sergeant Nash, was severely wounded. A few days later a detachment of Captain Augur's company reached the mouth of Illinois river and found some ten or twelve Indians belonging to John or Limpy's band, and fought them. The Indians strove des- perately and five of them fell dead before the conflict was decided. Captain Augur had thus far failed to effect a junction with his superior officer and after the fight found it necessary to return toward Gold Beach. The Indians of the up-river band followed him closely, entering his camp as soon as he had abandoned it and whooping, burning loose powder and dancing to testify their joy at his presumed defeat.
Captain Smith set out from Fort Lane with eighty men-fifty dragoons compris- ing his own company, and thirty infantrymen. All of these went on foot, and the former carried their musketoons, "an ill-featured fire-arm that was alike aggressive at both ends " and which contributed to the inefficiency of that branch of the service as much as any cause. However, it is a matter of fact that the United States government is always at least a score of years behind the age in the armament of its troops, so the reader should not be surprised to learn the peculiarities of the musketoon, the princi- pal weapon of mounted troops in that decade. Captain Smith marched down Rogue river, up Slate creek to Hays' farm, from thence to Deer creek and thence down Illinois river to the Rogue, and encamped a few miles further down that stream, having come to his destination.
Negotiations had been in progress for a few days, thanks to the exertions of Palmer, superintendent of Indian affairs, and it was hoped that an agreement would be reached, at least with the Coast Indians who were now much scattered. Enos, with quite a number of his followers, had joined the up-river bands who were lying on the river above the Big Bend. Some others had gone to Port Orford and placed themselves under the protection of the military there, and no malcontents were left upon the coast save a few Pistol river and Chetco Indians who had not yet been sufficiently pacificated. Several actions had taken place at various points along the coast, the results of which were calculated to humble the Indians. On the twenty-seventh of March a party of regulars were fired upon from the brush while proceeding down the banks of the Rogue, whereupon they charged the enemy and killed eight or ten savages, with a loss to themselves of two wounded. On April 1, Captain Creighton with a company of citi- zens attacked an Indian village near the mouth of the Coquille river, killing nine men, wounding eleven and taking forty squaws and children prisoners. These Indians had been under the care of the government authorities at Port Orford until a few days before the fight and only left that place because some meddlesome whites had represented to
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.