History of Benton County, Oregon, Part 51

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

USA > Oregon > Benton County > History of Benton County, Oregon > Part 51

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).

Next comes the experiences of the genial, courteous, attentive and ever popular County Clerk :

" Yes, I came round the Horn, I had been whaling in the Pacific for some time and landed at Frisco. One day as I was strolling round I saw a great big placard on the wall, with letters two feet long :

"' Ho! For the Umpqua Diggins-Lots of Gold-Plenty of Water-Good Grub-

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Fine Country- The well-known schooner Reindeer, Captain Bachelor, will sail for the Umpqua on October 15, 1880.'

" There were four of us in my party and we made up our minds to go. We were all young and active and did not mind roughing it. You see, a few years in a whaler will fit you for most anything. There was a pretty rough lot on board that schooner, about a hundred and thirty, all told, some for the Umpqua and the rest going on to Portland.

"After knocking about at sea for a few days, we made the Umpqua and the 'old man' ran in and anchored just under the north beach. As I put my hand on the cable, I felt the anchor drag, I told the mate how it was and he went and told the 'old man.' Up he came, but he wouldn't believe it at first. But in another minute we should have been in the breakers and nothing could have saved us. The 'old man ' shouted to set all sail and I ran to the helm. Just then we saw a little boat coming out past us, and they halloed to us as she went by 'You'll be on the beach inside of three minutes !" I tell you ; it was touch and go. I could see the channel pretty well and I just steered her by the look of the water, we just shaved a big rock by three feet or so, and ran up the river. Presently we anchored again and went ashore, we got a little Indian canoe and pulled up the river. The country looked pretty rough. It was the fall of the year and the nights were cold. When evening came we could'nt find any house. My mates set to build a fire and camp and looked to go supperless to bed. But I had got the cook on board the schooner to boil me a bit of salt junk, and I put it up in my old sack with some hard-tack. When I opened my sack you should have seen my mates smile ! Next day we pulled up the river. About mid-day we saw a man coming down with a raft of lumber. One of our mates said, ' If that's not Mr. Young of Rock Island, Illinois, I'm much mistaken ? One of the fellows called out, " How are are you Mr. Young ?" "Who knows me " came gruffly back from the man on the raft. So we pulled across to him and made ourselves known. He was very civil to us and took us to his camp and gave us a good supper. Next day we went up the river.

"About the diggings ? Bless you, there weren't any. It was all a plan, we were in for it now and so we just made up our minds to stop in Oregon. The country all down south there pleased us. It looked so fresh and green in the valleys; but, I tell you, the mountains were no joke. We heard about the Willamette valley and traveled on north to find it. Two of my mates stayed down on Rogue river for the winter, but I, and one other, went north.

"When we got up into where Monroe City is now, there was a log house ; Doc. Richardson lived there, just as we came to the house he came out and stood outside. I tell you he was a picture. He was a great big stout fellow about fifty, with a red face. He was dressed in buckskin hunting shirt with fringes and long buckskin leggings, and his old rifle lay ready in the hollow of his arm. When we stepped up to him, " Well young men, and what do you want ? " said he. " We should like to stop here, and get some dinner," says I; " what a beautiful place you've got here, sir," I went on, "and if you'll allow me to say so, I just admire you as a specimen of a backwoodsman." " What !" says he, " What on earth, you young whipper-snapper of a son of a gun, do you mean ?" and he stepped up to us and was going to lay hold of me by the collar, and I thought I was in for it, for he was far too big for me to make much of a fight.

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The more I tried to explain that I was really in earnest and that the last thing in my mind was to wish to insult him, the angrier he got, and I didn't know what to make of it. As good luck would have it the door opened and the old lady came out. She just looked, and then she said, "Old man, let me speak to these young men." So she told us to come in and asked us our names, and where we came from. I explained to her that I had no idea of insulting the old gentleman. "Oh, well," said she "don't mind him. And now what can I do for you-you seem nice quiet young men." So we asked her if she had any milk, and she went and got us each a big bowl of bread and milk, and, I tell you, sir, I thought it was just the nicest meal I ever tasted. Then the old man came in and sat down ; he wouldn't speak at first, but by degrees we made friends. The end of it was, they invited us to stay with them, but wejust came on.

