History of Oregon, Vol. I, 1834-1848, Part 12

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Mrs. Frances Auretta Fuller Barrett, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: San Francisco : The History Co.
Number of Pages: 850

USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. I, 1834-1848 > Part 12

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9 See chap. iii., this volume. In the Or. Pioneer Assoc. Trans., 1880, is given a paper under title of ' Copy of a document,' wherein McLoughlin speaks plainly upon this subject. He admits that he used all his influence to induce the mis- sionaries to settle where they did, giving among others the reasons afterward furnished by Lee. He told them that to do good to the Indians they must station themselves where the Indians could be collected about an agricultural establishment, taught to cultivate the ground and live without hunting, while receiving religious instruction. He assured them that the Willamette afforded a suitable situation for this purpose, and promised the same aid in begin- ning farming which the Canadian settlers received, all of which engage- ments were generously kept. In giving advice, however kindly intended, the great fur magnate did not lose sight of what he deemed to be the best interests of his company. He could not know how missionaries would be received among the warlike tribes of eastern Oregon. Should there be hos- tility, war would follow; the company must punish any shedding of white man's blood. War tended to diminution of profits. By inducing the mnis-

METHODIST OCCUPATION.

Besides harvesting a plentiful crop,10 an addition was made to the house more than equal in size to the original structure, and fifteen acres of land ad- ditional were ploughed for sowing, the labor being performed by the Lees and Edwards, Shepard acting as housekeeper and nurse. With his own hands Jason Lee salted six barrels of salmon, then the chief food of the country.

By the time this was accomplished the Mission was approaching a state of dissolution. Edwards had joined the Lees in the first instance from love of ad- venture, and to benefit his health, which being accom- lished, he was desirous of returning home. The fur company's vessel, the Ganymede, Eales commander, was about to sail for the Hawaiian Islands, and Edwards bade farewell to the Mission superintendent. He was accompanied to Fort Vancouver by the younger Lee, who was in need of medical advice for a disease of the throat which threatened consumption.

But on arriving at Fort Vancouver Edwards' plan of returning to Missouri was changed by the verdict of McLoughlin upon the case of Daniel Lee, who he

sionaries to establish themselves on the Willamette, in the vicinity of the for- mer servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, this danger would be avoided, the lives of the missionaries would be rendered secure, and at the same time those tribes most frequently brought in contact with white men, and least liable to resent innovations upon their customs, or to yield to the temp- tations of their savage natures, might gradually be taught foreign arts and a foreign religion. It could not be expected that when the rules of the corporation imposed upon the manager the duty of sending the company's own servants, of whatever class, out of the country as soon as their terms of service had expired, lest peaceful relations with the natives should be dis- turbed, the head of the company should encourage wide-spread settlement by other nationalities. But by placing the missionaries beside the Canadians, whose names on the company's books gave them a right to be there, the un- pleasant necessity was avoided of objecting to any choice they might other- wise make, and the ends of fur-trading and mission work thus became happily adjusted. But Jason Lee, with a few months' experience, such as has been described, began to entertain serious doubts of the rapid evangelization of the natives of western Oregon. This I gather from his nephew's account; but that he did not so inform the board of the missionary society in New York is evident from succeeding events.

10 It consisted of 150 bushels of wheat, 35 bushels of oats, 56 bushels of barley, and 87 bushels of pease, not to mention potatoes and other vegetables. In 1836, 500 bushels of wheat were raised from 27 on the mission farm, 200 bushels of pease, 40 bushels of oats, 4} bushels of corn, 3} bushels of beans, 319 bushels of potatoes, and plenty of other vegetables.

DANIEL LEE VISITS THE ISLANDS.

said should go immediately to the Islands for his health, and to whom he offered free passage by the Ganymede. To leave the elder Lee with only the half-invalid Shepard was to leave him virtually alone, which Edwards was too generous to do. Overcome by Lee's persuasions, he went back to the Mission dis- appointed, and Daniel Lee proceeded to the Islands. On this ship was Nuttall, the botanist, who had spent a year in studying the flora of the Pacific coast. The previous winter both Nuttall and Townsend had visited the Hawaiian group in Wyeth's ship, the May Dacre. The naturalists were now separating, Towns- end to remain another year in Oregon, and his friend to go to California by way of the Islands. All these people travelled freely on the fur company's vessels without charge.11

