USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. I, 1834-1848 > Part 10
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64
SETTLEMENT OF OREGON.
extent, thinly wooded at intervals, otherwise open and covered with grass. From these hills they descended by a gentle grade into the Chehalem Valley, that stretches away east to the Willamette. On reaching the river at this place they swam their horses, and crossed to the east side, where settlement had been begun. Along the river they found about a dozen families, mostly French Canadians, who had been hunters in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, or free trappers, and had very lately left that occupa- tion for farming, so as to obtain surer support and greater security for themselves and families. They seemed prosperous and happy, and gave the mission- aries a polite and generous welcome. One night Joseph Gervais, a leading personage thereabout, set up their tent in his garden, among melons and cucumbers. It reminded them of the passage in holy writ, "a lodge in a garden of cucumbers."7 .
It was all quite different from what those might be led to expect who undertake to carry the gospel to an unknown wilderness, among unknown savage tribes. The fascinations of the place were too strong to be resisted; so without more delay, about two miles above the farm of Gervais, on the east side of the river, sixty miles from its mouth, they chose their location, upon a broad sweep of low alluvial plain, whose rich grassy meadows, bordered by oak, fir, cotton-wood, white maple, and white ash, lay invit- ingly ready for the plough.8
Returning to Fort Vancouver, the Lees proceeded to remove their men and effects to the site chosen. Again they found McLoughlin ready to tender them every assistance. A boat and crew were placed at their disposal to transport the mission goods from the May Dacre. Horses were given in exchange for others that had been left at Fort Walla Walla. Seven
7 This by the missionaries themselves. Lee and Frost, Ten Years in Or., 124.
8 Daniel Lee is very enthusiastic in his description of the Willamette Val- ley throughout, although he calls Kelley's idea thereof extravagant.
65
HEAVENLY AND EARTHLY EMPIRE.
oxen were loaned with which to haul timber for build- ing, and eight cows with their calves were furnished, and one bull, in place of the two cows that had been driven from the Missouri to the Columbia River and left in the upper country.
The labor attending the driving of the cattle and of transporting the goods, which required carriage round the falls and reloading in the canoes, was con- siderable, and occupied several days; but by the 6th of October stock and effects were safely placed on the bank of the Willamette, ready for consecration and use.
The causes governing the selection of a site are obvious. Jason Lee was a man ; although a servant of the Lord, he was already the master of men. How far the thought of empire had hitherto mingled with his missionary plans probably he himself could scarcely tell. He could not but see that human possibilities were broader, mightier, in the fertile valley of the Willamette, open through its Columbia avenue to the sea, than the inaccessible so-called Flathead country. Were he altogether missionary, and not man, he might have felt that, though the possibilities for man were here greater, with God all things are possible, and so have remained in the rock-bound region of mid- continent. But being full of human ambition as well as of human sympathy, it was not difficult to make the interests of God indentical with his own.9
9 Daniel Lee says that in the occasion which originated the idea of the Flathead mission the claim of the Flatheads to the first missionary efforts had been overrated, and that subsequent inquiries had furnished reasons for be- lieving they would not be justified in attempting to open their mission work among that tribe. These reasons were, the difficulties of obtaining food, and of transporting building material and implements a distance of 600 miles; the small number of the Flatheads, whose perpetual wars with the Blackfoot Indians prevented their increase; the fact that the latter were as much the enemies of white men as of the neighboring tribes, and would cherish besides additional hostility toward any who should become allied with them, either white or red; and the desire the missionaries had for a larger field of usefulness than that offered by a single tribe. They took into account, he said, the wants of the whole country, present and prospective, and hoped to meet those wants in the progress of their work. They chose the Willamette station as a starting-point and centre of a wide field of proposed
HIST. OR., VOL. I. 5
66
SETTLEMENT OF OREGON.