"The next house we came to was Starr's settlement. There were a lot of ladies quilting. We went in to ask if there were any claims to be had. " Are you married ?" asked one of the ladies. " No ma'am," said I; " Well then we don't want you," said she, " got plenty of bachelors already .- Stay, are you a school teacher ?" she added. I thought for a moment if an old whale man dared venture on school teaching! I thought, may be, it would be a little too strong. "No ma'am," said I, at last, " but my friend here is well qualified." "Oh, well," said she, " he can stay and take up a claim ; we have got one of three hundred and twenty acres here, we have been saving up for a school teacher ; but, as for you, young man, you can just go right on up the valley." So, on I went, to where Corvallis now stands. There were just four or five log cabins and a few people and a little stock. But, I tell you, you should have seen this valley then ! Grass up to your waist for miles-it was a fine country-you could ride just where you liked. There was no brush till you came right to the timber on the hills. You see, the Indians used to burn the grass every year and the brush did not grow up till these fires were stopped. I took up a good claim and built me a cabin, and as I was a pretty good carpenter, I got all the work I wanted."

The relations of another pioneer and we have done.

" Well, I guess it was in 1846 that we came, the old lady and I, from Illinois, across the plains. We had a pretty good ox-team and we got through safe. There were lots in the company when we started, but they got to quarreling and making a fuss, so I left them, with one or two more-anyday rather fight than fuss. So I thought we'd just take our chance with the Injuns, though they were pretty bad cros- sing those plains. We were near six months on the road. We came by Klamath lake and by Rogue river. The worst picce on the whole journey was the Rogue River canyon-you know where it is, about eight miles long, and the stage road wasn't made then. You go through it now, I hear, at a sharp run with the California stage; but in those days you just had to clamber along the bottom of the canyon how best you could. No one ever got through without leaving some of his cattle there. In some of the worst places it was so bad when we crossed, that you had to walk for a quarter of a mile at a time on the dead bodies of the oxen and mules that had died there. It was a place you seemed never to get to the end of, and it was the only way too, for you couldn't cross those mountains any other road.

" We just thought lots of this valley when we got through. The old lady and I, we took up our claims in King's Valley, just the nicest kind of a place, with lots of

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grass and a nice river. You had all the timber you wanted on the mountains close by and just lots of deer, and elk. Lovely ? Well, it was kinder lovely, but we had lots to do and the time passed away very quick. The country settled up soon enough and we had all the neighbors we wanted. The Injuns here didn't give us much trouble. The Calapooias would thieve a bit but fifty of them would scare from five or six of us settlers, with our rifles ; and the Klickitats were good Injuns and never troubled us any. Those were good old times !"

These are the tales of the pioneer and in simple language tell of how they jour- neyed and settled in the county, how they found it and what occurred after location of claims. Here did they plant homes in which the sublime influences of civilization should be fostered. In the twinkle of an eye the woodman's ax was heard reverberat- ing in an hundred echoes from out the surrounding pines. Houses sprang up as if at the tap of the magician's wand on every hand, fences commenced to inclose fields that gave earnest of a rare fertility ; schools were built, roads constructed, and the Indian departed, his occupation being gone.

How beautifully and truthfully does Longfellow portray the result of the invasion of white people in the following lines :

"I beheld, too, in that vision All the secrets of the future, Of the distant days that shall be ;

I beheld our nation scattered All forgetful of my counsels ;

Weakened, waring with each other ;

I beheld the westward marches

Saw the remnants of our people

Of the unknown, crowded nations ;

Sweeping westward, wild and woeful,

All the land was full of people,

Like the cloud-rack of a tempest,

Like the withered leaves of Autumn !

Restless, struggling, toiling, striving, Speaking many tongues, yet feeling But one heart-beat in their bosoms.

In the woodland rang the axes,

In the glory of the sunset,

In the purple mists of evening,

To the regions of the home wind,

To the islands of the blessed,

Rushed their great canoe of thunder. Then a darker, drearier vision Passed before me vague and cloudlike ;

To the kingdom of Ponemah,

To the land of the hereafter."

