USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. I, 1834-1848 > Part 13
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21 These were not many. Kelley dwells with proud sensitiveness npon his own countrymen's neglect of him. That Wyeth, whose name was on the catalogue of the 'American Society for Encouraging the Settlement of the Oregon Territory,' founded by Kelley, should not have bestowed some atten- tion upon a man of his antecedents, even at the risk of opposing himself to McLoughlin, is significant. Kelley also reviles Townsend and Nuttall, who, he says, were the recipients of the company's civilities and liberal hospitality. and were receiving their ' good things,' while he was only receiving their ‘evil things.' 'One of them,' he says, 'had resided in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for many years, within a mile of my place of abode, and had read my books, seen my works, and learnt more or less about the spirit which moved me. He was not ignorant of the fact that the only path leading to the country of pretty flowers west of the Rocky Mountains had been opened wholly at my expense, and his journey thither had been made easy and pleasurable through my means.' Cyrus Shepard was the only person from the fort in the habit of visiting Kelley. Kelley's Colonization of Oregon, 56, 58.
22 Kelley's Settlement of Oregon, 59. While Kelley exhibits much excite- ment and jealousy in his remarks on Jason and Daniel Lee, we must admit that there was some foundation for the assertion that the Lees were 'opposed to persons coming to settle' in the Oregon territory, except such as should become members of the Mission, and aid in its purposes; and that his views were identical with those of McLoughlin, though their motives may have been different. Kelley blames the Lees for claiming to have begun the settlement of Oregon without respect to his previous efforts, and his simultaneous appear- ance in the country with a party of settlers; for their avoiding him while there; for disparaging remarks concerning him made in the east, which lie construed to be an effort to deprive him of any credit as a pioneer of coloniza- tion; and for the small notice of him in Daniel Lee's book, where he is dis- missed with three lines. This work, to which I must often refer as the earliest authority on this period of the history of Oregon, if the mannscripts of McLoughlin are excepted, is unfortunately divided in the authorship with a Mr Frost, who came to the country some years later than Lee, and is so arranged that without an intimate knowledge of the subject the reader is at a
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METHODIST OCCUPATION.
With a scheme of an exclusively Methodist colony, a sort of religious republic in his own mind Jason Lee was not likely to listen with favor to the plans of a man who, however religious in his own sentiments, had come to the country in company with horse-thieves and banditti; and Kelley, with a sore heart and half- crazed brain, was left to dwell in solitude on the failure of his magnificent scheme of an ideal American settle- ment devoted to liberty, virtue, order, education, the enlightenment of the savage tribes of the north-west, and the promotion of individual happiness.23 So little
sympathy and so much blame did he receive from those he had unwittingly involved in his misfortunes, that he did not venture during his stay in the country to visit the Willamette Valley, being deterred therefrom by threats of vengeance.24 In the spring, accepting passage on the company's ship Dryad, Captain Keplin, he departed from the country upon which his grandest hopes had been so centred, sailing for the Hawaiian Islands.
But if Kelley was forced by untoward circumstances to leave the country, he did not fail solemnly to affirm in a communication to McLoughlin, that while he was not a public agent, acting by authority from the United States government, but only a private individual, he was yet a freeborn son of American independence, moved by the spirit of liberty, and animated with the hope of being useful to his fellow-men.25 That those who had come with him were not idle or profligate, in such degree as to threaten the peace of the community,
loss to know what portion of it to attribute to either writer. It is only that part of the book which relates to events happening previous to 1840 that we can feel sure was furnished by Lee, unless it be where he speaks of himself by name. Lee writes fairly, and with less of the usual religious cant than might be expected of a Methodist missionary of nearly fifty years ago. He simply puts down events, leaving the reader to make his own comments. His truth- fulness, compared with other authorities, is nearly absolute. Like his uncle, he could refrain from mentioning a subject; but if he mentioned it, what he said was likely to be correct. The title of his book is Ten Years in Oregon, and it was published in 1844 in New York. It is quoted in this work as Lee and Frost's Or.