11 Townsend left Oregon in November 1836 in the company's bark Colum- bia, Captain Royal, bound to England by way of the Islands. He expresses regret at leaving Vancouver. 'I took leave,' he says, 'of Dr McLoughlin with feelings akin to those with which I should bid adieu to an affectionate parent; and to his fervent "God bless you, sir, and may you have a happy meeting with your friends, " I could only reply by a look of the sincerest grati- tude. Words are inadequate to express my deep sense of the obligations I feel under to this truly generous and excellent man.' Nar., 263. Townsend was a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The idea of joining Wyeth's expedition across the continent being suggested to him by Nuttall, who had determined to do so, was eagerly seized upon, the thought of visiting unexplored regions being irresistible. Townsend seems to have been very industrious, and was assisted frequently by the scholarly gentle- men of the Hudson's Bay Company. He gives a list of the quadrupeds and birds of the Oregon territory, many of which were new to science. Among the former are the dusky wolf, Canus nubilus; two species of hare, Lepus, Townsendii and Lepus artemesia; a third new species is called Nuttall's little hare, Lepus Nuttallii. Two new species of marmot, Spermophilus Town- sendii, and a small pouched marmot not named; also two of the meadow- mouse species, Arvicola Townsendii and Arvicola Oregonii. Several new species of squirrel are named; downy squirrel, Sciurus lanuginosus and Sciurus Rich- ardsonii; little ground-squirrel, Tamias minimus and Tamias Townsendii; and Oregon flying-squirrel, Pteromys Oregonensis. Of moles there is Scalopx Townsendii, given as new; and a new shrew-mouse undescribed; besides two species of bats, Plecotus Townsendii, or great-eared bat, and a small bat un- described. Townsend's list of birds found in Oregon is long, and many of the species were new to naturalists. They were the chestnut-backed titmouse, Parus rufescens; brown-headed titmouse, Parus Minimus; mountain mock- ing-bird, Orpheus montanus; white-tailed thrush, not described; Townsend's thrush, Ptiliogonys Townsendii; Morton's water-ouzel, Cinclus Mortonii; Co- lumbian water-ouzel, Cinclus Townsendii; Tolmie's warbler, Sylvia Tolmei. named in compliment to Dr Tolmie of the Hudson's Bay Company; hermit warbler, Sylvia occidentalis; black-throated gray warbler, Sylvia nigrescens; Audubon's warbler, Sylvia Auduboni: Townsend's warbler, Sylvia Townsendii; ash-headed warbler, not described; western bluebird, Sialia occidentalis;

METHODIST OCCUPATION.

Daniel Lee remained away nearly a year, that is to say, till August 1836, when he returned in the Hudson's Bay Company's bark Nereid, Captain Royal, with renewed health, and contributions to the Oregon Mission from christianized Hawaiians. Among his fellow-passengers were the Reverend Herbert Beaver, newly appointed chaplain of the fur company, and his wife, who took up their residence at Fort Vancouver, and of whom mention has already been made.

Meanwhile the winter of 1835-6 had passed quietly at the Mission. Edwards had taught a small school near Champoeg. The following summer some twenty- five children were brought in from the settlers of French Prairie, and from the natives on either side of the Cascade Mountains, increasing the number of persons at the Mission to thirty. Though in a lovely wilderness, in midsummer, the folly of breathing foul air was permitted. All the people there must be crowded into one small house ; all of them were unaccustomed to such confinement; many of them were diseased; many became ill from change of diet, so that in the malarious atmosphere there came an epidemic bearing in its diag- nosis a near resemblance to diphtheria.12

brown longspur, Plectrophanes Townsendii; Oregon snow-finch, Fringilla Oregona; green-tailed finch, not described; black, white-banded woodpecker; and black, red-backed woodpecker, not described; Harris' woodpecker, Picus Harrisi; Vaux's chimney swallow, Cypselus Vauxi; long-tailed black pheas- ant, not described. Of water-birds there were added to the catalogue the white-legged oyster-catcher, Hæmatopus Bachmani; Rocky Mountain plover, Charadrius montanus; Townsend's sand-piper, Frinca Townsendii; violet- green cormorant, Phalacrocorax splendens; Townsend's cormorant, Phalacro- corax Townsendui; and slender-billed guillemot, Uria Townsendii. Of these birds a half-dozen are credited to Audubon, who was exploring in the region of the Rocky Mountains; and one, Townsend's warbler, to Nuttall. From Townsend I learn all that I have to tell of the scientific labors of Nuttall. 'Throughout the whole of our long journey,' he says, 'I have had constantly to admire the order and perfect indefatigability with which he has devoted himself to the grand object of his tour. No difficulty, no danger, no fatigue has ever daunted him, and he finds his rich reward in the addition of nearly a thousand new species of American plants.' This was certainly reward enough. One of the most beautiful trees of Oregon bears his name, Cornus Nuttallii, a tall and full blossoming dogwood, equal in the splendor of its sil- very flowers to the magnolia of the gulf states. The Oregon alder, Alnus Oregona, a handsome tree, and Fraximus Oregona, the Oregon ash, were first described by this botanist.