The fact has been already mentioned that Benton county was created in 1847 with a southern boundary extending to the California line; in the year 1851 the present southern line was established and the county curtailed to its present area. In the year 1846 the town of Marysville was laid out by J. C. Avery and bore the name until 1853, when it assumed that of Corvallis. In 1851 the county seat was estab- lished at that point, and still continues such ; while in 1855, she bore the honors of the Capitolian Crown, for some months. Here the first school was established in the year 1850, and taught by A. G. Hovey.

When Nahum King settled in King's Valley he brought with him a number of short-horn cows, having had the misfortune to have a very fine bull of that breed killed by Indians on " the plains," and this, the parent stock from which has since sprung the excellent beeves for which the county has since become noted, were added to by James Watson in the following year. In 1859, Sol. King, the present able Sheriff, with Moses Wright, imported twenty-eight head more, and still further estab- lished the reputation of Benton county as a cattle raising district. These were among the earliest introductions of improved cattle into the State, and certainly no better have been brought by any one. These importations, though far from profitable to these

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Thus departed Hiawatha

Smoked their towns in all the valleys,

Over all the lakes and rivers

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gentlemen, have been of incalculable benefit to stock breeders throughout the country, and scarcely a herd of cattle can be found within miles where the impress of this improved blood may not be detected.

The first flouring mill in the county, as well as south of the Ricreal (La Creole) river, was what was known as the Hubbard Mill, on Beaver creek. Precisely what year it was erected is not now remembered, but it was prior to the year 1850. It was a very primitive affair, being capable of grinding the grain ; it possessed two run of stones of very commonest order, had no bolt-cloth, while the meal as it came from the burrs was carried up stairs and run through what served as a bolt, by hand, one man feeding the meal with another turning the wheel. In the same year, or thereabouts, L. D. Gilbert erected a saw mill on Muddy creek, while about the same time, or in the year following Joseph White erected a like establishment on Long Tom river, where now stands the town of Monroe. The first stores were opened by J. C. Avery, and Hartless & St. Clair, in Marysville; while in 1851, Silas Belknap, was selling goods on his donation claim not far from Monroe.

It is interesting to note what the prices of ordinary articles for household pur- poses were in the Willamette valley in those early days. They show a wonderful difference from those which obtain at present. Apples, dried, fifty cents per pound ; green apples, ten dollars per bushel ; butter, seventy-five cents per pound ; cheese, fifty cents per pound ; candles, sperm, one dollar ; candles, tallow, fifty cents ; flour, per barrel, fifteen dollars; wheat, per bushel, two dollars; white sugar, twenty to thirty cents per pound ; nails, eighteen to twenty cents; cooking stoves, seventy to one hundred and thirty dollars ; lumber eighty to one hundred dollars per thousand feet.

In the year 1853, when the town of Marysville became the city of Corvallis, it was one of the principal shipping points for the southern mines. Large pack trains were almost daily loading in her midst with flour, bacon, etc. ; money was plentiful and times lively. But the scene was changed ; the mines ceased to pay, or at least ceased to draw such large supplies from the Willamette valley. Improvements in Corvallis came to a stand-still. Benton, although one of the finest agricultural and grazing counties in Oregon, was regarded by many as being too far from Portland, or the ocean, to ever amount to any importance. Farmers seemed to partake of this feel- ing. Their farms, barns and temporary dwellings fell into decay, or were mortgaged for a cayuse pony or a little ready cash to assist them in following up some mining humbug. When not chasing a golden will-o'-the-wisp, they employed themselves principally in whittling and depended upon the accidental raising of Spanish calves and colts for the support of large families. The consequence was a few capitalists owned section upon section of land, large numbers of families were forced to seek other locations, which depleted the population, retarded progress, stopped the plough, the erection of school-houses and of churches. Some of the best farms and orchards in the county were marked with dilapidation and ruin.