The incipient attempts of the French Canadians in the valley of the Willamette can scarcely be called the beginning of Oregon settlement, although they did so begin and effect permanent work. The object of such a movement must be considered, no less than the result; the object, and the action taken toward its consummation. The organization of a common- wealth, or the establishing of empire, was not among the purposes of the fur company's servants; they desired simply retirement, with ease and plenty. And
benevolent action, where unlimited supplies could be produced as required; hence they here struck the first blow for the Oregon missions, and here began the arduous toil of elevating the heathen. This will do very well for Daniel, though his reasoning is not all of the soundest. White, Ten Years in Or., 125, says that 'Lee's object seemed principally to introduce a better state of things among the white settlers. . . He had originally been sent out to labor among the Flathead Indians, and passing through the country, leaving them far to the right, went on to the Willamette, intending to spend there a winter before proceeding to his destination. He found the mild equable climate, and society, though small, of whites, more congenial to his habits than any- thing he could expect in the section to which he had been sent. Thinking that he discovered signs of the colony becoming an extensive and valuable field of usefulness, and that, for various reasons, the Flatheads had less claim upon missionary efforts than had been supposed, he determined to assume the responsibility and commence a mission on the Willamette.' It is but fair to state in this connection that at the time this paragraph was written and printed White and Janson Lee were not on the best of terms. Gray, Hist. Or., 157, finds a reason in the selfish report of the Hudson's Bay Company, which led them 'to believe that the Flathead tribe, who had sent their mes- sengers for teachers, were not only a small, but a very distant tribe, and very disadvantageously situated for the establishment and support of a missionary,' and which induced them to turn their attention to the lower Columbia. This is only partially true. McLoughlin did advise the Lees to settle in the Willamette Valley, but not for the reason named. I shall have occa- sion to refer again to McLoughlin's views upon this subject in a subsequent chapter.
The fact must be taken into account that Daniel Lee wrote after nine years of Oregon life. It is easy to see that when he talks of the wants of the whole country, present and prospective, he must have had more than two or three weeks' experience of it; and it must have been better known to him than it could have been by a voyage down the Columbia and a ride of 60 miles afterward through a wilderness. It can hardly be doubted that when Jason Lee came to see, as he did in his journey across the continent, how much less interesting a being was the real Indian than the one pictured upon the warm imagination of the missionary society, his intuitions came into play, and his fund of good sense and reason made it apparent to him that the task he had undertaken was of too large proportions for even his strength to accomplish. He was on the ground, however, on Oregon territory, and he would do the best he could to fulfil the intentions of those who had sent him, without entirely sacrificing himself and his associates. There were Indians enough, not to mention half-breeds and white men, in the Willamette Valley, who needed the teachings of the gospel; and here he would remain, within reach of civilized society and the protection of the friendly fort.
67
HALL J. KELLEY.
by reason of continued debt and close intercourse, they were almost as much serfs of the lords para- mount at Fort Vancouver when in the Valley Wil- lamette as when on the River Columbia. 10
On the other hand, among those who laid the foun- dations of Oregon's present institutions, of Oregon's present society and prosperity, I should mention first of all the Boston school-master, the enthusiast, the schemer, Hall J. Kelley, though he never was a settler in the country, though he remained there but · a short time, under inauspicious circumstances, and departed without making any apparent mark. It was he who, more than any other, by gathering information since 1815 and spreading it before the people, kept alive an intelligent interest in Oregon; it was he who originated schemes of emigration, beginning with one from St Louis in 1828, which, though it failed and led
10 According to a statement of McLoughlin, the beginning of the French settlement happened in this wise: Etienne Lucier, whose time had expired in 1828, asked McLoughlin if he believed the Willamette Valley would ever be occupied by settlers, to which the latter replied that wherever wheat grew there would be a farming community. Lucier then asked what assistance would be given him should he settle as a farmer. The Hudson's Bay Com- pany were bound under heavy penalties not to discharge their servants in the Indian country, but to return them to the place where they were engaged. But McLoughlin offered a plan and rules for settlement to Lucier which were accepted and afterward became general. First, to avoid the penalty, the men must remain on the company's books as servants, but they might work for themselves, and no service would be required of them. Second, they must all settle together, and not scatter about amongst the Indians, with whom their half-breed children would be taught by their mothers to sympathize, making them dangerous neighbors; while by keeping their Indian wives among themselves exclusively, these women would serve as hostages for the good conduct of their relatives in the interior. Third, each settler must have fifty pounds sterling due him, to supply himself with clothing and imple- ments, which rule was designed to make them saving and industrious, and by making their farms cost them something, attach them to their homes. Fourth, seed for sowing and wheat to feed their families would be loaned them for the first year, and two cows each for an indefinite period. These were the terms which secured only the better class of Canadians as settlers, and kept the idle and dissolute from becoming incorporated with them. The American trappers, having no credit on the company's books, were nevertheless assisted in the same way and to the same extent, as the best means of making of them good citizens instead of roving firebrands among the Indians. At the end of the first three years all the settlers, French and American, were out of debt. This interesting account was only recently discovered among the private papers of Dr McLoughlin, and by consent of Mrs Harvey, his daughter, was printed among the archives of the Oregon Pioneer Association, under the title of Copy of a Document, in Or. Pioneer Association Trans. 1880, p. 50.