12 Daniel Lee says of it: 'Some of the symptoms were alarming, resembling the croup '-membranous croup is probably meant, as in both diseases a mem-

RESULTS.

Besides this, there were frequent cases of intermit- tent fever. Soon the house became a hospital, in which sixteen children were lying ill in one small room. No physician being at hand, the younger Lee applied his poor skill, assisted by the ever-patient and truly devoted Shepard, whose part in the Mission labors was most trying. Jason Lee himself had not escaped the prevailing sickness. It is not always the virtuous that the oak shrub will not poison, nor the fair whom the mosquitoes refuse to bite. He was at Fort Van- couver for medical aid when his nephew arrived. Lucy Hedding, the Calapooya girl, was also there, though past relief, for she died on the 5th of October. Edwards afterward took another patient to Fort Van- couver; and in November Jason Lee, suffering from his third attack, once more resorted to the superior practice of Doctor McLoughlin, remaining with him five weeks.

The fact that only two had died and one deserted greatly encouraged the Mission superintendent this year. The sum of spiritual benefits received as an offset to the physical penalties paid for religious in- struction appears to have been this : Joseph Pournaffe, a half-breed, seventeen years of age, of gentle and obedient temper, gave evidence to his teachers that their labors were not lost, by dying with the same docility that he had shown during life.13 Probably there never was formulated a creed which might be adapted to the purpose with less friction than that of the Methodists. No expounding of dogmas is neces- sary; sufficient is the simple statement that sin is present, and that Christ's blood will wash it away. To the Indian, who had some idea of atonement, the

brane either forms or is sloughed off. Lee's own throat was affected with that sloughing off when he went to the Islands. There would seem to be evidence that this character of throat disease is due to malaria, or miasmatic condi- tions of the atmosphere; and it is a fact that the scourge of diphtheria is even now more dreaded, because more fatal, than any other in the rich valley lands of Oregon, and also that it breaks out in newly ploughed districts where it was never known before, as, for example, where pasture-lands are turned into grain-fields.

13 Lee and Frosts' Or., 142; Hines' Or. Hist., 18.

METHODIST OCCUPATION.

doctrine requires but little elucidation. Happy indeed is the poor, sickly, degraded being here, who can be brought to look forward to riches, health, pleasures, and a glorious existence hereafter. It is the ideality of religion, the poetry of everlasting life.

But though the Mission seemed for a short time to promise sonie fruit, the expectation was lessened by a return in the first months of 1837 of the former dis- orders in a more threatening and fatal form. A chief of the Cayuses, having removed in the autumn with his family to the Willamete Valley in order that his children may attend the Mission school, lost two of them in quick succession, and a third became ex- tremely ill. In his alarm he fled to Fort Vancouver with his family, but at the moment the canoe touched the landing the child expired. An incident like this, together with the continued sickness of the inmates of the Mission, produced a dread of the place in the minds of the Indians, and their parents refused the risk of earthly loss even for heavenly gain. At no time were there more than thirty-five or forty pupils in attendance, and of all that were received to the close of 1838, one third died, and the remainder were sickly.1+ When will men learn that in the affairs of the savages the benevolence of civilization curdles into

14 Hines' Or. Hist., 35. These details are gathered from the writings of the missionaries themselves; but I find in a report made to the United States government by its agent, Mr Slacum, a more flattering account. According to this report, made it must be assumed from information furnished by the Lees, there were within fence 150 acres of land in the winter of 1836. The Mission family consisted of 3 adults and 23 Indian and half-breed children, ten of whom were orphans. There were, besides, 22 Indians and 8 half-breeds who attended the day-school. All were taught to speak English, and several could read. The larger boys worked on the farm in fine weather, earning, at the lowest pay of the Hudson's Bay Company, their board, clothing, and tuition. The school and family, it was said, could be increased, but the mis- sionaries did not wish to add to their number until they had further assistance; and nothing whatever was stated showing any of the discouragements under which they labored. Mr Slacum's report was much like other similar docu- ments furnished the government, that is, made to suit the occasion. Of the faithfulness and zeal of the Lees and their assistants up to the period of Slacum's visit, no doubt could be entertained. We have McLoughlin's testi- inony that no men 'could exert themselves more zealously.' Copy of' a Docu- ment, in Trans. Or. Pioneer, 1SS0, 50. For Slacum's account, see 25th Cony. 3d Sess., House Rept. 101.