Just at this time a faint ray of hope seemed to dawn. Some Rip Van Winkle discovered that the Pacific ocean washed the western boundary of the county ; that an Indian canoe could descend some of the little creeks until they wended among the hills and gradually widened out into the "deep blue sea."

It soon became known to a few interested parties that small schooners could enter

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and find a safe anchorage. The coast portion of the county was held as an Indian Reservation and had hitherto been regarded as worthless. A few settlers rushed to Yaquina bay and a clash occurred between them and the Indian Department. A com- promise was effected and a narrow strip thrown open to settlement by the whites. Since then the Bay has been increasing in importance. First a military road was opened, next after much delay a survey of a harbor was made, with satisfactory results, and soon the snort of the iron horse will be heard as he goes through the mountains and valleys, not long ago the resort only of the Indian and the wild beast.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

GENERAL COUNTY HISTORY.

1860 to 1884.

" I care not who writes the history of a nation, if I can see its advertisements," remarked Sir Isaac Newton. There is no doubt that he was right. Historians cannot be trusted to write the simple truth, for even if they are wholly unprejudiced, they are nevertheless constantly deceived by the authorities upon whom they rely. The students of advertisements, or indeed newspaper matter generally, on the other hand, learns the wants and habits of a people from the most trustworthy source. Had the old Romans advertised in a manner worthy of intelligent people, we could learn from the advertising columns of the press of the period more of the real daily life of Rome than any quantity of able German historians could now teach us. To the newspapers of Benton county, journals that have ever striven for the weal of the State generally, and for the districts in which they are published especially, are we indebted for most of the information that will appear in this chapter. Without them our task would have been laborious indeed, to them therefore do we tender our most hearty acknowl- edgments.

At the date with which the epoch now under consideration opens the prospects of Benton county had undergone a change for the better. Her merchants were doing a safe business; her farmers were out of debt, generally; her manufactories were in successful operation; her mechanics were all employed; her hope for an abundant har- vest were well grounded; and money, for all legitimate purposes, was plenty and easy.

That this state of affairs should continue the people would do well to deny them- selves of unnecessary foreign luxuries.

Much has been written upon the subject of retrenchment, and the time is ever present when such a theory might be put in practice. From the date of the first white

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settlements on the banks of the "Oregon" and its tributaries, the great bane of the State has been, and still continues to be, that the imports exceed the exports, and that money is being continually sent abroad for articles that should be produced and manufactured at home. To-day even, farmers are eating butter and bacon shipped from other States; are wearing fabrics from abroad, while, cows, hogs and sheep are running at large, by the hundred, without particular care or attention. Fine farms are tenantless and can- not be made to pay; splendid water powers are useless and vast forests are rotting all around ; to say nothing of the untold wealth that yet remains undeveloped in the bowels of the earth-and yet we find croakers-happily they are few-in every com- munity, and hearty able-bodied men hanging around the street corners, or lazily lounging about saloons, talking of " hard times " instead of pulling off their coats, roll- ing up their sleeves and going to work like true men.

. The first newspaper published in Benton county was the Oregon Statesman, by Asahel Bush, in 1855, during the short reign of Corvallis as the State Capital. Sub- sequently several others werestarted and after surviving for a timesuccumbed to the inevit- able. That which has stood the test of time the longest is the Corvallis Gazette, a special history of which, with the other publications in the county, will be found elsewhere. That newspaper was founded in the year 1864, but, we have unfortunately, been unable to procure the first two volumes, they being missing. Our researches therefore have, of a necessity commenced with the third volume of the series, the initial publication in which was issued December 2, 1865. The Gazette was then published every Saturday by T. B. Odeneal, at the office on Third street, Corvallis, in the first building north of that of Messrs. Thayer and Burnett; while, in its advertising columns we find the business cards of M. Canterbury, M. D., who had his office in that formerly occupied by Charles Brunn, his residence being in the first building north of the Methodist church; on the same street F. A. Chenoweth, Attorney-at-Law, had his office; while Doctors Bayley and Lee were located on the same thoroughfare, opposite the City hotel. George Mercer was then a Notary Public and Conveyancer, established in the "new drug store," and the Corvallis boot and shoe factory, was conducted by H. Manns. Among other names we notice those of Waters & Clark, J. G. Kriechbaum, Holder & Phillips, E. Holgate, Joseph Gearhart, R. M. & S. H. Thompson, William E. Dyer, Thomas Eglin, Charles H. Friendly, G. Hodes, Lipscomb & Wells, H. P. Harris, J. W. Souther, Graves & Robinson, Charles Bales, and John Bauerlin. Souther offered seven hundred and thirty volumes of "choice reading" at the price of five dollars a year, in the form of a circulating library, while his stock of blank books was unsur- passed in extent and variety.