23 Kelley's General Circular, 13-27.
24 Kelley's Colonization of Or., 56.
25 Kelley's Colonization of Or., 57.
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SOME WHO CAME WITH EWING YOUNG.
is evident from the rarity of offences. They were in- deed useful in their way.26
One of Young's men, Webley J. Hauxhurst, erected a grist-mill at Champoeg in the summer of 1834, adding greatly to the convenience and comfort of the inhabitants of French Prairie, including the missionaries, who had previously pounded their barley in a large wooden mortar, and ground their wheat in a small cast-iron mill called a corn-cracker. Haux- hurst, who was a native of Long Island, subsequently joined the Methodist church, being the first fruit of missionary work among the settlers. His conversion took place in January 1837, and he was ever after a faithful adherent to the organization; nor were there any of this so-called band of horse-thieves who seemed indisposed to earn an honest living.
Another party of eight, coming in the summer of 1835 to join in the colonization of Oregon,27 on reach- ing Rogue River were attacked by the savages, and four of the number slain, the others with difficulty escaping.29
26 Mention is made, in chapter iii. of this volume, of the killing of Thorn- burg by Hubbard at Fort William. But these were Wyeth's inen. Captain Lambert and Mr Townsend held an inquest, and after hearing the evidence, returned a verdict of justifiable homicide. Townsend's Nar., 224. Gray, in Hist. Or., 197, tells Hubbard's story as happening several years later, when there was a magistrate in the country, before whom he was tried. No such trial ever took place. Hubbard was given a certificate by the coroner's jury to show that the killing was in self-defence and to clear him in case of arrest. Lee contributes the fact that the desire for strong drink, that article being obtainable at Fort William, led to the stealing of a pig, and the selling of it for liquor which the thief 'barbarously compelled the owner to drink; and now, poor man, he has no pork to eat in harvest !' Lee and Frost's Or., 140. 27 Townsend's Nar., 228. Gray with his usual inaccuracy says there was no arrival of settlers in 1835.
28 The same who later caused the bloody wars of 1853 and 1855-6. Kelley relates that while he and Young were en route for Oregon, some of those men who had joined and left them, and who were formerly trappers under the famous leader, Joe Walker, of the American fur company in the Rocky Mountains, wantonly slew the California Indians on several occasions where they hung upon their rear, and that Young approved of the murders, saying they were ' damned villains, and ought to be shot.' But no mention is made of any encounter with the natives after entering the Oregon territory, not even on Rogue River, a probable consequence of their having fallen in with the Hudson's Bay Company trapping party, returning from California under Michel La Framboise. The policy pursued by the British company made the presence of one of their parties in the neighborhood a safeguard to all white men alike, though even La Framboise was sometimes compelled to in-
L
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METHODIST OCCUPATION.
The names of three were William J. Bailey, George Gay, and John Turner. The last-named, with his native wife, was the first to reach the Mission, where he landed from a raft, induced by the welcome sight of cattle. They were kindly cared for by the mis- sionaries, while all waited with painful anxiety for the appearance of any others who might have escaped. After the lapse of several days Gay and Bailey were discovered standing on the bank across the river from the Mission. Perceiving signs of civilization, Bailey plunged in and struck for the opposite shore; but the current being strong, and the swimmer having been badly wounded and without food, save roots, for fifteen days, he would have perished had not his companion saved him. While the two were battling with the water, a canoe was sent to their rescue. Bailey was afterward placed in a hospital at Fort Vancouver. The fourth man failed to discover the settlements, and struggled on the whole distance to the Multnomah River, arriving at Fort William more dead than alive.29
tlict a salutary punishment upon the Rogue River people, as Wilkes was told by him. 'I questioned him relative to the stories respecting the shooting of Indians on the route to and from California, and he told me they had no bat- tles, but said it was necessary to keep them always at a distance. On my repeating the question, whether the report we had heard of several being killed during the late expedition were true, he, Frenchman-like, shrugged his shoulders, and answered: "Ah, Monsieur, ils sont des mauvais gens; il faut en prendre garde et tirer sur eux quelquefois."' Wilkes' Nar., U. S. Explr. Ex., v. 152.