KELLEY AND YOUNG.

a curse, and missionary efforts are like a burst peat- bog sowing its black mud over the land !

While the missionaries were building, ploughing, and harvesting, teaching, preaching, and enduring, and becoming somewhat incorporated with the French settlers, a new element, and one in some respects less tractable, introduced itself in an unexpected manner. It was the party of Hall J. Kelley and Ewing Young, which arrived in the Willamette Valley late in Octo- ber 1834. Something has been said of Kelley in the History of the Northwest Coast, but his appearance in Oregon at this time was a feature in the early history of the country demanding more than a passing notice here.

Kelley's object was to found an American settle- ment, and assert the rights of the United States government to the sovereignty of the country. Dis- appointed in his scheme of colonization, he set out with a few persons in 1833 to visit Oregon, travelling by a circuitous route through Mexico. At New Or- leans he separated from or was deserted by his party, and proceeded alone to Vera Cruz. He was robbed, and suffered many hardships, but was not deterred from prosecuting his design.

Reaching California, he fell in with a number of American adventurers, chief among whom was Ewing Young, a native of Knox County, Tennessee, a cabinet- maker by trade, a man of fine intelligence and nerve united to a grand physique, and too restless and fond of new experiences to remain beside a turning-lathe all his life. As early as 1828-9, Young had visited California with a trapping party, hunting on Tulare Lake and San Joaquin River.15 Returning to New Mexico, he married a Taos woman, and was soon back in California with another party of trappers, which in 1831 broke up at Los Angeles, leaving Young to fol- low his bent among the friars and native Californians.

15 Los Angeles Hist., 18-19.

METHODIST OCCUPATION.

He and Kelley first met at San Diego; subse- quently at Monterey the acquaintance ripened. On one side were the thrilling tales of wild life which Young loved to tell; on the other, the romantic scheme of colonizing Oregon. These were always themes of mutual interest. Kelley recognized in Young the bold and enterprising spirit he needed to accompany him to the yet far away Columbia, and being possessed of superior attainments as well as extraordinary enthu- siasm, he was able to gain him over to his plan of laying the foundations of American empire beside the River of the West.

The party which left California for the north in the summer of 1834 consisted of sixteen men, picked up at Monterey and San José, some with a character not of the best. They had among them nearly a hundred horses and mules designed for use and sale. Several parted from the expedition before it reached the northern limits of California, but they had remained long enough to stamp upon the company their own thieving reputation, as we shall presently see.

While toiling among the mountains of southern Oregon, Kelley was stricken with fever, which ren- dered him helpless, from which condition he was rescued by Michel La Framboise, who nursed him back to life, while continuing his way to Fort Van- couver with the season's return of furs. The only other incident of the journey worth mentioning was a difficulty with the Indians on Rogue River, a rapid and beautiful stream which derived its name from the rascally character of the natives in its vicinity.16

16 ' It was sometimes called Rascal River by early explorers.' Williams' S. W. Or., MS., 2. 'Hence the name Les Coquins (the Rogues) and La Rivière aux Coquins (the Rogue River), given to the country by the men of the brigade.' Blanchet's Cath. Ch. in Or., 94. Townsend calls them the Potámeos, but says that they are called the 'rascally Indians,' from their uniformly evil disposition, and hostility to white people. Nar., 228. This is the true origin of the name, though several other theories have been advanced. In Ellicott's Pu- get Sound, MS., 20, he makes the mistake of confounding it with Ro San Roque or the Columbia. Grover, in Pub. Life, MS., 13-15, 18-19, mentions a map of French origin and some antiquity, whereon the Klamath and Rogue rivers are united and called 'Rouge Clamet,' or Red Klamath. The author of the

REWARD OF FAVORS BESTOWED.

In passing through the valley of the Willamette, Young's party paused at the Mission station, one of his men remaining to assist the Lees in construct- ing a cart. Daniel Lee says some of them had been sailors, some hunters in the mountains and in southern Oregon, and " one Mr Kelley was a traveller, a New England man, who entertained some very extravagant notions in regard to Oregon, which he published on his return," and with this notice he dismisses the party of " about a dozen persons." 17

Proceeding to Fort Vancouver, a somewhat peculiar reception awaited them. The Hudson's Bay Com- pany's schooner Cadboro, which arrived there before them from the bay of Monterey, had brought a com- munication from Figueroa, governor of California, to Chief Factor McLoughlin, denouncing Young and Kelley as horse-thieves, and cautioning the fur com- pany to have nothing to do with the party, as they were banditti, and dangerous persons-an accusation all the more significant because Young had between seventy and eighty horses in his possession.