The leading article is on the fruitful topic of newspaper wars, while under the caption "Our City Charter" it says: "We understand there is a disposition on the part of some to have the city charter of Corvallis repealed by the Legislature. The gentlemen who advocate the repeal of course have their reasons for it, and we do not question their motive, but we cannot see a single thing to be gained by setting ourselves back to where we were eight years ago, while we can clearly see a great many evils to result from it. In a few years our streets would be almost impassible on account of mud in winter and other obstructions the rest of the year. Our walks, which are now better than those of any other city in the State, would soon go to decay and there

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would be no way to compel their repair. Half the men in town would each keep half- a-dozen hogs,"or more; dogs would be 'too numerous to mention,' and very soon dogs, hogs and fleas would take the place; dirt and filth would accumulate to such a degree that in the event the cholera, which is slowly extending hither, should get in our midst, it would make a clean sweep of all of us. Perhaps our city fathers sometimes enact laws they ought not too, but it is an easy matter to repeal them when found to work hardships. Let us retain the charter and have none but wholesome laws."

Under the heading "Siletz Agency " we have the first mention of a desire to open up the country towards the coast. The Gazette remarks : "Some people are naturally inclined to growl and find fault many times when there is no sort of reason in it, and these are always certain officious, tell-tale individuals who are given to the habit of catching at everything they hear, however insignificant and unmeaning, and magnifying and torturing it into some terrible slander, about somebody else and repeating it over and over until they get to believing it themselves that it is a thing of gigantic proportions.

" We believe that the fewest number of the people of Benton county have any fault to find with Indian Agent Simpson for any of his official acts. The reserve be- longs to the Indians, and it is the duty of Mr. Simpson to see that they are protected in all their rights so long as that remains a Reserve. In all that he has done, so far, we accord to him honest motives and good intentions. This county wants the land along the Yaquina thrown open to settlement. The people wish to convert those lands to use- ful purposes and to accomplish this Mr. Simpson is lending his influence and using his utmost endeavors, because he believes, as all sensible people do, that it would be of no disadvantage to the Indians, and as all are working for the same thing, there is no reason why they should not do so harmoniously."

In the same number of the paper, Judge Stratton is highly complimented on his instructions to the grand jury, relative to the Sunday law, at the November term of the Circuit Court. It would appear that the learned judge remarked that, the law was never intended to persecute people, nor should it be brought into contempt by frivol- ous indictments, etc. " We presume," observes the Gazette, " that no man in this com- munity has violated the spirit of the law, while scores might have been indicted, as has been the case in other places, at an expense of a thousand dollars to the county, for imaginary offences, for the purpose of making the law odious. The grand jury did not find that anybody had violated the Holy Sabbath."

On June 30, 1866, Company A., Oregon Volunteers, Captain Lafollet, command- ing, composed of men from Benton and Polk counties, were mustered out of the service at Fort Yamhill, by Captain Williams, United States Army, and returned to the walks of civil life, after having acquitted themselves in a highly commendable manner, and, although they had no opportunity of proving their devotion to their country, they evinced a spirit of patriotism of which they might well be proud. They had not been called upon to face the " cannon's opening roar," or feel the iron hail of battle, or wit- ness terrible scenes of carnage, like their patriot comrades at the East, yet they were none the less patriotic and brave, and had the opportunity been afforded, would have marched as steadily and gallantly to glorious victory. All honor to those brave men, who taking their lives in their hands, went forth at their country's call, bidding adieu 44+

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History of Benton County, Oregon, Part 51

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

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