68
SETTLEMENT OF OREGON.
to another futile attempt by sea in 1832, was the father of several expeditions, notably that of Wyeth,11 and was the immediate cause of the settlement of many prominent pioneers ; it was he, this fanatic, who stimu- lated senators to speak for Oregon on the floor of congress, and even shaped the presidential policy. I am not prepared to give Mr Kelley all he claims, but I am prepared to give him his due. With regard to the missionary brothers Lee, who arrived in the country before him, he maintains that they too . received their first knowledge of Oregon through him, and that he was the first person to advocate the christianizing of the natives. That he did impress upon the new commonwealth some portion of his ideas, that he did influence its destinies, there is no question, though we have on means of weighing that influence with any degree of exactness. Regarding settlement his writings contain some practical suggestions; indeed, without clear discrimination between design and neces- sity, and read by the light of subsequent events, some of them might be pronounced prophetic.12 For a sketch
11 ' This novel expedition was not, however, the original or spontaneous motion of Mr Nathaniel J. Wyeth, nor was it entirely owing to the publica- tions of Lewis and Clarke, or Mackenzie ... They were roused to it by the writings of Mr Hall J. Kelley.' Wyeth's Oregon, 3.
12 Take, for example, what he says about the designs, duties, and proba- bilities of settlement in his unrealized scheme, entitled, A General Circular to all Persons of Good Character who wish to migrate to the Oregon Territory, embracing some Account of the Character and Advantages of the Country; The Right and the Means and Operations by which it is to be settled ;- and all neces- sary directions for becoming an Emigrant. HALL J. KELLEY, General Agent. By Order of the American Society for Encouraging the Settlement of the Oregon Territory. Instituted in Boston, A. D. 1829. It is a plan of 'Oregon settle- ment, to be commenced in the spring of 1832, on the delightful and fertile banks of the Columbia River.' Among the first results of inquiry is a ' clear conviction that the time is near at hand, and advancing in the ordinary course of Providence, when the Oregon country shall be occupied by an en- lightened people, skilled in the various improvements of science and art. A people, thus enlightened and skilled, and enjoying the advantages of a climate, soil, and markets as good in their kind as the earth affords; and other natural means, which mostly contribute to the comforts and convenience of life; energized and blessed by the mild and vital principles of the American republic, and the sacred ordinances of the Christain religion '-must be pros- perous and happy. 'The settlement, carrying on a trade with the islands of the Pacific and with the people about the shores of that ocean commensurate with its wants, must advance in prosperity and power unexampled in the history of nations. From the plentitude of its own resources, it will soon be
69
PROPOSED CITIES.
of the life of this remarkable man, with an account of his visit to Oregon in 1834, and an analysis of his character, I must refer the reader to my History of the Northwest Coast, where also may be found an ac- count of Wyeth's expeditions, and of those persons arriving in the Oregon territory prior to the opening
enabled to sustain its own operations, and will hasten on to its own majesty to a proud rank on the earth.' Then he goes on at length to speak of what should be done to secure these results. 'Measures will be adopted for building on Gray's Bay and at the mouth of the river commercial towns. .. This bay opens into the northern bank of the Columbia, about eleven miles from its mouth,' he says. Five miles square of territory at this place ' will be laid out into the necessary configuration and divisions for a seaport town.' Streets of convenient width will run from the water, bisecting other streets at right angles. At distances of two squares is to be an area of ten acres for parade or pleasure ground, which is forever to remain open and unoccupied with buildings. The centre of the main street or thoroughfare, of the width of
WAPATO ISLAND
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KELLEY'S PLAN OF AN OREGON CITY.