This letter of Figueroa's closed the gates of Fort Vancouver against both Young and Kelley, though on account of Kelley's health, the fever having re- turned, he was given a hut such as was occupied by the servants of the company outside the fort, with an attendant, medical aid, and all necessary comforts for the winter.18 In return he vigorously plied his pen, setting forth the abuses practised on American citizens by the British company in Oregon.

Meanwhile Young returned to French Prairie to

map could hardly have called the Rogue River red had he ever seen it, as it is of a beautiful blue color. See also Cram's Top. Mem., 33.

17 Kelley resents this ignoring of himself and his efforts to establish mis- sions in Oregon, which was a part of his plan, and says that Daniel Lee in his book, and Jason Lee in his lectures delivered subsequently in the east, assigned untrue causes for the Oregon mission, 'insinuating that they themselves were its originators.' See Kelley's Settlement of Oregon, 62-3.

18 While Kelley in his numerous pamphlets complains bitterly of the indig- nities put upon him at Fort Vancouver by reason of Figueroa's letter, he admits the charity of McLoughlin in providing for his wants, and acknowledges that he was presented with a small sum of money on leaving for the Islands.

METHODIST OCCUPATION.

find himself posted bandit and horse-thief. Strangers were cautioned to receive none of the vagabond party into their houses. Young was furious. He tore down the notices, hurled maledictions on the California gov- ernor, and warned the Canadians against accepting such lies. Though the haughty temper and indignant denial of Young were not without effect on McLough- lin, yet official information to an official could not be disregarded.

On one occasion, being in need of clothing, Young sent some beaver-skins to Fort Vancouver with which to purchase the desired articles. McLoughlin refused the skins, but sent the goods, with some food, as a present. Thereupon Young's rage broke out afresh, and he returned every article. Then he went to Fort Vancouver and poured forth his displeasure in person, the interview ending in rather strong words between the autocrat of Oregon and the Tennessee cabinet- maker.19 The former modified his opinion somewhat; and when the Cadboro returned to Monterey in the spring of 1835 McLoughlin inquired of Figueroa the foundation of his charges against Young and party. A letter also went from Young demanding why he had been so maligned. But as no answer could be expected to these inquires for several months, affairs remained in statu quo, Young meanwhile locating himself in the Chehalem Valley, opposite Champoeg, where he tended his mustangs, and traded when he had aught to sell. He had some dealings with C. M. Walker, late of the Mission, but now at Fort Wil- liam, as agent of Wyeth, who had returned to Fort Hall,20

19 At the same time Kelley says that Young called on him, and threatened his life for having persuaded him to undertake the settlement of Oregon. Kelley's Colonization of Oregon, 5T.

20 C. M. Walker, who knew Young well in the times referred to, in Janu- ary 1881, at his home in Tillamook, furnished a Sketch of Ewing Young, from which I have drawn some of these facts. See Or. Pioneer Assoc. Trans. for 1880, 56-8. Walker states that Young was the first settler on the west side of the Willamette River. He calls him industrious and enterprising, and a man of great determination. See also White's Emigration to Or., MS., 3; Evans' Hist. Or., MS., 205; Los Angeles Co. Hist., 34.

KELLEY'S COMPLAINTS,

There is no doubt that by forbidding the Canadian farmers to trade with Young, and himself refusing to sell to him, McLoughlin expected to drive from the country what he had been assured was a band of thieves, and so save trouble with the natives and injury to the settlers. But Young and Kelly gave to McLoughlin's conduct a different interpretation. Kelley said to Young, and all others who visited him outside the fort, 21 that it was opposition to American settlement upon political and pecuniary grounds. He so placed the matter before Jason Lee, who, he says, often clandestinely left the fort that he might converse freely with him on his plans; but Lee had obligated himself to retard immigration to the country by accept- ing a loan from McLoughlin for the purpose of opening a farm which should be a supply establishment for other missionary stations yet to be erected.22

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History of Oregon, Vol. I, 1834-1848, Part 12

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Mrs. Frances Auretta Fuller Barrett, 1826-1902 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: San Francisco : The History Co. Number of Pages: 850

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Mrs. Frances Auretta Fuller Barrett, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: San Francisco : The History Co.
Number of Pages: 850