29 Townsend, who was at Fort Vancouver when Bailey arrived, describes his appearance as frightful, and his sufferings as excruciating. He was liter- ally covered with wounds. One upon the lower part of the face entered the upper lip just below the nose, cutting entirely through both the upper and the lower jaws and chin, and passing deep into the side of the neck, narrowly missing the jugular vein. Not being able, in his extreme anguish, to adjust the parts, but only to bind them with a handkerchief, in healing the face was left badly distorted. Nar., 229; Lee and Frost's Or., 131-2. Bailey was an English surgeon of good parentage, but had led a life of dissipation, to break him off from which his mother removed to the United States. Leaving his new home, his mother and sisters, he shipped as a common sailor, coming in that capacity to California, where for several years he led a roving life. On recov- ering from his wounds he joined the Willamette settlement, and his medical and surgical acquirements coming to the notice of the missionaries, he was encouraged in his practice. He thus became an attaché of the Mission, married an estimable lady who came to Oregon as a teacher-Miss Margaret Smith- settled on a farm, and became one of the foremost men of Oregon colonial times. See White's Ten Years in Or., 111-15; Wilkes' Nar., U. S. Explr. E.c., iv. 387. Bailey died at Champoeg, February 5, 1876, aged about 70. Salem
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YOUNG'S DISTILLERY SCHEME.
This murderous attack upon travellers caused no small excitement at Fort Vancouver. An expedition was proposed to destroy the savages, but the scheme was not undertaken, and it was left for American settlers, miners, and United States troops to consummate the destruction of this tribe at a later date.
If John McLoughlin for political or commercial reasons, or Jason Lee for other cause, had thought to discourage the settlement of the Willamette Valley by independent parties from California or elsewhere, they must ere now have been convinced of the hope- lessness of such an effort. McLoughlin, at least, was wise enough gracefully to accept the situation, and extend a helping hand-a conciliatory course for a time imitated by Lee with good results. As to Ewing Young, though Governor Figueroa in due time re- turned a letter of exculpation, explaining that the real thieves had attached themselves to Young's party, but on finding themselves suspected had deserted it; and though McLoughlin was willing to make amends, Young chose to remain sullen and unyielding, and employed his time in disseminating those anti-British monopoly sentiments which Kelley had so strongly expressed in their stormy interviews at Fort Van- couver. In this spirit, and rendered desperate by the social outlawry to which he was subjected on the part of both the fur company and the Mission,
Mercury, Feb. 11, 1876. George Gay was also an Englishman who left home in 1830 on a whaling voyage to the North Pacific. In 1832 he deserted with a whole boat's crew, in a California harbor, and after various adventures deter- mined to join Kelley and Young's Oregon settlement. He took a farm in the Willamette, becoming a notable personage in his way, or as Wilkes calls him, ' a useful member of society,' but not at all an ornamental one. For a lengthy description of the man and his manners, see Wilkes' Nar., U. S. Explr. Ex., iv. 382. John Turner was with Jedediah Smith when attacked by the Ump- quas. At that time Turner had defended himself with a firebrand success- fully, and on this occasion he resorted to the same means, laying about him like a madman, and being a large and powerful person, with equal success. He too became a resident of the Willamette Valley, though living in seclusion at some distance from the other settlers. White's Ten Years in Or., 114. The name of the fourth man who escaped to the settlements is not mentioned. though his arrival at Fort William is recorded in Lee and Frost's Or., 132.
HIST. OR., VOL. I. 7
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METHODIST OCCUPATION.
Young resolved to erect a distillery for the manu- facture of ardent spirits at his settlement on the Chehalem.
In the beginning of 1836, when Wyeth broke up his establishment at Fort William, Young secured one of the caldrons used in pickling salmon, and set about the accomplishment of his purpose, aided by Lawrence Carmichael, another of the aggrieved colo- nizers. Now this was a well-aimed blow, and it struck both fur company and Mission in a most sensi- tive point, their commercial as well as moral con- science. During the year in which trade was carried on at Fort William, intoxicating drink was sold to the natives and settlers, in consequence of which some brawls and petty offences disturbed the good order otherwise maintained in the country.
On hearing of the design of Young and Carmichael, McLoughlin showed them how drink would ruin the farming interests, and destroy the colony he proposed to plant, and offered Young pecuniary aid, and agreed to establish him in some honorable enterprise. The missionaries took alarm. The Oregon Temperance Society was organized, and a meeting convened to consider the steps necessary to prevent the threatened evil. The conclusion reached was that Young and Car- michael should be addressed by letter, and requested to abandon their enterprise. And for the following reasons: the prosperity of the settlement, temporal and spiritual, would be retarded, and the already wretched condition of the natives rendered worse. Nor did they fail to appeal to Young's loyalty to American ideas, reminding him that selling intoxi- cating drink to aborigines was contrary to law.