100 feet, is to be devoted to the purpose of a public market. The valley of the Multnomah is to be chiefly occupied for commercial, agricultural, and manufacturing operations. The metropolis of the country is designed to be at the falls. Portions of the outlands adjoining the towns will be put into lots, 40 by 160 rods, or 40 acres each; making the number of their divisions equal to the whole number of emigrants over fourteen years of age, not in- cluding married women. Next to these will be other lots of 160 acres each, making up the complement of 200 acres to each emigrant. Roads as far as practicable are to be laid out in right lines, intersecting each other at right angles. It is desirable that all topographical surveys and divisions of farming lands be made by the method which two years ago was suggested to con- gress, and which was examined, approved of, and recommended by General Bernard, then at the head of the corps of civil engineers.
For purposes of religion, a fund was to be set apart for proselytism, and missionaries were urged to embark in the work of general conversion. These and many other things relating to the proposed adventure were printed in pamphlet form, and the newspaper press throughout the country solicited to
70
SETTLEMENT OF OREGON.
date of this volume, whose names are not herein given. There was one in particular among Kelley's com- panions, Ewing Young, who remained, and of whom I shall have much to say. As previously shown, Wyeth's purpose was not settlement, but traffic; his occupation at Wapato Island was fishing and trade in furs with the natives. As this did not suit the gen- tlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company, who were strong in the land and desired the continuance of their monopoly, but who were without the political right to drive out the people of the United States, while entertaining them hospitably, as a rule, at Fort. Vancouver, they so circumscribed and defeated their business efforts in this quarter that Wyeth among others was finally forced to sell to them and retire from the field. With the subsequent affairs of this history the expeditions heretofore given have little to do, except in connection with those of their number who remained to settle.
As their terms of contract expired, the Hudson's Bay Company began to retire its servants, giving them choice lands not too far removed from its benign rule. This was the origin of the French Cana- dian settlements in the beautiful Valley Willamette.
give the contents further circulation through their columns, to the promotion of individual happiness and the prosperity of the country.
The settlers were to carry with them their own government, as it should be formulated for them by congress. Special attention should be paid to schools, morals, and religion. No drones or vicious persons should be accepted by the society, and all proposing to emigrate must bring certificates of good character. The society would supply most of the expenses of emi- gration, and on arrival the emigrant was to receive town lots and land worth from $2,000 to $10,000. The person proposing to emigrate must deposit twenty dollars with the society, and swear obedience to all just regulations, which at first were to be military. The route should be from St Louis up the Platte, through South Pass, and down the Columbia, and the expedition should take its departure the last of March. The funds of the society were to consist of $200,000, subscribed stock, divided into shares of $100, each share entitling the holder to 160 acres of land, besides deposit money and such donations as should be obtained from public-spirited men and the gov- ernor.
Ten years after Kelley had left Oregon, hoping yet to returr and realize his dreams of establishing upon the shores of the Pacific a virgin state which should grow into an empire in the progress of time and events, most of the formative ideas set forth in his circular were actuall being carried out by emigrants from the United States.
71
FRENCH PRAIRIE.
And there were those continuing in the service of the company who gave their names to localities- instance Cox, the Eumæus of Fort Vancouver, and Sauvé, who kept the dairies on Wapato Island, after- ward Sauvé Island.13
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Willamette
FRENCH PRAIRIE.
French Prairie, the tract where the servants of the fur company began their planting in the Willamette
13 The curious elements out of which new countries are colonized, and the varied character of the recipients of the Hudson's Bay Company's protection, are well illustrated by this same swineherd, whose name is given to Cox Plain, two miles below Fort Vancouver, where among the oaks that skirt the Columbia he lived with his herd. Cox was a native of the Hawaiian Islands, and had witnessed the death of Captain Cook. He afterward went to
FRENOH
PRAIRIE
Pudding
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Champoeg
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.kalAnvs
72
SETTLEMENT OF OREGON.
Valley, extended from the great westward bend of that river south to Lac La Biche about twenty-five miles. It had the Willamette to the west and Pudding River 14 on the east. Between it and the Willamette was a belt of low wooded land. It was beautified by groves of fir and oak at frequent intervals, and watered by numerous small streams. East of Pud- ding River rose the foothills of the Cascade Range, and towering beyond and over them the shaggy heights of those grand mountains, overtopped here and there by a snowy peak.