To those who can discover it, there is an avenue to every heart. Young pompously professed allegiance to the United States government as the best and purest the sun ever shone upon, whose citizens- among whom he was by no means the least-were the rightful owners of all that region, though on what
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A GOVERNMENT AGENT.
ground it would have puzzled him to tell. And how was he to be at once champion and law-breaker? The missionaries said further: "You do not pretend to justify yourself; you plead the want of money. We are very sure you will not find it profitable, and we will reimburse you for your expenditures thus far."
This communication was signed by nine Americans and fifteen Canadians,30 who subscribed in all sixty dollars toward purchasing the obnoxious distillery, and promised to furnish whatever further amount was required. Yet another influence, to be mentioned presently, was brought to curb the purposes of the obstreperous Yankee.
Young arrogantly rejected the advances of Mc- Loughlin, and refused reimbursement at the hand of the missionaries, but he promised to abandon his scheme for the present.21 He would withhold his hand from sowing drunkenness broadcast over the land, but he could not deny himself the pleasure of railing at the fur company. In his reply to the temperance society, Young declared that McLoughlin's tyrannizing op- pression and disdain were "more than the feelings of any American citizen could support;" and declared that the innumerable difficulties placed in his way by the company under McLoughlin's authority were the occasion of his being driven to consider so objection- able a means of obtaining a livelihood.
On arriving at Boston, Kelley hastened to publish a pamphlet setting forth in strong terms the fact that the American settlers in Oregon were suffering great
30 Hines' Oregon Hist., 20. This author seems inclined unfairly to ignore the efforts of the Hudson's Bay Company in the matter. The fifteen Frenchmen were still on the books of the fur company, and Daniel Lee more correctly affirms that 'McLoughlin seconded the efforts of the missionaries and friends of temperance, and that the course he has taken in regard to spirit- uous liquors has done much to preserve the general order and harmony of the mixed community of which the settlement is composed.' Lee and Frost's Or., 140.
31 Walker, in his sketch of Ewing Young, in Or. Pioneer Assoc. Trans., 1880, 58, says that 'upon this appeal and offer he abandoned the distillery, and then was planning for a saw and grist mill.'
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METHODIST OCCUPATION.
hardships through the exclusiveness of the British fur company, which, while pretending to occupy the coun- try jointly with the Americans, maintained a policy which practically reduced to servitude all persons in the country. It did not hesitate to put in force the most cruel and arbitrary measures to drive away such as would not submit.32 Thereupon John Forsyth, secretary of state, by direction of the president, ad- dressed a letter to William A. Slacum, a gentleman connected with the United States naval service, in- structing him to proceed to the Northwest Coast of America and to the River Oregon, by such means as he should find best, and there ascertain the truth of Kelley's story. He was to visit the different settle- ments on the "coast of the United States" and on the banks of the Oregon River, and learn the relative numbers of white men and Indians, the nativity of the latter, the jurisdiction they acknowledged, the sentiments entertained by all in respect to the United States and the powers of Great Britain and Russia, and to collect all information, political, physical, and geographical, which could prove useful or interesting to the government.
Slacum soon entered upon his duties, proceeding to Baja California, where, being unable to procure pas- sage to the Columbia River, he took a vessel to the Sandwich Islands, and there chartered the American brig Loriot, Captain Bancroft, in which he sailed for his destination. He crossed the bar of the Columbia December 22, 1836, taking shelter from a high wind in Baker Bay, but advancing as far as Fort George the following day. Here he was politely received by James Birnie, the gentleman in charge, who at once despatched an express to Fort Vancouver, with infor-
32 25th Cong., 3d Sess., H. Rept. 101, 60. McLoughlin says: ' He pub- lished a narrative of his voyage, in which, instead of being grateful for the kindness shown to him, he abused me, and falsely stated that I had been so alarmed with the dread that he would destroy the Hudson's Bay Company's trade that I had kept a constant watch over him, and which was published in the report of the United States congress.' Private Papers, MS., 2d and 4th series.
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THE SPY AT FORT VANCOUVER.
mation of the arrival of an American vessel on an unknown errand. The same express carried a request from Slacum to Finlayson of the latter station, to send a pilot to bring the Loriot up the river, which was done Slacum was also invited to visit Fort Vancouver. Further, Douglas, being on an errand to Fort George, took Slacum in his canoe and landed him at Fort Vancouver the 2d of January, 1837.
As the Loriot had no cargo, the object of her visit was politely asked. In terms equally courteous, the fur magnates were told that it was a private expedi- tion for the purpose of gaining knowledge, and to meet an expedition overland from the United States.
But McLoughlin was not to be so easily deceived. He plainly saw the spy in the private gentleman travelling for information,33 and further, that the visitor was a government agent of the United States. All he saw and heard would in due time be reported to his government. As a matter of course, McLough- lin need not answer impertinent inquiries, but would it not be better for the fur company to make its own statement fully and freely in regard to all matters at issue, and so have them placed upon the record ? And this was done.34
Slacum remained several days at Fort Vancouver, departing on the 10th of January for the Willamette
33 McLoughlin's Private Papers, MS., 2d ser. 5.
3+ Slacum's report, after relating briefly the incidents of his journey and reception at Fort Vancouver, gives an abstract of the history of the Hudson's Bay Company from the date of its charter, with the extent and rules of trade of the company in Oregon, a description of Fort Vancouver, an account of the American vessels that had visited the Columbia River since the restoration of Astoria in 1818, remarks upon Indian slavery, with other statistical informa- tion about the Indians, an elaborate account of the mission, and some brief observations upon the physical features of the country. In addition to Sla- cum's report, the same document contains one by Kelley, giving a brief account of his expedition to California and Oregon, with many valuable remarks upon the geography, topography, and natural history of those countries, ending with an account of the profits of the fur company, its monopoly of trade, and arbitrary rule over all persons in the country, with reminiscences of his own unpleasant experiences. The document contains other memorials, to which I shall have occasion to refer in a future chapter. The whole constitutes the Report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, to which was referred a Message from the President of the United States, with a resolution of the House, in rela- tion to the territory of the United States beyond the Rocky Mountains. February 16, 1839.
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METHODIST OCCUPATION.
settlements, in a canoe furnished by McLoughlin, with a crew and every comfortable provision for the jour- ney. At Champoeg he was met by Jason Lee, to whom the same ever-courteous autocrat had sent an express to make announcement of the arrival in the coun- try of a distinguished stranger, and of his intended visit. By this unbounded liberality and unremitting attention two objects were gained: a favorable im- pression of the personnel of the fur company was established, and a perfect knowledge of the move- ments of all strangers was acquired. By politely assuming that every individual who came to the country was dependent on Fort Vancouver for the conveniences of living, a perfect system of surveil- lance was maintained without offence being given.
In company with Lee, Slacum called on all the settlers of French Prairie at their homes, after which he spent a few days at the Mission, rendering himself thoroughly conversant with the affairs of the Ameri- can settlement.
The case of Ewing Young had been stated to Sla- cum at Fort Vancouver, and he found it a subject of anxiety, both at the fort and the Mission, that a distil- lery was to be put in operation in the Willamette Val- ley. At the fort he was authorized to say to Young that if he would abandon his enterprise of making whiskey, he would be permitted to get his necessary supplies from Fort Vancouver on the same terms as other men,35 and to this proposition Slacum counselled him to accede, saying that in his opinion his point with the fur company was gained by this concession.
Young, however, continued obdurate. Slacum then proposed to furnish him a loan of one hundred and fifty dollars with which to procure for himself and Carmichael a supply of proper clothing from Fort Vancouver, to be purchased in Slacum's name; and to give both a passage to California, where Young desired
35 24th Cong., 3d Sess., H. Rept. 101, 38; Sen. Doc. 24, 1836-7; Kelley's Set- tlement of Or., 56.
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DEPARTURE OF SLACUM.
to go, being still very much incensed with Governor Figueroa. To so generous an offer no reasonable objection could be made, and Young promised a reply on the following day. It was while entertaining this proposal that he sent his answer to the appeal of the temperance society, in which he alluded to some favorable circumstances which had governed him in relinquishing the design of manufacturing ardent spirits.
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