The entrance to this lovely region from the north was, as already intimated, opposite the mouth of the Chehalem, a small stream flowing into the Willamette from the west, and famous for the charming features of its little valley.15
The landing at the crossing of the Willamette on the east side was known as Campement du Sable, being a sandy bluff and an encampment at the point of arrival or departure for French Prairie. Two
England with the island king, and as a guard presented arms to George III., and was rather lionized in London. He came at last to be the swineherd of the chiefs at Fort Vancouver, where he lived and died amongst his oaks. Anderson's Hist. Northwest Coast, MS., 89-90. An Englishman named Felix Hathaway, saved from the wreck of the Hudson's Bay Company's vessel William and Ann in 1828, became a resident of Oregon. Another sailor who came to Oregon in 1829 was James M. Bates. He is claimed by some to be the first American settler in Oregon, as he remained in the country and cultivated a piece of land on Scappoose Bay, an estuary of the Columbia, south of and below Sauvé Island. He was still living in Oregon in 1872.
14 The nomenclature of the various posts whose history is presented in these volumes will be given in their natural order as the work progresses. The name Willamette and its orthography are discussed in the History of the Northwest Coast, to which the reader is referred. Pudding River received its name from the circumstance of a trapping party which had become bewil- dered and out of food; there they ate a pudding made from the blood of a inule which they killed. White's Ten Years in Or., 70. Lac La Biche, or Deer Lake, took its name from the abundance of game in its vicinity in the period of the early settlement of French Prairie.
15 Chehalem is an Indian name, whose signification is not clear. Parrish, in his Oregon Anecdotes, MS., 15, attempts to show that the prefix che which occurs so frequently in the Indian dialect meant town or 'ville,' and cites Chemeketa, Chenoway, Cheamhill, and other names. He fails to make evident the analogy, as these were not names of villages, but rather of valleys or localities. Cheamhill, now corrupted into Yamhill, signifies a beautiful view of a range of grassy hills near the ford of the Yamhill River. Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 76; l'ictor's Or., 195
73
EARLIEST SETTLERS IN OREGON.
miles above this point was Champoeg,16 the first settlement.
Among those who were living on French Prairie at the time of the arrival of the Lees were some who had come with the Astor expeditions, some who hinted at having been left behind by Lewis and Clarke; and to these were later joined the rem- nants of the expeditions of Wyeth and Kelley.
I will give here the names of some of those who first settled there, and such information concerning them as I have been able to obtain. Some of them we shall frequently meet in the course of this history, according as they play their several parts in the colonization of Oregon. It has been claimed by or for Francis Rivet and Philip Degie that they were with Lewis and Clarke. Roberts, in his Recollections, MS., states that Rivet was a confiden- tial servant of the Hudson's Bay Company for 40 years, living most of the time at Fort Colville. Degie was born in Sorel, Canada, in 1739, and died in Oregon, February 27, 1847, at the remarkable age of 108 years. Rivet died September 15, 1852, aged 95. Oregon City Spectator, July 29, 1851; San Fran- cisco Herald, August 14, 1851; Placer Times and Transcript, Nov. 30, 1851; San Francisco Alta, Aug. 14, 1851. Their claim becomes somewhat insecure, though not positively invalid, as we turn to the Lewis and Clarke's Travels, i. 178, written in April 1805, when the expedition was making its final start from the Mandan village, and read : 'The party now consisted of thirty-two persons. Besides ourselves were sergeants John Ordway, Nathaniel Pryor, and Patrick Gass ; the privates were William Bratton, John Colter, John Collins, Peter Cruzatte, Robert Frazier, Reuben Fields, Joseph Fields, George Gibson, Silas Goodrich, Hugh Hall, Thomas P. Howard, Baptiste Lapage, Francis Labiche, Hugh McNeal, John Potts, John Shields, George Shannon, John B. Thompson, William Werner, Alexander Willard, Richard Windsor, Joseph Whitehouse, Peter Wiser, and Captain Clarke's black servant, York. The two interpreters were George Drewyer and Toussaint Chaboneau. The wife of Chaboneau also accompanied us, with her young child, and we hope may be useful as an interpreter among the Snake Indians. She was herself one of that tribe, but had been taken in war by the Minnetarees, by whom she was sold as a slave to Chaboneau, who brought her up and afterward married her. One of the Mandans likewise embarked with us, in order to go to the Snake Indians and obtain a peace with them for his countrymen.' In an old man at Fort Colville, Parker, Journal, 292, saw one of Lewis and Clarke's men.
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